The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1885-03-26

ancient capital during July and Au.
gust. It Is said he is to have part.
ner in his legal adviser: The place
proposed for the new hotel is delight.
full. The falls of Montmorenci add the
great Laurontian range of luOunta ms.
said to be the oldest in the world, will
DO in view on one side. On the other
there will be old Stadacona, with its
Indian and pioneer traditions. People
say that John G. Emo has shown good
taste in selecting such q spot for his
proposed speculation, but found pub
lie opiaion in Quebec unfavorable to
Emo.
The Decadence of the Red River Cart.
Huge wheels, out of all proportion
to its carrying capacity. with felloes
roughly ax-cut from native wood, and
bound together by shaoa,aappi-pre-
pared buffalo hide-tires; straight
hewn sticks for shafts; wooden axle.
tree; wooden linch-pins; rustic-work
frame shaganappi fastenings every
where; shaganappi ''hitchings;' not .
grain OF iron in its whole anatomy -
such was the far-famed Red River Cart
IN its palmy days. Musical? Rather
Music and axle-grease were too pre-
cious when 1.-THE cart" WAS in its prime
to be lightly wasted. To have dis
Pensed the latter would have been to
dispense with the former
not to be thought of. Hence it was
that the ''freighters'' and old settlers
in the north~ est always went on their
expeditions heralded by strains from
their cart-wheels that would have en-
FILTERED with envy the heart of CALI
ope.
In all outward seeming the Red
River Cart was pre-eminently not a
thing of beauty. 1t is needless to OBJ
serve that it is not likely to be a joy
forever. Already it is far on its jour
ney towards the "mount of rememb-
rance Soon it will finally havo ia
ken up its station thereon, side by side
with 1.-The noble red man of the plains.
The ''Injun,' however, and the de-
generate descendant of ''tbe cart"
will continue to adorn contemporary
history. A very unintcrekting We
hicle is this descendant, rs compared
with its great forebear. A SNUG, paint
adorned, iron-bestudded, unmusical
hybrid. it differs as greatly to its own
disadvantage from the grim. uncom.
| promising combination of wood and
shaganappi from which it is sprung, as
a New York aldermanic "residence'
differs from an Irish round-tower.
But, Fighting upon days like these"
what better could we look for? Gone
is that generous devotion, that loyalty
OF heart to the artistically cumber-
some in industrial and domestic appli-
ances which so distinguished worthier
ages! A generation that prefers the
telegraph to the carrier pigeon, and a
pullman" to the coach-and-four, is at
least not inconsistent in taking to its
bosom the commonplace successor of
the Red River Cart. But in so doing
it gives pitiful exhibition of the pat
n;-ottice spirit by which it is actuated,
and which seems to govern every
where in these modern times.
One thing can be said in favor of the
''Manitoba cart'-it were disrespect.
full to the memory of the great de-
parted to call it Red River Cart-it
is useful. AS much cannot always be
affirmed of the illustrious descended.
1t has enabled many a poor immigrant
to reach in safety his selected home on
the vast northwestern prairies, whom
its more distinguished predecessor
might have brought to grief Itmakes
less noise about it's undertakings; but
they are perhaps none the worse per-
formed for that. 1t supplies its pat
rons with no gratuitous music; but the
best pound of tea or coffee is not
always accompanied by chrome. 1t
makes no professions to undue COM
plicity of gct-up; but those who frown
on fashion have turned out at times to
be still a step removed from perfec-
ton. In justice to the ''Manitoba
CART these suggestions of the posi-
bility of partial excuse for its exist
ence being discoverable are made. To
hope for full vindicatlon of its en-
croachments on the domain of it's TO-
mantle prototype would, of course, be
unreasonable. As we'll might it be at
tempted to justify the unseemly philis-
tinism which has driven. away the
lordly buffalo, that his grazing grounds
might be occupied by mere tillers of
the soil-vulgar growers Of wheat and
makers of butter.
But. But Of % what striking features have
western landscapes! No longer do
''freighters' trains move across our
prairies-sometimes a hundred or
more Red River carts, and saddle
ponies by the score. in strain" with
varieties of costume and accompani-
ments of sound that would gladden.
the hearts of the masculine youth of q
whole city, and make the fortune of a
Barnum in ''street parade" A sim
! gle =ailway-car now holds more goods,
| perhaps, than the hundred carts could
have carried, and bears its burden
farther in day than they were able
to transport theirs in a month. Start
ing from St. Paul, or in later days
from Winnipeg, the ''freighters'' were
often nearly the entire season in reach
ing the far posts of the Saskatchewan
and the Rockies. Many of them were
OF Indian descent, or even pure-blood-
ed natives. and they frequently car
ried their families with them on their
summer journeyings. Most pictur-
esque were their nightly encamp-
ments. The "carts''-shafts pointing
inwards-were disposed in a circle on
the prairie, beside stream when pos
sible. Around the great drove of
beasts of burden, ponies and oxen in
termingled, grazed or rested. Within,
the tents and tee-pees were pitched.
Beside these. the evening meal having
been disposed of, the men lounged and
smoked. The women-always in the
brightest obtainable colors-and the
children mingled with them in mer-
rily-chattering groups. Light-hearted
and social beings were the "freight-
ers.' But they have disappeared
from our prairies forever. The north
west has passed through the "Red
River cart period" 1t is now in the
''railway-bonus age.'-W. E. Maclel-
Ian, IN The Current.
A Well of Castor Oil.