The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-12-19

Vancouver Island as 1t Was and a. 1t IA.
Life In Victoria
Especial Correspondenoe.I


toria- They opened their shops late in
the morning and closed them up early
in the afternoon. Over their dinners
they fingered long. They smoked to
soothe themselves and talked calmly
about nothing in particular If there
were noe enough holidays in the year,
they made more, so as to supply proper
- their strong demand for rest. Food
was very cheap and easy TO get, and la
Dor commanded a high price. The 81
wash Indians sold the game they killed
TO the white man for next to nothing.
1t cost less for deer bought from them
than it would to buy enough powder
and shot to kill it. Salmon, If possibl
was still cheaper and easier to get This
state Of affairs was, to be sure, favorable
to the inhabitants for their command
ing of that good and sufficient amount
of leisure which poets, philosophers an6
other men Of a brainy caliber say is SO
necessary for mans happiness
But this restful state of affairs existed
only in the old days. In the new days
the present days-things are altogether
different. The hurry up spirit of the
nearby, busy United States has crept,
or rather rushed, into the town. Every
body is hustling. Men are plenty, and
labor is cheap. The shops open early
and close late. The people forget to lin
GER and they have stopped studding the
year with holidays The men who still
have a yearning for plenty Of leisure
have been forced to leave town and go
up into the northern part Of the island.
There they live with the Siwashes and
do nothing but fish little, hunt a lit
tie and laze and smoke to their hearts
content.
Victoria is the finest town in I'll
British Columbia. About 13, 600 peo-
pie live in it. The hurry up and rush
around spirit has resulted in the giving
to it of beautifully paved, elegant high
ways and drives. The better the roads
the swifter the rush evidently became
the motto Of the people after they had
arrived at the conclusion that IL was
necessary for their well being and hap
piness to try their level best to get %
hours time out of the "a.
Also there are many fine buildings
and a public park. In the center of the
park stands a mound, called Beacon
hill. Why it is called Beacon hill is a
problem the solving of which may lie
in the assertion that the Victorians
wished to pay a compliment to Boston,
that town which is so conducive to the
full development of the human intel
lect-
The Chinese are we'll represented here.
They seem to have arrived at the con-
clusion that there are howerier places
even than the Flowery Land, and that
this is one Of them. They wash clothes,
cook, do laboring work, walk sedately
about, and, above all, look unpictur-
esque. If ever prosaicism was embodied,
these people embody it. In San Fran
cisco themselves and their quarters are
in a way picturesque, but here they are,
to say the most, an unstartling and IN
interesting lot. The VictOrians are al
ways grumbling about them. They as
sert that when they come to a country
they carry hard times on their backs.
This is true, because the white capitalist
uses them as a means whereby he can
starve to death his white brother. In
the long winded, bitter discussions con
corning them. however, one never hears
anything of this fact. Neither does he
hear anything about the fact that gold
greedy white men smuggle them across
frontiers and through harbors in defiance
of their own laws and exclusion acts.
Some ten years ago, toward the close
of the restful epoch, SO to speak, Vic
toria was a rather trying place to live
III. just then it was the rendezvous of
outlaws, of color adventures and other
kindred gentry who had departed IN
haste from different parts Of the world
for the good of their health. The gold
find in Similkameen, B. c., attracted
them, and Victoria was their stopping
of place. They were always raising
rows and ructions, manning and killing
each other and breaking the peace gen
orally They had little time for work
and plenty time for fighting. AS soon as
they had made a stake at the placer
mines they would come in and spend it +
and incidentally call the town to wit
ness that they were spending it. They I
would have been a charming and de-
sirable acquisition to the regular popu-
latiOn-in the sense of affording an ele-
ment of excitement to offset and balance
its easiness of peace and manner-if
they had exterminated only each other,
but now and then they turned their at
tention to the old time inhabitants, and
the result was that they were suppressed
vigorously and effectually. They found
to their cost that the old timers knew
thing or two more about fighting than
they did.
OF late many fine buildings have been
put up in Victoria. The courthouse IS
notable, and yesterday morn
ing I puzzled my wits for quite a time
trying to think Of the style Of architec-
ture its designer had followed. At last
I dismissed the problem by concluding
that the architect had been thinking Of
a Chinese pagoda. a Grecian temple and
something else-I couldn't guess what
at one and the same time. 1t may
have been that the sight of the many
Chinese here had affected his magma
ton to such an extent that he uncon-