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[Illustration: ACROSS THE PRAIRIE
F.H.E. HASELL]
ACROSS THE PRAIRIE IN A MOTOR CARAVAN
[Illustration: THE CANADIAN DOMINION IN DIOCESES
_By permission of S.P.G._ _Frontispiece_]
ACROSS THE PRAIRIE
IN A MOTOR CARAVAN
A 3,000 MILE TOUR BY TWO ENGLISHWOMEN
ON BEHALF OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
BY
F. H. EVA HASELL
IN COLLABORATION WITH J. F. S.
WITH 18 ILLUSTRATIONS AND A MAP
LONDON
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE
NEW YORK AND TORONTO: THE MACMILLAN CO.
1922
TO
AYLMER BOSANQUET
WHOSE SELF-SACRIFICE, DEEP SPIRITUALITY,
AND FAR-SEEING VISION INSPIRED THIS VENTURE,
THIS BOOK IS LOVINGLY DEDICATED
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
LETTER FROM
HIS GRACE THE ARCHBISHOP
OF CANTERBURY.
Lambeth Palace,
London, S.E.
Dear Miss Hasell,
I happen to have read the proof sheets of the little book which is to
record the story of your work and Miss Ticehurst's in the prairie tracts
of Canada, and I should like to tell you how glad I am that the account
of these eventful journeyings should be accessible to the public. People
realise too little what are the opportunities and responsibilities of
pioneer days in those incomparable regions. The perseverance, the
indomitable energy, and the buoyant hope which your pages record and
inspire will have a place in the annals of that vast seed plot and
cradle of a great nation that is to be.
I am,
Yours very truly,
RANDALL CANTUAR.
_October 5th, 1922._
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE CALL OF THE PRAIRIE 1
II. PREPARATIONS AND DEPARTURE 7
III. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN THE U.S.A. AND CANADA 10
IV. LIFE IN A LITTLE PRAIRIE TOWN 17
V. IN REGINA 22
VI. THE MOTOR CARAVAN 28
VII. THE PRAIRIE TRAILS 33
VIII. FROM WINNIPEG TO REGINA 36
IX. SANDSTORMS AND SUNDAY SCHOOLS 42
X. ADVENTURES AND MISADVENTURES 51
XI. SOME ASPECTS OF PRAIRIE LIFE 55
XII. MISSIONS AND MUD HOLES 62
XIII. FURTHER PRAIRIE SKETCHES 71
XIV. A CAMPING TRIP IN THE ROCKIES 78
XV. ON THE RETURN JOURNEY 81
XVI. AMONG THE PRAIRIE FARMS 86
XVII. BACK TO REGINA 93
XVIII. AN INDIAN RESERVE 98
XIX. HEADED FOR HOME 100
XX. SOME PRESENT-DAY NEEDS OF THE PRAIRIE 104
APPENDIX 112
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
MAP OF THE CANADIAN DOMINION IN DIOCESES _Frontispiece_
THE CARAVAN AND HER CREW }
}
THE INTERIOR OF THE VAN } _Facing page_ 28
}
TIDYING UP }
}
A SHACK ON THE MOVE }
DIGGING OUT THE WHEEL }
}
THE TENT, AND MY ASSISTANTS AT LOREBURN }
}
HOUSEHOLD TASKS } " " 48
}
MR. M. AND HIS MOTOR-CYCLE ON THE RAIL }
WAY TRACK }
A PRAIRIE SCHOOL }
}
A MAPLE-LEAF TEACHER AND HER PUPILS }
}
PRAIRIE SCHOLARS } " " 71
}
A YOUNG HERDSMAN }
}
THE AVENUE AT BANFF, ALBERTA }
LAKE LOUISE }
}
LUMBER ON THE BOW RIVER }
}
SLINGING HAY INTO THE BARN } " " 80
}
THE CHURCH ON THE INDIAN RESERVE }
ACROSS THE PRAIRIE IN A MOTOR CARAVAN
CHAPTER I
THE CALL OF THE PRAIRIE
The diocese of Qu'Appelle, in the province of Saskatchewan, Western
Canada, is so named from the Indian story which tells of the maiden who
lay dying, calling piteously for her lover. He, far off in his canoe on
the Saskatchewan River, suddenly heard a voice, and answered:
"Qu'Appelle." The voice came again, and then he knew it for that of his
beloved, and made all speed to her side. But, alas! when he reached her
she was dead.
_Qu'Appelle_ is a suggestive title and indicative of the call which so
many have heard from the prairie provinces, a twofold call, urging some
to earthly and some to spiritual husbandry. Some account of the Western
Canada of to-day may be useful here.
The exigencies of life on the prairie tend to make men think rather of
building greater barns than of that day when their souls shall be
required of them. When a man with little capital takes up a prairie
"section" he is gambling with fortune, the welfare of his nearest and
dearest being at stake. At the same time it is a worthy venture, a
response to the age-old command to till the earth and subdue it; and it
is often the only way whereby a man may become his own master, a
landowner, and one who, in developing the treasures of the earth, adds
materially to the well-being of his fellows. For the wheat from the
prairies of Western Canada is the hardest and finest in the world.
The prospective settler buys a section (640 acres), a half or a quarter
section, as the case may be, and, helped by a loan from the Government
for the purchase of implements, ploughs and sows the virgin soil,
building a shack for himself and his family. The first three years are
touch and go. Drought in early summer or torrential storms in harvest
will effectually ruin the crops, but when once a good crop is raised the
profit is very satisfactory. The perils of drought and storm, however,
always remain, though with increasing capital the risk is lessened. The
life is one long wrestling-bout--man's brain and muscle pitted against
the forces of nature; but when he is victorious the reward is great.
It is a virile country peopled with virile men (for only the strong can
"make good" out there). But these men have already realised that man
cannot live by bread alone. Close to nature, man feels the presence of
God. The wide sweep of the prairie, enamelled with a thousand flowers or
gilded with the ripened corn; the vast dome of the sky; the glorious
sunsets and awful storms--all make men conscious of the power and might
and majesty of the Supreme Being. So that beneath the feverish search
for wealth there is a deep, if unrealised, thirst for the things of God.
But many of these sheep have been for years without a shepherd, and such
knowledge of religion as they once possessed has been choked by the
cares of this world; and their children--the men and women of the future
on whom so much depends--are growing up in many places without any
religious teaching at all. One result of this state of things is that
there is no Christian public opinion on which to start this new country.
It is even said that it is not unusual to hear men boast: "We cheat
others before they cheat us."
Another terrible result is that, unrestrained by spiritual forces, the
animal instincts have gained the upper hand and immorality is rife. In
the _Bulletin of Social Service in Saskatchewan_ for June 1, 1920,
under the heading: "Some Measures Urgently Needed," No. 10 runs: "Higher
standards in our laws regarding sex offences. Ours are the lowest in the
Empire, due to the Senate's repeated rejection of amending measures."
A disintegrating factor in the religious and moral life of Western
Canada is no doubt to be found in the mixture of races and the resultant
intermarriages. Almost every race and sect is represented. There are
about eighty different religions, including many eccentric and obscure
sects such as "Daniel's Band," "Doukhobors," and "Holy Rollers."
According to the census of 1916 the Christian churches in Saskatchewan
are numerically strong in the following order: Presbyterian, Roman
Catholic, Methodist, Anglican, Lutheran, Greek Church, Baptist. The
proportion of Anglicans has probably increased since then.
In 1910 the Archbishop of Rupertsland appealed to the Archbishops of
Canterbury and York to send out clergy to attend to the needs of the
numerous British settlers who were pouring into the country. (Between
1900 and 1920 one million two hundred and fifty thousand persons have
emigrated from Great Britain to Canada.) The Archbishops' Western Canada
Fund was the answer to this appeal. The cause interested me extremely,
and I became one of the collectors for the diocese of Carlisle. This
diocese raised L3,000 and built St. Cuthbert's Hostel in Regina, and
later raised another L1,000 towards the L50,000 needed for the endowment
of the Western Canada missions.
Three missions were started by the Fund in Edmonton, Southern Alberta,
and Saskatchewan respectively, but we are only concerned with the
latter. In this province many small towns had sprung up owing to the
great influx of immigrants (mostly British) and to the rapid railway
construction, while the surrounding prairie was dotted with isolated
farms and hamlets. It was with the special needs of these people that
the Regina Railway Mission had to deal. Accordingly, several clergy and
laymen went out from England, made the hostel at Regina their
headquarters, and visited the surrounding country. They lived in
one-roomed shacks, doing their own "chores," and often driving about
eighty miles on a Sunday in order to take four services a day. They
returned to the hostel once a quarter for spiritual refreshment, rest,
and discussion of their work with the head of the Mission and with each
other.
Meanwhile, a pioneer movement was on foot in the Old Country. At St.
Christopher's College, Blackheath, a specialised training in the matter
and method of religious education had been inaugurated for women
prepared to undertake this branch of social service. I was asked to
become Diocesan Sunday School Organiser for the diocese of Carlisle, and
went to train at St. Christopher's in 1914. There I met Miss Aylmer
Bosanquet and Miss Nona Clarke, and was naturally very interested to
find that these new acquaintances were anxious to go out to Regina and
do Sunday-school work in connection with the Railway Mission. A firm
friendship resulted from this common interest.
Aylmer Bosanquet's plan was to go out with Nona Clarke and live on the
prairie, working amongst the children and supplementing the work of the
clergy in any other possible way. She proposed to finance the expedition
entirely herself. At first the Secretary for the Archbishops' Western
Canada Fund was very dubious about accepting her generous offer, having
been out in Canada himself, and knowing that life in a prairie shack is
exceedingly hard for gently nurtured women. But Aylmer Bosanquet was so
urgent that at last she won the day, and she and Nona Clarke went out to
Regina in 1915. They established themselves at Kenaston, where they
lived in a three-roomed shack and did all their own work, even to the
grooming of the buggy horses.
The women missioners went up to Regina once a quarter, when the clergy
and laymen met to discuss their work. They brought valuable
contributions to the matter in hand. They had found great ignorance
amongst the children, some of whom did not even know the Lord's Prayer.
At their first Christmas they found several children who had never heard
of the birth of Christ. All that the holy season meant to them was
contained in the nursery legend of Father Christmas.
This ignorance is largely due to there being no Scripture teaching in
the public elementary schools, although there is a clause in the
Saskatchewan Education Act which says that the last half-hour of every
day may be given to Scripture teaching if the trustees are agreed.
Unfortunately, they seldom do agree in this matter, as they usually
belong to different religious bodies. Nor is there any religious
teaching in the collegiate schools (which correspond with English high
schools), even in Regina, the capital of the province. The following
answer was given by a collegiate girl in a secular examination: "When
William the Conqueror went to England he found no code of laws, and so
he drew up the Ten Commandments."
After about four years of strenuous work, Aylmer Bosanquet fell ill, and
was obliged to go into a nursing home at Toronto for a serious
operation. In the quiet time of convalescence her thoughts were busy
with the work so dear to her, and she began to consider the problem of
the many children in the enormous diocese of Qu'Appelle, who had no
Sunday school, and who could not be reached by rail or buggy from the
existing centres. She felt that the future of the Anglican Church in
Canada depended upon the religious training of these children, and an
idea came to her whereby these isolated places might be reached. Her
plan was that trained women should go out on to the prairie, two and
two, in caravans during the season when the trails are passable. They
would gather the children together and start Sunday schools, training
teachers to carry them on. In the winter they would return to some
central town, whence they would keep in touch with the quite isolated
children by means of the Sunday School by post. They would also lecture
locally and give demonstration lessons.
Many of these trained women would be needed if all the children on the
prairie were to be reached. It would be necessary at first to recruit
from England, but later it might be possible to develop a movement
already started, but which had had to be temporarily abandoned for lack
of a suitable head--namely, a training college for the Dominion of
Canada on the lines of St. Christopher's, Blackheath.
Aylmer Bosanquet wrote to me describing her new plan. She was very
anxious to see it in operation, for the diocese of Qu'Appelle alone
covers 92,000 square miles (about twice the size of England), and two
women, though with the best will in the world, could do comparatively
little in that immense area.
The project of caravanning on the prairie in the interests of religious
education appealed to me very strongly, and as Aylmer Bosanquet soon
afterwards came home to England to recuperate, we were able to discuss
the matter together. Her idea was to have a horse caravan which should
be moved on from place to place by the farmers. But as I have lived all
my life in an agricultural district, I knew the difficulties consequent
on wanting the use of farm horses in seed-time and harvest--the very
seasons when the trails are open--and I also knew that horses could
never cover the necessary distances. In my own diocesan work, which took
me to little out-of-the-way villages among the fells of Cumberland and
Westmorland, I had found it necessary to use a car, and I therefore felt
it would be best to have a motor caravan.
It would be worse than useless to take a motor-car on to the rough
prairie trails unless one had had long driving experience and done a
considerable amount of running repairs. To learn to drive one year and
to go out the next would probably mean finding yourself in a tight
corner. As I had been allowed to use our cars throughout the War, in
connection with my Sunday school work and a V.A.D. hospital, I had
fortunately gained a good deal of practical experience, especially as it
was necessary to drive in all weathers, day and night, over the steep
hills of the Lake District. When these hills were covered in ice your
car would run backwards or skid and come down sideways, and these
happenings were a useful preparation for the steep, sandy banks of the
trail, where the wheels could not grip. Then, too, as our chauffeur was
called up and mechanics were scarce, we had to do our own repairs.
The diocese having consented to my being absent for six months, I found
a substitute to carry on my work, and began my preparations for the
prairie tour.