The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1944-04-06
LIBBY SOJOURNS
BY Tony Deans, Ennis, Montana

BY Tony Deans, Ennis, Montana
learned some things at Libby
That ! shall ne'er forget!
And when | left that City
1t was with deep regret.
That friends I'd come to cherish,
Who were so kind and true,
Must judge my explanations
And hear my last adieu.
I'd learned to love the City
Half hidden in the pines,
Where billiards seldom frolic
And the Norther never Whines.
Like wolves around the corners,
And over treeless hills,
Where snow o'erWhelms the bushes
And gulch and gully fills
l loved the North-born river
That claims its royal rights,
The pine clad streets and alleys,
The grandeur of the heighs.
But the kind and friendly people
That fill that friendly Town,
Will live within my memry
Till life's last sun goes down.
When first | went to labor
Within the ]. Neils mill,
Lee Sleizer was Disguised
To see my lack of skill!
For never such farmer"
Ween, had come his way
To WELD cant-hook and lever,
And draw a mill hands pay.
I'd never seen a saW-mill cut
(And this is honest praise!)
A million feet of lumber
In only four short days!
The noise was terrified
One couldn't hear a word!
And SO they used language
That's seen but never heard.
They speak with hands and fingers
Those men of bone and braWn!
And oft / watched enchanted
AS wordless talk went on.
They laughed, they joked, they
questioned,
And told their merry tales
OF home and town and travel
Along the forest trails
They say it IS a language
Known to all saWmill men
Where'er they fell tall timber,
On hills or plains and fen.
One sign I learned correctly,
Twas oft applied to me!
1t meant: that guys a farmer,
A mill-hand he'll ne'er be.
ne'er could learn the language,
And sign talk meant as much
AS tho they'd tried to tell me
A bedtime tale in Dutch!
One night the "cants" came pilinl
And Walter Sleizer said.
go stop the rolls!' in sign talk,
But it went DER my head!
II know he felt like saying,
(Thev don't resort to digsD
Go home, you dog-gone farmer,
Go home and feed the pigs!'
A fine young chap, Jim Johnson,
T OFT came to where / stood.
He was so kind and friendly
His teaching sound and good
Tom Scholtz and Lester Basham,
And Louie Baker sought
To teach a thick skulled farmer
The things that they'd beer
taught.
guess / vexed the bosses,
They thought me disgrace!
And surely / can't blame them,
For I was out of place.
l know the cattle ranges.
And how to break the sod!
But in the saWmill business
I'm just an awkward clod.
My dog Il call him Maxie)
Close by my station lay,
And when the boys went by him
They'd almost always say q
Some kindly thing in passing
Especially George Health
Make ne'er would groWl at him,
Nor ever show his teeth.
Libby Cabin Camp was home"
And sev'ral times a day
rode with Wiley Moody
Along the Woodsy way.
He taught me to pick edgings
Up by the big gang saw,
Where I could see Sam Thompson
That friend without flaw
Whehe'er the long side carriage
Could spare him for while,
He'd pass my place Of labor
With hand wave and smile,
I'm sure that Sammy never
Knew what his kindness meant
TO the lonesome, h m es
farmer"
! AS by his place he went
With cheerful smile and hand wave
More able far than gold 5
To cheer the lonely hearted,
In empty world and cold.
God bless and keep you, Sammy,
I And grant that time may ne'er
Bedim the jewels that friendship
! Set in It's crown up there.