skirts,” chimed in Tom the Sphinx, with a significant smile.
“If the Bluejays loom such a menace to our aspirations, gentlemen,”
retorted O’Toole, with a twinkle in his eye, “my humorous contemporary
of the Brantford Green Legs had better buy nine shrouds now and fix a
date for the wake.”
“Too much levity Spider, too much levity: ‘a sooty chimney spoileth
many a beefsteak’. Do be advised” continued Nelson, childlike
and bland. “The Green Sox team has one batter who is a potential
phenomenon. On a clear day he can propel the sphere across the lagoon
to the Cape Verde Islands and make it sizzle so that the natives think
it is a Jack Johnson or a sputtering meteor from Mars.”
This was intended to spike the mortar of the rangy collegian but it
didn’t.
“See here, Mr. President, be careful that no one hangs crepe on your
nose or the public will get on to the fact that your brain is dead”,
was the response.
“I’ll bet Senator, the Irishmen will stitch up your savages so neatly
they will be about as effective as a camera fiend in a London fog.”
“If that strain is put on us,” cried O’Toole, “I’ll ride a slippery log
over the Chaudiere Dam at Ottawa and you can be there to see from the
bridge north of the Chateau Laurier.” And he wished later there was
bark on that log.
Some one said “Would you indulge in a mild libation if properly
approached?” and a wag you all know said “We do not know you well
enough to refuse you, is the gentleman with the ‘still’ exclusive?”
“So exclusive, my boy,” was the reply, “that you have to be both a True
Blue and a Knight of Columbus to gain an _entree_”, and with that their
voices died away in the distance.
Tim Mullins, Mel. Thomson and Jim Edwards of the G.T.R., who came up
from Ottawa said at dinner the day Peterborough and Ottawa clashed that
Spider O’Toole refused spaghetti because it squirmed and slid off his
fork like the tempter in the Garden of Eden and he finished the meal
without ridding himself of a half-defined presentment of evil. It beats
the Dutch what odd little whims and superstitious notions some of those
base ball players cherish and permit to influence their daily actions
and fortunes.
Try to develop on the film of your memory the picture of a moderately
expansive diamond and outfield, the grass exceptionally abundant on
account of the adjacent moisture and the entire enclosure surrounded
by the shapely maple and a variety of other trees adorned with vivid
spring foliage. Include in the perspective the hurrying, foamy waters
of the serpentine Otonabee River flanking the parkside before spreading
wide to the harbor beyond and you glimpse the arena where Claudius
O’Toole lost his first game to the merciless Bluejays and likewise his
wager.
These were the home grounds of the Peterborough Bluejays, and the
players located on the chessboard as strategetically as might be, were
there “with the lard in their hair,” eager to circumvent the Ottawa
nine and provide an interesting _premiere_ that afternoon for their
supporters who buzzed with expectancy and speculation, tier over tier,
as the early innings progressed.
Jim Skinner and E. T. Carr encouraged the Jays, and in the telegraph
cupola where Tony Webster was at the key, sat Jimmie Anderson, Jack
Tinning and John Melville, hoping to ticket the players to Western
Ontario.
Considerable betting and some odds had been laid here and there on
the result among the fans and normal local adherents, and in several
outside quarters anticipation was keen, but down in the reeds and stone
piles beside the rushing eddies, where a large water snake and his
partner were basking with several smaller amphibious creatures in the
sunshine, nothing was known of all this. The pair in sable and bronze
habiliments, displaying the activity and boldness peculiar to the
breed in mating season and their need of food after long hibernation,
were fearlessly foraging beside the sedge at the river’s edge, and
woe betide the luckless chub in the shallows or lazy frog on shore
caught napping. The ball ground outfield ran down close to the river,
terminating at a high fence, and was uniform and level save for a
few depressions in the black loam where was once a swamp. Owing to
the dampness and shade the grass refused to grow hereabouts. The game
progressed with tantalizing uncertainty until the pivotal seventh
innings, the advantage resting first with the Bluejays and then with
the Redskins. At this point the Ottawas gained the ascendancy with a
batting rally and Spider O’Toole, who played deep centre field, worked
closer in stimulating his men with “Ginger up Germany, to the youth
at second--you can’t coax a living from the public on that form.” And
again, to the young spitball pitcher, “Steady Slim, nice work lad, take
your time, you have them coming and going as easy as pulling on an old
glove.”
At the conclusion of the eighth inning the score stood 4-4 and the
Spider’s braves in their half of the ninth chalked up but one more
circuit as the Bluejays, though nervous did not crack and were making
no costly errors. The stands began to rumble as the home players
went to bat for the last time, a boy clinging to an over-hanging
branch called “Oh Mr. O’Toole, we’ll make you take your gruel” and
the palpable excitement of some of the ladies who were on their feet,
caused otherwise sober spectators to turn the meeting into temporary
pandemonium with waving arms, hats and vocal extravagances. M. J. Baker
and his friend Jamieson, came with the saints, and the stentorian tones
of Stanton A. Baker, representing the “Great Western”, calling the
plays to Tommie Gormally and Harvey Hagerman over at Oshawa, could be
plainly heard above the din.
In the midst of the uproar Eddie D---- and his acquaintance O. G. C.
Willard, faultlessly attired, when passing the grand stand, and thus
perchance unconsciously giving the ladies a treat, overheard an Old
Country friend with John Ransford exclaim,
“Aw, my word, this is a strange game!”
“How so strange?” queried John.
“The players seem to have an unlimited license to indulge in
personalities, don’t you know--hear how they ‘rat’ each other!”
“They don’t mean it, those boys are milk-fed, college-bred, and the
salt of the earth”, explained the sage from Clinton.
“My Eye, observe the pitcher and catcher are even now conspiring to
beat the batter”, continued the newcomer.
“Oh, that is only camouflage to deceive the enemy,” replied his host.
The visitor’s marked impartiality towards the stubborn progress of the
contending teams recalls the attitude of the lady whose husband was in
mortal combat with a grizzly bear, exclaiming, “I never saw a fight I
cared so little about who won”.
As was prognosticated, the heavy hitter to Cape Verde Islands arose
to the occasion and smacked a fair one on the nose to left which the
fielder fumbled. He lead off a dozen feet and made second with a
hook slide when a foul tip clipped the catchers’ finger and the ball
rolled to the screen. The tension increased. From where he stood, legs
apart and watchful, O’Toole stormed and upbraided at the top of his
voice, swearing by the web-footed, bald-headed Siamese twins, while
the pitcher and backstop conferred. The umpire’s indicator shewed two
men on bases and no one out when the third birdman stepped over to
the plate and stood motionless as Sejanus on his horse. His plan or
the captain’s orders counseled a waiting policy, and such patience
was repaid with four balls, earning first base, forcing his mates and
filling the bags. Whoops and yells tore jagged holes in the atmosphere,
and even momentarily disconcerted the fourth and last friendly batter.
“Slim” threw him a swift ball at which he swung to no purpose, and
it lodged with a resounding plop in the cavity of the catcher’s
mitt. Again the man on the mound moistened the now soiled horsehide
and repeated the performance, but the strain was terrific and his
features registered it plainly. The next one was low and wide. Once
more he threw, transmitting decided curve to the sphere, but it lacked
sustained velocity and slowed down in progress. The waiting batter
saw his opportunity, breathed a fervent “Welcome Mr. Spalding” and
received it squarely. The ball sailed over the pitcher’s head and past
the shortstop’s clutching digits just at the instant Spider O’Toole was
vociferating “Oh, you son of a snail”. This compliment to the exhausted
“Slim” smothered in his mouth as he realized the sphere was heading
to his territory. True to instinct, his tentacular mechanism sprang
alert and making a sanguine, mighty vault his fingers just touched the
ball, the contact and a puff of wind diverting its course and down it
came behind him not far off. The dirty ball ceased rolling two yards
away, resting in one of those shady, somewhat deep hollows in the black
loam close to the river bank and fence. Alive to the crucial situation
quivering at half cock on the diamond and savagely intent on thwarting
the runners as well as to maintain his lead, the Spider spun round in a
flash of time and half blindly leaping on the dirty horsehide stumbled,
falling at full length face down as his hand closed over the coveted
ball.
O ye hooting witches of the midnight orgy and screeching jagaurs
squirming in the fatal coils of Columbian pythons, never was there
such a scream and succession of fearful cries emitted as arose from
the prostrate player rolling over and over before the multitude in an
agonized struggle to right himself. The approaching bay of a hungry
winter wolf pack in full tongue is unequalled as a shudder producer
and fearful indeed, our ancestors say, were the howls of redskins bent
on massacre. The field and stand had never listened to these, but they
heard Spider O’Toole and were transfixed with thrills in speechless
anticipation. Wild eyed and sweating they found him, the grimey ball
still in his grasp and two water snakes wound about his wrist and
forearm with ugly heads and forked tongues shooting this way and that
as their bodies writhed and rubbed his bare skin in efforts to free
themselves from his powerful clutch, poor O’Toole dancing in near
convulsions, meanwhile beseeching the rescuers to free him from the
loathsome girdle. It would appear that the reptiles had come out of the
water, as they sometimes do, and after the manner of their kind, curled
up together and gone to sleep in one of the swampy depressions close
to the fence bounding extreme centre field, and this was the handful
the fingers of Claudius O’Toole closed on. The shortstop and fielder
who first reached their horrified leader state _sub rosa_ that he was
muttering pieces of prayers, swearing on the bones of King Kelly, and
vowing by Ptolemy’s ancient mummies that he would nail those flying
runners at the plate. In his wanderings he was heard to mention “Log
over the Chaudiere”, “See their flat, evil heads” and “St. Patrick to
the rescue”.
[Illustration: THOMAS J. NELSON,
City Passenger and Ticket Agent, G.T.R., Brantford, Ont.; former
President, Brantford Baseball Club.]
When the commotion subsided and the contented Peterboroughese were
discussing the absorbing topic on their way home, Mister O’Toole
disrobed in the dressing room and while introducing his friends Gerald
O’Flaherty and Jimmie Goodall to Mr. Nelson, declared by all the hairy
chested “oorang ootangs” in the Zambesi Country that he would in future
manage his team from the bench when they clashed with the Bluejays at
home. Therefore you may not view Spider O’Toole in action again beside
the winding Otonabee River, but sooner or later, he will emulate a
spike-heeled river driver with peavie in hand, riding a pine log over
the Chaudiere in order that a pound of flesh may be delivered to Silent
Tom Nelson, President of the Brantford Green Sox.
[Illustration: VIEW OF THE FIRST AMERICAN RAILWAY TRAIN]
A HAPHAZARD CHRONOLOGY
1804--Richard Trevithick experimented in England with the
earliest type of steam locomotive and it is said that
his son F. H. Trevithick, was the first locomotive
superintendent of the Grand Trunk Railway.
1807--Fulton introduced the use of a steam propelled vessel on
the Hudson River, which proved a practical success in
handling passengers and goods between Albany and New York.
1809--Period of the first steamboat operated between Quebec and
Montreal on the St. Lawrence River.
1814, July 25--George Stephenson, Father of Railways,
successfully operated his steam locomotive “Blucher” in the
coal country of the Tyne, at four miles per hour, which was
the first real inception of steam engines as a commercial
possibility.
1816--S.S. “Frontenac” was the earliest Lake Ontario steamer.
1825--Stockton & Darlington Railway opened to traffic in England.
1828--Saw the first steam driven train in America, operated by
the South Carolina Railway, South Carolina.
1830--The Baltimore & Ohio Railway engine “Tom Thumb” was used.
1831--Witnessed the launching, according to Doctor Sandford
Fleming, of S.S. “Royal William” which completed a passage
from Quebec to London, England, in 1833, consuming 25 days
from Pictou, N.S. One of the owners was Samuel Cunard,
born in Halifax, N.S., who, with his brothers, created the
nucleus of the now famous Cunard Line. In June, 1894, a
brass tablet commemorating the event was unveiled in the
Parliamentary Library at Ottawa, by Lord Aberdeen.
1832, July 31--First American Railway train on the Mohawk &
Hudson Ry. which ran between Albany and Schenectady, N.Y.
The train was pulled by engine “John Bull” which came from
England in S.S. “Mary Howland”. It heads this chronology.
Among other passengers in the last coach was Thurlow Weed,
Esq., Editor Albany Evening Journal and ex-Governor Yates.
The footnote states that in the second coach traveled Jacob
Hays, a celebrated New York thief catcher.
1832--First railway charter issued in Canada to Champlain & St.
Lawrence Railroad, an 18 mile line from La Prairie, Quebec,
on the St. Lawrence above Montreal, to St. Johns, Quebec,
on the Richelieu River. The motive power was horses until
steam engine replaced them in 1837.
1837--Cumberland Valley Railway, in Pennsylvania, is said to have
used the first sleeping car.
[Illustration]
1838, April 3--Lieutenant Roberts, R.N., set sail from Cork,
Ireland, in the two funnelled, one master “Sirius” of the
St. George Steam Packet Company, with forty passengers at
35 guineas per capita, and arrived at New York in 19 days,
being the earliest steam vessel crossing from Europe to
America.
1850--First public proposal, as a practical enterprise, to lay a
Trans-atlantic cable, made by Right Reverend J. T. Mullock,
Catholic Bishop of St. Johns, Newfoundland, which American
Trans-atlantic Telegraph Company realised in 1867 under the
chairmanship of Peter Cooper, the philanthropist.
1851, Sept.--At Boston, Mass., occurred a three day jubilee to
celebrate the connection by railway of Montreal and Boston,
at which President Filmore of United States and Lord Elgin,
Queen Victoria’s representative in British North America,
were prominent amongst a large gathering of distinguished
international visitors.
1851–2--First international suspension bridge erected over
Niagara River by Great Western-New York Central Rys. The
engineer was John A. Roebling, it cost $400,000, kites were
used to carry across the first ropes. The late Bob. Lewis
was telegraph operator at Suspension Bridge at that time
and Ferdinand Richardt painted from a daguerreotype the
picture of this bridge from which D. L. Glover engraved any
prints extant.
1852–3--Inauguration of Ontario, Simcoe & Huron Railway.
Incorporated 1849, it was the first of Ontario’s lines and
ran from the foot of Brock Street, Toronto, to Collingwood,
on Georgian Bay. It became the Northern Railway 1859,
amalgamated with the Hamilton & Northwestern Railway 1884,
and was merged into the Grand Trunk Railway 1888.
The Lady Elgin, Ontario’s first locomotive, made for the
O.S. & H.R., came in parts from Portland, Maine, 1852,
traveled via Oswego, N.Y., and vessel to Toronto, and John
Harvie, lately deceased in that city, was the first O.S. &
H.R. conductor in charge of the train this engine pulled,
Carlos McColl was the first driver and Joseph Lopez was the
first fireman of that ancient locomotive. It was broken up
and melted in 1881.
TOO MUCH NERVE TONIC
Timid Party--“This train seems to be traveling at a fearful pace Ma’am!
I feel nervous.”
Stolid elderly female--“Yus--aint it? My Bill’s a-drivin’ of the ingin’
an’ ’e can make her go when ’e’s got a drop o’ drink in ’im.--_Tit
Bits_”
1853--Telegraphy was used by the Grand Trunk Railway. H. P.
Dwight is said to have been the father of the utility in
Canada.
1853–4–5--Great Western Railway of Canada built from Niagara
Falls via London to Windsor beside Detroit River.
1853–63--C. J. Brydges was managing director, respectively of the
Great Western Railway and Grand Trunk Railway in Canada.
1854, July 22--Victoria Bridge over St. Lawrence River, which
cost $7,000,000, was started and in November, 1859, it was
opened for traffic.
1855--H. C. Bourlier, formerly Western Passenger Agent Allan
Line, Toronto, was manager, agent and conductor of trains
on 48 miles of line from Point Levis to St. Thomas, Quebec,
on the I.C.R., which he designated the “Tommy Cod” Line.
1856, Oct. 27--The Grand Trunk Railway, incorporated 1852,
operated its first train from Montreal to Toronto in
fourteen hours, the Quebec Metropolis celebrating the event
by a banquet in the Point St. Charles Shops when 4,400
people sat down beside a mile of tablecloth.
1858--Chicago & Alton Railroad experimented with George Pullman’s
car and Colonel J. L. Barnes, afterwards for years
superintendent on the Santa Fe System, was the first parlor
car conductor.
1860–63--A brother of John Bell, late General Counsel of Grand
Trunk Ry., genial, humorous Robert Bell, built and
managed the Prescott & Bytown (Ottawa) Railway, an early
undertaking born of many vicissitudes, which resorted in
extremity to wooden rails to enter Bytown.
1864--The first successful trial of a railway postal car,
assorting mail matter in transit, occurred on the “C. &
N.W.R.” and other lines.
1869--A. O. Pattison, now G.T.R. Agent at Clinton, Ont., was
ticket seller with the “G.T.R.” at Brantford, Canada, in
the days of C. J. Brydges and W. J. Spicer. Conductors
Ausbrooke and David McHaffy were his contemporaries.
1869--Toronto, Grey & Bruce Railway, Toronto to Owen Sound, Ont.,
and Teeswater, was built by Edmund Wragge.
1869–1875--Walter Shanley, a Montreal railway engineer,
constructed the Hoosac Mountain Tunnel. He was a Canadian
M.P. and lived for forty years in the St. Lawrence Hotel at
Montreal.
1871--John Francis, youthful, alert and clever, was day operator
and ticket clerk in the old station at Prescott Junction,
Ont., laying the foundation with a little wrestling and
scuffling thrown in, for his gradual progress to the
General Passenger Agency of C.B. & Q.R., Chicago.
1873–4--International Bridge from Black Rock, N.Y., to Fort Erie,
Ont., endorsed jointly by C.G.W.R. and G.T.R., built at a
cost of $2,000,000, was opened to traffic at this time. C.
Czowski and D. L. Macpherson were the contractors. Thomas
Matchett, now C.T.A., C.P.R., Lindsay, Ont., was installed
as the first telegraph operator at Fort Erie by H. P.
Dwight, Superintendent of Montreal Telegraph Co., Toronto.
1876--Intercolonial Railway, opened for traffic Levis, Quebec,
to the Maritime Provinces, was constructed under
commissionership of C. J. Brydges.
1881--Nicholas Weatherston managed the Grand Junction Railway at
Belleville in this year. A graduate of the “Great Western”,
he was long with the Intercolonial Ry. at Toronto, and his
father commenced work in 1835 on the Normanton & Leeds
Railway built by the famous George Stephenson.
1883--Regime of the late (Sir) William White and John W. Loud,
at the period of the G.T.R.--G.W.R. merger, Toronto, when
George Pepall, Asst. Foreign Freight Agent, G.T.R. to-day,
was Inwards Freight Clerk and D. de Cooper, now C.F.A.,
L.V.R., was employed on the “Outwards” desk.
1891, Dec. 7--St. Clair Tunnel, Sarnia, Ont., to Port Huron,
Mich., opened to travel. It was begun in 1888, cost
$2,500,000 and was electrified in 1906.
Entries in diary of E. de la Hooke, London, Canada--City Ticket
Agent, Grand Trunk Railway. Callers who registered at his
office:--
1892, Jan. 6--Snowing heavily--
J. J. McCarthy, West Shore
Edson Weeks, P. & R.
J. A. Richardson, Wabash
J. H. Morley, C. & N.W.R.
H. D. Armstrong, M.P.R.
1892, Jan. 20--Bright, 30 degrees below zero; lunched at Tecumseh
Hotel with:--
J. N. Bastedo, Santa Fe
J. M. Huckins, G.N.R.
Jim Steele, C.P.R.
A. J. Taylor, St. Paul Road
1892, July 18--“Grand day, but Oh my, another hot ’un”. Meeting
of Grand Lodge. Callers who registered:--
Wm. Askin, Beatty Line
C. W. Graves, G.T.R.
W. G. McLean, C.P.R.
A. Patriarche, F. & P.M.
T. Ridgedale, N.P.R.
P. J. Slatter, G.T.R.
L. Wheeler, Clover Leaf Route.
1892--Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo Railway Company secured
charter, its nucleus being the 18 mile Brantford, Waterloo
& Lake Erie Railway, their Waterford extension opened 1895
and the Buffalo-Toronto through service was inaugurated
June, 1897.
1893, Jan. 18--Entries in diary of E. de la Hooke, London,
Canada--“Blizzard, one listener frozen”. Visitors
registered were:--
W. R. Callaway, C.P.R.
M. C. Dickson, G.T.R.
J. D. Hunter, Allan Line
McCormick Smith, C.B. & Q.R.
W. B. Murray, Erie Rd.
1893, March 23--Bright, mild, springlike:--
Howard J. Ball, D.L. & W.
B. H. Bennett, C. & N.W.R.
Phil. Hitchcock, D.L. & W.
W. E. Rispin, G.T.R., Chatham
S. J. Sharpe, Erie
1893, Sept. 28--Bright, glorious morning--Entries--
G. T. Bell, G.T.R.
J. Guerin, C. & N.W.R.
Will. Jackson, Clinton
B. W. Johnson, U.P.R.
J. G. Laven, M.C.R.
H. G. Thorley, White Star Line
1895, Jan. 1--Sunshine, cold and dusty--
New Year gift, Eastern Line commissions all withdrawn.
1895--Henri Menier, famous French Chocolate King, secured
possession of Anticosti Island in the mouth of the St.
Lawrence River, first fiefed by Louis XIV in 1680 to the
explorer Sieur Louis Joliet, and Senator Gaston Menier now
uses the 30 mile Anticosti Railway to market the island’s
pulpwood.
[Illustration: SCENE ON THE ANTICOSTI RAILWAY]
1895, Feb. 7--Coldest yet, lines blocked--Callers to register:--
W. E. Belcher, N.P.R.
R. S. Lewis, L.V.R.
A. J. Macdougall, Ill. Cent.
R. F. MacFarlane, Dominion Line
W. J. Mason, N.P.R.
A. J. Spurr, C.B. & Q.R.
1895, July 12--Very hot and close, circus in town, L.O.L. William
III--
J. H. Duthie, Dominion Line
W. Hatch, R. & O.N. Co.
W. B. Lanigan, C.P.R.
C. E. Macpherson, C.P.R.
1897, July 20--Extract from E. de la Hooke’s diary:--Arrival in
London of Geo. B. Reeve and official car party, including
Geo. T. Bell, W. E. Davis and J. E. Quick.
Other agents in town who dropped in at the Clock Corner were:--
P. F. Dolan, Gorge Route
Geo. McCaskey, N.P.R.
C. E. Morgan, G.T.R.
H. J. Rhein, Big 4 (L.S. & M.S.)
1902, Oct.--Canadian Ticket Agents’ Association held its annual
meeting in Washington, D.C., this being their first
convention taking place outside of Canada.
1902--Conductor James Guthrie, who so ably handled the special
train on tour with their Royal Highnesses, the Duke and
Duchess of Cornwall and York--now the King and Queen--was
complimented in special letters for his appearance and
deportment on this occasion by Geo. T. Bell, G.P.A., and
Superintendents Brownlee and Gillen.
1903--National-Transcontinental Railway--1,804 miles Moncton,
N.B., to Winnipeg, planned by the Laurier Administration,
was begun this year.
1903–04--Canadian Government issued a charter to Colonel Floyd,
Cobourg, and others, authorizing the Campbellford, Lake
Ontario & Western Railway from Cobourg to Campbellford,
which became the nucleus of the “C.P.R.” Lake Shore Line to
Ottawa.