Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-09-15
CAPITAL OF CANADA
Ottawa a City Devoted to
Manufacturing interests.
INDUSTRIES EMPLOY MANY
Merchandise Valued at $37 10000
Shipped Away in 1910.
FINE PARLIAMENT HOUSE
Building of Gray Freestone Is Con-
sidered One of Most Beautiful
Structures in America.
FINE PARLIAMENT HOUSE

| Ri WILLIAM F.. CURTIS.
| Special Correspondence of Tho Star and the
| Chicago Record Herald.
| OTTAWA. September T." 1911
In the old days before the several Cana
dian provinces entered upon the present
| confederation the parliament met alter
nately at Montreal and Quebec. and the
| officials Of the government selected their
own place of residence. The rivalry be-
| tween those cities was SO acute that
neither could be chosen for the capital.
and i'll 1857 both Joined in an address,
which was ratified by parliament. asking
Queen Victoria to settle the dispute. Dur
ing the following year she named Ottawa,
| then a lively little lumber camp of five
or six thousand people, occupying an ex-
ceedingly favorable geographical loca
ton. 1t was called Bytown then. after
Il certain Col By. the builder of the
| Rdeau canal connecting the Ottawa
| river with the st. Lawrence.
This canal was suggested by the exper
| fence of the British in the war of 1872,
when the lack of means of communica-
| ton between those two great rivers was
| found to be serious embarrassment.
| The provincial authorities, however, de-
! clned to take any share in the work or
| the expense of construction, and the
canal was built entirely at the expense
of the British government. 1t is 126
| miles long and extends north and south
| from Ottawa to Kingston, at the head of
the St Lawrence It was commenced
in 1876. was finished in 1892, and cost
| S4,t3SSI1, which was an enormous sum
| to he expended in public works. 1t was
| originally of a purely military character.
! bat has since been adapted to commercial
| purposes, and has proven to be very
valuable aid to commerce as "a cutoff
| between Lake Ontario and the territory
| drained by the Ottawa river.
| Immense quantities of lumber arc
| noated down RATS and fleets of these
loaded with coal and merchandise are
continually passing northward, and sew
| eral of the passenger steamers are still in
| The canal enters the Ottawa river in
| the very center of that city under the
shadow of the parliament house From
| ottawa it ascends os2 feet by IA locks in
| 81 miles, passes through Rideau lake and
| then descends 1G4 feet by l.; locks in 50
| miles 10 Kingston. 1t is 20 feet wide and
| 16 feet deep.
| Ideal for Manufactures.
| While the situation of Ottawa upon a
bluff at the junction of the Ottawa and
| Chaudiere rivers is not so picturesque as
| that of Quebec, and those rivers do not
!
renee, it is nevertheless an admirable To-
cation for manufacturing purposes and
the water power furnished by the falls of
the Chaudiere is almost unsurpassed. A
dam has been built across the rapids
| which turns the wheels of several I'M
| portant industries employing 1900 hands.
1 who were paid SI.31o.Uo, in 1910 and
| turned out merchandise valued at So nJ-
80. This merchandise consisted chiefly
| OF lumber printing paper, cardboard, pa
| per bags, buckets and boxes, matches,
| cement, mica, gas buoys, marine signals,
| tents and other camp eauipaSe, boats
| and canoes. portable houses. sawmill
| machinery ard supplies. water wheels, en-
/ sines and large quantities of smaller arti-
| cles. The paper mills are among the larg-
| est in America and ship most of their
| products to the United States. One of
| them has ii contract to deliver six car
, loads day in New York. It is all made
| from wood pulp and the industry is per-
manent. because back of ottawa are
forests OF spruce timber reaching to the
/ arctic circle. Mountains of white pulp
may be rising above the high fences
| that surround the paper mills and piles
of yellow sulphite are sheltered by rough
! sheds.
/ If you go to tn. top of the
tower of the parliament house which
commands a wide vista. including the
entire city and its environs for several
| miles. you get fair idea of the
! extent of the paper and lumber interests.
and if YOU can get chance to examine
| the tax list you can see the profits that
| both have brought to the people of OF
| tawa.
! ottawa has the reputation of having
more miEionaires than any place in Cam
! ada The richest resident in Ottawa is
| Mr.. Booth, who came here in the
| early days from Nova Scotia as an ordi-
nary lunberjack. rafting the river
| and filing saws in the mills He had no
| friends or education, but Possessed the
natural gift that so many people covet of
+! making and saving money. He saved enough
| out of his wages to buy a shingle ma
| chine. which he worked himself while his
| wife tied up the shingles in bundles. Then
! he got another machine. and then an
| other. hiring hands to work them. and so
laid the foundation of a fortune which is
| estimated at St1GD.aD. He owns SD,
! tp.C3 worth of pine forests. where the
| AK of the lumberman has never been
| heard: he owns paper mills. saWmills and
! various other manufacturing industries
| and handles sopGE.aD worth of lumber
| annually. He built with his own money
| railway from Ottawa to Georg an bay
to haul his logs and lumber down to the
former place and sold ii to the Grand
| Trunk Company a few years ago Mr.
/ Booth is now eighty-tivc years Old. and
although great sufferer from rheu!na-
| tism, still manages his enormous bust
ness with the same sagacity he has al
WAYS shown He has two sons who have
been brought up in his mills One is
cashier and the other is superintendent of
! paper factory. Neither he nor they have
ever had any fun in their lives and have
| never even developed a sense of enjoy
| ment. but the boys will have about $50
@Atooo each when the old man goes to his
| account.
Handsome Parliament Building.
Tie parliament house, which is one of
| he finest buildings in America occupies