"By the end of the first week in July the issue of scrip certificates
began to fall off, though the declarations were still numerous. But land
was in sight; that is to say, our release and departure for Peace River,
which we were all very anxious, in fact burning, to see.
By this time there was, of course, much money afloat amongst the
people, which were rapidly finding its way into the traders' pockets.
There was a 'blind pig,' too, doing business in the locality, though
we could not discover where, as everybody professed entire ignorance of
anything of the kind. The fragrant breath and hilarity of so many,
however, betrayed its existence, and, as a crowning evidence, before
sunrise on the 6th, we were all awakened by an uproarious row amongst
a tipsy crowd on the common."
Reprinted from Through the Mackenzie Basin: An Account of
the Signing of Treaty No. 8 and the Scrip Commission, 1899 by Charles Mair. |