Evening journal., 1911-08-12
90 TO HALIFAX
BY The REV. R. L. JACKSON

But beg Of you, do not go the way
went unless perchance you want a
gorgeous or rather a disgorgeous case
Of marine nausea left Boston on a
Wednesday noon by a certain alleged
steamship line eagerly anticipating a
glorious sail interspersed with several
relishable meals In four short hours
l was all IN and in to stay until
touched terra frma at Halifax Thurs
day evening at o'clock. The most tor
turing feature OF the trip was the nau-
seating changing OF the meal bell Some
vigorous friend made it his business to
ring IL for what seemed a small life
time before every meal. and the only
comforting thing about IL was that al
most everybody was in ths same im-
potent appetitcleSs condition. One lit
tie old man from Philadelphia, full of
a small kind OF pomp vowed to me
when We reached Halifax that he had
been perfectly we'll during the trip,
had II on competent authority that be
had relinouished a IS per cent dinner
with an abandon rather unusual for a
Philadelphian. Il was perfectly un-
necessary for him 70 falsify the facts
for better sailors than he went down
before the yillainous vibrations of the
little craft
But going TO Halifax and Halifax
are two different propositions. Halifax
itself is tolerable enough. 1t is a clean
sober-going substantial little city with
a population Of $4,000. Its business
blocks will compare favorably with
those Of cities several times its size.
They furnish offices for a great variety
Of concerns, banks, insurance COM
pauies, steamship agencies and inn
porting houses of various sorts.
Halifax has one of the finest harbors
in the world and consequently does a
great shipping business. 1t has over
two miles of docks and sees something
like 5000 vessels come and 90 in the
course Of year.
One Of the features of the place is
the passing to and fro Of red coated
soldiers. Something like 1,200 of them
are stationed here. Their only func-
tion seems to be to relieve the monot-
ony of the civilians existence by
giving him something lambuoyant to
look at. Halifax has forts and batteries
galore, but modern naval warfare has
rendered them useless. Some Of them
are held by what are practically care
takers. "A striking feature Of Halifax
is what is called the citadel It is a
fine old fort In the center of the city
on high hill that commands most
magnificent view of the city and its
environs. To the southwest of the
citadel are the public gardens which
contain fourteen acres artistically ar
ranged with ornamental strawberries,
arbors, ponds, shade trees and ex-
quisite flowers.
Halifax seems to be we'll, If not
over churched with its thirty-seven
Protestant and FIVE Catholic places OF
worship. There are eleven Episcopal
eight Presbyterian and eight Methodist
churches. A Canadian Sunday would
hardly be to the taste of a Partisan
or German. found several Americans
complaining as to its uneventfulness.
One unsanctified Bostonian declared
that as a last desperate resort he would
go to church. However, a bath of
Canadian Sabbatic quiet is not a bad
thing for Americanites, and it does me
good to see the nervous American
business man lounging in the lobbies
OF the hotels with nothing but i last
weeks paper to look at
The best thing about vacation is
the succession of jars you receive. For
the time being your old ways and
habits are ruthlessly smashed and you
are forced to temporarily adjust your
self to new conditions which is not a
bad thing to have happen to you now
and then. Strange faces, strange ways
strange beds would become intolerabls
we're they to last indefinitely, but they
constitute a salutary change.
They show us how variously the
world wags and how small and insig-
nificsnt is that part Of it which we
inhabit and best of all they put us In
the way of dealing with what is differ
ent in a spirit of catholic mindedness
and large heartedness.