The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1907-02-08
THE REMITTANCE MANS
TOWN.
CALGARY A HEADcgIARTERs Foa
BRITISH NE'ER DO WELLS.


and Then Spend lt-spendthrift
Who Borrowed a Ranch.
It's just possible if you are accus-
toned to the grind Of the city that
you have never heard of that paradise
for the well meaning but misguided
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 the midst of a rich ranchins
country. 1t is growing fast and in
the near future it will no doubt lose
its attraction for wayward sons Of
English families
There are 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
young man does something out OF the
ordinary, whether good or bad, it
speedily becomes a matter Of public
knowledge. SO the doors of evil are
sent away to expiate their sins in the
bracing air Of the prairie while the
doors of good remain to build up
name
The traveller who meets a remit
lance man for the first time will prob
ably be struck by the fact that he is
well bred. So he is; but he divides
his year usually into quarters and
measures 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
western town and the usual saloons
and the usual clubs.
OF. course it sounds very nice to be
in the position of getting from $1,000
to $4,000 year just to stay where one
is put and behave oneself as well 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 adj
vantage Every remittance man knows
the remittance days of the others as
we'll 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
allowances for his entertainment
Trust a remittance man for seeming
out a newcomer. There are grand
times when he arrives He is dined
and admitted 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 remit
lance men There was one young fell
low sent out from Manchester as
hopeless case. He landed on a ranch
near Calgary and for a time rode
about and appeared to be trying to
make something out OF himself but
by and by he fell under The charm 81
the Remittance club, and the old
temptations We're too strong to be re
sisted
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 him enough money
to buy a ranch. The delighted father
complied at once, and the next letter
made a further request for cash to
stock the ranch with cattle
After the industrious son had with
his companions got away with $4,000
the father sent a cable despatch say
ing that he was coming to look over
the ranch. There was a lively time
among the remittance men when the
despatch reached the son. He hest
tated for a long time between higat
and confession, but at last happy