The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-09-18


is good motto. but "A really efficient
river boss knows better. 1t runs,
Get the logs out; get them out peace
ably, IL you can, but get them out"
He needs no instructions from head
quarters to tell him how to live UP to
this rule. That might involve head
quarters.
Jimmy was such a river boss
Therefore when Mr.. DAILY, Of the firm
of Morrison 81 DAILY unexpectedly
found himself contracted to deliver
100000 feet of logs at a certain
date, and the logs an impossible num-
Der of miles up stream. he called IN
Jimmy.
Jimmy was a small man. changeless
as the Egyptian Sphinx. A NUMBER
of years ago a French comic Journal
published a series of sketches Suppos-
ed to represent the Shah of Persia
Influenced by various emotions. I'm
der each was an appropriate label,
such as surprise, grief anger, or as
constituent. The portraits were iden-
tically alike and uniformly impressive.
Well that was Jimmy He looked
always the same. His hair. thick and
black, grew low on his forehead: his
head. thick and black. mounted over
the ridge of his cheek bones; and his
eyebrows, thick and black. extended,
i'm an uninterrupted straight line
from one temple to the other. What
ever his small compact. muscular
body might be doing. the mask of
his black and white imperturbabillty
remained always unchanged. Gener-
ally he sat claSping one knee, star
ing directly in front of him. and puff
ing regularly on q meerSchaum
pipe he had earned by saving the
tags of Spearhead tobacco. Whatev-
1I
splash into his almost primal calm,
and was lost to view forever. Per-
haps after a time he might do some
thing about it. but always without eX-
PLANTATION, calmly, with the lofty in
evitability of fate. In fact. he never
explained himself even to his employ
ers.
Daily swung his bulk back and
forth in the office chair. Jimmy sat
bolt upright, his black hat pendent
between his knees.
81 want you to take charge of the
driving crew. Jimmy" said the big
man. 81 want you to drive those logs
dogwn to our boom as fast as you
can. / give you about twenty days.
1t ought to be done in that. Sanders
Will keep time for you. and Merrill
will cook You can get crew from
the East. Branch. where the drive is
just over"
When DAILY had quite finished his
remarks, Jimmy gotsup and went out
without n word Two days later he
and sixty men were breaking roll
ways forty-five miles upstream.
Jimmy knew as we'll as DAILY that
the latter had given him hard task.
Twenty days was too brief time.
However, that was none of his bust
ness.
The LOGS, during the winter. had
been piled in the bed of the stream.
They extended over three miles OF
rollways. Jimmy and his crew be-
gand at the downstream end to
tumble the big piles into the current.
Sometimes only two or three of the
logs would rattle down: at others the
whole deck would bulge outward,
hover for a moment and roar into the
stream like a grain from an elevator.
Shortly the narrows below the roll
ways iammed. Twelve men were de-
tailed as the liam crew" Their
business was to keep the stream free
i'm order that the constantly increas-
ing supply from the rollways might
not fill up the river. 1t was not an
easy business, nor very safe.
AS the lam strung out over more
and more of the river, the jam crew
were constantly recruited from the
men on the rollways. Thus some of
the logs. a very few, the lucklest,
drifted into the dam pond at Grand
RAPIDS within a few days; the bulk
TANNED and broke, and damned again
at > point ? few miles below the
rolllwavs. while large portion
stranded. plugged, caught and tangled
at the very roilwayS themselves.
Jimmy had permitted himself two
DAVIS i'm which to break out the roll
WAYS 1t was done in two. Then the
rear was started. Men in the rear
crew had to see that every last los
got into the current. and stayed thefe.
when A Jam broke. the middle OF IL
shot down stream in a most spectacu-
lar fashion, but along the banks
"ringed OUT distreSSingly. Some
times the heavy sticks of timber had
been forcer right out on the dry land.
The rear crew lifted them BACK.
When an obstinate log grounded they
jumped cheerfully into the water
with the rotten ice swirling around
them-and pried the thing off bottom.
between times they stood upright on
single unstable logs and pusned
nightly with poles while the ice
water sucked in and out of their
spiked river shoes.
AS for the compensations Natur-
ally there was a good deal or rivalry
os To which wing should advance
Fastest. ans. one eADeI - -
nhv<jcal thrill in venturing undeI
thirty feet of damned logs for the
eoie purpose of teasing the Whoie
mass to cascade down on one; or OF
shedding a rapid while standlng up
,iobl on q single timber. ! believe,
TOO. 1t is considered a mighty honor
to belong to the rear crew. Shii; the
water is cold, and the hours IONS
and you have to sleep in tents.
L
- Of tho rear measures the pro-
gress of the drive. Some few logs III
the aiam'' may run fifty miles q day
and often debut if the sackins
has gone slowly at the rear, lii1 =
,,oavrnot have gained more than a
thousand yards. Therefore, Jimmy
stayal at the rear.
Jimmy was mighty good river
man. OF course. he had nerve anu !.
could do anything with log any
neeyje. and would fight at the drop OF
a haA-any "bully boy would quarry