Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-08-04
MAKING A "sEAN HOLE"
A TenderfOot's Amusing Experience In a
Washington Logging Camp.

"A TenderfOot's Amusing Experience In a
Washington Logging Camp.
My first experience at lumbering," said
certain prominent citizen the other night,
was in making bean hole. OF course you
don't know what a bean hole is. No more
did when l went up on Rum river in 1868
and applied for work in oneof Washburne's
camps. ] neglected to tell the boss that l
didn't know the difference between gee
haw and u cross haul, and maybe he took me
for an all rounder at the business. Anyhow
was hired offhand, and the next morning
the foreman said to me, Wrestling, you
take Joe and Charlie here and go over
to the new camp and chink up and build a
bean hole All right / said, as cheerful
as could be, and off we started
''As soon as we'd got into the timber l
halted the boys and asked, What's this
chink up the old man wants?' Joe looked
at me pretty hard and told me about tight
enlng up between the cabin and logs with
clay. And what's a bean hole?' l inquired
But the boys seemed to be getting pretty
tired about something. You see, they didn't
like the idea of being put under such a
greenhorn, and both claimed they didn't
know what bean hole was. So told them
to wait there a minute, and l ran back to
the foreman and said, Look here, Mr.. Cole,
how big do you want that bean hole?' oh,
6 by 6 or by s. he said And how deep
do you want it?' Three or four feet, he
answered
well, when we got the new camp we
chinked the cabin all right, and then
measured off Il space feet square, and we
started to dig feet deep. | was going
to carry out the boss biggest figures to
show what good man was. We dug ali
ftnf Il -. r.
was loose, and the sides of the hole kept
tumbling i'll on us When we got back to
camp that evening the foreman asked me
If I'd finished the bean hole, and told him
not quite, but We'll finish her up tomorrow
Toward noon next Gay we were pretty near
through and we We're smoothing the bot
tom of the sepulcher when the foreman
showed up to examine progress. didn't
notice him till | heard him roar, What
the are you fellows dOing?' looked up.
and there stood the old man with mixture
of establishment and Indignation on his
face. Then | knew something was wrong
I'D had my misgivings all along-but
answered rs coolly as | could that | was
making bean hole.
"a bean hole?' he shouted, "a bean holee
Well, you come out of that bean hole quick
you blanked bean hole idiotr And then lie
began to laugh, and | never heard Il man
laugh like that before nor since 1t seemed
as if he never would get through, and of
course it sounded very unpleasant to me
| soon learned what bean hole is
You see they build log Enclosure about
3 feet high and or 6 feet square and fill it
with clay. In the middle they sink deep
hole and start a fire of maple sticks in it,
When there is a good bed of Goals, they put
in a pot of beans and cover it over with
ashes and clay, and the beans steam in
there till they are done and make the best
eating you ever got in the woods But the
bean hole wound me up in that camp. The
story went all through the woods and from
the head waters of Rum river to Anoka,
and there was so much snickering wherever
| went that | couldn't stand it. Why, men
came 10 and Is miles from other camps to get
a squint at the chap that built the bean hole
So, though l didn't make any more special
ly bad breaks there, pretty soon called for
my time and got out of the country"-
South Bend wash Journal.