Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1900-03-21

%i s-S - s~s-, -
Haifbreed Indian guides are popu
Lar in the Maine woods. They mus
be as useful as the white kind ont
would say who saw the daily embark
alton of well-equipped "sports -
every city man in the woods is called
"sport"-who take to the road will
one of these dark and unknowable off
spring of the lumber camps. Perhaps
the general idea is that little Indiar
blood in q man means 80 much true
hunter, or maybe, the Indian will &C
for little less than. the whites in the
business. However these. things are,
the would-be hunter should pause. to
consider the significance of this tale,
remembering that Indians never
change, and that back somewhere in
the sixties lived one lone Indian, a
mere remnant, who fought controls
and tho vested interests Of great SPAR
ties" from the outside, because of an
idea. The game was his; no white
man should have of it or come to
spoil it;enot even the logging crew,
who did not come to kill. >.
>"AnIndian III never show you the
game; not if he can help it." Ne,.s,
I had picked my guide, Snow, for
his age and experience. He was a
friend of the late Jock Darling, that
famous character and once sinful dog
ger of deer, and the things he said
about the woods went. Still, as he
made this remark, was considering
the natural results of competition.
Snow met my doubling look with the
frm-iawed,. solid contemptuousness of
his kind; but on this occasion he con-.
descended to speak out We sat in
the public room of the road ''hotel"
thst surmounted barred and windy
ridge. Fate had shovedsus in here on
theway to our projected camp, between
an inexorable round, red, scorching
: stove and the depth of an open
window. And the weather was cold
limiting weather, when the deer world
be out Of their safe swamps and feed
ing-at their peril along the ridges.
Back in the sixties, g said Snow,
ss:. Witty Soung 7eiI on, Ind i've
lived ronnd logging camps ever since
] could remember anything. I believe
fused q baby axe. After a while I
had my spell at swampin' roads,
swampinis the only work that's con;
sideredht for youngsters and green.
horns, sbecause, then, SITS no matter
how:thsSnees falfAand I'd become o
regular chopper. And when, on top
ofthis, I!say I worked three seasons
atTiyer driyin' land kept hearty, you'll
realize that must have boen a well
mlscled young chap for my years. .
NOV, besides this natural educa-
tion, as you might say, I'd Ind little
schoolin' through an uncle Of mine at
Horlton, SO that when the time came
that & big new lumber company
wanted to put a surveyor in the woods
for EN-, about ,fliedsthes b. hh.ss; That
was good Job in those days, when the
business was new, though I didn't do
what you re 3thinkin' of. II didn't lay
down lines, but just walked straight
into the woods and looked over the
standin' timber, sand :. .I,took iEsiinn as
straight as II could with my eye, saw
what the trees wonld amonati to, saw
how many pair horses! and how Ymanys
men could get'the logs to water, and
then I. wrote down my,ideas and my
figgers.to the company yithat was wait;
in to begin work ON what I said. This
was the practical side, andiit was easy
larnin' the headwork, butt must say
, by the, end of the secondsiwinter I'd
had enough. AZ man gets used - to;
beingiby himself in the, woods, though,
Eve heard. regular old sports, who'd
been down here huntin's fall after fall,
te1Fof nigh losin their wits at the
chance, as it seemed, they'd be obliged
to sleep out alone away from camp, L
had my little grub outfit and a blanket,
and, of course,:I knew how. to make
myself snug in all kinds Of weather, so
that never had thought that warn't
pleasant till the day I met up with
Fransway. It was funny thing I.
hadn't seen Fransway before, as I'd
been workin' more or,leas right in the
country where he put ,, in his time,
FransBaylwas character, big In
dian, the biggest ever saw, mighty
man with chest like pork barrel,
though he must have bean old then,
and with bad, squirting eye. he
used to be a chief, the story was, but
the rest of his tribe were dead. Well,
the day I saw him he never looked in
my direction at all, just kept right
along on his snowshoes--it was in
January-and got out of sight, I
thought, in a hurry. After that hard
ly week passed but what Fransway
showed up somewhere to the east,
west, north or south Of me and my
work, never coming dccently near,
however. I held on to my blanket in
case he was looking for a chance to
steal that, but after he'd been follow
in me round spell longer I made ont
his business was something different.
If il was anything to do with me, why
couldn' he come straight up and spit
IL ont? "a sZaaf {" S?tiA ST..
"I began to think some then. 4 I'd
no sooner.get fixed for the nighttin
some nice hollow with some boughs
butted 7up,s against the biggest, and
most comfortablest hemlock of the lot
when I'd begin to look for Fransway.
You'll hear plenty of noises in, tbe
woods so long as the sun is shining.
but take tat night and I can't think
of any place 80 still: Maybe I'd have
an owl 4for, company perched up'o
some tree opposite, starin' at me, and
mad clean through at the sight of my
fire. Ineyer noticed owls before, but
I began to get lonesome, and, well,
that Indian got on my nerves. So,
"Well, one day, toward sundown I
happened to see a big doe up with her
fIae not dozen wards off. and heard