Lumber Boys were a happy-go-lucky bunch with hearts of gold to help in your time of need. If you needed a dollar they were ready and willing to give it to you.
But those lumber boys also liked their booze, and on any given Saturday night you could find them at the local saloon, chug’n the bottle n’ fillin’ the’r snoots. Fights occurred as regular as rain, leaving the drunken warriors with bloody noses and black eyes to tell the story of their weekly brawl.
On the other hand, if those boys were quick to drown themselves in liquor, they also “had a principle in those days. You know there is principle even among thieves, so it is said.” (Quote from Lee Donaldson, lumber boy) Marital faithfulness, especially on the part of women, was highly regarded.
And in the little town of Ellsworth there was one woman who had little regard for her reputation. She left her husband and went to live with another man.
Now it seemed that those lumber boys found the idea of this unprincipled union to be unforgivingly repugnant, so they——being the highly principled “real men” that they were——felt it was their duty to deal with the issue. They gathered horsewhips and tar and feathers and made their way to that house of sin.
Of course, before they could participate in this brave deed, the men covered themselves with white caps to conceal their identity.
Soon the errant couple came face to face with trouble. Those “real men” dragged both man and woman outside, stripped them, and beat them with horse whips. They smeared them with tar, rolled them in feathers and tied them to a pole. Then they paraded the couple through the streets of the little town of Ellsworth to broadcast the message of their sin.
“But, you see, those ‘real men’ all wore white caps so they wouldn’t be recognized, for people in that kind of business were usually ashamed of themselves.”
And it must be reported that in an unintended mishap they heated the tar too hot, and the man and woman were burned. “Not awful bad but yet is was too hot. It burned them a little; (it was) hotter than it should have been. Of course they shouldn’t have used any at all.” (Quotes by Lee Donaldson, lumber boy)
Why not go to Amazon or CBC and check out my book, Footprints Under the Pines. In the Jackson area, go to agape booksellers. And don’t forget, Footprints Under the Pines may be purchased at www.dawncreations.net, ordered in most bookstores or borrowed from the Library of Michigan.
