The Icelandic Canadian - 01.04.1988, Page 23

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
21
Just north of the railroad tracks, opposite
the station, were heaps of coal and east of
them stood stacks of lumber and firewood,
and all around were those strange-looking
shanties and those little, white, striped or
brown tents. But south on Main Street and
also on Princess and King Streets could be
seen tall buildings, some built of bricks,
others of lumber, some finished and others
still under construction.
Thus did Winnipeg appear to me when
I first arrived there. This enchanting city of
my day dreams, this lovely Eldorado which
I had built in my many visions of a brilliant
future, was after all, no more imposing
than this. However, she was big for her age,
spreading over all the land between the
Red and the Assiniboine rivers, from Kil-
donan to Armstrong Point, reaching her
fingers into the western prairie, striding
giant steps in the direction of prosperity
and progress and giving good expectations
of being, in time, a large and beautiful city.
Those expectations have already been ful-
filled, and more than that. Who could have
believed, in the spring of 1883, that after
scarcely thirty years, Winnipeg would be-
come what she is today?
A few minutes after I stepped out of the
railway coach, all my fellow passengers
had disappeared. None of them was Ice-
landic, as far as I could tell. I was surely the
only Icelander who arrived in Winnipeg
that day. Some of the people walked into
town with friends and relatives who had
come to meet them. Some were taken away
in cabs, but most of them left with the
drivers from the various hotels. When a
train was expected, these drivers were sta-
tioned right against the west end of the
train station and, as soon as the train ar-
rived, they moved to the sidewalk on the
north side and shouted continually, each
competing with the others. One named
this hotel, and another that, as loudly as
their voices allowed. I remember that
some of the hotels have since changed their
names or have ceased to exist, for example:
the Grand Union Hotel, Hasting’s House,
Davis House and the Gable Hotel.
Now I was the only one left of all the
travellers. I peered in every direction, try-
ing to see some woman who might look
like an Icelander, but no woman was to be
seen. The few women who had been stand-
ing on the station platform when I arrived
had now all disappeared. My cousin had
certainly not been among them. To be sure,
I had never seen her but I had often heard
her described and did not doubt that I
would recognize her if I saw her. I had
been told she was short, with thick blonde
hair and a fair-sized dimple on her chin. It
seemed to me that this should be sufficient
for me to recognize her. And she should be
able to recognize me because I had a large
scar on my left cheek and was tall for my
age, though rather slim and rawboned.
Some minutes passed. Still my cousin
did not appear and I began to think of
asking the station agent to point out an
Icelander to me. If I could just talk to an
Icelander, I was sure I could find my cousin.
I did not know the name of the street she
lived on or the number of her house for she
had never mentioned them in her letters.
Anyway, except for certain streets, there
were no numbers on the houses in Winni-
peg. But I knew that my cousin’s house
was on Point Douglas close to the river.
Just as I was going to talk to the station
agent, I noticed a little woman walking
towards me along the railway track from
the east. She walked briskly and energeti-
cally and swayed a little and threw out her
right arm occasionally, as if she was warn-
ing someone away. As she came nearer, I
saw that she had light hair which was just
beginning to gray. There was a tiny dimple
on her chin and some wrinkles on her
cheeks. Her eyes were large and clear, with
many lines in the corners. She appeared to
be about fifty. I knew immediately that she
was my cousin, Solrun. She walked directly