18 CANADIAN WILDS. 



separate piles and then classified according to 

 value. The sum total being arrived at the 

 amount of his outfit and supplies being de- 

 ducted he was given a "bon" on the trade shops 

 for his credit balance. 



Shortly after the Free Trader and his wife 

 would be seen in the shop decking themselves 

 out with finery, bright and gay colored clothes 

 and fixings were the first consideration. After 

 if there still remained a credit, luxuries in the 

 eating way were indulged and that night a feast 

 given by the Free Traders to the employes and 

 hangers on at the post. 



Yes, they were a jolly, childlike race of men 

 and as improvident as an Indian for the re- 

 quirements of tomorrow. I have described the 

 Free Trader of the past, and now I propose to 

 describe the Free Trader of today, and as he 

 has been for the last two decades. 



The building of the Canadian Pacific trans- 

 continental road brought in its trail a class of 

 very undesirable men. All rules have excep- 

 tions. I must therefore be just and not con- 

 demn all, but the majority of them were toughs 

 and whiskey peddlers. They were the forerun- 

 ners of the Free Traders of the present day, 

 from Mattawa in the east to the shores of the 

 Pacific on the west. They would start from 

 some town back east with a keg of the strong 



