Morning journal and courier., 1894-04-05
The Tim ber Cruiser.

lJdh1s AAAhAAo1Ee HI Adc ACuAHEN-4
 On the frontier of advancing ciTilizs- ton there Is a species of livelihood called "cruisiug for timber" The simils Is an apt one, for the wocdsmsn wto seeks new timber regions smid the trackless wilder ness, in which the sun Is hidden by day and the stars by night. is ss bold 8 navIga- tor as his brother who tolls on the path less waste of the sea.
 The timber cruiser is even mora & child of the forest than the native he succeeds. He Is the precursor of the luubermsn and the saw-mill, two important factors in our progressive civilization. He Is untaught. Generally he knows nothing of astrono. my but the sun's course and the polar star, because the heavens are so often wholly out of sight In the tangled forest that he relies on other guides, The mysterious sscrsts of terrestrial nature, handed down to him by generations of psthdndeis gone before, keep him informed.
 On the prairie he knows that the tips of the grass always incline towards the south. and that they are less green on the north ward side. In the forest the slender twigs on the boughs bend southward go slightly it may be that only the trained eye can de- tect the dehectiop, yet 1t is there. The moss on the tree trunks Is always on the north side, the bark Is smoother and more supple on the east than toward the west, and southward the mifdew never comes. Thus does this unlettered ssvant box the compass in the wilderness.
 The timber cruiser is a hero. He Is 6 forest king. The wealth of the woods is his. He alwsys travels alone. His acts of courage, endurance and skill are never witnessed by others and are never boasted of by himself. Indeed, his successes or failures are never talked about, save to the directors of the lumber companies who employ him. and to whom he makes & mi- nutely detailed report. He has probably the best memory known to man, for he will return from a two-months "cruiss" and be able to locate accurately every tract of valuable hemlock timber in s hundred square miles of worthless woods and tam srsck.
 He undertakes the most arduous jour ueys without providing more than a blsn- ket and a few days provisions; he con- fronts sll kinds of dangers, mindful of their inconvenience, but fearing them not, because he studies nature on a commercial basis. In brief he is 6 true philosopher;
 
 py because ignorant of the relative values of comfort and discomfort, and brave be- cause he is an egotist who believes thor oughIy In his own abilities.
 His is the task of locating the land-scrip that capitalists and large corporations have purchased from the government He precedes the woodsman, the axe and the saw, just as the post-trader precedes the teacher and the preacher. He is to the advancing lumbermsn what the Don Cos sack Is to the Russian hosts.
 The location of a choice tract of timber l is secret to be guarded with his life. Weeks, even months, may intervene be- fore the lands can be "tsken up" and en- tered upon the records at Washington. The painless forest Is his home, solitude his companion, and, like his brother on the "multitudinous sess.n he often dies alone, and his unburied body becomes part of the clements of nature be so inti- mstely courts. He is new to literature, unkuown to song and story.