Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-12-05

Radway distributed along one bound ary of forty" They were instruct. ed to move forward across the forty in a straight line, felling every pine tree over eight inches in diameter. While the saw gangs, three in number, prepared to fell the first trees, other men called swampers were busy cut ting and clearing of roots narrow lit tie trails down through the forest from the pine to the skidway at the edge of the logging road. The trails were perhaps three feet wide and marvels of smoothness, although no attempt was made to level mere inequalities of the ground. They were called travoy roads (French travois). Down them the logs would be dragged and hauled either by means of heavy steel tongs or short sledge on which one end of the timber would be chained.
 Meantime the sawyers were busy. Each pair of men selected tree, the first they encountered over the blazed line of their forty. After determining in which direction it was to fall they set to work to chop deep gash in that side of the trunk o~. ..-. .'. >s
 Tom Broadhead and Henry Paul picked out a tremendous pine, which they determined to throw across a lit tie open space in proximity to the travoy road. One stood to right, the other left, and alternately their axes bit deep. Tom glanced up as sailor looks aloft .
 Shell do, Hank," he said.
 The two then with dozen half clips of the ax removed the inequalities of the bark from the saws path. The long flexible ribbon of steel began to sing, bending so adaptably to the hands and motions of the men manipulating that it did not seem possible so mo- bile an instrument could cut the rough pine. In a moment the song changed tmbre. Without word the men straightened their backs. Tom f1irted along the blade thin stream of kero-. sene oil from bottle in his hip pocket, and the sawyers again bent to their work, sWaying back and forth rhyth- mically, their muscles rippling under the texture of their woolens like those of panther under it's skin. The out CT edge of the saw blade disappeared.
 Better wedge her, Tom," advised Hank.
 They paused while, with heavy sledge, Tom drove a triangle of steel into the crack made by the saving. This prevented the weight of the tree from pinching the saw. Then the rhythmical z-z-z z-z-z, again took up its song.
 When the trunk was nearly severed Tom drove another and thicker wedge.
 'Timber!'' halloed Hank in a long drawn melodious call that melted through the woods into the distance. The swampers ceased work and with drew to safety. --'.... z...-.-
 "Crackv called the tree.
 Hank coolly unlocked his saw han dle, and Tom drew the blade through and out the other side.
 The tree shivered, then leaned ever so slightly from the perpendicular, then fell, at first gently, afterward with crescendo rush, tearing through the branches of other trees, bending the small timber, breaking the smallest and at last hitting with tremendous crash and bang which filled. the air with a fog of small twigs, needles and the powder of snow.
 Then the swampers, who have by now finished the travoy road, trimmed the prostrate trunk clear of all pro- tuberances. It required fairly skillful ax work. The branches had to be shaved close and clear, and at the same time the trunk must not be gashed. And often a man was forced to wield his instrument from a con- strained position.
 The chopped branches and limbs had now to be dragged clear and piled. While this was being finished Tom and Hank marked off and sawed the log lengths, paying due attention to the necessity of avoiding knots, forks and rotten places. Thus some of the logs were eighteen, some sixteen or four teen and some only twelve feet in length.
 Next appeared the teamsters with their little wooden sledges, their steel chains and their tongs. They had been helping the skidders to place the par allel and level beams, or skids, on which the logs were to be piled by the side of the road. The tree which Tom and Hank had just felled lay up gen. tie slope from the new travoy road, so little Fabian Laveque, the teamster, clamped the bite of his tongs to the end of the largest or butt log.
 ''Allez, Molly!' he cried.
 A horse, huge, elephantine, her head down, nose close to her chest. intelli- gently spying her steps, moved. The log half rolled over, slid three feet and menaced stump.
 "Geer cried Laveque.
 Molly stepped twice directly side wise, planted her forefoot on a root she had seen and pulled sharply. The end of the log slid around the stump. "Allezw commanded Laveque.
 And Molly started gingerly down the hill. She pulled the timber, heavy as an iron safe, here and there through the brush missing no steps, making no false moves, backing and finally