Another Summer Part 3

We left Banff at 10.20 P.M. on the 22d, and after two days and two nights on the cars, reached Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba. At the hotel there we found the rooms for which we had telegraphed ready for us. The sulphur bath at Banff, and the subsequent exposure, proved too much for me, and I was obliged to go to bed and stay there for a week.

Very often I suffered extreme pain in the head, and was only conscious of being carefully nursed by my sister and travelling companions, and attended by a skilful doctor. After three days and nights of continuous illness I grew better, and began to appreciate how exceedingly kind every one was. One lady, Mrs. E., of Winnipeg, sent for my use calf's-foot jelly and beef tea prepared by her own fair hands, and accompanied with beautiful flowers from her garden.

Another one, Mrs. B., of New Orleans, sent a pot of beautiful flowering fuchsia. All of which attentions were very acceptable.

Ever since we left Vancouver, all along the railroad, there was a small-pox scare. There had been a hundred cases at Victoria, and the city had been quarantined; reports were also circulated that the disease was bad at Vancouver, and as a consequence the pa.s.sengers on our train were looked upon with suspicion. At one stopping place, called Medicine Hat, ropes were put around the station, and the pa.s.sengers were prevented from going into the town. The governor of North Dakota issued a proclamation forbidding all persons to come into that State from Manitoba, by rail or otherwise, because a Chinaman near the line, and a girl who nursed him, had the small-pox. In two or three days, however, this proclamation was withdrawn, much to my relief, as I wished to return home by the shortest route. The Manitoba Hotel, where we were located, is owned and managed by the Northern Pacific Railroad Co., and is a model one in every way.

When sufficiently recovered from my at one time serious illness, I took several drives about the thriving and beautiful city, and finally, on August 2d, we started by the Great Northern Railroad for home. One day at Minneapolis was altogether too little time for seeing one of the finest cities of its size in the world. Two days were spent at Chicago, during which we drove around the Exposition buildings, now rapidly nearing completion; then we took places previously engaged on the Pennsylvania Limited, and in twenty-five hours were landed in Jersey City. We happened to occupy a car which had just been put on the road, containing many new appliances and conveniences, the latest inventions of Mr. Pullman.

Thus pleasantly our journey ended, and we arrived safely home again, after an absence of just fifty-one days.