The Portland daily press., 1896-01-31

AeS-' -@-'<ANs
calm g headquarters still stand on st. Louis
street. They are degraded to the uses of a
restaurant, but the original building is
intact. The old wall about the city is
still standing altered only by the hand OF
time except at the three points where the
necessities of traffic caused the three old
gates to be replaced by structures of more
modern design, of greater width and
height. Outside the city gates are the
famous Martello towers, witnesses of
Montcaln's defeat by the British under
Wolfe The citadel on the heights is
changed. There is fine drill hall for the
militia on the St. Louis road Below the
citadel the Dufferin terrace named in hon
or of the governor who made it so recently
the splendid promenade that it is, over
hangs the lower town and commands the
frozen river. But the tortuous streets are
unchanged The splendid basilica looks
out still over the square where the new
Hotel de Vile is to stand; the Laval uni
yersity stands gloomy but impressive on
one Of the city's bills, and the population
still half rolls, half slides, down the steep
roadways between the upper and the lower
town.
tt is in the lower town that the tourist
finds most to interest him. Here was once
the seat of a lively shipping trade. Now
under the frowning walls of the fortified
upper town houses are falling to decay,
the paving of the streets is rotting slowly,
and wharves molder and decay. Com
meroial Quebec ceased to be of importance
years ago, and the spacious Princess Lou
ise dock is empty almost all of the l2
months.
But the lower town is the home of the
primitive French Canadian population.
which has not learned and has no anbi-
tion to know the language of the conquer
or. The advertising signs which stare at
you from every side are all in French.
Even if you know French intimately.
however, you may fare but poorly for CON
versation with the natives if you come here
for the carnival. Canadian French is not
Partisan French or even the French of
the Ecole Berlitz. 1t is a patois filled with
strange local terms and thoroughly intel
hglble to the native only. Your sledge
driver, as he urges his horse to greater
speed in the narrow streets, will struggle
to explain the identity of the places you
pass. But without a guidebook you will
gain but a poor notion of the city from
what he tells you. Supplemented by
guidebook, his recital will be very enter
tanning.
The merchants Of Quebec have been pre-
pairing for the carnival since last summer.
They have accumulated stores of the parti-
colored sashes woven by the French Cana
dian of the interior, which look so cheap
and which are SO rare now and SO costly.
These sashes will bring $50 and s25 apiece
in the carnival season. Then there are In
dian trinkets and fur lined slippers and fur
trimmed coats and finally the coats and
eapes and other garments Of seal and sable
and ernine and chinchilla which are SO
much cheaper in Canada than they are in
the United States. Few American tour
lists visit Canada without laying in stock
of furs. In summer they carry them
brazenly across the border on their arms,
even with the temperature at the melting
point. But in winter they wear them to
their homes. GRANT HAMILTON.