Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-08-30
MISERABLE MANITOBA
As IT rs PICTURED IND as IRIS IN
REALITY.

AhdLlIIs
Exper 'ences of an English Emigrynt-
Trip from Quebec to st. Paul The Rich
and Fertile Pra,ries of Minnesots. and
of the C-nsd an Government In Its Land
Regulations Terrible Weather, Etc.
[ Manitoba Correspondence N. Y. Herald, IA.
In the spring of 1879, in company with
number of others like minded, determined
upon selling off and going with rny family
to Manitoba. l do not mean to bore You
with description of the voyage, but cannot
help remarking that great deal of its tedium
was relieved by the perusal of said pamph-
let's, handbooks, etc., Chose furnished by
the Canadian government our imaginations
being fired with the glowing descriptions of
the wonderful farming country We were 60
ing to settle in-the rich fertility of its soil,
its adaptation for the production of all kinds
of grain, grapes, vegetables and fruits; in
fact, almost everything that could be grown
in the eastern or southern parts
of the American continent could
be grown here. And then
as to its climate we were told by high Off
cial authority that 'sthe dryness of the air,
the character of the soil (Which retains no
stagnant pools to send forth poisonous ex-
halations) and the almost total absence of
fog or mist, the brillianoy of the sunlight
and the pleasing succession of it's seasons
all conspire to make this climate of unrival-
led salubrity.' We had good voyage to
Quebec, where we took the cars for Winni-
peg-and such cars! torture boxes, having q
backward and forward, up and down and q
double sidewsy motion. all seemingly at the
same time, SO that in a short time most of
the women and children and many Of the,
men were suffering from violent nausea and
headache that did not leave them until they
were off the Grand Trunk railroad. On
making inquiry found that those were the
old emigrant cars, built some twenty or thir-
~ years ago. and ought to have been used up
as firewood long since.
PLEASANT CHANGE.
What pleasant change We experienced
when We took our places in the really COM
Portable cars of the ST. Paul and Manitoba
line. By this time our party had received
some large additions in the shape of Ontario
farmers, who, as we'll as ourselves, were won
derfully pleased with the seeming ilIimit-
able extent and the rich fertilityof the pra-
ries of Minnesota, and we we're more than half
inclined to go no further, but get out, rest
and be thankful, and only wish we had; it
would have saved me good many dollars,
as we'll as large amount of suffering and of
proftless fatigue. But then we were eau
toned SO much and so often against believ-
ing anything "those Americans should tell
us, that in spite of the evidence of our
senses that we were surrounded by land as
good as man need wish to run pillow through,
and that too, all along line of railway that
could bring what we wanted to our doors,
and take up crops almost off the fields
where they might be grown, still we went on.
MARCH OF MISERY.
We reached Winnipeg in the month of
June, and here we met with our first disap-
pointment. We had seen it described in
emigrant hand books as the Chicago of the
northwest. All the resemblance we found
lay in the fact that Winnipeg is to-day what
Chicago was great many years ago when
they first began to build there-viz: q veri-
table mudhouse, and such mud-black,
Shiny and tenacious as glue, and the only
change from six or eight inches in depth was
when it became ten, twelve or fifteen inches.
On arriving at this so-caIled "city" we were
told that we must purchase all we wanted
here. as nothing could be got further West.
So we provided ourselves with horses,
wagons, oxen, implements, &C., at prices
varying from twenty five to thirty-fve
per cent. dearer than they would have cost
me in Minnesota. Being fully, equipped we
in such condition from the
heavy spring rain that had not yet
finished lit was now july that progress was
got stuck several times, had to double our
teams and in two instances had to unload in
order to get out of 'slews," and at the end
of the day found that we had actually got
about three miles from onr starting point.
This, with some slight variations in the
quantity of ground covered and difficulties
encountered, was our experience for the next
fortnight. By this time we had covered
nearly one hundred miles, had broken q
quantity of harness gear, etc, tired out our
cattle, used up every particle of patience, and
had become altogether demoralized. You
may imagine how good we felt toward the
authorities who had assured us that there
was good surveyed road fully $50 miles
west of Winnipeg.
CANADIAN BAD FAITH.
Having got this distances We thought we
would look around US for suitable spot
where we could take up the free homestead
of 100 acres and the exemption of 100
each at 81 per acre, as promised us by the
Canadian government; but we found this
was easier resolved on than carried out, as
nearly all the land that was really workable
was already disposed Of under one of the
following heads: Indian Reserve, Half Breed
Reserve, Taken Up, Scrip. We also found
that we should not be permitted to take a
REDEMPTION, the government having decided
only to allow homestead of 100 acres to
each settler. This so enraged several of the
party that they started right off for Dakota
or Minnesota. decided upon going further
west, and found by the time got to the Lit
tie sSas katchewan district that the
Canadian government, in its de-
sire to keep faith with
the emigrant, had again altered its land reg
ulations, this time bringing down the home
stead to eighty acres and offering another
eighty acres pre- emption at $6 an acre, if
within five miles of the proposed Canadian
Pacific railroad, and if settler preferred
going back about 100 miles from the pro-
posed railroad he might get land at ST an
acre.
In the land regulations of the dominion
there is, as in ordinary law proceedings.
GLORIOUS uncertainty" So the aforesaid
alteration did not last long, being very soon
set aside by another. But it has been re-
served for the last few weeks to see Canada's
GROWING folly in the matter of the land
acquisitions. ALI who know anything of
the difficulties attendant upon the settling