Results for ‘General News’
[Welland-Port Colborne Evening Tribune, 5 October 1931]
Montreal, Que., Ont. 5
A mute witness of two centuries’ events in Montreal and Canadian history and for a long time the only public timepiece in the City of Montreal, the historical old clock that proudly rides the façade of the old Notre Dame Seminary, on Places d’Armes, has been repainted and mechanically readjusted. Cleaner of the accumulated grime of two centuries the old clock, which was installed in 1701 and originally cost 800 francs is again proudly ticking away the hours.
Rejuvenation of the historic clock forms part of the $80,000 improvements now being completed by the Gentlemen of St. Sulpice, owners of Notre Dame church, presbytery and seminary.
Until 1751 the clock was considered the official timepiece of the city. In that year it stopped functioning but was repaired in 1790. Oliver Maurault, Superior of Grasset College and author of the history of the parish, “Histoire de L’Eglise Notre-Dame de Montreal,” gives the following interesting details;
“In 1751 it was the only exterior clock in the city. The Scottish and English merchants were humiliated to be compelled to ask the time from the directors of the seminary. When Christ church was built in 1814 the parishioners installed a clock but the timepiece, it is stated, never gave the correct time and it finally was destroyed by fire in 1856. The seminary clock has remained silent for the last 15 years.”
Restoration of the ancient clock is due to the interest and perseverance of a plumber, J. Palment. The bells which occupy a small niche at the top of the clock proper have been rejuvenated.
And so the hands which travelled their twelve hour circle through the difficulties of the early French colonists during the downfall of France in America,, the progressive establishment of British supremacy, the fight for Confederation and successive administrations of latter time, will resume their march to the tune of flying minutes.
Niagara Falls Village
[Welland Tribune, 28 January 1898]
A correspondent, who visited the Falls and village the other day, writes the TRIBUNE as follows:- “The scenery along the village avneues and grounds the past week has been unusually beautiful. The trees and shrubs have been decked with bridal costume in winter’s white array, lighted up with a bright sun. It is a magnificent scene, gorgeous, with snow-clad purity. It is like some fairy land described by writers of sentimental vision. But this is realistic, and wide-spread at the Falls. It is a scene typical of heavenly purity for whiteness of all outside things of nature.”
Our correspondent adds:- “ One other remarkable object at the Falls, looking at it from the village on the west, is the huge spray cloud constantly arising, dark unto blackness, except at its lofty edges. It is a cloud tipped “with silver brightness.” The brightness of the sun is quite obscured by the density of the spray during the morning hours, but meanwhile, the sun is rising in majesty asserting his power over misty clouds and shadows, and brightening all things alike at his noontide. In the afternoon the scene of splendor is changed; the sun from the west reflects its light directly upon the extending spray cloud. And a gracious rainbow, often a double rainbow, surrounds the great cataract, its ends lightly restng upon the two countries-Canada and New York State. We need say nothing more. All is beautiful; all is typical of greater things to be hereafter revealed. Let every mind learn to ponder over these things. Winter and summer at the Falls present their glorious forms to attract the visitor, and to teach men lessons of wisdom.
[Welland Tribune, 11 February 1898]
The late Mr. D’Everardo was a benefactor to Fonthill in many respects, and his many acts of beneficence are so well known that repetition of them is superfluous. In no other way was his interest for the general good more lastingly expressed than in his interest in our library then known as the mechanic’s institute. The good seed which this worthy gentleman sowed has increased a hundred fold, until now the village of Fonthill boasts as good a public library and free reading room as can be found in any other place of its size in Ontario.
The public library has made readers of many people in the village, and neighborhood, who formerly took no interest in literature of any kind, not even the lightest. The demand on the library for the books of travel and adventure, proves conclusively that the younger members of the institute are forming habits of reading and culture. The most casual observer is bound to believe that those who thus form such habits, must in time develop into readers whose tastes are the best, and whose criticisms the wisest. Numerous standard works of fiction, history and religion find access too many homes, and fill the spare moments with pleasure, purest and best, because it is intellectual and spiritual.
The present stock of books is shortly to be reinforced by a new supply selected with due regard to the demands of the public, and those who are not members at present should avail themselves of so excellent an opportunity of improvement. Many books written by Canadians, and best understood by Canadians, should receive attention in order that our readers should become acquainted with the fact that Canada is slowly but surely building up a literature of its own.
Too much praise cannot be rendered the president, secretary and energetic board of directors in connection with the library, who have the best interests of the institution in mind; and though slightly embarrassed financially since the erection of the new library building, they trust to the allegiance of the citizens of the village and neighborhood for the desired help. ART OVERHOLT
[People’s Press, 13 December 1898]
The following appears as a dispatch to a Buffalo paper re the International Bridge rebuilding and may be of interest to citizens here:
Washington, Dec. 6-A somewhat startling piece of information comes today concerning the proposed new bridge across the Niagara River to touch Grand Island. The commission appointed under the act of Congress to decide upon the character of the bridge to be erected across the American channel of the river directs that there shall be a clear span of 200 feet each side of the pivot draw.
This makes an exceedingly expensive structure and one which is not likely to meet with the approval of capitalists, whose only desire is to secure communication between the Buffalo side of the river and Grand Island. Consequently it is necessary that the Canadian charter which authorizes the bridging of the channel between the island and the Canadian shore shall be used. This will be done, it is said, by a railroad corporation.
The news of the situation is that the railway company to construct that bridge will probably be the Grand Trunk. And they are going into the scheme for the purpose of providing more adequate terminal facilities for their road on Grand Island and than they now have in Buffalo.
It is said to be the purpose of the Grand Trunk to abandon their yards at Black Rock, and to acquire great tracts of land on Grand Island instead. Then, with the facilities which the new bridge will give for communication between the Dominion and the United States, they will be in shape to compete for trans-continental business to greater advantage than they are in the present moment.
The gentleman who is responsible for this statement is not willing to go into further detail but assured the correspondent that such a plan is in the air and that its consummation is likely to be brought about with the limit of time set by Congress for beginning the work upon the bridge.
[The Welland Tribune and Telegraph, 4 January 1921]
W.J. Reynolds, foreman in the news room of the Brockville Recorder and Times, yesterday celebrated the 47th anniversary of joining the staff. He has since been continuously with the same newspaper; a record which is believed to be unsurpassed by any other printer in the province Exchange.
We congratulate Mr. Reynolds on his years of service and the distinction it has gained him, but it is only fair to state that we have a printer in our own office, a man still on the case, and still simply “h ll” on “pikey” who was a full-fledged journeyman when Mr. Reynolds was in petticoats.
George Wells, of the Tribune and Telegraph, composing room, began his career with the Welland Tribune fifty-two years ago. Some say he was setting type at the time of the MacKenzie Rebellion, but that is only a tradition, and has no foundation in historical fact.
Mr. Wells has seen transition in the printing business, the Washington transplanted by the Duplex, the hand type replaced by the Monotype and Linotype, but all these changes have made no inroad on the value of his art as a compositor and the demand for the product of his stick.
(For the People’s Press)
[People’s Press, 21 August 1900]
Mr. Editor- I want to tell you right here there is a field full of adventure in this world that has been overlooked by the press generally. Thinking some of your readers may be interested in the above heading, I will venture my experience in the huckleberry marshes of Humberstone and Wainfleet on the 3rd August inst. After arming myself with a ticket instead of a rifle (the latter being the custom of 50 years ago) I was prepared to face Messrs. Reavely & Wilson-more dreaded generally than the bear, and they want 25c, and insist on that amount every day; whereas the bear was quite satisfied with much less, and if you were a good shot seldom called the second time.
Being thus armed I started in for a “soft snap”-that is, to find a new place where I could fill my basket in short order. Having been driven out of the Humberstone march on the previous day (by the heavy rain) I started for Wainfleet. After I had proceeded about a mile past the town line I bolted into the ferns and alders and kept bolting until I was as wet as a drowned rat, expecting every minute to reach the open march where the berries are usually found. After wading in the wet ferns, taller than myself, for nearly a mile, I found myself tangled in the worst jungle of poison sumach, ivy, burned and fallen timber I had ever met. I don’t claim any magnetism, but sumach and ivy dearly love me wherever they catch me in that marsh.
I was seriously considering a direct retreat, when it occurred to me to climb a tree and take observations. From the tree I could make out nothing but jungle, not a clear place only directly above me where I could see the sky. As much as you know I dislike retreating, I did retreat to the high land again, where I emptied the water from my shoes and wrung as much from my clothes as I could. I then followed the edge of the march about a mile further west and from a tree could make out a number of pickers among the burnt spruce brambles, about three-quarters of a mile distant. With wounds and scratches from the burned brambles I soon found myself in the midst of the pickers (strangers to me), who were getting but few berries. I pressed on through the march to the green spruces, where I had heard the high bush berries were plentiful. Picking a few on my way which gave a number of the other pickers a chance to overtake me. We then went to the spruces, where we soon separated, they bearing off to the westward, and I to the east. After wandering over acres of a laurel scrub bedocked and cranberry covered cushion that any of your upholsterers might envy (this is its purity alone remaining of what was once “The Great Cranberry Marsh;” what a pity it could not be preserved for a park) from a tree I discovered, about three-quarters of a mile to the east, some boys picking on the outskirts of the spruce. Noting their bearing by the sun I descended to the cushioned moss again, and by the natural paths that frequently occur in this moss, I had proceeded perhaps fifty yards when down through the moss I went, with one foot into of those subterranean lakes or rivers that frequently occur in this locality. This necessitated (after getting out) another wringing and drying process, after which I ventured to examine the hole from which I made my escape, and I was quite convinced that had I brought my fishing rod I might have had at least, a string of fish; but lacking time for regrets I pressed on through the spruce to where I discovered the pickers to be ladies-two young and one elderly-their jackets and straw hats being responsible for my mistake.
Approaching the young ladies, as they were the nigher to me, I was in hopes they would at least acknowledge my presence. This they failed to do, and in my desperation I ventured: “Will you please tell me from which side of the marsh did you come in?” thinking thereby to exchange notes and inform each other in which part of the marsh (at least there were no berries. Imagine my surprise and chagrin when I learned I was in the presence of a real “up-to-date” society young lady, whose scornful look and up-turned nose (for my impudence) send the chills all over me. In my despair my eyes wandered to the other young lady, who no doubt saw in my looks an object of pity, possibly an orphan, and with an appealing look in my behalf she obtained the answer from her companion, “from the east side,” in as piqued a manner as could be. I was paralyzed. She, the very picture of good looks, with her nose turned up, facing her companion; I, meditating that such pride would surely have a fall, picturing in the distance a lost girl begging for some one to pilot her out of the marsh or to rescue her from some harmless snake that would give more for a frog than a bite at a good looking girl. But law sakes, I didn’t expect the fall so sudden. Miss Uptodate made three steps when down she went into a lake or river, of which “mine” was only a tributary. In answer to my better nature I would have sprung to the rescue, but experience and discretion forbade any advances on my part.
Oh how I wished she would ask for assistance, which I was only too ready to have given. But she didn’t. She scrambled out unassisted but what a wreck! The water in sheets streaming from her garments from the right arm down. In answer to her friend she said she had only gotten one foot wet. Imagine,
Mr. Editor, a snubbed, bashful, sensitive man with a very active mind being a silent witness. I don’t even allude to the size of the hole, neither dare I ask if she was from Chicago, for fear she would infer that I was alluding to the size of the foot, that made it, nor dare I suggest that she also had missed it by not bringing her fishing rod, fearing it would spoil her well-shaped mouth whose muscles I already fancied showed symptoms of relaxing. I was embarrassed. I felt that privacy on her part was now doubly desired since the purge, and expressing a wish that they would have better luck the reminder of the day, I retired in as graceful a manner as an awkward man could.
Don’t think from my ill-luck there is nothing amusing in that marsh. Before I got out I did laugh heartily at a couple of very amusing incidents, and as for the best time to pick berries, I would recommend all means the finding of berries. I had but four quarts worth. They cost me 25c.
An Orphan
We are afraid “An Orphan” proceeded to make a mash on the Huckleberry marsh and failed. Perhaps if he looked more after berries than pretty girls he might have better results.-Ed.
[Welland Tribune, 21 August, 1903]
The firing on the Erie tug Silver Spray for poaching in Canadian waters on Lake Erie turns out to have been a great exaggerated incident. Captain Dunn’s log has been received by the Minister of Marine and in it the matter is treated as an ordinary occurrence of no great importance. The Petrel sighted the Silver Spray and gave chase. The Silver Spray turned and made straight for the Government cutter. When the former was almost up. The latter signalled for her to stop, but the tug pushed by a full speed. Captain Dunn fired a rifle across the Silber Spray’s bow, but it failed to bring her to. Thereupon, to quote from the log itself: “I then fired at her with several rifles, but the tug kept on, and as she was as fast as the Petrel, there was nothing to do but lay to until she was out of sight, when we put in for Port Stanley.
This exhausts the details in the log. The department have asked for more information, and Captain Dunn will make an extended report.
*CLEVELAND, March 16. 1911 — Seven lives were lost and a fishing tug was sunk in the gale which swept the lakes yesterday and last night. The tug Silver Spray of Erie, Penn., operated by the Booth Fisheries Company of Cleveland, went down off this harbor early to-day. The crew, six men and a boy, took to the tug’s lifeboat, but were dashed on the breakwater and drowned.
The New York Times
By Thomas Conlon, St. Catharines
A Partial Account
[The Welland Tribune and Telegraph, 17 March 1921]
About 1842, Montreal, then in its infancy as a schooners, began dredging their harbor and ship channel to deep water about 100 miles below, but the job was too heavy for the city and the government took over the work and they are still dredging that ship channel that is now 400 feet wide and 30 feet deep, and improved with numerous light houses, buoys and other aids to navigation, and it is now considered safe for ocean ships and with miles of docks and the best of facilities for handling cargoes. Montreal is now considered one of the leading shipping ports on this continent, and now sending out ships carrying twelve to fifteen thousand tons.
The five lower canals were, at first only 9 feet deep but enlarged to same size as the present Welland and now the whole system of the six canals, with locks 262 feet long, 45 feet wide, and 14 feet deep and permits a vessel carrying 2500 tons and all finally completed in 1881.
The first Welland Canal was begun in 1825 and completed in 1829 and lasted until 1849. The capacity was a vessel carrying seventy tons. Its enlargement opened in 1850, permitted a vessel car carrying six hundred tons and that canal was further enlarged and completed in 1881 for a vessel carrying twenty-five hundred tons, and now our government has expended 20 million to the new Deep Waterway Canal for a ship carrying form 12 to 15 thousand tons, being the fourth Welland in my seventy years, starting at 70 tons and ending with fourteen thousand tons, when the fourth is completed.
Erie Canal
Erie Canal was opened in 1825 for a vessel carrying 40 tons, but enlarged for a boat carrying 240 tons and now they are opening their barge canal with capacity of about the same as our present Welland Canal (2500 tons). The Erie is owned by New York State and has paid for itself long ago, and will always be a strong competitor with our St. Lawrence Route, especially as they are so selfish that they won’t allow a Canadian boat to navigate it outside of the Buffalo Harbor limits, although they have enjoyed the free use of our Canadian Canals.
Over Fifty Years in Packing Business
[The Welland Tribune and Telegraph, 3 May 1921]
John Duff & Son, Limited, of Hamilton is one of our oldest packing houses in Ontario. Over fifty years ago the firm was established in a small way and through lean years and fat has carried on, ever growing, always progressive imbued with the same conservative constructive spirit bequeathed by its founder.
It is interesting to note that in the fifty-three years of the firm’s history, the telephone, the automobile, electric power and the motor truck have come to supplant the clumsy devices of that earlier day; and that while their packing plant, office, store rooms and delivery system have kept pace with modern developments, the Duff methods of curing ham and bacon have remained substantially the same. Many processes, however, have been improved and standardized, and many new lines of product added to the list of table delicacies turned out by this enterprising firms.
Charles Duff, president of the company, who has literally grown up with the business, and has practical knowledge of every department from the live-stock to the finished product is actually engaged in the management, and much of the scrupulous cleanliness and general efficiency of the concern is due to his careful supervision.
The Horse Shoe Products of this firm are well-known to the trade and always rank first in point of quality.
From First Stroke to Last Seed Was Record Made on McCollum Farm
[The Welland Tribune and Telegraph, 19 May 1921]
To attack a twenty-four acre field at 10 o’clock on Monday morning and have it seeded by six o’clock on Tuesday night was a feat performed on the farm of Charles McCollum, River Road, west of Welland, this week. We hear of such things in the Canadian West some times, but we believe the incident we have cited is a new one so far as Welland County agriculture is concerned.
Two weeks ago today, Mr. McCollum lost his right arm when it was caught in the cogs of the grinder. His fine farm lost its farmer temporarily at least. Neighbors came to the rescue this week to solve his great problem of spring seeding. “It’s better to have good neighbors than two arms,” said Mr. McCollum philosophically to the Tribune-Telegraph yesterday.
The field sown to oats was cornland of as excellent a soil as Welland County can boast. Four tractors racked it fore and aft with double discs. Then it was gone over with a culti-packer that made the field soft, fine-ground and pliable as an onion bed. After this came two teams with drills and the job was complete.
The “neighbors” referred to by Mr. McCollum were Norris Bartlett, Scott Leidy, Walter and Wm. Cosby.
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