The fruitfulness of the mission of a transportation company with $1,038,074,983.26 of assets, with a property investment of $538,510,563.24 and annual gross earnings of $152,389,334.95 must be well-nigh incalculable, especially to a democratic country--to the last great west, with so vast an area and promising though veiled future. The Canadian Pacific Railway is heavy with import and deeply interlaced with the potentialities of our own Canada. W. B. LANIGAN Freight Traffic Manager, Canadian Pacific Railway A Biographical Reminisence [Illustration: W. B. LANIGAN, Freight Traffic Manager, Canadian Pacific Railway, Montreal, Que.] An Irishman taking home a large goose after a raffle, stopped at a hillside inn in Wicklow to procure refreshment. Laying down the prize he proceeded to satisfy his thirst when a suspicious looking individual seized the fowl and made off with it. Pat at once gave chase and grasping the runaway by the neck exclaimed, “What did you take the bird fore” “Sure!” said the thief, “an’ I took it for a lark”. “Did ye”, said Pat, “begorra then, you’d make a poor judge at a bird show”. And by the same token, the man or maid who would take W. B. Lanigan for an uncivil, disgruntled misanthrope, who could not enjoy a lark, would be a decidedly poor judge of human nature. He has rubbed shoulders with good and ill fortune, has contended for thirty-three years with almost every variety of railroading obstacle, hewing his way to comparatively smooth sailing under the “C.P.R.” flag and the ordeal has not impaired his optimistic outlook, but finds him to-day a sociable, approachable and happy dispositioned man of affairs. Do not infer from this tribute, however, that the gentleman cannot look after himself, does not jealously protect his Company’s best interests and is incapable of administering a merited rebuke, or even a scorching blast, because he can. An old admirer and personal friend described him to me as a hot-headed Irishman of fine parts with whom he had had many a good natured wrangle in his attempts to circumvent the railway’s rates and regulations. In Three Rivers, Quebec, October 12th, 1861, William B. Lanigan was born and in due time was educated at St. Josephs College of that city and at Stanstead University in Old Quebec. Sharbot Lake Junction is a quiet place and no doubt, was a lonesome spot that night in September, 1884, when he first put his hand to a man’s task as night operator in the Canadian Pacific Railway station. Undaunted, he obeyed orders and began the foundation for a future that led him through practically every phase of freight traffic work from helping in construction and running a ballast train to shed porter, billing clerk, telegraph operator and undertaking the “trick” of train dispatcher.