April 11, 1876

The April 11, 1876 edition of the Spectator was reflective of what the men of the press would have called a slow news day.

          The columns of the local page were mainly filled with the recounting of the previous evening’s City Council meeting. A detailed accounting times and locations of the upcoming Good Friday church services took up considerable space.

          There was a report from the St. Mary’s Benevolent Society covering their operations from November 1, 1875 to April 1, 1876. A detailed financial statement laid out expenditures and receipts, and the following verbal addendum completed the report:

“About eighty persons received Xmas cheer indiscriminately as to sect or creed, and about forty got relief all year round. It has been a source of grief to the Society that, not withstanding all the precautions that are taken to discern the worthy poor, there are many of the recipients totally underserving and unworthy. The Ladies cannot conclude their report without returning their sincere thanks to all who contributed funds to enable them to relieve the wants of the suffering poor, particularly those gentlemen from whom they received subscriptions for their Christmas cheer, and trust that what they gave to the poor may be multiplied a hundredfold for them.

                                                          M. M. Land,

                                                                   Secretary.”

One item that took up some time at the previous evening’s City Council meeting concerned a petition from unhappy fish dealers.

As noted in the Spectator article :

“Considerable discussion was caused in the City Council last evening when it became known that the fish stalls in the market had been monopolized by one or two men, and that the fish dealers were obliged to sell their fish from wagons in the open market. These latter parties have petitioned for shelter for themselves as they say if their fish are allowed to lay in the sun they will spoil.”

1876-04-11 Spectator

"Those Portraits"

The Spectator had been very positive in the previous notification that the editor of the rival Hamilton Times had his portrait included in a recent addition of the Canadian Illustrated News.

But a follow up article, written with some good humour, brought attention to a place where that a copy of that portrait had been hung:

“In the rogue’s gallery in the office of the Chief of Police is suspended the pictures of the President and Secretary-Treasurer of the Canadian Press Association, which lately appeared in the Canadian Illustrated News. Strangers coming into the office gaze upon the mouth, which constitutes the greater part of the face of Josh, and enquire, “What pickpocket is this?””

Finally, with the construction of the Hamilton and North Western Railway line across the Beach Strip, the owners of the Ocean House hotel near the canal  announced plans to expand the hotel  to attract patrons who would soon by using the line :

“The proprietors of this fine summer hotel propose building an addition to the Ocean House, the same size on the ground flat, but two stories higher. Magnificent billiard and ball rooms will be added, and the proprietors are fully determined to make it the finest summer hotel in the Dominion.”