CHAPTER XVII.
At Portland Point.
When the attention of James Simonds, was directed to the River St. John, by the proclamation oaf Governor Lawrence inviting the inhabitants of New England to settle on the vacant lands in Nova Scotia, he was a young man of twenty-four years of age. His father had died at Haverhill; August 15th, 1757. The next year he went with his uncle, Capt. Hazen, to the assault of Ticonderoga, in the capacity of a subaltern officer in the Provincial troops, and shortly after the close of the campaign proceeded to Nova Scotia in order to find a promising situation for engaging in trade. The fur trade was what he had chiefly in mind at this time, but the Indians were rather unfriendly, and he became interested along with Captain Peabody, Israel Perley and other officers of the disbanded Massachusetts troops in their proposed settlement on the River St John. His future partners of the trading company formed in 1764 were, with the exception of Mr. Blodget, even younger men than himself. William Hazen, of Newburyport, had just attained to manhood and belonged to a corps of Massachusetts Rangers, which served in Canada at the taking of Quebec. Samuel Blodget was a follower of the army on Lake Champlain as a sutler. James White was a young man of two-and-twenty years and had been for some time Mr. Blodget’s clerk or assistant. Leonard Jarvis—afterwards Wm. Hazen’s, business partner and so incidentally a member of the trading company at St. John—was not then eighteen years of age.
While engaged in his explorations, James Simonds obtained from the government of Nova Scotia the promise of a grant of 5,000 acres of unappropriated lands, in such part of the province as he should choose, and it was under this arrangement he entered upon the marsh east of the city of St. John (called by the Indians “Seebaskastagan”) in the year 1762 and cut there a quantity of salt marsh hay and began to made improvements.
Mr. Simonds says in one of his letters: “The accounts which I gave my friends in New England of the abundance of Fish in the River and the convenience of taking them, of the extensive Fur trade of the country, and the natural convenience of burning Lime, caused numbers of them to make proposals to be concerned with me in these branches of business, among whom Mr. Hazen was the first that joined me in a trial. Afterwards, in the year 1764, although I was unwilling that any should be sharers with me in the Fur trade, which I had acquired some knowledge of, yet by representations that superior advantage could be derived from a Cod-fishery on the Banks and other branches of commerce, which I was altogether unacquainted with, I joined in a contract for carrying it on for that year upon an extensive plan with Messrs. Blodget, Hazen, White, Peaslie and R. Simonds.”
Early in 1763, James Simonds and William Hazen engaged in a small venture in the way of trade and fishing at St. John and Passamaquoddy. They had several men in their employ, including Ebenezer Eaton, master of the sloop Bachelor, and Samuel Middleton, a cooper, who was employed in making barrels for shipping the fish. Among others in the employ of Simonds and his partners, several seem to have had a previous acquaintance with St. John harbor; Moses Greenough, for 177 example, was there in 1758, and Lemuel Cleveland in 1757, when he says “the French had a fort at Portland Point where Mr. Simonds’ house was afterwards built.”
The following is a copy of what is probably the first document extant in connection with the business of Hazen and Simonds:—
Passamaquada, 26th July, 1763.
Sir,—Please pay unto Mr. Ebenezer Eaton the sum of Five pounds one shilling & four pence Lawfull money, half cash & half Goods, and place the same to the acct. of,
Yr. Humble Servant,
Jas. Simonds.To Mr. William Hazen,
Merchant in Newbury.
The success of their first modest little venture encouraged Hazen and Simonds to undertake a more ambitious project, namely the formation of a trading company to “enter upon and pursue with all speed and faithfulness the business of the cod fishery, seine fishery, fur trade, burning of lime and every other trading business that shall be thought advantageous to the company at Passamaquoddy, St. Johns, Canso and elsewhere in or near the province of Nova Scotia and parts adjacent.”
Evidently the project was regarded as in some measure an experiment, for the contract provided, “the partnership shall continue certain for the space of one year and for such longer time as all the partys shall hereafter agree.” Examination of the document shows that when first written the period the contract was to continue was left blank and the word “one” inserted before “year,” evidently after consultation on the part of those concerned.
Shortly before the formation of the trading company, James Simonds went to Halifax to procure a grant of land at St. John and a license to trade with the Indians, but did not at this time succeed in obtaining the grant. However the governor gave him the following license to occupy Portland Point:
“License is hereby granted to James Simonds to occupy a tract or point of land on the north side of St. John’s River, opposite Fort Frederick, for carrying on a fishery and for burning lime-stone, the said tract or point of land containing by estimation ten acres.
[Signed] “MONTAGU WILMOT.”
“Halifax, February 8, 1764.
Upon this land at Portland Point the buildings required for the business of the company were built. The partnership was in its way a “family compact.” Samuel Blodget, was distantly related to Wm. Hazen and the latter was a cousin of James and Richard Simonds; Robert Peaslie’s wife was Anna Hazen, sister of Wm. Hazen, and James White was a cousin of Wm. Hazen. It was agreed that Blodget, Hazen and James Simonds should each have one-fourth part in the business and profits, the remaining fourth part to be divided amongst the juniors, Messrs. White, Peaslie and Richard Simonds.
Blodget and Hazen were the principal financial backers of the undertaking and agreed to provide, “at the expense of the company,” the vessels, boats, tackling, and also all sorts of goods and stock needed to carry on the trade, also to receive and dispose of the fish, furs and other produce of trade sent to them from Nova Scotia. The fishery and all other business at St. John and elsewhere in Nova 178 Scotia was to be looked after by the others of the company, and the junior partners were to proceed with James Simonds to St. John and work under his direction, so far as to be ruled by him “at all times and in all things which shall relate to the good of the concerned wherein the said White, Peaslie and R. Simonds shall differ in judgment from the said James Simonds, tho’ all parties do hereby covenant in all things to consult and advise and act to the utmost of their power for the best good and advantage of the Company.”
It is evident that the plans of our first business concern at St. John were not drawn up without due consideration.
There is no evidence to show that any of the partners except the brothers Simonds had been at St. John previous to the year 1764. The statement has been frequently made that James White visited the harbor in 1762 in company with James Simonds and Capt. Francis Peabody, but his own papers which are still in existence clearly prove that he was almost constantly engaged in the employ of Samuel Blodget at Crown Point during that year.
William Hazen and James Simonds were undoubtedly the prime movers in the formation of the trading company that began its operations at St. John in 1764. By their joint efforts they were able to organize a firm seemingly happily constituted and likely to work together harmoniously and successfully. As a matter of fact, however, the company had a very chequered career and at length the war of the Revolution seemed likely to involve them in financial ruin. This seeming calamity in the end proved to be the making of their fortunes by sending the Loyalists in thousands to our shores. But of all this more anon.
The financial backers of the company at the first were Hazen and Blodget, who carried on business at Newburyport and Boston respectively. These towns were then rising into importance and were rivals in trade although it was not long until Boston forged ahead. The goods required for trade with the Indians and white inhabitants of the River St. John and the military garrison at Fort Frederick were conveniently supplied from Newburyport and Boston, and these places were good distributing centres for the fish, furs, lumber, lime and other products obtained at St. John. The furs were usually sold in London; the other articles were either sold in the local market or sent to the West Indies.
The Company having been formed and the contract signed on the 1st day of March, 1764, the Messrs. Simonds, James White, Jonathan Leavitt and a party of about thirty hands embarked on board a schooner belonging to the Company for the scene of operations. The men were fishermen, laborers, lime burners, with one or two coopers—a rough and ready lot, but with one or two of superior intelligence to act as foremen. Comparatively few of the men seem to have become permanent settlers, yet as members of the little colony at Portland Point and almost the first English-speaking residents of St. John, outside of the Fort Frederick garrison, their names are worthy to be recorded. The following may be regarded as a complete list: James Simonds, James White, Jonathan Leavitt, Jonathan Simonds, Samuel Middleton, Peter Middleton, Edmund Black, Moses True, Reuben Stevens, John Stevens, John Boyd, Moses Kimball, Benjamin Dow, Thomas Jenkins, Batcheldor Ring, Rowley Andros, Edmund Butler, John Nason, 179 Reuben Mace, Benjamin Wiggins, John Lovering, John Hookey, Rueben Sergeant, Benjamin Stanwood, Benjamin Winter, Anthony Dyer, Webster Emerson, George Carey, John Hunt, George Berry, Simeon Hillyard, Ebenezer Fowler, William Picket and Ezekiel Carr.
The Company’s schooner, with William Story as master, sailed from Newburyport about the 10th of April, arriving at Passamaquody on the 14th, and at St. John on the 18th. The men set to work immediately on their arrival, and the quietude that had reigned beneath the shadow of Fort Howe hill was broken by the sound of the woodsman’s axe and the carpenter’s saw and hammer. Among the first buildings erected were a log store 20 feet by 30 feet, a dwelling house 19 feet by 35 feet, and a building adjoining it 16 by 40, rough boarded and used as a cooper’s shop, kitchen and shelter for the workmen.
Portland Point lies at the foot of Portland street at the head of St. John harbor—the locality is better known today as “Rankin’s Wharf.” Before the wharves in the vicinity were built the Point was quite a conspicuous feature in the contour of the harbor. The site of the old French fort on which James Simonds’ house was built, with the company’s store hard by, is now a green mound unoccupied by any building. The place was at first commonly called “Simonds’ Point” but about the year 1776 the name of “Portland Point” seems to have come into use. Nevertheless, down to the time of the arrival of the Loyalists in 1783, the members of the company always applied the names of “St. Johns” or “St. John’s River” to the scene of their operations, and it may be said that in spite of the attempt of the French governor Villebon and his contemporaries to perpetuate the old Indian name of Menaquesk, or Menagoeche, and of Governor Parr in later years to affix the name of “Parr-town” to that part of our city to the east of the harbor, the name given by de Monts and Champlain on the memorable 24 June, 1604, has persisted to the present day. The city of ST. JOHN, therefore, has not only the honor of being the oldest incorporated city in the British colonies, but traces the origin of its name to a known and fixed date three hundred years ago. Indeed as regards its name St. John is older than Boston, New York, Philadelphia or any city of importance on the Atlantic coast as far south as Florida.
However the first English colonists who established themselves on a permanent footing at “St. John’s” thought little of this historic fact. It was not sentiment but commercial enterprise than guided them.
Among those who came to St. John with Simonds and White in April, 1764, none was destined to play a more active and useful part than young Jonathan Leavitt. He was a native of New Hampshire and at the time of his arrival was in his eighteenth year. Young as he was he had some experience as a mariner, and from 1764 to 1774 was employed as master of one or other of the Company’s vessels. He sailed chiefly between St. John and Newburyport, but occasionally made a voyage to the West Indies. He received the modest compensation of £4 per month for his services. In the course of time Mr. Leavitt came to be one of the most trusted navigators of the Bay of Fundy and probably none knew the harbor of St. John so well as he. In his testimony in a law suit, about the year 1792, he states that in early times the places of anchorage in the harbor were the 180 flats on the west side between Fort Frederick and Sand Point, which were generally used by strangers, and Portland Point where the vessels of the Company lay. It was not until, 1783 that vessels began to anchor at the Upper Cove (now the Market Slip), that place being until then deemed rather unsafe. Jonathan Leavitt and has brother Daniel piloted to their landing places the transport ships that carried some thousands of Loyalists to our shores during the year 1783.
Jonathan Leavitt gives an interesting synopsis of the business carried on at St. John under the direction of Simonds and White: “The Company’s business included Fishery, Fur trade, making Lime, building Vessels and sawing Lumber, and they employed a great number of laborers and workmen in cutting wood, burning lime, digging stone, cutting hoop-poles, clearing roads, clearing land, curing fish, cutting hay and attending stock. The workmen and laborers were supported and paid by the partnership and lived in the outhouse and kitchen of the house occupied by Simonds and White. There was a store of dry goods and provisions and articles for the Indian trade.”
When he was at St. John, Leavitt lived in the family of Simonds and White who lived together during the greater part of the ten years he was in the Company’s employ, and when they separated their families he staid sometimes with one and sometimes with the other. Simonds and White were supplied with bread, meat and liquors for themselves and families from the store, and no account was kept whilst they lived together, but after they separated they were charged against each family; the (workmen also were maintained, supported and fed from the joint stock of the store, as it was considered they were employed for the joint benefit of the company, but liquors and articles supplied on account of their wages were charged against the individual accounts of the men. Part of the workmen and laborers were hired by William Hazen and sent from Newburyport, others were engaged by Simonds and White at the River St. John.
About the year 1772 Jonathan Leavitt married Capt. Francis Peabody’s youngest daughter, Hephzibeth, then about sixteen years of age, and thus became more closely identified with James Simonds and James White, whose wives were also daughters of Capt. Peabody.[66]
When Jonathan and Daniel Leavitt had for several years been engaged in sailing the company’s vessels, it is said that they became discouraged at the outlook and talked of settling themselves at some place where there was a larger population and more business. James White did his best to persuade them to remain, closing his argument with the exhortation, “Don’t be discouraged, boys! Keep up a good heart! Why ships will come here from England yet!” And they have come.
In addition to the Leavitts and the masters of some of the other vessels, who were intelligent men, nearly all at St. John were ordinary laborers: however, the company from time to time employed some capable young fellows to assist in the Store at the Point. One of these was Samuel Webster, whose mother was a half-sister of James Simonds. He remained nearly four years at St. John, during which time he lived in the family of Simonds and White. While he was at St. John goods were shipped to Newburyport and the West Indies by the Company in considerable quantities. There were he says at times a very considerable number of workmen and laborers employed, and at other times a smaller number, according to the time of year, and as the nature of the employment required. The laborers were fed, supported and paid out of the store, and lived in a house only a few rods from Mr. Simonds’ house. Emerson spent most of his time in the store, buying and selling and delivering small articles. He generally made the entries in the Day Book.
Another lad, Samuel Emerson, of Bakerstown, Massachusetts, came to St. John with James Simonds in April, 1767, as a clerk or assistant in the store, and remained nearly four years in the Company’s service.
At the expiration of the first year several changes occurred in the Company. Richard Simonds had died on the 20th January, 1765. Robert Peaslie seems not to have come to St. John, although it was stipulated in the contract that he should do so, and early in 1765 he withdrew from the Company. In the autumn of 1764, Leonard Jarvis, a young man of twenty-two years of age, became associated with William Hazen as co-partner in his business in Newburyport and became by common consent a sharer in the business at St. John. So far as we can judge from his letters, Mr. Jarvis was a man of excellent business ability. The accounts kept at Newburyport in connection with the Company’s business are in his handwriting and he attended to most of the correspondence with the St. John partners.
The writer of this history has among his historic documents and papers a number of account books in a very fair state of preservation, containing in part the transactions of the company during the years they were in business at St. John. One of these, a book of nearly 100 pages, ordinary foolscap size with stout paper cover, is of special interest for it contains the record of the initial transactions of the first business firm established at St. John a hundred and forty years ago. At the top of the first page are the words
Day Book No. 1.
1764. St. Johns River.
The book is intact and very creditably kept. The entries are in the hand writing of James White. The accounts during the continuance of the partnership were kept in New England currency or “Lawful money of Massachusetts.” The letters L. M. were frequently employed to distinguish this currency from sterling money and Nova Scotia currency. The value of the Massachusetts currency was in the proportion of £1 sterling to £1. 6s. 8d. L. M.; the Nova Scotia dollar, or five shillings, was equivalent to six shillings L. M. It is a fact worth recording, that the Massachusetts currency was used in all ordinary business transactions on the River St. John down to the time of the arrival of the Loyalists in 1783. This fact suffices to show how close were the ties that bound the pre-loyalist settlers of the province to New England, and it is scarcely a matter of surprise that during the Revolution the Massachusetts congress found many sympathizers on the River St. John.
While accounts were kept according to the currency of New England, the amount of cash handled by Simonds and White was insignificant. For years they supplied the settlers on the river with such things as they required often receiving their payment in furs and skins. In securing these the white inhabitants became such expert hunters and trappers as to arouse the jealousy of the Indians and to give rise to the pseudo-nym “the bow and arrow breed,” applied to them by some of the half-pay officers who settled among them at the close of the American Revolution. With the Indians the trade was almost entirely one of barter, the staple article being the fur of the spring beaver.
The fur trade assumed large proportions at this period. The account books of Simonds and White that are now in existence do not contain a complete record of all the shipments made from St. John, but they show that during ten years of uninterrupted trade from the time of their settlement at Portland Point to the outbreak of the Revolution, they exported at least 40,000 beaver skins, 11,022 musquash, 6,050 Marten, 870 otter, 258 fisher, 522 Mink, 120 fox, 140 sable, 74 racoon, 67 loup-cervier, 8 wolverene, 5 bear, 2 Nova Scotia wolf, 50 carriboo, 85 deer, and 1,113 moose, besides 2,265 lbs. of castor and 3,000 lbs of feathers, the value of which according to invoice was £11,295 or about $40,000. The prices quoted are but a fraction of those of modern days and by comparison appear ridiculously small. Other traders were engaged in traffic with the Indians also, and if Messrs. Simonds and White sent on an average 4,000 beaver skins to New England every year, it is manifest that the fur trade of the river was a matter of some consequence.
James White was the principal agent in bartering with the Indians who had every confidence in his integrity. Three-fourths of their trade was in beaver skins and “a pound of spring beaver” (equivalent to 5 shillings in value) was the unit employed in trade. Mr. White was usually called by the Indians “K’wabeet” or “Beaver.” It is said that in business with the Indians the fist of Mr. White was considered to weigh a pound and his foot two pounds both in buying and selling. But the same story is told of other Indian traders. The Indians were fond of finery and ornaments. Among the articles sent by Samuel Blodget in 1764 were nine pairs of green, scarlet and blue plush breeches at a guinea each; one blue gold laced jacket and two scarlet gold laced jackets valued at £3 each; also spotted 183 ermine jackets, ruffled shirts and three gold laced beaver hats (value of the latter £8 6s. 4d.) These may seem extravagant articles for the Indians yet their chiefs and captains bought them and delighted to wear them on special occasions.[67] It was customary in trading with the savages to take pledges from them, for the payment of their debts, silver trinkets, armclasps, medals, fuzees, etc. In the autumn of 1777 a Yankee privateer from Machias, whose captain bore the singular name A. Greene Crabtree, plundered Simonds & White’s store at Portland Point and carried off a trunk full of Indian pledges. This excited the indignation of the Chiefs Pierre Thoma and Francis Xavier who sent the following communication to Machias: “We desire you will return into the hands of Mr. White at Menaguashe the pledges belonging to us which were plundered last fall out of Mr. Hazen’s store by A. Greene Crabtree, captain of one of your privateers; for if you don’t send them we will come for them in a manner you won’t like.”
The goods kept in the store at Portland Point for the Indian trade included powder and shot for hunting, provisions, blankets and other “necessaries” and such articles as Indian needles, colored thread, beads of various colors, a variety of buttons—brass buttons, silver plated buttons, double-gilt buttons, scarlet buttons and blue mohair buttons—scarlet blue and red cloth, crimson broadcloth, red and blue stroud, silver and gold laced hats, gilt trunks, Highland garters, silver crosses, round silver broaches, etc., etc.
The old account books bear evidence of being well thumbed, for Indian debts were not easy to collect, and white men’s debts were harder to collect in ancient than in modern days. In point of fact the red man and the white man of the River St. John ran a close race in their respective ledgers. For in a statement of accounts rendered after the operations of the company had lasted rather more than two years, the debts due were as follows: From the English £607 11s. 9d. and from the Indians £615 7s. 9d. Old and thumb-worn as the account books are, written with ink that had often been frozen and with quill pens that often needed mending, they are extremely interesting as relics of the past, and are deserving of a better fate than that which awaited them when by the merest accident they were rescued from a dismal heap of rubbish.
In their business at Portland Point, Simonds and White kept four sets of accounts: one for their Indian trade, a second for their business with the white inhabitants, a third for that with their own employees, and a fourth for that with the garrison at Fort Frederick.
In glancing over the leaves of the old account books the first thing likely to attract attention is the extraordinary consumption of West India spirits and New England rum. This was by no means confined to the Company’s laborers, for at that time the use of rum as a beverage was almost universal. It was dispensed as an ordinary act of hospitality and even the preacher cheerfully accepted the proffered cup. It was used in winter to keep out the cold and in summer 184 to keep out the heat. It was in evidence alike at a wedding or a funeral. No barn-raising or militia general muster was deemed to be complete without the jug, and in process of time the use of spirits was so habitual that Peter Fisher was able to quote statistics in 1824 to prove that the consumption of ardent liquors was nearly twenty gallons per annum for every male person above sixteen years of age. While the use of rum may be regarded as the universal custom of the day, at the same time tobacco was not in very general use. The use of snuff, however, was quite common.
In the course of a few years the variety of articles kept in stock at the company’s store increased surprisingly until it might be said they sold everything “from a needle to an anchor.” The paces at which some of the staple articles were quoted appear in the foot note.[68] Among other articles in demand were fishing tackle, blue rattan and fear-nothing jackets, milled caps, woollen and check shirts, horn and ivory combs, turkey garters, knee buckles, etc. Among articles that strike us as novel are to be found tin candlesticks, brass door knobs, wool cards, whip-saws, skates, razors and even mouse traps. Writing paper was sold at 1s. 3d. per quire. The only books kept in stock were almanacks, psalters, spelling books and primers.
Still though the variety at first glance seems greater than might have been expected, a little further inspection will satisfy us that the life of that day was one of extreme simplicity, of luxuries there were few, and even the necessaries of life were sometimes scanty enough.
One hundred and forty years have passed since James Simonds and James White set themselves down at the head of Saint John harbor as pioneers in trade to face with indomitable energy and perseverance the difficulties of their situation. These were neither few nor small, but they were Massachusetts men and in their veins there flowed the blood of the Puritans. The determination that enabled their progenitors to establish themselves around the shores of the old Bay States upheld them in the scarcely less difficult task of creating for themselves a home amidst the rocky hillsides that encircled the Harbor of St. John.
Today the old pioneers of 1764 would hardly recognize their ancient landmarks. The ruggedness of old Men-ah-quesk has in a great measure disappeared; valleys have been filled and hills cut down. The mill-pond where stood the old tide mill is gone and the Union depot with its long freight sheds and maze of railway tracks occupies its place. “Mill” street and “Pond” street alone remain to tell of what has been. The old grist mill near Lily Lake and its successors have long since passed away. It certainly was with an eye to business and not to pleasure, that Hazen, Simonds and White built the first roadway to Rockwood Park. Could our pioneers in trade revisit the scene of their labors and note the changes time has wrought what would be their amazement? They would hardly recognize their surroundings. Instead of rocks and crags covered with spruce and cedar, with here and there an open glade, and the wide spreading mud flats at low tide they would behold the wharves that line our shores, the ocean steamships lying in the channel, grain elevators that receive the harvests of Canadian wheat-fields two thousand miles away, streets traversed by electric cars and pavements traversed by thousands of hurrying feet, bicyclists darting hither and thither, squares tastefully laid out and adorned with flowers, public buildings and residences of goodly proportions and by no means devoid of beauty, palatial hotels opening their doors to guests from every clime, institutions for the fatherless and the widow, the aged, the poor, the unfortunate, the sick the insane, churches with heaven directing spires, schools whose teachers are numbered by the hundred and pupils by the thousand, public libraries, courts of justice and public offices of nearly every description, business establishments whose agents find their way into every nook and corner of old-time Acadie, railways and steamboats that connect the city with all parts of the globe, splendid bridges that span the rocky gorge at the mouth of the St. John where twice in the course of every twenty-four hours the battle, old as the centuries, rages between the outpouring torrent of the mighty river and the inflowing tide of the bay.
A few years since the writer of this history in an article in the New Brunswick Magazine endeavored to contrast a Saturday night of the olden time with one of modern days.[69]
A COTTAGE OF TODAY.
“Saturday night in the year 1764—The summer sun sinks behind the hills and the glow of evening lights the harbor. At the landing place at Portland Point, one or two fishing boats are lying on the beach, and out a little from the shore a small square sterned schooner lies at her anchor. The natural lines of the harbor are clearly seen. In many places the forest has crept down nearly to the water’s edge. Wharves and shipping there are none. Ledges of rock, long since removed, crop up here and there along the harbor front. The silence falls as the day’s work is ended at the little settlement, and the sound of the waters rushing through the falls seems, in the absence of other sounds, unnaturally predominant. Eastward of Portland Pond we see the crags and rocks of the future city of the Loyalists, the natural ruggedness in some measure hidden by the growth of dark spruce and 186 graceful cedar, while in the foreground lies the graceful curve of the “Upper Cove” where the forest fringes the waters edge. We may easily cross in the canoe of some friendly Indian and land where, ten years later, the Loyalists landed, but we shall find none to welcome us. The spot is desolate, and the stillness only broken by the occasional cry of some wild animal, the song of the bird in the forest and the ripple of waves on the shore.
The shadows deepen as we return to the Point, and soon the little windows of the settlers’ houses begin to glow. There are no curtains to draw or blinds to pull down or shutters to close in these humble dwellings, but the light, though unobstructed shines but feebly, for ’tis only the glimmer of a tallow candle that we see or perhaps the flickering of the firelight from the open chimney that dances on the pane.
In the homes of the dwellers at St. John Saturday night differs little from any other night. The head of the house is not concerned about the marketing or telephoning to the grocer; the maid is not particularly anxious to go “down town;” the family bath tub may be produced (and on Monday morning it will be used for the family washing), but the hot water will not be drawn from the tap. The family retire at an early hour, nor are their slumbers likely to be disturbed by either fire alarm or midnight train. And yet in the olden times the men, we doubt not, were wont to meet on Saturday nights at the little store at the Point to compare notes 187 and to talk over the few topics of interest in their monotonous lives. We seem to see them even now—a little coterie—nearly all engaged in the company’s employ, mill hands, fishermen, lime-burners, laborers, while in a corner James White pores over his ledger posting his accounts by the light of his candle and now and again mending his goose-quill pen. But even at the store the cheerful company soon disperses; the early-closing system evidently prevails, the men seek their several abodes and one by one the lights in the little windows vanish. There is only one thing to prevent the entire population from being in good time for church on Sunday morning, and that is there is not any church for them to attend.
Then and now! We turn from our contemplation of Saturday night as we have imagined it in 1764 to look at a modern Saturday night in St. John. No greater contrast can well be imagined. Where once were dismal shades of woods and swamps, there is a moving gaily-chattering crowd that throngs the walks of Union, King and Charlotte streets. The feeble glimmer of the tallow candle in the windows of the few houses at Portland Point has given place to the blaze of hundreds of electric lights that shine far out to sea, twinkling like bright stars in the distance, and reflected from the heavens, serving to illuminate the country for miles around. Our little knot of villagers in the olden days used to gather in their one little store to discuss the day’s doing; small was the company, and narrow their field of observation; and their feeble gossip is today replaced by the rapid click of the telegraph instruments, the rolling of the steam-driven printing press and the cry of the newsboy at every corner; the events of all the continents are proclaimed in our streets almost as soon as they occur.
And yet from all the luxury and ease, as well as from the anxiety and cares of busy modern days, we like sometimes to escape and get a little nearer to the heart of nature and to adopt a life of rural simplicity not far removed from that which once prevailed at Portland Point, content with some little cottage, remote from the hurry and din of city life in which to spend the good old summer time.”