The Portland daily press., 1868-08-31
correspondence.


Down East.
rur INTERNATIONAL STEAMsHIPs.-ENTHU-
sIAsM OF HACKMEN AND PEOPLE OF ST.
JOHN.
ST. JOHN, N. B., Aug. 20, 1868.
Mount Desert is well enough for those
whose case only requires mild treatment, anu
sea breezes in homeopathic doses, but II one
wants the dull languor this fierce sulnne'
has gendered frozen out of him, lei hllh sIeep
himself for six hours, as did, in genuine
Bay of Fupdy fog, that shall chill his very |
homes. We Law three hours enveloped in this |
Morse breath. waiting for some sight or sound |
to toll us up the channel way to st. John
We had run by compass and time with
out glimpse of land or light since leav-
ing Campobello, scarcely able to see one
end of the boat from the other. If time
and course are right the harbor should
be on onr port bow. To run farther on this
course might pile our wreck upon the rocks
OF the mainland beyond the river. Sure
enough there it is, at last, the steam log
whistle upon Partridge Island, sounding faint
ly west on our port side. So we backed and
came 10 ancDOF. ne CdIC sliiu Shii "Ae"
which these boats of the International line
are run by their accomplished masters and
pilots, is above all praise. Captains Field
and Winchester are just the men one feels
confidence in trusting ones life with. Pru-
dent, skilliul, thoroughly acquainted with the
coast and with the capacities of their several
ships, they are as wise and helpful in danger
as they are gentemanly and courteous IN all
weathers 1t seems indeed wonderful
achievement of modern science that along
such coast as ours, with its fogs and sweep
ing tide currents, these floating palaces of
comfort and luxury, packed with men and
delicate women and helpless children, can be
navigated in storm and sunshine, summer
and winter, year after year, without losing
dollars worth of freight wetting the sole
of passengers foot.
But we must wait for the tide to lift us
over the bar, which the storms of the bay and
the current OF the river are building higher
and higher from Partridge Island to the
Western bank of the river. Perhaps twill one
day be lifted to the surface and form break
water to make the harbor more secure. All
st. John were on the wharf as usual to well
come US. 1t is most hospitable people. 1t was
bed time, dark as Egypt, and the rain pouring
in torrents, yet the citizens, determined not
to be behind hand in welcoming the coming
and speeding the going guest, stood at their
posts, drenched and dripping victims to their
national good manners. The hackmen were
most demonstrative of attentions. Some as
saulted us with brandshed whip stocks, 9TH
ers used gentle force to wrest away our car
pet-bags, others ontented themselves by |
such soothing congratulations as these: Here |
zoe are now, Ye're all right, This is the ,vay
Si'rh! Escaping these embarrassing civil- |
ties, and being once at least bowed down
by loaded barrow upon the long wet slip,
we consigned ourselves at last to the most |
modest of our Hibernian friends, and were |
speedily put down at the door of our Hotel.
INTERvALEs OF ST. JoHN-FREDERICKToN.
The st. John river is famed for its beauty
and grandeur. A Yankees hunger for real
estate is greatly stimulated by surveying these
mile broad intervales, dotted now with hay
cocks and adorned with graceful elms NeT
England has nothing like this in the way of
agricultural land. After sailing about thirty
miles the rocky bluffs, that line the shores
seaward, give place to lower and more
rounded swells, and before arriving at Fred
erickton the distinction between intervale and
upland almost disappears, and the farms
with their squares of ripening buckwheat and
oats stretch fairly over the low hills. 1 know
nothing more elegant than great dinner
party in the saloon of one of those swift,
river steamers sweeping by shingly rocks,
willow copses, deal-boats laden to the rail,
barns on the banks gushing with new hay,
and rows of stately elms. The officers of the
boat have time to be polite. No smart I'M
derstrapper goes round singing the insinua-
ton that passengers haze not settled their
fare, aggravated with gong. The Captain
himself comes to your seat with little pass
book and whispers about the fare, as if it were
too delicate subject to mention.
Fredericton is on the South bank of the
river quiet town of six thousand inhabitants.
The only building of any pretension is the
Cathedral, which is gothic and of rough hewn
stone, the gift principally of wealthy and
jealous sons of the church at home. We sat
within its dim religious light while half
dozen women and children were having their
days devotion done for them in a magnificent
and expensive way by two eaiy dressed
functionaries, who seemed to know the ropes.
So much could be done with stones and NOR
tar and money, but in the Crystal Palace
built temporarily for Provincial Fair and
now used as barrack, may be seen what a
genius can do without money and with no
cost five dollars thousand. With this cheap
material and dash of coarse paint, the arch
itect who ever he was has produced all the
effect of tower, turret, bastion, dome, pima
Gle and frieze wrought in hammered stone.
Seen from the river it looms up like pal
ace.
His Honor the Lieutenant Governor, who
has long lived here eminent as lawyer and
judge, has a fine garden in the center of the
town, which was glowing with splendid flow
ers, as we rode by it on the street, shaded
from the opposite side by grove of giant
pines.
There are soldiers everywhere,-near a
thousand now CHARTERED in the town. The
officers quarters and barracks occupy the
most slightly and desirable lots upon the river
in the same center of the city. Here are
kept birch canoes enough to exercise a regi-
ment preparatory to an inland invasion from
Aroostook, though they probably only an
swer the more peaceful purpose of amusing
the officers and their families and friends. A
shabby ill-grown bear is kept chained to a
large willow on the square; suppose to be
fit emblem of the province, its living heraldic
sign. The chain represents the colonial de-
pendence, the restlessness of brun the chat
Ing, and his leanness and shabbness the de-