Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1900-05-31

= IL
I'd get hung. But my blood was up.
AS Scotty raised his fist to strike me.
Irose uddenly and let him have swinp .
ing blow full in the mouth. His head
struck against the bulking Of the cab
in. And I rained half-arm punches on
his face till was mass of blood. He
fought me as we'll as he could, but i
was much bigger and stronger man.
He hadn't a ghast of a show. And all
the time was punching him I felt i
was fighting with rope round my
neck, and when that's the case a man
might as well go in for sheep as for Z
lamb. 81
And the whole Internal degradation
Of the life broke in on me like light
ming flash while I was fighting. d
thought might as well end it. And i
tried to kill Scotty.
But he got away from me up the
cabin steps and onto the deck. He re-
allied that he was in danger of his
life, and the animal instinct to save
himself came uppermost in him. The
fight had been knocked out of him.
j
was faced with the captain and mate.
But was ready for them too and See
ing that was. ready they came to the.
conclusion that the easiest way out Of
it was the best The captain claimed
things down. I suppose it dawned
upon him that it was no joke doing a
man up who was ready to fight for all
he was worth. During the; whole af-
fair the men-my mates stood in a
group forward. They didn't offer to
interfere.
After that,I always got a clean. plate.
The dredging season began in DC.
tober and ended in March-the six
coolest and hardest months of the year.
Once [ was OH a sloop that was frozen
up in solid ice for nearly a month.
Then we had good time. Nothing to
do but eat and sleep and: go ashore oc-
casionally for water. We were an,
chored about a hundred yards from the
through the ice, so as to get a. little.
yawl backward and forward. One
afternoon another fellow and myself
got the yawl ashore, so as to bring,
aboard a barrel of water and some
flour and bacon. 1t was freezing very
hard. We loaded up the yawl, and be-.
gan to work our way back to the sloop..
but when we got, about half way we
were blocked UP. The loose ice t1oa ting
in the channel had become frozen to-
gether. We worked for an hour, and
made, hardly any Roadway. And one
hour reached into two hours, and two
hours into three hours. Then we saw
that perhaps we couldn't make the
sioop that night. So we thought it,
better to make for the shore again.
But in this we were stopped, too. The.
loose ice had frozen together behind
us. Nor could we land on the ice on
either side of us, for the reason that
there were large pieces of loose ice on
both sides of the yawi, and stepping on
them would mean falling into the wa.
ter, which would mean death. The
lads on the sloop' kept shouting to us
from time to time to cheer us up. But
we were getting anxious. If we had
to stay in the yawl through the night
it would mean that we should be frozen
stiff by morning. And nowedarkness
and night had come upon us. We
worked on and on, smashing at the ice
with our oars. And after what seemed
to me an eternity the ice slowly began
to move. We fought it foot by foot
along the channel to the sloop. They
had put lights on the roof of the cabin,
so that the reflections would show us
where to strike the ice. At last we
got near enough for them to throw us
rope. which we made fast to the.
yawl, and then, with the help of their
Juggling, we got alongside the sloop.
They pulled us aboard and gave us a
big stiff drink of whisky, which fixed
us up all right. It was midnight. 1t
had taken us about eight hours to go
a hundred yards.
On Saturday nights we would go, to
Cambridge little town on the east.
ern shore of the bay-and tie up till
Monday morning. Then we would get.
an advance perhaps of a dollar apiece
from the captain. Armed. with this,
we would go up into the town to have.
a good time. You can buy a lot of whis-
ky in Cambridge for a dollar. And
whisky is what we all bought. In
other words, we used to get drunk.
Then we used to fight with one anoth-
err, OF fight with the police, if they
tried to interfere with us. We were
looked upon as the scourings of the
earth-which. as matter Of fact, we
were. the dredgings of the earth. We.
were a bad lot. But we weren't too bad
to do the beastly work of dredging.
Yes, we used to get drunk. And why
not? It, was the only thing left open
for us. We We're a dirty, rough lot of
uncouth men, we dredgers.
Years and years have gone by since
that time, but the faces of the men, the
dredgers knew, are still clear in nv
memory. Aye, their hard, weather
worn faces rise before me. Where are
they now? Where are they gone?
Drudges of a dredge. Where are they?
Nobody knows and nobody cares. Poor
human driftage! Dogs for everyone to
throw stone at. Ishave an affection