The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-10-25
REMEMBER THE ORPHANS.
SOUTHWESTERN LOG DRIVERS.

A Perilous Vocation, but Never a Scar
city of Men to Take the Risks
1.-THE life of the men who bring the
| great log drives down to the mills in
| the winter and spring is full Of peril
and hardship" said prominent Pearl
river lumberman, yet there must be a
| certain fascination about it for there is
never any lack Of hands for the work.
The way the timber is f1oated down is
rather interesting to a stranger" con-
| tinued the lumberman. Most of it
comes from points ranging from one
hundred and twenty-five to one hun
dred and fifty miles above the princi-
pal mills and convenient to the banks
of the river. About Christmas time the
gangs begin to move it. They are prin-
cipally white natives who have
'roughed it all their lives, and a tough
er, harder crowd it would be impossi-
BILE to find anywhere. The fact is that
unless man has a constitution of iron,
he cannot possibly endure the terrific
strain and exposure of the work
Many big fellow who would pass for
an athlete has been killed by it, and 1t
is only the exceptionally rugged that
tctli loliOW IL tio q NOttlhjSis
1.-THE average gang contains from
twelve to fifteen men, the lumberman
went on, "and the first thing they do is
to build RATS, by floating seven or
eight logs side by side and securing
them with binders. Ten or twelve Of
these small RATS are then arranged in
a rough square and held to gether by
laying short log from one to another
H..
pins. That leaves a little space be-
tween sections, and as the big raft re-
tains a certain amount of fexibility,
which is a most important point, and
enables it to swing around dangerous
bars and Instructions There is a great
deal of rude art about building these
RATS, and the craft secrets have been
handed down among the natives from
time out Of mind If the couplings are
too short or too long or too stiff the
mass will be wholly unmanageable, and
the expert builders seem to arrive at
the right proportions by a sort of in
stinct which they cannot themselves
explain. Each alternate log in the |
structure is pine, which is necessary to
secure buoyancy. About dozen big |
RATS constitute what is termed a |
drive and on the last of the lot the |
camp outfit, provisions, tent blankets |
and so on are carried. 1t is usually |
made heavier than the others and |
sometimes foored over the top. When
the work is completed the RATS are
turned adrift separately and the jour
ney down river begins.
1.-THE outfit raft or cook raft as it
is called, always brings up the tail of
the procession, and several of the gang
remain on board to look after the
things. The rest of the men are scat
tered along the others, but no effort
whatever is made at steering. The logs
are simply left to the current and are
sometimes in midstream and some
times close to the shore. When one of
the outfits gets stuck on a sand bank
or stalled against some stump, a. rope
is thrown over from the heavy cook
raft and the impetus from the latter
rarely fails to jerk 1t loose AT dusk
every day the drive ties up for the
night, and then the real work begins.
Each raft is roped and swung over to
shore, and when all are at last made Sc
cure the tired men gather around a
camp fire and eat their supper The ra-
tons are cut down to the lowest posi-
BILE limit on account of the trouble of
carrying them. They consist of bacon,
corn bread and coffee-rarely anything
else. At the first peep of dawn next
the RATS are turned adrift
again, and the same programme is re
peated until the mill is reached. Their
will average anywhere from
twenty to thirty miles a day.
That briefly, is the way a drive is
handled; but book could be written
on the dangers and hardships of the