The Peterborough Review, July 23, 1910, applauds the state of Minnesota in its efforts to curb the use of “the old tin cup, the gourd and the cracked water glass” at “free drinking places.” A notice that the state intends to post at public wells and fountains reads: “Warning. Dangerous diseases, such as diphtheria, tuberculosis, […]
Category: Social History
Changing Ontario farm life in the modern times of 1907
Baker’s bread, store-bought food and manufactured clothing were all part of the “changes that have taken place in farm life in Ontario within…[the] recollection” of its older readers, reflects Toronto’s Weekly Sun, June 12, 1907. These changes are scarcely noticed in the hurry and bustle of every day affairs, and yet they are nothing […]
Billiards keep the upper class boys at home
An upstairs billiard room is an effective antidote to athletic sports that “disintegrate family life,” says the Toronto Mail and Empire, September 9, 1905. With athletic sports, “The boys are at baseball matches, the gymnasium, on the road bicycling. They are never at home, except to eat and sleep.” If a man installs “a […]
Doff your hat to honour the dead
Men once doffed their hats whenever a funeral procession passed by, to honour and respect the dead. But this letter published in the London, Ontario Advertiser July 22, 1905, lamented that the fading of the custom. The other day as a funeral was passing down the streets of our city a man who was driving […]
Dawson Nuggets’ epic Stanley Cup quest
From Dawson City, capital of the Yukon gold fields, 10 men of the Dawson Nuggets hockey team set off on December 19, 1904 on a 4,000-mile, 24-day journey by bicycle, dog sled, train, and ship for Ottawa, in quest of the world hockey championship, the Stanley Cup. They are to pick up one more […]
Barnado’s waifs in Britain and Canada
Boys from the slums of English cities, sheltered on an unknown date by Bernardo Homes. By 1939, some 30,000 Barnardo children were brought to Canada, the boys working on farms and the girls working as domestic servants. Wikimedia Commons, Wellcome Library, London, Welcome Images. “The August-September issue of the National Waif’s Magazine, the official […]
Great joy, Sunday Blue Laws banned
Many of the more dour of Canada’s early Scottish settlers “scotched” such Sunday activities as cards, games, music and even whistling or singing (except hymns in church). Theatres were shuttered and streetcars and railways came to a stop. Many sports were also prohibited under Lords Day Profanation Acts passed by several provincial and territorial […]
Scandal when Lady Aberdeen drinks tea with servants
Ishbel Maria Couts Marjoribanks Gordon, Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair, was not governor-general, as Saturday Night states, but possibly it was just that she was considered the power behind the throne. The governor general was her husband, Lord Aberdeen, a social crusader like his wife. Canada’s first aristocratic feminist, Lady Aberdeen (1857-1939) did not […]
The stink of dirty money
Dirty money was once more than a metaphor. It had a horrible stench, according to this letter published in the London, Ontario Advertiser, April 4, 1902. An open letter to the Hon. W.S. Fielding, minister of finance, and to all the general managers of the Canadian banks: Gentlemen — Are you willing, by a single […]
Business against 8-hour work day
British Columbia would be crippled by a mandatory eight-hour work day, proposed by an independent member of the Legislature, a delegation of 20 businessmen warns in a meeting with Premier John Oliver and his cabinet, the Victoria Times reports, November 11, 1921. A resolution passed by the Canadian Manufacturers’ Association and endorsed by the business […]