HARDWOOD RECORD 



17 



wore from nortliem Idaho ami 

 contiguous territory, but dur- 

 ini; the past year or two some 

 Ikivc been shipped from the 



■ Paget sound country, due to 

 the fact that as the wood be- 



; t'nnie known the poles increas- 

 ed in price so rapidly at the 



, producing end that pole han- 



' dlcrs were obliged to go fur- 

 ther and further west for the 

 product. The coast trees usu- 

 ally grow larger than pole size, 

 however, and the majority of 



I tliem are cut into lumber. 

 While a large number of 

 woods are used to a greater 



I or less extent for shingles, the 



; nmrkct is dominated by cedar shingles, of 

 which there are two kinds — the white cedar 



1 of the northeastern and lake states and the 



TI! 



II'I.i: I.O.XD CKD.\U POLES. 

 IKIl'K. 



V.MMiS 1; 

 lli.MIl). 



:0. I'. BEXT(JN & Cd 



cedar of the Pacific coast. Of a total re- 

 ported shingle production of 11,858,260,000 

 in 1906 the western cedar furnished over 



three-fifths and the eastern 

 cedar about one-tenth. Ten 

 per cent of the shingle pro- 

 duction consisted of cypress, 

 while redwood and yellow pine 

 furnislied nearly seven per cent 

 and five per cent, respectively. 

 More cedar is used for shingles 

 than for all other purposes 

 combined, while with the other 

 woods shingles arc frequently 

 a by-product of lumber manu- 

 j^^g, facturing. 



■J[^ The triple load of cedar 



poles shown in the illustration 

 was photographed in the yards 

 of George P. Benton & Co., 

 large handlers of this stock 

 who ship quantities of poles to 

 the eastern trade from New- 

 via the Great Northern, and 



from Hope, Idaho, over the Northern Pacific, 



with general offices in Chicago. 



port. Wash., 



*Builders of Lumber History. 



NUMBER LVlll. 



B. Van B. Perrine. 

 {Sec Portrait Supplement.) 



B. Van B. Perrine, or "Van" Perrine, as 

 he is known to his many friends in the 

 trade, was born at Kingston, N. Y., Feb. 10, 

 1863, of French ancestry. He was educated 

 at a public high school in Brooklyn, where 

 his family moved when he was very young. 



Mr. Perrine 's father was a lawyer, and his 

 mother was desirous that the son follow in 

 ' his footsteps. Accordingly the boy was 

 brought up with a view to adopting the 

 profession of law, but did not continue it 

 long. He facetiously says, ' ' I tried it for 

 two years, and while feeling confident that 

 fame awaited me at the top of the ladder 

 came to the conclusion that it would take too 

 long to get there; and besides, I never did 

 like to climb. Law being distasteful to me, 

 anyway, and feeling that the lumber busi- 

 ness would be my fort, I hunted for a job 

 in this line and found it with a lumber con- 

 cern of New York City known as Water- 

 house & Lester, starting in as office and tally 

 boy; didn't like the 'sweeping out' much, 

 but soon riz above that, and then things 

 went along smoothly." 



Within a reasonable time the boy became 

 inspector and buyer. In 1886 he came West 

 in the interest of the firm, and remained 

 with them two years longer. He then de- 

 termined that he could do much better in 

 business for himself, and resigned with the 

 intention of making a start alone. 



.\lr. Perrine entered the sawmill business 

 first at Auburn, Ind., and was attended with 

 Bnccess from the very start. He soon com- 

 menced to branch out, and today his enter- 

 prises include the Perrine-Armstrong Com- 

 pany of Ft. Wayne, Ind., the Mainland Man- 

 ufacturing Company of Indianapolis, and the 

 Fairfield Lumber Company of Lafayette. 

 These are all stock companies conducting 

 sawmill operations, and a unique feature of 



their organization is the fact that trusted 

 employees have been given a small working 

 interest — an arrangement which is mutually 

 satisfactory, in that it is a help to them 

 financially and insures their interest and 

 painstaking work to the employer, for they 

 feel that part of each dollar made or lost 

 belongs to them. 



Mr. Perrine was married in Brooklyn in 

 1886, and has two boys and a daughter, aged 

 five, fifteen and nineteen, respectively. He 

 resides in Ft. Wayne, Ind., and is active in 

 the social life of that attractive city. 



With regard to his outside interests ^Ir. 

 Perrine says: 



"I do most everything that is good, ex- 

 cept going to church, and very little that 

 isn't good, if there is any chance of being 

 found out; especially attending boxing exhi- 

 bitions. Am a thirty-second degree Mason, 

 a Shriner, a Hoo-Hoo, an Elk, and several 

 other things not to be mentioned. Repub- 

 lican in national politics and locally every- 

 thing except a prohibitionist. I have no 

 outside business affiliations, except a few 

 'losers' which need not be mentioned; al- 

 ways made plenty of money in sawmills, so 

 through bitter experience came to the con- 

 clusion some years back that I better stick 

 to lumber, which I understood, and let the 

 other fellows get rich in mines, steel, coal, 

 oil, etc., which they evidently understood. 

 Devote all my extra time, and some that is 

 not extra, to running an auto and a launch; 

 shooting and fishing, especially the latter. 

 Any anecdote about me would come under 

 the head of 'fish stories' and I don't dare 

 to tell 'em, as nobody will believe about the 

 big black bass I have caught." 



By the above remarks it will be readily 

 seen that Mr. Perrine is no less a wag than 

 he is lumberman, and as far as the latter 

 goes he is one of the very best in the coun- 

 try. He knows Indiana hardwoods as ho 



does the alphabet, and understands every 

 phase of the lumber business, so that it is no 

 wonder he has become a leader in the trade. 



Although Mr. Perrine is convinced that he 

 was specially ' ' called ' ' to the lumber busi- 

 ness, he is possessed of a troublesome poeti- 

 cal spirit which now and then flames up 

 within him and refuses to be suppressed 

 until it has burned itself out. This spirit 

 often finds manifestation in the humorous 

 verses which appear from time to time in 

 the Hardwood Eecokd, and which always ex- 

 press the writer's unique opinions in his thor- 

 oughly unique way. ' ' The Night Before 

 Christmas," which appears in this issue, is 

 particularly timely, and as amusing as its 

 predecessors. Mr. Perrine 's departure into 

 the field of poesy is a source of glee to his 

 lumbermen friends and provokes no end of 

 raillery from his family. 



Apropos of this. Miss Perrine, being ad- 

 vised that the Eecokd was about to publish 

 a portrait of her father, surreptitiously con- 

 tributed her own private opinion of his 

 poetical genius in the subjoined verses: 



Since Pa Has Took to Poetrt. 

 Since I'a has took to roclry, 



Not tendin' strict to biz, 

 But always scratchln' off his rhymes, 



Our reputation's rlz. 



Since I'a has got to moonln' now, 



Composin' night and morn, 

 Folks say, tho' he's n lumberman, 



lie was a poet born. 



Hut since the wood Is gettin' scarce, 



And visibly Is worse, 

 I really think I know Just why 



My Dad Is wrltln' verse. 



I linve an Idea up my sleeve — 



That, since the lumber's Dit, 

 Pa plans to keep his family up 



With song and verse — plus grit. 



Ma says that when she misses bim 

 And asks where daddy's gone. 



The children say, "lie's closed his door ; 

 He wants to be alone." 



