St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1890-08-28

/ were no trees and no dwellings.
Much of the way the road was laid
on the bare rock. Frequent were
little mountain ponds with acres of
white water lilies, the flowers much
smaller than those found in Vermont.
Then we began to catch glimpses of
the Ottawa. Now, once for all, |
saw, let us annex Canada. The val
lev of the Ottawa is worth years of
diplomacy, just to look at, to say
nothing of the wheat and barley
they raise there. 1t is a noble river,
sometimes as narrow as the COnnec-
ticut at Hartford, and again spread
| ing out into spacious bays and har-
bors mile or two wide. Always its
banks are green, always its flow IS
majestic Gradually the surface of
the country becomes level. AS far as
the eye can see rich meadows stretch
away, covered with waving grain
and divided into farms few rods
wide and a mile long, after the man
ner of the Cannuck.
! Notice the difference in season due
to longitude When Ipassed through
northern Indiana the Sth of July
wheat was in the shock, while here,
on the 4th of August, wheat is still
green and having is only about half
| done. Now we are getting into the
neighbOrhOod of cities where people
are more in a hurry than they were
| back there in Wisconsin. How we
whiz along. fifty miles an hour and
more. BY the way, do you know
| how to find the speed of a railroad
| |,
| joint between two rails, little click
is to be heard. Count the number of
clicks in 20 seconds, and that is the
number of miles an hour. Only a few
minutes stop at Ottawa, but we
catch a glimpse of the magnificent
| pile of government buildings. We are
| bound to see all we can. Then we
whiz away again to Montreal. At
Ste. Scholastique jumped from the
train long enough to grab single
weed-a species of wild Euphorbia.
This, with two white pebbles from
the 500" straits, are all the tangi-
bic relics have of a journey of 1900
miles.
Montreal - Mount Royal = city
worthy of the name. Five hours be
fore the Boston express will start. |
said goodbye to my friends of Sc
hours and rushed away into the
heart of the city to see all | could.
Everything is 80 English, you
know" Victoria, Albert, st. James,
everywhere and over and over again.
The mems hats are English. So are
the cab men. Everyone is very polite.
A well dressed man walks four blocks
to show me Notre Dame. Did he ex
pect a tip" l didn't try him, for
fear he would take it. A stare at the
fretted ceiling of the famous church,
and | scud up the hill to peep for a
minute at the other famous cathe
dral. Don't fear. shall not infict
a description of these buildings upon
you. The guide-books will attend to
that. A thunder shower came up,
and hunted up supper at a hotel.
How polite the waiter was. He
thanked me obsequiously when |
gave my order. He was thanking
me for the Tip" which | didn't give
him. No, sir, no tip for such soup
and such dry steak as that Johnny
cake was on the bill of fare, and l
called for some. He brought me
little round dab of corn cake about
as big as cookie Shade of my an
cestorsl Is that Johnny cakel 1t
was very good, however. The rain
lasted till train time. | spent most
of the time in the waiting room of
the Grand Trunk depot. One thought
occurred to me- These great railroad
corporations spend millions and mil
lions on their city stations. The cell
ing of this waiting room is forty or
fifty feet above the floor. Why not
use few of these wasted millions in
paying their over-worked engineers
better wages, or in building decent
waiting rooms at their little country
statiOns-in Vermont, for example?
| wanted to see the shores of
Champlain and the valley of the Wi
nooski by daylight, but time pressed
and | rolled over the Central Yer
mont in the night, in the rain, and
asleep. White River Junction was
comparatively happy over the COM
ing of the state fair. They spoke of
it as boom" for the place What
would they say to western
BOOM? A night at Woodstock, a
day on the White Mountain express,
and a night in the luxurious cars of
the Pennsylvania railroad brought
me back to Washington. So ended
my western trip. 1t pays. Try it.
Again with kind regards to my Gale
dOnia county friends,
remain, yours truly,
+. BLANCHARD.
Washington, D. c., Aug. IS, 1890.