HOME-LIFE IN NEWFOUNDLAND
In a land where the winter is long, and sometimes very cold, it is to
be expected that a good deal of time is spent at home. Moreover, in
many of the small towns there is little attraction out of doors to draw
one from the fireside except skating and sleighing; and as there is
only a small theatre, there is little in the way of operas, dramas, or
musical entertainments. Concerts are given occasionally in the churches
or public halls, but these are mostly amateur performances in the
interest of charity.
The houses are nearly all built of timber, and the residences of
the upper and middle classes are very artistic in design. Beautiful
verandas add to the appearance of these houses, and in the summer
people spend many hours under their shade.
It is possible to keep warm in winter without the assistance of a
heating apparatus; but the majority of people install them in their
homes, so that a uniform heat may be maintained in every room. It is
imagined by people who have never lived in a wooden house that they
must be very draughty. Such is not the case. They are even warmer than
a brick or stone house.
At Christmas-time home-life is much the same as in other
English-speaking countries. Santa Claus makes his visits to the
bedrooms of the boys and girls, and on Christmas morning a good
supply of toys and books is waiting for them when they awaken. The
church-bells ring out joyously, and the earth is usually covered with
a carpet of snow. Games are indulged in during the evening, and on
the whole the children have a very good time. The mummers used to go
through the streets, much to the delight of the boys and girls, who
made a practice of pelting them with snowballs; but this treatment
finally drove them from the streets, and so a romantic and historic
pageant has been abandoned, much to the regret of those who appreciate
time-honoured customs. The visitor from England, however, misses the
dark green holly leaves, with their bright red berries, and also the
mistletoe bough. Nor are there any waits. If no one tells you that
carol-singing is not practised in the country, you wait patiently
for “Hark, the herald angels sing,” only to be disappointed, for the
singers never come.
Very often, when the boys are making their snowmen on the ice, a
cry goes up, “Seals! seals!” and men and women, boys and girls, go
helter-skelter across the snow-covered pans, with clubs and sticks to
kill the “white-coats.” Sometimes, however, very sad fatalities attend
these haphazard hunting-trips. The sky may be clear and blue when they
start, with a bright sun turning the particles of frozen snow into
glittering diamonds. But when they are about a mile from the shore, the
wind suddenly changes, the distant sky grows black, and a blinding snow
comes whistling through the air before they have time to return to the
shore. The ice begins to grind on the coast, which is the first sign
that the great sheets and blocks have decided to move out to sea. All
available boats are then pushed into the sea to follow up closely the
drifting ice, so that when the band of casual hunters reach the edge
they can be lifted into them and rowed safely to the land. Alas! many
of them have either perished in the blizzard, or have drifted out to
sea on a sheet of ice that has broken away from the main body, where
death awaits them in the Atlantic, unless they are sighted and picked
up by a passing steamer.
The majority of the houses in the capital are fitted up with the
telephone, and a good deal of the shopping is done by its aid. And here
it may be well to tell the English boys and girls that the British
method of calculating in pounds, shillings, and pence is not in vogue
in Newfoundland. All buying is transacted in dollars and cents, the
dollar being about equal to four shillings. There are copper coins for
1 cent and 2 cents, and silver coins for 5, 10, 20, and 50 cents. The
paper money is in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, or more dollars. This
system may appear strange at first, but it is much more simple than
calculating in British currency.
Life in the summer-time is one round of pleasure. When the vacation is
announced the boys and girls scamper from the schools and colleges,
singing:
“No more French! no more French!
No more sitting on a hard board bench!”
All books are laid aside, and picnics in the country are the favourite
holiday pastime. Many of the city families erect tents by the side
of a large river or lake, and stay there during the summer vacation.
Rowing-boats are on the most popular waters, and the boys and girls can
row together across the magnificent lakes; for every Newfoundland boy
and almost every girl knows how to manage a pair of oars. Every boy
knows how to use a fishing-rod, too, and as many as fifty trout have
been drawn out of the water in a single day by one boy, and these trout
weigh from one to five pounds.
When they are tired of rowing and fishing, they scamper away to
the woods, where raspberries, strawberries, partridge-berries, and
blue-berries grow abundantly in luscious clusters. While father and
mother are preparing tea around the camp-fire, the children are
gathering raspberries and bringing cream from the farm; and then all
settle down on their camp-stools or on the ground to do justice to a
meal for which the invigorating air has given them such a keen appetite.
There is not the same enthusiasm exhibited with regard to football
as is shown by the English boy. Moreover, football is played in the
summer, and not in the winter. Matches are played weekly between the
various college teams; but as they are so few, the same teams have to
oppose each other very frequently. The league tables are in operation,
and there are certain trophies offered that excite a good deal of
interest among both players and spectators.
There is an impression prevailing in the old world that if European
boys and girls came to the homes of the boys and girls in Newfoundland,
they would find that they were all Eskimos. That is a very erroneous
impression, and unfair to Newfoundland. As a matter of fact, they are
just like British or American children in appearance and manner, and
it may be that a larger proportion of bigger and braver boys would be
found amongst them. English papers and magazines are to be found in
all their homes, and all the British school games and pranks are quite
familiar to them.