The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-12-27
They were strong men in the woods,

They were strong men in the woods,
great hunters and trappers and ac-
| knowledged leaders in the lumber
/ gangs, but generally the Frenchman
was acknowledged the superior, because
| he was faster. And Felix Jorgelet's
| chief pride was his huge ak, which he
had made for himself. When he work.
| ed hewing a giant tree the blade of his
double edged ak looked like a circle of
fire around his head, and when he
'roughed" timber his ak filled the air
with chips and he planed the sides as If
his AK were some great whirling saw.
But one day, about a year ago, Felix
Jorgelet went into the woods with his
AK to cut a timber and hew it square
for use in building a leanto. He did
not return at supper time, but Angus
paid no attention. People are not wor-
ried in The north woods when others fail
to return, even for days, but somehow
Angus worried that evening and went
to bed with the impression that some
thing was wrong.
The next morning he found Felix
Jorgelet with his head split open and
the bloody ak beside him. First he
buried Felix, then carried the word
to the settlement. In other places he
might have been accused of murder,
but the north woods understands a
mans character, and they knew An
gus had not killed Felix. Other COM
munities might have suspected that
some one else had murdered the
Frenchman, but Angus and the others
knew that no man could have killed
Felix with his own ak. Therefore, it
was an accident.
Angus Ferguson continued to live
alone, but strangely, he refused to
touch Felix's ak after carrying it back
to the cabin.
Within a few weeks George For
seilIe, a big man and a noted axman,
sought to buy Felix's ak. AT first An
gus refused and told him the ak was
dangerous, but, as George was not
afraid, Angus's Scotch thrift over
powered his feelings and he sold the
ak, which Forseille bore away in tri-
umph. Less than a month later,
while Forseille was engaged in hew-
ing contest with Paul, better known as
"The Breed" the ak slipped and split
his skull open. and he fell from the
butt of the tree dead.
The people began to fear Felix Jorg-
elets ak. No one sought to buy it,
and it was thrown behind the camp
where 1.-The Breed had met his
death. 1t was stolen by John Long
arm, an Indian from the reservation
and he was found dead in the clearing
not far from the Forty Mile Landing,
on the Whitemouth. with his head
split open.
From that time on almost every
body in the woods was afraid of the
ak, and its reputation spread until
none would touch it. until late in the
fall Ed Dimes, a reckless lumberman
from Michigan, hooting at the idea
that an ak could be bewitched, claim
ed it as his own. with none to dispute
his possession of it. Dimes was killed
while chopping in the woods on the
opposite side of a tree from a fellow
workman. The ak. according to the
lone witness of the tragedy. seemed
to sink into the wood, twist. bound
back and strike viciously upon Dines's
head, killing him instantly.
People who live in cities may ex-
plain and give reasonable causes for
the succession of tragedies. but the
people who live in the north woods,
and are either too simple or too broad
to doubt anything, say 1t is haunted.
So it stands in Angus Ferguson's cab
in. where hs carried it lest it might
kill others-Chicago Tribune