Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 November 1884 — A City of Pretty Girls. [ARTICLE]

A City of Pretty Girls.

“There are no homely girls in Quebec,” a native-born Canadian said to a visitor to the ancient citidel city of Canada.,, “I.have often stood at a window and watched for one in the throng parsing on the sidewalks, but I have never yet seen a Quebec girl who could be described as ugly. I do not claim that they are all absolutely beautiful, but there is something in the clear, invigorating air, and perhaps in the soil and surroundings of ,'Shis doftv and rocky city, that gives them sparkling eyes brilliant complexions, and elaatic-

ity of step. Montreal is full of pi otty women, but Quebec can beat her in that respect. Have you noticed- how easily our Quebec girls climb the steep city streets? When they are ascending a sidewalk that slopes upward at an apparent angle of 30 degrees, they don’t seem to mind it. They don’t lag, they donlt get out of breath, they don’t from one side of the walk to the other. They just go up as light and gracefully as any lady can walk across a parlor floor. You can't do it and keep pace with them, unless you’ve been brought up here. They’d tire you out before you got half way from Breakneck steps to Dufferine terrace. The,exercise they get is partly tho secret of their good looks. “Then there’s another thing that helps. They’re out of doors half the time. On a pleasant evening, the terrace, ‘that broad plank promenade which stretches for a quarter of a mile along the top of the precipice under the brow of Cape Diamond, is crowded with them, strolling in pairs and groups, chatting, laughing, and perhaps flirting a little, You don’t mind that, do you? No. Well, look what a pleasant ground ft is. Two hundred feet above the waters of the i St. Lawrence, and facing one of the very finest views in the world, as everybody admits, which extends from Point Levi down the river to Cape Tourment, and from the gorge of Montmorenci far back among tho Laurantian mountains. You can’t blame U 3 Quebeckers for being proud of it. And there’s where the Quebec girls breath the pure air that puts roses in their cheeks and the snap into their eyes. Yes, sir; steep streets and plenty of fresh air, and, perhaps, the subtle influence of a world-famous landscape, form the chief secret of the beauty of our girls.”