THE HARDWOOD RECORD. 



17 



rouuded I).v a fire wall, with a space of 18 

 Inches l)etwt'eii. all the way arouiul. Un- 

 der this mammoth boiler, the refuse of the 

 mill is fed antomatieall.v, and Ijy means of 

 a .system of tul)es extending from the 

 boiler across the open space the steam is 

 made — steam enough to run .1 mlli of twice 

 the size — and all witliont tmnlile and 

 without cost. 



Inside the mill one is impressed Srst. 

 with the fact that there is plenty of room 

 and to si>are. and th.-it there are surpris- 

 ingly few men about. The stream of lum- 

 ber wanders about on carriers, this wa.v 

 and that, until it comes to a place where 

 it goes opto trucks. Occasionally you come 

 across a man who seems to l)e doing some- 

 thing or other, and to be asliamed tliat he 

 ha.sn"t more to do. 



It is a good mill and well handled. 



The ."lO-acre tract of land inside the 

 city limits, with its splendid and extensive 

 water front and raih\a.A- connection, is a 

 ver.v valuable asset. The twenty-two 

 houses are not the ordniar.v saw mill shan- 

 ties, but substantial, roomy structures. 

 well painted and well liept. The outlying 

 land we did not visit, nor did we pay 

 special attention to tlic railroad. .\iid tliat 

 cleans everything up to ■WTiit." 



Whit, or more strictl.v speaking, llr. A\'. 

 A. Whitman, as vice-president of the com- 

 pany and superintendent of the Marquette 

 end of the business, is a ver.v valuable as- 

 set indeed. And that, I guess, is all 1 will 

 say about him. In his case, as in the case 

 of all my friends, I ana handicapped so 

 long as he is living. So you will have to 

 wait initil he dies (and may it be a long 

 time and a happy and prosperous time 

 between now and them and 1 write his 

 obituar.v. 



We spent a half da.v inspecting the prop- 

 erty of the .Soutli Arm Lumber Comp.-uiy 

 and saw enough to learn that it is a splen- 

 did propert.^' and well managed. 



I neglected to state that they have also 

 a lath mill and intend to install a shingle 

 mill in the near future. 



The officers of the comiiau.v are: Mr. 

 Tlieodore IMathner of Milwaukee, presi- 

 dent (Mr. I'latlmer is .ilso president of 

 the Cameron Lumber Company of Cen- 

 tral and Toicli lakes, Michigan, and is a 

 capitalist of large means and interested in 

 various undertakings). 



W. A. Whitman of :\Iar(iuette. vice- 

 president. 



C. C. .Johnson of Milwaukee (.son of 

 W. S.), secretary. 



W. S. .Johnson of Milwaukee, treasurer. 



* * :;: 



After dinner we took ,1 drive out to 

 I'resque Isle Park, whicli 1 liave no hesi- 

 tation is pronouncing tlie (iiiest park pos- 

 sessed by any city of 2(l.(MK) poimlation in 

 the entire country. It's name is pro- 

 nounced "I'reskeel." wliicli is I'-rench. Ke- 

 iug somewhat rusty in my Frencli I liad 

 no idea when they sp(jke of going to "'Pres- 



keel" that it was the place referred to on 

 the street car sign as "Presque Isle.'' 



It is a piece of land a1>out («4<) acres in 

 extent, out of which the river and bay 

 nuilves an island. connecte<l to the main- 

 land by bridges. It was donated to the 

 cit.v of JIarquette for park purposes by the 

 United States government, and the peo- 

 ple of Mar(iuette. with their customary 

 lil>erality. sent to P>oston for the best land- 

 scape gardener in tliat esthetic city to 

 tell them how to improve it. With my 

 fatal weakness for forgetting names I 

 have forgotten the name of this man, al- 

 though nearly every native of Marquette 

 with whom I held converse told it me. 

 It was sometliing like Bigelow or Bridge- 

 tender or Hilgewater or something like 

 that. .Vn.vhow, Boston thinks so liighl.v of 

 him that it named one of its parks after 

 him, but I cannot remember the name of 

 the i)ark any more than I can the name of 

 the man, they being one and the same. 

 Anyhow, he surveyed the park and told the 

 people of Mar(]nette to let the park alone — 

 clean it up and let it alone — that, further 

 than that it could not be improved upon. 

 .\nd to this day Bilgewater, or whatever 

 his name was, is very popular in ilar- 

 quette, although I believe there was some 

 slight disappointment that he didn't ad- 

 \ ise a few cement sidewalks. 



Anyhow. Pres(iue Isle is one of the 

 most 1 leant if ul spots in the entire circuit 

 of the great lakes, and Bilgewater was 

 right in saying the hand of man could 

 add nothing to its beauty. 

 * • • 



Saturday morning the crowd divided. 

 I'ncle Jim. Mr. Currie and W. S. Johnson 

 <alled on the mayor and found him to be 

 a mighty fine man. Besides being mayor 

 lie is editor of the "iliuing News," a very 

 creditable daily, and warden of the peni- 

 tentiary. 



Uncle Jim, having been for two terms 

 an alderman in the city of Milwaukee, was 

 nunli interested in the municipal manage- 

 ment of tile beautiful little city, and the 

 mayor took them out to show them the 

 greatest problem he had in hand at pres- 

 ent. Bight in the principal street is a 

 sliort hill of considerable steepness, and 

 the mayor says that in spite of all he 

 can do, wet weather and lieavy hauling 

 will ruin the asphalt and crushed stone 

 |)aving, and that brick or cobble stone are 

 too slippery, and he asked Uncle Jim what 

 he would suggest. 



According to Mr. Ctirrie's account, Uncle 

 Jim delivered himself about as follows: 



"Why, if we had that hill in Milwau- 

 kee now, we would proceed — that is, of 

 course, provided it was on a main street. 

 If we ha<l that hill in Milwaukee, I say, 

 • ind it was on a main street, we would 

 proceed — er — at once — to — to — , Of course 

 .\ou understand it would have to come be- 

 lore tlie street and alley committee in the 

 legular way. but in tliat case we would 

 proceed at once to — cr — do something to 



stop the — the wearing away of the pave- 

 ment in that manner." 



Uncle Jim denies that the said anything 

 of the kind and that Mr. Currie suggested 

 that the mayor sow the hill to grass, and 

 offered to sell him the seed at a slight re- 

 duction from the regular rate. 

 * * * 



In the afternoon. Mr. (Jurrie and I took 

 a walk, which included the cemetery. We 

 foimd a man digging a grave and stopped 

 to talk awhile with him. 



"Yes," he said, "I digs 'em every day. 

 Every da.v I digs 'em. and often two or 

 three. 



"It's eas.v work, though — eas.v work. 

 All sand, you see — all sand. 



"It do cave in bad at times and makes 

 a bad lookin' hole, but them as goes in 

 never kicks — they never kicks. 



"Xo, I only been here 'bout a year. I 

 was here ten years ago or more, but quit 

 to go to work building cement sidewalks. 

 Got "em all built, though, now — got 'em 

 all built." 



But I'll have to quit. I've taken up all 

 my space and the histor.v of that game of 

 cinch, in which science was pitted against 

 luck, and lost, the pleasant time we had 

 coming home Saturday night, what one of 

 the l>oys had in his valise and which he 

 lirought from Scotland, how I got into Chi- 

 cago in time for lireakfast Sunda.v morn- 

 ing, and all that, will have to remain un- 

 written. l)ut not forgotten. 



LOCAL GOSSIP. 



Wm. H. White, probably the largest 

 hardwood lumber operator in the country, 

 being the principal owner of the firm of 

 Wm. H. White & Co.. and heavily inter- 

 ested in the Boyne City lAimber Company, 

 was in the city last week, in attendance at 

 the meeting of the Board of Managers of 

 the National Hardwood Lumber Associa- 

 tion. Mr. Wliite says Boyne City, Mich., 

 is the most rapidly growing town in the 

 .state and that prosperity has come to stay. 



• • • 



F. F. Fish, president of the lister Lum- 

 ber Mercantile Agency, now on the west 

 coast, looking after business, writes us 

 that he is having splendid success. He 

 has been gone about two months now and 

 expects to be J>ack in another month. 



* * * 



The Record office received a visit Thurs- 

 day of this week from Messrs. R. L. 

 Walkley and W. E. Douglas, of the Crosby 

 & Beckley Company of New Haven, Conn. 

 Mr. Walkley is an e.x-Chicago hardwood 

 lumberman, of whom we are rather proud. 

 Both are members of the Crosby & Beck- 

 ley Company, Jlr. Walkley having charge 

 of the sales department and general sup- 

 ervision of the buslnesis, and Jlr. Douglas 

 having charge of the manufacturing plant 

 at Blnelield. W. Va. This is a very large 

 plant and its product is chiefly poplar. As 

 the.v have had an ample supply of logs, 



