Ladys Life on a Farm in Manitoba | Page 5

on one floor. It is too
marvellous to think, when one looks at this place, that three and a half
square miles in the centre of the town, which is now in regular
handsome broad streets, the fire of eleven years ago should have so
completely burnt everything to the ground, though now not a vestige of
the conflagration is left. The houses have even had time to get quite
blackened with the smoke of the soft coal they use, which is found in
great quantities all through Pennsylvania; the mines and furnaces we
passed on our way up.
The country the whole way was very pretty. We crossed the
Susquehana river, which is grand in width and scenery, and started the
Juanita through a chain of mountains turning in and out with every
bend of the river, so that one felt always on the slant and could
generally see either end of the train. Unfortunately it poured with rain
the whole way, so any distant views or tops of mountains were
invisible. Some of the country is like England, undulating, rolling,
well-cultivated fields, enclosed with pailings which overlap each other
and would be awkwardish obstacles in a hunting country; but one
misses, like abroad, the cattle--we saw one or two stray cows, but little
else. Around Chicago it is a flat plain, and, as there has been a good
deal of rain lately, water is out everywhere. For the last hour of our
journey we came through the suburbs, and, as there is no protection
whatsoever to the line, we had to come very slowly (about seven miles
an hour), ringing a great bell attached to the engine to announce our
arrival, as children, cows, vans, &c. go along the line in the most
promiscuous way; it is extraordinary that more accidents do not happen.
By law, I believe, the train ought to go very slowly wherever lines
cross each other; anyhow they must ring the bell, the result being that
the bells seem going all day when you are anywhere near the station.
We were given introductions to one or two people here, one gentleman
putting himself at our disposal to show us "around straight away;" and
we visited the principal shops, streets, park, which is land reclaimed
from the lake, and the tramways, which are worked with a pulley from

a centre about six miles off. A Chinaman in San Francisco was once
heard to describe the said tramways as "No horsey, no steamy, go
helly."
The weather has, unfortunately, been wet and much against sight-
seeing, the streets in consequence are too indescribably dirty, mud
inches deep, and everyone is so busy making money that they have not
time to pull up those who are responsible and insist on the streets being
cleaned, though the money is yearly voted by the municipality, and
generally supposed to be pocketed by the authorities. We leave this
to-night for St. Paul, much impressed on the whole with Chicago.
There are one or two more sights I should like to have seen, such as the
two tunnels under the river, but I fancy one leaks and the other is
unusable for some other reason. I should also have liked to have been
to one of the Niggers' revival meetings; but not to the pork manufactory,
where pigs go in alive, are killed and cured ready for exportation in less
than twenty minutes. Our friends went there this morning, and the
descriptions they gave were not particularly inviting. The lady hadn't
been able to touch a mouthful of food all day afterwards, and declared
it would be years before she could eat pork. I also have been dying to
see a house on the move, but had to content myself with looking at a
large brick house, which not three years ago had been moved back 150
yards bodily. Chicago is getting too old a city, and ground is too
expensive, for people to be able to change the sites of their houses
when the fancy takes them; in St. Paul or Winnipeg we may have the
satisfaction of meeting one coming down the street.
* * * * *
THE MERCHANT'S HOTEL, ST. PAUL, May 16.
We left Chicago Friday night for this place at about 9 o'clock, and,
thanks to a letter of recommendation to the conductor, two lower berths
were assigned to us, and we even had the privilege of not having the
uppers pulled down. It is a curious regulation in the Pullman cars, that
should the upper not be tenanted it must be opened or else paid for by
the occupant of the lower; so unless one takes a whole section one is
bound to have a great board just above one's head, which in nine cases