Chinook in Paris!

[Theresa Kishkan]

Last night I was reading *Samuel Maclure: Architect* by Janet Bingham,
published by Horsdal & Schubart in 1985. When Maclure, who grew up on
Matsqui Prairie, was working on Hatley Park for the Dunsmuir family, he was
asked to go to Europe with his wife to choose furnishings for the Dunsmuirs,
who were adverse to travelling at that point. So in 1910, Sam and Daisy
Maclure were in Paris, selecting the furnishings, and Bingham has this to say:

     They found their French very inadequate, particularly in restaurants,
where they could         not keep up with the waiters' speech. As a joke
they talked to each other in Chinook
      and watched the astonished faces around them. (page99)

A Maclure house, built in 1906 and which I believe still stands at 1041 St.
Charles Street in Victoria, was called "Illahie".

Theresa Kishkan
RR1 Site 20 C11
Madeira Park, B.C.
V0N 2H0
(604)883-2377
Red Laredo Boots (1996); Sisters of Grass (2000); Inishbream (2001)

"The grey geese circled Inishbream and the population fled, leaving their
tables laid for another stranger to discover, leaving a brand of turf to
burn away to cold ash."