Canada -- Description and travel; Canadian poetry -- History and criticism
How was this result achieved? The question was in the air. Every
one asked it. No one could exactly answer it, but every one shared
the wonder. The statistical data of the Dominion was impressive
enough for almost any commensurate influence; yet mere facts and
figures could give little clue to the {235} mysterious effect on the
throngs of visitors. One might read that the population of Canada
had increased from five millions to seven millions in ten years; and
that fifty-five per cent. of this population was engaged in
conquering Nature, and transmuting her plains into golden harvests as
a granary of the world; that her Government is expending ten millions
a year in agricultural instruction alone; that her root and fodder
crop each year is valued at almost two hundred millions of dollars,
representing an area of nine million acres, and that the value of her
field crops annually is five hundred and fifty millions of dollars.
One might read that her live stock, valued at a given time at seven
hundred millions, increased a hundred and fifty per cent. within one
decade only. This visitor might recall the shrewd assertion of James
J. Hill that "there is land enough in Canada, if thoroughly tilled,
to feed every person in Europe"; and that, while at present only
thirty-six million acres are under cultivation, there are four
hundred and forty millions, thirty per cent. of her entire area, that
are available for agricultural use. Yet not all these impressive
statistics can alone account for the innate magic, the indescribable
witchery, that Canada flings about all who come to look upon these
marvellous panoramas in her building. Statistical data have their
uses and inspire respect, while one cons them by heart and feels sure
he is thereby equipped to give a reason for the faith that is in him;
but in {236} his heart he knows that all the figures in the realm of
mathematics could not really account for his consciousness of the
fascinations of the Dominion. A leading journal of San Francisco,
advocating the desire that the Californian exhibit should be made a
permanent one, proceeded to point the moral and adorn the tale by
pointing to the Canadian exhibition. The editorial argument thus ran:
"Canada, with her complete exhibit, has won much praise from
Exposition sightseers and has set the precedent for a permanent
exhibit. One reason why our northern neighbour was able to make such
a splendid impression at the Jewel City from the first was because,
as its display was permanent, much of it had been installed in a
European exhibition and had come directly here from across the
Atlantic. The packing cases were ready to be opened and the best
arrangement for the resources of Canada had been determined by
experience.
"California needs to be an active participant in future expositions,
as active as the Dominion of Canada.
* * * * * * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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