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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Clinton News Record, 1925-07-30, Page 13> 'tee, Bids aur ti A. J. McMURRAY, President :101t. J. '1i':''S1rtA'RI' 'S'fce-president N. 1Y, TIIEWA:RTIIA, ,MI.L.A: Hon,-Preident ° Not a 31' tl er' of Escaped., --Not One. e or 1:.ess than his Share (EldredJ One of my earliest scolastiee reco ledtions is at the same time one of Imy most painful ones, .(t happened when youtlrl'ul patriotism dell foul of ii Pedagogic c des c•ilIle. g 1 So many ,years ago now that I don't .Archibald') 1- And yet I doi,'4 think a mother's son of us escaped, not Ono got more, or less than his 7 BS' t 11 i share. e. S m I 0011 0ml el' , my sensation ----mental and physical—as I sought vainly to sneak into any seat under the accus- ing eye of my Leacher. Iter fingers payed lovingly with n; long and very smooth slate frame brought to a high degree of polish to which 1 lead ecn trlbuted. But she was essentially a jnst woman and there was a twinkle„ in her. eye which she vainly strove to conceal as she ,asked me what had kept rue. I remember that she turned somewhat abruptly and looked out of the window,' and I thought I saw her shoulders shaking• 'when I told her that I had come just as' fast es T could. So far at least as the stairs were concerned, that was the unqual- ified truth. S hl e to than] a£ it, the Goveriaoi-Gen- sial of" Canada -mat that - time Lord Aberdeen -and Lady Aberdeen paid a visit to',Godericll, .None of juvenile Clinton had ever seen ;a Governor- General and we made up our minds' that we would See this one at no mat- ter what 'risk, His Excellency' was due to leave Godei•ich on a special ear attached to the regular train which got to Clinton at 1:25 p.m. Ale ternoon school opened at 1;30 and the Principal; the late W. R. Lough, al- lowed a general hint to' percolate through the various rooms that any boy who was late for school through going down to the station was likely to meet with immediate ',disaster. However, even Mr. Lough's reputation for being just as good as his word wherematters ofthis sort were con- cerned did not deter a number of us from being on hand at the. station at, 1:25, or five minutes before school re- assembled. I think there were about twenty of us in all. I have always strongly suspected that Mr. Lough rang the last 'bell a few 'minutes ahead of _ time that day, but at any event we heard it clang just -as the train came into the station. " So far as we weie concerned, His. Excellency, the Marquis of Aberdeen and Temair, LT., D.C.,. G.C.M.G., G:C.1T.O., ILD., 'D.C.L., Governor- General of •Canlida, was.a net loss as a spectacle. If he was in the private ear he -was totally invisible behind drawn curtains, From the station to the school is quite a long run but I; remenber a number of embryo Ntumis did the distance from Pike's Hotel to the back fence of the school in about two min- utes, in spite of the; fact that it. was a very hot day;. There was an ominous quietness about that school that should have been a 'warning.: Eagperience—if we had stopped . to think of it --would have told -us that when Mr. Lough was quietest he was most dangerous.. We started to tiptoe in the door and make for the second story where, as I reniernber it, most of us studied under that irascible but kindly soul ere' They Are The committee having charge 0'. the Old 1 -Tome Caleb' tion in Clinton, which commences Saturday: Hon. Presidents -- Mayor Jackson, N. W. Trewartha, M.L.A. Iron. Vice-Presideiits— D. Canteloi, II. Wiltse, C. G. Middleton. PresidentilA. J, McMurray. Vice-President—Or. J. W. Shaw, Secretary—S, B..Stothers., Treasurer—M. D.McTaggart. Chairmen of •Committees Decoration—A, J. Morrish. Amusement—J. Zapfe, Entertainment—H. B. Combe: Firemen—H. Glazier, Grounds -0:; L. Paisley, Musical—F. Mutch• Publicity—Hugh MllIer. Parade -F. A. Jenkins, Reception & A.. Ford. Sports & Games—John' Sutter; Sunday Services— , Rev. A. A. Holmes Schools Committee -W. M. Erwin. FRED i%IUTC,H leader of the Clinton Iiiity Band, which will take a prominent part in dile 'musical .activities during, Old Home Weelc. s —6.- ! the late. Jrtnel; Wilson, M We Cama Detained Business around the tiptoe, of ctt 0'1]16, pant- interests at Eighty ing andiron tiptoe, devastation and de- struction fell upon us out of tiro shadow- A figure, which to my hor- rifled eyes looked fifteen feet high and six feet broad, was standing Huron Turns Out partly concealed just inside the door within reaoh thele 'was a swishing Real Men sound and the famous : cat -o' -nine tails, ween thin by long service, land- ed precisely) on thatpart of the youthful anatomy apparently spec- ially designed for its reception -a part of the anatomy moreover all the more easilyaccessible because it Gomes last when its possessor is rush- ing up the stairs, and as each successive boy came There was a silent and deadly ef- ffcieney abeut,that occasion which 1 very well remember. There was no sound but the whistle of the imple- ment and the yelp of the sufferer, How Mr. Lough did it I have always wondered. To administerone ting- ling spank apiece to several small boys ,each intent on avoiding it, each as agile as a minnow in a brook, us: ing only a pliable and none -too easily. neanipuleted• strap; was a feat that nobody but an expert could duplicate: Another .buainoss place whidi will 1 be remembered by many Clis(ton Old Pot's, .N, Robson's store. his was in the day's,' when a grocer used the e sidewzsll. as a show window. Harry Stanbury and Mr; Robson ar`. c shown standing; ab the darer. Winnipeg, July 21, 1925. My Dear Doctor Shaw: :I have had a cover on mydesk. and addressed to you for a month or snore.'' , I wanted to go to the Clinton Old Boys Reunion and still want to go, one of my v©ry last business ventures is delaying me. 1 esiihot allow it to fail for Want of attention, which it requires almost every' day, andwill require nt, least thirty days more, too bad! If I find I can go I will wire or write you in a week and by that you will know whether I can go or not. Should you not hear from me as stat- ed please give my compliments to any ones who are old enough and kind enough to remember me. I think of, the Jacksons, the Fairs, the Coates, Dan McDonald, of Goder-. ach..'You see I"go back to the time when Thomas and Janie Fair; "twa young Scots," kept a store` on the "London /Road," then the main street of Clinton, and south of the• store -then kept by Moore, Hunter and Co. Incident' with the time when the late Joseph Whitehead walked the streets of Clinton and' when Horatio Hale, a young English, barrister, whose moth- er was the controlling spirit of God- ey's Lady's Book, sixty years ago and more, was practising law in Clinton,. and then Colonel Otter, our dis- tinguished soldier' and gentleman, was a young lad on the farm one mile south of the .town on the London road. - There were many ethers, the. Rcnsfords, the Pattenburys, the Jack- sons and others at the moment i 'oan- not name • here without further. thpught, "That was a long time ago" Nor_ have I' forgotten the -old swim - min' hole in the Maitland Riverand then to bridge over 00. 05 or 70 years and coning down :• to more recent events 1 shall recall with pleasurable memories the very delightful auto ride' you gave nee out past Holmes- villa, that wonderful apple ,orchard' ofMr; $loan's ' and to the ahoient' towns of Bayfield,' Varna, Prueefield, etc., and past the old homestead Where I first saw the light 'of -day, And now, :dear Doctor Shaw, should' T not be able to go, pleaeo inform the president, officers and 'committees that I appreciate 'very much their in - vita tien n-vitation and wish them for me the. measure of success which they so a;ichl1' deserve, Congratulations on honours recent- ly conferred on Sam. With cordial greeting's ‘to all. --S. R. GRANT. is P. .—T had a 1d S birthday 3 t y 1st Satur- day, MY 52nd. sig. n. w. polliisi . "c-: Col. Combe commanded the 361st Huron Regiment, in which many Olin- ofboys the ° countyy enlisted., and went - avereehs. C6I: Combe, as chairman of the Old 1d:orild Week as committee, flan ]leen very* busy in preparation for the celebration. Welcome Back To Clinton Por the Old Boys' Re -union SPECIAL f Cowhide club bag, Leather :lined For $5.90 If in need of Wool Auto or Steamer Rugs we • have some Choice Patterns in All Wool Can- adian Rugs, also a ; complete line in Club Bags, Suit cases and Trunks. Harness of', all kinds. 1 -OUR MOTTO Right Foods Right Prices W. IVI. AIKEN Luggage "J See HUVOIli County as Childhood." 7 (Sir John Willison ' abootleg nor a cellar,' When Ithink It is a long loot: backward over half o.:'the 'chances i;ha1 have collie inion a century ,to the, time -when 1 left us I" am 111010 than ever 1"1111)ressed' Huron County and yet it,isstrange as withthe solemn admonition o1'Scrip- one grows older how memories of tore that in this tigorld no'htng lasts: youth come back to is and how vivid are even the scenes of childhood. 'I remember my first journey to 'Varna and ole -armed 3. Turner in the vil- lage tavern ,and Josiah Secord's store in which there were more things than were dreamt of in my philosophy. The us who make ft most gallant ' and adventurous Force are still able to display that ever lett the factory would have fresh died' of a broken heart i£ it had:. ever original/Humor in the sparkling ad touched some: of the'pioneer roads of dresses .which we deliver when we Huron County,•, :But one always ex- are unprepared. Nothing. ,lives se' cepts'lhe Beyfield-•road and the Lon- long at, joke, except perhaps a sen= don road, which for half a century has inand I wonder why no scientist have been a Inommrient to the skill investigated the relation between and wisdom ' of the builders, • And that fact and the criminal statistics. many other things one sees arid'' In'those good old days we had one thinks vpon, "remote and. yet familiar, God and two political. parties:. We seen only in glimpses .and yet seen believed in eternal punishment' and the damnation of the wicked, all of 1 beauty whom belonged to the other party. y But we have passed'. into strange times • with new political diseases and. new remedies -for the ills of the na- tion. The Huron of today is not the Huron of my childhood.' I have seen Iittle of the County since I was four- teen years of age, although'I did spend a few months in Stanley four years Iater. But I have- , met the 'children of Huron in all the Western Provinces and in many of the West - ren American States. One thinks that wherever they go they retain many, of the characteristics of the stock from which they carne and the pioneers of Huron were as -whole- some ,and -as enterprising -as ever set- tled in. Canada. "And of Zion is shall be said this and that man was` born in her; and the Highest Himself shall establish her.: Not even castor oil has held its ]own,. While painkiller seems to have been superseded by Christian Science. Even Ayer's Almanac, to the eternal loss of our literature,' has leen de- throned 'by the weather probabilities But if • the ' Almanac has' -gone .the jokes have survived and. those among after er dinner'epeeclies a and clearly,but the dominant nnpression ofis.fence and serenityandeau and one has a great understanding of why when God saw all- that he had made, he said it was very good. There were many. Scottish people in Huron in my 'boyhood, and may Meth- odists ,who were not Scottish. As 1 think. backward I' wonder if there were ever more devoted saints than the -old Methodist circuit eiders, who braved wind and weather ,snow, rain and storm to carry their message to the pioneer communities of Upper Canada.. The camp meeting and the revival meetings had their strange manifestations but they were never .contemptible, they suited the temper and the conditions of those days and a good ,many ,of -those who came to scoff remained to pray. I , have al- ways thought. of the Salvation Army as the natural successor of the pion- eer evangelical churches and of both it may be said that their;, works do praise them. As one's mind turns backward, and, as I have said, one's mind turns back- ward so -often as one grows older, I see Huron County as it was in my childhood. I see the log house in the clearing. I catch glimpses of the patch of sky above, blue and serene io stunner, grey and cold and distant in winter. My: ears catch the even Strokes of the axes in the forest, and a tree'erashes -and fora second there is a great silence. I see the leaping Dairies of burning brush Soros a wide field and then the -picture chaff geS, And the sweating Ieggeriq tare 'racing for !.,erdiy across the searred and black- e ned clearing, I hoar the murmur Q . eriver, so Soft aid• gentle in stain riser and so full and rapid in the sliritegtime. I think of 'what Whit comb Riley called "the old swimmin' holt;," and I see us p:ou~;ig in the water and sunning: ourselves Upon the banks like Adam and Eve in the dette � den, naked and not asbantdd. What would have happened, I wonder, if a boy had appeared in a bathing suit? Surely his days in that neighb rhood would have ,been few and tell of trouble, It is curious that that era produced so few artists since there, was such a profusion of raw materia Many a time when we started for' Sunday School we got ne further than. the swimming hole and. I suppose there was some mitigation of the of- fence in the fact that cleanliness is next to godliness. I see the ground carpeted flowers e springtime andwith I knowwild it is ;truein ththat shown in the uniform in -which he Solomon in all his glory wa's not ar- served overseasduringthe war, rayed like one of these. I see the blazed trail through the forest and I V, I11t. WILLIAM;$ GU'NN began the praticse of "medicine in Huron -County' in 1882, practising in Brncefield a short time beofre corning. to Clinton: He ` is Huron's dean in nentlicine and in February,; 1924, he was -given a signal token of esteem when his falba* practitioners in the county erected a tablet to his honor in the Clinton Public Hospital, He is recall how I wondered what was' at the end : of it and why the oxen came home so 'wearily at, nightfall, I see a wide stretch of country; with patches of brush, and snake fences, and stumpy fields, and cord- uroy roads;' and scattered log houses with here and therea yoke of oxen and the smoke of log heaps from the clearings. I wonder what, would have happened if a motor' had sod— denly appeared' on the Bayfield road, or an aeroplane had suddenly wheeled into the sky from behind the tamarack marsh. I suspect that a good many people would have said their prayers and there would have been as much consternation as when the cornet of the' sixties appeared and many felt that the end of the world was at hand. At least they would not have used the language =which the too mid - den appearance of a motor now pee yokes, But with all their deprivations those were ` good old days. Eggs. were eight 'cents a doezn and butter fteen cents a pound and you could ba ve whiskey even if you had neither. Harness fi "Up in a Balloon, Bok, Up in a Hannon!" here's .the aeroplane which will be here Saturday and -wilt l week and take anyone up who'd ]lice . to get a " ird.'s eye view" o: during Old Home V1 eel.: Y try all Clinton S. B. STOTITERS, Secretary 1.1.41 M. 1). McTAGGART, Treasurer Clifton Mayors for Nifty Years Following is a list of the mayors who leave served in Clinton from 1875 until the present: 1875—Robert Callendee, 1876--A. $, Fisher, 187'1—S. Malcolenson, 1878-9—W, C Searle. 1880-5—D .A Forrester,' 1880-7—Dr. R. W. Williams l' (Dr. Williams resigned in the mid - de of his second term and 3. White- heart filled out the -Orin.) 1887-8-9-4osefh Whitehead. " -t .1890-1-2—William Doherty.' . •ki l • 1893 --George D. McTaggart: • 1894.8—Robert Ilolmes. .t 494—D2r-JW,E $clsdri; 4 1904a.,5—Jona "R: •?3QQve1 , 19078 9=r>larrisdn Wilts'e." 1910-11—Jacob..Tey7 or. • 1912.13—Benjamin .J'• Gibbings. 191.4.15—Fred T.,Jacltson. 1916 -17 -18 --'Dr. 0,':W. Thompson, '4' 1919—A, T. Cooper. , 1920—Thomas Cottle. 1b21—.A. J.Meltrurray s' 1 1922- David Cantelon. ". C 1923—A. T. Cooper. 1924-5—Fred T. Jackson. 011 ` NEFWrS-1iEJ,CpIvn 01TTCE, This i, not ,lie present location of the plant, but evident] tl over the- period sign door is tlu same. 'Che picture w:is, calcen�during the period when Messrs. Todd and Whitely were at the helm. The'ti age rer . s shown, reading from lett to light are. A. M. Todd; 4i''• T. Whitely, Miss E, 3110 .oard Mennell ti p'- J. , � Young mt.n scecannot $dentify, and Dick -'inch, who the staff.;