Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1895-03-27

around to good purpose for brother
in distress.
The store or 'office" occupies an
other building and is not wanting in
support. Here the men all have ac-
counts and are very good to the out
ward and inner man after the mascu-
line fashion. A patron can get every
thing he wants here with a month $
credit. from his pet pill or brand OF
tobacco down to cowhide boots, except
his fayorite tipple, whisky. This
must be struggled into camp and is,
despite the vigilance of the powers.
Wages are rs cents day with
"lodging and grub, or 90 cents addi-
tional where a man finds himself. as do
all men with families. The unmarried
woodsmen are improvident as rule.
and spend their savings in the fall
vacation on royal sprees at the nearest
town. Between the hardships OF the
life-eleven hours make days work
and the annual round of dissipation
the average life of the lumberman is
thirty five years.
A good logging season must have
plenty of snow. This is first-class
one. Logging camps are made up IN
the late summer or fall, although haul
ing does. not begin until the middle OF
December. The men are divided into
gangs of choppers, skidders. and saw
yers. The choppers lead, cutting the
road ON their way.
They are followed by the sawyers.
who are three in number; q chopper
who cuts the inches in the trees on
whichever side he wishes them to fall,
and two sawyers who fell them with
a long cross.cut saw. The chopper
then trims off the branches, and the
sawyers cut it into logs of thirteen or
sixteen feet according to the instruc-
lions of the scaler.
A skidding crew consists of seven
men and team, three SWIMMERS, a
teamster. and three deckers.. Two
long pieces of timber are first laid
parallel to each other eight feet apart
and at right angles with the road.
This is called the skidway. The
swampers trim the logs and make the
roads by clearing away the underbrush.
The teamster hauls the logs and the
deckers roll them on the sideways in
piles from four to ten feet high. The
roads are kept iced to facilitate haul
ing; heavy sprinklers holding seventy
barrels of water assist nature at night
in the road-making. The squealing of
the logs as they are dragged away
from their birthplace has something in
it of human anguish, and protest to
these pygmies. who have exulted in
the monarchs' downfall. The neigh
boring farmers assist in this work to
make both ends meet, as this is q
poor farming country. The risk to
horses is so great that the owner must
take it himself. and either drive OF
furnish driver for his team.
Logging isn't slap-dash business OF
chopping shapely giants right and left,
hauling and rolling them unnumbered
into the nearest stream. Brains and
good Judgment are as essential for deals
with Dame Nature as for those with
men on the city Board of Trade. The
logging campaign must be carefully
planned, timber values must be acour
ately estimated, and in case there il
no railroad the floating capacity of the
streams must not be overestimated.
By the middle of April spring comes
with its thaws and rains and the roads
and the ice in the streams break up
Floating the logs down the river is SC
that expert river men must make VI
the crew. Log-driving is exciting
and full of danger, and the men fully
appreciate the responsibility of theil
undertaking. The logs are watched
day and night and any man of the crew
is ready to jeopardize life or limb to
prevent jam" One log stuck il
the right place may tie up great in
dustry and fortune for a year or longer.
The river man is conspicuous for cour'
age and loyalty to his trusts. His life
is hard one, his wages small, but
nature has compensation for those who
live close to her. and they are not in'
digestion and insomnia.
After the logs have been through the
mill the lumber is sold mostly to com
mission dealers in the large cities, who
ship it East The remainder is sold
to chair, coffin, furniture. and wagon
manufacturers in neighboring cities. -
Marion Martin, in Inter Ocean.