Montreal; the Canadian metropolis and its picturesque environments (1899) (14779707394)

Identifier: montrealcanadian00canauoft (find matches)
Title: Montreal; the Canadian metropolis and its picturesque environments
Year: 1899 (1890s)
Authors: Canadian Pacific Railway Company
Subjects: Montréal (Québec)
Publisher: (Montreal)
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN



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ould call to remembrance the lives of deprivation amiuncomplaining endurance which have made the ground now crowned by thebeautiful edifice full of the most tragic interest and filled with memories whichwill be immortal as long as courage and stout-heartedness are honored. Two hundred and fifty years ago the sound of hammer and saw here awokethe echoes of the forest. Workmen who had learned their craft in old Frenchtowns, when Colbert, the great statesman and financier, was developing thearchitecture and industries, revenues and resources of the kingdom, here reared awindmill, the first industrial building in Montreal. The winds of those autumnslong ago turned the fans and ground the seed of harvests tolsonuly gathered fromcornfields, among whose furrows many a time the arrow and tomahawk spilt theblood of the reaper and sower. The old mill with its pastoral associates of peace-ful toil in time passed away, and was succeeded by a structure dedicated to the art MONTREAL o c2 H 7iO >
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10 MONTREAL of war, for on the same spot stood la Citadelle. This stronghold, thoughprimitive in its apiJointments, was important during the French occupation and evacuation ofNew France, beingthe last fortiticationheld by French troopson Canadian soil. This old earthencitadel, a relic ofmedi;xval defence,was about seventyyears ago removed,its material beingused in the levelingand enlargement ofthe Parade Ground,or, as it is called, theChamp-de-Mars.Its demolition mighthe regretted were itnot that in an ageof prepress, evensentiment must give way before advance. The grand Hotel \ iger, although built to promote the com-fort of the people of the Dominion, has not destroyed the pathetic interest of the earlystruggles and heroism which still clothes its site, and which heightens the presentappreciation of a civilization of which the old mill and fort were the pioneers. The Place Viger Hotel is built in the quaint style of the P^ench Renaissance,partaking of the type of the old chateaux f