When younger sons of good families are sent to seek their fortunes in the New World, their social standing is not fixed by their occupation, and a man who has served behind a counter all day is as well received in a drawing-room as one who has sat on the bench or pleaded a case in court. Of course in such a state of society impostors often effect an entrance, and their detection makes their entertainers chary of strangers afterwards. But so long as a man behaves himself like a gentleman he is treated as one. Many officials, sent by the Canadian Government temporarily to fill responsible posts, and officers whose regiments have been disbanded, remain in Winnipeg, preferring it to any other part of Canada, and illustrating the adage, "He who once drinks of the Red River water cannot live without it." It is a very muddy stream, however, and not at all inviting as a beverage.
A great many visitors, chiefly Englishmen, go to Manitoba for the shooting and fishing, which are excellent. A friend of mine last year bagged four hundred ducks, several geese, great numbers of partridges, loons, and as many hares as he would waste shot on in a fortnight's holiday. No doubt, when Manitoba and its capabilities become better understood, and the line of railway is completed, the number of tourists in search of sport will much increase.
How little the new province has been known hitherto the following fact will show. A letter for me, mailed in a county town in England, in September, and merely addressed to Winnipeg, Manitoba, omitting Canada, travelled to France, where it received sundry postmarks, and such sensible hints by the post-office officials as, "Try Calcutta." At last, some one better acquainted with the geography of this side of the globe added, "Nouvelle Amerique," and my letter reached me, _viâ_ New York, in Christmas week, richly ornamented with postmarks, and protests from officials that it "came to them in that condition," tied together with two varieties of string, and frankly exhibiting its contents--a pair of lace sleeves, which, but for the honesty of the mail service, might easily have been abstracted.
Winter Amusements--A Winnipeg Ball--Forty Degrees below Zero--New Year's Day--Saskatchewan Taylor--Indian Compliments--A Dog train--Lost in the Snow--Amateur Theatricals--Sir Walter Raleigh's Hat--A Race with the Freshets--The Ice moves--The First Steamer of the Season--Good-bye to Winnipeg.