A wart off the lap of luxury

Monday, 25 January 2010 00:00

January 25, 1899. The Regina Standard describes the remittance man as a wart off the lap of luxury. Remittance men, who received modest remittances from their families in England, were the butt of constant Canadian jokes and ridicule in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They were usually younger son who failed to inherit a share of the family fortune under the rules of progenitor.

He is usually a wart off the lap of luxury. In his infancy his parents and relations nurtured him with such delicacy that his tears were never permitted to fall from cherished lids. His kingdom lasted until one day he found his way into the old man’s pocket, and though he endeavoured to attach himself to this vital part of the parental anatomy he wound up on the toe of the well-known shoe, and found himself in the West on an allowance. Sometimes he has acquired a knowledge of fiction and poetry which he thinks should enable him to make money anywhere, and he unhesitatingly attempts enterprises that would make a practical man shudder.

ccasionally he succeeds, but never more than occasionally, and rarely does he attempt a second venture. He’ll surely establish a horse ranch when horses are a drug on the market, or buy up cattle in the fall when he can get no hay for them.