A great sleepiness
lies on Vancouver
as compared with an American town:
men don't fly
up and down streets
telling lies
and the spittoons
in the delightfully comfortable hotel
are unused;
the baths are free
and their doors are unlocked ....
I thank God for it.
Give me hewn granite... and peace....
All that Vancouver wants
is a far earthwork fort
upon a hill --
there are plenty of hills --
a selection of big guns,
a couple of regiments of infantry,
and later a big arsenal....
It is not seemly
to leave unprotected
the head-end
of a big railway;
for though Victoria and Esquimalt,
our naval stations,... are very near,
so also is... Vladivostok.

- Rudyard Kipling, from From Sea to Sea, ch. XXVIII; Complete Works, Doubleday, vol. 18, pp. 46-47. Arranged by Earle Birney.

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