The story of a pass in the Aidrondacks

Preface

Windsor Forest.

This book is a sort of compound of the author's personal experiences and observations, together with stories and yarns picked up by the way. In weaving them into a book I have endeavored to make the completed tale instructive as well as inspiring to the youthful reader, while the mild flights of philosophy indulged in here and there, have been with the object of possibly leaving "a good taste in the mouth" of the more mature and critical reader who might scoff at the story as a whole.

The Adirondack wilderness is a very different one from the days when William H. H. Murray wrote of it. Then the mountains were visited by a few hundreds at the most. Now the annual visitors are many thousands in number. But In spite of its popularity and accessibility, there still remain opportunities and places in plenty for

6 Preface

mildly exciting experiences and adventures, In this domain of nature. They can be found If sought with persistence and Intelligence. If not found It will be largely the fault of the seeker, not of the wilderness In which they are concealed. For, after all, a great many of the pleasurable experiences of one's life, or the absence of them. Is dependent on the frame of mind one Is In, and the mood and temperament In which one approaches the object of his pleasure. The charm of the woods, the poetry of the trail, the thrill of the strike In the depths of a black pool, or the tingling of the blood on a frosty morning, at the echo of a rifle shot, rest as much with the buoyancy of spirit as with training and experience. It Is In hopes of mxaking a small contribution to all three that the book Is written.

Arbor day 1917.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. ABUSES OF PASSES IN GENERAL 1 3

II. ADIRONDACK ROADS, OLD AND NEW 28

Chapter I

INTEREST in the pass In question did not begin in the Adirondacks proper, but at a little hamlet of clam diggers and fishermen on the shores of Long Island. And it was only a paste-board pass after all, instead of one of mountain crags, overhanging cliffs and enticing valleys. That and these came later.

It Is related of the late Commodore Vanderbllt, that he once wrote a personal letter to a Dutch farmer who lived up the Hudson, berating him for permitting so many of his sheep, swine and cattle being killed on the old Commodore's railroad. The Dutchman had put In many and frequent claims for losses in this way and settlements had been more than occasional. The old farmer's name had become familiar at headquarters.

Vanderbllt wrote most as wretched a hand as Horace Greeley. The farmer could not decipher the contents of the letter. Neither could the village postmaster or any of the loungers in the village store. But someone made a happy suggestion.

"Why, van Twiller" said he, "that is a pass over the railroad. The old man has sent you a pass over the railroad because you are so well known at the office."

Whereat the honest farmer rode on it the rest of his life; none of the conductors of the road to whom it was presented being able to read it.

Such was not the abuse of an honest pass or guest's ticket upon an Adirondack Game Club preserve that John Randle, honest fisherman and clam digger of Long Island, received from a millionaire member one summer. For it was subjected to a casuistical treatment that would have done credit to a professor of philosophy or the decision of some logician presiding over some famous hall of learning. It would not have been subjected to the shameful treatment it was however, nor the millionaire's original benevolent intentions diverted as they were, if it had not been that there was stopping at John's humble cottage at the time, a young civil engineer, with his cousin, a young college student and his nephew, a sturdy lad of fourteen.

Fred Halstead, but a little over thirty years old, was a solid, substantial fellow,possessed of a merry temperament and a fondness for out door life emphasized by the fact that he had been denied much of it, by being cooped up In the great city of New York most of the time. A graduate of Harvard, he was of a fine old New York family. But his were like many of the old aristocratic families of to-day. They had flourished and shown forth In social as well as mercantile leadership of a generation passed, on a modest capital, the tenth of a million. Now the members of the family found themselves unable to pay even flat rent from the modest portion of the family fortune inherited. The traditions, the Instincts of refinement, the social position even, is handed down. But the younger set, most of them true to the blood of the pioneers, had to get out and hustle and win a place in the hive of social industry, in which their social circle could not help them in the least.

So Halstead had made good. He had worked his way through college to a considerable extent, served on the athletic teams, the same In surveyors' gangs In vacations and was now head of an engineering force on the New York Central lines. For months he had been readjusting the levels in the tunnels under Park Avenue. To escape the terrific heat of the summer that had just come on, he had obtained a three weeks' vacation for himself and his cousin, Earl Baxter, who was spending his vacation as a rodman in the surveying work. As affording a retreat easy of access and not as expensive as the popular and fashionable resorts, they had selected the quiet cove by John's place. They put up at his cottage, sharing the rooms, the meals and even some of his work, all as a part of their play, affording as it all did, a welcome change. Out of love for a widowed sister and fondness for the boy, Halstead had taken the orphaned lad before mentioned, along. They went fishing with John in his cat-boat and dug clams in the sand; went bathing in the surf and were lazily enjoying themselves until the pass in question came one day, in the afternoon mail. It at once sent Halstead to instant and frantic planning.

The bit of tinted paste-board had been sent to John by a New York broker, for whom he had done a slight service the year before, when the rich man's yacht had been anchored off the coast for a few days. John had sold the steward some clams and met the millionaire owner several times. He had promised John that he would hear from him sometime and that he would send him a present. The promise had been fulfilled now. In shape of a guest's ticket or pass upon one of the richest and most extensive private game preserves in the Empire state. Probably the broker had no idea it would ever be used. The preserve was a couple of hundred miles away. John was one of those typical Long Island clam diggers and fishermen. A native, habituated to his neighborhood, never straying far from its environs. Quite likely the broker had been making out a pass for some bosom friend. Something happened to bring John to his mind. In a jocular mood he had made one out for the honest Long Island fisherman, chuckling to himself as he thought of the contrast between the treeless tract of John's abode by the ocean, and the mighty forests of the mountains on the preserve. It would let John know that he had not been forgetten, the pass would never be used, and no harm done, possibly some good, as John's heart was warmed by the remembrance.

Not so with Halstead and his cousin the rodman. His own position as a rodman himself in his student days, had taken him far and near. His acquaintance with the employment by a large lumber company some years before, had taken him pretty well over the wilderness of the Adirondacks. Moreover he had worked through this identical preserve when he was a rodman; he was familiar with its streams, lakes, trails and lodges, together with the excellent fishing and hunting the region afforded. True, the surveying gang had not been permitted to wet a line or pull the trigger of a fowling piece or rifle, so closely had they been watched by the Club game keepers. The opportunity to pass to its enchanted realms by means of John's pass was not to be lost, if he could but arrange it. He had never possessed the $5000 necessary to become a member of the Club and probably never would. Here was his chance, here was his opportunity. Besides he was not too old to still have a spirit of fun and adventure such as using John's ticket for a trip to the mountains afforded. And to the college spirit for a lark, his cousin Earl only egged him on, while the Kid said a figurative amen to the very suggestion.

The possibility of "borrowing" the pass was broached to John. He was nothing loath to part with it for a modest consideration, providing if it was used as proposed, none of the members of the party were to do anything to bring disgrace upon John. The Kid would have to obey his uncle anyway. The chief concern of John appeared to be that Halstead or Earl, in exuberance of spirit at being let loose in the great preserve, might feel an undue liberty in fishing or hunting, or a protection not at all warranted by the pass, and thus violate the game laws of the state. The year previous the game wardens had been unusually active in trailing violators on Long Island, and conviction of some prominent men had resulted. In personifying him in the Adirondacks, as it was recognized would be necessary for someone to do, John wanted no risks taken, for the sake of his own skin. Upon being reassured by Halstead however, that all would keep well within the letter of the game laws of the state, the precious pass passed hands and the merry party began at once to make preparations to leave the very next day.

The railroad would take them to within twenty-five miles of the preserve and within about thirty miles of a Hatchery, a sort of Forest Lodge and fish culture plant combined, in the midst of the very best fishing of the tract. With the train decided upon, the exciting task of preparation was begun. The heavy rods and gaff hooks for deep sea fishing were packed away and the lighter rods and landing nets for trout fishing were brought out and overhauled. Finely braided, oiled silk lines were wound and rewound on Shakespeare and other reels.

Single and double snell hooks were being carefully assorted when John mildly suggested that "them silk stocking sports" he understood, were never much on bait fishing in fresh water, their speciality being assortments of highly colored and highly priced flies. At this Halstead explained with a snort of disgust, that that would do very well on Long Island and other near by places. But that in the great Adirondack wilderness he was going to make no such concessions to artificial sport. They were going back to nature and bait fishing was natural and within the law, and he was going to take trout there in the good old fashioned way, with worms. Whereupon John remarked that it would be difficult to get worms in the poor soil of the mountains. To this wise observation Halstead acceded with gratitude, and the Kid was despatched to the garden at once, with a lantern and a pail, with instructions to pick up all the night crawlers possible until bedtime. If sufficient had not been secured by then, his bedtime might be mercifully extended for once.

With packbaskets carefully filled with provisions, rods tied together, fish-baskets packed with odds and ends like socks, towels and soap and other trifles, the Kid and his pail of worms were thought of. The faithful youngster had stuck to his job for an hour and more. Investigation found that he had secured nearly three quarts of squirming anglers; but the six quart pail, full, Halstead declared would be none too many. So all turned to and helped until it was a solid mass of wrigglers. Carefully covered with a couple of inches of grass and earth and a piece of burlap securely tied over it, it was deposited with the baskets and rods. Earl insisted on taking his camera. Halstead had demurred at this as taking up too much room and being a bother. But the Kid voiced his sentiments with Earl, so finally a place was found for it in one of the fish baskets. A most happy circumstance, as after events proved. It was a happy trio that finally retired, near to midnight, their subconscious minds charged with the obligation to rise before dawn, for a hasty breakfast and an early train.

True to the psychic element that in primitive man would have made alarm clocks useless if they had been known, all were up betimes, breakfasting on John's ample meal of smelts, fried potatoes, coffee and warm biscuits.

"Here's to the speckled beauties of the North Woods" said Halstead, as he seized a good sized smelt by the head and tail and began eating away its fat sides exactly as a hungry fisherman does everywhere.

"Yes" answered John as he refilled Halstead's coffee cup for him; "That is when you get'em. Though you ought to with them worms. But mind now, you don't be catching any trout under sized, I tell you".

"Oh, don't worry about that John" said Halstead between bites, "we won't catch any on the preserve but what are legal size all right enough; never fear about that."

"Yes", chimed in the Kid, "and some of my worms are mor'n six inches long, theirselves".

"And if any are sixteen inches" said Earl, "we will take a picture of them for your especial benefit, John, before we eat them".

"All right" assented John, "only don't be doing nothing that will reflect on me. For I don't want to get in bad with that there millionaire fellow. He was a good customer and might come around again, one of these days". This possible offense to his passing rich acquaintance seemed to concern John more than the possibility of his immediate friends getting into the meshes of the law on their own account.

Pausing in the great, broiling city of New York only long enough to make a few purchases of necessary things to complete their outfitting, they hurried to the Grand Central station and took their train. The railroad trip, with but one exchange, took them to X station where they were to secure a conveyance, was made in six hours. Arrived at the little hamlet of station, tavern, store, livery and not above half a dozen dwellings, Halstead was surprised to find that the enterprising stage driver and owner of the job of transporting the United States mall from the station to the village, a couple of miles away, was the owner of an automobile. Ascertaining that the road to Mink lake where they were to go onto the preserve, had been made passable for a car, that the owner of the car in question was willing to take them in for ten dollars, and knowing the charge for a team and buckboard at the livery, would be six or eight dollars, he speedily hired the car. Earl was quietly jubilant, while the Kid scarcely suppressed a hurrah.

During the trip on the train It had been agreed that Halstead, who was familiar with the country, the Club and Its rules, as well as being the oldest and most respectable appearing of the party, should pass as John Randle named on their pass. Earl, out of consideration of the Club rules that a guest could not take another person on the preserve as his guest, was to pass as a general utility man, recently from Germany. All three being familiar with German according to their years, they thought this would do to work off In an emergency. Out of consideration of the tender years of the Kid (and there being no necessity) Innocent deceit on his part or In his behalf was not planned for.

Born of experience and observation in his previous years in surveying In the Adirondacks, Halstead carefully concealed from the rustic owner of the automobile that their destination was to be the preserve. He well knew that he would have been instantly taken for a millionaire and charged accordingly. To avoid this possible disgrace and embarrassment, and to escape the honor of being heavily charged for any possible accommodation, he had casually mentioned something about going in to see the fire warden at Mink lake and do a little fishing on the state lands. Proceeding along this line, one of his yellow back bills was soon nestling in the wallet of the native owner of the only automobile of the country 'round, and it was at his service forthwith; or as soon as the honest granger could get out his team and the old stage for the regular but lazy traffic between the station and the village and secure someone to take charge of the government affairs during his absence.

The bargain and contract being placed, however, both Halstead and Earl assumed their roles, and in a manner calculated to impress the natives. This was done by Halstead announcing to the landlord of the tavern that he was on the way to the Club preserve, throwing a dollar on the bar to treat the house, telling Earl to hustle out and buy some fresh eggs and giving the Kid a quarter to spend. The loungers who had been scattered along the veranda at once arose as one body and made their way to the bar to accept his invitation. He went into the one telephone booth in the office, thoughtfully leaving the door open and getting one of the Club houses enquired about the Hatchery, the trails, boats and kindred subjects. He knew all about these things fairly well, but did not begrudge the fifteen cents for the fun he was getting by the impression he was making on the natives by the maneuver.

The magic effect of his casual words and simple actions were to be seen in many ways. The stage driver had muttered under his breath *'Club people, eh?" but immediately swallowed his wrath and was now swallowing ale to the health of his patron. The landlord hurried and put a clean towel on the roller over the primitive wash-stand, while the Kid was eyed with increased interest and curiosity by a group of barefooted urchins, who were squeezing mud through their toes as they stood around the watering trough. Earl taking his cue, impressed upon the storekeeper that his master, the millionaire Club member was very particular about his eggs, especially how they were packed, and speedily returned to the tavern with them securely put up in a small and compact package that would just slip into a pack-basket.

During the half hour waiting for the car to be made ready, the hitherto aimless and well nigh shapeless loungers, moved about with erect bodies and alert eyes. They ventured to give the now venerated millionaire mild suggestions as to how best to get to the preserve on that particular side of the mountains, what trails to take around the lakes and what guides were available. All agreed that It was a hazardous undertaking, this going on the tract from this side. Many and various were the difficulties, not as yet overcome by the new road, to the new Club House the organization had erected at the end of It. No Club guide, Halstead was assured, knew half as much as they themselves how to get the strangers to the Hatchery, which Halstead admitted was their destination. In fact, their Intimate knowledge of the many and prodigious difficulties and hardships of the trails and carries was so very accurate, that Earl, unwise to the ways of the woods and the shrewed natives, was upset and disconcerted. He was so Impressed that he drew his cousin aside and proposed that they hire at least a couple of the men to act as guides; but Halstead, with a recklessness born of experience, only laughed it down. Instead of hiring any of them for guides, he mollified them all, and the landlord too, for not lingering for a meal, yet soiling his clean towel, by very lavishly ordering another treat all around. Most of them drank the vile whiskey of their old friend and neighbor, the landlord, while they proposed the health and luck of their new millionaire friend, all with plebian gusto. Buying a small package of sealed goods, the best the tavern afforded, to use themselves in case of emergency, and a quart of cheap tangle foot for treating any chance guides they might meet, they climbed Into the automobile and were off.

Chapter II

HALSTEAD who had gone Into the woods on this route several times, surveying, contrasted with pleasing mood, the trip on this occasion, with his last one some years before. Then the road was really and truly a wilderness one. Swamps were crossed over bumping corduroy; the hills were long stretches of mealy sand, where all had to get out and walk. Even then the horses had to be given a rest of a minute or two half way up or at the top, sometimes both, to get their wind. Where there was not sinking, yielding sand or the uneven corduroy, there were ^'pebbles" in plenty, ranging in size from a merry widow hat to a steamer trunk. Or there would be great sloughs of despond through which the horses wallowed with difficulty. The wheels of the buck-board would then sink so far in the mud, that occasionally, as a wheel struck a hidden reef and the vehicle given a hard jounce, the downward spring of the flexible board of the buckboard would slap the mud so hard that great splashes of mother earth in partial solution, would fly high and spatter the helpless but patient passengers.

It is related that in the good old days of toting freight in a lumber wagon over one of these roads in the Adirondacks, a driver paused with his team for a brief rest, on the edge of one of these mellow stretches. As he was lighting his pipe, he espied a strap lying on the surface of the mud. Thinking it might come handy to rvspair a possible break in his outfit sometime, he went to pick it up. Whereupon he found it was the end of a line to the harnesses of another tote team, which, with the wagon and driver had sunk below the surface of this highway of the Empire state. It is further related how this ingenious woodsman set about to rescue team and perishing driver, which he did with complete success, and in a very simple way. The road where the catastrophe occurred was on the side of a mountain. There were several sticks of dynamite in his own load. Securing a couple he quickly blew out the lower bank of the roadway, whereat the mud and water were quickly drained and the semi-drowned team and driver were liberated just in the nick of time, for they had nearly suffocated.

Now things had changed and conditions were improved. The Club people in their honest zeal to promote the public welfare and at the same time facilitate access to a remote part of their preserve for their members, had sicked the politicians onto the good roads appropriation for that neck of the woods, with a vim. What greater good than to open up the wilderness to the public in general and their private preserve as well? So a hundred thousand dollars had been secured and expended. The road too had been built by the practical men of the woods under the kindly eye and oversight of outside officials. Who knew better than the former, the following of trails, the crossing of mountains and the circumventing of swamps? It is true that the gravel put on the new road was local and localized for the thirtyfive miles of its existence as evidenced by the borrow pits they now whizzed past every little ways. The ends of much old and new corduroy were sticking out at the sides of the filling in the swamps. In a few years it would all be rotted away, and the swamps as bad as ever. The hills it was true, were now firm with the loamy gravel or gravelly loam drawn from the borrow pits. They were provided with no proper drainage and would probably wash out nicely with a couple of seasons' rain.

Halstead noted all these things with the trained eye of an,expert; but he was gratified nevertheless, because the trip was made in less than two hours, whereas it formerly took nearly a day. So It was with blasts from the horn of their automobile and a united hurrah and a rattling of the planks on the bridge over the outlet of the lake that they arrived, with a rush and a cloud of dust, at the fire warden's house, their destination for the day.

Seth Egan, the official, gave the party a hearty welcome, and the information that theirs was the first automobile to come in and stop at his place. For although the Club cars ran almost daily, and some ten miles farther, to their new Club House at the end of the road, they did not stop at his abode. To use his own quaint expression they did not even "hesitate, but get by like a streak uv greased lighting". Automobiles had not yet become extensively popular even outside; so It was not to be wondered at that none were owned by the few woodsmen and trappers who still lingered In that part of the wilderness, in spite of the fact that the lumber crop had been harvested. As Halstead and his party of surveyors had boarded with Seth for awhile when they were working In these parts, he and his two companions were now most cordially welcomed by Mrs. Egan as well as Seth.

An Interesting character was Seth Egan, as well as was the little hamlet at the foot of the lake. This section of the woods was a part of the town of W. . . .. The densest part of the population of the town was "acrosst the holler" on the south side of the mountain range. Altogether the entire town had a total of one hundred and seven inhabitants. Naturally the population at the foot of the lake where our friends were now stopped, was not very numerous. It bore the classic name of Clay and its total of inhabitants were eleven. Seven in Seth's family, one hermit, two trappers and the school teacher. For Clay was a school district and the Egan children sufficient in number to command public money. Seth was fire warden and keeper of two or three storage reservoirs for providing water for the canals. They had been projected away back in the times when Dewitt Clinton was projecting his ditch, the pioneer of the present canal system of New York State. It is said that the now famous Fulton Chain of lakes in the Adirondacks were included in the original survey and that Robert Fulton the steamboat man was the surveyor, and gave them his name. The upkeep of all state reservoirs has always been religiously maintained since their inception, whether their waters are used or not. And in case of the ones in the town Seth watched over, they were carefully repaired and re-repaired, and the keeper was always a power among the forty or so voters in the town.

Seth was a type of the average back-woodsman, with a native keenness and Intelligence, that coupled with a hearty and jovial manner made him a pleasant personality. The recluse of the hamlet was a Justice of the Peace. Only for the fact that there was no regular mall service requiring a post office, and that the constables lived over the mountains and across the "holler" the two woodsmen-trappers might have completed the cycle of office holding among the male population of Clay.

Nestling In a small clearing at the foot of the beautiful lake, this hamlet of three houses and a barn was the last outpost of the real and great public our friends were to see for a fortnight. Next day they were to plunge Into the enchanted realm of the private wilderness of a private club. That night as the Kid nestled In a great feather bed, with Earl, and listened to the hoot of an owl, he shivered and wished he was back on Long Island again; and resolved. to dissuade his uncle from the trip In the morning. But to Earl, as he listened to the muffled roar of water at the distant spillway, and heard the dull but pleasing tinkle of the cow-bell on Egan's brindle mooly as she browsed at the edge of the clearing, there was only contentment. He was glad to be away from the distracting roar of the trains In the

34 The Story of a Pass in the Adlrondacks

tunnel, and he was satisfied to know that he was to shoulder a pack-basket the next few days, instead of a surveyor's rod and instruments.

With his worm gathering and general excitement of anticipation, the Kid had had but a few hours of sleep the previous night. A deadlike sleep of over nine hours in Mrs. Egan's comfortable bed restored his spirits as well as the elasticity of youth and spirits. He was up with the grey dawn of morning to see, explore and prepare. His uncle and Earl were up before him, however. He soon espied them fishing in the lake from the shore, his uncle standing on a rock that jutted out into the lake. Earl from his place was casting many yards of line out onto the black waters, with the pail of worms between his feet. The string around the burlap cover had been loosened and the burlap raised just enough to admit of getting "only a couple" for their morning's try.