The Henson Journals

[47]

Wednesday, September 11th, 1912. Toronto.

The expedition to Niagara – expenditure

Fares from Toronto & back	5.
Fee for the Cave of the Wind. 3 persons	3.
Tip to the guides	.75
Cab fare	2.
Meals on the steamer	5.25
	16.00

Edith Ripley & her mother accompanied us to Niagara. We were fortunate in our weather for, though the day began with rain, it improved steadily & during the afternoon the sun shone brightly. Thus we were able to see the Canadian Fall to the best advantage. Nothing could exceed the majestic beauty of the scene. The brilliant rainbow rising like a coloured column from the seething mass of water until it lost itself in the blue sky was almost uncanny. Ella, Edith & I adventured a visit to the cave of the Wind. We had to strip to the skin & don rough garments & oilskins. The wind & spray were tremendous. We were drenched. But it was worth doing. One realized the enormous scale of the cataract, & the violence it is doing to the rocks over which it dashes. The steamer was laden with immense quantities of peaches wrapped neatly in boxes. They are the harvest of the fruit farms which border the Niagara River.

[48]

I had an interesting conversation with a frank–looking young fellow who was lounging on the quay, waiting for his steamer to Kingston, where he had just secured work. He told me that he had been 7 years in America, partly in the States and partly in Canada.

I asked him whether he regretted leaving England, & he answered that he did not, for there was more scope & freedom for a man in America, that he could save far more money than in England &c. He thought that there were more temptations for a young unmarried man than in England, especially (& this surprized me) to drink. As an instance, he gave his own experience. In his boarding house one of the lodgers was never without a whiskey bottle, & rarely refrained from pressing its contents on his fellow–boarders! This did not seem to me a very formidable pressure & I said so: but my friend stuck to his guns, & said that this aggressive drinker had done much harm. He said that he congratulated himself on having begun in New York, & come thence to Canada. Thereby he had learned the methods of America, & had been more or less acclimatized before having to face the Canadian climate. He expressed his compassion for the Englishmen who come out to Canada, ignorant of the privations which await them, &, in many cases fail under them. This man was from Manchester, & belonged to a family in fairly good position.

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