BORDER ROWDIES. 45 



United States are not of a stamp likely to charm Cana- 

 dians into annexation. The better classes of Americans 

 do not travel on the beautiful Canadian lakes, for fear of 

 the rough and motley crowd of their own countrymen that 

 they encounter on the steamboats. I do not think these 

 latter people derive much enjoyment from the scenery of 

 " Kennedy," as they call it, although they undoubtedly 

 enjoy the good living. I recently had the pleasure of 

 travelling in company with some four hundred of these 

 tourists. One hour before dinner, though at the time our 

 boat was running down one of the finest reaches of the 

 St. Lawrence, these people crowded the dinner tables in 

 the saloon. The waiters told them that unless they left 

 the tables, the cloth, &c., could not be laid. Upon this 

 they drew back their chairs a foot or two to enable the 

 waiters to pass to and fro, and there they sat for one hour, 

 their hungry regards fixed on the table, their black- 

 panted extremities tucked under their chairs, like rows 

 of carrion crows waiting for a dying horse. At last dinner 

 was put on the table, and a fierce joy lit up the solemn, 

 yellow faces of the four hundred, and in the words of the 

 captain they " went it strong," so strong indeed that the 

 outsiders preferred bread and cheese on deck to partaking 

 of that horrid repast. 



The political relations between the two countries have 

 not tended to make Canadians enamoured of the United 

 States. The latter country, in revenge for supposed Cana- 

 dian sympathy for the South, abrogated the Eeciprocity 

 Treaty that had existed between the two countries, and 

 put a prohibitory tariff on Canadian goods. This, although 

 it will serve Canada in the long run and develop home 



