IN THE GOLDEN WEST

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 3714, 12 October 1926, Page 7

IN THE GOLDEN WEST

A NEW LIFE IK CANADA GIRLS WHO ** PASS OVER " MANY THAT MAKE GOOD. There arc many stories to tell of British girls and women who have passed through the migration officer’s hands on their way to begin a new life in Western Canada. Some such stories are told hy Miss Mabel Durham, superintendent of the women’s emigration branch of the Canadian National Railways. She writes as follows:—Cases both poignant and humorous have come under my notice, and the letters 1 receive from girls who have “ passed over,” as one Irish girl put it. all tell a tale of satisfaction and high hopes tor the future.

One such letter has just reached me from a girl now happily situated in Vancouver. This girl of twenty-seven came to me one morning with tears in her eyes. Her reason for wanting to go to Canada immediately was a rather sad one. She had formed a friendship with a married man which threatened to develop into an affair that could bring neither of them happiness, and she wanted to got right out of the country, where they could never meet again. She had little money, and on tin; understanding that she would be willing to take domestic work I secured for her the reduced passage to Vancouver. which was L'!b Of course, there are many cases which cannot lie assisted, such as young married women who rush into our office in Cockspur street in a terrible rage and ask to be assisted to Canada because they no longer love their husbands. This happens quite frequently, and I try to be tactful and promise to look into the matter. When 1 do 1 usually hud that the storm in the teacup. which might have become a real tragedy if the young wife had been allowed to carry’ out her purpose, lias subsided.

AX IRISH GIRL’S GOOD FORTUNE. Quo Irish girl who worked in a tobacco factory asked me il >shc could luivc her passage paid to Canada, as site knew of a position to which she (joule! go. She was asked lor particulars, lint refused to say how she came to lie acquainted with the man who had written offering her a post. Eventually she confessed that she had written her name and address ou a slip of paper and inserted it in a packet ol cigarettes. Nothing could Ik> done until it letter arrived from the man in question. He was married and in a good position in Montreal, and was obviously taking a fatherly interest in the girl. A few more letters passed, and the Irish girl was sent to a farmhouse in Canada, where she is now very happy and engaged to be married. Many of the girls marry .soon alter their arrival, and marry well. There is the case of Sally , who, with her sister, applied for an assisted p -sage to'CanadiV Sally was younger tl n her sister am! more adventurous. S * was prepared to accept anything in in.; way of domestic service. The elder girl, however, was not quite sure whether she would like Canada, whether she would bo well paid, and so on. I lie result was that Sally went off alone. Now, a year later, comes a letter iroin her to her sister, enclosing a snapshot of herself and husband in their motor ear. “ And will yon.” she concludes, come out here now as my companionhelp?” Her sister took one long look at the snapshot and packed her cabin trunk. A CHANGK FOR THE BETTER. Another girl was assisted to Canada, in the autumn of last year. She appealed to me to help her, its she was unhappy at home. “ I don’t know how it is,” was her explanation, “but J. don’t seem to fit in. I’m always getdon't seem to fit in. I’m always getuubearable.” 1 took it for granted that the girl’s people knew sue was going to Canada, but a low weeks later a very enraged mother and father approached me and said they had just learned of their daughter’s flight. They minced neither words nor their opinion of their daughter, who, however, was, ol age and tree to act for herself. Still, I naturally felt concerned, hut as letter after letter reached me from the girl, now a com-panion-help to a very motherly woman, stating how grateful and happy she was, I felt that she had done the wisest thing, and her parents soon came to see it in the same light.