The Lumberjack Sky PilotWhittles, Thomas D. (Thomas Davis)
History
The Lumberjack Sky Pilot
Whittles, Thomas D. (Thomas Davis)
Church work with loggers -- Minnesota; Higgins, Francis Edmund, 1865-1915; Presbyterian Church -- Clergy -- Biography
"Well, here is one who isn't after the stake," replied the minister,
"and his interest is in the lumberjack."
"Where is the guy? I'd like to meet him," remarked the woodsman,
evidently thinking such a preacher must be an unknown variety.
"I'm the fellow," returned the missionary, "and I'll prove it by
preaching in the bunkhouse tonight. What time will suit? 7:30, you say?
Well, let all the boys know and come prepared to sing. That's your part
of the service."
The Rev. Frank Higgins has not much suggestion of "the cloth" about
him. If you met him on the logging road there is nothing in his
dress to stamp him as a minister, but everything to proclaim him a
lumberjack. His dress is that of his parishioners, mackinaw jacket,
belt, boots, socks and cap suggest the logger. His physical appearance
is in keeping with the camp; he is broad-shouldered and built for
endurance. He is not a tall man, being but five feet nine or ten,
but his weight is two hundred pounds of muscle. He does not look the
preacher, but ask the lumberjacks about it and they will tell you
"there is no other."
The supper is over and the men have crowded into the bunkhouse where
the meeting is to be held. What an audience! It is cosmopolitan; the
ends of the earth have contributed, except the far east. All classes
and conditions are in the group, evidences of the best and worst,
but on all of them the stamp of isolation--they are far from the
accustomed haunts of men, and everything proclaims it. Sixty to one
hundred and sixty men are in the log shack. The benches at the end of
the bunks are filled with waiting men, the bunks above contain many who
are lounging in attitudes of individual fancy. No straight, erect or
formal audience is this; it is as free as the forest air, as informal
as Eden, but not so cleanly. The congregation is coatless, collarless,
often bootless, for probably half of them are in their stocking feet,
while the temporarily discarded boots are heaped around the huge
stove to dry. Pipes send forth long streams of smoke, and in various
parts of the room card games are in progress. Extra lanterns hang
around the shack, sending out a dim uncertain light that only partly
dissipates the gloom of the interior. The cylindrical stove contains
the crackling logs and the emitted warmth is the only note of cheer.
The rank odor of cheap tobacco mingles with the nauseating aroma of the
myriad socks hung above the stove and the poorly ventilated place is
stifling, oppressive and depressing. Everything is unsuggestive of the
sanctuary, but the Father of men meets with his children in the heavy
smelling bunkhouse the same as in the bright, costly cathedral.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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