The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1896-08-06

/ cheap, worthless and often dangerous gingers
urged as substitutes. Ask for SANFORD'S
GINGER and look for . Owl - trademark on
the wrapper. Sold everywhere. POTTER DRUG
AND CHEM. CORP, Sol Props, Boston.
else that is worth having in this tiresome
world, mahogany is not easily obtained.
Few people realize the labor and difficult
ties that intervene between the great
tree growing in its native forest, and the
beautiful piece of furniture that adorns
the home of wealth. Far in the depths of
the almost impenetrable jungle it stands,
perhaps hundreds of years old environed
with enormous buttresses of roots. ex-
tending upward Is or 20 feet around its
trunk, fitting props to sustain the mon
arch through the storms of centuries.
As a rule, the mahogany contractor enters
into his agreement with the owners of the
territory he intends to explore, near the
| close Of the wet season, say during the
Christmas holidays. His cutters secur-
ed, who are usually CARDS or half breed
Indians, he pays them six months wages
goods" the latter meaning provisions
and needed outfit, much as our western
miners used to be furnished with grub
stake. y 1t is unnecessary to add that
the cash generally melts away like dew
before the morning sun, in drinking and
gambling; hence the wisdom of paying
part of the mems wages in necessary
commodities. From 30 to 80 men is the
average number of men in each camp
and these are divided into companies of
ten, each company having its own ''cap-
tain The most important and best
paid man of all is the 'hunter," an ex-
perienced woodsman, who leads the way
into the wilderness and finds the trees for
the rest to cut. They follow up the
dangers on every hand alligators and
boas, savage animals and the deadly
creeping things that infest the jungle;
and when they find favorable spot, be
gin operations by establishing their camp
upon the edge of the river. A big watla,
(thatched hut is built for the laborers,
protect it from proving creatures, in
which to store the bacon, salt fish, and
other supplies brought from civilization.
Hammocks are hung in the watla for beds,
any convenient logs serve well for tables
and chairs, and the cook makes an excel
lent range 10y filling hole in the ground
with stones. They eat cazada bread made
from the grated root of the yucca, from
which the poisonous juice has been
squeezed, and the terminal buds of the
cabbage palm, which taste very much like
our caulitlower and is a delicate moroccan
when not mixed with rancid greasy bacon,
as one usually finds it hereabouts. The
forest abounds in wild fruits and edible
seeds; and as for fresh meat, there are
plenty of monkeys and huge lizard-li
iguanas, wild hogs, small red deer,
tapirs, rabbits, armadillos, turkeys and
parrots, not to mention larger game.
While the camp is being made the
''hunter' is off exploring. The precious
Swietenia Mahogani does not grow in
clumps and groves like our pine and wal
nut, but each monarch stands alone in
solitary state, amid a dense growth of
other huge trees, its trunk concealed by
wild tangle of vines, orchids, and under
brush, requiring the closest attention of
the experienced woodsman to detect it,
In tropical wilderness where the trees
are SO thick that one can hardly force his
way between them, the whole hung with
an impenetrable mass of verdure as with a
curtain, their mingled tops a solid wall
which makes eternal twill eht below, and
every trunk twined round and round with
creepers, it is not an easy matter to dis
tinguish species. The hunter climbs the
tallest tree that he can find comparatively
clear, and from its top his practiced eyes
detect the foliage of the coveted mahog-
any. He then counts the trees in line,
notes carefully the direction, distance and
every land mark, slides down from his
ON'S' }
blaze trail to his ''tind.'' This done,
he marks the trees with his machete and
returns to camp. Each man in COM
pany is assigned his particular work
some to fell the trees, others to cut truck
roads through the jungle, other to collect
and haul the wood and water, etc. The
cutters turn out from camp as soon as it is
light enough to see-which in the tall
dense woods means a much later hour
than in the regions where the sun has
better chance to show himself; and gen.
orally by noon tree cutting for the day is
finished. All work is done by the task
system, which is said to be the only way
of handling native labor; that is, one
mans ''stent' is to cut two trees, from
to 10 feet in circumference; two men are