The Savannah morning news., 1903-09-13
WINNIPEG, THE CAPITAL OF MANITOBA

thousands of years old. These giant
mountains, these endless prairies. these
massive glaciers, these mounds of pre-
historic races, these mammoth ami
t ,II are interesting only because the
mystery Of the earliest ages lies all
over them. But now 1 am going 70 tei1
you the story of a juvenile, only 40
years old, the prairie city of Winnie
peg.
When In SO we heard of the half
preeo RleFs rebellion at Winnepeg. and
the present Lord Wolsesey's march
Win $4,000 troops from Fort
mIIllam to Fort Garry at Win
aepes-Well, it seemed as far
away a; as Lieut.. Peary in the Arc
TIC region. AT first this infant phenorn-
enon was only a trading post of the
company and a fort to protect it. To-
Gated here on the Red and Assiniboine
rivers, because one could 60 clear to
huoson Bay itself by water, MANY
hundreds of miles away, and water
ways were always sought for by the
Iraoers, for the reason-fewer sriz-
NIies and fewer savages. The history
Oh all that early period is shut up in
, INST we can picture it-an old log fort
d. paCn ioopnoles for guns a Hudson
Day company store, of the "dry-gOods
OoA styles of architecture" all en-
closed by stockade. How the traders
came ana went with their packs of
Iurs' now the Indians stole I'D and at
lacked the old log fort: how tha
req man and the white died ont
tnere on the prairie, with nothing for
Clle Qylng eyes to gaze upon save the
Suu.stIetched heaven above or the
Douhdiess plain beneath, the one think
ing of the empty wigwam on the
oask:atcheum, and the other of the
waiting wife in the far distant cottage
py the sea-no one will ever know save
the Great Father of men.
But in 1871 Winnipeg had so
lar come out of loneliness
that II had population of 100
persons In this year of grace, 19O3,it has
population of $4,000, and is racing up
to the size of our prairie civ Of 6e,11
YER How does city like this grow
out mere on the prairie, when there are
no mines at hand to attract the thou
SANDS? There is not enough in "f1rs,
to build a city of $4,000 people in thirty
years; no, but there is enough in wheat.
6read and butter are the twin dishes
or this section bread implying wheat
fields and butter signifying cattle
ranches. l find it very difficult to de-
scribe the magni1cence of the oppor-
tunity of this land becoming the bake
house of the world. Thousands of
Americans cross the boundary north
ward every year, and still there is land.
land, land, deep, black soiled land, ev-
eryWhere. The Canadian Pacific Rail-
road owns every other section, twenty
four miles deep on both sides of the
railroad, and they are winning settlers
from every part of the world Mr..
Chamberlain is rousing up the whole
of England with new and startling
doctrine. Canada is the feed house
of the empire. We arrange preferential
duties with our colonies Tax the wheat
of the United States. but let the goods
of our colonies come in free" And in
the interest of this new propaganda
there came over last week a party of
English editors, and this is the tenor
of what they wrote home: There is
no American sentiment in Canada.
England must feed from the wheat
fields of the Dominion" And so they
are debating in Montreal to-day how
to build the empire and her colonies
closer together by preferential duties.
And next week there comes large
group of members of Parliament Com
mons and Lords to study the situation,
the better to indorse Mr.. Chamberlain's
proposals for taxation. And wheat has
done it, and it was wheat that gave
Winnipeg its growth.
Description of the city of Wimepeg.
AS you come out on the long ram
bling platform of the station and walk
forth to gather your impressions. it
is very evident that the thirty years
archaeology of Winnipeg has log age,
a stone age and a dressed lumber age.
The log cabin age, the original Winni-
peg, is right here at the station. A big
broad street with plank sidewalks, and
small one-story buildings in log-cabin
style, glaring across the street at one
another. There the original Winnepeg-
gers lived and moved and had their
being. Now the 10000 havesters who
come West from the East to help gath
er the wheat live here in these num-
berless one-story hotels until they are
distributed all over the 1000 miles of
farms, like bees over honey-hive.
spent an hour or more reading the
blackboard signs out on the streets,
all calling for labor, and l looked at
the crowds of laborers standing before
these signs-like the want columns OF
a newspaper-picking out something to
suit them. Brandon wants 800 farm
hands, Regina wants 800, at $50 per
month and board, railroad fare free"
'Rat Portage needs 25 mechanics, $3.50
TO S5 a day, fare paid" Fifty team
sters at Portage $50 a month and
board" The man with the chalk
writing down these wants all hours OF
the day, or rubbing them out as soon
as the want is supplied; a mixed
group of men with hands In their
pockets, Galicians, Irish, American,
Dourkhovoys, gazing at these figures
until they get what they want, then
they go into the agency, secure their
railroad ticket, and are whirled out OF
the city on one train, as another tram
rolls into the station with another load
of wage-earners.
IF had the time how | would
have enjoyed going out to the wheat
fields with one of these gangs of men.
Then I could make these letters thrill
with the human element! But this log
cabin age of our city is filled with other
scenes of interest. These lodging houses
of the wayfarers are all ticketed as
hotels. and are damned in every fifty
wards between all kinds Of old curlos-
inv shops-shops as full of the pathos
nc human life as the one of Dickens,
for here these wandering children OF
every nation of the earth have had to
sell their family belongings to get that
seIf same bread which they had hoped
IN win from the earth. AS we pass up
Main street we leave behind us this
primitive age and come to the stone
ace Of Winnipeg. Stone somewhere
was nearer than timber to this prairie
citv and out of stone the modern city
e,rey. magnificent banks, city hall, leg
islative buildings, fifty churches apart
ant n