TORONTO THE BEAUTIFUL
Toronto, city of education, culture, religion; a city of homes with
all that makes for the beauty and the happiness of family life;
Toronto, with her noble University whose enrolment of students
exceeds in number that of Oxford, her conservatories of music, her
impressive cathedrals and churches, her splendid Parliament
Buildings, and her classic Public Library with its numerous
branches--the capital of the rich province of Ontario, this beautiful
and inspiring city of Canada provides, indeed, an ample basis for the
enthusiasm and devotion of her citizens. No city could be more
advantageously located, seeing that she commands the blue waters of
Lake Ontario. Toronto is the centre from which radiate several of
the most picturesque excursions into the western continent. The
world-wonder of Niagara Falls is in her near neighbourhood. From
Toronto all the summer "playgrounds" of Canada may be reached with
the utmost convenience and readiness; or the tourist may make that
picturesque sail down the St. Lawrence; or, again, would he be like
Wordsworth's _Stepping Westward_, he may take train and embark at
Sarnia for the tour of the Great Lakes, ending at the terminal of
Fort William, {85} whence again he may wander into all the scenic
glories of Canada.
At Toronto the holiday-maker may board the luxurious train for
Huntsville, where he takes the steamer for that idyllic cruise by the
chain of lakes that lands him at the fascinating Hotel Wawa; or gives
him access to any one of a myriad resorts in the unique Lake-of-Bays
region. Algonquin Park, the Muskoka Lakes, all these "Highlands of
Ontario" which are attracting throngs of summer wanderers, are within
easy reach of Toronto, to all of which, indeed, the city is the
gateway, and the distributing centre as well. The playgrounds of the
Dominion are much appreciated by the great nation lying on her
southern border. New England and the West have long been
increasingly familiar with the allurements of a Canadian summer; and
now the southern states, on and near the Gulf of Mexico, are sending
out for information of the facilities for vacation sojourns amid the
parks and lakes and shining rivers of Canada. Those far-famed
Canadian resorts, comprising not only the Lake of Bays, Algonquin
Park, and Muskoka, but Timagami, Kawartha Lakes, French River, Lake
Nipissing, and Georgian Bay, all lie north of Toronto, and these
resorts, some of them over eighteen hundred feet above sea-level,
with their invigorating, balsam-laden air, are a revelation to the
visitor from the heated South.
The Southerner finds himself especially enthralled by Canada's long
summer days and lingering {86} twilights, with their ethereal and
almost unearthly beauty of amber lights and evanescent shadows, a
beauty that has hitherto been rather exclusively associated with
Scandinavia, the land of the midnight sun. What an hour for a
twilight paddle across some crystal lake, in turning homeward after
an idyllic day. Canada has been fortunate in keeping her wilds
singularly unspoiled, for practically only one railway line extends
into all these romantic regions, that of the Grand Trunk System,
which has been the means of the multiplication of delightful summer
hotels and rustic camps. These Canadian resorts (whose range of
prices is so moderate as to amaze the people from the States) are as
socially delightful as they are in scenic charm. They are
characterised by the refinement of courtesy and generous hospitality
that is the hall-mark of the Dominion.
Toronto is one of the most accessible centres of the North American
continent, being only three hours from Buffalo, one night from New
York and Boston, and fourteen hours from Chicago.
Does all this enumeration of her charms only have to do with getting
away from them? The citizen of this beautiful city on the lake will
assert that there is another equally spellbinding range of charms to
be enjoyed without wandering far away from Toronto itself.
The harbour of Toronto is one of the most beautiful of any of the
water-front cities. It has a rather {87} curious configuration
formed by a picturesque island of more than two thousand acres that
forms a species of breakwater. In the summer the waters near the
island are alive with craft. Every kind of sailing boat, canoes, and
yachts, as well as motor and steam launches, may be seen riding the
waves. The island itself is utilised in much the same fashion as
Coney Island in the New York harbour, as a resort for popular
amusement. With this inland sea of Lake Ontario at its doors, with
its fine architecture, its development and culture of the arts,
professions, and industries; with such picturesque treasure as that
of the Rosedale ravines, the Humber valley, the Don River, and the
gentle hills, Toronto is well calculated to be one of the embodied
inspirations of the Dominion.
It is claimed that there are more homes, each with its green lawn and
its garden--homes owned by their occupants--within the thirty-six
square miles that comprise Toronto than in any other city on the
American continent. Toronto is truly a thing of life in its
expansion. The construction of streets and buildings is in constant
progress and the residential limits are being carried many miles into
the country. Within the past decade the city has crossed two rivers,
marched up a hill, and clambered over two ravines, all of which give
the residential region an aspect of romantic beauty. The
architectural charm of the city impresses the stranger; especially
the cathedrals of St. James and St. Michael {88} and the University
of Toronto, that great Norman pile, dignified and with its old-world
atmosphere. Surrounding it are the colleges--Victoria, with its
Gothic dining-hall and residences; St. Michael's, Knox, and
Wycliffe. Soon Trinity will join the ranks of college settlements.
McMaster, the Baptist University, is at the northern edge of the
campus, and not far away are the great medical schools, the School of
Science, the Conservatory of Music, the University Library, the
Dental College, and the many college residences. The University of
Toronto is perhaps the largest English-speaking University in the
British Empire, and the year 1916 found two thousand five hundred of
her sons fighting for the Empire. The Royal Ontario Museum, with its
Oriental and Indian collection, lies to the north of the campus, and
the great General Hospital as well as a special hospital for children
are adjacent. Many of the churches are of real beauty--St. Paul's
Anglican, a structure which cost one and a half million dollars; the
Eaton Memorial on the hill; the Metropolitan Methodist, owning ground
estimated as worth over two millions; and the parish church of St.
James, with its tower over three hundred feet in height. The
Margaret Eaton School of Literature and Expression is an institution
of great value, attracting students from all parts of the Dominion.
As a theatrical and a musical city, Toronto shares with New York,
Boston, and Montreal many of the most noted dramas and {89} musical
entertainments. As a musical centre herself, Toronto ranks fourth
among the large cities of the continent; and she has an annual
average of four thousand musical students. Her own Mendelssohn Choir
is not only conceded to be the finest in America, but one of the best
in the world.
Nor are the graphic arts neglected in Toronto. There are already two
leading organisations, the Ontario Society of Artists and the
Canadian Art Club. A College of Art was founded in 1912; there is a
Women's Art Association, an Arts and Letters Club, which has issued a
very creditable Year Book of Canadian Art, as well as a Heliconian
Club, composed of women engaged in artistic and literary work, and
who, presumably, quaff the living waters of Helicon to reinforce
their energies.
In her Public School System, with an enrolment of thirty-five
thousand pupils, Toronto employs many of the most advanced
educational methods of the day.
If the visitor in Toronto were to ask for what is perhaps the most
really significant factor in the city's life, and one which is likely
to be missed by the surface observer, the answer would be that this
factor would be found in the Public Library System, so splendidly
administered by the Chief Librarian, George H. Locke. A Canadian, a
native of Toronto, Mr. Locke was allured for a few years by Harvard
University and the University of Chicago; but fortunately for his own
city, he has {90} chosen to devote himself to her development and
culture through the medium of library work, in a manner whose
original genius for relating literature to the needs of the people,
and more especially to the youth and the children, is making itself
felt in the Dominion as well as in the city.
In many aspects of his manifold and remarkably adjustable system, Mr.
Locke creates his own precedents. In any survey of the processes in
many of the noted libraries of the past, the chief aim, if not
regarded as the chief duty, of the keeper of books has seemed to be
that of protecting them from popular contact. The books were to be
safeguarded from too familiar approach as are the works of art in the
great galleries and museums. In every case they did not, it is true,
imitate the methods of the Laurentian Library in Florence and chain
the books to the desks, but something of the spirit of the stern
custodian was in them all. Mr. Locke at once outlined his policy on
the basis of his conviction that books were made for the people, and
not the people for books, and that opportunities for more knowledge
and greater intelligence should be provided. More especially he held
that books had indispensable messages for the youth of a great city.
The adult readers were welcomed and accorded every possible
opportunity and privilege; but the children were not to be merely
welcomed, they were to be enticed by the very attractiveness of the
surroundings to come in from the highways and the {91} byways to the
feast of literature provided so lavishly for them.
Assisted by a staff of one hundred young women whose enthusiasm leapt
up to meet his own, young women with wit and initiative of their own
as well, all of which their chief especially encouraged on their
parts, the work went forward. "If you think you have a good plan,"
Mr. Locke says, in effect, to his staff, "try it. Don't come to me
about it. If it is successful, then let us talk it over. If it is
not, bury it quietly and don't put up any monument to it."
The Central Library, with its fourteen branches, works as a unit; yet
not as the unit of a machine, but in a unity of spirit and purpose
inclusive of many individual variations. One feature of the system
of the highest value is that of the open shelves. Nothing so
educates the child, in all that most essential development of what
Matthew Arnold so well terms the humanities, as the habit of browsing
at will among books. From the official report made by Mr. Locke for
the year 1915 the following extract is taken, as it illustrates
clearly one novel and invaluable feature of the work--
"The work with the children, which showed such a remarkable increase
last year, has shown even greater results, and we see new
possibilities for the coming year. This department is decidedly
aggressive in its methods, and no phase of public social service in
this city has awakened such wide interest. The Story Hour, already
popular, was given a decided help onwards by the series of lectures
{92} which the Children's Librarians arranged for during October and
November, when Miss Marie Shedlock, of London, England, spoke to five
delighted audiences on 'Story Telling.' That part of the Story Hour
which is devoted to Canadian historical characters is really a
National Movement, for it supplies to the children, many of whom are
of foreign parentage, a Canadian historical background, something
much needed in a new country with its great problems to be solved by
those who now are but children. This year there were 12,671 children
in the Story Hours and 249,260 books were circulated among boys and
girls."
The "Story Hour" is a semi-weekly feature of the library work, and
one which has developed unmeasured ardour on the part of the youthful
auditors.
Another signally refining and helpful influence is that of the
culture of flowers; a garden plot, or beds of flowers, being a
feature of the grounds surrounding each of the fourteen libraries.
The children are encouraged to aid in this care of flowers, and seats
placed in the gardens enable summer readers to pursue their work amid
this beauty, and in the invigorating air.
The "J. Ross Robertson Historical Collection," housed in the
Reference Library, is as a gallery of Canadiana of the utmost value
to the student of the history of the Dominion. The collection
numbers already three thousand two hundred and twenty-nine pictures,
and in the year of 1915 alone, it was visited by more than twelve
thousand people. These pictures tell the story of the development of
Canada from the forest, lake, and prairie, with {93} tribes of
wandering Red Men, into the land of fruit, grain, and manufactures.
Mr. Robertson has proved a real benefactor to the entire province as
well as the Dominion, for students come from all parts of the country
to study this collection.
Toronto is constructively much like London, in that a number of
separate communities are federated to form one city. In nearly every
one of these separate and component parts a branch of the Public
Library is established, taking the name of the specific centre, such
as Wychwood, Dovercourt, and Yorkville. The latest of these
branches, that at Wychwood, is a perfect architectural reproduction
of the Shakespearean period, thus celebrating the tercentenary in
1916 in a tangible manner, and its Elizabethan charm attracts
numerous appreciative visitors. One typical instance of the library
spirit is that of taking a primitive and discarded little church,
fitting it up with books, and with light and heat and flowers (for in
every library interior beautiful flowers are an unfailing ornament)
making of this a small branch in an undeveloped part of the city, and
forming it into a notable centre of joy, helpfulness, and inspiration.
In addition to the University of Toronto, and in close alliance with
it, is University College, a state institution, in which languages
and the liberal arts are taught; and this notable university system
in Toronto is inclusive of a number of other affiliated institutions,
in which the students may avail {94} themselves of the university
examinations and degrees, among which are the Toronto College of
Music and the Conservatory of Music. There are four university
museums, the Mineralogical and the Geological, the Archæological and
the Biological; and there is also a Gallery set apart for
Palæontology. A stately and impressive building, the School of
Domestic Science, presented by Mrs. Massey Treble, is the centre of
instruction as useful as it is important. No visitor in the Dominion
can fail to perceive how Canada is especially a home-building,
home-conserving country. If one were called upon to define the
Canadian nation in a phrase, it would be that of a home-building
people. That the home, in all the purity and sanctity of family
life, is the unit of civilisation is an article of faith in Canada.
The Royal Astronomical Society of Toronto is an association of much
importance in the scientific world. In May, 1916, it had the honour
of being addressed by an astronomer whom it is no exaggeration to
term the most brilliant figure of the age in interstellar physics.
This was Doctor Percival Lowell, whose brilliant and original
investigations have thrown great light upon the evolution of the
planets, and whose especial discoveries (as they may now be claimed)
of the conditions on Mars have arrested the attention of the entire
scientific world. It was on this theme, including aspects of Mars
developed in observations made as recently {95} as in January and
March of 1916, that Doctor Lowell addressed the Society.[1]
[1] Dr. Percival Lowell died November 13, 1916, at Flagstaff
Observatory, Arizona, U.S.A.
The population of Toronto is already over the half million mark, the
city directory for 1915 recording a population of 534,000, and the
number is said to increase on an average of thirty thousand a year.
It is a great manufacturing city, which has been able to harness a
waterfall, even the mighty cataract of Niagara, into its daily
service. Is it that the twentieth century calls from the fabled past
those genii and magicians who can command and control the forces of
Nature? The result would almost confirm that fascinating
speculation. Apparently the Torontian is more fortunate than one
individual who is said to have been enabled to send the broomstick to
fetch water, but forgetting the incantation necessary to stop it, he
was drowned. Toronto apparently knows the secret of controlling her
almost unrivalled water-power. There are in and about Toronto more
than nine hundred factories that number over sixty-five thousand
employees, with an annual pay-roll of twenty-nine millions,
representing a capital of seventy-five millions. The electric power
from Niagara Falls is supplied at moderate rates, and thus the
extension of manufacturing plant is encouraged to the advantage of
the city itself.
The illumination of the Toronto streets by night is {96} a feature of
no little interest. The use of hydro-electric power has permitted
the lighting by means of cluster lights, a system of unique beauty
and incomparable service, and of great decorative effect as well.
This power is supplied from the main station located at Niagara
Falls, on the Canadian side, which itself is supplied directly from
the cataract, with a high voltage of electrical energy.
The annual Canadian National Exposition held in Toronto during the
last week in August and the first in September is considered to be
almost a barometer of the progress of the world in general. Its
promoters point with pride to the fact that this Exposition was the
first to introduce the dawn of the Electrical Age to Canada; the
first to introduce to general knowledge Marconi's wireless
telegraphy; the first to demonstrate the uses of the telephone, and
the advantages of the electric car service, and has thus, for a long
series of years, made itself an important factor of contemporary
progress.
[Illustration: The Bigwin Inn, Lake-of-Bays, Ontario]
This Exposition is held in a natural park of some two hundred and
sixty acres, sloping from the blue and sparkling waters of Lake
Ontario, with a water front of nearly two miles in extent. The
grounds are made a very "garden-city," with wide, paved streets and
walks; with vistas of emerald turf enriched with shrubs and flowering
plants and trees, amid which the permanent State buildings, graceful
and rich in architectural detail, reveal themselves to great
advantage. This Exposition is justly held {97} throughout the
Dominion as an annual focussing of the latest inventions and
appliances, as a gauge of productive power in every direction, and it
draws over a million visitors to the city every season.
As the Capital and metropolis of the rich and important province of
Ontario, Toronto can hardly be adequately considered without some
outline of the activities of the Province as well. The Parliament
buildings occupy a prominent site in the city, and the Commissioners
who are lodged in their various departments represent every important
industry and interest in Ontario. Among these interests are the Good
Roads Association, the Vegetable Growers, the Game and Fisheries, and
the Women's Institute of Ontario, under the head of the Minister of
Agriculture. Ontario has its Agricultural College at Guelph with the
Macdonald Institute for girls in which homemaking as well as
housekeeping is taught and which is the inspiration centre of the
Women's Institutes of the province. The system of travelling
libraries is of unsurpassed aid in the disseminating of information.
The Women's Institute and the Farmers' Institute co-operate to the
mutual advantage of each. Among the topics discussed in the former
are "Discipline for Children," "Problem of the Farmer's Wife,"
"Furnishing a Living-room for Comfort," "Old-Fashioned Hospitality,"
and "The Value of Pleasing Manners." The activities of this
Institute radiate an influence and suggest {98} a series of standards
that is little less than invaluable in its effect on the general
rural life. The Institute has a membership of more than twenty-five
thousand women; they represent some eight hundred and fifty branches;
and their influence easily reaches twice the number of the
membership. Courses of lessons in Domestic Science are given in
stated centres; special instructors in cooking, dairying,
poultry-raising; and topics relating to household labour of all kinds
are assigned for discussion from time to time, the meetings always
drawing large and eager audiences. The entire instruction is
eminently practical, and in one Report made to the Minister of
Agriculture the programme of lessons offered as typical included
"Invalid Cookery," "Table Seating and Serving," "How to Spend the
Winter Evenings," and "Wholesome Reading for Boys and Girls." It
will readily be seen how extremely valuable is such a range of
discussion as this, in a comparatively new country, where each
household must so largely depend upon its own resources. "The
strength of the Empire is in the homes of her people," said one
lecturer, and the opinion is wide-spread. This Association further
urges that its prevailing spirit shall know no distinction of class
or creed; that it shall reach and include, with cordial, gracious
welcome, every woman who is inclined to come into it. The motto of
the Institute is, "If you know a good thing, pass it on." The
Ontario Vegetable Growers' Association is another {99} energetic
organisation, whose aim is to "plant and make things grow."
The importance of social welfare is very fully recognised in Canada.
"We are not here simply to make a living, to spend all our days in
work," states one leading member; "we are here to enjoy life, and I
believe that God intended that every one should enjoy a well-rounded
life, with time for recreation and for mental and spiritual
development."
In the prominence given to social service in the Dominion, a new and
distinctive profession is opened, and one especially fitted for
educated and cultivated young women. Various spheres of work are
open, as those of assistants to city pastors, and as nurses, park
attendants, health inspectors, police matrons, school inspectors, and
as officials in the many charitable and educational institutions.
Friendly visiting is not the least of these many channels for aid to
social betterment, and for the extension of sympathies and the
promotion of the higher life.
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