The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1900-05-12
THE TEEM1NG WEST.
The Prairie La nds of Western Canada
Being Filled with Excel
lent Settlers.


Canadian West, is that of intense ac-
tivity in every department. Whether
the glance be turned upon the dis
trict east of Winnipeg, the Red River
Valley south or north, the Dauphin
and M. & N. w. district, the South
western, or whether it take in the
great central division along the main
line of the C. P. R. stretching away
out to the Rockies and from there
bending north and south to Prince
Alberta and Edmonton, Mcleod and
Neutrality-suspicious. the examination
be made in any of these directions the
same activity, growth and hopeful
ness is observable.
The Canadian west is not only
good place to locate permanently, but
it is also good place to invite their
relatives and friends to come to.
This is the spirit that seems to ami
mate the west at the present time
and its effects are to be seen on every
hand. To enumerate the towns where
handsome and substantial blocks and
residences have gone up this year
would be simply to give list of the
towns and villages along the railway
lines. And this movement has not
been confined to these centers of pop
ulation, but in many cases it has been
overshadowed by the Improvement in
farm buildings.
So far as one can see. this is no
passing phase, no repetition of any
temporary boom following a period
of good crops and fair prices. 1t is
q movement more spontaneous, moro
general, more marked than anything
that has gone before, and seems to
indicate that the Great West, like
Samson, bursting the encompassing
bands, has awakened to period of
activity and development that will
surpass anything we have known in
the past and which will only be par
alleled by the opening out Vt some
of the most fertile Of the western
states of the union.
Look at some of the figures. Over
. thousand schools in Manitoba and
the number going up by leaps and
bounds. Something like five hundred
schools In the Territories. Winnipeg
as representing the gateway of the
west, the third city in the Dominion
in regard to bank clearings, postal
business and probably in regard to
customs: the custom return at Win
nipeg running about thirty to forty
per cent. greater month by month
than in the fiscal year of 1878, the
largest previous year for actual bust
ness entries, when over 5000, 900 was
paid through the Winnipeg Office for
duty The C. P. R. and Canada
Northwest land sales together rum
ming over $780, 900 for the year.
These, and a thousand more signs
show how the west has leaped into
new life.
This is an inspiring and cheering
spectacle, but it brings with it great
responsibilities. The business men
realize this, the banks realize it, and
have spread their. agencies through
every bustling little town clear out
to the coast, the churches realize it,
and one denomination alone has
opened an average of about thir-
ty new stations in each of the
past two years, and will increase
this in the year now entered upon,
the government departments real
ize it. and there is talk of redistribu-
ton and additional members. The
educational branches realize It and
new schools are springing up every
where. Over $4,000 settlers came in
from the United States alone last
year, and these with the people who
came in from the east prove the most
rigorous Westerners. They lose no
time in developing their farms, In
filing their grazing lands with stock
and in every district is to be found
ev;deuces of thrift and prospcrity