Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-02-06
A BRILLIANT WINTER FESTIVAL.

A BRILLIANT WINTER FESTIVAL.
Montreal on Wednesday closed week of
wonderful winter festivity that is sugges-
tive of possibilities in other quarters. 1t
was her week of ice carnival. To it came
tens of thousands Of citizens of the border,
aud many distinguished people of all that
region. To Californians of the valleys, espe-
cially those Of the younger generation. the
fancy can but family picture the scenes OF
the week. They can but i'll conceive of
pleasure and robust outdoor sport for fifty
thousand people with the Thermometer fif-
teen degrees below zero. The bare con-
temptation in thought of Canadian FROST
CONCEALED rivers and the "sap consuming
winters drizzle snow" chills their
blood. The prevailing freezing weather
here, that make thin. apologetic films of
ice upon exposed shallow waters. give
them anything but pleasant ideas of
winter,
"sulleu and sad, with all his rising train
vapors, and clouds and storms"
But to the hardy people of the st. Law
renee border the ice king has few terrors
and brings them many delights.
Last week they surpassed all former
efforts money was lAvished with unsur-
passed prodigality, and the realms of
fancy searched to the uttermost cor
nera for devices of mirth. They
erected palace in the center of
Dominion Square, its four walls 100 feet
on side, composed of massive blocks of
solid ice; the roof, a sheet of ice evoked
from showers of spray cast over cedar
beams and branches, until solid translu.
cent arch and ceiling was formed its
corner spires of upright icicles towering far
aloft; the central tower hollow structure
of ice 80 feet on every side and stretching
over 100 feet toward the sky, and around
it broad aisles, bearing such delightfully."-
cooling and suggestive titles, as Jeanette
Corridor. Hudson's Strait, MeClintock Pas
sage aud Wrangel Land Foyer. The front of
this remarkable structure, which required
$4,000 cubic feet of ice, was adorned with
national statues, sculptured in ice, and on
either side the main entrance was an
Arctic hut. At night this boreal palace of
thick ribbed ice was lighted by hundred
electric lights, and bathed in the red glare
of crimson pyrotechnic fires. As these
were suddenly lighted the glittering walls
gave back millions of dazzling diamond
flashes, and invested the scene with re.
splendent beauty. the multitude vel
coined the opening of this magic structure
with cheers for the Queen of England, the
President and the people of the United
States. One can pardon the exuberance of
the Montreal Gazette, which speaks with an
odd mixture of business and fancy, when
it declares that the carnival "excites an
interest to the very ends of the earth
among persons whom dry statistics or drier
argument would repel. II is Ito look at it
in business light practical advertise
mens which could in no way be surpassed.
From patriotic and public standpoint it
is glorious conception"
With the Inauguration of the ice palace
began week of unbroken revelry, at
tracing thousands OF people and dollars to
their cisy-for the Canadians we'll under
stand how to enjoy the maximum of sport
and at the same time turn an honest penny.
They had citizens procession with 1000
sleighs, 4, 600 horses and quarter of
million of merry bells; four hundred
curriers' from twenty clubs, played before
an audience Of 10000 people, who gave but
a grain of thought to the low.spirited ther.
mometer j; hundreds of skaters filled the
twenty great Kinks on the river there were
snow-shoe races, steeple chases, ice trots,
hockey matches, barrel races, skating
matches, obstacle races, backward races,
tandem driving, and score of sports of
like nature, including some excellent rae.
ing between fine horses and gentlemen's
teams. There was, on one night, a torch
light procession by 1000 snow. shoers, clad
in white, moving in weird waving line
up the steep slopes of Mount Royal.
There was coastiDg down billy streets,
closed to traffic fer the week tobogganing
was engaged in by thousands, that seem
to have completely fascinated the visiting
Americans there were fancy dress balls
and masquerade carnivals on the ice, said
TO have been wonderfully brilliant there
were banquets in memory of Burns ban
quets by the corporation TO distinguished
visitors concerts, balls and receptions and
skating carnivals on the river at night be.
meath the cold white rays Of many electric
lights. Not the least interesting of all
these features were sham fights on snow
shoes a fine exhibition of fish; ex.
cursions to points of interest and, lastly,
the running to and fro of a seventeen ton
locomotive with long train of passenger
cars for excursionisss across the river, the
track being laid upon the icy bosom of the
stately ST. Lawrence.
Aud so the people of Montreal snatched
pleasure from the biting days when
Leaves are scar
And flowers are dead, and fields are drear,
And streams are wild, and skies are bleak,
Aud white with snow each mountain peak
When winter rules the year"
THE OLD cay