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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/30082-8.txt b/30082-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1815a37 --- /dev/null +++ b/30082-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9358 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Westward with the Prince of Wales, by W. Douglas Newton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Westward with the Prince of Wales + +Author: W. Douglas Newton + +Release Date: September 25, 2009 [EBook #30082] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WESTWARD WITH THE PRINCE OF WALES *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +[Transcriber's note: This book is an account by a British journalist of +the cross-Canada tour, by train, in 1919, of Edward VIII, British +Prince of Wales. In 1936, Edward abdicated from the British throne to +marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee.] + + + + + +[Frontispiece: H. R. H. THE PRINCE OF WALES] + + + + + + +WESTWARD WITH + +THE PRINCE OF WALES + + + +BY + +W. DOUGLAS NEWTON + + +AUTHORIZED CORRESPONDENT IN AMERICA WITH + +H. R. H. THE PRINCE OF WALES + + +AUTHOR OF "GREEN LADIES," "THE WAR CACHE," ETC. + + + + + +D. APPLETON AND COMPANY + +NEW YORK LONDON + +1920 + + + + +COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY + +D. APPLETON AND COMPANY + + + + +TO + +"A. B." + +AND THE CARGO OF "CARNARVON." + + + + +PREFACE + +It was on Friday, August 1, 1919, that "the damned reporters" and the +_Times_ correspondent's hatbox went on board the light cruiser +_Dauntless_ at Devonport. + +The _Dauntless_ had just arrived from the Baltic to load up +cigarettes--at least, that was the first impression. In the Baltic the +rate of exchange had risen from roubles to packets of Players, and a +handful of cigarettes would buy things that money could not obtain. +Into the midst of a ship's company, feverishly accumulating tobacco in +the hope of cornering at least the amber market of the world, we +descended. + +Actually, I suppose, His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales had been +the first interrupter of the _Dauntless'_ schemes. Lying alongside +Devonport quay to refit--in that way were the cigarettes covered +up--word was sent that the _Dauntless_ with her sister ship, _Dragon_, +was to act as escort to the battle-cruiser _Renown_ when she carried +the Prince to Canada. + +Though he came first we could not expect to be as popular as the +Prince, and when, therefore, those on board also learnt that the honour +of acting as escort was to be considerably mitigated by a cargo from +Fleet Street, they were no doubt justified in naming us "damned." + +We did litter them up so. The _Dauntless_ is not merely one of the +latest and fastest of the light cruisers, she is also first among the +smartest. To accommodate us they had to give way to a rash of riveters +from the dock-yard who built cabins all over the graceful silhouette. +When our telegrams, and ourselves, and our baggage (including the +_Times'_ hatbox) arrived piece by piece, each was merely an addition to +the awful mess on deck our coming had meant. + +Actually we could not help ourselves. Dock strikes, ship shortage and +the holiday season had all conspired to make any attempt to get to +Canada in a legitimate way a hopeless task. Only the Admiralty's idea +to pre-date the carrying of commercial travellers on British +battleships could get us to the West at all. The Admiralty, after +modest hesitation, had agreed to send us in the _Dauntless_, and before +the cruiser sailed we all realized how fortunate we were to have been +unlucky at the outset. + +We sailed on August 2 from Devonport, three days before _Renown_ and +_Dragon_ left Portsmouth, and when one of us suggested that this was a +happy idea to get us to St. John's, Newfoundland, in order to be ready +for the Prince, he was told: + +"Not at all, we're out looking for icebergs." + +We were to act as the pilot ship over the course. + +We found icebergs, many of them; even, we nearly rammed an iceberg in +the middle of a foggy night, but we found other things, too. + +We found that we had got onto what the Navy calls a "happy ship," and +if anybody wants to taste what real good fellowship is I advise him to +go to sea on what the Navy calls "a happy ship." However much we had +disturbed them, the officers of the _Dauntless_ did not let that make +any difference in the warmth of their hospitality. We were made free +of the ward-room, and that Baltic tobacco. We were initiated into "The +Grand National," a muscular sport in which the daring exponent turns a +series of somersaults over the backs of a line of chairs; and we were +admitted into the raggings and the singing of ragtime. + +We were made splendidly at home. Not only in the ward-room that did a +jazz with a disturbing spiral movement when we speeded up from our +casual 18 knots to something like 28 in a rough sea, but from the +bridge down to the boiler room, where we watched the flames of oil fuel +making steam in the modern manner, we were drawn into the charmed +circle of comradeship and keenness that made up the essential spirit of +that fine ship's company. + +The "damned reporters," on a trip in which even the weather was +companionable, were given the damnedest of good times, and it was with +real regret that, on the evening of Friday, August 8, we saw the high, +grim rampart wall of Newfoundland lift from the Western sea to tell us +that our time on the _Dauntless_ would soon be finished. + +Actually we left the _Dauntless_ at St. John's, New Brunswick, where we +became the guests of the Canadian Government which looked after us, as +it looked after the whole party, with so great a sense of generosity +and care that we could never feel sufficiently grateful to it. + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + PREFACE + I NEWFOUNDLAND + II ST. JOHN, NEW BRUNSWICK + III ON THE TRAIN BETWEEN ST. JOHN AND HALIFAX + IV HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA + V CHARLOTTETOWN, PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND AND HABITANT, CANADA + VI QUEBEC + VII THE MOBILE HOTEL DE LUXE: THE ROYAL TRAIN + VIII THE CITY OF CROWDS: TORONTO: ONTARIO + IX OTTAWA + X MONTREAL: QUEBEC + XI ON THE ROAD TO TROUT + XII PICNICS AND PRAIRIES + XIII THE CITY OF WHEAT: WINNIPEG, MANITOBA + XIV THE FRINGE OF THE GREAT NORTH-WEST: SASKATOON AND EDMONTON + XV CALGARY AND THE CATTLE RANCH + XVI CHIEF MORNING STAR COMES TO BANFF AND THE ROCKIES + XVII THE PACIFIC CITIES: VANCOUVER AND VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA + XVIII APPLE LAND: OKANAGAN AND KOOTENAY LAKES + XIX THE PRAIRIES AGAIN + XX SILVER, GOLD AND COMMERCE + XXI NIAGARA AND THE TOWNS OF WESTERN ONTARIO + XXII MONTREAL + XXIII WASHINGTON + XXIV NEW YORK + + + + +WESTWARD WITH THE PRINCE OF WALES + + +CHAPTER I + +NEWFOUNDLAND + +I + +St. John's, Newfoundland, was the first city of the Western continent +to see the Prince of Wales. It was also the first to label him with +one of the affectionate, if inexplicable sobriquets that the West is so +fond of. + +Leaning over the side of the _Dauntless_ on the day of the Prince's +visit, a seaman smiled down, as seamen sometimes do, at a vivid little +Newfoundland Flapper in a sunset-coloured jumper bodice, New York cut +skirt, white stockings and white canvas boots. The Flapper looked up +from her seat in the stern of her "gas" launch (gasolene equals +petrol), and smiled back, as is the Flapper habit, and the seaman +promptly opened conversation by asking if the Flapper had seen the +Prince. + +"You bet," said the Flapper. "He's a dandy boy. He's a plush." + +His Royal Highness became many things in his travels across America, +but I think it ought to go down in history that at St. John's, +Newfoundland, he became a "plush." + +Newfoundland also introduced another Western phenomenon. It presented +us to the race of false prophets whom we were to see go down in +confusion all the way from St. John's to Victoria and back again to New +York. + +Members of this race were plentiful in St. John's. As we spent our +days before the Prince's arrival picking up facts and examining the +many beautiful arches of triumph that were being put up in the town, we +were warned not to expect too much from Newfoundland. St. John's had +not its bump of enthusiasm largely developed, we were told; its people +were resolutely dour and we must not be disappointed if the Prince's +reception lacked warmth. In all probability the weather would conform +to the general habit and be foggy. + +Here, as elsewhere, the prophets were confounded. St. John's proved +second to none in the warmth of its affectionate greeting--that +splendid spontaneous welcome which the whole West gave to the Prince +upset all preconceived notions, swept away all sense of set ceremonial +and made the tour from the beginning to the end the most happy progress +of a sympathetic and responsive youth through a continent of intimate +personal friends. + + +II + +The _Dauntless_ went out from St. John's on Sunday, August 10, to +rendezvous with _Renown_ and _Dragon_, and the three great modern +warships came together on a glorious Western evening. + +There was a touch of drama in the meeting. In the marvellous clear air +of gold and blue that only the American Continent can show, we picked +up _Renown_ at a point when she was entering a long avenue of icebergs. +There were eleven of these splendid white fellows in view on the +skyline when we turned to lead the great battleship back to the +anchorage in Conception Bay, north of St. John's, and as the ships +followed us it was as though the Prince had entered a processional way +set with great pylons arranged deliberately to mark the last phase of +his route to the Continent of the West. + +Some of these bergs were as large, as massive and as pinnacled as +cathedrals, some were humped mounds that lifted sullenly from the +radiant sea, some were treacherous little crags circled by rings of +detached floes--the "growlers," those almost wholly submerged masses of +ice that the sailor fears most. Most of the bergs in the two irregular +lines were distant, and showed as patches of curiously luminant +whiteness against the intense blue of the sky. Some were close enough +for us to see the wonderful semi-transparent green of the cracks and +fissures in their sides and the vivid emerald at the base that the +bursting seas seemed to be eternally polishing anew. + +When _Renown_ was sighted, a mere smudge on the horizon, we saw the +flash of her guns and heard faintly the thud of the explosions. She +was getting in some practice with her four-inch guns on the enticing +targets of the bergs. + +We were too far away to see results, but we were told that as a +spectacle the effect of the shell-bursts on the ice crags was +remarkable. Under the explosions the immense masses of these +translucent fairy islands rocked and changed shape. Faces of ice +cliffs crumbled under the hits and sent down avalanches of ice into the +furious green seas the shocks of the explosions had raised. + +This was one of the few incidents in a journey made under perfect +weather conditions in a vessel that is one of the "wonder ships" of the +British Navy. The huge _Renown_ had behaved admirably throughout the +passage. She had travelled at a slow speed, for her, most of the time, +but there had been a spell of about an hour when she had worked up to +the prodigious rate of thirty-one knots an hour. Under these test +conditions she had travelled like an express with no more structural +movement than is felt in a well-sprung Pullman carriage. + +The Prince had employed his five day's journey by indulging his fancy +for getting to know how things are done. Each day he had spent two +hours in a different part of the ship having its function and mechanism +explained to him by the officer in charge. + +As he proved later in Canada when visiting various industrial and +agricultural plants, His Royal Highness has the modern curiosity and +interest for the mechanics of things. Indeed, throughout the journey +he showed a distinct inclination towards people and the work that +ordinary people did, rather than in the contemplation of views however +splendid, and the report that he said at one time, "Oh, Lord, let's cut +all this scenery and get back to towns and crowds," is certainly true +in essence if not in fact. + +It was in the beautiful morning of August 11th that the Prince made his +first landfall in the West, and saw in the distance the great curtain +of high rock that makes the grim coast-line of Newfoundland. + +For reasons of the _Renown's_ tonnage he had to go into Conception Bay, +one of the many great sacks of inlets that make the island something +that resembles nothing so much as a section of a jig-saw puzzle. The +harbour of St. John's could float _Renown_, but its narrow waters would +not permit her to turn, and the Prince had to transfer his Staff and +baggage to _Dragon_ in order to complete the next stage of the voyage. + +Conception Bay is a fjord thrusting its way through the jaws of strong, +sharp hills of red sandstone piled up in broken and stratified masses +above grey slate rock. On these hills cling forests of spruce and +larch in woolly masses that march down the combes to the very water's +edge. It is wild scenery, Scandinavian and picturesque. + +In the combes--the "outports" they are called--are the small, scattered +villages of the fishermen. The wooden frame houses have the look of +the packing-case, and though they are bright and toy-like when their +green or red or cinnamon paint is fresh, they are woefully drab when +the weather of several years has had its way with them. + +In front of most of the houses are the "flakes," or drying platforms +where the split cod is exposed to the air. These "flakes" are built up +among the ledges and crevices of the rock, being supported by +numberless legs of thin spruce mast; the effect of these spidery +platforms, the painted houses, the sharp stratified red rock and the +green massing of the trees is that of a Japanese vignette set down amid +inappropriate scenery. + +Cod fishing is, of course, the beginning and the end of the life of +many of these villages on the bays that indent so deeply the +Newfoundland coast. It is not the adventurous fishing of the Grand +Banks; there is no need for that. There is all the food and the income +man needs in the crowded local waters. Men have only to go out in +boats with hook and line to be sure of large catches. + +Only a few join the men who live farther to the south, about Cape Race, +in their trips to the misty waters of the Grand Banks. Here they put +off from their schooners in dories and make their haul with hook and +line. + +A third branch of these fishers, particularly those to the north of St. +John's, push up to the Labrador coast, where in the bays, or "fishing +rooms," they catch, split, head, salt and dry the superabundant fish. + +By these methods vast quantities of cod and salmon are caught, and, as +in the old days when the hardy fishermen of Devon, Brittany, Normandy +and Portugal were the only workers in these little known seas, +practically all the catch is shipped to England and France. During the +war the cod fishers of Newfoundland played a very useful part in +mitigating the stringency of the British ration-cards, and there are +hopes that this good work may be extended, and that by setting up a big +refrigerating plant Newfoundland may enlarge her market in Britain and +the world. + +With the fishery goes the more dangerous calling of sealing. For this +the men of Newfoundland set out in the winter and the spring to the +fields of flat "pan" ice to hunt the seal schools. + +At times this means a march across the ice deserts for many days and +the danger of being cut off by blizzards; when that happens no more +news is heard of the adventurous hunters. + +Every few years Newfoundland writes down the loss of a ship's company +of her too few young men, for Newfoundland, very little helped by +immigration, exists on her native born. "A crew every six or eight +years, we reckon it that way," you are told. It is part of the hard +life the Islanders lead, an expected debit to place against the profits +of the rich fur trade. + +Solidly blocking the heart of Conception Bay is a big island, the high +and irregular outline of which seems to have been cut down sharply with +a knife. This is Bell Island, which is not so much an island as a +great, if accidental, iron mine. + +Years ago, when the island was merely the home of farmers and +fishermen, a shipowner in need of easily handled ballast found that the +subsoil contained just the thing he wanted. By turning up the thin +surface he came upon a stratum of small, square slabs of rock rather +like cakes of soap. These were easily lifted and easily carted to his +ship. + +He initiated the habit of taking rock from Bell Island for ballast, and +for years shipmasters loaded it up, to dump it overboard with just as +much unconcern when they took their cargo inboard. It was some time +before an inquiring mind saw something to attract it in the rock +ballast; the rock was analyzed and found to contain iron. + +Turned into a profiteer by this astonishing discovery, the owner of the +ground where the slabs were found clung tenaciously to his holding +until he had forced the price up to the incredible figure of 100 +dollars. He sold with the joyous satisfaction of a man making a shrewd +deal. + +His ground has changed hands several times since, and the prices paid +have advanced somewhat on his optimistic figure; for example, the +present company bought it for two million dollars. + +The ore is not high grade, but is easily obtained, and so can be +handled profitably. In the beginning it was only necessary to turn +over the turf and take what was needed, the labour costing less than a +shilling a ton. Now the mines strike down through the rock of the +island beneath the sea, and the cost of handling is naturally greater. +It is worth noting that prior to 1914 practically all the output of +this essentially British mine went to Germany; the war has changed that +and now Canada takes the lion's share. + +It was under the cliffs of Bell Island, near the point where the long +lattice-steel conveyors bring the ore from the cliff-top to the +water-level, that the three warships dropped anchor. As they swung on +their cables blasting operations in the iron cliffs sent out the thud +of their explosions and big columns of smoke and dust, for all the +world as though a Royal salute was being fired in honour of the +Prince's arrival. + + +III + +During the day His Royal Highness went ashore informally, mainly to +satisfy his craving for walking exercise. Before he did so, he +received the British correspondents on board the _Renown_, and a few +minutes were spent chatting with him in the charming and spacious suite +of rooms that Navy magic had erected with such efficiency that one had +to convince oneself that one really was on a battleship and not in a +hotel _de luxe_. + +We met a young man in a rather light grey lounge suit, whose boyish +figure is thickening into the outlines of manhood. I have heard him +described as frail; and a Canadian girl called him "a little bit of a +feller" in my hearing. But one has only to note an excellent pair of +shoulders and the strength of his long body to understand how he can +put in a twenty-hour day of unresting strenuosity in running, riding, +walking and dancing without turning a hair. + +It is the neat, small features, the nose a little inclined to tilt, a +soft and almost girlish fairness of complexion, and the smooth and +remarkable gold hair that give him the suggestion of extreme +boyishness--these things and his nervousness. + +His nervousness is part of his naturalness and lack of poise. It +showed itself then, and always, in characteristic gestures, a tugging +at the tie, the smoothing-down of the hair with the flat of the hand, +the furious digging of fists into pockets, a clutching at coat lapels, +and a touch of hesitance before he speaks. + +He comes at you with a sort of impulsive friendliness, his body hitched +a little sideways by the nervous drag of a leg. His grip is a good +one; he meets your eyes squarely in a long glance to which the darkness +about his eyes adds intensity, as though he is getting your features +into his memory for all time, in the resolve to keep you as a friend. + +He speaks well, with an attractive manner and a clear enunciation that +not even acute nervousness can slur or disorganize. He is, in fact, an +excellent public speaker, never missing the value of a sentence, and +managing his voice so well that even in the open air people are able to +follow what he says at a distance that renders other speakers inaudible. + +In private he is as clear, but more impulsive. He makes little darting +interjections which seem part of a similar movement of hands, or the +whole of the body, and he speaks with eagerness, as though he found +most things jolly and worth while, and expects you do too. Obviously +he finds zest in ordinary human things, and not a little humour, also, +for there is more often than not a twinkle in his eyes that gives +character to his friendly smile--that extraordinarily ready smile, +which comes so spontaneously and delightfully, and which became a +byword over the whole continent of the West. + +It is this friendly and unstudied manner that wins him so much +affection. It makes all feel immediately that he is extraordinarily +human and extraordinarily responsive, and that there are no barriers or +reticences in intercourse with him. + +He is not an intellectual, and he certainly is not a dullard. He +rather fills the average of the youth of modern times, with an extreme +fondness for modern activities, which include golfing, running and +walking; jazz music and jazz dancing (when the prettiness of partners +is by no means a deterrent), sightseeing and the rest, and my own +impression is, that he is much more at home in the midst of a hearty +crowd--the more democratic the better--than in the most august of +formal gatherings. + +The latter, too, means speech-making, and he has, I fancy, a young +man's loathing of making speeches. He makes them--on certain occasions +he had to make them three times and more a day--and he makes good ones, +but he would rather, I think, hold an open reception where Tom, Dick, +Vera, Phyllis and Harry crowded about him in a democratic mob to shake +his hand. + +Yet though he does not like speech-making, he showed from the beginning +that he meant to master the repugnant art. To read speeches, as he did +in the early days of the tour, was not good enough. He schooled +himself steadily to deliver them without manuscript, so that by the end +of the trip he was able to deliver a long and important speech--such as +that at Massey Hall, Toronto, on November 4--practically without +referring to his notes. + +During his day in Conception Bay, the Prince went ashore and spent some +time amid the beautiful scenery of rocky, spruce-clad hills and +valleys, where the forests and the many rocky streams give earnest of +the fine sport in game and fish for which Newfoundland is famous. + +The crews of the battleships went ashore, also, to the scattered little +hamlet of Topsail, lured there, perhaps, by the legend that Topsail is +called the Brighton of Newfoundland. It is certainly a pretty place, +with its brightly painted, deep-porched wooden houses set amid the +trees in that rugged country, but the inhabitants were led astray by +local pride when they dragged in Brighton. The local "Old Ship" is the +grocer's, who also happened to be the Selfridge's of the hamlet, and +his good red wine or brown ale, or whatever is yours, is Root Beer! + +For many of the battleships' crews it was the first impact with the +Country of the Dry, and the shock was profound. + +"I was ashore five hours, waiting for the blinkin' liberty boat to come +and take me off," said one seaman, in disgust. "Five hours! And all I +had was a water--and that was warm." + + +IV + +On Tuesday, August 12, the Prince transferred to _Dragon_ and in +company with _Dauntless_ steamed towards St. John's, along the grim, +sheer coast of Newfoundland, where squared promontories standing out +like buttresses give the impression that they are bastions set in the +wall of a castle built by giants. + +The gateway to St. John's harbour is a mere sally-port in that castle +wall. It is an abrupt opening, and is entered through the high and +commanding posts of Signal and the lighthouse hills. + +One can conceive St. John's as the ideal pirate lair of a romance-maker +of the Stevensonian tradition, and one can understand it appealing to +the bold, freebooting instincts of the first daring settlers. A ring +of rough, stratified hills grips the harbour water about, sheltering it +from storms and land enemies, while with the strong hills at the +water-gate to command it, and a chain drawn across its Narrows, it was +safe from incursion of water-borne foes. + +It was the fitting stronghold of the reckless Devon, Irish and Scots +fishermen who followed Cabot to the old Norse _Helluland_, the "Land of +Naked Rocks," and who vied and fought with, and at length ruled with +the rough justice of the "Fishing Admirals" the races of Biscayan and +Portuguese men who made the island not a home but a centre of the great +cod fishery that supplied Europe. + +St. John's has laboured under its disadvantages ever since those days. +The town has been pinched between the steep hills, and forced to +straggle back for miles along the harbour inlet. On the southern side +of the basin the slope has beaten the builder, and on the dominant +green hill, through the grass of which thrusts grey and red-brown +masses of the sharp-angled rock stratum, there are very few houses. + +On the north, humanity has made a fight for it, and the white, dusty +roads struggle with an almost visible effort up the heavy grade of the +hill until they attain the summit. The effect is of a terraced and +piled-up city, straggling in haphazard fashion up to the point where +the great Roman Catholic cathedral, square-hewn and twin-towered, +crowns the mass of the town. + +Plank frame houses, their paint dingy and grey, with stone and brick +buildings, jostle each other on the hill-side streets, innocent of +sidewalks. The main thoroughfare, Water Street, which runs parallel +with the harbour and the rather casual wharves, is badly laid, and +given to an excess of mud in wet weather, mud that the single-deck +electric trams on their bumpy track distribute lavishly. The black +pine masts that serve as telegraph-poles are set squarely and +frequently in the street, and overhead is the heavy mesh of cables and +wires that forms an essential part of all civic scenery in the West. +The buildings and shops along this street are not imposing, and there +seems a need for revitalization in the town, either through a keener +overseas trading and added shipping facilities, or a broader and more +encouraging local policy. + +Most of the goods for sale were American, and some of them not the best +type of American articles at that. It was hard to find indications of +British trading, and it seemed to me that here was a field for British +enterprise, and that with the easing of shipping difficulties, which +were then tying up Newfoundland's commerce, Britain and Newfoundland +would both benefit by a vigorous trade policy. Newfoundlanders seemed +anxious to get British goods, and, as they pointed out, the rate of +exchange was all in their favour. + +Through Water Street passes a medley of vehicles; the bumpy electric +trams, horse carts that look like those tent poles the Indians trail +behind them put on wheels, spidery buggies, or "rigs," solid-wheeled +country carts, and the latest makes in automobiles. + +The automobiles astonish one, both in their inordinate number and their +up-to-dateness. There seemed, if anything, too many cars for the town, +but then that was only because we are new to the Western Continent, +where the automobile is as everyday a thing as the telephone. All the +cars are American, and to the Newfoundlander they are things of pride, +since they show how the modern spirit of the Colony triumphs over sea +freight and heavy import duty. Motor-cars and electric lighting in a +lavish fashion that Britain does not know, form the modern features of +St. John's. + +When the two warships steamed through the Narrows into the harbour, St. +John's, within its hills, was looking its best under radiant sunlight. +The fishermen's huts clinging to the rocky crevices of the harbour +entrance on thousands of spidery legs, let crackers off to the passing +ships and fluttered a mist of flags. Flags shone with vivid splashes +of pigment from the water's edge, where a great five-masted schooner, +barques engaged in the South American trade, a liner and a score of +vessels had dressed ships, up all the tiers of houses to where strings +of flags swung between the towers of the cathedral. + +From the wharves a number of gnat-like gasolene launches, gay with +flags, pushed off to flutter about both cruisers until they came to +anchor. From one of the quays signal guns were fired, and the brazen +and inordinate bangings of his Royal salute echoed and re-echoed in +uncanny fashion among the hills that hem the town, so that when the +warships joined in, the whole cup of the harbour was filled with the +hammerings of explosions overlapping explosions, until the air seemed +made of nothing else. + +On the big stacks of Newfoundland lumber at the harbour-side, on the +quays, on the freight sheds and on the roofs of buildings, Newfoundland +people, who, like the weather, were giving the lie to the prophets, +crowded to see the Prince arrive. He came from _Dragon_ in the Royal +barge in the wake of the _Dauntless'_ launch, which was having a +worried moment in "shooing" off the eager gasolene boats, crowding in, +in defiance of all regulations, to get a good view. + +There was no doubt about the warmth of the welcome. It was a +characteristic Newfoundland crowd. Teamsters in working overalls, +fishermen in great sea boots and oilskins, girls garbed in the +smartness of New York, whose comely faces and beautiful complexions +were of Ireland, though there was here and there a flash of French +blood in the grace of their youth, little boys willing to defy the law +and climb railings in order to get a "close up" photograph, youths in +bubble-toed boots--all proved that their dourness was not an emotion +for state occasions, and that they could show themselves as they really +were, as generous and as loyal as any people within the Empire. + +The Prince was received on the jetty by the Governor and the members of +the legislature. With them was a guard of honour of seamen, all of +them Newfoundland fishermen who had served in various British warships +throughout the war. There was a contingent from the Newfoundland +Regiment also, stocky men who had fought magnificently through the grim +battles in France, and on the Somme had done so excellently that the +name of their greatest battle, Gueudecourt, has become part of the +Colony's everyday history, and is to be found inscribed on the postage +stamps under the picture of the caribou which is the national emblem. + +The Prince's passage through the streets was a stirring one. There +were no soldiers guarding the route through Water Street and up the +high, steep hills to Government House, and the eager crowd pressed +about the carriage in such ardour that its pace had to be slowed to a +walk. At that pace it moved through the streets, a greater portion of +the active population keeping pace with it, turning themselves into a +guard of honour, walking as the horses walked, and, if they did break +into a trot, trotting with them. + +The route lay under many really beautiful arches, some castles with +towers and machicolations sheafed in the sweet-smelling spruce; others +constructed entirely from fish boxes and barrels, with men on them, +working and packing the cod; others were hung with the splendid fur, +feathers and antlers of Newfoundland hunting. + +Through that day and until midday of the next, lively crowds followed +every movement of the "dandy feller," swopping opinions as to his +charm, and his smile, his youthfulness and his shyness. They compared +him with his grandfather who had visited St. John's fifty-nine years +ago, and made a point of mentioning that he was to sleep in the very +bedroom his grandfather had used. + +There was the usual heavy program, an official lunch, the review of war +veterans, a visit to the streets when the lavish electric light had +been switched into the beautiful illuminations, when the two cruisers +were mirrored in the harbour waters in an outline of electric lights, +and when on the ring of hill-tops red beacons were flaring in his +honour. There was a dance, with his lucky partners sure of +photographic fame in the local papers of tomorrow, and then in the +morning, medal giving, a peep at the annual regatta, famous in local +history, on lovely Quidividi Lake among the hills, and then, all too +soon for Newfoundland, his departure to New Brunswick. + +There was no doubt at all as to the impression he made. The visit that +might have been formal was in actuality an affair of spontaneous +affection. There was a friendliness and warmth in the welcome that +quite defies description. His own unaffected pleasure in the greeting; +his eagerness to meet everybody, not the few, but the ordinary, +everyday people as much as the notabilities, his lack of affectation, +and his obvious enjoyment of all that was happening, placed the Prince +and the people, welcoming him, immediately on a footing of intimacy. +His tour had begun in the air of triumph which we were to find +everywhere in his passage across the Continent. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +ST. JOHN, NEW BRUNSWICK + +I + +When one talks to a citizen of St. John, New Brunswick, one has an +impression that his city is burnt down every half century or so in +order that he and his neighbours might build it up very much better. + +This is no doubt an inaccurate impression, but when I had listened to +various brisk people telling me about the fires--the devastating one of +1877, and the minor ones of a variety of dates--and the improvements +St. John has been able to accomplish after them; and when I had seen +the city itself, I must confess I had a sneaking feeling that +Providence had deliberately managed these things so that a lively, +vigorous and up-to-date folk should have every opportunity of +reconstructing their city according to the modernity of their minds and +status. + +The vigorousness of St. John is so definite that it got into our bones +though our visit was but one of hours. St. John, for us, represented +an extraordinary hustle. We arrived on the morning of Friday, August +15, after the one night when the sea had not been altogether our +friend; when the going had been "awfully kinky" (as the seasick one of +our party put it), and the spiral motif in the _Dauntless'_ wardroom +had been disturbing at meals. + +CHAPTER III + +ON THE TRAIN BETWEEN ST. JOHN AND HALIFAX + +I + +Next morning in the train we were awakened to an unexpected Sunday. It +was not an ordinary calm Sunday, but a Sunday with a hustle on, a +Canadian Sunday. There was no doubt about the bells, though they were +ringing with remarkable earnestness in their efforts to get Canadians +into church. + +Lying in our sleeping sections, we were bewildered by the bells, and by +the fact that by human calendar the day should be Saturday. Then we +raised the little blinds that hung between our modesty and a world of +passing platforms, and found that we were in a junction (probably +Truro), with a very Saturday air, and that the church bells were on +engines. + +It takes some time for the Briton to become accustomed to the +strangeness of bells on engines, and the fact, that, instead of +whistling, the engines also give a very lifelike imitation of a liner's +siren. The bells are tolled when entering a station, or approaching a +level crossing, and so on, and the siren note is, I think, a real +improvement on the ear-splitting whistle that harrows us in England. + +Our first night on the Canadian National had been a prophecy of the +many comfortable nights we were to spend on Canadian railways. We had +been given an ordinary sleeping car of the long-distance service, but +as we had it to our masculine selves, the exercise of getting out of +our clothes and into bed, and out of our bed and into clothes, was an +ordinary human accomplishment, and not an athletic problem tinged with +embarrassment. + +The Canadian sleeper is a roomy and attractive Pullman, with wide and +comfortable back to back seats, each internal pair called a section. +At night the seats are pulled together, and the padding at their backs +pulled down, so that a most efficient bed is formed. A section of the +roof lets down, resolving itself into an upper bunk, while long green +curtains from roof to floor, and wood panels at foot and head complete +the privacy. + +In these sleepers Canadians make the week's journey from the Atlantic +to the Pacific. There is no separation of sexes, and a woman may find +that she is sharing a section with a strange male quite as a matter of +course, the only distinction being that the chivalrous Canadian always +gives up the bottom berth, if it is his, to the lady, and climbs to the +top himself. + +In these circumstances, to remove one's clothes, and particularly that +part that proclaims one's gender, is a problem. I have tried it. One +switches on the little electric reading light, climbs into the bunk, +buttons up the green curtains, and then in a space a trifle larger than +a coffin endeavours to remove, and place tidily, one's clothes (for +articles scattered on that narrow bunk during the struggle mean that +one ends by becoming simply a tangle of garments). + +At these moments one realizes that hands, arms, legs, and head have +been given one to complicate things. One jams them against everything. +And there are times, too, when the unpractised Briton is simply baffled. + +They tell in every Canadian train the tale of the Englishman who came +face to face with such a crisis. Having removed most of his garments, +he came to that point where the ingenuity of human nature seemed to +fail. He pondered it. The matter seemed insuperable. And he began to +wonder if.... He put his head through his curtains and shouted along +the crowded--and mixed--green corridor of the car: + +"I say, porter, _does_ one take off one's trousers in this train?" + +Most of the railways, the Canadian Pacific certainly, are putting on +compartment cars; that is, a car made up of roomy private sections, +holding two berths. On most sleepers, too, there is a drawing-room +compartment that gives the same privacy. These are both comfortable +and convenient, for, apart from privacy, the passenger does not have to +take his place in the queue waiting to wash at one of the three basins +provided in the little section at the end of the car that is also the +smoking-room. + +It must not be thought that the sleepers are anything but comfortable; +they are so comfortable as to make travelling in them ideal. The +passenger, also, has the run of the train, and can go to the +observation car, where he can spend his time in an easy chair, looking +through the broad windows at the scenery, or reading one of the many +magazines or papers the train provides; or he can write his letters on +train paper at a desk; can go out to the broad railed platform at the +rear of the car, and sit and smoke, and see Canada unrolling behind him. + +And at the appropriate times for breakfast, dinner and supper--that is +the Canadian routine, and there is no tea--the passenger goes to the +diner and has a meal from a menu that would make the manager of many a +London hotel feel anxious for his reputation. + + +II + +We had some experience of the lavishness and variety of Canadian meals +in St. John, when we had ordered what would have been an ordinary +dinner in London, and had had to cry "_Kamerad!_" after the fish. + +The first Canadian breakfast we had on the Canadian National was of the +same order. It began, inevitably, with ice-water. Ice-water is the +thing that waiters fill up intervals with. Instead of pausing between +courses for the usual waiter's meditation, they make instinctively for +the silver ice-water jug, and fill every defenceless glass. Ice-water +is universal. It is taken before, during and after every meal, and +there are ice-water tanks (and paper cups) on every railway carriage +and every hotel. At first one loathes it, and it seems to create an +unnatural thirst, but the habit for it is soon attained. + +The menu for breakfast is always varied and long--and I speak not +merely of the special trains we travelled in, for it was the same on +ordinary passenger trains. One does not face a _table d'hôte_ meal +outside of which there is no alternative but starvation, but one is +given the choice of a range of dishes for any of the three meals that +equals the choice offered by the best hotels in London. + +Breakfast begins with fruit; breakfast is not breakfast in the American +continent unless it begins with fruit. And at that precise time +breakfast fruit was blueberries. Other fruit was on the menu: +raspberries, melon, grape-fruit, canteloupe, orange-slices, orange +juice, and so on; but to avoid blueberries was to be suspected of being +eccentric, and even an alien enemy. + +Blueberries were in season. Blueberries and cream were being eaten at +breakfast with something more than mere satisfaction by the entire +Canadian nation. Blueberries were being consumed with a sort of +patriotic fervour, for blueberries have a significance to the Canadian. +It is a fruit peculiarly his own; he treats it as a sort of emblem, he +waxes enthusiastic over it, and the stranger feels that if he does not +eat it (with cream, or cooked as "Deep Blueberry Pie"), he has not +justified his journey to the Dominion. Hint that it is merely the +English bilberry or blaeberry, or whortleberry and--but no one dares +hint that. The blueberry is in season. One eats it with cream, and it +is worth eating. + +You may follow with what the Canadian calls "oats," but which you call +porridge, or, being wiser since the dinner at St. John, you go straight +on to halibut steak, or Gaspé salmon, or trout, or Jack Frost sausages, +or just bacon and eggs. There is a range that would have pleased you +in an hotel, but which fills you with wonder on a train. + +And not merely the range, but the prodigality of the portions, +surprises. Your halibut or salmon or trout is not a strip that seems +like a sample, it is a solid slice of exquisitely cooked fish that +looks dangerously near a full pound, and all the portions are on the +same scale, so that you soon come to recognize that, unless you ration +yourself severely, you cannot possibly hope to survive against this +Dominion of Food. + +When we sat down to that breakfast in the Canadian National diner I +think we realized more emphatically than we had through the whole +course of our reading how prodigal and rich a land Canada was. As we +sat at our meal we could watch from the windows the unfolding of the +streams and the innumerable lovely lakes, that expand suddenly out of +the spruce forests that clad the rocky hills and the sharp valleys of +Nova Scotia. + +We could see the homestead clearings, the rich land already under +service and the cattle thereon. It was from those numberless pebbly +rivers and lakes that this abundance in fish came; in the forests was +game, caribou and moose and winged game. From the cleared land came +the wheat and the other growing things that crowd the Canadian table, +and the herds represented the meat, and the unstinted supply of cream +and milk and butter. Even the half-cleared land, where tree stumps and +bushes still held sway, there was the blueberry, growing with the +joyous luxuriance of a useful weed. + +To glance out of the window was to realize more than this, it was to +realize that in spite of all this luxuriance the land was yet barely +scratched. The homesteads are even now but isolated outposts in the +undisciplined wilderness, and when we realized that this was but a +section, and a small section at that, of a Dominion stretching +thousands of miles between us and the Pacific, and how many thousand +miles on the line North to South we could not compute, we began to get +a glimmer of the immensity and potentiality of the land we had just +entered. + +There is nothing like a concrete demonstration to convince the mind, +and I recognize it was that heroic breakfast undertaken while I +contemplated the heroic land from whence it had come that brought home +to me with a sense almost of shock an appreciation of Canada's +greatness. + +By the time I had arrived at Halifax, and had a Canadian National +Railway lunch (for we remained on the train for the whole of our stay +in the city) I knew I was to face immensities. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA + +I + +The first citizen of Halifax to recognize the Prince of Wales was a +little boy: and it was worth a cool twenty cents to him. + +The official entry of His Royal Highness into Halifax was fixed for +Monday, August 18th. The _Dragon_ and _Dauntless_, however, arrived on +Sunday, and the Prince saw in the free day an opportunity for getting +in a few hours' walking. + +He landed quietly, and with his camera spent some time walking through +and snapping the interesting spots in the city. He climbed the hill to +where the massive and slightly melodramatic citadel that his own +ancestor, the Duke of Kent, had built on the hill dominates the city, +and continued from there his walk through the tree-fringed streets. + +At the very toe of the long peninsula upon which Halifax is built he +walked through Point Pleasant, a park of great, and untrammelled, +natural beauty, thicketed with trees through which he could catch many +vivid and beautiful glimpses of the intensely blue harbour water +beneath the slope. + +It was in this park that the young punter pulled off his coup. + +He was one of a number of kiddies occupied in the national sport of +Halifax--bathing. He and his friends spotted the Prince and his party +before that party saw them. Being a person of acumen the wise kid +immediately "placed" His Royal Highness, and saw the opportunity for +financial operations. + +"Betcher ten cents that's the Prince of Wales," he said, accommodating +the whole group, whereupon the inevitable sceptic retorted: + +"Naw, that ain't no Prince. Anyhow he doesn't come till tomorrow, see." + +"Is the Prince, I tell you," insisted the plunger. "And see here, +betcher another ten cents I goes and asks him." + +The second as well as the first bet was taken. And both were won. + +This is not the only story connected with the Sunday stroll of the +Prince. Another, and perhaps a romantic version of the same one, was +that it was the Prince who made and lost the bet. He was said to have +come upon not boys but girls bathing. Seeing one of them poised +skirted and stockinged, for all the world as though she were the +authentic bathing girl on the cover of an American magazine, ready to +dive, he bet her a cool twenty that she dare not take her plunge from +the highest board. + +This story may be true or it may be, well, Canadian. I mean by that it +may be one of the jolly stories that Canadians from the very beginning +began to weave about the personality of His Royal Highness. It is, +indeed, an indication of his popularity that he became the centre of a +host of yarns, true or apocryphal, that followed him and accumulated +until they became almost a saga by the time the tour was finished. + + +II + +In this short stroll the Prince saw much of a town that is certainly +worth seeing. + +Halifax on the first impact has a drab air that comes as a shock to +those who sail through the sharp, green hills of the Narrows and see +the hilly peninsula on which the town is built hanging graciously over +the sparkling blue waters of one of the finest and greatest harbours in +the world. + +From the water the multi-coloured massing of the houses is broken up +and softened by the vividness of the parks and the green billowing of +the trees that line most of the streets. Landing, the newcomer is at +once steeped in the depressing air of a seaport town that has not +troubled to keep its houses in the brightest condition. As many of +those houses are of wood, the youthful sparkle of which vanishes in the +maturity of ill-kept paintwork, the first impression of Halifax is +actually more melancholy than it deserves to be. + +The long drive through Water Street from the docks, moreover, merely +lands one into a business centre where the effect of many good +buildings is spoilt by the narrowness of the streets. Such a condition +of things is no doubt unavoidable in a town that is both commercial and +old, but those who only see this side of Halifax had better appreciate +the fact that the city is Canadian and new also, and that there are +residential districts that are as comely and as up-to-date as anywhere +in the Western Continent. + +Halifax certainly blends history and business in a way to make it the +most English of towns. It is like nothing so much as a seaport in the +North of England plus a Canadian accent. + +There is the same packed mass movement of a lively polyglot people +through the streets. There is the same keen appetite for living that +sends people out of doors to walk in contact with their fellows under +the light of the many-globed electric standards that line the sidewalk. + +There is the same air of bright prosperity in the glowing and vivacious +light of the fine and tasteful shops. They are good shops, and their +windows are displayed with an artistry that one finds is characteristic +throughout Canada. They offer the latest and smartest ideas in blouses +and gowns, jewellery and boots and cameras--I should like to find out +what percentage of the population of the American Continent does not +use a camera--and men's shirtings, shirtings that one views with awe, +shirtings of silk with emotional stripes and futuristic designs, and +collars to match the shirts, the sort of shirts that Solomon in all his +glory seems to have designed for festival days. + +At night, certainly, the streets of Halifax are bright and vivid, and +the people in them good-humoured, laughing and sturdy, with that +contempt of affectation that is characteristic of the English north. + +The bustle and vividness as well as the greyness of Halifax lets one +into the open secret that it is a great industrial port of Canada, and +an all-the-year-round port at that, yet it is the greyness and +narrowness of the streets that tells you that Halifax is also history. +In the old buildings, and their straggled frontage, is written the fact +that the city grew up before modernity set its mark on Canada in the +spacious and broad planning of townships. + +It was, for years, the garrison of Britain in the Americas. Since the +day when Cornwallis landed in 1749 with his group of settlers to secure +the key harbour on the Eastern seaboard of America until the Canadians +themselves took over its garrisoning, it was the military and naval +base of our forces. And in that capacity it has formed part of the +stage setting for every phase of the Western historical drama. + +It was the rendezvous of Wolfe before Quebec; it played a part in the +American War of Independence; it was a refuge for the United Empire +Loyalists; British ships used it as a base in the war of 1812; from its +anchorage the bold and crafty blockade runners slipped south in the +American Civil War, and its citizens grew fat through those adventurous +voyages. It has been the host of generations of great seamen from +Cook, who navigated Wolfe's fleet up the St. Lawrence, to Nelson. It +housed the survivors of the _Titanic_, and was the refuge of the +_Mauretania_ when the beginning of the Great War found her on the high +seas. It has had German submarines lying off the Narrows, so close +that it saw torpedoed crews return to its quays only an hour or so +after their ships had sailed. + + +III + +The Prince of Wales was himself a link in Halifax's history. Not +merely had his great-great grandfather, the Duke of Kent, commanded at +the Citadel, but when he landed he stepped over the inscribed stone +commemorating the landing on that spot of his grandfather on July 30th, +1860, and his father in 1901. + +His Royal Highness made his official landing in the Naval Dockyard on +the morning of Monday, August 18th. As he landed he was saluted by the +guns of three nations, for two French war sloops and the fine Italian +battleship _Cavour_, which had come to Halifax to be present during his +visit, joined in when the guns on shore and on the British warship +saluted. + +At the landing stage the reception was a quiet one, only notabilities +and guards of honour occupying the Navy Yard, but this quietness was +only the prelude to a day of sheer hustle. + +The crowd thickened steadily until he arrived in the heart of the city, +when it resolved itself into a jam of people that the narrow streets +failed to accommodate. This crowd, as in most towns of Canada, +believed in a "close up" view. Even when there is plenty of space the +onlookers move up to the centre of the street, allowing a passageway of +very little more than the breadth of a motor-car. Policemen of broad +and indulgent mind are present to keep the crowd in order, and when +policemen give out, war veterans in khaki or "civvies" and boy scouts +string the line, but all--policemen, veterans and scouts--so mixing +with the crowd that they become an indistinguishable part of it, so +that it is all crowd, cheery and friendly and most intimate in its +greeting. That was the air of the Halifax crowd. + +It always seemed to me that after the roaring greeting of the streets +the formal civic addresses of welcome were acts of supererogation. Yet +there is no doubt as to the dignity and colour of these functions. + +From the packed street the Prince passed into the great chamber of the +Provincial Parliament Building, where there seemed an air of soft, red +twilight compounded from the colour of the walls and the old pictures, +as well as from the robes and uniforms of the dignitaries and the gowns +of the many ladies. + +As ceremonies these welcomes were always short, though there was always +a number of presentations made, and the Prince was soon in the open +again. In the open there were war veterans to inspect, for in whatever +town he entered, large or small or remote, there was always a good +showing of Canadians who had served and won honours in Europe. + +Everywhere, in great cities or in a hamlet that was no more than a +scattering of homesteads round a prairie's siding, His Royal Highness +showed a particular keenness to meet these soldiers. They were his own +comrades in arms, as he always called them, and when he said that he +meant it, for he never willingly missed an opportunity of getting among +them and resuming the comradeship he had learned to value at the Front. + +In most towns, as in Halifax, his round of visits always included the +hospitals. His car took him through the bright sunshine of the Halifax +streets to these big and very efficient buildings, where he went +through the wards, chatting here and there to a cot or a convalescent +patient, and not forgetting the natty Canadian nurses or the doctors, +or even, as in one of the hospitals on this day, a patient lying in a +tent in the grounds outside the radius of the visit. + +In Halifax, also, there was another grim fact of the war which called +for special attention; that was the area devastated by the terrible +explosion of a ship in the docks in December, 1917. + +The party left the main streets to climb over the shoulder of the +peninsula to where the ruined area stood. It is to the north of the +town, on the side of the hill that curves largely to the very water's +edge. Down off the docks, and an immense distance away it seems from +the slope of ruin, a steamer loaded with high explosive collided with +another, caught fire and blew up, and on the entire bosom of that slope +can be seen what that gigantic detonation accomplished. + +The force of the explosion swept up the hill and the wooden houses went +down like things of card. In the trail of the explosion followed fire. +As the plank houses collapsed the fires within them ignited their frail +fabric and the entire hillside became a mass of flames. + +The Prince looked upon a hill set with scars in rows, the rock +foundations of houses that had been. Houses had, in the main, +disappeared, though here and there there was a crazy structure hanging +together by nails only. Across the arm of the harbour, on the pretty, +wooded Dartmouth side, he could see among the trees the sprawled +ugliness of the ruin the explosion had spread even there. + +On this bleak slope, where the grass was growing raggedly over the +ruins, the old inhabitants were showing little inclination to return. +Only a few neat houses were in course of erection where, before, there +had been thousands. It was as though the hillside had become evil, and +men feared it. + +Over the hill, and by roads which are best described as corrugated +(outside the main town roads of Canada, faith, hope and strong springs +are the best companions on a motor ride), he went to where a new +district is being built to house the victims of the disaster. + +Modern Canada is having its way in this new area, and broad streets, +grass lawns and pretty houses of wood, brick or concrete with +characteristic porches give these new homes the atmosphere of the +garden city. + +Perched as it is high on the hill, with the sparkling water of the +harbour close by, one can easily argue that good has come out of the +evil. But as one mutters the platitude the Canadian who drives the car +points to the long, tramless hill that connects the place with the +heart of the city, and tells you curtly: + +"That's called Hungry Hill." + +"Why Hungry Hill?" + +"It's so long that a man dies of hunger before he can get home from his +office." + + +IV + +The social side of the visit followed. + +The Prince went from the devastated area, and from his visit to some of +the people who were already housed in their new homes, through the +attractive residential streets of Halifax to the Waegwoltic Club. + +This club is altogether charming, and one of the most perfect places of +recreation I have seen. The club-house is a low, white rambling +building set among trees and the most perfect of lawns. It has really +beautiful suites of rooms, including a dancing hall and a dining-room. +From its broad verandah a steep grass slope drops down to the sea water +of one of the harbour arms. Many trees shade the slope and the idling +paths on it, and through the trees shines the water, which has an +astonishing blueness. + +At the water's edge is a bathing place, with board rafts and a high +skeleton diving platform. Here are boys and girls, looking as though +they were posing for Harrison Fisher, diving, or lolling in the vivid +sun on the plank rafts. + +With its bright sea, on which are canoes and scarlet sailed yachts, the +vivid green of its grass slopes under the superb trees, the Waegwoltic +Club is idyllic. It is the dream of the perfect holiday place come +true. + +Quite close to it is another club of individuality. It is a club +without club-house that has existed in that state for over sixty years. + +This is the Studley Quoit Club, which the Prince visited after he had +lunched at the Waegwoltic. Its premises are made up of a quoit field, +a fence and some trees, and the good sportsmen, its members, as they +showed His Royal Highness round, pointed solemnly to a fir to which a +telephone was clamped, and said: + +"That is our secretary's office." + +A table under a spruce was the dining-room, a book of cuttings +concerning the club on a desk was the library, while a bench against a +fence was the smoking lounge. It is a club of humour and pride, that +has held together with a genial and breezy continuity for generations. +And it has two privileges, of which it is justly proud: one is the +right to fly the British Navy ensign, gained through one of its first +members, an admiral; the other is that its rum punch yet survives in a +dry land. + +The Prince's visit to such a gathering of sportsmen was, naturally, an +affair of delightful informality. There was a certain swopping of +reminiscences of the King, who had also visited the club, and a certain +dry attitude of awe in the President, who, in speaking of the honours +the Prince had accepted just before leaving England, said that though +the members of the Studley Club felt competent to entertain His Royal +Highness as a Colonel of the Guards, as the Grand Master of Freemasons, +or even, at a pinch, as a King's Counsel, they felt while in their +earthly flesh some trepidation in offering hospitality to a Brother of +the Trinity--a celestial office which, the President understood, the +Prince had accepted prior to his journey. + +It was a happy little gathering, a relief, perhaps, from set functions, +and the Prince entered fully into the spirit of the occasion. He drank +the famous punch, and signed the Club roll, showing great amusement +when some one asked him if he were signing the pledge. + +On leaving this quaint club he came in for a cheery mobbing; men and +women crowded round him, flappers stormed his car in the hope of +shaking hands, while babies held up by elders won the handclasp without +a struggle. + +A crowded day was closed by a yet more crowded reception. It was an +open reception of the kind which I believe I am right in saying the +Prince himself was responsible for initiating on this trip. It was a +reception not of privileged people bearing invitations, but of the +whole city. + +The whole city came. + +Citizens of all ages and all occupations rolled up at Government House +to meet His Royal Highness. They filled the broad lawn in front of the +rather meek stone building, and overflowed into the street. They +waited wedged tightly together in hot and sunny weather until they +could take their turn in the endless file that was pushing into the +house where the Prince was waiting to shake hands with them. + +It was a gathering of every conceivable type of citizen. Silks and New +York frocks had no advantage over gingham and "ready to wear." Judge's +wife and general's took their turn with the girl clerk from the drug +store and their char lady's daughter. Workers still in their overalls, +boys in their shirtsleeves, soldiers and dockside workers and teamsters +all joined in the crowd that passed for hours before the Prince. + +At St. John he had shaken hands with some 2,000 people in such a +reception as this, at Halifax the figure could not have been less, and +it was probably more. He shook hands with all who came, and had a word +with most, even with those admirable but embarrassing old ladies (one +of whom at least appeared at each of these functions) who declared +that, having lived long enough to see the children of two British +rulers, they were anxious that he should lose no time in giving them +the chance of seeing the children of a third. + +It was an astonishing spectacle of affable democracy, and in effect it +was perhaps the happiest idea in the tour. The popularity of these +"open to all the town" meetings was astonishing. "The Everyday People" +whom the Prince had expressed so eager a desire to see and meet came to +these receptions in such overwhelming numbers that in large cities such +as Toronto, Ottawa and the like it was manifestly impossible for him to +meet even a fraction of the numbers. + +Yet this fact did not mar the receptions. The people of Canada +understood that he was making a real attempt at meeting as many of them +as was humanly possible, and even those who did not get close enough to +shake his hand were able to recognize that his desire was genuine as +his happiness in meeting them was unaffected and friendly. + +The public receptions were the result of an unstudied democratic +impulse, and the Canadian people were of all people those able to +appreciate that impulse most. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +CHARLOTTETOWN, PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND, AND HABITANT, CANADA + +The Prince of Wales and his cruiser escort left Halifax on the night of +Monday, August 18th, for Prince Edward Island, in the Gulf of St. +Lawrence, arriving at the capital of that province the next morning. + +Owing to the difficulty of getting across country, the Press +correspondents were unable to be present at this visit, and went direct +by train to Quebec to await the Prince's arrival. + +We were sorry not to visit this tiny, self-contained province of the +Dominion, for we had heard much concerning its charm and individuality +in character. It is a fertile little island, rich in agriculture, +sport and fishing. It is an island of bright red beaches and green +downs set in a clear sea, an Eden for bathers and holiday-makers. + +It is also one of the last rallying-points of the silver fox, which is +bred by the islanders for the fur market. This is a pocket industry +unique in Canada. The animals are tended with the care given to prize +fowls, each having its own kennel and wire run. Such domesticity +renders them neither hardy nor prolific, and the breeding is an +exacting pursuit. + +At the capital, Charlottetown, His Royal Highness had a real Canadian +welcome, tinged not a little with excitement. While he was on the +racecourse one of the stands took fire, and there was the beginning of +a panic, men and women starting to clamber wildly out of it and +dropping from its sides. The Prince, however, kept his place and +continued to watch the races. His presence on the stand quieted the +nervous and checked what might have been an ugly rush, while the fire +was very quickly got under. + +Off Charlottetown the Prince transferred again to the battle-cruiser +_Renown_, and finished the last section of his sea voyage up the great +St. Lawrence on her. + + +II + +Our disappointment at not seeing Prince Edward Island was mitigated by +the glimpses we had from our train of the country of New Brunswick and +the great area of the habitants that surrounds Quebec. + +On the morning of August 19th we woke to the broken country of New +Brunswick. The forests of spruce, pine, maple and poplar made walls on +the very fringe of the single-line railway track for miles, giving way +abruptly to broad and placid lakes, or to sharp narrow valleys, in +which shallow streams pressed forward over beds of white stone and +rock. At this time the streams were narrowed down to a slim channel, +but the broad area of white shingle--frequently scored by many +subsidiary thin channels of water--gave an idea of what these streams +were like in flood. + +There was a great deal of unfriendly black rock in the land pushing +itself boldly up in hills, or cropping out from the thin covering soil. +Here and there were the clearings of homesteaders, who lived sometimes +in pretty plank houses, sometimes in the low shacks of rough logs that +seemed to be put in the clearings--some of them not yet free of the +high tree stumps--in order to give the land its authentic local colour. + +On the streams that flow between the walls of trees there were always +logs. Logs sometimes jamming the whole fairway with an indescribable +jumble, logs collected into river bays with a neatness that made the +surface of the water appear one great raft, and by these "log booms" +there was, usually, the piles of squared timber, and the collection of +rough wooden houses that formed the mill. + +The mills have the air of being pit-head workings dealing with a +cleaner material than coal. About them are lengthy conveyors, built up +on high trestle timbers, that carry the logs from the water to the mill +and from the mill to the dumps, that one instantly compares to the +conveyors and winding gear of a coal mine. Beneath the conveyors are +great ragged mounds of short logs cut into sections for the paper pulp +trade, and jumbled heaps of shorter sections that are to serve as the +winter firing for whole districts; these have the contours of coal +dumps, while fed from chutes are hillocks of golden sawdust as big and +as conspicuous as the ash and slag mounds of the mining areas. + +In the mill yards are stacks and stacks of house planks that the great +saws have sliced up with an uncanny ease and speed, stacks of square +shingles for roofs and miles of squared beams. + +We passed not a few but a multitude of these "booms" and mills, and our +minds began to grasp the vastness of this natural and national +industry. And yet it is not in the main a whole-time industry. For a +large section of its workers it is a side line, an occupation for days +that would otherwise be idle. It is the winter work of farmers, who, +forced to cease their own labours owing to the deep snow and the +frosts, turn to lumbering to keep them busy until the thaw sets in. + +That fact helps the mind to realize the potentialities of Canada. Here +is a business as big as coal mining that is largely the fruit of work +in days when there is little else to do. + +We saw this industry at a time when the streams were congested and the +mills inactive. It was the summer season, but, more than that, the +lack of transport, owing to the sinking, or the surrender by Canada for +war purposes, of so much ship space, was having its effect on the +lumber trade. The market, even as far as Britain, was in urgent need +of timber, and the timber was ready for the market; but the exigencies, +or, as some Canadians were inclined to argue, the muddle of shipping +conditions, were holding up this, as well as many other of the Dominion +industries. + +In this sporting country there are many likely looking streams for +fishermen, as there are likely looking forests for game. At New Castle +we touched the Miramichi, which has the reputation of being the finest +salmon-fishing river in New Brunswick; the Nepisiquit, the mouth of +which we skirted at Bathurst, is also a great centre for fishermen, +and, indeed, the whole of this country about the shores of the great +Baie de Chaleur--that immense thrust made by the Gulf of St. Lawrence +between the provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec--is a paradise for +holiday-makers and sportsmen, who, besides their fishing, get excellent +shooting at brant, geese, duck, and all kinds of game. + +The Canadian of the cities has his country cottage in this splendidly +beautiful area, which he comes to for his recreation, and at other +times leaves in charge of a local farmer, who fills his wood shed with +fire logs from the forest in the summer, and his ice house with ice +from the rivers in winter. + + +III + +In this district, and long before we reached the Quebec border, we came +to the country of the habitant farmer. As we stopped at sections to +water or change engines, we saw that this was a land where man must be +master of two tongues if he is to make himself understood. It is a +land where we read on a shop window the legend: "J. Art Levesque. +Barbier. Agent du Lowdnes Co. Habits sur commande." Here the +habitant does business at La Banque Nationale, and takes his pleasure +at the Exposition Provinciale, where his skill can win him Prix +Populaires. + +On the stations we talked with men in British khaki trousers who told +us in a language in which Canadian French and camp English was +strangely mingled of the service they had seen on the British front. + +It is the district where the clever and painstaking French +agriculturist gets every grain out of the soil, a district where we +could see the spire of a parish church every six miles, the land of a +people, sturdy, devout, tenacious and law-abiding, the "true 'Canayen' +themselves," + + "And in their veins the same red stream; + The conquering blood of Normandie + Flowed strong, and gave America + Coureurs de bois and voyageurs + Whose trail extends from sea to sea!" + +as William Henry Drummond, a true poet who drew from them inspiration +for his delightful dialect verse, describes them. + +The railway passes for hundreds of miles between habitant farms. The +land is beautifully cared for, every fragment of rock, from a boulder +to a pebble, having been collected from the soil through generations, +and piled in long, thin caches in the centres of the fields. The +effect of passing for hundreds of miles between these precisely aligned +cairns is strange; one cannot get away from the feeling that the rocky +mounds are there for some barbaric tribal reason, and that presently +one will see a war dance or a sacrifice taking place about one of them. + +The farms themselves have a strange appearance. They have an +abnormally narrow frontage. They are railed in strips of not much +greater breadth than a London back garden, though they extend away from +the railway to a depth of a mile and more. At first this grouping of +the land appears accidental, but the endlessness of the strange design +soon convinces that there is a purpose underlying it. + +Two explanations are offered. One is that the land has been parcelled +out in this way, and not on a broad square acreage, because in the old +pioneer days it afforded the best means of grouping the homesteads +together for defence against the Red Man. The other is that it is the +result of the French-Canadian law which enforces the division of an +estate among children in exact proportion, and thus the original big +farms have been split up into equal strips among the descendants of the +original owner. Either of these explanations, or the combination of +them, can be accepted. + +At Campbellton, a pretty, toy-like town, close up to La Baie de +Chaleur, there is gathered a remnant of the Micmac Indians, whom the +first settlers feared. They have a settlement of their own on a peak +of the Baie, and one of their chiefs had travelled to Halifax to be +among those who welcomed the son of the Great White Chief. + +Campbellton let us into the lovely valley of the Matapedia, an +enchanted spot where the river lolls on a broad bed through a grand +country of grim hills and forests. Now and then, indeed, its channel +is pinched into gorges where its water shines pallidly and angrily amid +the crowded shadows of rock and tree; usually it is the nursemaid of +rich, flat valleys and the friend of the little frame-house hamlets +that are linked across its waters by a spidery bridge of wooden +trestles. At times beneath the hills it is swift and combed by a +thousand stony fingers, and at other times it is an idler in Arcadie, a +dilettante stream that wanders in half a dozen feckless channels over a +desert of white stones, with here and there the green humpback of an +island inviting the camper. + +Beyond Matapedia we got the thrill of the run, an abrupt glimpse of the +St. Lawrence, steel-blue and apparently infinite, its thirty miles of +breadth yielding not a glimpse of the farther side. A short distance +on, beyond Mont Joli, a place that might have come out of a sample box +of French villages, the railway keeps the immense river company for the +rest of the journey. + +The valley broadened out into an immense flat plain with but few traces +of the wilder hills of New Brunswick. About the line is a belt of +prosperity forty miles deep, all of it worked by the habitant owners of +the narrow farms, all of it so rich that in the whole area from the +border to the city of Quebec there is not a poor farmer. + +Before reaching Riviere du Loup we saw the high peaks of the Laurentine +Mountains on the far side of the St. Lawrence, and on our side of the +stream passed a grim little islet called L'Islet au Massacre, where a +party of Micmac Indians, fleeing from the Iroquois in the old days, +were caught as they hid in a deep cave, and killed by a great fire that +their enemies built at the mouth. + +We saw a few seals on the rocks of the river, but not a hint of the +numbers that gave Riviere du Loup its name. It is a cameo of a town +with falls sliding down-hill over a chute of jumbled rocks into a +logging pool beneath. + +Riviere du Loup is in the last lap of the journey to Quebec. There are +a score or so of little hamlets, the names of which--St. Alexandre, St. +Andre, St. Pascal, St. Pacome, St. Valier and so on--sound like a +reading from the Litany of the Saints. And, passing the last of them, +we saw across the narrowed St. Lawrence a trail of lace against the +darkness of the Laurentine hills, a mass of filigree that moved and +writhed, so that we understood when some one said: + +"The Montmorency Falls." + +A moment later we saw across the stream the city of Quebec, a hanging +town of fairyland, with pinnacle and spire, bastion and citadel +delicate against the quick sky. A city of romance and charm, to which +we hurried by the very humdrum route of the steam ferry that crosses to +it from the Levis side. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +QUEBEC + +I + +Quebec is not merely historic: it suggests history. It has the grand +manner. One feels in one's bones that it is a city of a splendid past. +The first sight of Quebec piled up on its opposite bluff where the +waters of the St. Charles swell the mighty volume of the St. Lawrence +convinces one that this grave city is the cradle of civilization in the +West, the overlord of the river road to the sea and the heart of +history and romance for Canada. + +One does not require prompting to recognize that history has to go back +centuries to reach the day when Cartier first landed here; or that +Champlain figured bravely in its story in a brave and romantic era of +the world, and that it was he who saw its importance as a commanding +point of the great waterway that struck deep into the heart of the rich +dominion--though he did think that dominion was a fragment of the +fabulous Indies with a door into the rich realms of China. + +Instinct seems to tell one that on the lifting plain behind the bulldog +Citadel, Montcalm lost and died, and Wolfe died and won. + +One knows, too, that from this city thick with spires, streams of +Christianity and civilization flowed west and north and south to +quicken the whole barbaric continent; that it was the nucleus that +concentrated all the energy of the vast New World. + + +II + +From the decks of the three war vessels, the _Renown_ and the escorting +cruisers, Quebec must have seemed like a city of a dream hanging +against the quiet sky of a glorious evening. + +The piled-up mass of the city on its abrupt cape is romantic, and +suggests the drama of a Rhine castle with a grace and a significance +that is French. On that evening of August 21st, when the strings and +blobs of colour from a multitude of flags picked out the clustering of +houses that climbed Cape Diamond to the grey walls of the Citadel, the +city from the St. Lawrence had an appearance glowing and fantastic. + +From Quebec the three fine ships steaming in line up the blue waters of +the river were a sight dramatic and beautiful, though from the heights +and against the wall of cliffs on the Levis side, a mile across stream, +the cruisers were strangely dwarfed, and even _Renown_ appeared a small +but desirable toy. + +In keeping with the general atmosphere of the town and toy-like ships, +Quebec herself put a touch of the fantastic into the charm of her +greeting. + +As the cruisers dressed ship, and joined with the guns of the Citadel +in the salute, there soared from the city itself scores of maroons. +From the flash and smoke of their bursts there fluttered down many +coloured things. Caught by the wind, these things opened out into +parachutes, from which were suspended large silk flags. Soon the sky +was flecked with the bright, tricoloured bubbles of parachutes, bearing +Jacks and Navy Ensigns, Tricolours and Royal Standards down the wind. + +The official landing at King's Wharf was full of characteristic colour +also. It was in a wide, open space right under the grey rock upon +which the Citadel is reared. In this square, tapestried with flags, +and in a little canvas pavilion of bright red and white, the Prince met +the leading sons of Quebec, the French-Canadian and the +English-Canadian; the Bishop of the English cathedral in gaiters and +apron, the Bishops of the Catholics in corded hats, scarlet gloves and +long cassocks. Sailors and soldiers, women in bright and smart gowns +gave the reception a glow and vivacity that had a quality true to +Quebec. + +From this short ceremony the Prince drove through the quaint streets to +the Citadel. In the lower town under the rock his way led through a +quarter that might well stage a Stanley Weyman romance. It is a +quarter where, between high-shouldered, straight-faced houses, run the +narrowest of streets, some of them, like Sous le Cap, so cramped that +it is merely practical to use windows as the supports for +clothes-lines, and to hang the alleys with banners of drying washing. + +In these cramped streets named with the names of saints, are sudden +little squares, streets that are mere staircases up to the cliff-top, +and others that deserve the name of one of them, The Mountain. In +these narrow canyons, through which the single-decked electric trams +thunder like mammoths who have lost their way, are most of the +commercial houses and nearly all the mud of the city. + +At the end of this olden quarter, merging from the very air of +antiquity in the streets, Quebec, with a characteristic Canadian +gesture, adopts modernity. That is the vivid thing about the city. It +is not merely historical: it is up-to-date. It is not merely the past, +but it is the future also. At the end of the old, cramped streets +stands Quebec's future--its docks. + +These great dockyards at the very toe of the cape are the latest things +of their kind. They have been built to take the traffic of tomorrow as +well as today. Greater ships than those yet built can lie in safe +water alongside the huge new concrete quays. Great ships can go into +dry dock here, or across the water in the shipyards of Levis. They +even build or put together ships of large tonnage, and while we were +there, there were ships in half sections; by themselves too big to be +floated down from the lakes through the locks, they had come down from +the building slips in floatable halves to be riveted together in Quebec. + +A web of railways serves these great harbour basins, and the latest +mechanical loading gear can whip cargo out of ships or into them at +record speed and with infinite ease. Huge elevators--one concrete +monster that had been reared in a Canadian hustle of seven days--can +stream grain by the million tons into holds, while troops, passengers +and the whole mechanics of human transport can be handled with the +greatest facility. + +The Prince went up the steep cobbled street of The Mountain under the +grey, solid old masonry of the Battery that hangs over the town in +front of Laval University, that with the Archbishop's palace looks like +a piece of old France translated bodily to Canada. + +So he came to the big, green Place des Armes, not now a place of arms, +and at that particular moment not green, but as thick as a gigantic +flower-bed with the pretty dresses of pretty women--and there is all +the French charm in the beauty of the women of Quebec--and with the +khaki and commonplace of soldiers and civilians. A mighty and +enthusiastic crowd that did not allow its French accent to hinder the +shout of welcome it had caught up from the throng that lined the slopes +of The Mountain. + +From this point the route twisted to the right along the Grande Allée, +going first between tall and upright houses, jalousied and severe +faced, to where a strip of side road swung it left again, and up hill +to the Citadel, where His Royal Highness lived during his stay. + +From the Place des Armes the profile of the town pushes back along the +heights to the peak on which is the Citadel, a squat and massive +structure that seems to have grown rather than to have been built from +the living rock upon which it is based. + +Between the Citadel and the Place des Armes there is a long, grey stone +wall above the green glacis of the cliff. It has the look of a +military wall, and it is not a military wall. It supports merely a +superb promenade, Dufferin Terrace, a great plank walk poised sheer +above the river, the like of which would be hard to equal anywhere. On +this the homely people of Quebec take the air in a manner more +sumptuous than many of the most aristocratic resorts in Europe. + +At the eastern end of this terrace, and forming the wing of the Place +des Armes, is the medieval structure of the Château Frontenac, a +building not really more antique than the area of hotels _de luxe_, of +which it is an extremely fine example, but so planned by its designers +as to fit delightfully into the antique texture of the town. + +Below and shelving away eastward again is the congested old town, +through which the Prince had come, and behind Citadel and promenade, +and stretching over the plateau of the cape, is a town of broad and +comely streets, many trees and great parks as modern as anything in +Canada. + +That night the big Dufferin Terrace was thronged by people out to see +the firework display from the Citadel, and to watch the illuminations +of the city and of the ships down on the calm surface of the water. It +was rather an unexpected crowd. There were the sexes by the thousands +packed together on that big esplanade, listening to the band, looking +at the fireworks and lights, the whole town was there in a holiday +mood, and there was not the slightest hint of horseplay or disorder. + +The crowd enjoyed itself calmly and gracefully; there were none of +those syncopated sounds or movements which in an English crowd show +that youth is being served with pleasure. The quiet enjoyment of this +good-tempered and vivacious throng is the marked attitude of such +Canadian gatherings. I saw in other towns big crowds gathered at the +dances held in the street to celebrate the Prince's visit. Although +thousands of people of all grades and tempers came together to dance or +to watch the dancing, there was never the slightest sign of rowdyism or +disorder. + +On this and the next two nights Quebec added to its beauty. All the +public buildings were outlined in electric light, so that it looked +more than ever a fairy city hanging in the air. The cruisers in the +stream were outlined, deck and spar and stack, in light, and _Renown_ +had poised between her masts a bright set of the Prince of Wales's +feathers, the lights of the whole group of ships being mirrored in the +river. On Friday _Renown_ gave a display of fireworks and +searchlights, the beauty of which was doubled by the reflections in the +water. + + +III + +Friday and Saturday (August 22 and 23) were strenuous days for the +Prince. He visited every notable spot in the brilliant and curious +town where one spoke first in French, and English only as an +afterthought; where even the blind beggar appeals to the charitable in +two languages; where the citizens ride in up-to-date motor-cars and the +visitors in the high-slung, swing-shaped horse calache; where the +traffic takes the French side of the road; where the shovel hats and +cassocks of priests are as commonplace as everyday; where the vivacity +of France is fused into the homely good-fellowship of the Colonial in a +manner quite irresistible. + +He began Friday in a wonderful crimson room in the Provincial +Parliament building, where he received addresses in French, and +answered them in the same tongue. + +It was a remarkable room, this glowing chamber set in the handsome +Parliament house that looks down over a sweep of grass, the hipped +roofs and the pinnacles of the town to the St. Lawrence. It was a +great room with a floor of crimson and walls of crimson and white. +Over the mellow oak that made a backing to the Prince's daïs was a +striking picture of Champlain looking out from the deck of his tiny +sloop _The Gift of God_ to the shore upon which Quebec was to rise. + +The people in that chamber were not less colourful than the room +itself. Bright dresses, the antique robes of Les Membres du Conseil +Exécutif, the violet and red of clerics, with the blue, red and khaki +of fighting men were on the floor and in the mellow oak gallery. + +Two addresses were read to His Royal Highness, twice, first in French +and then in English, and each address in each language was prefaced by +his list of titles--a long list, sonorous enough in French, but with an +air of thirdly and lastly when oft repeated. One could imagine his +relief when the fourth Earl of Carrick had been negotiated, and he was +steering safely for the Lord of the Isles. A strain on any man, +especially when one of the readers' pince-nez began to contract some of +the deep feeling of its master, and to slide off at every comma, to be +thrust back with his ever-deepening emotion. + +The Prince answered in one language, and that French, and the surprise +and delight of his hearers was profound. They felt that he had paid +them the most graceful of compliments, and his fluency as well as his +happiness of expression filled them with enthusiasm. He showed, too, +that he recognized what French Canada had done in the war by his +reference to the Vingtdeuxième Battalion, whose "conduite intrépide" he +had witnessed in France. It was a touch of knowledge that was +certainly well chosen, for the province of Quebec, which sent forty +thousand men by direct enlistment to the war, has, thanks to the +obscurantism of politics, received rather less than its due. + +From the atmosphere of governance the Prince passed to the atmosphere +of the seminary, driving down the broad Grand Allée to the University +of Laval, called after the first Bishop of Quebec and Canada. It has +been since its foundation not merely the fountain head of Christianity +on the American continent, but the armoury of science, in which all the +arts of forestry, agriculture, medicine and the like were put at the +service of the settler in his fight against the primitive wilds. + +In the bleached and severe corridors of this great building the Prince +examined many historic pictures of Canada's past, including a set of +photographs of his own father's visit to the city and university. He +also went from Laval to the Archbishop's Palace, where the Cardinal, a +humorous, wise, virile old prelate in scarlet, showed him pictures of +Queen Victoria and others of his ancestors, and stood by his side in +the Grand Saloon while he held a reception of many clerics, professors +and visitors. + +The afternoon was given to the battlefield, where he unfurled a Union +Jack to inaugurate the beautiful park that extends over the whole area. + +The beauty of this park is a very real thing. It hangs over the St. +Lawrence with a sumptuous air of spaciousness. Leaning over the +granite balustrade, one can look down on the tiny Wolfe's cove, where +three thousand British crept up in the blackness of the night to +disconcert the French commander. + +It is not a very imposing slope, and a modern army might take it in its +stride. Across the formal grass of the park itself the learned trace +the lines of England and of France. + +At the town end there is a slight hill above a dip. The British were +in the dip, France was on the hill. That hill lost the battle. It +placed the French between the British and the guns of the Citadel in +days when there was neither aerial observation nor indirect fire. + +A wind, as on the day of the battle, was blowing while the Prince was +on the field. The British fired one volley, and the smoke from their +black powder was blown into the faces of the French. Bewildered by the +dense cloud, uncertain of what was in the heart of it, the French broke +and fled. In twenty minutes Canada was won. + +There is a plain monument to mark the exact spot where Wolfe fell; the +Prince placed a wreath upon it, as he had placed wreaths on the +monuments of Champlain and Montcalm earlier, and as he did later at the +monument Aux Braves on the field of Foye, which commemorates the dead +of both races who fell in the battle when Murray, a year after Wolfe's +victory, endeavoured to loosen the grip the French besiegers were +tightening round Quebec, and was defeated, though he held the city. + +On the Plains of Abraham--it has no romantic significance, Abraham was +merely a farmer who owned the land at the time of the battle--French +and English were again gathered in force, but in a different manner. + +It was a bright and friendly gathering of Canadians, who no longer +permitted a difference of tongue to interfere with their amity. It was +also a gathering of men and women and children (Quebec is the province +of the quiverful), notably vigorous, well-dressed and prosperous. + +The thing to remark here, as well as in all the gatherings of the +people of this city, was the absence of dinginess and dowdiness that +goes with poverty. In the great mass of stone houses, pretty brick and +wood villas, and apartment "houses," the upper flats of which are +reached by curving iron Jacob stairways, that make habitable Quebec +there are patches of cramped wooden houses, each built under the +architectural stimulus of the packing-case, though rococo little +porches and scalloped roofs add a wedding-cake charm to the poverty of +size and design. But though there are these small but not mean houses, +there appear to be no poor people. + +All those on the Plains had an independent and self-supporting air (as, +indeed, every person has in Canada), and they gave the Prince a +reception of a hearty and affable kind, as he declared this fine park +the property of the city, and made the citizens free of its historic +acreage for all time. + +From the Plains His Royal Highness went by car to the huge new railway +bridge that spans the St. Lawrence a few miles above the town. It was +a long ride through comely lanes, by quiet farmsteads and small +habitant villages. At all places where there was a nucleus of human +life, men and women, but particularly the children, came out to their +fences with flags to shout and wave a greeting. + +At the bridge station were two open cars, and on to the raised platform +of one of these the Prince mounted, while "movie" men stormed the other +car, and a number of ordinary human beings joined them. This special +train was then passed slowly under the giant steel girders and over the +central span, which is longer than any span the Forth Bridge can boast. +As the train travelled forward the Prince showed his eagerness for +technical detail, and kept the engineers by his side busy with a stream +of questions. + +The bridge is not only a superb example of the art of the engineer, +perhaps the greatest example the twentieth century can yet show, but it +is a monument to the courage and tenacity of man. Twice the great +central span was floated up-stream from the building yards, only to +collapse and sink into the St. Lawrence at the moment it was being +lifted into place. Though these failures caused loss of life, the +designers persisted, and the third attempt brought success. + +There was, one supposes, a ceremonial idea connected with this +function. His Royal Highness certainly unveiled two tablets at either +end of the bridge by jerking cords that released the covering Union +Jack. But this ritual was second to the ceremonial of the "movies." + +The "movies" went over the top in a grand attack. They put down a box +barrage close up against the Prince's platform, and at a distance of +two feet, not an inflection of his face, nor a movement of his head, +escaped the unwinking and merciless eye of the camera. + +The "movie" men declare that the Prince is the best "fil-lm" actor +living, since he is absolutely unstudied in manner; but it would have +taken a Douglas Fairbanks of a super-breed to remain unembarrassed in +the face of that cold line of lenses thrust close up to his medal +ribbons. And in the film he shows his feelings in characteristic +movements of lips and hands. + +The men who did not take movies, the men with plain cameras, the +"still" men, were also active. Not to be outdone by their comrades +with the machine-gun action, they sprang from the car at intervals, ran +along the footway, and snapped the party as the train drew level with +them. + +It was a field day for cameras, but enthusiastic people also counted. +Men and women had clambered up the hard, stratified rock of the +cuttings that carry the line to the bridge, and they were also standing +under the bridge on the slopes, and on the flats by the river. They +were cheering, and--yes, they were busy with their cameras +also--cameras cannot be evaded in Canada, even in the wilds. + +One had the impression, from the difficult perches on which people were +to be found, that wherever the Prince would go in Canada, to whatever +lonely or difficult spot his travels would lead him, he would always +find a Canadian man, and possibly a Canadian woman standing waiting or +clinging to precarious holds, glad to be there, so long as he (or she) +had breath to cheer and a free hand to wave a flag. And this +impression was confirmed by the story of the next months. + + +IV + +Saturday, August 23, was supposed to give His Royal Highness the +half-day holiday which is the due of any worker. That half day was +peculiarly Canadian. + +The business of the morning was one of singular charm. The Prince +visited the Convent of the Ursulines, to which in the old days wounded +Montcalm was taken, and in whose quiet chapel his body lies. + +The nuns are cloistered and do not open their doors to visitors, but on +this day they welcomed the Prince with an eagerness that was altogether +delightful. They showed him through their serene yet bare reception +rooms, and with pride placed before him the skull of Montcalm, which +they keep in their recreation room, together with a host of historic +documents dealing with the struggles of those distant days. + +The party was taken through the nuns' chapel, and sent on with smiles +to the public chapel to look on Montcalm's tomb, originally a hole in +the chapel fabric torn by British shells. The nuns could not go into +that chapel. "We are cloistered," they told us. + +These child-like nuns, with their serene and smiling faces, were +overjoyed to receive His Royal Highness and anxious to convey to him +their good will. + +"We cannot go to England--we cannot leave our house--but our hearts are +always with you, and there are none more loyal than us, and none more +earnest in teaching loyalty to all the girls who come to us to study. +Yes, we teach it in French, but what does that matter? We can express +the Canadian spirit just as well in that language." So said a very +vivid and practical little nun to me, and she was anxious that England +should realize how dear they felt the bond. + +The Prince's afternoon "off" was spent out of Quebec at the beautiful +village of St. Anne's Beaupré, where, set in lovely surroundings, there +is a miraculous shrine to St. Anne. The Prince visited the beautiful +basilica, and saw the forest of sticks and crutches left behind as +tokens of their cure by generations of sufferers. + +News of his visit had got abroad, and when he left the shrine in +company of the clergy, he was surrounded by a big crowd who restricted +all movement by their cheerful importunity. A local photographer, +rising to the occasion, refused to let His Royal Highness escape until +he had taken an historic snap. Not merely a snap of the Prince and the +priests with him, but of as many of the citizens of Beaupré as he could +get into a wide angle lense. This was a tremendous occasion, and he +yelled at the top of his voice to the people to: + +"Come and be photographed with the Prince. Come and be taken with your +future King." + +Taken with their future King, the people of Beaupré were entirely +disinclined to let him go. They crowded round him so that it was only +force that enabled his entourage to clear a tactful way to his car. +Even in the car the driver found himself faced with all the +opportunities of the chauffeur of the Juggernaut with none of his +convictions. The car was hemmed in by the crowd, and the crowd would +not give way. + +It is possible that at this jolly crisis somebody mentioned the +Prince's need for tea, and at the mention of this solemn and +inexplicable British rite the crowd gave way, and the car got free. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE MOBILE HOTEL DE LUXE: THE ROYAL TRAIN + +I + +On Sunday, August 24th, His Royal Highness came under the sway of that +benevolent despot in the Kingdom of Efficiency, the Canadian Pacific +Railway. + +He motored out along a road that Quebec is proud of, because it has a +reputable surface for automobiles in a world of natural earth tracks, +through delightful country to a small station which [had?] a Gallic +air, Three Rivers. Here he boarded the Royal Train. + +It was a remarkable train. Not merely did its construction, length, +tonnage and ultimate mileage set up new records, but in it the +idealist's dream of perfection in travelling came true. + +It might be truer to say the Royal Party did not take the train, it +took them. As each member of the party mounted into his compartment, +or Pullman car, he at once ceased to concern himself with his own +well-being. To think of oneself was unnecessary. The C.P.R. had not +only arranged to do the thinking, but had also arranged to do it better. + +The external facts concerning the train were but a part of its wonder. +And the minor part. It was the largest train of its kind to accomplish +so great a single run--it weighed over a thousand tons, and travelled +nearly ten thousand miles. It was a fifth of a mile in length. Its +ten splendid cars were all steel. Some of them were ordinary sleepers, +some were compartment and drawing-room cars. Those for the Prince and +his Staff were sumptuous private cars with state-rooms, dining-rooms, +kitchens, bathrooms, and cosy observation rooms and platforms, +beautifully fitted and appointed. + +The train was a modern hotel strayed accidentally on to wheels. It had +its telephone system; its own electricity; its own individually +controlled central heat. It had a laundry service for its passengers, +and its valets always on the spot to renew the crease of youth in all +trousers. It had its own newspaper, or, rather, bulletin, by which all +on board learnt the news of the external world twice a day, no matter +in what wild spot the train happened to be. It had its dark-room for +photographers, its dispensary for the doctor and its untiring telegraph +expert to handle all wired messages, including the correspondents' +cables. It had its dining-rooms and kitchens and its staff of +first-class chefs, who worked miracles of cuisine in the small space of +their kitchen, giving over a hundred people three meals a day that no +hotel in London could exceed in style, and no hotel in England could +hope to equal in abundance. It carried baggage, and transferred it to +Government Houses or hotels, and transferred it back to its cars and +baggage vans in a manner so perfect that one came to look upon the +matter almost as a process of nature, and not as a breathless +phenomenon. + +It was the train _de luxe_, but it was really more than that. It was a +train handled by experts from Mr. A. B. Calder, who represented the +President of the Company, down to the cleaning boy, who swept up the +cars, and they were experts of a curious quality of their own. + +Whatever the Canadian Pacific Railway is (and it has its critics), +there can be no doubt that, as an organization, it captures the +loyalty, as it calls forth all the keenness and ability of its +servants. It is something that quickens their imagination and +stimulates their enthusiasm. There was something warm and invigorating +about the way each man set up within himself a counsel of +perfection--which he intended to exceed. Waiters, negro car porters, +brakemen, secretaries--every man on that staff of sixty odd determined +that _his_ department was going to be a living example, not of what he +could do, but of what the C.P.R. could do. + +The _esprit de corps_ was remarkable. Mr. Calder told us at the end of +the trip that as far as the staff working of the train was concerned he +need not have been in control. He had not issued a single order, nor a +single reprimand in the three months. The men knew their work +perfectly; they did it perfectly. + +When one thinks of a great organization animated from the lowest worker +to the President by so lively and extraordinarily human a spirit of +loyalty that each worker finds delight in improving on instructions, +one must admit that it has the elements of greatness in it. + +My own impression after seeing it working and the work it has done, +after seeing the difficulties it has conquered, the districts it has +opened up, the towns it has brought into being, is that, as an +organization, the Canadian Pacific Railway is great, not merely as a +trading concern, but as an Empire-building factor. Its vision has been +big beyond its own needs, and the Dominion today owes not a little to +the great men of the C.P.R., who were big-minded enough to plan, not +only for themselves, but also for all Canada. + +And the big men are still alive. In Quebec we had the good fortune to +meet Lord Shaughnessy, whose acute mind was the very soul of the C.P.R. +until he retired from the Presidency a short time ago, and Mr. Edward +W. Beatty, who has succeeded him. + +Lord Shaughnessy may be a retired lion, but he is by no means a dead +one. A quiet man of powerful silences, whose eyes can be ruthless, and +his lips wise. A man who appears disembodied on first introduction, +for one overlooks the rest of him under the domination of his head and +eyes. + +The best description of Mr. Beatty lies in the first question one wants +to ask him, which is, "Are you any relation to the Admiral?" + +The likeness is so remarkable that one is sure it cannot be accidental. +It is accidental, and therefore more remarkable. It is the Admiral's +face down to the least detail of feature, though it is a trifle +younger. There is the same neat, jaunty air--there is even the same +cock of the hat over the same eye. There is the same sense of compact +power concealed by the same spirit of whimsical dare-devilry. There is +the same capacity, the same nattiness, the same humanness. There is +the same sense of abnormality that a man looking so young should +command an organization so enormous, and the same recognition that he +is just the man to do it. + +Both these men are impressive. They are big men, but then so are all +the men who have control in the C.P.R. They are more than that, they +can inspire other men with their own big spirit. We met many heads of +departments in the C.P.R., and we felt that in all was the same +quality. Mr. Calder, as he began, "A. B." as he soon became, was the +one we came in contact with most, and he was typical of his service. + +"A. B." was not merely our good angel, but our good friend from the +first. Not merely did he smooth the way for us, but he made it the +jolliest and most cheery way in the world. He is a bundle of strange +qualities, all good. He is Puck, with the brain of an administrator. +The king of story tellers, with an unfaltering instinct for +organization. A poet, and a mimic and a born comedian, plus a will +that is never flurried, a diplomacy that never rasps, and a capacity +for the routine of railway work that is--C.P.R. A man of big heart, +big humanness, and big ability, whom we all loved and valued from the +first meeting. + +And, over all, he is a C.P.R. man, the type of man that organization +finds service for, and is best served by them; an example that did most +to impress us with a sense of the organization's greatness. + + +II + +If I have written much concerning the C.P.R., it is because I feel +that, under the personality of His Royal Highness himself, the success +of the tour owes much to the care and efficiency that organization +exerted throughout its course, and also because for three months the +C.P.R. train was our home and the backbone of everything we did. If +you like, that is the chief tribute to the organization. We spent +three months confined more or less to a single carriage; we travelled +over all kinds of line and country, and under all manner of conditions; +and after those three long months we left the train still impressed by +the C.P.R., still warm in our friendship for it--perhaps, indeed, +warmer in our regard. + +There are not many railways that could stand that continuous test. + +Of the ten cars in the train, the Prince of Wales occupied the last, +"Killarney," a beautiful car, eighty-two feet long, its interior +finished in satinwood, and beautifully lighted by the indirect system. +The Prince had his bedroom, with an ordinary bed, dining-room and +bathroom. There was a kitchen and pantry for his special chef. The +observation compartment was a drawing-room with settees, and arm-chairs +and a gramophone, while in addition to the broad windows there was a +large, brass-railed platform at the rear, upon which he could sit and +watch the scenery (search-lights helped him at night), and from which +he held a multitude of impromptu receptions. + +"Cromarty," another beautiful car, was occupied by the personal Staff; +"Empire," "Chinook" and "Chester" by personal and C.P.R. staff. The +next car, "Canada," was the beautiful dining car; "Carnarvon," the +next, a sleeping car, was occupied by the correspondents and +photographers; "_Renown_" belonged to the particularly efficient C.P.R. +police, who went everywhere with the train, and patrolled the track if +it stopped at night. In front of "Renown" were two baggage cars with +the 225 pieces of baggage the retinue carried. + +At Three Rivers a very cheery crowd wished His Royal Highness _bon +voyage_. The whole town turned out, and over-ran the pretty grass plot +that is a feature in every Canadian station, in order to see the Prince. + +We ran steadily down the St. Lawrence through pretty country towards +Toronto. All the stations we passed were crowded, and though the train +invariably went through at a good pace that did not seem to matter to +the people, though they had come a long distance in order to catch just +this fleeting glimpse of the train that carried him. + +Sometimes the train stopped for water, or to change engines at the end +of the section of 133 miles. The people then gathered about the rear +of the train, and the Prince had an opportunity of chatting with them +and shaking hands with many. + +At some halts he left the train to stroll on the platform, and on these +occasions he invariably talked with the crowd, and gave "candles" to +the children. There was no difficulty at all in approaching him. At +one tiny place, Outremont, one woman came to him, and said that she +felt she already knew him, because her husband had met him in France. +That fact immediately moved the Prince to sympathy. Not only did he +spend some minutes talking with her, but he made a point of referring +to the incident in his speech at Toronto the next day, to emphasize the +feeling he was experiencing of having come to a land that was almost +his own, thanks to his comradeship with Canadians overseas. + +Not only during the day was the whole route of the train marked by +crowds at stations, and individual groups in the countryside, but even +during the night these crowds and groups were there. + +As we swept along there came through the windows of our sleeping-car +the ghosts of cheers, as a crowd on a station or a gathering at a +crossing saluted the train. The cheer was gone in the distance as soon +as it came, but to hear these cheers through the night was to be +impressed by the generosity and loyalty of these people. They had +stayed up late, they had even travelled far to give one cheer only. +But they had thought it worth while. Montreal, which we passed through +in the dark, woke us with a hearty salute that ran throughout the +length of our passing through that great city, and so it went on +through the night and into the morning, when we woke to find ourselves +slipping along the shores of Lake Ontario and into the outskirts of +Toronto. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE CITY OF CROWDS. TORONTO: ONTARIO + +I + +Toronto is a city of many names. You can call it "The Boston of +Canada," because of its aspiration to literature, the theatre and the +arts. You can call it "The Second City of Canada," because the fact is +incontestable. You can call it "The Queen City," because others do, +though, like the writer, you are unable to find the reason why you +should. You can say of it, as the Westerners do, "Oh--_Toronto_!" with +very much the same accent that the British dramatist reserves for the +censor of plays. But though it already had its host of names, Toronto, +to us, was the City of Crowds. + +Toronto has interests and beauties. It has its big, natural High Park. +It has its charming residential quarters in Rosedale and on The Hill. +It has its beautiful lagoon on the lakeside. It has its Yonge Street, +forty miles straight. It has the tallest building in the Empire, and +some of the largest stores in the Empire. It is busy and bright and +brisk. But we found we could not see it for crowds. Or, rather, at +first we could not see it for crowds. Later a good Samaritan took us +for a pell-mell tour in a motor-car, and we saw a chauffeur's eye view +of it. Even then we saw much of it over the massed soft hats of Canada. + +We had become inured to crowds. We had seen big, bustling, eager, +hearty, good-humoured throngs from St. John's to Quebec. But even that +hardening had not proofed us against the mass and enthusiastic violence +of the crowd that Toronto turned out to greet the Prince, and continued +to turn out to meet him during the days he was there. + +On the early morning of Monday, August 25th, in that weather that was +already being called "Prince of Wales' weather," the Prince stepped +"ashore" at the Government House siding, outside Toronto. There was a +skirmishing line of the waiting city flung out to this distant +station--including some go-ahead flappers with autograph books to sign. +It was, however, one of those occasions when the Prince was considered +to be wrapped in a robe of invisibility until he had been to Government +House and started from there to drive inland to the city and its +receptions. + +A quick automobile rush--and, by the way, it will be noticed that the +Continent of Hustle always uses the long word for the short, +"automobile" for "car," "elevator" for "lift," and so on--to the +Government House, placed the Prince on a legal footing, and he was +ready to enter the city. + +Government House is remarkable for the fact that it grew a garden in a +single night. It is a comely building of rough-dressed stone, standing +in the park-like surroundings of the Rosedale suburb, but in the +absence of princes its forecourt is merely a desert of grey stone +granules. When His Royal Highness arrived it was a garden of an almost +brilliant abundance. There were green lawns, great beds packed +wantonly with the brightest flowers, while trees, palms and flowering +shrubs crowded the square in luxuriance. A marvel of a garden. A +realist policeman, after his first gasp, bent down to examine the green +of the lawn, and rose with a Kipps expression on his face and with the +single word "Fake" on his lips. + +The vivid lawn was green cocoanut matting, the beds were cunning +arrangements of flowers in pots, and from pots the trees and shrubs +flourished. It was a garden artificial and even more marvellous than +we had thought. + +The Prince rode through Rosedale to the town. The crowd began outside +Government House gates. It was a polite and brightly dressed crowd, +for it was drawn from the delightful houses that made islands in the +uninterrupted lawns that, with the graceful trees, formed the borders +of the winding roads through which he went. Rosedale was once forest +on the shores of the old Ontario Lake; the lake has receded three miles +and more, but the builders of the city have dealt kindly with the +forest, and have touched it as little as they could, so that the old +trees blend with the modern lawns to give the new homes an air of +infinite charm. + +As the Prince drove deeper into the city the crowds thickened, so that +when he arrived in the virile, purposeful commercial streets, the +sidewalks could no longer contain the mass. They are broad and +efficient streets, striking through the town arrow-straight, and giving +to the eye superb vistas. But broad though they were, they could not +accommodate sightseeing Toronto, and the crowd encroached upon the +driveway, much to the disgust of many little boys, who, with their +race's contempt for death by automobile, were running or cycling beside +the Royal car in their determination to get the maximum of Prince out +of a short visit. + +The crowd went upward from the roadway also. We had come into our +first city of sky-climbing buildings. One of these shoots up some +twenty stories, but though this is the tallest "yet," it is surrounded +by some considerable neighbours that give the streets great ranges +upwards as well as forward. The windows of these great buildings were +packed with people, and through the canopy of flags that fluttered on +all the route they sent down their cheers to join the welcome on the +ground floor. + +It was through such crowds that the Prince drove to a greater crowd +that was gathered about the Parliament Buildings. + + +II + +The site of the Provincial Parliament Buildings is, as with all these +Western cities, very beautifully planned. It is set in the gracious +Queen's Park, that forms an avenue of green in the very heart of the +town. About the park are the buildings of Toronto University, and the +avenue leads down to the dignified old law schools at Osgoode Hall. +The Canadians show a sense of appropriate artistry always in the +grouping of their public buildings--although, of course, they have had +the advantage of beginning before ground-rents and other interests grew +too strong for public endeavour. + +The Parliament Buildings are of a ruddy sandstone, in a style slightly +railway-station Renaissance. They were draped with flags down to the +vivid striped platform before the building upon which the reception was +held. Great masses of people and many ranks of soldiers filled the +lawns before the platform, while to the right was a great flower-bed of +infants. A grand-stand was brimming over with school-kiddies ready to +cheer at the slightest hint, to sing at command, and to wave flags at +all times. + +It was a bustling reception from Toronto as parliamentary capital of +Ontario, and from Toronto the town. It was packed full of speeches and +singing from the children and from a Welsh choir--and Canada flowers +Welsh choirs--and presentations from many societies, whose members, +wearing the long silk buttonhole tabs stamped with the gold title of +the guild or committee to which they belonged, came forward to augment +the press on the platform. + +These silk tabs are an insignia of Canadian life. The Canadians have +an infinite capacity for forming themselves into committees, and clubs, +and orders of stout fellows, and all manner of gregarious associations. +And when any association shows itself in the sunlight, it distinguishes +itself by tagging its members with long, coloured silk tabs. We never +went out of sight of tabs on the whole of our trip. + +From the Parliament Buildings the Prince drove through the packed town +to the Exhibition ground. We passed practically through the whole of +the city in these two journeys, travelling miles of streets, yet all +the way the mass of people was dense to a remarkable degree. Toronto, +we knew, was supposed to have a population of 500,000 people, but long +before we reached the end of the drive we began to wonder how the city +could possibly keep up the strength on the pavements without running +out of inhabitants. It not only kept it up, but it sprang upon us the +amazing sight of the Exhibition ground. + +In this long and wonderful drive there was but one stop. This was at +the City Hall, a big, rough stone building with a soaring campanile. +On the broad steps of the hall a host of wounded men in blue were +grouped, as though in a grand-stand. The string of cars swerved aside +so that the Prince could stop for a few minutes and chat with the men. + +His reception here was of overwhelming warmth; men with all manner of +hurts, men on crutches and in chairs stood up, or tried to stand up, to +cheer him. It was in the truest sense a meeting of comrades, and when +a one-legged soldier asked the Prince to pose for a photograph, he did +it not merely willingly, but with a jolly and personal friendliness. + +The long road to the Exhibition passed through the busy manufacturing +centre that has made Toronto famous and rich as a trading city, +particularly as a trading city from which agricultural machinery is +produced. The Exhibition itself is part of its great commercial +enterprise. It is the focus for the whole of Ontario, and perhaps for +the whole of Eastern Canada, of all that is up-to-date in the science +of production. In the beautiful grounds that lie along the fringe of +the inland sea that men have, for convenience' sake, called Lake +Ontario, and in fine buildings in those grounds are gathered together +exhibits of machinery, textiles, timber, seeds, cattle, and in fact +everything concerned with the work of men in cities or on prairies, in +offices or factories, farms or orchards. + +The Exhibition was breaking records for its visitors already, and the +presence of the Prince enabled it to break more. The vastness of the +crowd in the grounds was aweing. The gathering of people simply +obliterated the grass of the lawns and clogged the roads. + +When His Royal Highness had lunched with the administrators of the +Exhibition, he came out to a bandstand and publicly declared the +grounds opened. The crowd was not merely thick about the stand, but +its more venturesome members climbed up among the committee and the +camera-men, the latter working so strenuously and in such numbers that +they gave the impression that they not only photographed every +movement, but also every word the Prince uttered. + +The density of the crowd made retreat a problem. Police and Staff had +to resolve themselves into human Tanks, and press a way by inches +through the enthusiastic throng to the car. The car itself was +surrounded, and could only move at a crawl along the roads, and so slow +was the going and so lively was the friendliness of the people, that +His Royal Highness once and for all threw saluting overboard as a +gesture entirely inadequate, and gave his response with a waving hand. +The infection of goodwill, too, had caught hold of him, and not +satisfied with his attitude, he sprang up in the car and waved +standing. In this manner, and with one of his Staff holding him by the +belt, he drove through and out of the grounds. + +It was a day so packed with extraordinary crowds, that we +correspondents grew hopeless before them. We despaired of being able +to convey adequately a sense of what was happening; "enthusiasm" was a +hard-driven word that day and during the next two, and we would have +given the world to find another for a change. + +Since I returned I have heard sceptical people say that the stories of +these "great receptions" were vamped-up affairs, mere newspaper +manufacture. I would like to have had some of those sceptics in +Toronto with us on August 25th, 26th and 27th. It would have taught +them a very convincing and stirring lesson. + +The crowds of the Exhibition ground were followed by crowds at the +Public Reception, an "extra" which the Prince himself had added to his +program. This was held at the City Hall. It had all the +characteristics of these democratic and popular receptions, only it was +bigger. Policemen had been drawn about the City Hall, but when the +people decided to go in, the police mattered very little. They were +submerged by a sea of men and women that swept over them, swept up the +big flight of steps and engulfed the Prince in a torrent, every +individual particle of which was bent on shaking hands. It was a +splendidly-tempered crowd, but it was determined upon that handshake. +And it had it. It was at Toronto that, as the Prince phrased it, "My +right hand was 'done in.'" This was how Toronto did it in. + + +III + +The visit was not all strenuous affection. There were quiet backwaters +in which His Royal Highness obtained some rest, golfing and dancing. +One such moment was when on this day he crossed to the Yacht Club, an +idyllic place, on the sandspit that encloses the lagoon. + +This club, set in the vividly blue waters of the great lake, is a +little gem of beauty with its smooth lawns, pretty buildings and fine +trees. It is even something more, for every handful of loam on which +the lawns and trees grow was transported from the mainland to make +fruitful the arid sand of the spit. The Prince had tea on the lawn, +while he watched the scores of brisk little boats that had followed him +out and hung about awaiting his return like a genial guard of honour. + +There was always dancing in honour of the Prince, and always a great +deal of expectation as to who would be the lucky partners. His +partners, as I have said, had their photographs published in the papers +the next day. Even those who were not so lucky urged their cavaliers +to keep as close to him as possible on the ball-room floor, so every +inflexion of the Prince could be watched, though not all were so far +gone as an adoring young thing in one town (NOT Toronto), who hung on +every movement, and who cried to her partner in accents of awe: + +"I've heard him speak! I've heard him speak! He says 'Yes' just like +an ordinary man. Isn't it wonderful!" + +On Tuesday, the 25th, the Yacht Club was the scene of one of the +brightest of dances, following a very happy reunion between the Prince +and his comrades of the war. Some hundreds of officers of all grades +were gathered together by General Gunn, the C.O. of the District, from +the many thousands in Ontario, and these entertained the Prince at +dinner at the Club. It was a gathering both significant and +impressive. Every one of the officers wore not merely the medals of +Overseas service, but every one wore a distinction gained on the field. + +It was an epitome of Canada's effort in the war. It was a collection +of virile young men drawn from the lawyer's office and the farm, from +the desk indoors and avocations in the open, from the very law schools +and even the University campus. In the big dining-hall, hung with +scores of boards in German lettering, trench-signs, directing posts to +billets, drinking water and the like, that had been captured by the +very men who were then dining, one got a sense of the vivid capacity +and alertness that made Canada's contribution to the Empire fighting +forces so notable, and more, that will make Canada's contribution to +the future of the world so notable. + +There was no doubt, too, that, though these self-assured young men are +perfectly competent to stand on their own feet in all circumstances, +their visit to the Old Country--or, as even the Canadian-born call it, +"Home"--has, even apart from the lessons of fighting, been useful to +them, and, through them, will be useful to Canada. + +"Leaves in England were worth while," one said. "I've come back here +with a new sense of values. Canada's a great country, but we _are_ a +little in the rough. We can teach you people a good many things, but +there are a good many we can learn from you. We haven't any tradition. +Oh, not all your traditions are good ones, but many are worth while. +You have a more dignified social sense than we have, and a political +sense too. And you have a culture we haven't attained yet. You've +given us not a standard--we could read that up--but a liking for social +life, bigger politics, books and pictures and music, and all that sort +of thing that we had missed here--and been quite unaware that we had +missed." + +And another chimed in: + +"That's what we miss in Canada, the theatres and the concerts and the +lectures, and the whole boiling of a good time we had in London--the +big sense of being Metropolitan that you get in England, and not here. +Well, not yet. We were rather prone to the parish-pump attitude before +the war, but going over there has given us a bigger outlook. We can +see the whole world now, you know. London's a great place--it's an +education in the citizenship of the universe." + +That's a point, too. London and Britain have been revealed to them as +friendly places and the homes of good friends--though I must make an +exception of one seaport town in England which is a byword among +Canadians for bad treatment. England was the place where a multitude +of people conspired to give the Canadians a good time, and they have +returned with a practical knowledge of the good feeling of the English, +and that is bound to make for mutual understanding. + +It must not be thought that Toronto,--or other cities in Canada--is +without theatres or places of recreation. There are several good +theatres and music-halls in Toronto--more in this city than in any +other. These theatres are served by American companies of the No. 1 +touring kind. English actors touring America usually pay the city a +visit, while quite frequently new plays are "tried out" here before +opening in New York. + +But apart from a repertory company, which plays drawing-room comedies +with an occasional dash of high-brow, Toronto and Canada depend on +outside, that is American, sources for the theatre, and though the +standard of touring companies may be high in the big Eastern towns, it +is not as high as it should be, and in towns further West the shows are +of that rather streaky nature that one connects with theatrical +entertainment at the British seaside resorts. + +The immense distances are against theatrical enterprises, of course, +but in spite of them one has a feeling that the potentialities of the +theatre, as with everything in the Dominion, are great for the right +man. + +Toronto is better off musically than other cities, but even Toronto +depends very much for its symphony and its vocal concerts, as for its +opera, on America. Music is intensely popular, and gramophones, pianos +and mechanical piano-players have a great sale. + +The "movie" show is the great industry of amusement all over the +Dominion. Even the smallest town has its picture palace, the larger +towns have theatres which are palaces indeed in their appointments, and +a multitude of them. In many the "movie" show is judiciously blended +with vaudeville turns, a mixture which seems popular. + +Book shops are rarities. In a great town such as Toronto I was only +able to find one definite book shop, and that not within easy walk of +my hotel. Even that shop dealt in stationery and the like to help +things along, though its books were very much up to date, many of them +(by both English and American authors) published by the excellent +Toronto publishing houses. All the recognized leaders among English +and American writers, and even Admirals and Generals turned writers, +were on sale, though the popular market is the Zane Grey type of book. + +The reason there are few book shops is that the great stores--like +Eaton's and Simpson's--have book departments, and very fine ones too, +and that for general reading the Canadians are addicted to newspapers +and magazines, practically all the latter American, which are on sale +everywhere, in tobacconists, drug stores, hotel loggias, and on special +street stands generally run by a returned soldier. English papers of +any sort are rarely seen on sale, though all the big American dailies +are commonplace, while only occasionally the _Windsor_, _Strand_, +_London_, and the new _Hutchinson's Magazines_ shyly rear British heads +over their clamorous American brothers. + + +IV + +Tuesday, August 26th, was a day dedicated to quieter functions. The +Prince's first visits were to the hospitals. + +Toronto, which likes to do things with a big gesture, has attacked the +problem of hospital building in a spacious manner. The great General +Hospital is planned throughout to give an air of roominess and breadth. + +The Canadians certainly show a sense of architecture, and in building +the General Hospital they refused to follow the Morgue School, which +seems to be responsible for so many hospital and primary school +designs. The Toronto Hospital is a fine building of many blocks set +about green lawns, and with lawns and trees in the quadrangles. The +appointments are as nearly perfect as men can make them, and every +scientific novelty is employed in the fight against wounds and +sickness. Hospitals appear most generally used in Canada, people of +all classes being treated there for illnesses that in Britain are +treated at home. + +His Royal Highness visited and explored the whole of the great General +Hospital, stopping and chatting with as many of the wounded soldiers +who were then housed in it, as time allowed. He also paid a visit to +the Children's Hospital close by. This was an item on the program +entirely his own. Hearing of the hospital, he determined to visit it, +having first paved the way for his visit by sending the kiddies a large +assortment of toys. This hospital, with its essentially modern clinic, +was thoroughly explored before the Prince left in a mist of cheers from +the kiddies, whose enormous awe had melted during the acquaintance. + +The afternoon was given over to the colourful ceremony in the +University Hall, when the LL.D. degree of the University was bestowed +upon His Royal Highness. In a great, grey-stone hall that stands on +the edge of the delightful Queen's Park, where was gathered an audience +of dons in robes, and ladies in bright dresses, with naval men and +khaki men to bring up the glowing scheme, the Prince in rose-coloured +robes received the degree and signed the roll of the University. Under +the clear light of the glass roof the scene had a dignity and charm +that placed it high among the striking pictures of the tour. + +It was a quieter day, but, nevertheless, it was a day of crowds also, +the people thronging all the routes in their unabatable numbers, +showing that _crescendo_ of friendliness which was to reach its +greatest strength on the next day. + + +V + +The crowds of Toronto, already astonishing, went beyond mere describing +on Wednesday, August 27th. + +There were several functions set down for this day; only two matter: +the review of the War Veterans in the Exhibition grounds, and the long +drive through the residential areas of the city. + +Some hint of what the crowd in the Exhibition grounds was like was +given to us as we endeavoured to wriggle our car through the masses of +other automobiles, mobile or parked, that crowded the way to the +grounds. We had already been impressed by the almost inordinate number +of motor-cars in Canada: the number of cars in Toronto terrified us. + +When we looked on the thousands of cars in the city we knew why the +streets _had_ to be broad and straight and long. In no other way could +they accommodate all that rushing traffic of the swift cars and the +lean, torpedo-like trams that with a splendid service link up the heart +of the town with the far outlying suburbs. And even though the streets +are broad the automobile is becoming too much for them. The habit of +parking cars on the slant and by scores on both sides of the roadway +(as well as down side roads and on vacant "lots") is already +restricting the carriage-way in certain areas. + +From the cars themselves there is less danger than in the London +streets, for the rules of the road are strict, and the citizens keep +them strictly. No car is allowed to pass a standing tram on the same +side, for example, and that rule with others is obeyed by all drivers. + +The multitude of cars, mainly open touring cars of the Buick and +Overland type, though there are many Fords, or "flivvers," and an +occasional Rolls-Royce, Napier or Panhard, thickened as we neared the +Exhibition gates; and about them, in the side streets outside and in +the avenues inside, they were parked by thousands. + +They gave the meanest indication of the numbers of people in the +grounds. The lawns were covered with people. The halls of exhibits +were full of people. The Joy City, where one can adventure into +strange thrills from Coney Island, was full; the booths selling +buttered corn cob, toasted pea-nuts, ice cream soda, and the rest, had +hundreds of customers--and all these, we found, were the overflow. +They had been crowded out from the real show, and were waiting outside +in the hope of catching sight of the Prince as he made his round of the +Exhibition. + +The show ground of the Exhibition is a huge arena. It is faced by a +mighty grandstand, seating ten thousand people. Ten thousand people +were sitting: the imagination boggles at the computation of the number +of those standing; they filled every foothold and clung to every step +and projection. There were some--men in khaki, of course--who were +risking their necks high up on the iron roof of the stand. + +In front of the stand is a great open space, backed by patriotic +scenery, that acts as the stage for performances of the pageant kind. +It was packed so tightly with people that the movement of individuals +was impossible. On this ground the war veterans should have been drawn +up in ranks. In the beginning they were drawn up in ranks, but +civilians, having filled up every gangway and passage, overflowed on to +the field and filled that also. They were even clinging to the scenery +and perched in the trees. The minimum figure for that crowd was given +as fifty thousand. + +The reception given to the Prince was overwhelming; that is the +soberest word one can use. As he rode into the arena he was +immediately surrounded by a cheering and cheery mass of people, who cut +him off completely from his Staff. From the big stand there came an +outburst of non-stop Canadian cheering, an affair of whistles, rattles, +cheering and extempore noises, with the occasional bang of a firework, +that was kept alive during the whole of the ceremony, one section of +people taking it up when the first had tired itself out. + +With the crowd thick about him, His Royal Highness strove to force his +way to the platform on which he was to speak and to give medals, but +movement could only be accomplished at a slow pace. As he neared the +platform, indeed, movement ceased altogether, and Prince and crowd were +wedged tight in a solid mass. The pressure of the crowd seems to have +been too much for him, for there was a moment when it seemed he would +be thrown from his horse. A "movie" man on the platform came to his +rescue, and catching him round the shoulders pulled him into safety +over the heads of the crowd. + +On this platform and in a setting of enthusiasm that cannot be +described adequately, he spoke and gave medals to what seemed an +endless stream of brave Canadians. + +It was in the evening that he drove through the streets of the town, +and I believe I am right in saying that he gave up other more restful +engagements in order to undertake this ride that took several hours and +was not less than twenty miles in length. + +Toronto is a city in which the civic ideal is very strong, and the +concern not merely of the municipality but of all the citizens. It +believes in beautiful and up-to-date town planning, and the elimination +of slums, of which it now has not a single example. On his ride the +Prince saw every facet of the city's activity. + +He drove through the beautiful avenues of Rosedale, and through the not +so beautiful but more eclectic area of The Hill. He went through the +suburbs of charming, well-designed houses where the professional +classes have their homes, and into the big, comely residential areas +where the working people live. These areas are places of attractive +homes. The instinct for good building which is the gift of the whole +of America makes each house distinctive. There is never the hint of +slum ugliness or slum congestion about them. The houses merely differ +from the houses of the better-to-do in size, but, though they are +smaller, they have the same pleasant features, neat colonial-style +architecture, broad porches, unrailed lawns, and the rest. Inside they +have central heating, electric light (the Niagara hydro-power makes +lighting ridiculously cheap), baths, hardwood floors, and the other +labour-saving devices of modern construction. Most of the houses are +owned by the people who live in them, for the impulse towards purchase +by deferred payments is very strong in the Canadian. + +One of the brightest of the suburbs was built up almost entirely +through the energy of the British emigrant. These men working in the +city did not mind the "long hike" out into the country, to an area +where the street cars were not known. From farming lots they built up +a charming district where, now that street cars are more reasonable, +the Canadian is also anxious to live--when he can find a householder +willing to sell. + +The Prince's route also lay through the big shopping streets such as +Yonge ("street" is dropped in the West) and King. Here are the great +and brilliant stores, and here the thrusting, purposeful Canadian crowd +does its trading. There is a touch of determination in the Canadian on +the sidewalk which seems ruthlessness to the more easy-going Britisher, +yet it is not rudeness, and the Canadian is an extraordinarily orderly +person, with a discipline that springs from self rather than from +obedience to by-laws. It may be this that makes a Canadian crowd so +decorous, even at the moment when it seems defying the policemen. + +The Prince began his ride in the wonderful High Park, where Nature has +had very little coddling from man, and the results of such +non-interference are admirable, and in that park he at once entered +into the avenue of people that was to border the way for twenty miles. + +Again this crowd thickened at certain focal points. At the entrances +of different districts, in the streets of heavily populated areas, +about the cemetery where he planted a tree, it gathered in astonishing +mass, but the amazing thing was that no place on that twenty-mile run +was without a crowd. + +The whole of the city appeared to have come in to the street to cheer +and wave flags or handkerchiefs as he passed, just as the whole of the +little boy population appeared to have made up its mind to run or cycle +beside him for the whole of the journey despite all risks of cars +behind. + +The automobileocracy of the wealthy districts made grandstands of their +cars at every cross-road (and the Correspondents don't thank them for +this, for they tried to cut into the procession of cars after the +Prince had passed). The suburbans made their lawns into vantage +points, and grouped themselves on the curb edge, and the working +classes simply overflowed the road in solid masses of attractively +dressed women and children and Canadianly-dressed men. "Attractively +dressed" is a phrase to note; there are no rags or dowdiness in Canada. + +There was a carnival air in the greeting of that multitude on that long +ride, and the laughing and cheering affection of the crowds would have +called forth a like response even in a personality less sympathetic +than the Prince. It captured him completely. The formal salute never +had a chance. First his answer to the cheering was an affectionate +flag-waving, then the flag was not good enough and his hat came into +play, then he was standing up and waving, and finally he again climbed +on to the seat, and half standing, half sitting on the folded hood, +rode through the delighted crowds. With members of his Staff holding +on to him, he did practically the whole of the journey in this manner, +sitting reasonably only at quiet spots, only changing his hat from +right to left hand when one arm had become utterly exhausted. And all +the way the crowds lined the route and cheered. + +It was an astonishing spectacle, an amazing experience. It was the +just culmination of the three full days of profound and moving emotion +in which Toronto had shown how intense was its affection. + +The effect of such a demonstration on the Prince himself was equally +profound. One of the Canadian Generals who had been driving with His +Royal Highness on one of these occasions, told us that in the midst of +such a scene as this the Prince had turned to him and said, "Can you +wonder that my heart is full?" + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +OTTAWA + +I + +The run from Toronto to Ottawa, the city that is a province by itself +and the capital of Canada, was a night run, but there was, in the early +morning, a halt by the wayside so that the train should not arrive +before "skedule." The halt was utilized by the Prince as an +opportunity for a stroll, and by the more alert of the country people +as an opportunity for a private audience. + +At a tiny station called Manotick farming families who believe in +shaming the early bird, came and had a look at that royal-red monster +of all-steel coaches, the train, while the youngest of them introduced +the Prince to themselves. + +They came out across the fields in twos and threes. One little boy, in +a brimless hat, working overalls, and with a fair amount of his working +medium, plough land, liberally distributed over him--Huckleberry Finn +come to life, as somebody observed--worked hard to break down his +shyness and talk like a boy of the world to the Prince. A little girl, +with the acumen of her sex, glanced once at the train, legged it to her +father's homestead, and came back with a basket of apples, which she +presented with all the solemnity of an illuminated address on vellum. + +It was always a strange sight to watch people coming across the fields +from nowhere to gather round the observation platform of the train for +these impromptu audiences. Every part of Canada is well served by +newspapers, yet to see people drift to the right place at the right +time in the midst of loneliness had a touch of wonder about it. These +casual gatherings were, indeed, as significant and as interesting as +the great crowds of the cities. There was always an air of laughing +friendliness in them, too, that gave charm to their utter informality, +for which both the Prince and the people were responsible. + +From this apple-garnished pause the train pushed on, and passing +through the garden approach, where pleasant lawns and trees make a +boulevard along a canal which runs parallel with the railway, the +Prince entered Ottawa. + +We had been warned against Ottawa, mainly by Ottawa men. We had been +told not to expect too much from the Capital. As the Prince passed +from crowded moment to crowded moment in Toronto, the stock of Ottawa +slumped steadily in the minds of Ottawa's sons. They became insistent +that we must not expect great things from Ottawa. Ottawa was not like +that. Ottawa was the taciturn "burg." + +It was a city of people given over to the meditative, if sympathetic, +silence. It was an artificial city sprung from the sterile seeds of +legislature, and thriving on the arid food of Bills. It was a mere +habitation of governments. It was a freak city created coldly by an +act of Solomonic wisdom. Before 1858 it was a drowsy French portage +village, sitting inertly at the fork of the Ottawa and Rideau rivers, +concerning itself only with the lumber trade, almost inattentive to the +battle which Montreal and Quebec, Toronto and Kingston were fighting +for the political supremacy of the Dominion. Appealed to, to settle +this dispute, Queen Victoria decided all feuds by selecting what had +been the old Bytown, but which was now Ottawa, as the official capital +of the Dominion. + +Ottawa men pointed all this out to us, and declared that a town of such +artificial beginnings, and whose present population was made up of +civil servants and mixed Parliamentarians, could not be expected to +show real, red-blood enthusiasm. + +A day later those Ottawa men met us in the high and handsome walls of +the Château Laurier, and they were entirely unrepentant. They were +even proud of their false prophecy, and asked us to join them in a +grape-juice and soda--the limit of the emotion of good fellowship in +Canada (anyhow publicly) is grape-juice and soda--in order that they +might explain to us how they never for a moment doubted that Ottawa +would show the enthusiasm it had shown. + +"This is the Capital of Canada, sir. The home of our Parliament and +the Governor-General. It is the hub of loyalty and law. Of course it +would beat the band." + + +II + +I don't know that I want to quarrel with Ottawa's joke, for I am awed +by the way it brought it off. Perhaps it brought it off on the Prince +also. If so he must have had a shock, and a delightful one. For the +taciturnity of Ottawa is a myth. When the Prince entered it on the +morning of Thursday, August 28th, it was as silent as a whirlwind +bombardment, and as reticent as a cyclone. + +There were crowds, inevitably vast and cheering, with the invincible +good-humour of Canada. They captured him with a rush after he was +through with the formalities of being greeted by the Governor-General +and other notabilities, and had mounted a carriage behind the scarlet +outriders of Royalty. That carriage may have been more decorative but +it was no more purposeful than an automobile would be under the +circumstance. Even as the automobile, it went at a walking pace, with +the crowd pressing close around it. + +It passed up from the swinging, open triangle that fronts the Château +Laurier Hotel and the station, over the bridge that spans the Rideau +Canal, and along the broad road lined with administration buildings and +clubs, to the spacious grass quadrangle about which the massive +Parliament buildings group themselves. + +This quadrangle is a fit place to stage a pageant. It crowns a slow +hill that is actually a sharp bluff clothed in shrubs that hangs over +the startling blue waters of the Ottawa river. From the river the mass +of buildings poised dramatically on that individual bluff is a sharp +note of beauty. On the quadrangle, that is the city side, this note is +lost, and the rough stone buildings, though dignified, have a tough, +square-bodied look. Yet the massiveness of the whole grouping about +the great space of grass and gravel terraces certainly gives a large +air. They form the adequate wings and backcloth for pageants. + +And what happened that morning in the quadrangle was certainly a +pageant of democracy. + +There was a formal program, but on the whole the crowd eliminated that +for one of its own liking. It listened to addresses; it heard Sir +Robert Borden, and General Currie, only just returned to Canada, +express the Dominion's sense of welcome. Then it expressed it itself +by sweeping the police completely away, and surrounding the Prince in +an excited throng. + +In the midst of that crowd the Prince stood laughing and cheerful, +endeavouring to accommodate all the hands that were thrust towards him. +A review of Boy Scouts was timed to take place, but the crowd +"scratched" it. The neat wooden barricades and the neat ropes that +linked them up about a neat parade ground on the green were reduced by +the scientific process of bringing an irresistible force against a +movable body. Boy Scouts ceased to figure in the program and became +mere atoms in a mass that surrounded the Prince once more, and +expressed itself in the usual way now it had him to itself. + +As usual the Prince himself showed not the slightest disinclination for +fitting in with such an impromptu ceremony. He was as happy and in his +element as he always was when meeting everyday people in the closest +intimacy. It was a carnival of democracy, but one in which he played +as democratic a part as any among that throng. + +Yet though the Prince himself was the direct incentive to the +democratic exchanges that happened throughout the tour, there was no +doubt that the strain of them was exhausting. + +He possesses an extraordinary vitality. He is so full of life and +energy that it was difficult to give him enough to do, and this and the +fact that Canada's wonderful welcome had called into play a powerful +sympathetic response, led him to throw himself into everything with a +tireless zest. Nevertheless, the strenuous days at Toronto, followed +by this strenuous welcome at Ottawa, had made great demands upon him, +and it was decided to cut down his program that day to a Garden Party +in the charming grounds of Government House, and to shelve all +engagements for the next day, Friday, August 29th. + +The Prince agreed to the dropping of all engagements save one, and that +was the Public Reception at the City Hall on the 29th. It was the most +exacting of the events on the program, but he would not hear of its +elimination; the only alteration in detail that he made was that his +right hand, damaged at Toronto, should be allowed to rest, and that all +shaking should be done with the left. + +The Public Reception took place. The only invitation issued was one in +the newspapers. The newspapers said "The Prince will meet the City." +He did. The whole City came. It was again the most popular, as well +as the most stimulating of functions. And it followed the inevitable +lines. All manner of people, all grades of people in all conditions of +costume attended. Old ladies again asked him when he was going to get +married. Lumbermen in calf-high boots grinned "How do, Prince?" +Mothers brought babies in arms, most of them of the inarticulate age, +and of awful and solemn dignity of under one--it was as though these +Ottawa mothers had been inspired by the fine and homely loyalty of a +past age, and had brought their babies to be "touched" by a Prince, +who, like the Princes of old, was one with as well as being at the head +of the great British family. + +And with all the people were the little boys, eager, full of initiative +and cunning. Shut out by the Olympians, one group of little boys found +a strategic way into the Hall by means of a fire-escape staircase. +They had already shaken hands with the Prince before their flank +movement had been discovered and the flaw in the endless queue +repaired. That queue was never finished. Although, on the testimony +of the experts, the Prince shook hands at the rate of forty-five to the +minute, the time set aside for the reception only allowed of some 2,500 +filing before him. + +But those outside that number were not forgotten. The Prince came out +to the front of the hall to express his regret that Nature had proved +niggardly in the matter of hands. He had only one hand, and that +limited greetings, but he could not let them go without expressing his +delight to them for their warm and personal welcome. + +The disappointed ones recognized the limits of human endeavour. His +popularity was in no way lessened. They were content with having seen +"the cute little feller" as some of them called him, and made the most +of that experience by listening to, and swopping anecdotes about, him. + +Most of these centred round his accessibility. One typical story was +about a soldier, who, having met him in France, stepped out from the +crowd and hopped on to the footboard of his car to say "How d'y' do?" +The Prince gripped the khaki man's hand at once, and shaking it and +holding the soldier safely on the car with his other hand, he talked +while they went along. Then both men saluted, and the soldier hopped +off again and returned to the crowd. + +"It was just as if you saw me in an automobile and came along to tell +me something," said the man who told me the story. "There was no +king-stuff about it. And that's why he gets us. There isn't a sheet +of ice between us and him." + +Another man said to me: + +"If you'd told me a month ago that anybody was going to get this sort +of a reception I should have smiled and called you an innocent. I +would have told you the Canadians aren't built that way. We're a +hard-bitten, independent, irreverent breed. We don't go about shouting +over anybody.... But now we've gone wild over him. And I can't +understand it. He's our sort. He has no side. We like to treat men +as men, and that's the way he meets us." + + +III + +The long week-end, so strenuously begun, did, however, give the Prince +his opportunity for rest and recreation. He had a quiet time in the +home of the Governor-General at the beautiful Rideau Hall, the +attractive and spacious grounds of which are part of the untrammelled +expanses of the lovely Rockhill Park which hangs on a cliff and keeps +company with the shining Ottawa river for miles to the east of the +city. Apart from sightseeing, and golfing and dancing at the pretty +County Club across the Ottawa on the Hull side, he attempted no program +until Monday morning. + +Ottawa is not so virile in atmosphere as other of the Canadian cities. +Its artificial heart, the Parliament area, seems to absorb most of its +vitality. Its architecture is massed very effectively on the hill +whose steep cliffs in a spray of shrubs, rise at the knee of the two +rivers, the Ottawa and the Rideau, but outside the radius of the +Parliament buildings and the few, fine, brisk, lively streets that +serve them, the town fades disappointingly eastward, westward and +northward into spiritless streets of residences. + +The shores of the river are its chiefest attraction. Below the +Parliament bluff, there lies to the left a silver white spit in the +blue of the stream, that humps itself into a green and habitual mass on +which are a huddle of picturesque houses. These hide the spray of the +Chaudière Falls, which stretch between this island and the Hull side. +Below the Falls is the picturesque mass of a lumber "boom," that +stretches down the river. + +To the extreme right beyond the locks of Rideau Canal, is the dramatic +lattice-work of a fine bridge, a bridge where railroad tracks, +tram-roads, automobile and footways dive under and over each other at +the entrances in order to find their different levels for crossing. +Beyond the bridge, and close against it is the jutting cliff that makes +the point of Major Hill Park. + +Between these two extremes, right and left, one faces a broad plain, +wooded and gemmed with painted houses, and ending in a smoke-blue +rampart of distant hills--all of it luminant with the curiously +clarified light of Canada. + +From Major Hill Park the riverside avenue goes east over the Rideau, +whose Falls are famous, but now obscured by a lumber mill; past Rideau +Hall to Rockhill Park. Rockhill Park is a delight. It has all the +joys of the primitive wilderness plus a service of street-cars. Its +promenade under the fine and scattered trees follows the lip of the +cliff along the Ottawa, and across the blue stream can be seen the +fillet of gold beach of the far side, and on the stream are red-sailed +boats, canoes, and natty gasolene launches. How far Rockhill Park +keeps company with the Ottawa, I do not know. A stroll of nearly two +hours brought me to a region of comely country houses, set in broad +gardens--but there was still park, and it seemed to go on for ever. + +There are two or three Golf Clubs (every town in Canada has a golf +course, or two, and sometimes they are municipal) over the river on the +Hull side--a side that was at the time of our visit a place of +pilgrimage from Ottawa proper. For it is in Quebec, where the "dry" +law is not implacable as that of Ottawa and Ontario. Hull is also +noted for its match factory and other manufactures that make up a very +good go-ahead industrial town, as well as for the fact that in matters +of contributions to Victory Loans, and that sort of thing, it can hold +its own with any city, though that city be five times its size. + +The chief of the Ottawa clubs on the Hull side is the County Club, an +idyllic place that has made the very best out of the rather rough +plain, and stands looking through the trees to the rapids of the Ottawa +river. It is a delightful club, built with the usual Western instinct +for apposite design, and, as with most clubs on the American Continent, +it is a revelation of comfort. Its dining-room is extraordinarily +attractive, for it is actually the spacious verandah of the building, +screened by trellis work into which is woven the leaves and flowers of +climbers. The ceiling is a canopy of flowers and green leaves, and to +dine here overlooking the lawns is to know an hour of the greatest +charm. + +The Prince was the guest here on several occasions, and dances were +given in his honour. For this purpose the lawn in front of the +verandah was squared off with a high arcadian trellis, and between the +pillars of this trellis were hung flowers and flags and lights, and all +the trees about had coloured bulbs amid their leaves, so that at night +it was an impression of Arcady as a modern Watteau might see it, with +the crispness and the beauty of the women and the vivid dresses of the +women giving the scene a quality peculiarly and vivaciously Canadian. + + +IV + +The circumstances of Monday, September 1st, made it an unforgettable +day. + +The chief ceremonies on the Prince's program were the laying of the +corner-stone of the new Parliament Buildings, and the inauguration of +the Victory Loan. But something else happened which made it momentous. +It happened to be Labour Day. + +It was the day when the whole of Labour in Canada--and indeed in +America--gave itself over to demonstrations. Labour held street +parades, field sports, and, I daresay, made speeches. It was the day +of days for the workers. + +There were some who thought that the program of Labour would clash with +the program of the Prince. That, to put it at its mildest, Labour on a +holiday would ignore the Royal ceremonials and emasculate them as +functions. The men who put forward these opinions were Canadians, but +they did not know Canada. It was Labour Day, and Labour made the day +for the Prince. + +When the Prince had learnt that it was the People's day, and that there +was to be a big sports meeting and gala in one of the Ottawa parks, he +had specially added another item to his full list of events, and made +it known that he would visit the park. + +Labour promptly returned the courtesy, and of its own free will turned +its parade into a guard of honour, which lined the fine Rideau and +Wellington streets for his progress between Government House and +Parliament Square. + +As far as I could gather Labour decided upon and carried this out +without consulting anybody. Streets were taken over without any +warning, and certainly without any fuss. There seemed to be few police +about, and there was no need for them. Labour took command of the show +in the interest of its friend the Prince, and would not permit the +slightest disorderliness. + +It was a remarkable sight. Early in the morning the Labour Parade +appeared along Rideau Street, mounting the hill to the Parliament +House. The processionists, each group in the costume of its calling, +walked in long, thin files on each side of the road, the line broken at +intervals by the trade floats. Floats are an essential part of every +American parade; they are what British people call "set-pieces," +tableaux built up on wagons or on automobiles; all of them are +ingenious and most of them are beautiful. + +These floats represented the various trades, a boiler-maker's shop in +full (and noisy) action; a stone-worker's bench in operation; the +framework of a wooden house on an auto, to show Ottawa what its +carpenters and joiners could do, and so on. With these marched the +workers, distinctively clothed, as though the old guilds had never +ceased. + +When the head of the procession reached the entrance of Parliament +Square it halted, and the line, turning left and right, walked towards +the curb, pressing back the thousands of sightseers to the pavement in +a most effective manner. They lined and kept the route in this fashion +until the Prince had passed. + +It was thus that the Prince drove, not between the ranks of an army of +soldiers, but through the ranks of the army of labour. Not khaki, but +the many uniforms of labour marked the route. There were firemen in +peaked caps, with bright steel grappling-hooks at their waists; +butchers in white blouses, white trousers, and white peaked caps; there +were tram-conductors, and railway-men, hotel porters, teamsters in +overalls, lumbermen in calf-high boots of tan, with their rough socks +showing above them on their blue jumper trousers, barbers, drug-store +clerks and men of all the trades. + +Above this guard of workers were the banners of the Unions, some in +English, some proclaiming in French that here was "La Fraternité Unie +Charpentiers et Menuisiers," and so on. + +It was a real demonstration of democracy. It was the spontaneous and +affectionate action of the everyday people, determined to show how +personal was its regard for a Prince who knew how to be one with the +everyday people. As a demonstration it was immensely more significant +than the most august item of a formal program. + +As the Prince rode through those hearty and friendly ranks in a State +carriage, and behind mounted troopers, the troopers and the trappings +seemed to matter very little indeed. The crowd that cheered and waved +flags--and sometimes spanners and kitchen pans--and the youth who waved +his gloves back and forth with all their own freedom from ceremony, +were the things that mattered. + +When, at the laying of the corner-stone a few minutes later, Sir Robert +Borden declared that, in repeating the act of his grandfather, who laid +the original corner-stone of Canada's Parliament buildings, as Prince +of Wales, in 1860, His Royal Highness was inaugurating a new era, the +happenings of just now seemed to lend conviction that indeed a new +phase of history had come into being. It was a phase in which throne +and people had been woven into a strong and sane democracy, begot of +the intimate personal sympathy, understanding and reliance the war had +brought about between rulers and people. + +The new buildings replace the old Parliament Houses burnt down in the +beginning of the war. The fire was attended by sad loss of life, and +one of those killed was a lady, who, having got out of the burning +building in safety, was suddenly overcome by a feminine desire to save +her furs. She re-entered the blazing building and was lost. + +The new building follows the design of the old, rather rigid structure, +though it has not the campanile. The porch where the stone was laid +was draped in huge hangings descending in grave folds from a sheaf of +flags; this with the façade of the grey stone building made a superb +backing to the great stage of terrace upon which the ceremony was +enacted. It had all the dignity, colour and braveness of a Durbar. + +The Victory Loan was inaugurated by the unfurling of a flag by the +Prince. He promised to give to each of the cities and villages (by the +way, I don't think the villages are villages in Canada; they are all +towns) who subscribed a certain percentage a replica of this special +flag. There was keen competition throughout the Dominion for these +flags, Canadians responding to the pictures on the hoardings with a +good will, in order to win a "Prince of Wales' Flag." + +Although the Prince was down to visit Hull at a specific time that +afternoon, he set aside an hour in order to pay his promised visit to +the Labour fête in Lansdowne Park. There was only time for him to +drive through the park, but the warm reception given to him made it an +action really worth while. + +Hull, which is inclined to sprawl as a town, was transformed by sun, +flags and people into a place of great attraction when the Prince +arrived. And if there was not any high pomp about the visit, there was +certainly prettiness. The pretty girls of Hull had transformed +themselves into representatives of all the races of the Entente, and as +the Prince stood on the scarlet steps of a daïs outside the Town Hall, +each one of these came forward and made him a curtsy. + +Following them were four tiny girls, each holding a large bouquet, each +bouquet being linked to the others by broad red ribbons. They were the +jolliest little girls, but nervous, and after negotiating the terrors +of the scarlet stairs with discretion, the broad desert of the daïs +undid them--or rather it didn't. At the moment of presentation, four +little girls, as well as four bouquets, were linked together by broad +red ribbons, until it was difficult to tell which was little girl and +which was bouquet. There were many untanglers present, but the chief +of them was the Prince of Wales himself. + +The Hull ceremonials were certainly as happy as any could be. The +little girls gave a homely touch, so did the people--match-factory +girls, brown-habited Franciscan friars, and the rest--who joined in the +public reception, but the crowning touch of this atmosphere was the +review of the war veterans. + +There were so many war veterans that Hull had no open space large +enough to parade them. Hull, therefore, had the happy idea of +reviewing them in the main street. Thus the everyday street was packed +with everyday men who had fought for the very homes about them. That +seemed to bring out the real purpose of the great war more than any +effort in propaganda could. + +It was in the main street, too, after receiving a loving cup from the +Great War Veterans, that the Prince spoke to these comrades of the war. +He stood up in his car and addressed them simply and directly, thanking +them and wishing them good luck, and there was something infinitely +suggestive in his standing up there so simply amid that pack of men, +and women wedged tightly between the houses of that homely street. + +Wedged is assuredly the right term, for it was with difficulty, and +only by infinite care, that the car was driven through the crowd and +away. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +MONTREAL: QUEBEC + +I + +Montreal was not actually in the schedule. In the program of the +Prince's tour it was put down as the last place he should visit. This, +in a sense, was fitting. It was proper that the greatest city in +Canada should wind up the visit in a befitting week. + +All the same, as the Prince himself said, he could not possibly start +for the West without making at least a call on Montreal, so he rounded +off his travels among the big cities of the Canadian East by spending +the inside of a day there. + +I wonder whether there was ever an inside of a day so crowded? I was +present when Manchester rushed President Wilson through a headlong +morning of events, and the Manchester effort was pedestrian beside +Montreal's. Even the Prince, who himself can put any amount of vigour +into life, must have found nothing in his experience to equal a +non-stop series of ceremonies carried on, at times, at a pace of +forty-miles an hour. + +That is what happened. Montreal was given about four hours of the +Prince. Montreal is a progressive city; it has an up-to-date and +"Do-It-Now" sense. Confronted at very short notice with those four +hours, it promptly set itself to make the most of them. It packed +about four days' program into them. + +It managed this, of course, by using motor-cars. The whole of the +American Continent, I have come to see, has a motor-car method of +thinking out and accomplishing things. Montreal certainly has. +Montreal met the Prince in an automobile mood, whipped him from the +train and entertained him on the top gear for every moment of his stay. + + +II + +He arrived at the handsome Windsor Station of the C.P.R. on the morning +of Tuesday, September 2nd, and was at once taken to a big, grey motor. +His guide, the Mayor of the city, then began to show him how time could +be annihilated and days compressed into hours. + +In those few hours he was shown not a section of the great commercial +city, not merely the City Hall, and a street or two, and a place +wherein to lunch. He was shown all Montreal. He was shown the city of +Montreal and the suburbs of Montreal, and verily I believe he was shown +every man, woman, and certainly every child of flag-wagging age, in +Montreal. + +And when he had seen the high, fine business blocks of Montreal, and +the pretty residential districts, where the well-designed homes seem to +stand on terrace over terrace of the smoothest, greenest grass, he was +shown the country-side about Montreal, the comely little habitant +parishes and holiday places that make outlying Montreal, and the +convents and the colleges where Montreal educates itself, the +Universities where that education is rounded off, and the long, wide, +straight speedways over which Montreal citizens get the best out of +their motor-car moments--and he was shown how it was done. + +And after showing him the rivers that make the hilly country about +Montreal beautiful, and the little pocket villages, he was swung back +out of the green of the summer country and shown more business blocks, +and just a hint of the great wharves and docks that fringe the St. +Lawrence and give the city its great industrial power and fame. Then +when they had shown him all the things that man usually sees only after +weeks of tenacious exploration, they spun him up a corkscrew drive that +goes first among charming houses, then among beautiful deep trees and +grass, and sat him down in a glowing pavilion on the top of this hill, +Mount Royal--the Montreal that gives the city its name--and gave him +lunch. + +There, as he ate, he looked down over one of the great views of the +world. Below him was the splendid vista of a splendid city; the mass +of tall offices, factories and the high fret of derricks and elevators +along the quays that covered the site of the Indian lodges of Hochelaga +that Jacques Cartier first found; the mass of spires from a thousand +churches, the swelling domes and hipped roofs of basilica and college +that had grown up from the old religious outpost, the nucleus of +Christianity in the wilds that was to convert the wilds, the Ville +Marie de Montreal that Maisonneuve had founded nearly three centuries +ago. + +And beyond this swinging breadth of city that was modernity, as well as +history, the Prince saw the grey, misty bosom of the St. Lawrence, +winding broad and significant beneath the distant hills. + + +III + +Truly it had been a mighty day, worthy of a mighty city. And a day not +merely big in achievement, but big in meaning also. In his drive the +Prince had covered no less than thirty-six miles in and about the city, +and on practically the whole of that great sweep there had been crowds, +and at times big crowds, all friendly and with an enthusiasm that was +French as well as Canadian. + +There were naturally tracts of road in the country where people did not +gather in force, but almost everywhere there were some. Sometimes it +was a family gathered by a pretty house draped with flags. Sometimes +it was a village, making up with the flags in their hands for the +hanging flags short notice had prevented their sporting. + +On an open stretch of road the Prince would come abreast of a convent +in the fields. By the fence of the convent all the little girls would +be ranked, dressed, sometimes, in national ribbons, and anyhow carrying +flags, and with them would be the nuns. Or if the convent was not a +teaching order, the nuns would be by themselves, forming a delightful +picture of quiet respect on the porch or along the garden wall. + +Boys' schools had the inmates gathered at the road-edge in jolly mobs, +though some of these had a semi-military dignity, because of the quaint +and kepi-ed uniform of the school, that made the boys look like cadets +out of a picture by Detaille. + +The seminaries had their flocks of black fledglings drawn up under the +professor-priests, and the sober black of these embryo priests had not +the slightest restriction on their enthusiasm. + +There were crowds everywhere on that extraordinary ride, but it was in +Montreal itself that the throngs reached immense proportions. From the +first moment of arrival, when the Prince in mufti rode out from under +the clangour of "God Bless the Prince of Wales" played on the bells of +St. George's Church, that hob-nobs with the station, crowds were thick +about the route. As he swung from Dominion Square (in which the +station stands) into the Regent Street of Montreal, St. Catherine +Street, crowds of employés crowded the windows of the big and fine +stores, and added their welcome to the mass on the sidewalks. + +Short notice had curtailed decoration, but the enthusiastic employés +(mainly feminine) of one tall store strove to rectify the lack by +arming themselves with flags and stationing themselves at every window. +Balancing perilously, they waited until the Prince came level, and then +set the whole face of the tall building fluttering with Union Jacks. + +From these streets, impressive in their sense of vigour and industry, +the procession of cars mounted through the residential quarter to Mount +Royal Park. Here in the presence of a big crowd that surrounded him +and got to close quarters at once, the Prince alighted and stayed a few +minutes at the statue of Georges Etienne Cartier, the father of +Canadian unity, whose centenary was then being celebrated, since the +war forbade rejoicing on the real anniversary in 1914. + +Cartier's daughter, Hortense Cartier, was present at this little +ceremony, and she was, as it were, a personal link between her father +and the Prince, who is himself helping to inaugurate a new phase of +unity, that of the Empire. + +From this point the Prince's route struck out into the country +districts that I have described, but the crowds had accumulated rather +than diminished when he returned to the streets of the city, about one +o'clock, and he drove through lanes of people so dense that at times +the pace of his car was retarded to a walk. + +The crowd was a suggestive one. All ranks and conditions were in +it--and conditions rather than ranks were apparent in the dock-side +area, which is a dingy one for Canada. But in all the crowds the thing +that struck me most was their proportion of children. Montreal seemed +a veritable hive of children. There were thousands and thousands of +them. + +The streets were bursting with kiddies. And not merely were there +multitudes of girls and boys of that thoroughly vociferous age of +somewhere under twelve, but there were ranked battalions of boys and +maids, all of an age obviously under twenty. + +Quebec is the province of large families. Ten children to a marriage +is a commonplace, and twenty is not a rarity. A man is not thought to +be worth his salt unless he has his quiver full. And the result of +this as I saw it in the streets gives food for thought. + +That huge marshalling of the citizens of tomorrow gives one not merely +a sense of Canada's potentiality, but of the potentiality of Quebec in +the future of Canada. With a new race of such a healthy standard +growing up, the future of Montreal has a look of greatness. Montreal +is now the biggest and most vigorous city in Canada, it plays a large +part in the life of Canada. What part will it play tomorrow? + +A good as well as great part, surely. Discriminating Canadians tell +you that the French-Canadian makes the best type of citizen. He is +industrious, go-ahead, sane, practical; he is law-abiding and he is +loyal. His history shows that he is loyal; indeed, Canada as it stands +today owes not a little to French-Canadian loyalty and willingness to +take up arms in support of British institutions. + +French-Canada took up arms in the Great War to good purpose, sending +40,000 men to the Front, though its good work has been obscured by the +political propaganda made out of the Anti-Conscription campaign. Sober +politicians--by no means on the side of the French-Canadians--told me +that there was rather more smoke in that matter than circumstances +created, and in Britain particularly the business was over-exaggerated. +There was a good deal of politics mixed up in the attitude of Quebec, +"And in any case," said my informant, "Quebec was not the first to +oppose conscription, nor yet the bitterest, though she was, perhaps, +the most candid." + +The language difficulty is a difficulty, yet that has been the subject +of exaggeration, also. Those who find it a grave problem seem to be +those who have never come in contact with it, but are anxious about it +at a distance. Those who are in contact with the French-speaking races +say that French and English-speaking peoples get on well on the whole, +and have an esteem for each other that makes nothing of the language +barrier. + +Concerning the Roman Catholic Church, which is certainly in a very +powerful position in Quebec, I have heard from non-Catholics quite as +much said in favour of the good it does, as I have heard to the +contrary, so I concluded that on its human side it is as human as any +other concern, doing good and making mistakes in the ordinary human +way. As far as its spiritual side is concerned there is no doubt at +all that it holds its people. Its huge churches are packed with huge +congregations at every service on Sunday. + +On the whole, then, I fancy that that part of Canada's future which +lies in the hands of the children of Montreal, and the Province of +Quebec generally, will be for the good of the Dominion. Certainly the +attitude of the people as shown in the packed and ecstatic streets of +Montreal was a very good omen. + +The welcome had had its usual effect on the Prince. The formal salute +never had a chance, and from the outset of the ride he had stood up in +his car and waved back in answer to the cheering of the crowd. When +standing for so many miles tired him, he sat high up on the folded +hood, with one of his suite to hold him, and he did not stop waving his +hat. In this way he accomplished the thirty-six miles ride, only +slipping down into his seat as the car mounted the stiff zig-zag that +led up Mount Royal to the luncheon pavilion. + +The slowness of this climb was, in a sense, his undoing. As his car +neared the top of the hill, two Montreal flappers, whose extreme youth +was only exceeded by their extreme daring, sprang on to the footboard +and held him up with autograph books. He immediately produced a +fountain pen, and sitting once more on the back of the car, wrote his +name as the car went along, and the young ladies from Montreal clung on +to it. + +This delightful act was too much for one of the maidens, for, on +getting her book back, she kissed the Prince impulsively, and then in a +sudden attack of deferred modesty, sprang from the car and ran for her +blushes' sake. + +From the luncheon pavilion the Prince was whirled to the Royal train, +and in that, after a recuperative round of golf at a course just +outside Montreal, he set out for the comparative calm of the great West. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +ON THE ROAD TO TROUT + +I + +The run on the days following the packed moments of Montreal was one of +luxurious indolence. The Royal train was heading for the almost fabled +trout of Nipigon, where, among the beauties of lake and stream, the +Prince was to take a long week-end fishing and preparing for more +crowds and more strenuosity in the Canadian West. + +Through those two days the train seemed to meander in a leisurely +fashion through varied and attractive country, only stopping now and +then as though it had to work off a ceremonial occasionally as an +excuse for existing at all. + +The route ran through pleasant, farmed land between Montreal and North +Bay and Sudbury, and then switched downward through the bleak nickel +and copper country to the beautiful coast of Lake Huron on its way to +Sault Ste. Marie. From this town, which the whole Continent knows as +"Soo," it plunged north through the magnificent scenery of the Algoma +area to Oba, and, turning west again (and in the night), it ran on to +Nipigon Lake. + +It was a genial and attractive run. We sat, as it were, lapped in the +serenity of the C.P.R., and studied the view. Wherever there were +houses there were people, to wave something at the Prince's car. At +one homestead a man and his wife stood alone near the split-rail fence, +the woman curtsying, the man, who had obviously been a soldier, +flag-wagging some message we could not catch, with a big red ensign; an +infinitely touching sight, that couple getting their greeting to the +Prince in spite of difficulties. On the stations the local school +children were always drawn up in ranks, most of them holding flags, +many having a broad red-white-and-blue ribbon across their front rank +to show their patriotism. + +At North Bay, a purposeful little town that lets the traveller either +into the scenic and sporting delights of Lake Nipissing, or into the +mining districts of the Timiskaming country, there was a bright little +reception. North Bay is a characteristic Canadian town. It was born +in a night, so to speak, and its growth outstrips editions of guide +books. Outside the neat station there is a big grass oblong, and about +this green the frame houses and the shops extend. Behind it is the +town so keen on growing up about the big railway repair shops, that it +has no time yet to give to road-making. + +The ceremonial was in the green oblong, and all North Bay left their +houses and shops to attend. The visit had more the air of a family +party than aught else, for, after a mere pretence of keeping ranks, the +people broke in upon the function, and Prince and Staff and people +became inextricably mixed. When His Royal Highness took car to drive +around the town, the crowd cut off the cars in the procession, and for +half an hour North Bay was full of orderlies and committee-men +automobiling about speculative streets in search of a missing Prince, +plus one Mayor. + +Sudbury, the same type of town, growing at a distracting pace because +of its railway connection and its smelting plants, had the same sort of +ceremony. From here we passed through a land of almost sinister +bleakness. There were tracts livid and stark, entirely without +vegetation, and with the livid white and naked surface cut into wild +channels and gullies by rains that must have been as pitiless as the +land. It was as though we had steamed out of a human land into the +drear valleys of the moon, and one expected to catch glimpses of +creatures as terrifying as any Mr. Wells has imagined. So cadaverous a +realm could breed little else. + +It was the country of nickel and copper. We saw occasionally the +buildings and workings (scarce less grim than the land) through the +agency of which came the grey slime that had rendered the country so +bleak. They are particularly rich mines, and rank high among the +nickel workings in the world. They were also, let it be said, of +immense value to the Allies during the war. + +Pushing south, the line soon redeems itself in the beauty of the lakes. +It bends to skirt the shore of Lake Huron, a great blue sea, and yet +but a link in the chain of great lakes that lead from Superior through +it to Erie and Ontario lakes, and on to the St. Lawrence. + +We arrived on a beautiful evening at Algoma, a spot as delightful as a +Cornish village, on the beach of that inlet of Lake Huron called +Georgian Bay. We walked in the astonishing quiet of the evening +through the tiny place, and along the deep, sandy road that has not yet +been won from the primitive forests, to where but a tiny fillet of +beach stood between the spruce woods and the vast silence of the water. +From that serene and quiet spot we looked through the still evening to +the far and beautiful Islands. + +In the wonderful clear air, and with all the soft colours of the sunset +glowing in the still water, the beauty of the place was almost too +poignant. We might have been the discoverers of an uninhabited bay in +the Islands of the Blessed. I have never known any place so remote, so +still and so beautiful. But it was far from being uninhabited. There +were rustic picnic tables under the spruce trees, and there was a +diving-board standing over the clear water. The inhabitants of Algoma +knew the worth of this place, and we felt them to be among the luckiest +people on the earth. + +The islands we saw far away in the soft beauty of the sunset, and +between which the enigmatic light of a lake steamer was moving, are +said to be Hiawatha's Islands. In any case, it was here that the +pageant of Hiawatha was held some years back, and across the still lake +in that pageant, Hiawatha in his canoe went out to be lost in the +glories of the sunset. + + +II + +On the morning of Tuesday, September 4th, the train skirted Georgian +Bay, passing many small villages given over to lumber and fishing, and +all having, with their tiny jetties, motor launches and sailing boats, +something of the perfection of scenes viewed in a clear mirror. By +mid-morning the train reached Sault Ste. Marie. + +"Soo" is a vivid place. It is a young city on the rise. A handful of +years ago it was a French mission, beginning to turn its eyes languidly +towards lumber. It is on the neck that joins the waters of Superior +and Huron, but the only through traffic was that of the voyageurs, who +made the portage round the stiff St. Mary's Rapids, that, with a drop +of eighteen feet in their length, forbade any vessel but that of the +canoe of the adventurer to pass their troubled waters. + +Then America and Canada began to build canals and locks to link the +great lakes, in spite of the Rapids, and "Soo" woke. It has been awake +and living since that moment. It has been playing lock against lock +with the Michigan men across the river, each planning cunningly to +establish a system that will carry the long lake vessels not only in +locks befitting their size, but in locks that can be handled more +swiftly than those of the rival. + +At the moment the prize is with Canada. It has a lock nine hundred +feet long, and can do the business of lowering a great vessel from +Superior to Huron with one action, where America uses four locks. The +Americans have a larger lock than the Canadian, but the Canadians are +quicker. + +And this means something. The traffic on these lakes is greater than +the traffic on many seas. Down this vast water highway come the narrow +pencils of lake-boats carrying grain and ore and lumber in hulls that +are all hold. They come and go incessantly. "Soo," indeed, handles +about three times the tonnage of Suez yearly, and there is the American +side to add to that. + +With this brisk movement of commercial life within her, "Soo" has +thrived like a cold. Where, in the old days, the local inhabitants +could be reckoned on the fingers of two hands, there is now a city of +about twenty thousand, and it is still growing. It is a city of +graceful streets and neat houses climbing over the Laurentine Hills +that make the site. It is breezy and self-assured, and draws its +comfortable affluence from its shipping, its paper-mills, its steel +works, as well as from lumber, agriculture and other industries. + +It met the Prince as becomes a youth of promise. Crowds massed on the +lawns before the red sandstone station, and in all the streets there +were crowds. And crowds followed his every movement, however swift it +was, for "Soo" has the automobile fever as badly as any other town in +Canada, and car owners packed their families, even to the youngest in +arms, into tonneaux and joined a procession a mile long, that followed +the Prince about the town. + +It is true that some of the crowd was America out to look at Royalty. +Americans were not slow to make the most of the fact that they were to +have a Prince across the river. From early morning the ferry that runs +from Michigan to the British Empire was packed with Republican autos +and Republicans on foot, all eager to be there when Royalty arrived. +They gathered in the streets and joined in the procession. They gave +the Prince the hearty greeting of good-fellows. They were as good +friends of his as anybody there. They did, in fact, give us a +foretaste of what we were to expect when the Prince went to the United +States. + +There were the usual functions. They took place high on a hill, from +which the Prince could look down upon the blue waters of the linked +lakes, the many factory chimneys, the smoke of which threw a quickening +sense of human endeavour athwart the scene, and the great jack-knife +girder bridge, that is the railway connection between Canada and +America, but above the usual functions the visit to "Soo" had items +that made it particularly interesting. + +He went to the great lock that carries the interlake traffic. He +crossed from one side of it to the other, and then stood out on the +lock gate, while it was opened to allow the passage of several small +vessels. From here he went to the Algoma Railway, at the head of the +canal, and in a special car was taken to the rapids that tumble down in +foam between the two countries. + +The train was brought to a standstill at the international boundary, +where two sentries, Canadian and American, face each other, and where +there was another big crowd, this time all American, to give him a +cheer. + +He then spent some time visiting the paper mill that helps to make +"Soo" rich. He went over it department by department, asking many +questions and showing that the processes fascinated him intensely. In +the same way he went through the steel works, and was again intrigued +by the sight of "things doing." It was, as he said himself, one of the +most interesting days he had spent in the Dominion. + + +III + +"Soo" let us into a wonderful tract of country. + +Still in the sumptuous C.P.R. train, we swung north over the Algoma +Railway track into a land so wildly magnificent and yet so lonely, that +one felt that the railway line must have been built by poets for +poets--we could not imagine it thriving on anything else. + +As a matter of fact, it does link up rich mining and other territory, +and, in time, will open a land of equal value, but just now its chief +asset is scenery. + +The scenery is superb. Its hills are huge and battlemented. They leap +up sheer above the train, menacing it; they drop down starkly, leaving +the line clinging to a ledge above a white, angry stream on a white +rock bed. They crowd the line into gorges, from which the sun is +banished, and where the moveless firs look like lost souls chained in +the gloom of Eblis. They expand abruptly, suddenly, into swinging +valleys, on whose great flanks the spruce forests look like toy +decorations hanging above floors of shining sapphire--lakes, of course, +but one could not think that any lake could be so blue. + +Lakes fretted into lagoons by thin white slivers of shingle; rivers +full of tumbled and dishevelled logs; forests in green, in which the +crimson maple leaf burns brightly; vast amphitheatres of cliff-like +hills; mounds of the stark Laurentine rock pushing up through trees +like bald heads through the sparse covering of departing hair; miles of +blanched trees and black trees standing like skeletons or strewn +all-whither, like billets of stick--acres of murdered stumps, where +evil forest fires have swept along; and we had even an occasional +glimpse of that scourge of Canada seen smoking sullenly in the +distance--all this heaped together, piled together in a reckless +luxuriance makes up the scenery of the Algoma country. + +Only rarely does one see the hut of rough logs and clay that denotes +the settler, only occasionally is there a station, or a mill or a +logging camp in this womb of loneliness. Only occasionally does one +cross one of those lengthy and rakish spider bridges that give a hint +of man and his works. + +On a long bridge, over the Montreal river, we made the most of man and +his works. It is a lengthy, curving bridge, built giddily on stilts +above the boulder-strewn bed of a wicked stream. We were admiring it +as a desperate work of engineering, when the train stopped with a +disconcerting bump. It stopped with violence. And when we had picked +ourselves up we looked out of the train and saw nothing--only that +particularly vicious river and those unpleasantly jagged rocks. + +When one is on a Canadian bridge this is all one sees--the depth one is +going to drop, and what one is going to drop on. The top of the bridge +is wide enough for the rails only, and the sides of the carriages hang +beyond the rails. And there are no parapets. One just looks plumb +down. We looked down, and back and forward. The struts and girders of +the bridge seemed made of pack-thread and spider's web. We wondered +why we should have stopped in the middle of such a place of all places. +And the train looked so enormous. We asked the superintendent if the +bridge could hold it. + +He said he thought so, but it had never been tested by such a weight +before. + +From the way he said "thought," we gathered he meant "hoped." + +Somebody had wanted to show the Prince the view. It was a fine view, +but we were not sorry it wasn't permanent. With the view, the Prince +took in a little shooting at clay pigeons in view of the days he was to +spend in sporting Nipigon. + +We ran straight on to Nipigon, only stopping at Oba, and that in the +night. But before the night came Canada and Algoma gave us an +exquisite sunset. We saw the light of the sun on a vast stretch of +hummocks and hills of bald rock. They had been clothed with forest +before the fires had passed over them. As the sun set, an exquisite +thin cherry light shone evenly on the hills and bluffs, and on the thin +and naked trees that stood up like wands in this eerie and clarified +light. In the distance there was a faint vermilion in the sky, and +where the tree stumps fringed the bare hills, they gave the suggestion +of a band of violet edging the land. And all this in an air as clear +and shining as still water. It seemed to me that Canada was waiting +there for a painter of a new vision to catch its wonder. + +Even in the loneliness we were never far away from the human equation. +During the afternoon we had a touch of it. It was discovered by the +Prince that his train was being driven by a V.C., or, rather, one of +the men on the engine, the fireman, was a V.C. This man, +Staff-Sergeant Meryfield, had won the distinction at Cambrai, and had +returned to his calling in the ordinary way. He came back from the +engine cab through the train, a very modest fellow, to be presented to +the Prince, who spent a few minutes chatting with him. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +PICNICS AND PRAIRIES + +I + +Early on the morning of Friday, September 5th, the train passed through +the second tunnel it had encountered in Canada, and came to a small +stopping-place amid trees. + +It was a lady's pocket handkerchief of a station, made up of a tool +shed, a few houses and a road leading away from it. Its significance +lay in the road leading away from it. That road leads to Nipigon river +and lake, one of the finest trout waters in Canada. Even at that it is +only famous half the year, for it hibernates in winter like any other +thing in Canada that finds snow and remoteness too much for it. + +At this station--Nipigon Lodge--the Prince, in shooting knickers and a +great anxiety to be off and away, left the train at 8.30, and walking +along the road, came to the launch that was to take him down river to +the fishing camp where he was to spend a week-end of sport. + +Leaving this little waterside village of neglected fishermen's huts, +for the season was late and the tourists that usually fill them had all +gone, he went down the beautiful stream to the more than beautiful +Virgin Falls. Here he met his outfit, thirty-eight Indian guides, all +of them experts in camp life and cunning in the secrets of stream and +wood. + +In the care of these high priests of sport, he left civilization, in +the shape of the launch, behind him, and in a canoe fished down stream +until the lovely reaches of Split-rock were attained; here, on the +banks of the stream, amid the thick ranks of spruce, the camp was +pitched. + +At first it had been the intention to push on after a day's sport to +other camping-places, but the situation and the comfort of this camp +was so satisfactory that the Prince decided to stay, and made it his +headquarters during the week-end. + +It was no camp of amateur sportsmen playing at the game. It was not, +perhaps, "roughing" it as the woodsman knows it, for he lies hard in a +floorless tent (if he has one), as well as lives laboriously, but it +was certainly a rough and ready life, as near that of the woodsman as +possible. + +The Prince slept in a tent, rose early, bathed in the river and shaved +in the open in exactly the same manner as every one else in the party. +He took his place in the "grub queue," carrying his plate to the +cook-house and demanding his particular choice in bacon and eggs, +broiled trout, flapjacks, or the wonderful white flatbread, which the +cook, an Indian, Jimmy Bouchard, celebrated for open-fire cooking, knew +how to prepare. + +Sometimes before breakfast the Prince indulged his passion for running; +always after breakfast he set out on foot, or in canoe for the day's +fishing, returning late at night hungry and tired with the healthy +weariness of hard exertion to the camp meal. There were spells round +the big camp fire burning vividly amid the trees, and then sleep in the +tent. + +The fishing was usually done from the bass canoe, two Indian guides +being always the ship's company. And fishing was not the only +attraction of the stream and lake. There is always the thrilling, +placid beauty of the scenery, the deep forests, the lake valleys, and +the austere, forest-clad hills that rise abruptly from the enigmatic +pools. And there is the active beauty of the many rapids, those +piled-up and rushing masses of angry water, tossing and foaming in +pent-up force through rock gates and over rocks. + +He tried the adventure of these rapids, shooting through the tortured +waters that look so beautiful from the shore and so terrible from the +frail structure of a canoe, until it seemed to him as though not even +the skill of his guides could steer through safely. He got through +safely, but only after an experience which he described as the most +exciting in his life. + +The fishing itself proved disappointing. The famous speckled trout of +Nipigon did not rise to the occasion, and the sport was fair, but not +extraordinary. The best day brought in twenty-seven fish, the largest +being three and a half pounds, not a good specimen of the lake's trout, +which go to six and eight pounds in the ordinary course of things. + +And the disappointment had an irony of its own. The man who caught the +most fish was the man who couldn't fish at all. The official +photographer, who had gone solely to take snapshots, also took the +maximum of fish out of the river. Indeed, he was so much of an amateur +that the first fish he caught placed him in such a predicament that he +did not play it, but landed it with so vigorous a jerk that it flew +over his head and caught high in a fir. An Indian guide had to climb +the tree to "land" it. + +Nevertheless, he caught the most fish, and when he returned with his +spoil, the Prince said to him: + +"Look here, don't you realize I'm the one to do that? You're taking my +place in the program." + +The reason for the indifferent sport was probably the lateness of the +season--it was practically finished when the Prince arrived--and the +fact that Nipigon had had a record summer, with large parties of +sportsmen working its reaches steadily all the time. The fish were +certainly shy, particularly, it seemed, of fly, and the best catches +were made with a small fish, a sort of bull-headed minnow called +cocatoose, that creeps about close to the rocks. + +Of course, trout, even if famous, are naturally temperamental. They +will rise in dozens at unexpected times, just as they will refuse all +temptations for weeks on end. An Englishman, and no mean fisherman, +once went to Nipigon to show the local inhabitants how fishing should +be done. A master in British waters, he considered the speckled +monsters of the lakes fit victims for his rod and fly. He went out +with his guides to catch fish, and after a few days among the big trout +came back disgusted. + +"Did you catch any trout?" he was asked by one of his party. + +"Catch 'em," he snapped. "How can one catch 'em? The infernal things +are anchored." + +Walking and duck shooting was also in the program, and there were other +excitements. + +The weather, delightful during the first two days, broke on Sunday, and +there were bad winds, rainstorms and occasional hailstorms, when stones +as big as small pebbles drummed on the tents and bombarded the camp. + +So fierce was the wind that the Royal Standard on a high flagstaff was +carried away. A pine tree was also uprooted, and fell with a crash +between the Prince's tent and that of one of his suite. A yard either +way and the tent would have been crushed. Fortunately the Prince was +not in the tent at that moment, but the happening gave the camp its +sense of adventure. + +During this rest, too, the Prince suffered a little from his eyes, an +irritation caused by grains of steel that had blown into them while +viewing the works at "Soo." His right hand was also painful from the +heartiness of Toronto, and the knuckles swollen. To set these matters +right, the doctor went up from the train, and by the Indian canoe that +carried the mail and the daily news bulletin, reached the camp. + +When he returned on Monday, September 8th, the Prince was looking +undeniably fit. He marched up the railway from the lake in +footer-shorts and golf jacket, with an air of one who had thoroughly +enjoyed "roughing it." + + +II + +While the Prince and his party were camping, the train remained in +Nipigon, a tiny village set in complete isolation on the edge of the +river and in the heart of the woods. + +It is a little germ-culture of humanity cut off from the world. The +only way out is, apparently, the railway, though, perhaps, one could +get away by the boats that come up to load pulp wood, or by the petrol +launches that scurry out on to Lake Superior and its waterside towns. +But the roads out of it, there appear to be none. Follow any track, +and it fades away gently into the primitive bush. + +It is a nest of loneliness that has carried on after its old office as +a big fur collecting post--you see the original offices of Revillon +Frères and the Hudson Bay Company standing today--has gone. Now it +lives on lumber and the fishing, and one wonders what else. + +Its tiny station, through which the Transcontinental trains thunder, is +faced by a long, straggling green, and fringing the green is a row of +wooden shops and houses equally straggling. They have a somnolent and +spiritless air. Behind is a wedge of pretty dwellings stretching down +to the river, tailing off into an Indian encampment by the stream, +where, about dingy tepees, a dozen or so stoic children play. + +There are three hundred souls in the village, mainly Finns and Indians +become Canadians. They are not the Indians of Fenimore Cooper, but men +who wear peaked caps, bright blouse shirts or sweaters, with broad +yellow, blue and white stripes (a popular article of wear all over +Canada), and women who wear the shin skirts and silks of civilization. +Only here and there one sees old squaw women, stout and brown and bent, +with the plaid shawl of modernity making up for the moccasins of their +ancient race. + +Small though it is, or perhaps because it is so small and observable, +Nipigon is an example of the amalgam from which the Canadian race is +being fused. We went, for instance, to a dance given by the Finns in +their varnished, brown-wood hall on the Saturday night. It was an +attractive and interesting evening. The whole of the village, without +distinction, appeared to be there. And they mixed. Indian women in +the silk stockings, high heels and glowing frocks of suburbia, danced +(and danced well) with high cheek-boned, monosyllabic Finns in grey +sweaters, workaday trousers and coats and bubble-toed boots. A vivid +Canadian girl in semi-evening dress went round in the jazz with a guard +of the Royal train. A policeman from the train danced with a Finnish +girl, demure and well-dressed, who might have been anything from the +leader of local Society to a clerk (i.e., a counter hand) in one of the +shops. For all we knew, the plumber might have been dancing with the +leading citizen's daughter, and the local Astor with the local +dressmaker's assistant. + +In any case, it didn't matter. In Canada they don't think about that +sort of thing. They were all unconcerned and happy in the big, +generous spirit of equality that makes Canada the home of one big +family rather than the dwelling-place of different classes and social +grades. This fact was not new to us; naturally, we had seen and mixed +with Canadians in hotels and on the street elsewhere. In those +gathering-places of humanity, the hotels, we had lived with the big, +jolly, homely crowds without social strata, who might very well have +changed places with the waiters and the waiters with them without +anybody noticing any difference. That would not have meant a loss of +dignity to anybody. Nobody has any use for social status in the +Dominion, the only standard being whether a man is a "mixer" or not. + +By way of a footnote, I might say that waiters, even as waiters, are on +the way to take seats as guests, since, apparently, waiting is only an +occupation a man takes up until he finds something worth while. Not +unexpectedly Canadian waiting suffers through this. + +What we had seen in the large towns, and in the large gregarious life +of cities, we saw "close up" at Nipigon. The varied crowd, Finns, +British, Canadian and Indian (one of the Indians, a young dandy, had +served with distinction during the war, had married a white Canadian, +and was one of the richest men present), danced without social +distinctions in that pleasant hall to Finn folk-songs that had never +been set down on paper played on an accordion. It was a delightful +evening. + +For the rest, those with the train fished (or, rather, went through all +the ritual with little of the results), walked, bathed in the lake, +watched the American "movie" men in their endeavours to convert the +British to baseball, or endeavoured, with as little success, to convert +the baseball "fans" to cricket. The recreations of Nipigon were not +hectic, and we were glad to get on to towns and massed life again. + +I confess our view of Nipigon of the hundred houses was not that of the +Indian boy who discussed it with us. He told us Nipigon was not the +place for him. + +"You wait," he said. "Next year I go. Next year I am fifteen. Then I +go out into the woods. I go right away. I can't stand this city life." + + +III + +Canada, on Monday, September 8th, demonstrated its amazing faculty for +startling contrasts. It lifted the Prince from the primitive to the +ultra-modern in a single movement. In the morning he was in the silent +forests of Nipigon, a tract so wild that man seemed no nearer than a +thousand miles. Three hours later he was moving amid the dense crowds +that filled the streets of the latest word in industrial cities. + +He stepped straight from Nipigon to the twin cities of Port Arthur and +Fort William. These two cities are really one, and together form the +great trade pool into which the traffic of the vast grain-bearing West +and North-West pours for transport on the Great Lakes. + +These two cities sprang from the little human nucleus made up of a +Jesuit mission and a Hudson Bay Company depot of the old days. They +stand on Thunder Bay, a deep-water sack thrusting out from Lake +Superior under the slopes of flat-topped Thunder Cape. The situation +is ideal for handling the trade of the great lake highway that swings +the traffic through the heart of the Western continent. + +Port Arthur and Fort William have seen their chances and made the most +of them. They have constructed great wharves along the bay to +accommodate a huge traffic. Over the wharves they have built up the +greatest grain elevators in the world, not a few of them but a series, +until the cities seemed to be inhabited solely by these giants. These +elevators and stores collect and distribute the vast streams of grain +that pour in from the prairies, at whose door the cities stand, +distributing it across the lakes to the cities of America, or along the +lakes to the Canadian East and the railways that tranship it to Europe. + +On the quays are the towering lattices of patent derricks, forests of +them, that handle coal and ore and cargoes of infinite variety. And +the [Transcriber's note: word(s) possibly missing from source] derricks +and the elevators are the uncannily long and lean lake freighters, +ships with a tiny deck superstructure forward of a great rake of hold, +and a tiny engine-house astern under the stack. And by these grain +boats are the ore tramps and coal boats from Lake Erie, and cargo boats +with paper pulp for England made in the big mills that turn the forests +about Lake Superior into riches. + +Not content with docking boats, the twin cities build them. They build +with equal ease a 10,000-ton freighter, or a great sky-scraping tourist +boat to ply between Canada and the American shores. And presently it +will be sending its 10,000-tonners direct to Liverpool; they only await +the deepening of the Welland Canal near Niagara before starting a +regular service on this 4,000-mile voyage. + +They are modern cities, indeed, that snatch every chance for wealth and +progress, and use even the power that Nature gives in numerous falls to +work their dynamos, and through them their many mills and factories. +And the marvel of these cities is that they are inland cities--inland +ports thousands of miles from the nearest salt water. + +These places gave the Prince the welcome of ardent twins. Their +greeting was practically one, for though the train made two stops, and +there were two sets of functions, there are only a few minutes' +train-time between them, and the greetings seemed of a continuous whole. + +Port Arthur had the Prince first for a score of minutes, in which +crowds about the station showed their welcome in the Canadian way. It +was here we first came in touch with the "Mounties," the fine men of +the Royal North-West Mounted Police, whose scarlet coats, jaunty +stetsons, blue breeches and high tan boots set off the carriage of an +excellently set-up body of men. They acted as escort while the Prince +drove into the town to a charming collegiate garden, where the Mayor +tried to welcome him formally. + +Tried is the only word. How could Prince or Mayor be formal when both +stood in the heart of a crowd so close together that when the Mayor +read his address the document rested on the Prince's chest, while at +the Prince's elbows crowded little boys and other distinguished +citizens? Formal or not, it was very human and very pleasant. + +Returning through the town, something went wrong with the procession. +Many of the automobiles forcing their way through the crowd to the +train--which stood beside the street--found there was no Prince. We +stood about asking what was happening and where it was happening. +After ten minutes of this an automobile driver strolled over from a car +and asked "what was doing now?" + +We consulted the programs and told him that the Prince was launching a +ship. + +"He is, is he?" said the driver without passion. "Well, I've got +members of the shipbuilding company and half the reception committee in +my car." + +In spite of that, the Prince launched a fine boat, that took the water +broadside in the lake manner, before going on to Fort William. + +Fort William had an immense crowd upon the green before the station, on +the station, and even on the station buildings. Part of the crowd was +made up of children, each one of them a representative of the +nationalities that came from the Old World to find a new life and a new +home in Canada. Each of them was dressed in his or her national +costume, making an interesting picture. + +There were twenty-four children, each of a different race, and the +races ranged from France to Slovenia, from Persia to China and Syria. +There were negroes and Siamese and Czecho-Slovaks in this remarkable +collection of elements from whose fusion Canada of today is being +fashioned. + +The Prince drove through the cheering streets of Fort William, and paid +visits to some of the great industrial concerns, before setting out for +Winnipeg and the wide-flung spaces of the West. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE CITY OF WHEAT--WINNIPEG, MANITOBA + +I + +We had a hint of what the Western welcome was going to be like from the +Winnipeg papers that were handed to us with our cantaloupe at breakfast +on Tuesday, September 9th. + +They were concerning themselves brightly and strenuously with the +details of the visit that day, and were also offering real Western +advice on the etiquette of clothes. + + +"SILK LIDS AND STRIPED PANTS FOR THE BIG DAY" + +formed the main headline, taking the place of space usually given to +Baseball reports or other vital news. And pen pictures of Western +thrill were given of leading men chasing in and out of the stores of +the town in an attempt to buy a "Silk Lid" (a top hat) in order to be +fit to figure at receptions. + +The writer had even broken into verse to describe the emotions of the +occasion. Despairing of prose he wrote: + + Get out the old silk bonnet, + Iron a new shine on it. + Just pretend your long-tailed coat does not seem queer, + For we'll be all proper + As a crossing "copper" + When the Prince of Wales is here. + + +The Ladies' Page also caught the infection. It crossed its page with a +wail: + +"GIRLS! OH, GIRLS! SILVER SLIPPERS CANNOT BE HAD!" + +and it went on for columns to tell how silver slippers were the only +kind the Prince would look at. He had chosen all partners at all balls +in all towns by the simple method of looking for silver slippers. The +case of those without silver slippers was hopeless. The maidens of +Winnipeg well knew this. There had been a silver slipper battue +through all the stores, and all had gone--it was, so one felt from the +article, a crisis for all those who had been slow. + +A rival paper somewhat calmed the anxious citizens by stating that the +Silk Lid and the Striped Pants were not necessities, and that the +Prince himself did not favour formal dress--a fact, for indeed, he +preferred himself the informality of a grey lounge suit always, when +not wearing uniform, and did not even trouble to change for dinner +unless attending a function. The paper also hinted that he had eyes +for other things in partners besides silver slippers. + +These papers gave us an indication that not only would "Winnipeg be +polished to the heels of its shoes" at the coming of the Prince, but to +continue the metaphor, it would be enthusiastic to well above its +hat-band. And it was. + + +II + +Certainly Winnipeg's welcome did not stop at the huge mass of +heels--high as well as low--that carried it out to look at the Prince +on his arrival. It mounted well up to the heart and to the head as he +left the wide-open space in front of the C.P.R. station, and, with a +brave escort of red-tuniced "Mounties," swung into the old pioneer +trail--only it is called Main Street now--toward the Town Hall. + +The exceedingly broad street was lined with immense crowds, that, on +the whole, kept their ranks like a London rather than a Canadian throng +for at least two hundred yards. + +Then this imported docility gave way, and the press of people became +entirely Canadian. The essential spirit of the Canadian, like that of +the citizen of another country, is that "he will be there." Or perhaps +I should say he "will be _right_ there." Anyhow, there he was as close +to the Prince as he could get without actually climbing into the +carriage that was slowing down before the daïs among trees in the +garden before the City Hall. + +In a minute where there had been a broad open space lined with neat +policemen, there was a swamping mass of Canadians of all ages, and the +Prince was entirely hemmed in. In fact only a free fight of the most +amiable kind got him out of the carriage and on to the daïs. The +Marine orderlies, and others of the suite, joined in an attempt to +press the throng back. They could accomplish nothing until the +"Mounties" came to their aid, forced a passage with their horses, and +so permitted the Prince to mount the daïs and hear the Mayor say what +the crowd had been explaining for the past ten minutes, that is, how +glad Winnipeg was to see him. + +It was the usual function, but varied a little. Winnipeg has not +always been happy in the matter of its water supply, and the day and +the Prince came together to inaugurate a new era. It was accomplished +in the modern manner. The Prince pressed a button on the platform and +water-gates on Shoal Lake outside the city swung open. In a minute or +two a dry fountain in the gardens before the Prince threw up a jet of +water. The new water had come to Winnipeg. + +Through big crowds on the sidewalks he passed through an avenue of +fine, tall and modern stores, along Broadway, where the tram-tracks +fringed with grass and trees run down the centre of a wide boulevard +that is edged with lawns and trees, and so to the new Parliament +Buildings. + +Here there was a vivid and shining scene before the great white curtain +of a classic building not yet finished. + +In the wide forecourt was a mass of children bearing flags, and up the +great flight of steps leading to the impressive Corinthian porch was a +bank of people, jewelled with flags and vivid in gay dresses. Against +the sharp white mass of the building this living, thrilling bed of +humanity made an unforgettable picture. + +The ceremony in the spacious entrance hall was also full of the +movement and colour of life. In the massive square hall stairs spring +upward to the gallery on which the Prince stood. On the level of each +floor galleries were cut out of the solid stone of the walls. Crowded +in these galleries were men and women, who looked down the shaft of +this austere chamber upon a grouping of people about the foot of the +cold, white ascending stairs. The strong, clear light added to the +dramatic dignity of the scene. + +The groups moved up the white stairs slowly between the ranks of +Highlanders, whose uniforms took on a vividity in the clarified light. +The Prince in Guard's uniform, with his suite in blue and gold and +khaki and red behind him, stood on the big white stage of the +stair-head to receive them. It was a scene that had all the tone and +all the circumstances of an Eastern levée. + +But it was a levée with a fleck of humour, also. + +As he turned to leave, the Prince noticed beside him a handsome +armchair upholstered in royal blue. It was a strange, lonely chair in +that desert of gallery and standing humanity. It was a chair that +needed explaining. + +In characteristic fashion the Prince bent down to it to find an +explanation. The crowd, knowing all about that chair and understanding +his puzzlement, began to laugh. It laughed outright and with +sympathetic humour when, abruptly handing his Guards' cap to one of his +staff, he solemnly sat down in it for a second instead of going his way. + +The chair was the chair his father and grandfather had sat in when they +came to Winnipeg. Silver medallions on it gave testimony to facts. +The Prince had not time to adopt a fully considered sitting, but he was +not going to leave the building until he, too, had registered his claim +to it. + +In the big Campus that fronts the University of Manitoba, and ranked by +thousands in a hollow square, were the veterans in khaki and civies who +had fought as comrades of the Prince in the war. To these he went next. + +It was a lengthy ceremony, for there were many to inspect. There were +Canadian Highlanders and riflemen in the square, as well as veterans +dating back to the time of the North-West Rebellion of '85. And there +was also the regimental goat of the 5th West Canadians, a big, husky +fellow, who endeavoured to take control of the ceremony with his horns, +as befitted a veteran who sported four service chevrons and a wound +stripe. + +Here, too, the crowd was the most stirring and remarkable feature of +the ceremony. It began with an almost European placidity of decorum, +standing quietly behind the wooden railing on three sides of the +Campus, and as quietly filling the seats in and about the glowingly +draped grand stand before the University building. As the ceremony +proceeded, however, the crowd behind the stand pressed forward, getting +out on to the field. Soldiers linked arms to keep it back, soldiers +with bayonets were drawn from the ranks of veterans to give additional +weight, wise men mounted the stand and strove to stem the forward +pressure with logic. But that crowd was filled with much the same +spirit that made the sea so difficult a thing to reason with in King +Canute's day. Neither soldiers nor words of the wise could check it. +It flowed forward into the Campus, a sea of men and women, shop girls +not caring a fig if they _were_ "late back" and had a half-day docked, +children who swarmed amid Olympian legs, babies in mothers' arms, whose +presence in that crush was a matter of real terror to us less hardened +British--an impetuous mass of young and old, masculine and feminine +life that cared nothing for hard elbows and torn clothes as long as it +got close to the Prince. + +Before the inspection was finished, before the Prince could get back to +the stand to present medals, the Campus was no longer a hollow square, +it was a packed throng. + +And the crowd, having won this vantage, took matters into its own hands +until, indeed, its ardour began to verge on the dangerous. + +As the Prince left the field the great crowd swept after him, until the +whole mass was jammed tight against the iron railings at the entrance +of the Campus. The Prince was in the heart of this throng surrounded +by police who strove to force a way out for him. The crowd fought as +heartily to get at him. There was a wild moment when the throng +charged forward and crashed the iron railings down with their weight +and force. + +There were cries of "Shoulder him! Shoulder the boy!" and a rush was +made towards him. The police had a hard struggle to keep the people +back, and, as it was, it was only the swift withdrawal of the Prince +from the scene that averted trouble; for in a crowd that had got +slightly out of hand in its enthusiasm, the presence of so many +children and women seemed to spell calamity. + +This splendid ardour is more remarkable, since, only a few months +before, Winnipeg had been the scene of an outburst which its citizens +describe as nothing else but Bolshevik. + +That outcrop of active discontent--which, by the way, was germinated in +part by Englishmen--had a loud and ugly sound, and its clamour seemed +ominous. People asked whether all the West, and indeed, all Canada, +was going to be involved. Was Canada speaking in the accents of revolt? + +Well, on September 9th, there arose another sound in Winnipeg, and it +was but part of a wave of sound that had been travelling westward for +more than a month. It was, I think, a most significant sound. It was +the sound of majorities expressing themselves. + +It was not a few shouting revolt. It was the many shouting its +affection and loyalty for tried democratic ideals. + +When minorities raise their voices our ears are dinned by the shouting +and we imagine it is a whole people speaking. We forget those who sit +silent at home, not joining in the storm. The silent mass of the +majority is overlooked because it finds so few opportunities for +self-expression. Only such a visit as this of the Prince gives them a +chance. + +It seemed to me that this display of affection had a human rather than +a political significance. It impressed me not as an affair of parties, +but as the fundamental, human desire of the great mass of ordinary +workaday people to show their appreciation for stable and democratic +ideals which the peculiarly democratic individuality of the Prince +represents. + + +III + +Winnipeg is a town with a vital spirit. It has a large air. There is +something in its spaciousness that tells of the great grain plains at +the threshold of which it stands. It is the "Chicago of Canada," and +hub of a world of grain, Queen City in the Kingdom of Bakers' Flour. +And it is mightily conscious of its high office. + +It springs upward out of the flat and brooding prairies, where the +Assiniboine and the strong Red River strike together--the old "Forks" +of the pioneer days. It sits where the old trails of the pathfinder +and the fur trader join, and its very streets grew up about those +trails. + +From the piles of pelts dumped by Indians and hunters outside the old +Hudson Bay stockade at Fort Garry, and the sacks of raw grain that the +old prairie schooners brought in, Winnipeg of today has grown up. + +And it has grown up with the astonishing, swift maturity of the West. +Fifty years ago there was not even a village. Forty years ago it was a +mere spot on the world map, put there only to indicate the locality of +Louis Kiel's Red River Rebellion, and Wolseley's march to Fort Garry, +as its name was. In 1881 it became just Winnipeg, a townlet with less +than 8,000 souls in it. Today it ranks with the greatest commercial +cities in Canada, and its greatness can be felt in the tingling energy +of its streets. + +The wonder of that swift growth is a thing that can be brought directly +home. I stood on the station with a man old but still active, and he +said to me: + +"Do you see that block of buildings over there? I had the piece of +ground on which it was built. I sold it for a hundred dollars, it was +prairie then. It's worth many thousands now. And that piece where +that big factory stands, that was mine. I let that go for under three +hundred, and the present owners bought in the end for twenty and more +times that sum. Oh, we were all foolish then, how could we tell that +Winnipeg was going to grow? It was a 'back-block' town, shacks along a +dusty track. And the railway hadn't come. A three-story wooden house, +that was a marvel to be sure; now we have skyscrapers." + +And fast though Winnipeg has grown, or because she has grown at such a +pace, one can still see the traces and feel the spirit of the old +spacious days in her streets. They are long streets and so planned +that they seem to have been built by men who knew that there were no +limits on the immense plains, and so broad that one knows that the +designers had been conscious that there was no need to pinch the +sidewalks and carriage-ways with all the prairie at the back of them. + +Along these sumptuous avenues there still remain many of the low-built +and casual houses that men put up in the early days, and it is these +standing beside the modernity of the business buildings, soaring +sky-high, the massive grain elevators and the big brisk mills that give +the city its curious blending of pioneer days and thrusting, +twentieth-century virility. + +It is a town like no other that we had visited, and where one had the +feeling that up-to-date card-indexing systems were being worked by men +in the woolly riding chaps of old plainsmen. + +In the people of the streets one experienced the same curious sense of +"difference." In splendid boulevards such as Main, and Portage, which +turns from it, there are stores worthy of New York and London in size, +smartness and glowing attraction. And the women crowds that make these +streets busy are as crisply dressed in modern fashions as any on the +Continent, but there is a definite individuality in the air of the men. + +Canadian men dress with a conspicuous indifference. They wear anything +from overalls and broad-banded sweaters to lounge suits that ever seem +ill-fitting. In Winnipeg there is the same disregard for personal +appearance plus a hat with a higher crown. As we went West the crown +of the soft hat climbed higher, and the brim became both wider and more +curly. + +There is, too, on the sidewalks of Winnipeg the conglomeration of races +that go to feed the West. The city is the great emigrant centre that +serves the farmers, the fruit-growers of the Rockies, the ranchmen in +the foothills, and even the industries on the Pacific Slopes. +Everywhere outside agencies there are great blackboards on which +demands for farm labourers at five dollars a day and other workers are +chalked. + +To these agencies flow strange men in blouse-shirts, wearing strange +caps--generally of fur--carrying strange-looking suit-cases and +speaking the strange tongues of far European or Asiatic lands. Chinese +and Japanese (whom the Canadian lumps under the general term +"Orientals"), negroes, a few Indians, and a hotch-potch of races walk +the streets of Winnipeg, and Winnipeg deals with them, houses them, +gives them advice, and distributes them over the wide lands of Canada, +where they will work and working will gradually fuse into the racial +whole that is the Canadian race. + +In the hotels, too, one notices that a change is taking place. The +"Oriental"--the Japanese in this case--takes the place of the Canadian +bell-boy and porter, and he takes this place more and more as one goes +West. There are, of course, always Chinese "Chop Suey and Noodles' +Restaurants," as well as Chinese laundries in Canadian towns; we met +them as early as St. John's, Newfoundland; but from Winnipeg to the +Pacific Coast these establishments grow in numbers, until in Vancouver +and Victoria there are big "Oriental" quarters--cities within the +cities that harbour them. + +The "Orientals" make good citizens, the Chinese particularly. They are +industrious, clever workers, especially as agriculturists, and they +give no trouble. The great drawback with them is that they do not stay +in the country, but having made their money in Canada, go home to China +to spend it. + +Most of the alien element that goes to Canada is of good quality, and +ultimately becomes a very valuable asset. But the problem Canada is +facing is that they are strangers, and, not having been brought up in +the British tradition, they know nothing of it. The tendency of this +influence is to produce a new race to which the ties of sentiment and +blood have little meaning. + +It is a problem which Britain must share also, if we do not wish to see +Canada growing up a stranger to us in texture, ideals and thought. It +is not an easy problem. Canada's chief need today is for +agriculturists, yet the workers we wish to retain most in this country +are agriculturists. Canada must have her supply, and if we cannot +afford them, she must take what she can from Eastern Europe, or from +America, and very many American farmers, indeed, are moving up to +Canadian lands. + +There is always room in a vast country such as Canada for skilled or +willing workers, and we can send them. But the demand is not great at +present, and will not be great until the agriculturist opens up the +land. And the agriculturist is to come from where? + +Certainly it is a matter which calls for a great deal of consideration. + + +IV + +The Prince made the usual round of the usual program during his stay, +but his visit to the Grain Exchange was an item that was unique. + +He drove on Wednesday, September 10th, to this dramatic place, where +brokers, apparently in a frenzy, shout and wave their hands, while the +price of grain sinks and rises like a trembling balance at their +gestures and shouts. + +The pit at which all these hustling buyers and sellers are gathered has +all the romantic qualities of fiction. It is, as far as I am +concerned, one of the few places that live up to the written pictures +of it, for it gave me the authentic thrill that had come to me when I +first read of the Chicago wheat transactions in Frank Norris's novel, +"The Pit." + +The Prince drove to the Grain Exchange and was whirled aloft to the +fourth story of the tall building. He entered a big hall in which +babel with modern improvements and complications reigned. + +In the centre of this room was the pit proper. It has nothing of the +Stygian about it. It is a hexagon of shallow steps rising from the +floor, and descending on the inner side. + +On these steps was a crowd of super-men with voices of rolled steel. +They called out cabalistic formulae of which the most intelligible to +the layman sounded something like: + +"May--eighty-three--quarter." + +Cold, high and terrible voices seemed to answer: + +"Taken." + +Hundreds of voices were doing this, amid a storm of cross shoutings, +and under a cloud of tossing hands, that signalled with fingers or with +papers. Cutting across this whirlpool of noise was the frantic +clicking of telegraph instruments. These tickers were worked by four +emotionless gods sitting high up in a judgment seat over the pit. + +They had unerring ears. They caught the separate quotations from the +seething maelstrom of sound beneath them, sifted the completed deal +from the mere speculative offer in uncanny fashion, and with their +unresting fingers ticked the message off on an instrument that carried +it to a platform high up on one of the walls. + +On this platform men in shirt-sleeves prowled backwards and +forwards--as the tigers do about feeding time in the Zoo. They, too, +had super-hearing. From little funnels that looked like electric light +shades they caught the tick of the messages, and chalked the figures of +the latest prices as they altered with the dealing on the floor upon a +huge blackboard that made the wall behind them. + +At the same time the gods on the rostrum were tapping messages to the +four corners of the world. Even Chicago and Mark Lane altered their +prices as the finger of one of these calm men worked his clicker. + +When the Prince entered the room the gong sounded to close the market, +and amid a hearty volume of cheering he was introduced to the pit, and +some of its intricacies were explained to him. The gong sounded again, +the market opened, and a storm of shouting broke over him, men making +and accepting deals over his head. + +Intrigued by the excitement, he agreed with the broker who had brought +him in, to accept the experience of making a flutter in grain. + +Immediately there were yells, "What is he, Bull or Bear?" and the +Prince, thoroughly perplexed, turned to the broker and asked what type +of financial mammal he might be. + +He became a Bull and bought. + +He did not endeavour to corner wheat in the manner of the heroes of the +stories, for wheat was controlled; he bought, instead, fifty thousand +bushels of oats. A fair deal, and he told those about him with a smile +that he was going to make several thousand dollars out of Winnipeg in a +very few moments. + +An onlooker pointed to the blackboard, and cried: + +"What about that? Oats are falling." + +But the broker was a wise man. He had avoided a royal "crash." He had +already sold at the same price, 83 1/2, and the Prince had accomplished +what is called a "cross trade." That is he had squared the deal and +only lost his commission. + +While he stood in that frantic pit of whirling voices something of the +vast transactions of the Grain Exchange was explained to him. It is +the biggest centre for the receipt and sale of wheat directly off the +land in the world. It handles grain by the million bushels. In the +course of a day, so swift and thorough are its transactions, it can +manipulate deals aggregating anything up to 150,000,000 bushels. + +When these details had been put before him, the gong was again struck, +and silence came magically. + +Unseen by most in that pack of men on the steps the Prince was heard to +say that he had come to the conclusion that to master the intricacies +of the Exchange was a science rather beyond his grasp just then. He +hoped that his trip westward would give him a more intimate knowledge +of the facts about grain, and when he came back, as he hoped he would, +he might have it in him to do something better than a "cross trade." + +From the pit the lift took him aloft again to the big sampling and +classifying room on the tenth floor of the building. The long tables +of this room were littered with small bags of grain, and with grain in +piles undergoing tests. The floor was strewn with spilled wheat and +oats and corn. Here he was shown how grain, carried to Winnipeg in the +long trucks, was sampled and brought to this room in bags. Here it was +classified by experts, who, by touch, taste and smell, could gauge its +quality unerringly. + +It is the perfection of a system for handling grain in the raw mass. +The buyer never sees the grain he purchases. The classification of the +Exchange is so reliable that he accepts its certificates of quality and +weight and buys on paper alone. + +Nor are the dealers ever delayed by this wonderfully working +organization. The Exchange has samplers down on the trucks at the +railway sidings day and night. During the whole twenty-four hours of +the day there are men digging specially constructed scoops that take +samples from every level of the car-loads of grain, putting the grain +into the small bags, and sending them along to the classification +department. + +So swiftly is the work done that the train can pull into the immense +range of special yards, such as those the C.P.R. have constructed for +the accommodation of grain, change its engine and crew, and by the time +the change is effected, samples of all the trucks have been taken, and +the train can go on to the great elevators and mills at Fort William +and Port Arthur. + +This rapid handling in no way affects the efficiency of the Exchange. +Its decisions are so sure that the grading of the wheat is only +disputed about forty times in the year. This is astonishing when one +realizes the enormous number of samples judged. + +In the same way, and in spite of the apparent confusion about the pit +where they take place, the records of the transactions are so exact +that only about once in five thousand is such a record queried. + +The Prince was immensely interested in all the practical details of +working which make this handling of grain a living and dramatic thing, +showing, as usual, that active curiosity for workaday facts that is +essential to the make-up of the moderns. + +His directness and accessibility made friends for him with these +hard-headed business men as readily as it had made friends with +soldiers and with the mass of people. Winnipeg had already exerted its +Western faculty for affectionate epithets. He had already been dubbed +a "Fine Kiddo," and it was commonplace to hear people say of him, "He's +a regular feller, he'll do." They said these things again in the +Exchange, declaring emphatically he was "sure, a manly-looking chap." + +As he left the Exchange the members switched the chaos of the pit into +shouts of a more hearty and powerful volume, and to listen to a crowd +of such fully-seasoned lungs doing their utmost in the confined space +of a building is an awe-inspiring and terrific experience. + +The friendliness here was but a "classified sample"--if the Winnipeg +Exchange will permit that expression--of the friendliness in bulk he +found all over Canada, and which he found in the great West, upon which +he was now entering. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE FRINGE OF THE GREAT NORTHWEST + +SASKATOON AND EDMONTON + +I + +From Winnipeg, on the night of September 10th, we pushed steadily +northwest, and on the morning of Thursday, the 11th, we were in the +open prairie, a new land that is being opened up by the settler. + +We were travelling too late to see the land under wheat--one of the +finest sights in the world, we were told; but all the grain was not in, +and we saw threshing operations in progress and big areas covered with +the strangely small stocks, the result of the Canadian system of +cutting the standing stalk rather high up. In the early night, by +Portage la Prairie, we had seen big fires burning in the distance. +They were not, as we at first thought, prairie fires, but the +homesteader getting rid of the great mounds of stalk left by the +threshing, the usual method. + +In the early morning mist we came upon the big, flat expanse of Horn +Lake, near Wynyard, over which flew lines of militaristic duck in wedge +formation. The prairies lay about us in a great expanse, dun-brown and +rolling. It is a monotonous landscape, and there were few if any trees +until we got farther north and west. + +The little prairie towns appear on the horizon a great distance away, +thanks to the big grain elevators alongside the track. The grain +elevators in these plains are what churches are in Europe; they have, +indeed, the look of being basilicas of a new, materialistic +dispensation. + +The little towns under the elevators seem palpably to be struggling +with the inert force of the prairie about them. Prairie seems to be +flowing into them on every side, and only by a brave effort do houses +and streets raise themselves above the encroaching sea of grass. Yet +all the towns have a modern air, too. All have excellent electric +light services in houses and streets, and all have "movie" theatres. + +At the stations crowds were gathered. At Wynyard all the young of the +district appeared to have collected before going to school. Catching +the word that the Prince "lived" in the last car, they swarmed round +it. Some one told them the Prince was still in bed, and with the +utmost cheerfulness they began to chant: "Sleepy head! Sleepy head!" + +At Lanigan, the next station, a crowd of the same cheery temper also +raised a clamour for the Prince. As a rule he never disappointed them, +and would leave whatever he was doing to go on to the observation +platform at the first hint of cheers. But at Lanigan there were +difficulties. The crowd cheered. Some one looked out of the car, made +a gesture of negation, and went back. The crowd cheered a good deal +more. There was a pause; more cheering. Then a discreet member of the +Staff came out and said the Prince was awfully sorry, but--but, well, +he was in his bath! + +"That's all the better," called a cheerful girl from the heart of the +crowd. "_We_ don't mind." + +The member of the Staff vanished in a new gust of cheering, probably to +hide his blushes. Need I say the Prince did _not_ appear? + +At Colonsay there was a stop of five minutes only, but the people of +the town made the most of it. They had a pretty Britannia to the fore, +and all the school-children grouped about her and singing when the +train steamed in. And when it stopped, a delightful and tiny miss came +forward and gave the Prince a bunch of sweet peas. + +These incidents were a few only of a characteristic day's run. Every +day the same sort of thing happened, so that though the Prince had a +more strenuous time in the bigger cities, his "free times" were +actually made up of series of smaller functions in the smaller ones. + + +II + +Saskatoon, the distributing city for the middle of Saskatchewan, was to +give the Prince a memorable day. It was here that he obtained his +first insight into the life and excitements of the cowboy. Saskatoon, +in addition to the usual reception functions, showed him a "Stampede," +which is a cowboy sports meeting. + +The Prince arrived in the town at noon, and drove through the streets +to the Park and University grounds for the reception ceremonies. It is +a keen, bright place, seeming, indeed, of sparkling newness in the +wonderful clarified sunlight of the prairie. + +It is new. Saskatoon is only now beginning its own history. It is +still sorting itself out from the plain which its elevators, business +blocks and delightful residential districts are yet occupied in +thrusting back. It is a characteristic town on the uplift. It snubs +and encroaches upon the illimitable fields with its fine American +architecture, and its stone university buildings. It has new suburbs +full of houses of symmetrical Western comeliness in a tract wearing the +air of Buffalo Bill. + +It grows so fast that you can almost see it doing it. It has grown so +fast that it has outstripped the guide-book makers. They talk of it in +two lines as a village of a few hundred inhabitants, but put not your +trust in guide-books when coming to Canada, for the village you come +out to see turns out, like Saskatoon, to be a bustling city full of +"pep," as they say, and possessing 20,000 inhabitants. + +The guide-book makers are not to blame. Somewhere about 1903 there +were no more than 150 people within its boundaries. Now, from the look +of it, it could provide ten motor-cars for each of these oldest +inhabitants, and have about 500 over for new-comers--in fact, that is +about the figure; there are 2,000 cars on the Saskatoon registers. +Saskatoon was full of cars neatly lined up along the Prince's route +during every period of his stay. + +The great function of the visit was the "Stampede." This sports +meeting took place on a big racing ground before a grand-stand that +held many thousand more people than Saskatoon boasted. The many cars +that brought them in from all over the country were parked in huge +wedges in and about the ground. + +Passing off the wild dirt roads, the Prince headed a procession of cars +round the course before entering a special pavilion erected facing the +grandstand. His coming was the signal for the Stampede to commence. +It was a new thrill to Britishers, an affair of excitement, and a real +breath of Western life. They told us that the cattle kings are moving +away from this area to the more spacious and lonely lands of the North; +but the exhibition the Prince witnessed showed that the daring and +skilful spirit of the cowboys has not moved on yet. + +We were also told that this Stampede was something in the nature of a +circus that toured the country, and that men and animals played their +parts mechanically as oft-tried turns in a show. But even if that was +so, the thing was unique to British eyes, and the exhibition of all the +tricks of the cattleman's calling was for those who looked on a new +sensation. + +Cattlemen rode before the Prince on bucking horses that, loosed from +wooden cages, came along the track like things compact of India-rubber +and violence, as they strove to throw the leechlike men in furry, +riding chaps, loose shirts, sweat-rags and high felt hats, who rode +them. + +Some of the men rode what seemed a more difficult proposition--an angry +bull, that bunched itself up and down and lowed vindictively, as it +tried to buck its rider off. + +From the end of the race-track a steer was loosed, and a cowboy on a +small lithe broncho rode after it at top speed. Round the head of this +man the lariat whirled like a live snake. In a flash the noose was +tight about the steer's horns, the brilliant little horse had overtaken +the beast, and in an action when man and horse seemed to combine as +one, the tightened rope was swung against the steer's legs. It was +thrown heavily. Like lightning the cowboy was off the horse, was on +top of the half-stunned steer, and had its legs hobbled in a rope. + +One man of the many who competed in this trial of skill performed the +whole operation in twenty-eight seconds from the time the steer was +loosed to the time its legs were secured. + +A more daring feat is "bull-dogging." + +The steer is loosed as before, and the cattleman rides after it, but +instead of lassoing it, he leaps straight out of his saddle and plunges +on to the horns of the beast. Gripping these long and cruel-looking +weapons, he twists the bull's neck until the animal comes down, and +there, with his body in the hollow of the neck and shoulder, he holds +it until his companions run up and release him. + +There is a real thrill of danger in this. + +One man, a cowboy millionaire, caught his steer well, but in the crash +in which the animal came down it rolled right over him. For a moment +man and beast were lost in a confusion of tossing legs and dust. Then +the man, with shirt torn to ribbons and his back scraped in an ugly +manner, rose up gamely and limped away. The only thing about him that +had escaped universal dusting was his white double-linen collar, the +strangest article of clothing any "bull-dogger" might wear. + +The Prince called this plucky fellow, as well as others of the outfit, +into the pavilion, and talked with them some time on the risk and +adventures of their business, as well as congratulating them on their +skill. + +Two comely cowgirls, in fringed leather dresses, high boots, bright +blouses and broad sombreros, also caught his eye. He spoke to a +"movie" man, who had already added to the gaiety of nations by leaping +round in a circle (heavy camera and all) while a big, bucking broncho +had leaped round after him, telling him that the girls formed a fit +subject for the lens. + +"I'm waiting until I can get you with them, sir," said the "movie" man. + +"Oh, you'll get me all right," the Prince laughed. "There's no chance +of my escaping you." + +The "movie" man got Prince and cowgirls presently, when the Prince had +invited them into the pavilion to chat for a few minutes. They were +fine, free and independent girls, who enjoyed the naturalness and +easiness of the interview. + +During the meeting all the arts of the cowboys were exhibited. The +lariat expert lassoed men and horses in bunches of five as easily as he +lassoed one, and danced in and turned somersaults through his +ever-whirling loop. There were some fine exhibitions of horse-riding, +and there was some Amazonian racing by girls in jockey garb. + +The human interlude was also there. A daring woman photographer in the +grand-stand held up a cowboy. Disregarding her long skirts, she +climbed the fence of the course and calmly mounted behind the horseman. +Riding thus, she passed across the front of the cheering grand-stand +and came to the steps of the Prince's pavilion. Unconcerned by the joy +of the great crowd, she asked permission to take a snapshot, and +received it, going her way unruffled and entirely Canadian. + +The very thrilling afternoon was closed by the Prince himself. Walking +over to the crowd of cattlemen, he stood talking with them and +examining their horses. Presently, on the invitation of the leader, he +mounted a broncho, and, leading the bunch of cowboys and cowgirls, +swept down the track and past the stand. The people, delighted at this +unexpected act, vented themselves in the usual way--that is, with +extraordinary enthusiasm. + + +III + +Edmonton, the capital of Alberta, was the Prince's farthest north. He +arrived there on Friday, September 12th, to receive the unstinted +welcome which, long since, we had come to know was Canada's natural +attitude towards him. As we crossed the broad main street to the +station, the sight of the vast human flower-bed that filled the road +below the railway bridge made one tingle at the thoroughness with which +these towns gathered to express themselves. + +Canada, as I may have hinted already, has a way of leading strangers +astray concerning herself. In Eastern Canada we were told that we +would find the West "different." From what was said to us, there was +some reason for expecting to find an entirely new race on the Pacific +side of Winnipeg. It would be a race further removed from the British +tradition, a race not so easy to get on with, a race not moved by the +impulses and enthusiasms that stirred the East. + +And in the West? Well, all I can say is that quite a number of Western +men shook me by the hand and told me how thankful I must be now that I +had left the cold and rigid East for the more generous warmth of the +spacious West. And hadn't I found the East a strange place, inhabited +by people not easy to get on with, and removed from the British +tradition--and so on...? + +This singular state of things may seem queer to the Briton, but I think +it is easily explainable. In the first place, Canada is so vast that +her people, even though they be on the same continent, are as removed +from immediate intimacy as the Kentish man is from the man in a Russian +province. And not only does great distance make for lack of knowledge, +but the fact that each province is self-contained and feeds upon +itself, so to speak, in the matter of news and so on, makes the citizen +in Ontario, or Quebec, or New Brunswick, regard the people of the West +as living in a distant and strange land. + +The Canadian, too, is intensely loyal to Canada; that means he is +intensely jealous for her reputation. He warned us against all +possibilities, I think, so that we should be ready for any +disappointment. + +There was not the slightest need for warning. Whether East or West, +Canada was solid in its welcome, and, as far as I am able to judge, +there is no difference at all in the texture of human habit and mind +East or West. There is the same fine, sturdy quality of loyalty and +hospitality over the whole Dominion. Canada is Canada all through. + +Edmonton is a fine, lusty place. It is the prairie town in its teens. +It has not yet put off its coltish air. It is Winnipeg just leaving +school, and has the wonderful precocity of these eager towns of the +West. It is running almost before it has learnt to walk. + +While full-blooded Indians still move in its streets, it is putting up +buildings worthy of a European metropolis. It has opened big +up-to-date stores and public offices by the side of streets that are +yet the mere stamped earth of the untutored plain. + +Along its main boulevard, Jasper Avenue, slip the astonishing excess of +automobiles one has learnt to expect in Canadian towns. A brisk +electric tram service weaves the mass of street movement together, and +at night over all shines an exuberance of electric light. + +That main street is tingling with modernity. Its stores, its +music-halls, its "movie" theatres, and its hotels glitter with the +nervous intensity of a spirit avid of the latest ideas. + +Fringing the canyon of the brown North Saskatchewan River is a +beautiful automobile road, winding among pretty residential plots and +comely enough for any town. + +Yet swing out in a motor for a few miles, and one is in a land where +the roads--if any--are but the merest trails, where the silent and +brooding prairie (hereabouts blessed with trees) stretches emptily for +miles by the thousand. + +Turn the car north, and it heads for "The Great Lone Land," that +expands about the reticent stretches of the Great Slave country, or +follows the Peace River and the Athabasca beyond the cold line of the +Arctic Circle. + +To get to these rich and isolated lands--and one thinks this out in the +lounge of an hotel worthy of the Strand--the traveller must take +devious and disconnected ways. Railways tap great tracts of the +country, going up to Fort McMurray and the Peace River, and these +connect up with river and lake steamers that ply at intervals. But +travel here is yet mainly in the speculative stage, and long waits and +guides and canoes and a camping outfit are necessary. + +In winter, if the traveller is adventurous and tough, he can progress +more swiftly. He can go up by automobile and run along the courses of +the rivers on the thick ice, and, on the ice, cross the big lakes. + +Though the land is within the Arctic Circle, it is rich. I talked with +a traveller who had just returned from this area, and he spoke of the +superb tall crops of grain he had seen on his journey. It will be +magnificent land when it is opened up, and can accommodate the +population of a kingdom. The growing season, of course, is shorter, +but this is somewhat balanced by the longer northern days and the +intense sunlight that is proper to them. The drawbacks are the very +long winters, loneliness and the difficulties of transport. + +Edmonton, sitting across the gorge of the Saskatchewan, feeds these +districts and reflects them. Because of this it is a city of +anachronisms. High up on the cliff, its site chosen with the usual +appositness of Canada, is the Capitol building, a bright and soaring +structure done in the latest manner. Right under that decisively +modern pile is a group of rough wooden houses. They are the original +stores of the Hudson Bay Company, standing exactly as they did when +they formed an outpost point of civilization in the Northwest. + +It is obviously a town in a young land, pushing ahead, as the Prince +indicated in his speech to the Provincial Government, with all the +intensity and zest of youth, having all the sense of freedom and +possibility that the rich and great farming, furbearing and +timber-growing tracts give it. + + +IV + +The keen spirit of the city was reflected in the welcome it gave the +Prince. It was a wet, grey day, but the whole town was out to line the +streets and to gather at the ceremonial points. And it was a musical +greeting. Edmonton is prone to melody. Brass bands appear to flourish +here. There was one at every street corner. And not only did they +play as the Prince in the midst of his red-tuniced "Mountie" escort +passed by, but they played all day, so that the city was given over to +a non-stop carnival of popular airs. + +At the Parliament Buildings the crowds were as dense as ever. They +showed the same spirit in listening to addresses and reply, and the +same hustling sense of "getting there" when entering the building to +take part in the public reception. The addresses of welcome were a +novelty. Engrossed on vellum, it had been sewn on the purple silk +lining of a yellow-furred coyote skin, a local touch that interested +the Prince. There was another such touch after the reception. A body +of Stony Indians were presented to His Royal Highness. These Indians +had travelled from a distance in the hope of seeing the son of the +Great White Chief, and they not only saw him but were presented to him. +He talked with particular sympathy to one chief whose son had been a +comrade-in-arms in the Canadian ranks during the war and who had been +killed in the fighting. + +The opening of a war memorial hall, a big and dazzling dance at the +Government House, and other functions, fulfilled the usual round. And, +last but not least, the Prince became a player and a "fan" in a ball +game. + +There was a match (I hope "match" is right) between the local team, and +one of its passionate rivals, and the Prince went to the ground to take +part. Walking to the "diamond" (I'm sure that is right), he equipped +himself in authentic manner, with floppy, jockey-peaked cap and a +ruthless glance, took his stance as a "pitcher" and delivered two +balls. I don't know whether they were stingers or swizzers, or +whatever the syncopated phraseology of the great game dubs them, but +they were matters of great admiration. + +Having led to the undoing (I hope, for that was his task) of some one, +the Prince then joined the audience. He chose not the best seats, but +the popular ones, for he sat on the grass among the "bleachers," and +when one has sat out of the shade in the hot prairie sun one knows what +"bleachers" means. + +This sporting little interlude was immensely popular, and the Prince +left Edmonton with the reputation of being a true "fan" and "a real +good feller." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +CALGARY AND THE CATTLE RANCH + +I + +The Royal train arrived in Calgary, Alberta, on the morning of Sunday, +September 14th, after some of the members of the train had spent an +hour or so shooting gophers, a small field rat, part squirrel, and at +all times a great pest in grain country. + +Calgary was a town that charmed at once. It stands in brilliant +sunlight--and that sunlight seems to have an eternal quality--in a nest +of enfolding hills. Two rivers with the humorous names of Bow and +Elbow run through it; they are blue with the astonishing blueness of +glacial silt. + +From the hills, or from the tops of such tall buildings as the +beautiful Palliser Hotel, the high and austere dividing line of the +Rockies can be seen across the rolling country. Snow-cowled, and +almost impalpable above the ground mist, the great range of mountains +looks like the curtain wall of a stronghold of mystics. + +In the streets the city itself has an air of radiance. There is an +invigoration in the atmosphere that seems to give all things a peculiar +quality of zest. The sidewalks have a bustling and crisp virility, the +public buildings are handsome, and the streets of homes particularly +gracious. + +The Sunday reception of the Prince was eloquent but quiet. There were +the usual big crowds, but the day was deliberately without ceremonial. +Divine Service at the Pro-Cathedral, where the Prince unveiled a +handsome rood-screen to the memory of those fallen in the war, was the +only item in a restful day, which was spent almost entirely in the +country at the County Club. + +But perhaps the visit to the County Club was not altogether quiet. + +The drive out to this charming place in a pit of a valley, where one of +the rivers winds through the rolling hills, began in the comely +residential streets. + +These residential districts of Canada and America certainly impress +one. The well-proportioned and pretty houses, with their deep +verandahs, the trees that group about them, the sparkling grass that +comes down to the edge of the curb--all give one the sense of being the +work of craftsmen who are masters in design. That sense seems to me to +be evident, not only in domestic architecture, but in the design of +public buildings. The feeling I had was that the people on this +Continent certainly know how to build. And by building, I do not mean +merely erecting a house of distinction, but also choosing sites of +distinction. + +Nearly all the newer public buildings are of excellent design, and all +are placed in excellent positions. Some of these sites are actually +brilliant; the Parliament Houses at Ottawa, as seen from the river, are +intensely apposite, so are those at Edmonton and Regina, while the +sites of such buildings as the Banff Springs Hotel, and, in a lesser +sense, the Château at Lake Louise, seem to me to have been chosen with +real genius. + +In saying that the people on this Continent certainly know how to +build, I am speaking of both the United States and Canada. This fine +sense of architecture is even more apparent in the United States (I, of +course, only speak of the few towns I visited) than in Canada, for +there are more buildings and it is a richer country. The sense of +architecture may spring from that country, or it may be that the whole +Continent has the instinct. As I am not competent to judge, I accuse +the whole of the Western hemisphere of that virtue. + +The Prince passed through these pretty districts where are the +beautiful houses of ranchers and packing kings, farmers and pig rearers +whose energy and vision have made Calgary rich as well as good to look +upon. Passing from this region of good houses and good roads, he came +upon a highway that is prairie even less than unalloyed, for constant +traffic has scored it with a myriad ruts and bumps. + +Half-way up a hill, where a bridge of wood jumps across the stream that +winds amid the pleasant gardens of the houses, the Prince's car was +held up. A mob of militants rushed down upon it, and neither +chauffeur, nor Chief of Staff, nor suite could resist. + +It was an attack not by Bolshevists, but by Boy Scouts. They flung +themselves across the road in a mass, and would take no nonsense from +any one. They insisted that the engine should take a holiday, and that +they should hitch themselves to the car. They won their point and +hitched. The car, under some hundred boy-power, went up the long +hill--and a gruelling hill it is--through the club gates, and down a +longer hill, to where, in a deep cup, the house stands. + +At the club the visit was entirely formal. The Prince became an +ordinary member and chatted to other men and women members in a +thoroughly club-like manner. + +"He is so easy to get on with," said one lady. "I found it was I who +was the more reserved for the first few minutes, and it was I who had +to become more human. + +"He is a young man who has something to say, and who has ears to listen +to things worth while. He has no use for preliminaries or any other +nonsense that wastes time in 'getting together.'" + +He lunched at the club and drifted about among the people gathered on +the lawns before going for a hard walk over the hills. + + +II + +The real day of functions was on Monday, when the Prince drove through +the streets, visiting many places, and, later, speaking impressively at +a citizens' lunch in the Palliser Hotel. + +His passage through the streets was cheered by big crowds, but crowds +of a definite Western quality. Here the crowns of hats climbed high, +sometimes reaching monstrous peaks that rise as samples of the Rockies +from curly brims as monstrous. Under these still white felt altitudes +are the vague eyes and lean, contemplative faces of the cattlemen from +the stock country around. Here and there were other prairie types who +linger while the tide of modernity rushes past them. They are the +Indians, brown, lined and forward stooping, whose reticent eyes looking +out from between their braided hair seem to be dwelling on their long +yesterday. + +At the citizens' lunch the Prince departed from his usual trend of +speech-making to voice some of the impressions that this new land had +brought to him. He once more spoke of the sense of spaciousness and +possibility the vast prairies of the West had given him, but today he +went further and dwelt upon the need of making those possibilities +assured. The foundation that had made the future as well as the +present possible, was the work of the great pioneers and railway men +who had mastered the country in their stupendous labours, and made it +fit for a great race to grow in. + +The foundation built in so much travail was ready. Upon it Canada must +build, and it must build right. + +"The farther I travel through Canada," he said, "the more I am struck +by the great diversities which it presents; its many and varied +communities are not only separated by great distances, but also by +divergent interests. You have much splendid alien human material to +assimilate, and so much has already been done towards cementing all +parts of the Dominion that I am sure you will ultimately succeed in +accomplishing this great task, but it will need the co-operation of all +parties, of all classes and all races, working together for the common +cause of Canadian nationhood under the British flag. + +"Serious difficulties and controversies must often arise, but I know +nothing can set Canada back except the failure of the different classes +and communities to look to the wider interests of the Dominion, as well +as their own immediate needs. I realize that scattered communities, +necessarily preoccupied with the absorbing task of making good, often +find the wider view difficult to keep. Yet I feel sure that it will be +kept steadily before the eyes of all the people of this great Western +country, whose very success in making the country what it is proves +their staying power and capacity." + +Canada, he declared, had already won for herself a legitimate place in +the fraternity of nations, and the character and resources within her +Dominion must eventually place her influence equal to, if not greater +than, the influence of any other part of the Empire. Much depended +upon Canada's use of her power, and the greatness of her future was +wrapped up in her using it wisely and well. + +The great gathering was impressed by the statesman-like quality of the +speech, the first of its kind he had made since his landing. He spoke +with ease, making very little use of his notes and showing a greater +freedom from nervousness. The sincerity of his manner carried +conviction, and there was a great demonstration when he sat down. + + +III + +In the afternoon he left Calgary by train for the small "cow town" of +High River, from there going on by car over roads that were at times +cart ruts in the fields, to the Bar U Ranch, where he was to be the +guest of Mr. George Lane. + +His host, "George Lane," as he is called everywhere, is known as far as +the States and England as one of the cattle kings. He is a Westerner +of the Westerners, and an individuality even among them. Tall and +loose-built, with an authentic Bret Harte quality in action and speech, +he can flash a glance of shrewdness or humour from the deep eyes under +their shaggy, pent-house brows. He is one of the biggest ranch owners +in the West (perhaps the biggest); his judgment on cattle or horses is +law, and he has no frills. + +His attractive ranch on the plains, where the rolling lands meet the +foot-hills of the Rockies, has an air of splendid spaciousness. We did +not go to Bar U, but a friend took us out on a switchback automobile +run over what our driver called a "hellofer" road, to just such another +ranch near Cockrane, and we could judge what these estates were like. + +They are lonely but magnificent. They extend with lakes, close, tight +patches of bush and small and occasional woods over undulating country +to the sharp, bare wall of the snow-capped Rockies. The light is +marvellous. Calgary is 3,500 feet up, and the level mounts steadily to +the mountains. At this altitude the sunlight has an astonishing +clarity, and everything is seen in a sharp and brilliant light. + +In the rambling but comfortable house of the ranch the Prince was +entertained with cattleman's fare, and on the Tuesday (after a ten-mile +run before breakfast) he was introduced to the ardours of the +cattleman's calling. He mounted a broncho and with his host joined the +cowboys in rounding several thousand head of cattle, driving them in +towards the branding corrals. + +This is no task for an idler or a slacker. The bunch was made up +mainly of cows with calves, or steers of less than a year old, who +believed in the policy of self-determination, being still unbranded and +still conspicuously independent. Most of them, in fact, had seen +little or nothing of man in their life of lonely pasturage over the +wide plains. + +Riding continually at a gallop and in a whirlwind of movement and dust +and horns, the Prince helped to bunch the mass into a compact circle, +and then joined with the others in riding into the nervous herd, in +order to separate the calves from the mothers, and the unbranded steers +from those already marked with the sign of Bar U. + +Calves and steers were roped and dragged to the corral, where they were +flung and the brand seared on their flanks with long irons taken from a +fire in the enclosure. + +The Prince did not spare himself, and worked as hard as any cattleman +in the business, and indeed he satisfied those exacting critics, the +cowboys, who produced in his favour another Westernism, describing him +as "a Bear. He's fur all over." Then, as though a strenuous morning +in the saddle was not enough, he went off in the afternoon after +partridges, spending the whole time on the tramp until he was due to +start for Calgary. + +His pleasure in his experience was summed up in the terse comment: +"Some Ranch," that he set against his signature in Mr. Lane's visitors' +book. It also had the practical result of turning him into a rancher +himself, for it was at this time he saw the ranch which he ultimately +bought. It is a very good little property, close to Mr. Lane's, so +that in running it the Prince will have the advantage of that expert's +advice. Part of the Prince's plan for handling it is to give an +opportunity to soldiers who served with him in the war to take up +positions on the ranch. Mr. Lane told me himself that the proposition +is a practical one, and there should be profitable results. + +Leaving Bar U, the Prince returned to High River at that Canadian pace +of travelling which sets the timid European wondering whether his +accident policy is fully paid up. In High River, where the old +cow-puncher ideal of hitting up the dust in the wild and woolly manner +has given way to the rule of jazz dances and bright frocks, he mounted +the train and steamed off to Calgary. + +In Calgary great things had been done to the Armoury where the ball was +to be held. Handled in the big manner of the Dominion, the great hall +had been re-floored with "hard wood" blocks, and a scheme of real +beauty, extending to an artificial sky in the roof, had been evolved. + +At this dance the whole of Calgary seemed in attendance, either on the +floor, or outside watching the guests arrive. In Canada the scope of +the invitations is universal. There are no distinctions. The pretty +girl who serves you with shaving soap over the drug store counter asks +if she will meet you at the Prince's ball, as a matter of course. She +is going. So is the young man at the estate office. So is your taxi +chauffeur (the taxi is an open touring car). So is--everybody. These +dances are the most democratic affairs, and the most spirited. And as +spirited and democratic as anybody was the Prince himself, who, in this +case, in spite of his run before breakfast, a hard morning in the +saddle, his long tramp in the afternoon, his automobile and railway +travelling, danced with the rest into the small hours of the morning. + +All the little boys in Calgary watched for his arrival. And after he +had gone in there was a fierce argument as to who had come in closest +contact with him. One little boy said that the Prince had looked +straight at him and smiled. + +Another capped it: + +"He shoved me on the shoulder as he went by," he cried. + +The inevitable last chimed in: + +"You don't make it at all," he said. "He trod on my brother's toe." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +CHIEF MORNING STAR COMES TO BANFF AND THE ROCKIES + +I + +In the night the Royal train steamed the few miles from Calgary and on +the morning of Wednesday, September 17th, we woke up in the first field +works of the Rocky Mountains. + +It was a day on which we were to see one of the most picturesque +ceremonies of the tour, and slipping through the high scarps of the +mountains to the little valley in which Banff station stands, we were +into that experience of colour at once. + +Drawn up in the open by the little station was a line of Indians, clad +in their historic costumes, and mounted on the small, springy horses of +Canada. Some were in feathers and buckskin and beads, some in the high +felt hats and bright-shirts of the cowboy, all were romantic in +bearing. They were there to form the escort of the new "Chief." + +As the Prince's car drove from the station along a road that wound its +way amid glades of spruce and poplar glowing with the old gold of +Autumn that filled the valleys winding about the feet of high and +austere mountains, other bodies of Stoney Indians joined the escort +about the car. + +They had gathered at the opening of every side lane, and as the +cavalcade passed, dropped in behind, until the procession became a +snake of shifting colour, vermilion and cherry, yellow and blue and +green, going forward under the dappling of sun that slipped between the +swinging branches. + +Chiefs, the sunray of eagles' feathers on their heads, braves in full +war-paint, Indian cowboys in shirts of all the colours of the spectrum, +and squaws a mass of beads and sequins, with bright shawls and brighter +silk head-wraps, made up the escort. Behind and at times in front of +many of the squaws were papooses, some riding astraddle, their arms +round the women's waists, others slung in shawls, but all clad in +Indian garb that seemed to be made up of a mass of closely-sewn beads, +turquoise, green, white or red, so that the little bodies were like +scaly and glittering lizards. + +This ride that wound in and out of these very beautiful mountain +valleys took the Prince past the enclosures of the National Park, and +he saw under the trees the big, hairy-necked bison, the elk and +mountain goats that are harboured in this great natural reserve. + +On the racecourse were Indian tepees, banded, painted with the heads of +bulls, and bright with flags. The braves who were waiting for the +Prince, and those who were escorting him, danced, their ponies whirling +about, racing through veils of dust and fluttering feathers and +kerchiefs in a sort of ride of welcome. From over by the tepees there +came the low throbbing of tom-toms to join with the thin, high, +dog-like whoop of the Indian greeting. + +On a platform at the hub of half-circle of Indians the Prince listened +to the addresses and accepted the Chieftaincy of the Stoney tribe. +Some of the Indians had their faces painted a livid chrome-yellow, so +that their heads looked like masks of death; some were smeared with +red, some barred with blue. Most, however, showed merely the +high-boned, sphinx-like brown of their faces free from war-paint. The +costumes of many were extremely beautiful, the wonderful beadwork on +tunic and moccasins being a thing of amazing craftsmanship, though the +elk-tooth decorations, though of great value, were not so attractive. + +Standing in front of the rest, the chief, "Little Thunder," read the +address to the Prince. He was a big, aquiline fellow, young and +handsome, clad in white, hairy chaps and cowboy shirt. He spoke in +sing-song Cree, his body curving back from straddled knees as though he +sat a pulling horse. + +In his historic tongue, and then in English, he spoke of the honour the +Prince was paying the Stoneys, and of their enduring loyalty to him and +his father; and he asked the Prince "to accept from us this Indian +suit, the best we have, emblematic of the clothes we wore in happy +days. We beg you also to allow us to elect you as our chief, and to +give you the name Chief Morning Star." + +The suit given to the Prince was an exceedingly handsome one of white +buckskin, decorated with beads, feathers and fur, and surmounted by a +great headdress of feathers rising from a fillet of beads and fur. The +Prince put on the headdress at once, and spoke to the Indians as a +chief to his braves, telling them of the honour they had done him. + +When he had finished, the tom-toms were brought into action again, and +a high, thin wail went up from the ring of Indians, and they began +almost at once to move round in a dance. Indian dancing is monotonous. +It is done to the high, nasal chanting of men gathered round a big drum +in the centre of the ring. This drum is beaten stoically by all to +give the time. + +Some of the dancing is the mere bending of knees and a soft shuffling +stamping of moccasined feet. In other dances vividly clad, +broad-faced, comely squaws joined in the ring of braves, whose feathers +and elk-tooth ornaments swung as they moved, and the whole ring, with a +slightly rocking movement, shuffled an inch at a time round the tom-tom +men. The motion was very like that of soldiers dressing ranks. + +A more spirited dance is done by braves holding weapons stiffly, and +following each other in file round the circle, now bending knees, or +bodies, now standing upright. As they pass round and dip they loose +little snapping yelps. All the time their faces remain as impassive as +things graven. + +The dancing was followed by racing. Boys mounted bareback the springy +little horses, and with their legs twisted into rope-girths--with +reins, the only harness--went round the track at express speed. Young +women, riding astride, their dresses tied about their knees, also +raced, showing horsemanship even superior to the boys. The riding was +extremely fine, and the little horses bunch and move with an elastic +and hurtling movement that is thrilling. + +The ceremony had made the bravest of spectacles. The Indian colour and +romance of the scene, set in a deep cup rimmed by steep, grim +mountains, the sides and icecaps of which the bright sunlight threw up +into an almost unreal actuality, gave it a rare and entrancing quality. +And not the least of its picturesque attractions were the papooses in +bead and fringed leather, who grubbed about in the earth with stoic +calm. They looked almost too toylike to be true. They looked as +though their right place was in a scheme of decoration on a wall or a +mantel-shelf. As one lady said of them: "They're just the sort of +things I want to take home as souvenirs." + + +II + +Banff is an exquisite and ideal holiday place, and I can appreciate the +impulse that sends many Americans as well as Canadians to enjoy its +beauties in the summer. + +It is a valley ringed by an amphitheatre of mountains, up the harsh +slopes of which spruce forests climb desperately until beaten by the +height and rock on the scarps beneath crests which are often +snow-capped. Through this broad valley, and winding round slopes into +other valleys, run streams of that poignant blueness which only glacial +silt and superb mountain skies can Impart. + +The houses and hotels in this Switzerland of Canada are charming, but +the Banff Springs Hotel, where the Prince stayed, is genius. It is +perched up on a spur in the valley, so that in that immense ring of +heights it seems to float insubstantially above the clouds of trees, +like the palace of some genii. For not only was its site admirably +chosen, but the whole scheme of the building fits the atmosphere of the +place. And it is as comfortable as it is beautiful. + +It faces across its red-tiled, white-balustered terraces and vivid +lawns, a sharp river valley that strolls winding amid the mountains. +And just as this river turns before it, it tumbles down a rock slide in +a vast mass of foam, so that even when one cannot see its beauty at +night, its roar can be heard in the wonderful silence of the valley. +On the terrace of the hotel are two bathing-pools fed from the sulphur +springs of Banff, and here Canadians seem to bathe all day until +dance-time--and even slip back for a moonlight bath between dancing and +bed. + +It is an ideal place for a holiday, for there is golfing, climbing, +walking and bathing for those whose athletic instincts are not +satisfied with beauty, and automobile rides amid beauty. And it is, of +course, a perfect place for honeymooners, as one will find by +consulting the Visitors' Book, for with characteristic frankness the +Canadians and Americans sign themselves: + + +"_Mr. and Mrs. Jack P. Eeks, Spokane. We are on our honeymoon._" + + +The Prince spent an afternoon and a morning playing golf amid the +immensities of Banff, or travelling in a swift car along its beautiful +roads. There are most things in Banff to make man happy, even a coal +mine, sitting like a black and incongruous gnome in the heart of +enchanted hills, to provide heat against mountain chills. + +The Prince saw the sulphur spring that bubbles out of quicksand in a +little cavern deep in the hillside--a cavern made almost impregnable by +smell. In the old days the determined bather had to shin down a pole +through a funnel, and take his curative bath in the rocky oubliette of +the spring. Now the Government has arranged things better. It has +carved a dark tunnel to the pool, and carried the water to two big +swimming tanks on the open hillside, where one can take a plunge with +all modern accessories. + + +III + +From Banff in the afternoon of Thursday, September 18th, the train +carried the Prince through scenery that seemed to accumulate beauty as +he travelled to another eyrie of loveliness, Lake Louise. + +At Lake Louise Station the railway is five thousand feet above the +sea-level, but the Château and Lake are yet higher, and the Prince +climbed to them by a motor railway that rises clinging to the +mountain-side, until it twists into woods and mounts upward by the side +of a blue-and-white stream dashing downward, with an occasional +breather in a deep pool, over rocks. + +The Château is poised high up in the world on the lip of a small and +perfect lake of poignant blue, that fills the cup made by the meeting +of a ring of massive heights. At the end of the lake, miles away, but, +thanks to the queerness of mountain perspective, looking close enough +to touch, rises the scarp of Mount Victoria, capped with a vast glacier +that seemed to shine with curious inner lambency under the clear light +of the grey day. There is a touch of the theatre in that view from the +windows or the broad lawns of the Château, for the mountain and glacier +is a huge back-drop seen behind wings made by the shoulders of other +mountains, and all, rock and spruce woods, as well as the clear shining +of the ice, are mirrored in the perfect lake that makes the floor of +the valley. + +Up on one of the shoulders of the lake, hidden away in a screen of +trees, is the home of an English woman. She used to spend her days +working in a shop in the West End of London until happy chance brought +her to Lake Louise, and she opened a tea chalet high on that lonely +crag. She has changed from the frowsty airs of her old life to a place +where she can enjoy beauty, health and an income that allows her to fly +off to California when the winter comes. The Prince went up to take +tea in this chalet of romance and profit during his walk of exercise. + +There is another kind of romance in the woods about the Château, and +one of the policemen who guarded the Prince made its acquaintance +during the night. In the dark he heard the noise of some one moving +amid the trees that come down to the edge of the hotel grounds. He +thought that some unpleasant intruder on the Prince's privacy was +attempting to sneak in by the back way. He marched up to the edge of +the wood and waited in his most legal attitude for the intruder--and a +bear came out to meet him. Not only did it come out to meet him, but +it reared up and waved its paws in a thoroughly militant manner. The +policeman was a man from the industrial East, and not having been +trained to the habits of bears, decided on a strategic withdrawal. + +His experience was one of the next day's jokes, since it appears that +bears often do come out of the woods attracted by the smell of hotel +cooking. On the whole they are amiable, and are no more difficult than +ordinary human beings marching in the direction of a good dinner. + +From Lake Louise the Prince went steadily west through some of the most +impressive scenery in Canada. The gradient climbs resolutely to the +great lift of petrified earth above Kicking Horse Pass, so that the +train seemed to be steaming across the sky. + +A little east of the Pass is a slight monument called "the Great +Divide." Here Alberta meets British Columbia, and here a stream +springs from the mountains to divide itself east and west, one fork +joining stream after stream, until as a great river it empties into +Hudson Bay; the other, turning west and leaping down the ledges of +valleys, makes for the Pacific. + +Beyond "the Great Divide" the titanic Kicking Horse Pass opens out. It +falls by gigantic levels for 1,300 feet to the dim, spruce-misted +valleys that lie darkly at the foot of the giant mountains. It is not +a straight canyon, but a series of deeper valleys opening out of deep +valleys round the shoulders of the grim slopes. Down this tortuous +corridor the railway creeps lower, level by level, going with the +physical caution of a man descending a dangerous slope. + +The line feels for its best footholds on the sides of walls that drop +sheer away, and tower sheer above. We could look over the side down +abrupt precipices, and see through the dense rain of the day the mighty +drop to where the Kicking Horse River, after leaping over rocky ramps +and flowing through level pools, ran in a score of channels on the wide +shingly floor of the Pass. + +Beneath us as we descended we could see the track twisting and looping, +as it sought by tunnelling to conquer the exacting gradient. The +planning of the line is, in its own way, as wonderful as the natural +marvel of the Pass. One is filled with awe at the vision, the genius +and the tenacity of those great railway men who had seen a way over +this grim mountain barrier, had schemed their line and had mastered +nature. + +At Yoho Station that clings like a limpet near the top of this soaring +barrier, the Prince took to horse, and rode down trails that wind along +the mountainside through thickets of trees to Field at the foot of the +drop. The rain was driving up the throat of the valley before a strong +wind, and it was not a good day for riding, even in woolly chaps such +as he wore, but he set out at a gallop, and enjoyed the exercise and +the scenery, which is barbaric and tremendous, though here and there it +was etherealized by sudden gleams of sunlight playing on the wet +foliage of the mountain-side and turning the wet masses into rainbows. + +During this ride he passed under the stain in a sheer wall of rock that +gives the Pass its name. For some geological reason there is, high up +in a straight mass of white towering cliff, a black outcrop that is +like the silhouette of an Indian on a horse. I could not distinguish +the kick in the horse myself, but I was assured it was there, and +Kicking Horse is thus named. + +From Field, a breathing space for trains, about which has grown a small +village possessing one good hotel, the Prince rode up the valleys to +some of the beauty spots, such as Emerald Lake, which lies high in the +sky under the cold glaciers of Mount Burgess. It was a wonderful ride +through the spruce and balsam woods of these high valleys. + + +IV + +During Saturday, September 20th, the train was yet in the mountains, +and the scenery continued to be magnificent. From Field the line works +down to the level of the Columbia River, some 1,500 feet lower, through +magnificent stretches of mountain panorama, and through breathless +gorges like the Palliser, before climbing again steeply to the highest +point of the Selkirk Range. Here the train seemed to charge straight +at the towering wall of Mount MacDonald, but only because there is a +miracle of a tunnel--Connaught Tunnel--which coaxes the line down by +easy grades to Rogers Pass, the Illicilliwaet and Albert Canyon. +Through all this stretch the scenery is superb. In the gorges and the +canyon high mountains force the river and railway together, until the +train runs in a semi-darkness between sheer cliffs, with the water +foaming and tearing itself forward in pent-up fury between harsh, rocky +walls. Sometimes these walls encroach until the water channel is +forced between two rocks standing up like doorposts, with not much more +than a doorway space between them. Through these gateways the volume +of water surges with an indescribable sense of power. + +At places, as in the valley of the Beavermouth, east of the Connaught +Tunnel, the line climbs hugely upward on the sides of great ranges, +and, on precarious ledges, hangs above a gigantic floor, tree-clad and +fretted with water channels. The train crept over spidery bridges, +spanning waterdrops, and crawled for miles beneath ranges of big timber +snowsheds. + +The train stopped at the pleasant little mountain town of Golden, where +the Prince went "ashore," and there was the ceremony of reception. +This was on the program. The next stop was not. + +West of the Albert Canyon, at a tiny station called Twin Butte, we +passed another train standing in a siding, with a long straggle of men +in khaki waiting on the platform and along the track, looking at us as +we swept along. Abruptly we ceased to sweep along. The communication +cord had been pulled, and we stopped with a jerk. + +The Prince had caught sight of the soldiers, and had recognized who +they were. He had given orders to pull up, and almost before the +brakes had ground home, he was out on the track and among the men, +speaking to them and the officers, who were delighted at this +unexpected meeting. + +The soldiers were English. They were men of the 25th Middlesex, H.A.C. +and other regiments, four hundred all told. They had come from Omsk, +in Russia, by way of the Pacific, and were being railed from Vancouver +to Montreal in order to take ship for home. The men of the Middlesex +were those made famous by the sinking of their trooper off the African +coast in 1916. Their behaviour then had been so admirable that it will +be remembered the King cabled to them, "Well done, Diehards!" + +By the isolated railway station and under the lonely mountains so far +from their homes, they were drawn up, and the Prince made an informal +inspection of the men who had been so long away, and who had travelled +the long road from Siberia on their way Blightyward. + +The inspection lasted only a few minutes, and the episode, spontaneous +as it was characteristic, scarcely broke the run into Revelstoke. But +it was the happiest of meetings. + +Revelstoke is a small, bright mountain town known, as its inhabitants +say, for snow and strawberries. It is their way of explaining that the +land in this deep mountain valley is splendidly fertile, and that +settlers have only to farm on a small scale in order to make a +comfortable living, though in winter it is--well, of the mountains. +The fishing there is also extremely good, and we were told almost +fabulous tales of boys who on their journey home from school spent a +few minutes at the creeks of the Columbia River, and went on their way +bearing enough fish to make a dinner for a big family. + +The chief feature of Revelstoke's reception was a motor run up +Revelstoke mountain, a four thousand feet ride up a stiffish road that +climbed by corkscrew bends. This was thrilling enough, for there were +abrupt depths when we saw Revelstoke far down on the valley floor +looking neat and doll-like from this airman's eye-view, and we had to +cross frail wooden bridges spanning deep crevices, some of them at ugly +corners. + +From Revelstoke the train went on to Sicamous, where it remained until +the middle of Sunday, September 21st. Sicamous is merely an hotel and +a few houses beside a very beautiful lake. It is a splendid fishing +centre, for a chain of lakes stretches south through the valleys to +Okanagan. A branch line serves this district (which we were to explore +later), where there are rich orchard lands. + +With Revelstoke, Sicamous acts as a distributing centre for the big +Kootenay areas, that romantic land of the earliest trail breakers, +those dramatic fellows who pushed all ways through the forest-clad +valleys after gold and silver, and the other rich rewards of the +prospector. Even now the country has only been tapped, and there are +many new discoveries of ore in the grim rock of the district. + +A short stop at Kamloops on Sunday, September 21st, and then a straight +run through the night brought us to Vancouver, with just a note of +interest outside the Pacific city. For miles we passed dumps of war +material, shells, ammunition boxes, the usual material of armies. It +was lying discarded and decaying, and it told a tragic story. It was +the war material that the Allies had prepared for Russia. These were +the dumps that fed the transports for Russia plying from Vancouver. +After the peace of Brest-Litovsk all work ceased about them, and there +they remained to that day, monuments to the Bolshevik Peace. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE PACIFIC CITIES: VANCOUVER AND VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA + +I + +Vancouver was land after a mountain voyage. With the feelings of a +seafarer seeing cliffs after a long ocean journey, we reached common, +flat country and saw homely asphalt streets. + +There can be no two points of view concerning the beauty and grandeur +of the mountain scenery through which the Prince had passed, but after +a succession of even the most stimulating gorges and glaciers one does +turn gladly to a little humanity in the lump. Vancouver was humanity +in the lump, an exceedingly large lump and of peculiarly warm and +generous emotions. We were glad to meet crowds once more. + +There are some adequate streets in this great western port of Canada. +When Vancouver planned such opulent boulevards as Granville and Georgia +streets, it must have been thinking hard about posterity, which will +want a lot of space if only to drive its superabundant motors. But +splendid and wide and long though these and other streets be, the mass +of people which lined them on Monday, September 22nd, was such as to +set the most long-headed town planner wondering if, after all, he had +allowed enough room for the welcoming of Princes. + +From the vast, orderly throng massed behind the red and tartan of the +Highland guard of honour at the station, thick ranks of people lined +the whole of a long route to Stanley Park. + +This crowd not only filled the sidewalks with good-tempered liveliness, +but it had sections in all the windows of the fine blocks of buildings +the Prince passed. Now and then it attempted to emulate the small boys +who ran level with the Prince's car cheering to full capacity, and +caring not a jot whether a "Mounty" of the escort or a following car +went over them, but on the whole the crowd was more in hand than usual. + +This does not mean that it was less enthusiastic. The reception was of +the usual stirring quality, and it culminated in an immense outburst in +Stanley Park. + +It was a touch of genius to place the official reception in the Park. +It is, in a sense, the key-note of Vancouver. It gives it its peculiar +quality of charm. It is a huge park occupying the entirety of a +peninsula extending from the larger peninsula upon which Vancouver +stands. It has sea-water practically all round it. In it are to be +found the greatest and finest trees in Canada in their most natural +surroundings. + +It is one big "reservation" for trees. Those who think that they can +improve upon nature have had short shrift, and the giant Douglas pine, +the firs and the cedars thrive naturally in a setting that has remained +practically untouched since the day when the British seaman, Captain +Vancouver, explored the sounds of this coast. It is an exquisite park +having delightful forest walks and beautiful waterside views. + +Under the great trees and in a wilderness of bright flowers and flags +as bright, a vast concourse of people was gathered about the pretty +pavilion in the park to give the Prince a welcome. The function had +all the informality of a rather large picnic, and when the sun banished +the Pacific "smoke," or mist, the gathering had infinite charm. + +After this reception the Prince went for a short drive in the great +park, seeing its beautiful glades; looking at Burrard Inlet that makes +its harbour one of the best in the world, and getting a glimpse of +English Bay, where the sandy bathing beaches make it one of the best +sea-side resorts in the world as well. At all points of the drive +there were crowds. And while most of those on the sidewalks were +Canadian, there was also, as at "Soo," a good sprinkling of Americans. +They had come up from Seattle and Washington county to have a +first-hand look at the Prince, and perhaps to "jump" New York and the +eastern Washington in a racial desire to get in first. + +In this long drive, as well as during the visit we paid to Vancouver on +our return from Victoria, there was a considerable amount of that mist +which the inhabitants call "smoke," because it is said to be the result +of forest fires along the coast, in the air. Yet in spite of the mist +we had a definite impression of a fine, spacious city, beautifully +situated and well planned, with distinguished buildings. And an +impression of people who occupy themselves with the arts of business, +progress and living as becomes a port not merely great now, but +ordained to be greater tomorrow. + +It is a city of very definite attraction, as perhaps one imagined it +would be, from a place that links directly with the magical Orient, and +trades in silks and tea and rice, and all the romantic things of those +lands, as well as in lumber and grain with all the colourful towns that +fringe the wonderful Pacific Coast. + +Vancouver has been the victim of the "boom years." Under the spell of +that "get-rich-quick" impulse, it outgrew its strength. It is getting +over that debility now (and perhaps, after all, the "boomsters" were +right, if their method was anticipatory) and a fine strength is coming +to it. When conditions ease and requisitioned shipping returns to its +wharves, and its own building yards make up the lacking keels, it +should climb steadily to its right position as one of the greatest +ports in the British Empire. + + +II + +Vancouver, as it is today, is a peculiarly British town. Its climate +is rather British, for its winter season has a great deal of rain where +other parts of Canada have snow, and its climate is Britishly warm and +soft. It attracts, too, a great many settlers from home, its +newspapers print more British news than one usually finds in Canadian +papers (excepting such great Eastern papers as, for instance, _The +Montreal Gazette_), and its atmosphere, while genuinely Canadian, has +an English tone. + +There is not a little of America, too, in its air, for great American +towns like Seattle are very close across the border--in fact one can +take a "jitney" to the United States as an ordinary item of +sightseeing. Under these circumstances it was not unnatural that there +should be an interesting touch of America in the day's functions. + +The big United States battleship _New Mexico_ and some destroyers were +lying in the harbour, and part of the Prince's program was to have +visited Admiral Rodman, who commanded. The ships, however, were in +quarantine, and this visit had to be put off, though the Admiral +himself was a guest at the brilliant luncheon in the attractive +Vancouver Hotel, when representatives from every branch of civic life +in greater Vancouver came together to meet the Prince. + +In his speech the Prince made direct reference to the American Navy, +and to the splendid work it had accomplished in the war. He spoke +first of Vancouver, and its position, now and in the future, as one of +the greatest bases of British sea power. Vancouver, he explained, also +brought him nearer to those other great countries in the British +Dominions, Australia and New Zealand, and it seemed to him it was a +fitting link in the chain of unity and co-operation--a chain made more +firm by the war--that the British Empire stretched round the world. It +was a chain, he felt, of kindred races inspired by kindred ideals. +Such ideals were made more apparent by the recent and lamented death of +that great man, General Botha, who, from being an Africander leader in +the war against the British eighteen years ago, had yet lived to be one +of the British signatories at the Treaty of Versailles. Nothing else +could express so significantly the breadth, justice and generosity of +the British spirit and cause. + +Turning to Admiral Rodman, he went on to say that he felt that that +spirit had its kinship in America, whose Admiral had served with the +Grand Fleet. Of the value of the work those American ships under +Admiral Rodman did, there could be no doubt. He had helped the Allies +with a most magnificent and efficient unit. + +At no other place had the response exceeded the warmth shown that day. +The Prince's manner had been direct and statesmanlike, each of his +points was clearly uttered, and the audience showed a keen quickness in +picking them up. + +Admiral Rodman, a heavily-built figure, with the American light, +dryness of wit, gave a new synonym for the word "Allies"; to him that +word meant "Victory." It was the combination of every effort of every +Ally that had won the war. Yet, at the same time, practical experience +had taught him to feel that if it had not been for the way the Grand +Fleet had done its duty from the very outset, the result of the war +would have been diametrically opposite. Feelingly, he described his +service with the Grand Fleet. He had placed himself unreservedly under +the command of the British from the moment he had entered European +waters, yet so complete was the co-operation between British and +Americans that he often took command of British units. The splendid +war experience had done much to draw the great Anglo-Saxon nations +together. Their years together had ripened into friendship, then into +comradeship, then into brotherhood. And that brotherhood he wished to +see enduring, so that if ever the occasion should again arise all men +of Anglo-Saxon strain should stand together. + +There was real warmth of enthusiasm as the Admiral spoke. Those +present, whose homes are close to those of their American neighbours +living across a frontier without fortifications, in themselves +appreciated the essential sympathy that exists between the two great +nations. When the Admiral conveyed to the Prince a warm invitation to +visit the United States, this enthusiasm reached its highest point. It +was, in its way, an international lunch, and a happy one. + + +III + +After reviewing the Great War Veterans on the quay-side, the Prince +left Vancouver just before lunch time on Tuesday, September 23rd, for +Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, which lies across the water +on Vancouver Island. + +It was a short run of five hours in one of the most comfortable boats I +have ever been in--the _Princess Alice_, which is on the regular C.P.R. +service, taking in the fjords and towns of the British Columbian coast. + +Leaving Vancouver, where the towering buildings give an authentic air +of modern romance to the skyline, a sense of glamour went with us +across the sea. The air was still tinged with "smoke" and the fabled +blue of the Pacific was not apparent, but we could see curiously close +at hand the white cowl of Mount Baker, which is America, and we passed +on a zig-zag course through the scattered St. Juan Islands, each of +which seemed to be charming and lonely enough to stage a Jack London +story. + +On the headlands or beaches of these islands there were always men and +women and children to wave flags and handkerchiefs, and to send a cheer +across the water to the Prince. One is surprised, so much is the +romantic spell upon one, that the people on these islets of loneliness +should know that the Prince was coming, that is, one is surprised until +one realizes that this is Canada, and that telegraphs and telephones +and up-to-date means of communication are commonplaces here as +everywhere. + +Romance certainly invades one on entering Victoria. It seems a city +out of a kingdom of Anthony Hope's, taken in hand by a modern Canadian +administration. Steaming up James Bay to the harbour landing one feels +that it is a sparkling city where the brightest things in thrilling +fiction might easily happen. + +The bay goes squarely up to a promenade. Behind the stone balustrade +is a great lawn, and beyond that, amid trees, is a finely decorative +building, a fitted back-ground to any romance, though it is actually an +_hôtel de luxe_. To the left of the square head of the water is a +distinguished pile; it is the Customs House, but it might be a temple +of dark machinations. To the right is a rambling building, ornate and +attractive, with low, decorated domes and outflung and rococo wings. +That could easily be the palace of at least a sub-rosa royalty, though +it is the House of Parliament. The whole of this square grouping of +green grass and white buildings, in the particularly gracious air of +Victoria gives a glamorous quality to the scene. + +Victoria's welcome to the Prince was modern enough. Boat sirens and +factory hooters loosed a loud welcome as the steamer came in. A huge +derrick arm that stretched a giant legend of _Welcome_ out into the +harbour, swung that sign to face the _Princess Alice_ all the time she +was passing, and then kept pace on its rail track so that _Welcome_ +should always be abreast of the Prince. + +The welcome, too, of the crowds on that day when he landed, and on the +next when he attended functions at the Parliament buildings, was as +Canadian and up-to-date as anywhere else in the Dominion. The crowds +were immense, and, at one time, when little girls stood on the edge of +a path to strew roses in front of him as he walked, there was some +danger of the eager throngs submerging both the little girls and the +charming ceremony in anxiety to get close to him. + +The crowd in Parliament Square during the ceremonies of Wednesday, +September 24th, was prodigious. From the hotel windows the whole of +the great green space before the Parliament buildings was seen black +with people who stayed for hours in the hope of catching sight of the +Prince as he went from one ceremony to another. + +It was a gathering of many races. There were Canadians born and +Canadians by residence. Vivid American girls come by steamer from +Seattle were there. There were men and women from all races in Europe, +some of them Canadians now, some to be Canadians presently. There were +Chinese and Japanese in greater numbers than we had seen elsewhere, for +Victoria is the nearest Canadian city to the East. There were Hindus, +and near them survivors of the aboriginal race, the Songhish Indians, +who lorded it in Vancouver Island before the white man came. + +And giving a special quality to this big cosmopolitan gathering was the +curious definitely English air of Victoria. It is the most English of +Canadian cities. Its even climate is the most English, and its air of +well-furnished leisure is English. Because of this, or perhaps I +should say the reason for this is that it is the home of many +Englishmen. Not only do settlers from England come here in numbers, +but many English families, particularly those from the Orient East, who +get to know its charms when travelling through it on their way across +Canada and home, come here to live when they retire. And this +distinctly English atmosphere gets support in great measure from the +number of rich Canadians who, on ceasing their life's work, come here +to live in leisure. + +Yet though this is responsible for the growing up in Victoria of some +of the most beautiful residential districts in Canada, where beautiful +houses combine with the lovely scenery of country and sea in giving the +city and its environments a delightful charm, Victoria is vigorously +industrial too. + +It has shipbuilding and a brisk commerce in lumber, machinery and a +score of other manufactories, and it serves both the East and the +Canadian and American coast. It has fine, straight, broad streets, +lined with many distinguished buildings, and its charm has virility as +well as ease. + + +IV + +The Prince made a long break in his tour here, remaining until Sunday, +September 28th. Most of this stay was given over to restful exercise; +he played golf and went for rides through the beautiful countryside. +There were several functions on his program, however. He visited the +old Navy Yard and School at Esquimault, and he took a trip on the +Island railway to Duncan, Ladysmith, Nanaimo and Qualicum. + +At each of these towns he had a characteristic welcome, and at some +gained an insight into local industries, such as lumbering and the +clearing of land for farming. On the return journey he mounted the +engine cab and came most of the way home in this fashion. + +The country in the Island is serene and attractive, extremely like +England, being reminiscent of the rolling wooded towns in Surrey, +though the Englishman misses the hedges. The many sea inlets add +beauty to the scenery, and there are delightful rides along roads that +alternately run along the water's edge, or hang above these fjords on +high cliff ledges. + +In one of our inland drives we were taken to an extraordinary and +beautiful garden. It is a serene place, laid out with exquisite skill. +In one part of it an old quarry has been turned into a sunken garden. +Here with straight cliffs all round there nests a wilderness of +flowers. Small, artificial crags have been reared amid the rockeries +and the flowers, and by small, artificial paths one can climb them. A +stream cascades down the cliff, and flows like a beautiful toy-thing +through the dainty artificial scenery. + +In another part of the grounds is a Japanese garden, with tiny pools +and moon bridges and bamboo arbours--and flowers and flowers and +flowers. And not only does the maker of this enchanted spot throw it +open to the public, but he has built for visitors a delightful chalet +where they can take tea. This chalet is a big, comely hall, with easy +chairs and gate tables. It is provided with all the American +magazines. In a tiny outbuilding is a scullery with cups and saucers +and plates and teapots--all for visitors. + +The visitors take their own food, and use these articles. The Chinese +cook at the house near by provides boiling water, and all the owner +asks is that those who use his crockery shall wash it up at the sink +provided, and with the dish-cloths provided, and leave it in readiness +for the next comer. + +That generosity is the final and completing touch to the charm of that +exquisite place, which is a veritable "Garden of Allah" amid the +beauties of Canadian scenery. + +Another drive was over the Malahat Pass, through superb country, to a +big lumber camp on Shawnigan Lake. Here we saw the whole of the +operations of lumbering from the point where a logger notches a likely +tree for cutting to the final moment when Chinese workmen feed the +great trunks to the steam saw that hews them into beams and planks. + +Having selected a tree, the first logger cuts into it a deep wedge +which is to give it direction in its fall. These men show an almost +uncanny skill. They get the line of a great tree with the handle of +their axes, as an artist uses a pencil, and they can cut their notches +so accurately that they can "fall" a tree on a pocket-handkerchief. + +Two men follow this expert. They cut smaller notches in the tree, and +insert their "boards" into it. These "boards" have a steel claw which +bites into the tree when the men stand on the board, the idea being +both to raise the cutters above the sprawling roots, and to give their +swing on the saw an elasticity. It is because they cut so high that +Canada is covered with tall stumps that make clearing a problem. The +stumps are generally dynamited, or torn up by the roots by cables that +pass through a block on the top of a tree to the winding-drum of a +donkey-engine. + +When the men at the saw have cut nearly through the tree, they sing out +a drawling, musical "Stand aw-ay," gauging the moment with the skill of +woodsmen, for there is no sign to the lay eye. In a few moments the +giant tree begins to fall stiffly. It moves slowly, and then with its +curious rigidity tears swiftly through the branches of neighbouring +trees, coming to the ground with a thump very much like the sound of an +H.E. shell, and throwing up a red cloud of torn bark. The sight of a +tree falling is a moving thing; it seems almost cruel to bring it down. + +A donkey-engine mounted on big logs, that has pulled itself into place +by the simple method of anchoring its steel rope to a distant tree--and +pulling, jerks the great trunks out of the heart of the forest. A +block and tackle are hitched to the top of a tall tree that has been +left standing in a clearing, and the steel ropes are placed round the +fallen trunks. As this lifting line pulls them from their +resting-place, they come leaping and jerking forward, charging down +bushes, rising over stumps, dropping and hurdling over mounds until it +seems that they are actually living things struggling to escape. The +ubiquitous donkey-engine loads the great logs on trucks, and an engine, +not very much bigger than a donkey-engine, tows the long cars of timber +down over a sketchy track to the waterside. + +Here the loads are tipped with enormous splashes into the water to wait +in the "booms" until they are wanted at the mill. Then they are towed +across, sure-footed men jump on to them and steer them to the big +chute, where grappling teeth catch them and pull them up until they +reach the sawing platform. They are jerked on to a movable truck, that +grips them, and turns them about with mechanical arms into the required +position for cutting, and then log and truck are driven at the saw +blade, which slices beams or planks out of the primitive trunk with an +almost sinister ease. + +Uncanny machines are everywhere in this mill. Machines carve shingles +and battens or billets with an almost human accuracy. A conveyor +removes all sawdust from the danger of lights with mechanical +intelligence. Another carries off all the scrapwood and takes it away +to a safe place in the mill yard where a big, wire-hooded furnace, +something like a straight hop oast-house, burns every scrap of it. + +The life in the lumber camp is a hard life, but it is well paid, it is +independent, and the food is a revelation. The loggers' lunch we were +given was a meal fit for gourmets. It was in a rough pitch-pine hut at +rough tables. Clam-soup was served to us in cylindrical preserved meat +cans on which the maker's labels still clung--but it lost none of its +delightful flavour for that. Beef was served cut in strips in a great +bowl, and we all reached out for the vegetables. There were mammothine +bowls of mixed salad possessing an astonishing (to British eyes) +lavishness of hard-boiled egg, lemon pie (lemon curd pie) with a +whipped-egg crown, deep apple pie (the logger eats pie--which many +people will know better as "tart"--three times a day), a marvellous +fruit salad in jelly, and the finest selection of plums, peaches, +apples, and oranges I had seen for a long day. + +I was told that this was the regular meal of the loggers, and I know it +was cooked by a chef (there is a French or Belgian or Canadian chef in +most logging camps), for I talked with him. To live in a lonely +forest, in a shack, and to work tremendously hard, may not be all the +life a man wants, but it has compensations. + +I understand that just about then the lumbermen were prone to striking. +In one place they were demanding sheets, and in another they had +refused to work because, having ordered two cases of eggs from a store, +the tradesman had only been able to send the one he had in stock. + +While we were in this camp we had some experience of the danger of +forest fires. We had walked up to the head of the clearing, when one +of the men of a group we had left working a short distance behind, came +running up to say a fire had started. We went back, and in a place +where, ten minutes before, there had been no sign of fire, flames and +smoke were rising over an area of about one hundred yards square. +Little tongues of flame were racing over the "slashings" (_i.e._, the +débris of bark and splintered limbs that litter an area which has been +cut), snakes of flame were writhing up standing trees, sparks blown by +the wind were dropping into the dry "slashings" twenty, thirty and +fifty yards away and starting fresh fires. We could see with what +incredible rapidity these fires travelled, and how dangerous they can +be once they are well alight. This fire was surrounded, and got under +with water and shovelled earth, but we were shown a big stretch of +hillside which another such fire had swept bare in a little under two +hours. The summer is the dangerous time, for "slashings" and forests +are then dry, and one chance spark from a badly screened donkey-engine +chimney will start a blaze. When the fire gets into wet and green wood +it soon expires. + +These drives, for us, were the major events in an off time, for there +was very little happening until the night of the 28th, when we went on +board the _Princess Alice_ again, to start on our return journey. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +APPLE LAND: OKANAGAN AND KOOTENAY LAKES + +I + +On Monday, September 29th, the Prince of Wales returned to Vancouver +and took car to New Westminster, the old capital of British Columbia +before picturesque Victoria assumed the reins. + +New Westminster was having its own festival that day, so the visit was +well timed. The local exhibition was to begin, and the Prince was to +perform the opening ceremony. Under many fine arches, one a tall +torii, erected by Chinese and Japanese Canadians, the procession of +cars passed through the town, on a broad avenue that runs alongside the +great Fraser River. Drawn up at the curb were many floats that were to +take part in the trades' procession through the town to the exhibition +grounds. Most of them were ingenious and attractive. There were +telegraph stations on wagons, corn dealers' shops, and the like, while +on the bonnet of one car was a doll nurse, busy beside a doll bed. +Another automobile had turned itself into an aeroplane, while another +had obliterated itself under a giant bully beef can to advertise a +special kind of tinned meat. + +All cars were decorated with masses of spruce and maple leaf, now +beautiful in autumn tints of crimson and gold. And Peace and +Britannia, of course, were there with attendant angels and nations, +comely girls whose celestial and symbolical garments did not seem to be +the right fashion for a day with more than a touch of chill in the air. + +Through this avenue of fantasy, colour and cheery humanity the Prince +drove through the town, which seems to have the air of brooding over +its past, to the exhibition ground, which he opened, and where he +presented medals to many soldiers. + + +II + +From New Westminster the Royal train struck upward through the Rocky +Mountains by way of the Kettle Valley. It passed through a land of +terrific and magnificent scenery. It equalled anything we had seen in +the more famous beauty spots, but it was more savage. The valleys +appeared closer knit and deeper, and the sharp and steep mountains +pinched the railway and river gorges together until we seemed to be +creeping along the floor of a mighty passage-way of the dark, +aboriginal gods. + +Again and again the train was hanging over the deep, misted cauldron of +the valley, again and again it slipped delicately over the span of +cobweb across the sky that is a Canadian bridge. In this land of steep +gradients, sharp curves and lattice bridges, the train was divided into +two sections, and each, with two engines to pull it, climbed through +the mountain passes. + +This tract of country has only within the last few years been tapped by +a railway that seems even yet to have to fight its way forward against +Nature, barbarous, splendid and untamed. It was built to the usual +ideal of Canada, that vision which ignores the handicaps of today for +the promise of tomorrow. Yet even today it taps the rich lake valleys +where mining and general farming is carried on, and where there are +miles of orchards already growing some of the finest apples and peaches +in Canada. + +On the morning of Tuesday, September 30th, the train climbed down from +the higher and rougher levels to Penticton, a small, bright, growing +town that stands as focus for the immense fruit-growing district about +Okanagan Lake. + +Here, after a short ceremony, the Prince boarded the steamer +_Sicamous_, a lake boat of real Canadian brand; a long white vessel +built up in an extraordinary number of tiers, so that it looked like an +elaborate wedding-cake, but a useful craft whose humpy stern +paddle-wheel can push her through a six-foot shallow or deep water with +equal dispatch. And a delightfully comfortable boat into the bargain, +with well-sheltered and spacious decks, cosy cabins and bath-rooms, and +a big dining saloon, which, placed in the very centre of the ship with +the various galleries of the decks rising around it, has an air of +belonging to one of those attractive old Dickensian inns. + +On this vessel the Prince was carried the whole length of Okanagan +Lake, which winds like a blue fillet between mountains for seventy +miles. On the ledges and in the tight valleys of these heights he saw +the formal ranks of a multitude of orchards. + +A short distance along the lake the _Sicamous_ pulled in to the toy +quay of Summerland, a town born of and existing for fruit, and linked +up with the outer world by the C.P.R. Lake Service that owned our own +vessel. + +All the children of Summerland had collected on the quayside to sing to +and to cheer the Prince, and, as he stood on the upper deck and waved +his hat cheerfully at them, they cheered a good deal more. When he +went ashore and was taken by the grown-up Olympians to examine the +grading and packing sheds, where the fruits of all the orchards are +handled and graded by mechanical means, prepared for the market, and +sold on the co-operative plan, the kiddies exchanged sallies with those +waiting on the vessel, flipped big apples up at them, and cheered or +jeered as they were caught or missed. + +The _Sicamous_ went close inshore at Peachland, another daughter town +of Mother Fruit, to salute the crowd of people who had come out from +the pretty bungalow houses that nestle among the green trees on a low +and pretty shore, and who stood on the quay in a mass to send a cheer +to him. + +At Okanagan Landing, at the end of the lake, he took car to Vernon, a +purposeful and attractive town which is the commercial heart of the +apple industry. Indeed, there was no need to ask the reason for +Vernon's being. Even the decorations were wrought out of apples, and +under an arch of bright, cherry-red apples the Prince passed on to the +sports ground, and on to a platform the corner posts of which were +crowned with pyramids of apples, and in the centre of which was a model +apple large enough to suit the appetite of Gargantua. + +In front of this platform was a grand stand crowded with children of +all races from Scandinavian to Oriental, and these sang with the +resistless heartiness of Canada. The Oriental is a pretty useful asset +in British Columbia, for in addition to his gifts of industry he is an +excellent agriculturist. + +After the ceremonies the Prince had an orgy of orchards. + +Fruit growing is done with a large gesture. The orchards are neat and +young and huge. In a run of many miles the Prince passed between +masses of precisely aligned trees, and every tree was thick with bright +and gleaming red fruit. Thick, indeed, is a mild word. The short +trees seemed practically all fruit, as though they had got into the +habit of growing apples instead of leaves. Many of the branches bore +so excessive a burden that they had been torn out by the weight of the +fruit upon them. + +It was a marvellous pageant of fruit in mass. And the apples +themselves were of splendid quality, big and firm and glowing, each a +perfect specimen of its school. We were able to judge because the +land-girls, after tossing aprons full of specimens (not always +accurately) into the Prince's car, had enough ammunition left over for +the automobiles that followed. + +Attractive land girls they were, too. Not garbed like British +land-girls, but having all their dashing qualities. Being Canadians +they carried the love of silk stockings on to the land, and it was +strange to see this feminine extremity under the blue linen overall +trousers or knickers. They were cheery, sun-tanned, laughing girls. +They were ready for the Prince at every gate and every orchard fence, +eager and ready to supplement their gay enthusiasm with this apple +confetti. + +The Prince stopped here and there to chat with fruit growers, and to +congratulate them on their fine showing. Now he stopped to talk to a +wounded officer, who had been so cruelly used in the war that he had to +support himself on two sticks. Now he stopped to pass a "How d'y' do" +to a mob of trousered land-girls who gathered brightly about his car, +showing himself as laughing and as cheerful as they. + +The cars left the land of growing apples and turned down the lake in a +superb run of thirty-six miles to Kelowna. This road skirts fairyland. +It winds high up on a shoulder above Long Lake, that makes a floor of +living azure between the buttresses and slopes of the mountains. Only +when it is tired of the heights does it drop to the lake level, and +sweeping through a filigree of trees, speeds along a road that is but +an inch or two above the still mirror of Wood Lake, on the polished +surface of which there is a delicate fret of small, rocky islets. So, +in magnificent fashion, he came to Kelowna, and the _Sicamous_, that +carried him back to the train. + + +III + +Through the night and during the next morning the train carried the +Prince deeper in the mountains, skirting in amazing loops, when the +train seemed almost to be biting its tail, steep rocky cliffs above +white torrents, or the shining blue surfaces of lakes such as Arrow +Lake, that formed the polished floor of valleys. Now and then we +passed purposeful falls, and by them the power houses that won light +and motive force for the valley towns from the falling water. There +are those who fear the harnessing of water-power, because it may mean +the spoiling of beautiful scenery. Such buildings as I saw in no way +marred the view, but rather added to it a touch of human +picturesqueness. + +Creeping down the levels, with discretion at the curves, the train came +in the rain to Nelson on Wednesday, October 1st. Rain spoilt the +reception at Nelson, a town that thrives upon the agricultural and +mining products of the hills about. There seemed to be a touch of +mining grey in the air of the town, but, as in all towns of Canada, no +sense of unhappiness, no sense of poverty--indeed, in the whole of +Canada I saw five beggars and no more (though, of course, there may +have been more). Of these one man was blind, and two were badly +crippled soldiers. + +There are no poor in Nelson, so I was told, and no unemployed. + +"If a man's unemployed," said a Councillor with a twinkle in his eye, +"he's due for the penitentiary. With labourers getting five dollars a +day, and being able to demand it because of the scarcity of their kind, +when a man who says he can't find work has something wrong with him ... +as a matter of fact the penitentiary idea is only speculative. There's +never been a test case of this kind." + +I don't suppose there have been many test cases of that kind in the +whole of Canada, for certainly "the everyday people" everywhere have a +cheerful and self-dependent look. + +At Nelson the Prince embarked on another lake boat, the _Nasookin_, +after congratulating rival bands, one of brass, and one (mainly boys) +of bagpipes, on their tenacity in tune in the rain. Nelson gave him a +very jolly send-off. The people managed to invade the quay in great +numbers, and those who were daring clambered to the top of the freight +cars standing on the wharf, the better to give him a cheer. + +As the boat steamed out into the Kootenay River scores of the nattiest +little gasoline launches flying flags escorted him for the first mile +or so, chugging along beside the _Nasookin_, or falling in our wake in +a bright procession of boats. Encouraged by the "movie" men they waved +vigorously, and many good "shoots" of them were filmed. + +At Balfour, where the narrow river, after passing many homesteads of +great charm nestling amid the greenery of the low shore that fringes +the high mountains, turns into Kootenay Lake, the Prince went ashore. +Here is a delightful chalet which was once an hotel, but is now a +sanatorium for Canadian soldiers. Its position is idyllic. It stands +above river and lake, with the fine mountains backing it, and across +the river are high mountains. + +Over these great slopes on this grey day clouds were gathered, crawling +down the shoulders in billows, or blowing in odd and disconnected +masses and streamers. These odd ragged scarves and billows look like +strayed sheep from the cloud fold, lost in the deep valleys that sit +between the blue-grey mountain sides. + +The Prince spent some time visiting the sanatorium, and chatting with +the inmates, and then played golf on the course here. The C.P.R. were, +meanwhile, indulging themselves in one of their habitual feats. The +lakes make a gap in the line between Nelson, or rather Balfour siding, +and Kootenay Landing at the head of the water. Over this water-jump +the whole train, solid steel and weighing a thousand tons, was bodily +carried. + +Two great barges were used. The long cars were backed on to these with +delicate skill--for the slightest waywardness of a heavy, all-steel car +on a floating barge is a matter of danger, and each loaded barge was +then taken up the lake by a tug grappled alongside. + +At Kootenay Landing the delicate process was reversed, and all was +carried out without mishap though it was a dark night, and the +railwaymen had to work with the aid of searchlights. Kootenay Landing +is, in itself, something of a wonder. In the dark, as we waited for +the train to be made up, it seemed as solid as good hard land can make +it. But as the big Canadian engine came up with the first car we felt +our "earth" sway slightly, and in the beam of the big headlight we saw +the reason. Kootenay Landing is a station in the air. It is built up +on piles. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE PRAIRIES AGAIN + +I + +In cold weather and through a snowfall that had powdered the slopes and +foothills of the Rocky Mountains the Prince, on Thursday, October 2nd, +reached the prairies again. Now he was travelling well to the south of +his former journey on a line that ran just above the American border. + +In this bleak and rolling land he was to call in the next two days at a +series of small towns whose very names--McLeod, Lethbridge, Medicine +Hat, Maple Creek, Swift Current, Moose Jaw and Regina--had in them a +savour of the old, brave days when the Red Man was still a power, and +settlers chose their names off-hand from local things. + +McLeod, on the Old Man River, just escapes the foothills. It is +prairies, a few streets, a movie "joint," an hotel and a golf course. +In McLeod we saw the dawn of the Mackinaw, or anyhow first saw the +virtues of that strange coat which seems to have been adapted from the +original of the Biblical Joseph by a Highland tailor. It is a thick, +frieze garment, cut in Norfolk style. The colour is heroic red, or +blue or mauve or cinnamon, over which black lines are laid in a plaid +tracery. + +We realized its value as a warmth-giver while we stood amid a crowd of +them as the Prince received addresses. Among the crowd was a band of +Blood Indians of the Blackfeet Tribe, whose complexions in the cold +looked blue under their habitual brown-red. They had come to lay their +homage before him and to present an Indian robe. The Prince shook +hands and chatted with the chiefs as well as their squaws, and with the +missionary who had spent his life among these Red Men, and had +succeeded in mastering the four or five sounds that make up the Indian +language. + +We talked to an old chief upon whose breast were the large silver +medals that Queen Victoria and King George had had specially struck for +their Indian subjects. These have become signs of chieftainship, and +are taken over by the new chief when he is elected by the tribesmen. +With this chief was his son, a fine, quiet fellow in the costume of the +present generation of Indians, the cowboy suit. He had served all +through the war in a Canadian regiment. + +At Lethbridge, the next town, there was a real and full Indian +ceremonial. Before a line of tepees, or Indian lodges, the Prince was +received by the Chiefs of the Blood Tribe of the Blackfeet Nation, and +elected one of them with the name of Mekastro, that is Red Crow. + +This name is a redoubtable one in the annals of the Blackfeet. It has +been held by their most famous chieftains and has been handed down from +generation to generation. It was a Chief Red Crow who signed the +Wolseley Treaty in '77. Upon his election the Prince was presented +with an historic headdress of feathers and horns, a beautiful thing +that had been worn by the great fighting leaders of the race. + +There were gathered about the Prince in front of these tall, painted +tepees many chiefs of strange, odd-sounding names. One of these +immobile and aquiline men was Chief Shot on Both Sides, another Chief +Weasel Fat, another Chief One Spot, another Chief Many White Horses. +They had a dignity and an unyielding calm, and if some of them wore +befeathered bowler hats, instead of the sunray feathered headdress, it +did not detract from their high austerity. Chief One Spot--"he whose +voice can be heard three miles"--was a splendid and upright old warrior +of eighty; he had not only been present at the historic treaty of '77, +but had been one of the signatories. + +The Prince chatted with these chiefs, while the Lethbridge people, who +had shown extraordinary heartiness since the public welcome in the +chief square of the town, crowded close around. While he was talking, +the Prince asked if he could be shown the interior of one of the +wigwams, and his brother, Chief Weasel Fat, took him to his own, over +the door of which was painted rudely the emblem of the bald-headed +eagle. + +The wigwam is a fine airy home. Its canvas walls are supported by +tall, leaning poles bound at the top. There is no need of a centre +pole, and a wood fire burning on a circular hearth sent up a coil of +smoke through the opening at the top of the poles. + +The floor was strewn with bright soft rugs, on which squaws in vivid +red robes were sitting, listening to all that was said with impassive +faces. The walls were decorated with strips of warm cloth upon which +had been sewn Indian figures and animals. The wide floor space also +held a rattanwork bed, musical instruments and the like; certainly it +was a more comfortable and commodious place than its bell-tent shape +would suggest. + +Leaving the exhibition grounds, on which the encampment stood, the +Prince passed under an arch made of Indian clothes of white antelope +skin, beads and feathers, and after reviewing the war veterans, went to +the town ball that had been arranged in his honour. + +Lethbridge is a mixture of the plain and the pit. It is a great grain +centre, and there is no mistaking its prairie air, yet superimposed +upon this is the atmosphere of, say, a Lancashire or Yorkshire mining +town. Coal and other mines touch with a sense of dark industrial +bustle the easy air of the plain town. It is a Labour town, and a +force in Labour politics. That, of course, made not the slightest +difference to its welcome; indeed, perhaps it tinged that greeting with +a touch of independent heartiness that made it notable. + +As a town it impresses with its vividity at once. That, indeed, is the +quality of most Canadian cities. They capture one with their air of +modernity and vivacity at first impact. True, one sometimes finds that +the town that seemed great and bustling dwindles after a few fine +streets into suburbs of dirt roadways, but one has been impressed. It +may be very good window dressing, though, on the other hand, it is +probably good planning which concentrates all the activity and +interests of the town in the decisively main avenues. + + +II + +Friday, October 3rd, saw the Prince visiting a string of three towns. + +Medicine Hat was the first of these, an attractive, park-like place +full of "pep." Medicine Hat's claim to fame beyond its name lies in +the fact that, having discovered that it was sitting upon a vast +subterranean reservoir of natural gas, it promptly harnessed it to its +own use. Now, that elemental thing is in the control of humanity, and +heats the town, and tamely drives the wheels of industry. + +The outstanding ceremony was the way little boys suddenly took fright +on a roof. In the middle of the town, beside the street, is a tall, +thin standpipe, and this standpipe was to demonstrate a "shoot off" of +the gas. Scores of small boys climbed on to the roofs of neighbouring +sheds to see the fun. First there was a meek, submissive flame burning +at the top of the pipe, and looking weak in the fine sunlight. Then, +abruptly, the flame shot up a hundred feet, and there was a loud +roaring. Not only was the roaring a terrifying thing, but the force of +that rush of gas made the ground, the roof and the little boys tremble. +Little boys came off that roof in record time, and with such a clatter +that the effort of the standpipe almost lost its place as a star turn. +This tremendous pressure is not habitual; it is, I believe, obtained by +bursting a charge in one of the gas wells. + +The Prince also saw the uses to which the gas was put in a big pottery +mill. The kilns here were an incandescent mass of fire, the work of +the easily controlled gas that does the work with a tithe of the labour +and at a mere fraction of the cost necessitated by ordinary baking +kilns. + +Maple Creek and Swift Current were stepping-off places, with all their +populations packed in the square about the station to give the Prince a +hearty greeting. At Maple Creek the pretty daughters of the township +were very much in evidence, and held His Royal Highness up with +autograph albums. + +Moose Jaw, one of the few towns where a quaint name is traceable, for +it is the creek where the white man mended the cart with a moose +jaw-bone, which the Prince reached on the morning of October 4th, is a +bigger town and proud of its position as a grain, food and machinery +distributing centre for Southern Saskatchewan. In its station +courtyard it had built up an admirable exhibit of its vegetables and +fruit, its sides of bacon, its grain in ear, its porridge oats in +packets, and its butter and cream in drums and churns; while chiefest +of all it showed ramparts of some of the two million sacks of flour it +handles annually. The whole of the exhibit was set in a moat of grain +and potatoes. + +The Prince went to the University Grounds, where a mighty crowd +attended the welcoming ceremony, and where a wild and timeless +waltz-quadrille of motors which straggled all-whither over the grounds, +marked the attempts of people to locate and follow him when he drove +away to the hospital and a big packing factory. At the packing plant +he saw the whole process of handling meat, from the moment when cowboys +in chaps drove the herd to the pens to the final jointing of the steer. + +From Moose Jaw he went to Regina, which he reached that afternoon. +Regina is the capital of Saskatchewan, but an accidental capital. +Somewhere about 1880 it was decided to start itself in quite another +place. Qu'Appelle, where there was a Hudson Bay Fort and the country +was attractive, was the site chosen. And Qu'Appelle opened its mouth +too wide--or, anyhow so the version of the story I was told goes. The +land-owners there asked an outside number of million dollars, and the +townplanners went to Pile o' Bones instead. + +Pile o' Bones was a point near Wascana Lake where there had been a big +slaughter of buffaloes. It was a point of no importance, but Canadians +don't mind that sort of thing. When they make up their minds to build +a city, a city arises. Regina arose, broad and bustling, a trifle +chilly as becomes a city of the prairie, rather flat and not altogether +attractive, yet purposeful. + +It also gained another reason for regard by becoming the headquarters +of the "Mounties," the Royal North-West Mounted Police, whose main +barracks are here. We saw something of the discipline of that fine +service in the way the big crowds were handled, for the Prince drove +through the streets in the order and state of a London or New York +pageant. + +The Parliament Buildings are beautifully situated before a wide stretch +of water. They are the semi-classical, domed, white stone buildings of +the design of those at Edmonton and other cities--a sort of +standardized parliament building in fact. Before them, on the terraces +and lawn that shelved down to the water, the big throng made a scene of +quick beauty. There were ranks of pretty nurses, rank upon rank of +khaki veterans, battalions of boy scouts mainly divorced from hats +which were perpetually aloft on upraised and enthusiastic poles, aisles +of sitting wounded whom the Prince shook hands with, and thick, +supporting masses of civilians. Lining this throng were unbending +fillets of scarlet statues, the "Mounties" of the guard. And +humanizing the whole were solid banks of school-children who sang and +cheered at the right as well as the wrong moment. + +The presentation of medals--one to a blinded doctor, who, led by a +comrade, received the most poignant storm of cheers I have ever heard +in my life--and a giant public reception finished that day's +ceremonies. Sunday, October 5th, was a day of rest, and Monday was the +day of the "Mounties." + +The Prince showed a particular interest in his visit to the +Headquarters of this splendid and romantic corps. The Royal North-West +Mounted Police is a classic figure in the history of the Empire. The +day is now past when the lonely red rider of the wilds stood for the +only token of awe and authority among Indian tribes and "bad men" +camps, but though that may be there are no more useful fellows than +these smart and sturdy men, who, scarlet-coated, and with their +Stetsons at a daring angle, add a dash of colour and bravery to the +streets of Western Canada. + +In his inspection the Prince saw the reason why the physique of the men +should be so splendid and their nerve so sure. The training of the +R.N.W.M.P. makes no appeal to the weakling of spirit or flesh. He saw +their firm discipline. He saw them breaking in the bucking bronchos +they had to ride. He saw them go through exhausting mounted tests. +His congratulations on their wonderful show were expressed with great +warmth. + + +III + +From Regina the Prince took a holiday. He went up to the sporting +country near Qu'Appelle for duck and game shooting, spending from +Monday, October 6th, until Friday, October 10th, there. This district +abounds in duck, and the Prince and his staff had very fair sport. +During his stay the weather suddenly turned colder, the rivers froze +over and snow fell. So sudden was the cold snap that one of those with +the Prince was caught napping. He woke up to find that his false teeth +were frozen into the solid block of ice that had been water the night +before. He had to take the tooth glass to the kitchen of the house +where he was staying, and thaw it before he could even articulate his +emotions adequately. + +Riding in a fast car from the scene of the sport to the station gave +the Prince an indication of what winter would be like in the prairies, +where the wind from the north sweeps down unresisted, and with such a +force that it seems to go right through all coats, save the Canadian +winter armour of "coon coat" or fur. + +Brandon and Portage la Prairie, two determined little towns, gave the +Prince a snow welcome. The weather kept neither grown-ups nor children +away from the liveliest of greetings. They were attractive halts in a +run that took the Prince to Winnipeg. + +In Winnipeg we appreciated the virtues of central heating, for the wind +made the whole universe extraordinarily cold. Up to this I had +considered central heating a stuffy subject, and I am yet not fully +converted, for though there are those who say it can be controlled +quite easily, I have yet to meet the superman who can do it. + +All the same, steam heating has its virtues. On those cold days in +Winnipeg we lived in a world that knew not draughts. It was almost a +solemn joy to sit in a bath, and to feel that though half of one was in +hot water, the other half was also comfortable and not the prey of +every devilish current of icy air such as sports itself in those damp +refrigerators, the British bathrooms. Naturally, since we are staying +in a Canadian hotel of the up-to-date kind, a bathroom was attached to +our bedroom as a mere matter of course. But if we had had to wander +Anglicanly along corridors in search of a bathroom we should still have +been draught free, for central heating deals with corridors, and +stairways, and halls and lounges with one universal gesture. + +Not merely in so fine an hotel as the "Royal Alexandra," but in the +private houses and the "apartments" (English--"flats"), central heat +and good bathrooms are items of everyday--though many Canadians burn an +open fire in their sitting-rooms for the comfortable look it gives. + +These things are not merely for comfort, but they are, with the +hardwood floors, the mail chutes in "apartment" houses and the rest, +part of the great science of labour-saving, which the whole of America +practises. + +One realizes the need of labour-saving when one sees in a theatre +vestibule the following notice: + + + "ALL CHILDREN NOT LEFT WITH THE + MATRON MUST BE PAID FOR" + + +As nurses are rare, and servants are rare, the Americans have to +organize themselves to simplify the task of housekeeping. + +The "apartments" are compact and neat, arranged for easy handling. The +rents are not cheap. One very pleasant little "apartment," "hired" by +a newly-married couple, was made up of three rooms, a kitchen and a +balcony. It was in the suburbs. The rent was thirty-five dollars a +month, say eighty-four pounds a year, for a flat, which, under the same +conditions (rates included) could be obtained for thirty-five pounds a +year in England in pre-war days. For this, however, central heating +and perpetual hot water are included. My friend told me that his +electric light bill came to three dollars a month, and his gas bill +(for cooking) to rather less than that. In Calgary a friend of mine +had a pretty "apartment" even smaller in a suburban district, was +paying about ninety-six pounds a year over all, _i.e._, rent, light and +gas (central heating being included). Most of these "apartments" have +an ice house (refrigerator) attached, blocks of ice being left on the +doorstep every morning, just as the milk is left. + +Winnipeg is an attractive town to live in. It has plenty of +amusements, including several good theatres and music halls--fed, of +course, mainly from American sources. Mrs. Walker, whose husband owns +the Walker Theatre, told me that Laurence Irving and his wife acted on +their stage just before sailing on the ill-fated _Empress of Ireland_. +She went up to his dressing-room to say "Good-bye" to him, the night +before he left, and in answer to her knock he suddenly appeared before +her, dressed in black from head to foot, for the character he was +playing that night. His appearance filled her with dread--it seemed to +her, as she looked at him, that something terrible was to happen. Both +Laurence Irving and his wife were, however, in excellent spirits. +Canada treated them royally, and they were going back home full of +optimism, confident that the play that Laurence Irving was then +finishing--one dealing with Napoleon--was to prove the greatest success +of their careers. + +We met at Winnipeg, also, a number of the brilliant men and women +journalists whose energy and brains are responsible for the many fine +papers that focus in this city. We had met such companions of our own +dispensation in other cities, in Ottawa, Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto +and Quebec. They were not merely keen and accomplished craftsmen, but +their hospitality to us was always of the most delightful generosity. + +The Princess visit to Winnipeg was undertaken to give him the +opportunity of saying _au revoir_ to the West. At the vivid luncheon +he gave in the attractive Alexandra Hotel to all the leaders of the +West, men and women, he insisted that it was _au revoir_, and that so +well had the West treated him, so attractive was its atmosphere, that +he meant not merely to return, but to become something of a rancher +here in the "little place" he had bought in Alberta. He spoke of the +splendid spirit of the West, and the magnificent future that was the +West's for the grasping, and he left on all those who heard him an +impression of genuine affection for the people and the land with which +his journey had brought him in contact. + +He himself left the West a "real scout." It is a mere truism to say +that his personality had conquered the West, as it had won for him +affection everywhere. His straightforward masculinity and his entire +lack of side, his cheerfulness and his keenness, his freedom from +"frills," as one man put it, had made him the friend of everybody. I +heard practically the same expressions of real affection from all +grades, from Chief Justice to car conductors. I heard, I think, but +one man pooh-pooh, not so much this universal regard for the Prince, as +a universal enthusiasm for something royal. A labour-leader, who +happened to be present, administered correction: + +"That chap's all right," he insisted, and his word carried weight. "I +saw him in France, and there's not much that is wrong with him. If +you're as democratic as he is, then you're all right." + +The brightest of dances, a game of squash rackets, and the Prince left, +undaunted by the snow, for week-end shooting. On Tuesday, October +14th, he was in the train again, travelling East, in the direction of +the Cobalt mining country, buoyed up by the prophecy of the local +weather-wise that the cold snap would not endure, but would be followed +by the delightfully keen yet warm weather of the "Indian Summer." The +local weather-wise were right, but it took time. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +SILVER, GOLD AND COMMERCE + +I + +Cobalt is a fantasy town. It is a Rackham +drawing with all its little grey houses +perched up on queer shelves and masses of +greeny-grey rock. Its streets are whimsical. They +wander up and down levels, and in and out of houses, +and sometimes they are roads and sometimes they +are stairs. One glance at them and I began to +repeat, "There was a crooked man, who walked a +crooked mile." A delightful genius had done the +town to illustrate that rhyme. + +And the rope railways that sent a procession of +emotionless buckets across the train when we pulled +in, the greeny-grey lake that presently (inside the +town) ceased being a lake and became a big lake +basin of smooth, greeny-grey mine slime, the vast +greeny-grey mounds of mill refuse, the fantastic +spideriness of the lattice mill workings, and humped +corrugated iron sheds, all of them slightly +greeny-grey in the prevailing fashion--the whole picture +was fantastic; indeed, Cobalt appears a city of gnomes. + +We had travelled all Tuesday and Wednesday, +striking east from Winnipeg, only stopping occasionally +for the Prince to return the courtesies of the +CHAPTER XXI + +NIAGARA AND THE TOWNS OF WESTERN ONTARIO + +I + +The best first impression of Niagara Falls is, I think, the one the +Prince of Wales obtained. + +Those who really wish to experience the thrills of grandeur and poetry +of this marvel had better delay their visit until a night in summer, +and make arrangements with the railway time-table to get there +somewhere after dark. Upon arriving they must hire a car, and drive +down to the splendid boulevard on the Canadian side. They will then +see the great mass of water under the shine of lights, falling +eternally, eternally presenting a picture of almost cruel beauty. They +will then know an experience that transcends all other experiences as +well as all attempts at description. + +The curious feeling of disappointment which comes to many in daylight +will have been guarded against, and, stimulated by that wondrous first +vision, they will tide over that spiritually barren period which many +know until the marvel of the Falls begins to "grow on them." + +The Prince came from Hamilton to Niagara somewhere very close to +midnight on Saturday, the 18th. He was carried through the dark town +and country to the house of one of the Falls Commissioners. From here, +through a filigree of trees and leaves, he could look across the +smoking gorge to the Falls on the American side. Batteries of great +arc lights, focused and hidden cunningly, shone upon the curtain of +white and tumbling waters, and upon the strong, black mass of Goat +Island, that is perched like a diver eternally hesitant on the very +brink of the two-hundred-foot plunge. + +The ghostly beauty of the falling water through the light, now a solid +and tremendous curve, now broken into filaments and zigzag whorls, now +veiled by the upward drift of the gossamer spray, held the Prince's +gaze for some time. But even that beauty was transcended. He himself +pressed an electric switch, and the grand curve of the Canadian +Horseshoe blazed fully alight for the first time in their history, and +though from this position this could not be fully seen, this new +addition of light gave the whole mass before his eyes an additional +loveliness. + +From this point the Prince motored through the town to the splendid +wide promenade that borders the Canadian side of the gorge, and spent +half an hour watching the fascinating play of falling water and spray +in the narrow cauldron of the Horseshoe. + +He stood a foot away from the point where the water leaps in its +magnificent and enigmatic curve into the tortured pool below. Green at +the curve, the water is a mass of curdled white in the strong lights as +it falls. Beneath, the face of the water is a passionate surface of +whirlpools and eddies and tossing whiteness. From the tremendous +impact of the drop a column of spray shoots and curls high up in the +air. It towers quite six hundred feet above the surface of the water, +and it is hard to believe that enduring mass of spray comes from the +fall; in the distance one is convinced that it is steam arising from +some big factory. + +On the next day (Sunday) the Prince saw the Falls in their every phase. +He walked up-stream above the Horseshoe to where the Niagara River +jostles down over a series of ledges in the grand and angry Canadian +Rapids, a sight as tumultuous and as thrilling in its own fashion as +the Falls themselves. He visited the big, white stone power-house to +examine with the greatest interest the machinery that traps the +tremendous latent power of the plunging water, harnesses it, and so +turns the wheels of a thousand industries, and lights hundreds of towns. + +Partly walking, partly riding in a car of the scenic tramway, he +followed the line of the Falls and river downward to where the +Whirlpool Rapids curdle and eddy within the deep walls of the gorge. +Over on the American side he saw the castles and keeps of modern +industry: power-houses and factories, springing up from the very rock +of the cliff, and almost forming part of it. On the Canadian side the +people have not let their utilitarian sense run away with them to such +an extent. Where America edges the gorge with commercial buildings, +Canada has constructed her beautiful promenade, which continues the +comeliness of the Falls Park through a pretty residential district. +America has Prospect Park and the very beautiful Goat Island Park on +its side, but these are not extended along the gorge. + +Below the Whirlpool Rapids the Prince descended to the level of the +river; later, he came to the top of the gorge again, and crossed, +swinging two hundred feet above the water on the spidery ropes of the +aerial railways, the great pool at the end of the river canyon, into +which the pent-up water pushes swirling before turning at right angles +towards Lake Ontario. + +The Prince did not go over to the American side, but America came to +him. The white number-plates of New York State seemed to be everywhere +on automobiles, even outnumbering the yellow of Ontario. One had the +impression that every American motor-owner within gasolene radius had +decided that he would take his Sunday spin to Niagara Falls, and on to +the Canadian side of the Falls to boot. + +American cars were coming over the bridges all day, and American owners +waited cheerfully along the route to get a glimpse of "The Boy," as the +American papers called the Prince. They joined themselves to the very +friendly crowd of Canadians who gathered everywhere along the route, +and their cheering, mingling with Canadian cheering, showed that +friendliness is not an affair that frontiers can manipulate. + +As a matter of fact, the frontier at Niagara is the most imaginary of +lines. Now that the war is over there is no difficulty in getting to +either side. And there is no change in atmosphere either. People and +conditions are much the same, only on the American side our dollars +cost us more. + + +II + +Western Ontario is, in the main, the most British part of Canada. Its +towns have British names, and the streets of the towns have British +names, while their atmosphere and design are almost of the Home +Counties. The countryside (if one overlooks the absence of +hedges--though rows of upturned tree-roots with plants growing among +them sometimes have the look of hedges) is the suave, domesticated +countryside of England. England is in the very air. And at the first +of these curiously English towns the Prince became an Indian chief. + +Brantford, though it reminds one of a comely British country town, +preferably one with a Church influence in it, is really the capital of +the Six Nation Indians. It actually owes its name to Joseph Brant, the +Mohawk chief, who, having fought his Indians on the side of the +British--as the braves of the fierce and powerful Six Nations had +always fought on the side of the British--in the War of Independence, +marched his tribes from their old camping-grounds in the Mohawk Valley +to this place, so that they could remain under British rule. + +The Indians of the Six Nations still live in and about Brantford, for, +though they have ceded away their lands to settlers, they are among the +few of the aboriginal races that have thrived and not decayed under +civilization. The Prince's visit to Brantford on Monday, October 20th, +was nearly all a visit to the Mohawks, the leaders of the ancient +Indian federation of six tribes. + +This is not to say that the welcome given him by Canadians was not a +great one. As a matter of fact, it was astonishing, and it was +difficult to imagine how a small town like this could pack its streets +with so many people. But Brantford is industrial and scientific also, +as well as being Indian. After a strenuous reception, for instance, +the Prince went along to the statue that shrines the town's claim to a +place in the history of science. This was the memorial to Dr. Bell, +who lived in Brantford and who invented the first telephone in +Brantford. They will even show you the trees from which the first line +over which the first spoken message sent, was strung. + +But the colourful ceremonies of Brantford were those connected with the +Mohawks. The Prince was taken out to the small, old wooden chapel that +George III. erected for his loyal Mohawk allies. It is the oldest +Protestant chapel in the Dominion. On its walls are painted prayers in +Mohawk, and it contains an old register that King Edward had signed in +1861. The Prince added his own signature to this before going into the +churchyard to see the grave of Joseph Brant. + +In the little enclosure before the church were the youngest descendants +of the loyal Joseph Brant: ranks of Mohawk boys in khaki, and small +Mohawk girls in red and grey. They sang to the Prince in their own +language, a singular guttural tongue rendered with an almost abnormal +stoicism. The children did not move a muscle of lips or face as they +chanted; it might have been a song rendered by graven images. + +In the main square of Brantford the Prince was elected chief of the Six +Nations. This ceremony was carried out upon a raised and beflagged +platform about which a vast throng of pale-faces gathered. Becoming a +chief of the Six Nations is no light matter. It is a thing that must +be discussed in full with all ceremonies and accurate minutes. The +pow-wow on the platform was rather long. Chiefs rose up and debated at +leisure in the Iroquois tongue, while the pale-faces in the square, at +first quite patient, began to demand in loud voices: + +"We want our Prince. We want our Prince." + +And to be truthful, not merely the pale-faces found the ceremony +lengthy. Gathered on the platform were a number of Mohawk girls, +delicate and pretty maidens, with the warmth of their race's colour +glowing through the soft texture of their cheeks. They were there +because they had thrown flowers in the pathway of the Prince. At first +they were interested in this olden ceremony of their old race. Then +they began to talk of the wages they were drawing in extremely modern +Canadian stores and factories. Then they looked at the ceremony again, +at the clothes the Indians wore, at the romance and colour of it, and +they said, one to another: + +"Say, why have those guys dressed up like that? What's it all about, +anyhow? What's the use of this funny old business?" + +The romantic may find some food for thought in this attitude of the +modern Mohawk maid. + +In the end, after a debate on the fitness of several names, the Prince, +as president of the pow-wow, gave his vote for "Dawn of Morning," and +became chief with that title. But apparently he did not become fully +fledged until he had danced a ritual measure. A brother chief in +bright yellow and a fine gravity, came forward to guide the Prince's +steps, and the Prince, immediately entering into the spirit of the +ceremony, joined with him in shuffling and bowing to and fro across the +platform. Only after the congratulations from fellow-Mohawks and +palefaces, did he leave the daïs to fight--there is no other word--his +way through the dense and cheerful mass that packed the square almost +to danger-point. + +It was a splendid crowd, good-humoured and ardent. It had cheered +every moment, though, perhaps, it had cheered more strongly at one +moment. This was when an old Indian woman ran up to the Prince, +crying: "I met your father and your grandfather, and I'm British too." +At her words the Prince had taken the rose from his buttonhole and had +presented it to her. And that delighted the crowd. + + +III + +The fine weather of Monday gave way to pitiless rain on the morning of +Tuesday, October 21st. All the same, the rain did not prevent the +reception at Guelph from being warm and intensely interesting. + +Guelph is one of the many comely and thriving towns of West Ontario, +but its chiefest feature is its great Agricultural College that trains +the scientific farmer, not of Ontario and Canada alone, but for many +countries in the Western World. This college gave the Prince a +captivating welcome. + +It has men students, but it has many attractive and bonny girl +students, also, and these helped to distinguish the day, that is, with +a little help from the "movie" men. + +The "movie" men who travelled with the train had captured the spectacle +of the Prince's arrival at the station, and had driven off to the +college to be in readiness to "shoot" when His Royal Highness arrived. +They had ten minutes to wait. Not merely that, they had ten minutes to +wait in the company of a bunch of the prettiest and liveliest girl +students in West Ontario. "Movie" men are not of the hesitant class. +Somewhere in the first seventy-five seconds they became old friends of +the students who were filling the college windows with so much +attraction. In one minute and forty-five seconds they had the girls in +training for the Prince's arrival. They had hummed over the melody of +what they declared was the Prince's favourite opera selection; a girl +at a piano had picked up the tune, while the others practised harder +than diva ever did. + +When the Prince arrived the training proved worth while. He was +saluted from a hundred laughing heads at a score of windows with the +song that had followed him all over Canada. He drove into the College, +not to the stirring strains of "Oh, Canada," but to the syncopated lilt +of "Johnny's in Town." + +The Prince was not altogether out of the youthful gaiety of the scene, +for after the lunch, where the students had scrambled for souvenirs, a +piece of sugar from his coffee cup, a stick of celery from his plate, +even a piece of his pie, he made all these dashing young women gather +about him in the group that was to make the commemorative photo, and a +very jolly, laughing group it was. + +And when he was about to leave, and in answer to a massed feminine +chorus, this time chanting: + +"We--want--a--holiday." + +He called out cheerfully: + +"All right. I'll fix that holiday." And he did. + + +IV + +The whole of these days were filled with flittings hither and thither +on the Grand Trunk line (the passage of the Prince being smoothly +manipulated by another of Canada's fine railway men, and a genius in +good fellowship, Mr. H. R. Charlton), as the Prince called at the +pretty and vigorous towns on the tongue of Ontario that stretches +between Lake Huron and Lake Erie to the American border. + +Stratford, with something of the comely grace of Shakespeare's town in +its avenues of neat homes and fine trees, gave him as warm a reception +as anywhere in Canada on the evening of October 21st. On Wednesday, +October 22nd, the same hearty welcome was extended by those singularly +English towns, Woodstock and Chatham. + +On the afternoon of the same day London gave him a mass welcome mainly +of children in its big central park. London, Ontario, is an echo of +London, Thames. It has its Blackfriars and Regent Street, its +Piccadilly and St. James'. It is industrial and crowded, as the +English London is. Its public reception to the Prince was remarkable. +It had managed it rather well. It had stated that all who wished to be +present must apply for tickets of admission. Thousands did, and they +passed before the Prince in a motley and genial crowd of top hats and +gingham skirts, striped sweaters and satin charmeuse. But though they +came in thousands, the numbers of ticket-holders were ultimately +exhausted. When the last one had passed, the Prince looked at his +wrist watch. There was half an hour to spare before the reception was +due to close. He told those about him to open the doors of the +building and let the unticketed public in. + +From London the Grand Trunk carried us to Windsor on Thursday, October +23rd, where crowds were so dense about the station that they overflowed +on to the engine until one could no longer see it for humanity and +little boys. From the engine eager sightseers even scrambled along the +tops of the great steel cars until they became veritable grandstands. + +Crowds were in the virile streets, and they were not all Canadians +either. A ferry plies from Windsor to the United States, and America, +which at no time lost an opportunity of coming across the border to see +the Prince, had come across in great numbers. Canadians there were in +Windsor, thousands of them, but quite a fair volume of the cheering had +a United States timbre. + +A city with an electric fervour, Windsor. That comes not merely from +the towering profile of Detroit's skyscrapers seen across the river, +but from the spirit of Windsor itself. Detroit is America's +"motoropolis," and from the air of it Windsor will be Canada's +motoropolis of tomorrow. It is already thrusting its way up to the +first line of industrial cities; it is already a centre for the +manufacture of the ubiquitous Ford car and others, and it is learning +and profiting a lot from its American brother. + +The Canadian and American populations are, in a sense, interchangeable. +The United States comes across to work in Windsor, and Windsor goes +across to work in America. The ferry, not a very bustling ferry, not +such a good ferry, for example, as that which crosses the English +Thames at Woolwich, carries men and women and carts, and, inevitably, +automobiles between the two cities. + +Detroit took a great interest in the Prince. It sent a skirmishing +line of newspapermen up the railway to meet him, and they travelled in +the train with us, and failed, as all pressmen did, to get interviews +with him. We certainly took an interest in Detroit. It was not merely +the sense-capturing profile of Detroit, the sky-scrapers that give such +a sense of soaring zest by day, and look like fairy castles hung in the +air at night, but the quick, vivid spirit of the city that intrigued us. + +We went across to visit it the next morning, and found it had the +delight of a new sensation. It is a city with a sparkle. It is a city +where the automobile is a commonplace, and the horse a thing for pause +and comment. It contained a hundred points of novelty for us, from the +whiteness of its buildings, the beauty of its domestic architecture, +the up-to-date advertising of its churches, to its policemen on traffic +duty who, on a rostrum and under an umbrella, commanded the traffic +with a sign-board on which was written the laconic commands, "Go" and +"Stop." + +And, naturally, we visited the Ford Works. A place where I found the +efficiency of effort almost frighteningly uncanny. One of these days +those inhumanly human machines will bridge the faint gulf that +separates them from actual life, then, like Frankenstein's monster, +they will turn upon their creators. + +Galt (Friday, October 24th) gave the Prince another great reception; +then, passing through Toronto, he travelled to Kingston, which he +reached on Saturday, October 25th. + +Kingston, though it had its beginnings in the old stone fort that +Frontenac built on the margin of Lake Ontario to hold in check the +English settlers in New York and their Iroquois allies, is unmistakably +British. With its solid stone buildings, its narrow fillet of blue +lake, its stone fortifications on the foreshore, and its rambling +streets, it reminded me of Southampton town, especially before +Southampton's Western Shore was built over. Its air of being a British +seaport arises from the fact that it is a British port, for it was +actually the arsenal and yard for the naval forces on the Great Lakes +during the war of 1812. + +And it also gets its English tone from the Royal Military College which +exists here. The bravest function of the Prince's visit was in this +college, where he presented colours to the cadets and saw them drill. +The discipline of these boys on parade is worthy of Sandhurst, Woolwich +or West Point, and their physique is equal to, if not better, than any +shown at those places. It is not exactly a military school, though the +training is military, for though some of the cadets join Imperial or +Canadian forces, and all serve for a time in the Canadian Militia, +practically all the boys join professions or go into commerce after +passing through. + +The Prince's reception at the college was fine, but his reception in +the town itself was remarkable. The Public Park was black with people +at the ceremony of welcome, and though he was down to "kick off" in the +first of the Association League football matches, his kick off was +actually a toss-up. That was the only way to get the ball moving in +the dense throng that surged between the goal posts. + +Kingston, too, gave the Prince the degree of Doctor of Laws. It is a +proud honour, for Kingston boasts of being one of the oldest +universities in Canada. But though its tradition is old, its spirit is +modern enough; for its Chancellor is Mr. E. W. Beatty, the President of +the Canadian Pacific Railways. It was from the Railway +President-Chancellor the Prince received his degree. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +MONTREAL + +I + +The Prince had had a brief but lively experience of Montreal earlier in +his tour. It was but a hint of what was to happen when he returned on +Monday, October 27th. It was not merely that Montreal as the biggest +and richest city in Canada had set itself the task of winding up the +trip in befitting manner; there was that about the quality of its +entertainment which made it both startling and charming. + +Even before the train reached Windsor Station the Prince was receiving +a welcome from all the smaller towns that make up outlying Montreal. +At these places the habitant Frenchmen and women crowded about the +observation platform of the train to cry their friendliness in French, +where English was unknown. And the friendliness was not all on the +side of the habitants. + +"They tole me," said one old habitant in workingman overalls, "they +tole me I could not shake 'is han'. So I walk t'ro' them, _Oui_. An' +'e see me. A' 'e put out 'is 'an', an' 'e laf--so. I tell you 'e's a +real feller, de kin' that shake han' wis men lak me." + +Montreal itself met the Prince in a maze of confetti and snow. +Montreal was showing its essential self by a happy accident. It was +the Montreal of old France, gay and vivacious and full of colour mated +to the stern stuff of Canada. + +It is true there was not very much snow, merely a fleck of it in the +air, that starred the wind-screens of the long line of automobiles that +formed the procession; but Canada and Montreal are not all snow, +either. It was as though the native spirit of the place was impressing +upon us the feeling that underneath the gaiety we were encountering +there was all the sternness of the pioneers that had made this fine +town the splendid place it is. + +There was certainly gaiety in the air on that day. The Prince drove +out from the station into a city of cheering. Mighty crowds were about +the station. Mighty crowds lined the great squares and the long +streets through which he rode, and crowds filled the windows of +sky-climbing stores. It was an animated crowd. It expressed itself +with the unaided throat, as well as on whistles and with eerie noises +on striped paper horns. It used rattles and it used sirens. + +And mere noise being not enough, it loosed its confetti. As the Prince +drove through the narrow canyon of the business streets, confetti was +tossed down from high windows by the bagful. Streamers of all colours +shot down from buildings and up from the sidewalks, until the snakes of +vivid colour, skimming and uncoiling across the street, made a bright +lattice over flagpole and telephone wire, and, with the bright flutter +of the flags, gave the whole proceedings a vivid and carnival air. + +Strips of coloured paper and torn letter headings fluttered down, too, +and in such masses that those who were responsible must have got rid of +them by the shovelful. Prince and car were very quickly entangled in +fluttering strips and bright streamers, that snapped and fluttered like +the multi-tinted tails of comets behind him as he sped. + +There was an air of cheery abandon about this whole-hearted +friendliness. The crowd was bright and vivacious. There was laughter +and gaiety everywhere, and when the Prince turned a corner, it lifted +its skirts and with fresh laughter raced across squares and along side +streets in order to get another glimpse of this "real feller." + +Bands of students, Frenchmen from Laval in velvet berets, and English +from McGill, made the sidewalks lively. When they could, they rushed +the cars of the procession and rode in thick masses on the footboards +in order to keep up with the Royal progress. When policemen drove them +off footboards, they waited for the next car to come along and got on +to the footboards of that. + +When the Prince went into the City Hall they tried to take the City +Hall by storm, and succeeded, indeed, in clambering on to all those +places where human beings should not go, and from there they sang to +the vast crowd waiting for the exit of the Prince, choosing any old +tune from "Oh, Canada," in French, to "Johnny's in Town," in polyglot. + +It was a great reception, a reception with electricity in it. A +reception where France added a colour and a charm to Britain and made +it irresistible. + + +II + +And it was only a sample, that reception. + +Tuesday, October 28th, as a day, was tremendous. For the Prince it +began at lunch, but a lunch of great brilliance. At the handsome Place +Viger Hotel he was again the centre of crowds. Crowds waited in the +streets, in spite of the greyness, the damp and the cold. Crowds +filled the lobbies and galleries of the hotel to cheer him as he came. + +In the great dining-room was a great crowd, a crowd that seemed to be +growing out of a wilderness of flowers. There was an amazing profusion +and beauty of flowers all through that room. And not merely were there +flowers for decoration, but with a graceful touch the Mayor and the +City Fathers, who gave that lunch, had set a perfect carnation at the +plate of every guest as a favour for his buttonhole. + +The gathering was as vivid as its setting. Gallic beards wagged +amiably in answer to clean-shaven British lips. The soutane and +amethyst cross sat next the Anglican apron and gaiters, and the khaki +of two tongues had war experiences on one front translated by an +interpreter. + +It was an eager gathering that crowded forward from angles of the room +or stood up on its seats in order to catch every word the Prince +uttered, and it could not cheer warmly enough when he spoke with real +feeling of the mutual respect that was the basis of the real +understanding between the French-speaking and the English-speaking +sections of the Canadian nation. + +The reality of that mutual respect was borne out by the throngs that +gathered in the streets when the Prince left the hotel. It was through +a mere alley in humanity that his car drove to La Fontaine Park, and at +the park there was an astonishing gathering. + +In the centre of the grass were several thousand veteran soldiers who +had served in the war. They were of all arms, from Highlanders to +Flying Men, and, ranked in battalions behind their laurel-wreathed +standards, they made a magnificent showing. Masses of wounded soldiers +in automobiles filled one side of the great square, humanity of both +sexes overflowed the other three sides. Ordinary methods of control +were hopeless. The throng of people simply submerged all signs of +authority and invaded the parade ground until on half of it it was +impossible to distinguish khaki in ranks from men and women and +children sightseers in chaos. + +In the face of this crowd Montreal had to invent a new method of +authority. The mounted men having failed to press the spectators back, +tanks were loosed.... Oh, not the grim, steel Tanks of the war zone, +but the frail and mobile Tanks of civilization--motor-cycles. The +motor-cycle police were sent against the throng. The cycles, with +their side-cars, swept down on the mass, charging cleverly until the +speeding wheels seemed about to drive into civilian suitings. Under +this novel method of rounding up, the thick wedges of people were +broken up; they yielded and were gradually driven back to proper +position. + +Again the throngs in the park were only hints of what the Prince was to +expect in his drive through the town. Leaving the grounds and turning +into the long, straight and broad Sherbrooke Street, the bonnet of his +automobile immediately lodged in the thickets of crowds. The splendid +avenue was not big enough for the throngs it contained, and the people +filled the pavements and spread right across the roadway. + +Slowly, and only by forcing a way with the bonnet of the automobile, +could the police drive a lane through the cheerful mass. The ride was +checked down to a crawl, and as he neared his destination, the Art +Gallery, progress became a matter of inches at a time only. It was a +mighty crowd. It was not unruly or stubborn; it checked the Prince's +progress simply because men and women conform to ordinary laws of +space, and it was physically impossible to squeeze back thirty ranks +into a space that could contain twenty only. + +I suppose I should have written physically uncomfortable, for actually +a narrow strip, the width of a car only, was driven through the throng. +The people were jammed so tightly back that when the line of cars +stopped, as it frequently had to, the people clambered on to the +footboards for relief. + +In front of the classic portico of the Art Gallery the scene was +amazing. The broad street was a sea of heads. Before this wedge of +people the Prince's car was stopped dead. Here the point of +impossibility appeared to have been reached, for though he was to +alight, there was no place for alighting, and even very little space +for opening the door of the car. It was only by fighting that the +police got him on to the pavement and up the steps of the gallery, and +though the crowd was extraordinarily good-tempered, the scuffling was +not altogether painless, for in that heaving mass clothes were torn and +shins were barked in the struggle. + +The Prince was to stand at the top of the steps of the Art Gallery to +take the salute of the soldiers he had reviewed in La Fontaine Park, as +they swung past in a Victory March. He stood there for over an hour +waiting for them. The head of the column had started immediately after +he had, but it found the difficulties of progress even more apparent +than the Prince. The long column, with the trophies of captured guns +and machines of war, could only press forward by fits and starts. At +one time it seemed impossible that the veterans would ever get through +the pack of citizens, and word was given that the march had been +postponed. But by slow degrees the column forced a way to the Art +Gallery, and gave the Prince the salute amid enthusiasm that must +remain memorable even in Montreal's long history of splendid memories. + + +III + +Montreal had set to excel itself as a host, and every moment of the +Prince's days was brilliantly filled. There were vivid receptions and +splendid dances at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and the big and comfortable +Hotel Windsor. Montreal is the centre of most things in Canada; in it +are the head offices of the great railways and the great newspapers and +the leading financial and commercial concerns. The big men who control +these industries are hospitable with a large gesture. In the hands of +these men, not only the Prince, but the members of his entourage had a +royal time. + +Personally, though I found Montreal a delightful city, a city of +vividness and vivacity, I was, in one sense, not sorry to leave it, for +I felt myself rapidly disintegrating under the kindnesses showered upon +us. + +This kindness had its valuable experience: it brought us into contact +with many of the men who are helping to mould the future of Canada. We +met such capable minds as those who are responsible for the +organization of such great companies as the Canadian Pacific and the +Grand Trunk Railways. We met many of the great and brilliant newspaper +men, such as Senator White, of the _Montreal Gazette_, who with his +exceedingly able right-hand man, Major John Bassett, was our good +friend always and our host many times. All these men are undoubtedly +forces in the future of Canada. We were able to get from them a juster +estimate of Canada, her prospects and her potentialities, than we could +have obtained by our unaided observation. And, more, we got from +contact with such men as these an appreciation of the splendid +qualities that make the Canadian citizen so definite a force in the +present and future of the world. + + +IV + +During his stay in Montreal the Prince was brought in contact with +every phase of civic life. On Wednesday, October 29th, he went by +train through the outlying townships on Montreal Island, calling at the +quaint and beautifully decorated villages of the habitants, that +usually bear the names of old French saints. The inhabitants of these +places, though said to be taciturn and undemonstrative, met the train +in crowds, and in crowds jostled to get at the Prince and shake his +hand, and they showed particular delight when he addressed them in +their own tongue. + +On Thursday, October 30th, the Prince drove about Montreal itself, +going to the docks where ocean-going ships lie at deep-water quays +under the towering elevators and the giant loading gear. Amid college +yells, French and English, he toured through the great universities of +Laval and McGill--famous for learning and Stephen Leacock. He also +toured the districts where the working man lives, holding informal +receptions there. + +He opened athletic clubs and went to dances. At the balls he was at +once the friend of everybody by his zest for dancing and his +delightfully human habit of playing truant in order to sit out on the +stairs with bright partners. + +As ever his thoughtfulness and tact created legends. I was told, and I +believe it to be true, that after one dinner he was to drive straight +to a big dance; but, hearing that a great number of people had +collected along the route to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel where he was +staying, under the impression that he was to return there, he gave +orders that his car was to go to the hotel before going to the dance. +It was an unpleasant night, and the drive took him considerably out of +his way; but, rather than disappoint the people who had gathered +waiting, he took the roundabout journey--and he took it standing in his +car so that the people could see him in the light of the lamps. + +It was at Montreal, too, that the Prince went to his first theatrical +performance in Canada. A great and bright gala performance on +music-hall lines had been arranged at one of the principal theatres, +and this the Prince attended. The audience with some restraint watched +him as he sat in his box, wondering what their attitude should be. But +a joke sent him off in a tremendous laugh, and all, realizing that he +was there to enjoy himself, joined with him in that enjoyment. He +declared as he left the theatre that it was "A scrumptious show." + + +V + +On Sunday, November 3rd, Montreal, after winding up the tour with a +mighty week, gave the Prince a mighty send-off. Officially the tour in +Canada was ended, though there were two or three extraordinary +functions to be filled at Toronto and Ottawa. The chief of these was +at Toronto on Tuesday, November 4th, when the Prince made the most +impressive speech of the whole tour at Massey Hall. + +This hall was packed with one of the keenest audiences the Prince had +faced in Canada. It was made up of members of the Canadian and Empire +Clubs, and every man there was a leader in business. It was both a +critical gathering and an acute one. It would take nothing on trust, +yet it could appreciate every good point. This audience the Prince won +completely. + +It was the longest speech the Prince had made, yet he never spoke +better; he had both mastered his nervousness and his need for notes. +Decrying his abilities as an orator, he yet won his hearing by his very +lack of oratorical affectation. + +He spoke very earnestly of the wonderful reception he had had +throughout the breadth of Canada, from every type of Canadian--a +reception, he said, which he was not conceited enough to imagine was +given to himself personally, but to him as heir to the British throne +and to the ideal which that throne stood for. The throne, he pointed +out, consolidated the democratic tradition of the Empire, because it +was a focus for all men and races, for it was outside parties and +politics; it was a bond which held all men together. The Empire of +which the throne was the focal point was different from other and +ancient Empires. The Empires of Greece and Rome were composed of many +states owing allegiance to the mother state. That ideal was now +obsolete. The British Empire was a single state composed of many +nations which give allegiance not so much to the mother country, but to +the great common system of life and government. That is, the Dominions +were no longer Colonies but sister nations of the British Empire. + +Every point of this telling speech was acutely realized and immediately +applauded, though perhaps the warmest applause came after the Prince's +definition of the Empire, and after his declaration that, in visiting +the United States of America, he regarded himself not only as an +Englishman but as a Canadian and a representative of the whole Empire. + +In a neat and concise speech the Chairman of the meeting had already +summed up the meaning and effect of the Prince's visit to Canada. The +Prince, he said, had passed through Canada on a wave of enthusiasm that +had swept throughout and had dominated the country. That enthusiasm +could have but one effect, that of deepening and enriching Canadian +loyalty to the Crown, and giving a new sense of solidarity among the +people of Canada. "Our Indian compatriots," he concluded, "with +picturesque aptness have acclaimed the Prince as Chief Morning Star. +That name is well and prophetically chosen. His visit will usher in +for Canada a new day full of wide-flung influence and high +achievements." + +This summary is the best comment on the reason and effect of the tour. + + +VI + +The last phase of this truly remarkable tour through Canada was staged +in Ottawa. As far as ceremonial went, it was entirely quiet, though +the Prince made this an occasion for receiving and thanking those +Canadians whose work had helped to make his visit a success. Apart +from this, the Prince spent restful and recreative days at Government +House, in preparation for the strenuous time he was to have across the +American border. + +But before he reached Ottawa there was just one small ceremony that, on +the personal side, fittingly brought the long travel through Canada to +an end. At a siding near Colburn on the Ottawa road the train was +stopped, and the Prince personally thanked the whole staff of "this +wonderful train" for the splendid service they had rendered throughout +the trip. It was, he said, a record of magnificent team work, in which +every individual had worked with untiring and unfailing efficiency. + +He made his thanks not only general but also individual, for he shook +hands with every member of the train team; chefs in white overalls, +conductors in uniform, photographers, the engineers in jeans and peaked +caps, waiters, clerks, negro porters and every man who had helped to +make that journey so marked an achievement, passed before him to +receive his thanks. + +And when this was accomplished the Prince himself took over the train +for a spell. He became the engine-driver. + +He mounted into the cab and drove the engine for eighteen miles, +donning the leather gauntlets (which every man in Canada who does dirty +work wears), and manipulating the levers. Starting gingerly at first, +he soon had the train bowling along merrily at a speed that would have +done credit to an old professional. + +At Flavelle the usual little crowd had gathered ready to surround the +rear carriage. To their astonishment, they found the Prince in the +cab, waving his hat out of the window at them, enjoying both their +surprise and his own achievement. + +On Wednesday, November 5th, the journey ended at Ottawa, and the train +was broken up to our intense regret. For us it had been a train-load +of good friends, and though many were to accompany us to America, many +were not, and we felt the parting. Among those who came South with us +was our good friend "Chief" Chamberlain, who had been in control of the +C.P.R. police responsible for the Prince's safety throughout the trip. +He was one of the most genial cosmopolitans of the world, with the real +Canadian genius for friendship--indeed so many friends had he, that the +Prince of Wales expressed the opinion that Canada was populated by +seven million people, mainly friends of "the Chief." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +WASHINGTON + +I + +My own first real impression of the United States lay in my sorrow that +I had been betrayed into winter underclothing. + +When the Prince left Ottawa on the afternoon of November 10th in the +President's train, the weather was bitterly cold. I suppose it was +bitterly cold for most of the run south, but an American train does not +allow a hint of such a thing to penetrate. The train was steam-heated +to a point to which I had never been trained. And at Washington the +station was steam-heated and the hotel was steam-heated, and Washington +itself was, for that moment, on the steam-heated latitude. America, I +felt, had rather "put it over on me." + +It was at 8.20 on the night of Monday the 10th that the Prince entered +the United States at the little station of Rouses Point. There was +very little ceremony, and it took only the space of time to change our +engine of Canada to an engine of America. But the short ceremony under +the arc lamps, and in the centre a small crowd, had attraction and +significance. + +On the platform were drawn up ranks of khaki men, but khaki men with a +new note to us. It was a guard of honour of "Doughboys," stocky and +useful-looking fellows, in their stetsons and gaiters. Close to them +was a band of American girls, holding as a big canopy the Union Jack +and the Stars and Stripes joined together to make one flag, joined in +one piece to signify the meeting-place of the two Anglo-Saxon peoples +also. + +With this company were the officials who had come to welcome the Prince +at the border. They were led by Mr. Lansing, the Secretary of State, +Major-General Biddle, who commanded the Americans in England, and who +was to be the Prince's Military aide, and Admiral Niblack, who was to +be the Naval aide while the Prince was the guest of the United States. + +The Prince in a Guard's greatcoat greeted his new friends, and +inspected the Doughboys, laughing back at the crowd when some one +called: "Good for you, Prince." To the ladies who held the twin flags +he also expressed his thanks, telling them it was very nice of them to +come out on so cold a night to meet him. Feminine America was, for an +instant, non-plussed, and found nothing to answer. But their vivacity +quickly came back to them, and they very quickly returned the +friendliness and smiles of the Prince, shook his hand and wished him +the happiest of visits in their country. + +The interchange of nationalities in engines being effected, the train +swung at a rapid pace beside the waters of Lake Champlain, pushing +south along the old marching route into and out of Canada. + +On the morning of November 11th it was raining heavily and the train +ran through a depressing greyness. We were all eager to see America, +and see her at her best, but a train journey, especially in wet +weather, shows a country at its worst. The short stops, for instance, +in the stations of great cities like Philadelphia and Baltimore were +the sort of things to give a false impression. The stations themselves +were empty, a novelty to us, who had had three months of crowded +stations, and, also, about these stations we saw slums, for the first +time on this Western continent. After having had the conviction grow +up within me that this Continent was the land of comely and decent +homes, the sight of these drab areas and bad roads was, personally, a +shock. Big and old cities find it hard to eliminate slums, but it +seemed to me that it would be merely good business to remove such +places from out of sight of the railways, and to plan town approaches +on a more impressive scale. America certainly can plan buildings on an +impressive scale. It has the gift of architecture. + +The train went through to Washington in what was practically a non-stop +run, and arrived in the rain. The Prince was received in the rain at +the back of the train, though that reception was truncated, so that the +great Americans who were there to meet him could be presented in the +dryness under the station roof. + +Heading the group of notable men who met the Prince was the +Vice-President, Mr. Marshall, and with him was the British Ambassador, +Lord Grey, and General Pershing, a popular figure with the waiting +crowd and a hero regarded with rapture by American young +womanhood--which was willing to break the Median regulations of the +American police to get "just one look at him." + +Outside the station there was a vast crowd of American men and women +who had braved the downpour to give the Prince a welcome of that +peculiarly generous quality which we quickly learnt was the natural +expression of the American feeling towards guests. + +I was told, too, that crowds along the streets caught up that very +cheerful greeting, so that all through his ride along the beautiful +streets to the Belmont House in New Hampshire Avenue, which was to be +his home in Washington, the Prince was made aware of the hospitality +extended to him. + +But of this fact I can only speak from hearsay. The Press +Correspondents were unable to follow His Royal Highness through the +city. We were told that a car was to be placed at our disposal, as one +had been elsewhere, and we were asked to wait our turn. Wait we +certainly did, until the last junior attaché had been served. By that +time, however, His Royal Highness had outdistanced us, for, without a +car and without being able to join the procession at an early interval, +we lost touch with happenings. + +By the time we were able to get on to the route the streets were +deserted; all we could do was to admire through the rain the +architecture of one of the most beautiful cities of the world. + +Apart from the rain on the first day, there was another factor which +handicapped Washington in its welcome to the Prince--the warmth of +which could not be doubted when it had opportunity for adequate +expression. This was the fact that no program of his doings was +published. For some reason which I do not pretend to understand, the +time-table of his comings and goings about the city was not issued to +the Press, so that the people of Washington had but vague ideas of +where to see him. The Washington journalists protested to us that this +was unfair to a city that has such a great and just reputation for its +public hospitality. + +However, where the Prince and the Washington people did come together +there was an immediate and mutual regard. There was just such a +"mixing" that evening, when he visited the National Press Club. + +He had spent the day quietly, receiving and returning calls. One of +these calls was upon President Wilson at the White House, the Prince +driving through this city of an ideal in architecture come true, to +spend ten minutes with Mrs. Wilson in a visit of courtesy. + +The National Press Club at Washington is probably unique of its kind. +I don't mean by that that it is comfortable and attractive; all +American and Canadian clubs are supremely comfortable and attractive, +for in this Continent clubs have been exalted to the plane of a +gracious and fine art; I mean that the spirit of the club gave it a +distinguished and notable quality. + +America being a country extremely interested in politics--Americans +enter into politics as Englishmen enter into cricket--and Washington +being the vibrant centre of that intense political concern, the most +acute brains of the American news world naturally gravitate to the +Capital. The National Press Club at Washington is a club of experts. +Its membership is made up of men whose keen intelligence, brilliance in +craft and devotion to their calling has lifted them to the top of the +tree in their own particular _métier_. + +There was about these men that extraordinary zest in work and every +detail of that work that is the secret of American driving power. With +them, and with every other American I came into contact with, I felt +that work was attacked with something of the joy of the old craftsman. +My own impression after a short stay in America is that the American +works no harder, and perhaps not so hard as the average Briton; but he +works with infinitely more zest, and that is what makes him the +dangerous fellow in competition that he is. + +The Prince had met many journalists at Belmont House in the morning, +and had very readily accepted an invitation to visit them at their +club, and after dinner he came not into this den of lions, but into a +den of Daniels--a condition very trying for lions. Arriving in evening +dress, his youth seemed accentuated among so many shrewd fellows, who +were there obviously not to take him or any one for granted. + +From the outset his frankness and entire lack of affectation created +the best of atmospheres, and in a minute or two his sense of humour had +made all there his friends. Having met a few of the journalist corps +in the morning, he now expressed a wish to meet them all. The +President of the Club raised his eyebrows, and, indicating the packed +room, suggested that "all" was, perhaps, a large order. The Prince +merely laughed: "All I ask is that you don't grip too hard," he said, +and he shook hands with and spoke to every member present. + +The Prince certainly made an excellent impression upon men able to +judge the quality of character without being dazzled by externals, and +many definite opinions were expressed after he left concerning his +modesty, his manliness and his faculty for being "a good mixer," which +is the faculty Americans most admire. + + +II + +Wednesday, November 13th, was a busy day. The Prince was out early +driving through the beautiful avenues of the city in a round of +functions. + +Washington is one of the most attractive of cities to drive in. It is +a city, one imagines, built to be the place where the architects' +dreams come true. It has the air of being a place where the designer +has been able to work at his best; climate and a clarified air, natural +beauty and the approbation of brother men have all conspired to help +and stimulate. + +It has scores of beautiful and magnificently proportioned buildings, +each obviously the work of a fine artist, and practically every one of +those buildings has been placed on a site as effective and as +appropriate as its design. That, perhaps, was a simple matter, for the +whole town had been planned with a splendid art. Its broad avenues and +its delightful parks fit in to the composite whole with an exquisite +justness. Its residences have the same charm of excellent +craftsmanship one appreciates in the classic public buildings; they are +mellow in colouring, behind their screen of trees; nearly all are true +and fine in line, while some--an Italianate house on, I think, 15th +Avenue, which is the property of Mr. McLean of the _Washington Post_, +is one--are supremely beautiful. + +The air of the city is astonishingly clear, and the grave white +buildings of the Public Offices, the splendid white aspiration of the +skyscrapers, have a sparkling quality that shows them to full +advantage. There may, of course, be more beautiful cities than +Washington, but certainly Washington is beautiful enough. + +The streets have an exhilaration. There is an intense activity of +humanity. Automobiles there are, of course, by the thousand, parked +everywhere, with policemen strolling round to chalk times on them, or +to impound those cars that previous chalk-marks show to have been +parked beyond the half-hour or hour of grace. The sidewalks are vivid +with the shuttling of the smartest of women, women who choose their +clothes with a crispness, a _flair_ of their own, and which owes very +little to other countries, and carry them and themselves with a vivid +exquisiteness that gives them an undeniable individuality. The stores +are as the Canadian stores, only there are more of them, and they are +bigger. Their windows make a dado of attractiveness along the streets, +but, all the same, I do not think the windows are dressed quite as well +as in London, and I'm nearly sure not so well as in Canada--but this is +a mere masculine opinion. + +Through this attractive city the Prince drove in a round of ceremonies. +His first call was at the Headquarters of the American Red Cross, then +wrung with the fervours of a "tag" week of collecting. From here he +went to the broad, sweet park beside the Potomac, where a noble +memorial was being erected to the memory of Lincoln. This, as might be +expected from this race of fine builders, is an admirable Greek +structure admirably situated in the green of the park beside the river. + +The Prince went over the building, and gained an idea of what it would +be like on completion from the plans. He also surprised his guides by +his intimate knowledge of Lincoln's life and his intense admiration for +him. + +At the hospital, shortly after, he visited two thousand of "My comrades +in arms," as he called them. Outside the hospital on the lawns were +many men who had been wounded at Château Thierry, some in wheeled +chairs. Seeing them, the Prince swung aside from his walk to the +hospital entrance and chatted with them, before entering the wards to +speak with others of the wounded men. + +On leaving the hospital he was held up. A Red Cross nurse ran up to +him and "tagged" him, planting the little Red Cross button in his coat +and declaring that the Prince was enrolled in the District Chapter. +The Prince very promptly countered with a dollar bill, the official +subscription, saying that his enrolment must be done in proper style +and on legal terms. + +In the afternoon, the Prince utilized his free time in making a call on +the widow of Admiral Dewey, spending a few minutes in interesting +conversation with her. + +The evening was given over to one of the most brilliant scenes of the +whole tour. At the head of the splendid staircase of white marble in +the Congress Library he held a reception of all the members of the +Senate and the House of Representatives, their wives and their families. + +Even to drive to such a reception was to experience a thrill. + +As the Prince drove down the straight and endless avenues that strike +directly through Washington to the Capitol, like spokes to the hub of a +vast wheel, he saw that immense, classic building shining above the +city in the sky. In splendid and austere whiteness the Capitol rises +terrace upon terrace above the trees, its columns, its cornices and its +dome blanched in the cold radiance of scores of arc lights hidden among +the trees. + +Like fireflies attracted to this centre of light, cars moved their +sparkling points of brightness down the vivid avenues, and at the +vestibule of the Library, which lies in the grounds apart from the +Capitol, set down fit denizens for this kingdom of radiance. + +Senators and parliamentarians generally are sober entities, but wives +and daughters made up for them in colour and in comeliness. In cloth +of gold, in brocades, in glowing satin and flashing silk, +multi-coloured and ever-shifting, a stream of jewelled vivacity pressed +up the severe white marble stairs in the severe white marble hall. +There could not have been a better background for such a shining and +pulsating mass of living colour. There was no distraction from that +warm beauty of moving humanity; the flowers, too, were severe, severe +and white; great masses of white chrysanthemums were all that was +needed, were all that was there. + +And at the head of the staircase a genius in design had made one stroke +of colour, one stroke of astounding and poignant scarlet. On this +scarlet carpet the Prince in evening dress stood and encountered the +tide of guests that came up to him, were received by him, and flowed +away from him in a thousand particles and drops of colour, as women, +with all the vivacity of their clothes in their manner, and men in +uniforms or evening dress, striving to keep pace with them, went +drifting through the high, clear purity of the austere corridors. + +It was a scene of infinite charm. It was a scene of infinite +significance, also. For close to the Prince as he stood and received +the men and women of America, were many original documents dealing with +the separation of England and the American colonies. There was much in +the fact that a Prince of England should be receiving the descendants +of those colonies in such surroundings, and meeting those descendants +with a friendliness and frankness which equalled their own frank +friendliness. + + +III + +Thursday, November 14th, was a day of extreme interest for the Prince. +It was the day when he visited the home of the first President of +America, and also visited, in his home, the President in power today. + +The morning was given over to an investiture of the American officers +and nurses who had won British honours during the war. It was held at +Belmont House, and was a ceremony full of colour. Members of all the +diplomatic corps in Washington in their various uniforms attended, and +these were grouped in the beautiful ballroom full of splendid pictures +and wonderful china. The simplicity of the investiture itself stood +out against the colourful setting as generals in khaki, admirals in +blue, the rank and file of both services, and the neat and picturesque +Red Cross nurses came quietly across the polished floor to receive +their decorations and a comradely hand-clasp from the Prince. + +It was after lunch that the Prince motored out to Mount Vernon, the +home and burial-place of Washington, to pay his tribute to the great +leader of the first days of America. It is a serene and beautiful old +house, built in the colonial style, with a pillared verandah along its +front. The visit here was of the simplest kind. + +At the modest tomb of the great general and statesman, which is near +the house, the Prince in silence deposited a wreath, and a little +distance away he also planted a cedar to commemorate his visit. He +showed his usual keen curiosity in the house, whose homely rooms of +mellow colonial furniture seemed as though they might be filled at any +moment with gentlemen in hessians and brave coats, whose hair was in +queues and whose accents would be loud and rich in condemnation of the +interference of the Court Circle overseas. + +Showing interest in the historic details of the house, the picture of +his grandfather abruptly filled him with anxiety. He looked at the +picture and asked if "Baron Renfrew" (King Edward) had worn a top hat +on _his_ visit, and from his nervousness it seemed that he felt that +his own soft felt hat was not quite the thing. He was reassured, +however, on this point, for democracy has altered many things since the +old days, including hats. + +Both on his way out, and his return journey, the Prince was the object +of enthusiasm from small groups who recognized him, most of whom had +trusted to luck or their intuition for their chance of seeing him. +About the entrance of the White House, to which he drove, there was a +small and ardent crowd, which cheered him when he swept through the +gates with his motor-cycle escort, and bought photographs of him from +hawkers when he had passed. The hawker, in fact, did a brisk trade. + +There had been much speculation whether His Royal Highness would be +able to see President Wilson at all, for he was yet confined to his +bed. The doctors decided for it, and there was a very pleasant meeting +which seems to have helped the President to renew his good spirits in +the youthful charm of his visitor. + +After taking tea with Mrs. Wilson, His Royal Highness went up to the +room of the President on the second floor, and Mr. Wilson, propped up +in bed, received him. The friendship that had begun in England was +quickly renewed, and soon both were laughing over the Prince's +experiences on his tour and "swopping" impressions. + +Mr. Wilson's instinctive vein of humour came back to him under the +pleasure of the reunion, and he pointed out to the Prince that if he +was ill in bed, he had taken the trouble to be ill in a bed of some +celebrity. It was a bed that made sickness auspicious. King Edward +had used it when he had stayed at the White House as "Baron Renfrew," +and President Lincoln had also slept on it during his term of office, +which perhaps accounted for its massive and rugged utility. + +The visit was certainly a most attractive one for the President, and +had an excellent effect; his physician reported the next morning that +Mr. Wilson's spirits had risen greatly, and that as a result of the +enjoyable twenty minutes he had spent with the Prince. On Friday, +November 15th, the Prince went to the United States Naval College at +Annapolis, a place set amid delightful surroundings. He inspected the +whole of the Academy, and was immensely impressed by the smartness of +the students, who, themselves, marked the occasion by treating him to +authentic college yells on his departure. + +The week-end was spent quietly at the beautiful holiday centre of +Sulphur Springs. It was a visit devoted to privacy and golf. + + +IV + +During our stay in Washington the air was thick with politics, for it +was the week in which the Senate were dealing with Clause Ten of the +Peace Treaty. The whole of Washington, and, in fact, the whole of +America, was tingling with politics, and we could not help being +affected by the current emotion. + +I am not going to attempt to discuss American politics, but I will say +that it seemed to me that politics enter more personally into the life +of Americans than with the British, and that they feel them more +intensely. At the same time I had a definite impression that American +politics have a different construction to ours. The Americans speak of +"The Political Game," and I had the feeling that it was a game played +with a virtuosity of tactics and with a metallic intensity, and the +principle of the game was to beat the other fellows. So much so that +the aim and end of politics were obscured, and that the battle was +fought not about measures but on the advantages one party would gain +over another by victory. + +That is, the "Political Game" is a game of the "Ins" and "Outs" played +for parliamentary success with the habitual keenness and zest of the +American. + +This is not a judgment but an impression. I do not pretend to know +anything of America. I do not think any one can know America well +unless he is an American. Those who think that America quickly yields +its secrets to the British mind simply because America speaks the +English language need the instruction of a visit to America. + +America has all the individuality and character of a separate and +distinct State. To think that the United States is a sort of +Transatlantic Britain is simply to approach the United States with a +set of preconceived notions that are bound to suffer considerable +jarring. Both races have many things in common, that is obvious from +the fact of a common language, and, in a measure, from a common +descent; but they have things that are not held in common. It needs a +closer student of America than I am to go into this; I merely give my +own impression, and perhaps a superficial one at that. It may offer a +point of elucidation to those people who find themselves shocked +because English-speaking America sometimes does not act in an English +manner, or respond to English acts. + +America is America first and all the time; it is as complete and as +definite in its spirits as the oldest of nations, and in its own way. +Its patriotism is intense, more intense than British patriotism (though +not more real), because by nature the American is more intense. The +vivid love of Americans for America is the same type of passion that +the Frenchman has for France. + +The character of the American, as I encountered him in Washington, +Detroit, and New York--a very limited orbit--suggested differences from +the character of the Englishman. The American, as I see him, is more +simple, more puritan, and more direct than the Briton. His generosity +is a most astonishing thing. He is, as far as I can see, a genuine +lover of his brother-man, not theoretically but actively, for he is +anxious to get into contact, to "mix," to make the most of even a +chance acquaintance. Simply and directly he exposes the whole of +himself, says what he means and withholds nothing, so that acquaintance +should be made on an equitable and genuine basis. To the more +conservative Briton this is alarming; brought up in a land of +reticences, the Briton wonders what the American is "getting at," what +does he want? What is his game? The American on his side is baffled +by the British habit of keeping things back, and he, too, perhaps +wonders why this fellow is going slow with me? Doesn't he want to be +friends? + +Personally, I think that the directness and simplicity of the Americans +is the directness and simplicity of the artist, the man who has no use +for unessentials. And one gets this sense of artistry in an American's +business dealings. He goes directly at his object, and he goes with a +concentrated power and a zest that is exhilarating. Here, too, he +exposes his hand in a way bewildering to the Britisher, who sometimes +finds the American so candid in his transactions that he becomes +suspicious of there being something more behind it. + +To the American work is something zestful, joyous. He likes to get +things done; he likes to do big things with a big gesture--sometimes to +the damage of detail, which he has overlooked--for him work is +craftsmanship, a thing to be carried through with the delight of a +craftsman. He is, in fact, the artist as business man. + +Like all artists he has an air of hardness, the ruthlessness to attain +an end. But like all artists he is quick and generous, vivid in +enthusiasm and hard to daunt. Like the artist he is narrow in his +point of view at times and decisive in opinion--simply because his own +point of vision is all-absorbing. + +This, for example, is apparent in his democracy, which is +extraordinarily wide in certain respects, and singularly restricted in +others--an example of this is the way the Americans handle offenders +against their code; whether they be I.W.W., strikers or the like, their +attitude is infinitely more ruthless than the British attitude. +Another example is, having so splendid a freedom, they allow themselves +to be "bossed" by policemen, porters and a score of others who exert an +authority so drastic on occasions that no Briton would stand it. + +But over all I was struck by the vividity of the Americans I met. +Business men, journalists, writers, store girls, clerks, clubmen, +railway men--all of them had an air of passionate aliveness, an +intellectual avidity that made contact with them an affair of +delightful excitement. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +NEW YORK + +There was no qualification or reservation in New York's welcome to the +Prince of Wales. + +In the last year or so I have seen some great crowds, and by that I +mean not merely vast aggregations of people, but vast gatherings of +people whose ardour carried away the emotions with a tremendous psychic +force. During that year I had seen the London crowd that welcomed back +the British military leader; the London and Manchester crowds, and +vivid and stirring crowds they were, that dogged the footsteps of +President Wilson; I had seen the marvellous and poignant crowd at the +London Victory March, and I had had a course of crowds, vigorous, +affectionate and lively, in Montreal, Toronto and throughout Canada. + +I had been toughened to crowds, yet the New York crowd that welcomed +the Prince was a fresh experience. It was a crowd that, in spite of +writing continuously about crowds for four months, gave me a direct +impulse to write yet again about a crowd, that gave me the feeling that +here was something fresh, sparkling, human, warm, ardent and +provocative. It was a crowd with a flutter of laughter in it, a crowd +that had a personality, an _insouciance_, an independence in its +friendliness. It was a crowd that I shall always put beside other +mental pictures of big crowds, in that gallery of clear vignettes of +things impressive that make the memory. + +There was a big crowd about the Battery long before the Prince was due +to arrive across the river from the Jersey City side. It was a +good-humoured crowd that helped the capable New York policemen to keep +itself well in hand. It was not only thick about the open grass space +of the Battery, but it was clustering on the skeleton structure of the +Elevated Railway, and mounting to the sky, floor by floor, on the +skyscrapers. + +High up on the twenty-second floor of neighbouring buildings we could +see a crowd of dolls and windows, and the dolls were waving shreds of +cotton. The dolls were women and the cotton shred was "Old Glory." +High up on the tremendous cornice of one building a tiny man stood with +all the calm gravity of a statue. He was unconcerned by the height, he +was only concerned in obtaining an eagle's eye view. + +About the landing-stage itself, the landing-stage where the new +Americans and the notabilities land, there was a wide space, kept clear +by the police. Admirable police these, who can handle crowds with any +police, who held us up with a wall of adamant until we showed our +letters from the New York Reception Committee (our only, and certainly +not the official, passes), and then not only let us through without +fuss but helped us in every possible way to go everywhere and see +everything. + +In this wide space were gathered the cars for the procession, and the +notabilities who were to meet the Prince, and the camera men who were +to snap him. Into it presently marched United States Marines and +Seamen. A hefty lot of men, who moved casually, and with a slight +sense of slouch as though they wished to convey "We're whales for +fighting, but no damned militarists." + +Since the Prince was not entering New York by steamer--the most +thrilling way--but by means of a railway journey from Sulphur Springs, +New York had taken steps to correct this mode of entry. He was not to +miss the first impact of the city. He would make a water entry, if +only an abbreviated one, and so experience one of the Seven (if there +are not more, or less) Sensations of the World, a sight of the profile +of Manhattan Island. + +The profile of Manhattan (blessed name that O. Henry has rolled so +often on the palate) is lyric. It is a _sierra_ of skyscrapers. It is +a flight of perfect rockets, the fire of which has frozen into solidity +in mid-soaring. It is a range of tall, narrow, poignant buildings that +makes the mind think of giants, or fairies, or, anyhow, of creatures +not quite of this world. It is one of the few things the imagination +cannot visualize adequately, and so gets from it a satisfaction and not +a disappointment. + +This sight the Prince saw as he crossed in a launch from the New Jersey +side, and "the beauty and dignity of the towering skyline," his own +words, so impressed him that he was forced to speak of it time and time +again during his visit to the city. And on top of that impression came +the second and even greater one, for, and again I use his own words, +"men and women appeal to me even more than sights." This second +impression was "the most warm and friendly welcome that followed me all +through the drive in the city." + +When the Prince landed he seemed to me a little anxious; he was at the +threshold of a great and important city, and his welcome was yet a +matter of speculation. In less than fifteen minutes he was smiling as +he had smiled all through Canada, and, as in Canada, he was standing in +his car, formality forgotten, waving back to the crowd with a +friendliness that matched the friendliness with which he was received. + +He faced the city of Splendid Heights with glances of wonder at the +line of cornices that crowned the narrow canyon of Broadway, and rose +up crescendo in a vista closed by the campanile of the Woolworth +Building, raised like a pencil against the sky, fifty-five storeys +high. On the beaches beneath these great crags, on the sidewalks, and +pinned between the sturdy policemen--who do not turn backs to the crowd +but face it alertly--and the sheer walls was a lively and vast throng. +And rising up by storeys was a lively and vast throng, hanging out of +windows and clinging to ledges, perilous but happy in their +skyscraper-eye view. + +And from these high-up windows there began at once a characteristic +"Down Town" expression of friendliness. Ticker-tape began to shoot +downward in long uncoiling snakes to catch in flagpoles and +window-ledges in strange festoons. Strips of paper began to descend in +artificial snow, and confetti, and basket-loads of torn letter paper. +All manner of bits of paper fluttered and swirled in the air, making a +grey nebula in the distance; glittering like spangles of gold against +the severe white cliffs of the skyscrapers when the sun caught them. + +On the narrow roadway the long line of automobiles was littered and +strung with paper, and the Prince had a mantle of it, and was still +cheery. He could not help himself. The reception he was getting would +have swept away a man of stone, and he has never even begun to be a man +of stone. The pace was slow, because of the marching Marine escort, +and people and Prince had full opportunity for sizing up each other. +And both people and Prince were satisfied. + +Escorted by the motor-cyclist police, splendid fellows who chew gum and +do their duty with an astonishing certainty and nimbleness, the Prince +came to the City Hall Square, where the modern Brontosaurs of commerce +lift mightily above the low and graceful City Hall, which has the look +of a _petite_ mother perpetually astonished at the size of the brood +she has reared. + +Inside the hall the Prince became a New Yorker, and received a civic +welcome. He expressed his real pride at now being a Freeman of the two +greatest cities in the world, New York and London, two cities that +were, moreover, so much akin, and upon which depends to an +extraordinary degree the financial health and the material as well as +spiritual welfare of all continents. As for his welcome, he had learnt +to appreciate the quality of American friendship from contact with +members of the splendid fighting forces that had come overseas, but +even that, he indicated, had not prepared him for the wonder of the +greeting he had received. + +Outside the City Hall the vast throng had waited patiently, and they +seemed to let their suppressed energy go as the Prince came out of the +City Hall to face the massed batteries of photographers, who would only +allow snapshots to be his "pass" to his automobile. + +The throngs in financial "Down Town" gave way to the massed ranks of +workers from the big wholesale and retail houses that occupy middle New +York as the Prince passed up Broadway, the street that is not as broad +as other streets, and the only one that wanders at its own fancy in a +kingdom of parallels and right-angles. At the corner where stands +Wanamaker's great store the crowd was thickest. Here was stationed a +band in a quaint old-time uniform of red tunics, bell trousers and +shakos, while facing them across the street was a squad of girls in +pretty blue and white military uniforms and hats. + +Soon the line of cars swung into speed and gained Fifth Avenue, passing +the Flatiron building, which is now not a wonder. Such soaring +structures as the Metropolitan Tower, close by in Madison Square, have +taken the shine out of it, and in the general atmosphere of giants one +does not notice its freakishness unless one is looking for it. + +Fifth Avenue is superb; it is the route of pageants by right of air and +quality. It is Oxford Street, London, made broad and straight and +clean. It has fine buildings along its magnificent reach, and some +noble ones. It has dignity and vivacity, it has space and it has an +air. In the graceful open space about Madison Square there stood the +massive Arch of Victory, under which America's soldiers had swung when +they returned from the front. It was a temporary arch constructed with +realism and ingenuity; the Prince passed under it on his way up the +avenue. + +He went at racing pace up to and into Central Park, that convincing +affectation of untrammelled Nature (convincing because it is +untrammelled), that beautiful residences of town dwellers look into. +He swung to the left by the gracious pile of the Cathedral of St. John +the Divine, and out on to Riverside Park, that hangs its gardens over +the deep waters of the Hudson River. Standing isolated and with a fine +serenity above green and water is General Grant's tomb, and at the +wideflung white plaza of this the Prince dismounted, going on foot to +the tomb, and in the tomb, going alone to deposit a wreath on the great +soldier's grave. + +Riverside Park had its flowering of bright people, and its multitude of +motors to swarm after the Prince as he passed along the Drive, paused +to review a company of English-Americans who had served in the war, and +then continued on his way to the Yacht Club jetty, where he was to take +boat to the _Renown_. Lying in deep water high up in the town was this +one of the greatest of the modern warships, her greatness considerably +diminished by the buildings lifting above her. To her the Prince went +after nearly three months' absence, and on her he lived during his stay +in New York. + + +II + +When I say that the Prince lived on board the _Renown_, I mean that he +lived on her in his moments to spare. In New York the visitor is lucky +who has a few moments to spare. New York's hospitality is electric. +It rushes the guest off his feet. Even if New York is not definitely +engaged to entertain you at specific minutes, it comes round to know if +you have everything you want, whether it can do anything for you. + +New York was calling on the Prince almost as soon as he went aboard. +There was a lightning lunch to Mr. Wanamaker, the President of the +Reception Committee, and other members of that body, and then the first +of the callers began to chug off from the landing-stage towards the +_Renown_. Deputations from all the foreign races that make New York +came over the side, distinguished Americans called. And, before +anybody else, the American journalist was there. + +The Prince was no stranger to the American journalist. They were old +friends of his. Some of them had been with him in the Maritime +Provinces of Canada, and he had made friends with them at Quebec. He +remembered these writers and that friendship was renewed in a pleasant +chat. The journalists liked him, too, though they admit that he has a +charming way of disarming them. They rather admired the adroit +diplomacy with which he derailed such leading questions as those +dealing with the delicate and infinite subject of American girls: +whether he liked them: and how much? + +He met these correspondents quite frankly, appreciating at once the +fact that it was through them that he could express to the people of +America his intense feeling of thanks for the singular warmth of +America's greeting. + +From seeing all these visitors the Prince had only time left to get +into evening dress and to be whirled off in time to attend a glittering +dinner given at the Waldorf-Astoria by Mrs. Henry Pomeroy Davidson on +behalf of the Council of the American Red Cross. It was a vivid and +beautiful function, but it was one that bridged the time before +another, and before ten o'clock the Prince was on the move again, and, +amid the dance of the motor-bike "cops," was being rushed off to the +Metropolitan Opera House. + +He was swung down Broadway where the advertisements made a fantasy of +the sky, a fantasy of rococo beauty where colours on the huge pallets +of skyscrapers danced and ran, fused and faded, grouped and regrouped, +each a huge and coherent kaleidoscope. + +Here a gigantic kitten of lights turned a complete somersault in the +heavens as it played with a ball of wool. There six sky-high manikins +with matchstick limbs, went through an incandescent perpetual and +silent dance. In the distance was a gigantic bull advertising +tobacco--all down this heavenly vista there were these immense signs, +lapping and over-lapping in dazzling chaos. And seen from one angle, +high up, unsupported, floating in the very air and eerily +unsubstantial, was a temple lit by bale-fires that shone wanly at its +base. It was merely a building superimposed upon a skyscraper, but in +the dark there was no skyscraper, and the amazing structure hung there +lambent, silent, enigmatic, a Wagnerian temple in the sky. + +Broadway, which sprouts theatres as a natural garden sprouts flowers, +was jewelled with lights, lights that in the clear air of this +continent shone with a lucidity that we in England do not know. Before +the least lighted of these buildings the Prince stopped. He had +arrived at the austere temple of the high arts, the Metropolitan Opera +House. + +Inside Caruso and a brilliant audience waited impatiently for his +presence. The big and rather sombre house was quick with colour and +with beauty. The celebrated "Diamond Horseshoe," the tiers of the +galleries, and the floor of the house were vivid with dresses, +shimmering and glinting with all the evasive shades of the spectrum, +with here a flash of splendid jewels, there the slow and sumptuous +flutter of a great ostrich fan. + +Part of the program had been played, but _Pagliacci_ and Caruso were +held up while the vivid and ardent people craned out of their little +crimson boxes in the Horseshoes and turned and looked up from the +bright mosaic of the floor at the empty box which was to be the +Prince's. + +There was a long roll of drums, and with a single movement the +orchestra marched into the melody of "God bless the Prince of Wales," +and the Prince, looking extraordinarily embarrassed, came to the front +of the box. + +At once there was no melody of "God bless the Prince of Wales" +perceptible; a wave of cheering and hand-clapping swept it away. The +whole of the people on the floor of the house turned to look upward and +to cheer. The people under the tiers crowded forward into the gangways +until the gangways were choked, and the floor was a solid mass of +humanity. Bright women and men correctly garbed imperilled their necks +in the galleries above in order to look down. It was an unforgettable +moment, and for the Prince a disconcerting one. + +He stood blushing and looking down, wondering how on earth he was to +endure this stark publicity. He was there poised bleakly for all to +see, an unenviable position. And there was no escape. He must stand +there, because it was his job, and recover from the nervousness that +had come from finding himself so abruptly thrust on to this veritable +pillar of Stylites in the midst of an interested and curious throng. + +The interest and the curiosity was intensely friendly. His personality +suffered not at all from the fact that he had lost his calm at a moment +when only the case-hardened could have remained unmoved. His +embarrassment, indeed, made the audience more friendly, and it was with +a sort of intimacy that they tittered at his familiar tricks of +nervousness, his fumbling at his tie, tugging of his coat lapels, the +passing of the hand over his hair, even the anxious use of his +handkerchief. + +And this friendly and soft laughter became really appreciative when +they saw him tackle the chairs. There were two imposing and pompous +gilt chairs at the front of the box, filling it, elbowing all minor, +human chairs out of the way. The Prince turned and looked at them, and +turned them out. He would have none of them. He was not there to be a +superior person at all; he was there to be human and enjoy human +companionship. He had the front of the box filled with chairs, and he +had friends in to sit with him and talk with him when intervals in the +music permitted. And the audience was his friend for that; they +admired him for the way he turned his back on formalities and +ceremonials. General Pershing, who gratifies one's romantic sense by +being extraordinarily like one's imaginative pictures of a great +General, came to sit with him, and there was another outburst of +cheering. I think that the _petits morceaux_ from the operas were but +side-shows. Although Rosina Galli ravished the house with her dancing +(how she must love dancing), opera glasses were swivelled more toward +the Royal box than to the stage, and the audience made a close and +curious study of every movement and every inflection of the Prince. + +The cheering broke out again, from people who crowded afresh into the +gangways, when the Prince left, and in a mighty wave of friendliness +the official program of the first day closed. + + +III + +There was an unofficial ending to the day. The Prince, with several of +his suite, walked in New York, viewed this exhilarating city of lights +and vistas by night, got his own private and unformal view of the +wonders of skyscraping townscape, the quick, nervous shuttle of the +sidewalks, the rattle of the "Elevated," the sight, for the first time +in a long journey, of motor-buses. And without doubt he tasted the +wonder of a city of automobiles still clinging to the hansom cab. + +About this outing there have been woven stories of a glamour which +might have come from the fancy of O. Henry and the author of the +"Arabian Nights" working in collaboration. The Prince is said to have +plunged into the bizarre landscape of the Bowery, which is Whitechapel +better lighted, and better dressed with up-to-date cafes, where there +are dance halls in which with the fathomless seriousness of the modern, +jazz is danced to violins and banjoes and the wailing ukelele. + +They tell me that Ichabod has been written across the romantic glory of +the Bowery, and that for colour and the spice of life one has to go +further west (which is Manhattan's East End) to Greenwich Village, +where life strikes Chelsea attitudes, and where one descends +subterraneanly, or climbs over the roofs of houses to Matisse-like +restaurants where one eats rococo meals in an atmosphere of cigarette +smoke, rice-white faces, scarlet lips, and bobbed hair. But there are +yet places in the Bowery to which one taxis with a thrill of hope, +where the forbidden cocktail is served in a coffee cup, where wine +bottles are put on to the table with brown paper wrapped round them to +preserve the fiction that they came from one's own private (and legal) +store, where in bare, studiously Bowery chambers the hunter of a new +_frisson_ sits and dines and hopes for the worst. + +The Bowery is dingy and bright; it has hawkers' barrows and chaotic +shop windows. It has the curiosity-stimulating, cosmopolite air of all +dockside areas, but to the Englishman accustomed to the picturesque +bedragglement of East End costumes, it is almost dismayingly +well-dressed. Its young men have the leanness of outline that comes +from an authentic American tailor. Its Jewesses have the neat +crispness of American fashion that gives their vivid beauty a new and +sparkling note. It was astonishing the number of beautiful young women +one saw on the Bowery, but not astonishing when one recalls the number +of beautiful young women one saw in New York. Fifth Avenue at shopping +time, for example, ceases to be a street: it becomes a pageant of youth +and grace. + +The Prince, of course, may have gone into the Bowery, and walked +therein with the air of a modern Caliph, but I myself have not heard of +it. I was told that he went for a walk to the house of a friend, and +that after paying a very pleasant and ordinary visit he returned to the +_Renown_ to get what sleep he could before the adventure of another New +York day. + + +IV + +The morning of Wednesday, November 19th, was devoted by the Prince to +high finance; he went down to Wall Street and to visit the other +temples of the gold god. + +When one has become acclimated to the soaring upward rush of the +skyscrapers (and one quite soon loses consciousness of them, for where +all buildings are huge each building becomes commonplace), when one +stops looking upward, "Down Town" New York is strangely like the "City" +area of London. Walking Broadway one might easily imagine oneself in +the neighbourhood of the Bank of England; Wall Street might easily be a +turning out of Bishopsgate or Cannon Street. Broad Street, New York, +is not so very far removed in appearance from Broad Street, London. + +There is the same preoccupied congestion of the same work-mazed people: +clerks, typists (stenographers), book-keepers, messengers and masters, +though, perhaps, the people of the New York business quarter do not +wear the air of sadness those of London wear. + +And there is the same massive solidity of business buildings, great +blocks that house thirty thousand souls in the working day, and these +buildings have the same air as their London brothers; that is, they +seem to be monuments to financial integrity (just as mahogany +furniture, with a certain type, is an indication of "standing and +weight") rather than offices. And if New York buildings are, on the +whole, more distinguished, are characterized by a better art, they are, +on the other hand, not relieved by the humanity of the shops that gives +an air of brightness to the London commercial area. In New York "Down +Town" the shops are mainly inside the buildings, and it is in the +corridors of the big blocks that the clerk buys his magazines, papers, +"candies," sandwiches and cigars. + +The interiors of the buildings are ornate, they are sleek with marble, +and quite often beautiful with it. They are well arranged; the +skyscraper habit makes for short corridors, and you can always find +your man easily (as in the hotels) by the number of his room: thus, if +his number is 1201 he is on the twelfth floor, 802 is on the eighth, +and 2203 is on the twenty-second; each floor is a ten. + +Up to the floors one ascends by means of one of a fleet of elevators, +some being locals and some being expresses to a certain floor and local +beyond. Whether the fleet is made up of two or ten lifts, there is +always a man to control them, a station-master of lifts who gives the +word to the liftboys. To the Englishman he is a new phenomenon. He +seems a trifle unnecessary [but he may be put there by law]; he is soon +seen to be one of a multitude of men in America who "stand over" other +men while they do the job. + +The unexpected thing in buildings so fine as this, occupied by men who +are addicted to business, is that the offices have rather a makeshift +air. The offices I saw in America do not compare in comfort with the +offices I know in England. There is a bleakness, an aridity about them +that makes English business rooms seem luxurious in comparison. I +talked of this phenomenon with a friend, instancing one great office, +to be met with surprise and told: "Why! But that office is held up as +an example of what offices should be like. We are agitating to get +ours as good as that." After this I did not talk about offices. + +The "Down Town" restaurants bring one vividly back to London. They are +underground, and there is the same thick volume of masculinity and +masculine talk in them. They are a trifle more ornate, and the food is +better cooked and of infinitely greater variety (they would not be +American otherwise), but over all the air is the same. + +Into the familiar business atmosphere of this quarter the Prince came +early. He drove between crowds and there were big crowds at the points +where he stopped--at the Woolworth building and at Trinity Church, that +stands huddled and dwarfed beneath the basilicas of business. The +intense interest of his visit began when he arrived at the Stock +Exchange. + +The business on the floor was in full swing when he came out on to the +marble gallery of the vast, square marble hall of the Exchange, and the +busy swarm of money-gathering men beneath his eyes immediately stopped +to cheer him. To look down, as he did, was to look down upon the floor +of some great bazaar. The floor is set with ranks of kiosks spaced +apart, about which men congregate only to divide and go all ways; these +kiosks might easily be booths. The floor itself is in constant +movement; it is a disturbed ant-heap with its denizens speeding about +always in unconjectural movements. Groups gather, thrust hands and +fingers upward, shout and counter-shout, as though bent on working up a +fracas; then when they seem to have succeeded they make notes in small +books and walk quietly away. Messengers, who must work by instinct, +weave in and out of the stirring of ants perpetually. In a line of +cubicles along one side of the Exchange, crowds of men seemed to be +fighting each other for a chance at the telephone. + +Two of the tremendous walls of this hall are on the street, and superb +windows allow in the light. On the two remaining walls are gigantic +blackboards. Incessantly, small flaps are falling on these blackboards +revealing numbers. They are the numbers of members who have been +"called" over the 'phone or in some other way. The blackboards are in +a constant flutter, the tiny flaps are always falling or shutting, as +numbers appear and disappear, and the boards are starred with numbers +waiting patiently for the eye of the member on the floor to look up and +be aware of them. + +The Prince stood on the high gallery under the high windows, and +watched with vivid curiosity the bustling scene below. He asked a +number of eager questions, and the strange silent dance of numbers on +the big blackboards intrigued him greatly. Underneath him the members +gathered in a great crowd, calling up to him to come down on the floor. +There was a jolly eagerness in their demands, and the Prince, as he +went, seemed to hesitate as though he were quite game for the +adventure. But he disappeared, and though the Bears and the Bulls +waited a little while for him, he did not reappear. Those who knew +that a full twelve-hour program could only be accomplished by following +the timetable with rigid devotion had had their way. + +From the Stock Exchange the Prince went to the Sub-Treasury, and +watched, fascinated, the miracle work of the money counters. The +intricacies of currency were explained to him, and he was shown the men +who went through mounds of coin, with lightning gestures separating the +good from the bad with their instinctive finger-tips and with the +accuracy of one of Mr. Ford's uncanny machines. He was told that the +touch of these men was so exquisite that they could detect a "dud" coin +instantly, and, to test them, such a coin was produced and marked, and +well hidden in a pile of similar coins. The fingers of the teller went +through the pile like a flash, and as he flicked the good coins towards +him, and without ceasing his work, a coin span out from the mass +towards the Prince. It was the coin he had marked. + + +V + +Passing among these business people and driving amid the quick crowds, +the Prince had been consolidating the sense of intimate friendship that +had sprung up on the previous day. A wise American pressman had said +to me on Tuesday: + +"New York people like what they've read about the Prince. They'll come +out today to see if what they have read is true. Tomorrow they'll come +out because they love him. And each day the crowds will get better." + +This proved true. The warmth of New York's friendliness increased as +the days went on. The scene at the lunch given by the New York Chamber +of Commerce proved how strong this regard had grown. The scene was +remarkable because of the character and the quality of the men present. +It was no admiration society. It was no gathering of sentimentalists. +The men who attended that lunch were men not only of international +reputation, but of international force, men of cautious fibre +accustomed to big encounters, not easily moved to emotion. And they +fell under the charm of the Prince. + +One of them expressed his feelings concerning the scene to me. + +"He had it over us all the time," he said, laughing. "There we were, +several hundreds of grey-headed, hardened old stiffs, most of us over +twice his age, and we stood up and yelled like college freshmen when he +had finished speaking to us. + +"What did he say to us? Nothing very remarkable. He told us how +useful we old ones in the money market had been as a backbone to the +boys in the firing line. He told us that he felt that the war had +revealed clearly the closeness of the relationship between the two +Anglo-Saxon nations, how their welfare was interlocked and how the +prosperity of each was essential to the prosperity of the other, and he +agreed with the President of the Chamber's statement that British and +American good faith and good will would go far to preserve the +stability of the world. There's nothing very wonderful to that. It's +true enough, but not altogether unknown.... It was his manner that +caught hold of us. The way he speaks, you see. His nervousness, and +his grit in conquering his nervousness. His modesty; his twinkle of +humour, all of him. He's one fine lad. I tell you we've had some big +men in the Chamber in the last two years, but it's gilt-edged truth +that none of the big ones had the showing that lad got today." + +From the Chamber of Commerce the Prince went to the Academy of Music +where there was a picture and variety show staged for him, and which he +enjoyed enormously. The thrill of this item of the program was rather +in the crowd than in the show. It was an immense crowd, and for once +it vanquished the efficient police and swarmed about His Royal Highness +as he entered the building. While he was inside it added to its +strength rather than diminished, and in the face of this crisis one of +those men whose brains rise to emergencies had the bright idea of +getting the Prince out by the side door. The crowd had also had that +bright idea and the throng about the side door was, if anything, more +dense than at the front. Through this laughing and cheering mass +squads of good-humoured police butted a thread of passage for the happy +Prince. + +The throng inside Madison Square Garden about the arena of the Horse +Show was more decorous, as became its status, but it did not let that +stifle its feelings. The Prince passed through from a cheering crowd +outside to the bright, sharp clapping of those inside. He passed round +the arena between ranks of Salvation Army lassies, who held, instead of +barrier ropes, broad scarlet ribbons. + +There was a laugh as he touched his hair upon gaining the stark +publicity of his box, and the laugh changed to something of a cheer +when he caught sight of the chairs of pomp, two of them in frigid +isolation, elbowing out smaller human fry. All knew from his very +attitude what was going to happen to those chairs. And it happened. +The chairs vanished. Small chairs and more of them took their place, +and the Prince sat with genial people about him. + +The arena was a field of brightness. It was delightfully decorated +with green upon lattice work. Over the competitors' entrance were +canvas replicas of Tudor houses. In the ring the Prince saw many +beautiful horses, fine hunters, natty little ponies pulling nattier +carriages, trotters of mechanical perfection, and big lithe jumpers. +In the middle of the jumping competition he left his box and went into +the ring, and spent some time there chatting with judges and +competitors, and watching the horses take the hurdles and gates from +close quarters. + +Leaving the building there happened one of those vivid little incidents +which speak more eloquently than any effort of oratory could of the +kinship of the two races in their war effort. A group of men in +uniform who had been waiting by the exit sprang to attention as he came +up. They were all Americans. They were all in British uniform--most +of them in British Flying Corps uniform. As the Prince came up, they +clicked round in a smart "Left turn," and marched before him out of the +building. + +The Prince from thence on vanished for the day into a round of +semi-social functions, but he did not escape the crowds. + +Walking up Fifth Avenue with friends shortly before dinner-time, we +came upon a bunched jumble of people outside the "Waldorf-Astoria." It +was a crowd that a man in a hurry could not argue with. It filled the +broad street, and it did not care if it impeded traffic. We were not +in a hurry, so we stood and looked. I asked my friends what was +happening here, and one of them chuckled and answered: + +"They've got him again." + +"Him? Who--you can't mean the Prince? He's on _Renown_ now, resting, +or getting ready for a dinner. There's nothing down for him." + +My friend simply chuckled again. + +"Who else would it be?" he said. "How they do gather round waiting for +that smile of his. Flies round a honey-pot. Ah, I thought so." + +The Prince made a dash of an exit from the hotel. He jumped into the +car, and at once there was a forest of hands and handkerchiefs and +flags waving, and his own hand and hat seemed to go up and wave as part +of one and the same movement. It was a spontaneous "Hallo, People! +Hallo, Prince!" A jolly affair. The motor started, pushed through the +crowd. There was a sharp picture of the Prince half standing, half +kneeling, looking back and laughing and waving to the crowd. Then he +was gone. + +The men and women of the throng turned away smiling, as though +something good had happened. + +"They've seen him. They can go home now," said my friend. "My, ain't +they glad about themselves.... And isn't he the one fine scout?" + + +VI + +When the Prince made his appearance on Thursday, November 20th, in the +uniform of a Welsh Guardsman he came in for a startling ovation. Not +only were many people gathered about the Yacht Club landing-stage and +along the route of his drive, but at one point a number of ladies +pelted him with flowers. Startled though the Prince was, he kept his +smile and his sense of humour. He said dryly that he had never known +what it was to feel like a bride before, and he returned this volley +with his friendly salute. + +He was then setting out to the Grand Central Station for his trip up +the Hudson to West Point, the Military Academy of the United States. + +In the superb white station, under a curved arch of ceiling as blue as +the sky, he took the full force of an affection that had been growing +steadily through the visit. The immense floor of the building was +dense and tight with people, and the Prince, as he came to the balcony +that made the stair-head was literally halted by the great gust of +cheering that beat up to him, and was forced to stand at the salute for +a full minute. + +The journey to West Point skirted the Hudson, where lovely view after +lovely view of the piled-up and rocky further shore tinted in the +russet and gold of the dying foliage came and went. There was a rime +of ice already in the lagoons, and the little falls that usually +tumbled down the rocks were masses of glittering icicles. + +The castellated walls of West Point overhang the river above a sharp +cliff; the buildings have a dramatic grouping that adds to the extreme +beauty of the surroundings. Toward this castle on the cliff the Prince +went by a little steam ferry, was taken in escort by a smart body of +American cavalrymen, and in their midst went by automobile up the road +to the grey towers of West Point. + +Immediately on his arrival at the saluting point on the great campus +the horizon-blue cadets, who will one day be the leaders of the +American army, began to march. + +Paraded by the buildings, they fell into columns of companies with +mechanical precision. With precise discipline they moved out on to the +field, the companies as solid as rocks but for the metronomic beat of +legs and arms. + +They were tall, smart youths, archaic and modern in one. With long +blue coats, wide trousers, shakos, broad white belts, as neat as +painted lines, over breast and back, and, holding back the flaps of +capes, they looked figures from the fifties. But the swing of the +marching companies, the piston-like certainty of their action, the cold +and splendid detachment of their marching gave them all the _flare_ +[Transcriber's note: flair?] of a _corps d'élite_. + +Forming companies almost with a click on the wide green, they saluted +and stood at attention while the Prince and his party inspected the +lines. Then, the Prince at the saluting point again, the three +companies in admirable order marched past. There was not a flaw in the +rigid ranks as they swept along, their eyes right, the red-sashed "four +year men" holding slender swords at the salute. + +The Prince lunched with the officers, and after lunch the cadets +swarmed into the room to hear him speak, having first warmed up the +atmosphere with a rousing and prolonged college yell. Having spoken in +praise of their discipline and bearing, the Prince was made the subject +of another yell, and more, was saluted with the college whistle, a +thing unique and distinctive, that put the seal upon his visit. + +That night the Prince played host upon _Renown_, giving a brilliant +dinner to his friends in New York. This was the only other ceremony of +the day. + + +VII + +Friday, November 21st, the Prince's last day in New York, was an +extraordinarily full one, and that full not merely in program, but in +emotion. In that amazing day it seemed to me that the people of this +splendid city sought to express with superb eloquence the regard they +felt for him, seemed to make a point of trying to make his last day +memorable. + +The morning was devoted to a semi-private journey to Oyster Bay, in +order that the Prince might place a wreath on the tomb of President +Roosevelt. The Prince had several times expressed his admiration for +the great and forceful American who represented so much of what was +individual in the national character, and his visit to the burial-place +was a tribute of real feeling. + +After lunch at the Piping Rock Club he returned to _Renown_, where he +had planned to hold a reception after his own heart to a thousand of +New York's children. + +On _Renown_ a score of "gadgets" had been prepared for the fun of the +children. The capstans had been turned into roundabouts, a switchback +and a chute had been fixed up, the deck of the great steel monster had +been transformed into fairyland, while a "scrumptious" tea in a pretty +tea lounge had been prepared all out of Navy magic. + +The tugs that were to bring off the guests, however, brought few that +could come under the heading of "kiddies." Those that were not quite +grown up, were in the young man and young woman stage. Fairyland had +to be abandoned. Roundabout and switchback and chute were abandoned, +and only that "scrumptious" tea remained in the program. It was a +pleasant afternoon, but not a "kiddies'" afternoon. + +The evening was quick with crowds. + +It began in a drive through crowds to the Pilgrims' Dinner at the Plaza +Hotel, and that, in itself, was a crowd. The Plaza is none of your +bijou caravanserais. It is vast and vivid and bright, as a New York +hotel can be, and that is saying a good deal. But it was not vast +enough. One great marble room could not contain all the guests, +another and another was taken in, so that the banquet was actually +spread over three or four large chambers opening out of the main +chamber. Here the leading figures of America and the leading Britons +then in New York met together in a sort of breezy informality, and they +gave the Prince a most tremendous welcome. + +And when he began to speak--after the nimble scintillations of Mr. +Chauncey Depew--they gave him another. And they rose up in a body, and +moved inward from the distant rooms to be within earshot--a sight for +the Messenger in _Macbeth_, for he would have seen a moving grove of +golden chair legs, held on high, as the diners marched with their +seating accommodation held above their heads. + +Crowds again under the vivid lights of the streets, as the Prince drove +to the mighty crowd waiting for him in the Hippodrome. The Hippodrome +is one of the largest, if it is not the largest, music-hall in the +world. It has an enormous sweep of floor, and an enormous sweep of +galleries. The huge space of it takes the breath away. It was packed. + +As the Prince entered his box, floor and galleries rose up with a +sudden and tremendous surge, and sent a mighty shout to him. The +National Anthems of England and America were obliterated in the gust of +affectionate noise. Minutes elapsed before that great audience +remembered that it was at the play, and that the Prince had come to see +the play. It sat down reluctantly, saving itself for his departure, +watching him as he entered into enjoyment of the brave and grandiose +spectacular show on the stage. + +And when he rose to go the audience loosed itself again. It held him +there with the power of its cheering. It would not let him stir from +the building until it had had a word from him. It was dominant, it had +its way. In answer to the splendid outburst the Prince could do +nothing but come to the edge of his box and speak. + +In a clear voice that was heard all over the building he thanked them +for the wonderful reception he had received that night, and in New York +during the week. "I thank you," he said, "and I bid you all good +night." + +Then he went out into the cheering streets. + +It was an astonishing display in the street. The throng was so dense, +the shouting so great that the sound of it drove into the silent houses +of other theatres. And the audiences in those other theatres caught +the thrill of it. They "cut" their plays, came pouring out into the +street to join the throng and the cheering; it was through this +carnival of affection that the Prince drove along the streets to a +reception, and a brilliant one, given by Mr. Wanamaker, whose ability +as Chairman of the Reception Committee had largely helped to make the +Prince's visit to New York so startling a success. + + +VIII + +On that note of splendid friendliness the Prince's too short stay in +America ended. On Saturday, November 22nd, he held a reception on +_Renown_, saying good-bye to endless lines of friendly people of all +classes and races who thronged the great war vessel. + +All these people crowded about the Prince and seemed loth to part with +him, and he seemed just as unwilling to break off an intimacy only just +begun. Only inexorable time and the Admiralty ended the scene, and the +great ship with its escort of small, lean war-craft moved seaward along +the cheering shore. + +Crowds massed on the grass slope under Riverside Drive, and on the +esplanade itself. The skyscrapers were cheering grandstands, as the +ships steamed along the impressive length of Manhattan. They passed +the Battery, where he had landed, and the Narrows, where the escorting +boats left him. Then _Renown_ headed for Halifax, where his tour ended. + +Certainly America and the Prince made the best of impressions on each +other. There is much in his quick and modern personality that finds +immediate satisfaction in the American spirit; much in himself that the +American responds to at once. When he declared, as he did time and +time again, that he had had a wonderful time, he meant it with +sincerity. And of his eagerness to return one day there can be no +doubt. + +Of all the happy moments on this long and happy tour, this visit to +America, brief as it was, was one of the happiest. It was a brilliant +finale to the brilliant Canadian days. + + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Westward with the Prince of Wales, by +W. 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Douglas Newton +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.transnote {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +H4.h4left { margin-left: 0%; + margin-right: 1%; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: left ; + clear: left ; + text-align: center } + +H4.h4right { margin-left: 1%; + margin-right: 0 ; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: right ; + clear: right ; + text-align: center } + +H4.h4center { margin-left: 0; + margin-right: 0 ; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: none ; + clear: both ; + text-align: center } + +IMG.imgleft { float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 0; + margin-top: 1%; + margin-right: 1%; + padding: 0; + text-align: center } + +IMG.imgright {float: right; + clear: right; + margin-left: 1%; + margin-bottom: 0; + margin-top: 1%; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + text-align: center } + +IMG.imgcenter { margin-left: auto; + margin-bottom: 0; + margin-top: 1%; + margin-right: auto; } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Westward with the Prince of Wales, by W. Douglas Newton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Westward with the Prince of Wales + +Author: W. Douglas Newton + +Release Date: September 25, 2009 [EBook #30082] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WESTWARD WITH THE PRINCE OF WALES *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="transnote"> +[Transcriber's note: This book is an account by a British journalist of +the cross-Canada tour, by train, in 1919, of Edward VIII, British +Prince of Wales. In 1936, Edward abdicated from the British throne to +marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee.] +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="img-front"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-front.jpg" ALT="H. R. H. THE PRINCE OF WALES" BORDER="2" WIDTH="283" HEIGHT="577"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center" STYLE="width: 283px"> +H. R. H. THE PRINCE OF WALES +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +WESTWARD WITH +<BR> +THE PRINCE OF WALES +</H1> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BY +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +W. DOUGLAS NEWTON +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +AUTHORIZED CORRESPONDENT IN AMERICA WITH +<BR> +H. R. H. THE PRINCE OF WALES +<BR><BR> +AUTHOR OF "GREEN LADIES," "THE WAR CACHE," ETC. +</H5> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +D. APPLETON AND COMPANY +<BR> +NEW YORK LONDON +<BR> +1920 +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY +<BR> +D. APPLETON AND COMPANY +</H5> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +TO +<BR> +"A. B." +<BR> +AND THE CARGO OF "CARNARVON." +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="preface"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PREFACE +</H3> + +<P> +It was on Friday, August 1, 1919, that "the damned reporters" and the +<I>Times</I> correspondent's hatbox went on board the light cruiser +<I>Dauntless</I> at Devonport. +</P> + +<P> +The <I>Dauntless</I> had just arrived from the Baltic to load up +cigarettes—at least, that was the first impression. In the Baltic the +rate of exchange had risen from roubles to packets of Players, and a +handful of cigarettes would buy things that money could not obtain. +Into the midst of a ship's company, feverishly accumulating tobacco in +the hope of cornering at least the amber market of the world, we +descended. +</P> + +<P> +Actually, I suppose, His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales had been +the first interrupter of the <I>Dauntless'</I> schemes. Lying alongside +Devonport quay to refit—in that way were the cigarettes covered +up—word was sent that the <I>Dauntless</I> with her sister ship, <I>Dragon</I>, +was to act as escort to the battle-cruiser <I>Renown</I> when she carried +the Prince to Canada. +</P> + +<P> +Though he came first we could not expect to be as popular as the +Prince, and when, therefore, those on board also learnt that the honour +of acting as escort was to be considerably mitigated by a cargo from +Fleet Street, they were no doubt justified in naming us "damned." +</P> + +<P> +We did litter them up so. The <I>Dauntless</I> is not merely one of the +latest and fastest of the light cruisers, she is also first among the +smartest. To accommodate us they had to give way to a rash of riveters +from the dock-yard who built cabins all over the graceful silhouette. +When our telegrams, and ourselves, and our baggage (including the +<I>Times'</I> hatbox) arrived piece by piece, each was merely an addition to +the awful mess on deck our coming had meant. +</P> + +<P> +Actually we could not help ourselves. Dock strikes, ship shortage and +the holiday season had all conspired to make any attempt to get to +Canada in a legitimate way a hopeless task. Only the Admiralty's idea +to pre-date the carrying of commercial travellers on British +battleships could get us to the West at all. The Admiralty, after +modest hesitation, had agreed to send us in the <I>Dauntless</I>, and before +the cruiser sailed we all realized how fortunate we were to have been +unlucky at the outset. +</P> + +<P> +We sailed on August 2 from Devonport, three days before <I>Renown</I> and +<I>Dragon</I> left Portsmouth, and when one of us suggested that this was a +happy idea to get us to St. John's, Newfoundland, in order to be ready +for the Prince, he was told: +</P> + +<P> +"Not at all, we're out looking for icebergs." +</P> + +<P> +We were to act as the pilot ship over the course. +</P> + +<P> +We found icebergs, many of them; even, we nearly rammed an iceberg in +the middle of a foggy night, but we found other things, too. +</P> + +<P> +We found that we had got onto what the Navy calls a "happy ship," and +if anybody wants to taste what real good fellowship is I advise him to +go to sea on what the Navy calls "a happy ship." However much we had +disturbed them, the officers of the <I>Dauntless</I> did not let that make +any difference in the warmth of their hospitality. We were made free +of the ward-room, and that Baltic tobacco. We were initiated into "The +Grand National," a muscular sport in which the daring exponent turns a +series of somersaults over the backs of a line of chairs; and we were +admitted into the raggings and the singing of ragtime. +</P> + +<P> +We were made splendidly at home. Not only in the ward-room that did a +jazz with a disturbing spiral movement when we speeded up from our +casual 18 knots to something like 28 in a rough sea, but from the +bridge down to the boiler room, where we watched the flames of oil fuel +making steam in the modern manner, we were drawn into the charmed +circle of comradeship and keenness that made up the essential spirit of +that fine ship's company. +</P> + +<P> +The "damned reporters," on a trip in which even the weather was +companionable, were given the damnedest of good times, and it was with +real regret that, on the evening of Friday, August 8, we saw the high, +grim rampart wall of Newfoundland lift from the Western sea to tell us +that our time on the <I>Dauntless</I> would soon be finished. +</P> + +<P> +Actually we left the <I>Dauntless</I> at St. John's, New Brunswick, where we +became the guests of the Canadian Government which looked after us, as +it looked after the whole party, with so great a sense of generosity +and care that we could never feel sufficiently grateful to it. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="100%"> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#preface">PREFACE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">NEWFOUNDLAND</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">ST. JOHN, NEW BRUNSWICK</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">ON THE TRAIN BETWEEN ST. JOHN AND HALIFAX</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">CHARLOTTETOWN, PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND AND HABITANT, CANADA</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">QUEBEC</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">THE MOBILE HOTEL DE LUXE: THE ROYAL TRAIN</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">THE CITY OF CROWDS: TORONTO: ONTARIO</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap09">OTTAWA</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap10">MONTREAL: QUEBEC</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap11">ON THE ROAD TO TROUT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap12">PICNICS AND PRAIRIES</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap13">THE CITY OF WHEAT: WINNIPEG, MANITOBA</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap14">THE FRINGE OF THE GREAT NORTH-WEST: SASKATOON AND EDMONTON</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap15">CALGARY AND THE CATTLE RANCH</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap16">CHIEF MORNING STAR COMES TO BANFF AND THE ROCKIES</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap17">THE PACIFIC CITIES: VANCOUVER AND VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap18">APPLE LAND: OKANAGAN AND KOOTENAY LAKES</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap19">THE PRAIRIES AGAIN</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap20">SILVER, GOLD AND COMMERCE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap21">NIAGARA AND THE TOWNS OF WESTERN ONTARIO</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap22">MONTREAL</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap23">WASHINGTON</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap24">NEW YORK</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +WESTWARD WITH THE PRINCE OF WALES +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +NEWFOUNDLAND +</H4> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H4> + +<P> +St. John's, Newfoundland, was the first city of the Western continent +to see the Prince of Wales. It was also the first to label him with +one of the affectionate, if inexplicable sobriquets that the West is so +fond of. +</P> + +<P> +Leaning over the side of the <I>Dauntless</I> on the day of the Prince's +visit, a seaman smiled down, as seamen sometimes do, at a vivid little +Newfoundland Flapper in a sunset-coloured jumper bodice, New York cut +skirt, white stockings and white canvas boots. The Flapper looked up +from her seat in the stern of her "gas" launch (gasolene equals +petrol), and smiled back, as is the Flapper habit, and the seaman +promptly opened conversation by asking if the Flapper had seen the +Prince. +</P> + +<P> +"You bet," said the Flapper. "He's a dandy boy. He's a plush." +</P> + +<P> +His Royal Highness became many things in his travels across America, +but I think it ought to go down in history that at St. John's, +Newfoundland, he became a "plush." +</P> + +<P> +Newfoundland also introduced another Western phenomenon. It presented +us to the race of false prophets whom we were to see go down in +confusion all the way from St. John's to Victoria and back again to New +York. +</P> + +<P> +Members of this race were plentiful in St. John's. As we spent our +days before the Prince's arrival picking up facts and examining the +many beautiful arches of triumph that were being put up in the town, we +were warned not to expect too much from Newfoundland. St. John's had +not its bump of enthusiasm largely developed, we were told; its people +were resolutely dour and we must not be disappointed if the Prince's +reception lacked warmth. In all probability the weather would conform +to the general habit and be foggy. +</P> + +<P> +Here, as elsewhere, the prophets were confounded. St. John's proved +second to none in the warmth of its affectionate greeting—that +splendid spontaneous welcome which the whole West gave to the Prince +upset all preconceived notions, swept away all sense of set ceremonial +and made the tour from the beginning to the end the most happy progress +of a sympathetic and responsive youth through a continent of intimate +personal friends. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H4> + +<P> +The <I>Dauntless</I> went out from St. John's on Sunday, August 10, to +rendezvous with <I>Renown</I> and <I>Dragon</I>, and the three great modern +warships came together on a glorious Western evening. +</P> + +<P> +There was a touch of drama in the meeting. In the marvellous clear air +of gold and blue that only the American Continent can show, we picked +up <I>Renown</I> at a point when she was entering a long avenue of icebergs. +There were eleven of these splendid white fellows in view on the +skyline when we turned to lead the great battleship back to the +anchorage in Conception Bay, north of St. John's, and as the ships +followed us it was as though the Prince had entered a processional way +set with great pylons arranged deliberately to mark the last phase of +his route to the Continent of the West. +</P> + +<P> +Some of these bergs were as large, as massive and as pinnacled as +cathedrals, some were humped mounds that lifted sullenly from the +radiant sea, some were treacherous little crags circled by rings of +detached floes—the "growlers," those almost wholly submerged masses of +ice that the sailor fears most. Most of the bergs in the two irregular +lines were distant, and showed as patches of curiously luminant +whiteness against the intense blue of the sky. Some were close enough +for us to see the wonderful semi-transparent green of the cracks and +fissures in their sides and the vivid emerald at the base that the +bursting seas seemed to be eternally polishing anew. +</P> + +<P> +When <I>Renown</I> was sighted, a mere smudge on the horizon, we saw the +flash of her guns and heard faintly the thud of the explosions. She +was getting in some practice with her four-inch guns on the enticing +targets of the bergs. +</P> + +<P> +We were too far away to see results, but we were told that as a +spectacle the effect of the shell-bursts on the ice crags was +remarkable. Under the explosions the immense masses of these +translucent fairy islands rocked and changed shape. Faces of ice +cliffs crumbled under the hits and sent down avalanches of ice into the +furious green seas the shocks of the explosions had raised. +</P> + +<P> +This was one of the few incidents in a journey made under perfect +weather conditions in a vessel that is one of the "wonder ships" of the +British Navy. The huge <I>Renown</I> had behaved admirably throughout the +passage. She had travelled at a slow speed, for her, most of the time, +but there had been a spell of about an hour when she had worked up to +the prodigious rate of thirty-one knots an hour. Under these test +conditions she had travelled like an express with no more structural +movement than is felt in a well-sprung Pullman carriage. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince had employed his five day's journey by indulging his fancy +for getting to know how things are done. Each day he had spent two +hours in a different part of the ship having its function and mechanism +explained to him by the officer in charge. +</P> + +<P> +As he proved later in Canada when visiting various industrial and +agricultural plants, His Royal Highness has the modern curiosity and +interest for the mechanics of things. Indeed, throughout the journey +he showed a distinct inclination towards people and the work that +ordinary people did, rather than in the contemplation of views however +splendid, and the report that he said at one time, "Oh, Lord, let's cut +all this scenery and get back to towns and crowds," is certainly true +in essence if not in fact. +</P> + +<P> +It was in the beautiful morning of August 11th that the Prince made his +first landfall in the West, and saw in the distance the great curtain +of high rock that makes the grim coast-line of Newfoundland. +</P> + +<P> +For reasons of the <I>Renown's</I> tonnage he had to go into Conception Bay, +one of the many great sacks of inlets that make the island something +that resembles nothing so much as a section of a jig-saw puzzle. The +harbour of St. John's could float <I>Renown</I>, but its narrow waters would +not permit her to turn, and the Prince had to transfer his Staff and +baggage to <I>Dragon</I> in order to complete the next stage of the voyage. +</P> + +<P> +Conception Bay is a fjord thrusting its way through the jaws of strong, +sharp hills of red sandstone piled up in broken and stratified masses +above grey slate rock. On these hills cling forests of spruce and +larch in woolly masses that march down the combes to the very water's +edge. It is wild scenery, Scandinavian and picturesque. +</P> + +<P> +In the combes—the "outports" they are called—are the small, scattered +villages of the fishermen. The wooden frame houses have the look of +the packing-case, and though they are bright and toy-like when their +green or red or cinnamon paint is fresh, they are woefully drab when +the weather of several years has had its way with them. +</P> + +<P> +In front of most of the houses are the "flakes," or drying platforms +where the split cod is exposed to the air. These "flakes" are built up +among the ledges and crevices of the rock, being supported by +numberless legs of thin spruce mast; the effect of these spidery +platforms, the painted houses, the sharp stratified red rock and the +green massing of the trees is that of a Japanese vignette set down amid +inappropriate scenery. +</P> + +<P> +Cod fishing is, of course, the beginning and the end of the life of +many of these villages on the bays that indent so deeply the +Newfoundland coast. It is not the adventurous fishing of the Grand +Banks; there is no need for that. There is all the food and the income +man needs in the crowded local waters. Men have only to go out in +boats with hook and line to be sure of large catches. +</P> + +<P> +Only a few join the men who live farther to the south, about Cape Race, +in their trips to the misty waters of the Grand Banks. Here they put +off from their schooners in dories and make their haul with hook and +line. +</P> + +<P> +A third branch of these fishers, particularly those to the north of St. +John's, push up to the Labrador coast, where in the bays, or "fishing +rooms," they catch, split, head, salt and dry the superabundant fish. +</P> + +<P> +By these methods vast quantities of cod and salmon are caught, and, as +in the old days when the hardy fishermen of Devon, Brittany, Normandy +and Portugal were the only workers in these little known seas, +practically all the catch is shipped to England and France. During the +war the cod fishers of Newfoundland played a very useful part in +mitigating the stringency of the British ration-cards, and there are +hopes that this good work may be extended, and that by setting up a big +refrigerating plant Newfoundland may enlarge her market in Britain and +the world. +</P> + +<P> +With the fishery goes the more dangerous calling of sealing. For this +the men of Newfoundland set out in the winter and the spring to the +fields of flat "pan" ice to hunt the seal schools. +</P> + +<P> +At times this means a march across the ice deserts for many days and +the danger of being cut off by blizzards; when that happens no more +news is heard of the adventurous hunters. +</P> + +<P> +Every few years Newfoundland writes down the loss of a ship's company +of her too few young men, for Newfoundland, very little helped by +immigration, exists on her native born. "A crew every six or eight +years, we reckon it that way," you are told. It is part of the hard +life the Islanders lead, an expected debit to place against the profits +of the rich fur trade. +</P> + +<P> +Solidly blocking the heart of Conception Bay is a big island, the high +and irregular outline of which seems to have been cut down sharply with +a knife. This is Bell Island, which is not so much an island as a +great, if accidental, iron mine. +</P> + +<P> +Years ago, when the island was merely the home of farmers and +fishermen, a shipowner in need of easily handled ballast found that the +subsoil contained just the thing he wanted. By turning up the thin +surface he came upon a stratum of small, square slabs of rock rather +like cakes of soap. These were easily lifted and easily carted to his +ship. +</P> + +<P> +He initiated the habit of taking rock from Bell Island for ballast, and +for years shipmasters loaded it up, to dump it overboard with just as +much unconcern when they took their cargo inboard. It was some time +before an inquiring mind saw something to attract it in the rock +ballast; the rock was analyzed and found to contain iron. +</P> + +<P> +Turned into a profiteer by this astonishing discovery, the owner of the +ground where the slabs were found clung tenaciously to his holding +until he had forced the price up to the incredible figure of 100 +dollars. He sold with the joyous satisfaction of a man making a shrewd +deal. +</P> + +<P> +His ground has changed hands several times since, and the prices paid +have advanced somewhat on his optimistic figure; for example, the +present company bought it for two million dollars. +</P> + +<P> +The ore is not high grade, but is easily obtained, and so can be +handled profitably. In the beginning it was only necessary to turn +over the turf and take what was needed, the labour costing less than a +shilling a ton. Now the mines strike down through the rock of the +island beneath the sea, and the cost of handling is naturally greater. +It is worth noting that prior to 1914 practically all the output of +this essentially British mine went to Germany; the war has changed that +and now Canada takes the lion's share. +</P> + +<P> +It was under the cliffs of Bell Island, near the point where the long +lattice-steel conveyors bring the ore from the cliff-top to the +water-level, that the three warships dropped anchor. As they swung on +their cables blasting operations in the iron cliffs sent out the thud +of their explosions and big columns of smoke and dust, for all the +world as though a Royal salute was being fired in honour of the +Prince's arrival. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H4> + +<P> +During the day His Royal Highness went ashore informally, mainly to +satisfy his craving for walking exercise. Before he did so, he +received the British correspondents on board the <I>Renown</I>, and a few +minutes were spent chatting with him in the charming and spacious suite +of rooms that Navy magic had erected with such efficiency that one had +to convince oneself that one really was on a battleship and not in a +hotel <I>de luxe</I>. +</P> + +<P> +We met a young man in a rather light grey lounge suit, whose boyish +figure is thickening into the outlines of manhood. I have heard him +described as frail; and a Canadian girl called him "a little bit of a +feller" in my hearing. But one has only to note an excellent pair of +shoulders and the strength of his long body to understand how he can +put in a twenty-hour day of unresting strenuosity in running, riding, +walking and dancing without turning a hair. +</P> + +<P> +It is the neat, small features, the nose a little inclined to tilt, a +soft and almost girlish fairness of complexion, and the smooth and +remarkable gold hair that give him the suggestion of extreme +boyishness—these things and his nervousness. +</P> + +<P> +His nervousness is part of his naturalness and lack of poise. It +showed itself then, and always, in characteristic gestures, a tugging +at the tie, the smoothing-down of the hair with the flat of the hand, +the furious digging of fists into pockets, a clutching at coat lapels, +and a touch of hesitance before he speaks. +</P> + +<P> +He comes at you with a sort of impulsive friendliness, his body hitched +a little sideways by the nervous drag of a leg. His grip is a good +one; he meets your eyes squarely in a long glance to which the darkness +about his eyes adds intensity, as though he is getting your features +into his memory for all time, in the resolve to keep you as a friend. +</P> + +<P> +He speaks well, with an attractive manner and a clear enunciation that +not even acute nervousness can slur or disorganize. He is, in fact, an +excellent public speaker, never missing the value of a sentence, and +managing his voice so well that even in the open air people are able to +follow what he says at a distance that renders other speakers inaudible. +</P> + +<P> +In private he is as clear, but more impulsive. He makes little darting +interjections which seem part of a similar movement of hands, or the +whole of the body, and he speaks with eagerness, as though he found +most things jolly and worth while, and expects you do too. Obviously +he finds zest in ordinary human things, and not a little humour, also, +for there is more often than not a twinkle in his eyes that gives +character to his friendly smile—that extraordinarily ready smile, +which comes so spontaneously and delightfully, and which became a +byword over the whole continent of the West. +</P> + +<P> +It is this friendly and unstudied manner that wins him so much +affection. It makes all feel immediately that he is extraordinarily +human and extraordinarily responsive, and that there are no barriers or +reticences in intercourse with him. +</P> + +<P> +He is not an intellectual, and he certainly is not a dullard. He +rather fills the average of the youth of modern times, with an extreme +fondness for modern activities, which include golfing, running and +walking; jazz music and jazz dancing (when the prettiness of partners +is by no means a deterrent), sightseeing and the rest, and my own +impression is, that he is much more at home in the midst of a hearty +crowd—the more democratic the better—than in the most august of +formal gatherings. +</P> + +<P> +The latter, too, means speech-making, and he has, I fancy, a young +man's loathing of making speeches. He makes them—on certain occasions +he had to make them three times and more a day—and he makes good ones, +but he would rather, I think, hold an open reception where Tom, Dick, +Vera, Phyllis and Harry crowded about him in a democratic mob to shake +his hand. +</P> + +<P> +Yet though he does not like speech-making, he showed from the beginning +that he meant to master the repugnant art. To read speeches, as he did +in the early days of the tour, was not good enough. He schooled +himself steadily to deliver them without manuscript, so that by the end +of the trip he was able to deliver a long and important speech—such as +that at Massey Hall, Toronto, on November 4—practically without +referring to his notes. +</P> + +<P> +During his day in Conception Bay, the Prince went ashore and spent some +time amid the beautiful scenery of rocky, spruce-clad hills and +valleys, where the forests and the many rocky streams give earnest of +the fine sport in game and fish for which Newfoundland is famous. +</P> + +<P> +The crews of the battleships went ashore, also, to the scattered little +hamlet of Topsail, lured there, perhaps, by the legend that Topsail is +called the Brighton of Newfoundland. It is certainly a pretty place, +with its brightly painted, deep-porched wooden houses set amid the +trees in that rugged country, but the inhabitants were led astray by +local pride when they dragged in Brighton. The local "Old Ship" is the +grocer's, who also happened to be the Selfridge's of the hamlet, and +his good red wine or brown ale, or whatever is yours, is Root Beer! +</P> + +<P> +For many of the battleships' crews it was the first impact with the +Country of the Dry, and the shock was profound. +</P> + +<P> +"I was ashore five hours, waiting for the blinkin' liberty boat to come +and take me off," said one seaman, in disgust. "Five hours! And all I +had was a water—and that was warm." +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +IV +</H4> + +<P> +On Tuesday, August 12, the Prince transferred to <I>Dragon</I> and in +company with <I>Dauntless</I> steamed towards St. John's, along the grim, +sheer coast of Newfoundland, where squared promontories standing out +like buttresses give the impression that they are bastions set in the +wall of a castle built by giants. +</P> + +<P> +The gateway to St. John's harbour is a mere sally-port in that castle +wall. It is an abrupt opening, and is entered through the high and +commanding posts of Signal and the lighthouse hills. +</P> + +<P> +One can conceive St. John's as the ideal pirate lair of a romance-maker +of the Stevensonian tradition, and one can understand it appealing to +the bold, freebooting instincts of the first daring settlers. A ring +of rough, stratified hills grips the harbour water about, sheltering it +from storms and land enemies, while with the strong hills at the +water-gate to command it, and a chain drawn across its Narrows, it was +safe from incursion of water-borne foes. +</P> + +<P> +It was the fitting stronghold of the reckless Devon, Irish and Scots +fishermen who followed Cabot to the old Norse <I>Helluland</I>, the "Land of +Naked Rocks," and who vied and fought with, and at length ruled with +the rough justice of the "Fishing Admirals" the races of Biscayan and +Portuguese men who made the island not a home but a centre of the great +cod fishery that supplied Europe. +</P> + +<P> +St. John's has laboured under its disadvantages ever since those days. +The town has been pinched between the steep hills, and forced to +straggle back for miles along the harbour inlet. On the southern side +of the basin the slope has beaten the builder, and on the dominant +green hill, through the grass of which thrusts grey and red-brown +masses of the sharp-angled rock stratum, there are very few houses. +</P> + +<P> +On the north, humanity has made a fight for it, and the white, dusty +roads struggle with an almost visible effort up the heavy grade of the +hill until they attain the summit. The effect is of a terraced and +piled-up city, straggling in haphazard fashion up to the point where +the great Roman Catholic cathedral, square-hewn and twin-towered, +crowns the mass of the town. +</P> + +<P> +Plank frame houses, their paint dingy and grey, with stone and brick +buildings, jostle each other on the hill-side streets, innocent of +sidewalks. The main thoroughfare, Water Street, which runs parallel +with the harbour and the rather casual wharves, is badly laid, and +given to an excess of mud in wet weather, mud that the single-deck +electric trams on their bumpy track distribute lavishly. The black +pine masts that serve as telegraph-poles are set squarely and +frequently in the street, and overhead is the heavy mesh of cables and +wires that forms an essential part of all civic scenery in the West. +The buildings and shops along this street are not imposing, and there +seems a need for revitalization in the town, either through a keener +overseas trading and added shipping facilities, or a broader and more +encouraging local policy. +</P> + +<P> +Most of the goods for sale were American, and some of them not the best +type of American articles at that. It was hard to find indications of +British trading, and it seemed to me that here was a field for British +enterprise, and that with the easing of shipping difficulties, which +were then tying up Newfoundland's commerce, Britain and Newfoundland +would both benefit by a vigorous trade policy. Newfoundlanders seemed +anxious to get British goods, and, as they pointed out, the rate of +exchange was all in their favour. +</P> + +<P> +Through Water Street passes a medley of vehicles; the bumpy electric +trams, horse carts that look like those tent poles the Indians trail +behind them put on wheels, spidery buggies, or "rigs," solid-wheeled +country carts, and the latest makes in automobiles. +</P> + +<P> +The automobiles astonish one, both in their inordinate number and their +up-to-dateness. There seemed, if anything, too many cars for the town, +but then that was only because we are new to the Western Continent, +where the automobile is as everyday a thing as the telephone. All the +cars are American, and to the Newfoundlander they are things of pride, +since they show how the modern spirit of the Colony triumphs over sea +freight and heavy import duty. Motor-cars and electric lighting in a +lavish fashion that Britain does not know, form the modern features of +St. John's. +</P> + +<P> +When the two warships steamed through the Narrows into the harbour, St. +John's, within its hills, was looking its best under radiant sunlight. +The fishermen's huts clinging to the rocky crevices of the harbour +entrance on thousands of spidery legs, let crackers off to the passing +ships and fluttered a mist of flags. Flags shone with vivid splashes +of pigment from the water's edge, where a great five-masted schooner, +barques engaged in the South American trade, a liner and a score of +vessels had dressed ships, up all the tiers of houses to where strings +of flags swung between the towers of the cathedral. +</P> + +<P> +From the wharves a number of gnat-like gasolene launches, gay with +flags, pushed off to flutter about both cruisers until they came to +anchor. From one of the quays signal guns were fired, and the brazen +and inordinate bangings of his Royal salute echoed and re-echoed in +uncanny fashion among the hills that hem the town, so that when the +warships joined in, the whole cup of the harbour was filled with the +hammerings of explosions overlapping explosions, until the air seemed +made of nothing else. +</P> + +<P> +On the big stacks of Newfoundland lumber at the harbour-side, on the +quays, on the freight sheds and on the roofs of buildings, Newfoundland +people, who, like the weather, were giving the lie to the prophets, +crowded to see the Prince arrive. He came from <I>Dragon</I> in the Royal +barge in the wake of the <I>Dauntless'</I> launch, which was having a +worried moment in "shooing" off the eager gasolene boats, crowding in, +in defiance of all regulations, to get a good view. +</P> + +<P> +There was no doubt about the warmth of the welcome. It was a +characteristic Newfoundland crowd. Teamsters in working overalls, +fishermen in great sea boots and oilskins, girls garbed in the +smartness of New York, whose comely faces and beautiful complexions +were of Ireland, though there was here and there a flash of French +blood in the grace of their youth, little boys willing to defy the law +and climb railings in order to get a "close up" photograph, youths in +bubble-toed boots—all proved that their dourness was not an emotion +for state occasions, and that they could show themselves as they really +were, as generous and as loyal as any people within the Empire. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince was received on the jetty by the Governor and the members of +the legislature. With them was a guard of honour of seamen, all of +them Newfoundland fishermen who had served in various British warships +throughout the war. There was a contingent from the Newfoundland +Regiment also, stocky men who had fought magnificently through the grim +battles in France, and on the Somme had done so excellently that the +name of their greatest battle, Gueudecourt, has become part of the +Colony's everyday history, and is to be found inscribed on the postage +stamps under the picture of the caribou which is the national emblem. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince's passage through the streets was a stirring one. There +were no soldiers guarding the route through Water Street and up the +high, steep hills to Government House, and the eager crowd pressed +about the carriage in such ardour that its pace had to be slowed to a +walk. At that pace it moved through the streets, a greater portion of +the active population keeping pace with it, turning themselves into a +guard of honour, walking as the horses walked, and, if they did break +into a trot, trotting with them. +</P> + +<P> +The route lay under many really beautiful arches, some castles with +towers and machicolations sheafed in the sweet-smelling spruce; others +constructed entirely from fish boxes and barrels, with men on them, +working and packing the cod; others were hung with the splendid fur, +feathers and antlers of Newfoundland hunting. +</P> + +<P> +Through that day and until midday of the next, lively crowds followed +every movement of the "dandy feller," swopping opinions as to his +charm, and his smile, his youthfulness and his shyness. They compared +him with his grandfather who had visited St. John's fifty-nine years +ago, and made a point of mentioning that he was to sleep in the very +bedroom his grandfather had used. +</P> + +<P> +There was the usual heavy program, an official lunch, the review of war +veterans, a visit to the streets when the lavish electric light had +been switched into the beautiful illuminations, when the two cruisers +were mirrored in the harbour waters in an outline of electric lights, +and when on the ring of hill-tops red beacons were flaring in his +honour. There was a dance, with his lucky partners sure of +photographic fame in the local papers of tomorrow, and then in the +morning, medal giving, a peep at the annual regatta, famous in local +history, on lovely Quidividi Lake among the hills, and then, all too +soon for Newfoundland, his departure to New Brunswick. +</P> + +<P> +There was no doubt at all as to the impression he made. The visit that +might have been formal was in actuality an affair of spontaneous +affection. There was a friendliness and warmth in the welcome that +quite defies description. His own unaffected pleasure in the greeting; +his eagerness to meet everybody, not the few, but the ordinary, +everyday people as much as the notabilities, his lack of affectation, +and his obvious enjoyment of all that was happening, placed the Prince +and the people, welcoming him, immediately on a footing of intimacy. +His tour had begun in the air of triumph which we were to find +everywhere in his passage across the Continent. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +ST. JOHN, NEW BRUNSWICK +</H4> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H4> + +<P> +When one talks to a citizen of St. John, New Brunswick, one has an +impression that his city is burnt down every half century or so in +order that he and his neighbours might build it up very much better. +</P> + +<P> +This is no doubt an inaccurate impression, but when I had listened to +various brisk people telling me about the fires—the devastating one of +1877, and the minor ones of a variety of dates—and the improvements +St. John has been able to accomplish after them; and when I had seen +the city itself, I must confess I had a sneaking feeling that +Providence had deliberately managed these things so that a lively, +vigorous and up-to-date folk should have every opportunity of +reconstructing their city according to the modernity of their minds and +status. +</P> + +<P> +The vigorousness of St. John is so definite that it got into our bones +though our visit was but one of hours. St. John, for us, represented +an extraordinary hustle. We arrived on the morning of Friday, August +15, after the one night when the sea had not been altogether our +friend; when the going had been "awfully kinky" (as the seasick one of +our party put it), and the spiral motif in the <I>Dauntless'</I> wardroom +had been disturbing at meals. +</P> + +<P> +We arrived, moreover, on a wet day, were whisked by launch to the +quayside and plunged at once into the company of the Governor-General, +Prime Minister, Canadian legislators, Guards of Honour, brigades of +"movie" men, crowds of singing children and Canada in the mass +determined to make the most of the moment. From this we were hurled +headlong in the Canadian manner, in cars through streets of more people +and more children to functions where the whole breezy business was +repeated again with infinite zest. +</P> + +<P> +It was the day of our first impact with the novelty and bigness of +Canada, and it was a trifle dizzying. It was a day on which we +encountered so much that was new, and yet it was a day done in the +"movie" manner, with all the sensations definite but digested in a +hurry. +</P> + +<P> +It was the day on which we first encountered the big Canadian crowd; +that hearty, democratic crowd, so scornful of routine and policemen and +methods of decorum, yet so generous in its feeling, so good-natured and +so entirely reliable in its sense of self-discipline. +</P> + +<P> +It was the day when we gathered our first impressions of Canadian city +life, saw (and perhaps we found them a little unexpected) Canada's fine +shops and the beautiful things in them, saw Canada's beautiful women +and the smart clothes they wore, saw the evidence of the modernity of +Canada's business methods, and the comeliness of the suburbs in which +Canada lived. +</P> + +<P> +It was the day when we first encountered a Canadian meal, glanced with +awe at those marble mosaic temples of the head, the barbers' shops, +looked into our first Shoe Shine Parlour, fell under the seduction of +our first Canadian ice, and finally surrendered ourselves to the +infinite and efficient comfort of a Canadian Railway. +</P> + +<P> +All this was accomplished <I>allegro di molto</I>. We had to assimilate it +all in a bunch of hurried hours between our first landing and the +collecting and stowing of our suitcases in the sleeping car of the +National Railway Special that had been placed at the service of the +newspaper men. It was a crowded day, but it was thrilling and it +remains unforgettable. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H4> + +<P> +St. John, New Brunswick, is many things. It is the historic spot where +that splendid figure in Canada's story, the great Champlain, and De +Monts, came in the dim days of the West's beginning, to rear a new city +in a new wild continent, and called it after the saint on whose day +they first made their landing. +</P> + +<P> +It is commerce if that is the way you look at things; an ice-free port, +tingling with every modern activity, where lumber and grain and fruit +and all the riches of Canada are swung to Europe and the West Indies, +and scores of ports about the world, and where, when winter grips the +immense St. Lawrence, passengers can slip, free of the ice, to the +ocean tracts. +</P> + +<P> +It is the gate of pleasure. The entry port where the sportsman and the +holiday maker from America or Europe can start for the fine fishing +streams, where salmon and trout are kings; for the spruce forests, +where moose and caribou, deer and even bear can be shot, and where wild +duck and the Canadian partridge—which is really grouse—are +commonplace; or to the many fine holiday towns of the maritime +provinces, where golf and good scenery go hand in hand. +</P> + +<P> +It is romance. Here was one of the wrestling-points where France +fought Britain for the supremacy of the Americas; where, even, France +fought France, as one adventurer strove to wrest the riches of the fur +trade from another. Somewhere on one of the ridgy shoulders of its +grey-rock peninsula the wife of De Monts, in his absence, held the fort +against Charnisay, only to have her garrison massacred before her eyes, +when on promise of honourable terms, she opened her gates. Somewhere +on another gruff shoulder of the rock was the fort that Charnisay built +from the ruins of the first, and where De Monts ultimately came into +his own again by marrying his conqueror's widow. +</P> + +<P> +At the wharves of St. John to-day lie the ships that are heirs to the +Boston clippers, links in a past of tragedy and trade, when New England +men did business or battle across the waters of Fundy Bay, first as +Englishmen with the French and then as independent Americans with the +English. +</P> + +<P> +It was these English, the United Loyalists, who came out of America in +1783, during the War of Independence, or who were forced to come out +later, who really founded St. John as it stands to-day. And it was the +Loyalists with their courage, tenacity, and virility who, with the +sturdy French settlers of the old regime, built up the fortune and the +spirit of St. John as it exists now. +</P> + +<P> +It is a city of quality. It has a vivid air of attractiveness and +prosperity. It is history and romance rounded off with the grain +elevator. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H4> + +<P> +St. John, on August 15, was perfectly aware of the office it had to +fulfil. It was on its quays that the Prince was first to set foot on +Canadian soil, and St. John had made up its mind that that occasion +should be handled in a befitting manner. +</P> + +<P> +True, it did not manage its weather quite so neatly as St. John's, +Newfoundland, but on the other hand it refused to allow the rain to +interfere with its plans or with its warmth of welcome. +</P> + +<P> +The entrance of the two light cruisers from the drenched, brown-grey +Bay of Fundy, past the rather militaristic looking Partridge Island, +was the signal for immediate attention. +</P> + +<P> +The inevitable motor launches came out by scores, and with them +high-backed tugs; launches and tugs were covered with flags and people +bearing flags, both flags and people being damp but enthusiastic. +</P> + +<P> +The long harbour itself gives a sense of pit-like depth. Not only are +the black quay walls extremely high, to accommodate a tide that has a +drop of twenty-five feet, but on the quays themselves are piled immense +grain elevators, with "Welcome" written in giant letters on their +towering sides, coal-loading sheds with their lattice derrick arms that +always seem to have been constructed by Mr. Wells's Martians, and great +freight buildings. +</P> + +<P> +Round this huge, black amphitheatre of welcome, on whose sea-floor was +the <I>Dragon</I> and ourselves, people collected thickly, and everywhere +there was the glint of flags through the rain. +</P> + +<P> +But even the crowds about the harbour did not give a hint of the vast +throng waiting on the landing-stage. Hidden away from the water by +sheds, this very cheery crush filled the wide, free space of the +harbour approach. Their numbers and eagerness had already proved the +mutability of the police force, and volunteers in khaki were enrolled +by the score in order to keep them back. +</P> + +<P> +Almost as imposing as the throng were the photographers; not a few +photographers, but a battalion of them, running about with that +feverish energy Press-photographers alone possess, and climbing on to +walls and roofs as though impelled by some divine, inner instinct +towards positions from which the Prince of Wales could be shown to the +world at unique and astounding angles. +</P> + +<P> +Movie men and "stills" men, the former the real workers of the world, +for they carry their heavy machines with all the energy of Lewis +gunners, nipped about, formed in groups ready to shoot notabilities, +mixed themselves up in the guard of honour until chased away by +sergeants, and in the end forming up in a solid phalanx that almost +obliterated Canada, to snap His Royal Highness as he came up the +covered way from the wharf. +</P> + +<P> +He had been received on the wharf by the Governor-General of Canada, +the Duke of Devonshire, a heavy figure, whose very top hat seemed to +have an air of brooding meditation in keeping with his personality; the +Premier of Canada, Sir Robert Borden, an individuality of almost active +reticence, a man who somehow seemed to get all the mass and weight of +Canada into a mere "How d'y' do?" And with these were many of the +leaders, political, commercial and social, of the Dominion, come +together to join in Canada's first greeting. +</P> + +<P> +It was raining, but there was no dampening that magnificent welcome. +The meeting with Dominion leaders down by the waterside had been +formal. The meeting between the Prince and the mass of people in the +big, open space was the real welcome. Here, as in every other town in +the Dominion, the formal side of the visit was entirely swamped by the +human. The people themselves made this welcome splendid and +overwhelming, elevating it to that plane of intimacy and affection that +made the tour different from anything that had been conceived before. +</P> + +<P> +After facing this superb welcome, which obviously moved him a great +deal, the Prince passed to another side of the square, to where St. +John had added a touch of youth, prettiness and novelty to the loyalty +of her greeting. +</P> + +<P> +In a big stand there were massed several thousand school children, all +of them in white, all of them carrying small flags, all of them +thoroughly wet, and all of them enthusiastic beyond discipline. +</P> + +<P> +They had carried the first outburst of cheering well beyond the +capacity of mere adult lungs and endurance, and as they cheered without +break, they waved their flags, so that the whole stand seemed a big +fire, over which a multitude of tiny red, white and blue flames +unceasingly played. This mass flag-wagging is a great feature of +Western welcomes, and a most effective one. It enables the hands to +join in an enthusiasm which the Canadian does not seem to be +sufficiently able to express by his cheering and whistling. Really +ardent Canadians put a rattle into their empty left hands, and express +their joy of welcome with the maximum of noise as well as activity. +</P> + +<P> +Only on the approach of His Royal Highness did these delightful +children staunch their cheering, and that merely because they wanted +their lungs to sing. +</P> + +<P> +They transferred their enthusiasm into their songs. Their sharp, high +singing, with a touch of the nasal in it, and a Canadian accenting of +"r's," introduced us to the splendid and inevitable hymns—beginning +with "O Canada" and ending with "God Bless the Prince of Wales"—that +we were to hear across the breadth of the Dominion and back again. +</P> + +<P> +On the stage below this great flower-box of infants was a number of +girls; each of them, it seemed, a princess of her race, having the +wonderful poise, the fine skin, and the bright comeliness that make +Canadian women so individual in their beauty. +</P> + +<P> +These girls wore bright, symbolical dresses, and each carried a shield +bearing the arms and the name of the province of the Dominion of Canada +she represented. It was a pageant of greeting in which, advancing in +pairs, all the provinces the Prince was to visit in the next few months +came forward to bid him welcome at the moment he set foot in the +Dominion. +</P> + +<P> +Curtsying to the Prince, the girls fell back and formed a most +attractive tableau. It was a delightful picture, delightfully carried +out, and there was no doubt about the Prince's pleasure. +</P> + +<P> +While His Royal Highness witnessed this spectacle and listened to the +singing of the kiddies, the crowd, vanquishing police and boy scouts +and khaki, flooded over the open space and gathered about him. It was +a scene we were to see repeated almost daily during the trip. +</P> + +<P> +Without police protection, and, what is more, without needing it, the +Prince stood in the centre of a homely crowd, rubbing shoulders with +it, becoming an almost indistinguishable part of it, save for the fact +that its various members found it an opportunity to shake hands with +him. +</P> + +<P> +It was a state of things a trifle strange to Britons. It would +probably have seemed little less than anarchy to a chief of British +police, yet one was immensely impressed by it. It had all the intimacy +of a gathering of friends. And the Prince was as natural a part of +that genial and informal crowd as any Canadian. +</P> + +<P> +The crowd shared his amusement at the strenuous work of the camera men, +who wormed their way through the masses of people with their terrible +earnestness, dogged his steps whenever he ventured to move a yard, and +who seemed to feel that the reason he stopped to make speeches was that +they should be able to get a steady, three-quarter face snap of him at +a distance of two feet. +</P> + +<P> +When the Prince slyly hinted to a photographer that, really, the most +important and newsy part of the function was the massed battalion of +camera men, and that actually they were the people who should be +photographed and not him, the crowd shared the joke with him. +</P> + +<P> +Prince and people were all part of one democracy, the real democracy +that never thinks about democracy, but simply acts humanly and +naturally in human and natural affairs. +</P> + +<P> +"He'll do," said one man. "Why—he's just a Canadian after all." +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +IV +</H4> + +<P> +The city had made itself attractive for the coming of the Prince. In +the fine and broad King Street up which he drove to fulfil the many +functions of the day, the handsome commercial buildings were bright +with flags and hung with the spruce branches that individualize +Canadian decorations. Turreted arches of spruce, and banners of +welcome strung right across the street, entered into the scheme. +</P> + +<P> +King Street is a brave avenue sweeping up hill from the very edge of +the harbour water. Here the Market Slip, the old landing-place of the +Loyalists, thrusts into the very heart of the city and brings the +shipping to the front doors of the houses. In the big triangular space +about it gather the carters with their "slovens," curious square carts, +hung so low that their floor boards are but a few inches from the +ground. +</P> + +<P> +In King Street one can see the life and novelty of the town. In it are +the hotels, in the vast windows of which people, involved in the ritual +of chewing gum, sit as though on a verandah, and contemplate the +passing world—it is a solemn moment, that first encounter through +plate glass, of a row of Buddhas, with gently-moving jaws. Although +most Canadian cities boast big hotels of modern type, the old type, +with the big windows, are everywhere, to lend a peculiar individuality +to the streets. +</P> + +<P> +In King Street are the smart shops, showing jewellery, furs, millinery +and the rest, of a design and quality equal to anything in London and +New York. The Canadians have a particular passion for silver of good +design, and the display in the shops is a thing that impresses. +</P> + +<P> +Here, too, are the Boot-Shine Parlours, the Candy Stores, the temples +of the Barbers, and those wondrous purveyors of universal trivia, the +Drug Stores. +</P> + +<P> +In America, boot (only it is called a shoe) shining is a special rite, +and it is performed outside the home in a "Parlour." These Parlours +are often elaborate affairs, attached to a tobacconist, or to the +vendor of American magazines, who is also a tobacconist; but quite +frequently they exist alone on their own profits. In these Parlours, +and in an armchair on a raised throne, one sits while an expert with +brushes, polish, rags and secret varnishes, performs miracles on one's +shoes. It is an art that justifies itself, but the fact that so many +Canadian roads off the main streets are mere strips of dusty unmetalled +nature explains the necessity of so many shops devoted to this +business; that, and the dearth and independence of servants. +</P> + +<P> +The Candy Stores are bright and elaborate places also. There are so +many of them, and their wares are so ingenious and varied, that one +almost fancies that eating candy is one of the national industries. +All candy stores have an ice cream soda section, where cream ices of an +amazing virtuosity and number, and called, for some reason I have not +discovered, "Sundaes," can be had. +</P> + +<P> +The Drug Stores have an ice cream section, always; small and pretty +ante-rooms, with a chintz air and chintz chairs, where these delightful +ices, compounded of cream and all kinds of fruits or syrups, and dubbed +with romantic names, such as "Angel's Sigh," and "Over the Top," are +absorbed by citizens with a regularity that seems to point to a +definite racial impulse. +</P> + +<P> +One expects to find an ice cream counter in a drug store, because one +comes to realize that there is little within the range of human +possibility that the drug store does not sell. It sells soap and +toothpaste and drugs, as one would expect; it sells magazines and +fountain-pens and ink, cameras and clocks. It sells sweets and +walking-sticks and postage stamps and stationery. It sells everything. +It even sells whiskey. It is, indeed, the only place in the Continent +of the Dry where spirits of any sort can be obtained, not freely, of +course, but through the full ceremonial of the law, and by means of a +doctor's certificate. +</P> + +<P> +And then the Barbers' Temples. When I talk of barbers' shops as +temples, I speak with the feeling of awe these austere and airy places +of whiteness and marble, glass and mosaic, silver and electricity +impressed me. There seems to be something measured and profound in the +way the Canadian goes to these conventicles, in the frequency of his +going, and in the solemnity of the act that he undergoes when there. +</P> + +<P> +There are so many of these shops, and they are always so crowded that +it seems to me the Canadian makes his attendance on the barber, not an +accident, but a solemn habit; an occasion with not a little ritual in +it. And the barber has the same air. +</P> + +<P> +When a Canadian puts the top of himself into the hands of the barber, +he gets, not a hair-cutting, but a process. He is placed in a chair of +leather and electro-plate, standing well out to the middle of a pure +white floor. As a chair it is the kindlier brother of the one the +dentist uses; it has all the tips, tilts and abrupt upheavals, but none +of the other's exactions. +</P> + +<P> +It is tipped and tilted and swung hither and thither by a white-vested +priest as he goes austerely step by step through a definite service of +the head. It is an intricate formulary that includes the close +cropping of the temples, shaving behind the ears, shaving the back of +the neck (unless you show you belong to a feebler stock, and protest), +swathing the head in hot towels, oil shampooing, massaging, "violet +raying" and an entire orchestration of other methods of making the hair +worthy. +</P> + +<P> +And the barber is not a mere human being with clippers. He is a +hierophant with a touch of dogmatic infallibility. He does not +suggest, "Would you like a scalping massage, sir? I recommend it..." +and so on; he tells you out of the calm cloud of his reticence: "I'm +going to give you a Marshwort Electrolysis, and after that Yellow Cross +Douch for that nasty nap in your hair." +</P> + +<P> +It takes a strong-willed fellow to say "No" to that attack of +assertion, especially as you feel that you are shattering the entire +tradition of Canada, where the whole elaborate process is just an +ordinary hair-cut. +</P> + +<P> +The barber does not stop at the head, either. At the slightest +weakness on your part, he beckons from one of his—well—side chapels, +a brisk and imperturbable manicurist. There are manicurists in all +barbers' shops. Like the barbers, they are artists in their cult, and +while he works on the head the manicurist accomplishes miracles of +perfection on the nails, with scented baths, hot swathings, unguents, +steel weapons and orange sticks. +</P> + +<P> +And while these things are occurring to you, you can have a Shoe Shine +pundit from another corner, and I daresay you can have a chiropodist at +the same time, so that for twenty minutes there is going on about your +body a feverish concentration of activity that makes even Henry Ford's +assembling department look spiritless. +</P> + +<P> +King Street sweeps broadly uphill to King Square, which is a large and +pleasant garden, merging imperceptibly into the old graveyard, the grey +old headstones of which add serenity to the charm of the park. +</P> + +<P> +The Square itself seems to be the Harley Street of St. John, for among +the big buildings, and the "apartment" blocks, which are really flats, +I came upon the plates of many doctors, who, in the unexpected American +manner, add their special qualifications under their name, so that I +read: +</P> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +"Dr. John X——,<BR> +Throat, Ear and Nose."<BR> +</H4> + +<BR> + +<P> +The streets of St. John lead out at right-angles from this central +group of square and street, for this is the West, where the parallel +road-making of efficient town-planning reigns. Some of these streets +are carved out of the grim, grey, slaty rock, that even now crops out +in the midst of the stone and brick and wood of human effort, to show +upon what stubborn stuff the first founders had to build. +</P> + +<P> +In the residential streets, and particularly in the suburbs, the homes +are planned charmingly. The houses are of brick or wood, most of them +built in the Colonial style, and all pleasantly gabled, and of a bright +and attractive colour, while every one has the deep and comely porch, +upon which are scattered rocking and easy chairs, and even settees. +</P> + +<P> +The houses are surrounded by the greenest lawns, and these lawns are +not marred by walls or fences, but run right down to the curb, with but +a strip of sidewalk for pedestrians. This elimination of railings is a +thing that might well be imitated in our country; it gives the +residential districts a pretty and park-like air that is altogether +delightful. +</P> + +<P> +We passed through miles of such homes in a journey round the deep bay +of the harbour to the place where the <I>Dauntless</I>, dwarfed by the high +lock walls, lay alongside the quay. There is a steam ferry connecting +the two peninsulas that landlock the harbour, but our automobile +driver, no doubt, had the civic spirit and wanted to show us both the +beauties of suburban St. John, the great cantilever bridge across the +St. John river and the famous Reversible Falls. +</P> + +<P> +The Reversible Falls are at the mouth of the St. John river, where it +pushes through the high limestone cliffs into the harbour. At low tide +there is the authentic fall, as the river cascades over the rock in a +drop of fifteen feet, but the extraordinarily tide of the Bay of Fundy, +rising ten feet above the river level, actually reverses things, and +forces back the flood along the channel with some turbulence. +</P> + +<P> +Our journey to the <I>Dauntless</I> was for the melancholy business of +collecting our luggage. It was here we left the cheery comfort of the +ward room for the definite adventure by railway across the Continent. +Our miraculously erected cabins, the one amidships, and the two that +sat snugly in the aeroplane hangar beneath the bridge, and kept company +with the song of the siren on foggy nights, were needed to accommodate +the Canadians who were to accompany the Prince by sea to Halifax, then +on to Prince Edward Island, and finally up the St. Lawrence to Quebec. +</P> + +<P> +It was a reluctant farewell to a ship we had found so companionable and +keen. But there was a ray of comfort when the baggage master at the +Canadian Railway "Dee-po" handed us a little bundle of luggage checks +for the mixed assortment of trunks and bags we had dumped into his room. +</P> + +<P> +It had been an endless pile of luggage, and we apologized for it, and +continued to say, "There's another piece, or two, or more, outside on +the sloven...." +</P> + +<P> +But the length of that luggage queue did not dismay the baggage master. +He counted the big pieces calmly, fixed a little tag on each piece, +tore off half of each tag and presented it to us. +</P> + +<P> +"Through to Halifax," he said dispassionately. +</P> + +<P> +"We'll be along this evening, when the special comes in, to look after +it——" +</P> + +<P> +"Look after it in the baggage-room at <I>Halifax</I>," he said, without +excitement. +</P> + +<P> +"It'll be all right?" we asked, in our English way. +</P> + +<P> +"It's checked through to Halifax," he insisted evenly, as though that +explained everything, which, of course, it did. +</P> + +<P> +"And our suit-cases over there? We want them on the train." +</P> + +<P> +"They'll be on the train," he told us, with his splendid calm. "Your +car porter will take them on the train." +</P> + +<P> +"We'll want them for tonight, so we don't want anything to go astray, +you know." +</P> + +<P> +"They'll be under the seats of your section, waiting for you tonight. +The porter will see to that." +</P> + +<P> +It was only then that we realized that we had been taken under control +by Canadian Railways, and that the business of Canadian Railways is to +make that control thorough, and to eliminate all worries, of which +baggage is the worst, for their passengers from the outset to the end +of the journey. +</P> + +<P> +Our baggage being checked through to Halifax, awaited our arrival +serenely at Halifax. If it had been checked through to Vancouver or +Japan, it would have awaited our arrival with equal certainty. Our +suit-cases were under our seats when we arrived at the car. +</P> + +<P> +Canadian railways do not let passengers down on little everyday details +like that. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +ON THE TRAIN BETWEEN ST. JOHN AND HALIFAX +</H4> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H4> + +<P> +Next morning in the train we were awakened to an unexpected Sunday. It +was not an ordinary calm Sunday, but a Sunday with a hustle on, a +Canadian Sunday. There was no doubt about the bells, though they were +ringing with remarkable earnestness in their efforts to get Canadians +into church. +</P> + +<P> +Lying in our sleeping sections, we were bewildered by the bells, and by +the fact that by human calendar the day should be Saturday. Then we +raised the little blinds that hung between our modesty and a world of +passing platforms, and found that we were in a junction (probably +Truro), with a very Saturday air, and that the church bells were on +engines. +</P> + +<P> +It takes some time for the Briton to become accustomed to the +strangeness of bells on engines, and the fact, that, instead of +whistling, the engines also give a very lifelike imitation of a liner's +siren. The bells are tolled when entering a station, or approaching a +level crossing, and so on, and the siren note is, I think, a real +improvement on the ear-splitting whistle that harrows us in England. +</P> + +<P> +Our first night on the Canadian National had been a prophecy of the +many comfortable nights we were to spend on Canadian railways. We had +been given an ordinary sleeping car of the long-distance service, but +as we had it to our masculine selves, the exercise of getting out of +our clothes and into bed, and out of our bed and into clothes, was an +ordinary human accomplishment, and not an athletic problem tinged with +embarrassment. +</P> + +<P> +The Canadian sleeper is a roomy and attractive Pullman, with wide and +comfortable back to back seats, each internal pair called a section. +At night the seats are pulled together, and the padding at their backs +pulled down, so that a most efficient bed is formed. A section of the +roof lets down, resolving itself into an upper bunk, while long green +curtains from roof to floor, and wood panels at foot and head complete +the privacy. +</P> + +<P> +In these sleepers Canadians make the week's journey from the Atlantic +to the Pacific. There is no separation of sexes, and a woman may find +that she is sharing a section with a strange male quite as a matter of +course, the only distinction being that the chivalrous Canadian always +gives up the bottom berth, if it is his, to the lady, and climbs to the +top himself. +</P> + +<P> +In these circumstances, to remove one's clothes, and particularly that +part that proclaims one's gender, is a problem. I have tried it. One +switches on the little electric reading light, climbs into the bunk, +buttons up the green curtains, and then in a space a trifle larger than +a coffin endeavours to remove, and place tidily, one's clothes (for +articles scattered on that narrow bunk during the struggle mean that +one ends by becoming simply a tangle of garments). +</P> + +<P> +At these moments one realizes that hands, arms, legs, and head have +been given one to complicate things. One jams them against everything. +And there are times, too, when the unpractised Briton is simply baffled. +</P> + +<P> +They tell in every Canadian train the tale of the Englishman who came +face to face with such a crisis. Having removed most of his garments, +he came to that point where the ingenuity of human nature seemed to +fail. He pondered it. The matter seemed insuperable. And he began to +wonder if.... He put his head through his curtains and shouted along +the crowded—and mixed—green corridor of the car: +</P> + +<P> +"I say, porter, <I>does</I> one take off one's trousers in this train?" +</P> + +<P> +Most of the railways, the Canadian Pacific certainly, are putting on +compartment cars; that is, a car made up of roomy private sections, +holding two berths. On most sleepers, too, there is a drawing-room +compartment that gives the same privacy. These are both comfortable +and convenient, for, apart from privacy, the passenger does not have to +take his place in the queue waiting to wash at one of the three basins +provided in the little section at the end of the car that is also the +smoking-room. +</P> + +<P> +It must not be thought that the sleepers are anything but comfortable; +they are so comfortable as to make travelling in them ideal. The +passenger, also, has the run of the train, and can go to the +observation car, where he can spend his time in an easy chair, looking +through the broad windows at the scenery, or reading one of the many +magazines or papers the train provides; or he can write his letters on +train paper at a desk; can go out to the broad railed platform at the +rear of the car, and sit and smoke, and see Canada unrolling behind him. +</P> + +<P> +And at the appropriate times for breakfast, dinner and supper—that is +the Canadian routine, and there is no tea—the passenger goes to the +diner and has a meal from a menu that would make the manager of many a +London hotel feel anxious for his reputation. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H4> + +<P> +We had some experience of the lavishness and variety of Canadian meals +in St. John, when we had ordered what would have been an ordinary +dinner in London, and had had to cry "<I>Kamerad!</I>" after the fish. +</P> + +<P> +The first Canadian breakfast we had on the Canadian National was of the +same order. It began, inevitably, with ice-water. Ice-water is the +thing that waiters fill up intervals with. Instead of pausing between +courses for the usual waiter's meditation, they make instinctively for +the silver ice-water jug, and fill every defenceless glass. Ice-water +is universal. It is taken before, during and after every meal, and +there are ice-water tanks (and paper cups) on every railway carriage +and every hotel. At first one loathes it, and it seems to create an +unnatural thirst, but the habit for it is soon attained. +</P> + +<P> +The menu for breakfast is always varied and long—and I speak not +merely of the special trains we travelled in, for it was the same on +ordinary passenger trains. One does not face a <I>table d'hôte</I> meal +outside of which there is no alternative but starvation, but one is +given the choice of a range of dishes for any of the three meals that +equals the choice offered by the best hotels in London. +</P> + +<P> +Breakfast begins with fruit; breakfast is not breakfast in the American +continent unless it begins with fruit. And at that precise time +breakfast fruit was blueberries. Other fruit was on the menu: +raspberries, melon, grape-fruit, canteloupe, orange-slices, orange +juice, and so on; but to avoid blueberries was to be suspected of being +eccentric, and even an alien enemy. +</P> + +<P> +Blueberries were in season. Blueberries and cream were being eaten at +breakfast with something more than mere satisfaction by the entire +Canadian nation. Blueberries were being consumed with a sort of +patriotic fervour, for blueberries have a significance to the Canadian. +It is a fruit peculiarly his own; he treats it as a sort of emblem, he +waxes enthusiastic over it, and the stranger feels that if he does not +eat it (with cream, or cooked as "Deep Blueberry Pie"), he has not +justified his journey to the Dominion. Hint that it is merely the +English bilberry or blaeberry, or whortleberry and—but no one dares +hint that. The blueberry is in season. One eats it with cream, and it +is worth eating. +</P> + +<P> +You may follow with what the Canadian calls "oats," but which you call +porridge, or, being wiser since the dinner at St. John, you go straight +on to halibut steak, or Gaspé salmon, or trout, or Jack Frost sausages, +or just bacon and eggs. There is a range that would have pleased you +in an hotel, but which fills you with wonder on a train. +</P> + +<P> +And not merely the range, but the prodigality of the portions, +surprises. Your halibut or salmon or trout is not a strip that seems +like a sample, it is a solid slice of exquisitely cooked fish that +looks dangerously near a full pound, and all the portions are on the +same scale, so that you soon come to recognize that, unless you ration +yourself severely, you cannot possibly hope to survive against this +Dominion of Food. +</P> + +<P> +When we sat down to that breakfast in the Canadian National diner I +think we realized more emphatically than we had through the whole +course of our reading how prodigal and rich a land Canada was. As we +sat at our meal we could watch from the windows the unfolding of the +streams and the innumerable lovely lakes, that expand suddenly out of +the spruce forests that clad the rocky hills and the sharp valleys of +Nova Scotia. +</P> + +<P> +We could see the homestead clearings, the rich land already under +service and the cattle thereon. It was from those numberless pebbly +rivers and lakes that this abundance in fish came; in the forests was +game, caribou and moose and winged game. From the cleared land came +the wheat and the other growing things that crowd the Canadian table, +and the herds represented the meat, and the unstinted supply of cream +and milk and butter. Even the half-cleared land, where tree stumps and +bushes still held sway, there was the blueberry, growing with the +joyous luxuriance of a useful weed. +</P> + +<P> +To glance out of the window was to realize more than this, it was to +realize that in spite of all this luxuriance the land was yet barely +scratched. The homesteads are even now but isolated outposts in the +undisciplined wilderness, and when we realized that this was but a +section, and a small section at that, of a Dominion stretching +thousands of miles between us and the Pacific, and how many thousand +miles on the line North to South we could not compute, we began to get +a glimmer of the immensity and potentiality of the land we had just +entered. +</P> + +<P> +There is nothing like a concrete demonstration to convince the mind, +and I recognize it was that heroic breakfast undertaken while I +contemplated the heroic land from whence it had come that brought home +to me with a sense almost of shock an appreciation of Canada's +greatness. +</P> + +<P> +By the time I had arrived at Halifax, and had a Canadian National +Railway lunch (for we remained on the train for the whole of our stay +in the city) I knew I was to face immensities. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA +</H4> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H4> + +<P> +The first citizen of Halifax to recognize the Prince of Wales was a +little boy: and it was worth a cool twenty cents to him. +</P> + +<P> +The official entry of His Royal Highness into Halifax was fixed for +Monday, August 18th. The <I>Dragon</I> and <I>Dauntless</I>, however, arrived on +Sunday, and the Prince saw in the free day an opportunity for getting +in a few hours' walking. +</P> + +<P> +He landed quietly, and with his camera spent some time walking through +and snapping the interesting spots in the city. He climbed the hill to +where the massive and slightly melodramatic citadel that his own +ancestor, the Duke of Kent, had built on the hill dominates the city, +and continued from there his walk through the tree-fringed streets. +</P> + +<P> +At the very toe of the long peninsula upon which Halifax is built he +walked through Point Pleasant, a park of great, and untrammelled, +natural beauty, thicketed with trees through which he could catch many +vivid and beautiful glimpses of the intensely blue harbour water +beneath the slope. +</P> + +<P> +It was in this park that the young punter pulled off his coup. +</P> + +<P> +He was one of a number of kiddies occupied in the national sport of +Halifax—bathing. He and his friends spotted the Prince and his party +before that party saw them. Being a person of acumen the wise kid +immediately "placed" His Royal Highness, and saw the opportunity for +financial operations. +</P> + +<P> +"Betcher ten cents that's the Prince of Wales," he said, accommodating +the whole group, whereupon the inevitable sceptic retorted: +</P> + +<P> +"Naw, that ain't no Prince. Anyhow he doesn't come till tomorrow, see." +</P> + +<P> +"Is the Prince, I tell you," insisted the plunger. "And see here, +betcher another ten cents I goes and asks him." +</P> + +<P> +The second as well as the first bet was taken. And both were won. +</P> + +<P> +This is not the only story connected with the Sunday stroll of the +Prince. Another, and perhaps a romantic version of the same one, was +that it was the Prince who made and lost the bet. He was said to have +come upon not boys but girls bathing. Seeing one of them poised +skirted and stockinged, for all the world as though she were the +authentic bathing girl on the cover of an American magazine, ready to +dive, he bet her a cool twenty that she dare not take her plunge from +the highest board. +</P> + +<P> +This story may be true or it may be, well, Canadian. I mean by that it +may be one of the jolly stories that Canadians from the very beginning +began to weave about the personality of His Royal Highness. It is, +indeed, an indication of his popularity that he became the centre of a +host of yarns, true or apocryphal, that followed him and accumulated +until they became almost a saga by the time the tour was finished. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H4> + +<P> +In this short stroll the Prince saw much of a town that is certainly +worth seeing. +</P> + +<P> +Halifax on the first impact has a drab air that comes as a shock to +those who sail through the sharp, green hills of the Narrows and see +the hilly peninsula on which the town is built hanging graciously over +the sparkling blue waters of one of the finest and greatest harbours in +the world. +</P> + +<P> +From the water the multi-coloured massing of the houses is broken up +and softened by the vividness of the parks and the green billowing of +the trees that line most of the streets. Landing, the newcomer is at +once steeped in the depressing air of a seaport town that has not +troubled to keep its houses in the brightest condition. As many of +those houses are of wood, the youthful sparkle of which vanishes in the +maturity of ill-kept paintwork, the first impression of Halifax is +actually more melancholy than it deserves to be. +</P> + +<P> +The long drive through Water Street from the docks, moreover, merely +lands one into a business centre where the effect of many good +buildings is spoilt by the narrowness of the streets. Such a condition +of things is no doubt unavoidable in a town that is both commercial and +old, but those who only see this side of Halifax had better appreciate +the fact that the city is Canadian and new also, and that there are +residential districts that are as comely and as up-to-date as anywhere +in the Western Continent. +</P> + +<P> +Halifax certainly blends history and business in a way to make it the +most English of towns. It is like nothing so much as a seaport in the +North of England plus a Canadian accent. +</P> + +<P> +There is the same packed mass movement of a lively polyglot people +through the streets. There is the same keen appetite for living that +sends people out of doors to walk in contact with their fellows under +the light of the many-globed electric standards that line the sidewalk. +</P> + +<P> +There is the same air of bright prosperity in the glowing and vivacious +light of the fine and tasteful shops. They are good shops, and their +windows are displayed with an artistry that one finds is characteristic +throughout Canada. They offer the latest and smartest ideas in blouses +and gowns, jewellery and boots and cameras—I should like to find out +what percentage of the population of the American Continent does not +use a camera—and men's shirtings, shirtings that one views with awe, +shirtings of silk with emotional stripes and futuristic designs, and +collars to match the shirts, the sort of shirts that Solomon in all his +glory seems to have designed for festival days. +</P> + +<P> +At night, certainly, the streets of Halifax are bright and vivid, and +the people in them good-humoured, laughing and sturdy, with that +contempt of affectation that is characteristic of the English north. +</P> + +<P> +The bustle and vividness as well as the greyness of Halifax lets one +into the open secret that it is a great industrial port of Canada, and +an all-the-year-round port at that, yet it is the greyness and +narrowness of the streets that tells you that Halifax is also history. +In the old buildings, and their straggled frontage, is written the fact +that the city grew up before modernity set its mark on Canada in the +spacious and broad planning of townships. +</P> + +<P> +It was, for years, the garrison of Britain in the Americas. Since the +day when Cornwallis landed in 1749 with his group of settlers to secure +the key harbour on the Eastern seaboard of America until the Canadians +themselves took over its garrisoning, it was the military and naval +base of our forces. And in that capacity it has formed part of the +stage setting for every phase of the Western historical drama. +</P> + +<P> +It was the rendezvous of Wolfe before Quebec; it played a part in the +American War of Independence; it was a refuge for the United Empire +Loyalists; British ships used it as a base in the war of 1812; from its +anchorage the bold and crafty blockade runners slipped south in the +American Civil War, and its citizens grew fat through those adventurous +voyages. It has been the host of generations of great seamen from +Cook, who navigated Wolfe's fleet up the St. Lawrence, to Nelson. It +housed the survivors of the <I>Titanic</I>, and was the refuge of the +<I>Mauretania</I> when the beginning of the Great War found her on the high +seas. It has had German submarines lying off the Narrows, so close +that it saw torpedoed crews return to its quays only an hour or so +after their ships had sailed. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H4> + +<P> +The Prince of Wales was himself a link in Halifax's history. Not +merely had his great-great grandfather, the Duke of Kent, commanded at +the Citadel, but when he landed he stepped over the inscribed stone +commemorating the landing on that spot of his grandfather on July 30th, +1860, and his father in 1901. +</P> + +<P> +His Royal Highness made his official landing in the Naval Dockyard on +the morning of Monday, August 18th. As he landed he was saluted by the +guns of three nations, for two French war sloops and the fine Italian +battleship <I>Cavour</I>, which had come to Halifax to be present during his +visit, joined in when the guns on shore and on the British warship +saluted. +</P> + +<P> +At the landing stage the reception was a quiet one, only notabilities +and guards of honour occupying the Navy Yard, but this quietness was +only the prelude to a day of sheer hustle. +</P> + +<P> +The crowd thickened steadily until he arrived in the heart of the city, +when it resolved itself into a jam of people that the narrow streets +failed to accommodate. This crowd, as in most towns of Canada, +believed in a "close up" view. Even when there is plenty of space the +onlookers move up to the centre of the street, allowing a passageway of +very little more than the breadth of a motor-car. Policemen of broad +and indulgent mind are present to keep the crowd in order, and when +policemen give out, war veterans in khaki or "civvies" and boy scouts +string the line, but all—policemen, veterans and scouts—so mixing +with the crowd that they become an indistinguishable part of it, so +that it is all crowd, cheery and friendly and most intimate in its +greeting. That was the air of the Halifax crowd. +</P> + +<P> +It always seemed to me that after the roaring greeting of the streets +the formal civic addresses of welcome were acts of supererogation. Yet +there is no doubt as to the dignity and colour of these functions. +</P> + +<P> +From the packed street the Prince passed into the great chamber of the +Provincial Parliament Building, where there seemed an air of soft, red +twilight compounded from the colour of the walls and the old pictures, +as well as from the robes and uniforms of the dignitaries and the gowns +of the many ladies. +</P> + +<P> +As ceremonies these welcomes were always short, though there was always +a number of presentations made, and the Prince was soon in the open +again. In the open there were war veterans to inspect, for in whatever +town he entered, large or small or remote, there was always a good +showing of Canadians who had served and won honours in Europe. +</P> + +<P> +Everywhere, in great cities or in a hamlet that was no more than a +scattering of homesteads round a prairie's siding, His Royal Highness +showed a particular keenness to meet these soldiers. They were his own +comrades in arms, as he always called them, and when he said that he +meant it, for he never willingly missed an opportunity of getting among +them and resuming the comradeship he had learned to value at the Front. +</P> + +<P> +In most towns, as in Halifax, his round of visits always included the +hospitals. His car took him through the bright sunshine of the Halifax +streets to these big and very efficient buildings, where he went +through the wards, chatting here and there to a cot or a convalescent +patient, and not forgetting the natty Canadian nurses or the doctors, +or even, as in one of the hospitals on this day, a patient lying in a +tent in the grounds outside the radius of the visit. +</P> + +<P> +In Halifax, also, there was another grim fact of the war which called +for special attention; that was the area devastated by the terrible +explosion of a ship in the docks in December, 1917. +</P> + +<P> +The party left the main streets to climb over the shoulder of the +peninsula to where the ruined area stood. It is to the north of the +town, on the side of the hill that curves largely to the very water's +edge. Down off the docks, and an immense distance away it seems from +the slope of ruin, a steamer loaded with high explosive collided with +another, caught fire and blew up, and on the entire bosom of that slope +can be seen what that gigantic detonation accomplished. +</P> + +<P> +The force of the explosion swept up the hill and the wooden houses went +down like things of card. In the trail of the explosion followed fire. +As the plank houses collapsed the fires within them ignited their frail +fabric and the entire hillside became a mass of flames. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince looked upon a hill set with scars in rows, the rock +foundations of houses that had been. Houses had, in the main, +disappeared, though here and there there was a crazy structure hanging +together by nails only. Across the arm of the harbour, on the pretty, +wooded Dartmouth side, he could see among the trees the sprawled +ugliness of the ruin the explosion had spread even there. +</P> + +<P> +On this bleak slope, where the grass was growing raggedly over the +ruins, the old inhabitants were showing little inclination to return. +Only a few neat houses were in course of erection where, before, there +had been thousands. It was as though the hillside had become evil, and +men feared it. +</P> + +<P> +Over the hill, and by roads which are best described as corrugated +(outside the main town roads of Canada, faith, hope and strong springs +are the best companions on a motor ride), he went to where a new +district is being built to house the victims of the disaster. +</P> + +<P> +Modern Canada is having its way in this new area, and broad streets, +grass lawns and pretty houses of wood, brick or concrete with +characteristic porches give these new homes the atmosphere of the +garden city. +</P> + +<P> +Perched as it is high on the hill, with the sparkling water of the +harbour close by, one can easily argue that good has come out of the +evil. But as one mutters the platitude the Canadian who drives the car +points to the long, tramless hill that connects the place with the +heart of the city, and tells you curtly: +</P> + +<P> +"That's called Hungry Hill." +</P> + +<P> +"Why Hungry Hill?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's so long that a man dies of hunger before he can get home from his +office." +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +IV +</H4> + +<P> +The social side of the visit followed. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince went from the devastated area, and from his visit to some of +the people who were already housed in their new homes, through the +attractive residential streets of Halifax to the Waegwoltic Club. +</P> + +<P> +This club is altogether charming, and one of the most perfect places of +recreation I have seen. The club-house is a low, white rambling +building set among trees and the most perfect of lawns. It has really +beautiful suites of rooms, including a dancing hall and a dining-room. +From its broad verandah a steep grass slope drops down to the sea water +of one of the harbour arms. Many trees shade the slope and the idling +paths on it, and through the trees shines the water, which has an +astonishing blueness. +</P> + +<P> +At the water's edge is a bathing place, with board rafts and a high +skeleton diving platform. Here are boys and girls, looking as though +they were posing for Harrison Fisher, diving, or lolling in the vivid +sun on the plank rafts. +</P> + +<P> +With its bright sea, on which are canoes and scarlet sailed yachts, the +vivid green of its grass slopes under the superb trees, the Waegwoltic +Club is idyllic. It is the dream of the perfect holiday place come +true. +</P> + +<P> +Quite close to it is another club of individuality. It is a club +without club-house that has existed in that state for over sixty years. +</P> + +<P> +This is the Studley Quoit Club, which the Prince visited after he had +lunched at the Waegwoltic. Its premises are made up of a quoit field, +a fence and some trees, and the good sportsmen, its members, as they +showed His Royal Highness round, pointed solemnly to a fir to which a +telephone was clamped, and said: +</P> + +<P> +"That is our secretary's office." +</P> + +<P> +A table under a spruce was the dining-room, a book of cuttings +concerning the club on a desk was the library, while a bench against a +fence was the smoking lounge. It is a club of humour and pride, that +has held together with a genial and breezy continuity for generations. +And it has two privileges, of which it is justly proud: one is the +right to fly the British Navy ensign, gained through one of its first +members, an admiral; the other is that its rum punch yet survives in a +dry land. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince's visit to such a gathering of sportsmen was, naturally, an +affair of delightful informality. There was a certain swopping of +reminiscences of the King, who had also visited the club, and a certain +dry attitude of awe in the President, who, in speaking of the honours +the Prince had accepted just before leaving England, said that though +the members of the Studley Club felt competent to entertain His Royal +Highness as a Colonel of the Guards, as the Grand Master of Freemasons, +or even, at a pinch, as a King's Counsel, they felt while in their +earthly flesh some trepidation in offering hospitality to a Brother of +the Trinity—a celestial office which, the President understood, the +Prince had accepted prior to his journey. +</P> + +<P> +It was a happy little gathering, a relief, perhaps, from set functions, +and the Prince entered fully into the spirit of the occasion. He drank +the famous punch, and signed the Club roll, showing great amusement +when some one asked him if he were signing the pledge. +</P> + +<P> +On leaving this quaint club he came in for a cheery mobbing; men and +women crowded round him, flappers stormed his car in the hope of +shaking hands, while babies held up by elders won the handclasp without +a struggle. +</P> + +<P> +A crowded day was closed by a yet more crowded reception. It was an +open reception of the kind which I believe I am right in saying the +Prince himself was responsible for initiating on this trip. It was a +reception not of privileged people bearing invitations, but of the +whole city. +</P> + +<P> +The whole city came. +</P> + +<P> +Citizens of all ages and all occupations rolled up at Government House +to meet His Royal Highness. They filled the broad lawn in front of the +rather meek stone building, and overflowed into the street. They +waited wedged tightly together in hot and sunny weather until they +could take their turn in the endless file that was pushing into the +house where the Prince was waiting to shake hands with them. +</P> + +<P> +It was a gathering of every conceivable type of citizen. Silks and New +York frocks had no advantage over gingham and "ready to wear." Judge's +wife and general's took their turn with the girl clerk from the drug +store and their char lady's daughter. Workers still in their overalls, +boys in their shirtsleeves, soldiers and dockside workers and teamsters +all joined in the crowd that passed for hours before the Prince. +</P> + +<P> +At St. John he had shaken hands with some 2,000 people in such a +reception as this, at Halifax the figure could not have been less, and +it was probably more. He shook hands with all who came, and had a word +with most, even with those admirable but embarrassing old ladies (one +of whom at least appeared at each of these functions) who declared +that, having lived long enough to see the children of two British +rulers, they were anxious that he should lose no time in giving them +the chance of seeing the children of a third. +</P> + +<P> +It was an astonishing spectacle of affable democracy, and in effect it +was perhaps the happiest idea in the tour. The popularity of these +"open to all the town" meetings was astonishing. "The Everyday People" +whom the Prince had expressed so eager a desire to see and meet came to +these receptions in such overwhelming numbers that in large cities such +as Toronto, Ottawa and the like it was manifestly impossible for him to +meet even a fraction of the numbers. +</P> + +<P> +Yet this fact did not mar the receptions. The people of Canada +understood that he was making a real attempt at meeting as many of them +as was humanly possible, and even those who did not get close enough to +shake his hand were able to recognize that his desire was genuine as +his happiness in meeting them was unaffected and friendly. +</P> + +<P> +The public receptions were the result of an unstudied democratic +impulse, and the Canadian people were of all people those able to +appreciate that impulse most. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +CHARLOTTETOWN, PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND, AND HABITANT, CANADA +</H4> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H4> + +<P> +The Prince of Wales and his cruiser escort left Halifax on the night of +Monday, August 18th, for Prince Edward Island, in the Gulf of St. +Lawrence, arriving at the capital of that province the next morning. +</P> + +<P> +Owing to the difficulty of getting across country, the Press +correspondents were unable to be present at this visit, and went direct +by train to Quebec to await the Prince's arrival. +</P> + +<P> +We were sorry not to visit this tiny, self-contained province of the +Dominion, for we had heard much concerning its charm and individuality +in character. It is a fertile little island, rich in agriculture, +sport and fishing. It is an island of bright red beaches and green +downs set in a clear sea, an Eden for bathers and holiday-makers. +</P> + +<P> +It is also one of the last rallying-points of the silver fox, which is +bred by the islanders for the fur market. This is a pocket industry +unique in Canada. The animals are tended with the care given to prize +fowls, each having its own kennel and wire run. Such domesticity +renders them neither hardy nor prolific, and the breeding is an +exacting pursuit. +</P> + +<P> +At the capital, Charlottetown, His Royal Highness had a real Canadian +welcome, tinged not a little with excitement. While he was on the +racecourse one of the stands took fire, and there was the beginning of +a panic, men and women starting to clamber wildly out of it and +dropping from its sides. The Prince, however, kept his place and +continued to watch the races. His presence on the stand quieted the +nervous and checked what might have been an ugly rush, while the fire +was very quickly got under. +</P> + +<P> +Off Charlottetown the Prince transferred again to the battle-cruiser +<I>Renown</I>, and finished the last section of his sea voyage up the great +St. Lawrence on her. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H4> + +<P> +Our disappointment at not seeing Prince Edward Island was mitigated by +the glimpses we had from our train of the country of New Brunswick and +the great area of the habitants that surrounds Quebec. +</P> + +<P> +On the morning of August 19th we woke to the broken country of New +Brunswick. The forests of spruce, pine, maple and poplar made walls on +the very fringe of the single-line railway track for miles, giving way +abruptly to broad and placid lakes, or to sharp narrow valleys, in +which shallow streams pressed forward over beds of white stone and +rock. At this time the streams were narrowed down to a slim channel, +but the broad area of white shingle—frequently scored by many +subsidiary thin channels of water—gave an idea of what these streams +were like in flood. +</P> + +<P> +There was a great deal of unfriendly black rock in the land pushing +itself boldly up in hills, or cropping out from the thin covering soil. +Here and there were the clearings of homesteaders, who lived sometimes +in pretty plank houses, sometimes in the low shacks of rough logs that +seemed to be put in the clearings—some of them not yet free of the +high tree stumps—in order to give the land its authentic local colour. +</P> + +<P> +On the streams that flow between the walls of trees there were always +logs. Logs sometimes jamming the whole fairway with an indescribable +jumble, logs collected into river bays with a neatness that made the +surface of the water appear one great raft, and by these "log booms" +there was, usually, the piles of squared timber, and the collection of +rough wooden houses that formed the mill. +</P> + +<P> +The mills have the air of being pit-head workings dealing with a +cleaner material than coal. About them are lengthy conveyors, built up +on high trestle timbers, that carry the logs from the water to the mill +and from the mill to the dumps, that one instantly compares to the +conveyors and winding gear of a coal mine. Beneath the conveyors are +great ragged mounds of short logs cut into sections for the paper pulp +trade, and jumbled heaps of shorter sections that are to serve as the +winter firing for whole districts; these have the contours of coal +dumps, while fed from chutes are hillocks of golden sawdust as big and +as conspicuous as the ash and slag mounds of the mining areas. +</P> + +<P> +In the mill yards are stacks and stacks of house planks that the great +saws have sliced up with an uncanny ease and speed, stacks of square +shingles for roofs and miles of squared beams. +</P> + +<P> +We passed not a few but a multitude of these "booms" and mills, and our +minds began to grasp the vastness of this natural and national +industry. And yet it is not in the main a whole-time industry. For a +large section of its workers it is a side line, an occupation for days +that would otherwise be idle. It is the winter work of farmers, who, +forced to cease their own labours owing to the deep snow and the +frosts, turn to lumbering to keep them busy until the thaw sets in. +</P> + +<P> +That fact helps the mind to realize the potentialities of Canada. Here +is a business as big as coal mining that is largely the fruit of work +in days when there is little else to do. +</P> + +<P> +We saw this industry at a time when the streams were congested and the +mills inactive. It was the summer season, but, more than that, the +lack of transport, owing to the sinking, or the surrender by Canada for +war purposes, of so much ship space, was having its effect on the +lumber trade. The market, even as far as Britain, was in urgent need +of timber, and the timber was ready for the market; but the exigencies, +or, as some Canadians were inclined to argue, the muddle of shipping +conditions, were holding up this, as well as many other of the Dominion +industries. +</P> + +<P> +In this sporting country there are many likely looking streams for +fishermen, as there are likely looking forests for game. At New Castle +we touched the Miramichi, which has the reputation of being the finest +salmon-fishing river in New Brunswick; the Nepisiquit, the mouth of +which we skirted at Bathurst, is also a great centre for fishermen, +and, indeed, the whole of this country about the shores of the great +Baie de Chaleur—that immense thrust made by the Gulf of St. Lawrence +between the provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec—is a paradise for +holiday-makers and sportsmen, who, besides their fishing, get excellent +shooting at brant, geese, duck, and all kinds of game. +</P> + +<P> +The Canadian of the cities has his country cottage in this splendidly +beautiful area, which he comes to for his recreation, and at other +times leaves in charge of a local farmer, who fills his wood shed with +fire logs from the forest in the summer, and his ice house with ice +from the rivers in winter. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H4> + +<P> +In this district, and long before we reached the Quebec border, we came +to the country of the habitant farmer. As we stopped at sections to +water or change engines, we saw that this was a land where man must be +master of two tongues if he is to make himself understood. It is a +land where we read on a shop window the legend: "J. Art Levesque. +Barbier. Agent du Lowdnes Co. Habits sur commande." Here the +habitant does business at La Banque Nationale, and takes his pleasure +at the Exposition Provinciale, where his skill can win him Prix +Populaires. +</P> + +<P> +On the stations we talked with men in British khaki trousers who told +us in a language in which Canadian French and camp English was +strangely mingled of the service they had seen on the British front. +</P> + +<P> +It is the district where the clever and painstaking French +agriculturist gets every grain out of the soil, a district where we +could see the spire of a parish church every six miles, the land of a +people, sturdy, devout, tenacious and law-abiding, the "true 'Canayen' +themselves," +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"And in their veins the same red stream;<BR> +The conquering blood of Normandie<BR> +Flowed strong, and gave America<BR> +Coureurs de bois and voyageurs<BR> +Whose trail extends from sea to sea!"<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +as William Henry Drummond, a true poet who drew from them inspiration +for his delightful dialect verse, describes them. +</P> + +<P> +The railway passes for hundreds of miles between habitant farms. The +land is beautifully cared for, every fragment of rock, from a boulder +to a pebble, having been collected from the soil through generations, +and piled in long, thin caches in the centres of the fields. The +effect of passing for hundreds of miles between these precisely aligned +cairns is strange; one cannot get away from the feeling that the rocky +mounds are there for some barbaric tribal reason, and that presently +one will see a war dance or a sacrifice taking place about one of them. +</P> + +<P> +The farms themselves have a strange appearance. They have an +abnormally narrow frontage. They are railed in strips of not much +greater breadth than a London back garden, though they extend away from +the railway to a depth of a mile and more. At first this grouping of +the land appears accidental, but the endlessness of the strange design +soon convinces that there is a purpose underlying it. +</P> + +<P> +Two explanations are offered. One is that the land has been parcelled +out in this way, and not on a broad square acreage, because in the old +pioneer days it afforded the best means of grouping the homesteads +together for defence against the Red Man. The other is that it is the +result of the French-Canadian law which enforces the division of an +estate among children in exact proportion, and thus the original big +farms have been split up into equal strips among the descendants of the +original owner. Either of these explanations, or the combination of +them, can be accepted. +</P> + +<P> +At Campbellton, a pretty, toy-like town, close up to La Baie de +Chaleur, there is gathered a remnant of the Micmac Indians, whom the +first settlers feared. They have a settlement of their own on a peak +of the Baie, and one of their chiefs had travelled to Halifax to be +among those who welcomed the son of the Great White Chief. +</P> + +<P> +Campbellton let us into the lovely valley of the Matapedia, an +enchanted spot where the river lolls on a broad bed through a grand +country of grim hills and forests. Now and then, indeed, its channel +is pinched into gorges where its water shines pallidly and angrily amid +the crowded shadows of rock and tree; usually it is the nursemaid of +rich, flat valleys and the friend of the little frame-house hamlets +that are linked across its waters by a spidery bridge of wooden +trestles. At times beneath the hills it is swift and combed by a +thousand stony fingers, and at other times it is an idler in Arcadie, a +dilettante stream that wanders in half a dozen feckless channels over a +desert of white stones, with here and there the green humpback of an +island inviting the camper. +</P> + +<P> +Beyond Matapedia we got the thrill of the run, an abrupt glimpse of the +St. Lawrence, steel-blue and apparently infinite, its thirty miles of +breadth yielding not a glimpse of the farther side. A short distance +on, beyond Mont Joli, a place that might have come out of a sample box +of French villages, the railway keeps the immense river company for the +rest of the journey. +</P> + +<P> +The valley broadened out into an immense flat plain with but few traces +of the wilder hills of New Brunswick. About the line is a belt of +prosperity forty miles deep, all of it worked by the habitant owners of +the narrow farms, all of it so rich that in the whole area from the +border to the city of Quebec there is not a poor farmer. +</P> + +<P> +Before reaching Riviere du Loup we saw the high peaks of the Laurentine +Mountains on the far side of the St. Lawrence, and on our side of the +stream passed a grim little islet called L'Islet au Massacre, where a +party of Micmac Indians, fleeing from the Iroquois in the old days, +were caught as they hid in a deep cave, and killed by a great fire that +their enemies built at the mouth. +</P> + +<P> +We saw a few seals on the rocks of the river, but not a hint of the +numbers that gave Riviere du Loup its name. It is a cameo of a town +with falls sliding down-hill over a chute of jumbled rocks into a +logging pool beneath. +</P> + +<P> +Riviere du Loup is in the last lap of the journey to Quebec. There are +a score or so of little hamlets, the names of which—St. Alexandre, St. +Andre, St. Pascal, St. Pacome, St. Valier and so on—sound like a +reading from the Litany of the Saints. And, passing the last of them, +we saw across the narrowed St. Lawrence a trail of lace against the +darkness of the Laurentine hills, a mass of filigree that moved and +writhed, so that we understood when some one said: +</P> + +<P> +"The Montmorency Falls." +</P> + +<P> +A moment later we saw across the stream the city of Quebec, a hanging +town of fairyland, with pinnacle and spire, bastion and citadel +delicate against the quick sky. A city of romance and charm, to which +we hurried by the very humdrum route of the steam ferry that crosses to +it from the Levis side. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +QUEBEC +</H4> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H4> + +<P> +Quebec is not merely historic: it suggests history. It has the grand +manner. One feels in one's bones that it is a city of a splendid past. +The first sight of Quebec piled up on its opposite bluff where the +waters of the St. Charles swell the mighty volume of the St. Lawrence +convinces one that this grave city is the cradle of civilization in the +West, the overlord of the river road to the sea and the heart of +history and romance for Canada. +</P> + +<P> +One does not require prompting to recognize that history has to go back +centuries to reach the day when Cartier first landed here; or that +Champlain figured bravely in its story in a brave and romantic era of +the world, and that it was he who saw its importance as a commanding +point of the great waterway that struck deep into the heart of the rich +dominion—though he did think that dominion was a fragment of the +fabulous Indies with a door into the rich realms of China. +</P> + +<P> +Instinct seems to tell one that on the lifting plain behind the bulldog +Citadel, Montcalm lost and died, and Wolfe died and won. +</P> + +<P> +One knows, too, that from this city thick with spires, streams of +Christianity and civilization flowed west and north and south to +quicken the whole barbaric continent; that it was the nucleus that +concentrated all the energy of the vast New World. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H4> + +<P> +From the decks of the three war vessels, the <I>Renown</I> and the escorting +cruisers, Quebec must have seemed like a city of a dream hanging +against the quiet sky of a glorious evening. +</P> + +<P> +The piled-up mass of the city on its abrupt cape is romantic, and +suggests the drama of a Rhine castle with a grace and a significance +that is French. On that evening of August 21st, when the strings and +blobs of colour from a multitude of flags picked out the clustering of +houses that climbed Cape Diamond to the grey walls of the Citadel, the +city from the St. Lawrence had an appearance glowing and fantastic. +</P> + +<P> +From Quebec the three fine ships steaming in line up the blue waters of +the river were a sight dramatic and beautiful, though from the heights +and against the wall of cliffs on the Levis side, a mile across stream, +the cruisers were strangely dwarfed, and even <I>Renown</I> appeared a small +but desirable toy. +</P> + +<P> +In keeping with the general atmosphere of the town and toy-like ships, +Quebec herself put a touch of the fantastic into the charm of her +greeting. +</P> + +<P> +As the cruisers dressed ship, and joined with the guns of the Citadel +in the salute, there soared from the city itself scores of maroons. +From the flash and smoke of their bursts there fluttered down many +coloured things. Caught by the wind, these things opened out into +parachutes, from which were suspended large silk flags. Soon the sky +was flecked with the bright, tricoloured bubbles of parachutes, bearing +Jacks and Navy Ensigns, Tricolours and Royal Standards down the wind. +</P> + +<P> +The official landing at King's Wharf was full of characteristic colour +also. It was in a wide, open space right under the grey rock upon +which the Citadel is reared. In this square, tapestried with flags, +and in a little canvas pavilion of bright red and white, the Prince met +the leading sons of Quebec, the French-Canadian and the +English-Canadian; the Bishop of the English cathedral in gaiters and +apron, the Bishops of the Catholics in corded hats, scarlet gloves and +long cassocks. Sailors and soldiers, women in bright and smart gowns +gave the reception a glow and vivacity that had a quality true to +Quebec. +</P> + +<P> +From this short ceremony the Prince drove through the quaint streets to +the Citadel. In the lower town under the rock his way led through a +quarter that might well stage a Stanley Weyman romance. It is a +quarter where, between high-shouldered, straight-faced houses, run the +narrowest of streets, some of them, like Sous le Cap, so cramped that +it is merely practical to use windows as the supports for +clothes-lines, and to hang the alleys with banners of drying washing. +</P> + +<P> +In these cramped streets named with the names of saints, are sudden +little squares, streets that are mere staircases up to the cliff-top, +and others that deserve the name of one of them, The Mountain. In +these narrow canyons, through which the single-decked electric trams +thunder like mammoths who have lost their way, are most of the +commercial houses and nearly all the mud of the city. +</P> + +<P> +At the end of this olden quarter, merging from the very air of +antiquity in the streets, Quebec, with a characteristic Canadian +gesture, adopts modernity. That is the vivid thing about the city. It +is not merely historical: it is up-to-date. It is not merely the past, +but it is the future also. At the end of the old, cramped streets +stands Quebec's future—its docks. +</P> + +<P> +These great dockyards at the very toe of the cape are the latest things +of their kind. They have been built to take the traffic of tomorrow as +well as today. Greater ships than those yet built can lie in safe +water alongside the huge new concrete quays. Great ships can go into +dry dock here, or across the water in the shipyards of Levis. They +even build or put together ships of large tonnage, and while we were +there, there were ships in half sections; by themselves too big to be +floated down from the lakes through the locks, they had come down from +the building slips in floatable halves to be riveted together in Quebec. +</P> + +<P> +A web of railways serves these great harbour basins, and the latest +mechanical loading gear can whip cargo out of ships or into them at +record speed and with infinite ease. Huge elevators—one concrete +monster that had been reared in a Canadian hustle of seven days—can +stream grain by the million tons into holds, while troops, passengers +and the whole mechanics of human transport can be handled with the +greatest facility. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince went up the steep cobbled street of The Mountain under the +grey, solid old masonry of the Battery that hangs over the town in +front of Laval University, that with the Archbishop's palace looks like +a piece of old France translated bodily to Canada. +</P> + +<P> +So he came to the big, green Place des Armes, not now a place of arms, +and at that particular moment not green, but as thick as a gigantic +flower-bed with the pretty dresses of pretty women—and there is all +the French charm in the beauty of the women of Quebec—and with the +khaki and commonplace of soldiers and civilians. A mighty and +enthusiastic crowd that did not allow its French accent to hinder the +shout of welcome it had caught up from the throng that lined the slopes +of The Mountain. +</P> + +<P> +From this point the route twisted to the right along the Grande Allée, +going first between tall and upright houses, jalousied and severe +faced, to where a strip of side road swung it left again, and up hill +to the Citadel, where His Royal Highness lived during his stay. +</P> + +<P> +From the Place des Armes the profile of the town pushes back along the +heights to the peak on which is the Citadel, a squat and massive +structure that seems to have grown rather than to have been built from +the living rock upon which it is based. +</P> + +<P> +Between the Citadel and the Place des Armes there is a long, grey stone +wall above the green glacis of the cliff. It has the look of a +military wall, and it is not a military wall. It supports merely a +superb promenade, Dufferin Terrace, a great plank walk poised sheer +above the river, the like of which would be hard to equal anywhere. On +this the homely people of Quebec take the air in a manner more +sumptuous than many of the most aristocratic resorts in Europe. +</P> + +<P> +At the eastern end of this terrace, and forming the wing of the Place +des Armes, is the medieval structure of the Château Frontenac, a +building not really more antique than the area of hotels <I>de luxe</I>, of +which it is an extremely fine example, but so planned by its designers +as to fit delightfully into the antique texture of the town. +</P> + +<P> +Below and shelving away eastward again is the congested old town, +through which the Prince had come, and behind Citadel and promenade, +and stretching over the plateau of the cape, is a town of broad and +comely streets, many trees and great parks as modern as anything in +Canada. +</P> + +<P> +That night the big Dufferin Terrace was thronged by people out to see +the firework display from the Citadel, and to watch the illuminations +of the city and of the ships down on the calm surface of the water. It +was rather an unexpected crowd. There were the sexes by the thousands +packed together on that big esplanade, listening to the band, looking +at the fireworks and lights, the whole town was there in a holiday +mood, and there was not the slightest hint of horseplay or disorder. +</P> + +<P> +The crowd enjoyed itself calmly and gracefully; there were none of +those syncopated sounds or movements which in an English crowd show +that youth is being served with pleasure. The quiet enjoyment of this +good-tempered and vivacious throng is the marked attitude of such +Canadian gatherings. I saw in other towns big crowds gathered at the +dances held in the street to celebrate the Prince's visit. Although +thousands of people of all grades and tempers came together to dance or +to watch the dancing, there was never the slightest sign of rowdyism or +disorder. +</P> + +<P> +On this and the next two nights Quebec added to its beauty. All the +public buildings were outlined in electric light, so that it looked +more than ever a fairy city hanging in the air. The cruisers in the +stream were outlined, deck and spar and stack, in light, and <I>Renown</I> +had poised between her masts a bright set of the Prince of Wales's +feathers, the lights of the whole group of ships being mirrored in the +river. On Friday <I>Renown</I> gave a display of fireworks and +searchlights, the beauty of which was doubled by the reflections in the +water. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H4> + +<P> +Friday and Saturday (August 22 and 23) were strenuous days for the +Prince. He visited every notable spot in the brilliant and curious +town where one spoke first in French, and English only as an +afterthought; where even the blind beggar appeals to the charitable in +two languages; where the citizens ride in up-to-date motor-cars and the +visitors in the high-slung, swing-shaped horse calache; where the +traffic takes the French side of the road; where the shovel hats and +cassocks of priests are as commonplace as everyday; where the vivacity +of France is fused into the homely good-fellowship of the Colonial in a +manner quite irresistible. +</P> + +<P> +He began Friday in a wonderful crimson room in the Provincial +Parliament building, where he received addresses in French, and +answered them in the same tongue. +</P> + +<P> +It was a remarkable room, this glowing chamber set in the handsome +Parliament house that looks down over a sweep of grass, the hipped +roofs and the pinnacles of the town to the St. Lawrence. It was a +great room with a floor of crimson and walls of crimson and white. +Over the mellow oak that made a backing to the Prince's daïs was a +striking picture of Champlain looking out from the deck of his tiny +sloop <I>The Gift of God</I> to the shore upon which Quebec was to rise. +</P> + +<P> +The people in that chamber were not less colourful than the room +itself. Bright dresses, the antique robes of Les Membres du Conseil +Exécutif, the violet and red of clerics, with the blue, red and khaki +of fighting men were on the floor and in the mellow oak gallery. +</P> + +<P> +Two addresses were read to His Royal Highness, twice, first in French +and then in English, and each address in each language was prefaced by +his list of titles—a long list, sonorous enough in French, but with an +air of thirdly and lastly when oft repeated. One could imagine his +relief when the fourth Earl of Carrick had been negotiated, and he was +steering safely for the Lord of the Isles. A strain on any man, +especially when one of the readers' pince-nez began to contract some of +the deep feeling of its master, and to slide off at every comma, to be +thrust back with his ever-deepening emotion. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince answered in one language, and that French, and the surprise +and delight of his hearers was profound. They felt that he had paid +them the most graceful of compliments, and his fluency as well as his +happiness of expression filled them with enthusiasm. He showed, too, +that he recognized what French Canada had done in the war by his +reference to the Vingtdeuxième Battalion, whose "conduite intrépide" he +had witnessed in France. It was a touch of knowledge that was +certainly well chosen, for the province of Quebec, which sent forty +thousand men by direct enlistment to the war, has, thanks to the +obscurantism of politics, received rather less than its due. +</P> + +<P> +From the atmosphere of governance the Prince passed to the atmosphere +of the seminary, driving down the broad Grand Allée to the University +of Laval, called after the first Bishop of Quebec and Canada. It has +been since its foundation not merely the fountain head of Christianity +on the American continent, but the armoury of science, in which all the +arts of forestry, agriculture, medicine and the like were put at the +service of the settler in his fight against the primitive wilds. +</P> + +<P> +In the bleached and severe corridors of this great building the Prince +examined many historic pictures of Canada's past, including a set of +photographs of his own father's visit to the city and university. He +also went from Laval to the Archbishop's Palace, where the Cardinal, a +humorous, wise, virile old prelate in scarlet, showed him pictures of +Queen Victoria and others of his ancestors, and stood by his side in +the Grand Saloon while he held a reception of many clerics, professors +and visitors. +</P> + +<P> +The afternoon was given to the battlefield, where he unfurled a Union +Jack to inaugurate the beautiful park that extends over the whole area. +</P> + +<P> +The beauty of this park is a very real thing. It hangs over the St. +Lawrence with a sumptuous air of spaciousness. Leaning over the +granite balustrade, one can look down on the tiny Wolfe's cove, where +three thousand British crept up in the blackness of the night to +disconcert the French commander. +</P> + +<P> +It is not a very imposing slope, and a modern army might take it in its +stride. Across the formal grass of the park itself the learned trace +the lines of England and of France. +</P> + +<P> +At the town end there is a slight hill above a dip. The British were +in the dip, France was on the hill. That hill lost the battle. It +placed the French between the British and the guns of the Citadel in +days when there was neither aerial observation nor indirect fire. +</P> + +<P> +A wind, as on the day of the battle, was blowing while the Prince was +on the field. The British fired one volley, and the smoke from their +black powder was blown into the faces of the French. Bewildered by the +dense cloud, uncertain of what was in the heart of it, the French broke +and fled. In twenty minutes Canada was won. +</P> + +<P> +There is a plain monument to mark the exact spot where Wolfe fell; the +Prince placed a wreath upon it, as he had placed wreaths on the +monuments of Champlain and Montcalm earlier, and as he did later at the +monument Aux Braves on the field of Foye, which commemorates the dead +of both races who fell in the battle when Murray, a year after Wolfe's +victory, endeavoured to loosen the grip the French besiegers were +tightening round Quebec, and was defeated, though he held the city. +</P> + +<P> +On the Plains of Abraham—it has no romantic significance, Abraham was +merely a farmer who owned the land at the time of the battle—French +and English were again gathered in force, but in a different manner. +</P> + +<P> +It was a bright and friendly gathering of Canadians, who no longer +permitted a difference of tongue to interfere with their amity. It was +also a gathering of men and women and children (Quebec is the province +of the quiverful), notably vigorous, well-dressed and prosperous. +</P> + +<P> +The thing to remark here, as well as in all the gatherings of the +people of this city, was the absence of dinginess and dowdiness that +goes with poverty. In the great mass of stone houses, pretty brick and +wood villas, and apartment "houses," the upper flats of which are +reached by curving iron Jacob stairways, that make habitable Quebec +there are patches of cramped wooden houses, each built under the +architectural stimulus of the packing-case, though rococo little +porches and scalloped roofs add a wedding-cake charm to the poverty of +size and design. But though there are these small but not mean houses, +there appear to be no poor people. +</P> + +<P> +All those on the Plains had an independent and self-supporting air (as, +indeed, every person has in Canada), and they gave the Prince a +reception of a hearty and affable kind, as he declared this fine park +the property of the city, and made the citizens free of its historic +acreage for all time. +</P> + +<P> +From the Plains His Royal Highness went by car to the huge new railway +bridge that spans the St. Lawrence a few miles above the town. It was +a long ride through comely lanes, by quiet farmsteads and small +habitant villages. At all places where there was a nucleus of human +life, men and women, but particularly the children, came out to their +fences with flags to shout and wave a greeting. +</P> + +<P> +At the bridge station were two open cars, and on to the raised platform +of one of these the Prince mounted, while "movie" men stormed the other +car, and a number of ordinary human beings joined them. This special +train was then passed slowly under the giant steel girders and over the +central span, which is longer than any span the Forth Bridge can boast. +As the train travelled forward the Prince showed his eagerness for +technical detail, and kept the engineers by his side busy with a stream +of questions. +</P> + +<P> +The bridge is not only a superb example of the art of the engineer, +perhaps the greatest example the twentieth century can yet show, but it +is a monument to the courage and tenacity of man. Twice the great +central span was floated up-stream from the building yards, only to +collapse and sink into the St. Lawrence at the moment it was being +lifted into place. Though these failures caused loss of life, the +designers persisted, and the third attempt brought success. +</P> + +<P> +There was, one supposes, a ceremonial idea connected with this +function. His Royal Highness certainly unveiled two tablets at either +end of the bridge by jerking cords that released the covering Union +Jack. But this ritual was second to the ceremonial of the "movies." +</P> + +<P> +The "movies" went over the top in a grand attack. They put down a box +barrage close up against the Prince's platform, and at a distance of +two feet, not an inflection of his face, nor a movement of his head, +escaped the unwinking and merciless eye of the camera. +</P> + +<P> +The "movie" men declare that the Prince is the best "fil-lm" actor +living, since he is absolutely unstudied in manner; but it would have +taken a Douglas Fairbanks of a super-breed to remain unembarrassed in +the face of that cold line of lenses thrust close up to his medal +ribbons. And in the film he shows his feelings in characteristic +movements of lips and hands. +</P> + +<P> +The men who did not take movies, the men with plain cameras, the +"still" men, were also active. Not to be outdone by their comrades +with the machine-gun action, they sprang from the car at intervals, ran +along the footway, and snapped the party as the train drew level with +them. +</P> + +<P> +It was a field day for cameras, but enthusiastic people also counted. +Men and women had clambered up the hard, stratified rock of the +cuttings that carry the line to the bridge, and they were also standing +under the bridge on the slopes, and on the flats by the river. They +were cheering, and—yes, they were busy with their cameras +also—cameras cannot be evaded in Canada, even in the wilds. +</P> + +<P> +One had the impression, from the difficult perches on which people were +to be found, that wherever the Prince would go in Canada, to whatever +lonely or difficult spot his travels would lead him, he would always +find a Canadian man, and possibly a Canadian woman standing waiting or +clinging to precarious holds, glad to be there, so long as he (or she) +had breath to cheer and a free hand to wave a flag. And this +impression was confirmed by the story of the next months. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +IV +</H4> + +<P> +Saturday, August 23, was supposed to give His Royal Highness the +half-day holiday which is the due of any worker. That half day was +peculiarly Canadian. +</P> + +<P> +The business of the morning was one of singular charm. The Prince +visited the Convent of the Ursulines, to which in the old days wounded +Montcalm was taken, and in whose quiet chapel his body lies. +</P> + +<P> +The nuns are cloistered and do not open their doors to visitors, but on +this day they welcomed the Prince with an eagerness that was altogether +delightful. They showed him through their serene yet bare reception +rooms, and with pride placed before him the skull of Montcalm, which +they keep in their recreation room, together with a host of historic +documents dealing with the struggles of those distant days. +</P> + +<P> +The party was taken through the nuns' chapel, and sent on with smiles +to the public chapel to look on Montcalm's tomb, originally a hole in +the chapel fabric torn by British shells. The nuns could not go into +that chapel. "We are cloistered," they told us. +</P> + +<P> +These child-like nuns, with their serene and smiling faces, were +overjoyed to receive His Royal Highness and anxious to convey to him +their good will. +</P> + +<P> +"We cannot go to England—we cannot leave our house—but our hearts are +always with you, and there are none more loyal than us, and none more +earnest in teaching loyalty to all the girls who come to us to study. +Yes, we teach it in French, but what does that matter? We can express +the Canadian spirit just as well in that language." So said a very +vivid and practical little nun to me, and she was anxious that England +should realize how dear they felt the bond. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince's afternoon "off" was spent out of Quebec at the beautiful +village of St. Anne's Beaupré, where, set in lovely surroundings, there +is a miraculous shrine to St. Anne. The Prince visited the beautiful +basilica, and saw the forest of sticks and crutches left behind as +tokens of their cure by generations of sufferers. +</P> + +<P> +News of his visit had got abroad, and when he left the shrine in +company of the clergy, he was surrounded by a big crowd who restricted +all movement by their cheerful importunity. A local photographer, +rising to the occasion, refused to let His Royal Highness escape until +he had taken an historic snap. Not merely a snap of the Prince and the +priests with him, but of as many of the citizens of Beaupré as he could +get into a wide angle lense. This was a tremendous occasion, and he +yelled at the top of his voice to the people to: +</P> + +<P> +"Come and be photographed with the Prince. Come and be taken with your +future King." +</P> + +<P> +Taken with their future King, the people of Beaupré were entirely +disinclined to let him go. They crowded round him so that it was only +force that enabled his entourage to clear a tactful way to his car. +Even in the car the driver found himself faced with all the +opportunities of the chauffeur of the Juggernaut with none of his +convictions. The car was hemmed in by the crowd, and the crowd would +not give way. +</P> + +<P> +It is possible that at this jolly crisis somebody mentioned the +Prince's need for tea, and at the mention of this solemn and +inexplicable British rite the crowd gave way, and the car got free. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE MOBILE HOTEL DE LUXE: THE ROYAL TRAIN +</H4> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H4> + +<P> +On Sunday, August 24th, His Royal Highness came under the sway of that +benevolent despot in the Kingdom of Efficiency, the Canadian Pacific +Railway. +</P> + +<P> +He motored out along a road that Quebec is proud of, because it has a +reputable surface for automobiles in a world of natural earth tracks, +through delightful country to a small station which [had?] a Gallic +air, Three Rivers. Here he boarded the Royal Train. +</P> + +<P> +It was a remarkable train. Not merely did its construction, length, +tonnage and ultimate mileage set up new records, but in it the +idealist's dream of perfection in travelling came true. +</P> + +<P> +It might be truer to say the Royal Party did not take the train, it +took them. As each member of the party mounted into his compartment, +or Pullman car, he at once ceased to concern himself with his own +well-being. To think of oneself was unnecessary. The C.P.R. had not +only arranged to do the thinking, but had also arranged to do it better. +</P> + +<P> +The external facts concerning the train were but a part of its wonder. +And the minor part. It was the largest train of its kind to accomplish +so great a single run—it weighed over a thousand tons, and travelled +nearly ten thousand miles. It was a fifth of a mile in length. Its +ten splendid cars were all steel. Some of them were ordinary sleepers, +some were compartment and drawing-room cars. Those for the Prince and +his Staff were sumptuous private cars with state-rooms, dining-rooms, +kitchens, bathrooms, and cosy observation rooms and platforms, +beautifully fitted and appointed. +</P> + +<P> +The train was a modern hotel strayed accidentally on to wheels. It had +its telephone system; its own electricity; its own individually +controlled central heat. It had a laundry service for its passengers, +and its valets always on the spot to renew the crease of youth in all +trousers. It had its own newspaper, or, rather, bulletin, by which all +on board learnt the news of the external world twice a day, no matter +in what wild spot the train happened to be. It had its dark-room for +photographers, its dispensary for the doctor and its untiring telegraph +expert to handle all wired messages, including the correspondents' +cables. It had its dining-rooms and kitchens and its staff of +first-class chefs, who worked miracles of cuisine in the small space of +their kitchen, giving over a hundred people three meals a day that no +hotel in London could exceed in style, and no hotel in England could +hope to equal in abundance. It carried baggage, and transferred it to +Government Houses or hotels, and transferred it back to its cars and +baggage vans in a manner so perfect that one came to look upon the +matter almost as a process of nature, and not as a breathless +phenomenon. +</P> + +<P> +It was the train <I>de luxe</I>, but it was really more than that. It was a +train handled by experts from Mr. A. B. Calder, who represented the +President of the Company, down to the cleaning boy, who swept up the +cars, and they were experts of a curious quality of their own. +</P> + +<P> +Whatever the Canadian Pacific Railway is (and it has its critics), +there can be no doubt that, as an organization, it captures the +loyalty, as it calls forth all the keenness and ability of its +servants. It is something that quickens their imagination and +stimulates their enthusiasm. There was something warm and invigorating +about the way each man set up within himself a counsel of +perfection—which he intended to exceed. Waiters, negro car porters, +brakemen, secretaries—every man on that staff of sixty odd determined +that <I>his</I> department was going to be a living example, not of what he +could do, but of what the C.P.R. could do. +</P> + +<P> +The <I>esprit de corps</I> was remarkable. Mr. Calder told us at the end of +the trip that as far as the staff working of the train was concerned he +need not have been in control. He had not issued a single order, nor a +single reprimand in the three months. The men knew their work +perfectly; they did it perfectly. +</P> + +<P> +When one thinks of a great organization animated from the lowest worker +to the President by so lively and extraordinarily human a spirit of +loyalty that each worker finds delight in improving on instructions, +one must admit that it has the elements of greatness in it. +</P> + +<P> +My own impression after seeing it working and the work it has done, +after seeing the difficulties it has conquered, the districts it has +opened up, the towns it has brought into being, is that, as an +organization, the Canadian Pacific Railway is great, not merely as a +trading concern, but as an Empire-building factor. Its vision has been +big beyond its own needs, and the Dominion today owes not a little to +the great men of the C.P.R., who were big-minded enough to plan, not +only for themselves, but also for all Canada. +</P> + +<P> +And the big men are still alive. In Quebec we had the good fortune to +meet Lord Shaughnessy, whose acute mind was the very soul of the C.P.R. +until he retired from the Presidency a short time ago, and Mr. Edward +W. Beatty, who has succeeded him. +</P> + +<P> +Lord Shaughnessy may be a retired lion, but he is by no means a dead +one. A quiet man of powerful silences, whose eyes can be ruthless, and +his lips wise. A man who appears disembodied on first introduction, +for one overlooks the rest of him under the domination of his head and +eyes. +</P> + +<P> +The best description of Mr. Beatty lies in the first question one wants +to ask him, which is, "Are you any relation to the Admiral?" +</P> + +<P> +The likeness is so remarkable that one is sure it cannot be accidental. +It is accidental, and therefore more remarkable. It is the Admiral's +face down to the least detail of feature, though it is a trifle +younger. There is the same neat, jaunty air—there is even the same +cock of the hat over the same eye. There is the same sense of compact +power concealed by the same spirit of whimsical dare-devilry. There is +the same capacity, the same nattiness, the same humanness. There is +the same sense of abnormality that a man looking so young should +command an organization so enormous, and the same recognition that he +is just the man to do it. +</P> + +<P> +Both these men are impressive. They are big men, but then so are all +the men who have control in the C.P.R. They are more than that, they +can inspire other men with their own big spirit. We met many heads of +departments in the C.P.R., and we felt that in all was the same +quality. Mr. Calder, as he began, "A. B." as he soon became, was the +one we came in contact with most, and he was typical of his service. +</P> + +<P> +"A. B." was not merely our good angel, but our good friend from the +first. Not merely did he smooth the way for us, but he made it the +jolliest and most cheery way in the world. He is a bundle of strange +qualities, all good. He is Puck, with the brain of an administrator. +The king of story tellers, with an unfaltering instinct for +organization. A poet, and a mimic and a born comedian, plus a will +that is never flurried, a diplomacy that never rasps, and a capacity +for the routine of railway work that is—C.P.R. A man of big heart, +big humanness, and big ability, whom we all loved and valued from the +first meeting. +</P> + +<P> +And, over all, he is a C.P.R. man, the type of man that organization +finds service for, and is best served by them; an example that did most +to impress us with a sense of the organization's greatness. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H4> + +<P> +If I have written much concerning the C.P.R., it is because I feel +that, under the personality of His Royal Highness himself, the success +of the tour owes much to the care and efficiency that organization +exerted throughout its course, and also because for three months the +C.P.R. train was our home and the backbone of everything we did. If +you like, that is the chief tribute to the organization. We spent +three months confined more or less to a single carriage; we travelled +over all kinds of line and country, and under all manner of conditions; +and after those three long months we left the train still impressed by +the C.P.R., still warm in our friendship for it—perhaps, indeed, +warmer in our regard. +</P> + +<P> +There are not many railways that could stand that continuous test. +</P> + +<P> +Of the ten cars in the train, the Prince of Wales occupied the last, +"Killarney," a beautiful car, eighty-two feet long, its interior +finished in satinwood, and beautifully lighted by the indirect system. +The Prince had his bedroom, with an ordinary bed, dining-room and +bathroom. There was a kitchen and pantry for his special chef. The +observation compartment was a drawing-room with settees, and arm-chairs +and a gramophone, while in addition to the broad windows there was a +large, brass-railed platform at the rear, upon which he could sit and +watch the scenery (search-lights helped him at night), and from which +he held a multitude of impromptu receptions. +</P> + +<P> +"Cromarty," another beautiful car, was occupied by the personal Staff; +"Empire," "Chinook" and "Chester" by personal and C.P.R. staff. The +next car, "Canada," was the beautiful dining car; "Carnarvon," the +next, a sleeping car, was occupied by the correspondents and +photographers; "<I>Renown</I>" belonged to the particularly efficient C.P.R. +police, who went everywhere with the train, and patrolled the track if +it stopped at night. In front of "Renown" were two baggage cars with +the 225 pieces of baggage the retinue carried. +</P> + +<P> +At Three Rivers a very cheery crowd wished His Royal Highness <I>bon +voyage</I>. The whole town turned out, and over-ran the pretty grass plot +that is a feature in every Canadian station, in order to see the Prince. +</P> + +<P> +We ran steadily down the St. Lawrence through pretty country towards +Toronto. All the stations we passed were crowded, and though the train +invariably went through at a good pace that did not seem to matter to +the people, though they had come a long distance in order to catch just +this fleeting glimpse of the train that carried him. +</P> + +<P> +Sometimes the train stopped for water, or to change engines at the end +of the section of 133 miles. The people then gathered about the rear +of the train, and the Prince had an opportunity of chatting with them +and shaking hands with many. +</P> + +<P> +At some halts he left the train to stroll on the platform, and on these +occasions he invariably talked with the crowd, and gave "candles" to +the children. There was no difficulty at all in approaching him. At +one tiny place, Outremont, one woman came to him, and said that she +felt she already knew him, because her husband had met him in France. +That fact immediately moved the Prince to sympathy. Not only did he +spend some minutes talking with her, but he made a point of referring +to the incident in his speech at Toronto the next day, to emphasize the +feeling he was experiencing of having come to a land that was almost +his own, thanks to his comradeship with Canadians overseas. +</P> + +<P> +Not only during the day was the whole route of the train marked by +crowds at stations, and individual groups in the countryside, but even +during the night these crowds and groups were there. +</P> + +<P> +As we swept along there came through the windows of our sleeping-car +the ghosts of cheers, as a crowd on a station or a gathering at a +crossing saluted the train. The cheer was gone in the distance as soon +as it came, but to hear these cheers through the night was to be +impressed by the generosity and loyalty of these people. They had +stayed up late, they had even travelled far to give one cheer only. +But they had thought it worth while. Montreal, which we passed through +in the dark, woke us with a hearty salute that ran throughout the +length of our passing through that great city, and so it went on +through the night and into the morning, when we woke to find ourselves +slipping along the shores of Lake Ontario and into the outskirts of +Toronto. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VIII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE CITY OF CROWDS. TORONTO: ONTARIO +</H4> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H4> + +<P> +Toronto is a city of many names. You can call it "The Boston of +Canada," because of its aspiration to literature, the theatre and the +arts. You can call it "The Second City of Canada," because the fact is +incontestable. You can call it "The Queen City," because others do, +though, like the writer, you are unable to find the reason why you +should. You can say of it, as the Westerners do, "Oh—<I>Toronto</I>!" with +very much the same accent that the British dramatist reserves for the +censor of plays. But though it already had its host of names, Toronto, +to us, was the City of Crowds. +</P> + +<P> +Toronto has interests and beauties. It has its big, natural High Park. +It has its charming residential quarters in Rosedale and on The Hill. +It has its beautiful lagoon on the lakeside. It has its Yonge Street, +forty miles straight. It has the tallest building in the Empire, and +some of the largest stores in the Empire. It is busy and bright and +brisk. But we found we could not see it for crowds. Or, rather, at +first we could not see it for crowds. Later a good Samaritan took us +for a pell-mell tour in a motor-car, and we saw a chauffeur's eye view +of it. Even then we saw much of it over the massed soft hats of Canada. +</P> + +<P> +We had become inured to crowds. We had seen big, bustling, eager, +hearty, good-humoured throngs from St. John's to Quebec. But even that +hardening had not proofed us against the mass and enthusiastic violence +of the crowd that Toronto turned out to greet the Prince, and continued +to turn out to meet him during the days he was there. +</P> + +<P> +On the early morning of Monday, August 25th, in that weather that was +already being called "Prince of Wales' weather," the Prince stepped +"ashore" at the Government House siding, outside Toronto. There was a +skirmishing line of the waiting city flung out to this distant +station—including some go-ahead flappers with autograph books to sign. +It was, however, one of those occasions when the Prince was considered +to be wrapped in a robe of invisibility until he had been to Government +House and started from there to drive inland to the city and its +receptions. +</P> + +<P> +A quick automobile rush—and, by the way, it will be noticed that the +Continent of Hustle always uses the long word for the short, +"automobile" for "car," "elevator" for "lift," and so on—to the +Government House, placed the Prince on a legal footing, and he was +ready to enter the city. +</P> + +<P> +Government House is remarkable for the fact that it grew a garden in a +single night. It is a comely building of rough-dressed stone, standing +in the park-like surroundings of the Rosedale suburb, but in the +absence of princes its forecourt is merely a desert of grey stone +granules. When His Royal Highness arrived it was a garden of an almost +brilliant abundance. There were green lawns, great beds packed +wantonly with the brightest flowers, while trees, palms and flowering +shrubs crowded the square in luxuriance. A marvel of a garden. A +realist policeman, after his first gasp, bent down to examine the green +of the lawn, and rose with a Kipps expression on his face and with the +single word "Fake" on his lips. +</P> + +<P> +The vivid lawn was green cocoanut matting, the beds were cunning +arrangements of flowers in pots, and from pots the trees and shrubs +flourished. It was a garden artificial and even more marvellous than +we had thought. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince rode through Rosedale to the town. The crowd began outside +Government House gates. It was a polite and brightly dressed crowd, +for it was drawn from the delightful houses that made islands in the +uninterrupted lawns that, with the graceful trees, formed the borders +of the winding roads through which he went. Rosedale was once forest +on the shores of the old Ontario Lake; the lake has receded three miles +and more, but the builders of the city have dealt kindly with the +forest, and have touched it as little as they could, so that the old +trees blend with the modern lawns to give the new homes an air of +infinite charm. +</P> + +<P> +As the Prince drove deeper into the city the crowds thickened, so that +when he arrived in the virile, purposeful commercial streets, the +sidewalks could no longer contain the mass. They are broad and +efficient streets, striking through the town arrow-straight, and giving +to the eye superb vistas. But broad though they were, they could not +accommodate sightseeing Toronto, and the crowd encroached upon the +driveway, much to the disgust of many little boys, who, with their +race's contempt for death by automobile, were running or cycling beside +the Royal car in their determination to get the maximum of Prince out +of a short visit. +</P> + +<P> +The crowd went upward from the roadway also. We had come into our +first city of sky-climbing buildings. One of these shoots up some +twenty stories, but though this is the tallest "yet," it is surrounded +by some considerable neighbours that give the streets great ranges +upwards as well as forward. The windows of these great buildings were +packed with people, and through the canopy of flags that fluttered on +all the route they sent down their cheers to join the welcome on the +ground floor. +</P> + +<P> +It was through such crowds that the Prince drove to a greater crowd +that was gathered about the Parliament Buildings. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H4> + +<P> +The site of the Provincial Parliament Buildings is, as with all these +Western cities, very beautifully planned. It is set in the gracious +Queen's Park, that forms an avenue of green in the very heart of the +town. About the park are the buildings of Toronto University, and the +avenue leads down to the dignified old law schools at Osgoode Hall. +The Canadians show a sense of appropriate artistry always in the +grouping of their public buildings—although, of course, they have had +the advantage of beginning before ground-rents and other interests grew +too strong for public endeavour. +</P> + +<P> +The Parliament Buildings are of a ruddy sandstone, in a style slightly +railway-station Renaissance. They were draped with flags down to the +vivid striped platform before the building upon which the reception was +held. Great masses of people and many ranks of soldiers filled the +lawns before the platform, while to the right was a great flower-bed of +infants. A grand-stand was brimming over with school-kiddies ready to +cheer at the slightest hint, to sing at command, and to wave flags at +all times. +</P> + +<P> +It was a bustling reception from Toronto as parliamentary capital of +Ontario, and from Toronto the town. It was packed full of speeches and +singing from the children and from a Welsh choir—and Canada flowers +Welsh choirs—and presentations from many societies, whose members, +wearing the long silk buttonhole tabs stamped with the gold title of +the guild or committee to which they belonged, came forward to augment +the press on the platform. +</P> + +<P> +These silk tabs are an insignia of Canadian life. The Canadians have +an infinite capacity for forming themselves into committees, and clubs, +and orders of stout fellows, and all manner of gregarious associations. +And when any association shows itself in the sunlight, it distinguishes +itself by tagging its members with long, coloured silk tabs. We never +went out of sight of tabs on the whole of our trip. +</P> + +<P> +From the Parliament Buildings the Prince drove through the packed town +to the Exhibition ground. We passed practically through the whole of +the city in these two journeys, travelling miles of streets, yet all +the way the mass of people was dense to a remarkable degree. Toronto, +we knew, was supposed to have a population of 500,000 people, but long +before we reached the end of the drive we began to wonder how the city +could possibly keep up the strength on the pavements without running +out of inhabitants. It not only kept it up, but it sprang upon us the +amazing sight of the Exhibition ground. +</P> + +<P> +In this long and wonderful drive there was but one stop. This was at +the City Hall, a big, rough stone building with a soaring campanile. +On the broad steps of the hall a host of wounded men in blue were +grouped, as though in a grand-stand. The string of cars swerved aside +so that the Prince could stop for a few minutes and chat with the men. +</P> + +<P> +His reception here was of overwhelming warmth; men with all manner of +hurts, men on crutches and in chairs stood up, or tried to stand up, to +cheer him. It was in the truest sense a meeting of comrades, and when +a one-legged soldier asked the Prince to pose for a photograph, he did +it not merely willingly, but with a jolly and personal friendliness. +</P> + +<P> +The long road to the Exhibition passed through the busy manufacturing +centre that has made Toronto famous and rich as a trading city, +particularly as a trading city from which agricultural machinery is +produced. The Exhibition itself is part of its great commercial +enterprise. It is the focus for the whole of Ontario, and perhaps for +the whole of Eastern Canada, of all that is up-to-date in the science +of production. In the beautiful grounds that lie along the fringe of +the inland sea that men have, for convenience' sake, called Lake +Ontario, and in fine buildings in those grounds are gathered together +exhibits of machinery, textiles, timber, seeds, cattle, and in fact +everything concerned with the work of men in cities or on prairies, in +offices or factories, farms or orchards. +</P> + +<P> +The Exhibition was breaking records for its visitors already, and the +presence of the Prince enabled it to break more. The vastness of the +crowd in the grounds was aweing. The gathering of people simply +obliterated the grass of the lawns and clogged the roads. +</P> + +<P> +When His Royal Highness had lunched with the administrators of the +Exhibition, he came out to a bandstand and publicly declared the +grounds opened. The crowd was not merely thick about the stand, but +its more venturesome members climbed up among the committee and the +camera-men, the latter working so strenuously and in such numbers that +they gave the impression that they not only photographed every +movement, but also every word the Prince uttered. +</P> + +<P> +The density of the crowd made retreat a problem. Police and Staff had +to resolve themselves into human Tanks, and press a way by inches +through the enthusiastic throng to the car. The car itself was +surrounded, and could only move at a crawl along the roads, and so slow +was the going and so lively was the friendliness of the people, that +His Royal Highness once and for all threw saluting overboard as a +gesture entirely inadequate, and gave his response with a waving hand. +The infection of goodwill, too, had caught hold of him, and not +satisfied with his attitude, he sprang up in the car and waved +standing. In this manner, and with one of his Staff holding him by the +belt, he drove through and out of the grounds. +</P> + +<P> +It was a day so packed with extraordinary crowds, that we +correspondents grew hopeless before them. We despaired of being able +to convey adequately a sense of what was happening; "enthusiasm" was a +hard-driven word that day and during the next two, and we would have +given the world to find another for a change. +</P> + +<P> +Since I returned I have heard sceptical people say that the stories of +these "great receptions" were vamped-up affairs, mere newspaper +manufacture. I would like to have had some of those sceptics in +Toronto with us on August 25th, 26th and 27th. It would have taught +them a very convincing and stirring lesson. +</P> + +<P> +The crowds of the Exhibition ground were followed by crowds at the +Public Reception, an "extra" which the Prince himself had added to his +program. This was held at the City Hall. It had all the +characteristics of these democratic and popular receptions, only it was +bigger. Policemen had been drawn about the City Hall, but when the +people decided to go in, the police mattered very little. They were +submerged by a sea of men and women that swept over them, swept up the +big flight of steps and engulfed the Prince in a torrent, every +individual particle of which was bent on shaking hands. It was a +splendidly-tempered crowd, but it was determined upon that handshake. +And it had it. It was at Toronto that, as the Prince phrased it, "My +right hand was 'done in.'" This was how Toronto did it in. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H4> + +<P> +The visit was not all strenuous affection. There were quiet backwaters +in which His Royal Highness obtained some rest, golfing and dancing. +One such moment was when on this day he crossed to the Yacht Club, an +idyllic place, on the sandspit that encloses the lagoon. +</P> + +<P> +This club, set in the vividly blue waters of the great lake, is a +little gem of beauty with its smooth lawns, pretty buildings and fine +trees. It is even something more, for every handful of loam on which +the lawns and trees grow was transported from the mainland to make +fruitful the arid sand of the spit. The Prince had tea on the lawn, +while he watched the scores of brisk little boats that had followed him +out and hung about awaiting his return like a genial guard of honour. +</P> + +<P> +There was always dancing in honour of the Prince, and always a great +deal of expectation as to who would be the lucky partners. His +partners, as I have said, had their photographs published in the papers +the next day. Even those who were not so lucky urged their cavaliers +to keep as close to him as possible on the ball-room floor, so every +inflexion of the Prince could be watched, though not all were so far +gone as an adoring young thing in one town (NOT Toronto), who hung on +every movement, and who cried to her partner in accents of awe: +</P> + +<P> +"I've heard him speak! I've heard him speak! He says 'Yes' just like +an ordinary man. Isn't it wonderful!" +</P> + +<P> +On Tuesday, the 25th, the Yacht Club was the scene of one of the +brightest of dances, following a very happy reunion between the Prince +and his comrades of the war. Some hundreds of officers of all grades +were gathered together by General Gunn, the C.O. of the District, from +the many thousands in Ontario, and these entertained the Prince at +dinner at the Club. It was a gathering both significant and +impressive. Every one of the officers wore not merely the medals of +Overseas service, but every one wore a distinction gained on the field. +</P> + +<P> +It was an epitome of Canada's effort in the war. It was a collection +of virile young men drawn from the lawyer's office and the farm, from +the desk indoors and avocations in the open, from the very law schools +and even the University campus. In the big dining-hall, hung with +scores of boards in German lettering, trench-signs, directing posts to +billets, drinking water and the like, that had been captured by the +very men who were then dining, one got a sense of the vivid capacity +and alertness that made Canada's contribution to the Empire fighting +forces so notable, and more, that will make Canada's contribution to +the future of the world so notable. +</P> + +<P> +There was no doubt, too, that, though these self-assured young men are +perfectly competent to stand on their own feet in all circumstances, +their visit to the Old Country—or, as even the Canadian-born call it, +"Home"—has, even apart from the lessons of fighting, been useful to +them, and, through them, will be useful to Canada. +</P> + +<P> +"Leaves in England were worth while," one said. "I've come back here +with a new sense of values. Canada's a great country, but we <I>are</I> a +little in the rough. We can teach you people a good many things, but +there are a good many we can learn from you. We haven't any tradition. +Oh, not all your traditions are good ones, but many are worth while. +You have a more dignified social sense than we have, and a political +sense too. And you have a culture we haven't attained yet. You've +given us not a standard—we could read that up—but a liking for social +life, bigger politics, books and pictures and music, and all that sort +of thing that we had missed here—and been quite unaware that we had +missed." +</P> + +<P> +And another chimed in: +</P> + +<P> +"That's what we miss in Canada, the theatres and the concerts and the +lectures, and the whole boiling of a good time we had in London—the +big sense of being Metropolitan that you get in England, and not here. +Well, not yet. We were rather prone to the parish-pump attitude before +the war, but going over there has given us a bigger outlook. We can +see the whole world now, you know. London's a great place—it's an +education in the citizenship of the universe." +</P> + +<P> +That's a point, too. London and Britain have been revealed to them as +friendly places and the homes of good friends—though I must make an +exception of one seaport town in England which is a byword among +Canadians for bad treatment. England was the place where a multitude +of people conspired to give the Canadians a good time, and they have +returned with a practical knowledge of the good feeling of the English, +and that is bound to make for mutual understanding. +</P> + +<P> +It must not be thought that Toronto,—or other cities in Canada—is +without theatres or places of recreation. There are several good +theatres and music-halls in Toronto—more in this city than in any +other. These theatres are served by American companies of the No. 1 +touring kind. English actors touring America usually pay the city a +visit, while quite frequently new plays are "tried out" here before +opening in New York. +</P> + +<P> +But apart from a repertory company, which plays drawing-room comedies +with an occasional dash of high-brow, Toronto and Canada depend on +outside, that is American, sources for the theatre, and though the +standard of touring companies may be high in the big Eastern towns, it +is not as high as it should be, and in towns further West the shows are +of that rather streaky nature that one connects with theatrical +entertainment at the British seaside resorts. +</P> + +<P> +The immense distances are against theatrical enterprises, of course, +but in spite of them one has a feeling that the potentialities of the +theatre, as with everything in the Dominion, are great for the right +man. +</P> + +<P> +Toronto is better off musically than other cities, but even Toronto +depends very much for its symphony and its vocal concerts, as for its +opera, on America. Music is intensely popular, and gramophones, pianos +and mechanical piano-players have a great sale. +</P> + +<P> +The "movie" show is the great industry of amusement all over the +Dominion. Even the smallest town has its picture palace, the larger +towns have theatres which are palaces indeed in their appointments, and +a multitude of them. In many the "movie" show is judiciously blended +with vaudeville turns, a mixture which seems popular. +</P> + +<P> +Book shops are rarities. In a great town such as Toronto I was only +able to find one definite book shop, and that not within easy walk of +my hotel. Even that shop dealt in stationery and the like to help +things along, though its books were very much up to date, many of them +(by both English and American authors) published by the excellent +Toronto publishing houses. All the recognized leaders among English +and American writers, and even Admirals and Generals turned writers, +were on sale, though the popular market is the Zane Grey type of book. +</P> + +<P> +The reason there are few book shops is that the great stores—like +Eaton's and Simpson's—have book departments, and very fine ones too, +and that for general reading the Canadians are addicted to newspapers +and magazines, practically all the latter American, which are on sale +everywhere, in tobacconists, drug stores, hotel loggias, and on special +street stands generally run by a returned soldier. English papers of +any sort are rarely seen on sale, though all the big American dailies +are commonplace, while only occasionally the <I>Windsor</I>, <I>Strand</I>, +<I>London</I>, and the new <I>Hutchinson's Magazines</I> shyly rear British heads +over their clamorous American brothers. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +IV +</H4> + +<P> +Tuesday, August 26th, was a day dedicated to quieter functions. The +Prince's first visits were to the hospitals. +</P> + +<P> +Toronto, which likes to do things with a big gesture, has attacked the +problem of hospital building in a spacious manner. The great General +Hospital is planned throughout to give an air of roominess and breadth. +</P> + +<P> +The Canadians certainly show a sense of architecture, and in building +the General Hospital they refused to follow the Morgue School, which +seems to be responsible for so many hospital and primary school +designs. The Toronto Hospital is a fine building of many blocks set +about green lawns, and with lawns and trees in the quadrangles. The +appointments are as nearly perfect as men can make them, and every +scientific novelty is employed in the fight against wounds and +sickness. Hospitals appear most generally used in Canada, people of +all classes being treated there for illnesses that in Britain are +treated at home. +</P> + +<P> +His Royal Highness visited and explored the whole of the great General +Hospital, stopping and chatting with as many of the wounded soldiers +who were then housed in it, as time allowed. He also paid a visit to +the Children's Hospital close by. This was an item on the program +entirely his own. Hearing of the hospital, he determined to visit it, +having first paved the way for his visit by sending the kiddies a large +assortment of toys. This hospital, with its essentially modern clinic, +was thoroughly explored before the Prince left in a mist of cheers from +the kiddies, whose enormous awe had melted during the acquaintance. +</P> + +<P> +The afternoon was given over to the colourful ceremony in the +University Hall, when the LL.D. degree of the University was bestowed +upon His Royal Highness. In a great, grey-stone hall that stands on +the edge of the delightful Queen's Park, where was gathered an audience +of dons in robes, and ladies in bright dresses, with naval men and +khaki men to bring up the glowing scheme, the Prince in rose-coloured +robes received the degree and signed the roll of the University. Under +the clear light of the glass roof the scene had a dignity and charm +that placed it high among the striking pictures of the tour. +</P> + +<P> +It was a quieter day, but, nevertheless, it was a day of crowds also, +the people thronging all the routes in their unabatable numbers, +showing that <I>crescendo</I> of friendliness which was to reach its +greatest strength on the next day. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +V +</H4> + +<P> +The crowds of Toronto, already astonishing, went beyond mere describing +on Wednesday, August 27th. +</P> + +<P> +There were several functions set down for this day; only two matter: +the review of the War Veterans in the Exhibition grounds, and the long +drive through the residential areas of the city. +</P> + +<P> +Some hint of what the crowd in the Exhibition grounds was like was +given to us as we endeavoured to wriggle our car through the masses of +other automobiles, mobile or parked, that crowded the way to the +grounds. We had already been impressed by the almost inordinate number +of motor-cars in Canada: the number of cars in Toronto terrified us. +</P> + +<P> +When we looked on the thousands of cars in the city we knew why the +streets <I>had</I> to be broad and straight and long. In no other way could +they accommodate all that rushing traffic of the swift cars and the +lean, torpedo-like trams that with a splendid service link up the heart +of the town with the far outlying suburbs. And even though the streets +are broad the automobile is becoming too much for them. The habit of +parking cars on the slant and by scores on both sides of the roadway +(as well as down side roads and on vacant "lots") is already +restricting the carriage-way in certain areas. +</P> + +<P> +From the cars themselves there is less danger than in the London +streets, for the rules of the road are strict, and the citizens keep +them strictly. No car is allowed to pass a standing tram on the same +side, for example, and that rule with others is obeyed by all drivers. +</P> + +<P> +The multitude of cars, mainly open touring cars of the Buick and +Overland type, though there are many Fords, or "flivvers," and an +occasional Rolls-Royce, Napier or Panhard, thickened as we neared the +Exhibition gates; and about them, in the side streets outside and in +the avenues inside, they were parked by thousands. +</P> + +<P> +They gave the meanest indication of the numbers of people in the +grounds. The lawns were covered with people. The halls of exhibits +were full of people. The Joy City, where one can adventure into +strange thrills from Coney Island, was full; the booths selling +buttered corn cob, toasted pea-nuts, ice cream soda, and the rest, had +hundreds of customers—and all these, we found, were the overflow. +They had been crowded out from the real show, and were waiting outside +in the hope of catching sight of the Prince as he made his round of the +Exhibition. +</P> + +<P> +The show ground of the Exhibition is a huge arena. It is faced by a +mighty grandstand, seating ten thousand people. Ten thousand people +were sitting: the imagination boggles at the computation of the number +of those standing; they filled every foothold and clung to every step +and projection. There were some—men in khaki, of course—who were +risking their necks high up on the iron roof of the stand. +</P> + +<P> +In front of the stand is a great open space, backed by patriotic +scenery, that acts as the stage for performances of the pageant kind. +It was packed so tightly with people that the movement of individuals +was impossible. On this ground the war veterans should have been drawn +up in ranks. In the beginning they were drawn up in ranks, but +civilians, having filled up every gangway and passage, overflowed on to +the field and filled that also. They were even clinging to the scenery +and perched in the trees. The minimum figure for that crowd was given +as fifty thousand. +</P> + +<P> +The reception given to the Prince was overwhelming; that is the +soberest word one can use. As he rode into the arena he was +immediately surrounded by a cheering and cheery mass of people, who cut +him off completely from his Staff. From the big stand there came an +outburst of non-stop Canadian cheering, an affair of whistles, rattles, +cheering and extempore noises, with the occasional bang of a firework, +that was kept alive during the whole of the ceremony, one section of +people taking it up when the first had tired itself out. +</P> + +<P> +With the crowd thick about him, His Royal Highness strove to force his +way to the platform on which he was to speak and to give medals, but +movement could only be accomplished at a slow pace. As he neared the +platform, indeed, movement ceased altogether, and Prince and crowd were +wedged tight in a solid mass. The pressure of the crowd seems to have +been too much for him, for there was a moment when it seemed he would +be thrown from his horse. A "movie" man on the platform came to his +rescue, and catching him round the shoulders pulled him into safety +over the heads of the crowd. +</P> + +<P> +On this platform and in a setting of enthusiasm that cannot be +described adequately, he spoke and gave medals to what seemed an +endless stream of brave Canadians. +</P> + +<P> +It was in the evening that he drove through the streets of the town, +and I believe I am right in saying that he gave up other more restful +engagements in order to undertake this ride that took several hours and +was not less than twenty miles in length. +</P> + +<P> +Toronto is a city in which the civic ideal is very strong, and the +concern not merely of the municipality but of all the citizens. It +believes in beautiful and up-to-date town planning, and the elimination +of slums, of which it now has not a single example. On his ride the +Prince saw every facet of the city's activity. +</P> + +<P> +He drove through the beautiful avenues of Rosedale, and through the not +so beautiful but more eclectic area of The Hill. He went through the +suburbs of charming, well-designed houses where the professional +classes have their homes, and into the big, comely residential areas +where the working people live. These areas are places of attractive +homes. The instinct for good building which is the gift of the whole +of America makes each house distinctive. There is never the hint of +slum ugliness or slum congestion about them. The houses merely differ +from the houses of the better-to-do in size, but, though they are +smaller, they have the same pleasant features, neat colonial-style +architecture, broad porches, unrailed lawns, and the rest. Inside they +have central heating, electric light (the Niagara hydro-power makes +lighting ridiculously cheap), baths, hardwood floors, and the other +labour-saving devices of modern construction. Most of the houses are +owned by the people who live in them, for the impulse towards purchase +by deferred payments is very strong in the Canadian. +</P> + +<P> +One of the brightest of the suburbs was built up almost entirely +through the energy of the British emigrant. These men working in the +city did not mind the "long hike" out into the country, to an area +where the street cars were not known. From farming lots they built up +a charming district where, now that street cars are more reasonable, +the Canadian is also anxious to live—when he can find a householder +willing to sell. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince's route also lay through the big shopping streets such as +Yonge ("street" is dropped in the West) and King. Here are the great +and brilliant stores, and here the thrusting, purposeful Canadian crowd +does its trading. There is a touch of determination in the Canadian on +the sidewalk which seems ruthlessness to the more easy-going Britisher, +yet it is not rudeness, and the Canadian is an extraordinarily orderly +person, with a discipline that springs from self rather than from +obedience to by-laws. It may be this that makes a Canadian crowd so +decorous, even at the moment when it seems defying the policemen. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince began his ride in the wonderful High Park, where Nature has +had very little coddling from man, and the results of such +non-interference are admirable, and in that park he at once entered +into the avenue of people that was to border the way for twenty miles. +</P> + +<P> +Again this crowd thickened at certain focal points. At the entrances +of different districts, in the streets of heavily populated areas, +about the cemetery where he planted a tree, it gathered in astonishing +mass, but the amazing thing was that no place on that twenty-mile run +was without a crowd. +</P> + +<P> +The whole of the city appeared to have come in to the street to cheer +and wave flags or handkerchiefs as he passed, just as the whole of the +little boy population appeared to have made up its mind to run or cycle +beside him for the whole of the journey despite all risks of cars +behind. +</P> + +<P> +The automobileocracy of the wealthy districts made grandstands of their +cars at every cross-road (and the Correspondents don't thank them for +this, for they tried to cut into the procession of cars after the +Prince had passed). The suburbans made their lawns into vantage +points, and grouped themselves on the curb edge, and the working +classes simply overflowed the road in solid masses of attractively +dressed women and children and Canadianly-dressed men. "Attractively +dressed" is a phrase to note; there are no rags or dowdiness in Canada. +</P> + +<P> +There was a carnival air in the greeting of that multitude on that long +ride, and the laughing and cheering affection of the crowds would have +called forth a like response even in a personality less sympathetic +than the Prince. It captured him completely. The formal salute never +had a chance. First his answer to the cheering was an affectionate +flag-waving, then the flag was not good enough and his hat came into +play, then he was standing up and waving, and finally he again climbed +on to the seat, and half standing, half sitting on the folded hood, +rode through the delighted crowds. With members of his Staff holding +on to him, he did practically the whole of the journey in this manner, +sitting reasonably only at quiet spots, only changing his hat from +right to left hand when one arm had become utterly exhausted. And all +the way the crowds lined the route and cheered. +</P> + +<P> +It was an astonishing spectacle, an amazing experience. It was the +just culmination of the three full days of profound and moving emotion +in which Toronto had shown how intense was its affection. +</P> + +<P> +The effect of such a demonstration on the Prince himself was equally +profound. One of the Canadian Generals who had been driving with His +Royal Highness on one of these occasions, told us that in the midst of +such a scene as this the Prince had turned to him and said, "Can you +wonder that my heart is full?" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IX +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +OTTAWA +</H4> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H4> + +<P> +The run from Toronto to Ottawa, the city that is a province by itself +and the capital of Canada, was a night run, but there was, in the early +morning, a halt by the wayside so that the train should not arrive +before "skedule." The halt was utilized by the Prince as an +opportunity for a stroll, and by the more alert of the country people +as an opportunity for a private audience. +</P> + +<P> +At a tiny station called Manotick farming families who believe in +shaming the early bird, came and had a look at that royal-red monster +of all-steel coaches, the train, while the youngest of them introduced +the Prince to themselves. +</P> + +<P> +They came out across the fields in twos and threes. One little boy, in +a brimless hat, working overalls, and with a fair amount of his working +medium, plough land, liberally distributed over him—Huckleberry Finn +come to life, as somebody observed—worked hard to break down his +shyness and talk like a boy of the world to the Prince. A little girl, +with the acumen of her sex, glanced once at the train, legged it to her +father's homestead, and came back with a basket of apples, which she +presented with all the solemnity of an illuminated address on vellum. +</P> + +<P> +It was always a strange sight to watch people coming across the fields +from nowhere to gather round the observation platform of the train for +these impromptu audiences. Every part of Canada is well served by +newspapers, yet to see people drift to the right place at the right +time in the midst of loneliness had a touch of wonder about it. These +casual gatherings were, indeed, as significant and as interesting as +the great crowds of the cities. There was always an air of laughing +friendliness in them, too, that gave charm to their utter informality, +for which both the Prince and the people were responsible. +</P> + +<P> +From this apple-garnished pause the train pushed on, and passing +through the garden approach, where pleasant lawns and trees make a +boulevard along a canal which runs parallel with the railway, the +Prince entered Ottawa. +</P> + +<P> +We had been warned against Ottawa, mainly by Ottawa men. We had been +told not to expect too much from the Capital. As the Prince passed +from crowded moment to crowded moment in Toronto, the stock of Ottawa +slumped steadily in the minds of Ottawa's sons. They became insistent +that we must not expect great things from Ottawa. Ottawa was not like +that. Ottawa was the taciturn "burg." +</P> + +<P> +It was a city of people given over to the meditative, if sympathetic, +silence. It was an artificial city sprung from the sterile seeds of +legislature, and thriving on the arid food of Bills. It was a mere +habitation of governments. It was a freak city created coldly by an +act of Solomonic wisdom. Before 1858 it was a drowsy French portage +village, sitting inertly at the fork of the Ottawa and Rideau rivers, +concerning itself only with the lumber trade, almost inattentive to the +battle which Montreal and Quebec, Toronto and Kingston were fighting +for the political supremacy of the Dominion. Appealed to, to settle +this dispute, Queen Victoria decided all feuds by selecting what had +been the old Bytown, but which was now Ottawa, as the official capital +of the Dominion. +</P> + +<P> +Ottawa men pointed all this out to us, and declared that a town of such +artificial beginnings, and whose present population was made up of +civil servants and mixed Parliamentarians, could not be expected to +show real, red-blood enthusiasm. +</P> + +<P> +A day later those Ottawa men met us in the high and handsome walls of +the Château Laurier, and they were entirely unrepentant. They were +even proud of their false prophecy, and asked us to join them in a +grape-juice and soda—the limit of the emotion of good fellowship in +Canada (anyhow publicly) is grape-juice and soda—in order that they +might explain to us how they never for a moment doubted that Ottawa +would show the enthusiasm it had shown. +</P> + +<P> +"This is the Capital of Canada, sir. The home of our Parliament and +the Governor-General. It is the hub of loyalty and law. Of course it +would beat the band." +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H4> + +<P> +I don't know that I want to quarrel with Ottawa's joke, for I am awed +by the way it brought it off. Perhaps it brought it off on the Prince +also. If so he must have had a shock, and a delightful one. For the +taciturnity of Ottawa is a myth. When the Prince entered it on the +morning of Thursday, August 28th, it was as silent as a whirlwind +bombardment, and as reticent as a cyclone. +</P> + +<P> +There were crowds, inevitably vast and cheering, with the invincible +good-humour of Canada. They captured him with a rush after he was +through with the formalities of being greeted by the Governor-General +and other notabilities, and had mounted a carriage behind the scarlet +outriders of Royalty. That carriage may have been more decorative but +it was no more purposeful than an automobile would be under the +circumstance. Even as the automobile, it went at a walking pace, with +the crowd pressing close around it. +</P> + +<P> +It passed up from the swinging, open triangle that fronts the Château +Laurier Hotel and the station, over the bridge that spans the Rideau +Canal, and along the broad road lined with administration buildings and +clubs, to the spacious grass quadrangle about which the massive +Parliament buildings group themselves. +</P> + +<P> +This quadrangle is a fit place to stage a pageant. It crowns a slow +hill that is actually a sharp bluff clothed in shrubs that hangs over +the startling blue waters of the Ottawa river. From the river the mass +of buildings poised dramatically on that individual bluff is a sharp +note of beauty. On the quadrangle, that is the city side, this note is +lost, and the rough stone buildings, though dignified, have a tough, +square-bodied look. Yet the massiveness of the whole grouping about +the great space of grass and gravel terraces certainly gives a large +air. They form the adequate wings and backcloth for pageants. +</P> + +<P> +And what happened that morning in the quadrangle was certainly a +pageant of democracy. +</P> + +<P> +There was a formal program, but on the whole the crowd eliminated that +for one of its own liking. It listened to addresses; it heard Sir +Robert Borden, and General Currie, only just returned to Canada, +express the Dominion's sense of welcome. Then it expressed it itself +by sweeping the police completely away, and surrounding the Prince in +an excited throng. +</P> + +<P> +In the midst of that crowd the Prince stood laughing and cheerful, +endeavouring to accommodate all the hands that were thrust towards him. +A review of Boy Scouts was timed to take place, but the crowd +"scratched" it. The neat wooden barricades and the neat ropes that +linked them up about a neat parade ground on the green were reduced by +the scientific process of bringing an irresistible force against a +movable body. Boy Scouts ceased to figure in the program and became +mere atoms in a mass that surrounded the Prince once more, and +expressed itself in the usual way now it had him to itself. +</P> + +<P> +As usual the Prince himself showed not the slightest disinclination for +fitting in with such an impromptu ceremony. He was as happy and in his +element as he always was when meeting everyday people in the closest +intimacy. It was a carnival of democracy, but one in which he played +as democratic a part as any among that throng. +</P> + +<P> +Yet though the Prince himself was the direct incentive to the +democratic exchanges that happened throughout the tour, there was no +doubt that the strain of them was exhausting. +</P> + +<P> +He possesses an extraordinary vitality. He is so full of life and +energy that it was difficult to give him enough to do, and this and the +fact that Canada's wonderful welcome had called into play a powerful +sympathetic response, led him to throw himself into everything with a +tireless zest. Nevertheless, the strenuous days at Toronto, followed +by this strenuous welcome at Ottawa, had made great demands upon him, +and it was decided to cut down his program that day to a Garden Party +in the charming grounds of Government House, and to shelve all +engagements for the next day, Friday, August 29th. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince agreed to the dropping of all engagements save one, and that +was the Public Reception at the City Hall on the 29th. It was the most +exacting of the events on the program, but he would not hear of its +elimination; the only alteration in detail that he made was that his +right hand, damaged at Toronto, should be allowed to rest, and that all +shaking should be done with the left. +</P> + +<P> +The Public Reception took place. The only invitation issued was one in +the newspapers. The newspapers said "The Prince will meet the City." +He did. The whole City came. It was again the most popular, as well +as the most stimulating of functions. And it followed the inevitable +lines. All manner of people, all grades of people in all conditions of +costume attended. Old ladies again asked him when he was going to get +married. Lumbermen in calf-high boots grinned "How do, Prince?" +Mothers brought babies in arms, most of them of the inarticulate age, +and of awful and solemn dignity of under one—it was as though these +Ottawa mothers had been inspired by the fine and homely loyalty of a +past age, and had brought their babies to be "touched" by a Prince, +who, like the Princes of old, was one with as well as being at the head +of the great British family. +</P> + +<P> +And with all the people were the little boys, eager, full of initiative +and cunning. Shut out by the Olympians, one group of little boys found +a strategic way into the Hall by means of a fire-escape staircase. +They had already shaken hands with the Prince before their flank +movement had been discovered and the flaw in the endless queue +repaired. That queue was never finished. Although, on the testimony +of the experts, the Prince shook hands at the rate of forty-five to the +minute, the time set aside for the reception only allowed of some 2,500 +filing before him. +</P> + +<P> +But those outside that number were not forgotten. The Prince came out +to the front of the hall to express his regret that Nature had proved +niggardly in the matter of hands. He had only one hand, and that +limited greetings, but he could not let them go without expressing his +delight to them for their warm and personal welcome. +</P> + +<P> +The disappointed ones recognized the limits of human endeavour. His +popularity was in no way lessened. They were content with having seen +"the cute little feller" as some of them called him, and made the most +of that experience by listening to, and swopping anecdotes about, him. +</P> + +<P> +Most of these centred round his accessibility. One typical story was +about a soldier, who, having met him in France, stepped out from the +crowd and hopped on to the footboard of his car to say "How d'y' do?" +The Prince gripped the khaki man's hand at once, and shaking it and +holding the soldier safely on the car with his other hand, he talked +while they went along. Then both men saluted, and the soldier hopped +off again and returned to the crowd. +</P> + +<P> +"It was just as if you saw me in an automobile and came along to tell +me something," said the man who told me the story. "There was no +king-stuff about it. And that's why he gets us. There isn't a sheet +of ice between us and him." +</P> + +<P> +Another man said to me: +</P> + +<P> +"If you'd told me a month ago that anybody was going to get this sort +of a reception I should have smiled and called you an innocent. I +would have told you the Canadians aren't built that way. We're a +hard-bitten, independent, irreverent breed. We don't go about shouting +over anybody.... But now we've gone wild over him. And I can't +understand it. He's our sort. He has no side. We like to treat men +as men, and that's the way he meets us." +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H4> + +<P> +The long week-end, so strenuously begun, did, however, give the Prince +his opportunity for rest and recreation. He had a quiet time in the +home of the Governor-General at the beautiful Rideau Hall, the +attractive and spacious grounds of which are part of the untrammelled +expanses of the lovely Rockhill Park which hangs on a cliff and keeps +company with the shining Ottawa river for miles to the east of the +city. Apart from sightseeing, and golfing and dancing at the pretty +County Club across the Ottawa on the Hull side, he attempted no program +until Monday morning. +</P> + +<P> +Ottawa is not so virile in atmosphere as other of the Canadian cities. +Its artificial heart, the Parliament area, seems to absorb most of its +vitality. Its architecture is massed very effectively on the hill +whose steep cliffs in a spray of shrubs, rise at the knee of the two +rivers, the Ottawa and the Rideau, but outside the radius of the +Parliament buildings and the few, fine, brisk, lively streets that +serve them, the town fades disappointingly eastward, westward and +northward into spiritless streets of residences. +</P> + +<P> +The shores of the river are its chiefest attraction. Below the +Parliament bluff, there lies to the left a silver white spit in the +blue of the stream, that humps itself into a green and habitual mass on +which are a huddle of picturesque houses. These hide the spray of the +Chaudière Falls, which stretch between this island and the Hull side. +Below the Falls is the picturesque mass of a lumber "boom," that +stretches down the river. +</P> + +<P> +To the extreme right beyond the locks of Rideau Canal, is the dramatic +lattice-work of a fine bridge, a bridge where railroad tracks, +tram-roads, automobile and footways dive under and over each other at +the entrances in order to find their different levels for crossing. +Beyond the bridge, and close against it is the jutting cliff that makes +the point of Major Hill Park. +</P> + +<P> +Between these two extremes, right and left, one faces a broad plain, +wooded and gemmed with painted houses, and ending in a smoke-blue +rampart of distant hills—all of it luminant with the curiously +clarified light of Canada. +</P> + +<P> +From Major Hill Park the riverside avenue goes east over the Rideau, +whose Falls are famous, but now obscured by a lumber mill; past Rideau +Hall to Rockhill Park. Rockhill Park is a delight. It has all the +joys of the primitive wilderness plus a service of street-cars. Its +promenade under the fine and scattered trees follows the lip of the +cliff along the Ottawa, and across the blue stream can be seen the +fillet of gold beach of the far side, and on the stream are red-sailed +boats, canoes, and natty gasolene launches. How far Rockhill Park +keeps company with the Ottawa, I do not know. A stroll of nearly two +hours brought me to a region of comely country houses, set in broad +gardens—but there was still park, and it seemed to go on for ever. +</P> + +<P> +There are two or three Golf Clubs (every town in Canada has a golf +course, or two, and sometimes they are municipal) over the river on the +Hull side—a side that was at the time of our visit a place of +pilgrimage from Ottawa proper. For it is in Quebec, where the "dry" +law is not implacable as that of Ottawa and Ontario. Hull is also +noted for its match factory and other manufactures that make up a very +good go-ahead industrial town, as well as for the fact that in matters +of contributions to Victory Loans, and that sort of thing, it can hold +its own with any city, though that city be five times its size. +</P> + +<P> +The chief of the Ottawa clubs on the Hull side is the County Club, an +idyllic place that has made the very best out of the rather rough +plain, and stands looking through the trees to the rapids of the Ottawa +river. It is a delightful club, built with the usual Western instinct +for apposite design, and, as with most clubs on the American Continent, +it is a revelation of comfort. Its dining-room is extraordinarily +attractive, for it is actually the spacious verandah of the building, +screened by trellis work into which is woven the leaves and flowers of +climbers. The ceiling is a canopy of flowers and green leaves, and to +dine here overlooking the lawns is to know an hour of the greatest +charm. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince was the guest here on several occasions, and dances were +given in his honour. For this purpose the lawn in front of the +verandah was squared off with a high arcadian trellis, and between the +pillars of this trellis were hung flowers and flags and lights, and all +the trees about had coloured bulbs amid their leaves, so that at night +it was an impression of Arcady as a modern Watteau might see it, with +the crispness and the beauty of the women and the vivid dresses of the +women giving the scene a quality peculiarly and vivaciously Canadian. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +IV +</H4> + +<P> +The circumstances of Monday, September 1st, made it an unforgettable +day. +</P> + +<P> +The chief ceremonies on the Prince's program were the laying of the +corner-stone of the new Parliament Buildings, and the inauguration of +the Victory Loan. But something else happened which made it momentous. +It happened to be Labour Day. +</P> + +<P> +It was the day when the whole of Labour in Canada—and indeed in +America—gave itself over to demonstrations. Labour held street +parades, field sports, and, I daresay, made speeches. It was the day +of days for the workers. +</P> + +<P> +There were some who thought that the program of Labour would clash with +the program of the Prince. That, to put it at its mildest, Labour on a +holiday would ignore the Royal ceremonials and emasculate them as +functions. The men who put forward these opinions were Canadians, but +they did not know Canada. It was Labour Day, and Labour made the day +for the Prince. +</P> + +<P> +When the Prince had learnt that it was the People's day, and that there +was to be a big sports meeting and gala in one of the Ottawa parks, he +had specially added another item to his full list of events, and made +it known that he would visit the park. +</P> + +<P> +Labour promptly returned the courtesy, and of its own free will turned +its parade into a guard of honour, which lined the fine Rideau and +Wellington streets for his progress between Government House and +Parliament Square. +</P> + +<P> +As far as I could gather Labour decided upon and carried this out +without consulting anybody. Streets were taken over without any +warning, and certainly without any fuss. There seemed to be few police +about, and there was no need for them. Labour took command of the show +in the interest of its friend the Prince, and would not permit the +slightest disorderliness. +</P> + +<P> +It was a remarkable sight. Early in the morning the Labour Parade +appeared along Rideau Street, mounting the hill to the Parliament +House. The processionists, each group in the costume of its calling, +walked in long, thin files on each side of the road, the line broken at +intervals by the trade floats. Floats are an essential part of every +American parade; they are what British people call "set-pieces," +tableaux built up on wagons or on automobiles; all of them are +ingenious and most of them are beautiful. +</P> + +<P> +These floats represented the various trades, a boiler-maker's shop in +full (and noisy) action; a stone-worker's bench in operation; the +framework of a wooden house on an auto, to show Ottawa what its +carpenters and joiners could do, and so on. With these marched the +workers, distinctively clothed, as though the old guilds had never +ceased. +</P> + +<P> +When the head of the procession reached the entrance of Parliament +Square it halted, and the line, turning left and right, walked towards +the curb, pressing back the thousands of sightseers to the pavement in +a most effective manner. They lined and kept the route in this fashion +until the Prince had passed. +</P> + +<P> +It was thus that the Prince drove, not between the ranks of an army of +soldiers, but through the ranks of the army of labour. Not khaki, but +the many uniforms of labour marked the route. There were firemen in +peaked caps, with bright steel grappling-hooks at their waists; +butchers in white blouses, white trousers, and white peaked caps; there +were tram-conductors, and railway-men, hotel porters, teamsters in +overalls, lumbermen in calf-high boots of tan, with their rough socks +showing above them on their blue jumper trousers, barbers, drug-store +clerks and men of all the trades. +</P> + +<P> +Above this guard of workers were the banners of the Unions, some in +English, some proclaiming in French that here was "La Fraternité Unie +Charpentiers et Menuisiers," and so on. +</P> + +<P> +It was a real demonstration of democracy. It was the spontaneous and +affectionate action of the everyday people, determined to show how +personal was its regard for a Prince who knew how to be one with the +everyday people. As a demonstration it was immensely more significant +than the most august item of a formal program. +</P> + +<P> +As the Prince rode through those hearty and friendly ranks in a State +carriage, and behind mounted troopers, the troopers and the trappings +seemed to matter very little indeed. The crowd that cheered and waved +flags—and sometimes spanners and kitchen pans—and the youth who waved +his gloves back and forth with all their own freedom from ceremony, +were the things that mattered. +</P> + +<P> +When, at the laying of the corner-stone a few minutes later, Sir Robert +Borden declared that, in repeating the act of his grandfather, who laid +the original corner-stone of Canada's Parliament buildings, as Prince +of Wales, in 1860, His Royal Highness was inaugurating a new era, the +happenings of just now seemed to lend conviction that indeed a new +phase of history had come into being. It was a phase in which throne +and people had been woven into a strong and sane democracy, begot of +the intimate personal sympathy, understanding and reliance the war had +brought about between rulers and people. +</P> + +<P> +The new buildings replace the old Parliament Houses burnt down in the +beginning of the war. The fire was attended by sad loss of life, and +one of those killed was a lady, who, having got out of the burning +building in safety, was suddenly overcome by a feminine desire to save +her furs. She re-entered the blazing building and was lost. +</P> + +<P> +The new building follows the design of the old, rather rigid structure, +though it has not the campanile. The porch where the stone was laid +was draped in huge hangings descending in grave folds from a sheaf of +flags; this with the façade of the grey stone building made a superb +backing to the great stage of terrace upon which the ceremony was +enacted. It had all the dignity, colour and braveness of a Durbar. +</P> + +<P> +The Victory Loan was inaugurated by the unfurling of a flag by the +Prince. He promised to give to each of the cities and villages (by the +way, I don't think the villages are villages in Canada; they are all +towns) who subscribed a certain percentage a replica of this special +flag. There was keen competition throughout the Dominion for these +flags, Canadians responding to the pictures on the hoardings with a +good will, in order to win a "Prince of Wales' Flag." +</P> + +<P> +Although the Prince was down to visit Hull at a specific time that +afternoon, he set aside an hour in order to pay his promised visit to +the Labour fête in Lansdowne Park. There was only time for him to +drive through the park, but the warm reception given to him made it an +action really worth while. +</P> + +<P> +Hull, which is inclined to sprawl as a town, was transformed by sun, +flags and people into a place of great attraction when the Prince +arrived. And if there was not any high pomp about the visit, there was +certainly prettiness. The pretty girls of Hull had transformed +themselves into representatives of all the races of the Entente, and as +the Prince stood on the scarlet steps of a daïs outside the Town Hall, +each one of these came forward and made him a curtsy. +</P> + +<P> +Following them were four tiny girls, each holding a large bouquet, each +bouquet being linked to the others by broad red ribbons. They were the +jolliest little girls, but nervous, and after negotiating the terrors +of the scarlet stairs with discretion, the broad desert of the daïs +undid them—or rather it didn't. At the moment of presentation, four +little girls, as well as four bouquets, were linked together by broad +red ribbons, until it was difficult to tell which was little girl and +which was bouquet. There were many untanglers present, but the chief +of them was the Prince of Wales himself. +</P> + +<P> +The Hull ceremonials were certainly as happy as any could be. The +little girls gave a homely touch, so did the people—match-factory +girls, brown-habited Franciscan friars, and the rest—who joined in the +public reception, but the crowning touch of this atmosphere was the +review of the war veterans. +</P> + +<P> +There were so many war veterans that Hull had no open space large +enough to parade them. Hull, therefore, had the happy idea of +reviewing them in the main street. Thus the everyday street was packed +with everyday men who had fought for the very homes about them. That +seemed to bring out the real purpose of the great war more than any +effort in propaganda could. +</P> + +<P> +It was in the main street, too, after receiving a loving cup from the +Great War Veterans, that the Prince spoke to these comrades of the war. +He stood up in his car and addressed them simply and directly, thanking +them and wishing them good luck, and there was something infinitely +suggestive in his standing up there so simply amid that pack of men, +and women wedged tightly between the houses of that homely street. +</P> + +<P> +Wedged is assuredly the right term, for it was with difficulty, and +only by infinite care, that the car was driven through the crowd and +away. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER X +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +MONTREAL: QUEBEC +</H4> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H4> + +<P> +Montreal was not actually in the schedule. In the program of the +Prince's tour it was put down as the last place he should visit. This, +in a sense, was fitting. It was proper that the greatest city in +Canada should wind up the visit in a befitting week. +</P> + +<P> +All the same, as the Prince himself said, he could not possibly start +for the West without making at least a call on Montreal, so he rounded +off his travels among the big cities of the Canadian East by spending +the inside of a day there. +</P> + +<P> +I wonder whether there was ever an inside of a day so crowded? I was +present when Manchester rushed President Wilson through a headlong +morning of events, and the Manchester effort was pedestrian beside +Montreal's. Even the Prince, who himself can put any amount of vigour +into life, must have found nothing in his experience to equal a +non-stop series of ceremonies carried on, at times, at a pace of +forty-miles an hour. +</P> + +<P> +That is what happened. Montreal was given about four hours of the +Prince. Montreal is a progressive city; it has an up-to-date and +"Do-It-Now" sense. Confronted at very short notice with those four +hours, it promptly set itself to make the most of them. It packed +about four days' program into them. +</P> + +<P> +It managed this, of course, by using motor-cars. The whole of the +American Continent, I have come to see, has a motor-car method of +thinking out and accomplishing things. Montreal certainly has. +Montreal met the Prince in an automobile mood, whipped him from the +train and entertained him on the top gear for every moment of his stay. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H4> + +<P> +He arrived at the handsome Windsor Station of the C.P.R. on the morning +of Tuesday, September 2nd, and was at once taken to a big, grey motor. +His guide, the Mayor of the city, then began to show him how time could +be annihilated and days compressed into hours. +</P> + +<P> +In those few hours he was shown not a section of the great commercial +city, not merely the City Hall, and a street or two, and a place +wherein to lunch. He was shown all Montreal. He was shown the city of +Montreal and the suburbs of Montreal, and verily I believe he was shown +every man, woman, and certainly every child of flag-wagging age, in +Montreal. +</P> + +<P> +And when he had seen the high, fine business blocks of Montreal, and +the pretty residential districts, where the well-designed homes seem to +stand on terrace over terrace of the smoothest, greenest grass, he was +shown the country-side about Montreal, the comely little habitant +parishes and holiday places that make outlying Montreal, and the +convents and the colleges where Montreal educates itself, the +Universities where that education is rounded off, and the long, wide, +straight speedways over which Montreal citizens get the best out of +their motor-car moments—and he was shown how it was done. +</P> + +<P> +And after showing him the rivers that make the hilly country about +Montreal beautiful, and the little pocket villages, he was swung back +out of the green of the summer country and shown more business blocks, +and just a hint of the great wharves and docks that fringe the St. +Lawrence and give the city its great industrial power and fame. Then +when they had shown him all the things that man usually sees only after +weeks of tenacious exploration, they spun him up a corkscrew drive that +goes first among charming houses, then among beautiful deep trees and +grass, and sat him down in a glowing pavilion on the top of this hill, +Mount Royal—the Montreal that gives the city its name—and gave him +lunch. +</P> + +<P> +There, as he ate, he looked down over one of the great views of the +world. Below him was the splendid vista of a splendid city; the mass +of tall offices, factories and the high fret of derricks and elevators +along the quays that covered the site of the Indian lodges of Hochelaga +that Jacques Cartier first found; the mass of spires from a thousand +churches, the swelling domes and hipped roofs of basilica and college +that had grown up from the old religious outpost, the nucleus of +Christianity in the wilds that was to convert the wilds, the Ville +Marie de Montreal that Maisonneuve had founded nearly three centuries +ago. +</P> + +<P> +And beyond this swinging breadth of city that was modernity, as well as +history, the Prince saw the grey, misty bosom of the St. Lawrence, +winding broad and significant beneath the distant hills. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H4> + +<P> +Truly it had been a mighty day, worthy of a mighty city. And a day not +merely big in achievement, but big in meaning also. In his drive the +Prince had covered no less than thirty-six miles in and about the city, +and on practically the whole of that great sweep there had been crowds, +and at times big crowds, all friendly and with an enthusiasm that was +French as well as Canadian. +</P> + +<P> +There were naturally tracts of road in the country where people did not +gather in force, but almost everywhere there were some. Sometimes it +was a family gathered by a pretty house draped with flags. Sometimes +it was a village, making up with the flags in their hands for the +hanging flags short notice had prevented their sporting. +</P> + +<P> +On an open stretch of road the Prince would come abreast of a convent +in the fields. By the fence of the convent all the little girls would +be ranked, dressed, sometimes, in national ribbons, and anyhow carrying +flags, and with them would be the nuns. Or if the convent was not a +teaching order, the nuns would be by themselves, forming a delightful +picture of quiet respect on the porch or along the garden wall. +</P> + +<P> +Boys' schools had the inmates gathered at the road-edge in jolly mobs, +though some of these had a semi-military dignity, because of the quaint +and kepi-ed uniform of the school, that made the boys look like cadets +out of a picture by Detaille. +</P> + +<P> +The seminaries had their flocks of black fledglings drawn up under the +professor-priests, and the sober black of these embryo priests had not +the slightest restriction on their enthusiasm. +</P> + +<P> +There were crowds everywhere on that extraordinary ride, but it was in +Montreal itself that the throngs reached immense proportions. From the +first moment of arrival, when the Prince in mufti rode out from under +the clangour of "God Bless the Prince of Wales" played on the bells of +St. George's Church, that hob-nobs with the station, crowds were thick +about the route. As he swung from Dominion Square (in which the +station stands) into the Regent Street of Montreal, St. Catherine +Street, crowds of employés crowded the windows of the big and fine +stores, and added their welcome to the mass on the sidewalks. +</P> + +<P> +Short notice had curtailed decoration, but the enthusiastic employés +(mainly feminine) of one tall store strove to rectify the lack by +arming themselves with flags and stationing themselves at every window. +Balancing perilously, they waited until the Prince came level, and then +set the whole face of the tall building fluttering with Union Jacks. +</P> + +<P> +From these streets, impressive in their sense of vigour and industry, +the procession of cars mounted through the residential quarter to Mount +Royal Park. Here in the presence of a big crowd that surrounded him +and got to close quarters at once, the Prince alighted and stayed a few +minutes at the statue of Georges Etienne Cartier, the father of +Canadian unity, whose centenary was then being celebrated, since the +war forbade rejoicing on the real anniversary in 1914. +</P> + +<P> +Cartier's daughter, Hortense Cartier, was present at this little +ceremony, and she was, as it were, a personal link between her father +and the Prince, who is himself helping to inaugurate a new phase of +unity, that of the Empire. +</P> + +<P> +From this point the Prince's route struck out into the country +districts that I have described, but the crowds had accumulated rather +than diminished when he returned to the streets of the city, about one +o'clock, and he drove through lanes of people so dense that at times +the pace of his car was retarded to a walk. +</P> + +<P> +The crowd was a suggestive one. All ranks and conditions were in +it—and conditions rather than ranks were apparent in the dock-side +area, which is a dingy one for Canada. But in all the crowds the thing +that struck me most was their proportion of children. Montreal seemed +a veritable hive of children. There were thousands and thousands of +them. +</P> + +<P> +The streets were bursting with kiddies. And not merely were there +multitudes of girls and boys of that thoroughly vociferous age of +somewhere under twelve, but there were ranked battalions of boys and +maids, all of an age obviously under twenty. +</P> + +<P> +Quebec is the province of large families. Ten children to a marriage +is a commonplace, and twenty is not a rarity. A man is not thought to +be worth his salt unless he has his quiver full. And the result of +this as I saw it in the streets gives food for thought. +</P> + +<P> +That huge marshalling of the citizens of tomorrow gives one not merely +a sense of Canada's potentiality, but of the potentiality of Quebec in +the future of Canada. With a new race of such a healthy standard +growing up, the future of Montreal has a look of greatness. Montreal +is now the biggest and most vigorous city in Canada, it plays a large +part in the life of Canada. What part will it play tomorrow? +</P> + +<P> +A good as well as great part, surely. Discriminating Canadians tell +you that the French-Canadian makes the best type of citizen. He is +industrious, go-ahead, sane, practical; he is law-abiding and he is +loyal. His history shows that he is loyal; indeed, Canada as it stands +today owes not a little to French-Canadian loyalty and willingness to +take up arms in support of British institutions. +</P> + +<P> +French-Canada took up arms in the Great War to good purpose, sending +40,000 men to the Front, though its good work has been obscured by the +political propaganda made out of the Anti-Conscription campaign. Sober +politicians—by no means on the side of the French-Canadians—told me +that there was rather more smoke in that matter than circumstances +created, and in Britain particularly the business was over-exaggerated. +There was a good deal of politics mixed up in the attitude of Quebec, +"And in any case," said my informant, "Quebec was not the first to +oppose conscription, nor yet the bitterest, though she was, perhaps, +the most candid." +</P> + +<P> +The language difficulty is a difficulty, yet that has been the subject +of exaggeration, also. Those who find it a grave problem seem to be +those who have never come in contact with it, but are anxious about it +at a distance. Those who are in contact with the French-speaking races +say that French and English-speaking peoples get on well on the whole, +and have an esteem for each other that makes nothing of the language +barrier. +</P> + +<P> +Concerning the Roman Catholic Church, which is certainly in a very +powerful position in Quebec, I have heard from non-Catholics quite as +much said in favour of the good it does, as I have heard to the +contrary, so I concluded that on its human side it is as human as any +other concern, doing good and making mistakes in the ordinary human +way. As far as its spiritual side is concerned there is no doubt at +all that it holds its people. Its huge churches are packed with huge +congregations at every service on Sunday. +</P> + +<P> +On the whole, then, I fancy that that part of Canada's future which +lies in the hands of the children of Montreal, and the Province of +Quebec generally, will be for the good of the Dominion. Certainly the +attitude of the people as shown in the packed and ecstatic streets of +Montreal was a very good omen. +</P> + +<P> +The welcome had had its usual effect on the Prince. The formal salute +never had a chance, and from the outset of the ride he had stood up in +his car and waved back in answer to the cheering of the crowd. When +standing for so many miles tired him, he sat high up on the folded +hood, with one of his suite to hold him, and he did not stop waving his +hat. In this way he accomplished the thirty-six miles ride, only +slipping down into his seat as the car mounted the stiff zig-zag that +led up Mount Royal to the luncheon pavilion. +</P> + +<P> +The slowness of this climb was, in a sense, his undoing. As his car +neared the top of the hill, two Montreal flappers, whose extreme youth +was only exceeded by their extreme daring, sprang on to the footboard +and held him up with autograph books. He immediately produced a +fountain pen, and sitting once more on the back of the car, wrote his +name as the car went along, and the young ladies from Montreal clung on +to it. +</P> + +<P> +This delightful act was too much for one of the maidens, for, on +getting her book back, she kissed the Prince impulsively, and then in a +sudden attack of deferred modesty, sprang from the car and ran for her +blushes' sake. +</P> + +<P> +From the luncheon pavilion the Prince was whirled to the Royal train, +and in that, after a recuperative round of golf at a course just +outside Montreal, he set out for the comparative calm of the great West. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +ON THE ROAD TO TROUT +</H4> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H4> + +<P> +The run on the days following the packed moments of Montreal was one of +luxurious indolence. The Royal train was heading for the almost fabled +trout of Nipigon, where, among the beauties of lake and stream, the +Prince was to take a long week-end fishing and preparing for more +crowds and more strenuosity in the Canadian West. +</P> + +<P> +Through those two days the train seemed to meander in a leisurely +fashion through varied and attractive country, only stopping now and +then as though it had to work off a ceremonial occasionally as an +excuse for existing at all. +</P> + +<P> +The route ran through pleasant, farmed land between Montreal and North +Bay and Sudbury, and then switched downward through the bleak nickel +and copper country to the beautiful coast of Lake Huron on its way to +Sault Ste. Marie. From this town, which the whole Continent knows as +"Soo," it plunged north through the magnificent scenery of the Algoma +area to Oba, and, turning west again (and in the night), it ran on to +Nipigon Lake. +</P> + +<P> +It was a genial and attractive run. We sat, as it were, lapped in the +serenity of the C.P.R., and studied the view. Wherever there were +houses there were people, to wave something at the Prince's car. At +one homestead a man and his wife stood alone near the split-rail fence, +the woman curtsying, the man, who had obviously been a soldier, +flag-wagging some message we could not catch, with a big red ensign; an +infinitely touching sight, that couple getting their greeting to the +Prince in spite of difficulties. On the stations the local school +children were always drawn up in ranks, most of them holding flags, +many having a broad red-white-and-blue ribbon across their front rank +to show their patriotism. +</P> + +<P> +At North Bay, a purposeful little town that lets the traveller either +into the scenic and sporting delights of Lake Nipissing, or into the +mining districts of the Timiskaming country, there was a bright little +reception. North Bay is a characteristic Canadian town. It was born +in a night, so to speak, and its growth outstrips editions of guide +books. Outside the neat station there is a big grass oblong, and about +this green the frame houses and the shops extend. Behind it is the +town so keen on growing up about the big railway repair shops, that it +has no time yet to give to road-making. +</P> + +<P> +The ceremonial was in the green oblong, and all North Bay left their +houses and shops to attend. The visit had more the air of a family +party than aught else, for, after a mere pretence of keeping ranks, the +people broke in upon the function, and Prince and Staff and people +became inextricably mixed. When His Royal Highness took car to drive +around the town, the crowd cut off the cars in the procession, and for +half an hour North Bay was full of orderlies and committee-men +automobiling about speculative streets in search of a missing Prince, +plus one Mayor. +</P> + +<P> +Sudbury, the same type of town, growing at a distracting pace because +of its railway connection and its smelting plants, had the same sort of +ceremony. From here we passed through a land of almost sinister +bleakness. There were tracts livid and stark, entirely without +vegetation, and with the livid white and naked surface cut into wild +channels and gullies by rains that must have been as pitiless as the +land. It was as though we had steamed out of a human land into the +drear valleys of the moon, and one expected to catch glimpses of +creatures as terrifying as any Mr. Wells has imagined. So cadaverous a +realm could breed little else. +</P> + +<P> +It was the country of nickel and copper. We saw occasionally the +buildings and workings (scarce less grim than the land) through the +agency of which came the grey slime that had rendered the country so +bleak. They are particularly rich mines, and rank high among the +nickel workings in the world. They were also, let it be said, of +immense value to the Allies during the war. +</P> + +<P> +Pushing south, the line soon redeems itself in the beauty of the lakes. +It bends to skirt the shore of Lake Huron, a great blue sea, and yet +but a link in the chain of great lakes that lead from Superior through +it to Erie and Ontario lakes, and on to the St. Lawrence. +</P> + +<P> +We arrived on a beautiful evening at Algoma, a spot as delightful as a +Cornish village, on the beach of that inlet of Lake Huron called +Georgian Bay. We walked in the astonishing quiet of the evening +through the tiny place, and along the deep, sandy road that has not yet +been won from the primitive forests, to where but a tiny fillet of +beach stood between the spruce woods and the vast silence of the water. +From that serene and quiet spot we looked through the still evening to +the far and beautiful Islands. +</P> + +<P> +In the wonderful clear air, and with all the soft colours of the sunset +glowing in the still water, the beauty of the place was almost too +poignant. We might have been the discoverers of an uninhabited bay in +the Islands of the Blessed. I have never known any place so remote, so +still and so beautiful. But it was far from being uninhabited. There +were rustic picnic tables under the spruce trees, and there was a +diving-board standing over the clear water. The inhabitants of Algoma +knew the worth of this place, and we felt them to be among the luckiest +people on the earth. +</P> + +<P> +The islands we saw far away in the soft beauty of the sunset, and +between which the enigmatic light of a lake steamer was moving, are +said to be Hiawatha's Islands. In any case, it was here that the +pageant of Hiawatha was held some years back, and across the still lake +in that pageant, Hiawatha in his canoe went out to be lost in the +glories of the sunset. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H4> + +<P> +On the morning of Tuesday, September 4th, the train skirted Georgian +Bay, passing many small villages given over to lumber and fishing, and +all having, with their tiny jetties, motor launches and sailing boats, +something of the perfection of scenes viewed in a clear mirror. By +mid-morning the train reached Sault Ste. Marie. +</P> + +<P> +"Soo" is a vivid place. It is a young city on the rise. A handful of +years ago it was a French mission, beginning to turn its eyes languidly +towards lumber. It is on the neck that joins the waters of Superior +and Huron, but the only through traffic was that of the voyageurs, who +made the portage round the stiff St. Mary's Rapids, that, with a drop +of eighteen feet in their length, forbade any vessel but that of the +canoe of the adventurer to pass their troubled waters. +</P> + +<P> +Then America and Canada began to build canals and locks to link the +great lakes, in spite of the Rapids, and "Soo" woke. It has been awake +and living since that moment. It has been playing lock against lock +with the Michigan men across the river, each planning cunningly to +establish a system that will carry the long lake vessels not only in +locks befitting their size, but in locks that can be handled more +swiftly than those of the rival. +</P> + +<P> +At the moment the prize is with Canada. It has a lock nine hundred +feet long, and can do the business of lowering a great vessel from +Superior to Huron with one action, where America uses four locks. The +Americans have a larger lock than the Canadian, but the Canadians are +quicker. +</P> + +<P> +And this means something. The traffic on these lakes is greater than +the traffic on many seas. Down this vast water highway come the narrow +pencils of lake-boats carrying grain and ore and lumber in hulls that +are all hold. They come and go incessantly. "Soo," indeed, handles +about three times the tonnage of Suez yearly, and there is the American +side to add to that. +</P> + +<P> +With this brisk movement of commercial life within her, "Soo" has +thrived like a cold. Where, in the old days, the local inhabitants +could be reckoned on the fingers of two hands, there is now a city of +about twenty thousand, and it is still growing. It is a city of +graceful streets and neat houses climbing over the Laurentine Hills +that make the site. It is breezy and self-assured, and draws its +comfortable affluence from its shipping, its paper-mills, its steel +works, as well as from lumber, agriculture and other industries. +</P> + +<P> +It met the Prince as becomes a youth of promise. Crowds massed on the +lawns before the red sandstone station, and in all the streets there +were crowds. And crowds followed his every movement, however swift it +was, for "Soo" has the automobile fever as badly as any other town in +Canada, and car owners packed their families, even to the youngest in +arms, into tonneaux and joined a procession a mile long, that followed +the Prince about the town. +</P> + +<P> +It is true that some of the crowd was America out to look at Royalty. +Americans were not slow to make the most of the fact that they were to +have a Prince across the river. From early morning the ferry that runs +from Michigan to the British Empire was packed with Republican autos +and Republicans on foot, all eager to be there when Royalty arrived. +They gathered in the streets and joined in the procession. They gave +the Prince the hearty greeting of good-fellows. They were as good +friends of his as anybody there. They did, in fact, give us a +foretaste of what we were to expect when the Prince went to the United +States. +</P> + +<P> +There were the usual functions. They took place high on a hill, from +which the Prince could look down upon the blue waters of the linked +lakes, the many factory chimneys, the smoke of which threw a quickening +sense of human endeavour athwart the scene, and the great jack-knife +girder bridge, that is the railway connection between Canada and +America, but above the usual functions the visit to "Soo" had items +that made it particularly interesting. +</P> + +<P> +He went to the great lock that carries the interlake traffic. He +crossed from one side of it to the other, and then stood out on the +lock gate, while it was opened to allow the passage of several small +vessels. From here he went to the Algoma Railway, at the head of the +canal, and in a special car was taken to the rapids that tumble down in +foam between the two countries. +</P> + +<P> +The train was brought to a standstill at the international boundary, +where two sentries, Canadian and American, face each other, and where +there was another big crowd, this time all American, to give him a +cheer. +</P> + +<P> +He then spent some time visiting the paper mill that helps to make +"Soo" rich. He went over it department by department, asking many +questions and showing that the processes fascinated him intensely. In +the same way he went through the steel works, and was again intrigued +by the sight of "things doing." It was, as he said himself, one of the +most interesting days he had spent in the Dominion. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H4> + +<P> +"Soo" let us into a wonderful tract of country. +</P> + +<P> +Still in the sumptuous C.P.R. train, we swung north over the Algoma +Railway track into a land so wildly magnificent and yet so lonely, that +one felt that the railway line must have been built by poets for +poets—we could not imagine it thriving on anything else. +</P> + +<P> +As a matter of fact, it does link up rich mining and other territory, +and, in time, will open a land of equal value, but just now its chief +asset is scenery. +</P> + +<P> +The scenery is superb. Its hills are huge and battlemented. They leap +up sheer above the train, menacing it; they drop down starkly, leaving +the line clinging to a ledge above a white, angry stream on a white +rock bed. They crowd the line into gorges, from which the sun is +banished, and where the moveless firs look like lost souls chained in +the gloom of Eblis. They expand abruptly, suddenly, into swinging +valleys, on whose great flanks the spruce forests look like toy +decorations hanging above floors of shining sapphire—lakes, of course, +but one could not think that any lake could be so blue. +</P> + +<P> +Lakes fretted into lagoons by thin white slivers of shingle; rivers +full of tumbled and dishevelled logs; forests in green, in which the +crimson maple leaf burns brightly; vast amphitheatres of cliff-like +hills; mounds of the stark Laurentine rock pushing up through trees +like bald heads through the sparse covering of departing hair; miles of +blanched trees and black trees standing like skeletons or strewn +all-whither, like billets of stick—acres of murdered stumps, where +evil forest fires have swept along; and we had even an occasional +glimpse of that scourge of Canada seen smoking sullenly in the +distance—all this heaped together, piled together in a reckless +luxuriance makes up the scenery of the Algoma country. +</P> + +<P> +Only rarely does one see the hut of rough logs and clay that denotes +the settler, only occasionally is there a station, or a mill or a +logging camp in this womb of loneliness. Only occasionally does one +cross one of those lengthy and rakish spider bridges that give a hint +of man and his works. +</P> + +<P> +On a long bridge, over the Montreal river, we made the most of man and +his works. It is a lengthy, curving bridge, built giddily on stilts +above the boulder-strewn bed of a wicked stream. We were admiring it +as a desperate work of engineering, when the train stopped with a +disconcerting bump. It stopped with violence. And when we had picked +ourselves up we looked out of the train and saw nothing—only that +particularly vicious river and those unpleasantly jagged rocks. +</P> + +<P> +When one is on a Canadian bridge this is all one sees—the depth one is +going to drop, and what one is going to drop on. The top of the bridge +is wide enough for the rails only, and the sides of the carriages hang +beyond the rails. And there are no parapets. One just looks plumb +down. We looked down, and back and forward. The struts and girders of +the bridge seemed made of pack-thread and spider's web. We wondered +why we should have stopped in the middle of such a place of all places. +And the train looked so enormous. We asked the superintendent if the +bridge could hold it. +</P> + +<P> +He said he thought so, but it had never been tested by such a weight +before. +</P> + +<P> +From the way he said "thought," we gathered he meant "hoped." +</P> + +<P> +Somebody had wanted to show the Prince the view. It was a fine view, +but we were not sorry it wasn't permanent. With the view, the Prince +took in a little shooting at clay pigeons in view of the days he was to +spend in sporting Nipigon. +</P> + +<P> +We ran straight on to Nipigon, only stopping at Oba, and that in the +night. But before the night came Canada and Algoma gave us an +exquisite sunset. We saw the light of the sun on a vast stretch of +hummocks and hills of bald rock. They had been clothed with forest +before the fires had passed over them. As the sun set, an exquisite +thin cherry light shone evenly on the hills and bluffs, and on the thin +and naked trees that stood up like wands in this eerie and clarified +light. In the distance there was a faint vermilion in the sky, and +where the tree stumps fringed the bare hills, they gave the suggestion +of a band of violet edging the land. And all this in an air as clear +and shining as still water. It seemed to me that Canada was waiting +there for a painter of a new vision to catch its wonder. +</P> + +<P> +Even in the loneliness we were never far away from the human equation. +During the afternoon we had a touch of it. It was discovered by the +Prince that his train was being driven by a V.C., or, rather, one of +the men on the engine, the fireman, was a V.C. This man, +Staff-Sergeant Meryfield, had won the distinction at Cambrai, and had +returned to his calling in the ordinary way. He came back from the +engine cab through the train, a very modest fellow, to be presented to +the Prince, who spent a few minutes chatting with him. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +PICNICS AND PRAIRIES +</H4> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H4> + +<P> +Early on the morning of Friday, September 5th, the train passed through +the second tunnel it had encountered in Canada, and came to a small +stopping-place amid trees. +</P> + +<P> +It was a lady's pocket handkerchief of a station, made up of a tool +shed, a few houses and a road leading away from it. Its significance +lay in the road leading away from it. That road leads to Nipigon river +and lake, one of the finest trout waters in Canada. Even at that it is +only famous half the year, for it hibernates in winter like any other +thing in Canada that finds snow and remoteness too much for it. +</P> + +<P> +At this station—Nipigon Lodge—the Prince, in shooting knickers and a +great anxiety to be off and away, left the train at 8.30, and walking +along the road, came to the launch that was to take him down river to +the fishing camp where he was to spend a week-end of sport. +</P> + +<P> +Leaving this little waterside village of neglected fishermen's huts, +for the season was late and the tourists that usually fill them had all +gone, he went down the beautiful stream to the more than beautiful +Virgin Falls. Here he met his outfit, thirty-eight Indian guides, all +of them experts in camp life and cunning in the secrets of stream and +wood. +</P> + +<P> +In the care of these high priests of sport, he left civilization, in +the shape of the launch, behind him, and in a canoe fished down stream +until the lovely reaches of Split-rock were attained; here, on the +banks of the stream, amid the thick ranks of spruce, the camp was +pitched. +</P> + +<P> +At first it had been the intention to push on after a day's sport to +other camping-places, but the situation and the comfort of this camp +was so satisfactory that the Prince decided to stay, and made it his +headquarters during the week-end. +</P> + +<P> +It was no camp of amateur sportsmen playing at the game. It was not, +perhaps, "roughing" it as the woodsman knows it, for he lies hard in a +floorless tent (if he has one), as well as lives laboriously, but it +was certainly a rough and ready life, as near that of the woodsman as +possible. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince slept in a tent, rose early, bathed in the river and shaved +in the open in exactly the same manner as every one else in the party. +He took his place in the "grub queue," carrying his plate to the +cook-house and demanding his particular choice in bacon and eggs, +broiled trout, flapjacks, or the wonderful white flatbread, which the +cook, an Indian, Jimmy Bouchard, celebrated for open-fire cooking, knew +how to prepare. +</P> + +<P> +Sometimes before breakfast the Prince indulged his passion for running; +always after breakfast he set out on foot, or in canoe for the day's +fishing, returning late at night hungry and tired with the healthy +weariness of hard exertion to the camp meal. There were spells round +the big camp fire burning vividly amid the trees, and then sleep in the +tent. +</P> + +<P> +The fishing was usually done from the bass canoe, two Indian guides +being always the ship's company. And fishing was not the only +attraction of the stream and lake. There is always the thrilling, +placid beauty of the scenery, the deep forests, the lake valleys, and +the austere, forest-clad hills that rise abruptly from the enigmatic +pools. And there is the active beauty of the many rapids, those +piled-up and rushing masses of angry water, tossing and foaming in +pent-up force through rock gates and over rocks. +</P> + +<P> +He tried the adventure of these rapids, shooting through the tortured +waters that look so beautiful from the shore and so terrible from the +frail structure of a canoe, until it seemed to him as though not even +the skill of his guides could steer through safely. He got through +safely, but only after an experience which he described as the most +exciting in his life. +</P> + +<P> +The fishing itself proved disappointing. The famous speckled trout of +Nipigon did not rise to the occasion, and the sport was fair, but not +extraordinary. The best day brought in twenty-seven fish, the largest +being three and a half pounds, not a good specimen of the lake's trout, +which go to six and eight pounds in the ordinary course of things. +</P> + +<P> +And the disappointment had an irony of its own. The man who caught the +most fish was the man who couldn't fish at all. The official +photographer, who had gone solely to take snapshots, also took the +maximum of fish out of the river. Indeed, he was so much of an amateur +that the first fish he caught placed him in such a predicament that he +did not play it, but landed it with so vigorous a jerk that it flew +over his head and caught high in a fir. An Indian guide had to climb +the tree to "land" it. +</P> + +<P> +Nevertheless, he caught the most fish, and when he returned with his +spoil, the Prince said to him: +</P> + +<P> +"Look here, don't you realize I'm the one to do that? You're taking my +place in the program." +</P> + +<P> +The reason for the indifferent sport was probably the lateness of the +season—it was practically finished when the Prince arrived—and the +fact that Nipigon had had a record summer, with large parties of +sportsmen working its reaches steadily all the time. The fish were +certainly shy, particularly, it seemed, of fly, and the best catches +were made with a small fish, a sort of bull-headed minnow called +cocatoose, that creeps about close to the rocks. +</P> + +<P> +Of course, trout, even if famous, are naturally temperamental. They +will rise in dozens at unexpected times, just as they will refuse all +temptations for weeks on end. An Englishman, and no mean fisherman, +once went to Nipigon to show the local inhabitants how fishing should +be done. A master in British waters, he considered the speckled +monsters of the lakes fit victims for his rod and fly. He went out +with his guides to catch fish, and after a few days among the big trout +came back disgusted. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you catch any trout?" he was asked by one of his party. +</P> + +<P> +"Catch 'em," he snapped. "How can one catch 'em? The infernal things +are anchored." +</P> + +<P> +Walking and duck shooting was also in the program, and there were other +excitements. +</P> + +<P> +The weather, delightful during the first two days, broke on Sunday, and +there were bad winds, rainstorms and occasional hailstorms, when stones +as big as small pebbles drummed on the tents and bombarded the camp. +</P> + +<P> +So fierce was the wind that the Royal Standard on a high flagstaff was +carried away. A pine tree was also uprooted, and fell with a crash +between the Prince's tent and that of one of his suite. A yard either +way and the tent would have been crushed. Fortunately the Prince was +not in the tent at that moment, but the happening gave the camp its +sense of adventure. +</P> + +<P> +During this rest, too, the Prince suffered a little from his eyes, an +irritation caused by grains of steel that had blown into them while +viewing the works at "Soo." His right hand was also painful from the +heartiness of Toronto, and the knuckles swollen. To set these matters +right, the doctor went up from the train, and by the Indian canoe that +carried the mail and the daily news bulletin, reached the camp. +</P> + +<P> +When he returned on Monday, September 8th, the Prince was looking +undeniably fit. He marched up the railway from the lake in +footer-shorts and golf jacket, with an air of one who had thoroughly +enjoyed "roughing it." +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H4> + +<P> +While the Prince and his party were camping, the train remained in +Nipigon, a tiny village set in complete isolation on the edge of the +river and in the heart of the woods. +</P> + +<P> +It is a little germ-culture of humanity cut off from the world. The +only way out is, apparently, the railway, though, perhaps, one could +get away by the boats that come up to load pulp wood, or by the petrol +launches that scurry out on to Lake Superior and its waterside towns. +But the roads out of it, there appear to be none. Follow any track, +and it fades away gently into the primitive bush. +</P> + +<P> +It is a nest of loneliness that has carried on after its old office as +a big fur collecting post—you see the original offices of Revillon +Frères and the Hudson Bay Company standing today—has gone. Now it +lives on lumber and the fishing, and one wonders what else. +</P> + +<P> +Its tiny station, through which the Transcontinental trains thunder, is +faced by a long, straggling green, and fringing the green is a row of +wooden shops and houses equally straggling. They have a somnolent and +spiritless air. Behind is a wedge of pretty dwellings stretching down +to the river, tailing off into an Indian encampment by the stream, +where, about dingy tepees, a dozen or so stoic children play. +</P> + +<P> +There are three hundred souls in the village, mainly Finns and Indians +become Canadians. They are not the Indians of Fenimore Cooper, but men +who wear peaked caps, bright blouse shirts or sweaters, with broad +yellow, blue and white stripes (a popular article of wear all over +Canada), and women who wear the shin skirts and silks of civilization. +Only here and there one sees old squaw women, stout and brown and bent, +with the plaid shawl of modernity making up for the moccasins of their +ancient race. +</P> + +<P> +Small though it is, or perhaps because it is so small and observable, +Nipigon is an example of the amalgam from which the Canadian race is +being fused. We went, for instance, to a dance given by the Finns in +their varnished, brown-wood hall on the Saturday night. It was an +attractive and interesting evening. The whole of the village, without +distinction, appeared to be there. And they mixed. Indian women in +the silk stockings, high heels and glowing frocks of suburbia, danced +(and danced well) with high cheek-boned, monosyllabic Finns in grey +sweaters, workaday trousers and coats and bubble-toed boots. A vivid +Canadian girl in semi-evening dress went round in the jazz with a guard +of the Royal train. A policeman from the train danced with a Finnish +girl, demure and well-dressed, who might have been anything from the +leader of local Society to a clerk (i.e., a counter hand) in one of the +shops. For all we knew, the plumber might have been dancing with the +leading citizen's daughter, and the local Astor with the local +dressmaker's assistant. +</P> + +<P> +In any case, it didn't matter. In Canada they don't think about that +sort of thing. They were all unconcerned and happy in the big, +generous spirit of equality that makes Canada the home of one big +family rather than the dwelling-place of different classes and social +grades. This fact was not new to us; naturally, we had seen and mixed +with Canadians in hotels and on the street elsewhere. In those +gathering-places of humanity, the hotels, we had lived with the big, +jolly, homely crowds without social strata, who might very well have +changed places with the waiters and the waiters with them without +anybody noticing any difference. That would not have meant a loss of +dignity to anybody. Nobody has any use for social status in the +Dominion, the only standard being whether a man is a "mixer" or not. +</P> + +<P> +By way of a footnote, I might say that waiters, even as waiters, are on +the way to take seats as guests, since, apparently, waiting is only an +occupation a man takes up until he finds something worth while. Not +unexpectedly Canadian waiting suffers through this. +</P> + +<P> +What we had seen in the large towns, and in the large gregarious life +of cities, we saw "close up" at Nipigon. The varied crowd, Finns, +British, Canadian and Indian (one of the Indians, a young dandy, had +served with distinction during the war, had married a white Canadian, +and was one of the richest men present), danced without social +distinctions in that pleasant hall to Finn folk-songs that had never +been set down on paper played on an accordion. It was a delightful +evening. +</P> + +<P> +For the rest, those with the train fished (or, rather, went through all +the ritual with little of the results), walked, bathed in the lake, +watched the American "movie" men in their endeavours to convert the +British to baseball, or endeavoured, with as little success, to convert +the baseball "fans" to cricket. The recreations of Nipigon were not +hectic, and we were glad to get on to towns and massed life again. +</P> + +<P> +I confess our view of Nipigon of the hundred houses was not that of the +Indian boy who discussed it with us. He told us Nipigon was not the +place for him. +</P> + +<P> +"You wait," he said. "Next year I go. Next year I am fifteen. Then I +go out into the woods. I go right away. I can't stand this city life." +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H4> + +<P> +Canada, on Monday, September 8th, demonstrated its amazing faculty for +startling contrasts. It lifted the Prince from the primitive to the +ultra-modern in a single movement. In the morning he was in the silent +forests of Nipigon, a tract so wild that man seemed no nearer than a +thousand miles. Three hours later he was moving amid the dense crowds +that filled the streets of the latest word in industrial cities. +</P> + +<P> +He stepped straight from Nipigon to the twin cities of Port Arthur and +Fort William. These two cities are really one, and together form the +great trade pool into which the traffic of the vast grain-bearing West +and North-West pours for transport on the Great Lakes. +</P> + +<P> +These two cities sprang from the little human nucleus made up of a +Jesuit mission and a Hudson Bay Company depot of the old days. They +stand on Thunder Bay, a deep-water sack thrusting out from Lake +Superior under the slopes of flat-topped Thunder Cape. The situation +is ideal for handling the trade of the great lake highway that swings +the traffic through the heart of the Western continent. +</P> + +<P> +Port Arthur and Fort William have seen their chances and made the most +of them. They have constructed great wharves along the bay to +accommodate a huge traffic. Over the wharves they have built up the +greatest grain elevators in the world, not a few of them but a series, +until the cities seemed to be inhabited solely by these giants. These +elevators and stores collect and distribute the vast streams of grain +that pour in from the prairies, at whose door the cities stand, +distributing it across the lakes to the cities of America, or along the +lakes to the Canadian East and the railways that tranship it to Europe. +</P> + +<P> +On the quays are the towering lattices of patent derricks, forests of +them, that handle coal and ore and cargoes of infinite variety. And +the [Transcriber's note: word(s) possibly missing from source] derricks +and the elevators are the uncannily long and lean lake freighters, +ships with a tiny deck superstructure forward of a great rake of hold, +and a tiny engine-house astern under the stack. And by these grain +boats are the ore tramps and coal boats from Lake Erie, and cargo boats +with paper pulp for England made in the big mills that turn the forests +about Lake Superior into riches. +</P> + +<P> +Not content with docking boats, the twin cities build them. They build +with equal ease a 10,000-ton freighter, or a great sky-scraping tourist +boat to ply between Canada and the American shores. And presently it +will be sending its 10,000-tonners direct to Liverpool; they only await +the deepening of the Welland Canal near Niagara before starting a +regular service on this 4,000-mile voyage. +</P> + +<P> +They are modern cities, indeed, that snatch every chance for wealth and +progress, and use even the power that Nature gives in numerous falls to +work their dynamos, and through them their many mills and factories. +And the marvel of these cities is that they are inland cities—inland +ports thousands of miles from the nearest salt water. +</P> + +<P> +These places gave the Prince the welcome of ardent twins. Their +greeting was practically one, for though the train made two stops, and +there were two sets of functions, there are only a few minutes' +train-time between them, and the greetings seemed of a continuous whole. +</P> + +<P> +Port Arthur had the Prince first for a score of minutes, in which +crowds about the station showed their welcome in the Canadian way. It +was here we first came in touch with the "Mounties," the fine men of +the Royal North-West Mounted Police, whose scarlet coats, jaunty +stetsons, blue breeches and high tan boots set off the carriage of an +excellently set-up body of men. They acted as escort while the Prince +drove into the town to a charming collegiate garden, where the Mayor +tried to welcome him formally. +</P> + +<P> +Tried is the only word. How could Prince or Mayor be formal when both +stood in the heart of a crowd so close together that when the Mayor +read his address the document rested on the Prince's chest, while at +the Prince's elbows crowded little boys and other distinguished +citizens? Formal or not, it was very human and very pleasant. +</P> + +<P> +Returning through the town, something went wrong with the procession. +Many of the automobiles forcing their way through the crowd to the +train—which stood beside the street—found there was no Prince. We +stood about asking what was happening and where it was happening. +After ten minutes of this an automobile driver strolled over from a car +and asked "what was doing now?" +</P> + +<P> +We consulted the programs and told him that the Prince was launching a +ship. +</P> + +<P> +"He is, is he?" said the driver without passion. "Well, I've got +members of the shipbuilding company and half the reception committee in +my car." +</P> + +<P> +In spite of that, the Prince launched a fine boat, that took the water +broadside in the lake manner, before going on to Fort William. +</P> + +<P> +Fort William had an immense crowd upon the green before the station, on +the station, and even on the station buildings. Part of the crowd was +made up of children, each one of them a representative of the +nationalities that came from the Old World to find a new life and a new +home in Canada. Each of them was dressed in his or her national +costume, making an interesting picture. +</P> + +<P> +There were twenty-four children, each of a different race, and the +races ranged from France to Slovenia, from Persia to China and Syria. +There were negroes and Siamese and Czecho-Slovaks in this remarkable +collection of elements from whose fusion Canada of today is being +fashioned. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince drove through the cheering streets of Fort William, and paid +visits to some of the great industrial concerns, before setting out for +Winnipeg and the wide-flung spaces of the West. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE CITY OF WHEAT—WINNIPEG, MANITOBA +</H4> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H4> + +<P> +We had a hint of what the Western welcome was going to be like from the +Winnipeg papers that were handed to us with our cantaloupe at breakfast +on Tuesday, September 9th. +</P> + +<P> +They were concerning themselves brightly and strenuously with the +details of the visit that day, and were also offering real Western +advice on the etiquette of clothes. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +"SILK LIDS AND STRIPED PANTS FOR THE BIG DAY" +</H4> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +formed the main headline, taking the place of space usually given to +Baseball reports or other vital news. And pen pictures of Western +thrill were given of leading men chasing in and out of the stores of +the town in an attempt to buy a "Silk Lid" (a top hat) in order to be +fit to figure at receptions. +</P> + +<P> +The writer had even broken into verse to describe the emotions of the +occasion. Despairing of prose he wrote: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +Get out the old silk bonnet,<BR> +Iron a new shine on it.<BR> +Just pretend your long-tailed coat does not seem queer,<BR> +For we'll be all proper<BR> +As a crossing "copper"<BR> +When the Prince of Wales is here.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The Ladies' Page also caught the infection. It crossed its page with a +wail: +</P> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +"GIRLS! OH, GIRLS! SILVER SLIPPERS CANNOT BE HAD!" +</H4> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +and it went on for columns to tell how silver slippers were the only +kind the Prince would look at. He had chosen all partners at all balls +in all towns by the simple method of looking for silver slippers. The +case of those without silver slippers was hopeless. The maidens of +Winnipeg well knew this. There had been a silver slipper battue +through all the stores, and all had gone—it was, so one felt from the +article, a crisis for all those who had been slow. +</P> + +<P> +A rival paper somewhat calmed the anxious citizens by stating that the +Silk Lid and the Striped Pants were not necessities, and that the +Prince himself did not favour formal dress—a fact, for indeed, he +preferred himself the informality of a grey lounge suit always, when +not wearing uniform, and did not even trouble to change for dinner +unless attending a function. The paper also hinted that he had eyes +for other things in partners besides silver slippers. +</P> + +<P> +These papers gave us an indication that not only would "Winnipeg be +polished to the heels of its shoes" at the coming of the Prince, but to +continue the metaphor, it would be enthusiastic to well above its +hat-band. And it was. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H4> + +<P> +Certainly Winnipeg's welcome did not stop at the huge mass of +heels—high as well as low—that carried it out to look at the Prince +on his arrival. It mounted well up to the heart and to the head as he +left the wide-open space in front of the C.P.R. station, and, with a +brave escort of red-tuniced "Mounties," swung into the old pioneer +trail—only it is called Main Street now—toward the Town Hall. +</P> + +<P> +The exceedingly broad street was lined with immense crowds, that, on +the whole, kept their ranks like a London rather than a Canadian throng +for at least two hundred yards. +</P> + +<P> +Then this imported docility gave way, and the press of people became +entirely Canadian. The essential spirit of the Canadian, like that of +the citizen of another country, is that "he will be there." Or perhaps +I should say he "will be <I>right</I> there." Anyhow, there he was as close +to the Prince as he could get without actually climbing into the +carriage that was slowing down before the daïs among trees in the +garden before the City Hall. +</P> + +<P> +In a minute where there had been a broad open space lined with neat +policemen, there was a swamping mass of Canadians of all ages, and the +Prince was entirely hemmed in. In fact only a free fight of the most +amiable kind got him out of the carriage and on to the daïs. The +Marine orderlies, and others of the suite, joined in an attempt to +press the throng back. They could accomplish nothing until the +"Mounties" came to their aid, forced a passage with their horses, and +so permitted the Prince to mount the daïs and hear the Mayor say what +the crowd had been explaining for the past ten minutes, that is, how +glad Winnipeg was to see him. +</P> + +<P> +It was the usual function, but varied a little. Winnipeg has not +always been happy in the matter of its water supply, and the day and +the Prince came together to inaugurate a new era. It was accomplished +in the modern manner. The Prince pressed a button on the platform and +water-gates on Shoal Lake outside the city swung open. In a minute or +two a dry fountain in the gardens before the Prince threw up a jet of +water. The new water had come to Winnipeg. +</P> + +<P> +Through big crowds on the sidewalks he passed through an avenue of +fine, tall and modern stores, along Broadway, where the tram-tracks +fringed with grass and trees run down the centre of a wide boulevard +that is edged with lawns and trees, and so to the new Parliament +Buildings. +</P> + +<P> +Here there was a vivid and shining scene before the great white curtain +of a classic building not yet finished. +</P> + +<P> +In the wide forecourt was a mass of children bearing flags, and up the +great flight of steps leading to the impressive Corinthian porch was a +bank of people, jewelled with flags and vivid in gay dresses. Against +the sharp white mass of the building this living, thrilling bed of +humanity made an unforgettable picture. +</P> + +<P> +The ceremony in the spacious entrance hall was also full of the +movement and colour of life. In the massive square hall stairs spring +upward to the gallery on which the Prince stood. On the level of each +floor galleries were cut out of the solid stone of the walls. Crowded +in these galleries were men and women, who looked down the shaft of +this austere chamber upon a grouping of people about the foot of the +cold, white ascending stairs. The strong, clear light added to the +dramatic dignity of the scene. +</P> + +<P> +The groups moved up the white stairs slowly between the ranks of +Highlanders, whose uniforms took on a vividity in the clarified light. +The Prince in Guard's uniform, with his suite in blue and gold and +khaki and red behind him, stood on the big white stage of the +stair-head to receive them. It was a scene that had all the tone and +all the circumstances of an Eastern levée. +</P> + +<P> +But it was a levée with a fleck of humour, also. +</P> + +<P> +As he turned to leave, the Prince noticed beside him a handsome +armchair upholstered in royal blue. It was a strange, lonely chair in +that desert of gallery and standing humanity. It was a chair that +needed explaining. +</P> + +<P> +In characteristic fashion the Prince bent down to it to find an +explanation. The crowd, knowing all about that chair and understanding +his puzzlement, began to laugh. It laughed outright and with +sympathetic humour when, abruptly handing his Guards' cap to one of his +staff, he solemnly sat down in it for a second instead of going his way. +</P> + +<P> +The chair was the chair his father and grandfather had sat in when they +came to Winnipeg. Silver medallions on it gave testimony to facts. +The Prince had not time to adopt a fully considered sitting, but he was +not going to leave the building until he, too, had registered his claim +to it. +</P> + +<P> +In the big Campus that fronts the University of Manitoba, and ranked by +thousands in a hollow square, were the veterans in khaki and civies who +had fought as comrades of the Prince in the war. To these he went next. +</P> + +<P> +It was a lengthy ceremony, for there were many to inspect. There were +Canadian Highlanders and riflemen in the square, as well as veterans +dating back to the time of the North-West Rebellion of '85. And there +was also the regimental goat of the 5th West Canadians, a big, husky +fellow, who endeavoured to take control of the ceremony with his horns, +as befitted a veteran who sported four service chevrons and a wound +stripe. +</P> + +<P> +Here, too, the crowd was the most stirring and remarkable feature of +the ceremony. It began with an almost European placidity of decorum, +standing quietly behind the wooden railing on three sides of the +Campus, and as quietly filling the seats in and about the glowingly +draped grand stand before the University building. As the ceremony +proceeded, however, the crowd behind the stand pressed forward, getting +out on to the field. Soldiers linked arms to keep it back, soldiers +with bayonets were drawn from the ranks of veterans to give additional +weight, wise men mounted the stand and strove to stem the forward +pressure with logic. But that crowd was filled with much the same +spirit that made the sea so difficult a thing to reason with in King +Canute's day. Neither soldiers nor words of the wise could check it. +It flowed forward into the Campus, a sea of men and women, shop girls +not caring a fig if they <I>were</I> "late back" and had a half-day docked, +children who swarmed amid Olympian legs, babies in mothers' arms, whose +presence in that crush was a matter of real terror to us less hardened +British—an impetuous mass of young and old, masculine and feminine +life that cared nothing for hard elbows and torn clothes as long as it +got close to the Prince. +</P> + +<P> +Before the inspection was finished, before the Prince could get back to +the stand to present medals, the Campus was no longer a hollow square, +it was a packed throng. +</P> + +<P> +And the crowd, having won this vantage, took matters into its own hands +until, indeed, its ardour began to verge on the dangerous. +</P> + +<P> +As the Prince left the field the great crowd swept after him, until the +whole mass was jammed tight against the iron railings at the entrance +of the Campus. The Prince was in the heart of this throng surrounded +by police who strove to force a way out for him. The crowd fought as +heartily to get at him. There was a wild moment when the throng +charged forward and crashed the iron railings down with their weight +and force. +</P> + +<P> +There were cries of "Shoulder him! Shoulder the boy!" and a rush was +made towards him. The police had a hard struggle to keep the people +back, and, as it was, it was only the swift withdrawal of the Prince +from the scene that averted trouble; for in a crowd that had got +slightly out of hand in its enthusiasm, the presence of so many +children and women seemed to spell calamity. +</P> + +<P> +This splendid ardour is more remarkable, since, only a few months +before, Winnipeg had been the scene of an outburst which its citizens +describe as nothing else but Bolshevik. +</P> + +<P> +That outcrop of active discontent—which, by the way, was germinated in +part by Englishmen—had a loud and ugly sound, and its clamour seemed +ominous. People asked whether all the West, and indeed, all Canada, +was going to be involved. Was Canada speaking in the accents of revolt? +</P> + +<P> +Well, on September 9th, there arose another sound in Winnipeg, and it +was but part of a wave of sound that had been travelling westward for +more than a month. It was, I think, a most significant sound. It was +the sound of majorities expressing themselves. +</P> + +<P> +It was not a few shouting revolt. It was the many shouting its +affection and loyalty for tried democratic ideals. +</P> + +<P> +When minorities raise their voices our ears are dinned by the shouting +and we imagine it is a whole people speaking. We forget those who sit +silent at home, not joining in the storm. The silent mass of the +majority is overlooked because it finds so few opportunities for +self-expression. Only such a visit as this of the Prince gives them a +chance. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed to me that this display of affection had a human rather than +a political significance. It impressed me not as an affair of parties, +but as the fundamental, human desire of the great mass of ordinary +workaday people to show their appreciation for stable and democratic +ideals which the peculiarly democratic individuality of the Prince +represents. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H4> + +<P> +Winnipeg is a town with a vital spirit. It has a large air. There is +something in its spaciousness that tells of the great grain plains at +the threshold of which it stands. It is the "Chicago of Canada," and +hub of a world of grain, Queen City in the Kingdom of Bakers' Flour. +And it is mightily conscious of its high office. +</P> + +<P> +It springs upward out of the flat and brooding prairies, where the +Assiniboine and the strong Red River strike together—the old "Forks" +of the pioneer days. It sits where the old trails of the pathfinder +and the fur trader join, and its very streets grew up about those +trails. +</P> + +<P> +From the piles of pelts dumped by Indians and hunters outside the old +Hudson Bay stockade at Fort Garry, and the sacks of raw grain that the +old prairie schooners brought in, Winnipeg of today has grown up. +</P> + +<P> +And it has grown up with the astonishing, swift maturity of the West. +Fifty years ago there was not even a village. Forty years ago it was a +mere spot on the world map, put there only to indicate the locality of +Louis Kiel's Red River Rebellion, and Wolseley's march to Fort Garry, +as its name was. In 1881 it became just Winnipeg, a townlet with less +than 8,000 souls in it. Today it ranks with the greatest commercial +cities in Canada, and its greatness can be felt in the tingling energy +of its streets. +</P> + +<P> +The wonder of that swift growth is a thing that can be brought directly +home. I stood on the station with a man old but still active, and he +said to me: +</P> + +<P> +"Do you see that block of buildings over there? I had the piece of +ground on which it was built. I sold it for a hundred dollars, it was +prairie then. It's worth many thousands now. And that piece where +that big factory stands, that was mine. I let that go for under three +hundred, and the present owners bought in the end for twenty and more +times that sum. Oh, we were all foolish then, how could we tell that +Winnipeg was going to grow? It was a 'back-block' town, shacks along a +dusty track. And the railway hadn't come. A three-story wooden house, +that was a marvel to be sure; now we have skyscrapers." +</P> + +<P> +And fast though Winnipeg has grown, or because she has grown at such a +pace, one can still see the traces and feel the spirit of the old +spacious days in her streets. They are long streets and so planned +that they seem to have been built by men who knew that there were no +limits on the immense plains, and so broad that one knows that the +designers had been conscious that there was no need to pinch the +sidewalks and carriage-ways with all the prairie at the back of them. +</P> + +<P> +Along these sumptuous avenues there still remain many of the low-built +and casual houses that men put up in the early days, and it is these +standing beside the modernity of the business buildings, soaring +sky-high, the massive grain elevators and the big brisk mills that give +the city its curious blending of pioneer days and thrusting, +twentieth-century virility. +</P> + +<P> +It is a town like no other that we had visited, and where one had the +feeling that up-to-date card-indexing systems were being worked by men +in the woolly riding chaps of old plainsmen. +</P> + +<P> +In the people of the streets one experienced the same curious sense of +"difference." In splendid boulevards such as Main, and Portage, which +turns from it, there are stores worthy of New York and London in size, +smartness and glowing attraction. And the women crowds that make these +streets busy are as crisply dressed in modern fashions as any on the +Continent, but there is a definite individuality in the air of the men. +</P> + +<P> +Canadian men dress with a conspicuous indifference. They wear anything +from overalls and broad-banded sweaters to lounge suits that ever seem +ill-fitting. In Winnipeg there is the same disregard for personal +appearance plus a hat with a higher crown. As we went West the crown +of the soft hat climbed higher, and the brim became both wider and more +curly. +</P> + +<P> +There is, too, on the sidewalks of Winnipeg the conglomeration of races +that go to feed the West. The city is the great emigrant centre that +serves the farmers, the fruit-growers of the Rockies, the ranchmen in +the foothills, and even the industries on the Pacific Slopes. +Everywhere outside agencies there are great blackboards on which +demands for farm labourers at five dollars a day and other workers are +chalked. +</P> + +<P> +To these agencies flow strange men in blouse-shirts, wearing strange +caps—generally of fur—carrying strange-looking suit-cases and +speaking the strange tongues of far European or Asiatic lands. Chinese +and Japanese (whom the Canadian lumps under the general term +"Orientals"), negroes, a few Indians, and a hotch-potch of races walk +the streets of Winnipeg, and Winnipeg deals with them, houses them, +gives them advice, and distributes them over the wide lands of Canada, +where they will work and working will gradually fuse into the racial +whole that is the Canadian race. +</P> + +<P> +In the hotels, too, one notices that a change is taking place. The +"Oriental"—the Japanese in this case—takes the place of the Canadian +bell-boy and porter, and he takes this place more and more as one goes +West. There are, of course, always Chinese "Chop Suey and Noodles' +Restaurants," as well as Chinese laundries in Canadian towns; we met +them as early as St. John's, Newfoundland; but from Winnipeg to the +Pacific Coast these establishments grow in numbers, until in Vancouver +and Victoria there are big "Oriental" quarters—cities within the +cities that harbour them. +</P> + +<P> +The "Orientals" make good citizens, the Chinese particularly. They are +industrious, clever workers, especially as agriculturists, and they +give no trouble. The great drawback with them is that they do not stay +in the country, but having made their money in Canada, go home to China +to spend it. +</P> + +<P> +Most of the alien element that goes to Canada is of good quality, and +ultimately becomes a very valuable asset. But the problem Canada is +facing is that they are strangers, and, not having been brought up in +the British tradition, they know nothing of it. The tendency of this +influence is to produce a new race to which the ties of sentiment and +blood have little meaning. +</P> + +<P> +It is a problem which Britain must share also, if we do not wish to see +Canada growing up a stranger to us in texture, ideals and thought. It +is not an easy problem. Canada's chief need today is for +agriculturists, yet the workers we wish to retain most in this country +are agriculturists. Canada must have her supply, and if we cannot +afford them, she must take what she can from Eastern Europe, or from +America, and very many American farmers, indeed, are moving up to +Canadian lands. +</P> + +<P> +There is always room in a vast country such as Canada for skilled or +willing workers, and we can send them. But the demand is not great at +present, and will not be great until the agriculturist opens up the +land. And the agriculturist is to come from where? +</P> + +<P> +Certainly it is a matter which calls for a great deal of consideration. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +IV +</H4> + +<P> +The Prince made the usual round of the usual program during his stay, +but his visit to the Grain Exchange was an item that was unique. +</P> + +<P> +He drove on Wednesday, September 10th, to this dramatic place, where +brokers, apparently in a frenzy, shout and wave their hands, while the +price of grain sinks and rises like a trembling balance at their +gestures and shouts. +</P> + +<P> +The pit at which all these hustling buyers and sellers are gathered has +all the romantic qualities of fiction. It is, as far as I am +concerned, one of the few places that live up to the written pictures +of it, for it gave me the authentic thrill that had come to me when I +first read of the Chicago wheat transactions in Frank Norris's novel, +"The Pit." +</P> + +<P> +The Prince drove to the Grain Exchange and was whirled aloft to the +fourth story of the tall building. He entered a big hall in which +babel with modern improvements and complications reigned. +</P> + +<P> +In the centre of this room was the pit proper. It has nothing of the +Stygian about it. It is a hexagon of shallow steps rising from the +floor, and descending on the inner side. +</P> + +<P> +On these steps was a crowd of super-men with voices of rolled steel. +They called out cabalistic formulae of which the most intelligible to +the layman sounded something like: +</P> + +<P> +"May—eighty-three—quarter." +</P> + +<P> +Cold, high and terrible voices seemed to answer: +</P> + +<P> +"Taken." +</P> + +<P> +Hundreds of voices were doing this, amid a storm of cross shoutings, +and under a cloud of tossing hands, that signalled with fingers or with +papers. Cutting across this whirlpool of noise was the frantic +clicking of telegraph instruments. These tickers were worked by four +emotionless gods sitting high up in a judgment seat over the pit. +</P> + +<P> +They had unerring ears. They caught the separate quotations from the +seething maelstrom of sound beneath them, sifted the completed deal +from the mere speculative offer in uncanny fashion, and with their +unresting fingers ticked the message off on an instrument that carried +it to a platform high up on one of the walls. +</P> + +<P> +On this platform men in shirt-sleeves prowled backwards and +forwards—as the tigers do about feeding time in the Zoo. They, too, +had super-hearing. From little funnels that looked like electric light +shades they caught the tick of the messages, and chalked the figures of +the latest prices as they altered with the dealing on the floor upon a +huge blackboard that made the wall behind them. +</P> + +<P> +At the same time the gods on the rostrum were tapping messages to the +four corners of the world. Even Chicago and Mark Lane altered their +prices as the finger of one of these calm men worked his clicker. +</P> + +<P> +When the Prince entered the room the gong sounded to close the market, +and amid a hearty volume of cheering he was introduced to the pit, and +some of its intricacies were explained to him. The gong sounded again, +the market opened, and a storm of shouting broke over him, men making +and accepting deals over his head. +</P> + +<P> +Intrigued by the excitement, he agreed with the broker who had brought +him in, to accept the experience of making a flutter in grain. +</P> + +<P> +Immediately there were yells, "What is he, Bull or Bear?" and the +Prince, thoroughly perplexed, turned to the broker and asked what type +of financial mammal he might be. +</P> + +<P> +He became a Bull and bought. +</P> + +<P> +He did not endeavour to corner wheat in the manner of the heroes of the +stories, for wheat was controlled; he bought, instead, fifty thousand +bushels of oats. A fair deal, and he told those about him with a smile +that he was going to make several thousand dollars out of Winnipeg in a +very few moments. +</P> + +<P> +An onlooker pointed to the blackboard, and cried: +</P> + +<P> +"What about that? Oats are falling." +</P> + +<P> +But the broker was a wise man. He had avoided a royal "crash." He had +already sold at the same price, 83 1/2, and the Prince had accomplished +what is called a "cross trade." That is he had squared the deal and +only lost his commission. +</P> + +<P> +While he stood in that frantic pit of whirling voices something of the +vast transactions of the Grain Exchange was explained to him. It is +the biggest centre for the receipt and sale of wheat directly off the +land in the world. It handles grain by the million bushels. In the +course of a day, so swift and thorough are its transactions, it can +manipulate deals aggregating anything up to 150,000,000 bushels. +</P> + +<P> +When these details had been put before him, the gong was again struck, +and silence came magically. +</P> + +<P> +Unseen by most in that pack of men on the steps the Prince was heard to +say that he had come to the conclusion that to master the intricacies +of the Exchange was a science rather beyond his grasp just then. He +hoped that his trip westward would give him a more intimate knowledge +of the facts about grain, and when he came back, as he hoped he would, +he might have it in him to do something better than a "cross trade." +</P> + +<P> +From the pit the lift took him aloft again to the big sampling and +classifying room on the tenth floor of the building. The long tables +of this room were littered with small bags of grain, and with grain in +piles undergoing tests. The floor was strewn with spilled wheat and +oats and corn. Here he was shown how grain, carried to Winnipeg in the +long trucks, was sampled and brought to this room in bags. Here it was +classified by experts, who, by touch, taste and smell, could gauge its +quality unerringly. +</P> + +<P> +It is the perfection of a system for handling grain in the raw mass. +The buyer never sees the grain he purchases. The classification of the +Exchange is so reliable that he accepts its certificates of quality and +weight and buys on paper alone. +</P> + +<P> +Nor are the dealers ever delayed by this wonderfully working +organization. The Exchange has samplers down on the trucks at the +railway sidings day and night. During the whole twenty-four hours of +the day there are men digging specially constructed scoops that take +samples from every level of the car-loads of grain, putting the grain +into the small bags, and sending them along to the classification +department. +</P> + +<P> +So swiftly is the work done that the train can pull into the immense +range of special yards, such as those the C.P.R. have constructed for +the accommodation of grain, change its engine and crew, and by the time +the change is effected, samples of all the trucks have been taken, and +the train can go on to the great elevators and mills at Fort William +and Port Arthur. +</P> + +<P> +This rapid handling in no way affects the efficiency of the Exchange. +Its decisions are so sure that the grading of the wheat is only +disputed about forty times in the year. This is astonishing when one +realizes the enormous number of samples judged. +</P> + +<P> +In the same way, and in spite of the apparent confusion about the pit +where they take place, the records of the transactions are so exact +that only about once in five thousand is such a record queried. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince was immensely interested in all the practical details of +working which make this handling of grain a living and dramatic thing, +showing, as usual, that active curiosity for workaday facts that is +essential to the make-up of the moderns. +</P> + +<P> +His directness and accessibility made friends for him with these +hard-headed business men as readily as it had made friends with +soldiers and with the mass of people. Winnipeg had already exerted its +Western faculty for affectionate epithets. He had already been dubbed +a "Fine Kiddo," and it was commonplace to hear people say of him, "He's +a regular feller, he'll do." They said these things again in the +Exchange, declaring emphatically he was "sure, a manly-looking chap." +</P> + +<P> +As he left the Exchange the members switched the chaos of the pit into +shouts of a more hearty and powerful volume, and to listen to a crowd +of such fully-seasoned lungs doing their utmost in the confined space +of a building is an awe-inspiring and terrific experience. +</P> + +<P> +The friendliness here was but a "classified sample"—if the Winnipeg +Exchange will permit that expression—of the friendliness in bulk he +found all over Canada, and which he found in the great West, upon which +he was now entering. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE FRINGE OF THE GREAT NORTHWEST +<BR> +SASKATOON AND EDMONTON +</H4> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H4> + +<P> +From Winnipeg, on the night of September 10th, we pushed steadily +northwest, and on the morning of Thursday, the 11th, we were in the +open prairie, a new land that is being opened up by the settler. +</P> + +<P> +We were travelling too late to see the land under wheat—one of the +finest sights in the world, we were told; but all the grain was not in, +and we saw threshing operations in progress and big areas covered with +the strangely small stocks, the result of the Canadian system of +cutting the standing stalk rather high up. In the early night, by +Portage la Prairie, we had seen big fires burning in the distance. +They were not, as we at first thought, prairie fires, but the +homesteader getting rid of the great mounds of stalk left by the +threshing, the usual method. +</P> + +<P> +In the early morning mist we came upon the big, flat expanse of Horn +Lake, near Wynyard, over which flew lines of militaristic duck in wedge +formation. The prairies lay about us in a great expanse, dun-brown and +rolling. It is a monotonous landscape, and there were few if any trees +until we got farther north and west. +</P> + +<P> +The little prairie towns appear on the horizon a great distance away, +thanks to the big grain elevators alongside the track. The grain +elevators in these plains are what churches are in Europe; they have, +indeed, the look of being basilicas of a new, materialistic +dispensation. +</P> + +<P> +The little towns under the elevators seem palpably to be struggling +with the inert force of the prairie about them. Prairie seems to be +flowing into them on every side, and only by a brave effort do houses +and streets raise themselves above the encroaching sea of grass. Yet +all the towns have a modern air, too. All have excellent electric +light services in houses and streets, and all have "movie" theatres. +</P> + +<P> +At the stations crowds were gathered. At Wynyard all the young of the +district appeared to have collected before going to school. Catching +the word that the Prince "lived" in the last car, they swarmed round +it. Some one told them the Prince was still in bed, and with the +utmost cheerfulness they began to chant: "Sleepy head! Sleepy head!" +</P> + +<P> +At Lanigan, the next station, a crowd of the same cheery temper also +raised a clamour for the Prince. As a rule he never disappointed them, +and would leave whatever he was doing to go on to the observation +platform at the first hint of cheers. But at Lanigan there were +difficulties. The crowd cheered. Some one looked out of the car, made +a gesture of negation, and went back. The crowd cheered a good deal +more. There was a pause; more cheering. Then a discreet member of the +Staff came out and said the Prince was awfully sorry, but—but, well, +he was in his bath! +</P> + +<P> +"That's all the better," called a cheerful girl from the heart of the +crowd. "<I>We</I> don't mind." +</P> + +<P> +The member of the Staff vanished in a new gust of cheering, probably to +hide his blushes. Need I say the Prince did <I>not</I> appear? +</P> + +<P> +At Colonsay there was a stop of five minutes only, but the people of +the town made the most of it. They had a pretty Britannia to the fore, +and all the school-children grouped about her and singing when the +train steamed in. And when it stopped, a delightful and tiny miss came +forward and gave the Prince a bunch of sweet peas. +</P> + +<P> +These incidents were a few only of a characteristic day's run. Every +day the same sort of thing happened, so that though the Prince had a +more strenuous time in the bigger cities, his "free times" were +actually made up of series of smaller functions in the smaller ones. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H4> + +<P> +Saskatoon, the distributing city for the middle of Saskatchewan, was to +give the Prince a memorable day. It was here that he obtained his +first insight into the life and excitements of the cowboy. Saskatoon, +in addition to the usual reception functions, showed him a "Stampede," +which is a cowboy sports meeting. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince arrived in the town at noon, and drove through the streets +to the Park and University grounds for the reception ceremonies. It is +a keen, bright place, seeming, indeed, of sparkling newness in the +wonderful clarified sunlight of the prairie. +</P> + +<P> +It is new. Saskatoon is only now beginning its own history. It is +still sorting itself out from the plain which its elevators, business +blocks and delightful residential districts are yet occupied in +thrusting back. It is a characteristic town on the uplift. It snubs +and encroaches upon the illimitable fields with its fine American +architecture, and its stone university buildings. It has new suburbs +full of houses of symmetrical Western comeliness in a tract wearing the +air of Buffalo Bill. +</P> + +<P> +It grows so fast that you can almost see it doing it. It has grown so +fast that it has outstripped the guide-book makers. They talk of it in +two lines as a village of a few hundred inhabitants, but put not your +trust in guide-books when coming to Canada, for the village you come +out to see turns out, like Saskatoon, to be a bustling city full of +"pep," as they say, and possessing 20,000 inhabitants. +</P> + +<P> +The guide-book makers are not to blame. Somewhere about 1903 there +were no more than 150 people within its boundaries. Now, from the look +of it, it could provide ten motor-cars for each of these oldest +inhabitants, and have about 500 over for new-comers—in fact, that is +about the figure; there are 2,000 cars on the Saskatoon registers. +Saskatoon was full of cars neatly lined up along the Prince's route +during every period of his stay. +</P> + +<P> +The great function of the visit was the "Stampede." This sports +meeting took place on a big racing ground before a grand-stand that +held many thousand more people than Saskatoon boasted. The many cars +that brought them in from all over the country were parked in huge +wedges in and about the ground. +</P> + +<P> +Passing off the wild dirt roads, the Prince headed a procession of cars +round the course before entering a special pavilion erected facing the +grandstand. His coming was the signal for the Stampede to commence. +It was a new thrill to Britishers, an affair of excitement, and a real +breath of Western life. They told us that the cattle kings are moving +away from this area to the more spacious and lonely lands of the North; +but the exhibition the Prince witnessed showed that the daring and +skilful spirit of the cowboys has not moved on yet. +</P> + +<P> +We were also told that this Stampede was something in the nature of a +circus that toured the country, and that men and animals played their +parts mechanically as oft-tried turns in a show. But even if that was +so, the thing was unique to British eyes, and the exhibition of all the +tricks of the cattleman's calling was for those who looked on a new +sensation. +</P> + +<P> +Cattlemen rode before the Prince on bucking horses that, loosed from +wooden cages, came along the track like things compact of India-rubber +and violence, as they strove to throw the leechlike men in furry, +riding chaps, loose shirts, sweat-rags and high felt hats, who rode +them. +</P> + +<P> +Some of the men rode what seemed a more difficult proposition—an angry +bull, that bunched itself up and down and lowed vindictively, as it +tried to buck its rider off. +</P> + +<P> +From the end of the race-track a steer was loosed, and a cowboy on a +small lithe broncho rode after it at top speed. Round the head of this +man the lariat whirled like a live snake. In a flash the noose was +tight about the steer's horns, the brilliant little horse had overtaken +the beast, and in an action when man and horse seemed to combine as +one, the tightened rope was swung against the steer's legs. It was +thrown heavily. Like lightning the cowboy was off the horse, was on +top of the half-stunned steer, and had its legs hobbled in a rope. +</P> + +<P> +One man of the many who competed in this trial of skill performed the +whole operation in twenty-eight seconds from the time the steer was +loosed to the time its legs were secured. +</P> + +<P> +A more daring feat is "bull-dogging." +</P> + +<P> +The steer is loosed as before, and the cattleman rides after it, but +instead of lassoing it, he leaps straight out of his saddle and plunges +on to the horns of the beast. Gripping these long and cruel-looking +weapons, he twists the bull's neck until the animal comes down, and +there, with his body in the hollow of the neck and shoulder, he holds +it until his companions run up and release him. +</P> + +<P> +There is a real thrill of danger in this. +</P> + +<P> +One man, a cowboy millionaire, caught his steer well, but in the crash +in which the animal came down it rolled right over him. For a moment +man and beast were lost in a confusion of tossing legs and dust. Then +the man, with shirt torn to ribbons and his back scraped in an ugly +manner, rose up gamely and limped away. The only thing about him that +had escaped universal dusting was his white double-linen collar, the +strangest article of clothing any "bull-dogger" might wear. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince called this plucky fellow, as well as others of the outfit, +into the pavilion, and talked with them some time on the risk and +adventures of their business, as well as congratulating them on their +skill. +</P> + +<P> +Two comely cowgirls, in fringed leather dresses, high boots, bright +blouses and broad sombreros, also caught his eye. He spoke to a +"movie" man, who had already added to the gaiety of nations by leaping +round in a circle (heavy camera and all) while a big, bucking broncho +had leaped round after him, telling him that the girls formed a fit +subject for the lens. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm waiting until I can get you with them, sir," said the "movie" man. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, you'll get me all right," the Prince laughed. "There's no chance +of my escaping you." +</P> + +<P> +The "movie" man got Prince and cowgirls presently, when the Prince had +invited them into the pavilion to chat for a few minutes. They were +fine, free and independent girls, who enjoyed the naturalness and +easiness of the interview. +</P> + +<P> +During the meeting all the arts of the cowboys were exhibited. The +lariat expert lassoed men and horses in bunches of five as easily as he +lassoed one, and danced in and turned somersaults through his +ever-whirling loop. There were some fine exhibitions of horse-riding, +and there was some Amazonian racing by girls in jockey garb. +</P> + +<P> +The human interlude was also there. A daring woman photographer in the +grand-stand held up a cowboy. Disregarding her long skirts, she +climbed the fence of the course and calmly mounted behind the horseman. +Riding thus, she passed across the front of the cheering grand-stand +and came to the steps of the Prince's pavilion. Unconcerned by the joy +of the great crowd, she asked permission to take a snapshot, and +received it, going her way unruffled and entirely Canadian. +</P> + +<P> +The very thrilling afternoon was closed by the Prince himself. Walking +over to the crowd of cattlemen, he stood talking with them and +examining their horses. Presently, on the invitation of the leader, he +mounted a broncho, and, leading the bunch of cowboys and cowgirls, +swept down the track and past the stand. The people, delighted at this +unexpected act, vented themselves in the usual way—that is, with +extraordinary enthusiasm. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H4> + +<P> +Edmonton, the capital of Alberta, was the Prince's farthest north. He +arrived there on Friday, September 12th, to receive the unstinted +welcome which, long since, we had come to know was Canada's natural +attitude towards him. As we crossed the broad main street to the +station, the sight of the vast human flower-bed that filled the road +below the railway bridge made one tingle at the thoroughness with which +these towns gathered to express themselves. +</P> + +<P> +Canada, as I may have hinted already, has a way of leading strangers +astray concerning herself. In Eastern Canada we were told that we +would find the West "different." From what was said to us, there was +some reason for expecting to find an entirely new race on the Pacific +side of Winnipeg. It would be a race further removed from the British +tradition, a race not so easy to get on with, a race not moved by the +impulses and enthusiasms that stirred the East. +</P> + +<P> +And in the West? Well, all I can say is that quite a number of Western +men shook me by the hand and told me how thankful I must be now that I +had left the cold and rigid East for the more generous warmth of the +spacious West. And hadn't I found the East a strange place, inhabited +by people not easy to get on with, and removed from the British +tradition—and so on...? +</P> + +<P> +This singular state of things may seem queer to the Briton, but I think +it is easily explainable. In the first place, Canada is so vast that +her people, even though they be on the same continent, are as removed +from immediate intimacy as the Kentish man is from the man in a Russian +province. And not only does great distance make for lack of knowledge, +but the fact that each province is self-contained and feeds upon +itself, so to speak, in the matter of news and so on, makes the citizen +in Ontario, or Quebec, or New Brunswick, regard the people of the West +as living in a distant and strange land. +</P> + +<P> +The Canadian, too, is intensely loyal to Canada; that means he is +intensely jealous for her reputation. He warned us against all +possibilities, I think, so that we should be ready for any +disappointment. +</P> + +<P> +There was not the slightest need for warning. Whether East or West, +Canada was solid in its welcome, and, as far as I am able to judge, +there is no difference at all in the texture of human habit and mind +East or West. There is the same fine, sturdy quality of loyalty and +hospitality over the whole Dominion. Canada is Canada all through. +</P> + +<P> +Edmonton is a fine, lusty place. It is the prairie town in its teens. +It has not yet put off its coltish air. It is Winnipeg just leaving +school, and has the wonderful precocity of these eager towns of the +West. It is running almost before it has learnt to walk. +</P> + +<P> +While full-blooded Indians still move in its streets, it is putting up +buildings worthy of a European metropolis. It has opened big +up-to-date stores and public offices by the side of streets that are +yet the mere stamped earth of the untutored plain. +</P> + +<P> +Along its main boulevard, Jasper Avenue, slip the astonishing excess of +automobiles one has learnt to expect in Canadian towns. A brisk +electric tram service weaves the mass of street movement together, and +at night over all shines an exuberance of electric light. +</P> + +<P> +That main street is tingling with modernity. Its stores, its +music-halls, its "movie" theatres, and its hotels glitter with the +nervous intensity of a spirit avid of the latest ideas. +</P> + +<P> +Fringing the canyon of the brown North Saskatchewan River is a +beautiful automobile road, winding among pretty residential plots and +comely enough for any town. +</P> + +<P> +Yet swing out in a motor for a few miles, and one is in a land where +the roads—if any—are but the merest trails, where the silent and +brooding prairie (hereabouts blessed with trees) stretches emptily for +miles by the thousand. +</P> + +<P> +Turn the car north, and it heads for "The Great Lone Land," that +expands about the reticent stretches of the Great Slave country, or +follows the Peace River and the Athabasca beyond the cold line of the +Arctic Circle. +</P> + +<P> +To get to these rich and isolated lands—and one thinks this out in the +lounge of an hotel worthy of the Strand—the traveller must take +devious and disconnected ways. Railways tap great tracts of the +country, going up to Fort McMurray and the Peace River, and these +connect up with river and lake steamers that ply at intervals. But +travel here is yet mainly in the speculative stage, and long waits and +guides and canoes and a camping outfit are necessary. +</P> + +<P> +In winter, if the traveller is adventurous and tough, he can progress +more swiftly. He can go up by automobile and run along the courses of +the rivers on the thick ice, and, on the ice, cross the big lakes. +</P> + +<P> +Though the land is within the Arctic Circle, it is rich. I talked with +a traveller who had just returned from this area, and he spoke of the +superb tall crops of grain he had seen on his journey. It will be +magnificent land when it is opened up, and can accommodate the +population of a kingdom. The growing season, of course, is shorter, +but this is somewhat balanced by the longer northern days and the +intense sunlight that is proper to them. The drawbacks are the very +long winters, loneliness and the difficulties of transport. +</P> + +<P> +Edmonton, sitting across the gorge of the Saskatchewan, feeds these +districts and reflects them. Because of this it is a city of +anachronisms. High up on the cliff, its site chosen with the usual +appositness of Canada, is the Capitol building, a bright and soaring +structure done in the latest manner. Right under that decisively +modern pile is a group of rough wooden houses. They are the original +stores of the Hudson Bay Company, standing exactly as they did when +they formed an outpost point of civilization in the Northwest. +</P> + +<P> +It is obviously a town in a young land, pushing ahead, as the Prince +indicated in his speech to the Provincial Government, with all the +intensity and zest of youth, having all the sense of freedom and +possibility that the rich and great farming, furbearing and +timber-growing tracts give it. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +IV +</H4> + +<P> +The keen spirit of the city was reflected in the welcome it gave the +Prince. It was a wet, grey day, but the whole town was out to line the +streets and to gather at the ceremonial points. And it was a musical +greeting. Edmonton is prone to melody. Brass bands appear to flourish +here. There was one at every street corner. And not only did they +play as the Prince in the midst of his red-tuniced "Mountie" escort +passed by, but they played all day, so that the city was given over to +a non-stop carnival of popular airs. +</P> + +<P> +At the Parliament Buildings the crowds were as dense as ever. They +showed the same spirit in listening to addresses and reply, and the +same hustling sense of "getting there" when entering the building to +take part in the public reception. The addresses of welcome were a +novelty. Engrossed on vellum, it had been sewn on the purple silk +lining of a yellow-furred coyote skin, a local touch that interested +the Prince. There was another such touch after the reception. A body +of Stony Indians were presented to His Royal Highness. These Indians +had travelled from a distance in the hope of seeing the son of the +Great White Chief, and they not only saw him but were presented to him. +He talked with particular sympathy to one chief whose son had been a +comrade-in-arms in the Canadian ranks during the war and who had been +killed in the fighting. +</P> + +<P> +The opening of a war memorial hall, a big and dazzling dance at the +Government House, and other functions, fulfilled the usual round. And, +last but not least, the Prince became a player and a "fan" in a ball +game. +</P> + +<P> +There was a match (I hope "match" is right) between the local team, and +one of its passionate rivals, and the Prince went to the ground to take +part. Walking to the "diamond" (I'm sure that is right), he equipped +himself in authentic manner, with floppy, jockey-peaked cap and a +ruthless glance, took his stance as a "pitcher" and delivered two +balls. I don't know whether they were stingers or swizzers, or +whatever the syncopated phraseology of the great game dubs them, but +they were matters of great admiration. +</P> + +<P> +Having led to the undoing (I hope, for that was his task) of some one, +the Prince then joined the audience. He chose not the best seats, but +the popular ones, for he sat on the grass among the "bleachers," and +when one has sat out of the shade in the hot prairie sun one knows what +"bleachers" means. +</P> + +<P> +This sporting little interlude was immensely popular, and the Prince +left Edmonton with the reputation of being a true "fan" and "a real +good feller." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +CALGARY AND THE CATTLE RANCH +</H4> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H4> + +<P> +The Royal train arrived in Calgary, Alberta, on the morning of Sunday, +September 14th, after some of the members of the train had spent an +hour or so shooting gophers, a small field rat, part squirrel, and at +all times a great pest in grain country. +</P> + +<P> +Calgary was a town that charmed at once. It stands in brilliant +sunlight—and that sunlight seems to have an eternal quality—in a nest +of enfolding hills. Two rivers with the humorous names of Bow and +Elbow run through it; they are blue with the astonishing blueness of +glacial silt. +</P> + +<P> +From the hills, or from the tops of such tall buildings as the +beautiful Palliser Hotel, the high and austere dividing line of the +Rockies can be seen across the rolling country. Snow-cowled, and +almost impalpable above the ground mist, the great range of mountains +looks like the curtain wall of a stronghold of mystics. +</P> + +<P> +In the streets the city itself has an air of radiance. There is an +invigoration in the atmosphere that seems to give all things a peculiar +quality of zest. The sidewalks have a bustling and crisp virility, the +public buildings are handsome, and the streets of homes particularly +gracious. +</P> + +<P> +The Sunday reception of the Prince was eloquent but quiet. There were +the usual big crowds, but the day was deliberately without ceremonial. +Divine Service at the Pro-Cathedral, where the Prince unveiled a +handsome rood-screen to the memory of those fallen in the war, was the +only item in a restful day, which was spent almost entirely in the +country at the County Club. +</P> + +<P> +But perhaps the visit to the County Club was not altogether quiet. +</P> + +<P> +The drive out to this charming place in a pit of a valley, where one of +the rivers winds through the rolling hills, began in the comely +residential streets. +</P> + +<P> +These residential districts of Canada and America certainly impress +one. The well-proportioned and pretty houses, with their deep +verandahs, the trees that group about them, the sparkling grass that +comes down to the edge of the curb—all give one the sense of being the +work of craftsmen who are masters in design. That sense seems to me to +be evident, not only in domestic architecture, but in the design of +public buildings. The feeling I had was that the people on this +Continent certainly know how to build. And by building, I do not mean +merely erecting a house of distinction, but also choosing sites of +distinction. +</P> + +<P> +Nearly all the newer public buildings are of excellent design, and all +are placed in excellent positions. Some of these sites are actually +brilliant; the Parliament Houses at Ottawa, as seen from the river, are +intensely apposite, so are those at Edmonton and Regina, while the +sites of such buildings as the Banff Springs Hotel, and, in a lesser +sense, the Château at Lake Louise, seem to me to have been chosen with +real genius. +</P> + +<P> +In saying that the people on this Continent certainly know how to +build, I am speaking of both the United States and Canada. This fine +sense of architecture is even more apparent in the United States (I, of +course, only speak of the few towns I visited) than in Canada, for +there are more buildings and it is a richer country. The sense of +architecture may spring from that country, or it may be that the whole +Continent has the instinct. As I am not competent to judge, I accuse +the whole of the Western hemisphere of that virtue. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince passed through these pretty districts where are the +beautiful houses of ranchers and packing kings, farmers and pig rearers +whose energy and vision have made Calgary rich as well as good to look +upon. Passing from this region of good houses and good roads, he came +upon a highway that is prairie even less than unalloyed, for constant +traffic has scored it with a myriad ruts and bumps. +</P> + +<P> +Half-way up a hill, where a bridge of wood jumps across the stream that +winds amid the pleasant gardens of the houses, the Prince's car was +held up. A mob of militants rushed down upon it, and neither +chauffeur, nor Chief of Staff, nor suite could resist. +</P> + +<P> +It was an attack not by Bolshevists, but by Boy Scouts. They flung +themselves across the road in a mass, and would take no nonsense from +any one. They insisted that the engine should take a holiday, and that +they should hitch themselves to the car. They won their point and +hitched. The car, under some hundred boy-power, went up the long +hill—and a gruelling hill it is—through the club gates, and down a +longer hill, to where, in a deep cup, the house stands. +</P> + +<P> +At the club the visit was entirely formal. The Prince became an +ordinary member and chatted to other men and women members in a +thoroughly club-like manner. +</P> + +<P> +"He is so easy to get on with," said one lady. "I found it was I who +was the more reserved for the first few minutes, and it was I who had +to become more human. +</P> + +<P> +"He is a young man who has something to say, and who has ears to listen +to things worth while. He has no use for preliminaries or any other +nonsense that wastes time in 'getting together.'" +</P> + +<P> +He lunched at the club and drifted about among the people gathered on +the lawns before going for a hard walk over the hills. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H4> + +<P> +The real day of functions was on Monday, when the Prince drove through +the streets, visiting many places, and, later, speaking impressively at +a citizens' lunch in the Palliser Hotel. +</P> + +<P> +His passage through the streets was cheered by big crowds, but crowds +of a definite Western quality. Here the crowns of hats climbed high, +sometimes reaching monstrous peaks that rise as samples of the Rockies +from curly brims as monstrous. Under these still white felt altitudes +are the vague eyes and lean, contemplative faces of the cattlemen from +the stock country around. Here and there were other prairie types who +linger while the tide of modernity rushes past them. They are the +Indians, brown, lined and forward stooping, whose reticent eyes looking +out from between their braided hair seem to be dwelling on their long +yesterday. +</P> + +<P> +At the citizens' lunch the Prince departed from his usual trend of +speech-making to voice some of the impressions that this new land had +brought to him. He once more spoke of the sense of spaciousness and +possibility the vast prairies of the West had given him, but today he +went further and dwelt upon the need of making those possibilities +assured. The foundation that had made the future as well as the +present possible, was the work of the great pioneers and railway men +who had mastered the country in their stupendous labours, and made it +fit for a great race to grow in. +</P> + +<P> +The foundation built in so much travail was ready. Upon it Canada must +build, and it must build right. +</P> + +<P> +"The farther I travel through Canada," he said, "the more I am struck +by the great diversities which it presents; its many and varied +communities are not only separated by great distances, but also by +divergent interests. You have much splendid alien human material to +assimilate, and so much has already been done towards cementing all +parts of the Dominion that I am sure you will ultimately succeed in +accomplishing this great task, but it will need the co-operation of all +parties, of all classes and all races, working together for the common +cause of Canadian nationhood under the British flag. +</P> + +<P> +"Serious difficulties and controversies must often arise, but I know +nothing can set Canada back except the failure of the different classes +and communities to look to the wider interests of the Dominion, as well +as their own immediate needs. I realize that scattered communities, +necessarily preoccupied with the absorbing task of making good, often +find the wider view difficult to keep. Yet I feel sure that it will be +kept steadily before the eyes of all the people of this great Western +country, whose very success in making the country what it is proves +their staying power and capacity." +</P> + +<P> +Canada, he declared, had already won for herself a legitimate place in +the fraternity of nations, and the character and resources within her +Dominion must eventually place her influence equal to, if not greater +than, the influence of any other part of the Empire. Much depended +upon Canada's use of her power, and the greatness of her future was +wrapped up in her using it wisely and well. +</P> + +<P> +The great gathering was impressed by the statesman-like quality of the +speech, the first of its kind he had made since his landing. He spoke +with ease, making very little use of his notes and showing a greater +freedom from nervousness. The sincerity of his manner carried +conviction, and there was a great demonstration when he sat down. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H4> + +<P> +In the afternoon he left Calgary by train for the small "cow town" of +High River, from there going on by car over roads that were at times +cart ruts in the fields, to the Bar U Ranch, where he was to be the +guest of Mr. George Lane. +</P> + +<P> +His host, "George Lane," as he is called everywhere, is known as far as +the States and England as one of the cattle kings. He is a Westerner +of the Westerners, and an individuality even among them. Tall and +loose-built, with an authentic Bret Harte quality in action and speech, +he can flash a glance of shrewdness or humour from the deep eyes under +their shaggy, pent-house brows. He is one of the biggest ranch owners +in the West (perhaps the biggest); his judgment on cattle or horses is +law, and he has no frills. +</P> + +<P> +His attractive ranch on the plains, where the rolling lands meet the +foot-hills of the Rockies, has an air of splendid spaciousness. We did +not go to Bar U, but a friend took us out on a switchback automobile +run over what our driver called a "hellofer" road, to just such another +ranch near Cockrane, and we could judge what these estates were like. +</P> + +<P> +They are lonely but magnificent. They extend with lakes, close, tight +patches of bush and small and occasional woods over undulating country +to the sharp, bare wall of the snow-capped Rockies. The light is +marvellous. Calgary is 3,500 feet up, and the level mounts steadily to +the mountains. At this altitude the sunlight has an astonishing +clarity, and everything is seen in a sharp and brilliant light. +</P> + +<P> +In the rambling but comfortable house of the ranch the Prince was +entertained with cattleman's fare, and on the Tuesday (after a ten-mile +run before breakfast) he was introduced to the ardours of the +cattleman's calling. He mounted a broncho and with his host joined the +cowboys in rounding several thousand head of cattle, driving them in +towards the branding corrals. +</P> + +<P> +This is no task for an idler or a slacker. The bunch was made up +mainly of cows with calves, or steers of less than a year old, who +believed in the policy of self-determination, being still unbranded and +still conspicuously independent. Most of them, in fact, had seen +little or nothing of man in their life of lonely pasturage over the +wide plains. +</P> + +<P> +Riding continually at a gallop and in a whirlwind of movement and dust +and horns, the Prince helped to bunch the mass into a compact circle, +and then joined with the others in riding into the nervous herd, in +order to separate the calves from the mothers, and the unbranded steers +from those already marked with the sign of Bar U. +</P> + +<P> +Calves and steers were roped and dragged to the corral, where they were +flung and the brand seared on their flanks with long irons taken from a +fire in the enclosure. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince did not spare himself, and worked as hard as any cattleman +in the business, and indeed he satisfied those exacting critics, the +cowboys, who produced in his favour another Westernism, describing him +as "a Bear. He's fur all over." Then, as though a strenuous morning +in the saddle was not enough, he went off in the afternoon after +partridges, spending the whole time on the tramp until he was due to +start for Calgary. +</P> + +<P> +His pleasure in his experience was summed up in the terse comment: +"Some Ranch," that he set against his signature in Mr. Lane's visitors' +book. It also had the practical result of turning him into a rancher +himself, for it was at this time he saw the ranch which he ultimately +bought. It is a very good little property, close to Mr. Lane's, so +that in running it the Prince will have the advantage of that expert's +advice. Part of the Prince's plan for handling it is to give an +opportunity to soldiers who served with him in the war to take up +positions on the ranch. Mr. Lane told me himself that the proposition +is a practical one, and there should be profitable results. +</P> + +<P> +Leaving Bar U, the Prince returned to High River at that Canadian pace +of travelling which sets the timid European wondering whether his +accident policy is fully paid up. In High River, where the old +cow-puncher ideal of hitting up the dust in the wild and woolly manner +has given way to the rule of jazz dances and bright frocks, he mounted +the train and steamed off to Calgary. +</P> + +<P> +In Calgary great things had been done to the Armoury where the ball was +to be held. Handled in the big manner of the Dominion, the great hall +had been re-floored with "hard wood" blocks, and a scheme of real +beauty, extending to an artificial sky in the roof, had been evolved. +</P> + +<P> +At this dance the whole of Calgary seemed in attendance, either on the +floor, or outside watching the guests arrive. In Canada the scope of +the invitations is universal. There are no distinctions. The pretty +girl who serves you with shaving soap over the drug store counter asks +if she will meet you at the Prince's ball, as a matter of course. She +is going. So is the young man at the estate office. So is your taxi +chauffeur (the taxi is an open touring car). So is—everybody. These +dances are the most democratic affairs, and the most spirited. And as +spirited and democratic as anybody was the Prince himself, who, in this +case, in spite of his run before breakfast, a hard morning in the +saddle, his long tramp in the afternoon, his automobile and railway +travelling, danced with the rest into the small hours of the morning. +</P> + +<P> +All the little boys in Calgary watched for his arrival. And after he +had gone in there was a fierce argument as to who had come in closest +contact with him. One little boy said that the Prince had looked +straight at him and smiled. +</P> + +<P> +Another capped it: +</P> + +<P> +"He shoved me on the shoulder as he went by," he cried. +</P> + +<P> +The inevitable last chimed in: +</P> + +<P> +"You don't make it at all," he said. "He trod on my brother's toe." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +CHIEF MORNING STAR COMES TO BANFF AND THE ROCKIES +</H4> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H4> + +<P> +In the night the Royal train steamed the few miles from Calgary and on +the morning of Wednesday, September 17th, we woke up in the first field +works of the Rocky Mountains. +</P> + +<P> +It was a day on which we were to see one of the most picturesque +ceremonies of the tour, and slipping through the high scarps of the +mountains to the little valley in which Banff station stands, we were +into that experience of colour at once. +</P> + +<P> +Drawn up in the open by the little station was a line of Indians, clad +in their historic costumes, and mounted on the small, springy horses of +Canada. Some were in feathers and buckskin and beads, some in the high +felt hats and bright-shirts of the cowboy, all were romantic in +bearing. They were there to form the escort of the new "Chief." +</P> + +<P> +As the Prince's car drove from the station along a road that wound its +way amid glades of spruce and poplar glowing with the old gold of +Autumn that filled the valleys winding about the feet of high and +austere mountains, other bodies of Stoney Indians joined the escort +about the car. +</P> + +<P> +They had gathered at the opening of every side lane, and as the +cavalcade passed, dropped in behind, until the procession became a +snake of shifting colour, vermilion and cherry, yellow and blue and +green, going forward under the dappling of sun that slipped between the +swinging branches. +</P> + +<P> +Chiefs, the sunray of eagles' feathers on their heads, braves in full +war-paint, Indian cowboys in shirts of all the colours of the spectrum, +and squaws a mass of beads and sequins, with bright shawls and brighter +silk head-wraps, made up the escort. Behind and at times in front of +many of the squaws were papooses, some riding astraddle, their arms +round the women's waists, others slung in shawls, but all clad in +Indian garb that seemed to be made up of a mass of closely-sewn beads, +turquoise, green, white or red, so that the little bodies were like +scaly and glittering lizards. +</P> + +<P> +This ride that wound in and out of these very beautiful mountain +valleys took the Prince past the enclosures of the National Park, and +he saw under the trees the big, hairy-necked bison, the elk and +mountain goats that are harboured in this great natural reserve. +</P> + +<P> +On the racecourse were Indian tepees, banded, painted with the heads of +bulls, and bright with flags. The braves who were waiting for the +Prince, and those who were escorting him, danced, their ponies whirling +about, racing through veils of dust and fluttering feathers and +kerchiefs in a sort of ride of welcome. From over by the tepees there +came the low throbbing of tom-toms to join with the thin, high, +dog-like whoop of the Indian greeting. +</P> + +<P> +On a platform at the hub of half-circle of Indians the Prince listened +to the addresses and accepted the Chieftaincy of the Stoney tribe. +Some of the Indians had their faces painted a livid chrome-yellow, so +that their heads looked like masks of death; some were smeared with +red, some barred with blue. Most, however, showed merely the +high-boned, sphinx-like brown of their faces free from war-paint. The +costumes of many were extremely beautiful, the wonderful beadwork on +tunic and moccasins being a thing of amazing craftsmanship, though the +elk-tooth decorations, though of great value, were not so attractive. +</P> + +<P> +Standing in front of the rest, the chief, "Little Thunder," read the +address to the Prince. He was a big, aquiline fellow, young and +handsome, clad in white, hairy chaps and cowboy shirt. He spoke in +sing-song Cree, his body curving back from straddled knees as though he +sat a pulling horse. +</P> + +<P> +In his historic tongue, and then in English, he spoke of the honour the +Prince was paying the Stoneys, and of their enduring loyalty to him and +his father; and he asked the Prince "to accept from us this Indian +suit, the best we have, emblematic of the clothes we wore in happy +days. We beg you also to allow us to elect you as our chief, and to +give you the name Chief Morning Star." +</P> + +<P> +The suit given to the Prince was an exceedingly handsome one of white +buckskin, decorated with beads, feathers and fur, and surmounted by a +great headdress of feathers rising from a fillet of beads and fur. The +Prince put on the headdress at once, and spoke to the Indians as a +chief to his braves, telling them of the honour they had done him. +</P> + +<P> +When he had finished, the tom-toms were brought into action again, and +a high, thin wail went up from the ring of Indians, and they began +almost at once to move round in a dance. Indian dancing is monotonous. +It is done to the high, nasal chanting of men gathered round a big drum +in the centre of the ring. This drum is beaten stoically by all to +give the time. +</P> + +<P> +Some of the dancing is the mere bending of knees and a soft shuffling +stamping of moccasined feet. In other dances vividly clad, +broad-faced, comely squaws joined in the ring of braves, whose feathers +and elk-tooth ornaments swung as they moved, and the whole ring, with a +slightly rocking movement, shuffled an inch at a time round the tom-tom +men. The motion was very like that of soldiers dressing ranks. +</P> + +<P> +A more spirited dance is done by braves holding weapons stiffly, and +following each other in file round the circle, now bending knees, or +bodies, now standing upright. As they pass round and dip they loose +little snapping yelps. All the time their faces remain as impassive as +things graven. +</P> + +<P> +The dancing was followed by racing. Boys mounted bareback the springy +little horses, and with their legs twisted into rope-girths—with +reins, the only harness—went round the track at express speed. Young +women, riding astride, their dresses tied about their knees, also +raced, showing horsemanship even superior to the boys. The riding was +extremely fine, and the little horses bunch and move with an elastic +and hurtling movement that is thrilling. +</P> + +<P> +The ceremony had made the bravest of spectacles. The Indian colour and +romance of the scene, set in a deep cup rimmed by steep, grim +mountains, the sides and icecaps of which the bright sunlight threw up +into an almost unreal actuality, gave it a rare and entrancing quality. +And not the least of its picturesque attractions were the papooses in +bead and fringed leather, who grubbed about in the earth with stoic +calm. They looked almost too toylike to be true. They looked as +though their right place was in a scheme of decoration on a wall or a +mantel-shelf. As one lady said of them: "They're just the sort of +things I want to take home as souvenirs." +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H4> + +<P> +Banff is an exquisite and ideal holiday place, and I can appreciate the +impulse that sends many Americans as well as Canadians to enjoy its +beauties in the summer. +</P> + +<P> +It is a valley ringed by an amphitheatre of mountains, up the harsh +slopes of which spruce forests climb desperately until beaten by the +height and rock on the scarps beneath crests which are often +snow-capped. Through this broad valley, and winding round slopes into +other valleys, run streams of that poignant blueness which only glacial +silt and superb mountain skies can Impart. +</P> + +<P> +The houses and hotels in this Switzerland of Canada are charming, but +the Banff Springs Hotel, where the Prince stayed, is genius. It is +perched up on a spur in the valley, so that in that immense ring of +heights it seems to float insubstantially above the clouds of trees, +like the palace of some genii. For not only was its site admirably +chosen, but the whole scheme of the building fits the atmosphere of the +place. And it is as comfortable as it is beautiful. +</P> + +<P> +It faces across its red-tiled, white-balustered terraces and vivid +lawns, a sharp river valley that strolls winding amid the mountains. +And just as this river turns before it, it tumbles down a rock slide in +a vast mass of foam, so that even when one cannot see its beauty at +night, its roar can be heard in the wonderful silence of the valley. +On the terrace of the hotel are two bathing-pools fed from the sulphur +springs of Banff, and here Canadians seem to bathe all day until +dance-time—and even slip back for a moonlight bath between dancing and +bed. +</P> + +<P> +It is an ideal place for a holiday, for there is golfing, climbing, +walking and bathing for those whose athletic instincts are not +satisfied with beauty, and automobile rides amid beauty. And it is, of +course, a perfect place for honeymooners, as one will find by +consulting the Visitors' Book, for with characteristic frankness the +Canadians and Americans sign themselves: +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"<I>Mr. and Mrs. Jack P. Eeks, Spokane. We are on our honeymoon.</I>" +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The Prince spent an afternoon and a morning playing golf amid the +immensities of Banff, or travelling in a swift car along its beautiful +roads. There are most things in Banff to make man happy, even a coal +mine, sitting like a black and incongruous gnome in the heart of +enchanted hills, to provide heat against mountain chills. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince saw the sulphur spring that bubbles out of quicksand in a +little cavern deep in the hillside—a cavern made almost impregnable by +smell. In the old days the determined bather had to shin down a pole +through a funnel, and take his curative bath in the rocky oubliette of +the spring. Now the Government has arranged things better. It has +carved a dark tunnel to the pool, and carried the water to two big +swimming tanks on the open hillside, where one can take a plunge with +all modern accessories. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H4> + +<P> +From Banff in the afternoon of Thursday, September 18th, the train +carried the Prince through scenery that seemed to accumulate beauty as +he travelled to another eyrie of loveliness, Lake Louise. +</P> + +<P> +At Lake Louise Station the railway is five thousand feet above the +sea-level, but the Château and Lake are yet higher, and the Prince +climbed to them by a motor railway that rises clinging to the +mountain-side, until it twists into woods and mounts upward by the side +of a blue-and-white stream dashing downward, with an occasional +breather in a deep pool, over rocks. +</P> + +<P> +The Château is poised high up in the world on the lip of a small and +perfect lake of poignant blue, that fills the cup made by the meeting +of a ring of massive heights. At the end of the lake, miles away, but, +thanks to the queerness of mountain perspective, looking close enough +to touch, rises the scarp of Mount Victoria, capped with a vast glacier +that seemed to shine with curious inner lambency under the clear light +of the grey day. There is a touch of the theatre in that view from the +windows or the broad lawns of the Château, for the mountain and glacier +is a huge back-drop seen behind wings made by the shoulders of other +mountains, and all, rock and spruce woods, as well as the clear shining +of the ice, are mirrored in the perfect lake that makes the floor of +the valley. +</P> + +<P> +Up on one of the shoulders of the lake, hidden away in a screen of +trees, is the home of an English woman. She used to spend her days +working in a shop in the West End of London until happy chance brought +her to Lake Louise, and she opened a tea chalet high on that lonely +crag. She has changed from the frowsty airs of her old life to a place +where she can enjoy beauty, health and an income that allows her to fly +off to California when the winter comes. The Prince went up to take +tea in this chalet of romance and profit during his walk of exercise. +</P> + +<P> +There is another kind of romance in the woods about the Château, and +one of the policemen who guarded the Prince made its acquaintance +during the night. In the dark he heard the noise of some one moving +amid the trees that come down to the edge of the hotel grounds. He +thought that some unpleasant intruder on the Prince's privacy was +attempting to sneak in by the back way. He marched up to the edge of +the wood and waited in his most legal attitude for the intruder—and a +bear came out to meet him. Not only did it come out to meet him, but +it reared up and waved its paws in a thoroughly militant manner. The +policeman was a man from the industrial East, and not having been +trained to the habits of bears, decided on a strategic withdrawal. +</P> + +<P> +His experience was one of the next day's jokes, since it appears that +bears often do come out of the woods attracted by the smell of hotel +cooking. On the whole they are amiable, and are no more difficult than +ordinary human beings marching in the direction of a good dinner. +</P> + +<P> +From Lake Louise the Prince went steadily west through some of the most +impressive scenery in Canada. The gradient climbs resolutely to the +great lift of petrified earth above Kicking Horse Pass, so that the +train seemed to be steaming across the sky. +</P> + +<P> +A little east of the Pass is a slight monument called "the Great +Divide." Here Alberta meets British Columbia, and here a stream +springs from the mountains to divide itself east and west, one fork +joining stream after stream, until as a great river it empties into +Hudson Bay; the other, turning west and leaping down the ledges of +valleys, makes for the Pacific. +</P> + +<P> +Beyond "the Great Divide" the titanic Kicking Horse Pass opens out. It +falls by gigantic levels for 1,300 feet to the dim, spruce-misted +valleys that lie darkly at the foot of the giant mountains. It is not +a straight canyon, but a series of deeper valleys opening out of deep +valleys round the shoulders of the grim slopes. Down this tortuous +corridor the railway creeps lower, level by level, going with the +physical caution of a man descending a dangerous slope. +</P> + +<P> +The line feels for its best footholds on the sides of walls that drop +sheer away, and tower sheer above. We could look over the side down +abrupt precipices, and see through the dense rain of the day the mighty +drop to where the Kicking Horse River, after leaping over rocky ramps +and flowing through level pools, ran in a score of channels on the wide +shingly floor of the Pass. +</P> + +<P> +Beneath us as we descended we could see the track twisting and looping, +as it sought by tunnelling to conquer the exacting gradient. The +planning of the line is, in its own way, as wonderful as the natural +marvel of the Pass. One is filled with awe at the vision, the genius +and the tenacity of those great railway men who had seen a way over +this grim mountain barrier, had schemed their line and had mastered +nature. +</P> + +<P> +At Yoho Station that clings like a limpet near the top of this soaring +barrier, the Prince took to horse, and rode down trails that wind along +the mountainside through thickets of trees to Field at the foot of the +drop. The rain was driving up the throat of the valley before a strong +wind, and it was not a good day for riding, even in woolly chaps such +as he wore, but he set out at a gallop, and enjoyed the exercise and +the scenery, which is barbaric and tremendous, though here and there it +was etherealized by sudden gleams of sunlight playing on the wet +foliage of the mountain-side and turning the wet masses into rainbows. +</P> + +<P> +During this ride he passed under the stain in a sheer wall of rock that +gives the Pass its name. For some geological reason there is, high up +in a straight mass of white towering cliff, a black outcrop that is +like the silhouette of an Indian on a horse. I could not distinguish +the kick in the horse myself, but I was assured it was there, and +Kicking Horse is thus named. +</P> + +<P> +From Field, a breathing space for trains, about which has grown a small +village possessing one good hotel, the Prince rode up the valleys to +some of the beauty spots, such as Emerald Lake, which lies high in the +sky under the cold glaciers of Mount Burgess. It was a wonderful ride +through the spruce and balsam woods of these high valleys. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +IV +</H4> + +<P> +During Saturday, September 20th, the train was yet in the mountains, +and the scenery continued to be magnificent. From Field the line works +down to the level of the Columbia River, some 1,500 feet lower, through +magnificent stretches of mountain panorama, and through breathless +gorges like the Palliser, before climbing again steeply to the highest +point of the Selkirk Range. Here the train seemed to charge straight +at the towering wall of Mount MacDonald, but only because there is a +miracle of a tunnel—Connaught Tunnel—which coaxes the line down by +easy grades to Rogers Pass, the Illicilliwaet and Albert Canyon. +Through all this stretch the scenery is superb. In the gorges and the +canyon high mountains force the river and railway together, until the +train runs in a semi-darkness between sheer cliffs, with the water +foaming and tearing itself forward in pent-up fury between harsh, rocky +walls. Sometimes these walls encroach until the water channel is +forced between two rocks standing up like doorposts, with not much more +than a doorway space between them. Through these gateways the volume +of water surges with an indescribable sense of power. +</P> + +<P> +At places, as in the valley of the Beavermouth, east of the Connaught +Tunnel, the line climbs hugely upward on the sides of great ranges, +and, on precarious ledges, hangs above a gigantic floor, tree-clad and +fretted with water channels. The train crept over spidery bridges, +spanning waterdrops, and crawled for miles beneath ranges of big timber +snowsheds. +</P> + +<P> +The train stopped at the pleasant little mountain town of Golden, where +the Prince went "ashore," and there was the ceremony of reception. +This was on the program. The next stop was not. +</P> + +<P> +West of the Albert Canyon, at a tiny station called Twin Butte, we +passed another train standing in a siding, with a long straggle of men +in khaki waiting on the platform and along the track, looking at us as +we swept along. Abruptly we ceased to sweep along. The communication +cord had been pulled, and we stopped with a jerk. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince had caught sight of the soldiers, and had recognized who +they were. He had given orders to pull up, and almost before the +brakes had ground home, he was out on the track and among the men, +speaking to them and the officers, who were delighted at this +unexpected meeting. +</P> + +<P> +The soldiers were English. They were men of the 25th Middlesex, H.A.C. +and other regiments, four hundred all told. They had come from Omsk, +in Russia, by way of the Pacific, and were being railed from Vancouver +to Montreal in order to take ship for home. The men of the Middlesex +were those made famous by the sinking of their trooper off the African +coast in 1916. Their behaviour then had been so admirable that it will +be remembered the King cabled to them, "Well done, Diehards!" +</P> + +<P> +By the isolated railway station and under the lonely mountains so far +from their homes, they were drawn up, and the Prince made an informal +inspection of the men who had been so long away, and who had travelled +the long road from Siberia on their way Blightyward. +</P> + +<P> +The inspection lasted only a few minutes, and the episode, spontaneous +as it was characteristic, scarcely broke the run into Revelstoke. But +it was the happiest of meetings. +</P> + +<P> +Revelstoke is a small, bright mountain town known, as its inhabitants +say, for snow and strawberries. It is their way of explaining that the +land in this deep mountain valley is splendidly fertile, and that +settlers have only to farm on a small scale in order to make a +comfortable living, though in winter it is—well, of the mountains. +The fishing there is also extremely good, and we were told almost +fabulous tales of boys who on their journey home from school spent a +few minutes at the creeks of the Columbia River, and went on their way +bearing enough fish to make a dinner for a big family. +</P> + +<P> +The chief feature of Revelstoke's reception was a motor run up +Revelstoke mountain, a four thousand feet ride up a stiffish road that +climbed by corkscrew bends. This was thrilling enough, for there were +abrupt depths when we saw Revelstoke far down on the valley floor +looking neat and doll-like from this airman's eye-view, and we had to +cross frail wooden bridges spanning deep crevices, some of them at ugly +corners. +</P> + +<P> +From Revelstoke the train went on to Sicamous, where it remained until +the middle of Sunday, September 21st. Sicamous is merely an hotel and +a few houses beside a very beautiful lake. It is a splendid fishing +centre, for a chain of lakes stretches south through the valleys to +Okanagan. A branch line serves this district (which we were to explore +later), where there are rich orchard lands. +</P> + +<P> +With Revelstoke, Sicamous acts as a distributing centre for the big +Kootenay areas, that romantic land of the earliest trail breakers, +those dramatic fellows who pushed all ways through the forest-clad +valleys after gold and silver, and the other rich rewards of the +prospector. Even now the country has only been tapped, and there are +many new discoveries of ore in the grim rock of the district. +</P> + +<P> +A short stop at Kamloops on Sunday, September 21st, and then a straight +run through the night brought us to Vancouver, with just a note of +interest outside the Pacific city. For miles we passed dumps of war +material, shells, ammunition boxes, the usual material of armies. It +was lying discarded and decaying, and it told a tragic story. It was +the war material that the Allies had prepared for Russia. These were +the dumps that fed the transports for Russia plying from Vancouver. +After the peace of Brest-Litovsk all work ceased about them, and there +they remained to that day, monuments to the Bolshevik Peace. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE PACIFIC CITIES: VANCOUVER AND VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA +</H4> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H4> + +<P> +Vancouver was land after a mountain voyage. With the feelings of a +seafarer seeing cliffs after a long ocean journey, we reached common, +flat country and saw homely asphalt streets. +</P> + +<P> +There can be no two points of view concerning the beauty and grandeur +of the mountain scenery through which the Prince had passed, but after +a succession of even the most stimulating gorges and glaciers one does +turn gladly to a little humanity in the lump. Vancouver was humanity +in the lump, an exceedingly large lump and of peculiarly warm and +generous emotions. We were glad to meet crowds once more. +</P> + +<P> +There are some adequate streets in this great western port of Canada. +When Vancouver planned such opulent boulevards as Granville and Georgia +streets, it must have been thinking hard about posterity, which will +want a lot of space if only to drive its superabundant motors. But +splendid and wide and long though these and other streets be, the mass +of people which lined them on Monday, September 22nd, was such as to +set the most long-headed town planner wondering if, after all, he had +allowed enough room for the welcoming of Princes. +</P> + +<P> +From the vast, orderly throng massed behind the red and tartan of the +Highland guard of honour at the station, thick ranks of people lined +the whole of a long route to Stanley Park. +</P> + +<P> +This crowd not only filled the sidewalks with good-tempered liveliness, +but it had sections in all the windows of the fine blocks of buildings +the Prince passed. Now and then it attempted to emulate the small boys +who ran level with the Prince's car cheering to full capacity, and +caring not a jot whether a "Mounty" of the escort or a following car +went over them, but on the whole the crowd was more in hand than usual. +</P> + +<P> +This does not mean that it was less enthusiastic. The reception was of +the usual stirring quality, and it culminated in an immense outburst in +Stanley Park. +</P> + +<P> +It was a touch of genius to place the official reception in the Park. +It is, in a sense, the key-note of Vancouver. It gives it its peculiar +quality of charm. It is a huge park occupying the entirety of a +peninsula extending from the larger peninsula upon which Vancouver +stands. It has sea-water practically all round it. In it are to be +found the greatest and finest trees in Canada in their most natural +surroundings. +</P> + +<P> +It is one big "reservation" for trees. Those who think that they can +improve upon nature have had short shrift, and the giant Douglas pine, +the firs and the cedars thrive naturally in a setting that has remained +practically untouched since the day when the British seaman, Captain +Vancouver, explored the sounds of this coast. It is an exquisite park +having delightful forest walks and beautiful waterside views. +</P> + +<P> +Under the great trees and in a wilderness of bright flowers and flags +as bright, a vast concourse of people was gathered about the pretty +pavilion in the park to give the Prince a welcome. The function had +all the informality of a rather large picnic, and when the sun banished +the Pacific "smoke," or mist, the gathering had infinite charm. +</P> + +<P> +After this reception the Prince went for a short drive in the great +park, seeing its beautiful glades; looking at Burrard Inlet that makes +its harbour one of the best in the world, and getting a glimpse of +English Bay, where the sandy bathing beaches make it one of the best +sea-side resorts in the world as well. At all points of the drive +there were crowds. And while most of those on the sidewalks were +Canadian, there was also, as at "Soo," a good sprinkling of Americans. +They had come up from Seattle and Washington county to have a +first-hand look at the Prince, and perhaps to "jump" New York and the +eastern Washington in a racial desire to get in first. +</P> + +<P> +In this long drive, as well as during the visit we paid to Vancouver on +our return from Victoria, there was a considerable amount of that mist +which the inhabitants call "smoke," because it is said to be the result +of forest fires along the coast, in the air. Yet in spite of the mist +we had a definite impression of a fine, spacious city, beautifully +situated and well planned, with distinguished buildings. And an +impression of people who occupy themselves with the arts of business, +progress and living as becomes a port not merely great now, but +ordained to be greater tomorrow. +</P> + +<P> +It is a city of very definite attraction, as perhaps one imagined it +would be, from a place that links directly with the magical Orient, and +trades in silks and tea and rice, and all the romantic things of those +lands, as well as in lumber and grain with all the colourful towns that +fringe the wonderful Pacific Coast. +</P> + +<P> +Vancouver has been the victim of the "boom years." Under the spell of +that "get-rich-quick" impulse, it outgrew its strength. It is getting +over that debility now (and perhaps, after all, the "boomsters" were +right, if their method was anticipatory) and a fine strength is coming +to it. When conditions ease and requisitioned shipping returns to its +wharves, and its own building yards make up the lacking keels, it +should climb steadily to its right position as one of the greatest +ports in the British Empire. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H4> + +<P> +Vancouver, as it is today, is a peculiarly British town. Its climate +is rather British, for its winter season has a great deal of rain where +other parts of Canada have snow, and its climate is Britishly warm and +soft. It attracts, too, a great many settlers from home, its +newspapers print more British news than one usually finds in Canadian +papers (excepting such great Eastern papers as, for instance, <I>The +Montreal Gazette</I>), and its atmosphere, while genuinely Canadian, has +an English tone. +</P> + +<P> +There is not a little of America, too, in its air, for great American +towns like Seattle are very close across the border—in fact one can +take a "jitney" to the United States as an ordinary item of +sightseeing. Under these circumstances it was not unnatural that there +should be an interesting touch of America in the day's functions. +</P> + +<P> +The big United States battleship <I>New Mexico</I> and some destroyers were +lying in the harbour, and part of the Prince's program was to have +visited Admiral Rodman, who commanded. The ships, however, were in +quarantine, and this visit had to be put off, though the Admiral +himself was a guest at the brilliant luncheon in the attractive +Vancouver Hotel, when representatives from every branch of civic life +in greater Vancouver came together to meet the Prince. +</P> + +<P> +In his speech the Prince made direct reference to the American Navy, +and to the splendid work it had accomplished in the war. He spoke +first of Vancouver, and its position, now and in the future, as one of +the greatest bases of British sea power. Vancouver, he explained, also +brought him nearer to those other great countries in the British +Dominions, Australia and New Zealand, and it seemed to him it was a +fitting link in the chain of unity and co-operation—a chain made more +firm by the war—that the British Empire stretched round the world. It +was a chain, he felt, of kindred races inspired by kindred ideals. +Such ideals were made more apparent by the recent and lamented death of +that great man, General Botha, who, from being an Africander leader in +the war against the British eighteen years ago, had yet lived to be one +of the British signatories at the Treaty of Versailles. Nothing else +could express so significantly the breadth, justice and generosity of +the British spirit and cause. +</P> + +<P> +Turning to Admiral Rodman, he went on to say that he felt that that +spirit had its kinship in America, whose Admiral had served with the +Grand Fleet. Of the value of the work those American ships under +Admiral Rodman did, there could be no doubt. He had helped the Allies +with a most magnificent and efficient unit. +</P> + +<P> +At no other place had the response exceeded the warmth shown that day. +The Prince's manner had been direct and statesmanlike, each of his +points was clearly uttered, and the audience showed a keen quickness in +picking them up. +</P> + +<P> +Admiral Rodman, a heavily-built figure, with the American light, +dryness of wit, gave a new synonym for the word "Allies"; to him that +word meant "Victory." It was the combination of every effort of every +Ally that had won the war. Yet, at the same time, practical experience +had taught him to feel that if it had not been for the way the Grand +Fleet had done its duty from the very outset, the result of the war +would have been diametrically opposite. Feelingly, he described his +service with the Grand Fleet. He had placed himself unreservedly under +the command of the British from the moment he had entered European +waters, yet so complete was the co-operation between British and +Americans that he often took command of British units. The splendid +war experience had done much to draw the great Anglo-Saxon nations +together. Their years together had ripened into friendship, then into +comradeship, then into brotherhood. And that brotherhood he wished to +see enduring, so that if ever the occasion should again arise all men +of Anglo-Saxon strain should stand together. +</P> + +<P> +There was real warmth of enthusiasm as the Admiral spoke. Those +present, whose homes are close to those of their American neighbours +living across a frontier without fortifications, in themselves +appreciated the essential sympathy that exists between the two great +nations. When the Admiral conveyed to the Prince a warm invitation to +visit the United States, this enthusiasm reached its highest point. It +was, in its way, an international lunch, and a happy one. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H4> + +<P> +After reviewing the Great War Veterans on the quay-side, the Prince +left Vancouver just before lunch time on Tuesday, September 23rd, for +Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, which lies across the water +on Vancouver Island. +</P> + +<P> +It was a short run of five hours in one of the most comfortable boats I +have ever been in—the <I>Princess Alice</I>, which is on the regular C.P.R. +service, taking in the fjords and towns of the British Columbian coast. +</P> + +<P> +Leaving Vancouver, where the towering buildings give an authentic air +of modern romance to the skyline, a sense of glamour went with us +across the sea. The air was still tinged with "smoke" and the fabled +blue of the Pacific was not apparent, but we could see curiously close +at hand the white cowl of Mount Baker, which is America, and we passed +on a zig-zag course through the scattered St. Juan Islands, each of +which seemed to be charming and lonely enough to stage a Jack London +story. +</P> + +<P> +On the headlands or beaches of these islands there were always men and +women and children to wave flags and handkerchiefs, and to send a cheer +across the water to the Prince. One is surprised, so much is the +romantic spell upon one, that the people on these islets of loneliness +should know that the Prince was coming, that is, one is surprised until +one realizes that this is Canada, and that telegraphs and telephones +and up-to-date means of communication are commonplaces here as +everywhere. +</P> + +<P> +Romance certainly invades one on entering Victoria. It seems a city +out of a kingdom of Anthony Hope's, taken in hand by a modern Canadian +administration. Steaming up James Bay to the harbour landing one feels +that it is a sparkling city where the brightest things in thrilling +fiction might easily happen. +</P> + +<P> +The bay goes squarely up to a promenade. Behind the stone balustrade +is a great lawn, and beyond that, amid trees, is a finely decorative +building, a fitted back-ground to any romance, though it is actually an +<I>hôtel de luxe</I>. To the left of the square head of the water is a +distinguished pile; it is the Customs House, but it might be a temple +of dark machinations. To the right is a rambling building, ornate and +attractive, with low, decorated domes and outflung and rococo wings. +That could easily be the palace of at least a sub-rosa royalty, though +it is the House of Parliament. The whole of this square grouping of +green grass and white buildings, in the particularly gracious air of +Victoria gives a glamorous quality to the scene. +</P> + +<P> +Victoria's welcome to the Prince was modern enough. Boat sirens and +factory hooters loosed a loud welcome as the steamer came in. A huge +derrick arm that stretched a giant legend of <I>Welcome</I> out into the +harbour, swung that sign to face the <I>Princess Alice</I> all the time she +was passing, and then kept pace on its rail track so that <I>Welcome</I> +should always be abreast of the Prince. +</P> + +<P> +The welcome, too, of the crowds on that day when he landed, and on the +next when he attended functions at the Parliament buildings, was as +Canadian and up-to-date as anywhere else in the Dominion. The crowds +were immense, and, at one time, when little girls stood on the edge of +a path to strew roses in front of him as he walked, there was some +danger of the eager throngs submerging both the little girls and the +charming ceremony in anxiety to get close to him. +</P> + +<P> +The crowd in Parliament Square during the ceremonies of Wednesday, +September 24th, was prodigious. From the hotel windows the whole of +the great green space before the Parliament buildings was seen black +with people who stayed for hours in the hope of catching sight of the +Prince as he went from one ceremony to another. +</P> + +<P> +It was a gathering of many races. There were Canadians born and +Canadians by residence. Vivid American girls come by steamer from +Seattle were there. There were men and women from all races in Europe, +some of them Canadians now, some to be Canadians presently. There were +Chinese and Japanese in greater numbers than we had seen elsewhere, for +Victoria is the nearest Canadian city to the East. There were Hindus, +and near them survivors of the aboriginal race, the Songhish Indians, +who lorded it in Vancouver Island before the white man came. +</P> + +<P> +And giving a special quality to this big cosmopolitan gathering was the +curious definitely English air of Victoria. It is the most English of +Canadian cities. Its even climate is the most English, and its air of +well-furnished leisure is English. Because of this, or perhaps I +should say the reason for this is that it is the home of many +Englishmen. Not only do settlers from England come here in numbers, +but many English families, particularly those from the Orient East, who +get to know its charms when travelling through it on their way across +Canada and home, come here to live when they retire. And this +distinctly English atmosphere gets support in great measure from the +number of rich Canadians who, on ceasing their life's work, come here +to live in leisure. +</P> + +<P> +Yet though this is responsible for the growing up in Victoria of some +of the most beautiful residential districts in Canada, where beautiful +houses combine with the lovely scenery of country and sea in giving the +city and its environments a delightful charm, Victoria is vigorously +industrial too. +</P> + +<P> +It has shipbuilding and a brisk commerce in lumber, machinery and a +score of other manufactories, and it serves both the East and the +Canadian and American coast. It has fine, straight, broad streets, +lined with many distinguished buildings, and its charm has virility as +well as ease. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +IV +</H4> + +<P> +The Prince made a long break in his tour here, remaining until Sunday, +September 28th. Most of this stay was given over to restful exercise; +he played golf and went for rides through the beautiful countryside. +There were several functions on his program, however. He visited the +old Navy Yard and School at Esquimault, and he took a trip on the +Island railway to Duncan, Ladysmith, Nanaimo and Qualicum. +</P> + +<P> +At each of these towns he had a characteristic welcome, and at some +gained an insight into local industries, such as lumbering and the +clearing of land for farming. On the return journey he mounted the +engine cab and came most of the way home in this fashion. +</P> + +<P> +The country in the Island is serene and attractive, extremely like +England, being reminiscent of the rolling wooded towns in Surrey, +though the Englishman misses the hedges. The many sea inlets add +beauty to the scenery, and there are delightful rides along roads that +alternately run along the water's edge, or hang above these fjords on +high cliff ledges. +</P> + +<P> +In one of our inland drives we were taken to an extraordinary and +beautiful garden. It is a serene place, laid out with exquisite skill. +In one part of it an old quarry has been turned into a sunken garden. +Here with straight cliffs all round there nests a wilderness of +flowers. Small, artificial crags have been reared amid the rockeries +and the flowers, and by small, artificial paths one can climb them. A +stream cascades down the cliff, and flows like a beautiful toy-thing +through the dainty artificial scenery. +</P> + +<P> +In another part of the grounds is a Japanese garden, with tiny pools +and moon bridges and bamboo arbours—and flowers and flowers and +flowers. And not only does the maker of this enchanted spot throw it +open to the public, but he has built for visitors a delightful chalet +where they can take tea. This chalet is a big, comely hall, with easy +chairs and gate tables. It is provided with all the American +magazines. In a tiny outbuilding is a scullery with cups and saucers +and plates and teapots—all for visitors. +</P> + +<P> +The visitors take their own food, and use these articles. The Chinese +cook at the house near by provides boiling water, and all the owner +asks is that those who use his crockery shall wash it up at the sink +provided, and with the dish-cloths provided, and leave it in readiness +for the next comer. +</P> + +<P> +That generosity is the final and completing touch to the charm of that +exquisite place, which is a veritable "Garden of Allah" amid the +beauties of Canadian scenery. +</P> + +<P> +Another drive was over the Malahat Pass, through superb country, to a +big lumber camp on Shawnigan Lake. Here we saw the whole of the +operations of lumbering from the point where a logger notches a likely +tree for cutting to the final moment when Chinese workmen feed the +great trunks to the steam saw that hews them into beams and planks. +</P> + +<P> +Having selected a tree, the first logger cuts into it a deep wedge +which is to give it direction in its fall. These men show an almost +uncanny skill. They get the line of a great tree with the handle of +their axes, as an artist uses a pencil, and they can cut their notches +so accurately that they can "fall" a tree on a pocket-handkerchief. +</P> + +<P> +Two men follow this expert. They cut smaller notches in the tree, and +insert their "boards" into it. These "boards" have a steel claw which +bites into the tree when the men stand on the board, the idea being +both to raise the cutters above the sprawling roots, and to give their +swing on the saw an elasticity. It is because they cut so high that +Canada is covered with tall stumps that make clearing a problem. The +stumps are generally dynamited, or torn up by the roots by cables that +pass through a block on the top of a tree to the winding-drum of a +donkey-engine. +</P> + +<P> +When the men at the saw have cut nearly through the tree, they sing out +a drawling, musical "Stand aw-ay," gauging the moment with the skill of +woodsmen, for there is no sign to the lay eye. In a few moments the +giant tree begins to fall stiffly. It moves slowly, and then with its +curious rigidity tears swiftly through the branches of neighbouring +trees, coming to the ground with a thump very much like the sound of an +H.E. shell, and throwing up a red cloud of torn bark. The sight of a +tree falling is a moving thing; it seems almost cruel to bring it down. +</P> + +<P> +A donkey-engine mounted on big logs, that has pulled itself into place +by the simple method of anchoring its steel rope to a distant tree—and +pulling, jerks the great trunks out of the heart of the forest. A +block and tackle are hitched to the top of a tall tree that has been +left standing in a clearing, and the steel ropes are placed round the +fallen trunks. As this lifting line pulls them from their +resting-place, they come leaping and jerking forward, charging down +bushes, rising over stumps, dropping and hurdling over mounds until it +seems that they are actually living things struggling to escape. The +ubiquitous donkey-engine loads the great logs on trucks, and an engine, +not very much bigger than a donkey-engine, tows the long cars of timber +down over a sketchy track to the waterside. +</P> + +<P> +Here the loads are tipped with enormous splashes into the water to wait +in the "booms" until they are wanted at the mill. Then they are towed +across, sure-footed men jump on to them and steer them to the big +chute, where grappling teeth catch them and pull them up until they +reach the sawing platform. They are jerked on to a movable truck, that +grips them, and turns them about with mechanical arms into the required +position for cutting, and then log and truck are driven at the saw +blade, which slices beams or planks out of the primitive trunk with an +almost sinister ease. +</P> + +<P> +Uncanny machines are everywhere in this mill. Machines carve shingles +and battens or billets with an almost human accuracy. A conveyor +removes all sawdust from the danger of lights with mechanical +intelligence. Another carries off all the scrapwood and takes it away +to a safe place in the mill yard where a big, wire-hooded furnace, +something like a straight hop oast-house, burns every scrap of it. +</P> + +<P> +The life in the lumber camp is a hard life, but it is well paid, it is +independent, and the food is a revelation. The loggers' lunch we were +given was a meal fit for gourmets. It was in a rough pitch-pine hut at +rough tables. Clam-soup was served to us in cylindrical preserved meat +cans on which the maker's labels still clung—but it lost none of its +delightful flavour for that. Beef was served cut in strips in a great +bowl, and we all reached out for the vegetables. There were mammothine +bowls of mixed salad possessing an astonishing (to British eyes) +lavishness of hard-boiled egg, lemon pie (lemon curd pie) with a +whipped-egg crown, deep apple pie (the logger eats pie—which many +people will know better as "tart"—three times a day), a marvellous +fruit salad in jelly, and the finest selection of plums, peaches, +apples, and oranges I had seen for a long day. +</P> + +<P> +I was told that this was the regular meal of the loggers, and I know it +was cooked by a chef (there is a French or Belgian or Canadian chef in +most logging camps), for I talked with him. To live in a lonely +forest, in a shack, and to work tremendously hard, may not be all the +life a man wants, but it has compensations. +</P> + +<P> +I understand that just about then the lumbermen were prone to striking. +In one place they were demanding sheets, and in another they had +refused to work because, having ordered two cases of eggs from a store, +the tradesman had only been able to send the one he had in stock. +</P> + +<P> +While we were in this camp we had some experience of the danger of +forest fires. We had walked up to the head of the clearing, when one +of the men of a group we had left working a short distance behind, came +running up to say a fire had started. We went back, and in a place +where, ten minutes before, there had been no sign of fire, flames and +smoke were rising over an area of about one hundred yards square. +Little tongues of flame were racing over the "slashings" (<I>i.e.</I>, the +débris of bark and splintered limbs that litter an area which has been +cut), snakes of flame were writhing up standing trees, sparks blown by +the wind were dropping into the dry "slashings" twenty, thirty and +fifty yards away and starting fresh fires. We could see with what +incredible rapidity these fires travelled, and how dangerous they can +be once they are well alight. This fire was surrounded, and got under +with water and shovelled earth, but we were shown a big stretch of +hillside which another such fire had swept bare in a little under two +hours. The summer is the dangerous time, for "slashings" and forests +are then dry, and one chance spark from a badly screened donkey-engine +chimney will start a blaze. When the fire gets into wet and green wood +it soon expires. +</P> + +<P> +These drives, for us, were the major events in an off time, for there +was very little happening until the night of the 28th, when we went on +board the <I>Princess Alice</I> again, to start on our return journey. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap18"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVIII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +APPLE LAND: OKANAGAN AND KOOTENAY LAKES +</H4> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H4> + +<P> +On Monday, September 29th, the Prince of Wales returned to Vancouver +and took car to New Westminster, the old capital of British Columbia +before picturesque Victoria assumed the reins. +</P> + +<P> +New Westminster was having its own festival that day, so the visit was +well timed. The local exhibition was to begin, and the Prince was to +perform the opening ceremony. Under many fine arches, one a tall +torii, erected by Chinese and Japanese Canadians, the procession of +cars passed through the town, on a broad avenue that runs alongside the +great Fraser River. Drawn up at the curb were many floats that were to +take part in the trades' procession through the town to the exhibition +grounds. Most of them were ingenious and attractive. There were +telegraph stations on wagons, corn dealers' shops, and the like, while +on the bonnet of one car was a doll nurse, busy beside a doll bed. +Another automobile had turned itself into an aeroplane, while another +had obliterated itself under a giant bully beef can to advertise a +special kind of tinned meat. +</P> + +<P> +All cars were decorated with masses of spruce and maple leaf, now +beautiful in autumn tints of crimson and gold. And Peace and +Britannia, of course, were there with attendant angels and nations, +comely girls whose celestial and symbolical garments did not seem to be +the right fashion for a day with more than a touch of chill in the air. +</P> + +<P> +Through this avenue of fantasy, colour and cheery humanity the Prince +drove through the town, which seems to have the air of brooding over +its past, to the exhibition ground, which he opened, and where he +presented medals to many soldiers. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H4> + +<P> +From New Westminster the Royal train struck upward through the Rocky +Mountains by way of the Kettle Valley. It passed through a land of +terrific and magnificent scenery. It equalled anything we had seen in +the more famous beauty spots, but it was more savage. The valleys +appeared closer knit and deeper, and the sharp and steep mountains +pinched the railway and river gorges together until we seemed to be +creeping along the floor of a mighty passage-way of the dark, +aboriginal gods. +</P> + +<P> +Again and again the train was hanging over the deep, misted cauldron of +the valley, again and again it slipped delicately over the span of +cobweb across the sky that is a Canadian bridge. In this land of steep +gradients, sharp curves and lattice bridges, the train was divided into +two sections, and each, with two engines to pull it, climbed through +the mountain passes. +</P> + +<P> +This tract of country has only within the last few years been tapped by +a railway that seems even yet to have to fight its way forward against +Nature, barbarous, splendid and untamed. It was built to the usual +ideal of Canada, that vision which ignores the handicaps of today for +the promise of tomorrow. Yet even today it taps the rich lake valleys +where mining and general farming is carried on, and where there are +miles of orchards already growing some of the finest apples and peaches +in Canada. +</P> + +<P> +On the morning of Tuesday, September 30th, the train climbed down from +the higher and rougher levels to Penticton, a small, bright, growing +town that stands as focus for the immense fruit-growing district about +Okanagan Lake. +</P> + +<P> +Here, after a short ceremony, the Prince boarded the steamer +<I>Sicamous</I>, a lake boat of real Canadian brand; a long white vessel +built up in an extraordinary number of tiers, so that it looked like an +elaborate wedding-cake, but a useful craft whose humpy stern +paddle-wheel can push her through a six-foot shallow or deep water with +equal dispatch. And a delightfully comfortable boat into the bargain, +with well-sheltered and spacious decks, cosy cabins and bath-rooms, and +a big dining saloon, which, placed in the very centre of the ship with +the various galleries of the decks rising around it, has an air of +belonging to one of those attractive old Dickensian inns. +</P> + +<P> +On this vessel the Prince was carried the whole length of Okanagan +Lake, which winds like a blue fillet between mountains for seventy +miles. On the ledges and in the tight valleys of these heights he saw +the formal ranks of a multitude of orchards. +</P> + +<P> +A short distance along the lake the <I>Sicamous</I> pulled in to the toy +quay of Summerland, a town born of and existing for fruit, and linked +up with the outer world by the C.P.R. Lake Service that owned our own +vessel. +</P> + +<P> +All the children of Summerland had collected on the quayside to sing to +and to cheer the Prince, and, as he stood on the upper deck and waved +his hat cheerfully at them, they cheered a good deal more. When he +went ashore and was taken by the grown-up Olympians to examine the +grading and packing sheds, where the fruits of all the orchards are +handled and graded by mechanical means, prepared for the market, and +sold on the co-operative plan, the kiddies exchanged sallies with those +waiting on the vessel, flipped big apples up at them, and cheered or +jeered as they were caught or missed. +</P> + +<P> +The <I>Sicamous</I> went close inshore at Peachland, another daughter town +of Mother Fruit, to salute the crowd of people who had come out from +the pretty bungalow houses that nestle among the green trees on a low +and pretty shore, and who stood on the quay in a mass to send a cheer +to him. +</P> + +<P> +At Okanagan Landing, at the end of the lake, he took car to Vernon, a +purposeful and attractive town which is the commercial heart of the +apple industry. Indeed, there was no need to ask the reason for +Vernon's being. Even the decorations were wrought out of apples, and +under an arch of bright, cherry-red apples the Prince passed on to the +sports ground, and on to a platform the corner posts of which were +crowned with pyramids of apples, and in the centre of which was a model +apple large enough to suit the appetite of Gargantua. +</P> + +<P> +In front of this platform was a grand stand crowded with children of +all races from Scandinavian to Oriental, and these sang with the +resistless heartiness of Canada. The Oriental is a pretty useful asset +in British Columbia, for in addition to his gifts of industry he is an +excellent agriculturist. +</P> + +<P> +After the ceremonies the Prince had an orgy of orchards. +</P> + +<P> +Fruit growing is done with a large gesture. The orchards are neat and +young and huge. In a run of many miles the Prince passed between +masses of precisely aligned trees, and every tree was thick with bright +and gleaming red fruit. Thick, indeed, is a mild word. The short +trees seemed practically all fruit, as though they had got into the +habit of growing apples instead of leaves. Many of the branches bore +so excessive a burden that they had been torn out by the weight of the +fruit upon them. +</P> + +<P> +It was a marvellous pageant of fruit in mass. And the apples +themselves were of splendid quality, big and firm and glowing, each a +perfect specimen of its school. We were able to judge because the +land-girls, after tossing aprons full of specimens (not always +accurately) into the Prince's car, had enough ammunition left over for +the automobiles that followed. +</P> + +<P> +Attractive land girls they were, too. Not garbed like British +land-girls, but having all their dashing qualities. Being Canadians +they carried the love of silk stockings on to the land, and it was +strange to see this feminine extremity under the blue linen overall +trousers or knickers. They were cheery, sun-tanned, laughing girls. +They were ready for the Prince at every gate and every orchard fence, +eager and ready to supplement their gay enthusiasm with this apple +confetti. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince stopped here and there to chat with fruit growers, and to +congratulate them on their fine showing. Now he stopped to talk to a +wounded officer, who had been so cruelly used in the war that he had to +support himself on two sticks. Now he stopped to pass a "How d'y' do" +to a mob of trousered land-girls who gathered brightly about his car, +showing himself as laughing and as cheerful as they. +</P> + +<P> +The cars left the land of growing apples and turned down the lake in a +superb run of thirty-six miles to Kelowna. This road skirts fairyland. +It winds high up on a shoulder above Long Lake, that makes a floor of +living azure between the buttresses and slopes of the mountains. Only +when it is tired of the heights does it drop to the lake level, and +sweeping through a filigree of trees, speeds along a road that is but +an inch or two above the still mirror of Wood Lake, on the polished +surface of which there is a delicate fret of small, rocky islets. So, +in magnificent fashion, he came to Kelowna, and the <I>Sicamous</I>, that +carried him back to the train. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H4> + +<P> +Through the night and during the next morning the train carried the +Prince deeper in the mountains, skirting in amazing loops, when the +train seemed almost to be biting its tail, steep rocky cliffs above +white torrents, or the shining blue surfaces of lakes such as Arrow +Lake, that formed the polished floor of valleys. Now and then we +passed purposeful falls, and by them the power houses that won light +and motive force for the valley towns from the falling water. There +are those who fear the harnessing of water-power, because it may mean +the spoiling of beautiful scenery. Such buildings as I saw in no way +marred the view, but rather added to it a touch of human +picturesqueness. +</P> + +<P> +Creeping down the levels, with discretion at the curves, the train came +in the rain to Nelson on Wednesday, October 1st. Rain spoilt the +reception at Nelson, a town that thrives upon the agricultural and +mining products of the hills about. There seemed to be a touch of +mining grey in the air of the town, but, as in all towns of Canada, no +sense of unhappiness, no sense of poverty—indeed, in the whole of +Canada I saw five beggars and no more (though, of course, there may +have been more). Of these one man was blind, and two were badly +crippled soldiers. +</P> + +<P> +There are no poor in Nelson, so I was told, and no unemployed. +</P> + +<P> +"If a man's unemployed," said a Councillor with a twinkle in his eye, +"he's due for the penitentiary. With labourers getting five dollars a +day, and being able to demand it because of the scarcity of their kind, +when a man who says he can't find work has something wrong with him ... +as a matter of fact the penitentiary idea is only speculative. There's +never been a test case of this kind." +</P> + +<P> +I don't suppose there have been many test cases of that kind in the +whole of Canada, for certainly "the everyday people" everywhere have a +cheerful and self-dependent look. +</P> + +<P> +At Nelson the Prince embarked on another lake boat, the <I>Nasookin</I>, +after congratulating rival bands, one of brass, and one (mainly boys) +of bagpipes, on their tenacity in tune in the rain. Nelson gave him a +very jolly send-off. The people managed to invade the quay in great +numbers, and those who were daring clambered to the top of the freight +cars standing on the wharf, the better to give him a cheer. +</P> + +<P> +As the boat steamed out into the Kootenay River scores of the nattiest +little gasoline launches flying flags escorted him for the first mile +or so, chugging along beside the <I>Nasookin</I>, or falling in our wake in +a bright procession of boats. Encouraged by the "movie" men they waved +vigorously, and many good "shoots" of them were filmed. +</P> + +<P> +At Balfour, where the narrow river, after passing many homesteads of +great charm nestling amid the greenery of the low shore that fringes +the high mountains, turns into Kootenay Lake, the Prince went ashore. +Here is a delightful chalet which was once an hotel, but is now a +sanatorium for Canadian soldiers. Its position is idyllic. It stands +above river and lake, with the fine mountains backing it, and across +the river are high mountains. +</P> + +<P> +Over these great slopes on this grey day clouds were gathered, crawling +down the shoulders in billows, or blowing in odd and disconnected +masses and streamers. These odd ragged scarves and billows look like +strayed sheep from the cloud fold, lost in the deep valleys that sit +between the blue-grey mountain sides. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince spent some time visiting the sanatorium, and chatting with +the inmates, and then played golf on the course here. The C.P.R. were, +meanwhile, indulging themselves in one of their habitual feats. The +lakes make a gap in the line between Nelson, or rather Balfour siding, +and Kootenay Landing at the head of the water. Over this water-jump +the whole train, solid steel and weighing a thousand tons, was bodily +carried. +</P> + +<P> +Two great barges were used. The long cars were backed on to these with +delicate skill—for the slightest waywardness of a heavy, all-steel car +on a floating barge is a matter of danger, and each loaded barge was +then taken up the lake by a tug grappled alongside. +</P> + +<P> +At Kootenay Landing the delicate process was reversed, and all was +carried out without mishap though it was a dark night, and the +railwaymen had to work with the aid of searchlights. Kootenay Landing +is, in itself, something of a wonder. In the dark, as we waited for +the train to be made up, it seemed as solid as good hard land can make +it. But as the big Canadian engine came up with the first car we felt +our "earth" sway slightly, and in the beam of the big headlight we saw +the reason. Kootenay Landing is a station in the air. It is built up +on piles. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap19"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIX +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE PRAIRIES AGAIN +</H4> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H4> + +<P> +In cold weather and through a snowfall that had powdered the slopes and +foothills of the Rocky Mountains the Prince, on Thursday, October 2nd, +reached the prairies again. Now he was travelling well to the south of +his former journey on a line that ran just above the American border. +</P> + +<P> +In this bleak and rolling land he was to call in the next two days at a +series of small towns whose very names—McLeod, Lethbridge, Medicine +Hat, Maple Creek, Swift Current, Moose Jaw and Regina—had in them a +savour of the old, brave days when the Red Man was still a power, and +settlers chose their names off-hand from local things. +</P> + +<P> +McLeod, on the Old Man River, just escapes the foothills. It is +prairies, a few streets, a movie "joint," an hotel and a golf course. +In McLeod we saw the dawn of the Mackinaw, or anyhow first saw the +virtues of that strange coat which seems to have been adapted from the +original of the Biblical Joseph by a Highland tailor. It is a thick, +frieze garment, cut in Norfolk style. The colour is heroic red, or +blue or mauve or cinnamon, over which black lines are laid in a plaid +tracery. +</P> + +<P> +We realized its value as a warmth-giver while we stood amid a crowd of +them as the Prince received addresses. Among the crowd was a band of +Blood Indians of the Blackfeet Tribe, whose complexions in the cold +looked blue under their habitual brown-red. They had come to lay their +homage before him and to present an Indian robe. The Prince shook +hands and chatted with the chiefs as well as their squaws, and with the +missionary who had spent his life among these Red Men, and had +succeeded in mastering the four or five sounds that make up the Indian +language. +</P> + +<P> +We talked to an old chief upon whose breast were the large silver +medals that Queen Victoria and King George had had specially struck for +their Indian subjects. These have become signs of chieftainship, and +are taken over by the new chief when he is elected by the tribesmen. +With this chief was his son, a fine, quiet fellow in the costume of the +present generation of Indians, the cowboy suit. He had served all +through the war in a Canadian regiment. +</P> + +<P> +At Lethbridge, the next town, there was a real and full Indian +ceremonial. Before a line of tepees, or Indian lodges, the Prince was +received by the Chiefs of the Blood Tribe of the Blackfeet Nation, and +elected one of them with the name of Mekastro, that is Red Crow. +</P> + +<P> +This name is a redoubtable one in the annals of the Blackfeet. It has +been held by their most famous chieftains and has been handed down from +generation to generation. It was a Chief Red Crow who signed the +Wolseley Treaty in '77. Upon his election the Prince was presented +with an historic headdress of feathers and horns, a beautiful thing +that had been worn by the great fighting leaders of the race. +</P> + +<P> +There were gathered about the Prince in front of these tall, painted +tepees many chiefs of strange, odd-sounding names. One of these +immobile and aquiline men was Chief Shot on Both Sides, another Chief +Weasel Fat, another Chief One Spot, another Chief Many White Horses. +They had a dignity and an unyielding calm, and if some of them wore +befeathered bowler hats, instead of the sunray feathered headdress, it +did not detract from their high austerity. Chief One Spot—"he whose +voice can be heard three miles"—was a splendid and upright old warrior +of eighty; he had not only been present at the historic treaty of '77, +but had been one of the signatories. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince chatted with these chiefs, while the Lethbridge people, who +had shown extraordinary heartiness since the public welcome in the +chief square of the town, crowded close around. While he was talking, +the Prince asked if he could be shown the interior of one of the +wigwams, and his brother, Chief Weasel Fat, took him to his own, over +the door of which was painted rudely the emblem of the bald-headed +eagle. +</P> + +<P> +The wigwam is a fine airy home. Its canvas walls are supported by +tall, leaning poles bound at the top. There is no need of a centre +pole, and a wood fire burning on a circular hearth sent up a coil of +smoke through the opening at the top of the poles. +</P> + +<P> +The floor was strewn with bright soft rugs, on which squaws in vivid +red robes were sitting, listening to all that was said with impassive +faces. The walls were decorated with strips of warm cloth upon which +had been sewn Indian figures and animals. The wide floor space also +held a rattanwork bed, musical instruments and the like; certainly it +was a more comfortable and commodious place than its bell-tent shape +would suggest. +</P> + +<P> +Leaving the exhibition grounds, on which the encampment stood, the +Prince passed under an arch made of Indian clothes of white antelope +skin, beads and feathers, and after reviewing the war veterans, went to +the town ball that had been arranged in his honour. +</P> + +<P> +Lethbridge is a mixture of the plain and the pit. It is a great grain +centre, and there is no mistaking its prairie air, yet superimposed +upon this is the atmosphere of, say, a Lancashire or Yorkshire mining +town. Coal and other mines touch with a sense of dark industrial +bustle the easy air of the plain town. It is a Labour town, and a +force in Labour politics. That, of course, made not the slightest +difference to its welcome; indeed, perhaps it tinged that greeting with +a touch of independent heartiness that made it notable. +</P> + +<P> +As a town it impresses with its vividity at once. That, indeed, is the +quality of most Canadian cities. They capture one with their air of +modernity and vivacity at first impact. True, one sometimes finds that +the town that seemed great and bustling dwindles after a few fine +streets into suburbs of dirt roadways, but one has been impressed. It +may be very good window dressing, though, on the other hand, it is +probably good planning which concentrates all the activity and +interests of the town in the decisively main avenues. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H4> + +<P> +Friday, October 3rd, saw the Prince visiting a string of three towns. +</P> + +<P> +Medicine Hat was the first of these, an attractive, park-like place +full of "pep." Medicine Hat's claim to fame beyond its name lies in +the fact that, having discovered that it was sitting upon a vast +subterranean reservoir of natural gas, it promptly harnessed it to its +own use. Now, that elemental thing is in the control of humanity, and +heats the town, and tamely drives the wheels of industry. +</P> + +<P> +The outstanding ceremony was the way little boys suddenly took fright +on a roof. In the middle of the town, beside the street, is a tall, +thin standpipe, and this standpipe was to demonstrate a "shoot off" of +the gas. Scores of small boys climbed on to the roofs of neighbouring +sheds to see the fun. First there was a meek, submissive flame burning +at the top of the pipe, and looking weak in the fine sunlight. Then, +abruptly, the flame shot up a hundred feet, and there was a loud +roaring. Not only was the roaring a terrifying thing, but the force of +that rush of gas made the ground, the roof and the little boys tremble. +Little boys came off that roof in record time, and with such a clatter +that the effort of the standpipe almost lost its place as a star turn. +This tremendous pressure is not habitual; it is, I believe, obtained by +bursting a charge in one of the gas wells. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince also saw the uses to which the gas was put in a big pottery +mill. The kilns here were an incandescent mass of fire, the work of +the easily controlled gas that does the work with a tithe of the labour +and at a mere fraction of the cost necessitated by ordinary baking +kilns. +</P> + +<P> +Maple Creek and Swift Current were stepping-off places, with all their +populations packed in the square about the station to give the Prince a +hearty greeting. At Maple Creek the pretty daughters of the township +were very much in evidence, and held His Royal Highness up with +autograph albums. +</P> + +<P> +Moose Jaw, one of the few towns where a quaint name is traceable, for +it is the creek where the white man mended the cart with a moose +jaw-bone, which the Prince reached on the morning of October 4th, is a +bigger town and proud of its position as a grain, food and machinery +distributing centre for Southern Saskatchewan. In its station +courtyard it had built up an admirable exhibit of its vegetables and +fruit, its sides of bacon, its grain in ear, its porridge oats in +packets, and its butter and cream in drums and churns; while chiefest +of all it showed ramparts of some of the two million sacks of flour it +handles annually. The whole of the exhibit was set in a moat of grain +and potatoes. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince went to the University Grounds, where a mighty crowd +attended the welcoming ceremony, and where a wild and timeless +waltz-quadrille of motors which straggled all-whither over the grounds, +marked the attempts of people to locate and follow him when he drove +away to the hospital and a big packing factory. At the packing plant +he saw the whole process of handling meat, from the moment when cowboys +in chaps drove the herd to the pens to the final jointing of the steer. +</P> + +<P> +From Moose Jaw he went to Regina, which he reached that afternoon. +Regina is the capital of Saskatchewan, but an accidental capital. +Somewhere about 1880 it was decided to start itself in quite another +place. Qu'Appelle, where there was a Hudson Bay Fort and the country +was attractive, was the site chosen. And Qu'Appelle opened its mouth +too wide—or, anyhow so the version of the story I was told goes. The +land-owners there asked an outside number of million dollars, and the +townplanners went to Pile o' Bones instead. +</P> + +<P> +Pile o' Bones was a point near Wascana Lake where there had been a big +slaughter of buffaloes. It was a point of no importance, but Canadians +don't mind that sort of thing. When they make up their minds to build +a city, a city arises. Regina arose, broad and bustling, a trifle +chilly as becomes a city of the prairie, rather flat and not altogether +attractive, yet purposeful. +</P> + +<P> +It also gained another reason for regard by becoming the headquarters +of the "Mounties," the Royal North-West Mounted Police, whose main +barracks are here. We saw something of the discipline of that fine +service in the way the big crowds were handled, for the Prince drove +through the streets in the order and state of a London or New York +pageant. +</P> + +<P> +The Parliament Buildings are beautifully situated before a wide stretch +of water. They are the semi-classical, domed, white stone buildings of +the design of those at Edmonton and other cities—a sort of +standardized parliament building in fact. Before them, on the terraces +and lawn that shelved down to the water, the big throng made a scene of +quick beauty. There were ranks of pretty nurses, rank upon rank of +khaki veterans, battalions of boy scouts mainly divorced from hats +which were perpetually aloft on upraised and enthusiastic poles, aisles +of sitting wounded whom the Prince shook hands with, and thick, +supporting masses of civilians. Lining this throng were unbending +fillets of scarlet statues, the "Mounties" of the guard. And +humanizing the whole were solid banks of school-children who sang and +cheered at the right as well as the wrong moment. +</P> + +<P> +The presentation of medals—one to a blinded doctor, who, led by a +comrade, received the most poignant storm of cheers I have ever heard +in my life—and a giant public reception finished that day's +ceremonies. Sunday, October 5th, was a day of rest, and Monday was the +day of the "Mounties." +</P> + +<P> +The Prince showed a particular interest in his visit to the +Headquarters of this splendid and romantic corps. The Royal North-West +Mounted Police is a classic figure in the history of the Empire. The +day is now past when the lonely red rider of the wilds stood for the +only token of awe and authority among Indian tribes and "bad men" +camps, but though that may be there are no more useful fellows than +these smart and sturdy men, who, scarlet-coated, and with their +Stetsons at a daring angle, add a dash of colour and bravery to the +streets of Western Canada. +</P> + +<P> +In his inspection the Prince saw the reason why the physique of the men +should be so splendid and their nerve so sure. The training of the +R.N.W.M.P. makes no appeal to the weakling of spirit or flesh. He saw +their firm discipline. He saw them breaking in the bucking bronchos +they had to ride. He saw them go through exhausting mounted tests. +His congratulations on their wonderful show were expressed with great +warmth. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H4> + +<P> +From Regina the Prince took a holiday. He went up to the sporting +country near Qu'Appelle for duck and game shooting, spending from +Monday, October 6th, until Friday, October 10th, there. This district +abounds in duck, and the Prince and his staff had very fair sport. +During his stay the weather suddenly turned colder, the rivers froze +over and snow fell. So sudden was the cold snap that one of those with +the Prince was caught napping. He woke up to find that his false teeth +were frozen into the solid block of ice that had been water the night +before. He had to take the tooth glass to the kitchen of the house +where he was staying, and thaw it before he could even articulate his +emotions adequately. +</P> + +<P> +Riding in a fast car from the scene of the sport to the station gave +the Prince an indication of what winter would be like in the prairies, +where the wind from the north sweeps down unresisted, and with such a +force that it seems to go right through all coats, save the Canadian +winter armour of "coon coat" or fur. +</P> + +<P> +Brandon and Portage la Prairie, two determined little towns, gave the +Prince a snow welcome. The weather kept neither grown-ups nor children +away from the liveliest of greetings. They were attractive halts in a +run that took the Prince to Winnipeg. +</P> + +<P> +In Winnipeg we appreciated the virtues of central heating, for the wind +made the whole universe extraordinarily cold. Up to this I had +considered central heating a stuffy subject, and I am yet not fully +converted, for though there are those who say it can be controlled +quite easily, I have yet to meet the superman who can do it. +</P> + +<P> +All the same, steam heating has its virtues. On those cold days in +Winnipeg we lived in a world that knew not draughts. It was almost a +solemn joy to sit in a bath, and to feel that though half of one was in +hot water, the other half was also comfortable and not the prey of +every devilish current of icy air such as sports itself in those damp +refrigerators, the British bathrooms. Naturally, since we are staying +in a Canadian hotel of the up-to-date kind, a bathroom was attached to +our bedroom as a mere matter of course. But if we had had to wander +Anglicanly along corridors in search of a bathroom we should still have +been draught free, for central heating deals with corridors, and +stairways, and halls and lounges with one universal gesture. +</P> + +<P> +Not merely in so fine an hotel as the "Royal Alexandra," but in the +private houses and the "apartments" (English—"flats"), central heat +and good bathrooms are items of everyday—though many Canadians burn an +open fire in their sitting-rooms for the comfortable look it gives. +</P> + +<P> +These things are not merely for comfort, but they are, with the +hardwood floors, the mail chutes in "apartment" houses and the rest, +part of the great science of labour-saving, which the whole of America +practises. +</P> + +<P> +One realizes the need of labour-saving when one sees in a theatre +vestibule the following notice: +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +"ALL CHILDREN NOT LEFT WITH THE<BR> +MATRON MUST BE PAID FOR" +</H4> + +<BR> + +<P> +As nurses are rare, and servants are rare, the Americans have to +organize themselves to simplify the task of housekeeping. +</P> + +<P> +The "apartments" are compact and neat, arranged for easy handling. The +rents are not cheap. One very pleasant little "apartment," "hired" by +a newly-married couple, was made up of three rooms, a kitchen and a +balcony. It was in the suburbs. The rent was thirty-five dollars a +month, say eighty-four pounds a year, for a flat, which, under the same +conditions (rates included) could be obtained for thirty-five pounds a +year in England in pre-war days. For this, however, central heating +and perpetual hot water are included. My friend told me that his +electric light bill came to three dollars a month, and his gas bill +(for cooking) to rather less than that. In Calgary a friend of mine +had a pretty "apartment" even smaller in a suburban district, was +paying about ninety-six pounds a year over all, <I>i.e.</I>, rent, light and +gas (central heating being included). Most of these "apartments" have +an ice house (refrigerator) attached, blocks of ice being left on the +doorstep every morning, just as the milk is left. +</P> + +<P> +Winnipeg is an attractive town to live in. It has plenty of +amusements, including several good theatres and music halls—fed, of +course, mainly from American sources. Mrs. Walker, whose husband owns +the Walker Theatre, told me that Laurence Irving and his wife acted on +their stage just before sailing on the ill-fated <I>Empress of Ireland</I>. +She went up to his dressing-room to say "Good-bye" to him, the night +before he left, and in answer to her knock he suddenly appeared before +her, dressed in black from head to foot, for the character he was +playing that night. His appearance filled her with dread—it seemed to +her, as she looked at him, that something terrible was to happen. Both +Laurence Irving and his wife were, however, in excellent spirits. +Canada treated them royally, and they were going back home full of +optimism, confident that the play that Laurence Irving was then +finishing—one dealing with Napoleon—was to prove the greatest success +of their careers. +</P> + +<P> +We met at Winnipeg, also, a number of the brilliant men and women +journalists whose energy and brains are responsible for the many fine +papers that focus in this city. We had met such companions of our own +dispensation in other cities, in Ottawa, Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto +and Quebec. They were not merely keen and accomplished craftsmen, but +their hospitality to us was always of the most delightful generosity. +</P> + +<P> +The Princess visit to Winnipeg was undertaken to give him the +opportunity of saying <I>au revoir</I> to the West. At the vivid luncheon +he gave in the attractive Alexandra Hotel to all the leaders of the +West, men and women, he insisted that it was <I>au revoir</I>, and that so +well had the West treated him, so attractive was its atmosphere, that +he meant not merely to return, but to become something of a rancher +here in the "little place" he had bought in Alberta. He spoke of the +splendid spirit of the West, and the magnificent future that was the +West's for the grasping, and he left on all those who heard him an +impression of genuine affection for the people and the land with which +his journey had brought him in contact. +</P> + +<P> +He himself left the West a "real scout." It is a mere truism to say +that his personality had conquered the West, as it had won for him +affection everywhere. His straightforward masculinity and his entire +lack of side, his cheerfulness and his keenness, his freedom from +"frills," as one man put it, had made him the friend of everybody. I +heard practically the same expressions of real affection from all +grades, from Chief Justice to car conductors. I heard, I think, but +one man pooh-pooh, not so much this universal regard for the Prince, as +a universal enthusiasm for something royal. A labour-leader, who +happened to be present, administered correction: +</P> + +<P> +"That chap's all right," he insisted, and his word carried weight. "I +saw him in France, and there's not much that is wrong with him. If +you're as democratic as he is, then you're all right." +</P> + +<P> +The brightest of dances, a game of squash rackets, and the Prince left, +undaunted by the snow, for week-end shooting. On Tuesday, October +14th, he was in the train again, travelling East, in the direction of +the Cobalt mining country, buoyed up by the prophecy of the local +weather-wise that the cold snap would not endure, but would be followed +by the delightfully keen yet warm weather of the "Indian Summer." The +local weather-wise were right, but it took time. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap20"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XX +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +SILVER, GOLD AND COMMERCE +</H4> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H4> + +<P> +Cobalt is a fantasy town. It is a Rackham drawing with all its little +grey houses perched up on queer shelves and masses of greeny-grey rock. +Its streets are whimsical. They wander up and down levels, and in and +out of houses, and sometimes they are roads and sometimes they are +stairs. One glance at them and I began to repeat, "There was a crooked +man, who walked a crooked mile." A delightful genius had done the town +to illustrate that rhyme. +</P> + +<P> +And the rope railways that sent a procession of emotionless buckets +across the train when we pulled in, the greeny-grey lake that presently +(inside the town) ceased being a lake and became a big lake basin of +smooth, greeny-grey mine slime, the vast greeny-grey mounds of mill +refuse, the fantastic spideriness of the lattice mill workings, and +humped corrugated iron sheds, all of them slightly greeny-grey in the +prevailing fashion—the whole picture was fantastic; indeed, Cobalt +appears a city of gnomes. +</P> + +<P> +We had travelled all Tuesday and Wednesday, striking east from +Winnipeg, only stopping occasionally for the Prince to return the +courtesies of the crowds that had collected at wayside stations, and, +on one occasion, to allow the Prince to obtain a walk. At North Bay we +had left the C.P.R. main line, and pushed up the road of the +Timiskaming Railway towards the silver mining town of Cobalt and the +gold mining town of Timmins. +</P> + +<P> +During the night and morning of Thursday, October 16th, we had pushed +up through a rocky and inhospitable country, where many lakes lie +coldly amid stony hillocks that thrust up through live green spruce, or +the white ghosts of spruce murdered by fires. +</P> + +<P> +It seems a country fore-ordained to loneliness, and it is hard to +believe that a rich town has arisen in it. As a matter of truth, that +town would not have been born to it but for an accident. Cobalt was +not dreamed of as a city. The intention of the railway engineers had +been to drive a line through this land to open up good farming country +to the north of Cobalt Lake. Only this accident brought Cobalt into +being at all. +</P> + +<P> +Two bored contractors employed on the construction of the railways are +responsible for it. They were filling out an idle hour in throwing +pebbles into the lake; one of them noticed that the pebbles had a queer +texture. Both men examined them, for many of the kind were scattered +about. +</P> + +<P> +"Lead," decided one of the men, but the other gave his opinion for +silver. He had the strange pebble analysed, and silver it was. On the +wave of excitement that followed, Cobalt was born. +</P> + +<P> +As the Prince saw it on October 16th it was obviously a mining town, +careless of how it built itself as long as it could get at the rich +stopes, or veins, that burrow amid the calcite rock of the district. +It is this indifference to planning that makes the town fantastic, +though there is something of the fantastic in the character of its +people and the welcome they gave. +</P> + +<P> +Above the heads of the very generous and homely throng that welcomed +the Prince, the streets were strung from side to side with banners of +welcome, many of them touched with native humour. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +"GLAD U COME"<BR> +</H4> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +declared one, while another offered the "glad hand" with the injunction: +</P> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +"THE TOWN IS YOURS: PAINT IT RED OR<BR> +ANY OLD COLOUR YOU LIKE" +</H4> + +<BR> + +<P> +After a corrugated drive along the switchback streets, the miners had +their own individual welcome for him. At the Coniagas Mine these +stocky men, in brown overalls, the acetylene lamps that lighted them +through the underworld still alight on the front of their hats, were +gathered about the pit-head workings, and they gave him a particular +cheer. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince was shown through the whole of the above-ground workings in +this mine. He went into the breaking and stamping rooms, where he +could not hear himself speak for the crashings of the mills that broke +up the quartz; he saw the machines that washed the silver free from the +living rock by jigging it over metal shelves across which flowed a +constant film of water; he saw the pulverized slime being treated with +oil and pouring bubbling from big vats through wooden chutes. +</P> + +<P> +He climbed to the top of one of the big mounds of dried slime that pile +up round the workings. In the old days these mounds were rubbish for +which man had no use. Now science has stepped in, and this rubbish is +being treated once more, and from four to six ounces of silver per ton +are being reclaimed. A big mechanical shovel, working on an overhead +cable, was dropping and digging into this dump; it lifted itself full +and moved along the rope until it dropped its load into a chute. No +man went near it: a super-fellow at the levers of a donkey-engine +maintained a control. +</P> + +<P> +The mine gave him a little memento in silver, and very prettily. Two +delightful little girls came out of a mass of miners, and handed him a +small brick of solid silver inscribed to commemorate the visit. The +brick weighed thirty-five ounces. +</P> + +<P> +In a short while the Prince was in the place where the brick was +smelted. This was in a small house containing several furnaces built +to the level of a man's breast. They are not large furnaces, but when +their doors are opened one can look on to an incandescent pool of +liquid silver that the gas or oil flames have melted. The Prince +watched the process of casting bricks with interest, questioning the +two demobilized soldiers who worked a big ladle with the close +curiosity he had shown over every detail of the milling. Dipping the +long-handled ladle into the shining pool, the soldiers swung it out, +and poured the spitting and sparkling contents into a metal mould, in +which the silver brick was formed. In this small room is smelted all +the metal of one of the richest mining towns in the world. +</P> + +<P> +From here the cars went adventurously along the steep and spiral roads, +and amid the tall corrugated iron towers and buildings that form the +many mine workings. The Prince passed round the bases of great grey +slack and slime heaps of old and discarded workings that have been +worth millions of dollars in their day, but, after the fickle way of +silver veins, have now given out. Through this harsh and grey country +he drove until he came to the O'Brien mine, where he was to try the +adventure of a descent. +</P> + +<P> +The descent into a mine needs armour, and the Prince buckled on rubber +overshoes, an oilskin coat and a sou'wester hat. Garbed thus, and with +an acetylene lamp in his hand, he was the natural prey of +photographers, who refused to spare him until he escaped into the cage +and baffled them by going underground. +</P> + +<P> +Cobalt, which had been cheering the Prince at every available spot, can +boast that she also managed to do it in the bowels of the earth. +Descending three hundred feet, His Royal Highness walked some distance +through the dark tunnel of the workings, and in each gallery the +ghostly figures of miners gave him a subterranean cheer. At the end of +this walk he went down another three hundred feet, to where a new stope +was being started. This was his own particular vein, for it had +already been christened "The Prince of Wales Stope" in his honour—no +mean compliment, for it is anticipated that it will yield at least a +million dollars. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince showed a natural interest in this seam, and in the methods +of working it, and he also took, as it were, a sponsor's fee, for he +worked a piece of rock from the vein with his fingers and carried it +away as a memento. +</P> + +<P> +Beyond Cobalt the land becomes greener and more hospitable, and it +opens up into great ranges of good farms, and this state of things +continues until, along a branch line, the sprawling and great +gold-mining centres of Timmins threw their bleak melancholy over the +land. +</P> + +<P> +In Timmins itself can be seen a Canadian town at birth. Its wooden +shack houses and brick buildings are only now being brought to order +along its streets. Its roads are still ankle-deep in mud; buckboards +and other country rigs are, with motors, the means of transport—it +only wanted Douglas Fairbanks in a Western get-up to complete it as a +town projected into reality from the "movies." It is a one-man town, +and bears the name of the pioneer who brought it into being, and who is +still the driving force of the great gold mines that make it one of the +richest places on the earth. He is a quiet man, whose force of +character is concealed behind gold-rimmed spectacles and a rooted +instinct against waste of words. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince spent an interesting hour at his mines, which are among the +largest, if they are not the largest, of their kind in the Empire; all +the processes were explained to him, though he did not go into the +workings as he did at Cobalt. He had, it goes without saying, a royal +reception here, which, in the hands of the liveliest of mayors, had +more than a tinge of humour in it. +</P> + +<P> +Timmins was the Prince's last adventure in the wilds. Steaming south +and west along the Grand Trunk Railway, he passed through the +delightful holiday scenery of the Muskoka Lakes, and, in country +becoming gradually more and more domestic and British, approached +Hamilton and the thickly inhabited areas of Western Ontario. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H4> + +<P> +In coming to Hamilton the Prince returned to the regions of big +welcomes. It was not that the East was more loyal or warm than the +West, but that, grouped in the vast area of Canada lying between the +Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes, are the old and teeming +industrial centres of the Dominion. In this area is about seventy per +cent. of Canada's population, and men, women and children can pack +themselves into the streets by the tens of thousands, be those streets +ever so many or ever so long. +</P> + +<P> +This was Hamilton's way. Hamilton is a "Get on or Get out" +proposition. It is dubbed not merely "the Birmingham of Canada," but +also "the Ambitious City." It is not the largest town in the Dominion, +but it asks you to reserve judgment as to that, and meanwhile it lets +you know that it is one of the richest. +</P> + +<P> +From the abrupt heights that rise behind it, one looks down, not upon +an historic panorama, as at Quebec, but a Brangwyn panel of "modern +progress." Between the abrupt hills and the waters of Lake Ontario the +city is packed tight on a rising strip of plain. The stacks of many +industries, the rigid uplift of square, practical factories, the fret +of derricks and patent loaders by the waterside, all seen under smudges +and scarves of factory smoke, would give it an air of resolute drabness +if it were not for its multitude of trees. +</P> + +<P> +Trees there are in profusion, rising up between the stiff walls of +commercial buildings, lining the long, straight avenues that look like +bands of greyish water from the heights, and grouping about the comely +houses that form the residential quarters on the slopes rising towards +the onlooker on The Mountain. But, even in spite of the trees and the +blue shine of the distant lake, there is an atmosphere of industrial +greyness that differentiates it from other cities. +</P> + +<P> +There was an air of industrialism about the packed welcome Hamilton +gave the Prince. He had slipped into the city on the afternoon of +Friday, October 17th, but not officially. He was merely to attend the +invisible pleasures of golf and dancing. On Saturday he entered +Hamilton ceremoniously, officially. He drove down in a car to a +siding, entered the train, was backed into the station, and alighted +from it and entered the car he had just left. The church bells rang +"Oh, Canada," and he had "arrived." +</P> + +<P> +The industrial atmosphere was created by the workers who thronged the +narrow business streets in their overalls, having obviously come out +from bench and ironworks and packing factories, as well as from the +stores and offices, to see the Prince. I noticed among the crowd a +great number of Jews, more than I had seen in other Canadian cities. +</P> + +<P> +Yet, if Hamilton was industrial, it also knew how to meet a Prince. +Its streets were delightfully decorated, and in the general scheme of +bunting the authorities had hung over the roads in pairs, small square +banners of the victory medal ribbon, so that the Prince passed under +this sign of triumph always. Swaying high up in the trees, just coming +into the autumn gold of foliage, this scheme of decoration made a most +effective showing. +</P> + +<P> +Part of the Prince's ride through the town was along James Street, that +sweeps in a single straight line from The Mountain to the shore of the +lake. All manner of citizens were crowded in this sumptuous boulevard +and in the pretty streets that ran through the pleasant home centres. +Now the cars passed through packed ranks of children ranged according +to schools, and all torn between the purely human desire of shouting +their heads off and the duty of singing, "God bless the Prince of +Wales," the result being an eerie noise that left no doubt about the +quality of the enthusiasm. When there were no children there were +grown-ups, gathered everywhere, perched everywhere and anywhere in +their determination to get a good view. On one low bungalow was a +family group, mother, father, children and baby-in-arms, sitting +perilous but serenely content on the very ridge-pole of the roof. From +a group of houses in the same suave street had come many men, matrons +and maidens, waving the green flag of the harp, all fiercely insistent +on the rights of Ireland to cheer and show enthusiasm. +</P> + +<P> +So the Prince came to a great, comely semi-Gothic hall with a million +children round it (that was the effect, though Hamilton hasn't half a +million inhabitants), and I don't know how many in it. This hall was a +chamber of children, a forcing-house of delightful infants. Under the +broad, mellow light that beat down from the great windows in the roof +all the prettiest kiddies in the world seemed to be set in banks of +cultivation. Children were in mass round the walls. Children +stretched upward in a square of galleries. Children flowered +everywhere—only a fillet of walking-space was clear, where a desperate +gardener had clipped a passage-way for the Prince, it seemed. +</P> + +<P> +And they were such vivacious children. They cheered. They sang +lilting part-songs, each great bank of infancy taking up the melody +until the hall was all tune, and the walls seemed to be pressed back by +the fine soaring sweetness of the fugue. And when they had sung they +burst into the sudden and amazing sparkle of their school yell, +"Hamilton! Hamilton! Hamilton!" and then diffused their fervour in a +swinging burst of cheers. +</P> + +<P> +And Canadians, children or adults, can cheer. Hands and flags and hats +and body join in, to give an impression both passionate and +irresistible. And before this storm the Prince could only laugh and +wave back with something of the children's abandon, and so delighted +did he seem that one of the Canadians who watched him had every right +to cry out: +</P> + +<P> +"Say—say—isn't he just tickled to death?" +</P> + +<P> +Through the streets in his ride to The Mountain this wave of cheering +followed him, and, quick to respond, the Prince was once more on his +feet in his car and waving gladly back to the crowds on the sidewalk. +So ardently did he do this, that a little girl who had watched him +coming and who watched his passing, turned to her mother and cried: +</P> + +<P> +"Poor hand." +</P> + +<P> +It was certainly a strenuously used hand, but its endurance had limits, +and, as he was forced to transfer the office of hand-shaking to the +left, so he frequently had to use the left for waving on these long +rides, and give the right a rest. +</P> + +<P> +On The Mountain, the tall buttress that curves behind the town, the +Prince drove through avenues of fine homes to the Hamilton Memorial +Hospital, a magnificent tribute to those men of the city who gave their +lives in the war. It is, of course, thoroughly up-to-date in +appointments, but it is more than that: it is a poignant link with the +brave dead, for every ward has been dedicated to a brave son of +Hamilton who died overseas, and a brass plate in each ward records the +heroic name. +</P> + +<P> +At this hospital the Prince was received by a Welsh choir, many of the +lasses dressed in the tall hats and native laces and fabrics of Wales, +and, so that nobody should make mistakes about them, each (men and +women) wore a fresh leek at the breast. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince also visited the Sanatorium on the heights, and drove out to +the Club, where he lunched, and, on the whole, filled a day with all +the bustle that Hamilton knows well how to put into events. It was +only at night that he was free to leave this vigorous town, and start +for the restful beauties of Niagara. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap21"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +NIAGARA AND THE TOWNS OF WESTERN ONTARIO +</H4> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H4> + +<P> +The best first impression of Niagara Falls is, I think, the one the +Prince of Wales obtained. +</P> + +<P> +Those who really wish to experience the thrills of grandeur and poetry +of this marvel had better delay their visit until a night in summer, +and make arrangements with the railway time-table to get there +somewhere after dark. Upon arriving they must hire a car, and drive +down to the splendid boulevard on the Canadian side. They will then +see the great mass of water under the shine of lights, falling +eternally, eternally presenting a picture of almost cruel beauty. They +will then know an experience that transcends all other experiences as +well as all attempts at description. +</P> + +<P> +The curious feeling of disappointment which comes to many in daylight +will have been guarded against, and, stimulated by that wondrous first +vision, they will tide over that spiritually barren period which many +know until the marvel of the Falls begins to "grow on them." +</P> + +<P> +The Prince came from Hamilton to Niagara somewhere very close to +midnight on Saturday, the 18th. He was carried through the dark town +and country to the house of one of the Falls Commissioners. From here, +through a filigree of trees and leaves, he could look across the +smoking gorge to the Falls on the American side. Batteries of great +arc lights, focused and hidden cunningly, shone upon the curtain of +white and tumbling waters, and upon the strong, black mass of Goat +Island, that is perched like a diver eternally hesitant on the very +brink of the two-hundred-foot plunge. +</P> + +<P> +The ghostly beauty of the falling water through the light, now a solid +and tremendous curve, now broken into filaments and zigzag whorls, now +veiled by the upward drift of the gossamer spray, held the Prince's +gaze for some time. But even that beauty was transcended. He himself +pressed an electric switch, and the grand curve of the Canadian +Horseshoe blazed fully alight for the first time in their history, and +though from this position this could not be fully seen, this new +addition of light gave the whole mass before his eyes an additional +loveliness. +</P> + +<P> +From this point the Prince motored through the town to the splendid +wide promenade that borders the Canadian side of the gorge, and spent +half an hour watching the fascinating play of falling water and spray +in the narrow cauldron of the Horseshoe. +</P> + +<P> +He stood a foot away from the point where the water leaps in its +magnificent and enigmatic curve into the tortured pool below. Green at +the curve, the water is a mass of curdled white in the strong lights as +it falls. Beneath, the face of the water is a passionate surface of +whirlpools and eddies and tossing whiteness. From the tremendous +impact of the drop a column of spray shoots and curls high up in the +air. It towers quite six hundred feet above the surface of the water, +and it is hard to believe that enduring mass of spray comes from the +fall; in the distance one is convinced that it is steam arising from +some big factory. +</P> + +<P> +On the next day (Sunday) the Prince saw the Falls in their every phase. +He walked up-stream above the Horseshoe to where the Niagara River +jostles down over a series of ledges in the grand and angry Canadian +Rapids, a sight as tumultuous and as thrilling in its own fashion as +the Falls themselves. He visited the big, white stone power-house to +examine with the greatest interest the machinery that traps the +tremendous latent power of the plunging water, harnesses it, and so +turns the wheels of a thousand industries, and lights hundreds of towns. +</P> + +<P> +Partly walking, partly riding in a car of the scenic tramway, he +followed the line of the Falls and river downward to where the +Whirlpool Rapids curdle and eddy within the deep walls of the gorge. +Over on the American side he saw the castles and keeps of modern +industry: power-houses and factories, springing up from the very rock +of the cliff, and almost forming part of it. On the Canadian side the +people have not let their utilitarian sense run away with them to such +an extent. Where America edges the gorge with commercial buildings, +Canada has constructed her beautiful promenade, which continues the +comeliness of the Falls Park through a pretty residential district. +America has Prospect Park and the very beautiful Goat Island Park on +its side, but these are not extended along the gorge. +</P> + +<P> +Below the Whirlpool Rapids the Prince descended to the level of the +river; later, he came to the top of the gorge again, and crossed, +swinging two hundred feet above the water on the spidery ropes of the +aerial railways, the great pool at the end of the river canyon, into +which the pent-up water pushes swirling before turning at right angles +towards Lake Ontario. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince did not go over to the American side, but America came to +him. The white number-plates of New York State seemed to be everywhere +on automobiles, even outnumbering the yellow of Ontario. One had the +impression that every American motor-owner within gasolene radius had +decided that he would take his Sunday spin to Niagara Falls, and on to +the Canadian side of the Falls to boot. +</P> + +<P> +American cars were coming over the bridges all day, and American owners +waited cheerfully along the route to get a glimpse of "The Boy," as the +American papers called the Prince. They joined themselves to the very +friendly crowd of Canadians who gathered everywhere along the route, +and their cheering, mingling with Canadian cheering, showed that +friendliness is not an affair that frontiers can manipulate. +</P> + +<P> +As a matter of fact, the frontier at Niagara is the most imaginary of +lines. Now that the war is over there is no difficulty in getting to +either side. And there is no change in atmosphere either. People and +conditions are much the same, only on the American side our dollars +cost us more. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H4> + +<P> +Western Ontario is, in the main, the most British part of Canada. Its +towns have British names, and the streets of the towns have British +names, while their atmosphere and design are almost of the Home +Counties. The countryside (if one overlooks the absence of +hedges—though rows of upturned tree-roots with plants growing among +them sometimes have the look of hedges) is the suave, domesticated +countryside of England. England is in the very air. And at the first +of these curiously English towns the Prince became an Indian chief. +</P> + +<P> +Brantford, though it reminds one of a comely British country town, +preferably one with a Church influence in it, is really the capital of +the Six Nation Indians. It actually owes its name to Joseph Brant, the +Mohawk chief, who, having fought his Indians on the side of the +British—as the braves of the fierce and powerful Six Nations had +always fought on the side of the British—in the War of Independence, +marched his tribes from their old camping-grounds in the Mohawk Valley +to this place, so that they could remain under British rule. +</P> + +<P> +The Indians of the Six Nations still live in and about Brantford, for, +though they have ceded away their lands to settlers, they are among the +few of the aboriginal races that have thrived and not decayed under +civilization. The Prince's visit to Brantford on Monday, October 20th, +was nearly all a visit to the Mohawks, the leaders of the ancient +Indian federation of six tribes. +</P> + +<P> +This is not to say that the welcome given him by Canadians was not a +great one. As a matter of fact, it was astonishing, and it was +difficult to imagine how a small town like this could pack its streets +with so many people. But Brantford is industrial and scientific also, +as well as being Indian. After a strenuous reception, for instance, +the Prince went along to the statue that shrines the town's claim to a +place in the history of science. This was the memorial to Dr. Bell, +who lived in Brantford and who invented the first telephone in +Brantford. They will even show you the trees from which the first line +over which the first spoken message sent, was strung. +</P> + +<P> +But the colourful ceremonies of Brantford were those connected with the +Mohawks. The Prince was taken out to the small, old wooden chapel that +George III. erected for his loyal Mohawk allies. It is the oldest +Protestant chapel in the Dominion. On its walls are painted prayers in +Mohawk, and it contains an old register that King Edward had signed in +1861. The Prince added his own signature to this before going into the +churchyard to see the grave of Joseph Brant. +</P> + +<P> +In the little enclosure before the church were the youngest descendants +of the loyal Joseph Brant: ranks of Mohawk boys in khaki, and small +Mohawk girls in red and grey. They sang to the Prince in their own +language, a singular guttural tongue rendered with an almost abnormal +stoicism. The children did not move a muscle of lips or face as they +chanted; it might have been a song rendered by graven images. +</P> + +<P> +In the main square of Brantford the Prince was elected chief of the Six +Nations. This ceremony was carried out upon a raised and beflagged +platform about which a vast throng of pale-faces gathered. Becoming a +chief of the Six Nations is no light matter. It is a thing that must +be discussed in full with all ceremonies and accurate minutes. The +pow-wow on the platform was rather long. Chiefs rose up and debated at +leisure in the Iroquois tongue, while the pale-faces in the square, at +first quite patient, began to demand in loud voices: +</P> + +<P> +"We want our Prince. We want our Prince." +</P> + +<P> +And to be truthful, not merely the pale-faces found the ceremony +lengthy. Gathered on the platform were a number of Mohawk girls, +delicate and pretty maidens, with the warmth of their race's colour +glowing through the soft texture of their cheeks. They were there +because they had thrown flowers in the pathway of the Prince. At first +they were interested in this olden ceremony of their old race. Then +they began to talk of the wages they were drawing in extremely modern +Canadian stores and factories. Then they looked at the ceremony again, +at the clothes the Indians wore, at the romance and colour of it, and +they said, one to another: +</P> + +<P> +"Say, why have those guys dressed up like that? What's it all about, +anyhow? What's the use of this funny old business?" +</P> + +<P> +The romantic may find some food for thought in this attitude of the +modern Mohawk maid. +</P> + +<P> +In the end, after a debate on the fitness of several names, the Prince, +as president of the pow-wow, gave his vote for "Dawn of Morning," and +became chief with that title. But apparently he did not become fully +fledged until he had danced a ritual measure. A brother chief in +bright yellow and a fine gravity, came forward to guide the Prince's +steps, and the Prince, immediately entering into the spirit of the +ceremony, joined with him in shuffling and bowing to and fro across the +platform. Only after the congratulations from fellow-Mohawks and +palefaces, did he leave the daïs to fight—there is no other word—his +way through the dense and cheerful mass that packed the square almost +to danger-point. +</P> + +<P> +It was a splendid crowd, good-humoured and ardent. It had cheered +every moment, though, perhaps, it had cheered more strongly at one +moment. This was when an old Indian woman ran up to the Prince, +crying: "I met your father and your grandfather, and I'm British too." +At her words the Prince had taken the rose from his buttonhole and had +presented it to her. And that delighted the crowd. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H4> + +<P> +The fine weather of Monday gave way to pitiless rain on the morning of +Tuesday, October 21st. All the same, the rain did not prevent the +reception at Guelph from being warm and intensely interesting. +</P> + +<P> +Guelph is one of the many comely and thriving towns of West Ontario, +but its chiefest feature is its great Agricultural College that trains +the scientific farmer, not of Ontario and Canada alone, but for many +countries in the Western World. This college gave the Prince a +captivating welcome. +</P> + +<P> +It has men students, but it has many attractive and bonny girl +students, also, and these helped to distinguish the day, that is, with +a little help from the "movie" men. +</P> + +<P> +The "movie" men who travelled with the train had captured the spectacle +of the Prince's arrival at the station, and had driven off to the +college to be in readiness to "shoot" when His Royal Highness arrived. +They had ten minutes to wait. Not merely that, they had ten minutes to +wait in the company of a bunch of the prettiest and liveliest girl +students in West Ontario. "Movie" men are not of the hesitant class. +Somewhere in the first seventy-five seconds they became old friends of +the students who were filling the college windows with so much +attraction. In one minute and forty-five seconds they had the girls in +training for the Prince's arrival. They had hummed over the melody of +what they declared was the Prince's favourite opera selection; a girl +at a piano had picked up the tune, while the others practised harder +than diva ever did. +</P> + +<P> +When the Prince arrived the training proved worth while. He was +saluted from a hundred laughing heads at a score of windows with the +song that had followed him all over Canada. He drove into the College, +not to the stirring strains of "Oh, Canada," but to the syncopated lilt +of "Johnny's in Town." +</P> + +<P> +The Prince was not altogether out of the youthful gaiety of the scene, +for after the lunch, where the students had scrambled for souvenirs, a +piece of sugar from his coffee cup, a stick of celery from his plate, +even a piece of his pie, he made all these dashing young women gather +about him in the group that was to make the commemorative photo, and a +very jolly, laughing group it was. +</P> + +<P> +And when he was about to leave, and in answer to a massed feminine +chorus, this time chanting: +</P> + +<P> +"We—want—a—holiday." +</P> + +<P> +He called out cheerfully: +</P> + +<P> +"All right. I'll fix that holiday." And he did. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +IV +</H4> + +<P> +The whole of these days were filled with flittings hither and thither +on the Grand Trunk line (the passage of the Prince being smoothly +manipulated by another of Canada's fine railway men, and a genius in +good fellowship, Mr. H. R. Charlton), as the Prince called at the +pretty and vigorous towns on the tongue of Ontario that stretches +between Lake Huron and Lake Erie to the American border. +</P> + +<P> +Stratford, with something of the comely grace of Shakespeare's town in +its avenues of neat homes and fine trees, gave him as warm a reception +as anywhere in Canada on the evening of October 21st. On Wednesday, +October 22nd, the same hearty welcome was extended by those singularly +English towns, Woodstock and Chatham. +</P> + +<P> +On the afternoon of the same day London gave him a mass welcome mainly +of children in its big central park. London, Ontario, is an echo of +London, Thames. It has its Blackfriars and Regent Street, its +Piccadilly and St. James'. It is industrial and crowded, as the +English London is. Its public reception to the Prince was remarkable. +It had managed it rather well. It had stated that all who wished to be +present must apply for tickets of admission. Thousands did, and they +passed before the Prince in a motley and genial crowd of top hats and +gingham skirts, striped sweaters and satin charmeuse. But though they +came in thousands, the numbers of ticket-holders were ultimately +exhausted. When the last one had passed, the Prince looked at his +wrist watch. There was half an hour to spare before the reception was +due to close. He told those about him to open the doors of the +building and let the unticketed public in. +</P> + +<P> +From London the Grand Trunk carried us to Windsor on Thursday, October +23rd, where crowds were so dense about the station that they overflowed +on to the engine until one could no longer see it for humanity and +little boys. From the engine eager sightseers even scrambled along the +tops of the great steel cars until they became veritable grandstands. +</P> + +<P> +Crowds were in the virile streets, and they were not all Canadians +either. A ferry plies from Windsor to the United States, and America, +which at no time lost an opportunity of coming across the border to see +the Prince, had come across in great numbers. Canadians there were in +Windsor, thousands of them, but quite a fair volume of the cheering had +a United States timbre. +</P> + +<P> +A city with an electric fervour, Windsor. That comes not merely from +the towering profile of Detroit's skyscrapers seen across the river, +but from the spirit of Windsor itself. Detroit is America's +"motoropolis," and from the air of it Windsor will be Canada's +motoropolis of tomorrow. It is already thrusting its way up to the +first line of industrial cities; it is already a centre for the +manufacture of the ubiquitous Ford car and others, and it is learning +and profiting a lot from its American brother. +</P> + +<P> +The Canadian and American populations are, in a sense, interchangeable. +The United States comes across to work in Windsor, and Windsor goes +across to work in America. The ferry, not a very bustling ferry, not +such a good ferry, for example, as that which crosses the English +Thames at Woolwich, carries men and women and carts, and, inevitably, +automobiles between the two cities. +</P> + +<P> +Detroit took a great interest in the Prince. It sent a skirmishing +line of newspapermen up the railway to meet him, and they travelled in +the train with us, and failed, as all pressmen did, to get interviews +with him. We certainly took an interest in Detroit. It was not merely +the sense-capturing profile of Detroit, the sky-scrapers that give such +a sense of soaring zest by day, and look like fairy castles hung in the +air at night, but the quick, vivid spirit of the city that intrigued us. +</P> + +<P> +We went across to visit it the next morning, and found it had the +delight of a new sensation. It is a city with a sparkle. It is a city +where the automobile is a commonplace, and the horse a thing for pause +and comment. It contained a hundred points of novelty for us, from the +whiteness of its buildings, the beauty of its domestic architecture, +the up-to-date advertising of its churches, to its policemen on traffic +duty who, on a rostrum and under an umbrella, commanded the traffic +with a sign-board on which was written the laconic commands, "Go" and +"Stop." +</P> + +<P> +And, naturally, we visited the Ford Works. A place where I found the +efficiency of effort almost frighteningly uncanny. One of these days +those inhumanly human machines will bridge the faint gulf that +separates them from actual life, then, like Frankenstein's monster, +they will turn upon their creators. +</P> + +<P> +Galt (Friday, October 24th) gave the Prince another great reception; +then, passing through Toronto, he travelled to Kingston, which he +reached on Saturday, October 25th. +</P> + +<P> +Kingston, though it had its beginnings in the old stone fort that +Frontenac built on the margin of Lake Ontario to hold in check the +English settlers in New York and their Iroquois allies, is unmistakably +British. With its solid stone buildings, its narrow fillet of blue +lake, its stone fortifications on the foreshore, and its rambling +streets, it reminded me of Southampton town, especially before +Southampton's Western Shore was built over. Its air of being a British +seaport arises from the fact that it is a British port, for it was +actually the arsenal and yard for the naval forces on the Great Lakes +during the war of 1812. +</P> + +<P> +And it also gets its English tone from the Royal Military College which +exists here. The bravest function of the Prince's visit was in this +college, where he presented colours to the cadets and saw them drill. +The discipline of these boys on parade is worthy of Sandhurst, Woolwich +or West Point, and their physique is equal to, if not better, than any +shown at those places. It is not exactly a military school, though the +training is military, for though some of the cadets join Imperial or +Canadian forces, and all serve for a time in the Canadian Militia, +practically all the boys join professions or go into commerce after +passing through. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince's reception at the college was fine, but his reception in +the town itself was remarkable. The Public Park was black with people +at the ceremony of welcome, and though he was down to "kick off" in the +first of the Association League football matches, his kick off was +actually a toss-up. That was the only way to get the ball moving in +the dense throng that surged between the goal posts. +</P> + +<P> +Kingston, too, gave the Prince the degree of Doctor of Laws. It is a +proud honour, for Kingston boasts of being one of the oldest +universities in Canada. But though its tradition is old, its spirit is +modern enough; for its Chancellor is Mr. E. W. Beatty, the President of +the Canadian Pacific Railways. It was from the Railway +President-Chancellor the Prince received his degree. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap22"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +MONTREAL +</H4> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H4> + +<P> +The Prince had had a brief but lively experience of Montreal earlier in +his tour. It was but a hint of what was to happen when he returned on +Monday, October 27th. It was not merely that Montreal as the biggest +and richest city in Canada had set itself the task of winding up the +trip in befitting manner; there was that about the quality of its +entertainment which made it both startling and charming. +</P> + +<P> +Even before the train reached Windsor Station the Prince was receiving +a welcome from all the smaller towns that make up outlying Montreal. +At these places the habitant Frenchmen and women crowded about the +observation platform of the train to cry their friendliness in French, +where English was unknown. And the friendliness was not all on the +side of the habitants. +</P> + +<P> +"They tole me," said one old habitant in workingman overalls, "they +tole me I could not shake 'is han'. So I walk t'ro' them, <I>Oui</I>. An' +'e see me. A' 'e put out 'is 'an', an' 'e laf—so. I tell you 'e's a +real feller, de kin' that shake han' wis men lak me." +</P> + +<P> +Montreal itself met the Prince in a maze of confetti and snow. +Montreal was showing its essential self by a happy accident. It was +the Montreal of old France, gay and vivacious and full of colour mated +to the stern stuff of Canada. +</P> + +<P> +It is true there was not very much snow, merely a fleck of it in the +air, that starred the wind-screens of the long line of automobiles that +formed the procession; but Canada and Montreal are not all snow, +either. It was as though the native spirit of the place was impressing +upon us the feeling that underneath the gaiety we were encountering +there was all the sternness of the pioneers that had made this fine +town the splendid place it is. +</P> + +<P> +There was certainly gaiety in the air on that day. The Prince drove +out from the station into a city of cheering. Mighty crowds were about +the station. Mighty crowds lined the great squares and the long +streets through which he rode, and crowds filled the windows of +sky-climbing stores. It was an animated crowd. It expressed itself +with the unaided throat, as well as on whistles and with eerie noises +on striped paper horns. It used rattles and it used sirens. +</P> + +<P> +And mere noise being not enough, it loosed its confetti. As the Prince +drove through the narrow canyon of the business streets, confetti was +tossed down from high windows by the bagful. Streamers of all colours +shot down from buildings and up from the sidewalks, until the snakes of +vivid colour, skimming and uncoiling across the street, made a bright +lattice over flagpole and telephone wire, and, with the bright flutter +of the flags, gave the whole proceedings a vivid and carnival air. +</P> + +<P> +Strips of coloured paper and torn letter headings fluttered down, too, +and in such masses that those who were responsible must have got rid of +them by the shovelful. Prince and car were very quickly entangled in +fluttering strips and bright streamers, that snapped and fluttered like +the multi-tinted tails of comets behind him as he sped. +</P> + +<P> +There was an air of cheery abandon about this whole-hearted +friendliness. The crowd was bright and vivacious. There was laughter +and gaiety everywhere, and when the Prince turned a corner, it lifted +its skirts and with fresh laughter raced across squares and along side +streets in order to get another glimpse of this "real feller." +</P> + +<P> +Bands of students, Frenchmen from Laval in velvet berets, and English +from McGill, made the sidewalks lively. When they could, they rushed +the cars of the procession and rode in thick masses on the footboards +in order to keep up with the Royal progress. When policemen drove them +off footboards, they waited for the next car to come along and got on +to the footboards of that. +</P> + +<P> +When the Prince went into the City Hall they tried to take the City +Hall by storm, and succeeded, indeed, in clambering on to all those +places where human beings should not go, and from there they sang to +the vast crowd waiting for the exit of the Prince, choosing any old +tune from "Oh, Canada," in French, to "Johnny's in Town," in polyglot. +</P> + +<P> +It was a great reception, a reception with electricity in it. A +reception where France added a colour and a charm to Britain and made +it irresistible. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H4> + +<P> +And it was only a sample, that reception. +</P> + +<P> +Tuesday, October 28th, as a day, was tremendous. For the Prince it +began at lunch, but a lunch of great brilliance. At the handsome Place +Viger Hotel he was again the centre of crowds. Crowds waited in the +streets, in spite of the greyness, the damp and the cold. Crowds +filled the lobbies and galleries of the hotel to cheer him as he came. +</P> + +<P> +In the great dining-room was a great crowd, a crowd that seemed to be +growing out of a wilderness of flowers. There was an amazing profusion +and beauty of flowers all through that room. And not merely were there +flowers for decoration, but with a graceful touch the Mayor and the +City Fathers, who gave that lunch, had set a perfect carnation at the +plate of every guest as a favour for his buttonhole. +</P> + +<P> +The gathering was as vivid as its setting. Gallic beards wagged +amiably in answer to clean-shaven British lips. The soutane and +amethyst cross sat next the Anglican apron and gaiters, and the khaki +of two tongues had war experiences on one front translated by an +interpreter. +</P> + +<P> +It was an eager gathering that crowded forward from angles of the room +or stood up on its seats in order to catch every word the Prince +uttered, and it could not cheer warmly enough when he spoke with real +feeling of the mutual respect that was the basis of the real +understanding between the French-speaking and the English-speaking +sections of the Canadian nation. +</P> + +<P> +The reality of that mutual respect was borne out by the throngs that +gathered in the streets when the Prince left the hotel. It was through +a mere alley in humanity that his car drove to La Fontaine Park, and at +the park there was an astonishing gathering. +</P> + +<P> +In the centre of the grass were several thousand veteran soldiers who +had served in the war. They were of all arms, from Highlanders to +Flying Men, and, ranked in battalions behind their laurel-wreathed +standards, they made a magnificent showing. Masses of wounded soldiers +in automobiles filled one side of the great square, humanity of both +sexes overflowed the other three sides. Ordinary methods of control +were hopeless. The throng of people simply submerged all signs of +authority and invaded the parade ground until on half of it it was +impossible to distinguish khaki in ranks from men and women and +children sightseers in chaos. +</P> + +<P> +In the face of this crowd Montreal had to invent a new method of +authority. The mounted men having failed to press the spectators back, +tanks were loosed.... Oh, not the grim, steel Tanks of the war zone, +but the frail and mobile Tanks of civilization—motor-cycles. The +motor-cycle police were sent against the throng. The cycles, with +their side-cars, swept down on the mass, charging cleverly until the +speeding wheels seemed about to drive into civilian suitings. Under +this novel method of rounding up, the thick wedges of people were +broken up; they yielded and were gradually driven back to proper +position. +</P> + +<P> +Again the throngs in the park were only hints of what the Prince was to +expect in his drive through the town. Leaving the grounds and turning +into the long, straight and broad Sherbrooke Street, the bonnet of his +automobile immediately lodged in the thickets of crowds. The splendid +avenue was not big enough for the throngs it contained, and the people +filled the pavements and spread right across the roadway. +</P> + +<P> +Slowly, and only by forcing a way with the bonnet of the automobile, +could the police drive a lane through the cheerful mass. The ride was +checked down to a crawl, and as he neared his destination, the Art +Gallery, progress became a matter of inches at a time only. It was a +mighty crowd. It was not unruly or stubborn; it checked the Prince's +progress simply because men and women conform to ordinary laws of +space, and it was physically impossible to squeeze back thirty ranks +into a space that could contain twenty only. +</P> + +<P> +I suppose I should have written physically uncomfortable, for actually +a narrow strip, the width of a car only, was driven through the throng. +The people were jammed so tightly back that when the line of cars +stopped, as it frequently had to, the people clambered on to the +footboards for relief. +</P> + +<P> +In front of the classic portico of the Art Gallery the scene was +amazing. The broad street was a sea of heads. Before this wedge of +people the Prince's car was stopped dead. Here the point of +impossibility appeared to have been reached, for though he was to +alight, there was no place for alighting, and even very little space +for opening the door of the car. It was only by fighting that the +police got him on to the pavement and up the steps of the gallery, and +though the crowd was extraordinarily good-tempered, the scuffling was +not altogether painless, for in that heaving mass clothes were torn and +shins were barked in the struggle. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince was to stand at the top of the steps of the Art Gallery to +take the salute of the soldiers he had reviewed in La Fontaine Park, as +they swung past in a Victory March. He stood there for over an hour +waiting for them. The head of the column had started immediately after +he had, but it found the difficulties of progress even more apparent +than the Prince. The long column, with the trophies of captured guns +and machines of war, could only press forward by fits and starts. At +one time it seemed impossible that the veterans would ever get through +the pack of citizens, and word was given that the march had been +postponed. But by slow degrees the column forced a way to the Art +Gallery, and gave the Prince the salute amid enthusiasm that must +remain memorable even in Montreal's long history of splendid memories. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H4> + +<P> +Montreal had set to excel itself as a host, and every moment of the +Prince's days was brilliantly filled. There were vivid receptions and +splendid dances at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and the big and comfortable +Hotel Windsor. Montreal is the centre of most things in Canada; in it +are the head offices of the great railways and the great newspapers and +the leading financial and commercial concerns. The big men who control +these industries are hospitable with a large gesture. In the hands of +these men, not only the Prince, but the members of his entourage had a +royal time. +</P> + +<P> +Personally, though I found Montreal a delightful city, a city of +vividness and vivacity, I was, in one sense, not sorry to leave it, for +I felt myself rapidly disintegrating under the kindnesses showered upon +us. +</P> + +<P> +This kindness had its valuable experience: it brought us into contact +with many of the men who are helping to mould the future of Canada. We +met such capable minds as those who are responsible for the +organization of such great companies as the Canadian Pacific and the +Grand Trunk Railways. We met many of the great and brilliant newspaper +men, such as Senator White, of the <I>Montreal Gazette</I>, who with his +exceedingly able right-hand man, Major John Bassett, was our good +friend always and our host many times. All these men are undoubtedly +forces in the future of Canada. We were able to get from them a juster +estimate of Canada, her prospects and her potentialities, than we could +have obtained by our unaided observation. And, more, we got from +contact with such men as these an appreciation of the splendid +qualities that make the Canadian citizen so definite a force in the +present and future of the world. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +IV +</H4> + +<P> +During his stay in Montreal the Prince was brought in contact with +every phase of civic life. On Wednesday, October 29th, he went by +train through the outlying townships on Montreal Island, calling at the +quaint and beautifully decorated villages of the habitants, that +usually bear the names of old French saints. The inhabitants of these +places, though said to be taciturn and undemonstrative, met the train +in crowds, and in crowds jostled to get at the Prince and shake his +hand, and they showed particular delight when he addressed them in +their own tongue. +</P> + +<P> +On Thursday, October 30th, the Prince drove about Montreal itself, +going to the docks where ocean-going ships lie at deep-water quays +under the towering elevators and the giant loading gear. Amid college +yells, French and English, he toured through the great universities of +Laval and McGill—famous for learning and Stephen Leacock. He also +toured the districts where the working man lives, holding informal +receptions there. +</P> + +<P> +He opened athletic clubs and went to dances. At the balls he was at +once the friend of everybody by his zest for dancing and his +delightfully human habit of playing truant in order to sit out on the +stairs with bright partners. +</P> + +<P> +As ever his thoughtfulness and tact created legends. I was told, and I +believe it to be true, that after one dinner he was to drive straight +to a big dance; but, hearing that a great number of people had +collected along the route to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel where he was +staying, under the impression that he was to return there, he gave +orders that his car was to go to the hotel before going to the dance. +It was an unpleasant night, and the drive took him considerably out of +his way; but, rather than disappoint the people who had gathered +waiting, he took the roundabout journey—and he took it standing in his +car so that the people could see him in the light of the lamps. +</P> + +<P> +It was at Montreal, too, that the Prince went to his first theatrical +performance in Canada. A great and bright gala performance on +music-hall lines had been arranged at one of the principal theatres, +and this the Prince attended. The audience with some restraint watched +him as he sat in his box, wondering what their attitude should be. But +a joke sent him off in a tremendous laugh, and all, realizing that he +was there to enjoy himself, joined with him in that enjoyment. He +declared as he left the theatre that it was "A scrumptious show." +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +V +</H4> + +<P> +On Sunday, November 3rd, Montreal, after winding up the tour with a +mighty week, gave the Prince a mighty send-off. Officially the tour in +Canada was ended, though there were two or three extraordinary +functions to be filled at Toronto and Ottawa. The chief of these was +at Toronto on Tuesday, November 4th, when the Prince made the most +impressive speech of the whole tour at Massey Hall. +</P> + +<P> +This hall was packed with one of the keenest audiences the Prince had +faced in Canada. It was made up of members of the Canadian and Empire +Clubs, and every man there was a leader in business. It was both a +critical gathering and an acute one. It would take nothing on trust, +yet it could appreciate every good point. This audience the Prince won +completely. +</P> + +<P> +It was the longest speech the Prince had made, yet he never spoke +better; he had both mastered his nervousness and his need for notes. +Decrying his abilities as an orator, he yet won his hearing by his very +lack of oratorical affectation. +</P> + +<P> +He spoke very earnestly of the wonderful reception he had had +throughout the breadth of Canada, from every type of Canadian—a +reception, he said, which he was not conceited enough to imagine was +given to himself personally, but to him as heir to the British throne +and to the ideal which that throne stood for. The throne, he pointed +out, consolidated the democratic tradition of the Empire, because it +was a focus for all men and races, for it was outside parties and +politics; it was a bond which held all men together. The Empire of +which the throne was the focal point was different from other and +ancient Empires. The Empires of Greece and Rome were composed of many +states owing allegiance to the mother state. That ideal was now +obsolete. The British Empire was a single state composed of many +nations which give allegiance not so much to the mother country, but to +the great common system of life and government. That is, the Dominions +were no longer Colonies but sister nations of the British Empire. +</P> + +<P> +Every point of this telling speech was acutely realized and immediately +applauded, though perhaps the warmest applause came after the Prince's +definition of the Empire, and after his declaration that, in visiting +the United States of America, he regarded himself not only as an +Englishman but as a Canadian and a representative of the whole Empire. +</P> + +<P> +In a neat and concise speech the Chairman of the meeting had already +summed up the meaning and effect of the Prince's visit to Canada. The +Prince, he said, had passed through Canada on a wave of enthusiasm that +had swept throughout and had dominated the country. That enthusiasm +could have but one effect, that of deepening and enriching Canadian +loyalty to the Crown, and giving a new sense of solidarity among the +people of Canada. "Our Indian compatriots," he concluded, "with +picturesque aptness have acclaimed the Prince as Chief Morning Star. +That name is well and prophetically chosen. His visit will usher in +for Canada a new day full of wide-flung influence and high +achievements." +</P> + +<P> +This summary is the best comment on the reason and effect of the tour. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +VI +</H4> + +<P> +The last phase of this truly remarkable tour through Canada was staged +in Ottawa. As far as ceremonial went, it was entirely quiet, though +the Prince made this an occasion for receiving and thanking those +Canadians whose work had helped to make his visit a success. Apart +from this, the Prince spent restful and recreative days at Government +House, in preparation for the strenuous time he was to have across the +American border. +</P> + +<P> +But before he reached Ottawa there was just one small ceremony that, on +the personal side, fittingly brought the long travel through Canada to +an end. At a siding near Colburn on the Ottawa road the train was +stopped, and the Prince personally thanked the whole staff of "this +wonderful train" for the splendid service they had rendered throughout +the trip. It was, he said, a record of magnificent team work, in which +every individual had worked with untiring and unfailing efficiency. +</P> + +<P> +He made his thanks not only general but also individual, for he shook +hands with every member of the train team; chefs in white overalls, +conductors in uniform, photographers, the engineers in jeans and peaked +caps, waiters, clerks, negro porters and every man who had helped to +make that journey so marked an achievement, passed before him to +receive his thanks. +</P> + +<P> +And when this was accomplished the Prince himself took over the train +for a spell. He became the engine-driver. +</P> + +<P> +He mounted into the cab and drove the engine for eighteen miles, +donning the leather gauntlets (which every man in Canada who does dirty +work wears), and manipulating the levers. Starting gingerly at first, +he soon had the train bowling along merrily at a speed that would have +done credit to an old professional. +</P> + +<P> +At Flavelle the usual little crowd had gathered ready to surround the +rear carriage. To their astonishment, they found the Prince in the +cab, waving his hat out of the window at them, enjoying both their +surprise and his own achievement. +</P> + +<P> +On Wednesday, November 5th, the journey ended at Ottawa, and the train +was broken up to our intense regret. For us it had been a train-load +of good friends, and though many were to accompany us to America, many +were not, and we felt the parting. Among those who came South with us +was our good friend "Chief" Chamberlain, who had been in control of the +C.P.R. police responsible for the Prince's safety throughout the trip. +He was one of the most genial cosmopolitans of the world, with the real +Canadian genius for friendship—indeed so many friends had he, that the +Prince of Wales expressed the opinion that Canada was populated by +seven million people, mainly friends of "the Chief." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap23"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXIII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +WASHINGTON +</H4> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H4> + +<P> +My own first real impression of the United States lay in my sorrow that +I had been betrayed into winter underclothing. +</P> + +<P> +When the Prince left Ottawa on the afternoon of November 10th in the +President's train, the weather was bitterly cold. I suppose it was +bitterly cold for most of the run south, but an American train does not +allow a hint of such a thing to penetrate. The train was steam-heated +to a point to which I had never been trained. And at Washington the +station was steam-heated and the hotel was steam-heated, and Washington +itself was, for that moment, on the steam-heated latitude. America, I +felt, had rather "put it over on me." +</P> + +<P> +It was at 8.20 on the night of Monday the 10th that the Prince entered +the United States at the little station of Rouses Point. There was +very little ceremony, and it took only the space of time to change our +engine of Canada to an engine of America. But the short ceremony under +the arc lamps, and in the centre a small crowd, had attraction and +significance. +</P> + +<P> +On the platform were drawn up ranks of khaki men, but khaki men with a +new note to us. It was a guard of honour of "Doughboys," stocky and +useful-looking fellows, in their stetsons and gaiters. Close to them +was a band of American girls, holding as a big canopy the Union Jack +and the Stars and Stripes joined together to make one flag, joined in +one piece to signify the meeting-place of the two Anglo-Saxon peoples +also. +</P> + +<P> +With this company were the officials who had come to welcome the Prince +at the border. They were led by Mr. Lansing, the Secretary of State, +Major-General Biddle, who commanded the Americans in England, and who +was to be the Prince's Military aide, and Admiral Niblack, who was to +be the Naval aide while the Prince was the guest of the United States. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince in a Guard's greatcoat greeted his new friends, and +inspected the Doughboys, laughing back at the crowd when some one +called: "Good for you, Prince." To the ladies who held the twin flags +he also expressed his thanks, telling them it was very nice of them to +come out on so cold a night to meet him. Feminine America was, for an +instant, non-plussed, and found nothing to answer. But their vivacity +quickly came back to them, and they very quickly returned the +friendliness and smiles of the Prince, shook his hand and wished him +the happiest of visits in their country. +</P> + +<P> +The interchange of nationalities in engines being effected, the train +swung at a rapid pace beside the waters of Lake Champlain, pushing +south along the old marching route into and out of Canada. +</P> + +<P> +On the morning of November 11th it was raining heavily and the train +ran through a depressing greyness. We were all eager to see America, +and see her at her best, but a train journey, especially in wet +weather, shows a country at its worst. The short stops, for instance, +in the stations of great cities like Philadelphia and Baltimore were +the sort of things to give a false impression. The stations themselves +were empty, a novelty to us, who had had three months of crowded +stations, and, also, about these stations we saw slums, for the first +time on this Western continent. After having had the conviction grow +up within me that this Continent was the land of comely and decent +homes, the sight of these drab areas and bad roads was, personally, a +shock. Big and old cities find it hard to eliminate slums, but it +seemed to me that it would be merely good business to remove such +places from out of sight of the railways, and to plan town approaches +on a more impressive scale. America certainly can plan buildings on an +impressive scale. It has the gift of architecture. +</P> + +<P> +The train went through to Washington in what was practically a non-stop +run, and arrived in the rain. The Prince was received in the rain at +the back of the train, though that reception was truncated, so that the +great Americans who were there to meet him could be presented in the +dryness under the station roof. +</P> + +<P> +Heading the group of notable men who met the Prince was the +Vice-President, Mr. Marshall, and with him was the British Ambassador, +Lord Grey, and General Pershing, a popular figure with the waiting +crowd and a hero regarded with rapture by American young +womanhood—which was willing to break the Median regulations of the +American police to get "just one look at him." +</P> + +<P> +Outside the station there was a vast crowd of American men and women +who had braved the downpour to give the Prince a welcome of that +peculiarly generous quality which we quickly learnt was the natural +expression of the American feeling towards guests. +</P> + +<P> +I was told, too, that crowds along the streets caught up that very +cheerful greeting, so that all through his ride along the beautiful +streets to the Belmont House in New Hampshire Avenue, which was to be +his home in Washington, the Prince was made aware of the hospitality +extended to him. +</P> + +<P> +But of this fact I can only speak from hearsay. The Press +Correspondents were unable to follow His Royal Highness through the +city. We were told that a car was to be placed at our disposal, as one +had been elsewhere, and we were asked to wait our turn. Wait we +certainly did, until the last junior attaché had been served. By that +time, however, His Royal Highness had outdistanced us, for, without a +car and without being able to join the procession at an early interval, +we lost touch with happenings. +</P> + +<P> +By the time we were able to get on to the route the streets were +deserted; all we could do was to admire through the rain the +architecture of one of the most beautiful cities of the world. +</P> + +<P> +Apart from the rain on the first day, there was another factor which +handicapped Washington in its welcome to the Prince—the warmth of +which could not be doubted when it had opportunity for adequate +expression. This was the fact that no program of his doings was +published. For some reason which I do not pretend to understand, the +time-table of his comings and goings about the city was not issued to +the Press, so that the people of Washington had but vague ideas of +where to see him. The Washington journalists protested to us that this +was unfair to a city that has such a great and just reputation for its +public hospitality. +</P> + +<P> +However, where the Prince and the Washington people did come together +there was an immediate and mutual regard. There was just such a +"mixing" that evening, when he visited the National Press Club. +</P> + +<P> +He had spent the day quietly, receiving and returning calls. One of +these calls was upon President Wilson at the White House, the Prince +driving through this city of an ideal in architecture come true, to +spend ten minutes with Mrs. Wilson in a visit of courtesy. +</P> + +<P> +The National Press Club at Washington is probably unique of its kind. +I don't mean by that that it is comfortable and attractive; all +American and Canadian clubs are supremely comfortable and attractive, +for in this Continent clubs have been exalted to the plane of a +gracious and fine art; I mean that the spirit of the club gave it a +distinguished and notable quality. +</P> + +<P> +America being a country extremely interested in politics—Americans +enter into politics as Englishmen enter into cricket—and Washington +being the vibrant centre of that intense political concern, the most +acute brains of the American news world naturally gravitate to the +Capital. The National Press Club at Washington is a club of experts. +Its membership is made up of men whose keen intelligence, brilliance in +craft and devotion to their calling has lifted them to the top of the +tree in their own particular <I>métier</I>. +</P> + +<P> +There was about these men that extraordinary zest in work and every +detail of that work that is the secret of American driving power. With +them, and with every other American I came into contact with, I felt +that work was attacked with something of the joy of the old craftsman. +My own impression after a short stay in America is that the American +works no harder, and perhaps not so hard as the average Briton; but he +works with infinitely more zest, and that is what makes him the +dangerous fellow in competition that he is. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince had met many journalists at Belmont House in the morning, +and had very readily accepted an invitation to visit them at their +club, and after dinner he came not into this den of lions, but into a +den of Daniels—a condition very trying for lions. Arriving in evening +dress, his youth seemed accentuated among so many shrewd fellows, who +were there obviously not to take him or any one for granted. +</P> + +<P> +From the outset his frankness and entire lack of affectation created +the best of atmospheres, and in a minute or two his sense of humour had +made all there his friends. Having met a few of the journalist corps +in the morning, he now expressed a wish to meet them all. The +President of the Club raised his eyebrows, and, indicating the packed +room, suggested that "all" was, perhaps, a large order. The Prince +merely laughed: "All I ask is that you don't grip too hard," he said, +and he shook hands with and spoke to every member present. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince certainly made an excellent impression upon men able to +judge the quality of character without being dazzled by externals, and +many definite opinions were expressed after he left concerning his +modesty, his manliness and his faculty for being "a good mixer," which +is the faculty Americans most admire. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H4> + +<P> +Wednesday, November 13th, was a busy day. The Prince was out early +driving through the beautiful avenues of the city in a round of +functions. +</P> + +<P> +Washington is one of the most attractive of cities to drive in. It is +a city, one imagines, built to be the place where the architects' +dreams come true. It has the air of being a place where the designer +has been able to work at his best; climate and a clarified air, natural +beauty and the approbation of brother men have all conspired to help +and stimulate. +</P> + +<P> +It has scores of beautiful and magnificently proportioned buildings, +each obviously the work of a fine artist, and practically every one of +those buildings has been placed on a site as effective and as +appropriate as its design. That, perhaps, was a simple matter, for the +whole town had been planned with a splendid art. Its broad avenues and +its delightful parks fit in to the composite whole with an exquisite +justness. Its residences have the same charm of excellent +craftsmanship one appreciates in the classic public buildings; they are +mellow in colouring, behind their screen of trees; nearly all are true +and fine in line, while some—an Italianate house on, I think, 15th +Avenue, which is the property of Mr. McLean of the <I>Washington Post</I>, +is one—are supremely beautiful. +</P> + +<P> +The air of the city is astonishingly clear, and the grave white +buildings of the Public Offices, the splendid white aspiration of the +skyscrapers, have a sparkling quality that shows them to full +advantage. There may, of course, be more beautiful cities than +Washington, but certainly Washington is beautiful enough. +</P> + +<P> +The streets have an exhilaration. There is an intense activity of +humanity. Automobiles there are, of course, by the thousand, parked +everywhere, with policemen strolling round to chalk times on them, or +to impound those cars that previous chalk-marks show to have been +parked beyond the half-hour or hour of grace. The sidewalks are vivid +with the shuttling of the smartest of women, women who choose their +clothes with a crispness, a <I>flair</I> of their own, and which owes very +little to other countries, and carry them and themselves with a vivid +exquisiteness that gives them an undeniable individuality. The stores +are as the Canadian stores, only there are more of them, and they are +bigger. Their windows make a dado of attractiveness along the streets, +but, all the same, I do not think the windows are dressed quite as well +as in London, and I'm nearly sure not so well as in Canada—but this is +a mere masculine opinion. +</P> + +<P> +Through this attractive city the Prince drove in a round of ceremonies. +His first call was at the Headquarters of the American Red Cross, then +wrung with the fervours of a "tag" week of collecting. From here he +went to the broad, sweet park beside the Potomac, where a noble +memorial was being erected to the memory of Lincoln. This, as might be +expected from this race of fine builders, is an admirable Greek +structure admirably situated in the green of the park beside the river. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince went over the building, and gained an idea of what it would +be like on completion from the plans. He also surprised his guides by +his intimate knowledge of Lincoln's life and his intense admiration for +him. +</P> + +<P> +At the hospital, shortly after, he visited two thousand of "My comrades +in arms," as he called them. Outside the hospital on the lawns were +many men who had been wounded at Château Thierry, some in wheeled +chairs. Seeing them, the Prince swung aside from his walk to the +hospital entrance and chatted with them, before entering the wards to +speak with others of the wounded men. +</P> + +<P> +On leaving the hospital he was held up. A Red Cross nurse ran up to +him and "tagged" him, planting the little Red Cross button in his coat +and declaring that the Prince was enrolled in the District Chapter. +The Prince very promptly countered with a dollar bill, the official +subscription, saying that his enrolment must be done in proper style +and on legal terms. +</P> + +<P> +In the afternoon, the Prince utilized his free time in making a call on +the widow of Admiral Dewey, spending a few minutes in interesting +conversation with her. +</P> + +<P> +The evening was given over to one of the most brilliant scenes of the +whole tour. At the head of the splendid staircase of white marble in +the Congress Library he held a reception of all the members of the +Senate and the House of Representatives, their wives and their families. +</P> + +<P> +Even to drive to such a reception was to experience a thrill. +</P> + +<P> +As the Prince drove down the straight and endless avenues that strike +directly through Washington to the Capitol, like spokes to the hub of a +vast wheel, he saw that immense, classic building shining above the +city in the sky. In splendid and austere whiteness the Capitol rises +terrace upon terrace above the trees, its columns, its cornices and its +dome blanched in the cold radiance of scores of arc lights hidden among +the trees. +</P> + +<P> +Like fireflies attracted to this centre of light, cars moved their +sparkling points of brightness down the vivid avenues, and at the +vestibule of the Library, which lies in the grounds apart from the +Capitol, set down fit denizens for this kingdom of radiance. +</P> + +<P> +Senators and parliamentarians generally are sober entities, but wives +and daughters made up for them in colour and in comeliness. In cloth +of gold, in brocades, in glowing satin and flashing silk, +multi-coloured and ever-shifting, a stream of jewelled vivacity pressed +up the severe white marble stairs in the severe white marble hall. +There could not have been a better background for such a shining and +pulsating mass of living colour. There was no distraction from that +warm beauty of moving humanity; the flowers, too, were severe, severe +and white; great masses of white chrysanthemums were all that was +needed, were all that was there. +</P> + +<P> +And at the head of the staircase a genius in design had made one stroke +of colour, one stroke of astounding and poignant scarlet. On this +scarlet carpet the Prince in evening dress stood and encountered the +tide of guests that came up to him, were received by him, and flowed +away from him in a thousand particles and drops of colour, as women, +with all the vivacity of their clothes in their manner, and men in +uniforms or evening dress, striving to keep pace with them, went +drifting through the high, clear purity of the austere corridors. +</P> + +<P> +It was a scene of infinite charm. It was a scene of infinite +significance, also. For close to the Prince as he stood and received +the men and women of America, were many original documents dealing with +the separation of England and the American colonies. There was much in +the fact that a Prince of England should be receiving the descendants +of those colonies in such surroundings, and meeting those descendants +with a friendliness and frankness which equalled their own frank +friendliness. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H4> + +<P> +Thursday, November 14th, was a day of extreme interest for the Prince. +It was the day when he visited the home of the first President of +America, and also visited, in his home, the President in power today. +</P> + +<P> +The morning was given over to an investiture of the American officers +and nurses who had won British honours during the war. It was held at +Belmont House, and was a ceremony full of colour. Members of all the +diplomatic corps in Washington in their various uniforms attended, and +these were grouped in the beautiful ballroom full of splendid pictures +and wonderful china. The simplicity of the investiture itself stood +out against the colourful setting as generals in khaki, admirals in +blue, the rank and file of both services, and the neat and picturesque +Red Cross nurses came quietly across the polished floor to receive +their decorations and a comradely hand-clasp from the Prince. +</P> + +<P> +It was after lunch that the Prince motored out to Mount Vernon, the +home and burial-place of Washington, to pay his tribute to the great +leader of the first days of America. It is a serene and beautiful old +house, built in the colonial style, with a pillared verandah along its +front. The visit here was of the simplest kind. +</P> + +<P> +At the modest tomb of the great general and statesman, which is near +the house, the Prince in silence deposited a wreath, and a little +distance away he also planted a cedar to commemorate his visit. He +showed his usual keen curiosity in the house, whose homely rooms of +mellow colonial furniture seemed as though they might be filled at any +moment with gentlemen in hessians and brave coats, whose hair was in +queues and whose accents would be loud and rich in condemnation of the +interference of the Court Circle overseas. +</P> + +<P> +Showing interest in the historic details of the house, the picture of +his grandfather abruptly filled him with anxiety. He looked at the +picture and asked if "Baron Renfrew" (King Edward) had worn a top hat +on <I>his</I> visit, and from his nervousness it seemed that he felt that +his own soft felt hat was not quite the thing. He was reassured, +however, on this point, for democracy has altered many things since the +old days, including hats. +</P> + +<P> +Both on his way out, and his return journey, the Prince was the object +of enthusiasm from small groups who recognized him, most of whom had +trusted to luck or their intuition for their chance of seeing him. +About the entrance of the White House, to which he drove, there was a +small and ardent crowd, which cheered him when he swept through the +gates with his motor-cycle escort, and bought photographs of him from +hawkers when he had passed. The hawker, in fact, did a brisk trade. +</P> + +<P> +There had been much speculation whether His Royal Highness would be +able to see President Wilson at all, for he was yet confined to his +bed. The doctors decided for it, and there was a very pleasant meeting +which seems to have helped the President to renew his good spirits in +the youthful charm of his visitor. +</P> + +<P> +After taking tea with Mrs. Wilson, His Royal Highness went up to the +room of the President on the second floor, and Mr. Wilson, propped up +in bed, received him. The friendship that had begun in England was +quickly renewed, and soon both were laughing over the Prince's +experiences on his tour and "swopping" impressions. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Wilson's instinctive vein of humour came back to him under the +pleasure of the reunion, and he pointed out to the Prince that if he +was ill in bed, he had taken the trouble to be ill in a bed of some +celebrity. It was a bed that made sickness auspicious. King Edward +had used it when he had stayed at the White House as "Baron Renfrew," +and President Lincoln had also slept on it during his term of office, +which perhaps accounted for its massive and rugged utility. +</P> + +<P> +The visit was certainly a most attractive one for the President, and +had an excellent effect; his physician reported the next morning that +Mr. Wilson's spirits had risen greatly, and that as a result of the +enjoyable twenty minutes he had spent with the Prince. On Friday, +November 15th, the Prince went to the United States Naval College at +Annapolis, a place set amid delightful surroundings. He inspected the +whole of the Academy, and was immensely impressed by the smartness of +the students, who, themselves, marked the occasion by treating him to +authentic college yells on his departure. +</P> + +<P> +The week-end was spent quietly at the beautiful holiday centre of +Sulphur Springs. It was a visit devoted to privacy and golf. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +IV +</H4> + +<P> +During our stay in Washington the air was thick with politics, for it +was the week in which the Senate were dealing with Clause Ten of the +Peace Treaty. The whole of Washington, and, in fact, the whole of +America, was tingling with politics, and we could not help being +affected by the current emotion. +</P> + +<P> +I am not going to attempt to discuss American politics, but I will say +that it seemed to me that politics enter more personally into the life +of Americans than with the British, and that they feel them more +intensely. At the same time I had a definite impression that American +politics have a different construction to ours. The Americans speak of +"The Political Game," and I had the feeling that it was a game played +with a virtuosity of tactics and with a metallic intensity, and the +principle of the game was to beat the other fellows. So much so that +the aim and end of politics were obscured, and that the battle was +fought not about measures but on the advantages one party would gain +over another by victory. +</P> + +<P> +That is, the "Political Game" is a game of the "Ins" and "Outs" played +for parliamentary success with the habitual keenness and zest of the +American. +</P> + +<P> +This is not a judgment but an impression. I do not pretend to know +anything of America. I do not think any one can know America well +unless he is an American. Those who think that America quickly yields +its secrets to the British mind simply because America speaks the +English language need the instruction of a visit to America. +</P> + +<P> +America has all the individuality and character of a separate and +distinct State. To think that the United States is a sort of +Transatlantic Britain is simply to approach the United States with a +set of preconceived notions that are bound to suffer considerable +jarring. Both races have many things in common, that is obvious from +the fact of a common language, and, in a measure, from a common +descent; but they have things that are not held in common. It needs a +closer student of America than I am to go into this; I merely give my +own impression, and perhaps a superficial one at that. It may offer a +point of elucidation to those people who find themselves shocked +because English-speaking America sometimes does not act in an English +manner, or respond to English acts. +</P> + +<P> +America is America first and all the time; it is as complete and as +definite in its spirits as the oldest of nations, and in its own way. +Its patriotism is intense, more intense than British patriotism (though +not more real), because by nature the American is more intense. The +vivid love of Americans for America is the same type of passion that +the Frenchman has for France. +</P> + +<P> +The character of the American, as I encountered him in Washington, +Detroit, and New York—a very limited orbit—suggested differences from +the character of the Englishman. The American, as I see him, is more +simple, more puritan, and more direct than the Briton. His generosity +is a most astonishing thing. He is, as far as I can see, a genuine +lover of his brother-man, not theoretically but actively, for he is +anxious to get into contact, to "mix," to make the most of even a +chance acquaintance. Simply and directly he exposes the whole of +himself, says what he means and withholds nothing, so that acquaintance +should be made on an equitable and genuine basis. To the more +conservative Briton this is alarming; brought up in a land of +reticences, the Briton wonders what the American is "getting at," what +does he want? What is his game? The American on his side is baffled +by the British habit of keeping things back, and he, too, perhaps +wonders why this fellow is going slow with me? Doesn't he want to be +friends? +</P> + +<P> +Personally, I think that the directness and simplicity of the Americans +is the directness and simplicity of the artist, the man who has no use +for unessentials. And one gets this sense of artistry in an American's +business dealings. He goes directly at his object, and he goes with a +concentrated power and a zest that is exhilarating. Here, too, he +exposes his hand in a way bewildering to the Britisher, who sometimes +finds the American so candid in his transactions that he becomes +suspicious of there being something more behind it. +</P> + +<P> +To the American work is something zestful, joyous. He likes to get +things done; he likes to do big things with a big gesture—sometimes to +the damage of detail, which he has overlooked—for him work is +craftsmanship, a thing to be carried through with the delight of a +craftsman. He is, in fact, the artist as business man. +</P> + +<P> +Like all artists he has an air of hardness, the ruthlessness to attain +an end. But like all artists he is quick and generous, vivid in +enthusiasm and hard to daunt. Like the artist he is narrow in his +point of view at times and decisive in opinion—simply because his own +point of vision is all-absorbing. +</P> + +<P> +This, for example, is apparent in his democracy, which is +extraordinarily wide in certain respects, and singularly restricted in +others—an example of this is the way the Americans handle offenders +against their code; whether they be I.W.W., strikers or the like, their +attitude is infinitely more ruthless than the British attitude. +Another example is, having so splendid a freedom, they allow themselves +to be "bossed" by policemen, porters and a score of others who exert an +authority so drastic on occasions that no Briton would stand it. +</P> + +<P> +But over all I was struck by the vividity of the Americans I met. +Business men, journalists, writers, store girls, clerks, clubmen, +railway men—all of them had an air of passionate aliveness, an +intellectual avidity that made contact with them an affair of +delightful excitement. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap24"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXIV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +NEW YORK +</H4> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H4> + +<P> +There was no qualification or reservation in New York's welcome to the +Prince of Wales. +</P> + +<P> +In the last year or so I have seen some great crowds, and by that I +mean not merely vast aggregations of people, but vast gatherings of +people whose ardour carried away the emotions with a tremendous psychic +force. During that year I had seen the London crowd that welcomed back +the British military leader; the London and Manchester crowds, and +vivid and stirring crowds they were, that dogged the footsteps of +President Wilson; I had seen the marvellous and poignant crowd at the +London Victory March, and I had had a course of crowds, vigorous, +affectionate and lively, in Montreal, Toronto and throughout Canada. +</P> + +<P> +I had been toughened to crowds, yet the New York crowd that welcomed +the Prince was a fresh experience. It was a crowd that, in spite of +writing continuously about crowds for four months, gave me a direct +impulse to write yet again about a crowd, that gave me the feeling that +here was something fresh, sparkling, human, warm, ardent and +provocative. It was a crowd with a flutter of laughter in it, a crowd +that had a personality, an <I>insouciance</I>, an independence in its +friendliness. It was a crowd that I shall always put beside other +mental pictures of big crowds, in that gallery of clear vignettes of +things impressive that make the memory. +</P> + +<P> +There was a big crowd about the Battery long before the Prince was due +to arrive across the river from the Jersey City side. It was a +good-humoured crowd that helped the capable New York policemen to keep +itself well in hand. It was not only thick about the open grass space +of the Battery, but it was clustering on the skeleton structure of the +Elevated Railway, and mounting to the sky, floor by floor, on the +skyscrapers. +</P> + +<P> +High up on the twenty-second floor of neighbouring buildings we could +see a crowd of dolls and windows, and the dolls were waving shreds of +cotton. The dolls were women and the cotton shred was "Old Glory." +High up on the tremendous cornice of one building a tiny man stood with +all the calm gravity of a statue. He was unconcerned by the height, he +was only concerned in obtaining an eagle's eye view. +</P> + +<P> +About the landing-stage itself, the landing-stage where the new +Americans and the notabilities land, there was a wide space, kept clear +by the police. Admirable police these, who can handle crowds with any +police, who held us up with a wall of adamant until we showed our +letters from the New York Reception Committee (our only, and certainly +not the official, passes), and then not only let us through without +fuss but helped us in every possible way to go everywhere and see +everything. +</P> + +<P> +In this wide space were gathered the cars for the procession, and the +notabilities who were to meet the Prince, and the camera men who were +to snap him. Into it presently marched United States Marines and +Seamen. A hefty lot of men, who moved casually, and with a slight +sense of slouch as though they wished to convey "We're whales for +fighting, but no damned militarists." +</P> + +<P> +Since the Prince was not entering New York by steamer—the most +thrilling way—but by means of a railway journey from Sulphur Springs, +New York had taken steps to correct this mode of entry. He was not to +miss the first impact of the city. He would make a water entry, if +only an abbreviated one, and so experience one of the Seven (if there +are not more, or less) Sensations of the World, a sight of the profile +of Manhattan Island. +</P> + +<P> +The profile of Manhattan (blessed name that O. Henry has rolled so +often on the palate) is lyric. It is a <I>sierra</I> of skyscrapers. It is +a flight of perfect rockets, the fire of which has frozen into solidity +in mid-soaring. It is a range of tall, narrow, poignant buildings that +makes the mind think of giants, or fairies, or, anyhow, of creatures +not quite of this world. It is one of the few things the imagination +cannot visualize adequately, and so gets from it a satisfaction and not +a disappointment. +</P> + +<P> +This sight the Prince saw as he crossed in a launch from the New Jersey +side, and "the beauty and dignity of the towering skyline," his own +words, so impressed him that he was forced to speak of it time and time +again during his visit to the city. And on top of that impression came +the second and even greater one, for, and again I use his own words, +"men and women appeal to me even more than sights." This second +impression was "the most warm and friendly welcome that followed me all +through the drive in the city." +</P> + +<P> +When the Prince landed he seemed to me a little anxious; he was at the +threshold of a great and important city, and his welcome was yet a +matter of speculation. In less than fifteen minutes he was smiling as +he had smiled all through Canada, and, as in Canada, he was standing in +his car, formality forgotten, waving back to the crowd with a +friendliness that matched the friendliness with which he was received. +</P> + +<P> +He faced the city of Splendid Heights with glances of wonder at the +line of cornices that crowned the narrow canyon of Broadway, and rose +up crescendo in a vista closed by the campanile of the Woolworth +Building, raised like a pencil against the sky, fifty-five storeys +high. On the beaches beneath these great crags, on the sidewalks, and +pinned between the sturdy policemen—who do not turn backs to the crowd +but face it alertly—and the sheer walls was a lively and vast throng. +And rising up by storeys was a lively and vast throng, hanging out of +windows and clinging to ledges, perilous but happy in their +skyscraper-eye view. +</P> + +<P> +And from these high-up windows there began at once a characteristic +"Down Town" expression of friendliness. Ticker-tape began to shoot +downward in long uncoiling snakes to catch in flagpoles and +window-ledges in strange festoons. Strips of paper began to descend in +artificial snow, and confetti, and basket-loads of torn letter paper. +All manner of bits of paper fluttered and swirled in the air, making a +grey nebula in the distance; glittering like spangles of gold against +the severe white cliffs of the skyscrapers when the sun caught them. +</P> + +<P> +On the narrow roadway the long line of automobiles was littered and +strung with paper, and the Prince had a mantle of it, and was still +cheery. He could not help himself. The reception he was getting would +have swept away a man of stone, and he has never even begun to be a man +of stone. The pace was slow, because of the marching Marine escort, +and people and Prince had full opportunity for sizing up each other. +And both people and Prince were satisfied. +</P> + +<P> +Escorted by the motor-cyclist police, splendid fellows who chew gum and +do their duty with an astonishing certainty and nimbleness, the Prince +came to the City Hall Square, where the modern Brontosaurs of commerce +lift mightily above the low and graceful City Hall, which has the look +of a <I>petite</I> mother perpetually astonished at the size of the brood +she has reared. +</P> + +<P> +Inside the hall the Prince became a New Yorker, and received a civic +welcome. He expressed his real pride at now being a Freeman of the two +greatest cities in the world, New York and London, two cities that +were, moreover, so much akin, and upon which depends to an +extraordinary degree the financial health and the material as well as +spiritual welfare of all continents. As for his welcome, he had learnt +to appreciate the quality of American friendship from contact with +members of the splendid fighting forces that had come overseas, but +even that, he indicated, had not prepared him for the wonder of the +greeting he had received. +</P> + +<P> +Outside the City Hall the vast throng had waited patiently, and they +seemed to let their suppressed energy go as the Prince came out of the +City Hall to face the massed batteries of photographers, who would only +allow snapshots to be his "pass" to his automobile. +</P> + +<P> +The throngs in financial "Down Town" gave way to the massed ranks of +workers from the big wholesale and retail houses that occupy middle New +York as the Prince passed up Broadway, the street that is not as broad +as other streets, and the only one that wanders at its own fancy in a +kingdom of parallels and right-angles. At the corner where stands +Wanamaker's great store the crowd was thickest. Here was stationed a +band in a quaint old-time uniform of red tunics, bell trousers and +shakos, while facing them across the street was a squad of girls in +pretty blue and white military uniforms and hats. +</P> + +<P> +Soon the line of cars swung into speed and gained Fifth Avenue, passing +the Flatiron building, which is now not a wonder. Such soaring +structures as the Metropolitan Tower, close by in Madison Square, have +taken the shine out of it, and in the general atmosphere of giants one +does not notice its freakishness unless one is looking for it. +</P> + +<P> +Fifth Avenue is superb; it is the route of pageants by right of air and +quality. It is Oxford Street, London, made broad and straight and +clean. It has fine buildings along its magnificent reach, and some +noble ones. It has dignity and vivacity, it has space and it has an +air. In the graceful open space about Madison Square there stood the +massive Arch of Victory, under which America's soldiers had swung when +they returned from the front. It was a temporary arch constructed with +realism and ingenuity; the Prince passed under it on his way up the +avenue. +</P> + +<P> +He went at racing pace up to and into Central Park, that convincing +affectation of untrammelled Nature (convincing because it is +untrammelled), that beautiful residences of town dwellers look into. +He swung to the left by the gracious pile of the Cathedral of St. John +the Divine, and out on to Riverside Park, that hangs its gardens over +the deep waters of the Hudson River. Standing isolated and with a fine +serenity above green and water is General Grant's tomb, and at the +wideflung white plaza of this the Prince dismounted, going on foot to +the tomb, and in the tomb, going alone to deposit a wreath on the great +soldier's grave. +</P> + +<P> +Riverside Park had its flowering of bright people, and its multitude of +motors to swarm after the Prince as he passed along the Drive, paused +to review a company of English-Americans who had served in the war, and +then continued on his way to the Yacht Club jetty, where he was to take +boat to the <I>Renown</I>. Lying in deep water high up in the town was this +one of the greatest of the modern warships, her greatness considerably +diminished by the buildings lifting above her. To her the Prince went +after nearly three months' absence, and on her he lived during his stay +in New York. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H4> + +<P> +When I say that the Prince lived on board the <I>Renown</I>, I mean that he +lived on her in his moments to spare. In New York the visitor is lucky +who has a few moments to spare. New York's hospitality is electric. +It rushes the guest off his feet. Even if New York is not definitely +engaged to entertain you at specific minutes, it comes round to know if +you have everything you want, whether it can do anything for you. +</P> + +<P> +New York was calling on the Prince almost as soon as he went aboard. +There was a lightning lunch to Mr. Wanamaker, the President of the +Reception Committee, and other members of that body, and then the first +of the callers began to chug off from the landing-stage towards the +<I>Renown</I>. Deputations from all the foreign races that make New York +came over the side, distinguished Americans called. And, before +anybody else, the American journalist was there. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince was no stranger to the American journalist. They were old +friends of his. Some of them had been with him in the Maritime +Provinces of Canada, and he had made friends with them at Quebec. He +remembered these writers and that friendship was renewed in a pleasant +chat. The journalists liked him, too, though they admit that he has a +charming way of disarming them. They rather admired the adroit +diplomacy with which he derailed such leading questions as those +dealing with the delicate and infinite subject of American girls: +whether he liked them: and how much? +</P> + +<P> +He met these correspondents quite frankly, appreciating at once the +fact that it was through them that he could express to the people of +America his intense feeling of thanks for the singular warmth of +America's greeting. +</P> + +<P> +From seeing all these visitors the Prince had only time left to get +into evening dress and to be whirled off in time to attend a glittering +dinner given at the Waldorf-Astoria by Mrs. Henry Pomeroy Davidson on +behalf of the Council of the American Red Cross. It was a vivid and +beautiful function, but it was one that bridged the time before +another, and before ten o'clock the Prince was on the move again, and, +amid the dance of the motor-bike "cops," was being rushed off to the +Metropolitan Opera House. +</P> + +<P> +He was swung down Broadway where the advertisements made a fantasy of +the sky, a fantasy of rococo beauty where colours on the huge pallets +of skyscrapers danced and ran, fused and faded, grouped and regrouped, +each a huge and coherent kaleidoscope. +</P> + +<P> +Here a gigantic kitten of lights turned a complete somersault in the +heavens as it played with a ball of wool. There six sky-high manikins +with matchstick limbs, went through an incandescent perpetual and +silent dance. In the distance was a gigantic bull advertising +tobacco—all down this heavenly vista there were these immense signs, +lapping and over-lapping in dazzling chaos. And seen from one angle, +high up, unsupported, floating in the very air and eerily +unsubstantial, was a temple lit by bale-fires that shone wanly at its +base. It was merely a building superimposed upon a skyscraper, but in +the dark there was no skyscraper, and the amazing structure hung there +lambent, silent, enigmatic, a Wagnerian temple in the sky. +</P> + +<P> +Broadway, which sprouts theatres as a natural garden sprouts flowers, +was jewelled with lights, lights that in the clear air of this +continent shone with a lucidity that we in England do not know. Before +the least lighted of these buildings the Prince stopped. He had +arrived at the austere temple of the high arts, the Metropolitan Opera +House. +</P> + +<P> +Inside Caruso and a brilliant audience waited impatiently for his +presence. The big and rather sombre house was quick with colour and +with beauty. The celebrated "Diamond Horseshoe," the tiers of the +galleries, and the floor of the house were vivid with dresses, +shimmering and glinting with all the evasive shades of the spectrum, +with here a flash of splendid jewels, there the slow and sumptuous +flutter of a great ostrich fan. +</P> + +<P> +Part of the program had been played, but <I>Pagliacci</I> and Caruso were +held up while the vivid and ardent people craned out of their little +crimson boxes in the Horseshoes and turned and looked up from the +bright mosaic of the floor at the empty box which was to be the +Prince's. +</P> + +<P> +There was a long roll of drums, and with a single movement the +orchestra marched into the melody of "God bless the Prince of Wales," +and the Prince, looking extraordinarily embarrassed, came to the front +of the box. +</P> + +<P> +At once there was no melody of "God bless the Prince of Wales" +perceptible; a wave of cheering and hand-clapping swept it away. The +whole of the people on the floor of the house turned to look upward and +to cheer. The people under the tiers crowded forward into the gangways +until the gangways were choked, and the floor was a solid mass of +humanity. Bright women and men correctly garbed imperilled their necks +in the galleries above in order to look down. It was an unforgettable +moment, and for the Prince a disconcerting one. +</P> + +<P> +He stood blushing and looking down, wondering how on earth he was to +endure this stark publicity. He was there poised bleakly for all to +see, an unenviable position. And there was no escape. He must stand +there, because it was his job, and recover from the nervousness that +had come from finding himself so abruptly thrust on to this veritable +pillar of Stylites in the midst of an interested and curious throng. +</P> + +<P> +The interest and the curiosity was intensely friendly. His personality +suffered not at all from the fact that he had lost his calm at a moment +when only the case-hardened could have remained unmoved. His +embarrassment, indeed, made the audience more friendly, and it was with +a sort of intimacy that they tittered at his familiar tricks of +nervousness, his fumbling at his tie, tugging of his coat lapels, the +passing of the hand over his hair, even the anxious use of his +handkerchief. +</P> + +<P> +And this friendly and soft laughter became really appreciative when +they saw him tackle the chairs. There were two imposing and pompous +gilt chairs at the front of the box, filling it, elbowing all minor, +human chairs out of the way. The Prince turned and looked at them, and +turned them out. He would have none of them. He was not there to be a +superior person at all; he was there to be human and enjoy human +companionship. He had the front of the box filled with chairs, and he +had friends in to sit with him and talk with him when intervals in the +music permitted. And the audience was his friend for that; they +admired him for the way he turned his back on formalities and +ceremonials. General Pershing, who gratifies one's romantic sense by +being extraordinarily like one's imaginative pictures of a great +General, came to sit with him, and there was another outburst of +cheering. I think that the <I>petits morceaux</I> from the operas were but +side-shows. Although Rosina Galli ravished the house with her dancing +(how she must love dancing), opera glasses were swivelled more toward +the Royal box than to the stage, and the audience made a close and +curious study of every movement and every inflection of the Prince. +</P> + +<P> +The cheering broke out again, from people who crowded afresh into the +gangways, when the Prince left, and in a mighty wave of friendliness +the official program of the first day closed. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H4> + +<P> +There was an unofficial ending to the day. The Prince, with several of +his suite, walked in New York, viewed this exhilarating city of lights +and vistas by night, got his own private and unformal view of the +wonders of skyscraping townscape, the quick, nervous shuttle of the +sidewalks, the rattle of the "Elevated," the sight, for the first time +in a long journey, of motor-buses. And without doubt he tasted the +wonder of a city of automobiles still clinging to the hansom cab. +</P> + +<P> +About this outing there have been woven stories of a glamour which +might have come from the fancy of O. Henry and the author of the +"Arabian Nights" working in collaboration. The Prince is said to have +plunged into the bizarre landscape of the Bowery, which is Whitechapel +better lighted, and better dressed with up-to-date cafes, where there +are dance halls in which with the fathomless seriousness of the modern, +jazz is danced to violins and banjoes and the wailing ukelele. +</P> + +<P> +They tell me that Ichabod has been written across the romantic glory of +the Bowery, and that for colour and the spice of life one has to go +further west (which is Manhattan's East End) to Greenwich Village, +where life strikes Chelsea attitudes, and where one descends +subterraneanly, or climbs over the roofs of houses to Matisse-like +restaurants where one eats rococo meals in an atmosphere of cigarette +smoke, rice-white faces, scarlet lips, and bobbed hair. But there are +yet places in the Bowery to which one taxis with a thrill of hope, +where the forbidden cocktail is served in a coffee cup, where wine +bottles are put on to the table with brown paper wrapped round them to +preserve the fiction that they came from one's own private (and legal) +store, where in bare, studiously Bowery chambers the hunter of a new +<I>frisson</I> sits and dines and hopes for the worst. +</P> + +<P> +The Bowery is dingy and bright; it has hawkers' barrows and chaotic +shop windows. It has the curiosity-stimulating, cosmopolite air of all +dockside areas, but to the Englishman accustomed to the picturesque +bedragglement of East End costumes, it is almost dismayingly +well-dressed. Its young men have the leanness of outline that comes +from an authentic American tailor. Its Jewesses have the neat +crispness of American fashion that gives their vivid beauty a new and +sparkling note. It was astonishing the number of beautiful young women +one saw on the Bowery, but not astonishing when one recalls the number +of beautiful young women one saw in New York. Fifth Avenue at shopping +time, for example, ceases to be a street: it becomes a pageant of youth +and grace. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince, of course, may have gone into the Bowery, and walked +therein with the air of a modern Caliph, but I myself have not heard of +it. I was told that he went for a walk to the house of a friend, and +that after paying a very pleasant and ordinary visit he returned to the +<I>Renown</I> to get what sleep he could before the adventure of another New +York day. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +IV +</H4> + +<P> +The morning of Wednesday, November 19th, was devoted by the Prince to +high finance; he went down to Wall Street and to visit the other +temples of the gold god. +</P> + +<P> +When one has become acclimated to the soaring upward rush of the +skyscrapers (and one quite soon loses consciousness of them, for where +all buildings are huge each building becomes commonplace), when one +stops looking upward, "Down Town" New York is strangely like the "City" +area of London. Walking Broadway one might easily imagine oneself in +the neighbourhood of the Bank of England; Wall Street might easily be a +turning out of Bishopsgate or Cannon Street. Broad Street, New York, +is not so very far removed in appearance from Broad Street, London. +</P> + +<P> +There is the same preoccupied congestion of the same work-mazed people: +clerks, typists (stenographers), book-keepers, messengers and masters, +though, perhaps, the people of the New York business quarter do not +wear the air of sadness those of London wear. +</P> + +<P> +And there is the same massive solidity of business buildings, great +blocks that house thirty thousand souls in the working day, and these +buildings have the same air as their London brothers; that is, they +seem to be monuments to financial integrity (just as mahogany +furniture, with a certain type, is an indication of "standing and +weight") rather than offices. And if New York buildings are, on the +whole, more distinguished, are characterized by a better art, they are, +on the other hand, not relieved by the humanity of the shops that gives +an air of brightness to the London commercial area. In New York "Down +Town" the shops are mainly inside the buildings, and it is in the +corridors of the big blocks that the clerk buys his magazines, papers, +"candies," sandwiches and cigars. +</P> + +<P> +The interiors of the buildings are ornate, they are sleek with marble, +and quite often beautiful with it. They are well arranged; the +skyscraper habit makes for short corridors, and you can always find +your man easily (as in the hotels) by the number of his room: thus, if +his number is 1201 he is on the twelfth floor, 802 is on the eighth, +and 2203 is on the twenty-second; each floor is a ten. +</P> + +<P> +Up to the floors one ascends by means of one of a fleet of elevators, +some being locals and some being expresses to a certain floor and local +beyond. Whether the fleet is made up of two or ten lifts, there is +always a man to control them, a station-master of lifts who gives the +word to the liftboys. To the Englishman he is a new phenomenon. He +seems a trifle unnecessary [but he may be put there by law]; he is soon +seen to be one of a multitude of men in America who "stand over" other +men while they do the job. +</P> + +<P> +The unexpected thing in buildings so fine as this, occupied by men who +are addicted to business, is that the offices have rather a makeshift +air. The offices I saw in America do not compare in comfort with the +offices I know in England. There is a bleakness, an aridity about them +that makes English business rooms seem luxurious in comparison. I +talked of this phenomenon with a friend, instancing one great office, +to be met with surprise and told: "Why! But that office is held up as +an example of what offices should be like. We are agitating to get +ours as good as that." After this I did not talk about offices. +</P> + +<P> +The "Down Town" restaurants bring one vividly back to London. They are +underground, and there is the same thick volume of masculinity and +masculine talk in them. They are a trifle more ornate, and the food is +better cooked and of infinitely greater variety (they would not be +American otherwise), but over all the air is the same. +</P> + +<P> +Into the familiar business atmosphere of this quarter the Prince came +early. He drove between crowds and there were big crowds at the points +where he stopped—at the Woolworth building and at Trinity Church, that +stands huddled and dwarfed beneath the basilicas of business. The +intense interest of his visit began when he arrived at the Stock +Exchange. +</P> + +<P> +The business on the floor was in full swing when he came out on to the +marble gallery of the vast, square marble hall of the Exchange, and the +busy swarm of money-gathering men beneath his eyes immediately stopped +to cheer him. To look down, as he did, was to look down upon the floor +of some great bazaar. The floor is set with ranks of kiosks spaced +apart, about which men congregate only to divide and go all ways; these +kiosks might easily be booths. The floor itself is in constant +movement; it is a disturbed ant-heap with its denizens speeding about +always in unconjectural movements. Groups gather, thrust hands and +fingers upward, shout and counter-shout, as though bent on working up a +fracas; then when they seem to have succeeded they make notes in small +books and walk quietly away. Messengers, who must work by instinct, +weave in and out of the stirring of ants perpetually. In a line of +cubicles along one side of the Exchange, crowds of men seemed to be +fighting each other for a chance at the telephone. +</P> + +<P> +Two of the tremendous walls of this hall are on the street, and superb +windows allow in the light. On the two remaining walls are gigantic +blackboards. Incessantly, small flaps are falling on these blackboards +revealing numbers. They are the numbers of members who have been +"called" over the 'phone or in some other way. The blackboards are in +a constant flutter, the tiny flaps are always falling or shutting, as +numbers appear and disappear, and the boards are starred with numbers +waiting patiently for the eye of the member on the floor to look up and +be aware of them. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince stood on the high gallery under the high windows, and +watched with vivid curiosity the bustling scene below. He asked a +number of eager questions, and the strange silent dance of numbers on +the big blackboards intrigued him greatly. Underneath him the members +gathered in a great crowd, calling up to him to come down on the floor. +There was a jolly eagerness in their demands, and the Prince, as he +went, seemed to hesitate as though he were quite game for the +adventure. But he disappeared, and though the Bears and the Bulls +waited a little while for him, he did not reappear. Those who knew +that a full twelve-hour program could only be accomplished by following +the timetable with rigid devotion had had their way. +</P> + +<P> +From the Stock Exchange the Prince went to the Sub-Treasury, and +watched, fascinated, the miracle work of the money counters. The +intricacies of currency were explained to him, and he was shown the men +who went through mounds of coin, with lightning gestures separating the +good from the bad with their instinctive finger-tips and with the +accuracy of one of Mr. Ford's uncanny machines. He was told that the +touch of these men was so exquisite that they could detect a "dud" coin +instantly, and, to test them, such a coin was produced and marked, and +well hidden in a pile of similar coins. The fingers of the teller went +through the pile like a flash, and as he flicked the good coins towards +him, and without ceasing his work, a coin span out from the mass +towards the Prince. It was the coin he had marked. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +V +</H4> + +<P> +Passing among these business people and driving amid the quick crowds, +the Prince had been consolidating the sense of intimate friendship that +had sprung up on the previous day. A wise American pressman had said +to me on Tuesday: +</P> + +<P> +"New York people like what they've read about the Prince. They'll come +out today to see if what they have read is true. Tomorrow they'll come +out because they love him. And each day the crowds will get better." +</P> + +<P> +This proved true. The warmth of New York's friendliness increased as +the days went on. The scene at the lunch given by the New York Chamber +of Commerce proved how strong this regard had grown. The scene was +remarkable because of the character and the quality of the men present. +It was no admiration society. It was no gathering of sentimentalists. +The men who attended that lunch were men not only of international +reputation, but of international force, men of cautious fibre +accustomed to big encounters, not easily moved to emotion. And they +fell under the charm of the Prince. +</P> + +<P> +One of them expressed his feelings concerning the scene to me. +</P> + +<P> +"He had it over us all the time," he said, laughing. "There we were, +several hundreds of grey-headed, hardened old stiffs, most of us over +twice his age, and we stood up and yelled like college freshmen when he +had finished speaking to us. +</P> + +<P> +"What did he say to us? Nothing very remarkable. He told us how +useful we old ones in the money market had been as a backbone to the +boys in the firing line. He told us that he felt that the war had +revealed clearly the closeness of the relationship between the two +Anglo-Saxon nations, how their welfare was interlocked and how the +prosperity of each was essential to the prosperity of the other, and he +agreed with the President of the Chamber's statement that British and +American good faith and good will would go far to preserve the +stability of the world. There's nothing very wonderful to that. It's +true enough, but not altogether unknown.... It was his manner that +caught hold of us. The way he speaks, you see. His nervousness, and +his grit in conquering his nervousness. His modesty; his twinkle of +humour, all of him. He's one fine lad. I tell you we've had some big +men in the Chamber in the last two years, but it's gilt-edged truth +that none of the big ones had the showing that lad got today." +</P> + +<P> +From the Chamber of Commerce the Prince went to the Academy of Music +where there was a picture and variety show staged for him, and which he +enjoyed enormously. The thrill of this item of the program was rather +in the crowd than in the show. It was an immense crowd, and for once +it vanquished the efficient police and swarmed about His Royal Highness +as he entered the building. While he was inside it added to its +strength rather than diminished, and in the face of this crisis one of +those men whose brains rise to emergencies had the bright idea of +getting the Prince out by the side door. The crowd had also had that +bright idea and the throng about the side door was, if anything, more +dense than at the front. Through this laughing and cheering mass +squads of good-humoured police butted a thread of passage for the happy +Prince. +</P> + +<P> +The throng inside Madison Square Garden about the arena of the Horse +Show was more decorous, as became its status, but it did not let that +stifle its feelings. The Prince passed through from a cheering crowd +outside to the bright, sharp clapping of those inside. He passed round +the arena between ranks of Salvation Army lassies, who held, instead of +barrier ropes, broad scarlet ribbons. +</P> + +<P> +There was a laugh as he touched his hair upon gaining the stark +publicity of his box, and the laugh changed to something of a cheer +when he caught sight of the chairs of pomp, two of them in frigid +isolation, elbowing out smaller human fry. All knew from his very +attitude what was going to happen to those chairs. And it happened. +The chairs vanished. Small chairs and more of them took their place, +and the Prince sat with genial people about him. +</P> + +<P> +The arena was a field of brightness. It was delightfully decorated +with green upon lattice work. Over the competitors' entrance were +canvas replicas of Tudor houses. In the ring the Prince saw many +beautiful horses, fine hunters, natty little ponies pulling nattier +carriages, trotters of mechanical perfection, and big lithe jumpers. +In the middle of the jumping competition he left his box and went into +the ring, and spent some time there chatting with judges and +competitors, and watching the horses take the hurdles and gates from +close quarters. +</P> + +<P> +Leaving the building there happened one of those vivid little incidents +which speak more eloquently than any effort of oratory could of the +kinship of the two races in their war effort. A group of men in +uniform who had been waiting by the exit sprang to attention as he came +up. They were all Americans. They were all in British uniform—most +of them in British Flying Corps uniform. As the Prince came up, they +clicked round in a smart "Left turn," and marched before him out of the +building. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince from thence on vanished for the day into a round of +semi-social functions, but he did not escape the crowds. +</P> + +<P> +Walking up Fifth Avenue with friends shortly before dinner-time, we +came upon a bunched jumble of people outside the "Waldorf-Astoria." It +was a crowd that a man in a hurry could not argue with. It filled the +broad street, and it did not care if it impeded traffic. We were not +in a hurry, so we stood and looked. I asked my friends what was +happening here, and one of them chuckled and answered: +</P> + +<P> +"They've got him again." +</P> + +<P> +"Him? Who—you can't mean the Prince? He's on <I>Renown</I> now, resting, +or getting ready for a dinner. There's nothing down for him." +</P> + +<P> +My friend simply chuckled again. +</P> + +<P> +"Who else would it be?" he said. "How they do gather round waiting for +that smile of his. Flies round a honey-pot. Ah, I thought so." +</P> + +<P> +The Prince made a dash of an exit from the hotel. He jumped into the +car, and at once there was a forest of hands and handkerchiefs and +flags waving, and his own hand and hat seemed to go up and wave as part +of one and the same movement. It was a spontaneous "Hallo, People! +Hallo, Prince!" A jolly affair. The motor started, pushed through the +crowd. There was a sharp picture of the Prince half standing, half +kneeling, looking back and laughing and waving to the crowd. Then he +was gone. +</P> + +<P> +The men and women of the throng turned away smiling, as though +something good had happened. +</P> + +<P> +"They've seen him. They can go home now," said my friend. "My, ain't +they glad about themselves.... And isn't he the one fine scout?" +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +VI +</H4> + +<P> +When the Prince made his appearance on Thursday, November 20th, in the +uniform of a Welsh Guardsman he came in for a startling ovation. Not +only were many people gathered about the Yacht Club landing-stage and +along the route of his drive, but at one point a number of ladies +pelted him with flowers. Startled though the Prince was, he kept his +smile and his sense of humour. He said dryly that he had never known +what it was to feel like a bride before, and he returned this volley +with his friendly salute. +</P> + +<P> +He was then setting out to the Grand Central Station for his trip up +the Hudson to West Point, the Military Academy of the United States. +</P> + +<P> +In the superb white station, under a curved arch of ceiling as blue as +the sky, he took the full force of an affection that had been growing +steadily through the visit. The immense floor of the building was +dense and tight with people, and the Prince, as he came to the balcony +that made the stair-head was literally halted by the great gust of +cheering that beat up to him, and was forced to stand at the salute for +a full minute. +</P> + +<P> +The journey to West Point skirted the Hudson, where lovely view after +lovely view of the piled-up and rocky further shore tinted in the +russet and gold of the dying foliage came and went. There was a rime +of ice already in the lagoons, and the little falls that usually +tumbled down the rocks were masses of glittering icicles. +</P> + +<P> +The castellated walls of West Point overhang the river above a sharp +cliff; the buildings have a dramatic grouping that adds to the extreme +beauty of the surroundings. Toward this castle on the cliff the Prince +went by a little steam ferry, was taken in escort by a smart body of +American cavalrymen, and in their midst went by automobile up the road +to the grey towers of West Point. +</P> + +<P> +Immediately on his arrival at the saluting point on the great campus +the horizon-blue cadets, who will one day be the leaders of the +American army, began to march. +</P> + +<P> +Paraded by the buildings, they fell into columns of companies with +mechanical precision. With precise discipline they moved out on to the +field, the companies as solid as rocks but for the metronomic beat of +legs and arms. +</P> + +<P> +They were tall, smart youths, archaic and modern in one. With long +blue coats, wide trousers, shakos, broad white belts, as neat as +painted lines, over breast and back, and, holding back the flaps of +capes, they looked figures from the fifties. But the swing of the +marching companies, the piston-like certainty of their action, the cold +and splendid detachment of their marching gave them all the <I>flare</I> +[Transcriber's note: flair?] of a <I>corps d'élite</I>. +</P> + +<P> +Forming companies almost with a click on the wide green, they saluted +and stood at attention while the Prince and his party inspected the +lines. Then, the Prince at the saluting point again, the three +companies in admirable order marched past. There was not a flaw in the +rigid ranks as they swept along, their eyes right, the red-sashed "four +year men" holding slender swords at the salute. +</P> + +<P> +The Prince lunched with the officers, and after lunch the cadets +swarmed into the room to hear him speak, having first warmed up the +atmosphere with a rousing and prolonged college yell. Having spoken in +praise of their discipline and bearing, the Prince was made the subject +of another yell, and more, was saluted with the college whistle, a +thing unique and distinctive, that put the seal upon his visit. +</P> + +<P> +That night the Prince played host upon <I>Renown</I>, giving a brilliant +dinner to his friends in New York. This was the only other ceremony of +the day. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +VII +</H4> + +<P> +Friday, November 21st, the Prince's last day in New York, was an +extraordinarily full one, and that full not merely in program, but in +emotion. In that amazing day it seemed to me that the people of this +splendid city sought to express with superb eloquence the regard they +felt for him, seemed to make a point of trying to make his last day +memorable. +</P> + +<P> +The morning was devoted to a semi-private journey to Oyster Bay, in +order that the Prince might place a wreath on the tomb of President +Roosevelt. The Prince had several times expressed his admiration for +the great and forceful American who represented so much of what was +individual in the national character, and his visit to the burial-place +was a tribute of real feeling. +</P> + +<P> +After lunch at the Piping Rock Club he returned to <I>Renown</I>, where he +had planned to hold a reception after his own heart to a thousand of +New York's children. +</P> + +<P> +On <I>Renown</I> a score of "gadgets" had been prepared for the fun of the +children. The capstans had been turned into roundabouts, a switchback +and a chute had been fixed up, the deck of the great steel monster had +been transformed into fairyland, while a "scrumptious" tea in a pretty +tea lounge had been prepared all out of Navy magic. +</P> + +<P> +The tugs that were to bring off the guests, however, brought few that +could come under the heading of "kiddies." Those that were not quite +grown up, were in the young man and young woman stage. Fairyland had +to be abandoned. Roundabout and switchback and chute were abandoned, +and only that "scrumptious" tea remained in the program. It was a +pleasant afternoon, but not a "kiddies'" afternoon. +</P> + +<P> +The evening was quick with crowds. +</P> + +<P> +It began in a drive through crowds to the Pilgrims' Dinner at the Plaza +Hotel, and that, in itself, was a crowd. The Plaza is none of your +bijou caravanserais. It is vast and vivid and bright, as a New York +hotel can be, and that is saying a good deal. But it was not vast +enough. One great marble room could not contain all the guests, +another and another was taken in, so that the banquet was actually +spread over three or four large chambers opening out of the main +chamber. Here the leading figures of America and the leading Britons +then in New York met together in a sort of breezy informality, and they +gave the Prince a most tremendous welcome. +</P> + +<P> +And when he began to speak—after the nimble scintillations of Mr. +Chauncey Depew—they gave him another. And they rose up in a body, and +moved inward from the distant rooms to be within earshot—a sight for +the Messenger in <I>Macbeth</I>, for he would have seen a moving grove of +golden chair legs, held on high, as the diners marched with their +seating accommodation held above their heads. +</P> + +<P> +Crowds again under the vivid lights of the streets, as the Prince drove +to the mighty crowd waiting for him in the Hippodrome. The Hippodrome +is one of the largest, if it is not the largest, music-hall in the +world. It has an enormous sweep of floor, and an enormous sweep of +galleries. The huge space of it takes the breath away. It was packed. +</P> + +<P> +As the Prince entered his box, floor and galleries rose up with a +sudden and tremendous surge, and sent a mighty shout to him. The +National Anthems of England and America were obliterated in the gust of +affectionate noise. Minutes elapsed before that great audience +remembered that it was at the play, and that the Prince had come to see +the play. It sat down reluctantly, saving itself for his departure, +watching him as he entered into enjoyment of the brave and grandiose +spectacular show on the stage. +</P> + +<P> +And when he rose to go the audience loosed itself again. It held him +there with the power of its cheering. It would not let him stir from +the building until it had had a word from him. It was dominant, it had +its way. In answer to the splendid outburst the Prince could do +nothing but come to the edge of his box and speak. +</P> + +<P> +In a clear voice that was heard all over the building he thanked them +for the wonderful reception he had received that night, and in New York +during the week. "I thank you," he said, "and I bid you all good +night." +</P> + +<P> +Then he went out into the cheering streets. +</P> + +<P> +It was an astonishing display in the street. The throng was so dense, +the shouting so great that the sound of it drove into the silent houses +of other theatres. And the audiences in those other theatres caught +the thrill of it. They "cut" their plays, came pouring out into the +street to join the throng and the cheering; it was through this +carnival of affection that the Prince drove along the streets to a +reception, and a brilliant one, given by Mr. Wanamaker, whose ability +as Chairman of the Reception Committee had largely helped to make the +Prince's visit to New York so startling a success. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +VIII +</H4> + +<P> +On that note of splendid friendliness the Prince's too short stay in +America ended. On Saturday, November 22nd, he held a reception on +<I>Renown</I>, saying good-bye to endless lines of friendly people of all +classes and races who thronged the great war vessel. +</P> + +<P> +All these people crowded about the Prince and seemed loth to part with +him, and he seemed just as unwilling to break off an intimacy only just +begun. Only inexorable time and the Admiralty ended the scene, and the +great ship with its escort of small, lean war-craft moved seaward along +the cheering shore. +</P> + +<P> +Crowds massed on the grass slope under Riverside Drive, and on the +esplanade itself. The skyscrapers were cheering grandstands, as the +ships steamed along the impressive length of Manhattan. They passed +the Battery, where he had landed, and the Narrows, where the escorting +boats left him. Then <I>Renown</I> headed for Halifax, where his tour ended. +</P> + +<P> +Certainly America and the Prince made the best of impressions on each +other. There is much in his quick and modern personality that finds +immediate satisfaction in the American spirit; much in himself that the +American responds to at once. When he declared, as he did time and +time again, that he had had a wonderful time, he meant it with +sincerity. And of his eagerness to return one day there can be no +doubt. +</P> + +<P> +Of all the happy moments on this long and happy tour, this visit to +America, brief as it was, was one of the happiest. It was a brilliant +finale to the brilliant Canadian days. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="finis"> +THE END +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Westward with the Prince of Wales, by +W. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</BODY> + +</HTML> + diff --git a/30082-h/images/img-front.jpg b/30082-h/images/img-front.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b72ca2f --- /dev/null +++ b/30082-h/images/img-front.jpg diff --git a/30082.txt b/30082.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..42674e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/30082.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9358 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Westward with the Prince of Wales, by W. Douglas Newton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Westward with the Prince of Wales + +Author: W. Douglas Newton + +Release Date: September 25, 2009 [EBook #30082] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WESTWARD WITH THE PRINCE OF WALES *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +[Transcriber's note: This book is an account by a British journalist of +the cross-Canada tour, by train, in 1919, of Edward VIII, British +Prince of Wales. In 1936, Edward abdicated from the British throne to +marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee.] + + + + + +[Frontispiece: H. R. H. THE PRINCE OF WALES] + + + + + + +WESTWARD WITH + +THE PRINCE OF WALES + + + +BY + +W. DOUGLAS NEWTON + + +AUTHORIZED CORRESPONDENT IN AMERICA WITH + +H. R. H. THE PRINCE OF WALES + + +AUTHOR OF "GREEN LADIES," "THE WAR CACHE," ETC. + + + + + +D. APPLETON AND COMPANY + +NEW YORK LONDON + +1920 + + + + +COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY + +D. APPLETON AND COMPANY + + + + +TO + +"A. B." + +AND THE CARGO OF "CARNARVON." + + + + +PREFACE + +It was on Friday, August 1, 1919, that "the damned reporters" and the +_Times_ correspondent's hatbox went on board the light cruiser +_Dauntless_ at Devonport. + +The _Dauntless_ had just arrived from the Baltic to load up +cigarettes--at least, that was the first impression. In the Baltic the +rate of exchange had risen from roubles to packets of Players, and a +handful of cigarettes would buy things that money could not obtain. +Into the midst of a ship's company, feverishly accumulating tobacco in +the hope of cornering at least the amber market of the world, we +descended. + +Actually, I suppose, His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales had been +the first interrupter of the _Dauntless'_ schemes. Lying alongside +Devonport quay to refit--in that way were the cigarettes covered +up--word was sent that the _Dauntless_ with her sister ship, _Dragon_, +was to act as escort to the battle-cruiser _Renown_ when she carried +the Prince to Canada. + +Though he came first we could not expect to be as popular as the +Prince, and when, therefore, those on board also learnt that the honour +of acting as escort was to be considerably mitigated by a cargo from +Fleet Street, they were no doubt justified in naming us "damned." + +We did litter them up so. The _Dauntless_ is not merely one of the +latest and fastest of the light cruisers, she is also first among the +smartest. To accommodate us they had to give way to a rash of riveters +from the dock-yard who built cabins all over the graceful silhouette. +When our telegrams, and ourselves, and our baggage (including the +_Times'_ hatbox) arrived piece by piece, each was merely an addition to +the awful mess on deck our coming had meant. + +Actually we could not help ourselves. Dock strikes, ship shortage and +the holiday season had all conspired to make any attempt to get to +Canada in a legitimate way a hopeless task. Only the Admiralty's idea +to pre-date the carrying of commercial travellers on British +battleships could get us to the West at all. The Admiralty, after +modest hesitation, had agreed to send us in the _Dauntless_, and before +the cruiser sailed we all realized how fortunate we were to have been +unlucky at the outset. + +We sailed on August 2 from Devonport, three days before _Renown_ and +_Dragon_ left Portsmouth, and when one of us suggested that this was a +happy idea to get us to St. John's, Newfoundland, in order to be ready +for the Prince, he was told: + +"Not at all, we're out looking for icebergs." + +We were to act as the pilot ship over the course. + +We found icebergs, many of them; even, we nearly rammed an iceberg in +the middle of a foggy night, but we found other things, too. + +We found that we had got onto what the Navy calls a "happy ship," and +if anybody wants to taste what real good fellowship is I advise him to +go to sea on what the Navy calls "a happy ship." However much we had +disturbed them, the officers of the _Dauntless_ did not let that make +any difference in the warmth of their hospitality. We were made free +of the ward-room, and that Baltic tobacco. We were initiated into "The +Grand National," a muscular sport in which the daring exponent turns a +series of somersaults over the backs of a line of chairs; and we were +admitted into the raggings and the singing of ragtime. + +We were made splendidly at home. Not only in the ward-room that did a +jazz with a disturbing spiral movement when we speeded up from our +casual 18 knots to something like 28 in a rough sea, but from the +bridge down to the boiler room, where we watched the flames of oil fuel +making steam in the modern manner, we were drawn into the charmed +circle of comradeship and keenness that made up the essential spirit of +that fine ship's company. + +The "damned reporters," on a trip in which even the weather was +companionable, were given the damnedest of good times, and it was with +real regret that, on the evening of Friday, August 8, we saw the high, +grim rampart wall of Newfoundland lift from the Western sea to tell us +that our time on the _Dauntless_ would soon be finished. + +Actually we left the _Dauntless_ at St. John's, New Brunswick, where we +became the guests of the Canadian Government which looked after us, as +it looked after the whole party, with so great a sense of generosity +and care that we could never feel sufficiently grateful to it. + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + PREFACE + I NEWFOUNDLAND + II ST. JOHN, NEW BRUNSWICK + III ON THE TRAIN BETWEEN ST. JOHN AND HALIFAX + IV HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA + V CHARLOTTETOWN, PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND AND HABITANT, CANADA + VI QUEBEC + VII THE MOBILE HOTEL DE LUXE: THE ROYAL TRAIN + VIII THE CITY OF CROWDS: TORONTO: ONTARIO + IX OTTAWA + X MONTREAL: QUEBEC + XI ON THE ROAD TO TROUT + XII PICNICS AND PRAIRIES + XIII THE CITY OF WHEAT: WINNIPEG, MANITOBA + XIV THE FRINGE OF THE GREAT NORTH-WEST: SASKATOON AND EDMONTON + XV CALGARY AND THE CATTLE RANCH + XVI CHIEF MORNING STAR COMES TO BANFF AND THE ROCKIES + XVII THE PACIFIC CITIES: VANCOUVER AND VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA + XVIII APPLE LAND: OKANAGAN AND KOOTENAY LAKES + XIX THE PRAIRIES AGAIN + XX SILVER, GOLD AND COMMERCE + XXI NIAGARA AND THE TOWNS OF WESTERN ONTARIO + XXII MONTREAL + XXIII WASHINGTON + XXIV NEW YORK + + + + +WESTWARD WITH THE PRINCE OF WALES + + +CHAPTER I + +NEWFOUNDLAND + +I + +St. John's, Newfoundland, was the first city of the Western continent +to see the Prince of Wales. It was also the first to label him with +one of the affectionate, if inexplicable sobriquets that the West is so +fond of. + +Leaning over the side of the _Dauntless_ on the day of the Prince's +visit, a seaman smiled down, as seamen sometimes do, at a vivid little +Newfoundland Flapper in a sunset-coloured jumper bodice, New York cut +skirt, white stockings and white canvas boots. The Flapper looked up +from her seat in the stern of her "gas" launch (gasolene equals +petrol), and smiled back, as is the Flapper habit, and the seaman +promptly opened conversation by asking if the Flapper had seen the +Prince. + +"You bet," said the Flapper. "He's a dandy boy. He's a plush." + +His Royal Highness became many things in his travels across America, +but I think it ought to go down in history that at St. John's, +Newfoundland, he became a "plush." + +Newfoundland also introduced another Western phenomenon. It presented +us to the race of false prophets whom we were to see go down in +confusion all the way from St. John's to Victoria and back again to New +York. + +Members of this race were plentiful in St. John's. As we spent our +days before the Prince's arrival picking up facts and examining the +many beautiful arches of triumph that were being put up in the town, we +were warned not to expect too much from Newfoundland. St. John's had +not its bump of enthusiasm largely developed, we were told; its people +were resolutely dour and we must not be disappointed if the Prince's +reception lacked warmth. In all probability the weather would conform +to the general habit and be foggy. + +Here, as elsewhere, the prophets were confounded. St. John's proved +second to none in the warmth of its affectionate greeting--that +splendid spontaneous welcome which the whole West gave to the Prince +upset all preconceived notions, swept away all sense of set ceremonial +and made the tour from the beginning to the end the most happy progress +of a sympathetic and responsive youth through a continent of intimate +personal friends. + + +II + +The _Dauntless_ went out from St. John's on Sunday, August 10, to +rendezvous with _Renown_ and _Dragon_, and the three great modern +warships came together on a glorious Western evening. + +There was a touch of drama in the meeting. In the marvellous clear air +of gold and blue that only the American Continent can show, we picked +up _Renown_ at a point when she was entering a long avenue of icebergs. +There were eleven of these splendid white fellows in view on the +skyline when we turned to lead the great battleship back to the +anchorage in Conception Bay, north of St. John's, and as the ships +followed us it was as though the Prince had entered a processional way +set with great pylons arranged deliberately to mark the last phase of +his route to the Continent of the West. + +Some of these bergs were as large, as massive and as pinnacled as +cathedrals, some were humped mounds that lifted sullenly from the +radiant sea, some were treacherous little crags circled by rings of +detached floes--the "growlers," those almost wholly submerged masses of +ice that the sailor fears most. Most of the bergs in the two irregular +lines were distant, and showed as patches of curiously luminant +whiteness against the intense blue of the sky. Some were close enough +for us to see the wonderful semi-transparent green of the cracks and +fissures in their sides and the vivid emerald at the base that the +bursting seas seemed to be eternally polishing anew. + +When _Renown_ was sighted, a mere smudge on the horizon, we saw the +flash of her guns and heard faintly the thud of the explosions. She +was getting in some practice with her four-inch guns on the enticing +targets of the bergs. + +We were too far away to see results, but we were told that as a +spectacle the effect of the shell-bursts on the ice crags was +remarkable. Under the explosions the immense masses of these +translucent fairy islands rocked and changed shape. Faces of ice +cliffs crumbled under the hits and sent down avalanches of ice into the +furious green seas the shocks of the explosions had raised. + +This was one of the few incidents in a journey made under perfect +weather conditions in a vessel that is one of the "wonder ships" of the +British Navy. The huge _Renown_ had behaved admirably throughout the +passage. She had travelled at a slow speed, for her, most of the time, +but there had been a spell of about an hour when she had worked up to +the prodigious rate of thirty-one knots an hour. Under these test +conditions she had travelled like an express with no more structural +movement than is felt in a well-sprung Pullman carriage. + +The Prince had employed his five day's journey by indulging his fancy +for getting to know how things are done. Each day he had spent two +hours in a different part of the ship having its function and mechanism +explained to him by the officer in charge. + +As he proved later in Canada when visiting various industrial and +agricultural plants, His Royal Highness has the modern curiosity and +interest for the mechanics of things. Indeed, throughout the journey +he showed a distinct inclination towards people and the work that +ordinary people did, rather than in the contemplation of views however +splendid, and the report that he said at one time, "Oh, Lord, let's cut +all this scenery and get back to towns and crowds," is certainly true +in essence if not in fact. + +It was in the beautiful morning of August 11th that the Prince made his +first landfall in the West, and saw in the distance the great curtain +of high rock that makes the grim coast-line of Newfoundland. + +For reasons of the _Renown's_ tonnage he had to go into Conception Bay, +one of the many great sacks of inlets that make the island something +that resembles nothing so much as a section of a jig-saw puzzle. The +harbour of St. John's could float _Renown_, but its narrow waters would +not permit her to turn, and the Prince had to transfer his Staff and +baggage to _Dragon_ in order to complete the next stage of the voyage. + +Conception Bay is a fjord thrusting its way through the jaws of strong, +sharp hills of red sandstone piled up in broken and stratified masses +above grey slate rock. On these hills cling forests of spruce and +larch in woolly masses that march down the combes to the very water's +edge. It is wild scenery, Scandinavian and picturesque. + +In the combes--the "outports" they are called--are the small, scattered +villages of the fishermen. The wooden frame houses have the look of +the packing-case, and though they are bright and toy-like when their +green or red or cinnamon paint is fresh, they are woefully drab when +the weather of several years has had its way with them. + +In front of most of the houses are the "flakes," or drying platforms +where the split cod is exposed to the air. These "flakes" are built up +among the ledges and crevices of the rock, being supported by +numberless legs of thin spruce mast; the effect of these spidery +platforms, the painted houses, the sharp stratified red rock and the +green massing of the trees is that of a Japanese vignette set down amid +inappropriate scenery. + +Cod fishing is, of course, the beginning and the end of the life of +many of these villages on the bays that indent so deeply the +Newfoundland coast. It is not the adventurous fishing of the Grand +Banks; there is no need for that. There is all the food and the income +man needs in the crowded local waters. Men have only to go out in +boats with hook and line to be sure of large catches. + +Only a few join the men who live farther to the south, about Cape Race, +in their trips to the misty waters of the Grand Banks. Here they put +off from their schooners in dories and make their haul with hook and +line. + +A third branch of these fishers, particularly those to the north of St. +John's, push up to the Labrador coast, where in the bays, or "fishing +rooms," they catch, split, head, salt and dry the superabundant fish. + +By these methods vast quantities of cod and salmon are caught, and, as +in the old days when the hardy fishermen of Devon, Brittany, Normandy +and Portugal were the only workers in these little known seas, +practically all the catch is shipped to England and France. During the +war the cod fishers of Newfoundland played a very useful part in +mitigating the stringency of the British ration-cards, and there are +hopes that this good work may be extended, and that by setting up a big +refrigerating plant Newfoundland may enlarge her market in Britain and +the world. + +With the fishery goes the more dangerous calling of sealing. For this +the men of Newfoundland set out in the winter and the spring to the +fields of flat "pan" ice to hunt the seal schools. + +At times this means a march across the ice deserts for many days and +the danger of being cut off by blizzards; when that happens no more +news is heard of the adventurous hunters. + +Every few years Newfoundland writes down the loss of a ship's company +of her too few young men, for Newfoundland, very little helped by +immigration, exists on her native born. "A crew every six or eight +years, we reckon it that way," you are told. It is part of the hard +life the Islanders lead, an expected debit to place against the profits +of the rich fur trade. + +Solidly blocking the heart of Conception Bay is a big island, the high +and irregular outline of which seems to have been cut down sharply with +a knife. This is Bell Island, which is not so much an island as a +great, if accidental, iron mine. + +Years ago, when the island was merely the home of farmers and +fishermen, a shipowner in need of easily handled ballast found that the +subsoil contained just the thing he wanted. By turning up the thin +surface he came upon a stratum of small, square slabs of rock rather +like cakes of soap. These were easily lifted and easily carted to his +ship. + +He initiated the habit of taking rock from Bell Island for ballast, and +for years shipmasters loaded it up, to dump it overboard with just as +much unconcern when they took their cargo inboard. It was some time +before an inquiring mind saw something to attract it in the rock +ballast; the rock was analyzed and found to contain iron. + +Turned into a profiteer by this astonishing discovery, the owner of the +ground where the slabs were found clung tenaciously to his holding +until he had forced the price up to the incredible figure of 100 +dollars. He sold with the joyous satisfaction of a man making a shrewd +deal. + +His ground has changed hands several times since, and the prices paid +have advanced somewhat on his optimistic figure; for example, the +present company bought it for two million dollars. + +The ore is not high grade, but is easily obtained, and so can be +handled profitably. In the beginning it was only necessary to turn +over the turf and take what was needed, the labour costing less than a +shilling a ton. Now the mines strike down through the rock of the +island beneath the sea, and the cost of handling is naturally greater. +It is worth noting that prior to 1914 practically all the output of +this essentially British mine went to Germany; the war has changed that +and now Canada takes the lion's share. + +It was under the cliffs of Bell Island, near the point where the long +lattice-steel conveyors bring the ore from the cliff-top to the +water-level, that the three warships dropped anchor. As they swung on +their cables blasting operations in the iron cliffs sent out the thud +of their explosions and big columns of smoke and dust, for all the +world as though a Royal salute was being fired in honour of the +Prince's arrival. + + +III + +During the day His Royal Highness went ashore informally, mainly to +satisfy his craving for walking exercise. Before he did so, he +received the British correspondents on board the _Renown_, and a few +minutes were spent chatting with him in the charming and spacious suite +of rooms that Navy magic had erected with such efficiency that one had +to convince oneself that one really was on a battleship and not in a +hotel _de luxe_. + +We met a young man in a rather light grey lounge suit, whose boyish +figure is thickening into the outlines of manhood. I have heard him +described as frail; and a Canadian girl called him "a little bit of a +feller" in my hearing. But one has only to note an excellent pair of +shoulders and the strength of his long body to understand how he can +put in a twenty-hour day of unresting strenuosity in running, riding, +walking and dancing without turning a hair. + +It is the neat, small features, the nose a little inclined to tilt, a +soft and almost girlish fairness of complexion, and the smooth and +remarkable gold hair that give him the suggestion of extreme +boyishness--these things and his nervousness. + +His nervousness is part of his naturalness and lack of poise. It +showed itself then, and always, in characteristic gestures, a tugging +at the tie, the smoothing-down of the hair with the flat of the hand, +the furious digging of fists into pockets, a clutching at coat lapels, +and a touch of hesitance before he speaks. + +He comes at you with a sort of impulsive friendliness, his body hitched +a little sideways by the nervous drag of a leg. His grip is a good +one; he meets your eyes squarely in a long glance to which the darkness +about his eyes adds intensity, as though he is getting your features +into his memory for all time, in the resolve to keep you as a friend. + +He speaks well, with an attractive manner and a clear enunciation that +not even acute nervousness can slur or disorganize. He is, in fact, an +excellent public speaker, never missing the value of a sentence, and +managing his voice so well that even in the open air people are able to +follow what he says at a distance that renders other speakers inaudible. + +In private he is as clear, but more impulsive. He makes little darting +interjections which seem part of a similar movement of hands, or the +whole of the body, and he speaks with eagerness, as though he found +most things jolly and worth while, and expects you do too. Obviously +he finds zest in ordinary human things, and not a little humour, also, +for there is more often than not a twinkle in his eyes that gives +character to his friendly smile--that extraordinarily ready smile, +which comes so spontaneously and delightfully, and which became a +byword over the whole continent of the West. + +It is this friendly and unstudied manner that wins him so much +affection. It makes all feel immediately that he is extraordinarily +human and extraordinarily responsive, and that there are no barriers or +reticences in intercourse with him. + +He is not an intellectual, and he certainly is not a dullard. He +rather fills the average of the youth of modern times, with an extreme +fondness for modern activities, which include golfing, running and +walking; jazz music and jazz dancing (when the prettiness of partners +is by no means a deterrent), sightseeing and the rest, and my own +impression is, that he is much more at home in the midst of a hearty +crowd--the more democratic the better--than in the most august of +formal gatherings. + +The latter, too, means speech-making, and he has, I fancy, a young +man's loathing of making speeches. He makes them--on certain occasions +he had to make them three times and more a day--and he makes good ones, +but he would rather, I think, hold an open reception where Tom, Dick, +Vera, Phyllis and Harry crowded about him in a democratic mob to shake +his hand. + +Yet though he does not like speech-making, he showed from the beginning +that he meant to master the repugnant art. To read speeches, as he did +in the early days of the tour, was not good enough. He schooled +himself steadily to deliver them without manuscript, so that by the end +of the trip he was able to deliver a long and important speech--such as +that at Massey Hall, Toronto, on November 4--practically without +referring to his notes. + +During his day in Conception Bay, the Prince went ashore and spent some +time amid the beautiful scenery of rocky, spruce-clad hills and +valleys, where the forests and the many rocky streams give earnest of +the fine sport in game and fish for which Newfoundland is famous. + +The crews of the battleships went ashore, also, to the scattered little +hamlet of Topsail, lured there, perhaps, by the legend that Topsail is +called the Brighton of Newfoundland. It is certainly a pretty place, +with its brightly painted, deep-porched wooden houses set amid the +trees in that rugged country, but the inhabitants were led astray by +local pride when they dragged in Brighton. The local "Old Ship" is the +grocer's, who also happened to be the Selfridge's of the hamlet, and +his good red wine or brown ale, or whatever is yours, is Root Beer! + +For many of the battleships' crews it was the first impact with the +Country of the Dry, and the shock was profound. + +"I was ashore five hours, waiting for the blinkin' liberty boat to come +and take me off," said one seaman, in disgust. "Five hours! And all I +had was a water--and that was warm." + + +IV + +On Tuesday, August 12, the Prince transferred to _Dragon_ and in +company with _Dauntless_ steamed towards St. John's, along the grim, +sheer coast of Newfoundland, where squared promontories standing out +like buttresses give the impression that they are bastions set in the +wall of a castle built by giants. + +The gateway to St. John's harbour is a mere sally-port in that castle +wall. It is an abrupt opening, and is entered through the high and +commanding posts of Signal and the lighthouse hills. + +One can conceive St. John's as the ideal pirate lair of a romance-maker +of the Stevensonian tradition, and one can understand it appealing to +the bold, freebooting instincts of the first daring settlers. A ring +of rough, stratified hills grips the harbour water about, sheltering it +from storms and land enemies, while with the strong hills at the +water-gate to command it, and a chain drawn across its Narrows, it was +safe from incursion of water-borne foes. + +It was the fitting stronghold of the reckless Devon, Irish and Scots +fishermen who followed Cabot to the old Norse _Helluland_, the "Land of +Naked Rocks," and who vied and fought with, and at length ruled with +the rough justice of the "Fishing Admirals" the races of Biscayan and +Portuguese men who made the island not a home but a centre of the great +cod fishery that supplied Europe. + +St. John's has laboured under its disadvantages ever since those days. +The town has been pinched between the steep hills, and forced to +straggle back for miles along the harbour inlet. On the southern side +of the basin the slope has beaten the builder, and on the dominant +green hill, through the grass of which thrusts grey and red-brown +masses of the sharp-angled rock stratum, there are very few houses. + +On the north, humanity has made a fight for it, and the white, dusty +roads struggle with an almost visible effort up the heavy grade of the +hill until they attain the summit. The effect is of a terraced and +piled-up city, straggling in haphazard fashion up to the point where +the great Roman Catholic cathedral, square-hewn and twin-towered, +crowns the mass of the town. + +Plank frame houses, their paint dingy and grey, with stone and brick +buildings, jostle each other on the hill-side streets, innocent of +sidewalks. The main thoroughfare, Water Street, which runs parallel +with the harbour and the rather casual wharves, is badly laid, and +given to an excess of mud in wet weather, mud that the single-deck +electric trams on their bumpy track distribute lavishly. The black +pine masts that serve as telegraph-poles are set squarely and +frequently in the street, and overhead is the heavy mesh of cables and +wires that forms an essential part of all civic scenery in the West. +The buildings and shops along this street are not imposing, and there +seems a need for revitalization in the town, either through a keener +overseas trading and added shipping facilities, or a broader and more +encouraging local policy. + +Most of the goods for sale were American, and some of them not the best +type of American articles at that. It was hard to find indications of +British trading, and it seemed to me that here was a field for British +enterprise, and that with the easing of shipping difficulties, which +were then tying up Newfoundland's commerce, Britain and Newfoundland +would both benefit by a vigorous trade policy. Newfoundlanders seemed +anxious to get British goods, and, as they pointed out, the rate of +exchange was all in their favour. + +Through Water Street passes a medley of vehicles; the bumpy electric +trams, horse carts that look like those tent poles the Indians trail +behind them put on wheels, spidery buggies, or "rigs," solid-wheeled +country carts, and the latest makes in automobiles. + +The automobiles astonish one, both in their inordinate number and their +up-to-dateness. There seemed, if anything, too many cars for the town, +but then that was only because we are new to the Western Continent, +where the automobile is as everyday a thing as the telephone. All the +cars are American, and to the Newfoundlander they are things of pride, +since they show how the modern spirit of the Colony triumphs over sea +freight and heavy import duty. Motor-cars and electric lighting in a +lavish fashion that Britain does not know, form the modern features of +St. John's. + +When the two warships steamed through the Narrows into the harbour, St. +John's, within its hills, was looking its best under radiant sunlight. +The fishermen's huts clinging to the rocky crevices of the harbour +entrance on thousands of spidery legs, let crackers off to the passing +ships and fluttered a mist of flags. Flags shone with vivid splashes +of pigment from the water's edge, where a great five-masted schooner, +barques engaged in the South American trade, a liner and a score of +vessels had dressed ships, up all the tiers of houses to where strings +of flags swung between the towers of the cathedral. + +From the wharves a number of gnat-like gasolene launches, gay with +flags, pushed off to flutter about both cruisers until they came to +anchor. From one of the quays signal guns were fired, and the brazen +and inordinate bangings of his Royal salute echoed and re-echoed in +uncanny fashion among the hills that hem the town, so that when the +warships joined in, the whole cup of the harbour was filled with the +hammerings of explosions overlapping explosions, until the air seemed +made of nothing else. + +On the big stacks of Newfoundland lumber at the harbour-side, on the +quays, on the freight sheds and on the roofs of buildings, Newfoundland +people, who, like the weather, were giving the lie to the prophets, +crowded to see the Prince arrive. He came from _Dragon_ in the Royal +barge in the wake of the _Dauntless'_ launch, which was having a +worried moment in "shooing" off the eager gasolene boats, crowding in, +in defiance of all regulations, to get a good view. + +There was no doubt about the warmth of the welcome. It was a +characteristic Newfoundland crowd. Teamsters in working overalls, +fishermen in great sea boots and oilskins, girls garbed in the +smartness of New York, whose comely faces and beautiful complexions +were of Ireland, though there was here and there a flash of French +blood in the grace of their youth, little boys willing to defy the law +and climb railings in order to get a "close up" photograph, youths in +bubble-toed boots--all proved that their dourness was not an emotion +for state occasions, and that they could show themselves as they really +were, as generous and as loyal as any people within the Empire. + +The Prince was received on the jetty by the Governor and the members of +the legislature. With them was a guard of honour of seamen, all of +them Newfoundland fishermen who had served in various British warships +throughout the war. There was a contingent from the Newfoundland +Regiment also, stocky men who had fought magnificently through the grim +battles in France, and on the Somme had done so excellently that the +name of their greatest battle, Gueudecourt, has become part of the +Colony's everyday history, and is to be found inscribed on the postage +stamps under the picture of the caribou which is the national emblem. + +The Prince's passage through the streets was a stirring one. There +were no soldiers guarding the route through Water Street and up the +high, steep hills to Government House, and the eager crowd pressed +about the carriage in such ardour that its pace had to be slowed to a +walk. At that pace it moved through the streets, a greater portion of +the active population keeping pace with it, turning themselves into a +guard of honour, walking as the horses walked, and, if they did break +into a trot, trotting with them. + +The route lay under many really beautiful arches, some castles with +towers and machicolations sheafed in the sweet-smelling spruce; others +constructed entirely from fish boxes and barrels, with men on them, +working and packing the cod; others were hung with the splendid fur, +feathers and antlers of Newfoundland hunting. + +Through that day and until midday of the next, lively crowds followed +every movement of the "dandy feller," swopping opinions as to his +charm, and his smile, his youthfulness and his shyness. They compared +him with his grandfather who had visited St. John's fifty-nine years +ago, and made a point of mentioning that he was to sleep in the very +bedroom his grandfather had used. + +There was the usual heavy program, an official lunch, the review of war +veterans, a visit to the streets when the lavish electric light had +been switched into the beautiful illuminations, when the two cruisers +were mirrored in the harbour waters in an outline of electric lights, +and when on the ring of hill-tops red beacons were flaring in his +honour. There was a dance, with his lucky partners sure of +photographic fame in the local papers of tomorrow, and then in the +morning, medal giving, a peep at the annual regatta, famous in local +history, on lovely Quidividi Lake among the hills, and then, all too +soon for Newfoundland, his departure to New Brunswick. + +There was no doubt at all as to the impression he made. The visit that +might have been formal was in actuality an affair of spontaneous +affection. There was a friendliness and warmth in the welcome that +quite defies description. His own unaffected pleasure in the greeting; +his eagerness to meet everybody, not the few, but the ordinary, +everyday people as much as the notabilities, his lack of affectation, +and his obvious enjoyment of all that was happening, placed the Prince +and the people, welcoming him, immediately on a footing of intimacy. +His tour had begun in the air of triumph which we were to find +everywhere in his passage across the Continent. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +ST. JOHN, NEW BRUNSWICK + +I + +When one talks to a citizen of St. John, New Brunswick, one has an +impression that his city is burnt down every half century or so in +order that he and his neighbours might build it up very much better. + +This is no doubt an inaccurate impression, but when I had listened to +various brisk people telling me about the fires--the devastating one of +1877, and the minor ones of a variety of dates--and the improvements +St. John has been able to accomplish after them; and when I had seen +the city itself, I must confess I had a sneaking feeling that +Providence had deliberately managed these things so that a lively, +vigorous and up-to-date folk should have every opportunity of +reconstructing their city according to the modernity of their minds and +status. + +The vigorousness of St. John is so definite that it got into our bones +though our visit was but one of hours. St. John, for us, represented +an extraordinary hustle. We arrived on the morning of Friday, August +15, after the one night when the sea had not been altogether our +friend; when the going had been "awfully kinky" (as the seasick one of +our party put it), and the spiral motif in the _Dauntless'_ wardroom +had been disturbing at meals. + +CHAPTER III + +ON THE TRAIN BETWEEN ST. JOHN AND HALIFAX + +I + +Next morning in the train we were awakened to an unexpected Sunday. It +was not an ordinary calm Sunday, but a Sunday with a hustle on, a +Canadian Sunday. There was no doubt about the bells, though they were +ringing with remarkable earnestness in their efforts to get Canadians +into church. + +Lying in our sleeping sections, we were bewildered by the bells, and by +the fact that by human calendar the day should be Saturday. Then we +raised the little blinds that hung between our modesty and a world of +passing platforms, and found that we were in a junction (probably +Truro), with a very Saturday air, and that the church bells were on +engines. + +It takes some time for the Briton to become accustomed to the +strangeness of bells on engines, and the fact, that, instead of +whistling, the engines also give a very lifelike imitation of a liner's +siren. The bells are tolled when entering a station, or approaching a +level crossing, and so on, and the siren note is, I think, a real +improvement on the ear-splitting whistle that harrows us in England. + +Our first night on the Canadian National had been a prophecy of the +many comfortable nights we were to spend on Canadian railways. We had +been given an ordinary sleeping car of the long-distance service, but +as we had it to our masculine selves, the exercise of getting out of +our clothes and into bed, and out of our bed and into clothes, was an +ordinary human accomplishment, and not an athletic problem tinged with +embarrassment. + +The Canadian sleeper is a roomy and attractive Pullman, with wide and +comfortable back to back seats, each internal pair called a section. +At night the seats are pulled together, and the padding at their backs +pulled down, so that a most efficient bed is formed. A section of the +roof lets down, resolving itself into an upper bunk, while long green +curtains from roof to floor, and wood panels at foot and head complete +the privacy. + +In these sleepers Canadians make the week's journey from the Atlantic +to the Pacific. There is no separation of sexes, and a woman may find +that she is sharing a section with a strange male quite as a matter of +course, the only distinction being that the chivalrous Canadian always +gives up the bottom berth, if it is his, to the lady, and climbs to the +top himself. + +In these circumstances, to remove one's clothes, and particularly that +part that proclaims one's gender, is a problem. I have tried it. One +switches on the little electric reading light, climbs into the bunk, +buttons up the green curtains, and then in a space a trifle larger than +a coffin endeavours to remove, and place tidily, one's clothes (for +articles scattered on that narrow bunk during the struggle mean that +one ends by becoming simply a tangle of garments). + +At these moments one realizes that hands, arms, legs, and head have +been given one to complicate things. One jams them against everything. +And there are times, too, when the unpractised Briton is simply baffled. + +They tell in every Canadian train the tale of the Englishman who came +face to face with such a crisis. Having removed most of his garments, +he came to that point where the ingenuity of human nature seemed to +fail. He pondered it. The matter seemed insuperable. And he began to +wonder if.... He put his head through his curtains and shouted along +the crowded--and mixed--green corridor of the car: + +"I say, porter, _does_ one take off one's trousers in this train?" + +Most of the railways, the Canadian Pacific certainly, are putting on +compartment cars; that is, a car made up of roomy private sections, +holding two berths. On most sleepers, too, there is a drawing-room +compartment that gives the same privacy. These are both comfortable +and convenient, for, apart from privacy, the passenger does not have to +take his place in the queue waiting to wash at one of the three basins +provided in the little section at the end of the car that is also the +smoking-room. + +It must not be thought that the sleepers are anything but comfortable; +they are so comfortable as to make travelling in them ideal. The +passenger, also, has the run of the train, and can go to the +observation car, where he can spend his time in an easy chair, looking +through the broad windows at the scenery, or reading one of the many +magazines or papers the train provides; or he can write his letters on +train paper at a desk; can go out to the broad railed platform at the +rear of the car, and sit and smoke, and see Canada unrolling behind him. + +And at the appropriate times for breakfast, dinner and supper--that is +the Canadian routine, and there is no tea--the passenger goes to the +diner and has a meal from a menu that would make the manager of many a +London hotel feel anxious for his reputation. + + +II + +We had some experience of the lavishness and variety of Canadian meals +in St. John, when we had ordered what would have been an ordinary +dinner in London, and had had to cry "_Kamerad!_" after the fish. + +The first Canadian breakfast we had on the Canadian National was of the +same order. It began, inevitably, with ice-water. Ice-water is the +thing that waiters fill up intervals with. Instead of pausing between +courses for the usual waiter's meditation, they make instinctively for +the silver ice-water jug, and fill every defenceless glass. Ice-water +is universal. It is taken before, during and after every meal, and +there are ice-water tanks (and paper cups) on every railway carriage +and every hotel. At first one loathes it, and it seems to create an +unnatural thirst, but the habit for it is soon attained. + +The menu for breakfast is always varied and long--and I speak not +merely of the special trains we travelled in, for it was the same on +ordinary passenger trains. One does not face a _table d'hote_ meal +outside of which there is no alternative but starvation, but one is +given the choice of a range of dishes for any of the three meals that +equals the choice offered by the best hotels in London. + +Breakfast begins with fruit; breakfast is not breakfast in the American +continent unless it begins with fruit. And at that precise time +breakfast fruit was blueberries. Other fruit was on the menu: +raspberries, melon, grape-fruit, canteloupe, orange-slices, orange +juice, and so on; but to avoid blueberries was to be suspected of being +eccentric, and even an alien enemy. + +Blueberries were in season. Blueberries and cream were being eaten at +breakfast with something more than mere satisfaction by the entire +Canadian nation. Blueberries were being consumed with a sort of +patriotic fervour, for blueberries have a significance to the Canadian. +It is a fruit peculiarly his own; he treats it as a sort of emblem, he +waxes enthusiastic over it, and the stranger feels that if he does not +eat it (with cream, or cooked as "Deep Blueberry Pie"), he has not +justified his journey to the Dominion. Hint that it is merely the +English bilberry or blaeberry, or whortleberry and--but no one dares +hint that. The blueberry is in season. One eats it with cream, and it +is worth eating. + +You may follow with what the Canadian calls "oats," but which you call +porridge, or, being wiser since the dinner at St. John, you go straight +on to halibut steak, or Gaspe salmon, or trout, or Jack Frost sausages, +or just bacon and eggs. There is a range that would have pleased you +in an hotel, but which fills you with wonder on a train. + +And not merely the range, but the prodigality of the portions, +surprises. Your halibut or salmon or trout is not a strip that seems +like a sample, it is a solid slice of exquisitely cooked fish that +looks dangerously near a full pound, and all the portions are on the +same scale, so that you soon come to recognize that, unless you ration +yourself severely, you cannot possibly hope to survive against this +Dominion of Food. + +When we sat down to that breakfast in the Canadian National diner I +think we realized more emphatically than we had through the whole +course of our reading how prodigal and rich a land Canada was. As we +sat at our meal we could watch from the windows the unfolding of the +streams and the innumerable lovely lakes, that expand suddenly out of +the spruce forests that clad the rocky hills and the sharp valleys of +Nova Scotia. + +We could see the homestead clearings, the rich land already under +service and the cattle thereon. It was from those numberless pebbly +rivers and lakes that this abundance in fish came; in the forests was +game, caribou and moose and winged game. From the cleared land came +the wheat and the other growing things that crowd the Canadian table, +and the herds represented the meat, and the unstinted supply of cream +and milk and butter. Even the half-cleared land, where tree stumps and +bushes still held sway, there was the blueberry, growing with the +joyous luxuriance of a useful weed. + +To glance out of the window was to realize more than this, it was to +realize that in spite of all this luxuriance the land was yet barely +scratched. The homesteads are even now but isolated outposts in the +undisciplined wilderness, and when we realized that this was but a +section, and a small section at that, of a Dominion stretching +thousands of miles between us and the Pacific, and how many thousand +miles on the line North to South we could not compute, we began to get +a glimmer of the immensity and potentiality of the land we had just +entered. + +There is nothing like a concrete demonstration to convince the mind, +and I recognize it was that heroic breakfast undertaken while I +contemplated the heroic land from whence it had come that brought home +to me with a sense almost of shock an appreciation of Canada's +greatness. + +By the time I had arrived at Halifax, and had a Canadian National +Railway lunch (for we remained on the train for the whole of our stay +in the city) I knew I was to face immensities. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA + +I + +The first citizen of Halifax to recognize the Prince of Wales was a +little boy: and it was worth a cool twenty cents to him. + +The official entry of His Royal Highness into Halifax was fixed for +Monday, August 18th. The _Dragon_ and _Dauntless_, however, arrived on +Sunday, and the Prince saw in the free day an opportunity for getting +in a few hours' walking. + +He landed quietly, and with his camera spent some time walking through +and snapping the interesting spots in the city. He climbed the hill to +where the massive and slightly melodramatic citadel that his own +ancestor, the Duke of Kent, had built on the hill dominates the city, +and continued from there his walk through the tree-fringed streets. + +At the very toe of the long peninsula upon which Halifax is built he +walked through Point Pleasant, a park of great, and untrammelled, +natural beauty, thicketed with trees through which he could catch many +vivid and beautiful glimpses of the intensely blue harbour water +beneath the slope. + +It was in this park that the young punter pulled off his coup. + +He was one of a number of kiddies occupied in the national sport of +Halifax--bathing. He and his friends spotted the Prince and his party +before that party saw them. Being a person of acumen the wise kid +immediately "placed" His Royal Highness, and saw the opportunity for +financial operations. + +"Betcher ten cents that's the Prince of Wales," he said, accommodating +the whole group, whereupon the inevitable sceptic retorted: + +"Naw, that ain't no Prince. Anyhow he doesn't come till tomorrow, see." + +"Is the Prince, I tell you," insisted the plunger. "And see here, +betcher another ten cents I goes and asks him." + +The second as well as the first bet was taken. And both were won. + +This is not the only story connected with the Sunday stroll of the +Prince. Another, and perhaps a romantic version of the same one, was +that it was the Prince who made and lost the bet. He was said to have +come upon not boys but girls bathing. Seeing one of them poised +skirted and stockinged, for all the world as though she were the +authentic bathing girl on the cover of an American magazine, ready to +dive, he bet her a cool twenty that she dare not take her plunge from +the highest board. + +This story may be true or it may be, well, Canadian. I mean by that it +may be one of the jolly stories that Canadians from the very beginning +began to weave about the personality of His Royal Highness. It is, +indeed, an indication of his popularity that he became the centre of a +host of yarns, true or apocryphal, that followed him and accumulated +until they became almost a saga by the time the tour was finished. + + +II + +In this short stroll the Prince saw much of a town that is certainly +worth seeing. + +Halifax on the first impact has a drab air that comes as a shock to +those who sail through the sharp, green hills of the Narrows and see +the hilly peninsula on which the town is built hanging graciously over +the sparkling blue waters of one of the finest and greatest harbours in +the world. + +From the water the multi-coloured massing of the houses is broken up +and softened by the vividness of the parks and the green billowing of +the trees that line most of the streets. Landing, the newcomer is at +once steeped in the depressing air of a seaport town that has not +troubled to keep its houses in the brightest condition. As many of +those houses are of wood, the youthful sparkle of which vanishes in the +maturity of ill-kept paintwork, the first impression of Halifax is +actually more melancholy than it deserves to be. + +The long drive through Water Street from the docks, moreover, merely +lands one into a business centre where the effect of many good +buildings is spoilt by the narrowness of the streets. Such a condition +of things is no doubt unavoidable in a town that is both commercial and +old, but those who only see this side of Halifax had better appreciate +the fact that the city is Canadian and new also, and that there are +residential districts that are as comely and as up-to-date as anywhere +in the Western Continent. + +Halifax certainly blends history and business in a way to make it the +most English of towns. It is like nothing so much as a seaport in the +North of England plus a Canadian accent. + +There is the same packed mass movement of a lively polyglot people +through the streets. There is the same keen appetite for living that +sends people out of doors to walk in contact with their fellows under +the light of the many-globed electric standards that line the sidewalk. + +There is the same air of bright prosperity in the glowing and vivacious +light of the fine and tasteful shops. They are good shops, and their +windows are displayed with an artistry that one finds is characteristic +throughout Canada. They offer the latest and smartest ideas in blouses +and gowns, jewellery and boots and cameras--I should like to find out +what percentage of the population of the American Continent does not +use a camera--and men's shirtings, shirtings that one views with awe, +shirtings of silk with emotional stripes and futuristic designs, and +collars to match the shirts, the sort of shirts that Solomon in all his +glory seems to have designed for festival days. + +At night, certainly, the streets of Halifax are bright and vivid, and +the people in them good-humoured, laughing and sturdy, with that +contempt of affectation that is characteristic of the English north. + +The bustle and vividness as well as the greyness of Halifax lets one +into the open secret that it is a great industrial port of Canada, and +an all-the-year-round port at that, yet it is the greyness and +narrowness of the streets that tells you that Halifax is also history. +In the old buildings, and their straggled frontage, is written the fact +that the city grew up before modernity set its mark on Canada in the +spacious and broad planning of townships. + +It was, for years, the garrison of Britain in the Americas. Since the +day when Cornwallis landed in 1749 with his group of settlers to secure +the key harbour on the Eastern seaboard of America until the Canadians +themselves took over its garrisoning, it was the military and naval +base of our forces. And in that capacity it has formed part of the +stage setting for every phase of the Western historical drama. + +It was the rendezvous of Wolfe before Quebec; it played a part in the +American War of Independence; it was a refuge for the United Empire +Loyalists; British ships used it as a base in the war of 1812; from its +anchorage the bold and crafty blockade runners slipped south in the +American Civil War, and its citizens grew fat through those adventurous +voyages. It has been the host of generations of great seamen from +Cook, who navigated Wolfe's fleet up the St. Lawrence, to Nelson. It +housed the survivors of the _Titanic_, and was the refuge of the +_Mauretania_ when the beginning of the Great War found her on the high +seas. It has had German submarines lying off the Narrows, so close +that it saw torpedoed crews return to its quays only an hour or so +after their ships had sailed. + + +III + +The Prince of Wales was himself a link in Halifax's history. Not +merely had his great-great grandfather, the Duke of Kent, commanded at +the Citadel, but when he landed he stepped over the inscribed stone +commemorating the landing on that spot of his grandfather on July 30th, +1860, and his father in 1901. + +His Royal Highness made his official landing in the Naval Dockyard on +the morning of Monday, August 18th. As he landed he was saluted by the +guns of three nations, for two French war sloops and the fine Italian +battleship _Cavour_, which had come to Halifax to be present during his +visit, joined in when the guns on shore and on the British warship +saluted. + +At the landing stage the reception was a quiet one, only notabilities +and guards of honour occupying the Navy Yard, but this quietness was +only the prelude to a day of sheer hustle. + +The crowd thickened steadily until he arrived in the heart of the city, +when it resolved itself into a jam of people that the narrow streets +failed to accommodate. This crowd, as in most towns of Canada, +believed in a "close up" view. Even when there is plenty of space the +onlookers move up to the centre of the street, allowing a passageway of +very little more than the breadth of a motor-car. Policemen of broad +and indulgent mind are present to keep the crowd in order, and when +policemen give out, war veterans in khaki or "civvies" and boy scouts +string the line, but all--policemen, veterans and scouts--so mixing +with the crowd that they become an indistinguishable part of it, so +that it is all crowd, cheery and friendly and most intimate in its +greeting. That was the air of the Halifax crowd. + +It always seemed to me that after the roaring greeting of the streets +the formal civic addresses of welcome were acts of supererogation. Yet +there is no doubt as to the dignity and colour of these functions. + +From the packed street the Prince passed into the great chamber of the +Provincial Parliament Building, where there seemed an air of soft, red +twilight compounded from the colour of the walls and the old pictures, +as well as from the robes and uniforms of the dignitaries and the gowns +of the many ladies. + +As ceremonies these welcomes were always short, though there was always +a number of presentations made, and the Prince was soon in the open +again. In the open there were war veterans to inspect, for in whatever +town he entered, large or small or remote, there was always a good +showing of Canadians who had served and won honours in Europe. + +Everywhere, in great cities or in a hamlet that was no more than a +scattering of homesteads round a prairie's siding, His Royal Highness +showed a particular keenness to meet these soldiers. They were his own +comrades in arms, as he always called them, and when he said that he +meant it, for he never willingly missed an opportunity of getting among +them and resuming the comradeship he had learned to value at the Front. + +In most towns, as in Halifax, his round of visits always included the +hospitals. His car took him through the bright sunshine of the Halifax +streets to these big and very efficient buildings, where he went +through the wards, chatting here and there to a cot or a convalescent +patient, and not forgetting the natty Canadian nurses or the doctors, +or even, as in one of the hospitals on this day, a patient lying in a +tent in the grounds outside the radius of the visit. + +In Halifax, also, there was another grim fact of the war which called +for special attention; that was the area devastated by the terrible +explosion of a ship in the docks in December, 1917. + +The party left the main streets to climb over the shoulder of the +peninsula to where the ruined area stood. It is to the north of the +town, on the side of the hill that curves largely to the very water's +edge. Down off the docks, and an immense distance away it seems from +the slope of ruin, a steamer loaded with high explosive collided with +another, caught fire and blew up, and on the entire bosom of that slope +can be seen what that gigantic detonation accomplished. + +The force of the explosion swept up the hill and the wooden houses went +down like things of card. In the trail of the explosion followed fire. +As the plank houses collapsed the fires within them ignited their frail +fabric and the entire hillside became a mass of flames. + +The Prince looked upon a hill set with scars in rows, the rock +foundations of houses that had been. Houses had, in the main, +disappeared, though here and there there was a crazy structure hanging +together by nails only. Across the arm of the harbour, on the pretty, +wooded Dartmouth side, he could see among the trees the sprawled +ugliness of the ruin the explosion had spread even there. + +On this bleak slope, where the grass was growing raggedly over the +ruins, the old inhabitants were showing little inclination to return. +Only a few neat houses were in course of erection where, before, there +had been thousands. It was as though the hillside had become evil, and +men feared it. + +Over the hill, and by roads which are best described as corrugated +(outside the main town roads of Canada, faith, hope and strong springs +are the best companions on a motor ride), he went to where a new +district is being built to house the victims of the disaster. + +Modern Canada is having its way in this new area, and broad streets, +grass lawns and pretty houses of wood, brick or concrete with +characteristic porches give these new homes the atmosphere of the +garden city. + +Perched as it is high on the hill, with the sparkling water of the +harbour close by, one can easily argue that good has come out of the +evil. But as one mutters the platitude the Canadian who drives the car +points to the long, tramless hill that connects the place with the +heart of the city, and tells you curtly: + +"That's called Hungry Hill." + +"Why Hungry Hill?" + +"It's so long that a man dies of hunger before he can get home from his +office." + + +IV + +The social side of the visit followed. + +The Prince went from the devastated area, and from his visit to some of +the people who were already housed in their new homes, through the +attractive residential streets of Halifax to the Waegwoltic Club. + +This club is altogether charming, and one of the most perfect places of +recreation I have seen. The club-house is a low, white rambling +building set among trees and the most perfect of lawns. It has really +beautiful suites of rooms, including a dancing hall and a dining-room. +From its broad verandah a steep grass slope drops down to the sea water +of one of the harbour arms. Many trees shade the slope and the idling +paths on it, and through the trees shines the water, which has an +astonishing blueness. + +At the water's edge is a bathing place, with board rafts and a high +skeleton diving platform. Here are boys and girls, looking as though +they were posing for Harrison Fisher, diving, or lolling in the vivid +sun on the plank rafts. + +With its bright sea, on which are canoes and scarlet sailed yachts, the +vivid green of its grass slopes under the superb trees, the Waegwoltic +Club is idyllic. It is the dream of the perfect holiday place come +true. + +Quite close to it is another club of individuality. It is a club +without club-house that has existed in that state for over sixty years. + +This is the Studley Quoit Club, which the Prince visited after he had +lunched at the Waegwoltic. Its premises are made up of a quoit field, +a fence and some trees, and the good sportsmen, its members, as they +showed His Royal Highness round, pointed solemnly to a fir to which a +telephone was clamped, and said: + +"That is our secretary's office." + +A table under a spruce was the dining-room, a book of cuttings +concerning the club on a desk was the library, while a bench against a +fence was the smoking lounge. It is a club of humour and pride, that +has held together with a genial and breezy continuity for generations. +And it has two privileges, of which it is justly proud: one is the +right to fly the British Navy ensign, gained through one of its first +members, an admiral; the other is that its rum punch yet survives in a +dry land. + +The Prince's visit to such a gathering of sportsmen was, naturally, an +affair of delightful informality. There was a certain swopping of +reminiscences of the King, who had also visited the club, and a certain +dry attitude of awe in the President, who, in speaking of the honours +the Prince had accepted just before leaving England, said that though +the members of the Studley Club felt competent to entertain His Royal +Highness as a Colonel of the Guards, as the Grand Master of Freemasons, +or even, at a pinch, as a King's Counsel, they felt while in their +earthly flesh some trepidation in offering hospitality to a Brother of +the Trinity--a celestial office which, the President understood, the +Prince had accepted prior to his journey. + +It was a happy little gathering, a relief, perhaps, from set functions, +and the Prince entered fully into the spirit of the occasion. He drank +the famous punch, and signed the Club roll, showing great amusement +when some one asked him if he were signing the pledge. + +On leaving this quaint club he came in for a cheery mobbing; men and +women crowded round him, flappers stormed his car in the hope of +shaking hands, while babies held up by elders won the handclasp without +a struggle. + +A crowded day was closed by a yet more crowded reception. It was an +open reception of the kind which I believe I am right in saying the +Prince himself was responsible for initiating on this trip. It was a +reception not of privileged people bearing invitations, but of the +whole city. + +The whole city came. + +Citizens of all ages and all occupations rolled up at Government House +to meet His Royal Highness. They filled the broad lawn in front of the +rather meek stone building, and overflowed into the street. They +waited wedged tightly together in hot and sunny weather until they +could take their turn in the endless file that was pushing into the +house where the Prince was waiting to shake hands with them. + +It was a gathering of every conceivable type of citizen. Silks and New +York frocks had no advantage over gingham and "ready to wear." Judge's +wife and general's took their turn with the girl clerk from the drug +store and their char lady's daughter. Workers still in their overalls, +boys in their shirtsleeves, soldiers and dockside workers and teamsters +all joined in the crowd that passed for hours before the Prince. + +At St. John he had shaken hands with some 2,000 people in such a +reception as this, at Halifax the figure could not have been less, and +it was probably more. He shook hands with all who came, and had a word +with most, even with those admirable but embarrassing old ladies (one +of whom at least appeared at each of these functions) who declared +that, having lived long enough to see the children of two British +rulers, they were anxious that he should lose no time in giving them +the chance of seeing the children of a third. + +It was an astonishing spectacle of affable democracy, and in effect it +was perhaps the happiest idea in the tour. The popularity of these +"open to all the town" meetings was astonishing. "The Everyday People" +whom the Prince had expressed so eager a desire to see and meet came to +these receptions in such overwhelming numbers that in large cities such +as Toronto, Ottawa and the like it was manifestly impossible for him to +meet even a fraction of the numbers. + +Yet this fact did not mar the receptions. The people of Canada +understood that he was making a real attempt at meeting as many of them +as was humanly possible, and even those who did not get close enough to +shake his hand were able to recognize that his desire was genuine as +his happiness in meeting them was unaffected and friendly. + +The public receptions were the result of an unstudied democratic +impulse, and the Canadian people were of all people those able to +appreciate that impulse most. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +CHARLOTTETOWN, PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND, AND HABITANT, CANADA + +The Prince of Wales and his cruiser escort left Halifax on the night of +Monday, August 18th, for Prince Edward Island, in the Gulf of St. +Lawrence, arriving at the capital of that province the next morning. + +Owing to the difficulty of getting across country, the Press +correspondents were unable to be present at this visit, and went direct +by train to Quebec to await the Prince's arrival. + +We were sorry not to visit this tiny, self-contained province of the +Dominion, for we had heard much concerning its charm and individuality +in character. It is a fertile little island, rich in agriculture, +sport and fishing. It is an island of bright red beaches and green +downs set in a clear sea, an Eden for bathers and holiday-makers. + +It is also one of the last rallying-points of the silver fox, which is +bred by the islanders for the fur market. This is a pocket industry +unique in Canada. The animals are tended with the care given to prize +fowls, each having its own kennel and wire run. Such domesticity +renders them neither hardy nor prolific, and the breeding is an +exacting pursuit. + +At the capital, Charlottetown, His Royal Highness had a real Canadian +welcome, tinged not a little with excitement. While he was on the +racecourse one of the stands took fire, and there was the beginning of +a panic, men and women starting to clamber wildly out of it and +dropping from its sides. The Prince, however, kept his place and +continued to watch the races. His presence on the stand quieted the +nervous and checked what might have been an ugly rush, while the fire +was very quickly got under. + +Off Charlottetown the Prince transferred again to the battle-cruiser +_Renown_, and finished the last section of his sea voyage up the great +St. Lawrence on her. + + +II + +Our disappointment at not seeing Prince Edward Island was mitigated by +the glimpses we had from our train of the country of New Brunswick and +the great area of the habitants that surrounds Quebec. + +On the morning of August 19th we woke to the broken country of New +Brunswick. The forests of spruce, pine, maple and poplar made walls on +the very fringe of the single-line railway track for miles, giving way +abruptly to broad and placid lakes, or to sharp narrow valleys, in +which shallow streams pressed forward over beds of white stone and +rock. At this time the streams were narrowed down to a slim channel, +but the broad area of white shingle--frequently scored by many +subsidiary thin channels of water--gave an idea of what these streams +were like in flood. + +There was a great deal of unfriendly black rock in the land pushing +itself boldly up in hills, or cropping out from the thin covering soil. +Here and there were the clearings of homesteaders, who lived sometimes +in pretty plank houses, sometimes in the low shacks of rough logs that +seemed to be put in the clearings--some of them not yet free of the +high tree stumps--in order to give the land its authentic local colour. + +On the streams that flow between the walls of trees there were always +logs. Logs sometimes jamming the whole fairway with an indescribable +jumble, logs collected into river bays with a neatness that made the +surface of the water appear one great raft, and by these "log booms" +there was, usually, the piles of squared timber, and the collection of +rough wooden houses that formed the mill. + +The mills have the air of being pit-head workings dealing with a +cleaner material than coal. About them are lengthy conveyors, built up +on high trestle timbers, that carry the logs from the water to the mill +and from the mill to the dumps, that one instantly compares to the +conveyors and winding gear of a coal mine. Beneath the conveyors are +great ragged mounds of short logs cut into sections for the paper pulp +trade, and jumbled heaps of shorter sections that are to serve as the +winter firing for whole districts; these have the contours of coal +dumps, while fed from chutes are hillocks of golden sawdust as big and +as conspicuous as the ash and slag mounds of the mining areas. + +In the mill yards are stacks and stacks of house planks that the great +saws have sliced up with an uncanny ease and speed, stacks of square +shingles for roofs and miles of squared beams. + +We passed not a few but a multitude of these "booms" and mills, and our +minds began to grasp the vastness of this natural and national +industry. And yet it is not in the main a whole-time industry. For a +large section of its workers it is a side line, an occupation for days +that would otherwise be idle. It is the winter work of farmers, who, +forced to cease their own labours owing to the deep snow and the +frosts, turn to lumbering to keep them busy until the thaw sets in. + +That fact helps the mind to realize the potentialities of Canada. Here +is a business as big as coal mining that is largely the fruit of work +in days when there is little else to do. + +We saw this industry at a time when the streams were congested and the +mills inactive. It was the summer season, but, more than that, the +lack of transport, owing to the sinking, or the surrender by Canada for +war purposes, of so much ship space, was having its effect on the +lumber trade. The market, even as far as Britain, was in urgent need +of timber, and the timber was ready for the market; but the exigencies, +or, as some Canadians were inclined to argue, the muddle of shipping +conditions, were holding up this, as well as many other of the Dominion +industries. + +In this sporting country there are many likely looking streams for +fishermen, as there are likely looking forests for game. At New Castle +we touched the Miramichi, which has the reputation of being the finest +salmon-fishing river in New Brunswick; the Nepisiquit, the mouth of +which we skirted at Bathurst, is also a great centre for fishermen, +and, indeed, the whole of this country about the shores of the great +Baie de Chaleur--that immense thrust made by the Gulf of St. Lawrence +between the provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec--is a paradise for +holiday-makers and sportsmen, who, besides their fishing, get excellent +shooting at brant, geese, duck, and all kinds of game. + +The Canadian of the cities has his country cottage in this splendidly +beautiful area, which he comes to for his recreation, and at other +times leaves in charge of a local farmer, who fills his wood shed with +fire logs from the forest in the summer, and his ice house with ice +from the rivers in winter. + + +III + +In this district, and long before we reached the Quebec border, we came +to the country of the habitant farmer. As we stopped at sections to +water or change engines, we saw that this was a land where man must be +master of two tongues if he is to make himself understood. It is a +land where we read on a shop window the legend: "J. Art Levesque. +Barbier. Agent du Lowdnes Co. Habits sur commande." Here the +habitant does business at La Banque Nationale, and takes his pleasure +at the Exposition Provinciale, where his skill can win him Prix +Populaires. + +On the stations we talked with men in British khaki trousers who told +us in a language in which Canadian French and camp English was +strangely mingled of the service they had seen on the British front. + +It is the district where the clever and painstaking French +agriculturist gets every grain out of the soil, a district where we +could see the spire of a parish church every six miles, the land of a +people, sturdy, devout, tenacious and law-abiding, the "true 'Canayen' +themselves," + + "And in their veins the same red stream; + The conquering blood of Normandie + Flowed strong, and gave America + Coureurs de bois and voyageurs + Whose trail extends from sea to sea!" + +as William Henry Drummond, a true poet who drew from them inspiration +for his delightful dialect verse, describes them. + +The railway passes for hundreds of miles between habitant farms. The +land is beautifully cared for, every fragment of rock, from a boulder +to a pebble, having been collected from the soil through generations, +and piled in long, thin caches in the centres of the fields. The +effect of passing for hundreds of miles between these precisely aligned +cairns is strange; one cannot get away from the feeling that the rocky +mounds are there for some barbaric tribal reason, and that presently +one will see a war dance or a sacrifice taking place about one of them. + +The farms themselves have a strange appearance. They have an +abnormally narrow frontage. They are railed in strips of not much +greater breadth than a London back garden, though they extend away from +the railway to a depth of a mile and more. At first this grouping of +the land appears accidental, but the endlessness of the strange design +soon convinces that there is a purpose underlying it. + +Two explanations are offered. One is that the land has been parcelled +out in this way, and not on a broad square acreage, because in the old +pioneer days it afforded the best means of grouping the homesteads +together for defence against the Red Man. The other is that it is the +result of the French-Canadian law which enforces the division of an +estate among children in exact proportion, and thus the original big +farms have been split up into equal strips among the descendants of the +original owner. Either of these explanations, or the combination of +them, can be accepted. + +At Campbellton, a pretty, toy-like town, close up to La Baie de +Chaleur, there is gathered a remnant of the Micmac Indians, whom the +first settlers feared. They have a settlement of their own on a peak +of the Baie, and one of their chiefs had travelled to Halifax to be +among those who welcomed the son of the Great White Chief. + +Campbellton let us into the lovely valley of the Matapedia, an +enchanted spot where the river lolls on a broad bed through a grand +country of grim hills and forests. Now and then, indeed, its channel +is pinched into gorges where its water shines pallidly and angrily amid +the crowded shadows of rock and tree; usually it is the nursemaid of +rich, flat valleys and the friend of the little frame-house hamlets +that are linked across its waters by a spidery bridge of wooden +trestles. At times beneath the hills it is swift and combed by a +thousand stony fingers, and at other times it is an idler in Arcadie, a +dilettante stream that wanders in half a dozen feckless channels over a +desert of white stones, with here and there the green humpback of an +island inviting the camper. + +Beyond Matapedia we got the thrill of the run, an abrupt glimpse of the +St. Lawrence, steel-blue and apparently infinite, its thirty miles of +breadth yielding not a glimpse of the farther side. A short distance +on, beyond Mont Joli, a place that might have come out of a sample box +of French villages, the railway keeps the immense river company for the +rest of the journey. + +The valley broadened out into an immense flat plain with but few traces +of the wilder hills of New Brunswick. About the line is a belt of +prosperity forty miles deep, all of it worked by the habitant owners of +the narrow farms, all of it so rich that in the whole area from the +border to the city of Quebec there is not a poor farmer. + +Before reaching Riviere du Loup we saw the high peaks of the Laurentine +Mountains on the far side of the St. Lawrence, and on our side of the +stream passed a grim little islet called L'Islet au Massacre, where a +party of Micmac Indians, fleeing from the Iroquois in the old days, +were caught as they hid in a deep cave, and killed by a great fire that +their enemies built at the mouth. + +We saw a few seals on the rocks of the river, but not a hint of the +numbers that gave Riviere du Loup its name. It is a cameo of a town +with falls sliding down-hill over a chute of jumbled rocks into a +logging pool beneath. + +Riviere du Loup is in the last lap of the journey to Quebec. There are +a score or so of little hamlets, the names of which--St. Alexandre, St. +Andre, St. Pascal, St. Pacome, St. Valier and so on--sound like a +reading from the Litany of the Saints. And, passing the last of them, +we saw across the narrowed St. Lawrence a trail of lace against the +darkness of the Laurentine hills, a mass of filigree that moved and +writhed, so that we understood when some one said: + +"The Montmorency Falls." + +A moment later we saw across the stream the city of Quebec, a hanging +town of fairyland, with pinnacle and spire, bastion and citadel +delicate against the quick sky. A city of romance and charm, to which +we hurried by the very humdrum route of the steam ferry that crosses to +it from the Levis side. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +QUEBEC + +I + +Quebec is not merely historic: it suggests history. It has the grand +manner. One feels in one's bones that it is a city of a splendid past. +The first sight of Quebec piled up on its opposite bluff where the +waters of the St. Charles swell the mighty volume of the St. Lawrence +convinces one that this grave city is the cradle of civilization in the +West, the overlord of the river road to the sea and the heart of +history and romance for Canada. + +One does not require prompting to recognize that history has to go back +centuries to reach the day when Cartier first landed here; or that +Champlain figured bravely in its story in a brave and romantic era of +the world, and that it was he who saw its importance as a commanding +point of the great waterway that struck deep into the heart of the rich +dominion--though he did think that dominion was a fragment of the +fabulous Indies with a door into the rich realms of China. + +Instinct seems to tell one that on the lifting plain behind the bulldog +Citadel, Montcalm lost and died, and Wolfe died and won. + +One knows, too, that from this city thick with spires, streams of +Christianity and civilization flowed west and north and south to +quicken the whole barbaric continent; that it was the nucleus that +concentrated all the energy of the vast New World. + + +II + +From the decks of the three war vessels, the _Renown_ and the escorting +cruisers, Quebec must have seemed like a city of a dream hanging +against the quiet sky of a glorious evening. + +The piled-up mass of the city on its abrupt cape is romantic, and +suggests the drama of a Rhine castle with a grace and a significance +that is French. On that evening of August 21st, when the strings and +blobs of colour from a multitude of flags picked out the clustering of +houses that climbed Cape Diamond to the grey walls of the Citadel, the +city from the St. Lawrence had an appearance glowing and fantastic. + +From Quebec the three fine ships steaming in line up the blue waters of +the river were a sight dramatic and beautiful, though from the heights +and against the wall of cliffs on the Levis side, a mile across stream, +the cruisers were strangely dwarfed, and even _Renown_ appeared a small +but desirable toy. + +In keeping with the general atmosphere of the town and toy-like ships, +Quebec herself put a touch of the fantastic into the charm of her +greeting. + +As the cruisers dressed ship, and joined with the guns of the Citadel +in the salute, there soared from the city itself scores of maroons. +From the flash and smoke of their bursts there fluttered down many +coloured things. Caught by the wind, these things opened out into +parachutes, from which were suspended large silk flags. Soon the sky +was flecked with the bright, tricoloured bubbles of parachutes, bearing +Jacks and Navy Ensigns, Tricolours and Royal Standards down the wind. + +The official landing at King's Wharf was full of characteristic colour +also. It was in a wide, open space right under the grey rock upon +which the Citadel is reared. In this square, tapestried with flags, +and in a little canvas pavilion of bright red and white, the Prince met +the leading sons of Quebec, the French-Canadian and the +English-Canadian; the Bishop of the English cathedral in gaiters and +apron, the Bishops of the Catholics in corded hats, scarlet gloves and +long cassocks. Sailors and soldiers, women in bright and smart gowns +gave the reception a glow and vivacity that had a quality true to +Quebec. + +From this short ceremony the Prince drove through the quaint streets to +the Citadel. In the lower town under the rock his way led through a +quarter that might well stage a Stanley Weyman romance. It is a +quarter where, between high-shouldered, straight-faced houses, run the +narrowest of streets, some of them, like Sous le Cap, so cramped that +it is merely practical to use windows as the supports for +clothes-lines, and to hang the alleys with banners of drying washing. + +In these cramped streets named with the names of saints, are sudden +little squares, streets that are mere staircases up to the cliff-top, +and others that deserve the name of one of them, The Mountain. In +these narrow canyons, through which the single-decked electric trams +thunder like mammoths who have lost their way, are most of the +commercial houses and nearly all the mud of the city. + +At the end of this olden quarter, merging from the very air of +antiquity in the streets, Quebec, with a characteristic Canadian +gesture, adopts modernity. That is the vivid thing about the city. It +is not merely historical: it is up-to-date. It is not merely the past, +but it is the future also. At the end of the old, cramped streets +stands Quebec's future--its docks. + +These great dockyards at the very toe of the cape are the latest things +of their kind. They have been built to take the traffic of tomorrow as +well as today. Greater ships than those yet built can lie in safe +water alongside the huge new concrete quays. Great ships can go into +dry dock here, or across the water in the shipyards of Levis. They +even build or put together ships of large tonnage, and while we were +there, there were ships in half sections; by themselves too big to be +floated down from the lakes through the locks, they had come down from +the building slips in floatable halves to be riveted together in Quebec. + +A web of railways serves these great harbour basins, and the latest +mechanical loading gear can whip cargo out of ships or into them at +record speed and with infinite ease. Huge elevators--one concrete +monster that had been reared in a Canadian hustle of seven days--can +stream grain by the million tons into holds, while troops, passengers +and the whole mechanics of human transport can be handled with the +greatest facility. + +The Prince went up the steep cobbled street of The Mountain under the +grey, solid old masonry of the Battery that hangs over the town in +front of Laval University, that with the Archbishop's palace looks like +a piece of old France translated bodily to Canada. + +So he came to the big, green Place des Armes, not now a place of arms, +and at that particular moment not green, but as thick as a gigantic +flower-bed with the pretty dresses of pretty women--and there is all +the French charm in the beauty of the women of Quebec--and with the +khaki and commonplace of soldiers and civilians. A mighty and +enthusiastic crowd that did not allow its French accent to hinder the +shout of welcome it had caught up from the throng that lined the slopes +of The Mountain. + +From this point the route twisted to the right along the Grande Allee, +going first between tall and upright houses, jalousied and severe +faced, to where a strip of side road swung it left again, and up hill +to the Citadel, where His Royal Highness lived during his stay. + +From the Place des Armes the profile of the town pushes back along the +heights to the peak on which is the Citadel, a squat and massive +structure that seems to have grown rather than to have been built from +the living rock upon which it is based. + +Between the Citadel and the Place des Armes there is a long, grey stone +wall above the green glacis of the cliff. It has the look of a +military wall, and it is not a military wall. It supports merely a +superb promenade, Dufferin Terrace, a great plank walk poised sheer +above the river, the like of which would be hard to equal anywhere. On +this the homely people of Quebec take the air in a manner more +sumptuous than many of the most aristocratic resorts in Europe. + +At the eastern end of this terrace, and forming the wing of the Place +des Armes, is the medieval structure of the Chateau Frontenac, a +building not really more antique than the area of hotels _de luxe_, of +which it is an extremely fine example, but so planned by its designers +as to fit delightfully into the antique texture of the town. + +Below and shelving away eastward again is the congested old town, +through which the Prince had come, and behind Citadel and promenade, +and stretching over the plateau of the cape, is a town of broad and +comely streets, many trees and great parks as modern as anything in +Canada. + +That night the big Dufferin Terrace was thronged by people out to see +the firework display from the Citadel, and to watch the illuminations +of the city and of the ships down on the calm surface of the water. It +was rather an unexpected crowd. There were the sexes by the thousands +packed together on that big esplanade, listening to the band, looking +at the fireworks and lights, the whole town was there in a holiday +mood, and there was not the slightest hint of horseplay or disorder. + +The crowd enjoyed itself calmly and gracefully; there were none of +those syncopated sounds or movements which in an English crowd show +that youth is being served with pleasure. The quiet enjoyment of this +good-tempered and vivacious throng is the marked attitude of such +Canadian gatherings. I saw in other towns big crowds gathered at the +dances held in the street to celebrate the Prince's visit. Although +thousands of people of all grades and tempers came together to dance or +to watch the dancing, there was never the slightest sign of rowdyism or +disorder. + +On this and the next two nights Quebec added to its beauty. All the +public buildings were outlined in electric light, so that it looked +more than ever a fairy city hanging in the air. The cruisers in the +stream were outlined, deck and spar and stack, in light, and _Renown_ +had poised between her masts a bright set of the Prince of Wales's +feathers, the lights of the whole group of ships being mirrored in the +river. On Friday _Renown_ gave a display of fireworks and +searchlights, the beauty of which was doubled by the reflections in the +water. + + +III + +Friday and Saturday (August 22 and 23) were strenuous days for the +Prince. He visited every notable spot in the brilliant and curious +town where one spoke first in French, and English only as an +afterthought; where even the blind beggar appeals to the charitable in +two languages; where the citizens ride in up-to-date motor-cars and the +visitors in the high-slung, swing-shaped horse calache; where the +traffic takes the French side of the road; where the shovel hats and +cassocks of priests are as commonplace as everyday; where the vivacity +of France is fused into the homely good-fellowship of the Colonial in a +manner quite irresistible. + +He began Friday in a wonderful crimson room in the Provincial +Parliament building, where he received addresses in French, and +answered them in the same tongue. + +It was a remarkable room, this glowing chamber set in the handsome +Parliament house that looks down over a sweep of grass, the hipped +roofs and the pinnacles of the town to the St. Lawrence. It was a +great room with a floor of crimson and walls of crimson and white. +Over the mellow oak that made a backing to the Prince's dais was a +striking picture of Champlain looking out from the deck of his tiny +sloop _The Gift of God_ to the shore upon which Quebec was to rise. + +The people in that chamber were not less colourful than the room +itself. Bright dresses, the antique robes of Les Membres du Conseil +Executif, the violet and red of clerics, with the blue, red and khaki +of fighting men were on the floor and in the mellow oak gallery. + +Two addresses were read to His Royal Highness, twice, first in French +and then in English, and each address in each language was prefaced by +his list of titles--a long list, sonorous enough in French, but with an +air of thirdly and lastly when oft repeated. One could imagine his +relief when the fourth Earl of Carrick had been negotiated, and he was +steering safely for the Lord of the Isles. A strain on any man, +especially when one of the readers' pince-nez began to contract some of +the deep feeling of its master, and to slide off at every comma, to be +thrust back with his ever-deepening emotion. + +The Prince answered in one language, and that French, and the surprise +and delight of his hearers was profound. They felt that he had paid +them the most graceful of compliments, and his fluency as well as his +happiness of expression filled them with enthusiasm. He showed, too, +that he recognized what French Canada had done in the war by his +reference to the Vingtdeuxieme Battalion, whose "conduite intrepide" he +had witnessed in France. It was a touch of knowledge that was +certainly well chosen, for the province of Quebec, which sent forty +thousand men by direct enlistment to the war, has, thanks to the +obscurantism of politics, received rather less than its due. + +From the atmosphere of governance the Prince passed to the atmosphere +of the seminary, driving down the broad Grand Allee to the University +of Laval, called after the first Bishop of Quebec and Canada. It has +been since its foundation not merely the fountain head of Christianity +on the American continent, but the armoury of science, in which all the +arts of forestry, agriculture, medicine and the like were put at the +service of the settler in his fight against the primitive wilds. + +In the bleached and severe corridors of this great building the Prince +examined many historic pictures of Canada's past, including a set of +photographs of his own father's visit to the city and university. He +also went from Laval to the Archbishop's Palace, where the Cardinal, a +humorous, wise, virile old prelate in scarlet, showed him pictures of +Queen Victoria and others of his ancestors, and stood by his side in +the Grand Saloon while he held a reception of many clerics, professors +and visitors. + +The afternoon was given to the battlefield, where he unfurled a Union +Jack to inaugurate the beautiful park that extends over the whole area. + +The beauty of this park is a very real thing. It hangs over the St. +Lawrence with a sumptuous air of spaciousness. Leaning over the +granite balustrade, one can look down on the tiny Wolfe's cove, where +three thousand British crept up in the blackness of the night to +disconcert the French commander. + +It is not a very imposing slope, and a modern army might take it in its +stride. Across the formal grass of the park itself the learned trace +the lines of England and of France. + +At the town end there is a slight hill above a dip. The British were +in the dip, France was on the hill. That hill lost the battle. It +placed the French between the British and the guns of the Citadel in +days when there was neither aerial observation nor indirect fire. + +A wind, as on the day of the battle, was blowing while the Prince was +on the field. The British fired one volley, and the smoke from their +black powder was blown into the faces of the French. Bewildered by the +dense cloud, uncertain of what was in the heart of it, the French broke +and fled. In twenty minutes Canada was won. + +There is a plain monument to mark the exact spot where Wolfe fell; the +Prince placed a wreath upon it, as he had placed wreaths on the +monuments of Champlain and Montcalm earlier, and as he did later at the +monument Aux Braves on the field of Foye, which commemorates the dead +of both races who fell in the battle when Murray, a year after Wolfe's +victory, endeavoured to loosen the grip the French besiegers were +tightening round Quebec, and was defeated, though he held the city. + +On the Plains of Abraham--it has no romantic significance, Abraham was +merely a farmer who owned the land at the time of the battle--French +and English were again gathered in force, but in a different manner. + +It was a bright and friendly gathering of Canadians, who no longer +permitted a difference of tongue to interfere with their amity. It was +also a gathering of men and women and children (Quebec is the province +of the quiverful), notably vigorous, well-dressed and prosperous. + +The thing to remark here, as well as in all the gatherings of the +people of this city, was the absence of dinginess and dowdiness that +goes with poverty. In the great mass of stone houses, pretty brick and +wood villas, and apartment "houses," the upper flats of which are +reached by curving iron Jacob stairways, that make habitable Quebec +there are patches of cramped wooden houses, each built under the +architectural stimulus of the packing-case, though rococo little +porches and scalloped roofs add a wedding-cake charm to the poverty of +size and design. But though there are these small but not mean houses, +there appear to be no poor people. + +All those on the Plains had an independent and self-supporting air (as, +indeed, every person has in Canada), and they gave the Prince a +reception of a hearty and affable kind, as he declared this fine park +the property of the city, and made the citizens free of its historic +acreage for all time. + +From the Plains His Royal Highness went by car to the huge new railway +bridge that spans the St. Lawrence a few miles above the town. It was +a long ride through comely lanes, by quiet farmsteads and small +habitant villages. At all places where there was a nucleus of human +life, men and women, but particularly the children, came out to their +fences with flags to shout and wave a greeting. + +At the bridge station were two open cars, and on to the raised platform +of one of these the Prince mounted, while "movie" men stormed the other +car, and a number of ordinary human beings joined them. This special +train was then passed slowly under the giant steel girders and over the +central span, which is longer than any span the Forth Bridge can boast. +As the train travelled forward the Prince showed his eagerness for +technical detail, and kept the engineers by his side busy with a stream +of questions. + +The bridge is not only a superb example of the art of the engineer, +perhaps the greatest example the twentieth century can yet show, but it +is a monument to the courage and tenacity of man. Twice the great +central span was floated up-stream from the building yards, only to +collapse and sink into the St. Lawrence at the moment it was being +lifted into place. Though these failures caused loss of life, the +designers persisted, and the third attempt brought success. + +There was, one supposes, a ceremonial idea connected with this +function. His Royal Highness certainly unveiled two tablets at either +end of the bridge by jerking cords that released the covering Union +Jack. But this ritual was second to the ceremonial of the "movies." + +The "movies" went over the top in a grand attack. They put down a box +barrage close up against the Prince's platform, and at a distance of +two feet, not an inflection of his face, nor a movement of his head, +escaped the unwinking and merciless eye of the camera. + +The "movie" men declare that the Prince is the best "fil-lm" actor +living, since he is absolutely unstudied in manner; but it would have +taken a Douglas Fairbanks of a super-breed to remain unembarrassed in +the face of that cold line of lenses thrust close up to his medal +ribbons. And in the film he shows his feelings in characteristic +movements of lips and hands. + +The men who did not take movies, the men with plain cameras, the +"still" men, were also active. Not to be outdone by their comrades +with the machine-gun action, they sprang from the car at intervals, ran +along the footway, and snapped the party as the train drew level with +them. + +It was a field day for cameras, but enthusiastic people also counted. +Men and women had clambered up the hard, stratified rock of the +cuttings that carry the line to the bridge, and they were also standing +under the bridge on the slopes, and on the flats by the river. They +were cheering, and--yes, they were busy with their cameras +also--cameras cannot be evaded in Canada, even in the wilds. + +One had the impression, from the difficult perches on which people were +to be found, that wherever the Prince would go in Canada, to whatever +lonely or difficult spot his travels would lead him, he would always +find a Canadian man, and possibly a Canadian woman standing waiting or +clinging to precarious holds, glad to be there, so long as he (or she) +had breath to cheer and a free hand to wave a flag. And this +impression was confirmed by the story of the next months. + + +IV + +Saturday, August 23, was supposed to give His Royal Highness the +half-day holiday which is the due of any worker. That half day was +peculiarly Canadian. + +The business of the morning was one of singular charm. The Prince +visited the Convent of the Ursulines, to which in the old days wounded +Montcalm was taken, and in whose quiet chapel his body lies. + +The nuns are cloistered and do not open their doors to visitors, but on +this day they welcomed the Prince with an eagerness that was altogether +delightful. They showed him through their serene yet bare reception +rooms, and with pride placed before him the skull of Montcalm, which +they keep in their recreation room, together with a host of historic +documents dealing with the struggles of those distant days. + +The party was taken through the nuns' chapel, and sent on with smiles +to the public chapel to look on Montcalm's tomb, originally a hole in +the chapel fabric torn by British shells. The nuns could not go into +that chapel. "We are cloistered," they told us. + +These child-like nuns, with their serene and smiling faces, were +overjoyed to receive His Royal Highness and anxious to convey to him +their good will. + +"We cannot go to England--we cannot leave our house--but our hearts are +always with you, and there are none more loyal than us, and none more +earnest in teaching loyalty to all the girls who come to us to study. +Yes, we teach it in French, but what does that matter? We can express +the Canadian spirit just as well in that language." So said a very +vivid and practical little nun to me, and she was anxious that England +should realize how dear they felt the bond. + +The Prince's afternoon "off" was spent out of Quebec at the beautiful +village of St. Anne's Beaupre, where, set in lovely surroundings, there +is a miraculous shrine to St. Anne. The Prince visited the beautiful +basilica, and saw the forest of sticks and crutches left behind as +tokens of their cure by generations of sufferers. + +News of his visit had got abroad, and when he left the shrine in +company of the clergy, he was surrounded by a big crowd who restricted +all movement by their cheerful importunity. A local photographer, +rising to the occasion, refused to let His Royal Highness escape until +he had taken an historic snap. Not merely a snap of the Prince and the +priests with him, but of as many of the citizens of Beaupre as he could +get into a wide angle lense. This was a tremendous occasion, and he +yelled at the top of his voice to the people to: + +"Come and be photographed with the Prince. Come and be taken with your +future King." + +Taken with their future King, the people of Beaupre were entirely +disinclined to let him go. They crowded round him so that it was only +force that enabled his entourage to clear a tactful way to his car. +Even in the car the driver found himself faced with all the +opportunities of the chauffeur of the Juggernaut with none of his +convictions. The car was hemmed in by the crowd, and the crowd would +not give way. + +It is possible that at this jolly crisis somebody mentioned the +Prince's need for tea, and at the mention of this solemn and +inexplicable British rite the crowd gave way, and the car got free. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE MOBILE HOTEL DE LUXE: THE ROYAL TRAIN + +I + +On Sunday, August 24th, His Royal Highness came under the sway of that +benevolent despot in the Kingdom of Efficiency, the Canadian Pacific +Railway. + +He motored out along a road that Quebec is proud of, because it has a +reputable surface for automobiles in a world of natural earth tracks, +through delightful country to a small station which [had?] a Gallic +air, Three Rivers. Here he boarded the Royal Train. + +It was a remarkable train. Not merely did its construction, length, +tonnage and ultimate mileage set up new records, but in it the +idealist's dream of perfection in travelling came true. + +It might be truer to say the Royal Party did not take the train, it +took them. As each member of the party mounted into his compartment, +or Pullman car, he at once ceased to concern himself with his own +well-being. To think of oneself was unnecessary. The C.P.R. had not +only arranged to do the thinking, but had also arranged to do it better. + +The external facts concerning the train were but a part of its wonder. +And the minor part. It was the largest train of its kind to accomplish +so great a single run--it weighed over a thousand tons, and travelled +nearly ten thousand miles. It was a fifth of a mile in length. Its +ten splendid cars were all steel. Some of them were ordinary sleepers, +some were compartment and drawing-room cars. Those for the Prince and +his Staff were sumptuous private cars with state-rooms, dining-rooms, +kitchens, bathrooms, and cosy observation rooms and platforms, +beautifully fitted and appointed. + +The train was a modern hotel strayed accidentally on to wheels. It had +its telephone system; its own electricity; its own individually +controlled central heat. It had a laundry service for its passengers, +and its valets always on the spot to renew the crease of youth in all +trousers. It had its own newspaper, or, rather, bulletin, by which all +on board learnt the news of the external world twice a day, no matter +in what wild spot the train happened to be. It had its dark-room for +photographers, its dispensary for the doctor and its untiring telegraph +expert to handle all wired messages, including the correspondents' +cables. It had its dining-rooms and kitchens and its staff of +first-class chefs, who worked miracles of cuisine in the small space of +their kitchen, giving over a hundred people three meals a day that no +hotel in London could exceed in style, and no hotel in England could +hope to equal in abundance. It carried baggage, and transferred it to +Government Houses or hotels, and transferred it back to its cars and +baggage vans in a manner so perfect that one came to look upon the +matter almost as a process of nature, and not as a breathless +phenomenon. + +It was the train _de luxe_, but it was really more than that. It was a +train handled by experts from Mr. A. B. Calder, who represented the +President of the Company, down to the cleaning boy, who swept up the +cars, and they were experts of a curious quality of their own. + +Whatever the Canadian Pacific Railway is (and it has its critics), +there can be no doubt that, as an organization, it captures the +loyalty, as it calls forth all the keenness and ability of its +servants. It is something that quickens their imagination and +stimulates their enthusiasm. There was something warm and invigorating +about the way each man set up within himself a counsel of +perfection--which he intended to exceed. Waiters, negro car porters, +brakemen, secretaries--every man on that staff of sixty odd determined +that _his_ department was going to be a living example, not of what he +could do, but of what the C.P.R. could do. + +The _esprit de corps_ was remarkable. Mr. Calder told us at the end of +the trip that as far as the staff working of the train was concerned he +need not have been in control. He had not issued a single order, nor a +single reprimand in the three months. The men knew their work +perfectly; they did it perfectly. + +When one thinks of a great organization animated from the lowest worker +to the President by so lively and extraordinarily human a spirit of +loyalty that each worker finds delight in improving on instructions, +one must admit that it has the elements of greatness in it. + +My own impression after seeing it working and the work it has done, +after seeing the difficulties it has conquered, the districts it has +opened up, the towns it has brought into being, is that, as an +organization, the Canadian Pacific Railway is great, not merely as a +trading concern, but as an Empire-building factor. Its vision has been +big beyond its own needs, and the Dominion today owes not a little to +the great men of the C.P.R., who were big-minded enough to plan, not +only for themselves, but also for all Canada. + +And the big men are still alive. In Quebec we had the good fortune to +meet Lord Shaughnessy, whose acute mind was the very soul of the C.P.R. +until he retired from the Presidency a short time ago, and Mr. Edward +W. Beatty, who has succeeded him. + +Lord Shaughnessy may be a retired lion, but he is by no means a dead +one. A quiet man of powerful silences, whose eyes can be ruthless, and +his lips wise. A man who appears disembodied on first introduction, +for one overlooks the rest of him under the domination of his head and +eyes. + +The best description of Mr. Beatty lies in the first question one wants +to ask him, which is, "Are you any relation to the Admiral?" + +The likeness is so remarkable that one is sure it cannot be accidental. +It is accidental, and therefore more remarkable. It is the Admiral's +face down to the least detail of feature, though it is a trifle +younger. There is the same neat, jaunty air--there is even the same +cock of the hat over the same eye. There is the same sense of compact +power concealed by the same spirit of whimsical dare-devilry. There is +the same capacity, the same nattiness, the same humanness. There is +the same sense of abnormality that a man looking so young should +command an organization so enormous, and the same recognition that he +is just the man to do it. + +Both these men are impressive. They are big men, but then so are all +the men who have control in the C.P.R. They are more than that, they +can inspire other men with their own big spirit. We met many heads of +departments in the C.P.R., and we felt that in all was the same +quality. Mr. Calder, as he began, "A. B." as he soon became, was the +one we came in contact with most, and he was typical of his service. + +"A. B." was not merely our good angel, but our good friend from the +first. Not merely did he smooth the way for us, but he made it the +jolliest and most cheery way in the world. He is a bundle of strange +qualities, all good. He is Puck, with the brain of an administrator. +The king of story tellers, with an unfaltering instinct for +organization. A poet, and a mimic and a born comedian, plus a will +that is never flurried, a diplomacy that never rasps, and a capacity +for the routine of railway work that is--C.P.R. A man of big heart, +big humanness, and big ability, whom we all loved and valued from the +first meeting. + +And, over all, he is a C.P.R. man, the type of man that organization +finds service for, and is best served by them; an example that did most +to impress us with a sense of the organization's greatness. + + +II + +If I have written much concerning the C.P.R., it is because I feel +that, under the personality of His Royal Highness himself, the success +of the tour owes much to the care and efficiency that organization +exerted throughout its course, and also because for three months the +C.P.R. train was our home and the backbone of everything we did. If +you like, that is the chief tribute to the organization. We spent +three months confined more or less to a single carriage; we travelled +over all kinds of line and country, and under all manner of conditions; +and after those three long months we left the train still impressed by +the C.P.R., still warm in our friendship for it--perhaps, indeed, +warmer in our regard. + +There are not many railways that could stand that continuous test. + +Of the ten cars in the train, the Prince of Wales occupied the last, +"Killarney," a beautiful car, eighty-two feet long, its interior +finished in satinwood, and beautifully lighted by the indirect system. +The Prince had his bedroom, with an ordinary bed, dining-room and +bathroom. There was a kitchen and pantry for his special chef. The +observation compartment was a drawing-room with settees, and arm-chairs +and a gramophone, while in addition to the broad windows there was a +large, brass-railed platform at the rear, upon which he could sit and +watch the scenery (search-lights helped him at night), and from which +he held a multitude of impromptu receptions. + +"Cromarty," another beautiful car, was occupied by the personal Staff; +"Empire," "Chinook" and "Chester" by personal and C.P.R. staff. The +next car, "Canada," was the beautiful dining car; "Carnarvon," the +next, a sleeping car, was occupied by the correspondents and +photographers; "_Renown_" belonged to the particularly efficient C.P.R. +police, who went everywhere with the train, and patrolled the track if +it stopped at night. In front of "Renown" were two baggage cars with +the 225 pieces of baggage the retinue carried. + +At Three Rivers a very cheery crowd wished His Royal Highness _bon +voyage_. The whole town turned out, and over-ran the pretty grass plot +that is a feature in every Canadian station, in order to see the Prince. + +We ran steadily down the St. Lawrence through pretty country towards +Toronto. All the stations we passed were crowded, and though the train +invariably went through at a good pace that did not seem to matter to +the people, though they had come a long distance in order to catch just +this fleeting glimpse of the train that carried him. + +Sometimes the train stopped for water, or to change engines at the end +of the section of 133 miles. The people then gathered about the rear +of the train, and the Prince had an opportunity of chatting with them +and shaking hands with many. + +At some halts he left the train to stroll on the platform, and on these +occasions he invariably talked with the crowd, and gave "candles" to +the children. There was no difficulty at all in approaching him. At +one tiny place, Outremont, one woman came to him, and said that she +felt she already knew him, because her husband had met him in France. +That fact immediately moved the Prince to sympathy. Not only did he +spend some minutes talking with her, but he made a point of referring +to the incident in his speech at Toronto the next day, to emphasize the +feeling he was experiencing of having come to a land that was almost +his own, thanks to his comradeship with Canadians overseas. + +Not only during the day was the whole route of the train marked by +crowds at stations, and individual groups in the countryside, but even +during the night these crowds and groups were there. + +As we swept along there came through the windows of our sleeping-car +the ghosts of cheers, as a crowd on a station or a gathering at a +crossing saluted the train. The cheer was gone in the distance as soon +as it came, but to hear these cheers through the night was to be +impressed by the generosity and loyalty of these people. They had +stayed up late, they had even travelled far to give one cheer only. +But they had thought it worth while. Montreal, which we passed through +in the dark, woke us with a hearty salute that ran throughout the +length of our passing through that great city, and so it went on +through the night and into the morning, when we woke to find ourselves +slipping along the shores of Lake Ontario and into the outskirts of +Toronto. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE CITY OF CROWDS. TORONTO: ONTARIO + +I + +Toronto is a city of many names. You can call it "The Boston of +Canada," because of its aspiration to literature, the theatre and the +arts. You can call it "The Second City of Canada," because the fact is +incontestable. You can call it "The Queen City," because others do, +though, like the writer, you are unable to find the reason why you +should. You can say of it, as the Westerners do, "Oh--_Toronto_!" with +very much the same accent that the British dramatist reserves for the +censor of plays. But though it already had its host of names, Toronto, +to us, was the City of Crowds. + +Toronto has interests and beauties. It has its big, natural High Park. +It has its charming residential quarters in Rosedale and on The Hill. +It has its beautiful lagoon on the lakeside. It has its Yonge Street, +forty miles straight. It has the tallest building in the Empire, and +some of the largest stores in the Empire. It is busy and bright and +brisk. But we found we could not see it for crowds. Or, rather, at +first we could not see it for crowds. Later a good Samaritan took us +for a pell-mell tour in a motor-car, and we saw a chauffeur's eye view +of it. Even then we saw much of it over the massed soft hats of Canada. + +We had become inured to crowds. We had seen big, bustling, eager, +hearty, good-humoured throngs from St. John's to Quebec. But even that +hardening had not proofed us against the mass and enthusiastic violence +of the crowd that Toronto turned out to greet the Prince, and continued +to turn out to meet him during the days he was there. + +On the early morning of Monday, August 25th, in that weather that was +already being called "Prince of Wales' weather," the Prince stepped +"ashore" at the Government House siding, outside Toronto. There was a +skirmishing line of the waiting city flung out to this distant +station--including some go-ahead flappers with autograph books to sign. +It was, however, one of those occasions when the Prince was considered +to be wrapped in a robe of invisibility until he had been to Government +House and started from there to drive inland to the city and its +receptions. + +A quick automobile rush--and, by the way, it will be noticed that the +Continent of Hustle always uses the long word for the short, +"automobile" for "car," "elevator" for "lift," and so on--to the +Government House, placed the Prince on a legal footing, and he was +ready to enter the city. + +Government House is remarkable for the fact that it grew a garden in a +single night. It is a comely building of rough-dressed stone, standing +in the park-like surroundings of the Rosedale suburb, but in the +absence of princes its forecourt is merely a desert of grey stone +granules. When His Royal Highness arrived it was a garden of an almost +brilliant abundance. There were green lawns, great beds packed +wantonly with the brightest flowers, while trees, palms and flowering +shrubs crowded the square in luxuriance. A marvel of a garden. A +realist policeman, after his first gasp, bent down to examine the green +of the lawn, and rose with a Kipps expression on his face and with the +single word "Fake" on his lips. + +The vivid lawn was green cocoanut matting, the beds were cunning +arrangements of flowers in pots, and from pots the trees and shrubs +flourished. It was a garden artificial and even more marvellous than +we had thought. + +The Prince rode through Rosedale to the town. The crowd began outside +Government House gates. It was a polite and brightly dressed crowd, +for it was drawn from the delightful houses that made islands in the +uninterrupted lawns that, with the graceful trees, formed the borders +of the winding roads through which he went. Rosedale was once forest +on the shores of the old Ontario Lake; the lake has receded three miles +and more, but the builders of the city have dealt kindly with the +forest, and have touched it as little as they could, so that the old +trees blend with the modern lawns to give the new homes an air of +infinite charm. + +As the Prince drove deeper into the city the crowds thickened, so that +when he arrived in the virile, purposeful commercial streets, the +sidewalks could no longer contain the mass. They are broad and +efficient streets, striking through the town arrow-straight, and giving +to the eye superb vistas. But broad though they were, they could not +accommodate sightseeing Toronto, and the crowd encroached upon the +driveway, much to the disgust of many little boys, who, with their +race's contempt for death by automobile, were running or cycling beside +the Royal car in their determination to get the maximum of Prince out +of a short visit. + +The crowd went upward from the roadway also. We had come into our +first city of sky-climbing buildings. One of these shoots up some +twenty stories, but though this is the tallest "yet," it is surrounded +by some considerable neighbours that give the streets great ranges +upwards as well as forward. The windows of these great buildings were +packed with people, and through the canopy of flags that fluttered on +all the route they sent down their cheers to join the welcome on the +ground floor. + +It was through such crowds that the Prince drove to a greater crowd +that was gathered about the Parliament Buildings. + + +II + +The site of the Provincial Parliament Buildings is, as with all these +Western cities, very beautifully planned. It is set in the gracious +Queen's Park, that forms an avenue of green in the very heart of the +town. About the park are the buildings of Toronto University, and the +avenue leads down to the dignified old law schools at Osgoode Hall. +The Canadians show a sense of appropriate artistry always in the +grouping of their public buildings--although, of course, they have had +the advantage of beginning before ground-rents and other interests grew +too strong for public endeavour. + +The Parliament Buildings are of a ruddy sandstone, in a style slightly +railway-station Renaissance. They were draped with flags down to the +vivid striped platform before the building upon which the reception was +held. Great masses of people and many ranks of soldiers filled the +lawns before the platform, while to the right was a great flower-bed of +infants. A grand-stand was brimming over with school-kiddies ready to +cheer at the slightest hint, to sing at command, and to wave flags at +all times. + +It was a bustling reception from Toronto as parliamentary capital of +Ontario, and from Toronto the town. It was packed full of speeches and +singing from the children and from a Welsh choir--and Canada flowers +Welsh choirs--and presentations from many societies, whose members, +wearing the long silk buttonhole tabs stamped with the gold title of +the guild or committee to which they belonged, came forward to augment +the press on the platform. + +These silk tabs are an insignia of Canadian life. The Canadians have +an infinite capacity for forming themselves into committees, and clubs, +and orders of stout fellows, and all manner of gregarious associations. +And when any association shows itself in the sunlight, it distinguishes +itself by tagging its members with long, coloured silk tabs. We never +went out of sight of tabs on the whole of our trip. + +From the Parliament Buildings the Prince drove through the packed town +to the Exhibition ground. We passed practically through the whole of +the city in these two journeys, travelling miles of streets, yet all +the way the mass of people was dense to a remarkable degree. Toronto, +we knew, was supposed to have a population of 500,000 people, but long +before we reached the end of the drive we began to wonder how the city +could possibly keep up the strength on the pavements without running +out of inhabitants. It not only kept it up, but it sprang upon us the +amazing sight of the Exhibition ground. + +In this long and wonderful drive there was but one stop. This was at +the City Hall, a big, rough stone building with a soaring campanile. +On the broad steps of the hall a host of wounded men in blue were +grouped, as though in a grand-stand. The string of cars swerved aside +so that the Prince could stop for a few minutes and chat with the men. + +His reception here was of overwhelming warmth; men with all manner of +hurts, men on crutches and in chairs stood up, or tried to stand up, to +cheer him. It was in the truest sense a meeting of comrades, and when +a one-legged soldier asked the Prince to pose for a photograph, he did +it not merely willingly, but with a jolly and personal friendliness. + +The long road to the Exhibition passed through the busy manufacturing +centre that has made Toronto famous and rich as a trading city, +particularly as a trading city from which agricultural machinery is +produced. The Exhibition itself is part of its great commercial +enterprise. It is the focus for the whole of Ontario, and perhaps for +the whole of Eastern Canada, of all that is up-to-date in the science +of production. In the beautiful grounds that lie along the fringe of +the inland sea that men have, for convenience' sake, called Lake +Ontario, and in fine buildings in those grounds are gathered together +exhibits of machinery, textiles, timber, seeds, cattle, and in fact +everything concerned with the work of men in cities or on prairies, in +offices or factories, farms or orchards. + +The Exhibition was breaking records for its visitors already, and the +presence of the Prince enabled it to break more. The vastness of the +crowd in the grounds was aweing. The gathering of people simply +obliterated the grass of the lawns and clogged the roads. + +When His Royal Highness had lunched with the administrators of the +Exhibition, he came out to a bandstand and publicly declared the +grounds opened. The crowd was not merely thick about the stand, but +its more venturesome members climbed up among the committee and the +camera-men, the latter working so strenuously and in such numbers that +they gave the impression that they not only photographed every +movement, but also every word the Prince uttered. + +The density of the crowd made retreat a problem. Police and Staff had +to resolve themselves into human Tanks, and press a way by inches +through the enthusiastic throng to the car. The car itself was +surrounded, and could only move at a crawl along the roads, and so slow +was the going and so lively was the friendliness of the people, that +His Royal Highness once and for all threw saluting overboard as a +gesture entirely inadequate, and gave his response with a waving hand. +The infection of goodwill, too, had caught hold of him, and not +satisfied with his attitude, he sprang up in the car and waved +standing. In this manner, and with one of his Staff holding him by the +belt, he drove through and out of the grounds. + +It was a day so packed with extraordinary crowds, that we +correspondents grew hopeless before them. We despaired of being able +to convey adequately a sense of what was happening; "enthusiasm" was a +hard-driven word that day and during the next two, and we would have +given the world to find another for a change. + +Since I returned I have heard sceptical people say that the stories of +these "great receptions" were vamped-up affairs, mere newspaper +manufacture. I would like to have had some of those sceptics in +Toronto with us on August 25th, 26th and 27th. It would have taught +them a very convincing and stirring lesson. + +The crowds of the Exhibition ground were followed by crowds at the +Public Reception, an "extra" which the Prince himself had added to his +program. This was held at the City Hall. It had all the +characteristics of these democratic and popular receptions, only it was +bigger. Policemen had been drawn about the City Hall, but when the +people decided to go in, the police mattered very little. They were +submerged by a sea of men and women that swept over them, swept up the +big flight of steps and engulfed the Prince in a torrent, every +individual particle of which was bent on shaking hands. It was a +splendidly-tempered crowd, but it was determined upon that handshake. +And it had it. It was at Toronto that, as the Prince phrased it, "My +right hand was 'done in.'" This was how Toronto did it in. + + +III + +The visit was not all strenuous affection. There were quiet backwaters +in which His Royal Highness obtained some rest, golfing and dancing. +One such moment was when on this day he crossed to the Yacht Club, an +idyllic place, on the sandspit that encloses the lagoon. + +This club, set in the vividly blue waters of the great lake, is a +little gem of beauty with its smooth lawns, pretty buildings and fine +trees. It is even something more, for every handful of loam on which +the lawns and trees grow was transported from the mainland to make +fruitful the arid sand of the spit. The Prince had tea on the lawn, +while he watched the scores of brisk little boats that had followed him +out and hung about awaiting his return like a genial guard of honour. + +There was always dancing in honour of the Prince, and always a great +deal of expectation as to who would be the lucky partners. His +partners, as I have said, had their photographs published in the papers +the next day. Even those who were not so lucky urged their cavaliers +to keep as close to him as possible on the ball-room floor, so every +inflexion of the Prince could be watched, though not all were so far +gone as an adoring young thing in one town (NOT Toronto), who hung on +every movement, and who cried to her partner in accents of awe: + +"I've heard him speak! I've heard him speak! He says 'Yes' just like +an ordinary man. Isn't it wonderful!" + +On Tuesday, the 25th, the Yacht Club was the scene of one of the +brightest of dances, following a very happy reunion between the Prince +and his comrades of the war. Some hundreds of officers of all grades +were gathered together by General Gunn, the C.O. of the District, from +the many thousands in Ontario, and these entertained the Prince at +dinner at the Club. It was a gathering both significant and +impressive. Every one of the officers wore not merely the medals of +Overseas service, but every one wore a distinction gained on the field. + +It was an epitome of Canada's effort in the war. It was a collection +of virile young men drawn from the lawyer's office and the farm, from +the desk indoors and avocations in the open, from the very law schools +and even the University campus. In the big dining-hall, hung with +scores of boards in German lettering, trench-signs, directing posts to +billets, drinking water and the like, that had been captured by the +very men who were then dining, one got a sense of the vivid capacity +and alertness that made Canada's contribution to the Empire fighting +forces so notable, and more, that will make Canada's contribution to +the future of the world so notable. + +There was no doubt, too, that, though these self-assured young men are +perfectly competent to stand on their own feet in all circumstances, +their visit to the Old Country--or, as even the Canadian-born call it, +"Home"--has, even apart from the lessons of fighting, been useful to +them, and, through them, will be useful to Canada. + +"Leaves in England were worth while," one said. "I've come back here +with a new sense of values. Canada's a great country, but we _are_ a +little in the rough. We can teach you people a good many things, but +there are a good many we can learn from you. We haven't any tradition. +Oh, not all your traditions are good ones, but many are worth while. +You have a more dignified social sense than we have, and a political +sense too. And you have a culture we haven't attained yet. You've +given us not a standard--we could read that up--but a liking for social +life, bigger politics, books and pictures and music, and all that sort +of thing that we had missed here--and been quite unaware that we had +missed." + +And another chimed in: + +"That's what we miss in Canada, the theatres and the concerts and the +lectures, and the whole boiling of a good time we had in London--the +big sense of being Metropolitan that you get in England, and not here. +Well, not yet. We were rather prone to the parish-pump attitude before +the war, but going over there has given us a bigger outlook. We can +see the whole world now, you know. London's a great place--it's an +education in the citizenship of the universe." + +That's a point, too. London and Britain have been revealed to them as +friendly places and the homes of good friends--though I must make an +exception of one seaport town in England which is a byword among +Canadians for bad treatment. England was the place where a multitude +of people conspired to give the Canadians a good time, and they have +returned with a practical knowledge of the good feeling of the English, +and that is bound to make for mutual understanding. + +It must not be thought that Toronto,--or other cities in Canada--is +without theatres or places of recreation. There are several good +theatres and music-halls in Toronto--more in this city than in any +other. These theatres are served by American companies of the No. 1 +touring kind. English actors touring America usually pay the city a +visit, while quite frequently new plays are "tried out" here before +opening in New York. + +But apart from a repertory company, which plays drawing-room comedies +with an occasional dash of high-brow, Toronto and Canada depend on +outside, that is American, sources for the theatre, and though the +standard of touring companies may be high in the big Eastern towns, it +is not as high as it should be, and in towns further West the shows are +of that rather streaky nature that one connects with theatrical +entertainment at the British seaside resorts. + +The immense distances are against theatrical enterprises, of course, +but in spite of them one has a feeling that the potentialities of the +theatre, as with everything in the Dominion, are great for the right +man. + +Toronto is better off musically than other cities, but even Toronto +depends very much for its symphony and its vocal concerts, as for its +opera, on America. Music is intensely popular, and gramophones, pianos +and mechanical piano-players have a great sale. + +The "movie" show is the great industry of amusement all over the +Dominion. Even the smallest town has its picture palace, the larger +towns have theatres which are palaces indeed in their appointments, and +a multitude of them. In many the "movie" show is judiciously blended +with vaudeville turns, a mixture which seems popular. + +Book shops are rarities. In a great town such as Toronto I was only +able to find one definite book shop, and that not within easy walk of +my hotel. Even that shop dealt in stationery and the like to help +things along, though its books were very much up to date, many of them +(by both English and American authors) published by the excellent +Toronto publishing houses. All the recognized leaders among English +and American writers, and even Admirals and Generals turned writers, +were on sale, though the popular market is the Zane Grey type of book. + +The reason there are few book shops is that the great stores--like +Eaton's and Simpson's--have book departments, and very fine ones too, +and that for general reading the Canadians are addicted to newspapers +and magazines, practically all the latter American, which are on sale +everywhere, in tobacconists, drug stores, hotel loggias, and on special +street stands generally run by a returned soldier. English papers of +any sort are rarely seen on sale, though all the big American dailies +are commonplace, while only occasionally the _Windsor_, _Strand_, +_London_, and the new _Hutchinson's Magazines_ shyly rear British heads +over their clamorous American brothers. + + +IV + +Tuesday, August 26th, was a day dedicated to quieter functions. The +Prince's first visits were to the hospitals. + +Toronto, which likes to do things with a big gesture, has attacked the +problem of hospital building in a spacious manner. The great General +Hospital is planned throughout to give an air of roominess and breadth. + +The Canadians certainly show a sense of architecture, and in building +the General Hospital they refused to follow the Morgue School, which +seems to be responsible for so many hospital and primary school +designs. The Toronto Hospital is a fine building of many blocks set +about green lawns, and with lawns and trees in the quadrangles. The +appointments are as nearly perfect as men can make them, and every +scientific novelty is employed in the fight against wounds and +sickness. Hospitals appear most generally used in Canada, people of +all classes being treated there for illnesses that in Britain are +treated at home. + +His Royal Highness visited and explored the whole of the great General +Hospital, stopping and chatting with as many of the wounded soldiers +who were then housed in it, as time allowed. He also paid a visit to +the Children's Hospital close by. This was an item on the program +entirely his own. Hearing of the hospital, he determined to visit it, +having first paved the way for his visit by sending the kiddies a large +assortment of toys. This hospital, with its essentially modern clinic, +was thoroughly explored before the Prince left in a mist of cheers from +the kiddies, whose enormous awe had melted during the acquaintance. + +The afternoon was given over to the colourful ceremony in the +University Hall, when the LL.D. degree of the University was bestowed +upon His Royal Highness. In a great, grey-stone hall that stands on +the edge of the delightful Queen's Park, where was gathered an audience +of dons in robes, and ladies in bright dresses, with naval men and +khaki men to bring up the glowing scheme, the Prince in rose-coloured +robes received the degree and signed the roll of the University. Under +the clear light of the glass roof the scene had a dignity and charm +that placed it high among the striking pictures of the tour. + +It was a quieter day, but, nevertheless, it was a day of crowds also, +the people thronging all the routes in their unabatable numbers, +showing that _crescendo_ of friendliness which was to reach its +greatest strength on the next day. + + +V + +The crowds of Toronto, already astonishing, went beyond mere describing +on Wednesday, August 27th. + +There were several functions set down for this day; only two matter: +the review of the War Veterans in the Exhibition grounds, and the long +drive through the residential areas of the city. + +Some hint of what the crowd in the Exhibition grounds was like was +given to us as we endeavoured to wriggle our car through the masses of +other automobiles, mobile or parked, that crowded the way to the +grounds. We had already been impressed by the almost inordinate number +of motor-cars in Canada: the number of cars in Toronto terrified us. + +When we looked on the thousands of cars in the city we knew why the +streets _had_ to be broad and straight and long. In no other way could +they accommodate all that rushing traffic of the swift cars and the +lean, torpedo-like trams that with a splendid service link up the heart +of the town with the far outlying suburbs. And even though the streets +are broad the automobile is becoming too much for them. The habit of +parking cars on the slant and by scores on both sides of the roadway +(as well as down side roads and on vacant "lots") is already +restricting the carriage-way in certain areas. + +From the cars themselves there is less danger than in the London +streets, for the rules of the road are strict, and the citizens keep +them strictly. No car is allowed to pass a standing tram on the same +side, for example, and that rule with others is obeyed by all drivers. + +The multitude of cars, mainly open touring cars of the Buick and +Overland type, though there are many Fords, or "flivvers," and an +occasional Rolls-Royce, Napier or Panhard, thickened as we neared the +Exhibition gates; and about them, in the side streets outside and in +the avenues inside, they were parked by thousands. + +They gave the meanest indication of the numbers of people in the +grounds. The lawns were covered with people. The halls of exhibits +were full of people. The Joy City, where one can adventure into +strange thrills from Coney Island, was full; the booths selling +buttered corn cob, toasted pea-nuts, ice cream soda, and the rest, had +hundreds of customers--and all these, we found, were the overflow. +They had been crowded out from the real show, and were waiting outside +in the hope of catching sight of the Prince as he made his round of the +Exhibition. + +The show ground of the Exhibition is a huge arena. It is faced by a +mighty grandstand, seating ten thousand people. Ten thousand people +were sitting: the imagination boggles at the computation of the number +of those standing; they filled every foothold and clung to every step +and projection. There were some--men in khaki, of course--who were +risking their necks high up on the iron roof of the stand. + +In front of the stand is a great open space, backed by patriotic +scenery, that acts as the stage for performances of the pageant kind. +It was packed so tightly with people that the movement of individuals +was impossible. On this ground the war veterans should have been drawn +up in ranks. In the beginning they were drawn up in ranks, but +civilians, having filled up every gangway and passage, overflowed on to +the field and filled that also. They were even clinging to the scenery +and perched in the trees. The minimum figure for that crowd was given +as fifty thousand. + +The reception given to the Prince was overwhelming; that is the +soberest word one can use. As he rode into the arena he was +immediately surrounded by a cheering and cheery mass of people, who cut +him off completely from his Staff. From the big stand there came an +outburst of non-stop Canadian cheering, an affair of whistles, rattles, +cheering and extempore noises, with the occasional bang of a firework, +that was kept alive during the whole of the ceremony, one section of +people taking it up when the first had tired itself out. + +With the crowd thick about him, His Royal Highness strove to force his +way to the platform on which he was to speak and to give medals, but +movement could only be accomplished at a slow pace. As he neared the +platform, indeed, movement ceased altogether, and Prince and crowd were +wedged tight in a solid mass. The pressure of the crowd seems to have +been too much for him, for there was a moment when it seemed he would +be thrown from his horse. A "movie" man on the platform came to his +rescue, and catching him round the shoulders pulled him into safety +over the heads of the crowd. + +On this platform and in a setting of enthusiasm that cannot be +described adequately, he spoke and gave medals to what seemed an +endless stream of brave Canadians. + +It was in the evening that he drove through the streets of the town, +and I believe I am right in saying that he gave up other more restful +engagements in order to undertake this ride that took several hours and +was not less than twenty miles in length. + +Toronto is a city in which the civic ideal is very strong, and the +concern not merely of the municipality but of all the citizens. It +believes in beautiful and up-to-date town planning, and the elimination +of slums, of which it now has not a single example. On his ride the +Prince saw every facet of the city's activity. + +He drove through the beautiful avenues of Rosedale, and through the not +so beautiful but more eclectic area of The Hill. He went through the +suburbs of charming, well-designed houses where the professional +classes have their homes, and into the big, comely residential areas +where the working people live. These areas are places of attractive +homes. The instinct for good building which is the gift of the whole +of America makes each house distinctive. There is never the hint of +slum ugliness or slum congestion about them. The houses merely differ +from the houses of the better-to-do in size, but, though they are +smaller, they have the same pleasant features, neat colonial-style +architecture, broad porches, unrailed lawns, and the rest. Inside they +have central heating, electric light (the Niagara hydro-power makes +lighting ridiculously cheap), baths, hardwood floors, and the other +labour-saving devices of modern construction. Most of the houses are +owned by the people who live in them, for the impulse towards purchase +by deferred payments is very strong in the Canadian. + +One of the brightest of the suburbs was built up almost entirely +through the energy of the British emigrant. These men working in the +city did not mind the "long hike" out into the country, to an area +where the street cars were not known. From farming lots they built up +a charming district where, now that street cars are more reasonable, +the Canadian is also anxious to live--when he can find a householder +willing to sell. + +The Prince's route also lay through the big shopping streets such as +Yonge ("street" is dropped in the West) and King. Here are the great +and brilliant stores, and here the thrusting, purposeful Canadian crowd +does its trading. There is a touch of determination in the Canadian on +the sidewalk which seems ruthlessness to the more easy-going Britisher, +yet it is not rudeness, and the Canadian is an extraordinarily orderly +person, with a discipline that springs from self rather than from +obedience to by-laws. It may be this that makes a Canadian crowd so +decorous, even at the moment when it seems defying the policemen. + +The Prince began his ride in the wonderful High Park, where Nature has +had very little coddling from man, and the results of such +non-interference are admirable, and in that park he at once entered +into the avenue of people that was to border the way for twenty miles. + +Again this crowd thickened at certain focal points. At the entrances +of different districts, in the streets of heavily populated areas, +about the cemetery where he planted a tree, it gathered in astonishing +mass, but the amazing thing was that no place on that twenty-mile run +was without a crowd. + +The whole of the city appeared to have come in to the street to cheer +and wave flags or handkerchiefs as he passed, just as the whole of the +little boy population appeared to have made up its mind to run or cycle +beside him for the whole of the journey despite all risks of cars +behind. + +The automobileocracy of the wealthy districts made grandstands of their +cars at every cross-road (and the Correspondents don't thank them for +this, for they tried to cut into the procession of cars after the +Prince had passed). The suburbans made their lawns into vantage +points, and grouped themselves on the curb edge, and the working +classes simply overflowed the road in solid masses of attractively +dressed women and children and Canadianly-dressed men. "Attractively +dressed" is a phrase to note; there are no rags or dowdiness in Canada. + +There was a carnival air in the greeting of that multitude on that long +ride, and the laughing and cheering affection of the crowds would have +called forth a like response even in a personality less sympathetic +than the Prince. It captured him completely. The formal salute never +had a chance. First his answer to the cheering was an affectionate +flag-waving, then the flag was not good enough and his hat came into +play, then he was standing up and waving, and finally he again climbed +on to the seat, and half standing, half sitting on the folded hood, +rode through the delighted crowds. With members of his Staff holding +on to him, he did practically the whole of the journey in this manner, +sitting reasonably only at quiet spots, only changing his hat from +right to left hand when one arm had become utterly exhausted. And all +the way the crowds lined the route and cheered. + +It was an astonishing spectacle, an amazing experience. It was the +just culmination of the three full days of profound and moving emotion +in which Toronto had shown how intense was its affection. + +The effect of such a demonstration on the Prince himself was equally +profound. One of the Canadian Generals who had been driving with His +Royal Highness on one of these occasions, told us that in the midst of +such a scene as this the Prince had turned to him and said, "Can you +wonder that my heart is full?" + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +OTTAWA + +I + +The run from Toronto to Ottawa, the city that is a province by itself +and the capital of Canada, was a night run, but there was, in the early +morning, a halt by the wayside so that the train should not arrive +before "skedule." The halt was utilized by the Prince as an +opportunity for a stroll, and by the more alert of the country people +as an opportunity for a private audience. + +At a tiny station called Manotick farming families who believe in +shaming the early bird, came and had a look at that royal-red monster +of all-steel coaches, the train, while the youngest of them introduced +the Prince to themselves. + +They came out across the fields in twos and threes. One little boy, in +a brimless hat, working overalls, and with a fair amount of his working +medium, plough land, liberally distributed over him--Huckleberry Finn +come to life, as somebody observed--worked hard to break down his +shyness and talk like a boy of the world to the Prince. A little girl, +with the acumen of her sex, glanced once at the train, legged it to her +father's homestead, and came back with a basket of apples, which she +presented with all the solemnity of an illuminated address on vellum. + +It was always a strange sight to watch people coming across the fields +from nowhere to gather round the observation platform of the train for +these impromptu audiences. Every part of Canada is well served by +newspapers, yet to see people drift to the right place at the right +time in the midst of loneliness had a touch of wonder about it. These +casual gatherings were, indeed, as significant and as interesting as +the great crowds of the cities. There was always an air of laughing +friendliness in them, too, that gave charm to their utter informality, +for which both the Prince and the people were responsible. + +From this apple-garnished pause the train pushed on, and passing +through the garden approach, where pleasant lawns and trees make a +boulevard along a canal which runs parallel with the railway, the +Prince entered Ottawa. + +We had been warned against Ottawa, mainly by Ottawa men. We had been +told not to expect too much from the Capital. As the Prince passed +from crowded moment to crowded moment in Toronto, the stock of Ottawa +slumped steadily in the minds of Ottawa's sons. They became insistent +that we must not expect great things from Ottawa. Ottawa was not like +that. Ottawa was the taciturn "burg." + +It was a city of people given over to the meditative, if sympathetic, +silence. It was an artificial city sprung from the sterile seeds of +legislature, and thriving on the arid food of Bills. It was a mere +habitation of governments. It was a freak city created coldly by an +act of Solomonic wisdom. Before 1858 it was a drowsy French portage +village, sitting inertly at the fork of the Ottawa and Rideau rivers, +concerning itself only with the lumber trade, almost inattentive to the +battle which Montreal and Quebec, Toronto and Kingston were fighting +for the political supremacy of the Dominion. Appealed to, to settle +this dispute, Queen Victoria decided all feuds by selecting what had +been the old Bytown, but which was now Ottawa, as the official capital +of the Dominion. + +Ottawa men pointed all this out to us, and declared that a town of such +artificial beginnings, and whose present population was made up of +civil servants and mixed Parliamentarians, could not be expected to +show real, red-blood enthusiasm. + +A day later those Ottawa men met us in the high and handsome walls of +the Chateau Laurier, and they were entirely unrepentant. They were +even proud of their false prophecy, and asked us to join them in a +grape-juice and soda--the limit of the emotion of good fellowship in +Canada (anyhow publicly) is grape-juice and soda--in order that they +might explain to us how they never for a moment doubted that Ottawa +would show the enthusiasm it had shown. + +"This is the Capital of Canada, sir. The home of our Parliament and +the Governor-General. It is the hub of loyalty and law. Of course it +would beat the band." + + +II + +I don't know that I want to quarrel with Ottawa's joke, for I am awed +by the way it brought it off. Perhaps it brought it off on the Prince +also. If so he must have had a shock, and a delightful one. For the +taciturnity of Ottawa is a myth. When the Prince entered it on the +morning of Thursday, August 28th, it was as silent as a whirlwind +bombardment, and as reticent as a cyclone. + +There were crowds, inevitably vast and cheering, with the invincible +good-humour of Canada. They captured him with a rush after he was +through with the formalities of being greeted by the Governor-General +and other notabilities, and had mounted a carriage behind the scarlet +outriders of Royalty. That carriage may have been more decorative but +it was no more purposeful than an automobile would be under the +circumstance. Even as the automobile, it went at a walking pace, with +the crowd pressing close around it. + +It passed up from the swinging, open triangle that fronts the Chateau +Laurier Hotel and the station, over the bridge that spans the Rideau +Canal, and along the broad road lined with administration buildings and +clubs, to the spacious grass quadrangle about which the massive +Parliament buildings group themselves. + +This quadrangle is a fit place to stage a pageant. It crowns a slow +hill that is actually a sharp bluff clothed in shrubs that hangs over +the startling blue waters of the Ottawa river. From the river the mass +of buildings poised dramatically on that individual bluff is a sharp +note of beauty. On the quadrangle, that is the city side, this note is +lost, and the rough stone buildings, though dignified, have a tough, +square-bodied look. Yet the massiveness of the whole grouping about +the great space of grass and gravel terraces certainly gives a large +air. They form the adequate wings and backcloth for pageants. + +And what happened that morning in the quadrangle was certainly a +pageant of democracy. + +There was a formal program, but on the whole the crowd eliminated that +for one of its own liking. It listened to addresses; it heard Sir +Robert Borden, and General Currie, only just returned to Canada, +express the Dominion's sense of welcome. Then it expressed it itself +by sweeping the police completely away, and surrounding the Prince in +an excited throng. + +In the midst of that crowd the Prince stood laughing and cheerful, +endeavouring to accommodate all the hands that were thrust towards him. +A review of Boy Scouts was timed to take place, but the crowd +"scratched" it. The neat wooden barricades and the neat ropes that +linked them up about a neat parade ground on the green were reduced by +the scientific process of bringing an irresistible force against a +movable body. Boy Scouts ceased to figure in the program and became +mere atoms in a mass that surrounded the Prince once more, and +expressed itself in the usual way now it had him to itself. + +As usual the Prince himself showed not the slightest disinclination for +fitting in with such an impromptu ceremony. He was as happy and in his +element as he always was when meeting everyday people in the closest +intimacy. It was a carnival of democracy, but one in which he played +as democratic a part as any among that throng. + +Yet though the Prince himself was the direct incentive to the +democratic exchanges that happened throughout the tour, there was no +doubt that the strain of them was exhausting. + +He possesses an extraordinary vitality. He is so full of life and +energy that it was difficult to give him enough to do, and this and the +fact that Canada's wonderful welcome had called into play a powerful +sympathetic response, led him to throw himself into everything with a +tireless zest. Nevertheless, the strenuous days at Toronto, followed +by this strenuous welcome at Ottawa, had made great demands upon him, +and it was decided to cut down his program that day to a Garden Party +in the charming grounds of Government House, and to shelve all +engagements for the next day, Friday, August 29th. + +The Prince agreed to the dropping of all engagements save one, and that +was the Public Reception at the City Hall on the 29th. It was the most +exacting of the events on the program, but he would not hear of its +elimination; the only alteration in detail that he made was that his +right hand, damaged at Toronto, should be allowed to rest, and that all +shaking should be done with the left. + +The Public Reception took place. The only invitation issued was one in +the newspapers. The newspapers said "The Prince will meet the City." +He did. The whole City came. It was again the most popular, as well +as the most stimulating of functions. And it followed the inevitable +lines. All manner of people, all grades of people in all conditions of +costume attended. Old ladies again asked him when he was going to get +married. Lumbermen in calf-high boots grinned "How do, Prince?" +Mothers brought babies in arms, most of them of the inarticulate age, +and of awful and solemn dignity of under one--it was as though these +Ottawa mothers had been inspired by the fine and homely loyalty of a +past age, and had brought their babies to be "touched" by a Prince, +who, like the Princes of old, was one with as well as being at the head +of the great British family. + +And with all the people were the little boys, eager, full of initiative +and cunning. Shut out by the Olympians, one group of little boys found +a strategic way into the Hall by means of a fire-escape staircase. +They had already shaken hands with the Prince before their flank +movement had been discovered and the flaw in the endless queue +repaired. That queue was never finished. Although, on the testimony +of the experts, the Prince shook hands at the rate of forty-five to the +minute, the time set aside for the reception only allowed of some 2,500 +filing before him. + +But those outside that number were not forgotten. The Prince came out +to the front of the hall to express his regret that Nature had proved +niggardly in the matter of hands. He had only one hand, and that +limited greetings, but he could not let them go without expressing his +delight to them for their warm and personal welcome. + +The disappointed ones recognized the limits of human endeavour. His +popularity was in no way lessened. They were content with having seen +"the cute little feller" as some of them called him, and made the most +of that experience by listening to, and swopping anecdotes about, him. + +Most of these centred round his accessibility. One typical story was +about a soldier, who, having met him in France, stepped out from the +crowd and hopped on to the footboard of his car to say "How d'y' do?" +The Prince gripped the khaki man's hand at once, and shaking it and +holding the soldier safely on the car with his other hand, he talked +while they went along. Then both men saluted, and the soldier hopped +off again and returned to the crowd. + +"It was just as if you saw me in an automobile and came along to tell +me something," said the man who told me the story. "There was no +king-stuff about it. And that's why he gets us. There isn't a sheet +of ice between us and him." + +Another man said to me: + +"If you'd told me a month ago that anybody was going to get this sort +of a reception I should have smiled and called you an innocent. I +would have told you the Canadians aren't built that way. We're a +hard-bitten, independent, irreverent breed. We don't go about shouting +over anybody.... But now we've gone wild over him. And I can't +understand it. He's our sort. He has no side. We like to treat men +as men, and that's the way he meets us." + + +III + +The long week-end, so strenuously begun, did, however, give the Prince +his opportunity for rest and recreation. He had a quiet time in the +home of the Governor-General at the beautiful Rideau Hall, the +attractive and spacious grounds of which are part of the untrammelled +expanses of the lovely Rockhill Park which hangs on a cliff and keeps +company with the shining Ottawa river for miles to the east of the +city. Apart from sightseeing, and golfing and dancing at the pretty +County Club across the Ottawa on the Hull side, he attempted no program +until Monday morning. + +Ottawa is not so virile in atmosphere as other of the Canadian cities. +Its artificial heart, the Parliament area, seems to absorb most of its +vitality. Its architecture is massed very effectively on the hill +whose steep cliffs in a spray of shrubs, rise at the knee of the two +rivers, the Ottawa and the Rideau, but outside the radius of the +Parliament buildings and the few, fine, brisk, lively streets that +serve them, the town fades disappointingly eastward, westward and +northward into spiritless streets of residences. + +The shores of the river are its chiefest attraction. Below the +Parliament bluff, there lies to the left a silver white spit in the +blue of the stream, that humps itself into a green and habitual mass on +which are a huddle of picturesque houses. These hide the spray of the +Chaudiere Falls, which stretch between this island and the Hull side. +Below the Falls is the picturesque mass of a lumber "boom," that +stretches down the river. + +To the extreme right beyond the locks of Rideau Canal, is the dramatic +lattice-work of a fine bridge, a bridge where railroad tracks, +tram-roads, automobile and footways dive under and over each other at +the entrances in order to find their different levels for crossing. +Beyond the bridge, and close against it is the jutting cliff that makes +the point of Major Hill Park. + +Between these two extremes, right and left, one faces a broad plain, +wooded and gemmed with painted houses, and ending in a smoke-blue +rampart of distant hills--all of it luminant with the curiously +clarified light of Canada. + +From Major Hill Park the riverside avenue goes east over the Rideau, +whose Falls are famous, but now obscured by a lumber mill; past Rideau +Hall to Rockhill Park. Rockhill Park is a delight. It has all the +joys of the primitive wilderness plus a service of street-cars. Its +promenade under the fine and scattered trees follows the lip of the +cliff along the Ottawa, and across the blue stream can be seen the +fillet of gold beach of the far side, and on the stream are red-sailed +boats, canoes, and natty gasolene launches. How far Rockhill Park +keeps company with the Ottawa, I do not know. A stroll of nearly two +hours brought me to a region of comely country houses, set in broad +gardens--but there was still park, and it seemed to go on for ever. + +There are two or three Golf Clubs (every town in Canada has a golf +course, or two, and sometimes they are municipal) over the river on the +Hull side--a side that was at the time of our visit a place of +pilgrimage from Ottawa proper. For it is in Quebec, where the "dry" +law is not implacable as that of Ottawa and Ontario. Hull is also +noted for its match factory and other manufactures that make up a very +good go-ahead industrial town, as well as for the fact that in matters +of contributions to Victory Loans, and that sort of thing, it can hold +its own with any city, though that city be five times its size. + +The chief of the Ottawa clubs on the Hull side is the County Club, an +idyllic place that has made the very best out of the rather rough +plain, and stands looking through the trees to the rapids of the Ottawa +river. It is a delightful club, built with the usual Western instinct +for apposite design, and, as with most clubs on the American Continent, +it is a revelation of comfort. Its dining-room is extraordinarily +attractive, for it is actually the spacious verandah of the building, +screened by trellis work into which is woven the leaves and flowers of +climbers. The ceiling is a canopy of flowers and green leaves, and to +dine here overlooking the lawns is to know an hour of the greatest +charm. + +The Prince was the guest here on several occasions, and dances were +given in his honour. For this purpose the lawn in front of the +verandah was squared off with a high arcadian trellis, and between the +pillars of this trellis were hung flowers and flags and lights, and all +the trees about had coloured bulbs amid their leaves, so that at night +it was an impression of Arcady as a modern Watteau might see it, with +the crispness and the beauty of the women and the vivid dresses of the +women giving the scene a quality peculiarly and vivaciously Canadian. + + +IV + +The circumstances of Monday, September 1st, made it an unforgettable +day. + +The chief ceremonies on the Prince's program were the laying of the +corner-stone of the new Parliament Buildings, and the inauguration of +the Victory Loan. But something else happened which made it momentous. +It happened to be Labour Day. + +It was the day when the whole of Labour in Canada--and indeed in +America--gave itself over to demonstrations. Labour held street +parades, field sports, and, I daresay, made speeches. It was the day +of days for the workers. + +There were some who thought that the program of Labour would clash with +the program of the Prince. That, to put it at its mildest, Labour on a +holiday would ignore the Royal ceremonials and emasculate them as +functions. The men who put forward these opinions were Canadians, but +they did not know Canada. It was Labour Day, and Labour made the day +for the Prince. + +When the Prince had learnt that it was the People's day, and that there +was to be a big sports meeting and gala in one of the Ottawa parks, he +had specially added another item to his full list of events, and made +it known that he would visit the park. + +Labour promptly returned the courtesy, and of its own free will turned +its parade into a guard of honour, which lined the fine Rideau and +Wellington streets for his progress between Government House and +Parliament Square. + +As far as I could gather Labour decided upon and carried this out +without consulting anybody. Streets were taken over without any +warning, and certainly without any fuss. There seemed to be few police +about, and there was no need for them. Labour took command of the show +in the interest of its friend the Prince, and would not permit the +slightest disorderliness. + +It was a remarkable sight. Early in the morning the Labour Parade +appeared along Rideau Street, mounting the hill to the Parliament +House. The processionists, each group in the costume of its calling, +walked in long, thin files on each side of the road, the line broken at +intervals by the trade floats. Floats are an essential part of every +American parade; they are what British people call "set-pieces," +tableaux built up on wagons or on automobiles; all of them are +ingenious and most of them are beautiful. + +These floats represented the various trades, a boiler-maker's shop in +full (and noisy) action; a stone-worker's bench in operation; the +framework of a wooden house on an auto, to show Ottawa what its +carpenters and joiners could do, and so on. With these marched the +workers, distinctively clothed, as though the old guilds had never +ceased. + +When the head of the procession reached the entrance of Parliament +Square it halted, and the line, turning left and right, walked towards +the curb, pressing back the thousands of sightseers to the pavement in +a most effective manner. They lined and kept the route in this fashion +until the Prince had passed. + +It was thus that the Prince drove, not between the ranks of an army of +soldiers, but through the ranks of the army of labour. Not khaki, but +the many uniforms of labour marked the route. There were firemen in +peaked caps, with bright steel grappling-hooks at their waists; +butchers in white blouses, white trousers, and white peaked caps; there +were tram-conductors, and railway-men, hotel porters, teamsters in +overalls, lumbermen in calf-high boots of tan, with their rough socks +showing above them on their blue jumper trousers, barbers, drug-store +clerks and men of all the trades. + +Above this guard of workers were the banners of the Unions, some in +English, some proclaiming in French that here was "La Fraternite Unie +Charpentiers et Menuisiers," and so on. + +It was a real demonstration of democracy. It was the spontaneous and +affectionate action of the everyday people, determined to show how +personal was its regard for a Prince who knew how to be one with the +everyday people. As a demonstration it was immensely more significant +than the most august item of a formal program. + +As the Prince rode through those hearty and friendly ranks in a State +carriage, and behind mounted troopers, the troopers and the trappings +seemed to matter very little indeed. The crowd that cheered and waved +flags--and sometimes spanners and kitchen pans--and the youth who waved +his gloves back and forth with all their own freedom from ceremony, +were the things that mattered. + +When, at the laying of the corner-stone a few minutes later, Sir Robert +Borden declared that, in repeating the act of his grandfather, who laid +the original corner-stone of Canada's Parliament buildings, as Prince +of Wales, in 1860, His Royal Highness was inaugurating a new era, the +happenings of just now seemed to lend conviction that indeed a new +phase of history had come into being. It was a phase in which throne +and people had been woven into a strong and sane democracy, begot of +the intimate personal sympathy, understanding and reliance the war had +brought about between rulers and people. + +The new buildings replace the old Parliament Houses burnt down in the +beginning of the war. The fire was attended by sad loss of life, and +one of those killed was a lady, who, having got out of the burning +building in safety, was suddenly overcome by a feminine desire to save +her furs. She re-entered the blazing building and was lost. + +The new building follows the design of the old, rather rigid structure, +though it has not the campanile. The porch where the stone was laid +was draped in huge hangings descending in grave folds from a sheaf of +flags; this with the facade of the grey stone building made a superb +backing to the great stage of terrace upon which the ceremony was +enacted. It had all the dignity, colour and braveness of a Durbar. + +The Victory Loan was inaugurated by the unfurling of a flag by the +Prince. He promised to give to each of the cities and villages (by the +way, I don't think the villages are villages in Canada; they are all +towns) who subscribed a certain percentage a replica of this special +flag. There was keen competition throughout the Dominion for these +flags, Canadians responding to the pictures on the hoardings with a +good will, in order to win a "Prince of Wales' Flag." + +Although the Prince was down to visit Hull at a specific time that +afternoon, he set aside an hour in order to pay his promised visit to +the Labour fete in Lansdowne Park. There was only time for him to +drive through the park, but the warm reception given to him made it an +action really worth while. + +Hull, which is inclined to sprawl as a town, was transformed by sun, +flags and people into a place of great attraction when the Prince +arrived. And if there was not any high pomp about the visit, there was +certainly prettiness. The pretty girls of Hull had transformed +themselves into representatives of all the races of the Entente, and as +the Prince stood on the scarlet steps of a dais outside the Town Hall, +each one of these came forward and made him a curtsy. + +Following them were four tiny girls, each holding a large bouquet, each +bouquet being linked to the others by broad red ribbons. They were the +jolliest little girls, but nervous, and after negotiating the terrors +of the scarlet stairs with discretion, the broad desert of the dais +undid them--or rather it didn't. At the moment of presentation, four +little girls, as well as four bouquets, were linked together by broad +red ribbons, until it was difficult to tell which was little girl and +which was bouquet. There were many untanglers present, but the chief +of them was the Prince of Wales himself. + +The Hull ceremonials were certainly as happy as any could be. The +little girls gave a homely touch, so did the people--match-factory +girls, brown-habited Franciscan friars, and the rest--who joined in the +public reception, but the crowning touch of this atmosphere was the +review of the war veterans. + +There were so many war veterans that Hull had no open space large +enough to parade them. Hull, therefore, had the happy idea of +reviewing them in the main street. Thus the everyday street was packed +with everyday men who had fought for the very homes about them. That +seemed to bring out the real purpose of the great war more than any +effort in propaganda could. + +It was in the main street, too, after receiving a loving cup from the +Great War Veterans, that the Prince spoke to these comrades of the war. +He stood up in his car and addressed them simply and directly, thanking +them and wishing them good luck, and there was something infinitely +suggestive in his standing up there so simply amid that pack of men, +and women wedged tightly between the houses of that homely street. + +Wedged is assuredly the right term, for it was with difficulty, and +only by infinite care, that the car was driven through the crowd and +away. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +MONTREAL: QUEBEC + +I + +Montreal was not actually in the schedule. In the program of the +Prince's tour it was put down as the last place he should visit. This, +in a sense, was fitting. It was proper that the greatest city in +Canada should wind up the visit in a befitting week. + +All the same, as the Prince himself said, he could not possibly start +for the West without making at least a call on Montreal, so he rounded +off his travels among the big cities of the Canadian East by spending +the inside of a day there. + +I wonder whether there was ever an inside of a day so crowded? I was +present when Manchester rushed President Wilson through a headlong +morning of events, and the Manchester effort was pedestrian beside +Montreal's. Even the Prince, who himself can put any amount of vigour +into life, must have found nothing in his experience to equal a +non-stop series of ceremonies carried on, at times, at a pace of +forty-miles an hour. + +That is what happened. Montreal was given about four hours of the +Prince. Montreal is a progressive city; it has an up-to-date and +"Do-It-Now" sense. Confronted at very short notice with those four +hours, it promptly set itself to make the most of them. It packed +about four days' program into them. + +It managed this, of course, by using motor-cars. The whole of the +American Continent, I have come to see, has a motor-car method of +thinking out and accomplishing things. Montreal certainly has. +Montreal met the Prince in an automobile mood, whipped him from the +train and entertained him on the top gear for every moment of his stay. + + +II + +He arrived at the handsome Windsor Station of the C.P.R. on the morning +of Tuesday, September 2nd, and was at once taken to a big, grey motor. +His guide, the Mayor of the city, then began to show him how time could +be annihilated and days compressed into hours. + +In those few hours he was shown not a section of the great commercial +city, not merely the City Hall, and a street or two, and a place +wherein to lunch. He was shown all Montreal. He was shown the city of +Montreal and the suburbs of Montreal, and verily I believe he was shown +every man, woman, and certainly every child of flag-wagging age, in +Montreal. + +And when he had seen the high, fine business blocks of Montreal, and +the pretty residential districts, where the well-designed homes seem to +stand on terrace over terrace of the smoothest, greenest grass, he was +shown the country-side about Montreal, the comely little habitant +parishes and holiday places that make outlying Montreal, and the +convents and the colleges where Montreal educates itself, the +Universities where that education is rounded off, and the long, wide, +straight speedways over which Montreal citizens get the best out of +their motor-car moments--and he was shown how it was done. + +And after showing him the rivers that make the hilly country about +Montreal beautiful, and the little pocket villages, he was swung back +out of the green of the summer country and shown more business blocks, +and just a hint of the great wharves and docks that fringe the St. +Lawrence and give the city its great industrial power and fame. Then +when they had shown him all the things that man usually sees only after +weeks of tenacious exploration, they spun him up a corkscrew drive that +goes first among charming houses, then among beautiful deep trees and +grass, and sat him down in a glowing pavilion on the top of this hill, +Mount Royal--the Montreal that gives the city its name--and gave him +lunch. + +There, as he ate, he looked down over one of the great views of the +world. Below him was the splendid vista of a splendid city; the mass +of tall offices, factories and the high fret of derricks and elevators +along the quays that covered the site of the Indian lodges of Hochelaga +that Jacques Cartier first found; the mass of spires from a thousand +churches, the swelling domes and hipped roofs of basilica and college +that had grown up from the old religious outpost, the nucleus of +Christianity in the wilds that was to convert the wilds, the Ville +Marie de Montreal that Maisonneuve had founded nearly three centuries +ago. + +And beyond this swinging breadth of city that was modernity, as well as +history, the Prince saw the grey, misty bosom of the St. Lawrence, +winding broad and significant beneath the distant hills. + + +III + +Truly it had been a mighty day, worthy of a mighty city. And a day not +merely big in achievement, but big in meaning also. In his drive the +Prince had covered no less than thirty-six miles in and about the city, +and on practically the whole of that great sweep there had been crowds, +and at times big crowds, all friendly and with an enthusiasm that was +French as well as Canadian. + +There were naturally tracts of road in the country where people did not +gather in force, but almost everywhere there were some. Sometimes it +was a family gathered by a pretty house draped with flags. Sometimes +it was a village, making up with the flags in their hands for the +hanging flags short notice had prevented their sporting. + +On an open stretch of road the Prince would come abreast of a convent +in the fields. By the fence of the convent all the little girls would +be ranked, dressed, sometimes, in national ribbons, and anyhow carrying +flags, and with them would be the nuns. Or if the convent was not a +teaching order, the nuns would be by themselves, forming a delightful +picture of quiet respect on the porch or along the garden wall. + +Boys' schools had the inmates gathered at the road-edge in jolly mobs, +though some of these had a semi-military dignity, because of the quaint +and kepi-ed uniform of the school, that made the boys look like cadets +out of a picture by Detaille. + +The seminaries had their flocks of black fledglings drawn up under the +professor-priests, and the sober black of these embryo priests had not +the slightest restriction on their enthusiasm. + +There were crowds everywhere on that extraordinary ride, but it was in +Montreal itself that the throngs reached immense proportions. From the +first moment of arrival, when the Prince in mufti rode out from under +the clangour of "God Bless the Prince of Wales" played on the bells of +St. George's Church, that hob-nobs with the station, crowds were thick +about the route. As he swung from Dominion Square (in which the +station stands) into the Regent Street of Montreal, St. Catherine +Street, crowds of employes crowded the windows of the big and fine +stores, and added their welcome to the mass on the sidewalks. + +Short notice had curtailed decoration, but the enthusiastic employes +(mainly feminine) of one tall store strove to rectify the lack by +arming themselves with flags and stationing themselves at every window. +Balancing perilously, they waited until the Prince came level, and then +set the whole face of the tall building fluttering with Union Jacks. + +From these streets, impressive in their sense of vigour and industry, +the procession of cars mounted through the residential quarter to Mount +Royal Park. Here in the presence of a big crowd that surrounded him +and got to close quarters at once, the Prince alighted and stayed a few +minutes at the statue of Georges Etienne Cartier, the father of +Canadian unity, whose centenary was then being celebrated, since the +war forbade rejoicing on the real anniversary in 1914. + +Cartier's daughter, Hortense Cartier, was present at this little +ceremony, and she was, as it were, a personal link between her father +and the Prince, who is himself helping to inaugurate a new phase of +unity, that of the Empire. + +From this point the Prince's route struck out into the country +districts that I have described, but the crowds had accumulated rather +than diminished when he returned to the streets of the city, about one +o'clock, and he drove through lanes of people so dense that at times +the pace of his car was retarded to a walk. + +The crowd was a suggestive one. All ranks and conditions were in +it--and conditions rather than ranks were apparent in the dock-side +area, which is a dingy one for Canada. But in all the crowds the thing +that struck me most was their proportion of children. Montreal seemed +a veritable hive of children. There were thousands and thousands of +them. + +The streets were bursting with kiddies. And not merely were there +multitudes of girls and boys of that thoroughly vociferous age of +somewhere under twelve, but there were ranked battalions of boys and +maids, all of an age obviously under twenty. + +Quebec is the province of large families. Ten children to a marriage +is a commonplace, and twenty is not a rarity. A man is not thought to +be worth his salt unless he has his quiver full. And the result of +this as I saw it in the streets gives food for thought. + +That huge marshalling of the citizens of tomorrow gives one not merely +a sense of Canada's potentiality, but of the potentiality of Quebec in +the future of Canada. With a new race of such a healthy standard +growing up, the future of Montreal has a look of greatness. Montreal +is now the biggest and most vigorous city in Canada, it plays a large +part in the life of Canada. What part will it play tomorrow? + +A good as well as great part, surely. Discriminating Canadians tell +you that the French-Canadian makes the best type of citizen. He is +industrious, go-ahead, sane, practical; he is law-abiding and he is +loyal. His history shows that he is loyal; indeed, Canada as it stands +today owes not a little to French-Canadian loyalty and willingness to +take up arms in support of British institutions. + +French-Canada took up arms in the Great War to good purpose, sending +40,000 men to the Front, though its good work has been obscured by the +political propaganda made out of the Anti-Conscription campaign. Sober +politicians--by no means on the side of the French-Canadians--told me +that there was rather more smoke in that matter than circumstances +created, and in Britain particularly the business was over-exaggerated. +There was a good deal of politics mixed up in the attitude of Quebec, +"And in any case," said my informant, "Quebec was not the first to +oppose conscription, nor yet the bitterest, though she was, perhaps, +the most candid." + +The language difficulty is a difficulty, yet that has been the subject +of exaggeration, also. Those who find it a grave problem seem to be +those who have never come in contact with it, but are anxious about it +at a distance. Those who are in contact with the French-speaking races +say that French and English-speaking peoples get on well on the whole, +and have an esteem for each other that makes nothing of the language +barrier. + +Concerning the Roman Catholic Church, which is certainly in a very +powerful position in Quebec, I have heard from non-Catholics quite as +much said in favour of the good it does, as I have heard to the +contrary, so I concluded that on its human side it is as human as any +other concern, doing good and making mistakes in the ordinary human +way. As far as its spiritual side is concerned there is no doubt at +all that it holds its people. Its huge churches are packed with huge +congregations at every service on Sunday. + +On the whole, then, I fancy that that part of Canada's future which +lies in the hands of the children of Montreal, and the Province of +Quebec generally, will be for the good of the Dominion. Certainly the +attitude of the people as shown in the packed and ecstatic streets of +Montreal was a very good omen. + +The welcome had had its usual effect on the Prince. The formal salute +never had a chance, and from the outset of the ride he had stood up in +his car and waved back in answer to the cheering of the crowd. When +standing for so many miles tired him, he sat high up on the folded +hood, with one of his suite to hold him, and he did not stop waving his +hat. In this way he accomplished the thirty-six miles ride, only +slipping down into his seat as the car mounted the stiff zig-zag that +led up Mount Royal to the luncheon pavilion. + +The slowness of this climb was, in a sense, his undoing. As his car +neared the top of the hill, two Montreal flappers, whose extreme youth +was only exceeded by their extreme daring, sprang on to the footboard +and held him up with autograph books. He immediately produced a +fountain pen, and sitting once more on the back of the car, wrote his +name as the car went along, and the young ladies from Montreal clung on +to it. + +This delightful act was too much for one of the maidens, for, on +getting her book back, she kissed the Prince impulsively, and then in a +sudden attack of deferred modesty, sprang from the car and ran for her +blushes' sake. + +From the luncheon pavilion the Prince was whirled to the Royal train, +and in that, after a recuperative round of golf at a course just +outside Montreal, he set out for the comparative calm of the great West. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +ON THE ROAD TO TROUT + +I + +The run on the days following the packed moments of Montreal was one of +luxurious indolence. The Royal train was heading for the almost fabled +trout of Nipigon, where, among the beauties of lake and stream, the +Prince was to take a long week-end fishing and preparing for more +crowds and more strenuosity in the Canadian West. + +Through those two days the train seemed to meander in a leisurely +fashion through varied and attractive country, only stopping now and +then as though it had to work off a ceremonial occasionally as an +excuse for existing at all. + +The route ran through pleasant, farmed land between Montreal and North +Bay and Sudbury, and then switched downward through the bleak nickel +and copper country to the beautiful coast of Lake Huron on its way to +Sault Ste. Marie. From this town, which the whole Continent knows as +"Soo," it plunged north through the magnificent scenery of the Algoma +area to Oba, and, turning west again (and in the night), it ran on to +Nipigon Lake. + +It was a genial and attractive run. We sat, as it were, lapped in the +serenity of the C.P.R., and studied the view. Wherever there were +houses there were people, to wave something at the Prince's car. At +one homestead a man and his wife stood alone near the split-rail fence, +the woman curtsying, the man, who had obviously been a soldier, +flag-wagging some message we could not catch, with a big red ensign; an +infinitely touching sight, that couple getting their greeting to the +Prince in spite of difficulties. On the stations the local school +children were always drawn up in ranks, most of them holding flags, +many having a broad red-white-and-blue ribbon across their front rank +to show their patriotism. + +At North Bay, a purposeful little town that lets the traveller either +into the scenic and sporting delights of Lake Nipissing, or into the +mining districts of the Timiskaming country, there was a bright little +reception. North Bay is a characteristic Canadian town. It was born +in a night, so to speak, and its growth outstrips editions of guide +books. Outside the neat station there is a big grass oblong, and about +this green the frame houses and the shops extend. Behind it is the +town so keen on growing up about the big railway repair shops, that it +has no time yet to give to road-making. + +The ceremonial was in the green oblong, and all North Bay left their +houses and shops to attend. The visit had more the air of a family +party than aught else, for, after a mere pretence of keeping ranks, the +people broke in upon the function, and Prince and Staff and people +became inextricably mixed. When His Royal Highness took car to drive +around the town, the crowd cut off the cars in the procession, and for +half an hour North Bay was full of orderlies and committee-men +automobiling about speculative streets in search of a missing Prince, +plus one Mayor. + +Sudbury, the same type of town, growing at a distracting pace because +of its railway connection and its smelting plants, had the same sort of +ceremony. From here we passed through a land of almost sinister +bleakness. There were tracts livid and stark, entirely without +vegetation, and with the livid white and naked surface cut into wild +channels and gullies by rains that must have been as pitiless as the +land. It was as though we had steamed out of a human land into the +drear valleys of the moon, and one expected to catch glimpses of +creatures as terrifying as any Mr. Wells has imagined. So cadaverous a +realm could breed little else. + +It was the country of nickel and copper. We saw occasionally the +buildings and workings (scarce less grim than the land) through the +agency of which came the grey slime that had rendered the country so +bleak. They are particularly rich mines, and rank high among the +nickel workings in the world. They were also, let it be said, of +immense value to the Allies during the war. + +Pushing south, the line soon redeems itself in the beauty of the lakes. +It bends to skirt the shore of Lake Huron, a great blue sea, and yet +but a link in the chain of great lakes that lead from Superior through +it to Erie and Ontario lakes, and on to the St. Lawrence. + +We arrived on a beautiful evening at Algoma, a spot as delightful as a +Cornish village, on the beach of that inlet of Lake Huron called +Georgian Bay. We walked in the astonishing quiet of the evening +through the tiny place, and along the deep, sandy road that has not yet +been won from the primitive forests, to where but a tiny fillet of +beach stood between the spruce woods and the vast silence of the water. +From that serene and quiet spot we looked through the still evening to +the far and beautiful Islands. + +In the wonderful clear air, and with all the soft colours of the sunset +glowing in the still water, the beauty of the place was almost too +poignant. We might have been the discoverers of an uninhabited bay in +the Islands of the Blessed. I have never known any place so remote, so +still and so beautiful. But it was far from being uninhabited. There +were rustic picnic tables under the spruce trees, and there was a +diving-board standing over the clear water. The inhabitants of Algoma +knew the worth of this place, and we felt them to be among the luckiest +people on the earth. + +The islands we saw far away in the soft beauty of the sunset, and +between which the enigmatic light of a lake steamer was moving, are +said to be Hiawatha's Islands. In any case, it was here that the +pageant of Hiawatha was held some years back, and across the still lake +in that pageant, Hiawatha in his canoe went out to be lost in the +glories of the sunset. + + +II + +On the morning of Tuesday, September 4th, the train skirted Georgian +Bay, passing many small villages given over to lumber and fishing, and +all having, with their tiny jetties, motor launches and sailing boats, +something of the perfection of scenes viewed in a clear mirror. By +mid-morning the train reached Sault Ste. Marie. + +"Soo" is a vivid place. It is a young city on the rise. A handful of +years ago it was a French mission, beginning to turn its eyes languidly +towards lumber. It is on the neck that joins the waters of Superior +and Huron, but the only through traffic was that of the voyageurs, who +made the portage round the stiff St. Mary's Rapids, that, with a drop +of eighteen feet in their length, forbade any vessel but that of the +canoe of the adventurer to pass their troubled waters. + +Then America and Canada began to build canals and locks to link the +great lakes, in spite of the Rapids, and "Soo" woke. It has been awake +and living since that moment. It has been playing lock against lock +with the Michigan men across the river, each planning cunningly to +establish a system that will carry the long lake vessels not only in +locks befitting their size, but in locks that can be handled more +swiftly than those of the rival. + +At the moment the prize is with Canada. It has a lock nine hundred +feet long, and can do the business of lowering a great vessel from +Superior to Huron with one action, where America uses four locks. The +Americans have a larger lock than the Canadian, but the Canadians are +quicker. + +And this means something. The traffic on these lakes is greater than +the traffic on many seas. Down this vast water highway come the narrow +pencils of lake-boats carrying grain and ore and lumber in hulls that +are all hold. They come and go incessantly. "Soo," indeed, handles +about three times the tonnage of Suez yearly, and there is the American +side to add to that. + +With this brisk movement of commercial life within her, "Soo" has +thrived like a cold. Where, in the old days, the local inhabitants +could be reckoned on the fingers of two hands, there is now a city of +about twenty thousand, and it is still growing. It is a city of +graceful streets and neat houses climbing over the Laurentine Hills +that make the site. It is breezy and self-assured, and draws its +comfortable affluence from its shipping, its paper-mills, its steel +works, as well as from lumber, agriculture and other industries. + +It met the Prince as becomes a youth of promise. Crowds massed on the +lawns before the red sandstone station, and in all the streets there +were crowds. And crowds followed his every movement, however swift it +was, for "Soo" has the automobile fever as badly as any other town in +Canada, and car owners packed their families, even to the youngest in +arms, into tonneaux and joined a procession a mile long, that followed +the Prince about the town. + +It is true that some of the crowd was America out to look at Royalty. +Americans were not slow to make the most of the fact that they were to +have a Prince across the river. From early morning the ferry that runs +from Michigan to the British Empire was packed with Republican autos +and Republicans on foot, all eager to be there when Royalty arrived. +They gathered in the streets and joined in the procession. They gave +the Prince the hearty greeting of good-fellows. They were as good +friends of his as anybody there. They did, in fact, give us a +foretaste of what we were to expect when the Prince went to the United +States. + +There were the usual functions. They took place high on a hill, from +which the Prince could look down upon the blue waters of the linked +lakes, the many factory chimneys, the smoke of which threw a quickening +sense of human endeavour athwart the scene, and the great jack-knife +girder bridge, that is the railway connection between Canada and +America, but above the usual functions the visit to "Soo" had items +that made it particularly interesting. + +He went to the great lock that carries the interlake traffic. He +crossed from one side of it to the other, and then stood out on the +lock gate, while it was opened to allow the passage of several small +vessels. From here he went to the Algoma Railway, at the head of the +canal, and in a special car was taken to the rapids that tumble down in +foam between the two countries. + +The train was brought to a standstill at the international boundary, +where two sentries, Canadian and American, face each other, and where +there was another big crowd, this time all American, to give him a +cheer. + +He then spent some time visiting the paper mill that helps to make +"Soo" rich. He went over it department by department, asking many +questions and showing that the processes fascinated him intensely. In +the same way he went through the steel works, and was again intrigued +by the sight of "things doing." It was, as he said himself, one of the +most interesting days he had spent in the Dominion. + + +III + +"Soo" let us into a wonderful tract of country. + +Still in the sumptuous C.P.R. train, we swung north over the Algoma +Railway track into a land so wildly magnificent and yet so lonely, that +one felt that the railway line must have been built by poets for +poets--we could not imagine it thriving on anything else. + +As a matter of fact, it does link up rich mining and other territory, +and, in time, will open a land of equal value, but just now its chief +asset is scenery. + +The scenery is superb. Its hills are huge and battlemented. They leap +up sheer above the train, menacing it; they drop down starkly, leaving +the line clinging to a ledge above a white, angry stream on a white +rock bed. They crowd the line into gorges, from which the sun is +banished, and where the moveless firs look like lost souls chained in +the gloom of Eblis. They expand abruptly, suddenly, into swinging +valleys, on whose great flanks the spruce forests look like toy +decorations hanging above floors of shining sapphire--lakes, of course, +but one could not think that any lake could be so blue. + +Lakes fretted into lagoons by thin white slivers of shingle; rivers +full of tumbled and dishevelled logs; forests in green, in which the +crimson maple leaf burns brightly; vast amphitheatres of cliff-like +hills; mounds of the stark Laurentine rock pushing up through trees +like bald heads through the sparse covering of departing hair; miles of +blanched trees and black trees standing like skeletons or strewn +all-whither, like billets of stick--acres of murdered stumps, where +evil forest fires have swept along; and we had even an occasional +glimpse of that scourge of Canada seen smoking sullenly in the +distance--all this heaped together, piled together in a reckless +luxuriance makes up the scenery of the Algoma country. + +Only rarely does one see the hut of rough logs and clay that denotes +the settler, only occasionally is there a station, or a mill or a +logging camp in this womb of loneliness. Only occasionally does one +cross one of those lengthy and rakish spider bridges that give a hint +of man and his works. + +On a long bridge, over the Montreal river, we made the most of man and +his works. It is a lengthy, curving bridge, built giddily on stilts +above the boulder-strewn bed of a wicked stream. We were admiring it +as a desperate work of engineering, when the train stopped with a +disconcerting bump. It stopped with violence. And when we had picked +ourselves up we looked out of the train and saw nothing--only that +particularly vicious river and those unpleasantly jagged rocks. + +When one is on a Canadian bridge this is all one sees--the depth one is +going to drop, and what one is going to drop on. The top of the bridge +is wide enough for the rails only, and the sides of the carriages hang +beyond the rails. And there are no parapets. One just looks plumb +down. We looked down, and back and forward. The struts and girders of +the bridge seemed made of pack-thread and spider's web. We wondered +why we should have stopped in the middle of such a place of all places. +And the train looked so enormous. We asked the superintendent if the +bridge could hold it. + +He said he thought so, but it had never been tested by such a weight +before. + +From the way he said "thought," we gathered he meant "hoped." + +Somebody had wanted to show the Prince the view. It was a fine view, +but we were not sorry it wasn't permanent. With the view, the Prince +took in a little shooting at clay pigeons in view of the days he was to +spend in sporting Nipigon. + +We ran straight on to Nipigon, only stopping at Oba, and that in the +night. But before the night came Canada and Algoma gave us an +exquisite sunset. We saw the light of the sun on a vast stretch of +hummocks and hills of bald rock. They had been clothed with forest +before the fires had passed over them. As the sun set, an exquisite +thin cherry light shone evenly on the hills and bluffs, and on the thin +and naked trees that stood up like wands in this eerie and clarified +light. In the distance there was a faint vermilion in the sky, and +where the tree stumps fringed the bare hills, they gave the suggestion +of a band of violet edging the land. And all this in an air as clear +and shining as still water. It seemed to me that Canada was waiting +there for a painter of a new vision to catch its wonder. + +Even in the loneliness we were never far away from the human equation. +During the afternoon we had a touch of it. It was discovered by the +Prince that his train was being driven by a V.C., or, rather, one of +the men on the engine, the fireman, was a V.C. This man, +Staff-Sergeant Meryfield, had won the distinction at Cambrai, and had +returned to his calling in the ordinary way. He came back from the +engine cab through the train, a very modest fellow, to be presented to +the Prince, who spent a few minutes chatting with him. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +PICNICS AND PRAIRIES + +I + +Early on the morning of Friday, September 5th, the train passed through +the second tunnel it had encountered in Canada, and came to a small +stopping-place amid trees. + +It was a lady's pocket handkerchief of a station, made up of a tool +shed, a few houses and a road leading away from it. Its significance +lay in the road leading away from it. That road leads to Nipigon river +and lake, one of the finest trout waters in Canada. Even at that it is +only famous half the year, for it hibernates in winter like any other +thing in Canada that finds snow and remoteness too much for it. + +At this station--Nipigon Lodge--the Prince, in shooting knickers and a +great anxiety to be off and away, left the train at 8.30, and walking +along the road, came to the launch that was to take him down river to +the fishing camp where he was to spend a week-end of sport. + +Leaving this little waterside village of neglected fishermen's huts, +for the season was late and the tourists that usually fill them had all +gone, he went down the beautiful stream to the more than beautiful +Virgin Falls. Here he met his outfit, thirty-eight Indian guides, all +of them experts in camp life and cunning in the secrets of stream and +wood. + +In the care of these high priests of sport, he left civilization, in +the shape of the launch, behind him, and in a canoe fished down stream +until the lovely reaches of Split-rock were attained; here, on the +banks of the stream, amid the thick ranks of spruce, the camp was +pitched. + +At first it had been the intention to push on after a day's sport to +other camping-places, but the situation and the comfort of this camp +was so satisfactory that the Prince decided to stay, and made it his +headquarters during the week-end. + +It was no camp of amateur sportsmen playing at the game. It was not, +perhaps, "roughing" it as the woodsman knows it, for he lies hard in a +floorless tent (if he has one), as well as lives laboriously, but it +was certainly a rough and ready life, as near that of the woodsman as +possible. + +The Prince slept in a tent, rose early, bathed in the river and shaved +in the open in exactly the same manner as every one else in the party. +He took his place in the "grub queue," carrying his plate to the +cook-house and demanding his particular choice in bacon and eggs, +broiled trout, flapjacks, or the wonderful white flatbread, which the +cook, an Indian, Jimmy Bouchard, celebrated for open-fire cooking, knew +how to prepare. + +Sometimes before breakfast the Prince indulged his passion for running; +always after breakfast he set out on foot, or in canoe for the day's +fishing, returning late at night hungry and tired with the healthy +weariness of hard exertion to the camp meal. There were spells round +the big camp fire burning vividly amid the trees, and then sleep in the +tent. + +The fishing was usually done from the bass canoe, two Indian guides +being always the ship's company. And fishing was not the only +attraction of the stream and lake. There is always the thrilling, +placid beauty of the scenery, the deep forests, the lake valleys, and +the austere, forest-clad hills that rise abruptly from the enigmatic +pools. And there is the active beauty of the many rapids, those +piled-up and rushing masses of angry water, tossing and foaming in +pent-up force through rock gates and over rocks. + +He tried the adventure of these rapids, shooting through the tortured +waters that look so beautiful from the shore and so terrible from the +frail structure of a canoe, until it seemed to him as though not even +the skill of his guides could steer through safely. He got through +safely, but only after an experience which he described as the most +exciting in his life. + +The fishing itself proved disappointing. The famous speckled trout of +Nipigon did not rise to the occasion, and the sport was fair, but not +extraordinary. The best day brought in twenty-seven fish, the largest +being three and a half pounds, not a good specimen of the lake's trout, +which go to six and eight pounds in the ordinary course of things. + +And the disappointment had an irony of its own. The man who caught the +most fish was the man who couldn't fish at all. The official +photographer, who had gone solely to take snapshots, also took the +maximum of fish out of the river. Indeed, he was so much of an amateur +that the first fish he caught placed him in such a predicament that he +did not play it, but landed it with so vigorous a jerk that it flew +over his head and caught high in a fir. An Indian guide had to climb +the tree to "land" it. + +Nevertheless, he caught the most fish, and when he returned with his +spoil, the Prince said to him: + +"Look here, don't you realize I'm the one to do that? You're taking my +place in the program." + +The reason for the indifferent sport was probably the lateness of the +season--it was practically finished when the Prince arrived--and the +fact that Nipigon had had a record summer, with large parties of +sportsmen working its reaches steadily all the time. The fish were +certainly shy, particularly, it seemed, of fly, and the best catches +were made with a small fish, a sort of bull-headed minnow called +cocatoose, that creeps about close to the rocks. + +Of course, trout, even if famous, are naturally temperamental. They +will rise in dozens at unexpected times, just as they will refuse all +temptations for weeks on end. An Englishman, and no mean fisherman, +once went to Nipigon to show the local inhabitants how fishing should +be done. A master in British waters, he considered the speckled +monsters of the lakes fit victims for his rod and fly. He went out +with his guides to catch fish, and after a few days among the big trout +came back disgusted. + +"Did you catch any trout?" he was asked by one of his party. + +"Catch 'em," he snapped. "How can one catch 'em? The infernal things +are anchored." + +Walking and duck shooting was also in the program, and there were other +excitements. + +The weather, delightful during the first two days, broke on Sunday, and +there were bad winds, rainstorms and occasional hailstorms, when stones +as big as small pebbles drummed on the tents and bombarded the camp. + +So fierce was the wind that the Royal Standard on a high flagstaff was +carried away. A pine tree was also uprooted, and fell with a crash +between the Prince's tent and that of one of his suite. A yard either +way and the tent would have been crushed. Fortunately the Prince was +not in the tent at that moment, but the happening gave the camp its +sense of adventure. + +During this rest, too, the Prince suffered a little from his eyes, an +irritation caused by grains of steel that had blown into them while +viewing the works at "Soo." His right hand was also painful from the +heartiness of Toronto, and the knuckles swollen. To set these matters +right, the doctor went up from the train, and by the Indian canoe that +carried the mail and the daily news bulletin, reached the camp. + +When he returned on Monday, September 8th, the Prince was looking +undeniably fit. He marched up the railway from the lake in +footer-shorts and golf jacket, with an air of one who had thoroughly +enjoyed "roughing it." + + +II + +While the Prince and his party were camping, the train remained in +Nipigon, a tiny village set in complete isolation on the edge of the +river and in the heart of the woods. + +It is a little germ-culture of humanity cut off from the world. The +only way out is, apparently, the railway, though, perhaps, one could +get away by the boats that come up to load pulp wood, or by the petrol +launches that scurry out on to Lake Superior and its waterside towns. +But the roads out of it, there appear to be none. Follow any track, +and it fades away gently into the primitive bush. + +It is a nest of loneliness that has carried on after its old office as +a big fur collecting post--you see the original offices of Revillon +Freres and the Hudson Bay Company standing today--has gone. Now it +lives on lumber and the fishing, and one wonders what else. + +Its tiny station, through which the Transcontinental trains thunder, is +faced by a long, straggling green, and fringing the green is a row of +wooden shops and houses equally straggling. They have a somnolent and +spiritless air. Behind is a wedge of pretty dwellings stretching down +to the river, tailing off into an Indian encampment by the stream, +where, about dingy tepees, a dozen or so stoic children play. + +There are three hundred souls in the village, mainly Finns and Indians +become Canadians. They are not the Indians of Fenimore Cooper, but men +who wear peaked caps, bright blouse shirts or sweaters, with broad +yellow, blue and white stripes (a popular article of wear all over +Canada), and women who wear the shin skirts and silks of civilization. +Only here and there one sees old squaw women, stout and brown and bent, +with the plaid shawl of modernity making up for the moccasins of their +ancient race. + +Small though it is, or perhaps because it is so small and observable, +Nipigon is an example of the amalgam from which the Canadian race is +being fused. We went, for instance, to a dance given by the Finns in +their varnished, brown-wood hall on the Saturday night. It was an +attractive and interesting evening. The whole of the village, without +distinction, appeared to be there. And they mixed. Indian women in +the silk stockings, high heels and glowing frocks of suburbia, danced +(and danced well) with high cheek-boned, monosyllabic Finns in grey +sweaters, workaday trousers and coats and bubble-toed boots. A vivid +Canadian girl in semi-evening dress went round in the jazz with a guard +of the Royal train. A policeman from the train danced with a Finnish +girl, demure and well-dressed, who might have been anything from the +leader of local Society to a clerk (i.e., a counter hand) in one of the +shops. For all we knew, the plumber might have been dancing with the +leading citizen's daughter, and the local Astor with the local +dressmaker's assistant. + +In any case, it didn't matter. In Canada they don't think about that +sort of thing. They were all unconcerned and happy in the big, +generous spirit of equality that makes Canada the home of one big +family rather than the dwelling-place of different classes and social +grades. This fact was not new to us; naturally, we had seen and mixed +with Canadians in hotels and on the street elsewhere. In those +gathering-places of humanity, the hotels, we had lived with the big, +jolly, homely crowds without social strata, who might very well have +changed places with the waiters and the waiters with them without +anybody noticing any difference. That would not have meant a loss of +dignity to anybody. Nobody has any use for social status in the +Dominion, the only standard being whether a man is a "mixer" or not. + +By way of a footnote, I might say that waiters, even as waiters, are on +the way to take seats as guests, since, apparently, waiting is only an +occupation a man takes up until he finds something worth while. Not +unexpectedly Canadian waiting suffers through this. + +What we had seen in the large towns, and in the large gregarious life +of cities, we saw "close up" at Nipigon. The varied crowd, Finns, +British, Canadian and Indian (one of the Indians, a young dandy, had +served with distinction during the war, had married a white Canadian, +and was one of the richest men present), danced without social +distinctions in that pleasant hall to Finn folk-songs that had never +been set down on paper played on an accordion. It was a delightful +evening. + +For the rest, those with the train fished (or, rather, went through all +the ritual with little of the results), walked, bathed in the lake, +watched the American "movie" men in their endeavours to convert the +British to baseball, or endeavoured, with as little success, to convert +the baseball "fans" to cricket. The recreations of Nipigon were not +hectic, and we were glad to get on to towns and massed life again. + +I confess our view of Nipigon of the hundred houses was not that of the +Indian boy who discussed it with us. He told us Nipigon was not the +place for him. + +"You wait," he said. "Next year I go. Next year I am fifteen. Then I +go out into the woods. I go right away. I can't stand this city life." + + +III + +Canada, on Monday, September 8th, demonstrated its amazing faculty for +startling contrasts. It lifted the Prince from the primitive to the +ultra-modern in a single movement. In the morning he was in the silent +forests of Nipigon, a tract so wild that man seemed no nearer than a +thousand miles. Three hours later he was moving amid the dense crowds +that filled the streets of the latest word in industrial cities. + +He stepped straight from Nipigon to the twin cities of Port Arthur and +Fort William. These two cities are really one, and together form the +great trade pool into which the traffic of the vast grain-bearing West +and North-West pours for transport on the Great Lakes. + +These two cities sprang from the little human nucleus made up of a +Jesuit mission and a Hudson Bay Company depot of the old days. They +stand on Thunder Bay, a deep-water sack thrusting out from Lake +Superior under the slopes of flat-topped Thunder Cape. The situation +is ideal for handling the trade of the great lake highway that swings +the traffic through the heart of the Western continent. + +Port Arthur and Fort William have seen their chances and made the most +of them. They have constructed great wharves along the bay to +accommodate a huge traffic. Over the wharves they have built up the +greatest grain elevators in the world, not a few of them but a series, +until the cities seemed to be inhabited solely by these giants. These +elevators and stores collect and distribute the vast streams of grain +that pour in from the prairies, at whose door the cities stand, +distributing it across the lakes to the cities of America, or along the +lakes to the Canadian East and the railways that tranship it to Europe. + +On the quays are the towering lattices of patent derricks, forests of +them, that handle coal and ore and cargoes of infinite variety. And +the [Transcriber's note: word(s) possibly missing from source] derricks +and the elevators are the uncannily long and lean lake freighters, +ships with a tiny deck superstructure forward of a great rake of hold, +and a tiny engine-house astern under the stack. And by these grain +boats are the ore tramps and coal boats from Lake Erie, and cargo boats +with paper pulp for England made in the big mills that turn the forests +about Lake Superior into riches. + +Not content with docking boats, the twin cities build them. They build +with equal ease a 10,000-ton freighter, or a great sky-scraping tourist +boat to ply between Canada and the American shores. And presently it +will be sending its 10,000-tonners direct to Liverpool; they only await +the deepening of the Welland Canal near Niagara before starting a +regular service on this 4,000-mile voyage. + +They are modern cities, indeed, that snatch every chance for wealth and +progress, and use even the power that Nature gives in numerous falls to +work their dynamos, and through them their many mills and factories. +And the marvel of these cities is that they are inland cities--inland +ports thousands of miles from the nearest salt water. + +These places gave the Prince the welcome of ardent twins. Their +greeting was practically one, for though the train made two stops, and +there were two sets of functions, there are only a few minutes' +train-time between them, and the greetings seemed of a continuous whole. + +Port Arthur had the Prince first for a score of minutes, in which +crowds about the station showed their welcome in the Canadian way. It +was here we first came in touch with the "Mounties," the fine men of +the Royal North-West Mounted Police, whose scarlet coats, jaunty +stetsons, blue breeches and high tan boots set off the carriage of an +excellently set-up body of men. They acted as escort while the Prince +drove into the town to a charming collegiate garden, where the Mayor +tried to welcome him formally. + +Tried is the only word. How could Prince or Mayor be formal when both +stood in the heart of a crowd so close together that when the Mayor +read his address the document rested on the Prince's chest, while at +the Prince's elbows crowded little boys and other distinguished +citizens? Formal or not, it was very human and very pleasant. + +Returning through the town, something went wrong with the procession. +Many of the automobiles forcing their way through the crowd to the +train--which stood beside the street--found there was no Prince. We +stood about asking what was happening and where it was happening. +After ten minutes of this an automobile driver strolled over from a car +and asked "what was doing now?" + +We consulted the programs and told him that the Prince was launching a +ship. + +"He is, is he?" said the driver without passion. "Well, I've got +members of the shipbuilding company and half the reception committee in +my car." + +In spite of that, the Prince launched a fine boat, that took the water +broadside in the lake manner, before going on to Fort William. + +Fort William had an immense crowd upon the green before the station, on +the station, and even on the station buildings. Part of the crowd was +made up of children, each one of them a representative of the +nationalities that came from the Old World to find a new life and a new +home in Canada. Each of them was dressed in his or her national +costume, making an interesting picture. + +There were twenty-four children, each of a different race, and the +races ranged from France to Slovenia, from Persia to China and Syria. +There were negroes and Siamese and Czecho-Slovaks in this remarkable +collection of elements from whose fusion Canada of today is being +fashioned. + +The Prince drove through the cheering streets of Fort William, and paid +visits to some of the great industrial concerns, before setting out for +Winnipeg and the wide-flung spaces of the West. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE CITY OF WHEAT--WINNIPEG, MANITOBA + +I + +We had a hint of what the Western welcome was going to be like from the +Winnipeg papers that were handed to us with our cantaloupe at breakfast +on Tuesday, September 9th. + +They were concerning themselves brightly and strenuously with the +details of the visit that day, and were also offering real Western +advice on the etiquette of clothes. + + +"SILK LIDS AND STRIPED PANTS FOR THE BIG DAY" + +formed the main headline, taking the place of space usually given to +Baseball reports or other vital news. And pen pictures of Western +thrill were given of leading men chasing in and out of the stores of +the town in an attempt to buy a "Silk Lid" (a top hat) in order to be +fit to figure at receptions. + +The writer had even broken into verse to describe the emotions of the +occasion. Despairing of prose he wrote: + + Get out the old silk bonnet, + Iron a new shine on it. + Just pretend your long-tailed coat does not seem queer, + For we'll be all proper + As a crossing "copper" + When the Prince of Wales is here. + + +The Ladies' Page also caught the infection. It crossed its page with a +wail: + +"GIRLS! OH, GIRLS! SILVER SLIPPERS CANNOT BE HAD!" + +and it went on for columns to tell how silver slippers were the only +kind the Prince would look at. He had chosen all partners at all balls +in all towns by the simple method of looking for silver slippers. The +case of those without silver slippers was hopeless. The maidens of +Winnipeg well knew this. There had been a silver slipper battue +through all the stores, and all had gone--it was, so one felt from the +article, a crisis for all those who had been slow. + +A rival paper somewhat calmed the anxious citizens by stating that the +Silk Lid and the Striped Pants were not necessities, and that the +Prince himself did not favour formal dress--a fact, for indeed, he +preferred himself the informality of a grey lounge suit always, when +not wearing uniform, and did not even trouble to change for dinner +unless attending a function. The paper also hinted that he had eyes +for other things in partners besides silver slippers. + +These papers gave us an indication that not only would "Winnipeg be +polished to the heels of its shoes" at the coming of the Prince, but to +continue the metaphor, it would be enthusiastic to well above its +hat-band. And it was. + + +II + +Certainly Winnipeg's welcome did not stop at the huge mass of +heels--high as well as low--that carried it out to look at the Prince +on his arrival. It mounted well up to the heart and to the head as he +left the wide-open space in front of the C.P.R. station, and, with a +brave escort of red-tuniced "Mounties," swung into the old pioneer +trail--only it is called Main Street now--toward the Town Hall. + +The exceedingly broad street was lined with immense crowds, that, on +the whole, kept their ranks like a London rather than a Canadian throng +for at least two hundred yards. + +Then this imported docility gave way, and the press of people became +entirely Canadian. The essential spirit of the Canadian, like that of +the citizen of another country, is that "he will be there." Or perhaps +I should say he "will be _right_ there." Anyhow, there he was as close +to the Prince as he could get without actually climbing into the +carriage that was slowing down before the dais among trees in the +garden before the City Hall. + +In a minute where there had been a broad open space lined with neat +policemen, there was a swamping mass of Canadians of all ages, and the +Prince was entirely hemmed in. In fact only a free fight of the most +amiable kind got him out of the carriage and on to the dais. The +Marine orderlies, and others of the suite, joined in an attempt to +press the throng back. They could accomplish nothing until the +"Mounties" came to their aid, forced a passage with their horses, and +so permitted the Prince to mount the dais and hear the Mayor say what +the crowd had been explaining for the past ten minutes, that is, how +glad Winnipeg was to see him. + +It was the usual function, but varied a little. Winnipeg has not +always been happy in the matter of its water supply, and the day and +the Prince came together to inaugurate a new era. It was accomplished +in the modern manner. The Prince pressed a button on the platform and +water-gates on Shoal Lake outside the city swung open. In a minute or +two a dry fountain in the gardens before the Prince threw up a jet of +water. The new water had come to Winnipeg. + +Through big crowds on the sidewalks he passed through an avenue of +fine, tall and modern stores, along Broadway, where the tram-tracks +fringed with grass and trees run down the centre of a wide boulevard +that is edged with lawns and trees, and so to the new Parliament +Buildings. + +Here there was a vivid and shining scene before the great white curtain +of a classic building not yet finished. + +In the wide forecourt was a mass of children bearing flags, and up the +great flight of steps leading to the impressive Corinthian porch was a +bank of people, jewelled with flags and vivid in gay dresses. Against +the sharp white mass of the building this living, thrilling bed of +humanity made an unforgettable picture. + +The ceremony in the spacious entrance hall was also full of the +movement and colour of life. In the massive square hall stairs spring +upward to the gallery on which the Prince stood. On the level of each +floor galleries were cut out of the solid stone of the walls. Crowded +in these galleries were men and women, who looked down the shaft of +this austere chamber upon a grouping of people about the foot of the +cold, white ascending stairs. The strong, clear light added to the +dramatic dignity of the scene. + +The groups moved up the white stairs slowly between the ranks of +Highlanders, whose uniforms took on a vividity in the clarified light. +The Prince in Guard's uniform, with his suite in blue and gold and +khaki and red behind him, stood on the big white stage of the +stair-head to receive them. It was a scene that had all the tone and +all the circumstances of an Eastern levee. + +But it was a levee with a fleck of humour, also. + +As he turned to leave, the Prince noticed beside him a handsome +armchair upholstered in royal blue. It was a strange, lonely chair in +that desert of gallery and standing humanity. It was a chair that +needed explaining. + +In characteristic fashion the Prince bent down to it to find an +explanation. The crowd, knowing all about that chair and understanding +his puzzlement, began to laugh. It laughed outright and with +sympathetic humour when, abruptly handing his Guards' cap to one of his +staff, he solemnly sat down in it for a second instead of going his way. + +The chair was the chair his father and grandfather had sat in when they +came to Winnipeg. Silver medallions on it gave testimony to facts. +The Prince had not time to adopt a fully considered sitting, but he was +not going to leave the building until he, too, had registered his claim +to it. + +In the big Campus that fronts the University of Manitoba, and ranked by +thousands in a hollow square, were the veterans in khaki and civies who +had fought as comrades of the Prince in the war. To these he went next. + +It was a lengthy ceremony, for there were many to inspect. There were +Canadian Highlanders and riflemen in the square, as well as veterans +dating back to the time of the North-West Rebellion of '85. And there +was also the regimental goat of the 5th West Canadians, a big, husky +fellow, who endeavoured to take control of the ceremony with his horns, +as befitted a veteran who sported four service chevrons and a wound +stripe. + +Here, too, the crowd was the most stirring and remarkable feature of +the ceremony. It began with an almost European placidity of decorum, +standing quietly behind the wooden railing on three sides of the +Campus, and as quietly filling the seats in and about the glowingly +draped grand stand before the University building. As the ceremony +proceeded, however, the crowd behind the stand pressed forward, getting +out on to the field. Soldiers linked arms to keep it back, soldiers +with bayonets were drawn from the ranks of veterans to give additional +weight, wise men mounted the stand and strove to stem the forward +pressure with logic. But that crowd was filled with much the same +spirit that made the sea so difficult a thing to reason with in King +Canute's day. Neither soldiers nor words of the wise could check it. +It flowed forward into the Campus, a sea of men and women, shop girls +not caring a fig if they _were_ "late back" and had a half-day docked, +children who swarmed amid Olympian legs, babies in mothers' arms, whose +presence in that crush was a matter of real terror to us less hardened +British--an impetuous mass of young and old, masculine and feminine +life that cared nothing for hard elbows and torn clothes as long as it +got close to the Prince. + +Before the inspection was finished, before the Prince could get back to +the stand to present medals, the Campus was no longer a hollow square, +it was a packed throng. + +And the crowd, having won this vantage, took matters into its own hands +until, indeed, its ardour began to verge on the dangerous. + +As the Prince left the field the great crowd swept after him, until the +whole mass was jammed tight against the iron railings at the entrance +of the Campus. The Prince was in the heart of this throng surrounded +by police who strove to force a way out for him. The crowd fought as +heartily to get at him. There was a wild moment when the throng +charged forward and crashed the iron railings down with their weight +and force. + +There were cries of "Shoulder him! Shoulder the boy!" and a rush was +made towards him. The police had a hard struggle to keep the people +back, and, as it was, it was only the swift withdrawal of the Prince +from the scene that averted trouble; for in a crowd that had got +slightly out of hand in its enthusiasm, the presence of so many +children and women seemed to spell calamity. + +This splendid ardour is more remarkable, since, only a few months +before, Winnipeg had been the scene of an outburst which its citizens +describe as nothing else but Bolshevik. + +That outcrop of active discontent--which, by the way, was germinated in +part by Englishmen--had a loud and ugly sound, and its clamour seemed +ominous. People asked whether all the West, and indeed, all Canada, +was going to be involved. Was Canada speaking in the accents of revolt? + +Well, on September 9th, there arose another sound in Winnipeg, and it +was but part of a wave of sound that had been travelling westward for +more than a month. It was, I think, a most significant sound. It was +the sound of majorities expressing themselves. + +It was not a few shouting revolt. It was the many shouting its +affection and loyalty for tried democratic ideals. + +When minorities raise their voices our ears are dinned by the shouting +and we imagine it is a whole people speaking. We forget those who sit +silent at home, not joining in the storm. The silent mass of the +majority is overlooked because it finds so few opportunities for +self-expression. Only such a visit as this of the Prince gives them a +chance. + +It seemed to me that this display of affection had a human rather than +a political significance. It impressed me not as an affair of parties, +but as the fundamental, human desire of the great mass of ordinary +workaday people to show their appreciation for stable and democratic +ideals which the peculiarly democratic individuality of the Prince +represents. + + +III + +Winnipeg is a town with a vital spirit. It has a large air. There is +something in its spaciousness that tells of the great grain plains at +the threshold of which it stands. It is the "Chicago of Canada," and +hub of a world of grain, Queen City in the Kingdom of Bakers' Flour. +And it is mightily conscious of its high office. + +It springs upward out of the flat and brooding prairies, where the +Assiniboine and the strong Red River strike together--the old "Forks" +of the pioneer days. It sits where the old trails of the pathfinder +and the fur trader join, and its very streets grew up about those +trails. + +From the piles of pelts dumped by Indians and hunters outside the old +Hudson Bay stockade at Fort Garry, and the sacks of raw grain that the +old prairie schooners brought in, Winnipeg of today has grown up. + +And it has grown up with the astonishing, swift maturity of the West. +Fifty years ago there was not even a village. Forty years ago it was a +mere spot on the world map, put there only to indicate the locality of +Louis Kiel's Red River Rebellion, and Wolseley's march to Fort Garry, +as its name was. In 1881 it became just Winnipeg, a townlet with less +than 8,000 souls in it. Today it ranks with the greatest commercial +cities in Canada, and its greatness can be felt in the tingling energy +of its streets. + +The wonder of that swift growth is a thing that can be brought directly +home. I stood on the station with a man old but still active, and he +said to me: + +"Do you see that block of buildings over there? I had the piece of +ground on which it was built. I sold it for a hundred dollars, it was +prairie then. It's worth many thousands now. And that piece where +that big factory stands, that was mine. I let that go for under three +hundred, and the present owners bought in the end for twenty and more +times that sum. Oh, we were all foolish then, how could we tell that +Winnipeg was going to grow? It was a 'back-block' town, shacks along a +dusty track. And the railway hadn't come. A three-story wooden house, +that was a marvel to be sure; now we have skyscrapers." + +And fast though Winnipeg has grown, or because she has grown at such a +pace, one can still see the traces and feel the spirit of the old +spacious days in her streets. They are long streets and so planned +that they seem to have been built by men who knew that there were no +limits on the immense plains, and so broad that one knows that the +designers had been conscious that there was no need to pinch the +sidewalks and carriage-ways with all the prairie at the back of them. + +Along these sumptuous avenues there still remain many of the low-built +and casual houses that men put up in the early days, and it is these +standing beside the modernity of the business buildings, soaring +sky-high, the massive grain elevators and the big brisk mills that give +the city its curious blending of pioneer days and thrusting, +twentieth-century virility. + +It is a town like no other that we had visited, and where one had the +feeling that up-to-date card-indexing systems were being worked by men +in the woolly riding chaps of old plainsmen. + +In the people of the streets one experienced the same curious sense of +"difference." In splendid boulevards such as Main, and Portage, which +turns from it, there are stores worthy of New York and London in size, +smartness and glowing attraction. And the women crowds that make these +streets busy are as crisply dressed in modern fashions as any on the +Continent, but there is a definite individuality in the air of the men. + +Canadian men dress with a conspicuous indifference. They wear anything +from overalls and broad-banded sweaters to lounge suits that ever seem +ill-fitting. In Winnipeg there is the same disregard for personal +appearance plus a hat with a higher crown. As we went West the crown +of the soft hat climbed higher, and the brim became both wider and more +curly. + +There is, too, on the sidewalks of Winnipeg the conglomeration of races +that go to feed the West. The city is the great emigrant centre that +serves the farmers, the fruit-growers of the Rockies, the ranchmen in +the foothills, and even the industries on the Pacific Slopes. +Everywhere outside agencies there are great blackboards on which +demands for farm labourers at five dollars a day and other workers are +chalked. + +To these agencies flow strange men in blouse-shirts, wearing strange +caps--generally of fur--carrying strange-looking suit-cases and +speaking the strange tongues of far European or Asiatic lands. Chinese +and Japanese (whom the Canadian lumps under the general term +"Orientals"), negroes, a few Indians, and a hotch-potch of races walk +the streets of Winnipeg, and Winnipeg deals with them, houses them, +gives them advice, and distributes them over the wide lands of Canada, +where they will work and working will gradually fuse into the racial +whole that is the Canadian race. + +In the hotels, too, one notices that a change is taking place. The +"Oriental"--the Japanese in this case--takes the place of the Canadian +bell-boy and porter, and he takes this place more and more as one goes +West. There are, of course, always Chinese "Chop Suey and Noodles' +Restaurants," as well as Chinese laundries in Canadian towns; we met +them as early as St. John's, Newfoundland; but from Winnipeg to the +Pacific Coast these establishments grow in numbers, until in Vancouver +and Victoria there are big "Oriental" quarters--cities within the +cities that harbour them. + +The "Orientals" make good citizens, the Chinese particularly. They are +industrious, clever workers, especially as agriculturists, and they +give no trouble. The great drawback with them is that they do not stay +in the country, but having made their money in Canada, go home to China +to spend it. + +Most of the alien element that goes to Canada is of good quality, and +ultimately becomes a very valuable asset. But the problem Canada is +facing is that they are strangers, and, not having been brought up in +the British tradition, they know nothing of it. The tendency of this +influence is to produce a new race to which the ties of sentiment and +blood have little meaning. + +It is a problem which Britain must share also, if we do not wish to see +Canada growing up a stranger to us in texture, ideals and thought. It +is not an easy problem. Canada's chief need today is for +agriculturists, yet the workers we wish to retain most in this country +are agriculturists. Canada must have her supply, and if we cannot +afford them, she must take what she can from Eastern Europe, or from +America, and very many American farmers, indeed, are moving up to +Canadian lands. + +There is always room in a vast country such as Canada for skilled or +willing workers, and we can send them. But the demand is not great at +present, and will not be great until the agriculturist opens up the +land. And the agriculturist is to come from where? + +Certainly it is a matter which calls for a great deal of consideration. + + +IV + +The Prince made the usual round of the usual program during his stay, +but his visit to the Grain Exchange was an item that was unique. + +He drove on Wednesday, September 10th, to this dramatic place, where +brokers, apparently in a frenzy, shout and wave their hands, while the +price of grain sinks and rises like a trembling balance at their +gestures and shouts. + +The pit at which all these hustling buyers and sellers are gathered has +all the romantic qualities of fiction. It is, as far as I am +concerned, one of the few places that live up to the written pictures +of it, for it gave me the authentic thrill that had come to me when I +first read of the Chicago wheat transactions in Frank Norris's novel, +"The Pit." + +The Prince drove to the Grain Exchange and was whirled aloft to the +fourth story of the tall building. He entered a big hall in which +babel with modern improvements and complications reigned. + +In the centre of this room was the pit proper. It has nothing of the +Stygian about it. It is a hexagon of shallow steps rising from the +floor, and descending on the inner side. + +On these steps was a crowd of super-men with voices of rolled steel. +They called out cabalistic formulae of which the most intelligible to +the layman sounded something like: + +"May--eighty-three--quarter." + +Cold, high and terrible voices seemed to answer: + +"Taken." + +Hundreds of voices were doing this, amid a storm of cross shoutings, +and under a cloud of tossing hands, that signalled with fingers or with +papers. Cutting across this whirlpool of noise was the frantic +clicking of telegraph instruments. These tickers were worked by four +emotionless gods sitting high up in a judgment seat over the pit. + +They had unerring ears. They caught the separate quotations from the +seething maelstrom of sound beneath them, sifted the completed deal +from the mere speculative offer in uncanny fashion, and with their +unresting fingers ticked the message off on an instrument that carried +it to a platform high up on one of the walls. + +On this platform men in shirt-sleeves prowled backwards and +forwards--as the tigers do about feeding time in the Zoo. They, too, +had super-hearing. From little funnels that looked like electric light +shades they caught the tick of the messages, and chalked the figures of +the latest prices as they altered with the dealing on the floor upon a +huge blackboard that made the wall behind them. + +At the same time the gods on the rostrum were tapping messages to the +four corners of the world. Even Chicago and Mark Lane altered their +prices as the finger of one of these calm men worked his clicker. + +When the Prince entered the room the gong sounded to close the market, +and amid a hearty volume of cheering he was introduced to the pit, and +some of its intricacies were explained to him. The gong sounded again, +the market opened, and a storm of shouting broke over him, men making +and accepting deals over his head. + +Intrigued by the excitement, he agreed with the broker who had brought +him in, to accept the experience of making a flutter in grain. + +Immediately there were yells, "What is he, Bull or Bear?" and the +Prince, thoroughly perplexed, turned to the broker and asked what type +of financial mammal he might be. + +He became a Bull and bought. + +He did not endeavour to corner wheat in the manner of the heroes of the +stories, for wheat was controlled; he bought, instead, fifty thousand +bushels of oats. A fair deal, and he told those about him with a smile +that he was going to make several thousand dollars out of Winnipeg in a +very few moments. + +An onlooker pointed to the blackboard, and cried: + +"What about that? Oats are falling." + +But the broker was a wise man. He had avoided a royal "crash." He had +already sold at the same price, 83 1/2, and the Prince had accomplished +what is called a "cross trade." That is he had squared the deal and +only lost his commission. + +While he stood in that frantic pit of whirling voices something of the +vast transactions of the Grain Exchange was explained to him. It is +the biggest centre for the receipt and sale of wheat directly off the +land in the world. It handles grain by the million bushels. In the +course of a day, so swift and thorough are its transactions, it can +manipulate deals aggregating anything up to 150,000,000 bushels. + +When these details had been put before him, the gong was again struck, +and silence came magically. + +Unseen by most in that pack of men on the steps the Prince was heard to +say that he had come to the conclusion that to master the intricacies +of the Exchange was a science rather beyond his grasp just then. He +hoped that his trip westward would give him a more intimate knowledge +of the facts about grain, and when he came back, as he hoped he would, +he might have it in him to do something better than a "cross trade." + +From the pit the lift took him aloft again to the big sampling and +classifying room on the tenth floor of the building. The long tables +of this room were littered with small bags of grain, and with grain in +piles undergoing tests. The floor was strewn with spilled wheat and +oats and corn. Here he was shown how grain, carried to Winnipeg in the +long trucks, was sampled and brought to this room in bags. Here it was +classified by experts, who, by touch, taste and smell, could gauge its +quality unerringly. + +It is the perfection of a system for handling grain in the raw mass. +The buyer never sees the grain he purchases. The classification of the +Exchange is so reliable that he accepts its certificates of quality and +weight and buys on paper alone. + +Nor are the dealers ever delayed by this wonderfully working +organization. The Exchange has samplers down on the trucks at the +railway sidings day and night. During the whole twenty-four hours of +the day there are men digging specially constructed scoops that take +samples from every level of the car-loads of grain, putting the grain +into the small bags, and sending them along to the classification +department. + +So swiftly is the work done that the train can pull into the immense +range of special yards, such as those the C.P.R. have constructed for +the accommodation of grain, change its engine and crew, and by the time +the change is effected, samples of all the trucks have been taken, and +the train can go on to the great elevators and mills at Fort William +and Port Arthur. + +This rapid handling in no way affects the efficiency of the Exchange. +Its decisions are so sure that the grading of the wheat is only +disputed about forty times in the year. This is astonishing when one +realizes the enormous number of samples judged. + +In the same way, and in spite of the apparent confusion about the pit +where they take place, the records of the transactions are so exact +that only about once in five thousand is such a record queried. + +The Prince was immensely interested in all the practical details of +working which make this handling of grain a living and dramatic thing, +showing, as usual, that active curiosity for workaday facts that is +essential to the make-up of the moderns. + +His directness and accessibility made friends for him with these +hard-headed business men as readily as it had made friends with +soldiers and with the mass of people. Winnipeg had already exerted its +Western faculty for affectionate epithets. He had already been dubbed +a "Fine Kiddo," and it was commonplace to hear people say of him, "He's +a regular feller, he'll do." They said these things again in the +Exchange, declaring emphatically he was "sure, a manly-looking chap." + +As he left the Exchange the members switched the chaos of the pit into +shouts of a more hearty and powerful volume, and to listen to a crowd +of such fully-seasoned lungs doing their utmost in the confined space +of a building is an awe-inspiring and terrific experience. + +The friendliness here was but a "classified sample"--if the Winnipeg +Exchange will permit that expression--of the friendliness in bulk he +found all over Canada, and which he found in the great West, upon which +he was now entering. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE FRINGE OF THE GREAT NORTHWEST + +SASKATOON AND EDMONTON + +I + +From Winnipeg, on the night of September 10th, we pushed steadily +northwest, and on the morning of Thursday, the 11th, we were in the +open prairie, a new land that is being opened up by the settler. + +We were travelling too late to see the land under wheat--one of the +finest sights in the world, we were told; but all the grain was not in, +and we saw threshing operations in progress and big areas covered with +the strangely small stocks, the result of the Canadian system of +cutting the standing stalk rather high up. In the early night, by +Portage la Prairie, we had seen big fires burning in the distance. +They were not, as we at first thought, prairie fires, but the +homesteader getting rid of the great mounds of stalk left by the +threshing, the usual method. + +In the early morning mist we came upon the big, flat expanse of Horn +Lake, near Wynyard, over which flew lines of militaristic duck in wedge +formation. The prairies lay about us in a great expanse, dun-brown and +rolling. It is a monotonous landscape, and there were few if any trees +until we got farther north and west. + +The little prairie towns appear on the horizon a great distance away, +thanks to the big grain elevators alongside the track. The grain +elevators in these plains are what churches are in Europe; they have, +indeed, the look of being basilicas of a new, materialistic +dispensation. + +The little towns under the elevators seem palpably to be struggling +with the inert force of the prairie about them. Prairie seems to be +flowing into them on every side, and only by a brave effort do houses +and streets raise themselves above the encroaching sea of grass. Yet +all the towns have a modern air, too. All have excellent electric +light services in houses and streets, and all have "movie" theatres. + +At the stations crowds were gathered. At Wynyard all the young of the +district appeared to have collected before going to school. Catching +the word that the Prince "lived" in the last car, they swarmed round +it. Some one told them the Prince was still in bed, and with the +utmost cheerfulness they began to chant: "Sleepy head! Sleepy head!" + +At Lanigan, the next station, a crowd of the same cheery temper also +raised a clamour for the Prince. As a rule he never disappointed them, +and would leave whatever he was doing to go on to the observation +platform at the first hint of cheers. But at Lanigan there were +difficulties. The crowd cheered. Some one looked out of the car, made +a gesture of negation, and went back. The crowd cheered a good deal +more. There was a pause; more cheering. Then a discreet member of the +Staff came out and said the Prince was awfully sorry, but--but, well, +he was in his bath! + +"That's all the better," called a cheerful girl from the heart of the +crowd. "_We_ don't mind." + +The member of the Staff vanished in a new gust of cheering, probably to +hide his blushes. Need I say the Prince did _not_ appear? + +At Colonsay there was a stop of five minutes only, but the people of +the town made the most of it. They had a pretty Britannia to the fore, +and all the school-children grouped about her and singing when the +train steamed in. And when it stopped, a delightful and tiny miss came +forward and gave the Prince a bunch of sweet peas. + +These incidents were a few only of a characteristic day's run. Every +day the same sort of thing happened, so that though the Prince had a +more strenuous time in the bigger cities, his "free times" were +actually made up of series of smaller functions in the smaller ones. + + +II + +Saskatoon, the distributing city for the middle of Saskatchewan, was to +give the Prince a memorable day. It was here that he obtained his +first insight into the life and excitements of the cowboy. Saskatoon, +in addition to the usual reception functions, showed him a "Stampede," +which is a cowboy sports meeting. + +The Prince arrived in the town at noon, and drove through the streets +to the Park and University grounds for the reception ceremonies. It is +a keen, bright place, seeming, indeed, of sparkling newness in the +wonderful clarified sunlight of the prairie. + +It is new. Saskatoon is only now beginning its own history. It is +still sorting itself out from the plain which its elevators, business +blocks and delightful residential districts are yet occupied in +thrusting back. It is a characteristic town on the uplift. It snubs +and encroaches upon the illimitable fields with its fine American +architecture, and its stone university buildings. It has new suburbs +full of houses of symmetrical Western comeliness in a tract wearing the +air of Buffalo Bill. + +It grows so fast that you can almost see it doing it. It has grown so +fast that it has outstripped the guide-book makers. They talk of it in +two lines as a village of a few hundred inhabitants, but put not your +trust in guide-books when coming to Canada, for the village you come +out to see turns out, like Saskatoon, to be a bustling city full of +"pep," as they say, and possessing 20,000 inhabitants. + +The guide-book makers are not to blame. Somewhere about 1903 there +were no more than 150 people within its boundaries. Now, from the look +of it, it could provide ten motor-cars for each of these oldest +inhabitants, and have about 500 over for new-comers--in fact, that is +about the figure; there are 2,000 cars on the Saskatoon registers. +Saskatoon was full of cars neatly lined up along the Prince's route +during every period of his stay. + +The great function of the visit was the "Stampede." This sports +meeting took place on a big racing ground before a grand-stand that +held many thousand more people than Saskatoon boasted. The many cars +that brought them in from all over the country were parked in huge +wedges in and about the ground. + +Passing off the wild dirt roads, the Prince headed a procession of cars +round the course before entering a special pavilion erected facing the +grandstand. His coming was the signal for the Stampede to commence. +It was a new thrill to Britishers, an affair of excitement, and a real +breath of Western life. They told us that the cattle kings are moving +away from this area to the more spacious and lonely lands of the North; +but the exhibition the Prince witnessed showed that the daring and +skilful spirit of the cowboys has not moved on yet. + +We were also told that this Stampede was something in the nature of a +circus that toured the country, and that men and animals played their +parts mechanically as oft-tried turns in a show. But even if that was +so, the thing was unique to British eyes, and the exhibition of all the +tricks of the cattleman's calling was for those who looked on a new +sensation. + +Cattlemen rode before the Prince on bucking horses that, loosed from +wooden cages, came along the track like things compact of India-rubber +and violence, as they strove to throw the leechlike men in furry, +riding chaps, loose shirts, sweat-rags and high felt hats, who rode +them. + +Some of the men rode what seemed a more difficult proposition--an angry +bull, that bunched itself up and down and lowed vindictively, as it +tried to buck its rider off. + +From the end of the race-track a steer was loosed, and a cowboy on a +small lithe broncho rode after it at top speed. Round the head of this +man the lariat whirled like a live snake. In a flash the noose was +tight about the steer's horns, the brilliant little horse had overtaken +the beast, and in an action when man and horse seemed to combine as +one, the tightened rope was swung against the steer's legs. It was +thrown heavily. Like lightning the cowboy was off the horse, was on +top of the half-stunned steer, and had its legs hobbled in a rope. + +One man of the many who competed in this trial of skill performed the +whole operation in twenty-eight seconds from the time the steer was +loosed to the time its legs were secured. + +A more daring feat is "bull-dogging." + +The steer is loosed as before, and the cattleman rides after it, but +instead of lassoing it, he leaps straight out of his saddle and plunges +on to the horns of the beast. Gripping these long and cruel-looking +weapons, he twists the bull's neck until the animal comes down, and +there, with his body in the hollow of the neck and shoulder, he holds +it until his companions run up and release him. + +There is a real thrill of danger in this. + +One man, a cowboy millionaire, caught his steer well, but in the crash +in which the animal came down it rolled right over him. For a moment +man and beast were lost in a confusion of tossing legs and dust. Then +the man, with shirt torn to ribbons and his back scraped in an ugly +manner, rose up gamely and limped away. The only thing about him that +had escaped universal dusting was his white double-linen collar, the +strangest article of clothing any "bull-dogger" might wear. + +The Prince called this plucky fellow, as well as others of the outfit, +into the pavilion, and talked with them some time on the risk and +adventures of their business, as well as congratulating them on their +skill. + +Two comely cowgirls, in fringed leather dresses, high boots, bright +blouses and broad sombreros, also caught his eye. He spoke to a +"movie" man, who had already added to the gaiety of nations by leaping +round in a circle (heavy camera and all) while a big, bucking broncho +had leaped round after him, telling him that the girls formed a fit +subject for the lens. + +"I'm waiting until I can get you with them, sir," said the "movie" man. + +"Oh, you'll get me all right," the Prince laughed. "There's no chance +of my escaping you." + +The "movie" man got Prince and cowgirls presently, when the Prince had +invited them into the pavilion to chat for a few minutes. They were +fine, free and independent girls, who enjoyed the naturalness and +easiness of the interview. + +During the meeting all the arts of the cowboys were exhibited. The +lariat expert lassoed men and horses in bunches of five as easily as he +lassoed one, and danced in and turned somersaults through his +ever-whirling loop. There were some fine exhibitions of horse-riding, +and there was some Amazonian racing by girls in jockey garb. + +The human interlude was also there. A daring woman photographer in the +grand-stand held up a cowboy. Disregarding her long skirts, she +climbed the fence of the course and calmly mounted behind the horseman. +Riding thus, she passed across the front of the cheering grand-stand +and came to the steps of the Prince's pavilion. Unconcerned by the joy +of the great crowd, she asked permission to take a snapshot, and +received it, going her way unruffled and entirely Canadian. + +The very thrilling afternoon was closed by the Prince himself. Walking +over to the crowd of cattlemen, he stood talking with them and +examining their horses. Presently, on the invitation of the leader, he +mounted a broncho, and, leading the bunch of cowboys and cowgirls, +swept down the track and past the stand. The people, delighted at this +unexpected act, vented themselves in the usual way--that is, with +extraordinary enthusiasm. + + +III + +Edmonton, the capital of Alberta, was the Prince's farthest north. He +arrived there on Friday, September 12th, to receive the unstinted +welcome which, long since, we had come to know was Canada's natural +attitude towards him. As we crossed the broad main street to the +station, the sight of the vast human flower-bed that filled the road +below the railway bridge made one tingle at the thoroughness with which +these towns gathered to express themselves. + +Canada, as I may have hinted already, has a way of leading strangers +astray concerning herself. In Eastern Canada we were told that we +would find the West "different." From what was said to us, there was +some reason for expecting to find an entirely new race on the Pacific +side of Winnipeg. It would be a race further removed from the British +tradition, a race not so easy to get on with, a race not moved by the +impulses and enthusiasms that stirred the East. + +And in the West? Well, all I can say is that quite a number of Western +men shook me by the hand and told me how thankful I must be now that I +had left the cold and rigid East for the more generous warmth of the +spacious West. And hadn't I found the East a strange place, inhabited +by people not easy to get on with, and removed from the British +tradition--and so on...? + +This singular state of things may seem queer to the Briton, but I think +it is easily explainable. In the first place, Canada is so vast that +her people, even though they be on the same continent, are as removed +from immediate intimacy as the Kentish man is from the man in a Russian +province. And not only does great distance make for lack of knowledge, +but the fact that each province is self-contained and feeds upon +itself, so to speak, in the matter of news and so on, makes the citizen +in Ontario, or Quebec, or New Brunswick, regard the people of the West +as living in a distant and strange land. + +The Canadian, too, is intensely loyal to Canada; that means he is +intensely jealous for her reputation. He warned us against all +possibilities, I think, so that we should be ready for any +disappointment. + +There was not the slightest need for warning. Whether East or West, +Canada was solid in its welcome, and, as far as I am able to judge, +there is no difference at all in the texture of human habit and mind +East or West. There is the same fine, sturdy quality of loyalty and +hospitality over the whole Dominion. Canada is Canada all through. + +Edmonton is a fine, lusty place. It is the prairie town in its teens. +It has not yet put off its coltish air. It is Winnipeg just leaving +school, and has the wonderful precocity of these eager towns of the +West. It is running almost before it has learnt to walk. + +While full-blooded Indians still move in its streets, it is putting up +buildings worthy of a European metropolis. It has opened big +up-to-date stores and public offices by the side of streets that are +yet the mere stamped earth of the untutored plain. + +Along its main boulevard, Jasper Avenue, slip the astonishing excess of +automobiles one has learnt to expect in Canadian towns. A brisk +electric tram service weaves the mass of street movement together, and +at night over all shines an exuberance of electric light. + +That main street is tingling with modernity. Its stores, its +music-halls, its "movie" theatres, and its hotels glitter with the +nervous intensity of a spirit avid of the latest ideas. + +Fringing the canyon of the brown North Saskatchewan River is a +beautiful automobile road, winding among pretty residential plots and +comely enough for any town. + +Yet swing out in a motor for a few miles, and one is in a land where +the roads--if any--are but the merest trails, where the silent and +brooding prairie (hereabouts blessed with trees) stretches emptily for +miles by the thousand. + +Turn the car north, and it heads for "The Great Lone Land," that +expands about the reticent stretches of the Great Slave country, or +follows the Peace River and the Athabasca beyond the cold line of the +Arctic Circle. + +To get to these rich and isolated lands--and one thinks this out in the +lounge of an hotel worthy of the Strand--the traveller must take +devious and disconnected ways. Railways tap great tracts of the +country, going up to Fort McMurray and the Peace River, and these +connect up with river and lake steamers that ply at intervals. But +travel here is yet mainly in the speculative stage, and long waits and +guides and canoes and a camping outfit are necessary. + +In winter, if the traveller is adventurous and tough, he can progress +more swiftly. He can go up by automobile and run along the courses of +the rivers on the thick ice, and, on the ice, cross the big lakes. + +Though the land is within the Arctic Circle, it is rich. I talked with +a traveller who had just returned from this area, and he spoke of the +superb tall crops of grain he had seen on his journey. It will be +magnificent land when it is opened up, and can accommodate the +population of a kingdom. The growing season, of course, is shorter, +but this is somewhat balanced by the longer northern days and the +intense sunlight that is proper to them. The drawbacks are the very +long winters, loneliness and the difficulties of transport. + +Edmonton, sitting across the gorge of the Saskatchewan, feeds these +districts and reflects them. Because of this it is a city of +anachronisms. High up on the cliff, its site chosen with the usual +appositness of Canada, is the Capitol building, a bright and soaring +structure done in the latest manner. Right under that decisively +modern pile is a group of rough wooden houses. They are the original +stores of the Hudson Bay Company, standing exactly as they did when +they formed an outpost point of civilization in the Northwest. + +It is obviously a town in a young land, pushing ahead, as the Prince +indicated in his speech to the Provincial Government, with all the +intensity and zest of youth, having all the sense of freedom and +possibility that the rich and great farming, furbearing and +timber-growing tracts give it. + + +IV + +The keen spirit of the city was reflected in the welcome it gave the +Prince. It was a wet, grey day, but the whole town was out to line the +streets and to gather at the ceremonial points. And it was a musical +greeting. Edmonton is prone to melody. Brass bands appear to flourish +here. There was one at every street corner. And not only did they +play as the Prince in the midst of his red-tuniced "Mountie" escort +passed by, but they played all day, so that the city was given over to +a non-stop carnival of popular airs. + +At the Parliament Buildings the crowds were as dense as ever. They +showed the same spirit in listening to addresses and reply, and the +same hustling sense of "getting there" when entering the building to +take part in the public reception. The addresses of welcome were a +novelty. Engrossed on vellum, it had been sewn on the purple silk +lining of a yellow-furred coyote skin, a local touch that interested +the Prince. There was another such touch after the reception. A body +of Stony Indians were presented to His Royal Highness. These Indians +had travelled from a distance in the hope of seeing the son of the +Great White Chief, and they not only saw him but were presented to him. +He talked with particular sympathy to one chief whose son had been a +comrade-in-arms in the Canadian ranks during the war and who had been +killed in the fighting. + +The opening of a war memorial hall, a big and dazzling dance at the +Government House, and other functions, fulfilled the usual round. And, +last but not least, the Prince became a player and a "fan" in a ball +game. + +There was a match (I hope "match" is right) between the local team, and +one of its passionate rivals, and the Prince went to the ground to take +part. Walking to the "diamond" (I'm sure that is right), he equipped +himself in authentic manner, with floppy, jockey-peaked cap and a +ruthless glance, took his stance as a "pitcher" and delivered two +balls. I don't know whether they were stingers or swizzers, or +whatever the syncopated phraseology of the great game dubs them, but +they were matters of great admiration. + +Having led to the undoing (I hope, for that was his task) of some one, +the Prince then joined the audience. He chose not the best seats, but +the popular ones, for he sat on the grass among the "bleachers," and +when one has sat out of the shade in the hot prairie sun one knows what +"bleachers" means. + +This sporting little interlude was immensely popular, and the Prince +left Edmonton with the reputation of being a true "fan" and "a real +good feller." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +CALGARY AND THE CATTLE RANCH + +I + +The Royal train arrived in Calgary, Alberta, on the morning of Sunday, +September 14th, after some of the members of the train had spent an +hour or so shooting gophers, a small field rat, part squirrel, and at +all times a great pest in grain country. + +Calgary was a town that charmed at once. It stands in brilliant +sunlight--and that sunlight seems to have an eternal quality--in a nest +of enfolding hills. Two rivers with the humorous names of Bow and +Elbow run through it; they are blue with the astonishing blueness of +glacial silt. + +From the hills, or from the tops of such tall buildings as the +beautiful Palliser Hotel, the high and austere dividing line of the +Rockies can be seen across the rolling country. Snow-cowled, and +almost impalpable above the ground mist, the great range of mountains +looks like the curtain wall of a stronghold of mystics. + +In the streets the city itself has an air of radiance. There is an +invigoration in the atmosphere that seems to give all things a peculiar +quality of zest. The sidewalks have a bustling and crisp virility, the +public buildings are handsome, and the streets of homes particularly +gracious. + +The Sunday reception of the Prince was eloquent but quiet. There were +the usual big crowds, but the day was deliberately without ceremonial. +Divine Service at the Pro-Cathedral, where the Prince unveiled a +handsome rood-screen to the memory of those fallen in the war, was the +only item in a restful day, which was spent almost entirely in the +country at the County Club. + +But perhaps the visit to the County Club was not altogether quiet. + +The drive out to this charming place in a pit of a valley, where one of +the rivers winds through the rolling hills, began in the comely +residential streets. + +These residential districts of Canada and America certainly impress +one. The well-proportioned and pretty houses, with their deep +verandahs, the trees that group about them, the sparkling grass that +comes down to the edge of the curb--all give one the sense of being the +work of craftsmen who are masters in design. That sense seems to me to +be evident, not only in domestic architecture, but in the design of +public buildings. The feeling I had was that the people on this +Continent certainly know how to build. And by building, I do not mean +merely erecting a house of distinction, but also choosing sites of +distinction. + +Nearly all the newer public buildings are of excellent design, and all +are placed in excellent positions. Some of these sites are actually +brilliant; the Parliament Houses at Ottawa, as seen from the river, are +intensely apposite, so are those at Edmonton and Regina, while the +sites of such buildings as the Banff Springs Hotel, and, in a lesser +sense, the Chateau at Lake Louise, seem to me to have been chosen with +real genius. + +In saying that the people on this Continent certainly know how to +build, I am speaking of both the United States and Canada. This fine +sense of architecture is even more apparent in the United States (I, of +course, only speak of the few towns I visited) than in Canada, for +there are more buildings and it is a richer country. The sense of +architecture may spring from that country, or it may be that the whole +Continent has the instinct. As I am not competent to judge, I accuse +the whole of the Western hemisphere of that virtue. + +The Prince passed through these pretty districts where are the +beautiful houses of ranchers and packing kings, farmers and pig rearers +whose energy and vision have made Calgary rich as well as good to look +upon. Passing from this region of good houses and good roads, he came +upon a highway that is prairie even less than unalloyed, for constant +traffic has scored it with a myriad ruts and bumps. + +Half-way up a hill, where a bridge of wood jumps across the stream that +winds amid the pleasant gardens of the houses, the Prince's car was +held up. A mob of militants rushed down upon it, and neither +chauffeur, nor Chief of Staff, nor suite could resist. + +It was an attack not by Bolshevists, but by Boy Scouts. They flung +themselves across the road in a mass, and would take no nonsense from +any one. They insisted that the engine should take a holiday, and that +they should hitch themselves to the car. They won their point and +hitched. The car, under some hundred boy-power, went up the long +hill--and a gruelling hill it is--through the club gates, and down a +longer hill, to where, in a deep cup, the house stands. + +At the club the visit was entirely formal. The Prince became an +ordinary member and chatted to other men and women members in a +thoroughly club-like manner. + +"He is so easy to get on with," said one lady. "I found it was I who +was the more reserved for the first few minutes, and it was I who had +to become more human. + +"He is a young man who has something to say, and who has ears to listen +to things worth while. He has no use for preliminaries or any other +nonsense that wastes time in 'getting together.'" + +He lunched at the club and drifted about among the people gathered on +the lawns before going for a hard walk over the hills. + + +II + +The real day of functions was on Monday, when the Prince drove through +the streets, visiting many places, and, later, speaking impressively at +a citizens' lunch in the Palliser Hotel. + +His passage through the streets was cheered by big crowds, but crowds +of a definite Western quality. Here the crowns of hats climbed high, +sometimes reaching monstrous peaks that rise as samples of the Rockies +from curly brims as monstrous. Under these still white felt altitudes +are the vague eyes and lean, contemplative faces of the cattlemen from +the stock country around. Here and there were other prairie types who +linger while the tide of modernity rushes past them. They are the +Indians, brown, lined and forward stooping, whose reticent eyes looking +out from between their braided hair seem to be dwelling on their long +yesterday. + +At the citizens' lunch the Prince departed from his usual trend of +speech-making to voice some of the impressions that this new land had +brought to him. He once more spoke of the sense of spaciousness and +possibility the vast prairies of the West had given him, but today he +went further and dwelt upon the need of making those possibilities +assured. The foundation that had made the future as well as the +present possible, was the work of the great pioneers and railway men +who had mastered the country in their stupendous labours, and made it +fit for a great race to grow in. + +The foundation built in so much travail was ready. Upon it Canada must +build, and it must build right. + +"The farther I travel through Canada," he said, "the more I am struck +by the great diversities which it presents; its many and varied +communities are not only separated by great distances, but also by +divergent interests. You have much splendid alien human material to +assimilate, and so much has already been done towards cementing all +parts of the Dominion that I am sure you will ultimately succeed in +accomplishing this great task, but it will need the co-operation of all +parties, of all classes and all races, working together for the common +cause of Canadian nationhood under the British flag. + +"Serious difficulties and controversies must often arise, but I know +nothing can set Canada back except the failure of the different classes +and communities to look to the wider interests of the Dominion, as well +as their own immediate needs. I realize that scattered communities, +necessarily preoccupied with the absorbing task of making good, often +find the wider view difficult to keep. Yet I feel sure that it will be +kept steadily before the eyes of all the people of this great Western +country, whose very success in making the country what it is proves +their staying power and capacity." + +Canada, he declared, had already won for herself a legitimate place in +the fraternity of nations, and the character and resources within her +Dominion must eventually place her influence equal to, if not greater +than, the influence of any other part of the Empire. Much depended +upon Canada's use of her power, and the greatness of her future was +wrapped up in her using it wisely and well. + +The great gathering was impressed by the statesman-like quality of the +speech, the first of its kind he had made since his landing. He spoke +with ease, making very little use of his notes and showing a greater +freedom from nervousness. The sincerity of his manner carried +conviction, and there was a great demonstration when he sat down. + + +III + +In the afternoon he left Calgary by train for the small "cow town" of +High River, from there going on by car over roads that were at times +cart ruts in the fields, to the Bar U Ranch, where he was to be the +guest of Mr. George Lane. + +His host, "George Lane," as he is called everywhere, is known as far as +the States and England as one of the cattle kings. He is a Westerner +of the Westerners, and an individuality even among them. Tall and +loose-built, with an authentic Bret Harte quality in action and speech, +he can flash a glance of shrewdness or humour from the deep eyes under +their shaggy, pent-house brows. He is one of the biggest ranch owners +in the West (perhaps the biggest); his judgment on cattle or horses is +law, and he has no frills. + +His attractive ranch on the plains, where the rolling lands meet the +foot-hills of the Rockies, has an air of splendid spaciousness. We did +not go to Bar U, but a friend took us out on a switchback automobile +run over what our driver called a "hellofer" road, to just such another +ranch near Cockrane, and we could judge what these estates were like. + +They are lonely but magnificent. They extend with lakes, close, tight +patches of bush and small and occasional woods over undulating country +to the sharp, bare wall of the snow-capped Rockies. The light is +marvellous. Calgary is 3,500 feet up, and the level mounts steadily to +the mountains. At this altitude the sunlight has an astonishing +clarity, and everything is seen in a sharp and brilliant light. + +In the rambling but comfortable house of the ranch the Prince was +entertained with cattleman's fare, and on the Tuesday (after a ten-mile +run before breakfast) he was introduced to the ardours of the +cattleman's calling. He mounted a broncho and with his host joined the +cowboys in rounding several thousand head of cattle, driving them in +towards the branding corrals. + +This is no task for an idler or a slacker. The bunch was made up +mainly of cows with calves, or steers of less than a year old, who +believed in the policy of self-determination, being still unbranded and +still conspicuously independent. Most of them, in fact, had seen +little or nothing of man in their life of lonely pasturage over the +wide plains. + +Riding continually at a gallop and in a whirlwind of movement and dust +and horns, the Prince helped to bunch the mass into a compact circle, +and then joined with the others in riding into the nervous herd, in +order to separate the calves from the mothers, and the unbranded steers +from those already marked with the sign of Bar U. + +Calves and steers were roped and dragged to the corral, where they were +flung and the brand seared on their flanks with long irons taken from a +fire in the enclosure. + +The Prince did not spare himself, and worked as hard as any cattleman +in the business, and indeed he satisfied those exacting critics, the +cowboys, who produced in his favour another Westernism, describing him +as "a Bear. He's fur all over." Then, as though a strenuous morning +in the saddle was not enough, he went off in the afternoon after +partridges, spending the whole time on the tramp until he was due to +start for Calgary. + +His pleasure in his experience was summed up in the terse comment: +"Some Ranch," that he set against his signature in Mr. Lane's visitors' +book. It also had the practical result of turning him into a rancher +himself, for it was at this time he saw the ranch which he ultimately +bought. It is a very good little property, close to Mr. Lane's, so +that in running it the Prince will have the advantage of that expert's +advice. Part of the Prince's plan for handling it is to give an +opportunity to soldiers who served with him in the war to take up +positions on the ranch. Mr. Lane told me himself that the proposition +is a practical one, and there should be profitable results. + +Leaving Bar U, the Prince returned to High River at that Canadian pace +of travelling which sets the timid European wondering whether his +accident policy is fully paid up. In High River, where the old +cow-puncher ideal of hitting up the dust in the wild and woolly manner +has given way to the rule of jazz dances and bright frocks, he mounted +the train and steamed off to Calgary. + +In Calgary great things had been done to the Armoury where the ball was +to be held. Handled in the big manner of the Dominion, the great hall +had been re-floored with "hard wood" blocks, and a scheme of real +beauty, extending to an artificial sky in the roof, had been evolved. + +At this dance the whole of Calgary seemed in attendance, either on the +floor, or outside watching the guests arrive. In Canada the scope of +the invitations is universal. There are no distinctions. The pretty +girl who serves you with shaving soap over the drug store counter asks +if she will meet you at the Prince's ball, as a matter of course. She +is going. So is the young man at the estate office. So is your taxi +chauffeur (the taxi is an open touring car). So is--everybody. These +dances are the most democratic affairs, and the most spirited. And as +spirited and democratic as anybody was the Prince himself, who, in this +case, in spite of his run before breakfast, a hard morning in the +saddle, his long tramp in the afternoon, his automobile and railway +travelling, danced with the rest into the small hours of the morning. + +All the little boys in Calgary watched for his arrival. And after he +had gone in there was a fierce argument as to who had come in closest +contact with him. One little boy said that the Prince had looked +straight at him and smiled. + +Another capped it: + +"He shoved me on the shoulder as he went by," he cried. + +The inevitable last chimed in: + +"You don't make it at all," he said. "He trod on my brother's toe." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +CHIEF MORNING STAR COMES TO BANFF AND THE ROCKIES + +I + +In the night the Royal train steamed the few miles from Calgary and on +the morning of Wednesday, September 17th, we woke up in the first field +works of the Rocky Mountains. + +It was a day on which we were to see one of the most picturesque +ceremonies of the tour, and slipping through the high scarps of the +mountains to the little valley in which Banff station stands, we were +into that experience of colour at once. + +Drawn up in the open by the little station was a line of Indians, clad +in their historic costumes, and mounted on the small, springy horses of +Canada. Some were in feathers and buckskin and beads, some in the high +felt hats and bright-shirts of the cowboy, all were romantic in +bearing. They were there to form the escort of the new "Chief." + +As the Prince's car drove from the station along a road that wound its +way amid glades of spruce and poplar glowing with the old gold of +Autumn that filled the valleys winding about the feet of high and +austere mountains, other bodies of Stoney Indians joined the escort +about the car. + +They had gathered at the opening of every side lane, and as the +cavalcade passed, dropped in behind, until the procession became a +snake of shifting colour, vermilion and cherry, yellow and blue and +green, going forward under the dappling of sun that slipped between the +swinging branches. + +Chiefs, the sunray of eagles' feathers on their heads, braves in full +war-paint, Indian cowboys in shirts of all the colours of the spectrum, +and squaws a mass of beads and sequins, with bright shawls and brighter +silk head-wraps, made up the escort. Behind and at times in front of +many of the squaws were papooses, some riding astraddle, their arms +round the women's waists, others slung in shawls, but all clad in +Indian garb that seemed to be made up of a mass of closely-sewn beads, +turquoise, green, white or red, so that the little bodies were like +scaly and glittering lizards. + +This ride that wound in and out of these very beautiful mountain +valleys took the Prince past the enclosures of the National Park, and +he saw under the trees the big, hairy-necked bison, the elk and +mountain goats that are harboured in this great natural reserve. + +On the racecourse were Indian tepees, banded, painted with the heads of +bulls, and bright with flags. The braves who were waiting for the +Prince, and those who were escorting him, danced, their ponies whirling +about, racing through veils of dust and fluttering feathers and +kerchiefs in a sort of ride of welcome. From over by the tepees there +came the low throbbing of tom-toms to join with the thin, high, +dog-like whoop of the Indian greeting. + +On a platform at the hub of half-circle of Indians the Prince listened +to the addresses and accepted the Chieftaincy of the Stoney tribe. +Some of the Indians had their faces painted a livid chrome-yellow, so +that their heads looked like masks of death; some were smeared with +red, some barred with blue. Most, however, showed merely the +high-boned, sphinx-like brown of their faces free from war-paint. The +costumes of many were extremely beautiful, the wonderful beadwork on +tunic and moccasins being a thing of amazing craftsmanship, though the +elk-tooth decorations, though of great value, were not so attractive. + +Standing in front of the rest, the chief, "Little Thunder," read the +address to the Prince. He was a big, aquiline fellow, young and +handsome, clad in white, hairy chaps and cowboy shirt. He spoke in +sing-song Cree, his body curving back from straddled knees as though he +sat a pulling horse. + +In his historic tongue, and then in English, he spoke of the honour the +Prince was paying the Stoneys, and of their enduring loyalty to him and +his father; and he asked the Prince "to accept from us this Indian +suit, the best we have, emblematic of the clothes we wore in happy +days. We beg you also to allow us to elect you as our chief, and to +give you the name Chief Morning Star." + +The suit given to the Prince was an exceedingly handsome one of white +buckskin, decorated with beads, feathers and fur, and surmounted by a +great headdress of feathers rising from a fillet of beads and fur. The +Prince put on the headdress at once, and spoke to the Indians as a +chief to his braves, telling them of the honour they had done him. + +When he had finished, the tom-toms were brought into action again, and +a high, thin wail went up from the ring of Indians, and they began +almost at once to move round in a dance. Indian dancing is monotonous. +It is done to the high, nasal chanting of men gathered round a big drum +in the centre of the ring. This drum is beaten stoically by all to +give the time. + +Some of the dancing is the mere bending of knees and a soft shuffling +stamping of moccasined feet. In other dances vividly clad, +broad-faced, comely squaws joined in the ring of braves, whose feathers +and elk-tooth ornaments swung as they moved, and the whole ring, with a +slightly rocking movement, shuffled an inch at a time round the tom-tom +men. The motion was very like that of soldiers dressing ranks. + +A more spirited dance is done by braves holding weapons stiffly, and +following each other in file round the circle, now bending knees, or +bodies, now standing upright. As they pass round and dip they loose +little snapping yelps. All the time their faces remain as impassive as +things graven. + +The dancing was followed by racing. Boys mounted bareback the springy +little horses, and with their legs twisted into rope-girths--with +reins, the only harness--went round the track at express speed. Young +women, riding astride, their dresses tied about their knees, also +raced, showing horsemanship even superior to the boys. The riding was +extremely fine, and the little horses bunch and move with an elastic +and hurtling movement that is thrilling. + +The ceremony had made the bravest of spectacles. The Indian colour and +romance of the scene, set in a deep cup rimmed by steep, grim +mountains, the sides and icecaps of which the bright sunlight threw up +into an almost unreal actuality, gave it a rare and entrancing quality. +And not the least of its picturesque attractions were the papooses in +bead and fringed leather, who grubbed about in the earth with stoic +calm. They looked almost too toylike to be true. They looked as +though their right place was in a scheme of decoration on a wall or a +mantel-shelf. As one lady said of them: "They're just the sort of +things I want to take home as souvenirs." + + +II + +Banff is an exquisite and ideal holiday place, and I can appreciate the +impulse that sends many Americans as well as Canadians to enjoy its +beauties in the summer. + +It is a valley ringed by an amphitheatre of mountains, up the harsh +slopes of which spruce forests climb desperately until beaten by the +height and rock on the scarps beneath crests which are often +snow-capped. Through this broad valley, and winding round slopes into +other valleys, run streams of that poignant blueness which only glacial +silt and superb mountain skies can Impart. + +The houses and hotels in this Switzerland of Canada are charming, but +the Banff Springs Hotel, where the Prince stayed, is genius. It is +perched up on a spur in the valley, so that in that immense ring of +heights it seems to float insubstantially above the clouds of trees, +like the palace of some genii. For not only was its site admirably +chosen, but the whole scheme of the building fits the atmosphere of the +place. And it is as comfortable as it is beautiful. + +It faces across its red-tiled, white-balustered terraces and vivid +lawns, a sharp river valley that strolls winding amid the mountains. +And just as this river turns before it, it tumbles down a rock slide in +a vast mass of foam, so that even when one cannot see its beauty at +night, its roar can be heard in the wonderful silence of the valley. +On the terrace of the hotel are two bathing-pools fed from the sulphur +springs of Banff, and here Canadians seem to bathe all day until +dance-time--and even slip back for a moonlight bath between dancing and +bed. + +It is an ideal place for a holiday, for there is golfing, climbing, +walking and bathing for those whose athletic instincts are not +satisfied with beauty, and automobile rides amid beauty. And it is, of +course, a perfect place for honeymooners, as one will find by +consulting the Visitors' Book, for with characteristic frankness the +Canadians and Americans sign themselves: + + +"_Mr. and Mrs. Jack P. Eeks, Spokane. We are on our honeymoon._" + + +The Prince spent an afternoon and a morning playing golf amid the +immensities of Banff, or travelling in a swift car along its beautiful +roads. There are most things in Banff to make man happy, even a coal +mine, sitting like a black and incongruous gnome in the heart of +enchanted hills, to provide heat against mountain chills. + +The Prince saw the sulphur spring that bubbles out of quicksand in a +little cavern deep in the hillside--a cavern made almost impregnable by +smell. In the old days the determined bather had to shin down a pole +through a funnel, and take his curative bath in the rocky oubliette of +the spring. Now the Government has arranged things better. It has +carved a dark tunnel to the pool, and carried the water to two big +swimming tanks on the open hillside, where one can take a plunge with +all modern accessories. + + +III + +From Banff in the afternoon of Thursday, September 18th, the train +carried the Prince through scenery that seemed to accumulate beauty as +he travelled to another eyrie of loveliness, Lake Louise. + +At Lake Louise Station the railway is five thousand feet above the +sea-level, but the Chateau and Lake are yet higher, and the Prince +climbed to them by a motor railway that rises clinging to the +mountain-side, until it twists into woods and mounts upward by the side +of a blue-and-white stream dashing downward, with an occasional +breather in a deep pool, over rocks. + +The Chateau is poised high up in the world on the lip of a small and +perfect lake of poignant blue, that fills the cup made by the meeting +of a ring of massive heights. At the end of the lake, miles away, but, +thanks to the queerness of mountain perspective, looking close enough +to touch, rises the scarp of Mount Victoria, capped with a vast glacier +that seemed to shine with curious inner lambency under the clear light +of the grey day. There is a touch of the theatre in that view from the +windows or the broad lawns of the Chateau, for the mountain and glacier +is a huge back-drop seen behind wings made by the shoulders of other +mountains, and all, rock and spruce woods, as well as the clear shining +of the ice, are mirrored in the perfect lake that makes the floor of +the valley. + +Up on one of the shoulders of the lake, hidden away in a screen of +trees, is the home of an English woman. She used to spend her days +working in a shop in the West End of London until happy chance brought +her to Lake Louise, and she opened a tea chalet high on that lonely +crag. She has changed from the frowsty airs of her old life to a place +where she can enjoy beauty, health and an income that allows her to fly +off to California when the winter comes. The Prince went up to take +tea in this chalet of romance and profit during his walk of exercise. + +There is another kind of romance in the woods about the Chateau, and +one of the policemen who guarded the Prince made its acquaintance +during the night. In the dark he heard the noise of some one moving +amid the trees that come down to the edge of the hotel grounds. He +thought that some unpleasant intruder on the Prince's privacy was +attempting to sneak in by the back way. He marched up to the edge of +the wood and waited in his most legal attitude for the intruder--and a +bear came out to meet him. Not only did it come out to meet him, but +it reared up and waved its paws in a thoroughly militant manner. The +policeman was a man from the industrial East, and not having been +trained to the habits of bears, decided on a strategic withdrawal. + +His experience was one of the next day's jokes, since it appears that +bears often do come out of the woods attracted by the smell of hotel +cooking. On the whole they are amiable, and are no more difficult than +ordinary human beings marching in the direction of a good dinner. + +From Lake Louise the Prince went steadily west through some of the most +impressive scenery in Canada. The gradient climbs resolutely to the +great lift of petrified earth above Kicking Horse Pass, so that the +train seemed to be steaming across the sky. + +A little east of the Pass is a slight monument called "the Great +Divide." Here Alberta meets British Columbia, and here a stream +springs from the mountains to divide itself east and west, one fork +joining stream after stream, until as a great river it empties into +Hudson Bay; the other, turning west and leaping down the ledges of +valleys, makes for the Pacific. + +Beyond "the Great Divide" the titanic Kicking Horse Pass opens out. It +falls by gigantic levels for 1,300 feet to the dim, spruce-misted +valleys that lie darkly at the foot of the giant mountains. It is not +a straight canyon, but a series of deeper valleys opening out of deep +valleys round the shoulders of the grim slopes. Down this tortuous +corridor the railway creeps lower, level by level, going with the +physical caution of a man descending a dangerous slope. + +The line feels for its best footholds on the sides of walls that drop +sheer away, and tower sheer above. We could look over the side down +abrupt precipices, and see through the dense rain of the day the mighty +drop to where the Kicking Horse River, after leaping over rocky ramps +and flowing through level pools, ran in a score of channels on the wide +shingly floor of the Pass. + +Beneath us as we descended we could see the track twisting and looping, +as it sought by tunnelling to conquer the exacting gradient. The +planning of the line is, in its own way, as wonderful as the natural +marvel of the Pass. One is filled with awe at the vision, the genius +and the tenacity of those great railway men who had seen a way over +this grim mountain barrier, had schemed their line and had mastered +nature. + +At Yoho Station that clings like a limpet near the top of this soaring +barrier, the Prince took to horse, and rode down trails that wind along +the mountainside through thickets of trees to Field at the foot of the +drop. The rain was driving up the throat of the valley before a strong +wind, and it was not a good day for riding, even in woolly chaps such +as he wore, but he set out at a gallop, and enjoyed the exercise and +the scenery, which is barbaric and tremendous, though here and there it +was etherealized by sudden gleams of sunlight playing on the wet +foliage of the mountain-side and turning the wet masses into rainbows. + +During this ride he passed under the stain in a sheer wall of rock that +gives the Pass its name. For some geological reason there is, high up +in a straight mass of white towering cliff, a black outcrop that is +like the silhouette of an Indian on a horse. I could not distinguish +the kick in the horse myself, but I was assured it was there, and +Kicking Horse is thus named. + +From Field, a breathing space for trains, about which has grown a small +village possessing one good hotel, the Prince rode up the valleys to +some of the beauty spots, such as Emerald Lake, which lies high in the +sky under the cold glaciers of Mount Burgess. It was a wonderful ride +through the spruce and balsam woods of these high valleys. + + +IV + +During Saturday, September 20th, the train was yet in the mountains, +and the scenery continued to be magnificent. From Field the line works +down to the level of the Columbia River, some 1,500 feet lower, through +magnificent stretches of mountain panorama, and through breathless +gorges like the Palliser, before climbing again steeply to the highest +point of the Selkirk Range. Here the train seemed to charge straight +at the towering wall of Mount MacDonald, but only because there is a +miracle of a tunnel--Connaught Tunnel--which coaxes the line down by +easy grades to Rogers Pass, the Illicilliwaet and Albert Canyon. +Through all this stretch the scenery is superb. In the gorges and the +canyon high mountains force the river and railway together, until the +train runs in a semi-darkness between sheer cliffs, with the water +foaming and tearing itself forward in pent-up fury between harsh, rocky +walls. Sometimes these walls encroach until the water channel is +forced between two rocks standing up like doorposts, with not much more +than a doorway space between them. Through these gateways the volume +of water surges with an indescribable sense of power. + +At places, as in the valley of the Beavermouth, east of the Connaught +Tunnel, the line climbs hugely upward on the sides of great ranges, +and, on precarious ledges, hangs above a gigantic floor, tree-clad and +fretted with water channels. The train crept over spidery bridges, +spanning waterdrops, and crawled for miles beneath ranges of big timber +snowsheds. + +The train stopped at the pleasant little mountain town of Golden, where +the Prince went "ashore," and there was the ceremony of reception. +This was on the program. The next stop was not. + +West of the Albert Canyon, at a tiny station called Twin Butte, we +passed another train standing in a siding, with a long straggle of men +in khaki waiting on the platform and along the track, looking at us as +we swept along. Abruptly we ceased to sweep along. The communication +cord had been pulled, and we stopped with a jerk. + +The Prince had caught sight of the soldiers, and had recognized who +they were. He had given orders to pull up, and almost before the +brakes had ground home, he was out on the track and among the men, +speaking to them and the officers, who were delighted at this +unexpected meeting. + +The soldiers were English. They were men of the 25th Middlesex, H.A.C. +and other regiments, four hundred all told. They had come from Omsk, +in Russia, by way of the Pacific, and were being railed from Vancouver +to Montreal in order to take ship for home. The men of the Middlesex +were those made famous by the sinking of their trooper off the African +coast in 1916. Their behaviour then had been so admirable that it will +be remembered the King cabled to them, "Well done, Diehards!" + +By the isolated railway station and under the lonely mountains so far +from their homes, they were drawn up, and the Prince made an informal +inspection of the men who had been so long away, and who had travelled +the long road from Siberia on their way Blightyward. + +The inspection lasted only a few minutes, and the episode, spontaneous +as it was characteristic, scarcely broke the run into Revelstoke. But +it was the happiest of meetings. + +Revelstoke is a small, bright mountain town known, as its inhabitants +say, for snow and strawberries. It is their way of explaining that the +land in this deep mountain valley is splendidly fertile, and that +settlers have only to farm on a small scale in order to make a +comfortable living, though in winter it is--well, of the mountains. +The fishing there is also extremely good, and we were told almost +fabulous tales of boys who on their journey home from school spent a +few minutes at the creeks of the Columbia River, and went on their way +bearing enough fish to make a dinner for a big family. + +The chief feature of Revelstoke's reception was a motor run up +Revelstoke mountain, a four thousand feet ride up a stiffish road that +climbed by corkscrew bends. This was thrilling enough, for there were +abrupt depths when we saw Revelstoke far down on the valley floor +looking neat and doll-like from this airman's eye-view, and we had to +cross frail wooden bridges spanning deep crevices, some of them at ugly +corners. + +From Revelstoke the train went on to Sicamous, where it remained until +the middle of Sunday, September 21st. Sicamous is merely an hotel and +a few houses beside a very beautiful lake. It is a splendid fishing +centre, for a chain of lakes stretches south through the valleys to +Okanagan. A branch line serves this district (which we were to explore +later), where there are rich orchard lands. + +With Revelstoke, Sicamous acts as a distributing centre for the big +Kootenay areas, that romantic land of the earliest trail breakers, +those dramatic fellows who pushed all ways through the forest-clad +valleys after gold and silver, and the other rich rewards of the +prospector. Even now the country has only been tapped, and there are +many new discoveries of ore in the grim rock of the district. + +A short stop at Kamloops on Sunday, September 21st, and then a straight +run through the night brought us to Vancouver, with just a note of +interest outside the Pacific city. For miles we passed dumps of war +material, shells, ammunition boxes, the usual material of armies. It +was lying discarded and decaying, and it told a tragic story. It was +the war material that the Allies had prepared for Russia. These were +the dumps that fed the transports for Russia plying from Vancouver. +After the peace of Brest-Litovsk all work ceased about them, and there +they remained to that day, monuments to the Bolshevik Peace. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE PACIFIC CITIES: VANCOUVER AND VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA + +I + +Vancouver was land after a mountain voyage. With the feelings of a +seafarer seeing cliffs after a long ocean journey, we reached common, +flat country and saw homely asphalt streets. + +There can be no two points of view concerning the beauty and grandeur +of the mountain scenery through which the Prince had passed, but after +a succession of even the most stimulating gorges and glaciers one does +turn gladly to a little humanity in the lump. Vancouver was humanity +in the lump, an exceedingly large lump and of peculiarly warm and +generous emotions. We were glad to meet crowds once more. + +There are some adequate streets in this great western port of Canada. +When Vancouver planned such opulent boulevards as Granville and Georgia +streets, it must have been thinking hard about posterity, which will +want a lot of space if only to drive its superabundant motors. But +splendid and wide and long though these and other streets be, the mass +of people which lined them on Monday, September 22nd, was such as to +set the most long-headed town planner wondering if, after all, he had +allowed enough room for the welcoming of Princes. + +From the vast, orderly throng massed behind the red and tartan of the +Highland guard of honour at the station, thick ranks of people lined +the whole of a long route to Stanley Park. + +This crowd not only filled the sidewalks with good-tempered liveliness, +but it had sections in all the windows of the fine blocks of buildings +the Prince passed. Now and then it attempted to emulate the small boys +who ran level with the Prince's car cheering to full capacity, and +caring not a jot whether a "Mounty" of the escort or a following car +went over them, but on the whole the crowd was more in hand than usual. + +This does not mean that it was less enthusiastic. The reception was of +the usual stirring quality, and it culminated in an immense outburst in +Stanley Park. + +It was a touch of genius to place the official reception in the Park. +It is, in a sense, the key-note of Vancouver. It gives it its peculiar +quality of charm. It is a huge park occupying the entirety of a +peninsula extending from the larger peninsula upon which Vancouver +stands. It has sea-water practically all round it. In it are to be +found the greatest and finest trees in Canada in their most natural +surroundings. + +It is one big "reservation" for trees. Those who think that they can +improve upon nature have had short shrift, and the giant Douglas pine, +the firs and the cedars thrive naturally in a setting that has remained +practically untouched since the day when the British seaman, Captain +Vancouver, explored the sounds of this coast. It is an exquisite park +having delightful forest walks and beautiful waterside views. + +Under the great trees and in a wilderness of bright flowers and flags +as bright, a vast concourse of people was gathered about the pretty +pavilion in the park to give the Prince a welcome. The function had +all the informality of a rather large picnic, and when the sun banished +the Pacific "smoke," or mist, the gathering had infinite charm. + +After this reception the Prince went for a short drive in the great +park, seeing its beautiful glades; looking at Burrard Inlet that makes +its harbour one of the best in the world, and getting a glimpse of +English Bay, where the sandy bathing beaches make it one of the best +sea-side resorts in the world as well. At all points of the drive +there were crowds. And while most of those on the sidewalks were +Canadian, there was also, as at "Soo," a good sprinkling of Americans. +They had come up from Seattle and Washington county to have a +first-hand look at the Prince, and perhaps to "jump" New York and the +eastern Washington in a racial desire to get in first. + +In this long drive, as well as during the visit we paid to Vancouver on +our return from Victoria, there was a considerable amount of that mist +which the inhabitants call "smoke," because it is said to be the result +of forest fires along the coast, in the air. Yet in spite of the mist +we had a definite impression of a fine, spacious city, beautifully +situated and well planned, with distinguished buildings. And an +impression of people who occupy themselves with the arts of business, +progress and living as becomes a port not merely great now, but +ordained to be greater tomorrow. + +It is a city of very definite attraction, as perhaps one imagined it +would be, from a place that links directly with the magical Orient, and +trades in silks and tea and rice, and all the romantic things of those +lands, as well as in lumber and grain with all the colourful towns that +fringe the wonderful Pacific Coast. + +Vancouver has been the victim of the "boom years." Under the spell of +that "get-rich-quick" impulse, it outgrew its strength. It is getting +over that debility now (and perhaps, after all, the "boomsters" were +right, if their method was anticipatory) and a fine strength is coming +to it. When conditions ease and requisitioned shipping returns to its +wharves, and its own building yards make up the lacking keels, it +should climb steadily to its right position as one of the greatest +ports in the British Empire. + + +II + +Vancouver, as it is today, is a peculiarly British town. Its climate +is rather British, for its winter season has a great deal of rain where +other parts of Canada have snow, and its climate is Britishly warm and +soft. It attracts, too, a great many settlers from home, its +newspapers print more British news than one usually finds in Canadian +papers (excepting such great Eastern papers as, for instance, _The +Montreal Gazette_), and its atmosphere, while genuinely Canadian, has +an English tone. + +There is not a little of America, too, in its air, for great American +towns like Seattle are very close across the border--in fact one can +take a "jitney" to the United States as an ordinary item of +sightseeing. Under these circumstances it was not unnatural that there +should be an interesting touch of America in the day's functions. + +The big United States battleship _New Mexico_ and some destroyers were +lying in the harbour, and part of the Prince's program was to have +visited Admiral Rodman, who commanded. The ships, however, were in +quarantine, and this visit had to be put off, though the Admiral +himself was a guest at the brilliant luncheon in the attractive +Vancouver Hotel, when representatives from every branch of civic life +in greater Vancouver came together to meet the Prince. + +In his speech the Prince made direct reference to the American Navy, +and to the splendid work it had accomplished in the war. He spoke +first of Vancouver, and its position, now and in the future, as one of +the greatest bases of British sea power. Vancouver, he explained, also +brought him nearer to those other great countries in the British +Dominions, Australia and New Zealand, and it seemed to him it was a +fitting link in the chain of unity and co-operation--a chain made more +firm by the war--that the British Empire stretched round the world. It +was a chain, he felt, of kindred races inspired by kindred ideals. +Such ideals were made more apparent by the recent and lamented death of +that great man, General Botha, who, from being an Africander leader in +the war against the British eighteen years ago, had yet lived to be one +of the British signatories at the Treaty of Versailles. Nothing else +could express so significantly the breadth, justice and generosity of +the British spirit and cause. + +Turning to Admiral Rodman, he went on to say that he felt that that +spirit had its kinship in America, whose Admiral had served with the +Grand Fleet. Of the value of the work those American ships under +Admiral Rodman did, there could be no doubt. He had helped the Allies +with a most magnificent and efficient unit. + +At no other place had the response exceeded the warmth shown that day. +The Prince's manner had been direct and statesmanlike, each of his +points was clearly uttered, and the audience showed a keen quickness in +picking them up. + +Admiral Rodman, a heavily-built figure, with the American light, +dryness of wit, gave a new synonym for the word "Allies"; to him that +word meant "Victory." It was the combination of every effort of every +Ally that had won the war. Yet, at the same time, practical experience +had taught him to feel that if it had not been for the way the Grand +Fleet had done its duty from the very outset, the result of the war +would have been diametrically opposite. Feelingly, he described his +service with the Grand Fleet. He had placed himself unreservedly under +the command of the British from the moment he had entered European +waters, yet so complete was the co-operation between British and +Americans that he often took command of British units. The splendid +war experience had done much to draw the great Anglo-Saxon nations +together. Their years together had ripened into friendship, then into +comradeship, then into brotherhood. And that brotherhood he wished to +see enduring, so that if ever the occasion should again arise all men +of Anglo-Saxon strain should stand together. + +There was real warmth of enthusiasm as the Admiral spoke. Those +present, whose homes are close to those of their American neighbours +living across a frontier without fortifications, in themselves +appreciated the essential sympathy that exists between the two great +nations. When the Admiral conveyed to the Prince a warm invitation to +visit the United States, this enthusiasm reached its highest point. It +was, in its way, an international lunch, and a happy one. + + +III + +After reviewing the Great War Veterans on the quay-side, the Prince +left Vancouver just before lunch time on Tuesday, September 23rd, for +Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, which lies across the water +on Vancouver Island. + +It was a short run of five hours in one of the most comfortable boats I +have ever been in--the _Princess Alice_, which is on the regular C.P.R. +service, taking in the fjords and towns of the British Columbian coast. + +Leaving Vancouver, where the towering buildings give an authentic air +of modern romance to the skyline, a sense of glamour went with us +across the sea. The air was still tinged with "smoke" and the fabled +blue of the Pacific was not apparent, but we could see curiously close +at hand the white cowl of Mount Baker, which is America, and we passed +on a zig-zag course through the scattered St. Juan Islands, each of +which seemed to be charming and lonely enough to stage a Jack London +story. + +On the headlands or beaches of these islands there were always men and +women and children to wave flags and handkerchiefs, and to send a cheer +across the water to the Prince. One is surprised, so much is the +romantic spell upon one, that the people on these islets of loneliness +should know that the Prince was coming, that is, one is surprised until +one realizes that this is Canada, and that telegraphs and telephones +and up-to-date means of communication are commonplaces here as +everywhere. + +Romance certainly invades one on entering Victoria. It seems a city +out of a kingdom of Anthony Hope's, taken in hand by a modern Canadian +administration. Steaming up James Bay to the harbour landing one feels +that it is a sparkling city where the brightest things in thrilling +fiction might easily happen. + +The bay goes squarely up to a promenade. Behind the stone balustrade +is a great lawn, and beyond that, amid trees, is a finely decorative +building, a fitted back-ground to any romance, though it is actually an +_hotel de luxe_. To the left of the square head of the water is a +distinguished pile; it is the Customs House, but it might be a temple +of dark machinations. To the right is a rambling building, ornate and +attractive, with low, decorated domes and outflung and rococo wings. +That could easily be the palace of at least a sub-rosa royalty, though +it is the House of Parliament. The whole of this square grouping of +green grass and white buildings, in the particularly gracious air of +Victoria gives a glamorous quality to the scene. + +Victoria's welcome to the Prince was modern enough. Boat sirens and +factory hooters loosed a loud welcome as the steamer came in. A huge +derrick arm that stretched a giant legend of _Welcome_ out into the +harbour, swung that sign to face the _Princess Alice_ all the time she +was passing, and then kept pace on its rail track so that _Welcome_ +should always be abreast of the Prince. + +The welcome, too, of the crowds on that day when he landed, and on the +next when he attended functions at the Parliament buildings, was as +Canadian and up-to-date as anywhere else in the Dominion. The crowds +were immense, and, at one time, when little girls stood on the edge of +a path to strew roses in front of him as he walked, there was some +danger of the eager throngs submerging both the little girls and the +charming ceremony in anxiety to get close to him. + +The crowd in Parliament Square during the ceremonies of Wednesday, +September 24th, was prodigious. From the hotel windows the whole of +the great green space before the Parliament buildings was seen black +with people who stayed for hours in the hope of catching sight of the +Prince as he went from one ceremony to another. + +It was a gathering of many races. There were Canadians born and +Canadians by residence. Vivid American girls come by steamer from +Seattle were there. There were men and women from all races in Europe, +some of them Canadians now, some to be Canadians presently. There were +Chinese and Japanese in greater numbers than we had seen elsewhere, for +Victoria is the nearest Canadian city to the East. There were Hindus, +and near them survivors of the aboriginal race, the Songhish Indians, +who lorded it in Vancouver Island before the white man came. + +And giving a special quality to this big cosmopolitan gathering was the +curious definitely English air of Victoria. It is the most English of +Canadian cities. Its even climate is the most English, and its air of +well-furnished leisure is English. Because of this, or perhaps I +should say the reason for this is that it is the home of many +Englishmen. Not only do settlers from England come here in numbers, +but many English families, particularly those from the Orient East, who +get to know its charms when travelling through it on their way across +Canada and home, come here to live when they retire. And this +distinctly English atmosphere gets support in great measure from the +number of rich Canadians who, on ceasing their life's work, come here +to live in leisure. + +Yet though this is responsible for the growing up in Victoria of some +of the most beautiful residential districts in Canada, where beautiful +houses combine with the lovely scenery of country and sea in giving the +city and its environments a delightful charm, Victoria is vigorously +industrial too. + +It has shipbuilding and a brisk commerce in lumber, machinery and a +score of other manufactories, and it serves both the East and the +Canadian and American coast. It has fine, straight, broad streets, +lined with many distinguished buildings, and its charm has virility as +well as ease. + + +IV + +The Prince made a long break in his tour here, remaining until Sunday, +September 28th. Most of this stay was given over to restful exercise; +he played golf and went for rides through the beautiful countryside. +There were several functions on his program, however. He visited the +old Navy Yard and School at Esquimault, and he took a trip on the +Island railway to Duncan, Ladysmith, Nanaimo and Qualicum. + +At each of these towns he had a characteristic welcome, and at some +gained an insight into local industries, such as lumbering and the +clearing of land for farming. On the return journey he mounted the +engine cab and came most of the way home in this fashion. + +The country in the Island is serene and attractive, extremely like +England, being reminiscent of the rolling wooded towns in Surrey, +though the Englishman misses the hedges. The many sea inlets add +beauty to the scenery, and there are delightful rides along roads that +alternately run along the water's edge, or hang above these fjords on +high cliff ledges. + +In one of our inland drives we were taken to an extraordinary and +beautiful garden. It is a serene place, laid out with exquisite skill. +In one part of it an old quarry has been turned into a sunken garden. +Here with straight cliffs all round there nests a wilderness of +flowers. Small, artificial crags have been reared amid the rockeries +and the flowers, and by small, artificial paths one can climb them. A +stream cascades down the cliff, and flows like a beautiful toy-thing +through the dainty artificial scenery. + +In another part of the grounds is a Japanese garden, with tiny pools +and moon bridges and bamboo arbours--and flowers and flowers and +flowers. And not only does the maker of this enchanted spot throw it +open to the public, but he has built for visitors a delightful chalet +where they can take tea. This chalet is a big, comely hall, with easy +chairs and gate tables. It is provided with all the American +magazines. In a tiny outbuilding is a scullery with cups and saucers +and plates and teapots--all for visitors. + +The visitors take their own food, and use these articles. The Chinese +cook at the house near by provides boiling water, and all the owner +asks is that those who use his crockery shall wash it up at the sink +provided, and with the dish-cloths provided, and leave it in readiness +for the next comer. + +That generosity is the final and completing touch to the charm of that +exquisite place, which is a veritable "Garden of Allah" amid the +beauties of Canadian scenery. + +Another drive was over the Malahat Pass, through superb country, to a +big lumber camp on Shawnigan Lake. Here we saw the whole of the +operations of lumbering from the point where a logger notches a likely +tree for cutting to the final moment when Chinese workmen feed the +great trunks to the steam saw that hews them into beams and planks. + +Having selected a tree, the first logger cuts into it a deep wedge +which is to give it direction in its fall. These men show an almost +uncanny skill. They get the line of a great tree with the handle of +their axes, as an artist uses a pencil, and they can cut their notches +so accurately that they can "fall" a tree on a pocket-handkerchief. + +Two men follow this expert. They cut smaller notches in the tree, and +insert their "boards" into it. These "boards" have a steel claw which +bites into the tree when the men stand on the board, the idea being +both to raise the cutters above the sprawling roots, and to give their +swing on the saw an elasticity. It is because they cut so high that +Canada is covered with tall stumps that make clearing a problem. The +stumps are generally dynamited, or torn up by the roots by cables that +pass through a block on the top of a tree to the winding-drum of a +donkey-engine. + +When the men at the saw have cut nearly through the tree, they sing out +a drawling, musical "Stand aw-ay," gauging the moment with the skill of +woodsmen, for there is no sign to the lay eye. In a few moments the +giant tree begins to fall stiffly. It moves slowly, and then with its +curious rigidity tears swiftly through the branches of neighbouring +trees, coming to the ground with a thump very much like the sound of an +H.E. shell, and throwing up a red cloud of torn bark. The sight of a +tree falling is a moving thing; it seems almost cruel to bring it down. + +A donkey-engine mounted on big logs, that has pulled itself into place +by the simple method of anchoring its steel rope to a distant tree--and +pulling, jerks the great trunks out of the heart of the forest. A +block and tackle are hitched to the top of a tall tree that has been +left standing in a clearing, and the steel ropes are placed round the +fallen trunks. As this lifting line pulls them from their +resting-place, they come leaping and jerking forward, charging down +bushes, rising over stumps, dropping and hurdling over mounds until it +seems that they are actually living things struggling to escape. The +ubiquitous donkey-engine loads the great logs on trucks, and an engine, +not very much bigger than a donkey-engine, tows the long cars of timber +down over a sketchy track to the waterside. + +Here the loads are tipped with enormous splashes into the water to wait +in the "booms" until they are wanted at the mill. Then they are towed +across, sure-footed men jump on to them and steer them to the big +chute, where grappling teeth catch them and pull them up until they +reach the sawing platform. They are jerked on to a movable truck, that +grips them, and turns them about with mechanical arms into the required +position for cutting, and then log and truck are driven at the saw +blade, which slices beams or planks out of the primitive trunk with an +almost sinister ease. + +Uncanny machines are everywhere in this mill. Machines carve shingles +and battens or billets with an almost human accuracy. A conveyor +removes all sawdust from the danger of lights with mechanical +intelligence. Another carries off all the scrapwood and takes it away +to a safe place in the mill yard where a big, wire-hooded furnace, +something like a straight hop oast-house, burns every scrap of it. + +The life in the lumber camp is a hard life, but it is well paid, it is +independent, and the food is a revelation. The loggers' lunch we were +given was a meal fit for gourmets. It was in a rough pitch-pine hut at +rough tables. Clam-soup was served to us in cylindrical preserved meat +cans on which the maker's labels still clung--but it lost none of its +delightful flavour for that. Beef was served cut in strips in a great +bowl, and we all reached out for the vegetables. There were mammothine +bowls of mixed salad possessing an astonishing (to British eyes) +lavishness of hard-boiled egg, lemon pie (lemon curd pie) with a +whipped-egg crown, deep apple pie (the logger eats pie--which many +people will know better as "tart"--three times a day), a marvellous +fruit salad in jelly, and the finest selection of plums, peaches, +apples, and oranges I had seen for a long day. + +I was told that this was the regular meal of the loggers, and I know it +was cooked by a chef (there is a French or Belgian or Canadian chef in +most logging camps), for I talked with him. To live in a lonely +forest, in a shack, and to work tremendously hard, may not be all the +life a man wants, but it has compensations. + +I understand that just about then the lumbermen were prone to striking. +In one place they were demanding sheets, and in another they had +refused to work because, having ordered two cases of eggs from a store, +the tradesman had only been able to send the one he had in stock. + +While we were in this camp we had some experience of the danger of +forest fires. We had walked up to the head of the clearing, when one +of the men of a group we had left working a short distance behind, came +running up to say a fire had started. We went back, and in a place +where, ten minutes before, there had been no sign of fire, flames and +smoke were rising over an area of about one hundred yards square. +Little tongues of flame were racing over the "slashings" (_i.e._, the +debris of bark and splintered limbs that litter an area which has been +cut), snakes of flame were writhing up standing trees, sparks blown by +the wind were dropping into the dry "slashings" twenty, thirty and +fifty yards away and starting fresh fires. We could see with what +incredible rapidity these fires travelled, and how dangerous they can +be once they are well alight. This fire was surrounded, and got under +with water and shovelled earth, but we were shown a big stretch of +hillside which another such fire had swept bare in a little under two +hours. The summer is the dangerous time, for "slashings" and forests +are then dry, and one chance spark from a badly screened donkey-engine +chimney will start a blaze. When the fire gets into wet and green wood +it soon expires. + +These drives, for us, were the major events in an off time, for there +was very little happening until the night of the 28th, when we went on +board the _Princess Alice_ again, to start on our return journey. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +APPLE LAND: OKANAGAN AND KOOTENAY LAKES + +I + +On Monday, September 29th, the Prince of Wales returned to Vancouver +and took car to New Westminster, the old capital of British Columbia +before picturesque Victoria assumed the reins. + +New Westminster was having its own festival that day, so the visit was +well timed. The local exhibition was to begin, and the Prince was to +perform the opening ceremony. Under many fine arches, one a tall +torii, erected by Chinese and Japanese Canadians, the procession of +cars passed through the town, on a broad avenue that runs alongside the +great Fraser River. Drawn up at the curb were many floats that were to +take part in the trades' procession through the town to the exhibition +grounds. Most of them were ingenious and attractive. There were +telegraph stations on wagons, corn dealers' shops, and the like, while +on the bonnet of one car was a doll nurse, busy beside a doll bed. +Another automobile had turned itself into an aeroplane, while another +had obliterated itself under a giant bully beef can to advertise a +special kind of tinned meat. + +All cars were decorated with masses of spruce and maple leaf, now +beautiful in autumn tints of crimson and gold. And Peace and +Britannia, of course, were there with attendant angels and nations, +comely girls whose celestial and symbolical garments did not seem to be +the right fashion for a day with more than a touch of chill in the air. + +Through this avenue of fantasy, colour and cheery humanity the Prince +drove through the town, which seems to have the air of brooding over +its past, to the exhibition ground, which he opened, and where he +presented medals to many soldiers. + + +II + +From New Westminster the Royal train struck upward through the Rocky +Mountains by way of the Kettle Valley. It passed through a land of +terrific and magnificent scenery. It equalled anything we had seen in +the more famous beauty spots, but it was more savage. The valleys +appeared closer knit and deeper, and the sharp and steep mountains +pinched the railway and river gorges together until we seemed to be +creeping along the floor of a mighty passage-way of the dark, +aboriginal gods. + +Again and again the train was hanging over the deep, misted cauldron of +the valley, again and again it slipped delicately over the span of +cobweb across the sky that is a Canadian bridge. In this land of steep +gradients, sharp curves and lattice bridges, the train was divided into +two sections, and each, with two engines to pull it, climbed through +the mountain passes. + +This tract of country has only within the last few years been tapped by +a railway that seems even yet to have to fight its way forward against +Nature, barbarous, splendid and untamed. It was built to the usual +ideal of Canada, that vision which ignores the handicaps of today for +the promise of tomorrow. Yet even today it taps the rich lake valleys +where mining and general farming is carried on, and where there are +miles of orchards already growing some of the finest apples and peaches +in Canada. + +On the morning of Tuesday, September 30th, the train climbed down from +the higher and rougher levels to Penticton, a small, bright, growing +town that stands as focus for the immense fruit-growing district about +Okanagan Lake. + +Here, after a short ceremony, the Prince boarded the steamer +_Sicamous_, a lake boat of real Canadian brand; a long white vessel +built up in an extraordinary number of tiers, so that it looked like an +elaborate wedding-cake, but a useful craft whose humpy stern +paddle-wheel can push her through a six-foot shallow or deep water with +equal dispatch. And a delightfully comfortable boat into the bargain, +with well-sheltered and spacious decks, cosy cabins and bath-rooms, and +a big dining saloon, which, placed in the very centre of the ship with +the various galleries of the decks rising around it, has an air of +belonging to one of those attractive old Dickensian inns. + +On this vessel the Prince was carried the whole length of Okanagan +Lake, which winds like a blue fillet between mountains for seventy +miles. On the ledges and in the tight valleys of these heights he saw +the formal ranks of a multitude of orchards. + +A short distance along the lake the _Sicamous_ pulled in to the toy +quay of Summerland, a town born of and existing for fruit, and linked +up with the outer world by the C.P.R. Lake Service that owned our own +vessel. + +All the children of Summerland had collected on the quayside to sing to +and to cheer the Prince, and, as he stood on the upper deck and waved +his hat cheerfully at them, they cheered a good deal more. When he +went ashore and was taken by the grown-up Olympians to examine the +grading and packing sheds, where the fruits of all the orchards are +handled and graded by mechanical means, prepared for the market, and +sold on the co-operative plan, the kiddies exchanged sallies with those +waiting on the vessel, flipped big apples up at them, and cheered or +jeered as they were caught or missed. + +The _Sicamous_ went close inshore at Peachland, another daughter town +of Mother Fruit, to salute the crowd of people who had come out from +the pretty bungalow houses that nestle among the green trees on a low +and pretty shore, and who stood on the quay in a mass to send a cheer +to him. + +At Okanagan Landing, at the end of the lake, he took car to Vernon, a +purposeful and attractive town which is the commercial heart of the +apple industry. Indeed, there was no need to ask the reason for +Vernon's being. Even the decorations were wrought out of apples, and +under an arch of bright, cherry-red apples the Prince passed on to the +sports ground, and on to a platform the corner posts of which were +crowned with pyramids of apples, and in the centre of which was a model +apple large enough to suit the appetite of Gargantua. + +In front of this platform was a grand stand crowded with children of +all races from Scandinavian to Oriental, and these sang with the +resistless heartiness of Canada. The Oriental is a pretty useful asset +in British Columbia, for in addition to his gifts of industry he is an +excellent agriculturist. + +After the ceremonies the Prince had an orgy of orchards. + +Fruit growing is done with a large gesture. The orchards are neat and +young and huge. In a run of many miles the Prince passed between +masses of precisely aligned trees, and every tree was thick with bright +and gleaming red fruit. Thick, indeed, is a mild word. The short +trees seemed practically all fruit, as though they had got into the +habit of growing apples instead of leaves. Many of the branches bore +so excessive a burden that they had been torn out by the weight of the +fruit upon them. + +It was a marvellous pageant of fruit in mass. And the apples +themselves were of splendid quality, big and firm and glowing, each a +perfect specimen of its school. We were able to judge because the +land-girls, after tossing aprons full of specimens (not always +accurately) into the Prince's car, had enough ammunition left over for +the automobiles that followed. + +Attractive land girls they were, too. Not garbed like British +land-girls, but having all their dashing qualities. Being Canadians +they carried the love of silk stockings on to the land, and it was +strange to see this feminine extremity under the blue linen overall +trousers or knickers. They were cheery, sun-tanned, laughing girls. +They were ready for the Prince at every gate and every orchard fence, +eager and ready to supplement their gay enthusiasm with this apple +confetti. + +The Prince stopped here and there to chat with fruit growers, and to +congratulate them on their fine showing. Now he stopped to talk to a +wounded officer, who had been so cruelly used in the war that he had to +support himself on two sticks. Now he stopped to pass a "How d'y' do" +to a mob of trousered land-girls who gathered brightly about his car, +showing himself as laughing and as cheerful as they. + +The cars left the land of growing apples and turned down the lake in a +superb run of thirty-six miles to Kelowna. This road skirts fairyland. +It winds high up on a shoulder above Long Lake, that makes a floor of +living azure between the buttresses and slopes of the mountains. Only +when it is tired of the heights does it drop to the lake level, and +sweeping through a filigree of trees, speeds along a road that is but +an inch or two above the still mirror of Wood Lake, on the polished +surface of which there is a delicate fret of small, rocky islets. So, +in magnificent fashion, he came to Kelowna, and the _Sicamous_, that +carried him back to the train. + + +III + +Through the night and during the next morning the train carried the +Prince deeper in the mountains, skirting in amazing loops, when the +train seemed almost to be biting its tail, steep rocky cliffs above +white torrents, or the shining blue surfaces of lakes such as Arrow +Lake, that formed the polished floor of valleys. Now and then we +passed purposeful falls, and by them the power houses that won light +and motive force for the valley towns from the falling water. There +are those who fear the harnessing of water-power, because it may mean +the spoiling of beautiful scenery. Such buildings as I saw in no way +marred the view, but rather added to it a touch of human +picturesqueness. + +Creeping down the levels, with discretion at the curves, the train came +in the rain to Nelson on Wednesday, October 1st. Rain spoilt the +reception at Nelson, a town that thrives upon the agricultural and +mining products of the hills about. There seemed to be a touch of +mining grey in the air of the town, but, as in all towns of Canada, no +sense of unhappiness, no sense of poverty--indeed, in the whole of +Canada I saw five beggars and no more (though, of course, there may +have been more). Of these one man was blind, and two were badly +crippled soldiers. + +There are no poor in Nelson, so I was told, and no unemployed. + +"If a man's unemployed," said a Councillor with a twinkle in his eye, +"he's due for the penitentiary. With labourers getting five dollars a +day, and being able to demand it because of the scarcity of their kind, +when a man who says he can't find work has something wrong with him ... +as a matter of fact the penitentiary idea is only speculative. There's +never been a test case of this kind." + +I don't suppose there have been many test cases of that kind in the +whole of Canada, for certainly "the everyday people" everywhere have a +cheerful and self-dependent look. + +At Nelson the Prince embarked on another lake boat, the _Nasookin_, +after congratulating rival bands, one of brass, and one (mainly boys) +of bagpipes, on their tenacity in tune in the rain. Nelson gave him a +very jolly send-off. The people managed to invade the quay in great +numbers, and those who were daring clambered to the top of the freight +cars standing on the wharf, the better to give him a cheer. + +As the boat steamed out into the Kootenay River scores of the nattiest +little gasoline launches flying flags escorted him for the first mile +or so, chugging along beside the _Nasookin_, or falling in our wake in +a bright procession of boats. Encouraged by the "movie" men they waved +vigorously, and many good "shoots" of them were filmed. + +At Balfour, where the narrow river, after passing many homesteads of +great charm nestling amid the greenery of the low shore that fringes +the high mountains, turns into Kootenay Lake, the Prince went ashore. +Here is a delightful chalet which was once an hotel, but is now a +sanatorium for Canadian soldiers. Its position is idyllic. It stands +above river and lake, with the fine mountains backing it, and across +the river are high mountains. + +Over these great slopes on this grey day clouds were gathered, crawling +down the shoulders in billows, or blowing in odd and disconnected +masses and streamers. These odd ragged scarves and billows look like +strayed sheep from the cloud fold, lost in the deep valleys that sit +between the blue-grey mountain sides. + +The Prince spent some time visiting the sanatorium, and chatting with +the inmates, and then played golf on the course here. The C.P.R. were, +meanwhile, indulging themselves in one of their habitual feats. The +lakes make a gap in the line between Nelson, or rather Balfour siding, +and Kootenay Landing at the head of the water. Over this water-jump +the whole train, solid steel and weighing a thousand tons, was bodily +carried. + +Two great barges were used. The long cars were backed on to these with +delicate skill--for the slightest waywardness of a heavy, all-steel car +on a floating barge is a matter of danger, and each loaded barge was +then taken up the lake by a tug grappled alongside. + +At Kootenay Landing the delicate process was reversed, and all was +carried out without mishap though it was a dark night, and the +railwaymen had to work with the aid of searchlights. Kootenay Landing +is, in itself, something of a wonder. In the dark, as we waited for +the train to be made up, it seemed as solid as good hard land can make +it. But as the big Canadian engine came up with the first car we felt +our "earth" sway slightly, and in the beam of the big headlight we saw +the reason. Kootenay Landing is a station in the air. It is built up +on piles. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE PRAIRIES AGAIN + +I + +In cold weather and through a snowfall that had powdered the slopes and +foothills of the Rocky Mountains the Prince, on Thursday, October 2nd, +reached the prairies again. Now he was travelling well to the south of +his former journey on a line that ran just above the American border. + +In this bleak and rolling land he was to call in the next two days at a +series of small towns whose very names--McLeod, Lethbridge, Medicine +Hat, Maple Creek, Swift Current, Moose Jaw and Regina--had in them a +savour of the old, brave days when the Red Man was still a power, and +settlers chose their names off-hand from local things. + +McLeod, on the Old Man River, just escapes the foothills. It is +prairies, a few streets, a movie "joint," an hotel and a golf course. +In McLeod we saw the dawn of the Mackinaw, or anyhow first saw the +virtues of that strange coat which seems to have been adapted from the +original of the Biblical Joseph by a Highland tailor. It is a thick, +frieze garment, cut in Norfolk style. The colour is heroic red, or +blue or mauve or cinnamon, over which black lines are laid in a plaid +tracery. + +We realized its value as a warmth-giver while we stood amid a crowd of +them as the Prince received addresses. Among the crowd was a band of +Blood Indians of the Blackfeet Tribe, whose complexions in the cold +looked blue under their habitual brown-red. They had come to lay their +homage before him and to present an Indian robe. The Prince shook +hands and chatted with the chiefs as well as their squaws, and with the +missionary who had spent his life among these Red Men, and had +succeeded in mastering the four or five sounds that make up the Indian +language. + +We talked to an old chief upon whose breast were the large silver +medals that Queen Victoria and King George had had specially struck for +their Indian subjects. These have become signs of chieftainship, and +are taken over by the new chief when he is elected by the tribesmen. +With this chief was his son, a fine, quiet fellow in the costume of the +present generation of Indians, the cowboy suit. He had served all +through the war in a Canadian regiment. + +At Lethbridge, the next town, there was a real and full Indian +ceremonial. Before a line of tepees, or Indian lodges, the Prince was +received by the Chiefs of the Blood Tribe of the Blackfeet Nation, and +elected one of them with the name of Mekastro, that is Red Crow. + +This name is a redoubtable one in the annals of the Blackfeet. It has +been held by their most famous chieftains and has been handed down from +generation to generation. It was a Chief Red Crow who signed the +Wolseley Treaty in '77. Upon his election the Prince was presented +with an historic headdress of feathers and horns, a beautiful thing +that had been worn by the great fighting leaders of the race. + +There were gathered about the Prince in front of these tall, painted +tepees many chiefs of strange, odd-sounding names. One of these +immobile and aquiline men was Chief Shot on Both Sides, another Chief +Weasel Fat, another Chief One Spot, another Chief Many White Horses. +They had a dignity and an unyielding calm, and if some of them wore +befeathered bowler hats, instead of the sunray feathered headdress, it +did not detract from their high austerity. Chief One Spot--"he whose +voice can be heard three miles"--was a splendid and upright old warrior +of eighty; he had not only been present at the historic treaty of '77, +but had been one of the signatories. + +The Prince chatted with these chiefs, while the Lethbridge people, who +had shown extraordinary heartiness since the public welcome in the +chief square of the town, crowded close around. While he was talking, +the Prince asked if he could be shown the interior of one of the +wigwams, and his brother, Chief Weasel Fat, took him to his own, over +the door of which was painted rudely the emblem of the bald-headed +eagle. + +The wigwam is a fine airy home. Its canvas walls are supported by +tall, leaning poles bound at the top. There is no need of a centre +pole, and a wood fire burning on a circular hearth sent up a coil of +smoke through the opening at the top of the poles. + +The floor was strewn with bright soft rugs, on which squaws in vivid +red robes were sitting, listening to all that was said with impassive +faces. The walls were decorated with strips of warm cloth upon which +had been sewn Indian figures and animals. The wide floor space also +held a rattanwork bed, musical instruments and the like; certainly it +was a more comfortable and commodious place than its bell-tent shape +would suggest. + +Leaving the exhibition grounds, on which the encampment stood, the +Prince passed under an arch made of Indian clothes of white antelope +skin, beads and feathers, and after reviewing the war veterans, went to +the town ball that had been arranged in his honour. + +Lethbridge is a mixture of the plain and the pit. It is a great grain +centre, and there is no mistaking its prairie air, yet superimposed +upon this is the atmosphere of, say, a Lancashire or Yorkshire mining +town. Coal and other mines touch with a sense of dark industrial +bustle the easy air of the plain town. It is a Labour town, and a +force in Labour politics. That, of course, made not the slightest +difference to its welcome; indeed, perhaps it tinged that greeting with +a touch of independent heartiness that made it notable. + +As a town it impresses with its vividity at once. That, indeed, is the +quality of most Canadian cities. They capture one with their air of +modernity and vivacity at first impact. True, one sometimes finds that +the town that seemed great and bustling dwindles after a few fine +streets into suburbs of dirt roadways, but one has been impressed. It +may be very good window dressing, though, on the other hand, it is +probably good planning which concentrates all the activity and +interests of the town in the decisively main avenues. + + +II + +Friday, October 3rd, saw the Prince visiting a string of three towns. + +Medicine Hat was the first of these, an attractive, park-like place +full of "pep." Medicine Hat's claim to fame beyond its name lies in +the fact that, having discovered that it was sitting upon a vast +subterranean reservoir of natural gas, it promptly harnessed it to its +own use. Now, that elemental thing is in the control of humanity, and +heats the town, and tamely drives the wheels of industry. + +The outstanding ceremony was the way little boys suddenly took fright +on a roof. In the middle of the town, beside the street, is a tall, +thin standpipe, and this standpipe was to demonstrate a "shoot off" of +the gas. Scores of small boys climbed on to the roofs of neighbouring +sheds to see the fun. First there was a meek, submissive flame burning +at the top of the pipe, and looking weak in the fine sunlight. Then, +abruptly, the flame shot up a hundred feet, and there was a loud +roaring. Not only was the roaring a terrifying thing, but the force of +that rush of gas made the ground, the roof and the little boys tremble. +Little boys came off that roof in record time, and with such a clatter +that the effort of the standpipe almost lost its place as a star turn. +This tremendous pressure is not habitual; it is, I believe, obtained by +bursting a charge in one of the gas wells. + +The Prince also saw the uses to which the gas was put in a big pottery +mill. The kilns here were an incandescent mass of fire, the work of +the easily controlled gas that does the work with a tithe of the labour +and at a mere fraction of the cost necessitated by ordinary baking +kilns. + +Maple Creek and Swift Current were stepping-off places, with all their +populations packed in the square about the station to give the Prince a +hearty greeting. At Maple Creek the pretty daughters of the township +were very much in evidence, and held His Royal Highness up with +autograph albums. + +Moose Jaw, one of the few towns where a quaint name is traceable, for +it is the creek where the white man mended the cart with a moose +jaw-bone, which the Prince reached on the morning of October 4th, is a +bigger town and proud of its position as a grain, food and machinery +distributing centre for Southern Saskatchewan. In its station +courtyard it had built up an admirable exhibit of its vegetables and +fruit, its sides of bacon, its grain in ear, its porridge oats in +packets, and its butter and cream in drums and churns; while chiefest +of all it showed ramparts of some of the two million sacks of flour it +handles annually. The whole of the exhibit was set in a moat of grain +and potatoes. + +The Prince went to the University Grounds, where a mighty crowd +attended the welcoming ceremony, and where a wild and timeless +waltz-quadrille of motors which straggled all-whither over the grounds, +marked the attempts of people to locate and follow him when he drove +away to the hospital and a big packing factory. At the packing plant +he saw the whole process of handling meat, from the moment when cowboys +in chaps drove the herd to the pens to the final jointing of the steer. + +From Moose Jaw he went to Regina, which he reached that afternoon. +Regina is the capital of Saskatchewan, but an accidental capital. +Somewhere about 1880 it was decided to start itself in quite another +place. Qu'Appelle, where there was a Hudson Bay Fort and the country +was attractive, was the site chosen. And Qu'Appelle opened its mouth +too wide--or, anyhow so the version of the story I was told goes. The +land-owners there asked an outside number of million dollars, and the +townplanners went to Pile o' Bones instead. + +Pile o' Bones was a point near Wascana Lake where there had been a big +slaughter of buffaloes. It was a point of no importance, but Canadians +don't mind that sort of thing. When they make up their minds to build +a city, a city arises. Regina arose, broad and bustling, a trifle +chilly as becomes a city of the prairie, rather flat and not altogether +attractive, yet purposeful. + +It also gained another reason for regard by becoming the headquarters +of the "Mounties," the Royal North-West Mounted Police, whose main +barracks are here. We saw something of the discipline of that fine +service in the way the big crowds were handled, for the Prince drove +through the streets in the order and state of a London or New York +pageant. + +The Parliament Buildings are beautifully situated before a wide stretch +of water. They are the semi-classical, domed, white stone buildings of +the design of those at Edmonton and other cities--a sort of +standardized parliament building in fact. Before them, on the terraces +and lawn that shelved down to the water, the big throng made a scene of +quick beauty. There were ranks of pretty nurses, rank upon rank of +khaki veterans, battalions of boy scouts mainly divorced from hats +which were perpetually aloft on upraised and enthusiastic poles, aisles +of sitting wounded whom the Prince shook hands with, and thick, +supporting masses of civilians. Lining this throng were unbending +fillets of scarlet statues, the "Mounties" of the guard. And +humanizing the whole were solid banks of school-children who sang and +cheered at the right as well as the wrong moment. + +The presentation of medals--one to a blinded doctor, who, led by a +comrade, received the most poignant storm of cheers I have ever heard +in my life--and a giant public reception finished that day's +ceremonies. Sunday, October 5th, was a day of rest, and Monday was the +day of the "Mounties." + +The Prince showed a particular interest in his visit to the +Headquarters of this splendid and romantic corps. The Royal North-West +Mounted Police is a classic figure in the history of the Empire. The +day is now past when the lonely red rider of the wilds stood for the +only token of awe and authority among Indian tribes and "bad men" +camps, but though that may be there are no more useful fellows than +these smart and sturdy men, who, scarlet-coated, and with their +Stetsons at a daring angle, add a dash of colour and bravery to the +streets of Western Canada. + +In his inspection the Prince saw the reason why the physique of the men +should be so splendid and their nerve so sure. The training of the +R.N.W.M.P. makes no appeal to the weakling of spirit or flesh. He saw +their firm discipline. He saw them breaking in the bucking bronchos +they had to ride. He saw them go through exhausting mounted tests. +His congratulations on their wonderful show were expressed with great +warmth. + + +III + +From Regina the Prince took a holiday. He went up to the sporting +country near Qu'Appelle for duck and game shooting, spending from +Monday, October 6th, until Friday, October 10th, there. This district +abounds in duck, and the Prince and his staff had very fair sport. +During his stay the weather suddenly turned colder, the rivers froze +over and snow fell. So sudden was the cold snap that one of those with +the Prince was caught napping. He woke up to find that his false teeth +were frozen into the solid block of ice that had been water the night +before. He had to take the tooth glass to the kitchen of the house +where he was staying, and thaw it before he could even articulate his +emotions adequately. + +Riding in a fast car from the scene of the sport to the station gave +the Prince an indication of what winter would be like in the prairies, +where the wind from the north sweeps down unresisted, and with such a +force that it seems to go right through all coats, save the Canadian +winter armour of "coon coat" or fur. + +Brandon and Portage la Prairie, two determined little towns, gave the +Prince a snow welcome. The weather kept neither grown-ups nor children +away from the liveliest of greetings. They were attractive halts in a +run that took the Prince to Winnipeg. + +In Winnipeg we appreciated the virtues of central heating, for the wind +made the whole universe extraordinarily cold. Up to this I had +considered central heating a stuffy subject, and I am yet not fully +converted, for though there are those who say it can be controlled +quite easily, I have yet to meet the superman who can do it. + +All the same, steam heating has its virtues. On those cold days in +Winnipeg we lived in a world that knew not draughts. It was almost a +solemn joy to sit in a bath, and to feel that though half of one was in +hot water, the other half was also comfortable and not the prey of +every devilish current of icy air such as sports itself in those damp +refrigerators, the British bathrooms. Naturally, since we are staying +in a Canadian hotel of the up-to-date kind, a bathroom was attached to +our bedroom as a mere matter of course. But if we had had to wander +Anglicanly along corridors in search of a bathroom we should still have +been draught free, for central heating deals with corridors, and +stairways, and halls and lounges with one universal gesture. + +Not merely in so fine an hotel as the "Royal Alexandra," but in the +private houses and the "apartments" (English--"flats"), central heat +and good bathrooms are items of everyday--though many Canadians burn an +open fire in their sitting-rooms for the comfortable look it gives. + +These things are not merely for comfort, but they are, with the +hardwood floors, the mail chutes in "apartment" houses and the rest, +part of the great science of labour-saving, which the whole of America +practises. + +One realizes the need of labour-saving when one sees in a theatre +vestibule the following notice: + + + "ALL CHILDREN NOT LEFT WITH THE + MATRON MUST BE PAID FOR" + + +As nurses are rare, and servants are rare, the Americans have to +organize themselves to simplify the task of housekeeping. + +The "apartments" are compact and neat, arranged for easy handling. The +rents are not cheap. One very pleasant little "apartment," "hired" by +a newly-married couple, was made up of three rooms, a kitchen and a +balcony. It was in the suburbs. The rent was thirty-five dollars a +month, say eighty-four pounds a year, for a flat, which, under the same +conditions (rates included) could be obtained for thirty-five pounds a +year in England in pre-war days. For this, however, central heating +and perpetual hot water are included. My friend told me that his +electric light bill came to three dollars a month, and his gas bill +(for cooking) to rather less than that. In Calgary a friend of mine +had a pretty "apartment" even smaller in a suburban district, was +paying about ninety-six pounds a year over all, _i.e._, rent, light and +gas (central heating being included). Most of these "apartments" have +an ice house (refrigerator) attached, blocks of ice being left on the +doorstep every morning, just as the milk is left. + +Winnipeg is an attractive town to live in. It has plenty of +amusements, including several good theatres and music halls--fed, of +course, mainly from American sources. Mrs. Walker, whose husband owns +the Walker Theatre, told me that Laurence Irving and his wife acted on +their stage just before sailing on the ill-fated _Empress of Ireland_. +She went up to his dressing-room to say "Good-bye" to him, the night +before he left, and in answer to her knock he suddenly appeared before +her, dressed in black from head to foot, for the character he was +playing that night. His appearance filled her with dread--it seemed to +her, as she looked at him, that something terrible was to happen. Both +Laurence Irving and his wife were, however, in excellent spirits. +Canada treated them royally, and they were going back home full of +optimism, confident that the play that Laurence Irving was then +finishing--one dealing with Napoleon--was to prove the greatest success +of their careers. + +We met at Winnipeg, also, a number of the brilliant men and women +journalists whose energy and brains are responsible for the many fine +papers that focus in this city. We had met such companions of our own +dispensation in other cities, in Ottawa, Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto +and Quebec. They were not merely keen and accomplished craftsmen, but +their hospitality to us was always of the most delightful generosity. + +The Princess visit to Winnipeg was undertaken to give him the +opportunity of saying _au revoir_ to the West. At the vivid luncheon +he gave in the attractive Alexandra Hotel to all the leaders of the +West, men and women, he insisted that it was _au revoir_, and that so +well had the West treated him, so attractive was its atmosphere, that +he meant not merely to return, but to become something of a rancher +here in the "little place" he had bought in Alberta. He spoke of the +splendid spirit of the West, and the magnificent future that was the +West's for the grasping, and he left on all those who heard him an +impression of genuine affection for the people and the land with which +his journey had brought him in contact. + +He himself left the West a "real scout." It is a mere truism to say +that his personality had conquered the West, as it had won for him +affection everywhere. His straightforward masculinity and his entire +lack of side, his cheerfulness and his keenness, his freedom from +"frills," as one man put it, had made him the friend of everybody. I +heard practically the same expressions of real affection from all +grades, from Chief Justice to car conductors. I heard, I think, but +one man pooh-pooh, not so much this universal regard for the Prince, as +a universal enthusiasm for something royal. A labour-leader, who +happened to be present, administered correction: + +"That chap's all right," he insisted, and his word carried weight. "I +saw him in France, and there's not much that is wrong with him. If +you're as democratic as he is, then you're all right." + +The brightest of dances, a game of squash rackets, and the Prince left, +undaunted by the snow, for week-end shooting. On Tuesday, October +14th, he was in the train again, travelling East, in the direction of +the Cobalt mining country, buoyed up by the prophecy of the local +weather-wise that the cold snap would not endure, but would be followed +by the delightfully keen yet warm weather of the "Indian Summer." The +local weather-wise were right, but it took time. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +SILVER, GOLD AND COMMERCE + +I + +Cobalt is a fantasy town. It is a Rackham +drawing with all its little grey houses +perched up on queer shelves and masses of +greeny-grey rock. Its streets are whimsical. They +wander up and down levels, and in and out of houses, +and sometimes they are roads and sometimes they +are stairs. One glance at them and I began to +repeat, "There was a crooked man, who walked a +crooked mile." A delightful genius had done the +town to illustrate that rhyme. + +And the rope railways that sent a procession of +emotionless buckets across the train when we pulled +in, the greeny-grey lake that presently (inside the +town) ceased being a lake and became a big lake +basin of smooth, greeny-grey mine slime, the vast +greeny-grey mounds of mill refuse, the fantastic +spideriness of the lattice mill workings, and humped +corrugated iron sheds, all of them slightly +greeny-grey in the prevailing fashion--the whole picture +was fantastic; indeed, Cobalt appears a city of gnomes. + +We had travelled all Tuesday and Wednesday, +striking east from Winnipeg, only stopping occasionally +for the Prince to return the courtesies of the +CHAPTER XXI + +NIAGARA AND THE TOWNS OF WESTERN ONTARIO + +I + +The best first impression of Niagara Falls is, I think, the one the +Prince of Wales obtained. + +Those who really wish to experience the thrills of grandeur and poetry +of this marvel had better delay their visit until a night in summer, +and make arrangements with the railway time-table to get there +somewhere after dark. Upon arriving they must hire a car, and drive +down to the splendid boulevard on the Canadian side. They will then +see the great mass of water under the shine of lights, falling +eternally, eternally presenting a picture of almost cruel beauty. They +will then know an experience that transcends all other experiences as +well as all attempts at description. + +The curious feeling of disappointment which comes to many in daylight +will have been guarded against, and, stimulated by that wondrous first +vision, they will tide over that spiritually barren period which many +know until the marvel of the Falls begins to "grow on them." + +The Prince came from Hamilton to Niagara somewhere very close to +midnight on Saturday, the 18th. He was carried through the dark town +and country to the house of one of the Falls Commissioners. From here, +through a filigree of trees and leaves, he could look across the +smoking gorge to the Falls on the American side. Batteries of great +arc lights, focused and hidden cunningly, shone upon the curtain of +white and tumbling waters, and upon the strong, black mass of Goat +Island, that is perched like a diver eternally hesitant on the very +brink of the two-hundred-foot plunge. + +The ghostly beauty of the falling water through the light, now a solid +and tremendous curve, now broken into filaments and zigzag whorls, now +veiled by the upward drift of the gossamer spray, held the Prince's +gaze for some time. But even that beauty was transcended. He himself +pressed an electric switch, and the grand curve of the Canadian +Horseshoe blazed fully alight for the first time in their history, and +though from this position this could not be fully seen, this new +addition of light gave the whole mass before his eyes an additional +loveliness. + +From this point the Prince motored through the town to the splendid +wide promenade that borders the Canadian side of the gorge, and spent +half an hour watching the fascinating play of falling water and spray +in the narrow cauldron of the Horseshoe. + +He stood a foot away from the point where the water leaps in its +magnificent and enigmatic curve into the tortured pool below. Green at +the curve, the water is a mass of curdled white in the strong lights as +it falls. Beneath, the face of the water is a passionate surface of +whirlpools and eddies and tossing whiteness. From the tremendous +impact of the drop a column of spray shoots and curls high up in the +air. It towers quite six hundred feet above the surface of the water, +and it is hard to believe that enduring mass of spray comes from the +fall; in the distance one is convinced that it is steam arising from +some big factory. + +On the next day (Sunday) the Prince saw the Falls in their every phase. +He walked up-stream above the Horseshoe to where the Niagara River +jostles down over a series of ledges in the grand and angry Canadian +Rapids, a sight as tumultuous and as thrilling in its own fashion as +the Falls themselves. He visited the big, white stone power-house to +examine with the greatest interest the machinery that traps the +tremendous latent power of the plunging water, harnesses it, and so +turns the wheels of a thousand industries, and lights hundreds of towns. + +Partly walking, partly riding in a car of the scenic tramway, he +followed the line of the Falls and river downward to where the +Whirlpool Rapids curdle and eddy within the deep walls of the gorge. +Over on the American side he saw the castles and keeps of modern +industry: power-houses and factories, springing up from the very rock +of the cliff, and almost forming part of it. On the Canadian side the +people have not let their utilitarian sense run away with them to such +an extent. Where America edges the gorge with commercial buildings, +Canada has constructed her beautiful promenade, which continues the +comeliness of the Falls Park through a pretty residential district. +America has Prospect Park and the very beautiful Goat Island Park on +its side, but these are not extended along the gorge. + +Below the Whirlpool Rapids the Prince descended to the level of the +river; later, he came to the top of the gorge again, and crossed, +swinging two hundred feet above the water on the spidery ropes of the +aerial railways, the great pool at the end of the river canyon, into +which the pent-up water pushes swirling before turning at right angles +towards Lake Ontario. + +The Prince did not go over to the American side, but America came to +him. The white number-plates of New York State seemed to be everywhere +on automobiles, even outnumbering the yellow of Ontario. One had the +impression that every American motor-owner within gasolene radius had +decided that he would take his Sunday spin to Niagara Falls, and on to +the Canadian side of the Falls to boot. + +American cars were coming over the bridges all day, and American owners +waited cheerfully along the route to get a glimpse of "The Boy," as the +American papers called the Prince. They joined themselves to the very +friendly crowd of Canadians who gathered everywhere along the route, +and their cheering, mingling with Canadian cheering, showed that +friendliness is not an affair that frontiers can manipulate. + +As a matter of fact, the frontier at Niagara is the most imaginary of +lines. Now that the war is over there is no difficulty in getting to +either side. And there is no change in atmosphere either. People and +conditions are much the same, only on the American side our dollars +cost us more. + + +II + +Western Ontario is, in the main, the most British part of Canada. Its +towns have British names, and the streets of the towns have British +names, while their atmosphere and design are almost of the Home +Counties. The countryside (if one overlooks the absence of +hedges--though rows of upturned tree-roots with plants growing among +them sometimes have the look of hedges) is the suave, domesticated +countryside of England. England is in the very air. And at the first +of these curiously English towns the Prince became an Indian chief. + +Brantford, though it reminds one of a comely British country town, +preferably one with a Church influence in it, is really the capital of +the Six Nation Indians. It actually owes its name to Joseph Brant, the +Mohawk chief, who, having fought his Indians on the side of the +British--as the braves of the fierce and powerful Six Nations had +always fought on the side of the British--in the War of Independence, +marched his tribes from their old camping-grounds in the Mohawk Valley +to this place, so that they could remain under British rule. + +The Indians of the Six Nations still live in and about Brantford, for, +though they have ceded away their lands to settlers, they are among the +few of the aboriginal races that have thrived and not decayed under +civilization. The Prince's visit to Brantford on Monday, October 20th, +was nearly all a visit to the Mohawks, the leaders of the ancient +Indian federation of six tribes. + +This is not to say that the welcome given him by Canadians was not a +great one. As a matter of fact, it was astonishing, and it was +difficult to imagine how a small town like this could pack its streets +with so many people. But Brantford is industrial and scientific also, +as well as being Indian. After a strenuous reception, for instance, +the Prince went along to the statue that shrines the town's claim to a +place in the history of science. This was the memorial to Dr. Bell, +who lived in Brantford and who invented the first telephone in +Brantford. They will even show you the trees from which the first line +over which the first spoken message sent, was strung. + +But the colourful ceremonies of Brantford were those connected with the +Mohawks. The Prince was taken out to the small, old wooden chapel that +George III. erected for his loyal Mohawk allies. It is the oldest +Protestant chapel in the Dominion. On its walls are painted prayers in +Mohawk, and it contains an old register that King Edward had signed in +1861. The Prince added his own signature to this before going into the +churchyard to see the grave of Joseph Brant. + +In the little enclosure before the church were the youngest descendants +of the loyal Joseph Brant: ranks of Mohawk boys in khaki, and small +Mohawk girls in red and grey. They sang to the Prince in their own +language, a singular guttural tongue rendered with an almost abnormal +stoicism. The children did not move a muscle of lips or face as they +chanted; it might have been a song rendered by graven images. + +In the main square of Brantford the Prince was elected chief of the Six +Nations. This ceremony was carried out upon a raised and beflagged +platform about which a vast throng of pale-faces gathered. Becoming a +chief of the Six Nations is no light matter. It is a thing that must +be discussed in full with all ceremonies and accurate minutes. The +pow-wow on the platform was rather long. Chiefs rose up and debated at +leisure in the Iroquois tongue, while the pale-faces in the square, at +first quite patient, began to demand in loud voices: + +"We want our Prince. We want our Prince." + +And to be truthful, not merely the pale-faces found the ceremony +lengthy. Gathered on the platform were a number of Mohawk girls, +delicate and pretty maidens, with the warmth of their race's colour +glowing through the soft texture of their cheeks. They were there +because they had thrown flowers in the pathway of the Prince. At first +they were interested in this olden ceremony of their old race. Then +they began to talk of the wages they were drawing in extremely modern +Canadian stores and factories. Then they looked at the ceremony again, +at the clothes the Indians wore, at the romance and colour of it, and +they said, one to another: + +"Say, why have those guys dressed up like that? What's it all about, +anyhow? What's the use of this funny old business?" + +The romantic may find some food for thought in this attitude of the +modern Mohawk maid. + +In the end, after a debate on the fitness of several names, the Prince, +as president of the pow-wow, gave his vote for "Dawn of Morning," and +became chief with that title. But apparently he did not become fully +fledged until he had danced a ritual measure. A brother chief in +bright yellow and a fine gravity, came forward to guide the Prince's +steps, and the Prince, immediately entering into the spirit of the +ceremony, joined with him in shuffling and bowing to and fro across the +platform. Only after the congratulations from fellow-Mohawks and +palefaces, did he leave the dais to fight--there is no other word--his +way through the dense and cheerful mass that packed the square almost +to danger-point. + +It was a splendid crowd, good-humoured and ardent. It had cheered +every moment, though, perhaps, it had cheered more strongly at one +moment. This was when an old Indian woman ran up to the Prince, +crying: "I met your father and your grandfather, and I'm British too." +At her words the Prince had taken the rose from his buttonhole and had +presented it to her. And that delighted the crowd. + + +III + +The fine weather of Monday gave way to pitiless rain on the morning of +Tuesday, October 21st. All the same, the rain did not prevent the +reception at Guelph from being warm and intensely interesting. + +Guelph is one of the many comely and thriving towns of West Ontario, +but its chiefest feature is its great Agricultural College that trains +the scientific farmer, not of Ontario and Canada alone, but for many +countries in the Western World. This college gave the Prince a +captivating welcome. + +It has men students, but it has many attractive and bonny girl +students, also, and these helped to distinguish the day, that is, with +a little help from the "movie" men. + +The "movie" men who travelled with the train had captured the spectacle +of the Prince's arrival at the station, and had driven off to the +college to be in readiness to "shoot" when His Royal Highness arrived. +They had ten minutes to wait. Not merely that, they had ten minutes to +wait in the company of a bunch of the prettiest and liveliest girl +students in West Ontario. "Movie" men are not of the hesitant class. +Somewhere in the first seventy-five seconds they became old friends of +the students who were filling the college windows with so much +attraction. In one minute and forty-five seconds they had the girls in +training for the Prince's arrival. They had hummed over the melody of +what they declared was the Prince's favourite opera selection; a girl +at a piano had picked up the tune, while the others practised harder +than diva ever did. + +When the Prince arrived the training proved worth while. He was +saluted from a hundred laughing heads at a score of windows with the +song that had followed him all over Canada. He drove into the College, +not to the stirring strains of "Oh, Canada," but to the syncopated lilt +of "Johnny's in Town." + +The Prince was not altogether out of the youthful gaiety of the scene, +for after the lunch, where the students had scrambled for souvenirs, a +piece of sugar from his coffee cup, a stick of celery from his plate, +even a piece of his pie, he made all these dashing young women gather +about him in the group that was to make the commemorative photo, and a +very jolly, laughing group it was. + +And when he was about to leave, and in answer to a massed feminine +chorus, this time chanting: + +"We--want--a--holiday." + +He called out cheerfully: + +"All right. I'll fix that holiday." And he did. + + +IV + +The whole of these days were filled with flittings hither and thither +on the Grand Trunk line (the passage of the Prince being smoothly +manipulated by another of Canada's fine railway men, and a genius in +good fellowship, Mr. H. R. Charlton), as the Prince called at the +pretty and vigorous towns on the tongue of Ontario that stretches +between Lake Huron and Lake Erie to the American border. + +Stratford, with something of the comely grace of Shakespeare's town in +its avenues of neat homes and fine trees, gave him as warm a reception +as anywhere in Canada on the evening of October 21st. On Wednesday, +October 22nd, the same hearty welcome was extended by those singularly +English towns, Woodstock and Chatham. + +On the afternoon of the same day London gave him a mass welcome mainly +of children in its big central park. London, Ontario, is an echo of +London, Thames. It has its Blackfriars and Regent Street, its +Piccadilly and St. James'. It is industrial and crowded, as the +English London is. Its public reception to the Prince was remarkable. +It had managed it rather well. It had stated that all who wished to be +present must apply for tickets of admission. Thousands did, and they +passed before the Prince in a motley and genial crowd of top hats and +gingham skirts, striped sweaters and satin charmeuse. But though they +came in thousands, the numbers of ticket-holders were ultimately +exhausted. When the last one had passed, the Prince looked at his +wrist watch. There was half an hour to spare before the reception was +due to close. He told those about him to open the doors of the +building and let the unticketed public in. + +From London the Grand Trunk carried us to Windsor on Thursday, October +23rd, where crowds were so dense about the station that they overflowed +on to the engine until one could no longer see it for humanity and +little boys. From the engine eager sightseers even scrambled along the +tops of the great steel cars until they became veritable grandstands. + +Crowds were in the virile streets, and they were not all Canadians +either. A ferry plies from Windsor to the United States, and America, +which at no time lost an opportunity of coming across the border to see +the Prince, had come across in great numbers. Canadians there were in +Windsor, thousands of them, but quite a fair volume of the cheering had +a United States timbre. + +A city with an electric fervour, Windsor. That comes not merely from +the towering profile of Detroit's skyscrapers seen across the river, +but from the spirit of Windsor itself. Detroit is America's +"motoropolis," and from the air of it Windsor will be Canada's +motoropolis of tomorrow. It is already thrusting its way up to the +first line of industrial cities; it is already a centre for the +manufacture of the ubiquitous Ford car and others, and it is learning +and profiting a lot from its American brother. + +The Canadian and American populations are, in a sense, interchangeable. +The United States comes across to work in Windsor, and Windsor goes +across to work in America. The ferry, not a very bustling ferry, not +such a good ferry, for example, as that which crosses the English +Thames at Woolwich, carries men and women and carts, and, inevitably, +automobiles between the two cities. + +Detroit took a great interest in the Prince. It sent a skirmishing +line of newspapermen up the railway to meet him, and they travelled in +the train with us, and failed, as all pressmen did, to get interviews +with him. We certainly took an interest in Detroit. It was not merely +the sense-capturing profile of Detroit, the sky-scrapers that give such +a sense of soaring zest by day, and look like fairy castles hung in the +air at night, but the quick, vivid spirit of the city that intrigued us. + +We went across to visit it the next morning, and found it had the +delight of a new sensation. It is a city with a sparkle. It is a city +where the automobile is a commonplace, and the horse a thing for pause +and comment. It contained a hundred points of novelty for us, from the +whiteness of its buildings, the beauty of its domestic architecture, +the up-to-date advertising of its churches, to its policemen on traffic +duty who, on a rostrum and under an umbrella, commanded the traffic +with a sign-board on which was written the laconic commands, "Go" and +"Stop." + +And, naturally, we visited the Ford Works. A place where I found the +efficiency of effort almost frighteningly uncanny. One of these days +those inhumanly human machines will bridge the faint gulf that +separates them from actual life, then, like Frankenstein's monster, +they will turn upon their creators. + +Galt (Friday, October 24th) gave the Prince another great reception; +then, passing through Toronto, he travelled to Kingston, which he +reached on Saturday, October 25th. + +Kingston, though it had its beginnings in the old stone fort that +Frontenac built on the margin of Lake Ontario to hold in check the +English settlers in New York and their Iroquois allies, is unmistakably +British. With its solid stone buildings, its narrow fillet of blue +lake, its stone fortifications on the foreshore, and its rambling +streets, it reminded me of Southampton town, especially before +Southampton's Western Shore was built over. Its air of being a British +seaport arises from the fact that it is a British port, for it was +actually the arsenal and yard for the naval forces on the Great Lakes +during the war of 1812. + +And it also gets its English tone from the Royal Military College which +exists here. The bravest function of the Prince's visit was in this +college, where he presented colours to the cadets and saw them drill. +The discipline of these boys on parade is worthy of Sandhurst, Woolwich +or West Point, and their physique is equal to, if not better, than any +shown at those places. It is not exactly a military school, though the +training is military, for though some of the cadets join Imperial or +Canadian forces, and all serve for a time in the Canadian Militia, +practically all the boys join professions or go into commerce after +passing through. + +The Prince's reception at the college was fine, but his reception in +the town itself was remarkable. The Public Park was black with people +at the ceremony of welcome, and though he was down to "kick off" in the +first of the Association League football matches, his kick off was +actually a toss-up. That was the only way to get the ball moving in +the dense throng that surged between the goal posts. + +Kingston, too, gave the Prince the degree of Doctor of Laws. It is a +proud honour, for Kingston boasts of being one of the oldest +universities in Canada. But though its tradition is old, its spirit is +modern enough; for its Chancellor is Mr. E. W. Beatty, the President of +the Canadian Pacific Railways. It was from the Railway +President-Chancellor the Prince received his degree. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +MONTREAL + +I + +The Prince had had a brief but lively experience of Montreal earlier in +his tour. It was but a hint of what was to happen when he returned on +Monday, October 27th. It was not merely that Montreal as the biggest +and richest city in Canada had set itself the task of winding up the +trip in befitting manner; there was that about the quality of its +entertainment which made it both startling and charming. + +Even before the train reached Windsor Station the Prince was receiving +a welcome from all the smaller towns that make up outlying Montreal. +At these places the habitant Frenchmen and women crowded about the +observation platform of the train to cry their friendliness in French, +where English was unknown. And the friendliness was not all on the +side of the habitants. + +"They tole me," said one old habitant in workingman overalls, "they +tole me I could not shake 'is han'. So I walk t'ro' them, _Oui_. An' +'e see me. A' 'e put out 'is 'an', an' 'e laf--so. I tell you 'e's a +real feller, de kin' that shake han' wis men lak me." + +Montreal itself met the Prince in a maze of confetti and snow. +Montreal was showing its essential self by a happy accident. It was +the Montreal of old France, gay and vivacious and full of colour mated +to the stern stuff of Canada. + +It is true there was not very much snow, merely a fleck of it in the +air, that starred the wind-screens of the long line of automobiles that +formed the procession; but Canada and Montreal are not all snow, +either. It was as though the native spirit of the place was impressing +upon us the feeling that underneath the gaiety we were encountering +there was all the sternness of the pioneers that had made this fine +town the splendid place it is. + +There was certainly gaiety in the air on that day. The Prince drove +out from the station into a city of cheering. Mighty crowds were about +the station. Mighty crowds lined the great squares and the long +streets through which he rode, and crowds filled the windows of +sky-climbing stores. It was an animated crowd. It expressed itself +with the unaided throat, as well as on whistles and with eerie noises +on striped paper horns. It used rattles and it used sirens. + +And mere noise being not enough, it loosed its confetti. As the Prince +drove through the narrow canyon of the business streets, confetti was +tossed down from high windows by the bagful. Streamers of all colours +shot down from buildings and up from the sidewalks, until the snakes of +vivid colour, skimming and uncoiling across the street, made a bright +lattice over flagpole and telephone wire, and, with the bright flutter +of the flags, gave the whole proceedings a vivid and carnival air. + +Strips of coloured paper and torn letter headings fluttered down, too, +and in such masses that those who were responsible must have got rid of +them by the shovelful. Prince and car were very quickly entangled in +fluttering strips and bright streamers, that snapped and fluttered like +the multi-tinted tails of comets behind him as he sped. + +There was an air of cheery abandon about this whole-hearted +friendliness. The crowd was bright and vivacious. There was laughter +and gaiety everywhere, and when the Prince turned a corner, it lifted +its skirts and with fresh laughter raced across squares and along side +streets in order to get another glimpse of this "real feller." + +Bands of students, Frenchmen from Laval in velvet berets, and English +from McGill, made the sidewalks lively. When they could, they rushed +the cars of the procession and rode in thick masses on the footboards +in order to keep up with the Royal progress. When policemen drove them +off footboards, they waited for the next car to come along and got on +to the footboards of that. + +When the Prince went into the City Hall they tried to take the City +Hall by storm, and succeeded, indeed, in clambering on to all those +places where human beings should not go, and from there they sang to +the vast crowd waiting for the exit of the Prince, choosing any old +tune from "Oh, Canada," in French, to "Johnny's in Town," in polyglot. + +It was a great reception, a reception with electricity in it. A +reception where France added a colour and a charm to Britain and made +it irresistible. + + +II + +And it was only a sample, that reception. + +Tuesday, October 28th, as a day, was tremendous. For the Prince it +began at lunch, but a lunch of great brilliance. At the handsome Place +Viger Hotel he was again the centre of crowds. Crowds waited in the +streets, in spite of the greyness, the damp and the cold. Crowds +filled the lobbies and galleries of the hotel to cheer him as he came. + +In the great dining-room was a great crowd, a crowd that seemed to be +growing out of a wilderness of flowers. There was an amazing profusion +and beauty of flowers all through that room. And not merely were there +flowers for decoration, but with a graceful touch the Mayor and the +City Fathers, who gave that lunch, had set a perfect carnation at the +plate of every guest as a favour for his buttonhole. + +The gathering was as vivid as its setting. Gallic beards wagged +amiably in answer to clean-shaven British lips. The soutane and +amethyst cross sat next the Anglican apron and gaiters, and the khaki +of two tongues had war experiences on one front translated by an +interpreter. + +It was an eager gathering that crowded forward from angles of the room +or stood up on its seats in order to catch every word the Prince +uttered, and it could not cheer warmly enough when he spoke with real +feeling of the mutual respect that was the basis of the real +understanding between the French-speaking and the English-speaking +sections of the Canadian nation. + +The reality of that mutual respect was borne out by the throngs that +gathered in the streets when the Prince left the hotel. It was through +a mere alley in humanity that his car drove to La Fontaine Park, and at +the park there was an astonishing gathering. + +In the centre of the grass were several thousand veteran soldiers who +had served in the war. They were of all arms, from Highlanders to +Flying Men, and, ranked in battalions behind their laurel-wreathed +standards, they made a magnificent showing. Masses of wounded soldiers +in automobiles filled one side of the great square, humanity of both +sexes overflowed the other three sides. Ordinary methods of control +were hopeless. The throng of people simply submerged all signs of +authority and invaded the parade ground until on half of it it was +impossible to distinguish khaki in ranks from men and women and +children sightseers in chaos. + +In the face of this crowd Montreal had to invent a new method of +authority. The mounted men having failed to press the spectators back, +tanks were loosed.... Oh, not the grim, steel Tanks of the war zone, +but the frail and mobile Tanks of civilization--motor-cycles. The +motor-cycle police were sent against the throng. The cycles, with +their side-cars, swept down on the mass, charging cleverly until the +speeding wheels seemed about to drive into civilian suitings. Under +this novel method of rounding up, the thick wedges of people were +broken up; they yielded and were gradually driven back to proper +position. + +Again the throngs in the park were only hints of what the Prince was to +expect in his drive through the town. Leaving the grounds and turning +into the long, straight and broad Sherbrooke Street, the bonnet of his +automobile immediately lodged in the thickets of crowds. The splendid +avenue was not big enough for the throngs it contained, and the people +filled the pavements and spread right across the roadway. + +Slowly, and only by forcing a way with the bonnet of the automobile, +could the police drive a lane through the cheerful mass. The ride was +checked down to a crawl, and as he neared his destination, the Art +Gallery, progress became a matter of inches at a time only. It was a +mighty crowd. It was not unruly or stubborn; it checked the Prince's +progress simply because men and women conform to ordinary laws of +space, and it was physically impossible to squeeze back thirty ranks +into a space that could contain twenty only. + +I suppose I should have written physically uncomfortable, for actually +a narrow strip, the width of a car only, was driven through the throng. +The people were jammed so tightly back that when the line of cars +stopped, as it frequently had to, the people clambered on to the +footboards for relief. + +In front of the classic portico of the Art Gallery the scene was +amazing. The broad street was a sea of heads. Before this wedge of +people the Prince's car was stopped dead. Here the point of +impossibility appeared to have been reached, for though he was to +alight, there was no place for alighting, and even very little space +for opening the door of the car. It was only by fighting that the +police got him on to the pavement and up the steps of the gallery, and +though the crowd was extraordinarily good-tempered, the scuffling was +not altogether painless, for in that heaving mass clothes were torn and +shins were barked in the struggle. + +The Prince was to stand at the top of the steps of the Art Gallery to +take the salute of the soldiers he had reviewed in La Fontaine Park, as +they swung past in a Victory March. He stood there for over an hour +waiting for them. The head of the column had started immediately after +he had, but it found the difficulties of progress even more apparent +than the Prince. The long column, with the trophies of captured guns +and machines of war, could only press forward by fits and starts. At +one time it seemed impossible that the veterans would ever get through +the pack of citizens, and word was given that the march had been +postponed. But by slow degrees the column forced a way to the Art +Gallery, and gave the Prince the salute amid enthusiasm that must +remain memorable even in Montreal's long history of splendid memories. + + +III + +Montreal had set to excel itself as a host, and every moment of the +Prince's days was brilliantly filled. There were vivid receptions and +splendid dances at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and the big and comfortable +Hotel Windsor. Montreal is the centre of most things in Canada; in it +are the head offices of the great railways and the great newspapers and +the leading financial and commercial concerns. The big men who control +these industries are hospitable with a large gesture. In the hands of +these men, not only the Prince, but the members of his entourage had a +royal time. + +Personally, though I found Montreal a delightful city, a city of +vividness and vivacity, I was, in one sense, not sorry to leave it, for +I felt myself rapidly disintegrating under the kindnesses showered upon +us. + +This kindness had its valuable experience: it brought us into contact +with many of the men who are helping to mould the future of Canada. We +met such capable minds as those who are responsible for the +organization of such great companies as the Canadian Pacific and the +Grand Trunk Railways. We met many of the great and brilliant newspaper +men, such as Senator White, of the _Montreal Gazette_, who with his +exceedingly able right-hand man, Major John Bassett, was our good +friend always and our host many times. All these men are undoubtedly +forces in the future of Canada. We were able to get from them a juster +estimate of Canada, her prospects and her potentialities, than we could +have obtained by our unaided observation. And, more, we got from +contact with such men as these an appreciation of the splendid +qualities that make the Canadian citizen so definite a force in the +present and future of the world. + + +IV + +During his stay in Montreal the Prince was brought in contact with +every phase of civic life. On Wednesday, October 29th, he went by +train through the outlying townships on Montreal Island, calling at the +quaint and beautifully decorated villages of the habitants, that +usually bear the names of old French saints. The inhabitants of these +places, though said to be taciturn and undemonstrative, met the train +in crowds, and in crowds jostled to get at the Prince and shake his +hand, and they showed particular delight when he addressed them in +their own tongue. + +On Thursday, October 30th, the Prince drove about Montreal itself, +going to the docks where ocean-going ships lie at deep-water quays +under the towering elevators and the giant loading gear. Amid college +yells, French and English, he toured through the great universities of +Laval and McGill--famous for learning and Stephen Leacock. He also +toured the districts where the working man lives, holding informal +receptions there. + +He opened athletic clubs and went to dances. At the balls he was at +once the friend of everybody by his zest for dancing and his +delightfully human habit of playing truant in order to sit out on the +stairs with bright partners. + +As ever his thoughtfulness and tact created legends. I was told, and I +believe it to be true, that after one dinner he was to drive straight +to a big dance; but, hearing that a great number of people had +collected along the route to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel where he was +staying, under the impression that he was to return there, he gave +orders that his car was to go to the hotel before going to the dance. +It was an unpleasant night, and the drive took him considerably out of +his way; but, rather than disappoint the people who had gathered +waiting, he took the roundabout journey--and he took it standing in his +car so that the people could see him in the light of the lamps. + +It was at Montreal, too, that the Prince went to his first theatrical +performance in Canada. A great and bright gala performance on +music-hall lines had been arranged at one of the principal theatres, +and this the Prince attended. The audience with some restraint watched +him as he sat in his box, wondering what their attitude should be. But +a joke sent him off in a tremendous laugh, and all, realizing that he +was there to enjoy himself, joined with him in that enjoyment. He +declared as he left the theatre that it was "A scrumptious show." + + +V + +On Sunday, November 3rd, Montreal, after winding up the tour with a +mighty week, gave the Prince a mighty send-off. Officially the tour in +Canada was ended, though there were two or three extraordinary +functions to be filled at Toronto and Ottawa. The chief of these was +at Toronto on Tuesday, November 4th, when the Prince made the most +impressive speech of the whole tour at Massey Hall. + +This hall was packed with one of the keenest audiences the Prince had +faced in Canada. It was made up of members of the Canadian and Empire +Clubs, and every man there was a leader in business. It was both a +critical gathering and an acute one. It would take nothing on trust, +yet it could appreciate every good point. This audience the Prince won +completely. + +It was the longest speech the Prince had made, yet he never spoke +better; he had both mastered his nervousness and his need for notes. +Decrying his abilities as an orator, he yet won his hearing by his very +lack of oratorical affectation. + +He spoke very earnestly of the wonderful reception he had had +throughout the breadth of Canada, from every type of Canadian--a +reception, he said, which he was not conceited enough to imagine was +given to himself personally, but to him as heir to the British throne +and to the ideal which that throne stood for. The throne, he pointed +out, consolidated the democratic tradition of the Empire, because it +was a focus for all men and races, for it was outside parties and +politics; it was a bond which held all men together. The Empire of +which the throne was the focal point was different from other and +ancient Empires. The Empires of Greece and Rome were composed of many +states owing allegiance to the mother state. That ideal was now +obsolete. The British Empire was a single state composed of many +nations which give allegiance not so much to the mother country, but to +the great common system of life and government. That is, the Dominions +were no longer Colonies but sister nations of the British Empire. + +Every point of this telling speech was acutely realized and immediately +applauded, though perhaps the warmest applause came after the Prince's +definition of the Empire, and after his declaration that, in visiting +the United States of America, he regarded himself not only as an +Englishman but as a Canadian and a representative of the whole Empire. + +In a neat and concise speech the Chairman of the meeting had already +summed up the meaning and effect of the Prince's visit to Canada. The +Prince, he said, had passed through Canada on a wave of enthusiasm that +had swept throughout and had dominated the country. That enthusiasm +could have but one effect, that of deepening and enriching Canadian +loyalty to the Crown, and giving a new sense of solidarity among the +people of Canada. "Our Indian compatriots," he concluded, "with +picturesque aptness have acclaimed the Prince as Chief Morning Star. +That name is well and prophetically chosen. His visit will usher in +for Canada a new day full of wide-flung influence and high +achievements." + +This summary is the best comment on the reason and effect of the tour. + + +VI + +The last phase of this truly remarkable tour through Canada was staged +in Ottawa. As far as ceremonial went, it was entirely quiet, though +the Prince made this an occasion for receiving and thanking those +Canadians whose work had helped to make his visit a success. Apart +from this, the Prince spent restful and recreative days at Government +House, in preparation for the strenuous time he was to have across the +American border. + +But before he reached Ottawa there was just one small ceremony that, on +the personal side, fittingly brought the long travel through Canada to +an end. At a siding near Colburn on the Ottawa road the train was +stopped, and the Prince personally thanked the whole staff of "this +wonderful train" for the splendid service they had rendered throughout +the trip. It was, he said, a record of magnificent team work, in which +every individual had worked with untiring and unfailing efficiency. + +He made his thanks not only general but also individual, for he shook +hands with every member of the train team; chefs in white overalls, +conductors in uniform, photographers, the engineers in jeans and peaked +caps, waiters, clerks, negro porters and every man who had helped to +make that journey so marked an achievement, passed before him to +receive his thanks. + +And when this was accomplished the Prince himself took over the train +for a spell. He became the engine-driver. + +He mounted into the cab and drove the engine for eighteen miles, +donning the leather gauntlets (which every man in Canada who does dirty +work wears), and manipulating the levers. Starting gingerly at first, +he soon had the train bowling along merrily at a speed that would have +done credit to an old professional. + +At Flavelle the usual little crowd had gathered ready to surround the +rear carriage. To their astonishment, they found the Prince in the +cab, waving his hat out of the window at them, enjoying both their +surprise and his own achievement. + +On Wednesday, November 5th, the journey ended at Ottawa, and the train +was broken up to our intense regret. For us it had been a train-load +of good friends, and though many were to accompany us to America, many +were not, and we felt the parting. Among those who came South with us +was our good friend "Chief" Chamberlain, who had been in control of the +C.P.R. police responsible for the Prince's safety throughout the trip. +He was one of the most genial cosmopolitans of the world, with the real +Canadian genius for friendship--indeed so many friends had he, that the +Prince of Wales expressed the opinion that Canada was populated by +seven million people, mainly friends of "the Chief." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +WASHINGTON + +I + +My own first real impression of the United States lay in my sorrow that +I had been betrayed into winter underclothing. + +When the Prince left Ottawa on the afternoon of November 10th in the +President's train, the weather was bitterly cold. I suppose it was +bitterly cold for most of the run south, but an American train does not +allow a hint of such a thing to penetrate. The train was steam-heated +to a point to which I had never been trained. And at Washington the +station was steam-heated and the hotel was steam-heated, and Washington +itself was, for that moment, on the steam-heated latitude. America, I +felt, had rather "put it over on me." + +It was at 8.20 on the night of Monday the 10th that the Prince entered +the United States at the little station of Rouses Point. There was +very little ceremony, and it took only the space of time to change our +engine of Canada to an engine of America. But the short ceremony under +the arc lamps, and in the centre a small crowd, had attraction and +significance. + +On the platform were drawn up ranks of khaki men, but khaki men with a +new note to us. It was a guard of honour of "Doughboys," stocky and +useful-looking fellows, in their stetsons and gaiters. Close to them +was a band of American girls, holding as a big canopy the Union Jack +and the Stars and Stripes joined together to make one flag, joined in +one piece to signify the meeting-place of the two Anglo-Saxon peoples +also. + +With this company were the officials who had come to welcome the Prince +at the border. They were led by Mr. Lansing, the Secretary of State, +Major-General Biddle, who commanded the Americans in England, and who +was to be the Prince's Military aide, and Admiral Niblack, who was to +be the Naval aide while the Prince was the guest of the United States. + +The Prince in a Guard's greatcoat greeted his new friends, and +inspected the Doughboys, laughing back at the crowd when some one +called: "Good for you, Prince." To the ladies who held the twin flags +he also expressed his thanks, telling them it was very nice of them to +come out on so cold a night to meet him. Feminine America was, for an +instant, non-plussed, and found nothing to answer. But their vivacity +quickly came back to them, and they very quickly returned the +friendliness and smiles of the Prince, shook his hand and wished him +the happiest of visits in their country. + +The interchange of nationalities in engines being effected, the train +swung at a rapid pace beside the waters of Lake Champlain, pushing +south along the old marching route into and out of Canada. + +On the morning of November 11th it was raining heavily and the train +ran through a depressing greyness. We were all eager to see America, +and see her at her best, but a train journey, especially in wet +weather, shows a country at its worst. The short stops, for instance, +in the stations of great cities like Philadelphia and Baltimore were +the sort of things to give a false impression. The stations themselves +were empty, a novelty to us, who had had three months of crowded +stations, and, also, about these stations we saw slums, for the first +time on this Western continent. After having had the conviction grow +up within me that this Continent was the land of comely and decent +homes, the sight of these drab areas and bad roads was, personally, a +shock. Big and old cities find it hard to eliminate slums, but it +seemed to me that it would be merely good business to remove such +places from out of sight of the railways, and to plan town approaches +on a more impressive scale. America certainly can plan buildings on an +impressive scale. It has the gift of architecture. + +The train went through to Washington in what was practically a non-stop +run, and arrived in the rain. The Prince was received in the rain at +the back of the train, though that reception was truncated, so that the +great Americans who were there to meet him could be presented in the +dryness under the station roof. + +Heading the group of notable men who met the Prince was the +Vice-President, Mr. Marshall, and with him was the British Ambassador, +Lord Grey, and General Pershing, a popular figure with the waiting +crowd and a hero regarded with rapture by American young +womanhood--which was willing to break the Median regulations of the +American police to get "just one look at him." + +Outside the station there was a vast crowd of American men and women +who had braved the downpour to give the Prince a welcome of that +peculiarly generous quality which we quickly learnt was the natural +expression of the American feeling towards guests. + +I was told, too, that crowds along the streets caught up that very +cheerful greeting, so that all through his ride along the beautiful +streets to the Belmont House in New Hampshire Avenue, which was to be +his home in Washington, the Prince was made aware of the hospitality +extended to him. + +But of this fact I can only speak from hearsay. The Press +Correspondents were unable to follow His Royal Highness through the +city. We were told that a car was to be placed at our disposal, as one +had been elsewhere, and we were asked to wait our turn. Wait we +certainly did, until the last junior attache had been served. By that +time, however, His Royal Highness had outdistanced us, for, without a +car and without being able to join the procession at an early interval, +we lost touch with happenings. + +By the time we were able to get on to the route the streets were +deserted; all we could do was to admire through the rain the +architecture of one of the most beautiful cities of the world. + +Apart from the rain on the first day, there was another factor which +handicapped Washington in its welcome to the Prince--the warmth of +which could not be doubted when it had opportunity for adequate +expression. This was the fact that no program of his doings was +published. For some reason which I do not pretend to understand, the +time-table of his comings and goings about the city was not issued to +the Press, so that the people of Washington had but vague ideas of +where to see him. The Washington journalists protested to us that this +was unfair to a city that has such a great and just reputation for its +public hospitality. + +However, where the Prince and the Washington people did come together +there was an immediate and mutual regard. There was just such a +"mixing" that evening, when he visited the National Press Club. + +He had spent the day quietly, receiving and returning calls. One of +these calls was upon President Wilson at the White House, the Prince +driving through this city of an ideal in architecture come true, to +spend ten minutes with Mrs. Wilson in a visit of courtesy. + +The National Press Club at Washington is probably unique of its kind. +I don't mean by that that it is comfortable and attractive; all +American and Canadian clubs are supremely comfortable and attractive, +for in this Continent clubs have been exalted to the plane of a +gracious and fine art; I mean that the spirit of the club gave it a +distinguished and notable quality. + +America being a country extremely interested in politics--Americans +enter into politics as Englishmen enter into cricket--and Washington +being the vibrant centre of that intense political concern, the most +acute brains of the American news world naturally gravitate to the +Capital. The National Press Club at Washington is a club of experts. +Its membership is made up of men whose keen intelligence, brilliance in +craft and devotion to their calling has lifted them to the top of the +tree in their own particular _metier_. + +There was about these men that extraordinary zest in work and every +detail of that work that is the secret of American driving power. With +them, and with every other American I came into contact with, I felt +that work was attacked with something of the joy of the old craftsman. +My own impression after a short stay in America is that the American +works no harder, and perhaps not so hard as the average Briton; but he +works with infinitely more zest, and that is what makes him the +dangerous fellow in competition that he is. + +The Prince had met many journalists at Belmont House in the morning, +and had very readily accepted an invitation to visit them at their +club, and after dinner he came not into this den of lions, but into a +den of Daniels--a condition very trying for lions. Arriving in evening +dress, his youth seemed accentuated among so many shrewd fellows, who +were there obviously not to take him or any one for granted. + +From the outset his frankness and entire lack of affectation created +the best of atmospheres, and in a minute or two his sense of humour had +made all there his friends. Having met a few of the journalist corps +in the morning, he now expressed a wish to meet them all. The +President of the Club raised his eyebrows, and, indicating the packed +room, suggested that "all" was, perhaps, a large order. The Prince +merely laughed: "All I ask is that you don't grip too hard," he said, +and he shook hands with and spoke to every member present. + +The Prince certainly made an excellent impression upon men able to +judge the quality of character without being dazzled by externals, and +many definite opinions were expressed after he left concerning his +modesty, his manliness and his faculty for being "a good mixer," which +is the faculty Americans most admire. + + +II + +Wednesday, November 13th, was a busy day. The Prince was out early +driving through the beautiful avenues of the city in a round of +functions. + +Washington is one of the most attractive of cities to drive in. It is +a city, one imagines, built to be the place where the architects' +dreams come true. It has the air of being a place where the designer +has been able to work at his best; climate and a clarified air, natural +beauty and the approbation of brother men have all conspired to help +and stimulate. + +It has scores of beautiful and magnificently proportioned buildings, +each obviously the work of a fine artist, and practically every one of +those buildings has been placed on a site as effective and as +appropriate as its design. That, perhaps, was a simple matter, for the +whole town had been planned with a splendid art. Its broad avenues and +its delightful parks fit in to the composite whole with an exquisite +justness. Its residences have the same charm of excellent +craftsmanship one appreciates in the classic public buildings; they are +mellow in colouring, behind their screen of trees; nearly all are true +and fine in line, while some--an Italianate house on, I think, 15th +Avenue, which is the property of Mr. McLean of the _Washington Post_, +is one--are supremely beautiful. + +The air of the city is astonishingly clear, and the grave white +buildings of the Public Offices, the splendid white aspiration of the +skyscrapers, have a sparkling quality that shows them to full +advantage. There may, of course, be more beautiful cities than +Washington, but certainly Washington is beautiful enough. + +The streets have an exhilaration. There is an intense activity of +humanity. Automobiles there are, of course, by the thousand, parked +everywhere, with policemen strolling round to chalk times on them, or +to impound those cars that previous chalk-marks show to have been +parked beyond the half-hour or hour of grace. The sidewalks are vivid +with the shuttling of the smartest of women, women who choose their +clothes with a crispness, a _flair_ of their own, and which owes very +little to other countries, and carry them and themselves with a vivid +exquisiteness that gives them an undeniable individuality. The stores +are as the Canadian stores, only there are more of them, and they are +bigger. Their windows make a dado of attractiveness along the streets, +but, all the same, I do not think the windows are dressed quite as well +as in London, and I'm nearly sure not so well as in Canada--but this is +a mere masculine opinion. + +Through this attractive city the Prince drove in a round of ceremonies. +His first call was at the Headquarters of the American Red Cross, then +wrung with the fervours of a "tag" week of collecting. From here he +went to the broad, sweet park beside the Potomac, where a noble +memorial was being erected to the memory of Lincoln. This, as might be +expected from this race of fine builders, is an admirable Greek +structure admirably situated in the green of the park beside the river. + +The Prince went over the building, and gained an idea of what it would +be like on completion from the plans. He also surprised his guides by +his intimate knowledge of Lincoln's life and his intense admiration for +him. + +At the hospital, shortly after, he visited two thousand of "My comrades +in arms," as he called them. Outside the hospital on the lawns were +many men who had been wounded at Chateau Thierry, some in wheeled +chairs. Seeing them, the Prince swung aside from his walk to the +hospital entrance and chatted with them, before entering the wards to +speak with others of the wounded men. + +On leaving the hospital he was held up. A Red Cross nurse ran up to +him and "tagged" him, planting the little Red Cross button in his coat +and declaring that the Prince was enrolled in the District Chapter. +The Prince very promptly countered with a dollar bill, the official +subscription, saying that his enrolment must be done in proper style +and on legal terms. + +In the afternoon, the Prince utilized his free time in making a call on +the widow of Admiral Dewey, spending a few minutes in interesting +conversation with her. + +The evening was given over to one of the most brilliant scenes of the +whole tour. At the head of the splendid staircase of white marble in +the Congress Library he held a reception of all the members of the +Senate and the House of Representatives, their wives and their families. + +Even to drive to such a reception was to experience a thrill. + +As the Prince drove down the straight and endless avenues that strike +directly through Washington to the Capitol, like spokes to the hub of a +vast wheel, he saw that immense, classic building shining above the +city in the sky. In splendid and austere whiteness the Capitol rises +terrace upon terrace above the trees, its columns, its cornices and its +dome blanched in the cold radiance of scores of arc lights hidden among +the trees. + +Like fireflies attracted to this centre of light, cars moved their +sparkling points of brightness down the vivid avenues, and at the +vestibule of the Library, which lies in the grounds apart from the +Capitol, set down fit denizens for this kingdom of radiance. + +Senators and parliamentarians generally are sober entities, but wives +and daughters made up for them in colour and in comeliness. In cloth +of gold, in brocades, in glowing satin and flashing silk, +multi-coloured and ever-shifting, a stream of jewelled vivacity pressed +up the severe white marble stairs in the severe white marble hall. +There could not have been a better background for such a shining and +pulsating mass of living colour. There was no distraction from that +warm beauty of moving humanity; the flowers, too, were severe, severe +and white; great masses of white chrysanthemums were all that was +needed, were all that was there. + +And at the head of the staircase a genius in design had made one stroke +of colour, one stroke of astounding and poignant scarlet. On this +scarlet carpet the Prince in evening dress stood and encountered the +tide of guests that came up to him, were received by him, and flowed +away from him in a thousand particles and drops of colour, as women, +with all the vivacity of their clothes in their manner, and men in +uniforms or evening dress, striving to keep pace with them, went +drifting through the high, clear purity of the austere corridors. + +It was a scene of infinite charm. It was a scene of infinite +significance, also. For close to the Prince as he stood and received +the men and women of America, were many original documents dealing with +the separation of England and the American colonies. There was much in +the fact that a Prince of England should be receiving the descendants +of those colonies in such surroundings, and meeting those descendants +with a friendliness and frankness which equalled their own frank +friendliness. + + +III + +Thursday, November 14th, was a day of extreme interest for the Prince. +It was the day when he visited the home of the first President of +America, and also visited, in his home, the President in power today. + +The morning was given over to an investiture of the American officers +and nurses who had won British honours during the war. It was held at +Belmont House, and was a ceremony full of colour. Members of all the +diplomatic corps in Washington in their various uniforms attended, and +these were grouped in the beautiful ballroom full of splendid pictures +and wonderful china. The simplicity of the investiture itself stood +out against the colourful setting as generals in khaki, admirals in +blue, the rank and file of both services, and the neat and picturesque +Red Cross nurses came quietly across the polished floor to receive +their decorations and a comradely hand-clasp from the Prince. + +It was after lunch that the Prince motored out to Mount Vernon, the +home and burial-place of Washington, to pay his tribute to the great +leader of the first days of America. It is a serene and beautiful old +house, built in the colonial style, with a pillared verandah along its +front. The visit here was of the simplest kind. + +At the modest tomb of the great general and statesman, which is near +the house, the Prince in silence deposited a wreath, and a little +distance away he also planted a cedar to commemorate his visit. He +showed his usual keen curiosity in the house, whose homely rooms of +mellow colonial furniture seemed as though they might be filled at any +moment with gentlemen in hessians and brave coats, whose hair was in +queues and whose accents would be loud and rich in condemnation of the +interference of the Court Circle overseas. + +Showing interest in the historic details of the house, the picture of +his grandfather abruptly filled him with anxiety. He looked at the +picture and asked if "Baron Renfrew" (King Edward) had worn a top hat +on _his_ visit, and from his nervousness it seemed that he felt that +his own soft felt hat was not quite the thing. He was reassured, +however, on this point, for democracy has altered many things since the +old days, including hats. + +Both on his way out, and his return journey, the Prince was the object +of enthusiasm from small groups who recognized him, most of whom had +trusted to luck or their intuition for their chance of seeing him. +About the entrance of the White House, to which he drove, there was a +small and ardent crowd, which cheered him when he swept through the +gates with his motor-cycle escort, and bought photographs of him from +hawkers when he had passed. The hawker, in fact, did a brisk trade. + +There had been much speculation whether His Royal Highness would be +able to see President Wilson at all, for he was yet confined to his +bed. The doctors decided for it, and there was a very pleasant meeting +which seems to have helped the President to renew his good spirits in +the youthful charm of his visitor. + +After taking tea with Mrs. Wilson, His Royal Highness went up to the +room of the President on the second floor, and Mr. Wilson, propped up +in bed, received him. The friendship that had begun in England was +quickly renewed, and soon both were laughing over the Prince's +experiences on his tour and "swopping" impressions. + +Mr. Wilson's instinctive vein of humour came back to him under the +pleasure of the reunion, and he pointed out to the Prince that if he +was ill in bed, he had taken the trouble to be ill in a bed of some +celebrity. It was a bed that made sickness auspicious. King Edward +had used it when he had stayed at the White House as "Baron Renfrew," +and President Lincoln had also slept on it during his term of office, +which perhaps accounted for its massive and rugged utility. + +The visit was certainly a most attractive one for the President, and +had an excellent effect; his physician reported the next morning that +Mr. Wilson's spirits had risen greatly, and that as a result of the +enjoyable twenty minutes he had spent with the Prince. On Friday, +November 15th, the Prince went to the United States Naval College at +Annapolis, a place set amid delightful surroundings. He inspected the +whole of the Academy, and was immensely impressed by the smartness of +the students, who, themselves, marked the occasion by treating him to +authentic college yells on his departure. + +The week-end was spent quietly at the beautiful holiday centre of +Sulphur Springs. It was a visit devoted to privacy and golf. + + +IV + +During our stay in Washington the air was thick with politics, for it +was the week in which the Senate were dealing with Clause Ten of the +Peace Treaty. The whole of Washington, and, in fact, the whole of +America, was tingling with politics, and we could not help being +affected by the current emotion. + +I am not going to attempt to discuss American politics, but I will say +that it seemed to me that politics enter more personally into the life +of Americans than with the British, and that they feel them more +intensely. At the same time I had a definite impression that American +politics have a different construction to ours. The Americans speak of +"The Political Game," and I had the feeling that it was a game played +with a virtuosity of tactics and with a metallic intensity, and the +principle of the game was to beat the other fellows. So much so that +the aim and end of politics were obscured, and that the battle was +fought not about measures but on the advantages one party would gain +over another by victory. + +That is, the "Political Game" is a game of the "Ins" and "Outs" played +for parliamentary success with the habitual keenness and zest of the +American. + +This is not a judgment but an impression. I do not pretend to know +anything of America. I do not think any one can know America well +unless he is an American. Those who think that America quickly yields +its secrets to the British mind simply because America speaks the +English language need the instruction of a visit to America. + +America has all the individuality and character of a separate and +distinct State. To think that the United States is a sort of +Transatlantic Britain is simply to approach the United States with a +set of preconceived notions that are bound to suffer considerable +jarring. Both races have many things in common, that is obvious from +the fact of a common language, and, in a measure, from a common +descent; but they have things that are not held in common. It needs a +closer student of America than I am to go into this; I merely give my +own impression, and perhaps a superficial one at that. It may offer a +point of elucidation to those people who find themselves shocked +because English-speaking America sometimes does not act in an English +manner, or respond to English acts. + +America is America first and all the time; it is as complete and as +definite in its spirits as the oldest of nations, and in its own way. +Its patriotism is intense, more intense than British patriotism (though +not more real), because by nature the American is more intense. The +vivid love of Americans for America is the same type of passion that +the Frenchman has for France. + +The character of the American, as I encountered him in Washington, +Detroit, and New York--a very limited orbit--suggested differences from +the character of the Englishman. The American, as I see him, is more +simple, more puritan, and more direct than the Briton. His generosity +is a most astonishing thing. He is, as far as I can see, a genuine +lover of his brother-man, not theoretically but actively, for he is +anxious to get into contact, to "mix," to make the most of even a +chance acquaintance. Simply and directly he exposes the whole of +himself, says what he means and withholds nothing, so that acquaintance +should be made on an equitable and genuine basis. To the more +conservative Briton this is alarming; brought up in a land of +reticences, the Briton wonders what the American is "getting at," what +does he want? What is his game? The American on his side is baffled +by the British habit of keeping things back, and he, too, perhaps +wonders why this fellow is going slow with me? Doesn't he want to be +friends? + +Personally, I think that the directness and simplicity of the Americans +is the directness and simplicity of the artist, the man who has no use +for unessentials. And one gets this sense of artistry in an American's +business dealings. He goes directly at his object, and he goes with a +concentrated power and a zest that is exhilarating. Here, too, he +exposes his hand in a way bewildering to the Britisher, who sometimes +finds the American so candid in his transactions that he becomes +suspicious of there being something more behind it. + +To the American work is something zestful, joyous. He likes to get +things done; he likes to do big things with a big gesture--sometimes to +the damage of detail, which he has overlooked--for him work is +craftsmanship, a thing to be carried through with the delight of a +craftsman. He is, in fact, the artist as business man. + +Like all artists he has an air of hardness, the ruthlessness to attain +an end. But like all artists he is quick and generous, vivid in +enthusiasm and hard to daunt. Like the artist he is narrow in his +point of view at times and decisive in opinion--simply because his own +point of vision is all-absorbing. + +This, for example, is apparent in his democracy, which is +extraordinarily wide in certain respects, and singularly restricted in +others--an example of this is the way the Americans handle offenders +against their code; whether they be I.W.W., strikers or the like, their +attitude is infinitely more ruthless than the British attitude. +Another example is, having so splendid a freedom, they allow themselves +to be "bossed" by policemen, porters and a score of others who exert an +authority so drastic on occasions that no Briton would stand it. + +But over all I was struck by the vividity of the Americans I met. +Business men, journalists, writers, store girls, clerks, clubmen, +railway men--all of them had an air of passionate aliveness, an +intellectual avidity that made contact with them an affair of +delightful excitement. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +NEW YORK + +There was no qualification or reservation in New York's welcome to the +Prince of Wales. + +In the last year or so I have seen some great crowds, and by that I +mean not merely vast aggregations of people, but vast gatherings of +people whose ardour carried away the emotions with a tremendous psychic +force. During that year I had seen the London crowd that welcomed back +the British military leader; the London and Manchester crowds, and +vivid and stirring crowds they were, that dogged the footsteps of +President Wilson; I had seen the marvellous and poignant crowd at the +London Victory March, and I had had a course of crowds, vigorous, +affectionate and lively, in Montreal, Toronto and throughout Canada. + +I had been toughened to crowds, yet the New York crowd that welcomed +the Prince was a fresh experience. It was a crowd that, in spite of +writing continuously about crowds for four months, gave me a direct +impulse to write yet again about a crowd, that gave me the feeling that +here was something fresh, sparkling, human, warm, ardent and +provocative. It was a crowd with a flutter of laughter in it, a crowd +that had a personality, an _insouciance_, an independence in its +friendliness. It was a crowd that I shall always put beside other +mental pictures of big crowds, in that gallery of clear vignettes of +things impressive that make the memory. + +There was a big crowd about the Battery long before the Prince was due +to arrive across the river from the Jersey City side. It was a +good-humoured crowd that helped the capable New York policemen to keep +itself well in hand. It was not only thick about the open grass space +of the Battery, but it was clustering on the skeleton structure of the +Elevated Railway, and mounting to the sky, floor by floor, on the +skyscrapers. + +High up on the twenty-second floor of neighbouring buildings we could +see a crowd of dolls and windows, and the dolls were waving shreds of +cotton. The dolls were women and the cotton shred was "Old Glory." +High up on the tremendous cornice of one building a tiny man stood with +all the calm gravity of a statue. He was unconcerned by the height, he +was only concerned in obtaining an eagle's eye view. + +About the landing-stage itself, the landing-stage where the new +Americans and the notabilities land, there was a wide space, kept clear +by the police. Admirable police these, who can handle crowds with any +police, who held us up with a wall of adamant until we showed our +letters from the New York Reception Committee (our only, and certainly +not the official, passes), and then not only let us through without +fuss but helped us in every possible way to go everywhere and see +everything. + +In this wide space were gathered the cars for the procession, and the +notabilities who were to meet the Prince, and the camera men who were +to snap him. Into it presently marched United States Marines and +Seamen. A hefty lot of men, who moved casually, and with a slight +sense of slouch as though they wished to convey "We're whales for +fighting, but no damned militarists." + +Since the Prince was not entering New York by steamer--the most +thrilling way--but by means of a railway journey from Sulphur Springs, +New York had taken steps to correct this mode of entry. He was not to +miss the first impact of the city. He would make a water entry, if +only an abbreviated one, and so experience one of the Seven (if there +are not more, or less) Sensations of the World, a sight of the profile +of Manhattan Island. + +The profile of Manhattan (blessed name that O. Henry has rolled so +often on the palate) is lyric. It is a _sierra_ of skyscrapers. It is +a flight of perfect rockets, the fire of which has frozen into solidity +in mid-soaring. It is a range of tall, narrow, poignant buildings that +makes the mind think of giants, or fairies, or, anyhow, of creatures +not quite of this world. It is one of the few things the imagination +cannot visualize adequately, and so gets from it a satisfaction and not +a disappointment. + +This sight the Prince saw as he crossed in a launch from the New Jersey +side, and "the beauty and dignity of the towering skyline," his own +words, so impressed him that he was forced to speak of it time and time +again during his visit to the city. And on top of that impression came +the second and even greater one, for, and again I use his own words, +"men and women appeal to me even more than sights." This second +impression was "the most warm and friendly welcome that followed me all +through the drive in the city." + +When the Prince landed he seemed to me a little anxious; he was at the +threshold of a great and important city, and his welcome was yet a +matter of speculation. In less than fifteen minutes he was smiling as +he had smiled all through Canada, and, as in Canada, he was standing in +his car, formality forgotten, waving back to the crowd with a +friendliness that matched the friendliness with which he was received. + +He faced the city of Splendid Heights with glances of wonder at the +line of cornices that crowned the narrow canyon of Broadway, and rose +up crescendo in a vista closed by the campanile of the Woolworth +Building, raised like a pencil against the sky, fifty-five storeys +high. On the beaches beneath these great crags, on the sidewalks, and +pinned between the sturdy policemen--who do not turn backs to the crowd +but face it alertly--and the sheer walls was a lively and vast throng. +And rising up by storeys was a lively and vast throng, hanging out of +windows and clinging to ledges, perilous but happy in their +skyscraper-eye view. + +And from these high-up windows there began at once a characteristic +"Down Town" expression of friendliness. Ticker-tape began to shoot +downward in long uncoiling snakes to catch in flagpoles and +window-ledges in strange festoons. Strips of paper began to descend in +artificial snow, and confetti, and basket-loads of torn letter paper. +All manner of bits of paper fluttered and swirled in the air, making a +grey nebula in the distance; glittering like spangles of gold against +the severe white cliffs of the skyscrapers when the sun caught them. + +On the narrow roadway the long line of automobiles was littered and +strung with paper, and the Prince had a mantle of it, and was still +cheery. He could not help himself. The reception he was getting would +have swept away a man of stone, and he has never even begun to be a man +of stone. The pace was slow, because of the marching Marine escort, +and people and Prince had full opportunity for sizing up each other. +And both people and Prince were satisfied. + +Escorted by the motor-cyclist police, splendid fellows who chew gum and +do their duty with an astonishing certainty and nimbleness, the Prince +came to the City Hall Square, where the modern Brontosaurs of commerce +lift mightily above the low and graceful City Hall, which has the look +of a _petite_ mother perpetually astonished at the size of the brood +she has reared. + +Inside the hall the Prince became a New Yorker, and received a civic +welcome. He expressed his real pride at now being a Freeman of the two +greatest cities in the world, New York and London, two cities that +were, moreover, so much akin, and upon which depends to an +extraordinary degree the financial health and the material as well as +spiritual welfare of all continents. As for his welcome, he had learnt +to appreciate the quality of American friendship from contact with +members of the splendid fighting forces that had come overseas, but +even that, he indicated, had not prepared him for the wonder of the +greeting he had received. + +Outside the City Hall the vast throng had waited patiently, and they +seemed to let their suppressed energy go as the Prince came out of the +City Hall to face the massed batteries of photographers, who would only +allow snapshots to be his "pass" to his automobile. + +The throngs in financial "Down Town" gave way to the massed ranks of +workers from the big wholesale and retail houses that occupy middle New +York as the Prince passed up Broadway, the street that is not as broad +as other streets, and the only one that wanders at its own fancy in a +kingdom of parallels and right-angles. At the corner where stands +Wanamaker's great store the crowd was thickest. Here was stationed a +band in a quaint old-time uniform of red tunics, bell trousers and +shakos, while facing them across the street was a squad of girls in +pretty blue and white military uniforms and hats. + +Soon the line of cars swung into speed and gained Fifth Avenue, passing +the Flatiron building, which is now not a wonder. Such soaring +structures as the Metropolitan Tower, close by in Madison Square, have +taken the shine out of it, and in the general atmosphere of giants one +does not notice its freakishness unless one is looking for it. + +Fifth Avenue is superb; it is the route of pageants by right of air and +quality. It is Oxford Street, London, made broad and straight and +clean. It has fine buildings along its magnificent reach, and some +noble ones. It has dignity and vivacity, it has space and it has an +air. In the graceful open space about Madison Square there stood the +massive Arch of Victory, under which America's soldiers had swung when +they returned from the front. It was a temporary arch constructed with +realism and ingenuity; the Prince passed under it on his way up the +avenue. + +He went at racing pace up to and into Central Park, that convincing +affectation of untrammelled Nature (convincing because it is +untrammelled), that beautiful residences of town dwellers look into. +He swung to the left by the gracious pile of the Cathedral of St. John +the Divine, and out on to Riverside Park, that hangs its gardens over +the deep waters of the Hudson River. Standing isolated and with a fine +serenity above green and water is General Grant's tomb, and at the +wideflung white plaza of this the Prince dismounted, going on foot to +the tomb, and in the tomb, going alone to deposit a wreath on the great +soldier's grave. + +Riverside Park had its flowering of bright people, and its multitude of +motors to swarm after the Prince as he passed along the Drive, paused +to review a company of English-Americans who had served in the war, and +then continued on his way to the Yacht Club jetty, where he was to take +boat to the _Renown_. Lying in deep water high up in the town was this +one of the greatest of the modern warships, her greatness considerably +diminished by the buildings lifting above her. To her the Prince went +after nearly three months' absence, and on her he lived during his stay +in New York. + + +II + +When I say that the Prince lived on board the _Renown_, I mean that he +lived on her in his moments to spare. In New York the visitor is lucky +who has a few moments to spare. New York's hospitality is electric. +It rushes the guest off his feet. Even if New York is not definitely +engaged to entertain you at specific minutes, it comes round to know if +you have everything you want, whether it can do anything for you. + +New York was calling on the Prince almost as soon as he went aboard. +There was a lightning lunch to Mr. Wanamaker, the President of the +Reception Committee, and other members of that body, and then the first +of the callers began to chug off from the landing-stage towards the +_Renown_. Deputations from all the foreign races that make New York +came over the side, distinguished Americans called. And, before +anybody else, the American journalist was there. + +The Prince was no stranger to the American journalist. They were old +friends of his. Some of them had been with him in the Maritime +Provinces of Canada, and he had made friends with them at Quebec. He +remembered these writers and that friendship was renewed in a pleasant +chat. The journalists liked him, too, though they admit that he has a +charming way of disarming them. They rather admired the adroit +diplomacy with which he derailed such leading questions as those +dealing with the delicate and infinite subject of American girls: +whether he liked them: and how much? + +He met these correspondents quite frankly, appreciating at once the +fact that it was through them that he could express to the people of +America his intense feeling of thanks for the singular warmth of +America's greeting. + +From seeing all these visitors the Prince had only time left to get +into evening dress and to be whirled off in time to attend a glittering +dinner given at the Waldorf-Astoria by Mrs. Henry Pomeroy Davidson on +behalf of the Council of the American Red Cross. It was a vivid and +beautiful function, but it was one that bridged the time before +another, and before ten o'clock the Prince was on the move again, and, +amid the dance of the motor-bike "cops," was being rushed off to the +Metropolitan Opera House. + +He was swung down Broadway where the advertisements made a fantasy of +the sky, a fantasy of rococo beauty where colours on the huge pallets +of skyscrapers danced and ran, fused and faded, grouped and regrouped, +each a huge and coherent kaleidoscope. + +Here a gigantic kitten of lights turned a complete somersault in the +heavens as it played with a ball of wool. There six sky-high manikins +with matchstick limbs, went through an incandescent perpetual and +silent dance. In the distance was a gigantic bull advertising +tobacco--all down this heavenly vista there were these immense signs, +lapping and over-lapping in dazzling chaos. And seen from one angle, +high up, unsupported, floating in the very air and eerily +unsubstantial, was a temple lit by bale-fires that shone wanly at its +base. It was merely a building superimposed upon a skyscraper, but in +the dark there was no skyscraper, and the amazing structure hung there +lambent, silent, enigmatic, a Wagnerian temple in the sky. + +Broadway, which sprouts theatres as a natural garden sprouts flowers, +was jewelled with lights, lights that in the clear air of this +continent shone with a lucidity that we in England do not know. Before +the least lighted of these buildings the Prince stopped. He had +arrived at the austere temple of the high arts, the Metropolitan Opera +House. + +Inside Caruso and a brilliant audience waited impatiently for his +presence. The big and rather sombre house was quick with colour and +with beauty. The celebrated "Diamond Horseshoe," the tiers of the +galleries, and the floor of the house were vivid with dresses, +shimmering and glinting with all the evasive shades of the spectrum, +with here a flash of splendid jewels, there the slow and sumptuous +flutter of a great ostrich fan. + +Part of the program had been played, but _Pagliacci_ and Caruso were +held up while the vivid and ardent people craned out of their little +crimson boxes in the Horseshoes and turned and looked up from the +bright mosaic of the floor at the empty box which was to be the +Prince's. + +There was a long roll of drums, and with a single movement the +orchestra marched into the melody of "God bless the Prince of Wales," +and the Prince, looking extraordinarily embarrassed, came to the front +of the box. + +At once there was no melody of "God bless the Prince of Wales" +perceptible; a wave of cheering and hand-clapping swept it away. The +whole of the people on the floor of the house turned to look upward and +to cheer. The people under the tiers crowded forward into the gangways +until the gangways were choked, and the floor was a solid mass of +humanity. Bright women and men correctly garbed imperilled their necks +in the galleries above in order to look down. It was an unforgettable +moment, and for the Prince a disconcerting one. + +He stood blushing and looking down, wondering how on earth he was to +endure this stark publicity. He was there poised bleakly for all to +see, an unenviable position. And there was no escape. He must stand +there, because it was his job, and recover from the nervousness that +had come from finding himself so abruptly thrust on to this veritable +pillar of Stylites in the midst of an interested and curious throng. + +The interest and the curiosity was intensely friendly. His personality +suffered not at all from the fact that he had lost his calm at a moment +when only the case-hardened could have remained unmoved. His +embarrassment, indeed, made the audience more friendly, and it was with +a sort of intimacy that they tittered at his familiar tricks of +nervousness, his fumbling at his tie, tugging of his coat lapels, the +passing of the hand over his hair, even the anxious use of his +handkerchief. + +And this friendly and soft laughter became really appreciative when +they saw him tackle the chairs. There were two imposing and pompous +gilt chairs at the front of the box, filling it, elbowing all minor, +human chairs out of the way. The Prince turned and looked at them, and +turned them out. He would have none of them. He was not there to be a +superior person at all; he was there to be human and enjoy human +companionship. He had the front of the box filled with chairs, and he +had friends in to sit with him and talk with him when intervals in the +music permitted. And the audience was his friend for that; they +admired him for the way he turned his back on formalities and +ceremonials. General Pershing, who gratifies one's romantic sense by +being extraordinarily like one's imaginative pictures of a great +General, came to sit with him, and there was another outburst of +cheering. I think that the _petits morceaux_ from the operas were but +side-shows. Although Rosina Galli ravished the house with her dancing +(how she must love dancing), opera glasses were swivelled more toward +the Royal box than to the stage, and the audience made a close and +curious study of every movement and every inflection of the Prince. + +The cheering broke out again, from people who crowded afresh into the +gangways, when the Prince left, and in a mighty wave of friendliness +the official program of the first day closed. + + +III + +There was an unofficial ending to the day. The Prince, with several of +his suite, walked in New York, viewed this exhilarating city of lights +and vistas by night, got his own private and unformal view of the +wonders of skyscraping townscape, the quick, nervous shuttle of the +sidewalks, the rattle of the "Elevated," the sight, for the first time +in a long journey, of motor-buses. And without doubt he tasted the +wonder of a city of automobiles still clinging to the hansom cab. + +About this outing there have been woven stories of a glamour which +might have come from the fancy of O. Henry and the author of the +"Arabian Nights" working in collaboration. The Prince is said to have +plunged into the bizarre landscape of the Bowery, which is Whitechapel +better lighted, and better dressed with up-to-date cafes, where there +are dance halls in which with the fathomless seriousness of the modern, +jazz is danced to violins and banjoes and the wailing ukelele. + +They tell me that Ichabod has been written across the romantic glory of +the Bowery, and that for colour and the spice of life one has to go +further west (which is Manhattan's East End) to Greenwich Village, +where life strikes Chelsea attitudes, and where one descends +subterraneanly, or climbs over the roofs of houses to Matisse-like +restaurants where one eats rococo meals in an atmosphere of cigarette +smoke, rice-white faces, scarlet lips, and bobbed hair. But there are +yet places in the Bowery to which one taxis with a thrill of hope, +where the forbidden cocktail is served in a coffee cup, where wine +bottles are put on to the table with brown paper wrapped round them to +preserve the fiction that they came from one's own private (and legal) +store, where in bare, studiously Bowery chambers the hunter of a new +_frisson_ sits and dines and hopes for the worst. + +The Bowery is dingy and bright; it has hawkers' barrows and chaotic +shop windows. It has the curiosity-stimulating, cosmopolite air of all +dockside areas, but to the Englishman accustomed to the picturesque +bedragglement of East End costumes, it is almost dismayingly +well-dressed. Its young men have the leanness of outline that comes +from an authentic American tailor. Its Jewesses have the neat +crispness of American fashion that gives their vivid beauty a new and +sparkling note. It was astonishing the number of beautiful young women +one saw on the Bowery, but not astonishing when one recalls the number +of beautiful young women one saw in New York. Fifth Avenue at shopping +time, for example, ceases to be a street: it becomes a pageant of youth +and grace. + +The Prince, of course, may have gone into the Bowery, and walked +therein with the air of a modern Caliph, but I myself have not heard of +it. I was told that he went for a walk to the house of a friend, and +that after paying a very pleasant and ordinary visit he returned to the +_Renown_ to get what sleep he could before the adventure of another New +York day. + + +IV + +The morning of Wednesday, November 19th, was devoted by the Prince to +high finance; he went down to Wall Street and to visit the other +temples of the gold god. + +When one has become acclimated to the soaring upward rush of the +skyscrapers (and one quite soon loses consciousness of them, for where +all buildings are huge each building becomes commonplace), when one +stops looking upward, "Down Town" New York is strangely like the "City" +area of London. Walking Broadway one might easily imagine oneself in +the neighbourhood of the Bank of England; Wall Street might easily be a +turning out of Bishopsgate or Cannon Street. Broad Street, New York, +is not so very far removed in appearance from Broad Street, London. + +There is the same preoccupied congestion of the same work-mazed people: +clerks, typists (stenographers), book-keepers, messengers and masters, +though, perhaps, the people of the New York business quarter do not +wear the air of sadness those of London wear. + +And there is the same massive solidity of business buildings, great +blocks that house thirty thousand souls in the working day, and these +buildings have the same air as their London brothers; that is, they +seem to be monuments to financial integrity (just as mahogany +furniture, with a certain type, is an indication of "standing and +weight") rather than offices. And if New York buildings are, on the +whole, more distinguished, are characterized by a better art, they are, +on the other hand, not relieved by the humanity of the shops that gives +an air of brightness to the London commercial area. In New York "Down +Town" the shops are mainly inside the buildings, and it is in the +corridors of the big blocks that the clerk buys his magazines, papers, +"candies," sandwiches and cigars. + +The interiors of the buildings are ornate, they are sleek with marble, +and quite often beautiful with it. They are well arranged; the +skyscraper habit makes for short corridors, and you can always find +your man easily (as in the hotels) by the number of his room: thus, if +his number is 1201 he is on the twelfth floor, 802 is on the eighth, +and 2203 is on the twenty-second; each floor is a ten. + +Up to the floors one ascends by means of one of a fleet of elevators, +some being locals and some being expresses to a certain floor and local +beyond. Whether the fleet is made up of two or ten lifts, there is +always a man to control them, a station-master of lifts who gives the +word to the liftboys. To the Englishman he is a new phenomenon. He +seems a trifle unnecessary [but he may be put there by law]; he is soon +seen to be one of a multitude of men in America who "stand over" other +men while they do the job. + +The unexpected thing in buildings so fine as this, occupied by men who +are addicted to business, is that the offices have rather a makeshift +air. The offices I saw in America do not compare in comfort with the +offices I know in England. There is a bleakness, an aridity about them +that makes English business rooms seem luxurious in comparison. I +talked of this phenomenon with a friend, instancing one great office, +to be met with surprise and told: "Why! But that office is held up as +an example of what offices should be like. We are agitating to get +ours as good as that." After this I did not talk about offices. + +The "Down Town" restaurants bring one vividly back to London. They are +underground, and there is the same thick volume of masculinity and +masculine talk in them. They are a trifle more ornate, and the food is +better cooked and of infinitely greater variety (they would not be +American otherwise), but over all the air is the same. + +Into the familiar business atmosphere of this quarter the Prince came +early. He drove between crowds and there were big crowds at the points +where he stopped--at the Woolworth building and at Trinity Church, that +stands huddled and dwarfed beneath the basilicas of business. The +intense interest of his visit began when he arrived at the Stock +Exchange. + +The business on the floor was in full swing when he came out on to the +marble gallery of the vast, square marble hall of the Exchange, and the +busy swarm of money-gathering men beneath his eyes immediately stopped +to cheer him. To look down, as he did, was to look down upon the floor +of some great bazaar. The floor is set with ranks of kiosks spaced +apart, about which men congregate only to divide and go all ways; these +kiosks might easily be booths. The floor itself is in constant +movement; it is a disturbed ant-heap with its denizens speeding about +always in unconjectural movements. Groups gather, thrust hands and +fingers upward, shout and counter-shout, as though bent on working up a +fracas; then when they seem to have succeeded they make notes in small +books and walk quietly away. Messengers, who must work by instinct, +weave in and out of the stirring of ants perpetually. In a line of +cubicles along one side of the Exchange, crowds of men seemed to be +fighting each other for a chance at the telephone. + +Two of the tremendous walls of this hall are on the street, and superb +windows allow in the light. On the two remaining walls are gigantic +blackboards. Incessantly, small flaps are falling on these blackboards +revealing numbers. They are the numbers of members who have been +"called" over the 'phone or in some other way. The blackboards are in +a constant flutter, the tiny flaps are always falling or shutting, as +numbers appear and disappear, and the boards are starred with numbers +waiting patiently for the eye of the member on the floor to look up and +be aware of them. + +The Prince stood on the high gallery under the high windows, and +watched with vivid curiosity the bustling scene below. He asked a +number of eager questions, and the strange silent dance of numbers on +the big blackboards intrigued him greatly. Underneath him the members +gathered in a great crowd, calling up to him to come down on the floor. +There was a jolly eagerness in their demands, and the Prince, as he +went, seemed to hesitate as though he were quite game for the +adventure. But he disappeared, and though the Bears and the Bulls +waited a little while for him, he did not reappear. Those who knew +that a full twelve-hour program could only be accomplished by following +the timetable with rigid devotion had had their way. + +From the Stock Exchange the Prince went to the Sub-Treasury, and +watched, fascinated, the miracle work of the money counters. The +intricacies of currency were explained to him, and he was shown the men +who went through mounds of coin, with lightning gestures separating the +good from the bad with their instinctive finger-tips and with the +accuracy of one of Mr. Ford's uncanny machines. He was told that the +touch of these men was so exquisite that they could detect a "dud" coin +instantly, and, to test them, such a coin was produced and marked, and +well hidden in a pile of similar coins. The fingers of the teller went +through the pile like a flash, and as he flicked the good coins towards +him, and without ceasing his work, a coin span out from the mass +towards the Prince. It was the coin he had marked. + + +V + +Passing among these business people and driving amid the quick crowds, +the Prince had been consolidating the sense of intimate friendship that +had sprung up on the previous day. A wise American pressman had said +to me on Tuesday: + +"New York people like what they've read about the Prince. They'll come +out today to see if what they have read is true. Tomorrow they'll come +out because they love him. And each day the crowds will get better." + +This proved true. The warmth of New York's friendliness increased as +the days went on. The scene at the lunch given by the New York Chamber +of Commerce proved how strong this regard had grown. The scene was +remarkable because of the character and the quality of the men present. +It was no admiration society. It was no gathering of sentimentalists. +The men who attended that lunch were men not only of international +reputation, but of international force, men of cautious fibre +accustomed to big encounters, not easily moved to emotion. And they +fell under the charm of the Prince. + +One of them expressed his feelings concerning the scene to me. + +"He had it over us all the time," he said, laughing. "There we were, +several hundreds of grey-headed, hardened old stiffs, most of us over +twice his age, and we stood up and yelled like college freshmen when he +had finished speaking to us. + +"What did he say to us? Nothing very remarkable. He told us how +useful we old ones in the money market had been as a backbone to the +boys in the firing line. He told us that he felt that the war had +revealed clearly the closeness of the relationship between the two +Anglo-Saxon nations, how their welfare was interlocked and how the +prosperity of each was essential to the prosperity of the other, and he +agreed with the President of the Chamber's statement that British and +American good faith and good will would go far to preserve the +stability of the world. There's nothing very wonderful to that. It's +true enough, but not altogether unknown.... It was his manner that +caught hold of us. The way he speaks, you see. His nervousness, and +his grit in conquering his nervousness. His modesty; his twinkle of +humour, all of him. He's one fine lad. I tell you we've had some big +men in the Chamber in the last two years, but it's gilt-edged truth +that none of the big ones had the showing that lad got today." + +From the Chamber of Commerce the Prince went to the Academy of Music +where there was a picture and variety show staged for him, and which he +enjoyed enormously. The thrill of this item of the program was rather +in the crowd than in the show. It was an immense crowd, and for once +it vanquished the efficient police and swarmed about His Royal Highness +as he entered the building. While he was inside it added to its +strength rather than diminished, and in the face of this crisis one of +those men whose brains rise to emergencies had the bright idea of +getting the Prince out by the side door. The crowd had also had that +bright idea and the throng about the side door was, if anything, more +dense than at the front. Through this laughing and cheering mass +squads of good-humoured police butted a thread of passage for the happy +Prince. + +The throng inside Madison Square Garden about the arena of the Horse +Show was more decorous, as became its status, but it did not let that +stifle its feelings. The Prince passed through from a cheering crowd +outside to the bright, sharp clapping of those inside. He passed round +the arena between ranks of Salvation Army lassies, who held, instead of +barrier ropes, broad scarlet ribbons. + +There was a laugh as he touched his hair upon gaining the stark +publicity of his box, and the laugh changed to something of a cheer +when he caught sight of the chairs of pomp, two of them in frigid +isolation, elbowing out smaller human fry. All knew from his very +attitude what was going to happen to those chairs. And it happened. +The chairs vanished. Small chairs and more of them took their place, +and the Prince sat with genial people about him. + +The arena was a field of brightness. It was delightfully decorated +with green upon lattice work. Over the competitors' entrance were +canvas replicas of Tudor houses. In the ring the Prince saw many +beautiful horses, fine hunters, natty little ponies pulling nattier +carriages, trotters of mechanical perfection, and big lithe jumpers. +In the middle of the jumping competition he left his box and went into +the ring, and spent some time there chatting with judges and +competitors, and watching the horses take the hurdles and gates from +close quarters. + +Leaving the building there happened one of those vivid little incidents +which speak more eloquently than any effort of oratory could of the +kinship of the two races in their war effort. A group of men in +uniform who had been waiting by the exit sprang to attention as he came +up. They were all Americans. They were all in British uniform--most +of them in British Flying Corps uniform. As the Prince came up, they +clicked round in a smart "Left turn," and marched before him out of the +building. + +The Prince from thence on vanished for the day into a round of +semi-social functions, but he did not escape the crowds. + +Walking up Fifth Avenue with friends shortly before dinner-time, we +came upon a bunched jumble of people outside the "Waldorf-Astoria." It +was a crowd that a man in a hurry could not argue with. It filled the +broad street, and it did not care if it impeded traffic. We were not +in a hurry, so we stood and looked. I asked my friends what was +happening here, and one of them chuckled and answered: + +"They've got him again." + +"Him? Who--you can't mean the Prince? He's on _Renown_ now, resting, +or getting ready for a dinner. There's nothing down for him." + +My friend simply chuckled again. + +"Who else would it be?" he said. "How they do gather round waiting for +that smile of his. Flies round a honey-pot. Ah, I thought so." + +The Prince made a dash of an exit from the hotel. He jumped into the +car, and at once there was a forest of hands and handkerchiefs and +flags waving, and his own hand and hat seemed to go up and wave as part +of one and the same movement. It was a spontaneous "Hallo, People! +Hallo, Prince!" A jolly affair. The motor started, pushed through the +crowd. There was a sharp picture of the Prince half standing, half +kneeling, looking back and laughing and waving to the crowd. Then he +was gone. + +The men and women of the throng turned away smiling, as though +something good had happened. + +"They've seen him. They can go home now," said my friend. "My, ain't +they glad about themselves.... And isn't he the one fine scout?" + + +VI + +When the Prince made his appearance on Thursday, November 20th, in the +uniform of a Welsh Guardsman he came in for a startling ovation. Not +only were many people gathered about the Yacht Club landing-stage and +along the route of his drive, but at one point a number of ladies +pelted him with flowers. Startled though the Prince was, he kept his +smile and his sense of humour. He said dryly that he had never known +what it was to feel like a bride before, and he returned this volley +with his friendly salute. + +He was then setting out to the Grand Central Station for his trip up +the Hudson to West Point, the Military Academy of the United States. + +In the superb white station, under a curved arch of ceiling as blue as +the sky, he took the full force of an affection that had been growing +steadily through the visit. The immense floor of the building was +dense and tight with people, and the Prince, as he came to the balcony +that made the stair-head was literally halted by the great gust of +cheering that beat up to him, and was forced to stand at the salute for +a full minute. + +The journey to West Point skirted the Hudson, where lovely view after +lovely view of the piled-up and rocky further shore tinted in the +russet and gold of the dying foliage came and went. There was a rime +of ice already in the lagoons, and the little falls that usually +tumbled down the rocks were masses of glittering icicles. + +The castellated walls of West Point overhang the river above a sharp +cliff; the buildings have a dramatic grouping that adds to the extreme +beauty of the surroundings. Toward this castle on the cliff the Prince +went by a little steam ferry, was taken in escort by a smart body of +American cavalrymen, and in their midst went by automobile up the road +to the grey towers of West Point. + +Immediately on his arrival at the saluting point on the great campus +the horizon-blue cadets, who will one day be the leaders of the +American army, began to march. + +Paraded by the buildings, they fell into columns of companies with +mechanical precision. With precise discipline they moved out on to the +field, the companies as solid as rocks but for the metronomic beat of +legs and arms. + +They were tall, smart youths, archaic and modern in one. With long +blue coats, wide trousers, shakos, broad white belts, as neat as +painted lines, over breast and back, and, holding back the flaps of +capes, they looked figures from the fifties. But the swing of the +marching companies, the piston-like certainty of their action, the cold +and splendid detachment of their marching gave them all the _flare_ +[Transcriber's note: flair?] of a _corps d'elite_. + +Forming companies almost with a click on the wide green, they saluted +and stood at attention while the Prince and his party inspected the +lines. Then, the Prince at the saluting point again, the three +companies in admirable order marched past. There was not a flaw in the +rigid ranks as they swept along, their eyes right, the red-sashed "four +year men" holding slender swords at the salute. + +The Prince lunched with the officers, and after lunch the cadets +swarmed into the room to hear him speak, having first warmed up the +atmosphere with a rousing and prolonged college yell. Having spoken in +praise of their discipline and bearing, the Prince was made the subject +of another yell, and more, was saluted with the college whistle, a +thing unique and distinctive, that put the seal upon his visit. + +That night the Prince played host upon _Renown_, giving a brilliant +dinner to his friends in New York. This was the only other ceremony of +the day. + + +VII + +Friday, November 21st, the Prince's last day in New York, was an +extraordinarily full one, and that full not merely in program, but in +emotion. In that amazing day it seemed to me that the people of this +splendid city sought to express with superb eloquence the regard they +felt for him, seemed to make a point of trying to make his last day +memorable. + +The morning was devoted to a semi-private journey to Oyster Bay, in +order that the Prince might place a wreath on the tomb of President +Roosevelt. The Prince had several times expressed his admiration for +the great and forceful American who represented so much of what was +individual in the national character, and his visit to the burial-place +was a tribute of real feeling. + +After lunch at the Piping Rock Club he returned to _Renown_, where he +had planned to hold a reception after his own heart to a thousand of +New York's children. + +On _Renown_ a score of "gadgets" had been prepared for the fun of the +children. The capstans had been turned into roundabouts, a switchback +and a chute had been fixed up, the deck of the great steel monster had +been transformed into fairyland, while a "scrumptious" tea in a pretty +tea lounge had been prepared all out of Navy magic. + +The tugs that were to bring off the guests, however, brought few that +could come under the heading of "kiddies." Those that were not quite +grown up, were in the young man and young woman stage. Fairyland had +to be abandoned. Roundabout and switchback and chute were abandoned, +and only that "scrumptious" tea remained in the program. It was a +pleasant afternoon, but not a "kiddies'" afternoon. + +The evening was quick with crowds. + +It began in a drive through crowds to the Pilgrims' Dinner at the Plaza +Hotel, and that, in itself, was a crowd. The Plaza is none of your +bijou caravanserais. It is vast and vivid and bright, as a New York +hotel can be, and that is saying a good deal. But it was not vast +enough. One great marble room could not contain all the guests, +another and another was taken in, so that the banquet was actually +spread over three or four large chambers opening out of the main +chamber. Here the leading figures of America and the leading Britons +then in New York met together in a sort of breezy informality, and they +gave the Prince a most tremendous welcome. + +And when he began to speak--after the nimble scintillations of Mr. +Chauncey Depew--they gave him another. And they rose up in a body, and +moved inward from the distant rooms to be within earshot--a sight for +the Messenger in _Macbeth_, for he would have seen a moving grove of +golden chair legs, held on high, as the diners marched with their +seating accommodation held above their heads. + +Crowds again under the vivid lights of the streets, as the Prince drove +to the mighty crowd waiting for him in the Hippodrome. The Hippodrome +is one of the largest, if it is not the largest, music-hall in the +world. It has an enormous sweep of floor, and an enormous sweep of +galleries. The huge space of it takes the breath away. It was packed. + +As the Prince entered his box, floor and galleries rose up with a +sudden and tremendous surge, and sent a mighty shout to him. The +National Anthems of England and America were obliterated in the gust of +affectionate noise. Minutes elapsed before that great audience +remembered that it was at the play, and that the Prince had come to see +the play. It sat down reluctantly, saving itself for his departure, +watching him as he entered into enjoyment of the brave and grandiose +spectacular show on the stage. + +And when he rose to go the audience loosed itself again. It held him +there with the power of its cheering. It would not let him stir from +the building until it had had a word from him. It was dominant, it had +its way. In answer to the splendid outburst the Prince could do +nothing but come to the edge of his box and speak. + +In a clear voice that was heard all over the building he thanked them +for the wonderful reception he had received that night, and in New York +during the week. "I thank you," he said, "and I bid you all good +night." + +Then he went out into the cheering streets. + +It was an astonishing display in the street. The throng was so dense, +the shouting so great that the sound of it drove into the silent houses +of other theatres. And the audiences in those other theatres caught +the thrill of it. They "cut" their plays, came pouring out into the +street to join the throng and the cheering; it was through this +carnival of affection that the Prince drove along the streets to a +reception, and a brilliant one, given by Mr. Wanamaker, whose ability +as Chairman of the Reception Committee had largely helped to make the +Prince's visit to New York so startling a success. + + +VIII + +On that note of splendid friendliness the Prince's too short stay in +America ended. On Saturday, November 22nd, he held a reception on +_Renown_, saying good-bye to endless lines of friendly people of all +classes and races who thronged the great war vessel. + +All these people crowded about the Prince and seemed loth to part with +him, and he seemed just as unwilling to break off an intimacy only just +begun. Only inexorable time and the Admiralty ended the scene, and the +great ship with its escort of small, lean war-craft moved seaward along +the cheering shore. + +Crowds massed on the grass slope under Riverside Drive, and on the +esplanade itself. The skyscrapers were cheering grandstands, as the +ships steamed along the impressive length of Manhattan. They passed +the Battery, where he had landed, and the Narrows, where the escorting +boats left him. Then _Renown_ headed for Halifax, where his tour ended. + +Certainly America and the Prince made the best of impressions on each +other. There is much in his quick and modern personality that finds +immediate satisfaction in the American spirit; much in himself that the +American responds to at once. When he declared, as he did time and +time again, that he had had a wonderful time, he meant it with +sincerity. And of his eagerness to return one day there can be no +doubt. + +Of all the happy moments on this long and happy tour, this visit to +America, brief as it was, was one of the happiest. It was a brilliant +finale to the brilliant Canadian days. + + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Westward with the Prince of Wales, by +W. 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