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CANADA AS IT IS

WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

THE REAL SIBERIA:
TOGETHER WITH AN ACCOUNT OF
A DASH THROUGH MANCHURIA.
Profusely Illustrated from Special Photo
graphs. Popular Edition, Eighteenth Im
pression. 3s. 6d.
" Mr. Eraser has lifted tbe veil which hid tbe real
Siberia from our eyes." — Black and White.
" Mr. Fraser shatters old illusions about Siberia.
He has succeeded in combining a great deal of useful
information with a sprightly description of the scenes
and incidents of his loni. "—Yorkihirt Post.
AMERICA AT WORK.
With Numerous lUustrations from special
Photographs. Popular Edition. Fourteenth
Impression 3s. 6d.
"Vivid and observant studies." — Times.
"A book which is calculated to startle Britons."
— Athenaum. "Brilliant. More than G. W. Steevens, or Mr.
Kipling, or Mr. Archer, or Mr. Beckles Willson,
Mr. Fraser focuses in a single blazing light the
vision of the new America." — Daily News.
CASSELL & COMPANY. LiMrrED. Lcndtm.- Pmru,
h'ciu York &• Meiboumt.

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QANADA AS IT IS

BY
JOHN FOSTER FRASER
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Author cf " America at Work,"
" The Real Siberia,"
•'Round the World on a Wheel," etc.

WITH FORTY-SEVEN FULL PACE
PLATES FROM PHOTOGRAPHS

CASSELL AND COMPANY, LIMITED
LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK AND
MELBOURNE. MCMV
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

First Edition April 1905.
Reprinted June and Jxdy 1905
Eat-, aok-

CONTENTS.

Chaptkr Paob
Foreword  1
I. — The Coming op the Strong: Canada's
Greeting  10
II. — Montreal : The Commercial Gate of
Canada  21
III. — The Garden of Canada : Pears, Peaches,
AND Apples  31
IV. — Toronto: The Most English City in
Canada  40
V. — The Strength of a Young Nation :
Canada and its Trade . . .62
VI. — Manufacturers and Preference: "Canada
FOR THE Canadians" .... 64
VII.— The French - Canadian . . . .76
VIII. — The Wheat Funnel : Storing and Dis
tributing Corn . . . . .88
IX. — Winnipeg : The City of the Plains . 100
X. — The New Life : Experiences of Settlers 114
XI. — The Wheat Fields: How the Prairie
is Settled  129
XII. — The North- Wester : "A Britisher with
All the Latest Improvements " . . 141

vi CONTENTS.
Ohaptkb PiOI
XIII. — The Territory of Saskatchewan : Far
FROM THE Beaten Track . . .153
XIV. — The "Boom" Lands: In the Territory
OF Alberta  167
XV. — The Canadian Rockies: Down Kicking
Horse Pass on a Cow-catcher . .180
XVI. — British Columbia : An Outpost of
Empire  192
XVII. — The Awakening op the Wilderness . 207
XVIII. — Among the Foothills of the Rockies :
The Life of the Rancher. . .219
XIX. — The Politics of the Dominion . . 233
XX. — The Dominion and its Neighbour . 246
XXI. — The Federal Constitution : Imperial
Defence  259
XXII. — Education, Crime, Banking, and Rail
ways  272
XXIII. — The Red Indians and Foreign Settle
ments  284
XXIV. — The Sport of the Dominion . . . 292
Index  299

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Facing Faoi
On the Canadian Prairie .... Frontispiece
Emigrants on the Tunisiam. Young English Emigrants . 5
From Central Europe, Newcomers to Canada ... 12
A Farm Eesidence in the Eastern Provinces ... 20
The Eiver Front at Montreal  29
The Garden of Canada  33
A Canadian Apple-Orchard  36
A Busy Corner iu Toronto .. 4 .... 45
Residential Quarter, Toronto  48
University CoUege, Toronto  50
The Chateau Frontenac, Quebec  85
Largest Grain Elevator in the World  92
Winnipeg  100
New Arrivals in Winnipeg. Labour Day Procession in
Winnipeg  109
Arrival of Dog Trains at Lower Fort Garry . , . .113
Reaping on the Plains  116
Threshing Wheat in Manitoba  125
Cattle in Assiniboia  128
First Year on a Western Homestead  135
A Wheat Stretch near Regina  138
An East-Anglian Farming. Hut of Poor Finns . . , 145
Sod Shanty. The Home of a Prosperous Farmer . . . 148
Young Doukhobors. A Doukhobor after Three Years in
Canada  157
The First Turning of the Prairie  160
Round-up on Elbow River, Calgary  167
Corral Horses, near Calgary . . .... 170

viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Facino Pao»
A Quartet of Cowboys  177
Edmonton  179
Mount Sir Donald  180
The C.P.R. Hotel at Banff  183
The Author on a Cow-catcher  186
Kicking Horse Pass  189
Vancouver  190
A Saw Mill in the Crow's Nest Pass  192
Salmon Fishing on the Fraser River  197
A Salmon Cannery  204
The Big Tree in Stanley Park, Vancouver .... 208
Timber Hauling on the Pacific Coast ..... 211
Gold Washing in British Columbia  215
Nelson, British Columbia  218
Rossland, A New Town in British Columbia . . . 222
Rolling a Broncho  225
Saddling a Broncho  231
Branding a Steer on the Prairie ...... 234
Dominion Parliament Buildings at Ottawa .... 260
Dance of Blood Indians, near Macleod  286
Bringing in the Moose Head  , _ 294

CANADA AS IT IS.

FOREWORD.
I HAVE chosen the title, " Canada As It Is," for
three reasons. Firstly, because the popular
idea about the great Dominion is that it is a
region clasped most of the year in ice and frost,
which it is not; secondly, because the Canadians
themselves, by means of Government pamphlets and
subsidised lecturers, would like the world to believe
it the most delightful land to live in, which it isn't ;
and thirdly, because Canada has just emerged from
its adolescence as a nation, has reached lusty man
hood, and has become conscious of the great role it
may play in the history of commerce.
For some years I have made a careful study of
Canada, its growth, its possibilities, and also its
sentiments in regard to the parent country of Great
Britain, and its neighbouring cousin, the United
States. On the top of that study I made an ex
tensive trip through Canada, east and west, north
and south, in the autumn of 120.4. Members of the
Government, from the Prime Minister, Sir Wilfrid
Laurier, downwards, put themselves to much trouble
that I might obtain accurate information. The
Immigration Department, under Mr. ClifEord Sifton,

2 CANADA AS IT IS.
the Minister of the Interior, readily supplied me
with thc data I sought. Presidents of Boards of
Trade — equivalent to English Chambers of Com
merce — gave me opportunities for inquiring into par
ticular industries. I had interviews with leading
manufacturers, talks with great ranchers and poor
" homesteaders." To all I made it clear I was not
in the Dominion to " write up " Canada, but, as far
as my powers permitted, to hear all sides, and then,
impartially, to publish my conclusions.
I feel it necessary to record this because the im
pression is abroad that Canada is ' ' booming ' ' itself
a little too ardently, and there is an unjustified sus
picion that all books dealing with Canada, especially
those that are adulatory, are financed by the Govern
ment. Those, however, who do me the honour to
read this volume will, I trust, conclude that what
ever my faults may be, I have endeavoured to be
fair. I do not expect all my opinions will be acceptable
to Canadians. They have been told so often what
a fine country they have, they tell themselves so
often what a fine people they are, that any touch of
criticism, even amid general admiration, is resented
as though it were a studied slight. For instance,
no visitor, however kindly intentioned, can be in
the Dominion a week without realising that if he
wants to talk about the weather he must only talk
about summer, the gilding of the prairies with corn,
or the dyeing of the trees with glorious reds in crisp
September. If, with an attempt at poetical face-
tiousness, he speaks of Canada as " Our Lady of the

FOREWORD. 3
Snows," he is made aware he has said something
which is not appreciated. Should he unfortunately
allude to " the long winter," the difficulty of keep
ing warm, and seek information about fur overcoats,
he will be more or less politely told he is one of
those ignorant Englishmen who help in libelling
Canada by suggesting it is a region swathed most
of the year in snow.
Winter is a touchy topic with the Canadian. He
never talks about it himself. He will tell you about
the peaches grown in Ontario ; he will become rather
pink with enthusiasm describing the wheat region
of the West ; he will provide you with a bag of
pamphlets on where to get the best fishing and best
shooting, and he will remark, with a twinkle in his
eye, that it must be rather uncomfortable living in
the English rains. Like his neighbour in the
States, he thinks it good sport to bait the visiting
Englishman on the awfulness of the climate at
home, where it is foggy when it isn't drizzling. You
smile ; but that is only proof he is correct. I am no
apologist for the English climate. But in my life
I have never known such rain, such clamminess,
such a cold, shivering summer as prevailed when I
visited the eastern provinces of the Dominion.
Canada has a long and severe winter. In places
the snow lies for five months, and in the west, in
Alberta Territory and Vancouver Province, where
there is little snow, there are nasty, chill and con
tinuous rains.
You can buy photographs by the hundred of
summer scenes ; but if you ask for a picture of a

4 CANADA AS IT IS.
homestead in winter you receive a scowl. The
Dominion Government sends out millions of publica
tions each year about the suitability of Canada for
settlers ; but the winter season — certainly the hard
ship of winter — is practically ignored.
An excellent proposal was made some time
back to have an Ice Carnival in Montreal. A howl
went up. Why, that would be an advertisement
to the world that there was actually ice in Canada !
So it was dropped.
Canada, generally speaking, has a fine climate,
healthy and invigorating. The middle months have
a fragrant lush in them, and the Indian summer,
which comes with the fall of the leaf, is delicious.
Instead of denying winter, the Canadians ought to
be proud of it. The cold is not the marrow-search
ing asthmatic cold EngUsh people are used to, but it
is crisp, the skies are vivid blue, and outdoor life
provides much happy stimulation.
It is well Canadians should put right those ignor
ant Europeans who think the chief product of the
Dominion is snow ; but the way they are overdoing
it is mirthful to the European who is not ignorant.
Perhaps it is because he lives next door to the
United States, where national megalomania is ramp
ant, that the Canadian has such a " guid conceit
o' his'sel." This is rather ministered to by the
fulsome adulation he gets from statesmen in Eng
land. His crude interpretation of the flattering
talk about the Colonies is this: "That John Bull
is played out, and he know's he's going under unless
we in our strength help him." That John Bull is

EMIGRANTS ON THE TUNISIAN'

YOUNG ENGLISH EMIGRANTS
CROSSING THE ATLANTIC.

FOREWORD. 5
slow — too slow to die, and too short-sighted to see
across the street — is a delusion nursed with fondness
by Jake Canuke. Britons are slow enough in many
respects ; they are stodgily self-satisfied, rather re
sentful about new ideas, certainly laggard in adapta
bility compared with our friends in the States. But
in many respects they are ' ' hustlers ' ' compared
with their relatives in the Dominion.
Much is being done to make Canada a great
wheat-growing country. But the fact that men
with scant agricultural knowledge can raise good
crops and make a satisfactory living, is not so much
proof of ability as of the munificence of the Almighty
in giving Canada a soil which has only to be
scratched to bring forth dollars. In manufactures
Canada is ' ' away behind ' ' both Britain and the
United States. I am not asserting the Canadian
manufacturer has not grit and push ; but the results
have not yet been sufficient to justify him in think
ing he is anywhere near a level of competence with
Britain. With the exception of a particular branch
of agricultural implement manufacture there is not
a single industry in Canada at the present time
which could hold its own against fair-price-and-qual-
ity competition with the United States and Great
Britain. The chief asset in the Canadian's character is
glorious enthusiasm and belief in himself and his
country. Britons are pre-disposed to take a pes
simistic view of things. The Canadian revels in
optimism. He lives in a whirl of it. He is always
comparing himself to John Bull to his own satis-

6 CANADA AS IT IS.
faction and the detriment of John. He welcomes
with open arms — and his hospitality is warm and un
stinted — anybody from the " old country." Yet he
is unable to conceive how anyone can pass through
the Dominion without being in constant ecstasy.
Curiously enough, the newspaper articles about
England which he prefers to read are those reveal
ing some social sore. The explanation is inter
esting. The population of Canada is small, not
more than that of London, and not a twelfth that of
the United States. With scattered people, the
newspapers can only appeal to a limited circle of
readers. They are excellent papers ; they desire to
keep pace with the times, and have a liking for in
formation from Europe, and especially England.
But as they are rarely rich enough to buy such
special articles direct they purchase them through
American sources ; and these articles are written for
the United States market. Now, whatever may be
the sentiments in the better educated circles of the
Republic, there is no questioning the fact that the
great mass of American newspaper readers prefer
something nasty and ' ' spicy ' ' in the special articles
sent from London. These are the articles which
too often appear in Canada, producing the effect that
society at home consists mainly of roues, and that
the rest of us are fools.
Another reason the average Canadian thinks he
is superior to the Briton is that, after all, he has
only himself as a measure. Probably he is an
immigrant from England. In the old land making
a living was very hard; his surroundings were

FOREWORD. 7
unappetising. In disgust at the social conditions he
crossed to Canada. In England he had possibly
grumbled a great deal; in Canada, the time he
formerly spent in grumbling is devoted to hustling.
Certainly every man gets his chance in Canada.
So he prospers, builds himself a comfortable house,
and has a thousand dollars in the bank. That man
has got beyond argument that England is a better
country than Canada. He knows differently, and
that settles it.
Now, whilst, of course, there is not the degrada
tion and hunger and slouching armies of unemployed
such as we are used to, there is in Canada — except
in Quebec, and, to a lesser degree, in Montreal,
Toronto, and Victoria — an absence of literary, cul
tured refinement, and too often a bragging ignorance
that irritates.
Heaven forefend I should bring this as a serious
charge against the Canadian. The marvel would be
if it were not so. It is not the rich and the cul
tured of Europe who settle in Canada. It is the
pushful and the determined. They have the faults
of their virtues. I mention the point by way of a
set-off to the cock-sureness of the Canadian. Cul
ture will come in time, just as it has come in the
more settled parts of the United States.
A glib phrase on British platforms is that of
" Colonial loyalty." Behind his scoffing the
Canadian has a genuine affection for what he fondly
calls " the old country," although maybe neither he
nor his sires were British born. He is proud of the
British Empire, he loves the Union Jack — though

8 CANADA AS IT IS.
he usually mistakes the sheet of the mercantile
marine for it — and when the man of the States
"blows" about America, and suggests it could
annex Canada any morning before breakfast, the
Canadian points to a red-splashed map of the world,
and asks him what the American has to show along
side the British Empire?
But Canadian loyalty to Great Britain — that is a
very different thing ! Politically, Canada doesn't
care the often hazarded brass farthing for Britain
as Great Britain. Viceroys and state ceremonial
functions are regarded as amiable tomfoolery. The
sneer that often comes from the States that Canada
owes tutelage to England cuts deep. Formerly —
and in some quarters the feeling still exists — the
ambition of Canada was to be a great Republic like
that of the United States. Failing that there was a
sub-current of thought that the destiny of Canada
was to join the United States. All this, however,
has passed away. Canada realises she has come too
late into the arena of nations to be able to stand
alone for a single generation. She knows that if
she broke loose from Britain she could not resist the
fate of being swallowed by the States.
The sneers of the United States, the dash and
valour of the Canadian troops in South Africa, the
warm-hearted thanks which came from the Mother-
country to the Dominion for that timely service, to
gether with the agricultural development of the
North- West, have all been yeast in stirring up the
sentiment of Empire which is most marked to-day
from one side of Canada to the other.

FOREWORD. 9
Canada has a glimmer of her destiny. It is not
to be a mere Colony of Britain ; it is not to be swal
lowed by the United States ; it is not to be a small
Republic unto herself. It is to be a real integral part
of the British Empire, with a proportionate voice
in the control of that Empire, and with the ambition i
that one day she will be the predominant partner <
in the nations of the Empire. That is a vision
which touches the Canadian imagination.

10

CHAPTER I.
THE COMING OF THB STRONG : CANADA'S GREETING.
THE great Allan liner Tunisian churned through
fog and spume.
There had been a day of drizzle, and decks
were greasy. We made for the mouth of the River
St. Lawrence, highway to the Canadian land of
promise, and the syren shrieked like a shrill vixen
getting hoarse — " for the icebergs to get off the
path," said the funny man.
Eight hundred steerage passengers were on
board, nicknamed " three pounders " from the price
they paid. They were all emigrants. Many sat
peering into the misty veil as though expecting it
suddenly to lift and reveal the new land.
A group of men were beneath the shelter of a
life-boat — men of thirty years most of them, muscled
mechanics and brawny farm hands. They were
strong, and had the good nature of ripe health.
" No," said one to me, " I've no plans except
I'm going to make for Toronto. All the money I've
got in the world is a pound — that's five dollars, ain't
it? But I've got five children, and the missus.
That's her, with the shawl over her head. She's a
plucky 'un. She laughs and makes light of it all,
to keep my pecker up, as it was. She's a fine
woman is my missus. And I try to keep her cheer-

THE COMING OF THE STRONG. 11
ful-like by telling her as how the next time we cross
the 'Tlantic it'll be like them swells in the saloon ;
but — when I look at her and the kids, something
comes into my throat that I can't swallow, blamed
if I can. Oh, but it'll be all right. The missus is
healthy, the kids is healthy, an' I'm healthy. Look
at them hands, sir; there's nowt soft or genteel
about them. I got a bit sick of the struggle at
home. Not as I wasn't in constant work ; but there
was no chance for a man. A mate of mine went to
Toronto two years sin, and he's lent me the money
to bring us all out. It's the stout heart that does
it in Canada, he tells me, and my missus has the
heart for both on us."
" Yes," said a tubby, twinkle-eyed Yorkshire-
man; " if it wasn't for the missus I guess I'd not
have come. It's her sister as used to live in Don-
caster as has sent us the money. She's in service,
an' getting thirty bob a week and her keep. Them's
my two girls, an' I've five youngsters — he, he — yes,
I think all the families aboard 'ere have got five
youngsters. I worked in some Rotherham iron
works, and I've got two characters. I've only got
two quid, and would have had more only the missus
wanted to bring her own bed, and that's costing
fifteen shillin's."
A sprightly fellow, holding a winsome lass by
the shoulders, came slithering along the deck, both
happy, laughing with the brightness of manhood and
womanhood in their eyes.
"Them's one of the couples," someone re
marked, and everybody laughed.

12 CANADA AS IT IS.
We were five days out from Liverpool, and
already there were seven engagements between
young folks in the steerage, and two of the couples
were only waiting till the vessel bumped against
the dock in Montreal to " hurry to a parson and get
spliced." Luck to them all was the wish of the
steerage. "I'm off west," said a raw but cheery youth
with northern burr, "going to join a brother of
mine who's farming outside Winnipeg. I don't
mind telling you that I'm taking out £100, and if I
don't make a fortune it ain't my fault. I've read
up Canada. Why, it grows over a million bushels of
wheat a year, and there's a quarter of a million
square miles waiting for the plough. You see, I'll
get a hundred and sixty acres free from the Govern
ment, and I'll buy more, and in two years I'll send
for my girl. Maybe I'll go in for ranching later on ;
but that wants money. What I like about it is that
it is not like going to a foreign country. It'll be
like home. There'll be the old flag, and I'm told I
get all the rights of citizenship as soon as I land.
The life will be a bit rough at the start, I suppose;
but I've got a stout heart."
Stout heart 1
I got to know that phrase as I sat in the steer
age quarter, and talked and smoked my pipe with
the emigrants. Eight hundred of them, and all
with stout hearts ! They were not the wasters of
England going to Canada because they could not
make a living at home. I saw some of that type in
the second cabin — men with tender fingers and

FROM CENTRAL EUROPE.

NEWCOMERS TO CANADA.

THE COMING OF THE STRONG. 13
dirty cuffs — city men, who had done badly at home,
and would do badly anywhere. They, of course,
would resent being called emigrants. But the eight
hundred steerage folk were of a class that filled me
with much hope and a little sorrow. There were
young men and maidens, workmen and servant
girls, going out blithe in spirit, and ready to take
the rough with the smooth. Chiefly there were
mothers and fathers with their broods — four, five,
and six children — in arms, toddlers, boys and girls
of from twelve to fifteen. I heard of one family
with a thousand pounds. But besides steamboat and
railway tickets, most families had between five and
ten pounds. Nearly all were going to friends. The
mothers and fathers were between the ages of
twenty-five and forty. There were no old people.
Large hopes for the future smothered the regrets
at breaking with the old country. These emigrants
were of the better class of artisan — simple, sober,
kindly. Most days I forsook the polite chatter of
the saloon deck and went among them. They
weren't like the pictures of emigrants in the illus
trated papers. They were dressed in the manner
of people you meet in third-class railway carriages
in manufacturing districts. They made one big
family. With no mock pride they talked about their
prospects, and wondered how far three pounds would
go in a new land. The interchange of kindness was
a heart trait and not a courtesy. I met one stout
matron, whose great joy was a scorn of sea-sickness,
looking after her own four children, and also the six
children of two other women who were not comfort-

14 CANADA AS IT IS.
able while " rocked in the cradle of the deep." They
were thrifty, industrious wives, most of them.
There was no obligation, but many borrowed buckets
and brushes and scrubbed out their cabins. Some
of them regarded it as a distinction after meals to
go into the ship's galley and help in washing and
wiping the dishes. They found pleasure in work.
An honest, worthy crowd in all truth were those
eight hundred. They were of the stuff of which
the old country should be proud. The fact that
they had broken with old ties, puUed up stakes,
sold their furniture to pay steerage passage and have
a pound or two on the other side to give father,
mother, children, a new start in a new country,
was proof of pluck.
As we talked, I felt a sorrow that these, and other
hundreds of such on other ships, swelling into big
thousands each year, should for ever be leaving
home, old England. They are the men and women
to whom Canada opens her arms and gives greeting.
They are the strong.
And my thoughts skipped to other seekers for
new homes, passengers from Antwerp, and Ham
burg, and Libau — folk of dirty and loathsome habits,
wasters in their own countries, who land in England,
not with stout hearts to make big battles in life's
conflict, but to huddle in crowded East-End sweat
shops, and gain scant food by working for wages
below the living line.
We are giving America of our best, and from the
Continent of Europe we are taking of its worst.
Good wine is running from the cask ; a muddy
mixture is being poured in.

THE COMING OF THE STRONG. 15
At the lift of an August day the Tunisian, after
breasting the Atlantic, cleaving the waters of the
mighty St. Lawrence for the better part of a thou
sand miles, gave a wiggle-waggle of her twin-screws,
and rested almost within shadow of the fortress of
Quebec. The emigrants — immigrants now — break
fasted at four in the morning, and were ready to set
foot in Canada at five. Their interest was not in
the picturesque Mother City of the Dominion. They
had no thoughts of the old French rule ; they had
forgotten what they had learnt at school about its
capture by the English nigh a hundred and fifty
years ago. " Empire " and " Colonial Preference "
were but jingling phrases in their ears.
The men were silent as they stood waiting per
mission to land. When they did speak, the muffled
" Yes " and " No " showed their thoughts were in
Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg maybe, Vancouver.
Here was the new land to which they had
come to work — a little strange, the houses a little
foreign. Some of the dockside men were call
ing to one another in an un-English tongue. But
there was the good old flag flying from mastheads.
There was a British warship, grey-black and sinister,
lying in mid-stream. The women were laughing,
and a little — just a little — hysterical, for reasons
they couldn't quite tell. They had put on their best
hats, with bits of colour in them. They sat on their
cheap portmanteaus, and told Willie not to get too
near the hold , or he would fall down ; they threat
ened to spank Florrie if she rubbed her pinafore any
more against the tar, and subdued Bobbie into

16 CANADA AS IT IS.
silence with a threat that the Red Indians would
soon be coming for all bad children. Somebody pro
duced a flat-sided bottle with a dirty cork, and
friends took a gulp, and wished each other luck.
The derricks were up, and the cranes singing,
and " Settlers' Luggage," with the names of owners
painted largely but unevenly on several sides, so
there could be no mistake, was being hoisted on
raUroad trucks — a medley of old wooden boxes,
heavily corded, garish, tin -clamped and embossed
trunks with little strength in them, old tin boxes
with bashed lids, bundles of clothing in cheap horse
cloths. " Do you think they'll be all right, Alf? " asked
the careful wife.
' ' Thee hud thy jaw ! ' ' was the equivocal re
sponse of the husband.
Then they landed. The men carried the shoddy
portmanteaus bought for the voyage. The women
had care of the children, infants in arms, and nippers
gripping tight to the skirt.
During the voyage we saw there were plenty of
children ; but now every cranny yielded a youngster.
It seemed that if Canada was eager for young set
tlers the steerage was determined to give them
plenty young enough. Into a shed they all went—
a dreary place, and there they ranged themselves in
untidy rows. The Government doctor inspected
them. Canada wants settlers. But she doesn't want
the sickly and the diseased. She simply won't
have them. The breed has to be healthy, or it is
rejected.

THE COMING OF THE STRONG. 17
All was well with the new arrivals. The ship
ping companies do their best in seeing to that. If
they land an " undesirable " in Canada they have to
take the ' ' undesirable ' ' back to the place from
whence he or she came. There is no squeamish talk
in Canada about the virtue of keeping the doors of
the Dominion open for the world's refuse. Canada
welcomes a man who is poor; but she declines the
decrepit. "This is a good class of immigrant," I said,
with a sweep of the hand, while talking to a Govern
ment official.
" Yes," was the quick reply. " We're getting
the kind we want. There has been a mighty im
provement in the type of immigrant. The change
has been marked these last three or four years. The
grown-ups are of the right ages, between twenty
and thirty years. Up to the end of June last 130,000
settlers landed in the year. England gives us most ;
then comes Scotland, then Ireland. Of course, we
have Germans, Galicians — good farmers, and we
have a good many Italians, who work on the rail
ways. Quite 75 per cent, of the immigrants are of
the farming class. That's all right; why, in the
North-West Territory we have room for five million
people. We give 160 acres free to any man ; and
if a man has one, two, or three sons over eighteen
years of age, they get 160 acres each also. If a man
has growing lads not yet eighteen, he can have
neighbouring tracts reserved till they are eighteen.
They get their land allotted at Winnipeg. No, we
don't carry any immigrants free ; but we have
C

18 CANADA AS IT IS.
special rates for them, and they can get from here
to Winnipeg, 1,200 miles, for about £2 10s.
" What if a farm hand has little money? Well,
we don't ask a man to start farming right away.
He can always get work on neighbouring farms, but
he must put in a certain amount of work on his own
farm within the first three years or the grant lapses.
How much to start farming right away? Well, if a
man and his wife with, say, three or four children,
land in the North-West with £200, that's a thou
sand dollars, it is the best investment in the world —
if they don't mind roughing it the first couple of
years. "What! Oh, you're a writing man, are you?
Well, you write home to the old country and tell
them that though we want farm hands in the West,
the towns want mechanics — not men who are little
good at home, and think Canada will put up with
the second-rate article, but real good workmen, who
will get real good dollars in return, and plenty of
them. And tell young women to come out. We
want women. We want them as wives for our
farmers. Tell lots of them to come out right away.
Domestic servants wUl get work the first day they
land, and more than twice as much money as they
are earning at home. What? Oh, Lord, yes!
They're always getting married. That's all right.
But let lots of others come. We don't want your
anaemic wench, who's frightened of dii-tying her
fingers, and wants to play the lady. We want girls
who know how to cook and to wash. If you've got
any of them to spare tell them to come right along,
and come quick."

THE COMING OF THE STRONG. 19
The immigrants' train was ready. The huga
engine of the Canadian Pacific Railway was belch
ing smoke, and the newcomers were clambering into
the great coaches twice the size of English coaches,
and roomy and comfortable. There was crowding
at the windows, waving of hands, much laughter,
and some tears. The bell on the hump of the engine
swung and began to clang. Slowly, gruntingly, the
train crawled away with its load of hope.
Good luck to them all !
But there were others who had no friends in the
West, who knew nothing about farming, who had
large families and little money after they got as far
as Montreal. Were they strong, and willing to
work? Well, don't worry! The railroad cars
carried them to the commercial capital. Montreal
was ready for them.
Englishmen, this way ! The St. George's Society
will look after you, give you lodging and food at
the St. George's Home while you look for work, and
if you're a decent fellow and show well, it is not
unlikely a couple of rooms will be found, and even
furnished, for you and the missus and the kids ; and
when you're a rich man you'll remember when you
weren't, and make a big contribution to the St.
George's Society, so that others with slim purses
may be helped. Scotsmen, this way ! The St. An
drew's Society has a hand-grip, a bed, and a dinner-
table ready for you, and you'll be told where to seek
work, and where six shillings a day is to be earned.
Irishmen come this way ! Sure, the St. Patrick's
Society, if it has no home to send you to, has a

20 CANADA AS IT IS.
warm heart and a free purse to help those from the
" dear little, sweet little isle."
Canada, I say, gives warm greeting to the strong
and to the willing. But if you've driven a cart at
home, you mustn't object to carry cheese on the
wharfs. You may be an excellent painter, but you
mustn't mind if your first job is to lift boxes in one
of the hotels. Likely enough you are a good shoe
maker, but that is no reason why you shouldn't earn
your first dollar cleaning somebody else's shoes. If
you refuse the work offered you on landing, or laze,
you'll notice a chilliness on the part of the St.
George's, St. Andrew's, and St. Patrick's Societies.
If you are a " waster," and show you are a
" waster " within the first year, you will be taken
on board a steamer some morning, and sent back
to England. Canada has no use for you.

i'koto: ^. L Hardy, Kaiicillc, N.S.

A FARM RESIDENCE IN THE EASTERN PROVINCES.

21

CHAPTER II.
MONTREAL, THB COMMERCIAL GATE OF CANA'dA.
WHEN you have crossed the Atlantic and
dodged the icebergs which drift towards
the Straits of Belle Isle, and the low streak
of Labrador is on your right, and the dun heaves of
Newfoundland on your left, you enter the waters of
the St. Lawrence. The ocean-buffeted vessel will
then tread a way for over nine hundred miles before
Montreal, the commercial gate of Canada, is reached.
This river highway is thirty odd miles wide in
places, but shrinks to two miles. It is salt in the
Gulf of St. Lawrence ; it is brackish just below the
fortress, fierce and frowning, of Quebec; it is fresh
beyond — a body of deep water, chill and limpid,
draining the eastern continent, bringing down the
overflow of Lake Ontario, fed in turn by Lake Erie,
falling in great leap over Niagara.
Where the shores of the St. Lawrence close in,
wooded heights nodding to fruitful land, and
steamers, churning a way up and gliding down
easily, flutter the Union Jack at their mastheads —
you travel hundreds of miles between farm lands,
decked with neat, white-sided houses. Villages
cluster in sheltered nooks and bask in the sunshine,
or they did when I went that way, un-English,
French rather, with drowsy quay-sides, and the

22 CANADA AS IT IS.
fronts of the houses green-shuttered, and with
Breton names over the balconied restaurants, where,
round little tables, sit men sipping bock and talking
the tongue of the France they have never seen.
French-like churches rear slim spires, and at many
a curve in the river massive crosses are a reminder
to the Catholic devout.
The land is fragrant with cultivation — a herald
of the industry — quiet, frugal, contented — of the
French-Canadian. And it is not only the fields and
the orchards that are fruitful. Fourteen children is
not an unusual progeny to bless a French-Canadian
couple. Then in the distance you see a grimy cloud rest
ing on the clear horizon.
Montreal I There is the city, swathed in smoke
like Sheffield itself. Through the dust-paU pierce
factory chimneys and church spires and mammoth
grain-elevators. The docks are full of shipping, the
winches are busy, and the cranes swing. Bales and
machinery are being hauled from that ship. Grain
is rushing in a yellow stream into that. Cattle are
hoisted into another. Lumber rafts surround a
fourth. There is the uproar of a busy town. Before
you land you hear the shrill buzz of the racing
electric cars, and on the great bridge spanning the
river, nearly two miles wide, rumbles an express of
the Grand Trunk Railroad.
The British flag flies everywhere. One notices
it very much more than in an English town. But
Montreal isn't an English town. Y'ou cannot say
what sort of town it is. In a business street you

MONTREAL. 23
might be in Leeds or Birmingham. It is so home
like you have to tell yourself it isn't, lest you forget.
On the street cars, and in the corridors of your hotel,
you notice shaven, round faces, and hear nasal
twangs, and see men, in slouch hats and ill-fitting
clothes, chewing the ends of green cigars. Some of
the women carry themselves like one sees in some
of the New York society caricatures, as though they
were endeavouring to model their figures on the
letter S, and were not succeeding. Then you ask
yourself whether Montreal is different from Chicago,
or New York, or St. Louis, or Omaha? You go for
a walk. The streets are boulevards, tree-trimmed ;
the houses have touches about them of a Parisian
suburb. You see slim and graceful women, dark
and dainty, and they talk French.
Looking along the leafy streets of Montreal, and
admiring the charming residences, you conclude that
Montreal is French, and feminine French at that,
in its prettiness. But your eye wanders up a side
street. Ugh ! The shaky, decrepit, wooden side
walks, the lakes of mire, the ramshackleness of the
backs of the houses that looked so attractive from
the front! Ah, the simile comes: Montreal is as
captivating as a well -gowned Frenchwoman , but her
shoes are down at the heel, and you can't help seeing
the holes in her stockings.
But here is an arithmetical phenomenon, grate
ful to the Briton. Roughly, the population is
350,000. Three-quarters of the population is French,
and one-quarter British. But in trade, business,
money-making, three-quarters of it is in the hands

24 CANADA AS IT IS.
of the British, and one-quarter in the hands of the
French. That fact proves more than a treatise that
the Briton is the business man.
And when you have exhausted the sights — done
Montreal by megaphone on a car, with a man bawl
ing at you through a trumpet with a mouth like a
yawn, and have noted the innumerable churches
jostling one another, setting up the wonder in your
mind whether they are because Montreal is so very
good or so very wicked — the thing you come back to
is that Montreal is the business hub of the
Dominion. The offices of the railroads, the banks,
the insurance companies, are palaces of commerce,
humming with industry. The men you talk to are
alive. They have the pushfulness of Chicago, yet
behind is the stolid shrewdness of London. They be
lieve in themselves ; they believe in Canada and its
future. They have an enthusiasm about Canada's
ultimate place in the world which makes you smile.
Still you envy men with so magnificent an enthu
siasm. They pride themselves on being British.
The troubles of Quebec have been the oppor
tunities of Montreal. Quebec is the natural port
for Canada, and is open to the sea all the year round.
But labour disputes on the dockside, holding up
of ships and their cargoes for several weeks, have
disgusted merchants with the citadel city, and sent
trade to Montreal, which has the advantage of bein-T
further inland, but the decided disadvantage of being
shut off from the sea by the freezing of the St.
Lawrence for at least four months of ihe year. A
way could be kept open with icebreakers, but the

MONTREAL. 25
rates of marine insurance — being sometimes three
times as much for vessels between November and
April as in the summer and fall months — make
winter river trade between Montreal and the outer
world practically non-existent. Ten years ago the
dangers of the St. Lawrence were undoubted. But
the spending of a million dollars has provided electric
buoys, better shore lights, and an excellent system
of fog syrens ; so there has not been a serious
accident for years. Still, an all-the-year water route
with the world is not workable. While in the winter
months some Canadian produce is shipped from
Halifax in Nova Scotia, the bulk of it goes by the
States route from Portland or Boston.
Now and then a written wail crosses the At
lantic, warning British workmen against starting
for Canada, because the market is overstocked, and
only disappointment and heartache wait the new
comer. This was a matter I inquired into. There
is one occupation overstocked, that of clerk. The
Montreal clerk earns a trifle more than his English
friend, but as clothes and house rent are higher
than at home, he is no better off, even if he is as well
off, as the clerk, say, in Liverpool. Montreal is
sufficiently big, sufficiently smeared with the affecta
tions of culture and refinement, that even here are
crowds who prefer the white cuffs and the poor
wages of the clerk to the greasy overalls and good
wages of the artisan. Montreal can provide all the
clerks it needs, and more. An English clerk had
better stay at home.
This is not a time of " boom " in Canada. In

26 CANADA AS IT IS.
the woollen industry, for instance, the quick com
petition, and the superior goods from England have
so hit the Canadian manufacturer that he is crying
out with the hurt. There is short time, even the
partial shutting-down of mills. At present, there
fore, no mill-hand in the woollen or worsted trade
would be well advised to leave home hoping to
better himself in Canada.
Having, however, given these instances, I have
exhausted the cases of where there is not a short
age in Montreal. There is a very real shortage in
all other branches. There is a good demand for
carpenters and bricklayers, and as for engineering,
a first-class mechanic can almost name his own
terms. The Canadian manufacturers have an association,
and at irregular intervals, when the shortage of
labour is marked, they make returns of the hands
they need. I picked up a return (July, 1904), and
I found the number of hands required in Montreal
alone was 6,717. Owning an admiration for many
of our trade unions in England, I have certainly
no disposition to go out of my way to say anything
derogatory to trade unions in Canada. But my in
vestigations convinced me that the statements they
make, and sedulously circulate among the workers of
Great Britain, that there is no shortage of artisans,
and that the Englishmen who come out will reap
disappointment, may be justifiable in the politics of
money-making, but does not accord strictly with
facts. Their reasoning is, no doubt, logical enough:

MONTREAL. 27
(1) Wages in Canada are high, and ought, by all
means, to be maintained. (2) If there is a greater
demand than supply, then not only will wages be
maintained, but they will be increased. (3) If there
is more labour on the market than demand, the
natural and inevitable consequence will be a re
duction in wages. (4) By keeping other artisans
away, and holding the market to ourselves that can
not take place. (5) We would be doing Englishmen
a bad turn by advising them to come out, and we
would be doing ourselves a bad turn, because the
more who came, instead of receiving the wages
now received, would glut the labour market, lower
wages as a consequence, and in the end the Eng
lishmen would be no better off than they are now
in the old country.
That is the logic of the Canadian trade unionist.
The sequence is accurate enough in economics.
As far, however, as I can discern, there need be no
real sequence for at least two or three generations.
Canada is a great country, just beginning to realise
its resources and possibilities. It has ambitions
to be a manufacturing as well as an agricultural
country. With the wave of immigration constantly
beating on its shores, and the land being trailed
with new railroad lines, there is a demand for
artisans so great that the possibility of the supply
exceeding the demand is beyond contemplation.
The shortage of good artisans in Canada is rather
hindering its development. The Grand Trunk Rail
road is embarking upon building a new line across
the Continent, running more or less paraUel with

28 CANADA AS IT IS.
the Canadian Pacific Railroad. The Grand Trunk
is turning to the United States to be supplied with
a great number of the engineers necessary in the con
struction of that new highway.
In considering wages in Montreal it is not to
be forgotten that, owing to the stringency of the
winter, there are at least four months of the year
when ordinary out-of-door trades cannot be followed.
The most common work is on the wharf sides, load
ing and unloading vessels. A year ago the pay
was lOd. an hour. To-day it is Is. OJd. an hour,
and that is the minimum wage paid for British un
skilled labour in Montreal. It may be reckoned con
stant for at least seven months of the year. I was
told that a good many young English labourers come
out steerage to Montreal in the spring, make their
three or four pounds a week, return to England
when the ice is closing the river, and live comfort
ably at home for a few months on their savings.
Labourers, however, who care to stay in Montreal
can, as a rule, pick up about £2 a week in snow-
shovelling. The building and other out-of-door
trades may be reckoned to be at a standstill for four
or five months of the year. This has to be reckoned
with in calculating the year's earnings. The cost of
food is about the same as in England, with an in
clination towards being cheaper ; clothing costs half
as much again, and house rent may be put down as
double the amount it is at home. Balancing in
creased pay with shortened months, and extra cost
of living, I doubt if there is any striking advantage
to be gained by the out-of-door artisan in fair em-

UJI
(-

MONTREAL. 29
ployment at home forsaking England with the
hope of benefiting himself in Canada. For those,
however, who work indoors — engineers, boot and
shoe artisans, and kindred occupations — the work
man in Canada has the best of it.
All the time, it must be remembered, the great
majority of the workmen in Montreal to-day are
French-Canadian. The French workman does not
get along well with either the Canadian or the Eng
lishman, and as for the French Catholics and the
Irish Catholics, dislike for each other is a mild
phrase. Yet the Frenchman would rather have a British
employer than one of his own race. He finds him
straighter. There is no blinking the fact that racial pre
judices are strong. You could draw a line through
the city dividing the British from the French
quarter. Though in money the French occupy a
minor place, numerically they are the stronger.
Accordingly, the municipality is French in com
plexion. The British return only six of the thirty
aldermen who rule the town. The Council pro
ceedings are conducted in both languages, and there
is an unwritten law that the mayors shall be British
and French alternately.
Yet though the divisions are strict and not al
ways kindly, so far as race is concerned, there is no
questioning that each is proud of the common name,
Canadian. You can almost see the breast swell of
native-born Briton or Frenchman as he proudly in
forms you he is a Canadian. If you call him an

30 CANADA AS IT IS.
American you get a black look. America means
the United States in his ears. You may teU him
that the people of the United States have no more
exclusive right to the title of American than a Ger
man has an exclusive right to be called a European.
He won't agree with you. He point-blank repudi
ates the name American. He is a Canadian ; he
is fond of being a Canadian ; he believes in Canada.
And that is the end of it.

31

CHAPTER III.
1"HE GARDEN OF CANADA: PEARS, PEACHES, AND
APPLES.
A CLEAN and widespread town is Hamilton,
Xx Ontario. It has a population of some sixty
thousand. But there are no mean and
dingy streets. Its thoroughfares are broad and
leafy, and every house has its plot of grass in front.
In the cool of the evening after a sweltering August
day, the good folks sit on the doorsteps or find rest
in wagging themselves on rocking chairs.
I found myself in Hamilton on a Saturday morn
ing, market day. The first crop of the Niagara
peninsula was beginning to come in, and hundreds
of carts — broad and scraggy vehicles with big
springs, drawn by gaunt and scraggy teams — had
been jolted over the rough country roads, and rat
tled over the smooth cemented streets of Hamilton
to the market-place. It was too early for grapes;
but here were piled up baskets of sallow-skinned
but luscious pears, peaches with the blush of sum
mer on their soft skins, plums almost on the burst
with ripeness, apples as rosy as the cheeks of an
English lass in crisp winter time, and tomatoes big
and bulbously yellowish-red.
The farmers, spare men, long of figure, though
untidy of clothes, hitched the horses and hauled off

32 CANADA AS IT IS.
the fruit. Their wives, kindly women, middle-aged
and elderly, with the wrinkles of hard work and long
winters on their countenances, and with demure-
ness shown in their garb — reminiscent rather of
New England — proceeded to sell to the bright-
bloused, businesslike, confident-mannered women of
Hamilton who had come to make their weekly pur
chase of fruit. It was a pretty picture : the market
place ribbed with long rows of fruit baskets, breath
ing fragrant odour. Behind stood the drab country
women selling, and in front the eager and chattering
town women buying.
The little peninsula which begins at Hamilton
and runs to within sound of the tumbling waters of
Niagara — a mere strip of a great continent, and
not more than forty miles long and some seven
miles wide — is the garden of Canada. The apple
belt of Canada is along the north shore of Lake
Ontario. But this jut of land is as rich for fruit
growing as Kent itself. The strip is guarded on
one side by the long ridge of the Helderleigh Hills,
which yield innumerable springs, and on the other
by Lake Ontario. When winter crawls down from
the north the temperature of the lake takes the
sting out of the frost, so that, even in the bleak
months, nature deals tenderly with the land. Only
when Lake Ontario freezes, which is not often, and
the chill gusts have a clear plain of ice to sweep
across, do the fruit growers suffer.
I had a week-end in the district, spending a
good many pleasant hours at such places as Winona,
Vinelands, and Grimsby, taking long walks through

THE GARDEN OF CANADA

THE GARDEN OF CANADA. 33
the orchards, seeking a juicy pear here, finding a
luscious peach there, and feeling how the bunches
of grapes were progressing on the slopes of the hills.
An electric trolley-line runs from Hamilton to Vine-
lands, and the huge freight cars of the Canadian
Pacific and Grand Trunk Railroads are run along
to the depots of the big exporters. I was the guest
of Mr. E.D. Smith, the member for the district in
the Dominion Parliament, and I happened to be
with him when he was despatching his consign
ments of pears for the year — one carload to New
Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and the other west
wards to Manitoba.
Little of the fruit in the Niagara region can
bear exportation to Europe except in cold storage.
It is dehcious fruit, but too juicy for long journeys.
Because it is so luscious, it won't last longer
than three or four days between plucking and
consumption. So the picking of the pears, for
instance, is not until the day, often the hour, of
despatch. Crowds, mounted on ladders, were in the
orchards pulling the fruit rapidly, and putting it into
baskets. The baskets were emptied into long and
shallow carts. As soon as a load was made, off, at
a race, it was taken to the sheds. There, on long,
sloping tables, the fruit was spread, and men were
picking out "No. I's " and "No. 2's," according
to quality, and putting them in respective boxes.
When these were filled, slim lids were nailed, labels
were plastered on one side, the boxes were checked,
and then piled into the car standing half a dozen
D

34 CANADA AS IT IS.
paces away by the edge of the platform where the
men were working.
Mr. Smith's right-hand man was a young Eng
lishman from Kent. He had spent a couple of
years in the Mincing Lane tea business, but as his
health failed he went to Canada for a couple of
years. On returning home he soon concluded that
London and the English climate didn't suit him.
So he returned to Canada, and went into the fruit
business. To look at this big, broad, tan-faced man,
hustling round in shirt-sleeves, directing the pack
ing of pears, you could hardly conceive that a few
years ago he was a weak-chested, anaemic-faced
youth, who came up from Sevenoaks to Cannon
Street every morning.
" You like the change? " I asked.
"Like it?" he repeated, with an interrogative
raise of an eyebrow. "I wouldn't live out of
Canada for a mint of money — no, siree ! "
The good folk of the Dominion are strenuously
living down the reputation that they inhabit a
"great lone land," and that Canada is a region of
almost perpetual frost. Jake Canuke prefers not
to talk about the snow, but is enthusiastic about the
richness of his prairies, the beauty of his island-
dotted lakes and rivers, the paradise the Dominion
is for the sportsman. When you get him to admit,
though reluctantly, that there are several months
of winter, he can demonstrate to you with a beauti
ful volubility that, if you come to think of it, a
Canadian winter is preferable to a summer any
where else, that the cold is a cold you don't feel.

THE GARDEN OF CANADA. 35
that then is the time for sleighing and curling and
toboganning — and away he glides into rhapsody.
If he discerns a smile flickering on your stolid Brit
ish face he pulls himself up with a jerk and says,
" Guess if it were so darned cold we wouldn't be
able to grow grapes and peaches and apples ? ' '
He is proud of the fruit-growing capability of his
land. Within the last few years there has been a
boom in fruit culture. It took the Canadians
nearly a century to discover they had the most
profitable apple-rearing region in the world. It has
been found by experience that the north produces
a firmer, sweeter, better-travelling apple than the
south. Experimental farms have crossed the ordin
ary apple with the Siberian crab -apple, so that in the
rigorous climate of the North-West Territory a fruit
good for jams is being grown. A few years back,
Ontario farmers were destroying their orchards as
an unprofitable cumbering of the ground. Now
thousands of acres are being converted into orchards,
worked on scientific principles, and paying well.
Canada has a future in apples.
Nova Scotia boasts over two million apple trees ;
Quebec has over three million apple trees ; whilst
Ontario, "the banner fruit province," is rapidly
turning vast stretches of itself, especially in the
south, into orchards. The number of apple trees in
Ontario Province are at present 7,095,554 — the
Canadians, like the people of the United States,
revel in precise statistics — and the yield of apples is
14,500,000 bushels. In 1904 1,000,000 young
trees were planted. The vineyard area is 15,269

36 CANADA AS IT IS.
acres, with over 3,000,000 vines, yielding 25,000,000
pounds of grapes. There are 500,000 pear trees,
yielding 600,^000 bushels of pears. There are nearly
1,000,000 plum-bearing trees, and 250,000 freshly
planted. There are 800,000 peach trees, yielding
over 600,000 bushels. Small fruits — strawberries,
raspberries, blackberries, currants, gooseberries — are
produced to the extent of 25,000,000 pounds' weight.
These are the official statistics the Canadian
fires into you, and if he makes you gasp he feels he
has done good work.
There is something transatlantically energetic
in the way Canada has thrown itself into fruit cul
ture. Ontario, with its excellent climate, holds, and
will maintain a foremost place. Only a tithe of the
possible fruit-rearing land in the province is occu
pied. There is plenty of room for newcomers. The
Agricultural College at Guelph has a horticultural
department, and students are taught as much as is
known about fruits, and how to deal vnth the pests
and diseases with which they are sometimes afflicted
Perhaps, however, the most valuable immediate
work is done at the five experimental farms in the
province, established by the Ontario Provincial
Government. The authorities find out what tracts
of country are suitable for particular kinds of fruit,
and report. Each experimental farm is controlled
by a committee of practical fruit growers, who de
cide what varieties of fruit shall be subjected to test.
Other provinces, from Quebec to British Columbia,
are doing the same work. Canada is determined to
become a great fruit land.

THE GARDEN OF CANADA. 37
I visited the best fruit-growing stretches in the
best of fruit-growing provinces. Beginning with
the valley of the St. Lawrence, there is a broad belt
of excellent apple country extending right away to
Niagara, at the western end of Lake Ontario, a
length of 288 miles. In the forty-mile strip I in
spected, fruit farm succeeds fruit farm in constant
array. The whole of South Ontario is realising that
its future is in fruit rather than in wheat. The
quantities of wheat from the North-West are driving
the wheat grower out of Ontario. Besides, many
of the farmers' sons, mesmerised by the glamour
of the west, are breaking loose from the old ties in
Ontario, and making for Manitoba, Alberta, and
Saskatchewan to grow wheat. Consequently, great
as has been the increase of apple-growing in the
province, it has not been so great as the people want.
Apples spell money in Ontario. I heard of one
Englishman who started in the smallest way five
years ago. He knew about apple-growing, and he
bought orchards from those who didn't know. Last
year he made £1,000 profit, and this year he expects
to make £2,000 profit. A man with about £400 can
buy a good fruit farm of a hundred acres, and make
a nice livelihood.
Great Britain is a big market for Ontario apples.
The trade has blossomed chiefly within the last ten
years. The raflway and steamship companies have
provided systems of cold storage, and so from the
time that pears, peaches, grapes, and early apples
are carefully packed, till they reach Liverpool, the
fruit is kept in a healthy condition.

38 CANADA AS IT IS.
But all the fruit yield of Ontario is rarely
gathered. Shortage of labour is the reason. In the
picking season sufficient labour cannot be got for
money. So thousands of trees, bent with their
burdens, stand till winter comes, and the fruit drops
with the nip of the frost. Or, if the fruit can be
gathered, there is the difficulty of shortage of labour
in providing barrels. Tons upon tons of good fruit
are wasted simply because there are not barrels
enough to send it to the markets. Again, there is
occasionally such a glut in the market that some
growers leave the fruit to rot rather than go to the
expense of gathering it.
All this is giving an incentive to an industry that
is just beginning to awaken — that of jam-making.
The Canadians have got away from the habit, if they
ever had it, of eating jam. There are probably two
reasons : firstly, that until recently they did not ap
preciate the possibilities of Canada in fruit, and,
secondly, many of the jams offered them were imita
tions manufactured from vegetable marrow, turnip,
sugar, and artificial colouring. The Canadian, how
ever, has a sweet tooth, and as soon as he knows
he is getting the real article he will probably take to
jam eating. I found that one or two of the big
growers have their eye on jam manufacture to use
up their surplus stock of fruit. Mr. E. D. Smith
has erected a jam factory for this very purpose.
The retail prices of Ontario fruits as sold in
Toronto and Hamilton are low compared with the
price in the English market. Apples can be bought
at Ss. a barrel. Pears can be got at Is. 8d. per

THE GARDEN OF CANADA. 39
peck basket. A twenty-pound basket of grapes for
the table can be bought for Is. Raspberries, straw
berries, currants, and blackberries are about 4s. for
a dozen quart boxes. The cheaper grapes go to
the making of Canadian wine. I've tasted it, and I
am not enthusiastic.
Here, however, is a magnificent chunk of the
Dominion beginning to belie the popular idea that
Canada is chiefly a land of snow. That any part of
Canada could be converted into an orchard was some
thing to laugh at in former times. But the area in
Canada where can be grown grapes, peaches, pears,
and apples is as large as the whole of England.
This is a comparison worth thinking about.

40

CHAPTER IV.
TORONTO, THE MOST ENGLISH CITY IN CANADA.
TORONTO is the most ultra-British city on
earth. It is in a constant simmer of Maffek-
ingism. Its patriotism is ever on the bubble.
As Englishmen suffering from stomachic com
plaints betake themselves to Homburg and Aix, and
dose their interiors with evil-odoured yet efficacious
waters till they be healthy, so Englishmen suffer
ing from laxity in loyalty should hasten to Toronto,
where they can be so impregnated with patriotism
that they will want to wear shirt fronts made of the
Union Jack.
There are two reasons why Toronto is so ex
cessively British. First, most of its residents claim
descent from the Loyalists who were driven from
the banks of the Hudson in the uprising which
Englishmen call the American Rebellion, and
citizens of the United States call the American
Revolution, and who, in turn, fought and bravely
resisted the Americans when they attempted to seize
Canada in 1812. The second, and more cogent
reason is that Toronto is sufficiently near the United
States for the folks on either side the boundary
cordially to dislike each other.
I Englishmen have a fondness for Americans,
'though the affection is only officially reciprocated.

TORONTO. 41
Americans, however, have an amused contempt for
the Canadians, telling them that when the mood
comes they will annex the Dominion. Canadians
regard Americans as a bragging, corrupt, boodle-
hunting, nigger-lynching crowd of barbarians. They
call one another " Canukes " and " Yanks." The
number of Union Jacks that flutter over Toronto any
ordinary day suggest to the travelling Briton a
Royal birthday.
The man of Toronto, like every man in Ontario,
will inform you he is the backbone of Canada — in
truth, he is the backbone of the British Empire !
When confidential he tells you that if it hadn't been
for him there never would have been any British
Canada, and he asks you to draw a sharp distinc
tion between his loyalty and the loyalty of the
French-Canadian in Quebec Province.
The man of Ontario is loyal, not to England, but
to the British Empire. The French-Canadian is
loyal, not to the British Empire, but to Canada. He
insists you must understand the difference.
The lusty, full-blooded patriotism of Ontario is
a growth of the last dozen years. Twelve years back i
there was no sterling hope in Canada's future. The
wheat-growing possibilities of the west were fanci
ful dreams. Manufacturers struggled laboriously
toward prosperity, and had an envious eye on the
United States, where the forcing, hot-house air of
commercialism reared millionaires. An under
current of feeling prevailed that perhaps, after all,
to cut the painter that tied Canada to Britain, and
hitch on to the States would be best. Reciprocity

42 CANADA AS IT IS.
with the States was part of the creed of the Canadian
manufacturer. As Sir Wilfrid Laurier once said :
The American quarter of a dollar was as good as the
English shilling, and it was much nearer. Ottawa
approached Washington with a suggestion of reci
procity. Washington snubbed Ottawa. The snub
bing rankled. Canada went on and prospered.
Then one fine morning Canada had the grim
satisfaction of seeing the birth of an agitation in the
States for reciprocity with Canada. But all that was
British in the composition of Jake Canuke bristled.
" Not on your life, siree," was his retort to the
polite palaver of Uncle Sam. Uncle Sam continued
the most amiable of suitors. " Isn't it very foolish
we should fight one another with tariffs? Wouldn't
it be much nicer if we reciprocated?" "Not on
your life," replied Jake again. Jake knew. Reci
procity to him now meant that the big manufacturers
of the States would ' ' snow under ' ' the Canadian
manufacturers, and the Dominion would become
little other than an annexe of America. ' ' Not on
your life ! ' '
This commercial enmity stirred latent British
patriotism. A band of Ontario loyalists took the
children in hand. The Union Jack fluttered from
the top of the schoolhouses. The youngsters were
taught patriotism as they were taught to spell. On
days famous in the history of the Empire there were
special addresses. There were prizes for essays on
patriotism. Six years ago the outbreak of the South
African War synchronised with many of the boys
reaching manhood. The instruction in patriotism

TORONTO. 43
bore fruit. The young men of Ontario had war in
their nostrils. They wanted to fight for the Empire.
The Laurier Government and the French in the
province of Quebec held back. What had Canada
to do with England's quarrel in South Africa?
"Do you think you'll keep us back," shouted
young Ontario ; ' ' not on your life ! ' '
And there was such a blaze of British patriotism
throughout Ontario — spreading like a prairie fire
into the North-West Territories — that the Laurier
Government made a virtue of necessity, and the
Canadian contingents crossed the seas, and did their
work as soldiers on the veldt.
These mingled causes make the capital of On
tario the most demonstratively patriotic city in the
Empire. Toronto is one of the trimmest, cleanest cities
on the continent. It is a city of distances. The
streets are long, broad, and tree-edged — when once
you get beyond the business centre. The popula
tion is less than a quarter of a million. But we have
no provincial town in England with such an im
pressive array of public buildings. The residential
districts are pretty. Nearly all the houses, including
those of the working classes — there are no poor, as
we use the word — have freshly-green and well-
watered plats in front. There is an air of solid
prosperity about Toronto.
Here is a town in the fourth rdw, if you reckon
importance by the number of people. You admire
the public buildings — huge, decorative, imposing.
Then your admiration leads to a question. What

44 CANADA AS IT IS.
is so fourth-rate a place as Toronto doing with these
magnificent edifices? Is it provincial, municipal
conceit? Partly. She takes her bigger sister,
Montreal, as guide, and presses to do one better.
But the main reason is that Toronto believes in
herself. In England public buildings are erected
grudgingly to meet the needs of a growing popula
tion. Toronto has a growing population, and her
public buildings are planned and built to be suitable
when Toronto has a population of a million. Here,
then, in town life, as in the general life of the
country, the Canadian has his eyes on the future.
A purist in architecture would be driven crazy
at the medley of design in these buildings. You see
Saxon arches over Corinthian pillars. You see the
florid bunched on the austere. There is a touch of
the Italian, and a sweep of Brixtonian Gothic. It
is architectural bewilderment. But it is all solid,
serviceable masonry, striking despite its vagaries,
and it shows — which, after all, is the chief thing in
this connection — that the people of the capital of
Ontario are intent on their city being a beautiful
city. Look up and across the main streets, where
trolley cars are shuttling, and you see a City Hall
which is nearly as fine as Manchester Town Hall.
Visit Queen's Park, flower-decked and with statues
of Queen Victoria, Sir John A. Macdonald — held in
affectionate remembrance as "John A." — and of
Governor Simcoe ; see the monuments raised to
volunteers who lost their lives in the Fenian In
vasion and the North-West Rebellion, and behind

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TORONTO. 45
see the Ontario Parliament Buildings. The Par
liament of Ontario has functions scarcely more
important than those of an English County Council .
But how differently housed. There are oil paintings
of political leaders in the halls. The House is
modelled after the House of Commons — Speaker's
chair. Government to the right. Opposition to the
left, and at the lower end the seat of the Serjeant-
at-Arms. The Independent Order of Foresters have
erected a Temple Building, which might stand be
side and not suffer much in comparison with Hyde
Park Mansions. The yacht clubs on Toronto Bay
are as pretty as any of the club-houses at Cowes.
Knox College, ivy-clad, might be a bit of Cambridge.
All the churches are fine, and inclined to the ornate.
But whether it be the Law Courts, the Board of
Trade Buildings, the Sick Children's Hospital, the
Customs House, the Post Office, Toronto University,
the denominational colleges, the General Hospital,
or the Militia Armouries, the aim is to beautify the
town. The people of Toronto are as keen for the
beautifying of their city as the well-to-do English
man is for the beautifying of his own house.
Get into talk with the average man in an English
town, and see how much he can tell you off-hand
about his city. He will have one or two phrases
intending to show that his particular city is the best
in the country. The Toronto man, however, bristles
with facts. There are 206 churches in Toronto, he
tells you, with the glowing satisfaction of a cattle
breeder who had taken 206 " firsts." He possibly
doesn't go to any of the churches himself, but the

46 CANADA AS IT IS.
fact there are so many he counts as proof that
Toronto is a great city. He flings at you the informa
tion that the citizens of Toronto use over 11,000
telephones, asks how many telephones are used in
Sheffield, and is openly astonished at your ignor
ance. He puts his thumbs in the arm-holes of his
waistcoat, tilts back his chair, and tells you there
are exactly twenty-seven law courts in his city. He
informs you there are 116 miles of railway line
within the municipal limit, and that 100 passenger
trains come and go each day. Knowing that you
write for the newspapers, he asks how many have
you seen of the six daily papers, forty-nine weekly,
twenty fortnightly, seventy-six monthly, and eight
quarterlies in Toronto. He booms at you that the
assessment value of buildings in Toronto is over
£12,000,000, and that new buildings to the value
of £750,000 went up last year ! He asks you what
you think of it all?
I was in Toronto for four days. I zig-zagged on
trolley cars from point to point sight-seeing for one
day. It was an excellent and a cheap method of
transit. But Toronto friends came along, deter
mined to give me a good time. Had I seen the city?
Well, hardly seen it, just pottered about. Then I
must be driven round. And I was driven round.
Had I seen their great department store ? No !
" We'll have the carriage out after lunch, and drive
round." Seen our residential quarter? A bit of it.
" Guess we'll have a drive after tea." Not been to
High Park, nor on the lake front at Suncoe? " See
here, we'll go driving all Sunday." So I had five

TORONTO. 47
drives in three days. I was from the "old
country," and that was a passport in itself.
And what did I think of Toronto? Wasn't
Toronto a finer city than Montreal? Wasn't
Toronto just the finest city I had struck anywhere?
I marked the difference between the Briton at
home and the Briton in Toronto. The home man,
if he takes you a drive, misses the manufacturing
region of his town, or half apologises for driving
that way, but explains there is beautiful country be
yond. The Toronto man drives you straight into
the whirl of business, and if he gets toward trees it
is only to introduce you to prosperous manufacturers
who have residences as big as hotels. If you go
further he will turn back on the plea there is ' ' only
country" out that way.
You see the progress of a town like Toronto in
comparisons. Twelve years ago there were 26,000
artisans employed in the local factories. To-day
there are over 50,000. Indeed, in about the last
dozen years everything has doubled. There are
600 industries followed in Toronto, from the manu
facture of agricultural implements to the making of
yeast. Toronto distributes. Two hundred freight
trains enter and leave dally. In nine years, 1893-02,
the number of cattle which passed through the
Toronto yards jumped from 200,000 head to well
over 600,000 head. You find gorgeous banks with a
combined capital of thirteen millions sterling. You
see the palatial offices of thirty odd investment and
trust companies. You are told of 160 insurance
companies doing business in Toronto, and discover

48 CANADA AS IT IS.
in the official returns that £16,000,000 of fire in
surance is in force. You visit the area of the
raging fire of a few months back, and find the
debris is being cleared away, and handsome new
structures beginning to rear on the ruins. The
clearing-house returns of the banks doing business
on Toronto increased from $513,000,000 in 1900, to
$809,000,000 in 1902. And all this in a fourth-
rate city by the counting of noses !
Put yourself in a group of municipal enthusiasts,
and figures buzz round your ears like bees. You
think of some town in England with a quarter of
a million inhabitants, while you are told that
Toronto has a land area of 17 square miles and 260
miles of streets. There are 16 fire stations, and a
brigade of 194 men. There are 21 public parks with
a total area of 1,152 acres. The public schools have
a staff' of over 800 teachers. There are 89 miles of
tramway lines, 300 cars, and 50,000,000 passengers
are carried a year. There are 200 hotels — one, at
least, as gorgeous as the much-advertised Midland
Hotel at Manchester — four theatres, 22 music and
concert halls, and 250 public buildings for public
meetings. There are three universities — Toronto,
Trinity, and McMaster. Affiliated with Toronto are
several theological colleges. There are 54 public
schools, 19 Separate schools (Roman Catholic), and
one technical school, where instruction is absolutely
free. There is a public library with five branches.
There are four large general hospitals, an insane
asylum, 27 homes for the friendless, and 14 orphan
ages for the young. There are five hospitals devoted

<z>

TORONTO. 49
to special diseases, and seven dispensaries. All
these are maintained out of the public purse. Yet
Toronto is a fourth -rate city, not equal in size to
Leeds !
Toronto is not a cheap place to live in. House
rent is twice what it is in a large provincial English
town. But business is good; there is plenty of
work for those who can work ; lots of money is in
circulation. Yet everything does not run as smoothly as ap
pears on the surface. Trade unions are strong.
There is constant strain between the men and the
employers. Wages are on the increase ; they have
gone up about 30 per cent, in three years. The good
artisan gets from £3 to £5 a week.
Trade unionists fiercely resist men from the
United States being brought in, and, just as at Mon
treal, I found a disposition to resist British workers
coming, on the plea they would lower wages.
" Canada for the Canadians " is not an unusual
cry. You hear it as vigorously shouted by men who
have been in the country six months and who retain
their Cockney accent as by men born in Ontario
itself. There is plenty of room for experienced
mechanics; their coming will not lower wages —
wages are on the increase, whilst the number of
workers is also increasing — it will do much to
stimulate industry. But the British " born tired "
man, or the man who is not prepared to adapt him
self to new circumstances, or the jack-of-all-trades
needn't expect £6 a week.
When I was in Toronto the labourers were
E

60 CANADA AS IT IS.
getting 8s. 4d. a day (Is. OJd. an hour), and they
went on strike because it wasn't sufficient. Labourers
were scarce. They were telling the builders that
when Is. 3d. an hour was offered they would think
about doing some more work. They were the
masters of the situation, and knew it. I have heard
a builder — who had made a contract to do certain
work at a certain price and by a certain time, never
mind what wages he had to pay — use language about
labourers which was picturesque but unprintable.
Now Toronto, though built on the T-square
American plan, and though possessing an unmistak
able American look, is lacking in one American char
acteristic — hustle. It does quite as much business as
a United States town of the same size, but it does
it without the United States volubility and fuss. In
the language of the hotel vestibule, it "gets right
there, every time, and on both feet." Indeed, as
far as " getting a move on," Toronto as a business
centre is slower than an English town. It is a
matter of method rather than result. You won't get
the Toronto man to admit it. He probably doesn't
know it. He thinks himself a fine and a sharp
fellow. So he is, and as good a sample of the
Colonial Briton as you wUl find anywhere. But he
is not a hustler.
The only place I saw a hustle was in a police
court. I had a seat on the bench one morning along
side Colonel Denison, the magistrate. He is a good
type of the breezy, unconventional Canadian soldier.
He called out the names of the prisoners himself,
and administered the oath himself to save time.

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, TORONTO.

TORONTO. 51
With some acquaintance of the slow formality of an
English court, I was a little breathless at the slap
dash manner in which he disposed of forty cases in
exactly forty minutes. There was no red tape. The
Colonel asked a question here and a question- there,
and " You'll go to prison for sixty days ; send Wil
liam Flannigan," he wound up. This was an
assault case. A lawyer asked for a remand. " Do
you say the prisoner didn't commit the assault? "
"No, your honour; I don't say that, but  "
" Well, he can go to jaU for fourteen days. Send
up James Sanford."
At the end of the forty minutes I presumed to
congratulate the Colonel on his expedition. " But,"
I asked, "you don't go as fast when you have a
point of law raised ? ' '
" I never allow a point of law to be raised. This
is a court of justice, not a court of law. Not so long
ago a young attorney wanted to quote law against
my sending his man down for six weeks. He wanted
to quote Mathews, I think. ' Well,' said I,
' Mathews may be a great authority on law , but I
guess he hasn't got as much authority as I have in
this court. Your man goes down for six weeks ! ' "

52

CHAPTER V.
THE STRENGTH OF A YOUNG NATION : CANADA
AND ITS TRADE.
JAKE CANUKE is the grown-up son in the firm
of John Bull and Sons. He has a great re
spect for the " old man," but thinks him slow
and behind the times. He wants to shake the " old
man " up a bit, and show him how to run the
Empire properly. He is vigorous, self-confident,
and doesn't like to be instructed. He imagines — as
young nations, like young men, are prone to imagine
— he has nothing to learn. Occasionally, when he
believes the ' ' old man ' ' has been playing the fool
in business — as in the Alaskan Boundary decision,
letting the United States have just as much as she
wanted of Canada's seaboard on the Pacific, and
generally kow-towing to the Americans, feasting
them and cheering them, and making the Yankees
think John Bull wants their help, whereas Cousin
Jonathan would, in his heart, be delighted to see
the Empire firm smash up — he swears, and tells the
" boss " what he thinks about it.
Jake is proud of belonging to the firm of John
Bull. But he wants John Bull to stop his social,
dinner-party gallivanting with his rival Jonathan.
When a distinguished American visits London, he is
invited to lunch at Buckingham Palace. When a

THE STRENGTH OF A YOUNG NATION. 53
distinguished Colonist visits London, he has to pay
for his own lunch at an hotel. This is a topic not
noised publicly, but Jake tells you about it when
you are quietly having a cigar with him. Not, of
course, that he wants to lunch at Buckingham
Palace — daresay it would be terribly formal and dull !
— prefers to pay for his own lunch, and be comfort
able ! — but — but — ^well, he doesn't like to feel
Canada is left on the doorstep, while America is
invited inside.
Indeed, Jake is touchy, though, like all touchy
people, he insists that he "really doesn't mind
in the least."
But behind the touchiness of the Canadian —
who, when he asks your opinion of the Dominion,
means he wants praise, and snorts that you ought
to have stayed at home if you criticise ; who, being
Ignorant of other countries, and especially of Eng
land, is cock-sure that the old country is out-of-date
— there is a tremendous virility. He works.
At present Jake Canuke is the young man in his
shirt sleeves, who has done well, intends to do bet
ter, is impatient of restraint, has ideas beyond the
running of his own Canadian store, and thinks the
old man, John Bull, would be benefited by having
more of his help in managing the business.
All through Canada is this feeling, pulsing like
an under-current. The visiting Englishman, only
watching the surface, only hearing the playful jibes
at the " old country," may conclude that Canada is
not loyal, and would, on slightest provocation, snap
the little tie that holds it to Britain. So it would.

54 CANADA AS IT IS.
Except in a traditional, sentimental sense, Canada
doesn't care for England. But Canada does care a
great deal for the British Empire — with the vague,
ill-defined, unconsidered, but unmistakable love of a
son for his father — because Canada is part of the
British Empire. Isn't a Canadian as much a Briton
as an Englishman is?
Canada is moving much quicker towards Imperial
Federation than Canada herself reahses.
Certainly, the growth of the Dominion from a
little and swaddled colony into a brawny and am
bitious nation is worth thought by my countrymen
at home. In the United Kingdom are 344 per^
sons to the square mile ; in Canada the average
is one and a half to the square mile. Yet this
mighty, apparently unwieldy, slice of a continent
with an area of nearly 4,000,000, and a popula
tion of nearly 6,000,000, is putting forth aU its
strength, and showing itself a worthy child of
old England. Canada opens its arms to the world
for settlers; but the warm hand is always toward
the old country. She has land to give away, and
land to sell. There are millions of acres of
Dominion lands. Ten years ago (1894) there were
given away in homesteads 513,440 acres, and eight
years ago (1896) there were given away 297,760
acres. In 1903 there were given away 5,229,120
acres. And the people who are filling up this western
land, drawn from all quarters of the earth, for
getting their old nationalities, throwing off the cloak
of their old customs, what of them? Crowds, of

THE STRENGTH OF A YOUNG NATION. 55
course, are Canadians from the eastern provinces
who have moved west. I turn up the list of the
people who last year asked for free homesteads.
There are Americans, 10,000 of them ; Britons, 4,000
of them; nearly 3,000 Russians; nearly 3,000
Austro-Hungarians ; 1 ,000 Germans ; over 200 Ice
landers; almost 600 Swedo-Norwegians; over 200
French ; lesser numbers from elsewhere, Belgians,
Swiss, Italians, Roumanians, Syrians, Hollanders,
Danes, Chinese, Turks, Bulgarians, Persians, Aus
tralians, down to one representative each from
Spaui, Brazil, and New Zealand — all men settling
to farm under the British flag !
No ; Canada is neither English nor Scotch. A
million Canadians with British names never saw
Britain; 1,500,000 of the population are of French
descent. But the British spirit permeates the con
tinent. The Britons who have gone out to Canada are
the best we have, men ill spared from the old land.
It is under their influence and staunch personality
that Canada has been lifted into the position it
holds to-day. Take the men who have really made
Canada ; nine out of ten have British blood in them.
It is the triumph of race, the dominance of the
Saxon. Last year the United Kingdom produced
48,000,000 bushels of wheat. Canada, vrith a sixth
of the population, produced 78,500,000 bushels.
But while Britain grew her wheat crop on 1,500,000
acres, Canada needed 4,250,000 acres to grow hers —
which shows that the old land grows a larger crop

56 CANADA AS IT IS.
per acre than the new land, though it must be re
membered that manuring, such as followed at home,
is unknown in Canada, and that in the British Isles
wheat cannot be grown profitably on any but the
best lands.
Canada likes to weigh herself with dollars in the
other scale. Take agriculture, and reduce every
thing to dollars. I take the facts from the Census
Returns for 1901 : The value of the land was put
down at $1,007,454,358; buildings, $395,815,143;
implements and machinery, $108,665,502; horses,
$118,279,419; milch cows, $69,237,970; other
horned cattle, $54,197,341; sheep, $10,490,594;
swine, $16,445,702; poultry, $5,723,890; bees,
$792,711 ; field crops, $194,935,420 ; fruits and vege
tables, $12,994,900; nursery stock sold, $469,501;
live stock sold, $52,755,375; meats and products of
all animals killed on the farm, $22,951,527; dairy
products, $66,470,953; wool, $1,887,064; eggs,
$10,286,828 ; honey and wax, $356,816 ; maple sugar
and syrup, $1,780,482.
Consider the Canadian export of agricultural
products to its two best customers. Great Britain
and the United States. I go back to the year I
was born. In 1868 Great Britain bought Canadian
produce to the value of $6,414,695 ; while the United
States bought to the value of $11,875,313, which is
nearly twice as much. Times have changed. In
1903 (the last official figures yet published) we at
home bought agricultural produce from Canada to
the value of $95,761,001, while the United States
only purchased to the value of $8,360,700. Great

THE STRENGTH OF A YOUNG NATION. 57
Britain is assuredly Canada's best purchaser. We
bought 85'47 per cent, of the Dominion's agricul
tural products, whilst the States bought only 7 '46
per cent.
Yet when Canada measures itself with little
Britain — and it is like a growing youth, in constant
anxiety to see how much bigger he is this month than
last month — in regard to farm stock, the Dominion
falls behind. I hunt out the last comparisons to be
had. Where Canada has 1,577,493 horses. Great
Britain has 2,022,961 ; Canada's 5,576,411 cattle are
doubled by the 11,376,986 at home; the Dominion
can only produce 2,511,239 sheep, against
30,056,756; the 2,358,838 Canadian swine are easily
beaten by the 3,639,782 at home.
When, with a smile, you point out to your friend
Jake Canuke that he isn't quite such a big fellow
alongside Britain as he thinks he is, he answers:
"Well, what do you expect from a new country?
Give us time ! ' '
But, again, look how the condition of things has
changed in Canadian exports of live cattle and sheep.
In 1875 Great Britain received from the Dominion
455 cattle and no sheep, whilst in the same year the
United States received from its neighboar 34,651
cattle, and 236,808 sheep. In 1903 Great Britain
received 161,170 cattle, against 10,432 that went to
the States, whilst we received 114,392 sheep, against
278,506 that went across the frontier. Indeed, the
whole tendency is for Canadian exports to the Old
Country to increase, while exports to the United
States decrease. Canada sent us (during 1903) in

58 CANADA AS IT IS.
bacon, hams, pork, lard, beef, mutton, and canned
and other meats 152,483,156 lb., valued at
$16,910,895 ; whilst to the States she sent 434,2891b.,
valued at $40,400. It is the same all along the
line. We paid Canada $132,009 for poultry. Indeed,
for meats (not poultry), butter, cheese, and eggs,
Great Britain paid Canada the sum of $49,505,673.
Whether it is cattle, or wheat, or meat, Canada
dumps most of her surplus produce into the markets
of Great Britain. The extent of this is marvellous.
The produce of Canada which came to us in 1899
was worth $58,000,000 ; in 1900 it was $70,000,000 ;
in 1901 it slipped down to $65,000,000; in 1902,
however, it had risen to $79,000,000. In 1903 the
agricultural produce sent from Canada to Great
Britain was worth $95,761,001.
And in return ?
Canada did not buy from Great Britain a single
horse; it bought one cow, value $49; no sheep, no
swine ; but ' ' other animals ' ' — what they were I
know not — value $258. I exclude animals imported
for improvement of stock. The principal agricul
tural imports from home were hides, value
$1,301,762; wool, value $568,070; and hemp,
$547,789. The total agricultural imports into
Canada from Great Britain were of a value of
$2,761,591. Thus the British agriculturist realises
that one of his keenest competitors in his own
market is his Canadian cousin.
The Canadian acknowledges the disproportion.
He offers the obvious explanation that the Dominion
is an agricultural country, whereas Great Britain is

THE STRENGTH OF A YOUNG NATION. 59
a manufacturing country. He realises that under
a scheme of Colonial preference still more Canadian
produce would be sent to England, but he fails to
see, as a good many people at home fail to see, how
preference will benefit the British farmer. For the
Canadian does not believe that preference will raise
the price of food in England. It will stimulate pro
duction, increase will keep down the price — possibly
lower it — and the British agriculturist must meet
that price. The home farmer won't gain anything,
the home consumer won't lose anything, but the
colonial producer will gain by a better market, due
to handicapping the foreigner.
It is the British manufacturer and workman who
will benefit under preference, urges the Canadian,
not because Canadian manufacturers intend their
British friends to meet them in the Dominion market
on level terms, but because Canada, as she cannot
supply herself with manufactured goods, must buy
from somewhere, and would like to put an additional
spoke in the wheel of United States imports into
Canada, and give Britain the advantage.
As an example, I take manufactured articles in
iron and steel. In 1903 Canada imported from Great
Britain interchangeable mechanism of the value of
$262,193, whilst the same thing from the United
States came to $5,241,643. Britain had 4'69 per
cent, of the trade, and the States had 9370 of it.
In hardware, cutlery, and edged tools, Britain
sent the value of $871,829, against the States
$3,748,917, or a proportion of 1707 per cent, to
7341 per cent.

60 CANADA AS IT IS.
In machinery it was $321,269, against
$7,417,626. Britain got ^'12 per cent, of the
business, while the States got 95'08 per cent.
In castings and forgings it was $67,661, against
$1,126,131, or 5-65 per cent., against 93'97 per cent.
In other forms of iron and steel a nearer propor
tion was reached, with $7,441,340 value from Bri
tain, agamst $8,914,972 from the States, 4071 per
cent, compared with 4877 per cent.
In railway supplies and rails. Great Britain was
ahead with $2,045,184, against $1,675,310 from the
States, 42"20 per cent, against 34"57 per cent.
It was the same in pig iron. Great Britain lead
ing with $859,979, and the States following with
$583,906, or 59-33 per cent, of the trade to 40-29
per cent.
But strike averages. Canada imported iron and
steel to the value of $44,275,124. Of that
$28,708,496 came from the United States,
$11,869,455 from Great Britain, and $3,697,173
from other countries. Strike averages again. The
United States has 64-84 per cent, of the trade ; Great
Britain's proportion is 26-81 per cent., and that of
other countries is 8-35.
Now it may be readily conceded that if Canada
could make those iron and steel manufactures she
would do so, even to the exclusion of British manu
factures. But she can't. Jake Canuke, in his
heart, hates to send his millions into the States,
which buys comparatively little from him. Great
Britain is his best customer, and he gets British
gold for Canadian wheat. He wants — for he must

THE STRENGTH OF A YOUNG NATION. 61
buy machinery just as the Englishman must buy
wheat — to exchange Canadian produce for British
goods. Anyway, he thinks the Englishman and the
Canadian and the other colonists might have a talk
about it.
See how Great Britain benefited under the pre
ference of 25 per cent., at first, and then 33J per
cent., which Canada began to extend to us in 1898.
I leave out of consideration whether the preference
was granted by the Laurier Government because of
love for Britain, or was a clever political move in
the direction of low tariffs after the Dominion had
been snubbed by the States when urging recipro
city. The fact remains, there was a preference to
those parts of the British Empire where the tariff
was favourable to Canadian goods. Compare the
quantity of goods entering the Dominion under the
general tariff and under the preferential tariff.
In 1899, the British Empire sent goods to
Canada, under the general tariff, to the value of
$4,937,775, whilst foreign countries sent goods to the
Dominion under the same tariff to the value of
$57,897,955. In the same year, however, under
the preferential tariff, Canada took from the Empire
goods valued at $23,834,425, whilst, under the same
tariff (extended in particular instances to foreign
countries), foreign countries could only get in goods
valued at $2,763,017. The next year, 1900, the
Empire sent to Canada, under the general tariff,
goods valued at $5,754,338, whilst foreigners got in
goods valued at $71,496,666. The same year under
the preference, the Empire sent goods to Canada

62 CANADA AS IT IS.
valued at $27,095,791, and the foreigner sent
nothing at all.
It was much the same in the year 1901.
Under the general tariff the manufacturers of the
Empire had not much chance, and sent to Canada
the value of $5,944,119, whilst the foreigner sent
$72,522,700. The same year, however, under pre
ference, the Empire scooped $27,502,937 worth of
business, and the foreigner not a cent. Let me be
more precise with 1902. Under the general tariff
Great Britain sent goods valued at $6,332,175, but
the United States simply clouded us with goods
valued at $60,181,808; Germany was ahead of us
with $9,078,402, and France not much behind us
with $5,546,876. Under the preference, however,
that year Great Britain sent to Canada goods
valued at $28,730,389 (from the whole Empire,
$30,635,889), but the United States not a dollar's
worth, Germany not a mark's worth, and France
not a franc's worth. And in 1903, while under the
general tariff Britain sent to Canada goods valued at
$7,046,411, the United States was far ahead with
$68,538,323. Under preference British goods into
Canada rose to $35,163,754 (from the whole Empire,
$37,614,505), and the United States and all the
other foreign countries nil.
Under the preference British woollen goods en
tered Canada in 1903 to the amount of $11,105,987,
while the United States manufacturer, handicapped
by the general tariff, could only squeeze in woollen
goods valued at $394,579. In 1904 the amount we
sent had gone up over $1 ,500,000, whilst the increase

THE STRENGTH OF A YOUNG NATION. 63
from the United States didn't go up $100,000, and
the supply of woollens from other countries fell off.
So now it is the woollen manufacturer down in
Massachusetts who is crying out to his Government,
" Why don't you make a reciprocity treaty with
Canada, and then I can get my woollen goods into
the Dominion ? ' '
Jake Canuke smiles when he hears this, and re
members how the boot used to be on the other leg.
He is in no humour for reciprocity with the Yankee.
Formerly his big neighbour spurned him. Now he
enjoys his big neighbour tapping at the door, and
whispering that perhaps they might come to some
arrangement. Jake doesn't want to come to any
arrangement with Uncle Sam. If there is to be
any arrangement, it is to be with old John Bull.
" But look here, John," says Jake, " you've got
to make the things we want, and not just what you
think we want, if you fancy our trade. And you've
got to get the gum out of your eyes, and hustle a
bit. You're so darned nervous about the farthings
you may lose by a change in the methods of busi
ness, that you don't think of the dollars you'll make
in another way. Shake yourself a bit 1 "

64

CHAPTER VI.
MANUFACTURERS AND PREFERENCE: "CANADA FOR
THE CANADIANS."
1ET no one accuse the Canadians of Use-majest4.
/ But if Mr. Chamberlain visited the Dominion
he would receive a wilder, more tumultuously
enthusiastic reception than would ever be given to
Royalty. There is only one great man on earth, and his
name is Chamberlain — according to our friends.
Everything in Canada is dubbed " Chamberlain."
I have eaten Chamberlain pudding, which was good,
and I have smoked a Chamberlain " ten-cent pre
ference cigar," which was vile.
Canada is with Chamberlain. There is no doubt
about that. "Bravo for Chamberlain!" shouts
Mr. Canadian, " he proposes to tax foreign wheat,
and so give a preference to Canadian wheat. We'll
scoop the market, and make millions of dollars.
That's real patriotism for you. So, hurrah for
Chamberlain ! ' '
The " slow Britisher " agrees that that would be
a fine thing for Canada, but asks : " And in return,
will Canada allow our manufactured goods free com
petition with Canadian goods — all in brotherly love,
eh?"

MANUFACTURERS AND PREFERENCE. 65
Not on your life ! " is the prompt answer ; " we
are not going to have our struggling manufacturers
crushed by competition from goods made with cheap
labour in the old country."
That is a fair summary of how the average
Canadian, the " man in the street," regards the
fiscal commercial relationship between Great Britain
and the Dominion.
But before I deal with the Canadian manufac
turer and his views on Imperial preference, let me
clear away one or two misconceptions prevalent at
home. It is asserted that if we don't hurry up and grant
Colonial preference, Canada will make a trade treaty
with the United States to our disadvantage. Occa
sionally an after-dinner Canadian orator will sug
gest such a thing, but it is a nudge to the British
ribs to hurry up with preferential treatment, and
not — at present, at any rate — a threat of genuine
intention. Yet the possibility must not be lost sight
of. True, not so many years ago, many Canadian
eyes were cast across the border. The United States
was a neighbour, conditions of life were similar,
England was a long way off. Why shouldn't
Canada and the States have community of interest
and free trade within the continent? Canada made
moves in that direction ; but every advance was met
with a snub.
It was then that Canada turned her glance to the
Mother Country.
Canada has boomed, it has become the finest
F

66 CANADA AS IT IS.
wheatfield in the world, manufactures are beginning
to hold up their heads. Imperceptibly but certainly
— with the sneering treatment of the United States
as an incentive — there was awakened the latent love
for the " old land," an appreciation of her institu
tions, an admiration for her uprightness. Then
came the South African War, when Canadians
shouted: "And we are Britons also." Public
opinion — sweeping along Sir Wilfrid Laurier, who,
on the " no precedent " theory, was disposed to hold
back — insisted on Canadians being sent to fight for
Empire. Empire ! That is the word you often hear in
Canada to-day. Many a Canadian who uses it is not
sure what he means. It certainly is not suzerainty
to England ; but it is a vague groping after a British
confederation, how to be brought about he doesn't
know and hasn't thought ; but something which will
help Canada to hold a bigger place in the world.
I travelled all over Canada, from the Atlantic
to the Pacific, and talked with all classes, from the
Prime Minister to the nigger who made my bed on
the railway cars. That Canada, if she doesn't get
preferential treatment with England, will throw
herself, by annexation, into the arms of the United
States — for now Miss Canada has her fortune it is
Uncle Sam who is beginning to woo — is a bogey
laughed at by everybody.
I do not, however, ignore the fact that there is
a sub-conscious but perfectly natural thought in
the minds of many Canadians — who never saw
England, or who come of a stock that is not British

MANUFACTURERS AND PREFERENCE. 67
— toward a Canadian republic, great and strong as
that of the neighbouring republic of the United
States. But that is no more than an academic
dream. Canada could not stand alone. She knows
that if she broke loose from Great Britain she would
be swallowed up by the States within a generation.
And Canadian dislike of the States almost equals
Canadian loyalty to the Empire.
Another misconception at home is that Canada
has made no offer to the ]\Iother Country, with whom
she wants to enter into a preferential trade agree
ment. I happened to be with Sir Wilfrid Laurier
the morning after Mr. Balfour had advocated at
Edinburgh an Imperial conference to discuss pre
ference. Sir Wilfrid had not seen the telegraphed
summaries in the Canadian newspapers, and I told
him of Balfour's proposal. Sir Wilfrid dismissed it
as unnecessary from the Canadian point of view. I
asked him why. " Because," he answered, " at the
Colonial conference held in London in 1902, I de
finitely stated on behalf of Canada that we are ready
to discuss with Britain what articles we can give you
a preference on, and what articles you can give us
a preference on. Canada is in favour of preference.
Is Great Britain? Till we know that, what is the
good of having another conference? "
Mr. George E. Drummond, then president of
the Canadian Manufacturers' Association, said to
me in Montreal : " I speak for the manufacturers of
Canada. We believe in an Imperial trade prefer
ence. We favour the appointment of an Imperial
commission representing all British dominions to

68 CANADA AS IT IS.
consider the whole question, and submit a plan for
the consolidation and permanency of the Empire and
its trade. We are not going to sacrifice any of our
manufacturing industries to benefit England ; we
don't ask you to make any sacrifices for our benefit.
We say that if we can talk together we can arrive
at an arrangement for the benefit of both and of the
Empire as a whole."
That brings me to how the Canadian manufac
turer stands in regard to preference. Let this be
clearly understood : he will make no trade preference
which in his opinion would injure him commercially.
He smiles at any suggestion that Britain should be
the manufacturing country and Canada remain an
agricultural country, buying our manufactures. It
is not a proposal which commends itself to the
Canadian manufacturer. He, though he won't say
it publicly, is not particularly enthusiastic over the
preference already given to Britain, if it is sufficient
to let British goods enter into too active competition
with Canadian goods. The fact has to be recognised
that there are practically no Canadian manufactures
of importance which could meet British manufac
tures in open competition. The Canadian manu
facturer is no fool, and he understands the situation
as well as anybody.
Canada is still young as a manufacturing country,
and feels that if she pulled down her tariff barriers
Great Britain and the United States would, with
their bigger markets, cheaper production, and longer
training, swamp Canadian manufactures, and never
give them a chance to rise again. Therefore, the

MANUFACTURERS AND PREFERENCE. 69
Canadian, quite wisely from his point of view, be
cause he comes late into the contest as a manufac
turer, guards himself with heavy tariffs. If he
makes a preference to England it is not out of
patriotic affection to allow the Englishman to come
in with a better article and undersell him. He will
put a duty of 30 per cent, against the United States,
and allow British goods to come in at 20 per cent.
That is a preference in favour of the Old Country.
But the Canadian, while willing enough to give it,
likes to know that the 20 per cent, duty is still high
enough to save the manufacturer in the Dominion
from active competition at the hands of the British
manufacturer. No better evidence of this can be found than in
the attitude of the Canadian woollen manufacturers.
British woollen goods are so excellent that they can
ride over tariffs that are not prohibitive. Under the
Canadian preference of 33 per cent, the British
woollen trade with Canada bounded ahead. Every
body was pleased except the Canadian woollen manu
facturers and the operatives in their mills. With
them first it was short time, and then it was the
closing of mills. It was more than could be expected
from human nature that the Canadian manufacturer
would submit to drift into poverty while the British
manufacturer benefited. He was hurt, and he cried
out. The British people should therefore clearly under
stand that, though the Canadian loves the Empire,
though he is willing to make sacrifices for the de
fence of the Empire, he does not intend to penalise

70 CANAUA AS IT IS.
himself to the extent of a single dollar for the benefit
of the British manufacturer. He doesn't want an
influx of British goods to hamper, by under-selling,
the development of Canadian industries. Whatever
be the preference in trade he will give to articles of
British make, he does not intend that preference to
be sufficiently large to let in British goods to the
detriment of Canadian. His watchword is " Canada
for the Canadians ! ' '
The Canadian Manufacterers' Association prints
that sentiment on the top of its note-paper. The
members have a special placard to hang alongside
their goods, bearing the legend, " Made in Canada."
In a word, whatever the Canadian manufacturer is
able to make to supply the needs of Canada, he
wants to make himself, and he wants to shut out all
other competitors, British included.
" And where will the preference to British goods
come in ? " is a question now legitimately to be
asked. The answer is : On the surplus of articles needed
in Canada, which Canada cannot supply.
Canada spends millions of pounds in imported
articles from foreign countries, chiefly the United
States. She wants to raise her present high tariff
against the States still farther, and so, as far as
possible, make Canada, when she must buy from
outside the Dominion, buy from Great Britain.
Industrial Canada says to industrial Britain :
" Put 10 per cent, duty on all manufactured articles
you import from foreign countries, and we will put
an additional 10 per cent, on the existing duties we

MANUFACTURERS AND PREFERENCE. 71
have against foreign countries. That will be a good
thing for you, because your industries will be pro
tected against the dumping of cheap foreign goods
in your market, whilst you are fenced by tariffs from
meeting your commercial opponents in their markets.
Further, you will have the tremendous surplus
Canadian market. We send millions of money into
the States every year, buying articles we are not
sufficiently advanced to make ourselves. We want
you to have those millions."
Before me lies a memorandum in regard to im
portations into Canada from the United Kingdom
and from foreign countries. It shows that in almost
all lines of manufactured goods the Canadian buys
much more from the foreigner than from his brother
Briton. Woollens and cottons are notable ex
ceptions. But respecting these, it is not many years
since Britain was as supreme in iron and steel manu
factures as she now is in cottons and woollens.
In 1903 Canada imported from the United King
dom dutiable manufactured articles of the value of
$52,493,305, while she imported from foreign
countries dutiable articles of the value of
$107,673,110. The Canadian wants to discuss with
the Englishman means whereby a considerable
chunk of that $107,000,000 shall not go to the
foreigner, but to brother Britons in the old land.
In the assumed conference, which we are all
talking about, shall Britain be asked to show a pre
ference to any Canadian product ?
Certainly ! But as Canada exports no manu
factured articles to England, and if she did we

72 CANADA AS IT IS.
couldn't lower the tariff, because we have no pre
ferential tariff, the only preference we could give
her in return for letting in our manufactured goods
, on a favourable basis compared with foreign goods
would be, while still allowing Canadian wheat free
into Britain, to tax foreign wheat, and give Canada
the advantage.
Would that make the bread of the British people
dearer ?
The Canadian says it would not. A further
stimulus would be given to wheat growing in Canada.
The flood of United States farmers into the
Dominion would become a torrent, and the Canadian
wheat crop, instead of being near 100,000,000
bushels, would soon jump to 200,000,000. All the
wheat above that necessary for Canadian consump
tion would naturally go to England, where it would
have an advantage. But other wheat-growing
countries, the Argentine for instance, would not
allow themselves to be shut out, and would lower
the price of their wheat to get into competition with
the Canadian. Thus bread would be no dearer in
England to the consumer, and the Canadian would
still have the preference.
But, argues the Canadian, if bread were dearer
the increase would be so trifling as to be beneath
serious consideration, and would be amply com
pensated for by the increased demand for British-
made goods in the Canadian market to the exclusion
of foreign-made goods. The fact of Canada having
a preference would lead to a gigantic increase in her
population all purchasing manufactured articles, and

MANUFACTURERS AND PREFERENCE. 73
Britain in the return preference could have as much
of supplying the surplus, beyond what Canadian
manufacturers can supply, as she wanted.
I had many talks with leading Canadian manu
facturers on this subject. While determined to
make no preference which they think would injure
themselves, they are entirely open minded. In some
branches they would like the tariff against Britain a
little higher than it is, but they readily admitted
there are many other branches where possibly it
could be lowered with mutual benefit to the British
maker and the Canadian consumer. They are will
ing, at any rate, to put up the fence against the
foreigner, and so handicap him in the Canadian
market when he has to meet the British trader.
"We have interests in common," says the
Canadian to the Briton, " commercial interests, with
all sentiment left out if you like. What is needed is
for you Britishers to give your Government author
ity, as we have given our Government authority, for
representatives of the old land and the Colonies to
meet, to discuss, to see if we cannot come to some
agreement. If we cannot, we will be where we are
now, and if we can the Empire will be the better
off." A catch phrase on some British platforms at
home is to quote the Sugar Convention as " a work
ing model of protection." Canada can supply "a
working model of preference." Canada gives a pre
ference to West Indian sugar, which has been so
beneficial that, I am informed, the Trinidad authori
ties have asked permission from the Imperial

74 CANADA AS IT IS.
Government to negotiate a reciprocity treaty with
Canada. In the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1904,
the importation to Canada of sugar from the West
Indies and British Guiana reached a value of
$5,236,451, and represented about 140,000 tons,
out of a total consumption of 180,000 tons. In 1902,
before the German surtax was imposed, Canada only
imported, from the West Indies and British Guiana
combined, to the value of $907,523. Under the pre
ference West Indian sugar has increased in the
Canadian market by 377 per cent. Why, asks the
Canadian, should not that "working model" be
enlarged into a giant Empire machine?
The Canadian points to what he imports from
the United States, not because he wants to, but
because he has to. For the year ending June, 1903,
the importations from the States amounted in value
to about $129,000,000. For the year ending June,
1904, they had increased to $143,010,578, an in
crease of more than $14,000,000, or about 10 per
cent. Of this increase over $8,850,000 were duti
able goods. Indeed, the amount of dutiable goods
imported from the United States in the year ending
June, 1904, was $77,390,807.
The Canadian pulls a wry face at this. He
sees that in the fiscal year 1903 he bought in mer
chandise from the United States thirty-four times as
much per head of population as his American friend
bought from him. Again the Canadian pulls a wry
face. What concerns him is that the foreigner is
getting hold of his hard-earned wealth, instead of its
being kept iu the Empire. He wants as much of

MANUFACTURERS AND PREFERENCE. 75
the money himself as he can get, and what he can
not get he wants to go to his brother Briton.
The Canadian gets " right down to the dollars."
He will sing " God Save the King," " Rule
Britannia," and " The Maple Leaf for Ever " with
lungs that are lusty, and he will pass the shout,
" Keep both hands on the Union Jack." But when
he comes to talk business, patriotism and loyalty
take second and third places. He doesn't ask you
to believe he advocates a mutual trade preference
between Britain and the Britons beyond the seas
simply because he loves the old country, or the other
colonies. Sentiment can be left out. He sees dol
lars in the proposal not only for himself, but for
Britain, which is his principal customer. And he
doesn't like his own dollars going to foreign nations
who are doing their best to legislate the British
manufacturer out of business.

76

CHAPTER VII.
THE FRENCH-CANADIAN.
WERE you unconsciously dropped into Quebec
Province you might, for days, hold the be
lief that you were in France. The people
are the same, the language the same, the churches
the same, the customs the same. Two hundred
years of settlement has not deprived the French
settlers in Canada of the characteristics of their an
cestors. They farm in the same old-fashioned style ;
they divide and subdivide their land into peasant
proprietorships; they are not rich, but they are
with their kin, and "out-west" the prairies of
Manitoba have no attractions for them.
When a Frenchman leaves France he seems to
take a bit of his country with him. Go to Algiers,
and you see a toy Paris ; go to Tunis, and you
saunter along the boulevards and sit beneath the
trees outside the caf 6s ; go to the pin-point of French
soil at Chandernagore, near Calcutta, and it is easy
to imagine you are on the banks of the Seine, and
not on the Hugli; push east to Tonquin, and you
wonder what magic there is with the people to make
their settlements so French.
Go to Toronto, the most English city in all
Canada. You would never mistake Toronto as being
in England. It is American; it has all the char-

THE FRENCH-CANADIAN. 77
acteristics of a hustling, go-ahead, wide-awake
people. The man of Toronto is proud of being
English. But there are striking differences between
him and his brother in Leeds or Birmingham, in
physique, in manner of speech, in methods of busi
ness. The transplanted Briton, breathing a new
atmosphere, changes in a year; he adapts himself
to new surroundings.
Go to Quebec, only a few hundred miles from
Toronto, and you see a racial characteristic. Que
bec City is French— as French as Dieppe. The
streets are French, the houses are French, the shops
are French. The men of Quebec dress like the men
of Paris rather than like the men of Toronto. They
trim their beards in the Parisian style, rather than
shave clean like the American. There is the same
courteous sluggishness in their business as in France.
When you have walked the streets of a little French
town, have you not noticed a curious mild aroma
which touches the nostrils, and which you never
notice in England? You notice that aroma in
Quebec. But what a charming city ! Indeed , Quebec is
the most charming city on the North American con
tinent; It has individuality, and individuality is
not a characteristic of American cities, which seem
to have been devised on the same plan, and all their
buildings designed by the same architects. And
by individuality I mean, not that it is different from
a French town in France, but that it is so strikingly
different from every other town in Canada. It is
magnificently situated on the banks of the St.

78 CANADA AS IT IS.
Lawrence, rising high on a knuckle of rock, guarded
by a solemn-jawed fortress, showing majestic build
ings, tapering spires and noble statues, and backed
by heaving hills as wistful in the varying light as the
hills in Scotland; while near at hand are avenues
and woods, radiant in late autumn with the wine-red
maple leaves. The glory of the maple, when stung
to crimson by winter frosts, makes the forest roads
avenues of gorgeousness. My last afternoon in
Canada was spent in wandering in the woods at the
back of Quebec, collecting the leaves of the maple,
with two ladies of Quebec as my guides and assist
ants, so that I might take back to the old country
beautiful specimens of the leaf which Canada has
adopted as her emblem.
Yet the wonderful thing about Quebec is that you
have a bit of France, not so much of to-day as the
France of the Bourbons. The tinsel of that regime
has faded and disappeared. But all else is much the
same. The Dominion prides itself on its inde
pendence, on having broken away from tradition.
Quebec clings to tradition. In modern France the
influence of the Church of Rome was never so low
as now. In Quebec it was never so high. The
priest is always behind the politician. To-day you
find the peasant maintaining a mediaeval belief in
miracles. The deep faith of the people, the re
sistance to all that may be considered newfangled in
religion or in politics, explain why when you are
in Quebec you feel you have slipped back several
centuries. The French-Canadian, therefore, is a man apart.

THE FRENCH- CANADIAN. 79
Other Canadians, made up of many nationalities,
English, Scotch, Irish, Germans, Danes, and the
rest, mix, intermarry, lose the characteristics of
their mother-land, and become almost a race dis
tinct, called Canadians, and more akin to the poly
glot race in the United States, and called Americans,
than to any other race. The people of Quebec are
old French, and show no signs of ceasing to be old
French. But while population in France is prac
tically at a standstill, the increase of the French
population in Quebec Province is astounding.
Families of eleven and fourteen are common.
The simple life of the Quebec habitant is a
mixture of content, ignorance, plodding, and unpro-
gressiveness. He grows the food he eats ; his wife
spins the cloth of the garment he wears. The homes
are humble, but clean ; family affection is strong,
and the dislike to break loose, for the young men
to go west to battle among strangers, leads to the
dividing and slicing of the family property until
often there is hardly enough for the subsistence of
them all. Many districts are crowded ; and the con
gestion is forcing, though reluctantly, the French-
Canadian to spread. He is edging into Ontario, and
down into the manufacturing districts of the New
England States.
While there is no ill-feeling among French -
Canadians against Great Britain, there is no doubt
the people of Quebec regard England as a foreign
country. Though no leading French-Canadian
openly urges that Quebec should be separated from
the Dominion, there is a deep undercurrent of feeling

80 CANADA AS IT IS.
among the French masses that if such a thing were
possible it would be an advantage. In its heart
Quebec feels out of sympathy with the hurry of the
New World. On its sleeve it wears its antipathy to
Imperialism. The people of Quebec are French in
temperament. British Imperialism, a mighty em
pire throughout the world, the Union Jack flapping
over the snows of Labrador, from the towers of
Indian citadels, beneath the Southern Cross, does
not thrill the soul of the French-Canadian.
A few years ago the French flag was hoisted
above the British flag on the Parliament Houses
in Quebec in honour of the French frigate
La Minerva. The official explanation, when a stir
was made, was that there had been an accident.
But it was an accident with which nine out of every
ten French-Canadians agreed. Imperialism as a
lofty ideal worthy to be striven after and fought for
is beyond the range of Quebec contemplation. Im
perialism, in the mind of the French-Canadian, is
synonymous with war, bloodshed, and the spending
of French- Canadian money toward the conquest of
a region which he hardly knows by name, and in
which he has not the slightest interest. With his
slow ways money comes slowly to the habitant.
So what is always at the back of his thoughts when
Imperialism is put before him, is that he will have
to yield some of his hard-earned money. He doesn't
want a big empire; he doesn't want military
prowess; he doesn't want the foreign Englishman
as his ruler. He wants to be left alone.
The United States absorbs all peoples that land

THE FRENCH -CANADIAN. 81
on its shores, and in a generation welds them into
that cosmopolitanism of race called American. The
Dominion has done nothing to absorb the French.
Indeed, the tendency has been for the British to be
absorbed by the French. It is not uncommon to go
into a French village where the people are Mac-
gregors and Macintoshes, and find they know no
language but French. That is a relic of the settle
ments of a century ago.
To-day there is marked aloofness between British
and French. Intermarriage has become rare. In
French-Canadian politics the appeal to a distinct
nationality — French-Canadian as distinct from
British — ^is usual. Although at Ottawa representa
tives of the two races sit side by side, there is no
open friendliness, and very little communication ex
cept between leaders. I had no personal oppor
tunity of testing the truth of the statement, but I
was told again and again that a Briton has abso
lutely no chance of securing any sort of employment
in the rural parts of the province. A gradual but
still a marked squeezing out of the Briton is going on
in Quebec. There are towns which formerly were
British and under British law which have now a
French population and are under French law. The
proportionate growth of the French population is
far ahead of the British. Had Canada remained the
Cinderella among countries suitable for immigration,
and there had not been the rush to the western
wheat fields, another half century would have seen
the French the dominant race in the Dominion.
The educated French-Canadian realises that the
G
- ¦=..if>«»<-*«'®'%«'-%'*;*iS^iiS4i

82 CANADA AS IT IS.
material condition of his people could not possibly
be better than it is under the British crown — a fact,
however, which the Quebec politicians keep well in
the background. It is understood that were Quebec
to join the United States — and there is a considerable
French-Canadian leaning toward the States and
away from Britain — the change would be a dis
advantage. Then the habitant could not escape
paying his share toward American "militarism."
All the special advantages Quebec has would be
crushed beneath the tyranny of majorities, whilst
under the British flag the rights of minorities are
preciously guarded. Quebec Province has its own
French civil law, and only the Legislature at Quebec,
overwhelmingly French, can change it. The Roman
Catholic Church is recognised by law, and its privi
leges kept intact. The education is in the hands of
the French, though rightly enough there is provision
for the Protestant minority. The Governor of the
province is always a Frenchman. In the Dominion
Parliament every speech may be, and every docu
ment is, of necessity, in French as well as English.
The French-Canadian is not loyal to Britain as
the word loyalty is usually understood. He is grate
ful for peculiar privileges in a land where he is in a
minority. But gratitude is not loyalty. I am sure
the French-Canadian would not make any sacrifices
for England. He doesn't like war, and he has a
horror of ' ' armaments. ' ' That was a word which
constantly dropped from the lips of Sir Wilfrid
Laurier when I had the pleasure of a long talk with
him at the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec. I am

THE FRENCH-CANADIAN. 83
afraid the Quebec politician under Sir Wilfrid
cultivates this horror of " armaments." It is pushed
into the brains of the French-Canadian populace
that Great Britain is anxious to get the Quebec
farmers, mostly thrifty but poor, to contribute of
their hard-earned money, so that England may go
filibustering all over the world.
This was the idea held by nearly every French-
Canadian I spoke to, whenever I broached the sub
ject of the Colonies contributing to Imperial defence.
It is only the aggressive, defiant side of "arma
ments ' ' that the Frenchman thinks about ; the de
fensive side is carefully kept in the background by
the hack politicians.
" Oh," said a very distinguished politician to
me, " we don't need armaments in Canada. The
only times we have been in danger of war have been
because of our alliance with England. We could
never have any trouble apart from England." I
politely suggested he was talking nonsense. Sup
pose Canada were free, and one of the Canadian
Pacific Railway steamships which ply between Van
couver and Yokohama were held up by Russia on the
ground that she was carrying contraband, what could
Canada do to secure redress if she had not the
powerful fleet of some nation to back her up ? He
shrugged his shoulders.
Though for party political purposes it is a splen
did cry to keep clear of war expenditure — we know
how the cry is used in England — and though there is
undoubtedly a strong feeling on the point among
the less educated French-Canadians, I did not fail

84 CANADA AS IT IS.
to recognise among the better educated classes a
tardy acknowledgment that even the French-
Canadian, if he is getting the benefit, the moral
support, of the British defensive forces, ought at
least to bear some of the up-keep cost of those forces.
If the question — remote, I admit — could be put to
the French-Canadians and the Canadians generally :
" Will you pay your share toward Imperial defence,
or will you leave the Empire and shift for your
selves ? ' ' the answer which would promptly come
from the whole of the Dominion would be : " Contri
bute our share."
Let me be clearly understood. The French-
Canadian in his heart would like to be free from
Great Britain. That is a sentiment shared by some
Canadians who are not Frenchmen. The idea of
suzerainty to another nation, to England, occasion
ally grates on national susceptibility. But the ques
tion has to be viewed from a common-sense point. If
Canada were to break loose from Great Britain —
and the Canadians know that Great Britain would
not fire a single shot to prevent her — Canada would
have to provide for her own defence. The force of
circumstances would compel her to raise an army
and to build a navy. That would be much more ex
pensive than any contribution. But if she lived up
to the ideal of no army, no navy, but peace, she
knows that within a generation the whole Dominion
would be swallowed by the United States. And
then? Why, the French-Canadian would, under
the tyranny of majorities, lose his special privileges
in language, law, and religious instruction, and

THE CHATEAU FRONTENAC AT QUEBEC.

THE FRENCH-CANADIAN. 85
every Canadian, Frenchmen included, would be
compelled to help in maintaining the American
army and navy. The Canadian shrinks from the
tjhought that his land should ever be annexed by the
United States, and he quite understands that if he
attempted to run a Republic, whether he had an in
dependent army and navy or not, annexation in
evitably would be his fate.
I trust it is beyond possibility that there ever
will be war between Great Britain and the United
States. Still, it is a possibility not to be ignored.
The first clash would be on the eastern borders of
the Canadian-American frontier. It is on this very
frontier, Vermont, Massachusetts, even Michigan
and Illinois, that the population, where not exclu
sively French, has a considerable French mixture.
The French colony of over a century ago which
gathered on the banks of the St. Lawrence River has
multiplied into a population of 2,500,000, 1,000,000
of whom are now resident on United States soil.
They care little for the Stars and Stripes or the
Union Jack, but they care much for their race and
their common religion. The first brush of conflict,
therefore, would be in a country inhabited by people
belonging to the opposing nations, but sympathetic
to neither. The old New England is now largely
farmed by French people, and in the industrial
centres the masses of the ' ' hands ' ' are French-
Canadian. If Quebec Province provides a serious political
and Imperial problem in British North America,
the overflow of French - Canadians provides a

86 CANADA AS IT IS.
momentous industrial problem to the United States
of America. Their coming is resented by the
American working-man because they are cheap. For
the same reason they are favoured by the employers.
In the main, the French immigrants into the States
from Canada are of the poorer, more ilUterate class.
Educated French-Canadians, ardently supported by
the Roman Catholic Church, do their best to stem
the flood over the border. They realise that in the
States absorption, sooner or later, is inevitable, that
the French language will be superseded, and that
the authority of the Church will wane. Accordingly,
continuous efforts are being made to check the emi
gration from Canada. A vast and increasing French
population in Canada would naturally be a still
greater power in Dominion politics than it is to-day,
whilst to lose 1,000,000 means not only a weakening
of the French-Canadian cause, but its power in the
States — part of a population of 75,000,000 — is hardly
appreciable, except in one corner of the Union.
French-Canadian bishops issue appeals to their
people to resist the blandishments of American
gold. Repatriation societies, created to resist the
tide across the frontier, are subsidised by the Quebec
Parliament. The whole tendency is neither to make the
French-Canadians loyal Britons nor enthusiastic
Canadians, but a distinct people with distinct in
terests. Though knowing well enough they can
never be a distinct nation, and that under the British
flag they have more genuine freedom than possible
under any other flag, it is with the tricolour they

THE FRENCH -CANADIAN. 87
decorate their villages at times of festivity ; it is
France that is called Mother, and England that is
called Mother-in-law. " My sympathy and my ad
miration go to Paris, not to London," said a Mayor
of Montreal a few years ago.

88

CHAPTER VIII.
THE WHEAT FUNNEL: STORING AND DISTRIBUTING
CORN.
FOR two nights and one long intervening day
you travel west from Montreal. The apple
orchards and the well-trimmed farms of set
tled Ontario are far behind. You enter a wilderness
of heaved and knuckled rocks, of tangled wood, of
forests hundreds of miles deep, of lakes, small as an
ornamental pond, or large, with a limit dropping
beyond the horizon. The waters are black, eerie,
smooth as steel. Somewhere a startled fowl rips
the surface as, with screech, it scurries away.
You feel you have climbed to the top of the
world. The red-streaked rocks are rounded and
worn with time. From soil-filled cracks gaunt pines
rear themselves, sentinels of death, for not a leaf is
on them. In the dips of the land, where boulders
quarrel with muddy torrents, vegetation is rife and
rank and matted, and on many a slope sprawl trees,
victims of dire storms, lying ungainly, rent and
racked, like battalions of soldiers stricken with
musketry fire.
The nights are chill, and the mornings come with
mist and eastern sky streaked with smoky reds and
dull saffrons.
The big black engine of the Canadian Pacific
Railway, thundering and plunging down the gradi-

THE WHEAT FUNNEL. 89
ents, gives tongue in the mist like a steamer plough
ing her way at sea — a long, moansome shout,
softened by the clamminess and the bunched forest,
but reverberating and echoing as though some
monster in the unknown Beyond were mocking.
There is cruel beauty about the scene. It grows
on you, and grips you as the ever-changing and yet
ever the same panorama sweeps past.
This isn't much of a settler's country. The way
side stations are rude shanties. At intervals, on
sidings where freight trains shunt to let the gor
geously-equipped Imperial Limited, bound for Van
couver, race by, are the travelling homes of the
Italian gangs, improving and mending the per
manent way. They are rough trucks with rough
accommodation, and one truck is kitchen and dining
hall complete. The men, swarthy and sweaty,
stand aside and rest on their picks and shovels,
whilst the express, in a whirl of dust, bounds past.
Maybe you will see an unkempt log cabin, from
which a slatternly woman and barefooted children
gaze sheepishly at the train. But practically, ex
cept for the roadworkers, you journey hundreds of
mUes through a desolate land.
Early on the second morning, while the day is
yet grey and cold, you skirt the northern shore of
Lake Superior. In the distance are steamers,
speck-sized, with motionless trails of smoke in their
wake. Through the haze you see an island that
looks like an Indian chief lying on his back. It is
the Sleeping Giant, and the dying-away Algonquin
Indians regard him with awe.

90 CANADA AS IT IS.
This is Thunder Bay. Steamers are many. Here
is Port Arthur, a shanty-town, lying on a hillside.
Between the railroad and the water rises a mammoth
row of grain elevators, one the biggest in the world,
and capable of storing 7,000,000 bushels of wheat.
Three miles on is the scraggy town of Fort William.
Again there is a row of the ugly structures — more
grain elevators. You tumble out upon the platform.
You have reached the funnel through which all
the wheat yielded to the world by the farmed prairies
of Manitoba and Alberta and the between-lands must
pass. There is nothing picturesque in these twin towns
of Fort William and Port Arthur. There are no
made-roads. The weather decides whether you
travel over dry earth or through slush. The houses
are of wood, some with an endeavour after pre
tension, but mostly of rough-hewn logs. There is
plenty of land round each ; but there are no grass
plats or flower beds. There are decrepit fences and
wild vegetation, and refuse pitched anywhere.
Neither Port Arthur nor Fort William has had time
to beautify itself.
But mark the contrast between the men and the
women. The women are gentle-featured, and as
well dressed as their sisters of the settled east. You
wonder a little that it should be so. The men are of
a different stamp. They are slim and loose-limbed,
and have the stride of men well pleased with them
selves. They are broad-shouldered. They have
strong, clean-cut, clean-shaven countenances; steely
eyes, straight lips. They wear broad-brimmed

THE WHEAT FUNNEL. 91
slouch hats with impudent dents in the side. Their
language is blunt, decisive, full of character.
Don't talk the talk of the cities to them. Talk
about the handling of wheat, the yield of the North-
West Territories, the loading and the unloading of
the freight cars, the storage of the world's food in
bins that hold 500,000 bushels, the distribution of
the wheat by steamer in summer, and rail in winter ;
talk about the price of wheat, gamblings in wheat,
roguery in wheat, fortunes made and fortunes lost
in wheat, and you are talking to men who may not
be cultured after the manner of Kensington, but they
are the real metal with no tinsel.
There is the whoop of an engine. The eye turns
westward to where the long ribbons of side tracks
converge into one line, which trails off lonely into
the haze of distance. Along that pair of rails comes
much of the food of the world. Block the funnel,
check the gift of the West to the East, and the price
of bread in England would go up to famine pitch.
The polished steel rails glisten like silver in the
glare of the sun. They are worn bright with the
carrying of wheat. From here to Winnipeg stretches
of wheat-yielding prairie alternate with humped rock
and dense forest. But beyond Winnipeg, west
ward, till the foothills of the Rocky Mountains are
reached, is a plain — immense, boundless, with
thousands of square miles waving with wheat, show
ing a scrubby, stubble face after the wheat has been
reaped and garnered, or else virgin soil waiting for
the tongue of the plough to turn it, and convert it
also into wheat-growing land.

92 CANADA AS IT IS.
This is the season of the wheat " rush." Har
vesting continues from sunrise to sundip. The whirl
of the threshers is like the hoarse song of innumer
able crickets. From the farms near the railroad, and
along the roads that are nothing but cart-ruts across
the prairies, winding unevenly for maybe twenty
or thirty miles, come the waggons creaking with
their loads of wheat. All the available railroad cars,
three times the size of English trucks, seven thou
sand of them, are pressed into the service of wheat
gathering. Empty cars are left at the wayside
stations, and the farmer fills his one, two, three, or
half-dozen cars.
There were rumours in 1904 of rust, and of a
yield not so great as in 1903. Prices rose to beyond
a dollar a bushel before even an ear was reaped.
Usually the farmer sells his calculated crop to a
wheat speculator or a middleman at so much a
bushel if the wheat is up to sample. But sample
doesn't mean a little bag of wheat such as on market
day in an English country town you see the farmer
produce from his coat tail pocket, and let the mer
chant run through his fingers, and maybe throw a
few grains into his mouth to munch meditatively,
and then declare that while fairly good it is not so
good as he expected. The samples of wheat in
Canada are certain grades fixed by the Government.
There is first of all No. 1 Hard, then No. 1 Northern,
then No. 2 Northern, No. 3 Northern, No. 4 North
ern, Feed, and No. 2 Feed. The farmer sells to a
buyer at a definite price for any of these grades,
whatever be the category his wheat is declared to be.

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THE WHEAT FUNNEL. 93
Thus the speculator in Chicago, or Minneapolis, or
Toronto, or Montreal, or Liverpool — the man who
likely enough doesn't know good wheat from bad,
except by official report it is No. 1 Hard or No. 4
Northern, who has never seen the farmer, and is
rather dim as to where the wheat is garnered — buys
his hundred thousand or half million bushels before
the ear has ripened. If there is prospect of a bumper
crop he is able to buy cheap ; if there are rumours
of shortage, competition compels him to pay more.
Then the great gamble begins — a gamble in the
fruit of the earth given by God — fierce, bitter, awful.
There come stories of storms, rust, frost, ruined
crops, shortage. The prices bounce two cents a
bushel, one cent, half a cent, an eighth, a sixteenth.
Prices are forced up. The speculator holds as long
as he dares. He sells a hundred thousand bushels
here, a quarter of a million bushels there, to men
who are more daring, and who think they can
squeeze another sixteenth — the thirty-second part
of a penny — on the sale of each bushel. The braves,
the men of no heart, but with a courage as cold and
as stern as steel, buy, and buy, and buy the little
bits of paper, hoping to get the wheat yield of a con
tinent in their grasp, to " corner " it, to have the
feeding of the people at their mercy, and then to get
what price they like. But the bubble bursts, for
there spreads the news of a big yield and no shortage.
Maybe it is true — maybe it is a lie, urged by those
who want to stampede the market — but it sends
prices down with a rush, makes the braves sell
out to their ruin, only for tbe new braves to get a

94 CANADA AS IT IS.
grip, knowing that when the terror passes prices will
be steady, and then rise again, and fortunes be made.
The sales are registered, the ownership of crops
maybe passes through sixty hands. It is the last
man who holds the scrip who claims the wheat at
the original price the farmer agreed to sell.
I have seen a gamble in food in the ' ' Pit ' ' of
the Board of Trade at Chicago. A hundred telegraph
instruments were singing the news, how the wheat
crops in Canada, Argentina, Russia, were progress
ing, what was the expected yield of the world, bring
ing intelligence of drought and the threat of short
age. Gamblers — hatless, coatless, collarless, fren
zied — shrieked to buy while the price of the market
was rising, and the holders parted slowly, cautiously,
at the last sixteenth of a cent they might squeeze
with safety. Then came a purely local shower — a
patter on the windows of the Board of Trade. But
there had been no rain for six weeks ! It was an
omen. The drought had broken. There was a yell
— raucous, devilish ! Down came the prices, and the
men who an hour ago had the flush of victory on
their cheeks, were now pallid, with bloodless lips
and bloodshot eyes, eager to let go bushels of ripen
ing wheat in far-off Minnesota, or Wyoming, while
buyers were holding back, waiting for bottom price
to be reached, until once more a turn was given by
the more daresome scooping furiously, in the gam
bler's belief there must be a shortage after all, and
fortunes, earned in twenty minutes, be theirs.
The farmer in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and
Alberta is beyond the pale of all this. He knows be

THE WHEAT FUNNEL. 95
will receive from somebody a certain price for a cer
tain number of bushels he has undertaken to supply.
The thing he is not sure of is how his wheat will be
graded. That is done at Winnipeg. A Govern
ment inspector, who doesn't know from where the
wheat has come or where it is going, mounts a car.
He has a long tube, and he draws samples from
fifteen places in the car-load, mixes them, examines
them, declares their grade, and issues a report.
That is sent to the farmer. If he had reckoned he
was sending out No. 1 Northern whereas his wheat
is officially graded as No. 4 Northern , he can demand
a survey. This is a further examination and test by
officials of the Winnipeg Board of Trade, who know
neither the names of the seller nor the buyer. Their
decision is final.
A long procession of laden cars, tailed to a mon
strous engine that coughed when climbing the
gradients, rolls out of Manitoba into Ontario, making
for Fort William, and a long procession of empty
cars roll noisily westwards to bring more wheat.
The journeys are laborious and long. The track is
single, though a second line is being made, and there
are many shuntings into the sidings to give way to
one another.
But from leaving Winnipeg the identity of the
wheat is lost. The farmer Brandon way, or from up
the rail arm that reaches north towards Prince
Albert, or from round Moose Jaw or Medicine Hat,
is to be paid for No. 1 Northern, and it doesn't
matter if it is his No. 1 Northern or not. The wheat
gambler in the east holds contracts to be supplied

96 CANADA AS IT IS.
with half a million bushels from Alberta. But it is
nothing to him if his No. 1 comes from the lower
territory of Assiniboia so long as it is No. 1 Northern.
When the elevators at Fort William or Port Arthur
are reached, all the wheat of the west of the same
grade is shot into the same bins — and a bin holds
between seventy-five and eighty thousand bushels.
Here it will be stored two, three, six, possibly nine
months, and is withdrawn just as the world hungers
for bread.
A switch is locked, and the heavy train with
sixty-five pantechnicon-sized cars runs beneath the
eaves of an elevator. The wheat is dirty and dusty,
and has much chaff, just as it came from the prairie.
It has to be cleaned and weighed and stored. The
train standing in the shadow of the giant elevator
shrinks by comparison to toy-size. Nine cars can be
dealt with at once. The nine, each with about a
thousand bushels, are unloaded in well under twenty
minutes, or at the rate of thirty cars an hour. In
the " rush " season the Canadian Pacific Railway's
four elevators — there are also elevators belonging to
private companies, and at Port Arthur is the elevator
belonging to the Northern Railway Company, and
holding seven million bushels — are kept working
night and day, unloading about six hundred cars in
the twenty-four hours, and storing some six hundred
thousand bushels of wheat.
The wheat is run into titanic sluices. It is
scooped by electrically-worked machinery, and
passed through a gale made by whirling fans. The
dirt is sucked along one tube, and ultimately will

THE WHEAT FUNNEL. 97
be thrown into Thunder Bay. The chaff and the
broken wheat are sucked along another tube, and
ultimately will be utilised in cakes for cattle food.
The wheat is automatically weighed. A belt of
steel pockets, after the manner of a dredger, scoops
the wheat, and carries it at railway speed to the top
most story of the elevator, where, on the bend of the
belt, it tipples the wheat upon a continuously moving
rubber platform, about five feet wide, and this
carries the wheat to the mouth of whatever bin is
being filled. These bins, like great pits, are round,
so that they empty the easier ; but no space is lost,
for the hooped triangular interstices between the
crowded bins are loaded with wheat also. There
the wheat stays till the owner claims it. The cost
of elevator storage — including unloading the cars and
reloading — is half a cent per bushel for the first
fifteen days, then half a cent per bushel for each
succeeding thirty days or part of thirty days.
But why not carry the wheat intended for Europe
straight through to Montreal or Quebec, where it
can be stored in elevators close to the St. Lawrence
side ready to be shipped upon ocean-going steamers,
instead of the necessary delay by unloading and re
loading on the shores of Lake Superior? For
several reasons. When the "rush" season is on
it is not known to what part of the world the wheat
will be consigned. Some of it will be wanted in the
United States, and there are the great lakes —
Superior, Michigan, and Huron — by which it can be
taken to Duluth or Chicago or Detroit. Again,
autumn is a busy passenger season on the Canadian
H

98 CANADA AS IT IS.
Pacific Railway, and a throng of freight trains
moving over the single track would lead to disor
ganisation. The railroad company finds it cheaper,
so long as the lakes are not ice-bound, to utilise
some of the forty steamers engaged in the wheat
business to carry the foodstuff to a branch line they
have from Owen's Sound, in Lower Ontario. In
winter, when the lakes are frozen, and the pas
senger traffic falls off, then the track is used to take
the wheat intended for Europe down to Montreal
or Quebec, where there are other, but smaller,
elevators. Round the sweep of the bay at Port Arthur is
King's elevator — a sort of hospital elevator to deal
with wheat that is sick. Sometimes wheat is damp
with heavy rains at the cutting, and if so stored
would soon get hot and take fire. Not infrequently
a storm beats the ears to the very ground, so that
dirt gets among the corn. Very often, when wheat
has been grown on a stretch given to oats in a former
year, there springs up a volunteer crop of oats.
These have to be separated.
King's elevator is a testimony to the ingenuity of
man. Here is sent most of the damaged wheat
from the West. It is run through elaborate
machinery. First, all the dirt is secured and
brushed off and extracted by suction, and then by
suction also the oats are withdrawn from the wheat.
Sometimes the wheat is put through two or three
times to make sure there is no mixture of oats. In
extracting the dirt much broken oats and wheat
goes with it. This is subjected to another process.

THE WHEAT FUNNEL. 99
and the screenings, as they are called, are ground
up for cattle food. There is no charge for all this
cleaning and sifting. AU the screenings and oats
drawn from the wheat are the property of JNIr. King,
and from the sale of these he gets his recompense.
That plan does not apply to the saving of wheat
moistened with the rains. The price varies accord
ing to the three degrees of damage. For drying
what is called ' ' tough ' ' wheat the charge is one and
a half cents a bushel, for damp wheat two and a half
cents, and for wet wheat three and a half cents.
The wheat is run into perpendicular, wire-sided
chambers, and blasts of hot air are driven through
and around. It takes from two to three hours to
dry, according to the dampness, but if the wheat be
salvage, sodden, it will take as long as six hours.
At this elevator 50,000 bushels of tough wheat can
be dried in the twenty-four hours. But none of this
wheat is aUowed to be mixed with standard wheat.
It must be sold on its merits.
Go, then, neither to Fort William nor Port
Arthur if you seek for pretty towns. But go, if
your soul's eye can see beyond the shanties, the miry
roads, the railway tracks in chaos, the humped
elevators, the snorting and evil odoured engines, all,
indeed, that is revolting to sesthetic taste, to what
these really mean — the mastery of the West, where
the giant plains, slumbering through the ages, are
being roused to give bread to man. You won't find
simpering drawing-room poetry, but you will find the
epic of the strenuous life.

100

CHAPTER IX.
WINNIPEG : THB CITY OF THE PLAINS.
" 'V/* OU bet your life," said the Winnipeg man,
X flicking a fly from the neck of the big-
boned horse, " this is the wonder city of the
world." The rig — a box of a conveyance, mounted on
wide slim wheels — gave a lurch in a foot-deep hole.
" That's all right," he added, noting a look in my
eye, " mighty good for your liver ! "
We were driving in the suburbs of Winnipeg.
The road was rough. By the side of it crawled a
great snake of a wooden side- walk. Through the
trees were peeps of houses, built of wood, but com
modious, with large verandahs and windows shaded
with bright sun blinds. There were gardens,
women-folk in gauzy costumes swinging in ham
mocks beneath the foliage, wide sweeps of lawn,
and tennis being played.
" Four years ago," said the Winnipeg man, turn
ing his ' ' chaw ' ' of tobacco from one cheek to the
other, "this was a wilderness, not a house, and
now — rather nice, ain't it? Get-up there ! I want
to drive you along this boulevard."
We were now on a sweep of road, broad, abso
lutely straight, asphalted as smooth as a winter
tennis court. The road edge was trimmed with

THE CITY OP THE PLAINS. 101
stone. There was a long ribbon of weU-roUed, close-
cropped grass with spreading branched maple trees
at regular intervals ; then the inevitable wooden side
walk; then more grass, and, standing back, were
villas of wood, cosy, trim, with a look of comfort
able prosperity about them. Plenty of trees were
everywhere. It was a thoroughfare of sylvan
quietude, basking in the glow of September sun
shine. " This will give you an idea of how the city
grows," said the Winnipeg man. " Sixteen months
ago there wasn't a house, and the road wasn't even
marked. It was nothing but prairie — nothing but
darned prairie, and now — rather nice, ain't it?
• Get-up ! Lawks, you just shut your eyes and open
them again and you see Winnipeg has got bigger,
darned bigger ! There isn't a town in Canada that
is growing like Winnipeg. We're ahead of Toronto,
and Toronto has four times our population — just at
present ; guess it won't have for long ! Get-up, will
you? Already this year sanction has been given for
seven million dollars' worth of new buildings to go
up, and we'll touch the ten millions before winter
comes, you bet. About twenty million dollars is the
value of buildings now going up. And Winnipeg is
only twenty-six years old — only twenty-six years !
When I came here there was no Winnipeg, only
Fort Garry, a little camp with a wall round it, to
keep the Indians back. All the rest was prairie —
nothing but darned prairie, and now — now, well,
there ain't nothing like it ! We've got twelve miles
of asphalt road, thirty miles of macadam road, seven-

102 CANADA AS IT IS.
teen miles of block concrete road, forty-four miles
of boulevards, sixteen miles of stone side- walks, 179
miles of plank side- walks, whilst the number of miles
of our sewers  "
" Yes, yes," I exclaimed hurriedly; " Winnipeg
is a wonderful place."
" You bet your life it is. Get-up, will ye ! "
The old-timer in Winnipeg — a twenty years'
residence constitutes an old-timer, and each morning
the principal paper publishes a few paragraphs under
the heading " Twenty Years Ago," after the manner
of the Times recalling incidents of a century back —
is never so happy as when talking about the growth
of Winnipeg. He gazes upon it with the pride of
a farmer growing a colossal pumpkin. He has the
robust, transatlantic love for bigness. At a minimum
there is a column a day in each of the three Winni
peg papers on the marvellous growth of the city.
Now and then the papers go a " buster," and pub
lish supplements with smudgy photographs on the
growth of the city. If a citizen goes east for a
month's holiday, he is interviewed when he comes
back on the wonderful changes that have taken place
in his absence.
You get right to the inner heart of a Winnipeg
man if you tell him you have travelled a lot, but
that Winnipeg is the greatest of all the wonders you
have seen !
Call it the Paris of the Prairie, and though he
has his own ideas about Paris, never having seen it,
he knows you mean a compliment and appreciates it.
Call it the Chicago of Canada, and then you are

THE CITY OF THE PLAINS. 103
talking about something he understands — money-
making ! Tell him — if your conscience will allow you
— that you are convinced that Winnipeg within the
next fifty years will be the greatest city on the
American continent, and you have no doubt that in
time Winnipeg will possibly, indeed, very likely, be
the greatest city the world has ever seen, and his
eyes sparkle with delight. Though you're from
England, he guesses you've got sense.
Every man in Winnipeg believes in Winnipeg.
He is proud of Winnipeg. He believes the Almighty
must have overlooked the neighbourhood or it would
have been chosen as the Garden of Eden. He will
quit business to sit down and talk to you by the
hour about Winnipeg. You smile, but you love him
for his municipal pride, you are proud of him that
he comes of British stock. You see he is a man,
all grit. Though there is a touch of grey in his
hair, he has the buoyancy of youth. He is self-
confident. It is this confidence, backed by energy and
ability, which has brought him from the Old Country
or the eastern provinces, and, on the prairie of
western Canada, made him rear a town which, even
in these days of hustle, makes one marvel. Land
which thirty years ago could be bought at a dollar
an acre is to-day being sold at a thousand dollars a
foot. Conceive an illimitable plain, as flat as a billiard
table, with a little walled fort by a muddy river.
Suddenly the neighbourhood is stricken with a rash
of building. Wheat has been " discovered " on the

104 CANADA AS IT IS.
prairies beyond. First there are a few log shanties.
As the numbers increase those in the centre are
puUe.d down and better structures reared. The
roads are wide and masses of mud. The population
is under a couple of thousand ; but it grows steadily.
Then comes the transcontinental line of the
Canadian Pacific Railway, and the population nearly
trebles in a year. In 1881 the population was 6,000,
last year (1904) it was 75,000.
In the old days Winnipeg was regarded as a place
on the edge of the Beyond, to be borne for a year or
two for the money to be made, and then to be left.
All that is changed. Winnipeg is now the settled
home of thousands. Four times a day transcon
tinental trains halt at Winnipeg. Half a dozen
branch lines stretch out their tentacles north and
south, searching for wheat. The roads are well
made — asphalt, concrete, or blocked with wood.
Electric tramcars rush clangingly along the main
streets. Great sky-scrapers are rearing their heads
and rivalling those of New York — because land is so
dear in the centre of the city. The banks are gor
geous. The shops on Main Street are huge hives of
trade. There is a town hall with an ornamental
garden in front. There are public parks, and im
posing churches, colleges, theatres, and music-halls.
At midday, when the offices give forth their em
ployees to lunch, there is as much jostling as in
Broadway. In the evening, especially Saturday
evening, the main streets are as crowded as the
Strand. There is nothing wonderful in all this until

THE CITY OF THE PLAINS. 105
you think that within the easy memory of most
of us Winnipeg was prairie, and the haunt of the
buffalo 1
There is no town in England, no town in the
Old World, none, I think, in the New, which can
come into exact comparison with Winnipeg. You
understand its growth — rapid, exotic almost, reared
in the hot desire of money-making 1 You hear the
jangle of many tongues all with one tune — money-
making ! I listened as I walked the streets, rode in
the cars, ate at my hotel, smoked in the vestibule.
The talk was ever the same — money-making !
Winnipeg is the youngest of the world's com
mercial cities. The virus is in its veins. It is
ardent, headstrong, palpitating with desire to make
money. But Winnipeg is not to be condemned for that.
Think of the human stuff of which Winnipeg is
made. No man ever came to Winnipeg because he
was rich. The men who came were the poor, the
driven, the restless under social conditions on the
other side of the world, the men who were strong
and willing to dare, who saw riches round them, but
beyond them, and who went West to strive, to
battle, to conquer, to gain riches for themselves.
That rich citizen made discarded food tins into
water cans when he first reached Winnipeg. That
man driving past slept in outhouses, for he had no
money. That man sold nicknacks from a box, a
wandering pedlar ; thus he could buy a bit of land,
sell at a profit, buy more, and is now one of the
richest men. There are three times as many men

106 CANADA AS IT IS.
in Winnipeg as there are women. And the children
are few. Out of the population of 75,000, only
9,500 are of an age to attend school.
Winnipeg is a town of men. For years it has
been attracting the venturesome, the eager, the
money-hungered. No day passes but hundreds of
men — rude, crude, unshaven — drop from the cars.
You hear the twang of the Cockney, the burr of the
northerner, the babel of Germany, France, Hun
gary, Galicia, Judea, Iceland, Scandinavia, Russia,
Italy. Many, most, just halt till they are sent into
the farm lands of the further West. Others search
Winnipeg for work. And of this class the popula
tion of Winnipeg is chiefly made.
Not yet — though now and then is a flicker of
light — can Winnipeg boast of culture. It is raw,
uncouth, hobbledehoy. The men are well set, alert,
strenuous, the best material for settling a new
country. The culture wiU come in time, as it has
come in the United States. Winnipeg, in its own
jargon, "is all right."
The leaven is at work. The people, like the
buildings, are in transition state. Noble structures
are alongside ricketty shanties. New Winnipeg is
already building itself on the ruins of old Winnipeg
— the Winnipeg of twenty years ago. One of the
biggest, newest structures is a brewery. Alongside
stands the first brewery in Winnipeg, of rough
logs, and the size of an outhouse. Before long
Winnipeg will have a decent hotel. The best
restaurant is poorer than I have found in second-rate
Siberian towns.

THE CITY OF THE PLAINS. 107
Go to the station and see the incoming of a train
laden with colonists. They are of all nationahties —
meek, cattle-eyed Galicians in sheepskin coats;
tawny Itahans, underclad; fair-featured and cum
brous Scandinavians. They are worn with weeks
of travel, all a little frightened at being dumped in a
strange country. They talk strange tongues. All
have troubles of some kind. Some have lost their
money, some their baggage, some have cMldren who
are sick. They have aU to be cared for, ah fed,
all housed, till they can be spread over the Western
lands, like the throwing of good seed into rich
soil, to prosper. Some nights as many as 2,000
colonists sleep in the sheds of the Immigration
Bureau. Is there any more humanly interesting spot on
earth than this Immigration Bureau? All the set
tlers for the far West pass through it. One hun
dred and six thousand passed through last year.
They know that the Dominion will give 160 acres
free to any man or any son over the age of eighteen.
They are going to be landed proprietors ; they are
to enter on a new heritage. There is much hope,
but it is mingled with comedy, and sometimes with
tragedy. Huge maps are spread out, showing the free
lands available for settlers.
Here is a man who would like his 160 acres near
the railway, not more than two miles from a station
if possible. There is no such free land ! It has
all gone long ago ! The railways are spreading their
arms over the west, but not fast enough to keep pace

108 CANADA AS IT IS.
with the immigration. The nearest free land is
twenty miles from a railway !
It is to such land the homesteaders go — a stretch
where maybe the foot of man has never trod, with
no bed but the ground, and no roof but the sky.
Yet last year 32,000 homesteaders went out to do
battle with Nature. They received a free gift of
8,000 square miles of territory. The demand can
continue at the same rate for another twenty years
before the supply of free land is exhausted.
Here is a bunch of fourteen Scotch lassies,
strong and willing, but not a sovereign a piece among
them. Well, homesteads are not for them. What
can they do? Anything! Wash, cook, be general
servants? Yes! That's all right. The Govern
ment agent smiles as he turns to his telephone and
rings. There will be joy to-night in the hearts of
fourteen mistresses in Winnipeg who have been
praying for servants, and unable to get them. Each
lass has a situation by evening at a wage of £1 a
week and her food.
A gang of Italians. No, of course not; they
don't want farms. They want pick or shovel work
on the railway, or in the city. " All right, take this
card to so and so ; you'll get 7s. 3d. a day." Sober,
hard-working fellows are these Italians. There wUl
be no work for them in the winter; so they must
save. They do save. They often live on a chunk of
bread, an onion, and a drink of water. When they
have money to spare it is sent to Italy to pay for the
passage out of some relative.
Hello, an Aberdeen tongue ! A brawny man has

NEW ARRIVALS IN
WINNIPEG.

LABOUR DAY PROCESSION
IN WINNIPEG,

THE CITY OF THE PLAINS. 109
brought his wife and three bairns to start life afresh
in the West. Oh, aye, he's been a bit of a farmer
all his life. He wants his 160 acres. But does he
know what homesteading means? — very different
from viUage life in the auld country ! Does he know
he won't earn a penny the first year, that he has his
house to build, a team to buy, a well to sink, the
land to till? What is he going to do with his wife
and bairns till he gets the homestead ready? He
hadn't thought of that. Got any money? Yes, but
not much. How much? Maybe £400. Well,
wouldn't it be better if he bought a little farm with
house on it, land ready, and not far from the railway
and a town? Maybe, but he wants his 160 acres.
Oh, those would be all right. The agent will look
out a little farm, given up by a man who has saved
money, is claiming his 160 acres, and buying another
160 acres adjoining with the money from the sale,
and having a good bit to spare to buy fresh imple
ments and horses. When the Aberdonian is com
fortably settled and got used to the country, he can
claim his 160 acres, build his house, sell the first
farm to a newcomer, buy cheaply an adjoining 160,
and so make a real start with 320 acres, and have
money in the bank. Yes, the idea is a good
one. What, another Scot ! A farm labourer, eh ! Not
much money, but want your 160 acres? Don't
mind how you rough it, don't you? Well, don't
take up your 160 acres yet. Farming is a little
different in Canada from Scotland. Best advice,
you take a job with a farmer, learn the ways of the

110 CANADA AS IT IS.
country, save your money, and claim your 160 acres
later on.
Two Enghshmen. Bricklayers I Any work in
Winnipeg? Certainly, but remember that we've a
stern winter. However, you'll get plenty of work
till the frost. Wages 55 cents (2s. 3Jd.) an hour,
over a £1 a day.
What, sir? Oh, from London. And your wife —
how d'ye do? — and six chUdren under seven years!
Humph ! In bad health, and think outdoor life suit
you. Humph! Got any money? No? Humph!
How did you think you would start farming? Didn't
think there would be much difficulty. Humph I
Any trade ? Clerk !
" Oh, good heavens ! " cries the agent. " Well,
I'll see what I can do. Yes, yes, I'll do my best.
Kindly wait in that room." Then to me: "Poor
devU, what did he come out here for? What we
want in the West is farm-hands — men who'U work
a year or two, learn the country, and then take up
their free grants. That clerk chap vsith the wife
and six kids will have an awful time, and then
write to the Old Country and say Canada is no
good." Are there any discontents in Winnipeg?
There are. I talked to a number of them. They
were Englishmen, every one. Their grievances?
Well, a chief complaint of one of the most voluble
of grumblers was that he had to pay fivepence for a
glass of beer.
" You expose that, sir, and let the working men
at home know how they would be treated out here."

THE CITY OF THE PLAINS. Ill
Accordingly I expose the injustice with pleasure.
The sum of my inquiries came to this : — English
men, as a rule, are not welcomed in Winnipeg either
by employers or by other artisans. The reasons are
various. Winnipeg has got sick of the " wasters "
who have made for Winnipeg, the men who are
faUures at home, who turn up in the West expect
ing to receive £1 a day for incompetence, who are
disappointed, who are astonished that the conditions
of life are not the same as in England, who are con
tinually making comparisons to Canada's detriment
— a thing which ruffles the fur of every Canadian —
who are amazed that house rent is three times as
dear as at home, and take it as a personal injustice
that they are charged fivepence for a glass of beer,
whereas at home they can get much better beer for
three-halfpence. This kind of man appears in Winnipeg often in
the late autumn, when work is slackening because
of the approaching winter, when quite half the
labour in Winnipeg is at a standstill. Any jobs
going are naturally given to Winnipeggers. I heard
many a sneer at the Englishman as no good. He is
not adaptive. He wants bricklaying in dead winter,
when the local bricklayers are not above shovelling
snow. He sees a notice for hands, but there is the
bitter line beneath: " No immigrants need apply."
He is disgusted, and he writes to his friends at
home to avoid Winnipeg as they would a plague.
The Englishman is not welcomed by the employers,
because he brings his trade unionism with him, and
Englishmen are the leaders in all strikes. The

112 CANADA AS IT IS.
workmen themselves don't welcome him because
their cry is: "Winnipeg for the Winnipeggers,
Canada for the Canadians, and to Gehenna with the
unspeakable Englishman."
Wages for artisans are good in Winnipeg — the
best in the world, and the Winnipeg man doesn't
want the market flooded, for down would go the price
of labour. It is no good pointing out that if the rule
had been applied to himself eighteen months ago he
would have been kept out, and that instead of wages
decreasing — which they ought to have done, as there
has been a steady inflow of labour — they have gone
up. His answer is that he is in, and he wants to
keep others out.
The newly-arrived Englishman has a rough time
at the start. But if he comes at the right time — ^in
the spring — has grit in him, is a competent man, he
will within a week overcome the resistance, get a
good job, probably join his labour union, remember
he is in Canada and not in England, fall into
Canadian ways and not insist on English ways, wiU
have the hand of warm citizenship extended to him,
will make money, and be glad he broke with the old
ties at home and came West.
I was in Winnipeg on Labour Day, September
5th, and saw the trade union procession. Two years
before I was in Pittsburg on Labour Day, and saw
the trade union demonstration there. Winnipeg
compared favourably. Indeed the procession com
pared favourably with any of the many labour de
monstrations I have seen in England. As with
bands blaring and banners flaunting they marched in

O I
0) h
zO X
o oIL
I- W CO

THE CITY OF THE PLAINS. 113
their thousands along Main Street, the trade union
ists presented a fine show of sturdy manhood.
The note of it all, and which struck into my
brain, was Youth. It was an army of young men,
well-dressed, tan-cheeked, healthy, breezy, merry.
Victory is to the young in Winnipeg.

114

CHAPTER X.
THE NEW LIFE : EXPERIENCES OF SETTLERS.
li TIDE of humanity is pouring into the North-
XX West. Last year 106,000 persons passed
through the Immigration Office at Winnipeg.
Of these, some twenty odd thousand were EngUsh,
7,000 Scotch, 2,500 Irish — the Irishman makes for
the United States rather than Canada — 40,000 from
the United States, 10,000 of whom were Canadian
farmers who had settled below the border, but re
turned because the new Canada had more attrac
tions ; and the rest were from the continent of
Europe. Four hundred and twenty-three English
families were placed on free homesteads of 160 acres
each. This flow of immigration is making towns spring
up along the railway hnes. Spots that were prairie
two or three years ago have blossomed with stores,
hotels, churches, grain elevators, and populations of
six and seven hundred. Land which could be
bought to any extent at five dollars an acre is now
sold at fifteen dollars.
And still the population is small. All the people
of Canada don't number more than those of the
county of Lancashire. The Dominion has a popula
tion only one-twelfth that of the United States,
though it is 250,000 square miles bigger.

THE NEW LIFE. 115
The United States is thinking how it shall stop
the immigration. The Dominion is full of schemes
to induce immigrants to settle.
The wheat yield of the States is on the decrease,
for the American is beginning to prefer the town to
the country. The wheat yield of the Dominion is
still far behind the States, but it is jumping ahead,
and will pass within a dozen years.
Three-quarters of the wheat lands of the North
American Continent lie in Canada. Eighty million
acres are under cultivation in the Dominion, but
there are really 250,000,000 acres suitable for agri
culture. The average yield of wheat in the States
is fifteen bushels to the acre. The average yield in
the Dominion is twenty-five bushels. There is no
more free land in the States, and to buy a farm is
expensive. There is plenty of free land in the
Dominion, and farms are cheap to buy.
Here you have reasons for the great trek from
the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Montana. The
American sells his farm in the States ; he treks into
Canada ; he buys a farm three or four times as large
as he had, gets a free homestead thrown in, secures
finer crops, and becomes rich.
On all hands I heard that the American is the
best of all immigrants to Canada. He is used to
farming on a huge and rough scale. The ways of
both countries are much the same, and he has prac-
ticaUy nothing to learn. He soon becomes a good
and an enthusiastic Canadian. One of the first
things he appreciates — I heard the observation fre
quently — is that the British law is honest, firm, and

116 CANADA AS IT IS.
relentless. He sees that the law is something to be
respected, and this cannot be said of the law in some
of the States, where it is as corrupt and as feeble
as in the Balkans.
The coming of nearly 50,000 American famiUes
into Canada every year is having varied effect. The
United States is uncomfortable at losing such
batches of citizens each spring.
Also the American speculator is at work. He
comes by the hundred, buying up sweeps of land.
If he thinks he knows the route of a branch raUway
line he plunges into land purchase. A land specula
tive company wiU snap up a stretch of country on
either side a Une. A hotel and a shop will be blown
together, and then an elevator to store the grain of
the neighbouring farmers. A " boom " is worked.
Pamphlets are scattered that SlocumviUe is in the
centre of the finest bit of wheat country in the world,
that land is, as yet, cheap, but wUl rapidly rise in
value. Advertisements, under the guise of news,
appear in the Press, describing how the prairie is
converted into a rising little town — of some two or
three buUdings ! People are attracted. ISIore stores
go up. The more land sold, the greater in value is
the adjoining land. So the " boom " swells, and
the land company scoops in hundreds of thousands
of dollars. Maybe the town advances to prosperity.
Possibly the slump comes ; values are decreased ;
fortunes of minor speculators are lost; the air is
filled with stories that Canada is the land to lose
money in, not to make it. Meanwhile, the United
States land company and the Chicago and New York

THE NEW LIFE. 117
speculators have taken much hard-earned cash out
of the Dominion.
During a drive of 125 miles through sections of
the wheat lands of Manitoba and Assiniboia, I had
talks with many settlers, English, Scotch, and Finn.
The farm lands of Manitoba — certainly in the region
of Brandon, from where I started — are magnificent.
There are about 40,000 farmers in the province, and
last year they earned between them about
£12,000,000. The average yield per acre of the
different grains, etc., will be interesting to the Eng
lish farmer. They are: Wheat, 25 bushels; oats,
40 bushels ; barley, 34 bushels ; flax, 12§ bushels ;
rye, 23 bushels ; peas, 18 J bushels ; potatoes, 196
bushels; roots, 286 bushels. Roughly, there are
3,000,000 acres under crop in Manitoba, and the
total yield in bushels is abuut 100,000,000. The
taxes are low — the taxpayer of Great Britain pays
for Imperial defence. There are no taxes for im
provements, and no personal tax except where the
income is over £300 a year.
In Manitoba — the name is Indian, and means
"God's country" — I saw the best of the wheat
lands. This province alone produces 55,000,000
bushels of wheat. Much of it goes through the
bustling little town of Brandon, with its wide streets,
stores, and great warehouses for the sale of agri
cultural implements.
" Seen many changes here? " I casually asked
a middle-aged man.
" Shucks! yes," he answered, "there has only
been a town here since the coming of the raUway,

118 CANADA AS IT IS.
twenty years ago. Why, I remember, in April,
1880, crossing right here in snow-shoes, and not a
shed nor a man was in sight."
My first drive was in company of one of the
" oldest inhabitants," an interesting gentleman who
has lived in the town ever since it was a couple of
shanties. " It was curious how I came to Brandon," said
he. "I was down at Winnipeg twenty years ago.
I met a friend who was disgusted. He had bought
a boat-load of timber to take to Brandon — which was
only a spot located by the Canadian Pacific RaUway
as the end of a section of their line where engines
and employees on the Trans-continental trains would
be changed — but he didn't know how he was going
to get it up the river, because he wanted to get
married the next week, and his brother, whom he
had relied on to take up the boat, had gone on the
drunk. I had never heard of Brandon ; but he
showed me his invoices, and as a spec. I bought
his load. Then I came up. There was no Brandon
except a tent. I had bumped against something
silly in buying that timber. I tell you, I was just
mad. But the news had got out the Canadian Pacific
Railway would make the place the end of a section.
There must be some sort of a town to accommodate
the railway men. Up came folks from Winnipeg
to buy land and build stores and houses. Sell ! I
sold right out, and then for a time I was just as
busy as any man on earth buying timber to build
the town. You're right there, sir, I did very well
out of it. Yes, I'm settled in Brandon, and I guess
I'll be here as long as I last.

THE NEW LIFE. 119
" Successful men ! Yes, we've got plenty of suc
cessful men in Brandon, but I guess there aren't six
men in the town who are successful who came with
more than £40 in the world. I'U tell you the men
who aren't successful — the young sparks you send
out from England, who have £5,000 or £6,000, who
have their trousers turned up, wear spats and gloves,
and carry a cane and ride about dressed like young
squires at home. Oh, I know; I was one of them
myself. I played the fool and got through £6,000
trying to farm, which I could not. Then I quit.
The men who get on best are those who come out
without a dollar. If they can get over the first years
— and they've got to get over them or starve — they
go right ahead. Your dandy youngster is no good.
He gets hanging round the saloon bar and the bil
liard room, and is the cause of the general belief that
when a rich young Englishman comes here he is the
scamp of the family, and is got rid of by being sent
out to Canada."
Later on, in Assiniboia, I made the acquaintance
of a delightful Government servant. He was a
University man, and left England twenty-five years
ago. A little colony of thirty University men started
farming, with little money, roughing it, homestead
ing, driving their own teams, carting the wheat forty
miles, going into the new life with all its harshness,
full of hope and determination.
" We were a little colony," said he, " and good
ness knows we worked hard enough ! I don't know
how to explain it, but I could easily count on the
fingers of one hand the number of those men who

120 CANADA AS IT IS.
succeeded. I didn't, and my regret is that I didn't
throw it up ten years earlier than I did. Oh, yes,
thousands of men succeed, but they are generally
poor men with little education."
In the course of the drive we caught a glimpse
of a man perched on a self-binder, driving a couple
of horses, and cutting his wheat. The rig was
turned across the stubble, and I was introduced to
him. He was a slim young feUow of twenty-six. He
was roughly clad in old clothes and heavy, grimy
boots; his jacket was greasy, a red scarf was tied
around his neck, and he wore an old and battered
slouch hat. He was tanned and unshaven, and his
hands were those of a man who did hard work. He
was the son of an East Anglian clergyman. Having
failed to pass his medical examination he came out
to Canada to see if he could make a Uving.
He laughed in reply to a question of mine. " I
knew there were such things as farms, but that is
all I knew about farming." He was what the
Canadians call a "greener." The first year he
worked as help to a small farmer, doing all the
drudgery of farm life. His friends sent him money,
and he managed to buy a quarter-section of 160 acres
at a guinea an acre. He buUt himself a log-house,
tilled his land, and spent the winter hauling wood.
He lived absolutely alone, tUling, housekeeping,
doing everything for himself.
" Oh, it was a dog's life ! " he said with a shrug.
He tpok up his free homestead of 160 acres, and got
it close at hand. He is starting to work it this year.
A few months ago he married the daughter of a

THE NEW LIFE. 121
farmer, and the young couple live in the two-roomed
log-cabin the husband built three years ago. They
have no servant. Indeed, except in the harvesting
season, when an extra hand is engaged, the young
fellow does every bit of the work on the farm. As
he w.as telling me this he pulled a few ears of wheat,
rubbed them in the palm of his hand, blew away the
chaff, and with pride said : " There's good wheat for
you!" He was quite happy. Though he had nothing
in the world but his 320 acres, horses, and imple
ments, he looked to the future with a bright eye.
" Oh, but the loneliness of it all at the start ! " he
sighed. " Spending the long winter months in that
shack I had built, with no companion but my
thoughts, memories of the old home and the good
times I had in London as a student — Lord ! but it
was awful ! ' '
Miles on we came across another man harvesting.
His wife followed the binder and stooped the sheaves.
When she saw our rig she sidled away into some
scrub, a little ashamed at being seen doing labourer's
work for her husband, who was too poor to hire help.
The man was a huge, raw-boned and ungainly
labourer. He came out to Wapella three years ago,
so needy that he had to borrow money to get his
box from the raUway company. He had no trouble in
getting an advance to buy 160 acres from the
Canadian Pacific RaUway, making repayment of
the first instalment by a promise of a third of
the crop, and intending to pay the other instal
ments out of his profits. He took up his free

122 CANADA AS IT IS.
homestead of 160 acres, and borrowed horses and
plough and reaper of another farmer, in return
for a promise of a third of the crop of that land
so long as he used the horses and implements.
He was now negotiating to hire another 160 acres
from a farmer, together with the loan of horse and
implements, in return for a third of that crop. Here,
then, was a man in possession of 480 acres, with the
use of horses, ploughs, reapers, and thrashing
machines, keeping out of debt by paying in kind with
the result of 160 acres, taking to himself the pro
ceeds of 320 acres, and out of the profits hoping soon
to pay for the quarter-section purchased from the
Canadian Pacific Railway. He was an uncouth,
broad-shouldered, heavy-fisted labourer, but I had
only to look into his face with the shelving brows,
high cheek-bones, square chin, to know he had in
dustry and determination, and, with his health
sure, nothing on earth to keep him back from
prosperity. Every few miles in this wonderful land the song
of the reaper was heard. Rarely, as we drove, did
we meet anybody on the traU — not one man to thirty
miles. Once we met a rig and a team. The driver
was a cheery countryman, who flung my friend a
greeting. When he had passed, my companion said :
" There is a Canadian born, but a man with grit.
Not so long back he wasn't worth much ; now he's
worth a great deal. Six years ago, or maybe seven,
a big farmstead came into the market. The price
was $12,000. That man wasn't worth 12,000
cents, but he had a policy worth $1,000. He sold

THE NEW LIFE. 123
it for $900, and with that $900 as a first instal
ment, bought the farm. Of course, he might
have gone smash, but he has paid more than the
arranged instalments out of his profits, and in
another couple of years that farm will be his own
absolutely." The farmhouses we visited were small, unpic-
turesque, with no flowers about, and the interiors
serviceable, but hardly suggesting ease. You are
surprised that the successful farmer and his wife
don't surround themselves with more comfort.
"Well," is the explanation, "they never had
comfort in the old days, and they don't know what
it is now. But if the house is small, and the folk
wear old clothes, don't imagine they're badly off.
When a man has four or five hundred acres, a dozen
horses, and half a dozen cows, he's not badly off.
There are few farmers who have been here ten years
who haven't fifteen or twenty thousand dollars in the
bank. See yon farm on the left? The old fellow
there has made thirty thousand dollars in ten years.
Why, I'll show you the place of a Jew farmer. He
came without a dollar, has now fifty thousand in the
bank, and is building himself a four-thousand-dollar
house." One day we struck north of Wapella to visit a
Finn colony. We got beyond the swelling prairie,
first to scrub-bush, and then to thick, low forest.
I wanted to see what sort of land these Finn people
had, for a growl heard frequently in Canada is that
the Government give the foreigners the best of the
homesteads. This is not so in regard to the Finns.

124 CANADA AS IT IS.
They have been given wooded land, which needs
clearing before anything can be grown.
The Finns I saw were heavy and loutish, and
hardly any could speak English. But their frugal
ity and plodding were remarkable. Here they were
dumped, in the forest of a strange country. They
had practically no money. At first they lived in
tents, while timber was cut and hauled into Wapella,
and sold for winter fuel. With the money they
bought potatoes. In the winter log huts were built.
They were just on the verge of starvation. But they
managed to get some ground clear, and to grow
potatoes and a little wheat.
Literally, they had to battle with nature. It
has lasted for five years, and success not yet
won. But it is beiag won. I saw this in the clear
ings of the forests, the fields of wheat, the new
houses taking the place of the tumbled huts, in the
cows and pigs.
" You want to go back to Finland? " I asked
one hulking fellow, still wearing the clothes of his
forsaken land.
"No, sir," said he with a grin. "Like this
better ; much better if not for winter. Winter too
long, too cold ; oh, very much cold ! "
Through the thicket I saw a hut. I pushed my
way through the scrub in time to see two youngsters
scamper affrightedly into the bush. I went after
them. One had a dirty garment on, and the other
was stark naked. Their hair was fair to whiteness.
They crouched behind the stump of a tree, startled
at the sight of a stranger. I went to the hut, where

<moH
2<

<

O2

tcII-

THE NEW LIFE. 125
was a slatternly woman sitting on a mud floor.
Rags in a corner served as bed. There was a wobbly
table and a tin pan or two. Scraps of old food were
lying about. The place was stinking and loath
some. The woman didn't understand English.
She didn't understand Russian. All she could say
was " Boy, boy ! " pointing towards a clearing. She
went away and hallooed her son, who was helping
his father in harvesting. The lad spoke English
fairly well. He was nervous as he stood fumbling
with his cap. When I got his confidence he ex
plained that often for two or three months at a time
they never saw any outsider in that part of the
world. " Getting along all right now? " I asked, with a
glance at the dirty mother, the unwashed children,
and the danksome, evil-odoured shed which served
as home. "Yes, sir. We nearly starved the first winter,
and it takes so much work to clear the land of
timber before we can grow wheat, but — but it's
better than Finland, sir ! "
The third day was given to a drive to the far
south of Wapella to visit a colony of crofters who
came from Scotland in 1883-4. They were Uist
folk, aided by Lady Gordon Cathcart, in conjunction
with the North-West Land Company. They had no
story to tell of unrestrained prosperity. They
passed through bad times, due to getting an unsat
isfactory start with a bad season, to the way their
cattle was distrained year after year to pay debts
they had incurred, so that they never had a chance

126 CANADA AS IT IS.
to get level, and due also, I am convinced, to the
difficulty the elders had in adapting themselves to
a new country. The first ten years were a conflict
with adversity, a cruel fight, leaving soreness of
heart behind. They suffered sadly at the hands of
men who were supposed to be looking after them.
That was all put right in time. The tide turned.
The old folks, however, have never done much, as
"doing much" is understood in Canada. The
younger generation, the lads and lasses who came
with them, and are now grown and mostly married,
are among the best farmers in the Dominion.
I spent the whole day driving forty miles, visit
ing farm after farm, talking to the rugged Scots,
whiskered, high-cheeked, deep-eyed, with the broad
Scotch still on their tongue, though twenty years
or more have passed since they left their home in
the Western Isles. What was strange, and yet
characteristic, was the Gaelic spoken. Lots of the
elders can speak no other tongue but Gaelic. GaeUc
is the family tongue, and children, Canadian bom,
speak Gaelic in the home circle, though they learn
English at school. There is a Presbyterian minister
in the colony, and the Sabbath services are conducted
in English and Gaelic alternately.
"We'll never let lose the Gaelic," said a fine
old fellow to me, " for Gaelic is just the finest
language on the good God's earth."
Though settlers to-day get a free homestead of
160 acres, settlers prior to 1899 can claim a second
homestead. Further, each son of eighteen can
claim a free homestead for himself. Thus, not a

THE NEW LIFE. 127
few crofter families, a father and two sons, have a
square mile of land between them, 640 acres, ob
tained free, to say nothing of quarter and half
sections they may have bought.
I had a chat with a sturdy old Uist man, named
Donald Macdonald. He had sixteen acres in Uist
— a large farm there — but now he had 640 acres,
fifty head of cattle, and sixteen horses.
" And I suppose you've written to your old
friends, telling them to come out to Canada? "
" Oh, aye," was the reply, " but they'U jest no
believe me. They believe all the worst they hear
of Canada, and none o' the best. So I've given up
writing." I inquired whether, now he was a man of means,
he wouldn't like to go back to Scotland.
" Aye, I'd like to see the old sod before I die,
but I would 'na like to live there."
Another canny old Scot was Peter Mackenzie.
He came out with the crofters, though he was not
of the assisted party. He worked in Glasgow, and
when he saw so many of his Uist friends setting
forth for the new land, he pulled what money he had
out of the bank, and came along with them. He
made up his mind in two days. He had never been
back. He owns over 300 acres, and was buying
another quarter section.
' ' Have you told your friends to come out ? ' '
" Plenty of times, but they'll not get it out of
their heads they will be frozen to death."
I went among the Macphersons and Mac
intoshes and Macgregors in this colony of Scotsmen

128 CANADA AS IT IS.
away on the prairies of Assiniboia. They were all
dour men, slow of speech, but admitted they were
doing well in their new land. Most of them had
wisely taken to mixed farming, and were not de
pendent solely on the wheat crop. There were
plenty of sheep, and on the banks of the beautiful
Pipestone Valley were cattle and horses.
Above a clump of woodland rose the spire of a
Catholic church, for many of the crofters belong
to the Roman faith. Adjoining was a school-house,
where the Catholic children were educated. There
were thirty bright little Scotch-Canadians, and many
of them had driven in four or five mUes.
" And how many Macs have you got here? " I
chaffingly said to the master.
" They're aU Macs except one," was the laugh
ing answer, "and she's a CampbeU!"

129

CHAPTER XI.
THE WHEAT FIELDS : HOW THE PRAIRIE IS SETTLED.
POR miles I rode across virgin prairie. It was
clean grassland with gentle bosom-risings
right to the horizon. Then I dipped into a
region where man had come with his strength, and
the prairie was a mother — fecund, proud, joyous,
bringing forth nigh one hundred mUlion bushels of
wheat. Still, it was only a dip into the ocean of harvest
land. The first day I rode twenty-five miles ; the
second day sixty were covered ; on the third day the
distance was short of forty miles. The first day the
expedition was from Brandon — the bull's-eye of the
Manitoba wheat region — and the second and third
were north and south of Wapella, in Assiniboia.
Not a yard was over a road as Englishmen under
stand a road. The trail was followed — just wheel-
ruts, stretching inimitably, ribbons of black earth
through the grass, or winding between miles of
wheat — not golden, but russet-eared with much sun,
and, in the breath of the wind, singing a lullaby.
There were sweeps where the cut wheat stood in
irregular stoops, and the earth raised a cropped and
stubbled chin. In places were plateaus of turned
grassland, broken, dark, and rude with the tooth of
the plough — the first intimation to the earth that
J

130 CANADA AS IT IS.
next year it must bring forth food for man. There
were patches where the prairie grass and the grey
wolf willow grew.
The trail was left. The wide-wheeled rig
bumped and swerved and creaked, and the horses,
gaunt but muscular, up to their belly-bands in rank
scrub, toiled snortingly over the mushy soil. There
were hours of slow travel through the bush, low
matted forest tangled with riotous undergrowth.
Our faces were slapped with branches as though this
invasion of the wilderness were resented. Into the
open again, to rolling prairie. There were hundreds
of prairie chickens — grouse, and the dogs were
scolded for putting them up. There were little lakes
— marshes, locally called sleughs. There were thou
sands of duck. We get near with the guns. Bang-
bang, and bang-bang again, and in went the dogs
and brought out four birds.
"Tame!" said my friend. "Guess they are
tame ; they've never been shot over."
On again. There was another sleugh rich in
duck. Get the guns ! Come on dogs ! Up went the
ducks and away before a shot could be got. ' ' Some
body has been shooting round here, and they know."
Still , we got about forty duck in a couple of hours.
Now to the wheat-fields that seem to have no
end. On a knoll we pull up the horses. Like great
ochre-dycd carpets the wheat spreads itself out. The
day is warm with the fragrant warmth of ripe
vegetation. Yet there is a ping, a tartness, a some
thing in the air that spurs the blood and prevents
any trace of drowsy sensuousness. The day is cloud-

THE WHEAT FIELDS. 131
less, the sky real blue, with no fleck of white in it.
Distant objects, though reduced, are clear with crisp
tangibility. Far off can be seen the log hut of a
settler. The man is out with his self-binder and
two horses. Down goes the wheat; it is cut; it is
gulped by the machine, an armful is automatically
bound, and when the steel arms hold half-a-dozen
sheaves they are thrown out. A boy lifts and stoops
them. The reaper is two miles away, but we hear
its whirl ; even the sharp complaint of the man to
the horses can be heard.
We of England, with our farmsteads, our hedge
rows, and eight- and ten-acre fields, cannot quickly
realise the top of the world, as it looks, robed in
wheat, where the wheat patches are fifty, a hundred,
five hundred acres without a breali ; then merely the
width of a cart track before there begins a sea of full
oats rustling like tissue paper ; then more wheat, and
on like this, till the eye can follow no further — where
there are no hedges, and the homesteads are rough
stacks of log, and the stables of turf.
That is the scene through hundreds of miles of
the wheat belt in Canada. The immensity of it im
presses you. Then comes a weary feeling at the
sameness of it all — the rough huts, the boundless,
unvarying seas of wheat, on and on, and still on.
After that comes the wonder, and this is abiding.
Ten years ago, six years, three years, maybe only
two years ago, the land over which your eye sends
a wide pupU was prairie, where no man had ever
trodden. You think of that — of the long, bleached
grass of autumn, of the patches of wolf wUlow, of

132 CANADA AS IT IS.
the eternal wilderness! You look on the new
scene, an expanse of russet wheat, strong, full, the
nourisher of man , and you talk to the men who have
worked the transformation — men big of bones and
swart of arms ; men in tattered breeches, and shirts
dirty and open at the throat, and boots old and foul
and cracked ; men with hands gnarled and awkward,
hair uncombed and faces unshaven for a fortnight;
men chewing tobacco and squirting juice ; men of
rough fibre and blunt speech ; men from the leafy
shires of England, from the bleak isles of Western
Scotland ; men lithe and determined from the United
States; men large of frame, slow, plodding, from
Germany, Sweden, Finland — and you know you are
in the presence of the dauntless. There is no city
prettiness about these men, no glamour of the
battle-field about their deeds. But they are men of
sterling stuff.
There is an epic in the settlement of Western
Canada. Within the memory of those of us who are
stUl young the West was the unknown, the unin
habitable, the " back of the beyond." Fort Garry
— now Winnipeg city — was on the edge of the world.
Twenty years ago there were two mails a year
brought by dog-sleigh and canoe. Now there are six
deliveries a day. You arrive in an exquisitely fitted
Pullman car, and talk to men with none of the rime
of age in their hair, who in " the old times " arrived
in an ox waggon. Nobody in those days of the early
'eighties had hope in Canada. Emigration was to
the United States. Thousands of young Canadians
moved across the border, passing from under the

THE WHEAT FIELDS. 133
Union Jack to seek fortune beneath the Stars and
Stripes. The young farmers of Ontario, cramped in
agricultural enterprise, emigrated to the States, and
farmed in Minnesota, the Dakotas, and Wyoming.
To-day thousands of them are re-emigrating and
settling in the west of Canada.
That North-West Canada could grow wheat was
beyond thought. It was, however, discovered that
it could, and very good wheat. Canada began to
lose its undeserved reputation of being a frost-bound
territory. True, the winters were long — six or seven
months — and the actual summer short — about four
months. But the summer is blazing, and the days
are long drawn. The wheat-growing part of the year
is short in Canada. Yet when the grain can have
seventeen hours of sunshine in the day it doesn't
want a long summer. And a curious phenomenon
has occurred. In the districts where much land has
been broken up, the rigour of the winter has de
creased. In places on the prairie which nipped you
with 40 degrees below zero, you now find on the
homesteads the drop is rarely below 25 degrees.
It was the building of the Canadian Pacific Rail
way that turned Canada to prosperity. The railway
was a steel wand of good luck. The proposal, how
ever, to throw rails from the Atlantic to the Pacific
was, at first, received with derision. It became a
matter of politics. The Conservative party urged
the building, with public funds to stand at the back
of the company ; the Liberal party raised the cry of
economy and protest against the waste of public
money. But the railway was built. The company,

134 CANADA AS IT IS.
besides money assistance, received from the Govern
ment alternate sections of the land along the line
route, and for great distances inland on either side.
The way that the Conservatives and the railway
company argued was this : ' ' The line will bring
prosperity. If a great stretch of the way is useless,
then there is no loss to the public in giving the com
pany tracts of territory. Owning land will be an
incentive to the company to make it easy and cheap
to carry immigrants to the Government lands, be
cause the settlers will increase the value of the ad
joining raUway lands. Thus the Government will
get the settlers it wants but can't get because emi
grants go to the United States, and the railway com
pany will benefit enormously because settlers and
others wUl want to buy adjoining lands."
That was the hopeful dream — sneered at in those
days. It has been more than realised. The Govern
ment still give hundreds of thousands of acres. In
1903, as I have mentioned, 32,000 free homesteads
of 160 acres each were given away. This is 8,000
square miles. If these homesteads were placed to
gether it would show there was a free grant of land
400 mUes long, and twenty miles wide. Millions of
acres are still waiting. The Government have been
able to sell much of their land — reckoned, twenty
years ago, at worth a dollar an acre — at anything
from five to fifteen doUars. The Canadian Pacific
Railway owns 25,000,000 acres, mUlions of them at
present useless because they are beyond the reach of
the railway. But by the coming of the line and the
settling of vast areas much of the land, though

D
<UJh0)Ul oI

THE WHEAT FIELDS.

135

prairie, sells at a good price. It has been a wind
fall for the Canadian Pacific Railway. Those who
are wise after the event protest it was outrageous
that a political party should have handed 25,000,000
acres over to a railway company. The Liberal party
in Canada, exceedingly virtuous, make capital
against their enemies by pointing at them as the folk
who gave away the people's heritage of the richest
stretch of agricultural land in the world, though the
Liberals were the party who resisted the building
of the line on the ground that it would always be a
burden to the Dominion.
The wheat-growing area of Western Canada is
divided into townships, each six miles square. Here
is a plan which will show how the land is ar
ranged : — N
SIX MILES SQUARE.

&M

1
—31- 1

i
—32- 1

1
—33- 1

1
—34— 1

1
-35— 1

1
—36— 1

1
—30— 1

1
—29—

1
—28-

-27- 1

1
—26— 1

1
—25- 1

1
-19-

—20— 1

—21-

1
—22— 1

1
—23— 1

1
—24-

—18—

1
—17—

—16-

1
—15-

1
—14— 1

—13—

— 7- 1

— 8 —

— 9 —
1

—10 —
1

1
-11— 1

—12—

1
— 6 —
1

— 5 —
1

1
— 4 —
1

1
— 3 —
1

1
— 2 —
1

— 1 —
1

Each of the squares contains 640 acres ; each
quarter section contains 160 acres. The Govern-

136 CANADA AS IT IS.
ment lands open for homesteads, that is, free settle
ment, are sections Nos. 2, 4, 6, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18,
20, 22, 24, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36. The lands the
Canadian Pacific RaUway has for sale are sections
Nos. 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 31,
33, 35. It wUl be noticed that some figures are
missing. Sections 11 and 29 are reserved by the
Government for school purposes, to provide land
on which to buUd a school, and the remainder to be
sold or let for the benefit of the education of the
districts. It wUl be seen that in every settled township all
over Canada there is a school at never more than
five miles distance from the furthest house. Sections
Nos. 8 and 26 belong to, and are for sale by the
Hudson Bay Company — the great traders who, in
the old days, had practically a monopoly in Western
Canada. PracticaUy the whole of the North-West
— except the frozen North and the Rockies — is
geometrically divided into townships, after the man
ner I have described.
Half a dozen raUway companies are throwing
lines over the land, great tentacles searching for
wheat. From Winnipeg they stretch over Mani
toba, pushing suckers into Saskatchewan and Assini
boia, picking up all the wheat within twenty or even
thirty miles. But the flood of immigration is
greater than the railways can serve in the matter of
gathering corn. Accordingly — despite the florid in
timations of the Dominion that 160 acres are to be
had free for the asking, and raising the picture in
the minds of many of a charming little farm close to

THE WHEAT FIELDS. 137
a railway — I think I can say that no free homesteads
worth the having are at present to be had within
twenty miles, or even forty miles of a railway.
The man who starts life in Canada as a home
steader is, without exception, poor. Nature is kind
enough, but it isn't kind enough to provide him with
a crop of wheat as soon as he arrives. See what he
has to do when he gets his free grant of a quarter
of a square mile. He arrives in the spring ; twenty-
five miles from a railway. He has to build himself
a house; to sink a well; he must get a plough, and
a team from somewhere to turn up the prairie. All
winter he can do nothing but haul wood. In the
spring he sows, and in the autumn he must get a
reaper and a thrasher. Thus the newcomer, the un
known man, has to live a lonely and indeed terrible
life before he earns a penny. No man in his senses,
who has enough money to keep him for eighteen
months, and to buy the necessary agricultural imple
ments to give him a start, would begin homesteading
right away. The man who sets out to do that is
plunging into a period of hardship and forlornness
that may land him in a lunatic asylum.
Let me assume that this chapter is being read
by an English farm labourer who somehow has got
£20 or £30 in the savings bank, is willing enough
and strong enough to take his chances in the new
land, but doesn't know how to set about it, aud
wants advice. The advice I give him is to do what
thousands of men are doing. First of all, let him
get into communication with one of the Dominion
emigration agents at home. There are offices in

138 CANADA AS IT IS.
London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Dublin, Glasgow,
Cardiff, and Belfast. Let him avoid the blandish
ments of the private emigration agent, for that gen
tleman often represents a company which has
bought up more or less waste land for next to
nothing, and makes a profit by dumping the guUe-
less upon it for a round sum " without any trouble
to you, sir." A ticket as far as Winnipeg is pur
chased. The emigrating labourer is put on the
proper boat ; he is met at Quebec or Montreal ; he is
put on the Trans-continental train; he is met at
Winnipeg. Let him arrive there in the spring when
there is a great demand for farm hands. He wiU
have no difficulty at all, if he knows anything about
farming, which I presume he does, in getting work
with a farmer at $60 (£12) a year and his board.
It isn't much of a wage, but it is something certain.
I give a minimum because I have no desire to paint
a rosy picture. If the labourer wants to take odd
jobs he can soon earn that. Harvesters last year
were paid ten shillings a day and their board. The
plan of hired farm help, however, is best for various
reasons. The labourer has a home and food, and he
isn't thrown out of work, as much casual labour is
in Canada, in winter time. Above all, he can, in a
year, get a good grip of the methods of Canadian
farming, which are different from those in the old
country. The newcomer will, if he is wise, engage himself
to some farmer who is just getting over the
struggling period, and who has, say, half a fjection,
320 acres. Meanwhile, the immigrant should have

ritoto: Steele d; Co., Winnipe-j.

A WHEAT STRETCH NEAR REGINA.

THE WHEAT FIELDS. 139
made his application to the Commissioner of Immi
gration for his free homestead. Let him select his
district, which should be close to the farm of his
new employer. It is not difficult to arrange that it
shall be adjacent. It costs £2 for the ordinary
homestead entry. The immigrant will soon come
to an arrangement with his new employer. For the
loan of his plough, horses, and harvesting imple
ments he can offer him a third of the proceeds of his
first crop. Ninety-nine out of every hundred
farmers will agree to this. It is the custom. So
the labourer is able to plough and replough his land
the first summer he is in Canada, and in the winter
he can build himself a log house. The law requires
an interval of three years before the title of owner
ship of the land is fixed, and during that time the
emigrant is expected to reside six months of each
year upon it. To meet the general case I am por
traying, a permanent residence upon adjacent land
is accepted as sufficient. At the end of the first year
the labourer immigrant, after having parted with a
third of the proceeds of his crop, will have no trouble
in continuing the arrangement. Certainly, at the
end of the three years he should be able to stand by
himself, own his 160 acres, have a couple of horses,
a cow, a few pigs, some fowls, and a nice sum in the
bank. Thus it depends solely on himself how he forges
ahead. He will have become impregnated with the
Canadian spirit of hustle and desire to be a big
farmer. With the same horses and implements he
can work half a section as well as a quarter-section.

140 CANADA AS IT IS.
He wants a farm of 320 acres. He must buy his
second quarter-section either from the Government
or from the Canadian Pacific Railway, or from some
body or some company that may have speculated in
the land, to hold it and make him pay a higher price.
He ought to buy another 160 acres at £1 or £1 4s. an
acre. But he hasn't got the money. It is not ex
pected from him at once. A seventh, however, must
be paid down as a first instalment, and the rest be
paid in ten annual instalments. By giving a third
of the crop towards repayment money can be bor
rowed on easy terms to provide the seventh. The
tenths of the following years can be paid out of
profits. So in four years the EngUsh labourer is
launched on the way to comparative riches on a
farm of 320 acres. He is at Uberty to seU as an
improved farm the homestead he got for nothing,
and, Uving on the second quarter-section, buy two
praUie quarters with the proceeds of the first.
I met many such men. " Glad you left the old
country? " I always asked.
"Yes, sir," they would answer, rubbing a hand
across a sweaty brow. "It's a big struggle, but
now " — and a smile would come — " I've been here
seven years, and I own a square mUe, and have six
horses." And, standing on a heave of land, and looking
over a world waving with wheat, the prairie har
nessed to feed man, I feel there is something
majestic, even sublime, in the scene.

141

CHAPTER XII.
THE NORTH-WESTER: A "BRITISHER WITH ALL
THE LATEST IMPROVEMENTS."
YOU get talking to him on the verandah of your
hotel. In front of him is a "cuspidor,"
into which he frequently salivates. He is
generally weedy, with rusty clothes, and a slouch
hat, that is turned down over the eyes, and hasn't
been brushed for a week. His chin hasn't seen a
razor for two days, and his boots haven't experi
enced the swish of a brush for a fortnight.
He is healthy and bronzed, and has a big fist,
used to holding things, and holding them tight.
He tilts back the worn old chair, and hoists his feet
against one of the verandah posts. He is glib, with
a streak of fun in his eye, and when he swears it is
in monosyUable. He says " Hell ! "
"Nice ripening day, sir," he begins.
" A really charming and bracing day," you
answer. He looks at you quickly with a wide blue eye —
the eye you find in the face of a man accustomed
to look over long distances of prairie. There is a
turn of your tongue, which tells him you belong to
another part of the world. " From the old country,
sir? London! What, London, Ontario? Oh,
Lon — don! So! Mighty big place, Lon — don!"

142 CANADA AS IT IS.
You agree, and get him into proper focus by re
minding him the population of all Canada isn't as
much as that of London.
" Well, what do you think of this country, any
way? " he blurts, ignoring the comparison.
It is a question put to you six times a day in the
Dominion. You know exactly what reply you are ex
pected to make, and you make it.
" Sure! " he exclaims in friendly tone. Your
appreciation proves you are a good judge. " Sure!
It's a great country, is Canada. Guess there ain't
no country like it. We grow the finest wheat, and
raise the finest horses on the whole earth. I'm
Canadian, born in Ontario, but my grandfather
came from the old country. Pretty slow over
there — too slow to die, eh? "
You deprecate his remark. And whUe lighting
your pipe with a stinking sulphur match, Canadian
made, observe that the Briton, though he doesn't
talk so much, manages in the end to " get there " —
gets right there, and on both feet.
" Nice growing city, this," he mutters, changing
the subject.
One glance takes in the whole of the "city."
There is a long street, miry where it isn't bumpy,
and just mother earth where it isn't muck. The
side-walks are of plank. The stores — the dry-goods ;
the drug-store at the corner, where you can buy
cigars, "soft drinks" (which mean teetotal), and
use the public telephone ; the saloons showing pic
tures of overflowing tumblers, and advertisements of
"the beer that made MUwaukee famous"; the

THE NOETH-WESTER. 143
hardware stores with pots and pans and steam
heaters bulging upon the side-walk ; the agricultural
implement shops, with ploughs and self-binders and
threshers in the roadway — are of wood, some painted
and pretentious, others just unpainted shacks. The
hotels have verandahs on the street, where men in
badly-fitting clothes sit and smoke and tell one
another how to make dollars. The hotel, which
hasn't a verandah, has two large plate-glass windows,
and men sit behind these in a row as though they
were on sale. A glimpse is caught of the railroad
tracks, crowded with freight cars, which block the
crossings, while a snorting engine comes along clang
ing a bell warning the world to skip or it will be run
over. Hump-backed grain elevators, red-painted,
stand by the rails, Uke full-backs on a football field,
to see that no wheat shall pass without their having
a say. Beyond is the prairie turned to wheat land, a
shimmer of russet where the wheat still stands, a
dun-patterned carpet where the reaper has been and
the wheat is in stoop, a long blackish mat where the
ground is subject to ' ' summer fallow ' ' — the wheat
being given green manure by a year's rest about every
four years, the weeds growing rank, and then being
ploughed in to rot — and beyond is the brown grass
of the prairie sliced by the railway. Fifty yards on
either side is a never-ending black ribbon of ploughed
earth. You think it is a trail. It is a fire-guard, so
that in the fall, when the grass is long and dry, and
an engine spark starts a blaze, it is checked before
the torrent of flame can gather strength to roar with
hot breath and blazing tongue.

144 CANADA AS IT IS.
The picture is taken at a glance. It is a picture
of practically every other town and city in Western
Canada. The towns are alike, as though turned out
to the same pattern in the same machine, as lacking
in individuality as factory-made furniture, with no
ambition to be pretty, but serviceable, workable,
dollar-earning. "It is wonderful how such towns seem to
spring out of the earth, and in a year or two are
worthy of broad, black lettering on the map ! " So
say you.
"Isn't it?" says the Canadian. "I'm telling
you, sir, there never was a country Uke Canada. It's
the poor man's land. We don't crawl like you in
the old country, and we don't hustle like them
American fellows. We live ; we have a good time.
There's only about four months of hard work in the
year. We've to tUl in the spring ; then we take a
rest; we work darned hard in harvest, and then we
rest again; in winter we haul our grain, and rest
again — maybe take a trip to Winnipeg, or Toronto,
or Montreal. Hard winter? Oh, shucks! Who's
been telling you that? WeU, it is cold — ^twenty-five
below zero; but that clear, and that blue-skied, and
that dry, you don't feel the cold. We hunt the wolf
and shoot, and have trotting matches on the snow,
and — well, winter in Canada is about the best time
going. Guess it's always rainy or foggy in London,
isn't it? Like to see London. Some day I'U take
a trip. There's the old flag, you see."
He points to a store roof where flaps the flag of
the British mercantile marine.

AN EAST-ANGLIAN
FARMING.

HUT OF POOR FINNS

THE NORTH-WESTER. 145
" But that isn't the Union Jack — that's a ship
ping flag," you tell him.
He opens his eyes wide.
You explain.
Then he squirts tobacco juice into his cuspidor.
" Hell ! But I like that one better — there's more
blood in it!"
In a little the conversation is turned to the
relationship between Britain and the Colonies.
You hear opinions that don't find expression in
heavy reviews or solemn leading articles. You have
talked with great Englishmen at home about the
need of drawing Mother Country and Colonies into
closer bonds ; you have met Canadian politicians
and sat up half the night debating ; you have lunched
and dined with prosperous Canadians in the eastern
provinces, the men who visit England every two or
three years. You have met the men who speak on
platforms and write articles.
But here in Western Canada, in the prairie towns,
at "two dollar a day" hotels, you are free from
official life and official views, from the courteous
opinions of the well read and travelled man, and you
strike bed-rock. The Western Canadian may have
cramped opinions, but they are his opinions, and the
Canadian politician cannot ignore him.
Let my composite Canadian speak, and say the
things I was told in stray conversations on the rail
road cars, at the tables of the wayside taverns, and
sitting on the verandahs of hotels in towns and cities
of a few years' growth : —
' ' We in Canada think you of the old country
K •¦•¦¦- %.

146 CANADA AS IT IS.
are played out, and you need our help to back you
up. Wrong idea, eh? Want to federate the Empire
and join up all countries under the British flag into
one concern ! Well, I'm with you. There ain't,
and never was, an empire like the British Empire.
That Chamberlain of yours is a great man. Why
don't you send him over and let him speak? We'd
give him the time of his life — bully, we would !
That's a mighty fine scheme of his that England
should give a preference to Canada. See what it would
do for Canada — stimulate farming, and give our
manufacturers a chance. What is Canada going to
give in return? Will we let British manufactures
into Canada as free as Canadian wheat shall be
allowed into Britain? Shucks! We couldn't do
that. Your British manufacturer would eat the
Canadian manufacturer up in no time. Must pro
tect Canadian industries !
"Don't see particularly how England benefits,
eh? I'll tell you. Canada can't yet do all its own
manufacturing. It must buy from somewhere. If
you put a tax on all foreign goods we'll increase our
tax the same amount on foreign goods. That'll be a
preference in favour of England. What? You think
that means Canada wUl only give a preference to
English manufactured goods so long as Canada
cannot manufacture herself, and that when she can
she'll want to shut out English competition !
" Why not? You don't expect Canada's going
to stand still as a manufacturing nation just to oblige
the English manufacturers, do you? Oh, hell, no!
" Now, look here, sir, you needn't play devil's

THE NORTH-WESTER. 147
advocate with me. You know blamed well that
England's a manufacturing country, and Canada an
agricultural country. It won't be in your lifetime
nor your children's that Canada will be more of a
manufacturing country than agricultural. There al
ways will be — well, as long as you or I need think
about, there will be a bigger agricultural population
wanting manufactured articles than Canada herself
can supply. We're importing a mighty deal, chiefly
from those darned Yankees. We're not frightened
of those Yankees and their tariffs. It ain't us wants
reciprocity with Uncle Sam, but Uncle Sam who'd
like to get a smile from Miss Canada. His wheat
is a bit rusty this year, and he'll want some of ours.
Well, we say that if England will clap 10 per cent.
on the stuff she gets from the Yanks, we'll clap on
fifteen. That means good business for the British
Empire, and business is what we're after.
" Stronger political ties between the old country
and the Colonies? Don't exactly have the hang of
what you mean ! What ? If you mean Canada to
send men to sit in your House of Commons, where
they'll be swamped by the others, you're right off
it ! If you want us to send our dollars to keep up
the English army to fight in Thibet and the Lord
knows where, you're right off it again ! If the
Mother Country needs help, we'll help. We gave
you a bit of a lift in the South African war, and
we'll help again if we think it's right. Get it right
out of your mind, if it's there, that we fellows are
going to find money, and you fellows are going to
have the spending of it. Not on your life !

148 CANADA AS IT IS.
" We get the benefit of Imperial defences, and
you paying ! Guess that's truth. I tell you right
away it ain't right. There isn't a Canadian from
Halifax to Vancouver who thinks it right. Guess we
know that if it hadn't been for Britain there would
have been no Canadian North-West Territory. Been
gobbled up by Uncle Sam ! Any coon that can see
across the street can see that. We don't want to in
terfere in English affairs, or AustraUan affairs, or
South African affairs, and we'll take darned good
care that you don't interfere with ours.
" We don't want to send any members to your
Parliament. But I'll tell you what your politicians
should do. They should ask Canada to provide
money to build two or three battleships for the de
fence of Canadian shores. She'd do it — ^you bet !
Those ships should have Canadian names, and
though under the British Admiralty, they should be
manned and officered, as far as can be, by
Canadians. We Canadians feel a bit mean we can't
do something. We want to — only our pohticians
are so cussed scared to speak out, for fear it may be
got up against them they want to spend the people's
money for bloodshed. And we're a mighty peace
ful people ! We'll spend money, and plenty of it,
for the defence of the Empire, so long as we have
a voice in the panning out of the dollars.
"We ain't fools, and we're not going to give
a dollar unless we get a hundred cents value. We're
a business people, and we want to talk business with
the English people. We both want the same thing,
but we're not exactly on the same track for getting

SOD SHANTY, THE SETTLER'S FIRST HOME: AND
THE HOME OF A PROSPEROUS FARMER,

THE NORTH-WESTER. 149
it. But look here, mister. We don't want lectures
from England. We'll do the right thing, and do it
right away if we are met in the proper way. We
don't want England to lose anything. We want
both to win. And there you have it. Will you
give me one of your matches, for my smoke has gone
out? "
There spoke the man of the prairie — the lanky-
legged cousin of our man in the street.
He lives much in the open, does the Western
Canadian. He has the virility of the healthy man.
He says he is "a Britisher with all the latest im
provements." Money comes to him easily, and he
spends it easily. He is the last man on earth to be
judged by his clothes. He doesn't pretend to have
education, but he admires education, and he knows
all about the local school-house. He is proud of
the building, proud of the teachers, proud of the
children. He loves to build a big house. You never hear
the phrase "Nicely designed house." But you do
hear about $4,000 houses, and $10,000 and $50,000
houses. He doesn't understand comfort ; he leaves
that to his wife. The best, decided by its price, is
good enough for him. His boys, he intends, shall
rough it a bit, as he did. His girls, they go to
Winnipeg and Toronto, and, if he can afford it, to
Europe. If there is a town-hall to be built, he is
ready with his money, for he is proud of his town.
If there is a new church wanted, he would like it to
be the biggest church in the Territory. He is en
thusiastic. He talks about himself, his business.

150 CANADA AS IT IS.
his house, his family, his town, and he loves to talk
about Canada and its future.
In many ways he is like his neighbour, the
American. But he is more polite. The man of the
Western States is often so eager that you shall make
no mistake he is as good as you, that he becomes
rude to prove it. You don't bump against rudeness
in Canada. The Canadian is bland, courteous, has
no shyness, knows he is as good as you, knows you
are as good as he is, and talks frankly. There is no
room for " side," and the green Englishman who
attempts it soon gets uncomfortable.
Nearly everybody in a town has started from the
lowest rung. Christian names are the greeting. I
went a drive with the Mayor of a town. He stopped
to speak to the solitary policeman, and was haUed
with, " Hello, Billy ! " Another day, whUst driving
with an elderly gentleman, retired, I noticed every
one, even lads, gave him a nod and a bright " Hello,
Charley ! " It wasn't famUiarity. It was the way
of the country.
The Canadian has national but no individual
prejudices. He dislikes America, but tells you that
Americans who settle in the west are the best of
farmers. He gives a shrug of the shoulders at
foreigners, but admits they are the most plodding
and worthy people on earth. Foreigners settle iu
particular stretches of country. This is a mistake,
because the people keep their home speech and cus
toms instead of becoming assimUated with the
Canadians. Marriage is a matter of fondness, and country

THE NORTH-WESTER. 151
has got nothing to do with it. A Canadian marries
a Galician, a Swede marries an American, an Eng
lishman a German. The cry is for marriageable
women. " I live in a town of 400, and there is only one
unmarried woman, and she's near forty years, and
has just come out," said a young Englishman to me.
"When an Englishman comes here," observed
a Canadian, " he should make sure of his girl first,
and bring her out when he has a home ready. Of
course, what is best is for the Englishman to marry
the Canadian girl, but we haven't got enough to go
round." A few months does wonders. I visited a man.
The waiting-maid was a smart, tidy girl. " Six
months ago," said my host, "she arrived by an
emigrant train. She's a Galician. She was wear
ing rough peasant clothing, top boots, and a red hand
kerchief over her head. My wife saw her standing
at a street corner, and took a fancy to her. You'd
hardly believe the transformation. Now she's dressed
as well as my wife. Engaged? Oh, yes! You
can't keep a girl in this country, because they all
get married. Did you see yesterday's paper? Why,
down at Winnipeg it is impossible to get carriages
for funerals because they're all wanted for wed
dings ! "
A jarring note is struck. A black smut comes
on the fair picture of Canadian go-aheadness. I was
talking to a farmer about railway rates and elevator
charges. " We get on all right with the railways,
but now and then there is a grip with the grain-

152 CANADA AS IT IS.
elevator companies." With a sigh, he told me this
story. An immigrant Scotch farmer prospered. He
got into conflict with an elevator company. He
fought it in the local courts, and lost. He spent
much money fighting it in a higher court, and lost.
He spent his all carrying the case to the Supreme
Court, and there he lost. His spirit was broken ; the
elevator company had him in its grip as to charges ;
he was a ruined man. His mind gave way. He
found the root of a tree ; he cut and hacked it,
stretched out its roots, got other roots and attached
them. He had a big placard with the word " Octo
pus ! ' ' Long hours every day he sat looking at it
and muttering: "That's the elevator company!
that's the elevator company ! "
There was a pause. " Ah, well, he's dead now,"
said my host.

153

CHAPTER XIII.
THE TERRITORY OF SASKATCHEWAN : FAR FROM THB
BEATEN TRACK.
IF you are racing across Canada in one of the com
fortable trans-continental trains of the Canadian
Pacific Railway you will stay some twenty
minutes at Regina, in Assiniboia.
It is a splayed-out town that does not attract.
It is uncouth and unfinished. The population, ac
cording to the census, is about two thousand, but
there is not an inhabitant who won't insist it is
really four thousand. It is the capital of the North-
West Territories, and soon to be the capital of a new
province. But if you want to pay your respects to
the Lieutenant-Governor or visit the headquarters of
the famous Mounted Police, or have a look at the
Legislative Buildings of the North-West Govern
ment, you must drive a mile or two into the wilder
ness. You wonder why on earth these are not near
the town. Thereby hangs a tale.
Regina in its youth, aglow with its importance as
being the capital, wa.s certain that in a few years it
would have a population of a million. So it planned
itself and mapped itself and staked out its boule
vards for a city of a million inhabitants. The mil
lion, however, is laggard. Hence it is that the
Legislative Buildings, instead of being in the centre
of a busy town, are far on one side and upon the

154 CANADA AS IT IS.
plains. Regina does not quite understand. Yet its
hopes, though dim, remain.
For several weeks each year the members of the
Legislative Assembly, drawn from all corners of the
Territories, meet in an unassuming chamber, not
unlike a stable from the outside, and settle the laws
for a roll of country in which England might be
dropped and not easily found again. As I stayed a
couple of nights in Regina I met many of the legis
lators. They were varied in type, from the cultured
Englishman who had come west to ranch, to the
bronze-cheeked, hardfisted farmer from the wilds, to
whom the pay of £100 a year was worth considera
tion. We gathered in the dingy room of the grimy
hotel — a place that was part smoking-room, part
writing-room, part reading-room, part haunt of the
' ' shoe-shiner ' ' — and discussed when the Dominion
Government would let the Territories become a pro
vince, and have the right to run into debt. Which
it has since agreed to do.
From Regina a branch line curves northwards
into Saskatchewan, past Saskatoon up to Prince
Albert, on the bank of the Saskatchewan River.
The distance is a little over two hundred mUes. Yet
the train, quarter passenger, three-quarters freight,
takes fourteen hours to do the journey. The average
speed is seventeen mUes an hour.
We had long halts at wayside stations, where
towns were struggling into life. There was one
town called Chamberlain. It consisted of two rude
cabins and a tent.
Every embryo town was a jumble of wooden huts.

TERRITORY OF SASKATCHEWAN. 155
There were no roads, but plenty of rutted mire. At
one place we halted for twenty minutes to dine.
In the darkness we halted at Saskatoon for half an
hour to sup. Everything was primitive and
homely. The men I sat next at table were rough
but kindly mannered. It wasn't always the English
language that was heard ; there were plenty of men
of un-English visage and un-English garb who spoke
in strange tongues.
Nearly all this stretch of country was known as
the desert till a land company from the States began
to buy big chunks of it at a dollar or a dollar and a
half an acre, boomed the region, and started to sell
the land at five or six dollars an acre. Immigrants
kept away from this part because immigrants had
always kept away from it. As soon as it was boomed
and the rush began, they tumbled over one another
to get on the Prince Albert line.
The land is good — excellent. Indeed, the coun
try, bordered on the south by the Canadian Pacific
Railway line, flanked west and east by the Edmon
ton and Prince Albert lines, and crookedly guarded
on the north by the Saskatchewan River, is among
the best on the prairie. Soon the new trans-contin
ental line, cutting right through it from Winnipeg,
vid Saskatoon, Battleford, and Edmonton, to the
Pacific coast, will open up another vast wheat-grow
ing area
Yet busy though the Dominion is in opening up
new territory, the fretworking of the land with rail
ways is not keeping pace with the immigration. The
newcomers consequently suffer. Unless they are

156 CANADA AS IT IS.
blessed with some money — and most of those who
have taken up the best positions within reach of the
railway are — they must get into the back row, and
that sometimes means thirty miles from a railway.
Then there are the hardships, the fights with nature,
the scarcity of food, the awful loneliness, men living
the hermit life for months, becoming melancholy,
introspective. Some die of hunger, others are to be
found in the lunatic asylums. The cases are not
many ; they are never referred to by the paid
' ' boomers ' ' ; but amid all the appreciation of
Canada the sense of proportion should not be lost,
and the sad and tragic side should not be ignored.
This was the tract to which came, three years
ago, the "All-British Colony," under the guidance
of the Rev. J. M. Barr. There were eighteen hun
dred persons with the glamour of prosperous farm
ing in their eyes. I am not going to enter into the
savage controversy which arose between the im
migrants and Mr. Barr. Sufficient it is to say that
they were brought out, according to them, under
false pretences, that what little money they had was
soon lost, and that lynching is now considered in
the North-West a far too agreeable punishment for
the Rev. Mr. Barr. I know nothing about Mr. Barr.
But, to use mUd language, it was unwise of him to
launch into the wilderness a crowd of men and
women who knew nothing about farming at home,
and were, therefore, worse than useless in pioneer
farming on the prairies. And the clerks, mechanics,
and the rest, who at home didn't know a turnip field
from a potato patch, for them to thkik that there

YOUNG DOUKHOBORS.

A DOUKHOBOR AFTER THREE
YEARS IN CANADA.

TERRITORY OF SASKATCHEWAN. 157
would be no hardships, but that somehow wheat
would spring up alongside them as soon as they
arrived, was to proclaim themselves fools.
Mr. Barr's colony was a failure. First the Im
migration Bureau had to put three or four hundred
people out as farm labourers so that they might learn
something about farming. Then the immigration
agents had to set about placing others on home
steads. I quote from the 1904 report of Mr. Obed
Smith, the Commissioner of Immigration at Winni
peg :—
' ' Disagreements arose between Mr. Barr and his
settlers, which culminated in his leaving the colony,
and the charge of the internal and personal affairs
(such as stores and commercial enterprises) was
taken over by the Rev. George E. Lloyd and a com
mittee of twelve colonists, while the location of the
people on their homesteads, and their subsequent
assistance by way of instruction, etc., were under
taken by the Department. It was speedily dis
covered that a large number of people brought out
by Mr. Barr were not agriculturists in any sense,
and the presence of so many of these made the task
of the Department's officers a most difficult one ; nor,
indeed, can their duties be considered ended, as the
inexperienced wUl require assistance in one way or
another until a crop is reaped from the land."
The moral of the whole business is the folly of
anybody not acquainted with farming or not willing
to serve a hard apprenticeship as labourers for a year
or two, rushing to Canada, or being persuaded by
parsons or anyone else to forra a colony. Disap-

158 CANADA AS IT IS.
pointment, heartache, privations are the Inevitable
result. What I saw of the Doukhobors and heard from
those who have intimate association with them beUed
the unfavourable stories which I was told in Eng
land, and which were given corroboration by what I
heard in the Eastern provinces. They are of the
poorest type of Russian peasantry. Their uncouth
appearance, their shaggy skin coats, their lowering
countenances, together with the idea that the men
put the womenfolk to the plough and worked them
like horses, produced a feeling of resentment among
those of whiter skin who regarded themselves as
more civilised.
The Doukhobors are deeply religious, but with a
blind, mystic, superstitious rehgion which is imper
vious to reason. They live in daUy expectation of
the second advent of the Messiah. A frenzied faith
that the advent is near wUl send them on a pUgrim
age in the depth of winter seeking the Messiah.
They cause much anxiety to the officials. Last year
they set off on a pUgrimage, making practically no
provision for feeding themselves, and turning their
stock out upon the snow-swathed wilderness.
Government officials, however, got the stock, sold
the animals, and held the money in trust for the
owners. In time the pilgrims were persuaded to re
turn to their homes. At intervals they have renewed
inclinations to search the world for the Messiah. I
was at Saskatoon immediately following Lord
Minto, the then Governor-General, who had arrived
after a ten-days' horse ride from Edmonton by way

TERRITORY OF SASKATCHEWAN. 159
of Battleford. I was told how the poor Doukhobors,
hearing of the coming of a great man, were with
difficulty restrained from greeting Lord Minto as
divine. But though their fanaticism may bring a smile
to the lips of those who are more worldly, their lives
are full of self-sacrifice. Most of them left Russia
some five years ago for the wilds of Canada. As a
religious sect they had planned the exodus from their
native country for a long time. They knew hard
ships would be awaiting them. They regarded it as
criminal to take very small children with them. So,
full were they of pious restraint, that no children
were born into the community for several years.
Indeed, when four or five thousand of them first
reached Winnipeg, there was only one baby amongst
them all.
Hundreds of homesteads have now been taken
up. But the Doukhobors mostly live for their com
munity. They share in common. They own their
own steam threshing outfits, and have purchased
saw mills to provide lumber for their own people. I
do not think, however, that the " commune " wUl
last. Already many of the Doukhobors are begin
ning to lose their Russian prejudices, and are adapt
ing themselves to Canadian ways. They have the
best agricultural machinery to be obtained, and I
recall meeting a banker who told me it was amazing
the amount of money they were saving. The more
energetic and intelligent Doukhobors are giving some
signs of wavering in loyalty to the "commune."
They don't see why the best workers should share

160 CANADA AS IT IS.
and share alike with the worst. Still, the strong
religious feeling which pervades the sect keeps up
a sympathetic Socialism between all sections. The
more adventurous borrow from the banks, and there
have been no bad debts. I met a man who lent
money to a Doukhobor. It was to be repaid by a
certain date. At that time the weather was terrible.
Yet the Doukhobor rode 150 miles to pay his debt.
That is typical.
A few years back the coming of the Doukhobors
to the Dominion was by no means welcomed. Now
they have proved themselves good farmers, frugal,
virtuous, honourable in all their dealings; and I
never heard anything but praise about them from
anyone entitled to express an opinion.
It is through this region the new trans-contin
ental railway will run. Look at a map of Western
Canada, find Port Simpson on the Pacific coast,
which will probably be the starting point of the line,
and draw a rough line to Winnipeg, being sure you
pass through Edmonton, Battleford, and Saskatoon,
and you will get an idea of the territory which,
within a year or two, will be ripped by the plough,
and help Canada tremendously to increase her yield
of wheat. The very natural objection can be made
that the track will be through a land where there are
long and severe winters. That is true enough. But
there is this — though the summer is short the sum
mer days are long, and when wheat planted in virgin
loam can be given seventeen hours of sunshine a day,
with no cloudy, damp breaks, ninety days is the out
side time required to raise a crop in the Territories.

TERRITORY OF SASKATCHEWAN. 161
It is not the winter which I have any dread about,
but the occasional summer frosts that touch the land.
In August there sometimes comes a night frost. If
the kernel of the wheat is hard, comparatively little
injury is done; but if it is still mUky, the wheat in
an area as large as England may be ruined in a single
night. It is an ungracious task to insist on seeing
the dark side of the shield — a thing for which the
Canadian, who is nothing if not optimistic, does
not thank you. But to my mind the possibility of
summer frosts must be a sort of nightmare in
Canada's beautiful dream of being the greatest as
well as the finest food-producing tract on the face
of the earth.
The new line is an evidence that the resolve of
the Canadian people not to allow any of the great
railway systems in the United States to come into
the Western Dominion, open up new areas, and trail
the wheat south on its way to ice-free ports, is
beginning to waver. There are plenty of great cor
porations in the States wUling to pour money into
Canada for railway development, just as millions of
dollars are being invested in land booming. But as
the land is there ready for anybody who cares to buy,
and there can be no restriction on excessive boom
ing except the burning of fingers, the Dominion
Government cannot, even if it wanted to — and I
have seen no desire — keep out American capital,
though the result too often is that the value of a
region is inflated, vast sums go to the American
foreigner, and all that is left is a crowd of farmers
who gave more for the land than it was worth.
L

162 CANADA AS IT IS.
RaUways, however, cannot be constructed with
out the sanction of both the Dominion and the Pro
vincial Governments. And Canada has for a long
time stood in dread of what might happen if the
ruthless, merciless finance of some of the American
lines was allowed play in the Dominion wheat belts.
It has given an emphatic " No ! " to many wheed
ling invitations that come from over the borders that
Canada should allow herself to become in ten years,
with American money, what it will take her fifty
years to become with her own. Canada knows well
enough how the raUways in the States work in com
bination with the wheat brokers, and how freight
rates are often pushed up and up until the farmer,
though he may have a good crop, is only just able to
keep his head above ruin. Though the Canadian
Pacific Railway has a tremendous monopoly in the
Dominion, it is to be said to the credit of that com
pany that there has been no disposition to squeeze
the farmer. Indeed, freight rates fall rather than in
crease. This is a far-sighted policy, because the
Canadian Pacific Railway has tremendous areas of
wheat-yielding lands that it wants to sell, and the
more settlers that take up homesteads in Govern
ment lands the more carrying business there wUl be
for the Canadian Pacific Railway. So the company
is in no mood even to frighten the bird that lays
the golden eggs.
The new trans-continental Une, to be constructed
by the Grand Trunk Company — which is partly
Canadian, partly United States, with much Brit
ish money in it— through the Territories to Win-

TERRITORY OF SASKATCHEWAN. 163
nipeg, will be continued by Government construc
tion through the northern stretch of Ontario, cut the
hinterland of Quebec to Quebec City, and on to
Moncton in New Brunswick, thus providing, as the
Dominion stands surety, that the whole Dominion
shall share in the benefit.
I think the Grand Trunk gets the best of the
rather involved contract between the Government
and the company. I am anything but sure of the
commercial possibilities of Northern Ontario and the
backlands of Quebec, where the line will be built by
the Government. But there is no doubt that the line
to be constructed by the Grand Trunk — with the
Government guaranteeing three-fourths of the bond
issue, and paying "a cash subsidy of £2,000,000
towards the cost of the mountain section in the far
west — taps a region with gigantic possibilities in
cereal growing.
In a phrase, however, and apart from details open
to criticism, the Grand Trunk Pacific will bring a
chunk of a continent into service to produce food for
mankind. One of these days I hope to see constructed a
line from Prince Albert in Saskatchewan up to Fort
ChurchUl on the Hudson Bay. During my stay in
Prince Albert I made careful inquiries into the ad
vantages of such a line as an outlet for the wheat
grown, and to be grown, in the Territories. At pre
sent all wheat goes through Winnipeg, and so great
is the strain in the hauling season, getting the
wheat down to Fort William and Port Arthur, where
the aid of the ships on Lake Superior is obtained.

164 CANADA AS IT IS.
that the Canadian Pacific RaUway is now busy con
structing a double instead of a single track over the
intervening 426 miles. The Grand Trunk Pacific
wUl also run into Winnipeg, so that with the newly
aroused land sending its additional millions of
bushels to the east, there must be congestion. Be
sides, the cost of freight, rail first, then boat, then
rail again to the coast, and then ocean-going
steamers, materially adds to the cost in the old
country. Now there is no reason why Fort Churchill
and the Hudson Bay route should not be utUised by
one or other of the big companies, the Canadian
Pacific Railway or the Grand Trunk Pacific or the
Canadian Northern, or some new company. The
Hudson Bay is free from ice for fuU four months
of the year, and it is navigable by ocean-going
steamers. To send the mass of wheat to Fort
Churchill would be a great saving in freight cost ; the
wheat could be stored in mammoth elevators, just
as it now is at Fort William and Port Arthur, and
in the open season cargo boats could ply direct be
tween Fort Churchill and Liverpool.
Though raUway magnates in Canada interested
in existing lines naturally pooh-poohed the
ChurchiU route when I put it before them, I am
convinced that there is no difficulty in laying a Une
through Saskatchewan and Keewatin to the Hudson
Bay. It is unsafe to prophesy. But of this I ara
confident, that with the further development of the
North-West, and the continued buUding of branch
lines, to get at the wheat, and the indisposition of
Canada to go to the great expense of buUding new

TERRITORY OF SASKATCHEWAN. 165
lines through Northern Ontario and Quebec, which
are not wheat areas, it will be found, and before
many years, that the cheapest and best way to ex
port to Europe will be from some harbour in the
Hudson Bay.
The train that takes you into Saskatchewan
reaches Prince Albert at near midnight, and on the
ill-lit platform people are dozing on their bundles
of baggage ready to go south. The train begins the
return journey at two in the morning. It is the
only service this far-off town has; and in winter,
when the snows pile, the train may be snowed up,
and no communication obtained with the world for a
week or ten days at a time.
The town is long and straggling, and you slither
in the muddy darkness to a dirty hotel, and engage a
dirty bedroom — though two new hotels are, I trust,
now in existence — and then your friends take you to
an eating-house where men have been invited to
meet you, and you sit down at one in the morning to
a complimentary supper of wild duck and a couple
of hours' talk.
Not many visitors from home get as far north as
Prince Albert. But when they do. Prince Albert
blossoms into goodwill. I speak personally. I was
a stranger except in name ; but the mayor, the local
judge, and other town officials gave me plenty of
driving ; offers of hospitality were many, and a
fortnight's shooting expedition was offered. I just
mention these things as evidence of the cordial,
spontaneous welcome given to you in a place which,
from a look at a map, you might think to be a

166 CANADA AS IT IS.
wilderness. Also I visited the mission for the
Indians, where a kindly, but, I am afraid, not very
satisfactory work is being carried on to bring the
children of the prairie within the fold of civUisation.
The Saskatchewan River is broad and muddy and
high banked, and at odd intervals a stern-wheeler
comes slapping her way down from Battleford. All
round is a wooded land, and many were the jolting
miles we drove through the forest trails, and the
forest a blaze of yellow from the first breathing of
winter. The Hudson Bay Company have a big
store ; other big stores are on the river front ; there
is a very exceUent little hospital on the hUl ; at one
place on the river bank is a busy sawmUl ; there are
several churches.
Though so far from what is called the centre of
civilisation. Prince Albert — a little town of a couple
of thousand inhabitants, away at the back of beyond
— has none of the " wUd and woolly West " about it.
Everybody knows everybody else ; there are no social
distinctions ; the home life is comfortable and
pleasant as in England ; there is an interest in the
affairs of the outer world you would hardly expect.
Prince Albert is another of a thousand instances in
Canada showing how transplanted Britons, though
adaptive to their new circumstances, hold tight to
all that is best and happy in " the old country."

tea
r

ROUND-UP ON ELBOW RIVER, CALGARY

1G7

CHAPTER XIV.
THE "boom" lands: in THE TERRITORY OF
ALBERTA.
THE old-world wanderer, dropping into the
hustling stride of the new world, and moving
with hop, skip, and jump from towns of yes
terday to cities of last week, finds himself smUing.
The towns of the Canadian plains have the rawness
and the enthusiasm of youth. One of their delights
is to measure themselves alongside other towns, and
exclaim : " I'm bigger'n you ! "
The visitor is allowed and invited to praise
Canada all over Canada. But if he praises one town
while in another he soon feels the chilliness that
comes to a man who tells a woman that her rival is
the most charming woman he has ever met.
Every Canadian is standing on the bedrock of his
belief in conviction that Canada is, sans question,
the finest country that adorns the earth ; he knows,
sans question, that the province or the territory in
which he lives is the unmatched and most favoured
stretch in the land ; and, sans question, he is positive
his own town, which he prefers to call a city, is just
the finest, most enterprising, go-ahead place in the
whole province.
If a neighbouring city has a thousand more popu
lation, that is accounted for by exaggeration, and not
by the birth-rate. The lower population of the town

168 CANADA AS IT IS.
in which you are is all due to slipshod enumerators
of the census, who didn't count half the people.
There are not half a dozen wooden shacks on the
prairie, called a "town," where the inhabitants do
not believe that in a very few years that town will
be one of the most famous and prosperous cities in
the entire Dominion.
This love of the spot in which the Canadian hap
pens to be is magnificent. He is dead-sure of success.
And that carries him half-way towards his goal.
The Canadian of the West loves comparisons and
poetic definitions. Winnipeg is " the Chicago of
Canada," Calgary is " the Kansas City of the Terri
tories," British Columbia^ is "the Banner
Province," Victoria is " an outpost of empire," and
Vancouver is the " Sunset Doorway of the
Dominion." And if the traveller may venture a
comparison, it is that Canada and Siberia are sister
lands. There are the same boundless prairie, the
same agricultural possibUities, the same long winter,
gasp of spring, ardent summer, and then autumn,
with the crisp bracing air and the forest foliage
fired with gorgeous tints. A vice-president of the
Canadian Pacific RaUway, who has journeyed on the
Trans-Siberian line, said to me : " There are places
in Canada where I could sit down and say, ' This is
Siberia.' "
But the comparison fades when you come to
actualities. Siberia is the sluggard, not taking ad
vantage of its capabilities, whUst Canada is the
young man, eager, determined, confident, putting
forth strength.

THE "BOOM" LANDS. 169
And if you would see Canada in the crackle of the
bud, showing its forces, thumping the drum, shout
ing Hi ! Hi ! to the world , puffing and blowing , go
800 miles west of Winnipeg. You will have
traversed the great prairies, level as a lawn, and
have done with them, and you will see the jagged
spurs and snowy peaks of the Rockies, and will not
have reached them.
You will be at Calgary, the chief town in Alberta
— " fair Alberta," the " boom " region of Canada.
Canada generally, however, is not "on the
boom." The rush of emigrants, the inflow of capi
tal, the rip of the plough, the song of the reaper, the
whirl of the thresher, are not the result of " boom,"
of boisterous and blatant advertising, but proof
that, though late, Canada has come into her herit
age, and is making the most of her time.
In Alberta, certainly Northern Alberta, the
wanderer finds himself in the midst of a " boom."
It roars in his ears like the race of machinery in a
factory. Maps, pamphlets, diagrams, reports, books,
photographs swish about him like a tornado. They
are handed him on the railroad car ; they are by his
porridge bowl at breakfast in the morning. You go
into a drug store to buy a cigar, and the eye is fas
cinated by a brochure on the advantages of Alberta.
Being an ordinary humdrum individual with varied
interests — having, previous to coming West, a know
ledge there was such a place in Canada as Alberta,
but little more — you read and learn, and are amazed
at your own stupendous ignorance. You lift up a
pamphlet humming with praise of Alberta. " No

170 CANADA AS IT IS.
stern, rugged, and awful mountains " — that's a hit
at the Rockies! — and " no long, dead monotony of
flat treeless prairie " — there's a slap at the boasted
wheat belt ! No ! " Level and rolling prairie, hUl
and dell, clad in grass and flowers, dotted with
groves, delight the eye. Lakes, lakelets, and ponds
reflect the bright blue skies, and the deep and mag
nificent valleys lend boldness to a landscape of other
wise ideally pastoral prettiness." That is Alberta !
The railway line runs for 200 mUes north of
Calgary to Edmonton, which is your station for the
North Pole. Every ten or twelve miles a town is
springing up like a mushroom. Spots that were
nosed by the moose a few years ago are now lively
towns, and where, two years back, the red-deer
skipped and the coyote slunk is now the noise of
business. The chief product of many of these places is the
^pamphlet about their own virtues. You read a
pamphlet on Calgary, and conclude you will pull up
stakes in the old country and start ranching. You
read something else, and conclude that the place for
real happiness is Red Deer. Ponoka, however, you
conclude, after further reading, is the town where a
raan, with the ability and enterprise you know you
possess, should strike camp. Here, however, is
Wetaskiwin, which, in the tongue of the Cree In
dians, means the " HUls of Peace " — just the place
for the worried Londoner. Here is Stratlicona.
You will take to felling trees, floating lumber down
the Saskatchewan, and become a mUlionaire. No,
you won't; Edmonton is the place for you. You

THE "BOOM" LANDS. 171
will become a fur merchant, and have trappers work
ing for you up to the Arctic circle.
Being an inquisitive fellow, you poke about, and
your investigations reveal that behind the brilliantly
written pamphlet is usually a United States land
company that has bought land at a small price, and
is wUling to sell at a big price.
Alberta may, and does, possess many of the at
tributes claimed for it. It is one of the finest tracts
of territory in Canada.
But yelling that every goose is a swan, in the
rampant, American, high-falutin' patent-medicine-
vendor style, and booming town lots into fancy
figures, though an excellent thing for the land com
panies, is not quite so good for the solid welfare of
Alberta. It is a worthy region, but a little prick
will burst the inflations, the slump will be great,
and Alberta will get a set-back. Alberta is " boom
ing " too much.
" Great country. Alberta," said a twinkle-eyed,
large-raouthed man from Minneapolis with whom 1
got talking at the hotel table at Calgary. " Have
just been up to Edmonton, with stop-over at one
or two places. Had a real good trip, and not cost
me much either. Just drop off at a place, and let
it be known at hotel I'm much interested in Al
berta, and am looking round to see where I can in
vest $100,000; beUeve Alberta got great future, and
might invest there ! Shucks, siree, before I can
stretch out my hand for my hat down come some of
those real estate agents, letting loose a lot of hot
air about the best plots on God's earth going for

172 CANADA AS IT IS.
$15 an acre, and which wUl be worth $75 next year.
They're good chaps, those real estate agents. They
give you a good cigar, and trot out a spanking team,
and give you a twenty-mile drive round to see what
a country it is. Oh, I had the time of my life.
Asked them prices about this and that lot, and got
them to write me particulars. Then I went on to
next place. I've seen a bit of country. Oh, ho ! —
no, siree! I ain't no land speculator. I'm in the
dry goods line, and am having a bit of a holiday.
What? I guess I think it's all right. If those
fools of real estate men find pleasure in driving me
round, I ain't going to prevent them ; guess not ! "
In Calgary you are in the ranching country.
That is why it calls itself the " Kansas of Canada,"
and why the facetious dub it the ' ' sirloin of
Canada." And in Calgary you strike a new stratum of
Canadian, distinct, unique. You remember the
solid, stolid farmers of three, five, eight hundred
miles back, and you mark the difference. Here are
a longer-limbed, better set of men. While there is
a wag of the shoulders and a tilt of a slouch hat,
which hints the devil-may-care, in the arch of the
eyebrow, the thinness of the nostrils, the straight-
ness of the lips, and the firmness of the chin, you
mark breed — though the average wayfarer sights
breed in a horse quicker than in a man. They sit
their horses well, long-tailed, spirited brutes, with
clean action. The saddles and the stirrups are
quasi-Spanish, quasi-English. A lasso hangs handy.
These men are hardly of the traditional broncho-

THE "BOOM" LANDS. 173
breaking, cow-punching sort. They are Enghsh
men of the county class, younger sons who have
taken to horse-rearing and cow-breeding on the foot
hills of the Rockies. You cannot start ranching
with nothing but faith and muscle, as you can
wheat-growing. A nag and an old cow is nothing
of a beginning. Ranching means money. Accord
ingly, the rancher is a different class from the
farmer. The man who has been out half a dozen or
ten years has adapted himself to the country. He
has lost his English mannerisms. You don't notice
this tUl you see him with a brother or a cousin or a
friend who has just arrived from the old country.
It is then you understand why the Canadian has a
smUe for the "young bloods" of England. You
see plenty of them in Calgary, in clothes of English
cut, trousers turned up — an unfailing cause of comic
comment to the Canadian — close-fitting riding
breeches, check waistcoat with brass buttons, Ox
ford stock, travelling cap. Those will get worn out
in time. The flaccidity will go from the cheek, and
the skin get bronzed and thin. Riding will be in
trousers, and the hat will be large, pancake-
brimmed, with soft felt crown, dinted in four places,
and with a strap band. The Englishism of speech
wUl go ; there will be straighter talk and less affecta
tion. Still, Calgary is English — the truest, most
sterling lover of the old land between Toronto and
Victoria. And, slouching the streets or perched on
high saddles as they jog along, are the natives,
Blackfeet Indians and Sargee Indians, high-cheeked,

174 CANADA AS IT IS.
jet-haired men, wearing cast-off European clothes
with the addition of bits of gaudiness — weedy,
slithering descendants of fighting ancestors. The
Government reserves stretches of land for them.
Their wigwams dot the plain.
When the dread Canadian winter is spoken of,
Calgary — all the towns which make a lUie from
Macleod in the south to Edmonton in the north,
nearly all Alberta indeed — must be excepted. The
Territory is sheltered by the Rocky range, and is
fanned by a warm breeze, called the " Chinook," be
cause it blows from the region of the Chinook In
dians on a branch of the lower Columbia River. Al
berta has not that razor cold which strikes Manitoba.
Snow falls, but not much — not enough to provide
sleighing — and it rarely lies raore than three days.
So there is often ploughing in January. The stock,
horses and cows, can remain on the foothiUs the
winter through.
The rancher, however, is being pushed into the
hills as the farmer comes. Many of the ranchers
are squatters ; they have settled on land where there
was no one before them. The cattle ran loose.
Here the man who grows corn must fence it in,
whilst east, in Manitoba, it is the cattle which must
be fenced in. The rush to Canada is by wheat
growers, and much land, hitherto free to the rancher,
is homesteaded or sold to the farmer. The squatter
has the option of buying the land on which his
cattle graze. As a rule, he moves backwards, gives
place to the wheat grower, and drives his horses and
cows to another pitch nearer the Rockies.

THE "BOOM" LANDS. 175
Calgary will lessen rather than grow as a ranch
ing town. Calgary knows that. But it is not going
to sit down and laraent the "good old days." If
ranching in the neighbourhood goes down, some
thing else has to come up. Calgary is priding itself
on being a great distributing centre. It is at four-
cross roads in the matter of railroads. It hopes to
catch the wheat of the Edmonton road, and mill it
before shipment to European markets. Hog raising
is found profitable, and Calgary dreams of the day it
wUl be a huge pork packing centre. Thousands of
sheep are on the foothills. Why shouldn't Calgary
manufacture woollen goods? It is a good land for
beet. What is there to be said against a sugar
factory? At places is a scarcity of water, and con
sequent occasional drought. Why not huge schemes
of irrigation? There is one ditch, thirty-five miles
long, bringing water to 45,000 acres, and the charge
for irrigation is four shUlings an acre. The Canadian
Pacific Railway, in return for the ownership of al
ternate sections through a droughty area, is tapping
the Bow River, raaking a main canal twenty miles
long, with eighty-five miles of distributing canals,
at a cost of a million sterling. Calgary has its eye
on the future, and has a " move on."
The 200 miles from Calgary to Edmonton is the
" boom " region. You travel over slopes, roll across
a prairie, and then through tangled forest land.
The prairie chickens clutter away, and the ducks
trail affrightedly across the sluggish tarns. Belts of
prairie are guarded with timber. There are herds
of cattle, and you get a glimpse of the cowboys

176 CANADA AS IT IS.
rounding them up. Where there is vegetation it is
tangled, and the nip of early frost splashes the trees
with ruddy hue. On the prairie the grass is long,
and the scorching sun raakes wUd hay. When the
plough has come and turned the soil you see fine
black vegetable mould. Where there is farming it
is chiefly in oats, which need a moist rich soil. The
ordinary yield is sixty bushels to the acre.
Three years ago there was plenty of free land
near the railway. Not now. There has been such
a rush to the district, mainly of United States
farmers, and the boom has been so weU engineered,
that no free land is to be got within profitable corn-
growing distance of the line.
Get off the cars at Red Deer. You see a wooden
town, sprawling, straggling, and yet with fresh
buildings of stone pushing aside the wooden, and
tightening up the sinews as it were. Business is
lively. Twenty years ago one famUy lived here.
There were only eight white people within forty
miles, and the wife of the first settler at Red Deer
was the only white woman within 100 miles. That
first comer settled his family in a tent tiU he built
a house. As his sons grew up they secured free
homesteads and prospered, untU they owned 1,100
acres, only 300 of which were purchased.
To-day Red Deer is a go-ahead town. It is the
centre of a mixed farming district. Said Mr. Leo
Gaetz, the " father " of Red Deer, the pioneer, and
the first Mayor : " It does not take any great skill to
raise cattle which, at twenty-eight to thirty months
old, will dress without an ounce of grain 650 to 700

I-111I-[E<
a

THE " BOOM " LANDS. 177
pounds of beef, or, if three years old, will dress 800
to 850 pounds. In farming, even a novice like my
self can, in average years, grow crops of grain — oats
from 50 to 75 bushels to the acre, and weighing from
40 to 50 pounds to the bushel ; wheat from 35 to 40
bushels to the acre, and weighing from 62 to 64
pounds per bushel ; black barley, 35 to 40 bushels to
the acre, weighing from 60 to 68 pounds to the
bushel. We have grown 400 bushels of potatoes,
and 700 bushels of turnips to the acre. I have
known yields of 83 bushels to the acre of welcome
oats, and I have seen 90 bushels per acre grown at
Red Deer."
But if the English immigrant thinks of settling
in the Red Deer district he cannot get free land
within thirty railes of the town.
Go further north and you reach Ponoka. Three
years ago there were two stores, a so-called hotel, a
log school-house, and a small log church. To-day
there are six great stores, a couple of hotels, several
boarding houses, an excellent school-house, and two
big churches. The "boom" is in evidence. AU
the horaesteaders have gone sixty miles east of
Ponoka, and thirty miles west. The district is good
for dairying. A creamery is being built, and some
80,000 pounds of butter are being sent east this year.
A couple of miles away is an Indian reserve. The
Indians bring furs to Ponoka and barter.
Humped grain-elevators, crouching on the hori
zon, proclaira Wetaskiwin. The American, how
ever, is not so evident. There are more people from
the old country. Also there are Stony and Cree
M

178 CANADA AS IT IS.
Indians. They hang about the town in half-
European, half -barbaric garb, and podgy squaws
have their chocolate-faced papooses slung behind
them. The Indians bring in many furs, but chiefly
musk rat. In the town is a Government creamery
for the convenience of farmers. And though Wetas
kiwin is apparently on the edge of nowhere, the
people are enthusiastic about the life. If you want
shooting you can go out and slay bear, and if you
want fishing there are teeming lakes. There is a
racecourse, and there is a theatre.
North again to the banks of the broad and whirl
ing Saskatchewan River. Here is Strathcona,
named after the " grand old man " of Canada. A
few years since just four log cabins, now a town of
4,000 people. The place is lit with electric light.
There are six grain elevators, with a capacity of
250^000 bushels; there are flour mUls, saw mills,
brickyards, tanneries; there is dairying; there is
the shipping of live and dressed cattle, sheep, and
hogs — all proof of a pushful western town.
Across the river is Edmonton, far north indeed.
As towns count in Canada, it is an old town, in
existence long before the coming of the railway. It
is the jumping-off place for the great north hunting
country, the Mackenzie basin, even to the Arctic
circle. Men trail to the wilds, leaving the world
behind. Once a year, and if lucky, twice a year,
letters and newspapers may reach them. Often they
are away for five , ten , fifteen years seeking skins for
the Hudson Bay Company. They are spare men,
shaggy, with little to say, and often with the look

THE "BOOM" LANDS. 179
of frightened children in their eyes — as though they
had gazed into, the terrors of the unknown. They
are men accustomed to the mighty solitudes of the
north, the winters with no day, and the summers
with no night. The fashionable society dame, re
clining in her carriage on her way to the theatre,
cosUy wrapped in rich furs, has no time to think of
these gaunt men, who for scant dollars live in the
chill, and in winter stalk the wUd and frozen lands
searching for skins. Each early spring the dog teams
trot into Edmonton with fur-laden sleighs. The
men rest awhile, buy flour and salt, and then start
back, a journey of fifteen hundred miles to the north,
taking the news of the world to the mates they have
left behind.
There are six thousand people in Edmonton ; they
have electric cars along their main streets, and their
houses are lit with electricity. There are huge
elevators. It isn't much of a place if you compare it with
English towns. But it is a monument of Saxon
enterprise, sturdiness, daring, proof of the stuff there
is in the race. You look behind the town and realise
you may travel northwards to grim death and never
meet a raan. In the summer evening you see the
glow of the Northern Lights as though, somewhere
in the unknown, furnaces were casting shafts of
flame. The world is majestically silent.
Then you walk back to the town, thinking and
thinking, and the reverie is broken by loud laughter
from a saloon and the raucous singing of a music-hall
ditty.

180

CHAPTER XV.
THE CANADIAN ROCKIES : DOWN KICKING HORSE PASS
ON A COW-CATCHER.
THE praUie is like a calm at sea, the ends of the
earth a great circle within the compass of the
eye, the heavens an inverted cup. The roll
ing foothills are the first heavy, strenuous breathings
of a storm. Then comes the hurricane of earth —
white-toothed, frantic, the tumult of passion, high-
flung pinnacles of rock and bUlows of snow. A
weariness follows as though the storm would cease.
But you reach port ere the calm settles.
Such was the simile which carae as I crossed the
Rocky Mountains from Calgary to Vancouver.
Now my heart was envious of the Canadians who
crowded on the tail platform of the train, who hud
dled in the observation car, craned their necks,
shouted adjectives, and were busy all the time with
their kodaks, pushing the click, pressing the bulb,
twirling the spool. I envied them their delight.
Few before had ever seen mountains. The black
shelves of crag, sheer and stupendous, awed them.
The dancing cascades and the soft greens of the
rivers entranced them. The sun, gUstening on the
hUls, hooded with snow, filled them with rapture. I
found as much pleasure watching the wholesome,
bright-eyed joy of my feUow-passengers as in gazing

MOUNT SIR DONALD.

THE CANADIAN ROCKIES. 181
upon the panorama, while the black engine giants of
the Canadian Pacific Railway grunted and snorted
through the gulched defiles, and screeched and bel
lowed, and threw defiant roars to the hills.
' ' I guess that is finer than anything in Switzer
land," observed a casual acquaintance, pointing to
the universe with his thumb.
I agreed it was very fine and stupendous, but — I
got a withering glance. I was evidently one of
those darned tourists frora the old country who
won't admit the truth when it is smacking him in
the face !
" That's magnificent, sir," said another man
while we looked beyond the firs, and the ribbed
rocks, to where snow powdered the head of Sir
Donald. " Yes, sir; it is magnificent," I agreed.
" To stand here and look at that mountain is
one of the grandest sights on earth, I guess."
" Yes," I added ; " one of the grandest."
" Travelled some, sir? " he asked.
" Oh, yes ; I've knocked about a bit," I replied.
" Well, I guess, sir, that never in all your born
days have you seen any mountains that hold a candle
to these Rockies. Now, have you? "
I stamraered I was impressed with the stern
grandeur of the Rockies, but that — well — er, if one
were asked to compare them — er — but — er 
"Oh, shucks!" was his comment of disgust,
imagining I wanted to be depreciatory, "I'm teUing
you, sir, there cannot be anything finer."
That is why I envied these generous-hearted.

182 CANADA AS IT IS.
appreciative Canadians. They were not afflicted with
the curse of coraparison. I half wished I didn't
know the Alps, that I had never crossed the Urals,
that the picture of the Caucasus range could be wiped
from meraory, that I had never gazed upon the
Hiraalayas. Then I could have exclaimed, for I
would have believed : " There is no finer scenery in
the world than the Canadian Rockies."
But as there were strong raen before Agamem
non, so there are magnificent mountains besides the
Rockies. ReaUy, however, the Rockies are not to be com
pared with anything. They are individual, apart,
strenuous, with the teeth of ferocity in thera. They
are not beautiful, nor sublime — not any of the other
easy adjectives that slip from the Ups. They are
gaunt, foreboding, things of drear strength. \Mien
the black engine blurts through the Gap, and opens
her throat 'nith a shout which beats against the grey
and turabled rocks, breaks through the 1,000,000
bare poles of burnt firs, and surges cavernously up
the canyon, it is like the voice of the dragon in Wag
ner. The hills are like the ruins of a dead world ;
they rise in groined and slatey terraces. The stark
trees are the toteras of death. Close by are the
gurgling, chalky green waters of the Bow River,
glacier fed. The undergrowth of the land is matted,
wiry, tangled, with the paints of autumn splashed
recklessly, a long creeper blood-red, a maple patch of
claret, a tree which sun and early frost have bleached
to yellow. The twin rails follow the bends of the river, as

THE CANADIAN ROCKIES. 183
though fearing to try a lonely way. There are sad
and weedy stations. Red Indians are about,
swarthy, sitting on their horses, and wearing red
blanket trousers, dirty English shooting jackets,
Yankee slouch hats, and with a knot of raven hair
lapsing upon the shoulder — not so picturesque, and
feathered, and painted, and whooping as the Eng
lishman sees in Buffalo Bill shows, but quiet men,
smoking cheap briars, and doing some farming.
Buffalo ! There are no buffalo now on the prairies.
The thunder of a herd's hoofs is not heard on the
baked soil. But here is verdant forest land, a clear
ing with good wire fence, and within a bunch of
these lords of the prairie, tawny and woolly-
shouldered, are chewing their cud. They are in a
grassy museum maintained for the delight of the
tourists, who " snap shot " the tame bulls as though
they were theatrical beauties.
Into the hills, rising till the sky is Italian blue
and the air is thin, stimulating, making you drink
it with deep breaths of satisfaction — like quaffing
dry champagne— and so to Banff. There are the
shouts of hotel porters, the banging of baggage, the
clatter of omnibuses.
You go to the biggest hotel, a chateau perched on
a shoulder of rock among the pines. It is one of
the fine hotels with which the Canadian Pacific
Railway punctuate the line from sea to sea. I have
a large here-to-day-gone-to-morrow acquaintance
with hotels, but this is the best mountain hotel in the
world. You pay twenty-five shiUings a day. For
this you get a luxuriously furnished room, a private

184 CANADA AS IT IS.
bath, and fare much the same as on an Atlantic
liner. If you are zealous you climb ; if you are limitedly
zealous you get astride a pony, and let it carry you —
women ride cross-saddle the sarae as men — and if
you are lazy you sit in the sun and look up the valley
of the Bow, a filmy, restful view set in a broken
frame of rock.
The air nips icily in the morning. It fans chUl
in the evening. You gather in the great pine-
framed hall, with heads and horns of buffalo, moose,
and deer hung round, and you sit before the huge
log fire, fed by half a tree at a tirae, and yielding a
comfortable resinous odour. You listen to the band.
Also you listen to a symposium of gush. Most
of the visitors are from " over the Une," the United
States. They tell one another of their climbing ex-
. periences up well-raarked tracks. The Journal of
the Alpine Club is a compendium of modesty in con
trast. There is a lady who has been to Yew-rope,
and unwisely she begins to talk about Chamonix
and Zermatt. She is not believed. You saunter
into the writing-room, and find half a dozen folk
busily engaged with their letters. Each has a florid
guide book at the left elbow, and to all appearance
the descriptions are copied out without inverted
comraas. At ten o'clock the orchestra plays " God Save
the King." All Britons stand. A bunch of new
arrivals frora the States look wonderingly, but re-
raain seated.
" Wall," said one lady to another while waiting

THE CANADIAN ROCKIES. 185
for the lift, " I think it was jest sweet of thein
Britishers. I've come into a foreign country, long
ways from home, and they played the American
tune, ' My country 'tis of thee,' and all the Brit
ishers stood. I cud hev jest cried with happiness ! "
Some of us " jest smiled."
The day you journey from Banff to Revelstoke,
over the Rockies and over the Selkirks, you go
through near two hundred mUes of heroic hills, with
towering awesome crags above, and abysms, frothy
with torrents, far below — to my mind the most en
thralling, long-stretched panorama to be seen in the
world from the comfort of a railway observation car.
The mountains are ochreish, with crude and
crumbled terraces, ribbed with the fury of cascades,
their sides stalked with spruce. Free fancy pictures
mighty and dismantled castles, the battlements and
the bastions.
Here are the walls of the war gods. The world
is rent, spurred, chasraed, seared with volcanic
shudders. " Ain't it lovely? " sighs an ecstatic young lady.
" Yes, it is quite Titanic," agrees a young man
appropriating a word from the guide book.
' ' Shucks ! ' ' observes a man with a twang in his
talk and a miniature stars and stripes in his button
hole, "you should see the mountains in Colorado.
These are not in it by a long song." And to prove
that he doesn't think much of the Canadian Rockies
he produces a bundle of old newspapers, and reads
them sedulously for three hours.
The engine climbs slowly with grunts and creaks.

186 CANADA AS IT IS.
There is a rustic arch, quaintly unrustic in that land
of spruce, proclaiming " The Great Divide." You
are 5,296 feet above sea level. Notice the brook, a
mere trill that sparkles under the arch. It hits
some pebbles. It becomes a couple of baby rivulets ;
one goes east, the other west; one is away on a
journey thousands of miles to the Atlantic Ocean,
the other drops eagerly on a rush of hundreds of
miles to the Pacific. And a handful of pebbles
divides thera.
Cathedral Mountain heaves with snow-powdered
brow; a glacier topples, and looks as if it will in
stantly sweep the train frora the shelf of rock we are
hugging ; there is swaying as we crawl over a trestle
bridge, and through the spume and champ of wrath
ful waters, get a gasping first vision of Kicking
Horse Pass— a grey fledged rip in the rocks, with
brown -bodied spruce growing from precarious points,
above the ochred mountains ; below the swirl of
turabling, foaming, thunderous torrent.
Thus to Field, a little place with a big hotel,
where Switzers, sturdy and bearded, are ready to earn
dollars by lending you ropes and ice-axes, and show
ing the way to the summit of Mount Stephen, a bulky
monarch, with a leonine, crouching stupendousness.
A bigger, heavier engine was put on at Field.
Work was ahead that needed strength. It was three
times the size of an English engine, but not pretty,
with no grass green paint and geometric lines, and
company's arras in heraldic colours, and the date of
its birth in polished brass. There were no fal-lals.
It was just a black raonster that stood breathing with

THE AUTHOR
ON A COW-CATCHER,

THE CANADIAN ROCKIES. 187
long steamy gusts. In front was a steel fender with
heavy nose, so that if a cow were struck in the night
it would be hurled to one side — with considerable
damage to the coo.
I was going to ride on that cow-catcher.
Down the Kicking Horse Pass is the most ex
hilarating of railroad jaunts. There is a thrUl in it
when taken in the glass-domed, tourist-crowded ob
servation car. There is rather more thrill when you
sit on the ledge before the engine with your legs
dangling where one of the buffers would be on an
English engine. While the pace freezes the front
of you, the heat from the boiler half broils the back
of you. Special permission was given me for this ex
perience. However, there were a couple of pre
liminary formalities. I signed a paper absolving the
Canadian Pacific Railway of all responsibility if I
were injured, and I appointed the station agent —
whom I had never seen till a minute before — my
attorney in case I were killed. The driver (called the
engineer) looked at me with disapproval. " You're
taking big risks," said he; " I've been driving now
for twenty years, and you're the first man who has
ever ridden on the front of my engine."
There was no cushion, and the iron plate was
hard and grimy. I dangled ray legs over the fender.
The engine beU gave a few knelling clangs. For a
raoraent I was in a sraother of steara. The iron
brute gave a quiver, glided slowly, lurched over a
crossing, and, getting into her stride, as it were, let
herself go.

188 CANADA AS IT IS.
She roared along. On the curves she ran steady,
but on a piece of straight, down hill, she rocked as
though jauntUy intent on shaking the life out of me.
She yelled and bellowed in the canyons till my ears
ached. I signalled to the driver, and he sent his
fireman crawling along the engine side with some
clean " waste." With my ears stopped to dull the
clamour I was happy.
It was splendid. I had a front seat. There was
no dust. It was like motoring at thirty miles an
hour, with none of the anxiety of steering. I forgot
all about the coaches behind and the tourists.
We dived and we curved ; we snorted uphill and
rattled, steam off, down hill, taking it gently when
the work was hard, letting her rip, "free-wheel
ing," when there was a dip. I say we, because the
engine acted like a huraan being. We were tuned.
The engine enjoyed it, I ara certain, quite as much
as I did. As a rider feels the horse under hira,
steadying to his pace, taking the rises stubbornly,
showing his mettle on the flat, braciug himself at the
fence, so that black brute called a -railway engine was
responsive, the pace strong, and the panting slow
and long, a shake as the top of the rise was reached,
a rip-rap-bang-away-she-goes as the grade swiftly
sloped. We dropped from 4,050 feet to 2,550 feet
above sea level, 1,500 feet in thirty-four miles.
The run is to the valley of the Columbia River,
first between the pinnacled Otter Tail and buttressed
Van Home ranges, then into the canyon of the
Kicking Horse.
It is a rocky slit in the side of the world. The

oICD
2;i:o

THE CANADIAN ROCKIES. 189
sides are grey, gloomy, gruesome, making a maw of
terror. It seems nigh as far down to the churned
water as up to the snow-dusted, cloud-swathed spurs.
In places the way is cut out of the face of the rock.
Reeling, screeching at the- curves, with raocking
echoes thrown back, whirling into a danksome
tunnel, and yelling all the way, plunging like a
runaway — why, the man on the cow-catcher has to
grip tight, hold his lips tight, as with swoop the
descent is made. It is " shooting the chute " for an
hour without a break. That is fine. That is living.
It is worth travelling to Western Canada for that
hour. And the engineering maiwel of it all ! A high
way of the world ! Twenty years ago it was a closed
land. But raen went out searching for a way
through this wall. They sought, and were baffled,
sought again and again, and the way was found.
An exploration party was in the raountains. An
angry pack-horse let out with its hoofs and broke
three ribs of the leader. The man seemed dead.
The Indians dug a grave in a grave-like canyon.
But as the body was carried along the man regained
consciousness. Later, curiosity led him to view his
intended grave. It was in a defile, so close at places
that a stone could be thrown across. He explored it.
It was the route decided on , and Kicking Horse Pass
was the name given.
Like going through a door the Pass is left,
and the train takes its ease down a broad, luscious
valley, raaking close companionship with the Colum
bia River. It is pleasant in the warmth of the late

190 CANADA AS IT .IS.
September afternoon to sit on the cow-catcher and
smoke a pipe and look to the distant Selkirks, like
a fence of purple-grey jagged board reared against
the horizon. Behind it the sun is falling in a haze
of pink. The world takes a rest.
Soon we are in the mountains again, breasting
the stern Selkirks. Gushes of mountain stream lave
the high-perched, thin-legged trestles over which
the cars rurable. Cascades leap with resentful hiss.
A gully, three hundred feet deep, is spanned.
So in the dim of the day, with the hills shatter
ing the light, we climb between shoulders. Now to
Glacier — which the Canadians persist in calling
Glazier — with the kneaded checked river of ice
luraped before you.
In the darkness you sweep through raountains.
In dead night you waken in your cupboard bed, raise
the blind of the car window, and see black shadows
sweep by. Maybe, with dressing gown wrapped
round, you pass up the alley of curtains where the
snorers are trurapeting their rest, give a nod to the
coloured gentleman who is in the smoking-car polish
ing your boots , and stand on the platform of the rear
car. There is the click-clack-rat, click-clack-rat of
the wheels over the metals, and behind is a world of
awed silence.
In the morning the hUls have lost their terror.
They are lower and wooded. Sweeps of lake are
edged. Log houses are seen. The canyon of the
Thompson River is followed — another rock-girt cre
vice. Down rushes the Fraser River, gulps tbe
Thompson, and with fierce determination eats a way

THE CANADIAN ROCKIES. 191
through the hills. The rocks close in, raaking Hell
Gate, but the Fraser, grim and white, goes through,
swearing horribly.
The river widens into a noble, slow-moving
streara. Rarashackle towns, rude, shapeless, lit
tered with old cans, mark the way. There are Japs
working on the line. Moody- visaged Indians squat
and muse — possibly on the coming of the pale-face.
Loose-limbed British Columbians drive their teams
through clouds of dust, or sit in front of the hotels —
every sleeping-cabin is called an hotel — smoking
green cigars. On the wind-swept wastes is a fenced-
in piece of grassless soil. There are no stones, no
flowers, only a few decrepit, unpainted wooden
crosses, some fallen down. It is the resting-place of
the dead.
Lumber mills, steamers, the smell of the sea.
We are on the Pacific coast, and yonder is the smoke
of Vancouver.

192

CHAPTER XVI.
BRITISH COLUMBIA : AN OUTPOST OF EMPIRE.
TWENTY years is the Umit of history in the
Canadian west. When you get behind that
period you have reached the prehistoric. For
a man frora the "old country," where most vil
lages can claim a heritage of 100 years, to drop into
a new town with big stores and hotels and news
paper offices now settled where, twelve short months
ago, was rolling prairie, is a new mental experience.
In Vancouver you are in a town of 40,000 in
habitants. There are broad and busy streets.
Electric tramcars whizz and clang. There are piles
of fine buildings, and the great stores make a window
show as attractive as in any English provincial city.
In the suburbs are lumber mills, and the hum of
saw-teeth eating huge trees into planks. The har
bour is a maze of shipping. That mighty double-
funnelled yellow stearaer is one of the Empress
boats just in frora China; that green-bodied, red-
funnelled ship sails to-day with mails for Australia.
Vancouver is busy with a hundred interests.
There is nothing vastly wonderful until you
realise that it is all new, that twenty years ago
Vancouver was not.
You sail across the Straits of Georgia, a water
way flecked with pretty isles, to Vancouver Island,

A SAW MILL IN THE CROW'S NEST PASS,

AN OUTPOST OF EMPIRE. 193
to Victoria, the capital of British Columbia. Here
are the Parliament Buildings and Government
House. A mile or two away is Esquiraalt, the
British naval station on the Pacific coast.
Victoria is old as oldness counts in Canada. It
was the seat of governraent when Vancouver was
part beach, part jungle. It is settled. In the days
before the coraing of the railway, and when British
Colurabia was only to be reached by boat, and the
only men in the mountains of the mainland were
hardy seekers after raineral wealth, Victoria was the
one spot on that long and broken coast — -with thou
sands of inlets, and deep, high-fended fiords, which
rival those of Norway — that could be called a social
magnet. It is the residential town of the West, the place
whither the rich man with ambitious wife and
marriageable girls is naturally drawn. Victoria can
show as picturesque houses, in well-kept, unfenced
grounds, as are to be found anywhere in the
Dominion. Here you seem to have left behind the
money-making atmosphere of the mainland, to have
slipped into a refined English society, where people
have topics of conversation other than dollars. You
see in Victoria what you miss in most Canadian and
United States towns, a love of private gardens.
There is a true English fondness for flowers. But
while we wall and rail ours in, the Victorian likes
everybody to admire his display. Victoria has pretty
drives, pretty parks, and it devotes much of its time
to pleasure-seeking. In business Vancouver has swept right '. of
N

194 CANADA AS IT IS.
Victoria. Vancouver is the noisy, hustling young
tradesman; Victoria is the polite, easy-going retired
man. Each town has a contempt for the other.
The Victoria man takes you aside. "Oh, yes,"
says he, "Vancouver is pushing ahead; but the
people — well, you know, most of them come with
out a dollar ; very worthy people, but hardly our
class!" The Vancouver man sticks his hat on the back
of his head, and proclaims to the world, " Victoria !
That's the place to be buried in before you die.
Victoria don't count. One of these days, I guess,
we'll shift the Government out of Victoria into Van
couver. Victoria is a back number. Vancouver is
the go-ahead city of this coast."
He is quite right; but when he has made his
money, and his girls have returned from college
back East, he will settle in Victoria.
The wheat lands are the core of Canada. British
Columbia is no wheat-growing country. It is too
rocky, ravined, with deep chasms and nigh impene
trable forests. The plateaus are eroded by lake and
river. Dense pine woods wrap the hills. Thousands
of creeks empty into the big rivers — the Fraser is
750 miles long — and the banks are marked with
lumber camps. Gangs of men cut their way into
the forests primeval.
The camp is a few tents on a clearing. One
man, in open-throated shirt, will be cook. Up in
the woods is heard the ring of the axes, the occa
sional crash of falling trees, the shouting of drivers
to teams of a dozen horses hauling timber to the

AN OUTPOST OF EMPIRE. 195
creek side. Logs are pitched into the water and set
to float, maybe 100 miles before they are gathered in.
Where there are snags or shoals the beams cluster
in thousands. As the water line lowers in sumraer
and autumn a stretch of logs is left dry on the banks.
There are as many logs littering the riversides as
get down to the sawraUls. But the floods of next
spring will rise and seize them, carry them down in
the swirl, and it is next year's logs that will be left
dry. At the mouth of a creek the logs are caught by a
chained string of logs stretched from shore to shore.
The lumber is cozened into mighty rafts, about 100
yards wide, and about 600 yards long. Huts are
erected on the raft, and cooking done. Men with
giant oars keep the raft end on in mid-stream, while
the serpentine mass of timber drifts hundreds of
miles. Where the railway line touches, or sea-going
steamers can reach, are saw-mills.
I visited sorae of these raills at Vancouver.
Lopped trees of enorraous girth are floated into a
basin and guided to a continuously moving double
chain. Iron teeth seize the trees. With creaking
protests they are carried up a plane. The spirit of
the age — a man, chewing tobacco, pulling levers
which work the latest machinery — pitches the log
on one side; it falls with a sleepy thud, but rollers
edge it forward; great iron claws, just like a crab's,
rise, grip the beara and pull it, pull it again, until it
is on a steel platforra. There, for a moment, it
rests. The tug of another lever, and the log is
running to a strap of a steel saw. A buzzing knife

196 CANADA AS IT IS.
projects ; there is a cloud of brown dust and a sudden
sparkle ; the bark is ripped , and stones and possible
nails removed. With harsh song the saw slices
pieces off the tree till it is level ; the tree is thrown
over, and the other side cut. It shuttles tiU it is a
square log. Another lever, and the beam advances
trembling on rollers, and is sliced into long slabs.
They fall apart, but rush on till they bump an ob
struction. They travel sideways on endless chains
till two circular saws rip them into required lengths ;
they glide down a chute into a yard, where men are
busy carting and stacking planks. And it all takes
place in a minute.
But what of the bits of the shorn trunk? End
less chains and rollers carry them higgledy-piggledy
to big teethed circular saws, which bite anywhere
as the wood passes. The pieces, all smaU, faU into
a trough. Slit-eyed Japanese pick out what wUl be
serviceable chunks for burning in the stoves of Van
couver when the wet winter season coraes along.
All the while the remainder is carried along the
trough till nothing remains but waste strips and
knobs and chips. These drop down a narrowing
slide, and the noise is terrific. Imagine the row if
you threw a handful of tin tacks into a coffee-grinder.
Multiply the row a million fold till you feel as though
splinters were being driven into your ears. Then
you wiU have an idea of the turmoil. All the bits
are being chewed by machinery into sawdust. All
the sawdust accumulates in tremendous tanks. Long
pipes have their noses stuck in the sawdust. Suction
laps the sawdust, and it flies up the pipe, along it.

a

SALMON FISHING ON THE FRASER RIVER

AN OUTPOST OF EMPIRE. 197
across the yard, down the pipe, right into the mouth
of the furnace, which is stoked entirely with saw
dust. The refuse of a log, roaring in blaze, produces
the power which drives the machinery, which brings
its mates of the forest to be sliced into service for
mankind. It is not merely iron grips and wooden rollers
and steel saws you see. It is brains in concrete
mechanics. The trees of British Columbia are giants — some
times twenty paces round. They are as straight as
lances, and rise to long heights, taking, as the
Yankees say, two men and a boy to see to the top of
them. Without careful bearings it is risky to push into
the forest. It is a mighty mass of tangle. The
undergrowth — rank, prickly, tentacled, is a maze of
resistance. Overhead rear the trees, their arms
interlocked, and foiling the light of day.
You need only go to Stanley Park, at Vancouver,
a peninsula of forest, lapped by the sea, and with
beautiful drives through the woodlands, which man
has wisely not attempted to improve, to see wonders
of growth. You come across a fallen tree, and
another tree has clirabed around it, gyving it in
tightest grasp. A tree throws out a brawny arm,
and on the forearm another tree has sprouted. It
looks like an acrobat balancing a pole. A monster
has rotted at the centre, a gate has been cut, and
there is a chamber where two dozen folk can shelter,
or where a carriage and pair can be packed, or a
large automobile stabled. That is a fir, and he has

198 CANADA AS IT IS.
lusty neighbours which rise to a height of three
hundred feet.
For years the chief source of wealth in British
Columbia raust be its lumber. There are thousands
of miles of forest, much quite unexplored. Com
panies get leases from the Government over vast
areas ; armies of men lay about them with axes,
and grey stumps are all that remain. You feel pity
as you gaze over a field of the slain. Also you see
the danger — laughed at at present, but a real danger
— that one of these days British Columbia wUl be
depleted of its magnificent Douglas firs, yellow and
red cedars, spruce, pine, and tamarac.
There are a hundred and twenty sawmUls in the
province. Last year their output was 232,000,000
feet of timber, and some 200,000,000 shingles —
strips of wood used in lieu of slates for roofing
houses. Who does not know the bright labels on the
pyramids of tinned salmon to be seen in every
grocery stores at horae. ]\Iost of it coraes from the
Fraser and Columbia Rivers. The salmon served at
table in Vancouver is the brightest of red — so vivid
that the curious thought comes it must be dyed.
There is pink salmon, such as British rivers yield.
But the western Canadian won't look at it; he has
an idea that unless salmon is glaring red it isn't
good. The mass of salmon in the Fraser is something
that the British sportsman has no idea of, unless in
fervid dreams. In the spawning season you often
see a wide stretch of water heaving and wriggling.

AN OUTPOST OF EMPIRE. 199
and almost solid with fish moving to their spawning
grounds. Salmon are caught as far as six hundred
miles up the Fraser. '
Seventy-two canneries are established — forty-
eight on the Fraser, and twenty-four on the streams
to the north. The fish are netted and speared in a
manner which would reduce the British salmon
fisher to tears. The sport of the thing is the last
thought. Money-making is the abiding object. The
salmon flood the floors of the canneries. For twenty-
eight years the salmon industry of British Columbia
has been growing. Though millions of salmon are
caught each year, any depletion has not been ob
served. The Government is keeping a careful watch,
and has established several hatcheries.
Not only are the salmon tinned and shipped to
all parts of the world, but a trade is growing in
frozen salmon. At New Westminster are two estab
lishments which make a feature of freezing salraon,
packiog it in refrigerators, and sending it to the
United States, Australia, and Great Britain, so the
raan in New York, Melbourne, or London raay buy
a whole salmon from the rivers of far-off British
Columbia. I ara convinced there are no rivers in the world
which teem with fish like the rivers of British
Columbia. There is a great future in halibut and
sturgeon fishing. Sturgeon weighing 1,000 pounds
have been caught in the Fraser. Along the coast
are plenty of herring, and the lakes abound with
trout. Fishermen on the British coasts dissatisfied or

200 CANADA AS IT IS.
ambitious, and thinking of emigrating, cannot do
better than go to British Colurabia. Land on these
mountain-fringed shores is to be had for the taking.
I think a fortune awaits the raan, thoroughly ex
perienced in curing fish as practised at home, who
would start a factory in British Columbia. The
curing of fish in Canada is, at present, very bad.
To the Englishman who goes to Canada with no
raoney but plenty of determination to be a pros
perous farmer within five years, British Columbia
has no solid attractions. Captivated by the scenery,
the rivers and the crags, the shooting and the fish
ing, the lumber mills and the gold mines, visitors
to this outpost of the Empire, having had a good
time, and delighted with the province, have de
clared it the best part of Canada. It is so, in par
ticular respects. But quite unintentionally a false
impression is created that it is a good place for farm
settlers. It is nothing of the kind. There is farm
ing, and very good farming, but it is not of the kind
to suit the poor immigrant. The only cheap land
available for the settler is timbered, or choked with
the stumps of trees in tracts where the lumbermen
have been.
By far the better way is to purchase what is
called an improved farm. To buy a hundred acres
or so of cleared and broken land as much as £20 an
acre has to be paid, and anything from JE3 to £10 an
acre is asked for a similarly sized farm with only
ten or twenty acres cleared. Unless a man is suc
cessful at getting maximum quality at minimum
price, the outlay necessary to begin farming in

AN OUTPOST OF EMPIRE. 201
British Columbia is, according to the calculations I
have been able to make, much more expensive, when
you consider results in hard cash, than the raore
rough-and-ready farming in the North-West Terri
tories. Generally speaking, the climate of the province
is humid in the suraraer, and there are months of
rain in the winter. The Agricultural Department of
the Provincial Government candidly appreciates the
advantages and the disadvantages of this. Tree
growjih is stimulated ; roots and vegetables flourish ;
the softer grains, such as oats and barley, yield
largely; grasses are abundant; fruit, such as pears,
cherries, and pluras, yield enorraously ; flowers,
especiaUy roses, bloora profusely ; shrubbery is
dense. But the other side of the picture — dense
forests with thick and heavy undergrowth ; weeds
that flourish in a night, and take constant labour to
keep thera down ; the nuisance of second growth ;
and the disastrous propagation of insect pests
and plant diseases when once they have got a
foothold. As to wheat-growing, it does not pay. It has a
fine-looking kernel, but is too soft for milling pur
poses. The best use for Pacific Coast wheat is to
feed chickens.
Though there are such fine rivers and innumer
able mountain streams, a colossal system of irriga
tion is necessary if the dry zones of British Colura
bia are to be of much agricultural good. The pro
vince comprises about 250,000,000 acres; only
2,000,000 acres of that immense area is settled. It

202 CANADA AS IT IS.
is asserted that some 60,000,000 acres are capable
of cultivation. This is far too ambitious. As a
matter of fact the serviceable land is already taken,
and is not a hundredth of the acreage. It is prob
able that in time a tenth of British Columbia
will be subject to agriculture ; to expect more is
vain. Still, the province has farming opportunities in
other directions. There are districts suitable for the
raising of horses. There are no sheep to speak of,
because there is no market for the wool. If woollen
manufactures were started in one of the coast towns,
sheep-rearing would be profitable. Pigs pay well.
Cattle breeding is advancing rapidly and profitably,
and great strides are being made in dairying.
The surest, safest agriculture is mixed farming.
The English farmer of experience, and the happy
possessor of a stout banking account, ought, if he
is adaptable to local conditions, to make money
rapidly. Within the next quarter of a century British
Columbia should outrival the Niagara district of
Ontario as a fruit region. At present fruit-growing
has got little beyond the experimental stage. I saw
good evidence, however, that the next year or two
ought, if experienced men take up the work, to get
it well past that stage, and that the industry should
ultimately become as valuable to the province as
lumber and salraon now are. If the valleys which
now grow indifferent wheat were filled with apple
orchards, the raoney return would be double. I am
not so sure of pears. Already tomatoes and melons

AN OUTPOST OF EMPIRE. 203
do well, peaches and grapes are fair, strawberries
are excellent.
An attempt has been made in fruit canning. It
was not a success — first, because the idea was to
utilise surplus fruit, and there was none; secondly,
the price for fresh fruit was so good that the canner
was shut out of the raarket. There is sure to be a
boora in British Columbia fruit culture. When that
comes there should be openings for jam factories.
Most of the jam sold in Canada is fake, consisting of
many other things beside fruit. Trustworthy jams
come from England.
Whatever this mountain-strewn province of the
West has to give, the men who are winning Nature's
yield — gold, coal, lumber, fish, fruit — are of the right
stuff. That it is an adventurous land is the reason
why it has drawn to it the most adventurous of
Canada's pioneers. The men are quicker, keener,
more daring, than their brothers of the prairies.
And yet the differences between a Saturday night
crowd sauntering the main street of Vancouver and
a Saturday night crowd in the main street of any of
our large towns at home is a matter of trifling de-
taU. There are the shops brilliantly lighted, the
clink-clang of the electric cars is persistent, there is
a slow moving but surging throng of men and
women. The women are not to be distinguished
from English; the men, however, are taller, slim
mer, clean shaven, jaunty of carriage, with the little
cock of the chin you note in men who have pros
pered, and are well-pleased with theraselves.
But here, on the Pacific slope, as on the Atlantic

204 CANADA AS IT IS.
seaboard, and all the way between, the traveUing
Briton cannot help marking a strain of exaggeration.
It is an interesting phenomenon. It can hardly be
an intentional copy of United States " blowing," be
cause the Canadian would rather be different from,
than^similar to, the American. Possibly it may be
due to the elevating, stimulating air, as bracing as
wine. More likely it is due to the trait noticeable
in the newly rich at home — a constant straimng to
let you know how worthy they are, and doing it with
accentuation. Canada is a newly rich country, and for fear it
should not be appreciated everything is tuned up to
be better than it actually is. You notice it on the
first day of your arrival in the fact that milk is
always called cream. You smUe at it on the prairies,
where hoardings are buUt in front of and above
single storey shacks to give the impression that they
are much bigger than they really are. I'^ou laugh
outright at the high-falutin' jargon which finds its
way into Government publications on the Pacific
coast. The Legislative Assembly of British Colum
bia issues a pamphlet in which are dangled the de
lights of a coast trip " away to the north a thou
sand railes almost, to mix with the icebergs that
once floated under the sovereignty of the Czar of All
the Russias, but now droop peacefully from ancient
glaciers over which the American eagle holds watch
ful guard ! "
It happened I was in Vancouver when Perry,
the young Canadian who won the King's Prize at
Bisley in 1904, came home. To judge from the

111
2Z<oz
o

<<

AN OUTPOST OF EMPIRE. 205
newspapers you would imagine the Dominion was
unknown to the rest of the world until Perry won
that prize. The accounts of the way in which he
was received by his fellow citizens would lead an
English reader to think that London's greeting to
the C.I.V.'s from South Africa was a mournful
funeral procession in contrast. I saw the reception
of Perry. There were bunches of people here and
there, but most of the way onlookers were not one
deep. It was night, and there wasn't a torch. The
drill hall, though reported to be packed, wasn't half
full, and the enthusiasm, though reported to be
terrific — well, it was the feeblest thing I have ever
seen in a popular demonstration — and my exper
ience of demonstrations is not small. Perry, an
amiable young fellow, stood with feet apart and
hands behind his back, an unsoldierly attitude, while
he was laden with silver and dollar notes and gush.
In ancient days, said the local M.P., the heroes of
Greece and Rome were crowned with leaves, but
leaves fade ; yet as long as British Columbia existed ,
and Canada was a nation, the name of Private Perry
— and so on, high-tiddle-de-hi-ty. Perry looked
bored, and took his honours modestly.
Cheers were called, but they were not the kind
of cheers we know in England. Frequently have I
noticed in Canada and the United States the inability
of the people to cheer. They laugh scornfully, unbe
lievingly, when you tell them they don't know how.
The cheer is true and as strong as they can give.
But by comparison with a broad-chested, deep-
lunged, lusty British cheer, it is thin indeed.

206 CANADA AS IT IS.
In three or four towns I saw the arrival and de
parture of Lord Minto, the recent Governor-General.
I have seen him received in dead silence, and I have
seen him leave a town on the Governor-General's
car, and though a crowd was there to stare, nobody
raised a cheer.
There are many things the Canadians do well.
Cheering is not one of them.

207

CHAPTER XVII.
THE AWAKENING OF THE WILDERNESS.
WHEN the black engine has been yelling and
grunting all night, and the railway cars roll
ing and creaking, you have the jagged ridges
of the Selkirk mountains in front of you. There is
a rumble-tumble, and you have crossed the Columbia
River. Then you are at Revelstoke.
If your face is set east towards the Rockies and
the prairies, you leave the cars, and saunter the
planked platform, while the tired and grimy engine
pants out of the way, and another engine with a
short, snappy shout backs down the line to haul the
big cars into the hills.
But if you want to leave the well-ridden route
and make a detour by way of a new land, a wilder
ness just awakening with possibUities, you pitch your
baggage out, clamber across the metals, climb into a
train on a side track, and inquire of a fair, Saxon-
featured man, who hasn't shaved for a fortnight, and
is stencilling the floor with tobacco juice, if you are
right for Arrowhead.
His tongue curls a quid of tobacco from one cheek
to the other, and when he has expectorated fluently
he replies, without looking at you, " Guess so."
You are on your way to the mining regions of
Kootenay.

208 CANADA AS IT IS.
The distance from Revelstoke to Arrowhead is
twenty-eight miles, and the train, rattling over a
rickety line, takes an hour and thirty-five minutes.
At first you run south on the bank of the Columbia,
lagoon-like in places, then narrowing to little more
than a ditch, with shelves of dingy sand. You swerve
into the forest.
It is a single line, and the trees approach almost
to the wiudows — wonderful masses of pale yellow and
the reddest of blood-red. Winter has given the wood
lands their first frosty kiss. There is a stretch of dead
pines, robbed of all beauty by the swish of a forest
fire. We run through a smother of smoke, and
through the haze are seen the tongues of flame lick
ing the branches.
A halt is made at a station. Here is but one
house, and around are pUes of timber. In the dis
tance one hears the oaths of men to horses hauling
timber. The forest looks impregnable, black, sinister.
Stray trees, sick and leafless, have toppled on one
side, and are held in the arms of vigorous trees.
The way is bumpy and uneven. One minute the
train clatters unevenly down hiU. The next the en
gine is puffing hoarsely, as much as to say to the
train, chiefly freight, and with only one passenger
car attached : " Come on with you."
No tweed-suited men nor kodak-clicking women
holiday-seekers are on this car crawling into a corner
of little-known Canada. The best-dressed are two
" druraraers " — coramercial travellers — from Winni
peg, sraoking domestic, Canadian -made cigars, talk-

THE BIG TREE IN
STANLEY PARK, VANCOUVER.

THE WILDERNESS AWAKENING. 209
ing shop, complaining that tiraes are not what they
were, that there are too many men " on the road,"
that Winnipeg sends out 180 raen, whereas five years
ago there weren't a couple of dozen.
Most of our fellow-travellers are big-boned
workers in gold, silver, and copper mines. Their felt
hats are battered, their clothes dusty, their boots
frowsy. They sit in forward attitudes, smoking or
chewing cheap cigars, and spitting between their
knees. There are three perky Japanese and a
Japanese woman wearing European clothes which
strangely misfit; also several Chinamen, who com
promise in the matter of garb, and have their queues
circling their heads.
We tumble out at Arrowhead, a jumble town,
blown together, apparently, by the wind. We are
where the Columbia widens into a sinuous lake called
the Arrow, though Snake would be appropriate,
varying in width from one to three mUes, and 124
miles long, untU Robson is reached. On one side is
a new saw-mill, and the song of the cutters can be
heard. A tiny launch is in waiting, and a gang of miners
pitch on board boxes of tinned food and half a cow.
They are off to a camp out of touch with the world.
Soon the launch is away, traUing like a duck in the
distance. The rest of us climb on board the Canadian
Pacific Railway stem-wheel steamer Rossland, a neat
vessel, managed by a superfluity of gentlemen in gilt
braid. Away down the lake we go. The day is chUl,
and a clammy breeze sweeps over the waters. The
o

210 CANADA AS IT IS.
miners sit round the stove, inactive but for smoking
and spitting. The hills rise quickly on either side the
lake, fir-clad. But from many a mountain slope rises
a cone of smoke, fifty of them in a spread of a couple
of miles, mantling the hill -tops duskily, and then
dropping and blanketing the lake, filling the icy air
with acrid and pungent odour.
Lumber camps are on the Arrow side. The
steamer runs her nose ashore, and men skip upon the
bank. The campmen are healthy, sun-parched
fellows. Now and then an " old-tiraer " is met, with
long white beard and long white hair, skin wrinkled
and leathery. Campers come down with pack horses.
Boxes are pitched out, and before the stem-wheel
drags the crunching prow out of the shingle they are
roped on the horses, and a start is made to some mine
in the hills.
When the day ebbed and blackness cloaked
the world, the scene was eerie. Forest fires, livid
patches, were in fifty places. The low-hangiug
moon was hidden, but the sky was spangled with
stars. The hollow of the hUls, where the lake lay,
was pitch. But the little Rossland carried two elec
tric searchlights, luminous eyes that looked for a
mile across the water.
Far down we saw a camp fire and a swinging
lamp. Somebody wanted to come aboard. The
stearaer was run ashore , and the electric lights flared
upon the carap. The vivid electric glow, lighting
sharply but making the shadows strong, roused a
picture curiously unreal.
Have you seen a stage setting of a camp scene in

<OOo
1^o<0.UlI
I-2O
o2 _J
D<I111
CD

THE WILDERNESS AWAKENING. 211
a melodrama ? The ground is ochreish ; round the
camp fire sit men in baggy shirts ; behind, the trees
are silhouetted against the darkness. That was the
scene on the Arrow shore, only it looked raore
theatrical than any camp scene on a stage.
In black night we got to West Robson. The
searchlights of the boat revealed a long and weedy
trestle pier. But when we were alongside switches
were attached, and the electric light of the ship raade
fifty bulbs burst into illumination, so that the pier
was as bright as day. Other switches were attached,
and we were in telephonic coraraunication with the
new-born little town.
This is the jumping-off place for the new raining
regions of Southern British Columbia. Like the out
stretched fingers of a hand, railroads push between
the mountains to Trail, a great smelter centre, to
Rossland, basking in the glory of a mining boom, and
where are Le Roi and other famous mines, to Grand
Forks and Greenwood, bursting into fame. Steamers
ply up and down the arras of the Arrow.
A railway journey of twenty-eight railes brings
you to Nelson, a hustling town of seven thousand
folks. Streets run straight up the hill-sides, and
from Kootenay Lake the electric lights are like
ribbons of Uluraination. Here is a town of little more
than yesterday's birth, stuck in a corner of the world ;
yet it has fine buildings, churches, and an electric
car system. On one side is a grimy smelter, and four
miles away Toad Mountain yields vast quantities of
ore brought down by aerial tramway.
The mines of the province have given about

212 CANADA AS IT IS.
£40,000,000 steriing of wealth. Last year the
mineral production was worth £4,000,000. Some
thing like £12,000,000 worth of placer gold has been
won, nearly £4,000,000 worth of silver, over
£2,000,000 worth of lead, and £12,000,000 worth of
coal and coke. Not a fifth of the mineral bearing
land has been prospected. There are stUl 300,000
railes of country to be explored.
For nearly fifty years adventurous spirits have
wandered from the Pacific coast into the mountains
and followed golden trails up the banks of streams.
Sifting the sandy debris of the Fraser is the
occupation to-day of many Chinamen. Roughly they
make half a sovereign a day.
It is over forty years since the rich placers in the
Cariboo district at the headwaters of the Fraser were
found, and yielded gold worth £10,000,000. That
brought the gold-rush to the province ; gold has been
worked ever since ; but the mountainous regions, the
difficulty of carrying provisions, and, much more, the
impossibility of transporting machinery, checked the
gold winning. The gold could only be reached by
pack-horses over trails. Yet in ten years over
£6,000,000 worth of gold was dug out with pick and
shovel. The gold was skimraed from accessible areas,
and it looked as though the day of the gold-miner was
over. Then came the railways, throwing an arm up
this valley and another up that. Steamers were put
on the rivers and the lakes. Water-ways were joined
with short raUroad lines.
So to-day the ranges and the ravines of British
Columbia are being interlaced with the sinews of

THE WILDERNESS AWAKENING. 213
communication; machinery can be carried, and
hydraulic mining is used. Instead of gold-raining
being in its dotage it is only in its infancy.
Largely capitalised companies are at work with
scientific equipments. There would be greater
development if there was not such a shortage of
labour. The life is hard, there are few comforts, the
mines are far from town gaieties. The workman is
not attracted. Miners earn frora 12s. to 14s. a day,
helpers and labourers get from 8s. to 10s., black
smiths and mechanics can easily earn a pound a day.
Gold mining is a life which appeals to raen of
daring. Many — most of thera — are uncultured,
scornful of convention ; yet in thera is a romantic and
adventurous spark ; the code of honour in not touch
ing another man's gold is strict ; when a man is sick
strangers will care for him with tenderness.
The gold-digger invariably is a gambler. Money
comes easily, and it goes profusely. When a raan sets
out to the diggings it is not with the intention of
being content with twelve or twenty shillings a day
as the servant of a company. He soon learns about
the finding of gold. He has one or two pals. They
pool their savings, and one morning " haul out " on
a prospecting expedition for themselves. The stern
est of hardships are before them ; they may lose their
all and crawl back into camp, worn and haggard
raen, seeking work again. But they have the gam
bler's creed : " Never venture, never win ! " and they
are confident.
It does not cost much to becorae a gold-digger in
British Colurabia. A free miner's certificate costs

214 CANADA AS IT IS.
£1 a year. This permits the holder to prospect on
all Crown lands, to locate claims, and mine. A free
miner can hold, by location, only one claim on the
same vein or lode, but he can obtain others by pur
chase. Many men stake out claims, don't work them
themselves, but sell their rights to others who are
willing to take chances ' ' how they pan out. ' ' Three
or four men working together and striking a long
vein locate adjoining claims. They lie low if they
hit " something rich." They don't want a rush to
their region. If neighbouring locations are good they
give the tip to friends. Often great secrecy is main
tained about the yield of a claim. Of course, if the
finders want to sell out they boora the richness of the
vein with a volubility that would do credit to the
agent of an Araerican land company.
With pack-horses laden with provisions, a flimsy
tent, several axes and shovels, the prospectors set off
for some district about which there have been whis
pers. When a streak of gold is found, expected to
pay for the working, each man stakes his claim in a
rectangular piece of ground not exceeding 1,500
square feet. Three posts must be erected, not less
than four feet high, and square at the top. A tree
stump cut and squared will do. On each post must be
written the name of the claim, the owner, and the
date of location. Each post must declare the direc
tion of the other two posts. Further, the location
line must be distinctly marked — in a timbered
locality by blazing trees and cutting under-brush,
and in a bare country by mounds of earth or rock. A
claira raust be notified in the Mining Recorder's

M^ ;¦ vv j:?f

THE WILDERNESS AWAKENING. 215
Office within fifteen days frora the date of location,
one day extra being allowed for each ten railes of
distance from the office after the first ten miles.
In placer raining there are " creek diggings,"
mines in the beds of streams or ravines ; ' ' bar dig
gings," mines between high- and low-water mark;
"dry diggings," mines always free from water;
"precious stone diggings," deposits of precious
stones, whether in veins, beds, or gravel deposits.
Placer claims are smaller than mineral claims, but
the regulations are much the same.
Drop, as I have done, into an eating-house in a
mining carap and listen to the talk. It is of gold and
silver and copper, with an occasional aside about
bear shooting: Every raan is able to wink his eye,
and let it be understood he knows where is the
richest vein in all Canada, but he is keeping it dark
tUl sorae corapany coraes along willing to give a
raillion dollars for the claira. When you have had
an hour of the sarae story from a dozen lips with a
dozen variations you recall Mark Twain : " A mine
is a hole in the ground, and the owner of the hole is
a liar. ' '
There is a break in the railway coraraunication
between Nelson and the line which crawls into the
mountains by way of the Crow's Nest Pass to join
the main Une at Medicine Hat on the prairie.
In the chUl blackness of four o'clock in the morn
ing a steamer flaps her stern wheel, and you set off
fifty odd railes round an elbow of the Kootenay Lake
to the Kootenay Landing. The morning comes grey
and foggy.

216 CANADA AS IT IS.
A rough crew are we who sit down to breakfast.
Afterwards there is a general lounge round the stove,
where there is silent smoking and much spitting.
We call at lumber and raining camps. The men are
often in dark jerseys, and have large kerchiefs loosely
wrapping the throat.
So to Kootenay Landing, a wooden platform high
on the top of inverted trees driven but a little into
the sedge. This is the beginning of the Crow's Nest
route which ends 394 miles away at Dunmore Junc
tion, in Assiniboia. There is much to see, the cross
ing of the Goat River canyon, where a river wildly
seethes, the breasting of the Selkirk Range, the run
through heavUy timbered land, the climb into the
Rockies, the twisting and the turning of the Loop,
travelling three miles to rise two hundred feet from
the spot immediately below, the little station of
Crow's Nest perched in the mountains at an altitude
of 4,410 feet, and then the long run between the
mountains, down and down tiU the plains are
reached, and all the world looks flat.
The practical interest, however, is the awaken
ing of this region. One or two out-of-the-way settle
ments were all the signs of civilisation four or five
years ago. Now, and especially within the last
couple of years, the way is dotted with towns. They
have populations of a thousand, and think themselves
enormous ; they have populations of half a dozen,
and intend to be enormous. They are all ugly,
duraped anyhow. The roadways are masses of foul
mire, and thousands of discarded preserved meat and
fruit cans litter the way. Everything is confusion

THE WILDERNESS AWAKENING. 217
and filth. Sickness pervades the route, chiefly
typhoid fever. There is no sanitation, the drinking
water is contaminated, and over go many of the
population. Indeed, the neglect of sanitation in
these West Canadian towns is appalling. I know of
no country outside the East where sanitation is so
neglected. The hospital at Winnipeg last autumn
was full of typhoid patients, and there was not a
town I visited between Winnipeg and the Rockies
where the people were not scared by the epidemic
of typhoid. Many of the towns were sinks of this
fell disease.
All towns are raining towns. The dirtiest town
was Femie, born six years ago, and now a busy
place. It is at the raouth of Coal Creek, but its
hotels and stores and large residences are little com
pensation for the atmosphere laden with coal-dust,
the whole place dingy with coal-dust, and the people
with countenances smeared with coal-dust. The
dirt offends you — until the offence is swaUowed in
marvel how, within a handful of years, man has
forced his way into this region, gripped it by the
beard as it were, and compelled it to yield its trea
sures to the world.
But sometiraes the genii of the raountains claira
a price for the disturbance. I saw the raining town
of Frank on the eastern dip of the Crow's Nest.
Two years ago a raighty slice of the mountain-side
broke loose. In the twinkling of an eye houses were
crushed, lives lost, the railway track smothered.
The ddbris, great boulders, Baalbek-like chunks of
rock, overspread the low land two railes one way and

218 CANADA AS IT IS.
a mile and a half the other. Eighty-four lives
vanished in that disaster, probably one of the most
stupendous landslips that has ever fallen upon a
town. Yet Frank is growing briskly on the edge
of this tumbled tomb. I saw the scene in bright
moonlight. There was the black mountain, with the
grey gap. There lay the boulders, cracked, cre-
vassed, and hummocked, like a jamb in a sea of ice
— cruel, ghastly, raaking the blood run chUl.
Soon the raountains are left behind, and the
plains reached. The train is a raeteor of light rush
ing through featureless space. Midnight and Mac
leod Station arrive together.
The night is clear but icy, and the little ranching
town is two railes away. There is a canvas-sheltered
conveyance with a larap dimly burning. The driver
would be facetious, but when you have awakened
from a doze and come from a cosy car into chill mid
night, there is no disposition to reciprocate.
As the conveyance rocked slowly on her way
along the traU to the town, the thought came, as
it carae a hundred times during my wanderings :
" How like Canada is to Siberia."

219

CHAPTER XVIII.
AMONG THE FOOTHILLS OF THE ROCKIES : THE LIFE
OF THB RANCHER.
THE "broncho-buster," the "cow-puncher,"
and the men who ranch among the foothills of
the Canadian Rockies are neither so pictur
esque in garb, so lurid in language, nor so daring in
performance as the stay-at-home imagines. The days
of "raising hell and playing Cain " are nigh over.
Cowboys no longer — if they ever did — spend their
time riding unrideable horses, which rear and plunge
and roll, or whoop across the boundless prairie swing
ing lassoes over their heads to catch stampeding
cattle by the hind hoof and down them. Nor are
they any longer in the habit of dashing from camp
into the nearest town to make the townfolk dance
on the side-walk by playing bullets round them.
Nor do they ride their horses into the drinking
saloon, knock off the neck of a bottle of rye whisky
with a revolver, and guess they'd have a drink of
that. I have heard many stories of such happenings in
Medicine Hat, Macleod, and Calgary ; but they took
place long ago. The events of five years are pressed
into the anecdotes of five minutes, and the stories
have become picturesque with time.
As you sit on the stoop of the little hotel at

220 CANADA AS IT IS.
Macleod , which is the oldest of the new towns in the
West, and was Fort Macleod, an outpost to keep
the Blood Indians in check, before it becarae a
typical ranching town, you talk and sraoke with
ranchers — " old-timers " many of them. They are
lithe and scraggy framed, big fisted, and sharable
gaited ; their cheeks have been yellowed and
wrinkled with sun and snow glare ; heavy wrinkles
on either side the eyes. They are unshaven and un
combed ; their clothes are baggy and unfitting, and
their hats ready for the scare-crow. They sit loung-
ingly, cross-legged, talk in a drone but confidentially,
sraoke incessantly, and expectorate unceasingly.
You pick out a man you don't think worth ten cents.
He is really worth fifty thousand dollars, not in hard
cash, but in cattle.
" No, sir; ranching ain't what it was," says he.
" In the old days we squatted on the foothills,
where there was good feed and water. We haven't
got the snows they have back in the middle west.
The cattle just grew into money. But now, with
the inrush of settlers, getting horaesteads, and buy
ing land frora the Government, we ranchers are
being pushed back into the hUls."
A young buck, astride a fiery brute, comes pacing
down the wide Macleod street. The saddle is high
pommelled ; the stirrups Mexican ; by the side hangs
the useful lasso ; on the back of the rider's head is a
broad, flat-brimmed, much-dented felt hat, held
by an elastic band. He goes by with a swagger, a
fine specimen of bronzed and lusty young manhood.
For a moment the air is full of dust. Then Macleod

THE LIFE OF THE RANCHER. 221
—widespread, making the most of its thousand
inhabitants — slips back into slumberous basking in
the Indian summer, that breath of crisp warmth
which creeps over Canada in October, when at home
the days are muggy, and the atmosphere is hazy.
Across the way a couple of swarthy men are lean
ing against a wall, laughing lowly, and then tossing
a coin, who pays for cigars. A rig has just pulled up
outside the little bank, and the horse is tethered to
an iron weight. You can walk a little and see the
prairie stretching into distance. Behind you is the
earth, making its first heave towards the Rockies.
A group of Englishmen, frora a ranch up-country,
swing in. These are tenderfeet, men in their first
year, still wearing their English clothes and Oxford
ties and cloth caps and leather gaiters — curiously
exotic in this part of the world. There is a little,
high-noted affectation in their voices, which you
don't notice at home because you are always hear
ing it, but which heard suddenly in Western Canada,
explains why Jake Canuke thinks all young English
men la-di-da-dy snobs. They are nothing of the kind.
Maybe they are younger sons, who have failed in
their examinations for the army and the bar — a bit
wild, noisy certainly, with more money than is quite
good for them at the start; inclined, as healthy
young Englishmen are inclined, to think they know
all about everything, and get laughed at in conse
quence ; but genuine men, true as steel, who in a
few years will be good Canadians, and round up
steers with the best.
' ' See that fellow sitting at the window ? ' ' says

222 CANADA AS IT IS.
a rancher. "He's an English baronet. Oh, no;
he's just plain ' Mister ' here. He don't look like
a baronet, do he? Yes, we get all sorts out
ranching." Two red-coats ride by. " North-West Mounted
Police ! They used to be mostly gentlemen bom ;
ne'er-do-wells in your big families, shot out here to
be got rid of. Good chaps, though, many of them.
But it ain't like the old times in the early 'seventies,
when the whisky traders were about, filling up the
Indians on vile alcohol, then buying their skins
cheap and fighting their way back. Why, I remem
ber when everybody knew everybody fifty miles
round. Nobody thought anything of riding thirty
miles to see a friend, hitch up, and stay a few days.
But that's all altered now — too many ranchers.
Lose cattle? Not often. But I remeraber '85, when
a third of the cattle was lost in the snow. I came up
frora Montana that year delivering cattle to a fool
Englishman who insisted on them being driven
several hundreds of mUes and branded. Of course,
they were in bad condition, and most of them died."
The eastern foothiUs of the Rockies, frora the
boundary-line of the States up to Red Deer, in
Northern Alberta, and as far toward the plains as
Medicine Hat and even Maple Creek, are ranches.
Mostly the ranches are far frora the railway line, be
cause farraers are buying up the land for wheat-
growing. The cattle roam over the hills untended,
mixing often with the cattle of another ranch. But
every animal is supposed to be branded. The most
deadly of all sins is to put your brand on a steer

ROSSLAND, A NEW TOWN IN BRITISH COLUMBIA,

THE LIFE OF THE RANCHER. 223
which, though unbranded, you know well doesn't
belong to you. At long intervals are bunches of
horses or cows raunching the pasture.
The ranch houses are usually unpicturesque
shacks, belieing the wealth of the raen who live in
thera. Now and then there is a grand round-up.
The cowboys ride for railes to get on the outer ring
of the straying cattle. They are driven together and
each rancher picks out his property. If a shipment
of the cows is to be made, the beasts are corraled.
This is interesting. If 250 head are wanted, about
400 are driven to the huge white-washed fences of
corrals by the side of the railroad track. There is no
hullabaloo or shouting or lasso swinging. The cattle
are quietly pressed without knowing it. Once fright
touches them, away they stampede, and no cowboys
will round thera up again that day. Sometimes a
wily old bull will lead the herd into the corral. Here
the animals are selected and driven up a gangway
into the waiting cars. Everybody keeps silent while
this is done. To talk will cause the brutes to
" mUl," that is, they get into bunches, heads down
and together, and begin tramping round and round,
hind quarters outward. To break a "mill" is
difficult. When broken the cattle are restless, and
there is great work getting thera to the cars.
The romance of cow-punching is a fine thing in
novels. In actual life cow-punching, though healthy
and exhilarating, is hard labour with many anxieties.
It has its fascination. When I was among the cow
boys of Alberta the old feeling I experienced in other
days, among the cowboys in the hills of Wyoming,

224 CANADA AS IT IS.
down south, came back. Writing newspaper articles
in the hurry of the night seemed a poor garae com
pared with a dash across the prairie in the early
grey. What were political harangues about Free
Trade and Protection compared with the breezy talk
round the ranch fire of an evening? What were
frock coats and silk hats and starched collars and
city streets in coraparison with a skin coat and
slouch hat and red handkerchief round the neck, and
the hills of God for your promenade?
The cowboy frequently has manners of speech not
suitable to a P.S.A. gathering. Despite his length
and his tan, and the blue of his eye, he would be
awkward in a London drawing-room. But he has
a cleaner heart than most of the men to whom you
mutter "How d'ye do?" in London drawing-
rooms. Roughly, three hundred thousand square miles of
the North-West are available for ranching. This
" Great Lone Land," as it was called, the haunt of
the buffalo and the hunting-ground of the Indian, is
now the place where Englishmen rear horses and
cattle and sheep, not only for the Canadian, but for
the English market. Twenty-five years back there
were not a thousand pale-faces in the mighty stretch
known as the North-West Territories. Now it is re
ceiving a hundred thousand immigrants a year. To
start wheat-growing needs little beyond brawn and
energy. But money, and much of it, is needed to
start ranching on a profitable scale. The land, how
ever, does not cost much. Leases for grazing are
issued for a term of twenty-one years, and the rent

THE LIFE OF THE RANCHER. 225
is at the rate of one penny an acre per year. The
right to cut hay is not included in the rent. For
whatever hay is to be cut the settler must pay five-
pence an acre or fivepence a ton. The grasses are
excellent. Ranching' country being high, the grasses
stop growing early in the suraraer, and the bright
sunshine of the fall cures the stalk. Accordingly,
good food is provided for the winter. This was dis
covered, like so raany other iraportant things, by
accident. In the old days pioneers abandoned their
poor, worn, played-out horses, expecting them to die.
It was the finding of these aniraals in the spring,
fat and healthy, having fared well on the dried
grasses, that told the settlers the cattle could look
after themselves in the winter without any stall feed
ing. Snow faUs, but the hot breath of the " Chi
nook ' ' winds wastes and evaporates it within a day.
So the brown, sun-bleached grasses of the prairie,
making the uplands look drear and bare in the fall
of the year, are excellent beef producers.
The beginning of ranch life in this mighty slice
of a continent was small indeed. Picture to yourself
a little band of soldiers, having set out months be
fore from Fort Garry, now the noisy city of Winni
peg, reaching the curving Old Man's River in
October of 1873. They were men of the North-West
Mounted Police, who had pushed into the unknown,
carrying the Union Jack with them and intent on
putting down the constant petty wars between
Indian tribes. Their leader was named Macleod.
Their halting-place, fortified in a rough way to resist
attack, was Fort Macleod. Close by grew the little
P

226 CANADA AS IT IS.
town of Macleod, with wide streets, churches, banks,
a decent hotel, and an unassuming little club-house,
where you can see the Graphic, and Punch, and the
Times less than a fortnight old. The only cattle
in the country were what the police had brought
with them — two old milch cows and a few yokes of
oxen known out West as "bull teams." A little
herd of cattle was soon afterwards driven up from
Montana to supply the police with beef.
In 1876 a man named John B. Smith, frora
Sun River, Montana, carae to Macleod, driving
before him one bull and fourteen cows with their
calves, making a total of twenty-five head. That
was the pioneer herd of ranch cattle in Western
Canada. Smith wanted money, and he sold his
stock to a policeman named Whitney. Whitney
thought there raight be money in them as beef for
the fort. He couldn't, however, look after thera,
and he just turned them loose. They might have all
died from prairie fires, winter snow, hungry wolves,
raging buffalo, or the arrows of the Indians. In the
spring of 1877 two policemen set off to " round up "
any cattle they might find. That was the first
"round up" in the North-West. Twenty-five
beasts had been turned loose; twenty-five were
brought into the fort. After that bunches of cattle
came in. Ranching got on the " boom." Huge
ranching companies took up tens of thousands of
acres. The cattle to a great extent take care of them
selves. They are "rounded up " to be branded or
exported. The slope of the Canadian Rockies is

THE LIFE OF THE RANCHER. 227
really one great ranch of 200,000,000 acres. There
are to-day about 600,000 head of horses and cattle,
and 200,000 sheep pasturing on it. At present each
horse, cow, or sheep has an average of about 250
acres to itself. There seems plenty of room for
newcomers, despite the lament of the old rancher I
met at Macleod.
While Canada's ranching country is only some
12,000,000 acres less than that of the United States
—195,000,000 acres to 207,000,000 acres— the stock
reared falls far below in numbers. There are not
half the number of horses in the Territories as in
the three states of Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana,
not a fifth of the cattle, and not an eighteenth of the
sheep. I have recollections of the three ranching
states, and I can easily say that in quality they lag
far behind the Territories. One good proof of this
is that all cattle raised in the Western states of
America are sent to the Mississippi Valley to be
fattened, and the beef sweetened with better food
before they are ready for the butcher, whilst Cana
dian cattle and sheep are shipped direct, with no
grain-finishing process to get them into condition.
As an eater of beef and mutton, I know the Canadian
product is superior to the American. But Canadian
is still a long way behind English beef and mutton.
Though it was pleasant to meet men from the
old country and talk of places and people, there was
no doubt that the men who were making raost
dollars in ' ' punching cows ' ' were men from Wyo
ming and Montana, and even frora as far south as
Texas and Mexico. Yet plenty of young English-

228 CANADA AS IT IS.
men are working hard and are doing well. The life
changes them.
I came across a striking example of this. There
were two brothers — Oxford raen. One went into the
army, and the other went ranching. I travelled
several days with the army man — smart, cultured,
and with the little Oxford mannerism stUl on his
tongue. Later, I met his brother in the raountains.
Three years had rubbed all the polish off hira ; his
hands had become big and heavy ; there was the
slowness of speech that comes to every man who lives
in close touch with nature. A certain rugged inde
pendence was in his manner. As we were dining
together in an hotel he told me with modest en
thusiasm of his life twenty-five miles from the neigh
bouring ranch. A couple of young ladies, accom
panying their parents on a holiday tour, entered the
dining-room. The eyes of the ranchman foUowed
them. He laughed softly, and then said : " Do you
know, those are the first girls I have seen for nearly
three years ! ' '
The cowboy spends rauch of his time rounding-
up. There are the spring round-ups and the fall
round-ups, there are bull round-ups, beef round-ups,
and calf round-ups. The bulls have to be herded,
the sickly cows seen to, the weaners to be fed. With
no such thing for hundreds of miles as fences, the
cattle of different ranches stray and mix. Every
year there are eighteen well organised round-ups all
over Western Canada, a general sorting-out of pro
perty, and getting the beasts on the range.
The number of men in a spring round-up is

THE LIFE OF THE RANCHER. 229
anything from a dozen to thirty. There is a cap
tain, a horse wrangler, a couple of cooks, and the
rest cowboys. Every cowboy has with him a string
of eight or nine horses, to be used alternately, for
rounding-up is arduous work.
Away the party goes in the direction of the
cattle. Fires blaze on the hUls, the saddles are the
pillows, mother earth the couch, and the sky the
roof. Breakfast is in the dusk of the morn. Horses
not wanted are put in a flimsy corral of rope. The
boys mount, and in twos and threes strike in all
directions. When straying herds are sighted they
are whooped into a bunch. Then the boys push
into the herd and cut out the cows and calves, edging
them to the outside, where other boys see that they
don't break away. The " cut " cows and calves are
quietly driven toward the branding corral. Then
the lasso comes into play. A boy goes after a
riotous calf. The rope is thrown ; the well-trained
horse sets itself taut, for there comes a violent jerk
as the calf is caught by the hind legs and thrown to
the ground. Before the calf has begun to be aston
ished it is pounced upon by a man with a branding
iron, and hieroglyphics are burnt upon its hide. The
calf always gets the brand borne by its mother.
There is plenty of opportunity to steal calves and
put the wrong brand on them. But not to touch
another man's cattle is, as I have said, the first
principle of morality in a cow-puncher's life.
Behind the exhilarating, romance-tinged life of
the rancher is the serious business of money-making.
Plenty of money is made. The most profitable line

230 CANADA AS IT IS.
is the maturing of stocker cattle. Ranchers are able
to buy, delivered at their nearest station, in car
loads of forty head or so, weaned calves at about
£2 10s. each, yearling steers at £3 10s. or £4, and
two-year-old steers at from £4 to £5. A year-old
steer can be turned out on the range to shift for
himself. A three-year-old sells easUy at from £8 to
£10, whUe a four-year-old fetches from £9 to £11.
Of course, there are winter losses. They vary much
in different districts, but I calculate that 5 per cent.
is a fair average. The calf crop is usually excellent,
varying from 65 to 80 per cent, of the breeding stock.
Under the encouragement of the Territorial Govern
ment, pure bred bulls — Shorthorns, Herefords,
Polled Angus, and Galloway usually — have been in
troduced. So the long-homed, slab-sided, range
steer is disappearing ; the quality is improving. I
heard of a train-load of four-year-old steers, after
being driven 140 mUes, and shipped by raU 2,300
miles to Montreal, weighing at the end of the trip
on an average 1,385 pounds.
The sheep business is yet in its infancy. Cattle
men do not look kindly upon sheep, because they
will eat out a range and make it impossible for
cattle-grazing. What slaughter of sheep and murder
of shepherds there has been by outraged cattlemen
down in the States for this very reason ! The
Canadian Government has prepared for possible con
flict in the Dominion by setting aside great areas for
sheep-grazing. In regard to horses, the old, rough method of
" broncho-busting " is disappearing. Ranch horses,

ooz o
DCm

THE LIFE OF THE RANCHER. 231
after four or five years of prairie freedom and then
broken violently, are not by any raeans the best for
the general market. Indeed, it has been learned
that huge herds of horses, with indiscriminate mat
ing, do not pay. So the tendency now is to rear
small and good herds, have the best brood mares, and
all the animals properly halter broken. The Terri
tory colt is beginning to be excellent. At present
there are about 150,000 horses in the Territories.
Three-quarter bred Clydes and Shires, which at
maturity will weigh 1,400 to 1,600 pounds, find a
local sale at three years old for from £20 to £40 a
head. Light horses, for saddle or driving, fetch from
£15 upwards.
To the young Englishman, with knowledge of
cattle, some raoney, fond of a bracing, open life,
willing to rough it, there is no raore inviting life
than ranching on the foothills of the Rockies. I saw
lots of Englishmen ; there is room for plenty more.
There are not the pleasures of the city ; but there are
deeper, more abiding pleasures.
The last day I spent in the ranching district will
long linger in memory. We had been away south
from Macleod, visiting the reserve of the Blood
Indians, following the long trail down to Montana,
and fording a river up to the belly-bands of the
horses. At times we met incoming settlers, with
white-hooded " prairie schooners," and driving their
fifty or sixty head of cattle before them. All over
the heaves of the hills were herds. As evening
closed there was the ping of winter in the air. A
russet haziness was on the illimitable land — the

232 CANADA AS IT IS.
result of Indian prairie fires somewhere — and when
the moon rose it was an orange ball. The gallop
ing riders, laughing, joking, setting their horses
against one another in race, seemed shadowy and
mysterious on those great silent lands, with not even
the hoot of a night bird to be heard. It was a true
Western picture. But there was no Western crude-
ness, such as you read of in story-books. There was
a dashing young horsewoman, who gave the pace
across the prairie, and it was only a few months
before I had met her in an EngUsh drawing-room.
And out in Alberta I saw, as I have noted in
many parts of the world, the quick adaptabUity of
the Saxon to new surroundings. Indeed, to my
thinking, that is the secret of Britain as a colonial
power.

233

CHAPTER XIX.
THE POLITICS OF THE DOMINION.
I WAS in the Dominion during the whirl of the
General Election of 1904, which resulted in the
return to office of Sir Wilfrid Laurier and the
Liberal party by a larger majority than before.
Canadians are divided into Conservatives and
Liberals. But the descriptions are not in line with
those of the two parties at home. Ardent Britons —
worn with much arguing over the Fiscal problem
which, on its solution, is to bind the old country and
the Colonies in tight bonds of commercial and senti
mental union — need not look to the result of that
contest for guidance as to Colonial views on the
policy of preference to old England or frora old
England. The subject was third in iraportance to
the electors of Canada.
The first issue was that the Liberals were in
power, and the Conservatives wanted to get in.
The Conservatives accused the Liberals of corrup
tion, and the Liberals hoped to be returned to save
Canada from Conservative corruption.
The second issue was whether the new trans
continental railway — cutting through a mighty tract
of rich country north of that sliced by the Canadian
Pacific Railway — should be a Governraent line or
belong to the Grand Trunk Railroad Company,

234 CANADA AS IT IS.
which controls thousands of miles of raU in both
Canada and the United States. The Conservative
party were the agitators for Government control, not
because they really favoured such a policy, but be
cause the Liberals were against Governraent control.
The Liberals denounced the buUding of the first
trans-continental line. Now they are the zealous
advocates of a second line, and say there is room for
a third and a fourth. The Conservatives do not deny
the need of a second line, but as the Government wUl
have to guarantee nine-tenths of the hundreds of
millions of dollars for construction, they raised the
cry that the Government should provide ten-tenths,
go the whole hog, and let the profits go to Canada
instead of into the pockets of Grand Trunk share
holders, most of whom live in England and the
United States.
The Liberals bawled that a Government railway
would be extravagantly worked, and be run in cor
ruption ; the Conservatives retorted with suggestions
that the Liberals had granted permission to the
Grand Trunk to build the Une because they had, by
crooked raeans, increased their banking accounts.
Whether the second trans-continental line was to
be or not to be a State railway was the main issue
of the Canadian General Election. The Conserva
tives were the extreme Radical-cum-Fabian-cum-
Socialist champions ; the Liberals were the upholders
of private ownership and the denouncers of Govern
ment monopolies. So, from the Englishman's point
of view, Canadian politics are somewhat topsy-turvy.
A long way behind came the question of trade

POLITICS OF THE DOMINION. 235
preference in the British Empire. The Conserva
tives were and are in favour of a closer commercial
union with the Mother Country ; they are patriotic,
and platforms are decorated with banners bearing
Lord Dundonald's famous advice to Canada, " Keep
both hands on the Union Jack!" The Liberals,
headed by Sir Wilfrid Laurier himself, are luke-
warra in attachraent to Great Britain, though they
want to be loyal to " the Empu-e," and are certainly
loyal to Canada. The Conservatives insist that the
Liberals are not loyal, chiefly because the Liberal
party is swayed by the French-Canadian vote. The
Liberal answer is that it was the Laurier Administra
tion which gave British goods a preference of 33J
per cent, over foreign goods entering the Dominion.
" We gave it out of love, asking for nothing in
return," was the beautiful assertion of Sir WUfrid.
This sacrifice on the part of Canada has stirred a
responsive thrill in many a British breast. Public
meetings have cheered loudly in acknowledgment
of this affectionate 33 J per cent, tribute by the
Daughter-land to the Motherland. The tribute was
pretty ; it was patriotic ; it was something to use
in the peroration of a political speech.
But let the truth be told even though perora
tions suffer. It was nothing raore than an adroit
political move on the part of Sir Wilfrid Laurier and
his party. For long they had been accused of being
unpatriotic towards Britain, that they favoured
reciprocity with the United States rather than with
England, and that nothing in the way of binding
Britain and the Britains beyond the seas need be

236 CANADA AS IT IS.
expected from the Premier and his friends. When
Sir WUfrid suggested reciprocity with the United
States he was snubbed by them. The cock-of-the-
walk attitude of the States towards the Dominion
touched Canadians to the quick. They resented it,
and resent it stiU.
It was because Sir Wilfrid was a " low tariff
man ' ' that he advocated reciprocity with the States.
But as he could not get reciprocity he hit upon a
scheme which staggered the Conservatives. He got
a partially lowered tariff by making his party de
clare : ' ' We will give a preference to the Empire
against the world." A 33 per cent, preference was
given. England cheered. There was true love of
the old land for you !
Thus at one sweep Sir WUfrid Laurier made a
move toward low tariffs, which he has always ad
vocated, and shut the mouths of his enemies, the
Conservatives, who are high tariff men and patriots,
and had constantly declared that neither he nor his
party would ever do anything to bring Great Britain
and her Colonies into closer commercial ties.
To put it baldly. Sir WUfrid, whilst waving the
Union Jack, aimed a blow at the Canadian manu
facturer, who winced, but said little, for he had been
a great waver of the Union Jack himself.
The Government of Canada is a sort of wheels
within wheels. The Canadians acknowledge Great
Britain, but the legal tie is so flimsy that it might be
broken and nobody know the difference. The
Governor-General, representative of the King, is
accepted with a mUdly amused tolerance. If he

POLITICS OF THE DOMINION. 237
meddles in the politics of the land he is disliked, but
if he is amiable, and gives good dinner parties, he
does all the Canadians really expect of hira. Of
course he opens Parliament in State, and the gilt,
tinsel, and precedence of Westminster is duplicated
at Ottawa. Jake Canuke, like his brother Jonathan in
the States, has an open scoff for " this tomfool
ery " of gold lace, cocked hats, and blaring trumpets.
In his heart he loves it. His Dominion Parliament
is modelled on our own. His Senate is the equi
valent of the House of Lords, and the Canadian is as
hungry to become a Senator as the Englishman is
supposed to be to enter the Peerage. There is the
covered Throne, the crimson benches, the plush
carpet, the red settees for the judges — only now the
judges don't attend the opening of Parliament be
cause there were quarrels among their women-kind
about precedence — always a troublesome point in a
democracy. The House of Commons is a copy of the
dingy Chamber on the banks of the Thames. The
only difference is that the Ottawa House is raore
dingy. The Speaker sits in a big chair. Canadians
couldn't have so mediaeval a thing as a wigged
Speaker. So he compromises by wearing evening
dress in the afternoon, like a Frenchman at a wed
ding. Formerly he wore white kid gloves ; but white
gloves worn on hot afternoons have their disadvan
tages. They were dropped. The Government sit
to the right of the chair, and the Opposition to the
left. The Serjeant-at-Arms has a little pew.
All the Provincial Legislatures in Quebec,

238 CANADA AS IT IS.
Ontario, Manitoba, British Columbia, and even the
little assembly at Regina, for the North-West Terri
tories — about to cease and become the two pri>vinceB
of Saskatchewan and Alberta — imitate the " Mother
of Parliaments." The population of the whole of
Canada is only about that of the county of Lanca
shire, yet the Provincial Legislatures, of not much
more importance than second-rate county councUs,
maintain the elaborate procedure of Westminster,
and cause the visiting Englishman to smile.
Everybody is paid, from the Saskatchewan
farmer, who gets £100 and free railway transport for
attending a fortnight or three weeks at Regina, to
the member of the Dominion House, who gets £300,
free transport, and leather travelling trunks — which
he usually sells at a profit — for five or six months'
attendance at Ottawa. All elected politicians receive
what is politically called an " indemnity." The con
sequence is that the personality of the Canadian
House of Comraons does not corapare favourably
with the British House. It could not be otherwise.
Canada is a new country, and has no leisured class.
No man can afford to take up a political career unless
he is paid. The pay, however, is so small that poli
tics, as a source of livelihood, are avoided except by
those who have failed in other occupations, or by
lawyers " on the make."
Rightly or wrongly, Canadian politicians are not
an esteemed class. Everyone is supposed to be after
" boodle," or "graft," the slang terms applied to
the money which reaches the politician's pocket by
underground agency. A politician is considered to

POLITICS OF THE DOMINION. 239
be slow if he doesn't become rich. " Oh, he gets
$1,500 a year in salary, and manages to save $5,000
a year out of it," is the satirical way in which a
Canadian wUl sometimes refer to his representative.
During the session the lobbies are crowded with con
tractors seeking large Government jobs. There is no
Government contract given without prevalent stories
of bribery. Canada rubs shoulders with the United
States, and methods of American politics are rife.
In Great Britain the tendency is for bye-elections
to go against the Government of the day. In
Canada, the Government candidate is invariably re
turned at a bye-election. The reasoning of the
Canadian electors is logical. If a supporter of the
Opposition is elected, he wUl have no " pull " on the
Governraent to secure special advantages for his con
stituency. A supporter of the Governraent gets
material aid from the " powers that be " in the way
of grants for public buUdings, bridges, roads, post
offices, and a dozen things for the benefit of the local
community. Thus the Government candidate has a
double support — that of the electors, who hope for
advantages, and the monied support of the con
tractors, who expect him to use his influence in get
ting Government jobs with a considerable margin
of profit. The local meraber has more personal influence
with his Government than the representative of any
British constituency, for the constituents have
elected him, not because of a large patriotism, but
because of direct material gain, and the Government
makes grants for improvements knowing that is the

240 CANADA AS IT IS.
best way to prepare for the General Election, when
the member can point to deeds in proof that he has
looked after the interests of his constituents. Thus
the Government in power is difficult to tum out.
The constituency has been ' ' salted ' ' with improve
ments. Money from the big contractors is flung into
the party war chest by the milUon dollars ; the con
tractors benefit; the member often "stands in"
with the contractor to get a share of the plunder, and
the locality has reaped advantage at public expense.
It is not a high grade of politics. Though the better
type of Canadian bemoans what takes place, the
practice is one which satisfies the majority.
Not only are the constituencies bribed by the
method I have described, but there are other means
adopted which show rottenness in the poUtical body.
Out West, it is not uncommon to " round up " the
half-breed Indians, feed them, fiU them with alcohol,
and then drive them, herd-like, into the poUing booth
to vote for some particular candidate. Instances
have not been unknown of one party to get hold of
the ballot-boxes from a district where it is believed
public opinion has swung the other way, destroy the
boxes, and substitute others filled with bogus voting
papers, giving a majority in favour of the party of
the thieves.
Only a short time ago the case of the Minnie M.
was revealed. This was a vessel hired by the Liberal
party in Ontario, and carried a crowd of imported
Americans. On the election day the Minnie M.
cruised in the Georgian Bay, where there were hun
dreds of lumbermen. Care was taken to plant the

POLITICS OF THE DOMINION. 241
polling booths a long way from the lumber camps.
The Minnie M. arrived at a place where there was a
polling booth. The hired Americans were then
Canadian lumberraen who had come along from
particular camps to record their votes. They all
voted one way, and under naraes that were given to
them. They were taken on to another booth, and
voted agaia under other aliases. This took place
half a dozen times, and the supporter of the Liberal
administration was returned. He has since been
unseated. But the case, though extrerae, is an
indication of the laxity of raorality in Canadian
politics. To suggest, however, that every man in Canadian
politics has dirty hands is to do an injustice to a
number of honourable raen. It has been ray for
tune to meet politicians of every shade of reputation,
frora Sir Wilfrid Laurier down to the raember who
has been prosecuted for cattle-thieving. Though the
majority of politicians are of a lower status than we
have in England, I had the pleasure of making the
acquaintance of men with as clean records as any who
ever sought the suffrages of a British constituency —
men with lofty aims, who will have nothing to do
with the bribery so prevalent in the Dominion. But
these are the men who are sometimes left behind in
the election contests.
Though the dissolution of the Dominion Parlia
ment came hurriedly there were plenty of indications
that an appeal to the electorate was imminent.
There was a sudden eruption of Government works
all over the country. Though there is out-of-door
Q

242 CANADA AS IT IS.
employment for everybody in the summer months —
and for hundreds of thousands more men if they
could be obtained — the approach of winter and the
slackening of the agricultural and buUding industries
means the throwing out of work of an army of men
chiefly dependent on casual labour. These men are
to be reckoned with at a general election, for man
hood suffrage exists. Accordingly the Government
candidate can easUy show what his party has done,
whilst the Opposition man has either to promise or
convict the other side of extravagance. Accusations
of extravagance are not, however, very effective to an
audience reaping an advantage from the extrava
gance. Many Government appointments were vacant,
and had been vacant for months. " It is a wonder
the Liberals didn't fill them up with their friends
before the dissolution," said I to a departmental head
in Ottawa. He smUed at my British innocence.
"My dear sir," said he, "they have been left
vacant purposely. There are ten men after each
appointment, and they will each work hard for the
return of the party, expecting the vacant office wUl
be their reward. If the vacancies had been filled, one
raan would have been satisfied ; but the party would
not have got the support of the nine disappointed
raen." Accordingly, it will be seen that politics in
Canada are ruled by personal and parochial interests.
Imperial politics, as Britons understand them, play
no active part in Canadian affaire. I don't say there
is no talk of Empire ; there is a great deal ; but

POLITICS OF THE DOMINION. 243
"Empire," when sifted, often means "Canada,"
and " Canada " means " what is the best for me."
Twice I had the pleasure of meeting Sir Wilfrid
Laurier, first at Ottawa, the day after the dissolu
tion of Parliament, and secondly at Quebec, when
we had a long talk about preference between Canada
and Great Britain. The Premier is a pleasing per
sonality, with the suave, smUing courtesy of Mr.
Balfour rather than the vigorous dogmatism of Mr.
Chamberlain. Tallish, with a slim, virile frarae, he
gives you a hand that is large, warm, and generous.
He looks at you with eyes soft as those of a woman,
but Norman, and as blue as summer skies. The
voice is gentle, silvern, delightful to hear. You feel
you are in the presence of the most charming man
in Canada. It is later that you begin to raark other
characteristics — the long straight tight raouth, the
skin slightly sallow and scored with innumerable
lines, the forehead imaginative rather than contem
plative, and on either side tufts of hair tinged with
the snow that never raelts. He speaks pure English,
but every now and then he pronounces a word,
especially words with "r" in thera, as a French
man does. He is a Frenchman — Canadian-French —
in his sympathies, his speech, his courtesy. When
he addresses his constituents it is iu French. The
principal papers which support him in Quebec Pro
vince are printed in French. You can travel hun
dreds of miles, and the farmsteads, the people, and
their speech will remind you of France. Two mil
lion out of six million Canadians speak French as
their mother tongue. And it is this great and

244 CANADA AS IT IS.
increasing French population in Lower Canada
which is the truly dominant factor in Canadian
politics to-day.
Laurier is a Frenchman. He is the first French
man who has been Premier of Canada, and his com
patriots are rightly proud of him. Quebec votes
practically solid for the Laurier candidates — fifty-
eight out of sixty-five seats. The French-Canadians
not only hold the balance of power in the Dominion,
but Quebec Province regulates the representation in
the Dominion Parliament. Quebec has sixty-five
representatives, fixed and definite, and the other pro
vinces rise or fall as their population is proportionate
with that of Quebec. Thus New Brunswick lost seats
last election, whUst the North-West Territories
gained several.
The French-Canadians would vote for Laurier or
for any other Premier, quite apart from politics, if
he were a Frenchman. And it is the French vote as
distinct from the British vote in Canada — for the
French-Canadian, while sufficiently grateful for the
benefits of living under the Union Jack, wouldn't
spend a penny, if left to his own decision, for the
defence of the British Empire — which limits the
range of Canadian politics and keeps them parochial.
The French-Canadian has no interests outside
Canada, few indeed outside Quebec. He is loyal to
Canada, loyal to the Empire in a vague, non-com
mitting way, but loyal to Great Britain — he shrugs
his shoulders.
Discussions in Parliament are conducted in both
languages. When the Speaker of the Senate is

POLITICS OF THE DOMINION. 245
British, then the Speaker of the House of Commons
is French, and vice versd. Debate is carried on at
a disadvantage. The conditions of debate in the
British Houses are not ideal, but merabers have a
chance of gripping their audience, especially if the
chamber is crowded, excited, and electric. There is
nothing of that at Ottawa. Each meraber has a
desk ; so they sit apart, and there is little chance of
that personal affinity which sways a crowd. Men
use their desks for writing letters to their esteeraed
constituents, or reading books, or perusing the news
papers. Unless the raan on his feet is prorainent he
has no chance of being heard.
" But," says the Canadian, intent on being prac
tical, " why should a raember waste his time listen
ing to men he is not anxious to hear, as in your
House in the old country ? ' '

246

CHAPTER XX.
THE DOMINION AND ITS NEIGHBOUR.
YOU cannot consider the political development
of Canada without keeping an eye on the
United States. Though Canada has moved
towards independence, with the slimmest tie to
Great Britain, and though, as I have pointed out,
the spirit of Imperialism is in the Dominion, the
United States, not always accidentally nor simply
by reason of juxtaposition, has exercised an influ
ence over its northern neighbour.
Three-quarters of a century has gone since the de
pendent colonies. Upper Canada and Lower Canada,
were reunited as the Province of Canada, and the
initial steps toward self-government were made. A
long series, however, of gradual concessions by the
Imperial Government at home not only weakened
the influence of Britain, but gave birth to a feeling
among Canadians that Englishmen cared nothing
for the Colonies, and, indeed, regarded them as an
expensive encumbrance. There had been disputes
of long standing between England and America,
and these were settled by the British Government
always to the advantage of the States. Take the
boundary dispute in regard to the State of Maine
and the Canadian region of New Brunswick. It
ended in a compromise by which America got the
larger and fertile half of the disputed land, whUst

THE DOMINION'S NEIGHBOUR. 247
Canada got the lesser and comparatively valueless
half. As Sir J. G. Bourinot in a paper to the
American Historical Association some years ago said,
the English Government gave up to the United
States 11,000 square miles of land, or the cbmbined
areas of Massachusetts and Connecticut. It would,
therefore, be impossible to disabuse the great major
ity of Canadians of the fixed idea, which has come
to them as the heritage of these badly managed
negotiations, that their interests were literally given
away by the too conciliatory and amiable English
Envoy, who knew nothing of the question, and was
quite indifferent, like raost Englishraen of these
days, to Canadian raatters. Lord Ashburton re
ceived the thanks of the British Parliament os
tensibly for removing a long-standing cause of irri
tation between two nations — a wise and commend
able motive when it is not attended with injustice
to one of the parties to the settlement, that party
being in this case Canada. In reality, said Sir J. G.
Bourinot, he should have been thanked for enlarging
the area of Maine. You have only to take a casual
glance at a map to see how Maine presses like a
huge wedge into the provinces of New Brunswick
and Quebec.
UntU recent times — Canada, revealing her
strength as a commercial nation, causing qualms in
the heart of the United States — America never
showed any friendliness to her Canadian sister. A
Reciprocity Treaty was repealed by Congress in
1866, somewhat pettishly, because the Canadians
were supposed to have sympathised with the

248 CANADA AS IT IS.
Confederate States during the Civil War. The hope
was to make Canada so uncomfortable that she
would accept annexation ; indeed, a bill was actually
introduced into the House of Representatives pro
viding for the admission of the two Canadas into the
famUy of the United States !
About that time were the raids of the Fenians,
the avowed enemies of Britain, who gathered
in bands on the frontier of Canada. American
newspapers were full of accounts of the gathering
and arming with the intention of inflicting injury
on Canada. America took no steps to disperse
these men, bent on brigandage in a neighbouring
and friendly country, until loud protests were made.
Then proclamations were issued, and a few men were
arrested. The real temper of America was shown
by the House of Representatives sending a resolu
tion to the President, requesting him to " cause the
persecutions instituted in the United States Courts
against the Fenians to be discontinued if compatible
with the public interest." This was done. Re
sponsibility, by reason of permission and com
plicity, certainly rested upon the United States.
The Fenians were "playing the game" for the
States. Canada was on the eve of Confederation,
an advance and a welding together in political power
which would make more difficult the persistent
schemes of Araerica to irritate and worry Canada
into annexation. In 1867, however, the Imperial
Parliament gave Canada a Federal Union. A Par
liament of United Canada met at Ottawa.
Canada being a comparatively poor country, and

THE DOMINION'S NEIGHBOUR. 249
the United States a comparatively rich country, the
people of the north were naturally anxious to enter
into commercial treaties with the States. Canada's
advances were repulsed, although she was willing
to make concessions. Canada was thrown back
upon herself. Canada, with the grit she has always
shown, began to realise that it wasn't encouragement
from Britain nor commercial courtesy from the
United States that would carry her forward. She
began to stretch her sinews and tighten her muscles.
Canada, instead of remaining two Eastern Pro
vinces, pushed north to Hudson's Bay and the
Arctic Ocean, westwards to the plains, the Rockies,
and the Pacific coast. On the east was Cape Breton
with its coal mines ; on the west was Vancouver
with its timber and fisheries. A great line of rail
way spanned the continent.
When Canada was showing the stuff of which
she was made, the Imperial Government began
openly to recognise her value as an integral part of
the Empire. The old superciliousness towards the
Colonies waned, though it did not disappear. Canada
was consulted on matters of difference between the
British and United States Governments.
Seeking the opinion of Canada in Imperial
councils has had a marked effect. Like all new
nations the Canadians generally affect a mild de
rision toward the legislative ritual which has grown
out of the centuries. Behind that, however, is a
feeling almost of reverence for the majesty of British
rule, a reverence which the Canadian tries to hide
in fear of the derision which he himself would show

250 CANADA AS IT IS.
to a brother Canadian who became enthusiastic in
regard to British institutions. Accordingly, we
have something of a paradox — resentment toward
British domination, and yet a passionate desire to
be a very important part of the British Empire.
It is this sentiment which has done much to create
the belief in Canada that her commercial interests
and prosperity Ue within the Empire rather than
with the United States, which was so long her politi
cal and commercial foe, and which is only now be
ginning to understand that Canada wUl probably be
giving America a Roland for her Oliver.
More than once in previous chapters I have
made reference to the immigration of United States
farmers into the proposed two new provinces of
Saskatchewan and Alberta, better known as the
North-West Territories. The yearly arrival of
50,000 Americans into one particular region might
in time raise an " outlander " question. There is
some dread of political complications. PersonaUy
I think the dread is Ul-founded. ]\Iany of these
immigrants are really Canadians, or the sons of
Canadians, who went to the wheat states of America
before the great wheat tracts of Canada were dis
covered. Further, the man who is attracted soon
realises he is under more equitable government than
he has experienced in the States, and he becomes
a perfectly loyal Canadian. It fills an American
with surprise to get into a land where it is certain
that if a man shoots another he wUl be hanged.
United States money flows into Canada. In
deed , the American capital invested in the Dominion

THE DOMINION'S NEIGHBOUR. 251
is enormous. Many American firms have opened
factories on the Canadian side of the frontier in
order to get behind the tariff. Some big industrial
concerns are ' ' in the pockets ' ' of Americans who
rule thera, and take the profits out of the country.
Whether it be in land or industrial enterprise, on^-
of the hindrances with which Canada will have to
deal is that she is vastly dependent on American
capital. The Canadian is cautious ; the Briton is
shy ; the American is a plunger. Few of the great
developments which require the expenditure of mil
lions can be engineered without the aid of the Araeri
can capitalist. His uses in rousing tremendous
plains to yield wheat, and in starting mills to weave
cloth, are great, but his interest in Canada is purely
commercial ; he puts money into the country so that
he can take out a great deal — perfectly legitimate,
but not without its evU effects, because it subjects
the country, in some particulars, to the worst kind
of exploitation. Remerabering that in times past, when Britain
treated her Colonies with a disdainful aloofness,
Canada had certain hankerings toward joining her
great southern neighbour, and bearing in mind that
when she endeavoured to show her individuality her
neighbour treated her with scorn, and then after
that, there coming a warm appreciation of Canada
by the Mother Country, I ara inclined to look to the
future, and consider what will be the action of the
Canadians, impulsive and generous, but mercurial,
if as the end of the hurly-burly of British politics
of to-day our people at home give the cold shoulder

252 CANADA AS IT IS.
to the Dominion, which is enthusiastic for a great
commercial confederation between the nations of the
Empire? As I have urged and shown, nothing is further
from the Canadian mind than that she enter into
treaties of trade with the United States. But as
the Canadian is touchy, mercurial, hot-headed, he
will construe a refusal of Britain to consider prefer
ence within the Erapire as a snub to himself, he
will become resentful toward Britain, and then he
will not only be a yielding, but a vrilling party to
reciprocity between the Dominion and the States,
a reciprocity not only for mutual advantage, but
in the devising of tariffs which wUl as effectively
keep great quantities of British goods out of the
Canadian market as to-day they are kept out of the
markets of the United States.
The United States is waiting and preparing for
that time. The attitude of the commercial classes
in America toward Canada comes near to deference.
United States newspapers — ^many of which have
enorraous circulations in the Dominion — show keen
interest in the development of the Dominion. The
constant references to ' ' common interests ' ' and
' ' kindred institutions ' ' cannot f aU to have an in
fluence on the minds of a great section of the popu
lation Some time ago Mr. E. E. Gosnell, the secre
tary of the British Columbian Bureau of Informa
tion, met the insidious invitations of the States
with a clear and sane review of the situation.
Canadians, he wrote, are now better off than they

THE DOMINION'S NEIGHBOUR. 253
would be were they to lose their identity by being
merged into a mass of 70,000,000 people. They do
not envy the United States its population. Too
much stress, he adds, is laid on its importance by
both countries. If the population is not of the right
sort it is a great evil, and as years go on, and the
population be of a heterogeneous character, drawn
from all classes and all quarters of the globe, the
evil becomes intensified. It is the potential and not
the numerical factor which counts.
Mr. Gosnell is not enthusiastic over the rush of
immigrants. He fears it will be greater than
Canada's capacity to absorb, and that there will fol
low an era of speculation. If a man is better off in
life when he advances steadily step by step to com
petence than the man who, by nervous, restless ups
and downs, and many heart-breaking vicissitudes,
hopes finally to jump to fortune, then a nation is
decidedly better off when the individual units, as a
whole, are of the forraer class, plodders though they
be. Canada, he admits, can never hope to overtake
the United States population, and does not want to ;
but Canada will have a population with fewer ele
ments of danger and of greater solidarity, a greater
average prosperity and contentment.
' ' We like our political institutions better than
yours. If they are not, they are better suited
to our wants, and move in harmony with our tradi
tions and conditions. Nominally we are under
monarchical rule, but our institutions are as free,
and our meed of liberty, private and public, as great,
as anywhere in the United States. We believe we

254 CANADA AS IT IS.
are more democratic than the United States, and
our Government more representative, and in closer
touch with the public pulse. The United States
cannot turn out a Government in less than four
years ; we can turn ours out and put a new one in in
forty-eight hours.' Compared with the King of Eng
land, the President is an autocrat in the prerogatives
he possesses. Our judiciary and our public officials
are not dependent upon public favour for their
offices, and are therefore in a better position to do
their duties impartially, and with better results than
in the elective system. We should not be as well
off if annexed, because our trade lines are east to
west, and from west to east. We have trade which
is dissimilar in its kind, and we are buUding up a
trade with different parts of the Empire. We could
trade with the United States in some things to our
advantage, but on the whole the States would have
the best of it, particularly in manufactures. With
the boundary line obliterated, our trade would centre
in the great towns of the United States. Branch
railway lines would tap us at every vantage point,
and draw the trade to the States. We should be
under annexation to many States of the Union, and
lose our individuality and nationality. By the
struggle to retain our commercial independence we
have become stronger, greater, and more prosperous
than we could otherwise have become."
That is the calm and reasoned opinion of the
educated Canadian at the present day. But be chill
to him in his desire to confer with other representa
tives of the Empire for joint trade benefit, and let

THE DOMINION'S NEIGHBOUR. 255
the United States offer a treaty of reciprocity — which
may be for a long or a short time — a treaty which is
certain to be liberal to Canada, and the love of
Empire wUl then, I am afraid, not be sufficiently
strong to enable the Dominion to resist the com
mercial advantage of a scheme of trade defence be
tween Canada and Araerica against the rest of the
world. What Canadians are thinking to-day about their
relations with Great Britain and the United States
is of vast moraent to the inhabitants of the British
Isles when they have before thera the settleraent of
the Colonial problera, fraught as it is with mighty
issues not only concerning the welfare of Britain,
but affecting the commercial history of the world. I
have been careful not to give prominence to the
opinions of extremists, but rather to secure the
balanced opinion of the Canadians as a whole.
Not long ago a meraber of the Dominion Parlia
ment, Mr. John Charlton, issued an essay on
whether the supremacy of Great Britain and the
presence of British institutions and laws could be
with profit exchanged for American supremacy and
the introduction of Araerican institutions. On con
trasting the two systeras the fact irapresses itself,
says Mr. Charlton, that the United States Govern
ment with all its admirable features was not the
growth of centuries of experience, but the crystallisa
tion of theories evolved from brains of the fathers
of the Republic, and put into practice without test
of actual trial or modifying influence of time, leaving
results of experience to be acquired later, and applied

256 CANADA AS IT IS.
in such imperfect and halting manner as the pro
visions of the Constitution would permit. One feature
of the system was division of authority between
State and Federal Government, and the somewhat
hazy designation of their respective spheres of
authority. This indistinctness as to limits of jurisdiction
led to the great rebeUion in 1861. At the cost
of a great loss of blood and treasure the para
mount character of Federal institutions was estab
lished. Terms of office under the American system
are so brief as to keep the country subject to almost
perpetual shock of elections. State elections, as a
rule, take place annually, for members of Congress
every two years, and for President every four years.
On these latter occasions for many years past, busi
ness has been unsettled, and the country has waited
with anxiety, and often with alarm, for the result,
which might, in one case, completely upset busi
ness, and bring on widespread panic and disaster.
Mr. Charlton went on to show that some features
of the American system seem absurd. The Presi
dent is elected on the first Tuesday in November,
but is not sworn in until March. Members of the
House of Representatives ejected on the same day
do not assume their duties at Washington, unless
called together for an extra Session, till the
December of the foUowing year, so that a period
of thirteen months elapses between their election
and their assuming of the duties of office. In the
meantime public demand for a change of policy must
wait for fulfilment. The Executive and Adminis-

THE DOMINION'S NEIGHBOUR. 257
trative Departments are almost totally separate
and distinct from the Legislative Department, and
the President can defy to a great extent the will of
the people as expressed through their representatives.
Heads of the various departments are entirely
independent of the legislative branch, and the de
sires of the Treasury Department for financial
legislation, or of any other department as to legisla
ture pertaining to its particular sphere of action,
cannot be brought to bear upon Congress by the
introduction by heads of these departments, holding
positions as merabers of the House, of the raeasures
they wish to put forth. The result is a flood of
haphazard legislation, upon the character of which
the Adrainistration may exert a restraining influ
ence or may not. The fact that in every Session of
the House of Representatives over ten thousand Bills
are presented and printed, illustrates most forcibly
the danger of the separation of the legislative and
administrative departments of the Government.
This comparison of the two systems of government
will naturally convince one that the Canadian is the
better. What Mr. Charlton says in regard to trade re
lations is of importance. He recognises that it was
the repressive policy of the United States in regard
to fiscal matters which forced Canada to open up
other markets. The raarket of Great Britain is one
of prirae and growing importance, and therefore he
appreciates that Canada can afford to make sacrifices
for the maintenance of Imperial power and the
promotion of Imperial interests.
R

258 CANADA AS IT IS.
Looking, therefore, at the issues in a broad Ught,
and weighing all the factors, the conclusion I arrive
at is that the fate of Canada largely depends on
the decision of Britain. Canada wants Imperialism,
but if she cannot get that, she wUl — however far it be
from her present intention — move toward a great
confederation between the two North American
nationalities. Just as the imagination of the
Canadian is touched by the possibUity of a great
British Empire in which he shall play his part, so if
'that dream fades there wUl come another, of a great
American Empire. Like his cousin in the United
States, he is an idealist, and he wiU overlook the
disadvantages of annexation, and, with the impetus
of self-interest, which will be the first incentive, he
will be as enthusiastic in maintaining the American
Empire as he is at present enthusiastic for the
British Empire.
All this, I know, comes perilously near the
province of prophecy. My views may be objected
to; but no one acquainted with the three nations,
Britain, Canada, and the United States, and who
argues from the present, with the past as his in
structor, can, I believe, fail to recognise that the
trend of Canadian history will be in the direction I
have portrayed.

259

CHAPTER XXI.
THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION: IMPERIAL DEFENCE.
THE Parliament Houses at Ottawa are a com
manding mass of buildings. The Senate, to
which members are elected for life, with dis
qualification if their attendance be irregular, and the
House of Commons, elected by a popular franchise,
are controlled in much the sarae way as the British
Houses of Parliament. Canadians are satisfied with
their method of Government, not only because it is
based on British methods, but because it is more
democratic than the Congress at Washington.
The Governor-General or Viceroy has a high
official position ; but his influence is small. If he
makes any attempt to interfere in the control of
affairs he gets himself disliked. The popular
Governor-General is the man who will keep his
fingers from meddling in politics, will do what he is
told by the Prime Minister, is personally a good
fellow, a good horseman and good shot, whose
lady is amiable, and willing to bring joy to the
democracy by handshakes at crowded receptions.
In a preceding chapter I have described Canadian
politics. They are not clean. And the cloak of
royalty, carried by the Governor-General, is not in
frequently used by holders of power — the Viceroy
being little more than the official sanctioner of their

260 CANADA AS IT IS.
acts — to do things which no British Minister would
think or dare to do. The value of a Viceroy of out
standing personality is, however, incalculable. Not
that his influence can or will be exercised directly,
but because by his position, by the dominance of his
character, by recognising the high qualities of the
Canadian character and proclaiming them, and by
losing no opportunity of denouncing corruption in
general without referring to the instances close at
hand, he produces a strong moral effect on the
people. The various stages of constitutional Government
in Canada are (1) the Sovereign; (2) the Imperial
Parliament ; (3) the Judicial Comnuttee of the Privy
Council, as the court of last resource for the whole
Empire; (4) the Government of the Dominion, con
sisting of the Governor-General, the Privy Council,
and a Parliament of two Houses ; (5) Governments
of the Provinces, consisting in each case of a
Lieutenant-Governor, an Executive CouncU, and a
Legislature ; (6) Canadian Courts of Law, which can
adjudicate on all questions depending on the con
struction of written constitution. These several
authorities (a) maintain the Sovereignty of the Im
perial State ; (b) establish Central Government for
the whole Federation ; (c) preserve the autonoray of
the Provinces within certain well-defined limits ; (d)
make perfect legal provision for the settlement of
disputes that necessarily arise in working out the
written Federal Constitution.
The representation of each Province in the
House of Representatives is decided by population.

THB FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 261
Quebec is the basis. By law it has sixty-five repre
sentatives, and this remains fixed whether the popu
lation rises or falls. Other provinces increase or
lose in representation according to their population.
There was a decrease in the representatives from the
Maritime Provinces last year, but an increase in the
representatives from the Western Provinces. As al
ready described, the civil law and language of the
French- Canadians have been given legal guarantees.
Protection has been afforded to religious minorities
with respect to denominational schools in a province
— though a dispute is waging in the proposed new
provinces of- Saskatchewan and Alberta whether
" Separate " or denominational schools shall be re
cognised. Devolution is in full force. Parliament
at Ottawa deals with all affairs of Federal concern,
but each Provincial Legislature deals with affairs
affecting its own region. Sometimes the Dominion
and Provincial Legislatures come into conflict,
chiefly on the matter of railways, which, of course,
concern both the Dominion and the Province. Now
and then an anomaly peeps out. The Provincial
Legislature can grant licenses in regard to the sale
of alcohol, but once granted, as rauch of the alcohol
comes frora abroad, and is subject to Customs, only
the Dominion Legislature has power to withdraw
licenses. While the Governor-General of Canada is ap
pointed by the King, the Lieutenant-Governors of
the Provinces are appointed by the Dominion
Government. Each Lieutenant-Governor is ad
vised by an Executive Council chosen from the

262 CANADA AS IT IS.
majority of the Provincial Assembly, and holding
office while it retains the confidence of the people's
representatives. Thus a Lieutenant-Governor may
be appointed by a Liberal administration at Ottawa,
but his Council consist of Conservatives. Higher
up in the scale an advisory Council for the Governor-
General is chosen from members of the Privy Council
of Canada, who have the confidence of the House
of Commons, which means it is a purely politi
cal nomination. The Senate consists of eighty-two
members supposed to be appointed by the Crown,
but really given place for party services. The
Senate is not, as it might be, a dignified assembly of
men who have served Canada well in various walks
of life, but is mainly a shunting-place for the politi
cal derelicts of the party in power. Culture does not
count ; illiteracy is no bar to appointment. The
most blatant man I met in Canada was a Senator.
As shown in my last chapter, the Canadian
system of Government has many advantages over
the Congressional Government of the United States.
The head of the Executive is removed from the
turmoil of party controversy. The public service is
not all dependent on men rewarded for political help,
and liable to be swept away with a change of ad
ministration. Politics, of course, weigh in an ap
pointment, but politics have nothing to do with the
termination of an appointment. At Washington
I have remarked the number of comparatively young
raen at the heads of departments ; at Ottawa I was
much struck with the fact of so many permanent
officials being quite elderly men. The judiciary is

THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 263
appointed by the Crown on the advice of responsible
Ministers, and a judge can only be removed after
successful impeachment by the Dominion Parlia
ment ; the selection of judges does not depend, as is
so often the case in America, on intrigue. There is
a secret ballot in all classes of public election, a
complete system of laws for the repression and pun
ishment of bribery and corruption at political as well
as municipal elections, and the trial by an independ
ent judiciary of all corrupt practices at elections.
The machinery of Government is far superior to
that of the United States. But, as I have deraon-
strated in my chapter on the Politics of the
Dominion, the dirt of corruption gets into the work
ing. This regrettable feature is chiefly due to the
influence of America. As Sir J. G. Bourinot has
pointed out in his lucid constitutional study of the
political institutions of Canada, there can be seen
to-day some illustrations of the deteriorating influ
ences of such partisan and democratic conditions as
are common among Canada's Republican neigh
bours. There is the difficulty of inducing re
sponsible and able men to interest themselves in
municipal government, a steady attempt to introduce
politics into municipal elections, and a mixing-up of
federal issues with local questions at provincial
elections. There is an entire disappearance of the
old British system under which a raan could throw
hiraself on the suffrage of the electors ; a dominance
of party conventions which control all political
nominations, and limit the choice of the electors;
absolutism of the party machine, the tendency of

264 CANADA AS IT IS.
party to crush all independence of opinion, an ab
sence of high ideals in the field of political life, and
a lowering of the sense of individual responsibility.
Mr. Goldwin Smith — who has spent many years
of his life in writing articles and books aimed at
snapping the links which bind Canada to Great
Britain — a man of brilliance, but, in later days, of
weakened influence, has voluminously expressed his
views on this question. He points out that in Eng
land tradition has not wholly lost the restraining
power which it had when government was in the
hands of a class pervaded by a sense of corporate
responsibility. The American or Canadian poli
tician in playing his game uses vrithout scruple every
card in his hand. Traditions or unwritten laws are
nothing to him ; the only safeguard against his ex
cesses is written law. Americans are surprisingly
tolerant of what an Englishraan would think the
inordinate use of power by holders of office ; but
then they know there is a line drawn by law, beyond
which the raan cannot go, and that with the year his
authority must end. The politician in Canada, not
less than in the United States, requires the restraint
of written law. Mr. Goldwin Smith goes so far as
to argue that Canada has really a Federal Republic
after the American model, but admits that the
Canadian and British system has clearly the ad
vantage in respect to the conduct of legislation.
The American House of Representatives is apt, for
want of leadership, to becorae a legislative chaos.
Order and progress of business are only secured by
allowing the Speaker, who ought to be neutral, to

THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 265
act as party leader of the majority, and control
legislation by a partisan nomination of the com
mittees. Another plea for the Canadian system, says Mr.
Goldwin Smith, is that by a sure and constitutional
process it brings the executive into agreement with
the legislature, and with the people by whom the
legislature is elected, whereas when President John
son entered upon a course of policy directly at
variance with the policy of Congress no reraedy
could be found, except the very rough remedy of
impeachment. Hence Canadians boast their system
is more democratic than that of the Americans. On
the other hand, Mr. Goldwin Smith argues, the
American systera gives the country a stable executive
independent of the fluctuating majorities of the legis
lative chamber, and of those shifting combinations,
jealousies and cabals, which in France, and not in
France alone, have been making it almost impos
sible to find a firm foundation for a government. A
Canadian Premier always engaged in party fighting
and manoeuvring, perpetually on the stump, stoops
to acts which, if done by an American President,
would cause great scandal. The American system
has, moreover, sometimes the advantage of admit
ting to the Cabinet and to the highest service of the
State men of high administrative ability who are not
party managers or rhetoricians.
In the year 1905 Canada relieved Great Britain of
the cost of the mUitary establishment at Halifax on
the east coast, and the naval station at Esquimalt on
the west coast. The whole sentiment of Canada is

266 CANADA AS IT IS.
against making a contribution to the British Ex
chequer toward Imperial Defence if Canada is to
have no voice in the spending of the money. There
is a deep and growing feeling that Canada should
pay her share into a common fund so long as she
has a proportionate decision in the way the fund
should be expended. MeanwhUe Canada recognises
that she should pay for her own defence.
Much depends on predilections or prejudices
whether you think the action of Canada in deciding
to look after herself in defence is a kindly act to
relieve Britain of the expense, or a move to release
Canada from any appearance of British dominance.
Though the Canadian has his eyes on the Im
perial idea, it must never be lost sight of that apart
from this sentimental reason he does not care two
pence for England as England. I recognise the
great difficulty, in considering the attitude of
Canada, in having constantly to change the focus
from Britain to the British Empire, and then back
to Britain again. In the eyes of the Canadian the
two things are different. He is wUling to do much
for Great Britain as a part of the Empire, but for
Britain alone, except in the thin sentimental sense
to which I have alluded, he does not see why he
should go much out of his way. Let me give an in
stance. Young Canada jumped to arms during the
South African War, and did her share in closing it in
victory. The blaze of sentiment to help old Eng
land when she needed help was the first impulse;
the second was the opportunity for fighting which
appealed to lusty Canadians, and the third was the

THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 267
love of Empire, which had been a subject of in
struction in the Dominion schools for years before.
But in all honesty I must say that, with one or
two exceptions, the opinion I gathered in Canada
last year was that England must not look to the
Dominion to do the same thing again. The position
taken up by men of all shades of politics. Ministers
of State, Western politicians, journalists, came to
this: "We helped you out of love, but we don't
intend to be swept off our feet again. You can rely
upon us we will help England should she need our
help in war — and if we think her cause is just."
The significance lies in the addendum. Canada will
be a free agent, whether she helps Britain or not.
If she wants to she will ; if she doesn't she won't.
What claim has Britain on Canada?
Here one comes across one of the streaks of re
stricted nationalism that thread the garment of Im-
perialisra which the Canadian wears. Into his big
talk about a mighty Erapire there wriggle narrow
views. In his question. Why should Canada help
England? he forgets that if it had not been for
England there would have been no Canada, and he
fails to appreciate that if it had not been for the
existence of British arms ready to defend any part
of the Empire a considerable portion, if not all, of
Canada to-day would have been included as part of
the United States. "I shaU fight for England if
it suits me," he says. I wonder what he would
say if England retorted: " We shaU only fight for
you if it suits us. In the case of war — as between
Japan and Russia — let your Canadian ships be

268 CANADA AS IT IS.
seized and confiscated on the plea of carrying con
traband , and rely on yourselves to get justice ! Get
into a squabble with the United States, and put your
handful of Militia against the American troops. You
mustn't expect us to help you, but we wUl — if we
think your cause is just." The position is absurd.
Britain is absolutely necessary to the national
existence of Canada. Yet the selfishness of the
Canadian in considering the question of defence is
but a trait in his character, and I have a firm belief
that when his ideas of Empire become more de
finite he will not hesitate to do his full and legitimate
share in the defence, not of Britain as Britain, but
in the defence of the Empire of which both Britain
and Canada are parts.
The militia force which Canada has is little other
than an ineffective skeleton. Lord Dundonald, who
had command of the Canadian troops, spoke the
unpleasant truth when he informed the Dominion it
had no real defence. It has been declared in the
Dominion House of Commons that the physique of
the troops is deplorable, and that they are mostly
composed of old men and babes. This has been at
tributed to the small pay. Military men told me,
as was plain enough, that it was impossible to get
men at two shillings, when the labourer could earn
frora four shillings to six shillings a day. Further,
I was told that military restraint did not suit the
young Canadian. He puts up with it for perhaps
a year, and then wants to be off.
What the Canadian Government is now aiming
at is to increase the militia force to 100,000 men,

THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 269
one-half to be reserves, and the others to drill every
second year. The regular forces are to be increased
by a few hundred. There will be a central carap
suitable for extensive manoeuvres. The idea is to
have in reserve a large citizen army, to be supplied
with rifles and ammunition, and enabled to make
themselves good shots, men who will, in the words
of Sir Frederick Borden, " forra the flesh and blood
which, in case of raobilisation, will clothe the skele
ton of picked and well-trained officers and men."
At the present time the permanent Canadian
force does not exceed 1,000 men under arras, and
frora them are drawn instructors for the militia,
which number about 35,000. The men in the
permanent force, though practically corresponding
to the British regulars, are, as a rule, young fellows
of good education, who enter for promotion to the
position of instructors. The active militia are
divided into rural corps and city corps. The rural
corps are sirailar to our railitia, but with only nine
days' training, while the city corps corresponds very
nearly with our volunteers. Departraental organisa
tion is weak. Yet the Canadian railitary system is
superior to that of the United States. It is ad
ministered by a central authority for the whole
Dominion, whilst in America each State has com
plete control over the organisation and equipment of
its militia. While nothing is easier than to criticise the
soldiery of Canada, to point out weaknesses, to
demonstrate that in war they would be able to do
little in effective defence, and while it is well to find

270 CANADA AS IT IS.
out the parts that are unsatisfactory, the other side
of the shield must be looked at. After all, Canada
is quite a new country, as large as Europe, but with
a population as small as the county of Lancashire.
The Canadian people, in rough terms, spread for
a thin 3,000 mUes along the southern part of their
country, and not far from the borders of the United
States, which is a foreign country, and has a popula
tion a dozen times as great as that of the Dominion.
Canada's ability to defend such a stretch of frontier
is nil. Her revenue is about £2 per inhabitant, and
of this eighteen pence per inhabitant is all the mUi
tary expenditure. As for the Navy, not a halfpenny
is spent. Captain W. Wood wrote with consider
able force some time ago : ' ' The future navy must
be Imperial, in fact as well as in name ; but Canada
has never taken a single step towards making it so,
although her Imperial trade depends directly, and
her other trade indirectly, upon British command of
the sea. Both parties in the State are equaUy to
blame for this dangerous shirking of responsibiUty,
for neither seems to have grasped the A B C of
Imperial defence." Captain Wood declares that
for modern warfare the, Canadian plan is null and
void, and as for the administrative departments,
" there are none," no unified medical corps, no sup
ply, no transport. Indeed, in the promiscuous, hap
hazard way the military forces have been organised,
Canada is not getting value for her money, Uttle
though that be.
Instead of endeavouring to manage her military
defence for herself it would be better if she bor-

THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 271
rowed some capable officers from the British Army,
put her trust in them, and, within limits, gave them
liberty to organise a defensive force that will not be
worse than useless at a time of war. General Hut-
ton has done a great deal to improve matters ; poli
ticians at Ottawa raean weU. But there are too
many clashing interests, too many cooks engaged
in stirring the broth, and though on paper the mili
tary schemes of the Canadian Government look nice
enough, there is much shaking of the head among
those who know.

272

CHAPTER XXII.
EDUCATION, CRIME, BANKING, AND RAILWAYS.
T\ACH Provincial Government has the right to
Jy legislate on raatters educational, though when
this right was conferred in 1867, the privi
leges of denominational schools were especiaUy pro
tected. Just as at home, there have been bickerings
about denominationalisra, the firebrands being more
keen on dishing their theological opponents than
attending to the mental equipraent of the young
sters. The French Roman Catholics have much to
be thankful for that they live under the Union Jack,
though they don't appreciate the advantage to the
full. Their religion being dear to them, they de
cide, independent of any possible tyranny by a
majority, whether the education rate they pay shaU
go to pubUc or what are caUed Separate schools.
Each ratepayer allocates his contribution. In a
colloquialism, the man who pays the piper calls the
tune. The knowledge that, were Canada ever to
be annexed to the United States, the whole of the
much valued denominational teaching in Catholic
schools would be swamped by the argument of
" American equality," does much to restrain the
informed French-Canadian from openly advocating
annexation.

EDUCATION. 273
With this notable exception — the recognition of
religious instruction — the educational system of
Canada is on much the same lines as in the States.
It deserves admiration, and is worthy of careful
study by everybody in England who has education
at heart. Education is free, as the word is usually
understood. As there are not many class distinctions
— there is not the sarae garaut of social gradation be
tween what are called the upper and lower classes
as with us — the children of the well-to-do go to the
sarae school, and sit on the same forms as the
children of the poor. There is not the contempt for
the free public schools which, unfortunately, is
noticeable at a certain stage of prosperity among ray
fellow - countrymen, and especially my fellow-
countrywomen, at home. There is no sUliness about
it being ' ' not quite the proper thing ' ' to send
children to the State schools. The schools are as
much the property of the public as are the foot
paths, and nobody thinks there is degradation to
use them.
In the Province of Ontario, which takes premier
place, all regulations for the public and high schools
are made by the Minister of Education, subject to
the approval of the Provincial Government. These
schools are under the control of the local boards of
trustees, popularly elected. Attendance of children
between the ages of seven and thirteen is compulsory
for not less than a hundred days in the year. The
noteworthy features in Ontario's system of education
are : — Uniform course of study for all schools ; pro
vincial instead of local control in examination of
S

274 CANADA AS IT IS.
teachers; uniforraity of text-books and common
matriculation for admission to all universities and
learned professions. These give unity to the system,
which includes : (a) kindergarten ; (b) public or
separate schools ; (c) high schools or collegiate in
stitutes ; (d) the University.
According to the returns for 1902, there were
open over 6,000 schools with 454,000 pupils — leaving
out of count the 11,300 kindergarten pupUs, and 670
night school pupils. The cost on the total attend
ance was just about £2 2s. per pupU, though on the
average attendance, which was not satisfactory, it
was about £3 14s. 6d. per pupU.
There are no missing rungs in the ladder of
education, and the pupU moves from elementary
school to higher school in regular gradation. There
are 134 high schools in Ontario, with an average at
tendance of 14,430, and an average cost on that at
tendance of about £10 13s. 6d. In 1902 the receipts
towards public education were $383,000 in legisla
tive grant, nearly $4,000,000 from municipal school
grant and assessments, and $1,422,000 from the
clergy reserve fund and other sources. Over
$3,000,000 was spent in teachers' salaries, $86,000
in maps and prizes, $432,000 for sites and buUding
school-houses, and over $1,000,000 for rent, repairs,
fuel, etc.
I regret to report that in Canada, just as at
home, I did not find the thirsty eagerness for in
struction among young men and women which I
have remarked in the United States. In the States
there is a passion among the young people to im-

EDUCATION. 275
prove themselves. They are as keen about the night
classes as the average young English person is about
a football match or a whist drive. There is a lament
able falling off in Ontario of appreciation of night
schools. In 1892 there were thirty-two such schools,
and in 1902 only eleven ; there were sixty-eight
teachers in 1892, but the number dropped to seven
teen ; there were 2,293 pupils in 1892, and ten years
later only 670, whilst the average attendance was
as low as 170. I don't pretend to find a reason ; I
state the fact.
An interesting thing I came across might, with
pleasurable advantage, be adopted in England to
relieve the playgrounds of their generally barrack-
yard appearance. The second Friday in the May
of every year is set apart, under the name of Arbour
Day, for the purpose of planting trees and improving
the school grounds. In 1902 over 10,000 trees were
planted, and over 14,000 plants set out.
In the Province of Quebec educational raatters
are under the control of the Superintendent of Public
Instruction, assisted by a council consisting of thirty-
five members, and divided into committees for the
management of Roman Catholic and Protestant
schools respectively. Attendance is compulsory
from five to sixteen years. The schools are main
tained partly by local taxation, and partly by
Government grants, and are controlled by local
boards. The Roman Catholics are, of course, in
the ascendant, but they do not dictate what re
ligious instruction shall be given except in their own

276 CANADA AS IT IS.
schools, for by the system of allocation the Protest
ants contribute their education rates to Protestant
schools, though the Government grant ignores re
ligious differences. The Roman Catholics have
4,492 elementary schools; 47, however, of these are
independent, and receive no Government grant.
The Protestants have 887 elementary schools, of
which only three are independent. Further, the
Catholics have 367 model schools and 44 academies
at the public expense, whUe the Protestants have
44 and 27 respectively. Besides, the Catholics main
tain, independently, 144 model schools, 105
academies, 4 normal schools, 19 classical colleges, 2
universities, and 3 schools for deaf mutes and the
blind; while the Protestants have no independent
model schools, but have 2 academies, 1 normal
school, 2 universities, and 1 school for deaf mutes and
the blind. It is the same in the case of superior
schools (without Governraent grant) ; the Catholics
maintain 688, while the Protestants maintain 77.
Thus under the British flag the sacred reUgious
rights and privileges of the minority of Roman
Catholics in Ontario, and of the minority of Protest
ants in Quebec are guarded, as they are not in the
United States under the Stars and Stripes.
In far-off British Columbia the educational
system is free, undenominational, and supported by
the Government, except the schools in the cities
of Nanimo, New Westminster, Vancouver, and
Victoria. These cities are required to pay all ex
penses connected with the maintenance of the
schools, and are aUowed a per capita grant of £2 on

EDUCATION. 277
the average actual daily attendance. They are also
given the provincial revenue tax. There is a Super
intendent of Education, and each school is locally
controlled by trustees. The Lieutenant-Governor in
Council is empowered to create new school districts
as they become necessary, provided no school dis
trict shall contain less than fifteen children between
the ages of five and sixteen years. There are three
steps in British Columbia : common schools, graded
schools, and high schools.
Education in the North-West Territories is in
no way bound by systems such as we have in old
countries, which it is so difficult and sometimes
dangerous to alter. There is a stretch of featureless
plain marked out as a township. A little section is
set apart as school property, thus providing a free
site for the building, and the adjoining land will sell
or let at a good price. Indeed, what are known as
" school lands " sell remarkably well, because they
give the chUdren of the neighbouring farmer a close
proximity to the school-house. The law provides
that no school district shall comprise an area of raore
than twenty-five square miles, nor shall it contain
less than four resident heads of families, or a smaller
school population than twelve chUdren between the
ages of five and six. No religious instruction is al
lowed in any public school before 3.30 p.m. ;-then
such instruction as is permitted by the trustees may
be given, but parents can withdraw their children if
they desire.
The man in the Territories takes a pride in the
local school-house, and no rate is more readily paid

278 CANADA AS IT IS.
than that for education. The school-house is often
the only public building in a township, and each
farm in a township may be hardly within eye-shot of
the next. While it is often just a simple, square,
plain-built and white-painted wooden room, it is re
garded with as much affection as though it were
monstrous, marbled-faced, and fantastic in archi
tecture. Whenever I was in a Uttle town or out
driving on the prairie, I missed no opportunity of
dropping into the local school-house, and having a
talk with the teacher. As farmers settle in a dis
trict, the first thing they do, after buUding houses
for themselves, is to get the authority of the Depart
ment of Education at Regina to sanction the erection
of a school-house. Last year 255 petitions reached
the Department, and 166 were granted, and most of
the rest stood over for consideration.
The Territories are being peppered with schools.
I have met youngsters who regularly tramp four
miles to school in the morning, and four mUes back
home in the afternoon. There are no made roads,
just cart tracks. Generally the children drive in to
school, picking up one another on the way. In
places the winter is long and cruel. Therefore,
though the pupils only attend about half the full
tirae, it is a very creditable percentage, especiaUy
seeing that Ontario, which is more closely settled,
and therefore with schools nearer, does not do very
much better.
Common-sense marks the educational progress in
the North-West. A curb is put upon " scholarship
tests ' ' — priming the youngsters up to pass examina-

EDUCATION. 279
tions. The evils of cramming are recognised, and
the number of examinations has been reduced.
Still, it is difficult for the Department at Regina
to keep a close eye on all schools. The school in
spectors have hardships, long drives, bad roads, poor
accommodation. In many instances schools are
situated twenty-five or fifty miles apart, and much
of the time must be spent in driving. Then in the
winter months raany of the schools are closed.
With the increase of school districts teachers are
drawn frora the outside. They corae from Eastern
Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United
States. They are ignorant of the Territorial school
laws, the regulations, the educational system in
general ; they find a different system of grading and
classification in vogue, and the text-books and out
lines of study are not those with which they are
familiar. Accordingly, there is confusion ; but it is
soon smoothed, because everybody recognises the
advantages of adaptability to local circumstances.
Considering so raany settlers in the Dominion
come from the poorest and raost neglected parts of
the European Continent, the total nuraber of il
literates is not large. Seventy-five per cent, of the
total population as recorded in 1901, and 85 per cent.
of the population five years old and over were able
to read. Of course, the worst illiteracy is in the
North-West Territories, where the emigrants rush.
In 1891 63 per cent, of the population in the Terri
tories were illiterate, but by 1901 the percentage had
been reduced to 45 per cent. Ontario shows the
best in the Dominion with only 18 per cent, of

280 CANADA AS IT IS.
illiterates. Quebec Province, where the population
is French, had, in 1891, a percentage of forty ilUter-
ates, but by 1901 that had been reduced to 29 per
cent. Of course, this includes everybody, but
reckoning only those over five years of age, fifteen
out of every hundred in Quebec Province neither
read nor write. For the Dominion generally the ten
dency is to improve. In the census of 1891 thirty
persons out of every hundred (over five years of age)
could neither read nor write ; in the census of 1901
the nuraber had been reduced to twenty-four.
Crime in Canada is far out-stepping the normal
increase to be expected from the growth of popula
tion. There is hardly a single offence : murder,
manslaughter, violence toward women, shooting,
burglary, cattle stealing, forgery, that is not on the
increase. The criminal age is chiefly between
twenty and thirty ; the vast majority can both read
and write, and profess the Roman CathoUc rehgion.
On the western side of the Atlantic the English
man learns the real meaning of " filthy lucre." In
both Canada and the United States the paper money
is usually grimy, greasy, evU-odoured, and, I
imagine, the transmitter of much disease. You get
hold of dollar notes that are worn to a tissue, are
frayed, and give off a smell that is repulsive. When,
between finger and thumb, you hold up the dirty
things and ask the Canadian why his doUars are so
filthy, you get a smUing prevaricating reply, " Wish
I had more of them." And a curious thing is that
the Dominion Government employs an American
firm to print the Canadian notes.

BANKING. 281
The circulation of money is accepted as a criterion
of prosperity. Fifteen years ago (1890) there were
in circulation Dominion notes to the value of
$180,000,000; in 1903 the value was $456,000,000.
There are many chartered banks throughout the
land, and their returns show continuous progress.
In 1903 they had in deposit $424,000,000 ; and whUe
they had total liabilities of $507,000,000, they had
assets of $641,000,000. Tremendous loans are
being made to municipalities, trading corporations,
and the public. In 1899 $282,000,000 was lent;
in 1903 $469,000,000 was lent. Banks are obhged
to publish the amount of their reserve funds ; be
tween 1884 and 1903 the total fund increased
$29,000,000 or 163 per cent. The total reserve
last year was $573,000,000. The transactions in
the various clearing houses last year represent
$2,689,000,000. AU of which goes to show that
Canada with its little population of 6,000,000 has
plenty of money jingling in its pockets.
But everybody in Canada does not prosper. In
1903 227 manufacturing concerns went smash, 725
trading concerns put up the shutters, 26 other busi
nesses failed, and 6 banks could not meet their
creditors. The liabilities (including the banks) were
$7,500,000, whUe the assets were nearly $5,000,000,
which, in bankruptcy, is not a bad proportion. The
failures were mostly in grocery and general stores,
which means that many people went into trading
who didn't know anything about it. Still, Canada
has only a little over 5 per cent, of liabilities in
failures compared with the United States. Allowing

282 CANADA AS IT IS.
for the fact that the States have twelve times the
population of the Dominion, it is clear that business
is more stable in Canada than in America.
The Canadian is more disposed than the average
Englishman to throw all the money he makes back
into his business, or if he is not in business for him
self, to invest his savings in land. So there cannot
be expected the hoarding of money in savings banks
such as is the practice at home. StUl, in the
Canadian Post Office, Government, and other
Savings Banks there was deposited in 1903
$82,000,000, which works out at neariy £3 per head
of the population.
The railways are the arteries of Canada, and
along them runs the very life-blood of the country.
There are nearly 20,000 miles of track (only 695
miles in double track), and nearly $1,200,000,000
of capital invested. Last year there were over
60,000,000 mUes travelled, over 23,000,000 pas
sengers carried, and over 48,000,000 tons of freight
conveyed. The earnings were over $110,000,000,
and the working expenses $67,000,000. The
Dominion Government gives subsidies to companies
opening up new territory, and — leaving out the great
subsidy which wUl be paid the Grand Trunk Pacific
in connection with the new trans-continental line —
nearly $60,000,000 has been paid towards line con
struction out of the Treasury purse. In another
year or two Canada will have as much raUway mile
age as the United Kingdom (which has 22,103
miles) , but whilst to every mile of line in the United
Kingdom there are 5 4 square miles of area, in

RAILWAYS. 283
Canada there are 1897 square miles of area to every
mile of raU. The United States have 203,132 mUes
of railway, or a mUe to every 17 '8 square mUes of
area. In proportion to her population, however,
Canada has about an equal proportion of miles of
railway to the United States.
The passengers killed and injured per million
carried is larger in Canada than in any part of the
world. There are 2'39 killed per miUion, while in
the United States the rate is 0'53 per million, and in
the United Kingdom 0'07. In regard to passengers
injured, the figures are 11"06 per million in Canada,
10'2 per million in the States, and as low as 1'43 in
the United Kingdom.
The Government own two railways, the Inter
colonial and the Prince Edward Island Railway.
Neither has a Sir Thomas Shaughnessy — who con
trols the Canadian Pacific Railway with the genius
of a Von Moltke — and so neither is very profitable.
The Inter-colonial consumes 97 per cent, of its
earnings in expenses, whilst the Prince Edward
Island manages to get along, though it spends 119
cents for every 100 cents earned.
Canada is embarking on a gigantic scheme of
canals. In connection with the St. Lawrence
system of canals wheat may be brought by boat from
Port Arthur on Lake Superior to Liverpool, a dis
tance of 4,494 mUes. Over £20,000,000 has been
spent on canal work maintenance in Canada. The
amount earned since 1868 is a little over £2,500,000,
and though canals are increasing, the total earnings
have never been so low as in 1903.

284

CHAPTER XXIII.
THE RED INDIANS AND FOREIGN SETTLEMENTS.
THE Canadian Government watches over the
Red Indians with the solicitude of a father.
There are still roving tribes who have never
subnutted to control ; but their life is not so comfort
able as those who have. The tribes which have
sworn fealty to the Dominion are weU looked after.
Great tracts of country are reserved for them where
they farm ; they receive a money aUowance, and
twice or three times a week they receive a supply
of flour and meat. The Indian reserves I visited
were admirably controlled. Canadian-Indians are
slowly increasing in number. The native schools
I saw had no enthusiastic reports to give, for the
Indian does not take kindly to the restraints of civili-
s^ition. StUl, everything is done to improve them.
The most useful work is seen at the industrial and
boarding schools, established in several of the pro
vinces, and here — where the chUdren can be re
moved from the influence of their elders — at least
something is accomplished to raise them from utter
degradation. Where Indians have shown a superior intelligence
the Government has allowed them to leave the re
serves and lead independent lives. The results
however, have suggested such experiments to be

FOREIGN SETTLEMENTS. 285
premature. The Department of Indian Affairs gives
the case of the Six Nations as an illustration. The
conditions on their reserve with respect to equip
ment for the pursuits of their calling, their dwell
ings and farm buUdings, compare not unfavourably
with the average obtaining among other agricultural
coraraunities. An agricultural society, controlled
by themselves, holds yearly ploughing competitions
and annual shows, at which exhibits could well com
pete with those of any ordinary township fair. They
have an organisation for the conduct of public affairs,
including boards of health and education, with duly
appointed executive officers. Religious services are
conducted at some sixteen points on the reserve.
They furnish a considerable contingent to the county
militia, and are accompanied by a brass band from
the reserve when they go into camp. Despite these
evidences of an advanced form of civUisation, when
the spirit of citizenship is sought, it is found that
these Indians, so far from taking advantage of the
provisions of the Advancement Act, as a step to
wards enfranchisement, cling tenaciously to tribal
customs which tend to perpetuate their position as a
distinct community of a separate race.
There are over a hundred thousand Indians in the
Dominion. Their health is fairly good, and though
the population is increasing, the rate of mortality
seems to threaten the extinction of one or two bands
at no very distant date, without any particular reason
being apparent for such a condition of things. There
seems to be some idiosyncracy of constitution in
some particular tribes reluctant to accommodate

286 CANADA AS IT IS.
itself to changed conditions of life, and it can only be
hoped that in their case, as with the majority, the
turning point will soon be reached. The annual
value of farm produce grown by the Indians is over
$1,000,000; fishing and hunting yield nearly
$1,000,000; over $500,000 is got in other ways,
whUst $1,250,000 is earned in wages. There are
few mechanics or artisans among them. Their
most congenial employments are those of working
for fishing companies or canneries, herding cattle,
freighting, guiding sportsmen and tourists, and per
haps their next preference is for something in con
nection with the lumbering industry, either work
ing in the camps or saw-mUls, stream-driving, or
lading vessels. However, they readily adapt them
selves to circumstances, and in the neighbourhood
of towns the younger people are to be found in
considerable numbers in the factories. In the
vicinity of railways they work at the depots, or as
section-men, and in agricultural districts as farm
labourers, or at pulling flax or gathering hops and
fruits. In fact, turn their hands to anything that
offers. One of my most interestiug visits was to the
Blood reserve in Alberta. It is pleasantly situated
between the Belly and St. Mary rivers, and runs in
a southern direction for about forty miles to within
fourteen miles of the United States boundary. It
contains an area of over 540 square miles, or some
354,000 acres of excellent grazing-land. The popu
lation of Bloods is over 1,100. The death rate
is higher than the birth-rate, the mortality being due

FOREIGN SETTLEMENTS. 287
chiefly to scrofula and consumption. I found little
wheat, but there was excellent hay being grown,
and this sells at an average price of £1 a ton. For
ten years the Bloods have been raising cattle. The
herd now nurabers over 3,300, and at a recent round
up the men branded 630 head of calves, and had it
not been for a severe snow-storm in May this nuraber
would have been very much greater. The Indian
Department sent 150 head of heifers, which were
issued on the loan system to Indians, and thirty-two
new men becarae cattle-holders for the first time.
Twenty pure-bred pedigree bulls and two stallions
were also sent by the Department for use among the
Indian cattle and horses. None but pure-bred pedi
gree bulls have been used in the herds, and the re
sults undoubtedly show it, not only in the quality of
the stock, but in the weight of steers killed for beef.
The amount received for these beef animals was over
$8,300. The deraand for Indian ponies still keeps
up, and during last year about 1,200 were sold, which
brought in a sura of about $9,600, the largest amount
ever received by these Indians as an income from
their horses.
I paid a visit to the Church of England boarding-
school, and though the youngsters were clean, I was
told that it is difficult to get pupils. Mr. James
Wilson, the Indian agent, reported that educational
work is beginning to tell, and last year in the
' ' round-up ' ' party of thirteen Indians six were
graduates from these schools, and their work would
compare favourably with that of any white lad of
the same age brought up on a large ranch. Mr.

288 CANADA AS IT IS.
Wilson added that the Indians, both old and young,
show a willingness to work, and there is never any
difficulty in getting them to work if remuneration
is in sight. Progress, as among all uncivilised
natives, is not rapid, but it is there, and for the
future it will be to the cattle industry that we must
look for any advancement. Mr. Wilson could see
no good reason why, under careful management,
the herds of cattle at present in their possession
should not place a large number of them, within
a very reasonable period, in a self-supporting state.
Though there are two churches on the reserve,
little interest is taken in religion ; nearly the whole
of the tribe may be said to be pagans. There is a
considerable amount of drunkenness, and a good
deal of horse-stealing goes on.
The Rev. Egerton Young, who hved among In
dians for over thirty years, considers their ultimate
destiny is absorption. Some people hold the theory
that the Indians had a partly Jewish origin. They
have a word " Jah," Jehovah, and their aquiline
noses and general cast of features, as well as the
custom of circumcision that obtains among some
tribes, lends a little colour to the theory. One of the
results of Christianity has been an improvement in
the status of the women. The women are now
treated with tenderness and an austere politeness.
Mr. Egerton Young considers that there is much
to admire in the Indian character. There has
never been a war between the Indians and the
Canadian Government because the Government has
always maintained a chivalrous code of honour in

FOREIGN SETTLEMENTS. 289
its dealings with them. Every year a sum of money
is paid over to the Indians in respect of lands sur
rendered by them. The payment is celebrated by
a week of rejoicing, the Government supplying un
limited food and tobacco, but no whisky. That the
United States Government has had war with their
Indians is chiefly because they failed to convince
them of their good faith.
In physique the Red man, as long as he remains
uninjured by the " fire-water," is, according to Mr.
Young, the superior of the white. He is of fine
stature, and capable of immense endurance. The
Indians in one village of gigantic men called Mr.
Young " the little fellow " ; yet he is of burly build,
and over the average height of an Englishman. An
Indian will run sixty or seventy mUes a day by the
side of a dog train, and keep this up day after day.
Though, of course, it is advisable that the In
dians should be kept to certain areas — for absorption
by inter-marriage with whites is repulsive to most
minds — the tendency of settlements by different
immigrant nationalities ought to be resisted by the
Canadian Governraent. It is easily understood how
Scots like to get near a Scots colony, how Scandina
vians prefer to settle with those of their own race
and tongue, and Poles feel more at home in a Polish
colony than if their neighbours were Scotch on one
side and Icelanders on the other. To be able to go
to friends is a legitimate inducement to the irami-
grant. It is pleasant to keep up the custoras of the
motherland in the step-mother land. All the senti
mental reasons for those of the same nationality to
T

290 CANADA AS IT IS.
congregate I appreciate, and the Governraent is not
open to criticisra because it has aided settleraents
of nationalities in particular regions. There are,
however, other considerations. The imported
habits and custoras of some of the settlers are not
always of the best. The old nationaUsm exists in
stead of being absorbed in the Canadian nationality.
Antipathy, often born of misunderstanding, grows
up between different sections. Politics get nar
rowed down to parochialism. There has been a
tendency for the new lands of Canada to become
dotted with nationalities with marked distinctions
from each other. This is prejudicial to the scheme
of making Canada a homogeneous nation.
Take the case of the Doukhobors, the South
Russian sect advocating Universal Brotherhood.
Sterling and worthy though they be — as I have de
scribed in a former chapter — universal brotherhood
is what, as a sect, they are stoutly resisting. A
little over two years ago, the leaders of the Doukho
bors in Assiniboia petitioned the British Columbian
Government to grant thera land where they might
live without reference to any other Authority than
that of God. The application was refused. The
fanaticism of the sect has caused bodies of them to
raake pilgrimages in the bitter winter to haU the
second coming of Christ. Because they could not
do as they liked they declared Canada was not a
land of religious freedom.
Foolishness ran through their piety. They
petitioned the Sultan of Turkey. Here are one or
two extracts from the document : ' ' We cannot

FOREIGN SETTLEMENTS. 291
submit ourselves to the laws and regulations of any
State, or be the subjects of any other ruler except
God. . . . They refuse to give us any land unless we
promise to obey all the laws of Canada. We de
clare before God that this is impossible, and that we
would sooner bear any oppression than be false to
Him. Now we turn to your Majesty, and beg you to
show grace to us and our families, not only as a mon
arch, but as a fellow being. As pilgrims of God we
beg you to give us hospitality and shelter in your wide
dominions. ..." Fancy such a petition to the
Commander of the Faithful ! Pity coraes in think
ing of the poor people.
There will be weakness in Canada so long as it
is sliced into separate nationalities. That the
French of Quebec have not been absorbed into the
community is certainly a hindrance to the develop
ment of a strong, independent national life. It is
bad for the Dominion, because politicians are obliged
to appeal often to the cupidity of the separate
nationalities. The growth of coraraunities, be
they Polish or Scotch, Scandinavian or German,
must mean clashing interests. I recognise
that in vast stretches of the West there is rauch
leavening as a result of interraarriage. This should
be striven after more and more. The history
of the United States has demonstrated that the
mixture of European races has produced a people
which for alertness are certainly not surpassed by
any other. The same mixture should be the en
deavour of the Dominion.

292

CHAPTER XXIV.
THE SPORT OF THE DOMINION.
CANADIANS are proud of the sport they can
offer the European visitor. Bigger and more
interesting game can be found in other parts
of the world ; but nowhere can the man with a gun
have so exhilarating a tirae as in following the bear
in the mountains of the west, stalking the moose in
the undulating lands of the north, seeking the
caribou in the woodlands of Quebec, or shooting
prairie chickens on the great flat lands which lie
between Ontario and the Rocky Mountains.
Perhaps the raost delightful holiday in the world
is a hunting expedition in Northern Ontario, through
the woods, over the lakes, and along the unfre
quented water-ways. Here the man wearied with
business affairs may turn his back upon all the con
ventions of civilisation, and lapse pleasantly into a
state of primitive existence.
A party of friends equip themselves for an ex
pedition along one of the thousand rivers. They
hire Indian trackers and carriers, and purchase one
or two canoes. The party take train to within
twenty miles of the starting-place, drive to where
the Indians are waiting with canoes partly laden
with food and tents and cooking utensUs. A strike

SPORT OF THE DOMINION. 293
is made into the wilds. The days are spent follow
ing the caribou. Meat and fowl for provender are
provided with the gun, and fish for breakfast can
be procured from the teeming streams. These trips
are popular with the business raen of Montreal,
Toronto, and the other eastern towns. They can
bid good-bye to the world for a month or six weeks,
are out of range from telegrams, letters or news
papers ; they sleep beneath the trees, do not worry
about shaving each morning, and come back to
their labours braced with the holiday.
In parts of the Dominion the larger game are on
the decrease. The Provincial Legislatures have
strict laws respecting close seasons, and restrict the
heads of moose and caribou each man is permitted
to shoot. The laws, however, are not always rigor
ously obeyed. A camping party makes averages, in
cluding the Indian servants, so that three times
more head may fall to one particular gun than the
law recognises. Though on the prairies the chickens,
which are similar to our grouse, are to be sighted
by the million, Manitoba and the North-West have
heavy punishments for anyone who enters into
wholesale slaughter of the birds for the purpose of
selling them in the markets of the east. There is
a fixed date when the shooting of prairie chicken
may begin.
I remember driving out with the mayor of a
western town. We had guns in the rig, and at the
"sleughs" there were duck to be knocked over.
More than once my host checked the horse, lifted
his gun, and knocked over chickens he had sighted

294 CANADA AS IT IS.
in the grass. I recalled that the season for the
shooting of chicken had not yet begun, and re
minded him of the punishment were he to fall into
the hands of justice. " That's all right," he said,
" I am the Government game guardian for this dis
trict I "
Mighty stretches of the eastern provinces are
alternate woodland and lake. Here continuous and
excellent sport may be obtained in the shooting of
wildfowl. British and American sportsmen are, however,
mainly attracted to Canada by the prospect of big
game. Though towns and settlements have driven
the wild animals from many of their former haunts,
there is, except in the cases of the buffalo and
wapiti, no sign yet that the wUd animals are on the
decrease. With an eye to the future the Canadians
are preserving large areas as national parks where
the moose and caribou may breed without fear of the
hunter. Years ago the Hudson Bay Company had a prac
tical monopoly of the best hunting districts. The
allegation has more than once been made that this
Company deliberately misrepresented the agricul
tural possibilities of the North-West because they
were not desirous of having a population which
would check the hauls in skins that were made each
year. I do not think, however, any fear the Com
pany had was well founded, because the settlements
in wheat- growing regions have not interfered to any
appreciable extent with the game, which has simply
moved to other districts. Indeed, within the last

SPORT OF THE DOMINION. 295
few years there have been as many as 30,000 bear
skins a year put upon the Canadian fur markets.
There is plenty of black bear waiting for the
sportsman's rifle. The best place is in the west,
among the mountains of British Colurabia. The
sportsraan who raakes for the Rocky Mountains —
and he reaches the hunting-grounds within a fort
night from London — can have plenty of adventure
as well as good shooting. Because of the scarcity
of population camping equipraent is necessary, and
within a day from the Canadian Pacific line — the
Canadian Pacific Railway issues raaps and informa
tion respecting the districts for game — the hunters
may easily get into a region not hitherto shot over.
There is no better sport than going after mountain
sheep, and in the hills adjoining the Fraser River
herds of frora twenty to seventy may frequently be
met with. The Rocky Mountain goat is easy to
stalk. Perhaps it is by reason of the enormous heads,
which look well in an entrance hall, or on the walls
of a billiard room, that the sportsman visiting Canada
generally feels his mission has been inadequately
fulfilled unless he has gone after the moose. The
bull moose varies in weight from 700 to 1,400 lbs.,
and the largest authenticated pair of horns spanned
sixty-six inches frora tip to tip. The guidance of
Indians is necessary for following the moose through
the dense thickets and groves and over the hard
wood hUls. Indians to outwit the bull moose will,
in following hira, make a series of semicircles, so as
to cut the track of the beast. Possessed of rauch

296 CANADA AS IT IS.
strategy, the animal, when it rests, will walk back
parallel to its trail, and lie down with its head in the
direction from which it has come, so that it has the
advantage of both sight and smell to warn it of the
approach of an enemy.
Splendid caribou are to be obtained in eastern
Canada ; but those of British Columbia are certainly
larger. One advantage of the British Columbian
hunting-grounds is that not only on the same trip
can mountain sheep and black bears be sought, but
the caribou will be found in the sarae district. In
deed, to leave a caribou carcase for a few days and
then return to it is to find sorae good venison meals
have been made, and if the track of the diner be
followed it will not be long before an overfed grizzly
is encountered. It is to be remembered there are hunting grounds
as large as England which practically have not been
penetrated by the sportsman. One hears much of
the sport of the United States ; but it is insignificant
compared with that of Canada. Indeed, I should
say, now that the Indian tribes no longer spend their
time in wanton destruction of game, the moose,
caribou, and sheep have vastly increased within the
last quarter of a century. Even the man who lives
in Quebec, Montreal, or Toronto raay, within
twenty-four hours of his home, stalk the moose,
catch woodcock on the wing, and secure most ex
cellent trout-fishing. For those who go further
afield, say to the northern passes of the west, there
are cuttings in the mountains through which the
caribou file each spring, and can be shot by the

SPORT OF THE DOMINION. 297
thousand. Certainly the Indians lie in wait for
thera, and when the early snows force the caribou
to the lower country, in herds sometimes 10,000
strong, the Red man is able to shoot all he desires.
An animal on the decrease is the elk, or wapiti.
These deer are still to be found on the plains from
the great lakes of Ontario to the foot of the Rockies.
The wapiti is very similar to the red deer of Europe.
It is stated by Mr. Charles A. Bramble, one of the
best authorities on the big garae of Canada, that
the wapiti stag is a Mormon among beasts. His
harem is regulated by his ability to whip all rivals.
A royal stag, after driving away all weaker males,
appropriates their female belongings. Mr. Bramble
describes how, during the months of September and
October, the weirdly beautiful bugling of the wapiti
stags can be heard frora every hill where they
abound. It is, he says, the most thrilling sound a
hunter may listen to.
But though wapiti are on the decrease, antelopes
— which, after all, are not true antelopes, but partly
goats — are numerous. Those on the plains are said
to be as curious as woraen. They may often be
shot by a hunter who lies on his back and kicks
his heels in the air, such a peculiar proceeding being
so irresistible that they have to investigate. It is
generally agreed that the eastern deer is superior
to that of the west. In the middle lands between
Manitoba and the Rocky range the common deer is
the mule, though generally called the "jumping
deer " because of the enormous bounds it raakes.
Compared, however, with the deer of the further

298 CANADA AS IT IS.
west they are comparatively small. The mule deer
of British Columbia, although he keeps to the higher
ranges in the sumraer, comes down to the valleys
when the bad weather sets in, and, as he is not so
easily startled as others of his species, falls an easy
prey. Owing to the rush of immigrants into the
Dominion the hunting of big garae will, to the
ardent sportsman, become increasingly difficult. At
present, however, Canada well deserves the name
of the Sportsman's Paradise.

299

INDEX.

Agricultural college at Guelph, 36
Alberta Territory, Winter In, 3;
description of, 167—179
"All-British Colony." 158
America, Proposed reciprocity be
tween Canada and, 42, 63, 65 (see
also United States)
American immigrants into Canada,
114, 115, 250
American land speculator in
Canada, 116
Antelope hunting, 299
Apples, Culture ol, 35 — 39
Arrowhead, 209
Assiniboia, Life in, 119; its wheat-
fields, 129

B
Balfour, Mr., and Imperial confer
ence, 67
Banfl to Bevelstoke, Journey from,
185
Banking, 280—282
Barr, Eev. J. M., and All-British
Colony, 156
Bear hunting, 297
Blood reserve, Indian, 287
Bourinot, Sir J. G., 247, 263
Bow Eiver, 182
Bramble, Mr. Charles A., on Wapiti
Stag, 299
Brandon, Growth ol, 118; wheat-
fields near, 129
British Columbia, Description of,
192—206; education in, 276
British Imports into Canada, 58,
59, 71

Calgary, 168-175
Calves, Price of, 230

Canada, Winter of, 3; climate, 4;
backward state of manufac
tures, 5; statistics of immi
grants, 17, 55; openings for
mechanics, 26, 29; race pre
judices in, 29; fruit-growing in,
31 — 39; and proposed reciproc
ity with United States, 42, 63,
65; growth of, 54; nationalities
of settlers in, 55; wheat crop,
55, 72; statistics of agricul
tural produce, exports, etc.,
56—58; British Imports, 68, 59,
71; and preferential treatment,
58—75; statistics of United
States Imports, 74; statistics of
Immigration into, 114; popula
tion of, 114; its wheat yield,
115 ; American Immigration
into, U4, 115, 250; American
land speculator in, 116; wheat-
fields of, 129—140; North
western, 141-152; railways,
160—165, 282; neglect of sani
tation In West, 217; ranching
country in, 227; politics of,
233—245; influence of United
States over, 246—258; Its
Federal Constitution, 259—271;
aid Imperial Defence, 266;
militia force, 268; education
in, 272—280; crime in, 280;
banking in, 280—282; canals,
283; sport of, 294—300
Canadian Manufacturers' Associa
tion, 26, 70
Canadian Pacific Ballway, Land
owned by, 134; enlargement of
its Una, 164
Canadians, Self-satisfaction of,
4—7; loyalty to Britain, 7—9
pride In their name, 29; feel
Ings concerning John Bull,
52—54; appreciation ot Mr,

300

INDEX.

Joseph Chamberlain, 64; love
for the Empire, 66, 249; watch
word " Canada for the Cana
dians," 70; French, 76—87
Canals, System of, 283
Canneries, Salmon, 199
Cariboo district, Placers of, 212
Caribou hunting, 299
Cathcart, Lady Gordon, and colony
of crofters, 125
Cathedral mountain, 186
Cattle, Eounding up, 223, 228; price
of, 230; raising in Indian re
serves, 288
Chamberlain, Mr. Joseph, Cana
dians' appreciation of, 64
Chamberlain town, 154
Charlton, Mr. John, on American
institutions, 255
Chicago, Wheat gamble in, 94
Climate of Canada, 4
Colonial preference, 59—63
Columbia, British, 192—218
Conference, Colonial (1902), 67
Conservative party (««« Politics of
Canada)
Corn (««« Wheat)
Cowboys, Life of, 224, 228
Cow-catcher, Author's ride on, 187
Cow-punching, 223
Crime, Increase of, 280
Crofters, Colony of Uist, 125
Crow's Nest station, 216

Deer hunting, 299
Denison, Colonel, Toronto magis
trate, 50
Doukhobors, The, 158—160, 291
Drummond, Mr. George E., on Im
perial trade preference, 67

Edmonton, 178
Education, 272—280
Election ot 1904, 233
Esquimalt, 193
Exports, Canadian, 56—58

Farm hands. Wages ot, 138
Farms, Fruit, 36
Federal Constitution, 259-271
Femie, 217
Field town, 186
Finn colony near WapeUa, 123
Fishing In Columbia rivers, 198
Fort Garry, 101, 132, 225
Fort William, 90, 96, 99
Franktown, 217
Fraser Elver, 190, 194; salmon in,
198
French-Canadians, Conservatism of,
76; feeling towards Great Bri
tain, 79—82, 84; their horror of
" armaments," 83; in United
States, 86; love of France 87
(8«0 also Quebec)
Fruit growing, 31—39; In Colum
bia, 202

Gaetz, Mr. Leo, " father " of Eed
Deer town, 176
Game, Hunting, 294—300
Garry, Fort, 101, 132, 225
Georgia. Straits of, 192
Goat river canyon, 216
Gold yield in Columbia, 212
Gosnell, Mr. E. E., on rash of im
migrants, 253
Government ot Canada («•« Politics
of Canada and Federal Con
stitution)
Grand Trunk Eailroad, New line
of, 27, 163
Grapes, Culture ot, 55, 39
•' Great Divide," The, 186
Guelph, Agricultural college at, 36

Hamilton, Ontario, 31
Harvesters, Wages ot, 138
Helderleigh HUls, 32
Horses, Ranch, 230 ; price ot, 231
Hudson Bay Company, Land owned
by. 138
Hunting game, 294—300

INDEX.

301

Immigrants: Train, 10; statistics
ot, 17, 114
Immigration Bureau, Winnipeg,
107-114
Imperial Defence, 268
Imperial Federation, Canada and,
54
Indian reserves, 285—290

Jam-making, Growth of, 38

Kicking Horse Pass, 185—190
King's elevator. Port Arthur,
Kootenay landing, 216

La Uinerva, Hoisting flag in honour
of, 80
Labour Day In Winnipeg, 112
Lake Superior, 89
Land, Price of, 140
Land grants, 17, 54, 134
Laurier, Sir Wilfrid, 42, 86. 82; on
Colonial Conference (1902), 67;
and low tariffs, 235; descrip
tion of, 243
Legislatures, Provincial, 237
Liberal party (««e Politics of
Canada)
Lloyd, Eev. George E., 157
Log-cutting, 195—198
Lumber camps, 210
Lumber-rafts, 195

Macdonald, Donald, settler, 127
Mackenzie, Peter, settler, 127
Macleod, 219, 226
Manitoba, Farmers and farming in,
117
Manufacturers and Preference, 64 —
75
Manufacturers' Association, Cana
dian, 26, 70
Mechanics required, 28

Militia force, 268
Mining in Columbia, 211—815
Minnit M., Case of, 240
Minto, Lord, 159, 206
Money, Circulation ot, 281
Montreal, Immigrants' societies in,
19; description ot, 22; popula
tion, 23; clerks in, 25; mech
anics required in, 26; wages
and living in, 28; race pre
judice in, 29; travelling west
from, 88
Moose hunting, 297 N
Nelson, 211
New Westminster. 199
Niagara region. Fruit of, 33
North-Western Canada, 141—152
North-West Territory, Land
granted in, 17; ranching in,
224; education in, 277—280
Nova Scotia, Apple trees In, 35

Ontario Province: Fruit culture In,
35; education in, 273—275, 280
Orchards, Work in, 33, 35—39
Ottawa and reciprocity with
United states, 42
Ottawa House, 237, 259

Pacific Eailway (set Canadian
Pacific Eallway)
Parliament (see Politics of Canada
and Federal Constitution)
Peaches, Culture of, 36
Pears, Culture of, 33, 36, 38
Perry, Mr., winner of King's Prize,
204
Plum trees in Ontario, 36
Politics of Canada, 235—245
Ponoko, 177
Port Arthur, 90, 96, 98
Preferential tariff, 236
Preferential treatment, 59—63 ;
manufacturers and, 64 — 75
Prince Albert town, 165
Provincial Legislatures, 237

302

INDEX.

Q

Quebec City: as natural port, 24;
description of, 77; feeling of its
Inhabitants towards British
Imperialism, 80
Quebec Province: Orchards in, 35;
French characteristics ot, 76;
large increase of population,
79; Briton gradually being
squeezed out, 81; feeling of its
Inhabitants towards Britain,
82—85; education in, 275, 280
(see alto French Canadians)

B

Railways, 134, 164, 160-165, 282
Rancher, Description of, 173; life
of, 219—230
Reciprocity, Proposed Canadian
and American, 42, 63, 65 (set also
Preferential Treatment)
Eed Deer town, 176
Regina, 153
Reserve, Indian, 285—290
Revenue per inliabitant, 270
Robson, 209; West, 211
Rockies : Canadian, 180—191 ;
among foothills of, 219—232
Roman Catholics in Quebec. 82, 275
Rossland, Steamer, 209, 210

S

St. Andrew's Society, Montreal, 19
St. George's Society, Montreal, 19
St. Lawrence, River, 21, 25
St. Patrick's Society, Montreal, 19
Salmon, Tinned, 198
Sanitation In West Canada, 217
Saskatchewan, Elver, 168
Saskatchewan, Territory ot, 153—166
Saskatoon, 154
Saw-mills at Vancouver, 195—198
Schools (see Education)
Selkirks. The, 190
Sheep farming, 230
Sleeping Giant island, 89
Smith, Mr. E. D., 33, 38
Smith, Mr. Goldwin, 264, 265

Smith, Mr. John B., pioneer
rancher, 226
Smith, Mr. Obed, Eeport of, 157
Snake, Lake, 209
South African War, Canadians and,
66, 266
Sport of Canada, 294—300
Stanley Park, Vancouver, 197
Straits of Georgia, 192
Strathcona town, 178
Sugar, Canadian preferential treat
ment of West Indian, 74
Superior, Lake, 89

Tariff, Preferential, 236 (see alsc
Preferential treatment)
Thunder Bay, 90, 97
Timber-cutting, 194—198
Toronto: Loyalty of, 40—43; de
scription of, 43—47, 50, 76;
growth of, 47—49; living and
wages In, 49; police court, 50
Trade Unions: Logic of, 26; In
Toronto, 49
Trans-continental railway, 160
Tunisian, Emigrants on board, 10

Uist crofters. Colony of, 125—128
United States: Statistics of Im
ports Into Canada, 59, 74; Cana
dian dislike to, 67; wheat
yield, 115; and Canadian rail
ways, 161; influence over
Canada, 246—258 (see also
America)

Vancouver town, 192—195
Vancouver Province, Winter In, 3
Victoria, 193
Vineyard area In Ontario, 35
W
Wages: In Montreal, 28; in To
ronto, 49 ; in Winnipeg, 108, 110,
112; of farm hands, 138; in
British Columbia, 213

INDEX.

303

Wapella; Settler's experience at,
121; Finn colony near, 123;
colony ol Uist crofters near,
125—128; wheat-fields near, 129
Waplta hunting, 299
West Indian sugar, Canadian pre
ferential treatment of, 74
West Robson, 211
Western Canada, Wheat-growing
area in, 135 (tie also North-
Western Canada)
Wetaskiwin, 177
Wheat: Crop, 55; under preferen
tial treatment, 72; elevators at
Port Arthur and Fort William,
90, 96; samples ot, 92; gambles
in, 93; grading, 95; bins, 96, 97;
cleaning, weighing and stor
ing ot, 96; cost ot elevator
storage, 97; treatment of
damaged, 98; yield of Canada
and United States, 115; yield
In Manitoba, 117; growing In
Columbia, 201

Wheat-fields, Description of,
129—134; area in Western
Canada, 135; wages In, 138
Whitney, Policeman, pioneer
rancher, 228
Wilson, Mr. James, Indian agent,
288
Winnipeg: Wheat grading at, 95;
suburbs of, 100; its rapid
growth, 101—104 ; description
of, 104, 106; its Immigration
Bureau, 107—114; wages in, 108,
110, 112; Englishmen not liked
in, 111; Labour Day in, 112
Winter, Length of, 3
Wood, Captain W., on military
forces, 270
Woollen manufactures and pre
ferential treatment, 69

Young, Eev. Egerton, on Indians,
289

Printh) it
CASSBLL AlTD Co., LiMnxD, La Bwjj! Saitvaoe,
LONDOS, E.C.
30.705

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