The Henson Journals

[24]

Friday, August 30th, 1912. Little Metis.

The day was cloudy at the start, but improved steadily, & wound up with a fine & promising sunset, the image of a human life which begins in misfortune, gathers strength by experience, & ends in dignity & repose. Mine host carried me after breakfast to the store, the true centre of the common life where the gossips assembled to discuss all matters of interest & to purchase all needful commodities. We viewed the golf course, & tennis court, obtained the Montreal newspaper, & then returned to the house, where I established myself in a separate room & started work on my Boston lectures

After lunch Judge Greenshields called; I showed him my correspondence with the Putumayo directors, & lent him the Blue–book. Then we went for a drive along the river shore, admiring the views. On our return, I again did an hour at the Lectures.

After dinner we went to a musical party. There were two Canadian professors there – one from Kingston, the other from Toronto – with whom I had some talk.

Toronto, they said, was both the most intensely British, & the most completely Americanised town in Canada: the proximity of the Republic explained the one fact, the commercial activity of the City explained the other. For the norm of business methods is that of the States.

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Issues and controversies: Putumayo