The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-09-23
Srecial Correspondence Of The Journal.

Special Correspondence Of The Journal -
- ALGARY, Sept. le.-Calgary has
more delightful incongruities to
~ the square foot, more individual
ity Of its own peculiar, fascinating
kind, than any other city in the Do
minion Of Canada And the charm be-
gins to work with the first step from the
train. 1t sounds like the Tower Of
Babel and looks like "old home week.
for the Anglo-Saxon race. There are
all kinds of Canadian and English dia-
of the canny Scot, the rich bur of the
Irishman, the twang and drawl of the
American, the gutturals Of the Indian.
and, like as not, the chopstick Ian
guages Of China and Japan, as well
as medley of German, Scandinavian.
Russian and Galician. -!
Within three steps one may hear al
most as many pronunciiaati1pn ns } of the
Cal gary, Cawlgry, Calgar'ry it is, and
when everything else fails, they get
still more variety by infections. A.
ter ten minutes at the station, one
thinks he is prepared for anything, but
after half hours turn about the
town, he will feel like buttonholing the
first person who looks like a native and
asking where he is anyway-whether
III Lie WeSU VI LII COWA
and country are utterly homogeneous.
A Bit of England in the Far West.
The 4treeless hills, rolling in great
emerald pillows to the snow powdered
peaks Of the Rockies, just notching the
horizon-the feeding place for count
less thousands Of cattle-are as typical
ly western and romantic as even Gil,
bert Parker or an Owen Wister could
4 J,,4 4lo Sa
mistakably English. 1t is stone town.
and what gray stone town with build:
ings of: three and four stories means
in the far west. can only be understood
and appreciated after one has Travelled
800 miles across level prairies with pine
board shanty towns springing UP like
mushrooms. along the right Of way. !
Calgary is a town Of flowers, and in
time will be a. town Of trees. The
streets are wide and boulevarded, win
dow gardens are fairly bursting with
their riot of blooms-English earmarks
that are as unmistakable as the Eng
lish accent. Moreover, to add to the
cosmopolitan atmosphere, the 10000 to
$4,000 inhabitants of this bit Of Eng
land in the far west, while mostly Cana
dian, are partly English, noticeably
American, and a very little Indian,
with floating population from nearly
every corner of the world where the
verb "to travel' is corrugated.
Even the everyday life on the streets
has its own distinctive picturesqueness
men,, women and children, just such
as are to be found anywhere, but punct
uated literally by members Of the
Royal Northwest Mounted Police in
their scarlet blouses, squaws, swathed
soldiers of the king in varied uniforms.
now and then a Scotchman in kits, and
occasionally the Morse type from the
north of Europe, the Latin from the
south, each in distinctive garb, and
last and most noticeable Of. all, the pic
turesque specimen Of man that is Cal
gary's very particular own.
The Oxford-Bred Cowboy. 49,
The tenderfoot would call him a
"sort of Cowboy He does not often
brero, puttees and spurs, his saddle is
of the cowboy type, and, browning
touch of all, shooting irons'' occa.
sionally show in belt or hip-pocket.
He goes about with the plainsman g
wag of the shoulders, there is the cow
boys rakish tilt to his SLOUGH hat and
he sits on his superb, long tailed steed
with the cowboys own peculiar insou-
Giant grace. But the familiar talk of
this seeming cowboy is polo, riding to
hounds, tennis, Oxford Fights, Henley
regatta, London, Paris, Rome-a hun
dred-and-one subjects of the world, of
which the typical cowboy would know
little and care less.
Il The look Of him and the talk Of him
are utterly at variance, but his pres.
ence by dozens on this hill-girt plateau
round about Calgary is one solution of
the problem Of the younger son. Near:
ly every one Of these stalwart, graceful
well-bred, pseudo cowboys bears the
family name Of some famous house of
England or represents what Burke Is
"Peerage' calls the '"landed gentry:
and came out eight, ten or a dozer
years ago to try ranching and to hew
out his own fortune in land where
entails cease from troubling and the
younger son may be the architect of his
own success.
He took to the new life as duck
takes to water. At first it all appealed
to him as great lark. He raced his