To the Reader 



are especially after, for without men of your class 

 the alluring dividends of manufacturing com- 

 panies, banks, and railways would soon dwindle. 

 So you may as well know your value to Canada 

 at once. 



Or perhaps you have dear friends or relatives 

 pioneer farming in Saskatchewan or Manitoba or 

 Alberta, nobly subduing nature to man's use, 

 who find but little time to write details of their 

 lives to you, for they are engaged in heroic work, 

 and are for the most part heroes and heroines, 

 though the last to recognize themselves as such. 

 Should the following pages help you to under- 

 stand their lives and increase your sympathy 

 towards them, the author will be well repaid, 

 for he has many friends among them. 



Or possibly you are one who, like the writer, 

 for some reason has had unexpectedly to retiu*n 

 to the Old Country, and after reading a page 

 or two drop into prairie speech and remark : 

 " Gee-whiz ! this fellow talks to beat the band, 

 but I didn't see things like this " ; and if you go 

 on reading you may wonder why there is so little 

 about the marvellous towns and their rapid 

 growth, of great chances to grow rich, speculat- 

 ing in real estate, and many other marvels of 

 the Great West. 



Well, Canada is a fine country, but there is 



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