Note: The article has been pruned by me!

We give below a series of interesting paragraphs relating to this part of the country, which will be found interesting and valuable information. These letters were written by the Rev S Massie, of Montreal , father-in-law of Mr Henry Taylor, Hardware Merchant, of Perth, who was lately on a trip to this town.

Smith's Falls

This is a pretty little town and should have a more sensible and appropriate name. Its falls are as pretty as the town and suggest to you the idea of a Niagara in miniature. The town is but of yesterday and is rapidly rising to a place of some importance. Its staple mainly consists in lumber, woollen cloth mills, and the manufacture of various kinds of machines. It has a good hotel. Five Protestant churches and one Roman Catholic, with an excellent public school building, which is a credit to the town, and no doubt a great boon to the rising generation of the neighbourhood. This population is now about two thousand. We spent some little time pleasantly there and were kindly and hospitably entertained by a friend. The Baptists are erecting a substantial stone church with tour and spire.

Perth

This place stands a few miles distant from the R & O Railway, and is reached by a branch line already alluded to. It is an old and well built town containing a population of nearly three thousand. It has quite a number of large and excellent stores of various kinds, and although not very progressive as far as the population is concerned, it does a large and flourishing business with the surrounding country districts. The Town Hall and Court House are really fine stone buildings; the former contains a good lecture or concert hall and council room and a public lending library for both sexes.There are five protestant churches and one roman catholic but from what we saw and heard, we inferred that there is room for improvement in the Sunday School and temperance work especially in the latter. The Perth people do not forget the Fourth Commandment; they are evidently a Sabbath-keeping and church-going people; to a city man the quiet of their Sabbath is refreshing. There are two first class hotels and some pleasant suburban villas and good roads branching out in various directions.

Public School and Jail

We were kindly shown through the jail and were glad to find only eight inmates, and six of these were aged and infirm persons and lunatics; one of the other two we learned, from his own lips, was incarcerated because he was unable to pay a one dollar tax for something or other. He had a large family he said, and could not pay it at the time, and was so locked up in jail. The eighth prisoner was a young man who was imprisoned, and it served him right, for abusing a horse. Although they have no Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, they have the power, and we are glad to find that they exercise it, to arrest and imprison those who abuse them. The jail is a solid stone building, remarkably clean, cells well ventilated, and the whole seemingly well adapted and well situated for such an institution, especially if they could find anybody deserving of imprisonment to put into it, for it is more of a poorhouse than a prison.

It is a good sign that while the prison is empty the school-house is full. The public school has two departments; the high school and the common school departments combined had an average attendance last year of upwards of three hundred and fifty scholars, with eight teachers.We had the pleasure of visiting the school, and of addressing a few words of counsel to the scholars of one of the departments.On the whole Perth, with its good hotels, surrounding lakes and healthy situation is a pleasant place to visit.

The Lakes

The surrounding country abounds with small silvery lakes, beautifully embroidered with bush, shrubs and trees in great variety, and abounding with fish, chiefly pike and bass. ..If these lovely rural waters now buried in solitude were more known, they would be more visited by the "upper ton" of our large cities.

The Mines

After a drive of a dozen miles through a well cultivated district, dotted over with farm buildings and school-houses, the latter well situated, substantial, presenting a clean light appearance to the eye of a stranger, we come to the mining district.The one we visited is owned by an English company and is a Phosphate mine; considerable quantities of this article were lying ready for shipment to England where it will be used for agricultural purposes.

The Country

In our vacation rambles we passed through many miles of farming districts. In those parts we heard no complaints from the farmers, except that the crops were hardly above the average, June being a warm, dry month; at that time they expected very short crops, but the rains that fell in the early part of July quite revived them, so they are having generally a very fair harvest. Cheese factories in those parts are doing quite a large business. They are too a great convenience to the farmers; they put large vessels by the road side which are filled with milk, morning and evening, and the cheese makers send round for them. In this convenient way the farmers dispose of their milk. A very large and profitable business in cheese is now carried on between England and Canada . There are seven cheese factories in the vicinity of Perth, making this season about 1,500 cheeses each, valued at $56,000.

Sources:

The Perth Courier (newspaper from Perth Town, Ontario)