Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-16


I am visiting Is that of the Sultan Halfway
and Timber Company. 1t took out 2S.OOo0o0
feet of lumber last year and will take out
25,o0O,0O0 this year, or enough to plank
roadway as wide as a city street from New
York to Boston. This company deals only
in logs. It's business Is to cut down the
trees and to saw them into sections, which
are hauled to the water front on Puget
sound. Almost everything is done by ma
chnery. Railroads take the place OF
horses and donkey engines and steel cables
drag the logs through the woods to the
tracks.
1t was with Mr. Loose. one of the COM
pany: Mr.. c.. E. Stone the general passen-
ger agent OF the Great Northern railway,
and Mr.. Walter Parks moving picture
photographer well known in this region.
that was taken into the forest and shown
how these biggest trees now feIled on the
continent are gotten out. We made our way
through the woods On railroad hauled by
little compound engine not much bigger
than the dummies used in coal yards, but
having all the power of a great n1ogui
weighing 100 tons This dragged us up the
hills more easily than the cog engines take
one up Pixies Peak or the Rigi and then
carried US on to the camp.
Our way was through these mighty fir
trees which rose from $50 to 300 feet above
us. and which in some places were so thick
on the ground to almost shut out the
light. Some of the trees were as big around
at the foot as a Pullman palace car stood
up on end, and they maintained this size for
a hundred feet or more to where the first
limbs began Others were more slender;
but all shot straight up into heaven, branch
ing out into feathery green far above u.s.
There were also fallen trees and great
stumps many feet through.
With the Giant Killers.
Arriving at the camp. left the car and
tramped from tree to tree through the
woods to watch the cutting, sinking to
my waist In the jungle and now shrieking
as grabbed what appeared to be an limo
cent branch and found it covered with
thorns / climbed over trunk after trunk
of these fallen monarchs. and walked. it
seemed to me- for miles upon them, jumping
from one to another, always fearing that |
might slip and fall into the jungle below.
was surprised to see how rapidly the lum-
bermen moved; but. upon noticing their
were studded with sharp spikes. which
pierced the bark and made them sure
footed.
The first tree saw feiIed was thirty feet
In circumference, and where it was cut,
about as high above the ground as my head,
1t was ten feet in diameter. The choppers
stood upon boards and made cash In the
trunk so large that man could lie inside
1t; and this cash determined the direction
of its falling. The choppers know how to
cut they can make the tree drop Just
where they please, and so that 1T wiz not
break or injure other valuable timber.
After the cutting the saving began, and
took two men almost an hour. They pulled
the great crosscut saw back and forth,
pouring oil on 1t to make 1t move smoothly.
That tree must have been hundreds Of
years growing. 1t began to make it's way
through the soil long before Columbus
came to America, but these vandais de-
stroyed it In less than an hour.
AS soon as il was on the ground another
set of men took charge of It. They made
gashes in the trunk thirty to forty feet
apart, marking 1t OF into logs, while others
trimmed the branches and third set OF
sawyers cut 1t in pieces. It was only
few hours after cutting before 1t was ready
to be loaded on the cars.
Loading With Cables.
All the lumber here Is loaded with cables
by means of steam engines. The cables are
ropes of steel as thick as a broom handle
and a mile or more long. They are carried
through the forest where the logs lie and
are wrapped tightly about them. One log
at a time Is dragged over the ground. Many
of the logs are so heavy that they pIow
great burrows in the earth as they go and
sometimes tear up smaller trees py the
roots on the way. single fortyfoot log
Will often form full load for one car,
some containing as much as ooVo rect OF
lumber. Many OF these logs are as big
around and as long as passenger car, and
when green will weigh from twenty TO
forty tons each. Nevertheless steel cable
moved by the engine brings them up to the
track Inc log lpDh& LIKE II Cot I've "0A&&
swaying It's head this way and that as 1t
goes.
When 1t reaches the cars another cable Is
wrapped around 1t. and 1t Is lifted as
though It were g broomstiek from the
ground to the truck. 1t Is all a matter OF
steam, wire rope and modern machinery
carefully managed, the heaviest of the TIM
Der being handled far more easily than the
average pine log OF Wisconsin genera
tor ago.
With the Lumbermen-
I have spent some time here going about
among tho men. I have had DINNER with
them In the camp and have talked with a
number of them They are rough-iooking
fellows In blue flannel shirts. trousers and
top boots. but their cheeks are rosy. their
eyes bright and they seem healthy and
husky. They are about the same as our
luulberInen In the east. with the most of
whom money comes easy and goes easy.
They are paid good wages. running from
81 IS to $3.50 a day. A few OF them save
money, but more wait until they have sew
eral hundred dollars ahead and then go OF
to Seattle for q good time and q spree. No
liquor - allowed to be sold In the woods.
but at these vacations, which come every
three or six months. they spend all their
earnings This IL especially 70 on the
Fourth OF July and 1T Ehristxnaa livery
Zone has his Own aaetnoA Of eNxttng ~ 81