Niagara — Historical and Reminiscent 



the hearts of the Niagara hotel proprietor, the bazaar man and 1900 

 the guide thump with joy. The season is then at its height. un ap 

 Excursionists number thousands upon thousands, all crowding to 

 Niagara, by steam-roads and by trolley-lines, all eager to see 

 the winter spectacle. By this time the residents on both sides of 

 the river have worn a good pathway across the bridge from 

 shore to shore. Men of the hour, or men of opportunity, erect 

 " shanties," sometimes dignified by the name of " hotels," on 

 the bridge along the path. These buildings are a wonder. They 

 spring up in a day, in an hour, in fact. Their only foundation is 

 the ice, and each one has nearly two hundred feet of water in 

 the " cellar." Variety is the spice of ice-bridge life, and here 

 and there is to be seen an Indian tepee. Squatter sovereignty 

 prevails. In the matter of location it is first come, first served, and 

 to get there means ownership of the site. Right in midstream, as 

 near as the eye can judge, shanties crowd each other, and in these 

 places liquors are frequently served. A few days of this seldom 

 excites comment, but after the bridge has been in existence many 

 days and has become well advertised, there is a change in the 

 composition of the class of visitors. People who might have 

 overlooked the sale of liquors at the start now criticise it. This 

 develops a public sentiment, and the officials on each side act. 

 Arrests are made, but the boundary line is always disputed, no 

 matter on which side the culprits are held, and as the ice-bridge 

 has passed away by the time the trial is heard, convictions are 

 hard to obtain. In fact, with the possibility of repeating the 

 offense removed, public sentiment has always, at this stage, been 

 lenient. 



With the bridge firmly established, the shanties in place and 

 the people pouring into Niagara, a glorious winter festival is 

 opened. From shore to shore across the icy mass the people 

 wend their way by thousands, a black, serpentlike moving mass 

 of humanity, bending in and out, up and down the grandly 

 uneven mass. They go and they come, a jolly, boisterous, laugh- 

 ing lot of people, the circulation of their blood stirred by their 



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