A Trip to Manitoba

A Trip to Manitoba

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Title: A Trip to Manitoba
Author: Mary FitzGibbon
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A TRIP TO MANITOBA
BY
MARY FITZGIBBON.

"Manitoba, the great province which now forms part of the Canadian
Dominion"
The Rt. Hon. W. E. GLADSTONE, MP at West Calder.

DEDICATED TO LADY DUFFERIN.

PREFATORY NOTE.
The Canada Pacific Railway, so frequently referred to in the following
pages, is now almost an accomplished fact. It will, after traversing for
over a thousand miles the great prairies of the Swan River and
Saskatchewan territories, thread the Rocky Mountains and, running
through British Columbia to Vancouver's Island, unite the Pacific with
the Atlantic. Of the value of this line to the Dominion and the mother
country there cannot be two opinions. The system of granting plots of
land on each side of the railway to the Company, with power to re-sell
or give them to settlers, has been found most advantageous in, as it
were, feeding the line and creating populations along its route. The cars
which carry to distant markets the crops raised by the settlers, bring
back to them the necessaries of civilized life.
Readers who ask with the post-office authorities, "Where is Manitoba?"
[Footnote: Pages 58, 59] may be answered that Manitoba is a province
in the great north-west territory of the Canadian Dominion, lying
within the same parallels of latitude as London and Paris. It has one of

the most healthy climates in the world--the death-rate being lower than
in any other part of the globe,--and a soil of wondrous fertility,
sometimes yielding several crops in one year. Immense coal-fields exist
within the province; its mountains abound with ore; and its natural
wealth is enormous.
While the province of Manitoba formed part of the Hudson Bay
Company's territory, its resources were undeveloped. But in 1869 it
was transferred to the Dominion Government, and received a
Lieutenant-Governor and the privilege of sending representatives to the
Parliament at Ottawa. Under the new _régime_ enterprise and industry
are amply encouraged.
The original population consisted chiefly of Indians and French
half-breeds; the abolition of the capitation tax on immigrants, however,
has resulted in a large immigration of Europeans, who, with health and
energy, cannot fail to prosper, especially as they are without European
facilities for squandering their money in luxury or intoxication. Of how
universally the Prohibitory Liquor Law prevails in Manitoba, and yet
how difficult it sometimes is to punish its infraction, an amusing
instance in given in
Chapter XI.
Mr. Alexander Rivington, in a valuable pamphlet now out of print ("On
the Track of our Emigrants"), says that when he visited Canada it was
rare to see such a thing as mendicity--too often the result of
intemperance; "the very climate itself, so fresh and life-giving, supplies
the place of strong drink. Public-houses, the curse of our own country,
have no existence. Pauperism and theft are scarcely known
there--income-tax is not yet dreamt of." Free grants of one hundred
acres of prairie and meadow land are still being made to immigrants,
and the population is rapidly increasing.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.
The Grand Trunk Railway--Sarnia--"Confusion worse confounded"--A
Churlish Hostess--Fellow-Passengers on the _Manitoba_--"Off at

last!"--Musical Honours--Sunrise on Lake Huron--A Scramble for
Breakfast--An Impromptu Dance--The General Foe.

CHAPTER II.
Saulte Ste. Marie--Indian Embroidery--Lake Superior--Preaching,
Singing, and Card-playing--Silver Islet--Thunder Bay--The Dog
River--Flowers at Fort William--"Forty Miles of Ice"--Icebergs and
Warm Breezes--Duluth--Hotel Belles--Bump of Destructiveness in
Porters.

CHAPTER III.
The Mississippi--The Rapids--Aerial Railway Bridges--Breakfast at
Braynor--Lynch Law--Card-sharpers--Crowding in the Cars--Woman's
Rights!--The Prairie--"A Sea of