Life in the Clearings versus the BushMoodie, Susanna
History
Life in the Clearings versus the Bush
Moodie, Susanna
Frontier and pioneer life -- Ontario; Moodie, Susannah, 1803-1885; Ontario -- Description and travel
There is also an Episcopal Methodist church, composed of red brick, at
the upper end of the town, by the river side, which is well attended.
You can scarcely adopt a better plan of judging of the wealth and
prosperity of a town, than by watching, of a Sabbath morning, the
congregations of the different denominations going to church.
Belleville weekly presents to the eye of an observing spectator a
large body of well-dressed, happy-looking people,--robust, healthy,
independent-looking men, and well-formed, handsome women;--an air of
content and comfort resting upon their comely faces,--no look of haggard
care and pinching want marring the quiet solemnity of the scene.
The dress of the higher class is not only cut in the newest French
fashion, imported from New York, but is generally composed of rich and
expensive materials. The Canadian lady dresses well and tastefully, and
carries herself easily and gracefully. She is not unconscious of the
advantages of a pretty face and figure; but her knowledge of the fact is
not exhibited in an affected or disagreeable manner. The lower class are
not a whit behind their wealthier neighbours in outward adornments. And
the poor emigrant, who only a few months previously had landed in rags,
is now dressed neatly and respectably. The consciousness of their
newly-acquired freedom has raised them in the scale of society, in their
own estimation, and in that of their fellows. They feel that they are
no longer despised; the ample wages they receive has enabled them to
cast off the slough of hopeless poverty, which once threw its deadening
influence over them, repressing all their energies, and destroying
that self-respect which is so necessary to mental improvement and
self-government, The change in their condition is apparent in their
smiling, satisfied faces.
This is, indeed, a delightful contrast to the squalid want and poverty
which so often meet the eye and pain the heart of the philanthropist at
home. Canada is blessed in the almost total absence of pauperism; for
none but the wilfully idle and vicious need starve here, while the wants
of the sick and infirm meet with ready help and sympathy from a most
charitable public.
The Wesleyan Methodists wisely placed their burying-ground at some
distance from the town; and when we first came to reside at Belleville,
it was a retired and lovely spot, on the Kingston road, commanding a
fine view of the bay. The rapid spread of the village into a town almost
embraces in its arms this once solitary spot, and in a few years it will
be surrounded with suburban residences. There is a very large brick
field adjoining this cemetery, which employs during the summer months
a number of hands.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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