Show I r j The Lure of Adventure 1 ALTHOUGH A we arc are fond of calling ourselves our our- JT M selves a youthful nation we ve are rapidly rapidly rapidly rap rap- idly leaving our boisterous pioneer days far farb b behind hind We Ve have after all just about r reached ched maturity and there ar are plenty of signs that we dont don't entirely like it it ite We Ve clutch eagerly at all living reminders of the glamorous past Our newspapers can always find space to print the reminiscences I of an old timer who c can n remember way I b back ck when The very way in which these stories are arc always s pres-en pres presented ted ted- indicates a sort sod of regretful sigh for the days that were 7 Here Here is a sample The newspapers newspapers' re rc recently printed rather extended tales tates about the passing aing of A. A Erskine Smith who died the oilier r day in Vancouver He had been an ana a adventurer and his life story seemed like a fragment dropped down almost from some prehistoric era yet his adventures really did not take place so long tong ago In the carly early nineties Smith sought his fortune in iii the Australian gold fields He made himself himsel rich lost his money got rich again and and- became poor in turn once more He He- went ent to South Africa for another fling won fame as an an amateur boxer migrated restlessly to western Canada and in 1898 joir joined ed the great gold rush to Alaska There he was as in iii the first rank He was the first man to shoot the dreaded White WhiteHorse WhiteHorse Horse rapids accomplishing the feat in a scow cow he had put together himself He found gold again experienced some more ups and downs of fortune and finally ended his days as a developer of mining properties in British Columbia The man inami had an life tife and the most domesticated American in this s sedate year 1930 cannot help feeling a bit melancholy at the thought that we e have grown beyond ond the opportunities that were erco o open to this chap T That sort of career is hardly possible now Fame and fortune are still to be bt gait gaited gained ed of course but not in such an inter- inter exciting way And right there probably is the point of tt tall ft all The went out to make their fortunes an and we can an do the same thing but they Iney Y were able to have flave a much more thrilling lime while they were ere doing it than we can Whether they wound up rich or poor they were winners They sometimes starved and they were vere often flat broke but their lives Jives were cre never dull Gettin Getting rich rich ich was not really their great reat goal goat it was the adventure that could be had along the way th that t drew them on 00 Our aim aim on the other hand is less at at- at We Ve ha have hae e forgotten what they knew that the good life is not necessarily crowned with a bag of gold That probably is the chief reason why we e Took look back on the past with such longing We e are more prosperous than our fathers and grandfathers were but we cant can't help suspecting sus- sus that we dont dot enjoy ourselves as much muchas as s they did |