Peeps at Many Lands: Canada 3

Peeps at Many Lands: Canada 3

In the older parts of the country, life on the farm is much the same as

elsewhere; the houses are built of stone and brick, with verandas and

lawns, heated by furnaces, and furnished with all that comfort, even

luxury, demands. But far back in the newer parts of Ontario or New

Brunswick we see in a small clearing in the forest or on the edge of a

lake or stream the "log-cabin," with the blue smoke curling up from the

chimney at one end. If we come up to the door we are sure of a

welcome; that is the rule in the wilderness. We enter, to find the

house of two rooms, and perhaps an attic above; the big iron stove for

both cooking and heating stands at one end, and the rifle, guns, and

fishing-tackle, and the dried skins on the wall, tell of the pleasures

of forest life. Perhaps the owner greets you with a fine Scotch or

Yorkshire "twang," and you need feel no surprise if you see last

month's _Punch_ or the _Weekly Times_ lying on the table. These hardy

settlers make their living in part by the battle with the forest, in

part by what they shoot or trap, but largely by working in the winter

for the large lumber (timber) companies who have bought the pine in the

woods from the Government; sometimes, too, they act as guides in the

summer and autumn for the tourists or amateur huntsmen. Their life

teaches them to be strong, active, and self-reliant, with a fine

disdain for the city man, who is so helpless on the trail or in a canoe.

 

On the prairie the life is quite different. Here the settler is

content with the little wooden cabin of double boards with tar-paper

between, which he erects himself; his supplies he brings in the form of

flour, bacon, and canned goods from the nearest town many miles away.

His nearest neighbour may be ten miles away, his railway-station

twenty; all around to the horizon stretches a vast plain, like the sea.

His horses are hobbled at night to keep them from straying, for there

are no fences; he cuts their hay for the winter in the "slews" or

"swales"--low-lying, marshy spots on the prairie. He is fortunate if

there is within reasonable distance a poplar thicket, where he can cut

some firewood. From morn to night he follows the plough through the

rich black soil, which has waited for it from time immemorial; his

whole life is the wheat. A lonely, hard existence, but the reward

comes so fast that in a few years of good crops he may spend his

winters in the South, while his sons and daughters attend college.

 

Now, a peep at the home of the "habitant"--the French-Canadian farmer

in the Province of Quebec. A tiny white house in the shadow of a

little church, whose spire is tipped with a golden cross, overlooking a

mighty river; a narrow strip of farm, every inch in cultivation; a

group of many dark-eyed children chattering in a picturesque patois;

you close your eyes and you are in Brittany. Hard-working,

home-loving, religious, but light-hearted, these people preserve

throughout centuries without change the virtues and customs, the speech

and the religion of their ancestors. They grow most of what they eat;

they make everything they wear; and little money means wealth. Their

sons are found in the factory towns of the New England States, and in

the lumber woods of the North.

 

"We leev very quiet 'way back on de contree:

Don't put on same style lak de big village."

 

or--

 

"De fader of me was habitant farmer,

My gran'fadder too, and hees fader also.

Dey don't mak' no monee, but dat isn't funny,

For it's not easy get everything, you must know,"

 

as Drummond the habitant poet quaintly says.

 

Most of the schools in Canada are public, which means just the opposite

to what it means to the English boy who knows Rugby, Eton, or Harrow;

they are like English Board-schools, free to all, and attended by both

boys and girls. Then there are high schools, where students may be

prepared for college, and there are private schools, corresponding to

the English public schools; of these the oldest and most noted is Upper

Canada College, which is like the Eton of Canada. There are

Universities in all the provinces, and Toronto and McGill University in

Montreal are as large as the great Universities at home.

 

The English boy or girl coming to Canada will find the money quite

different from what he has been accustomed to; it is measured in

dollars, and a dollar is about equal to four shillings. There are 100

cents in a dollar, and there is a copper coin for 1 cent, value one

halfpenny, usually called a "copper," and silver coins for 5, 10, 25,

and 50 cents; but for large sums bank-notes in denominations of 1, 2,

5, 10 dollars and more are used. As the decimal system is used, it is

really simpler than pounds, shillings, and pence, and one soon becomes

accustomed to it, though for some time one fears that one is paying too

much, especially as prices for small articles are often higher in

Canada.

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER IV

 

WINTER SPORTS

 

As soon as the ground is covered with snow, and the snow gets hard

enough, every boy and girl in Canada fetches out his or her flexible

flyer, bob-sleigh, or other form of child's sleigh, and dragging it to

the top of an incline, sets it off gliding to the bottom.

 

The flexible flyer is a small sleigh that will not carry more than one

big child or two very small ones. The rider lies stretched out on the

sleigh, flat on his stomach, with his legs sticking out behind. A

bob-sleigh is larger--often made, in fact, by fastening a piece of

board across two sleighs running one behind the other. The riders on

this go down in a sitting attitude, with their legs sticking out on

each side of them, while one of them steers with his feet. And jolly

fun it is to see them flying down like an express train, laughing and

shouting, with red, rosy cheeks and bright, sparkling eyes. What

matters an occasional spill in the snow? That only adds to the fun,

and makes the game all the merrier.

 

While the children enjoy this "coasting," as they call it, the young

men strap on their snowshoes and race across fields and fences, leaping

or rolling over the latter, until they arrive at some appointed inn,

where they partake of a good meal, with plenty of singing of rousing,

lusty choruses and other kinds of jollification. Then on they strap

their snowshoes again, and, with many a whoop and shout, stretch out in

Indian file on their homeward journey. If there is no moon they carry

torches, and the ruddy, flickering light adds picturesqueness to the

long belted blankets or tunics and tasselled tuques of the snowshoe

runners.

 

[Illustration: TOBOGGANING AT ROSEDALE, TORONTO.]

 

"A pretty picture it is as the snowshoers turn down into a gully, some

slipping, some recovering from a threatened upset by a feat of

balancing, and then, still in Indian file, getting over the fence,

every man in his own peculiar way. Some take it at a leap, others

climb it cautiously; some roll over sideways in a lump, pitching feet

and snowshoes before them. Some are too slowly careful, and, catching

a shoe on the top rail, measure their full length in the snow. There

is no stopping here, for we are far from road and railroad, out in the

open country, with several miles of field before us, and twenty fences

in the way. Most of the farmers, with fellow-feeling, have left a few

rails down, so that there is no obstruction. But a tramp is as tame

without a tumble as without a fence, so here goes for your five feet

ten! Never was there charger could take a high fence like a snowshoer!

As an old song of the Montreal Snowshoers' Club runs:

 

"Men may talk of steam and railroads,

But too well our comrades know

We can beat the fastest engines

In a night tramp on the snow.

They may puff, sir, they may blow, sir,

They may whistle, they may scream--

Gently dipping, lightly tipping,

Snowshoes leave behind the steam!"

 

 

It is the dry snow, the bracing air, and the clear skies of the

Canadian winter season that, combined with the exercise, produce this

great exhilaration of spirits, and set up an equally great--appetite.

 

Ladies take part in this sport as well as men. Indeed, they also share

in the tobogganing and the ice-hockey; in the former along with their

brothers and friends, and in the latter in separate clubs.

 

But the favourite winter sport is ice-hockey. The game is carried on

under cover in large halls, the floor of which can be artificially

flooded and frozen. In this way a smooth, level expanse of ice is

secured, a thing that can be seldom got out of doors owing to the great

quantity of snow that lies on the ground. The game is played pretty

much as hockey is on grass; the ball or disc the players chase is

called a "puck," and they make it skim along the ice with hockey-sticks

of the usual shape.

 

The hockey matches between rival cities are affairs of the greatest

interest to the inhabitants. A large number of deeply interested

sympathizers always accompany the team that goes to play away from

home--in fact, the enthusiasm and excitement reach quite as high a

pitch as they do in England over a successful team of local football

players. The great trophy of Canadian ice-hockey is the Stanley Cup,

which was first competed for in 1893, and has been competed for every

year since, except in 1898. The winning teams have generally been

furnished by Montreal or Winnipeg, though sometimes the winners have

come from Toronto, Ottawa, and other cities. Two games are played, and

all the goals obtained by the one club are added together and put

against the total number of goals gained by the other club. The

holders of the cup keep it until they are defeated, and they have to

play whenever challenged. Since 1906 the cup has been held by the

Montreal Wanderers.

 

A Canadian, Mr. W. George Beers, in describing Canada as a winter

resort, thus writes: "The Province of Quebec must bear the palm of

transforming winter into a national season of healthy enjoyment, and

Montreal is the metropolis of the Snow King. You can have delightful

days and weeks in Toronto, where ice-boating is brought to perfection,

and the splendid bay is alive with the skaters and the winter sailors;

or in curling or skating rink, or with a snowshoe club when they meet

in Queen's Park for a tramp to Carleton, you may get a good company,