LIFE AT THE MINES OI

watched ; and when the girls passed to and
from their temporary lodging, their progress
was like a royal procession through a silent,
gaping, but most respectful lane of whiskered
faces. A man looking anything but respect
would have been knocked down on the spot.
We laugh now! Victoria did not laugh then.
It was all taken very seriously. On the
instant, every girl was offered some kind of
situation, which she voluntarily and almost
immediately exchanged for matrimony. In
all, some ninety girls came out under these
auspices in ’62-’63. The respectable girls
fitted in where they belonged. The disreput-
able also found their own places. And the
mining camp began to take on an appearance
of domesticity and home.

Matthew Begbie, later, like Douglas, given
a title for his services to the Empire, had, as
we have seen, first come out under direct
appointment by the crown; and when parlia-
mentary government was organized in British
Columbia his position was confirmed as chief
justice. He had less regard for red tape than
most chief justices. Like Douglas, he first
maintained law and order and then looked up
to see if he had any authority for it. No man
ever did more for a mining camp than Sir