1919-01-18

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Saturday Musings

Spectator January 18, 1919

                     PROSPEROUS OLD HAMILTON

“When the city council of Hamilton selected a young newspaper reporter as commissioner of industries, it hit the nail square on the head, for he not only goes out after things but once he gets a pointer he never lets up until he has accomplished something in the way of a ‘scoop’ that wakens the old town up. Mr. Kirkpatrick has just presented his first official report to city council of what has been accomplished during the year 1918; and it is so bright and cheery now that the war is over, and sweet peace has shaken out its wings, that one wonders at such growth and prosperity while the old world has been rocked from stem to center. What manufacturing growth this old town has made even in the past fifteen or twenty years! A few of us old-timers can remember when the industries comprised three or four stove foundries, with a bit of a machine shop on the side, one or two planning mills, and when nearly every workman carried his own kit of tools, for it was all hand work in those days. Printers, carpenters, brick layers, stone cutters and masons, molders, tailors, shoemakers and indeed all classes of tradesmen thought themselves rich if they earned a dollar and a half a day, and then got to take off Saturday and an order for the balance on some grocery or store for something to eat or clothes to wear. Now this same class of workmen drive their own motor cars, and turn up their noses if their envelope on pay day shows up less than five five-dollar bills at the very least. Well, the old-timers are glad to be able to congratulate the younger generation on the bright days in which they live, and may they continue.

“It does an old Hamiltonian’s heart good to read such a cheerful report as ‘Kirk’ made the other day. He tells us of more than fifty permits for new factories and additions to old ones, at a cost of over one million dollars. Why it makes us old fellows wonder if there ever was so much money in the world at any one time. It reminds this old Muser of an incident away back at the time of the panic in 1857, when Canada and the United States were in the slough of despond; business of all kinds was substantially at a standstill, and here in Hamilton hundreds of workmen were glad if they were only successful in securing work at half time. Money was very scarce, and that with a lack of steady employment was a pretty dark outlook. This old Muser decided that it was time to make a change, and we took Horace Greeley’s advice to go west and grow up with the country. We first went to Cleveland, Ohio, and were met at Plain Dealer printing office by the celebrated Artemas Ward, who was then a reporter that paper. Artemas did not speak very encouragingly of the prospects for work in Cleveland, and on his advice we went Cincinnati. There we were fortunate arriving in that city at six o’clock in the morning and had a job before nine on a lottery scheme that was being printed for L.D. Sine’s lottery, on which we made about $5 that day, working till nearly nine o’clock at night. That was as much as we made in Hamilton for a whole week on half time. Well, this is not intended as a personal history, therefore we will start out as we began and tell the story of Hamilton’s prosperity in these later years.

“To begin with, prosperity came with the national policy. It is true that the town had a little spurt when the Great Western railway was built, but it did last for many years. When the east end of the town changed from farm land to factory sites about twenty years ago, then the sun of prosperity began to shine; and it has been growing brighter and brighter every year since. “Kirk’s’ report  to the city council last week was another bright spot.

“Then read the reports of annual church meetings, and they tell a story of financial prosperity far beyond what one might expect during war times. One church with less than a thousand members tells us that its communicants raised about $40,000 last year, out of which it paid off nearly the fag end of its construction mortgage, sent $9,000 or $10,000 to convert the heathen, paid their minister a high living salary, and leaving a surplus with which to begin the new year. Another church tells of paying off the last dollar of its mortgage indebtedness, and in addition, throwing in a few thousands to convert the heathen; while others have done so well financially that they have liberally increased their ministers’ stipends a few hundred dollars. All this is certainly very encouraging, and make old-timers prouder than ever of the dear old town. It is a pity that some of that missionary money is not added to the salaries of the poorly-paid home ministries.

“Then Hamilton had added liberally to the payrolls of its police and fire departments, as well as giving generous bonuses to its civic employees. Every tag day during the year for war purposes has been responded to by thousands of dollars, and the last dollar of indebtedness, amounting to some $40,000, was gathered in one day recently to pay off the mortgage on the handsome Y.W.C.A. building.

“It is certainly not out of place for the Saturday Muser to brag about the prosperity of the old town in which he began to live nearly severnty years ago. It was only a small town of about ten thousand inhabitants; now it has grown to 110,000, with over 450 manufacturing industries, and increasing every year, Just look at this picture and see where the town is at. Away back in 1833, Hamilton had only one little machine shop and foundry on the site of a goose pond, where now stands the old Royal hotel, and it was in that foundry that the first threshing machine was made in Canada.

                             WHAT HAMILTON HAS ADDED

                                TO THE INDUSTRIES

                                       OF CANADA

“In part we have told the story before, that, as our enterprising commissioner of industries is preparing a booklet to let the world know that there is an industrial city known as Hamilton, Canada on the map, at his request we briefly repeat the story of some of the industries Hamilton has added to Canada.

“How many ancient Hamiltonians have kept in memory the fact that the first watch made in Canada was a Hamilton product? It was the talk of the town in the old days but, no doubt, has long since been forgotten, save by a few old-timers like Thomas Lees, the veteran watchmaker. In a little shop on King street, opposite the Royal Connaught, where Dan Pease kept a cigar store until recently, Paul T. Ware, who was a practical watchmaker and jeweler, carried on a small business about seventy years ago. Till the introduction of machinery in the United States, the best class of watches were made by hand, and it took skillful workmen to make one. Take a Waltham watch, for instance, and it is made uyp of over one hundred and twenty-five different pieces, counting from the smallest screws. One would almost require a strong magnifying glass with which to be able to see and handle some of the screws, so small are they. In his shop on King street, Mr. Lees has the entire works of a Waltham watch in separate parts fastened in a frame, and to look at it one would wonder at the ingenuity of the original inventor of the watch. But we are not going to write  story about watches, only so far as to tell of the first one made in Canada over seventy years ago, and that one in Paul T. Ware’s little shop on King street. For a town of less than ten thousand population, Hamilton was pretty well-supplied with Watchmaker shops, there being three wholesale and thirteen retail. Here is a list of names, and many of them will be recognized by old-timers: J.G. Birely and company, Samuel Davidson, A.W. Gage and company, Henry James and company, Jesse Nickerson, Robert Osbourne, John Pettigrew, Prince and Levy, William Taylor, John Van Gunten, C.H. VanNorman and company, James Henry and company. Paul T. Ware and company, retail dealers, and V.H. Tisdale, Einstein and Mandle, and Newbury and Bireley, wholesalers. Nearly all the shops had expert workmen  employed, mostly Germans, and Paul T. Ware had one or two men of more than average expertness. It was not known to the trade at that time that ever a complete watch was made in Canada, and as a matter of business pride, Mr. Ware decided to make the experiment. It was no small undertaking you may be sure, and an expensive one, as every screw and pin of the most minute description had to be made by hand. Not only were the works completed, but they were encased in a solid gold case, also turned and made by hand in Mr. Ware’s little shop. That watch was the talk and pride of Hamilton, and was exhibited at one of the provincial fairs as the first watch made in Canada. Mr. Ware was proud of the recognition given it by the provincial board of managers, and was highly complimented from one end of Canada to the other. An enterprising Hamiltonian, who felt a just pride in his home town, bought the watch, for which he paid a handsome price. What has become of the watch or its owner, no one seems to know, but if that watch is still in existence it ought to become the property of the city as a memorial of one of its earliest manufactures.

“In the course of time, Mr. Ware branched out on larger lines, and moved from the little shop opposite the Royal Connaught to a room in White’s new block, which was then being finished, and kept one of the finest jewelry stocks in town. That room is now part of the Stanley Mills and company department store. Unfortunately for Mr. Ware, he could not stand prosperity, and as a result, his expenses largely exceeded his income. He was a man whose reputation stood high both in business and in his daily life, but in his home, his family indulged in extravagance. When he owned the little shop where Dan Pease afterward sold cigars, he could walk to and from his home, but when he got up into the White block, he had to be driven to his place of business in a fine carriage with a livered driver. Of course, there was only one ending, and one day it was announced that Mr. Ware had retired from business and was going to Chicago to begin over again.

“His case reminds us of the old song:

‘Move your family west, that good health you may enjoy,

 And rise to watch and honor in the state of Illinois.’

“Whatever his fate, the oldest inhabitant cannot tell, but being an energetic man, it is more than possible that he was able to rebuild his shattered fortunes from the ground up.

                   THE SECOND WATCH MADE IN HAMILTON

“About twenty-three years ago, Thomas Less, the veteran watchmaker and jeweler, had a first-class of workmen in his shop, among the number being, James Davidson, who now has a shop of his own inking street west; Alf. Baker, the watch expert in Levy Bros. and ‘Teddy’ Pass, the English watchmaker on John street south. As all three have had bouquets thrown at them at different times, we will spare their modesty on this occasion. Well, Alf. Baker and ‘Teddy’ Pass took it into their heads that they would make a watch by hand in their spare time, and christen it “Thomas Less, No. 1, Hamilton,’  and that it what is engraved on one of the plates. It was a proud thing to do, for they loved their employer and wanted him to be honored by having the second watch made in Hamilton inscribed with his name. The only thing about the watch that is machine-made is the silver case, but every screw and pin, from the most diminutive, is the work of their expert hands. That watch is now in possession of Thomas Lees’ oldest son, and it would take a small fortune to get it from him. When you mention that watch to ‘Alf’ or ‘Teddy’ just watch how their eyes glisten with pride. It is Hamilton’s second watch contribution to its industries, and ought to be carried by our present Goodenough mayor and all future mayors as a distinctive badge of this industrial city.

“Now a word about the veteran watchmaker of Hamilton. Thomas Less is a native of this city, and has lived long enough to be called a veteran. When he was a boy, he clerked for a time in a hardware store in Oakville, and then came back to Hamilton in 1857 and entered the shop of John Pettigrew, where he took his first lessons in watch making. After spending a couple of years with Mr. Pettigrew, he made a change, and went to work for Paul T. Ware as an apprentice and afterward as a journeyman, and remained with Mr. Ware till he left Hamilton. Soon after, he began business for himself, and is now one of the oldest, if not the oldest business man in Hamilton. The name and reputation of Thomas Lees is the standard for first-class goods in the watch and jewelry line, and has been for more than half a century. And his boys are genuine chips of the old block. He is the last of the old-timers in the jewelry business in Hamilton, though there are a few still here who came into the wedding ring business long after Mr. Lees opened his first shop.

“The elder John VonGunten, who kept a shop on York street, had a son named John, and when the old man retired from business the younger one took it up. About thirty years ago or it may be more, the VonGuntens left Hamilton and went to Caledonia, and young John is there yet, having prospered.

“Now that is about all this old Muser could learn about the first watch made n Hamilton and in Canada and of the second one made by ‘Alf’ Baker and ‘Teddy’ Pass.

                   FIRST CANADIAN INDUSTRIES

                       BORN IN HAMILTON

“As we have given before a lengthy story of the first industries that had their origin in Hamilton, for the use of Mr. Kirkpatrick, we will briefly recall them, though it would not be out of place to tell the old, old story for the benefit of the later generation.

“The first industry of which there is any record was the manufacture of the first Sulphur matches made in Canada.. In 1840, an English family came to Hamilton. Three years before in 1837, John Walker, an English druggist, experimented in the making of matches by dipping splints into a mixture of Sulphur, chlorate of potash and sulphite of antimony. By rubbing the prepared splints of wood on sandpaper, they burst into flame. This became known as the first experiment in the making of Sulphur matches. Prior to that time, the flint and steel were the means to ignite a fire. Old-timers will remember the flint and steel  period even long after sulphur matches were first discovered by Druggist Walker. The English family that came to Hamilton in 1830 brought the secret of matchmaking with them, the father having probably learned it in Walker’s shop, and there not being anything of the kind in Hamilton, he began the manufacture, or which he found ready sale. The family lived on a cottage on Main street, near Cherry, and father, mother and children worked till they had a good supply on hand, and ten went out and sold their matches to the early residents, who were glad to get them as a substitute for the flint and steel. The flint soon gave way to the more convenient  block, cut through partly into one hundred matches, then secured at one end by dipping in wax and the other end dipped in the sulphur compound. The blocks were made in a cabinet shop at Merriton by Michael Ferlover. The match trade outgrew the demands of Hamilton and the manufacturer and his family moved to pastures new.

“History tells us that the first threshing machine was invented in Saxony by a man named Holhfield in 1711. The first threshing machine was not dreamed of by the pioneer farmers of Canada until the year 1833, when John Fisher made it in Hamilton. Mr. Fisher was a Yankee who came to Hamilton from the state of New York, and built the first foundry on the site of the Royal hotel, and perfected a model machine of his own. That machine is in substance the model of the complete threshing machine now manufactured by the Sawyer-Massey company, and was a success from the day it was first put on the market. Dr. McQuesten, somewhat connected with Mr. Fisher in the old New York home, was able to furnish the necessary capital to build the machines, and he came to Hamilton and formed the partnership of Fisher and McQuesten. During the winter seasons, the partners travelled through this part of Canada and sold the machines they were able to make, and they gave such satisfaction that the demand more than equaled the supply.

                             THE FIRST RAILWAY OF IMPORTANCE

                                       IN CANADA

“Hamilton has the honor of building the first railway of Importance in Canada. There was a short line of twelve or fourteen miles built in 1834 from Laprairie, across the river from Montreal to St. John’s, a village on the American border. In the year1832 a few enterprising businessmen in Hamilton, with Sir Allan Macnab, conceived the idea of building a railway from Hamilton to London as a starter, and eventually finishing it off at both ends by connecting with the Niagara and Detroit rivers, thus making a through line from New York to the western states. It was an heroic enterprise for a village of not more than two thousand population to undertake; but there was nothing that an enterprising Hamiltonian would not undertake in those early days. In 1834, authority was derived from the provincial parliament to organize a stock company, under the name of London and Gore railroad, defining the terminals at Burlington bay, at the head of Lake Ontario, and at the town of London. The towns along the line appreciated the advantage they would derive from the road, and subscribed liberally to the stock. In 1847, the first sod of the proposed line was turned in the village of London, the name of the company being changed to the Great Western railway. The first passenger train came into Hamilton in the fall of 1853, a through train from Niagara Falls to Detroit.

“The first railway locomotive made in Canada was built in Hamilton, for the Great Western road, by D.C. Gunn, who owned a small machine shop at the foot of Wellington street. The first engines used on the road were brought from the old country, and they suggested the idea to Mr. Gunn. He built about fifteen locomotives, part for the Great Western and part for the Grand Trunk, and then was compelled to go out of business. Canada was then run on the free trade plan, and as there was no duty on locomotives, the American builders, with larger facilities and unlimited capital, were able to underbid him for the contracts, and they supplied the companies. In the panic of 1857, Mr. Gunn failed in business.

“Samuel Sharpe, the master mechanic of the Great Western road, planned and built the first dining and sleeping cars not only used in Canada, but also in the United States, and the work was all done in Hamilton. Mr. H.B. Witton, the venerable car painter and decorator, is probably the only living person who had a hand in the construction of these cars. The Wagner and the Pullman sleeping  and dining coaches followed suit soon after.

“Williams & Cooper, a Hamilton firm of carriage builders, built a number of passenger and freight cars for the Great Western and the Grand Trunk, and to Hamilton enterprise is due the building of the first railway coaches in Canada.

“Prior to the American civil war in 1861, Canadian women had to use American sewing machines or stick to the needle. Some years before, when sewing machines first came into use, Lawson Bros., a Hamilton firm of clothing manufacturers, whose store was on the corner of King and James streets, now occupied by Treble’s, bought a couple of machines as an experiment in their tailor shop. The tailors refused to use them, nor would they allow their use in any shop in Hamilton. They went out on strike, and as a result, the Lawson’s had to forgo the use of the machines in their business. The tailors thought that the sewing machines  would ruin their trade, but they found in time it to be one of their best earning friends. Mr. Wanzer, who was connected with the sewing machine business in Buffalo, was induced to come to Hamilton and start a manufactory. At first, it was uphill work, as he had but limited capital, and free trade was his deadly enemy, but with genuine Yankee grit he made the fight and succeeded. The Wanzer was the first sewing machine made in Canada, and Hamilton was its birthplace. He began with a working force of less than a dozen men, and when he had made up a wagonload of machines, he started out through the country selling them. It was a good machine and was sold for less than the American machines, and in the course of time he won out. From making only a dozen machines a week, the demand increased till he turned from his factory not less than a thousand weekly; and from a working force of not more than a dozen men, his payroll provided for over eight hundred people.

“At one time Hamilton was the headquarters for the sewing machine industry in Canada, there being no less than seven factories in this town, and all manufacturing different machines, giving employment to an army of skilled workers of both sexes. For some reason, the great industry was lost to Hamilton.

“Our space is more than filled, so we will have to quit, and next week give the remainder of the industries that Hamilton first started in Canada.

1919-07-18oo

Saturday Musings

Spectator July 18, 1919.

       THE MOUNTAIN SANATORIUM

        Some twelve or fifteen years ago, the Hamilton Health association began a great work for afflicted humanity, and as the years have slipped by, the generous men and women have happily discovered that they who endowed the great blessing built wiser than they knew. It began in a few tents on the brow of the mountain; it has grown to a settlement of large and small homes for the accommodation of scores of men, women and children who might otherwise be slowly ending their days suffering from the white plague in the crowded city. The suggestion of the sanatorium came from a few who were suffering from tuberculosis, or who had members of their family slowing passing away. We have before told the story of the founding of the sanatorium, but it is one that will bear occasional repeating, especially when so much good is being accomplished. There was a time, and that not many years ago, when a person afflicted with tuberculosis was given over by doctors and turned over to be entered upon the undertaker’s record book, but that day is passed, for men of science have discovered that there is a balm in Gilead and a hope when the patients are treated in time. The writer of these musings was refused admission to local lodges of Oddfellows in Hamilton sixty-five years ago, by Drs. O’Reilly and Ridley, who were examining surgeons of the lodges, for the reason that he was supposed to have the primary stages of consumption, because his father had died of that disease away back in the year 1842. We drank quarts of cod liver oil, which in those days was supposed to be the only relief, but was not considered a cure. Here we are eighty-five years old, and no signs of tuberculosis. It is with joy we tell this as an encouragement to those who have tuberculosis tendencies. Probably Drs. O’Reilly and Ridley, two of Hamilton’s best physicians in those days, were right in their diagnosis sixty-five years ago, but science has come to the rescue and has opened a way and a hope for the victims of the white plague. The daily and weekly reports of Dr. Holbrook, the accomplished and scientific surgeon in charge of the mountain sanatorium, are certainly beacons of light and hope for those who take time by the forelock and put themselves in charge of capable physicians before the disease becomes chronic. Study those reports as they officially appear in the daily papers of Hamilton and take courage, ye afficted ones.

“Last Wednesday, the managers of the sanatorium invited Hamilton to visit the institution and see for themselves how the soldier boys who are patients there employ their weary hours while waiting for Dr. Holbrook to hand them their discharge. It is astonishing the skill these afflicted boys exhibit in making many useful and ornamental articles. We will not attempt to enumerate them, for the number and variety is so large, and the writer’s knowledge so limited, that an attempt to describe the list would end in failure. However, we can say that the lady visitors on Wednesday were in ecstasies over the beautiful things, and many of the ladies left the sanatorium with almost empty pocketbooks. They had the extra inducement in the in the knowledge that the money they paid for the bric-a-brac was given to the men who made the articles for the benefit of their families. You can always trust a woman to be generous to the afflicted.

“There was another department which the visitors were invited to enter. It is called the wood workshop. Here were about a dozen men at work, under the direction of C. Robinson, a Toronto printer, who came home from the war to be an inmate of the sanatorium. Thanks to the skill of Dr. Holbrook, the undertaker did not get him. He looks as bright and cheerful as though there was never such a thing as getting gassed in the army. Indeed, all the men engaged in the wood workshop would pass any mustering officer – they look so cheerful and bright. They are anxiously looking forward to the day when Dr. Holbrook will hand them their discharge and send them home to dear and children who have been praying and waiting for their hero. Those men employ their time making bits of furniture, which they are privileged to send to their homes, the only cost to them being the price of the lumber. Every bit of furniture is finished in the highest style of the cabinet art.

“Superintendent Robinson is planning to get from the government an allowance to add a printing office to the industries of the sanatorium. The boys are publishing a monthly paper of their own, the mechanical part being done in one of the city printing offices. He desires to have the material that the work can be done in the institution, so that the printing trade can be taught to those who desire to fit themselves for that class of work when they leave the sanatorium. It is said that some outside printers are throwing cold water on the idea, claiming that work in a printing office is unhealthy, especially for those with weak lungs. The writer of these musings had weak lungs when he began work in the Montreal Herald office seventy-three years ago, and he is not dead yet.

“The sanatorium has not only brought hope to hundreds of men, women and children in civil life since it was instituted about fifteen years ago, but it has given new life to hundreds of brave boys who came back from overseas expecting that the last post would sound for them.  There is hope in pure air and scientific treatment, and every week men are discharged comparatively well. They are a cheerful bunch of patients, and so long there is life, there is hope. The staff of the sanatorium is devoted to the work they have given themselves to, and the cheerful and bright faces of the lady nurses are an encouragement to even the most afflicted patients. One will meet and talk with soldier boys who have a history. A large number of the men have families, and the sight of a woman’s or a child’s face passing through the wards brightens the brave boys and makes them think of their own dear wives and children. One man told the writer that the greatest pleasure he has every day is to stand on the brow of the mountain and look down into the valley to the home where his dear wife and children are patiently waiting for ‘daddy’ to come home. He is an Irishman by birth, born in Tipperary, educated in his youth for the Catholic priesthood till he was 18 years of age. Born among the fighting Tips, the religious life of the priesthood, so at the age of 18, he left college, enlisted in the British army, and served 21 years. Then he came to Canada with his wife and children, and made a home in Hamilton. When the war drums beat in 1914, the fighting blood of the Tips was aroused in him, and he was among the first recruits to join the colors. Too much German gas seized his lungs, and he is now a patient in the San. He is a hopeful soul, and while he is bordering on 50 years, he looks to be a husky boy of about half that age.

“Are you grumpy or dyspeptic, dear reader of these musings? Take a half day off and visit the sanatorium. It will do you good to see how hopeful are the brave boys who fought their country’s battles during the past four years. And if you will take with you an extra dollar or two to invest in the handiwork of the soldier boys, you will come back cured of your grumpiness, and with the knowledge that what you spent will add to the comfort of the wives and children of the inmates of the sanatorium .

                   _______________________________________

                             MAN’S INHUMANITY TO WOMAN

“It is no wonder that women desire to have the right to vote as a protection against the inhumanity of some of the lords of the manor who look upon the marriage relation as a means of acquiring a home, with someone to keep house for him and look after his bodily comfort. Men are not all built that way, yet every now and then one across a fellow who consoles himself with the idea that everything in the household economy belongs to him, and that if his obedient wife wants a dollar to spend on some necessary bit of wearing apparel or to brighten up the home,  she must  almost go down on her knees to  beg her lord and master for it. Down at Wesley church, Dr. Dougall is keeping his congregation awake these warm July Sunday evenings by picturing to them the beauties of a real home life. But there are questions that are never discoursed from the pulpit, for it is only newspaper reporters and Saturday Musers that get on them.

“Here is a bit of meanness perpetrated on an affectionate wife of many long years, which, we hope, no reader of the Spectator will be guilty of when he is about to shuffle off this mortal soil. Many years ago, a man got it into his head that he was deeply in love with a dear Hamilton girl, and somehow he persuaded her to reciprocate his imaginary affection. Now the sequel of his courtship was purely mercenary, for the girl had the foundation of a small fortune left her by her parents when the attending physician told them that their last hours in this beautiful world were drawing nigh, and the assumed lover coveted this bit of money as well as the girl, and concluded that one without the other would not fill his cup of happiness. To make a long story short, he got the girl’s consent and control of the money, and being somewhat of a financial manager, he added to the bank account with her fortune as the foundation, and it made life very pleasant for him, because he was free from financial care and hard work. The couple lived many happy years together, till finally sickness called at the home and the husband was ordered by his physician to a ward in the city hospital for special treatment. One day the doctor quietly suggested to his patient that life was uncertain even to the most rugged and healthy, and as it would not shorten his days a moment, it would be advisable for everybody to settle their affairs in this world so as to leave their property without having the lawyers squabble over it. The sick man took the hint and called to his bedside in the hospital a legal friend who had managed his business affairs very satisfactorily for many years.

“The man had really nothing of his own to leave, for it it had not been for the bit of money his wife brought into the matrimonial partnership, there would not have been anything to dispose of. There was no real estate, as a short time before the man took sick, he disposed of their home at a good price. A few hours before his death, he made his will, and so carefully was every point guarded by the skillful lawyer, that when the paper was completed, duly signed and witnessed, there was nothing more to be done,  but for the husband to bid farewell to this world and hand in his passports as he crossed the river of death.

“Just fancy how that supposed-to-be-loving husband disposed of the money the confiding wife brought into the family partnership in the long ago? It was all in cash or mortgages, so that it was easily divided. To the church he had attended, he gave a generous sum for missions and to help pay off the mortgage debt. A few benevolences more moderately remembered, as well as the trained nurses who had kindly waited upon him during his last illness. To his surviving relatives, who had never helped him make a penny, he was more than generous. After figuring how much was left after everything else had been provided for, even to the expenses of his funeral, and the cost of a monument to tell where he could be found on the judgment day, there was only THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS to be disposed of, and this the generous soul left to his faithful wife who had cared for him in sickness and health during the long years they had lived together!

“More than three times that sum had the young bride brought into the matrimonial partnership in the long ago. Had she invested in her own name, the small forune her industrious father and careful mother had left her when she began married life, she would now, that old age has come upon her, have been able to live in affluence. Instead, she will only have the interest on three thousand dollars to stand between her and the Aged Women’s home, or as a boarder in Mrs. Rae’s hotel, down on the Bayfront.

                   ____________________________________

“ ‘Man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn.’ But how much worse when man’s inhumanity to woman is considered, especially to the wife he promised at the marriage altar to endow with all worldly goods. We have told this story once before in these musings. A prosperous business man in Hamilton who departed this life a few years ago, had made quite a small fortune – not what could be considered much of a fortune in these day – say between sixty and seventy thousand dollars. The writer of these musings was acquainted with him away back 65 years ago when he worked on the bench as a journeyman; and he was an industrious young fellow, never spending ten cents if five cents would answer just as well. He married a bright Hamilton girl, who made for him a charming home and a loving wife. They lived happily together, and he, being of a saving disposition, always laid by for the future part of his weekly pay envelope. In time he entered into business for himself, and opportunity kept persistently knocking at his door, and he always bid him enter. They had no children. While he worked at the shop, the good wife saved every penny possible in the home expenses. No wonder they got comfortably rich! He invested in Hamilton’s industrial bonds when they were selling low, and waited patiently for the increase that he felt was sure to come. We will cut the story short. The time came when he went to his store no more, and his doctor delicately suggested to him that it was always safe to make one’s will while their mind was clear. The family and business lawyer was sent for, and one entire afternoon was spent in disposing the man’s accumulated wealth. It is a pity to tell this story, and the only excuse for doing so is that it may call a halt to some dying man who is about to do a terrible injustice to the wife of his youth. In common decency, he could not ignore her claims on his estate, the law protecting her in a small way. To the wife whom he spent fifty or more happy years, he left two or three houses and a small sum of money, probably ten or twelve thousand dollars altogether, and to brothers and sisters, who had never helped him to make a penny, he left the balance of his estate.

“By the time the lawyer had completed his will, the dying man was so exhausted that he had not the necessary strength to sign his name to the paper. The lawyer suggested that he would come back the next morning, when his client would be stronger after a night’s rest, and complete the business. About nine o’clock the next morning, the lawyer returned, and to his great joy, he found that the undertakers had been at the house before him, for the lawyer is a humane man, and felt the injustice that was being done to the faithful wife. There was no will, and the estate was divided as the law directs, half going to the bereaved wife and half to the brothers and sisters. Rather unjust after all, for why should brothers and sisters come in for a share of the estate they did not help create? When the women help make the laws, there will be some changes along those lines.

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                   HE READS THE SATURDAY MUSINGS

“B.F. Churchill, who lives at Kilbride, Ont., writes us a pleasant letter. It is not often that we publish compliments, but now and then a word of cheer makes one’s heart throb with pleasure. Mr. Churchill is an old subscriber to the Spectator, and he enjoys the word pictures that occasionally brighten up the musings “

          ‘May a hundred years of twilight and dew,

           Descend on your head and your musings anew;

           And the last scene of all, when we pass in the blue,

           We can strum our old harps to songs that are new.’

“There is more to it, but the lines above will suffice for the present.

         

1921-07-16oo

THE FIRST CYLINDER PRINTING PRESS

“In the life and writings of Grant Thornton, published in the city of New York in 1861, we find a brief sketch of Robert Hoe, a young English carpenter, less than twenty years of age, who was the inventor of the first cylinder press. The young carpenter arrived in New York in the year 1805, when the yellow fever raged in that city. A stranger in a strange land, and without money, Robert Hoe was fortunate in falling into the hands of Grant Thorburn, and was nursed through a severe attack of the fever by the Thorburn family. Young Hoe introduced himself to Grant Thorburn by telling him that he had just arrived from England, was 18 years old, was a carpenter by trade, having learned it from his father, and was without money. The heart of Thorburn went out to the stranger, for only a few years before had he emigrated from his native Scotland, and had about a similar experience – penniless and a stranger in a strange land. Says Thorburn : ‘I knew the heart of a stranger myself, and there was so much h simplicity in his speech and deportment, my heart warmed towards him. I gave him a chair, and ran upstairs, Says I : ‘Guid wife, a stranger standeth at our door, shall we take him in?’ “if thee pleases,’ she replied, ‘if he takes the fever will thee help me to nurse him?’ ‘I will,’ she answered, ‘Thank you dear for this: God will bless you..’ ‘Now,’ says I, ‘Come and look on his honest English face.’ This impression was favorable. Says I Robert, this neighbourhood is accounted the most healthful in the city, you will lodge here; if you take the fever, my wife and I will nurse you; you shan’t go to a strange hospital.’ ” His eyes spoke thanks more eloquent than words. The fever seized him, however, in less than a week, and Grant THoburn and his wife nursed him back to health and life. Shortly after this, the fever disappeared from New York City. Robert Hoe became a master builder, and died in 1843, aged fifty-six years. ‘But his name will never die,’ wrote Grant Thorburn, ‘while all types are set, and printers breathe. Hoe’s printing press is probably the most useful discovery that has blessed the world since the first sheet was struck from the press. Formerly we paid one hundred and fifty cents for a Bible; now we buy one as good for twenty-five cents. It may be said of his sons that they are better men than their fathers, inasmuch as they have added many improvements to their father’s plans. Robert Hoe dwelt in New York for thirty-eight years.

“Inclosing his brief story of the invention of the hoe cylinder press, Grant Thorburn writes: ‘And nothing in my past life affords such pleasing recollections as to this act of duty and humanity to a stranger. When his aching head lay on my breast, as I held the cooling draught to his parched lips, I little thought that in his head lay the germ of a machine destined to revolutionize the world of literature, and shed light on the dark places of the earth, whose habitations are full of cruelty.’

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“Before the invention of the cylinder printing press, there were presses of various styles, but as this article has only to do with the printing craft from its first introduction in Hamilton, we can only refer to what was known as the Ramage press. Eighty-seven years ago, Geo. Perkins Bull, an Irish printer, came into Canada from New York, and settled upon Hamilton as his future home, the outlook seeming good for the publication of a Tory newspaper. Part of his outfit was an old-style Ramage press, which printed only one page of a newspaper at an impression. It made slow work doing the press work, for instead of two impressions for a four page paper, it required four impressions for each sheet. Printers were not then getting seventy-five cents and a dollar an hour, and the circulation of the paper not being extensive, the old Ramage was equal to the demands of the average Canadian weekly one hundred years ago. When the Spectator absorbed the Gazette many years ago, the Ramage was turned over with the plant, but unfortunately it was looked upon as a bit of rubbage, and one day the woodwork was chopped up for kindling wood.

“When the Spectator was first started by Robert Smiley, his first press was a second-hand Washington, for which he paid about $150. A few years later his increasing circulation required something faster than a press that would print only a ‘token’ an hour, and one day Hamilton was aroused from its slumbers by the whirr of a fast cylinder that could run off a thousand impressions an hour. The other day, there was a greater surprise in store for the old Spectator, by the installation of a new Hoe press that was equal to the task of printing 72,000 an hour, folded and counted. There are only three presses of the Spectator’s capacity in Canada. Only three or four of the old Spectator boys who began their apprenticeship fifty years ago have seen all these changes, almost from the days of the Washington hand press. We might safely name James R. Allan, superintendent of the mechanical department, and John O’Neil, now retired, superintendent of the late job department. There may be others, but it is not safe to risk giving names.

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“Do the managers of the Toronto Globe know that the first hand press on which that paper was printed, when it was first started about a hundred years ago by George Brown, is now stored away in cold storage in a warehouse in Hamilton, having drifted into this town in the old hand press days? That press did service in the Acton Free Press office when it was first started. It is now owned by Griffin & Richmond, job printers, and did duty for printing handbills till it got too slow for even that work, then as a proof press, till finally it has gone into retirement. It came to Hamilton when Griffin & Kidner were in partnership in the job printing.

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            A FEW THOUGHTS ON PERTINENT TOPICS

“An old song, Where is My Boy Tonight? Comes ringing in the ears of the writer of these musings when some poor, heartbroken mother bewails the diverging from the paths she would lead him in of the son upon whom the affections of her loving her are centered. It may be only an idea we old fellows have that the boys of our youthful days were more careful in their daily acts lest they should wound their mother who had watched them from infancy, and up through the years of childhood, till the time when they became old enough to discern between right and wrong. How much of love there is in that dear old word, mother; and it is a pleasure now if we can look back and feel that never by word or did we cause that loving heart to ache because of some act committed by her boy that might have brought a blush of shame to her cheek. Don’t fancy that the boys of fifty years ago were angels by any means; but, to their credit, be it said, the love they bore their mothers make them respectful of womankind because they loved and respected their mothers. And the same may be said of the girls, for they were second editions of the virtues and modesty of their mothers.

“Now and then a cog slips in the machinery of life and the old devil himself seems to take possession of the young people, and everything runs riot for a time till the climax is reached, and then a halt is called. Read the daily reports of our Hamilton police court, or ask Magistrate for his views. The mother’s heart wails not only for her boy, but the question often comes to her, ‘Where is my girl tonight?’ for the daughter is not in her accustomed place in the house. To begin with, there are too many allurements to take boys and girls from their home and out into the streets at night. One has to be mighty well-balanced to resist the evils of a street education. Our weak human natures cannot always resist temptation; therefore, it is not safe to make the strain too great. Don’t think for a moment that young people should be so hemmed about as to make them chafe vat restraint; but neither is it safe to make the going and coming so easy that the fathers and mothers lose all control and can’t tell the whereabouts of their boys and girls.

“Mothers living in the country towns thank God that their children are not exposed.to the allurements and temptations to which they would be exposed in a large city like Hamilton, and so satisfied are they that such safeguards surround their boys and girls that too often they become lax in government and give a wider range than is always safe. Human nature is the same in the rural village or on the farm as it is in the crowded cities, and  as Bunyan, in Pilgrim’s Progress says, were it not for the grace of God, he might have been as vile as his more unfortunate brother man. One of the old poets tells us that vice is a monster of so frightful mien to be hated needs but to be seen; as; but seen too oft we become familiar, that we first pity then embrace. A street education at night is not good for the morals of boys and girls, and it requires the firm hand of father or mother to check it before the first lessons are taken. Many a girl and boy brought grief to father and mother because the first misstep was taken in disobedience. Every boy and girl should spend their evenings under the watchful direction of mother rather than be street wanderers. All young people do not do wrong because they are not subject to restraint, but it is always well to keep the red light swinging to warn of the dangers ahead.

“To make the application and bring the question home to the fathers and mothers of Hamilton. Are your boys and girls receiving a street education at night that will mar their young lives and place a blot on their hearts that can never be wiped out? We should read lif as we study the Word of God, to learn lessons that will be profitable for us to consider. Now and then the suspicion starts the tongue of scandal, and before one is aware of it dear mother’s heart receives a stab because of the indiscretion of son or daughter. Parents should be plain and candid with their children, and not let a spirit of mock modesty keep them from warning of the dangers to which they are exposed. There be pitfalls all the way through the journey of life into which even the most careful may fall. Point those out to your children, and while you pray that they may not be led into temptation, do your part to steer them in the right path. Teach your children to be candid, and above all keep them from the streets at night and from associating with questionable company. The boy is as liable to be led into temptation as the girl, and the safest place for either is under the watchful eye of father and mother till such time as their characters are strongly formed.

“Think not these thoughts on pertinent topics are written to fill up so much space in the columns of the Spectator. There is lesson in them for the fathers and mothers of Hamilton to prayerfully consider. The old saying that ‘a stich in time’ might be profitably applied.

                   THE HAMILTON OF THE PAST

“The old stagers of sixty or seventy years ago, when a bunch of them get together, have serious doubts if conditions have much improved on what they were in Hamilton when they were young fellows. Hamilton had no railway service then, but they look back with pride and tell us of the days  when the wharves  along the bay were lined with steamboats and sailing vessels, and recall the names of those fresh water sailors who plowed old Ontario’s main from the Head of the Lakes down to the jumping off place where the St. Lawrence river joins Quebec to the briny deep. How many of the present generation ever heard of Captains Sutherland, Mason, Young, the Zealands, Malcomson, who sailed the piratical little craft the Banshee, and the other Malcomson who proudly strutted the deck as the mate of the steamer Canada. Then there was old Captain Peace, Dan Peace’s father, whose proud boast that his trim vessel could carry more sail than any other that ever past out through the canal. This recalls to mind that it was one of the Captain Zealands who first entered the bay with his sailing vessel long before the canal opened the way. The old Hamilton directories are full of the names of the ancient mariners. There were the regular line of steamboats sailing between Hamilton and Montreal, stopping at all the intermediate ports. Then there was a daily steamboat service to Niagara-on-the-Lake and Lewiston, and to Toronto, with extra steamboats always obtainable for excursions during the summer months, for every society would take its day off and have its excursion, either to Niagara Falls or to Toronto. Those were pleasant days, and while the population of the Ambitious city was away below fifteen thousand, there was a social spirit among the people that gradually disappeared as the population grew larger, and the strife for existence and subsistence became sharper. The young people became acquainted with each other, and the excursion seasons generally ended in a harvest of marriage fees for the preachers.

“When the building of the Great Western railway began, things changed somewhat. A new element came to the front in civic matters, and the Arcdian simplicity of other days gradually disappeared. When Hamilton was Head of the Lakes, it had large wholesale establishments to supply the merchants in western Canada with everything  from a needle  to the demands of the village home or the farmhouses out in the backwoods settlements. From the wharves at the Bayfront to the warehouses uptown, the streets were lined with drays and wagons hauling the valuable freights that were eventually to find their way to the country customers. How many even of the old-timers will remember when the great wholesome house of Buchanan, Harris & Co, occupied the building on the corner of King and Catharine streets? Next to Montreal, Hamilton  was then the great wholesale market of Canada; indeed it was the principal wholesale city in Upper Canada. The wagons from the west, the northwest and over the mountains came from the villages and the towns loaded with the products of the farms and  took back home with them the stocks of goods for the country mercantile houses. Hamilton was a busy city, and many of the comfortable fortunes that have been handed down to the present generation had their foundations laid in those days.

“The construction of the Great Western railway opened up new ideas of civilization, and for years business prospered, for the large payrolls in the shops sent thousands of dollars every payday into general circulation; but the railroad put an end to the lake shipping, and Hamilton gradually dropped out of sight as the head of navigation. Probably the wholesale and retail business were responsible for this, as they transferred  their freight business from the ships to the railroads; and the western merchants, instead of making Hamilton their wholesale market, went trundling by on the cars to New York or to Montreal. Hamilton made the Great Western railway and lost in the final outcome for its extensive wholesale trade vanished, and the railroad shops, on which so much was counted, vanished with it. The Great Western company began by paying dividends to its stockholders; the road in which Hamilton men took so much pride in its infancy has become a burden on the treasury of the Dominion of Canada.

“But the point we are drifting toward is that increased population does not always bring real prosperity. It has the same effect on a city that wealth brings to individuals; it adds to its cares and its responsibilities without bringing commensurate happiness. Hamilton, probably, was more homelike and the people were in better circumstances as a whole in the old days of steamboats and wagon transportation than it is today. There was work for everybody, even though the pay was small. The old timers had not the extravagant desires, nor could they indulge them, when $9 a week was the prevailing rate of wages for sixty hours’ work.

“When Hamilton built its splendid system of waterworks in the year 1858, labor was so cheap that skilled mechanics were glad to get work digging the trenches and laying the pipe for a week’s wages that scarce kept the family soul and body together. The panic of 1857 was felt everywhere. While the cost of construction was kept down to the lowest penny by the careful board of water commissioners, the people got no benefit from it, for they have kept paying extravagant prices for water from that to this; and every time the assessor   adds to the value of your home, the water rates get another boost.

“It is profitable to take a look backward once in a while and compare the past with the present. Hamilton is now in the giving spirit, and every enterprise that can get a pull has only to say what it wants. The result is that the man who has been thrifty and made a home for his family has to pay an extravagant rental in the form of taxes to pay for the privilege of owning his own home. Mayor Coppley is having the time of his life in an effort to keep down expenses.