Local Improvements--Sketches of Society
"Prophet spirit! rise and say,
What in Fancy's glass you see--
A city crown this lonely bay?
No dream--a bright reality.
Ere half a century has roll'd
Its waves of light away,
The beauteous vision I behold
Shall greet the rosy day;
And Belleville view with civic pride
Her greatness mirror'd in the tide."
S.M.
The town of Belleville, in 1840, contained a population of 1,500 souls,
or thereabouts. The few streets it then possessed were chiefly composed
of frame houses, put up in the most unartistic and irregular fashion,
their gable ends or fronts turned to the street, as it suited the whim
or convenience of the owner, without the least regard to taste or
neatness. At that period there were only two stone houses and two
of brick in the place. One of these wonders of the village was the
court-house and gaol; the other three were stores. The dwellings of the
wealthier portion of the community were distinguished by a coat of white
or yellow paint, with green or brown doors and window blinds; while the
houses of the poorer class retained the dull grey, which the plain
boards always assume after a short exposure to the weather.
In spite of the great beauty of the locality, it was but an
insignificant, dirty-looking place. The main street of the town
(Front-street, as it is called) was only partially paved with rough
slabs of limestone, and these were put so carelessly down that their
uneven edges, and the difference in their height and size, was painful
to the pedestrian, and destruction to his shoes, leading you to suppose
that the paving committee had been composed of shoemakers. In spring
and fall the mud was so deep in the centre of the thoroughfare that it
required you to look twice before you commenced the difficult task of
crossing, lest you might chance to leave your shoes sticking fast in the
mud. This I actually saw a lady do one Sunday while crossing the church
hill. Belleville had just been incorporated as the metropolitan town of
the Victoria District, and my husband presided as Sheriff in the first
court ever held in the place.
Twelve brief years have made a wonderful, an almost miraculous, change
in the aspect and circumstances of the town. A stranger, who had not
visited it during that period, could scarcely recognize it as the
same. It has more than doubled its dimensions, and its population has
increased to upwards of 4,500 souls. Handsome commodious stores, filled
with expensive goods from the mother country and the States, have risen
in the place of the small dark frame buildings; and large hotels have
jostled into obscurity the low taverns and groceries that once formed
the only places of entertainment.
In 1840, a wooded swamp extended almost the whole way from Belleville
to Cariff's Mills, a distance of three miles. The road was execrable;
and only a few log shanties, or very small frame houses, occurred at
intervals along the road-side. Now, Cariff's Mills is as large as
Belleville was in 1840, and boasts of a population of upwards of 1000
inhabitants. A fine plank road connects it with the latter place, and
the whole distance is one continuous street. Many of the houses by the
wayside are pretty ornamental cottages, composed of brick or stone. An
immense traffic in flour and lumber is carried on at this place, and the
plank road has proved a very lucrative speculation to the shareholders.
In 1840, there was but one bank agency in Belleville, now there are
four, three of which do a great business. At that period we had no
market, although Saturday was generally looked upon as the market-day;
the farmers choosing it as the most convenient to bring to town their
farm produce for sale. Our first market-house was erected in 1849; it
was built of wood, and very roughly finished. This proved but poor
economy in the long run, as it was burnt down the succeeding year. A new
and more commodious one of brick has been erected in its place, and it
is tolerably supplied with meat and vegetables; but these articles are
both dearer and inferior in quality to those offered in Kingston and
Toronto. This, perhaps, is owing to the tardiness shown by the farmers
in bringing in their produce, which they are obliged to offer first for
sale in the market, or be subjected to a trifling fine. There is very
little competition, and the butchers and town grocery-keepers have it
their own way. A market is always a stirring scene. Here politics,
commercial speculations, and the little floating gossip of the village,
are freely talked over and discussed. To those who feel an interest in
the study of human nature, the market affords an ample field. Imagine a
conversation like the following, between two decently dressed mechanics'
wives:
"How are you, Mrs. G---?"
"Moderate, I thank you. Did you hear how old P--- was to-day?"
"Mortal bad."
"Why! you don't say. Our folks heard that he was getting quite smart.
Is he _dangerous_?"
"The doctor has given him up entirely."
"Well, it will be a bad job for the family if he goes. I've he'rd that
there won't be money enough to pay his debts. But what of this marriage?
They do say that Miss A--- is to be married to old Mister B---."
"What are her friends thinking about to let that young gal marry that
old bald-headed man?"
"The money to be sure--they say he's rich."
"If he's rich, he never made his money honestly."
"Ah, he came of a bad set,"--with a shake of the head.
And so they go on, talking and chatting over the affairs of the
neighbourhood in succession. It is curious to watch the traits of
character exhibited in buyer and seller. Both exceed the bounds of truth
and honesty. The one, in his eagerness to sell his goods, bestowing upon
them the most unqualified praise; the other depreciating them below
their real value, in order to obtain them at an unreasonably low price.
"Fine beef, ma'am," exclaims an anxious butcher, watching, with the eye
of a hawk, a respectable citizen's wife, as she paces slowly and
irresolutely in front of his stall, where he has hung out for sale the
side of an ox, neither the youngest nor fattest. "Fine grass-fed beef,
ma'am--none better to be had in the district. What shall I send you
home--sirloin, ribs, a tender steak?"
"It would be a difficult matter to do that," responds the good wife,
with some asperity in look and tone. "It seems hard and old; some lean
cow you have killed, to save her from dying of the consumption."
"No danger of the fat setting fire to the lum"--suggests a rival in the
trade. "Here's a fine veal, ma'am, fatted upon the milk of two cows."
"Looks," says the comely dame, passing on to the next stall, "as if it
had been starved upon the milk of one."
Talking of markets puts me in mind of a trick--a wicked trick--but,
perhaps, not the less amusing on that account, that was played off in
Toronto market last year by a young medical student, name unknown. It
was the Christmas week, and the market was adorned with evergreens, and
dressed with all possible care. The stalls groaned beneath the weight of
good cheer--fish, flesh, and fowl, all contributing their share to tempt
the appetite and abstract money from the purse. It was a sight to warm
the heart of the most fastidious epicure, and give him the nightmare
for the next seven nights, only dreaming of that stupendous quantity of
food to be masticated by the jaws of man. One butcher had the supreme
felicity of possessing a fine fat heifer, that had taken the prize at
the provincial agricultural show; and the monster of fat, which was
justly considered the pride of the market, was hung up in the most
conspicuous place in order to attract the gaze of all beholders.
Dr. C---, a wealthy doctor of laws, was providing good cheer for the
entertainment of a few choice friends on Christmas-day, and ordered of
the butcher four ribs of the tempting-looking beef. The man, unwilling
to cut up the animal until she had enjoyed her full share of admiration,
wrote upon a piece of paper, in large characters, "Prize Heifer--four
ribs for Dr. C---;" this he pinned upon the carcase of the beast.
Shortly after the doctor quitted the market, and a very fat young lady
and her mother came up to the stall to make some purchases. Our student
was leaning carelessly against it, watching with bright eyes the busy
scene; and being an uncommonly mischievous fellow, and very fond of
practical jokes, a thought suddenly struck him of playing off one
upon the stout young lady. Her back was towards him, and dexterously
abstracting the aforementioned placard from the side of the heifer, he
transferred it to the shawl of his unsuspecting victim, just where its
ample folds comfortably encased her broad shoulders.
After a while the ladies left the market, amidst the suppressed titters
and outstretched fore-fingers of butchers and hucksters, and all the
idle loafers the generally congregate in such places of public resort.
All up the length of King street walked the innocent damsel, marvelling
that the public attention appeared exclusively bestowed upon her. Still,
as she passed along, bursts of laughter resounded on all sides, and the
oft-repeated words, "Prize Heifer--four ribs for Dr. C---;" it was not
until she reached her own dwelling that she became aware of the trick.
The land to the east, north, and west of Belleville, rises to a
considerable height, and some of the back townships, like Huntingdon
and Hungerford, abound in lofty hills. There is in the former township,
on the road leading from Rawdon village to Luke's tavern, a most
extraordinary natural phenomenon. The road for several miles runs along
the top of a sharp ridge, so narrow that it leaves barely breadth enough
for two waggons to pass in safety. This ridge is composed of gravel, and
looks as if it had been subjected to the action of water. On either side
of this huge embankment there is a sheer descent into a finely wooded
level plain below, through which wanders a lonely creek, or small
stream. I don't know what the height of this ridge is above the level of
the meadow, but it must be very considerable, as you look down upon the
tops of the loftiest forest trees as they grow far, far beneath you. The
road is well fenced on either side, or it would require some courage to
drive young skittish horses along this dangerous pass. The settlers in
that vicinity have given to this singular rise the name of the "Ridge
road." There is a sharp ridge of limestone at the back of the township
of Thurlow, though of far less dimensions, which looks as if it had been
thrown up in some convulsion of the earth, as the limestone is shattered
in all directions. The same thing occurs on the road to Shannonville, a
small but flourishing village on the Kingston road, nine miles east of
Belleville. The rock is heaved up in the middle, and divided by deep
cracks into innumerable fragments. I put a long stick down one of these
deep cracks without reaching the bottom; and as I gathered a lovely
bunch of harebells, that were waving their graceful blossoms over the
barren rock, I thought what an excellent breeding place for snakes these
deep fissures must make.
But to return to Belleville. The west side of the river--a flat
limestone plain, scantily covered with a second growth of dwarf trees
and bushes--has not as yet been occupied, although a flourishing village
that has sprung up within a few years crowns the ridge above. The plain
below is private property, and being very valuable, as affording
excellent sites for flour and saw mills, has been reserved in order to
obtain a higher price. This circumstance has, doubtless, been a drawback
to the growth of the town in that direction; while, shutting out the
view of the river by the erection of large buildings will greatly
diminish the natural beauties of this picturesque spot.
The approach to Belleville, both from the east and west, is down a
very steep hill, the town lying principally in the valley below. These
hills command a beautiful prospect of wood and water, and of a rich,
well-cleared, and highly cultivated country. Their sides are adorned
with fine trees, which have grown up since the axe first levelled the
primeval forests in this part of the colony; a circumstance which, being
unusual in Canada round new settlements, forms a most attractive feature
in the landscape.
A more delightful summer's evening ride could scarcely be pointed out
than along the Trent, or Kingston roads, and it would be a difficult
thing to determine which afforded the most varied and pleasing prospect.
Residing upon the west hill, we naturally prefer it to the other, but
I have some doubts whether it is really the prettiest. I have often
imagined a hundred years to have passed away, and the lovely sloping
banks of the Bay of Quinte, crowned with rural villages and stately
parks and houses, stretching down to these fair waters. What a scene of
fertility and beauty rises before my mental vision! My heart swells, and
I feel proud that I belong to a race who, in every portion of the globe
in which they have planted a colony, have proved themselves worthy to be
the sires of a great nation.
The state of society when we first came to this district, was everything
but friendly or agreeable. The ferment occasioned by the impotent
rebellion of W.L. Mackenzie had hardly subsided. The public mind was in
a sore and excited state. Men looked distrustfully upon each other, and
the demon of party reigned preeminent, as much in the drawing-room in
the council-chamber.
The town was divided into two fierce political factions; and however
moderate your views might be, to belong to the one was to incur the
dislike and ill-will of the other. The Tory party, who arrogated the
whole loyalty of the colony to themselves, branded, indiscriminately,
the large body of Reformers as traitors and rebels. Every conscientious
and thinking man who wished to see a change for the better in the
management of public affairs, was confounded with those discontented
spirits, who had raised the standard of revolt against the mother
country. In justice even to them, it must be said, not without severe
provocation; and their disaffection was more towards the colonial
government, and the abuses it fostered, than any particular dislike
to British supremacy or institutions. Their attempt, whether instigated
by patriotism or selfishness--and probably it contained a mixture
of both--had failed, and it was but just that they should feel the
punishment due to their crime. But the odious term of rebel, applied to
some of the most loyal and honourable men in the province, because they
could not give up their honest views on the state of the colony, gave
rise to bitter and resentful feelings, which were ready, on all public
occasions, to burst into a flame. Even women entered deeply into this
party hostility; and those who, from their education and mental
advantages, might have been friends and agreeable companions, kept
aloof, rarely taking notice of each other, when accidentally thrown
together.
The native-born Canadian regarded with a jealous feeling men of talent
and respectability who emigrated from the mother country, as most
offices of consequence and emolument were given to such persons. The
Canadian, naturally enough, considered such preference unjust, and an
infringement upon his rights as a native of the colony, and that he had
a greater claim, on that account, upon the government, than men who were
perfect strangers. This, owing to his limited education, was not always
the case; but the preference shown to the British emigrant proved an
active source of ill-will and discontent. The favoured occupant of place
and power was not at all inclined to conciliate his Canadian rival, or
to give up the title to mental superiority which he derived from birth
and education; and he too often treated his illiterate, but sagacious
political opponent, with a contempt which his practical knowledge and
experience did not merit. It was a miserable state of things; and I
believe that most large towns in the province bore, in these respects, a
striking resemblance to each other. Those who wished to see impartial
justice administered to all had but an uncomfortable time of it, both
parties regarding with mistrust those men who could not go the whole
length with them in their political opinions. To gain influence in
Canada, and be the leader of a party, a man must, as the Yankees say,
"go the whole hog."
The people in the back woods were fortunate in not having their peace
disturbed by these political broils. In the depths of the dark forest,
they were profoundly ignorant of how the colony was governed; and many
did not even know which party was in power, and when the rebellion
actually broke out it fell upon them like a thunder-clap. But in their
ignorance and seclusion there was at least safety, and they were free
from that dreadful scourge--"the malicious strife of tongues."
The fever of the "Clergy Reserves question" was then at its
height. It was never introduced in company but to give offence, and lead
to fierce political discussions. All parties were wrong, and nobody was
convinced. This vexed political question always brought before my mental
vision a ludicrous sort of caricature, which, if I had the artistic
skill to delineate, would form no bad illustration of this perplexing
subject.
I saw in my mind's eye a group of dogs in the marketplace of a large
town, to whom some benevolent individual, with a view to their mutual
benefit, had flung a shank of beef, with meat enough upon the upper end
to have satisfied the hunger of all, could such an impossible thing as
an equal division, among such noisy claimants, have been made.
A strong English bull-dog immediately seized upon the bone, and for some
time gnawed away at the best end of it, and contrived to keep all the
other dogs at bay. This proceeding was resented by a stout mastiff, who
thought that he had as good a right to the beef as the bull-dog, and
flung himself tooth and claw upon his opponent. While these two were
fighting and wrangling over the bone, a wiry, active Scotch terrier,
though but half the size of the other combatants, began tugging at the
small end of the shank, snarling and barking with all the strength of
his lungs, to gain at least a chance of being heard, even if he did fail
in putting in his claims to a share of the meat.
An old cunning greyhound, to whom no share had been offered, and who
well knew that it was of no use putting himself against the strength of
the bull-dog and mastiff, stood proudly aloof, with quivering ears and
tail, regarding the doings of the others with a glance of sovereign
contempt; yet, watching with his keen eye for an opportunity of making a
successful spring, while they were busily engaged in snarling and biting
each other, to carry off the meat, bone and all.
A multitude of nondescript curs, of no weight in themselves, were
snapping and snuffling round the bone, eagerly anticipating the few tit
bits, which they hoped might fall to their share during the prolonged
scuffle among the higher powers: while the figure of Justice, dimly seen
in the distance, was poising her scales, and lifting her sword to make
an equal division; but her voice failed to be heard, and her august
presence regarded, in the universal hubbub. The height to which party
feeling was carried in those days had to be experienced before it could
be fully understood.
Happily for the colony, this evil spirit, during the last three years,
has greatly diminished. The two rival parties, though they occasionally
abuse and vilify each other, through the medium of the common safety
valve--the public papers--are not so virulent as in 1840. They are more
equally matched. The union of the provinces has kept the reform party in
the ascendant, and they are very indifferent to the good or ill opinion
of their opponents.
The colony has greatly progressed under their administration, and is now
in a most prosperous and flourishing state. The municipal and district
councils, free schools, and the improvement in the public thoroughfares
of the country, are owing to them, and have proved a great blessing to
the community. The resources of the country are daily being opened up,
and both at home and abroad Canada is rising in public estimation.
As a woman, I cannot enter into the philosophy of these things, nor is
it my intention to do so. I leave statistics for wiser and cleverer male
heads. But, even as a woman, I cannot help rejoicing in the beneficial
effects that these changes have wrought in the land of my adoption. The
day of our commercial and national prosperity has dawned, and the rays
of the sun already brighten the hill-tops.
To those persons who have been brought up in the old country, and
accustomed from infancy to adhere to the conventional rules of society,
the mixed society must, for a long time, prove very distasteful. Yet
this very freedom, which is so repugnant to all their preconceived
notions and prejudices, is by no means so unpleasant as strangers would
be led to imagine. A certain mixture of the common and the real, of the
absurd and the ridiculous, gives a zest to the cold, tame decencies,
to be found in more exclusive and refined circles. Human passions and
feelings are exhibited with more fidelity, and you see men and women as
they really are. And many kind, good, and noble traits are to be found
among those classes, whom at home we regard as our inferiors. The lady
and gentleman in Canada are as distinctly marked as elsewhere. There is
no mistaking the superiority that mental cultivation bestows; and their
mingling in public with their less gifted neighbours, rather adds than
takes from their claims to hold the first place. I consider the state of
society in a more healthy condition than at home; and people, when they
go out for pleasure here, seem to enjoy themselves much more.
The harmony that reigns among the members of a Canadian family is truly
delightful. They are not a quarrelsome people in their own homes. No
contradicting or disputing, or hateful rivalry, is to be seen between
Canadian brothers and sisters. They cling together through good and
ill report, like the bundle of sticks in the fable; and I have seldom
found a real Canadian ashamed of owning a poor relation. This to me
is a beautiful feature in the Canadian character. Perhaps the perfect
equality on which children stand in a family, the superior claim of
eldership, so much upheld at home, never being enforced, is one great
cause of this domestic union of kindred hearts.
Most of the pretence, and affected airs of importance, occasionally
met with in Canada, are not the genuine produce of the soil, but
importations from the mother country; and, as sure as you hear any one
boasting of the rank and consequence they possessed at home, you may
be certain that it was quite the reverse. An old Dutch lady, after
listening very attentively to a young Irishwoman's account of the
grandeur of her father's family at home, said rather drily to the
self-exalted damsel,--
"Goodness me, child! if you were so well off, what brought you to a poor
country like this? I am sure you had been much wiser had you staid to
hum--"
"Yes. But my papa heard such fine commendations of the country, that he
sold his estate to come out."
"To pay his debts, perhaps," said the provoking old woman.
"Ah, no, ma'am," she replied, very innocently, "he never paid them. He
was told that it was a very fine climate, and he came for the good of
our health."
"Why, my dear, you look as if you never had had a day's sickness in your
life."
"No more I have," she replied, putting on a very languid air, "but I am
very _delicate_."
This term _delicate_, be it known to my readers is a favourite one
with young ladies here, but its general application would lead you to
imagine it another term for _laziness_. It is quite fashionable
to be _delicate_, but horribly vulgar to be considered capable of
enjoying such a useless blessing as good health. I knew a lady, when I
first came to the colony, who had her children daily washed in water
almost hot enough to scald a pig. On being asked why she did so, as it
was not only an unhealthy practice, but would rob the little girls of
their fine colour, she exclaimed,--
"Oh, that is just what I do it for. I want them to look _delicate_.
They have such red faces, and are as coarse and healthy as country
girls."
The rosy face of the British emigrant is regarded as no beauty here. The
Canadian women, like their neighbours the Americans, have small regular
features, but are mostly pale, or their faces are only slightly suffused
with a faint flush. During the season of youth this delicate tinting is
very beautiful, but a few years deprive them of it, and leave a sickly,
sallow pallor in its place. The loss of their teeth, too, is a great
drawback to their personal charms, but these can be so well supplied by
the dentist that it is not so much felt; the thing is so universal that
it is hardly thought detrimental to an otherwise pretty face.
But, to return to the mere pretenders in society, of which, of
course, there are not a few here, as elsewhere. I once met two very
stylishly-dressed women at a place of public entertainment. The father
of these ladies had followed the lucrative but unaristocratic trade of
a tailor in London. One of them began complaining to me of the mixed
state of society in Canada, which she considered a dreadful calamity
to persons like her and her sister; and ended her lamentations by
exclaiming,--
"What would my pa have thought could he have seen us here to-night?
Is it not terrible for ladies to have to dance in the same room with
storekeepers and their clerks?"
Another lady of the same stamp, the daughter of a tavern-keeper, was
indignant at being introduced to a gentleman, whose father had followed
the same calling.
Such persons seem to forget, that as long as people retain their
natural manners, and remain true to the dignity of their humanity,
they cannot with any justice be called vulgar; for vulgarity consists
in presumptuously affecting to be what we are not, and in claiming
distinctions which we do not deserve and which no one else would admit.
The farmer, in his homespun, may possess the real essentials which make
the gentleman--good feeling, and respect for the feelings of others. The
homely dress, weather-beaten face, and hard hands, could not deprive
him of the honest independence and genial benevolence he derived from
nature. No real gentleman would treat such a man, however humble his
circumstances, with insolence or contempt. But place the same man out of
his class, dress him in the height of fashion, and let him attempt to
imitate the manners of the great, and the whole world would laugh at the
counterfeit.
Uneducated, ignorant people often rise by their industry to great wealth
in the colony; to such the preference shown to the educated man always
seems a puzzle. Their ideas of gentility consist in being the owners of
fine clothes, fine houses, splendid furniture, expensive equipages, and
plenty of money. They have all these, yet even the most ignorant feel
that something else is required. They cannot comprehend the mysterious
ascendancy of mind over mere animal enjoyments; yet they have sense
enough, by bestowing a liberal education on their children, to
endeavour, at least in their case, to remedy the evil.
The affectation of wishing people to think that you had been better off
in the mother country than in Canada, is not confined to the higher
class of emigrants. The very poorest are the most remarked for this
ridiculous boasting. A servant girl of mine told me, with a very grand
toss of the head, "that she did not choose to _demane_ herself by
scrubbing a floor; that she belonged to the _ra'al gintry_ in the
ould counthry, and her papa and mamma niver brought her up to hard
work."
This interesting scion of the aristocracy was one of the coarsest
specimens of female humanity I ever beheld. If I called her to bring
a piece of wood for the parlour fire, she would thrust her tangled,
uncombed red head in at the door, and shout at the top of her voice,
"Did yer holler?"
One of our working men, wishing to impress me with the dignity of his
wife's connexions, said with all becoming solemnity of look and manner--
"Doubtless, ma'am, you have heard in the ould counthry of Connor's
racers. Margaret's father kept those racers."
When I recalled the person of the individual whose fame was so widely
spread at home, and thought of the racers, I could hardly keep a
"straight face," as an American friend terms laughing, when you are
bound to look grave.
One want is greatly felt here; but it is to be hoped that a more liberal
system of education and higher moral culture will remedy the evil. There
is a great deficiency among our professional men and wealthy traders of
that nice sense of honour that marks the conduct and dealings of the
same class at home. Of course many bright exceptions are to be found in
the colony, but too many of the Canadians think it no disgrace to take
every advantage of the ignorance and inexperience of strangers.
If you are not smart enough to drive a close bargain, they consider
it only fair to take you in. A man loses very little in the public
estimation by making over all his property to some convenient friend,
in order to defraud his creditors, while he retains a competency for
himself.
Women whose husbands have been detained on the limits for years for
debt, will give large parties and dress in the most expensive style.
This would be thought dishonourable at home, but is considered no
disgrace here.
"Honour is all very well in an old country like England," said a lady,
with whom I had been arguing on the subject; "but, Mrs. M---, it won't
do in a new country like this. You may as well cheat as be cheated. For
my part, I never lose an advantage by indulging in such foolish
notions."
I have no doubt that a person who entertained such principles would not
fail to reduce them to practice.
The idea that some country people form of an author is highly amusing.
One of my boys was tauntingly told by another lad at school, "that his
ma' said that Mrs. M--- invented lies, and got money for them." This was
her estimation of works of mere fiction.
Once I was driven by a young Irish friend to call upon the wife of a
rich farmer in the country. We were shewn by the master of the house
into a very handsomely furnished room, in which there was no lack of
substantial comfort, and even of some elegancies, in the shape of books,
pictures, and a piano. The good man left us to inform his wife of our
arrival, and for some minutes we remained in solemn state, until the
mistress of the house made her appearance.
She had been called from the washtub, and, like a sensible woman, was
not ashamed of her domestic occupation. She came in wiping the suds from
her hands on her apron, and gave us a very hearty and friendly welcome.
She was a short, stout, middle-aged woman, with a very pleasing
countenance; and though only in her coloured flannel working-dress, with
a nightcap on her head, and spectacled nose, there was something in her
frank good-natured face that greatly prepossessed us in her favour.
After giving us the common compliments of the day, she drew her chair
just in front of me, and, resting her elbows on her knees, and dropping
her chin between her hands, she sat regarding me with such a fixed gaze
that it became very embarrassing.
"So," says she, at last, "you are Mrs. M---?"
"Yes."
"The woman that writes?"
"The same."
She drew back her chair for a few paces, with a deep-drawn sigh, in
which disappointment and surprise seemed strangely to mingle. "Well, I
have he'rd a great deal about you, and I wanted to see you bad for a
long time; but you are only a humly person like myself after all. Why I
do think, if I had on my best gown and cap, I should look a great deal
younger and better than you."
I told her that I had no doubt of the fact.
"And pray," continued she, with the same provoking scrutiny, "how old do
you call yourself?"
I told her my exact age.
"Humph!" quoth she, as if she rather doubted my word, "two years younger
nor me! you look a great deal older nor that."
After a long pause, and another searching gaze, "Do you call those teeth
your own?"
"Yes," said I, laughing; for I could retain my gravity no longer; "in
the very truest sense of the word they are mine, as God gave them to
me."
"You luckier than your neighbours," said she. "But airn't you greatly
troubled with headaches?"
"No," said I, rather startled at this fresh interrogatory.
"My!" exclaimed she, "I thought you must be, your eyes are so sunk in
your head. Well, well, so you are Mrs. M--- of Belleville, the woman
that writes. You are but a humly body after all."
While this curious colloquy was going on, my poor Irish friend sat on
thorns, and tried, by throwing in a little judicious blarney, to soften
the thrusts of the home truths to which he had unwittingly exposed me.
Between every pause in the conversation, he broke in with--"I am sure
Mrs. M--- is a fine-looking woman--a very young-looking woman for her
age. Any person might know at a glance that those teeth were her own.
They look too natural to be false."
Now, I am certain that the poor little woman never meant to wound my
feelings, nor give me offence. She literally spoke her thoughts, and I
was too much amused with the whole scene to feel the least irritated by
her honest bluntness. She expected to find in an author something quite
out of the common way, and I did not come up at all to her expectations.
Her opinion of me was not more absurd than the remarks of two ladies
who, after calling upon me for the first time, communicated the result
of their observations to a mutual friend.
"We have seen Mrs. M---, and we were so surprised to find her just like
other people!"
"What did you expect to see in her?"
"Oh, something very different. We were very much disappointed."
"That she was not sitting upon her head," said my friend, smiling;
"I like Mrs. M---, because she is in every respect like other people;
and I should not have taken her for a blue-stocking at all."
The sin of authorship meets with little toleration in a new country.
Several persons of this class, finding few minds that could sympathise
with them, and enter into their literary pursuits, have yielded to
despondency, or fallen victims to that insidious enemy of souls,
_Canadian whisky_. Such a spirit was the unfortunate Dr. Huskins,
late of Frankfort on the river Trent. The fate of this gentleman, who
was a learned and accomplished man of genius, left a very sad impression
on my mind. Like too many of that highly-gifted, but unhappy fraternity,
he struggled through his brief life, overwhelmed with the weight of
undeserved calumny, and his peace of mind embittered with the most
galling neglect and poverty.
The want of sympathy experienced by him from men of his own class,
pressed sorely upon the heart of the sensitive man of talent and
refinement; he found very few who could appreciate or understand his
mental superiority, which was pronounced as folly and madness by the
ignorant persons about him. A new country, where all are rushing eagerly
forward in order to secure the common necessaries of life, is not a
favourable soil in which to nourish the bright fancies and delusive
dreams of the poet. Dr. Huskins perceived his error too late, when he no
longer retained the means to remove to a more favourable spot,--and his
was not a mind which could meet and combat successfully with the ills
of life. He endeavoured to bear proudly the evils of his situation, but
he had neither the energy nor the courage to surmount them. He withdrew
himself from society, and passed the remainder of his days in a
solitary, comfortless, log hut on the borders of the wilderness. Here he
drooped and died, as too many like him have died, heartbroken and alone.
A sad mystery involves the last hours of his life: it is said that he
and Dr. Sutor, another talented but very dissipated man, had entered
into a compact to drink until they both died. Whether this statement is
true cannot now be positively ascertained. It is certain, however, that
Dr. Sutor was found dead upon the floor of the miserable shanty occupied
by his friend, and that Dr. Huskins was lying on his bed in the agonies
of death. Could the many fine poems composed by Dr. Huskins in his
solitary exile, be collected and published, we feel assured that
posterity would do him justice, and that his name would rank high among
the bards of the green isle.
To The Memory of Dr. Huskins.
"Neglected son of genius! thou hast pass'd
In broken-hearted loneliness away;
And one who prized thy talents, fain would cast
The cypress-wreath above thy nameless clay.
Ah, could she yet thy spirit's flight delay,
Till the cold world, relenting from its scorn,
The fadeless laurel round thy brows should twine,
Crowning the innate majesty of mind,
By crushing poverty and sorrow torn.
Peace to thy mould'ring ashes, till revive
Bright memories of thee in deathless song!
True to the dead, Time shall relenting give
The meed of fame deserved--delayed too long,
And in immortal verse the Bard again shall live!"
Alas! this frightful vice of drinking prevails throughout the colony to
an alarming extent. Professional gentlemen are not ashamed of being seen
issuing from the bar-room of a tavern early in the morning, or of being
caught reeling home from the same sink of iniquity late at night. No
sense of shame seems to deter them from the pursuit of their darling
sin. I have heard that some of these regular topers place brandy
beside their beds that, should they awake during the night, they may
have within their reach the fiery potion for which they are bartering
body and soul. Some of these persons, after having been warned of
their danger by repeated fits of _delirium tremens_, have joined
the tee-totallers; but their abstinence only lasted until the
re-establishment of their health enabled them to return to their old
haunts, and become more hardened in their vile habits than before. It
is to be questioned whether the signing of any pledge is likely to
prove a permanent remedy for this great moral evil. If an appeal to the
heart and conscience, and the fear of incurring the displeasure of an
offended God, are not sufficient to deter a man from becoming an active
instrument in the ruin of himself and family, no forcible restraint
upon his animal desires will be likely to effect a real reformation.
It appears to me that the temperance people begin at the wrong end of
the matter, by restraining the animal propensities before they have
convinced the mind. If a man abstain from drink only as long as the
accursed thing is placed beyond his reach, it is after all but a
negative virtue, to be overcome by the first strong temptation. Were
incurable drunkards treated as lunatics, and a proper asylum provided
for them in every large town, and the management of their affairs
committed to their wives or adult children, the bare idea of being
confined under such a plea would operate more forcibly upon them than by
signing a pledge, which they can break or resume according to the
caprice of the moment.
A drunkard, while under the influence of liquor, is a madman in every
sense of the word, and his mental aberration is often of the most
dangerous kind. Place him and the confirmed maniac side by side, and
it would be difficult for a stranger to determine which was the most
irrational of the two.
A friend related to me the following anecdote of a physician in his
native town:--This man, who was eminent in his profession, and highly
respected by all who knew him, secretly indulged in the pernicious habit
of dram-drinking, and after a while bade fair to sink into a hopeless
drunkard. At the earnest solicitations of his weeping wife and daughter
he consented to sign the pledge, and not only ardent spirits but every
sort of intoxicating beverage was banished from the house.
The use of alcohol is allowed in cases of sickness to the most rigid
disciplinarians, and our doctor began to find that keeping his pledge
was a more difficult matter than he had at first imagined. Still, for
_examples' sake_, of course, a man of his standing in society had only
joined for _examples' sake_; he did not like openly to break it. He
therefore feigned violent toothache, and sent the servant girl over to a
friend's house to borrow a small phial of brandy.
The brandy was sent, with many kind wishes for the doctor's speedy
recovery. The phial now came every night to be refilled; and the
doctor's toothache seemed likely to become a case of incurable _tic
douloureux_. His friend took the alarm. He found it both expensive
and inconvenient, providing the doctor with his nightly dose; and
wishing to see how matters really stood, he followed the maid and the
brandy one evening to the doctor's house.
He entered unannounced. It was as he suspected. The doctor was lounging
in his easy chair before the fire, indulging in a hearty fit of laughter
over some paragraph in a newspaper, which he held in his hand.
"Ah, my dear J---, I am so glad to find you so well. I thought by your
sending for the brandy, that you were dying with the toothache."
The doctor, rather confounded--"Why, yes; I have been sadly troubled
with it of late. It does not come on, however, before eight o'clock, and
if I cannot get a mouthful of brandy, I never can get a wink of sleep
all night."
"Did you ever have it before you took the pledge?"
"Never," said the doctor emphatically.
"Perhaps the cold water does not agree with you?"
The doctor began to smell a rat, and fell vigorously to minding the
fire.
"I tell you what it is, J---," said the other; "the toothache is a
_nervous affection_. It is the _brandy_ that is the _disease_.
It may cure you of an imaginary toothache; but I assure you, that it
gives your wife and daughter an _incurable heartache_."
The doctor felt at that moment a strange palpitation at his own. The
scales fell suddenly from his eyes, and for the first time his conduct
appeared in its true light. Returning the bottle to his friend, he said,
very humbly--"Take it out of my sight; I feel my error now. I will cure
their heartache by curing myself of this beastly vice."
The doctor, from that hour, became a temperate man. He soon regained
his failing practice, and the esteem of his friends. The appeal of
his better feelings effected a permanent change in his habits, which
signing the pledge had not been able to do. To keep up an appearance of
consistency he had had recourse to a mean subterfuge, while touching his
heart produced a lasting reform.
Drinking is the curse of Canada, and the very low price of whisky places
the temptation constantly in every one's reach. But it is not by
adopting by main force the Maine Liquor law, that our legislators will
be able to remedy the evil. Men naturally resist any oppressive measures
that infringe upon their private rights, even though such measures are
adopted solely for their benefit. It is not wise to thrust temperance
down a man's throat; and the surest way to make him a drunkard is to
insist upon his being sober. The zealous advocates of this measure (and
there are many in Canada) know little of their own, or the nature of
others. It would be the fruitful parent of hypocrisy, and lay the
foundation of crimes still greater than the one it is expected to cure.
To wean a fellow-creature from the indulgence of a gross sensual
propensity, as I said before, we must first convince the mind: the
reform must commence there. Merely withdrawing the means of
gratification, and treating a rational being like a child, will never
achieve a great moral conquest.
In pagan countries, the missionaries can only rely upon the sincerity of
the converts, who are educated when children in their schools; and if
we wish to see drunkenness banished from our towns and cities, we must
prepare our children from their earliest infancy to resist the growing
evil.
Show your boy a drunkard wallowing in the streets, like some unclean
animal in the mire. Every side-walk, on a market-day, will furnish you
with examples. Point out to him the immorality of such a degrading
position; make him fully sensible of all its disgusting horrors. Tell
him that God has threatened in words of unmistakable import, that he
will exclude such from his heavenly kingdom. Convince him that such
loathsome impurity must totally unfit the soul for communion with its
God--that such a state may truly be looked upon as the second death--the
foul corruption and decay of both body and soul. Teach the child to pray
against drunkenness, as he would against murder, lying, and theft; shew
him that all these crimes are often comprised in this one, which in too
many cases has been the fruitful parent of them all.
When the boy grows to be a man, and mingles in the world of men, he
will not easily forget the lesson impressed on his young heart. He will
remember his early prayers against this terrible vice--will recall
that disgusting spectacle--and will naturally shrink from the same
contamination. Should he be overcome by temptation, the voice of
conscience will plead with him in such decided tones that she will be
heard, and he will be ashamed of becoming the idiot thing he once feared
and loathed.
The Drunkard's Return.
"Oh! ask not of my morn of life,
How dark and dull it gloom'd o'er me;
Sharp words and fierce domestic strife,
Robb'd my young heart of all its glee,--
The sobs of one heart-broken wife,
Low, stifled moans of agony,
That fell upon my shrinking ear,
In hollow tones of woe and fear;
As crouching, weeping, at her side,
I felt my soul with sorrow swell,
In pity begg'd her not to hide
The cause of grief I knew too well;
Then wept afresh to hear her pray
That death might take us both away!
"Away from whom? Alas! What ill
Press'd the warm life-hopes from her heart?
Was she not young and lovely still?
What made the frequent tear-drops start
From eyes, whose light of love could fill
My inmost soul, and bade me part
From noisy comrades in the street,
To kiss her cheek, so cold and pale,
To clasp her neck, and hold her hand,
And list the oft-repeated tale
Of woes I could not understand;
Yet felt their force, as, day by day,
I watch'd her fade from life away.
"And _he_, the cause of all this woe,
Her mate--the father of her child,
In dread I saw him come and go,
With many an awful oath reviled;
And from harsh word, and harsher blow,
(In answer to her pleadings mild,)
I shrank in terror, till I caught
From her meek eyes th' unwhisper'd thought--
'Bear it, my Edward, for thy mother's sake!
He cares not, in his sullen mood,
If this poor heart with anguish break.'
That look was felt, and understood
By her young son, thus school'd to bear
His wrongs, to soothe her deep despair.
"Oh, how I loath'd him!--how I scorn'd
His idiot laugh, or demon frown,--
His features bloated and deform'd;
The jests with which he sought to drown
The consciousness of sin, or storm'd,
To put reproof or anger down.
Oh, 'tis a fearful thing to feel
Stern, sullen hate, the bosom steel
'Gainst one whom nature bids us prize
The first link in her mystic chain;
Which binds in strong and tender ties
The heart, while reason rules the brain,
And mingling love with holy fear,
Renders the parent doubly dear.
"I cannot bear to think how deep
The hatred was I bore him then;
But he has slept his last long sleep,
And I have trod the haunts of men;
Have felt the tide of passion sweep
Through manhood's fiery heart, and when
By strong temptation toss'd and tried,
I thought how that lost father died;
Unwept, unpitied, in his sin;
Then tears of burning shame would rise,
And stern remorse awake within
A host of mental agonies.
He fell--by one dark vice defiled;
Was I more pure--his erring child?
"Yes--erring child; but to my tale.
My mother loved that lost one still,
From the deep fount which could not fail
(Through changes dark, from good to ill,)
Her woman's heart--and sad and pale,
She yielded to his stubborn will;
Perchance she felt remonstrance vain,--
The effort to resist gave pain.
But carefully she hid her grief
From him, the idol of her youth;
And fondly hoped, against belief,
That her deep love and stedfast truth
Would touch his heart, and win him back
From Folly's dark and devious track.
"Vain hope! the drunkard's heart is hard as stone,
No grief disturbs his selfish, sensual joy;
His wife may weep, his starving children groan,
And Poverty with cruel gripe annoy.
He neither hears, nor heeds their famish'd moan,
The glorious wine-cup owns no base alloy.
Surrounded by a low, degraded train,
His fiendish laugh defiance bids to pain;
He hugs the cup--more dear than friends to him--
Nor sees stern ruin from the goblet rise,
Nor flames of hell careering o'er the brim,--
The lava flood that glads his bloodshot eyes
Poisons alike his body and his soul,
Till reason lies self-murder'd in the bowl.
"It was a dark and fearful winter night,
Loud roar'd the tempest round our hovel home;
Cold, hungry, wet, and weary was our plight,
And still we listen'd for his step to come.
My poor sick mother!--'twas a piteous sight
To see her shrink and shiver, as our dome
Shook to the rattling blast; and to the door
She crept, to look along the bleak, black moor.
He comes--he comes!--and, quivering all with dread,
She spoke kind welcome to that sinful man.
His sole reply,--'Get supper--give me bread!'
Then, with a sneer, he tauntingly began
To mock the want that stared him in the face,
Her bitter sorrow, and his own disgrace.
"'I have no money to procure you food,
No wood, no coal, to raise a cheerful fire;
The madd'ning cup may warm your frozen blood--
We die, for lack of that which you desire!'
She ceased,--erect one moment there he stood,
The foam upon his lip; with fiendish ire
He seized a knife which glitter'd in his way,
And rush'd with fury on his helpless prey.
Then from a dusky nook I fiercely sprung,
The strength of manhood in that single bound:
Around his bloated form I tightly clung,
And headlong brought the murderer to the ground.
We fell--his temples struck the cold hearth-stone,
The blood gush'd forth--he died without a moan!
"Yes--by my hand he died! one frantic cry
Of mortal anguish thrill'd my madden'd brain,
Recalling sense and mem'ry. Desperately
I strove to raise my fallen sire again,
And call'd upon my mother; but her eye
Was closed alike to sorrow, want, and pain.
Oh, what a night was that!--when all alone
I watch'd my dead beside the cold hearth-stone.
I thought myself a monster--that the deed
To save my mother was too promptly done.
I could not see her gentle bosom bleed,
And quite forgot the father, in the son;
For her I mourn'd--for her, through bitter years,
Pour'd forth my soul in unavailing tears.
"The world approved the act; but on my soul
There lay a gnawing consciousness of guilt,
A biting sense of crime, beyond control:
By my rash hand a father's blood was spilt,
And I abjured for aye the death-drugg'd bowl.
This is my tale of woe; and if thou wilt
Be warn'd by me, the sparkling cup resign;
A serpent lurks within the ruby wine,
Guileful and strong as him who erst betray'd
The world's first parents in their bowers of joy.
Let not the tempting draught your soul pervade;
It shines to kill, and sparkles to destroy.
The drunkard's sentence has been seal'd above,--
Exiled for ever from the heaven of love!"