Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1885-02-12
The Montreal Carnival.

MONTREAL, January 31.--The Carni-
val. is an accomplished fact, estab-
lished for all time to come. Three
years ago Mr.. ID. r. McGibbon, a Young
gentleman of Montreal, whose name
should be ever held in grateful remem-
brance, conceived the idea, and men,
toned it at club, where it was adopted
with enthusiasm and carried into imme-
date effect. Each succeeding year has
witnessed improvement made upon it.
and If such thing is possible other i'm
provements will follow in time to come.
But Judging from the experience of the
past week it would seem that the goal
of success has been reached.
Never before have | seen a whole pop
ulation and great congregation of
strangers so absolutely gwen over to
enjoyment. For most of the time the
mercury has stood at 10 degrees below
zero, while the blood of every man.
woman and child has pulsated at fever
beat. What is called business has been
entirely neglected. Priests, lawyers
and doctors have had no use for their
professions, for the gospel of universal
brotherhood was preached by practice,
nobody quarreled, and none required
medicine. There were no transactions
on the exchange, where toboggans,
snowshoes, skates and curling Kinks,
sleigh parades, races and dancing were
the only quotations upon the list. The
hotel and clearinghouse keepers, the
shop-keepers, the tailors and the iehus,
however. were busy enough as they
gathered in their rich harvest from the
soil fortified by ice. They have de-
served all their gains out of the esti-
mated million of dollars that has been
discussed, and it is fair to say that with
the pardonable exception of the last
class mentioned, there has been no ex-
tortion. The sleigh-drivers may be for
given for merely doubling up their
charges, as they appeal to us with
frosted tears, and their sweated horses
are silvered over by the cold
No written or illustrated description,
even if it could be illuminated, can give
an adequate idea of the coloring and
effect. Nor can pen portray the ease
and grace, the poetry of motion of the
skating, the enthusiasm of gray-haired
Scothmen over their favorite game of
curling, and their open hospitality,
where all the United States were well
come to huge rounds of beef, and whisky
that would tempted any St. John politi-
can. More than all, the toboggan
slides. They take three-score and ten
right back to boyhood as we are shot
down the icy glare for ten or twenty
rods on an incline of forty-fye degrees,
thence on lesser pitch for another like
distance; thence on leap for which
they must have gotten the idea from the
Lachine rapids, and finally to the end
of track more than quarter of a
mile long. Methuselah himself would
feel thrill that would send culver of
delight through his old frame, worn out
by his 1863 years.
A strange fear comes over every one
at first, and then strange fascination
follows. The Governor General and
his wife were on the grounds The
Marquis, who was urged to s'try it,
pleaded rheumatism, but Lady Lans-
downe shamed him by jumping on
toboggan and making the rush. Now
it will be added to all the ''hrsts' of
woman that she was first at the tobog-
gan. Then her lord and master, and
lord and master of the Dominion, fol-
lowed her down the slide Had he
finched, what grip he had on the Cana
dian heart would have been lost.
Canadians will never forget Lord Duff
ferin. All parties liked him, prospect
i've of politics, because he became one
of the people by entering into their
sports. This he did without pretense
and with thorough ZeSt Lord IanS-
downe must cultivate taste for tobog-
gaming, skating and curling. or he will
be totally eclipsed by the memory of
the peoples favorite.
All day long. and every day, there
has been perpetuahsleighing parade.
Elegant tandem tuTnouts are succeeded
by huge three-decker sleighs of the
clubs and by the farm sleds of the hdbi-
td'ats, some al adturel and some in gro
tesque masquerade. / am drifting into
French, for nothing but French will ex-
press the bonhomie which reigned SUI
preme throughout this carnival. All
distinctions in life were forgotten. The
blankets trimmed with colored borders,
of which the short toboggan dresses
were made, covered the figures of rich
and poor alike, while the sparkling eyes
and clear cheeks, powdered only by the
driving snow, were the admiration of
orr shivering young men, who stood
upon the sidewalk or were bundled up
in sleigh robes, and were teachers of
salutary lesson to our young women to
abandon cosmetics and seek for health
and beauty out of doors.