172 CANADIAN NIGHTS 



simple innocence of a narrow band of white un- 

 defiled linen invests the whole figure with an air 

 that nothing else can impart. Remove it, supply- 

 its place with a ragged woollen muffler or kerchief 

 of ancient date, and the effect is marvellous and 

 sad. If you want to destroy an aristocracy, cut 

 off their collars, not their heads. Of course there 

 are some men who bear the change better than 

 others. So there are some individuals among all 

 those classes that lead rough, wild, out-of-door 

 lives, such as hunters, trappers, miners, cattle 

 men, lumber men, &c., who look more refined and 

 neater than their fellows, and these men, being to 

 the manner born, will look a great deal more like 

 gentlemen than almost any gentleman who has 

 taken to the wild life for a while. A few weeks in 

 the wilderness will transform most high-bred 

 looking men, and give them the appearance of 

 atrocious villains of the deepest dye. You need 

 not smile, you fellows, I really have not any 

 personal feeling in this matter. It is true that 

 my appearance and probable circumstances in life 

 have been the subject of varied criticism and 

 frequent remarks. I have had many trades, occu- 

 pations, and missions in life attributed to me, all 

 very wide of the mark, but none of them incom- 



