The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-02-23
SCENES IN
The City's Mixed Experimentation the
Houses Are Constructed.

The City's Mixed Experimentation the
Houses Are Constructed.
Letter in New York sun.
The city is practically all limestone, II is a
city of fine buildings. You read the signs
secondhand goods or Rags and bottles on
a massive limestone house that looks like one
OF the old granite mansions. near the Bowling
Green. This limestone not only gives the place
a solid and grand appearance, but 1t suggests
age. and. indeed. there are whole streets full OF
houses one hundred years Old, besides the
many occasional structures that are almost
double that age. The public buildings are all as
fine as any in New York, and nearly all are big
ger than anything we have except the pOstofice.
just as more than one-half Of the population is
French, so the great majority Of the street
signs are French. The French seem to care
very little about learning English. and the
English trample over the French with their
tongues, and are content, in the great majority
OF cases. not to speak it any better than viii
serve their purpose Of getting along. Tn
wealth and enterprise here is more with the
Scotch than the English, and broad Scotch IS
oftener heard than English. The French excite
sympathy. Montreal was theirs originally, and
they Outnumber the Britons, but they are
crowded to one side. They are the carriers.
servants, small shop-keeperS, prlVates IN the
militia, clerks and laborers. OF course, many
are rich, but they are the exceptions. The
postotfice corner streetlamp bears the words,
Bureau de Postc.' Our distinguished country
woman, OF pictorial celebrity. shows her face
vi III inc Wits ONGI tue NDEtH- idNAdih
Pinkham.7
Every window in Montreal is double. The
true windows are set inside the cmbrasures.
The winter windows, each in one sash, fit out
side, even with the exterior Of the walls. This
keeps the cold out pretty effectually, but stoves
in the rooms are not deemed sufficient. You
frequently find them in the halls as well. The
beds are lillocks Of warm material. The
humblest house has its double windows, and
the same is true of the great buildings. The
cathedrals, the postofice, city hall, and splen-
did banks, churches, club-houses and halls, all
are doublY glazed. One pane in each
extra window swings upon hinges, to permit
ventilation. Every here and there the stranger
sees a pair Of snow-shoes crossed and resting on
end between these double sashes. Snow-shoes
are pretty things. They are the shape of a
spoon, with the bowl flattened and the broad
end of the handle cut of. The frame is of white
wood, and the bowl of the spoon is covered with
an ornamental network Of deer gut. Shoes
for sport are less than a foot wide; those
used by surveyors are two feet wide. The
wider they are the less they sink into loose
snow. Snow-shoes cost from $3.50 to $3.50 a
pair. They are made by the Indians. Even
now, i'll the back country, the mails are del1V-
cred on them. and village life depends upon
them. The shoes are not put III the city win
dows for display or ornament. or, as many sup
pose, to show that q snOw-shOer lives within.
They are put there to keep cool. and they are
kept cool, in order that the gut net work shall
not sag or slack.
y LAAlAA6 St'2 va nm L. q A'Ai0t w.
Canadian life will simply imagine everything III
the New York streets gliding about on runners
the big express wagons, the mail wagons, the
hacks, the phaetons, the little package hand
carts, the baby carriages, and the hearses, all
rid of wheels and slipping ahead on bands Of pol
ished steel-he will get yet another idea Of the
strangeness Of the scene out of doors. The
hearses are grand sleighs, with black bodies and
crystal sides. the roofs being most ornatoly
topped by black crowns, black carved torches,
and black angels Of almost human size. As the
hOrse-car tracks are four feet out Of sight, box
sleighs run over the routes, and the conductors,
in big fur coats, each present a leather teapot,
with Il slit where the lid ought to be, when they
collect their half dimes. The steam fire engines
and the hook and ladder trucks glide TO their
work on runners.
The horses are nearly all smaller than ours.
They are the famous Canadian ponies, tough,
why little beasts that seem to need no more urg-
ing than a locomotive, but rush like mad along
the streets. Except in carnival week it costs
but a quarter for a twenty minutes ride, during
which one can glide IRON one end Of town to
the other and the cab stands are so admirably
scattered that one never need walk more than
a block, or three blocks at the outside, while at
night it is only necessary to 60 to the street
twice in order to have q flock Of them around
YOU. Hot Scotch and Canada rye whisky are
the national. tipples. Gin mills are distinguished
by little white boards inscribed in small black
letters:
Licensed to retail spi1ituous liquors.
A drink in about half the stores costs five
cents. AT the most stylish hotel bars it costst Ten
cents. An order frequently given in barrooms
is for IA split \ whisky split means two
glasses of rye and a bottle of ginger.a ale divided
between the two drinkers. Brandy splits are
oftenest completed with soda water. The
police are blue-coated, brass-buttoned chaps,
mainly French, wearing tall conieal fur hats
with full brass numbers sewed on the fur. They
are polite and ~obliging, but seem to lose
their heads when there is q crowd or a row. 1t
depends upon who you are as to how you are
treated if you live in Montreal. Caste aud aris-
tocracy are not empty words here. One of the
newspapers here said this morning that the price
of tickets to a concert had ''been put high in
order to keep the mob away"
There is not one smooth male face in one hun
bred in the streets, except among the boys. The
old men let their boards grow all over their faces,
and the young men wear side whiskers and
mustaches. The Canadians say they can tell a
New Yorker by his smooth face, his round hat.
and his fat. well-fed appearance, 1t certainly
is a fact that the Canadians are spare, as a rule.