Through
the management of the Salvation Army in Chicago, it has been made possible even
in these days of high prices for everything, for young people who desire to
enjoy married life to do so at a trifling cost. Marriage was not ordained for
those alone who can enter its sacred precincts in bridal array that would outdo
the good clothes that Solomon was wont to array himself in when he appeared in
his field day glory. Even the poor of this earth have hearts that can be
pier4ced by that little god, Cupid, and why should not their yearnings for
married life be gratified? The brides of rich parents can afford elegant
trousseaus and wedding breakfasts at a dollar a plate, furnished by fashionable
caterers, and the groom is no fellow at all if he cannot give the bride a
string of pearls, and to each of the bridesmaids a trifle in the shape of a
ruby or a diamond stickpin as a souvenir of the happy event. But what of the
poor girl whose wedding garment made be a calico gown and a bridal feast a dish
of Sunny Jim’s Force, or the groom whose best suit has grown threadbare with
the ravages of time? Marriage is a holy state in life for rich and poor, and as
the good book tells us that it is not good for man to live alone, every help
toward the blessed condition that binds two hearts is one fulfilling the divine
injunction. Man left alone to paddle his way through life is an erratic being,
and there is no question about it that all matrimonial matches are not made in
heaven, and that there are frequent calls made on the divorce courts in the
neighboring republic, and would be the same in this country were it not for the
great cost in cutting the knot in the legislature, yet taking the unfortunate
ventures with the fortunate ones, man and woman are better off in the marriage
state. In the long ago, my old Hamiltonian, the young man seemed to think it
the proper thing in life to take unto himself a helpmate, and the question of
finances did not cut much figure. If a young man had a good trade or was
engaged in some reasonably lucrative business, he felt he was a poor stick of a
fellow who could not provide a home for his best girl and start in the journey
of life helping each other to make a home. Those boys who were young then, but are
old now, were the builders of Hamilton, and now that the sun of life is
setting, they can look back through forty or fifty years of married life and
thank God that they were wise enough in youth to get a right start. The writer
of these Musings has always been an earnest advocate for early marriages, and
for that reason, we want to commend the Salvation Army in Chicago for the
practical way in which it helps things along in that direction. A couple of
years ago, the census takers of Hamilton reported that there were about 3,000
more females than males living in this city. In a city of 53,000 population,
such a surplus of women is altogether out of proportion, and while in this
month of june roses, the ministers are kept reasonably busy in tying up matrimonial
knots, yet when the year closes there will still be left scores of disappointed
ones, who have not been able to enter the happy bonds, even though the leap
year privilege has been theirs. And it is not altogether because of the
scarcity of young men that there are so many lonely female hearts, for there be
hundreds of young bachelors in this good city who are wearing their lives out
eating indigestible food in boarding houses, and who have the earning ability
to make homes and brighten their own lives, as well as the lives of loving
women.
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The great bugbear nowadays is the cost
of furnishing a home, for the girls don’t want to begin life as their mothers
did and wait patiently for the better times that may be in store for them. In
Chicago, however, the Salvationists have solved the problem, for we read in one
of the Sunday dailies of recent date that it is no trick at all to begin
housekeeping in a frugal way at a cost of $10, which includes a good bedroom
outfit and all the necessary cooking utensils. Two years ago the army opened
what it styled two salvage stores; that is in the spring and fall of the year,
when housecleaning time comes, the army sends around its collectors to the
residence part of the city and gathers in the bits of furniture etc. that
otherwise might be chopped up for kindling woods, or dumped into scavenger
barrels. These things are taken to the salvage stores and with a little mending
and cleaning are made quite presentable, and are sold a trifling cost. The army
makes some profit on the work for, as a general thing, the things are donated.
Now there are seven of these salvage stores in Chicago, and they are doing a
good business in furnishing housekeeping outfits for poor people who otherwise
might not be able to buy them. A list is given of the outfit sold for $10, with
the price attached to each article. And then the salvage stores go still
farther in helping out their needy customers. For $1.15, the groom can get
shoes, shirt, underclothes, trousers, coat, vest and hat, and for $1.35, the
bride can provide herself with a trousseau, to which can be added at a mere
trifle, many little things, such as bits of ribbon and much of the cast-off
finery of more wealthy brides.
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Probably some of the readers of this
great family journal will lift up their hands in holy horror at the idea of a
man wearing a suit that cost only $1.15, and a girl whose trousseau could be
bought for $1.35, having the temerity to enter the marriage state. Spare your
reproaches, good sir or madam, for is not wedlock honorable to even the
poorest, and is it not possible that from a home started on $10 there many come
in the future a mansion? Many wealthy families in Hamilton began on as a small
a capital, and they are proud of it. The object of these musings is to show the
young who stand aghast at the prospect of marrying unless they can begin in the
affluence that their fathers and mothers now enjoy, after forty or fifty years
of economy, what is possible to be done. Many a young girl has begun her
married life in a room no better furnished than the outfits sold by the
Salvation Army in Chicago who is now surrounded with all the luxuries and
comforts that heart can crave. Despise not the day of small things, for it is
in your own hands to improve them. Begin life as rational beings, and the only
way to do that is for young people to select a good running mate. If the man’s
habits are good and he isn’t an expert as a highball tosser, and if the girl
knows how to keep house and cook a decent meal, and they have set their hearts
on each other, then it is time for the parental blessing.
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The purchase of the H. G. & B.
electric road by the Grand Trunk was a source of some uneasiness to the
residents on Main street east, who looked upon it as a strategic move on the
part of the Grand Trunk to get an entrance to the center of the city for
passenger trains and for local freights. The men who think things for railroad
corporations are long-headed and far-seeing, and as they have unlimited capital
to draw upon in furtherance of their plans, it is only a question of time till
the purpose is accomplished. It reminds one of the Arabian fable of the camel
who wanted only to get his nose into his master’s tent. Being permitted to do
so, his next move was to get in his head, and then his neck, till finally he
got his body and crowded his master out. For construction work, the Grand Trunk
may use steam to run its work trains, but the authorities in Ottawa say, “Thus
far shalt thou go, and no farther; here shall they steps (the locomotive) be
stayed.” It will be no trick for the company to have construction going on now
and then till the property owners become accustomed to the steam engines; then
they will wake up some morning to the sight of passenger trains flying down
Main street at the rate of twenty miles or more an hour. Eternal vigilance is
the price of liberty” from the encroachments of railroad corporations. The
present government law may be a safeguard, but money will repeal the best laws
ever made.
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Talking of the danger of such a
calamity to the comfort of the residents of Main street happening, it reminded
an old stager of the days when the Great Western railway was built through
Hamilton. John Goodwin, the chimney sweep, lived on Wentworth street north,
which was then merely a street in name, for nearly the whole east end from
Wellington street out, was farms and market gardens. He had two cows that
wandered off into Land’s bush every day to crop the rich herbage, and as the
town cows were allowed to roam at will, they had the freedom of every unfenced
field. The Great Western road cut through Land’s bush, and one evening when
John Goodwin’s cows failed to report home to be milked, he went to the bush to
hunt them up. At the crossing of the railroad, he found the remains of the two cows, the evening passenger train
having killed them John was not in a comfortable mood, but being somewhat of a
philosopher he concluded that getting mad would not bring the cows to life,
especially as he could have redress on the railroad company. John was too
shrewd to go to law with the rich corporation, but made out a bill for the
value of the two cows and presented it at the railroad office on the Stuart
street hill. The claims agent of the Great Western denied the company’s responsibility
on the plea that Goodwin’s cows had to take their chance if they would run at
large. John tried the agent again, but with like result, and now it was up to
John to enforce his demand. You have read the story of the old man who caught
some boys in his apple tree helping themselves to the fruit. At the first, he
was conciliatory and threw tufts of grass at them, but this made them more
determined than ever to remain in the tree till it suited their pleasure to
come down. The old man changed his tactics and pelted the boys with stones.
This soon brought them to terms. John had tried peaceable means, but to no
avail; now he would introduce a more powerful weapon than even the law. Near
the spot where the cows were killed, there was quite a heavy grade, and after
the last refusal of the company to pay for the cows, heavy passenger and
freight trains were stuck on that grade and could not move an inch. The sand
box was ineffectual till much valuable time was lost. The track had been
heavily coated with soap, and as soon as the driving wheels of the locomotive
struck that rail they would go whirling round, but would not move the train an
inch. Watch was kept on that stretch of track to catch the soaper, but he was
too canny to be caught napping. The railroad officials suspected John of doing
the soaping, but could not prove that he was the guilty party. The delays
became so annoying that the claims agent was instructed to pay John Goodwin for
his cows, and then there was no further trouble. Said the old stager, in
getting back to the possibility of the Grimsby track through the city being
operated as a steam road, if the Cabinet at Ottawa is powerless to help us, and
money enough could be raised from the property owners on Main street to see
that the track is kept in proper condition, it would be cheaper than trying to
fight it out in the courts.
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Four years ago when Rev. Dr. Wilson
was the pastor of Wesley church, he became much interested in Granny Goodwin,
who was then reported to be a centenarian. The old woman had made the journey
of life outside the communion of the church, and as she was drawing close to
the river of death, the reverend doctor concluded that if Granny was to get
into the kingdom, it was time that she fixed up her passports. The old woman was
in indigent circumstances, having no one to provide for her, and she had a
horror of ending her days in the House of Refuge or the Old Women’s Home. The
experiment has been successfully tried of leading sinners to conversion through
a full stomach, as it is much more effective than tracts or spiritual texts.
Dr. Wilson is a very practical in his Christian work, so he started upon old
Granny through her stomach, and the result was that she accepted the plan of
salvation and joined the Wesley church. There was great joy over the bringing
into the fold the centenarian who had stood aloof and rejected all overtures
during her younger years, and whenever there was a special service in Wesley
church, such as flower Sunday in June, Granny was taken to the church in a
carriage and honored with a front seat. The old lady fared well at the hands of
Dr. Wilson, and the closing days of her life were made comfortable. After
passing the century mark she was laid to rest in Hamilton’s beautiful cemetery.
“What has Granny Goodwin to do with the cow story?” the readers will ask.
Simply that she was the wife of John Goodwin, the old-time chimney sweep who
soaped the Great Western railway track.
