The Savannah morning news., 1902-11-23

Il want you to be careful not to
sluice too long. There is a bar just be-
low the dam. and it you try to sluice
with the water too low. you'll center
and jam there, as sure as shooting"
Bryan Moloney turned on his heel
and began to pick his way down
stream over the solidly banked logs.
| Without waiting the command, a doZ-
en- men followed him. The little group
bobbed away irregularly into the dis
lance, springing lightly from one tim
Der to the other, holding their quaint
! ly-fashioned peaveys in the manner of
a rope dancers balancing pole. At
| the lowermost limit of the rOllways
each man pried log into the water
and, standing gracefully erect on this
| unstable craft, fioated out down the
| current to the scene or his dangerous
labor.
"Kerlie," went on Thorpe, your
crew can break rollways with the rest
until we get the river fairly filled, and
then you can move on down stream as
fast as you are needed. Scotty. you
viii have the rear. Tim and 1 will
/ boss the river"
At once the signal was given to FL
lis, the dam watcher. Ellis and his
assistants thereupon began to pry with
J long iron bars at the ratchets of the
heavy gates. The chore-boy bent at
| tent1vely over the ratchet-pin, lifting
1t delicately to permit another inch of
raise, dropping it accurately to ENABLE
the men at the bars to seize a fresh
purchase The rivers roar deepened.
Through the wide sideways a tor
rent foamed and tumbled. Immediate
ly it spread through the brush on
either side to the limits of the freshet
banks, and then gathered for its leap
against the uneasy rollways Along
edge nf no arb ohon
of the logs seemed to crumbIe away
Farther in towards the banks, where
the weight of timber still unbalanced
the weight of the flood, the tiers grum-
bled and stirred. Far down the river,
where Bryan Moloney and his crew
picking at the jam, the water in eager
streamlets sought the interstices be-
tween the logs, gurging excitedly.
The Jam creaked and groaned in re-
Spouse to the pressure. From it's face
hundred jets of water spouted into
the lower stream. Logs appended here
and there, rising from the bristling sur
face slowly. like so many arms from
the rollways, paused at the slack
water, and finally hit with a hollow
and resounding boom against the tail
of the jam. A moment later they too
appended.
The crew were working desperately.
Down in the heap somewhere, two
logs were crossed in such a manner as
to lock the whole. They sought those
logs.
Thirty feet above the bed of the
river six men clamped their peaveys
into the soft pine; jerking, pulling, lift
ing. sliding the great logs from their
places. Thirty feet below, under the
threatening face. six other men cooliy
picked out and set adrft, one by one,
the timbers not inextricably imbedded.
From time to time the mass creaked
settled, perhaps even moved a foot or
two; but always the practiced river
men, after glance, bent more eager
ly to their work.
Outlined against the sky, big Bryan
Moloney stood directing the work He
knew by the tenseness of the log he
stood on that behind the jam, power
mad gathered sufficient to push the
Whole tangle downstream. Now he
was Offering 1t the chance
Suddenly the six men below the lam
scattered. Four of them holding their
peaveys across the bodies. jumped
lightly from one floating log to an
other in the zigzag to shore. The 9TH
er two ran the length of their footing.
and. overlapping an open of water.
landed heavily and firmly on the very
ends of two small floating logs. In
this manner the force of the iunp
| rushed the little timbers end
on through the water The
two men, maintaining marvellously
their balance, were thus ferried to
| shore.
In the meantime a barely perceptibie
motion was communicating itself from
one particle to another through the
center of the jam. The crew redoubled
! its eXertionS. A sharp crack exploded
| Immediately underneath. There could
no longer exist any doubt as to the
motion, although it was as yet slug
| gish, glacial. Then in silence a log
shifted-in silence and slowly-but with
| irresistible force. Jimmy Powers quiet
| ly stepped over 1t. just as it menaced
his leg. Other logs in all directions
| appended. The jam crew We're forced
continually to alter their positions, rid
ing the changing timbers bent-kneed.
| as circus rider treads his four gal
Looping horses.
Then all at once down by the face
| something crashed. The entire stream
became alive. 1t Kissed and roared, il
shrieked and grumbled. At first slow
ly, then more rapidly, the very fore
| front of the center melted inward and
forward and downward until 1t caught
the fierce rush of the freshet and shot
out from under the jam. Far up
| stredm, Dflstlng ana formidable, the
tons of logs grinding savagely to-
gether, swept forward
The six men and Bryan Moloney-
who, it will be remembered, were or
top-worked until the last moment
When the logs began to cave under
them so rapidly that even the expert
rivermen found difficulty in Staying
on top" the foreman set the example
of hunting safety.
"She pulls boys" he yelled.
Then in a manner wonderful to be.
hold, through the smother of foam ano
spray, through the crash and yell OF
timbers, though the leap of destruc.
ton, the drivers zigzagged calmly anc
surely to the shore.
All but Jimmy Powers. He poised
tense and eager on the crumbling face
of the jam. Almost Immediately ht
saw what he wanted. and without
pause sprang boldly and confidently
ten feet straight downward. to aligh
with accuracy on a single log fioatins
free in the current. And then, in the