Travels and experiences in Canada, the Red River territory and the United States

THE LIR
UNIVERSITY OF t^i
U>S ANGKLES

THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES

e+*^f

TRAVELS AND EXPERIENCES

CANADA, THE RED RIVER TERRITORY

THE UNITED STATES,

PETER O'LEARY.

JOHN B. DAY, PRINTER AND PUBLISHER,
" SAVOY STEAM PRESS," SAVOY STREET, STRAND.

LONDON :

I'RINTKD BY JOHX B. DAY, " SAVOY STEAM PRESS, '
SAVOY STREET, STRAND.

)0)3

THIS BOOK

IS, BY PERMISSION, DEDICATED TO
THE RIGHT HON. EARL DUFFERIN, K.R, K.C.B.

GOVERNOR GENERAL

OF THE DOMINION OF CANADA.

IN RESPECTFUL RECOGNITION OF HIS HIGH QUALITIES

AS A
PRUDENT, COURTEOUS, AND ENLIGHTENED

STATESMAN.

815672

PREFACE.

IN giving this, my first work, to the world, I would take
the opportunity of thanking the gentlemen connected
with the various important newspapers in Europe, and
America who, during my travels in America, published my
letters in their respective journals, and commented apoii
their contents with much consideration and kindness. It
is not unknown to them, and to a large number of their
readers, that I have no pretension to the education of a
scholar, although possibly, as far as knowledge of the
affairs of my fellow -work men is concerned, I may have
as practically useful an education as most men. To those
of my readers who do not know me personally, I may
briefly state, that my father was, at the time of my birth,
a farm labourer in Ireland, and that when I was six years
of age, he brought my mother and myself, from Ireland to
England, and settled with us a few miles from London,
where he followed his old occupation. I was myself
employed on a farm as a labourer until the 20th year of
my age, when, prompted partly by a desire for novelty
and change, and partly by a wish to secure more lucrative
employment I came to London, where I obtained em-
ployment as a paviour's labourer, and I followed that
business until I rose to the rank of street mason and paviour.
The little learning I may have, has been what I have picked
up in my leisure moments ; in other words, I am a self-
taught man. I need scarcely state that I make no pre--

vi PREFACE.

tensions to grammatical perfection or elegance of style ;
all I have endeavoured here to do has been to express
homely and, as I believe, useful truths in language which,
if not highly polished, is, I know, at least intelligible to
those for whose benefit this has been written. I am
confident, therefore, that my work, if not found wanting
in other respects, will receive, in spite of my rough and
ready style, favourable consideration at the hands of my
readers.

In dedicating this work (by permission) to the Governor
General of Canada, I have neither considered his Excel-
lency's politics, nor his exalted rank, but have dedicated it
to Earl Dufferin because I firmly believe, that he is the right
man in the right place, fully understanding his duties and
responsibilities, and ever ready and anxious to perform
them with credit to himself and benefit to the Canadian
people. Nothing can exceed the courtesy extended by him
to all classes of the community ; he has ever manifested
an earnest desire to assuage injurious dissensions, to unite
clashing interests, and to firmly consolidate the union of
the various sections of the Canadian Confederation.

I cannot refrain from noticing in this place the generous
and patriotic conduct of Mr. James Mulligan, of St. James,
Fort Gary, Manitoba, who, during my stay there, deposited
£100 in the Merchant's Bank of the City of Winnipeg,
in the names of Mr. Boyle, Editor of the Irish
Canadian, Toronto; Mr. M. P. Ryan, M.P., Montreal;
and Mr. P. F. Johnson, Kanturk, Ireland, as trustees for
the assistance of such Irish emigrants to Manitoba as may
arrive in that province during the next two years. I trust
that the example of Mr. Mulligan will be followed by
others of my wealthy countrymen in Canada and the

PREFACE. VI 1

United States. There can be no more beneficent act of
charity than the extension of help in the hour of need to
the too often helpless and nearly penniless emigrant. A
very little assistance at a critical moment means often to
emigrants the difference between a life of prosperity and
happiness, and a life of abject pauperism and misery.
They are alone and in a strange land, and help coming to
them there from the hand of a fellow countryman is doubly
dear. In aiding their less fortunate countrymen, pros-
perous Irishmen in Canada and America, should, for the
honour of their country, not be behindhand. And now,
with many thanks to all my kind friends in Europe,
Canada, and the United States, for the hospitality and
courtesy I have received at their hands, I venture to issue
this account of my experience and travels, trusting it will
meet with their approval and receive their support.

PETER O'LEARY.
London.

TRAVELS AND EXPERIENCES

IN

CANADA, THE BED RIVER TERRITORY,

AND

THE UNITED STATES.

CHAPTER I.
WHY I WENT TO AMERICA.

To get information upon any matters requiring special
attention has been the ambition of men in all ages, and
under all circumstances ; to acquire knowledge of different
races and of unknown countries travellers have braved
danger and death in a thousand forms ; and when we
read of the exploits and achievements of the explorers of
distant regions, we are struck with admiration at their
courage, endurance and intelligence. Any man who has
visited a far off land and on his return diffused the in-
formation that he derived, has been a public benefactor,
because, in a measure he contributed to the knowledge
of the people. This is why I have written this book on
Canada and the United States, giving an honest opinion
from

A WORKINGMAN'S STANDPOINT

on these countries as fields of emigration for those of the
toiling masses who purpose leaving the United Kingdom
to seek new homes in other climes. During the last thirty
years over four millions left Ireland alone, most of them

B

2 WHY I WENT TO AMERICA.

going to the United States. Looking through the emi-
gration statistics of that country, I find that from 1847 to
1852

IRISH EMIGRATION

nearly doubled that of any other country, the next being
that of Germany ; while from England it was comparatively
small. Of the emigrants engaged through the instru-
mentality of the New York Labour Exchange in 1868,
7,397 could not read or write ; the most of those emigrants
were from the United Kingdom, as the Germans generally
prefer to go West; their ignorance denotes the low
status of the working-classes in Great Britain and Ireland,
countries which, from time to time, have been loudly pro-
claimed the most enlightened in the world. With un-
bounded territories and unlimited resources this influx of
hard-working men was of the greatest benefit to the
United States, and the result was that the Republic
rapidly rose in the scale of nations, although the govern-
ment of that country has not acted right to those people
who went to make a home under its Hag — but more
of that in another chapter. England has more colonies and
dependencies than any other country, and it is only
natural that she would try to direct the current of emi-
gration to their shores ; the colonies themselves being very
anxious to get settlers. Steam navigation, the electric
telegraph and penny newspapers led to a diffusion of
knowledge between different countries and peoples, this
materially assisted emigration, because such knowledge
enlarged their views and expanded their ideas ; but it is
only recently that the

PLAN OF DELEGATING MEN

from various organisations to report upon the prospects
that await workingmen in the new countries has been
thought of; this was really a step in the right direction.
During the last few years numbers of trade unions have
been formed and found exceedingly beneficial to the
toiling classes, because they taught self-reliance, unity and
cohesion, and had a properly organised directing power.

THE AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS' UNION
is the last, and perhaps the most important of these

WHY I WENT TO AMERICA. 3

bodies, as it has done more to call attention to the
grievances under which the people laboured than any
other of these organisations, and many men of position
and wealth have given it their support on that account.
Some two years ago the council at Leamington determined
to send a couple of

DELEGATES TO IRELAND,

to endeavour to form a union in that country, as well as
to report on the general condition of the labourers. My-
self and Mr. Gardiner were selected for that purpose.
Accordingly, we landed in Dublin in May, 1873, and
during the summer we travelled through the counties of
Limerick, Cork, Kerry, Tipperary, and Waterford ;
numerous meetings were held, and a deal of information
given to the public on the wretched condition of a class,
the worst fed, the worst-clad and worst housed probably in
Europe. The cabins or houses in which the labourers live
are entirely unfit for human habitation, the walls made
of rnud or clay, about six feet high and often not so much ;
the roof, of rotten thatch ; no windows, except one or two
immoveable panes of glass fixed in the wall to admit light;
the floor of earth, moist and unwholesome, no sanitary
arrangements; no rooms or separate sleeping places for
the different members of the family; no plastering or
whitewash on the walls or roof, scarcely any furniture,
except a few basins, a pot, and some stools ; the bed, a
heap of straw in a corner, and the covering of the scantiest
kind ; the above is no fancy description of

AN IRISH PEASANT'S HOME

in the nineteenth century, their being 95,000 of such
homes in Ireland. Their food is also of a corresponding
nature, being either potatoes or Indian corn-meal, boiled
into stir-about — without milk, butter or sugar — and fre-
quently not enough, even of that. In evidence of this
fact I will quote a passage from a leading article of the
" Flag of Ireland " newspaper, of the 23rd of August, 1873,
which says, " The condition of this class of our people is
admittedly wretched, perhaps in no country is there to be
found a more famished and forlorn human being than the
farm labourer of Ireland, he is ill-paid, half-starved and

B 2

4 WHY I WENT TO AMERICA.

miserably housed; his wages are insufficient for the
maintenance of a single individual in anything like com-
fort, still less a whole family ; his children consequently
are ragged and without shoes; in the coldest weather
he is himself half- naked, and his wife shrinks from
making her appearance before strangers; the bounden
duties of religion are often neglected, because the
family are in a state of semi-nudity and ashamed to
be seen among their more favoured fellow - creatures ;
he is entirety ignorant of any of the world's comforts,
his dwelling at once strikes the eye of the stranger
with horror — nay, with doubt, as to whether it is the
abode of human beings; — at most there are but two
rooms, and frequently only one, in the miserable hut, and
into this apartment is huddled every living thing belong-
ing to the weary toiler: the husband, the wife, the chil-
dren, the pig, the cock and hens, and perhaps a donkey,
or a goat, all dwell in the one solitary chamber. The
extent to which this habit

DEMORALISES THE LABOURER

cannot be easily measured, the delicacies of better society
cannot possibly be observed under such circumstances,
and the moral sentiments are sure to be deprived of that
tone which purifies man and elevates him above the brute."
With a state of things like the above it is no wonder that
the only

AMBITION OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE

is to leave the country, and this they are doing at an
enormous rate. Although the mission of myself and Mr.
Gardiner did not end in a union like that at Leamington,
still a great deal of good was done ; the newspapers took up
the subject and discussed it in leading articles ; prominent
men wrote numerous letters, each giving his own views;
and a general feeling in favour of the unfortunate labourer
was created, that I am glad to say has not yet died out.
Political economists are divided in their opinions about

THE LAW OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND

being applied to labour. Some asserting that the work*
has a right to participate to a reasonable extent in

WHY I WENT TO AMERICA. £

the wealth and prosperity of the country, others saying
that the capitalist has a right to get cheap labour if he
can, and certainly this was the reply of the farmers of
England when the union applied for higher wages for its
members. Acting on the maxim that "Method is the
Soul of Business," the union determined to organise a
large emigration, and thus lower the supply and increase
the demand, and for this purpose the president,

MR. JOSEPH ARCH

visited Canada and the United States in the autumn of
1873. On his return a great many labourers went to the
Dominion, where they were well received, and since then
thousands of stalwart Englishmen have left their country,
never to return ; indeed, it is only since the formation of
the union that anything like a large emigration from
England set in, but from Ireland it has been going on for
at least thirty years. During the ten years, from 1845 to
1854, one million five hundred and twelve thousand one
hundred Irish landed in the United States, all those
people paying their own passages, or else friends in
America doing so for them, there being then no emigra-
tion clubs or societies as there are now in England. A
few years ago,

MR. JOHN FRANCIS MAGUIRE, M.P.

for the City of Cork, travelled in Canada and the States,
•and on his return published his great work — " The Irish in
America" — which went through several editions. This
was the first time that the Irish in the United Kingdom
had any information about their countrymen on the other
side of the Atlantic. Although Mr. Maguire's book was
beautifully written and its effect beneficial, it was not
a book of general information for an emigrant ; Mr. Arch
was the first to undertake that duty on behalf of the
English labourers' union, and as example is stronger than
precept, it was determined by some gentlemen in Ireland
that a workingman should proceed to America to get as
much information as possible for the emigrating classes.
The mission was offered to me by the hon. secretary,

MR. JOHNSON, OF KANTURK,

C WIIY I WENT TO AMERICA.

who has done more for the elevation of the farm labourers
of Ireland than any living man, for whilst others were
talking, he was acting, and energy is the key to success in
any undertaking. I accepted the duty, on condition that
I should be permitted to remain in America during the
winter, so as to know as much as possible about the cold
season ; I also at the same time determined to see work-
ing-class life in all its aspects, and to travel as much as.
possible through those sections of the country that are
held forth in the United Kingdom as eligible places for
the people to go to. Without egotism, 1 flatter myself
that I have seen as much of the country and inhabitants,
in the same length of time, as any man that ever went
out. I saw public life in hotels, and private life in the
mansions of the wealthy and cultured, as well as in the
homes of the poor man, and in the log huts of the settler.
I have seen American civilisation in every phase, from the
most refined in the large cities, to that of the Indian tribes
inhabiting the region north of Lake Superior, or the
fertile plains of Manitoba. I have

COLLECTED EVERY POSSIBLE INFORMATION

about the prospect awaiting the emigrant, and to do so I
have travelled some thousands of miles, have endured some
hardships and privations, and to place the knowledge I
have of these matters in a readable form before the public
is my ambition. I do not want to write anything sen-
sational or to draw upon imagination for subjects, my
object is to tell a plain concise and unvarnished story
of my experience and impressions, and to add to the in-
telligence of the masses about that great Western World
which for generations to come will absorb into its bosom
the surplus population of Europe. That there is

ROOM FOR MILLIONS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF

the Atlantic there cannot be a doubt, and every infor-
mation bearing on our cousins across the ocean must be
interesting to a large section of the public, and to collect
that information I visited Canada and the United States.

CHAPTER II.
FROM LONDON TO DERRY.

HAVING received credentials and letters of introduction to
influential people in the Dominion, I determined to travel
with as little encumbrance as possible, all my wardrobe
and papers being packed in a small carpet bag and valise,
so that I might be my own porter in case of emergency.
I left Euston Square Station for Dublin, on the morning
of the 18th of May, 1874. Any one seeing from the
railway carriage the grand mansions, lovely villas, fine
parks, excellent farms, and beautiful lawns and gardens
of the wealthy, could not well imagine how there could be

POVERTY, WRETCHEDNESS, AND IGNORANCE

in such a country, but that there is, no one can doubt, and
if they do, let such a person visit one of the "Allan" Line
of Canadian steamships on her departure from Liverpool,
where he will see the

AGRICULTURAL LABOURER

and his family, after years of unceasing toil, in a state of
destitution, leaving his country, and in the majority of
cases the passage being paid for him, as he has scarcely
money enough to purchase the necessary clothing.

The North - Western Railway between London and
Holyhead passes through every class of scenery. Here a
lovely valley, covered with splendid vegetation ; there a
hill, crowned with a ruin of some feudal castle or ancient
fortress ; now the train dashing over some river, im-
mortalised by poet and historian. At length we reach
Crewe, a wonder in itself, from the great number of trains

8 FROM LONDON TO DERRY.

passing through it daily. Shortly after we cross into
North Wales, the scene is superbly grand ; the sea on our
right, the Welsh mountains on our left ; through tunnels
and over the stupendous Britannia bridge, that spans the
Menai Straits, which divide the

ISLE OF ANGLESEY

from the main land. This sacred island of the ancient
Druids looks comparatively poor, yet it is evident there is
more equality among the people than in any part of
England ; there is a sameness and air of comfort about
the houses, that is not to be seen in this country ; besides,
there appears to be a bit of land attached to each dwelling,
either to support a cow or to cultivate, as the owner thinks
fit.

We arrived in Holyhead at six o'clock in the evening,
and had to wait there until twelve for the North Wall boat.
The town is built on the projection of a mountain, and
appears to be more or less dependent on the port and
railway for its business ; the houses are small, but all look
neat and clean. At last we were on board of the boat, and
at midnight were steaming out of the harbour ; the night
was very cold and

A DECK PASSAGE TO DUBLIN

was anything but pleasant. I am surprised that there has
not been some legislation to regulate the passage between
England and Ireland, as at present it is a disgrace. We
have Acts ©f Parliament to protect steerage passengers on
emigrant ships ; we have Acts of Parliament protecting
the very poorest of the people in common lodging-houses ;
we have an Act of Parliament regulating the labour of
women and children in factories, and we have an Act of
Parliament to prevent poisoning by adulteration ; but an
Act to compel the steamboat lines, between England and
Ireland, to provide something like decent accommodation
for steerage passengers is as necessary as any one of those
measures. I have crossed the Channel by four different
routes, and their arrangements for steerage passengers are
all wretched, in fact, inhuman ; women and children have
to stow themselves away on deck among cows and pigs,
as best they can. There are no female stewards for the

FROM LONDON TO DERRY.

third class, and there is an indiscrimate mixing of the
sexes ; sea-sick women and half drunken drovers huddled
together in any nook or corner where they can find room.
Surely it is time this abominable state of things was done
away with by the strong hand of the law. We made the
passage in six hours.

THE ENTRANCE TO DUBLIN BAY

is magnificent, the Hill of Howth on the right, the
watering places of Bray and Kingstown on the left, and in
the background the high ridge of the Wicklow mountains.
The sun had just risen and reflected in the blue waters of
the bay ; the dark brown mountains on both sides of the
entrance, the villas and mansions of the gentry scattered
here and there, made up a glorious scene, and one not
easily forgotten. As we steamed up the Liffey we passed
Poolbeg, the Pigeon-house fort, the historic shore of

CLONTARF,

the famous battle-field on which the Irish King Bryan
Boiroimhe defeated the Danes, on Good Friday, 1034. On
that memorable day 14,000 Danes fell, as well as the two
sons of the King of Denmark, Gurth and Sitric. The
Irish army also suffered severely, having lost 8,000 men,
besides the heroic old king and his son, Prince Murroagha,
or Morgan O'Brien, it is recorded of the Prince that
his right arm was swollen from the continous swinging of
his axe. This action was one of the decisive battles of the
world, as it destroyed for ever the Danish power in Ireland,
but it paved the way for the Normans, as a number
of aspirants to the throne sprang up, the royal line of the
O'Brien's being nearly all killed at Cloutarf, this weakened
the Irish power on account of the contention for the
sovereign authority which ensued.

The steamboat came alongside the quay at the North
Wall, where we disembarked and very glad we were to do
so, as myself, and the other third-class passengers were
trembling with the cold. Dublin has been so often
written about by tourists, newspaper correspondents and
others, that it is unnecessary for me to say much about it,
but as various people will sec the same object from d if-

10 FROM LONDON TO DERBY.

ferent standpoints, I take the liberty of giving my im-
pressions of

A CITY THAT OUGHT TO BE THE METROPOLIS OF A NATION,

but is only that of a province. Any one who has seen
the bustle and business of an English or Canadian town,
would be surprised at the want of either in Dublin. Here
all the railway systems are concentrated, yet there does
not seem to be much traffic in the streets or along the
wharfs ; there are scarcely any four-wheeled vehicles used
in the transit of goods, a striking evidence that there are
no heavy manufactures of any sort; it is true there are
some very fine buildings, but they were all erected when
Dublin was the seat of an Irish Parliament, the Custom
House, the Post Office, the Law Courts, the Exchange, the
Bank of Ireland (formerly the Parliament House), and
Trinity College, structures which would adorn any capital
in Europe, but, on the other hand, an air of decay seems
to overhang the entire city. In Dublin there are a great
many whiskey shops and public-houses, which must be

A SOURCE OF POVERTY AND CRIME,

and, in my opinion, the sooner a large number of them are
shut up the better. This is a hard sentence against a
trade licensed by the State and returning to it immense
revenues, but I am fully impressed with its truth, my
experience teaching me that wherever they abound the
poorer the place, and that they are the greatest drawback
to the well-being of a community, certainly if they are any
benefit at all, Dublin is pretty well blessed or cursed with
them, as the case maybe. Centuries ago a feudal baron would
carry fire and sword into a town or territory, he would kill
and burn on every hand, and often not spare age or sex ;
then, when the fear of an offended Creator would creep on
him with old age, he would found a monastery and endow
it lavishly, or else build a splendid church, or perhaps do
some other pious act to cover a multitude of sins; this is
almost the case with

DISTILLERS AND BREWERS

in our own day, as most of them affect philanthropy in
some way ; one preaches to a Sunday school, another gives

FROM LONDON TO DERBY. 11

liberally to the Society of Railway Servants', others expend
large sums in re-building and embellishing churches and
chapels, but it is doubtful whether they ever consider the
wretched creatures who fill the prisons, the workhouses,
and the lunatic asylums, or the squalor, poverty, and
crime that stalk abroad through the consumption of the
articles they manufacture ; truly charity covers a multitude
of sins and it has need to do so, whilst our brewers and
distillers availing themselves of this promise, grow rich
by making others poor indeed.

There are some very nice places around Dublin, such as
Kingstown, Bray, Rathgar, &c. ; the Phoenix Park and the
national cemetery of

GLASNEVIN

are well worth a visit; the O'Connell monument is a piece
of magnificent workmanship and an evidence of the respect
his countrymen had for the great tribune ; the monument
is an Irish round tower, about 150 feet high and built of
solid masonry, the mortuary chapel or mausoleum is in
the mound or bank on which the monument is erected,
and the massive oak coffin is deposited in a splendid tomb
with open ends; the coffins of his two sons, John and
Morgan, are laid in a side vault of the mausoleum, all the
surroundings are solemn and imposing.

After spending two or three days in Dublin, I started
for Londonderry by the Ulster Railway, being accompanied
to the station by

MR. SHIEL

the Ontario Emigration Agent. There were a number of
emigrants going by the same train, and Mr. Shiel paid
every attention to them, such as sending messages home
for those that could not write, seeing that their luggage
was properly labelled, &c. The railway for some miles
runs along the coast and through places rich in historical
associations ; in this respect there seems to be a great
connection between the written and the unwritten history
of Ireland ; this is seen at once by a person speaking the
Irish language, as the names of towns, villages, and plough-
lands indicate some interesting historic incident, and the
traditions and poetry of a bygone age are handed down in

12 FROM LONDON TO DERBY.

the native tongue even by the illiterate and uneducated
peasantry. We reached Derry late in the evenng ; I
took charge of my own luggage and carried it to

AN EMIGRANTS' LODGING-HOUSE,

a few doors from the office of the Messrs. Allan, where I
paid sixpence for a bed ; in this house everything was well
managed, plenty of boiling water, clean beds, care taken of
luggage, and every question answered with courtesy, and
this is a deal to a poor stranger. There were a great
many emigrants waiting for embarcation, mostl yyoung
people. A man from the Allan office called and told them
to be ready for the tender at nine o'clock in the morning,
and cabin passengers at three in the afternoon. I was up
early, determined to see as much as possible of a town so
famous in Irish history.

LONDONDERRY.

During O'Neil's wars with Elizabeth, it was held for that
leader by the O'Dohertys' of Inishowen, and in the great
rebellion of 1642 it was garrisoned by a detachment of
the Irish forces by order of Owen Roe O'Neil. The Wil-
liamite army defended it against the Earl of Tyrconnel, who
commanded the army of James the Second. This is one of
the most heroic defences recorded in the annals of history.
The hero of the Williamite forces was a reverend Mr.
Walker, a Presbyterian minister, when afterwards he was
mortally wounded at the battle of the Boyne, and the fact-
was made known to the Prince of Orange, the Prince ex-
claimed, "Serve him right, what the devilbroughthim here ?"
this, to say the least, was ungrateful. Derry is a very nice
town, clean and well built and picturesquely situated at the
head of Lough Foyle ; the old city walls are still intact, and
are on an average about 13 feet thick ; there is a monu-
ment on the wall to the memory of Walker, and a great
many old guns are mounted here and there, denoting the
ascendancy of the Orange party in the past. During my
rambles I entered into conversation with an old man who
was mending the road on the wall. He regretted the im-
poverished condition of Ireland, said there were scarcely
any manufactures and but little trade in Derry, he pointed
out to me the triangle, called the Diamond, the scene of

FROM LONDON TO DERBY. IS

so many bloody contentions between two sections of the
same people — the Orangemen and the Catholics — he de-
precated Mr. Gladstone's policy of disestablishment, as, in
his opinion, Protestants only were fit to rule. When
parting I offered the old man sixpence which he respect-
fully declined to accept, saying that he had been a total
abstainer for twenty years and had two sons also abstainers,,
and, through sobriety and economy, he had enough to live
on even if he did not do any more work ; and, so I left
him thinking that he was in many ways a good man, but
that bigotry and religious intolerance had darkened his
better nature, and asking myself the question, " When will
mankind learn to adore God without smashing each others
skulls for his sake ?"

CHAPTER III.

FROM DERRY TO QUEBEC IN AN EMIGRANT
SHIR

" THREE O'CLOCK, get ready for the tender," cried a man
in front of the hotels and lodging-houses where passengers
were staying. I took the hint, and with my carpet-
bag in one hand and valise in the other made the best of
my way on board. In the course of half an hour all
arrived, some puffing and blowing and declaring they
had not sufficient notice, others laughing and joking and
determined only to see the bright side of everything.
While receiving the luggage and mails a clerk came round
to take the passengers names, so as to enable the company
to check the list with the number of tickets issued ; to
this simple and necessary arrangement

A CANTANKEROUS OLD GENTLEMAN

objected, he would not give his name to a clerk, no, not
he, and a dandified looking swell in holiday rig, and who
evidently wanted to let some ladies on board know that
he was somebody, followed the old man's example.
Th.p clerk, in the performance of a necessary duty, had to
submit to some sharp language from these men, who had
apparently more money than brains ; if they had been poor
probably they would have been put ashore, but as they
were " gentlemen," deference was paid to their wealth.
The hawser was then unfastened, the captain (for even
tug-boats will have captains) moved his hand in token to
the helmsman, the boat gradually got clear of the wharf,
full speed is put on, and we are rapidly gliding down

LOUGH FOYLE

to the mail steamship " Scandinavian," of the Allan line,
lying off Moville, fourteen miles from Derry. The scenery

FROM DERRY TO QUEBEC. 15

on both sides of the lough is very picturesque although
somewhat bare of timber, the ruins of castles, towers, and
abbeys dot the surface of the country, showing that Ireland
must once have been a paradise for architects and masons.
I am not a lover of stupendous castles and baronial halls,
because indirectly they represent the enslavement of the
multitude to the will of the few. I could not help re-
flecting that nearly all the ruins in Ireland were made by
England's armies to secure the subjection of the country,
and that having been effected, the land is now handed
over to

ABSENTEE PROPRIETORS,

who are worse masters than the feudal founders of the
ruined castles, because the latter lived in the country
and cared for its welfare, but the modern landlord
does neither; if landed proprietors remained on their
estates in Ireland, such numbers of its peasantry would
not abandon their Irish homes and go to foreign lands to
find a home or a grave. After an hour's pleasant sailing
•vve reach

THE SHIP.

What different mechanical contrivances the word "ship"
covers: the Roman galley with double banks of rowers which
brought Caesar's army from France to England when he
invaded it, the vessels in which the Danes sailed to their
numerous conquests were small and most of them without
decks. Alfred the Great excelled in ship-building, the
result being that each time his fleet encountered the
Danish one the latter suffered a defeat. Richard the
Second of England was three weeks wind bound in Pem-
broke harbour when about to cross the Channel to Ireland
to lead his army against the hero Art McMurrough, and
in 1534 it took the great French navigator Jacques
Cartier two months to sail from St. Malo to the straits of
Belle Isle. If those ancient mariners were to wake up now
from their long sleep, how surprised they would be to see

THE "SCANDINAVIAN"

at anchor waiting for her tender to bring the mails, to place
in a few days, the old world in communication with the new.

16 FROM DERRY TO QUEBEC.

How splendid she looks as her outline stands out against
the northern sky, how majestic is her appearance and how
powerful is the machinery necessary to propel the huge
mass across the Atlantic to the Western World. At length
we are alongside, passengers and mails are rapidly trans-
ferred, and as soon as possible we are under weigh

BOUND FOR QUEBEC;

on our left is the village of Movillc, having a very nice ap-
pearance from the deck of the vessel, white cottages on
the hill side, and gentlemen's houses along the shore. We
pass the immense ruins of Greencastle, one of the ancient
strongholds of the O'Doherties, and close to it the coast-
guard depot, signal station, and observatory. The wind
blew a little fresh as we began to feel the great Atlantic
.swell. Gradually the coast line disappeared, and at nine
o'clock we were out of sight of the

EMERALD ISLE.

The crew, from the captain to the cabin-boy, were as busy
as lamplighters, putting things to rights, every one in his
own department. I made it a point not to let anybody
know my business, so that I could see how emigrants were
treated. The purser went round and collected cabin pas-
sengers' tickets, and at supper each person had a place
allotted at table to sit at during the voyage. The " Scan-
dinavian " is a screw steamer, 3GO feet long and 40 feet
wide, 3,000 toes burden, barque rigged, with a crew of
120 men, commanded by Captain H. W. Smith and four
officers. The crew may be divided as follows : — Officers,
engineers, stokers, sailors, cooks, and waiters, or as they
are called, stewards, whose duty it was to wait at table in
the saloon and keep cabin passengers' berths in order, of
whom there were between seventy and eighty ; there were
also 700 steerage, a few intermediate, and eighty-one chil-
dren from Miss McPherson's Home in the Commercial
Road, total souls on board 997. The "Scandinavian" is
one of the splendid fleet of the

ALLAN LINE,

twenty in number, sailing for the most part to Canada.
What capital must be invested, and what skill and enter-

FROM DERBY TO QUEBEC. 17

prise is shown in the building and management of those
stupendous ships, yet all the arrangements appear like
clockwork, so evenly do they seem to work in every depart-
ment; whether it be the distribution of tickets at the
company's numerous agencies, or whether it be the des-
patching a vessel from the port on the appointed day and
arriving in due time at her destination, there is something
extraordinary in the perfection of the whole affair.

THE DISCIPLINE

of the "Scandinavian" was everything that could be
desired, the crew and passengers being prohibited as far as
possible from intermingling. The male steerage passen-
gers slept in hammocks slung from the decks, the women
and children in bunks along the sides, the single females
having a place partitioned off away from the others; the
children sent out by

MISS MCPHERSON

were taken excellent care of, every one trying to do them
some little kindness ; they were under the charge of two
young ladies and a gentleman, who paid every attention to
their little childish fancies, Captain Smith himself setting
the example. Those little creatures sung delightfully
every morning and evening to as appreciative an audience
as ever listened, even to a prima donna at Co vent Garden ;
they were well clad, and bore evidence of good care in
every way.

THE STEERAGE PASSENGERS

consisted of nearly all the nationalities in Europe, but, of
course, the majority were from the United Kingdom, a large
number being English agricultural labourers, members of
the Union, who were emigrating through the lock-out in
the Eastern Counties, the Union assisting to pay their
passage. When I saw so many fine stalwart workmen in
a state of destitution, leaving the wealthiest country in the
world because they could not get sufficient remuneration
for their labour to live decently, I could not help exclaim-
ing with Shakespeare, there is

" SOMETHING ROTTEN IN THE STATE OP DENMARK."
Being a working man, I had no difficulty in making

c

18 FROM DERRY TO QUEBEC.

myself at home among them, and I was sorry to sec that
many were illiterate, a strong evidence of the poverty of
their early years ; the richly endowed and state-paid edu-
cational establishments, religious and secular, had entirely
neglected those poor slaves, for they were nothing elso ;
the reader may raise a technical objection to this remark,
and say that no man is bought or sold in England, but I
reply, that if not sold they are starved and brutalised.
The wages of agricultural labourers being utterly inade-
quate to provide even the common necessaries of life,
the little comforts, decencies, and refining influences
which go so far towards realising here that higher and
better life which all sensible men desire to lead, are utterly
beyond their reach. I have myself, when a boy, been
scaring birds off the cornfields for sixteen hours a day, and
seven days per week for the enormous sum of two shillings,
and sometimes a thrashing into the bargain if the farmer,
my master felt in the humour, or rightly or wrongly thought
that 1 had not done my duty. English labourers, moreover,
are liable at any moment by a stroke of the pen of a magis-
terial or county court official in whose appointment they
have had no voice, to suffer the horrible degradation of
imprisonment, possibly for months in a felon's cell, and
to be spoiled of their goods; that palladium of liberty —
trial by jury — having been carefully restricted by
ill-advised ministers to the more favoured classes, and
the most infamous criminals. The eagerness with
which the agricultural labourers of England joined the
Union does them honour, because it shows how anxious
they are to improve their condition by moral co-opera-
tion, which, by a few simple rules, gives protection to
the weak, uniting the intelligent with the unintelli-
gent, to the great benefit of the latter without injury to
the fonner. The men of position and education who
assist them are public benefactors, because, in a measure,
they have given a tone and a directing power to the
greatest movement that has arisen in England in modern
times. With so many people on board one would expect
a good deal of overcrowding, yet there seemed to be plenty
of room, and certainly everything was done for ventilation
and the

FROM DERRY TO QUEBEC. 19

SANITARY COMFORTS

of the people. In the daytime all the able-bodied pas-
sengers had to come on deck, if the weather was any way
line, while the sailors washed and scrubbed the steerage.
From Derry to Quebec there was not a person laid up,
neither was there a birth or a death. The Irish steerage
passengers were somewhat different from the English,
many of them being of the small farmer class, which

MR. GLADSTONE'S LAND ACT

was gradually pushing off the soil, giving them a little com-
pensation for giving up possession, which enabled them to
emigrate. Among the Irish were several young women
going out for domestic service ; many of them having
letters of introduction to Catholic clergymen in different
parts of the Dominion ; they were robust and healthy, and
no doubt will become mothers of a race of men who will
yet make Canada a power among the nations of the earth.
Their appearance reminded me of Charles Kickham's
exquisite poem of the

IRISH PEASANT GIRL,
where he says : —

" O brave, brave Irish girls,
We well may call you brave ;
Sure the least of all your perils
Is the Ocean's stormy wave.

When you leave your quiet valley
And cross the Atlantic foam,
To hoard your hard won earnings
For the helpless ones at home."

THE FOOD IN THE STEERAGE

was good and ample in supply, every one getting plenty
without any stint whatever ; the only complaint I heard
was that it was served a little rough, to some this was any-
thing but a grievance, but others, of course, would like more
privacy, a tiling impossible amongst such a number of
people. I asked a labourer from Northamptonshire, how
he liked the treatment, and he replied in his broad dialect,
— " Zir, I ha gotten more meat for the laist six days than
for six muntz befoar." There were two doctors on board

c 2

20 FROM DERRY TO QUEBEC.

but fortunately they had but little to do ; those afflicted
with sea sickness or anything of that sort were soon put to-
rights ; but even of sea sickness, there was but very little,
as the weather was fine.

THE SCOTCH

seemed more philosophical and less conversational than
the others, the reason I could not tell, but perhaps it is a
national trait of character, increased by the practical teach-
ing they receive ; their ambition was to get land of their
own in the new country, and certainly they had the
appearance of making good settlers ; intelligent, robust
and industrious. My impression of the

THREE RACES OF ENGLISH SPEAKING EMIGRANTS

was that the English were the most industriously trained,
with the least ambition to escape from labour ; the Irish
the most book learned, and with the least industrial
training, and the Scotch the most calculating and practical ;
measuring everything from a utilitarian point of view,
perhaps of all the places in the world the

SALOON OF AN OCEAN STEAMER

is the best, to study every t}-pe of character ; there is the
heavy swell, with lots of money, going on a pleasure trip,
the stewards know him well and pay every attention to
his wants, because he will give a liberal gratuity at the
end of the voyage. There is our friend, the cantankerous
old gentleman, who declares that every thing from stem
to stern in the ship is wrong ; there is the dandy putting
on airs to captivate a handsome young English lady,
going on a tour through Canada, with her father ; the
dandy does not make much headway, as she prefers the
company of an unassuming young man, with spectacles
on. There are shrewd men of business going out to see
what facilities the Dominion offers for investment ; they sit
together and talk mysteriously about "capital," "enterprise,"
"returns," "reasonable percentage," and all the other terms
used in the money making vocabulary. There is a clergy-
man of the Church of England nearly always reading, and
very seldom conversing with any of his fellow passengers,
jet he has a mild appearance that commands respect.

FROM DERRY TO QUEBEC. 21

Then we have politicians of nearly all shades of opinion;
the Liberals and Conservatives being pretty evenly
balanced ; the Republic was well represented by a young
American lawyer, who was returning from a tour in
France. In support of his principles, he said that Wash-
ington and his colleagues had done more for human
liberty than all the Kings of Europe, since Charlemagne.
These controversies were very instructive, as they showed
the various points of political theories and forms of Go vern-
ment. No writer, and particularly an Irishman, has a
right to forget the fair sex in a book like this, for un-
doubtedly it would be incomplete by so doing ; all history,
as well as every day life shows the

INFLUENCE OF WOMAN,

whether in the convent or the school as a teacher, in
the hospital as a nurse, at the domestic hearth as a
mother, or the companion of man, to soothe and cherish
his grosser nature when in trouble or affliction, or to share
his happiness, as the case may be. I am glad to say it
was the latter on this occasion, as everyone was in good
health and spirits. An ocean steamship is a capital place
for courting, both in steerage and cabin, and I have
no doubt that intimacies formed while crossing tbt,
Atlantic often end in marriage on the other side. While
honourable and necessary attention was paid to women, I
did not see any impropriety in word or action during the
voyage. The ship rules are very strict in this respect ;
the Acts of the American Congress, of the Dominion
Parliament, and of the English House of Commons, in
different languages are posted up, setting forth the fines
;ind imprisonment inflicted on the crew for any breach of
discipline respecting females; besides, the number of
male passengers on board is a guarantee for their pro-
tection. Of course, human nature, either for good or evil,
is the same all the world over, whether on land or sea ;
but as far as the Scandinavian was concerned, with limited
space and such a large number of people on board, the
arrangements were as near perfection as possible. I must
here refer to

OUR CAPTAIN
(W. H. Smith) ; because, from close observation, during the

22 FROM DERRY TO QUEBEC.

twelve days that I was on board of his ship, I thought
Captain Smith to be almost a model officer ; just such an
one as we sometimes read of in stories and novels ; and I am
certain that such a man is an acquisition to the Allan ser-
vice; temperatein hishabits,kindand courteous in his manner
to the poorest woman in the steerage, as well as to the
wealthiest lady in the saloon ; attentive to duty, at the
same time commanding the respect of his officers and
crew, without pomposity or ostentation ; in a word,
Captain Smith entirely won my respect and admiration,
because I considered him the right man in the right
place, and just the best commander that could have been
chosen for such a ship. The other officers, of course acted
under him, but as the old saying is, more or less appli-
cable in all such cases — as with the master, so with the
servants. Those gentlemen were civil when spoken to,
and to a landsman, certainly their attention to duty ap-
peared to be perfection itself, and particularly the doctors;
although, fortunately they had not much to do. As wo
approached Newfoundland, the temperature fell, because
it was yet early in the season, and the ice had not all
gone south. We saw

A FEW ICEBERGS

floating about in the open sea, coming down from the
Arctic regions, where by a force equal to an earthquake
the great ice fields are broken up in the spring, and those
bergs are merely the pieces swimming about. Those lhat
get into the current running south come with it, the pro-
cess of dissolution gradually going on until they get into
the gulf stream, where they finally melt. A boy may
spend many years at school, and when a man read any
number of books, but it is impossible for him to under-
stand these natural phenomena or the magnitude of God's
wonderful works, except from personal observation.

THE MATERIALIST

may say that there is no God, and that matter, directs,,
organises and controls itself, yet man is the most per-
fect machine in the world, but everything done by
his hand or brain is imperfect ; and whether the mind
is dependent on his material body or on the infinite

FROM DERRY TO QUEBEC. 23

power of an all wise Creator — which is far the most pro-
bable— it is carried away in awe and wonder at those
stupendous realisations of

A MYSTERIOUS CREATIVE POWER

that he cannot understand, yet the further we search
the more evidence we get of the Creator, through the
harmony, unity and perfection seen in all his works
everything serving a particular purpose, and acting in
unity with something else to consummate a particular
ond, or in other words, carrying out the exact purpose
the Creator intended. An iceberg is a magnificent
sight ; a something that cannot be described on paper, but
if any one would imagine a lump of ice larger than the
greatest building in the world, it would give an idea of
the size; they are luminous in appearance, and if the
sunshine rests on them, they are even bright, almost to
dazzling. There are scarcely ever any accidents through
them; first, because they can be seen at an immense dis-
tance; secondly, because the temperature immediately
lowers in their neighbourhood ; thirdly, because captains
know exactly the region where they are likely to be met
with, and use the necessary caution to keep clear ; alto-
gether there is not much to be feared from icebergs. On
the fifth day out, it blew rather fresh, and the sea rolled
up into great tumbling waves, but to any one not affected
with giddiness it was a grand sight to stand on the
quarter-deck and see the ship's bow dipping, down, down,
one would almost think to the bottom, while in a second
she would rise majestically over the next rollers; the
captain and an officer on the bridge giving orders by
telegraph, both to the engineer and helmsman; three
men looking out, two in the bow and one on the mast ;
sailors pulling this and hauling that; the decks crowded
with those who were going to clear the forest and plough
the prairie; the sails nearly all set to catch the wind
blowing from the quarter ; a great black cloud of smoke
arising from the funnel ; the engines working up to full
speed; and the ship dashing through the water at the rate
of fifteen knots an hour this was really a fine picture. On

24 FROM DERRY TO QUEBEC.

the tenth clay we reached Cape Race, Newfoundland,
on which there is a signal station and lighthouse; a
few miles further on we were in the midst of the celebrated

NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERIES,

hundreds of vessels on every hand being engaged in the
business, nearly all two-masted schooners ; those that we
saw were principally French, from the French colony of
St. Pierie, the men receive a bounty of six shillings for
every quintal (equal to a hundredweight) they take ; they
had the appearance of being fine healthy robust men
and need be, for their work is weary and laborious.
There are a great many whales in the gulf of St. Lawrence,
and it was amusing to see them blowing columns of water
into the air every time they came to the surface ; I was
surprised they did not upset some of the tiny boats in
which the fishermen rowed about, but I suppose they
are inoffensive if let alone. Our ship stood in towards
the coast of Newfoundland, to a little place called Porte
Basque, the captain desiring to send a telegram to Quebec
to announce our arrival ; as we sailed up the gulf we
passed several rocks, the homes of thousands of sea birds.
Cape Rozier on the

CANADIAN MAIN LAND

came in view, and shortly after we saw signs of settle-
ments; little wooden houses built in the clefts of the
rocks and ravines, the homes of the French fishermen. In
the evening the captain gave permission to passengers to
remain up to see the pilot come on board, about one in the
morning, at a place called Father-Point. This was really
an exciting event ; the vessel lay to, and a gun fired as a
signal, the steam whistle was sounded, and a shower of
rockets were discharged to enable the pilot to know where
we were, the night being very dark. At last he arrived,
bringing a bundle of papers, which was a most acceptable
present ; next morning we woke up to find ourselves fairly
in the

BIVER ST. LAWRENCE,

the beautiful island of Orleans on our right, and a fine

FROM DERRY TO QUEBEC. 25

thickly populated country on our left. The first thing
that struck me was the absence of fine gentlemen's man-
sions; such as may be seen everywhere in the old country ;
particularly where there is good land, nice scenery, or on
the banks of rivers. But, here was glorious scenery, good
land, and one of the finest, if not the very finest river in
the world ; yet on its banks there were no great castles
or mansions, with towers, turrets, gables and belfries, and
with notices stuck up on every tree, saying that

DOGS WOULD BE SHOT AND TRESPASSERS PROSECUTED ;

the proprietors of the mansions also owning thousands of
acres of land to give them the necessary wealth to main-
tain their so called dignity ; and here let it be understood
that I am not saying a word against any man, because I
believe every one would like to have land and wealth, and
if by chance I myself, or any other man of advanced
political opinions should come in for a large estate, we
should not go out into the highways and byeways and say
to every one we met, " Come with us we will give you some
land .we have too much ; " but I am speaking against the
monopolies which keep the land locked up in large blocks
for the benefit of a few privileged men. I am speaking
against a law that in my opinion has for its object the
greatest good to the smallest number, or the converse of
Jeremiah Bentham's grand maxim — " The greatest good
to the greatest number." The prospect from the deck of
the vessel is splendid ; clean comfortable-looking houses
as far as the eye could reach ; suddenly

THE CITY OF QUEBEC

bursts on our view, the tin roofs of its churches and public
buildings shining like silver, an expression of pleasure and
surprise is made by the passengers as they gaze on the
magnificent picture before them, cheer upon cheer is
given us from the ships in the river as we glide up against
the current, which runs very strong ; on our left a crowd
of people are standing on a wrharf, this is

POINT LEVIS

and our voyage is at an end. The passengers are busy
writing letters, some with the crown of their hats or a

26 FROM BERRY TO QUEBEC.

saucepan for desks, others with a box, a stool, or anything-
they could place the paper on, their only anxiety being to
send a few lines to the dear ones at home announcing their
safe arrival. The captain on the bridge gives his orders-
in a deep hoarse voice which only those that are accustomed
to it can understand. We are now under the frowning
batteries of the citadel of Quebec, the Gibraltar of British
America. The " Scandinavian " gradually drops along-
side

THE LANDING,

a, gigantic Irishman jumps on shore to be kissed and
hugged by friends awaiting him. The captain sternly
forbids any more landing until a gangway is made. There
is a great stir on deck, mothers anxious to keep their
children together, clustered in groups here and there are
men exchanging addresses and promising each other letters
from time to time, young people shaking hands and con-
versing in low tones, in every case vowing friendship and
some, no doubt, fervent love. The gangway is made,
officers are placed at the end of it to prevent overcrowding,
and nearly 900 passengers arc landed in a very short time
without accident or confusion. The crowd on the wharf is
very orderly, far more so than a similar one would be in
England or Ireland, no bother about " Carry your trunk,
sir ? " " This way, sir ! " or " Do you want a trap, sir ? " as
at landing places in those countries; the crowd was made
up of three classes, the first caine to meet friends, the second
to get servants or workmen, the third to look on. The
luggage and mails are rapidly put on shore, and after a
few hours delay the vessel proceeds up the river to

MONTREAL,

a distance by water of about 200 miles, where she is to
discharge cargo. Thus ended our voyage of twelve days,
during which time I narrowly watched the treatment of
emigrants and I did not hear or see anything that could
be complained of.

I WOULD ADVISE STEERAGE PASSENGERS

not to bother about bringing extra food or nourishment,
unless a little jam for children, and those that like prepared

FROM DERRY TO QUEBEC. 27

milk, might bring a can or two. But the ship's food is
wholesome and good, and the less mixture one takes the
better in my opinion, intoxicating liquors increase sea-sick-
iiess, because they weaken the stomach. A round tin pot to
hold water and wash in, a rather deep tin plate that would
answer either for potatoes, soup, or rice, a tin saucepan to
drink out of, a knife, a fork, and a spoon are about all the
utensils an emigrant requires, of course the number would
depend on his family ; the tin pot is the most useful thing he
could have, and it should be always big enough to stow all
the other articles into, a coarse towel or two and a piece of
soap are also necessary, and certainly no person should
neglect washing once or twice a day. Every piece of
luggage should be marked with the owner's name
and where he is going to, and all things not absolutely
necessary on the voyage should be put away in the
hold of the ship ; the emigrant should see to this before
leaving home, by packing the clothes, etc., wanted in a
box with a lock and key, this he should take under his
own charge. 1 would advise passengers to take care
of their money and not to be free in giving their con-
h'dence to strangers, although perhaps there is as much
honesty in the steerage of an emigrant ship as in any other
place in the world among the same number of people ;
still discretion is always necessary. Of the cabin passen-
gers, I will only say that everything is done to make them
comfortable, whether in the sumptuous fitting up of
the saloon, in the arrangement of the berths, or in the-
civility and attention of the waiters, the ease and pleasure
of the passengers is their entire study, and in fine weather
a voyage across the Atlantic is as pleasing an excursion as
could be taken; there is ample opportunity to study
human character, to improve the mind and expand the
ideas by contact with different people and different cir-
cumstances, and the ever changing picture of God's work
raises the immortal part of our existence — the soul — to a
comprehension of His omnipotence and our total de-
pendence on His will.

CHAPTER IV.

THE CITY OF QUEBEC AND THE RECEFTION
OF EMIGRANTS.

EVERY Allan boat with passengers entering the St.
Lawrence, must telegraph from Father Point to warn the
authorities to make necessary preparations. The list of
cabin passengers is published in the Canadian papers in
the issue following the receipt of the telegram, so that the
inhabitants may make sure of meeting their friends at
the landing or railway station, as the case may be. The
number of emigrants is also sent so that the officers of
emigration can prepare for their reception. The St.
Lawrence at Quebec, is about a mile wide and very deep,
enabling vessels to come up any hour of the tide. Point
Levis, where all passengers are landed, is on the right
bank of the river, the city being on the left, it is the
terminus of the Grand Trunk Railway, and trains run in
-connection with all passenger boats. The station at Point
Levis, is very different from a station in the United
Kingdom, as it is entirely made of wood, the only iron or
stone being the nails, and a few buttresses, attached to it
are the Government offices and

RECEPTION HOUSES FOR EMIGRANTS,

of which there are three, one for the province of Ontario,
or as it was formerly known Upper Canada ; one for the
province of Quebec or Lower Canada, and one for the
Dominion or General Government. As soon as a ship gets
alongside, the officials direct the emigrants to the recep-
tion houses to await the landing of their luggage. Of
course cabin passengers will go to an hotel, several being
close to the wharf. From Quebec a great many take
through tickets for the Central Northern and Western
States of the American Union, as the Grand Trunk line

THE CITY OF QUEBEC, ETC. 29

runs to Detroit, State of Michigan, and then connects with
all the United States railway systems, the distance from
Quebec to Chicago being about 1,600 miles, with these peo-
ple the Canadian authorities have nothing to do, yet if they
are emigrants the officials often do them a deal of kind-
ness ; but their business is entirely with the Grand Trunk,,
whether they have through tickets from Europe, or purchase
them at Point Levis. The emigrants are all assembled
in the station, their luggage being brought up from
the ship by the company's porters. Several custom house
officers came round to examine it, for Canadian ports are
protected, even from English made goods. I could not here
help comparing the position of Irish and Canadian manufac-
tures ; here was a colony of England so free and indepen-
dent as to be able to impose a duty of 15 per cent, and in
some cases 25 per cent, on articles made in the Mother
Country, the free admission of which would injure Canadian
trade, whereas in Ireland the market is glutted with Eng-
lish goods, entirely destroying the manufacturing industry
of the people ; but then in Ireland, England can enforce her
will upon the people in Canada she cannot, and although
perhaps the existing connection is beneficial to both parties,
practically speaking Canada is, independent, as could be
.seen by those officers with the beaver and maple leaf,
marked on their sleeves, and the word Canadian Customs
on their collars; they performed their duty courteously and
without swagger, then the checker came round and put a
brass number on each piece of luggage, giving a correspond-
ing number to the owner, which made the company re-
sponsible for the goods while the traveller had the duplicate
in his possession, it is a very ingenious plan, and the one
adopted all over America. The emigrant for any port of
the two Canadas will receive

A FREE RAILWAY TICKET,

if for the province of Quebec from Mr. Thorn, if for
Ontario from Mr. McLaren, or Mr. Shiel, late agent in
Dublin. The tickets are countersigned by Mr. Stafford,
the head or Dominion agent, those gentleman will also
give every information, and all monies may be exchanged
for Canadian currency at bank rates. What a curious
crowd there is now petting ready to go up the country ; on

SO Till: CITY OF QUEBEC AND

board the Scandinavian I could not sec the people to
such advantage, but in the depot they can all be seen at
•once. The men with their families on the right in the
corner, are English, and members of the Leamington Union,
they are stalwart and evidently hardworking men, and are
going to Ontario to engage in farm labour. The next group
are Austrians going to Wisconsin, they are inveterate
smokers, and no doubt would quaff deeply of lager beer, if
there was any to be had, they are accompanied by an inter-
preter and seem pretty well to do as far as money is con-
cerned. Those young women sitting by themselves are
Irish, some are going to friends and others have letters of
introduction to the

REVEREND FATHER STAFFORD

of Lindsay, Ontario, who had written to the agent in Ireland
for them to go into service. They are handsome, healthy
looking girls and likely to do well. Next to them are a
few Irish families with several children ; some of those
people came out on prepaid passages, their friends having
arrived some twelve months before, and, without doubt,
there is no other people who assist their relatives at home
so much as the Irish, the only ambition of the great
majority of them, for at least the first few years, is to send
money to Ireland, showing that selfishness is not a trait
of their character. This is undoubtedly

A COSMOPOLITAN CROWD,

brought together through the same cause and for the same
purpose, oppressed and half starved in the countries of
Europe, here they are on the shores of the New World,
speaking various languages and of different religious
opinions, with a very little education or knowledge of
each others history, yet all actuated by the same motives
and directed by the same inspiration, to make a home of
their own in Canada or the United States; many will
succeed, almost beyond their most sanguine expectations,
others will struggle hard and still remain poor, and some
will sink under their difficulties. This has been the
history of emigration in every age and country. If any
person in the United Kingdom imagines that there is

THE RECEPTION OF EMIGRANTS. 31

no difficulty to get rich in America he is mistaken, so-
briety, industry, and adaptability to circumstances are

QUALITIES ESSENTIAL TO AN EMIGRANT,

and, unless possessing them, I would advise him to remain
at home. The luggage examined by the custom house
officers, and checked by the railway porters, the people all
registered in the emigration offices, and railway tickets
given to them, the signal is made by Mr. Stafford the head
agent, and the train draws up to the platform, shortly
after it is leaving the station for the great West, with a
cargo of human beings as ambitious, as hard working, and
as determined to push their way in the world as could be
met with anywhere at home or abroad. At the desire of
.some friends I remained for a few days in

QUEBEC,

during which time I visited the leading places of interest
in and about the city. After the departure of the train I
crossed the St. Lawrence, here a mile wide, on a steam
ferry, from Point Levis to the town ; in mid stream the
view is majestically grand, in front of us is the city, built
on a shelving peninsula, one street rising above another
something like Queenstown in Ireland only on a larger
scale, the tin roofs glittering and sparkling in the sunshine
like millions of diamonds ; on the height to our left is the
citadel, erected on one of the strongest positions in the
world, both by nature and art, on each side of us are
vessels waiting for cargo, principally timber, behind us is
Point Levis with its huge railway depot, and the " Scan-
dinavian " at anchor close to it, the ship-building yards,
numerous business places and gentlemen's villas erected
along the crest of the hill, the little river-steamers dodging
in and out like things of life, and the magnificent ocean
steamship " Dominion," of the Dominion line, proudly
gliding along with the tide dowrn to the Atlantic on her
homeward voyage, the whole to my imagination was the
noblest picture I ever saw. Omnibuses are waiting at
the pier to take passengers to the hotels. My friends took
me to Henchy's, where I spent very comfortably my nrst
night on the American continent The River St. Law-
rence was discovered by the great French navigator

S3 THE CITY OF QUEBEC AND

JACQUES CARTIER,

in 1534, having left St. Malo on the 20th of April of that
year, with two small vessels, commissioned by Francis the
First to prosecute discoveries in the New World, the ex-
istence of which had been previously proved by the
immortal Italian, Christopher Columbus. In the following
year, 1535, Cartier made a second voyage, when he
ascended the St. Lawrence to the rapids, nearly 200 miles
above Quebec ; on this occasion he made a treaty with the
Indians and wintered in the country, pitching his camp at
the foot of a steep hillock to which he gave the name of

MOUNT ROYAL

in honour of his master, now the site of the beautiful city
of Montreal. During that winter the intrepid Frenchman
and his followers suffered terribly from the intensity of
the cold, the want of supplies, the hostility of the Indians,
and scurvy, but for this terrible disease he fortunately
discovered a remedy in a decoction made from the bark of
the white spruce tree. In 1541 he made a third voyage
to the great river, to which he gave the name of the St.
Lawrence because he entered it on that saint's day; after
going up towards its source some distance, he anchored
his ships at the base of a huge cliff, to which he gave the
name of Cape Diamond and on which he erected a cross ;
he gave it this name because he found small crystaline-
stones which he thought were diamonds, and that look
very much like them, at least, to those who do not know
anything about geology ; they arc simply felspar like that
found in the county of Wicklow, Ireland, and worn by the
lovers of trinkets as Irish diamonds. The erecting of the
cross was the founding of Quebec, although anything like
a permanent settlement was not made till 1608, under the
bold, skilful, religious, and humane French Governor
and pioneer, Samuel Champlain. He sailed up the St.
Lawrence in 1603, bringing with him several

JESUIT MISSIONARIES

to convert the savages, who for the want of any other
name received the general one of Indians. The world is
indebted for a deal of its knowledge of science and geo-

THE RECEPTION OF EMIGRANTS. S3

graphy to Jesuit missionary travellers : acknowledging no
head but their superior and God, men of highly culti-
vated physical and mental powers, and taking by the
rules of their order, each upon himself a particular duty,
and keeping the performance of that duty continually
before their minds. From their standpoint, devoting
themselves entirely to the winning of souls to the glory
of God, and going forth with this inspiration it is no
wonder they have left their foot prints on the sands of
time more than any other order of men we read of. Cer-
tainly they have been the explorers of America; for
before ever the Mayflower sailed or those victims of
religious intolerance, known as the Pilgrim Fathers,
landed at Plymouth Rock (called by some, the Yankee
Blarney Stone), a vast portion of the North American
Continent had been explored by the Jesuits, and
missions founded by those indefatigable men among
the Aborigines. In modern times, it is a singular fact
that only the most despotic and tyrannical of govern-
ments are opposed to them. And since the day
when Ignatius their founder, then a poor wounded soldier on
the battle field of Pampeluna, made a vow to the Blessed
Virgin, that if he recovered he would found an order
dedicated to her dear Son, our Lord Jesus, whose mission
should be the increasing of knowledge and the general
benefiting of mankind ; that illustrious order so founded
in faith and tears, has illuminated the last three centuries
with the light of its genius and chanty. But in America
its work was pre-eminently one of good ; the Jesuits have
always stood up in the interest of freedom, and against
the kings of Europe ; many of whom acknowledged no
law human or divine, and whose cruelties and vices were
as gross as those of the Pagan rulers of ancient Greece or
Rome. The order was expelled from France, owing to
its condemnation of Royal profligacy.

THE HISTORY OF QUEBEC

from 1608, till it was taken by the English, under General
Wolf, in 1759 ; partook more or less of the character of
all the American settlements of that period ; almost con-
tinual war with the Indians; dissensions among the

D

34 THE CITY OF QUEBEC A1ID

colonists themselves; all dependent on the capricious wills
of the monarchs of England, France, and Spain, who were
too busy at home slaughtering their subjects in useless
wars, to pay any attention to these people at the other
side of the Atlantic, except giving them an occasional
overdose of taxation, and at last causing them to revolt,
as the thirteen united states did under Washington, au«l
the Canadians under Papineau, Nelson, and MacKenzie, to
whose memory a splendid monument is erected in the
Catholic cemetery, at Montreal. After a day's rest I set
out to see as much as possible of the city and its surround-
ings ; the place has a very old-fashioned appearance, many
of the streets being narrow, and the houses of the high
gabled style, of the seventeenth century.

THE CORPORATION

is alive to the necessity of keeping pace with the age, and
consequently it is making vast improvements in every
direction. The footways nearly all made of planks
are rather narrow, and the carriageway is badly paved,
although I was told there is an excellent granite quarry
in the neighbourhood, from which stones could be had for
paving purposes. New buildings are all made of lime-
stone, of a splendid quality ; many of them are large, and
are ornamental to the city. In former days the ramparts
were famous for the number of guns in position and the
strength of the works ; but now the citizens think they
can turn these celebrated forts to a peaceful purpose, for
while at Quebec, workmen were leveling and making the
ramparts into walks and esplanades for the recreation of
the citizens. The population is about 64,000, and like
that of most other American or Canadian towns, made up
of all the nationalities of Europe. On the shop fronts in
a street may be seen English, Irish, Scotch, German, and
perhaps Jewish names, and all united in making a one
orderly, intelligent and energetic people ; the police force
being only 45 men, or one to about every 1,400 of the
inhabitants. Timber is the principle trade of the port,
and several ships were waiting for cargo ; it is floated
down the St. Lawrence in huge rafts, sometimes for nearly
a thousand miles. Much of the timber, or as it is called,

TIIC RECEPTION OF EMIGRANTS. 35

THE LUMBER TRADE

is in the hands of Irishmen both as employers and work-
men, and I must confess that I was agreeably surprised to
see so many O's and Mac's on the sign-boards along the
waterside. The rate of wages in this class of labour is
good being from 2 to 3| dols. per day; but of course some
skill is required, just as there is in making a scaffold to a
building, stoking in gas works, paving the streets, attend-
ing a thrashing machine, or other callings that are not
trades and yet require a certain amount of technical
knowledge. Those men are very expert with the axe,
as may be seen by the neat square finish of the timber
sent to Europe which is effected with that implement.

WAGES

for an ordinary labourer are from 1 dol. 25 cents, to 1 dol.
70 cents, and for mechanics from 2 to 3 dols. A Canadian
dollar may be put down at four shillings of English money
and a cent for a halfpenny, 100 cents being one dollar.
Paper bears just the same value as gold; there are only
two coins, cents the lowest and dollars the highest. The
purchasing power of money is greater than in the United
Kingdom, beef being only from 4d. to 8d., and mutton
3d. to 7d. per pound, bread about 7^d. per four pounds,
butter from lOd. to lod. and potatoes about 2s. per bushel.
Clothes may be a trifle dearer, but very little, as Canada is
rapidly becoming .

A CLOTH MANUFACTURING COUNTRY

being already famous for the excellence of its tweeds ; even
the working classes do not wear bad clothes. I have seen
more ragged people in a large English or Irish town than
I have from Quebec to Winnipeg. During the four
days I remained in the former city I only saw

TWO BEGGARS,

and they were old women respectably clad, none of the
cringing, half-famished creatures with children hanging to
their skirts so frequent in the streets of London, and which
the managers of the Charity Organization Society write so
many learned essays about, spend such vast sums of money to
trace their history, and if they have not been saints, send them

D 2

36 THE CITY OF QUEBEC AND

to prison, or finding their character good, in place of bread
give them a stone in the shape of an indigestible tract;
none of these sad objects are to be seen in Quebec. There
are a great many

PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND INSTITUTIONS

of one sort or another, such as the Provincial Parliament
House, Lunatic Asylum, and General Hospital, a nun's
hospital, and a ship as an Emigrant Hospital, a couple of
asylums for orphans, and the Irish home for aged people
dedicated to St. Bridget. There is also a university,
several schools and seminaries for the education of youth ;
there is entire

FREEDOM OF WORSHIP

every one adoring God according to the dictates of con-
science ; seven-tenths of the population are Catholics, and
most of the remainder belong to the Church of England,
there being but very few Dissenters, by the old French law
the temporalities of the different parish churches arc
vested in trustees elected by the congregation : thus,
relieving the pastors of much anxiety and giving satisfac-
tion to an enlightened people by placing the financial
responsibility on an elected and representative body who
have to render an account of their stewardship when their
term of office is expired. On the third day of my stay I
had the honour of being introduced by Mr. Stafford to His
Excellency

LORD DUFFERIN,

the Governor-General, in the citadel. I was with him for
nearly an hour, during which he asked a number of ques-
tions on different subjects ; but particularly about the
small farmers and agricultural labourers of Ireland, and
how they were affected by Mr. Gladstone's Land Act,
the conversation was free and easy, without stiffness or
restraint, and certainly Lord Dufferin has the knack of
making one at home in his presence ; he gave me a letter
to Government officials throughout the Dominion request-
ing them to give any facilities I might require in the
prosecution of my mission. His Lordship left on my mind
an impression that he is a man of wide views and of a

THE RECEPTION OF EMIGRANTS.

cultivated intellect without pomp or affectation; when
leaving him the guard gave me

A MILITARY SALUTE

no doubt thinking I was some great man, but it is only a
•confirmation of the old saying, " Show me your company
and I can tell what you are," the sergeant saw me shake
hands with the Governor, and he felt it his duty to offer
me this mark of, honour on that account.

THE CITADEL OF QUEBEC

is one of the strongest fortifications in the world ; its guns
sweeping the port and surrounding country in every
direction, it is on the top of an immense cliff, about
three hundred feet high, and on the perpendicular river
front of this rock there is a large board announcing that
Major-General Montgomery, of the United States Army
was killed on that spot while attempting to storm the
place on the night of the 31st of December, 1775. I can
understand a man being brave and devoted to a cause,
but it must have been sheer madness for General Mont-
gomery to try and climb up the face of a rock over three
hundred feet high, and as upright as the gable end of a
church; indeed the enemy would be fools not to shoot
him. A little way from its base an old house was pointed
out to me, from one of the rooms of which the fatal shot
was fired. Close to the citadel are the

PLAINS OF ABRAHAM,

•where the decisive battle between Wolf and Montcalm
was fought, on the 13th of September, 1759 ; both the
heroic leaders being killed on that memorable day; a
monument to their memory is erected on the field ; early
in the action the gallant Wolf was struck by a ball in the
wrist while leading the 28th Regiment, concealing his
injury, and still pressing forward, he received another
shot, mortally wounding him in the chest ; he was imme-
diately carried to the rear and laid on the ground, where
he expired, during a brief interval of consciousness, he
had the satisfaction to know that his troops were victorious,

38 THE CITY OF QUEBEC AND

hearing a great noise, he asked what it meant, and wa.s
told it was the enemy flying; he exclaimed, thank God
they run, his last words being an order to one of his
officers to march some troops to the river to cut off the
French retreat, and then laying back he said, I die in
peace.

COUNT MONTCALM

died in the hospital on the following morning, fortified
by the Sacraments of the Catholic church ; his remains
were enclosed in a rude coffin, and interred in the church-
yard of the Ursuline Convent; his last public act was to
send a letter to General Townsend, the successor of Wolf,
asking mercy for the French prisoners. A few years ago,,
while repairing the Ursuline Church, the grave of the hero-
was accidentally opened ; his bones had gone to dust and
returned to mother earth, with the exception of the skull,
which wras taken charge of by the authorities of the-
Convent and preserved as a venerable relic in its
Sanctuary. Four days after the battle of the Plains of
Abraham, the city and fortress of Quebec were surrendered
to the British arms ;

THE TERMS OF CAPITULATION

embracing the following points: the Garrison to be awarded
the honours of war and to be conveyed to France in
British ships, the property of soldiers and inhabitants
to be inviolate, the French sick to be cared for and
attended to by French doctors, the people to be governed
by the civil law, and to have the free exercise of Catholic
religion ; under this treaty liberty of conscience has been
preserved to the people of Lower Canada, from that day
to this ; on the 23rd of April, the following year, the
British forces, under General Murray, were badly beaten
by the French under De Louis, on the same battle field,
the want of heavy cannon preventing him recapturing the
city to which he laid siege ; but the British fleet entering
the St. Lawrence, on the 15th of May, compelled him to
retire in the utmost confusion to the great joy of the
besieged. The word plain, applied to this famous field is
a misnomer, it being only a few acres of table land, where

THE RECEPTION OF EMIGRANTS. 39

there could not have been much manoeuvring, as it is
.surrounded by ravines, valleys, and steep cliffs, so that
the fighting must have been of hand to hand description;
AVhile I was in Quebec the weather was lovely, about 70
degrees in the sun.

VEGETATION

was not so forward as it would be in the United Kingdom,
in the early part of June ; but I was told it was exceed-
ingly rapid as the heat of the sun kept the land warm
and moist by the gradual thawing of the frost, which
penetrates a considerable distance into the ground;
although some things were a little late, the markets were
amply supplied with early fruit and garden stuff. Mr.
Stafford, the Dominion emigration agent, invited me to
accompany him to the celebrated

FALLS OF MONTMORENCY,

a few miles below the city ; hiring a peculiar looking two
horse vehicle called a waggon, the lightest, the airiest, and
the most commodious carriage one could imagine, we
drove through splendid scenery; the city behind us, on the
side of the hill, the sun playing on the bright roofs, and
the citadel above it keeping watch and ward ; the broad
St. Lawrence, on our right, on its bosom numerous ships
proudly sailing down with the tide; men, women, and
children in the gardenlike fields on both sides of the road
as busy as bees getting the land ready for crops, they are all

PEASANT PROPRIETORS,

and whatever they grow is their own ; no landlord can say
to a tenant " I will raise the rent 30 per cent., because the
property is improving in value through your exertions;
still I must have the benefit as the law gives me
power to do as 1 like with my ancestral estates, and if you
do not pay it, out you go." How different in Canada, which
until recently most of us thought was a country where bears
wolves, mob law, and pistol rule prevailed. Yet on the banks
of the St. Lawrence thousands of neat dwellings are to be
seen in all directions ; the homes of men who cultivate
the land ior themselves, and can sit beneath their own

40 THE CITY OF QUEBEC AND

fig tree with out fear of gale day or the land agent's frown;
so different from the peasants in Ireland. At length we
arrived at the falls, which are stupendously grand.

THE MONTMORENCY RIVER,

falling over a ledge of perpendicular rock of slatey for-
mation, 170 feet high, into a deep gloomy abyss ; the
sides of which are covered with brushwood to the water's
edge, giving the place a sombre and somewhat melancholy
appearance ; the clouds of spray rise from the great whirl-
pool below, forming rainbows in the sunlight, which are
reflected back on the face of the cascade in varied shades
and tints, the one acting like a mirror to the other. After
inspecting the falls from all points I returned to the city,
pondering on the omnipotence of God as manifested in
his works. Next day I went to see

MR. LESAGE,

Minister of Agriculture and Immigration, for the Province
of Quebec ; he is a fine dignified-looking man, more ready
to converse in French than English, no doubt the result
of habit, as he speaks the latter tongue fluently and well,
but with a strong foreign accent; he received me with
marked courtesy, presented me with a book on European
Emigration, written by himself, and requested that I
would call on him again if I revisited the city, which I
did in the middle of winter, an account of which the
reader will find in another chapter. Mr. Lesage is a close
reasoner, evidently a man of sound common sense, and
thoroughly understanding human nature; he said that
any number of emigrants could be absorbed into the
population, particularly of the agricultural labourers and
small farmer class, and that the Quebec government
would be glad to give organised parties special facilities
to go out. A great many servant girls could readily get
situations at from 5 to 10 dollars per month, and in some
cases more ; it is

A CURIOUS FACT,

that, although Quebec is the port where all emigrant*'
land, there is as much demand for help there as in any

THE RECEPTION OF EMIGRANTS. 41

other part of the Dominion ; the reason is because they
nearly all go west, the Government giving free railway
tickets. How different from

NEW YORK OR BOSTON,

where emigrants are a drug, as the authorities do not
assist them and they are without means sufficient to go up
the country, and are thus compelled against their will to
remain in the eastern seaboard cities, where there is but
little chance for them to rise above the hardest manual
labour; but we will deal with this subject further on.
I received a great deal of valuable information from my
visit, the minister offering me every facility in his power.

THE MINERAL RESOURCES

of the province of Quebec are yet, comparatively speaking,
undeveloped; the timber trade has hitherto absorbed the
attention of Canadian capitalists, because it was to a
great extent a ready-money business, and they had almost
a monopoly in it. Now that population is multiplying,
capital created, the country opened up by railways, and
above all, now that the people are satisfied with the Con-
stitution and Government, and its endeavours to give
confidence and stability to enterprise and industry ; public
companies will be formed, and the mineral wealth of the
country will be developed with great advantage to this
young and rising province. Iron has been discovered in
practically inexhaustible quantities in different parts of
the Dominion ; the number of men employed in mining
pursuits in the province of Quebec in 1871, was 1,264 ;
but now there are double that number. On the north
shore of the St. Lawrence, below the city of Quebec, a
magnetised sand is found in abundance, that even in the
crude state yields 30 per cent, of steel-making ore, and
when purified yields 95 per cent. ; twenty men can purify
ten tons per day, and it is proved beyond a doubt that
steel can be made from it by one process. To bring this
ore into market successfully, is merely a question of time
and money ; in the eastern townships, copper has been
found in vast quantities, but as yet it has not been very
•extensively worked. There are also lead, silver and
platinum found in this province, "and before long those

42 THE CITY OF QUEBEC.

minerals also will be a great source of wealth. Canada,
only a few years legislatively independent, has made
extraordinary strides in material prosperity, and taking
the past as a criterion of the future, another twenty years
will see her population ten millions; her industries
expanded ; her mines developed ; and land that is now
forest or waste, covered with the homesteads of industrious
peasant proprietors.

CHAPTER V.
FROM QUEBEC TO MONTREAL.

THE distance between these two cities is about 175 milesr
the road traversed being in the province of Quebec, or as
it was formerly called Lower Canada ; the trip can be made
either by water or rail, Montreal being the head of ocean
navigation ; all the Liverpool steamships go up to that
city, although passengers disembark at Point Levis.
During the season some of those floating palaces called

RIVER BOATS

ply on the St. Lawrence between Montreal and Quebec.
A person that has not seen this class of vessel cannot form
any idea of their size, accommodation, and comforts ; in
general appearance they very much resemble a grand
stand on an English race course when crowded with people.
There are two or three decks rising one over the other,
each with its saloon and state rooms, verandas on the
sides where the passengers can walk, lounge, sit, smoke, or
chat, just as they please, and overhead the great ponderous
beam engine working up and down ; as Charles Dickens
happily described it, " an iron top sawyer." Stranger as I
•was, these boats were objects of wonder and surprise to me,
as I had never seen anything like them in the Old Country.
They have room for 400 cabin passengers and they leave
Quebec and Montreal simultaneously every day. The
scenery of the river is very fine, there are several smart
places on its banks, the tide going to a town called Three-
Rivers, 86 miles above Quebec ; on this route the traveller
will see

THE FIRST OF THE AMERICAN LAKES,
small it is true- in comparison to others, but still very in-
teresting. Formerly it was too shallow for ocean steamers

44 FROM QUEBEC TO MONTREAL.

but at a great cost the Canadian government deepened a
channel through it enabling such heavy vessels as the
Allan fleet to go right up to Montreal. Its average length
is 31 miles and average width 7 miles, it is called Lake St.
Peter because Jacques Cartier sailed through it on the 29th
of June, St. Peter's day, 1535, on which occasion he had to
leave one of his ships behind as the lake was too shallow.
How little he dreamed that three centuries after there
would be immense iron ships navigating those waters, and
that through the development of science and human
progress, the very rocks in the bottom of the lake would
be removed, and that those vessels would cross the great
Atlantic in a few days without either wind or sails, and
that the Indian town of Hochelaga or as it was called by
him — Mount Royal — would be a large and flourishing
city, but such is the fact. Here I may remark that

ALL THE GREAT LAKES

and navigable waters of British North America are
surveyed, buoys and charts laid down, and lighthouses
built on all headlands, rocks, entrances to harbours,
&c., just, as on the ocean coast line ; the quantity of oil
used in 1873 being 41,121 gallons showing the importance
of this branch of the public service. The government as
well as private individuals are continually improving these
great water highways with locks to ease the gradients, and
dredgers to keep sufficient depth, with ship canals between
the lakes and by the removal of rocks and other obstruc-
tions. This makes me think that there will be a

DIRECT WATER COMMUNICATION

between Liverpool and the fertile region away to the foot
of the Rocky Mountains, and that, too, at no very distant
day. The other route from Quebec is by the

GRAND TliUNK RAILWAY

which runs on the south side of the St. Lawrence and
nearly parallel with it ; it is the one always taken by
emigrants and most of the steamship passengers coming
to Quebec. An American railway is very different from
an English one ; the carriages are better, and the permanent

FROM QUEBEC TO MONTREAL. 45

way not so good. There is a passage through the centre
of a train from end to end, and the guard or conductor as
he is called in America, is always walking to and fro ;
anything like a strongminded woman making a charge
against an unfortunate man as sometimes occurs in England
is simply impossible. The locomotives are larger than in
the old country and there is a strong projection called a cow
catcheron thefrontof each engine to clearthe line of obstruc-
tions. I never saw the usefulness of this invention tested,
but judging from appearances I think it would throw an
animal on one side, iio doubt to its great disgust at such
rough treatment. The chimney has a mushroom-looking
top, something like a bushel basket, in which there is a
wire screen to prevent sparks escaping, wood being chiefly
used for fuel ; yet many forest fires occur through sparks
from these engines. The majority of the general public
travel first class, except emigrants, who usually have a
train to themselves and go right through from point to-
point in charge of a government agent. The passenger
carriages are about 60 feet long, firmly constructed, and
beautifully embellished, indeed sometimes extravagantly
so. There is only room for two persons in each seat, which
is reversible, enabling a party of four to sit together, two
facing and two sitting back to the engine ; on some rail-
ways there are little tables screwed on the side of the
carriage which can be lowered in between the seats when
these parties are formed, enabling them to read, play cards,
or ladies to sew. There are stoves, a heating apparatus,
water closets, cloak rooms, and an ice water filter in each
carriage; there is a platform at each end from
which a door opens into the carriage. This platform is
reached by four or five steps something like a street tram
car. In the United Kingdom

THE OSCILLATION WHILE TRAVELLING

is from side to side, in America it is up and down, because
in the United Kingdom thesprings are crosswise, in America,
they are lengthwise. There are sleeping cars attached to
each train, the extra charge being 2 dols. per night. They
are exceedingly convenient, especially for business men.
because while travellipg all night they can at the same

4G FROM QUEBEC TO MONTREAL.

time also have their proper rest and be fit for duty on the
following day. There is a seller of nick nacks, or as he is
called

A DEALER IN " NOTIONS "

on board of each train. He will put a catalogue on tln>
seat for passengers to read, then he will come round with
his goods ; first, perhaps, toys or curiosities, then apples,
oranges, sandwiches, ginger beer, &c., he usually keeps a
tidy stock of novels, mostly by British authors. I do not
know why Americans or Canadians have produced so few
poets or fiction writers of note, but this is certainly the
case. Take up a Canadian or Yankee journal, and if there
is a tale it is sure to be a hash-up from some British
novelist. It is true that the Americans have developed a
class of writers called humourists, but who I think might
as appropriately be called dullists, for I do not know any-
thing more dull or monotonous than wading through a
column of such misspelt trash as emanates from the minds
and pens of some of these gentlemen ; but as

GEORGE STEPHENSON,

the inventor of railways said when asked by a committee
of the House of Commons, what about a cow if it got in
front of his locomotive ? " So much the worse for the
coo," said the great engineer ; the same may be said of
Americans, or at least some of them, if they appreciate
.such twaddle as appears in their newspapers under the
name of humour. So much the worse for their taste.
Anyway, the selling of books in the train is a boon to the
traveller on a long journey, as he can wile away the
time pleasantly, buried deep in the story of the sincere
and mysterious love of some heroine for some wicked
marquis. Going through one of tbe New England States
from Montreal to New York on the Vermont Central
Railway, I was much amused by one of those travelling
merchants, for everybody who has anything to sell in the
States is

A MERCHANT.

I had a few Canadian papers that I purchased on the
previous day in Montreal, our merchant saw them on the
seat, o,nd looking at me he guessed I had some newspapers

FROM QUEBEC TO MONTREAL. 47

I did not want, and offered to trade with me for them. I
did not understand his meaning at first, but at length
replied that I would trade and awaited to be further en-
lightened 011 the transaction ; he said he could give five
apples for the four newspapers which I accepted, and the
next moment he was at the other end of the carriage
crying "the latest Montreal papers five cents each ;" it struck
me as a corroboration of what I had read and heard of
Yankee shrewdness and enterprise. On my journey from
Quebec to Montreal we had to remain some time at an
important station about midway, called

RICHMOND JUNCTION,

where the line branches off to the Eastern States. Perhaps
of all the places that crowds are to be met with, there is
none where a clearer estimate of human character can be
had than at a railway station, and. I must say that I was
very agreeably disappointed in the impressions then and
there created on the mind about the people present.
Having conjured up a picture of my own in which
revolvers and bowie knives figured largely, I was glad to
be deceived. Here was an orderly, courteous, and a well
dressed assembly, every man with dignity and self-reliance
in his appearance, without bumptiousness on the one side,
or subserviency on the other, so frequently to be met with
in the United Kingdom, particularly in Ireland, where one
would imagine the rich and the poor were not created by
the same God, and where even

RELIGION IS MADE SERVILE TO MONEY,

branding the honest peasant with degradation, by stalling
him off in the house of God, as though we all went to
Heaven in castes, thus reversing the illustration given by
our dear Lord in the fourteenth chapter of St. Luke's
Gospel, where He says : " And it came to pass, the beggar
died, and was carried by angels to Abraham's bosom, and
the rich man also died, and he was buried in hell." Cer-
tainly in our day, if money can keep him out of it, he will
not go there. To my idea, the pomp on the one hand,
and the exclusiveness on the other, that I have seen, comes
under Christ's severe rebuke, when He says: "And the

48 FROM QUEBEC TO MONTREAL.

cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and
the lust after other things entering in, choke the word,
and it is made fruitless." — Mark iv., 19th verse.

WHILST WAITING FOR THE TRAIN,

I conversed with several of the men, and I confess that I
was fairly surprised to find them so polite and well
informed. Along the line a deal of the land is unculti-
vated, yet I believe it is all taken up, the heavy timber
has been cut off, and it is now covered with forests of small
deal trees. In my opinion one of the evils of farming is

TOO MUCH LAND,

men have only a given quantity of physical and mental
power, and it is a great error to spread it over too much
space, and particularly so for a Canadian farmer, because
his season is limited, and he cannot always get sufficient
help, yet he is generally ready to grasp more acres than he
can properly handle; the result is that he runs it to
poverty for the want of skill or proper usage, remaining
poor himself, and bringing but little produce to market.
If he had less land and more industry and knowledge of
his business, he would do better, both for himself and his
country. But as this matter is beginning to be pretty
well understood, no doubt the next few years will see a
vast improvement. These general remarks apply to the
States just as much as they do to Canada. We ap-
proached

MONTREAL

early in the morning. The scene was splendid, the face
of the country an emerald green, rather flat, and well
watered by numerous streams emptying into the St.
Lawrence which is stretching away on our right for miles;
in front of us on the other side of the river is the city at
the foot of a very picturesque hill, the one Jacques Cartier
called Mount Royal, but which the Citizens now call the
Mountain, and are about laying out for a public park.
We cross the mighty monarch of northern waters on the
famous

VICTORIA BRIDGE,

the contract for the building of which was let to Messrs,

FROM QUEBEC TO MONTREAL. 49

Peto, Brassey, and Belts on the 3rd of March, 1853 for one
million four hundred thousand pounds. The length of this
extraordinary bridge is nearly two miles ; it was designed
by Robert Stephenson, who visited Canada on purpose. It
has twenty-four arches, the piers and abutments being of
cut limestone. The centre arch is 330 feet and the others
242 feet in span, and 60 feet above watermark. The
weight of the tube through which the train passes is about
8,000 tons, and of the stone for the piers 250,000 tons.
Altogether it is one of the wonders of the world. The

WORKS OF THE GRAND TRUNK RAILWAY

are at Point St. Charles, a suburb of Montreal, and
although they are not so big as those of the English Great
Western at Swindon, or of the Great Northern at Don-
caster, yet for a young country like Canada they are really
wonderful; but its resources are unlimited, and only
require developing to make Canada rich and prosperous,
and for that purpose railway communication is indis-
pensable. This is so well understood by Canadian states-
men that there are thousands of miles already open, and
thousands more projected or in course of construction.
The Grand Trunk line has about 1,500 miles in operation,
and a traveller landing in Quebec or Portland can be
taken direct to Chicago without a change of carriage,
except when passing the Detroit River at Detroit. The
gauge of the Grand Trunk is 4 feet 9 inches. Steel rails
are now laid for nearly its entire length, and in common
with most American railways it is a single line, except
near the large towns and at the stations where there are
lay-bys or sidings for trains to pass each other. There is
a very great difference between travelling in the United
Kingdom and travelling in Canada and the States. In
the former everything is on the hard-and-fast principle ;
in the latter on the free and easy. In the United
Kingdom

BAILWAY TICKETS

can only be had at the pigeon-hole in the booking office ;
in America they caii be purchased at agencies in the
various towns, and at any date to suit the buyer's con-
venience. They may also be bought at the station before

E

50 FROM QUEBEC TO MONTREAL.

the departure of each train, or the traveller can pay his
fare to the conductors, when seated in the carriage. Those
conductors hold very responsible positions, and I have
been told stories of their rapid accumulation of wealth,
which I did not wonder at.

FREE PASSES

are far more easily obtained than in Great Britain, and,
like all other privileges, I think it is more or less abused,
as there are plenty who use them that could well afford to
pay. On the other hand, Canada and the United States
are so vast, and a deal of both countries yet unexplored,
the mineral and other resources being almost entirely
unknown, and as most of the pioneers and investigators,
scientific and otherwise, are comparatively poor men, it is
well to assist them to make known to the speculating
capitalist and the intending settler the fertility and eligi-
bility for investment of those sections of the Continent.
So that the pass system is to a certain extent useful, and
the only thing to be done is to guard it as much as pos-
sible against abuse.

ATTENTION AND COURTESY

is paid to strangers, at least in every part of Canada, and
the United States, that I have been to, and all officials who
have to do with the travelling public, show a dignity and
self-reliance in their character that contrasts favourably
with the same class of public servants in the Old Country.
I do not make this remark to disparage the one or praise
the other; I am simply contrasting the customs of the
Old and New Countries. In America there is no such
thing as a porter lowering his manhood by putting his
hand to his cap, and in some cases taking it off altogether,
every time he speaks to a passenger in a first-class car-
riage ; but at any railway station in the United Kingdom,
it is to be seen every day. I do not say the man is any the
worse for doing so, but it'keeps his inferiority continually
before his eyes and leads the person receiving the homage
to believe it is due to him through his superior merits,
when it is really on account of his money. We arrived in
Montreal, about eight o'clock ; at the station there were a

FROM QUEBEC TO MONTREAL. 51

number of omnibuses waiting to take customers to the
various hotels. In England

HOTELS TAKE THEIR NAMES

from some animal, such as the Lion, Red, Black, or White, —
whether the king of the forest is of so many different
colours, I am not sufficiently up in Natural History to say,
but certainly English publicans and hotel-keepers pay
great respect to his ferocious majesty, — then there is the
Bull and the Cow, and the Horse and the Dog, and the
Ram, and all other animals represented ; neither is the
feathered tribe forgotten, for there is the Eagle, the Crow,
the Raven, the Swan, the Cock, the Magpie, and the
Pigeons, of which there are generally three. Why publicans
in Canada and the States should entirely ignore this old
English custom, I cannot say, but they certainly have
entirely done so as the

HOTELS ARE CALLED HOUSES OR HALLS,
for instance the St. Louis House, Quebec, the St. Lawrence
Hall, and the Express House, and the Ottawa House,
Montreal, the Russell House, Ottawa, the Mansion.
House and the Rossin House, Toronto, &c. Here
as at all other places, I took charge of my own
little luggage and carried it to the Express House,
which was only across the road, from the station;
after breakfast and a little fixing up I went for a walk
round to see as much as possible of the town, and I
must say that my first impression of the

CANADIAN COMMERCIAL METROPOLIS

was very favourable and a longer acquaintance strengthened
it. Although Jacques Cartier, the discoverer of Canada,
sailed up the St. Lawrence, to the Indian village, of
Hocheloga, now a suburb of Montreal, and wintered at the
foot of the hill, to which he gave the name of Mount
Royal, as detailed in a previous chapter; practically
speaking the City of Montreal, was founded by Champlain,
in 1611, and like many other Canadian towns, owes its
origin to the fur trade.

THE SKINS OF ANIMALS

have been used in all ages and countries, for various

E 2

52 FROM QCEBEC TO MONTREAL.

purposes, the shields of some of the most renowned
warriors of Greece and Rome, were made from the skins of
wild beasts, and it is recorded in history that when Cresar
invaded Britain, fifty years before the Christian era, he
found the natives dressed in the skins of animals, and
certainly every picture or painting we see of the famous
Queen of the Iceni, and herheroic Ancient Britons, bears out
the assumption ; Irish history tells us that after the battle of
Kinsale, and defeat of the noble and patriotic O'Sullivan-
Beare, of Dunboy, he made his celebrated retreat to Leitrim,
and having arrived on the banks of the Shannon, he had to
kill his horses for food and to make currachs, or boats of
their skins to enable him to cross the river and continue
his march. The discovery, or re-discovery of America, gave
a great impetus in Europe, to fashion and luxury, the early
voyagers took back with them such splendid specimens of
fur that they sold almost for fabulous prices, and were only
used at first in the decoration of the robes of Kings, Peers,
Judges, &c., gradually the wealthy began to use them and
the demand was soon greater than the supply ; on his
second voyage Jacques Cartier, took to France a great
quantity that he got in exchange for hatchets, knives,
beads, fish hooks, trinkets, &c., from the Indians. Other
explorers did the same, so that the trade in peltries began
to assume somewhat large proportions. In a report pre-
sented by Champlain, to the King of France, he says that
beaver, moose, cariboo, wolf, ermine, fox, and wild cat,
were abundant. In 1602 a company was formed by a
gentleman of Dieppe, named De Chates, under the
patronage of Henry the Fourth of France. The charter
of the company was to deal in peltries, establish colonies
and convert the Indians, but through the loss of its patron
by assassination in 1610, the company was broken up.

CHAMPLAIN

was the servant of this company, and knowing from his
experience that the skin trade was a remunerative one, he
built a fort and warehouse in 1611, on St. Helen's Island,
in the St. Lawrence, the one to store his goods in, the
other to protect his people from the savages, and even
from the English, who had at this early date an eye on the

FROM QUEBEC TO MONTREAL. 53

majestic northern river, and the splendid country it tra-
verses. Charlevoix says, that notwithstanding the heroic
efforts of this truly great man there were only two or three
huts at Montreal ; but the reports sent to France on the
fertility of the country by the Jesuit missionaries, inspired
large numbers to come out, and in 1642 fifty able-bodied
men arrived in Montreal, and on the following year their
wives and families to the number of 200 joined them.
The French Government made an enactment that able-
bodied young men should get a certain amount of land, on
condition of working three years in the Colony ; to get
wives for those young men, orphan and peasant girls were
sent out at the public cost, and were under the care of the
nuns of the Order of St. Ursula, until suitably married,
and thus was founded the

PEASANT PROPRIETARY OF LOWER CANADA

giving the cultivator the ownership of the soil and the
benefit of his industry, instead of having it let and sublet,
as in the United Kingdom, where one man will have more
for his share of the produce of a county than all the other
people who live in it. D'Arcy McGee, speaking of the
early French settlers, said " No province of any ancient or
modern power — not even Gaul, when it was a province of
ancient Rome — has had nobler names interwoven with its
local events. Under the French kings Canada was a
theatre of action for men of first-rate reputation — men
eminent for their energy, their fortitude, their courage,
and their accomplishments in all that constitutes and
adorns civil and military life." After the surrender of
Quebec to the English, in 1759, the French of Lower
Canada, under Levis, made a stout resistance to the British
advance along the line of the St. Lawrence, but 17,000
men arriving, under General . Sir Geoffrey Amherst, Vau-
dreuil, the French governor, surrendered the city and
defences of Montreal to the conquerors, and thus ended
the French regime, having existed 224 years. In 1776
Montreal was captured by the American General Mont-
gomery, who afterwards fell at Quebec, as alluded to in
another chapter. Through the successful revolution of
the thirteen United States the aristocracy of England

54 FROM QUEBEC TO MONTREAL.

were afraid to meddle too much with the Canadian
colonists, or to place any heavy burthens on them, except
that a lot of sinecure offices were created for the benefit of
a favoured few, and although the people multiplied
rapidly there was no representative Government, every-
thing being managed by the Governor and his Council,
twenty-two in number, and appointed by himself from
among his own friends and admirers, the result was that
in 1837 the people revolted under

PAPINEAU, NELSON, AND MACKENZIE,

and although this rebellion was suppressed, and, after the
rebels laid down their arms, a good deal of hanging was
done, as usual in such cases, it would now take a deal to-
make Canadians, English and French, believe that the
rebellion did not d<3 good, as it gave the country repre-
sentative Government. The wise and far-seeing

LORD DURHAM

having been sent out in 1838 as Governor, he acted an
honourable and merciful part, and, being censured by the
British minister, he resigned after six months' duty. In
his report to the Imperial Parliament he took the side of
Canada, and condemned the family compact, and during
the governorship of another enlightened statesman, Lord
Sydenham, an act was passed in London on July the 21str
1840, granting Responsible Government to the British
provinces in North America.

MONTREAL

is the largest city in the Canadian Confederation, ita
population being about 140,000, principally French,
English, Irish, Scotch, with a few Scandinavians and Jews,
forming as enterprising and intelligent a community as
any probably in the world. It is the distributing point of
Canadian trade, as it is the port where lake or fresh
water navigation ends and ocean navigation begins. There
are four or five lines of steamships trading to Liverpool
during the open season, and much of the commerce of the
north-western States of the Union comes that way, as well
as all that of Ontario, and of the comparatively unde-
veloped region lying round the Georgian Bay. Between.

FROM QUEBEC TO MONTREAL. 55

Montreal and Chicago there are 1,260 miles of water-
way, consisting of lakes and canals, and carrying an
immense fleet of ships, some of them of great tonnage,
bringing produce and minerals from the far West, to be
transhipped at Montreal into the ocean steamers for export
to Europe. The quays and wharves are very large, and
along the waterside there are extensive warehouses for
storing goods, some of them fine buildings indeed. The
streets are somewhat irregular, and not so well laid out as
they might be on account of the city being constructed
almost piecemeal, and, although there are many noble
erections, they do not show to advantage through being
packed away in those narrow and winding turnings. Lime-
stone is the principal building material, and a very good
one it is, and as the business people rapidly get wealthy
bouse building is an excellent trade, the authorities
and citizens being very anxious to embellish and beautify
the city.

THE STREETS ARE NOT WELL PAVED,

and I think a vast improvement could be made in this
direction, particularly in the footways and in the channels
to carry off the water from the middle of the road. No
doubt the frost and snow have a good deal to do with the
matter, and I may say that I noticed the same defect in
every town that I have been to, both in Canada and the
States — even the far-famed Broadway of New York is
rough and uneven in comparison to a leading thoroughfare
in London. Certainly Americans or Canadians do not
excel in street making, notwithstanding that there is
plenty of lime and granite in both countries, which only
requires labour and skill to be utilised. Money spent on
paving is not wasted, because it saves horseflesh and labour,
prevents the accumulation of stagnant waters, and thus
promotes the public health. The authorities of Montreal
are well aware of these facts, but, as they justly say,
everything cannot be done at once. There is a very
efficient

FIRE BRIGADE,

paid by the corporation, and numbering sixty men.
Electric fire bells and alarms are distributed all over the

56 FROM QUEBEC TO MONTREAL.

city, each numbered and having a different tone from the
others, enabling the firemen, either by a glance at the
index in the station or by the sound of each bell, to know
what district or street there may be a fire in. The water
is pumped from the waterworks to a reservoir on the side
of the mountain above the city, so that there is always
sufficient pressure on the mains to force it to the top of
the highest houses without an engine. Fire is one of the
scourges of Canada and of the States, a vast number of
the houses being wood, and in summer the sun, and in
winter artificial heat, renders them very inflammable. In.
some of the towns, side by side with splendid stone or
brick mansions ; may be seen the wooden shanty of the
early settler, and

FIRE, THE GREAT IMPROVER,

sweeps away all those rude wooden structures and
clears the ground for the really beautiful buildings that
generally succeed them. Any one going straight from the
United Kingdom to Montreal will be struck with the
magnificent edifices he will see on every hand, which must
have cost immense sums to erect. The Catholic Cathedral
of St. Sulpice is one of the largest on the Continent, and
capable of seating 10,000 people. Some idea of the busi-
ness done may be seen from the fact that there are
nineteen banks in the city, besides a number of brokers
and money changers, who are always busy. During my
stay I visited several of the

FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS.

The hours are sixty per week, or ten per day, which are
far too many, particularly for women and children, many
of the latter being very young. There is no act of Parlia-
liement .to regulate their labour, and the sooner there is
the better, as it would protect this class of weak and help-
less operatives, and prevent unwholesome competition
between unscrupulous employers, who, as a rule, do not
hesitate to make money as fast as possible, and by any
means that would not be considered dishonourable,
although not moral or charitable to their dependents.
Experience and common sense have clearly shown that

FROM QUEBEC TO MONTREAL. 57

legislation to some extent must regulate labour in the
interest both of employer and employed — the one to be
protected, the other to be encouraged — and the time has
arrived for Canadian politicians to consider the necessity
of a Factory Act from a statesmanlike point of view,
because if the people are permitted to degenerate through
overwork the state is sure to suffer in proportion. There
are

NO POOR-RATES OR WORKHOUSES

in the Dominion, although, like all other countries, there
is some destitution, particularly in winter, which is relieved
by societies founded for that purpose. Those organisa-
tions have a national character, such as the St. Patrick's,
for Irish Catholics ; the St. Jean Baptiste, for the French ;
the St. George, for the English ; the St. Andrew's, for the
Scotch ; and the Irish Protestant Benevolent Society, for
Irish Protestants. These societies are established in all
the large towns, and although they do a great deal of
good, I am of opinion that the relief of the poor ought to
be in some way under Government control. There is no
need of the cumbersome machinery of the English Poor
Law system, which takes more to pay officials than it does
to relieve the destitute ; but there might be a law framed
suited to the age and to the circumstances of Canada. At

? resent the poor are entirely dependent on charity, which
admit is freely given ; but it would be better if a man
felt that he could command a little assistance in the hour
of need, instead of having to bow and scrape for it, as at
present A Catholic soliciting relief from a Protestant
society is entirely out of place, and exactly the same with
a Protestant asking aid from a Catholic society. In either
case the applicant must be religious or hypocritical ; if not
he will get the cold shoulder from the managers, who are
mostly clergymen, or their nominees, and are very seldom
responsible to a committee or governing body. I am not
finding fault with those societies, as they are doing a noble
work, but I think there ought to be

A PROVINCIAL OR A FEDERAL PLAN FOR THE RELIEF
OF THE POOR,

with which, if thought advisable, those bodies might

58 FROM QUEBEC TO MONTREAL.

co-operate; at present their action is too limited, too
sectional, too arbitrary, and I might add too conservative.
I had the honour of conversing with several prominent
men on the subject, including the Hon. Mr. Mackenzie,
the Prime Minister, and they all, more or less, concurred
in my views. There are a great many

HOTELS AND SALOONS IN MONTREAL.

To the latter the citizens are very much opposed, and
although hotels are useful, and as American and Canadian
society is constituted they are even necessary, still their
drink-selling license ought to be restricted, as well as that
of their less important neighbours. I am very glad to say
that drinking is not looked upon as the correct thing, and
that drunkards, high and low, are generally treated with
contempt, and serve them right, for, if a man is so corrupt
or diseased that for the sake of "gratifying his appetite he
will sink below the level of the beast, such a man cannot
be a good citizen or a good Christian. As a rule the

NATIVES ARE VERY TEMPERATE,

but a large portion of the Europeans keep up their old
drinking habits. I went through the city prison, accom-
panied by the Deputy Governor. There were 325 pri-
soners, and full half of them suffering on account of

OFFENCES COMMITTED WHEN UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF

DRINK.

I examined the prison books and found that several of the
prisoners were from Ireland, and all confined for assaults
nnd drunkenness, there being only one case of theft in the
whole number ; a circumstance that really made me feel
proud, cosmopolitan as I am. My companion told me that
intoxicating liquors were the source of filling the prison
with poor unfortunate creatures, who in most cases would
be good members of society, only for the baneful influence
of the public-house, and he gave me. his permission to
make this fact known wherever I could. There are several
temperance organisations, and a society formed to curtail
the liquor traffic, something like the English Permissive
Bill Association. Mr. Bernard Devlin, the Member o
Parliament for Montreal Centre, was returned on the

FROM QUEBEC TO MONTREAL. 59

prohibition ticket, the city has three members, one
French, one English, and one Irish, the latter is pledged
to support the temperance party, he is a liberal in politics,
having defeated at the last election Mr. M. P. Ryan, who*
represented the constituency for several years in the Con-
servative interest, he is also a strong temperance advocate ;
both those gentlemen treated me with great kindness and
courtesy, indeed, I may say the same of everybody that I
met, and particularly of my own countrymen, one of them,

MR. JAMES HOWLEY,

offering me a cheque on his banker, if I wanted funds, and
although I did not accept it, let me here return him my
sincere thanks for his generosity and kindness. 1 am
proud to say that

THE IRISH IN MONTREAL

hold a very good status, having a daily paper of their own,
the only one I believe on the Continent. There are five
dailies in the city, in the English language, besides one or
two in French, The Herald, The Gazette, The Witness,
The Star, and The Sun (Irish), here is undoubted evi-
dence of the intelligence of the people, for there is no
more effective means of drawing out the faculties of the
mind than by newspaper reading, every thought and in-
stinct being operated on, and if there is any natural capacity,
it is sure to be enlarged by perusing those daily budgets of

CONCENTRATED WISDOM ' AND GENERAL KNOWLEDGE.

There are two places for emigrants in Montreal, one a kind
of station where the train stops on its way from Quebec
to Toronto; the other a home for such emigrants as
remain in the city, to stay at Government cost until they
get employment ; the first is erected at a place called the

TANNERIES,

about a mile and a half from the town, it is a large shed
fitted up in different compartments, such as cooking-room,
dining-room, and lavatories, where there is an ample
supply of water, soap, and towels, for emigrants to wash
and clean up, very much refreshing them after the journey
from Quebec ; every emigrant train stops at this station.

00 FROM QUEBEC 70 MONTREAL.

fora couple of hours. Food of very good quality is supplied
at 25 cents or one shilling each person, such as are
indigent getting meal tickets gratis from Mr. Daly, the
Dominion Agent, or his assistant, Mr. Quinn; on one
occasion, when I visited the emigrant station, there were
over 300 present, and I must say I was pleased with the
general arrangements, as well as with the kindness and
•courtesy of the officials ; there were over 100 of

MISS RYE'S CHILDREN.

accompanied by that lady herself; they were of all sizes,
from the little toddles of four years, to the girl of sixteen,
budding into womanhood, as well as stiff plump lads of
nine or ten; the older girls combed and washed the
younger ones, and each other, then they had dinner, con-
sisting of bread, beef, potatoes, and tea without any stint
or measuring of quantity, all getting enough.

MISS RYE,

herself, seemed to be a woman full of energy and determin-
ation, just such a woman as would command respect by
her presence, above middle age, tall and of a dignified
appearance, with a sharp intelligent countenance, very
active and businesslike in her movements ; I certainly
thought she was the right woman to carry on the work
she was engaged in. Such of the emigrants as are to remain
in Montreal, are taken charge of by Mr. Ibbetson, city emi-
gration agent, and taken to

THE HOME,

where they are very well treated. In this establishment
there are about thirty beds, clean and comfortable, besides
lavatories, washhouses, kitchens, &c. There is also an
office where employers come to get such help as they
require. I went over the house twice, and I certainly
was well pleased with what I saw, and I thought the
agent one of the most attentive men to duty that could
be found. Some of the emigrants that I met who had
passed through the home spoke of him with gratitude and
respect. There is no other public servant so closely
watched as an emigration agent. His office is open for
people to engage workmen, therefore he is bound to be

FROM QUEBEC TO MONTREAL. 61

courteous and civil to all, and if not he would soon lose
his situation; and, as far as I saw or heard, every agent in
the Dominion was courting public approval, a guarantee
that they try to do their duty. Around the city there are
some very nice places, more or less like the suburbs of all
large towns. A good deal of the land in the neighbour-
hood of Montreal belongs to religious and charitable
institutions, and many political economists say it is not
producing as much as if owned by more active and enter-
prising people — a charge in which there may be some
truth, but with the energy, perseverance, and businesslike
qualities of the inhabitants it is impossible for

MONOPOLIES

to exist, or large blocks of land to be shut up from public
use for any length of time, or by any person or number of
persons. It is true that there may be some of the
feudalism of the sixteenth century still in existence in
Lower Canada, and which might have been necessary when
established, but it is now wholly opposed to the progressive
spirit of the present day; therefore, everything in the
shape of standstillism and inutility must give way before
the goaheadism and common sense of this thinking and
reading age. A century ago only a few were educated,
and they used their faculties for self-aggrandisement at
the expense of the ignorant and illiterate mass of the
people — a thing impossible to happen now in Canada,
because everybody is more or less educated. The laws of
the Old Countries were founded on ignorance and the
sword, those of Canada on justice, equality, and matured
judgment. I am happy to bear witness to the prosperity
and advancement of Montreal, so favourably situated both
for inland and ocean commerce in the centre of a fine agri-
cultural country, the Grand Trunk line, like a great artery,
connecting it with all parts of Canada and the United
States. No wonder it has arrived at the proud position
of the commercial metropolis of a young and rising nation.

C2

CHAPTER VI.

MONTREAL TO OTTAWA.

As this work is intended to diffuse information from a
workingman's standpoint about regions that are destined
by providence to be prominent in the future history of the
world I do not propose to fill its pages with irrelevant
details of any sort. My object is to give as much useful
knowledge as possible about a country until recently
comparatively unknown in Europe, particularly to the
emigrating class. In the United Kingdom, the increase
of population and the centralisation of wealth is producing a
state of affairs, which statesmen must attend to sooner or
later however long they may stave off the difficulty. The
immense demonstrations frequently held by the labourers
and miners of Great Britain, are merely bubbles on the
surface that indicate a seething and boiling vortex below,
and from the questions mooted and the debates they give
rise to at those demonstrations, it is evident that the

INDUSTRIAL CLASSES

are far from being satisfied, to this evil there are but two
remedies, a change of law to abolish the remnants of the
feudal system, still in existence, such as an hereditary
Legislative Chamber, which only represents money, and
which the voice of the people never reaches, and a State
Church which a great number of the taxpayers and wealth
producers do not believe in ; and a further modification
of the land laws so as to gradually form a

PEASANT PROPRIETARY

at present 153 persons own half of England ; 75 persons
half of Scotland, arid 35 persons half of Ireland, while in
nearly every other European country the people own the
soil. France has six million peasant proprietors ; Belgium,

MONTREAL TO OTTAWA. G3

a million and a quarter ; Switzerland, three quarters of a
million. In England and Wales there are 27 or 28
Bishops with incomes ranging from £4,000 to £15,000
per annum ; there are 2,375 livings, which yield upwards
of £500 a year while the farm labourers are working for an
average wage of 1 2s. or 3 dolls, per week, and those of Ireland
for about 7s. or 1 doll. 75 cents, an alteration of this state
of things would be a sovereign remedy for the future
difficulties of the vast British Empire, as the greatest
danger to any State is dissension within its own border.
The clergyman who opened an evening school for adults in
his parish, made a mistake so far as his influence on the
mind of one of his parishioners was concerned, this
parishioner was a farm labourer unable to read or write, the
good clergyman said he would be educated to read his Bible
if he went to the school ; the man went and made excellent
progress, some time after, the reverend gentleman called
at the labourer's cottage and enquired of the wife if John
was yet able to read a chapter in the good book ; she
replied with astonishment, " Lor, sir, he hns read it all
through, and now he has taken to the newspapers ; " that
remark is applicable to a large majority of the working-
classes of the United Kingdom, as they read the papers and
digest what they read. The other remedy is emigration,
not a good one, perhaps ; but it is the best of two evils,
the one to remain at home to toil and delve from birth to
death on a mere pittance, the other to go to a new country
and thus bring the labour to a better market. I left
Montreal, the commercial capital, by the Grand Trunk
Railway for the village of

LACHINE, en route FOR OTTAWA,

the political capital of the Dominion; Lachine is a village
on the St. Lawrence, about a dozen miles from Montreal,
where the Ottawa Navigation Company's splendid boats
meet the trains to accommodate such passengers as prefer
going to Ottawa by water. I was very fortunate inasmuch
as I was accompanied by Mr. Howley, of Montreal, who
kindly took upon himself to introduce me to the Prime
Minister, the Hon. Alexander McKenzie. The distance
from Montreal to Ottawa by water, is something like 100

C4 MONTREAL TO OTTAWA.

miles, and by railway about 170, it lies north west from
Montreal, due north from Prescott, and north east from
Toronto. The boat left. Lachine, about seven o'clock in
the evening, of the 16th of June, and just as she was
heaving off

A TIMBER RAFT

manned by Caughnawaga Indians, entered the rapids of
the St. Lawrence, this was a terribly exciting affair, and
I was told that the piloting of those stupendous floating
piles of timber, through the surging and boiling foam of
the rapids of St. Anns, was always entrusted to those
Indians, a thrilling sensation passed through me as I stood
on the deck and gazed on the scene, the raft consisting
of several hundred baulks of timber gradually gliding into
the dreadful vortex, a few white men who had brought
the raft down the Ottawa river, for perhaps hundreds of
miles grouped together in the centre; the Indians
with long oars in their hands, standing in the most advan-
tageous positions to push it off from the rocks or guide it
through the boiling surf; as they approached the rapids the
chief stood at the stern, the men at their posts, but so
motionless that they might be taken for statues, as the
raft got into the eddy the chief gave the word, and the red
men at once — descendants possibly of those that fought
under Tecumseh, the noblest of their race — were stirred into-
life and activity ; they strain and tug at their oars and by
their well directed exertions keep the raft clear of shoals
and rocks, although going at a terrible pace. The pleasure
seeking British public ought to take a trip on the St.
Lawrence, and witness a scene like this it would be worth
a lifetime spent on the Boulevards of Paris, or at the
gaming tables of Baden Baden, and would cost less money.
We sail by the pretty village of St. Anns, the scene of Tom
Moore's celebrated Canadian boat song, no wonder that
Ireland's bard was inspired when passing that romantic
looking spot which he immortalised by his muse, it is not
necessary to describe the floating hotel called a boat, in
which I was making the trip, suffice it to say that she was
like all other American river boats, fitted up in every way
for comfort and pleasure ; as dusk set in she reached

MONTREAL TO OTTAWA. 65

THE LAKE OF TWO MOUNTAINS

formed by the sudden widening of the Ottawa river, and
steaming through at full speed to the rapids, where we
had to take the train for a few miles to reach the
navigable waters at the other end, we embarked again
at Grenville in another immense steamer, and it being now
eleven o'clock, I went to bed, but at three in the morning
I was up to see the river at sunrise ; just then we passed
the village of

PAPINEAUVILLE,

the home of the Father of Canadian Responsible Govern-
ment, Louis Joseph Papineau, and where he ended his
days, full of years and honour in 1871. The country on
both banks is thinly populated, but there is evidence of
enterprise, industry and progress everywhere ; rude wharfs
at intervals, with stacks of sawn timber on them, waiting
for exportation to the States, where it is nearly all sent.
Rafts floating down from the north, going to Quebec,
to be shipped for Europe, trains of barges towed by
steamers every now and then passing, loaded with every
kind of prepared boards, from the numerous saw mills on
both banks of the noble stream, little comfortable looking
villages here and there with extensive tracts of cleared
land around them, some of it in a high state of cultivation,
shanties that gradually develop into farm houses, scattered
about in the forest, which is rapidly succumbing to the
strong arm and active brain of the settler.

THE OTTAWA RIVER

has an immense volume of water, and its average width
may be put down at half a mile, from the city of Ottawa
to its junction with the St. Lawrence, at the village of St.
Ann's, abov.e Montreal, from thence the united rivers
flow grandly onward to the Atlantic, draining the north
central section of the American Continent, and bringing
down the commerce of the Canadian provinces and the North
Western States, which, as yet, are only in their infancy in
oomparison to what they will be in a few years, when
enterprise and labour shall have developed the resources
of those vast regions which are now only beginning to be

F

66 MONTREAL TO OTTAWA,

known in the Old Country. As we steam ahead at great
speed, tall chimnies on our right came in view, they belonged
to the extensive saw mills of the village of Hull, a
suburb of the Metropolis, we round a bold headland and
the numerous villas and gentlemen's houses indicate that
we are approaching the city; suddenly

THE DOMINION PARLIAMENT BUILDING

of colossal extent, and appearing still more so through
being erected on a magnificent site, breaks the line between
us and the horizon. The sight is grand in the extreme,
the Rideau Falls, 70 feet high on our left, the Chaudiere
Falls and Rapids, considered by some travellers superior to
Niagara itself, with the light handsome wire suspension
bridge, thrown across them, connecting the city with Hull,
and the province of Ontario with the province of Quebec,
in front of us. The stately, but peculiar looking boats that
are gliding about in every direction, as though their
captains were exercising them to prevent the engines
rusting, and which afterwards I learned were tugboats
engaged in the lumber trade, (there were hundreds of
acres of huge stacks of sawn timber along the river bank.)
The Parliament building on a rocky eminence, at the foot
of which our steamer laid to at a neat pier, where omni-
buses were waiting to take passengers to the different
hotels, made me think that the river approach to the city
of Ottawa, was really magnificent. Together with Mr.
Howley, and many others I went to

THE RUSSELL HOUSE,

one of the largest and best hotels in North America
situated in the centre of the town, close to the Parliament
House, in a prominent situation, having a frontage to two
leading streets, and being a fine massive building, it
is quite an ornament to the rapidly rising Metropolis of
the Canadian Confederation, if it would be possible to take
a person from one of the stay-behind and old-fashioned
hotels in the United Kingdom when asleep, and put him
down in the Russell House, when he awoke what a surprise
it would be to him; in a large room in the front he would
see comfortable arm chairs ranged round for visitors to sit
in, reading, smoking, chatting, or perhaps manipulating

MONTREAL TO OTTAWA. 67

I

some scheme, or organising some enterprise ; this room of
an evening is the resort of most of the leading men in the
city, and a stranger wanting to see any prominent man,
has only to ask for him at the office, as he is sure to be
heard of there. The size of this grand hotel may be
surmised from the fact that the dining-room is over 70
feet long and 50 feet wide, the bed-rooms are connected
with the office by electric signals, and the corridors with
each other, by spacious staircases and hydraulic lifts,
altogether the Russell House, is a credit to Ottawa, as
well as to its able manager and far seeing proprietor.
On the banks of the Ottawa river, a few miles from the
city, at a place called

L'ORIGINALE

there are mineral springs which bid fair to become the
Canadian Saratoga, and as far as courtesy to strangers and
the general comfort of visitors combined with energy
and administrative ability is concerned, it is sufficient
guarantee to say that they are owned by the same pro-
prietor as the Russell House. There are several other fine
hotels in the city where excellent accommodation may be
had, but my experience on both occasions that I visited
the capital, was of the Russell House, and I must say it
was highly satisfactory ; indeed, I may say the same of
nearly all the hotels I visited, both in Canada and the
States. While I did some writing, my friend

MR. HOWLEY

saw the Prime Minister at his office in the Parliament
Buildings, and arranged for me to call on him at three
o'clock. This piece of news put me into a nervous flutter,
although I could not tell why, but I suppose it was through
not being accustomed to meet great men face to face ; in
the Old Countries it is difficult to get an interview with
-an ordinary Government official as there are a lot of useless,
and I may add, humiliating ceremonies required ; but in
Canada this sort of thing is abolished, men meet each
other on the common ground of business and good conduct.
I went for a walk with my friend to the Suspension
Bridge over the Chaudiere Falls, and leaning on the side,

F 2

C8 MONTREAL TO OTTAWA.

MY POCKET-BOOK,

in which were some important documents, and a consider-
able sum of money in Canadian paper dollars, dropped out
of my coat pocket into the whirlpool. Just at the moment
a gentleman connected with one of the papers was passing
by and took a note of the incident, and on the following
morning an account of my loss appeared in the Ottawa
Times, to me the loss was irreparable in more ways than
one, and I felt very much upset. Next day a man called at
the Russell House, and enquired for Mr. O'Leary, and the
porter showed him up to my room. He was a Frenchman
and from his appearance I thought occupying a high posi-
tion. He asked me if I had lost a pocket-book, and if I
could describe it, which I did, and to my great joy he
handed it to me minus the cover, which had been worn, off
by the rocks in the rapids, but the indiarubber lining
preserved the papers and money, my benefactor was
merely an employ^ of one of the lumber yards, and he dis-
covered the parcel while working on the river, three miles
from where it fell in. The paragraph in the newspaper
mentioned the owner, and this good man at once came and
restored it. I regret that I did not take his name, to
publicly mention it in connection with this act of pure
honesty. Mr. Howley Avent back to Montreal, by the return
boat, so that I had to go alone to the Premier. I went to
the Parliament Building, enquired of a man where I could
see Mr. McKenzie, he pointed out to me an office, on one
of the corridors; I went to the door, expecting to be shown
into some waiting room by a livery servant, or a beadle in
uniform ; but to my surprise an old man in plain clothes,
a countryman of my own, requested my name, and turn-
ing on his heel into the room announced it to the minister,
who at once bid me come in, and the next moment I stood
before the greatest representative of labour and perse-
vering industry, perhaps in the world, the first minister of
the Canadian Confederation,

THE HONOURABLE ALEXANDER MCKENZIE,

who by his integrity, force of character, and ability had risen
from being an operative stonemason to that exalted position,
in itself an excellent example of what a man may arrive at

MONTREAL TO OTTAWA. 09

in a country where merit is the only key to success.
After conversation of a businesslike nature he offered to
accompany me through the building, an act of courtesy
that I did not expect. We visited both the Legislative
Chambers, which in my opinion are better arranged and
more commodious than the Parliament Houses at West-
minster, then the picture gallery, in which there are a
great many portraits of distinguished Canadians and of
all the speakers of Parliament, the present one being the
Honourable Timothy Warren Angling, a native of Clona-
kilty, in the South of Ireland, and who like millions of his
countrymen crossed the Atlantic to improve his position,
and how well he has succeeded his portrait among those of
the great men of the Dominion will testify. Passing through
the gallery *we visited the model room, committee rooms,
library, etc., and finally Mr. McKenzie introduced me to Dr.
Tache, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, and to Mr.
Lowe, the Secretary of Immigration, with whom I spent
some time and made arrangements to call again on the
following day. During my walk with the Premier, I was
struck with the intelligence of his countenance, his
unassuming manner, and the precision and clearness of
his remarks, it was pleasing to myself, a mere labourer, to
be received as an equal by the greatest and most im-
portant man, next to the Governor General, in British
North America.

THE PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS

are a noble pile in the Gothic order of architecture,
but with a strong mixture of the Composite style to suit
the climate, they cost nearly four millions of dollars.
The corner stone was laid by the Prince of Wales, during
his visit to Canada, in 1860. The site is an elevated
piece of table land, about forty acres in extent over-
looking the city, and surrounding country, affording
magnificent views from the different rooms in the building.
There are three independent structures, forming three sides
•of a square, the central one being the Legislative Chambers,
the other two being for departments of Government, and
facing inwards to the quadrangle which is tastefully laid
out with choice shrubs, fountains, and statues ; there are

70 MONTREAL TO OTTAWA.

several towers rising out of the main building, the highest
being 180 feet, has a fine effect. The whole is covered by
a bold Mansard roof, giving it a very imposing appearance.
This Canadian Parliament House, is one of the finest, if
not the finest edifice on the Continent, and well may the
people be proud of it as it is a monument of their
patriotism, energy and love of country.

OTTAWA

is a city of about 35,000 inhabitants, and although
Champlain sailed up the Ottawa river, or as he called it,
the Grand River, and predicted that a flourishing town
would arise where the city now stands, yet is of com-
paratively modern growth. One of the first men that
made anything like a settlement, here was an American
named Wright, who established a saw mill in the year
1800. The very year in which Ireland lost her Legis-
lative Independence, this American was planting the
seed of the capital of a new nation, and well may the
thinker exclaim with the prophet of old, " Oh Lord, how
great are thy works, and unsearchable thy ways." In
1827, the British Government sent a military commission
to inspect Canada, with a view of fortifying it at different
points; the commission reported on the desirability of
connecting the Ottawa river with Lake Ontario, by a
canal to form a triangle, of which the St. Lawrence is the
base, the Ottawa river and the canal forming the two
sides. The work was began in 1827, and cost nearly three
million of dollars; the length being about 130 miles; one
end of it is at Kingston, on Lake Ontario, and the other
at the city of Ottawa. This canal is an extraordinary
piece of engineering, as it is carried by means of locks
over a ridge of country much higher in the middle than it
is at either end ; the building of it attracted a large num-
ber of workpeople to the locality, who soon made an im-
portant settlement, which received the name of Bytown, from
Colonel By, of the Royal Engineers, chief superintendent
of the works. By the Queen's Proclamation in 1858,
Ottawa was made the capital of the united provinces of
British North America, called the Dominion of Canada,
which includes Prince Edward's Island, Nova Scotia, New

MONTREAL TO OTTAWA. 71

Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, North West Territory, the
Districts of Algoma, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, British
Columbia, and Vancouver's Island ; Newfoundland not yet
having joined the Confederation. All those united pro-
vinces send representatives to Ottawa, the seat of the
Federal Government, each having a local government to
manage its internal affairs. Those

REPRESENTATIVES ARE PAID

a thousand dollars, or a little over £200 each, every session
for their services, which enables a poor man to enter the
house without compromising his independence. In the
United Kingdom, a man must be exceedingly wealthy to
enter Parliament as the expenses are so heavy and as no
remuneration is attached to the office ; some of the
most practical, intelligent, and active minded men are thus
excluded. Until members of Parliament are paid and
responsible to their constituents, there will be no fair
representation of the people in England. The aristocracy
say it is not dignified to accept public money for legisla-
tive services; but, surely it would be more dignified to
give a man a salary for his labour than give hundreds of
thousands yearly to sinecurists, who are of no use what-
ever to the people, some of whom receive more than
would pay a dozen members very liberal salaries. In
Ottawa

THE HOUSE MEETS EARLY IN THE DAY,

and does its business so that members can have their
proper rest at night. In London they sit up till morning
and sleep in the daytime ; in Ottawa, members must
attend to their duty or their salaries are stopped; in
London some of the most important bills are passed when
there are not above fifty present. The difference between
the two systems lies in a nutshell; the one is the result of
an artificial state of things, called society and privilege,
the other of thought, progress, and common sense, which
ought to be the foundation of all legislation. The town
of Hull, across the river from Ottawa, is the

LARGEST TIMBER STATION IN THE WORLD,

nearly two hundred million feet being exported every

72 MONTREAL TO OTTAWA.

year ; there is a match factory belonging to Eddy & Co.,
the most extensive in America, giving employment to
1,000 hands; there are also lath mills, shingle mills, pail mills
and other manufacturing industries, showing that there is
no lack of enterprise, and that capital can find profitable
investment. The city itself is well laid out, the streets,
as in all American towns, being at right angles ; Hull is
capitally supplied with

GAS AND WATER,

the laying of the mains for which must have cost an
enormous sum, as they are bound to be a certain depth
below the surface to prevent freezing, and the trenches to
lay them in had to be excavated out of the solid rock, by
cutting and blasting. There are five daily papers, a
striking evidence of the intelligence and advancement of
the people. Some of

THE CANADIAN PAPERS

are real curiosities of literature, as they go in for what is
called racy editing, not quite so much as in the States,
but far more so than in the Old Country. It consists of
strong personalities, and holding up to ridicule the public
and private faults of officials, and political opponents, often
using the lash unsparingly, which makes public men very
careful, and although it may not be in accordance with the
strict rules of social etiquette, it has a tendency to prevent
some of the abuses that exist among the wealthy classes
in the United Kingdom. For instance, old men with

GREY HAIR AND WAXED MOUSTACHIOS,

affecting youth and vigour, escorting young mistresses, a
sight daily to be seen .in Hyde Park, would be justly
held up to scorn in Canada. People do not like the
exposure of their misdeeds and failings, the publishing of
which often sells the paper, which perhaps is the editor's
principal object ; but the practice anyway has a salutary
effect on evil-doers. Some people say that a man's private
life has nothing to do with his public career, but I think
the sooner this idea is abolished the better, for how can
a man guide others if he know not the way himself. It
is like some of our reverend theologians who preach to us

MONTREAL TO OTTAWA. 73

poverty and charity, yet get rich themselves as fast as they
can, and scarcely ever forgive what they consider to be an
injury. There are a great many

CHURCHES AND CHAPELS

of various denominations, the catholic cathedral being a
very fine edifice. Early on a Sunday morning I attended
service in this church, and I noticed there was not a badly
dressed person in the vast congregation. If there is a
place in the world where an ill-clad Irishman is to be met
with it is at the catholic church early on Sunday morning,
and although I attended at several including those at
Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa, Kingston, Toronto, Guelph,
St. Catherines, &c., I firmly believe I was m}rself the
worst dressed of any person I saw ; in fact, I am of opinion
the people dress too much, but that is a fault in the right
direction, as it tends to abolish castes and helps to give
the low-born self-reliance and dignity. During my stay
in the capital I met a large number of prominent citizens
and leading men. many of them from my own country,
including the City Member to the Local Parliament, who
is a journeyman compositor named

D. j. O'DONOUGHUE,

a native of a village near Tralee, County of Kerry, Ireland.
This gentleman has been twice returned as a purely labour
candidate. On my second visit to Ottawa in January, I
was present at his election. I am happy to be able to
say that I

WAS TREATED WITH KINDNESS

by every one I met, from the prime minister to the
humblest working man. I went round the town a good
deal to examine the position of the labourers and toiling
population and I have no hesitation in saying that their
condition on the whole is good

DRINK AND DISSIPATION BEING THE ONLY BARRIER

to a man rising. I do not think that the working class
drink more, or even as much, as the well-to-do people, but
what they do drink, relatively speaking, is more injurious
to them, because they are poor, and tippling keeps them

74 MONTREAL TO OTTAWA.

so. In the United Kingdom, if a man who has been
brought up to labour manages to save a few pounds, he
knows not what to do with it, except to put it in a
savings' bank at 3 per cent. There is no field open for the
investment of small capital, besides he has been working
continually at one job in a hum drum sort of way, and
does not understand enterprise or the use of money as his
mental faculties are not developed, the result is that not
one in a hundred rises to a competence by toil ; but in
Canada and the United States there are

FIELDS FOR INDUSTRY, MANUFACTURES, AND ENTERPRISE

on all sides, and a comparatively small sum can be made
use of in opening up the great natural resources of the
two countries. The general free and easy intercourse
between the different sections of men, enables them to
boiTOw ideas from each other, which enlarges the under-
standing of those who have not received the benefit of a
good educational training, and materially assists them to
make positions for themselves and their children. In and
around Ottawa, there is a

FINE OPENING FOR THE HARD WORKING EMIGRANT

from the British Isles, the country being rapidly cleared
of timber and brought into a good state of cultivation.
Farm 'labourers and servant girls, are wanted on every side,
and after a year or two on a farm it is not difficult for any
sort of industrious man to get a bit of land of his own.
I would seriously advise the agricultural emigrants to
engage with farmers instead of settling in towns, and par-
ticularly in large ones, for if it were a mere question of
wages, it would be hardly worth a man's while to leave his
own country, as by an effort he might manage to rub along
at home, remaining a labourer with his hand to his cap,
when he meets the squire, the agent, or the farmer, and
with a fear of the gamekeeper always before his eyes : in
Canada, it is a question of labour for a few years, saving
a little money, and turning it to account, educating his
children, in order that they may be intelligent citizens of
a rising State.

THAT EVERY MAN WHO GOES OUT WILL DO WELL,

would be a ridiculous assertion, some do -not like this, and

MONTREAL TO OTTAWA. . '/£>

others do not like that; but I am certain that the sober
industrious farm labourer will do better than in England or
Ireland. During my visit there was abundance of work in
the town, at a pay for labourers of 1| dolls., or 6s. of English
money per day ; best steak was about 14 cents per pound,
making 7d. English, mutton from 3d. to 5d., and bread
about 7d. the 41b. loaf, but a great many of the people
purchase flour and make their own bread. Rent for a
three roomed cottage from 4 to 6 dolls, per month, or
from 16s. to 24s. English. Potatoes and all sorts of vege-
tables are abundant and cheap. But to

COMMAND RESPECT AND MAKE HEADWAY

a man must keep from groggeries, a very easy matter, as
there are three or four Temperance Societies in the city, in
a flourishing condition, with a great number of members.
Emigrants landing at Quebec in summer, or Portland in.
winter will receive

FREE RAILWAY TICKETS TO OTTAWA

by Grand Trunk to Prescott Junction, where they change
to the Ottawa and Prescott Railway, on which they will
travel fifty-five miles.

MR. WILLS,

is the emigration agent-, for the Ottawa district, and there is
many a man now settled on a nice piece of lanol of his own that
has had good reason to bless the name of that gentleman, he
certainly is a most painstaking and energetic officer, and
all the poor emigrants who come within his jurisdiction are
certain to be well cared for. There is a society in the
locality called

THE OTTAWA VALLEY IMMIGRATION SOCIETY,

to which Mr. Wills, is secretary, the objectbeing to get eligible
emigrants, by paying their way from the old country. For
instance, an English settler from (say) Yorkshire, wishes for
a ploughman from that county, he will hand expenses to the
secretary who will remit the same with instructions to an
agent in England to select a suitable man and send him
out. On one occasion, when I was in the emigration
office, four young women arrived from the north of Ireland,

76 MONTREAL TO OTTAWA.

to go into service as dairy maids, Mr. Wills having sent the
necessary expenses to the agent in Belfast. The great
demand for female labour is a sure sign of the progress of
the country, for those

THAT COME OUT ONE YEAR GET MARRIED THE NEXT,

and others are wanted to fill their place, and again those
that marry will in time require servants themselves,
as they wish to take their ease as soon as they can afford
it. In a word, the country is growing and people are
wanted. Thousands who in the Old Country must remain
labourers all their days, would in Canada become farmers,
not perhaps exceedingly rich, but comfortable. Some
writers and travellers say the land is not good, and that it
will not yield as much as the highly-cultivated farms of
Great Britain and Ireland. They forget to state, how-
ever, that there is, owing to the policy and laws of
the country, a diffusion of the national wealth, that the
inhabitants are but lightly taxed, and then only for useful
purposes, and above all that

THE LAND BELONGS TO THE CULTIVATOR,

and all that he produces from it is his own. It is quite
true that some of the soil is poor, and the owners wretched
farmers, but, on the other hand, all that is required to
improve it is labour, combined with skill. In1 a few years
land so treated will become valuable to the owners when
they can proudly say, "This property is ours, and no
man can say us nay." Those who will not work are soon
got rid of, as a natural result, and others take their place
who will do better.

RIDEAU HALL,

at Ottawa, is the residence of the Governor-General. It
is an unpretending structure, standing in ornamental
grounds, and is the largest house I saw in the Dominion,
yet it is not nearly so elaborate or costly as the residences
of men of much lower rank in the United Kingdom. The
Governor is exceedingly popular with all sections of the
people, as he conforms in all things to the progressive ideas
and institutions of the country, and whether visiting a
convent school, a Sunday school, a young men's college, or

MONTREAL TO OTTAWA. 77

addressing the grey beards of a town, he has the tact
and good sense to speak the right word in the right place.
Close to Rideau Hall are

THE RIDEAU FALLS,

about 70 feet high ; they are formed by the Rideau River
falling over a cliff into the Ottawa River. To the lover
of the beautiful in nature the scene is very fine. Canadians
are proud of the metropolis of their country, and justly so,
for when we consider that in 1827 there were only a few
shanties on the ground where it now stands, and that since
then it has grown into a beautiful city, with all the ele-
ments of refinement and civilisation, we must acknowledge
there is something marvellous in its rise and progress

f

CHAPTER VII.
OTTAWA TO NIAGARA

HAVING spent a, week in the capital, and in that time
seen something of its people, I felt it my duty to push on
further. Somebody said that the tide of empire follows
the setting sun, a piece of philosophy about which I cannot
give an opinion ; but I do know there is room for millions
yet unborn on tne vast and fertile plains of the great west.
When at home and following my employment, a desire to
see some of the unsettled portion of America arose in my
mind through reading books of travel and adventure, and
that ambition was now in a fair way of being gratified. I
had arranged with the government and with my friends
to go to the Red River settlement in the province of
Manitoba, and my departure from Ottawa was the com-
mencement of a journey of from 1,500 to 2,000 miles. The
road from Ottawa to Toronto runs across a large portion
of the province of Ontario formerly called Upper Canada
and sometimes Western Canada, by rail a distance of 280
miles. I left Ottawa at 10.20 on the morning of the 23rd
of June by the Ottawa and Prescott Railway for Prescott
Junction, where the connection is made with the main
artery of the Canadian railway system,

THE GRAND TRUNK,

which runs parallel with the St. Lawrence from Quebec to
Montreal on the south side where it crosses the river on
the great Victoria Bridge, and thence runs along the
north side to Toronto, the three great termini of
this extraordinary line being Quebec in Lower Canada,
Portland in the State of Maine, and Detroit in the State
of Michigan. Toronto from Montreal lies 333 miles nearly
due west on the north shore of Lake Ontario, the nearest to
the Atlantic of the great lakes, or rather, fresh water seas.

OTTAWA TO NIAGARA. 79

From Ottawa to Prescott is about 60 miles south through
a country yet only partly cleared, although there are six
or seven stations, or about one in every ten miles. The
gauge of this line is four feet eight inches and a half, and
the carriages and rolling stock in general are in exceUent
order. Evidence of recent settlement and ra,pid clearance
can be seen from the carriage windows in every direction,
showing that the axe, the

SAW -MILL, AND THE PLOUGH

are pre-eminently implements of civilisation. The one to
cut down the trees, the other to saw them up for useful
purposes or for export, the third to turn up the virgin soil
for cultivation ; and nowhere is their usefulness to be seen
more than on this line of railway. Felling timber is a
very different affair in Canada from what it is in the old
countries, as it is done with an axe, while in the United
Kingdom it is done with a cross-cut saw. In Canada a man
will stand before a tree swinging his axe alternately from
each shoulder, which requires some practice as well as
strength to become an expert at. The tree is struck about
three feet from the ground, consequently there is a high
stump left standing that takes several years to rot. In
the United Kingdom a man will clear round with a
spade and trim off the upper roots to get as much
timber as possible, the tree being cut close to the ground
by two men with a cross-cut saw. In Canada timber is
not thought much of, the principal object being to clear
the land, a matter in which I think there is a great
mistake, as the attention of the people ought to be directed
to the good cultivation and improvement of what is already
cleared, rather than to the useless destruction of valuable
timber, as there is a deal of

BAD FARMING,

to which the sooner a remedy is applied the better, either
by legislative enactments or the establishment of schools
to teach something of scientific agriculture. One of the
evils is too much land, a farmer not having sufficient
capital to work it properly, another is the practice of
cropping the ground without manuring it ; this system
must exhaust the best soil in the course of time, but to

80 OTTAWA TO NIAGARA.

this many Canadian farmers seem very indifferent. No
doubt these errors will remedy themselves as the country
gets settled, because stock raising will become more
profitable and land more valuable, thus inducing the
farmer to pay greater attention to his business, as he will be
able to get more from a small well cultivated farm than
from an extensive one badly cared for. Another draw-
back is

THE WINTER

the face of the country being covered with snow for at
least three months. During those three months the farmer is
comparatively inactive, as far as ploughing and breaking
the soil is concerned, although nature makes up for it in
rapidity of vegetation ; still those three months are a
great loss to the agriculturist. One of his difficulties had
hitherto been the want of help, but emigration is now
supplying that defect ; yet for years to come there will be
room for the hardworking surplus population of Europe.

A RECENTLY OCCUPIED TIMBER FARM

is a curious sight to the European traveller. There is the
cottage of the settler generally made of boards from the
nearest saw mill, and in the event of not having boards,
of logs of small pine timber. It does not require much
professional skill to describe its architectural features, for
anyone can tell that it belongs to the primitive order and is
of the very earliest style ; notwithstanding their rustic
appearance, these dwellings are comfortable and far
more healthy than some of the homes of the poor in
the large towns and manufacturing districts of England.
The settler will live in this class of house for a few years
until he has made some money, then erect a better
structure, either of stone, brick, or timber, according to
taste or locality, as each of these materials is extensively
used in building, and it is a usual thing to see the
original shanty close to the nice house that the farmer now
lives in. The story of the prisoner who was accused of
stealing a gun, and declared his innocence by saying that
he had had that gun since it was a pistol, is exemplified all
over Ontario; the settler having lived in the shanty
until it grew into the farmhouse through his energy and
industry. Around the dwelling there are a few acres of

OTTAWA TO NIAGARA. 81

cleared land in a timber fence of rude make ; on its margin
the tree stumps are standing like soldiers at drill, the
timber having been carried away or burned, then behind
is the thick bush on which the man and his family are
continually making war, and before whose well-directed
blows it is rapidly giving way, the one question that a
settler who takes up a free grant has to consider is the
first winter, for when he can manage to raise one crop he
is over many of his difficulties, but no agriculturist or farm
labourer from the United Kingdom, should go on land
without at least a twelve-months' experience in the
country ; it is curious to see a nice field of wheat, potatoes,
or other crops, with tree stumps standing all over it, a
kind of intermediate state between the primeval forest and
modern progress, they decay arid rot in ten or twelve
years, then they are easily drawn out of the ground and
burned, or otherwise got rid of. On the

PRESCOTT AND OTTAWA RAILWAY

settling, clearing, cultivating, and house building is rapidly
going on and in a few years no doubt this will be a very
fine country as its resources become developed; at the
stations it was pleasant to see the people that were waiting
for the train, all respectably clad, and a great many wear-
ing jewellery, which Canadians and Americans seem almost
childishly fond of. During my stay at the Russell House,
Ottawa, I noticed on one or two occasions a lady with
two little girls, sitting at dinner, the children, for such
they were, had a number of rings on their fingers;
I thought it was absurd that these little creatures, the eldest
not above ten years, should be jewelled and starched to
attract attention, for it could not be for anything else, but
anyhow it seemed to me to be in bad taste, and a useless and
needless display of wealth. This case is an illustration of
what I have seen, both in Canada and the States,

THE WEARING OF JEWELLERY, OR MOCK JEWELLERY,

being the fashion among all classes of the people, and I
don't know but that the custom is good, although liable
to abuse, inasmuch as it has a certain amount of refining
influence that leads up to social equality. In England, a

G

82 OTTAWA TO NIAGARA.

workingman will wear moleskin or corduroy, and the farm
labourer the long smock frock, and through the perpetual
teaching of both religion and politics are almost led to
believe that they are destined by providence to a low
station, and are bound to wear a garb to mark the rank
they occupy in the community. In many parts of Eng-
land, it was the custom for the squire or other great gun
in the parish to give the labourers once a year a long
smock frock marked with designs, before and behind,
something like a map, intended to show everything from a
projected railway to a footpath. The labourer's wife some-
times received a peculiar looking cotton gown, and a coal
scuttle bonnet, and on the following Sunday, the recipients
had to go to church to show their new clothes. The parson
selected an appropriate text, and from it preached a dis-
course the purport of which was the goodness of the donors,
and the duty of the lower orders to be submissive to their
superiors. In Ireland, the poor labouring man was called

A SPALPEEN OR CAUBOUG

— terms in the Irish language, signifying low grade — and as
such he was almost bound to put his hand to his hat to
everybody who had a good coat on, from the town crier to
the under agent ; and how the mass of the Irish people
kept alive the spirit of manly independence, which they
develop in America, is to me a puzzle. I am glad to
say, that both in England and Ireland, slavish subserviency
is gradually dying out, and men are beginning to understand
that it is, fulfilment of duty to God and man, and the
elevation of our nature by the cultivation of our minds,
that dignify our manhood, and not the giving or taking
of a contemptible adulation that tends to degradation
instead of manly bearing and national honour ; so that in
my opinion, a little personal pride assists a people to rise in
the social scale. We arrived at

PRESCOTT

about one o'clock, dinner was ready at the station for all
who wished to partake of it at 50 cents, or 2s. each, getting
what they call in America, a square meal, that is plenty of
almost anything you wish, including tea, or coffee, a cup

OTTAWA TO NIAGARA. 83

of which is nearly always taken. Prescott Junction is in
the centre of a very fine country on the Grand Trunk
Railway, a mile from the town of Prescott, 112 from
Montreal, and 221 from Toronto. Close to this place are
the celebrated Thousand Islands, the scenery of which is
unsurpassed, and which may be seen to advantage by a
steamboat trip on the St. Lawrence, between Montreal,
Kingston, and Toronto.'A somewhat sharp engagement was
fought at Prescott, between the British troops and the
Canadian patriots in 1838 ; the troops capturing some
prisoners, who, as usual in such cases, were duly hung as
soon as possible at Kingston. From Prescott, a deal of
the timber prepared in the Ottawa Saw Mills, and brought
down by the Ottawa and Prescott Railway, is taken across
the St. Lawrence to Ogdensburg, where it is sent on by
rail to all parts of the United States. The Grand Trunk
from this point to Toronto traverses a fine rich country,
being the oldest settled portion of Ontario. There are
numerous towns and villages along the line where different
manufacturing industries are carried on ; and there are
several

CHEESE FACTORIES

where that article of food is made, the milk being sent from
a number of farms, which plan the people find more re-
munerative than making it themselves at their homes ; to
co-operative enterprises of this nature the local govern-
ments give pecuniary assistance, either direct or through
different societies, and the municipality in which the works
are established generally grants a subsidy. The importance
of the cheese trade may be seen from the fact, that nearly
20 million pounds are annually exported to England. I was
very much struck with the number of cattle grazing in
the fields, or running about in the plantation-like woods,
where there was plenty of excellent feed. People in the Old
Countries are apt to associate the whole of America with

REPTILES,

and venomous creatures, but the idea is wrong, as there
are scarcely any of a dangerous kind north of the forty-
ninth parallel, which includes the whole of Canada.
There is a little snake called the garter snake, from

G 2

84 OTTAWA TO NIAGARA.

2 feet C inches to 3 feet long, but it is harmless,
although I confess I would not like to make free with it ;
in the more southern parts of Ontario, there are a few
rattle snakes, but only a very few, and these scarcely ever
do any harm ; fortunately as an Irishman, I know but very
little about snakes, as there are none of any kind in
Ireland, which in itself is a curious fact in Natural
History; I was told that the rattle snake is becoming
extinct in the hog raising states of the Union, as that
animal will destroy it, as a cat would a mouse, but anyway
there is no need to dread reptiles in Canada, as there are
scarcely any of a dangerous kind, and those large droves
of cattle that I saw scampering through the woods are an
evidence of the fact. As towns multiply and manufacturers
increase, stock raising must become a profitable business ;
as hitherto in comparison with the Old Countries meat has
been remarkably cheap, and seeing the great and in-
creasing demand for it in England, a

CANADIAN MEAT AND PRODUCE COMPANY

has been formed to export it to that country ; the modus
operandi being as follows : travellers are sent about the
country to purchase cattle wherever they can find them
reasonable in price, and send them on by rail to the com-
pany's depot at Sherbrook, a rising place in the eastern
township of Quebec, there to be slaughtered and packed
in air-tight cases, and forwarded to Liverpool, where
there is a ready market for ten times more than the com-
pany can send as the meat is good, and they can afford to
undersell the English butchers, which must in no small
degree be a boon to the public, particularly as the opera-
tions are on an extensive sale. The municipalities of
Sherbrook, and the surrounding places gave the company a
handsome bonus — a usual thing in Canada. Sherbrook
is a fine town on the Montreal and Portland section of
the Grand Trunk, the slaughter-house and factory adjoins
the line and is connected with it by a siding, thus giving
railway communication to all parts of America. The
works, about 350 feet long, 120 feet wide, and high in
proportion, are fitted up with very expensive machinery.
Tinning and potting is one part of the business, and is

OTTAWA TO NIAGARA. 85

carried on by what the manager told me was an entirely
new process, which does not reduce the strength of the
meat or destroy its flavour, a great benefit to the con-
sumer, as it preserves its freshness. During my visit
to the works of the Canadian Meat and Produce Com-
pany, there were 80 cattle per week killed ; and when
the buildings are completed there will be 300 per
week. I mention this matter to show that rearing stock
is likely to be a remunerative branch of agriculture before
long, through English competition and an increased home
consumption. As the train dashes on there are some
splendid views to be had of the St. Lawrence, with the
steam boats and ships trading between the different ports
on its banks.

ORCHARDS AND FRUIT

are a good deal cultivated, which gives the face of the
country a nice appearance, as a comfortable farm-house
with well stocked orchards around forms a very pretty
picture, and there are a great many such pictures between
Prescott and Toronto. There is also a considerable extent
of hop ground, but judging from a look at the plantations,
I don't think they are at all equal to those of Kent, Sussex,
or Hereford. The ground was not trenched, which is so
necessary in

HOP FARMING,

and the poles were only two in a hill, while in England,
there would be three, and sometimes four, and they were
•only 12 or 14 feet long, showing that the bine was not
very strong or the crop heavy. In England the poles would
be 16 or 18 feet, and then the bine would often be curled
and interwoven together at the top of the pole. I think by
improved and scientific cultivation, hop growing in Canada
would be remunerative, as the plant seems indigenous to
the country, and is to be met with almost everywhere in
the woods. The province of

MANITOBA

is, in my opinion, particularly suitable for its cultivation,
the soil being heavy and wonderfully fertile, and there is
always during the season, an amount of humidity and
warmth in it, through the frost which penetrates deep into

86 OTTAWA TO NIAGARA.

the ground receiving the heat of the sun causing a thawr
that keeps the soil damp, thus promoting an extraordinarily
rapid vegetation. On the boundary line between the-
States and British America, about 70 miles South of Fort
Garry, in the woods of the Pembina Mountains, at the
latter end of August, I found four different samples of
hops growing in the greatest profusion ; with the burr as
well developed as any that I have seen in the English hop
districts, the grape and golden species in particular were
very prolific, and surely where they grow in the wild state
in such plenty they would do much better by skilful
cultivation ; what their merits were as compared with
English hops, I had no opportunity of knowing, but I am
very much mistaken if Manitoba, would not grow them
very abundantly. There are a great many towns and
villages between Prescott and Toronto, and nearly all
having old country names, such as Kingston, a town of
12,000 inhabitants and a smart port on Lake Ontario;
and the starting point of the Rideau Canal, which connects
it with Ottawa by water. Then there are Whitby, Lans-
downe, Newcastle, Shannonville, Lynn, and other places
bearing names that indicate their origin. After about ten
hours travelling we reached

TORONTO,

where I took up my quarters at the Mansion House Hotel,
Next day I went out to see the city, and was much sur-
prised at its fine position, well laid out streets, grand
churches, splendid shops, excellent public buildings, and
massive warehouses ; I have been to a good many towns
at home and abroad, but never saw a place where the
people displayed more activity and determination to
advance than in this city, the capital of Ontario, and the
third largest city in the Dominion ; it has a population of
about G 3,000, and is situate on the north shore of Lake
Ontario. Toronto is one of the principle centres of the
Canadian Railway system, which connects it with all parts
of America, and is consequently the seat of a very exten-
sive trade, and also the largest Canadian port on the Great
Lakes. Any one who has not seen those vast inland waters^
cannot understand the magnitude and importance of their

OTTAWA TO NIAGARA. 87

shipping and commercial interests but they are really
stupendous, increasing every year, and the situation of
Toronto is well adapted for an extensive import and export
business, both by water and rail. The site where the
city now stands, was, in 1793, a trackless forest ; and the
Government of that day surveyed the place with the view
of fortifying the north shore of Lake Ontario; and
although the Franco-Irish French Governor De Tracy
inflicted summary chastisement on the Iroquois Indians,
who, in 1665, massacred a number of settlers on the
south shore of the lake somewhere in the neighbourhood
of Niagara ; yet the difficulty of reaching the north shore
precluded any attempt at settlement there for several
years after this exploit of Governor De Tracy ; when peace
was declared with America in 1782, a large number of

AMERICAN LOYALISTS

crossed into British territory to make it their home;
the young republic was glad to get rid of those people
because during the war they were the enemies of in-
dependence, and it was feared that they might create
dissensions in the councils of the infant nation. The
British were delighted to receive them as they would be
stanch bulwarks against the further advance of the
American Republicans, and for that reason in every way
encouraged them to come to Canada. The new location
on the north shore of Lake Ontario being very eligible, a
large number settled there and called the place Little
York, and it is on record that the Upper Canada Govern-
ment of the time made a law excluding the American
schoolmasters from coming among those people from fear
of their Republican tendencies. In 1799, the seat of
Government was removed from Niagara to Toronto, and
that same year a recommendation was made to the
authorities that Toronto, should be the seat of a uni-
versity. This was carried out in 1842, and is now one cf
the finest buildings on the continent. The form of the
city is nearly a semi-circle, at the head of a lovely bay on
a gravelly soil, with a gradual elevation from the water's
edge. There are a great many wharves, stores, and fac-
tories of different kinds along the shore, and opposite the
city in the lake there is a low lying island, on which

88 OTTAWA TO NIAGARA.

there are a couple of lighthouses, waterworks, and other
municipal and public buildings. The streets are as far as
possible laid out at right angles, in this respect differing
entirely from Montreal and Quebec. Some of the build-
ings are really beautiful and do honour to the citizens,
and, indeed, to the people of Canada in general ; and among
them I may mention

ST. MICHAEL'S ROMAN CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL,

built in the Gothic order of architecture, with modifications
to suit the climate, and constructed of white bricks with
stone facings. The length of the building is a little over
200 feet, the width about 40 feet, and the spire is 250 feet
high, elegant in design and having a very fine effect. The
foundation of this magnificent church was laid in 1845,
and it was opened in 1847. In 1870, Toronto was made
into an Archdiocese by the Pope,

THE MOST REVEREND JOSEPH LYNCH

being appointed to the see. This great prelate is a
native of county Monaghan, Ireland, a country that has,
perhaps, given to the world more distinguished ecclesiastics,
catholic and protestant, than any other in Europe. Dr.
Lynch studied for several years in his native country, and
finishing his education in Paris, he returned to Ireland to
be ordained, shortly after to leave her shores to follow the
weary and laborious life of a missionary priest in the
Southern States of the American Union ; but the swamp
fever and other miasmatic diseases peculiar to the climate
made an inroad on his constitution, and on the recommen-
dation of his superior he was sent to the northern and
more healthy climate of Buffalo. In 1859 he was con-
secrated Bishop of Toronto, and Archbishop, as before
stated, in 1870. It is no flattery to say that Monsignor
Lynch is beloved by his own flock and highly respected by
those outside his fold. He is a patriotic Irishman, openly
advocating self government for his native land on the plan
of the federated provinces of British North America ; which
will endear his name to Irishmen throughout the world ;
for love of the old land is instinctive in the Irish breast
wherever the race has settled ; and I was delighted to

OTTAWA TO NIAGARA. 89

find, not alone in this eminent churchman, but in thousands
of others in Canada, that

THE LOVE OF IRELAND

was as strong as on the day when they left her shores, in
most cases as emigrants ; indeed, the same may be said of
the English and Scotch although, perhaps, they may not
be quite so enthusiastic as the Irish ; still, there is that
deep fervent love of their countries which developes itself
in many ways, yet they are not any the worse Canadians,
as can be seen by their magnificent institutions, liberal
laws, general education, prosperous country, and well
ordered community. The Catholic, the Protestant, the
Irishman, the Englishman, the Scotchman, the Welshman,
yes, and the Frenchman and German uniting to make one
great whole : a thriving, industrious, and a happy people ;
how different from the state of things founded by conquest
and upheld by

FEUDALISM

in the United Kingdom ; for the Norman conqueror
dictated the English code of law with the point of his
sword on the battle field of Hastings, aad then and there
guaranteed by those laws to his greedy folloAvers large
tracts of the conquered country. How beneficial they
have been to the toiling masses in England since then,
let the Dorsetshire labourers reply. That the worst
portions of those laws are still in operation there cannot be
a doubt ; an established church and a privileged class of
hereditary legislators, many of whom never take the
least interest in the general welfare of the state, yet are
endowed with power to obstruct any measure that emanates
from the representatives of the people, are some of the
results. Primogeniture and entail which prevent the
land coming into the hands of the cultivators who are
now merely tenants at will, and the game laws which
I consider, are a disgrace, as they give to a few an ex-
clusive privilege of gratifying their cruel instincts by the
wanton and wholesale slaughter (the battue for example)
of poor, half tame, dumb, defenceless creatures, many of
whom often go away wounded to die a lingering death
from starvation and gangrene ; yet the laws are framed to

90 OTTAWA TO NIAGARA.

perpetuate this fiendish practice called sport. A magistrate
who will infict a fine on a cock-fighter, or on Bill Sykes
for beating his donkey, and yet will himself torture poor
little innocent creatures, is in my opinion the very essence
of a hypocrite ; but it is the law and not the man that
must be amended. In England reverend gentlemen stand
in the pulpit to teach charity and virtue, but I venture to-
say there is neither in those law administering divines
who, when seated on the bench with well filled pockets-
and cognisant that the larder at home is in pretty good
order, sentence severely some unfortunate peasant who (in
most cases through sheer want) has killed a wild animal
called "game." Some people may say this is a fancy
picture, but in reply let me give my authority.

MR. P. A. TAYLOR, M.P.

for Leicester, on the 27th of April, 1869, declared in his-
place in the House of Commons, that there were between
nine and ten thousand convictions every year under the
game-laws, many of the magistrates being clergymen.
The great political economist Jeremy Bentham, said, " I
sow corn, and partridges eat it, if I defend it against them
I am sent to jail, lest a great man who is above sowing
corn should want partridges to kill. In tho present day
the law gives a policeman power to search a man on the
high road, or he can be chased by dogs as the negroes
were in the Southern States in the worst days of slavery.
According to Professor Leoni Levi, there are two million
acres of land devoted to wild animals in Scotland, to the
great detriment of the people. When perusing the life of

JOHN STUART MILL,

I was impressed with his benevolence, by reading that the
small park surrounding his villa at Cannes, was an asylum
for the wounded birds and game that flocked to it from
the country around, those creatures knew, cither through
long habit, instinct, or some sort of reasoning among them-
selves, that when inside his boundaries they were safe ;
what a lesson this teaches to some of his censors, many of
them game preservers, who inflicted torture and took life

OTTAWA TO NIAGARA. 91

for sport; one word more by way of warning to those who,
would preserve the noble institutions of

THE FEUDAL SYSTEM.

That system which sets English and Irish workmen at each
others throats, so that through their dissensions a few may
rule. That system which, according to Mr. Macdonald — the
workingman M.P. for Stafford, in a speech made by him at
Birmingham, on the 26th of May, 1875 — under which, the
miners of England were bought and sold with the mines
they worked, down to the beginning of the nineteenth
century, and the whole family, father, mother, and young
children, male and female, worked in the mine, and in the
same speech he boldly asserted it was not the aristocracy,
the bishops, or the clergy of any denomination that emanci-
pated them, nay, but it was the poor miners themselves, by
their growing intelligence. That system winch has utilised
nearly every fundamental law in the interest of a class,
and as far as possible prevented the workingman being
educated ; but as soon as the people receive the rights,
of citizenship it is doomed, and in its stead, we will have
intelligence, progress, more social equality, and less caste-
legislation, as all sections of the community will be
brought closer together, and as this is sure to occur
when the masses receive the franchise, I would seriously
warn the hereditary sinecurists, and legislators, to do all
they can to prevent it, and I have no doubt they will take
my advice, as self-preservation is the first law of nature,
and in all ages, classes, and individuals, have as far as
possible tried to benefit themselves, the power of the
injured multitude being the only true check on human
avarice.

THE PROTESTANT CATHEDRAL IN TORONTO

is another fine edifice, also in the Gothic order, and like-
the Roman Catholic Cathedral, the style is heavy to suit
the climate, the building being 200 feet long by 175 wide,,
and the spire 280 feet high, altogether it is a magnificent
structure; there are, between twenty and thirty different
places of Protestant worship in the city, and five or six
Catholic, to which religion, about one-fourth of the inhabi-

92 OTTAWA TO NIAGARA.

tants belong. There are a great many other fine buildings,
such as the Masonic Hall, the La Salle Institute presided
over by the Christian Brothers, St. Michael's College for
the education of Catholic youth, the St. Lawrence Hall,
Trinity College for Protestant young men, the Mechanics
Institute, and the Provincial Exhibition Building. The
Parliament House is a very unpretending affair, being a
long low red brick erection; but from what I saw of it I
thought it very well arranged, particularly the Chamber
itself, each member sat in an arm chair at a desk in
which there was a drawer for his papers ; and there were
three or four little boys on the floor to carry messages,
such as letters, bills, telegrams, &c., thus saving the
necessity of members running about themselves.

THE CONSTITUTION

of the Dominion, is as near perfection as it can well be,
as it embraces the leading features of local self-Govern-
ment, so far as is consistent with order and official re-
sponsibility. There is a Federal, or general Parliament, the
seat of which is at Ottawa, consisting of two Chambers,
Commons,and Senators, the latter appointed for life only, and
not hereditary as in England ; then each of the provinces
has its own Parliament, consisting of one Chamber elected
by the people, for the management of provincial affairs.
Every county has its County Council, which has power to
levy taxes for roads, bridges, and other improvements,
•within its own jurisdiction, each

TOWNSHIP

Las its Board, which also has certain powers, such as
granting bonuses to public companies, making local roads,
assisting education, &c. A township comprises six miles
each way, or thirty-six square miles, every corporate
borough or city is governed by its municipal authorities,
who have the control of police, fire department, sanitary
arrangements, &c., all those bodies, except the

SENATE,

are representative, and even the latter is composed of men
selected for their ability and knowledge of public affairs.
'This plan gives confidence to the people, and educates them

OTTAWA TO NIAGARA. 93

to take an interest in the welfare of the country, besides
it brings to the surface able men for the Federal House,
as the local bodies develop and train them to a very high
standard of efficiency.

EDUCATION

is free, that is, the Government Schools are free to all who
wish to send their children to them, and I may add that
the education received is of a high order, and emineDtly
useful for everyday purposes, and as Cobden said, instead
of having brains crammed with the laws of the Medes and
Persians, the young receive an education which qualifies
them for business, and enables them to fight the battle of
life in the particular trade or profession they may
be devoted to. With a wise regard to the right of con-
science, the Legislature has enacted that Catholics may
have, if they desire it, schools under the control of their
Church receiving, according to results, a fair and propor-
tionate amount of Government aid, which, as nearly as
possible, places all parties on an equality, making it their
own fault if they don't make headway in the world.

THE BUSINESS DONE IN TORONTO

may be imagined from the fact that there are fifteen
banks in the city, and all appear to be doing well, there are
five daily papers, and a large number of weeklies, two of
the latter being Catholic, The Irish Canadian, and the
Ontario Tribune. To the journalists of Toronto I have
to return my sincere thanks for the kindness I received
at their hands without distinction of politics, or religion,
but to Mr. Patrick Boyle, editor and proprietor of The
Irish Canadian, I offer my most heartfelt gratitude,
for his disinterested courtesy and attention, Toronto is

ONE OF THE PRINCIPAL EMIGRATION DEPOTS

in the Dominion, more people going there than to any
other station, simply because it is better known. The
provincial Government of Ontario, is very attentive to this
branch of the public service, and has a minister who is
responsible to Parliament, to look after it, and under him
a secretary, and one or two under secretaries, who are the
acting officers subject to the minister. There is also a

94 OTTAWA TO NIAGARA.

travelling agent whose duty it is to go about the country to
find out where emigrants are most wanted, the rate of
wages in each district, the number that are likely to be
employed in any one locality, or by any one man, and to
see that the law made for their protection is carried out.
There is a very large reception house, and labour office to
receive emigrants on arrival, and where they are treated
as described in the chapter on Montreal. No Govern-
ment officers are so subject to the influence of public
opinion as those connected with emigration, because there
cannot be anything done in private, as everyone is more
or less anxious to promote the settlement of the country,
and the emigrant of to-day, may in a year or two be a
very important man, and do those officers an injury, if he
should owe them a grudge for their previous treatment of
himself or any of his class. From what I saw, I think that
they are not only anxious to do every thing the law allows, but
even to stretch it in the interest of the emigrant; for I never
saw men more desirous to perform their duty firmly, and
conscientiously, than

MR. SPENCE,

secretary of emigration, Mr. Hay, the travelling agent,
and Mr. Donaldson, the superintendent at the reception
houses, and I am sure that thousands of settlers in the
province of Ontario, will endorse my words, when I say,
that although those gentlemen are paid officers, they have
been benefactors to a large number of the poor illiterate
but stalwart labourers from the United Kingdom, when
they reached Toronto, the most helpless being imaginable
is an uneducated farm labourer who has never before
been away from his home, and of a sudden, finds himself
in a strange country, with altogether a new set of circum-
stances to encounter, and a wife and family depending on
him, a little money in his pocket, and no friends, yet this
is the case with thousands that land in America, and
I am sure there can be no higher statesmanship, or greater
philanthropy, than to look after the welfare of such people
•until they get accustomed to their new surroundings, and
this the Ontario Government, through its officers, is doing.
Each batch of emigrants as soon as they arrive are sent

OTTAWA TO NIAGARA. 95

to the different localities where they are wanted, unless
going to friends, or a particular destination, as for instance
in the year, 1873, 40,059 emigrants landed in Canadian
ports with through tickets for the North Western States
of America, but with those people the Canadian authorities,
really have nothing to do, yet there is a deal of kindness
-shown to them in different ways, while travelling through,
and in the same year 50,050 settled in Canada, making
99,109 landing in the Dominion, of which 22,089 passed
through the Toronto agency, and of this number 14,129
.settled in Canada, and 7,960 went through to the Western
States ; and of those who remained 2,435 were Irish. In
the annual report to Parliament for 1872, the Dominion
Minister of Agriculture has appended another from Mr.
Dixon, then the Agent General in London. The following
passage occurs showing

THE GENEROSITY OF THE IRISH RACE,

towards friends and relatives, as well as their energy and
usefulness as settlers. " I have been unable," says the
4igent, " to obtain the appi'oximate returns of the money
remitted from the American Continent to intending
emigrants, during the year 1872, as they are yet in-
complete ; but it is supposed that the amount will exceed
that of previous years." Her Majesty's Commissioners
when writing on this subject say the amount returned to
us as remitted from the United States and Canada in
1S71, was £702,488, of which £310,990 was in the form
of prepaid passages, assuming, as we believe to be the case,
that the above remittances were exclusively by Irish
emigrants to their relations in Ireland, and further that
71,067 Irish emigrants were equal to about 64,000 adults,
and the amount remitted in the shape of prepaid passages,
would have sufficed to take out more than three-fourths
of the whole ; it is obvious that the total sum remitted was
much more than was necessary to pay the passages of all
the Irish that went last year to North America.

THE PROVINCE OF ONTARIO,

of which Toronto is the capital, is 122,000 square miles,
or nearly as large as the United Kingdom, and the number
of inhabitants between two and three millions, so that

96 OTTAWA TO NIAGARA.

it will be easily seen that there is room for a large emigra-
tion. A good deal of this area is unfit for agriculture, but
competent judges say that the province would support %
population of from ten to fifteen millions easily, because
for many years to come with increased population, there
will be an increase of wealth, as it is only labour that
develops the .natural resources of any country. In all
other parts of Canada, the classes

MOSTLY WANTED

are farm labourers and female servants, for as yet agri-
culture is the principal field for labour, although there
are many other industries going on in a prosperous way.
Go to any place where there is hard work and as a rule
the men employed are old countrymen, and on that account
I would not advise a labourer to go on public works if he
can help it. The demand for labourers from the United
Kingdom for canals, railways, &c., from year to year is an
evidence of the growing wealth of the country because
all that go out are poor men who intend to get their living
by hard work and accordingly do the rougher forms of
labour for a few years, but gradually leave it and turn to
something better, then more emigrants are wanted to-
succeed those ; hence the great cry for emigration ;
one thing is certain that unless labour is made lighter
and the hours shorter, in a few years it will be difficult to
get men to follow any calling in which great physical
exertion is required, for when a man is educated he wants
to get his living by his brains and not by his hands.
Lots of young men would prefer standing behind a draper's
counter to laying bricks on a building, because it is easier ;
and as nearly all Americans and Canadians arc educated
they are always ready to jump into any light situation
that offers.

THE HOURS OF LABOUR

in Toronto are sixty per week, which are too many for
heavy work, but until there is more organisation among
the working classes the hours are not likely to be altered ;
for a contractor or factory owner will never say to his
hands " you are working too many hours and I am getting
exceedingly rich, I can. afford to let you work shorter

OTTAWA TO NIAGARA. 97

hours and give you better wages. I would advise a mec-
hanic who is earning thirty shillings a week in the United
Kingdom and is in constant work to stop there, that is if
he has no ambition to strike out into something different
from his trade ; but to the farm labourer, or even to the
young man without occupation I would say emigrate. The
loafer, and

THE MAN LIKE MACAWBER

wno s waiting for something to turn up is not wanted,
as every one in Canada is expected to do something for a
living. Payment at

PUBLIC WORKS

is made monthly or fortnightly, which in my opinion is not
a good plan even on principle, for I think it wrong in
the first place that the capitalist should have the use of
money which ought to be in the workman's pocket ; and in
the next place, it inconveniences the man when he has no
money to pay his way, for as a rule he must get into debt
and have to give more than if he had ready money ; but
I am glad to say that the law of Ontario gives workmen
a lien on all property until their wages are paid; and
here let me point out the benefit of having a labour re-
presentative in Parliament as it was

MR. O'DONOUGHUE A WORKING MAN

who passed a wages protection bill in the Ontario legisla-
ture the object of the bill being to simplify the process by
which wages are recovered by giving a magistrate power
to compel payment or levy a distress on being satisfied
that the debt is legally due. During my stay I paid a
visit to

MISS RYE'S HOME AT NIAGARA

and I must say that I was well pleased with what I saw
of her establishment and of her kind treatment of the
children she brought out from England. From Toronto to
the home is across lake Ontario, a distance of 38 miles,
the lake being 35 and the house 3 miles inland ; this is
the nearest to the Atlantic of the great lakes and the
one formed by the Niagara river and drained by the
St. Lawrence; it is a splendid sheet of water, clear

H

98 OTTAWA TO NIAGARA.

as crystal, and exceedingly deep, averaging 412
feet ; its length being about 170 miles, and its average
breadth about 70 ; it is 234 feet higher than the tide level
at Three Rivers, about eighty miles above Quebec. I
crossed the lake on a fine day the water looking like
a mirror as the steamboat glided along on its surface.
The scenery from the deck of the boat was rather unin-
teiesting as the shore is low and does not appear to great
advantage; We reached the landing place at the mouth
of the Niagara river early in the day, and in company
with a government agent I at once proceeded to Miss Rye's
home.

THE TOWN OF NIAGARA,

in a great measure resembles alarge village in England, only
that the footpaths are made of deals, and that the railway
for some miles, is on the turnpike road : what a shindy
there would be in England or Ireland, if the train ran up
the street of a town ; but that is exactly the case in
Niagara, and no one takes the least notice. On the
opposite side of the river is Fort Niagara, manned by
United States troops. A place that is frequently mentioned
in the history of the War of Independence, and also in that
of 1812. Niagara is twelve miles from the Falls, and was at
one time the capital of Ontario ; in 1813 it was burned by
the Americans, under General M'Clure, when retreating
from the north, but it rapidly grew up again to its present
dimensions ; its population being at present 2,660. The
situation is very healthy, and during the summer it is the
resort of a great many strangers. Miss Rye's place, is
about a couple of miles from the village, across a very fine
common, on which at the time of my visit there were
three thousand

CANADIAN VQLUNTEERS

under canvas. These troops are a kind of compromise
between English militia and volunteers, being men of a
better social position than the one, and not so good as the
otiier. They certainly are stalwart and wiry looking
fellows, and sera*. ~f the regiments were in excellent trim ;
particularly an Artillery one which showed to great ad-
vantage. The troops are called out in the summer of

OTTAWA TO NIAGARA. 99

each year, to drill for about a month, as the Canadian
Government keeps no standing army, except a few men in
Quebec and Fort Garry, and there are no British troops,
with the exception of a half regiment at Halifax. What
a lesson is here taught to despots, who govern their
subjects by the strength of their armies, and thus con-
vert men into human butchers. Ireland takes 14,000
military police, and between 20,000 and 30,000 regulars
to keep five millions of people in subjection, and we are
gravely told, it is to protect society ; yet, I venture to say,
that if Ireland were governed on the same enlightened
principles as Canada, the country would not require
these hordes of military mercenaries; for the Irish
are naturally a law loving and law abiding people. A
soldier of the rank and file in the European armies, is a
mere machine without a mind or reasoning powers of his
own, he is taught two duties — and two only — namely, to kill
his fellowmen and pay almost divine honours to the
chief engineers who work the machine. How differently
are things managed in Canada, where over four millions of
people are kept in order without a regular soldier from
Quebec to Fort Garry, except a handful of stately old
fellows at Ottawa, called the Governor General's Guards,
who, perhaps, are as useful in amusing the citizens as in
any other capacity ; yet, Canada is a country of law and
order, as much as any other, and more so than some where
armies are kept to prevent the people getting justice, or, in
other words a good Government.

MISS RYE'S WESTERN HOME,

as it is called, is a good deal like an English farmer's
house. It was formerly a small prison, which she pur-
chased and had re-built to suit her purpose, and certainly
now it has none of the appearance of its former use. I rang
the bell which was answered by a lady, who, I understood,
was a kind of junior to Miss Rye, and who received me
with courtesy. I presented my card and requested to
see the proprietoress who came after a delay of half
an hour. I put a number of questions to her which she
answered readily ; she said the children were well treated
while under her care ; that she always could get more of

H 2

100 OTTAWA TO NIAGARA.

them in England, than she could bring away ; that there
was not one sick in the home and that as a rule in afterlife
the children did well ; orphans had to be certificated by
a magistrate before she would take them, but she could
take children from parents or other guardians without a
magistrate's consent. The children then in the home were
those that I had previously seen in Montreal, and they
certainly had improved very much since they had been in
the home ; everything in the place was as clean as a new
pin, the sleeping rooms were large and airy, with nice
straw beds for the children to sleep in ; I saw them at
supper, which consisted of less than a pint of milk with
bread, and altogether they appeared very comfortable.
Miss Bye said she would not let a Catholic or Jew have
one of the children, either for service or to adopt, as she
was doing

ENTIRELY PROTESTANT WORK.

She showed me a pile of applications for children, from
different parts of Canada and the States, a great many of
which she said she would reject; and she reserves to her-
self the right to bring away a child, whenever she thinks
fit up to a given number of years. The impression on my
mind was that she meant well, and was actuated by pure
philanthropy ; but that the work was almost too much for
anyone person, and that it ought to be more or less under

GOVERNMENT CONTROL;

but I am firmly of opinion that those children will do
better in Canada than in England, because they will grow
with the country, whereas in England they would only be
the dregs of society ; Miss Rye told me to go about and
examine them for myself, which I did, and asked several
their names to know if any of them were of Catholic
parents, because, if there were Irish names among them, it
would have been to me a sure sign ; but I did not discover
one Irish child amongst those I questioned ; I believe Miss
Rye's project to be a good one, only it requires carrying out
under control of both the English and Canadian Govern-
ments, for to think that all these little creatures will do well
is folly to expect. Neither would they if brought .up by
their parents in comfortable homes. According to
THE REPORT OF THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE FOR 1873

OTTAWA TO NIAGARA. 101

Miss Macpherson took out 360, Miss Rye, 231, and the
Reverend Father Nugent, of Liverpool, 41, besides several
lots from different schools and Industrial homes, and since
then the movement has taken much larger proportions, so
that I think Government ought to take it up, and have it
managed under a short Act of Parliament. On the follow-
ing day I went to

NIAGARA FALLS,

and the splendour of that sight will never fade from my
memory, it is something that cannot be described by
voice or pen, and that must be seen, to be fairly realised.
The trip from Niagara to the Falls, is through a lovely
country, a good deal like Herefordshire; hills, dales,
meadows, orchards, and pretty farm houses go to make up
the scene. As the train winds round a hill there is a fine
view of the monument to the memory of
SIR ISAAC BROCK

— who fell in a sanguinary battle fought on this spot, called
Queenstown, on the 13th of October, 1812 — its height is
185 feet, and it is surmounted by a Corinthian capital,
on which stands a statue of the gallant general. We
passed through one or two pretty villages, and at last
reached the Clifton House Station, on the Canadian side,
about three quarters of a mile from the Falls. Truly they
are one of those wonders of the world which have been so
often, and so well written about, by men of different minds,
that it is unnecessary for me even to attempt a description —
novelists, poets, painters, historians, philosophers, states-
men, and princes have lent their aid to make known this
cataract of cataracts, the goal and the pride of all American
travellers — Charles Dickens has given us in the language
that he was so great a master of, his emotions at the first
sight of this thundering flood that makes the earth tremble
for some distance. The view from the Suspension Bridge,
is awe-inspiring and carries the mind to the presence of
the Creator by the grandeur and sublimity of his works.
The Falls are divided by Goat Island, forming what is
called the American and the Canadian Falls. The first
is about 900 feet wide, the latter 2,000, their height
being 160, and it is computed that one hundred millions

102 OTTAWA TO NIAGARA.

tons of water pass over them every hour. Geologists
say that

THEY ARE RECEDING

at the rate of one foot per year, and that it has taken
nearly forty thousand years for them to come from
Queenston heights, 7 miles lower down, to their present
location ; that they have receded during the memory of
man there cannot be the least doubt. There are two
stratas, the top one a rather hard shaly limestone, the
bottom one a soft kind of mudstone which the continual
spray and whirl of the mighty waters is excavating into
holes and caverns. The top being much harder does not
wear so quickly, and consequently forms a ledge or over-
hanging rock that occasionally breaks off in great
boulders, hundreds of which are laying about in the chasm
below. A mass of rock fell in 1818, which chroniclers say
shook the country like an earthquake. The distance
between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, is 36 miles, and the
Falls are 12 miles from the latter, and 24 from the former,
and it is said when they reach lake Erie, to which they are
now travelling at the rate of a foot a year, that the Great
Lakes, with the exception of Ontario, will run dry, a con-
sumation that all lovers of the human race must deplore,
as it will make the greater portion of the American Conti-
nent sterile for want of humidity like the desert of Sahara,
in Africa, which is supposed to be the dried up bed of an
inland sea or lake. But other geologists say that this is
impossible, as the soft mudstone that the cascade is now
wearing away will run to the surface before it reaches
Lake Erie, and in support of this theory they point out
that when the Falls were at Queenston, 7 miles lower
down the river which they say was 36,000 years ago,
they were twice their present height. No doubt they are
right, as the cliffs, there on both sides of the river are
exceedingly lofty. So that in their opinion the Falls
will be entirely lost through the running out of the soft
strata and the dip of the country, but it will take 11,000
years, so we need have no fear for ages to come ; but
whether those sages are right or not, there is no doubt
that Niagara, is one of the grandest works of the Great
Architect. There are many fine examples of mechanical

OTTAWA TO NIAGARA. 103

engineering and architectural skill around, but in my
opinion they detract from the natural grandeur of the
Falls. Yet those works themselves are worth a pilgrimage
to see; on the Canadian side there are one or two large
hotels, a number of gentlemen's houses, and an extensive
museum belonging to a

ME. BARNET,

a native of Wolverhampton, who went out to Canada
as an emigrant, fifty years ago, and devoted the greatest
portion of that time to the forming of this extra-
ordinary collection ; I had a long conversation with him
on different subjects, and certainly I was delighted and
instructed by his affability and great intelligence. He
told me he was

A CHIEF OF THE SIX NATION INDIANS,

a rank I did not then understand, but which I afterwards
learned was conferred on him by a council of their wise
men, because of the care he took of Indian bones that
were dug up when excavating for the foundation of a
house in the neighbourhood. The six nations are the
remnants of six tribes that formerly inhabited the southern
shore of Lake Ontario, and were hostile to each other, but
eventually united and settled on a land reservation under
Government patronage, and are now the most progressive
and civilised of all British Indians. Mr. Bamet certainly
placed me in a somewhat embarrassing position by intro-
ducing me to three young women who, he said, were his
sisters, but in reality were only young Indian " squaws,"
and, as they were the first I had ever seen, I must say I
was puzzled. They were walking in the splendid garden
attached to the museum, and dressed up in a somewhat
jaunty style, and in many colours — a good deal like
fortune-telling gipsy women on the Derby day at Epsom,
or some of the London cockney girls when out for an ex-
cursion. I shook hands, and said a few complimentary
nothings, but the look on their faces was as stoical as if they
had been taking lessons from the antiquarian himself to
prepare them as objects for his museum. The old gentle-
man saw my difficulty, and manfully came to my assist-
ance ; he spoke to them aside, which at once brought

104 OTTAWA TO NIAGARA.

them down from their pedestal of haughtiness, and,
although they did not speak good English, they seemed
pleased that they were taken notice of. On the American
side there is a smart town, several very large hotels, and
everything set off as well as possible by cultivation and
art. Canada and the States are connected by a wire rope
suspension bridge 1,230 feet long, and 256 feet high, and
from this bridge the best view of the falls is to be had ;
but what pleased me the most was the absence of those
waifs and strays that are to be met with at places of
resort in the United Kingdom. There certainly are cab-
men at Niagara, but they seem comparatively independent,
for if you want the carriage you pay for it, and that ends the
contract; no bowing or scraping, as in Ireland. I did
not see a single beggar. How different in this respect
from Brighton, Tunbridge Wells, Cheltenham, or Kil-
larney ! I left by train for the town of Niagara, where I
arrived in time for the boat to Toronto, and remained
there two or three days longer to make more inquiries
about the condition of the people.

THE EATE OF WAGES

for town labourers was about 1^ dols., or 6s. of English
money. In some cases it was 1 dol. 75 cents, and at that
season of the year there was no difficulty about getting
employment. There was a great demand for farm hands
and servant girls at a rather high rate of wages, men
getting from 18 to 25 dols. per month and board,
which in general is good. This would be for the season
of about seven months, those engaging for the year round
getting from 16 to 22 dols. ; girls, by the year, from 7 to
13 dols. per month, with board.

SOBRIETY

is the one thing essential to success, and unless a man
keeps from whiskey he is almost sure to go to the dogs.
I don't say to be a teetotaller, although that would be
better still, but I do say the further the emigrant keeps
from drink the better. The temperance movement is very
strong in Toronto, there being several societies, both
Catholic and Protestant, and all working zealously to
further the object for which they are established.

OTTAWA TO NIAGARA. 105

FOOD

was in comparison to the United Kingdom very cheap, as
the following quotations, taken from the Irish Canadian,
of December 15th, 1874, will show: — In Guelph Market
flour per lOOlbs. was 3 dols., or about l^d. English per
pound; eggs, per dozen, 12 to 13 cents, or about 7d.
English.; butter, per pound, 21 to 25 cents, or about Is.
English; dressed hogs, per hundred weight, 7 dols., or
about £1 11s. English; beef, per hundredweight, 4 to
7 dols., or from 16s. to £1 lls. English ; chickens, per
pair, from 40 to 50 cents, or from Is. 8d. to 2s. English.
The reader will see that I have given the English equiva-
lent of Canadian prices, and that they are taken from a
newspaper report, and in the middle of winter. There
are more working people purchase their goods wholesale
than retail, as there are greater facilities for so doing than
in the Old Country.

THE EENT FOR A WORKMAN'S HOUSE,

varies according to locality, but of course in the larger
towns it is more than in the smaller ones ; in Toronto it is
from 4 to 7 dols. per month ; but a very large number own
their own houses, a thing not nearly so difficult as in
England or Ireland. There are no lodgers taken in private
houses, all of that class go to boarding houses, a work-
ingman paying from 3 dols. 50 cents to 4 dols. 50 cents
per week for bed and board ; but of course a married man
in his own home can do cheaper. In Canada

CLOTHES

are about 20 per cent, dearer than in the Old Country, but
are much cheaper than in the States, in fact, I may say
that nearly everything is dearer there than in Canada.
That there is

OCCASIONALLY SOME DESTITUTION

in Toronto and other Canadian towns, there cannot be a
doubt, but in nine cases out of every ten it is through
drink, and without hesitation I assert that a labourer can
get on better than he can ever expect to do in any of the
Old Countries ; but of course he must put up with some
difficulties and with circumstances different from what he

106 OTTAWA TO NIAGARA.

has been accustomed to at home. For many years to come
Ontario, will require emigration, for that, and that only
will level her forests and open her mines which are as yet
in their infancy,

THE OIL WELLS

alone being almost an inexhaustible source of wealth to a
young country. In 1870, the Enniskillen Oil Company, at
their wells in Petrolia, 51 miles north west of London,
employed 5,825 men, and 750 horses, and since then other
wells have been opened in the locality. The total number
of men engaged in mining operations in 1871, being 6,495,
and 820 horses. Ontario possesses almost all the most useful
minerals except coal, but that is found in abundance in
Nova Scotia and in Manitoba, and when the Canada Pacific
Railway is built it will be brought through from both
places without difficulty. I am drawing

NO THEORETICAL OR FAR-FETCHED PICTURE,

but something that will be realised within the next twenty
years, that is if there is no check of a political or warlike
nature, which I trust there will not be, as at present there is
no sign of such a calamity, but if England and the United
States quarrelled Canada would be debatable ground, as the
American forces could easily cross the frontier and estab-
lish themselves on the line of the St. Lawrence, virtually
cutting the Dominion in two. But as we live in an age
when the pen is mightier than the sword ; I trust that any
difference that might arise will be settled in an amicable
way, and that we may have human happiness instead of
human slaughter is at least my fervent prayer.

107

CHAPTER VIII.

FROM TORONTO TO WINNIPEG BY THE
DAWSON ROUTE.

WHAT an extent of country there is between the two
points indicated at the head of this chapter, embracing
nearly every natural feature that we are acquainted with :
land cultivated in the most scientific way ; towns with all
the fashions and civilisation of modern times ; settlements
just springing into existence, where the hardy workman is
battling with the difficulties of the surroundings ; forests
that have never been trodden by the foot of the white man,
and in which the terrible fire king holds sway, millions
of acres of those woods being annually burned to satiate his
destroying will ; great inland fresh water seas, on which
there are storms and tempests, just as on the Atlantic and
Pacific oceans ; a large number of lakes, many of which
have not yet been surveyed, or their shores explored ;
rivers that in their windings and turnings through valleys
of alluvial soil, form those lakes in making their way to-
the Atlantic by the St. Lawrence, and to Hudson's Bay by
the Nelson; rocks and boulders of various strata and
formations, awe-inspiring through their magnitude, and
majestically beautiful in their rugged grandeur, bearing
minerals, the development of which will yet make the
region important; birds, flowers, insects, and animals
with which the European traveller is entirely unacquainted;
forest, swamp, and lagoon that give to the air on the
American highlands the necessary humidity to produce-
vegetation and sustain human and animal life; the red
man sullenly but quietly retreating north, and gradually
becoming exterminated, which is no doubt his inevitable
fate ; the white race advancing and marking their pro-
gress by the erection of saw mills, the opening of mines,

108 FROM TORONTO TO WINNIPEG.

the straightening and deepening of rivers, the building of
steamboats on the different waterways, the damming of
shallow lakes, the surveying of roads, telegraph, and rail-
way lines, and the establishing of churches, chapels, and
schools in different parts. This is only an imperfect
picture of what may be seen between the capital of
Ontario and that of Manitoba. On Monday, the 6th of
July, I was sent for by

MR. CUMBERLAND, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF THE
NORTHERN RAILWAY,

and presented with a free pass on that line to Colling-
wood, on the shores of the Georgian Bay, 100 miles from
Toronto. For some distance from the City the country
looked very fine, with substantial farmhouses either of
wood or brick ; but no immense castles or mansions, where
the wealth would be centralised, as in Great Britain and
Ireland. I noticed some good crops of wheat, barley, peas,
-and potatoes ; but which would be much better if the land
had a little more manure. As we went north the country
appeared to have been more recently settled. We passed
through a village of nice farmhouses, with a large saw
mill in its vicinity, for to a great extent
SAW MILLS IN CANADA

form industrial centres, just as much as monasteries and
•castles did in the feudal ages, and to a far better purpose,
for the tendency is to raise the man and make him a re-
sponsible citizen, with rights and duties, and without
•obstacles to prevent him rising in the social scale, or to
the highest position in the State. Whereas in the middle
ages his rank in society was marked by his dress, and it
was penal for him to rise from his caste or leave the
locality except by the special favour of the king ; and if
a villein or villager, he was bought and sold with the
estate. On all sides are to be seen

EVIDENCES OF PROGRESS AND CULTIVATION.

The log house in the corner of a wood, surrounded by a
little piece of cleared land, planted with potatoes, cabbages,
or other useful vegetables, the owner probably an emigrant
working at a neighbouring farm or saw mill The plan
adopted in many parts of Canada to make a home for a

FROM TOEONTO TO WINNIPEG. 109

new settler is not at all a selfish one, although dictated
perhaps by utilitarian motives as much as brotherly love.
It is called

A BEE FEAST.

and consists of the people of the district assembling on the
site of the proposed house and helping to erect and furnish
it, and perhaps put in some flour and groceries, and thus
give the new comer a start, and encouraging him to stop
in the neighbourhood and invite his friends to come there
also. On every hand there are millions of trees laying
rotting on the ground, and by their decomposition pro-
ducing horse flies, mosquitos, and other annoying insects
that draining, clearing, and cultivating will to a great
extent get rid of. Lots of trains passed us loaded with,
baulks, or

PREPARED TIMBER,

and going to Toronto for shipment, either to the United
States or Europe. Those trains reminded me of how the
leading industry of a country is to be seen by the traffic on
its railways ; for instance, on the English Great Northern
train after train of coal is to be met with bringing that
valuable article to London ; or on the Welsh lines, between
the mines, blast furnaces, and seaports, an enormous trade
is done in iron and ore, to be shipped where required.
The same with the timber trade of Canada ; men,
railways, and ships are engaged in it. About 60 miles
from Toronto, Lake Simcoe came in view, and on its shore
the lovely town of Barrie, forming a crescent around the
head of the bay. It is a place of about 5,000 inhabitants,
and a very extensive lumbering station. After remaining
a short time for refreshments we resumed our journey,
reaching

COLLINGWOOD

early in the afternoon, where I took my quarters at the
Globe Hotel. This town is very picturesque, in a park-
like country, on the south shore of the Georgian Bay, an
arm of Lake Huron, and admirably situated for trade,
both by water and rail. It was first surveyed as a settle-
ment in 1855, and incorporated as a town in 1858, so that
less than thirty years ago the Indian pitched his wigwam
on its site. The Ojibeway name of the place was Nota-

110 FROM TORONTO TO WINNIPEG.

wa-saga, but the white man called it Collingwood in
honour of Nelson's famous colleague, Admiral Lord Col-
lingwood. The harbour is broad and well sheltered, and
fishing on a somewhat large scale is carried on, as a ready
market can be had in the locality and in the interior
towns. There are three or four extensive saw mills, the
estimated work of which is 120,000,000 feet per annum.
Besides these there are several other industries, such as furni-
ture manufacturing, boot making, &c. The population is
about 5,000, and, like other Canadian towns, of all
European nationalities, and of different religious opinions,
Catholics and Episcopal Protestants being the most
numerous ; there are six or seven places of worship.

THE INTELLIGENCE OF THE PEOPLE

may be noted from the fact of their having a daily paper
and two weeklies, a board of trade, a town library with
over a thousand volumes, five or six schools, and a public
hall. One evening I was much amused by seeing

THE FIRE BRIGADE

exercised, for of all the manoeuvring of organised bodies I
had ever seen, this certainly was the most novel and
striking. First came the captain who was a workman in
the saw mill, with a long speaking trumpet in hand, from
which he sounded a blast something like the roar of an
angry bull. Then the firemen came running from every
quarter of the town, some leaving the counter and tape
yard, others the book and desk; the printing office, or
factory, for they were all volunteers. There they were, of
every shape and size, all ready to do battle with the
devouring element, but happily on this occasion it was
only a mimic war, they were called upon to engage in.
Some had their hair parted in the middle, patent leather
boots, and coat of the latest cut, appearing as if they had
been taken out of a band-box to honour the brigade with
their presence — they reminded me of the swells in London,
who used to amuse themselves by skipping about in the
way of the regular firemen, and on whom Captain Shaw
quietly, but firmly put his foot by decreeing that they
were to keep out of the way in case of accident, which was
tantamount to telling them they were more nuisance than

FROM TORONTO TO WINNIPEG. Ill

good — then there was the man with his clothes all over
sawdust from the mill ; in fact a motley crowd all eager for
the fray. Wellington at Waterloo, Napoleon at Wagram,
Washington at Yorktown, or Owen O'Neil at Benburb,
did not look more the commander than this saw mill
worker of an obscure Canadian town, as he took his place
on an eminence to issue his commands to the different
sections of his brigade. Some of the men had sashes over
their shoulders to denote their rank, our friend of the
trumpet was captain, another was first lieutenant, then
came sub-lieutenant branchmen ] and 2, hosemen 1, 2,
and 3, any number of engineers and firemen, bringing
vividly to my mind

THE DRY LAND LIFE-BOAT CREWS

that are formed among some of the London Temperance
Societies to sing songs and save drunkards from ruin and
misery. Steam was quickly got up, the suction pipe run into
the lake, the captain on the hill roaring out his orders
through his trumpet, companies of his men running here
there and everywhere with the hose, the engine puffing,
blowing and screaming, as if it took delight in adding
to the general melee. Soon the gardens and plants in
front of the houses were saturated, the dust laid and the
culverts and gullies washed out. The captain gave another
thundering command, steam is blown off, the fire raked
out, the hose rolled up, and all is over ; the affair being
made up of three parts — namely, usefulness, amusement,
and ridiculous pomposity. Collingwood is a powerful
example of what may be done in a few years by persever-
ance and industry, as there are four large steamers trading
to the port, one of which leaves on every Tuesday and
Friday ; I paid 17| dols., or about £3 10s. English, for a
first-class passage to Prince Arthur's Landing, on the north
shore of Lake Superior, a distance of 800 miles. The boat
in which I embarked was of immense size and one of the
quickest afloat ; she was called

THE CHICORA.

I asked one of the officers if she was the famoTis blockade
runner of that name, and he said yes, and gave her history
as follows as I was curious to know how she came on

112 FROM TORONTO TO WINNIPEG.

the Lake Superior trade : — She was built at Birkenhead,to
run the southern blockade, which she did several times, both
at Wilmington and Charlestown ; after the surrender of
Lee at Richmond, she was brought round to Halifax, and
sold at public auction to Messrs. McDonnell & Co., of
Collingwood, and she was brought on by way of the St. Law-
rence, and the Welland canal to Lake Superior, where she
was lengthened and refitted with cabins, deck saloons,
and state rooms ; when under full steam she would make
17 knots an hour; her machinery and propelling apparatus
being very powerful. We were a day and a night crossing
the Georgian Bay, to a wretched little place called

KILLARNEY.

Why so named I cannot tell, as it bore no resem-
blance to its famous namesake in Ireland. Our vessel
laid to for a couple of hours, during which I went
ashore; the village consists entirely of half-breeds, with
the exception of one Irish family named Lowe, who in-
deed must have queer taste to settle in such a locality ; I
had a conversation with a very intelligent half-breed, he said
the place was exceedingly poor, and that they could not
support a school, which he very much deplored. The
population lived mostly by fishing and cultivating small
plots of land at the foot of the bald granite hills that sur-
round the village. I met a gentleman named Manly, on
the wharf, whose acquaintance I formed while in Ottawa.
He came on here with a patent from the Government to
explore the surrounding region for minerals, and he told
me he had discovered

A VEIN OF MAGNETIC IRON ORE,

20 feet thick, and practically inexhaustive, and when I ex-
pressed a doubt about mining operations paying in so remote
a quarter of the world ; he said of that there was no fear,
as iron would be in great demand in a short time on
account of the Canada Pacific, or ocean to ocean, railway.
As the steamer's gong was sounding I had to get on board
as quickly as possible, and warmly shaking both hands with
my half-breed, and engineering friends, I took my farewell
of Killarney. As we steamed up Spanish River, which
connects Lake Huron, with the Georgian Bay, the
scenery was magnificent ; I noticed that for some dis-

FROM TORONTO TO WINNIPEG. 113

tance on one side of the river the granite was red,
like that of Peterhead, in Scotland, and on the other
white, like that of Dalkeith, in the county of Wicklow,
Ireland. It was the second case of the sort I had seen,
the other being on the river Lee, between Cork and
Gaugane Barra, on one side grey limestone, on the other
red marble. We saw two or three settlements along

THE SPANISH RIVER,

with some very large saw mills. The number of white
Avomen in those villages in comparison to the number of
white men was small, but there were a good many half-
breeds, and even full blooded Indian women, and certainly
they seemed respectable and well clad, and in some cases
even fashionably so; as we pushed ahead through the
north channel of Lake Huron to Bruce Mines, dusk was
setting in, and the coast which was an unbroken line of
forest looked awfully wild ; on arriving at the wharf, a
heavy fog was hanging round, so the captain decided to cast
anchor for the night. The works at those mines are on a
rather extensive scale, and the quantity of copper taken is
very large, a great quantity of it being sent to Swansea, for
smelting, and the remainder to the United States; I
turned out at three o'clock in the morning to see the boat
start ; passing on our left

GREAT MANAUTOULIN,

the largest inland island in the world, and according to the
mythology of the Huron, the abode of Manitou, or the
minor Deity, subject to the Great Spirit who rules the
Universe. This mythology has a strong resemblance to
the ancient Druidism of the British Isles, and who knows
but that one maybe an offspring of the other. The fog con-
tinuing I saw little of the coast until we entered Lake
George ; by that time the sun had risen, and the fleecy
clouds were scudding over the top of the wooded hills, on
our right. Steaming ahead at full speed we entered

THE GARDEN RIVER,

the channel connecting Lake George with Lake Superior.
We sailed by a very nice settlement called Garden River
Settlement, where there was an immense saw mill At

I

114 FROM TORONTO TO WINNIPEG.

this place there were several white families in comfortable
circumstances, and a large number of half-breeds who
lived in miserable little log houses, a kind of compromise
between the dwelling of the white man and the wigwam
of the Indian. Those people are only progressive as far
as there is European blood in them although on the whole
they a,re an athletic race; some of the women are exceed-
ingly handsome, with coal black hair, dark eyes sparkling
with the impulsiveness of their Indian nature, aquiline
noses, small mouths, pearly white teeth, and figure well de-
veloped through active physical exertion, and not having
been cramped by tight lacing, or high -heeled boots, that
give the fashionable wearer a stoop forward as if about to
fall,and an) appearance not of walking, but of ambling along.

THESE HALF-BREED GIRLS,

with very little embellishment or ornamentation, had a
natural dignity about them that was pleasant to see.
Along this river there was some excellent alluvial land, only
growing brushwood, except in the neighbourhood of the
settlements, where there were capital crops. Arriving at
the rather important town of

SAULT ST. MARY'S,

where there is a ship canal, in United States territory, for
vessels to pass by the rapids in the river, there are two
towns of the same name, one on the Canadian side of the
channel, and one on the American, in the State of
Michigan. On the British side the Union Jack was flying
from a small Government building ; on the Yankee side
the stars and stripes, or, as Sam Slick irreverently calls it,

THE GOOSE AND GRIDIRON,

was also flaunting in the breeze. Our steamer took in
about 80 tons of American coal, at a price of about
£1 per ton. I was glad there was a delay, as it gave me
an opportunity to see the place, and in company with Mr.
Brown, ed itor of the Toronto Globe, I walked through
every part of it. The American town is by far the most
important, consisting of about 3,000 inhabitants, appa-
rently well to do, as they all wore good clothes, and had

THE USUAL AMERICAN HOBBY

FROM TORONTO TO WINNIPEG. 115

of wearing a lot of real or Brumagem jewellery. There is
a rather large custom house, and a strong detachment of
United States troops, who were fine looking men, dressed
in blue uniforms. The cosmopolitan character of the
inhabitants may be seen from the following names that I
noticed on some of the business houses — Malcolmson,
Hawkshaw, O'Connell, and a Dutch name, difficult of pro-
nunciation, and the spelling of which I forget. There
were several Indians walking about in all the glory of
feathers and paint.

INDIAN PAINT

is not in the least like the cmdeur de rose sold in the
chemists 'or perfume shops, or the dew of Arabia, with,
which Madame Rachel beautified her customers for ever.
An Indian's paint is something substantial, that will not
crack when he laughs, and even if it does he can easily
put on a bit more, as it is simply ordinary cart or house
paint, of which he will have several colours. Perhaps on
his chin may be a dab of red, on his nose yellow, on his
forehead white, and a spot of two of black on his cheeks, and
then — like the Chinese army that made a night attack on
the French camp with a lantern in each man's hand —
the poor Indian, when smeared in this way, considers
himself an extraordinarily fierce and warlike character.
THE LOCK

by which the rapids are passed, is a fine piece of engineer-
ing, the length being 350 feet, and the width 70 feet, with
a depth of 13 feet ; the difference of level between both
ends is about 20 feet ; it has a navigating capacity of
5,000 tons, which was considered very large when the
canal was constructed, but is now found to be inadequate
for the vessels trading on the lakes, and so, to keep pace
with the times, the Americans are building another of
double the dimensions of the existing one, running
parallel with it and divided only by an embankment about
50 feet wide.

THE NEW CANAL

will be of sufficient size to take the largest ocean-going
vessel ; for the day is not far distant when ships will run
direct from Chicago to Liverpool, and vice versa. The

116 FROM TORONTO TO WINNIPEG.

distance from the head of the canal to the Straits of
Belle-Isle, north of Newfoundland, is 1,965 miles, and from
the Straits to Liverpool 2,234, making a total to Liver-
pool of 4,329 miles, 70 of which are by canals. The Canadian
Government have made surveys for a canal on British
territory, but as yet they have not begun operations;
neither could I see the advantage of doing so, except for
the purpose of lowering the dues by competition ; for, when
the one now in course of construction by the Americans
is finished there will be ample accommodation for vessels
of every nationality and tonnage ; and, in the event of a
war, it would be a mere question of strength to take and
keep possession of the channel ; at present all the appear-
ances are in favour of the Yankees. As the steamer
slowly passed through the lock, I could not help admiring,
and at the same time pitying three Indian women, or as
they are called

SQUAWS,

(a word of reproachful meaning which I do not care much
about using); they were in a bark canoe in the
rapids, fishing ; one kept the head of the frail bark to the
stream, while the other two managed a small net. I
admired them on account of their strength and determi-
nation, and I pitied them because there were three or four
lazy rascals of men, their lords and masters, wrapped in
their blankets laying out at full length in front of a
wigwam. It was, of course, beneath the dignity of an
Indian to work, for if he did, his honour would be con-
sidered tarnished ; he is bound by his savage etiquette to
to make his wife or wives do all the drudgery. As we got
into the great American fresh water sea there was a
dense fog, which prevented our captain touching at
Michipicotan as the coast was rocky, and in the event of
its coming on to blow there would not have been much
sea room.

LAKE SUPERIOR

is 390 miles long, with a mean width of 100, its greatest
width being 160, with a coast line of 1,030, and measuring
in square miles 32,000, or nearly 8,000 miles more than
the area of Ireland. It stands 600 feet above tide level
at Three Rivers, half-way between Quebec and Montreal,

FROM TORONTO TO WINNIPEG. 117

which would make the gradients less than a foot in the
mile for the whole distance ; its depth is an average of
1,000 feet, which would place its bottom 400 feet below
sea level. As we cautiously went ahead, the sun began to
shine and the fog dispersed; on our right was the un-
broken forest for hundreds and hundreds of miles, on our
left the broad lake, the water of which is as clear
as crystal and icy cold all the year round; in fact, it
is one vast reservoir of pure and good water. These
great lakes of the interior of the American Continent are
perhaps the

MOST WONDERFUL GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES

on the surface of the globe. Placed on the eastern slope
of the great watershed where the four largest rivers take
their rise, they gather nearly all the water that falls to
the Atlantic Ocean and discharge it in one volume by the
St. Lawrence ; their effect on the atmosphere and on the
fountains placed on a lower level than themselves is mar-
vellous, as they give to all parts of Canada that I have
been to, pure spring water. This will be understood from
the fact that in Lake Superior alone there are 12,000
cubic miles of that element ; chemists tell us that all soils
contain the germs of vegetation, in a more or less degree,
and that the absence of water alone in the ground and
humidity in the atmosphere makes deserts and barren
wastes. After some time sailing along the coast, which was
bold and rugged, we began to lose sight of land : the water
being as smooth as glass and as clearas the brightest fountain
we could see the steamer reflected in the lake. Next day
we entered

NEPIGON BAY,

one of the finest harbours on the north shore; the cliffs on
both sides were very high, and wooded to the water's edge.
The scene was loneliness itself; with neither the scream of a
bird, the howl of an animal, or the presence of a livingbeing
to break the solitude ; but the day is coming when the
whistle of the locomotive, the ring of the hammer, the
hum of the saw-mill, and, perhaps, the hiss of the blast
furnace will be heard in this region. The decks were
crowded with passengers, some admiring the scene, others

118 FROM TORONTO TO WINNIPEG.

speculating on the building of the ocean to ocean railway,
and in the event of the line coming by Nepigon Bay, what
class of business would pay best ; but evidently everybody
was in the most buoyant spirits, as, indeed, well they
might be, because there was a free and easy geniality
between all the people on board. After steaming into
this land-locked bay for some distance, the fine

HOUSE OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY'S POST

came in sight, and immediately after the " Chicora " was
moored alongside of the rude but substantial wharf, where
we remained for the night, as the captain wanted to give
the party an opportunity of inspecting the locality. The
company's station is the only house in the bay, or for more
than 100 miles around, and north of it I doubt whether there
is one between it and the Arctic Sea. There were eight
or nine white men and a few Indians living there, the
former nearly all Scotchmen, as are most of the company's
employes. The place seemed to agree with them very-
well as they were fine robust fellows. The passengers
organised themselves into parties to find amusement in
different ways ; I joined one that went exploring. Pro-
ceeding into the wood some distance, we suddenly came
on a number of wigwams with several Indian women and
children who were at first a little alarmed, but gradually
gained confidence when they saw that we had no hostile
intentions. I gave one of them a silver coin upon which
she seemed to set no value except as an ornament, evidently
not knowing its use.

ONE OF THE VERY PIOUS LADIES OF OUR PARTY

presented them with a few tracts, which were about as
much use as if she had given them to the hippopotamus
^n the Zoological Gardens, but of course she meant well,
and deserved credit for sincerity. In rambling about we
came across the surveyed line for

THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY,

the clearing, measuring, levelling, and stumping out of
which must have been stupendous work, as gangs of men
had to go before the surveyors, axe in hand, to clear away
the bush. The picture from the summit of one of the

FROM TORONTO TO WINNIPEG. 119

cliffs was the most lovely I had ever seen. There were the
comfortable dwelling and out-houses of the post in a
clearing carved out of the forest, the magnificent steamer
riding at anchor, her boats full of ladies and gentlemen
rowing about for pleasure or fishing in one of the numerous
creeks or coves of the bay, the dark green forest running
down to the water's edge, the flowers and creepers of
different hues intertwining among the trees, the fine
plumaged birds flitting about from bough to bough, the
wigwams of the Indians with the smoke curling up through
the foliage, formed a scene which impressed all our
party. As dusk was setting in we retraced our steps
delighted with Nepigon Bay, the only drop of gall
in the cup of our joy being the mosquitoes, who made
rather too free with some of us, and particularly with my-
self. During our absence afresh passenger came on board,

A JESUIT MISSIONARY PRIEST;

probably if Mr. Whalley had been of our party he would
have suggested his expulsion for fear he should carry us
all off in bis pocket ; or form a Jesuit plot to blow up the
ship, &c. But I thought he was the most perfect mis-
sionary I had ever seen, although, so far as the converting
of Indians was concerned, I believe his work was useless,
as in my humble opinion they stand in the same relation
to the white man that the wild duck does to the tame one,
and it is as easy to domesticate the one as to convert
the other to any denomination of Christianity, or to the
higher form of civilisation ; but that does not detract from
the merits of the men who make sacrifices for their
principles, and certainly this reverend gentleman appeared
to be one of these. He was by birth an Englishman, but
had been some time in the north-west, and had travelled
hundreds of miles through the bush, visiting the red man
in his forest home. Odd shoes were on his feet for the
want of better, and his soutan was torn and mended in
several places, he had a billycock on his head, which was
his only shelter against storm and sunshine. He had two
wallets slung on each side of him ; in one were his vest-
ments, in the other a change of under-clothing. He had
neither gold nor ornament on his person, yet he appeared to
be a cultivated gentleman, as well as a man of determina-

120 FROM TORONTO TO WINNIPEG.

tion and ability ; and he certainly was the missionary of
my imagination. At four o'clock in the morning we were
running down the bay under full steam, and at eleven
arrived at

SILVER ISLET,

where there is one of the richest silver mines in the
world, belonging to the American Silver Mining Company.
Every ton of quartz taken in 1874 was worth over £4,000,
most of it being sent to England or the States packed in
casks, a large number of which we took on board. The
population at the works was from 1,500 to 2,000, com-
prising English, Scotch, and Irish, the captain being a
native of Belfast. As far as I could see from a three
hours' visit everything was in apple pie order. The

MAINE LIQUOR LAW.

was in force to a certain extent, and no intoxicating drink
was allowed to be sold, anyone requiring it could get two
pints of beer or two glasses of spirits per day, by order of the
captain, but no more, and I was told that most of the men
were abstainers, so that there was very little consumed,
and certainly the people and their homes appeared the
better. The missionary went ashore here, a large number of
the inhabitants testifying their joy at his arrival by crowd-
ing to shake his hand, escorting him in a kind of

PROCESSION OF MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN,

to the house where he took up his quarters. Our visit
caused quite a stir in the little town, as, indeed, it is not
often that they see strangers except, perhaps, a few
surveyors or explorers. I was told that the region was
exceedingly rich in minerals ; copper, lead, silver, and even
gold having been prospected for successfully, but not
yet in paying quantities, owing to the rugged nature of
the country and the want of machinery. After a delay of
three hours we were off again for Prince Arthur's Landing.
The coast here is very wild and rocky ;

THUNDER CAPE

the entrance to Thunder Bay being 800 feet high. When
we got inside the headlands we could see the white houses
of the little town, mere specks on the shore line, but as

FROM TORONTO TO WINNIPEG. 121

we approached they gradually increased in size. Steaming
up the bay, which is about thirty miles wide, the sight
was truly grand : huge capes and promontaries covered
with small timber projecting into the harbour and forming
land-locked basins and coves of various sizes and very
picturesque ; the Hudson's Bay Company's post of Fort
William to our left at the mouth of the Kamanistiqua
River, where there is a good harbour for schooners and
small vessels the bar being too shallow for large ships.

ALL THE DEPOTS OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY,

— and there are a great many scattered through this
immense region — are called forts, as they are generally
surrounded with stockades, some of them having towers at
the angles for small cannon, which a few years ago were
necessary to protect them from hostile Indians. There
are also stores, dwelling houses, and other necessary build-
ings, so that to the untutored mind of the savage they
appeared formidable positions ; and, no doubt, he had
reason to think so, as he was often ruthlessly shot down if
he did not comply with the company's rule and law, and
this like all other absolutisms was more or less tyrannical,
its object being to share as large dividends as possible
Approaching

PRINCE ARTHUR'S LANDING,

the scene is lovely; with the pretty little town laying
along the beach and the emerald green forest for a back-
ground. The steamers gong sounded a terrible fanfare to
announce our arrival, and the next moment the Hudson's
Bay Company's standard was run up at Fort William, and
the Canadian flag and Union Jack from several other
buildings, and troops of people were coming down the
pier to receive us. They were all well dressed, robust,
and healthy, and seemed to have a free and easy, there-
you-are, sort of way with them that made one feel at home
immediately. I took my very slight luggage on my
shoulder and away I went along the pier, the length of
which is 600 feet, with a front 200 feet wide. A man
stopped me and put my things on a trolley, and said they
would be delivered at either of the two hotels in the
town. Prince Arthur's Landing has a Dooulation of

122 FROM TORONTO TO WINNIPEG.

between 2,000 and 3,000, which is rapidly increasing.
The situation is very romantic, and capitally adapted for
the Lake Superior trade, of which it is sure to get a large
share, as it is the most important place on the north shore,
and is the intended depot of the ocean to ocean railway.
The houses are nearly all frame, and very well put together,
but no doubt stone buildings will soon supersede them,
as there is abundance of that material in the locality.
The general subject of conversation was minerals and ex-
ploring; there appeared to be some excitement about
discovering a silver vein here, a copper vein there, or
perhaps gold in another quarter. In the hotel that I put
up at there were

SOME PROSPECTORS AND GEOLOGISTS

staying ; it was really instructive and not a little amusing
to hear the recitals of their adventures in search of the
precious metals. One had found silver in great abundance
and was off to Chicago immediately to form a company to
work the mine ; another had discovered rock where there
was gold in great plenty, but he was an employe* who
had been sent north to explore by some American capital-
ists. Indeed, the singular thing was that most of those
men were Americans and doing American work, although
on British territory. The general impression was that
the region was rich in the more precious minerals, and
that the development of them would return a fair per
centage on the capital employed. Since my visit, works
in connection with the Canada Pacific Railway have been
commenced ; and as the line will traverse rugged and unex-
plored districts, no doubt geologists and miners will keep
their eyes open to the chances that await them, which I
think will be pretty good. This being the beginning of the
road to Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba, a distance of
550 miles; I went to the office of

MESSRS. CARPENTER AND CO.,

contractors for the route, to make arrangements for the
journey which we were to begin on the Monday morning, —
as we arrived on the Saturday, the trip from Toronto
had taken just a week, — I fortunately met Mr. Thompson,
one of the firm, who was all attention and courtesy to

FROM TORONTO TO WINNIPEG. 123

everybody who required his services. I paid 10 dols., the
government contract price. Mr. Thompson gave me a
price list of the articles I should be likely,to want on the
trip ; I took this to a large shop kept by a countryman of
my own and asked him the charge of each specific thing
to prevent overcharge, but he desired me to let him make
up a box and then charge for the whole in bulk. I consented,
and wonderful to relate there was only difference of a few
cents between his price and Mr. Thompson's list Among
the articles were SO Ibs. of biscuits, a boiled ham, some
prepared soup, a little tea and sugar, a small tin pot
for cooking, a tin can for drinking out of, and a tin plate,
a large blanket, and sundry other things, the whole costing
13 dols., or £2 13s. of English money. On the

SUNDAY MORNING

I got up to go to mass, but as the priest had not arrived
from a mission station some distance off there was no-
service, there being then no resident Catholic clergy-
man, but that community was erecting a chapel and
Presbytery of their own. There are two other very nice
churches, one Episcopalian Protestant, and the other
Methodist, which were very well attended. As I could
not go to a Catholic place of worship, I went for a walk
through the forest towardsFort William ; and to my conster-
nation I suddenly came on a party of Indians howling and
gesticulating around some object in the road; not being
acquainted with the aborigines I felt rather nervous, but
thinking the best thing was to put on a bold face and see
what was the matter, I went into the crowd, and to my
surprise saw one of their number very drunk ; and the
others trying to get him along. Shortly after

AN OLD JESUIT MISSIONARY PRIEST

came on the scene accompanied by an Indian who had
been sent by the party to bring him from the mission at
Fort William. When he saw what was the matter, he got
a good sized supple stick and thrashed the poor Indian
till he got up and ran away, to the evident delight of his.
friends. There was no doubt of his having applied a
thorough remedy as I saw Mr. Indian half an hour after

124 FROM TORONTO TO WINNIPEG.

walking about apparently as sober as a judge. Unfor-
tunately the missionary and myself were unable to converse,
as he only spoke French, and I did not understand that
language. Here let me remark, that of all the excursions
that could be taken, none would excel

A TRIP FROM LIVERPOOL TO QUEBEC,

and from there by the Grand Trunk, or the St. Lawrence to
Toronto, about 500 miles, then to Collingwood, 100 miles,
and then by steamer over the lakes for 1,000 miles. It
would be comparatively cheap, beneficial to the body,
gratifying to the mind, pleasing to the fancy, and instruc-
tive to the understanding, and would be remembered
with pleasure for ever after ; I am certain that if it were
only better known, thousands would avail themselves of
the facilities offered by the various steamboat and railway
companies to perform so grand a tour. We started at six
o'clock on the Monday morning in three-horse vans for

LAKE SHEBANDON,

45 miles from Prince Arthur's Landing, the entire journey
laying through a forest that was very much burned,
mosquitoes and horse flies along the swamps had every-
thing their own way ; these annoying pests are all over
Canada and the States, but they are not seen in large towns,
and not much in cultivated or settled country. Smoke is
their great enemy, and to drive them away people camping
out or dwelling where they are numerous will make what
is called

A SMUDGE,

which is simply a big smoke made from any green plants,
wormwood being the best ; anyway, the mosquitoes are a
great annoyance, especially to strangers. Arriving on the
shore of the lake we stopped in a log house put up by
Government for passengers. There were eleven of us
together ; and in the evening when we were all sitting round
the camp fire in the corner of the forest it reminded me
of a hopping season in Kent or Sussex. It was curious,
indeed comic, to see every man wrapped up in a blanket
lying on the floor of the house to sleep, and I must say that
my fellow voyagers were all in the greatest good humour.

FROM TORONTO TO WINNIPEG. 125

The country round the lake was like that which we had come
through, forest and rock, with fertile alluvial deposits here
and there, which no doubt will be settled upon before many
years. After an early breakfast we embarked in a kind of
deck barge called

A scow,

towed by a little tug to cross the lake a distance of 22
miles ; the voyage was exceedingly romantic and pleasant ;
there were a great many islands in the lake, all rock.
About half-past nine we arrived at a strip of land called
a portage, dividing two lakes. This portage was only a
few hundred yards wide when we reached lake Casiboy,
which we crossed in another boat, towed by another tiny
tug. The length of this lake is 10 miles, and like the
first was studded with rocky islands. On the next portage
we had dinner ; the width of this portage being a mile and
a half. Our luggage was sent over to the shores of

LAC DE MILLE LAC,

or the lake of a thousand lakes, 28 miles long ; and it well
deserved its distinctive appellation, as it really was one of
the prettiest sheets of water I ever saw, not even excepting
Killamey. The lengths here given are no criterion of the
size of these lakes, as they are merely the mileage on the
portion of them that we crossed. I could not help wonder-
ing at the scarcity of birds and animals, as everything was
as silent as the grave ; not a sound to disturb the solitude
except the puffing of the little tug and our merry and
buoyant conversation or loud laugh at some comic incident,
of one of which I was the hero ; on the shore of the lake
while waiting for the tug to get up steam, I took off my
boots to wash my feet, and for that purpose I went some
distance away from where the others were sitting; I tucked
up my trousers and perched myself on the stump of a
tree with my feet dangling in the water. I was only
there a few seconds when something near me made

A MOST UNEARTHLY NOISE,

this for an instant almost paralysed me, visions of
hippopotamuses, crocodiles, alligators, boa constrictors, and
other animals floated before my eyes, so getting out

126 FROM TORONTO TO WINNIPEG.

of the water I ran for iny very life. My fellow travellers
wondered what was the matter when they saw me
come tearing along without shoes or stockings ; and
thought it was an Indian in pursuit of me. One of them
got his rifle ready in case it should be required. I told my
story about the dreadful noise, and

AN AMERICAN OF THE PARTY

guessed it was a bull frog, and that I was tarnation green
to be frightened as though I had seen a spirit. At this
sarcasm I mustered courage, got a long stick, and went
back to recover my boots, when I saw the cause of my
stampede on a stone close to where I had been sitting, and
boldly approaching, I put my stick underneath him and
gave his frogship a dive which he evidently did not
relish, as he came up croaking louder than ever. The
incident caused some smart joking at my expense, because
of the great courage I displayed in my encounter with this
amphibious monster. After a very pleasant voyage we
reached

BEARILE PORTAGE,

only a quarter of a mile wide, and crossing it to Bearile
Lake, nine miles over. This voyage was very rough, as a
great storm had sprung up, and the tug and boats had the
greatest difficulty to weather it out ; landing at Breuil
Portage, half a mile in width, where we remained for the
night. Lake de Mille Lac, is one of the North Eastern
watersheds of the American Continent, 824 feet higher
than Lake Superior, and about 110 miles from it. The
water south of Lake de Mille Lac runs into Lake Superior,
fey the Kamanistiqua River, discharging at Fort William
and north of it by a series of lakes and rivers into Lake
Winnipeg, the great receptacle of the waters emptying
into Hudson's Bay. Next morning we went over the
portage to Windigastican Lake, 18 miles long. On the
shore of this lake was

A CURIOUS INDIAN GRAVE,

if such a mode of disposing of the dead could be called a
grave. ,The body was bound up in birch bark which the
Indians make use of for many purposes, and then it was

FROM TORONTO TO WINNIPEG. 127

hooped around with some tough strips of wood and placed
on^a rude platform about five feet from the ground ; and at
the head there was a pole stuck in the earth with a white
flag on it. Here, in the middle of this North American
forest, was a striking evidence of the attention paid to the
dead, at least by some of the savages who inhabited it,
and I would as soon desecrate a grave in a Christian
churchyard as disturb this last resting place of the
red man on the shores of this lonely lake .where
loving hands had laid him. I wonder if there are
any other people who dispose of their dead in this way ;
the investigation of such a question would be very inter-
esting and I would respectfully recommend it to the
consideration of the London Anthropological Society. The
trip on

WTNDIGASTICAN

was exceedingly stormy, and an accident occurred that
might have been dangerous if women or children had
been in the boat ; for we struck a tree, the force of the
wind driving us all out of the proper channel. At
last we arrived at French portage ; and here there
were a large number of Indians of the Chippewa tribe
poor wild miserable creatures, almost in a state of nudity,
•and as to cleaning their bodies, I don't think they ever
trouble themselves about it. French portage is a mile
and a quarter wide, to Lake Keagasiki, 21 miles in
length. Here we had also a stormy voyage, as the water
was very rough from the previous night. We crossed in
two hours to Pine portage, only a half mile wide, and
crossed Pine Lake, two miles wide, to Delaware portage,
where we encamped for the night. There were a large
number of wigwams here of Chippewas and

A LEADING CHIEF NAMED BLACKSTONE

who invited several of us to his wigwam, where he showed
us his uniform, consisting of a soldier's coat of about the
time of George the Fourth, an old pair of cavalry trousers,
and some sort of cocked hat, and wishing to impress us with
his importance, he showed us some letters that had been
written or given to him by the white man, but which he
did not let us read ; he wanted to end the interview by

128 FROM TORONTO TO WINNIPEG.

selling one of his wives for 100 dols. One of our party
pretended to be eager to make the purchase and kept
loweringthe price; until he at last consented to take oOdols.
When we thought the joke had gone far enough, and to get
out of the difficulty we had to violently advise the wife-
buyer not to spend his money for the present. But we
made good friends with the chief and his people by giving
them a lot of surplus food. One of our party played
the violin pretty well, and never was the truth of the
poetical remark which says that

MUSIC SOOTHES THE SAVAGE BREAST,

made more manifest than on this occasion, for the dusky
daughters of the forest in the highest glee gathered round
the musician, wondering at the sweet sounds he was pro-
ducing, and it was curious to watch their different emotions:
one would twirl her fingers to the different notes which
she seemed to comprehend ; another would be listening
with all the seriousness possible ; a third would move her
feet instinctively as if she understood dancing; and a
fourth would smile and seem pleased with the melody.
Those women were well proportioned and active, and with
a little care some of them would have been far from bad-
looking. Certainly the women appeared, relatively speak-
ing, better looking than the men; who were tall and
lanky, without much muscle or strength ; whereas, the
women were stout, active, and strong.

THE WIGWAM

is a wretched tenement, worse than the hut of the English
gipsy, a race that the Indians resemble very much, perhaps
more than any other we know of. Morality does not seem
to be at a very high standard among them, but, probably,
it is better than it would be with others under the same
circumstances. Contact with the white man degenerates
and demoralises them, for they adopt all his vices but none
of his virtues. Having remained on this portage one
night and part of a day, we crossed Sturgeon Lake, 20
miles wide. The passage was a beautiful one to

MALINE PORTAGE,

where there were several more wigwams. The scenery

FROM TORONTO TO WINNIPEG. 129

here was very grand : the rocks thrown about in the
greatest confusion ; the magnificent sheet of water stretch-
ing out before us as far as the eye could reach, with the
Indians in their bark canoes engaged in fishing; the
wigwams here and there among the trees with their wild
and savage -look ing inmates standing round ; the dense
woods in every direction, with the various tints and colours
of the foliage ; and above all the rich glowing sunset made
up a scene that would gladden the heart of a Royal
Academician. Next morning we resumed our journey,
going down the Maline river in boats and

PASSING THROUGH THE RAPIDS,

which caused a terrible sensation, the most dexterous
activity being requisite to keep the boat from striking one
of the submerged rocks in the boiling vortex, we had a
mile of this class of boating, when we were taken in tow
by a tug for ten miles more, there being but very little
diversity in the scenery : rock, wood, and water, all the
way, with an occasional wigwam. After a pleasant run
we arrived at

ISLAND PORTAGE,

only 100 yards across. There were a great many Indians on
this portage ; many of them in a nude state. What a field
is here offered for the geologist and the botanist, the
rocks being hurled into a thousand shapes and the
flowers and herbs ever varying both in size and colour,
on all these portages there are excellent springs of pure
water, and that of the lakes is also good, excepting Rainy
Lake, which has a green colour, owing to some plant
growing in it. We started in the evening to cross

STURGEON LAKE,

a distance of 20 miles, it is called by this name from the
quantity of sturgeon found in it, but all these lakes are
teeming with fish of one sort or another, and some of it
very large. The passage was a lovely one, the evening
sun making the water look like one vast sheet of glass.
The forest hereabout was a good deal burned, thousands
of acres of timber are destroyed annually by those sweep-
ing calamities

E

130 FROM TORONTO TO WINNIPEG.

THE FOREST FIRES.

But in a short time saplings grow again on ground that
the fire passed over; but never of the same species of
timber as that destroyed ; for instance, if a birch forest has
been burned it is succeeded by fir or larch. After a very
agreeable run we landed on Nequiquion portage, the
largest of all the portages we travelled over, the length
being four miles. Some of the road was very rough, and
more of it through swamp, but everywhere along the route
traces of

SIR GARNET WOLSELEY/S EXPEDITION

to the Red River in 1869, were to be met with, block
houses in ruins that were built by the expedition as com-
missariat stores, trees laying rotting that were cut down
to make the road, for to Sir Garnet Wolseley and his
expedition that work must be attributed, although the
practicability of the route was known to Indians, and to
some of the voyagers and hunters in the service of the
Hudson's Bay Company, and it was surveyed by

MR. DAWSON,

a civil engineer in the service of the Canadian • Govern-
ment some time before ; but for building bridges, clearing
the bush, removing boulders and rocks, in fact building
the road, the honour is alone due to Sir Garnet, and those
who served under him, assisted by Mr. Dawson, and other
engineers and explorers ; without a doubt it was a gigantic
undertaking as the number of lakes and portages men-
tioned in this chapter will testify, everywhere are mementoes
of those warrior road-makers to be seen. We crossed the
swamps on a wooden road, called a " corduroy," the making
of which must have been an extraordinary work, the reader
will understand the magnitude of the task fnjm the fact
that there are a great many miles of these marshes, and
that

A CORDUROY ROAD

is a framework of trees laid on the marsh, there are first
the supports running lengthways and parallel to each
other about 15 or 16 feet apart, and crossways on them
are laid trees, side by side, the whole is then covered with

FROM TORONTO TO WINNIPEG. 131

earth where it was possible to get it; in some of the
swamps the trees had to be brought a long distance,
which of itself must have been stupendous labour,
altogether the carrying out of so vast a project reflects
the highest credit on the perseverance and energy of those
engaged. After a tramp of four miles over the portage,
our goods having been sent in a van, we embarked in a
large boat, as usual towed by a miniature tug, to cross
Lake Nemecan, 25 miles wide, if we had been on a
pleasure trip we could not have had a finer passage, as all
the elements united to make the face of nature look
lovely : wood, water, sky, and sun blending in beautiful
harmony. This lake is on the boundary line as the left
shore is

A PART OF THE STATE OF MINESOTA,

and it is not an unusual thing for depredating Indians to
come across from American to British Territory, where
they mix up with others of the same tribe , thus escaping
chastisement. Arriving at ten o'clock at night at Kettle
Falls portage, about a quarter of a mile wide, where a
large steamer was ready to take us over Rainy Lake,
we slept on board wrapped in our blankets and laying
anywhere on deck. There were a great many Indians at
this portage, numbers of them coming down to the ship's
side to gaze on us. During the night they kicked up

AN AWFUL SHINDY,

a usual thing when they are gambling, which, like the
other races of mankind they are very fond of, often
betting everything they are possessed of in the world, even
their wives, whom however, they repurchase or win over
again as soon as possible. On this night they kept beating
an Indian drum, simply a hoop with a skin drawn tight
over it, played upon with a piece of stick. The music or
noise being one continual monotonous tapping without
the least attempt at variations or notes of any sort.
Sometimes it was accompanied by singing, but so low and
squealing that it was painful to hear, although the voice
was good if used properly. While this most discordant
concert was going on the curs that were hanging about
the encampment kept up a perpetual howling, as we were

K 2

132 FROM TORONTO TO WINNIPEG.

tired, we should have slept soundly, although our bed was
only the hard boards, but for this terrible din that broke
our rest. Early in the morning we prepared for the voyage,
and as I desired to see as much as possible of

THE SOCIAL HABITS OF THE ABORIGINES,

I went through the camp accompanied by the captain
who was on friendly terms with them all ; what I saw
no pen could describe, and certainly I shall not even
attempt it ; but I may say, that I thought as a race they
were sunk down deep in savage abomination, and further
acquaintance with them confirmed this opinion ; one thing
is certain, they will not accept the white man's religion, his
science, his law, or his civilisation, and those so-called
civilised Indian settlements are merely big nurseries sup-
ported by Government, or religious societies. The clergy-
man, whether Catholic or Protestant, is always a white man,
and the Indian is only good as far as the personal influence
of that clergyman is concerned ;

MY FIXED IMPRESSION

is that the enormous sums of money spent in" uselessly
trying to convert those crafty savages could ^be applied
to a far more godlike purpose at home; for having
seen the wretched poverty in the East-End of London,
where there are thousands wasting their lives in un-
healthy employments, and equally unhealthy homes,
the miserable condition of the Irish peasant in his own
country, and the little that is done for either. I cannot
refrain from expressing my regret that vast sums gathered
from the sweat and toil of those very people, should be
spent on a visionary object. In the morning we began
our voyage over

RAINY LAKE,

a distance of 43 miles, the navigation was difficult there
being a great many islands and some shifting sands. Early
in the afternoon we arrived at the landing place, again to
re-embark in large bark canoes manned by Indians, in
which we rode the rapids of the Rainy River to Fort
Francis, an important post of the Hudson's Bay Company.
As it was Saturday evening we arranged to remain over

FROM TORONTO TO WINNIPEG. 133

Sunday, and took steps to make ourselves as comfortable
as possible. The American civiliser, the saw mill, had
already reached this station and had done some good
work as there were several frame buildings in course of
construction. When the Canada Pacific Railway touches
Fort Francis, it will be a very important place as there is
good land, good water, good air, plenty of timber, and a
noble river 74 miles long connecting Rainy Lake and
Lake of the Woods, the one 45 miles, the other 40 miles,
making in all 150 miles of waterway, which by a little
civil engineering, might be utilised for large steamers.
There are at

FORT FRANCIS,

from fifteen to twenty whites, several half breeds, and a
large number of Indians. Civilisation can here be seen in
its different stages of progress ; the painted savage wrapped
in his blanket, dwelling in a wigwam, and living by hunting
or fishing; the half-breed, half savage, half civilised,
wearing a peculiar dress, to mark him to a certain extent
as a dependent of the company, residing in a small log
house, cultivating just enough to live upon, and still
retaining a strong inclination for the precarious life of the
hunter; there is the white man with his books, machinery,
large well built house, and fine clothes ; then there was
our party of travellers brought by steam boats over Rainy
Lake, a lake which five years before was scarcely marked
on the map, and among us were men whose duty was to
try and find the best field for the investment of money;
with this extraordinary panorama passing before my mental
vision I sat musing on this summer Sunday evening in
the middle of this North American Forest. A Jesuit Priest
arrived at the post on the previous day, and on the Sun-
day he consecrated a cemetery for the burial of
Catholics. The ceremony was exceedingly simple, but to
my idea the most sublime I ever saw. The energetic priest
in canonicals with

A CHOIR OF HALF-BREEDS,

who really sang beautifully, a massive cross laying on the
ground to be sprinkled with Holy Water, and afterwards
carried into the graveyard by men standing by for that

134 FROM TORONTO TO WINNIPEG.

purpose : under our feet was the grave of Pagan Indians ;
the congregation, Catholic, Episcopalian, Methodist, and
Presbyterian, all standing reverently uncovered; the
Englishman, the Irishman, the Scotchman, the French-
man, the half-breed, and the Red Indian, the latter standing
in a group some distance off to see the medicine man of
the whites ; yet all those races of men although differing
in their ideas were here in the wilderness, as if by
instinct, to worship God under the shadow of the cross.
On Monday morning we left Fort Francis, in boats towed
by a tug, for a run down the Rainy River, a distance of
72 miles, the land on both sides being good and the timber
very dense though not large ; this river is a good deal like
the Thames above London, only there are no nice villas
on its banks, or pleasure boats reposing in cosy nooks as
on the famous English river; yet there is a striking
similarity. The scenery is very pretty, with

NATURAL PARKS

where at every bend one would expect to see a splendid
mansion peep out from behind the trees, the beautiful
foliage of the forest and the rank vegetation looked lovely ;
yet, for thousands of years this fertile spot has been the
home of the moose, the carriboo, the elk, and the black
bear, which were the prey and the game of the red man,
and source of wealth to the Hudson's Bay Company ; but
now the steam whistle is heard, and the game is being
driven further north. The European traveller is passing
through to spy out the land, and progress is crushing out
the unfortunate aborigines, as they are incapable of adapting
themselves to it. At Manitou rapids there is a large sepul-
chral mound or tumulus, the burial place of

AN EXTINCT TRIBE CALLED MENDONS,

who appear to have been of a higher order than the
Chippewas and Salteux, that succeeded them. The
mound was very much like the ancient remains so fre-
quently to be met with in Ireland. The word Manitou
itself would indicate something sacred ; just as in the case
of Christian churches that are dedicated to saints or holy
men. Here we changed to a steamer that was to take us

FROM- TORONTO TO WINNIPEG. 135

over the Lake of the Woods, a distance of 45 miles ; this
steamer was flat bottomed to enable it to navigate shallow
waters, its paddles keeping it steady.

THE LAKE OF THE WOODS

is subject to sudden storms because it is notso well protected
as the other lakes, the shores being drift sand on one side,
and sandstone rock on the other, there are several currents
and moving sand banks which make the navigation
intricate ; it is the last of the chain of lakes between the
watershed on Lake de Mille Lac and Lake Winnipeg, the
great basin of the waters emptyinginto Hudson's Bay. Hav-
ing crossed in six hours, to the north-west angle which is in
the state of Minesota, where I remained next day waiting »
for transport to Fort Garry. Here there were a large
number of Indians, and contrary to the general rule a few
of the men did a little work, although they could not be
depended on to carry out or finish any particular job,

WILD FRUIT

was very abundant and I amused myself a good deal
gathering it ; but in reality more to see the Indians, than
for the sake of the fruit. In the afternoon there came a
terrible thunder storm, the lightning descending like red
hot bars of iron, and coming down from the clouds straight,
without any zigzagging whatever ; I was told the reason of
it was the great attraction through the magnetism arising
from the immense quantity of minerals in the region,
and the concentrating of electric powers towards the pole.
Immediately after the storm myriads of little frogs covered
the ground, but whether they were rained down or whether
they came from the earth I cannot say, but they were quite
harmless, as they went into the swamps or died off in a
short time. Here I met

MR. CARPENTER,

the principal contractor for the route, going to Canada,
and passing through to see for himself what could be
done to improve the transit. Next morning we were off"
in waggons for Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba, 95
miles away, the road being pretty good the whole distance,
wild raspberries, currants, and huckleberries, grew in the

136 FROM TORONTO TO WINNIPEG.

greatest profusion and were to us like manna in the wilder-
ness after living so long on biscuits and prepared food.
Flocks of wild pigeons were flying about on every hand,
and there was not the least difficulty to shoot any number
of them as they were very easy to get at. The plumage
of the birds was very fine, but they were all without song ;
the sweet melody of the linnet, the clear ringing note of
the thrush, or the bold clarion-like tone of the blackbird
is never beard in those wilds; the only bird that attempts
singing is the whip-poor-will, and his song is a melancholy
cadence of two notes only.

THE GEOLOGY

% of a large portion of these 95 miles is wonderful, for
within a short space may be seen two or three different
sorts of rocks, limestone, sandstone, and granite, boulders
of the latter were scattered about in all directions, and each
with a smooth surface and round ; among them 1 counted
at least a dozen different granites, some red like that of
Leicestershire, Mull of Ross, or Peterhead, some fine blue
like that of Guernsey, some black and hard, like that of
North Wales, some a dark white like that of Aberdeen,
some a pure white like that of the county of Wicklow,
some coarse and porous like that of Devonshire, and some
a beautiful green like that of the county of Galway.
Evidently those boulders must have been brought there
either by water or ice, and from very distant parts as the
suiTounding strata was not the same stone, and whether
creation is the work of six days as we understand it from
Monday to Sunday, and everything being completed
within that period, or whether it is the work of different
epochs or cycles of years, or whether it is progressive and
still is going on, I will not say, but in those north-western
wilds the book of nature is laid open, and it only requires
the brain power, or in other words a divine inspiration to
read it, for the man that benefits mankind by revealing
God's work, or developing science, and reading to the world
the great lesson that nature teaches, is truly inspired.
On the third day from the angle we struck the prairie at
Point De Chene, 30 miles from Winnipeg, a village of
half-breeds, with a large Hudson's Bay post, where we met

FROM TORONTO TO WINNIPEG. 137

THE GRASSHOPPERS MIGRATING EAST,

the ground being literally covered with them. The first
sight of the prairies is something sensational ; you read a
book of travel, of hunting, of buffalo shooting, and of
Indian warfare, you read of prairie fires and of travellers
perishing by them, you read of the mirage reflecting
lakes, trees, and towns, in the air, and the thoughts of
them all crowd on the mind as you enter the prairie ; for
before you as far as the eye can see is one vast level plain
with flowers of every hue and colour, struggling for life
with the long grass that is bending before the wind like
waves of the sea. How miraculous the change in a few
miles from the drift where the boulders were, to this
immense plain which at some period of the world's history
is supposed to have been the bed of a sea. The road over
it is good, and I very much enjoyed my first day of prairie
life. As we approached Winnipeg, the houses of half-breeds,
are scattered about with a little piece of cultivated land
around each ; at length we are on the banks of the Red
River, which we cross on a floating bridge into the most
northerly city on the American Continent.

1S3

CHAPTER IX.
WINNIPEG TO ST. PAUL.

THE first view of the City of WiDnipeg, or as it is
better known Fort Garry, forcibly reminded me of the
photographs and panoramas that I had seen at home of
Colonial towns, for before me was the city with a popula-
tion of between four and five thousand of English speak-
ing people, as sensible and as aspiring as could be found
in any part of the world ; but everything was so different
from what I had seen at home or even in Canada, that I
could not help being impressed with its first appear-
ance, then when I thought that five or six years ago it
was only a place of two or three hundred inhabitants
principally half-breeds, and that it was Sir Garnet
Wolseley's expedition that first brought it into prominence,
I was amazed at its rapid growth.

Whilst I was at Fort Garry I spent thirteen days
watching the trial of Lepine Kiel's Lieutenant in the Red
River Rebellion. The result of the trial and the states-
manlike clemency displayed by the Governor General are
now well known to all my readers ; but

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE BED RIVER REBELLION

may not be as well understood, for all kinds of absurd theories
were put forward at the time as to the origin of that
curious revolutionary movement, and amongst others it was
ascribed to the Fenians ; but considering that the movers in
the rebellion were all half-breeds, with the exception of
Riel, a French Canadian, and O'Donoghue, an Irishman,
the absurdity of this theory must be sufficiently patent.
I took some pains while at Fort Garry to ascertain the real
facts as to the prime movers in this rebellion, and the
conclusion I came to was as follows: The Red River

WINNIPEG TO ST. PAUL.

Rebellion was to a great extent the work of theagents of the
Hudson's Bay Company, their object being to secure good
terms for their employers on the transfer of the territory
from the government of the Company to that of the
Dominion of Canada. At the time of the outbreak the
whole country was dominated by the garrisoned forts of
the Hudson's Bay Company, the only white inhabitants
were its paid servants or dependents, and the half-breeds
equally dependent upon its bounty, were for the most
part in the service of the Company, no man, woman,
or child in the territory dare wink an eye without
the Company's leave and permission. There could be no
rebellion against the Company, there being none to rebel
but its own dependents, who knew well on which side their
bread was buttered. On the other hand the Company
through its servants was in a good position to get up some
show of rebellion against the Imperial Government, and
so by making a disturbance, obtain by hostile pressure
favourable terms from the Government. Kiel was there-
fore set up by the secret orders of the agents of the
Company as a dummy "president," and the word was
passed to the half-breeds and to all who were in any
way dependent on the Company, to follow his lead;
arms and ammunition were lavishly supplied, and the
rebellion was a fait accompli. The cry of Fenianism was
then raised by the agents of the Company (through news-
papers under their control) as a convenient and plausible
mask for their proceedings.

THE RESULT OF THESE OPERATIONS
is well known, the ball was kept up merrily until the Imperial
Government at considerable cost, had marched a large force
under Sir Garnet Wolseley to Fort Garry, a force by the way
more than sufficient to have crushed twenty such rebellions.
The word was then again passed round, and Kiel who had
served the Company's purpose but too well, was flung like
awithered weed away, and the troopswere feted and feasted.
The object of the Company had been obtained, the Imperial
Government having flung a sop to Cerberus, and arranged
with Canada to buy up the Company's claim to the terri-
tory at an exorbitant sum, and in addition to give the
Company two miles in every thirty-six of all the land in the

140 WINNIPEG TO ST. PAUL.

surveyed territories. This is briefly the truth about the
Red River Rebellion and these facts need no comment,
it being scarcely necessary to state that the intelligent
inhabitants of the Dominion of Canada who can see as
far into a mill-stone as any other people, have not been
hoodwinked, and are only biding their time, for before
long they will re-purchase these lands and restore them to
the public domain. The object of the Imperial Govern-
ment, and the Canadian authorities, in taking the North-
West Territories, then known as Rupert's Land, was to
open up

THE RED RIVER TERRITORY

toemigrants and civilisation for it could not but be beneficial
to thousands that a progressive law and rule like that of
the Dominion should extend over this vast region, because
emigration will be encouraged, and those fertile plains
that now only grow wild grass for prairie fires to destroy,
will be cultivated and studded with homesteads, the
waterways will be utilised from the foot of the Rocky
Mountains to Moorehead in Dacotah territory, 260 miles
south of Winnipeg; the entire steamboat run making
over 700 miles ; already they are navigating a good deal
of it north of the Mississippi, watercourses and lakes so
intersect and connect with each other that the putting of
steamboats on the whole of them is only a question of
enterprise and time. The great coal fields of the
Saskatchewan and of Swan Lake, will be developed
by the building of the Canada Pacific Railway. Swan
Lake, is about 250 miles south-west from Winni-
peg, and the other about 400 north-west, and as the
country is level there will not be much difficulty to bring
the coal to where it is wanted. Railways will be con-
structed between important points opening up almost un-
known regions, and enabling the inhabitants to carry on
a winter trade when navigation is closed, instead of being
inactive and almost hemmed in as at present, therefore I
consider that the Canadian Government has not only
strengthened itself by forming a Dominion across the Con-
tinent with splendid ports on the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans, but have also benefited mankind by throwing open

WINNIPEG TO ST. PAUL. 141

for settlement and development those immense tracts,
called Rupert's Land, but now divided into provinces, one
of which is Manitoba, and the whole known as the Great
North-West.

THE CITY OF WINNIPEG

is on the.left bank of the Red River, on its junction with
the Assinioboine, 35 miles south of Lake Winnipeg, and 75
miles north of Pembina, a town in Dacotah, on the forty-
ninth parallel or boundary line, and in United States
territory. The population is made up of Canadians,
Americans, English, Irish, Scotch, French, and half-breeds,
a conglomeration welded together by an identity of
interests, social intercourse, and a political system which
in theory is very perfect, but which is subject to manipu-
lation and abuses as in all other places. To say that the
political system of any country is perfect, the administration
of the laws equitable, or the law itself just, would be sheer
nonsense, yet no doubt there is some good in every plan of
government, even in the most despotic, but the acknow-
ledgment of the equal rights of every member of the
state should be the fundamental basis on which law is to
be founded, and the

GOVERNMENT OF MANITOBA,

which is only yet in its infancy, is established on those high
principles of justice and right, although in the carrying
of them out there is a good deal that might be improved
with advantage. Winnipeg is the capital of the province,
and the largest town in the North-West ; but some are of
opinion that in a few years a still more important town will
be on the forks of the Saskatchewan, about 250 miles
further on to the Rocky Mountains. But at present it is
the distributing point of the immense region we are speak-
ing of, and all the commerce of the province passes
through it ; I would advise a European wishing to get a
knowledge of a new country to

VISIT WINNIPEG,

he would there see different races, different customs, and
everywhere the old giving way to the new, in appearance
it is neither English, Canadian, or American, but a com-
pound of the three, the persevering, cautious, conservative

142 WINNIPEG TO ST. PAUL.

industry of the first, the enlightened far seeing and well
directed energy of the second, the unbounded ambition,
go-aheadism and dignified independence of the third is to
be seen there, as well as the devil-may-careism of the
hunter of the plains, the ease and cunning of the Indian
fur trader, the recklessness of the broken down gold digger
from British Columbia or California, or the happy-go-lucky
of the man of all work that is so frequently to be met with
in those new western regions. Expeditions leave the city
almost daily for various places, west and north, and each
for a different object, one may be the half-breed servants of
the Hudson's Bay Company, with a large train of carts
carrying supplies to the Company's other posts, such as
Fort Pelly, Fort Carleton, Fort Edmonton, &c. These carts
are of a very peculiar make and known as
RED RIVER CARTS.

They are made entirely of wood, without a morsel of
iron, even a nail, and every half-breed makes his own.
Fifteen or twenty carts may be seen drawn in one train by
bullocks or small hardy horses, a breed peculiar to the
country and known as Red River horses. The surveying
parties, explorers, hunters, fur traders, &c., all have to be
supplied from Winnipeg with nearly everything they
require, and as they are generally two or three hundred
miles away and often more, the importance of the busi-
ness will be at once understood. The reason that the
carts have no iron is because the clay is very sticky and
clogs on the tires ; secondly, on the prairies iron would
be an attraction to lightning ; thirdly, they are better able
to ford rivers without it; and fourthly, until recently there
was but very little of it in the country, and the natives
scarcely yet understand its use, and as necessity is the
mother of invention they managed to do without it.
These carts will take three quarters of a ton for a thousand
miles over the plains, but of course they would not last
long on our hard roads. The province of Manitoba is as
near as possible in the centre of North America, half way
between the pole and the equator, and the Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans, about two thousand miles from each, its
present surveyed limits being nine million acres, yet it is

WINNIPEG TO ST. PAUL. 143

only a mere dot on the map. Many theories have been
advanced as to the cause of the

EXTRAORDINARY RICHNESS OF THE SOIL,

for perhaps in that respect it has no parallel, except the
valley of the Nile ; it is a black loam, resting on a white
clay subsoil, the thickness being from one to four feet, or
an average of two, and there cannot be a doubt of its being
a vegetable deposit ; but how a change so extraordinary
from other vegetable debris came about, it is difficult to
tell because there are neither roots nor fibre of any sort
as in the fens of Lincolnshire, the bogs of Ireland, or
the swamps and morasses of America, underneath the
surface it is soft and pulverised, but rain will make it into
a sticky substance like what builders know as clay mortar,
although it will absorb water, and soon get dry when the
surface becomes hard and would almost take a polish, its
fertility can be understood when I say that potatoes planted
in the latter end of May, are dug in the middle of August,
and that the municipal authorities of Winnipeg, have
passed an act to prevent citizens

THROWING STABLE MANURE INTO THE RIVER

because it is of no use to the farmers as the soil is almost too
rich as it is. The farming of the half-breeds, also of some
of the whites is wretched, merely scratching the earth,
putting in the seed, and letting it grow just as it likes, yet
they have capital crops of wheat, barley, oats, potatoes,
beetroot, &c. Sometimes a piece of land will bear one
class of crop for a number of years without any apparent
difference in the produce, and if the grasshopper would
keep away in future, Manitoba would be a farmers' paradise
—but

THE GRASSHOPPERS

are a terrible scourge and one that cannot by any known
means he got rid of; in shape they are not like the grass-
hopper of the British isles being much smaller, more
hardy and covered with scales, and when on the wing they
can fly a great distance. The following paragraph from
the letter of a correspondent of the Montreal Witness,
will give an idea of the quantity there may be in a district,

144 WINNIPEG TO ST. PAUL.

and the terrible destruction they make. " The houses and
fences were black with millions of these insects; we could
not even see the bark of the trees because of the myriads
of wings, and the labour of many hands was a blank before
us; we sat in silence, feeling we were in the presence
of a power that could bar the raging sea with little grains
of sand, and send an army of insects to bring to naught
the boasted work of man." The native region of these
pests is not known as they are found nearly all over
the western and north western states and territories,
Manitoba being as far north as they can go, because they
cannot fly over the great lakes and in attempting to do so
are drowned. Wherever a swarm settles in the summer
they deposit their eggs, these are hatched in the early
part of the following summer; when the young grasshoppers
eat nearly every green thing within reach, causing a sense
of insecurity among the people in the sections that suffer
from their ravages. It is right, however, to say that
Manitoba has only been visited by them three times in
35 years.

SOME NATURALISTS SAY

they are generated in the gorges and canons of the
Rocky Mountains, others say they come from the great
deserts on the borders of Mexico, and more are of opinion
that they are not natives of any particular region, but
that in season they will lay their eggs anywhere, and in
the following year when the young ones are able to fly
they will go with the wind to another district, and in turn
leave eggs for another year, &c., they appear to me to be
able to live in any country where there would be an
average of 60 degrees of heat during the summer.
Although they devour the most succulent and nutritious
plants and vegetables first, yet they can thrive on any green
thing. It is to be hoped they will not turn their attention
to the eastern states, nor by any means be brought across
the Atlantic.

THE PLAIN OF MANITOBA

is supposed to have been the bed of an inland antediluvian
sea or lake which dried off either by the absorption of the
atmosphere, or drainage through Lake Winnipeg into

WINNIPEG TO ST. PAUL. 145

Hudson's Bay ; Lake Winnipeg being the receptacle for
all the waters from the high land on the east of Lake
de Mille Lac, from the watershed of Minesota on the
south, where the Red River takes its rise, and from the
base of the Rocky Mountains, by the two Saskatchewans,
and their tributaries on the west, it is 264 miles long and
35 broad, having an area of 9,000 square miles, and is the
lowest and the centre of a large number of other lakes
that are connected with it by navigable streams, bringing
down the water to it, which it discharges into Hudson's
Bay, by the Nelson River. Manitoba has a gradual fall
towards Lake Winnipeg, which gives it a good natural
drainage and prevents any very large swamps or morasses
occurring, and even the few now existing will be dried up as
soon as population and public works increase. These lakes
and rivers swarm with fish, large and small, and all of
good quality; wild fowl, prairie chicken, partridges, ducks,
geese, wild pigeons, &c., are likewise in great abundance ;
these sources of food are a great acquisition to the settler.
There are for two miles on each side of the Red River

A LARGE NUMBER OF HALF-BREEDS

on what is called the Settlement Belt, they are the des-
cendants of the servants of the Hudson's Bay Company,
who intermarried with the Indian women, and are a mild
inoffensive people, more inclined to hunting, fishing, fur
trading, &c., than industrial pursuits. Before the Cana-
dian Government extended its rule over the province,
those people were all more or less dependent on the
Hudson's Bay Company, but since the Confederation they
have become more self-reliant and energetic, many of
them are rapidly getting wealthy and take an active part
in the duty and responsibility of citizenship; their social
habits are very primitive and simple, although some are
pretty well educated, particularly the women who were
taught in the nuns' schools, a number of which have been
in the province for many years. Some of those women
are very handsome, combining the delicacy and grace of
the whites, with the dignity and keen perception of the
Indians. Several white men, including some of the lead-
ing citizens, are married to half-breeds, but no half-breed

L

146 WINNIPEG TO ST. PAUL.

men are married to white women ; yet most of the next
generations of Manitobans will have Indian blood in their
veins. Like their fellow subjects in other parts of the
Empire, they are fond of excitement, such as hunting,
whiskey drinking, and going to balls and parties, and
•while staying in Winnipeg, it was my good-fortune to be
present at one of those

DANCING ENTERTAINMENTS,

and now looking back after a lapse of some months, I
think it was the most comic and amusing affair of the
sort I was ever present at. I have been to a navvy's
concert where it wound up with a fight all round; in
Ireland, I have been at a " pattern" held on the side of the
road with a fiddler or piper sitting on the ditch, and the
people for miles round gathered there and dancing away
forverylife ; I have been to balls in the West End of London,
where professed virtue would be arm-in-arm with pro-
fessed vice, assumed modesty, and barefaced prostitution
commingling ; I have seen a revel of gipsies in Kent,
during the hopping season, and at Epsom on the even-
ing of a Derby Day ; I was present at a Pow-wow of Indians,
that finished with a war dance, where the palm was given
to the savage who made the most grotesque antics ; yet
I never saw anything to equal

A RED RIVER BALL,

for it is indeed a jovial affair. The one that I attended
was given by the hotel proprietor where I lodged, his object
being to make money, there was not much preparation in
the room where it was held, a couple of coal oil lamps
hanging on a column, a few benches ranged along the
sides, and a kind of temporary platform at one end for the
orchestra, which consisted of a giant with a fiddle. About
half-past eight the guests began to assemble, soldiers and
half-breed girls being in the majority, the soldiers were
of all sizes from the lobsterlike five foot nothing, to the
manly six foot two. [The standing Army of Canada is
only about 1,000 men, the service only three years, and
the pay good, yet there is a difficulty in getting recruits,
because the country is prosperous and men are not starved
to become food for powder as in the United Kingdom.]

WINNIPEG TO ST. PAUL. 14?7

Each of those warriors announced his entrance to the
ball-room with a good round oath to make him appear
more terrible than he was, there were no white women to
take part in the dancing, or indeed present at all during
the entertainment, except the mistress, her daughter, and
a lady staying at the hotel, who was just recovering from
an attack of fever, and as I did not care about dancing, I
was made use of to look after this interesting invalid.
She was very much pleased with the proceedings and told
me of the many hops and fandangoes she had taken part
in. To prevent intrusion she sat in another room divided
from the ball-room by a board partition, through which I
had to bore a hole with an augur for her to see. The
female instinct for scandal and contempt of each other was
in full play, as these two or three white women would not
dance along with their half-breed sisters, although as
good-looking, and as well conducted as themselves; but
they would criticise them, and they seemed to take a
pleasure in giving vent to a jealous spleen presuming on
their own superiority of race and pretended elegant
culture. Everything being ready the fiddler struck up a
merry tune, and for a while matters went on

AS HAPPY AS A MARRIAGE BELL,

but this state of things was not destined to last as the
gentlemen were freely partaking of whiskey, which very
much upset their equilibrium, and one of them laying
clown gloriously drunk in a corner, the others determined
to give him an Indian wake, they put a couple of coal oil
lamps at his head, piled a lot of chairs and stools on the
top of him, then sat around him and made a kind of
croning noise intended for lament at his loss ; the joke
went on for sometime, at last the supposed dead man
jumped to his feet and knocked down one of the mourners,
the others quickly getting out of the way, the lamps that
were to light him to the bounds of another world were
upset or broken, the oil burning on the floor made the
ladies run in all directions, after some exertion and any
amount of shouting order was restored, but not for long;
although there were not many Irishmen present, every-

L 2

148 WINNIPEG TO ST. PAUL.

body seemed anxious for the tail of his coat to be trodden
upon. The gigantic fiddler was the first to show

SYMPTOMS OF COMBATIVENESS.

As he went around seeking whom he might devour, a
young Englishman getting in his way was pitched aside
by him like an angry bull ; this stirred up the ire of the
Briton, and he boldly demanded satisfaction, then their
partisans began to interfere and the engagement became
general. The representative of the flag that braved a
thousand years was shunted into a corner, and the arms of
his musical antagonist were going like the sails of a wind-
mill, but with more fury than effect, although he was
suffocating the Englishman with his weight and rapidity
of motion. The noise was something deafening, the girls
squalling, the greater portion of the men swearing and
getting ready for further action ; lamps, stools, and chairs,
cracking; the landlord here, there, and everywhere,
shouting order, and bawling out that this kind of
work was contrary to the rules, for which piece of in-
formation he was frequently told to go to the regions
where the Old Boy with the tail and cloven feet holds
sway. At last

PEACE WAS DECLARED,

but the pugilistic fiddler was not to be deterred from
making a night of it, although it was visible his eyes were
the worse for wear, and his nose out of shape, through the
telling operation he underwent in the corner. During the
time the melee was going on, dancing did not cease, as
another musician took the place of the one that was
hors-de-combat, but on hostilities breaking out a second
time the platform was stormed and the new musician with
it, everybody was now in real earnest, the programme

being to

STRIKE A HEAD WHEREVER VISIBLE,

ifc did not matter a rap who was the owner ; the light by
this time was supplied by a couple of tallow candles, the
lamps being all smashed. The girls were standing on the
benches round the room as they could not get out ; their
bronzed faces oiled with perspiration, the yellow light of

WINNIPEG TO ST. PAUL. 149

the flickering tallow candles making them look like the
figure heads of ships after receiving a fresh coat of varnish.
By this time the police had arrived, but instead of making
peace they freely entered the lists of the combatants, and

A JUDGE'S SON FROM CANADA,

that kept a barber's shop in Winnipeg, was knocked over
by a big Irish policeman who entered heart and soul into
the spree. Civilians, soldiers, and policemen, were now
indiscriminately slashing away at each other without atten-
tion to rank or party ; but at last supper was announced by
the landlord, and this, for a while, threw

OIL ON THE TROUBLED WATERS

until the irrepressible fiddler flung a plate with force and
precision at the head of a cavalryman for taking his girl
away; the light was suddenly extinguished, and then com-
menced the scene so graphically described by the author
of "Lanagan's Ball," eating, drinking, courting, kissing,
roaring, fighting, all going on together. All this time my
hands were full, I had great difficulty in getting out of the
supper room through the surging mass to take my good-
looking invalid out of harm's way, particularly as I had
kept out of the sport and knew that some of the gentle-
men envied me ; I felt I had better not try to indulge my
•curiosity further as I had no desire to shine in anyway.
After supper they adjourned again to the ball-room, and
kept up the fun to the small hours of the morning. Anyone
not pleased with such an entertainment must be more
-difficult to amuse than a quaker, or an old maid ; for here
was jigging, waltzing, reeling, schottisching, and all other
sorts of capering, and a man who would fail to make
himself pleasing to the half-breeds would be either very
modest, very shy, or a very ugly fellow, for they are the
kindest and most loving women I have ever seen, and it
required neither ceremony, dress, nor etiquette, to enter
the ball, no scissor tail coats, long shank pants, patent
leather boots, lavender coloured gloves, and frizzled hair as
at the swell balls in the Old Countries, where some of the
dandies that attend pay as little as possible to their credi-
tors, and often indeed hire their rig at an old clothes

150 WINNIPEG TO ST. PAUL.

shop kept by some Israelite who is always ready to make
money out of an unbelieving gentile. Your Old Country
ball is a little world of expensive and silly affectation,
with nothing natural, only the desire to excel in pomposity.
The Red River Ball was too natural, each person acting ac-
cording to the inclination of the mind ; in the Old Country
things are too artificial, everyone trying to wear as much
gloss as possible. So much for a half-breed fandango,
or Red River Ball.

The question is often asked,

WHO AND WHAT ABE THE INDIANS?

Are they the descendants of a more civilised race ? has
America been always their country, or did they originally
come from some other ? do they bear any relationship to more
civilised races in the east, or are they a distinct race ? do
their warlike, social, or religious customs, correspond with
those of any other people? were the different tribes now in
North America, who make fierce war on each other,
formerly one great family, or does each tribe represent a
distinct nation of the same people ? All these questions and
many more have been raised, but never satisfactorily
answered. The ruins of palaces, and towns, as well as the
sepulchral mounds found in different parts of North and
South America, would be an answer in the affirmative to
the first question ; on the other hand, there is the instinctive
desire for a wandering life, and the great objection to
settled or industrial pursuits pointing to their unfitness to
dwell in cities, or submit to a general law as people of
town life must do. The hieroglyphics on their pipes,
beadwork, and canoes, indicate an eastern origin, and
their form of government, the people appointing the
chief, polygamy, and general traits of character would
tend to show there was some connection with more
civilised races; for instance, with

THE JAPANESE, OR OTHER MONGOLIANS.

Their universal belief in Manitou, or the spirit of Destiny,
subject to the great spirit of the world ; their extraordinary
freemasonry or spiritualism, a something that the white-
man does not understand but which he puts down under

WINNIPEG TO ST. PAUL. 151

the general name of superstition, show the same power of
moral resistance, and the firmness of belief in their own
principles, that characterise other Pagan peoples, and
causes them to reject the doctrines of Christianity. This
applies to the Mongolian race, whether Chinese, Burmese,
Japanese, Siamese, or any other " Ese," and of which, some
writers say, the Indians are a branch. Their contempt
for luxury, their love of liberty, and their roving disposi-
tion, would identify them with the Komaney or Gipsy
race. They all have the same physical appearance only
altered by local circumstances, such for instance as living
in the forest and on the plains. Those of the forest being
milder and less warlike than those of the plains, because
they live more on fruit, and less on flesh ; the lank black
hair, the beardless face, the oblique eyes, the high cheek
bones, and the ponderous jaw point to a common origin ;
but their diversity of language, each tribe having one
not understood by the others. The holding of women in
higher estimation by one tribe than by others; their
inveterate hatred and continual wars show that it must
have been a long time ago when they were one family,
and to sum up the whole of these and other theories
advanced by writers and travellers; the Indians are a
singular and mysterious race. Probably the study of
ancient history in the old monuments of American civilisa-
tion, a civilisation that might have flourished before the
flood, or perhaps was in the height of its splendour when
Alexander led his conquering Greeks to the banks of the
Indus, or further travel and research in eastern countries
might throw a light or clear up the mystery that surrounds
them ; of late years there have been so many learned
and energetic men sent to different quarters of the world
to collect and analyse the early history of the human race,
and how well they have succeeded is known to the merest
school boy : I think the investigation of the antiquities
of America would be as interesting a work as any that
have been carried out either by Government, the learned
societies, or private individuals.

THE EVERYDAY LIFE OF THE INDIANS

is at best only a prolongation of misery ; their habits are

152 WINNIPEG TO ST. PAUL.

dirty, their morality low, and scrofulous diseases are
making dreadful havoc among them. Although the
Indians of British America are all friendly, those of
the Western States are often on the war-path, and it is not
safe for white men to be among them without being well
armed. An Indian is not brave in the same sense that
civilised people understand the term, yet they will meet
death with an indifference that the white man would not ;
but a number of them would feel it their duty to assist to
kill one man, and then hold a jubilee over the deed ; and
they would track their victim until they found an oppor-
tunity to despatch him without danger to themselves.
They inflict the most terrible torture on their prisoners,
whether of their own race, or the white man, but fortu-
nately it is very seldom that the latter falls into their
hands, as the American Government have small bodies of
troops in every part of the Indian country to protect the
whites, and punish the savages, if they transgress, and the
Canadian authorities have light cavalry, called mounted
police, to afford protection to all parties, and also to
prevent the sale of whiskey in the North- West,

A PROCLAMATION OF THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL

being in full force against it. This proclamation bears
date the 30th of May, 1874, and the first paragraph reads
as follows : — " Whereas the importation or manufacture
in the North - West Territories of spirits, spirituous
liquors, wines, fermented or compound liquors, and in-
toxicating drink of every kind, is by law, absolutely pro-
hibited, and whereas it has been represented to us that
in breach of the law, and to the great detriment of our
subjects in said territories, and more especially our Indian
subjects, and to the injury of trade ; spirits, spirituous
liquors, wines, fermented or compound liquors, and
intoxicating drink, have been, and are introduced into the
said territories ; we have thought it expedient to call the
attention of our said subjects, and of such people as may
come into the said territories, to the provisions of the law
in that behalf. Know ye that by the advice of the Privy
Council of Canada, we do proclaim and publish by this
our proclamation, for the benefit and information of all

WINNIPEG TO ST. PAUL. 153

parties concerned, the following extracts from the laws of
the Parliament of Canada, now in force in the North-West
— namely, an Act to amend, an Act to further restrain the
importation or manufacture of intoxicating liquors, into,
or in the North-West Territories, and be it enacted, that
spirits, strong waters, wines, and intoxicating liquors of
any kinds be prevented from being manufactured or
imported in any part of the North-West Territories." Thus,
the proclamation runs on, specifying the penalties incurred
under the different clauses, the substance of which is,
that the drink when found should be destroyed, and that
the vendors, or manufacturers, be subject to a fine of
200 dols., or six months' imprisonment. My opinion is
that

THIS LAW IS AN EXCEEDINGLY GOOD ONE,

it prevents rowdyism, trouble with Indians, and benefits
the people in many ways. With that, I may add, my
experience of a couple of months, during which I led a
very active life in the open air, travelling over the prairies
on foot, &c. I slept a great many nights under the broad
canopy of heaven, with only a blanket for covering, yet I
never was in more robust health in my life, and as far as in-
toxicating drink is concerned this is direct evidence that it
is not required, for I had none of it ; nay, I believe that it is
positively injurious as I saw several instances of its ill
effects, and it would be awful work if the Indians could
get it freely.

THE CLIMATE OF THE NORTH-WEST

is very healthy, some of the diseases of the Old Countries
are almost unknown, particularly consumption and other
chest complaints, the air being so very light and dry. A dull
leaden sky is never seen in summer, and there is a bright
sunshine in winter, an intense frost at night, with clear
shining days, the air of both summer and winter being
very bracing. The heat of summer is not so much felt as
the same heat would be in the United Kingdom, as the
atmosphere is not sultry nor dense, and therefore not so
oppressive ; neither is the intense cold of winter felt as
much as in a country where the air is humid. Manitoba
forms the north central basin of the American Continent,

154 WINNIPEG TO ST. PAUL.

and for that reason is sheltered from storms to which
places on a higher altitude are subject; from the beginning-
of September to the latter end of November, is what is
called

THE INDIAN WINTER,

the finest season of the year ; when the weather is really
beautiful, the heat being moderated by a nice bracing wind.
Winter sets in very suddenly, about the 20th of November,
when the Red River navigation is closed, from thence to the
first week in April ; the frost keeps everything locked in
its cold embrace for over four months, then it relaxes its
hold, ploughing and other work go on, and as vegetation
is wonderfully rapid fine crops are produced in two or three
months. Wild fruit is abundant, especially grapes and
cranberries.

WAGES FOR SIX MONTHS OF THE YEAR

are very high, particularly for builders, bricklayers and
masons, they being in great demand. The mechanics of the
United Kingdom, are under the impression that there is-
better brick and stonework in America than at home ; but
that certainly is not the case as most of

THE BRICKWORK IS OF A VERY INFERIOR DESCRIPTION.

I have seen new brick buildings in every town and city
that I have visited both in Canada and the States, that a
London clerk of the works would no more pass than he
would fly; but then in London the bricklayer will stand on
a scaffold in front of his work, in America he must do it
from the inside, and however expert he may be, the work
cannot be so good. For the present

I WOULD NOT ADVISE A WORKINGMAN

to go to Manitoba, to live by labour alone, but a man with
a little capital, who would take up a land grant, and
gradually improve it, and for a year or two work for
wages whenever he could, such a man would be sure to
get on. For the next few years there will be a deal of
public works, as the Government is alive to the necessity
of consolidating the Dominion by improving the North-
West. Land can be had by settling on it in homestead

WINNIPEG TO ST. PAUL. 155

lots of 160 acres, each of those lots is a quarter section,
and each section is one square mile, and thirty-six square
miles is one township ; the whole of Manitoba is surveyed
into these different measurements.

THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY

has two lots out of every thirty-six, and a like quantity is
set by for educational purposes, but the Government lands
being free are of course taken up first, this will make
the other lands valuable, because roads must be made,
mills built, schools and places of worship erected, shops
opened, and a general improvement effected, and then the
company will sell to the best bidder. A large number of

KUSSIAN MENNONITES

arrived during my stay in Winnipeg, in religion they are
the followers of a Swiss named Meno, who had I believe
originally been a Catholic priest. They do not differ much
from some of the sects of Protestant Dissenters, only
they will not become soldiers, and a former King of
Prussia wanting them to join the army, they declined and
emigrated en-masse to the shores of the sea of Azof, in
southern Russia. The present Emperor of that country,
a few years ago, issued an edict to make the whole male
population subject to the conscription ; but the Menno-
nites, to their honour refused to conform, and prepared to-
give up their homes and emigrate to America, rather than
violate their principles, or forward the ambitious designs
of an autocrat. It was impossible for them to sell their
goods or houses as there were so many leaving the country,
yet they did not hesitate, but boldly sacrificed the labour
of years for the rights of conscience. They sent to America
representatives to make arrangements with the authorities,
and as agreed upon between the delegates and those that
they negotiated with, over 3,000 arrived last summer of
men, women, and children. They are

SIMPLY GERMAN PEASANTS,

both in language and appearance, having undergone very
little change during their stay of one hundred years in
in Russia. Modern fashions have not made progress

156 WINNIPEG TO ST. PAUL.

.among them, as the little girl of a dozen years
was dressed like the old woman of sixty, in the
style which was in vogue in Germany when their
ancestors left it. As soon as they arrived in America
they divided into two parties, one going to Manitoba, the
other to Dacotah, in the United States, where there are
already a great many Germans settled, and from what I
saw of them, in good circumstances. In Manitoba, land
was reserved for them, on which they immediately settled
and being a frugal and industrious people, are likely to
<io well, under an enlightened government that does not
force them to violate their religious belief; the land was
given gratis and facilities were also afforded them to
reach the locations, their co-religionists in America con-
tributing many thousand dollars for that purpose, and the
authorities likewise giving small loans repayable by easy
instalments extending over a number of years. They
were

DELIGHTED WITH THE COUNTRY,

and forthwith began ploughing and getting ready for the
spring, and also at once commenced putting up (in most
•cases) temporary houses that were to be rebuilt at the
first opportunity. They laid out a considerable sum of
money in Winnipeg, on cattle and agricultural imple-
ments, and on the whole they seemed determined by
their energy to make their new home prosperous and
comfortable. We are told that religion is the great
civiliser of the human race, if so, Winnipeg ought to be
the most civilised place on the surface of the Globe. In
a population of between four and five thousand there are

TWO CATHEDRALS,

both of them large, one Catholic, and one Protestant
.another Catholic church, and five or six Dissenting places
of worship ; besides several clergyman, and not less than
three bishops,

THE MOST REVEREND DR. TACHE,

the Catholic Archbishop, of St. Boniface, is the Metro-
politan of the North- West, and is considered to be one of
the ablest and most enlightened men in the Territory.

WINNIPEG TO ST. PAUL. 157

THE MOST REVEREND DR. MCCRAY,

is the Protestant Bishop of Rupert's Land, and everyone
that I conversed with, spoke highly of his activity, philan-
throphy, and intelligence.

THE MOST REVEREND DR. MCCLEAN,

is the Protestant Bishop of the Saskatchewan, and cer-
tainly his flock, at all events for some years, will not
trouble him much, as he has scarcely any to govern. I
believe there is not a clergyman in his Diocese, excepting
perhaps two or three missionaries, who are knocking,
about among the Indians, and to a great extent they are
forced to look after themselves, as his lordship spends
more of his time in Winnipeg, than he does on the Sas-
katchewan, for which I cannot blame him, for nearly
every person in the world, observes the eleventh command-
ment, more or less, or in other words,

LET EACH MAN TAKE CARE OF HIMSELF FIRST.

Two or three years ago Dr. McClean visited England, and
collected a great many thousand pounds for the new
Diocese, in itself no doubt a very laudable work, but with
due deference to all concerned, I think the money could be
more charitably and humanely applied at home, because for
every Indian converted to any denomination of Chris-
tianity, the disgracful home of a farm labourer in

ENGLAND, IRELAND, OR SCOTLAND,

could be improved, or a little charity might be extended
to the inmates of the Bastiles, called workhouses. The only
missionaries that ever had much influence with the Indians
are the Jesuits, and even they failed to convert them, as

NEARLY EVERY TRIBE IN AMERICA IS STILL PAGAN.

I know there are little communities here and there that
are at least professed Christians, but there is no stability
in them, and it is a mere matter of chance whether they
are Catholic or Protestant, as they are neither one nor the
other from conviction, it is simply a question of mis
sionary energy and money spending. Although me
may not agree as to the benefit derived from any pa

158 WINNIPEG TO ST. PAUL.

ticular work, yet we are bound to give to everyone the
respect due to sincerity and honesty of purpose, and

MISSIONARIES

are entitled to it more than any other body of men.
Putting aside their reports of hair breadth escapes,
hard work, numerous converts, and the extraordinary
fervour of some holy savage, they make heavy sacrifices
for the principles they teach and the religion they believe
in. At all events Winnipeg has no right to complain as
clergymen and prelates are, indeed, in a plentiful proportion
to the inhabitants, there being only 14,000 in the whole
province. On the 16th of November, I left Winnipeg, or
Fort Garry (the latter being the Old Hudson's Bay Com-
pany's post the city is sometimes called by the same
name), for Moorehead in Dacotah, on the Red River, 250
miles south of Winnipeg, the journey was by a lumbering
vehicle called

A STAGE WAGGON,

drawn by four horses changed every 14 miles ; and as there
were eleven passengers I had to take a seat along with
the driver on the dickey, a position that was anything but
comfortable, particularly at night as it froze pretty hard.
There are several posts of the Hudson's Bay Company
along the route all doing a very large business.

PEMBINA

was the first station of importance, about 75 miles from
Winnipeg, it is a place of about 1,000 inhabitants, with
United States and Canadian Custom-houses, and as it is on
the boundary line, there is also a body of American
troops lying there for the protection of the frontiers.
After supper and a change of horses we resumed our
journey through

DACOTAH,

the soil was like that of Manitoba, » polling prairies with
belts of timber at intervals, mostly oak, poplar, maple,
and cotton wood; this region is very thinly populated,
although there is some very fine land. At the last census
the population of Dacotah was 14,181, and its area 150,937

WINNIPEG TO ST. PAUL. 159

square miles, or about five times the size of Ireland. The
United States tables of statistics divide the inhabitants
as follows:— 248 English, 888 Irish, 57 French, 563
•Germans, 1179 Norwegians, 115 Danes, and 380 Swedes,
and the remainder made up of half-breeds, native born
Americans, Canadians, &c. It might, indeed, be said that
emigration to those fertile western wilds is an extension
of the empire of civilisation ; I am astonished that

THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMEMT

do not encourage it by giving to the multitudes who arrive
daily from European countries at New York, Boston, and
Philadelphia, facilities to go West instead of leaving
them to loaf about the great cities where they can
never rise above poverty. I do not know anything about
the internal statesmanship of the United States, but I
believe it is

A VERY SHORTSIGHTED POLICY

not to assist the poor, but strong and willing, European
emigrant, to settle on the land. Our journey was entirely
in the Red River valley, and the soil was still of the same
general character, as that of Manitoba. Having stopped for
refreshment and change of horses at different stations
none of them worthy of special notice except

GRAND FORKS

where the Red Lake River, that drains the north-western
portion of Minnesota, joins the Red River, at this place the
Hudson's Bay Company has an immense saw mill and
boat building yard ; during my visit two large steamers
were on the stocks, intended for the trade on Lake
Winnipeg and the Saskatchewan; at another station called

GOOSE RIVER

the company have an extensive flour mill, and at George-
town they have a stupendous dairy and cattle farm, having
five or six hundred head of cattle, to which the surround-
ing prairies give excellent feed. Beyond Georgetown,
night set in, and shortly after the guard told us we were
FOLLOWED BY WOLVES,

160 WINNIPEG TO ST. PAUL.

the pack being close behind, rifles, pistols, knives,
and every conceivable weapon was got ready in case of
emergency, the guard supplying those who had none of
their own. The horses were kept at as brisk a trot as the
broken nature of the ground would admit, and every
three or four minutes a couple of barrels were discharged
at random into the pack as it was too dark to take aim,
but we were certain that some of the brutes were struck,,
for at each shot they hung back, and when they got bolder
and closer than usual, they received a regular volley
which checked their ardour and made them howl fright-
fully. Fortunately we had plenty of ammunition and
several of our men being accustomed to wage war with
all sorts of animals on the plains were crack shots with
the rifle. To me the incident was exciting as I sat on
the outside of the vehicle banging away, fancying myself a
lion slayer, or some other mighty hunter. A few miles from

MOOREHEAD

they gave up the pursuit and I think they were wise for
they must have suffered terribly. We arrived at Moore-
head at eleven o'clock, where we found the train on the
N orth ern Pacific Railway waiting for us. Most of my fellow
travellers left for St. Paul by the train, and others by stage
for Minneapolis and Brickenridge. Having been two
nights without sleep and sitting in one position on the
outside of the vehicle the whole time, I was fairly ex-
hausted, and to recruit a little I remained in Moorehead
for the night. On the Northern Pacific there are only-
two passenger trains a day, so that I had to stay till the
following evening ; the town is on the right bank of the Red
River, and on the opposite side is another little place called
Fargo, the population of both making about 2,000. The
only brick building was the school-house, all the others
being frame ; even the stupendous bridge of the Northern
Pacific crossing the Red River, is made of timber, and the
railway company were building a very large hotel, also of
wood ; where they expected the customers to come from
to fill it, I could not understand ; but I suppose they knew
best and would not speculate if they did not see their way
clear to realise a profit. Although I had not had much

WINNIPEG TO ST. PAUL. 1G1

experience of the States, I was struck with the restless-
ness of the people, the little desire there seemed to be
for work and their fondness for speculation and commerce.
Steamboats, four in number, trade on the Red River,
between Moorehead and Winnipeg, and on the 20th of
November navigation was still open, but it was expected
to close immediately. In this faraway little town the
shops were full of goods and admirably arranged, so
different from what one would see in the villages of the Old
Countries, where everything looks so dingy. There is

A TELEGRAPH LINE FROM MOOREHEAD.

to Fort Garry, which is an extraordinary piece of work
considering the distance and the wild country it traverses.
After a good night's rest and a refreshing and instructive
walk about the neighbourhood, the next evening I started
by Northern Pacific Railway, for the junction at Thomp-
son, 25 miles from Duluth, on the west end of Lake
Superior, distant 230 miles from Moorhead, the carriages
and appointments being like those on the Grand Trunk,
and other lines that I had travelled over. About 20 miles
from Moorehead, we passed through

A PRAIRIE FIRE,

raging on both sides of the line and travelling with the
velocity of a racehorse. This was the second of those
awful phenomena that I had seen, and the impression will
for ever remain imprinted on my mind ; for, indeed, they
are truly terrible. The grant of land by Congress, to this
railway is between fifty and sixty million acres; three
millions and half of it being in the State of Minnesota.
For some distance after leaving Moorehead, the line is
through prairie, then through a burned scrubby forest,
and the last 100 miles may be called a portion of the
great swamp where the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi
take their rise : and certainly I would not select any of the
land contiguous to the line for agricultural settlements ; for
I think it is very poor as far as I could judge by inspec-
tion from a railway carriage. We crossed the Mississippi,
on an immense wooden bridge to
BRAINERD,

where we stopped for an hour to breakfast. This place

M

162 WINNIPEG TO ST. PAUL.

may be called a town in a forest, and is really very
picturesque, it appears to be entirely dependent on the
railway, as here are most of the company's workshops;
also a large hospital for the employe's, and a reception
house for settlers purchasing railway lands. Starting
again, the road being still through a swampy forest, we
reached the junction where we changed to the St. Paul
and Pacific, the through fare from Moorehead to Chicago,
being 29 dols., or nearly £6 of English money. As a
speculation the Northern Pacific Railway is at present a
failure, for it must have cost millions of dollars to construct
the line, and there have not yet been any adequate returns ;
and tens of millions more would be required to continue the
line to Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast. The entire length
when completed will be 1,800 miles ; such a line must be a
great benefit to the American Government, as it opens up
a vast region, and gives a value to the land, timber, and
coal deposits, within an area which is computed at
1,800 miles long and 500 wide, which they would never
possess but for the railway. It is, however, an unfortu-
nate affair for the shareholders, as they are not likely to
get many dividends, at all events for some years. The
length of the section finished and now working from
Duluth, on Lake Superior, to Bismarck, in Missouri is 450
miles, leaving 1,150 miles to build. We left Thompson
by the St. Paul and Pacific for St. Paul, travelling for
some miles through forest swamp ; but gradually the face
of the country changed for the better, and to swamp suc-
ceeded magnificent park-like land, natural meadows,
small rolling hills ; with lakes here and there, giving a
pleasant effect to the scene ; the outlets of these lakes form-
ing small rivers and streams, and draining the surface of
the country into the Mississippi. A few miles from St.
Paul, the forest was on fire for some distance along the
line; it was a novel sight, one moment the blaze would be
in the brushwood, and the next instant it would be wind-
ing to the top of a tree a 100 feet high. The scenery was
lovely, and as we approached the city nice farm houses and
villas might be seen on every side. At length the train
dashed into the station, and here we are in St. Paul.

163

CHAPTER X.
ST. PAUL TO CHICAGO IN WINTER.

ST. PAUL is the capital of Minnesota, one of the northern
states of the Union, and is the watershed on which three
great rivers take their rise, the Mississippi, the St. Lawrence,
and the Red River. These three principle streams drain
the greater portion of the North American Continent;
the St. Lawrence, running east, forming the great
lakes in its course, and emptying into the Atlantic at
Quebec, the Mississippi going south and discharging into
the Gulf of Mexico, at New Orleans, and the Red River
flowing north into Lake Winnipeg, and by the Nelson,
thence to Hudson's Bay. The area of Minnesota,
is 84,000 square miles, or about 54,000,000 acres, em-
bracing every class of soil and surface conformation :
immense plains, such as we have described in Manitoba
and Dacotah, consisting of

A BLACK VEGETABLE DEPOSIT,

exceedingly fertile ; rolling country, the hills covered with
scrubby timber ; lakes here and there, some of them drain-
ing into the Mississippi, others with no outlets at all; forests
of timber that on a future day must be a great source of
wealth to the State. The wood region has an area of
several thousand square miles ; the timber consisting of oak,
ash, maple, elm, pine, &c., by means of the different
streams this timber is floated into the Mississippi, and sent
down that river in rafts, or manufactured into furniture,
by machinery at the different towns on its banks, such
as St. Cloud, where there are large saw mills and furniture
factories, and Minneapolis, where there are some of the
largest flour mills in the Union. A great quantity of land
is in the possession of railway companies ; the Northern
Pacific alone received from the Congress of the United
States, 23,000 acres to every finished mile of railroad,
which in Minnesota would represent three and a half
million acres, the whole amount covered by the company's

M 2

164 ST. PAUL TO CHICAGO.

charter being fifty millions. In the United Kingdom, the
motive for giving

LAND GRANTS TO RAILWAY COMPANIES

is not thoroughly understood, because, in Europe the
companies have to pay for every foot they use, and often
have to appeal to the law under their charter to compel a
man to give up possession. The American and Canadian
Governments know that railways must precede popula-
tion, and they grant those lands as subsidies, because it will
be years before the trade on some of these roads can pay,
and if these liberal charters were refused, capitalists would
not invest. Again, the railway companies do that which the
United States Government ought to do, they encourage
the emigrant to settle on the soil, the country thus gets
populated and trade is brought to the line. These grants
are generally given in alternate plots or square miles,
that is to say, the company has one square mile, and the
Government keeps the next, and so on, &c. The Government
sections or plots, as a rule, are first settled upon, because
they are cheaper, on an average not costing more than
a dollar and a half an acre, these lands are called
THE PUBLIC DOMAIN,

and the principle conditions for obtaining them are, that the
settler must be a citizen of the United States, or one
who intends so to be. A man can have land for nothing
under what is called the homestead law, to the extent of
160 acres, by settling on it for five years, and not
remaining away, more than six months together, and
paying certain office dues, something like 25 dols. ; at the
end of the five years the settler is the sole proprietor.
This is also the plan for settlement in Manitoba, only that
the years of settlement are three, instead of five as in the
States. The Canadian Government further assists settlers
or emigrants to reach their locations, whereas the American
Government leaves them to rot and die in the great
seaboard cities. The consequence of this stupid and
heartless policy is a plentiful crop of criminals and social
pests ; for fully two-thirds of the criminal population of the
United States may be traced to the ranks of neglected
emigrants in the present or past generation. Americans
talk about the ignorance of emigrants, and are never tired

ST. PAUL TO CHICAGO. 165

of sneering at their supposed national peculiarities,
especially at those of my countrymen ; they then fold
their hands in complacent superiority, and let their
helpless and inexperienced fellow-creatures glide to the
groggery, the convict cell, or the early and neglected grave.
It is right that

THE GOVEENING CLASSES OF AMERICA

should be taught, that every ruined emigrant is a
loss to the State, and a shame to each of them, in-
dividually; and that if God has given to them better
opportunities of culture, and consequent higher intelli-
gence, than to the helpless beings cast upon their
shores, He has done so for an exalted and noble purpose,
that they should use their superior intelligence in raising
His poor weaker children to their higher level, and that a
neglect of this duty, even in this world, brings down, in
•decreased prosperity of the State and in increased danger
to life, property, health, and morals, a certain punishment.
Let me hope that the time is not far distant when the citizens
of the United States may awake to a knowledge of these
facts and that boasting as they do so many millions
of professing Christians whose missionaries may be met
with in most savage countries, those Christian citizens
may look at home, and by wiping away for ever, this spot
upon the national escutcheon, prove themselves worthy
followers of Him, who has handed dow.n to all time, His
solemn condemnation of those, — who trampling upon,
spurning, and neglecting " The Stranger," trample upon,
spurn and neglect Him. (Matt. c. xxv., v. 43). The
Government need not go far to find a light to lighten
its darkness in this matter, for in

THE CANADIAN SYSTEM

the path that it should tread is laid oat clearly before it,
mid as to the success of that system, let the thousands,
of now prosperous and happy Canadian citizens, who in their
time of need, when strangers in the country, experienced the
kindness and care of the Canadian emigration officers, testify.
The lands belonging to the government along the rail-
ways, are, as I have said, settled upon first, but when these
are occupied the railway sections become more valuable,
because the settler is bound to make improvements.

166 -ST. PAUL TO CHICAGO.

THE RAILWAY LANDS

usually sell at about an average of 6 dols. per acre, those
close to the road being the dearest. When we consider
that land is almost a drug in America, and that hundreds
of millions of acres have not yet been explored, and that
every new railroad opens up vast and fertile regions, it is
not to be wondered at that Congress gives extensive grants
to those capitalists who in vest their money in lines that can-
not pay for years. The companies advertise these lands,
and open offices for their sale, in the different centres of
population, and in the pamphlets issued for advertising, or
rather puffing them, there is an evidence of Yankee genius,
for the description is soflowery and high flown, that it might
fairly be called poetry in prose. Let me give an example
of one of these grand pieces of composition : — " Away we
went over the long undulations of soil, past the glimmer of
virgin lakes, through the unshorn gardens of the wilder-
ness, prairie grass, and western winds, blue sky and bluer
waters, vast horizons and flying clouds, and wanton inter-
change of belted light and shade, they all filled us, if not
with new delight, yet with one which never grows stale
from experience. Looking from the rise of the grassy
waves far and wide over the land, we constantly saw the
white speck of a tent or hasty board cabin on the timbered
knolls or beside the half-hidden lake. Like Kansas and
Nebraska, ten years of settlement will give to North-West-
ern Minnesota the aspect of an old country." However
I may appreciate this writer's patriotism, I must say he
has painted the picture in glowing colours. The sum and
substance of the subject is, that

THE AGRICULTURIST OR FARM LABOURER

from the Old Countries had better settle on the
land than in a town, and that for some time he will have
to work very hard, but in the end he is almost sure of a
competence. In comparison to what early pioneers had to
submit to, his life is one of comparative comfort ; yet he
must put up with what may seem loneliness and isolation
when compared with life in the Old Country. But even
to bear a little hardship and loneliness, is better for him
in the end than loafing about the large cities on the sea-
board. There is not much difference between the climate

ST. PAUL TO CHICAGO. 167

of Manitoba, Dacotah, or Minnesota, except, perhaps, that
Minnesota catches the winds more than Manitoba, because
of its high altitude, being one of the great watersheds,
all authorities allow that it is very healthy, and certainly
that was my own impression, judging from the appearance
of the people who were strong and robust ; but I was told
that in summer time sunstroke is often fatal. The present
population of Minnesota is about half a million, of which
the statistical returns show 152,159 of foreign birth, divided
as follows : 41,364 Germans and Dutch who are generally,
in America, classed as one people, 35,940 Norwegians,
21,746 Irish, 20,987 Swedes, 5,670 English, 1,743 French,
and 1,910 Danes, the remainder are native born, but to a
large extent of German or Irish extraction. After a
refreshing night's rest, which I very much wanted, I went
for a walk through St. Paul, and as it was Sunday I had an
opportunity of seeing the people at their best ; certainly,
their appearance was very respectable ; strange, that both
in America and Canada there are scarcely any mended
clothes or boots worn ; indeed, it is a rarity to see a working
man, not even a whiskey bummer, with patched garments.
Considering the high price of clothes in the States, I was
somewhat astonished at this seeming carelessness or pride,
but assuredly it is the case. During the day
THE SECRETARY OF THE IRISH EMIGRANT AID SOCIETY

called on me and kindly offered to show me through the city,
and in the evening to accompany me to the Father Matthew
Temperance Society, where I would have an opportunity of
seeingalargenumberof my countrymen. Duringthe Sunday
the greatest order prevailed in every street that I went
through, and as I wanted to make some little purchases I had
great difficulty to find a shop open. At last I found one kept
by a Jew where I got what I wanted. The population of
St. Paul is about 33,000, and like all other American
places, it consists of all nationalities, the Irish being the
most numerous of the foreign born in the city, and the
Germans the most numerous as farmers on the land,
although there are a large number of Germans in St.
Paul as well. This town is at the head of the

NAVIGATION ON THE MISSISSIPPI
as a few miles above it the river is blocked by the Falls of

168 ST. PAUL TO CHICAGO.

St. Anthony. The river here is about half a mile wide and
deep enough for the largest class of river steamers, two of
which were moored at the jetty. The length of navigation
on this famous water highway is over 2,000 miles. Goods
shipped at New Orleans can go direct to St. Paul. No
wonder it is called the Father of Waters, as the length of
its course, the country it drains, the immensity of its trade,
and its climatic influence, makes it the most important
river in the world.

THE EAPID GROWTH OF AMERICAN CITIES

is a puzzle to the stay-at-home people of the Old Coun-
tries ; but in the New World the problem is easily solved,
as hundreds of thousands of emigrants are annuallly landed
and are bound to make homes. These new and rising
cities are merely the depots or marts of exchange placed
at convenient points for the commerce developed by this
large influx of industrious people.

THE POPULATION OF IRELAND

is rapidly decreasing, and in the large towns an air of
decay seems to pervade everything; buildings are fast
becoming dilapidated, not much attention being paid to
their restoration. Canals that ought to be arteries carry-
ing the commerce of the country to and fro, are unused
and some of them are getting blocked up with water weeds
and rubbish. Trade and enterprise is stagnant, and
absentee landlords are taking away, in the shape of rent, the
national capital, thus leaving the country poor, by drain-
ing it of its very life blood. The caste system in society
is carried to such a pitch, that it is absolutely painful to
an intelligent working man, to be compeDed to pay almost
fetish worship, to a person no better than himself, except
in having a longer purse, a finer coat, and, in too many
cases, a worse conscience. The discontent and misery of
Ireland, the despotism of Germany, and the grinding
oppression practised for many ages on the English farm
labourers, (but to which they are now boldly objecting,) have
made America what she is, in tlje short space of 100 years —

A NATION OF 40,000,000 PEOPLE.

The same influences, combined with the high states-
manship of the Government, are now enriching the

ST. PAUL TO CHICAGO. 169

"Canadian Dominion, increasing its population, as well
as giving it vigour and capacity by the infusion of
new blood. These are the causes why American cities
spring into existence with an energy and speed that
surpasses anything we read of in the wonderful stories of
the Arabian Nights. The population of Ireland decreased
nearly 4,000,000 in thirty years, a matter not to be won-
dered at, for between the years 1840 and 1870 nearly
2,500,000 went to America alone. It is computed that
•every healthy emigrant is worth £200 pounds to the States.
From this it is obvious why the Colonies are competing
for them, for the countries they go to grow rich and pros-
perous, and those they leave decay. In the report of

THE COMMISSIONERS OF EMIGRATION

of the State New of York for 1870, the following passage
occurs : " German emigrants alone, have for three years, as
estimated by the best German authorities, brought into the
country annually, on an average about eleven millions of
dollars. A large amount of money in proportion to numbers
is estimated to have been brought from Holland, Ireland,
and other countries, the amount of money thus introduced
into the country is incalculable. The money, however, is
not the only property which they bring with them, in
addition they have a certain amount of wearing apparel,
tools, watches, jewellery, and books. Assuming their cash
to be 100 dols. per head, I do not think I exaggerate in
estimating their other property at 50 dols., thus making
150 dols., the total property of each emigrant. The total
arrivals in New York for the year 1869 were 2o8,986,
and the amount added to the national wealth, through
this port alone, by emigrants in one year, will not fall far
short of thirty-eight millions of dollars ; large as this is, it is
insignificant in comparison to the hundreds of millions
which have and will be produced yearly by the labour of
emigrants. We are perfectly familiar with the value of
negroes during the existence of slavery; a good field hand
was considered worth 1,200 dols., and of course the labour
of the emigrant to such a country as America must be of
greater value than that of the slave to his master." Thus
the report runs on, showing the benefit of emigration to
the United States. As to what the Government of that

170 ST. PAUL TO CHICAGO.

country has done and is doing to assist the inexperienced
emigrant, J have already made some allusion, and shall
have something more to say when dealing with the
eastern cities. My purpose now is to point out

THE CAUSE OF THE SUDDEN GROWTH OF THE WESTERN

TOWNS.

Through the facilities of direct communication and the
increased knowledge emigrants have, of the resources of
the North and Western States, the number settling in
them is increasing every year; thus, for instance, in 1870,
four thousand five hundred and eighty-two went tO'
Minnesota; in 1871, four thousand six hundred and
seventy-four ; in 1872, six thousand and sixty-two ; in
1873 six thousand three hundred and sixty-seven. With
such an increasing flow of people into any state or
district, it is evident the sudden growth of towns, must
be attributed to more than the Yankee enterprise that is
so much talked and written about. The American!
Government simply gives the emigrant permission to
land, and under certain conditions to become a citizen.
The emigrant brings new blood, strong arms, a thinking
brain, and a stout heart, besides (according to the report)
150 dols. or £30 in money. Land is the raw material of
American industry, and the commodity she has in greatest
abundance, and where the emigrant settles on it and makes
the prairie smile like a rose garden, the trader from the
crowded cities of the East, will be attracted to set up a
store, or a mill at eligible points ; and behold the nucleus-
of an American city. Let the emigrant be there to develop
the wealth from the natural resources of the country,

THE NATIVE AMERICAN

is sure to attend to the buying, selling, and scheming ; for
he will not work with his hands if he can help it. Over-
trading is one of the principle causes of American money
panics ; immense sums are sunk in new enterprises that do
not pay, and in some cases are not, at least for some years,
expected to do so. Railways into wild regions are made,
in anticipation of trade, to be created for them by settlers-
from Europe ; banks are established to promote those enter-
prises, and then, when one does not pay, the other fails to
oneet its demands ; a thing that never ought to occur in 9..

ST. PAUL TO CHICAGO. 171

country like America, if everything was carried on in an
honest and consistent way. But "rings" for this, that, and
the other, lead to

RECKLESS TRADING, DISHONEST SPECULATIONS, AND
POLITICAL JOBBERY.

As however the institutions of the country are founded on
justiceand equity, and as there are no drones, or aprivileged
class, those abuses which from time to time creep into every
system must give way to a healthier and better state of
things, both in trade and politics. Hear what Americans
themselves have to say on this matter. A writer in the New
York International Review says : — " Let us honestly admit
the truth and manfully apply the remedy ; the peril in our
American life is dishonesty, this produces the lack of confi-
dence which is at the foot of panics. Slavery involved us in
flames of civil war, better it should have burned us to>
ashes than that we should survive to perish hereafter in,
corruption, the urn is less offensive than the putrescence of
the grave. Our very existence is at stake, American life
presents an anomalous spectacle. We are

SOCIALLY PURE, BUT COMMERCIALLY DEPRAVED.

Men who are upright in their neighbourhood, and ad-
mirable in their home, will habitually, knowingly,
and systematically do wrong in their business. Nay,,
even churches to draw crowds, and rent pews, and
raise revenues, will not only resort to sensationalism in
choir and pulpit, but make earth blush, and heaven weep,
over tricks that are degrading, demoralising, and insulting
to all manliness and religion. Nor is the malady confined
only to men in distinguished positions, it affects all classes
in our republic, the tainted streams on the summit per-
colate the whole mountain. Of all the sins of humanity,
bribery is perhaps the meanest, most other crimes are
possible to a single transgressor, here there must be two
parties to the guilt, the man who gives and the man who
takes, both are debased, there may be daring in robbery,,
and courage in murder, the peculiarity of bribery is its-
cowardice, it sneaks, it cringes, it hides, it winds, it
twists, it wriggles, it skulks, it is not a lion roaring, but
a serpent lurking in the grass, to infuse its poison before
crushing with its coils. A man when he abuses his office,.

172 ST. PAUL TO CHICAGO.

warps his judgment and twists his conscience, and for
money sells his soul by the act, and ever expects greater
hire for himself, and he becomes like nitro-glycerine dan-
gerous to his purchaser. Now, it is

A MORTIFYING FACT

that nearly everything in our country has in someway, direct-
ly, or indirectly, been controlled by bribes : mechanics, over-
seers, builders, contractors,architects,have been bribed; clerks,
merchants, bankers, have been bribed ; constables, police-
men, collectors, inspectors, weighers, measurers, gangers,
postmasters, have been bribed ; lawyers, doctors, chemists,
analysts, surgeons, witnesses, have been bribed ; judges,
juries, legislators, governors, have been bribed. We have
sometimes feared that it would be difficult to place a
stone, or a timber, or a lock, or a screw, or a nail, in
our house, that has not somewhere on its passage felt
the stain of a bribe ; it is a question whether the food
that supports our lives, or the coffins which will convey
us to the grave can wholly escape contamination. The
•consequence is, disturbed faith in each other, and some-
times, a distrust of our country, and of our humanity, with
a fear like a shadow, that on all modern European and
American societies, is but the old doom of ancient Babylon
and Rome. One faith alone saves from despair, that is
sufficient, but not here to be discussed. Certain it is that
panics are but eruptions of a disease on the body politic;
our nation from the civil war has been preparing for our
recent commercial disasters, the timbers of the edifice of
our public credit had been secretly decaying long before
the weakened structure was threatened with its crash.
Many underlying sands must be washed away to make
the mountain fall." Without going as far as this American
writer I think that

OVER SPECULATION AND A NERVOUS DESIRE TO MAKE
MONEY

is one of the evils of American life, and none feels
this more than the workingman. The Irish World,
an American journal of wide circulation, which is con-
ducted with marked ability — on January 30th, 1875, in
a leading article on a threatened reduction of wages
Among the Pensylvania miners, published the following

ST. PAUL TO CHICAGO, 173

appeal from the men to the employers : — " Why ask a
reduction in the wages of poor labourers to increase your
wealth ; gentlemen be just, consider the poor families of
your workmen, consider that you are rich and we are
poor, consider the future, consider eternity, and we are
not afraid you will speak any more about reducing the
wages of your labourers." The same paper has the follow-
ing comment upon the appeal. " It is a matter dwelt
upon with peculiar satisfaction by the agents of the
capitalists, and frequently expressed by them, that the
men are too poor to strike, this is true, for men with
hungry children looking to them for bread must work for
whatever they can get, too poor to strike, expresses the
situation in four words ; this, however, does not justify the
cutting down of wages, as a reduction of wages is only
justifiable in cases where the diminished profits, or
embarrassed financial condition of the employer makes
such a course imperative." I make these quotations to
show, that everything is not milk and honey in America,
and as I said of Canada, I say of the States,

THE MORE EMIGRANTS SETTLE ON THE LAND, THE BETTER
FOR THEMSELVES AND THE COUNTRY.

Untravelled and inexperienced young people in the
United Kingdom fancy that New York is America, and
that they have only to arrive there, and then they will
get work and wages in abundance ; but never was there a
greater or a more fatal mistake, for New York and other
eastern cities, are crowded with people who are too poor
to leave them, 70 per cent., at least, of whom, are natives
of foreign countries, and more particularly of Ireland. This
is a sad state of things but true, and the sooner it is recog-
nised the better. Let it not be thought that I am against
the stalwart young fellow in England, or Ireland, trying
his luck by emigration ; at home he is bound down by
trammels like a child at his mother's apron strings, and
cannot rise above the position into which he was born,
abroad the road to independence is open to him; for
certainly there are no barriers placed in his way, although
there may be keen competition and hard running, and if
he does not possess energy, sobriety, and adaptability to
circumstances, he will be handicapped in the race.
THE POPULATION OF ST. PAUL,

174 ST. PAUL TO CHICAGO.

is about 33,000, made up of every class and creed, the
Catholic, the Protestant, the Jew, and the Gentile, are
here side by side, the law giving each, equal rights and
equal duties. The Irish portion of the inhabitants are very
comfortable, which may be attributed to three causes —
namely, the comparatively small numbers of working men
emigrants that arrive, as the distance is so far, and conse-
quently there is less competition in the labour market.
The rapidly growing wealth of the city and surrounding
•country, and the beneficial effects of the

TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT,

which I am glad to say is strong among the Irish of St.
Paul. On the Sunday night, I attended one of their
meetings and was delighted to see so many of my working
countrymen assembled in furtherance of the great cause
•of sobriety. They were all well dressed, and everyone
seemed to be much interested in the proceedings.

FATHER IRELAND,

the President, now Bishop of Nebraska, delivered an
address on the evils of drink, and requested his flock to
keep from it. I thought if other clergymen of every
denomination did like him, a great amount of good would
be done in the world. It may not be right to put any
public movement entirely under the control of the clergy,
or hierarchy of any church, because it would be creating
a little despotism that might be difficult to escape from,
except by keeping altogether outside of it. But as the
temperance movement is a broad question, affecting com-
munities and individuals alike, the more broad and
general, the platform is, the better for all. If the clergy
and laity co-operate each in their own sphere, to put down
intemperance, without the one exercising too much control
or thwarting the efforts of the other ; thousands of people
who are naturally good, but socially depraved, would
be benefitted. Drunkenness makes a man a beast,
sobriety makes him a human being. The following story
illustrative of this fact, and of loafer life in America,
copied from the Detroit Free Press, will be read with
interest :

" WHAT AILED ' UGLY SAM ? '

for he had been missing from the Potomac for several
days, and 'Cleveland Tom,' 'Port Huron Bill,' 'Tall

ST. PAUL TO CHICAGO. 175

Chicago,' and the rest of the lads who were wont to
.get drunk with him, couldn't make out what had hap-
pened. They hadn't heard that there was a warrant
•out for him, and never of his being sick for a day ;
so his absence from the old haunts puzzled them.
There were in 'The Hole In The Wall' saloon yes-
terday morning, nearly a dozen of the boys, drinking,
smoking, and playing cards, when in walked Ugly Sam.
There was a deep silence for a moment, as they looked at
him ; Sam had on a new hat, a clean collar, and a white
shirt, and had been shaved clean, and they didn't know
him. When they saw it was ' Ugly Sam,' ' Cave in that
hat,' cried one. ' Yank that collar off' shouted another.
' Let's roll him on the floor,' screamed a third. There was
something in his look and bearing which made them
hesitate. The whiskey red had almost faded from his face
and he looked sober and dignified, his features expressed
disgust and contempt as he looked round the room, and
then revealed pity, as his eyes fell upon the red noses and
bloated faces of the crowd before him. ' Why what ails
you Sam ? said ' Tall Chicago,' as they all stood there. ' I've
came down to bid you good-bye boys,' he replied, removing
his hat and drawing a clean pocket handkerchief from his
pocket. ' What ! have you turned preacher ? ' they shouted
in chorus. ' Boys — you know I can lick any two of you,
but I ain't on the fight any more. I've drank the last drop
of whiskey which shall ever enter my mouth. I've
switched off. I've signed the pledge. I am going to be
decent. ' Sam be you crazy,' said Port Huron Bill, coming
nearer to him. 'I've come down here to tell you all
about it,' answered Sam. ' Move the chair back a little
and give me room. Ye all know I've been a rough, and
more too. I've been a drinker, a fighter, a gambler, a loafer.
I can't look back and remember when I've earned an
honest dollar ; the police have chased me around like a
wolf. I've been in jail, and the poorhouse, and the papers
said, ' Ugly Sam was the terror of the Potomac.' Ye all
know this boys, but ye did not know that I had an old
mother.' (The faces of the crowd expressed amazement.)
* I never mentioned it to any of you. for I was neglecting
her, he went on,' she was a poor old body, living up there in
the alley, and if the neighbours hadn't helped her to food and

176 ST. PAUL TO CHICAGO.

fuel she would have been dead long ago. I never helped
her to a cent, I wanted all for myself; I didn't see her for
weeks and weeks, and I used to feel mean about it ; when
a fellow goes back on his old mother, he's a getting purty
low I guess, and I knew it. Well, she is dead, and was buried
yesterday, but she sent for me by Pete, and when I got in I
saw it was all up with her.' 'Did she say anything?'
asked one of the boys, as Sam hesitated. ' That's what
ails me now ' he went on ; ' when I went in she reached out
her hand to me/ and says she, ' Sam, I am going to die,
and I know you want to see me before I pass away.' I
sat down feeling queer like ; she did not go on saying as
how I was a loafer, and a fighter, and neglected her, but
says she, ' Sam, you'll be all alone when I am gone ; I've
tried to be a good mother to you ; I've prayed for you
hundreds of nights, and cried about you till my old heart
was sore.' Some of the neighbours had dropped in, and
the women were crying, and you know boys I felt tarna-
tion weak ; ' he paused for a moment and then continued,
" and the old woman said she " would like to kiss me before
death came," and that broke me right down. She kept
hold of my hand, and by-and-bye she whispered ' Sam you
are throwing your life away, you've got it in you to be a
man if you'll make up your mind. I hate to die and feel
that my only son may go to the gallows ; if I had your
promise that you would turn over a new leaf and try and
be good, it seems as if I could die easier; won't you
promise me my son/ and I promised her boys, and that's
what ails me. She died holding my hand, and I promised
to quit this low business and go to work ; I've come down
to tell ye, and now you won't see me on the Potomac
again; I've bought an axe and I am up in Canada to
winter.' There was dead silence for a moment, then he
said ' Well boys, I'll shake hands all round, afore I go ; good
bye " Pete," good bye " Jack," good bye " Jim ; " I hope ye
won't fling any bricks at me, and I shan't fling any at ye ;
it's a dying promise ye see, and I'll keep it, if my right arm
drop otf.' The men looked reflectively at each other
after he had passed out, and it was a long time before any
one spoke, then ' Tall Chicago ' flung his clay pipe into a
corner and spoke ' I'll lick the man who says Ugly Sam's
head isn't level;' 'so'll I' repeated the others." How

WINNIPEG TO ST. PAUL. 177

many thousands are there that this simple story comes
home to ;

GOOD MEN RUINED BY DRINK,

is the moral it points. The Secretary and President
of the Society at St. Paul, requested me to remain
till the Tuesday night, for another meeting of the
young men, and if I was pleased with the first I was
doubly so with the second. The large hall was crowded
to excess, and Father Ireland delivered a stirring address ;
several other speeches were made on matters of interest to
the meeting, the intelligence, the energy, and the appear-
ance of those young men, indicated good training and
augered well for the future of St. Paul. The Secretary
told me that very few of the working classes paid any rent,
as nearly every man owned his own house and lot ; gene-
rally a frame house on a lot 35 by 100 feet, which in a few
years will be valuable, because

ST. PAUL

is likely to grow to a very large city as the back
country becomes settled. The position and site is
good, with three railway systems concentrating upon
it, and with direct navigation to the ocean by the
Mississippi. When walking through the city I was
struck with the incongruity of the architecture: here
the log hut of the early settler ; next to it, perhaps, the
villa of the shopkeeper; then the frame house of the
mechanic or labourer ; the mansion of the wealthy man ;
the stupendous hotels, the magnificent churches, par-
ticularly Catholic; the immense warehouses in the business
quarter ; and the different public buildings, presented to
the eye a variety of architecture that would be hard to
describe. The building materials are, a hard blue scaly lime-
stone, and red brick, and unlike most American cities, the
streets are not at right angles, owing no doubt to the
broken nature of the ground on which the city is built.
During my visit the weather was not cold, although it was.
the latter end of November ; the mornings were sharp, but
the day and evening were beautiful. The climate is like
that of Manitoba, dry, clear, and cold in the winter, and
from every information I could collect, very healthy.

N

178 WINNIPEG TO ST. PAUL.

THE WAGES FOR A LABOURING MAN

were from 1 doL 25 cents in greenbacks, or about
four shillings and sevenpence English, to 1 doL 75
cents in greenbacks, or about six shillings and six-
pence English. A greenback is a paper dollar, nomi-
nally of the same value as a gold, dollar, but in reality
about fourpence half-penny, or fivepence less ; if a man
took a number of greenback dollars, say twenty, to a
bank, he would only get about eighteen in gold. In
Canada the paper dollar and the gold dollar are of the
same value, just as a five pound note, and five sovereigns
.are in England, and the man in the States working for
2 dols. per day, nominally eight shillings, does not receive
more than seven shillings and threepence. This depreciation
of paper currency is owing to the great expense incurred
during the civil war which caused an enormous national
debt, and which the United States Government, much to
its honour, is rapidly paying off. Panics and big swindles
have also had something to do with it, because they
created a mistrust and prevented the investment of
capital in healthy enterprises. The rent for a working-
man's house is from six to nine dollars per month ; board
and lodging for single men about four dollars per week ;
beef was seven cents per pound; pork, mutton, and venison
about five cents; clothes about thirty per cent, dearer
than in London, or Dublin, and about fifteen per cent,
dearer than in Montreal ; the working hours were sixty
per week, and work was brisk. I asked

MR. DALEY, SECRETARY OF THE CATHOLIC TEMPERANCE
SOCIETY,

who accompanied me through the city and suburbs,
whether there was any destitution, among those able
to work, and he said none. Any one sick, and widows,
orphans, or old people, received assistance from the
city council ; besides the St. Vincent De Paul Society, the
St. Patrick Society, the Protestant Benevolent Society, the
German Aid Society, and other bodies, gave donations to
those entitled to them by the rules of the organisations.
The impression left on my mind was, that the working-
classes in this north-western town had to toil hard, but that

WINNIPEG TO ST. PAUL. 179

they were well off in comparison to those in some of the
other big cities, or in the United Kingdom. By industry,
and talents, judiciously directed, a man in a few years
might leave labour behind, because the wealth, the enter-
prise, and the population will grow, and there is no elbowiing
of one another out of the way, as there is ample room for all.
I left St. Paul, by the West Wisconsin Railway, being
accompanied to the stations by a number of friends ;
.amongst others, by the brother of an old acquaintance, Mr.
Fitzgerald, of Brighton, England, the Secretaries of the
Irish Emigrant Aid Society and of the Father Matthew
Temperance Society ; after several shake hands I started
for Chicago, the capital of Illinois, and Metropolis of the
Western States, and one of the finest cities on the Con-
tinent. The scenery along the line was very fine, as we
dashed on through a capitally fanned country, very much
resembling Berkshire, in England, plain open land, well
fenced and cultivated, farm houseshere and there with teams
at work in the fields. The railway curved and detoured
to avoid a lake or a hill ; the wooded bluffs of the Mis-
sissippi, on our righ:, and numerous streams meandering
through marshes and meadows bringing their tribute to
that mighty river; stacks of Indian corn stalks were in
the fields waiting for cartage. We crossed on a trestle
bridge, over the River La Croix, one of the feeders of
the Mississippi, and about half a mile wide; on the
opposite bank is Hudson City, a very picturesque place
of about G,000 inhabitants. The bridge was of singular
construction, something in the shape of a reaping hook,
the reason being that the valley along which the train
came is not directly opposite the town, so, to run into
it, they made this curious bridge. I thought it looked
dangerous, particularly as it seemed a very temporary
affair, both in build and materials. Leaving Hudson City,
the route is still through a beautiful country, the land
rolling, with good drainage, to the Mississippi; we passed
through a forest swamp of excellent pine, but fire had
swept over a large portion of it. After emerging from this
forest swamp we crossed the River Menamee, another
tributary of the Mississippi, about as wide as the Thames
.at Greenwich. A few miles further on we crossed the

N 2

180 WINNIPEG TO ST. PAUL.

Chippewa, to the town of Eau-Claire, romantically
situated on its banks ; this river also discharges into the
Mississippi. On again we went to Madison, the capital of

WISCONSIN,

where there is a bridge (on the lake formed by the
Madison River) at'least a mile and half long, and entirely
made of timber. The population of the State of Wis-
consin, is 1,054,670, and the area in square miles is 53,670 ;
in the year 1873, 14,122 emigrants made Wisconsin their
home, principally Irish and Germans. The foreign born
population in the State according to returns in ] 872, was
as follows :— English, 28,194 ; Irish, 48,479 ; French, 2,704;
German, 162,314; Norwegians, 40,046; Danes, 5,212;
Swedes, 2,799. Thus, it will be seen that the Germans
outnumber by nearly three to one any other nationality,
the Irish being the next, so that the English race is fast
losing ground in those Western States and Territories.
Wisconsin, is a grain producing state, the soil being very
rich and fertile. After leaving Madison, dusk began to
set in, and travelling all night I had no opportunity of
seeing the country. The distance between St. Paul and
Chicago, is 460 miles, we took 24 hours on the trip,
making nearly an average speed of 20 miles an hour ; as-
we approached

CHICAGO,

the country becomes flat, evidently cultivated prairie ; on
every side there are rows of houses, mansions, villas, in-
stitutions, factories, and churches, interpersed with lawns,
paddocks, and fields, showing that the Metropolis of the
West is extending, and that at its present rate of progress
it will soon surpass New York itself in opulence and
splendour. Passing over one or two drawbridges, the
train gently glided to the platform, and here we were in
one of the most famous cities in the world, the greatness
of which, the English statesman, Richard Cobden, pre-
dicted in one of his bursts of eloquence on the Corn Laws,
when he said, " Our young men know all about Greece,
Rome, and Babylon, but they do not know anything of
Chicago, a city that is destined to give food to half the
world ;" but since his time it has grown into prominence
on account of its great fire and rapid re-construction.

181

CHAPTER XL

FROM CHICAGO TO NEW YORK VIA MONTREAL,
IN WINTER.

CHICAGO is the capital of the State of Illinois. It is
situate in a rather swampy plain on the north-west shore
of Lake Michigan, its population in about forty-five years
has risen from a couple of hundred to nearly half a million,
an increase not equalled by that of any other city on the
surface of the globe. Here the elements that go to build
up the United States can be studied to great advantage,
from the Heathen Chinee to the New Englander going
West to trade and make money. Here the great race is
going on for wealth, everyone seeming anxious to come in
a winner. The first thing that strikes a visitor is the
bustle of the people in the streets ; everybody in a hurry
as though the world depended on the rapidity of the
motion of each individual. In the United Kingdom when
an order is given to have anything done quickly, it is by
a " now look sharp." In America it is " now then hurry
up," and certainly those words express the nervous activity
of the citizens of this extraordinary town, considering it is

THE LARGEST INLAND PORT IN AMERICA, AND THE GREAT
DEPOT OF THE NORTH-WEST.

There were not many men hanging about the corners of
the streets, everybody seemed to be employed in some
way or another, although perhaps not all in the most
useful or respectable occupations, many being " sports-
men," i,e., professional gamblers. I was told there was a
great deal of destitution and want of employment among
the working classes, arising from three main causes. First,
the great influx of men after the fire. Second, the de-
pression in the money market. And third, drink. Every-
body has heard of

182 CHICAGO TO NEW YORK.

THE GREAT FIRE

of Chicago, the most destructive in modern times, causing
a loss, estimated at 200,000,000 dols., destroying the
homes of tens of thousands of people, extending over an
area of 4 or 5 miles, and sacrificing nearly 200 lives.
There are two or three stories about

THE ORIGIN

of this conflagration ; one is that whilst a man was milk-
ing a cow by the light of an oil lamp, the cow upset the
lamp which ignited some straw, thence the fire spread to
the wooden pavement of the city. A second report is that
a party of drunken men set on fire a stable, where they
had taken refuge after being turned out of a low drinking
saloon; a large number of which, found still in existence
notwithstanding so many were destroyed in the fire. A
third report is that it was the work of an organised gang
of incendiaries who hoped in the general confusion to be
able to plunder at pleasure. The Commissioners report
on the subject does not attribute it to any cause, it
merely says that the fire began in a stable in the north-
east quarter of the city at nine o'clock on Sunday, October
8th, 1871. The fire destroyed 2,170 lamps, and travelled
over 65 acres an hour, consuming property to the amount
of 125,000 dols. per minute, the whole area over which
the fire swept was about 1,690 acres, and it burned up
120 miles of wooden footways. When the telegraph
flashed the account of this great calamity to Europe, the
public mind was stirred to its utmost depth, subscriptions
were set on foot for the sufferers and a large sum was
collected, which effected much good at the time, and
indeed saved many lives. The utmost consternation pre-
vailed, and men asked each other in a melancholy way, if
Chicago would again arise from its ashes ; this was only
four years ago, and now Chicago is

ONE OF THE FINEST CITIES IN THE WORLD,

the fire was merely a renovator, a renewer, a scavenger,
and a beautifier, for the new portion of the city is some-
thing superb. The warehouses, the hotels, and public
buildings, are stupendous; the Grand Pacific House has

CHICAGO TO NEW YORK. 183

nearly a thousand windows, and a half that number of
rooms ; the Potter House, the Treemont House, and other
establishments are equally large. These magnificent
buildings are nearly all made of stone, which I was told
was brought from some celebrated quarries in Ohio;
but wherever it came from it is a very fine building
material ; the new footways are made of the same stone
which is also laid down in huge landings, some that I
measured being 14 feet long, 10 feet wide, and a foot
thick. I was surprised to see large buildings carried up
without any scaffold, trestles being used off the floors, and
the heavy material hoisted by derricks from the inside, and
placed in position by travellers and small steam cranes,
which is the plan followed in all parts of America that I
have been to ; I cannot say whether it is better than having
a scaffold to the front as in the Old Countries. Most of
the streets are paved with wood, simply deal, cut into
square blocks, and grouted in with small gravel and lime,
like ordinary stone paving.

THE HARBOUR

islarge and commodious, docks and wharves being made just
like a port on the sea coast. Doubtless some of my readers
may smile at the words harbour, port, docks, and wharves,
being used in reference to atown 1,261 miles by water from
Montreal, the nearest seaport at the head of ocean naviga-
tion, which itself is over 200 miles from the Atlantic ;
but they will not be surprised when they read that

LAKE MICHIGAN

is 345 miles long, with an average breadth of 80 miles,
and a coast line of nearly 700 miles, and a general depth
of 1,000 feet, that this lake has an area of 22,400 square
miles, and that its elevation is 578 feet above the level
of the sea and that it is joined to the other great lakes by
navigable channels and canals. The united area of the
five largest lakes — namely, Huron, Michigan, Superior,
Erie, and Ontario, being 84,100 square miles, all being
connected with the Atlantic by the St. Lawrence. At
present only

OCEAN GOING VESSELS
drawing not more than 12 feet of water, can come up to

184 CHICAGO TO NEW YORK.

Chicago; but when the St. Lawrence Locks above
Montreal, and the Welland Canal are improved, ships of
almost any size and tonnage will be able to sail from the
Atlantic to Chicago.

THE ST. LAWKENCE AND OTHER CANALS

give Canada the entire control of Lake Navigation, which
must be a great source of wealth to the Dominion, but
they are used by the citizens of the United States, under
the stipulations of various treaties. Some of the lake
vessels which I saw in Chicago, were as large as ocean going
ships, and larger than coasters trading between port and
port in the United Kingdom, the only difference was in
their rigging, which was a little lighter, but standing on
one of the bridges and looking down the line of shipping
lying in the river, a stranger could scarcely see any differ-
ence between Chicago, and an ocean port. The river is not
a large one, but as the bottom is clay there is no difficulty
in increasing its depth by the use of steam dredgers.
Those who imagine that the Thames Tunnel, is the only
one of the kind in the world, are much mistaken, as

THE CHICAGO RIVER IS TUNNELLED

for streets to go underneath, so that there is no breakage
in thoroughfares running east and west. Some of these
streets are of an immense width and perfectly straight,
being at right angles to each other, making the houses
into square blocks as in most American towns. Clark
Street, Madison Street, Lake Street, Wabash Avenue, and
other streets are large, spacious, and well laid out, and
certainly the Town Council and architects are keeping
uniformity of design in their arrangements and plans ; a
good deal of the south and west suburbs, are frame houses
where most of the working and middle classes live. These
dwellings are neat and ornamental, and are like gilded
cages very pretty to look at; there can however be lit tie doubt
but that fire will make a clear sweep of them some day,
and then they will be succeeded by such magnificent
structures as are now erected on the site of those des-
troyed in the last fire. The Chicago Fire Brigade is very
strong and efficient. In Chicago there are a great many

(CHICAGO TO NEW YORK. 185

societies of one sort or another, and more particularly
Irish, such as the Clan-na-Gael, the Irish Benevolent
Friends, the Hibernian Society, the Irish Emigrant
Aid Society, the Knights of St. Patrick, the Catholic
Young Men's Association, the Catholic Temperance
Union, the Father Matthew Society, the Irish Protestant
Benevolent Society,

THE IRISH LITERARY SOCIETY,

and several others. I was present at a meeting of the latter
society, there were about 300 members in attendance, the
business of the evening was a discussion on the relative
merits of the poets and soldiers of Ireland, with special refer-
ence to their influence in supporting the cause of Irish
nationality, after a long and interesting debate in which
much erudition and knowledge of Irish History were
shown, a vote was taken, the audience declaring for the
poets. To show

THE POSITION OF THE IRISH

in this distant city, 1 may mention that I counted in the
Directory, 504 Murphys, 413 O'Briens, 494 Ryans, 224
O'Connors, and so on, with all other Irish names. Of
course this is the result of the iniquitous Irish land system,
And the consequent great exodus from Ireland, during
the last thirty years, of the bone and sinew of its popula-
tion ; leaving their own country in ship loads to escape
famine and oppression. Irishmen, by their intelligence,
fortitude, and hard toil have materially assisted in found-
ing and enlarging this extraordinary city in another
hemisphere. A characteristic feature of the Irish race is
its individuality, which it has maintained in every part of
>the world where any of its members have settled,
as can be seen in Chicago, Montreal, New York, or
London, where Irish societies bear names indicative of the
nationality of their members, and attention is more
directed to Ireland and to her public men than even to the
country where those expatriated people are resident. In
the coal pits of Staffordshire, in the woollen mills of
Yorkshire, in the iron furnaces of Durham or South
Wales,

186 CHICAGO TO NEW YORK.

IRISHMEN

are doing the most labourious work ; in London, Cardiff,
Bristol, Liverpool, in fact all over England, they are fol-
lowing every occupation from which a living can be got ;
they suit themselves to the customs, the habits, and the
usages of the people, among whom they settle, although
those customs are in many cases very different from what
they may have been used to in their own country. Even
in England there is a marked difference in the social habits
of the working classes of the north and south, yet Irish
peasants crossing the channel to any part of Great Britain,
will adapt themselves to the circumstance that surround
them without losing their national individuality ; so also
in America, whether as comfortable farmers in Canada,
or merchants, traders, or labourers in its cities, there is
the same instinctive love of Ireland and interest in its
welfare. Cross the St. Lawrence into the United States,
it is there again to be seen, only in a more demonstrative
form, whether in the coal fields of Pennsylvania, on the
western prairies, or in the great cities, it is all the same;
there is an indestructible individuality in the Irish race at
home and abroad.

THE RATE OF WAGES

for town labourers in Chicago was from 1 dol. 25 cents to-
2 dols. per day, or from about five to seven shillings
English. Food and fuel being cheap, but clothes and
hotise room dear ; I was told that there was some destitu-
tion among the working class through improvident habits
and slackness of employment. There is

NO WORKHOUSE

or general poor-rate, but the Town Council is a Board of
Relief, to assist those in want. Chicago is the flour, grain,
and pork dep6t of the West, being well situated for the
lake trade and export to Europe, by its water connection
with the St. Lawrence, and having from fifteen to twenty
different railways, placing it in com munication with every
quarter of the continent. On an average there are about
3,000,000 pigs per annum dead and alive sold in the
Chicago Market, which is as many as there are in the

CHICAGO TO NEW YORK. 187

United Kingdom altogether, for by a return to the House
of Commons in 1873, there were only 2,500,259 pigs in
the United Kingdom, and the number has not increased
much since. The estimated value of the Chicago

HOG TEADE

is about 34,000,000 dols., or between £6,000,000 and
£7,000,000, and the estimated value of its cattle trade
is about 42,000,000 of dols. over £8,000,000 ; Cincinnati
and St. Louis have nearly as extensive a trade as Chicago
in pork. American bacon is largely consumed in England,
under the name of mild Wiltshire, or excellent Hamp-
shire. There are thousands in England who sit down to
a nice breakfast of eggs and bacon, who would be incre-
dulous, if they were told that the bacon they were eating
came not from Yorkshire, Wiltshire, or Westphalia, but
from America; for most English people suppose that
America produces nothing in this line but salt pork.
However, more hams come from America than from West-
phalia and Yorkshire twice over.

THE CORN TRADE

of Chicago is also very large ; the annual export being
nearly ninety millions of bushels. This enormous quantity
of grain is brought by railway and canal from the Western,
the Northern, and Central States, either for export to
Europe, or distribution to the manufacturing districts of
New England. The storeage room in the warehouses of
Chicago, is about 13,000,000 bushels ; the machinery for
loading or unloading the grain is also remarkable ; attached
to each of the large warehouses is an apparatus called
an " elevator," which carries the corn to the top of a high
tower, where the grain is emptied on screens that winnow
it of dust and mould in its passage to the shoot which dis-
charges it into the ship. An elevator is an endless strap,
of gigantic size, worked by steam power with buckets
attached like a dredger, or thrashing machine. It is not
at all an unusual thing to see a barge on one side of the
elevator, and the vessel on the other, with a continuous
stream of corn between the two crafts, while the grain is.
aired, winnowed, and measured in the transit, and it is-

188 CHICAGO TO NEW YORK.

surprising with what ease a cargo of several thousand
bushels is shipped by this process. Chicago is strongly
infected with the modern mania for

PUBLIC PARKS

as it has seven or eight of those lungs, the whole making
between 23,000 and 24,000 acres — no mean playground
for the citizens to recreate in. Illinois, of which Chicago
is the capital, is one of the finest States in the Union,
having an area of 55,4?10 square miles and a population
of 2,750,000. Farming is carried on to a great extent,

THE SOIL

being very fertile and generally yielding excellent crops.
It is the same class of dark deep loam that I had seen in
Dacotah and Minnesota ; not so deep or black as that of
Manitoba, but more friable through the greater quantity
of sand mixed in it. The forests are extensive, comprising
oak, ash, maple, elm, and satin wood, but a very little of
Illinois now belongs to the public domain, although land
can be had in most parts of it cheap, even in the neigh-
bourhood of Chicago. There are large

COAL FIELDS

in this state, and mining operations'are actively carried on,
lead, copper, and iron, being found in great quantities ; and
as soon as the American financial difficulties get rectified,
and capitalists resume their usual enterprise, those mines
will be worked on a large scale. The foreign born popula-
tion of Illinois is nearly 500,000, and may be divided as
follows :— Germans, 203,758; Irish, 120,169; English,
53,871; Swedes, 29,979; Norwegians, 11,880; French,
10,911; Danes, 3,711. By these figures it will be seen
that nearly all the nations of Europe, are represented in
the population, the Germans and Irish taking leading
places. The natives^of all the countries of Germany, as
well as of Holland and Belgium, go under the general
name of " Germans " in some states, and " Dutchmen " in
others ; why, I cannot tell, but suppose it is because they
are so much alike. When we consider 500,000 of
foreign born people in a population of less than 3,000,000,
it is not difficult to see the cause of the rise and growth

CHICAGO TO NEW YORK.

of Western states and cities. On the 28th of November,
I left Chicago by the Michigan Central Railway for
Detroit, en route for Toronto. From Chicago to Detroit,
the distance is 284 miles, and from Detroit to Toronto
231, making a total between Toronto and Chicago of
515 miles, for which I paid 14£ dols. first-class fare, sleeping
berths being 2 dols. a night extra. The road is through the
centre of the State of Michigan, a part of Indiana and
Illinois, and running for a long distance on the shore of
Lake Michigan, which appears only very little below the
level of the surrounding country. There are numerous
towns and villages along the line, and farm houses are
plentiful and comfortable looking, the land being well culti-
vated ; although within three weeks of Christmas teams were
in the fields ploughing and getting the ground ready for
the spring crop. Indian corn is extensively grown in this
section, and much of the stalk was still in stooks awaiting
cartage to the stack or farm yard, to be used for fuel for
which it is very good. On the Indian corn stubble fields-
there were immense pumpkins lying about, the largest I
ever saw, an evidence of the fertility of the soil.

THE STATE OF MICHIGAN

has an area of 56,451 square miles, and a population of
nearly 1,250,000 which the census returns of the United
States divided as follows : — Germans, 64,043; Irish, 40,347 ~T
English, 35,051; French, 3,121; Swedes, 2,406; Nor-
wegians, 1,516; Danes, 1,354; making 145,038 foreign born.
Here again we find the Germans take the lead in point of
numbers, and the Irish next, the English also being com-
paratively strong. The avowed destination of 14,138 out of
the 266,818 emigrants landed at Castle Gardens in 1873,
was Michigan. In the northern part of the state, there-
are very large forests from which a good deal of the
timber for the rapidly rising towns and manufacturing
districts is drawn, the supply being almost exhaustless.
Should the United States be engaged in war with a foreign.
power, and such a power should succeed in blockading
the seaboard ports, it would not inconvenience her much,
because she has within her borders everything required
to sustain her population and carry on a war for years

190 CHICAGO TO NEW YORK.

she has 170,000 miles of railways connecting all the large
towns and centres of population. She has an unlimited
supply of iron, salt, and timber, her lakes, rivers, and
•canals, are immeasurable and in the event of a war would
be invaluable in carrying surplus produce wherever it
might be required, her food producing capacity, is the
greatest in the world, in the West wheat, in the centre
Indian corn, in the South rice and sugar. Her soil is
fertile, yielding in abundance all requisite food supplies,
and above all she has a hardy, enterprising, courageous,
and educated population, and has room for fifty times a
larger one ; she has no distant colonies to protect, and on
that account could concentrate all her strength upon any
threatened point of her frontier, so that in my humble
opinion, she is

THE STRONGEST POWER IN THE WORLD.

Although the standing army is small, there are militia
and volunteer organisations in every town and district,
giving the citizens a military training. But let us hope
the day is far distant, when she will have to draw the sword,
either to protect her shores from a foreign foe, or to
perpetuate and keep intact, that Union, which has done so
much for the human race. Some say there will be a
breach sooner or later between the East and West, as one
is the Custom-house of the other, and charges too high a
tariff. But; I think this is a narrow view of the subject,
because it is only recently that the great railway systems
have been completed, which in the course of a short time,
must cheapen the carriage of goods ; and as the mines get
opened up and manufacturing industries established in
the interior, the country will be less dependent on foreign
merchandise ; thus the western " Grangers " will have home
markets for their produce, and the eastern manufacturer
for his goods, this must lead to a mutual good under-
standing because it will make the interest of every section
of the country identical. The great danger of the West is
from China, rather than from the manufacturers, for

CHINESE EMIGRATION

on a large scale, is calculated seriously to weaken the
United States, by discouraging the immigration of

CHICAGO TO NEW YORK. 191

European labourers to its territories. Chinese emigra-
tion is not of a character calculated to enrich or enoble
a country. The Chinaman never intends to become a
citizen, he in his heart despises the citizens of the
United States as Outer Barbarians, and will not bring his
wife and children with him to be contaminated by their
(to his thoughts) uncivilised and savage ways ; he will not
even leave his corpse to enrich the American soil; the
bodies of Chinamen are therefore carefully shipped back
to their celestial land. He does not however hesitate to
bring to this land of Outer Barbarians, the filthiest vices
of the filthiest people in the world. With his " Choice
Souchong " — muck that a Chinese scavenger would not con-
descend to swill ; he brings cargoes of the most degraded
women, who pollute the social atmosphere of the Pacific
seaboard cities, with their hateful presence. Wherever he
goes throughout the States, he reduces the rate of wages
to starvation level. How indeed can European labourers
contend on equal terms in the labour market, with men
who are accustomed to regard rat soup as one of the
highest delicacies ? I do not wish to give vent to any
illiberal sentiments, or to prevent these members of the
great human family, from emigrating to any country they
please, but I do think, that if any regard is to be had, to the
position of the United States, as a great military power,
Chinese emigration to America requires regulation.
Capitalists may make a few millions out of the cheap
labour of the Heathen Chinee; but when the time comes
for the sword to decide, who shall have the future control
of that wealth, and of the Government of the United
States, the contest will be decided, not by the country
possessing most capitalists, and " Chinamen," but by the
country possessing the largest number of properly trained
men of European extraction. " Fortified towns, well-stored
arsenals and armouries," said Lord Chancellor Bacon,
"Goodly races of horse, chariots of war, elephants, ordnance,
artillery, and the like, are nothing more than a sheep in a
lion's skin, unless the nation itself be from its origin and
temper, stout 'and warlike. The sinews of war are not
money, if the sinews of men's arms be wanting as they are
in a soft and effeminate nation ; for Solon said well to

192 CHICAGO TO NEW YORK.

Croesus (when in ostentation he showed him his gold).
' Sir, if any other come that hath better iron than you, he
will be master of all this gold.' " At half-past nine o'clock
p.m. we arrived at

DETROIT,

and immediately crossed the Detroit River about a mile
wide, on a huge ferry boat, like a small Great Eastern, to
Windsor, Ontario. The town of Detroit, is one of the
oldest in the United States, having been settled by French
colonists from Lower Canada, in the year 1701; some of
the most sanguinary battles of the war between the
English and French, were fought in its neighbourhood.
The present population is about 93,000, a large portion
being Germans and Irish. There are nine banks and a
great many fine public buildings, eight Catholic Churches,
seven Episcopalian Protestant Churches, six Baptist
Chapels, eight German Lutheran Churches, five Methodist
Chapels, and two Jewish Synagogues, besides a number of
other places of worship. There are also six daily papers,
and a large number of weeklies.

WINDSOR,

on the opposite side of the river, is in the province of
Ontario, Canadian Territory, on the extreme end of the
Ontarian Peninsula, The town is well built and in a
flourishing condition, the population being about 4,000,
a large proportion of whom are engaged in the lumber
trade. In replying to an address presented to the Governor
General by the people of Windsor last summer, when

LORD DUFFERIN,

in the course of a tour of inspection visited that town.
The Governor General said " You tell me that you inhabit
a portion of the Dominion, which is in some respects
isolated, shut off from the remainder of our territories ; I
should imagine, that if it is in any way distinguished from
the rest of Canada, it is by the peculiar beauty of its
situation, by the advantages of its climate, and by the
enviable facilities it enjoys, from its proximity to so
magnificent a river, be that as it may, whatever be the
isolation of your geographical position, it is quite evident

CHICAGO TO NEW YORK. 193

from what you have said, and from what I see around me
that you are united with the rest of your fellow subjects
in your love of freedom ; in your devotion to the interests
of your country ; in the pride which you so justly feel, in
the institutions under which you live, and in the satisfac-
tion which you express with regard to that magnificent
destiny which is common to you all." I laid on the floor
of the station at Windsor, till four o'clock in the morning
wrapped up in my blanket, for I carried that useful
covering with me in all my travelling, as it often served
the twofold purpose of bed and bedclothes, and on this
night, instead of going to an hotel for a few hours, I
made use of my portmanteau for a pillow, folded my
blanket around me and laid on the floor soon to fall into
a sound sleep ; from which I was awakened at four o'clock
by the clatter of a bell, and the guard shouting "All
aboard !" instead of " Take your seats !" as in England ; a
quantity of snow had fallen during the night which pre-
vented my seeing anything of the country; but this
Peninsula or skirt of the province of Ontario, through
which I travelled and which divides Lake Erie from Lake
Huron, is considered

THE GARDEN OF CANADA,

it is traversed by the two great Canadian railway systems
the Grand Trunk and the Great Western, both of which
have termini at Windsor. Arriving in Toronto, at one
o'clock I went to my old quarters at the Mansion House
Hotel, where I met numerous friends who were glad to
see me. Among them

MR. CHRISTOPHER SHIEL,

just arrived from Dublin, where he was Ontario emigra-
tion agent. After a day or two's rest I went in company
with Mr. Shiel to visit some of the towns in the western
portion of the province, the first we stopped at was Guelph,
where I had been before in the middle of the summer ; we
called on

MR. FAHEY,

the editor of one of the two daily papers published there
and this gentleman answered every question and gave us
all the information in his power. There was no destitution

o

194 CHICAGO TO NEW YORK.

whatever in the town or neighbourhood, as none of the
societies or Town Council had been applied to for relief.
The people were all well clad in warm clothing, which was
necessary as the weather was cold. From Guelph we
went to London, where we had the honour of an interview
with

DR. WALSH, THE CATHOLIC BISHOP,

who is a native of Kilkenny, Ireland ; his Lordship received
us courteously and gave us much valuable information ;
he said that there was no destitution, although there was
a slackness in the manufacturing industries, through the
financial depression in the States ; that in the early part of
the summer ; he would have no objection to take charge of
a number of agricultural labourers, and assist them in
getting employment, and that at any season of the year he
could place out young women in situations, as female
servants were always wanted. Around

LONDON

the country is excellently cultivated and the farms well laid
out, on this head I will again refer to a speech of Lord
Dufferin's in reply to an address from the citizens during
his progress on the tour alluded to. He said " Of course
we are all aware, that agriculture is the mainstay of
Canada's prosperity, experience \ has taught us, that agri-
culture is best supplemented by the existence of manu-
factures, which on the one hand supply the farmer with those
materials, necessary for the transaction of his business,
while on the other hand they constitute a market for his
surplus products. During the course of the last few days, I
have passed through tracts of the most beautiful country,
possessing soil as fertile as any that it has ever been my
good fortune to observe, the magnificent regularity and
vast area of the fields have made a great impression upon
my mind, accustomed as I am to the small, and I regret
to say, more or less imperfectly cultivated districts of the
Old Countries, and I feel that I am paying you no unmean-
ing or unjustifiable compliment, when I say that there are
many English and Irish farmers who might take a lesson
from your system of agriculture." The population of London
is about 19,000, of which 1,000 are blacks; there is a

CHICAGO TO NEW YORK. 195

railway waggon factory employing nearly 100 men, several
oil refineries giving work to a large number of hands, a
cooperage, and a rather extensive tannery, five banks, and
a, good many societies established for different purposes.
We called on

THE LOCAL IMMIGRATION AGENT,

and he said there was no difficulty in finding employment
for all the emigrants that came to his agency during the
summer, and those who had arrived in the past season were
all comfortably settled. We went from London to Hamil-
ton, a town situated on the far end of Lake Ontario. The
scenery around it in summer must be very fine, a chain
of disconnected and wood-covered hills behind, and the
sparkling lake in front, with the town nestling along the
-curving end of the bay.

HAMILTON

is the seat of some large manufactures, among them the
works of the Great Western Railway of Canada, a sewing
machine manufactory, a stove factory, a woollen mill for
making tweeds, an agricultural implement manufactory,
besides several other industries. The population is about
28,000, and of all European nationalities, about six or
seven hundred being coloured people, mostly waiters or
barbers, for throughout Canada and the States, barbering
is generally done by negroes, the whiteman thinking it
below his dignity to follow that business. There are three
daily papers, four Episcopalian Protestant Churches, three
Catholic, four Presbyterian, six Methodist, one Lutheran
(German), and one Jewish Synagogue; some of those
edifices being large and commodious, particularly the
Catholic Cathedral, dedicated to St. Mary. I was
told that town employment was slack, and that there
was some stagnation in manufactures, entirely on ac-
count of the financial crisis in the neighbouring re-
public, but that there was no actual destitution,
although the Town Council and philanthropic societies
had taken steps to assist the working classes during the
winter in case of need. There was a good deal of snow on
the ground and the atmosphere was cold, but very dry, which
prevented the cold being felt as much as if it had been

o 2

19G CHICAGO TO NEW YORK.

damp ; and it is extraordinary how soon a little active exercise
will create a warm glow, even when the glass is very low,
because the heat produced is not attracted from the body
by humidity, the atmosphere being very light. After
spending a day in Hamilton we went to

ST. CATHERINE'S,

on the Welland Canal, situated on a plateau, 120 feet
higher than Lake Ontario. It is a kind of a Canadian,
Killarney and Tunbridge Wells combined, as there are
woods, lakes, and sulphur springs, and enthusiastic
admirers have called it the Saratago of Canada. The
population is about 17,000 with two daily Papers, five
Banks, two Protestant Churches, two Baptist Chapels, two
Presbyterian Chapels, and one Roman Catholic Church
(very large); several schools, and branches of the four
great organisations, the St. George's, St. Patrick's, St.
Andrew's, and Irish Protestant Benevolent Society, and
also a branch of the Brotherhood of St. Vincent De Paul,
is established there.

THE WELLAND CANAL,

on which the town is built, is the most important of the
Canadian Canal systems as it connects the navigation of
Lake Erie with Lake Ontario, which in the Erie River
(the natural channel) is entirely prevented by Niagara.
Falls. The canal is 27 miles long, with a lock on every mile
and constructed for vessels of five hundred tons, but some
vessels that go through are a great deal in excess of that
figure. The Canadian Government is now building a
ship canal of much larger capacity, and on more improved
engineering principles, as the present one is totally inade-
quate for the rapidly increasing trade on the lake&.
During my visit to St. Catherine's, there were a thousand
men on the works, the greater portion of them excavatorSj
receiving wages of one dollar and a quarter per day, and in
a few instances a dollar and a half, masons from two to
three dollars per day, but there were not many mechanics
on the job as a good deal of the cutting was through rock,
and brickwork or masonry was not required except at
the locks. I heard there was no difficulty in getting men

CHICAGO TO NEW YOKK. 197

as any number could be had from Buffalo, Albany, New
York, and other towns in the States, where the money
panic had caused the suspension of public works, and
thrown thousands of hands out of employment. Before
leaving St. Catherine's I had the honour, in company with.
Mr. Shiel, to visit

THE VERY REVEREND ARCHDEACON MULLIGAN,

the Catholic clergyman of the town; I was very well
pleased with my visit, for I found in the Archdeacon a
man of great practical intelligence, with a thorough
knowledge of the working classes, both in America and
Europe. He said that both himself and the Protestant
clergymen were endeavouring to keep the men on the
public works from drink, and that in a great measure their
combined efforts had been successful, as there were over
-300 of the Catholic workmen in one society, and that
before the temperance movement was introduced among
them, the scenes in the town on pay days were frightful ;
but that now a large number of the men were putting
money in bank, and had erected a hall on the works for
meetings and concerts to be held in. The Archdeacon
informed us that there were only three people receiving
assistance from the Town Council, and that they were
helpless old women, St. Catherine's and its vicinity being
otherwise free from pauperism. After taking leave of the
good Archdeacon, we went for a walk, although the day
was intensely cold, and the snow was deep ; it was not,
however, damp, but dry, something like flour; every
person we met was well clad and fully prepared to stand
the most severe winter, great woollen gloves on their
hands, comforters round their necks, and overshoes out-
-side their boots ; I wore just the same winter clothing that
I would in England or Ireland, and did not feel the least
inconvenience from the cold. Next day we returned to
Toronto, by the Great Western Railway, having been just a
week on the trip. The face of the country was covered with
snow to about a depth of six inches, entirely preventing us
seeing the quality of the land, but judging from the
appearance of the houses and villages along the line, the
district must be in a prosperous state. Navigation on the

198 CHICAGO TO NEW YORK.

great lakes and rivers was just closing, and ships were being-
laid up for the winter ; many of the men employed going to
the timber forests or lumber mills, and others who had
saved plenty of money during the summer to live in
comfort until navigation opened in April. In Toronto
there was some poverty, mostly among the very improvi-
dent, and considering it is the largest emigration depot
in the Dominion, I was surprised there was not more
destitution, as many arrive late in the season. The plan
generally adopted by the working classes, is to purchase a
barrel or two of flour, and a quantity of beef and pork in
the autumn, which can be done much cheaper than when
winter sets in, the meat being preserved fresh by freezing
it. This is the general practice all through the country
as there is very little outdoor feed for stock in winter, and
fanners get their animals in condition before the entire
severity of the weatherbegins, when they either kill and take
the meat to market themselves, or sell to a butcher. Frost
will preserve meat for any length of time, the last piece
being just as good as the first, but it must not be refrozen,
that is thawed and frozen again because it makes it flabby
and flavourless. Nearly all working and middle class people
get in a store of provisions for winter while things are
cheap ; doing away with that dependence on casual employ-
ment and parish relief so frequent with a large portion of
the working classes of the Old Countries. During my stay
in Toronto,

THE LOCAL PARLIAMENT

was sitting and I could not help admiring the straight-
forward and business-like way in which the work of Legis-
lation was carried on, every member attending to his duty
and giving as much attention to his work as he would to
any private speculation or trade he might be engaged in.

THE WINTER WAGES FOR LABOURERS

in Toronto was from four to five shillings per day, and
although the weather was cold there was a good deal of
work going on. On the 5th and 6th of December, a thaw
set in and cleared the ground entirely of snow, at which
the people grumbled a good deal because they said as

CHICAGO TO NEW YORK. 199

soon as the snow got fairly settled they could go on with
their regular winter arrangements, but thaws made every-
thing damp and unpleasant.

THE CLIMATE OF ONTARIO,

and particularly on the shores of the lake is the most
genial in Canada, milder in winter and not so warm in
summer as other portions of the Dominion; fruit and
vegetables of every kind growing in the greatest profusion
and perfection, the Canadian apples being considered
among the finest produced in any country. From Toronto
I went to Montreal by the Grand Trunk Railway, the
country being covered with snow, the lakes and rivers
frozen over, and the cattle all housed, great heaps of
timber sawn into junks, about two feet long, were laying
round the stations along the line, at private houses, and in
convenient places for sale, that at the stations, was for
the locomotives and offices, and that at the houses, for
private use. As yet wood constitutes

THE PRINCIPAL FUEL OF CANADA,

and sells at from four and a half to seven dollars per cord.
Those great heaps of fuel wood reminded me of the vast
quantity of coal often seen around an English railway
station in the mining districts, or the big turf stacks on
an Irish bog or around well-to-do Irish farm houses. A
good deal of this timber is cut by

HORSE POWER MILLS,

and if the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
has any power in Canada, it ought to put the law in motion
against this class of horsework, for this horse-power wood
cutting mill, is a horse torturer, and the sooner it is
abolished or improved, the better it will be for the poor
brutes that have to work it. At the different stations
where the train stopped I was much struck with

THE GOOD WARM CLOTHING OF THE PEOPLE,

the light summer articles werejaid aside, and thick woollen
material worn instead, of course well to do people were
better off in this respect than the working class, however,
they were well fitted up to follow their employment,

200 CHICAGO TO NEW YORK.

rough warm clothes, long boots outside their trousers,
hairy caps with earlets to cover the ears, woollen or leather
gloves, stout jacket or overcoat, and a woollen comforter
round the neck, as a rule constituting the dress of a
Canadian workingman. Arriving in Montreal at ten
o'clock, I put my luggage on my back and trudged my
way to the Express Hotel, where I had stopped during my
previous visit to the city.

201

CHAPTER XII.

FROM MONTREAL TO PHILADELPHIA IN
WINTER.

HAVING in previous chapters given an account of my
travels in Canada during the summer months, I have now
to recount my winter experiences. A Canadian winter
differs so much from a Canadian summer that it is difficult
to realise the fact that one is still in the same country ; of
course the mode of life of the people changes with
the seasons, and it is most important, that the emigrant
should acquaint himself with the customary precautions
adopted by the experienced inhabitants, to make life com-
fortable and pleasant during the winter months. If, there-
fore, at times I seem to travel over the same track twice
the above must be my excuse. From Montreal I went to
Ottawa, where I remained for a few days, during which
time there was

AN ELECTION

for the Provincial Parliament of Ontario. The contest ran
pretty close, and there was considerable excitement and
manifestation of party and other influences, but all carried
on with the greatest good humour, the various candidates
speaking from one platform and at the same meeting,
although of totally opposite political views.

EMPLOYMENT WAS PLENTIFUL

in the town, as there was a good deal of public works going
on. There did not seem to be much destitution, but the
little there was, convinced me of the necessity of Govern-
ment dealing with it by an Act for that purpose, instead
of leaving it to be met by private societies that are not
responsible to the public. I went through several streets
in the working class quarters and the general appearance

202 MONTREAL TO PHILADELPHIA.

of the people and of their homes was good. I also made
inquiries of clergymen, heads of temperance societies, and
of others who were likely to know, and was told that real
poverty was reduced to a minimum, orphans, widows, or
destitute old people being taken care of by the different
societies, but it does not matter how prosperous a place may
be, there always will be some poor people who must be
taken care of, either by the Government or private charity,
or, what is still better, a combination of both. Many of
the emigrants that go to Canada and the States are totally
unfit to leave home and do not make rapid headway in
the new country ; some of them are often very intelligent
and capable of writing letters to a newspaper condemning
everything Canadian or American ; some of these people
might have left comfortable homes behind, and either
through a quarrel with friends or a desire to see the world
have crossed the Atlantic, and fancy they are going to make
a fortune, without. exerting themselves ; but they make a
great mistake, as in nine cases out of ten

WORK ALONE IS THE STEPPING STONE TO PROSPERITY.

Another class are those who go out in the early spring,
get work in a town at good wages, spend most of it on
whiskey, do not make any preparation for winter, either by
purchasing stores in the autumn when things are cheap, or
the warm clothing that is necessary for protection against
cold weather ; the result is that when the least difficulty
comes on this class is pauperised ; then there are those
who, through accident, illness, or late arrival in the country,
axe also badly off during the winter, but I am glad to say
they form a very small percentage of the population, and,
on the whole, the destitution in Canadian towns, bears no
comparison to that in the towns of the United Kingdom
during the severe season of the year. Having made a
circular tour of about 40 miles around Ottawa and finding
the same general .state of things, I returned to Montreal to-
make preparation for a rim through the Province of
Quebec, and while in Montreal I went to several places of
public resort to see the people and note their winter
appearance ; among the places that I went to were one
or two election meetings in the open air, a Home Rule for

MONTREAL TO PHILADELPHIA. 203

Ireland meeting, Catholic and Protestant temperance
meetings, Catholic and Protestant churches, to see the con-
gregations, and to a large Irish concert held in the Town
Hall, and, without exaggeration, the people present at those
gatherings were orderly, healthy looking, and well dressed.
I also visited

THE COURT HOUSE AND GAOL.

The greatest portion of the charges were for crimes directly
or indirectly arising out of drink ; one of the officials said
to me " If there was no drink there would be but very little
for us to do." The gaol, I thought, was not suffi-
ciently ventilated, and the accommodation for debtors and
prisoners waiting for trial was bad. I was glad to find
that the dreadful and barbarous silent system was not
resorted to. Leaving Montreal, I went to the City of
Quebec, and the same general state of things prevailed
there. Of course

THE NAVIGATION OF THE ST. LAWRENCE

was closed, although the river was kept clear of ice between
Point Levis and the town. The ferry boats being very-
powerful and able to keep the floating cakes of ice from
uniting, or new ice from forming, and although it was the
latter end of January they were still crossing and recrossing
several times a day.

THE SNOW

was about a foot thick on the ground and exceedingly
light and dry, never falling in thick flabby flakes as it does
in the United Kingdom, and that which comes down in the
beginning of winter scarcely ever thaws before spring.
This snow is of the greatest benefit to the land in a climate
like that of Canada, as it protects it from frost and supplies
it with the natural salts, as rain does in the United King-
dom. In winter there are very few birds either in Canada
or the Northern States, as most of them migrate south for
that season of the year, just as our own swallows, cuckoos,
nightingales, and other members of the feathered tribe go
to warmer climates.

THE HEALTH OF THE PEOPLE

everywhere seemed to be good, and I did not hear of epi-

204 MONTREAL TO PHILADELPHIA.

demies or prevalent diseases of any sort, and, considering
that I had travelled some thousands of miles ; both in sum-
mer and winter, in Canada and the States, this immunity
from disease is an evidence of the healthiness of the
country. After spending a few days in the city of Quebec
I went for

A TRIP THROUGH THE EASTERN TOWNSHIPS OF THE

PROVINCE OF QUEBEC,

•where I was well pleased with the general condition of the
people in the villages and towns through which I passed ;
I was told that there was no destitution anywhere in the
section, not even among those who had been in the country
only a short time. There are a great many
COMFORTABLE FARM HOUSES,

in this locality, which nature has so richly endowed with
good land, fine timber, and magnificent scenery. House
burning in winter is one of the dangers that Canadians
and citizens of the States have to guard against, because
a large number of dwellings are made of timber and are
almost as easily ignited as a tinder box ; besides, they are
heated by a stove or stoves according to the size of the
building. This stove stands in the middle of the floor or
floors of the rooms. There are generally speaking no fire
places as in the Old Countries, the box stove being used
for both heating and domestic purposes, the smoke is car-
ried off by an iron pipe flue, and should this become over-
heated it would set on fire any wood that might be near
it, and, everything being so dry, in a few minutes the whole
fabric would be destroyed.

THE AMERICAN STOVE

is far more economical for domestic use than a grate, as
one fire will serve for several purposes at once. There are
round openings in the top into which pots or kettles will
fit, perhaps one with water in, a second with meat, a third
with puddings, and a fourth with something else, and in
the sides there may be baking or frying going on, and not
more fuel consumed than there would be in an ordinary
grate to boil one pot or kettle of water ; this is a consider-
ation in this age of dear coals and expensive fuel. On
the other hand, the stove standing on the floor of the room
or kitchen, as the case may be, without any outlet from it

MONTKEAL TO PHILADELPHIA. 205

excepting the iron flue, which only takes away the smoke,
has a tendency to make the air of the room dry and hot,
and to a certain extent impure, as the oxygen of the air,
is consumed by contact with the hot iron mass of the stove,
and fumes of sulphur are also generated by the heated
iron, and there is no outlet for impure air to escape as there
would be in an ordinary chimney. This hot air is bene-
ficial to some people, and especially to those subject to
pulmonary diseases, but to a healthy person it causes head-
ache and lassitude. To remedy this defect there is usually
a can of water boiling on a corner of the stove, the evapo-
ration giving the necessary humidity to the air. Charles
Dickens, in his American notes, entirely condemned the
stove and everything connected with it, but with due
deference to that great writer's opinion I think, with all
its faults, it is a decided improvement on the Old Country
fireplaces, particularly for poor people, or those who wish
to economise fuel. The stove is the property of the tenant
and constitutes a part of his furniture just as much as a
clock or a chair, not as in the Old Countries, where the grate
belongs to the landlord and is absolutely part and parcel
of the house in which it stands. There are a great many
varieties of these stoves and of different values, like any
other piece of household goods, some being very ornamental
and costly. A large quantity of

MAPLE SUGAK

is made in the eastern townships, and is an article of con-
siderable value to the manufacturers or proprietors of a
maple grove. The sugar made from the sap of the
maple tree, is extracted by tapping in early spring, a tree
yielding about a pailful of juice without injuring it. The
process of manufacture is a very simple one, merely
hanging a large pot over a slow fire and putting the sap
into it to boil down to the necessary consistency to make
cakes of brown sugar, in appearance like ginger bread, or
a kind of treacle called syrup, which is extensively used
at table ; some Canadians and Americans would consider
a meal incomplete without this article, although, for my
part, I did not like it. The maple tree is indigenous to
Canada, growing almost anywhere, and as nearly all

206 MONTREAL TO PHILADELPHIA.

countries are typified by an animal, bird, or plant, as for
instance, England with its lion and rose, Scotland with its
three lions and thistle, Ireland with its wolf' dog and sham-
rock, Wales with its goat and leek, France with its eagle
and lillies, the United States with its eagle and stars, each
star signifying a state of the Union, Canada has adopted
the industrious beaver, and the leaf of the maple tree, a
quartering that is likely to occupy a place in the world as
lofty and useful as some of the others, for although
Canada is united to Great Britain she has an independent
banner, but, of course, with the Union Jack quartered in
it as being a part of the empire. From the eastern town-
ships I went by the Grand Trunk, Vermont Central, and
Hudson Valley railways to New York from Montreal,
450 miles. A great portion of the journey was through

THE STATE OF VERMONT,

one of the smallest States in the Union, beiogonly 10,212
square miles, as against Texas, the largest, which is 274,356.
The population of Vermont at the last census was 330,551,
of which the foreign born was 16,627, divided as follows: —
Irish, 14,080 ; English, 1,946 ; Germans, 370 ; French, 93 ;
Danes, 21 ; Norwegians, 34 ; and Swedes 84. Here it
will be seen that the Irish are far in excess of all the
other nationalities, showing that they settle more in the
east than

THE GERMANS,

whereas the latter are more for settling in communities
and in the western states, and as a rule the Germans are
better off, although of not so much political weight as the
Irish, because the latter locate more in the cities, and
towns, and consequently take a more active part in public
questions. As the snow was thick on the ground I had
no opportunity of seeing the face of the country, but there
appeared to be a good deal of manufactures carried on in
the towns along the line for I noticed several factories and
mills for different purposes. I made frequent enquiries
about the state of the labour market, and everyone told
me it was in a very depressed state on account of the
money panic. In

ALBANY

MONTREAL TO PHILADELPHIA. 207

-we had a stay of four or five hours, waiting for the train
on the Hudson Valley Railway, to take us on to the
Empire City. Albany is a place of about 100,000 inhabi-
tants, beautifully situated on the banks of the Hudson
River, with remarkably wide streets, terraces, and
.avenues. Even the dwellings of the working classes are
situated in nice open spaces, most of them with little
gardens before or behind. It is the capital of the state of
New York, and is the seat of the State Legislature, which
consists of two Chambers — namely, the House of Repre-
sentatives, and the Senate, with

THE GOVERNOR

as principal executive officer or head magistrate within
the boundaries of the state, he is also Commander in
Chief of all State armaments, naval and military, and has
the power to use those forces to carry out the law within
his jurisdiction, but he must not of his own accord order
state forces to duty outside the state, as that is a matter
entirely resting with the people's representatives and
the Congress of the United States. His Council which is
also elective has certain powers, but subject to his veto;
as for instance the pardoning of criminals guilty of violat-
ing state law, and in the event of the death of the Governor
during his term of office the Deputy or Lieutenant Governor
takes his place, as Andrew Johnson did that of President
of the Republic, after the death of Abraham Lincoln.

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

consists of thirty-seven States and twelve Territories,
having a united area of 3,591,849 miles. The terri-
tories will be gradually admitted to the dignity of
states, but at present their affairs are administered by
the Federal authorities as they have not sufficient popula-
tion for self-government. The Congress of the United
States, that is the House of Representatives, and the
Senate together, is the highest power in the Republic, and

THE PRESIDENT

is the Executive Officer and Commander in Chief of the
United States forces by land and sea, he has the power to
compel the observance of the law and preservation of the

208 MONTREAL TO PHILADELPHIA.

peace by force, but he cannot declare war or peace without
the authority of Congress. Each State elects two members to

THE SENATE

for a term of six years, their election always occurring in
the second year of the President's term of office, the object
of this arrangement is to have an experienced President to
direct or advise the New Senate, and an experienced
Senate to advise a new President, the Vice-President
being Chairman of the Senate, succeeds the President in
case of death, but only for the unexpired term of the
Presidency, the representatives or members of

THE LOWER HOUSE

are elected every two years by ballot and manhood
sufferage, in proportion of about ' one for every 35,000
people.

THE PRESIDENT'S CABINET

consists of persons nominated by himself, each nomina-
tion being subject to the approval of Congress, ministers
to foreign countries are also appointed by him as well as
the Chief Justice of the United States, but these appoint-
ments must receive the sanction of the President's Council
and the approval of Congress.

A MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

must be twenty-five years of age, and have been seven in
the country, and a resident of the state from which he is
elected. Every Senator must be thirty years of age, a
resident of his constituency, and not less than nine years
in the Republic, the Constitution giving to foreign born
citizens the right to any office except President and Chief
Justice, but the President and Vice-President must be
inhabitants of different States, so as to prevent any
collusion, preponderance, or influence of the executive
over the legislative branch of the Federal power. While
waiting for the train at Albany, I made enquiries about
the condition of the working classes and found that it was
not good, on account of the suspension of works, both private
and public, through the scarcity of money brought about by
the financial crisis, and that a large number of people had ,

MONTREAL TO PHILADELPHIA. 209

left, either for other parts of America or for Europe.
The distance between Albany and New York, is about 170
miles, the journey lying entirely in

THE VALLEY OF THE HUDSON,

and embracing some of the finest scenery in the world.
The construction of the line must have been a stupendous
work, for in some places it is carried for miles in the bed of
the river, either on solid masonry, or rocks brought from
the adjoining cliffs, and deposited in the water to make a
firm foundation ; again it crosses the mouths of tributary
streams on long wooden bridges, some of them opening
for vessels to pass through. Those estuaries or lagoons are
very extensive, and should a train meet with any mishap
while crossing them, the passengers would have but little
chance of escape from a watery grave. To a European
accustomed to the substantial work of an English or an
Irish railway these

AMERICAN RAILWAYS

look very temporary affairs, in fact scarcely safe, and I am
certain that if some of the iron or stone laden waggons
from the North of England, such as those that run on the
Midland, went over some Of the railway timber bridges
that I have seen in America, there would be great danger,
and probably a great smash. After passing by Troy, Sing
Sing, and Pough-Keepsie we reached the Grand Central
Depot,

NEW YORK,

from which, for five cents, I went in a tramway car to
Sweeney's Hotel. This city is the largest on the
American Continent, and about the fifth largest on the
globe; the others being, London, Paris, Pekin, and Yeddo,
the population of the city proper being about one million,
but with the population of the suburbs that surround it,
which are also called cities, such as Brooklyn, Jersey City,
&c., it would number nearly two millions. Like all other
American towns, its greatness has been made during the
last century, as it only had a population of about 100,000,
when surrendered to the Americans by General Clinton in
the War of Independence. The State of New York is the

p

210 MONTREAL TO PHILADELPHIA.

most populous in the Union, the number of inhabitants at
the last census being, 4,382,759, of course including the city
of New York ; the State area is 47,000 square miles. The
statistical tables give the foreign born inhabitants asfollows:
—Irish, 528,823; Germans, 316,902; English, including
Scotch and Welsh, 110,071 ; French, 22,302 ; Danes, 1,701 ;
Swedes, 5,520 ; Norwegians, 975. Here again we may
notice that the Irish exceed all the other foreign born
settlers put together; 95,953 of the 266,818 emigrants
that landed at Castle Gardens, in the year 1873 settled in the
State of New York, of the 266,818, 104,214 were Germans,
and 68,612 Irish; showing that a greater number of
Germans landed, but did not remain in the state, the
majority going to the north-west to settle on land ;
whereas most of the Irish and English, remain in the
east, generally to live by wages, either as labourers, or
mechanics, or as assistants, in different branches of trade.
I attribute the choice of settlement by English speaking
emigrants in the eastern states to three main causes —
namely, want of education, poverty, and speaking the
English language; for instance, among the 11,703 English,
Irish, and Scotch emigrants engaged at the labour office
at Castle Gardens in 1869, there were 3,058 totally
illiterate, and of 10,120 Germans, who passed through the
same year, only 321 were unable to read and write, and when
a man is entirely illiterate he is more or less dependent,
and is almost bound to be the servant or workman of
somebody else, and is glad to take the first employment
that offers, generally remaining in one place as long as he
can. The emigrant who lands without money is exceed-
ingly glad to get any work, and almost any wages, because
his need is urgent and he can neither go further or wait
for select employment. On this subject I quote from the

REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF EMIGRATION
for the State of New York for 1873 :— " Offices of the Com-
missioners of Emigration, Castle Gardens,Ne w York,Novem-
ber 1873. — Circular addressed to various companies. — The
Commissioners of Emigration direct me to inform you that
there are now several hundred able-bodied men and
women applying -for employment at the Labour Bureau
of this department, most of whom would be willing to go

MONTREAL TO PHILADELPHIA. 2U

to work at very low wages. There are also a number at
the refuge at Ward's Island, who are at present supported
by this commission, because they are unable to find work,
if you desire to employ any of these persons, information
will be furnished, and assistance rendered by applying at
this office. — I am your obedient servant, E. D. Webster,
•General Superintendent." The above note is sufficient
•evidence that there is nearly

ALWAYS A NUMBER OF DESTITUTE EMIGRANTS
ready to take employment almost at any wages, in
and around New York. Knowledge of the English lan-
guage makes the emigrant of greater value to the Yankee
employer, who is as ready to invest his capital to
advantage, as the poor labourer is to get employment ; so
that to a certain extent the Germans, and other non-
English-speaking people, are forced to " communise " and
•colonise, which in the end is very much to their benefit.
I saw as much destitution in the streets of New York
^s I have seen in London, Liverpool,Cork, or Dublin, and no
wonder for thousands arrive at New York and and are unable
to leave ; and this is where the Federal Government is neg-
lecting its duty to the emigrant, for it has not made

A GENERAL EMIGRATION LAW,

whereby the labour would be distributed to points where
it is most in request ; Congress has passed some Acts
to protect emigrants at sea, but as soon as they are landed
the control and assistance of the Federal Government ceases
and State law comes into operation. Castle Gardens
is entirely a State affair, and a fine institution it is as far
as it goes, but its power is not sufficiently extensive for
such a vast country as the United States, or for pro-
perly directing so large a business as immigration. Besides
to a certain degree it has had a tendency to keep emi-
grants in New York and its neighbourhood, instead of
dispersing them, as would be the case under a general
law, when Boston, Philadelphia, and other places would
become ports of debarkation, as well as New York.

MR. KAPP

one of the Commissioners of Emigration, writing in
opposition to a Federal law, says, " In the first instance,
the institutions for the protection of the emigrant,

p 2

212 MONTREAL TO PHILADELPHIA.

would have to be largely extended, and instead of one
place like Castle Gardens, a dozen would be required
besides the eastern, the southern, and western ports, the
large inland cities like Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis,
Milwaukee, and St. Paul, would have to be provided with
the same proportionate facilities as New York ; thus, the
General Government would be obliged to sustain, ten
establishments, while the income from the commutation
tax would remain the same. At a low estimate the
Government would have to pay at least one million of
dollars per year out of its coffers for this purpose." And
again this writer says " There is another weighty objection
to the transfer of the control of immigration to the
General Government, the proper care of the emigrant
requires a staff of efficient officers, having well trained
employe's acting under them. Experience has shown that
even the best organised minds require months and years
to master this task."

THE FIRST OF THESE ARGUMENTS

is devoid of any broad statesmanlike views; for in the first
place the commutation tax, according to himself (page 153
of his book), reaches nearly three quarters of a million an-
nually, and again, on page 144, he says, " each emigrant
possesses property to the value of 150 dols., thus adding to
the wealth of the nation 38,848,350 dols. annually," and on
page 146 he says, "ahealthy emigrant is of the capital value
of 1,125 dols. to the United States." Putting these figures
together, surely the immigrant is justly entitled to some
consideration at the hands of the Government of the
Republic, instead being left as at present to be made a
political shuttlecock of by " rings " or cliques.

THE SECOND OF MR. KAPP'S ARGUMENTS.

is hardly worthy of notice, for he might as well say
that men are not found fit to manage a railway train, a
post-office, a gaol, a police system, or that the staff at]Castle
Gardens, is the only one that could be found in America ;
but then he goes further, on page 157, where he says, "It-
is a well-known fact that the mode in which the Federal
Government appoints officials is very far from giving security
for the proper discharge of their duties ; we have seen about

MONTREAL TO PHILADELPHIA. 213

ten or twelve different collectors of the New York Custom
House since 1847, and in all probability each new Admi-
nistration would have paid off a part of its political
liabilities by appointments to offices in connection with
immigration." According to this mode of reasoning it is

ONLY A FEW STATE OFFICIALS THAT CAN BE HONEST,
but thenhe proves his point by saying that it costs 1,000,000
dols. in bribes, theft, and embezzlement, to collect 3,000,000
dols. of revenue ; surely this is a sad state of affairs, when
one of the Emigration Commissioners in a book, issued in
1870 under the sanction of the Board of which he is a
member, makes an accusation like this against the officials
of the Republic ; but whether he is right or wrong in the
assertion, his object is to prevent the United States
Government taking the immigrant under its own charge.
Let those who have any misgiving as to the efficiency of a
general law, or the benefit to the nation, as well as to the
poor immigrant himself, by such legislation look at the

ACTION OF THE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT
in giving a free railway ticket to the immigrant to
nearly any part of the Dominion, and certainly that
government loses nothing by so doing, for labour is
diffused, and the resources of the country are more
rapidly developed. On Monday, February 17th, I. visited
Castle Gardens, and was received by Colonel Coonan (the
chief clerk), with courtesy and attention. The place is
admirably adapted for its purpose, situated at the south-
east corner of the city close to the water side, having its
own wharf for landing immigrants and their luggage. The
main building is circular like the Rotunda, Dublin, or the
Albert Hall, London, larger than one and not so large as
the other. Every emigrant coming to the port of New
York must land at this depot; the shipowners paying 1£
dol. for each, which, of course, the passenger must pay in his
fare. This head tax makes

CASTLE GARDENS

and all the institutions dependent on it self-supporting;
and this, to New York, must be a considerable source of
wealth ; particularly as those emigrants spend a large
amount of money before leaving the city. The name,
age, occupation, nationality, and avowed destination

214 MONTREAL TO PHILADELPHIA.

of each emigrant is inserted in a book register, which
is preserved; all who are sick are sent to the Emigrant
Hospital on Ward's Island, and the destitute to the
House of Refuge ; and there are always a great number at
both places ; in 1872 there were 7,852 patients treated, of
whom 356 died. The whole number cared for by the Emi-
gration Commissioners, both in their hospital and refuge, in
1873, was 12,942, of whom 335 were insane and sent to the
asylum, when certified by the proper authorities. Emi-
grants landing at Castle Gardens late in the evening, are
permitted to remain there for that night, but as there are
no beds, or accommodation for sleeping ; the people have to
squat on the floor or sit on the stools. Letters are taken
charge of, and clerks are in attendance to send telegrams
or letters for those that don't understand doing it them-
selves. All monies are changed at par- — and here, let me
observe, that it would be better for emigrants to transact
their financial business in the depot than to go to money
changers in the city. The luggage is taken charge of and
an acknowledgment given for each parcel, which makes
the authorities responsible for its safety. Two or three
BOARDING-HOUSE KEEPERS

are allowed by the Commissioners to look out for
custom among the emigrants, but they must not charge
above a certain tariff, about one dollar per day,
at which rate a little money soon melts away. The
importance of this emigrant boarding-house business, is to
be seen in the streets around Castle Gardens, as they are
to be met with at every turning, with flaring sign boards
over their doors in all European languages, except Irish,
but that omission is made up by such names as, the Sham-
rock Boarding-House, The Harp of Erin Boarding-House,.
The Daniel O'Connell Boarding-House, and many others
that are equally patriotic. These high-sounding names how-
ever, afford no criterion of the honesty of the proprietors,
although there are men as respectable in this .business as
in any other ; perhaps the stringent laws of the Commis-
sioners have had a tendency to make them so. There is

A LABOUR OFFICE

at Castle Gardens where employers can obtain workmen,

MONTREAL TO PHILADELPHIA. 215

servants, &c., which is of great service to emigrants,
especially females, but it tends to keep down wages, for
employers can nearly always make sure of getting hands in
the event of a dispute with their employe's, as there are
generally a large number of names on the books ; and
this perhaps is one of the reasons why some influen-
tial men are opposed to a general emigration law
which would distribute the emigrants into the interior of
the country, as well as land them at other Ports than New
York. If thelmmigration is to be managed by a state law and
eight-tenths of the emigrants are to come to New York,
as. at present, the Commissioners ought to establish an
immigrant's home where there would be cheapness, clean-
liness, respectability, and protection to young females from
the contamination of the low boarding-houses. From
Castle Gardens I went to

THE IRISH EMIGRANT SOCIETY'S OFFICES

in Chambers Street, where I introduced myself to
Mr. Byrne, the treasurer, to whom I presented letters and
credentials fiom Ireland ; to show the bond fide character
of my mission. I asked him certain questions about the
objects of the society, the number relieved or benefited by
its operations, the total sum received by the society from
all sources, and the amount spent on Irish immigrants.
He replied that the society was a private corporation
established by an Act of the Legislature, in fact, that it
was a banking house doing business on a large scale in
selling bills of exchange on Irish banks, receiving monies
from settlers at a distance to give to their friends on arrival,
and other such transactions. He declined to answer any
more questions, telling me that if I wanted further infor-
mation I was to put the questions on paper, and that he
would then submit them to the President. This marked
reserve in a principal officer of a society that professes to
be established for the well-being of the most numerous, and,
perhaps, poorest class of immigrants landing in America
somewhat astonished me, and led me to think that the
sooner cliques that will not let the light of publicity shine
on their labours are done away with the better for the
emigrant, as it appeared to me there are

216 MONTREAL TO PHILADELPHIA. '

TOO MANY IRRESPONSIBLE PEOPLE

now ready to take care of him if he has dollars, but if he
has none he may go to the wall. I sent six questions
in writing and waited three days for an answer, but did
not get it ; at the end of that time I called again and left
an address in England and another in Ireland to whch the
answer might have been forwarded. The Secretary did
me the honour to forward the Act of Incorporation, but
no balance-sheet or answers to my questions ; from
which omission I drew my conclusions. The President,
of the Society, by virtue of his office, is a Commissioner of
Immigration, so also is the President of the German
Society. During my stay in New York I called on several
friends and they all told me there was

GREAT DESTITUTION IN THE CITY,

and from the appearance of the waterside labourers,
or as they are called, longshore men and other bodies of
the working classes whom I saw, I felt sure my in-
formants were right. There were a great many soup
kitchens opened for the relief of the destitute, and at a
couple of them that I visited, I saw not only women and
children, but hearty young men who were glad of a basin
of soup and a lump of bread. The average wages of a
labouring man was from 1 dol. 50 cents to 2 dols. per day
in greenbacks, about 5s. 6d. to 7s. 6d. English.
FOOD, CLOTHES, AND HOUSE RENT

were very dear ; most of the working people living in tene-
ment houses, which are anything but comfortable, very
few of these houses having back yards, the dust and waste
being put into tubs, and even in little heaps on the side of
the street, which makes things look slovenly. Some of
the public buildings are really magnificent, but the streets
were badly paved ; andin many of them the centre was lower
than the sides. There were tramways in several streets,
the laying down of which did not show superiority of
workmanship or strict municipal control, for I noticed that
round pebbles were used for " pitching," thus making good
streets impossible. The Broadway is a fine thoroughfare
running the whole length of the city, from Central Park to
Castle Gardens, but the paving in it is not so good as that
of some of the principal streets of London. There was

MONTREAL TO PHILADELPHIA. 217

but very little snow, but the frost was pretty severe.
From New York I went to

PHILADELPHIA

by the Pennsylvanian Central Railroad. On my arrival
I made my way to Germantown, 6 miles from the city
to call on an old friend. I learned from him that there
was not much destitution in Philadelphia or its neigh-
bourhood, and that for eight months of the year labour
was abundant, and wages good, and that for the other
months there was a little slackness; he also said that,
in his opinion, it was a better place for emigrants to
come to than New York, as there were not so many com-
petitors for work as in New York. Philadelphia, is one of
the oldest, best situated, largest, and finest cities in
America, and was founded by William Penn in 1682 ; its
present population being about 750,000. It is also the seat
of very extensive manufactures, is the centre of a manufac-
turing country, and of an extensive railway system, with
a fine harbour on the Delawar River, and is in a more
direct line to the south and west, than any othei of the
eastern cities, the first-class railway fare from New York
to Chicago being 15 dols., and from Philadelphia 14 dols.
The public buildings are magnificent, many of them being
built of white marble as are also a large number of private
houses. The

CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION BUILDING

erected in Fairmont Park to commemorate the first century
of the birth of American freedom, is nearly 1,900 feet long
and 464 broad; its promoters have done everything to make
it a success. Such a gigantic enterprise cannot fail to be of
great advantage to Philadelphia, and particularly to the
working class population, as it causes the circulation of a
large amount of money. Most of the different nationali-
ties that go to make up the United States have separate
representations ; for the Irish Catholic Total Abstinence
Union of America have erected a fountain at a cost of 50,000
dollars ; the centre figure, being 15. feet high, and represent-
ing Moses striking the rock; on the corners stand four statues,
9 feet high, of distinguished Irishmen — namely Father
Matthew, Archbishop Carroll, famous in the Revolution,

218 MONTREAL TO PHILADELPHIA.

and his brother, Charles Carroll, of Carrolltown, one of
the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and John
Barry, the father of the American Navy, historically
known as " Saucy Jack Barry." The Negroes have an
allegorical monument of Emancipation. The Scotch have
a statue of the gioat Presbyterian preacher of the
Revolution, the famous Dr. Witherspoon, the figure
standing 12 feet high. The Germans commemorate their
great Humboldt by a monument of the value of 14,000
dols. ; and the Italians have erected a statue to their still
greater man, Christopher Columbus ; the Jews have
erected a monument on which stands an heroic figure
representing religious liberty ; and the Quakers, not forget-
ful of their distinguished co-religionist and founder of the
city, William Penn, have erected a monument to his
memory. Of course there are other monuments and
statues, but I mention these to show the friendly rivalry
and enterprise that mark the character of the people..
Having spent a couple of days walking through the city,
I did not see any of that squalid poverty I saw in New
York; even the labourers along the quays were better
dressed, and, apparently, better fed. There is no place in
Philadelphia like Castle Gardens for immigrants, but the
American and Red Star Companies, which trade to Phila-
delphiahave a home of their own, where passengers are pro-
tected, as far as possible from touts and runners, where
money is changed, railway tickets sold, and other ac-
commodation given. Both the Germans and the Irish have
immigrant aid societies here, which I was told, were doing
good work; unfortunately I did not see the officers of either
of these organisations, as it was late when I called,,
but the Secretary of

THE AMERICAN STEAMSHIP COMPANY

told me that their boats brought out a great many emi-
grants from Ireland, on prepaid passages, through the
society. I accompanied him by invitation on board of one
of the boats that had just arrived from Liverpool and
Queenstown, with several passengers although it was still
the middle of winter. I questioned some of them, and
they said that they had been well treated on the voyage, and

MONTREAL TO PHILADELPHIA. 219

had not any fault to find either with the officers or
company ; and I believe this remark applies to all the
steamship companies as they are closely looked after,
both by an intelligent public, and the different Govern-
ments. I would advise people going to Pennsylvania, to go
straight to Philadelphia rather than to New York, and
thereby avoid the bother of ferry boats and railways,
besides extra expense, and I am strongly under the im-
pression that it is a better place, because there is more
room. The boats of the Red Star Line carry pontoon
life rafts capable of holding forty persons each, and no
doubt this line will be extensively patronised during the
Centennial Exhibition. My visit to Philadelphia con-
vinced me of the necessity of the United States Govern-
ment, itself, dealing with immigration, instead of leaving
it to each individual state, as emigrants would then be
properly distributed through the country. On the occasion
of my visit to Philadelphia, which was in the middle of
February, 1875, there was no snow but the frost was very
severe, and I really believe colder than if there had been
snow with it. Leaving Philadelphia I again visited
Montreal, and bidding farewell to friends who had been
very kind to me during my pilgrimage I started for Port-
land, in the State of Maine, by the Grand Trunk Railway,
a distance of 270 miles, and arriving there, I embarked for
home on board of the Polynesian, one of the fine boats
of the Allan fleet. And now before we heave off from the
wharf, let me say

A FEW PARTING WORDS ;

I would not advise a man to break up a comfortable home
to go to America, unless he was sure of something better
there than he already possessed at home, which is seldom
the case ; I would not advise a man on the wrong side of
forty, to go out, unless he had a family to direct, the
members of which as they would grow up might provide a
home for him ; for a man at that time of life has some
difficulty in adapting himself to circumstances that may
be entirely new to him. I would not, at all events for the
present, advise a mechanic, or a man who may be earning
thirty shillings a week in Europe to emigrate, unless he has

220 MONTREAL TO PHILADELPHIA.

some other motive in view than getting his living by
daily labour ; I would not advise young fellows who
perhaps are pretty comfortable with their parents to go
out unless they are willing to begin with hardwork and
then rise above it by industry or force of character, and
above all I would say

[TO THE MAN WHO IS FOND OF HIS LIQUOR

stay at home, for you are not wanted in America. To
farm labourers of England, Ireland, or Scotland, who are
doomed to perpetual toil on a most miserable pittance
with nothing to look forward to in old age, but the walls
-of the workhouse prison, I say, by all means emigrate, for
your children are almost sure to occupy a better place abroad
than they could at home ; for in Canada and the United
States, there are no all-powerful landlords dominating
the Legislature and Government of the country, ana
clutching with greedy avidity, and without any right
except that of a long supplanted military tenure, the
results of the hard toil of the agriculturist. All that the
cultivator produces is his own, and there is yet land
enough, both in Canada and the United States, for tens
of millions of the human race. I do not say, that there-
fore, the United States, is at present a land flowing with
milk and honey, where " capons grow on trees, and roasted
hares cry running out, ' pray eat me if you please,' " or
(that

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES,

<however theoretically perfect, is yet practically so, far other-
•wise. There are many flaws in the system, and one that
came especially under my notice is the prevalence of bribery
and party " bumming." The efficiency andhonesty of public
officials is less regarded than their political power ;
influence is everything in the United States. This is an
evil of gradual growth, but none the less pernicious, par-
ticularly in large cities ; for men in power are almost
ibound to screen their own party supporters, instead of
-dealing out evenhanded justice to all. This state of
things has a very demoralising effect, for it has a tendency
to relaxation of discipline in public bodies and officials;
tmt I am glad to say there is a strong reaction against the

MONTREAL TO PHILADELPHIA. 221

system, and that thinkers and statesmen are alive to

THE NECESSITY OF REFORMATION AND IMPROVEMENT ;

in fact, freedom in the great Republic might be compared
to a stream, which, while it irrigates and fertilises the
land through which it flows, yet still requires directing and
regulating in its course; otherwise it overflows the land
and becomes an evil instead of a good ; so it is with liberty
in America; it requires watching, directing, regulating, and
I may say purging of occasional abuses, which are sure to
creep into any system of Government, however perfect, just
as weeds crop up in every field, however well cultivated.
There are also many other matters which require the
serious attention of those intending to settle in the United
States. Many possess only very limited means, and have
either to take up with labour in the cities, or a farm in the
Far West. In the towns, especially in the large sea-
board towns the dwellings of this class are of a most miser-
able description, being often devoid of all sanitary arrange-
ments, and therefore very hotbeds of disease ; what pen
can describe the unutterable misery and degradation of
the New York poor. And even in the Far West, although
the frown or grasping hand of landlord need not be fearedr
yet the farmer finds in

THE GREAT RAILWAY CORPORATIONS

who stand between him and his markets; enemies, if
possible, even more grasping and unscrupulous. Often
owing to the exorbitant charges of the railway "rings;" corn
has been burned by the farmer for fuel — a miserable use to.
putthe hard earned harvest to. Nothing but a great govern-
ment scheme of railway control and possibly appropriation
by compulsory purchase, can provide a cure for this evil.
Again, there are great dangers to morals and religious
principles in America, which will not be found at home.
Societies are tolerated in America, whose first principles
are destructive of the family tie, and insulting to our
manhood and to our Creator. In the great cities, the
system of living in boarding-houses or hotels, destroys all
home life ; and throughout the United States, complaints
are to be heard, of unfaithful wives, profligate husbands,

222 MONTREAL TO PHILADELPHIA.

and insolent and disobedient children. Wherever I went
through the States I was confronted with the presence of

ENORMOUS CONVICT BASTILLES,

and I heard and read of the constant construction of new
hells of this description ; this to my mind spoke forcibly,
of something rotten in the state of Denmark. I always
regard these edifices as unmistakeable signs of bad and
stupid Government. For I deem the whole system of
caging up human beings, like wild beasts, as a most cruel,
and inhuman one ; and moreover experience has proved
it, to be utterly futile, for the purpose of repressing crime.
I do not hesitate to declare here, that the cost of main-
taining these earthly hells, for one year, if applied by
eitheran American or European Government in ajudicious
manner, to the assistance of the helpless and unhappy
beings, who, from whatever cause, stand upon the
border land of crime ; either by settling them on farms,
or instructing and setting them up .in trades, would
do more to stamp out crime, than ten years expenditure
of the same capital on the heartless and stupid torture, of
our unfortunate fellow creatures, in Chatham, Dartmoor,
Sing Sing, or any other European or American convict
hell. While such

ABODES OF HUMAN MISERY

€xist in the United States they are a standing reproach
and accusation, against the perfection of its Government
and institutions. Surely in this matter the citizens, of the
great Republic, ought to rise superior, to the stupid savagery
of the Old World, and should have better sense, than to
copy the most cruel, abominable, and costly, of the mistakes
of European Governments. It will be seen that I have
no wish to paint all American institutions with the colour
of roses, but in spite of many spots on the sun of the
Republican system I have yet

FAITH IN THE FUTURE OF THE UNITED STATES

as a home for thousands of the toilers of Europe, but let
those who go there, do so, with their eyes open to the real
facts, and with no mist of glossing lies, and "spread-

MONTREAL TO PHILADELPHIA. 223

eagleism " before their eyes. Let those who go, once and
for all, dismiss from their minds, the idea, that in the
United States they will receive any help, guidance, or as-
sistance, from a paternal Government ; let them be pre-
pared to depend upon their own unaided intelligence
and resources, for success; and to face for a few years,
a life of hard 'toil, and privation; let them avoid the
drink shop, aud the dancing saloon, as they would the
jaws of death itself; let the labourers go to the land, let
them avoid the great cities, and determining to lead up-
right, virtuous, and industrious lives ; they need have,
little fear for the future. And now a few words as to other
matters. During my travels in Canada and the States I
was brought in contact with men .of different nationalities
and tongues ; but they all seemed to be under a process of
gradual unification. I seemed almost to see going on
under my very eyes the process of welding these diverse
elements into

ONE GRAND UNITED HOMOGENEOUS RACE;

my attention was especially attracted to this subject,
because amongst many letters of encouragement from,
friends in England, and Ireland, who have interested
themselves in the cause of the Irish agricultural labourers,
I received some from Mr. Shackleton Hallett, of London ; in
one of which he declared that in his opinion it would be for
the well-being of the world, that nations should be grouped
into confederations, each maintaining its own integrity, in-
dependence, and self-government, but being united in one
harmonious family, by means of an assembly of representa-
tives, meeting as often as necessary, to consider matters of
general interest. As yet, the nearest approach to this ar-
rangement, is the Canadian Confederation, the United
States of America, and, although not so important as either
of the other two, the great Order of Foresters; and certainly
those examples have worked admirably, each in its way. The
United States has proclaimed the right of citizenship to
all within its borders of whatever creed or country;
Canada has done the same, and since confederation, her
four millions of people, have taken larger strides, and made
more progress, than any other four millions of people, on

224 MONTREAL TO PHILADELPHIA.

the surface of the globe. And as to the Foresters, wherever
they have established a court, workingmen have learned
self-reliance and independence of character, and here is
strong evidence in favour of the project. England has
more colonies than any other nation, they are growing iu
wealth, their population is increasing, and their power in
the Empire is becoming felt, more and more. Most of
them have local self-Governments, and many of their
leading men do not care about being trammelled by an
inexperienced minister in the Mother Country. Their
- citizens all speak the same language, and their institutions
are founded on the same general principles ; therefore it
cannot be disputed, but that some sort of a Confederation,
would be to their mutual advantage. Indeed,

THE UNITED STATES MIGHT ENTER THE CONFEDERATION

as there are principles that are common to all the English
speaking countries of the world, One thing is certain, that
if ever this broad and statesmanlike idea is realised, Ireland
must occupy a higherplace than she does at present ; for she
must have a national individuality, and self-government,
united to the central system by the bonds of Confedera-
tion. Whether the future Government of those realms be
Monarchial or Republican, Ireland will not be content to
remain a mere province of England, or what is ambiguously
called, "an integral part of the Empire." By

MR. SHACKLETON HALLETT'S PLAN

there would be no Imperial Parliament, but an English
Parliament, a Canadian Parliament, an Irish Parliament,
an Australian Parliament, and possibly a Scotch Parlia-
ment, and then a congress of representatives from each of
these countries, would meet atstated periods to regulate the
general business of the Confederation and would be assisted
by a supreme executive and judicial body appointed for life,
or a term of years, by the voice of the people — as in the
United States at present. The spread of education has
made the working classes of England dissatisfied with,
centralisation, and the accumulation of wealth into the
hands of a few. Class law, an effete land system, and
English rule, in other words the " rule of the stranger," has

MONTREAL TO PHILADELPHIA. 225

made the Irishman in Ireland, discontented, rebellious,
and unenterprising ; while in any other country he becomes
a prominent man and an excellent citizen ; the grow-
ing wealth and free institutions of the colonies are an
evidence of

THE BENEFIT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT,

and of what the class that is disfranchised in the United
Kingdom can do when they have a voice in making the
laws that govern them. It is the labouring classes that
have built up the colonies, nay, indeed, it was criminals
that laid the foundation of some of them, and their insti-
tutions and laws, are better than those made, by greater
criminals, on the battle field of Hastings, and from whom
our nobility are so proud to trace their descent. The
United States also have unlimited territories, great natural
resources, and a population made up, in a great part, of
the working classes of Europe or their immediate
descendants, and

A CONFEDERATION FOUNDED ON EQUITY,

directed by common sense, and giving to each of the
contracting parties^ entire control over their own affairs
and form of Government, would, as far as human foresight
could do it, combine clashing elements and prevent san-
guinary and, sometimes, useless strife. For all bodies and
systems have in themselves the seeds of decay which only
require developing to cause utter annihilation ; so it is
with the great British Empire unless the well-being of the
whole is considered, before that of any part of it, and
the Irish race are conciliated by giving to Ireland self-
government, on a broad and liberal basis ; the elements
of destruction, or, at all events, of perpetual commotion,
will be always at hand ; for Ireland will not be satisfied to
lose her nationhood ; and the Irish race its individuality,
or to be exploited for all eternity in the interests of a
handful of English and Scotch landlords. While travelling
through Maine I had not much time to see what benefit
the people derived from their

PROHIBITORY LIQUOR LAW,

and, therefore, I will not say much about it ; but I do know

Q

226 MONTREAL TO PHILADELPHIA.

that I walked about the city of Portland for several hours
and did not see any one under the influence of intoxicating
drink. At last, the captain standing on the bridge of
the huge steamer, gave the order " Let go that rope."
Slowly and majestically we glide out into the great
Atlantic, the order is given again from the bridge, all
speed ; sail is set, and the engines working up to their full
power ; we cross, in ten days, from the New to the Old
World. And, now, bidding farewell to my readers, I will
conclude in the words of an old poet, who, addressing his
first essay in literature, wrote

" Be bold my book, nor be abashed, nor fear
The learned critic, or the brow severe,
But to the scornful say, ' All here is good
' If but well read, or ill read, understood.' "

THE END.

London : Printed by JOHN- B. DAT. 3. Savoy Street, Strand.

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