Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1920-08-13

nose to spite your face"
His thoughts harked back to that
first season OF logging in the San
Hedrin, when the cloud-burst had
caught the river filed with Cardigan
logs and whirled them down TO the
bay, to crash through the log-boom at
tidewater and continue out to the
| open sea.
The old man appeared to divine the
trend of his sons thoughts. Eyes,
Bryce. that was a disastrous year"
he declared. 1.-THE mere loss of the
logs was a severe blow, but in addi-
ton l had to pay out quite a little
money to settle with my customers. I
was loaded up with low-priced orders
that year, although / didn't expect TO
make any money. The orders were
| merely 60 keep the men employed.
! You understand, Brycel had a
| good crew, the finest in the country
and if had shut down, my men would
/ have scattered and-well, you know
| how hard it Is to get that kind Of
crew together again. Besides, had
never failed my boys before, and
couldn't bear the thought of failing
| them then. Half tie mills in the
country were shut down at the time.
and there was a lot of distress among
the unemployed. couldn't do it.,
Bryce"
Bryce nodded. "And when you lost
! the logs, you couldn't fill those low
priced orders. Then the market COM
menced to jump and advanced three
dollars in three months"
Exactly, my son. And my GUS
toners began to crowd me TO ill those
old orders. / couldn't expect them to
suffer with me; nay failure to perform
my contracts, while unavoidable, never
theless would have caused them a
serious loss. and when they were
! forced to buy elsewhere, l paid them
the difference between the price they
! paid my competitors and the price at
which they originally placed their or
| ders with me. And the delay caused
! them further loss"
He smoked meditatively for a min
ute. "I've always been land-poor" he
explained apologetically Whenever
| had idle money, l put it into timber
| In the San Hedrin watershed, because
| realized that some day tie railroad
would build in from the south, tap
that timber and double its value. I've
not as get found reason to doubt the
wisdom of my course; but"-he sighed
the railroad is a long time COM
ing."
| John Cardigan here spoke Of most
| important factor in the situation. Tile
crying need of the country was feeder
to some transc0ntinental railroad. By
reason of natural barriers Humboldt
county was not easily accessible TO the
outside world except from the sea
and even this avenue of ingress and
| egress would be closed for days at
stretch when the harbor bar was on
a rampage. With the exception of
strip of level, fertile land, perhaps Eve
miles wide and thirty miles long and
contiguous to the seacoast. the heavily
timbered mountains to the north. east.
and south rendered the building OF
railroad that would connect Humboldt
county with the outside world Il pro-
foundly difficult and expensive task.
"Don't worry Dad 1t viii come. :"
Bryce assured his father. ITS bound
TO"
yes but not In my day. And when
1t comes, stranger may own your
San Hedrin timber and reap the re-
ward of my lifetime Of labor
Again a silence fell between them.
broken presently by the old man
THAT was a mistake-logging In the
San Hedrin," he observed. 81 had my
lesson that first year. but | didn't
heed 1t. If had abandoned my
camps there, pocketed MY pride, paid
Colonel Pennington two dollars for
his Squaw creek timber, and rebuilt
my old logging road, ] would have
been safe to-day. But / was stubborn
I'd played the game so long, you
KNOW didn't want TO let that man
Pennington outgame me. It's hard to
teach an old dog new tricks, and be
sides, was obsessed with the need
of protecting your heritage from at
tack IN any direction
John Cardigan Strengthened up In
his chair and laid the tip OF his right
index finger In the center of the palm
Of his left hand. "Here was the sit
uation, Bryce: The center Of my
palm represents Sequola; the ends Of
my fingers represent the San Hedrin
timber twenty miles south. Now, If
the railroad built in from the south,
you would win. But IL it built In from
Grants Pass, Oregon, on the north
from the base of my hand, the terminus
OF the line would be Sequoia, twenty
miles from your timber in the San
Hedrin watershedw
Bryce nodded. I'm which event"
he replied, I'VE would be in much the
same position with our San Hedrin
timber as Colonel Pennington IS with
his Squaw creek timber. We would
have the comforting knowledge that