The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1897-02-18

1uISs tsl4u Ito Aut1u - ICl4uys I'd US1Ch LIS
heart at all times He knows and
cares but little about religion, but he
feeds the hungry, gives drink to the
thirsty and clothes the naked when
ever appealed to.
The golden days that produced him
enabled other folks to make easy for
tunes as we'll as he. In those good
days it was easy to make a conf Portable
and, if man had good
business ability, moderate fortune,
in the logging business. Uncle Sam,
the State, the railroad companies and
could get an ak into it first
owned the tim Der, and the timber was
of the first quality and stood thick.
Ali man who wished to cut timber
had to do was to buy a forty and go
ahead and cut. If he kept his mouth
shut he could cut a township over and
get away before any attention would be
attracted to his operations. The found
alton of more than one great fortune
was laid that way, and a score of small
ones made and lost because the makers
believed the good time would last for.
ever, and, growing too bold through
We're finally caught. And
more still of the rapid ly-made money
was dissipated because the makers OF
it knew its value no more than child
would have done, and threw it away
accordingly. The government cruis-
ers came around but seldom, and were
not hard to get along with, as a gen
eral thing. The State men were the
same and the railroad timber was
mostly sold on estimate and no logger
askea anything better than that. OF
course no man would estimate the tim
Der at less than it really was. OF
course not, but yet I remember dis
tinctly being in camp one night and
hearing a conversation between one of
the logging firm that owned it, and the
railroad man who was doing the esti-
mating for his company in that vicin-
ity. The logger wished to buy a piece
of stumpage, and the cruiser was to
estimate it.
Said the logger: s'Well, how much
do you put it at?''
'Five million feet of logs 10000
ties, said the cruiser, how does that
strike you?''
tCan't say that you have hit us too
hard" answered the logger, ssby the
way I owe your mother-in-law $500:
will you take it and give it to her
when you go DOWN."
The cruiser accepted the commission,
took the money-and of course his
mother-in-law got it, he being bache-
lor.
It CHANGED to fall to my lot to scale
the logs cut from that piece of land,
and they scaled something more than
Is. 600. 900 feet. They were sold for
$3.50 per thousand feet by the scale, sc
there was quite a margin. for profit
And there were 10000 ties cut from the
same land. This was but a sample
And there was the State timber-that
was sold on scale, and scale made by
the deputies of the surveyor general
was usually honest-so far as the
deputy could make it so. But he had
to scale the logs on the landing, aa6
the only way he had of telling whether
he was scaling State logs, was by the
| mark on them. The law required al
| such logs to be stamped Min on the
ends, and the only way he had of find
| ing whence they came was asking the
honest gentlemen who we're hauling
them and were hired by the logger
For some reason all the halt, thu
MANNED and the blind among the logs
got among those with the Min stamI
on the ends-and the s''Min' stamped
ones were wondrous few in number
considering the amount of State lant
cut Overland all the big, straight
s'clear stuffs'' ones among those hauled
from the loggers' own land. But it,
different now. State logs are scaled
on the land from which they are Gu
and on the. sideways, and the Stat,
gets pay for all it sells.
Nobody attached any blame O
shame to stealing pine timber a
least, in a pine country no one did
And that for a good reason, indeed
. they all did it. Every body, high ant
low, rich and poor, little logger, grea
lumber company, settler wanting
few boards, and smart lumberjacl
4 wanting to make !. quick stake, on
and all, either in person or by deputy
all sswiped''-that is the correc
phrase for the act-if a chance pre-
scented itself. And no strong ma
armed and keeping his house coul
more fercely resent an attempt to dc
spoil him than would one of these a
4 attempt to deprive him Of the fruit {
4 his enterprise