St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1895-01-25
CARNIVAL WEEK AT OTTA WA.
Editorial correspondence.l


have held full sway. Bunting, flag
8 and evergreen ornament the substan
tial business blocks, and at night TIL
streets are ablaze with light. Ever
J the street cars are utilized for decor
ative purposes and the outside o
each car is covered with electric
lights.
And Ottawa may well be gay and
festive for this is carnival week and
she proposes to make her first carni'
val the best ever given in Canada.
Montreal and Quebec have set the
pace in former years, but Ottawa
will be found ahead at the finish
The festivities began on Monday
and lasted through the week, in
creasng in interest as the week adj
vanced. 1t raned all day Monday
and so the weather was beastly.
The ice palace was dedicated in the
afternoon by that blue.blooded scion
Of aristocracy, Sir James Grant, K.
c. NJ. G., M. D., M. p, NJ. X. c. P.
OF England, Ii. d. This much titled
gentleman made an excellent speech,
praising the Ottawa people for their
enterprise in getting up carnival
and congratulating his fellow citizens
upon the industrial development OF
Canada. He was frequently inter
rupted by cries of Hear Hear !"
and some more thoughtful than the
rest shouted Put on your hat"
suggestion that was very timely as
the rain was steadily coating his
bald pate with an icy glare.
The ice palace is beautiful for situa-
ton, but somewhat disappointing in
size. 1t is built on a high bluff over
looking the Ottawa river and is d.
rectly opposite the Parliament build
ings, which the Canadians declare
are the finest public buildings on the
continent. The architecture is Nor
man, and it is a very faithful frozen
reproduction OF an English castle
with its battlements, outlying
towers and Gothic windows. The
main tower, about 100 feet high, is
huge wooden framework covered
viii evergreens and decorated with
snowshoes and toboggans. One of
the events of the week will be the at.
tack and defense OF this castle Friday
night. The attacking column will
scale the heights by means Of ladders
and the castle will be bravely guard
ed by musketry defence. The TAX
ing of the castle will be followed by
the burning which will be grand
pyrotechnic display for which $1,000
has been appropriated.
Canada is the home of our outdoor
sports and during carnival week
trotting on the ice, hockey matches,
curling bonspiels, snow-shoe and
skating races, tobogganing and fancy
dress parties hold full sway. The
toboggan slides are scattered all
over the city and the one near the
castle is considered the finest in Can
ada. The nearer the slide approaches
the perpendicular the finer it is con-
sidered by the Canadians, and as this
slide is built on an angle of 65 de-
grees it is rated as "a No. l." Every
slide is brilliantly illuminated with
rows of electric lights and the bows
and girls are dressed in gay carnival
costumes.
The sports" go daily to Lans-
downe park to see the trotting on
the ice. But the boys and girls
watch the hockey matches and make
rink resound with applause at every
brilliant play, Hockey is the leading
sport in Canada, and all the crack
teams of the Dominion are at Ottawa
this week. The final contest comes
Saturday night, when a special train
will be run clear from Quebec, dis
tance of 400 miles.
The curling bonspiel was new to
Americans and much interest was
taken in these contests. The game
is quite similar to quoits. Round
pieces of iron weighing about 60
pounds are slid on the ice from goal
to goal. The snowshoe races took
place Thursday afternoon as well as
thecarnival parade. There were some
very handsome sleighs in the drive
and many novel features. Among
these were four Esquimaux dogs hitch
ed to an Alaskan sleigh, pair of
wolves harnessed to a sled, and a
moose drawing toboggan. The
children had fancy dress skating
party Tuesday, and the older oues
held one the night following. The
costumes at both were very fine, and
the effect of the whole was extremely
pleasing.
The Governor,General of Canada.
Lord Aberdeen, was in Montreal all
through the week, He wanted the
carnival postponed out of respect to
a former Canadian premier, Sir Tohn
Thomson, who died in England about
a month ago. But the citizens could
not postpone their carnival after so
much preparation, and his royal high
ness was loudly denounced bv all