Sunday Mg. 21/2/15

My dearest Wife

It is just 8 OC. & we have only arrived here, we have had a great trip, at every town right across Canada we had a reception, there were crowds at every station & sometimes they had a band out, we had a march out at Swift Current, Winnipeg, & Ottawa, at the last place we marched to the Parliament buildings & were inspected by the Duke of Connaught, he said that we were a fine body of men & that he was very well pleased with our appearance, there must have been thousands of people there & the crowd was so thick that we could hardly get through, the rest of the Battalion were in two trains in front of us, we were last, but we all got together again at Ottawa, when we started off there were quite a few left behind & we had to wait outside Montreal till they came up in another train.

The first two days out were pretty rough as a lot of the boys wanted to get out at every station for a drink, of course, the officers would not allow this, so they started asking civilians to bring them bottles, of course some got in, but we managed to keep the most of it out, I was put in charge of this car with 54 men in it & I had quite a time of it till we got settled down. Campbell had quite a scrap at Medicine Hat with the police, he got some man to bring him a bottle of whiskey & a policeman saw the bottle & seized it, Andy got mad & hit him so they put him under arrest & put the handcuffs on him & put him in the baggage car for all night, he has been very good since.

We are going to detrain in a few minutes for the boat & I have to roll my blankets and coat so I will have to close as I have not much time, I would have written before only the train rocked so much it was next to impossible to write, we dont know how soon the boats will sail, but if I get a chance I will write again befor we go. I have assigned $1750 a month of my pay to you, dating from the first of March & you will probably get this at the same time you get the Govt money.

Kiss my little George & Eileen for me, dear, & with very best love & kisses to yourself I remain, your loving Husband.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Jack