The Red Cloud chief., 1893-08-25

are cut out and finally graded down as
good almost as the road bed Of a rail
road, for there will be some mons,rous
loads Of logs hauled over these
roads, loads that are piled up like a
load Of hay; the writer has seen over
sixteen thousand feet loaded on one
pair OF sleighs and hauled over four
miles with four horses. Then also
provisions have to be hauled from the
nearest railroad station. Sometimes
thirty miles away and the most Of it
has to be done before winter sets In,
Although in the larger camps q team
is kept on the road all the while, call
cd the toat team, in the large camps AZ
many as a hundred men arc working.
There are horse transfers who haul
the logs to the river. Ok tcamsters
to do the skidding, sawyers to cut the
logs, swampcrs to cut the roads for the
oxteamstcrs, leaders to load the logs
on the slcighs, landing men to unload
them on tho rivers, road monkeys,
scales and last but not least the high
and mighty foreman. And what n
hustle In . lumber camp, get up in
the morning eat breakfast and out in
the woods while tho stars arc shining
in the sky, and there busy at work un.
til the welcome notes Of the dinner
horn warns the mcn that it is time to
eat. Oh! grand old dinner horn no
sweetcr noteswere ever heard than the
music you produce in the pinery Of
Wisconsin. Dinner over out VIC 20
again and there to work till it's
too dark to work any longer
and away again to camp.
When supper is eaten pipes filled
and the fun begins. Violins arc
brought out, songs sung and stories
told.
Until nine o'clock or there about,
Into the hunks we climb,
To dream away the lonely hours,
While working in the pines.
And 40 it goes till sun melts the snow,
the rivers thaw out and the camp
breaks up and all go down the river to
spend their hard earned money.
While | am sorry to say some times
don't last very long. For when a lum-
herman is shut up in the woods for six
or seven months and comes out again
he gets wild In q short time Of course.
l don't say what makes him wild,
will leave that for your Imagination.
| have seen fellows patch their clothes
to save their money and tell what
great things they arc going to do with
their money, when they 20 down in
the spring. And when they go down
meet them three days after and they
would not have a cent, but such is tbs
life of a lumberman. OF course 10 q
lumber camp there is more or less slang
words used; for instance the camp store
is called q wagegan, q turning place ia
the road a round turn, where the logs
are hauled by the men is called a cross
haul, and many a poor tender-foot has
been sent from m gang to another to
borrow a cross haul or round turn.
An instance is reported where a green.
horn was sent from one camp to anoth-
err camp n cold night to borrow a
round turn the foreman of that camp
sent him to another camp five miles
farther on and the next morning he
was found frozen to death, so much for
a joke. AS tho rule the lumbermen
are q very tender hearted class of men.
| once saw in a camp where l was on
the Chippewa River in Wisconsin, an
instance where a poor fellow was
brought into camp with his leg broken
that night a subscription was started
and over two hundred dallars was rails
ed for him; and he went down the riv-
or next morning with me 70 money
than he possibly could have earned.
Among the laboring class of people
in this country there are none any bet
ter protected than the lumbermon of
Wisconsin, where the lein law is in
effect. A log must not be started
down the river until every man that
has had anything to do with it has
had his pay for the logs are held for
pay. After the ca mps break up
i'm tho snripv thcro ;s o,oth,r ;oh nm