aking the gold
fever. But though I saw much of the gold that had been taken out of the
creek, I managed to restrain myself, and was glad of it afterwards, when
I learned from a friend of mine in town that very few had made anything
out of it, and that most had returned to New Westminster penniless and
in rags.

Railroads and modern progress are nowadays civilising the country to a
great extent, though I am by no means sure that civilisation is a good
thing in itself. However, manners are much better than they used to be
in the old times, and it might be hard now to find an instance of
ignorance parallel to one which my friend Mr H. told me. It appears that
a dinner was to be given in the earlier days to some great official from
England, and an English lady, who knew how such things should be done,
was appointed manager. She determined that everything should be in good
style, and ordered even such extravagant and unknown luxuries as napkins
and finger-glasses. Among those who sat at the well-appointed table were
miners, cattle-men, and so on, and one of them on sitting down took up
his finger-bowl, and saying, "By golly, I'm thirsty," emptied it at a
draught. Then, to add horror on horror, he trumpeted loudly in his
napkin and put it in his breast pocket.

The progress of civilisation, however, destroys the Indians and their
virtues. One Indian woman, who was married to a friend of mine--and a
remarkably intelligent woman she was--one day remarked to me that before
white men came into the country the women of her tribe (she was a
Ptsean) were good and modest but that now that was all gone. It is true
enough. This same woman was remarkable among the general run of her
class, and spoke very good English, being capable of making a joke too.
A half-bred Indian, working for her husband, one day spoke
contemptuously of his mother's tribe, and Mrs ----, being a full-blooded
Indian, did not like it. She asked him if he was an American, and, after
overwhelming him with sarcasm, turned him out of doors.

As a matter of fact, most of the Indians are demoralised, especially
those who live in or near the towns, and they live in a state of
degradation and perpetual debauchery. Though it is a legal offence to
supply them with liquor, they nevertheless manage to get drunk at all
times and seasons. When they work they are not to be relied on to
continue at it steadily, and when drunk they are only too often
dangerous. Their type of fa