Canada and Newfoundland

by Frank G. Carpenter

Downtown Montreal is built largely of limestone. It has a massive look, but skyscrapers are barred by a city ordinance. Erection of modern steel and concrete office buildings is now under way, and they stand out conspicuously against the background of more old-fashioned structures. Big as it is and important commercially, Montreal seems a city without any Main Street. St. Catherine Street has the largest retail stores and the “bright lights” of theatres and cafés, but I have seen more impressive thoroughfares in much smaller places at home. This is essentially a French city, though less so than Quebec. The French do not naturally incline toward “big business.” They seem content with small shops, which since the days of their grandfathers have grown in numbers rather than in size. They are by nature conservative, and though they make shrewd business managers, they care little for innovations in either public or private affairs.

I have visited the biggest market, the Bonsecours. It is quite as French as those I have seen in southern France. This market takes up a wide street running from the heart of Montreal down to the wharves. The street is the overflow of the market proper, which fills a church-like building covering an acre of ground. When I arrived the open space was crowded with French farmers, who in the early morning had driven their cars and light motor trucks loaded down with fruits and vegetables into the city. Fully half of the wagons were in charge of women, who looked much like those in the Halles Central in Paris. As I pressed my way through the throng many of them called out to me in French and some thrust their wares into my face and urged me to buy.

The mayor of Montreal is always a French Canadian, and he is usually reëlected for several terms. I talked with His Honour and found him a most pleasant gentleman. Discussing his city, he said:

In the French market one feels he is indeed in a foreign land, and among a people of alien tongue. When he buys, however, he discovers that the farmers understand perfectly when money does the talking.

Kipling did not endear himself to Montreal when he called Canada “Our Lady of the Snows,” yet the people are really proud of their facilities for winter sports, which include a toboggan slide down Mt. Royal.

“Montreal is thriving as never before. Our population is rapidly increasing and we expect soon to have more than a million. We have taken in some of the suburbs, as your great cities have done, and our increasing opportunities are constantly attracting new people.

“I believe we are one of the most cosmopolitan communities on the continent,” continued the Mayor. “About seventy per cent. of us are French, and a large part of the balance are English Canadians. We have also Americans, Germans, Belgians, Italians, and Chinese, besides large numbers of Irish and Scotch, and some of the peoples of southeastern Europe. We are the Atlantic gate to Canada, so that a large portion of our immigrants pass through here on their way west. Many of them go no farther, as they find employment in our varied industries.

“It costs us more than twenty million dollars a year to run Montreal, but we feel that we can afford it. The value of our taxable buildings amounts to nearly seven hundred and fifty millions, and is increasing at the rate of fifteen millions a year. We have more than one million acres of public parks, or in excess of an acre for every man, woman, and child in the city.”