Results for ‘Dear EDITOR’
[The Welland Tribune and Telegraph, 23 January 1923]
Welland, Ont., 17th, Jan. 1923
Editor Tribune-Telegraph
Dear Sir:
I noticed in your issue of the 16th inst., an account of the sleighing and dancing parties among the young people of sixty years ago, and it brings to my mind pleasant memories, as I was one of the youngsters at that time. As I am now past 85, and there is but one living person of my age left in our whole neighborhood, and that is an old lady. I have attended a number of parties in my younger days where Blind “Oliver” furnished the music and I have always understood that Oliver was not quite blind, from the fact that if there was any trouble or dispute, while the party were getting set on the floor, I have seen him get right up and in among set, and settle any dispute that may have happened and get to their places before he would start the music or leave the floor. The most of the dance music up to a few years ago was furnished by The Dean Brothers of Caistor Centre, of the late Calvin Lymburner, who lived in our school section, and about 25 years ago, I built a good sized store in our village with a hall overhead 22×24 with a stage, where many dances, shows, medicine men and political meetings were held, and where five townships and three counties met inside of an area of a few hundred yards, and where I have been D.R.O, the last 27 years in our division without a break. I intended to mention that the youngsters of today are practicing the old reels and hornpipes, including Money Musk, Devils Dream, Rocky Road to Dublin, Irish Jig, Sicilian Circle and Colitions.
I remember the old “Acorn” paper and the old “Niagara Mail.”
Yours truly
J.K. Tisdale
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
[The Welland-Port Colborne Evening Tribune, 10 October 1931]
In any proposed plan for providing for the unemployed in Welland this winter, construction for a new bridge over the river at North Main street has been given an important place. At the special meeting of the council on Thursday night the bridge was included in a list of public works to be submitted to the unemployement officials in Toronto for approval.
It is pointed out to those who favor the proposal that the present bridge has outlived its usefulness and must, in any event, be replaced within a couple of years. The road allowance is only just wide enough for two cars to pass and there is always danger when a bus or wide truck is using the structure . Loads are restricted to ten tons.
It so happens that the bridge is on a road that is part of an important provincial highway and, as a result, must carry a very large amount of traffic. Under present condtions the bridge constitutes more or less of a danger spot, and this fact is not without its interest for the municipality.
The city engineer’s estimate is that a new bridge would cost $84,960, $50, 976 of which would be expended for labor and $33, 984 for material. If the structure is built as a means to relieve unemployment, the Federal and Provincial government will contribute 50 per cent of the cost.
All things considered, it looks as if the municipality would benefit in several ways, if the council decided to go ahead with the work.
Other public works have also been chosen as a means of making jobs for the unemployed. Provided expenditures are kept within a reasonable sum, thereby not causing too great an incerease in the tax rate, it is better for the city to secure needed public improvements-with the government paying half the cost-and receive something in return for the money it spends, rather than dissipate a large sum in direct relief and have nothing to show for the expenditure.
[Welland Tribune, 21 September 1900]
The following chatty letter from an ex-Wellander lady, for some years past a resident of California, will be of interest to many readers of the Tribune:-
Whittier, Calif.
Sept. 12, 1900
Editor, Welland Tribune, Welland, Ontario:
Dear Sir,-The label on my paper informs me that my subscription is nearly due, so, once more, I take pleasure in forwording a P.O. money order for one dollar for renewal of the ever welaome paper, “The Welland Tribune.”
I have just returned home from a two weeks vacation at Long Beach, down by the “Big Pond,” where the breeze is very refreshing and invigorating. Everything up here by the hills seem dryer and browner than ever. In fact it is too dry to write much. It requires some imagination to paint a glowing picture of this section at this time of the year, i.e., take the country in general. To be sure we have our pleasant little home places, where water is abundant, and some places are very barren. However, we hope for the laying of the dust and the hills and fields to look green when our winter rains come. The development of “oil wells,” is making Southern California boom at present. I sincerely hope no one will get left (to use a slang phraise). Fruit is high; so are vegetables. I must close with kind regards to all.
Yours sincerely,****
As the letter was not statedly for publication we withold the name, and would add that the Tribune fully appreciates and feels grateful for the kind words, and hopes ever to deserve them. And if our correspondent is tempted to woo the slippery goddess of Fortune on the field of speculation we sincerely hope she many “strike ile.”
[Welland Tribune, 4 March 1898]
(Letter from Miss Stone)
LOS ANGELES, Cal., Feb 14, 1898.
EDITOR TRIBUNE :
DEAR SIR, — In response to requests from home friends to send another letter for publication, I shall jot down a few facts gleaned concerning this wonderful country. I have been enjoying a pleasant visit with friends at Perris, a town of about 500 inhabitants, situated in San Jacinto Valley, 50 miles inland from the coast. The visitor is amazed when told that this town has sprung up within the last five years, that being the date that water was piped in from Bear Valley in San Bernardino Mountains, 40 miles to the north. The old saying, “as free as water,” means little to the people of this valley, as their water rates are very high, and the insufficiency of water has greatly retarded the growth of this section. The climate is all that could be desired, as it escapes the ocean fogs by its distance from the coast, while its elevation of 1,400 feet renders it specially favorable for those who are affected with the throat and lung troubles. It was my privilege to attend a convention of Christian workers at Redlands, in a town 26 miles to the north. The gathering was one of great spiritual life and power, but the visitor was struck with the number of invalids among the speakers and others taking part in the services. On enquiry we learned that it was comprised largely of many of the most brilliant and cultured minds the eastern and middle states produce, but failing health had made it necessary for them to seek a warmer and more congenial clime in which to recuperate. All these requisites are found herein these valleys. It is like a great sanitarium provided by the loving mother heart of nature for her afflicted children, this beautiful valley, nestled in here among the foothills, while the majestic mountains with their snow-clapped summits, stand like giant sentinels on duty, warding off attacks from every point of danger.
When you visit Southern California, do not fail to visit Redlands, and do not fail to take a drive to “Smiley Heights,” which has been so enthusiastically called “The Italy of America” this charming spot is owned by two brothers, who left their New England home 25 years ago to make a home for themselves in the barren waste where the picturesque town of Redlands now stands. They selected the highest point. The writer was privileged to enjoy a drive through the parks surrounding their homes. We pass along terraced driveways, on every side a profusion of flowers and rare shrubbery, onward and upward a gradual ascent. Now we come to an acute angle in the road, revealing new beauties to the scene. There are miles of solid masonry on either side, as a protection from the freshets caused by snow melting on the mountains. At length the “Enchanted Palaces” are reached. Just stop and feast your eyes on the surroundings. Flowers, flowers, everywhere. This is the winter home of the Smiley brothers. During the summer months they superintend a large hotel in the Adirondacks. They are Quakers, with decided temperance principles. Recently some of their boarders called for a choice brand of liquors, but were informed that no intoxicants should be used at the house, upon which guests said that if their requests were not granted they would use all possible means to make the hotel unpopular. Result – the Smiley house lost none of its patronage, but was kept open after all others had been closed for the season. In your visit to this state do not miss a visit to “Smiley Heights,” and you will be convinced that these are veritable smiling heights, and show what generous, public-spirited citizens, with money, by applying art and science, work and water, can make out of these apparently arid foot hills.
Just now I am down near the grand old ocean. Will you stroll with me along the beach, gather shells and mosses, or clamber over the rocks. Sit here and watch the long lazy roll of the water, as one after another the swells follow each other and break in white ruffles along the clean sand, graciously submitting to that old, old edict : “Hitherto shalt thou come but no further.” How puny and insignificant seems all human strength in the face of 8000 miles of fathomless water! Someone asks: “Are you not homesick to see the “beautiful” falling in feathery wreaths and mantling mother earth in her snow white garb.” In fancy I can hear the wind whistling, snow storms raging, fell my ears tingling with cold, frost-bitten feet and other comforts (?) of Welland county in winter. I much prefer these beautiful marechal neil roses for snowballs, or if you wish something more substantial, just reach your hand out of the open window where I am sitting (mercury at 70aaa) and help yourself to the ripe golden oranges—preferable to some of us.
M. E. STONE.
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NORAH, Louisiana, Feb. 14, 1898
[Welland Tribune, 25 February 1898]
Editor: Welland Tribune:-
DEAR SIR- As I received my TRIBUNE this afternoon with great pleasure, and looking for some home news at a glance, I saw Air Line, which at one time was my old stomping ground, and I see that C.W. Nugent, Chet. Shultis and Wils Leitch are still debating the subject of married, or single life. I think they should have that subject pretty well decided by this time. I hope that C.W. Nugent hasn’t been breaking any more buggy springs. I was on the platform with C.W. Nugnet on that same subject about four years ago, and he said he would get married and would tell us all about it. I would like to hear from him next. I hope in some future time I will meet all my old friends at the old Air Line school house. I am now in the sunny south where the cotton and the cane grows. I remain yours truly, T.J. ROACH
Letter from M. M. Buckley
[Welland Tribune, 1 April 1898]
Editor Welland Tribune :
I send you the Santa Cruz Daily Sentinel of March 17th. There is a letter in it from San Diego about Southern California; I wish you would insert it in the TRIBUNE, it will give the readers of the
TRIBUNE a better account of Southern California as it is at present than I can. The young men of
Canada will do better stopping in their own country; they can do better and make more money raising fruit in Niagara or Welland county than they can here. I don’t see any opening of any kind here for a young man either with money or without. All kinds of fruit growing is overdone, and fruit is getting cheaper and cheaper every year, so the grower scarcely gets anything for it. The freight, boxing, packing, commission, etc., eat up all the profits. I heard of one man who had nine tons of raisins last fall ; he hauled them to the packers, they put them up in boxes and sent them east ; he got his statement a few weeks since and they brought him in debt to them $14. The boxes, packing, freight, hauling, commissions &c. came to $14 dollars more than the fruit sold for, I also heard of a man sending 80 boxes of peaches to a commission house at San Francisco. They returned him 50 cents for the 80 boxes; the expenses took all the rest; you hear of lots of such cases. It is a standing joke in California that the only way to make a fruit farm pay is to sell it to a green Englishman just out. They get from one to five thousand dollars down and then they are sure to get the farm back in two or three years. Property of all kinds is almost unsaleable here at any price. I heard one land agent say he had not sold a lot in the last five years. The taxes are fearful here in Santa Cruz. They are $3.65 on $100. The Santa Cruz “Surf” of the
19th said:–
“Transcontinental railway rates continue to be cut lower and lower, as the fight between competing lines grows in bitterness. But there is little to come west for. Our factories are mostly closed, our building is at a standstill, our agriculturalists have all they can do to make ends meet, and our state county and city taxation is almost confiscation. They assess everything you have got here in this state, furniture, pianos, pictures, notes mortgages, fruit trees if they are over five years old, hens if you have more than twelve.”
The Sentinel of this morning says: “Who can engage in this manufacturing in California in competition with the East or Europe? Who can successfully raise wheat on the high priced and high taxed land of California, in competition with cheap land and lower taxes of every other state in the union, and the Dominion of Canada? Who can afford to make any kind of an investment in a city like Santa Cruz, where the axes are $3.65 on the $100, all that real estate ought to net, absolute confiscation in nine-tenths of the cities of the Union.
I have not met one Englishman or one Canadian out here, that are better off than they were at home, and most of them would like to return if they could sell out at almost any price. I heard of one Englishman that has spent over $15,000 on a fruit farm, besides a five years labor, and he is offering the whole of it for $5,000 and can’t get it.
This is a beautiful country to live in, if you have the income to keep it up, but no country for any other kind of people at present.
M. M. BUCKLEY,
Santa Cruz, March 22, 1898.
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[The Welland Tribune and Telegraph, 10 March 1921]
Editor Tribune and Telegraph:-
Kindly allow me space for a few lines re better roads in Welland county particularly in the vicinity of Welland. The writer had occasion a few days ago to travel over the road from Cook’s Mills to Welland, and was surprised to find it in such bad condition, as it had had been repaired a year ago last fall. It has flattened out, and in some places broken through, until it will need almost as much material and labor to repair it as it did to build. I am not finding fault with the county council or the superintendent, for I am aware they can build only such roads as the Provincial Government will sanction and help pay for. The road referred to is one that has an unusual amount of traffic. Situated as it is, it has to stand double duty from Welland to Crowland town hall, where the traffic from Niagara Falls, and also the south-east part of the county, including Buffalo and U.S. travel, join. This road probably gets more and heavier traffic than any similar road in the county. It appears to be time our county council made a start in something more permanent than water bound macadam. The Provincial Government is building permanent roads in various parts of Ontario. Possibly it could be induced to help pay for either a concrete or asphalt surfaced road here, for it must be apparent to anyone that the ratepayers’ money is being put to poor use building anything else where there is so much traffic, because we are paying out too much for up-keep and have not got a good road then. The writer believes the present roadbed might be used as the sub-base for concrete road, and if it can, the cost will not be prohibitive. But in any case, the cost of constant repairs will soon be more than the permanent road. Will the City of Welland and the townships east and south join in urging the county council at their next good roads session, which will be held this month, to make a start, and surely this road is one that needs it very badly. The writer had the pleasure of being one in the party that R. Cooper took on a good roads tour of inspection down in New York State a few years ago, and remembers a road about five miles from Niagara Falls that had been built some five or six years at a (pre war) cost of some eight thousand dollars per mile. It was an asphalt finish and had stood up splendidly, being almost as perfect as when laid. Possibly our county council and Mr. Campbell of the G.R. department could get some data on the particular road that would help Welland county to get better value for our taxes. In any case, it is time a change was made in our good roads system.
Thanking you, Mr. Editor, for space, and hoping something will be done in permeant road building in 1921.
I remain,
H.L. Shisler
[The Welland Tribune and Telegraph, 10 February 1921]
Dear Sir:-
You will excuse my liberty in requesting a small space in your valued newspaper. I recently visited the library. It is with a feeling of disappointment that such is the best our city can afford. Would not the present be an opportune time for some action in getting a Carnegie library. The idea, I know, has had some setbacks in the past from those who have not the large view of letting all benefit from a source that is not influenced by individual opinions. I enquired of the lady in charge if there were any journals for reading. She referred me to the tables which contained some light trashy reading such as “Life,” etc., so having no time to waste, I left disappointed. Would it be any good to suggest that our manufacturers donate some of their trade journals, such as Iron Age Trade, Machinery Canadian machinery, etc., so that with so many men out of work they could go there and read and then when they do get work turn their reading to advantage. Library reports show that people are doing more serious reading now than ever before.
Yours,
G.H. COLE\Welland, Feb. 8, 1921
Editor’s Note:- A large-measure library is one thing we have always advocated in Welland, and we quite agree with the contention of our correspondent. We cannot agree, however, in the adjective he uses in describing “Life.” “Life” is not as heavy as Mavor’s “Economic History of Russia,” or Gibbon’s “Decline and Fall,” but it has a very definite place to fill and fills it. It has laughed more shams out of court in the United States than any other agency.
[Welland Tribune, 29 May 1896]
To Tribune Editor:
DEAR SIR-Having a little leisure time and thinking some of the many readers of our valuable paper might feel interested in this part of the country, I write you a short account of a pleasant evening that occurred at the residence of Mrs. J.L. Becker, Olds, Alta., on the 22nd April, being the marriage of her sister, Isabella, daughter of the late Geo. M. Maier, to Mr. A. J. Brown (both formerly of South Pelham). The marriage ceremony w performed by Rev. C.R. Sing of Innisfail, and witnessed by the immediate relatives and seven chosen friends of the bride. The bride and groom were ably supported by her sister, Miss J. Maier, and Rev. J.W. McKay of Olds. The presents shewed the great esteem in which the bride is held by her new acquaintances.
ONE WHO WAS THERE.
Olds, Alberta, May 13, 1896
February 16th, 1967
The Editor, Lanark Era
Lanark, Ontario
Dear Sir:
Today I had the pleasure of calling on Mrs. George Easton, nee Margaret Miller, daughter of Stuart Miller, to congratulate her on the observance of her 90th birthday, on Feb. 14th.
She was a native of Lanark before the turn of the century; having come to the Rainy River District of North-western Ontario in 1897.
When I was minister of the United Church of Canada in Fort Frances I had many happy visits with Mrs. Easton concerning Lanark and some of the well-known families in that area. My acquaintance of the area was as a young boy when my father the late Rev. Frank Saunders was minister of the Congregational Church at Middleville, Hopetown and Rosetta. -1910. -14.
Mrs. Easton is remarkably well preserved & loves to talk of her pioneering experiences Up until about a year ago she was real active, keeping house for her daughter, , who has a Ladies Wear store in Fort Frances, However for the last few months she has been confined to bed, but still is bright and cheery. We recalled such names as Rev. Mr. McIntosh, who was a frequent visitor in our home. The Ed Buffins , at whose home I stayed when I tried my entrance examinations in Lanark, the Caldwells, Steads and Langstaffs.
I believe Mr. Eric Somerville use to be blacksmith in your community some years ago. He was one of the older boys in the school at Middleville when I attended there.
Yours truly
Leslie Saunders
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