Theodore Winthrop

Name: Life in the Open Air — Chapter III. The Pine-Tree
Author: Theodore Winthrop

Life in the Open Air — Chapter III. The Pine-Tree (1863)

Summary

“Life in the Open Air — Chapter III. The Pine-Tree”, published in 1863, is a work by Theodore Winthrop. It explores elements such as logs, molasses and lumber.

Quotes from Life in the Open Air — Chapter III. The Pine-Tree (Theodore Winthrop)

Theodore Winthrop, Life in the Open Air — Chapter III. The Pine-Tree (1863)

“ They build their log-station, pile up barrels of pork, beans, and molasses, like mortars and Paixhans in an arsenal, and are ready for a winter of stout toil and solid jollity.
Stout is the toil, and the life seemingly dreary, to those who cower by ingle-nooks or stand over registers. But there is stirring excitement in this bloodless war, and around plenteous camp-fires vigor of merriment and hearty comradry. Men who wield axes and breathe hard have lungs. Blood aerated by the air that sings through the pine-woods tingles in every fibre. Tingling blood makes life joyous. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Theodore Winthrop, Life in the Open Air — Chapter III. The Pine-Tree (1863)

“ All over the north of the State, whatever is not lake or river is forest. In summer, the Viewer, like a military engineer, marks out the region, and the spots of future attack. He views the woods; and wherever a monarch tree crowns the leafy level, he finds his way, and blazes a path. Not all trees are worthy of the axe. Miles of lesser timber remain untouched. A Maine forest after a lumber-campaign is like France after a coup d’état: the bourgeoisie are prosperous as ever, but the great men are all gone. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Theodore Winthrop, Life in the Open Air — Chapter III. The Pine-Tree (1863)

“ Joy can hardly look without a smile or speak without a laugh. And merry is the evergreen-wood in electric winter.
Snows fall level in the sheltered, still forest. Road-making is practicable. The region is already channeled with watery ways. An imperial pine, with its myriads of feet of future lumber, is worth another path cut through the bush to the frozen river-side. Down goes his Majesty Pinus I., three half-centuries old, having reigned fifty years high above all his race. A little fellow with a little weapon has dethroned the quiet old king. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Theodore Winthrop, Life in the Open Air — Chapter III. The Pine-Tree (1863)

“ Maine waters in spring flow under an illimitable raft. Every camp contributes its myriads of brown cylinders to the millions that go bobbing down rivers with jaw-breaking names. And when the river broadens to a lake, where these impetuous voyagers might be stranded or miss their way and linger, they are herded into vast rafts, and towed down by boats, or by steam-tugs, if the lake is large as Moosehead. At the lake-foot the rafts break up and the logs travel again dispersedly down stream, or through the “thoro’fare” connecting the members of a chain of lakes. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Theodore Winthrop, Life in the Open Air — Chapter III. The Pine-Tree (1863)

“ Maine has two classes of warriors among its sons, — fighters of forest and fighters of sea. Braves must join one or the other army. The two are close allies. Only by the aid of the woodmen can the watermen build their engines of victory. The seamen in return purvey the needful luxuries for lumber-camps. Foresters float down timber that seamen may build ships and go to the saccharine islands of the South for molasses: for without molasses no lumberman could be happy in the unsweetened wilderness. Pork lubricates his joints; molasses gives tenacity to his muscles. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Theodore Winthrop, Life in the Open Air — Chapter III. The Pine-Tree (1863)

“ Lumbering develops such men as Pindar saw when he pictured Jason, his forest hero. Life is a hearty and vigorous movement to them, not a drooping slouch. Summer is their season of preparation; winter, of the campaign ”

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Source: Wikisource

Theodore Winthrop, Life in the Open Air — Chapter III. The Pine-Tree (1863)

“ The marshal must be in the thick of the fight, keeping his forces well in hand, hurrying stragglers, thrusting off the stranded, leading his phalanxes wisely round curves and angles, lest they be jammed and fill the river with a solid mass. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Theodore Winthrop, Life in the Open Air — Chapter III. The Pine-Tree (1863)

“ The head-driver of a timber-drive leads a disorderly army, that will not obey the word of command. Every log acts as an individual, according to certain imperious laws of matter, and every log is therefore at loggerheads with every other log. ”

Theodore Winthrop

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Quotes from Life in the Open Air — Chapter III. The Pine-Tree (Theodore Winthrop)

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