Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1897-07-29
MAINE BAhMChOs
They Must &c Ingenious, Mosquito
prcof and All Around Handy Men,

Proof, ana All Around Handy Men,
The word barker" as 1t is used in
the Maine backwoods signifies man
who is master of profitable trade.
The city barker is a man who is hired
TO rehearse the dazzling events in the
line of dime museum freaks, but an
up-river barker ia q muscular, mos
ouito-proof man whose life's business
is to peel the bark from hemlock trees
and put it in shape for use in the tam
merry. Last week O down-river employ
ment agency sent more than 1000
bankers to this town and beyond, all
Of whom will work from now until
September, and will get $3.50 day
each, rain or shine, for all the time they
are in the woods. In addition to this,
they will receive board and lodging and
free transportation to and from their
work. When it is remembered that the
best lumbermen get but $22 month,
and trained pulp mill men-acid MAX
ers and digesters-can be had at S1.25
to $3.50 a day each, without board, the
wages demanded by the bankers seem
princely and out of proportion to the
kind of labor they have to perform.
In old days, when hemlocks were as
plentiful as gray birch, and every
farmer had his hemlock 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 century. AS the
hemlock was driven back to the borders
and the tanneries still demanded more
and more of the fannie acid, various
substitutes were tried, including yell
low birch, oak, sumac and sweet fern,
but none proving so good as henlock,
new efforts were made to secure what
the trade demanded. At time when
hcmlocll was very cheap, Maine syn
dictate, which included Senator Eugene
Hale and ex-Gov. D. T. 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 go up by bounds.
The market would have been cornered
into bankruptcy if somebody had not
discovered that the remote hemlocl1
bark, which was so far in the woods
that it's cost of transportation would
hinder its removal, could be boiled
down and the tanuin condensed so that
three cords of bark could be put into
an ordinary barrel. This discovery
enabled 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
hemlock 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 n skilled
cooper, who can split and shave slaves
and hoop poles, put them together and
insert the heads, and warrant his bar
rels to be firmly made and water-tight.
Living for months many miles from q
| highway Oh al IuIli OdIl, lIN iiHoO w -
carpenter and blacksmith as well as a
cooper and bark peeler, and if he has
any other trade or knack of doing work
it all counts in his favor and tends to
increase his pay or prolong his job
There are scores of farmers and lum-
bermen in 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 OF
extract" hemlock bark is as cheap to-
day rs it was ten years ago, and the
men who bought hemlock growth hop
ing for rise in price are waiting until
no more extract can be made before
Offering to sell, They expect that time
is coming when they will own all the
hemlock in the United States, but
meanwhile they fear some new tanning
process will be discovered which does
not require hemlock. For these rea-
sons the bark owners are not wholly
happy, while the bankers continue to
enjoy themselyes.-N. Y. Sun.