Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1908-06-09
HOW SOME PROFITED.

AS instances of how some of the early
day lum bermen arose in the business
world and gained wealth at the expense
of the government, an old timer, living
at some distance west of the city, re-
lated to us recently the foliowing1wo
stories:
About thirty years ago, in a section
not over fifteen miles from the city,
there were still considerable number
OF forties of public land on which were
small groves of nice white pine timber
This timber was 50 isolated that it had
escaped the eye of the earlier lumber
men, who might have cut it and fioated
it down Big Rib river. That section
was not then very well settled, and the
few settlers who were there were look
ing for farms and not pine timb Der, and
consequently settled in hardwood
groves, where pine stumps would not
have to be contended with. There was
already small saw mill in that section
The owners had picked up considerable
timber of their own, but did little saw
ing outside of that which they cut them
selves, as custom saving had not
reached the Importance it holds today
with the country mills
One long winter the farmers of that
country got hard up and decided to
turn their idle time to profit. The gov
ernment's timber was standing close
by, doing no one any good, they
reasoned, and why not get some finan-
cial benefit out of it? They set to work
and cut a large quantity and piled it
high on sideways, and then a heavy
snow storm came on and they agreed
to let the logs stand until a more favor
able time for hauling to the mill When
the time arrived for hauling they
hitched up their teams one morning
ard drove out to the sideways and
found that every log had been hauled
away. They traced the logs to the mil
where they intended hauling them, and
in half-hearteG way asked the owners
to divide up the profit of the cut with
them. The answer they got was, ''You
fellows have no white pine on your
land, where have you any claim on
these logs ~ The farmers were up
against it. They had deliberately cut
the governments timber themselves,
and dared make no complaint against
the mill owners.
The logs were sawed into lumber,
RATED down river to market and netted
the mill men handsome sum. One of
them is long since dead; the other is
still living and can today write his
check for sum of six figures.
The incidents of the other story told
US TRANSFERRED in the town of Holton. A
Frenchman located number of de-
scriptions of valuable white pine land
in that town belonging to Uncle Sam.
He hired crew of men, got logging
outfit together, built shaniies and
started cutting the timber. When all
the timber had been cut and banked he
came into the shanty excitedly one day,
and informed his men that be had Just
found out that they had been cutting
the governments timber, and that u.
s. marshals were then on the way TO
arrest the whole bunch Selecting a
few TRUSTEES to help him out with the
logging outfit, he advised the balance
of his crew to get out of the country as
fast as their legs would carry them, to
avoid arrest The men dug OUT for
getting that they had winters pay
coming. The Frenchman sold the logs
and he, too. got out of the country and
was never seen in this section again.
OF cofirse he never paid his men and
his profit on his winters work
amounted ~ at least thirty cents.
There is more than one way to skin a
cat and some of the old timers turned
their wits to profit II the profits
derived from stealing from Uncle SANS
forests were put in one lus2 they
would more than pay of the national
debt.