The King has recognized the valuable service of many C.P.R. directors and officials by giving honors to Lord Mount Stephen, Lord Strathcona, Lord Shaughnessy, Sir William Van Horne, Sir Thomas Tait, who did splendid railway work in Australia; Sir George Bury, for his work in Russia; Sir George McLaren Brown, of London, England, for what he did during the late war; Sir Arthur Harris, Sir William Whyte, Sir Augustus Nanton, and Sir James Aikins, of Winnipeg; Sir E. B. Osler and Sir John Eaton, the merchant prince of Toronto; Sir Vincent Meredith and Sir Herbert Holt, of Montreal; and for many years an official of the company has been and still is Sir Gilbert Johnson, who bears the Nova Scotian baronetcy. W. R. Baker was given a C.V.O. by King George, and deserved higher honours for his services during royal visits to Canada.
The Dominion Express Company.
The Dominion Express Company has been managed since its inception by W. S. Stout, of Toronto, the president, being ably assisted by T. E. McDonnell, the general manager, and W. H. Burr, the traffic manager. The names of Billy Walsh, of Toronto, now passed away; V. G. R. Vickers, who has retired to enter commercial life; Goodwin Ford, of Winnipeg, and Jack Murray, of Toronto, will long be remembered. The first president was Sir George Kirkpatrick.
The Live Wires.
With the telegraph branch of the C.P.R. the name of Mr. Charles R. Hosmer will be long identified, for he was the head and front of the undertaking at its inception. He is a director of the company besides being incidentally a capitalist. Long associated with him was James Kent, who inaugurated a press service and press bulletin for the passenger trains in the West. After thirty years in harness he retired in 1916, and was succeeded by John McMillan, who has been with the company since 1883, and worked his way up from a junior in the construction of telegraphs to the topmost position. The wires of the C.P.R. reach every part of the civilized world, besides several countries that are apparently not entirely civilized. Bill (W.J.) Camp, his assistant, was a C.P.R. electrician in 1886, and there are Geo. H. Ferguson and many others in this branch of the C.P.R. who have been with it for many years. B. S. Jenkins and John Tait and Jack Stronach were old Winnipeg workers. William Marshall is now assistant manager at that city, but he has only been with the company since 1886, and other veterans are Jim Wilson, and Ed. Grindrod, the first superintendent and inspector in B.C., who did good service during the floods in the mountains some years ago.
SOUVENIR OF THE DRIVING OF THE LAST SPIKE ON THE C.P.R.—THE FIRST C.P.R. LOCOMOTIVE—THE FIRST LOCOMOTIVE IN TORONTO.
Important “First” Trains.
The first through train to cross the continent in Canada left Montreal on June 28th, 1886, and reached the western terminus, Port Moody, right on the dot on July 4th. It was a momentous event, for it was the beginning of a service that has revolutionized the travel of the world. At the send-off, the immense throng at the old Dalhousie Station was an enthusiastic one, and would have been more so, but Col. Stevenson’s battery was a little late in arriving to fire a parting salute, and time, tide and the C.P.R. flyers wait for no one. There were only two sleepers attached and they were comfortably filled. The only newspaper man aboard was myself, and I had written up the trip from Montreal to Winnipeg in advance, and sent it by mail—for I had been on the road frequently—only adding the names of the more prominent passengers by wire from Ottawa. When the papers reached us on the north shore of Lake Superior, Mr. Dewey, the superintendent of the postal service of Canada, who was on board, was astonished at the length and accuracy of my report, and wondered how and when I had written it, and as I did not enlighten him, except to say that he had seen me writing on the train, his mystification remained with him until his death. The trip was a glorious one, and the reception all along the line was like a royal progress. The people of fire-stricken Vancouver came over to Port Moody in great numbers by the old Yosemite to welcome us. There was no public reception at Vancouver, for there wasn’t any place to hold one, the original city having been almost totally consumed by fire just previous to our arrival. The flames had destroyed almost everything, but the courage and hope and faith of the pioneers who bravely struggled against the blighting effects of the calamity, and they did this successfully, as can be seen to-day in the magnificent city which has arisen through the splendid results of their indomitable energy and unceasing labors which made Vancouver what it is.