The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-12-22
REMITTANCE MANS TOWN.
CALGARY 4 HEADQUARTERS FOR BRITISH NL,ER DO WELLS.

Do Little Save Await the Coming of
 Their Quarterly Allowance and Then
 Spend It--Spendthrift Who Bor-
 rowed a Ranch.
 It's just possible if you are accus- toned to the grind of the city that you have never heard of that para disc for the well meaning but misguid- ed-Calgary, the joy of the remittance man.
 Calgary is a town in the Canadian Northwest, about nine hundred miles further along the line than Winnipeg and in then midst of a rich ranching country. It is growing fast and in the near future 1t will no doubt lose its attraction for wayward sons of Eng fish families.
 There are a good many remittance men in the great Northwest, sons of wealthy Englishmen sent out to the wilds to prevent them from disgracing the old people at home. England it. self is such a little place that once a young man does something out of the ordinary, whether good or bad, it speedil becomes a matter of public knowledge. So the doers of evil are sent away to expite their sins in the bracing air of the prairie, while the doers of good remain to build up the name
 The traveller who meets a remit tance man for the first time will pro- bably be struck by the fact that he is we'll bred. So he is; but he divides his year usually into quarters and mea- sures time from the arrival of his money from home
 Invariably the remittance is sent on the condition that the recipient keep himself absent from the British Isles. So the remittance man feels himself more or less welded to the country of his forced adoption and tries to make the best of it.
 How Calgary first attracted these wandering spirits no one seems to know, but they are there. Calgary has the ordinary attractions of the Vest ern town and the usual saloons and the usual clubs.
 Of course it sounds very nice to be in the position of getting from $1,0OO to $5,O0O a year just to stay where one is put and behav oneself as we'll as one can without turning robber or highwayman. But the remittance man finds it hard to change his habits even with the world smiling fresh about him every morning.
 He goes on drinking just as he did at home and playing for high stakes just as he did at home and getting in- to difficulties just as he did at home, The one saving feature, from his point of view, is that all remittances do not arrive the same day.
 If they did it might be better for all concerned, for then somebody would have to work, but as it is the red letter days are scattered over all seasons and the colony reaps the ad- vantage. Every remittance man knows the remittance days of the others as well as he does his own and he goes on the theory that if he spends all his allowance for the entertainment of the others they will spend all their allowance for his entertainment.
 Trust a remittance man for scent ing out a newcomer. There are grand times when he arrives. He is dined and addmitted as a special privilege into the resorts of gaming and drink ing. He feels himself quite at home with the old accent all about him and every incentive to keep on with his old wild ways.
 Queer stories are told of remittance men. There was one young fellow sent out from Manchester as a hopeless case. He landed on a ranch near Cal- gary and for a time rode about and appeared to be trying to make some thing out of himself but by and by he fell under the charm of the Remit tance Club, and the old temptations were too strong to be resisted,
 After he had written a glowing let ter home telling of the glories and the possibilities of the country he ended up by expressing the hope that his father would send enough money to buy a ranch. The delighted father compiled at once, and the next letter made further request for cash to stock the ranch with cattle.
 After the industrious son had with his companions got away with $35,O00 the father sent a cable despatch say ing that he was coming to look over the ranch. There was lively time among the remittance men when the dispatch reach the son. He hesitated for long time between flight and confession, but at last happy thought struck him.
 He borrowed the use of ranch from friend for three days and greatest equanimiity. When the old greatest equalnimity. When the old gentleman came he was driven out to the borrowed ranch and entertained for the three days, his devoted son never leaving Is side.
 On departing the father gave the son an order for $25,0OO ta show his appreciation of his reformed life. There was general rejoicing as long as the money lasted, but it went speedily In the usual ways.
 There are not wanting men who get allowances from home and who work hard at ranching the year round save on the day and the few days following the arrival of their money. Then they