Chapter XXIII: Supplemental Annals and Sidelights of Social Life

UNDER CONFEDERATION

1867-1914

CONFEDERATION--IMPRESSIONS OF--FUNERAL OF D’ARCY M’GEE--PRINCE
ARTHUR OF CONNAUGHT--THE SECOND FENIAN RAID--THE “SILVER”
NUISANCE--ORGANIZATION OF CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILROAD--RUN ON
A SAVINGS BANK--FUNERAL OF SIR GEORGE ETIENNE CARTIER--NEW
BALLOT ACT--THE “BAD TIMES”--THE NATIONAL POLICY--THE ICE
RAILWAY--THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILROAD CONTRACT--THE FORMATION
OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA--OTHER CONGRESSES--THE
FIRST WINTER CARNIVAL--FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF ST. JEAN
BAPTISTE ASSOCIATION--THE GREAT ALLEGORICAL PROCESSION AND
CAVALCADE--THE MONUMENT NATIONAL--THE RIEL REBELLION--SMALLPOX
EPIDEMIC AND RIOTS--THE FLOODS OF 1886--THE FIRST
REVETMENT WALL--THE JESUITS ESTATES BILL AND THE EQUAL
RIGHTS PARTY--LA GRIPPE--THE COMTE DE PARIS--ELECTRICAL
CONVENTION--HISTORIC TABLETS PLACED--THE TWO HUNDRED AND
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF VILLE MARIE--THE BOARD OF TRADE
BUILDING BURNT--THE CITY RAILWAY ELECTRIFIED--HOME RULE FOR
IRELAND--VILLA MARIA BURNT--THE “SANTA MARIA”--CHRISTIAN
ENDEAVOURERS CONVENTION--THE CHATEAU DE RAMEZAY AS A PUBLIC
MUSEUM--MAISONNEUVE MONUMENT--LAVAL UNIVERSITY--QUEEN
VICTORIA’S DIAMOND JUBILEE--MONTREAL AND THE BOER WAR--THE
VISIT OF THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF CORNWALL--TURBINE STEAMERS--A
JAPANESE LOAN COMPANY--FIRST AUTOMOBILE FATALITY--FIRES AT
McGILL--ECLIPSE OF SUN--THE WINDSOR STATION ACCIDENT--THE
“WITNESS” BUILDING BURNT--THE OPENING OF THE ROYAL EDWARD
INSTITUTE--GREAT CIVIC REFORM--THE DEATH OF EDWARD VII--THE
“HERALD” BUILDING BURNT--THE EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS--MONTREAL A
WORLD CITY--THE DRY DOCK--THE “TITANIC DISASTER”--CHILD WELFARE
EXHIBITION--MONTREAL AND THE WAR OF 1914.

The same foreword as that prefacing a preceding chapter is similarly applicable here. The curious reader is warned to pursue the history of the main movements indicated, in the second part of special history.

Confederation was received with mixed feelings. There were many of the _parti national_ who thought that Confederation came too soon, that it had been hurried through without the people thoroughly being instructed in the details and without their being consulted, and that the French Canadians would be politically annihilated, a foreboding never realized. It was indeed the quietus to the _parti national_, who had opposed it in their newspaper, the Union Nationale, established in 1865 by Médéric Lanctot, which represented the views of the young blood opposed to Cartier, such as Messrs. Joseph Loranger, Doutre, Dorion, Judge Delorimier, Lanctot, Labelle, Laflamme and L.O. David, then a brilliant writer on its staff. But in 1867 on the advent of Confederation agitation ceased and the inevitable was accepted with growing satisfaction. The country, however, was at the time in a bad state, suffering from the abrogation of the reciprocity treaty in 1866.

The year 1868 marks an important event in the French Canadian life of the city, for it saw the Papal Zouaves leave Montreal on February 7th, to fight in Italy against Garibaldi who wished to curtail the temporal sovereignty of the papal throne. On February 15th the roof of St. Patrick’s Hall, the home of St. Patrick’s National Society, at the south end of Craig Street, fell in. In March the first 3-cent letter stamp was issued in Canada, and on April 1st the first postoffice savings banks were opened. This same month saw the assassination of D’Arcy McGee at Ottawa. His funeral took place in Montreal on April 13th and was a great public testimonial to his citizenship and to his devotion to his adopted country.

Eighteen hundred and sixty-nine is remembered as the year the present Governor General, H.R.H., the Duke of Connaught, then the young Prince Arthur, a bright, frolicsome, light-hearted boy, first came to the city, in August, to join his regiment, the First Battalion of the Rifle Brigade. Rosemount, at the head of Simpson Street, a house which was occupied by Sir John Rose, and afterwards owned by the Ogilvie family, was set aside for him, under the tutelage of Lord Elphinstone. His advent added to the military and social gaiety of the small city. Among the brilliant officers then in the city was Col. Garnett Wolseley, then known only as a gallant officer who had served in the Crimea, who had now gone on the Red River expedition to the Northwest to quiet the first Riel rebellion, which occurred about this time, and who lived, at this period, at 172 Havelock Terrace, Mountain Street, above the Canadian Pacific Railway bridge. Another was General Windham, who was buried in this city on February 12, 1870.

One of the acts of the young Prince was to open the Caledonia skating rink on December 15th. A photograph of this represents the Prince surrounded by such men as David Brown, A. McGibbon, F. Gardner, Colonel Lord Russell, Mr. Hugh Allan, Mr. Andrew Allan, Colonel Dyde, H. Hutchinson, the architect, and the Rev. Dr. Robert Campbell. During his stay the Prince also opened the Royal Arthur School on Workman Street, and conferred in the St. Patrick’s Hall the order of St. Michael and St. George on Mr. A.T. Galt,--a striking and unusual ceremony in those days.

The Sixth Art Exhibition was held in Montreal the next year on March 8th and Prince Arthur was present.

The young Prince had more functions for he was soon to accompany his regiment in repelling the second Fenian raid.

Meanwhile, about April 10, 1870, an intimation having been received by the Dominion Government, from the British Minister at Washington, of an intended Fenian raid into Canada, several frontier corps were ordered to hold themselves in readiness for immediate action. There was great military enthusiasm in the city and by the end of the week all the battalions so ordered were under arms. From Montreal, on the Monday following the receipt of this information, Muir’s troop of cavalry was ordered out and they arrived at Huntingdon on Tuesday afternoon, whither also went Prince Arthur. Colonel Chamberlain had already gone to Missisquoi to bring out the force under his command, whilst a large force of the volunteers in Montreal was collected under Lieutenant-Colonel Fletcher, the entire force being under Colonel Lowry.

The volunteer movement received an impetus and recruiting was lively. During the following week the streets of Montreal appeared gay with marching troops and sounds of martial music from the many bands which were moving to and from the execution of their military duties, now vividly recalled by the citizens of that time who have lived to see the great call to arms of 1914.

The day after the Queen’s Birthday, May 25th, the band of 200 of these, misguided Fenians, under command of “General” O’Neil, crossed the frontier and entered Canada, trying to effect a lodgment at Pigeon Hill. A finely equipped little army of itself in the shape of the Prince Consort’s Own Rifles (Regulars), 700 strong under command of Lord A. Russell and accompanied by our present Governor-General, then Prince Arthur, went by special train to St. Johns, where the volunteers had preceded them.

General Lindsay assumed command of the whole. The only fighting that occurred was at Cook’s Corners, where the whole of the Canadian troops did not exceed seventy men, though ample reserves were in waiting at points near at hand. The actual fighting was of no importance; it was a flash in the pan that made a great scare.

On May 26th President Grant issued a proclamation against Fenian raids into Canada and on May 30th in Montreal the mayor thanked the volunteers for their services. Little had had to be done but it was serious work mobilizing and there was much activity over the city in preparation.

Several other events are to be recorded for this year, the appearance of the Tyne Crew and the meeting to form the Dominion Board of Trade. The Frazer Institute was incorporated in 1870 and opened to the public in 1885 after a long delay from litigious actions. This year the “silver” nuisance was lessened by the export of $4,000,000 at a cost of $140,000, through the adoption of the plan of Sir Francis Hincks and Mr. William Weir, afterward president of the Ville Marie Bank.

In 1871 the first post cards issued by the Dominion postoffice were welcomed in the city. In this year the fuller organization of the Canadian Pacific Railway, organized by Montreal men, took place and the preliminary surveys were made for which Parliament had in 1870 appropriated $250,000.

On February 27, 1872, loyal Montreal observed the day as one of thanksgiving for the recovery of the Prince of Wales. On April 27th the intense interest of Montrealers in the new railway culminated in the voting on the million dollar railway subsidy. October 2d of this year saw St. Patrick’s Hall burned down; a run on the City and District Bank on the 7th, which was stopped by a citizen’s large deposit and by the timely advice of the Rev. Father Dowd, the pastor of St. Patrick’s parish; and on the 17th the city cars, then horse drawn, were stopped, owing to the animals suffering from the epizooty. This year was marked by the establishment of the first cotton mill at Hochelaga.

The memorable events of 1873 include the obtaining of the charter of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the public funeral in Montreal, on June 13th, of Sir George Etienne Cartier, who died in London on May 20th at the age of fifty-nine years, the unveiling of the statue of Queen Victoria by Lord Dufferin and the opening of the Wesleyan Theological College and the new Y.M.C.A. building.

In 1874 the manifesto of the Canada First party was issued on January 6th, preceding the general elections of January 29th.

In March the Queen’s Hall, the home of concerts and theatrical entertainments, was burnt down.

In September, 1875, the reinterment of Guibord in the Catholic cemetery took place under military escort.

On May 26th an act was passed that introduced vote by ballot, simultaneous elections, the abolition of property qualifications for members of the House of Commons and stringent enactments against corrupt practices at elections. On June 6, 1876, the Emperor and Empress of Brazil were entertained in this city.

This year was chiefly noticeable for trade depression and the number of business failures. This was in consequence of the bad times begun in 1874. On August 14th a great mass meeting was called to consider the Montreal taxes. The country was in a poor state after the abrogation of the reciprocity treaty with the United States and was suffering from the reaction after the Civil war.

In 1875 the Mechanics Bank and the Banque Jacques Cartier suspended payment. The industries were very few and could not compete with those of the States, and agriculture was feeble. There were heavy duties to pay for the many goods coming from the States. There was little population and many crossed the border line. Work was scarce; there was great distress. People were starving and free public soup kitchens were established for poor relief by the charitable agencies. Funds were too low for more liberal treatment. Politicians placed the blame on the free trade policy of Mr. McKenzie’s party then in power. This was opposed to the genius and the needs of a young country feeling its industrial way. While the Americans had a duty at that time of twenty to seventy per cent the Canadians for purely revenue purposes had only something like fifteen per cent, and nothing for protection. The occasion was one that demanded practical relief and not finely strung political theories, built on the experience of the custom prevailing in England. But nothing was done so that the people became hopeless and gloomy and there was a project about this time, as already recorded, for annexation, encouraged by the American party in Montreal for business reasons.

Meanwhile the city saw, in June and July, of 1878, the Orange troubles and the shooting of Hackett, a state of excitement no doubt caused by the general unsettled state of affairs. The great hope of this time was the national policy which Sir John A. Macdonald began to make public. The effect was magical at the start. In March, 1878, he expressed his opinion that to be prosperous Canada must adopt a “national policy” for the protection of home industries. It had to be fought out at the polls. There was now hope in every breast. Financial men began to look out for sites upon which to build mills and factories, the sugar refineries were reopened, the people took heart and when the policy carried at the polls in September by a tremendous majority and was ratified by a formal vote in the house, and when the national policy was introduced March 14, 1879, going into effect next day, it was felt that Montreal and Canada were saved. It was the remembrance of this that caused the older men to vote against reciprocity when before the public in 1911.

A social event of this year was the investiture by the Marquis of Lorne, Governor-General of Canada, authorized by Her Majesty, of the six knights of the most distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. Gregory.

On January 1, 1880, the South Eastern Railway began the construction of a railway across the ice from the north side of the river to the station between Bellerive Park and Longueuil Ferry, across to Longueuil. The contractors were Auguste Laberge & Son, who had built the city hall, its promoters being Mr. Sénecal, A.B. Foster, Judge Mousseau, J.B. Renaud and others. On the 29th of January loaded cars were drawn across to Montreal. Next day an engine of 50,000 pounds avoirdupois crossed from Montreal. On March 15th horses replaced the engines; on March 31st twenty cars were on the ice railway, when it began to be found insecure so that the rails were removed from the ice on April 1st.

In September the Governor General visited the exhibition at Montreal, when 50,000 persons were present.

On October 1st the contract was signed for the Canadian Pacific Railway, but at midnight on December 10th it was placed before the House. On February 16th of the next year the company received its letters patent and on May 2d broke the first ground for the great transcontinental railway.

On December 23d of this year Sarah Bernhardt made her first appearance here.

On January 5th, 1881, the South Eastern Railway laid a railway again across the ice but it was shortly abandoned on the loss of an engine by the freight train breaking through, without the loss of life.

The next year, 1882, was one of intellectual progress in the city for this year, on May 25th, the Royal Society of Montreal was formed with Sir William Dawson, principal of McGill, as president.

On August 21st there were the meetings of the Forestry and Agricultural congresses and on August 23d the American Association for the Advancement of Learning again chose the city for its convention after twenty-four years’ absence.

The first Montreal Winter Carnival was held in January, 1883, and was the outgrowth of a suggestion by Mr. R.D. McGibbon, an advocate of the city. One of the great features was the ice palace, which was erected in Dominion Square, a mediaeval castle of transparent crystal. The attack of 2,000 snowshoers, and the defence by the volunteers, was a great scene amid the detonation of bombshells and the interchange of pyrotechnic missles till at last the castle capitulated. After this an immense line of showshoers, each bearing aloft a blazing torch, scaled the mountain in a seemingly endless trail of fire. This has been repeated at more or less regular intervals but the fear that the ice palace would harm prospective immigrants through unnecessary fear of our bright, brisk and invigorating winter has caused the carnival pageant to fall into desuetude. Yet the carnival is but a development of the old frost fairs on the Thames, that most known being on the occasion of the visit of Charles II and the Royal Family to the Frost Fair of 1684, when the printers made a souvenir as follows:

Charles, King Mary, Duchess
James, Duke Anne, Princess
Katherine, Queen George, Prince
Hans in Kilder
London, printed by J. Croome on the ice on the River
Thames, Jan. 31st, 1684.

The month of June, 1884, was the scene of great festivity among the French-Canadian population on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the parent society of St. Jean Baptiste Association of Montreal, being taken to hold a national congress of French-Canadians from June 24th to the 28th, to inaugurate the placing of the first stone of the Edifice Nationale, which afterwards became the “Monument National.” Outside of the literary, artistic and other intellectual sessions of the congress there were public sports, balloon ascensions and amusements, and a great procession of all the societies of St. Jean Baptiste in Canada and the United States, when a magnificent array of allegorical cars representing the chief features of Canadian history passed through the principal streets of the city.

In addition there was a grand historical cavalcade representing St. Louis, King of France, receiving the oriflamme of St. Denis and departing for the Seventh Crusade. The dresses for this dignified cavalcade cost about ten thousand dollars and the whole spectacle was one that far surpassed any similar dramatic pageant that had preceded it or has followed since in Canada.

On January 1, 1884, the River St. Lawrence again notably flooded the lower part of Montreal as was usual in the spring.

On July 4, 1884, Louis Riel arrived at Duck Lake and began to inflame the discontent in the half-breeds and Indians, who feared dispossession of their lands by the incoming settlers and the encroachment of the iron road of the Canadian Pacific Railroad. This, together with the Soudan war then in progress, produced a revival of the military spirit so that in the following year, 1885, Montreal sent the Sixty-fifth Regiment to suppress the rebellion.

The Montreal contingent returned home at a critical juncture and was employed to quell the anti-vaccination riots of 1885. At this time a virulent epidemic of smallpox had broken out in the city and a compulsory vaccination act had been passed which was resented by a great portion of the people, many complaining that the vaccine used had poisoned them, while others complained on sentimental and medical grounds. It was a time of terror. Mobs attacked the houses and even the persons of Larocque, Drs. E. Persillier-Lachapelle, J.W. Mount, Hingston, and others, who were before the public as the chief promoters of the vaccination movement. Meanwhile the doctors appointed for each district had their stations and went from door to door to vaccinate, while the houses could be seen with their isolation papers posted on them and with guards around and the yellow ambulances plying through the streets, taking away the affected sick or the dead.

The friends of many of the victims refused to allow the patients to be removed to the Exhibition grounds where a temporary hospital had been arranged. All the local troops were called out. The cavalry was there, too. A tremendous mob assembled at Mount Royal and attacked it with stones. Many of the men received cuts in the face. When the mob was at its worst, it was discovered that there was no magistrate to read the riot act, and no ammunition for the rifles, in case the rifles had to be used. However, the cavalry rode through the crowds. A better feeling finally prevailed, so that the patients were peaceably allowed to be taken to the public hospital.

The epidemic had important results in the effect it had on the modernizing and reconstruction of the medical bureau of the city hall.

The Montreal annals of 1886 for January 2d recall the meetings of the famous evangelist, D.L. Moody. In the same month Sir John A. MacDonald, while in England, defended French-Canadian loyalty and affirmed at the same time that 40,000 of the best soldiers in Canada were ready to leave to defend Imperial interests in Burmah or Turkestan.

This year was signalized by Montreal’s worst inundation, so that on April 17th from the foot of Beaver Hall Hill there was a 5 cent ferry by boat and carts to St. James Street. The flood abated on April 20th, after having been five feet, ten inches above the revetment wall. A similar flood occurred next year and a delegation went to Ottawa to arrange with the Government for adequate protection. In consequence the following year a wooden embankment, filled with cement, was built and pumping stations were erected to protect Montreal from further inundations. This revetment wall, however, gave place to the present one of stone.

On the 28th of June the first passenger train to the Pacific left the city, reaching Vancouver on July 4th, a distance of 2,906 miles having been covered in 140 hours.

On May 12, 1888, the Quebec Parliament passed the Jesuits’ estates bill.

On September 3d the first labour day was celebrated in the city, 5,000 taking part in the procession.

During the next year, 1889, the Jesuits’ bill was contested by the Equal Rights party; finally the Quebec Legislature paid the Jesuits $400,000 which was further divided among Catholic educational bodies and an additional sum of $60,000 was turned over to the Protestant Board of Education.

The year 1890 opened with la grippe which was then prevalent in the United States, Canada and Europe.

On May 6th the lunatic asylum at Longue Pointe was burnt down with the loss of seventy lives, owing to the incendiarism of a patient.

This year saw the reception of the Comte de Paris and his son. The reception tendered them was a brilliant affair. Not only the French population but the English also received them most royally, although a counter demonstration was started by a few revolutionary spirits, but they had no following and their efforts came to nothing.

The annals of 1891 recall the arrival in the city, on August 21st, of the Continental Guards from New Orleans.

On September 8th there was the first electrical convention and this was followed on September 18th by the Montreal Exhibition, which took place on the former Guilbeault’s zoological and pleasure grounds above Mount Royal Avenue, these having been moved from the first location on Sherbrooke Street, the attendance at the exhibition being 50,000, surpassing those of 1880, 1881, 1883 and 1884.

Lovers of the antiquities of the city will note the date of October 21st, as that of the historic tablets being unveiled under the auspices of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Montreal, the movement having been promoted by Messrs. W.D. Lighthall with the aid of A.U. Beaudry, Gerald Hart and others of a subsequent committee.

The fifth jubilee of the founding of Montreal occurred in 1892. As early as April 17, 1888, a resolution was passed by the above association to celebrate it by an international exhibition in 1892. In October of 1888, Mr. Roswell Corse Lyman, one of its members, wrote a pamphlet “Shall we have a World’s Fair in Montreal in 1892 to celebrate the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Ville Marie?” It never eventuated in this city, but Montreal can rightly claim that through this pamphlet and the Montreal initiation the wonderful Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 had its origin.

In April many Jewish families left Montreal to colonize the Northwest.

April of 1893 opened with three incendiary fires and on April 3d Bonsecours Market was partially burnt with a loss of $20,000, without insurance. On May 18th the cornerstone of the new Board of Trade Building was laid by Sir Donald Smith, who humorously remarked that he had come down from Ottawa as a common labourer, but that his brother member of Parliament, Mr. J.J. Curran, afterward the Hon. Mr. Justice Curran, had come to make a speech. On May 28th the will of Mr. J.W. Tempest was published, bequeathing the Art Association of Montreal about $80,000. One of the first benefactors to this had been Mr. Benajah Gibb, a former citizen.

At the second congress of the Chambers of Commerce of the Empire, held in London from June 28th to July 1st, the Montreal Board of Trade was represented by Mr. Donald A. Smith and Mr. Peter Redpath.

On July 5th, Sir William Dawson welcomed the Teachers’ Association to the city.

This year the street railway of Montreal was electrified and city planners saw the beginning of the present leap in the growth of Montreal through its suburbs following on the annexations which began in 1883.

On July 19th the city granted a thirty years’ franchise to the Street Railway Company.

In 1893 the progress of McGill University since 1852 was made manifest. University life was enlivened in this city on January 20th, when the students of the universities of Vermont and McGill held a joint concert in the city. At this time McGill had sixty-six professors. In April the chairs of pathology and hygiene were founded by the chancellor, Sir Donald A. Smith. McGill was benefited this year by the addition of the engineering and physics building, the gift of (Sir) William C. Macdonald, by the workshops, the gift of Thomas Workman, the library, by Peter Redpath, and the new Aberdeen medal, given by the new Governor General, Lord Aberdeen. But in the midst of the triumphs of this year, McGill regretfully received the resignation of Sir William Dawson, whom it had received as its principal in 1852, the year of its second lease of life.

On February 23d the International Mining Association met in Montreal.

On April 24, 1893, the interest of Montrealers in Imperial politics was manifested by the telegram of St. Patrick’s Society to the Canadian statesman, the Hon. E.S. Blake, a member of Parliament for an English constituency, to congratulate Mr. Gladstone and himself on the second reading of the Home Rule bill.

On May 1st there was held the first meeting of the Corn Exchange in its newly erected building. On the 23d Montreal was visited by the tornado which passed over the province, but without much injury or death.

On June 8th, Villa Maria, belonging to the “Congregation” Sisters, one of the largest educational structures on the American continent, was destroyed by fire.

On June 19th the three caravels, intended as the facsimiles of the ships of Columbus, were at Montreal on their way to the World’s Fair at Chicago. In the summer of 1914 one of them, the Santa Maria, reappeared at Montreal on a long tour in preparation for the Panama Exhibition at San Francisco in 1915.

The harbour also saw in July the arrival of the warship Etna. July witnessed a great convention of many thousands of an unsectarian body named the Christian Endeavourers. This year the railways of Montreal were flourishing and the fact that 132 trains were daily entering by the Canadian Pacific and Grand Trunk railways show the steady growth of the population and commerce. The earnings of the Canadian Pacific Railway had increased by almost five million dollars since 1887.

On October 30th the city mourned the loss by death of a great Montrealer, the late Sir John Joseph Caldwell Abbott, K. C, M.G., a former mayor of the city and a prime minister of Canada. His burial took place on November 2d and his remains were followed by his successor, Sir John Thompson, and by many hundreds of the leaders of Canada.

The most important event closing the year of 1893 was the inauguration of the Royal Victoria Hospital in honour of Her Majesty, Queen Victoria.

On November 27th, Montreal experienced a shock of earthquake which was felt over Canada with no loss of life and little of property.

In 1894, Sir William Van Horne, the president of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and one of its pioneers, was knighted.

This year closed on December 31st with one of the greatest windstorms ever recorded in the history of Montreal, the velocity of the wind reaching eighty miles per hour, so that much damage was done.

In 1894, the first attempt towards a public portrait gallery, a museum of antiquities and the securing of the Château de Ramezay as its permanent home originated with the members of the Antiquarian Society of Montreal, the idea of the picture gallery arising with Mr. de Léry MacDonald, that of saving the Château from passing into private hands, with Mr. Roswell Lyman, and the employment of it as a public historical museum by Mr. W.D. Lighthall, which was promoted by a petition to the mayor and aldermen organized by Mr. R.W. McLachlan and others and signed by about three thousand principal citizens. The agitation was successful and the first reception was given in the Château de Ramezay on November 11, 1897.

The next year, 1895, was marked with the inauguration of other public movements. On June 6th the statue of Sir John A. MacDonald was unveiled in Dominion Square by Sir Donald A. Smith and the Maisonneuve monument by Phillipe Hébert was unveiled on the Place d’Armes on Monday, July 1st, by the Hon. J.A. Chapleau, lieutenant governor of the Province of Quebec, the president of the committee being M.S. Pagnuelo and the secretary being the Vicomte H. de la Barthe. This was followed on October 8th by the inauguration of the new edifice of the Montreal branch of Laval University, but recently established in the city.

In 1896, Sir Donald A. Smith, later Lord Strathcona, was appointed High Commissioner for Canada. Another prominent Montreal citizen, Mr. Charles M. Hays, was appointed general manager of the Grand Trunk Railway.

Among the notable city events of 1897 were the meeting, in Montreal, of the Behring Sea Commissioners on June 16th, the celebration of the first day of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, the consecration on June 30th of His Grace, Archbishop Bruchesi, by the Apostolic delegate, Mgr. Merry del Val, and the great meeting of the British Medical Society on August 31st.

In 1898 the public benefactions of a notable citizen, Sir William C. MacDonald, were rewarded by a knighthood.

January 1, 1899, is memorable as the day when the reduction of the 3 cent postage stamp to 2 cents came into force.

This year also marked the progress of the movement for the higher education of women by the opening of the Royal Victoria College for Women, being endowed with a gift of $1,000,000 by the chancellor of the University of McGill, Lord Strathcona.

This year being that of the beginning of the Boer war, Montreal again shared in the Imperial burden by providing a considerable part of the Canadian contingents for service in South Africa, it being represented in the first contingent by Company E, which sailed on October 30, 1899, and more largely in the second contingent which departed on January 4, 1900. The famous Strathcona Horse of three squadrons with 597 of all ranks sailed on March 1, 1900. During the progress of the war the citizens were actively engaged in promoting the patriotic fund and in works of providing comforts for the soldiers and those left behind by them.

During the course of 1900 the statue of Queen Victoria by Princess Louise was unveiled by the Governor General, Lord Minto.

The year 1901 was ushered in by the disastrous fire which destroyed the Board of Trade and many other commercial buildings on St. Paul Street to the extent of $2,500,000 loss. The new building was raised on the same site and was taken possession of on May 1, 1903.

On September 18, 1902, Montreal was honoured by the royal visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall, who are now happily reigning as King George V and Queen Mary. The loyalty of the city was manifested as on previous royal visits, the city being magnificently decorated and illuminated.

The growing importance of Montreal as a factor in Imperial commerce was demonstrated in the following year, 1903, when the Chambers of Commerce of the Empire met in the city.

The destruction by fire of the Mount Royal Club, frequented by the wealthiest and most important citizens, taking place this year is another sidelight calling attention to the growth of club life since the old Beaver Club days. Other clubs had, in the meantime, been established in great numbers to cope with the growth of its needs.

In 1905 the first turbine steamers to cross the Atlantic, the Virginian and Victorian, of the Allan Line, were placed on the St. Lawrence route, a fact showing that navigation methods at Montreal have always kept abreast with the times. This same year the value of new buildings erected was $5,590,698.

The year 1904 opened with a terrible conflagration at St. Cunégonde on January 18th.

On June 4th, Lord Dundonald, on military service in Canada, made his famous arraignment at the Windsor Hotel of his government, for which he was recalled on June 14th. The harbour this year showed the prevalent great commercial development when an elevator capable of holding 1,000,000 bushels was erected. On the 22d of August the Manufacturers’ Association held a great banquet at the Windsor Hotel. In November, Patti made her last appearance in the city to be followed on January 5, 1905, by Rejanne, both of these latter appearances chronicling the position of Montreal as a musical and dramatic centre. Since then great singers, such as Calvé, Albani, Caruso and others have each triumphed here, as have the leading instrumental artists.

The Russo-Japanese war was the occasion of a subscription for a Japanese loan being started on March 31st. On August 22d Royalty again visited Montreal in the person of Prince Louis of Battenberg.

In 1906 the Labour party in Montreal elected a labour representative, M. Alphonse Verville, for Maisonneuve. This year St. Helen’s Island was secured for the people of Montreal by a purchase by the city from the Federal Government for $200,000.

In this year the advent of the automobile era is recorded at Montreal by the first fatality occurring, on August 11th, in the death of one named Toutant.

In 1907 the early months saw the burning of the Protestant school at Hochelaga and the civil engineering and medical buildings of McGill University. On April 1st the old Theatre Royal, which had fallen from the high palmy days into flagrant spectacles of a low class of vaudeville, was interdicted by the Archbishop Bruchesi and its final doom occurred a few years later.

The Bremen, one of the first German cruisers to visit this port, arrived on August 25, 1907. A significant sidelight of a phase of the continued growth of Montreal is the signing, on November 7th, of the contract for the building of the new city prison at Bordeaux. This year the temperance movement was greatly forwarded by the foundation of the Anti-Alcoolique League on December 29th.

International trade expansion was demonstrated in Montreal on February 5th, when the Marconi commercial telegraph service was installed.

The eclipse of the sun of 1908 was visible at Montreal on July 22d.

In 1909 a great accident took place in the Windsor Station by a train running off the tracks causing damage to the extent of $200,000, but with the loss, however, of only four lives.

The shipping in the port this year was increased by the advent of the White Star Liners, S.S. Laurentic on May 7th, and S.S. Megantic on June 27th. On the 27th of August the steamship Prescott was burnt in the harbour. The “Back to Montreal” movement recalled citizens to their homes for the week beginning September 13th, while the following day saw the closing of the civic investigation into aldermanic scandals at the city hall to be followed by the “Cannon Report.”

On September 23d the Witness Building was gutted by fire. In October the Royal Edward Tuberculosis Institute, the first of its kind in Canada, was opened by telegraph from England by His Majesty, King Edward, who gave the name to the building. The last day of the year ended with a gas explosion at Viger Station with the loss of thirty-eight lives.

The year 1910 is memorable for the triumph of civic reform and the establishment of the Board of Control, owing to a change in the city charter, as the outcome of the referendum to the people in 1909, to stop which an aldermanic delegation to the Provincial Legislature had been fruitless.

In the year in question the electors were asked to vote on these two vital questions:

Do you approve of the creation of a Board of Control?

Do you approve of one alderman a ward instead of two?

The answer given to both of the queries was overwhelmingly in the affirmative. The following figures prove this beyond the question of a doubt:

SUMMARY OF THE VOTE

Votes.

For reduction of aldermen 19,585
Against reduction 1,640
------
Majority in favor 17,945

For Board of Control 18,528
Against Board of Control 2,413
------
Majority in favor 16,115

There was not a single ward, throughout the city, which did not favour the proposed changes and no less than 34 per cent of the entire vote was polled on this memorable occasion.

On May 6th, His Majesty, King Edward, died and loyal Montreal grieved as a city with majestic and magnificent emblems of sorrow over all the public buildings. On the occasion of the royal funeral in Westminster Abbey the city was represented by His Worship the mayor, Dr. J.J. Guerin. In preparation for this event the high commissioner of Canada, Lord Strathcona, in London, protested against the inferior position given to the representatives of autonomous colonies of the Empire and his timely intervention was generously acted upon.

The Montreal trade fleet again was reinforced in 1910 by the advent on May 11th of the Royal Edward from Bristol, the first of the Canadian Northern Railway steamers. On the 28th, of the same month, transportation was effected by the inauguration of the electric tramway between Longueuil and McGill streets via the Victoria Bridge.

In June the Herald Building, facing Victoria Square was destroyed by fire with the loss of thirty-three lives. During this month M. de Lesseps, of aviation fame, was received in the city hall, while on November 27th the city was visited by the Marquis de Montcalm, a name honoured in the city from the general who made Montreal his headquarters under the French régime.

In October a flight, however, has to be recorded--that of the plausible financial gambler, Sheldon, who had ruined many widows among his dupes. He was, however, captured in the following year and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.

But the Eucharistic Congress of 1910, held in Montreal, at the choice of the Catholic world, was an event before which all others of a social character have paled during recent years. It was prepared for long in advance as a great civic occasion, irrespective of its denominational character. The railway and steamship companies, the civic authorities and public bodies fitly put forth all their strength to make Montreal realize its now acknowledged position as a world city, which its choice connoted.

All was in readiness when Cardinal Vincenzo Vannutelli, at
the end of August, came to Quebec on the Empress of Britain,
to represent His Holiness, Pius X. There in the old City of
Champlain the eminent visitor was honourably and worthily
entertained. After this the Government tugboat, the Lady Grey,
and the Government steamboat Montmagny, with prominent members
of the legislature and leading citizens, accompanied by other
vessels, eighty yachts, motor boats, etc., went down to meet the
delegate on the way up the river. Meanwhile great crowds were
gathered to receive the party on the wharf, but the flotilla
entered the port on Saturday afternoon, September 3d, in a
downpour of torrential rain. At the foot of McGill Street, on
the wharf, a splendid kiosk, topped with a handsome cupola,
was crowded with the civic functionaries, who shortly left on
receiving the Cardinal and the whole party were forced to adjourn
to the city hall, where the ceremony of further reception by the
mayor, Dr. James J. Guerin, was more worthily and comfortably
performed. The rain, however, had not prevented the ringing
of church bells and the shrill whistling of half a hundred
steamships and numerous factories and the crowds of the expectant
citizens from voicing a welcome. From the city hall, the Papal
representative proceeded to the residence of Archbishop Bruchesi,
who had organized the congress, to be held in Montreal, the first
place in the new world to be so honoured by this national event,
a sign of the growing recognition of the place of Montreal in the
cities of the world. The Archbishop’s house was to be the home of
the Minister for the week.

On Tuesday evening the formal opening of the congress took
place in St. James’ Church on Dominion Square, amid picturesque
religious ceremonies and brilliant ecclesiastical functions that
surpassed anything previous on this continent. The delegate
opened his remarks by a recognition of the enthusiastic reception
given him by the provincial and municipal authorities, as well as
by all classes. Archbishop Bruchesi, in his address of welcome,
recognized the kindly feelings which other creeds had manifested
towards the congress, how many prominent non-Catholic citizens,
such as Lord Strathcona, had given their help in various
practical ways in demonstrations of a high spiritual belief
in the Unseen which the congress portended for all. Various
telegrams were sent to Pius X at Rome and to George V in London
expressing gratitude for the recent modification made by him in
the form of the royal declaration which had continued till then
to contain obsolete and obnoxious discriminations against a loyal
part of his subjects.

It may also be noted here that at the luncheon given that day
at the Windsor Hotel by Sir Lomer Gouin, prime minister of the
Province of Quebec, the Cardinal, proposing the health of the
King, congratulated the Canadians on the liberty that had been
assured them under the British King who had shown how he could
respect the legitimate susceptibilities of his Roman Catholic
subjects throughout the Empire.

In the evening of this day, September 7th, the representative of
the Federal Government, the Hon. Charles Murphy, Secretary of
State of Canada, gave his official reception, which was attended
by the largest throng of citizens that ever had entered this
hotel. That night, midnight high mass was celebrated at the Notre
Dame Church, which commenced when the great bell in the west
tower, weighing 24,600 pounds, pealed out the hour of midnight,
and the files of thousands of the representatives of the secular
clergy and of the religious orders, and the laity, with prelates
of a dozen different nations, assisted at a memorable occasion.

The practical work of the congress began on Thursday, September
8th. There were thirteen sessions held in the various large halls
of the city, and in addition there were three general meetings
held, two at Notre Dame Church and one in the Arena, at which
three the Cardinal Legate presided. On two successive evenings,
September 8th and 9th, 15,000 people crowded into the great
entrance of Notre Dame to hear the most distinguished French and
English speakers of the congress. Among those who spoke were His
Eminence, Cardinal Logue, Primate of Armagh, Ireland; Archbishop
Bourne, of Westminster, England; Archbishop Ireland, of St.
Paul, Minnesota; Monsignor Heylen, of Namur; Monsignor Touchet,
of Orleans; Monsignor Rumeau, of Angers; Hon. Judge O’Sullivan,
of New York; Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Sir Lomer Gouin, the Hon.
Thomas Chapais, and the Hon. C.J. Doherty, Henri Bourassa and
J.M. Tellier, members of the federal and provincial governments
of Canada. The sacred edifice, capable of seating 15,000, was
crammed to the utmost, hundreds upon hundreds standing for two or
three hours.

The enthusiasm was intense and the sacred edifice rang with
unwonted applause. The sanctuary and the stalls were filled
with brilliant ecclesiastical costumes and gay uniforms and
the church was a mass of colour. Perhaps the most electrical
moment of the evening was after the plea of the Archbishop of
Westminster advocating, before this vast audience which was for
the most part composed of French-Canadians of the Province of
Quebec, a more general adoption of the English language to meet
the changing conditions of Greater Canada, when Henri Bourassa,
who had already been appointed to speak at this point, took the
psychological opportunity of the occasion so temptingly offered
him, to voice the aroused thoughts of his compatriots to whom
their language, religion and racial traditions seemed inseparably
bound. His words were punctuated with thundering applause and the
waving of hats and hands amid a scence of vibrant national and
religious feeling, the while the people hung upon the word of
the speaker, who for the nonce was but the mouth-piece of their
individual thoughts made a scene which the writer will never
forget as an instance of a clever orator speaking under the best
and most popular surroundings.

The third meeting, at the Arena, was composed of about eight
thousand young men who were addressed by the Cardinal,
Archbishhop Langevin, of Manitoba, and by Mr. Henri Bourassa on
“Noble Ideals and Inspirations.” Both speakers urged them to hold
to their traditions and national rights. There was plenty of room
for English and French in Canada. Both could work out a noble
destiny in this young and growing country.

Another, but one of the most appealing spectacles of the
congress, was the procession of 30,000 school children who,
wearing picturesque dresses and bearing emblems and banners,
passed constantly before the Legate who was seated on the steps
of St. James’ Cathedral and received their individual courtesy,
the while he bestowed his blessing amid the thousands of
spectators assembled around Dominion Square, the whole making a
magnificent and unusual sight lasting for three hours, during
which time all traffic in the neighbourhood was absolutely
blocked.

The historic Mount Royal has witnessed many picturesque scenes
but none more so than the great open air mass celebrated on
Saturday, September 10th, at the foot of the mountain on the
great open space below Mount Royal Avenue, where a superb and
ornate altar, open to the winds of heaven, had been placed.
Around it were 100 bishops, 2,000 priests in their picturesque
costumes, and 200,000 of the faithful. A choir of 1,000 voices
responded to the chaunts of the celebrant, Monsignor Farley,
Archbishop of New York. Monsignor O’Connell, of Boston, and a
Dominican priest, Father Hage, preached to all who could hear
their voices. During the solemn celebration the Cardinal Legate
arrived at St. Patrick’s Church, where another function was
being held, and on his way to the altar he had to walk over a
path carpeted with flowers, and there pausing, he bestowed his
blessing on the kneeling multitude.

The supreme moment of the congress was to come in the great
procession the following day. For weeks the long route from the
Church of Notre Dame to the foot of Mount Royal, where stood the
altar already described, had been given over to architects and
workmen; tall handsome arches, things of beauty, had been raised
here and there along the route, one of them being made of wheaten
sheaves sent from the Western Canadian prairies. Thousands of
Venetian columns, obelisks, pedestals and flag poles lined the
streets; flags of all nations and innumerable electrical signs
adorned the housefronts.

The forenoon of Sunday was spent in completing the details of
the procession and precisely at 1 o’clock files of men, six
abreast, began to move past the doors of Notre Dame and, like
the corps of an immense army, then swung into the route of the
procession. Long before the route had been densely thronged, and
the mountain slopes thickly covered with expectant onlookers, for
the various railways centering in Montreal had reduced their
passenger rates in every direction within a radius of hundreds
of miles and trains laden with humanity had followed each other
at close intervals and unloaded their thousands all day Saturday
and during the early hours of Sunday. It is estimated by the
railway authorities that 200,000 strangers entered Montreal in
twenty-four hours to witness the procession. For hours before it
began the whole route was lined with people patiently waiting,
while at the foot of the mountain near the altar of repose at
least 75,000 had gathered, 20,000 of whom had been there from
early morning. It was an extraordinary spectacle to look from the
top of the mountain and see the mass of human beings moving in
every direction over the immense sward, all eventually turning
towards the handsome repository with its overtopping dome, the
whole a design of great architectural beauty. Downtown at 1
o’clock began the greatest demonstration of any kind, civic or
religious, that Canada ever witnessed. During four hours and a
half, between fifty and sixty thousand men marched silently and
prayerfully between at least half a million spectators lining
the route. The demonstration was international in its widest
extent. Citizens of the United States and Canada, together
with Lithuanians, Chinese, Syrians, Iroquois Indians in their
tribal costumes and feathers, Italians, Poles and a dozen other
nationalities besides, carrying their distinctive banners and
religious emblems, marched in one solid phalanx and in perfect
order.

But the most imposing spectacle of all was that following the
lay sections at 4 o’clock, when 1,000 choir boys, clothed in red
cassocks and surplices, followed by the Christian Brotherhoods,
hundreds of seminarians and the various religious orders of
the city took their place in the great procession; then came
2,000 priests in sacerdotal vestments, followed in order of
precedence by 100 bishops and archbishops, in cope and mitre. In
the rear of the papal officers and chamberlains came the huge
golden baldachino under which walked the tall majestic figure of
Cardinal Vannutelli, carrying the Sacred Host and accompanied
on both sides by ecclesiastical guards of honour and soldiers,
with children busily swinging censers and strewing flowers in
his path, the while the dense multitude, irrespective of creed,
bowed in the reverential awe of the moment. Behind the baldachino
walked Cardinals Logue and Gibbons, the prime minister of Canada,
Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the speaker of the House of Commons, members
of the federal and provincial governments, members of the
legislative council, the mayor of Montreal, the chief justice
and judges of the Superior Court of Canada, all in their robes
of office, members of the city council and a long line of men
belonging to the liberal professions. When these last bands
accompanying the Legate arrived it was already growing dusk and
the electric lights on the waiting altar glowed in the gloom. A
thousand voices entoned the Tantum Ergo, the Cardinal ascended
the steps, took the remonstrance containing the Sacred Host
and, raising it aloft over the 200,000 men, women and children
kneeling on the grass, gave the benediction of the congress.

The congress was over. Lights went out and the bishops and their
attendant clergy retired to the neighbouring convent of the Hôtel
Dieu to doff their robes, marching down Pine Avenue chanting
the Gregorian “Te Deum,” which sounded like the war song of the
priests, and gradually the vast multitude dispersed to their
homes.

The events of the succeeding year of 1911 recall the general federal elections on July 11th on the question of a renewal of reciprocity with the United States when, as has been said, it was rejected by an overwhelming majority of the electorate, notably in Montreal.

Harbour development was signalized this year by the signing of the contract with the Canadian Vickers Company for the new dry docks at the east end, and on October 4th in fitting recognition to a great harbour builder, the monument of the Hon. John Young was unveiled on the water front by Earl Grey. Meanwhile the general city development and expansion had been steadily increasing since the annexations of 1883. Its population and religions were becoming increasingly cosmopolitan and domestic troubles among the Mohammedans of the city on July 10th sufficiently indicate this.

The year 1912 is memorable at Montreal through the sorrow caused in the city by the loss of the White liner S.S. Titanic, a huge vessel with a displacement of 60,000 tons, which struck a submerged iceberg off Cape Race on April 14th with the loss of 1,600 souls on board. While the whole world thrilled with horror at the new revelation of the dangers of the sea to modern leviathans, Montreal had its particular grief in the loss of some of its respected citizens, Charles M. Hays, president of the Grand Trunk Railway system, Markland Molson, Thornton Davidson, Vivian Payne, Q. Baxter, R.J. Levy, Mr. and Mrs. H. Allison and daughter, and Albert Malette.

The churches of the city universally mourned this world-wide disaster at the services of April 21st.

The month of October is memorable as the occasion of the great educational Child Welfare Exhibition held for a fortnight under the auspices of the humanitarian societies of the city in the Craig Street Drill Hall, and drawing immense crowds.

The year 1913 was remarkable for the extraordinary activity in building operations. As elsewhere related in the special chapter on City Improvement, Montreal gave more evidences of being a modern New York rather than the Ville Marie of old. It may be called the year of the great real estate boom.

But the last weeks of this year will stand out in civic history as a serious warning of the possibility of a city being deprived of its water supply for a long period with the additional terror of fire and disease. For 193 hours, beginning with Christmas night, the greater part of Montreal was deprived of water by the breaking of the concrete conduit at Lachine. Its story is told elsewhere.

The year 1914 has been one of the greatest gloom. Shortly before 3 o’clock early in the morning of May 29th the disquieting news was flashed from Quebec to Commander J.T. Walsh, superintendent of the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company, that about 2:30 o’clock its greatest steamer, the Empress of Ireland, had been struck about thirty miles east of Farther Point, but without further information. Shortly another report told that it had been struck by the Storstad, a Norwegian collier bound for Montreal, and was sinking rapidly in sight of Rimouski. At first the news was not credited as possible, but it was too true. The ship sank almost immediately, being struck in the bowels and filling straightway with water. Montrealers felt the disaster most keenly, as its sister ships have their headquarters here and its officers were men personally known on the St. Lawrence and the Montreal route. Of the total 1,367 souls on board, 959 lives were lost and less than four hundred saved. The disaster was faced with courage and sympathetic humanitarianism by the many officers of the company who journeyed down to Quebec and spared no effort by night or day to make the tragedy less painful to the relatives of the survivors. The sailor institutions of Montreal on this occasion were glad to cooperate with those of Quebec and supervised the sad task of identifying the drowned and burying the bodies of the sailors as they were rescued from the waters or the shores of Rimouski and taken to the mournful morgues at Quebec.

Towards the end of July, 1914, war was declared between Austria and Servia. This involved Germany on the side of Austria, and Russia and France on the side of Servia, and on August 30th Great Britain because of Germany breaking the neutrality of Belgium, entered what was to be the most devastating war in the history of nations. Canada at once declared her loyalty to the Motherland in a very practical way. The Federal government presented 3,000,000 bags of flour and raised a contingent of 33,000 of her best men. The Provinces vied with each other in contributing huge quantities of wheat, flour, apples, and in the case of the Province of Quebec, 2,000,000 pounds of cheese. A National Patriotic Fund was started with branches in every municipality throughout the Dominion--Montreal’s contribution totalling $2,000,000, in addition to which a Montreal citizen, A. Hamilton Gault, gave $500,000 to raise a regiment to be composed of veterans. This regiment of 1,000 picked men was named after the daughter of the Governor-General, the Duke of Connaught, the “Princess Patricia Light Infantry” and joined the first contingent, which left Canada on October 2nd, in thirty-one transports, principally vessels trading to Montreal, and under eleven convoys. This armada, which was the largest that ever sailed the Atlantic seas, reached Plymouth, October 16th, and the contingent was immediately entrained to Salisbury Plain to complete its training. Montreal contributed 3,200 men towards this first contingent. Their arrival in England was the occasion of much popular satisfaction at this great spectacle of Imperial union.

Whatever doubts there might have been in the minds of some people as to the responsibility of Canada in the Boer war there was absolutely none in this crisis. The spontaneity of the Canadian people in rising to their privileges as British citizens has never been so pronounced. Every man and every woman in the Dominion, irrespective of national origin, wanted to do something to aid the Motherland. And Montreal was in the van.

Immediately the first contingent embarked the government decided on raising a second and recruiting started afresh. While the French-Canadians of the country had contributed 2,146 to the first contingent, being the more notable contribution of Canadian born subjects, the majority of the volunteers were those who were British born. But now the French-Canadians of the city determined to raise a regiment composed entirely of their compatriots to be called “Le Régiment Royal Canadien” and over three thousand men applied for admission. The Irish-Canadians, too, raised a regiment for home defense named the “Fifty-fifth Irish Canadian Rangers” with the Minister of Justice, the Hon. Charles J. Doherty, as Honorary Lieutenant Colonel. The neighbouring city of Westmount, under the direction of the mayor and council, raised the “Westmount Rifles” and even the suburban town of Outremont raised an artillery battery of 105 men. A number of prominent citizens of Montreal, on the initiative of Mr. J.N. Greenshields, K.C., equipped and are sustaining a “Home Guard” of 3,000 at their own expense. Towards the Patriotic Fund the local councils contributed as follows: Montreal, $150,000; Westmount, $5,000; Outremont, $5,000; Maisonneuve, $2,000; Verdun, $3,000; and the smaller municipalities lesser but proportionate amounts. These funds are being augumented daily.

The war affected Montreal in another way, industrially and financially. On the declaration of war the banks called in their loans and though the government came to their aid in the negotiation of their collateral the fact of the stoppage of capital from Great Britain disorganized the industrial machinery of the country and thousands were thrown out of employment. In addition to this the forcible internment of the Germans and Austrians, of which 3,400 were in Montreal alone, caused much anxiety to the authorities, for none would employ them. A delegation from Montreal waited upon the acting premier, Sir George Foster, November 2d, asking for the cooperation of the Government in alleviating the general distress. This Sir George promised as far as the interned enemies were concerned, but thought each municipality should take the responsibility of looking after its own unemployed.

Montreal at this period was like a huge garrison town. Recruits, with and without uniforms, university professors and students, rich and poor alike, were being drilled in every open space and many public and private halls. For barracks the dismantled Protestant High School on Peel Street and other buildings were used for the young men of the second contingent.

Not only were the canals, bridges, wharves and public buildings patrolled by soldiers in uniform, since the first news of the outbreak of the war, but the streets of Montreal and the suburbs have been the constant scenes of much militarism. A lasting memory will survive in numerous streets and avenues, either being opened or bearing names already employed elsewhere, being appointed henceforth to bear the names of generals and towns connected with the war, such as Joffre, Pau, Liège, Namur and Aisne.

About the city committees of devoted women of all national origins and of all the numerous charitable associations, were patriotically visiting the wives and dependents of volunteers for the front and administering the allowances granted by the Patriotic Fund, the headquarters of which were in the new Drummond Building at the corner of St. Catherine and Peel streets. And in this central room a busy committee was engaged all day on the careful systematic organization of the relief fund. Over the city in church, school, club and private rooms, groups were busily knitting and sewing and fashioning all sorts of comforts and necessities for those who had heard the call to fight for the maintenance of the Empire. The city has become a busy loom of patriotic charity.

All honour to the loyal women of Montreal in this moment of the world’s greatest war.

UNDER ENGLISH RULE