St. Paul daily globe., 1884-08-02

on the number of islands that do not need to
| be hunted up with telescope.
| Kingston rcjoices in being over 200 years
old, and was fought over and about by
French, English and Indians in early times
until 1t became historic spot The city,
| however, bears evidence that twenty years of
the present time counts more for progress
than former century, and the place looks
quite fresh and progressive. l saw at the
| depot here placard reading, 'Be sure to
see your Northern Pacific tickets are via st.
Paul"
IN AND ABOUT MONTREAL.
| 1t was just about sundown when the train
drew into the venerable city of Montreal.
The brief halt Qess than an hour) compelled
me to take in what could of Montreal on
the fly. l have always imagined Montreal
as an exceedingly old and tumble down ap-
pearing city. The site of Montreal is on an
island thirty miles long by ten wide and it is
now $50 years since the first white
man discovered it. 1t was then occupied
as an Indian village, showing that the
savage, even, had an intuition that here
was the place to locate a town. 1t
was $40 years ago Montreal was first settled
by the French and when the English cap
tured it III years later the population had
only reached 1000. The city has seen MANY
vicissitudes Of war and peace, and just a
century ago-less one year-was captured by
the American forces under Gen. Montgom-
cry. Now ocean and river steamers lie at her
wharves, railroads penetrating all parts of
| Canada and the United States center here
and city of over 100000 people occupies
the island. Two-thirds of the growth has
been within the past fifty years and hence
| my venerable ideas'' must have been the
outgrowth of the age of Montreal in history,
rather than the actual age of the buildings of
the city,
The depot accommo odations found as mad
| equate as those of st. Paul and the passenger
sheds just about as primitive. In both cases
these sheds are more worthy of the era $50
| years ago when Jacques Cartier first visited
Montreal than to-day. / shall never be happy
until the st. Paul Union Depot company
raises sufficient steam to erect mammoth
arched rooted building, within which dozen
trains can concentrate at time, to take the
place of those unsightly sheds, where pass
engers are exposed to wind, rain and snow
in taking the train.
AS l stepped out of the depot for hasty
stroll about the city the first thing that at
tracted my attention was the heavy one horse
carriages of the hackmen. They reminded
me of the parsons Zone hoss shay'' They
are nearly as heavy as the public carriages of
this country, many of them accommodating g
four full grown persons besides the driver,
and none of them less than three. There
were probably twenty-five of these single
horse vehicles on the hack stand near the
depot, and as I walked up and down inspect
| ing the animals, 1 did not see one which
was not fit subject for Bergh's considera-
ton and commiseration.
1t is claimed that Father Hennepin first
| discovered both Niagara and st. Anthony
falls. AS / strolled about Montreal l con-
cluded it must have been Father Hennepin
who laid out the streets both in Montreal
and st. Paul. 1t certainly must have been
the same man, for they are as like as two peas.
As near as 1 have been able to ascertain, the
width of the streets in these two cities was
obtained by the distance Frenchman could
jump, the space covered by the jump being
taken for the width of the street from curb
to curb. Perhaps if these street jumpers
could have talked English it would have
made them more elastic, or if they had
taken ''run and jump" our streets
might have been wider, but LAND
was very scarce and valuable in those days
and hence the early settlers were obliged tt
be prudent and not employ very athletic
young men to lay out the streets. l found
on reading the Montreal papers that they
speak of their streets as ''lanes,'' and
thought recognized the eternal fitness O
things. st. Paul too is city with ''lanes'
instead of streets.
Naturally, Montreal has some old sections
but there is so much that is modern about
the city that the visitor soon forgets the
years which have elapsed since
it was founded Both here and a
Toronto the Young Mems Christian Associa
tion have erected elegant buildings, steI
which the enterprising city of st. Paul ha:
not yet been able to take. Here too l found
the largest church this side of the Atlantic
ocean. 1t is monster building, 260 fee
long by 140 wide and it is claimed it will
hold ten thousand people. 1t has two tower:
like our Assumption church, only much more
massive and $50 feet in height. regretted
that my limited time did not allow me to as.
cend one of these towers, for the view there
from must be grand in its immensity.
| One of these towers contains q
chime of bells and the other
a single bell weighing 10000 pounds, which
is sufficiently sonorous to reach the ears OF
the most distant member of the French
Parish church The Bank of Montreal, with
its S1S, 200, 900, can undoubtedly afford tc
have fine building, and its edifice is about
| the most handsome in the city. Adjoining
the bank is a comfortable but not pretentious
building, which is occupied by the Canadian
| Pacific railroad for their main offices. The
postoffice on the other side of the Bank oi
Montreal is, like all public buildings erected
under English rule, q massive and sub
stantial affair. The Bank of Montreal is the
institution of which Geo. Stephen, former
president of the Manitoba road, and now
president of The Canada Pacific, was presi
dent. Mr.. Angus, the former vice presi
dent of the road, was general IN anager of the
bank prior to his brief residence in st.
Paul.
The newspapers of Canada are very unsat-
isfactory to an American. had sought an
American paper in Toronto in vain, and again
in Montreal without success. / bought al
of the Canadian papers 1 could find,
but after l had read them all l felt thai
1 had passed day ''outside Of the lines,''
and was anxious TO learn what had hap
pened in the heart of civilization. They
ought to give little more prominence tC
American affairs in the Montreal papers