-~B4= 
     
    

    
     Smartly attired, fast-talking young canvassers combed the vounvEyere 
     
     in search of tintypes and other treasured family portraits which they took 
     
     away for enlargement. For years, they did s brisk business, especially in- 
     
     the years following the First World War when pictures of family members ‘in 
     
     uniform were their targets. After a time, however, the enlargement . . 
     
     solicitors began to fall into disrepute. = quality of the reproductions | 
     
     deteriorated, and the cost of the completed work of ten turned out to be 
     
     greatly in excess of the figure originally quoted. ventually, the photo | 
     
     agent was greeted at the doors of many houses with a. brusque command to ..: 
     
     get off the premises -- sometimes with the added Suggestion that he not 
     
     return, if he valued his health. . 
     
    

    
     Another type that used to pick up occasional orders was the vondor of 
     
     portraits of world and national figures: The King, the Queem, the Pope, 
     
     or the current Prime Minister of the Dominion. All good Liberal homes — 
     
     displayed a likeness of their great chieftain, Sir Wilfrid Laurier. The 
     
     Conservatives seldom held the reins of power, but there were pictures of 
     
     their party leader, Robert. Borden, in nany homes -=- ours included.In the 
     
     sitting-room of Grandfather Reverann:.6 home hung a Painting of Sir Charles 
     
     Tupper, a One-time Tory prime | minister. | 
     
    

    
     On a midsummer day, during the noon recess, a very tall man, leading a 
     
     large black bear on a chain, came up the road from the direction of 
     
     Charlottetown and stopped in front of the school. He was a swarthy, gypsy- 
     
     appearing individual with « tremendous up-swept, glossy black mustache, a 
     
     lurge silver ring in one of his ears, and an outsize sombrero on his head. 
     
     The bear, who, he told us, was a circus performer recently arrived from 
     
     Siberia, would do a step dance upon receipt of ten cents. 
     
    

    
     By pooling our resources, we came up with eight pennies which the man 
     
     accepted, adding that, of course, the dance would be of shorter duration 
     
    
   
   
    
     than customary, Since we had been unable to produce the full amount. In