Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

THE ROMANCE OF BANKING 275formerly been a Chinese laundry. Both the manager and hisstaff slept over it in an attic just large enough to contain twobeds and a stove. One man had to stay awake almost allnight to look after the fire, and snow would frequently penetratethe cracks in the roof and fall thickly on the beds. Frozen inkwas an almost daily experience. The cellar was a mere holein the ground without walls, which in spring-time had two orOn one occasion athree feet of muddy water at the bottom.new safe arrived from the east, and it was necessary to movethe two already there. Arrangements were made to havethe work done on one of the days when the office was closedand the staff of the bank was at Nanton. The managerinstructed the local contractor for the work to prop the floorcarefully before attempting the task, but on returning in theevening the sight that greeted him was a large hole in the middleof the office floor, and the three safes lying at the bottom of itinthe mud and water.Despite almost impossible conditions these southernAlberta branches were very busy. In a few months alarger volume of business was built up than would be found atmany branches in older-settled communities of eastern Canadawhere the bank had been open for many years. The membersof the staff were often forced to work from seven o'clock inthe morning until midnight to cope with the work on hand.A spirit of practical joking and rough-and-tumble funprevailed in these new communities. In one typically westerntown, the manager of a rival bank, who was well on in yearsand had come into a competence, sent in his resignation, and avery proper young man from the east, who prided himself onexemplary habits, was sent to succeed him. On the evening ofthe new-comer's arrival a farewell supper was being givenat the local club for two ranchers who were leaving the district.About three o'clock in the morning, when the proceedings hadreached the height of conviviality, the chairman, who happenedto be the retiring manager, announced that his successor hadarrived and that he thought this a magnificent opportunity