Mv Early Recolfections of Lumbering

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English, the rest spoke French. I was a green Scotch lad an-d- you can imagine the situation I was in. Every Tom, Dick and Harry was asking me to do things and i had a pretty hard time getting along, but in six months I could understand practically everything they asked me and in a y_gar- I could speak French as well as English, so I was all right in that respect.

Our food in those days was very simple. We'had flour and pork in barrels, and peas to make soup, and tea. This was the entire stock of provisions in the camp. Later on, a{t91.a couple-of y-ears, we @d beans. 'This-was a great additrgn-a Splendid treat. The pork was always sJrved boiled except on Sunday. 'We were allowed to 6ave fried p_ork on Sunday. This diet was very monotonous and furthermore rvas not at all healthful. We had no vegetables of- any kind and towards the spring of the year we had what was called "blackleg". The l-eg became black and sore and you could press four finger iito the flesh and the depression would not come out for some time. We afterwards learned that blackleg could be prevented or cured by eating vegetables, even a small piece-of potato--cooked or raw, though raw potato was best-two or three times a YTk. - However, potatoes were so extremely scarce and difficult to obtain that this knowledge worild not have done us' much good. A strange thing-in Singapore a short time ag9 ye had an outbreak of beri-beri among the grey. I lpp!"a the blackleg test with my finger, and the beri-beri in Singapore seemed to be the - samJ disease as the blackleg in Canada.

The hours of labor were from daylight to dark, and the work was hard. The food remained about the same all the time I was working in the Canadian lumber camps.

The -camp bu-ilding in tho_se days was a large building probably sixty feet square. In the middle of thi floor wai what was called a camboose. This was raised up from the floor about two feet and was filled with sand. 'A bie fire was kept burning in the middle of it, and theie was a dhimley gp through the roof. All the bunks \rrere put in with the feet towards the fiie. In this building wi generally ;had from forty to fifty men. You can imaline oir primi- tive way of getting along when I say that I never ia* " table knife or fork in a lumber camp. We all carried our :own knives and we had to eat with our fingers. Another thing-all the men in the camp washed in tEe same basin, a crude affair which was supported by two pegs in the wall and which w_as emptied simply by tifping ii up so that the drrty water flowed through a hole in the wall. There was only one roller towel for all to use, and I soon found that it was expedient for me to be the first one up in the morning in order to have a dry towel. In this civilized day one would be certain to catch some disease if fifty men'used the same towel, but no such misfortune resulted in the Canadian woods. Similarly, when we had our dinner, several men drank tea from the same dish, a thing which would never be allowed at the present time for feai of contagion, but we lumberjacks were singularly free frorri all diseases except "blackleg", which I have already mentioned.

When I was between sixteen and seventeen years old I came to the conclusion that if I was going to succeed I must have a little education. My intention was to get alons in the world, and therefore I itarted in to learn"to riadl write, and figure. The education I got in Scotland was sadly neglected. There was no reading matter to be had in the camp-I never saw a newspaper in a lumber camp in Canada in those days, and there were no books, except & pocket Bible which I kept and read every Sunday. Tirere yas_ no paper in camp either, except that used by the clerk, So I peeled some white birch barli which made i good substituts for paper to figure on. Every night, sitti-ng at the lre, I practrced writing and figuring. We were not allowed a-ny ca1!!es, so we had to usJ the fire for light. I was making fairly good headway considering the fact that there wasn't a person in the camp who could help me, as I was already as well educated as-anyone else.

On_e d,af an.incident took place which at the time I did not think was of any importance, but in later years I have thought of it many times. The owner of ttre camp made an inspectiol tour in the winter and stayed at oui camp overnight. As usual I was sitting with m11 back to the fir6, working at my figures.

"'What are you doing, bo;r?" asked the lrrmberman.

"Learning to write," I replied.

"Let me see it."

"No, I am ashamed."

But he insisted and finally I showed him what I was doing.

"That. if q9t bad," was his comment. ..Yoq are gettinf on all right."

Nothing more was said and I forgot the incident for years. But when vre came to hire for the next vear (we, were all hired for a.year at a stretch) the boss said he irad a little beiter job foi me this time than last year.

"We are going to put you in as clerk for.a French foreman," said he.

"I can't write well enough," I said. "I am not cornpe- tent, I am not able to do the work."

But the boss would not listen to me and I had to do the work. In later years I have thought that the owner of the c-app lad the foreman give me this job. It was a splendid thing for me and_gave-me an opportunity of helping along my education. I worked hard in the woods all div and did the clerking at night.

The men in the lumber camp could be explained as the' roughest of the rough, and so it was pretty liard for me to be associated with that class of men. However, I kept lght at it, and when I was a little less than Zl years of ale the superintendent told me he was going to put me in is boss of a camp. I immediately said that would never db,, for two reasons. First, becaus'e I had not had enough ex-' perience, and second because I was too young, Bit the superintenderrt insisted and I had to taikle the job. In later years I have often thought of the progress'I made at that time,. a green Scotch boy, plunged into a lurnber camp when 14 years- of age, and in sev€n years they put me in as foreman of the camp. Looking itit trom ftris date it appears as ifI was making tremendous headway. I well remember when, after my firit year as for'eman, thJy paid me $26.00 per month and I thought my fortune wai made.

After I had been foreman a couple of years I was seot to open up a new business on the River Dumoine, about two hundred miles _up the Ottawa River from Ottawa City. It was intended that I should bring a drive of logs down the Ottawa River past Ottawa and on to' Hairilton Bros. Mill at the Long Sioux. No logs had ever been driven

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