Evening journal., 1897-09-13
MAINE eARkeRs.


They Must he Ingenious, Mosquito
Proof, and All Around Handy Men.
The word barker" as 1t is used in
the Maine bacliwoods signifies a man
who is master of profitable trade.
The city barker is n man who Is hired
TO rehearse the dazzling events in the
line of dime museum freaks, but an
up-river barker is a muscular, mos
quito-proof man whose life's business
Is TO peel the bark from hemlock trees
and put it in shape for use in the tan
merry. Last week a down-river employ
ment agency sent more than 1000
baikers TO this town and beyond. all
of whom win work from now until
September, and viii get $3.50 a day
each, rain or shine, for all the time they
are in the woods In addition to this,
they win receive board and lodging and
free transportation to and from their
work. When it is remembered that the
best lumbermen get but S22 a month,
and trained pulp mill men-acid maxi
ors and digestcrs-can be had at S1.25
TO $3.50 day each, without board, the
wages demanded by the barlSers seem
princely and out of proportion to the
kind of labor they have 20 perform.
In old days, when hemlocks were as
plentiful as gray birch, and every
farmer had his hemloclS lot, the bark
was peeled in the summer, dried in the
fall, and hauled out to the tannery in
the winter This was the method fol-
lowed for more than n century. AS the
hemlock was driven back TO the borders
and the tanneries still demanded more
and more of the tannic acid, various
substitutes were tried, including yell
low birch, oak. sumac and sweet fern,
but none proving so good as hemlock,
new efforts were made TO secure what
the trade demanded. At a time when
hemloclS was very cheap, Maine syn
dicate, which included Senator Eugene
Hale and ex-Gov. ID. f. Davis. bought
up about all the available growth in
the state and no sooner was the deal
completed than the price of tanning
material began to 90 up by bounds
The market would have been cornercd
and most Of the tanneries been forced
into bankruptcy II somebody had not
discovered that the remote hemloclS
bark, which was so far in the woods
that its cost of transportation would
hinder its removal. could be boiled
down and the tannin condensed so that
three cords of bark could be put into
an ordinary barrel. This discovery
enabled a pair of horses to carry more
tannin than ten teams had been able
TO haul. and gave the tanners another
chance for their lives. beginning in a
small way, the extract works increased
in size and number until most of the
hemloclS in Maine is shipped in barrels,
as is molasses or kerosene.
The business of the Maine barker IS
the direct outcome of this change. Not
only must he know how TO fell trees and
peel bark. but he must be q skilled
cooper, who can split and shave staves
and hoop poles put them together and
insert the heads, and warrant his bar.
rels to be firmly made and wnter-tight
Living for months many miles from q
| highway or railroad, he must be {
carpenter and blacksmith as well as
cooper and bark peeler, and IL he hal
any other trade or llnack of doing wOrl
II all counts In his favor and tends Il
increase his pay or prolong his job
There are scores of farmers and lum
ber1nen I'm Maine who get along as best
they may for nine months In the year
and rely on what they get from bark
ing for their spending money and lux
uries. Owing to the introduction oi
"extract," hemloclS bark is as cheap to
day as It was ten years ago, and tn,
men who bought hemlocls growth hop
\ ing for rise in price are waiting unit
no more extract can be made befor,
offering to sell. They expect that tim,
is coming when they will own all the
hemlock in the United States, but
meanwhile they fear some new tanning
process win be discovered which doe.
not require hemlock. For these rea
sons the bark owners are not wholly
fhappy, while the barlers continue K
enjoy themselves.--N. Y. Sun.