Next year : $b a semi-historical account of the exploits and exploitations of the far-famed Barr Colonists, who, led by an unscrupulous Church of England parson, adventured deep into the wilderness of Canada's great North-West in the early days of the twentieth centuryPick, Harry
History
Next year : $b a semi-historical account of the exploits and exploitations of the far-famed Barr Colonists, who, led by an unscrupulous Church of England parson, adventured deep into the wilderness of Canada's great North-West in the early days of the twentieth century
Pick, Harry
Barr Colony -- Fiction; Canada -- Emigration and immigration -- Fiction; Frontier and pioneer life -- Saskatchewan -- Fiction; Northwest, Canadian -- History -- Fiction; Saskatchewan -- Description and travel -- Fiction
That morning, the hamlet had jumped out of bed with a population of a
trifle over a hundred to its credit--or, allowing for a few of the
more important citizens being counted twice, say a level one hundred.
At night, it retired to rest boasting two thousand. Saskatoon's
eclipse was over.
The camp sprang into vivid life early the next morning. There was
much to be done. The faces of the natives whom the colonists came in
contact with were all burned a deep nut brown, the result of the
reflection of the sun's heat off late winter snows. "Everybody's
been to the seaside," Bert decided to himself. This tanned
appearance, coupled with the narrowing of their eyes, which was
caused by squinting through the glare, imparted a by no means
unsightly aboriginal aspect to the natives.
The "Barr-lambs" were soon approached by those of the shrewd-looking
traders who had horses, or oxen, or something or other to sell.
Everything in the district--even portions of the "town" itself--was
for sale. No one seemed to mix sentiment with ownership. A
practical sort of philosophy, that!--especially when one remembers
that one is on earth for only sixty or seventy years.
Most of the males of the Barr party plunged into orgies of buying.
It is quite safe to state that never in the history of colonization
in Western Canada has such a multitude of wealthy and free-handed
spenders been gathered in one place.
It was Saskatoon's day out. Even Fate itself took sides, neglecting
its duties of determining the "Heads or tails?" of existence
elsewhere on earth, in order to patronize the little hamlet.
Prodigious efforts were made to satisfy the many needs of the
colonists. From a baker's shop but slightly larger than a fair-sized
room, a man worked day and night in an endeavour to keep the camp
supplied with bread. It was an impossible task. So flapjacks,
pancakes and bannock bread were concocted.
Weird experiences of the widest variety crowded thick and fast about
the ingenuous Englishmen. One young fellow, a pale, thin-cheeked
grocer's assistant from somewhere in Sussex, bought a stallion, three
sections of drag harrows, and a pair of spurs within twenty-four
hours of reaching Saskatoon. The vendor of the horse was an Ontario
man. He said the animal's official name was "Napoleon Bonyparte,"
and that it possessed (which is more than the Emperor himself did) a
pedigree longer than from Guelph to Owen Sound.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Next year : $b a semi-historical account of the exploits and exploitations of the far-famed Barr Colonists, who, led by an unscrupulous Church of England parson, adventured deep into the wilderness of Canada's great North-West in the early days of the twentieth century — John Shaqi
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