Perth Amboy evening news., 1911-07-21
Wards Island, Portland,
Ontario, Canada,
INV II 1Q1-

CanaQa,
July IT, 1911.
SPORTING EDITOR NEWS
We are in camp on a small island
distant from the village named three
miles, and from Kingston forty miles
and from ottawa sixty. There is a
live town of 1000 people twenty
miles below us, Smiths Falls, where,
strange as it may seem, one can buy
pretty nearly the same class Of
goods as one finds on sale in Amboy.
The shoe stores keep all the STAN
dard makes of American shoes. 1
saw in display windows there Queen
Quality, Hanan Regal and Douglas,
and in a stove store / bought a blue
flame, two-hole Perfection No. 2 oil
stove and saw the wickless stove of
same design there also, made in
Massachusetts,, but they charge
about double the price that such
stoves cost at home. The wick stove
without ven is So and the wick1ess
S11. The small dealer is a CRATER
here for sure and things in general
are about 80 per cent. more than at
home.
The small dealer will tax O
twenty-five cents for a gallon of ker-
osene without blinking; sugar is six
cents; shoes are high, as is wearing
apparel. A pair of khaki o~veralls
cost 50, but fresh eggs can be
bought for eighteen and twenty
cents per dozen, and bread at six
cents per loaf, but butter and lard
are high; the latter in a can contain
ing two pounds costs sixty cents, and
a n pound a of coffee with can
costs forty-fve cents.
There Is a boom through this
country and I think things are in
flated. Smiths Falls cannot house
all the people who are seeking
houses to rent. An ordinary house
of eight rooms will readily bring
$50 per month. Two railroads are
building through the town this sum-
mer, causing an influx of strangers
to the place, and a boom to trade.
There are very many cottagers on
the islands and the shores of these
lakes, but of the quiet, u~nostenta
tious kind. Motorboats are numer-
Gus.
There is no real hot weather here
nor any flies or mosquitoes to worry
one. I started this letter yesterday,
but take it up again today. One
| grows indolent here. We have what
is called a Marquee tent, 12x14, with
wall poles six feet in height. and the
peak being eleven feet. Walls of
this height allow of all the space
inside to be utilized. Better tents
are made here, not so ornamented
as ones you would buy in depart
ment stores in New York to look
pretty at the seaside. but better
| made, and heavier duck Is used. 1t
rained all last night yet no water
came through our single top, nor
would it with a weeks continued
rain. A tent properly made and of
the right material costs about three
ffths more than the ordinary store
tents sold in the states. There are
reasons for this. This is a pretty
big and wild country, and where one
gets away from the beaten trails
tents are used to house man and
beast.
North Of here forty miles, where
railroad building is going on, one
will find whole settlements under
canvas; this means cook tents, sta
bles, living and dining departments,
all uuuSI CANVAS. III d WOTu, SOOQ
tents here are an absolute necessity,
and If | way offer a word of advice
to prospective campers In a wild
locality, it would be. before every
thing else know the tent that will
house you is of the right material,
for to my way of thinking nothing is
more annoying than to have the rain
dropping through the roof, wetting
all inside, causing you to keep
awake, and causing general discom-.
fort that might have been avoided.
And as to the weather here, until
last night the air was delightful,
never very hot. Breezes blow all
the time, and the glass that would
show SO at midday would at mid
night show twenty degrees less, and
this morning as l finish this letter
it is decidedly cool, so much so that
l have put on a heavy sweater and
coat. l slept with two pairs of