Part 1 (1/2)
A Trip to Manitoba.
by Mary FitzGibbon.
PREFATORY NOTE.
The Canada Pacific Railway, so frequently referred to in the following pages, is now almost an accomplished fact. It will, after traversing for over a thousand miles the great prairies of the Swan River and Saskatchewan territories, thread the Rocky Mountains and, running through British Columbia to Vancouver's Island, unite the Pacific with the Atlantic. Of the value of this line to the Dominion and the mother country there cannot be two opinions. The system of granting plots of land on each side of the railway to the Company, with power to re-sell or give them to settlers, has been found most advantageous in, as it were, feeding the line and creating populations along its route. The cars which carry to distant markets the crops raised by the settlers, bring back to them the necessaries of civilized life.
Readers who ask with the post-office authorities, ”Where is Manitoba?”
[Footnote: Pages 58, 59] may be answered that Manitoba is a province in the great north-west territory of the Canadian Dominion, lying within the same parallels of lat.i.tude as London and Paris. It has one of the most healthy climates in the world--the death-rate being lower than in any other part of the globe,--and a soil of wondrous fertility, sometimes yielding several crops in one year. Immense coal-fields exist within the province; its mountains abound with ore; and its natural wealth is enormous.
While the province of Manitoba formed part of the Hudson Bay Company's territory, its resources were undeveloped. But in 1869 it was transferred to the Dominion Government, and received a Lieutenant-Governor and the privilege of sending representatives to the Parliament at Ottawa. Under the new _regime_ enterprise and industry are amply encouraged.
The original population consisted chiefly of Indians and French half-breeds; the abolition of the capitation tax on immigrants, however, has resulted in a large immigration of Europeans, who, with health and energy, cannot fail to prosper, especially as they are without European facilities for squandering their money in luxury or intoxication. Of how universally the Prohibitory Liquor Law prevails in Manitoba, and yet how difficult it sometimes is to punish its infraction, an amusing instance in given in Chapter XI. Mr. Alexander Rivington, in a valuable pamphlet now out of print (”On the Track of our Emigrants”), says that when he visited Canada it was rare to see such a thing as mendicity--too often the result of intemperance; ”the very climate itself, so fresh and life-giving, supplies the place of strong drink. Public-houses, the curse of our own country, have no existence. Pauperism and theft are scarcely known there--income-tax is not yet dreamt of.” Free grants of one hundred acres of prairie and meadow land are still being made to immigrants, and the population is rapidly increasing.
CHAPTER I.
The Grand Trunk Railway--Sarnia--”Confusion worse confounded”--A Churlish Hostess--Fellow-Pa.s.sengers on the _Manitoba_--”Off at last!”--Musical Honours--Sunrise on Lake Huron--A Scramble for Breakfast--An Impromptu Dance--The General Foe.
After a long day's journey on the Grand Trunk Railway, without even the eccentricities of fellow-pa.s.sengers in our Pullman car to amuse us, we were all glad to reach Sarnia. The monotony of the scenery through which we pa.s.sed had been unbroken, except by a prettily situated cemetery, and the tasteful architecture of a hillside church, surrounded by trees just putting on their spring foliage.
It was eight o'clock when we got to the wharf, and the steamer _Manitoba_ only waited for our arrival to cast loose her moorings and enter the dark blue waters of Lake Huron. ”Haste” will not express the excitement of the scene. Men, rus.h.i.+ng hither and thither in search of friends, traps, and luggage, were goaded to fury by the calmness of the officials and their determination not to be hurried. Hearing there was no chance of having tea on board that night, and discovering near the wharf a signboard announcing that meals could be obtained at all hours (except, as we were told, that particular one), we with difficulty persuaded the proprietress to let us have something to eat. Amidst muttered grumblings that she was ”slaved to death,” that ”her life was not worth a rap,” and so on, every remark being emphasized with a plate or dish, we were at last supplied with bread, cheese, and beef-steak, for which we were kindly allowed to pay fifty cents (2s. 6d.) each.
The scene on board the boat beggars description. The other steamers being still ice-bound on Lake Superior, the _Manitoba_ was obliged to take as much freight and as many pa.s.sengers as she could carry, many of the latter having been waiting in Sarnia upwards of ten days for her departure. Surveying parties, immigrants of almost every nation on their way to make homes in the great North West, crowded the decks and gangways. The confusion of tongues, the shrill cries of the frightened and tired children, the oaths of excited men, and the trundling and thumping of the baggage, mingled with the shrieks of adjacent engines ”made night hideous.” Porters and cabmen jostled women laden with baskets of linen, brought on board at the last minute, when the poor tired stewardess had no time to administer the well-merited reprimand; pa.s.sengers rushed about in search of the purser, anxious to secure their state-rooms before they were usurped by some one else.
It was midnight when the commotion had subsided, and quarters were a.s.signed to all but a stray man or two wandering about in search of some Mr. Brown or Mr. Jones, whose room he was to share. Climbing into my berth, I soon fell asleep; but only for a few moments. The shrill whistle, the vehement ringing of the captain's bell, the heavy beat of the paddles, roused me; and as we left the wharf and steamed out from among the s.h.i.+ps and small craft dotting the water on every side, ”Off at last!” was shouted from the crowded decks. Then the opening bars of ”G.o.d save the Queen” were sung heartily and not inharmoniously, followed by three cheers for her Majesty, three for her Imperial Highness, three for her popular representative Lord Dufferin, and so on, till the enthusiasm culminated in ”He's a jolly good fellow;” the monotony of which sent me to sleep again.
At four o'clock next morning I scrambled out of my berth at the imminent risk of broken bones, wondering why the inventive powers of our Yankee neighbours had not hit upon some arrangement to facilitate the descent; dressed, and went in search of fresh air. Picking my steps quietly between sleeping forms--for men in almost every att.i.tude, some with blankets or great-coats rolled round them, were lying on the floor and lounges in the saloon--I reached the deck just as the sun rose above the broad blue waters, brightening every moment the band of gold where sky and water met. Clouds of ink-black smoke floated from our funnel, tinged by the rising sun with every shade of yellow, red, and brown. Mirrored in the calm water below, lay the silent steamer--silent, save for the ceaseless revolution of her paddles, whose monotonous throb seemed like the beating of a great heart.
For an hour or more I revelled in the beauty of water and sky, and ceased to wonder why people born on the coast love the sea so dearly, and pine for the sight of its waves. When the men came to wash the decks, a pleasant, brawny fellow told me we were likely to have a good run up the lakes. The storms of the last few days having broken up the ice, and driven it into the open, there was hope both of the ice-locked steamers getting out, and of our getting into Duluth without much trouble--”unless the wind changes, which is more than possible,” he added abruptly; and walked off, as if fearful of my believing his sanguine predictions too implicitly.
Later the pa.s.sengers appeared, grumbling at the cold, and at being obliged to turn out so early, and wis.h.i.+ng breakfast were ready. Of this wished-for meal the clatter of dishes in the saloon soon gave welcome warning. d.i.c.kens says that when, before taking his first meal on board an American steamer, ”he tore after the rus.h.i.+ng crowd to see what was wrong, dreadful visions of fire, in its most aggravated form, floated through his mind; but it was only _dinner_ that the hungry public were rus.h.i.+ng to devour.” We were nearly as bad on the _Manitoba_, the friendly steward warning most of us to secure our seats without delay, the cabin-walls being gradually lined with people on either side, each behind a chair. One of the ”boys” strode ostentatiously down the long saloon, ringing a great hand-bell, which summoned a mixed mult.i.tude pell-mell to the scene of action, only to retreat in disappointment at finding the field already occupied.
It was amusing to watch the different expressions on the faces down the lines while waiting for breakfast. Men, chiefly surveyors, who during their annual trips to and from work had got used to ”that sort of thing,”
took it coolly; judiciously choosing a seat directly opposite their state-room door, or standing in the background, but near enough to expel any intruder. New men, looking as uncomfortable as if they had been caught in petty larceny, twisted their youthful moustaches, put their hands in their pockets, or leant against the wall, trying to look perfectly indifferent as to the event; some of their neighbours smiling satirically at their folly. Old farmer-looking bodies, grumbling at the crush, mingled with Yankees, toothpick in hand, ready for business; st.u.r.dy Englishmen whom one knew appreciated creature comforts; and dapper little Frenchmen, hungry yet polite. Here stood a bright-looking Irishwoman, who vainly tried to restrain the impatience of five or six children, whose faces still shone from the friction of their morning ablutions; there, an old woman, well-nigh double with age, who, rather than be separated from the two stalwart sons by her side, was going to end her days in a strange land. Here was a group of bright, chatty little French Canadians, with the usual superabundance of earrings and gay ribbons decorating their persons; there, a great raw-boned Scotchwoman, inwardly lamenting the porridge of her native land, frowned upon the company.
The bell ceased, and--”Presto!” all were seated, and turning over their plates as if for a wager. Then came a confused jumble of tongues, all talking at once; the rattle of dishes, the clatter of knives and forks, and the rus.h.i.+ng about of the boy-waiters. It required quick wit to choose a breakfast dish, from the ”White-fish--finanhaddy--beefsteak--cold roastbeef--muttonchop--bacon--potatoes--toast--roll--brown-bread-or- white--tea-or-coffee,” shouted breathlessly by a youth on one side, while his comrade screamed the same, in a shrill falsetto, to one's neighbour on the other; their not starting simultaneously making the confusion worse confounded. Such was the economical mode of setting forth the bill of fare on the _Manitoba_. There were three hundred and fifty people on h.o.a.rd; more than one-third of whom were cabin, or would-be cabin, pa.s.sengers. The accommodation being insufficient, some were camping on the upper deck, some in the saloon, many on the stairs, and others wherever elbow-room could be found. Breakfast began at half-past seven, and at half-past nine the late risers were still at it; and it was not long before the same thing (only more so!), in the shape of dinner, had to be gone through.
As Lake Huron was calm and our boat steady, we had more ”G.o.d save the Queen” after dinner, besides ”Rule, Britannia” and other patriotic songs, several of the pa.s.sengers playing the piano very well. Some one also played a violin, and the men, clearing the saloon of sofas and superfluous chairs, danced a double set of quadrilles, after having tried in vain to persuade some of the emigrant girls to become their partners.
They were an amusing group--from the grinning steward, who, cap on head, figured away through all the steps he could recollect or invent (some of them marvels of skill and agility in their way), to the solemn young man, only anxious to do his duty creditably. But alas for the short-lived joviality of the mult.i.tude! After touching at Southampton the boat altered her course, and the effect of her occasional rolls in the trough of the waves soon became manifest.
One by one the less courageous of the crowd crept away. Every face soon blanched with terror at the common enemy. Wretched women feebly tried to help crying children, though too ill to move themselves; others threw them down anywhere, to be able to escape in time for the threatened paroxysm; all were groaning, wan and miserable, railing at the poor, wearied stewardess, calling her here, there, and everywhere at the same time, and threatening her as if she were the sole cause of their woe.
About midnight, our course being altered, ”Richard was himself again.”
CHAPTER II.
Saulte Ste. Marie--Indian Embroidery--Lake Superior--Preaching, Singing, and Card-playing--Silver Islet--Thunder Bay--The Dog River--Flowers at Fort William--”Forty Miles of Ice”--Icebergs and Warm Breezes--Duluth--Hotel Belles--b.u.mp of Destructiveness in Porters.
The scenery just before entering the St. Mary River, which unites Lake Huron and Lake Superior, is very fine. As the steamer threaded the group of islands with their high, rocky, picturesquely wooded sh.o.r.es, we were sometimes near enough to distinguish the many varieties of mosses and ferns just springing into life; then, steaming across the rippling water, we reached some point whose distant beauty had made us long to carry away more than a memory of its outlines; and so, winding in and out amongst the islands of this North American archipelago, we ”fetched” the Saulte Ste. Marie about sunset. [Footnote: The island-studded northern expanse of Lake Huron is known as Georgian Bay. As the level of Lake Superior is between thirty and forty feet higher than that of Lake Huron, there is a corresponding fall at the head of the St. Mary River. This difference of level prevents direct navigation between the two lakes; consequently, the Americans have constructed across the extreme north-eastern point of the State of Michigan a fine ca.n.a.l, which gives them exclusive possession of the entrance by water to the great inland sea of Lake Superior. When, in 1870, the Red River Expedition, under Colonel (now General Sir) Garnet Wolseley, sought to make the pa.s.sage in several steamboats _en route_ for Thunder Bay, the State authorities of Michigan issued a prohibition against it. Fortunately, the Cabinet of Was.h.i.+ngton overruled this prohibition, and the Expedition was permitted to pa.s.s; not, however, until valuable time had been lost. Considering the importance of this ca.n.a.l to the Dominion Government, and that at a crisis the United States'