ose,
the wildcat species not in evidence was too rare to be classified.
Property in small cities sold at New York and Chicago values. Suburban
lots were staked out round small towns in areas for a London or a
Paris, and the lots were sold on instalment plan to small investors,
many of whom bought in hope of resale before payments could accrue.
City taxes for these suburban improvements increased to a great burden.
Fortunes were made and lost overnight. Railroad bonds were guaranteed
plentifully enough to pave the prairie. All this applies chiefly to
city real estate. Inflation beyond investment basis never touched farm
lands; but as a prominent editor remarked, "No fool thing that ever
failed was half as improbable as the fool things that have succeeded.
Men have literally been kicked into fortunes; and the carefulest man
has often been the biggest fool by not biting till the last."

The boom, of course, burst of its own inflation; but it is worthy of
note that the year the boom collapsed immigration reached its highest
figure--four hundred thousand. Whether the boom was good or bad for
Canada is hard to determine. It left a great many fortunes in its wake
and a great many wrecks; but naturally it did for the country what
years of hope, years of dogged silent work, years of self-confidence
could not do--it jolted Canada and the world into a consciousness of
the Dominion's possibilities. It is like the true story of the finding
of coal on Vancouver Island--a miner stubbed his toe and lo, a clod of
earth split into a seam of shining worth!

Practically the very same story of the advent of American energy and
daring and optimism into the lumber industry of Canada could be told;
but it is the same story as of the mines and the land, except that the
Canadians on the ground first reaped larger profits. A few years ago
scarcely an acre in British Columbia was owned by interests outside the
province. To-day as far north as Prince Rupert the great lumbermen of
the United States own the timber limits. Canadians bought these lands
round four dollars and five dollars an acre. They sold at from one
hundred dollars to one thousand dollars. One understands why American
lumbermen to-day demand low tariff on Canadian lumber. East of the
Rockies from Edmonton to Port Arthur the fringe of timber along the
great rivers and lakes is owned by operators of Wisconsin and
Louisiana. In Quebec the most valuable pulp wood limits--t