1919-02-01

 

         WHAT HAMILTON HAS CONTRIBUTED TO THE FIRST INDUSTRIES

“Hamilton has an industrial history of which it may well be proud. In our last Musings we told of the first watch made in Canada being a Hamilton product made in Paul T. Ware’s watchmaking shop on King street, opposite the present site of the Royal Connaught hotel, and then of a second handmade watch, made forty years later in Thomas Lees’ shop by two young watchmakers, ‘Alf’ Baker and ‘Teddy’ Pass, who were ambitious to show what Hamilton workmen could do. And then we are told about the first threshing machine made in Canada, away back in 1833, in a shop on the site of the old Royal hotel, when it was an ancient goose pond. We are going over these first industries in order to help out Hamilton’s enterprising commissioner of industries, who is writing a booklet to tell the money-making world what an advantageous place Hamilton is to pitch their industrial tents, if they are in search of a live town in which to locate.

 

          THE FIRST CLOTH BURIAL CASKET MADE IN CANADA 

          “Burial caskets is a gruesome topic to write about, but as we will all want one sooner or later, it will do us no harm to accustom ourselves to the inevitable. Away back about forty years ago, when John A. Macdonald, the father of the national policy, came to Hamilton to dedicate the Crystal Palace, and open the provincial fair, among the exhibits was a line of black cloth-covered burial caskets from a factory in the United States. At that time, there was not a cloth-covered casket made in Canada, for the tariff was so low, only 12 ½ per cent, that no Canadian manufacturer felt that he could compete against the capital and machinery of Yankee enterprise. A young Englishman, who had served  seven years’ apprenticeship in his native land in an extensive woodworking shop, was attracted by the cloth caskets, and he said, in the hearing of Sir John, ‘I can make that class of work, if they will only give me a chance.’ The young man’s only capital was his brains and skill as a workman. Sir John was attracted by what the young man said, and in conversation said, ‘Canada will help you, if an addition to the tariff will do it.’ The result was that Sir John had the tariff increased, and James J. Evel, the young English woodworker, began the making of cloth-covered burial caskets, the first made in Canada, and has now one of the largest burial casket factories in Canada. But  more of this great industry at some future.

                     

 

           THE FIRST RAILWAY LOCOMOTIVE BUILT IN CANADA WAS

                                          MADE IN HAMILTON

          “Hamilton can claim the honor of being the birthplace of  the first railway locomotive built in Canada, and D.C. Gunn was the father of the industry. Mr. Gunn had a small shop at the foot of Wellington street, and when he saw the first locomotives for the Great Western road landed from the steamboats at the wharf at the foot of James street, he conceived the idea of turning his little machine shop into a big industry. Why should all the money be sent from Canada to build locomotives in the old country, when the work could be done in Hamilton, and furnish employment to Canadian machinists? His first order was for three locomotives for the Grand Trunk road, and they were christened Ham, Shep and Japhet. The Grand Trunk was then about to be opened from Montreal to Brockville, and those three engines were the pioneers on that road. The Great Western company was then running old country engines, and so well-pleased were the head officers with Mr. Gunn’s work that they gave him an order for two heavy freight engines to climb the Dundas hills, and they were christened Achilles and Bacchus. In all, Mr. Gunn built fifteen locomotives for the Grand Trunk and the Great Western, and then the panic of 1857 paralyzed Canadian industries, and dumped into the free trade heap all of its enterprising manufacturers. The United States had larger industries and more money and free trade hampered Canada could not compete against such odds. That ended Mr. Gunn and Hamilton-made locomotives.

                             THE FIRST SLEEPING CARS IN THE WORLD

WERE MADE IN HAMILTON

“It was Sam Sharpe, the first superintendent of the car shops of the Great Western road, who thought about and planned the first railway dining and sleeping cars that history gives us any account of and they were made under his supervision in the Great Western shops, down at the bay front. Of course, there was nothing palatial about the cars, but the idea took like wildfire among the railway companies in the United States and Wagner and Pullman followed up on Sam Sharpe’s invention and soon sleeping and dining cars came into general use. So great was the novelty of sleeping in a car running twenty and thirty miles an hour that Mr. Sharpe built a miniature sleeping car, which the Canadian government proudly exhibited at the world’s fair in London, England as the first of its kind built in the world. Only two people are now living who had a part in the construction of that miniature sleeping car, Mr. and Mrs. H.B. Witton – Mrs. Witton superintended the decorative furnishings, and Mr. Witton the artistic and decorative painting.

“Williams and Cooper, a firm of Hamilton Carriage builders, manufactured the first passenger coaches and freight cars that were made in Canada. They were made for the Great Western and the Grand Trunk roads.

 

                             FIRST SAWS MADE IN CANADA

                             A HAMILTON PRODUCT

“Joseph Flint  owned a small saw factory in Rochester, N.Y., and as there were no saws made in Canada prior to 1854, Mr. Flint came to Hamilton on a voyage of discovery, and found it to be just the town in which to make saws. He brought with him a number of expert workmen and was building up a profitable industry, which the United States saw makers found was injuring their trade, and there being no tariff to help Flint to compete with his larger rivals, the saw-making industry became one of Hamilton’s lost arts.

 

                             THE FIRST FILES MADE IN

                                             CANADA

“Another of Hamilton’s infant industries was the making of files, and fortunately the tariff has been a healthy nursing mother, and files are yet made in Hamilton. They are hand-made and command a higher price because of the superiority. Prior  to1858, all files were manufactured by hand. A man named Beech came from England to Hamilton about 1865, and started a little shop down near the Great Western railway station. At first he did not do much in the way of making new files, as he got all the work he was able to do in recutting old files. At that time file-making was all done by hand as machinery for their manufacture had not yet been invented. It is only within the last thirty-five or forty years that the first factory started in Sheffield, England for the manufacture of Machine-made files. The handmade files manufactured by Beech were always in demand in preference to the machine-made and for sixty years Hamilton has had quite a monopoly of that trade. There are only two file factories in Canada, the Ostler Company in Canada and one at Port Hope.

 

                             ACETYLENE GAS FIRST DISCOVERED’

                                                In Hamilton

“It was all an accident, but the first discovery was made by Charles Willson, a young drug clerk in Hamilton. When emptying some chemical jars in the back yard of the drug store in which he was employed, he was surprised to see a flame burst out as the refuse of two chemicals came together, and being of an inquiring mind, he began to study the cause. Not one in a thousand boys would have given a second thought to the result by mixing two chemicals, but young Willson was somewhat of a dabbler in science, and he followed up his discovery, devoting his leisure hours to experimenting in Chemicals, his laboratory being in the second story over a dingy old blacksmith shop on York street. The final result was the discovery and perfection of acetylene gas, which is now used in every country in the lighthouses and for buoys, and in every department in the marine service. Homes, public buildings and factories find it valuable as an illuminator, and later has come into use for welding metals. Charles Willson did live many years to enjoy the profits of his great discovery. Charles was born in Winona, and educated in the Central school in Hamilton, when Professor Sangster was the head master. He was a descendant of the Hon. John Willson, the first speaker of the Upper Canada parliament.

 

                             THE FIRST LIFE INSURANCE

                                          IN CANADA

“Hamilton brains and capital conceived the organization of the Canada Life Insurance company, the first one started in Canada. It was the pride of the old town, and made happy thousands of families of its insured. It grew in wealth and prosperity,  and every sensible man in Hamilton carried a policy of insurance with the company. Toronto wanted that insurance company, and gradually bought up its stock until it had enough to control it, and one day Hamilton  woke up to the fact that the Canada Life was going to move its head offices to Toronto.

 

                             THE FIRST PHONOGRAPH MADE

                                        IN CANADA WAS THE

              HANDIWORK OF

      A HAMILTONCABINET-MAKER

“Robert P. Newbigging can claim the honor of making the first complete phonograph manufactured in Canada. When the phonograph was first put on the market, the owners of the American patents, in order to escape paying duty, had the cases made in Canada, but the internal machinery they brought in from the United States, and had it assembled here. Mr. Newbigging was an expert cabinet-maker, having learned the trade in James Reid’s factory on King street, now owned by the Malcolm Souter company, and he had several contracts for making phonograph cases. At that time the phonograph had a horn attachment which did not add to the sweetness of the tone, and Mr. Newbigging began experiments to do away with the horn and substitute in its place a tone arm and a motor. It proved to be a success, and he got in correspondence with the patent right solicitors in New York to have his improvement patented. Being delayed in completing some of the necessary papers, when he went to Washington to secure his patent, he learned that only a few days before another party had secured a patent on the hornless principal in phonographs. This cut him out. However, he determined to use his improvement and to that end completed his patterns and had a Hamilton firm do the castings.

“While Mr. Newbigging does not claim to be one of the inventors of the original phonograph, he does lay claim to the improvement of the hornless machine. Some of his first machines are still in use in Hamilton. Not feeling that he could stand a lawsuit for infringement on the hornless phonograph, Mr. Newbigging was advised by his attorney not to make a fight. However, he has still large contracts for the making of cases, and gives employment to at least a dozen expert cabinet makers. He is now manufacturing a new design in cases, in the form of a library table, for which he has a large order.

 

                             AND YET THERE ARE OTHER

                                  FIRST INDUSTRIES   

“Hamilton can lay claim to many minor industries which were first introduced in Canada in Hamilton workshops.

“Young and Brother, who kept a plumber shop on John street, in the Elgin block, made and introduced the first coal-oil burners manufactured in Canada and the lathe on which the burners were turned is reverently stored away in Stewart’s warehouse, on Hughson street south. Among the first promoters in the Canadian coal-oil fields were a number of Hamilton capitalists.

“The first experiment in electric lighting in Canada was made by George Black, manager of the Northwestern Telegraph office in Hamilton. It was made on the night of the first Dominion day in Canada.

“The first cannon cast in Canada was by the Gartshore company, of Dundas, and was the pride of Captain Notman’s one-gun battery.

“The first iron steamboat that sailed on any lake or river in North America was built and owned by Hamilton capital, and was called the Magnet, commanded by Captain Sutherland, a Hamilton sailorman, and was built for the route between Hamilton and Kingston. The name of the steamboat was afterward changed to that of Hamilton. Captain Fairgrieve and Frederick W. Fearman were officers on the Magnet in their younger days. Captain Sutherland lost his life in the Desjardins canal accident on the evening of March 12, 1857.

“If ancient history is to be believed, and we have no reason to doubt it, natural gas was first discovered in Canada at the Albion mills, a few miles southeast of Hamilton. It was discovered by accident while workmen were digging a foundation for the settling of mill stones. When the first flash of light from natural gas brightened up the pit, the workmen scampered off thinking Hades had broken loose, and his satanic majesty had established headquarters in the beautiful valley. There may be some truth, after all, in the ancient story, for history tells us that the romantic Jane Relly took the leap from the towering rocks because her lover failed to come to time at the marriage altar.”

 

 

1919-03-08

Saturday Musings

Spectator March 08, 1919

LOOK AT BOTH SIDES OF THE QUESTION

        ‘First, let us glance backward, say sixty-five or seventy years, and then open our eyes and look at what may be in the future. On the sixth day of March, 1834 – the year the Old Muser was born – when William IV was king, and Upper Canada was almost a wilderness, the legislature passed an act incorporating the London and Gore railway, on a petition from certain inhabitants of Hamilton and of this district. There were no railroads in Canada then, but two years later, there was a short line between LaPrairie and St. John’s, on the borderline between Canada and the United States. Hamilton had a few enterprising businessmen in 1834, and while they had all the advantages of being at the Head of the Lake, they were ambitious to reach out and see what London-in-the-Woods looked like. Well, not to waste time looking backward, Hamilton decided that the only way to get to London was to build a railway, and Sir Allan MacNab was sent to see what the west looked like, and if the outlook was encouraging, this old town would construct a railway at least that far, and depend upon Providence for the future. When Sir Allan came back and reported favorably, a number of Hamilton men formed themselves into a company, and here are the names : Allan Napier MacNab, Colin Campbell Ferrie, John Young, Ebenezer Stinson, Samuel Mills, George T. Tiffany, Peter Hunter Hamilton, Oliver Tiffany, Dr. William Case (the dear old man whose bones have long since crumbled to dust on the wayside at the head of John street, on the road to the mountain top), A. Smith, John Law and Miles O’Reilly, and Dundas was represented by Mayor Notman, Peter Bamberger, Manuel Overfield and a few others whose names are forgotten. Now there you have the names of the men who built the first railway in Upper Canada. A few English capitalists opened their eyes at the temerity of a handful of Canadians thinking of such a thing as building a railway, but John Bull, the cute old fellow, thought there might be money in it for him, so in 1846, John was ready to invest a trifle and get control. About all the money the English capitalists expected to invest was in the purchase of the bonds, which would be gilt-edged and pay 6 per cent dividend, in gold. On the 23^rd of July, 1850, the legislature passed an act empowering municipal corporations along the proposed line to subscribe for the stock. Hamilton was the daddy of the proposed road, and the town subscribed $50,000 in stock, and the business men invested liberally also, and, within a few weeks, every municipality between Niagara Falls and Windsor was enrolled on the list of shareholders. Indeed, everybody that could raise the price of a share of stock chipped in, so that the proposed line was substantially financed. That is the way that Hamilton built the first line of railway in Canada.

                        WHAT IT COST TO BUILD THE

                          GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY

“In these days when Hamilton is invited to involve itself  to the Hydro commission in the modest sum of nearly six millions of dollars as a part of its share toward building a line from Port Credit to St. Catharines to connect with a through line from Toronto to London. Let us look at the amount the Hydro commission demands  from Hamilton for a road practically about sixty miles long, and compare the figures with the cost of building the main track of the Great Western railway from Niagara Falls to Windsor, a distance of 227 miles in length, and branches to Galt and to Port Sarnia. According to the report of Charles Stuart, the chief engineer of the construction department, to the board of directors, the total cost was $5,617,730; and the total cost for constructing equipping 350 miles of road was $21,071,776.

“Take a look at the amount asked by the Hydro commission to construct 60 miles of radial road from Port Credit to St. Catharines and compare the figures with the cost for construction and equipping 350 miles of the Great Western steam railway. The Hydro commission makes a demand for $11,360,363 for its sixty miles of radial road, of which Hamilton must pay $5,869,286, or nearly one-half, while the township of Toronto, the starting of the Toronto and London road, is only called to pay $243,087; and St. Catharines, the terminal, to pay $623,750. For the privilege of being a way station between Toronto and St. Catharines, Hamilton must become liable for nearly six millions of dollars besides furnishing free right-of-way through the finest parks in Canada and through the streets of the city. Put it in this way and see where Hamilton is at. It has to pay not less than two millions of dollars a mile for the privilege of the radial road running not more than three miles through the city, and then Hamilton will not have a word to say about the management for its six millions of dollars. Toronto being the starting point, and St. Catharines, the terminal, the headquarters for offices and workshops will naturally be at those points. A good thing for labor at Toronto and St. Catharines, but a mighty poor show for labor in Hamilton. Probably Hamilton ought to feel thankful that it can walk out to Dundurn park and see the wheels of the electric cars go round, but six millions is a mighty big price to pay for that privilege.

                        LOOK AGAIN AY WHAT IT COST TO

                           CONSTRUCT AND EQUIP THE

                             GREAT WESTERN ROAD

“And then compare the figures with the amount Sir Adam Beck wants to build the sixty miles of road from Port Credit to  St. Catharines. It may be reiteration, but on an important questions like Hamilton is confronted with, it will do no harm to repeat the cost. Sir Adam wants $11,360,363 to build his sixty miles of road from Port Credit to St. Catharines. The Great Western railway built and equipped 350 miles of steam railway for $21, 071, 770, or less than double what Sir Adam wants for his sixty miles of radial road. Quite a difference. Here is Chief Engineer Charles Stuart’s estimate of what it cost to build the Great Western:

                                                        Per Mile          Total

Niagara Falls to Hamilton               $22,652         $999,658

Hamilton to London                         $37,067      $3,183,036

London to Windsor                         $15,875      $1,746,329

Port Sarnia branch                         $13,312           $66,039

“Hamilton got the car shops, the machine shops, and the headquarters of the company’s office force. Out of Sir Adam’s road, Hamilton will not get a blessed thing except the privilege of handing over six millions of dollars in bonds and the payment of interest on them for fifty years.

                _________________________

                        SIXTY-FOUR YEARS AGO

“On the night of the sixth day of March, 1854, the first labor organization in Hamilton was organized. Those were the days when workingmen had to combine to get enough from their daily labor to keep body and soul together; and indeed the employers were not much better off, for things were down to a pretty low ebb for both the employer and the employed. At that time, Hamilton had five newspaper printing offices – the Daily Spectator, the semi-weekly Gazette, the semi-weekly Journal and Express, the Daily Banner and the weekly Canadian Christian Advocate. There were two other papers, both religious, The Church, published by Harcourt B. Bull, and printed in the Gazette office, and the Canadian Evangelist, a monthly, published by Rev. Robert Poden. Combine all the offices together and there were not more than forty journeymen employed, the main force being boys. For the journeymen there was no fixed scale, the rate being anywhere from $2.50 to $6 a week, and there were not many of the boys who could not equal the men in doing a day’s work in plain-typesetting. Hamilton was not alone in paying starvation wages to its printers, for the average all through Canada was not more than $7 to $8 a week, though a few might go ‘over the top’ and get $9. About the same year, or maybe a little before, the Toronto printers got their courage up and started a society and gave the scale a boost to $9 a week. This encouraged the Hamilton boys, and they determined to try their luck, and the result was that on the night of the 6^th of March, 1854, eighteen of the journeymen met in the Sons of Temperance ante-room, there not being enough of them to occupy the hall, and the Hamilton Typographical society was duly and solemnly organized. There were more journeymen in town, but they were cautious fellows and wanted to see how the society would take with the employers, before venturing into its membership. All of the boys were enthusiastic to join, but in those days, it required an apprenticeship of five years to be admitted into a trade society.

“Of the eighteen journeymen who met on that March night sixty-five years ago, only one of the charter members still lives, and he is the writer of this bit of history. Let us call the roll ; William Cliff, president; Charles Kidner, vice-president; Richard R. Donnelly, treasurer. Committee – D.G. Mitchell, Walter Campbell, Richard Butler, chairman. Members – John Blake, William Burniss, John Christian, William Cullin, J. Gregory, Alexander Linkster, John Love, Thomas McNamara, Henry Richards, Charles Roberston, William Rowland.

“At the first meeting, provision was made for the admission of apprentices in their last year. These boys were drawing as much wages as some of the men at that time, but the rule was that one had to be a full-fledged printer to entitle him to membership. At the second meeting Thomas Hynds, A.T. Freed, Reese Evans and William Nixon knocked at the door and were joyfully admitted. The two Hooper brothers, John and William, had arrived from England a few months later, and William J. McAllister came up from Toronto, and they became members. When the cautious ones saw that there was no danger in joining the society, nearly of the journeymen became enrolled as members.

“After the first meeting came the tug of war; a constitution had to be adopted and a scale of prices decided upon. What a modest lot of printers there was in those days! They did not want the earth, but they wanted to keep out of the house of refuge, and they set the scale so low that the employers could not reasonably complain of extortion. Nine dollars a week and twenty-seven cents a thousand (illegible) for place hands! Well, it was not so bad in those days, especially as other trades were paying less for their labor. Only one of the employing printers demurred when the scale was presented to him by the committee for his approval. Robert Smiley, the editor of the Spectator, would not sanction the scale, not that he thought it out of the way, but objected to allowing any society of workmen to fix the price for their work. All of the other employers promptly acceded, and paid the society the compliment of being moderate and fair in its demand. Mr. Smiley held out for a week or more, and then very gracefully notified the committee to send his men back to work. For sixty-five years, every printing office in Hamilton has paid the union scale of wages, and from $9 a week it has steadily increased till today the weekly pay envelope bulges out with not less than $25,

“And then, the best of all is, that no employee in a Hamilton printing office has to go home at the end of the week without his pay envelop and every dollar of his earnings in it. It was different sixty-five years ago, when one went home with half, or less, of his week’s wages in cash, and the balance in orders on some store in town. It might not be out of place to insert just here that in the spring of 1855 Robert Smiley died, a comparatively rich man for those days. In 1846, he came to Hamilton from Montreal, where he was employed in the government printing office, with less ready money in his pocket than the average printer now carries home in his weekly pay envelope. It was not meaness that made him refuse the scale of prices, but merely stubbornness of an Irishman who would not be dictated to.

“In the early days the printers’ union made it a rule to change officers every two years, in order to give all the boys a chance to reach the top. In 1856, the officers elected were : Charles Kidner, president; Alex. Linkster, vice-president; Richard Butler, secretary; R.L. Gay, treasurer. In 1857, there was another whirl, and Richard Butler was elected president; John Blake, vice-president; Allan A. Shepard, secretary; Charles Kidner, treasurer; W.J. McAllister, William Hooper, William Nixon, vigilance committee.

“Under the rules of the International Typographical union, no such ting a a sympathetic strike is permitted, the union holding to the honorable idea that the local unions should keep faith with the employing printers; and a local union must show good reasons for a strike before one is permitted. The International union provides a pension fund of $5 a week for all men over 60 years of age who have been members of local unions for a certain number of years. There are a few old-time Hamiltonians enjoying the benefits of the pension fund. Added to the pension is a mortuary fund.

“In the old days there was in every printing office a father of the chapel, who presided at all office meetings and smoothed over many of the trifling troubles that now and then arise among a lot of men of different temperaments.

“But few of the old-timers who belonged to the local union forty and fifty years ago are enjoying the fat pay envelopes of the present day, but fortunately, they were careful in their younger days, and the house of refuge had no horrors for them. Among the ancients, Jim Allan, Geo. R. Allan, John O’Neil, Frank Kidner, Billy Kingdon, John Burns and little Geordie Henderson answer the cashier’s roll call in

   the Spectator office every Friday and draw their pay checks. Over in the Times office, George Bagwell, till recently, was on duty every day. In the Herald office, Henry and Phil Obermeyer still hold forth to rejoice that they are still alive. There are a few like Justus Griffin, George Redmond, the Raw boys, John Macleod, Harry Drope, Sam Trueman, Bill Barringer and others we cannot remember.

“The next labor union to start in Hamilton about the year 1855 was the cigarmakers’. George Tuckett was one of the charter members.

1919-01-18

,

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.

                   _________________________________

                   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.