Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1885-03-27

much frequented by the people of the
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 Montmorencia and the
great Laurentian range of mountains,
said to be the Oldest IN the world, will
be in view on one side. On the other
there will be old .Stadacona, with its
Indian and pioneer traditions. People
say that JohnyC G. Emo has shown good
taste in selecting such q spot for his
proposed speculation, but I 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 shaoanappi-pre-
pared buffalo tires; strajg CHIT
hewn sticks for shafts; wooden axle
tree: wooden linch-pins; rustic work
frame shaga,aappi fastenings every
where; shaganappS ''hitchings;' not a
grain of iron in its whole anatomy
such was the far-famed Red River Cart
in it's 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 thing
not to be thought of. Hence it was
that the ''freighters" and old settlers
in the northu 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 joy
forever. Already it is far on it's jour
ney towards the "mount of rememb-
rance" Soon it will finally have ia
ken up it's station thereon, side by side
with ''the noble red man of the plains"
The "Injun,' however, and the de-
generate descendant of 1.-the cart"
will continue to adorn contemporary
history. A very uninteres ting We
hicle is this descendant, as compared
with its great forebear. A snug, paint
adorned, -bestudded, unmusical
hybrid, it differs as greatly to its own
disadvantage from the grim, uncom-
promising combination of wood and
s/,ogaaappi from which it is sprung, as
a New York aldermanic "residence"
differs from an Irish round tower.
But, "lighting upon days like these, :"
what better could we look for9 Gone
is that generous devotion, that loyalty
of heart to the artistically cumber-
some in industrial and domestic appli-
ances which 50 distinguished worthier
ages! A generation that prefers the
telegraph to the carrier pigeon, and q
Pullman" to the coach-and-f is at
least not inconsistent in taking to it's
bosom the commonplace successor Of
the Red River Cart. But in So doing
it gives a pitiful exhibition Of the pat
eni-office 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
s'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 poor immigrant
to reach in safety his selected home on
the vast northwestern prairies, whom
it's more stinguished predecessor
might have brought to grief. ltmakes
less noise about it's undertakings; but
they are perhaps none the worse per-
formed for that. 1t supplies it's pat
rons with no gratuitous music: but the
best pound of tea or coffee is not
always accompanied by chrome. 1t
makes no pretensions to undue COM
plicity of get-up; but those who fro"'n
on fashion have turned out at times to
be still step removed from perfec.
ton. In justice to the 'Manitoba
cart" these suggestions of the posi-
bility of a partial excuse for its exist
ence being discoverable are made. To
hope for a full vindicatlon of it's en-.
croachments on the domain Of it's TO.
mantle prototype would, Of course, be
unreasonable. AS we'll nj ght IL be at.
tempted to Justify the unsee1nly 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 of what striking features have
*sthese days of ADVANCE robbed north.
western landscapes! No longer de-
"freighters' trains'' move across our
prairies-sometimes a hundred OK
more Red River carts, and saddle
ponies by the score, in q ''train' with
varieties of costume and accompani-
ments of sound that would gladden.
the hearts of the masculine youth of
whole city, and make the fortune of a
Barnum in a ''street parade A sim
gle cailway-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 fn a mouth. Start
ing from ST. Paul, or in later days
from Winnipeg, the 'freighters' were
often nearly thesentire season in reach.
ing the far posts of the Saskatchewan
and the Rockies. Many of them were
OF Indian descent, Or even pure-Dlood-
ed natives, and they frequently car.
ried their families with them on Their
summer. journeyings. Most pictur.
Eesque were their nightly encamp.
ments. The '.carts'' shafts pointing
inwards- we're disposed in circle on
the prairie, beside q stream when pos
sible. Around the great drove OF
beasts Of burden, ponies and oxen in.
termingled, grazedor rested. Within.
the tents and tee-pees were pitched.
Beside these, the evening meal having
been disposed Of, the men lounged ano
smoked. The women-asWays in the
brightest obtainable .coiors-and the
children mingled with them in mer.
III. :.-I,t rkn<4