Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1904-02-11

Il i OF inc crew ullUpr thorpe ana
his foroinen were brekly tunl-
bling the logs into the current
/ The men had continually to keep alert,
for ut any moment they were called
upon to exercise their best judgment
and Quickncss TO keep from being car
ried downward with the rush of the
logs. Not infrequcntly frowning
sheer wall of forty feet would hesitate
on the brink of plunge. Then Shearer
himself proved his right to the title of
river man.
Shearcr wore calks nearly an inch
in length. He had been known to ride
ten miles without shifting his feet on a
log so small that he could carry it
without difficulty. For cool nerve he
! was uneXcellcd.
II don't need you boys here any lon
ger" he said quietly.
| When the men had all withdrawn he
walked confidently under the front Of
/ the rollway, CHANGING with practiced
/ eye at the perpendicular wall Of logs
over him. Then as a man prizes jack
| straws he clamped his peavey and
rugged sharply. At once the rollway
| fiattencd and toppled A mighty splash.
q fluff of flying foam and crushing tim
bers. and the spot on which the river
man had stood was buried beneath
twenty feet of solid green wood. re
Thorpe it seemed that Shearer must
have been overwhelmed, but the river
man always mysteriOusly appeared at
one side or the other, nonchalant urg-
ing the men TO work before the logs
| Should have ceased to move. History
stated that Shearcr had never lost n
man on the river simply and solely be-
cause he invariably took the dangerous
tasks upon himself.
In three days the rollw1ys We're bro
ken. Now il became necessary to start
the rear.
For this purpose Billy Camp, the
cook had loaded his cook stove. a guam
tity Of provisions nd 4 supply of bed
ding aboard a scoW At either end were
long sweeps to direct its course The
craft was perhaps forty feet long, but
rather narrow. in order that it might
pass easily through the shoot Of q dam
II was called the "wanjgan.'
The huge. unweldy craft from that
moment was TO become possessed Of
the devil. Down the white water of
rapids it would bump, smashing obst-
natcly against powders, against the
branches of the stream side it would
Ecrapc, in the broad reaches ii would
sulk, refusing to proceed, and when
expectancy demanded its pause it
would drag Billy Camp and his entire
crew at the ropes end. while they tried
vainly to snub it against successfully
uprooted trees and stulnps When at
last the waniGSn was moored fast for
the night-usually a mile or SO below
the spot planncd-Billy Camp pushed
back his battered old brown derby hat,
the badge of his office. with sigh of
relief. TO be sure, he and his men had
stll TO cut wood. construct cooking
and camp fires, pitch tents, snip brow Sc
and prepare supper for seventy men,
but the hard work of the day was
over.
Along either bank, among the bush
es, on sand bars and in trees. hundreds
and hundreds of logs had been strand
ed when the main drive passed. These
logs the rear crew were engaged in re-
storing to the current
And. ms man had to be able to ride
any kind of log in any water, to propel
that LOG by jumping on it, by rolling ii
squirrel fashion with the feet, by punt
ing it as one would canoe, to be Skill
full in pushing, pryng and polling 9th
or logs from the quarter deck of the
same cranky craft; as he must be pre-,
pared at any and all times TO jump
waist deep into the rive to work in
ice water hours ut n stretch; as he was
called upon to break the most danger
Gus jams on the river, representing, as
they did, the accumulation which the
jam crew had left behind them, it was
naturally considered the height of glo
ry to belong to the rear crew, Here
were the best of the Fighting Forty
men with reputation as "whlte water
birlers." men afraid of nothing.
Every morning the crews were divld
Jack Hyland. Each crew had charge
of one side Of the river. Scotty Par
sons exercised general supervisory
eye over both crews. Sheurer and
Thorpe Travelled back and forth the
length of the drive, riding the log:
down stream, but taking to partly
submerged pole trail when ascending
the current. On the surface Of the