The Washington herald., 1915-09-26

/ expressed a little surprise that he
should do so in view of the fact that
his country was not at war and not
at all likely to be.
'Ah. but in fighting with the Eng
lish troops I am fighting for my coun-
try. for If Germany wins there will be
no Switzerland. and so it is plainly my
duty as a loyal Swiss to take my gun
and join the allies"
By the time this is printed il i.
very probable that the Hotel PaIliser
has a new manager and that Private
Cote has become Tommy and is
in the trenches.
A prohibition wave is sweeping
over Canada much as it is over the
United States. Saskatchewan has gone
dry. So has Alberta. Manitoba is pretty
British Columbia will fall in line In
the near future. 1t is thought that
the big French population in the
eastern provinces will keep them as
they are and without any change of
consequence in the liquor laws.
In Calgary there was a good deal of
heated criticism of the law they have
just adopted. 1t seems that no alcoholic
beverage can be sold. but you can put
two cherries in a gallon of alcohol and
sell it As preserved cherries. Also the
person who has an elaborate suite in a
hotel, which he rents by the year. cannot
have bottle of beer in his rooms, but
the man who rents two-room, one
story shack by the month can have it
loaded to the roof with booze without
breaking the law.
1t is needless to add that the law has
not made a hit with the hotel people
As We rolled along over the prairie hun
dreds and hundreds of miles in extent,
where the rich black soil will grow wheat
for fifty years without fertilizinS, we
passed a little station which bore the
name of Portage lie Prairie. 1t so hap
pened that in the sleeping car section
opposite mine were a fat Canadian
and his pretty French wife who were
on their way across the continent, en-
route to London.
Vat ees dees place name mean?"
asked the French wife.
why. Portage lie Prairie he an
swered. pronouncing it partash. 1T
means to carry, portash does, a por-
tage. You ought to know, it's
French"
NO. no. dot ees dot portash. 1t ees
dot comedie. dot 'Partash un Permut-
ter, you say. Ees at not so. ma
cherie?"
Not at all of course it's French.
It's Canadian French anyway"
"Ah. la la, Dose Canadian French
He is no French. He is Chinese lam
guage."
But they think they talk French in
Canada for all that. They are quite
touchy about il, too. and are offended
when French people don't understand
them. To the majority of Parisians,
however, the Canadian French is mot
To them, as TO the
pretty French wife of the fat Canadian,
it might as we'll be Chinese
And so for two or three days We
sailed along over this seemingly
boundless wheat land with here and
there vast green fields of grain set
into the untouched prairie. For
stretches of 100 miles there would
not be house or even a one-room
shack in sight. Nothing but level.
rich prairie land. with not a tree to
break the monotony. 1t is staggering
to think of the millions of bushels of
food that the land there is waiting and
all ready to yield
Two towns we passed that attracted
attention and were quite stuck up
about it. One a cyclone had visited
a few days before, lifted the roofs off
most of the houses and set them down
out in the prairie and killed thirteen
people doing II. The other town felt
it's influence because the sign on the
station platform bore a different name
from that in the time tables printed
few months before. Its original
name had been German and the gov
ernment had ordered it changed.
They told me a story in the smoking
compartment that is typical of the peo-
pie up there in the great Northwestern
wheat lands. Whey the railroad was
first opened it was source of great
wonder to the majority of the inhabi-
tants. They made trips from above and
below for a hundred miles just to feast
their eyes on 1t and see the trains go by.
An old back-prairie rancher and his wife
were among them Neither had ever seen
a railroad train before. 1t was a three
days drive over the prairie to see this
wondrous sight. At last they reached the
line and camped down to wait for a train
to pass. 1t happened to be a long.
through freight drawn by two mogul en-
gines. They saw 1t coming down the
line far away. 1t grew and grew In size
and came on them with a rumble that
changed to a roar and rattle that was
deafening and passed along in a cloud
of dust. The noise and dust died down
and the long train of box cars faded into
a mere speck-
Hen" said the old woman, tell me
what We think of it,
.'well. Maria, think IL it went side
ways it 'ud raise hell with the crops"