Winnipeg Grows In A Most
Astonishing Way; Every Time We Go In, A New Avenue Or Street Seems
To Have Started Up.
Emigrants, they say, are coming in at the rate
of a hundred a day.
A few years ago the population was about five
thousand, in 1878 about ten, now over forty thousand, a fourth of
whom are living under canvas.
It was estimated last winter that the building operations this
season would amount to four million dollars, but double that
amount is nearer the mark, and many are obliged to abandon the
idea of building on account of the difficulty of getting timber
and bricks. Every house or shanty is leased almost before it is
finished. Winnipeg, as you know, was formerly known as Fort Garry,
and one of the chief trading stations of the Hudson Bay Company.
Of the old fort, I am sorry to say, there is very little left, and
that is shortly to be swept away for the continuation of Main
Street. The Governor, now occupying the old house, is to have a
splendid building, which, with the Houses of Legislature, are in
the course of construction, rather farther away from the river.
The town is built at the confluence of two great rivers, the Red
and Assiniboine, the former rising in Minnesota, and flowing into
lake Winnipeg 150 miles north, navigable for 400 miles. The
Assiniboine has many steamers on it; but the navigation being more
difficult, the steamers often sticking on the rapids, it is not
much in vogue with emigrants going west, particularly now that the
railway takes them so much more rapidly.
There is a large suburb of the town the other side of the Red River
called St. Boniface face, the see of a Roman Catholic Archbishop;
possessing a beautiful cathedral and a great educational school for
young ladies; for some reason or other we never managed to get over
there to see it, though the cathedral is a grand landmark for a great
distance.
The railway traffic also is enormous. During the flood 4,000
freight waggons were delayed at St. Vincent; now they are coming
in at the rate of 4,000 per week, and still people cannot get
their implements, stores, &c. fast enough. We have asked several
times for some turpentine at one of the shops, and the answer
always given is, "It is at the depot, but not unloaded."
We have been wanting turpentine to mix with the brown paint with
which we are painting, the dining-room doors. But first of all the
paint fails, and then the turpentine, and I fully expect our
beautiful work of art will not be finished before we leave.
* * * * *
July 12th.
It is very certain that no gentleman ought to come out to this
country, or, when here, can expect to prosper, unless he has some
capital, heaps of energy, and brains, or is quite prepared to sink
the gentleman and work as a common labourer.
The latter command the most wonderful wages, there is such a
demand for them that one can hardly pick and choose. A plough-boy
gets from four to six pounds a month, an experienced man from
eight to ten pounds, besides their board and lodging; a mechanic
or artisan from fourteen to sixteen shillings a day; women
servants are very scarce, they get from four to six pounds a
month. We were so astonished at the wages in New York; the head
gardener in the Navy Yard was receiving one hundred and fifty
pounds a year, his underling, seventy-five pounds, the groom one
hundred pounds. It is surprising to me that the whole of the
poorer classes in England and Ireland, hearing of these wages, do
not emigrate, particularly when now-a-days the steerage in the
passenger ships seems to be so comfortable, and that for about six
pounds they can be landed on this side of the Atlantic. We have
nine Britishers and two Canadians on this farm, and the amount of
ground broken up does everyone great credit, considering that the
whole place is only of a year and a half's growth. Since we
arrived we can mark rapid and visible strides towards completion.
The house has been banked up and grassed, a fence put to enclose
all the yard, and we have actually had the audacity to talk about
a tennis ground, which would take an immense deal of making, from
the unevenness of the soil. The water, having no real outflow,
makes itself little gullies everywhere, which would be very
difficult to fill up level; but I don't know that, until we are
acclimatized to the mosquitoes, said to be the happy result of a
second year's residence, that we should feel inclined to play
tennis, as we could only indulge in that diversion of an evening
when work was ended, and that is just the worst time for these
pests. They spoil all enjoyment, we never can sit out under the
verandah after supper which we should so like to do these warm
evenings. They bite through everything, and the present fashion of
tight sleeves to our gowns is a trial, as no stuffs, not even thin
dogskin, are proof against them, and our faces, arms, and just
above our boots are deplorable sights. Ammonia is; the only remedy
to allay the irritation. I am not drawing a long bow when I say
that in places the air is black with them.
The poor horses and cows are nearly maddened with them if turned
out to graze, and the moment the poles across the road are
withdrawn they gallop back into their stables. The mosquitoes are
great big yellow insects, about half an inch long.
The house and country at Boyd's farm is much prettier than this,
from the lot of trees round it, and the ground not being so flat;
but we wouldn't change for all the world, it is so stuffy, and the
flies and mosquitoes are much worse there than here, where we
catch the slightest breeze of wind, which always drives them away.
We were dreading making the hay in the marshes on account of them.
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