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MILL IN DEVON, ENG., IN 1897. USED AND OWNED BY ROGER CONANT
PREVIOUS TO SAILING TO AMERICA WITH THE PILGRIMS IN 1623.

X
mpper Canaba Sketches

THOMAS CONANT

With Illustrations, Portraits and Map

TORONTO
WILLIAM BRIGGS
39-33 Richmond St. West

Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one thousand
eight hundred and ninety-eight, by Thomas Conant, at the Department of
Agriculture.

XTo XEbomas (5. /lliilsteJ)
0/ Chicago, III., U.S.
A LARGE-HEARTED, FAITHFUL FRIEND AND PLEASANT
COMPANION, UNDER EVEN THE MOST TRYING
CIRCUMSTANCES ;
WHO SWAM IN THE DEAD SEA, ASCENDED THE NILE TO
THE MAHDi'S CONFINES, AND LIKEWISE WITH ME
KICKED PARIAH DOGS FROM OUR PATHS
IN CONSTANTINOPLE,
THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED,
WITH FULL RELIANCE IN THE HOPE THAT EXPATRIATED
CANADIANS, WHO ARE SO VERY NUMEROUS IN THE
UNITED STATES, MAY ENJOY WITH HIMSELF
(LIKEWISE ONE OF THEM)
THESE RANDOM CANADIAN SKETCHES. THE AUTHOR.

CONTENTS.

PAGE
Prefatory Note vii
CHAPTER I.
Normandy — William the Conqueror — Origin of the name
Conant — Devon, England — Sir Walter Raleigh's home
— Richard the Mill-owner— Roger the Pilgrim — The
first Governor of Massachusetts — Salem, Massachu
setts — Mill-owners - 9
CHAPTER II.
The American Revolution — Personal Rule of King George
III. — Washington's politeness — Valley Forge — Wash
ington's prayer — Raw New England levies — John
Hancock — Other leaders and generals — Colonel Butler
— Murder, not war — Roger Conant removes to Canada
— An old deed — Governor Simcoe — York (Toronto) 21
CHAPTER III.
A home in the wilderness — Salmon fishing — An idyllic life
— Logging — Fur trade — Durham boats — Rapids ofthe
St. Lawrence — Trading with the Indians — The Hud
son's Bay Company — Coureurs du bois — Maple sugar
making — Friendly Indians - - 32

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IV. PAGE
Waubakosh— Making potash — Prosperous settlers — Out
break of war of 1812 — Transporting military sup
plies — Moode Farewell's hotel — " Here's to a long and
moderate war" — A lieutenant's misfortune — " Open in
the King's name" — Humors of the time — Ingenious
foragers — Hidden specie — Hardships of the U. E.
Loyalists 40
CHAPTER V.
Capture of York — Immigration increasing — David Annis
— Niagara^Prosperous lumber business — Ship-build
ing — High freight rates — Salmon spearing — Meteoric
showers — An affrighted clergyman — Cold winters — A
tragedy of the clearings 5 1
CHAPTER VI.
Discontent in Upper Canada — Election riots — Shillelahs
as persuaders — William Lyon Mackenzie — Rioting
in York — Rebellion — Patriots and sympathizers — A
relentless chase — Crossing Lake Ontario in mid
winter — A perilous passage — A sailor hero — A critical
moment — Safe on shore — " Rebellion Losses Bill " —
Transported to Botany Bay — Murder of my grand
father — Canadian legends — A mysterious guest 65
CHAPTER VII.
Religious movements — Itinerant preachers — $50 a year —
Camp-meetings — Weird scenes at night — Millerites —
World coming to an end — Dissenters attempt to fly —
Affrighted by a " sun-dog " — Destruction fails to ma
terialize — The Mormons — An improvised Gabriel —
Raising the dead — Converts — Salt Lake — An Irish
refugee and his poem 89

CONTENTS. HI

CHAPTER VIII. PAGE
Canadian laws — Cases of justifiable homicide — Ineffectual
attempt to discipline a church member — Major Wil
mot — Asa Wallbridge—" Uncle Ned" — Cows and
matrimony — A humorous dialogue — A witty retort — ¦
An amusing duel 102
CHAPTER IX.
Paring bees — Mirth and jollity — Dancing and games —
Playing "forfeits" — Anti-Slavery Act — Canada's
proud distinction — Refugee slaves — " Uncle Tom " —
Old Jeff— Story of a slave 120
CHAPTER X.
Civil war in the United States — Large bounties paid Cana
dian recruits — Prices of products go up — More than
two million men under arms — I make a trip to Wash
ington — Visiting the military hospitals — I am offered
$800 to enlist — Brief interview with President Lincoln
— A pass secured — I visit the Army of the Potomac —
90,000 men under canvas — Washington threatened by
the Confederates — Military prison at Elmira, N.Y. —
Cheap greenbacks — A chance to become a multi
millionaire 137
CHAPTER XI.
The "Trent affair — Excitement in Canada — Bombastic
" fire-eaters " — Thriving banks — High rates of interest
— Railway building — The bonus system — A seques
tered hamlet — A " psychologist " and his entertain
ment — A mock duel — A tragic page of family history 153
CHAPTER XII.
Fenianism — A claimant for my father's farm — A scare at
Port Oshawa — Guns, forks and clubs for fighting —

IV CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XII-<Continued). PAGE
Awkward squad — Guard catch a young man out court
ing — The Fenian raid of 1866 — A Catholic priest taken
prisoner — United States Government at last cries
" Stop ! " — Adventure in high life — A youth runs away
from home — Tragic death of the mother of the run
away — Marries the serving-maid — Wedding and fune
ral joumey in one 171
CHAPTER XIIL
The French in Upper Canada — Sir Wilfrid Laurier — Voy-
ageurs and their songs — "A la Claire Fontaine" —
Money-lenders — Educational matters — Expatriated
Canadians— Successful railway speculation — A shrewd
banker 181
CHAPTER XIV.
Poor-tax— Poor-houses undesirable — The tramp nuisance
— A tramp's story — Mistaken charity — Office seekers
— Election incidents . jg-j
CHAPTER XV.
Upper Canada's favored situation— Our Great Lakes —
Cases of apparent tides on Lake Ontario — Canadians
as givers — Oshawa's generous support to churches
and charities — Life insurance — Amusing incidents" of
a railway journey— A " talking machine " . 209
CHAPTER XVI.
Drinking habits in the early days— Distilleries and mills-
Treating prevalent — Drinking carousals — Delirium
tremens — " One-Thousand-and-One " Society— Two
gallon limit— Bibulous landlords— Whiskey fights —
Typical Canadian pioneers— Clearing the farm— Sons
and daughters married— Peaceful old age— Asleep in
death — Conclusion - ... .-s

ILLUSTRATIONS AND PORTRAITS.

PACK
Roger Conant's Mill, Devon, England Frontispiece
Thomas Conant - 6
Mrs. Thomas Conant - 7
Map of Upper Canada (Ontario) -• 9
Roger Conant's house, Salem, Mass. 18
Roger Conant's first settlement in Upper Canada 33
Typical Logging Scene - - 40
Durham boats ascending River St. Lawrence - 48
David Annis 52
Indian trading scene - 65
Maple sugar making - 78
Indian wigwams of birch bark 84
Potash making — the "melting" 97
Hauling cannon in the war of 1812 104
Moode Farewell's tavern 122
Daniel Conant's lumber mill 135
Meteoric shower (1833) - - I44
Daniel Conant - 152
Mary Eliza Conant IS3
Loading lumber on schooners. Lake Ontario 160
Refugees escaping over the ice at Oswego, N.Y. (1837) - 172
Crossing Lake Ontario in a canoe - 186
Assassination of Thomas Conant (1838) 193
Camp-meeting scene - 209
A Millerite's attempt to fly - 220
Mormon attempt to raise the dead 228
Awkward squad — Fenian raid, 1865 236

THOMAS CONANT.

MRS. THOMAS CONANT.

PREFATORY NOTE.
IN presenting to the public these random sketches
I crave the reader's indulgence. I do not pre
tend to elegance of style in my writing, and if — as
is doubtless the case — the canons of literary form are
occasionally offended against in these pages, I ask
the kindly consideration of the critics.
If asked my reasons for publishing the volume, I
would state : First, the many communications re
ceived by me from time to time, from various sources,
commenting favorably on my letters to the press,
have given me to believe that the Canadian public
appreciate and value the relation of old settlers' stories
and the legends and traditions of the past ; again, as
a son of this noble Province, a descendant of one of
its pioneer families, having witnessed much of the
marvellous development of the country, I feel con
strained to thus preserve records which I believe
are historically valuable. I have sought to present
glimpses of the rude, free life that obtained in the

VIII PREFATORY NOTE.
earlier years of settlement, while at the same time
depicting some phases of life in Canada as seen at
the present day. Though since Confederation (1867)
our Province has been known as Ontario, I have pre
ferred to use the old name of Upper Canada, which
seems not improper in view of the fact that much of
the matter herein given relates to pre-Confederation
times. It has been my endeavor, in compiling these
sketches, to avoid wounding the feelings of others in
my references to the living or their friends who have
passed away. If, unfortunately, I have done so, I
ask the pardon of such persons, and assure them that
wherever I have used names or made personal refer
ences, I have done so only where I considered it
necessary to render the events chronicled historically
correct. For the insertion of some family portraits it is
unnecessary to ask the reader's indulgence, as they are
portraits of those who have helped materially in the
upbuilding of the Province.
Thomas Conant.
OsHAWA, Ontario, Canada,
September 28th, 1898.

UPPER CANADA

UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.

CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
Normandy — William the Conqueror — Origin of the name
Conant — Devon, England — Sir Walter Raleigh's home —
Richard the Mill-owner — Roger the Pilgrim — The first
Governor of Massachusetts — Salem, Massachusetts — Mill-
owners. Though of the past from no carved shrines.
Canvas or deathless lyres we learn.
Yet arbored streams and shadowy pines
Are hung with legends wild and stern ;
In deep dark glen, on mountain side,
Are graves whence stately pines have sprung,
Naught telling how our fathers died
Save faint Tradition's faltering tongue. — Adapted.
THERE is no reason to doubt that the progeni
tor of the Conant family in England and
America came originally from Normandy, in
1066, as one of the followers of William the Con
queror. Frederick Odell Conant, of Portland, Maine,

10 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
whose exhaustive work, " History and Genealogy of
the Conant Family," entitles him to be quoted as an
authority, has arrived at this conclusion.
Edward Nathaniel Conant, of Oakham, Rutland
County, England, a member of the English branch,
told the author, when visiting Lyndon Hall, in 1894,
that he had seen the name Conan — from which
Conant has been evolved — on a castle archway in
Normandy. In 1896 the author met a Frenchman of
the same name in Melbourne, Australia, who was,
no doubt, a descendant of the branch of the family
that remained in Normandy when the others came
over with William to the conquest of England.
There are several derivations given of the name
Conant, many of which would establish it as of Celtic
origin ; and though a Conant came over to England
with William, it would appear his ancestors had come
originally from Cornwall and Devon to Brittany. The
meaning of the name is almost as variously given as
its origin, but it appears that the conclusion arrived at
by the family historian and genealogist is that it is
equivalent to the word in the Welsh, Irish, Saxon,
Dutch, German and Swedish tongue, and also the
Oriental, signifying chief or leader.
Although the Conants probably returned to Nor
mandy during the reigns of William and his sons,
they finally settled at East Budleigh, in Devonshire.

CONANT MILL AT EAST BUDLEIGH. II
It is unnecessary here to trace the succeeding
generations of the family, as we have to do only with
the immediate connections of Roger Conant, known
as the Pilgrim, who emigrated to the English Colo
nies in America in 1623, and from whom all the
Conants in the United States and Canada are
descended. The picture which forms the frontispiece to this
volume is a faithful one of the mill yet standing on
the Conant lands at East Budleigh. This mill was
owned and occupied by Richard Conant, father of
Roger the Pilgrim. It will be observed that the part
of the stone building at the end farthest from the
water-wheel is now used as a residence. Whether it
was so occupied by Richard Conant the author has
been unable to ascertain. There are indications that
a residence had been located back from the mill and
on rising ground farther from the road. The mill is a
long stone structure. In front of the part used as a
dwelling is a yard, and at one side farm buildings.
Mr. Green, the present Rector of East Budleigh,
assured the author that there is no doubt of its being
the identical building and mill occupied and used by
Richard Conant. The family records (parish regis
ter) are in Mr. Green's care. There are entries of the
birth of John Conant in 1520 and of his son Richard,
born in Devon in 1548. These are on parchment, the

12 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
latter yellow, covered with leather, wood-bound and
worm-eaten. Back of the house and mill a small spring creek
runs. It has been turned from its bed by the rising
ground, so that no artificial dam is needed, and to-day,
as in 1560, it runs over the wheel and pours from the
flume. In volume it is four inches deep and twenty
wide, and is about six feet above the wheel. The
latter, of course, has been renewed, being an overshoot
about fourteen feet in diameter, but its foundations
are now just as Richard Conant originally laid them.
The lands owned by Richard Conant probably
amounted to about two hundred acres. The glebe
land, extending nearly to the mill, which is about
five hundred yards from the church, and the Conant
lands extending to the farm of Sir Walter Raleigh,
we may conclude to be the probable extent of the
property. Roger's father, Richard, inherited the mill from his
father. He graduated at Emanuel College, and was
also Rector of East Budleigh. The book of his
charities accounts is still extant. On the fly-leaf are
the words, " This book was bought in 1600, to mark
the amounts of charities," etc. It is in Richard's
handwriting. Every few pages are signed by him,
and the entries are neatly made, not a blot, erasure or
scratch upon the well inscribed pages. The amounts

SIR WALTER RALEIGH. I J
vary from one penny to sixpence. All this is evidence
of the careful upbringing and piety practised in the
home of Roger Conant, the man destined later to
exert so beneficent an influence for the well-being of
the Massachusetts Colony in America.
Ascending for three-quarters of a mile the little
burn whose waters turned Richard's mill-wheel, one
finds it running by the door of the Raleigh homestead,
Hays Barton House.
His living near the man who drew so much atten
tion to the New World would suggest that Roger
Conant's ambitions to seek a new home in the wilds
had been fired by the tales told by the adventurous
knight ; and hearing of its wonders and possibilities
possibly made the lad restless, and later on willing to^
sail away to America.
The Raleigh pew in East Budleigh church is at a
right-angle from the Conant pew, and not ten feet
away. They both face the pulpit, and as these were
possessions as hereditary as their lands and homes,
there is nothing improbable in the idea that the fami
lies were well known to each other.
On the Raleigh pew-ends are carved the armorial
bearings of the family, the lower part cut off. This
was done when Sir Walter was attainted for treason,
and may be a curious instance ofthe penalties exacted
from the families whose head suffered such attainder

14 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
at the hands of the sovereign. On the Conant pew
is the head of a North American Indian. It is well
done. The Indian features, high cheek-bones and
large nose, are faithfully depicted. On the other
pews are negroes, ships' paddles, tropical trees and
foliage. Sir Walter's father was Rector of East Bud
leigh when Richard Conant ran his little grist-mill
and attended the church.
Roger could not, in the natural order of succession,
inherit the mill from his father, so he went early to
London. No doubt the seeds sown by the study, as a
child, of the quaint carvings in his parish church had
an influence in directing his manhood's steps.
The church is a small stone leaded roofed building.
It is dedicated to All Saints, and was consecrated by
Bishop Lacy about A.D. 1430. It consists of a nave
and chancels, and north and south aisles. It is eighty
feet long and forty-eight and a half feet wide. The
tower, which contains five bells, is seventy-two feet
high. It is a Norman embattlemented tower with a
chimney-shaped buttress. ( Vide " History and Gene
alogy of the Conant Family.") About the church is
the graveyard, walled in and the earth dug away,
leaving the church and graveyard isolated, and above
the level of the surrounding roads and lands.
Although the Conants are buried here, no stone or
monument has been found to mark the spot where

SIR HENRY ROSE WELL. 1 5
they lie. The Rector told the author that all the
Conants had moved away, leaving none to care for
the graves of their ancestors. This was probably the
cause of the absence of any information by which the
place of burial could be ascertained.
A brother of Roger's — John, matriculated at Exe
ter College, Oxford — was made a full Fellow, loth
July, 1612 ; B.D., 2 Dec, 1619, or 28 June, 1620. He
resigned his fellowship, and was instituted Rector of
Lymington, a country parish near Ilchester, Somerset
shire, on the presentation of Sir Henry Rosewell, and
on the 20th of January, 1620, compounded for the
firstfruits of the living — the sureties of his bond being
his brothers Christopher and Roger. The name of
Rosewell or Rowswell, is well known to students of
the history of Massachusetts. Sir Henry's name
stands first among the grantees in the Patent from the
Council of Plymouth — a fact which bears some sig
nificance to the emigration of Roger and Christopher
to the New World, and also indicates that Conant had
already espoused the 'cause ofthe Puritans.
The above is taken from the " History and Gene
alogy of the Conant Family," and is necessary to con
nect Roger's early life with the period of his emigra
tion to the New World,
Roger was baptized at All Saints' Church, East
Budleigh, on the 9th April, 1592. He was the young-

l6 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
est of eight children. His after life showed that the
integrity and piety which characterized his parents
and elder brothers had been instilled into his mind in
childhood. Like his brothers, he evidently received
as good an education as the times would afford. He
was employed to lay out boundaries, survey lands and
transact other public business. The records of the
Salters' Company, to which he belonged, have been
burned, so that no more authentic proof of his having
been a freedman of the company can be adduced
than the presumptive evidence given by the fact of
his signing his brother John's bonds as " Salter of
London." He married in London in November, 1618,
and emigrated with the Pilgrims to New England in
1623. Members of the Drysalters' Guild of London (the
ninth of the twelve great livery companies, and char
tered by Queen Elizabeth in 1558) have certain priv
ileges and perquisites. To illustrate this more fully,
the author during a visit to London, at the time of
the Queen's Jubilee, 1887, learned upon enquiry that
by the laws of primogeniture (only abolished in Up
per Canada in 1841) the direct descendant of Roger
Conant was entitled to two meals a day and a bed to
sleep on. The perquisite is not retroactive and an
application for any commutation could not be re
garded, but he was told that the two meals a day and

ROGER CONANT A PILGRIM FATHER. l?
a bed would be given to the direct heir of Roger
Conant, the Drysalter, whenever he chose to claim
them. It is not certain what was the name of the vessel in
which Roger Conant sailed, but from the fact that
his brother Christopher was a passenger in the Ann,
which arrived at Plymouth about 1623, it may be
inferred that Roger accompanied him. In a petition
to the general court, dated May 28th, 1671, he states
that he had been " a planter in New England forty-
eight years and upwards." This would fix the date
of his arrival early in 1623. Roger did not remain
long in Plymouth. There were differences between
him and the Pilgrim Fathers, he being a Puritan and
they Separatists, and although these differences were
not sufficiently marked to subject him to the treat
ment meted out to Allan and John Lyford, he left
Plymouth for Nantucket, where they had settled soon
after their expulsion from the former place. While
here he appears to have made use of the island in
Boston harbor, now called Governor's Island, but then
and for some time afterward known as Conant's
Island. The Dorchester Company was formed in 1622-3, and
in 1624-5 Roger Conant's reputation as "a pious,
sober and prudent gentleman " reaching its associates,
they chose him to manage or govern their affairs at

UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.

Cape Ann. While here a proof of the truth of the
report was given them in the magnanimity and just
ness, as well as prudence, exercised by him in settling
a dispute over the possession of a fishing stage be
tween Miles Standish, "the captain of Plymouth,"
and a captain Hewet, who had been sent out by the
opposite party. This scene has been made the sub
ject of a window in the Conant Memorial Congrega
tional Church, recently erected at Dudley, Mass., by
Hezekiah Conant.
Cape Ann was not a suitable place for settlement ;
the land was poor and the merchandise brought from
England unproductive of lucrative returns. Roger
selected a site " on the other side of a creek called
Naumkeag (now Salem)," and shortly after removed
there. During his stay at Cape Ann Roger occupied the
great frame house which had been built by the old
planters in 1624. The frames, it is said, and probably
with truth, were brought from England. The timbers
are oak, yet sound, and in existence still as a part of
a stable. The house, as given in the accompanying
illustration, is taken from a drawing made in 1775.
It is similar to many of the old houses of the same
date, and still the most picturesque features of the
villages in Surrey and Devon.
This house was occupied by Endicott when

ROGER CONANT'S HOUSE, SALEM, MASS., 1628, FIRST GOVERNOR
OF MASS. BAY COLONY.

FIRST GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS. I9

appointed Governor, it being taken down and removed
to Salem. The exact site of Roger's house, the first
built in Salem, cannot be ascertained. Subsequent
records go to show that the stability, the permanency
and good government of the colony were largely
dependent upon the influence of Conant, although
after the appointment of Endicott as Governor, under
the new patent, he was no longer the head. During
the rivalry between the members of the old and the
new company his self-denial and upright character
won him friends on both sides and secured that
harmony which resulted in the public good ; he
" quietly composed that the meum and tuum which
divide the world should not disturb the peace of good
Christians." There has been some controversy among the anti
quarians on Roger Conant's claim to the title of
first Governor of Massachusetts. He is, however,
entitled to the honor, for the colony of which he was
the recognized head for three years was the first
permanent settlement in the territory, and from it the
other colonies sprung. There are many documents
extant, besides entries in the records of the Governor
and Company of Massachusetts Bay, ^rhich go to
prove how frequently Roger Conant was called upon
to fill offices and do his share in the numerous works
inseparable from the building up of a country, the

20 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
knowledge and experience as well as the influence of
the " prudent Christian gentleman " being invaluable
to his fellow-townsmen and settlers.
In 1668 that part of Salem known as Bass River,
on the Cape Ann side, was incorporated under the
name of Beverley, and one of the most interesting
incidents of his long and active life is Roger Conant's
effort to change this name for that of Budleigh. The
original petition, which however was not granted, is
among the Massachusetts archives. It is interesting
as showing how the memory of his birth-place still
remained fresh in his affections. He died November
19th, 1678, in the eighty-eighth year of his age.
From this date until that of the Revolution the
succeeding generations of Conants have left individual
records of worth, as landed proprietors in the State
of Massachusetts ; but it is unnecessary here to enter
into their history. Several of them were graduates of
Harvard University, and many of them mill-owners,
thus carrying on the calling and talents of their an
cestor, as we shall see, to the seventh, eighth and
ninth generation ; Hezekiah Conant, of Pawtucket,
being a large owner of the great thread works of
J. P. Coates, employing five thousand hands ; and
Daniel Conant, the author's father, also a mill-owner
in Upper Canada, a property which contributed largely
to his success.

CHAPTER II.
The American Revolution — Personal rule of King George III.
— Washington's politeness — Valley Forge — Washington's
prayer — Raw New England levies — John Hancock — Other
leaders and generals — Colonel Butler — Murder, not war —
Roger Conant removes to Canada — An old deed — Gover
nor Simcoe — York (Toronto).
" There are moments, bright moments, when the spirit
receives
Whole volumes of thought on its unwritten leaves ;
When the folds of the heart in a moment unclose.
Like the innermost leaves from the heart of the rose ;
And thus when the rainbow had passed from the sky,
The thoughts it awoke were too deep to pass by ;
It left my full soul like the wings of a dove.
All flutt'ring with pleasure, and flutt'ring with love."
UPON the outbreak of the American Revolution
there were three brothers, Conants, of the
sixth generation from Roger the Pilgrim, in
Massachusetts. Two of these took sides at once with
the patriots and joined Washington's army when that
General came from Virginia and took command at
Cambridge. One of them, Daniel Conant, was
wounded at Lexington, April 19th, 1775.

22 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
The third, Roger, and the author's immediate
ancestor, believed that the wrongs of the colonists
would be righted in time by petition, and while
expressing his sense of these wrongs, refused to join
the patriot army. Copy of statement in " Conant
Genealogy," page 252 : " The name of Roger Conant
of Ealton appears on the muster-roll of Capt. Abiah
Mitchell's Company, which was down at the Alarm "
(" Mass. Arch. Lexington Alarm Lists," Vol. XIIL,
p. 16) and Roger Conant served one month and
twelve days as corporal in Scott's Company of
Ashley's Regiment, " which marched from Westmore
land, Chesterfield and Hinsdale to Ticonderoga on
the alarm of May 8th, 1777" (N. H. State Papers,
VoL XV., p. 6). To-day, however, we all rejoice at
the success of the colonies, and that the personal rule
of King George III. was terminated.
The brothers met frequently and talked over current
events. Among the reminiscences of these conversa
tions the following anecdotes have been handed down
from father to son, and although they have no direct
relation with Upper Canada, they may be worth
repeating, as showing a little of the personal character
of some of the actors in the life of that time.
Washington, when at Cambridge, was riding one
day to a distant part of the field, attended by several
of his aides and gentlemen of the New England

WASHINGTON AT VALLEY FORGE. 23
Colonies. On the way he met a mounted negro, who
took off" his hat and bowed very profoundly, showing
his teeth and the whites of his eyes as he smiled and
exclaimed, " How are you, General, how are you ? "
General Washington quickly lifted his hat, and though
not halting his horse, replied courteously to the salu
tation. One of the New England gentlemen who accom
panied him remarked to Washington, " I wonder you
take the trouble to salute that negro ! "
Washington replied, " It would, indeed, be a hard
matter if I had not as good manners as a negro."
The fortunes of war in 1777-80 brought the struggle
to Valley Forge, just north of Philadelphia. Here the
patriot army wintered in log cabins in the forest. Daniel
Conant returned to his place in the ranks, and during
the long winter met most of the inhabitants of the
neighborhood. Among these was a fatherly Tory
Quaker who one day met Washington on foot, walk
ing within the lines, looking sad and dejected. " The
British will hang thee, George," said the Quaker. In
a twinkling the great man revived, pulled down the
collar of his coat, and saying, " This neck never was
made for a halter," walked briskly away.
A few days after the Quaker was walking alone in
the forest. While making his way he heard a voice
being lifted up in prayer. Pushing the bushes aside

24 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
in the direction of the sound, he saw Washington,
bare-headed and kneeling in the snow, with upturned
face and closed eyes, asking the God of battles to
preserve his little army and himself, and to favor the
right. Reverently the Quaker waited until the General
had ended his prayer, then he stepped to his side as
he rose, and said, " George, thee will succeed and con
quer the British."
As to the character of Washington, there never were
two opinions ; he seemed always to tower above all
and every one. At first when he came to New Eng
land, they said, he was disposed to find fault and
look with doubt upon the New England levies.
Time, however, corrected that, and not a few of the
Revolutionary generals and leaders among them be
came known as genuine men.
John Hancock the Conant brothers did not care
for, saying that he went into the war mainly to avoid
the heavy suits then pending against him for customs
dues. Among the leading civilians they admired and
revered John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, although
they did say of Adams that he was always finding
fault with the British Government, and that he was
offered lucrative offices in order to keep him quiet ;
but he was not to be held.
General Knox, who was a Boston bookseller, they

BUTLER'S RANGERS. 25
always spoke well of Greene and Schuyler they
thought were men who possessed real military ability
and were high-minded gentlemen. Ethan Allen and
General Putnam they thought brave men, but not in
possession of military abilities.
Roger Conant said of Sir William Johnson, that
" he was the cleverest man he had ever met. He
could manage both Indians and white men." He had
met Brant also, and always spoke of him as " one of
nature's noblemen with a tawny skin."
Colonel Butler, of Butler's Rangers, and his acts
were most frequently recalled ; words failed to ex
press the abhorrence of this marauder and his acts.
Roger Conant had tarried in New York State when
on his way to Canada, and knew something of the
horrors of the civil war. He had met Butler and
readily listened to tales told him in later years by a
man who had been one of Butler's Rangers. This man
lived with Roger Conant as his hired servant. He
told him that he and others, with Butler in command,
had many times entered defenceless houses and
murdered at the first instance the man and wife.
Next the children were brought before the great
gaping open wood fireplaces of those days and bayo
neted, the bayonet passing quite through their little
bodies, and were held over the flames that the soldiers
might " watch them squirm," as he expressed it. The

26 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
man would also frequently call out 'in his troubled
dreams when asleep, such words as, " There they are !
Don't you see them squirm ? Bayonet that big boy !"
acting over again the murderous scenes. These stories
were told the author by his ancestors many times as
no fanciful picture.
On another occasion Butler captured a small garri
son of Continentals in New York State, who marched
out and surrendered their arms. One among them,
a former neighbor of Butler's, came to the gate and
bade the major " Good day." During the early period
of the war this man had been enrolled among King
George's levies, but had never served. " Stand out by
that tree," said Butler, and the man obeyed. On the
last man emerging from the garrison and surren
dering his arms, Butler ordered half a dozen of his
Rangers to " Right about face — present arms — fire ! "
and his neighbor never breathed again.
During the early months of the war and its con
tinuance the brothers Conant met of an evening
behind blinded windows and closed doors. On can
vassing matters thoroughly they came to the conclu
sion that the colonies would never succeed, and that
Great Britain would in the end wreak terrible ven
geance on those in rebellion. Britain's name carried
with it a sense of power and unlimited resources,
and Roger Conant could not make himself believe

REMOVAL TO CANADA. 27
that she would ever let the colonies go. As time
went on, too, his position in Massachusetts became a
difficult one, so he resolved to leave all and flee to
Canada. He had been educated for the law, and had attended
Harvard University. He owned several thousands of
acres of land, both in Massachusetts and New Hamp
shire. Money was a scarce commodity then, as every
one knows who has read attentively the history of
that struggle, and for his large property Roger Conant
could only get together $5,000. This, with the aid
of his brothers, he obtained in gold, an^ in 1777 he
set out from the vicinity of Boston with his family.
Their conveyance was a covered waggon drawn by two
horses, and following was an ox-team drawing a cart
laden with household goods and farm implements.
His first stop was about the Hudson River. When
there the commandant of that point asked him to
look for a deserter from the American army. A pho
tographic reproduction of the captain's order is here
with given. Strange to say, it is not dated ; but it
was given in the year I777-
From the records extant Roger appears to have
made some stay here — some authorities say on land
of his own, which he sold later. A quit-claim deed is
reproduced in fac-simile (page 29), conveying a valu
able island on the New England coast. Reserving

^^-X-'

REWARD FOR A DESERTER, 1776, AT WEST POINT.

c

6-a
!#il 141

30 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
wood in a deed is peculiar, and it is set forth in a
singular way. The Charles Annis mentioned in this
deed was a relative of Roger Conant's, and came to
Canada from Massachusetts soon after him. From
him most of the Annises in Canada are descended.
Leaving his family at Geneva, New York State,
Roger Conant came on to Canada, arriving at the
locality afterward called Darlington, County Durham,
Ontario, in October, 1778. The first Crown grant of
land to Roger Conant was made December 31st,
1778. It consisted of lots 28, 29, 30 and 31, in the
Broken Front, Darlington ; also south halves of lots
28, 29, 30 and 31, 1st concession Darlington, County
Durham — in all about 1,200 acres. After building a
house on his land, and probably clearing some por
tion of it, he returned to Geneva.
What he did between this date and 1794, when he
brought his family to Canada, is not known. It is
said that during these intermediate years he went to
and from Massachusetts several times, in order to
collect the proceeds of the sale of his property there.
It was during these years that, it is said, he lived
among Butler's Rangers, and from their deeds of vio
lence learned to execrate their memory.
In 1794 he set out again, stopping at Genesee Falls,
where Rochester, N.Y., now is. Once the author
asked why they did not remain there, and was told

GOVERNOR SIMCOE. 3 1
that " it was only a black ash swamp, and they did
not want it."
Governor Simcoe's proclamation, offering grants of
land in Upper Canada to those who would come and
occupy them, hurried Roger Conant's journey. Ar
riving at the mouth of the Niagara River, and hiring
a flat scow in which to ferry himself, his family and
effects over, he landed at Newark, then the capital of
Upper Canada. While there he met Governor Simcoe,
who tried to induce him to go up Yonge Street to
lands on Lake Simcoe ; but not relishing the idea of
leaving the shores of Lake Ontario for the wilderness,
he refused. The Governor then asked him if he
would fight against Canada if trouble came. Roger's
reply was, "No, sir, I will fight for the country which
protects me." And, as we shall presently see, he
made good his promise by aiding the British cause in
the subsequent war of 1812.
Following the lake shore, camping at night, and
fording the streams where they debouch, they at last
reached the site of York, then a cluster of Indian
wigwams with a few houses in process of erection.
The river Don being too deep to ford, they hired
Indians to convey them over in their canoes. The
waggons were taken apart and so ferried across, when
they were put together again, and the emigrants pro
ceeded along the broken shores of the lake.

CHAPTER III.
A home in the wilderness — Salmon fishing — An idyllic life —
Logging — Fur trade — Durham boats — Rapids of the St.
Lawrence — Trading with the Indians — The Hudson's Bay
Company — Coureurs du bois — Maple sugar making —
Friendly Indians.
" Our young, wild land, the free, the proud !
Uncrush'd by power, unawed by fear,
Her knee to none but God is bow'd.
For nature teaches freedom here ;
From gloom and sorrow, to light and flowers
Expands this heritage of ours :
Life, with its myriad hopesj pursuits,
Spreads sails, rears roofs, and gathers fruits.
But pass two fleeting centuries back.
This land, a torpid giant, slept,
Wrapp'd in a mantle, thick and black.
That o'er its mighty frame had crept,
Since stars and angels sang, as earth
Shot from its Maker into birth."
GOLDEN autumn days were those when the
emigrants' long journey was nearing its end.
Provision must first be made for the cattle
and horses. October was upon them and winter near.

ROGER CONANT'S FIRST SETTLEMENT IN DARLINGTON,
CO. DURHAM, UPPER CANADA, 1778.

A HOME-MADE GRIST-MILL. 33
At Arnall's Creek — then known as Barber's Creek —
they found a flat of marsh-grass quite free from the
forest trees which then were universal above the
water's edge of Lake Ontario.
Here they pitched their tents, the creek and lake
forming two sides of a triangle for defence from
wolves, leaving one side only to be protected. Salmon
would run in November, and the winter's supply of
fish could be secured from the creek, and the marsh-
grass gathered for the stock from the flat at its
mouth. The illustration opposite is of the first house built
by Roger Conant in Upper Canada. The founda
tion of it yet remains close by the waters of Lake
Ontario. The man in the foreground of the picture
is pounding or crushing grain with a burnt-out stump
as a mortar, using as a pestle a billet of wood which
is attached to a spring polfe, thus raising it easily.
There was no mill nearer than Kingston where the
corn could be ground. At Port Hope (then called
Smith's Creek), in 1806, Elias Smith erected a grist
mill. Previous to that date the settlers took their
grist by boat to Kingston, at the foot of Lake Ontario,
no miles distant. The journey occupied several
days, necessitating their camping on the shores at
night. At the home by the broad waters of Lake Ontario

34 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
the settlers led a truly idyllic life. The unerring
rifle supplied them with meat, the waters with fish,
and the distant mill with flour until a crop could be
grown from the cleared land next season. They
spent the days " logging " (felling the trees) and the
nights burning. The bright flames among the trees
and against the dark background of the dense forest
made a picturesque scene. A singular fact about
" logging " is that the log-heaps burn better at night
than by day ; therefore the logging was done in the
day-time and the burning by night. (See illustration,
page 40.) But to make money in this new country,
where there were no neighbors nor any travellers to
buy, nor any money to buy with, was a more difficult
feat than making a home.
Furs and furs only would bring money. Possess
ing some capital (about $5,000, as already stated),
Roger Conant made his way to Montreal by canoe,
and there about 1 799 had Durham boats built — broad-
beamed open flat boats, strongly built for rowing and
towing. These he filled with blankets, traps, knives,
guns, flints, ammunition, beads and tomahawks, bought
in the Montreal stores, to trade with the Indians for
furs. On page 48 is an illustration of three Durham boats
ascending the rapids of the great St. Lawrence River,
each towed by three men. They were launched

ASCENDING THE RAPIDS. 35
above the greater rapids near Montreal, and hugged
the shores while passing the others. An axe was
always ready to the hand of the man who sat in the
boat and steered, for should the rapid be too strong
and get the mastery of the three men who were
towing from the shore, the rope was quickly cut, and
the Durham, freed, shot like a catapult down stream,
until it was lodged in the first cul-de-sac below. It
was manifestly a most tediously slow and weary
mode of progress. There were no canals built then
as now, to form an easy highway past the rapids.
Once attaining Lake Ontario they paddled and rowed,
still keeping close along shore and camping at some
convenient landing-place at night.
In the illustration on page 65 we have a fair repre
sentation of an Indian trading scene. The goods
brought from Montreal in the Durham boats have
been carried back to a spot a few miles from the
lake shore, in charge of the trader and his assistants.
Three guns were fired in quick succession upon reach
ing camp the previous night, as a signal for all
Indians within hearing to come with their furs to
trade on the morrow. A beaver skin is lying upon
the ground, an Indian is negotiating for a blanket,
while another is looking at a gun, and others are
¦coming in with their furs on their backs.
A few days' trading exhausts the goods brought

36 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
by the trader. He returns home with the furs received
in exchange, deposits them, replenishes his pack, and
sets out on other trips in different directions, until all
the goods are exchanged, and the following summer
the furs are taken to Montreal in the same Durham
boats, where gold and silver, as well as a further
supply of goods, are obtained for them.
There is no record of Roger Conant having shipped
his furs direct to London, England. As good prices
were paid for furs in Montreal, it is most probable he
disposed of them there. Year after year the trade
was continued without interruption. It brought
wealth to the author's grandsire, honestly and fairly
obtained. The great Hudson's Bay Company maintained a
regular chain of trading stations upon the north shore
of Lake Ontario, as they did in the far west and the
Arctic north. The trading stations on Lake Ontario
being near to Quebec and Montreal, and close to
gether, were easily supplied with trading goods.
At the period of which we are now writing, when
my forefather became an opponent to the great
Hudson's Bay Company in the fur trade (1798), that
Company had a trading station very near his home —
only some three miles to the west, and on what is now
known as Bluff Point, a promontory two miles east of
Port Oshawa. This trading station was not fortified,

''COUREURS DU BOIS." 37
but consisted of a well-built, commodious log-house,
with flat roof, and the corners of the house squared
and neatly joined. Standing upon the promontory,
it was easily accessible to the boats passing up or
down the lake. In the spring the boats would come
up from Montreal, generally gaily painted, and rowed
quite close to shore, with song and laughter. After
making the round of the trading stations of Lake
Ontario, they came back in the same manner in the
fall, laden with furs and Montreal-ward bound. " Here
come the Hudson Bay boats ! " was the word on the
day of their arrival. During their first years in the
wilderness the visit of these boats was an event in the
lives of the settlers.
Halcyon days were these for the coureurs du bois
(as the Frenchmen were called who manned these
boats), who were often traders themselves. However,
the influx of settlers and fur traders, such as my
forefathers were, presented such a strong opposition
to the Company, that it gradually gave up Upper
Canada as an exploiting ground, and maintained its
hold of regions more inaccessible. A princely heri
tage, forsooth ! All of fertile Upper Canada to roam
over — mastery of the Indians — and a steady stream
of gold coming in from the trade in furs.
This Hudson's Bay Company is one of the marvels
of the world. Its charter was granted by Charles II.

38 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
in 1670 to some favorites, and from this inception it
rapidly went on to growth and prosperity, acquiring
almost despotic rule over its territories. Its servants
never have plundered it. Its factors, having charge
over stores and furs of immense values, away off" from
white men or the eyes of any who could take an
interest in watching them, have always been faithful
to their trust. There is no record extant of a dis
honest factor. No government, priest or king ever
had servants more faithful than have been the direc
tors of this Honorable Hudson's Bay Company of Fur
Traders for the two hundred and twenty-eight years
of its existence.
Sugar-making was another pursuit which, if it did
not add great wealth to the settler's pocket, at any
rate increased his home comforts. The illustration
on page 78 is a good representation of a sugar-
making camp in the bush. The troughs at the foot of
the trees receive the sap, which drips from a transverse
slit in the bark, made by two blows of a hatchet, at
some few feet above the ground. This trough was
then no more than a hollowed-out half log, the ends
left closed. The sap runs best during the day, as the
warmth of the sun draws it up to the branches. It is
carried in pails to the great caldrons, set over the fire
on a cross limb, and poured into the one on the right
side. When it has boiled, it is then transferred in

FRIENDLY INDIANS. 39
rude ladles to the caldron on the left, where it is fur
ther reduced by boiling, and becomes sugared suffi
ciently to ensure its hardening when poured into the
pans and other receptacles. When hard, these are
turned out and set upon cross-sticks in tiers to dry.
The earliest sap which rises makes the lightest colored
sugar. The Indians are about and assisting in the
work. They were always friendly, never stole or
deceived, and were ever the white man's friend in
Upper Canada. Those in the neighborhood of my
grandfather's settlement were chiefly Mississaugaus.
Every summer they went away to the small lakes
north of Ontario, and came back in the fall for the
salmon and sturgeon fishing, living in lodges or wig
wams. These are covered with birch bark. The illus
tration, given on page 84, is not overdrawn as a
representation of an Indian camp.

CHAPTER IV.
Waubakosh — Making potash — Prosperous settlers — Outbreak
of war of 1812 — Transporting military supphes — Moode
Farewell's hotel — " Here's to a long and moderate war" —
A lieutenant's misfortune — " Open in the King's name " —
Humors of the time — Ingenious foragers — Hidden specie
— Hardships of the U. E. Loyalists.
" Now push the mug, my jolly boys,
And live while we can.
To-morrow's sun may end our joys.
For briefs the hour of man.
And he who bravely meets the foe
His lease of life can never know."
WAUBAKOSH was an Indian chief of the
Mississaugaus. Every fall, from the year
1 808 to 1 847, he came with his tribe (or at
least 1 50 of them) to the shore of Lake Ontario, that
he and they might fish.
Their lodges were almost invariably constructed on
the bank of a creek, near its mouth, that they might
take the salmon ascending the stream in November
to spawn, and fish in the lake from their boats, with
light-jack and spear, for sturgeon.

* .m"' .^.'^ ^^

LOGGING SCENE. ROGER CONANT IN DARLINGTON, CO. DURHAM,
UPPER CANADA, 1778.

A NOBLE INDIAN CHIEF. 41
First he came as a young Indian brave, before he
became chief, and, on attaining the chieftainship and
a wife, the only difference which the few white set
tlers here at that time could discover in his attire was
that his deerskin leggings were more beautifully
fringed at the seams, and his moccasins likewise
were more elaborately wrought with porcupine quills
Waubakosh was never known to commit a mean
act. He was always friendly, and every succeeding
fall his coming back was looked for with certainty by
the white settlers, who got their living in the clear
ings and from the waters, as much hunters and fisher
men as farmers.
On bidding his white friends good-bye, about
December, 1847, as he set out for the Indian encamp
ment about Nottawasaga, in the thick woods, the
Indian chief expressed the fear that he might never
come back again. His fears were only too well
founded, for he never did return. Old residents who
knew him have been heard many times to wonder
what was his ultimate fate. More strange still to
say, not one of his tribe ever came back again to
lodge any length of time. A noble-looking red man,
he has been described as tall and straight, with a
good face and a pleasant eye — in very truth, one of
Nature's noblemen.
Many of his companions who predeceased him

42 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
were buried near his camping-place on Lake Ontario
Their tomahawks, beads, flints, spears, ornaments, and
buttons, and their skulls as well, have been found
in recent years by those seeking for traces of the
aboriginal red man.
As a means of money making, next to the fur
trading in Upper Canada came the making of potasn
Ashes were about in plenty, and were easily gathered
from the burnt heaps of logs.
In the illustration facing page 97 the artist has
endeavored to show the intense heat required. The
fire about the kettle is blazing furiously. This is the
¦' melting scene," and the last firing before the potash
will be done. The driest and most inflammable
wood was needed to secure the great heat that was
necessary. Potash, from 1 800 to about 1 840, brought some $40
per barrel in Upper Canada, and with the fur trading
helped to make wealth for my grandsire and others.
On the breaking out of the war of 1812, between
Britain and the United States, the settlers in Upper
Canada were generally on the high road to prosperity,
cultivating a land as fertile as any under heaven
outside the valley of the Nile, and with less waste
land than in any country of like extent. Such was
and is Upper Canada. It is blessed, too, with a mild.

OUTBREAK OF WAR OF 1812. 43
salubrious climate, where the four seasons are dis
tinctly marked.
We have seen that husbandry, begun about 181 2,
gradually became a national industry. Wheat at
that time could only be sold for one-half cash and
one-half store-pay. The usual price was two shillings
(Halifax) per bushel, or about 48 cents, and it was
almost invariably fall wheat. The author's ancestors
did considerable at farming, but were mainly fur
traders and producers of potash up to the time of
the war. Clothing was almost invariably hand-spun
and woven. Deer-skin, however, was largely used for
men's leggings, moccasins, and even women's dresses.
A story is told of a young girl having one dress
only, which was made of deer-skin. By many weeks'
constant wear it had become soiled. One day, while
all were away, she embraced the opportunity to wash
this precious deer-skin garment, and dry it before the
fire. When the family returned they found the girl
in bed weeping because she had no dress. It had
shrunken so much as to be too small to wear again.
When the war of 181 2 was declared, the British
Government was anxious to send cannon and military
supplies into Upper Canada from Montreal. At first
these were sent by water (see page 104), but later
on the fear of capture by the enemy caused them to
be sent by land. A main highway, leading from York

44 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
to Kingston, had been surveyed by the Government
and chopped out of the forest. In many places, how
ever, the settlers being so few, it had from disuse
become overgrown again with young forest, making
it impassable for laden waggons. It was known
generally as the " Kingston Road." At some places
it lay quite close to the lake, and at others receded
two or three miles inland ; consequently only some
sections were used for traffic in 1812. One of these
sections was at Harmony, a small village one mile
east from Oshawa.
Here a large frame hotel had been built, kept by
one Moode Farewell. This was one of the stopping
places or houses of entertainment for the military
men who passed to and from Montreal and York
during the war.
The illustration given at page 122 is from a water-
color drawing made from a photograph of this hotel.
Joviality and good cheer were characteristic of it, and
many a merry night was spent there by the British
officers. Many times my grandfather saw them call
for liquors in the bar-room on arrival, each grasp his
glass, touch his companion's and drink to the usual
toast of " Here's to a long and moderate war." Could
those old walls speak to-day they would recall the
many, many times this toast was given.
Fun, too, was always in order. One evening a

A LIEUTENANT'S MISHAP. 45
young lieutenant, a recent arrival from Britain, came
in. The heavy rain had soaked his thin buckskins
and leggings. On leaving the bar-room for supper
he hung them to dry on a chair back before the fire
place — a great cavernous fire-place, large enough to
take in a four-foot back log two feet in diameter.
My mischievous grandsire watched the leggings
and helped them on with their drying by placing them
squarely before the fire. When the young lieutenant
came out from supper his consternation was amusing
His property had become a shrivelled, hard piece of
buckskin, shapeless and useless.
" Why did you not mind my leggings ? " he cried
wrathfully. "Oh, I did mind them well — ^just see how
dry they are," was the reply. General laughter fol
lowed, and the " long and moderate war " toast was
again drunk.
Moode Farewell, the owner and keeper of this hotel,
was the father of a numerous family, many of
whom and of their descendants have risen to high
places both in Canada and the United States
He was a man of boundless energy, pluck and endur
ance, and amassed a considerable fortune.
About eight miles westerly from Farewell's was
Lynde's tavern, on the Kingston Road. Between
these two points, on the way from York to Montreal,
the Government had frequent occasion to have des-

46 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
patches passed during the war. As he had promised
Governor Simcoe on coming into Upper Canada in
1794, Roger Conant aided the Government, even if he
did not fight for it, by carrying despatches between
these two points whenever he was called on so to do.
His house stood very near the shore of the lake, a
new aijd larger one having been constructed near the
first. Along the lake shore, past this house, the heavy
freight and military supplies were drawn.
Frequently during the continuance of the war of
1812 a midnight summons came to him, first a knock
at the door, and then the demand, " Open in the
King's name ! "
" In a moment, gentlemen," was the answer, and
as soon as ordinary garb could be assumed the officers
were admitted.
" Get your oxen, sir, and draw a gun to York "
came the command.
" Certainly, gentlemen, but can't you wait a moment,
that I may feed the oxen before setting out ? "
By placing food and good cheer before the officers
and men sufficient time usually was gained, but after
once starting out no stop would be permitted until
the fort at York was reached, about thirty-five miles
westerly along the beach, the intervening streams
being crossed by wading. Sometimes the freight to
be hauled consisted of other military supplies.

TRICKS OF THE SOLDIERS. 47
Rough and formal as the soldiers were, my grand
father said the officers were invariably fine men, and
he was always well paid in coin when he reached the
fort at York. On one occasion, on arrival with a gun,
the commissary officer came to him and asked if he
would ^sell a yoke of his oxen. Nothing loth, he
consented £14. (Halifax) were handed him, and the
oxen became beef for the garrison. This was a very
lucrative trip, with the pay for hauling and for the
oxen, and the country served at the same time.
The records of the time are not without the
humorous side. The following recount some of the
tricks of the soldiers, always ready to add variety to
their bill-of-fare :
Skirting along the shore, and pulling up their boats
at night, came some troops on their way to Toronto,
who were billeted to lodge with a settler for a night.
Now, this settler had a number of hogs, and on
arising next morning he missed one from the lot.
Supposing the soldiers had stolen it, he at once com
plained to the captain in command, who instituted
a thorough search among all the boats, but all to
no purpose — the hog was not to be found, and the
command set off". Upon landing the following night
after the day's row the missing hog came to light.
The captain, puzzled to know how it could be so
successfully concealed, offered pardon to the offenders

48 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
if they would only tell how they concealed it. Taken
at his word, they showed the captain how they had
opened the hog down the front its whole length, and
placed it like a sheath on the keel of the boat, so that
the water thoroughly hid it, and nailed it there. Of
course, no one thought of looking into the water
under the boat for the hog. It would be superfluous
to add that the captain had fresh pork for supper that
night. At another time, as the troops were marching past a
settler's house they came upon a flock of geese. After
the men had passed one of the geese was discovered
missing, and the owner came to the camp that night
and demanded a search for it. A most thorough
search was instituted among the camp baggage, but
no bird was found. Next day, however, while on the
march, the captain had a part of this goose brought
to him at his meal. After partaking of the tooth
some dish his wrath was no doubt much mollified,
and he asked how they had brought the goose along,
seeing no visible way of doing it. His surprise was
great to learn that the drummer of the troop had
unheaded his drum and placed the bird inside. Well,
these poor fellows deserved well of this country for
the hardships which they encountered in its protec
tion, and they were right royally welcome to both
hog and goose, and should be freely forgiven.

•. ,!|«94«5^>. 'i^m0^^

.^*s^'4^-/V-.,..

DURHAM BOATS ASCENDING RIVER ST. LAWRENCE, WITH GOODS FOR
INDIAN FUR TRADING-

BURIED SPECIE. 49

Sometimes oxen were impressed to draw specie to
Toronto, and the old men used to say that they would
far rather draw the cannon than the specie. While
drawing the latter, which was in boxes about a foot
square, the guards were very strict, and would not
allow much rest for the driver or the oxen. Like the
story of Captain Kidd's buried treasure, there have
been stories told of a box of this specie being hidden
while on the way by the officer in command. It has
been a rumor current among old 181 2 men that a
box of specie was placed in one of the gullies near
the lake shore on the Scarboro' Heights. From all
that can be gathered, it would appear true that some
specie was deposited there. Persons armed with
various amalgams on the ends of sticks, others with
witch-hazel twigs, have searched for this specie. It
is more than probable, however, that the officer who
hid it came back for it after the war was over.
The lot of the U. E. Loyalists who came here was
one hard enough to deter the most resolute among us
to-day from willingly entering upon its like. Those
of us who would voluntarily for patriotism, or even
for money, enter upon such a wild heroic life of toil
are few, very few indeed. Think of going from
Oshawa to Kingston to mill as one of the hardships
they had to contend with. Yet they laid the founda
tion of fortunes for their successors, and those who

so UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
held on to their inherited lands are to-day among
the richest families in Ontario. They, at least, have
particular cause to be loyal and faithful for the good
they have received at their country's hands. But
those holding on to these royal grants are very few
indeed as compared with the number who originally
inherited them. I do not think I can count more
than a dozen families to-day, between Toronto and
Kingston, who own these grants in direct descent by
inheritance.

CHAPTER V.
Capture of York — Immigration increasing — David Annis —
Niagara — Prosperous lumber business— Ship-building —
High freight rates — Salmon spearing — Meteoric showers —
An affrighted clergyman — Cold winters — A tragedy of the
clearings. " Peculiar both I
Our soil's strong growth.
And our bold native's hardy mind ;
Sure heaven bespoke
Our hearts of oak
To give a master to mankind."
ON April 27th, 1813, upon the taking of York by
Chauncey and his fleet, orders were given by
the officer left in command of the British
militia when General Sheaffe retreated to blow up
the fort. The boom of the explosion was distinctly
heard by my grandsire, Thomas Conant, at his home
thirty-five miles distant. With the exception of this
incident no records connected with the events from
that time until the close of the war ift 18 14 have been
preserved among the reminiscences of the family.
The supplies needed for the soldiers had encour-

52 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
aged agriculture in the back townships and brought
money into circulation in the country. At the close
of the war immigration increased, sturdy settlers
coming into the country both from the British Isles
and the United States. The settlement of the wild
lands, the clearing of the forests and the building of
roads went on apace ; an era of prosperity and wealth
succeeded as peace became assured.
The most thriving industry was that of the lumber
man, awaiting whose axe lay the magnificent forests
of timber which covered so large a portion of Upper
Canada. My father embarked in this trade. His
mother's decease induced his relative, David Annis,
a bachelor, to ask for and adopt him as his heir.
David Annis was a descendant of the Charles
Annis mentioned in the quit-rent deed given on page
29. Though unlettered and untaught, even unable
to write his own name, David was possessed of excel
lent business ability and an untiring body ; a man
of fine heart, a friend to the poor, and hospitable to
all. It is said of him that no Indian or white ever
went from his door hungry. Together he and Daniel
Conant built what was probably the first lumber mill
erected in the Home District. Its capacity was seven
thousand feet of lumber per day only. At page 135
a picture of this mill is given.
All that lumber (generally pine) would have been

DAVID ANNIS.

THE AUTHOR'S UNCLE

SHIP-BUILDING ON LAKE ONTARIO. 53
valueless when manufactured unless means had been
provided to take it to market by schooner. Niagara,
at the mouth of the Niagara River, was, even as late
as 1835, one of the largest towns in Upper Canada.
Thither the lumber must be taken to find a market.
No wharves had then been built upon the north
shore of Lake Ontario, and lumber must be floated
down the stream from the mill in rafts to the lake,
and so placed on board the waiting schooners. Three
vessels were built by ship carpenters (many of whom
came from the United States) of the lumber sawn at
the mill. They were built on fine lines and had
excellent sailing properties, their owners boasting
they could sail them " as close to the wind's eye as
any craft that ever floated."
Pine lumber brought at that day (1835) $7 per
thousand feet in cash at Niagara ; therefore the lum
ber mill paid $49 per day of twenty-four hours during
the season of sawing. To supply the demands of
this trade vessel after vessel was built, and soon
return freights began to be offered, such as salt
from Sodus, N.Y., and flour in barrels, to be carried
to Kingston, until the business of lumber manufactur
ing and vessel freighting was, at that early period
in the history of Upper Canada, as productive as the
output of a paying gold mine. The author's father
served on many of his schooners as captain and super-

54 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
cargo as well, and never lost his love of the water
and its attendant adventure.
One of the most important occurrences of the time,
and one from which many reckoned their local his
tory, was a remarkable display of falling meteors.
The following account is taken from memoranda left
by my mother, and as told by my father :
On the night of the 12th of November, 1833, my
father, then a young man, was salmon-spearing in a
boat in the creek, at its outlet into Lake Ontario, now
Port Oshawa. One of his hired men sat in the stern
and paddled, while he stood close beside the light- ,
jack of blazing pine knots, in order to see the salmon
in the water. He, in common with the inhabitants
generally, was laying in a stock of salmon to be
salted down for the year's use, until the salmon '' run "
again the following fall.
At or about ten o'clock of this evening, as nearly as
he could judge, from out of an intensely dark Novem
ber night, globes of fire as big as goose eggs began
falling all around his boat. These balls continued to
fall until my father, becoming frightened, went home,
—not forgetting, he quaintly added, to bring with
him the salmon already caught. On reaching home.
Lot 6, B. F. East Whitby, the whole household was
aroused, and frightened too ; but the fires ceasing

METEORIC SHOWERS. 55
they went to bed, to pass a restless night after the
awe-inspiring scene they had witnessed.
Getting up before daybreak next morning, my
father raked over the embers of the buried back log
of the big fire-place and quickly had a blaze. Hap
pening to glance out of the window, to his intense
amazement he saw, as he said, " the whole sky filled
with shooting stars." Quickly he called to the men,
his hired help in the lumbering business, to come
down stairs. They needed not a second invitation,
and among them was one Shields, who, on reaching
the door, dropped in a twinkling upon his knees
and began to pray. The balls of fire continuing, his
prayers grew more earnest, if vigor of voice could be
any index to his religious fervor. Of the grandeur
of the unparalleled scene my father said almost
nothing, for I am led to think they were all too
thoroughly frightened to think of beauty, that being
a side issue entirely. The fiery shower growing
more dense, my father went out of doors and found
the fire-balls did not burn or hurt. Then he went to
a neighbor's — a preacher of renown in the locality —
having to pass through woods, and even in the dark
ness, he affirms, the fire-balls lighted his way quite
distinctly. The preacher, already awake, was seated
at the table beside a tallow dip reading his Bible,
with two other neighbors listening and too fright-

S6 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
ened, he said, to even bid him good morning. He
sat and listened to verse after verse, and still the
stars fell. The preacher gave no explanation or sign,
but read on. Looking eastward, at last my father
saw a faint glimmer of breaking day. Once more he
came out into the fire and made his way homeward.
Before he reached there daylight broke. Gradually
the fire-balls grew less and less, and, with the day,
ceased altogether. To find a sign of them he hunted
closely upon the ground, but not a trace was left of
anything. Nor was any damage done. What became
of the stars that fell he could not conjecture.
Realize that in 1833 astronomers had not taught
Upper Canadians in regard to meteoric showers, as
we know to-day, and we do not marvel at their con
sternation and fright. Such was the greatest meteoric
shower the world probably has ever known. Its
greatest density was said to be attained in this sec
tion of the continent.
A bit of doggerel went the rounds at that time.
It was made, I believe, by one Horace Hutchinson, a
sailor whom my father had on one of his schooners.
Here is the first verse :
" I well remembered what I see
In eighteen hundred and thirty-three.
When from the affrighted place I stood
The stars forsook their fixed abode."

COLD WINTERS. 57

A better sailor he was than a poet, and yet, bad as
the verses were, they were very popular in the thirties
in a large section of the Home District, of which this
is a part.
E. S. Shrapnel, the artist, paints the picture (page
144) from an actual photograph of the house, he
obviously supplying the kneeling man.
Shields, who made so great a fuss, was employed
by one of my father's foremen at the lumbering, and
the picture and its story are true in every essential
particular. Upper and Lower Canada were thought by many
to have extremely severe winters. It is probable the
belief was well founded, but the climate of Upper
Canada has undergone a very material change since
that period (1835). To-day Upper Canada is pre
eminently a fruit-growing country. Apples, pears,
peaches and grapes are staples in this favored land.
COLD WINTERS OF YORE.
Old men tell us that our winters are less severe
now than they were fifty or sixty years ago. The
long unbroken spells of extreme cold which they
used to experience in the early days of our history,
are not known now. It is true we do get a cold spell
during the winter, now and again, and sometimes
deep snow ; but these cold spells soon break, and the

58 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
deep snows do not remain all winter. Not long since
I was talking with one of the Grand Trunk Railway
conductors, who had been on the line for over twenty
years. He said that when he first came on the line it
was not at all unusual to have the snow even with the
car steps for miles. At other places, he said, they
would for long distances pass through tunnels of snow
piled or drifted as high as the car tops, whereas now
the railway company seldom send out their snow-
plough at all, nor does the snow seriously hinder the
running of the trains.
It may be that the snow does not now lie as deep
as it did before the land was cleared, but is more
drifted. This no doubt is true, in a measure, but
then if we got as much snow as our fathers used to,
and this drifted, the consequences would be most dis
astrous, and would be an effectual bar to locomotion.
The winter's cold of former years can be best illus
trated by the relation of an anecdote. An old gentle
man, still alive and approaching his fourscore years
says he was one day driving through a seyenteen-mile
belt of woods, in this province, with one horse draw
ing a jumper. The jumpers of those days were made
by using two green saplings for runners, bending them
up for the crooks. Beams and uprights were made of
green saplings, like the runners. An axe and an auger
were the only tools used in their construction, and

FROZEN SOLID. 59

generally there was not a particle of iron in any shape.
Rude as they were, they served their purpose ad
mirably, and lasted well enough through one winter.
The day was intensely cold, so cold that it was dan
gerous to leave any part of the body exposed for a
moment. He saw a man sitting bolt upright in the
snow on the path before him. His first thought was
" What will this man be doing here alone, sitting down
in this awful cold." Coming up to him, he reined up
his horse, and called to the man ; receiving no answer,
he tapped him with his whip, and, to his astonishment,
the blow resounded as if he were striking a piece of
marble. The poor fellow was frozen solid through
and through. He was a settler, who lived some thirty
miles farther on, and who had set out to go to some
settlement, but becoming exhausted by the long
weary tramp in the snow, sat down for a few moments'
rest, became drowsy from the soporific effects of the
cold, and froze as he sat.
To convey to the younger generation of Upper
Canadians an idea of some of the difficulties which
our forefathers encountered in subduing the dense
forests of our Province, I will relate a true instance of
an occurrence about sixty years ago :
A man and his wife, with two children, moved into
the Township of Ops, into a dense forest, eight miles

6o UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
from the nearest settler. For months he chopped
away at the forest trees, all alone, and succeeded
at length in making a clearing in the forest, and
erecting a log-house for himself and his family. The
logs were peeled and notched at the ends, and laid up
squarely, each tier making the house the diameter of
a log higher. A hole was cut through for a doorway,
and another for a window. To form a door he split
some thin slabs from a straight-grained cedar, and
pinned them with wooden pins to cross slats. The
most ingenious parts of the construction, however,
were the hinges. Iron hinges he had not, and could
not get. With the auger he bored a hole through the
end of a square piece of wood, and, sharpening the
other end with his axe, he then bored a hole into
one of the logs of the house, constituting in part a
door-jamb, and drove the piece of wood into this hole.
This formed the top part of the hinge, and the bot
tom part was fashioned in exactly the same way.
Now to the door, in like manner, he fastened two pegs
of wood with holes bored through their ends. Placing
the ends of the hinges above one another they pre
sented the four ends with holes leading 'through them,
the one above the other. Next he made a long pin
with his handy jacknife, leaving a run at one end of
it, and making it long enough to reach from the top

A BACKWOODS ARCHITECT. 6 1
to the lower hinge. Through the holes at the ends
of the hinge this long pin was placed, and thus the
door was hung.
The roof of the log-house was perhaps the greatest
curiosity. Hollow basswood (linden) trees Were
generally used. These were first cut the length
required, then split through the centre, each half
forming a trough. A layer of these troughs was laid
lengthwise from the ridge-pole to the eaves, all
over the house-top, upon their backs, the bark side
down. Over these was laid a second layer, reversed,
or bark side up, and the edges of the upper layer
fitted into the hollows of the lower one. In this way
the settler made a roof for his house quickly and
easily. Such a roof shed water tolerably well, too,.
until the logs began to rot.
This primitive house built, the settler put in a small
crop in the tiny clearing. At this period in the coun
try's history the virgin soil produced bountifully, and
the crops once put in were almost sure to give fair
returns. When autumn came with its gorgeous colors
— the leaves of the forest in the north temperate zone
rivalling in beauty anything the tropics can show us —
the settler's crop was a good one.
Unfortunately, however, he was confined to his
rude bed, too ill to gather in his harvest. Eight miles.

62 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
away his nearest neighbors followed the " blazes "* on
the trees through the woods and came and secured
the settler's crop for him, then departed, leaving him
and his household all alone in the deep, silent forest.
Days and weeks rolled along and no one came again,
while the poor man got perceptibly worse. Winter
at last set in with the severe cold of those days.
Snow, deep and lasting, soon fell, and covered all
things animate and inanimate with a pure white man
tle. To have a huge pile of logs at the door was the
custom of those days, to supply the winter fire in the
great capacious open fire-place. Our settler had not
neglected to secure the traditional and useful pile
of logs before his illness. Many dreary days passed
over this little snowed-in household, the husband and
mainstay still sick, and gradually growing weaker.
Wolves howled around the door nightly. Seeing no
one out of doors, they gradually became bolder and
would approach to the very door of the cabin.
To the poor disconsolate wife's inexpressible grief,
the husband died and left her alone in her solitary
loneliness with her two children, the eldest of whom
was only eight years of age, and the second one just
able to walk. What dreadful isolation this, with no
one nearer than eight miles to help her perform
* Marks on the trees made by the axe to indicate a path or
way from one spot to another in the woods.

A FOREST HEROINE. 63
the sacred rites of sepulture ! Among the tools in
the house was an old mattock, used in grubbing up
the forest roots in the clearing. With this she
attempted to dig a grave. Unfortunately for her,
however, the snow had fallen later than usual in the
autumn, after the ground had become frozen quite
hard. All her efforts failed to penetrate through the
deeply frozen crust, and she almost feared she could
not bury her husband at all. To place the body out
of doors she dare not, for it would only become food
for the prowling wolves, and the idea was so revolt
ing to her that she could not entertain it. Some
solution, however, must be sought for the difficult
problem, and this clever, self-reliant woman finally
solved it.
Remembering that the pile of logs at the door
beside the house had been put there before the frost
came, with the aid of a hand-spike she rolled one
back away from the side of the house. It was a large
log from which one above it had been removed for
the daily burning on the hearth. To her joy, under
this log the ground was scarcely frozen, being under
the pile and sheltered by the side of the log cabin.
There with the mattock she dug a grave, dragged
her husband's body to it, rolled it gently in, and
covered it over with the soil she had taken out. Then
back again over the grave she rolled the log, to

64 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
protect it and prevent the wolves disinterring the
body. She then went to the settlement, leading her
youngest child by the hand, the other following in
the track made in the deep snow.
A harrowing tale is this, but it is a true one. It
was by just such people that the Province of Upper
Canada was made what it is, and by their sufferings,
buffetings and privations we enjoy the privileges
which we have to-day. Let us drop a kindly tear to
the memory of this brave woman, and look back
with fond remembrance to our pioneer ancestors who,
although often unlettered and uncultured, did so
much for us.

ROGER CONANT TRADING WITH THE INDIANS FOR FURS.

CHAPTER VI.
Discontent in Upper Canada — Election riots — Shillelahs as
persuaders — William Lyon Mackenzie— Rioting in York —
Rebellion — Patriots and sympathizers — A relentless chase
— Crossing Lake Ontario in midwinter — A perilous pas
sage — A sailor hero — A critical moment — Safe on shore —
"Rebellion Losses Bill" — Transported to Botany Bay —
Murder of my grandfather — Canadian legends — A mys
terious guest.
Land of the forest and the rock.
Of dark blue lake and mighty river.
Of mountains reared aloft to mock
The storm's career, the lightning's shock ;
My own green land for ever. — Adapted.
VOICES of discontent had been heard for many
months previous to the actual outbreak ofthe
rebellion of 1837 in Upper Canada. Meetings
were held, at which the wrongs inflicted on the country
by the Family Compact were discussed. Responsible
government had not then been granted to Canada
by the Imperial Government ; prior to the rebellion
the country was under the rule and the heel of an
oligachy who had foisted themselves upon the people.
5

66 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
It would be impossible and it is indeed unnecessary
for me to refer to the causes of the outbreak in Upper
Canada. Most persons' minds have already been fully
made up pro and con on the subject. It is not my
purpose to do more than relate such incidents as
came within the notice of my father and grandfather,
or had an influence on their lives or surroundings.
The elections of candidates for the Legislature were
conducted differently from what they now are under
responsible government, a change hastened by the
rebellion, and finally secured by the able Report of
Lord Durham.
At Newcastle, Durham County, an election was
being held, ostensibly to elect a member of the Par
liament. For one whole week electors were asked to
ascend a flight of steps to a booth erected in the open
air, and there verbally announce the name of the can
didate for whom they would vote. The Family Com
pact took good care that all timorous ones voted for
them, or did not vote at all, if an opposition candi
date was nominated.
A participant in that election told of a waggon-load
of green shillelahs brought to the grounds for the
purpose of gently (?) persuading the electors to vote
for the Government nominee. Whiskey could be had
for the asking, without money and without price, and
ab libitum. The ordinary price of whiskey at that

WILLI A M L YON MA C KENZIE. 67
ate and for many years later was tenpence per gallon.
'ights were of hourly occurrence during the election,
nd for six days a pandemonium of riot reigned. It
> superfluous to add that the Government candidate
ron the contested seat, as he did very generally in
ther constituencies throughout the Province.
William Lyon Mackenzie, the hard-headed little
icotch reformer, who was several times elected and
xpelled the House, exposed these acts in his paper
nd some of the sons of the Compact threw his type
ito York (Toronto) bay. The destruction of his type
nd the consequent revulsion of feeling secured jus-
ice, and damages assessed for the loss being paid to
Mackenzie from the fines exacted of the lads who
ommitted the depredation enabled him to continue
le publication of his paper, and through it rouse his
ympathizers into open rebellion. No government
ver English-speaking subjects has yet succeeded long
1 curtailing the liberty of the press. In Canada this
smark was as true as elsewhere.
My father at this time was captain of one of his
eet of ships, and was not on shore to participate in
lie excitement. Freights that fall (1837) were ex-
eedingly high on Lake Ontario. Salt, for instance
/as one dollar a barrel from Sodus, New York, to
Vhitby, Upper Canada, that being the nearest port to
)shawa, his home, four miles away. Flour was one

68 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
dollar a barrel from Oshawa and Whitby to Kingston.
It was an exceedingly mild winter, and succeeding so
well, he did not put his ship into winter quarters in
November, as is the custom on the Great Lakes, but
continued his trips until the day after Christmas,
when he reached Whitby, unbent his sails and stowed
everything for the winter.
A PERILOUS VOYAGE.
Many persons who occupied good positions in
Upper Canada, even if not in actual rebellion, were
mistrusted as sympathizers with the patriots ; they
were hunted by the Compact's forces, and driven from
their homes, being forced to find shelter in the forests
and in barns. Life to them finally became unbearable,
and they sought some means of leaving the Province.
A small schooner, the Industry, happened to be laid
up for the winter in one of the ports on the north
shore of Lake Ontario. The owner was besought to
bend his sails to the masts and take the patriots across
the lake to Oswego, N.Y. Such a trip as crossing
Lake Ontario in midwinter by a sailing craft is a most
perilous thing to do, and naturally the owner of the
vessel hesitated to take the great risk to his vessel,
and to his own life as well. It was thought that the
vessel might make the outlet of the Oswego River at
Oswego, N.Y., and therefore effect a landing. Recol-

FLEEING PATRIOTS. 69
lect that there were no tugs in those days to tow a
vessel as soon as she hove in sight, but the wind alone
must be depended upon. However, the owner, be
sought by the tears and entreaties of the wives and
friends of the patriots in hiding, finally concluded to
make the attempt. On the night of the 27th day of
December, 1837, the little vessel of 100 feet in length
quietly slipped from her moorings, and sailed close
along the shore of Lake Ontario. It was a bright
moonlight night, still, but very cold. Every mile or
so she would back her mainsail, and lay to at a signal
of a light upon shore, that a canoe might put off" to
the vessel, bearing a patriot from his hiding in the
forest to the side of the boat. As yet no storm had
come on to form the ice-banks since the cold set in,
but there was no knowing what a day might produce
in the way of a storm and the formation of ice-banks.
Some forty stops, however, and forty different canoes
were paddled out to the vessel, and forty patriots
transferred, panting for the land of liberty across
Lake Ontario, to the south of them sixty miles or so.
A fine sailing breeze blew off" shore, and hoisting sail
and winging out mainsail and foresail, nothing could
bid fairer for a quick and prosperous voyage ; and the
land of liberty seemed almost gained. Lying upon
blankets in the bottom of the vessel were the patriots,
with the hatches closed down tight on account of

70 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
the intense cold. Quickly and gaily the little vessel
sped on, with anxious hearts beating below. Morning
revealed to their gaze the mouth of the river at Os
wego, and the Stars and Stripes floating from the old
fort near the river's outlet. And a glorious sight in
deed it was to the heavy-hearted patriots, liberty at
hand just before them, where no one dare pursue.
Then " Get up, boys, and let's get into port ! " But
the north wind, which bore them so gaily and swiftly
over the broad lake, had driven all the floating, drifting
ice before it, and wedged it firmly along the south
shore. For three miles between them and the land
was this mass of floating ice, and the little vessel
refused to be driven through it.
Backwards and forwards, along its outer edge, they
tacked, ever seeking an opening but finding none.
Every means possible at their command they tried to
force a passage, but all failed. The hearts of the
patriots, which a few hours before beat so joyously,
now sank within them. " Oh ! must we put back
again to Canada, and to prison ? Never ; we will die
first ! " As the day wore on, finally an athletic sailor
declared he could and would force a passage. And
how was he to do it? He boldly got out on the
bowsprit, climbed down on the cut-water chain, and
hung by his hands to the over-haul above the bow
sprit. A heavy sea at this time was running, and

A HEROIC SAILOR. 71
ever and anon the sailor and bowsprit would be
raised on the top of a wave many feet above the
surrounding level of the water. As the vessel would
fall and bring the sailor down again to the water he
would shove with all his might with his feet on the
blocks of ice around him, to force them to one side
that the vessel could enter between the loose cakes.
Perilous, doubly perilous, as this attempt was, this
undaunted water-dog stuck to his post until darkness
set in and made any further effort in that direction
an impossibility. Bitterly cold as it was, with every
wave freezing as it washed over the decks, this hardy
fellow did not feel the cold from the intense effort,
but perspired freely and hung on to the rope bare
handed. His almost superhuman task only resulted
in effecting a passage through the ice about a quarter
of a mile. All night they lay there among the ice,
and, strange as it may seem, slept soundly in their
dreadful peril. During the night the wind fell, and
the intensity of the cold increased. At the first rays
of the morning they were astir, and found their little
vessel firmly frozen in, with a clear sheet of ice, trans
parent and smooth, two inches thick, all around them.
Over the vessel's side jumped our sailor of the pre
vious night's adventure, and found a firm footing all
about the vessel. Quickly they realized that their
only chance for life and safety lay in hurrying over

72 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
the ice with all speed for the shore before a wind
might arise and break up the ice frozen the night
before. The bulwarks of the vessel were torn off" and
split so as to form poles, each man taking one. But
our sailor took instead a piece of board about ten feet
long and eight inches wide. Away they started,
spreading out, every man for himself, carrying his
pole in front of his breast. " Step on the clear ice
and keep off the hummocks," sang out our sailor.
Soon one disregarded the advice, and down he went,
plump into the icy water beneath. His pole, how
ever, would catch the firm ice at the sides, and kept
his head above water. Then his nearest companion
took hold of the submerged man's pole and pulled
him out upon firm ice again. Immediately on getting
out he was incrusted in a sheet of ice. Overcoats
began to be thrown aside, and also the grip-sacks
containing all the patriots' valuables, until the path
was strewn with their eff'ects. Every moment some
one would break through the ice. Out of that devoted
band of patriots all had gone down and been rescued ;
and all of the crew, too, except one sailor, who, being
lighter than the rest and more cautious where he
stepped, alone remained dry. Now the patriots one
after another began to lose all heart and give up.
" O God ! and must I die here, with the shore and
liberty just in sight." " Get up ! " shouted John, our

A DESPERATE HAZARD. 73
sailor, swearing at them the while, and threatening
to put them square under unless they got up and
went on. On the shore were some hundreds of persons
watching the eff"orts of that devoted band, gesticulat
ing to them, and trying to move them to take heart
and gain the shore.
Other help they could not afford, much as they
desired to do so, for the wind is so treacherous on
these waters in midwinter that in a moment the ice
might be broken and all lost. John, our hero, how
ever, at last threatening to brain with his piece of
board those who had given up, finally got them on
their feet again, and a little nearer shore. About three
o'clock in the afternoon saw them within twenty rods
of the shore, and now the cheers and shouts of the
crowd of sympathizers could be heard. " At last !
oh, at last our troubles will be over, and we shall
get ashore," and their hopes arose once more. " But
no, oh, dear, no ! has God brought us through all
these perils and hardships to die so near the shore ? "
Anguish almost as great as death itself was stamped
on the face of the most intrepid of that band.
All at once the wind had risen from the south, and
the ice began drifting into the lake. Already it had
parted from the shore streak of ice and left a space
of open water now seven feet wide. Jump it they
could not, because their clothes were frozen so hard

74 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
that they could not spring, and, besides, the ice on
the other side of the open space was not thick enough
to hold one alighting after the jump. Their last
hope sank within them. Death stared them in the
face ; their wives and friends in Canada would see
them no more. Every minute added to the width of
the gulf of water between them and the shore ice,
when up came the sailor with the last laggard, and in
an instant threw his board over the open water, and
" Now run for your lives," said he, and they ran across
the board, every man feeling this to be his last chance
and his last effort. On shore at last ! Tears, hot and
blinding, ran down their cheeks, while the crowd
gathered around them and cheered lustily. The
sympathzers on shore conducted them to the bar
room of a hotel, in which was a huge fire-place, with
an immense fire of logs blazing for their especial
benefit. It seems this bar-room was sunken below
the surface of the earth a step, and was floored with
bricks. Quickly their icy clothes began to thaw, and
in a little time, it is said, the water melted from
their clothes actually stood three inches deep over
the bar-room floor.
We have to add that the little vessel was lost and
became a wreck. Well it was that it was lost, for a
battery of artillery was stationed at the port whence
it sailed, with orders to fire on the vessel and take

SAFE ASHORE 75

every man a prisoner when she came back. Had
they been taken, without a doubt they would all have
been sent to Botany Bay as convicts, for twenty or
thirty years each, as many others were, who went
away as young men and came back grey-haired,
broken-down old men, scarcely knowing their own
country after so long an absence. As to the patriots,
they were all pardoned and invited to come home, as
we all know, which they did, many of them rising to
high positions in Canada in after years. That this
rebellion did great good to Canada neither Tories nor
Reformers now deny, but it does seem hard that so
many good and true men men had to suffer so much
to have the wrongs righted. To-day Canada is as free
as any country under the sun. I leave it to you,
reader, to say if there could be a more joyful Christ
mas at any place in America than the portion of it
remaining to those patriots after they got on shore.
The Industry is first in line represented in the
illustration of the lumber loading, on page 172. The
illustration on page 186 will give some idea of the
scene of the adventure of the escaping patriots, and
the landing at Oswego, N.Y.
The ill-fated Industry drifted about upon the incle
ment lake, and was at last driven into a cove about
Oak Orchard, N.Y. There a land pirate cut the ship
up, and stole cables, anchors and shrouds. The fo -

7^ UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
lowing spring (1838), John Pickel and William Annis,
at my father's instance, went and found this free
booter, a worthless fellow, but married to a wealthy
man's daughter. Upon the claim being made, he was
advised by legal men to settle it and thus avoid the
penalty. Piracy in New York State is punishable by
ten years' State imprisonment. His father-in-law paid
$1,100 for the man's act, and that is all my father
ever got for a ship valued at quite $8,000 at that day.
Some years afterwards, when in Upper Canada a
" Rebellion Losses' Bill " was passed and became law,
it was thought that the loss of this ship would come
under the meaning of this Act. As a very young
man I urged my father to put in his claim. " No, my
son," he said, " if I was fool enough to risk my ship
and my life in the business of the rebellion in mid
winter, I deserved to lose it." No claim was ever put
in for the lost ship. And even now, after the lapse of
sixty-one years, I do not think it prudent to give the
names of the passengers it carried on that eventful
trip. All of them came back to Canada. Many were
in high government positions afterwards. Had the
Government of the day in Upper Canada then cap
tured that ship and its precious cargo, it may be the
map of Canada would be diff"erent to-day.
I was in Botany Bay, Australia, and in Hobart.
Tasmania, in 1 896, when, fresh from reading the tales

CROSSING LAKE ONTARIO BY CANOE. 77
of Marcus Clark and Balderwood, I could not help
thinking what untimely fate would have befallen the
entire ship's company had they been captured and
transported. Many persons were so hard pressed by the mili
tary during the rebellion, even if not participants,
that they fled in every way possible. One man, on
November 15th, 1837, stole a dug-out pine canoe
from my father, and deliberately paddled alone across
Lake Ontario,, fully sixty-five miles (see page 186).
Leaving Port Oshawa at 10 p.m., and having a fine
north breeze, he made Oak Orchard, due south, at
4 p.m. the next day. The prow of the canoe he had
taken was rotted off", but the paddler, sitting in the
stern with a stone between his feet, by his own and
the stone's combined weight succeeded in keeping
the open end raised above the water. This neces
sarily added much to the perils of the voyage, it
being perilous enough in the best of weather to
paddle across the lake in an open boat.
John D. Smith, before referred to as the owner of
the mill at Smith's Creek (now Port Hope), was a
man of means, and being very stirring, was influential
at the time of the rebellion. All the able-bodied men
in the neighborhood were enrolled en masse at Smith's
Creek. The company was drawn up, answering to
their names as they were called. The Colonel stood

78 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
at the head of the line listening to the names and
responses as the word passed down the line. These
men were to march to York very shortly, to be ready
for any emergency. John D. Smith happened along
somehow, whether designedly or not I cannot dis
cover. Waiting, he heard the name " Ephraim Gifford "
called. Smith knew Gifford well — knew him to be a
hard-working, stay-at-home man, a good chopper;
engaged in clearing the forest. Stepping up to the
Colonel, Smith said, "There, Colonel, take out Gifford
and put in Smadgers there.- Smadgers is no good
anyway, he won't work, and Giff"ord will chop a place
for fall wheat and raise a crop. Put in Smadgers."
And Smadgers was put in the ranks accordingly,
while Gifford went away home to his chopping.
The times of the outbreak also brought tragedies
home to the lives of many of the settlers — losses
which no money indemnity could replace or the
bereaved ones forget.
Thomas Conant, the author's grandfather, happened
on or about February 15th, 1838, to be walking alone
on the Kingston Road, about midway between Oshawa
and Bowmanville. It was quite common in those
days for persons to walk or go on horseback, the
roads being usually very bad for wheeled vehicles.
He was an old man, unarmed, and proceeding about
his ordinary business. Coming in his walk eastward

>TJr
m CO
c o>JO> z o

MURDER OF THOMAS CONANT. 79
towards Bowmanville, he saw a man named Cum
mings sitting on his horse before the tavern door,
then situated on the south side of the Kingston
Road, on lot twenty-six, in the second concession of
Darlington. Conant had not quite reached the hotel,
but clearly saw Cummings, as he sat on his horse,
partake of two stirrup cups, when he started to
ride on westward towards Oshawa. Accosting him,
Conant (who knew him well) said : " Good day, Cum
mings ; drunk again, as usual ! "
Cummings, who was a dragoon and a despatch
bearer, dreaded, above all things, to be reported
drunk when carrying despatches, and fired up in an
instant. Putting spurs to his steed he attempted
to ride Conant down ; but Conant was too quick
for him, and caught the horse by the bridle as he
approached, whereupon Cummings raised his sword,
and, without a word of warning, struck the old man on
the head, fracturing his skull (see page 193). Death
followed a few hours after. Coroner Scott held an
informal inquest, but because the three witnesses of
the murder were looking out of the tavern window,
through the glass of the window, the evidence was
not admitted, and Cummings went unpunished. But
the proverbial " sword of Damocles " hung over him
all the remainder of his days. Living about Port
Hope he became a confirmed drunkard, and at last

8o UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
fell under the wheels of a loaded waggon and was
crushed to death. Such is the tragic story of the
murder of the author's grandfather. Not a friend of
his dared to utter a protest against the murderous
deed or perversion of justice. He was buried on the
Kingston Road, about four miles easterly from the
murder scene, on lot No. 6, in the second concession
of the township of East Whitby. Do I blame the
authorities of that day ? Indeed I certainly do, and
with good reason. But the fact is, that a few persons
who exercised the supreme authority, as the rebellion
waned, used it most arbitrarily. Good came in the
end, and to-day Upper Canada is the peer of all self-
governing countries, and one which I love for its own
sake. Why shouldn't I ? Does it not enshrine the
bones of my grandfather, who fell a victim to Family
Compact misrule ?
Although our country is almost too young to
possess a stock of legends, there are some tales and
many local incidents that have been handed down
from father to son as fireside tales.
At the beginning of this century the Province was
almost a vast wilderness, with open spaces here and
there, cleared by the settler's axe. Even as late as
1812, at the time of the American war, we had only
just begun to emerge, as it were, from the dark tower
ing forests that were intersected by only the Indian

GOVERNOR CLINTON'S PROPHECY. 8 1
footpaths. It is almost astounding when one stops
to consider that even within the memory of those now
living our Province has been made. Our cities have
been built, our canals dug, our forests subdued and
Ontario made a garden, all well nigh within the com
pass of a man's lifetime. When Governor Clinton,
of New York State, first made the assertion that he
would bring the waters of Lake Erie to Albany, and
float a boat on their surface by means of the Erie
canal, there are persons now living who said they
would be willing to die when that was done. But it
has been done, and these old persons in our midst, so
slow to believe, seem not anxious to be hurried to
abide by their wish even at this late day. Many a
farm in Ontario was paid for by money earned by
Canadians while working on that Erie Canal. Low
as the wages were at the time, it was cash, and gained
at a time when our resolute workers could not earn
cash at home. They brought it back to Canada, and
laid the foundation of the prosperity which many
Canadian families now enjoy.
Among the stories of my boyhood days is one
of an Episcopal Church minister who came out from
England to this Province at a very early day, and
settled upon a farm a couple of miles from the
church. He neither was nor could be much of a
farmer, and never at any time let himself down to
6

82 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
any abandon, nor did he ever cast off" his long clerical
coat, even when about his home or when tossing the
fly in his trout-stream. A man of cultivated tastes,
he seemed literally to love the ease and quiet of a
country life. For him it was just one long holiday.
He had erected a substantial stone house on the
bank of a trout-stream which meandered through his
farm. In those days trout were plentiful, and with his
well filled library, and an ample income from Eng
land, it is not to be wondered at that to him life
was worth living. He had married above him in
England, it appeared, but on both sides it had been a
genuine love-match. The irate father had banished his
daughter from his presence, which was the real cause
of their domiciling in Canada. During the father's
lifetime the annual stipend of three hundred pounds
sterling came as regularly as the seasons went by,
and I leave each individual reader to judge for
himself or herself if he could fancy a pleasanter
position, or a place in which life could be more fully
enjoyed, than fell to the lot of this parson and his
family. The evil day came at length, when the wife sickened
and died, and our parson scanned his father-in-law's
will most closely. There was some such ambiguous
clause in it as that his daughter or her husband should
receive the annuity of three hundred pounds sterling

AN EXCITED PARSON. 83
per year " as long as she remained above ground."
Here was the parson's opportunity. He procured a
leaden coffin for the remains, and outside of this
wood was placed ; then with a double love, one for
his wife naturally, and the other for her annuity, he
placed the casket leaning against the wall in an an
upstair room. All went on as before her death, for
lie could annually swear that his wife was " above
ground." Another evil day came after the lapse of a few
years, when the parsonage was found to be in flames.
Neighbors gathered, as they will, of course, at such
times, and were anxious to render any assistance
possible. During the progress of the fire the parson
walked to and fro among the persons gathered, with
his clerical coat still upon him, beseeching all and
everybody to " save his wife." His whole soul
seemed so wrapt in the saving of his wife's remains
that he heeded and cared not for any other loss.
Importunity, however, could not stay the elements
in their mad career, and as the fire progressed it
caught the corpse in its embrace, and with a dull
thud the leaden casket burst, and all was exposed to
the fury of the element. Persons who as boys were
at the fire say to this day, and stoutly aver it to
be true, that when the coffin burst the blue flames
shot up into the air in a straight jet for forty feet, as

84 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
if mocking the parson for his solicitude, and as a.
judgment upon him for desecrating his wife's remains
by leaving them so long uninterred. Be that as it
may, I am not in a position to form an opinion, and
will not attempt to judge, but I do know from indis
putable testimony that when the next year rolled
around, and the time came for the yearly income to
be received, it did not come, nor did it ever come
again, for the parson was unable to swear that his.
wife was still " above ground."
There came to Upper Canada about the year 1 803
a young American, strong of muscle and cunning of
skill as a blacksmith. For a few years he followed
his trade and prospered well, for blacksmiths in those
days were few and far between, and he, being skilful,
soon amassed quite a little property. Just as the war
broke out he established a little log hotel on the
travelled highway between Kingston and Toronto,
where all the military must necessarily pass in those
days. As the war went on with its preparations this
American did a roaring trade, and became quite a
personage in the land. Drafted persons, while on
their way to Toronto, invariably stopped at his log
hostelry, and to some of those of American origin
like himself he became communicative over his cups
and explained that he had learned his trade in one

A MYSTERIOUS FOREIGNER. 85

of the States prisons, and that as soon as he was at
liberty he came to Canada. Among those who passed
and repassed during those stirring days in our coun
try's history, his place became noted for its good cheer.
A stage occasionally essayed to make its way along
this highway and, one day during the war it left at
this man's log hostelry a strange passenger. He was
a man past middle age, dressed in clothing plain
but of excellent quality, and was from the time of his
landing at once installed as a guest at the log hotel.
A couple of strongly bound trunks were the man's
only baggage.
As the days and nights flew by this strange guest
was never averse to gather in the general bar-room
and join in the ordinary gossip of the neighborhood
with the assembled neighbors. He was, in fact,
genial, well disposed, evidently well read, possessed
a rich and inexhaustible fund of anecdote, and was
ever the life of the bar-room gathering. Let the
least allusion to politics, however, be made, and the
stranger would shut his mouth as quickly as if his
jaws were those of a trap when sprung by the tread
of its intended victim upon its " trenches." Then
he would seek the solitude of his room and be
seen no more for the evening. His days were spent
with his gun or rod among the forests or along the
streams, and many savory additions to the hotel fare

86 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
were made by his voluntary contributions to it as a
result of his sport. Gradually and almost impercep
tibly he came to be kindly regarded by those who
knew or supposed they knew him. The English
tongue he spoke fairly well, but now and again a
little foreign accent would crop out. This he always
instantly corrected when he bethought himself of his
error. All attempts to discover who he was were
unavailing. Whether he was a Frenchman, a German
or a Russian was always conjectured, but never
transpired. Our transient guest did not in any way
change his ordinary mode of life. During every fine
day he followed his dog with his gun, and if he
felt any uneasiness at his quiet life, or endured the
least chagrin at his expatriation, he was exceedingly
careful not in anywise to let it be known.
To all that part of Upper Canada he became at
length an enigma and a general theme of conjecture
as to who he was. Bets were wagered as to his
origin, but owing to the sphinx-like lips of this strange
man such bets had always to be withdrawn again, for
there was no possibility of verifying any decision
either way. He paid his bills to the landlord regu
larly, and left no cause of complaint against him.
One day, after he had been at the hostelry upwards
of five years, the stage deposited at this log hotel an
officer from the army of old France. He was every

ARRIVAL OF A FRENCH OFFICER. 87
inch a soldier in dress, in looks and action. Having
partaken of his dinner, he called the landlord to his
side and asked if he had ever met a man of such and
such a description. Now, to the landlord's infinite
surprise, the description this officer gave minutely
corresponded with the mysterious stranger, but well
knowing that the man had ever studiously avoided
being recognized, he repudiated any knowledge of
any such person. In the evening when the man
returned he told him of the French officer and the
enquiries he had made. He answered not a word,
but ate his supper and retired to his room.
On the following morning, when the stage came
^long, going in the direction whence the French
officer came, and in the opposite way to which he was
bound, our strange guest came out of his room and
asked to have his trunks strapped on the stage. With
as few words as possible he paid all his reckonings
with the landlord, quietly bade him and his household
good-bye, climbed into the seat, and was gone for
ever. Nothing was ever heard of him again. He
vanished from that part of Upper Canada as suddenly
as he came into it. Where he came from or where
he went to it is probable no one will ever know.
It was supposed by some that this person had been
one of Napoleon the Great's generals, and that after
the defeat of Waterloo he had seized all he could

UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.

find in his division military chest ; when Napoleon
had given himself up on board the Bellerophon he got
on board another vessel and sailed for America, and
had come away from the seaboard to this remote
place to avoid the probability of anyone meeting and
recognizing him ; and that this French officer whose
arrival and enquiries had caused his departure was
upon his track to wreak some vengeance upon him
either for the public wrong he had committed, or, it
might be, a private one of so delicate a nature as to
be without the cognizance of the law. Be that as it
may, the man went as he came and left no sign, an
unsolved enigma to all with whom he had come in
contact while in the wilds of Canada.

CHAPTER VII.
Religious movements — Itinerant preachers — $50 a year — ^Camp-
meetings — Weird scenes at night — Millerites — World
coming to an end — Dissenters attempt to fly — Affrighted
by a " sun-dog "^Destruction fails to materialize — The
Mormons — An improvised Gabriel — Raising the dead —
Converts — Salt Lake — An Irish refugee and his poem.
" On some fond breast the 'parting soul relies,
Some pious tears the closing eye requires.
E'en from the tomb the voice of Nature cries.
E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires."
BEFORE churches were built in the early settle
ments services were held by itinerant preachers
at the houses of the people, or else in the
school-houses, if accessible. Most of these itinerant
preachers were earnest, zealous men, and labored
honestly for what they considered to be right and
their duty. Subsisting upon the cosmopolitan (to
them) parishioners, their real need of money was not
excessive. It is related of many of them that they
did not receive in money more than $50 to $100 per
year during their whole stay in the vicinity. Dona
tions in kind being frequent, and usually abundant.

90 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
the need of money was not felt. Money, indeed, to
the pioneer was too precious to be lightly paid out, or
even talked over, except of necessity. Most of the
settlers in the neighboring townships who had not
received Royal grants, had bought their lands from
the Crown, the Canada Company, or the Bursar of
Toronto University.
Although the price was usually about $4 per acre,
with long terms allowed for payment, and the vendors
were very lenient, yet pay-day inevitably came around,
and every Halifax pound obtained must be hoarded
against it
My earliest recollection of an itinerant preacher
is of one particular man whose visits were made quar
terly, and who always sang at^ night :
" How happy is the man
Who has chosen wisdom's ways,
And has measured out his span.
To his God in prayer and praise."
He was as happy and light-hearted as the birds of
the air. His hands were not hardened by incessant
chopping of forest trees, nor was his face blackened
by burning log-heaps. Just how it was I never quite
knew, but one day he borrowed a saddle and $40 from
my father, and forgot to come back again. My father
did not, so far as I can remember, participate in the

CAMP-MEETING SCENES. 91

ideal joys of this itinerant, nor did he seem to be
disturbed or unhappy from deprivation of them.
The genuine camp-meeting was every summer the
great feature, and was looked upon as the special
means of grace. Tents and shanties were put up in a
grove, and furnished with rude tables and beds, with
seats arranged outside, and a rostrum for the minister.
Four crotched sticks were stuck in the ground, with
beams across, and sticks upon the beams. On these
earth was laid to make a hearth, and a fire built on
it. Such elevated fires shed weird lurid gleams over
the scene at night. So far as I can recollect I have
never seen (and I have seen a little of all lands) any
thing more picturesque. The shouting preacher, the
groaning penitents, the managers or elders flitting
about among the hearers, while mischievous, unsym-
pathizing boys perched on the trees, ready for any
prank which might present itself; each separate plat
form of fire casting its dancing shadows, showing up
each detail distinctly — all combining to make a scene
never to be forgotten. (See page 209.)
The camp-meeting generally lasted a week, and I
would not for a single moment wish to convey the idea
that much good was not accomplished by these gather
ings, although they certainly were not without some
traces of fanaticism.
The "Millerite scare," as it might be called, was

92 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
another instance of the extent to which religious
fanatics could influence their hearers and affect their
lives. From some manuscript left by my mother,
and the account given me by my father, and by my
uncle, David Annis, I have gleaned the following
anecdotes of this curious event in our country :
During the winter of 1842-3 the Second Advent-
ists, or Millerites, were preaching that the world
would be all burnt up in February, 1843. Nightly
meetings were held, generally in the school-houses.
One E — H — , about Prince Albert, Ont., owned a
farm of one hundred acres and upwards, stocked with
cattle and farm produce, as well as having imple
ments of agriculture. So strongly did he embrace
the Second Advent doctrines of the Millerites that
he had not a doubt of the fire to come in February
and burn all up, and in confirmation of his faith
gave away his stock, implements and farm. Sarah
Terwilligar, who lived about a mile east of Oshawa
"corners," on the Kingston Road, made for herself
wings of silk, and, on the night of 14th of February,
jumped off" the porch of her home, expecting to fly
heavenward. Falling to the ground some fifteen
feet, she was shaken up severely and rendered wholly
unfit to attend at all to the fires that were expected
to follow the next day. (See page 220.)
The house in the illustration is the one from the

TERRIFIED BY A SUN-DOG. 93
windows of which the attempt to fly was made. The
wings were made of silk. Though, in the picture,
they appear to do their work, they did not prevent
the wearer falling to the ground about fifteen feet,
and suffering the result in a broken leg.
Mr. John Henry, on that 14th day of February,
was riding alone and met a man on horseback
coming at the top of his speed. Accosting Mr.
Henry he said, " Say, stranger, do you see that
sign in the sky ? " Mr. Henry looked up and saw
only a sun-dog, frequently seen then and now in
the winter season, and replied, " Yes, what of it ? "
" Well, that's the Lord coming to-morrow to burn the
world up," and Mr. H. replied, " Get out ! that's only
a sun-dog." " Oh ! you are an unbeliever," was the
retort, as the man dug spurs into his horse's sides
as if to ride away from the fire he felt so near. My
father told me that on the evening before the final
great day, he took a sleigh-load of neighbors down
to a meeting in a log school-house near where Ebene
zer Church now is, in Darlington. So deep was the
snow, he said, that they had no difficulty in driving
over the fences. Arriving at the log school-house,,
they found it densely packed, and most of the auditors
standing. Being late, they sought to push them
selves in, when someone from the middle of the
room called out, " Stand back, boys, you don't know

94 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
breeding." But they pushed on heedless of breeding
or the want of it, and got in a few feet from the door,
where they stood and listened to some Millerite in
the master's rostrum desk, as he told about the terri
ble fires to come on in a few hours. His words riveted
the attention of all, cramped and uncomfortable as
they were in the crowded room.
Tallow dips, fastened in tin reflectors, shed a mild
light over all, and the heat from the crowded room
became so great as to give a taste, an intense one,
too, of the awful heat promised when the fires should
appear. The old log school-house had been used
before as a rude pioneer dwelling, and a cellar had
been scooped out below the centre. Without an
instant's warning the old floor-beams broke and the
crowd, who all expected to go up, as the Millerite
preacher assured them, were let down with unex
pected precipitancy. The scene, my father said, was
too ludicrous for description. Screaming, fainting,
pulling, praying, squirming, the dense mass fought to
get out. Fortunately the tallow dips were fastened
to the walls and continued to light up the place. My
father dryly said he made his way out, got his load
and went home (at Port Oshawa) and to bed. The
next morning he found the snow as usual upon the
ground and no signs of fire.
A. S. Whiting, the manufacturer, tells of his experi-

A MILLERITE LANDLORD. 95
ence of the Millerite scare. During the long winter
he was peddling eight-day clocks from house to
house — clocks which he had brought with him from
Connecticut. For many weeks he had heard that the
immense snow mantle in that part of Upper Canada
around Port Hope would turn to blood and burn up.
On the afternoon ofthe 14th February, 1843, he, with
his horse and sleigh and a load of clocks, was driving
north from Port Hope. It was a gloriously bright,
sunny day of clear bracing cold, with not a cloud in
the sky. Just at nightfall he arrived at a small village
and drove direct to the tavern. Tying his horse to
the hitching-post, he went into the bar-room to ask
for lodging and food for himself and the steed. He
found no one, so pushed on into the sitting-room
usually provided for guests. No one was yet visible.
Then he called out, but received no answer. Going
on from room to room, he finally reached the kitchen.
Here he found a woman crying and sobbing. Upon
asking for the landlord, and also questioning the
hostler where to find him, he was told they had '' all
gone to meeting."
" Well, I want to put my horse in the stable and
then have some supper," the traveller exclaimed.
" There is no use of eating, for we shall all be burnt
up before morning," the weeping woman managed to
get out between her sobs.

96 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
" Well, never mind, I'll go and put up my horse,
while you get me some supper."
On partaking of his supper, he asked for his room ',
still there was no one else about, and on retiring he
was told in faltering words that he would be burnt
up while he slept.
The sun set that night in more than usual splen
dor ; all nature seemed serene and peaceful, and he
could discover nothing to betoken the awful deluge of
fire so soon to rain upon them. He slept well, and
did not waken at two o'clock in the morning to see
the two feet of snow turn to blood and commence to
burn. Next morning, at the usual hour, rising and
feeding his horse, he called loudly for someone to
get him breakfast. After a time the inmates ap
peared, looking haggard and worn, and very much
surprised that they were still alive. After breakfast,
when he was about setting out, he asked "if they
wanted pay, since they were all going to die so soon.''
This broke the spell and brought them back to mun
dane things. They promptly enough asked for and
received pay for the entertainment of man and beast.
All that day, the narrator said, he could do no
business, because the people had not gotten over the
surprise of finding themselves alive.
Just why they had fixed on that special day and
hour is past finding out. Since that time there have

uzuo(00
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5 <S I
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t- o0.

VOICE FROM A BASSWOOD TREE. 97
been many attempts to fix the time for a general
conflagration, but nothing ever became so general as
this of the Millerites. It is said the Scotch were not
as a class believers in the doctrine, and had no dis
position to scare themselves to death.
During the summer of that memorable year (1843)
the Mormons came to the country, in the hope of
making converts. At Butterfield's Corners (Taunton)
a man named John G. Cannon held forth for several
days, sometimes in the open air and again in the
houses of those inhabitants who appeared to have
leanings that way.
On one occasion, in the midst of a heated harangue
out of doors, he raised his right hand and said, " I ask
Heaven if this is not true ? " at the same time looking
upwards. A moment, and the answer came from
above, in a deep bass voice, " It is true," thus startling
the audience almost into belief Again, on making
the assertion that the golden tablets of brother Joseph
Smith were inspired, he asked, raising his voice, "Are
they ? " and again came the deep-voiced reply, " They
are." One of the men, listening, declared there must
be a man in a hollow basswood tree standing near,
and said he would go for his hired man with his axe
and have it cut down. " Don't you touch it," the
Mormon cried authoritatively ; " if you do the Lord
will strike you dead." Perhaps half convinced, the
7

98 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
man did not have the tree chopped down, the fraud
passed, and the Mormon thus scored what appeared
convincing arguments.
Quite near this scene a young girl was very sick
with a fever, and lay in a state of coma. That he
could raise the dead he now gave out, as in the illus
tration (page 228) he is represented as doing. And
it is only fair to the Mormon to add that after his
pressure and manipulations over the girl she did open
her eyes and look about.
Several converts were made. Among these a family
of the name of McGahan embraced the faith, sold
their farm for $4,000, gave the money to the Mormon,
and went off" to Salt Lake. Another, named Seeleys,
also sold all and went, but they could not raise much
money. My father had charged me many times, that if
ever I went to Salt Lake I should go and see these
people. In 1878 I happened to be in the Mormon
centre. From a man cutting stones for the new
Mormon tabernacle I enquired for the family. The
stone-cutter dropped his mallet as quickly as if shot,
and replied that he knew them well, and would get a
conveyance and take me to them, twenty-five miles
down Salt Lake valley, and assured me of a most
hearty welcome.
I did not, however, accept his off"er, for, honestly, I

THE RED-CROSS FLAG. 99
confess I was afraid of the Mormons. As a " Gentile"
I feared to risk my life among them, and preferred
not to leave the protection of United States troops at
Camp Douglas.
After the Irish rebellion there came to New York
State a talented Irishman, who lodged on the United
States side of the Niagara River at the Falls. From
that point of vantage he daily watched the Canadian
shore just across the river. Like the moth and the
candle, he could not keep away from Britain after all.
But while he remained there this is what he wrote
of us : THE RED-CROSS FLAG.

Beside Niagara's awful wave
He stood — a ransom'd Irish slave ;
Self-ransom'd by a woful fiight.
That robbed his heaven of half its light,
And flung him in a nation free —
The fettered slave of Memory.
II.
The exile's eye strove not to rest
Upon the Cataract's curling crest.
Nor paused it on the brilliant bow
Which hung aslant the gulf below ;
The banks of adamant to him
Were unsubstantial all and dim,

lOO UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
But from his gaze a child had guessed
There raged a cataract in his breast.
III.
A flag against the northern sky
Alone engaged his eager eye ;
Upon Canadian soil it stood —
Its hue was that of human blood,
Its red was crossed with pallid scars —
Pale, steely, stiff as prison bars.
" Oh, cursed flag I " the exile said,
" The hair grows heavy on my head ;
My blood leaps wilder than this water.
On seeing thee, thou sign of slaughter.
Oh, may I never meet my death
Till I behold the day of wrath,
When on thy squadrons shall be poured
The vengeance heaven so long has stored.'
IV.
Then turning to his friends, who had
Deemed him, from sudden frenzy, mad :
" My friends," he said, " you little know
The fire yon red rag kindles so ;
None but an Irish heart can tell
The thought that causes mine to swell.
When I behold the fatal sign
That blighted the green land once mine ;
That stripped her of each gallant chief;
That scourged her for her bold belief ;
That would have blotted out her name

A TRANSFORMATION. lOI
Could England buy the Trump of Fame.
But, help us. Heaven, she never can
While lives one constant Irishman."
v.
He paused. No human voice replied,
But with a mighty oath, the tide
Seemed swearing as it leaped and ran —
" No ! no ! by Heaven, they never can
While lives one constant Irishman."
Extravagant as is the tenor of this poem, yet as a
literary production it is good, and points unmistak
ably to the man's genius.
Time in its whirligig works wonders, especially in
America. A few years after, that poet and refugee
came to Canada, sought election to Parliament, suc
ceeded, and afterwards became a member of the
Dominion Government. Comment is unnecessary.

CHAPTER VIII.
Canadian laws — Cases of justifiable homicide — Ineffectual
attempt to discipline a church member — Major Wilmot —
Asa Wallbridge — "Uncle Ned" — Cows and matrimony —
A humorous dialogue — A witty retort — An amusing duel.
" The autumnal glories all have passed away !
The forest leaves no more in hectic red
Give glowing tokens of their brief decay.
But scattered lie, or rustle to the tread.
Like whisper'd warning from the mouldering dead ;
The naked trees stretch out their arms all day,
And each bald hill-top lifts its reverent head
As if for some new covering to pray."
DURING the early days in the newly settled
townships many odd characters were to be
found among the sparsely scattered popula
tion, and curious scenes were frequently enacted —
scenes that it would be difficult to reproduce from the
annals of other lands. The following might be taken
as a specimen of at least one phase :
A more law-abiding people than the Canadians are
not to be found in any land. The laws they abide by
are those enacted by the will of the people through

A TRAGEDY AT QUEBEC. 103
their elected representatives, and are based upon the
constitutional laws of Great Britain. Occasionally
incidents occur which show how truly these laws are
the will of the people. The following will illustrate
my meaning :
At the time when the Home Government kept a
small body of troops stationed in the Canadas, a
dissipated young subaltern of the regiment then quar
tered at old Quebec deceived a daughter of one of its
citizens by a promise of marriage, and ruined her.
Her brother, a lad of eighteen, upon discovering her
trouble, attended a social function held in the skating
rink, at Quebec, where the betrayer was expected to
be present. He met the lieutenant in the passage
leading to the rink, and demanded if he " intended to
marry his sister." A contemptuous derisive laugh
and insulting remark was the only reply, to which the
lad responded by drawing a revolver from his pocket
and shooting the man dead on the spot.
The avenger of his sister's betrayal at once gave
himself up to the authorities. The trial, as well as
the crime, caused a great sensation, and though the
case was a strong one for the Crown, the jury would
not convict him of murder, and the lad went out from
the court-house a free man.
A somewhat similar case occurred in Upper Can
ada. Some time before the railway era, when a

I04 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
Steamer conveyed the mails and passengers to and
from the towns on the lake front, a resident of one of
these towns took passage west on the steamer, induc
ing the wife of one of his neighbors to accompany
him. The round trip up the lake, calling at all the
western and southern ports, occupied about a week.
Upon the return of the boat the injured husband,
waiting on the wharf, saw the evil-doer in one of the
cabins, and sent a bullet through the window with
deadly aim. As in the case just related, arrest and
trial followed, but no jury could be got to convict
him of murder, such a crime being justified in the
eyes of the people by the more heinous one which
provoked it.
In one of the counties fronting on Lake Ontario
there lived one W — B — , a descendant of one of our
earliest settlers in this locality, a man who bore an
honored name. Among his possessions was a farm,
a homestead of about two hundred and fifty acres,
situated upon the shore of Lake Ontario. He was a
most exemplary man and a member of the Disciples'
church at B  , where he usually went to worship.
A son of this man, having a liking for the water,
induced his father to buy him a large well-found
schooner, at a cost of about $9,000, which he sailed as
captain on Lake Ontario. For several seasons he

»j«-sr"

HAULING CANNON. WAR OF 1812.

A CHURCH MEETING. 105
plied this vessel conveying general merchandise as
freight. He was not successful, but, on the contrary,
continued at ever increasing loss. Finally his ship
was sold for debt, and he came back to his father's
farm, where he built a second ' house and lived with
his family. Being without occupation or friends, he
asked his father (now an old man) for a deed of
the home farm. This time the father refused, telling
him he had " sailed away $9,000 in a ship, and he
would sail away the farm, too, if he had a chance."
Then the son went to the leaders and elders of the
Disciples' church, of which his father was a member,
and told his story and his desire for a deed of the
farm. A general special meeting of the church was called,
and it was filled with both sexes, all being members.
J — S — , merchant and agent of a bank doing busi
ness in B  , and afterwards a senator, arose. He
spoke earnestly and pointedly about it being Brother
B — 's duty to deed his farm to his son, and for quite
twenty minutes urged upon the assembly the justice,
desirability and reasonableness of the act, advocating
it as a matter of duty, and a proof of fatherly love
for the son. One L — , a resident, and a member and
leader of the church as well, followed in the same
strain. His words were listened to with rapt atten-

I06 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
tion, and after speaking some fifteen minutes he too
sat down.
No one arose to speak on the other side of the
question. No one cared to be opposed to S — , for he
was very powerful at that time. Though they keenly
felt the undesirableness of acceding to such a demand,
they had not the courage to express it publicly. The
stillness became painful, and for a moment it seemed
there could no way be found to break it.
The aged father, at the time stiff" with rheumatism,
was present. He grasped the seat before him. It
creaked as the strain of his weight came upon it, and
slowly and laboriously the old man arose. Once on
his feet he stood somewhat bent, but, being a large
man, towered majestically above the rest, and in a
clear audible voice said, " I'm not going to take off"
my coat and throw it down and ask the Church or
anyone else whether or not I shall put it on again."
The strain was broken, adjournment followed, and
the son did not get the deed he coveted.
Jesse Trull, of Darlington, whose father. Captain
Trull, was present as a member at that meeting, re
lated the anecdote to me. This memorable church
meeting took place about the year 1848. To-day it
is hard to conceive any such state of society as would
ask a church to try to compel a man to deed away
his farm.

A WEALTHY SURVEYOR. 107
The transition stage was approaching in Upper
Canada. Many of the old pioneers found it hard to
trim their sails to meet the new order of things, and
many of them in fact did not, but followed the old
way until they died and were laid to rest under the
sod. Major Wilmot was one of the early settlers, and
lived near Newcastle, Durham County. He married
the daughter of John Steigman, a surveyor. From
him he learned field surveying, and did many years'
work for the Government. A relative of mine lived
for years with Wilmot, and was to have been his
heir, but left him too soon. He told me Wilmot was
implicitly trusted by the Government, and often he
had gone out surveying with him, and many times to
York to make reports to the Government. During
these years of surveying Wilmot picked out many
desirable lots for himself, and ultimately got a title to
them all. Consequently, as you may easily under
stand, he became a very rich man. Asa Wallbridge
lived near him, upon a large farm. This neighbor
was the forefather of all the Wallbridges in this part
of Upper Canada, a most influential family. Both of
these farm homesteads were overflowing with abun
dance — great houses, many cattle, sheep, hogs and
horses, and everything which then represented a rich
and prosperous home ; yet, my relative said, Wilmot

io8 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
would pack provisions in a one-horse waggon, stow
in his compass (the theodolite had not come into use
at that time), tripod and chain, sit down in the bottom,
and take the young man, my relative, with him to
spend a whole week in surveying, perfectly happy
and contented.
One day they were passing Wallbridge's, about the
usual pig-killing time, and Wilmot accosted Wall-
bridge thus : " Good morning, Mr. Wallbridge ;
would you like to buy some pork ? " " No, Mr. Wil
mot," was the reply, " I have as much pork as you-
have." Then Wilmot added facetiously, " Well, I
thought perhaps you wanted some grease to fry your
pork in," thus intimating that Wallbridge's hogs had
not a reputation for fatness.
These men with their families led most enjoyable
lives, happy, free and contented, with the greatest of
plenty of homely fare. But as Wilmot grew older
Newcastle grew, and the forest was cleared ; the set
tlers became more and more prosperous ; well-built
houses replaced the log houses, carriages the pioneer-
cart, and other luxuries of civilization became the
daily portion of the people. Yet on a fine morning
Wilmot would hitch a yoke of oxen to a cart, bestride
the axle, and having secured a long gad, would drive
in to the village post-office at Newcastle and home

cows AND MATRIMONY. 109
again. Carriages and fine horses he could not take
to, although then a very wealthy man.
Another old man, but lately deceased, was a con
tinual source of amusement to the settlers. He died
as he had lived, an enigma from the first to the very
last. As nearly as I can learn he was born in Quebec
Province, in the year 1782, and removed to this
Province with his parents some time about the begin
ning of this century. Upon the death of his father
he inherited some of the choicest lands in Ontario and
for many years of his life passed for a rich man. A
character he was in the neighborhood, and so recog
nized by all who knew or had ever heard of him, far
or near. Perhaps the prime causes of his noted pecu
liarities were in his continually avowed interest in
cows and matrimony. In those days the struggling
settler was glad enough to get a cow in any honest
way he could, and our friend was the man to accom
modate all those in his locality in need of one. His
system was to let the farmers take a cow from him
for three years, and at the end of that time the farmer
must return to Uncle Ned (for so he was called)
the identical cow lent and another — the other to be
generally a calf from the cow lent, grown to be a
young cow itself During this time the farmer had
free use of the cow, and all the other increase
there might be from her. The arrangement seemed

IIO UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
to be quite advantageous to the farmer as well as to
Uncle Ned. It enabled the former to get his first
nucleus of a stock without cost to himself of anything
more than the feed of the cow ; and it equally paid
Uncle Ned, for on his capital outlay of, say, $20 (for
a cow), in three years he had it doubled, or about
33/^ per cent, per annum, barring accidents of course.
He seems never to have farmed his lands, but thought
of nothing else, and talked of nothing else at any and
all times, but cows — save and always excepting matri
mony. Yet though he lived to be seventy-five years
of age, he never attained the consummation of his
connubial ambitions.
But not to leave the cows too quickly, it is as well
to say that Uncle Ned used generally to take in those
days what were called " notes " for the cows. They
were termed notes, but since the short document went
on to enumerate that the signer should return two
cows at the end of three years, etc., it would almost
appear that such " notes " were short contracts. How
ever, be that as it may, sometimes our friend had as
many as one hundred cows out at a time, and con
sequently one hundred notes on hand for them. The
curiosity in this particular was, that although Uncle
Ned could not read or write a letter, he could and
would at any time pick out from the one hundred
notes any one asked for.

IN SEARCH OF A WIFE. 1 1 1
His ideas of matrimony were early developed. At
the age of twenty-two he is reported as wandering
about the neighborhood in search of any eligible single
ladies who were supposed to be in the matrimonial
market. By so going about from house to house he
became acquainted with the wants of each household
in any special particular. Was a family out of cats,
at the next visit in his capacious pocket a kitten was
found nicely and snugly curled up. Would some
farmer like a dog. Uncle Ned brought along a puppy
on the occasion of his next hunt in the matrimonial
line. Had the family spinning wheel worn out its
spindle and become useless for the want of one.
Uncle Ned did not fail to bring one next time. Did
the good housewife need some saleratus from the
store at the distant corners, in these days before
soda became known. Uncle Ned brought the desired
pound package of saleratus, that the family cake
should rise in the dough and be toothsome and
pleasant. In fact. Uncle Ned gradually became,
with his obliging attentions to the wants of his
neighbors, and by his quaint idiosyncrasies, the
darling of the neighborhood. And he never ceased,
from the time he was twenty-two years of age up to
his seventy-fifth year, to go the rounds of his neigh
bors, always careful to supply their little wants, and
always in search of a wife. Did he at one time think

112 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
of breaking the route, and of stopping at another and
a new farmer's house for dinner, he would approach
the man of the house, out in the field, and without a
word of apology or preface, ask, " Does your wife
make strong tea ? " " Well, I never heard of any
complaint on that point," he is answered. " Ah ! I
thought I would stay to dinner with you, but if your
wife don't make strong tea I won't stop." He
decides to stop, and earnestly enquires about a
maiden lady living in an adjoining township, who is
known to the farmer, he having removed from the
township and locality of the maiden. On his tip-toes,
and as silently as an Indian, Uncle Ned approaches
the farmer, who is about his work in the field, and
whispers in his ear :
" Has she got a farm ? "
" Oh, yes ; she has three hundred acres."
Uncle Ned retreats some rods, to the point from.
which he so noiselessly advanced, exploding with
loud and jovial laughter. Up again he comes on
tip-toe, and whispers,
" Is she engaged ? "
" No, I think not." And away he backs off" again
amid another burst of laughter.
Again he steals up, and whispers, " Can she spin
flax and make her own shifts ? "
" Oh, yes ; she can spin as well as any woman in

CO UR TING BY PROXY. 1 1 3
the county." And he backs away, with the laughter
louder than before.
Now he comes again : " Has she got red hair ? "
" Yes ; she has red hair."
No laughter this time, but he hangs his head and
backs away, muttering to himself, " Well, that's too
bad. I do hate red hair. But then, since she has
three hundred acres, that will make one overlook the
red hair after all."
And he comes on again, more cautiously than ever
before, and whispers, " I have as good a new suit of
clothes at home in my trunk as any man has, and
they are paid for, too. Now, do you think I had
better wear this new suit the first time I go to see
her ? "
" Yes, I think I would the first time ; but since the
people are plain people they might think you too
extravagant if you wore it the next time ; and then I
think I would wear the common suit on all visits
after the first one."
Ned backs away. " Ha ! ha ! ! ha ! ! ! " and bawls
out to the farmer, " Don't be in a hurry to go to
work ; you're not working by the month."
He steals up again : " Don't you think Sam Green
would be a good man for me to take with me the
first time to introduce me ? "
" Yes, he's just the man."

114 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
" Ho ! ho ! ! ho ! ! ! "
Forward he comes again, and whispers, " You tell
Sam Green to tell her that I'll stock the land with
cows. Tell her that I'll hire a girl to nurse the baby.
Tell her that I'll wear my good suit the first time I
come to see her, but during all the rest of our courting
I'll only wear my working suit."
At this juncture the good wife calls from the door
" Dinner ! " and Uncle Ned has to cease this courting
by proxy to go in and see if the tea be really strong
enough for him. Courting thus by double proxy it
was in this instance, as his courting generally was
done. That is, this farmer must tell Sam Green, and
Sam Green must tell the red-haired maiden in the
adjoining township. It is more than likely the
maiden never heard of Uncle Ned either before or
after his resolve to court her, unless it be through
the lone intermediary of Sam Green. It is probable
for a year of his life this red-haired maiden was the
subject of Uncle Ned's matrimonial thoughts ; then
at the expiration of the year another lady comes to
take her place — or rather, another lady comes to
take the place which the red-haired lady was sup
posed to take, but never did.
Along the road again, some eight or ten miles
away from his home, on foot (always on foot, for he
was never known to ride). Uncle Ned approaches

MADNESS WITH A METHOD. I15
Farmer G — , and whispers, " Do you know the widow
T— ? " " Yes, what about her ? " " Is she smart ? "
" No, she's like her husband was, rather lazy." " Oh,
that's bad." No laugh this time ; he whispers, " Has
she any land ? " " Yes, she has fifty acres." " Well,
I must overlook her laziness."
For the space of another year the widow T —
engrosses the current of his thoughts, and becomes
the constant theme of his talk. And yet it is not at
all probable that he ever met her, either before her
husband's death or after, when she was supposed to
be in the matrimonial market. As he journeyed along
down life, always on the same themes of cows and
matrimony, some of the neighbors at whose house he
used to stop would deem him crazy. Well, if he were
so, it was madness always with a method to it, and
in his bargains about his cows he frequently displayed
considerable shrewdness and business ability. A dis
tant farmer came to him one day to make a bargain
to get two cows to double as already described.
It so happened that the cattle were out in the field,
and they together went out to see them. In talking
over the details of the bargain the farmer sat down
upon a convenient stump. During the weariness of a
lengthened conversation he, as he sat, happened to
begin trotting his foot and contracting the fingers

Il6 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
of his left hand, which the quick eye of Uncle Ned
noticed. " Are you a fiddler ? "
" Yes, I fiddle sometimes."
" You can't have any of my cows, for I never knew
a fiddler to be worth anything in my life," and he
wouldn't let him have the cows at all.
So far as I know he was never known to actually
address himself to the object of his affections for the
time being, and likewise the theme of his talk, but the
once. This time he called upon a farmer and asked
him if he knew of Mr. E. — 's girls. The farmer
told him he did, but that he (Uncle Ned) was crazy.
Said he in reply, " Do you know, Ezra, why there is
no danger of your ever going crazy ? "
" No, I don't know."
" Well, you don't know enough. It's only bright
men who go crazy.''
In this instance the farmer takes Uncle Ned to
Mr. E — 's and gives him a kind of general introduc
tion to the father, mother and two daughters assem
bled, in this wise : " See here, folks, this is Mr. S —
in search of a wife."
" Come in, sir, come in." The girls, seeing a huge
chance for fun, lent themselves to the joke, and so
kept it up for the space of a couple of years. At the
termination of each visit, as he was about to set out,

A BALL AT WHITBY. 1 17
one of the girls would put in a plea for a new dress,
which Uncle Ned would promise faithfully to bring,
and he was generally as good as his promise. At
the next visit the other girl would ask for a piece of
cloth, and again, as before, he brought it. For the
whole two years the girls did not discover which one
of them was the object of his affections or regard.
Still his visits continued during the intervals spared
from his dealings about his cows, and the idea of
matrimony never for a moment left his brain.
There are not many records extant of duels having
been fought in Canada. The following was possibly
one ofthe last, and perhaps the most amusing instance
of such " honorable combat " :
It was during the closing days of the Canadian
rebellion, when the troops were about to be disbanded.
A ball had been given in Whitby, at which many
of the officers of the troops, as well as society people
of the sparsely settled country, attended. Among
the guests at this ball were two young men, one in
later years a public official in Newcastle, the other
a resident of Oshawa, lately deceased. Both of these
men were well mounted, as most persons were who
travelled the bad roads in the early days of April of
the year 1838.
Tradition tells us that the ball was both gay and

Il8 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
stylish, and many of the young ladies of the gath
ering were ambitiously gotten up for the occasion.
Indeed, a gentleman now among the living, who
was present, describes a lady's head-dress of ostrich
plumes which extended quite two feet above her
head, and nodded with every motion, involuntary
or otherwise, of the wearer. The supper, too, was
the best that the day could give, mainly substantial
perhaps, but of the lighter culinary art there were
some cakes, and very attractive ones too — so much
so, that one of the young men whom we have
mentioned accused the other of pocketing some of
them. This accusation could only be wiped out
with blood, and was most indignantly denied. The
accused purloiner of cakes mounted his steed and
made his way to Richard Wood's tavern, then
kept by him in a story-and-a-half wooden building
on the south-west corner of Oshawa " four corners."
The old tavern stood about one hundred feet back
from the road, just south from where Morgan's
grocery store now is. A circular stage road led to
its hospitable doors, and a low veranda or " stoop "
extended along the whole north side of the hotel.
By the time the accuser arrived the accused had
possessed himself of an immense old horse-pistol,
and challenged his antagonist to fight a duel. The
latter declined to fight with such a crude weapon.

A BLOODLESS DUEL. II9
but insisted on getting proper duelling pistols, if his-
antagonist really must fight. The late Capt. Trull,
of Darlington, then had command of the few troops
stationed in Oshawa. He tried to break up the duel
and prevent bloodshed, but without success. At each
end of the " stoop " of the hotel, just as it was becom
ing daylight, April, 1838, the principals took stations
ready for the word. Capt. Trull actually placed his
own person between the men, so anxious was he
to stop the fray. But the word was given, and one
of the duellists, proving himself game to the last,
managed to dodge out of the way of Capt. Trull's
person and fired deliberately. The other, unhurt,
threw down his pistol and ran as fast as his legs
could carry him around the hotel. And now Capt.
Trull, who had been so anxious to prevent the fight,
became so disgusted at the man's cowardice that he
picked up the pistol where it had been thrown by
the fugitive and made the best gait possible after
him to fire at him for being so great a coward. So
laughably ended Oshawa's only duel.

CHAPTER IX.
Paring bees— Mirth and jollity — Dancing and games— Playing
"forfeits" — Anti-Slavery Act— Canada's proud distinction
—Refugee slaves—" Uncle Tom "—Old Jeff- Story of a
slave. " It came from Heaven — it reigned in Eden shades ;
It roves on earth, and every crack invades ;
Childhood and age alike its influence own ;
It haunts the beggar's nook, the monarch's throne ;
Hangs o'er the cradle, leans above the bier.
Gazed on old Babel's tower — and lingers here."
A PARING bee is still an ordinary occurrence
in the autumn in the rural districts of this
Province, though less frequent than when the
process of preserving apples by evaporation was un
known. There is almost a superfluous abundance of
apples in the fall, especially of the softer kinds, and
those which will not keep are utilized by being dried
for use after the hardier varieties are gone. These
dried apples form a staple article of diet among Cana
dians, especially in the North-West and in the lumber
camps. There is much fun and jollity at these paring

OLD-FASHIONED PARING BEE. 121
bees. After the apples are gathered in the fall, and
sweet cider has been pressed out, one of the house
holders of a group will send out invitations for a
paring bee. These invitations are invariably given
verbally, and extend to all young lads and lasses, as
well as to the married people in the vicinity, not for
getting the school-master. On the night appointed,
those living at greater distances come in carriages,
but never on horseback ; the nearer ones on foot.
Horses are put away, and all gather in the kitchen.
This is generally one of the largest rooms in the
farm-house, and for this occasion it has been cleared
of its every-day impedimenta, and a long table placed
in the middle of the room.
The young men do the paring with paring machines.
This machine as at first used, before the patented
iron article came into use, was of home construction.
It consisted of a wooden pulley, about eight inches
in diameter, over which a belt ran on a smaller pulley
of about three inches. By turning the large pulley
great speed was given to the smaller one, to which
the fork for holding the apple was attached. The
knife for the paring of the apple was held in the hand
of the operator. Some of the young men became
very skilful in manipulating the knife, and their repu
tation kept them in requisition at every bee. It is
almost incredible how quick one of these experts was

122 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
at paring an apple. With his home-made machine
he could very quickly empty a bushel basket as he
deftly and smoothly divested the apples of their skins.
Three or four parers were usually employed during
the evening. Along the table the young lasses were
seated, and before them were heaped the pared
fruit. As a division of labor, the first in order only
quartered the apples, and pushed them on to her
next neighbor, who, in turn, did the coring ; and
thus many bushels were pared, quartered and cored
in the one evening. They were then strung upon
linen thread by the younger persons of the party,
who were not supposed to be suiificiently skilful to
pare, quarter or core the fruit. Long darning needles
with strong linen thread, cut in long lengths, were
used. These were driven through the apple quarters,
and a string so formed. It did not usually take long
for the lads and lasses to be promiscuously inter
mixed, for no quaker-meeting formality was permitted
at a paring bee.
Sallies of wit never went unheeded by the willing
ears. Should one be too sober, he or she would be
quickly brought to a sense of duty by a light blow
from a quarter of an apple discharged from a neigh
bor's dexterous hand.
It was the duty ofthe older members of the party to
hang the strings of apples, as fast as they were ready.

soOD
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PUMPKIN PIE AND CIDER. 123
upon poles near the kitchen ceiling. From fifteen to
twenty bushels of closely pared, cored and strung
apples was not an uncommon result of an evening's
work. Thus in a single evening the household was
provided with dried fruit for a year's use.
Paring, quartering, coring and stringing at last
done, the company rise. A great heap of apple skins,
seeds, and cores remain. The next step is to wash
the hands in the apple litter, for this is supposed to
be a means of preventing the apple juice pressed into
the wrinkles of the hands from staining them when
they become dry. And so all must thoroughly rub
the hands in the apple litter. The lasses scarcely
need the caution, for they do not want their hands
stained. All " take hold " and clear the room, and in
a few minutes it is put to rights, and the company
sit upon benches and chairs around the room. The
good housewife has prepared her lunch, and each one
receives a plate, most likely laden with a slice of
pumpkin pie, a bit of cheese and some cakes. Then
someone comes around with a pitcher of sweet cider.
There is no stint to the amount of food or drink any
one might partake of, and slice after slice of savory
pumpkin pie disappears.
Enough at last, and the room is again cleared.
The table is now removed, and according to the
religious scruples of the company, they divide. Those

124 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
who dance take a large room to themselves, someone
produces from a green bag a well-worn violin, and it
is a matter of only a few minutes before a voice is
calling off": " Salute your partners," "All promenade
down the centre," " All join hands," etc., and such
calls so familiar to many of us now in Ontario. I am
not going to say there was as much style about the
dance as nowadays, nor were there any long trains to
the ladies' dresses to get entangled under the gentle
men's feet, but for genuine fun I am free to say the
dignified dances of the present day are at a discount.
As quickly as one set gets through an eight-hand reel
there is another ready to take its place, and so the
dance goes on.
But we must turn to the other party, still out in the
capacious kitchen, whose religious scruples do not
permit them to dance. Even if so, they do not fail
to glance furtively through the door now and again at
the graceful dancers, and almost wish their theology
would allow them to join in ! A feature peculiar
to America is now to be enacted in the kitchen, and
it is simply a play among the boys and girls. A
"kissing bee" it finally came to be called, and, as
time went on, grew less fashionable, though it lingers
yet. In those days it was one of our institutions, and
must not pass away without a remark. Someone is
chosen as judge, and blindfolded and placed in a

A KISSING GAME. 125
chair. Two are chosen to lead the victims to the
judge, and the hands of the former are held over the
judge's head with the words, " Heavy, heavy, what
hangs over ? " The judge asks " Fine, or superfine ? "
— fine, of course, being for the lads, and the superfine
for the lasses. Gravely the judge proceeds to pro
nounce the sentence. We will take one sentence
from the judge, at random, among many from mem
ory, which will give an idea of the general tenor of
the judicial decisions. Allow the hand above his
head to be superfine in this particular case. Sen
tence : " She must make a double-twisted lord-o'-
massy with John Jones." Now, John Jones knows
what this means, and is not averse to kissing a pretty
girl, for the judge generally knows his company, and
the run of the sweethearts, and usually sends such
together. Jones seizes the girl's hands, elevates her
arms to one side, and kisses her on one cheek, turns
the hands over and elevates them again to the other
side this time, and kisses her again through their arms
on the other cheek. Then the next one comes up for
sentence. Various sentences were of course given,
but they invariably ended in kissing, much to the
delight of the young men present.
Thus the jollity and fun went on, but even so with
this peculiarity of American kissing I wish to un
equivocally record the fact that no impropriety was

126 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
ever indulged in or thought of Perhaps kissing
in this general and public way cannot commend
itself, but to the participants in those days it was fun,
and no harm came from it, and, so far as I can see,
it had just about as many arguments to sustain it as
the mazy dance has, where they all go " promenading
down the centre."
The blindfolded judge has at last pronounced upon
everyone in the room, and a change of the play is
sought. Charlie is present and has brought his guitar.
Now this Charlie is a wealthy farmer's son (a farmer
who owns his two hundred and fifty acres and
stock, and is worth $30,000 at least), who, becoming
rather proficient at the school, has been away a
term to the old Normal School at Toronto. It
must have been at the Normal he learned the
guitar and began cultivating the incipient mous
tache which appears upon his upper lip like a
streak of soft down. Still it is a moustache, and
as such it is worth cultivating. And Charlie
crosses his legs and proceeds to tune his guitar,
amidst the good-humored gibes of the young ladies
intently looking on. He gets the tune after all, and
commences to hum an air and now and again give
the instrument another turn of the screws. Boldly
Charlie strikes out, and it is all about " Mrs. Fog-
arty's Christmas cake." At the termination of each

''MRS. FOGARTY'S CHRISTMAS CAKE." 1 27
verse the applause of handclapping follows, and
Charlie is spurred on to renewed efforts. The
chorus comes in from this distance of years in my
memory :
" There were plums and prunes and cherries,
And nuts and candies and cinnamon too ;
There were caraway seeds in abundance,
And the crust it was nailed on with glue,
And it would kill a man twice
If he ate him a slice
Of Mrs. Fogarty's Christmas cake."
Well done, Charlie ! and he's free to go home with
the prettiest girl in the group, and said prettiest girl
is not at all averse to accept of Charlie's company.
This is a faithful picture of one of the scenes of
the days of my boyhood. From out of the assem
blage of those paring bees have sprung much of the
bone and sinew of our glorious Province (the freest
and best under heaven). The lads have become our
M.P.'s, our wealthy merchants and staunch land
owners, and many, I am sorry to say, have gone to
the United States and given that country the benefit
of their untamable Canadian energies and sturdy
physique, while others fill the professional walks
in our own land.
The first Act which passed the Legislature of
Upper Canada in 1792 was an Anti-slavery Act

128 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
Canadians can therefore claim the proud distinction
for their flag — the Union Jack of 1801 — that it has
never floated over legalized slavery. There are nu
merous instances in our records of negroes brought
with the U. E. Loyalists to Canada, or who came
of their own freewill, remaining as devoted servants
with their masters and one-time owners until their
death — not a few of these freed slaves devoting all
their earnings to support their beloved masters or
provide them with comforts and luxuries in their old
age ; and others, to secure themselves from being
separated from their old masters during their lives,
binding themselves by indentures to serve them for
life. Canada is truly a land of freedom. Once within
her borders the hunted slave, who had committed no
crime, could claim the protection of its laws and
know that he was a free man. Therefore when ill-
treated it is obvious that slaves would escape from
slavery and come to Canada — crossing at any part of
the three-thousand-mile line boundary between the
United States and Canada, and here finding security
and freedom.
About Chatham, in the western part of Ontario,
there were many such escaped slaves, who had reached
there by what was known as the " underground
railway." These men made very good citizens and

OLD JEFF. 129
settlers. They were usually quiet, self-respecting,
respectable, law-abiding, religious people — excellent
servants, and often devoted to those whom they
served. Winters in the northern States and Canada east of
Toronto are not conducive to their pleasure, for the
negro is really and truly a child of the sun. Thus
the more western townships, which are sunny and
have milder winters, suit them best.
Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom, in her great
book, " Uncle Tom's Cabin," lived for some years in
Chatham. Several, however, have settled and left
kindly memories behind them in the neighborhood of
Oshawa. One of these was
OLD JEFF.
About 1865 there came to this locality an intensely
black negro. He had been a cotton-picker in Ala
bama, and had run away from slavery.
How he got away he never would tell, but said he
followed the north star. Without permission from
anyone he went into the woods, just south of Cedar
Dale shop, and in a thicket built himself a hut by
inclining poles together like the letter A, covering
them with dirt and using one unstopped end as a
door. In this hut he dwelt by himself with his big
dog for about seven years, when he died. Charitably
9

I30 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
disposed persons used to give him food and clothes,
for he was too old to work. He was very polite and
harmless, and indeed became quite a favorite in the
neighborhood. There seemed to be some hidden romance in his
history which he never would tell, and during his
latter days, although he had been anxious to get
away from the South, he pined to go back. In the
words of the old song :
" I've hoed in fields of cotton,
I've worked along the river,
I thought if I got away
I'd ne'er go back any longer ;
But times have changed the old man.
And his head is bending low,
For my heart's turned back to Dixie,
And I must go."
The late Mrs. F. W. Glen had a water-color draw
ing of old Jeffs hut, which was prized highly for its
faithful reproduction of the picturesque but rude
dwelling. Poor old Jeff! the remains of his hut are
still standing in the thicket.
My father, in his earlier years, had a black man
as a general servant. He lived so long in Canaada
that his story may be included in this sketch.

THE STOP Y OF A SLA VE. 1 3 1
He was born about the year 1814 in one of the
counties in Virginia, which was so storm-swept during
the great rebellion from 1861 to 1865. His home
was in the track which Gen. Sheridan despoiled so
effectually that he was able to boast, " Even a crow
flying over must carry its own rations." But during
the first forty years of this poor slave's life it smiled
and produced grains and grasses and cattle in
abundance. There his home was on the farm, where
the system of agriculture is more like ours. The
"' plantations " proper are farther south, and the ne
groes employed on them are looked upon by the
farmer slaves as belonging to an inferior race. " Only
a plantation nigger" is a common, saying among
those employed on the Virginia farms. Owned by
the head of one of the first families of Virginia, he
had to thank him, too, for being the author of his
existence. There were other sons born to this proud
first family of Virginia. As they grew up they
became sensitive of their slave half-brother, and
induced their father to sell him.
His new master farmed one thousand acres of
land, but only about one-half of this was arable, the
rest being broken and used mainly for sporting in
the scrub. On this one-thousand-acre farm sixty
slaves, male and female, were kept, and the new
master thought seriously of making his new slave

132 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
foreman. The old overseer, however, strongly resisted
being put under a " nigger," and his opposition, when
putting it in such light in that day, was sufficient to
keep the new slave out of the position.
Digressing here just a little, we can discover what
would be the wealth of one of the first families of
Virginia, who as fire-eaters made such boasts after
wards. The one thousand acres could then be bought
for $15,000, as they may be now ; sixty slaves, at an
average of $500, some being old and decrepit and
others young, would be worth $30,000 ; stock and
farming implements, say, $5,000. Total, $50,000.
It is interesting to know what the capital of one of
those great men who talked so much at the time of
the war would be.
The slave whose fortunes we are following was
made a teamster and given a six-horse team to make
one trip per week with a large canvas-covered waggon
to Fredericksburg and home again. He sold the
grain and brought the money home to his master at
the end of every trip. On setting out on his journey
he was always given fifteen bushels of oats for his six
horses on the trip. The jealous overseer, trying to
find a pretext to whip the new slave, stole two bags
of oats from his load before he set out. This he did
two weeks in succession. The consequence was that

A TRAP EXPOSED. 1 33
the horses came home on the second trip looking
somewhat gaunt and not quite up to the mark.
Next morning after returning he was awakened by
the overseer, carrying a big whip and some ropes,
and ordered to go with him to his master. Arriving
at the master's house, the overseer charged him with
having sold the oats and starved the team.
The accused protested his innocence, and estab
lished it beyond doubt. " A black girl has told me,"
he said, "where the overseer has hidden the oats,
over the back part of the granary, between the ceiling
and the outside boards." His master at once forbade
the whipping, and told him to go and find the trap,
which he did straightway.
He always asserted that while his master was at
home he got on well enough, for he was a kindly-
disposed man. But in an evil day for the poor slave
the master went away "to the Springs" for his health,
ordering him to continue teaming, and instructing
him to hand the money to a near neighbor, not to
the foreman.
As soon as the overseer returned he, however,
demanded the cash, but the man refused, and paid it
over according to his master's orders.
Then the overseer took the slave off" the road and
put him ploughing with a three-horse team. After
he had ploughed a few days, he came to him one day

134 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
on horseback, just after dinner, carrying a bundle of
gads. On riding up to him he dismounted, and
ordered him to "haul off." For the first time in his
life this poor slave asserted his manhood, and refused,.
declaring that " he had done nothing, and would not
be whipped." At this juncture the overseer pulled
out a pistol, and placed it to the breast of the slave,
who looked the overseer steadily in the eye, and said,
" That's the death I want to die, and not be killed by
inches, as you have killed many hereabout."
It was too much even for the brutal overseer, who
remounted and threatened he " would have satisfac
tion from him before sundown, if it cost him his life " ;
and so rode away, leaving him to go on with his
ploughing. The overseer returned at nightfall with his brother
and brother-in-law, and ropes enough " to tie down a
horse," as the old ex-slave expressed it, and a big
whip. " Now, haul off", will you ? " and the overseer
made an effort to catch his victim, who dropped his
reins and bolted from the plough handles for the
woods, with the three in full chase after him. He was
too fleet for them, however, and gained the shelter
of the woods. For three weeks he hung about the
neighborhood, fed by the other slaves, and waiting
for his master to come home. Then the overseer

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FOLLOWING THE NORTH STAR. 13S
advertised him as a runaway slave, and offered $100
for his arrest.
" Any mean, poor white man, I knew, now might
take me," the old man said, " and so I walked to Lon
don during the night." How pathetically the humble
old ex-slave described his aversion to leave home and
his friends ! He stopped at London a week, work
ing for wages. Being once more frightened, and not
hearing that his master had returned home, he " fol
lowed the north star by night " and slept during the
day, until he came to Harrisburg, Pa. From Harris
burg to Charlotte, N.Y., he walked during the day
time, boldly inquiring his way to Canada, but always
careful to keep going north. He says he always had
heard of Canada among the slaves, but thought it was
a " a land where the wild geese go to, and was covered
over with feathers." Liberty, the old man said, was
sweet, and he had made up his mind to risk making a
living in Canada, even if it might be a poor one.
At Charlotte, N.Y., he found a small vessel about
to sail for Colborne, Ont., and he bargained for his
passage by working at loading before they set out,
and was to help unload on getting over. It was late
in the fall, he said, and when he once set foot in
Canada he did not wait to help unload the boat for fear
they might take him back to Charlotte, as they wished
him to go for another trip. This was in 1854, when

136 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
the Grand Trunk Railroad was under construction,
and things were booming in Ontario. He quickly got
a job as teamster, and worked at that until the road
was completed.
About this time (1856) he became a servant of my
father's and lived with the family many years, and it
was from his own lips I gathered the story of his life
as I have told it. Only about three weeks before his
death he induced the writer to communicate with his
friends in Virginia, giving his assumed name, James
King, by which he always had been known here. A
reply came at once, telling his real name, (which the
old man confessed was right), and asking him to come
back and see his friends, intimating, too, that he might
be profited by his visit. His dread of slavery was too
great, however, and he absolutely refused to go, but
enquired most earnestly for his white half-brother,
whom, the writer suspects, would now be glad, seeing
that the great battle of slavery had been fought, to aid
him. But it was not to be. James King, the slave,
in whose veins flowed Virginia's best blood, died of
inflammation on the 20th day of October, 1895, in
the land where he had sought and found freedom.
After a silence of thirty-eight years it seemed hard
that the poor old ex-slave could not have gone to
see his friends, and thus had a few bright days at
the close of his long and lonely life.

CHAPTER X.
Civil war in the United States — Large bounties paid Canadian
recruits — Prices of produce go up — More than two mil
lion men under arms — I make a trip to Washington —
Visiting the military hospitals — I am offered $800 to enlist
— Brief interview with President Lincoln — A pass secured
— I visit the Army of the Potomac — 90,000 men under
canvas — Washington threatened by the Confederates —
Military prison at Elmira, N.Y. — Cheap greenbacks — A
chance to become a multi-millionaire.
" I looked, and thought the quiet of the scene
An emblem of the peace that yet shall be,
When o'er earth's continents and isles between
The noise of war shall cease from sea to sea,
And married nations dwell in harmony ;
When millions, crouching in the dust to one,
No more shall beg their lives on bended knee.
Nor the black stake be dressed, nor in the sun
The o'er labor'd captive toil, and wish his life were
done."
THE civil war in the United States broke out in
April, 1 86 1, and indirectly exerted much
influence on Canada. From 80,000 to 100,000
of our young men, who were sympathizers with the
North, went from Ontario and Quebec to join the

138 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
Northern army. These Canadian recruits all received
bounties — at first, usually $800 on enlisting, and then,
as the struggle went on, receiving as high as $1,600.
The war created a large demand for produce of
all kinds, and the Northern States bought everything
we had to sell, giving high prices ; the farmer and
other producers became wealthy, and, to quote the
usual expression, " the times were good."
This fratricidal war had more men engaged in it,
more horses, more ships, more mules, and more
money than any war the world had yet ever known.
As to numbers, Xerxes is allowed to have had the
greatest army hitherto known, his force numbering
one million of men when he crossed the Hellespont
to conquer Greece. But when the North disbanded
its armies at the termination of the war, in 1865,
they had 1,250,000 men of all kinds under arms or
on the roll. The South had 800,000 men.
We do not compare their navies of that day, of
course, with the peerless navy of Her Majesty. By
their fight of ironclads at Hampton Roads, Virginia,
in 1864, however, they revolutionized the naval archi
tecture of the world.
When the war was at its height I visited the armies.
Gold had been bounding upwards week by week
as the protracted struggle went on. Its daily rise
whetted the edge of our appetites, keen to the main

AMERICAN CIVIL WAR. 1 39
chance of money-making. I was then just a young
man fresh from college, but I felt that a truly
" golden " opportunity was passing by us.
Day after day we read of the advance of the
Federal army, and of its repulse by the Confed
erates (more especially in Virginia) and then again
of its successes, and likewise the talk of Louis
Napoleon being about to recognize the belligerency
of the South.
We who were that day upon the scene, as it
were, even if not in the actual conflict, felt the
blows as they were struck with all the terrible force
of war's ravages, and honestly did not know how to
make up our minds as to the final success of either
side. I resolved to see for myself the contending
armies, and then judge as well as I could from a
ramble among both parties as to the ultimate result.
Well, about June i8th, 1864, having secured my
father's consent, I set out to inspect for myself
Down to New York I made my way, and looked
about the great metropolis of America to find some
signs of the depression of war upon the North ;
but I saw nothing to lead me to suppose for an
instant that the drain upon the country was at all
severe. In those days there was no Coney Island as
we now know it. Indeed, I recollect going down there
upon the sand dunes and finding only a board shanty

140 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
of a restaurant where they served baked clams. And
these were only forty cents per plate in those days
of inflations. That price was no kind of bar to
me, with plenty of British and American gold in
my pockets, for even then, before the premium had
got to bounding up, my greenbacks only cost me
about thirty-eight cents on the dollar. So, you see,
even baked clams and the best hotels in New York
of that day were at my command for a very small
outlay. At Philadelphia I encountered no sign of war, but
the great city on the Schuylkill was booming on its
way. Baltimore seemed just a little off", and many
of the people appeared to be rather sulky. Still,
there were no signs of reverses or oppressions, and
so far war had not, to outward appearances, seri
ously hurt the North.
Washington I found during the last days of June
the gayest of the gay. What struck me most forcibly
was the extreme freedom in and about the city. Go
anywhere I could and did, and no one seemed
disposed to say me nay. In and out of Congress I
went at will, as well as into the departments of the
Secretaries. More than that, I rode on horseback
some three or four miles south-easterly from the
city to the great military hospitals.
Some of these were mere structures of boards ;

SCENES IN A MILITARY HOSPITAL. 141
others large field tents ; others, again, had board tops
and tent sides. I walked at will among the rows of
cots, and there saw suffering in its acutest forms.
Soften the heart ? Aye, the quest of gold upon
which I first set out from my Canadian home was
forgotten for the time in the presence of this suffer
ing. Young fellows many of them were lying there
by the hundreds, so pallid and wan, and scarcely
lifting eyes to look at the passer-by. Even after
this lapse of time, I vividly remember thinking of
the mothers of these young lads in far-off" homes in
the north, waiting so hopefully and wistfully for
their sons' return.
In addition to the wounded in battle, many of the
poor fellows were suffering from fevers. But to me
it was all suffering. And this at last was war !
Such scenes as these, harrowing though they are,
mark the great distinction between the savage and
the civilized. Civilized, we care for our wounded and
sick ; savage, the infirm and helpless are left to die.
Board shanties, and with board roofs, mean as they
were architecturally :
" I know they were holy things
That from a roof so sacred shine.
Where sounds the beat of angels' wings.
And footsteps echo all divine.

142 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
Their mysteries I never sought.
Nor hearken to what science tells ;
For, oh, in childhood I was taught
That God amid them dwells."
Naturally, serviceable material for army recruits
was looked after most keenly in Washington at this
time. Walking along the new asphalt sidewalk, in
heat so great as to melt the asphalt so that it left
the print of my footsteps upon it, an officer wanted
to know if I would like to enlist. His first offer was
$800 in money down, and I have no doubt the offer
would have gone up to $1,600 quite if I had been so
disposed, but my quest was gold and not military
glory, and consequently I declined the offer.
I made, too, a visit to Lincoln, at the White House,
during the last days of June, 1864. No one for a
moment questioned my right to enter. A challenge
I did not hear. Within the doors of the White
House, at the foot of the main stair, sat an attendant
upon a plebeian three-legged stool reading a novel.
Not a soldier nor a policeman in sight, and I was
free, apparently, to go where I chose. .
" In which room is the President ? " I asked of the
novel-reading attendant.
" First room upstairs to the right."
I went up, and saw the great man in the room
indicated. Feeling that I had no kind of right to

A CALL ON PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 143
intrude upon a man so weighted down with cares as
President Lincoln was at that period of the war, I
remained long enough to allow his image, as he sat
facing me, to be imprinted on my memory, never to
be obliterated. My first thought was, " What a tall,
awkward man and how badly his clothes fit." One
arm lay upon the table beside which he sat, and the
other upon the arm of his chair.
I could not, however, bring myself to leave without
an interview with the President. On my card being
handed him he ceased talking for a moment with
his visitor, some man from Missouri, and through the
open door asked me in and told me to be seated, and
he would soon be through with the business on
hand. Thus involuntarily I learned the nature of
the business of the gentleman from Missouri, which
seemed to be to importune the President to order the
release of a number of guerillas who had been com
mitting depredations in the south-west.
After a lot of words from the Missourian, Mr. Lin
coln said if he would give him " any real good reason
why these men should be liberated " it would be done.
The conversation continuing, I thought it my part to
retire. As I left the room, the President sat with
fixed gaze, apparently absorbed in thought, and so
preoccupied as not to notice my departure. While
disappointed of my interview, I had seen and spoken

144 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
with the man whose figure stands out in clear and
massive outline on the canvas of American history^
and I remember this with pardonable pride and satis
faction. A pass was granted me to go wherever I chose in
Virginia or about the vicinity of Washington. How
I got this pass I cannot even now, after thirty-two
years, tell. Some of the persons who assisted me to
obtain this great favor are yet alive — not all of them,
it is true, but I would be manifestly unwise to tell
any more on this point. Being a Canadian, I may
freely say, gained me the coveted pass when backed
up with some seals of officialdom from our own
Canada. More I cannot, dare not say, only that this
pass lies on my writing desk beside me as I write
these lines.
Without delay I set out to cross the Potomac,
mounted upon a horse hired from a Washington
livery stable. It was when entering the Long Bridge,
as the wooden structure of two miles in length over
the Potomac then was called, that I first showed my
pass. My first thought upon gaining the Virginia
shore was of the terrible barrenness and bleakness of
the country about. There were no roads, no fences,
no buildings, no woods, but just a mass of the lightest
and meanest red dust one ever could conceive of —
dust quite four inches deep, so that of necessity I rode

WORLD TO COME TO AN END. STARS FALLING, 1833.

THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 14S
in a perfect cloud and had to canter sharply to get
away from it.
To describe the ride to the Army of the Potomac
would take too long, and there is really nothing
worthy of much note until I got to the army itself At
the camp every courtesy was shown me, and then I
saw what few persons now alive at this time ever
saw, and that was 90,000 men encamped in tents and
under arms. It would be useless for me to try to de
scribe this vast army. Its very magnitude was too
great for the mind to grasp.
Men I saw, and men, and still men, everywhere and
all about. There literally seemed to be no end of
them, and the idea then formed itself in my mind that
this great armed mass of humanity must and would
conquer the South.
I prize my visit to the Army of the Potomac under
General Grant as one of the greatest and most inter
esting experiences in my life. As to the army, I
cannot well speak from the knowledge I then had,
but I certainly got the impression when walking
along the miles and miles of streets with canvas
houses at the sides that there was no want, that
everything needful was served to these men in the
fullest extent and of the best. The cavalry, I remem
ber lay off some little distance from the infantry, and
such a mass of horse and mule flesh it has been the

146 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
lot of but few to see. Some 12,000 horses, I think,
were in the camp.
Not the least restraint was placed upon me, but I
was free to go where and when I listed, while at
almost every officer's mess I was a welcome guest.
Great good-nature was the order of the day, and it
was indeed a gay scene, with the regimental bands
and bright colors and the pomp and panoply of war.
As to visiting the Confederates, I was assured that
a flag of truce would easily put me over, but I began
to think I had seen as much of the military as my
brain, uneducated in military matters, could take in,
and consequently not wishing to stay my welcome
out too far, and fearing a movement on the part of
the army, I began the ride back to Washington.
When within a few miles of Long Bridge, and in
plain sight of the Capitol and Washington itself on
looking back, a great cloud of dust seemed to be
coming up, as if trying to overtake me, from the direc
tion I had come. I was startled, of course, but I
halted, and before half an hour had elapsed along
came the most confused mass of humanity one could
think of — men on foot, on cannons, on mules, on
horses, some with guns, some without, but all bowling
along for Washington in the fastest possible time.
I found they were going into Washington to defend
it, having heard that General Jubal Early, of the Con-

WASHINGTON THREATENED. 147
federates, had crossed the Potomac at Williamsburg,
above the city, and was about to make an effort to
cut off" communication with the north. It would per
haps be superfluous to add that after this information
my horse sped as fast as any of them, and over Long
Bridge the rescuers and I went pell mell into Wash
ington. This was on the 6th of July, 1 864. The city
naturally was all excitement ; men and cannon, horses
and ambulances, seemed to be moving along all the
streets. Washington at this turn of affairs had the
appearance of a huge military camp.
On returning my horse to the livery stable my
flrst thought was for food and a bath. Both of
these I obtained at the hotel, the landlord of which
informed me that I could not get out of the city
by the trains, they being closely guarded. At four
o'clock I came with my grip to the Baltimore Depot,
and did indeed find it guarded by bluecoats. Step
ping up to one of the men I asked for the captain of
the guard. He came. When I asked him to let
me get on the Baltimore train, he quietly shook his
head and turned away. Then, and not till then, I
called him back to look at my pass. A wonderful
change instantly followed. His hand came to the
salute, the necessary order was given the guard, their
bayonets were raised to the salute, and I walked

148 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
through a row of glittering steel to the railway
platform. This, as I have said, was at four in the afternoon.
The next train left at six for Baltimore. General
Franklin was on the latter train, when General Early's
scouts stopped it and took him off". On my train
there was no trouble. I easily got to Baltimore, and
for these thirty-two years I have been curious to
know what the Confederates would have done with
me had they caught me on the train with General
Franklin. The conclusion I have arrived at is that
they would have taken my money if they had had
time (for the Union cavalry was after them hot), and
then let me go.
To pursue this narrative a little further, I at length
arrived at Elmira, N.Y., and saw the Confederate
prisoners in a camp about a couple of miles south of
the town. Their prison was only a field of some ten
acres, surrounded by a tight board fence about ten
feet high, on which guards were placed at intervals.
Within were houses for the prisoners. Without any
difficulty I was allowed to walk upon the platforms
at the fence top and see the prisoners as long as I
would. The same freedom was given me here as I
had enjoyed in the White House, in the army, in the
great hospitals, and in fact, everywhere — and this,,

CONFEDERATE PRISONERS AT ELMIRA. 1 49
too, during one of the most terrible wars the world
has ever seen.
As to the prisoners, there were some two hundred
of them standing about in groups, many of them
smoking, listening to some talker in each group
spinning yarns. To my astonishment, they did not
all wear the Confederate grey, but many had butter
nut-colored jeans, and among the lot there was scarcely
a well-dressed man. So far as I could judge, they
were not feeling their imprisonment very badly, and I
noticed that when the officer of the guard was absent
they talked and joked quite freely with the guards
upon the fence. Keen-eyed, sharp-looking fellows
they were, and generally quite young men.
At this time in my life I had not seen Europe with
its fuss and feathers, and could not draw the com
parison which I now can ; but I can conscientiously
say now, having been under almost every flag in the
world, that America (Canada of course, as well, being
the greater part of America) is pre-eminently a land
of freedom, first, last and always.
Going on to Chicago I remember I sold gold to pay
my expenses ; one dollar for $2.86 in greenbacks.
Think of $2.86 for one of our dollars ! Now was
the time, I felt, to buy the bonds, and I was fully
alive to the opportunity. My father and I, on looking
over the situation, concluded we could put $200,000

ISO UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
of our money into United States currency. Now this
sum at the premium of $2.86 would have given me,
at a jump, $572,000. Yes, but again the 7-30's and
5-20's, as the bonds of those days were called, were
sold so low and so much depreciated that one dollar
of greenbacks would buy three dollars in bonds, or
thereabout, as I now remember. Thus my $572,000
would have given me in bonds $1,716,000, which is
another jump so big as to almost take one's breath.
There is yet more to tell, for after the war was
done those very same bonds soon sold at an average
of thirty per cent, premium. Of course, I am justi
fied in adding this premium (that would amount to
$515,800) to my bonds in calculation, which would
give me $2,131,800. These are the millions I had
in view all the time I was in Grant's army when
looking about to form an opinion.
I never wavered for an instant in my faith, and I
knew all the time that the North would conquer, if
Louis Napoleon but kept his hands off" and did not
aid the South.
Of the pluck of the South and their heroic efforts,
which only Anglo-Saxons can and will make, it is
not for me to speak in this article. Older men, and
men educated in military affairs, told me as I met
them in Washington, attached to the embassies, that
the North must and would win, and that the God of

A RELIC OF THE REVOLUTION. 15 1
battles would be on the side of the heaviest ordnance.
Why I did not buy the bonds it is now necessary for
me to tell to complete this tale.
My paternal great-uncle lived in our family home,
he having been born in Massachusetts in 1786, and,
coming away with my own forefathers from that
State to Upper Canada before things got quieted in
New England after the war of the Revolution, he
had retained a most vivid recollection of every turn
of that most unfortunate struggle, as told him at his
mother's knee.
Among the relics which my forefather brought
from Massachusetts was a deerskin-covered saddle
bag, with a brass ring in each end to fasten to the
horse. This old saddle-bag was octagonal in shape,
and was made in London, England, in 17 19. It was
used as a receptacle for papers from New England,
dating mainly before the Revolution, and as far back
as 1720. Within this pile of papers in a roll was a
large quantity of money, paper money of different
denominations, and made at the various periods of the
war. First, I remember, were shilling notes, then notes
for pounds, and as the war went on, notes for dollars.
From my earliest boyhood I had fingered these
notes, and played with them, but never until this
year (1864) did I realize that at one time they meant
just that much money to my forefather.

152 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
To our scheme the paternal uncle listened, and
took it all in. Yes, he understood about buying the
bonds just as well as I did, and freely admitted the
opportunity to be a good one. Then, arousing him
self as if from a fright, he asked me to go and get the
Continental money, which I quickly did. Fondly he
looked it over, and passed the notes between his
fingers, soliloquizing to himself " No, boy," he said
presently ; " they didn't pay these, and they may not
pay their bonds now, and better let well enough alone
and not touch them."
My uncle's decision settled the matter. The bonds
were not bought, and thus I lost the chance of
becoming a multi-millionaire at a bound, a chance
the like of which never may occur again.

DANIEL CONANT.

THE AUTHOR'S FATHER.

MARY ELIZA CONANT.

THE AUTHOR'S MOTHER.

CHAPTER XI.
The " Trent affair'' — Excitement in Canada — Bombastic "fire-
eaters " — Thriving banks — High rates of interest — Railway
building — The bonus system — A sequestered hamlet — A
"psychologist" and his entertainment — A mock duel — A
tragic page of family history.
" There is no other land like thee.
No dearer shore ;
Thou art the shelter of the free ;
The home, the port of liberty
Thou hast been and shalt ever be
Till time is o'er.
Ere I forget to think upon
My land, shall mother curse the son
She bore I "
THE event known as the " Trent affair," Novem
ber 8th, 1 86 1, when the American man-of-war
San Jacinto, commanded by Captain Wilkes,
stopped the British mail steamship Trent in the open
sea, boarded her, and arrested the Confederate com
missioners. Mason and Slidell, then on their way to
England to plead the cause of the South and seek its
recognition as a belligerent power, caused consider-

154 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
able excitement in Canada. The Northern States
were much elated over this grave breach of the law
of nations, but Great Britain was indignant, and de
manded the instant release of the captives, a declara
tion of war as the alternative. Troops were sent to
Halifax and Quebec, one regiment riding from Hali
fax to Quebec in the midst of winter, there being no
Intercolonial Railway at that date. All Canadians
of military age were enrolled, and the excitement
caused thereby seemed almost to deprive many of
their reasoning powers.
There was much bombastic talk, and it certainly
appeared as if a lot of our fire-eaters wanted war and
a chance to distinguish themselves, and in no instance
did this class of the community suppose that the
United States could or would strike back. No, they
evidently believed we were simply to band together
and "eat up" the people of the Northern States.
A well-known practising physician of Oshawa boasted
that he with ten thousand men could march right
through to Washington.
However, Lincoln's firm wisdom prevailed, the
American Government, quietly acquiescing in Great
Britain's demand, gave up the captives, and the war-
cloud passed.
Among the many who had enlisted in the Northern
army were several from Oshawa. Robert Warren,

AN OFFICER'S MISHAP. 155
son of John B. Warren, died from exposure, and his
body was found after an engagement, begrimed with
dust and smoke, by his schoolmate, Dr. John Wall,
who was serving as surgeon in the army in Virginia.
John cared for the body of his friend, and brought it
home to Oshawa for burial. Ah, how many of our
poor fellows were buried where they fell !
" On fame's eternal camping-ground
Their silent tents are spread,
Which glory with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead."
The Grand Trunk Railway carried military equip
ments from Quebec and Montreal to Toronto that
winter and did a thriving business. Officers guarded
these' stores on the cars. One cold day one of these
officers fell out of the Grand Trunk car, going up
Scarboro' Heights, and landed in the snow. Making
his way, bareheaded, to Jerry Annis's house, it being
the nearest, he got him to drive him to Toronto,
eleven miles away.
At this period in Canada very many of the indus
tries were carried on by bank capital. That is to say,
endorsed notes were made for three months, dis
counted, and renewed from quarter to quarter. By
the capital thus raised manufacturing, lumbering,
tanning, and like industries, were carried on.
At this time of writing, when loans are current at

156 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
five per cent., it seems almost incredible that only
thirty years ago business men and manufacturers
depended upon chartered banks for their capital —
renewing their notes quarterly — and by so doing paid
the interest quarterly in advance, making interest at
ten and one-half to eleven per cent, per annum. Such,
however, was the case, and the banks throve by that
manner of doing business.
Banks usually succeed in Canada. Those old in
stitutions that helped very materially to develop the
country, but which failed, failed because of making
too great loans upon real estate, and having a lot of
it thrown on their hands. Banks, however, though in
deep water, may keep on for years, until someone
expresses fears of their solvency. Said an old man
ager of the Bank of Upper Canada to me, " A bank is
like a woman, all right until someone says something
against her character."
From my earliest recollection, the general saying
to express soundness emphatically was " As good as
the Bank of Upper Canada." The old Bank, how
ever, kept on taking over real estate, distilleries, saw
mills, foundries and such, until they had to liquidate
at, I think, about thirty cents on the dollar. During
the excitement caused by the Trent aff"air, A. S. Whit
ing and E. C. Tuttle, who just previously had started
a large and important manufactory of hand harvest

RA ILWAY B UILDING. 1 5 7
tools, such as scythes, forks, hoes and rakes, were
succeeding nicely. William L. Gilbert, of Winsted,
Conn., was endorsing their notes. They applied to
the Ontario Bank for twenty thousand dollars as a
part of their capital. Gilbert's credit was above sus
picion — he was a millionaire — but the prospect of war
from the Trent affair frightened the Ontario Bank
people, and Whiting and Tuttle had to arrange with
my father to make the endorsation until people got
rid of their temporary madness. This is an instance
of the peculiar state of affairs in Upper Canada, finan
cially, during 1 862. Some of our branch lines of rail
ways, too, were in part built by using bank capital
and discounted notes.
The Grand Trunk Railway, in the first instance,
was built by British capital and the loans (which after
wards became gifts) of the millions of the Govern
ment of Canada. The great Canadian Pacific Rail
way, too, was built by capitalists, with generous aid
from the Government, but the branch lines asked for
bonuses from the different municipalities which they
touched. Townships, villages and cities issued bonds,
borrowed the money, and gradually provided a sinking
fund from the taxes received, by which in time to pay
off" the bonds.
In the abstract it seems unfair and uncalled for that
a township had to pay for the railway in advance in

IS8 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
order to get it to touch that township, and then, when
it came, be charged stiff" freight and passenger rates
by the same grateful railway. It was " a bitter pill to
swallow," but it had to be taken. Those munici
palities which did not " swallow the pill " are to-day
" in the lurch," as we say in Canada. I paid one of
them a visit a little time ago, and I give herewith a
sketch of my experiences :
The long, uninterrupted winter was dragging its
slow length along without a break. Even the January
thaw, as always foretold by the oldest inhabitant, had
not come to the hamlet during that winter. Snow fell
once or twice during the week with unerring regularity.
Roadways had been beaten and tracked in the snow,
and the faithful villagers had tramped through it from
day to day. Nothing, in fact, had happened to break
the monotony of this quiet village hamlet for the
entire winter season. Perhaps the last noted occur
rence was just as the snow came, when the deacon's
horse ran away and came bounding back into the
village without the deacon or anyone else holding the
lines, and the robes partly in and partly out of the
cutter. That occurrence for a time had been food
for gossip among the quiet villagers, some stoutly
averring that the deacon was drunk, while others,
putting it mildly, said, " The deacon was took bad in
his head suddenly, as he sometimes was wont to

A SLEEPY HAMLET. 159
be, and couldn't guide his horse." Just how it was was
still a mooted point, even as late as the dreaded Ides
of March — the time of my visit to this quiet place.
It seems no one had died, there were but few births,
and only one or two young fellows had spunk enough
to do any right-down earnest courting for the whole
live-long stormy winter. Happenings there were
none. Well, business called me to this little rural
hamlet in the gusty month of March — this peaceful
village, removed from the path of the iron horse, an
out-of-the way place altogether. During the general
upheaval of things in Ontario, when most towns and
villages were up and about to secure railway com
munication, the deacon of this little place and a few
other fore-handed citizens strongly objected to giving
" any bonus for any number of railways, be they one
or more," so the village has gone without a railway.
Excellent people they are indeed, and they change so
very slowly and deliberately that old Rip Van Winkle
could not possibly have found a better place wherein
or whereabout to take that long memorable nap of his.
Even were Rip to change, his neighbors would not,
for in the twenty years, while he calmly slumbered,
the weekly " sewing circles " would infallibly be held ;
and around and about the sewing circles everything
in this wayside, or rather out-of-the-way-side, hamlet
revolved. When Mrs. Dobson put on her new striped

l6o UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
stuff" dress for the first time, and came down to the
" circle," every eye was upon her, and she had no rest
until she told where she obtained it, how much it cost
per yard, and how many yards it took for the dress.
Particularly is this worthy of mention to enable those
remote from this village of snow-trodden paths to
realize fully its unchangeableness, and its hunger for
something out of the ordinary to give food for talk
and thought. A boy of fourteen had driven me from
the railway station, twelve miles away, as he carried
the meagre leather bag, denominated by grace Her
Majesty's Mail, in a square-boxed sleigh drawn by
one horse — such a sleigh as in New England they
term a "pung."
At the village hostelry I am domiciled within four
wooden -sided, clap -boarded, white -painted walls,
where I am " ated and slaped," and all for $i.oo per
day. After the ample evening tea, and over a quiet
pipe in the corner of the bar, while conning a paper
two days old, the voluble and voluminous landlady
asks if I will not " go and hear the professor to-night ?"
Not having been at the weekly sewing circle for
that week, I am not posted, and in my innocence ask
of the professor, "And what's to be heard from him ?"
" He's a psychologist, sir, and they all say he can
make people do just what he chooses to make them
do. He's going to speak to-night in the Temperance

AUTHOR'S FATHER LOADING HIS SCHOONERS WITH LUMBER BY RAFTING,
ON LAKE ONTARIO.

AN ITINERANT HYPNOTIST. l6l
Hall, just across the way ; all the village will be
there, and I think you would be amused, sir, if you
chose to go."
" Thanks, madam, for the information, and I'll
certainly go."
The Temperance Hall is jammed — well, that's the
ordinary way of putting it ; but in this case it is
pressed in full much the same as they press cotton in
the rude bales on the home plantations down south,
before they are sent away to the big cotton presses in
the cities.
" A stranger ? Well, we must let him in, for per
haps he's a friend of the prof"
"Can't quite claim the honor, but would like to
get in."
Stepping over the tops of the long seats, I get in,
and make my way up near the professor.
Now, this professor is one of those nondescripts
who comes from nowhere in particular. He opens
his mouth and gives vent to sound in a steady
volume, but says nothing in particular. His speech
is all about psychology and its wonders and what he
proposes to do. Some ten minutes of this, then he
invites up half a dozen young men from the gather
ing for experiments. Applicants for experiment are
seated on chairs on the platform before the professor.
The latt er looks one of these steadily in the eye for

l62 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
a couple of minutes and then makes a few undu-
latory motions back and forth before his eyes with
his right hand and touches his forehead with his fin
gers. Already he has the spell, and sits staring into
vacancy as if he were about to have an extra large
photograph taken. All in turn are " spelled," and
all are a success save one, who is requested to take
his seat again among the people. And now the fun
commences. One fellow the professor assures is hunt
ing, and he hands him his cane for a gun. A flock of
ducks ! — down the fellow goes and crawls on hands
and knees. He fires, and the recoil of the gun throws
him prostrate on the stage. Up he gets and at it he
goes again. During the half hour I sat there, I think
the fellow bagged as big a bag of ducks as usually
falls to the lot of a sportsman nowadays. Another
youth sees an excellent opportunity for a swim, and
quickly doffs coat, vest, and would doff" more if not
quickly stopped by the wonderful professor. Pros
trate he falls on the platform and goes through all the
motions of a genuine swim, with feet drawn up, again
extended, and the long drawn stroke of the arms
regularly and in natural order repeated— a perfect
fac-simile of a swim. The " spelled " No. 3 came
next, and fancied that the glass of water which the
professor extended to him contained excellent port
wine ; his lips smacked and his eyes sparkled. But

A DUEL WITH CORN-STALKS. 163
he must propose a toast, which was something about
Johnny Jones' girl, and young Mac cutting Jones out.
This local hit brought down the house, and it was
fully five minutes before the audience could be got
into quiet again. Now Jones and Mac were the
other two "spelled" subjects on the platform, and
of course a duel had to be fought. The far-seeing
professor, smelling such duels from afar, had provided
two huge corn-stalks, which he handed to the duellists
for swords. Each one feels carefully the keen edge
of the lethal weapons, and prepares himself for the
fray. Seconds are chosen from the other "spelled"
ones on the platform, who for the moment leave their
ducks, their swimming and their glasses of port wine
to see that the Marquis of Queensberry's rules are
faithfully carried out.
" No thrusts below the belt, and on no account any
hits below the belt."
And Jones' girl all this time is looking on. She had
gotten herself up elaborately for the occasion ; with
out a doubt her wardrobe had been duly dissected and
priced and deplored and praised at the last " circle."
Jones' girl's mother is there, too, sitting just behind
her. " The low, mean fellow, to make such an exhibition
of himself ! I would never let him go home with me
again ! Send back his ring, Mirandy. The idea ! —

1 64 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
to get up before all the people here and fight with
corn-stalks ! "
The laughter before pent up, controlled, held in,
kept down, now bursts the bonds. Human nature in
this village of snow-paths could hold in no longer.
It's just a broad ha 1 ha ! ! ha ! ! ! and for the girls (all
except Jones' girl) a te ! he ! ! he ! ! 1 The old deacon
joins in — it's even too much for his gravity. In the
deacon's case the explosion was rather serious. He
began with a cough and a sneeze, got red in the
face — got redder — his sides shook — a blast from his
nose — then the explosion, ho ! ho ! ! ho ! ! ! ho ! ! ! !
If the house was brought down before, it was
" fetched " now — the fun was so hilarious — for those
people hadn't had a good laugh that winter. Some
of the other girls, whose beaux are yet to be found,
are heard to exclaim : " The absurd fellow ! I wonder
that she can countenance him at all ! "
But the duel — " Three paces. Now at the word,
one — two — three," and the whacks of the corn-stalks
resound. It is a spectacle to arouse laughter from
even a hypochondriac.
" Time ! — first round, no blood ; well, seconds, look
after your principals."
While the duellists are resting the professor goes
on to speak his piece. He has been " a close student
of human nature. It's mental alchemy, stored away

HONOR IS SATISFIED. 165
in the great human store-house. An observer like me
can bring it out — a great science, ladies and gentle
men — and I shall give one more exhibition before this
highly intelligent community to-morrow evening."
And well he may, for the house this evening has
paid him seventy dollars at least.
While this speech is going on, the professor keeps
hold of one of the hands of Jones' opponent in the
duel, and manages to rub some red paint or pigment
on his wrist while he is talking.
" Take your places, gentlemen ! All ready at the
word. One — two — three," and such a pounding of
corn-stalks — pounded so effectually that they fly in
fragments all over the hall.
" Blood ! — first blood ! Honor is satisfied, gentle
man ; Jones is the winner. Shake hands, gentlemen
— that's according to the Marquis of Queensberry's
rules — yes, that's it! Seconds, take care of your
principals." And Jones' girl is all smiles, and will evidently
allow the hero to see her home to-night.
More applicants for the " spell " come up as I walk
over the seat-backs to the door, making my way back
to mine hostelry and to bed.
This is a faithful picture of life as I saw it in a
remote Ontario village — a village too mean to pay a
single dollar to get a railway, and which therefore

1 66 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
was beaten in the race. The tedium of a winter's life
therein, snow-bound and with its humdrum, is not an
experience to be coveted.
If you like the picture, you can find such a place
for a winter's residence next winter, easily ; but I
fancy most readers will agree with me in saying that
the deacon, the fore-handed citizens and the village
generally made a serious mistake in not securing
railway communication when it was to be had.
Villages, as well as citizens, to keep up in the race
nowadays, must be alive and moving, or both are
soon left far behind by their neighbors' ambitions.
SOME FAMILY HISTORY.
There came to the Whitbies from one of the
Midland counties of England a bachelor accompanied
by his widowed sister and her little girl. Possessing
capital, he bought one of the best farms of these
favored townships. It was a glebe of about one
hundred and fifty acres, without any waste land
within its borders, and was nicely built upon. Here
the bachelor brother farmed thoroughly and well,
while the sister presided over the household and
looked after the education and care of her growing-
daughter. Of their former history no one knew
aught. The man was a jolly good fellow, open-handed, free

A CHARMING BELLE. 1 67
and hospitable. They used to say that no visitor ever
came to the home and went away dry unless he chose
to. Not that I mean to say this English gentleman
bachelor was a drinker, only that, according to the
light of those days, the rites of hospitality were
administered when the tankard kept pace with the
choicest dishes of the table.
There are probably few living now who were alive
and partakers of this bachelor's kindnesses. The
farm was bought in the late forties, and he and his
sister left it for their English home once more about
1863. But to follow more intimately their fortunes in
Ontario, we must speak now of the young daughter.
Admirers of this English-Canadian belle will even to
this day aver that she was surpassingly beautiful.
None of that day had more to be thankful for in
this particular, while her charm of manner was even
in excess of her beauty. Naturally, suitors came.
Among those who were truly fascinated was a young
English barrister, even then known as a pushing,
rising fellow. Indeed, he has risen by sheer down
right hard work, as well as ability, till to-day he is
one of the high officials of our Canadian courts, and
pre-eminently a successful man. This man proposed
duly, and after mature deliberation and consultation
with the mother, was accepted. Before the knot was

l68 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
tied, however, he said to the beautiful girl that he
would immediately after marriage expect to receive
full control of her property. Once more the affianced
girl and her mother consulted, and their conclusion
was that he had come courting the $8,000 which she
possessed in her own right, and not her particularly,
but only as an accessory, so he was jilted. Next
came a long-haired, tall minister, who pressed his
suit with all the ardor his glib tongue was capable
of, and he won.
They were married and lived together a couple of
years, and two children were born to them. The
minister went on with his duties, and, outwardly, all
seemed to go fairly well, but those most intimate with
the family always felt that there was some mystery
connected with him ; yet, suspect as much as they
might, they could not charge him with any irregulari
ties. A perfect specimen of a man he was, endowed
with high social qualities, and capable of taking a
high place in the ministry.
One fine day, however, he went out from the
ministerial home for a morning walk, leaving the
young wife and two babes to await his coming to
dinner. Dinner that day waited and continued to
wait, and is still waiting after the lapse of thirty-four
years, for it is a literal fact that no one, so far as is
known on earth, ever saw the minister and husband

A CLERICAL MURDERER. 169
after he crossed the threshold that morning in 1 863
for a walk.
Back to the mother and uncle on the farm went
the young mother. A few months in silence, then
came the record of a criminal trial for murder in a
neighboring state, where a minister had been tried
for his life, but by some technical legal flaw got off".
Reading the trial record it was clearly brought out
that this fiend had cut his wife's throat from ear to
ear, as she lay in bed, and in such a manner as to
make it thought she had committed suicide. In
refutation of that theory, it was most clearly shown
that the former wife could not, no matter how much
disposed, do the deed herself, but that the fiend of a
husband did it, and that he afterwards fled to Ontario
and to the Whitbies, and married our most beautiful
maid. This was too much for the mother and uncle.
Their beautiful farm was sold, and back to the Mid
land counties of England again they went, taking the
young deserted wife and the two fatherless babes
with them.
The bachelor brother has lately been gathered to
his fathers, and the sister has become a very old
woman. The deserted wife, now the mother of a
young man and a young woman, is in her early old
age, retaining still much of the beauty of her earlier
years, while she learns to grow old gracefully. In

I70 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
deeds of charity and kindnesses to her neighbors her
time is occupied, and she is seemingly happy in the
love of her children. Her home-life in the Whitbies
is never thought of Lately, however, a resident
near her Canadian home called upon her, and found
that she had kept her property intact from her
graceless minister-husband, and was surrounded by
such outward comfort and even splendor as grand old
England alone can give.
Even surrounded with these pleasant accessories,
she is said to have inquired very minutely about her
home across the water, and of those who were once
her friends and neighbors, while a sigh escaped her
as she sat and gazed as if looking far across the
broad Atlantic, where she had spent so many happy,
as well as unhappy, days in her home in Ontario.

CHAPTER XII.
Fenianism — A claimant for my father's farm — A scare at Port
Oshawa — Guns, forks and clubs for fighting — Awkward
squad — Guard catch a young man out courting — The
Fenian raid of 1866 — A Catholic priest taken prisoner —
United States Government at last cries "Stop !" — Adven
ture in high life — A youth runs away from home — Tragic
death of the mother of the runaway — Marries the serving-
maid — Wedding and funeral journey in one.
" In peace. Love tunes the shepherd's reed ;
In war, he mounts the warrior's steed ;
In halls, in gay attire is seen ;
In hamlets, dances on the green.
Love rules the court, the camp, the grove.
And men below, and saints above ;
For Love is heaven, and heaven is Love."
FENIANISM at first did not attract much
attention. In 1865 rumors continually reached
us of head centres, drillings, armings, mass-
ings, and other notes of warlike preparations among
United States Fenians. Our Government had spies
promptly among them. Clever fellows they were,
who entered the lodges and Wormed out all their
secrets.

172 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
As the days went by and the rumors increased,
gathering force by repetition and transmission, our
people began to feel alarmed. There were very few
sympathizers in Canada, but, preposterous as it may
seem, there were some, and certain of these, more
valiant and outspoken than others, talked of what
they would do when the Fenians did come. Con.
Lyons, of Oshawa, a respectable man, working for his
livelihood, made no secret of saying he had chosen
my father's homestead farm as his share in the
prospective division of property taken by the Fenian
invaders. Timorous people became very nervous,
and " the Fenians " were the topic of the day.
Neighbors gathered nightly in each other's houses,
and debated over the prospects, conjecturing and
planning what they would do with their horses and
stock when the invaders landed. To run them off"
into the forests seemed to be the general solution of
that difficulty met in advance by those who feared
even the very next breeze from the south might bring
in a shipload of Fenians from the United States to
occupy this part of Ontario. Persons residing near
the shore of Lake Ontario began to watch for strange
craft. The excitement was too tense to be kept up
long. Something must occur to quiet it down.
On the hot misty evening of June 26th, 1865, some
one about Port Oshawa saw the spars of a ship just

CANADIAN REBELLION, 1837-8. REFUGEES FROZEN IN AT OSWEGO, N.Y.

"THE FENIANS HAVE A' COM'D." 175
out from the shore, as if of a vessel at anchor. Anon
the ship's yawl could be faintly descried making for
the shore. The evening was very still, and through
the mist the ear helped the eye, as it were, as the
sound of oars in the row-locks could be distinctly
heard. This regular " swish " and " thud " of rowers.
in unison came to startled ears.
It was enough. A young man got a horse and
rode for sweet life to Oshawa, three miles away,
calling aloud as he rode, " They have landed !
they have landed ! "
Yet not all who had previously gathered at each
other's houses were within hearing of the dreadful
tidings of the landing. One Cumberland man went
to his neighbor's door at midnight, knocked and
called out, " John, the Fenians have a' com'd ! "
In Oshawa town the consternation was too great
and genuine to be ludicrous, at least just then. Not
a few persons loaded waggons with all they could
put on them, and climbing to the top of the furniture
and bedding drove away northward. " No Fenians
should catch us ! "
We were all summoned by the Colonel, John
McGill, to assemble at the town hall. My father
shouldered his double-barrelled fowling-piece, and I
grasped a green " shillelah " in default of a gun, and
repaired with many others to the rendezvous. The

174 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
illustration at pa3e 236 is of the " awkward squad "
who thus mustered in valiant defence of their native
town. It should not, however, be viewed with too critical
an eye. Remember we were all summoned at five
minutes' notice, no time being given even to change
our clothes. Every second the Fenians were expected
to march up Simcoe Street from Port Oshawa.
We prepared to march — men with guns in front,
those with forks next, and those with clubs in the
rear. There were, however, many in the town who
did not prepare to march, but who ran and hid,
fancying " one live coward is worth two dead heroes."
Men, somehow, were rather scarce there just then.
We stood upon our arms, forks and clubs, waiting for
the word — which was never given.
Another horseman came from Port Oshawa, and
told us a boat's crew had come ashore for milk and
provisions, as well as to get their reckoning, not
knowing where they were. Inoffensive fellows
enough, but they deserved a drubbing for giving us
needless alarm.
This state of feeling or tension was not confined to
our neighborhood, but was common to the country
generally. Finding there was no immediate attack imminent,
our courage began to rise, and we in that town hall.

BA TTLE OF RIDGE WAY. 175
resting upon our arms or clubs, became anxious to
"wipe out" the enemy. Night patrols were set —
first night, men with guns ; next night, those who had
forks borrowed the guns ; next, club-men took their
turn. My father, always somewhat of a wag, arrested a
young man about eleven o'clock at night by threat
ening to fire if he did not halt. He halted. It was
young Allen, whom my father knew well. He begged
hard to be let off", but that could not be permitted
unless he explained why he was out so late. " I have
just been over to Mr. Cinnamon's to see his daughter.
Please let me go." "Well, don't you be caught out
so late again courting," and he was let off" for the
time. In a few nights the watch was discontinued.
But no Fenians came that year.
The following year, 1866, they came and, landing,
raided the shore of Lake Erie, and the battle at
Ridgeway was the result. There a number of the
militia who were called out to defend the country,
many of them mere lads, were killed. Others died
later from the effects of the over-exertion and excite
ment. Among the former was young Willie Tempest,
from Oshawa, a Trinity College (Toronto), student,
who went to the front with his company in the
Queen's Own Rifles.
The indignation and patriotic excitement through-

176 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
out the country proved to the invaders and any
sympathizers with them within our borders that
Canadians were loyal to their own Government and
would not suffer invasion of their soil.
Called to a knowledge of the breach of national
law in allowing the arming of a hostile force within
her territory, the United States Government gave the
necessary orders to her officials. This, following the
ill-success of the raid, put a stop to active Fenianism
on our western boundary line for the time.
A second somewhat similar attempt was even more
quickly repulsed at Eccles' Hill, in the Eastern Town
ships, Quebec, in 1870.
Among the prisoners taken at Ridgeway was a
young Catholic priest. He was lodged in the Peni
tentiary at Kingston for being caught in such bad
company. At first it was thought we would keep
him there, but as time passed and the excitement
against those who had caused the loss of our men
cooled, sorrow for the unfortunate misguided young
father softened our hearts. The prison doors were
opened, he was bidden depart and be seen no more in
our land. He said he would not, and I believe he
has kept his word faithfully.
" Born with a silver spoon in his mouth " is a very
laconic way Canadians have of expressing the case of

THREE YO UNG R UNA WA YS. 177
a child born of rich parents. The young man of the
following sketch was the only son and probable heir
to riches, both on the father's and mother's side. He
had a sister, it is true, who would likely inherit a
proportion of the family wealth. In that respect
Canadians are like the people of the British Isles, who
do not intend the daughters to share equally with the
sons. Among our American cousins they have broken
off" from the old traditions, and the girls inherit equally
with the boys.
Unfortunately for this youth he did not get on well
with his father, nor did he shine very brilliantly at
school, but through all he was ever the mother's
favorite. After the completion of the Canadian Pacific Rail
way many of the young men of the older Provinces
were disposed to try their luck in British Columbia.
Among such adventurers were two lads of the same
town, and schoolmates of this young man. This fact
probably fired his ambition, for in midwinter these
two boys were joined by the young heir. Together they
ran away, going direct to Golden, a point on the new
line of railway in British Columbia. His mother had
provided him with some funds, else they had found it
difficult to survive through the approaching winter.
Arrived at Golden, they secured a tent and lived in it
when the mercury registered 20° (Fah.) below zero.

178 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
It is very evident the lad had good " grit," as is said
in America, to thus come straight from luxury to
live and lodge with nothing between him and that
awful cold but a little cotton web.
On the ice breaking up in the spring the three
runaways secured a strong row-boat and ascended
the Columbia River six days' journey, voyaging by
day and camping by night upon the shore. At their
journey's end they bought a ranch, built a cabin on
it, and took up housekeeping, each one in turn
being cook. Thus two seasons passed away, and no
word was sent home direct to the parents of our
youth. They had heard of him only indirectly
through the parents of the two other runaways.
The mother, though surrounded by luxury and
comfort, with every wish gratified, could no longer
endure the separation, so she determined to go and
see that erring son, even if at the risk of her life,
for she was a woman whose health was uncertain
and had been so for some years. First, she had a
Peterboro' cedar canoe built, capable of easily carry
ing five persons, and had it shipped by Canadian
Pacific Railway to Golden, B.C., the objective point
from which the son had set out.
Taking her uncle as an escort, and her maid, she
set out on the fatiguing journey. Arrived at Golden,
she took possession of the boat and provisioned it for

ROMANCE AND TRAGEDY. 179
the voyage up the Columbia. Camping at night with
nothing but the blue canopy of heaven for a covering,
they reached the ranch at last. Then an unlooked-
for thing occurred. The young runaway laid siege
to the serving-maid's heart, and was determined to
marry her. In her precarious state of health, how
ever, the mother, not approving of the match, refused,
and said she needed the girl to take care of her.
After a stay of some three weeks with her son at the
ranch (where the runaways were ostensibly raising
horses), the mother and her party returned to Golden,
finding the journey down stream comparatively easy.
From Golden they made their way to Victoria, and
thence by sea to San Francisco, proceeding then to
Santa Barbara, Southern California. The mother
hoped the mild climate would restore her health.
She occupied tasteful quarters, and for a time her
health improved. She was able to enjoy the flowers
and out-of-door life and pleasures. In Southern
California their midwinter days are days of
sunshine ; picnics and such pastimes are truly
enjoyable. She was not, however, to enjoy them
long, for death came very suddenly and without a
moment's warning.
When the tidings of her death reached the son, he
came at once that he might convey the remains to
the home in Ontario. Meeting the maid again, and

l8o UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
forgetful of his mother's wishes, he married her, and
took her with him to his old home. Truly a strange
journey, his bride with him, and his mother's dead
body in the baggage car on the same train. From
his mother the lad inherited tens of thousands of
dollars, and is probably heir to many more.

CHAPTER XIII.
The French in Upper Canada — Sir Wilfrid Laurier — Voya-
geurs and their songs — "A la Claire Fontaine" — Money
lenders — Educational matters — Expatriated Canadians —
Successful railway speculation— A shrewd banker.
" Such is the patriot's boast, where'er we roam.
His first, best country ever is at home."
— Goldsmith, " The Traveller.''
ALTHOUGH Upper Canada is essentially an
English-speaking province, there are many
settlements throughout its wide area com
posed of other nationalities, emigrants from European
nations, who have founded colonies within its borders.
Quebec is more French, it being the old Canada, or
New France, and in it the two languages are equally
spoken. Still, although there are not noticeably
many French in the Upper Province, there are small
groups of them here and there, chiefly among the
laboring classes.
The most picturesque figure in Canada to-day is
Sir Wilfrid Laurier, and as Premier of the Dominion
we may claim him as belonging to us in Ontario as
well as to his native Province of Quebec. The son of

1 82 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
a provincial land surveyor, he is a man of finished
culture and education, whose eloquence is as fluently
expressed in one language as in the other. After
taking a full classical course at L'Assomption College,
he studied law, took the degree of B.C.L. at McGill
College, Montreal, was for a time editor of a promi
nent and influential Lower Canadian journal, later
became well known as a powerful and skilful counsel
in both civil and criminal cases, and was created
a Q.C. in 1880.
He came into politics as an associate of Dorion,
Laflamme and others of the old Liberal school in
Lower Canada ; later has called himself a Liberal
of the English school, a pupil of Charles Fox and
Daniel O'Connell. His ddbut in the Legislature of
Lower Canada created a sensation, " not more by
the finished grace of his oratorical abilities than
by the boldness and authority with which he handled
the deepest political problems." The effect of his
"fluent, cultured and charming discourse" is described
by the poet Frechette as "magical." The brilliant
Frenchman, who is yet so proud of his country and
of being a British subject, who has been honored and
received by Her Imperial Majesty the Queen,
decorated with the ribbon of the Legion of Honor by
France, and given audience in the Vatican by the
Pope, has taken a stand in Canada and wielded an

SIR WILFRID LAURIER. 183
influence for good government, broad statesmanship
and a wide-reaching Imperial policy that falls to the
lot of few men to have the opportunity given them,
and to still fewer the ability to grasp when the
opportunity arrives.
The denunciation of the treaties between Great
Britain and Germany and Belgium are the result of
his efforts to clear the way to securing preferential
trade between the mother-country and her colonies.
" For this and the marvellous goal to which it leads,"
said the London Times, '' Laurier's name must live in
the annals of the British Empire."
Both the French and English languages are spoken
by the ministers of the Crown, and it is to be re
gretted that Upper Canadians are not more sensible of
the value of possessing a knowledge of two languages.
Many are, of course, taught the French as an accom
plishment, but few can speak it fluently. In Lower
Canada, where both languages are spoken and required
in business, the knowledge is more appreciated.
The French habitants or peasants are a merry,
contented, laughter-loving, light-hearted people. The
men spend the winters in the woods or timber limits,
felling the timber, hewing the great logs or drawing
them by the aid of horses or oxen to the surface of
the frozen rivers, and the summers in " driving " the
logs, enclosing them in the booms (logs with ends

1 84 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
fastened together by chains to form a barrier or
enclosure for the loose floating logs), and in taking the
great rafts down the St. Lawrence to Quebec. Many
a river shore in Upper Canada re-echoes the songs of
the French-Canadian lumberman or voyageur in the
twilight of a summer evening. They are men of fine
physique and many have strong sweet musical voices.
The songs, with the accompaniment of the lap of the
water, the rhythmic sound of oar or paddle, the soft
breeze swaying the trees, and the murmur of the dis
tant rapid or waterfall, are among the things to be
enjoyed. " La Claire Fontaine " is one of the favorite songs
of these men. I append here a translation, which
robs it to some extent of its lightsome character.
The repetition of the last two lines in the verse as
the first two of the following is characteristic of
several of the best known of these chansons, and
adds much to their popularity.
A LA CLAIRE FONTAINE.
Unto the crystal fountain
For pleasure did I stray ;
So fair I found the waters.
My limbs in them I lay.
Long is it I have loved thee.
Thee shall I love alway.
My dearest.

"A LA CLAIRE FONTAINE." 1 85
So fair I found the waters.
My limbs in them I lay ;
Beneath an oak tree resting,
I heard a roundelay.
Long is it, etc.
Beneath an oak tree resting,
I heard a roundelay ;
The nightingale was singing
On the oak tree's topmost spray.
Long is it, etc.
The nightingale was singing
On the oak tree's topmost spray —
Sing, nightingale, keep singing,
Thou who hast heart so gay !
Long is it, etc.
Sing, nightingale, keep singing.
Thou hast a heart so gay !
Thou hast a heart so merry,
While mine is sorrow's prey.
Long is it, etc.
Thou hast a heart so merry
While mine is sorrow's prey.
For I have lost my mistress.
Flown from her love away.
Long is it, etc.
For I have lost my mistress.
Flown from her love away ;
All for a bunch of roses.
Whereof I said her nay.
Long is it, etc.

1 86 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
All for a bunch of roses.
Whereof I said her nay ;
I would those luckless roses
Were on their bush to-day.
Long is it, etc.
I would those luckless roses
Were on their bush to-day,
And that itself, the rosebush,
Were plunged in ocean's spray ;
Long is it I have loved thee.
Thee shall I love alway.
My dearest.
There were many money-lenders in Upper Canada.
When I say money-lenders, I mean the men who will
do no business, own scarcely any real estate, and
make no improvements in the land, but simply sit
still and lend their money at interest. I will sketch
one who, while young, came to a certain township in
Ontario. He is now an old man, and still a resident
of the same locality. He brought from England with
him about $i,ooo, and with it bought fifty acres of
good land. These acres he farmed and resided on for
some years, and succeeded well as a farmer. During
the Russian war times and the building of the Grand
Trunk Railway, inflation pervaded almost every walk
of life. Then he sold his small farm for $120 per
acre, or $6,000, and lived in a small rented house.

-.<^ ; .» '^^ "'¦

-^ -¦^

*-t«

CANADIAN REBELLION, 1837-8. REFUGEE CROSSES LAKE ONTARIO IN A CANOE,
WITH THE PROW ROTTED AWAY.

HIGH RATES OF INTEREST. 187
This money and the accumulated earnings of years
he lent to his neighbors at a maximum rate of twelve
per cent., with discounts and drawbacks and many
other dark and mysterious ways of figuring — so mys
terious, indeed, that in many instances the loans netted
him twenty to twenty-five per cent, per annum. Thus
year by year he added to his capital, eventually be
coming a very rich man ; and though the rates for
loans have now dropped down to five per cent., his
money has kept on drawing big pay — never stopped.
Floods, disasters, deaths, fires— nothing seemed to
stand in the way of the steady tick of interest and
accumulated wealth. To-day he is a very old man,
worth his hundreds of thousands. Pleasures of social
intercourse, books, papers, travel, and the little ele
gances which go to make up life, have always been
absent, but the gold has been hoarded. He is only a
type of many of the money-lenders of our Province.
Such men do not buy estates, nor make homes, nor
do anything to improve our country.
An anecdote to illustrate : My father said just after
the close of the Canadian rebellion of 1837-38 he
had built a new ship and launched her upon Lake
Ontario. And now rigging, shrouds, sails, anchors,
cables, and outfit generally must be had before she
could sail. Ready money after that domestic, or
rather civil, disturbance was difficult to obtain. The

UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.

outfit, however, must be had, for freights were high,
and there was money to be made. To J — H — , he
went, living not far from Whitby, and told him what
he wanted. H — • readily accompanied my father to
Toronto, went with him to Rice Lewis, who kept such
vessel outfits, and asked him to give my father what
he might need on his account. My father got .^'iSO
(Halifax) worth, and gave his note to H — , at six
months, for ;^200 (Halifax) for the loan. You will
readily see what money-lenders demanded and ob
tained for their capital. It is only fair to complete the
story and say that my father found no fault with
J — H — , for although then himself abundantly able
to raise any reasonable sum, he could not wait to do
so. Two trips of the ship, when once rigged out, paid
the loan, principal and interest, and all parties were
satisfied. The question has often occurred to me, why, as a
rule, the wealth secured by money-lending has not
been long retained. As I cast my eye over the coun
try to-day, I find very few money-lenders' families
who have much of their parents' funds. I am not a
fatalist, but I freely say that it does not seem to be
the case that money-lending, pursued as a business at
extortionate rates, does beget prosperity for those
who follow. I am sorry to say that a like remark
would apply to the families of many of our pioneers.

EDUCA TIONAL AFFAIRS. 1 89

Very few of the farms left by the pioneers to their
sons are to-day in their hands. That they got a liv
ing too easily would be the apparent cause, but not
because of anything derogatory (as in the case of the
money-lenders) in their father's business.
We have gone from one extreme to the opposite,
and very far opposite, in educational matters. To
day our school tax hangs heaviest about our necks, so
very many of our young men and women are learning
Latin, Greek and French. John Quincy Adams said
over a century ago, " When a boy gets to conjugating
Latin verbs he will not dig any more ditches." We do
not know why it should be so, but it would appear gen
erally to be true. Again, there is a tendency among
our young women not to entertain matrimonial ideas,
but to try to be wholly independent of the sterner sex.
Our young women go off" to some training hospital,
get a diploma after three years' voluntary service, and
set up as trained nurses. As such, when they get
employment, they make from ten to twenty-five dol
lars per week, with their board and lodging. There
is no manner of doubt but these nurses are exceed
ingly useful in the sick chamber. More of our young
women, too, become telegraph operators, type-writers,
ticket sellers and stenographers, all very much detri-

I90 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
mental to woman's proper sphere as the "queen of
the home" and the wife of a faithful husband.
Chicago, 111., alone contains one hundred thousand
Canadians. In our very, very free schools and colleges
we educate young men and women by the tens of
thousands, very many of whom, as in the case of those
in Chicago, leave us for the United States. Such
expatriated young men and women are lost to us
forever after, much to our sorrow.
In a former chapter it is said that our two great
railways in Canada — the Grand Trunk and the Can
adian Pacific — were built by capitalists. While that
remark is quite true, let us look about a moment and
see how some of these large fortunes have been made
at a stroke. Here is an instance : A manager of a
Canadian bank, which commands many millions of
dollars of capital, was once a Hudson's Bay Com
pany factor. Well, one day a brother Hudson's Bay
factor, happening to be in St. Paul, Minnesota, dis
covered that the St. Paul and Manitoba Railway,
which ran from St. Paul to the boundary line, was at
low ebb — that is, its stock was selling at exceedingly
low prices. On arriving in Montreal he reported
this to the bank manager. They then borrowed
some five millions of dollars from the bank, and the
ex-Hudson's Bay factor made his way to New York.

A FORTUNATE SPECULATION. 191
On the open stock market he and his brokers bought
all the St. Paul and Manitoba railway stock in sight,
at an almost ridiculously low figure. Back to Mont
real he came, and then a railway from Winnipeg to
the boundary line, to meet the St. Paul and Manitoba
railway, was proposed and arranged. Such news
naturally quickly spread, and the St. Paul and Mani
toba railway stock became in immediate demand.
The quotation went up higher, began to boom, got
to par, and soon went away beyond, netting some
millions of dollars for both the factor and the bank
manager. To repay the bank loan was a very easy
matter, and everybody was happy. Such cases are,
however, rare in Canada. Canadians are a slower,
surer-going people, without the " slap-dash " of their
American cousins, though now and again they will
take some chances. An incident will serve to show
this: At one time when gold in New York was at a
premium, the manager of a wealthy Canadian bank
went to New York and bought all the gold that was
offered. A steamer was about sailing for Europe.
Publicly this gold in kegs, as is the usual manner,
was carted from the banks to the steamer. Gold
went up and up, for there was none in sight. It was
apparently all gone. Next morning the astute banker
began to sell gold in small lots, and gradually allowed

192 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
himself to be cleaned out. How did he get the gold ?
Why, easily enough. Not a keg went on board the
out-going steamer. Every one was returned by un
frequented streets, and safely lodged in the vaults.
New York was tricked and mad. But the manager
made his money — away up in the hundreds of thou
sands. There was no risk, in fact, for the bank was
and is still one of the soundest and strongest finan
cial institutions in this country. So much for the
speculative side of Canadians.

ASSASSINATION OF AUTHOR'S GRANDFATHER. CANADIAN REBELLION, 1837-8.

CHAPTER XIV.
Poor-tax — Poor-houses undesirable — The tramp nuisance —
A tramp's story — Mistaken charity — Office seekers — Elec
tion incidents. " The owlet loves the gloom of night.
The lark salutes the day,
The timid dove will coo at hand.
But falcons soar away.''
THE burdensome tax which the people of Eng
land pay for the support of the poor we
know nothing of in Canada. True, we have
a poor-rate, but it sits so lightly upon us we do not
heed it very much. For example, in the rural town
ship of East Whitby, in the county of Ontario, there
is a population of three thousand. The township is
assessed at one and one-half million dollars. Among
these people an annual tax is levied of about $8,000 ;
for the poor, $400 out of the total tax levied. There
is no poor-house in this locality. The really deserving
poor are given an allowance of money weekly for
13

194 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
their maintenance — ^what would be called "out-door
relief" in England. It is not to be supposed this sum
is ample for all relief, but in this land of greatest
abundance the people give and give liberally, and no
further charge is made upon the authorities. Again,
we take the ground that when food is cheap and fuel
plentiful scarcely any should be so poor as to be
unable to support themselves, where the opportuni
ties have always been sufficient to enable all to earn
enough from which to save a small competency.
There are, of a truth, cases of unfortunate and honest
poverty, and such we do not demur at relieving. Un
fortunately, however, in Canada, as in the United
States, people will congregate in towns and cities and
be hard pressed to gain a livelihood, when they should
be upon the farms in the country as tenants or as
owners. It is not difficult to become the latter, for
the Government of Ontario is supplying homesteads
to all applicants on very easy terms. For the lazy,
however, it is easier to walk about paved, electric-
lighted streets, and drink water supplied by costly
waterworks systems brought to their doors, than to
work and clear the soil. Hence the assertion that
there should be no tramps in Canada is not without
tangible foundation.
It has been a mooted question in Canada whether
we ought to erect county poor-houses for the care

MISTAKEN CHARITY. 195
and provision of the poor and infirm, or leave such
matters to the ordinary township councils to deal with.
In a land of plenty like ours, where there is abundance
of food and constant demand for work-people, there
should be no need for such persons to become a charge
upon the bounty of the public ; and it is absolutely
certain that if we erect poor-houses there will always
be poor to fill them. Such a class of population will
come to us, if not already here, and having provided a
place for them in the erection of poor-houses, we shall
never get rid of them.
There are, of course, objects of charity scattered
throughout the country, but they bear an infinitesimal
proportion to the whole population, and can be pro
vided for at small cost to the local community. In a
country where everyone who will can provide for
an inclement season or against the needs of age
and infirmity, it becomes a very serious question
whether the hard-working and thrifty ought to be taxed
to provide for the lazy and thriftless. Or again, is it
wise to foster the growth of a class of persons whose
filth and foul diseases are the result of laziness and
their own vices? Charity rightly bestowed is the
very essence of man's best nature, but I do not think
it charity to give indiscriminately to those asking alms.
The genus tramp has developed only lately among
us. Prior to the American war no such stamp of man

196 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
existed in Canada. To-day he is here, and apparently
here to stay ; but as there is no possible excuse for
these fellows begging through the country, it is not
charity to give them money or clothes, or even food.
The following is a case in point :
An old fellow residing in Scarboro', who owns a
comfortable house and lot, leaves home in the spring,
clothed in rags, for an all summer's begging tour.
He goes from house to house, and says he can make
more by it than he can by working. From the result
of his summer's begging he can and does live in
comfort during the winter at home. And those who
give to that man do a positive harm to our country
by encouraging vagrancy.
Last winter a clergyman wrote me from the
neighborhood of Peterboro', saying that a colored
man who was begging about the country from door
to door had exhibited a paper declaring him to be
a worthy object of charity, and purporting to have
my name attached as a guarantee of good faith.
This generous and gentlemanly clergyman wrote me
that he had his doubts about the genuineness of the
man's need, for he found he had been drunk. By
telegram I repudiated the man and his paper, and
asked for his arrest. Persons who gave to that man
committed an injury to our country, and not an act
of charity. I am only mentioning this case as an

DISHONEST TRAMPS. 197
illustration. Perhaps a good many of us may not yet
know or realize the fact that many tramps in our
Province are using the names of prominent or well-
known citizens to help them to defraud the public.
It is just as well for gentlemen to know, if their
names have been brought considerably before the
public, that in many instances these are used without
their knowledge by tramps to further their impos
tures. Tramps have indeed called upon me, exhibit
ing what purported to be " a recommend " signed by
one or more of Toronto's prominent citizens, when I
knew at a glance that such signatures were forgeries.
The proper plan would be to have them arrested, but
no one individual wants to fight the battles for the
general public, and usually these fellows get off".
From the last tramp who honored me with a call
I wormed out his story. He was a strong, hearty,
broad-shouldered young man of twenty-eight or so,
born in Ontario, the son of assisted immigrants.
During the past summer he had worked for a couple
of months in a brickyard near Toronto. His wages
were $1.50 per day, but the proprietor, according to
his rules, kept back one-third until the end of the sea
son, when this, too, would be paid in a lump sum along
with the last week's pay. " But I could not stand
that, you know," the tramp said. He must have his
money, all of it weekly, or quit. And quit he did.

198 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
for he could not subsist on the single dollar a day
and buy his whiskey ! Until the following winter he
simply "bummed" around the city, spending the
balance of his brickyard money. As winter came
on he made his way to Ottawa and Pembroke — ^just
how did not appear quite clear. He worked about
Pembroke in the lumber woods for a couple of
months ; was discharged because he would not be
driven by the gang boss nor be ordered to keep
up ; bought a C.P.R. ticket for Toronto, but before
setting out must have a few drinks. Took a few
glasses, and then a few more, and fell into oblivion.
Next morning he awoke in a hotel stable, minus his
railway ticket and $25 which he had in his pocket, and
then he had no resource but to tramp it back to
Toronto. He had no difficulty, for any of the farmers
would feed him and keep him overnight, so that it
was just a question of slow marching with him from
house to house, with a full stomach and a stop when
ever cold. But as he got nearer Toronto he found
the farmers not so hospitable ; they refused generally
to feed him, and invariably declined to lodge him.
He said those near Toronto had been called upon by
so many tramps that they had become wise, and no
longer considered it charity to give to tramps. In a
small village near Toronto, overtaken by night, he
could find no refuge, and had to apply to the village

A TRAMP'S STORY. 199

constable to be confined in the ordinary lock-up. In
this he was accommodated. But the constable did
not relish the idea of sitting up all night for any such
specimen of humanity, and so left him alone in the
lock-up, where there was a stove and supply of wood.
The night was cold, and the tramp fired up himself
On leaving him the constable had cautioned him to be
careful of fire, and the tramp said that he was only
careful for fear that he might get burnt himself The
lock-up stood beside other buildings, and had he set
it on fire a good part of the village must have been
consumed. Thus was this village placed in great
jeopardy on account of this worthless fellow who be
came a charge upon them for the night, and the whole
community thereabout was in great danger of losing
many thousands of dollars worth of property, and
possibly precious human life, by this wretched scamp,
who was too lazy to work in summer and too fond of
whiskey to keep him off" the road in winter. Now if
there be any charity in giving to such persons, I fail to
see it. If we construct county poor-houses just such
fellows will want to get into them. There is no excuse
for any such persons. In the summer they can easily
earn sufficient money to keep them during the winter
if they will. In this tramp's case he could have earned
good money in the winter if he chose. He said he
would get on to Toronto, and if nothing turned up

200 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
he would go on west towards Woodstock and about
Berlin, for the tramping fraternity told him that the
German farmers thereabout have big barns and cellars
and great abundance, and feed all tramps. In case
they would not feed or lodge him readily, he said
most of those about Berlin possessed stone base
stables, which were always warm, and that he could
sleep as warm in them as he could in the house.
Here is a great danger — greater in fact than the
risk which the people ran when the tramp was in
the village lock-up all by himself with a red-hot stove.
During the summer these idle vagabonds go about
the country in twos and threes, and camp at night
in barns and stacks. No one ever saw a tramp yet
who did not smoke. Lodging in a barn or stack is
to him no valid reason why he should not indulge
in his pipe. Consequently, many barns are burned
throughout our country, and the only explanation ever
given for such fires is simply " tramps." This tramp
nuisance is one of the growing evils in our Province,
and it is just as well to stamp it out now, before it
gets greater, by absolutely refusing to give aid. If
we build county poor-houses, our poor-rates will go
up, and no one ever heard of such rates coming down
if once put on. The British farmer to-day is ground
down with poor-rates, but perhaps in densely popu
lated England there may be an excuse for such rates.

OFFICE SEEKERS. 201
With us there is not, then let us not have them. Giv
ing to tramps is fostering a lazy, whiskey-drinking,
shiftless class, who beg because it is easier than to
work.' Indiscriminate giving is worse than not giving
at all. Let us generally, throughout rural Ontario,
take warning and look closely to our charities, and
see that they are rightly bestowed. Let us stamp out
this tramp nuisance before it becomes fixed. If there
be worthy objects of charity in our midst, I know I
am safe in asserting that the big hearts of Canadians
will relieve them, and there is always the township
council to fall back upon in any event.
There is another class of persons in Canada who
are always in search of " the loaves and fishes " in
the shape of public offices. At first sight these per
sons would not appear to be numerous, but there are
a very great many of them in various capacities —
many offices, no doubt, created for the men, and
many of them, too, of no adequate good to the com
munity. As a class these persons will bear 'well a
comparison with the turtle — opening their eyes and
sitting in the sun, Micawber-like, " waiting for some
thing to turn up." Our labors to bring our young
country to the fore they do not share in. They
toil not, neither do they spin," notwithstanding
they are always well arrayed. Manifestly a certain
number of public servants are necessary, but the

202 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
general feeling is that there are two where one
would be enough. More, when these public servants
once get foisted upon us we can never get rid of
them. "Superannuated" is the political term; but
they get pay until the grave opens for them.
AFTER THE OFFICES.
Whatever other faults Canadians may have, they
are certainly willing, with all possible alacrity, to serve
their countrymen in the way of filling offices, small
or more important, throughout the country. At the
time of the municipal elections the aspirants for
municipal honors come to the front in shoals. This
particular feature of our people is, in a way, highly
commendable. And yet one cannot cease to wonder
at the immense number of persons in any community
in Canada who are willing to sacrifice (?) themselves
for the public good (?).
It is held by patriots and sages that it is a citizen's
duty to serve the public wherever his services are
required, whether it be in the tented field or in the
civic chair. So far as the matter of the civic chair is
concerned, many bf us — and the writer among the
number — are quite content to let those who are so
supremely anxious to serve their fellows have the
offices as long as they can fulfil the duties fairly well.
Unquestionably, the public have a right to the

CINCINNATUS AT THE PLOUGH. 203
individual's services, but until the public really need
them I hold it not to be a real neglect of one's duty
to let those who are so very anxious to serve do so,
so long as they serve well and without public pay.
The public will seek out the individual if they really
require his aid. When Rome was in her palitiiest
days Cincinnatus was made consul, and received all
the honors the Roman people could confer upon him.
When his consulship had expired he. retired to his
farm beyond the Tiber, and went to cultivating the
soil with his own hands. About 458 B.C., while
engaged, it is said, ploughing in his field, five horse
men galloped up and informed him that he had been
elected Dictator of that mighty empire republic —
Rome. He left his plough and put on once more the
royal purple.
George Washington, upon resigning his commis
sion to Congress at the close of the war of the
Revolution, retired to his lands at Mount Vernon on
the Potomac, and is credited with having said, " I'd
rather be among my fields at Mount Vernon than be
emperor of the world."
As might be supposed, there are often curious
incidents and characters which appear in this connec
tion. We have scarcely a county — I had almost said
township — in which there is not the history of some
one or other eventful election or polling day.

204 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
All sorts of objections are raised to throw doubt
upon the suitability of each candidate by his oppo
nent in politics or rival in local popularity, each
side waxing eloquent in favor of its own man, or
even resorting to means that are in some degree
beyond the limits of wit or repartee to confound
the tactics of the opposition candidate. In a recent
contest a meeting called in the interests of one side
by invitation cards was packed by their opponents
through the medium of a card, a fac-simile in all
except the hour, which, being a few minutes earlier
than the bona fide invitation enabled the holders to
secure the seats in advance and in good order. The
old-time stories of two-thirds of the " free and inde
pendent electors " going to the poll on crutches that
later they might be used as shillelahs, with broken
heads as the result, are not more absurd than some of
the stories of incidents in the back-country contests
for municipal honors at the present time.
A candidate during recent municipal elections
had been charged with religious unbelief, and conse
quent unfitness for the office. He was a farmer who
owned and cultivated his one hundred acres — worth,
perhaps, farm and stock, about $ii,ooo. During his
younger days, when sowing his wild oats, he had
strayed from home and had been a sailor before the
mast on our great lakes, and had thus mixed con-

SCEPTICAL OF JONAH. 205
siderably more than his fellow farmers with the out
side world. When on the rostrum, making his speech,.
urging the people to vote for him as councillor, he
was dressed in a Canada pepper-and-salt tweed suit,
shooting coat, with large lapels to his pockets over
hanging them, a red scarf about his neck, and a pair
of thick cowhide boots, the tops of which were too
large, with the legs of his trousers stretched tightly
over them. His tout ensemble would denote a good
plain, practical farmer, in fair circumstances, and
having a mediocre amount of brain power or gift
of penetration. Once getting upon the rostrum his
speech ran on about thus : — " Gentlemen, I am accused
as' not believing the Bible. I tell you that ain't so,
for I believe the Bible as well as you do. There are
some verses in the Bible I do not quite believe, for I
don't believe Jonah was three days in the whale's
belly, and that he would come out alive. Well, I
don't believe that Samson set 3,000 foxes' tails on fire,
and set fire to green wheat. The rest of the Bible I
believe, and I think you ought to elect me. Gentle
men, I ask for your votes," and with this brief address-
he bowed and left the platform. A hum was heard
about the room, the general conclusion being that his
explanation was worse than the charge ; that he did
not better it any, and would have done as well to-
have said nothing. It would be almost superfluous.

206 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
to add that this novel candidate was defeated, and, so
far as I can learn, in Ontario at least, never before
was religious belief made a test of fitness for municipal
ofiice. Another candidate comes before my mind who
wanted to sacrifice himself on the altar of his country
by filling some civic office. He had, it seems, been
jocularly accused by someone with being a clod
hopper and not sharp enough for a councillor. For
the first time in his life he mounted the rostrum, and
eager as he was to speak when among the crowd, up
there it was quite another affair. A great big, hulking
fellow he was, who had just attained his majority, and
whose father had set him up on a hundred-acre farm.
Never since his youthful days, when he recited at the
common school —
" On Linden, when the sun was low,
All bloodless lay the untrodden snow,"
with all the declamation the piece could possibly
stand, had he stood up before the public. He chokes,
makes a squeak, tries it again, swallows rapidly, and
after a most painful suspense of a minute or so gets
out : " Gentlemen, I am a clodhopper, and I'm not
ashamed to own it. But I am fit for the office of coun
cillor, and if you will vote for me I will serve you well
and faithfully. I promise you I will keep down expen-

MUNICIPAL HONORS. 207
ditures, and I will do my best to look after the roads
and bridges. Gentlemen, I ask for your votes." And
he gets off that rostrum as quickly as if he were stand
ing on hot coals. He is in a profuse glow of perspir
ation, feeling down in his heart, " What a fool I made
of myself" This time the religious belief was all right,
and he got in.
In our towns and cities throughout Ontario, nearly
seven out of every ten men are looking for municipal
offices. Let one attend a town nomination and he
will find as many as ten applicants for every single
office, and the mutual recriminations which these
would-be-immortalized townsmen make upon one
another are to the listener, to say the least, rather
disgraceful and disgusting. It is a fact that very
ordinary persons in our towns and villages — men of
very moderate ability or means — will come as near
calling their fellow-townsmen liars as they dare go,
and all for the sake of sitting at a council board for
one year. Let the roads in that town, for instance,
be pretty bad during an open winter, and one may
hear such municipal councillors holding an open-air
meeting of the council, and it is quite refreshing to
find that every single one of that devoted council is
responsible for the bad streets of the town. To get
municipal honors in towns it may be necessary to act
in this way, but then I am pleased to think there are

2o8 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
some few persons in every community who are con
tent to jog on through life and do without such honors,
and who do not find it necessary to call their fellows
liars. It is said the real safeguard for the liberty of
the English-speaking people is the town meeting. If
that be so, our liberties in Canada are fully assured.

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CHAPTER XV.
Upper Canada's favored situation — Our Great Lakes — Cases
of apparent tides on Lake Ontario — Canadians as givers —
Oshawa's generous support of churches and charities — Life
insurance — Amusing incidents of a railway journey — A
"talking machine.'' " I glory in the spirit
Which goaded them to rise.
And form a mighty nation
Beneath the western skies.
No clime so bright and beautiful
As that where ne'er was slavery ;
No land so fertile, fair, and free
As that of Upper Canada.
Hurrah ! " — Adapted.
A GLANCE at the outline map in this volume
will show how this Province is surrounded by
the Great Lakes, or tideless oceans, the peers
of any in this world.
Now, with a fertile soil, a most salubrious climate,
the best form of government, and a working, thrifty,
14

2IO UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
sober people, success and the goal of wealth being
ours is not to be marvelled at. Our working habits
and abstemiousness are so strongly inculcated that
our young men have always had the best places given
them when they have gone to seek work in the great
neighboring Republic.
I have called the Great Lakes tideless oceans, and
they are. Still, sometimes one would almost think
they had tides. That the surface of Lake Ontario
very frequently and very suddenly rises and again
falls, within one or two hours, is very well known to
close observers.
Indeed, the records of the Jesuit fathers, who were
the first real observers of Lake Ontario, have frequent
accounts of sudden rufflings of the water, and of
waves on which by some unknown cause their canoes
were rocked. As a pointed illustration of this fact,
my father, who was one of the earliest shipowners on
the lake, had a large vessel ashore about Frenchman's
Bay. They had kedged the anchors and drawn the
cables as taut as it was possible to do, and still the
ship would not move. After making every effort to
move it they lay down upon the beach by the ship
exhausted, wondering what next to do. Suddenly,
from a perfectly calm surface, there came a swell and
a rise of two feet of water, when the vessel imme-

BAROMETRICAL WAVES. 2X1
diately, with the strain upon her chains, slid off" into
deep water.
Here, without a doubt, was a tide, but I feel certain
that at some remote part of the lake a heavy thunder
storm was passing, with a high wind, or there was
some such local cause to produce this swell and ap
parent tide. No one has yet been able to prove that
there are lunar tides upon Lake Ontario. It is unfor
tunately true that no very close and persistent obser
vations have been made, yet even casual observers
who live upon the lake-side know positively that these
tides are not regular, are governed by no fixed law,
and can never be foretold as are the lunar tides upon
the ocean. I would designate these Lake Ontario
tides " barometrical waves," as they are truly caused
by sudden barometrical changes at different points
upon the lake ; for we must never forget its great
size, and that a storm or a gale may be raging over
one area and at the same time the lake be perfectly
calm in another.
Upper Canadians are a generous, liberal-minded
people, and I fearlessly assert that they are among
the most liberal in the world. In fact, I am not sure
but they really are the greatest givers in the world —
givers for good purposes, I mean — and I am going
to show unmistakably that they voluntarily submit

212 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
to a tax far greater than any Government dare try to
impose upon them.
Take Oshawa, for example — not because it is any
better or worse than other towns in Ontario, but let
it stand for an average town ; I cite it simply because
I know it more intimately, and therefore use it as a
basis of comparison.
There are, in round numbers, about 5,000 persons
in the town of Oshawa. Within its boundaries are
ten worshipping bodies. That is, there are that many
different congregations who, at stated times, meet
separately for worship. I get it from one of the
deacons of these churches that last year his church
raised $4,400 for religious purposes. But, of course,
that would not be a fair assumption for the rest,
although some two or three others would come pretty
near that amount. Upon closest inquiry I find that
it can safely be taken, on an average, that every
one of these ten worshipping bodies raises at least
$1,500 yearly for religious purposes. This is putting
it at a very low estimate, and is safely within the
mark. Then, ten churches at $1,500 each per year
gives the grand total of $15,000 raised yearly by
S,ooo people for religious purposes alone. Or, taking
the whole sum, and apportioning it pro rata, it will
yield about $3 per head for every man, woman and
child per annum, voluntarily given for these purposes,

LIBERAL GIVING. 213
which is indeed more than any government dare levy
as a tax. Of course, I know that persons outside the
town attend some of the town churches and con
tribute, but I think this is fully offset by the ex
tremely low estimate of $1,500 per church or body,
for I am quite certain, if the real truth were known,
it would be far more than that amount. Some of the
churches will not in any way divulge the facts, and of
course the amount of their contributions can be got
at only approximately.
I submit that the people of Ontario are the most
generous in the world, and give most voluntarily,
for, as I remarked at the outset, I am not claiming
more nor less for Oshawa, and think I must be safe
in coming to the conclusion that other towns of a
similar population do likewise.
Very few of us, I am sure, ever stopped before to
think of what we do voluntarily in this our banner
Province It is only because we are a frugal and
industrious and prosperous people that we can make
this annual contribution for religious purposes. It is
far greater than that for educational purposes, and
yet we feel sure we are doing as much for education
as any people under the sun.
There is one more tax which our people voluntarily
subject themselves to, which I think might well be
referred to. So far as I know, no one has ever touched

214 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
upon the subject, and since it is becoming so general,
it ought, I think, to be spoken of, to give us some
idea of what we are voluntarily doing in another direc
tion. Life insurance has become so common, and is
so fast increasing, that it bids fair to be one of the
great questions among us. I have been at consider
able pains to get as near the truth as I can, but
insurance men, however, do not care to give too
many figures, and I must get all I can from policy
holders and then draw an approximate estimate.
Take Oshawa again for a comparison, with its 5,000
people. For the same reason as in the former case, I
use Oshawa for comparison solely because I know it
best, and not for any particular merit or demerit so
far as it is concerned. There are three hundred
policies of life insurance in Oshawa among 5,000
people. This number is certainly within the mark,
as insurance men reluctantly admit. Pursuing the
inquiry further, I find, as near as may be, these
policies will average $2,000 each, making thereby a
total of $600,000 life insurance now carried by this
people. With the gross amount I am not particu
larly concerned, but it is the sum they yearly
voluntarily tax themselves to pay to keep these three
hundred policies in force that I want to discover. It
is difficult to get at the sum the people pay annually,
for there are so many kinds of life insurance that

LIFE INS URANCE. 2 1 5
they vary, some policies being on the plan of annual
payments for life, while others are only for a stated
term of years, so that it is difficult to get at the
average amount. Five thousand dollars per month
one insurance company has been known to receive
from here. But I take it that this was a special
month, and that more policies were renewed that
month than usual, so it will not be safe to take those
figures for any average. It is certain, however, that
these three hundred policies average a cost of $30
per annum. Now, this $30 per annum is well within
the mark, and I feel quite warranted in using that as
a basis for comparison. This will give us $24,000
per year which the people here pay for life insurance,
and I am quite right in classing these payments as
among the generous acts and givings of the people,
because the persons assured by these policies cannot
ordinarily be expected to be benefited themselves,
but are doing it and making these annual sacrifices
for those who remain after their decease. Hence,
these payments are charitable donations. If 5,000
people pay $24,000 per annum, that means very nearly
$5 per head for every man, woman and child yearly
paid in this town for life insurance to benefit those of
our friends who succeed us. Now, add this $5 per
head for life insurance to the $3 per head, as before
instanced, annually raised for religious purposes, and

2l6 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
we have $8 per head annually paid by the people of
Oshawa, voluntarily and spontaneously. Again I
say, taking Oshawa as an index of the Province,
one can begin to form some idea of the vast sum
annually contributed for these purposes. Verily,
there are no more generous people on this globe.
This $8 per head is almost equal to the annual drink
bill of the greatest drinking nations of the world.
But then, of course, one must expect, unfortunately,
that men will pay more for vices, taking the world at
large, than they will for commendable objects. On
tario comes perhaps quite as near paying as much
per head for commendable objects as for vicious
ones as any people existing to-day. Hence, one can
form no other opinion than that Ontarioans are really
as moral, as well educated and thrifty, and as gener
ous a people as there are anywhere to be found.
People of the Old World cannot realize the condi
tions of life in America, the peculiar freedom of pleas
ant informal intercourse common to it, without read
ing closely or unless they come and see us.
The following incidents of a railway journey will
serve for illustration. Remember that Upper Canada
is covered by a very extensive network of railways,
hence such scenes are always possible.
An old gentleman in passing from the smoking-car

« FELL OFF DE KEARS. " 2 1 7
to the first-class coach behind, while the train was
under full speed of forty miles an hour or so, had
in some way been thrown or blown or jolted from
the platform to the ground.
He is injured somewhat badly, but not seriously.
In obedience to a telegram an ambulance of the city
of Toronto meets the incoming train at the Union
Depot, and the injured man is gently raised in
a huge blanket from the baggage car, where he
had been placed after his fall, and deposited in the
ambulance. A doctor gets in and sits by his head.
A crowd has gathered, and, seeking to know what
the trouble is, I make enquiry of a man standing near
me. The man, whose sable complexion plainly be
tokens his African origin, without any visible admix
ture of white blood, courteously replies : — " Don't
exazactly know, sah, but 'spects some man fell off"
de kears." And the ambulance slowly moves off" to
the hospital.
Reaching my train, I deposit my things in the first-
class coach and make for the " smoker." About one-
half of all the gentlemen do likewise. My observation
is that about one-half of all Canadians, taking them
" by the large," as the sailors say, burn the fragrant
weed. In Britain three-fourths would, I think, be the
proportion ; in Holland and Belgium eleven-tenths is,
I imagine, almost within the mark. If our medical

2l8 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
men can convince us that Sir Walter Raleigh's to
bacco is decimating the human family, we may safely
conclude that three-fourths of Canadians will soon
pass over to the great silent majority. Well, if our
medical men were to tell us so, I don't believe we
would accept their ipse dixit — at any rate, we would
go on smoking, regardless of consequences.
To the honor of Canadians be it said, they as a
rule do not belong to the light-fingered gentry class,
and our grip-sacks and great-coats left unguarded
in the car are comparatively safe. It is only around
the depot that any real danger of pilfering exists.
There one may expect some " artful dodger " lying
in wait for just such opportunities. The journey
once commenced there's no danger at all, and " traps "
may be left about promiscuously.
But my smoke is done, and I will return to my
seat. Ah ! I see someone has taken it — a lady. Of
course, I cannot ask her to vacate it, although that
seat by the ordinary courtesies of travel is mine by
right of pre-possession and as the receptacle of my
belongings. The next seat behind is occupied by a
single lady, and there's room for another person. " Is
this seat occupied, madam ? " in as polite a voice and
gesture towards the seat as the occasion demands. " I
think not, sir," and I sit by her side. Some one of
her " uncles, or her cousins or her aunts" may possibly

RAIL WA Y CAR AMENITIES. 2 19
be known to me. Just how the ice is broken one can
scarcely tell, but it is broken, and we chat away as
the train clips off" the usual thirty miles an hour.
Who, I ask, ever thought of speaking unintroduced
to a lady in a first-class car in England ? I tried it
once when a green boy, and received such a stony
stare as froze me for all my subsequent railway jour
neys in the old land. But we do things differently in
Canada. My companion chats, and so do I, and so
do all my neighbors, and the car is just an incessant
hum of pleasant, softly intoned voices. Such seems
to be the almost universal custom in Canada, and
the millionaire (we have a few) sits down beside the
schoolmaster or the drummer, and it would take
a keener eye than Canada has yet produced to tell
" which from t'other " without previous knowledge or
having been duly informed.
Were I an M.P. or an M.P.P., or possibly a Cabinet
Minister (with or without a portfolio), I suppose it
would be among my prerogatives not to talk to my
seat-mate. But not being so fortunate, I can enjoy
my freedom and talk with decent, respectable people,
though they are strangers.
Just across the passage are seated an ancient
maiden lady and an attenuated, pale, thin-whiskered
merchant who has been up the city to make some pur
chases for his store. Now this ancient maiden lady
has seen her fifty-and two summers at least, and is

220 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
strong in church government, and church soirees, and
church donative entertainments, ostensibly for the
benefit of the poor. Just now, however, I must leave
her, for the conductor has entered the forward door of
the car, wearing his sombre but neat railway uniform,
and is shouting out " Tickets ! " Without exception
everyone in my coach has the required pasteboard,
and he has quickly passed us. Conductors evidently
can get along well with such a class of passengers, for
there's no quarrelling or unpleasantness, nor questions
for him to answer, nor anyone for him to eject from
the train. It is manifest from his facial expression
that he is in good humor with us, his passengers, and
that his dinner likewise has agreed with him.
This lady opens conversation with the merchant
sitting near her, and without waiting for a reply to
the opinions she expresses, continues an unchecked
stream of talk on her favorite subject. Resignedly,
patiently, meekly. Christianlike, this helpless merchant
submits. And it is poured on, over, twisted, every
side brought forth, while he calmly folds his long
white wasted hands over his breast. Some young
city men are coming down to a country town to
attend a ball, and they make a lively party of them
selves. Their fun and mirth and overflowing spirits
do not annoy us, but we cannot help catching the
contagious infection of mirth, and we are all good-

SARAH TERWILLIGAR'S ATTEMPT TO FLY TO HEAVEN.
THE WORLD TO COME TO AN END.

QUESTIONABLE ZEAL. 221
natured in this car, except possibly aforesaid ancient
maiden lady, who is still too deep in " church govern
ment " for the contagion to catch her.
With questionable zeal a young Salvation Army
fellow and a couple of Salvation Army lasses, seated
near the farther end of the car, boldly strike up. The
tune may be melodious, suggestive of piety, musical,
well-rendered, and withal nicely done, for one of the
female voices is really sweet. It gets monotonous,
however, at the beginning of the third verse, and we
cannot enjoy our conversation. " Will you kindly
stop?" Perhaps the word kindly is not suggestive
enough — at any rate, it does not produce the desired
quietus, and the hymn-singing goes bravely on.
Our uniformed conductor has come in again with
his cry of " Tickets ! " Someone suggests to him
"Will you be good enough to ask those persons in
the rear end of the car to cease their singing ? " It
has the desired effect, even if the " kindly " aforemen
tioned did not. Yes, Canada is pre-eminently a free
country, but the wisdom of such efforts among a
mixed assembly of promiscuous railway passengers
is just questionable. No doubt there would be in
that coach Catholics as well as Protestants, agnostics
as well as saints — and heaven only knows but Mos
lems and Greeks may have been there as well — so I
think I am right in saying that their zeal is quite

222 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
right, but its peculiar manifestation just a little ques
tionable. The next seat behind mine contains two young
men who have so far on this journey pored with
eager interest over the Globe's columns. Church gov
ernment, city boys' ante-ball merriment, nor Salva
tion Army songs have as yet distracted their attention
from these columns which they seem to be devouring.
They explain, however, that they are Toronto Univer
sity students on their way home, and have not for
some days had an opportunity to find out what this
world has been about.
Did you ever in your peregrinations encounter a
veritable " talking machine ? " Well, I did once, and
I must ask you to allow me to leave this coach for
a moment to describe that machine.
A few seasons ago I had occasion to go to Britain
in the month of January. Now, it's a long ride down
to Halifax, and let the Pullman be ever so comfort
able, one feels now and again like walking forward
and seeing what the others are doing. In the
smoker I found a long-featured, cadaverous, wizened,
pinched, saff"ron "bag of bones," with a wrinkled
parchment cuticle drawn over them, made in the
form of a " talking machine." He was talking the
first time I went into the car, and talking every time
I entered it. There is just a dim recollection with

A "TALKING MACHINE." 223
me, that I went some ten times into that car on
the way down to Halifax, and the " machine " was
always in order, and always going. He went into
the steerage, and I heard him several times when on
the steamer, from the cabin deck, still in order, and
always talking. At Londonderr-y he got on the
tender with me. As he came down the gang-plank
his voice was still raised, and for three mortal long
hours I had to endure his idle "clack," while the
tender took us ashore. Next day, when purchasing
a railway ticket, again I encountered him — still
talking. I think I could with clear conscience take
my oath that he talked all the way home (Belfast)
while in that train. In fact, he had talked himself
poor — poor in flesh, I mean, for I do not know what
may have been his possessions in the coin of the
realm. This was my first real observation of a genuine
"talking machine." In this coach to-day we had
another, but of the feminine gender, which, under
ordinary acceptances, would seem to be more in the
general fitness of things, when coming from the sex
to whom speech is so easy.
This old lady sat in the corner at the forward end
of the car. She had come from Ohio, and her talk
ran equally as well upon ordinary sublunary things as
upon those of more elevated character. The Sphinx,

224 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
or the Delphic Oracle, or who was Junius ? — it made
no difference, for she was equally at home on all
these. Our ball-going city chaps quickly saw a place
and time for fun. First, they chaffed her, and squarely
they got their answers back, rather to their discom
fiture. They hit upon politics finally. Just what hers
were I did not make out, but at this subject she rose
in her might, and standing with the index finger
boldly extended, laid it down right volubly — rather
more than the ball-going boys bargained for, and to
the infinite amusement of all the other passengers.
Our uniformed conductor touched her gently upon
the shoulder and requested her to sit down. Silence
for a few moments followed, but the fun was too
much for the boys to lose it, and she as a talking-
machine ran too easily to quit. Again upon her feet,
again the index finger, and another request to sit
down. Her station reached at last, the conductor and
brakeman with alacrity help her off" and deposit her
parcels with her on the platform. The conductor
raises his hand, a "toot" from the locomotive, and
away. The conductor jumps aboard, heaves a great
sigh, and almost audibly says — if not in words, at
anyrate in thought and action — " I'm glad to get rid
of that talking-machine."
" Supper ! Twenty minutes for supper ! " and for
fifty cents we get a substantial, good meal and are

RA IL WA Y RES TA U RANTS. 225
not particularly hurried. That reminds me to say
that those places where they give the traveller a good
meal are always known and commented upon and
sought after. Cornwall, for instance, is noted in
many travellers' memories for its pies. So the travel
ler who happens there at the time of blueberries — ye
gods, he'll have a feast for a king ! Then again, of
some railway restaurants I am sorry to defame our
our fair country by saying that they consume very
much of the traveller's precious twenty minutes before
they wait on him, and he pays his fifty cents for a
sight of the empty dishes and the seductive odor of
cooked meat in the room behind the screens, but not
yet served up to the pilgrim having only twenty
precious minutes. The eating-house at Orangeville
did not on some former occasions strike me as being
particularly alert to save the traveller's precious
lunch time.
The ancient maiden lady has gone ; so has my
single lady, and as most of us now remaining in
the car are passengers for destinations far away, we
have gradually settled down for a really comfortable
journey. Most of the seats are now occupied by only
one person, and he or she can lounge at ease. But
hold ! there's a woman crying bitterly. What's the
trouble ? Word soon goes around the car that this
poor woman has been robbed of her purse and her
15

226 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
railway ticket as well, and she weeps deeply and
unfeignedly, as if her heart would break. There are
whisperings among the ladies, and soon one of them
has interviewed her. A gentleman approaches and
consults with the weeper and the lady. Result, this
gentleman gets into the passage in the middle of the
car, and makes a little speech. Assures us he's from
Illinois, and has seen this woman on his train all the
way. Knew she had a ticket ; in fact, saw her with it.
Says she had a through ticket from Chicago to some
place away down in Maine. Had a little money
besides, but while crossing the river at Detroit and
Windsor some mean thief stole ticket and purse.
Had only a few quarters left in a pocket, which the
thief did not get. With these quarters has paid her
fare since the robbery so far, but now her money is
all gone, and she has not a friend in this part of the
world. "And now, look a-here, ladies and gentlemen,
let's give the poor woman a lift ; a dollar a piece won't
hurt any of us, and here goes.'' Taking off" his soft
felt hat and putting a dollar greenback in it, around
the car he goes with the hat extended. Dollars and
half-dollars fall into the hat as the tour of the car
is made, and he comes to the weeping woman and
unceremoniously dumps the whole lot into her lap.
" There, there, now ; dry up your tears— you're all
right now, and you can pay your fare through."

FROM TEARS TO SMILES. 227
This woman's sudden change from bitter weeping to
smiles through her tears was a pleasure to see,
and I can fancy something kept rising in the throats
of many of the passengers, which it took a good deal
of swallowing to keep down. So the world is not so
bad after all, and Canadians have hearts and open
purses when assured that the need is a true one.
" Did you say the next station is mine, conduc
tor ? " Well, I will put on my great-coat and go out
into the darkness, for it is eleven o'clock, and I leave
this coach with its peculiarities of human nature, not
doubting but the next one I step into will contain its
quota, peculiar enough, though possibly in other
ways.

CHAPTER XVI.
Drinking habits in the early days — Distilleries and mills —
Treating prevalent — Drinking carousals — Delirium tre
mens — "One-Thousand-and-One Society" — Two gallon
limit — Bibulous landlords — Whiskey fights — Typical Cana
dian pioneers — -Clearing the farm — Sons and daughters
married — Peaceful old age — Asleep in death — Conclusion.
" Great God ! we thank Thee for this home —
This bounteous birth-land of the free ;
Where wanderers from afar may come
And breathe the air of liberty."
IN early days the great majority of the men in
Upper Canada partook more or less — usually
more — of ardent spirits or beer. Fifty years
ago there were three distilleries in Oshawa, and
they continued to do a flourishing and paying busi
ness, as most distilleries did in those days throughout
the country generally. The operative who could
extract the most alcohol from a given amount of
grain was then the great man, one whose services
were most sought in that business, and who likewise
commanded the largest pay.

MORMON'S ATTEMPT TO RAISE THE DEAD.

CUSTOM MILLING. 229
Connected with or near to the distilleries in this
part of Ontario a custom milling was generally done.
Sometimes the farmer brought his grain to the mill,
and sold it out there ; but this was not the usual
course, for ordinarily then the miller could not pay
for much grain. The usual course was for the farmer
to bring his grain to the mill, and get it ground or
chopped on the tolling system.
After cleaning up a load of wheat, there would
ordinarily be a bag of tailings remaining. These tail
ings would consist mostly of small grain, which the
farmer generally traded for whiskey, usually getting
in exchange his ten-gallon can pretty nearly filled —
whiskey then being considered a necessary of life as
much as ordinary food was. To buy it for cash cost
fivepence per gallon. This style of doing things
went on until the Government began to put a tax
on it. Then when the big distillery of Gooderham
& Worts, Toronto, got better machinery, enabling
them to extract more alcohol from the grain, the
small distilleries could not compete, and one by one
closed up, until now there are none about the country.
" Tuppence " per glass was the price for whiskey at
the hotel bars in those days, and one could fill the
tumbler quite full or take only a sip, at will, for this
price. Treating in those days was far more common than

230 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
now, and the man who would not treat was generally
considered " mean," as they expressed it then. So
freely did the people at large at that time partake,
that the individual who did not indulge was made
the subject of curious comment.
Drinking bouts for the whole night were then very
common. Usually a party of boon companions — say
eight or ten of them — would assemble in the sitting-
room of the hotel, next the bar, and someone would
at once " stand treat " all round. This having been
partaken of, one of the number would sing a song,
and then someone else would provide a drink all
round. Probably a story would follow, succeeded by
another drink ; then another song and another treat,
as a matter of course, and so the song, story and
glass passed around, until everyone had treated, and
if, like Robert Burns, " They were na' fou'.
But juist had plenty,''
they were by no means disposed to stop.
Midnight has come, and though one or two of the
weaker ones have already succumbed, and are lying
prone upon the floor, still the song goes bravely on.
And now is the landlord's time to make his money.
As a matter of business form or semblance, change
must be returned after every treat has been paid for.

MIDNIGHT RE VELS. 2 3 1
and they are now all so " fou' " that not one of them
can count straight. Perhaps out of a one-pound note
($4) given the landlord for a treat, only three shillings
or so are returned ; or out of three or four shillings
handed him for the next treat, only a few pence are
returned for change ; and so the landlord dilutes his
whiskey and keeps the cash, until daylight comes
upon the bouters, when they disperse, with sore heads
and stomachs, while the landlord has the money.
This is a fair representation of an ordinary drink
ing bout of fifty years ago, as told me by those who
then participated in them. And they were so com
mon that one was usually going on at one of the
hotels every night of the week — but, let us hope,
excepting the Sabbath night. During the day these
men were about their ordinary avocations, for even if
they did drink, they worked. Were this fact not so,
our country would not be what it is to-day, for down
right hard work alone has made it.
Those drinkers and midnight revellers were young,
or not more than middle-aged men, and often lived
fast lives. The consequence was that not one in a
hundred of them lived to be sixty, and hardly one to
any advanced age.
It is usually supposed that delirium tremens can
only be produced by long years of constant and
excessive drinking ; but authentic information comes

232 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
to me of a widow woman who, about the period of
which I write, began keeping hotel near the village
of  , and who had two or more sons, young men.
These young men, strong and burly up to that time,
now spent most of their time drinking. As soon as
the effects of one glass of whiskey had in a measure
passed off", they would ask their mother for more.
" Indeed, you shall have all you want to drink, for
you are your mammy's own boys." And this was
said in the spirit of the greatest kindness. So the
boys drank, and drank again, keeping themselves
stupid from day to day. In six months those two
boys, who had never before drank to any excess, had
the delirium tremens and died. All this in six
months !
Allow me to here describe one of my most vivid
boyish impressions of thirty-five years or so ago : —
At the rear of a hotel in Oshawa was a garden
enclosed by a high tight-board fence, in which black
currant bushes mostly were planted. A young Eng
lishman had been boarding about two months at the
hotel, drinking constantly and spending money freely.
It is only fair to add that this young man had been
drinking just as heavily, apparently, before he came
to this hotel ; and it is more than probable that a fond
father and loving mother had sent him out from
England in the vain hope of reforming him, for from

DELIRIUM TREMENS. 233
his dress and manner he had evidently belonged to a
good family. It was noticed that he had the " blues "
slightly, and got to spending considerable of his time
in the stable. From the stable he finally made his
way into the garden enclosure, and somehow pos
sessed himself of a club.
It was summer time, and I remember most vividly,
as a little urchin, looking through a knot-hole of the
fence, and seeing this poor fellow, after remaining
quiet for a moment, with his eyes fixed, make a sud
den bound and strike with his club with all his might,
killing imaginary snakes among the currant bushes.
A period of rest would follow, when he would sit or
stand in a contemplative mood for a few minutes, and
as suddenly almost as gunpowder explodes, strike
behind him with his club at some snake which would
persist in stealthily approaching him from the rear.
Perhaps it is superfluous to add that all this was fun
for us boys, with the stout board fence between us
and the man with the club.
It was known in the hotel what the trouble was
with him, and it was also generally recognized that
nothing could be done for him. For four days he ran
his course, killing snakes, demons and hobgoblins in
that garden, and finally died, literally while engaged
in the imaginary battle with the enemy out in the
garden. To-day he fills a nameless grave.

234 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
Indeed, so common were cases of delirium tremens
in those days that I might go on and multiply in
stances—tell, indeed, of a man climbing up into a
hayloft in the dark, catching the teamster who came
for hay, frightening him into a fit of sickness, and
dying there before morning, curled up on the hay like
a dog. Again, I might instance the case of another
unfortunate, who started and ran from the " Corners,"
then constituting Oshawa, directly in the course of
the mill-ponds, with the whole village chasing him,
making past the ponds and into the woods a mile
and a half away, before being caught — like a man
running amuck. But perhaps I have said enough on
so unpleasant a feature of early life in Ontario.
The " One-Thousand-and-One Society " of those
days was an organization formed among those who
habitually drank and spent nights at bouts, and was
a recognized order among them. Probably there
-never was any written constitution or by-laws to
govern them ; still the rules of the society were as
well known and as fully recognized as if there were
such. The fundamental rule which they were to
observe in their drinking was that no one must drink
more than two gallons at one sitting without rising
and reporting the matter to the recognized chiefs of
the order.
We must, in all charity, believe that the liquid in

"ONE-THOUSAND-AND-ONE" SOCIETY. 235
this case would be beer — in any case it could hardly
be spirits ; still I am led to believe, in many instances,
before the great goal of the two gallons was reached,
the beer would be frequently mixed with spirits.
The landlord in those bouts of the Thousand-and-
One Society never forgot to make his quota, not only
in the matter of change, as before enlarged upon, but
some of them used to boast that a landlord ought to
be worth $5 per day to his own house by his own
drinking — that is to say, he would take all the treats
the company would offer him, and thus imbibe his
own liquor and keep the pay therefor at twopence
per glass to the amount of $5 per day.
Those were the days of pugilistic Ontario. Let
there be a ploughing match, for instance, a fight was
sure to take place at it. Indeed, a " raising " or a bee
of any kind was never complete without a fight. It
would appear that persons would take that plan of
settling old feuds or grudges, and whiskey-fights were
considered as much a matter of course as it was for
men to assemble.
Annually during one day in June all the able-
bodied men of military age had to assemble for drill
in Toronto, and I have it from some old men who
used to go from these parts, that at every such train
ing there were fights in the morning before they com
menced and likewise in the evening when they were

236 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
dismissed from drill. They tell of a big bully at one
training in Toronto who boldly dared any one to
fight, and who finally succeeded in arousing a small
but plucky man to stand before him. A ring was
formed, and the bully punished his small opponent
shamefully. There was a man from this locality
who had his feelings irritated by the unequal and
harrowing spectacle. He happened to remark, " I
wish he'd serve me so," and the bully took him up.
It is needless to add that they had all been drinking
more or less. Our man quickly pulled off" his coat
and stepped before his big antagonist. This time
the bully had aroused the wrong man, for our hero
possessed the strongest arm and hand anyone was
known to have in the locality, and in a few blows he
thrashed the bully clean and fair, felling him to the
ground, and giving the prostrate man a vigorous kick
as a parting salute. But this was a fair fight, whereas
generally in those days they did not scruple to " strike
below the belt," while gouging, biting and kicking
were common accompaniments.
But the picture is not a pleasant one, and I shall
not further dwell upon it. Surely we should be
thankful that our Province has improved in its ideas
of temperance and conduct, as the world at large has
in the great march of reform ideas.

,-«^C^i 7!-

AWKWARD SQUAD. FENIAN RAID, 1865.

A TYPICAL CANADIAN COUPLE. 237
In this fast nineteenth century, in these days of
divorces and of free love, it is really a pleasing
spectacle to be able to point to one of our elderly
Canadian couples, who had been companions, one
and inseparable, for sixty years. They were married
at twenty-two, and at once began clearing a Cana
dian forest farm. During the previous fall the ex
pectant bridegroom alone had chopped and cleared
some five or six acres out of the dense forest, and
erected a log-house in the clearing.
In due time he brings his bride to his home — a
home as yet in embryo ; but there are four willing
hands to work together, hard but contentedly, to-
make it a home in reality.
The wife has got as her portion the usual Canadian
portion of that day, and, for that matter, very much
of this day as well. A feather bed, some chairs, a
table, some bedding and a cow made her simple
dowry. Alone and almost unaided they work hon
estly and faithfully day after day, subduing the
" forest primeval." Crops are gathered annually, and
they are on the high road to prosperity. Children
have come to grace the household, and the loneliness
is broken. As the roads become improved around
the settlement, Sunday morning finds them both
arrayed in their best, and, with their span of horses
hitched to the waggon, on their way to the nearest

238 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
church. With all their eagerness to get on they do
not at any time forget to worship God, and their
place at the little church is seldom vacant unless it be
exceptionally stormy or the roads exceedingly bad,
as is frequently the case in the spring and fall.
The farm is cleared and a new house built, and he is
now among the well-to-do of the locality. Another
farm has been added to the homestead, but the good
pair never so much as think casually that they might
cease their arduous labors. No family jars occur to
disturb their serenity, but day succeeds day in right
good fellowship, and each performs his and her indi
vidual part faithfully and earnestly. Divorce for
sooth ! The thought of such has never entered their
minds in the most remote degree.
Time steals imperceptibly but surely along, and the
eldest girl has arrived at marriageable age. Neigh
bors' sons call in occasionally, and it takes many such
calls before the good parents really get it into their
heads that the daughter has suitors. A few months
roll around, and there is a rural wedding. The minis
ter from the near village has been called in. He
comes before dinner, and after partaking of it, chats
gaily with the neighbors who begin to assemble.
Four o'clock has arrived, and it is time for the cere
mony to proceed. The young couple join hands, a
few words are spoken, the assent is given, and they

BRIDAL CEREMONIES. 239
are man and wife. As the mother got her dowry, so
she (the daughter) gets hers. And the household
goes on again in the ordinary way ; only one member
less sits around the family board and assists at the
daily tasks.
The eldest son has taken a fashion of being out at
nights a good deal of late. Not content with this, he
must have a smart buggy, and his horse must be well
groomed, as he goes away with his rig solitary and
alone. But if he goes away solitary and alone,
his lonesomeness is soon broken and dispelled by
the presence of a neighbor's daughter. For a few
months this process goes on, when the youth an
nounces to father and mother that he is about to
marry. The good couple can scarcely realize that
they have a son old enough to wed. Their lives
are spent in downright usefulness and whole-souled
earnestness ; time has literally stolen a march upon
them, and it almost dazes them to think that their
son is to marry and leave them. This time some
thing more than ordinary is expected and given. An
outlying farm must be given to the son, and horses
to work it with, as well as stock and some seed-
grain. Thereupon the son and his young bride begin
their life's journey in rural Canada ; but whether they
will accomplish as much as the father and mother, or
whether they will imbibe the roving notions of many

240 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
of our younger people, is a question that remains to
be solved.
At last, and not until now, the old couple, who
have never yet had a thought separate and apart
from the other, realize they are growing old and must
soon cease from hard work. To their honor, and to
the credit of our country, be it said, in order that
their other children may contract good marriage
alliances, the family gathering is still kept up, the
family board is ever open, and a place always is
ready for the worthy neighbors. To the utmost of
their physical abilities they perform all the manual
labor they can about the farm and homestead. The
dollars have accumulated, and there are sundry loans
here and there in the neighborhood, both on mort
gage security and notes of hand as well. Their
money-making has been by no speculative risk in any
sense, but, like the even tenor of their united lives,
has simply flowed along, gradually accumulating, and
not being made by any lucky stroke.
A few years more and the scene shifts — shifts
materially — for the family are all married and gone,
and once more the old couple are where they com
menced years and years ago, in the first days of their
young manhood and womanhood — alone again in the
world, but still faithful to each other, and still doing
their duties daily and faithfully But the old farm is

PEACEFUL OLD AGE. 241
yet on their hands, while their strength is not equal
to the task of attending to it. Reluctantly they con
sider it best to rent the home farm and purchase a
neat and commodious cottage in the adjacent town.
It was a " corners " not many years since ; some time
later it became a village, and some four or five years
ago it grew ambitious and took upon itself the name
of a town. Here they purchase a little home in
which to quietly spend the last years of their lives.
They are free from worry, free from anxiety, and, as
during the years long past, they have no thought that
is not shared in common. Old neighbors, as they
come to town, call upon them, and their lives are
diversified and enlivened two or three times a week
by such visits. Their children, most of whom reside
within driving distance of their parents, drop in upon
them at any time, and thus in perfect happiness and
serenity they pass down the sunset slope of life.
Their lives and individual characters are towers of
strength in the neighborhood for rectitude and up
rightness, and the community without a dissent recog
nizes their true worth. One is almost tempted to
wish that their already long lives might be yet pro
longed for many years, that they may continue to be
as bright and shining lights in the community. But
the dreaded day comes at last. The good wife and
mother has fallen ill. Daily the town doctor visits
16

242 UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
her and does all that medical skill can do in such a
case, but no resource of science is able to renovate the
worn-out human body. Perhaps the most affecting
sight one could view in these days would be to see
the old husband and partner of sixty long years sit
hourly and daily by the bedside, disconsolate and
lost, as he sadly views the daily emaciating face of
her whom he had chosen in the bloom of youth.
The inevitable comes at last, and the spirit for
sakes its worn house of clay. At the funeral gather
the whole country-side about the former home. The
carriages fill the road and the yard, and the cottage is
packed to the doors. From the town church the
minister has come. He stands in the hall, reads
from Sacred Writ, admonishes, gives a few words
of solemn warning ; the procession moves on, and in
a few minutes all is over. Back to the cottage home
comes the aged man, alone in this world — literally
alone, for no one but persons of such advanced age
can so keenly feel the absolute loneliness. Forty
years ago he might have thrown off" his grief and
faced the world again, but for him now the day is
gone beyond recovery. His eyes have suddenly
dimmed, his one-time firm lower jaw relaxes, his
step grows feeble. Evidently his days are numbered,
and the reader must allow me to kindly draw the veil
over him and leave him, as we see him, tottering

CONCLUSION. 243

down to join his companion of the past sixty years,
who has preceded him but a few months.
But is there in our country any more pleasing
example of success than this old couple present ?
Successful they have been in a most eminent degree.
They may not have accumulated any great store of
wealth, but they have raised to Canada a family of
sons and daughters who are a credit to our beloved
country — sons and daughters whose families are work
ing their farms and fields and helping to make our
Province what it is to-day.
Before closing these somewhat random sketches of
life in the early settlements and country districts of
Upper Canada, I would wish to thank my readers for
the courtesy of perusing these pages. May I also
indulge the hope that they have given them some
pleasure and profit in the reading, and add that it is
my most earnest desire — may it also be yours — that
our country, which we all love, may be guarded and
led by the great Omniscient in the future as it has
been in the past.

.M^->--

.'.cni.