Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1901-07-12
BREAKING THE JAM At MAD TOMS GORGE.
BY RAYMOND s. SPEARS.

| hClH udyo llicy uStu W UTtdh JdUlS
with cant-hook and ak, stead of
dynamite. There was a jam just like
this one. You'd ought to have seen it,
the way he rode the first log, stiddy az,
a wagon, and he saved his AK, too.
Pity ther' amt no such men alive now
| adays."
To this bantering narrative Will lis
tened without undue gravity, but after
a while, unobserved by any one, he
opened the cheese box in which were
the dynamite and fuse used by the
f1oaters to blast jams and dangerous
rocks. He put four sticks of the stuff
into his hip pockets, and length of
| fuse into his blouse.
Then he went up the creek round
the bend to his house and took a small
corked bottle full of dry matches. The
| old pike-pole his father had used was
| under the caves of the woodshed. He
| threw it over his shoulder and started
| for the creek.
He was soon afloat on a little log
that was easy to guide, and he worked
| his way to the middle of the stream,
| lodging or Tending off other logs. He
| watched the current ahead to see that
an unexpected drift did not carry him
| out of his course; be stood with his
| knees slightly bent and his head for
| ward, and the quarter-inch spikes in
the sole of his shoes gripped the log
till it splintered
Ahead of him was the jam with logs
| hitting it every minute. Some of them
| dived out of sight instantly. Others
slued round sidewise and climbed the
back of the jam. The whole head of
the jam was rolling, twisting and heav-
| ing; there could hardly be more dan
gerous place for a mans legs.
To miss these rolling logs and yet
| find landing was Wills hope. To go
| too far down would be to risk the pitch
into the gorge and the probability of
being carried past the jam. But as he
| plunged into a drift of logs and was
| unable to steer out of it in time, he
had to take his chances as they came.
There wasn't really any great choice
| in the matter. 1t would be a leap for
| life, anyhow, wherever the log struck,
| and it might as well be a big leap as
little one.
Will was within 100 feet of the jam
before any one saw him. Then small
boy shouted, There's Will Conway on
| log!"
A hundred men, and as many women
and children looked in time to see Will
poise himself for the leap as his log
approached the jam. Instead of hold
ing the pole for a mere balance as he
had been doing, he turned it parallel
to his log and stopped for vaulting
jump.
Log after log struck, each with
heavy, musical thump-a half dozen
of them. Suddenly Will crouched,
dropped his left shoulder, struck the
iron pole point home in a log, and
then sprang forward and up-up, while
the log he had just left plunged down
into the vortex.
He struck fairly on his feet and ran
lightly over the uneasy logs to the
motionless ones. Then the crowd on
shore tossed its arms and cheered. The
first and least of the dangers was over
come.
Will walked down the jam, stepping
from log to log, taking his time all the
way. The crush at the boulder was
very great He looked the tangle over;
some of the logs fairly stood on end,
others were piled crosswise and length
wise. A big one, its back splintered-
almost broken--was evidently the key.
As it lay broadside to the current, the
water poured over it six inches deep
at one end.
The other logs were thrust over and
under it, and were lodged against the
boulder. lust below the key log. in
the water beside the boulder, was the
place for the dynamite, so viii decid-
ed after the examination. Then he
went to work.
While the crowd on shore looked on
wondering what he would do next, not
knowing that he had dynamite, Will
moved his pike along the jam, and
found straight spruce sapling, eight
| feet long and bare of bark, which some
| lumberman up at the log dump had
| used as a handspike.
He carried this to the key log, and
| kneelipg down, tied the dynamite
sticks, one by one to his sapling, lash
ing them fast with a stout string, as he
had seen the men do. Then he fastened
the fuse and ran it along the stick
steadying it by twinc This took only
a few minutes-breathless ones to the
onlookers. Then VIII examined the
logs again, to be sure that he would
put the charge in the right place. When
Boss Koch saw him doing that, he said,
The coolest chicken l ever see."
AT last the sapling was showed home,
the dynamite was three feet under wa
ter and the end Of the fuse was nearly
a foot above the surface Then Will
stood up and looked into the gorge be-
| low.
He knew how the water ran there,
| for he had lived within a mile of it all
his life The story of his fathers ride
was not new one indeed his father
had pointed out to him the black
streak of navigable water he had fol-