File:Canadian forest industries July-December 1912 (1912) (20344183309).jpg

Title: Canadian forest industries July-December 1912
Identifier: canadianforjuldec1912donm (find matches)
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors:
Subjects: Lumbering; Forests and forestry; Forest products; Wood-pulp industry; Wood-using industries
Publisher: Don Mills, Ont. : Southam Business Publications
Contributing Library: Fisher - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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CANADA I. V M II K \ M A N A N D W OODWOKK E R
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IT was a little town—perhaps to say it was a village would sound better. It had been made and afterward kepi in existence by the big sawmill that stood down beside the river, now fringed with ice. To the east and to the west, to the north and to the south, lay vast stretches of timberlands more or less cut over, but still able to furnish the monster sawmill with many more years of work. Being' isolated from the rest of the world, the people of Pineville were much on the order of one big family. There were never any dissensions, no factions; all was cordially and kindness among' them, and such a thing as different degrees of society was totally unknown. The company which owned the lumber operations was a good payer, and supplies were never wanting. Consequently the Pineville folk mourned little over their solitude. When mill foreman John Fenwicke suggested an innovation in the shape of a Christmas tree, he was immediately lauded for his thought- fulness by the men to whom he mentioned it. who were Arthur Allen the sawyer, and P>illy Ilixon the filer. Then the three talked the matter over with the entire mill crew, and every man of them fell in with the idea with great enthusiasm—and at the same time reached for their pocketbooks, which proved that the spirit was there. The result was that the next river steamer carried to Bartow, the nearest city and a seaport, a comparatively large order of the things that go to make up the line of presents one usually sees dangling from candle-lighted green branches, with artificial snow and glittering decorations. The presents came in due time, and the crew chose a committee of three to arrange the tree, which had already been brought and erected in the back of a large vacant cabin in the outskirts of the village. The committee composed of the foreman, the sawyer, and the filer, had gathered on Christmas afternoon to prepare everything for the coming evening, when the event was to take place. The others very thoughtfully remained at home that they might not bother, and that the surprise might be more effective. For what, indeed, is Christmas without a surprise? As the three stood surveying the packages and bundles, the dolls and sweets and air rifles for the children, the sawyer gave an exclamation of regret, then turned and gazed thought- fully out of the nearest win- dow and to the sparkling snow. "What's wrong," asked Fen- wicke—"forget something?" "As sure as you're a foot high," said Allen, facing the foreman. "There is one little woman here who had no husband to hand in his list ; and the rest of us, in our own enthusiasm, for- got to get her a single thing. I mean the Widow Morgan, Big Jack's wife. The other two frowned also, and for a moment there was a silence that accorded illy with the outlay of gifts, the Christ- mas spirit, and the waiting tree of green in the back end of the cabin. "We're coming to climb your Christmas iFree and shake it." It was a pitiful story, the story of Big Jack Morgan's wife, Big Jack had gone down to Bartow just a year before, and had never come back. Inquiries had revealed only the fact that he had drank rather heavily—a thing which he rarely did, be it said to his credit. And for reasons regarded sufficient by the good folk of Pineville, this bit of information had been well hidden from the ears of the little woman who still sorrowed for her giant of a husband. Morgan's presence had many times been wished for by the men of the isolated sawmill village, because of the rowdyism of several lighting men from a town to the north called Wolfton. These rude fellows, since Big Jack had been gone, had taken a keen delight in stalking through the crooked streets of Pineville and daring its men out for a fight. The men of Pineville were not cowards; they were there for the sole purpose of working hard and saving their money, and fighting was a thing that came utterly foreign to them. How- ever, so insolent had the Wolftonites been on certain occasions that only the influence of the Pineville women had prevented some very lively jousts. It had been different in the time of Big Jack Morgan. lie had been the greatest fighter of his time, and he had left his footprints on the faces of more men than one. Big Jack had been the law, and the natural protector of Pineville; and the Wolftonites had feared him much. "What," asked Jlixon, looking from one of his friends to the other, "are we going to do for a present for the little widow?" "Search me!" replied Fenwicke and Allen in a breath, each throw- ing his hands outward in a gesture of utter helplessness. "Money wouldn't do, of course," mused the filer, thoughtfully rubbing his forehead. "She's too proud to touch it. You both know the trouble we've had in making her believe the money we've given her came from insurance the company carried on Big Jack's life." "No," Fenwicke agreed, "money wouldn't do; she wouldn't touch it." "If we had a little more time," began Hixon, "we might yet—" The foreman, who had turned and stood looking from the win- dow toward the snow-heavy forest which lay but a few rods away, interrupted the filer: "Look at that !" he said angrily, and raised the window. Then he called to someone whom he had seen trying to hide in the bush : "Well?" The other two of the com- mittee approached Fenwicke, curious to know whom he had addressed. And at that mo- ment, realizing that they had been observed, three of the rowdies from Wolfton stepped out into plain view, standing in the snow halfway to their knees! "We thought we'd say to you," growled out Nig Bartele, a particularly insolent man, "that we'd be here to climb your Christmas Tree and shake it to-night, nothing hindering." "Come in and shake it now. if you think you can!" dared

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