202, Bank Street,
Ottawa,
_November 12th_, '84.
My Dear Mother,
This letter is as usual addressed to you and meant for a good many
other people besides. Firstly, I think I shall have to start some
sort of arrangement by which I shall be able to find out, on
reference to it, what the subject-matter of such-and-such a letter
was.--In fact, what I really want is a copying-press, for I can't
remember what I have told you in answer to your letters and what I
have not, and I notice the same questions occur in a good many of
them. Well, I sha'nt get a copying-press anyhow, I'll practice
self-denial, and get a five-cent. diary instead. Talking about
cents. reminds me of an item of news concerning money. Money will
undoubtedly go further here than in the old country, but it needs a
more determined economy to make it do so, and the reason is that
it's all in such small pieces. The only coins are half-dollars,
quarters, ten and five cent, pieces, and the copper cents.--of these
the cents. and half-dollars are comparatively rare. As a rule, the
lowest price charged for anything is five cents. It is such an
insignificant little piece of tin, and there are such _a tremendous
lot of them knocking about_. I don't think I have had a quarter of a
dollar's worth of copper through my fingers since I've been in the
country. There is scarcely any use for them except for stamp-money
and to give to beggars, which happily are also rare. In England the
small silver coins are almost useless, and the prices of different
things vary by pence or half-pence. One goes into an hotel, for
instance, for a glass of beer and forks out twopence, or a packet of
cigarette papers, one penny. There it goes up from the pence to the
shillings, and from the shillings to the pound, and the shillings
form a sort of barrier between the small every-day expenses (that
_might be avoided_) and the pounds which are the real wealth. Here
the practical scale of money is 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, etc., cents.
I got in a rage and smashed my pen because the brute would'nt write,
which has blown all my sophistries, as Daddy would call them, to the
winds, so I'll shut up for to-night. Now here's a new pen and a new
night, Friday night too, so I must look sharp. I don't think my
sophistries need much addition, being quite as clear as mud as they
are. In England there are a hundred half-pence to four and twopence,
and as many different prices for different things according to their
value. Here there are also a hundred cents. to the dollar, but
practically only twenty different prices. Therefore, one very soon
looks upon a five-cent piece in about the same light as one would
look at an English penny. This is a horrible pen; it's like writing
with the dirty point of a pin. Now to answer father's postscript
which I had overlooked till last night. As yet the weather is too
mild to need more than a thin overcoat, though it is prophesied that
we are going to have an exceptionally severe winter. Be that as it
may, I shall wait until it comes before spending any more money. I
have blued ten dols. already in winter preparations--seven in a
collar for my monkey-jacket, with a view to protecting my gullet
against the old attacks; and three in having my ulster lined round
the back and chest with chamois leather, for I found in the late
spell of cold weather, which however was a mere nothing, that it let
the wind through pretty quick. I have asked the price of furs
generally, and the different sorts in particular. I have some
recollection of being told by one house, I think in Montreal, that
furs were dearer here than they were in England, because they had to
be sent over there to be worked up, and then brought back here
again. I should not believe too much of that, however, as it is
quite as likely as not that it was the preface to an extra five
dollars on the price, in view of my being an evident stranger to the
country. A tailor here, the man that has done my coats for me, says
he will line my ulster with minx or racoon, or the something
ratskin, for 18 dollars, and, as I told mother in my last letter, he
would make just such an ulster for 20 to 25 dols., so that you could
get a very good fur-lined coat for 40 dollars, or about eight
guineas. Of course the furs I have mentioned are not beautiful soft
affairs like beaver or sealskin, but I imagine they are almost if
not quite as warm. I tried on a coat to-day, while pricing different
things, of Australian grey bear. The fur was very thick and fairly
soft, and I felt about 10 degrees warmer the moment I got inside it.
It was made entirely out of the fur (hair outside), and lined with
some sort of black soft canvas stuff. The price was 25 dols., but it
was too thick and cumbersome to be useful for anything but driving
or travelling. I have not got to the end of my researches upon this
subject, so I will write more when I learn more. I don't know yet
what the cost of lining a long coat with one of the better furs
would be. Father asked if I had got all instruments I wanted, as he
said Pot might send them out to me. I think I can manage with what I
have got now. I had to buy them, as I could not wait to write to
England. They ran away with another ten dols., and have turned out
anything but A 1. I cannot answer all your questions yet, Mother,
but here is something. There are plenty of small 10 to 18 acre farms
about Ottawa, at a rent of from 60 to 100 dols. per annum, though
the houses on them are generally pretty bad. This is a very
difficult question to get to the bottom of, as there are no estate
agents here that I can find, consequently all enquiries have to be
made through private friends, which takes time, and also a certain
amount of caution, in this inquisitive community. But I am learning
more every day, and you shall have it all as fast as I get it.
In haste,
Your loving Son,
J. SETON COCKBURN.
Love to everybody, as usual.