Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1897-04-22

from, Bangor. No one blames the Ban
eor publications for booming her IN
d,strias. No one will question the
right of some river drivers that we
have seen pass through this city, to
hail from the insaneless city, but we dc
take executions to the limitations that
Bangor is headquarters for the river
drivers of Maine.
Sometimes YOU can tell where river
driver comes from by looking at him.
The PenobscCt is not the only iaVsi
east of the Rocky mountains, there :
the Kennebec, for instance, kEoWn the
country ever for her able cant -oo2
men, The kennebec is loaded GOWN
with good men. They are the bone ana
sirew of a great industry. Thelr oad-
dies were before them When man IN
New HAMPSHIRE or Vermont wants
good men for the drive he starts his
agent cut with these instructions: G-
down on the kennehec and hire every
man you can. | can rely on them. II
YOU cannot secure enough fer our puf-
| pose go down to the Andnoscoggln, lhe
| ST. Crox or Machias rivers, and get the
| best of Them No one ever hears OF 9
Bangor river driver only when he Is
passing a railroad station. All up and
Down the beautiful river made historic
| by Arnold in his march to Canada-he
rever once thought of the Penobscot-
there are men who have bravsd the
| turbulent stream -" buioble-jumpers
every one CT them-men who have
| faced the dangers Of the landing, tbs
rapids and the falls many times, and
| they are going to do so some more this
year. Yes, stree! the kennebec river
man is a prize. he is sought out by the
| lumber kings, and when he gets int
| his toys for the seasons work, he is Il
| man after the lumber king own heart
Speaking of the come down" in tha
wa ges of the river driver from those Of
years ago when nlsn. good men re-
oaived from $3.50 to $500 per diem
brings home to the writer that he was
once a cant-d0g man on the kennebec
| In those halcyon days when pay was
good there was vast difference in the
manner in which the work was carried
on. There were two distinct classes OF
river drivers. There was the class thai
rolled the shores sacked the rear,
worked dry jams ANA were signals
L
men who hired to do white water
work That is, when a jam formed In
bad piece Of water, in some danger
Gus pitch of falls, this latter class were
the men who were sent out to "crack
the jam" Here the work was danger
Gus. The logs must be dug out. rolled
cut or cut cut. and when a jam was
worked tender" all but two or three
went ashore, leaving the remaining
onas to start the jam and take their
chances in reaching shore alive. There
was the chance to earn money, that was
where the big pay came in, put the men
earned it. They would work for hours
with their nerves strained to the ut
i1lcst tension, liste ming for the cracking
sound that would indicate that the
Jam was settling" When that sound
came to them they would spring Cor the
shore. Sometimes the jam would give
several of those Well known warnings
ard each time the men would hustle for
the shore, each man for himself and
DaVy Jones for the hindmoSt. Some
times the jam would go without giving
a warning crack or two and IL poor
fellow went through the pitch with H..
10 his death. the men felt bad. spoke Of
the qualities Of the deceased and then
tackled another jam. Tnat was rough
work in the dear dead days of long ago
but now there is not the danger ac-
companying a season on the drive
Since the advent of dynamite in the
waterproof cartridge form, or Atlas
powder as it was generally known at
FIRST the danger has been much les
seEsd. Now when a jam forms. o man
fastens several cartridges to a pole to
which is also attached wires connect
ing the cartridges with an electric bat
terry: the pole is pushed down between
the logs of the jam. the man goes back
to the shore for 100 feet or more, and
the battery sends the spark that ignites
the cap, that eXplCdes the cartridge
that blows up the jam that again takes
UP its hayward drift to the mills far
down the river. The Iessening of the
dangers was the cause OF the decrease
in wages. Science has done as much
for the lumbernen as for any other
class Of industry and a corresponding
reduction in wages has followed. But
the river drivers do not all come from
Bangor.