The National tribune., 1901-05-16

plate each morning. 1t bears the correct
date of the month, if not of the year, for
it is precisely one year old Thus, the
fUI trader, clinging so tenaciously to civil
zation and actuality, keeps himself, as an
1rishman might say, thoroughly up-to,
date, though exactly one year behind 1t.
For. after ALL the news is perfectly fresh
to the man who reads it with so much
avidity. The bundle of 312 copies of the
Times in this case was ordered to be sent
from London, arriving safely via the Com
pany's ships, which sail annually each
June from the Thames for York Factory
on the Bay.
The Company's service has by no-means
lost its resemblance to a military organi-
zation The lowest commissioned rank is
that of apprentice clerk, who, after
serving few years. becomes full clerk
Ii he proves efficient he is promoted sue
cessively to the rank of junior chief trader,
and so on, through the grades of chief
trader, factor ana chief factor, with the
possible, though it must be confessed
rather remote, prize of Chief Commls-
sionership, with full powers delegated to
its holder. AS is generally known, Lord
StrathcOna and Mount Royal rose from
an apprentice clerk in the Company's ser
vice to Governor-in Chief at time when
the duties of that Office were really equiv
aIent to those of the present Chief Com
missionership, now held by Mr.. Chapman.
There are hundreds of the ''old-timers"
still scattered throughout the Northwest
who are full of the legends and anecdotes
of the Company'S service in Its prime
There are yet localities where dollar
bill is spoken of invariably as "bian-
ket," which might puzzle the stranger who
does not know that this is a reference to
the Hudson Bay notes of long ago, the
only currency in the country, and known
to all as BLANKETS" To hide an article
in the fur country today is to cache 1t
from the old-time practice of deposItlng
goods and provisions in the ground; you
hear metal currency still spoken OF as
"Otter-skins," and the first settlers spoke
of their houses as ''tepees" in allusiOn 20
the dwelling of the savage, so such IS the
name for primitive habitatiOns today.
Dominion law, it is almost unnecessary
to add, now prevails over the whole area
which the Company, under Charles IL.
charter, formerly held sway. When this
charter was yielded up to Canada 80
years ago, the Company retained certain
large blocks Of land, suitable for farms
and townships, and the sale of these last
year alone brought in yaster sum than
that which was received in 1869 from the
Canadian Government.
The capital now stands at f1,3OO,OO0
sterling. and last year the profits, after
all the expenses had been paid, were
above f125,00O.
The clerks and factors are today among
the hardest, brayest and most intelligent
men in the Northwest, and they rule
through their virtues and moral authority,
rather than by reason of the charters OF
Kings or the delegated powers of Gov
crnmentS.
We have spoken of the annual fur sales
OF the Company, which always take place
in London. The first sale of Hudson Bay
furs occurrd just 231 years ago at Cara
ways Coffee House. From that date un-
til the present London has maintained her
POSITION as the fur mart of the world,
where all the peltries acquired in the for
est Businesses of the last great fur pre-
serve on earth are sold to the highest bid
ders.
Beaver may give place to otter, and
ermine retreat before the superior claims
to fashion of silver fox, but the fur-bear-
ing animals of the earth, almost without
exception, no matter how remote the re-
gion OF their habitat, may expire com
fortably in the assurance that their hides
will ultimately reach the capital of the
British Empire.
q At first it is by no means easy to IN
derstand why London should thus be the
fur emporium of the world for this is not
a specially cold country, and we probably
W ear fewer furs than almost any people
of our latitude; but ever since that event
full afternoon when Prince Rupert, first
Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company,
attended the sale at Garraways s attlred
in rich Canadian sables, and attended by
many of the wits and mobiles of the day,
London has retained its special distinc-
ton. Even the Americans send their furs
to London, to be sold afterwards to their
own furriers. The capitals pre-eminence
as a commercial center, and the rank of
the nation as shipper-in-chief to the uni
verse, has been of assistance, but whether
we can always hope to retain our hold
+ho fr- ic n unnStjnu which
time must answer.
About the middle of each March in the
heart of the city q picturesque scene is
in store for the curious The fur dealers
then begin to reach the Hudson Bay Com
pany's mart from every nook and corner
of Europe. Paris, st. Petersburg, Mos,
COW, Leipsic, Frankfort, Buda-Pesth-all
dispatch their expert buyers. Nor Europe
alone, for America, Canada itself. China
and Japan are also represented.
At the warehouses in Lime street are
suspended or pigeonholed for the inspec-
ton of these pilgrims, hundreds of thou
sands of the undressed pelts of bears,
foxes, seals, offers, sables, martens,
mnks, skunks, musquashes and beavers.
Here, too, may be found the hides OF
lions, leOpards, gigantic polar bears and
numbers of musk oxen from the shores of
the Arctic Sea, all waiting to be sold to
the highest bidder.
There are Dut rev CARIBOU nlOeS, al
though vast numbers of these are an
nually bought by the Company.
1t deserves to be mentioned in this con-
nection that the number of caribou which
are secured annually in the Northwest
alone (two-thirds of which pass into the
hands of the Company is upwards of
$4,000, without including the quantities
used by the Indians and other hunters
and trappers for their own apparel. In
the early sos, at a place called Caribou
Crossing" on the Upper Yukon River,
single herds, believed to number from
$4,000 to 10000, were seen every season
by the COmpany's servants stationed at
Fort Selllirk. The numbers are now, of
course, greatly reduced; herds many thou
sands strong may be seen upon their an
nual procession upon the eastern verge
of the Mackenzie Valley Forest to the
plains adjoining Hudson's Bay and the
Great Slave Lake. But this Spring mi
grafton excites no wonder in the breast
of the Hudson's Bay factor or trader; he
tells you it is nothing to what it was II
'the good old times"
To return to the Company's London
warehouse. Here, in q row, depending
from nails, the visitor perceives the most
precious treasures of the Hudson Bay
Company's collection. What diamonds
are to the jeweler these particular skins
are to the fur trade. For so rare were
the skins of the silver fox. 1899 that
only 535 were garnered by the white and
Indian trappers of the Northwest. 1t is
not contended that the silver fox is the
most beautiful of furs (other tastes pre-
for the sable the marion and the kit