The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1858-08-12
porated without becoming sssimilated with

ESUxERArrox AND Social DIVISIONS
The population Of the Red River valley, Of
white and mixed blood, which in 1912,
amounted to only few hundreds 10 all, has
expanded 10 the course Of forty-six years,
to over eight thousand souls, partly by the
natural laws Of growth, but mainly by direct
accessions Of emigrants from different sourc.
es at different periods, principally of Scotch,
Swiss, and English in 1913, 1917 and 1923,
with constant influx Of Canadians.
Broad differences Of nationality, Of relig-
ion, and OF modes Of life, divide this hetero.
genous population into two classes, nearly
eqnal in numbers. One-half are farmers,
the other half hunters. Those OF European
extraction, principally Scotch, are generally
engaged in agriculture, and the fixed avo.
cations of civilized life. They are mainly
Protestants, Of which the larger proportion
is Presbyterian, the rest Episcopalians and
Methodsts. The Canadians and the Bois.
bruies, descendants Of the Gems hbres, and
the prolific product of more recent intermar.
riages with the surrounding savages, usual.
ly follow the chase for subsistence, and are
generally Catholics. The traditions of the
former connect them with the early strug-
giles Of the Hudson Bay Company, of the
latter with its Northwestern rival.
The SETrIEaEST-THE FARMERs.--COm.
mencing about sixty five miles below the
American boundary, this population is dis.
tributed over a settlement of perhaps seven
ty miles in length, stretching from the mouth
Of the Assineboin westward along that river
and northward along the Red River. The
plain, tesselated with farms and dotted
with neat white houses of logs or frame set
in snug enclosures, and surrounded with
luxuriant gardens, while the wide cham.
paign is covered in the distance with herds
of browsing cattle and horses, presents an
aspect of rural cultivation which recalls the
features of Belgian landscape.
The numerous windmills, of which there
are eighteen in the settlement, mark their
isolation from the progress of the age. The
principal village is at Fort Garry, at the
confluence Of the Red and Assineboin rivers
the kilddonan of the ysettlers- where
Catholic cathedral built of stone, and
several steepled Churches of different Pro
testant denominations, evince the attention
paid to religion, and number of schools
dispense the rudiments Of education. Here
the Governor of the colony, appointed by
the Queen, has his seat. His jurisdiction
extends over circle Of hundred miles
from this centre, which he governs by the
aid OF Council composed of officers of the
Company, with sway despotc and per.
haps Illegal in prerogative. but generally
mild and just in its exercise, except in the
arbitrary restraints which their commercial
monopoly imposes upon the freedom of
traffic
The prices ofgoods sold by the Company,
are fixed by tariff IS per cent above the
invoice prices, which, after paying all the
charges of transit, yields an enormous profit
to the stockholders, who are some two or
three hundred in number. The agrcutu.
rists, with no market for their products bu,
the employees of the Company obliged to
sell at prices fixed by them, have little in
ducement to vigorous industry This op.
pressive policy, which closes oil the avenues
OF wealth against them has driven many of
them to hunting for subsistence, and Others
to defiant competition with the Company
in the fur trade In other respects, the life
of the agriculturist is that of the peaceful
and orderly monotony OF Scotch hamlet.
whose widest extremes are the kirk and
the farm, between which their lives alternate
in quiet religious conten,ment.
The Hu>rERs-THKIR MASNgRs.-The
ha'-breed hunters are the social autipodes of
this simple peasantry. with whom they have
nothing in common but their common home.
These nomadic people unite in their temper.
aments the characteristics of the races which
mngle in their blood Injured 10 hardshps
and danger from their earliest youth no ex.
posure and no difficulties can conquer their
capacity for physical endurance Their