Travelers' Original Accounts Since 1840 



1890 



1890 FRASER, John. Canadian pen and ink sketches. Montreal: Gazette 



Fraser Printing Co. 1890. Pp. 155-156. 



" Did you ever do the Falls? " asked an American tourist the 

 other day of the writer. " No," we replied, " but the Falls 

 once did us in a way that cleaned out our then little purse." We, 

 however, at that time, in our young days, had the pleasure of 

 enjoying a most delightful visit or sojourn — not as a guest — 

 of two weeks at the Falls of Niagara. That visit, and how it 

 was accomplished, is now as fresh in our memory as if it were 

 yesterday; of which the following is a true and faithful 

 account : — 



This was over forty years ago. It was spring time, in the 

 month of April, 1845. We were then at Toronto, better known 

 a few years earlier as " Muddy Little York." We had what 

 we supposed a well-filled purse of English shillings and half- 

 crowns, amounting, all told, to fifteen dollars and fifty cents; 

 cash was then scarce in the West. All was "store pay." Fifty 

 to seventy-five pounds a year was then a fair salary for a young 

 clerk, very little of which was paid him in cash. His board 

 cost him ten dollars a month, paid in store pay. Then his 

 clothing was charged to his account in the store; so that a young 

 clerk in those days in the West, after his board and clothing 

 were paid, had not much over five to six dollars a month left 

 him for pocket money; therefore, we considered ourselves as 

 passing rich in having fifteen dollars and fifty cents in our purse. 



We had given up our old situation, and had made a new 

 engagement, to be entered upon on the first of May follow- 

 ing; and having a little over two weeks' spare time, and, as we 

 thought, a well-filled purse, the question was, where to go and 

 how to spend it to the best advantage in sight-seeing. Fortu- 

 nately, we found a companion, a genuine Hibernian, well- 

 informed, about our own age, having a little spare time, too, 

 and equally rich, our two united purses amounting to a little 



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