The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1904-07-21

OF the crew under Thorpe and
his foremen were briskly tum-
~ bling the logs into the current
The men had continually to keep alert,
for at any moment they were called
upon to exercise their best judgment
and quickness to keep from being car
r1ed downward with the rush Of the
logs. Not infrequently a 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.
Shearer wore calks nearly an inch
in length. He had been known to ride
ten miles without shifting his feet on
log so small that he could carry it
without difficulty. For cool nerve he
was unexcelled.
81 don't need you boys here any Ion
ger" he said quietly.
When the men had all withdrawn he
walked confidently under the front of
the rollway, glancing with practiced
eye at the perpendicular wall Of logs
over him. Then as a man prizes jack
straws he clamped his peavey and
tugged sharply. At once the rollway
dattened and toppled A mighty splash.
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 To
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 Shearer had never lost
man on the river simply and solely be-
cause he invariably took EAe dangerous
tasks upon himself
In three days the rollways were bro.
ken. Now it became necessary to start
the rear
For this purpose Billy Camp. the
cook, had loaded his cook stove, uuan-
tlty of provisions and supply Of bed
ding aboard a scow. At either end were
long sweeps to direct it's course The
craft was perhaps forty feet long. but
rather narrow. in order that it might
pass easily through the shoot of a dam.
1t was called the "wanigan."
The huge, unwieldy craft from that
moment was to become possessed of
the devil. Down the white water of
rapids it would bump, smashing obsti-
nately against powders. against the
branches of the stream side it would
scrape. in the broad reaches it would
sulk, refusing to proceed, and when
expediency demanded it's pause it
would drag Billy Camp and his entire
crew at the ropes end. while they tried
valnly to snub it against successfully
uprooted trees and stumps. When at
last the wanigan was moored fast for
the night-usually a mile or so below
the spot planned-Billy Camp pushed
back his battered old brown derby hat,
the badge of his Office, with sigh of
relief. 10 be sure, he and his men had
still to cut wood, construct cooking
and camp fires pitch tents, snip browse
and prepare supper for seventy men.
but the hard work of the dav 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, as man had to be able to ride
any kind of log in any water, to propel
that log by jumping on it, by rolling it
squirrel fashion with the feet, by punt
ing it as one would a canoe, to be skill
full in pushing, prying and polling 9TH
er 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 river. to work in
ice water hours at a 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 slo-
ry to belong to the rear crew. Here
were the best of the Fighting Forty,
men with reputation as white water
birlers," men afraid of nothing.
Every morning the crews were divid-
ed into two sections under Ker!ie and
Jack Hyland. Each crew had charge
of one side of the river. Scotty Par
sons exercised a general supervisory
eye over both crews. Shearec and