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Show i 1 : : afRfiE SKY PILOT TO THE LUMBERJACKS self. I grew up on n frontier farm la Canada, hunting with bow ninl arrow with tho Indian boys, and work-In? work-In? In the w.mmN with my father. I wived, what little money I earned, and w hen I was twenty went to Toronto To-ronto fur my first schooling, live j-ears liter I was through the High School and in my first little church out In Parnum. Minn. One day I was standing on n log In the river, watching the men breaking the log Jim. The lop were piled up twenty feet high, and the men were working r!t.-lit In the fnec of the Jam. when suddenly they got the key lot: and the Jam care way. We nil had .o Jump f-r nur lives, and so the men found out who I was. While we were sitting on the hank, watching watch-ing the Iocs go down, all smooth nnd quiet, the men a-keil me to preach to them, nnd I did. Hoys.' I ald. -you're ..n the merry-go-round. You work all winter In the woods, and conn? down lu the spring nnd Mow your money. You go back on the drive, nnd blow your money. You go Into the mills, and blow your money. Then you go hark to the wood, and Mow your money. What does It get you? Nothing but the snake room. It goes to buy diamonds for other men' wives. Jnke Sharkey's wife nays she ran have nil she want. Her husband- got u thousand thou-sand men working for Mm In the wood' She meant yon, boys. Are jou coins to do It again after thU drive? "You can't stop? I know you can't, Put the grace of r.od in your hearts cun help you to stop, and It8 the only thlnt'' that ran.' And then we .rayed and sang. 'Come out to the camp and tfilk to us Parson,' on of them s ild when we were sh iklni; hands. 'Nobody wastes iiiu-.h time talking to us.' "And so I went. Ami I told them the truth as we all knew it. I dldn t have to preach hell to them. They knew that. They'd seen It In the snake rooms. The love nf Cod was harder f-r nu n who'd always bad to pay fr what they g-t to understand. I'.ut at last some df thorn began to see what 1 meaut. '(tne night. Just ns I was starting home, n man named John Sornherger came to me with tears running run-ning dow n his face. ' Willing to Go to Jail. 'My Cod!' he says. 'If you know anything to help me tell me about It." We went to an empty ha k and I talked to hliu nnd prayed with him all night, lie told me an awful story of a life of thievery ami crime. Once he had hit a man wlih a Jug and loft him for dead, nnd spent a year In hiding. At the end of that time he found that the man had got well. so he went back. He was a 'dough puncher.' a rook, nnd ft g'.od one. but such a drunkard nnd thief that he couldn't keep a Job. lie was a kind of tramp, going from cmp tyfipERE a Missionary Must Be First a Man. Afterward a Preacher. "Biggins' Has a Congregation of 30.000 in 250 Camps. The Sky Pilot, His Church and His Audience l". 1 ''y-.K Copyright 1910 by A-A. Richardson "'. ..' r ' f irTS,',"? L"-; 'FH " P iTH V' "He went right on nnd began tn whistle, I Innllr Mike O'Leary. He blacknmith. ftcppeil tip to biro, oo Idm bv the Jdmuldi-r and threw him out of the dnot Tin rfradmonkexln? for the Pilot. I'll hnve ye to know,' he ha Id 'und iinv damned pea-soup that hlnki I caul do It e'nn step up right now.' So after that It war good Htt'ddlng for me. "The rnmp wan ulways swept before I got thero .and the buv knew what byains they wanted to dng Mi-sus, I.ovcr of My Soul.' Is one that they liked. Thut' h damned tluo tune. Pilot.' xald one of them, one nlcht. 'Why don't they have tones like that In th? shows? Let's wing her asnlnl' So we sane again, nnd next morning as they started out In the dark for tbeli work they ang again: "Other rffu have I none, Huns my hlpl?s toul on Thee. Lf.ive, oh ifdve m- not alon''. Still prsorvo anJ comfort m" "And when I henr.l that sons comlnir back thronet all the solemn whiteness of the ww.ih I knew when my work was. and I made up my mind that some daj I would j:lve all my time to It. "I urced the boys to come lo church when they wor In town, and one day three of them did Kpikod Itoots. runeklnaw coats and nil. The town was used enough to lumler Jacks and river pigs, but only on the strceti and lu the saloons! "'Pilot,' they sjtld. while I was shaking hnjids wltb them, 'we Just w anted f.i see whether yon would glM uh as gofxl n welcome here as we give you in camp, but I gu-ss you have.' "They would never come to my house until one daj after tlx drive thirty of them showed up all nt once It was a hard squeeze getting them In, but my wiff nnd I made them welcome, and ns they stoMl up to g one of them handed me a slip of paper. It was u draft for "'You didn't ask us for money, Pilot,' he said, 'bnl we wanted you to se we liked the wuy you have been standing by ns.' And before I could thank them they . had run out of the house whooping and yelling like- a ' lot of boys. "After I moved to IlemldJI I found I'd hnve to gc after the saloons before I could do mu- h more fur tho boys. I believe It was the worst town on the uap. There were thirty-six saloons, camhlln? hells inj worse doing business In a town of fifteen hundr-1 jt-sons. jt-sons. Finally 1 went round to seo the keeper ot th places. "'Hoys,' I said, 'I'm going to close you up. Vont business Is bal and you know It, but I'll hare you know Pm fighting your business ami not you.' "'AH right. Higglns, they said; 'close away.' "I spoke In my own church. In meeting of all tho churches. In town meetings and finally in the very streets themselves. At last the citizens rnt roused and they forced the Council to close up the place "After It was all over I met Johnny Strong on l ha street. , "'I'm going nw.ay, Illggins,' he said. " 'I wanted you. Johnny,' I said. "'You did, IPgfflm.' ho said. 'I'm going Kast tn run a hotel and I'm going to take Mamie P.lake from Preen's place with ine.' "'You'll let me marry you. Johnny? " 'Xot now, Hlgglns, Some day, maybe. If sho stands by me. I'm going to give her a square deal She's -too good for this.' "Strong's got a big hotel now, and Mamie's fttnndlnf by him the way that kind of a woman will If tbi second man she loves has a spark of manhood In him He can near make up to her for what the Jirt on did." The Tragedy of Dead Molly. They are all his parishioners, apparently, the saloot ke- ers. tjie gamblers, the women of tho town, av surely ns the lumberjacks and tho river pigs. Very simply he tells of going to the room of de.nl Molly, ul she had nskeil him to do. getting out the P.ible" whirl had her "right name" written on the fly leaf, and sending It buck to the mother with a letter that told nothing of Molly's life cr of the dose, of blue vitriol that bnd ended it. Also In the line nf his duty ns he see It was th long Journey he made to ta!:e Pete, crushed In the faU of a mighty pine, to a hospital In St. Paul, or the sec ond Journey to help Pete when the doctors could d nothing more. . . .. . . . M;rt V 'J " ; ' ' ' ' "I . : J ... mt-mmvmprf. - - --v. v.-V"" ; iV ' -0.. ' ': C:'fc; A'rfeW .-rf-i fourth . .r-v : '. . yyAA "'.v v r: ife-iffif 1 v.- 'V: '- ' V s' rvVv.;C J?--- ' ' ' ' ';--K;:-v0'f; ' ' ' 'y- ' ' V: ' 'riJyA : y-'lA !''. ' A ' :;:r.A V , ' , 'ii.'v.'-i'hi I Rev. Francis IS. Higgin Ooing irom Camp to Camp ' '. Photo by Hakktrup- l .. , r.';', T '.. U ' is and His Dog Team Hilly ':wi - . . ' , - i . , ; . -. : .; " v ,. .' ;.., - ; ; : . .. . ' -.' - --'y vl V';&$ i. M.;.'SW?-tl...:,:-v S 'v:W;-K' y t-'v?.i. - J&m--. '. . ' '. 'y--' - v I The Sky Pilot as the Lumberjacks Know Him "rsa'ASTOa of tbe "Parish of the Pines" is the JyRev. Francis E. Hlggins, an evangel, who ministers to the spiritual and often the temporal wants of a congregation of 30,000, and yet has no church. He is the original of Norman Duncan's stories of the Northwest. His followers are lumberjacks and his parish comprises the vast timber lands of tbe Northwest, North-west, which he tmnsverses with a dog drawn sledge. How he preaches in the language of the woods and how he practises muscular Christianity are told here. CoirisM.' lull. . (Uf Ni-iv YurU Ib-nilJ Co. All rlithln rv-J-rvr.n B 11 were pelting ready for my work ng.ilu." Q said the Hev, Francis K. Hlgglns, "I would take jj lessons In boxing." He smiled ji pood humored I smile from n .ilr of Irih-bluo eyes. "The man that goes Into the woods to preach to men bas to be a man tirst and a preacher afterward." He Is Hlgglns, Just plain lligglus. to the saloon keepers he has put out of business and the councils he ban n wakened lo their duty out in the lumbering towns of the Crcat Lakes. Put to his parishioners, the nieu who cut the timber, be is "the Pilot," He has no church. Ills sermons are preached in the low, fllmly lighted bunk house of the camp, with its double tier of straw filled bunks and Its red hot stove around which bang tbe half dry "mucklna wr." and mittens of the men. And with a blanket covered barrel for his pulpit the Pilot preaches In the lingo of , his hearers, rerhaps It Is the story of the Prodigal Son ,"He got tired of living at home with tbe old man. boys, so be packed his turkey and went out to blow his stake. Where did he land? You know. He ended in the snake room. Aud there the old man fouud blm, and took him home aud sobered him up." Committees, officials and public sentiment are conserving con-serving the forests. Hlgglns, single handed, is conserving con-serving tbe lumberjacks. He has no church, hut he ban a congregation of (W.OUO Irish, Scotch, French-Canadian, French-Canadian, Americau tbey wait for hliu. Tbo mlsionory travels all oer the timber region of Minnesota with bis team of dogs. Although Hlg-glns Hlg-glns Is a man Mho weighs more than two hundred pounds, hi beautiful team of dogs carried him forty miles, to Little Fork, in six aud one-half hours. When there 1a a crust on tbe snow he cau travel anywhere in the open timber, regardless of roads. He says bis team Is worth $500 to him. Sometimes he Is caught out at night and Is obliged to camp In the woods. He has a small tent and builds a Arc in rt, cuts boughs and fixes a bed on the snow, and with a dog ou each side of him he sleeps comfortably com-fortably and with a conscious security. He feeds the dogs but once a day at night. He generally shoots a rabbit or two during the day. Sometimes he cooks a part of one for himself and gives the dogs all they can eat of the raw meut. Hlgglns Is the llrst preacher that has fouud his way to this forest, where there is no persoo excepting except-ing the sturdy pioneer that Is blazing the way for civilization civ-ilization and progress, and the Hrst meeting was held lu the cabin of the oldest pioneer, a man who bas not hnd a sight of civilization for more than ten yexrs. There were twenty homesteaders present at the meeting, meet-ing, and to their credit be it said that reverently they sat and quietly they listened to the first spiritual mes-' sage. His territory extends from Duluth 'JOG miles west, south to Hrnlnerd aud north to the Ualny Krwr. There are !"o camps in this region A lumber camp has much the aame apirearance as a very small and rough looking village. The foreman is tbe arbiter of almost life nnd death, and beyond his "say so" there U no eurt of appeal. Tbe activities of tho camp begin with the first streak of dawn, when the cook logins to prepare the morning meal, which consbts chiefly of beans, porridge nnd hot tea, swect-cued swect-cued with molasses. After breakfast the men are assigned to their day's work, the hewers often going three or four miles from tbe camp. The teamsters get ready to haul the llrst logs to the railroad or the river. The teams are often composed of four to six horses to drag the mouster logs, lashed together -villi heavy chains, over the rough places and up the ?rudes. The men work uutil sundown. Then they hasten 'Mck to camp to prepare for sopor. the principal meal f the day. It usually cu.ssu of potatoes, ereaui ,.f REV. FRANCIS E HIGGIN Pboto by Frcuds Studio tartar biscuit, sour dough bread, boiled beef or o'.ue sort of game and tea. After supper the men amuse themselves as best they can: souk; fall asleep, others play cards or tell stories. Since the missionary luia entered the field the men also have books to read When the camp breaks In the spring ami I tie "boys" go to town in search of their own ruin in the guise of tbe only pleasures they know, they Hnd him walling for them, watching oxer them still. "Who's that?" aked a stranger in one of the old time saloons, seeing him take a drunken boy by the throat and carry him out bodily. "That's lligglus." repllel a man In spiked boots aud inackinaw. "His job's keeping us boys out of hell, ami he's tbe only man ou the job." There is uo cant or "grand staudlug" about his work. Following his congregation Into the haunts of their temptations is slniply a part of his duty as he sees It. And the men recognize It as surh. It does not occur to them tliat they are witnessing an application applica-tion of practical Christianity such as the modern world seldom eees. Out of the Snake Rooms. It Is easy to listen to the tale of the good Samaritan if you see blm exemplified before you In the person of the man who Is telling the story. And uiauy a member of his congregations the Pilot has with hLs own hands taken out of the snake room, the Ullhy dens where they are thrown to snore and groan and shriek themselves them-selves back to consciousness after the adulterated whiskey of "The Lumberman's Home" or 'Jake's Place." And If during Che process of washing them up or nursing thorn through pneumonia the Pilot has "rubbed It into them." it is his nsx.gnl7.t-d right so to do. He has provsj that he means what he says. The friend wbo would save a man In places where they give blm "doped" whbtkey, take his winter wages of $-luu In a ulght and cast blm out In the morning without a cent, has need of a strong right arm, And the Pilot does not hesitate to use his. "A young fellow, named Put Murray, a likely lad. asked me to look out for him one spring," he said, "but he'd been in town a w hole day before I heard of It Then I found him lu Jake Hart's place, one of the worst Just as I came lu the door he put a double handful of bills down on the bar. 'Here, bungswut-ter.' bungswut-ter.' he said, 'set up the boun'.' 'The men rowd.s up for their drinks, and tbe barkeeper bar-keeper look a few bills off the pile. Hut I knew as soou us Put's buck was turned the- whole pile would g- into the till. "'My turn, Pat.' I said, putting my hand over It. 1 11 take lids ' " 'I.Aok here, Hlgglns.' said the barkeeper, 'what do you mean by butting In this way?' " 'This Is my job, and I'm going to see It through,' I said, lie struck at me, but couldn't reach me; so he came over the bar with a spring. Put before he landed I caught him on the point of die jaw. and while he was still stretched out on the tloor 1 got Pat out of the place. When he was ou the train for Wisconsin I sent a draft for his money to his old mother. "It used to be easier. When they logged by water the camps wero far away from the towns, and the boys were safe for the winter. They could only have a log fall on Ibem, or get cut In two by a saw, or something some-thing like that, all In the day's work. Put now they log by rail, und the towns spring up about the camps like leeches. That's what they are, leeches, made up of saloons and gambling bells and worse. What &o they give a boy who's worked from dark lo dark six days n week? Nothing but what his money will buy, bad liquor, a crooked game and women that cities hate tlied of. It Isn't only one big spree in the spring now. It's a little one every Suuday. The boss has to send a wagon on Monday to gather his men out of fho snake rooms. "-Vol that all woodsmen drink. Some of the older ones are sober, steady men, with families. Put the young fellows don't know anything else, though tbey are cjuick enough to take It when It conies their way. They don't get a show. "I know, because I have worked lu the woods my- "I found blm In the hospital, almost goue," he 6ay "'You wanted me, Pete';' I asked blm. " Tin going. Pilot. 1 want you lo Ox it for me." " 'Put I can't tix It for you, Pete.' ""Then why the hell did you come?' " 'To show you how you can fix It.' "And then, Just before the eiid, there came a falnl whisper. " 'Pilot.' " 'Yes, ivte.' "Tell the boys I made tbe grade!' "Moes It pay? Of course It pays. Tbe worst of tb saloons and places are out of the lumbering towns now. The camp are lighted at night, and last nr we distributed five tons of second hand reading matter mat-ter among tbo boys and the homesteaders ve don't forget the llrtle cabins. "A gocd many of the boys give mc n,er numev In the ypring and I see that It gets to their famflles. where It Is needed. Some day perhaps I'll be able to look out for the boys on the coast and lu the South too. ' "Would I rather have n dry chiin h? Well l wonldu t take much of my preaching to close up most nfv ma' LTfr- I'1! t0 n,,,rt' of n,J" wire and m. little girl than 1 do. but my pla-e Is with the ts.vs I understand them and they understand me. Pm going back to the real thing. for:a nw-VuM? "V V", h,n of pending a dollar a hotel b.sj l have the nlglrtmare. and If I pav more than a quarter for a meal 1 have Indigestion Pd never leave the w,,ods or the work if I could help It - 1 That Is what Hlgglns gels out of it-that and the apprcs lallon the pictur,,ueness of his personolhv an,p Vlst IIlL'glll. a s,iiire in. in to camp, staying a few days, and then getting thrown out for drinking or stealing "'Well John,' I said, 'the llrst thing Is ro get vou straight with the authorities.' He was willing to" go to Jail, but the Sheriff didn't send hlni there when I promised to keep my eye on him. "I got him a Job In another camp, and he stuck to It and paid up all I hat he could of his back debts. "Two years later he got a Job In the summer coking cok-ing for a rallioad construction crew. A farmer's daughter brought them milk every morning, and pretty soon John came to me to know If I thought he might marry her. I found she knew the story of his life and had forgiven It, and so after u time I married them. Three years later be became my first missionary. mis-sionary. "The Rurn of ?''00 means a missionary to us In the woods, for the boys furnish the rest of the monev theniselves. That's why I have left mv work and come out to itell about their needs, o one man can reach Iheni all. This year I am going to send a man Into Northern Michigan, where the conservation people would tell you that the Utilizer Is all cut, but where there are ten thousand men still at work. "I didn't ask Ihe boys for any money, because I knew that everybody who ever w'ent ne.ir the camps did that. At tirst they kept on their hats and smoked while I was (talking, and liiully one night 1 wore mv hat myself, when I got up 1 said,' 'Povs this is the only church we've got. Let's make It as K, ., ,,I)r we can.' I took off my hat. And every hat came 'Another time a big Frenchmau was grinding his axe while I was talking. 'The boys have a-ked me rC?m, 0,1 f ,,f"n' "",J ,alk to l,,em. I said to him 'Dd Ml be glad f you'n v,uit a few minutes to grind thut |