DOI Heft:
No. 30 (September, 1895)
DOI Artikel:Goodhue, Bertram Grosvenor: Quebec as a sketching ground
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17294#0222
Quebec as a Sketching Ground
or two of those on the outskirts of the throng to must be, to be sure), and under their guidance I
look pleasant for me, cinq sous pour cinq minutes, have seen things I should surely have passed over
and even at this ruinous rate they were always out if left to my own devices, such as short cuts up ap-
of pose directly a possible customer came wihtin parently sheer precipices and the like. Octave and
hailing or grabbing distance. Besides, there was Emile are their names, and we have grown to be
too much going on about me to allow of undivided quite good friends, so much so that I can now rely
attention to work on my own part. The crowd on finding them whenever I want them. There was
rushing to and fro was composed of all sorts and one other man whose French I was able to under-
conditions of men—clerics, nuns, old men in soft stand. He was a tailor, of whom I inquired my way
felt hats and velvet coats, gamins galore, and an as he stood in his shop-door. Just then a child ran
occasional Tommy Atkins in all the glory of his up to him and he spoke to it in French. Strange
red coat, fatigue-cap, and slender cane. Later on to relate, I understood what he said perfectly, and
the whole town will be infested with uniforms, but ventured to compliment him on it, saying, " You
at this hour only a few are to be seen. Nor are speak better French than the others." " Of course,
the upper classes very prevalent as yet, for it is I am a Dutchman," he replied calmly,
the hour of trade and nothing
else, and all the maids and
cooks of the faubourg are here
haggling and cozening with the
rest. It is but rarely that they
get the better of the old habit-
ant women, I fancy, for from
beneath the broad brim of the
straw bonnets peer many keen
eyes—usually small, shrewd, and
grey, though kindly withal.
The jargon is of all kinds too
—some English, of course, but
mostly French of an incompre-
hensible kind. I had supposed
my stock of Gallic capable of
taking me through France itself,
but here, within a few hundred
miles of my own home, I found
myself utterly at a loss, nor have
I improved, except in so far as
to start my vocabulary all over
again. For instance, I had
always supposed thatfroid meant
cold, but here they say frette
(Heaven only knows how they
spell it, but this is the way it
sounds), and as in this case, so
with all other words apparently.
Finally, I fell in with two
urchins, in Sous le Cap, the
most deliriously picturesque and
dirtily delightful street in the
town, who bore the locally his- P Qj, , »
toric name of Vaudreil. These WWU^
two seemed to comprehend my w^^Jk..^ . iJkJr' XK
feeble efforts in their lingo 0 ^
better than any one else (what
well-educated young men they
20 •
or two of those on the outskirts of the throng to must be, to be sure), and under their guidance I
look pleasant for me, cinq sous pour cinq minutes, have seen things I should surely have passed over
and even at this ruinous rate they were always out if left to my own devices, such as short cuts up ap-
of pose directly a possible customer came wihtin parently sheer precipices and the like. Octave and
hailing or grabbing distance. Besides, there was Emile are their names, and we have grown to be
too much going on about me to allow of undivided quite good friends, so much so that I can now rely
attention to work on my own part. The crowd on finding them whenever I want them. There was
rushing to and fro was composed of all sorts and one other man whose French I was able to under-
conditions of men—clerics, nuns, old men in soft stand. He was a tailor, of whom I inquired my way
felt hats and velvet coats, gamins galore, and an as he stood in his shop-door. Just then a child ran
occasional Tommy Atkins in all the glory of his up to him and he spoke to it in French. Strange
red coat, fatigue-cap, and slender cane. Later on to relate, I understood what he said perfectly, and
the whole town will be infested with uniforms, but ventured to compliment him on it, saying, " You
at this hour only a few are to be seen. Nor are speak better French than the others." " Of course,
the upper classes very prevalent as yet, for it is I am a Dutchman," he replied calmly,
the hour of trade and nothing
else, and all the maids and
cooks of the faubourg are here
haggling and cozening with the
rest. It is but rarely that they
get the better of the old habit-
ant women, I fancy, for from
beneath the broad brim of the
straw bonnets peer many keen
eyes—usually small, shrewd, and
grey, though kindly withal.
The jargon is of all kinds too
—some English, of course, but
mostly French of an incompre-
hensible kind. I had supposed
my stock of Gallic capable of
taking me through France itself,
but here, within a few hundred
miles of my own home, I found
myself utterly at a loss, nor have
I improved, except in so far as
to start my vocabulary all over
again. For instance, I had
always supposed thatfroid meant
cold, but here they say frette
(Heaven only knows how they
spell it, but this is the way it
sounds), and as in this case, so
with all other words apparently.
Finally, I fell in with two
urchins, in Sous le Cap, the
most deliriously picturesque and
dirtily delightful street in the
town, who bore the locally his- P Qj, , »
toric name of Vaudreil. These WWU^
two seemed to comprehend my w^^Jk..^ . iJkJr' XK
feeble efforts in their lingo 0 ^
better than any one else (what
well-educated young men they
20 •