The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1904-01-15

The men who were to fell the trees
Railway distributed along one bound
airy of forty" They were instruct
ed to move forward across the forty
I'm a straight line. telling 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 a 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 cash in that
side of the trunk.
Tom Broadhead and Henry Paul
picked out tremendous pine. which
they determined to throw across 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.
She'll do, Hank" he said.
The two then with dozen half clips
Of the ak 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
timbre. Without a word the men
Strengthened their backs. Tom firted
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 ripping under
the texture Of their woolens like those
Of a panther under it's skin. The out
er edge of the saw blade disappeared.
Better wedge her, Tom," advised
Hank.
They paused while, with a 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 TIT, TIL. 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.
"Crackr called the tree.
Hank coolly unlocked his saw han
die, 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 a tremendous
crash and bang which filled the air
with fog of small twigs, needles and
the powder of snow.
Then the swampers, who have by
now finished the travoy road, trimmed
the PROSTATE trunk clear Of all pro-
tuberances. 1t required fairly skillful
ak 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 WELD 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
steir 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. Oh
which the logs were to be piled by the
side of the road. The tree which Tom
and Hank had just felled lay up a 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. Mollyw 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 a stump.
"Geew 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
getting out of the way of an unex-
pected roll with the ease and intelli-
gence of Laveque himself. In five
minutes the burden lay by the travoy
road. In two minutes more one end
of it had been rolled on the little fat
wooden sledge and. the other end drag
ging. it was winding majestically down
through the ancient forest.