Cape Breton's Magazine

And, then, the pair of men above--you always tried to beat them. The same as in the woods--you tried to beat them a couple of logs. Well, in the mine you liked to beat them a box of coal. If possible. You know, it wasn't the thought of the mon? ey- -it was just that you loaded a ton more than the other fellow. Of course, that's why there's so many old Cape Bretoners today all bent and crippled. You know, the Cape Bretoner had--he had to be tougher. He had to be able to drink more rum than anyone else. You know. He had to be able to fight better than anyone else. And he had to be able to load coal and cut logs and lift better than anyone else. And a lot of them, to prove it, injured themselves. I don't know if that was true or not-- that's what they claim. See, this is why, if you were breaking in horses they'd say to you, "If you can't work him, kill him." 'Cause they couldn't get fifty dollars for a bad horse when you'd come up. The word'd get around the horse was no good, and no- body'd buy him. Generally sold for twenty-five dollars or so. But there was quite an attachment for a boy and his horse in the mine, you know. Like, a lot of them, they became attached to their horse very much. Some of them--if their horse got killed--they'd cry just like it was their mother, you know. Well, they claim the company got forty dol? lars for a man and fifty dollars for a horse--insurance. Yeah, some of them never went back. They wouldn't go back driving any more, if they lost their horse. Overlool

Cape Breton's Magazine