A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-slavery and reform papers.Thoreau, Henry David
History
A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-slavery and reform papers.
Thoreau, Henry David
Brown, John, 1800-1859; Québec (Province) -- Description and travel; Slavery -- United States
Montreal makes the impression of a larger city than you had expected to
find, though you may have heard that it contains nearly sixty thousand
inhabitants. In the newer parts it appeared to be growing fast like a
small New York, and to be considerably Americanized. The names of the
squares reminded you of Paris,—the Champ de Mars, the Place d’Armes, and
others, and you felt as if a French revolution might break out any
moment. Glimpses of Mount Royal rising behind the town, and the names of
some streets in that direction, make one think of Edinburgh. That hill
sets off this city wonderfully. I inquired at a principal bookstore for
books published in Montreal. They said that there were none but
school-books and the like; they got their books from the States. From
time to time we met a priest in the streets, for they are distinguished
by their dress, like the _civil_ police. Like clergymen generally, with
or without the gown, they made on us the impression of effeminacy. We
also met some Sisters of Charity, dressed in black, with Shaker-shaped
black bonnets and crosses, and cadaverous faces, who looked as if they
had almost cried their eyes out, their complexions parboiled with
scalding tears; insulting the daylight by their presence, having taken
an oath not to smile. By cadaverous I mean that their faces were like
the faces of those who have been dead and buried for a year, and then
untombed, with the life’s grief upon them, and yet, for some
unaccountable reason, the process of decay arrested.
“Truth never fails her servant, sir, nor leaves him
With the day’s shame upon him.”
They waited demurely on the sidewalk while a truck laden with raisins
was driven in at the seminary of St. Sulpice, never once lifting their
eyes from the ground.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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