Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-03-19
CHAPTER VII.

q. -
~ 1ADWAY returned to camp by the
9th of January. He went on
NI snowshoes over the entire job
~ and then sat silently in the Of
ice smoking. The jobber looked older.
The lines Of dry good humor about his
eyes had subtly changed to an express
sion of pathetic anxiety. He attached
40 blame to anybody, but rose the next
morning at horn blow, and the men
found that they had new master over
them.
Now it became necessary to put the
roads in shape for hauling. All winter
the blacksmith had occupied his time in
fitting the iron work on eight log
sleighs which the carpenter had 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 i'm
mense tanks on runners, holding each
some seventy barrels of water and with
holes SO arranged that on the with
drawal Of plugs the water would flood
the entire width Of the road. The
sprinklers were filed by horse power.
A chain running through blocks at
tached to solid upper framework,
like the open belfry of an italian mon
astery, dragged barrel up a wooden
track from water hole to an opening
in the sprinkler. When in action this
formidable machine weighed nearly
two tons and resembled a moving
house. Other men had felled two big
hemlocks, from which they had hewed
beams for V pillow.
The V plow was now put in action.
Six horses drew-it down the road, each
pair superintended- by "a driver. The
>hdachine was weighted down by num-
Der of logs laid across the arms. Men
guided it by levers and by throwing
their weight against the fans of the
plow 1t was a gay, animated scene,
this, full of the spirit of winter-the
Flooding, strafning horses, the brilliant
~ dressed, struggling men, the sullen
yielding snow thrown to either side,
the shouts, warnings and commands.
To right and left grew white banks Of
snow. Behind stretched broad white
path in which scant inch hid the bare
earth.
For some distance the way led along
comparatively high ground. Then,
skirting the edge of lake, it plunged
into deep creek bottom between hills.
Here earlier in the year eleven bridges
had been constructed, and perhaps as
many swampy places had been "cor-
duroyed" 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 "corduroyed' to practicable grade.
Others again were bumped up like TOM
cats and had to be pulled apart en-
tirely.
Still that sort Of thing was to be ex-
pected. A gang Of men who followed
the plow carried axes and cant hooks
Tor the purpose of repairing extem-
poraneously just such defects which
never would have been discovered 9TH
erwise than by the practical expert
ence. Railway himself accompanied
the plow. Thorpe, who went along as
one of the road monkeys" saw now
why such care had been required 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 filed. Stratton attached his horse
to the chain and drove him back and
forth, hauling the barrel up and down
the slide way. At the bottom it was
capsized and filed by means of long
pole shackled to its bottom and manip-
ulated by old man Heath. At the top
1t 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 beneath
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 me-
cessity Of turning around.
That night it turned warmer. The
change was heralded by shift Of
wind.
She's goin' to rain" said old jack
son. 4"The air is kind O. holler."
"Hollow?" said Thorpe, laughing.
Elbow is that?"
II DON know" confessed Zines, ''but
she is. She just feels that way"
In the morning the icicles dripped
from the root, and the snow became
dockmarkad. onstha surface.