April 27, 1876

The Office of the

Daily & Weekly Spectator

-      Has Been –

REMOVED

                   -from the –

CORNER OF JAMES AND MAIN STREETS

To the building known as the

“DERBY HOUSE’”

-At the Corner of –

             Market Square and MacNab Street

Office entrance on Market Square.

                             Hamilton Spectator April 26, 1876

It had been more than a month since the Spectator had relocated its printing press and office from James street south, but there was a constant appearance of a reminder to its loyal readers of the fact.

Two alarming stories involving infants and the Hamilton Bay appeared in the April 27, 1876 edition of the Spectator :

 “Yesterday afternoon some men observed a common cigar box floating in the water in the neighbourhood of the Great Western ice houses. On taking it out, they found to their horror that the box contained an infant, quite cold and dead. The box and its contents were brought up to Dr. White, at his office, who did think it was necessary to hold a post mortem examination. The child had been still born, and in all probability was the victim of a cruel abortion. The infant had been dead for some time, and was very small. By Dr. White’s orders, it was duly buried.”

“Yesterday afternoon, Dr. White’s son, a beautiful child of two and a half years, unobserved by his nurse, toddled out the yard on James street and marched down to the bay. Here he was found playing near the water by a young lady who recognised him and very kindly brought him home. In the meantime the little fellow’s parents, almost in a state of distraction, were searching for him everywhere without avail, and their joy on recovering him again can be better imagined than described. This morning the little fellow complained of his legs being sore, but otherwise expresses satisfaction with his trip”.

That day the Spectator copied an item which had appeared the previous day in the Dundas Standard concerning the search for the remains of Thomas Ireland :

“All the exertions made to recover the body of the late Mr. Ireland have been so far fruitless. Every spot in the creek has been searched over and over again. Torpedoes have been called into requisition, but all useless. If the body be free, it will come to the surface of itself in a short time through the generation of gas resulting from decomposition, but if covered there is not much hope.”