Trooper and Redskin in the Far North-West - Recollections of Life in the North-West Mounted Police, Canada, 1884-1888 #225627

It is quite a fashionable trip in the tourist season now, to travel from Montreal to Vancouver via the Canadian Pacific Railway; to gaze at the glaciers of the Rockies and the peaks of the Selkirk range; and perhaps take a run across the Sound to the very English-looking city of Victoria. The majority journey by the beaten track, and their scope of vision is limited by the plate-glass windows of a cosy saloon carriage, or the carved verandah of some Western caravanserai. Many are keen observers and pleasant raconteurs of what has actually come within their field of view; while others, from certain motives, suffer strongly from a self-inflicted strabismus. These former are mostly personal friends of the Governor-General of Canada, while very many more are temporary guests of the mighty potentates who control the destinies of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The tribe of journalistic globe-trotters are special favourites, so long as, by vivid word-painting and artistic pencil, they set forth the wondrous glories of the great North-West.<br><br>These chosen of the gods are billeted in luxurious Pulman cars; the perfect service of the dining-car causes all outward things to be suffused with a rosy light, and unbounded courtesy meets them at every turn.