The Henson Journals

[58]

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Wednesday, September 18th, 1912. Winnipeg.

Again the weather is glorious. I photographed Lois & the house before breakfast.

In the course of the morning I was visited by Mr R. F. Argue, the professor of English & German, in Wesley College, a Canadian who had his own training in McGill University. He requested me to address the young men who are working a 'Settlement' in Winnipeg with the design of civilizing the foreign immigrants. The young man interested me, & I gave him a copy of 'Puritanism in England'! Besides I half promised to talk to the 'Settlers'.

Then I wrote letters to President Garfield, Fedarb, & Pearce.

After lunch Aubrey & I walked to 'Elm Park', a beautifully wooded peninsula, all but an island, formed by the curving of the Red River. The bright sun & cloudless sky showed everything to the greatest advantage. A quaint wooden bridge, laid on boats, blended admirably with its surroundings. As we wandered amid the trees – in which the axe is already doing great execution, for 'Elm Park' is laid out in building plots, & the scheme is beginning to 'mature' – we put up a braced [sic] of ruffed grouse, & saw a woodpecker. The absence of visitors – everybody had crowded into Winnipeg to see a procession of the Oddfellows who are visiting the town in thousands & being fêted by the townsfolk – gave an unwonted liberty of action to the wild creatures.

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The banks of the Red River were thickly scattered over with tents, in which parties of citizens had been camping out during the summer. In view of the paucity of timber of any size in this country, the City seems to be ill advised in allowing 'Elm Park' to be broken up for building. There is another disadvantage. The whole river frontage, which here is beautiful, is being allowed to pass into private hands, & thereby there is being prepared for the future just the same resentments, only better grounded in justice, as are now perplexing the older communities of Europe, in which vast masses of citizens are as tramps in their own land. We had tea pleasantly enough in a Tea–house, enlivened by two little Irish girls, and made beautiful by the flower garden. Then we walked through the wood, mostly rather spiral poplars with undergrowths, which were already taking autumn tints, & so returned on foot to the city. In our absence, Lois had been holding a 'tea party', & was in a condition at once triumphant & exhausted when we made an appearance about 7.15 p.m. Aubrey & I were fatigued by our exertions, for neither of us is accustomed to much physical exercise. We were therefore little disposed to protract our post–prandial discussions, and retired to bed at an hour rather suggesting the pristine simplicity of the country than the decadent wakefulness of the city.

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