MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



match; it almost invariably goes out of the 

 window. Now, a match well lighted is a 

 choice bit of kindling, and, although the blaze 

 may have gone out, it still carries a consider- 

 able amount of combustible matter and fur- 

 nishes a nice live coal for some time. It 

 is not like a burnt-out cinder, and it would 

 not be safe to drop it into an open keg of 

 powder; and yet passengers will light match 

 after match and throw the partly consumed 

 and perhaps still burning fire stick out of the 

 window, to be carried by the wind of the 

 train into the ditch or among the dry grass 

 mi the right of way; and when the cigar is 

 well-nigh consumed, give two or three strong 

 pulls at it and then throw the burning stub 

 after the matches. 



Now. a cigar stub well lighted is about as 

 dangerous a device for carrying fire as can 

 lie contrived, to say nothing about cigarettes 

 and pipes, the burning heel of the latter be- 

 ing usually knocked out by reaching out of 

 the window and rapping it on the outside of 

 car. And passengers are not the only 

 offenders. The train men, especially freight 

 crews, usually smoke in the cars and outside: 

 also, the section crews nearly all smoke, all 

 up and down the line, and are equally careless 

 with their burnt matches, cigar stubs and 

 Neither is this all. Railroad right of 

 way is made use of for a large amount of 

 foot travel by men and boys, berry pickers, 

 lumberjacks, hunters, fishermen and hoboes. 

 all smoking, and all criminally careless as to 

 what they do with their matches and cigar 

 stubs. What more natural than when the 

 section men stand back to let a train pass 

 than to take t-he opportunity to hit the pipe 

 and drop the match in the grass at his feet, 

 or the man walking the track to throw his 

 cigar stub to one side in place of between the 

 rail on the ballast? 



I think enough has been said to show the 

 .i'niost countless initial causes of fire from the 

 smoker. No doubt, nine-tenths of the men 

 present smoke, and you may think that this 

 does not apply to you, but I' intend that it 

 shall. You may not be able to set anything 

 afire here in Battle Creek, but you are too 

 careless to be permitted to run at large upon 

 a railroad right of way or in our northern 

 woods in time of drouth. In order to avoid 

 being considered as personal. I will admit that 

 you may be careful, but you arc only one. 

 What about the other one hundred fellows 

 who are as careless with their fire as the 

 devil? Let us try a little experiment. Here 

 is a small cinder which I will heat to a cherry 

 red, then pass it through the air about as far 

 as it would travel if thrown from a stack 

 into this bunch of dry grass taken from a 

 railroad right of way. It does not seem to 

 set the grass afire. Now, how many half- 

 burnt matches can you drop into it before 

 it is all ablaze. I will say nothing about 

 farmers and settlers who set fires they are 

 outside of the railroad right of way but I 

 hope some one else will speak of them. 

 Some Remedies Suggested. 



Now. what are the remedies? The rail- 

 road companies have done much in the way of 

 netting and ash pans, but no doubt they would 

 he willing to do more. First. I would suy- 

 putting wire screens over all window-, 

 in smoking cars and compartments to prevent 

 matches and cigar Mnl>s from going outside. 

 Second, prohibit all smoking upon the right 

 vay. both employes and others. A pretty 

 hard rule to enforce, especially with section 

 Jtnen, but there are hundreds of factories and 

 mills and yards where such a rule is enforced. 

 I noticed the other day. in an account of a 

 fire in a mill yard in Saginaw, that it was 

 supposed to have been set by a cigar stub. 

 Lumbermen are more afraid of the smoker 

 with his matches, cigars and pipes, than of 

 the locomotive, for they operate through yards 

 daily without danger, where it would cost a 

 man his job to be caught smoking. Third, 

 prohibit the carrying of matches loose in the 

 pocket, and make the penalty the same as 



for carrying concealed weapons; the matches 

 are the more dangerous. If matches must be 

 carried, require a double-barreled match safe, 

 one for the unused matches and the other 

 for those that have been used. Fourth. I 

 have been told that in Sweden, and perhaps 

 in other foreign countries, that a man smok- 

 ing in the woods must have his pipe covered; 

 and that might be a good regulation in this 

 country. Hut what about the man who smokes 



cigars? I can only think of a fine wire net 

 or muzzle built on the plan of a baseball 

 catcher's mask. Fifth, if we must devise plans 

 for the smoker, then make every one pro- 

 vide an asbestos lined pocket in which to put 

 his pipe, cigar stubs, and burnt matches. 

 Some of these suggestions may sound ridicul- 

 ous and absurd, but let me tell you that the 

 fires which occur along the railroad rights of 

 way and in our northern fo.rests are no joke. 



Work in a National Forest View of Transplant Nursery, Gila River National Forest, 

 New Mexico. (Courtesy of Conservation.) 



Use of a National Forest Cordwood Cut on Gila River, N. Mex., Forest on the 

 Cameron Creek Watershed. (Courtesy of Conservation.) 



