"The Hub and the Spokes" is cleverly constructed to give a readable history of the Canadian Capital (the Hub) and particularly its people. It also contains some accounts of the Ottawa Valley (the Spokes), with references here and there of many other parts of the Dominion and its history.
This is a very readable book full of interesting little cameos on the social and cultural history of the Ottawa area. In his literary character of "Rube" Anson Guard records a series of conversations with his traveling companion, "The Colonel" as he describes visits to places and people in the area. He is a consumate "name dropper," so the book records many hundreds, perhaps thousands of the names of the populace in turn of the century Ottawa.
Even better the book contains about 1500 engraving and photographs, some of those people and some of the places they lived in.
To quote a section of the book's introduction, "I have read several of Mr. Anson A. Gard's books, and I find in them a quality of human humor akin to that of the famous Mark Twain. By reason of his clever style of quaint description allied to kindly satire, and human insight, Mr. Gard is well equipped with the requisite ability, to write a readable and interesting volume about any community he may visit. I believe that his new book will be the best of its kind ever produced in this country. - Signed, W. Wilfrid Campbell. Ottawa, Nov. 15th, 1904."
