Some Personal Recollections of Victoria. 319 



almost every corner of the colony for the enjoyment of the best 

 of fishing in the world and fair sport for the gun, presented attrac- 

 tions which many of those who had seen other parts of the world 

 knew how to value. It is true that some of those who made British 

 Columbia their home had not the wherewithal to leave for pastures 

 new a standing joke in the Cahfornian press the mining ventures 

 having " cleaned them out to bedrock." On the other hand, men 

 who could have got away would not. " B.C. is good enough for 

 me, though it is B.C.," was a play of words one often heard even 

 in later years. Thus it happened that the older type of Victoria 

 homes one saw peeping out of groves of trees, were unpretentious 

 cottages, covered with honeysuckles and clematis, while rambling 

 outhouses added at odd times in humble imitation of England's 

 old manor houses, only heightened the likeness to farmhouses at 

 home. They made upon one a pleasing impression, which was 

 not decreased by the gardens, where flourished in great, though 

 perhaps untrimmed, profusion the old-fashioned flowers so dear 

 to those who have turned their backs on their native land. 

 The men one met in the streets of Victoria were of the English 

 country-town type sturdy, well-nurtured, florid complexioned 

 men beings that took life easily, that ate their dinners of 

 wholesome roast beef in a tranquil frame of mind, and that 

 drank their Scotch or Irish whiskey to " keep out the damp," 

 as they said in the humid coast districts, while in the rainless 

 up-country regions it was imbibed to " irrigate the interior of a 

 Christian." 



No greater contrast can be imagined than the conditions of life 

 ,in British Columbia produced by these features, and, on the other 

 hand, the everlasting hurry and feverish high pressure existence in 

 the larger towns of Washington or Oregon, immediately to the south 

 of British Columbia. True, dollars accumulated very slowly in sleepy 

 Victoria, where the shops and offices opened and closed at hours 

 that made the visitor hailing from Yankeeland rub his eyes with 

 surprise. Millionaires were conspicuous by their total absence, efhd 

 the wealthy men, who could be counted on the fingers of one hand, 



