The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-04-09
VIVID SPEECH OF
THE LUMBERJACKS
They Tell an Entire Story in
One Word
COOK IMPORTANT PERSON
If He Does Not Win Approval He Is a
"Sizzler" or a "BoiP'-Lumber
mems Vocabulary Very
Extensive.
COOK IMPORTANT PERSON
From the WashingtonlPost.

From the WashingtonlPost
1t may, some time, be your good for
tune to be walking down a logging road
In the North Woods where logging oper-
atoms are in progress and to come upon
two lumberjacks, or ~woodticks" who
have just met after a former acquaint-
ance at another camp. Each man has hls
''turkey"-that is, the bag containing his
scant warbrobe--under his arm and car
ries over his shoulder his "corks" or
calked boots. They meet with hearty
good-fellowship, and after a short ex-
change the man coming In inquiries:
"Quit?"
yes"
Didn't like it?
The man going out assumes a grave
and pensve air, and replies portentously:
I've got business in the city that must lie
attended to-"
This is perfectly intelligibie to the
other 1t means, Having accumulated
a sufficient stake, I'm going to the city
to blow 1t in and have a good time
who's boss at camp 81"
"Bll Mulligan''
who's cook?'
There amt any cook. Jimmy Dugan
he's a-sizzlin some-hes only a cookee."
'How's the grub"
You amt walked up by their breaking
eggs or pounding beefsteak in the morn
ing"
And so on. You hear strange words
and queer terms of expressions, for the
lumberjack has acquired vocabulary
peculiarly rich and picturesque.
You may hear that young Frenchy was
killed by a widow maker" last month,
that much of the timber is "cat-faced'
and the old trees have goose pens in
them that a crew is at work busting
the dam" and Buzz Mack has gone back
to pulling the briar''; that the men all
work by the 'jobber's SUM- and that
Jim OBrien's boy is now road mon
key"
Further acquaintance with lumbermen's
terms will teach you that widow
maker" is one of those deadly loose limbs
dslodged by falling tree and hanging
suspended in n tree top, that cat face
is a scar made by a fire in a tree, and a
goose pen" Is a deep. burned cavity In
the tree trunk; that to dust dam is
TO fill up the cracks and chinks with
brush, sod and gravel. that pulling the
briar'' does not mean smoking pipe
but using d crosscut saw, that the Job
ber's sun" is not really the sun at all,
but the moon, which is still out when
the lumberjack goes to work before dawn
and which has begun to rise when he FIN
ishes his task in the evening, and that
road monkey or blue jay is boy
who works on the logging road.
The United States bureau of forestry
and the Society of American Foresters
have been cooperating to draw up a list
of terms used in the woods by lumber
men, and they have not disdained to in
clude slang terms and colloquialsms. The
results of their work, when completed,
are to be published, and they should prove
a rich find to the makers of dictionaries
and TO men who go TO the woods for an
outing.
The terms and their meanings have
been gathered mainly by the young for
esters of the government in the course
of their work while in lumber camps
and are to be carefully edited and sub
mitted for criticism to representative
iumbermen. to standardize their use as
far as possible.
Camp Cook Subject of Much Talk.
The newcomer in a logging camp, by
consulting his glossary, will find many
strange words made clear. The common
est topic of conversation among the
''hecks" is usally the camp cook.
= II he does not win approval, he will be
spoken of contemptuously as a "sizzler'
or boil" His assistant is the "chore
boy or turnkey or Cookery or lobby
hog" In the Pacific coast camps he is
often the dull cook"
The mems rooms or sleeping quarters
are most commonly called the Darkroom
or "barroom," and are often connected
with the kitchen by a roofed-over in
closure. the 'dingle.' In the center of
the mems room is a, big wood stove sur
rounded by benches on which the seat
nearest the fire is the "deacon's seat"
The woodsmans wardrobe is his drift
fee" or dunnage; and when he carries 1t
In a bundle it is his turkey" To be
Jack is to be a man, whether 1t be
'lumberjack or a sorting jack" or SIM
ply man jack" but lick is title
az distinction, for It signifies time Of SER