[245]The one great difficulty of the problem is the transitory character of the work—like Count Rumford's stoves, if they could only have been patented and money made out of them, every house would use them; so if the lumber village had come to stay, many a church would have gone in and built. But more than once a man in authority has said, "Oh, I have looked that field over, and it won't amount to much." No one who has not had experience in the field can form any adequate idea of its vastness or its crying needs. The one great trouble of the whole question is the massing of so many men away from the softening2 influence of wife and mother. It is unnatural3; and nature's laws, as sacred as the Decalogue, are broken in unnatural crimes, and sins unknown to the common run of men.
The lumber business may be divided into three distinct classes of workers,—the mill-men, the camp-men, and the river-men. The last are the smallest company, but the hardest to reach. They[246] flit from stream to river, from the river to the lake, from scenes of sylvan4 beauty to the low groggery—and worse. Their temporary home is often made of blackened logs papered with Police Gazettes, which come in vast numbers, and form the largest part of their not very select reading. Books of the Zola type, but without their literary excellence5, are legion. Good books and good literature would be a boon6 in these camps.
To give you an idea of the rapid march of the lumber-camp, come with me into the primeval forest. It is a winter day. The snow is deep, and the lordly pines are dressed like brides in purest white; one would think, to look at their pendent branches, that Praxiteles and all his pupils had worked for a century in sculpturing these lovely forms. Not a sound is heard save our sleigh-bells, or some chattering7 squirrel that leaps lightly over the powdery snow; a gun fired would bring down a harmless avalanche8. It is a sight of unsurpassed beauty in[247] nature's privacy; but alas9, how soon the change!
An army of brawny10 men invade the lovely scene. Rude houses of logs are quickly erected11; and men with axe12 and saw soon change the view, and with peavey and cant-hook the logs are loaded and off for the rollway. Inside the largest house are bunks13, one above another; two huge stoves with great iron cylinders14, one at each end, give warmth; while in picturesque15 confusion, socks and red mackinaws and shirts hang steaming by the dozens. There is a cockloft, where the men write their letters, and rude benches, where they sit and smoke and tell yarns16 till bedtime. In a few weeks at the farthest the grand old forest is a wreck17; a few scrubby oaks or dwindling18 beech-trees are all that are left. The buildings rot down, the roofs tumble in, and a few camp-stragglers trying to get a living out of the stumpy ground are all that are left; and solitude19 reigns21 supreme22.
On stormy days hundreds of the men[248] go into the nearest village, and sin revels23 in excess. In many a small town, mothers call their little ones in from the streets, which are soon full of men drunken and swearing, ready for fight or worse. At such times they hold the village in a reign20 of terror, and often commit crimes of a shocking nature, and no officer dares molest24 them. A stranger coming at such a time would need to conduct himself very discreetly25 or he would get into trouble. A volume might be filled with the outrageous26 things done in these small lumber-towns. Ireland is not the only place that suffers from absentee landlords.
The condition of the children is pitiable, brought up in an atmosphere of drunkenness and debauchery; swearing as natural as breathing; houses packed so closely that you can reach across from one window to another. The refuse is often emptied between the houses; diseases of all kinds flourish, and death is ever busy. Eight or ten nationalities are often found in these towns,—men who cannot spell[249] their names, and men who went to St. Paul's and admired Canon Liddon, or New York men that went to Beecher's church.
Here a house which cost less than a hundred dollars, and inside of it an organ costing one hundred and twenty-five dollars, and a forty-dollar encyclop?dia. The next house is divided by stalls like a stable, with bed in one, stove in another, and kitchen in the third. With a population as mixed as this, and in constant flux27, what, you ask, can the church do? I answer, much, very much, if you can only get a church there; but when the church which gives much more than any other gives but a quarter of a cent per day per member, is it any wonder that hundreds of churchless lumber-towns call in vain for help from the sanctuary28? Some small villages can be found where every family is living in unlawful relations.
Now, remember this, the lumberman is made of the same clay that we are, and it is his environment that brings to the front[250] the worst that is in him. He is reached by practical Christianity as easily as any other man. The shame and reproach belong to us for neglecting him, and there is no other way that we so dishonor him whom we call Master as to say his commands are not practicable. Is it asking too much from the rich men who get their money by the toil30 of these men, that out of their millions they should spend thousands for the moral welfare of those who make them rich? And yet too often they do not even know their own foremen, and in many cases have never visited the property they own.
I once asked a rich lumber-man for a subscription31 for missions, saying I was sorry he was not at the church when I took up my collection. "Jinks! I am glad I was not there," he said; "I gave away ten dollars Saturday night."
Now, this man had been cutting off from his land for thirty years, and had just sold a quarter of a million dollars' worth of it, and still had land left. But[251] on the other hand, be it known that the men in these villages who make no profession of religion actually give dollar for dollar with the Christian29 church-members to sustain the frontier churches. Saloon-keepers, and often Roman Catholics, help to support the missionary32 church.
The mission churches of the lumber regions are like springs in the desert, but for which the traveller would die on his way; and thousands of church-members scattered33 from ocean to ocean were born of the Spirit in some one of these little churches that did brave work in a transient town.
To do work in these places aright, one must drop all denominational nonsense,—be as ready to pray and work with the dying Roman Catholic as with a member of his own church, and do as I did,—lend the church building to the priest, because disease in the town would not permit of using the private houses at the time, and so help to fill up the[252] gap between us and the old mother that nursed us a thousand years.
In every new town, in every camp, should be a standing34 notice, "No cranks need apply."
Here is a brawny man who does not like the church. He hates the name of preacher, and threatens that he had better not call at his house. Scarlet35 fever takes his children down. The despised preacher, armed with a basket of good things, raps at the door. Pat opens it. "Good-morning, Pat. I heard your little ones were sick, and my wife thought your wife would have her hands full, and she has sent a few little things—not much, but they will help a little, I hope."
The tears are in Pat's eyes. "Come in, Elder, if you are not afraid, for we have scarlet fever here."
"That is the very reason I came, my boy;" and Pat is won. The very man that swore the hardest because the elder was near, now says, "Don't swear, boys; there's the elder."
[253]Yes; and when men have heard that the new preacher has helped in the house stricken with small-pox or typhoid, he has the freedom of the village, or the camp, and is respected. And so the village missionary does some good in the mill-town. But what is one man among so many? See this little place with less than five hundred population. Two thousand men come there for their mail, and the average distance to the next church is over twenty miles; and one man is totally inadequate36 to the great work before him.
These villages and camps ought to have good libraries, a hall well lighted, innocent amusements, lectures, and entertainments, and in addition to this, an army of men carrying good books and visiting all the camps; and there is nothing to hinder but the lack of money, and the lack of will to use it in those who have abundance. I lately passed through a lumber-town of seven thousand inhabitants. Four or five millionnaires lived there. One had put up an $80,000 training-school,[254] another a memorial building costing $160,000. This is the other extreme. But up to date the lumber-regions have been shamefully37 neglected, and thousands of boys and girls are growing up to drift to our great cities and form the dangerous classes, fitted for it by their training. It is better to clear the water-sheds than to buy filters, and the cheapest policeman of the city is the missionary in the waste places of our land.
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lumber
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| n.木材，木料；v.以破旧东西堆满；伐木；笨重移动 | |
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softening
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| 变软，软化 | |
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unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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sylvan
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| adj.森林的 | |
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excellence
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| n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德 | |
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boon
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| n.恩赐，恩物，恩惠 | |
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chattering
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| n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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avalanche
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| n.雪崩，大量涌来 | |
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alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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brawny
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| adj.强壮的 | |
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ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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axe
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| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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bunks
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| n.（车、船等倚壁而设的）铺位( bunk的名词复数 )；空话，废话v.（车、船等倚壁而设的）铺位( bunk的第三人称单数 )；空话，废话 | |
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cylinders
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| n.圆筒( cylinder的名词复数 )；圆柱；汽缸；（尤指用作容器的）圆筒状物 | |
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picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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yarns
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| n.纱( yarn的名词复数 )；纱线；奇闻漫谈；旅行轶事 | |
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wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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dwindling
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| adj.逐渐减少的v.逐渐变少或变小( dwindle的现在分词 ) | |
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solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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reigns
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| n.君主的统治( reign的名词复数 )；君主统治时期；任期；当政期 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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revels
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| n.作乐( revel的名词复数 )；狂欢；着迷；陶醉v.作乐( revel的第三人称单数 )；狂欢；着迷；陶醉 | |
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molest
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| vt.骚扰，干扰，调戏 | |
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discreetly
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| ad.(言行)审慎地，慎重地 | |
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outrageous
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| adj.无理的，令人不能容忍的 | |
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flux
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| n.流动；不断的改变 | |
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sanctuary
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| n.圣所，圣堂，寺庙；禁猎区，保护区 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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subscription
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| n.预订，预订费，亲笔签名，调配法，下标（处方） | |
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missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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inadequate
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| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
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shamefully
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| 可耻地； 丢脸地； 不体面地； 羞耻地 | |
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