The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1914-01-21
Was the Most Striking and
Notable Figure i'm the
Dominion of Canada
HIS EARLY LIFE A
DESPERATE STRUGGLE
Instrumental in Building Canadian Pa
cihc Railroad and III Saving Middle
Philanthropies and Benevolences.

Lord Stratheona and Mount Royal,
%, high commissioner of Canada, died
ia London MT l.l5 this morning. lie
had been failing since the death of his
wife, which took place Nov. u, and I
his death has been foreshadowed in
dispatches several days.
Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal /
was probably the most striking and
notable figure in the Dominion Of Can
ada. As Donald Alexander Smith. or
Donald Smith, rs he was better known,
he played a great part in the develop
ment of the Dominion. Appointed, at
The age of 80 years, to the lord high
commissionership of Canada he gave
the last. II years of his life TO ener
getic and efficient service altogether
remarkable in one of his age.
Few careers in history have been
more romantic than that of the penni
less Scotch immi grant, who came to
the new world in 1888, when Van Blu
rem was president of the United states
and Victoria had been queen OF Eng
land but a year At that time Smith
was is years old. He was born in
Scotland of Highland parents. For
nearly 30 years he labored in the hard
rst service OF the continent, the ser
vice Of the hudson Bay company. In
the early DAYS. as a trader, he tramped
the North from end 10 end, bargaining,
planning, harTering. lie struggled, as
hundreds of others struggled, merely TO
do his ,hty 10 turn in at the END OF
the wear n better and better account
10 the governor Of tic company. After
lq year, of II the record finds him pro-
NOTED from the trader 5 vocation to be
an agent of the company on the bleak
coast Of Labrador.
In 1868, being then IS wears old
Donald Smith reached the top of the
Hudson : Bay company ladder. He was
appointed chief executive with Offices
=. at Montreal. At the outset of his
career as head of the company in Cam
ada he was not by any means rich
man. lie bad saved money. but he had
invested il in PARKWAY lands. patches
of territory thousands of miles out in
the North and West-barren supposed
~, and protitless, certainly. lie had
planted the seeds that were to make
him one OF the richest men in the
world; but even his farseeing eye could
not glimpse the wonders of the future
iic believed that in time he would rear
a harvest from the opening Of the
country, but he counted in those days
as other men counted, not in millions
but in thousands.
As mediator he settled the Rei re
bcllion, when the uprising OF the hall
breeds in Canada threatened bloody
warfare.
His promptness and efficiency il
raising money resulted in building tn,
Canadian Pacific railroad and probabl,
saved Canada TO the empire He share
with Sir John Macdonald the chic
credit for the creation Of the Canadian
confederacy.
After Sir Donald Smith had accumu
lated a fortune in the service of hi
country he began to use that FORUM
in the same service. The record Of hi
life from 1856 onward is bewlderin,
alienation of magnificent gifts AM
magnificent honors. \ million dollars "A
various times 10 McGill university; 81
100000 for the Royal Victoria colleg
for the higher education of women
$l,0OO,G00 for the foundation and ef
dowment of the Royal Victoria hosp
tai; the foundation of musical scholar
ships for Canadians in London; wit
countless acts OF private benevolenc