The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-02-18
Saturda Eve 1li1lg
Special Correspondence Boston Tran
- = .~' e: script -

Special Correspondence Boston Tran.
s.-s~ script. FL.
In the city Of Winnipeg is depart
ment store covering a block. There you
can buy lady's handkerchief with real
Valenciennes trimmings for 81. In the
from Paris, marked at 81 a yard. You
can buy there a sparkling plug for
a 1905 model automobile. If that
store were set down on Washington
street in Boston, there would be moth
ing conspicuous to distinguish it from
White g. In size, in the taste of it's
| windows and counters, in the quantity
and quality and variety of its wares,
| it is much the same as any department.
store in the largest eastern cities.
Now the remarkable thing is-not
that Winnipe should have such store,
for Winnipeg has assumed metropolitan
proportions, and metropolitan store Is
no anomaly. But over that store waves
a British flag, and in the red field Of
the flag are the letters "H. B. CO.
That is the first acquaintance of a west
company traveller who conceived Of
this ancient corporation as a company
which maintains thruout the Arctic and
sub-Arctic regions a score or so of little
old log trading posts where the COM
pany's agents barter muskets and
powder and sugar and salt to the In
dams in exchange for skins and furs.
And for the first two hundred years Of
the ancient company's history, that
one; for the odd years that have
elapsed since the company passed its BIZ
centennial, since it began to see its fur
producing territory Of primeval forest
constantly shrinking before the advanc-
=. ing edge of settlement, that department
store in Winnipeg has represented the
principal business of the company. In
all the towns Of western Canada, in Re-
gina, in Prince Albert, in Calgary, in
the principal store does business under
the flag Of the Hudson's Bay company
and is a duplicate, proPortioned to the
size Of the town, Of that department
store at Winnipeg.
This is a very picturesque and inter
esting thing from many points Of view.
1t is precisely as if the corporate sue
cessors and descendants of William
Penn and his associates were running
John Wanamaker's store in Philadel-
phia, as if the Massachusetts, Bay com
Pany were selling groceries and proyis':
branches at Lowell, Lawrence, Spring.
field and Worcester. All these com
panies, including the Virginia company
the Calverts and Oglethorpe, and even
the East India company and Give and
era-the full name Of the company
smacks of Elizabeth. and Charles
l Ethe governor and company Of mer.
chant Adventures trading with Hud,
son 8 Bay.' And all these companies
were chartered for the same purpose
to exploit the natural resources Of a
great territory. Of them all, the Hud-
| 3o OIL ir1r CIR
wives. There is probably not in his
tory an example to match it, of corpo.
rate vitality and longevity. Adaptable
ity is the price of life thru changing
ages and altered environment, and this
company owes it's existence to the pol
icy exemplifed in Winnipeg, where the
conapany's store has kept pace with the
community's needs from the time when
it was palisaded Fashioned frontier
fortress of half dozen families thru
out every phase Of it's growth to 8
splendid city with needs as complex ano
varied as London's. .-.. ..
The Thrifty Scot.
One other element, think, should
be- noted as contributing to thiE
unique corporate success. Thruou1
it's whole personnel, 49, from rom, tn
missioner in London, the company is
and always has bee manned almos
exclusively. by Scotchmen. In Glasgow
and Edinburgh one fails to fine
Jewish merchants because the Scotch
is the one race which can outdt
the Jew in barter. For business acu
men, combined with thrift and impec
and by virtue thereof the Scotch seen
destined, here in Canada at least, t.
inherit the earth. The directory Of TIN
company's officers and servants con
tains more pages of Macs than Of all tn
other letters combined McD Donald, Nc
Kenzie, McTavish and the like. In tn
, discovered there was just one race tina
: could endure the isolation, the priva
, tions and the rigors of Life in the will
!. derness posts-ratives Of the col,
; ; Highland glens, where climate and en-
vironment is not unlike that Of north
+ ern Canada; youths Of iron constitu
Gn toughened by genera s2n Of
nep6ews and grandnephews to Ii
tenth generation. When these youth
in the wilderness reached the ag
Wh aea young me men bo begin a to hay
tbe "a we ama on beip 9vn E
) to the Indian women about them. L
) Canada today there are scores of half
| breeds with good old Highland names
!, And these form a class distinct iron
the French .halfbreeds. The Scotchmar
with his hard, unyielding characte!
, raised his Indian wife to his own level
, the more plant Frenchman sunk to tn
Indian level. And to the Scotchman
credit be. it said, that as he rose in tn
company's service and; in social an
- commercial Importance, he stuck to hi
marriage vow with Presbyterian fdeH
! ty to a religious covenant. In Londo1
I today there is member Of the British
/ peerage, with wealth and honor wo
thru twoscore years of service in tn
/ Hudson g Bay company, who goes to tn
most exclusive functions in the BIRTHS
capital, accompanied by his wife, a full
blooded Cree squaw. ~~.s - ~.
Primary Fur Market. ~ ~
1 But If the company has added the dc
partment store to it's functions it fha
| lNh1, End,,ro D2in