The remittance man, who received modest remittances from his family in England, was the butt of constant Canadian jokes and ridicule in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He was usually a younger son who failed to inherit a share of the family fortune under the rules of progenitor. From the Regina Standard, January 25, 1899, reprinted from Western Winks.

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 endeavored 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. Occasionally 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.

Unfamiliar Canadian history stories 077

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