CANADIAN LIFE AND MANNERS. 139 



depths. The interest excited affects every stratum of 

 the social life. The great struggles for the Stanley 

 Cup, the supreme trophy of Canadian winter hockey, 

 are talked of for weeks beforehand. They are 

 described in fullest detail in every newspaper through- 

 out the length and breadth of the Dominion. The 

 contestants are heroes, the winners demi-gods. And, 

 indeed, no man can witness the swift and sudden 

 alternations of the game, the brilliant rushes down the 

 rink, the inevitable collisions that appear to be 

 imminent, the marvellous swerves, glides, and feints 

 by which the players avoid injury to themselves or 

 their opponents — no man can witness this fast and 

 exciting sport without his blood beginning to leap 

 and dance and shout in his veins. 



In Canada the exuberant enthusiasms that attend 

 genuine love of sport are fostered by the keen local 

 patriotism which animates the citizens of every town. 

 The inhabitants of a given town, high and low, rich 

 and poor, young and old — all are equally proud of the 

 place they dwell in. They extol its real and vaunt its 

 imagined advantages with an energy that never 

 slackens. The people strive their hardest to make the 

 merits of the district which they have chosen known 

 far and wide. They advertise their town, they 

 "boost" its advantages, they attract citizens by all 

 the devices and by every means they are able to com- 

 pass. They constitute themselves into 10,000 clubs, 

 20,000 clubs, 50,000 clubs, and labour might and 

 main to augment the population up to the limit 

 indicated in the title of the club. 



And yet tlie Canadian is the very reverse of a stick- 

 in-the-mud. He does not as a rule strike root very 



