Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1901-02-20
THE WOOD PILE.

to the furnaces tunneled in the mountains
like ants-that is to say, the town Of Lead
lived OH the mills. The mills ran by
reason Of the existence of the wood pile.
For years the logs had poured down from
the nearer and the farther hills to sustain
it. For years the furnaces had famed,
and the great crushing and reducing
works had turned out their bricks of pre-
cious metals-$35,000 and $4,000 to
each massive brick.
The people, reckless, wasteful, devil
may care, had a veneration for this one
thing-for the mountain of wood, the Wis
IDLE foundation of their prosperity. Had
it come to an end their never ending
dancing and merrymaking must have
ended too. The buying and the faunt-
ing of cheap fnery would have ceased.
The plentiful tables would have become
bare. The easily obtained drink and the
pleasures of the gaming table would have
been lost. To the more sober it meant
the home comforts and privileges for the
children. To the intelligent overseers,
the scientists, the owners, it represented
the base of operations. To Nell Onder-
dock, the daughter of one Of the over
seers, it represented poetica idea.
She was a thoughtful girl, and she saw
the rude picturesqueness of all about her
and, most of all, felt the power and value
of the wood pile. She had often spoken
about this to JAMS Jensen, the serious
yisaged Swede who paid lovers court to
her, and he, a student and adventurer,
full of the weird Imagination of his race,
saw it as she did, with eyes of philo-
sophie appreciation.
He appeared to see all things much as
she did. but that fact, which he appreci-
ated to the full, had never won from her
any response to his devotion. She was an
American, with prejudice in favor Of
American lovers, and, while among all
her acquaintance there was no one so
obviously ambitious and aspiring as JAMS,
yet she felt annoyed at the accent that
made his speech alien and at the strong
racial characteristics that marked him of
the land of Sweden. AS for him, he
adored her with the concentrated and
consecrated devotion of a homesick and
lonely man, isolated by reason of his
dreams, his bookishness and his refine
ment from many of those about him. All
would have been well with him, he often
said to himself, if only Nell would have
loved him.
One day. while walking alone and
thinking of his grief in love, he saw a
plume of smoke lowering above the
mountain of wood. 1t was a sight he
had never seen before. He hesitated.
wondering if it were not drifting cloud.
But the plume Haunted itself against the
sky, mounted and swept along like the
wing of fateful bird.
'"rhe wood pile is afiren' shouted JAMS
to the solitude and ran for the town.
There was a hand fire engine at Lead,
and the fire company had an enthusiasm
for their task; but, though they worked
all night and all day, they made no inn
preston on the fire that had eaten into
the core of the wood mountain.
Nell Undertook, watching the men in
the faint twilight of morning, saw them
swarming over the top of the wood pile
and crawling in it's tunnels. They bur-
rowed in it like ants-ants for size, in
comparison to that pile. They fought
with axes, with fails, with water, with
tarpaulins. They tried to drown it, to
smother it, to beat it out and to blow it
out. But their efforts availed nothing.
The mills were run with minimum of
men. Every one who could be spared
was out TO fight the fire. The big boys
were taken from the school. The women
sat on the hills near, their babes in their
arms, watching, or they carried water
and food to the wearied men. In the
churches the people prayed that the fire
might be Quenched by miracle. In the
mills the men talked Of agencies--dyna-
mite, hydraulics, pneumatics-and the
common men, half suffocated, obstinate,
courageous, fought with blackened faces,
aching lungs and blinded eyes, while over
the whole town the wrathful cloud of
smoke hung like an afrit of the desert.
Jams Jensen. in charge of a crew of
men, sat on the side of the hill thinking.
Nell Onderdock was near him, regarding
him with coldly critical eyes. She want
ed him smoke begrimed, with barred
arms; she wished to see him leading on
his men desperately, shouting, hoarse
and frantic. She was excited, and she
desired to see her possible hero heroic.
But he smoked a pipe, stared at the
streaming cloud above him and said moth
ing. 1t was humiliating. However, aft
er time, without noticing her particu-
larry. he went away to the mills. He re-
turned with an added force of men, and
he went to the top of the pile. Then the
men were called out of the tunnels. Ev-
cry one was put on top.
I'VE are to fight the fire from the top"
he said, land we will do it by stopping
the draft
Orders were sent to the hills to conti1-
lie the driving of the logs. They swept
down the great shoots in hundreds. They
closed the air passages, and the men di-
rected them till every opening of the pile
was closed. The smoke took to itself a
heavier quality, as it does when flame is
quenched. The whole town argued pro
and con. Some thought the whole mass
doomed. Some believed it was saved.
On the outcome obviously depended JAMS
Jensen's reputation. The smoke turned
from black to copper color; it grew dun,
it grew gray, it faded. The fire went
out.
Back into the mills swarmed the men.
The furnaces We're heated to their height;
the great caldrons of amalgam seethed
and dubbed; the mighty ingots We're
east.
And Jams Jensen put on the finger Of
Nell Undertook little ring made from
the gold of Lead and set with a glittering
pebble of the Black Hills.-Chicago Trib-
unp