October 11, 1958

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FICTION

WHERE DID RAFE MADISON GO?

The Canadian super jet was top secret. The pilot took it up and vanished. When he came back he didn’t know he’d been gone nearly six months. Now the RCAF and the world were demanding... By DONALD JACK41 min

KLONDIKE!

The short violent reign of SOAPY SMITH

At the height of the Klondike stampede Skagway, Alaska, was “little better than a hell on earth." Its uncrowned king was Jefferson Randolph Smith: con man, gunman, genius in the methods of dictatorship By PIERRE BERTON38 min

A Maclean’s LEISURE IN CANADA feature

Holiday weekend in Halifax

The broiled live lobsters are a work of art. The silver fish strike and fight. Flamboyant ghosts stalk the grey gay city and a Maclean's editor is reminded that Halifax is one of those places that never disappoint you By Ian Sclanders18 min

For the sake of argument

Let’s stop being polite to the Russians

The Communists have a fighting language. The Free World hasn't. Communist Russia has created a striking, extraordinary language, a fighting language of ideology which even Hitler did not have. Of course the West cannot have a language when it does not even know what this present world conflict of ideas is about. By LIN YUTANG URGES11 min

ARTICLES

Opera’s happy rebel

Canadians couldn’t be dragged to an opera They’d likely change their tune if they were exposed to roly-poly Herman Geiger-Torel. He packs his shows with puns and pratfalls and still rates the bravos of the connoisseurs By David MacDonald16 min

London Letter

Death and deathly taxes

Are rich people really necessary? If the answer is "Yes,” then should they be allowed to bequeath their wealth, or large portion of it, to their heirs and successors? This is not a quiz game (although it would provide a lively theme for discussion) but a serious question that has been made topical by the recent death of that remarkable seventy-five-year-old, the Viscountess Rhondda. By BEVERLEY BAXTER7 min

The land that time forgot

This is Long Point: a timeless tangle of swamp and exotic vegetation jutting into Lake Erie. Its inhabitants: animals, birds, reptiles, fishes and—periodically—multi-millionaires By Duncan McLeod15 min

ARTICLES

Why Canadians can’t leave pickles alone

Whether it's old backwoods favorites like chowchow, corn relish and bread-and-butter pickles or exotic European arrivals like Kosher and Polish dills, we’re among the world's champion pickle-snatchers. Here’s how we got that way By JOHN CLARE15 min