THOUGHT PATTERNS 
     
    
   
   
    
     In the years before the advent of radio and television, neighborly 
     
     get-togethers. along with the daily newspaper, were the chief means by 
     
     which people kept abreast of current local and world happenings. The 
     
     leading daily papers were the Guardian, the Patriot, and the Examiner; 
     
     their pages provided the material from which public opinion was formed. 
     
     Looking back on that era, it is easy to ses thet to the Island press 
     
     belonged muoh of the credit for the fos tering/ a strong conviction of 
     
    

    
     ‘the Island's pre-eminence in every department of life. We shared an 
     
     “unshakeable belief that we were especially favored by Divine Providence. 
     
     Our farms, their products, our schools, and our whole style of living, - 
     
     were Of necessity superior to those of the less fortunate dwellers in the 
     
     regions beyond our shores. This attitude may well have had its origin in i’ 
     
     the difficult early days of the colony, and in the long and frustrating . 
     
     battles with the federal government to secure our rights. For at no time 
     
     in its ontire history did the Island receive any favors. Every point gained 
     
     was won by the grit and persistence of the citizens of the "tight little 
     
     Island" and their hard-hitting spokesmen. ~ Bo ee | 
     
    

    
     An incident that points up this conviction may be worth relating hers. « 
     
     It occurred during the time when excursion trains carried hundreds of 
     
     Easterners to the harvest fields of the Prairie Provinces. Those excursions 
     
     were high-wheeling, free-swinging affairs that provided boisterous outings 
     
     for many local boys in search of work as well as a bit of excitement. In 
     
     that period, the daily newSpapers were brought out from the city by the 
     
     mail carrier and dropped at MacMillan's store, where the subscribers 
     
     picked them up. Some of the older folk, after glancing over the headlines, 
     
     used to linger for a while to chat or argue politics. 
     
    

    
     On the morning of the incident referred to, the papers carried an account 
     
     of the goings-on aboard an excursion train that had recently arrived in 
     
    
   
   
    
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