Books: Life in Canada Fifty Years Ago

C >> Canniff Haight >> Life in Canada Fifty Years Ago

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15

The advantages which the youth of Ontario to-day possess in acquiring an
education over the time when I was first sent to school with dinner
basket in hand, trudging along through mud or snow, to the old school-
house by the road side, where I was perched upon a high pine bench
without a back, with a Mavor's spelling book in hand, to begin the
foundation of my education, are so many and great that it is difficult
to realize the state of things that existed, or that men of intelligence
should have selected such a dry and unattractive method of imparting
instruction to children of tender years. It is to be feared that there
are many of our Canadian youth who do not appreciate the vantage ground
they occupy, nor the inviting opportunities that lie within the reach of
all to obtain a generous education. There is absolutely nothing to
prevent any young person possessing the smallest spark of ambition from
acquiring it, and making himself a useful member of society. "It is the
only thing," says Milton, in his "Literary Musings," "which fits a man
to perform justly, skilfully, and magnanimously, all the offices both
private and public of peace and war."

There seems to be a growing disposition in the public mind to do away
with the first important educational landmark established in the
Province. Why this should be, or why its influence for good should at
any time have been so much crippled as even to give occasion to call its
usefulness in question seems strange. One would think that its intimate
connection with our early history; the good work accomplished by it, and
the number of men who have passed out of it to fill the highest public
positions in the gift of the Province, would save it from violent hands,
and furnish ample reasons for devising means to resuscitate it, if it
needs resuscitation, and to place it in a position to hold its own with
the various institutions that have come into existence since its doors
were first thrown open to the young aspirants for a higher education
half a century ago.

The opening of Upper Canada College in 1830 gave an impetus to education
which soon began to be felt throughout the Province. It was impossible,
in the nature of things, that with increasing population and wealth
there should be no advance in our educational status. If the forty-six
years that had passed had been almost exclusively devoted to clearing
away the bush and tilling the land, a time had now arrived when matters
of higher import to future success and enjoyment pressed themselves upon
the attention of the people. The farm could not produce all the
requirements of life, nor furnish congenial employment to many active
minds. The surplus products of the field and forest, in order to become
available as a purchasing power, had to be converted into money, and
this set in motion the various appliances of commerce. Vessels were
needed to carry their produce to market, and merchants to purchase it,
who, in turn, supplied the multifarious wants of the household. Then
came the mechanic and the professional man, and with the latter
education was a necessity. It was not to be expected that the tastes of
the rising generation would always run in the same groove with the
preceding, and as wealth and population increased, so did the openings
for advancement in other pursuits; and scores of active young men
throughout the Province were only too anxious to seize upon every
opportunity that offered to push their way up in life. Hence it happened
that when Upper Canada College first threw open its doors, more than a
hundred young men enrolled their names. In a comparatively short time
the need for greater facilities urged the establishment of other
educational institutions, and this led to still greater effort to meet
the want. Again, as the question pressed itself more and more upon the
public mind, laws were enacted and grants made to further in every way
so desirable an object. Hence, what was a crude and inadequate school
organization prior to 1830, at that time and afterwards began to assume
a more concrete shape, and continued to improve until it has grown into
a system of which the country may well be proud.

The contrast we are enabled to present is wonderful in every respect.
Since the parent college opened its doors to the anxious youths of the
Province, five universities and the same number of colleges have come
into existence. The faculties of these several institutions are presided
over by men of learning and ability. They are amply furnished with
libraries, apparatus and all the modern requirements of first-class
educational institutions. Their united rolls show an attendance of about
1,500 students last year. There are 10 Collegiate Institutes and 94 High
Schools, with an attendance of 12,136 pupils; 5,147 Public Schools, with
494,424 enrolled scholars; and the total receipts for school purposes
amounted to $3,226,730. Besides these, there are three Ladies' Colleges,
and several other important educational establishments devoted entirely
to the education of females, together with private and select schools in
almost every city and town in the Province, many of which stand very
high in public estimation. There are two Normal Schools for the training
of teachers. The one in Toronto has been in existence for 29 years, and
is so well known that it is unnecessary for me to attempt any
description of it. The total number of admissions since its foundation
have been 8,269. The Ottawa school, which has been in operation about
two years, has admitted 433. Three other important educational
institutions have been established by the Government in different parts
of the Province. The Deaf and Dumb Institute at Belleville is pleasantly
situated on the shore of the Bay of Quinte, a little west of the city.
The number in attendance is 269, and the cost of maintenance for the
past year $38,589. The Institute for the Blind at Brantford numbers 200
inmates, and the annual expenditure is about $30,000. These
institutions, erected at a very large outlay, are admirably equipped,
and under the best management, and prove a great boon to the unfortunate
classes for whom they were established. The Agricultural College at
Guelph, for the training of young men in scientific and practical
husbandry, though in its infancy, is a step in the right direction, and
must exercise a beneficial influence upon the agricultural interests of
the country. Of medical corporations and schools, there are the Council
of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario; the Faculty of the
Toronto School of Medicine; Trinity Medical School; Royal College of
Physicians and Surgeons; Canada Medical Association; Ontario College of
Pharmacy; Royal College of Dental Surgeons; and Ontario Veterinary
College. There is also a School of Practical Science, now in its fourth
year. This, though not a complete list of the educational institutions
and schools of the Province, will nevertheless give a pretty correct
idea of the progress made during the fifty years that are gone.

The accommodation furnished by the school sections throughout the
country has kept pace with the progress of the times. As a rule the
school-houses are commodious, and are built with an eye to the health
and comfort of the pupils. The old pine benches and desks have
disappeared before the march of improvement--my recollection of them is
anything but agreeable--and the school-rooms are furnished with
comfortable seats and desks combined. The children are no longer crowded
together in small, unventilated rooms. Blackboards, maps and apparatus
are furnished to all schools. Trained teachers only are employed, and a
uniform course of study is pursued, so that each Public School is a
stepping-stone to the High School, and upward to the College or
University. Great attention has been paid by the Education Department to
the selection of a uniform series of text books throughout the course,
adapted to the age and intelligence of the scholars; and if any fault
can be found with it, I think it should be in the number. The variety
required in a full course--even of English study--is a serious matter.
The authorities, however, have laboured earnestly to remove every
difficulty that lies in the student's path, and to make the way
attractive and easy. That they have succeeded to a very great extent is
evident from the highly satisfactory report recently presented by the
Minister of Education. With the increasing desire for a better education
there seems to be a growing tendency on the part of young men to avail
themselves of such aids as shall push them towards the object in view
with the smallest amount of work; and instead of applying themselves
with energy and determination to overcome the difficulties that face
them in various branches of study, they resort to the keys that may be
had in any bookstore. It is needless to repeat what experience has
proved, in thousands of instances, that the young man who goes through
his mathematical course by the aid of these, or through his classical
studies by the use of translations, will never make a scholar. Permanent
success in any department of life depends on earnest work, and the more
arduous the toil to secure an object, so much the more is it prized when
won. Furthermore, it is certain to prove more lasting and beneficial.

The same causes that hindered the progress of education also retarded
the advance of religion. The first years of a settler's life are years
of unremitting toil; a struggle, in fact, for existence. Yet, though
settlers had now in a measure overcome their greater difficulties, the
one absorbing thought that had ground its way into the very marrow of
their life still pressed its claims upon their attention. The paramount
question with them had been how to get on in the world. They were cut
off, too, from all the amenities of society, and were scattered over a
new country, which, prior to their coming, had been the home of the
Indian--where all the requirements of civilization had to be planted and
cultivated anew. They had but barely reached a point when really much
attention could be devoted to anything but the very practical aim of
gaining their daily bread. It will readily be admitted that there is no
condition in life that can afford to put away religious instruction, and
there is no doubt that the people at first missed these privileges, and
often thought of the time when they visited God's House with regularity.
But the toil and moil of years had worn away these recollections, and
weakened the desire for sacred things. There can be no doubt that prior
to, and even up to 1830, the religious sentiment of the greater portion
of the people was anything but strong. The Methodists were among the
first, if not actually the first, to enter the field and call them back
to the allegiance they owed to the God who had blessed and protected
them. [Footnote: Dr. Stuart, of Kingston, Church of England, was the
first minister in Upper Canada, Mr. Langworth, of the same denomination,
in Bath; and Mr. Scamerhorn, Lutheran minister at Williamsburgh, next.]
Colonels Neal and McCarty began to preach in 1788, but the latter was
hunted out of the country. [Footnote: Playter.] Three years later,
itinerant preachers began their work and gathered hearers, and made
converts in every settlement. But these men, the most of whom came from
the United States, were looked upon with suspicion [Footnote: I have in
my possession an old manuscript book, written by my grandfather in 1796,
in which this point is brought out. Being a Quaker, he naturally did not
approve of the way those early preachers conducted services. Yet he
would not be likely to exaggerate what came under his notice. This is
what he says of one he heard: "I thought he exerted every nerve by the
various positions in which he placed himself to cry, stamp and smite,
often turning from exhortation to prayer. Entreating the Almighty to
thunder, or rather to enable him to do it. Also, to smite with the
sword, and to use many destroying weapons, at which my mind was led from
the more proper business of worship or devotion to observe, what
appeared to me inconsistent with that quietude that becometh a messenger
sent from the meek Jesus to declare the glad tidings of the gospel. If I
compared the season to a shower, as has heretofore been done, it had
only the appearance of a tempest of thunder, wind and hail, destitute of
the sweet refreshing drops of a gospel-shower."] by many who did not
fall in with their religious views; and it is not surprising that some
even went so far as to petition the Legislature to pass an Act which
should prevent their coming into the country to preach. It was said, and
truly, when the matter about this was placed before the Government, that
the connection existing between the Methodist Episcopal Church of the
United States and Canada was altogether a spiritual and not a political
connection; that the Methodists of Canada were as loyal to the British
Crown as any of its subjects, and had proved it again and again in the
time of trouble. Yet, looking back and remembering the circumstances
under which the people came, it does not seem so very strange to us that
they should have looked very doubtfully upon evangelists from a land
which not only stripped them and drove them away, but a little later
invaded their country. Neither do we wonder that some of them were
roughly treated, nor that unpleasant epithets were thrown out against
their followers. This was the outcome, not only of prejudice, but the
recollection of injuries received. There were a good many angularities
about Christian character in those days, and they frequently stood out
very sharply. They were not friends or enemies by halves. Their
prejudices were deeply seated, and if assailed were likely to be
resisted, and if pressed too closely in a controversy, were more
disposed to use the _argumentum baculinum_, as being more effectual
than the _argumentum ad judicicium_. But time gradually wore away
many of those asperities, and now few will deny that the position our
Province holds to-day is to a considerable extent owing to this large
and influential body of Christians. They built the first house devoted
to public worship in the Province; through their zeal and energy, the
people were stirred up to a sense of their religious obligation; their
activity infused life and action into other denominations. The people
generally throughout the country had the bread of life broken to them
with regularity, so that in the year of Grace 1830 a new order of things
was inaugurated. But with all this, a vastly different state of affairs
existed then from that now prevailing. No one could accuse the preachers
of those days of mercenary motives, for they were poorly paid, and
carried their worldly possessions on their backs. Their labour was
arduous and unremitting. They travelled great distances on foot and on
horseback, at all seasons and in all weathers, to fill appointments
through the bush--fording rivers, and enduring hardships and privations
that seem hardly possible to be borne. A circuit often embraced two or
three districts. The places of worship were small and far apart, and
fitted up with rude pine benches, the men sitting on the one side and
the women on the other. Often forty or fifty miles would have to be
traversed from one appointment to another, and when it was reached,
whether at a neighbour's house, a school-house, a barn or a meeting
house, the people assembled to hear the word, and then the preacher took
his way to the next place on his circuit.

Mr. Vanest says: "In summer we crossed ferries, and in winter we rode
much on ice. Our appointment was thirty-four miles distant, without any
stopping-place. Most of the way was through the Indian's land--otherwise
called the Mohawk Woods. In summer I used to stop half-way in the woods
and turn my horse out where the Indians had had their fires. In winter I
would take some oats in my saddle-bags, and make a place in the snow to
feed my horse. In many places there were trees fallen across the path,
which made it difficult to get around in deep snow. I would ask the
Indians why they did not cut out the trees. One said, 'Indian like deer;
when he no cross under he jump over.' There was seldom any travelling
that way, which made it bad in deep snow. At one time when the snow was
deep, I went on the ice till I could see clear water, so I thought it
time to go ashore. I got off my horse and led him, and the ice cracked
at every step. If I had broken through, there would have been nothing
but death for us both. I got to the woods in deep snow, and travelled up
the shore till I found a small house, when I found the course of my
path, keeping a good look-out for the marked trees. I at last found my
appointment about seven o'clock. If I had missed my path I do not know
what would have become of me. At my stopping-place the family had no
bread or meal to make any of, till they borrowed some of a neighbour; so
I got my dinner and supper about eleven o'clock on Saturday night. On
Sabbath I preached. On Monday I rode about four miles, crossed the Bay
(Quinte), and then rode seventeen miles through the woods without seeing
a house, preached and met a class for a day's work."

Another writer says: "We had to go twenty miles without seeing a house,
and were guided by marked trees, there being no roads. At one time my
colleague was lost in getting through the woods, when the wolves began
to howl around him, and the poor man felt much alarmed; but he got
through unhurt." [Footnote: Dr. Carroll.]

These incidents occurred some years before the date of which I speak,
but the same kind of adventures were happening still. It did not take
long to get away from the three or four concessions that stretched
along the bay and lakes, and outside of civilization. I remember going
with my father and mother, about 1835, on a visit to an uncle who had
settled in the bush [Footnote: This was in the oldest settled part of
the Province--the Bay of Quinte.] just ten miles away, and in that
distance, we travelled a wood road for more than five miles. The snow
was deep and the day cold. We came out upon the clearing of a few acres,
and drove up to the door of the small log house, the only one then to be
seen. The tall trees which environed the few acres carved out of the
heart of the bush waved their naked branches as if mocking at the
attempt to put them away. The stumps thrust their heads up through the
snow on every hand, and wore their winter caps with a jaunty look, as if
they too did not intend to give up possession without a struggle. The
horses were put in the log stable, and after warming ourselves we had
supper, and then gathered round the cheerful fire. When bed-time came,
we ascended to our sleeping room by a ladder, my father carrying me up
in his arms. We had not been long in bed when a pack of wolves gathered
round the place and began to howl, making through all the night a most
dismal and frightful noise. Sleep was out of the question, and for many
a night after that I was haunted by packs of howling wolves. On our
return the next day I expected every moment to see them come dashing
down upon us until we got clear of the woods. This neighbourhood is now
one of the finest in the Province, and for miles fine houses and
spacious well-kept barns and outhouses are to be seen on every farm.

I have been unable to get at any correct data respecting the number of
adherents of the various denominations in the Province for the year
1830. The total number of ministers did not reach 150, while they now
exceed 2,500. [Footnote: The number of ministers, as given in the
Journals of the House of Assembly for 1831, are 57 Methodist, 40
Baptist, 14 Presbyterian, and 32 Church of England. For the last I am
indebted to Dr. Scadding.] There were but three churches in Toronto,
then called York. One of these was an Episcopalian Church, occupying the
present site of St. James's Cathedral. It was a plain wooden structure,
50 by 40, with its gables facing east and west; the entrance being by a
single door off Church Street. [Footnote: _Toronto of Old._] The
others were a Presbyterian and a Methodist church. The latter was built
in 1818, and was a long, low building, 40 by 60. In the gable end,
facing King Street, were two doors, one for each sex, the men occupying
the right and the women the left side of the room. It was warmed in
winter by a rudely constructed sheet-iron stove. The usual mode of
lighting it for night services was by tallow candles placed in sconces
along the walls, and in candlesticks in the pulpit. I am sure I shall be
safe in saying that there were not 150 churches or chapels all told in
the Province. All of them were small, and many of them were of the most
humble character. There are probably as many clergymen and more than
half as many churches in Toronto now, as there were in all Upper Canada
fifty years ago. The difference does not consist in the number of the
latter alone but in the size and character of the structures. The
beautiful and commodious churches, with their lofty spires and richly
arranged interiors, that meet the gaze on every hand in Toronto, have
not inappropriately given it the proud title of "the city of churches,"
and there are several of them, any one of which would comfortably seat
the entire population of York in the days of which I have spoken. There
were no organs, and I am not sure that there were any in America.
Indeed, if there had been the good people of those days would have
objected to their use. Those who remember the three early churches I
have mentioned--and those who do not can readily picture them with their
fittings and seating capacity--will recall the dim, lurid light cast on
the audience by the flickering candles. Turn, now, for example, to the
Metropolitan Church on an evening's service. Notice the long carpeted
aisles, the rich upholstery, the comfortable seats, the lofty ceilings,
the spacious gallery and the vast congregation. An unseen hand touches
an electric battery, and in a moment hundreds of gas jets are aflame,
and the place is filled with a blaze of light. Now the great organ
heaves its thrilling thunders, compressing air into music, and rolling
it forth upon the soul. Surely the contrast is almost incredible, and
what we have said on this point in regard to Toronto may be said of
every city, town, village or country place in the Province.

It will be proper to notice here that from the settlement of the country
up to 1831, marriage could only be legally solemnized by a minister of
the Church of England, or of the established Church of Scotland. There
was a provision which empowered a justice of the peace or a commanding
officer to perform the rite in cases where there was no minister, or
where the parties lived eighteen miles from a church. In 1831, an Act
was passed making it lawful for ministers of other denominations to
solemnize matrimony, and to confirm marriages previously contracted.
This act of tardy justice gave great satisfaction to the people.

The day for cheap books, periodicals and newspapers had not then
arrived. There were but few of any kind in the country, and those that
were to be found possessed few attractions for either old or young. The
arduous lives led by the people precluded the cultivation of a taste for
reading. Persons who toil early and late, week in and week out, have
very little inclination for anything in the way of literary recreation.
When the night came, the weary body demanded rest, and people sought
their beds early. Consequently the few old volumes piled away on a shelf
remained there undisturbed. Bacon says: "Some books are to be tasted,
others to be swallowed, and some to be chewed and digested;" and he
might have added--"others still to be left alone." At all events the
last was the prevailing sentiment in those days. I do not know that the
fault was altogether with the books. It is true that those generally to
be seen were either doctrinal works, or what might be termed heavy
reading, requiring a good appetite and strong digestive powers to get
through with them. They were the relics of a past age, survivors of
obsolete controversies that had found their way into the country in its
infancy; and though the age that delighted in such mental pabulum had
passed away, these literary pioneers held their ground because the time
had not arrived for the people to feel the necessity of cultivating the
mind as well as providing for the wants of the body. Seneca says:
"Leisure without books is the sepulchre of the living soul;" but books
without leisure are practically valueless, and hence it made but little
difference with our grandfathers what the few they possessed contained.
[Footnote: From an inventory of my grandfather's personal effects I am
enabled to give what would have been considered a large collection of
books in those days. As I have said before, he was a Quaker, which will
account for the character of a number of the books; and by changing
these to volumes in accord with the religious tenets of the owner, the
reader will get a very good idea of the kind of literature to be found
in the houses of intelligent and well-to-do people:--1 large Bible, 3
Clarkson's works, 1 Buchan's Domestic Medicine, 1 Elliot's Medical
Pocket Book, 1 Lewis's Dispensatory, 1 Franklin's Sermons, 1
Stackhouse's History of the Bible, 2 Brown's Union Gazetteer, 1 16th
Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society, 1 History United
States, 1 Elias Hicks's Sermons, 2 Newton's Letters, 1 Ricketson on
Health, 1 Jessy Kerzey, 1 Memorials of a Deceased Friend, 1 Hervey's
Meditations, 1 Reply to Hibard, 1 Job's Scot's Journal, 1 Barclay on
Church Government, 1 M. Liver on Shakerism, 1 Works of Dr. Franklin, 1
Journal of Richard Davis, 1 Lessons from Scripture, 1 Picket's Lessons,
1 Pownal, 1 Sequel to English Reader, Maps of United States, State of
New York, England, Ireland and Scotland, and Holland Purchase.] Some
years had to pass away before the need of them began to be felt. In a
country, as we have already said, where intelligence commanded respect
but did not give priority; where the best accomplishment was to get on
in the world; where the standard of education seldom rose higher than to
be able to read, write, and solve a simple sum in arithmetic, the
absence of entertaining and instructive books was not felt to be a
serious loss. But with the rapidly increasing facilities for moving
about, and the growth of trade and commerce, the people were brought
more frequently into contact with the intelligence and the progress of
the world outside. And with the increase of wealth came the desire to
take a higher stand in the social scale. The development of men's minds
under the political and social changes of the day, and the advance in
culture and refinement which accompanies worldly prosperity, quickened
the general intelligence of the people, and created a demand for books
to read. This demand has gone on increasing from year to year, until we
have reached a time when we may say with the Ecclesiast: "Of making of
books there is no end." If there was an excuse for the absence of books
in our Canadian homes half a century ago, and if the slight draughts
that were obtainable at the only fountains of knowledge that then
existed were not sufficient to create a thirst for more, there is none
now. Even the wealth that was to a certain extent necessary to gratify
any desire to cultivate the mind is no longer required, for the one can
be obtained free, and a few cents will procure the works of some of the
best authors who have ever lived.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15