The amount of personal travelling and introduction was laborious, but was pleasant, in renewing acquaintanceships and connections formed as General Passenger Agent of the Northern Railway when working up the new Couchiching and Muskoka tourist business introduced in the several preceding years.
It was in this season of 1878 that the converging railways in the districts spreading from the south and southwest towards Buffalo, began a system of huge excursions for three days to Niagara Falls and return, on special trains both ways, and at rates for the round trip not far from, and often less, than single fare. Most of these separate railways have since been merged into some one or other of the main Trunk Lines, but then they were independent and each sending in its quota on its own account to make up a "Through Special." The most successful excursions of these were the series which came every week from the then Wabash District, from Indiana and the southwest, and were known as the "Friendly Hand" excursions. The name arose from a special trade mark which appeared in all the Wabash folders and announcements, of an outstretched hand with the thumb and fingers spread, on each of which was shown the line and principal stations of each one of the contributing railways that fed their excursions into the main stem. The excursionists were energetic, and although the "Falls" was the focus of their route, we induced large numbers of them to cross over to Toronto. A prevailing slogan was:
"One day to Falls,
One day to stay,
Next day Toronto
And then 'get away.'"
When the long special excursion train slowly came down the curve from the town station at Niagara to the dock to join the steamers, it was gall and wormwood to the City or the Rothesay, lying in waiting, to see the crowd of linen duster tourists as they poured out of the train make straight for the Chicora, "The boat with the two red funnels." We got them all, for we had many and right good friends.
In those early days, before the "Park Commissioners" on both sides of the river had taken public possession of the surroundings, there were few places at the Falls from which either the river or the rapids could be seen without paying a fee. The proprietors of these places issued tickets in little books, containing coupons for admittance to all, or to a selection, of these "points of interest," and put them all in the hands of the managers of the excursions. The advertisement "dodgers" announced:
Special Inducement for this
Excursion to the Falls
| {Suspension Bridge and Return | 25c. | |
| The regular prices | {Prospect Park | 25c. |
| for Admission are to | {Art Gallery | 25c. |
| {Museum and Operators | 50c. | |
| {Garden of Living Animals | 25c. |
One ticket purchased on the train for $1.00
Admits the Holder to all these regular prices.
A good round commission on these sales was a helpful "find" or "side cut" to the energetic young railway men who personally accompanied these excursions, through their trains, on the way to the Falls, carrying large satchels with their selections of "Points of Interest" and other tickets, and answering the multitude of enquiries made by their tourist patrons. An extension ticket to "Toronto and Return" was a pleasant addition to their wares, and a satisfactory introduction to us. Some of these travelling passenger men, by their energy and successful handling of these excursions, brought themselves into notice, and afterwards rose to be heads of Passenger Departments, and even into Presidents of Railways! As a reminder of their trip each tourist was given by us a souvenir of Toronto, and even if excursionists struck a rough day and rendered up their tributes to Lake Ontario, it was of novel interest to many who had never before seen a lake wide enough to have been "out of sight of land," and sailing over waves big enough to make a large steamer rock.
In this way began what has since been so greatly developed, the Reduced Rate Excursions to Toronto, via the Niagara River, and the making known of the features of the City as a Summer Resort by this advocacy, and the thousands of dollars which the Niagara Navigation Company has devoted to its advertising in all parts of the United States.