St. Landry Democrat

IN A LOGGING CAMP.
How the Rough Woodsmen of the Northwest Spend Their Time.

Of the hundreds of logging camps scattered through the pine forests of Northern Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, the ordinary Eastern man has little idea. A camp is a little village of perhaps half a dozen log cabins situated in the woods, often from ten to twenty miles from the nearest town or settlement. It has a population, or, more properly speaking, a crew, of from twenty to one hundred men, according to the size of the operations, and two or three women who do the cooking and washing.

In general appearance the logging camp of to-day doubtless varies little from those of fifty years ago. Of the half-dozen buildings of which the camp is composed, one, the "men's shanty," serves as a dwelling-house for the whole crew, one for the boarding-house, or "cook's shanty," in which the cooks live, another for an office and store, and the others for barns, blacksmith shop, etc.

The men's shanty is a large, square log cabin with no partitions inside, there being simply one room, with doors and windows at the ends, and bunks built along the sides, one above the other, after the fashion of berths in a steam-boat. Each bunk has a straw tick and heavy woolen blankets for bedding. In the center of the room is an open space, in the middle of which stands a large sheet-iron heater or stove, with the furniture, consisting of a few wooden benches, scattered around near by.

The crew of a camp is made up with men of many nationalities. Besides Americans, there are many Canadians and quite a sprinkling of Swedes, Norwegians, Danes and Finlanders. The woodsmen are a rough, hardy class of men, who live a rough life, work hard, and endure many privations. They are usually single men, and their worst enemy is whisky. They encounter this luxury at short range about semi-annually, with unvarying degrees of success in mastering it. Their dress is rather picturesque, their winter costume consisting usually of a red knit cap, red or blue Mackinaw shirt (worn in place of a coat), gray pants, long red stockings drawn over the pants to the knee, heavy low rubbers on the feet, woolen mittens, and perhaps a red sash tied around the waist. Their wages range from eighteen to twenty-six dollars per month, and board. The latter is plain but wholesome, consisting of salt meats, bread, potatoes and plenty of beans and like articles that are easy to transport and preserve. The food is usually well cooked, and no matter if it could be improved a trifle, the man who swings an axe ten or eleven hours a day in the bracing pine air is apt to call it "good grub."

The men spend their leisure time evenings and Sundays in camp, and the inside of the men's shanty in the evening presents an interesting appearance. They scatter themselves around, resting after their day's work, and amuse themselves in various ways. Some are lying in their bunks reading, some writing letters to distant friends, or perhaps the girl they left behind them in Canada or far-away Norway or Sweden, while cards, checkers or singing takes up the attention of the remainder. Nearly all are smoking and the conversation is carefully interlarded with profanity of the most fluent variety. Swearing is one of the accomplishments of the regular woodsman, and he could teach a cow-boy new cuss words. All are in bed before nine o'clock, for they must be up at half-past four in the morning, breakfast at five, and be out in the woods at six ready for work. The adage "early to bed and early to rise" is very strictly observed in a logging camp.—Harper's Weekly.