50 OUR ISLAND STORY Such frolics usually went the round of many settlements once or twice in each year. They gave variety and social liveliness to the usually monotonous existence of those who conquered the forest and established the homes for their successors,—those who now cultivate cleared and levelled fields by means of "gang ploughs" and "wheel harrows/' and self-spreading manure wagons, who have mowers and reapers and threshers and machines for harvesting their hay, grain and potatoes; who live in well fur¬ nished homes with ranges in their kitchens, warmth-dispensing pipeless furnaces in their cellars, hot and cold water flowing through their chambers and bathrooms, and the telephone and radio, as well as the daily newspaper to keep them in touch with the world at large and informed concerning all the facts of current history. As in the country, so in the city and the town. With the exception of a few officials, the chief of whom drew their means of livelihood from the government of the Mother Country, the inhabitants of the Capital, the only considerable town then in the Island, were in comparatively poor circumstances. For the most part they had to cultivate gardens for vegetables and fruits with which they supplemented their meagre and hardly earned incomes. Money was scarce in the country; and consequently this medium of exchange was small in amount throughout Char- lottetown. There were no banks or other financial institutions. Fortunately the prices of the necessities of life were low, while those of the luxuries, even tea and coffee, were so high that they were beyond the reach of all but the well-to-do. The cheapest commodity not essential to life, was rum obtained in the West Indies. For this stimulant to exertion, a large proportion of the money then current in the town was paid. The wholesale deal¬ ers in liquors and the tavern keepers were consequently among the more prosperous citizens.