Semi-Centennial Reminiscences of the Sault Canal (Lake Superior) 1852-5 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1905 Excerpt: ...his good character so well certified to, came over her, and she had told Patrick, like all her suitors, once and for always, that she would never be known otherwise than as the widow of Michael Phelan. Again came the tears as a tribute to his memory, with the remark that in case I heard she was to be married I would know to the contrary in advance. The widow dropped in very quietly at my office at a later date, and when energetic measures were taken which nipped in the bud an impending strike, many were the surmises where I had obtained the information upon which to act. Its value to my principals, under circumstances too intricate to be detailed here, could hardly be overestimated. But the time arrived when the last gang of workmen were finally paid off, and a settlement of the widow's account showed over $600 to her credit. When handing it to her, I said, "No doubt you will take this snug sum and return to Montreal and open a nice boarding-house?" "Oh, no," said she, "when this canal is opened, business must go to the other end of the lake, and I am going with it to a place they call Superior City and have engaged my passage by the next boat " All that I had to say about the risks and hardships involved was wasted, and before the canal was officially opened by the State, the widow who could not read her passage ticket was pushing on five hundred miles farther to anticipate its commercial effect Two or more years passed, when I paid a tourist's visit to the then "booming" settlement of Superior City, and was walking with a friend along its wooden sidewalks, when I was startled by having my own name called by someone behind me, and on turning about, saw the widow of Michael Phelan in a calico wrapper on her knees, wi...