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
"Lumberjacks improving their minds?" sarcastically replied "the guy
that splashes ink." "This neck of the woods will have a university
extension course next, if this thing keeps up."
"You surely don't object to the boys reading?" asked the minister.
"Not at all," said the clerk sulkily, "but you might have remembered
that a clerk has lots of time to read and have left a few of your
mind-improvers for his use also."
The clerk received his share of the reading matter before the Pilot
left the camp.
Often when a box of magazines is brought into the camp the men who have
gone to their bunks will arise and greedily come forward to receive
their share in the distribution. These magazines are passed from one to
another until they are read and reread, or worn out from much handling.
Of the lonely lives cheered by them, God only could give the number.
In a warehouse in Akeley, Minnesota, a bundle of magazines addressed
to Rev. Frank E. Higgins was waiting for the tote-team to carry it to
a neighboring camp. The tote-team driver came in, somewhat the worse
for the liquid refreshment he had taken. While looking over the bundles
waiting for his load he espied the one addressed to the Rev. Frank E.
Higgins. The bundle interested him and he read aloud:
"The Rev. Frank E. Higgins. Say, penpusher, who is this for? Is it for
our Frank Higgins, the Sky Pilot?"
"That's the man," replied the clerk.
"The Rev. Frank E. Higgins," read again the driver, "some mistake here,
penpusher, the Sky Pilot's no reverend, he's a Christian. That man's no
reverend, he's a Christian."
Shouldering the bundle he carried it to the sleigh, still mumbling,
"He's no reverend, he's a Christian."
Pertaining to the use of the title "Sky Pilot," a little story is told.
A minister who was going through the camps investigating the work of
the mission referred to the various workers as "Sky Pilot Davis," "Sky
Pilot Date," and others. He had heard the term used in reference to Mr.
Higgins and naturally assumed that it was a title common to all the
camp preachers. The push in one of the camps heard him, and turning to
the clerk, asked:
"What the devil does he mean by Sky Piloting around that way? You'd
think the woods were full of Sky Pilots, while we all know there's only
one, that's Higgins."
The tendency of the lumberjack is to give the title to Mr. Higgins
alone, although it is occasionally given to the others, but seldom by
the old time lumberjacks. Higgins alone is the Sky Pilot to them.
Among the rigid Catholics there is naturally a prejudice against
Protestant work, but it seems that the work must be done by Protestants
or left undone. A priest could hardly do the work. It would be
difficult to go through the forms and ceremonies of Catholicism in the
camps. Forms and ceremonies are not successful when interruptions are
common and likely to occur at any time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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