Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-09-11

making renee. There are only $50 SOL
diers in the fort on the citadel, and / am
told that the gaIrisons of the other forts
are equally small.
The Canadian Militia.
Canada is now defended by lis own
troops. 1t is said that there are about one
million men in the dominion who might be
made available as figh. ting material. This,
1 judge. is decidedly an over-estimate. The
legal limit of the militia is now forty-five
thousand, and the troops ~ active service
consist of permanent corps of Only one
thousand These men are paid soldiers. Of
hcered from the Military College at King
ston. They are enlisted for three years.
In addition to this thsre is the active
militia, consisting of thirty thousand men.
VINO volunteer for three years. but who
serve only from eight to sixteen days an
nuaily. They are paid when they are called
CUT. Ihey comprise forry-five troops of
cavalry, eighteen field and forty-two garri-
sen batteries with mounted guns and
ninety-five battalions of infantry, with in
dependent and mounted rifle companies.
very male Canadian batween eighteen and
snty Is liable to service in the militia.
mere are, however, few exceptions:
JUDGES. clergymen, college professors and
the heads OF lunatic asyiumS, and the only
sons OF widows cannot be drafted.
JUST now the most interesting of the
canadian troops are the mounted police
VINO are on duty in the Northwest Terri
tory. The number of these is limited to one
thousand, and am told that a large num-
per nave peen sent to the Klondike. The
mounted police patrol the country along
the western frontier of British America
TOT more than eight hundred miles. 1t is
aneir business to keep down cattle stealing
ana smuggling. They watch the Indians
and look out for prairie fires. furnishing
tnose VINO start them. They act as judges
as wen as policemen, and can punish Ger
.aln classes OF criminals. These policemen
Ieceive from fifty cents to two dollars per
DAY, with the exception of the officers who
set salaries of from one thousand to
t"enty-six hundred dollars a year.
Canadian Frenchmen,
speaking OF possible war with Great
britain, doubt whether the mother coun-
Try could rely upon large part of her
Canadian population in such a case. 1 am
surprised to find how many Frenchmen
there are here. Fully one-third of the
citizens of British America speak French
ana hundreds of thousands of them cannot
speak English. The French are nearly ali
Roman Catholics. They have little sym-
pathy with English institutions and are
French in thought, habit and language.
Ihey work together in politics and they
practically govern this province of Quebec
l went to the government buildings TODAY
70 get some Information and every Off
cal met was a Frenchman. You hear
httie else than French talked upon the
streets here. The signs over MANY of the
stores are French. The street car tickets
In Montreal are prinyed in both French
and English and many of the advertise
ments are In both languages. Quebec is
more like French town than an English
one. Its streets are narrow and the clean.
oid-fashioned houses come close out to
the sidewalk. The vehicles used are like
none you have seen in England or the
United States. l ride about this city in a
kind of a cross between a jfnriksha and q
dog cart. 1t is high bow-shaped carriage
with seat for the driver on the dash
board and my driver is invariably a
among the French-Canadians They are
good farmers. but with them everything
seems to be on a small scale. The fields
are long and narrow. Some are not more
than hundred feet vide and SO long that
a farmer spends halfEhis time in walking
from one end of his farm to the other in
cultivating his crops The houses are
picturesque one-story cottages built close
to the roadway, and not way out on the
fields like gu" farm houses. They are won
derfully clean and the people have, 1 am
told, the thrift Of the peasantry of France.
Canadians In the United States.
The officials Of Quebec are making big
bids for the return Of the Canadians who
have gone to the United States. They offer
them farms and hold out many induce
ments. The fact is that there is almost a
constant emigration going on from Canada
to the lands across the border. This occlrs
whenever times are hard, and if our new
tariff materially affects business here the
emigration will increase. Canadians are to
be found In Massachusetts, Connecticut
New York. Michigan and parts of the
west. There are numbers of them in Buff
falo. New York city has something like
10000 natives of Canada, Brooklyn has
5000 and Boston has. it Is estimated. some
what like 5000 citizens of Canadian birth
IN Bay county. Mich, there are 10000
Canadians. and in St. Claire county there
are 10000, while number of other counties
have even more The Canadians in our
country In fact number hundreds of thou
sands, and their loss is a matter of great
bitterness to those who remain. Many Of
the French Canadians go to New England
to work in the factories and mills 1t IL
this class which the officials Of Quebec are
trying to bring back.
In the French Markets.
Montreal, which is the New York of Can
ada. is practically French city. Its big
gest market, that of Bonsecours is as
French as any market of southern France.
When I visited it the other day I found
patent medicine man declaimng in French
the virtues of certain pills, while he show
ed a book of horrible pictures describing
the effects before and after taking them
This market takes up a wide street running
from the heart Of Montreal down to the
wharvas. The street is the overflow of
the market proper, which includes
church-like building covering, l judge,
about an acre of space. The street was
filed with French farmers, who had driven
their carts ir to the city early in the MORN
ing, and we're now selling all sorts of veg
etables and fruits to the citizens. Fully
half Of the wagons were owned by women,
who did not look unlike the market women
whom you find in the Halles Central of
Paris. Many of these spoke to in
French as I walked through the crowd,
pushing their wares into my face and ask
ing me to buy. 1 stopped at the fowl mar
ket and asked some questions as to prices.
l was told that eggs were II cents a dozen,
chickens from so to 90 cents a pair and
turkeys from IL to Is cents pound. One
or two of the English-speakfng market
men had complaints to make about the
tariff, and stated that 1t would materially
hurt the formers of Canada.
Montreal.
found Montreal q very fine city. 1t Is
growing as fast as an American town and
is now almost as large as Washington. 1t
has an immense deal of shipping, and you
find steamers from all parts of the Great
Lakes and from Europe at its wharves.
The most of the ocean steamers are British,
and q number of them are engaged in
carrying grain to England. I came to
Ty,.;k- ~-rsw,