Richmond daily palladium., 1901-09-11
A LAND OF LAZINESS.
IN NOVA SCOTIA.
In That Sleepy Province Nobody
Hurries or Worries-StrnnEers and
Tourists Are Welcomed and Skiee
Are Always Blue.

Tourists Are Welcomed and skies
Are Away. Blue.
= Up in Nova Scotia there Is a train
called the Flying BIuenose" which
runs between Yarmouth and Halifax.
The adjective is used adversely, be
cause in all the province there is moth
ing else that flies or hurries. II is q
lazy, sleepy. happy go lucky land
where men are satisfied with a modest
competence turned up from the fields
or drawn from the sea. Why n people
who must fight the rigors Of q long
winter are not more enterprising Is
problem for the ethnOlogiSt. The sum
mer visitor does not pGzzle his head
with it. He is content to lie outstretch-
ed In grass of emerald green and gaze
al skies of deepest blue.
1t was on the Flying Sluenose" that
n traveller asked the conductor-very
gay in blue and brass-if the train
would begin its flight on time The
conductor smiled genially and irresisti-
bly,. 1t was clear that the world was
his friend. The traveller waited for an
answer and then repeated his query.
The conductor smiled again, even more
genially.
We'll" he replied, maybe it will
anu maybe ii won't"
In his answer lay the spirit of the
place. At first the tourist rebels against
it, He wants to be told 10 Hurry
up.' and "G'wan there" 1t doesn't
seem quite right that his quasi host
should take life quite so easily when
perhaps he himself has run a block to
catch the train. But ten hours beyond
Yarmouth the tourist swings around
10 the conductors point OF view. Sud
denly he discovers that he IS walking
like an ordinary man. that he is think
ing of something besides time tables
and that on no account should he do
today what he can put off till tor4r-
row. He concludes that time is a
servant not a master; that life is not
arithmetic to be reckoned in integers
and fractions.
AS natural corollary 10 this propo-
sition of placid existence there follows
the whole souled cordiality which the
Nova Scotians show to strangers. 1t
isn't because they want only the stran-
gers money. Keepers of boarding
houses and proprietors of hoteB in GER
tain other quarters of the North Amer
ican continent want the strangers
money, and. what is more, they get il
in hammer and tongs sort of way.
To the Nova Scotian the summer ex-
odus is an event whose financial inter
est is absolutely subsidiary.
The Rluenose likes to meet and talk
TO the man from Boston or New York
or Chicago. He is so busy about moth
ing in particular that he is interested
in everything in general. Ask him for
a match, stop him to inquire the time
of day. and he chats with you for an
hour. There is no need for him to hur-
ry 10 store the fragrant marsh hay in
the barn. The oxen VIII wait patient
ly. Tomorrow's sky Will be blue
There VIII always be another harvest.
The Bluenose doesn't inquire wheth-
er or no You like Nova Scotia.
Wisely. he takes it for granted that
you do. His conversat ton has 10 do
with matters of personal and Intimate
interest. He desires TO know the
strangers vocation, his age, his poll
tics. what is going on in the States,
anything new. The inquisition is so
deft that the most secretive person in
the world tells his questioner more
than he asks. There are no false ideas
Of station TO interrupt intercourse.
A driver at Wolfville was taking
party Of tourists through the country
OF the Acadians. which Longfellow i'm
mortalzed. and which. by the way,
he never visited. The horses started
out bravely. then trotted lazily and
finally dropped into a walk.
The driver ventured a comment or
two on the weather and finally en-
tered into his passengers converse
ton
u thought you were our driver"
said one of theC, pointedly.
I'm a gentleman first" quoth the
driver.
Nova Scotia Is not yet tourist ridden.
Its comparative inaccessibility has
been its salvation. There Is elbow
room for everybody and living IS mex
pensive. The first price * tentative,
and there is a sliding scale with ap-
parenrly no bottom. Twenty-Five cents
means much 70 the man who stables
your horses or rents you 3 bicycle
And he does the StablinC or the renting
with such an air OF perfect good VIII
and understanding that you feel like
the recipient OF distinguished favor.
1t is a pleasant feeling because il is
not sureharced with the dollar mark.
Altogether. the peninsula Is partly
Acadia and entirely Arcadia From
yarmouth 10 Halifax, through pigby