Peruse her biography:

From Summit To Sea:
Emily Rides The Iron Horse (1886)

Sir John A. MacDonald built a nation on political cunning, shear nerve, and lots of single malt scotch.

Eighteen eighty-six could rightly be called "The Year of the Locomotive" in Canada's history. The Canadian Pacific Railway – an unparalleled feat of engineering that spanned the continent – had just been completed (November 7, 1885), and regular passenger service was underway between Montreal and Port Moody, British Columbia. That summer none other than Prime Minister John A. MacDonald, a founding father of confederation and Canada's first Prime Minister, took the train to the Pacific Coast. It was John A.'s first opportunity to actually see the great country he had helped build. Upon boarding the train, John A. also set another first by being the first CPR transcontinental passenger to utter the immortal words, "Which way to the bar car?" In London, Ontario, Emily Chesley was emerging from the ennui and four years of self- impose seclusion she had entered after the unfortunate death of Lars Horstadt in the Victoria disaster (See A Woman Of Means). During this time she also developed many of her opinions of politics and sexuality that would guide her prolific writing career in the years ahead (See the Dark Side Of The Moon). It was an ideal time for Emily to step out, to become engaged once again in the world outside of her Princess Avenue home. The opportunity came to her via her uncle Michael Flannigan.

"The Prime Minister needs you," said Flannigan one morning over strong breakfast tea. "My Dear, you must away to Toronto at once."

The prolific inventor explained that he had created a device to help the Prime Minister in his planned journey to the Western shore. As most students of Canadian history know, many of Sir John A's greatest achievements were fueled by copious amounts of single malt scotch. It has been said that it is good that we remember the things that John A MacDonald did because, quite frankly, he didn't remember much of it himself. (He often spoke of "that thing I allegedly did in Charlottetown") What is not generally known is that while the Prime Minister could be effective while both drunk and sober, it was the bits in between that were a problem. A hung over John A was pretty near useless as he would merely moan, clutch his head, and occasionally have to flee from the room shouting "Aach the sluices be open a' both ends. Make way! Make way!"

John Penn E. Grubber, a longtime member of MacDonald's inner circle and an acquaintance of Michael Flannigan, sent the inventor an urgent dispatch. "For God's sake Michael. Help us. We are going to be meeting Indians on this trip. Indians! They may not understand." In the 1880s west, such "misunderstandings" could lead to deadly trouble.

Basing his work on the theory held by all hung over men that a brisk walk in some fresh air would, somehow, make everything better; Flannigan devised the "Forced Air Sobriety Throne". The FAST consisted of a seat attached to a crate that could be fastened to the cowcatcher of a locomotive. The inebriated gentleman could be brought forward from the bar car and placed on the seat literally on the front of the train. As the gentleman regained consciousness the stiff and steady wind created by the locomotive plowing ahead at full steam would force cool fresh air into the lungs as well as the very pours of the skin. Sobriety would come quickly with this strong dash of freshness.

Much to her annoyance, Emily Chesley (center in white) was one of only two women allowed to join Sir John A. MacDonald (far right) on his CPR trip across Canada. The other woman was MacDonald's wife Agnes.

"Uncle Michael's proposed solution to the Prime Minister's troubles has great merit," wrote Emily. "I told him I'd be most pleased to carry his invention to the Prime Minister. I am most excited by the opportunity to see the prairie lands of my youth. I am also interested in discussing the future of the franchise for women with the Prime Minister!"

Emily's enthusiasm was short-lived, however, for when she boarded the train she was greeted not by the Prime Minister but by a manservant who lead her to the ladies car. There she would spend nearly the entire trip while, further back, the men drank whiskey and smoked cigars in the bar car. The Prime Minister, assorted MPs, and various hangers on, were feeling quite triumphant on this trip. After years of difficult work – not to mention a major political scandal – the transcontinental had been completed. That troublesome Riel fellow had also been dealt with as well. The west was now open for colonization by the sons and daughters of Ontario – safe obedient types who would never feel alienated or complain of exploitation by the East. As the scotch flowed freely, the inhabitants of the bar car took to mooning the scant few settlers and aboriginal peoples that they happened upon along the tracks. Thus began the long tradition, still practiced to this day, of Ottawa politicians making obscene jesters and waving body parts from CPR rail cars as they make their way across Western Canada.

While all of this was going on Emily, and another woman passenger, were expected to practice needlepoint and enjoy the passing scenery. The other woman, Emily soon learned, was none other than Lady Agnes MacDonald, the wife of the Prime Minister.

Little is known of Agnes other than she was a very reserved woman. Her journals provide scant information about her life with John A. (They barely even mention that he was Prime Minister.) Nonetheless Emily was able to strike up a warm friendship with Agnes as they whiled the days away in the forward car. There time was made somewhat bearable through the intersession of a bar car steward – a Norwegian immigrant named Bjen Hoffenhardt – who saw to the women's needs and regularly smuggling them spirits. Emily was especially fond of Bjen who she felt was of finer stuff than the boorish cigar puffers at the back of the train. Many have suggested that affection for the Norwegian was an inspiration in later years for Emily's 1912 poem Lars of the Bar Car. As the days passed Emily told Agnes more of her theories. At first the demur Agnes was appalled but she was also fascinated and listened intently.

The day came when Emily was finally summoned to the nether regions of the transcontinental. She arrived in the smoke-filled car to find the prime minister wearing a napkin holder like a tiara on his balding pate and otherwise quite incapacitated. "He'll be meeting with the mucky mucks in Calgary tomorrow morning, poor sot," offered a woozy Grubber. "We'll be needin' your uncle's device."

The Mayor and town council of Calgary were anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Prime Minister when the FAST incident occurred.

Emily breathed a curse but agreed to help. The train was halted and by a bright full moon Emily installed the Forced Air Sobriety Throne on the cowcatcher. It took four burley gentlemen to install the Prime Minister on the throne. Later that morning, as rosy- fingered dawn lit the eastern sky, the Prime Minister of Canada awoke to find himself hurtling across the prairie with the wind rifling through his hair, a morning chill reddening his cheek. They say the whoops of delight could be heard for a hundred miles across the barren prairie. "I'm the king of the world!" the PM is said to have cried leaning forward and spreading his arms.

But then something bad happened. While Flannigan's invention did help the Prime Minister, it did not completely cure his troubles. Flannigan also had not accounted for the fact that a man traveling at the front of a locomotive doing 60 miles per hour could catch up to his own projectile vomit. The engineer, noting some rather foul flotsam streaming across the boiler, panicked and hit the brakes. The sudden squealing deceleration of the train would have sent the Prime Minister hurtling to his death if it wasn't for the safety belt that Flannigan had thoughtfully installed. Unfortunately the sudden pelvic jerking proved to the Prime Minister that the sluices were indeed open at both ends. The Prime Minister of Canada was a mess.

Needless to say, Emily never got her audience with the Her Majesty's Prime Minister of Canada. In fact, she was lucky not to be thrown off the train at that point. But the story does not end here. Between Calgary and Laggan (now Lake Louise) Agnes pondered her conversations with Emily and arrived at the decision that it was time to make a bold assertion of her individuality and move, if even for a short time, out from under the shadow of her husband. She announced that she would ride the cowcatcher and succeed where he had failed.

Agnes MacDonald, the first FAST woman.

"Y're crazy woman," protested John A. "Get ye back to the ladies car!"

"Oh blow it out yer kilt, y'bleedin' Glasgow piss tank," rejoined Agnes, emboldened somewhat by a fifth of rum passed to her earlier by Hoffendhardt. "I shall travel on this cowcatcher from summit to sea."

And that is exactly what she did. Unlike her husband who had his experience on open prairie, Agnes ride took her over the treacherous Kicking Horse pass, on a grade of 4.5 percent (twice the safety limit). It was not unlike riding a roller coaster atop a skyscraper. "With a mighty snort, a terribly big throb, and a shrieking whistle, No. 347 moves slowly forward. ...," wrote Agnes. "Then we are rushing up to the summit. We soon stand on the Great Divide . . . then with steam shut off and brakes down the 60-ton engine glides into the pass of the Kicking Horse! We rush onward through the vast valley before us. There is beauty everywhere, and I laugh aloud on the cowcatcher, just because it is all so delightful."

In the town of Field, British Columbia, they still talk of the day the big black engine No. 347 came screaming down the "Big Hill" with the hooting woman perched on its cowcatcher. Emily Chesley, who played such a pivotal role in this event, is strangely absent from most historical accounts. Some say that it was simply that Emily, proud of Agnes's achievement, simply did not want to intrude on the spotlight. A more likely explanation is that, after the embarrassment of the Prime Minister's ride on the FAST, Emily sought solace from a sympathetic shoulder. While all the excitement was going on up front, Hoffenhardt was pleasing Emily in the caboose.