114 THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 



from hand to mouth, saving money in the woods only 

 to squander it to the last red cent as soon as they struck 

 town. ^ ^ ^ ^ 



Other evidences of the liveliness of the town were 

 to be found in its band, its enterprising hose-company, 

 and its successful baseball team, in whose ranks w^ere 

 included professionals on the pay-roll of the Lacka- 

 wanna Lumber Company. Still further evidence, 

 though scarcely so deserving of praise, was the ten- 

 dency toward disorder, which is so often tolerated by 

 boom towns, with their worship of individual liberty. 

 Strange as it may seem. Cross Fork was never in- 

 corporated and never had a policeman. As the News 

 put it, **one would be at liberty to operate a Catling 

 gun in the streets here, and w^e doubt if there would be 

 m.ore than half a dozen dissentient voices." 



As to the population of the town, opinions differ. 

 The census of 1910 showed a population of 1,299 in 

 Stewardson Township, but this did not include South 

 Cross Fork, just over the line in Clinton County; and 

 then every one knows that census figures never do jus- 

 tice to his home town. Cross Fork itself owned up to 

 about twenty-five hundred and enthusiastic boomers 

 sometimes ran it up toward three thousand. The 

 Pennsylvania Department of Forestry places the pop- 

 ulation, in the period of prosperity, at about two thous- 

 and and this is probably a fair, and conservative esti- 

 mate. 



Certain it is that in the heyday of Cross Fork the 

 population exceeded the accommodations. Laborers 



