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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Life in Canada Fifty Years Ago, by Canniff Haight

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Title: Life in Canada Fifty Years Ago
Author: Canniff Haight
Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6663]

[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]

[This file was first posted on January 10, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, LIFE IN CANADA FIFTY YEARS AGO ***

Tonya Allen, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team. This file was produced from images generously made
available by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions.

LIFE IN CANADA FIFTY YEARS AGO:
PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS AND REMINISCENCES OF A SEXAGENARIAN.
BY CANNIFF HAIGHT

"Ah, happy years! Once more who would not be a boy?"
_Childe Harold's Pilgrimage._
TO THE YOUNG MEN OF CANADA,
UPON WHOSE INTEGRITY AND ENERGY OF CHARACTER THE FUTURE OF THIS GREAT
HERITAGE OF OURS RESTS,
THIS BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.

When a man poses before the world--even the Canadian world--in the
_role_ of an author, he is expected to step up to the footlights,
and explain his purpose in presenting himself before the public in that
capacity.

The thoughts of the world are sown broadcast, very much as the seed
falls from the sweep of the husbandman's hand. It drops here and there,
in good ground and in stony places. Its future depends upon its
vitality. Many a fair seed has fallen on rich soil, and never reached
maturity. Many another has shot up luxuriantly, but in a short time has
been choked by brambles. Other seeds have been cast out with the chaff
upon the dung heap, and after various mutations, have come in contact
with a clod of earth, through which they have sent their roots, and have
finally grown into thrifty plants. A thought thrown out on the world, if
it possesses vital force, never dies. How much is remembered of the work
of our greatest men? Only a sentence here and there; and many a man
whose name will go down through all the ages, owes it to the truth or
the vital force of the thought embedded in a few brief lines.

I have very little to say respecting the volume here with presented to
the public. The principal contents appeared a short time ago in the
_Canadian Monthly_ and the _Canadian Methodist Magazine_. They
were written at a time when my way seemed hedged around with
insurmountable difficulties, and when almost anything that could afford
me a temporary respite from the mental anxieties that weighed me down,
not only during the day, but into the long hours of the night, would
have been welcomed. Like most unfortunates, I met Mr. Worldly Wiseman
from day to day. I always found him ready to point out the way I should
go and what I should do, but I have no recollection that he ever got the
breadth of a hair beyond that. One evening I took up my pen and began
jotting down a few memories of my boyhood. I think we are all fond of
taking retrospective glances, and more particularly when life's pathway
trends towards the end. The relief I found while thus engaged was very
soothing, and for the time I got altogether away from the present, and
lived over again many a joyous hour. After a time I had accumulated a

good deal of matter, such as it was, but the thought of publication had
not then entered my mind. One day, while in conversation with Dr.
Withrow, I mentioned what I had done, and he expressed a desire to see
what I had written. The papers were sent him, and in a short time he
returned them with a note expressing the pleasure the perusal of them
had afforded him, and advising me to submit them to the _Canadian
Monthly_ for publication. Sometime afterwards I followed his advice.
The portion of the papers that appeared in the last-named periodical
were favourably received, and I was much gratified not only by that, but
from private letters afterwards received from different parts of the
Dominion, conveying expressions of commendation which I had certainly
never anticipated. This is as much as need be said about the origin and
first publication of the papers which make up the principal part of this
volume. I do not deem it necessary to give any reasons for putting them
in book form; but I may say this: the whole has been carefully revised,
and in its present shape I hope will meet with a hearty welcome from a
large number of Canadians.

In conclusion, I wish to express my thanks to the Hon. J.C. Aikins,
Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba, for information he procured for me at
the time of publication, and particularly to J.C. Dent, Esq., to whom I
am greatly indebted for many useful hints.

CONTENTS.

DEDICATION
PREFACE
CHAPTER I.

The prose and poetry of pioneer life in the backwoods--The log house--
Sugar making--An omen of good luck--My Quaker grandparents--The old
home--Winter evenings at the fireside--Rural hospitality--Aristocracy
_versus_ Democracy--School days--Debating societies in the olden
time--A rural orator clinches the nail--Cider, sweet and otherwise--
Husking in the barn--Hog killing and sausage making--Full cloth and
corduroy--Winter work and winter amusements--A Canadian skating song.

CHAPTER II.

The round of pioneer life--Game--Night fishing--More details about
sugar-making--Sugaring-off--Taking a hand at the old churn--Sheep-
washing--Country girls, then and now--Substance and Shadow--"Old Gray"
and his eccentricities--Harvest--My early emulation of Peter Paul
Rubens--Meeting-houses--Elia on Quaker meetings--Variegated autumn
landscapes--Logging and quilting bees--Evening fun--The touching lay of
the young woman who sat down to sleep.

CHAPTER III.
Progress, material and social--Fondness of the young for dancing--
Magisterial nuptials--The charivari--Goon-hunting--Catching a tartar--

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