When
the annexation spirit was rife in Canada, away back in the forties, Hugh B.
Wilson was editor of a newspaper called The Independent, published in Hamilton.
He was a rank annexationist, and his only idea of prosperity and happiness in
this world was to sunder the ties that bound this country to Great Britain, and
for Canada to transfer its allegiance to the United States. Robert F. Nelles
was postmaster at Grimsby, and he was as loyal a man as ever sang God Save the
Queen. He had no patience with the editor of The Independent, and at times, was
very free in the expression of his sentiments. The Independent had not much
circulation, so that its power for good or evil was not felt in the community,
but there was a paper called The Courier, the organ of the Church of England,
which was the fly in the ointment of the ultra loyalists of that communion.
Things got to be pretty hot, and the bitterness resulted in a newspaper
correspondent charging Postmaster Nelles with intercepting the annexation
papers passing through the mails and destroying them. The editors of The
Independent and of The Courier joined in the attack on the postmaster, and this
brought into the newspaper fight every man and woman in Grimsby who could write
a letter for publication. In those long ago days, the writer who could sling
the greater number of Latin quotations, such as “quot homines, tot
sentationes,” thought he had the advantage of the fellow who could only quote
“Hinc illac lachrymae.” However, the postmaster vanquished his annexation
enemies and held on to his job till he took the final tri[ to the village
churchyard. The old files of The Independent would be a literary fortune for
Jim Livingstone. The Wilsons were a prominent family in Grimsby sixty years
ago.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Those of our subscribers who propose
paying for the Spectator in firewood are requested to take advantage of the
good roads and cold weather to bring it in.”
The above appeared in the Spectator in
December, 1847. The paper was published semi-weekly, and the subscription price
$4 a year, and it took about two cords of good wood to pay for one year. Cash
was scarce with the farmers in those days, as it was with those living in town,
and nearly all business was done on the system of barter, especially with the
printers. A merchant advertising or having job printing done expected that the
printer would take the price out in trade; and the hands who worked in the
offices were often glad to take store orders for part of the small wagers paid
to them. The newspaper publishers of the present day know little of the
hardships that were the lot of old-time editors, especially in the country
towns. Indeed it is only of late years that a farmer ever thought of paying
cash for his paper, and when firewood was plentiful, the editor had to take the
firewood the farmer couldn’t sell or burn, because it was so soggy and rotten.
Now and then a few tough old hens or a turkey that had raised numberless broods
of young turks and had passed its days of usefulness, would be brought in to
the editor; and if fruit or vegetables were extra plentiful and there was no
market for them, then was the time for the thoughtful farmer to call at the
office and settle for his paper. The country editors of Canada could give some
interesting items along that line even in these opening years of the twentieth
century. It was not till along toward the sixties that the Hamilton papers were
independent enough to demand cash for their papers instead of taking soggy wood
and garden sass.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In an old paper, published in 1849, we
find an item of rather ancient history. Once upon a time, there lived over in
the neighboring republic, one Morgan who had the unsavory reputation of writing
a pamphlet exposing the secrets of the Masonic order. It created a great furor
at the time, and entered not only into politics in the state of New York, but
was a disturbing factor in communities and in business circles. Morgan came
over into Canada to get away from the wrath of his brethren, but even here he
could not escape from his Masonic Nemesis. He was arrested on a charge of
larceny, from whence he was secretly carried off. Justin Chipman was the first
witness called in the trails relating to Morgan. The item before us tells of
the death of Justice Chipman at the age of 60 years, on the 18th of
November, 1849.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
At the January term (1850) of the
court of quarter sessions, George Roach was the foreman of the grand jury, and
in the final report of the jury to the court, the jail was declared to be a
nuisance and the cells unhealthy, and a disgrace to the district. But this was
only a repetition of such presentments by the grand jury, and while the judges
added their recommendations, the County council paid no attention whatsoever to
either judge or jury. George Roach was then a young man, and Hamilton was a
young city, but he has seen great changes in the past half century. He
remembered when the city hospital was an old two story frame building at the
base of the mountain, somewhere about the head of Walnut street, and where the accommodations
were so meager that patients preferred to suffer rather than be taken there. He
can remember when the city and county prisons were a disgrace to the civilized
world, when Bailiff McCracken had no other place than underground, damp cells,
under what is now the King William street fire station, for the unfortunates
who had violated law or who had tarried too long at the saloon bar; and when
the county jail, not only in Hamilton but all over Canada, was unfit for even
the vilest criminals. What a change has taken place in our civilization!
Hamilton has one of the finest-equipped hospitals in Canada, and under the
management of Mr. Roach and men like him, who have devoted their time and
energies to alleviating suffering, our hospital is a credit to the humanity of
the twentieth century. And what a change has taken place in the management of
our prisons! Grand juries and judges do not now have to formulate presentments
against couty councils for neglect of duty or parsimony in providing for the
care and comfort of those restrained of liberty because they are a menace to
society. Probably Mr. Roach is the only surviving member of that grand jury,
and it is doubtful if more than two or three of the attorneys who practiced before
the courts in those days are now living.
------------------------------------------------------------------
In an old copy of the Hamilton Gazette,
the editor of which was H. B. Bull, we find an account of the second ball given
by the Masonic fraternity in Hamilton. As the editor was a member of the mystic
craft, he devoted nearly half a column to a description of the guests and the
decorations, and to complimentary mention of Kelk and Hallet’s orchestra. The
ball was given in Weeks hotel, which was located midway in the block on the
north side of King, between Catharine and Mary streets, on the evening of
January 10, 1850, and over six hundred guests were in attendance. It was the
social event of the season, and everybody fortunate enough to receive an
invitation availed themselves of the privilege. Sir Allan Macnab was the
provincial grand master, and when he entered the ballroom, the members of the
order formed in open column and the master of ceremonies conducted the gallant
knight to the seat of honor, after which the brethren marched and made their
saluatations; and when the dancing began, Sir Allan and lady led off in the
Triumph. The dawn of a winter’s morning began to break before the party ended.
Newspapers did not have lady society editors in those days, and here is a man’s
description of the toilets : “the dresses worn by the ladies were beautiful,
rich, and, of course, fashionable – so much so that the fact was the subject of
remark in many quarters. A goodly number of the ladies, too, with much good
taste, wore sashes, rosettes or other tokens, either of blue or red, in compliment
to the members of the order – those colors being emblematic ones of the lodge.”
Turn a modern society reporter upon a gorgeous affair like that of the Masonic
ball of nearly fifty-four years ago, and every woman in town would have need in
the next morning’s edition a full description of the toilets worn.
--------------------------------------------------------------
The complaint against fast driving in
the streets seems to be chronic. Far away back in 1850, the Spectator devoted
an editorial to it. The editor tells of a respectable inhabitant being run
against by a team turning the corner of King and Catharine streets: “and we
regret to add that the unfortunate pedestrian was immediately knocked down and
run over, receiving some severe injuries, both internal and external. So
serious was the shock, and so dreadfully injured was the man that his medical
attendant despaired of his life.” The same story is frequently told in the
newspapers of the present day, and yet there seems to be no effort to protect
people who must walk in the streets. The boy drivers of delivery wagons take a
pride in seeing how near they can come to running people down at a crossing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Once upon a time, more than half a
century ago, the citizens of Toronto got up a lottery scheme to build a
railroad from Toronto to Simcoe and Huron, touching at Holland Landing and
Barrie, under the corporate title of the Toronto, Simcoe and Huron Railroad Union
company, with a capital of $2,000,000. The price of tickets was $20 each, and
the allotments of stock ranged from $100,000 down to a single share worth $20.
The ticket holders had about one chance in five to draw a prize. The prospectus
set forth that every class of the community in Canada and the United States
should be interested in this great enterprise, for it would give railway
communications across the Peninsula to the far west, connecting the lines from
New York and Boston to Oswego, thus rendering the northern route by Toronto to
the Western states shorter by several hundred miles than any other, the distance
across the Peninsula being only about 80 miles, thus avoiding the circuitous
and dangerous route by Lake Erie and the southern shore of Lake Huron. This
great gambling scheme was authorized by an act of the Provincial Parliament and
sanctioned by the royal ascent of Her Majesty in Privy Council, July 30, 1849.
The better class of Canadian newspapers denounced the scheme as demoralizing.
Lotteries were common in those days, and the gullible poor invested their money
in tickets in the hope of drawing a prize.
------------------------------------------------------------------
The same spirit of gambling prevails
today, and it is about the same class that keeps it up. It has got to such a
point that the managers of large concerns have been compelled to issue orders
against their employees engaging in gambling in any form, either in club rooms,
in the bucket shops or betting on the ponies. There are but few successful
gamblers in any community, and these are the men to whom the hundreds of
unsuccessful ones must pay tribute. Once let the spirit of gambling take
possession of a man and he will bet on any and everything, from the price of a
bushel of grain to a horse race, and the less he knows about the produce market
or the speed of the horses, the more determined he seems to be to bet on the
outcome. There are scores of men who work hard everyday to support the keepers
of the bucket shops and bookmakers in luxury, and the winning of a trifle now
and then only makes them keener to indulge in the game. There is no effort made
to suppress that class of gambling or to close up the poker rooms, but let a
fellow shoot craps and the whole power of the law is enforced.
----------------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment