Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1921-01-07

be no doubt but that you cut OH youi
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 filled with Cardigan
logs and wbirled them down to the
bay. to crash through the log-boom at
tidevater and continue out to the
open sea.
The old man appeared to divine the
trend of his sons thoughts. fes,
Bryce, that was a disastrous year"
he declared. "The mere loss of the
logs was a severe blow, but In addi-
ton had to pay out quite little
money to settle with my customers.
was loaded up with lOw-priced orders
that year, although / didn't expect to
make any money. The orders were
merely to keep the men employed.
You understand, Bryce! / had
good crew, the finest In the country
and II / had shut down, my men would
have scattered and-well, you know
how hard 1t is to get that kind OF a
crew together again. Besides, / had
never failed my boys before, and l
| couldn't bear the thought Of failing
them then. Half the mills In the
country were shut down at the time,
and there was a lot Of distress among
the unemployed. l couldn't do 1t,
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 fill those
old orders. l couldn't expect them to
suffer with me; my failure to perform
my contracts, while unavoidable, never
theless would have caused them
serious loss, and when they were
forced to buy elsewhere, 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. 1--WE always been land-poor," he
explained apologetically. whenever /
had idle money, put 1t into timber
In the San Hedrin watershed, because
realized that some day the railroad
would build in from the south, tap
that timber and double its value. I've
not as yet found reason to doubt the
wisdom Of my course; but"-he sighed
the railroad is a long time COM
ingw
John Cardigan here spoke ola most
important factor In the situation. The
crying need of the country was feeder
to some transcontinental 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 a
stretch when the harbor bar was on
a rampage. With the exception Of a
strip Of level, fertile land, perhaps five
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 pro-
foundry difficult and expensive task.
Don't worry, Dad. 1t will come"
Bryce assured his father. "It's bound
to-"
YES but not in my day. And when
1t comes, a 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 I didn't
heed 1t. If l had abandoned my
camps there poclleted my pride, paid
Colonel Pennington two dollars for
his Squaw creek timber, and rebuilt
my old logging road, I would have
been safe to-day. But was stubborn;
I'd played the game so long, you
know-I didn't want to let that man
Pennington outgame me. It's hard to
teach an old dog new tricks, and be-.
sides, l 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 Sequoia; 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 If 1t 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 watershedr'
Bryce nodded. "In 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