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Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

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THE ROMANCE OF BANKING 283of a customer for a room in which to undress.He was grantedpermission, and on <strong>com</strong>ing out again produced a belt containing$8,500, which he deposited. Experiences that would upsetthe decorum of the average well-ordered city bank are, however,<strong>com</strong>mon, everyday incidents at the outposts, and thebank official soon learns to enter readily into the ways ofpioneer <strong>com</strong>munities.The Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway hadbarely been extended to Golden City, and the Porcupinedistrict was just beginning to assume the usual appearance of amining camp, when the disastrous fire of July, 1911, broke out.The villages of South Porcupine and Pottsville were <strong>com</strong>pletelydestroyed, valuable mining plants were ruined, and about twohundred miners and prospectors perished in the flames, whichswept as far as Kelso and Cochrane. At South Porcupine thesmoke and flames were visible early in the morning of July 11and gradually closed on the village, but it was hoped thatthe wind would cause the flames to sweep past. A considerableamount of back-firing and clearing was done in aneffort to protect it. In the meantime, as many as possibleof the women and children were removed in launches to GoldenCity, and all the men and buckets available were pressed intoservice to drench the exposed buildings, on which the sparkswere falling thickly. The banks had placed all their cash andbooks in the safes and made all possible preparationsfor theirprotection. By noon the flames were roaring over the tops ofthe trees outside the town, and it was clear that the latter wasdoomed. Along the main street horses and cattle werecareering wildly, and the smoke became so thick that it wasnot an easy matter to get safely to the edge of the lake.Fortunately the bottom shelved gradually, and it was possibleto wade out to a depth of five feet or more over a wide area.Here a motley collection of canoes, rafts made of boxes, andanything that would float, was crowded together, festoonedwith human beings in all stages of hope and fear. On one fairlysubstantial raft were piled various household belongings and

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