“I’m an orphan and I’ve never eaten a meal with a family,” he said, in response to questions by Doctor Myers. “I don’t know who my parents were, but I was put in a New York orphanage when a baby. There I stayed until I was twelve years old, when I was sent to a farmer in Canada, to be held until I was of age. That farmer thought of nothing but how much work he could get out of me. When my time was up I started to tramp, and I’ve been at it ever since.
“I’ve eaten at back doors, free-lunch counters, and even occasionally at a lunch counter in a restaurant, but I’ve never sat to a table with a family.”
Want Belgian Linen Makers.
The movement to bring expert linen makers from Belgium to western Canada, which raises an exceedingly good grade of flax, is gaining big momentum, and a Belgian priest is now on his way to Europe after conferring with the Canadian Northern Railway. The making of linen had been a large and important industry in Belgium before the war, but now every factory is closed.
A great many women, as well as men, were employed in the industry, and the Belgian priest intends to get in touch with the large manufacturers to induce them to move their plants and bring as many of their old workmen as they can to western Canada.
Two points on the Canadian Northern have been under consideration, both in Saskatchewan and both located in the heart of the finest flax country in the Dominion. There now is a mill at Rosetown, Sask., which is in the heart of the Gravelburg district, well known for the quality and yield of flax.
Drives Prison Bus Forty Years.
Old Jim Cassidy, of New York, who drove the Black Maria laden with prisoners from the Tombs to police headquarters for years, had his first collapse a day or two ago. The driver of a patrol wagon did not move away quickly enough to suit Deputy Sheriff Levy, who shouted to him. This drew retorts, and old Jim was drawn into the argument. Soon afterward he keeled over.
Doctor Cox, from St. Vincent’s Hospital, treated the old man for syncope, and when he revived, he wanted to get back on the Black Maria, and drive his prisoners, but his friends forced him into a cab and took him to his home.
Except for two years of Sheriff Tamsen’s term, Cassidy has driven the prison van for nearly forty years. Long before that he was famous the country over as “Jim Cass,” a wonderful handler of game chickens and game dogs.