eee ee eee Avenue Cafe and News-Stand Frank L. Godfrey, Proprietor Stage Depot -:- Taxi Service NEWS DEALER “Tf It's Published We Can Get It!” “THE SHOULDER STRAP” ON SALE HERE Sidney. B.C. Phone 100 SIDNEY CASH & CARRY W. W. Gardner, Proprietor Complete Line of Groceries PHONE 91 Sidney, B.C. STAN'S GROCERY STAN WATLING, Proprietor GROCERIES and MEATS We Deliver to All Districts Regularly Phone Sidney 181 SIDNEY B. C. Phone Sidney 135 COAL AND RANGE OIL SIDNEY FREIGHT SERVICE LTD. SIDNEY, V. I. B.C. C. BARTON SHOAL HARBOUR STORE General Store ICE CREAM AND CONFECTIONERY e British Columbia SIDNEY BEACON CAFE Mr. and Mrs. Joe Monthine, Proprietors A Good Place to Eat WE SERVE ONLY THE BEST We Specialize in Home Cooking and Baking Full Course Meals SIDNEY 2 British Columbia | | MARY’S COFFEE | BAR | Mr. and Mrs. H. J. Cruickshank, Proprietors | HAMBURGERS OUR SPECIALTY Opposite R.C.A.F. Station SIDNEY - British Columbia - a EDITION maintained a constant watch which was illustrated to me as the Inspector called up various divisions on test broadcasts. Most of the men employed in the Com- munications Centre seemed very keen on their work, and indeed they had justifiable pride in their splendid accomplishments during the great blitz of London in the dark and grim winter of 1940. Com- munications proved of vital importance, in fact a major share of the civilian de- fence of the metropolis fell on the capable shoulders of the police force whose efforts would have been futile but for rapid and flexible means of communicating with each station, and the smaller centres with each other. My observations of police systems and the men who staff them during my stay in England gives me the greatest admira- tion for the Constabulary. They are very well trained, always courteous and oblig- ing, and have a ready answer to every imaginable question. IT WAS confusing that both the doctor and the vicar were named Smith, and as the vicar was a Doctor of Divinity, it sometimes led to confusion. On one occasion a stranger to the vil- lage asked one of the natives: “Where does Dr. Smith live?” ~ “Which one?” asked the villager, ‘“‘’im what preaches or “im what practises?” “ Phone 31 LOCAL MEAT MARKET A. D. Harvey Dealer in DRESSED MEATS FISH AND FRESH VEGETABLES * SIDNEY, B.C. Phones: Sidney (Day) 6; (Night) 60-Y, 152-Y Mitchell & Anderson Lumber Co. Ltd. All Kinds of Lumber, Mill Work and Hardware ova SIDNEY, B. C. TVEISIN Witeo ll VVile Veo T By C. H. DICKIE Mr. C. H. Dickie, Grand Old Man of the Canadian West, One Time Member of B.C.’s Legislative Assembly, Gives “The Shoulder Strap” Readers an Eye-Witness Account of Life in Nanaimo Sixty Years Ago— Coal Miners, Loggers and Indians Rubbed Shoulders on the Plank Sidewalks of the Town that Fur Trader Horne Helped Establish. IN AND ABOUT the year 1890, the town of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, was, as it still is an important coal-mining centre. ; Clipper ships, the most notable of which was the Glory of the Seas, plied regularly with coal cargoes between that port and San Francisco, where the high- grade coal was always in demand. Nanaimo was a “wide-open” town where gambling, hard drinking and the usual associated diversions were always in evidence. The Chief Constable of the town was “Tom” O’Connell, a tactful, cool-headed, stockily-built man, Irish as his name designated, a fairly good athlete, a really good amateur boxer and a highly popular and efficient officer. In accor- dance with the liberal western interpreta- tion of the laws, an officer was allowed wide discretionary powers, and Tom was fully qualified to exercise his good judg- ment as to his activities and at times close one eye, or perhaps both, so to an appreciable extent due to his tactful- ness, Nanaimo had a fairly good rep- utation for law and order. There was never any gun play or brutal fights where pieces were bitten out of men, and kicking a man in the face when down, as I had too often seen elsewhere, was not toler- ated, the fighting being along British lines. Collieries provided a good payroll and each payday professional gamblers came from Seattle, to “shear the lambs.” These post-graduate crooks, however, trod cautiously while subject to British laws, but owing to their dexterity and devious methods they exacted a good monthly toll. Yet the citizens stood for it, if the looting was not too barefaced. “Black Jack” and Poker were the most Page Nineteen