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Chapter 5: Winnipeg
On awakening the next morning, we could not help being struck at our bare carpetless room & were glad to find after breakfast that there was a very pleasant ladies sitting room over looking the street. The mud the previous night made us in no hurry to venture out, so we occupied ourselves with letters & in the afternoon went out to see a little of the town, which in every way was superior to what I expected, the stores were very good & there were many handsome buildings & more being erected. The Queen's Hotel was the largest, but the "Canada Pacific" & "Grand Central" were spoken of as being very comfortable, besides many others. The ladies were quite as fashionably dressed as in England, but I thought them rather too showy to be quite in accordance with English taste & it certainly seemed very curious to see the Indians walking about in their blankets amongst their stylish neighbours, many of the former had their faces painted & their heads ornamented with feathers & all kinds of bright colours, while others looked dirty & untidy much like some of the swarthy Gipseys at home. The Main Street is a long wide street with irregularly built houses, the older ones being of wood, while the more recent are of brick. The side walks are here, as throughout Canada made of wood instead of stone pavement used in our own country, when in good condition it is pleasant to walk on, & dries quickly after rain, though decidedly detrimental to walking sticks, as they not unfrequently slip between the boards & get broken, the scarceness of stone in this l& is one of the chief points in which it differs from England, the mud too is perfectly black & during the months of May & June is most disagreeable. I never saw any so deep as down the chief street of Winnipeg. We heard that one of our companions on board the Sardinian, had left his wife, sister & children in the town, so we went to renew their acquaintance & found them in comfortable apartments where they had been since April & would remain until their house was ready & the roads in a better state, their house was to be at Beaconfield, while we were intending to go on to Gladstone in which place our friend lived. My husband had before this gone to the Post Office to enquire for mail, but the letter we had written requesting our correspondence not to be forwarded to Lakefield after a certain date, had not been attended to, though acknowledged to be received & only the day before all our letters had been sent there, this was a great disappointment, as we had received none since Moville. We found the best way of pursuing our journey was by the steamer up the river to Portage la Prairie which went every week, it was to start on the Wednesday, but owing to the incessant rain & rough wind, it did not do so until the next day, we had not intended to go quite so soon but were glad to, as the Hotel expenses were higher here than we had before paid, the children being charged full price, otherwise this is one of the cheapest Hotels in Winnipeg 1½ to 2 dols per day being the usual tariff. There were 2 or 3 entertainments each evening at the various places of amusement, the theatre being the most patronised as far as we could judge, by the people we saw going for we amused ourselves by watching them from the windows until my husband brought in a gentleman to whom he had sold one of our dogs, his l& was several miles from the town & as he was staying the night we finished the evening with a game of Cassino. We were glad to hear from him that it was rather the exception than the rule for people to play cards for money in this country.
Thursday the 29th was a beautiful bright morning & we went out early to secure our berths on board the steamer & make several purchases; during this walk with my husband I saw more of the town than I had done at all & was surprised to find it so large; the mud was up to the horses knees, but after buying some overshoes I managed to get about better. Boot cleaning is a consideration when they charge 25 cents per pair. Before leaving I bought a bottle of Nubian blacking & with its useful little brush we contrived to keep our's respectable without troubling the shoe-black. My husband paid 30 cents to have his hair cut, everything is expensive in this town, which has in 7 years grown from a few houses into the important place it now is. After returning to the Rossin House for dinner, we had our luggage sent to the boat but all the smaller packages we were obliged to carry & were all well loaded. My husband having business in another part we had to struggle on as best we could, fortunately we met our companion of the previous evening who good naturedly helped us out of our difficulties. The Minnesota was a larger vessel that any river steamer I had seen & every thing looked particularly clean, the negress stewardess made a great impression on the children & I was glad to think we should not require her services as much as when on board the "Sardinian". It was a lovely evening & we were charmed with the beauties of the Assiniboine, it is a broad & at this part winding river, with a thick belt of trees on each side, here & there we saw cleared spots & houses built owned chiefly by the half-breeds I think; we stayed on deck until it was dark, the sun set being unusually beautiful. The boat was quite full & several people slept on the floor of the saloon, the charge for each meal was 50 cents, so like many other we again replenished our hamper. There was another English family on board consisting of a lady, her sister 5 little boys, they were going to join her husband at Brandon Hills, they were extremely pleasant & we had a long talk about the new life we were all entering on. I hope some day we may be able to compare our experiences as we shall not be more than 40 miles apart. On returning to our cabin & finding no light, I at once opened a packet of candles & lit one. I supposed it was unperceived for sometime but long before I wished to extinguish it, we heard a rap at the door & "No lights allowed" uttered in peremptory tones, so we could but obey & manage as well as it was possible in the dark. The next day was colder & but little sun, the scenery which had so delighted us the previous evening now became monotonous & we were glad to take up our books again. In the afternoon my husband meeting with a Scotchman who was desirous of a game of Whist, my sister & I gladly joined them, the next hour passed pleasantly for we found our new acquaintance who was a Scotch delegate & Vice President of Camber of Agriculture to be well read & a thoroughly practical man of business, his name has appeared in many of the English & Scotch news papers since his return; he had been travelling through the States & told us much about out American cousins, for whom he seemed to have a great admiration. The Capt. was making his first trip up the Assiniboine & was doubtful what time we should reach Portage la Prairie or the Portage as it is more frequently called; at 9 P.M. however we arrived at the landing stage & while my husband was superintending the removal of our boxes from the steamer to the warehouse we went to see if there was any conveyance that could take us to the town about a mile distant, thanks to a kind friend we secured a wagon & a pair of nice looking grey horses, this was our first experience of colonial travelling, & we enjoyed the novelty, though it was dreadful to see the poor horses struggling through the mud, they had often to stop & sometimes I thought we should be obliged to get out, but by going very slowly & the occasional use of the whip, our driver at last brought us in front of the "Lorne House" this he found was full, so we went to the "Portage Hotel" where we were more fortunate, though we had to be content with a bed-room only occasionally used, & meagerly furnished, my husband as usual sharing a bed where he could, for in this country it is a case of "first come first served", & the man who arrives first gets into the most comfortable looking bed he sees as there are generally several in each room. The news of the boats arrival had not proceeded us, so the servants were gone to bed, it being about ½ past 10 o'clock, but the wife of the proprietor, a fine handsome woman, with a kind face, did all she could for our comfort, the children after having some cake & milk went to bed, & we had supper to which we did justice as we had already found out the appetizing power of the North West air, & were joined by our Scotch friend & one of his fellow country men.
