Death of a King, Death of a Love, May 1910

Edith and a beau. Is this Charlie Gagne?

In early May, 1910, Edith  Nicholson writes her mom a letter from her Missionary School in Westmount. She thanks her mom for the phone call the night before, consoling her for her loss. Her ‘beau’ one Charlie Gagne has been killed in a hotel fire in Cornwall, the Rossmore Fire.

In all the Nicholson stash of letters of the 1910 era, there are only a few long distance phone calls made.  All for very special occasions. It cost too much to use the phone – and besides, the post moved quickly in those days.

The Rossmore Fire of Cornwall, Ontario is an infamous one: a dozen or so people died. Many more escaped, climbing out of windows. According to the news accounts of the day, it was mostly the boarders who died. These people felt they knew the hotel, so tried to escape by taking halls and stairwells… but they wereover come with smoke. Only a part of Charlie’s body was recovered. Hopefully, Edith didn’t read about that fact.

Coincidentally, another, more important person died right around then: Edward VII.  Likely all the public mourning over the King’s death must have somehow played into Edith’s own, more personal mourning. I will have to figure this out as I write her story for my next e-book. The follow up to Threshold Girl www.tighsolas.ca/page10.pdf.pdf

Edith and Charlie were not engaged, but they did have ‘an understanding.’ This is how Edith later explained it to a niece.

If the Census of 1911 is correct, Charlie was a French Canadian, the only son of elderly farmers and he worked as a bank clerk. Not a very likely prospect for Edith…Perhaps this is why her father, Norman, doesn’t comment on the man after being introduced to him at the train station.

Charlie is a Presbyterian, for in a letter to Edith before his death, he tells her he is spending all this time at the Presbyterian Church. Perhaps he converted for her..Who knows?

I think, for the purposes of my book about Edith, I will make him a convert of Westmount Methodist… that can be why she finds work there, he tells her about the school.

 
1095 Greene Avenue

May 3, 1910

Mother Dear,

Your letter received this am. It was so good to hear your voice over the phone. It was quite natural. Oh, how I wish I could talk over everything with you. It seems terribly hard to think it all for the best, when there are so many that are of no use living on and others that are held in esteem cut off in a moment. One thing, I am very thankful for that he wrote me. No doubt one of the last things that he did. I can’t express my feelings. I never felt so badly in my life. But I suppose there are few who have had so pleasant a one as I have, and trouble comes to all.

I had a letter from Bert this noon. Said she knew I must feel very badly as they all did. She said all she could think was the way he used to jig around the camp and tell us about all of his many trips. Herb Tucker called her up on Friday night and told her. I am wondering if he will call me up when he returns from Toronto

I wrote father a long letter last night and Marion wrote one today. It is a blessing that I have my work and that we are nearly finished. Three weeks will soon pass. I interviewed Dr. Villard yesterday afternooon. He said I was wanted back. I asked if it would be possible to get any raise in salary. Said he was sure he could get me $25. That would make $200.I’m glad that that’s settled: same staff back next year.

Tell Bert I received her letter, but I won’t write for a while. She was very kind to think of it.

Your loving
Edith

1910 Canada – What Parliament was Doing.

This excerpt that follows is from the Canada Yearbook for 1910 and it makes for fascinating reading.

It is yet another example of how the BIG PICTURE impacts on the SMALL: There was legislation passed in 1910 regarding insurance. As it is, Herb Nicholson’s financial problems, which he passed onto his parents, were mostly with respect to some insurance he took out. Even after reading the letters, I don’t understand what it is all about, but he owed big money to the insurance people. And this debt almost brought down the family. Herb insisted he was tricked by the agent. I have always assumed this was an excuse, (he had so many) but it seems there were some dirty dealing in the insurance business prior to 1910, or they would not have needed this legistlation.

Here is the excerpt:

The second session of the eleventh Parliament of the Dominion of Canada opened on November 11 1909 and closed by prorogation of May 4, 1910, resulted in the passing of 177 acts, of which 62 were public and general and 115 private and local.

Of principal interest in the former category were the measures which relate to the establishment of the Canadian Naval Service, insurance, the currency, the investigation of detrimental trade combines, immigration and prevention of the importation of destructive insects and pests.

The insurance act of 1910, wheich came into force on May 4, repeals previous legislation and brings under new regulation all kinds of insurance in Canada.

It will be remembered that six years ago the revelation of certain abuses in connection with the administration of life insurance companies in the United States caused general uneasiness on the part of policy holders and ld to the appointment in 1906 of a Royal Commission.

The Currency Act enables the Government to provide a gold currency in denominations of 10, 20, 5 and 2.50 dollar gold pieces.

The Combines Investigation act providing for the investigation of combines, monopolies, trusts, and mergers, is modelled in principal upon the Industrial Disputes Investigation Act of 1907 and similarly will be adminstered by the Department of Labour. In short, a combine means any contract, agreement, arrangement, or combination which has the effect of increasing or fixing the price of any article of trade or commerce to the detriment of consumers or producers.

Chapter 27, a new Immigration act, repeals previous legislation as passed in 1906. The new act reinstates many measures of the old and contains others designed still further to strenghten the lalaws in Canada against the admisssion of undersirable persons. Precise definitions are applied to the terms “Canadian Citizen” “immigrant” “Passenger” “Stowaway” “rejected” etc.

Special provisions as to passengers by land give the Authority the right to make regulations imposing upon transportation companies similar to those of masters and owners of vessels bringing immigrants upon the sea.

Under sections 13-24 the Minister of the Interior is authorised to appoint at any port of entry a Board of Enquiry consisting of three or more officers with authority to determine whether immigrants shall be allowed to enter and remain in Canada or shall be rejected or deported. The law whereby immigrants can be deported is strengthened in many directions.

Telegraphic news from Great Britain. Grants. Sums not exceeding 12,000 dollars for 12 months ending June 30, 1911, and less amounts yearly until 1915 to assist in maintaining an independent and efficient service of telegraphic news from Great Britain for publication in Canadian newspapers.

By chapter 13 drivers of automobiles or motor vehicles are brought within the operation of the criminal code when guilty of causing injury by furious driving or other wilful misconduct and are rendered liable to fine or imprisonment for failure to stop after the occurrence of an accident.

In January, serious distress was caused in France by floods, especially in Paris by the overflowing of the river Seine. The Dominion of Canada appropriated therefore a sum of 50,000 dollars in aid of the sufferers and as a practical expression of the sympathy of the people of Canada.

The death of May 6, after only a brief illness, of King Edward plunged the whole of the British Empire into the deepest grief. Owing to the late King’s lofty character and the extra ordinary personal influence which he had wielded this grief was sincerely shared by all the nations of the world, who took every means of testifying their respect for his memory.(Long tribute follows.)

H.R.H. the Prince of Wales succeeded to the throne upon the death of his Father, and on May 9, he was proclaimed King George V, with due observance of the stately and ceremonial formularies of the ancient usage.

The careful political training which his Majesty enjoyed under King Edward, his wide personal acquaintance with every aspect of the British Empire and, above all, his own excellent character, have inspired his subjects throughout his Dominions with the highest hopes that he will follow worthily in the splendid examples of his immediate predecessors.

July 1911 – Long Hot Summer

I took a look today at the July 1, 1911 edition of the Montreal Gazette. I have recently read The Perfect Summer 1911, by Juliet Nicolson, about England in 1911, where there was a Coronation and a heatwave.

Well, there was a heatwave in Quebec, too. I have the Nicholson letters from the summer of 1911 to prove it.

And there was a coronation too. The same one, of course, as Canada was (is) part of the British Empire.

The film of the Coronation made it to Montreal and was shown at King Edward Park as part of the Dominion Day Celebrations. King George had been crowned but a week before, and a negative copy of the film of the Coronation was put directly on a boat to Canada and developed en route, so that Canadians could, without delay, hear The King’s Speech (I’m not referring to Colin Firth’s new movie, here, although it is supposedly terrific and a crowd-pleaser, but to the Daddy) as well as see footage of Sir Wilfrid and other Canadian luminaries who attended. (Apparently, it had taken a month for news of Queen Victoria’s Coronation to reach Canada so this was proof of the great advances in technology since that time.Well, duh. )

No doubt Sir Wilfrid wanted the exposure as an election was coming up and his Free Trade stance was not popular.

This July 1st Edition of the Montreal Gazette has as editorial about the Coronation, “In some sense and fashion, the Coronation of George V and Mary may be said to have awakened the enthusiasm of loyalty, patriotism and Imperial oneness.”

This edition also had an article claiming that vacationers were leaving the city in record numbers although no mention is made of the heat. Nicolson, in her book, talks about the sea side vacations taken in 1911 by Londoners, upper and middle class, to escape the record heat.

Trains to Portland (for Old Orchard Beach, Maine) were packed. Also trains to Halifax.

But for those who stayed in the city, this 1911 Dominion Day there was always Dominion Park where you paid extra to see Fighting the Flames “The Greatest Spectacle ever Seen” and some minstrel singers and a singing comedienne and North America’s greatest illusionist. They appeared to have cornered the market on hyperbole in that era. Today we have marketingese, another kind of slight of hand, illusion – or is it delusion.

And for those who want to escape the heat, the Princess Theatre was hosting a travel show, “ideal location as the theatre is always cool” with ‘scenes’ films or just photos? of the South Pole with penguins and ice floes and polar bears (What?); A Day in Venice; Milan Cathedral; Hawaiian Surf and the Life of the Butterfly (with slo-mo I guess) and Danish Dragoons on horseback and a big dog show.

If there were indeed pictures of of the South Pole, they must have been from Scott’s first expedition. In 1911 he was on his ill-fated second expedition. (I loved the book Scott on the Antarctic, which I read in elementary school.)

And at Sohmer Park there were some minstrels, again, offering up “representations of Southern Fun” and some jugglers and the Field Brothers, a song and dance team and some strong men. The usual

What were the Nicolson women doing on July 1, 1911? Well, I have no letters for that exact date, (in other years they attended Dominion Day celebrations in Richmond) but I know that Marion finished school on the 25th of June and went up to Hudson, Quebec (where her grandson and his wife (me) would make a home) and sailed on the Ottawa River, and she then took some car trips around Richmond, Quebec. Edith went to Sherbrooke with friends and then entertained the daughter of the Principal at her school at Tighsolas. And Flo, well, she failed French and was upset, but she still got into teaching school. It had been so hot in Richmond in June, Margaret and Flora had slept out on the verandah. They hadn’t been scared, because they had Floss, their dalmation, for protection – and their neighbours were doing the same. (Tramps from the trains were always a fear.)

The Nicholson women were ‘cash-poor’ middle class, but they did not lack for friends, well off professional class friends with automobiles who could take them on car excursions to the countryside or surrounding towns or even as far as Montreal. And as I have written before, in the 1910 era, car rides were considered a terrific form of entertainment. Indeed, cars rides were cutting into the theatre business’s profits, according to a 1910 article in the New York Dramatic Mirror.

The next year Edith and Marion would visit Boston relations in the summer. Flora had gone out to Boston in 1908 and that figures largely in my book Flo in the City, about a girl coming of age in the 1910 era, based on the letters of http://www.tighsolas.ca/

For a July 6, 1911 letter written by Margaret with some cute anecdotes www.tighsolas.ca/page168.html

At the end she warns husband Norman not to get too personal in the letters as you can never tell who will read them. (Like anyone in the world in 100 years’ time.)

So It all works out well

Edith and handsome guy. On that trip to Potton Springs. 1910 era

Ok. I am reading up on the Tercentenary in Quebec and it was a huge event, a huge military event, and, as always, there was a great deal of controversy surrounding the event, as well..

We just had the quadracentenary and the same thing happened with Paul McCartney being chosen as the headliner.

Now, until I started writing Flo in the City (about a girl coming of age in 1908-1913, based on the real letters of Tighsolas at http://www.tighsolas.ca/ I never realized that the 1908 trip Margaret took to LaTuque and Quebec was to see the Prince.

I don’t have any letters describing what happened in Quebec, just what happened in La Tuque. But I do know that she left Richmond for Levis on the 21, and that she stayed at the Kennebec Hotel and that she was there for the 22nd and 23rd, and that is when the Prince of Wales, the future George V arrived and the day all kinds of ceremonies, with Sir Wilfrid Laurier and Earl Grey the Governor General were held. There were pyrotechnics, too

I also learned that this event was a massive military exercise. It was a HUGE show, according to a military writer whose essay I’ve dug up. Of course, with WWI this show was overshadowed by the real thing.

PS. I have no way to stick this in the story (as the Nicholsons would not have known about it, but on June 31st a giant meteor fell on Siberia, wasting miles and miles and knocking people miles away out of their beds. It was another HUGE event.

What this means is that I have to read some commentary on the event, from English and French sides and figure out how to sum it all up. Margaret’s visit is a great opportunity for me to get some Canadian History into the story. This event was initially about celebrating the 300 anniversary of Samuel de Champlain’s founding of Quebec. They re-enacted the Battle at the Plains of Abraham, among other historical scenarios. It morphed into a vanity exercise more about British military might, from what I can read.