Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1900-10-01
THE LOG DRIVERS LOT.
AN OCCUPATION THAT REQUIRES
THE STEADlEST OF NERVES.
Trials of the "Walking Boss"-Hard and
Heavy Work Done by the Lumbermen
of Minnesota This Season to Get Their
Logs Afioat in the Mississippi River.

| Logs Afioat in the Mississippi River.
c. C. Kelly of Fergus Falls, Mimi,
nimrod, student of nature and writer
of short stories, went down to Mime
apolis the other day to meet few of
his old New York friends and escort
them into his bailiwick, where they
are now spending pleasant vacation.
Log driving in this year of our
Lord has been, and still is, for that
matter, about as near that fearful
state of affairs called the worst ever
as anything earthly could be- said
Mr.. Kelly. Every river, lake, brook
and rivulet tributary to the father of
waters and all the tributaries of his
tributaries in the bearing district
of Minnesota, were covered with logs
destined to feed the great mills of Min
neapolis and other manufacturing
points on the Mississippi. During the
was not
'The snowfall of last winter was
scanty and, to make things worse,
that scant provision went off So
gradually that most of the little water
into which it was converted went else
where than into the streams, and did
little, if anything, toward raising
them to a log-hoating height.
Then came the dry springtime and
the drier summer, and the water fell
every day instead of rising.
"Of course, on most streams driving
was out of the question, and on all of
them it has been a woefully ex
pensive operation when it could
be done at all; but withal,
it has been again demonstrated
that to stop Minnesota loggers stock
still, sudden death is the only poten-
tial instrument In the face of low
water, high wages head Winds and
every impeachment, they have gone
ahead and scored as great triumph
over adverse circumstances as even
they can point to in the past.
Ordinarily, drive, though always
furnishing plenty of hard word for
every man in it, has enough of excite
ment and enough of easy spells where
water is plenty and logs run easily, to
keep everybody keyed up to a concert
pitch, and at the same time to avoid
putting the breaking strain on anyone.
But it's another story this year.
From breaking the rollaways to turn
ing out into the Mississippi it has been
hard, heavy work, steady 'sacking and
'hossing' over almost water bare rap
ids, till even the iron lumberjack has
come to find out that there are such
things as nerves in his composition.
About the time he makes that discov-
cry, the common run of humanity, if
engaged in his work, would have been
dead about three weeks, 'Sacking'
consists of drifting and carrying logs
from the muddy shores of the streams
where receding water has left them
and putting them in the channel-and
if Dante had been onto the horrors
of that pastime he would have given
it high place in the tortures of his
Inferno. 1t has to be done in water
up to knee deep, combined with foot
or so depth of mud, In which the feet
of the workers sink at every step, and
day of it consists of IA to 16 hours.
just imagine seven days in the week
of such work, and three months of it
on end, and you get pretty fair idea
of what log-driving has been this sea
son.
"'Hossing' logs over the rapids means
wading' out into water rushing with
the velocity of II bullet, getting peavy-
hold on the big, stranded logs, and get
ting them off the rocks and into the
current, by pure force of muscle.
ITS dogged as does it. my masters;
it's dogged as does it; and the lumber
jack can out-dogged the doggedest man
that ever stood In shoe leather-or went
barefoot, either.
Talk about conducting campaign
in the field! Why, Macarthur and
'Bobs' have had picnics compared to
the man who has to bring out big
drive on a long stream. The command
er-in-chief of that great work, known
in the profession as the walking boss
had the problems before him of getting
out a tremendous mass of logs with
barely enough water to float them to
the Mississippi If they had lain in the
river in one solid mass, from the land
ing nearest the mouth to that nearest
its source. But they didn't lay that
way by great deal. The great mass
of them were not in the river at all,
but landed on lakes and brooks tribu-
tary to it; and in brief, what our good
walking boss had to do was to get them
into one solid jam in the river, keep
that jam moving so as to keep pace
with the moving water boom them
across the many lakes through which
the stream flows, and get them into
the Mississippi before the water got
out ahead of them. To do that he had
to get them out of every lake and
brook in such season that the out-com-
ing logs would fit into the space in the
main jam reserved for them, and be
neither too late nor too soon to fill the
appointed place: to fight as many
head-winds as Vanderdecken encoun-
tered in irving TO rOIInd the Game. tn