The Republican journal., 1920-03-11
CHAPTER I.

| LII thC VI Low q topSoi
schooner slipped into the cove under
Trinidad head and dropped anchor at
the edge Of the kelp-ields. Fifteen
minutes later her small-boat deposited
on the beach man armed with long
squirrel rifle and an axe, and carrying
pack. From the beach he watched
the boat return and saw the schooner
weigh anchor and stand out to sea
before the northwest trades. When
she had disappeared from his ken, he
swung his pack to his broad and pow
erful back and strobe reSOlutely into
the timber at the mouth of the river.
The man was John Cardigan; in
that lonely, hostile land he was the
first pioneer. This is the tale of
Cardigan and Cardigan's son, for in
his chose" land the nioneer leader in
was to know the bliss of woman's love
and of parenthood, and the sorrow
that comes of the loss of a perfect
mate; he was to know the tremendous
| joy of accomplishment and worldly
success after infinite labor; and in
the sunset of life he was to know the
dull despair of failure and ruin. Be
cause of these things there is tale
to be told, the tale of Cardigan's son,
who, when his sire fell in the fray,
| took up the fight to save his heritage
"a tale of life with its love and hate,
its battle. victory defeat, labor, joy,
| and sorrow, a tale of that unconquer-
| able spirit of youth which spurred
/ Bryce Cardigan to lead forlorn
hope for the sake not of wealth but
of an ideal Hark then, to this tale
of Cardigan's redwoods:
Along the coast of California,
| through The secret valleys and over
the tumbIed foothills of the Coast
range, extends a belt of timber of
an average width of thirty miles. In
| approaching it from the Oregon line
the first tree looms suddenly against
the horiZon-an outpost, as it We're of
the host of giants whose column
stretches south nearly four hundred
miles to where the last of the rear
guard maintains eternal Sentry-gO on
the crest of the mountains overlooking
Monterey bay. Far in the interior of
the state, beyond the fertile San
| Joaquin valley the allies of this vast
army hold small sector on the west
! slope of the Sierras.
These are the redwood forests of
! E l,,i
| kind in the world and indigenous only
to these two areas within the state.
Notwithstanding sixty years of attri-
ton, there remain in this section of
! the redwood belt thousands upon
thousands of acres Of virgin timber
that had already attained a vigorous
growth when Christ was crucifed.
In sizes ranging from five to twenty
/ feet in diameter, the brown trunks
rise perpendicuarly to a height of
from ninety to a hundred and fifty
| feet before putting forth a single
| limb, which frequently is more mas
sive than the growth which men call
! a tree in the forests of Michigan.
| Scattered between the giants, like
subjects around their king, one finds
noble fir, spruce, or pines, with some
| Valparaiso live oak, black oak, pepper
wood, madrone, yew, and cedar.
John Cardigan settled in Humboldt
| county, where the sequoia sempervir-
ems attainS the pinnacle of its glory,
and with the lust for conquest hot in
| hn ,+a
section of the timber almost on the
shore of Humboldt bay-land upon
which city subsequently was to be
| built. With his double-bitted axe and
crosscut saw John Cardigan brought
the first of the redwood giants crash
ing to the earth above which it had
lowered for twenty centuries, and in
the form of split posts, railroad ties.
pickets, and shakes, the fallen giant
was hauled to tidewater in Ox-drawn
wagons and shipped to San Francisco
in the little two-masted coasting
schooners of the period. Here, by the
abOminable magic of barter and trade,
the dismembered tree was Transmitted
into dollars and cents and returned
to Humboldt county to assist John
Cardigan in his task of hewing an
empire out of a wilderness.
Time passed. John Cardigan no
longer swung an axe or dragged
croSs-cut saw through fallen red
wood. He was an employer of labor
now, well known in San Francisco as
a manufacturer of split-redwood prod
ucts, the purchasers sending their
| own schOoners for the cargo. And
| presently John Cardigan mortgaged
all of his timber holdings with a San
| Francisco bank, made a heap of his
winnings. and like a true adventurer
staked his all on new venture-the
first sawmill in Humboldt county.
| The timherS for it were hewed out by
| hand: the boards and planks were
whipsawed.
1t was tiny mill, judged by present
day standards, for in a fourteen-hOur
working day John Cardigan and his
| men could not cut more than twenty
thousand feet of lumber. Neverthe-
less, when Cardigan looked at his MILL
his great heart would swell with
pride.
'Here," said John Cardigan to him
self exultingly when long-drawn