If any one objects that we are not competent to pass judgment on the city of Halifax by sleeping there one night, I beg leave to plead the usual custom of travelers,--where would be our books of travel, if more was expected than a night in a place? --and to state a few facts.The first is, that I saw the whole of Halifax.If I were inclined, I could describe it building by building.Cannot one see it all from the citadel hill, and by walking down by the horticultural garden and the Roman Catholic cemetery? and did not Iclimb that hill through the most dilapidated rows of brown houses, and stand on the greensward of the fortress at five o'clock in the morning, and see the whole city, and the British navy riding at anchor, and the fog coming in from the Atlantic Ocean? Let the reader go to! and if he would know more of Halifax, go there.We felt that if we remained there through the day, it would be a day of idleness and sadness.I could draw a picture of Halifax.I could relate its century of history; I could write about its free-school system, and its many noble charities.But the reader always skips such things.He hates information; and he himself would not stay in this dull garrison town any longer than he was obliged to.
There was to be a military display that day in honor of the Governor.
"Why," I asked the bright and light-minded colored boy who sold papers on the morning train, "don't you stay in the city and see it?""Pho," said he, with contempt, "I'm sick of 'em.Halifax is played out, and I'm going to quit it."The withdrawal of this lively trader will be a blow to the enterprise of the place.
When I returned to the hotel for breakfast--which was exactly like the supper, and consisted mainly of green tea and dry toast--there was a commotion among the waiters and the hack-drivers over a nervous little old man, who was in haste to depart for the morning train.He was a specimen of provincial antiquity such as could not be seen elsewhere.His costume was of the oddest: a long-waisted coat reaching nearly to his heels, short trousers, a flowered silk vest, and a napless hat.He carried his baggage tied up in mealbags, and his attention was divided between that and two buxom daughters, who were evidently enjoying their first taste of city life.The little old man, who was not unlike a petrified Frenchman of the last century, had risen before daylight, roused up his daughters, and had them down on the sidewalk by four o'clock, waiting for hack, or horse-car, or something to take them to the station.That he might be a man of some importance at home was evident, but he had lost his head in the bustle of this great town, and was at the mercy of all advisers, none of whom could understand his mongrel language.As we came out to take the horse-car, he saw his helpless daughters driven off in one hack, while he was raving among his meal-bags on the sidewalk.Afterwards we saw him at the station, flying about in the greatest excitement, asking everybody about the train; and at last he found his way into the private office of the ticket-seller."Get out of here! "roared that official.The old man persisted that he wanted a ticket."Go round to the window; clear out!" In a very flustered state he was hustled out of the room.When he came to the window and made known his destination, he was refused tickets, because his train did not start for two hours yet!
This mercurial old gentleman only appears in these records because he was the only person we saw in this Province who was in a hurry to do anything, or to go anywhere.
We cannot leave Halifax without remarking that it is a city of great private virtue, and that its banks are sound.The appearance of its paper-money is not, however, inviting.We of the United States lead the world in beautiful paper-money; and when I exchanged my crisp, handsome greenbacks for the dirty, flimsy, ill-executed notes of the Dominion, at a dead loss of value, I could not be reconciled to the transaction.I sarcastically called the stuff I received "Confederate money;" but probably no one was wounded by the severity;for perhaps no one knew what a resemblance in badness there is between the "Confederate" notes of our civil war and the notes of the Dominion; and, besides, the Confederacy was too popular in the Provinces for the name to be a reproach to them.I wish I had thought of something more insulting to say.
By noon on Friday we came to New Glasgow, having passed through a country where wealth is to be won by hard digging if it is won at all; through Truro, at the head of the Cobequid Bay, a place exhibiting more thrift than any we have seen.A pleasant enough country, on the whole, is this which the road runs through up the Salmon and down the East River.New Glasgow is not many miles from Pictou, on the great Cumberland Strait; the inhabitants build vessels, and strangers drive out from here to see the neighboring coal mines.Here we were to dine and take the stage for a ride of eighty miles to the Gut of Canso.
