EVOLUTION OF TOWNS AND VILLAGES.
BUCKBOARDS AND BUCKSAWS.
The lumber wagon and buckboard were practically the only wheeled
vehicles in use. The buckboard was a light vehicle without springs. The
floor was made of slats an inch or two apart, so there was no lack of
ventilation. Governors-General, Judges, high and low, rode in this vehicle
which it is only fair to say was ameliorated by a spring seat. Among
the ordinary homesteaders, for years, the man who had a buckboard was
distinguished among his fellows. Somewhere about 1896 the covered
buggy made its appearance, and as times were pretty good it spread like
an epidemic and in a few years the buckboard became practically ex-
tinct, although here and there one lingered, for a real buckboard was
almost indestructible. A good story is told by one of the pioneer home-
stead inspectors. R. S. Park, of Whitewood, had to meet his colleague,
John Rogers, of Regina, at Qu'Appelle Station in order to make a joint
inspection of a homestead about which there was a dispute. Mr. Park's
vehicle was getting the worse for wear and one of the hind wheels was
badly dished. At the Queen's Hotel just as dinner was to be served,
Park made an excuse and slipped down to the livery stable where he
changed his bad wheel for a good one from Rogers' rig. Rogers didn't
realise the change, although he noticed that one of his wheels had gone
suddenly wrong. The joke lies in the fact that Rogers, through this bad
wheel, was able to get a brand new trap from the Government, while
Park had to make shift for a long while with his old vehicle.
The bucksaw and the sawhorse formed another ubiquitous institu-
tion. Very little coal was used. Indians and whites hauled wood into
the villages and the woodpile was visible on every farm. Sometimes the
poles were placed upright, and the wood piled like a tepee, might be visible
on the open prairie for miles. To reduce the poles to stove lengths was
a daily task. Many a man, hard up for a dollar, has found his salvation
in the villages by going round with a bucksaw. Probably the legend,
"Say nothing and saw wood" owes its inception to the homely but indis-
pensable bucksaw of the early days. No doubt its kindly rasp can be
hear~ today in the back settlements.
Bibliography follows:
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