Rest Room Antics

AFTER all, associating with the store family day after day is not so unlike going to school, is it girls? There is no pleasanter sight than to watch the younger set enjoying the tripping of the light fantastic toe at the luncheon hour in the employees’ rest room. Another pleasant feature of this hour of recreation is to see with what good humour and patience the senior employees gather around the walls in order to allow the young folk scope for using their superfluous energy.

Always, too, one or another can be found to play the waltz or two-step for the merry-makers. This is as it should be, and the spirit of “give and take” thus inculcated will be of inestimable service in the building of character.

MR. H. T. LOCKYER, our General Manager, was recently made a member of the Vancouver Rotary Club. “He Profits most who Serves Best.”

MRS. McDERMID is back in the children’s section again after an illness which lasted nearly two weeks.

ARE WE, or are we not going to have a cricket club this year? Have we the players? If so, will they organize and get ready for practise? Any employee of the store who wishes to play this year should send in his name to Mr. Winslow as quickly as possible.

MISS A. K. SMITH is in England purchasing notions, laces, and other lines for the Victoria store, as well as for her own departments.

MR. W. R. BOYLE is in the East making purchases for his department. A line of dresses he bought to sell at $19.75 and $13.95 were sold off quickly.

MR. S. D. WILSON is in the Eastern markets after having attended the shoe convention in Milwaukee.

MR. J. WHITE, London buyer, was a welcome visitor in Vancouver recently, on a flying trip. His first-hand information as to market conditions in the Old Land will be of great assistance to the buying staff here.

CAPT. T. P. O’KELLY, assistant to the Fur Trade Commissioner, is in Vancouver in connection with Company transportation business.

But Could Vancouver Get Away With this Stuff Against Edmonton H.B.C.?

ICE hockey has taken a hold on the staff to such an extent this Winter that we are able to produce one of the foremost teams in the commercial league. The team is on an even basis with the speedy Kerrisdale team for first place. These two teams have not met as yet, but when they do it is safe to say it will be one of the hardest contested games of the season.

It is interesting to note that our hockey team has not lost a game as yet.

Our genial general manager witnessed the H.B.C. team double the score on the C.P.R. septette and personally congratulated each of the players on their fine showing. We hope to see him at all the games.

Our all-round sport champion, “Jimmie” McDonald, can make them all travel. When it comes to goal getting, “Jimmie” ranks as one of the best in the league.

Our stonewall defence, Timmins, Anderson and Ham, are just about the pick of the league. Percy Timmins, our coming star defence player, is a decided attraction to the games, especially to the fair sex, eh what? “Doc” Almas can still step out and show the younger ones how to get goals, as well as stop ’em all when they come.

We would be glad to hear of any Eastern H.B.C. teams that are prepared to make a tour. We can’t guarantee gate receipts or expense accounts, but we can assure them a “whale” of a good time if they come to Vancouver.

In our three games this season, only six goals have been scored against us. This speaks well for our goal-tender, W. Barber.–L. A. Keele.

Dance at Navy League Hall

ONE of the most successful dances of the Vancouver season was the H.B.E.A. affair on January 20th, at the Navy League Hall.

Mr. and Mrs. H. T. Lockyer and Mrs. Leonard Lockyer honored the function with their presence and a thoroughly enjoyable time was spent by all the three hundred fifty guests.

Dancing commenced at 9 p.m. and continued until 1 a.m. W. Garden’s orchestra rendered selections which were highly appreciated. Dainty refreshments were served, and the whole event proved to be a further laurel in the crown of the able social committee of the H.B.C. Welfare Association.

What’s in a Name

A STALWART Swede stepped into a corner drug store. “I bane sick,” said he to the clerk. “And I want some viskey.” “Nothing doing,” answered the clerk. “Don’t you know the country is dry?” But he added, “You might be able to get some squirrel whiskey over there at that saloon.”

Across the street the big Swede made known his wants. “Squirrel whiskey,” yelled the astonished proprietor, “we don’t have such a thing, but,” in a whisper, “I can fix you up with a little ‘Old Crow.’” The Swede shook his head.

“I no want to fly,” he answered, “I yoost want to yump around avhile.”

Vancouver Welcomes H.B.C. Arctic Navigators

Captain Henry Hendriksen and Engineer Rudolph Johnson Return to Vancouver after Six Years in the North
By MRS. JACK HAWKSHAW

WHETHER it’s because of the climate or because the hearts of those in the West are big, we know not, but the fact is recognized that no branch of the Company’s service gives a heartier handshake and welcome to the Company’s employees than does Vancouver retail. When Captain Hendriksen and Engineer Johnson dropped in recently after spending six years in the frozen north, they were royally welcomed here as brothers in the H.B.C.

Captain Hendriksen and Engineer Johnson operate the H.B.C. gas schooner “Fort McPherson,” a boat of fifty tons which, together with the “Ruby” left Vancouver in 1914 to carry provisions to the Company’s Western Arctic posts together with lumber and materials for the building of a post at Herschel and Baillie Islands.

Fair weather and good luck attended the expedition until it reached Point Barrow where ice was encountered and they were compelled to fall back to Tellar Point, a hundred miles north of Nome, Alaska, before returning south, where the cargo of the “Ruby” was discharged and the “Fort McPherson” beached for the Winter. In July, 1915, the “Ruby” returned from the south, picked up her cargo again, and with the schooner “Fort McPherson,” set sail for Herschel Island, arriving there in August, 1915.

Since August, 1915, the Company has opened seven fur trade posts in the Western Arctic, the first being at Herschel Island; then followed one at Baillie Island, two hundred fifty miles east of Herschel and since then others have been established at Kittigazuit, Aklavick, Fort Thomson, Three Rivers, Kent’s Peninsula and Shingle Point.

The “Fort McPherson” is the Company’s supply boat which during the Summer distributes the goods sent to Herschel Island and to the small posts in the Arctic.

Captain Hendriksen and Engineer Johnson are on their way to Winnipeg on vacation. During their leave of absence, the “Fort McPherson” will remain at Kittigazuit. It is the Captain’s intention to continue this trip to the home of his aged mother who is about to celebrate her centenary in Denmark, and whom he has not seen for thirty years.

The journey to the coast was, as they term it, an uneventful one, being the same kind of an experience they are accustomed to and which is part of the daily round of all the Company’s employees in the Arctic. But to us it reads like a fairy tale.

Imagine, if you will, two men starting on a twelve hundred mile “mush” from Herschel Island to Fairbanks in a sleigh drawn by four large “huskies.”

The frozen country they traversed is broken only by the remains of a once great forest, an ice-locked lagoon, horizons bounded by irridescent glaciers whose tips pierce the sky–and over all the sparkling arctic sunshine flooding the wide plains which stretch away to the Mystery of the World. In their long hike they met no human being except one roving band of Indians. But they saw immense herds of cariboo, many moose, and now and then a cinnamon or grizzly bear. And all the while, the thermometer ranged from 47 to 70 degrees below zero.

At night they rested under the canopy of the stars in a small tent perched impertinently in one of earth’s most awful and majestic solitudes.

Picture to yourself the long trail, the occasional pause in the wilderness to stalk and kill a cariboo or moose for food to replenish the larder of the voyageurs and their faithful dogs.

Their journey lasted for forty days. Arctic blizzards crossed their path. These stout hearted men, however, were able to make their way through to seaboard and embark for civilization for the first time since before the great war.

H.B.C. Salespeople Will Be on Qui Vive During Coming Outfit

STORES generally realize that the coming six months will test the worth of salespeople more than for many months past. We haven’t been selling goods; we’ve been handing them out. People have been anxious to buy.

A change has taken place. The public is inclined to look for further price reductions. H.B.C. people know that the goods on our shelves have been bought wisely and well. Every advantage of our buying organization was used in their assembling. The same goods cannot be purchased elsewhere for less money; that gives the sales-person confidence in selling.

Let us prove to the Company that we are salespeople–not order takers; let’s do this by being willing, courteous and eager to please.

ACKNOWLEDGING receipt of the Company’s Anniversary Brochure, Mr. David Russell of Departure Bay writes:

“If I may be allowed to quote Kipling (with slight alteration) to illustrate the inseparable connection between the history of the growth of the Hudson’s Bay Company and Canada as a nation, I would say,”

It is sentiments like this from people who have been customers of the Company for years that should spur us to honour the great name that our Company has earned during its two hundred and fifty years of serving the people of Canada and make us the more proud to be servants of this great institution.

THE SITUATION

In Canadian Trade and Finance
(From Reports of the Union Bank)

THE Canadian official record shows that the increase of wholesale prices of all commodities reached in May, 1920, over the average prices of the year 1913, was 163 per cent, and that, as between the figures for May and December, a decline of almost fifteen per cent. was recorded. The decline was especially noticeable in the prices for grains, fresh vegetables, breadstuffs, tea, coffee and sugar; certain items in the textile group–cotton, silks and jutes, also show declines.

Canada’s Volume of Trade Increases Half Billion

Notwithstanding the fact that an adverse balance will be shown for the first time since the outbreak of the war, the year 1920 was a record one so far as the total trade of Canada is concerned. Statistics for the twelve months ending October, 1920 (the latest figures available), show that the total volume of trade amounted to $2,603,423,987, an increase of $500,000,000 as compared with the previous twelve months’ period. The unfortunate feature, however, is the excess of imports amounting to more than seventy-five million dollars, which compares with a favorable balance of about three hundred and fifty millions for the twelve months ending October, 1919. Practically the whole of the half billion dollar increase in the total volume of trade is due to the growth of our imports for our export increase amounted to approximately only eleven million dollars. The important feature of the statistics is the record of our buying and selling with the United Kingdom and the United States. Compared with last year, our imports from the United Kingdom have increased to the extent of nearly one hundred fifty millions.

Canadian Banking System Demonstrates Merit

On account of the fact that practically all the business of Canada is transacted through its banks, the Canadian Banking System enjoys a unique position compared with the systems of other countries, and accordingly the statement of the Chartered Banks of Canada for the year ending October, 1920, reflects better than any other medium, the actual business condition of this country.

Banks Curtailed Credit to Stabilize Business

Much has been said and written in criticism of the policy of the banks in curtailing credit, but there is not the least doubt that the present comparatively favorable condition of Canada is due in good part to the continuous pressure that has been exercised by the banks, throughout the year, to restrict advances.

Notwithstanding this effort on the part of the banks, current loans are higher by three hundred million dollars than they were a year ago. If a conservative policy had not been adopted, the increase in loans would have been considerably greater; as it stands, the increase is balanced by a corresponding decrease in holdings of Government securities, acquired originally in connection with the Dominion and Imperial Governments’ war financing, and now redeemed.

BE A BOOSTER

By J. H. Pearin

• 4 point Size–72 x 90 in., $25.00 pr.
• 3½ point Size–63 x 80 in., $22.50 pr.
• 3 point Size–61 x 74 in., $20.00 pr.