Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1901-03-07

smooth, gurgling along the edges as
1T drew bits of ice and sticks under
the ends of logs. Where the water
was divided and it's bed row the
current "a swifter and swifter till.
at the entrance of the gorge. the
water was lined and the foam
stretched out, and even the bubbles
were oblong, slanted back by the wind
or whisked off the surface into shin
ing, evanescent threads. Under such
conditions-with the water sucking
and boiling-no man in the crew vol
unteered to go to the jam. AS a mat
ter of business, the boss offered S25
to the one who would try.
There never was a log jam that
r~iver-drivers wouldn't break sooner or
later, no matter how high or rough
the water, but in this case the men
wanted time to think. And hat was
a boys opportunity.
VIII Conway's father had been a
noted jam-breaker, and men of the
crew who knew the boy relieved their
uneasy feelings by joking with him
a bit.
why. Billy" they said. "your dad
NCuAb "a bCCil OUT T1SFc hours ago
if he were here. He want afraid of
the gorge Huh. L should say not!
/ seen him the time he went through
1.-THE only one as ever did it alive,
[ reckon, though some say they have.
Them days they used to break Jams
with a cant-hook and AK. stead of
dynamite. There was a jam Just like
this one. You'd ought to have seen
il. the way he rode the first log. stiddy
as Il wagon, and he saved his az. too.
Pity Their amt no such men alive
nowadays!"
To this bantering narrative VIII
listened without undue gravity. but
after Il while. unobserved by any one,
he opened the cheese-bOX in which
were the dynamite and fuse used by
the foaters to blast jams and dam
gerous rocks He put four sticks of
the stuff into his hip pockets. and a
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
wood-shed. He threw it over his
1 SAlOhIICi dIu Stdl Ntu - liz CISth.
He was soon afioat 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; he stood with
his knees slightly bent and his head
forward, and the quarterback spikes
in the soles 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 put of sight instantly.
Others slued round sidewise and
climbed the back of the jam. The
whole head of the jam was rolling,
twisting and heaving; there could
hardly be a more dangerous place for
a mans legs.
To miss these rolling logs and yet
find a landing was Wills hope. To
go too far down would be to risk the
pitch into the gorge and the proba-
bility of being carried past the jam.
But Is 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
a little one.
VIII was within a hundred feet of
the jam before any one saw him.
Then a small boy shouted, There's
VIII Conway on a 1og!"
4 hundred men, and as many women
and children, looked in time to see
VIII poise himself for the leap as his
log approached the jam. Instead Of
holding the pole for a mere balance
as he had been doing, he turned it
parallel to his log aud stopped for a
vaulting jump.
Log after log struck, each with a
heavy, musical thump-a half-dozen
of them. Suddenly VIII 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 motion1ess ones. Then the crowd
on shore tossed it's arms and cheered.
The first and least of the dangers was
overcome.
Will walked down the jam, stepping
from log to log, taking his time all
| the way. The crush art the bowlder
was very great. He looked the tangle
over; some of the logs fairly stood
on end, others were piled crosswise
and lengthwise. A big one, its back
spIintered-almost broken-was evil
IDENTIFY the key. As it lay broadside
to the current, the water poured over
it six inches deep at n end.
The other logs were thrust over and
under it, and were lodged against the
bowlder. just below the key log, in
| the water beside the bowlder, was
the place for the dynamite, so VIII
decided 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,
VIII moved his pike along the jam.
AMI found a straight spruce sapling,
eight feet long and bare of bark,
which some lumberman up at the log
dump had used as a h~andspike.
He carried this to the key log, and
kneeling Gown, tied the dynamite
sticks, one by one to his sapling,
flashing them fast with a stout string,