St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1885-02-05
The Montreal Carnival.

!
attire and her brightest welcome for
her friends across the line, who now
throDg her busy streets. A carnival
look overspreads erybody and every
thing indeed the thousands of inhab-
itants in this city seem deliberately to
have turned out to play, in company
with all the other grown up children
they can coax OF wheedle over their
charmed boundaries. From our de-
| lightful quarters in the Windsor it is
interesting as well as vastly enter
tanning to watch the passing crowd.
Notice the visitor from New York,
be can he recognized at once as easily
rs if he had been labeled, by the tall
silk hat, light overcoat, kid gloves,
and thin leather boots, in city where
everybody wears furs. Looking al
most frozen to death, poor fellow and
trying to appear as if he enjoyed it
| with the rest of them. But from his
determined air one might Judge he had
made up his MUD that if he lived till
tomorrow he'd certainly be warmer
| than he is now.
There is the gaily dressed Snow
sheer in the costume we have heard so
much of the white blanket suit, (usn-
ally worm and red or blue tuque (Which
by the by, looks just like bright col
| ored stocking with the foot cut off and
pulled down over the ears, the hole
drawn together with a tassel, and let
it be added as the fruit of experience,
is very comfortable and just the thing
for tobogganing.) Long red stockings
and moccasins complete the figure.
The comical looking habitant or ma
tive Frenchman in his queer peaked
wooden cap and broad red waist scarf,
seems as much a part of the picture rs
the snow itself.
The daintily dressed lady visitors
and pretty Canadian girls form no
small part of the moving crowd. What
very pretty girls they are, too! One
can hardly fOrbear second glance at
the genuine rosy cheeks and eyes with
a dangerous snap and sparkle in them.
But oh BOstOnians and New Workers.
Ye ladies all Never was anything
seen like unto the manner of their at
tire! 1t is too cold for style and SO
the figure, which in nine cases out of
ten is strikingly graceful and well
formed, can only be seen mutfied in the
great clumsy cloak they all wear, for a
strange fancy seems to exist, to the
effect that the clumsier the garment,
the warmer it must be. However,
they do know how to walk, because
the high tight shoes worn still
by the well-to-do American majority
would soon, if introduced here in the
snow, stop the circulation and freeze
the feet, therefore to prevent that
much dreaded calamity, good sized
comfortable shaped shoes are a ne
cessity. In this respect the Canadian
women present a marked contrast to
many others, they use either their ell
motion, neither do they carry the head
in such manner that it shall arrive
at it's destination three minutes before
the rest of the body they move stand
ing upright as God intended woman
should do.
This is as the world knows the third
carnival that has been held in Montreal.
Four winters ago r. ID. McGibbon
at now-shoe club dinner in replying
to one of the tOasts suggested that
there should be every year week of
organized winter fun for the purpose
more particularly of allowing strangers
an opportunity of seeing what Cana
dian sports were like. The suggestion
met with such favor that the ensuing
winter a committee was found to carry
out the idea, with M. III. Gait NJ. 2. as
the nominal president, McGibbOn how
ever has been the practical head of the
carnival ever since.
The first carnival was success III
every respect. The weather was all
that could be desired and the strangers
who came carried away so good an
opinion of it that the carnival was al
ways a subject of conversation and in
quiry, whenever Canadian went
abroad. The second carnival, that of
last winter, far surpassed the first in
its general features. TObOgaDning had
with the assistance of the artificial
slides risen to something like a mania,
and the ice palace and the fire. works
were memorable.
The money has always been raised
without difficulty by subscription from
the hotels, railways and leading retail
merchants who benefit largely from it.
The amount generally raised by sub
scription is $4,000. That builds the
ice palace and gives something to each
of the committees to carry out their
part of the work.
This year great many new features
have been added, the French portion
of the city having caught the fever and
worked with the general committee.
Ice construction were erected in the
east end as we'll as in the west. One
called '.Csndora" is in the Champ de
Mars. 1t rises to the height of about.
100 feet, tapering from a circumference
of over 80 feet, and built of $4,000
blocks of hewn ice. Surmounting the
whole is gigantic figure of a snow
sheer in full costume from whose APP