The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-07-11
BY WILLIAM ALLEN JOHNSTON.
(Copyrieht 1909 by the New York Herald
Co All Rights Rescrved,)

Downright 1909 by the New York Herald
All Rights RescrvedD
On the high banks of the River Kippeway, near
whore IT enters the Ottawa there's a cemetery with
hundred unmarked graves It is a lone
the deer browse there; no human ever visits
u save now and then a travel weary woman who who
breast and walks away with bowed head
tumult with the spring freshets but unccasing
The trees, orerhanging the precpitous banks, arc
in the air and throw veil over the treachcrous
rife rapids beneath
Just where the is most deafening and the
spray dances highest is a great whirlpool swirli1g
with such rapidi}y that it bowls deep down in the
center and has white crested rim Of large diameter
There is weird fascination about the swirling, suck
ing monster; it holds the eye and makes you for
get all eise 1t is known feared and hated by every
logger from the Saguenay 10 the broad Ottawa
for and boats have gone straight down in its mys
FERROUS depths-down, down, and never reapPeared
il and shake {ber heads, for this is the feeder Of
the little cemetery with the unmarked graves high
up the banks.
II was told all about it ono night by chartra3d
Poieon Whessel and Eli (called Hele Rogers guides
drive since the ''beeg pine she was cut, twenty
the ottawa two hundred and sixty miles to Lake
Kippeway Considerable cutting is done there TO. TO-
thirty shantiers'; (from which we get our word
shanty( lumber camps each with its gang Of over one
Music of the Axe
Early in the autumn great supplies of -four, pork
and purity soon" the forest is resounding far and
with the chop, chop" of the double bladed
An bird of de summer is all hy away.
Wen mebbe she s snowin an mort winds is BLOWN
The winter is long and the work is hard; but the
I also % added char2and chrs mas % half e dn gang
nc 90 home, mebbe far away, on da racquette, wat
half he go, An day make lots a fun, Dance? Oh,
sure, an W w'iskey blanc, too.
''Somc nights in shantee, we have fiddle and
stove; and we sing da fine song,
What we sing? Oh, da young felers he sing
boud leetle girl down portage and how he made
paintee monee for her and come back in da spring;
Den he say he wand big kiss-one. two, rec Hol
Ho, All oui He gon TO buy young colt, he sing.
" ad is very quick on da leg, an he take his girl
S" ao uo and beat every fell e' IN whole 0'" ''"H''Se
vife-dey ain t sing moche But dey listen an make
laugh cos dey t'ink of time en- dey, too spark da
When spring comes and the soft south wind blows
IAN de is warm hees face the activities Of each
night Wherever the banks and mountain sides are
sccp enough the logs are sldded down over the snow
If there is skidway sleighs bring them IN 10 the
waters edge often carrying ten to fifteen big logs to
each load.
ing singing, hallooing JOYOUS with the thought of
1he little whitcwashed cabin at the end of the long
drive. and father, mother sweetheart wlfe-a wait
ing AZ the door with merry Bi jous and hearty hug
The air is filed with clamor of axe blows as the
last are hastily felled with The boom and crash
Of yl!e s,iddIng 9gs with the gathering roar OF the
bosses
swiftly the turbulent river gathers its vast burden
Of bobbmg logs. Each camp the Kippewav, in tine
MD big timber days furnished fully fifty thousand
logs to the quota So that, n pgether when the long
katcaus manned and ready and the holding
booms swung clear, at least and half
fvc feet clear across the butts, ready or the big
bounding drive 10 the Ottawa
Picking the Best Men.
Now the best picked-meu Of bigness and
Drawn, OF eye and quick of foot Their
axes give way to Peeyeys or spike poles trousers
replaced with boots, the soes Of which
studded with sharp spikes about half inch long
There few miles OF lis where the peeveYs
ght into quick sharp play, and where dan
ger is not constant and hoverng within elbow length
Hidden rocks suck fine logs down end and the
iam the wings of which run from shore TO shore
That key log must be reached quickly and .looseued
somehow Stout and logcraft will do 1T, but what
thcU9
A. the key log swoops down and lunges forward
with the current mighty pressure The are caugb:
in the Of t'le Of danger. dozen tangIeS
is sudden uncertain menace; every log IS stick OF
danger: hr water bos white and sucks at their legs
Somehow, way. they must reach shore, but II S
ouick desperate work Time Is measured by hair
Lreadtbs; knees be ready for instant springs:
must watch the line along every log; hands
and feet must the thrill of its yielding Every
where false step means death,
The perious days fash by. and strange to say
vitEout mishap There have been few deaths along
the Kippeway till the great whirlpool is reschedtho
Devils Pot, the feeder OF the cemetery of two hun
Tsing his thick thumb nail for a marker Polcon
WhisseI drew for diagram Of tho spot the
pan; floor of the camp porch
mile above the - Devil s Pot the river banks be-
come rocky lodges and rise and narrow till they make