The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-11-09

hewed from solid sticks of timber
They were tremendous affairs. with
runners six feet apart, and hunks nine
feet in width for the reception of logs.
The carpenter had also built two inn
mense tanks On runners. holding each
some seventy barrels of water. and
with holes so arranged that on the
withdrawal of plugs the water would
Hood the entire width of the road. The
sprinklers were filed by horse power. a
chain running through blocks at
taehed to solid upper framework,
like the open be1fry of an Italian
monastery, dragged a barrel up a
wooden track from a water hole to
an opening in the sprinkler. When in
action this formidable machine weighed
nearly two tons and resembled a NOV
ing house. Other men had felled two
big hemlocks. from which they had
hewed BEAM for a V pillow
The V pillow was now put in action.
Six horses drew it down the road, each
pair superintendent by a driver The
machine was weighted down by a
number of logs laid across the arms.
Men guided it by levers. and by throw
ing their weight against the fans of
the plow- 1t was a gay, animated scene,
this, full of the spirit of winter-the
plodding, straining horses, the bril-
hantly dressed. struggling men, the
sullen-yielding snow thrown 10 either
side, the shouts, warnings and COM
mands. To the right and left grew
white banks of snow. Behind stretched
broad, white path in which a scant
inch hid the bare earth. -..--
For some distance the way led along
comparatively high ground. Then,
skirting the edge of the lake. it
plunged into a deep creek bottom be-
tween hills. Here, earlier in the year.
eleven bridges had been constructed;
and perhaps as many swampy places
had been 'corduroyed" by carpeting
them with long, parallel poles. Now
the first difficulty began.
Some of the bridges had sunk below
the level, and the approaches had to be
cordugoyed to practicable grade.
Others again were bumped up like
tom-cats, and had to be pulled apart
entirely
Still. that sort of thing was to be
expected. a gang of men who followed
the pillow carried axes and cant-hooks
for the purpose of repairing extempo-
raneously just such defects. which
never would have been discovered
otherwise than ythe practical ex-
perience. Railway himself accom-
panied the pillow. Thorpe, who went
along as one OF the road monkeys"
saw now why such care had been re-
quired of him in smoothing the way
of stubs. knots and hummocks.
When the road had been partly cleaned
Railway started one of his sprinklers.
Water holes of suitable size had been
blown in the creek bank by dynamite.
There the machines were filled. STRAIT
ton attached his horse TO the chain
and drove him back and forth, haul
ing the barrel up and down the slide
way. At the bottom it was capsized
and filed by means of a long pole
shackled to its bottom and manipu-
lated by old man Heath. At the top
IL turned over by its own weight. Thus
seventy odd times.
Then Fred Green hitched his team
on, and the four horses drew the creak-
ing, cumbrOus vehicle spouting down
the road. Water gushed in fans from
the openings on either side and be-
meath, and in streams from two holes
behind. Not for an instant as long as
the flow continued dared the teamsters
breathe their horses. for pause would
freeze the runners tight TO the ground.
A tongue at either end Obviated the
necessity OF turning around.
That night it turned warmer The
change was heralded by shift Of the
wind
Shes goin' to rain said old Jack
eon, The air is kind o holler.'