The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-02-05

The curling matches were numerous and
closely contested, and in these our Caledonian
| friends were most deeply interested.
The tobogganing down the incline of Mount
Royal was in its most perfect condition. On
a portion of the descent the ice was so
smooth that toboggan sped over
| it almost with the swiftness
of a bullet. Many are the stories told of the
mishaps that befell tyros in the tobogganing
art during the days and evenings of the car
nival. One young man must and would
stand up on his toboggan, so that he might
/ jump off should he desire to do so on reach
| ing the point of rapid descent. He stood up,
but no sooner was the Indian sled showed off
than he saw that it would be quite as safe to
/ leap from flying express train as to jump
from that toboggan. He was left in that state
of helpless trepidation which one must feel
/ when going down, standing on two thin and
narrow boards, at the rate of eighty miles
| an hour. He reached his destination,
/ two miles off on the level fields,
in safety, but it is safe to say that he will not
/ again ride down Mount Royal standing on a
/ toboggan. Another must guide his own tobog-
gan and ride by himself He was unskilled
in the business; the toboggan struck, flew the
| track, and threw the luckless rider, who went
sliding down the hill until his clothing was
pretty well worn and torn off, and he was in
a sorrowful plight generally.
| The afternoons of Thursday and Friday
| A track was marked off and the heaviest of
the snow cleared away. and here, where the
largest vessels sail in summer, the flyers sped
| round their mile course as securely as they
! could have done on an Indiana meadow.
| visited the river front at o'clock on Fri
day morning and wandered up and down in
! the neighborhood o Bon Secours' market for
short time, but the weather was SO bitterly
cold that could not endure it. Yet at that
early hour hundreds of sleighs-some laden
with visitors and Others with merchandise
were passing over the broad river on the ice
1t was nearly in front of Bon Secour's mar
ket that the racing took place, and at this
point there were several little houses and
some tents, far out on the ice, where fires
were kept and refreshments served In the
afternoon, when the racing was going on,
thousands Of people stood on the ice
or sat in their sleighs for hours
about these shanties and watched
the racing as complacently as if it
had been midsummer, and yet the mercury
stood go below zero that morning, and did
not l think, reach greater height than five
or six below during the day This is consid-
cred triumph of hardihood induced by long
familiarity with the cold, but in fact it is
victory of the Canadian mode of dress A
Canadians winter suit costs as much as a
small retail grocery, but it keeps him warm.
With his sealskln cap, his beaver coat and
his robes of coon, fox, wolf or bearskins he
can come as nearly bidding defiance to cold
and storm as any human being on earth.
Clothe him in the same manner that the
average Indianian dresses, and the Hoosier
will discount him in the the matter of en-
durance.
AT point a little farther up,
on the river and nearly opposite
the custom-house large space was swept
clean of snow, and fourteen or fifteen tele-
graph poles planted in the ice each of which
bore large electric light. Here the young
men and boys, who could not afford the cost
lier amusements at the Kinks, met to ply the
shining runners every evening of the carni-
val week.
Lower down, perhaps a half mile, the
Southeastern railroad had laid its track en-
tirely across the st. Lawrence on the ice, and
added very considerably to its income by
running excursions every few minutes, Civ
ing visitors the novelty of a railroad
the ice The ice is so thick
and strong that it lacked even
that flavor of danger so dear to the American
heart, but still the thousands of New York
ers and New Englanders who thronged the
city were the best patrons of this novel rail-
road enterprise.
MONTREAL AND ITS FEATURES.
Montreal is a solidly built city, and in
summer it is very handsome nor does it lose
many of its attractions in winter, or rather
its summer attractions are replaced by others
of almost equal interest. 1t is true that the
mountain and the beautiful grounds of the
late Sir Hugh Allen-Ravens Crag-and
those of the great universities are not so
slightly now as they were in their summer
verdure and bloom, but the streets are full
of splendid equipageS, and everything looks
neat and cleanly BY the way, if you have
seen the carnival number of the Canadian
illustrated News and have inferred anything
of the nature of Montreal turIouts from
the illustrations it gives, your inferences
have been anything but complimentary to
the commercial capital of Canada. In its
illustration of "The Meet of the Tandem
Club the sleighs look like those of farmers
in Indiana, who think the snowfall too pre-
carious to justify the expenditure OF much
money upon sleighs and robes, and the
horses have the appearance of third-rate
plugs that have been poorly kept The fact
is, on the contrary, that no city IN the world
boasts finer sleighs or more costly turnouts
than Montreal. You take a seat in a cab
mans sleigh and you are at once enthroned
in bewilderment of pushes, furs, robes
and upholstery, and the private sleighs are,
of course, much finer.
Amid so many attractions that were merely
in the nature OF sport, there was one practical
gathering in the city during carnival week
This was the Canadian exhibition of poultry
and feathered pets 1t came off in the large
hall of Mechanics Institute. 1 spent few
minutes in looking it over on Friday. 1t
was very fine poultry show, embracing
chickens, turkeys, ducks pigeons, gulls, and
some other species. The favorite families of
chickens seemed to be the Plymouth Rocks,
Light Dramas, Leghorns and Games though
there were many other fine varieties.
Mr.. w. f. James, the agent of the G. T..
r. r., at Sherbrooke. was one of the principal
prize-winners His Plymouth Rocks are the
handsomest that | ever saw.
When the ice on the great river begins to
break up there will be another big thing on
ice" at Montreal that will excel all
the ice palaces that have yet been
built. The ice-shove, which fills all the space
on the long river front from below Bon
Secours' great market to a point above the
| custom house and piles the ice up sometimes