Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1916-08-02
CANADIAN TRIP,
WAS VERY PLEASANT
AND PROFITABLE
MRS. +. S. BARBER OF SARANAC
TELLS OF VISIT TO SASkAT- 4
CHEWAN; OTHER PLACES
Raymore, Saskatchewan,
July, 1916.

July, 1916. +
Dear Banner:
AS per your suggestion / am writ
ing you line from Northwest Cana
da to which we came by way of Mack
mac Island and the 500. When we
were at the Island the middle of June
we encountered hard hail storm and
we found northern Michigan colder
than middle Saskatchewan. At the
500 we saw half of the one hundred
and eighteen boats that were locked
through in the twenty-four hours Of
our stay, At Sudbury, Canada, a
town of about $4,000 inhabitants, we
found the streets brown with men in
flannels and khaki and war was the
main topic everywhere. We were in
terested in Port Arthur and Fit. Will
liams, towns of about $4,000 inhabit-
ants, in which were located the larg-
est grain elevators in the world.
From Sudbury to Winnipeg we rode
through as rocky and Godforsaken a
country as ever you would care to
travel in, and we endured it from
the noon of one day until ten o'clock
at night the next day. Our only
amusement by daylight was watch
for deer, moose and caribou, of which
we saw many of the first, a few of
the second and none of the last though
they are said to be quite common.
Hunters cabins deserted until win
ter comes again, were nestled here
and there by rock and brush and when
the wolves and foxes got so bold at
nightfall as to come out to the rail-
road after the deer that had sought
the clearing to escape them. We
sighted now and then skulking shad-
ow that made me think Of the hunt
ers at home who would "itch" to pull
a trigger on these ranges. The train
men told us that sometimes the moose
and caribou, resentful of the domin-
ant strength and roar of the train
with its glaring headlight, would rush
at the engine in open defiance, head
on and then the casual straggler
would find venison ready hunted" by
the tracks side in the morning.
The one thing of beauty in this
1400-mile stretch was the Lake of the
Woods, which was really hundreds of
beautiful lakelets connected with bits
of green and beautiful with scores of
sunny islands, where the deer drank
at nightfall, making picture to glad
den the hearts Of both poet and hunt
er and reminding me of quatrain in
SCOTS Lady of the Lake:
'The stag at eve had drunk
his fill
Where danced the moon on
Monan's rill
And deep his midnight lair
had made
In lone Glenartney's hazel
shade"
W. fo,.~l ia.
two hundred twenty-five thousand in
habitants, with wide streets, fine pub
lie buildings, many banks, up-to-date
stores and good business in spite of
the fact that war has recently rob-
bed her of thirty-five thousand men
and three thousand women. Eaton's
big department store employs about
four thousand clerks and at the pres
ent time they are enlarging it so that
it will require twice as many. Bust
ness looked thriving enough to US,
but the people tell us that a pail of
depression has settled over the city
since the war and that the city is
fairly dead and the people disheart-
ened. We visited the recruiting of
fees of the British Bull Dogs, the
| Campbell Highlanders in their scar
let coats and plaided kits and the
272th American legion and went to
the station TO see two trainloads of
soldiers off to Europe with their sis
tiers and sweethearts, mothers and
wives clinging to their arms and lit
orally baptizing them in tears. We
talked with a French lad just back
from the trenches, who was wan and
emaciated. A hundred of his pals
had enlisted with him from Vancouv-
err, British Columbia and all that re-
turned were fifteen who were insane
in the hospital at Quebec and him
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