Daily public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1892-191?, 1894-03-24
THE TIMBER.CRUiSER.
A Precursor of the Lnr1berman and the
sawmnL

raWmAll.
On the frontier of advancing civiliza-
ton there is species of livelihood
called cruising for timber" The
smile is an apt one, for the woodsman
who seeks new timber regions amid
the trackless wilderness, in which the
sun is hidden by day and the stars by
night, is as bold a navigator as his
brother who tolls on the painless
waste of the sea.
The timber-cruiser is even more a
child of the forest than the native he
succeeds He is the precursor of the
lumberman and sawmill, two import
ant factors in our progressive civiliza-
ton. He is untaught. Generally, he
knows nothing of astronomy but the
suns course and the polar star, be-
cause the heavens are so often wholly
out of sight in the tangled forest that
he relies on other guides. The mystic
rious secrets of terrestrial nature,
handed down to him by generations of
pathfinders gone before. keep him i'm
formed.
On the prairie he knows that the tips
of the grass always incline toward the
south, and that they are less green on
the northward side. In the forest the
slender twigs on the boughs bend
southwark so slightly it may be, that
only the trained eye can detect the de-
Election; yet it is there. The moss on
the tree-trunks is always on the north
side, the bark is smother and more
supple on the east than toward the
west and southwark the mildew never
comes.
Thus does this unlettered savant box
the compass in the wilderness.
The timber-cruiser is hero. He is a
forest king. The wealth of the woods
is his. He always travels alone. His
acts of courage, endurance and skill
are never witnessed by others and are
never boosted of by himself Indeed,
his successes or failure are never talked
about, save to the directors of the
lumber companies who employ him,
and to whom he makes infinitely de-
tailed report He has probably the
best memory known to man, for he
will return from a two-months'
cruise and be able to locate accu-
rately every tract of valuable hemlock
timber in a hundred square miles of
worthless woodssnd tamarack.
He undertakes the most arduous
journeys without providing more than
blanket and few days provisions;
be confrdnts all kinds of dangers,
mindful of their inconvenience, but
fearing them not, because he studies
nature on a commercial basis. In brief,
he is true philosopher always pre-
narpd for the unpNppctpl napDV. be-
cause ignorant of the relative values
of comfort and discomfort, and brave.
because he is an egotist who believes
thoroughly in his own abilities
His is the task of locating the land
scrip that capitalists and large corpo-
rations have purchased from the gov
crnment lie precedes the woodsman,
the ak and the saw. just as the post
trader precedes the teacher and the
preacher. He is to the advancing lum-
herman what the Don CoS>aclS is TO the
Russian hosts.
The location of choice tract of tim.
Der is a secret To be guarded with his
life. Weeks, even months, may inter-
yene before the lands can be taken
up and entered upon the records at
Washington. The painless forest is
his home solitude his companion, and,
like his brother on the "multitudi-
nous seas, he often dies alone. and his
unburied body becomes part of the clc-
ments of nature he 50 intimately
courts. He is new 10 literature, un-
known to Song and story.-Century
Hints to the Wise OHPs.