Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-02-07
By Mae Harris Arson

toba remembered how Donald smith had taken
hold of another Manitoba question twenty
five years before, and practically by his own un
aided efforts brought a bout the downfall OF Louis
R1el, dictator, and the establishment OF Cana
dian government over what had once been the
exclusive territory of the Hudson Bay Com
pany.
Unfortunately, Lord Strathcona, then sew
enty-fve years old, had for sometime been
lying desperately i'll at his home in Montreal,
and had been ordered to Florida by his phys1-
clan. However, the Manitoba Schools Cues
ton filtered into the sick ROOM together with
the public feeling in the West that StrathCOna
the only hope, the only man able to handle
the subject so as to give satisfaction to both
sides.
The private car of the president of the rail
way was made ready for the quick trip south,
and on snowy, bustery day, with the coun-
try to the west showed under and traffic inn
peded everywhere, an old friend and close bust
ness associate of Strathcona's went down to
say goodby to him, feeling, did all who
knew him, that it might be the last greeting
he would give him in life.
Oh but I'm not going to Florida at all,
said Lord Strathcona blithely. :" In an hour
| start for Manitoba. They need me; and I'd
a good deal rather die out there doing some
thing than down in Florida doing nothing.
So / just decided to have the car switched
over and go west instead of south"
And IN spite OF the warnings OF his doctor
and the pleading of his friends, start the old
man did for Manitoba And true had he
been to his lifelong rule to give no one his
confidence, that his wife knew nothing of his
change of mind until after the train had
started, and his physician learned of it only
while waiting at the station to see him of to
Florida
The next day Lady Strathcona went to the
Office OF the president OF the telegraph COM
pany and asked him to try to catch the train
and see how Lord StrathCona was,-whether
alive or dead. As all the world knows, he was
very much alive, and SO vigorous by the time
he reached Winnipeg that he took hold of the
question and pushed it to speedy conclusion,
satisfactory to all concerned
His Eyes or His Job
IN country where great corporation has
become the fetish that the Hudson Bay
Company has to Canada, it is perhaps only
natural that stories connected with its disci
pine OF employees should be only half told
if told at all There Is one OF these half-tod
stories connected with Lord Strathcona's boy
days the Labrador, which is a special favor
lite with all his biographers. 1t IS a rule most
strictly enforced that company man may
leave his post without having received written
consent from headquarters. On this isolated
Labrador station communication with Mont
real matter OF six months hard travel
each way.
The time came when Donald Smith suffered
from snow blindness. Lack of proper treatment
aggravated the trouble, until it became so
painful that he determined to go to Montreal
to consult oCullst, trusting to the serious
necessity to paiate his otfense against COM
pany discipline. Long before he reached Mont
real, Sir George Simpson, the governor, had
heard Of his coming, and went out to meet
him.
Well. young man, why are you not at your
post?" the governor asked.
"My-my eyes, sir, was the faltering reply.
" They got so very bad I've come to see the
doctor"
And who gave you permission to leave
your post?" the governor Numbered.
" No one" the reply.
Then, sir" said the autocrat of the fur
trade, if it is question between your eyes
and your service in the company, you'll take
my advice and return this instant to your
post"
Not an instant did Smith hesitate. Suffering
though he was, unsupplied with food, and his
dogs exhausted by the thousardmile trip
overland, he turned square about in his tracks
and, without so much as setting foot within the
confines of Montreal, started back on the
dreary Journey to his Labrador post.
Long before the journey was half over, his
last dog died. Worse still, his provisions were
exhausted and his incipient blindness had
grown worse until his sight was gone entirely.
And thus, blind, starving, forced to live on
bark and such game as his Indian companion
could find, he finished the last five hundred
miles on foot, his lacerated feet leaving their
print in blood on the snow at every step