44 ONTARIO. 



I believe the intercourse between the two people, such as 

 it is, has the opposite effect. It so happens that the very 

 scum and refuse of American society frequent the borders 

 of Canada. The cost of living in British America is just 

 one-half the cost of living in the United States. The price 

 of liquor is about three-fourths less. It therefore happens 

 that idlers, loafers, drunkards, smugglers, and a host of 

 disreputable Yankees infest the borders of Canada, to the 

 disgust of the Canadians. 



White men are like Indians in some respects ; the real, 

 true, unspoiled, and unconverted red man is a gentleman. 

 The semi-civilized Indian is a scourge. So the roughest 

 back-settler in the remotest township in Canada is a 

 thoroughly good fellow and an obliging one to boot. 

 The pests of Canada are these border rowdies men who 

 have come in contact with civilization, who wear good 

 coats and sometimes wash their faces, but who, beyond 

 this slight veneering of decency, have derived no benefit 

 from civilization, and, like the semi-civilized Indian, have 

 learnt everything that is bad. These vile pests flourish in 

 the neighbourhood of rum shops, and in border towns 

 congregate about the corners of streets as affording a good 

 position for outraging respectable passers-by. They hold 

 the theory that one man is as good as another, and take a 

 peculiar way of illustrating their theory, viz. by being on 

 all occasions as brutal and disgusting as possible. They 

 never give a civil answer to anyone, for fear that such 

 politeness might be construed into a mark of inferiority. 



Even the American tourists who travel in Canada for 

 amusement and economy for, strange as it may seem, it 

 is cheaper to travel in Canada than to live at home in the 



