Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-06-11
, or THE SUNK HOUSES Ar rEADQUARTERs

and planning the reforestatfon OF the
areas we have gone over.
A Lifetime Job
But it's a job that has enough
charm and interest to 60 all the way
round. Ask any of the grizzled vets
scattered among the crews! Many Of
them have been in the woods 81 or
40 years and couldn't be driven out.
| asked a couple of them the other day
if they weren't included in the ORR
ginal bill of sale for the timber lands
and saw mills.
"What holds them? They have
tasks which must be accomplished re-
CARELESS Of weather or temperatures.
They rise before dawn in winter, with
the sun in summer, and for eight hours
each day except Sunday they work
harder than almost any other class
of labor. Many, if not a majority, sell
dom see town oftener than once a
year. The food they get is not al
together responsible, though lumber
camp fare for quantity and quality
is famous the country over. Neither
are the living quarters, though the
barracks, electrically lighted and warm,
are far better than the average lodg-
ing house in town. No, all these things
food, living quarters and steady work
may have something to do with
keeping men at one Or another of the
lumber camps the year through, but
/ think the chief attraction lies in the
sense of freedom, the friendly sill
ence. the contact with the majesty of
primeval nature. which constitute in
part at least the fascination of the
forest"
College Grads and iII~iterates
And there is something besides,
obvious to the outsider, which the
logging boss might have added, a
spirit Of equality bred nowhere else
call it the Democracy of the Woods,
if you like. Thrown together in the
same quarters, at the same tasks, are
cultured men and roughnecks, college
graduates and illiterates, men who can
demonstrate Euclid and converse in
Greek and Latin, and men who can
hardly express themselves in any
language, and have to endorse their
pay checks with a cross mark. Side
by side they work in peace, and often
in a friendship like nothing so much
as the brotherhood established be-
tween men who have faced mortal dam
gers together.
They are drawn from all races, all
IoheS. ~ DUIc lHt WODIS are a HIu-
ing place, to others a means to q live
lihood. Yet at the Nine Mile there was,
it seemed, little friction and much less
turbulence than a movie fan would
expect.
loggers No Angels
But that does not mean that log |
gers are angels" said Mallory. Il
have been yeyars in the woods. and
have seen a few desperate fights.
Some of the woodsmen earn wages only !
to squander them, a trip to town being
merely an opportunity to go broke as
quickly as possible. Two men of one
of the crews pawned their watches on
a spree 10 years ago. They have been
going to town regularly every three
since, to get them out, but they !
have to pawn them again for
money enough to pay their stage fares
back. It's cost them enough in interest
money to buy better watches.
But for every man Of that type
there are half a dozen who save. I
should say there are more bank &C
now among lumberjacks and mill
men than among any other class of
! know a man here who
hasn't cashed a pay check in II months.
This 'peeves' the bookkeeper, who has
TO keep track of outstanding paper.
That man can't read and is afraid of
banks. But the cashiers of three banks
up here regularly every pay day
and take on deposit most of the payroll
And a man just up from Bon
ger reported that an automobile dealer
from Missoula recently sold three cars
in a single day to the mill employees
This probably destroys a few no.
ions about the reckless. dissolute char
Of the lumberjack. I am sorry,
)ut it's true"
Speed and Efficiency
The boss leapeds off the moving train.
anded in q deem SnoWbank and plOWed ]