Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1859-08-23
WARRINGTON NEWS AND GOSSIP.

THK City OF QuEBEc-ITs CROOKED STREETS AND
PLANK SIDEwALks-THE UPPER AND LOWER
TowN-MoSrcALM's HoUsE-THE CANADIAN
HAsITANTs-THKR LOVE OF HonK AND Flow
ERs-QUEER VEHICLES THE VISITATION,
&c, &c.
Editorial Correspondence Of The Sfar.l ~ /
QUEBEC, LOWER CANADA,}
mo. 2e.l August 9, 1859.
Six a. m this morning sawthe steamer on which |
I yoyaged last night moored along side the mole |
atthe foot of the immense natural and artificial
ranparts of this strange and ancient city. We
literally climbed up in omnibuses from the quaint
rist-covered town. with streets not more than twen
y feet wide to the Prescott gate of the fortified
wall surrounding what is here called ''the city,
which, though comprising not more than third
of the population and buildings Of Quebec, has
worn that title ever since the French settled the
colony. Armed troops guard each Of the city's
i've portals, and, indeed, pace tie ramparts sur
rounding 1T entirely, day and night. In going to
the hotel Russell's) we passed the market place
crowded with the quaint little carts Of the habit
ants. each drawn by the inevitable single pony
their stock being much better than that saw at
Montreal. The houses Of ''the city (within the
wall) are in design precisely like those on the wa
ters sde being, however, In better repair. Hardly
lsh model is visible. French names were on
nearly every sign, and the French language only
seemed to be spoken, except In addressing an
American tourist, of whom there are as many
here, fancy. as were in Montreal yesterday. The
streets lined with calashes hurrying to and fro
with their fares, tooting" for fares, all driven
| by habitants. AS queer 1t is, the calashe is
convenient vehicles one-horse gig, with falling
top, on huge leather springs the driver sitting
roll Of cloth, perhaps three inches wide, placed
upon the edge of the dasher his pony being geared
two or three feet further from the vehicles body
than in the Boston (doctor's) chaise, which the
caleshe most resembles. Two passengers are car
ried, with any quantity of luggage, among which
| their feet must run the chances. They are the
cabs of Quebec, now, as one hundred and fifty
years ago.
The streets of 1.-The city are laid out much as
those of Boston in its ginal settlement-by
| the paths along which the cows came home.
They turn suddenly, winding around blocks and
/ squares, and are none of them wider than the
alleys of Washington designed to admit the pas
| sage of meeting vehicles. The sidewalks are
nearly all of three-inch plank, varying in width
from two to four feet. The city contains some
sixty thousand inhabitants, and the yards of the
houses are none of them apparently more than
| twenty feet square, except in the modern extern
| sion of the town on and around the Plains of
Abraham without the walls So, with such streets
as describe, one may fancy how human nature
is packed and jammsd together in Quebec.
Everything around and in the city is construct
ed to guard against the intense cold of their win
tiers, when the thermometer remains for weeks at
thirty to thirty five degrees below Zero and for six
months the ice prevents entirely the navigation of
| their river. OH which, in summer commerce SO
immense is done. Quebec looks like fit place
for the seasons necessary winter burrowing of its
/ inhabitants
Policemen are seen at every turn, each carving
| at his belt tire-wrench with which to attach to
either of the hydrants plentifully scattered
| around hose-pPe in case of fire. The head of the
water in the city's reservoir is so strong that
they use no 1re7engines-a pipe SO applied being
sufficient to drown out any ordinary conf
in five minutes. ... .- ..
Our driver had quite time ont in engineering
his vehicle to Russell's Hotel, through the crowd
Of calashes, little carts and pedestrians That ac-
| complished, the hundred who went there from the
| steamer made hearty breakfast everything being
| set before them likely TO tempt the appetite
Breakfast overall being tourists-we started out
to see the sights. / made direct for the Falls of
Montmorenci, eight or nine miles distant on the
other side of the St Charles river which is rossed
by passing out Of sentry guarded city gate down
| into the antiquated damned town under the ram
parts and over bridge near the ship-yard and
| depots into which hundreds of thousands Of dol
| lars worth q timber is foated by the tides which
(sPring tides) rising from eighteen to TWENTY-FIVE
| feet here, leave 1t in convenient position to be
| hauled away from the reach of the next tide /
| found the lower town (St Roch's) heater than I
had anticipated from cursory glance an hour he.
| FORE some of its streets through which logged,
being Planked their entire width. from house to
| house On the whole. however it is dirty enough
| to rival any European town celebrated for its
stenches, constructed after the same fash on GEN.
turtles ago
The bridge once crossed, | entered the stray
CLING village Of BEAUFORT, which stretc hes along
on the crest of the first slope Of the rivers banks
all the way down to the Falls. Three-fourths of
its houses (all Of one story and an attc) look as
| though built before the change Of government
| about 1850. Among them was the identica al house
| in which Montcalm resided when the Britt SD took
Quebec, killing him and getting their own gen.
eral (Wolfe) killed. 1t is doubtless preserved on
account Of the historical "reminiscences connected
with 1t, as though in good preservation compare
lively 1t is unoccuPied-a long one-story and attic
building, with windows strewed at hap-hazard
over its fronts, peaked roof tall as the house
Itself and twice as many chimneys as are built in
these times tn a mansion of similar dimensions
From the hill in close juxtapoSition with it, one OF
the loveiiest views | ever beheld burst on nv
sight-the whole city Of Quebec, its bay and
river for thirty miles up and down, fifteen or
twenty French villages on their banks a plateau
OF cultivated farms perhaps twenty-five miles
square, and isolated mountain on mountain for the
b1ck ground in various directions All the cult
waited land was cut up by fences into patches vary
ing from fifty to two hundred feet wide and from
two hundred to a thousand feet long 1t Is nearly
every foot Of it yet in the possession Of the mme
diate descendants OF the original dndi vidual)
white settlers. When a habtant dies his heirs
divide his lands among them, even though farm
fifty feet by two hundred only falls to one; and on
that farm living il sought to he made What
were considerable estates century ago are thus cut
up into hundreds of proprietorships each village
being in many cases composed of the ramifics
lions of single descent or family, with large
proportion of its inhabitants bearing the same
name, and nearly all looking alike in features
Nothing induces French Canadian to desert the
spot where he was born, save spirit of adventure
or enterprise not common among them on the one
hand, or absolutely pinching want ON the otb.,