Lumberjack

“ If there is no place for him to enter except the saloons, then of course we must expect the lumberjack to go where he will find a welcome. Open a place where he can find rest apart from the tentacles of temptation and we shall have done our part, and the forester will do his. ”

“ The dead lumberjack does not find a corner in the potter's field, the boys see that he is decently interred; the sick do not often fall on the community, for they are helped by their fellows. Say what you will about the lumberjack, but put the grace of charity to his credit, and let it cover a multitude of sins. ”

“ One of the clerks said, "I have charge of the wannigan—the first graft of the lumberjack."
Where once the timid deer cropped the tender herbage, the rough camps of the lumbermen are seen. Before the mighty swing of the keen blades the solitudes are passing away. In Minnesota, two billion board feet of lumber represent the cut of the winter months, and in the camps and mills almost forty thousand men are employed. Logging is an extensive industry, and it has been brought to a high degree of efficiency in Minnesota. ”

“ Fortunately, some of the camps are better kept and the men escape this additional irritation. A large cylindrical wood-stove is installed in the center of the room, and above it is built a rack for drying the clothes of the men. Since every lumberjack wears several pairs of socks to keep out the cold, this rack in the evening holds several hundred pairs. ”

“ A lumberjack is not necessarily a riverman; but many of them are. And a goodly proportion, when the river opens, pull on the spiked boots and exchange ax and saw for peavey and pike pole, and so make their way by water to the town where they are paid off. Driscoll and Mitchell were rivermen as well as sawyers.
The men began to break out the rollways, knocking out the wedges and starting the logs with peavies. ”

“ No sooner had the larger battles among the lumber barons ended in the birth of the lumber trust than there arose a still greater contest for control of the industry. Lumberjack engaged lumber baron in a [Pg 10] struggle for industrial supremacy ”

“ In the towns and villages adjacent to the camps the lumberjacks are seen at their worst because civilization only welcomes them to its vices; in the camps the woodsmen are seen at their best because the causes of their depravity are absent. These big, hearty fellows may be strong in vices, but they are by no means lacking in virtues. They have their code of honor, and the man who departs from it will find it necessary to depart from the camp. Depraved as are most of them, yet in many ways they command the respect of the men who are acquainted with their better natures. ”

“ Often in death a lumberjack, by his message to the foresters, has accomplished more than in his years of life.
While speaking of this itinerating work we must add a paragraph concerning the homesteaders. In this forest region is much land that is open to settlement. The little cabins150 of the homesteaders, who have taken up claims, are seen in many parts of the forest, and the small clearings tell of man's presence. When the settlers hear that Rev. Frank E. Higgins is to hold services in a neighboring camp they are often found at the bunkhouse meetings. ”

“ Where the lumber is to be obtained, there are the lumber camps and the lumberjacks. The surroundings of the men are much the same as in Minnesota, with the restraints of civilization removed and the agents of viciousness always at hand. The foresters present a picture at which the angels weep and the devils are joyful.
Lumbering has been a prominent industry for many years in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, and it will continue to play a large part in the industry of these States for twenty years to come. ”

“ F. E. Higgins. This has been so in the past. The men who are converted in the camps are equipped with a knowledge of conditions through experience, and where mental and spiritual ability are present they can do excellent work.
230 Several of the successful workers in the camp mission were once lumberjacks. Mr. Fred Davis, who, since the promotion of Mr. Higgins, is superintendent of the Minnesota work, was at one time a lumberjack. Mr. Davis refused an excellent business position in order to spend his life reaching the foresters. ”

“ It is not often128 that dogs assist in breaking religious prejudices, but Flash and Spark had a large part in assisting the logging camp mission into easy paths. The lumberjacks are passionately fond of animals, and the advent of the dog team made a favorable first impression in almost every camp. The doors of many bunkhouses are secured by a sliding latch, and when pressure is brought to bear against the outside of the door it will open without the raising of the latch. On arriving at the camp in the evening the missionary would drive his team against the door and right into the bunkhouse. ”

“ Quiz asked. “I’ve always wanted to see lumberjacks at work.”
19
“You’ll have your chance, Quiz,” Russ promised him. “Although the lumber industry in Minnesota is only a shadow of what it used to be. A little more than a century ago, more than three quarters of the state was forested. But ruthless cutting of timber without any thought of conservation or restocking has all but wiped out the great pine forests of the Lake States. The short-sighted men responsible never stopped to consider how long it takes a tree to grow. Why, some of these big fellows are mere babies after one hundred years.” ”

“ Their religion, their whole life, was to cut and haul as many logs as possible, and then in the spring to drive these logs down river to the saw mill. And he was greatest in the camp who could fell a tree most accurately and quickly, pile logs highest on the sleds, or ride a log in the roughest water. And the camp boss had to really be boss: he must be able to handle obstreperous loggers, he [Pg 17] must provide for all the needs of his crew without any molly-coddling, and he must be able to get out the round stuff. In all of these ways Paul Bunyan is the idealization of the lumberjack. ”

“ Thomas Shevlin established the Crookston Lumber Company's Club Room in the town of Bemidji. Here the men can congregate and read the papers and magazines provided. But these are lonely exceptions of helpfulness.
The particular need of the lumbertown is a well-equipped, furnished and up-to-date Bethel, for at present the only places open to the lumberjacks are degrading—tending to produce poverty of soul and of purse. The churches of these towns are not strong enough to carry on the work unaided. If the demands are to be met, outside help must be extended. ”

“ Higgins grew to manhood in a timber country, yet he never had visited a large lumbercamp until the winter following his residence at Barnum. In his youth he had logged in the forests of Dufferin County, Ontario, but the lumbering was on a small scale—it was only the logging of farmers. Around Barnum, Minnesota, the camps were operated by the lumber kings of the west. The winter's cut was counted in millions of feet, not by hundreds or thousands.
In the fall of 1895 a delegation of lumberjacks came to the Sky Pilot's home in Barnum42 and asked to be taken into the circle of his ministration. ”

“ The wounded man was taken to the hospital, where he remained for several weeks, and on recovering he left83 for other parts, to the satisfaction of all concerned.
Though the labor is hard and the hours long, for the men are at work when the sun appears and it is dark when they leave the works, yet there is a constant variety in their lives. It takes little to amuse them, and less to make them "jump their jobs." The lumberjack is not apt to complain when things go wrong, but rather to walk into the office and demand his wages, after which he will proceed to another camp. ”

“ In the camps they served to while away many a weary hour and to lighten up the seriousness of many a knotty problem. They brought the gigantic tasks of the great woods down to manageable proportions and saved many a logger from an inferiority complex. Since they have come into civilization many a task has been made easier by their rare humor.
Perhaps it is pendantry to try to find in these impossible tales of the illiterate lumberjacks anything except what they consciously put there; a beautiful fancy to brighten the weary days and nights of the long winters. ”

“ Jack is not always a willing victim. Often by knockout drops he is reduced to insensibility and robbed. He may complain of the treatment, but he is helpless through lack of evidence, and is told to "go up river," or is hustled unfeelingly out of town. "He's only a lumberjack and is better off when all in." ”

“ Sometimes a man will come to Mr. Higgins after the services and invite the missionary to sleep with him in the bunkhouse. Since the missionaries are generously accorded the privileges of the office by almost all of the proprietors, the invitation of the lumberjack is one that holds in itself no allurement. The bunks in the sleeping quarters of the men are often filled with small annoyances that are fruitful and multiply and disturb the occupants of the bunks. But when such an invitation is given the missionary seldom refuses it. ”

“ I reckon, too, that they will198 have a fine tune getting in here on the trail that leads to the Dusenbery Company's works above our section and—"
"I say, Mister Lieutenant, do I understand ye to say that a pa'cel of lumberjacks is comin' here?" interrupted Joe Shafto.
"Yes."
"Then I quits right now. Don't want no truck with them critters."
"That's all right, old dear. You just keep right on with the outfit, and if a lumberjack so much as looks at you, set the bear on him. I know what Henry can do in that direction, having had a run-in with him myself." ”

“ After the proprietor had applauded several times and given his advice as to the style of preaching suited to the lumberjacks, Mr. Higgins turned his guns on the proprietors, contractors and foremen for the example some of them set before the men.
"I do not wonder that you lumberjacks live shameless lives, for the leaders of the work often set you the worst examples. Some of the proprietors, contractors and bosses are to be found drinking, gambling and carousing in the villages and towns, and they who should lead you into better things are only examples of riot and immorality. ”

“ So we’d best clear out.”
“Good for you, Whalen!” remarked Darrel. “And let me say right now, that if there’s any suspicious business attempted while you’re up here in this section of the Big Woods, you’re apt to get a pack of my lumberjacks hot on your trail. You’d better go slow about what you do. They’d as soon give you a coat of tar and feathers as not.” ”

“ In the middle of the saloon stood F——, a foreman from a nearby camp. He was crazed with liquor and his powerful frame shook with the excitement of the contest. Over his head he held a heavy barroom chair, and lying near him were three men whom he had felled with the ready weapon. The bartender had taken refuge under the counter and outside of the open door were188 four lumberjacks who had fled into the cold, but now inviting, street. F—— was in possession of the field and the chair was both a weapon and a banner of victory.
"Canada against the world! ”

“ The return across the lake was without eventful occurrence, however, for with them was the hermit.
Garry greeted him warmly. “What news?” he asked.
“I fear I am the bearer of bad news,” said the hermit.
“Your father has come to the camp and been caught, so I judge from what I heard said by two men a while ago as I lay close to the road that leads here. Also many of the lumberjacks are kept captive in one of the shacks, and a heavy guard has been set over them. I think we had better go for help; we can’t battle them alone, our numbers are too few.” ”

“ Barrows explained this by saying that it kept the men in a better humor if they knew that the bosses were getting the same fare as they.
“Lumberjacks are just like so many children,” Barrows said. “They are always on the lookout for something to quarrel about, and are almost as temperamental as grand opera stars. Just now work is scarce, so they keep better behaved; but in the winter time, when all the camps are going full blast, you have to be careful and treat them properly, else they will simply depart for some city where there is a woods agency and be sent off to another camp. ”

“ As yet only the edges of the field have been approached; even in Minnesota where the work is more extended, only one hundred camps are touched, while four hundred other camps are left entirely to themselves. Many of the States are without any organized work in the lumber regions.
A view of the States west and south will reveal larger timber districts where this mission227 work will find a welcome and where aggressive extension is immediately imperative. ”

“ Love of the lumberman's craft ran hot in his veins. He had been born and bred to it. He had passed through its every phase. He was a sawyer whose name was historical in the forests of Oregon. As a cant-hook man he had few equals. As foreman he could extract more work from these simple woodsman giants than could those he employed in a similar capacity.
In work he was inevitable. His men knew that when he demanded they must yield. In this direction he displayed no sympathy, no gentleness. He knew the disposition of the lumber-jack. These woodsmen rate their employer by his driving power. ”