NEWSPAPER EXPERIENCES.
Early in the year 1838, I obtained an engagement as manager of the
_Palladium_, a newspaper issued by Charles Fothergill, on the plan of
the New York _Albion_. The printing office, situated on the corner of
York and Boulton Streets, was very small, and I found it a mass of
little better than _pi_, with an old hand-press of the Columbian
pattern. To bring this office into something like presentable order, to
train a rough lot of lads to their business, and to supply an occasional
original article, occupied me during great part of that year. Mr.
Fothergill was a man of talent, a scholar, and a gentleman; but so
entirely given up to the study of natural history and the practice of
taxidermy, that his newspaper received but scant attention, and his
personal appearance and the cleanliness of his surroundings still less.
He had been King's Printer under the Family Compact regime, and was
dismissed for some imprudent criticism upon the policy of the
Government. His family sometimes suffered from the want of common
necessaries, while the money which should have fed them went to pay for
some rare bird or strange fish. This could not last long. The
_Palladium_ died a natural death, and I had to seek elsewhere for
employment.
Amongst the visitors at Mr. Todd's house was John F. Rogers, an
Englishman, who, in conjunction with George H. Hackstaff, published the
Toronto _Herald_, a weekly journal of very humble pretensions. Mr.
Hackstaff was from the United States, and found himself regarded with
great distrust, in consequence of the Navy Island and Prescott
invasions. He therefore offered to sell me his interest in the newspaper
and printing office for a few dollars. I accepted the offer, and thus
became a member of the Fourth Estate, with all the dignities,
immunities, and profits attaching thereto. From that time until the year
1860, I continued in the same profession, publishing successively the
_Herald_, _Patriot_, _News of the Week_, _Atlas_ and _Daily Colonist_
newspapers, and lastly the Quebec _Advertiser_. I mention them all now,
to save wearisome details hereafter.
I have a very lively recollection of the first job which I printed in my
new office. It was on the Sunday on which St. James's Cathedral was
burnt owing to some negligence about the stoves. Our office was two
doors north of the burnt edifice, on Church Street, where the Public
Library now stands; and I was hurriedly required to print a small
placard, announcing that divine service would be held that afternoon at
the City Hall, where I had then recently drilled as a volunteer in the
City Guard.
The _Herald_ was the organ, and Mr. Rogers an active member, of the
Orange body in Toronto. I had no previous knowledge of the peculiar
features of Orangeism, and it took me some months to acquire an insight
into the ways of thinking and acting of the order. I busied myself
chiefly in the practical work of the office, such as type-setting and
press-work, and took no part in editorials, except to write an
occasional paragraph or musical notice.
The first book I undertook to print, and the first law book published in
Canada, was my young friend Alpheus Todd's "Parliamentary Law," a volume
of 400 pages, which was a creditable achievement for an office which
could boast but two or three hundred dollars worth of type in all. With
this book is connected an anecdote which I cannot refrain from
relating:
I had removed my office to a small frame building on Church Street, next
door south of C. Clinkinbroomer, the watchmaker's, at the south-west
corner of King and Church Streets. One day, a strange-looking youth of
fourteen or fifteen entered the office. He had in his hand a roll of
manuscript, soiled and dog's-eared, which he asked me to look at. I did
so, expecting to find verses intended for publication. It consisted
indeed of a number of poems, extending to thirty or forty pages or more,
defective in grammar and spelling, and in some parts not very legible.
Feeling interested in the lad, I enquired where he came from, what he
could do, and what he wanted. It appeared that his father held some
subordinate position in the English House of Commons; that, being put to
a trade that he disliked, the boy ran away to Canada, where he verbally
apprenticed himself to a shoemaker in Toronto, whom he quitted because
his master wanted him to mend shoes, while he wished to spend his time
in writing poetry; and that for the last year or so he had been working
on a farm. He begged me to give him a trial as an apprentice to the
printing business. I had known a fellow-apprentice of my own, who was
first taken in as an office-boy, subsequently acquired a little
education, became a printer's-devil, and when last I heard of him, was
King's printer in Australia.
Well, I told the lad, whose name was Archie, that I would try him. I was
just then perplexed with the problem of making and using composition
rollers in the cold winter of Canada, and in an old frame office, where
it was almost impossible to keep anything from freezing. So I resolved
to use a composition ball, such as may be seen in the pictures of early
German printing offices, printing four duodecimo pages of book-work at
one impression, and perfecting the sheet--or printing the obverse, as
medallists would say--with other four pages. Archie was tall and
strong--I gave him a regular drilling in the use of the ball, and after
some days' practice, found I could trust him as beater at the press.
Robinson Crusoe's man Friday was not a more willing, faithful,
conscientious slave than was my Archie. Never absent, never grumbling,
never idle; if there was no work ready for him, there was always plenty
of mischief at hand. He was very fond of a tough argument; plodded on
with his press-work; learnt to set type pretty well, before it was
suspected that he even knew the letter boxes; studied hard at grammar
and the dictionary; acquired knowledge with facility, and retained it
tenaciously. He remained with me many years, and ultimately became my
foreman. After the destruction of the establishment by fire in 1849, he
was engaged as foreman of the University printing office of Mr. Henry
Rowsell, and left there after a long term to enter the Toronto School of
Medicine, then presided over by Dr. Rolph, on Richmond Street, just
west of where Knox's Church now stands. After obtaining his license to
practise the profession of medicine, he studied Spanish, and then went
to Mexico, to practise among the semi-savages of that politically and
naturally volcanic republic. There he made a little money.
The country was at the time in a state of general civil war; not only
was there national strife between two political parties for the
ascendency, but in many of the separate states _pronunciamentos_
(proclamations) were issued against the men in power, followed by bloody
contests between the different factions. In the "united state" of
Coahuila and Nuevo-Leon, in which the doctor then resided, General
Vidauri held the reins of power at Monterey, the capital; and General
Aramberri flew to arms to wrest the government from him. The opposing
armies were no other than bands of robbers and murderers. Aramberri's
forces had passed near the town of Salinas, where the doctor lived,
plundering everybody on their route. Next day Vidauri's troops came in
pursuit, appropriating everything of value which had not been already
confiscated. General Julio Quiroga, one of the most inhuman and cruel
monsters of the republic--a native of the town, near which he had but
recently been a cowherd (gauadero)--commanded the pursuing force. On the
evening previous to his entry, a _peon_ (really a slave, though slavery
was said to have been abolished in the republic) had been severely
injured in a quarrel with another of his class, and the doctor was sent
for by the Alcalde to dress his wounds. As the man was said to belong to
a rich proprietor, the doctor objected unless his fee were assured. An
old, rough, and dirty-looking man thereupon stepped forward and said he
would be answerable for the pay, stating at the same time that his name
was Quiroga, and that he was the father of Don Julio! When General
Quiroga heard his father's account of the affair, he had the wounded man
placed in the stocks in the open plaza under a broiling sun; fined the
Alcalde $500 for not having done so himself, as well as for not having
imprisoned the Doctor; had the Doctor arrested by an armed guard under a
lieutenant, and in the presence of a dozen or more officers ordered him
to be shot within twenty minutes for having insulted his (Quiroga's)
father. The execution, however, as may be inferred, did not take place.
The explanation the Doctor gives of his escape is a curious one. He
cursed and swore at the General so bitterly and rapidly in English (not
being at the time well versed in Spanish expletives) that Don Julio was
frightened by his grimaces, and the horrible unknown words that issued
from his lips, and fell off his chair in an epileptic fit, to which he
was subject. The Doctor had the clothing about the General's throat and
chest thrown open, and dashed some cold water in his face. On reviving,
Quiroga told the Doctor to return to his house; that he need be under
no fear; said he supposed the difficulty was caused by his (the
Doctor's) not understanding the Spanish language; and added, that he
intended to consult our friend some day about those _atagues_ (fits).
Quiroga never returned to Salinas during the Doctor's stay there, and
some years after these events, like most Mexican generals, was publicly
executed, thus meeting the fate he had so cruelly dealt out to many
better men than himself, and to which he had sentenced our
fellow-citizen.
The Doctor remained in Mexico till the French invasion in 1863, when,
partly on account of the illness of his wife, and partly because of the
disturbed state of the country, he returned to Toronto. He practised his
profession here and became a well-known public character, still, he
said, cherishing a warm love for the sunny south, styling the land of
the Montezumas "_Mi Mejico amado_"--my beloved Mexico--and corresponding
with his friends there, who but very recently offered him some
inducements to return.
That truant boy was afterwards known as Dr. Archibald A. Riddel,
ex-alderman, and for many years coroner for the City of Toronto, which
latter office he resigned so lately as the 30th of June, 1883. He died
in December last, and was buried in the Necropolis, whither his remains
were followed by a large concourse of sympathizing friends.