Upper Canada Sketches

by Thomas Conant

A LA CLAIRE FONTAINE.

Unto the crystal fountain
For pleasure did I stray;
So fair I found the waters,
My limbs in them I lay.
Long is it I have loved thee,
Thee shall I love alway,
My dearest.

So fair I found the waters,
My limbs in them I lay;
Beneath an oak tree resting,
I heard a roundelay.
Long is it, etc.

Beneath an oak tree resting,
I heard a roundelay;
The nightingale was singing
On the oak tree’s topmost spray.
Long is it, etc.

The nightingale was singing
On the oak tree’s topmost spray—
Sing, nightingale, keep singing,
Thou who hast heart so gay!
Long is it, etc.

Sing, nightingale, keep singing,
Thou hast a heart so gay!
Thou hast a heart so merry,
While mine is sorrow’s prey.
Long is it, etc.

Thou hast a heart so merry
While mine is sorrow’s prey,
For I have lost my mistress,
Flown from her love away.
Long is it, etc.

For I have lost my mistress,
Flown from her love away;
All for a bunch of roses,
Whereof I said her nay.
Long is it, etc.

All for a bunch of roses,
Whereof I said her nay;
I would those luckless roses
Were on their bush to-day.
Long is it, etc.

I would those luckless roses
Were on their bush to-day,
And that itself, the rosebush,
Were plunged in ocean’s spray;
Long is it I have loved thee,
Thee shall I love alway.
My dearest.

There were many money-lenders in Upper Canada. When I say money-lenders, I mean the men who will do no business, own scarcely any real estate, and make no improvements in the land, but simply sit still and lend their money at interest. I will sketch one who, while young, came to a certain township in Ontario. He is now an old man, and still a resident of the same locality. He brought from England with him about $1,000, and with it bought fifty acres of good land. These acres he farmed and resided on for some years, and succeeded well as a farmer. During the Russian war times and the building of the Grand Trunk Railway, inflation pervaded almost every walk of life. Then he sold his small farm for $120 per acre, or $6,000, and lived in a small rented house.

CANADIAN REBELLION, 1837-8. REFUGEE CROSSES LAKE ONTARIO IN A CANOE, WITH THE PROW ROTTED AWAY.

BARCLAY, CLARK & CO. LITHO. TORONTO

This money and the accumulated earnings of years he lent to his neighbors at a maximum rate of twelve per cent., with discounts and drawbacks and many other dark and mysterious ways of figuring—so mysterious, indeed, that in many instances the loans netted him twenty to twenty-five per cent. per annum. Thus year by year he added to his capital, eventually becoming a very rich man; and though the rates for loans have now dropped down to five per cent., his money has kept on drawing big pay—never stopped. Floods, disasters, deaths, fires—nothing seemed to stand in the way of the steady tick of interest and accumulated wealth. To-day he is a very old man, worth his hundreds of thousands. Pleasures of social intercourse, books, papers, travel, and the little elegances which go to make up life, have always been absent, but the gold has been hoarded. He is only a type of many of the money-lenders of our Province. Such men do not buy estates, nor make homes, nor do anything to improve our country.

An anecdote to illustrate: My father said just after the close of the Canadian rebellion of 1837-38 he had built a new ship and launched her upon Lake Ontario. And now rigging, shrouds, sails, anchors, cables, and outfit generally must be had before she could sail. Ready money after that domestic, or rather civil, disturbance was difficult to obtain. The outfit, however, must be had, for freights were high, and there was money to be made. To J—H—, he went, living not far from Whitby, and told him what he wanted. H—readily accompanied my father to Toronto, went with him to Rice Lewis, who kept such vessel outfits, and asked him to give my father what he might need on his account. My father got £150 (Halifax) worth, and gave his note to H—, at six months, for £200 (Halifax) for the loan. You will readily see what money-lenders demanded and obtained for their capital. It is only fair to complete the story and say that my father found no fault with J—H—, for although then himself abundantly able to raise any reasonable sum, he could not wait to do so. Two trips of the ship, when once rigged out, paid the loan, principal and interest, and all parties were satisfied.

The question has often occurred to me, why, as a rule, the wealth secured by money-lending has not been long retained. As I cast my eye over the country to-day, I find very few money-lenders’ families who have much of their parents’ funds. I am not a fatalist, but I freely say that it does not seem to be the case that money-lending, pursued as a business at extortionate rates, does beget prosperity for those who follow. I am sorry to say that a like remark would apply to the families of many of our pioneers. Very few of the farms left by the pioneers to their sons are to-day in their hands. That they got a living too easily would be the apparent cause, but not because of anything derogatory (as in the case of the money-lenders) in their father’s business.

We have gone from one extreme to the opposite, and very far opposite, in educational matters. To-day our school tax hangs heaviest about our necks, so very many of our young men and women are learning Latin, Greek and French. John Quincy Adams said over a century ago, “When a boy gets to conjugating Latin verbs he will not dig any more ditches.” We do not know why it should be so, but it would appear generally to be true. Again, there is a tendency among our young women not to entertain matrimonial ideas, but to try to be wholly independent of the sterner sex.

Our young women go off to some training hospital, get a diploma after three years’ voluntary service, and set up as trained nurses. As such, when they get employment, they make from ten to twenty-five dollars per week, with their board and lodging. There is no manner of doubt but these nurses are exceedingly useful in the sick chamber. More of our young women, too, become telegraph operators, type-writers, ticket sellers and stenographers, all very much detrimental to woman’s proper sphere as the “queen of the home” and the wife of a faithful husband.

Chicago, Ill., alone contains one hundred thousand Canadians. In our very, very free schools and colleges we educate young men and women by the tens of thousands, very many of whom, as in the case of those in Chicago, leave us for the United States. Such expatriated young men and women are lost to us forever after, much to our sorrow.

In a former chapter it is said that our two great railways in Canada—the Grand Trunk and the Canadian Pacific—were built by capitalists. While that remark is quite true, let us look about a moment and see how some of these large fortunes have been made at a stroke. Here is an instance: A manager of a Canadian bank, which commands many millions of dollars of capital, was once a Hudson’s Bay Company factor. Well, one day a brother Hudson’s Bay factor, happening to be in St. Paul, Minnesota, discovered that the St. Paul and Manitoba Railway, which ran from St. Paul to the boundary line, was at low ebb—that is, its stock was selling at exceedingly low prices. On arriving in Montreal he reported this to the bank manager. They then borrowed some five millions of dollars from the bank, and the ex-Hudson’s Bay factor made his way to New York. On the open stock market he and his brokers bought all the St. Paul and Manitoba railway stock in sight, at an almost ridiculously low figure. Back to Montreal he came, and then a railway from Winnipeg to the boundary line, to meet the St. Paul and Manitoba railway, was proposed and arranged. Such news naturally quickly spread, and the St. Paul and Manitoba railway stock became in immediate demand. The quotation went up higher, began to boom, got to par, and soon went away beyond, netting some millions of dollars for both the factor and the bank manager. To repay the bank loan was a very easy matter, and everybody was happy. Such cases are, however, rare in Canada. Canadians are a slower, surer-going people, without the “slap-dash” of their American cousins, though now and again they will take some chances. An incident will serve to show this:

At one time when gold in New York was at a premium, the manager of a wealthy Canadian bank went to New York and bought all the gold that was offered. A steamer was about sailing for Europe. Publicly this gold in kegs, as is the usual manner, was carted from the banks to the steamer. Gold went up and up, for there was none in sight. It was apparently all gone. Next morning the astute banker began to sell gold in small lots, and gradually allowed himself to be cleaned out. How did he get the gold? Why, easily enough. Not a keg went on board the out-going steamer. Every one was returned by unfrequented streets, and safely lodged in the vaults. New York was tricked and mad. But the manager made his money—away up in the hundreds of thousands. There was no risk, in fact, for the bank was and is still one of the soundest and strongest financial institutions in this country. So much for the speculative side of Canadians.

ASSASSINATION OF AUTHOR’S GRANDFATHER. CANADIAN REBELLION, 1837-8.

BARCLAY, CLARK & CO. LITHO. TORONTO

CHAPTER XIV.

Poor-tax—Poor-houses undesirable—The tramp nuisance—A tramp’s story—Mistaken charity—Office seekers—Election incidents.

“The owlet loves the gloom of night,
The lark salutes the day,
The timid dove will coo at hand,
But falcons soar away.”

THE burdensome tax which the people of England pay for the support of the poor we know nothing of in Canada. True, we have a poor-rate, but it sits so lightly upon us we do not heed it very much. For example, in the rural township of East Whitby, in the county of Ontario, there is a population of three thousand. The township is assessed at one and one-half million dollars. Among these people an annual tax is levied of about $8,000; for the poor, $400 out of the total tax levied. There is no poor-house in this locality. The really deserving poor are given an allowance of money weekly for their maintenance—what would be called “out-door relief” in England. It is not to be supposed this sum is ample for all relief, but in this land of greatest abundance the people give and give liberally, and no further charge is made upon the authorities. Again, we take the ground that when food is cheap and fuel plentiful scarcely any should be so poor as to be unable to support themselves, where the opportunities have always been sufficient to enable all to earn enough from which to save a small competency. There are, of a truth, cases of unfortunate and honest poverty, and such we do not demur at relieving. Unfortunately, however, in Canada, as in the United States, people will congregate in towns and cities and be hard pressed to gain a livelihood, when they should be upon the farms in the country as tenants or as owners. It is not difficult to become the latter, for the Government of Ontario is supplying homesteads to all applicants on very easy terms. For the lazy, however, it is easier to walk about paved, electric-lighted streets, and drink water supplied by costly waterworks systems brought to their doors, than to work and clear the soil. Hence the assertion that there should be no tramps in Canada is not without tangible foundation.

It has been a mooted question in Canada whether we ought to erect county poor-houses for the care and provision of the poor and infirm, or leave such matters to the ordinary township councils to deal with. In a land of plenty like ours, where there is abundance of food and constant demand for work-people, there should be no need for such persons to become a charge upon the bounty of the public; and it is absolutely certain that if we erect poor-houses there will always be poor to fill them. Such a class of population will come to us, if not already here, and having provided a place for them in the erection of poor-houses, we shall never get rid of them.

There are, of course, objects of charity scattered throughout the country, but they bear an infinitesimal proportion to the whole population, and can be provided for at small cost to the local community. In a country where everyone who will can provide for an inclement season or against the needs of age and infirmity, it becomes a very serious question whether the hard-working and thrifty ought to be taxed to provide for the lazy and thriftless. Or again, is it wise to foster the growth of a class of persons whose filth and foul diseases are the result of laziness and their own vices? Charity rightly bestowed is the very essence of man’s best nature, but I do not think it charity to give indiscriminately to those asking alms.

The genus tramp has developed only lately among us. Prior to the American war no such stamp of man existed in Canada. To-day he is here, and apparently here to stay; but as there is no possible excuse for these fellows begging through the country, it is not charity to give them money or clothes, or even food. The following is a case in point:

An old fellow residing in Scarboro’, who owns a comfortable house and lot, leaves home in the spring, clothed in rags, for an all summer’s begging tour. He goes from house to house, and says he can make more by it than he can by working. From the result of his summer’s begging he can and does live in comfort during the winter at home. And those who give to that man do a positive harm to our country by encouraging vagrancy.

Last winter a clergyman wrote me from the neighborhood of Peterboro’, saying that a colored man who was begging about the country from door to door had exhibited a paper declaring him to be a worthy object of charity, and purporting to have my name attached as a guarantee of good faith. This generous and gentlemanly clergyman wrote me that he had his doubts about the genuineness of the man’s need, for he found he had been drunk. By telegram I repudiated the man and his paper, and asked for his arrest. Persons who gave to that man committed an injury to our country, and not an act of charity. I am only mentioning this case as an illustration. Perhaps a good many of us may not yet know or realize the fact that many tramps in our Province are using the names of prominent or well-known citizens to help them to defraud the public. It is just as well for gentlemen to know, if their names have been brought considerably before the public, that in many instances these are used without their knowledge by tramps to further their impostures. Tramps have indeed called upon me, exhibiting what purported to be “a recommend” signed by one or more of Toronto’s prominent citizens, when I knew at a glance that such signatures were forgeries. The proper plan would be to have them arrested, but no one individual wants to fight the battles for the general public, and usually these fellows get off.

From the last tramp who honored me with a call I wormed out his story. He was a strong, hearty, broad-shouldered young man of twenty-eight or so, born in Ontario, the son of assisted immigrants. During the past summer he had worked for a couple of months in a brickyard near Toronto. His wages were $1.50 per day, but the proprietor, according to his rules, kept back one-third until the end of the season, when this, too, would be paid in a lump sum along with the last week’s pay. “But I could not stand that, you know,” the tramp said. He must have his money, all of it weekly, or quit. And quit he did, for he could not subsist on the single dollar a day and buy his whiskey! Until the following winter he simply “bummed” around the city, spending the balance of his brickyard money. As winter came on he made his way to Ottawa and Pembroke—just how did not appear quite clear. He worked about Pembroke in the lumber woods for a couple of months; was discharged because he would not be driven by the gang boss nor be ordered to keep up; bought a C.P.R. ticket for Toronto, but before setting out must have a few drinks. Took a few glasses, and then a few more, and fell into oblivion. Next morning he awoke in a hotel stable, minus his railway ticket and $25 which he had in his pocket, and then he had no resource but to tramp it back to Toronto. He had no difficulty, for any of the farmers would feed him and keep him overnight, so that it was just a question of slow marching with him from house to house, with a full stomach and a stop whenever cold. But as he got nearer Toronto he found the farmers not so hospitable; they refused generally to feed him, and invariably declined to lodge him. He said those near Toronto had been called upon by so many tramps that they had become wise, and no longer considered it charity to give to tramps. In a small village near Toronto, overtaken by night, he could find no refuge, and had to apply to the village constable to be confined in the ordinary lock-up. In this he was accommodated. But the constable did not relish the idea of sitting up all night for any such specimen of humanity, and so left him alone in the lock-up, where there was a stove and supply of wood. The night was cold, and the tramp fired up himself. On leaving him the constable had cautioned him to be careful of fire, and the tramp said that he was only careful for fear that he might get burnt himself. The lock-up stood beside other buildings, and had he set it on fire a good part of the village must have been consumed. Thus was this village placed in great jeopardy on account of this worthless fellow who became a charge upon them for the night, and the whole community thereabout was in great danger of losing many thousands of dollars worth of property, and possibly precious human life, by this wretched scamp, who was too lazy to work in summer and too fond of whiskey to keep him off the road in winter. Now if there be any charity in giving to such persons, I fail to see it. If we construct county poor-houses just such fellows will want to get into them. There is no excuse for any such persons. In the summer they can easily earn sufficient money to keep them during the winter if they will. In this tramp’s case he could have earned good money in the winter if he chose. He said he would get on to Toronto, and if nothing turned up he would go on west towards Woodstock and about Berlin, for the tramping fraternity told him that the German farmers thereabout have big barns and cellars and great abundance, and feed all tramps. In case they would not feed or lodge him readily, he said most of those about Berlin possessed stone base stables, which were always warm, and that he could sleep as warm in them as he could in the house.

Here is a great danger—greater in fact than the risk which the people ran when the tramp was in the village lock-up all by himself with a red-hot stove. During the summer these idle vagabonds go about the country in twos and threes, and camp at night in barns and stacks. No one ever saw a tramp yet who did not smoke. Lodging in a barn or stack is to him no valid reason why he should not indulge in his pipe. Consequently, many barns are burned throughout our country, and the only explanation ever given for such fires is simply “tramps.” This tramp nuisance is one of the growing evils in our Province, and it is just as well to stamp it out now, before it gets greater, by absolutely refusing to give aid. If we build county poor-houses, our poor-rates will go up, and no one ever heard of such rates coming down if once put on. The British farmer to-day is ground down with poor-rates, but perhaps in densely populated England there may be an excuse for such rates. With us there is not, then let us not have them. Giving to tramps is fostering a lazy, whiskey-drinking, shiftless class, who beg because it is easier than to work. Indiscriminate giving is worse than not giving at all. Let us generally, throughout rural Ontario, take warning and look closely to our charities, and see that they are rightly bestowed. Let us stamp out this tramp nuisance before it becomes fixed. If there be worthy objects of charity in our midst, I know I am safe in asserting that the big hearts of Canadians will relieve them, and there is always the township council to fall back upon in any event.

There is another class of persons in Canada who are always in search of “the loaves and fishes” in the shape of public offices. At first sight these persons would not appear to be numerous, but there are a very great many of them in various capacities—many offices, no doubt, created for the men, and many of them, too, of no adequate good to the community. As a class these persons will bear well a comparison with the turtle—opening their eyes and sitting in the sun, Micawber-like, “waiting for something to turn up.” Our labors to bring our young country to the fore they do not share in. They “toil not, neither do they spin,” notwithstanding they are always well arrayed. Manifestly a certain number of public servants are necessary, but the general feeling is that there are two where one would be enough. More, when these public servants once get foisted upon us we can never get rid of them. “Superannuated” is the political term; but they get pay until the grave opens for them.