1914-08-29

 

    About sixty-five years ago, the Hamilton Field battery was first organized. About the same time, there were three rifle companies and one cavalry company, which comprised the military establishment of the town. Hamilton had part of a regiment of regulars stationed here, the barracks being the old stone building on the bluff at the foot of Macnab street. That old barracks was afterwards used as a glass factory, and it stands today like a castle deserted. Later the old hospital at the foot of John street, originally built for a hotel, was used as a barracks before it was converted into a hospital. When the regulars moved away in the early ‘50s, the only military organizations in Hamilton were the volunteers, of which the artillery company was the leading one. Its armament was one field piece owned by the company and one gun loaned to the company by a private citizen who was interested in, though not actively connected with, the organization. Alfred Booker was the first captain of the company. W. H. Glassco, J. Harris, J. P. Gibbs, W. J. Copp, lieutenants. Dr. J. H. Ridley, surgeon. The battery was the pride of Hamilton, especially on the Queen’s birthday, when it always led in the annual parade and fired the national salute at midday. Beside the battery of two guns, Hamilton could boast of a rifle brigade composed of three companies. The officers of No. 1 company were Thomas Grey, captain, Thomas Bain, lieutenant, George James, ensign. No. 2 company, W. H. Macdonald, captain, T. Samuel, lieutenant. No. 3 company was composed of Highlanders, and was officered by J. F. McCuaig, captain, J. Munro, lieutenant, J. A. Skinner, ensign. There was also a cavalry company, mainly made up of young farmers living in the vicinity of Hamilton. G. M. Ryckman was captain, Harcourt B. Bull, lieutenant, H. J. Lawry, cornet, W. Applegarth, cornet, H. S. Strathy, cornet and adjutant, A. Alloway, veterinary surgeon. How war-like appeared these young soldiers with their glittering swords by their sides. Not one of these old defenders of Hamilton is present now to answer the roll-call.

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          In the year 1855, there was a reorganization of the militia of Canada when the government organized the First Field battery in Quebec; the Second in Ottawa, the Third in Montreal, the Fourth in Hamilton. Where practical, the officers of the old organizations were commissioned. Captain Booker and his company enlisted as a unit, and the organization remained as it was. In the older days, the men generally paid for their own uniforms, but when the company enlisted in the regular volunteer service, the government for a complete new outfit and an equipment for the battery. The old Methodist Episcopal church building on Nelson street, near King, was bought by the government and the brick building now occupied as a machine shop, was erected for the gun sheds. Sergeant Brown, an artillery sergeant from the regular army was sent out from the old country as drillmaster for the company, and under his tutelage the battery became one of the best drilled in Canada. Sergeant Brown remained as instructor of the company for a number of years and then resigned to enter into business for himself. He is yet living in Toronto, and makes Hamilton a visit at rare intervals. After the reorganization had been perfected, Captain Booker was promoted to major, and Lieutenant Glassco became captain, the lieutenants going up in rotation. The old Fourth battery has always been the pride of Hamilton from the date of its organization down to the present, and when the call from over the seas to go to the help of the mother country came, officers and men responded promptly and are now in Camp awaiting orders to go to the front. That the battery will give a good account of itself no one questions. In Wednesday’s issue of the Spectator was published the provisional list of officers of the three brigades of field artillery that will represent Canada on foreign battlefields. Commanding the First brigade is Lieutenant-Colonel E. W. B. Morrison, D. S. O., an old Spectator boy who went to the front and commanded a battery in South Africa, winning laurels for himself and for his command. The Eighth battery is a part of the Third brigade, and is composed of our Hamilton boys. The officers assigned are : H. G. Carscallen, major; H. G. D. Crerar, captain; J. D. Hoodless, W. I. S. Hendrie and C. S. Craig, lieutenants. The company is recruiting up to its full strength, and dozens of brave boys are disappointed because they were not accepted.

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          During the hundred years of peace that Canada has enjoyed there has been little use for soldiers, if we may except the rebellion of ’37 and the Fenians raid. It is true we furnished thirty or forty young fellows to the Hundredth regiment and about the same number to South Africa; but Canada has never had real occasion to learn the art of war. The present call came as a surprise, but it found the Canadian boys prompt to respond. The Fourth battery never had the pleasure of pointing a hostile gun at an enemy, but all the same they were ready should the trumpet sound the call to duty. Not one of the original members of the battery is now connected with it even in an honorary way, and it is doubtful if many of them are living. In 1856, the city band, with Peter Grossman as its leader, was the first military band in Hamilton, when it became the Fourth Artillery band. Bandmaster Grossman had served for fifteen years as bandmaster of an artillery band in the German army, and I his day was one of the finest musicians in Canada. But one member of the band is living, so far as the writer knows, and he is Julius Grossman, the youngest son of the old bandmaster. On the 12^th of November, 1866, the artillery band was merged into the Royal Thirteenth band with Mr. Grossman as bandmaster. Three years later Lieutenant George Robinson became the bandmaster of the Thirteenth and is still at the head of that organization.

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          In 1866, when General O’Neil, the commander of the French army, made his celebrated raid to capture Canada, and the Thirteenth was at the front learning the art of war and driving back the invaders, one night a mysterious craft was sighted creeping along the north shore. The alarm was given and the men of Hamilton rallied to protect their homes and firesides from the invaders. Here was the first opportunity the Fourth battery had to show what it could do. The company rushed to the armory, and in their haste to get at the enemy did not wait for horses, but dragged its two guns down to the bay front. For hours the mysterious craft creeping along was watched, and a man was sent around the bay on horseback as a scout to report what he could learn. There were no boy scouts then, for if there had been the little fellows would have been on to the movements of the mysterious craft before it had got out of the canal. After long and anxious waiting, the scout returned, and his report was that the mysterious vessel was laden with lumber and was making for Cook’s wharf.

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          The disgruntled artillerymen returned to the armory with their formidable battery, and thus ended the only opportunity that ever presented itself for the boys to show off of what stuff they were made. But it will be different with the present company in camp in the Jockey club grounds. The chances are that they will see active service and a good deal of it, and that they will give a good account of themselves on the field of battle. ‘War is hell,’ and they will know the truism of General Sherman’s saying before they return to the peaceful pursuits of the workshop and factory. Hamilton is proud of its brave boys who have answered their mother country’s call, and this old Muser hopes that the men who are at the head of the city affairs will see that the dependent mothers and the wives and children of the men who have volunteered will be generously provided for, not in charity, but as a debt the people at home owe to the men who are going to the front. The raising of funds should not be left to the haphazard of collecting by private subscription, but should be made a tax levy by the authorities on the wealth of the city, so that every man and woman who own or control property should pay their just share for the defense of the homeland. To leave the collection of a war fund to private individuals means the giving by the generous ones, and the tightwads escape altogether. A war tax for the support of the families of the soldiers should be levied by the city, and a generous sum paid weekly or monthly by the city treasurer to every woman and child.

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                              “UBIQUE”

          “Ubique’ means that warning grunt

             The perished linesman knows.

           When o’er is strung an’ sufferin’ front

             The shrapnel sprays his foes;

           An’ as their firin’ dies away,

             The ‘usky whisper runs

           From lips that ‘aven’t drunk all day:

             “The Guns ! Thank Gawd, the Guns !”

-        Kipling.      

 

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The battery has been well-connected with the history of Hamilton from its organization sixty years ago. Its first commander, Captain Booker, was one of the leading business men in the city in his day, and was the son of the Rev. Alfred Booker, the pastor of the First Baptist church organized in Hamilton. He was succeeded by Captain W. H. Glassco, and others who were identified with the early history of the battery. Coming on down to a later day, Colonel John S. Hendrie and Colonel Tidswell were commanders of the battery and Lieut.-Col. Morrison, now commander of the first brigade, and Dr. Osbourne, who won their spurs on the field at South Africa, and Lieut.-Col. Rennie, commanding the Army Medical corps, learned their first lessons in the gunnery in the old battery. The present officers of the old Fourth are: Major Carscallen, Captain Field, Lieut. Taylor, Major E. E. O’Reilly, surgeon, and Sergt.-Major Peace. Three ex-majors, Wholton, McDonald and Horner are residents of this city.

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Major R. H. Labatt, of the Thirteenth, went into camp at Quebec with the contingent from his regiment. He is a grandson of a brave soldier, who won his promotion from a sub-altern in the Twenty-Fourth regiment of infantry to become the commanding officer. Colonel Hodgetts began his military career early in the last century when British soldiers were in the thickest of the fight on every battlefield. The Twenty-Fourth was an Irish regiment; in 1833 or 1834, it came to Canada, and for a time a detachment of the regiment was stationed in an underground fort at Coteau du Lac, where the writer of these musings was born, my father being a soldier in that regiment. Captain Roberts, who will be remembered as the pay master of the pensioners in Hamilton was a member of the same company, so was John Nickerson, the old theatrical manager, who owned the theatre on the corner of John and Merrick streets, sixty years ago. Major Labatt must have been born with the warlust as an inheritance from his grandfather, Col. Hodgetts, for when Great Britain decided to enter the war, the major was one of the first of the Thirteenth officers to tender his services. He was active in raising the first contingent, giving up his large business to the care of his office manager. When he arrived in camp at Valcartier, he was appointed commanding officer of the Seventh battalion of 1500 men, of which the Thirteenth contingent was a part. Major Labatt has the reputation of being one of the best tactically in the old Thirteenth, and the Seventh battalion under his command will give a good account of itself on the battlefield. Hamilton seems to be getting recognition from the government for two more of its young officers have been detailed for duty. Lieut. H. G. Storme and Lieut. J. V. Young have been commissioned in the heavy battery of artillery in the overseas force.

1914-08-22

It is cheering news that comes from the head managers of some of the leading industries both in Canada and the United States that notwithstanding disarrangement of business on account of the war, they expect to keep open their factories as far as possible, and that married men are to have the preference in being employed. The closing down of factories in the war zone will of necessity create demand from this country to supply the waste created by war. The manufacturers have had many years of prosperity and good profits, and even if they were to keep the factories going at the bare cost, they would be the gainers in the end, for they would be in better shape when the war clouds roll by to open up with renewed force. There are thousands of men out of employment today who were not prepared for the closing of the factory doors; while, fortunately, there are thousands who laid by a trifle each pay day who are now able to pull through the hard times by strict economy. Judging from the late government report of the chartered banks in Canada, there is now close upon one thousand millions of dollars on deposit in the banks, and over $800,000,000 of that amount are the savings of the thrifty when times were good put away a portion each pay day. It is estimated by a very conservative manager of one of the local banks that there is not less than $35,000,000 on deposit in the savings banks and post office in this city, and nearly all of this are the savings of the workingmen and women who had the forethought to lay by a little as they went along for the proverbial rainy day, that comes sooner or later in every industrial city. Hamilton depends upon its factories to support the workers, and the more saving they are doing during the days of prosperity and plenty of work, the more independent the workman is when the factory door closes. The manufacturers have been reaping a large harvest during the past ten years in the history of Hamilton; they can certainly afford to use some of the profits in running their industries, even on half time, for the benefit of the workers. There is no scarcity of money in the banks, and with one hundred millions of dollars to fall back upon, the financial condition of Canada should be in a very comfortable condition.

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          For the fourth time in the history of Hamilton as an incorporated city has the cry of war been heard in the streets, and the recruiting officers have been calling for men to accept the King’s shilling and go forth to the field of conflict. The war of 1812 was of an earlier date, when this town was known as the Head of the Lake, and the population was so small that few, if any, saw service. Seventy—even years ago the rebellion of 1837 brought out the patriots to protect the flag from the followers of William Lyon Mackenzie, and they made short work of it. The next call for soldiers was for the One Hundredth regiment, when the recruiting sergeant, accompanied by a fifer and a drummer, beat up for recruits in the streets of Hamilton. This was war in earnest, and many a young man donned the ribbon and took the Queen’s shilling. The Fenian in 1866 was the next thriller to appeal to the patriotism of young and old men, and the Thirteenth Royal regiment saw service. There was no beating up for recruits then, as more men wanted to go than there was a demand for. The boys smelled powder and had a taste of war, just enough to whet their appetites and make them wish that the Fenians would only stand up to the work and have it out in true soldier fashion. The boys of the Thirteenth tell the story that when the bullets were whistling at Ridgeway, a sergeant was hunting for a tree behind which he could play sharpshooter, when he heard a plaintive voice yodeling :

          Oh, why was I a soldier

            To fight for any royal Guelph,

          When I might have been a butcher

             In business for myself ?

          Going closer to a tree that was no larger than a sapling, he espied a member of his company hugging it very close; and indeed the young soldier was about as slim as the tree, so that it was not very inviting to the fat sergeant. The sweet singer kept on yodeling, and the sergeant was so impressed with the sentiment of the song that he carefully entered it in his diary, and so it has come down to the present day. What is remarkable about the story is that the yodeler has been successfully engaged in the butcher business ever since the cruel war was over. The next call was for the South African war, and Hamilton was heroically represented on many a battlefield in the Boer country.

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          And now the war cloud has grown to huge proportions in a very few days. The month of July opened as peacefully on the world as a calm summer day, when all at once a storm broke and war was declared by Germany. It began out of a little scrap between Servia and Austria, owing to the assassination of a prince of the royal blood, and at once the whole world plunged into it. It had come sooner or later, for all Europe seemed to be in a state of uneasiness owing to the preparations being made by some of the powers. It was the old story of two boys in a threatening attitude, one daring the other to knock the chip from his shoulder. War is the sport of kings and rulers, but it is death to the man who has to do the fighting in the ranks. The pity of it is the large army of widows and orphans, the wives and children of the private soldiers slain in battle, who are to be the future sufferers. Man is a fighter by nature, and when the war drums beat he wants to answer the call promptly. We had a sample of this during the past week; the old soldiers who had done service in past wars for Queen and country were the first to respond, and the first detachment to leave this city was made up entirely of men who knew what war means. ‘War is hell’ and they know it by past experience but the tap of the drum and the blare of the rumpet started the warm blood in their veins, and they were the first to respond to the call when the recruiting office was opened. ‘Brave boys are they, they rush at their country’s call and yet, and yet, we can never forget how many brave boys must fall.’ That was one of the songs of the civil war in the United States half a century ago, when this old Muser and hundreds of thousands more, were on the firing line, thinking of the loved ones at home and wondering should they ever meet again. Now and then some soldier went into battle with a presentiment that he would not come out alive, and the chances are ten to one that he never got a scratch. It is a good thing that every man thinks he is bulletproof; and while he may be standing in line waiting for the command to open fire or charge the enemy, with his heart in his mouth, yet, when the first volley is fired, he forgets the danger and stands up to duty like a man. They talk about bravery and coolness in battle. It sounds well, but it is the fighting nature of the man, when he gets warmed up to the sound of whistling bullets, that wins battles.

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          When the recruiting sergeant beat up for recruits in Hamilton nearly sixty years ago for the One Hundredth regiment, there was a fascination in the tap of the drum and the shriek of the fife that made it easy for the sergeant to get his quota. The Queen’s shilling and the bunch of red, white and blue ribbon caught the thousand men required to fill the ranks, and the One Hundredth sailed for glory, but never got there, as peace was declared by the time they reached the shores of Great Britain. It takes about a man’s weight in lead to kill one soldier in battle in these days of improved weapons, so that in the days of the old flintlock muskets more dependence was put on bayonet charges to rout the enemy. In the civil war in the United States with the improved Springfield rifle, the bayonet charge became a lost art. At the beginning of the war, the federal army was mainly equipped with what was known as the Belgium musket, for the United States had not yet learned the need of arsenals for the making of rifles for its soldiers. In the last few years, every government has been improving its deadly implements of war, till now a rifle will carry a bullet far beyond the sight of the man who fires it, and there seems to be no limit to the power of cannon on land or sea. If ‘war is hell’ in General Sherman’s time, what must it be now to the man on the firing line with all of the improvements in death-dealing implements that the scientist and the inventor have added to its horrors? Away back in 1866, the Royal Thirteenth had a slight inkling of war when they stood on the firing line at Ridgeway. The boys who volunteers for South Africa had all the glory that was coming to them in the conflict with a hostile army that was expert with the gun and accustomed to the lay of the country. But the present war is the climax of all the wars of the past century in the number of men engaged and in the superiority of arms and equipment. In the civil war in the united States at the battle of Gettysburg, the federal army had 35,000 men killed and wounded in the three days’ fighting. If the reports that come to us of the losses of the German and Belgian armies in the preliminary skirmishes seem serious, with only those two nations engaged, what will the slaughter be when the combined armies get into the conflict? ‘War is hell,’ but only when the bully comes out with a chip on his shoulder. The chip must be knocked off.

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          With all the advantages of the present day mechanical schools and public schools there is no excuse for a boy to be ignorant of books or of the means of earning a living when the time comes for him to make his own way. Boys nowadays seem to be averse to learning a trade, and in a measure the parents are responsible. The mother does not fancy her boy working at a trade, as his father had to, but wants him educated for one of the learned professions. Many of them think that their boys, to become rich or famous, must be a lawyer, a doctor or a minister, or at least a clerk in some office or in a bank. They do not welcome the kind of opportunity that presents itself to the hand of him that is versed in manual labor. Here is a story of a newsboy whose way of thinking was different. He had sold papers on a street corner for thirteen years – let us say on the corner of King and James streets. He was the main support of his invalid father, his mother and the younger members of the family. He was a wide-awake boy, and during his hours of selling papers, his mind was active in taking in the everyday occurrences that surrounded him. Probably his handling of newspapers was an incentive to him to read and study, for he had not the privilege of attending school, his labor to support the family requiring his time when other boys of his age had the good fortune of being able to attend school. What he lacked in opportunity  during the daytime, he made up at night, and when other boys of his class were out in the streets at night, he was a close student in his humble home, reading and studying such books as he was able to borrow or get from the public library. There was no technical then for him to take advantage of. That newsboy had spent his early life in a city, and its surroundings did not appeal to him; his greatest desire was to live in the country and become an independent farmer. To the end he took up the study in scientific agriculture, and faithfully he pursued it till he acquired such an elementary knowledge that he was prepared to begin with the practical part.

          His brothers and sisters had grown up and were able to do their part in support of father and mother, and this gave the newsboy more time to pursue his studies. Mind you, he had never given up his business of selling papers during these years of preparation and study. The time came at last when he was ready to make the soil yield at once his health and a living. He was not ashamed of the noble ambition to become a farmer, and thus provide a home in the country for his invalid father and for the loving mother who had encouraged him during all the years of his sacrifice and toil. He had a little money that he was able to save during his newsboy days and with it bought a small farm on time for the balance of the price. Today his farm has increased in the number of acres, and as he works it on scientific principles, it yields him large profits. He has no failure in crops. Many struggling doctors, lawyers, preachers have missed their calling through a false idea of their parents that one kind of labor is gentlemanly and another is not. The world does not care for these nice distinctions. It recognizes you for what you are worth, and rates a capable farmer or mechanic above a genteel loafer, who lives on the earnings of his good father. And this little story of the newsboy, true in every particular, reminds us that Hamilton’s generosity has provided a means whereby any industrious boy can work during the day to pay his board, and relieve his old father and mother of the care and responsibility of his support. In the course of the next three or four weeks, the technical school will again open its night classes for the training of boys in the rudiments of a practical education in mechanics and electricity. There are a dozen different studies to select from, any one of which will prepare a boy for an independent manhood, and had our newsboy the advantages of the boy of the present day, it would have made his preparatory studies easier. Fathers, mothers, think it over and send your boy to the technical school to spend time when he will have to enter the battle of life. Go up to the technical school, and see what it is doing, and have a talk with Prof. Witton. He will tell you more about the advantages of manual training for your boy than the writer can tell in a column of the Spectator. The school room is a safer place for your boy during the long winter evenings than the street corners.

 

1914-06-20

In the year 1854, the Cadets of Temperance and the Sons of Temperance were not holding their own as organizations, and this brought the Good Templars to the front. The order had its origin in the United States, and as it admitted both sexes to membership, it soon became popular. Father Adam got mighty lonely in the Garden of Eden, and to keep him from getting lonesome, so that he would not get into bad habits, Eve was sent to keep him company. The girls in the old days had much more influence over the habits of the young men than they have in these degenerate days, and for this reason the order of Good Templars seemed to spring into popularity as by magic. Hamilton lodge No. 2 soon had a large membership, and as the majority were young people, the influence for good was marked in the habits of the young men. Hundreds were kept out of saloons, and grew to be total abstainers, though some fell by the wayside. Through the influence of the Good Templars in Hamilton, the first check on the saloon was the closing up on Saturday night at se3ven o’clock, and that law became general throughout Upper Canada. It was a good law, for it closed the drinking places so as to give families a chance to get a portion of the weekly wages of bibulous husbands. The Good Templars first introduced street preaching on Sunday afternoons in the interest of the discussion of temperance. That old Hamilton lodge did grand work for humanity and temperance in Hamilton. In an evil hour, the green-eyed monster crept in, and a feeling of hostility to an American order was cultivated by a few ultra-loyal men who had designs on the order for political purposes. The result was a split in the order, the secessionists calling themselves the British order. While a lodge was organized in connection with the new order, it did not have a long life. To the credit of the Good Templars of Hamilton, they could not see why connection with the supreme grand lo9dge of the United States would be a detriment to temperance work in Canada. The old Hamilton lodge flourished, and its membership being on the increase, the temperance hall in White’s block became too small to accommodate the numbers who attended the weekly meetings. The second and third stories of Piper’s building, in the Elgin block, on John street, was bought by the members, each one contributing according to his or her ability, and the building was enlarged by an addition in the rear, the two stories became thrown into one.

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          In the year 1854, sixty years ago, the first lodge of Good Templars was organized in Hamilton, under the name of Hamilton lodge No. 9. Dr. William Case was elected the first Worthy Chief Templar, and among the charter members were some of the prominent business men of the city and their wives and daughters. The Sons of Temperance were doing good work among the men, and to educate the boys in the habits of total abstinence, there was a section of the Cadets of Temperance under the control of the Sons. The cadets had quite a large section, and the boys were not only pledged against the use of liquor, but they were prohibited from the use of tobacco while members of the order. At the age of eighteen, the boys were supposed to graduate into the Sons of Temperance, which many of them did, and at the same time, they were absolved from their pledge against the use of tobacco. It was the fond hope of the founders that the boys, not having acquired the appetite for tobacco would continue to abstain from its use during life; but they were typical sons of Adam, and could not resist temptation. Among the boys active in the cadets were many who afterwards became prominent in Hamilton life. At least two who in afterlife were editorial managers of the Spectator were model boys in their youth and were members of the Cadets. That was away back in the early ‘50s. The use of intoxicating liquors was more general in those days, and total abstainers were few and far between. In almost every home, the decanter had a prominent place on the sideboard, and dad had to have his tansy bitters before breakfast to sharpen his appetite, and his regular nips at stated times during the day. The laws against the sale of liquor were not of much force, and as the license fee was merely a nominal sum, not more than $50 a year or less, there were double and treble the number of taverns and shebeen shops in Hamilton to supply the demand of not more than ten thousand populations than there are now to quench the thirst of over one hundred thousand. The world moves and temperance has taken a long stride ahead. There are more total abstainers now than then in then in proportion to population, but the mischief of it is the drinkers consume more than their share. The result is, the statistics show that more liquor, of all kinds, is drunk now, per capita, than at any period of the history of Canada. This is bad. It sounds strange to say that more liquor is drunk while the majority of people, counting men, women and children, are total abstainers.

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          A history of that old lodge would be interesting, and its death a lesson in these days when designing men are using the sacred cause of temperance to bolster up a political party. Political action was the death-blow to the order of Good Templars, not only in Canada but in the United States. At one time, it was the most powerful temperance organization in America. Designing men got control of it for their own personal use as a political rallying cry and the end came. The old thread-worn cry of “Vote as you pray” had its effect, and the churches were appealed to. The same conditions exist today, and the temperance banner, under which men of all parties can safely rally, is being dragged in the dust in the interest of one political party.

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          In the year 1854, the Canada grand lodge of the Good Templars was organized in this city. Sixty years have worked wonderful changes, and it is doubtful if more than a dozen who were connected then are living now in Hamilton. Dr. Case, who was connected with the organization of Hamilton lodge, was honored by unanimous election to the office of grand worthy chief Templar, and a Hamilton man was made grand secretary. The institution of a grand lodge gave the order in Canada a standing, resulting in the organization of subordinate lodge in nearly every town and hamlet in Upper Canada. For ten years or more, the order was on the top wave of prosperity, and then the plotters for political action got control, and so ended for years the work of the Good Templars in Canada, and also in the United States. Recently, there has been an effort to revive the order and place it on a substantial basis, and the meeting of the grand lodge in this city this week shows encouraging signs in its report of work done during the past year. A number of subordinate lodges have been organized, and the roll of membership gives evidence of a healthy increase. This old Muser had the honor of taking part in the organization of the first grand lodge in Canada, and while adhering strictly to his temperance pledge, he dropped out from the order when the “Vote as you pray” fellows got control for their own aggrandizement.

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          Scientists have discovered that ice cream and candy are a sure cure for the drink habit, and that if the remedy is persevered in, the boozeries will have to retire from business. It certainly is a very pleasant cure, and is worthy of a trial. But the mischief of it is that the boozer prefers the irrigating process, and as a general thing, he wishes his throat was a mile long that he might feel the delightful irritation produced by the genuine stuff. Oranges and apples, and indeed so many antidotes for the drink habit have been prescribed, that one is lost in amazement that the army of drunkards seems to be enlisting new recruits all the time. It is like Tennyson’s Brook, it goes on forever. Legislation does not seem to stem the torrent, while the fountain head, the distilleries and the breweries, seem to pour forth their everlasting streams. Remedies without number have been prescribed, but appetite is stronger than the desire to be cured. Dr. Keeley, an army surgeon in the American civil war, hit upon a remedy that has cured thousands of the drink habit, and if persevered in, it is effectual. The remedy has been taken by a few Hamiltonians with good results; but there are others who have tried it who have gone back to their old habits. Then there have been remedies advertised that are utterly worthless, and the men who put them on the market should be prosecuted for fraud, for they only hold out a hope to the wife who is willing to pay anything if it will only cure her husband of the unfortunate appetite. Some of these remedies can be out into the coffee the man drinks, so the advertisement says, and he will never know what he has taken till his wife tells him later when he is cured. This is a cruel fake, and it is a deliberate misrepresentation. Any person may be cured of the drink habit if they only have the moral courage to quit it and take such remedies as the Keely cure. There is a drink that is in common use that has been denounced by the highest medical authority in the United States, Dr. Wiley, formerly head of the United States marine hospital bureau. It is sold by druggists and restaurants, and is so seductive that once a taste for it is acquired, it is hard to break away from. It is not intoxicating but is much worse – it is a soothing drink that leads in the end to the cocaine and morphine habit. Shun it if you value health and comfort.

1914-04-18

The passing of Edward Bethune, on Friday of last week, removed another old-timer from the stage of action. During the latter years of his life, he was a comparative stranger in a town where he once was active. Sixty years ago he was a partner in the confectionery business of Ecclestone & and Bethune, the firm conduction two of the leading shops in Hamilton. From the first knowledge, the writer of these musings had of Mr. Bethune, he was always interested in religious work. In 1855, he joined the volunteer fire department and was a member of No. 1 company, having a his associates George Tuckett, Charles Newberry, Harry Harding, Joshua Phillips, all prominent in business circles. In looking over the old roll of the company, the only one now living in Hamilton is James Phillips. How time rolls around! Of the 135 names of No. 1 in 1855, how few are left! The minutes of the old fire company are full of quaint doings. For instance, Edward Bethune presented, at a meeting, a bill of 17 shillings, 6 pence for beer, and after some discussion, it was allowed. The boys of No. 1 often indulged in beer and crackers and cheese at their meetings, but not to a hilarious extent. Charley Smith, the oldest living fireman in the city, celebrated his eightieth birthday a week ago last Sunday. He was born in New York city and came to Hamilton when a boy. He joined the old department in 1847, and was captain of a boys’ company, the engine being a present from John Fisher, of the firm Fisher and McQuesten, and was made in their foundry. Of No. 3 company, there are but few left. It was a temperance company, and no one was eligible for membership who smothered his face in the foam of a beer mug. The few survivors of the old department are men now ranging along about the eighties, exempting Colonel John Stoneman, and he was only a boy when he first began as a torchbearer.

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          Probably one of the oldest men in Hamilton, and without a doubt, the oldest business man, ended life’s journey on Friday of last week. David Galbraith was in his ninety-sixth year; he was born in Stoney Creek and lived there till arriving at man’s estate, when he moved into Hamilton and engaged in the grocery business. When Mr. Galbraith was born, on the 18^th day of February 1819, Stoney Creek was a more important point than was Hamilton, or Head of the Lake as it was then called. Being raised on a farm, his inclinations led to a farming life, and he became a student of fruit raising, which was then in its infancy, especially the cultivation of the peach, starting the first peach-tree nursery in this section. When he first came to Hamilton, there was but one brick cottage in the village, and that stood on a knoll on the corner of King and John streets. On the first of October, 1841, Mr. Galbraith opened a general store in a frame building adjoining the Waldorf hotel on the east, and did business there till early in the fifties, when he moved across the street, opposite the Waldorf. He was successful as a business man. He took an active part in politics and represented St. Patrick’s ward in the city council till he was appointed one of the commissioner in 1855, to organize a system of waterworks for the city, in connection with Charles Magill, Adam Brown, M. Wilson Browne and Peter Balfour. T. C. Keefer was the engineer who planned the system, and the commissioners ably seconded his efforts. There were diverse opinions as from whence should the supply of water come, some favoring a canal from the Grand river, others going still farther to Lake Erie, while others thought the bay would be the cheapest. Mr. Keefer decided that the present source of supply would be the purest and best and his plan was adopted by the commissioners. It was no slight undertaking for a town of less than 11,000 inhabitants to undertake, and that, too, at the beginning of one of the worst financial panics that ever visted Canada. The estimated cost of the system was $440,000, and the commissioners completed their at but little more than the engineer’s estimate. For this amount the pumping station at the beach with a complete outfit of machinery was built, the reservoir on the mountain, about180 feet above the level of the lake, was constructed, and thirteen miles of pipe, extending from Wellington to Bay street, and from Hannah to Barton, with one hundred hydrants, was completed. To provide for a population of 25,000, it was estimated would require an additional $40,000. This was the system that David B. Galbraith helped to organize. Adam Brown is the only survivor of the first board of water commissioners of Hamilton. They planned wisely and well. After Mr. Galbraith retired from business, he was appointed to a position in the customs service, which he held till superannuated. He was always in the front rank of those who loved the city and was ready to make sacrifice for its advancement.

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John Wannamaker, formerly postmaster-general of the United States, does not take kindly to long Sunday services. Now no one can accuse Mr. Wannamaker of a lack f reverence for the Sabbath, for he has been an earnest worker in the church and in the Sunday school from his youth up, but he has the courage of his convictions and is not afraid to speak out in a meeting at the mid-year conference of the Pennsylvania State Sabbath School association held in Philadelphia last week, he said, “You spend too much time fussing with programs, speeches, meetings and movements. You will win greater success if you adopt some of the methods used by Billy Sunday, the evangelist. Religious services are too long and too dry anyhow, and the church or Sunday school that expects to meet with success must deliver the goods the people want.” Some people object to Billy Sunday’s language. It’s pretty hard to break away from the language a fellow has been using since childhood, and we should not overlook the harvest to examine the harrow too closely. Mr. Wannabaker added that Sunday schools should try to follow the principles of vocational training by discovering and developing the inclination of each pupil.

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The present tightness of the money market and the consequent depression in business does not seem to make any appreciable difference in the value of real estate in Hamilton. While the transactions are not as many, yet prices keep advancing steadily. The scarcity of inside property stiffens up the price. There may not be as much building within the next few months, but this will not reduce the value of houses, rather tend to an increase in price. The prospect for the building of new churches and of improving the old ones is going to set a good many thousands afloat during the coming summer. If money is as scarce as it is claimed for it, then it is certainly not among churches, for the Easter reports indicate a liberal giving that is unprecedented. Seventeen years ago, a newcomer to Hamilton was in search of a lot on which to build a house, and he was offered about seventy-five feet on the corner of West avenue and King streets – the corner just east of the First Methodist church – for $2,000. The site was all that was desirable, but being from the country, he had the horror of the noise of the street cars passing by, so he let it pass. There are three brick houses on that lot, which pay an annual rental that would have been a big interest on the $2,000 invested. However, he let the opportunity pass. A couple of years ago, the trustees of the Methodist church offered $15,000 for the lots, and would have gone a little better rather than miss getting them. The owners turned up their noses at even $20,000, and now are holding them at $30,000. This is but one instance of the increasing value of property in this city. We might cite several cases where large sums have been paid for desirable lots even within the past couple of years, but this one takes the bun. We presume the assessors have not yet learned the increased value of that property, but somehow or another residence property keeps on increasing in value according to the assessors.

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Those get-rich-quick advertisements we read in the daily papers certainly offer tempting inducements, and thousands of dollars pass from the pockets every year of the gullible ones into the pockets of the sharpers. For instance, an advertisement which has grown gray in the service is that which offers to furnish literary employment to those who want it, where they can make a good salary writing for the newspapers, and it does not cost the applicant a cent. Generous souls, to give free information to those ignorant of newspaper work! But when the applicant writes for a position then the advertiser gets in his work, and bleeds the unfortunate one so long as there is a dollar to be had, and at last to find out that there is nothing in it. Then there other advertisements of a similar nature offering free information that will make the fortunes of the applicants, and all one has to do is write and have the good thing handed out to them without fee or reward. When one writes for information, then a small fee is required, and so it goes on so long as the innocent one can be gulled. These sharks live on the ignorance and gullibility of those who are always who are always on the lookout for some means by which they can get rich without work. Pay no attention to such advertisements and you will save money.

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How are you this morning? Fine and dandy, are you? Want to know how to remain in that condition? Then listen to the advice of a governor of an eastern state: “Take a good long walk every morning; eat wholesome food; refrain from alcoholic liquors; refrain from excessive use of tobacco, and particularly from inhaling the smoke; and, having attended in all these matters, pray hard, for nothing can keep you healthy and strong except the Grace of Almighty God.” Here is a recognition of the Supreme Director from a man who finds time in the midst of the cares of a great office in a great state, to remember the things that be of the spirit. He has learned that the restful spirit makes for bodily health and strength – an easy lesson to learn for which no particular cult is needed – just calm, common sense. Some of us learn it early, some late, but to all the fact some day comes home that the troubled, vexed spirit makes much of pain and ill for the outer man, doesn’t it?

1918-06-06

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO

          One hundred years ago, Dundas had the only newspaper and printing office in the Gore district. The name of the newspaper was the Phoenix, and it is probable that it was among the first newspapers printed in Upper Canada. The editor and publisher was Richard Cockrell, and the subscription price was $4.50 a year, one half to be paid in advance. The copy of the Phoenix we had the privilege of handling, originally belonged to Nathaniel Hughson, he being a regular subscriber, and was dated September 28, 1819, and was the property of R. G. Bigelow, who was a nephew of Mr. Hughson. Mr. Bigelow died in this city a couple of years ago. At the time we had the Phoenix, we suggested that the authorities of Dundas  should get possession of it, and preserve it as an ancient relic of one hundred years ago, but, unfortunately, the opportunity was allowed to pass, and the probability is that after Mr. Bigelow’s death the paper may have been destroyed. Nathaniel Hughson was one of the early settlers of Hamilton, and one of the main streets leading to the bay was named after him.

          That the Phoenix had but a brief existence is more than likely, for the next printer we have any record of as living in Dundas was G. Heyworth Hackstaff, whose name appears on the title page of a book printed for Dr. Thomas Rolph, of Ancaster, in the year 1836. The title of the book was  “ A Brief Account with Observations, made during a visit to the West Indies, and a Tour Through the United States of America, in Parts of  the years 1832-33; Together With a Statistical Account of Upper Canada.” Ancaster had its first printing office and newspaper in 1826. The paper was called the Gore Gazette. It had but a short life, and was succeeded by the Gore Balance,

          The Rolph family settled in the neighbourhood of Ancaster and Dundas early in the thirties, being natives of England, and there may some of the early settlers who have not forgotten them. In the year 1832, Dr. Thomas Rolph having determined to change his residence for some one of the colonies of Great Britain, he was prevailed upon by a West India planter to visit his plantation before deciding upon his future location. On the 17^th of November, 1832, the doctor bade farewell to England, arriving in Carlisle bay, Barbados. While the doctor was charmed with the country and climate of the West Indies, there seemed to be something lacking to make it the ideal home he was in search of. The truth of the matter was, his mind had already been biased in favor of Upper Canada, with Ancaster as the haven of rest, and go where he would, the descriptions he had received from English friends who had already settled in the Niagara district was the loadstone that drew him thitherward. The doctor spent a couple of years wandering in the United States, but his British birth and training finally decided him that henceforward the Ancaster hills and the Dundas valley were to be “Home Sweet Home.” His future career and success in life showed the wisdom of the doctor’s decision.

          The old muser has the pleasure of reading a history that was written of a locality in which he spent the early part of his life, and it recalls pleasant memories of boyhood days when, with other boys and girls, we hiked out on holiday afternoons to drink the waters of the celebrated Ancaster sulphur springs. That was more than sixty years ago, but the days will never be forgotten. Dr. Thomas wrote his “Observations” in the year 1834 – the year memorable to the writer of these musings as being the date of his giving his first ell as a salute to the old Union Jack. Ancaster and Dundas were then the leading towns at the Head of the Lake, and Dundas had a printing office that was supplied with type equal to anything we have at the present day for first-class book printing, and the quality of paper was superior in finish to that now in use except for costly book work. As Ancaster was Dr. Rolph’s objective point when he arrived in Canada, and for many years after the home of his choice, let us take a start there.

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THE EARLY SETTLERS OF THE ANCASTER DISTRICT

While Dr. Rolph was loyal in sentiment to the homeland where he was born, his brief experience in Canada assured him that every poor man, if he be industrious, could provide abundantly for his family by any kind of labor, manual or mechanical, for here the poorer class  of people are free from the imposts and burdens which so often sent old country people superless to be, while their children cried for bread. What an extensive field of employment for the practical philanthropists Canada presented in the early days of the last century. There were some illustrious instances to be met with among the wealthy in Great Britain, such as Earl Egremont, Lord Htyesbury, Marquis of Bute, Joseph Marriage and others who furnished the means of emigration to the honest and industrious poor, who lived on their estates in the old country, contributing to their removal  from scenes of bitter distress and strong temptations to crime, enabling them to exchange beggary for independence, starvation for plenty, and idleness and disease for health and exertion.

The advantages of emigration to the home laborers were that instead of pining away and withering in an overstocked or exhausted soil, they would strike root and flourish in the rich fields of a new country like Canada. The patriotic Duke of Hamilton purchased a large district of several thousand acres for the purpose of settling in Canada on the easiest terms all the industrious poor on his estate. Of this class of emigrants was the old Gore district settled in a large measure, and from that sturdy stock of English, Irish and Scotch has descended the prosperous fathers and mothers who have made this part of Canada one of the richest sections.

A hundred years ago a few men like the Earl of Edgemont benefitted hundreds of poor persons whom he rescued from the degradation of the workhouses and sent to happiness and independence in Canada. That philanthropic earl furnished in great part the means that brought from his own and neighboring estates in England no less than thirteen thousand poor persons to Upper Canada, the larger number settling in the Gore district. Some of the ancient families in Ancaster and Dundas can trace their ancestry back to these emigrants, and they need not be ashamed of the stock from which they sprung. An instance came under Dr. Rolph’s observation of a young English couple having rented a farm within two miles of Ancaster, consisting of 90 acres of cleared land with a house, barn, good orchard, the use of a span of horses and 12 ewes, for $175 a year, and at the end of four years, by their labor and industry, they had saved enough to buy the farm, paying a fair price for it, and all in cash. And this was only one of many such cases. The doctor gives in his pleasant history an account of a laborer whom Lord Edgemont sent out from an English workhouse and who settled near Ancaster, who had become the owner of a farm of fifty acres, with a comfortable log house, a span of horses, a wagon, a cow, hogs, poultry etc. as the result of a few short years of industry, and in addition sent home money to enable his brother and his wife to come to Canada. The brothers worked together, buying up land and stock, and in a few years ranked among the prosperous farmers of Ancaster.

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Dr. Rolph tells in his book of the winters being long and severe, but he did not consider that as a fault. The Sons of St. Andrew were enabled by the excellent sleighing to enjoy their annual festival, on the 30^th of November, 1835, at West Flamboro, persons from Ancaster, Dundas and Hamilton attending; and on New Year’s eve, a ball was held at the same tavern, got up by the same party, at which upwards of one hundred attended. A person from Brantford, writing under date March 22, 1836, says : “We are now drawing to the close of one of the severest winters which has been known for some years in Upper Canada, and we may look daily for an end as well to the amusements which it has afforded by the excellent sleighing that has accompanied it, as to all those occupations to which it has given facility.”

A Hamiltonian writes , April 10, 1836 : “The termination of an unusually hard winter, even for Canada, has taken place. On the 19^th of November the country was for the first time covered with snow, a clothing which has continued, as the ancient historian would say, even to this day. The intensity of the cold for more than four months has seldom been equaled, the thermometer during that period being frequently 30 degrees below zero …. The mildness of the weather, however, for the last few days, and the gradual disappearance of the threatening enemy, have dissipated every fear, and the heart of the husbandman already begins to leap for joy. Hard frosts still continue during the nights, but the days are delightfully fine, and the heat of the sun is rapidly removing the wintry clothing of white, which will speedily be supplied by our spring mantle of green.” Wild pigeons were so plentiful in those days that the town and country loungers used to betake themselves to the mountainside at nights, and with clubs gather a harvest of material for pigeon pies. The Hamilton mountain was a favorite roost of wild pigeons even twenty years later, but now a large reward has been offered for a live wild pigeon, and not one has been presented from any part of the American continent for many years.

Winter was considered in ancient days as the most lively part of the year, when there was about four inches of snow, with frost, making sleighing for business or pleasure from one end of the province to the other. With a span of good horses and two or three persons in a sleigh, with warm clothing, fur cap, and a bear or buffalo skin over the back and feet, one could pleasantly drive forty or fifty miles a day, enlivened by the numerous sleighs met on the road and the merry jingling of the bells. From Ancaster church to Vanderlip’s tavern, a distance of little more than three miles, across the Ancaster plains, Dr. Rolph counted sixty-four sleighs on the 20^th of January, most of them hauling saw logs to the mill in Ancaster, and some with grain. As a proof of the cheerfulness and hilarity consequent on Sleigh riding, a Canadian poet tells the story.

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THE SLEIGH BELL

Merrily dash we o’er valley and hill,

All but the sleigh bell is sleeping a still;

O, bless the dear sleigh-bell! There’s naught can compare

To its loud merry tones as they break on the ear.

1914-02-21

What a grand treat the Spectator is furnishing its readers in almost giving away that book of ancient songs, entitled Heart Songs! It is an almost priceless collection of the songs of better days, and takes the old-timers back half a century or more ago when the words and music were familiar in the home and in the concert hall. The songs written by Stephen C. Foster carry one back in memory to the days of Jenny Lind, Kate Hayes, the Black Swan and other noted singers who made the words and music famous by introducing  them as encores. What pathos there was in the Old Folks at Home, Old Black Joe, My Old Kentucky Home, Old Dog Tray, as they came as an inspiration from the heart and pen of Stephen Foster! The songs were sung and whistled in the streets by staid old men and the schoolboy, and the programs of musical entertainments were not complete unless plentifully sprinkled with selections from the songwriters of the day. And, by the way, Hamilton can claim a distant relationship with the gifted Foster, for within the past couple of years, he had cousins living here who were to the mansion born, Poor Foster, like Edgar Allan Poe and other gifted songwriters by his genius, but his life was wasted by an appetite that has filled thousands of unnamed graves with men who seemed to be an inspiration while living. Hamilton has had its songwriters in earlier days whose names are even forgotten except by some old friend who now and then may recall them. Fifty and sixty years ago the songs of Foster were sung by every minstrel troupe – and there were real minstrels in those days, not vaudeville bawlers who do blackface stunts and call it minstrelsy – and they sound as sweetly today as we old stagers first heard them. Minstrelsy now and then are two different propositions. In the days of American slavery before the war, there was inspiration in the voices and the wild songs of the slaves at their religious gatherings, and these were incorporated into the songs of Foster and others, and at once became popular in the concert hall. It is probable that Foster wrote more songs and composed the music for them than did any songwriter of his day. It was not only in the negro dialect songs that he excelled, but Come Where My Love Lies Dreaming is a specimen in the higher lines. Minstrelsy and the writing of such songs as the slavery days suggested have become a lost art. There are but few on the minstrel stage now who belonged to the days when the Christys and Dan Rice and Dick Sitter drew crowded houses wherever they went.

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In many of the early companies, the majority of the performers were printers who had good voices and could dance a jig; it paid better than setting type at $7 and $8 a week, and then there was the added charm of a wandering life. This Old Muser recalls the visit of a minstrel company at London, The Forest City, more than sixty-five years ago. There were only five in the company, and all of them were printers from Montreal. Charles Kidner, was then working on the Free Press in London, and as he had worked with that minstrel gang in Montreal, they sent him word to advertise them and make all arrangements for the concert. The aggregation could not afford the luxury of an advanced agent, and the musical typos had to depend on their old-time friends scattered here and there in country printing offices to do their advertising. Charlie Kidner wrote a high-sounding announcement and had it printed in the Free Press office, and this Old Muser being the ‘printer’s devil’ it devolved upon him to scatter the bills after working hours, for which Charlie promised him a free ticket to the show. London had no daily paper then, and during the afternoon before the concert Mr. Kidner employed the town bell-crier to go through the streets of London and announce the coming minstrels. In the second story of the Mechanics’ Institute there was a hall that would seat about 250 people and at one end of the hall was a platform about eighteen inches high. The hall was crowded as the price of admission was only a quarter of a dollar, so after the expenses of the hall were paid there was but little left to help the minstrels on their way to the next town. Mr. Kidner paid the printing bill and the bell-ringer’s fee to help his old friends out. There were five men in the company, dressed in black pants and white shirts, and each one played an instrument as well as doing a vocal part. There was a violin, a cello, a banjo, and the bones and tambouring. Camptown Races and many of the songs that are in the Spectator book of Heart Songs were then new, and those five minstrel printers gave a three hours’ entertainment that lives still the memory of this ancient Muser.

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It is a dream to go through that book of Heart Songs for it takes the old-timer back to half a century and more ago when there was poetry in the souls of the writers, and it came gushing out into sweet melody that can never be forgotten. England, Ireland and Scotland are well-represented in the pages of the book, and it would be like writing a catalogue to give the titles and the writers. The Old Oaken Bucket, Home, Sweet Home, Widow Machree, the Low-Backed Car – what is the use of recalling the titles? Then there is a charm in the book for old soldiers who served during the American war of 1861-1865, for the well-remembered songs that cheered many a weary heart in camp and in the hospital. The old soldiers sing them at they gather at the camp fires at the annual reunions. Old Shady was one of the favourites, and it is especially so with the Muser, for we remember the author, Ben Hanoy, when he was a  student at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where we published a newspaper before and after the war. Ben went out in the first three month’s call, and then he joined the Presbyterian church and entered the ministry. His religion did not interfere with his genius as a song writer, especially war songs, for he was the author of quite a number. What old soldier can ever forget Tenting Tonight on the Old Camp Ground? Many years the Thirteenth Royal Regiment had a spectacular play one night out in Dundurn park and Bandmaster Robinson had his band boys sing Tenting Tonight, and they did sing it with a spirit and the understanding of what it meant to the boys who sang it in camp and on the battlefield during the American war.

We could ramble on about that Spectator book of Heart Songs till we would weary the reader, and then never be able to give half an idea of what it contains. To be brief then: cut out six coupons from the daily Spectator and send them with 94 cents to the business office and get one of the books. If it has to go by mail to you, then the postage will have to be added. There are hours of solid pleasure between the covers of that book, and it will give your children a love for the songs and music that brightened your own lives in the days of your youth.

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Why is it that when men are elected to public office, so many of them become champions of the liquor interest? We have known men with reputations of being members of the church and fair, average Christians who, when elected as aldermen, take up the cudgels in defense of the saloonkeeper and are ready to vote whatever legislation will lighten the burdens of that class. And the same is true in relation to pool rooms, picture shows and everything that may have a tendency to upset public morals. One would that Hamilton is really suffering for movie picture shows the way that public officials champion every demand to increase the number. And if a man wants a license to open a liquor store in a residence neighbourhood, the whole community is thrown into commotion in order that his request may be granted. Down in the East Hamilton district a man who had no special hankering after other work, and seeing the big profits in the sale of liquor, wanted to open a store and applied for license. The good people of that district, and especially the wives and mothers, became alarmed at what might result from a too convenient shop in which to buy liquor, and the heads of the large manufacturing plants in that neighbourhood all united in a protest against the license commissioners giving official sanction to the request of the applicant, and they had quite a time in heading off the danger. But the applicant was not going to lose the prize which he coveted of making money at the expense of the homes in that neighbourhood, so he withdrew the petition from the license commissioners of the city and changed his base to acquiring a shop license from the commissioners of the adjoining district for a house just outside the corporate limits of the city. Now the wives and mothers and the manufacturers and the respectable people of that district have to go through another slog to head off the enemy. Let us hope that for the sake of morality and decent citizenship that the license commissioners in the adjoining district will sit down promptly on the application. Drunkenness and immorality will thrive fast enough without having the sanction of men who are elevated in public office. Chief Smith, in his annual report, gives a gloomy picture of the increase of crime within the past three or four years. Young men and young girls are going the downward road by way of moving picture shows and dance halls and the good people in the churches are contributing $50,000 a year to convert the heathen.

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The ancient Anglo-American hotel, that in its early days was one of the best-equipped hotels in Canada, is again passing through the deep waters of affliction. When it was built, nearly sixty years ago, Canada could not boast of many first-class hotels, and about the only one in Hamilton was the City hotel, kept originally by Thomas Davidson, and afterward by F. W. Fearman. The old stone building still stands on the southwest corner of James and Merrick streets. When it was originally built, hotel architecture was only a dream, therefore not much was spent on the interior fittings. Indeed about all that was apparently needed in a first-class hotel in those days was a comfortable dining-room and a very large barroom, as it was in the barroom where the patrons of the hotel spent the hours they had for leisure. But what the old City hotel lacked in the way of bedrooms and other luxuries, it had the reputation of setting one of the best tables of any hotel in Canada, and the traveling men of those days who had to spend their Sundays on the road away from home invariably made it a point to get to Hamilton, by steamboat or stage, on Saturday night, so as to get a few square meals. Thomas Davidson had his own gardens just outside of the city limits, and there was raised all of the vegetables, small fruits, chickens and eggs, and a pasture field where the best breed of cows was kept to furnish the cream, milk and butter for his tables. Hamilton was beginning to feel a little on the high-brow order about that time, for the old town was growing in population, and there must have been not less than fifteen thousand people, men, women and children, basking in the sunshine of the ancient mountain that had been left as a legacy to the town by the patriarchs who, with Noah, had escaped the floods. The City hotel could not be enlarged, and indeed, Mr. Davidson would not hear of such a thing : it was large enough for him, and if Hamilton wanted to put on airs and build a larger hotel, it could do it. The Hamilton business men of sixty years ago had large ideas of the future of the old town, and they looked forward to the time when it might have a population of fifty thousand. The Great Western railway had been opened for more than a year, and one express train a day ran to and from Niagara Falls to Detroit, and Hamilton was the headquarters of the road. Then they were talking about building a branch to connect Toronto with Hamilton. My, what great things were to be expected! But the fly in the ointment was the lack of hotel accommodation, and this must be furnished even if old Thomas Davidson did not take it. A company was formed and the present site of the Waldorf hotel was bought for a mere song, for lots on King street were not valued highly in those days, especially on the south side of the street and so far east from James. In the earlier days that lot was the circus grounds, and the frame buildings that were erected on it later were not profitable for renting purposes. However, the company was formed, the lot was bought, and in 1855, the cornerstone of the new hotel was laid with solemnity, and after a few bottles of champagne washed the cob webs out of the throats of the orators and those connected with the enterprise. With what interest Hamilton watched each layer of brick as it added to the growth of the structure, and when the final row was reached at the top, even us poor innocents, who never expected to have money enough to take a look-in at the new hotel, felt that we had a sort of proprietary interest in it. We have told before in these Musings with what great pomp and ceremony the new hotel was opened and therefore it is not necessary to go into details. It was christened the Anglo-American, and its first landlord belonged to a celebrated family of American hotelkeepers, and everything was in the highest style of luxury and comfort. Charles R. Coleman was the name of the first proprietor.

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The Anglo-American was too big an undertaking for a city of less than 20,000 population. It was opened in the spring of 1856, and attending the inauguration came distinguished people from neighbouring towns in Canada and the United States. Although the rates were not high, the new hotel seemed to be a losing proposition from the start, notwithstanding the efforts of the businessmen of the city to help it along in the way of balls and dinner parties. Every society patronized it for its annual banquet, but all of no avail. After struggling along for three or four years, Mr. Coleman gave it up as a hopeless task and returned to the United States. The stockholders then interested a man named Kingsley, who was the proprietor of the Robinson Hall in London, to take charge of the hotel. Kingsley was a natural-born hotelman, and he took into the management with him a man named named Rice, the firm name being Rice and Kingsley. They struggled along with the management for a couple of years, but with indifferent success till finally the Prince of Wales visited Hamilton in 1860, when a grand ball was given in his honour. At that time Rice and Kingsley were head over ears in debt to almost every businessman in Hamilton, and largely to the grocers, the butchers and the dealers in all kinds of provisions. In the hope of getting their money, the storekeepers were liberal in advancing everything for the entertainment of the prince, and for the ball, it was a great financial success. The night of the ball, when Hamilton was tired out and in dreamland, Rice and Kingsley quietly folded their tents, like the Arab, and silently stole away, never again to enter the corporate limits. When the merchants presented themselves at the Anglo-American the next morning they almost fell upon the neck of each other and wept for the vanished stores they had so liberally furnished for the grand finale. This was failure number two.

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By this time, the stockholders had become disgusted with their efforts with their efforts to keep hotel, and in the year 1861 they sold the property to the Wesleyan Methodist conference for a ladies’ college, for the mere bagatelle of $28,000, or $175 per front foot. For nearly thirty-five years the old hotel was opened as a college, and where was once the sound of revelry by night arose the voice of prayer and sacred song. The college had evidently served its day, and again the building was devoted to its original purpose. Mr. Gilkinson opened it as the Waldorf hotel about sixteen years ago, and for eight years or more consucted the business successfully. During his management it had a reputation as a first-class hotel, and it was told at the time of his retirement that he had made about $75,000 clear. Indeed, he was the first and only landlord that ever made the house pay. In order to encourage the opening of the hotel when Mr. Gilkinson came, the board of license commissioners granted him a license at the regular rate, thus saving him from having to pay a high premium toobtain the purchase of one from some man already licensed. This license is now valued as one of the assets of the Waldorf at $15,000. As stated in the outset of this bit of hotel history, the Waldorf is now passing through the deep waters of affliction, its present recognized landlord having turned its assets over to the creditors. During his eight years of management he claims to have lost about $ 50,000. Recently he bought a hotel at Chatham. What is to be the future of the ancient Anglo-American is what is worrying the enterprising citizens who bought the property with the intention of razing the old building and erecting in its place a hotel to meet the wants of this growing city. Till the future develops what is to come next, the history of the old Anglo-American hotel will be continued.