Classic Christmas Stories (13 page)

It was a week which witnessed also a profuse display of turkeys, geese,
chicken, hind and fore-quarters of beef, legs of mutton, whole carcases of pigs,
particularly at the premises of J. & W. Pitts, Clift Wood & Co. and at
Dryer & Green's market under the Court House clock, that good old clock
which tolled the hours in strong vibrating tones, heard at their clearest when
the traffic of the day had ceased. Then also every butcher's stall was filled to
the hatches, so to speak, with quarters of beef as well as veal and mutton in
abundance, the beef dangling from strong hooks inside the stalls or so displayed
on door and window hooks as well as being spread out also on temporary stands
along the sidewalks.

The Christmas cakes, the poultry and the beef in such abundance and at prices
within the reach of everybody, were inseparable from the Christmas seasons of
those days, not as they are now only something to look at by most people and to
be possessed by but a limited few.

As the last cake was raffled at Lash's it presented to us the virtual closing
of the pre-Christmas characteristics, such as the bringing home of the cakes and
the poultry and the witnessing of the festive displays in the store windows
along Water Street with here and there the ever familiar figure of Santa Claus
beaming benevolently upon all beholders.

But there was one other feature yet to be witnessed before the curtain would
ring down as Christmas Day was only an hour or so off. This was the midnight
serenade of the Total Abstinence Band, a happy custom that prevailed for many
years but which in time ceased also, leaving behind it a recollection only of
all its pleasant associations and the memory of those who took part in those
events.

The members of the Band assembled at their hall annually at
about 11 p.m. on Christmas Eve; then, as the midnight hour approached, they
proceeded to parade upon their rounds rendering lively melodies which floated
along in the winter air to the delight of all citizens. The serenade was
confined to the homes of the Society's principal officers, and at such stopped,
here and there, to play suitable Christmas music upon their instruments.

Amongst the homes serenaded were that of Patrick Reardon, President, on Long's
Hill; that of M. J. O'Mara, Barrister and one time member for St. John's East, a
later President, who lived on Cochrane St.; that of Joseph Lynch, another of its
Presidents, who lived at the foot of Barter's Hill. Also there was a serenade
played outside the homes of Wm. J. Myler, Vice-President, on Victoria St., and
of James Clancy, Treasurer, on Prescott Street.

An appreciative audience gathered around to listen to and enjoy the serenades,
whilst many looked on and listened in also, from the neighbouring houses. As the
music played and glistening snowflakes gently fluttered and descended upon the
brightly burnished band instruments, under the flare of the gas lamps, the
effect was joyful and impressive, and one destined to linger long in the memory
of all who witnessed it.

Then after each serenade the members of the Band were invited into the
respective homes of their officers to be regaled with cake and tea, or lemonade
and other such temperance drinks.

The most prominent members of the Band, at present recalled, were Pat Dawson
who played the piccolo; Tom Grace, father of P. J., the baritone; his brother,
Wm. Grace, the sliding trombone; P. J. O'Neil and John L. Slattery, first
cornets; Pat Wallace and Pat Hickey, tenors; H. V. Simms, euphonium; Wm.
Courtney, bass, and Tom Connors the big drum. All of whom were good musicians
and with many others who joined from time to time contributed much to the
success of the Society's annual parades on New Year's Day and on other festive
occasions during the year in which they participated.

Shortly after midnight the serenades concluded, then silence descended upon the
streets making the termination of the pre-Christmas scenes and events.

And so to bed, as Pepy's wrote, for all of us there to lay
for a short few hours, until just before the joy bells rang out upon the air
at 5: 30 in the morning, when we joined the throngs on their way to the R. C.
Cathedral upon the hilltop to attend at the celebration of the 6 o'clock High
Mass, then the first Mass celebrated on Christmas Day, but which was later
changed by Archbishop Howley to the previous midnight hour.

Happy days will come again, as they have come and gone at other times, but they
will never be any happier than when Lash's cake lotteries marked the Christmas
season and when the T. A. Band played their midnight serenades around the
town.

To look at Lash's building now in passing, or to step inside and gaze upon its
walls, makes one ponder and exclaim, as Tom Moore did “I feel like one who
treads alone some banquet hall deserted.” But there is a pleasure in
recollection of those days, notwithstanding their departure. There is also the
feeling that the boys of today will never have any such pleasant recollections
of Christmas Eve, as the boys of those days of old experience when fond
recollections present to their view the scene of the T. A. Band parading the
city and playing their serenades at the midnight hour on Christmas Eve.

by Pat Doyle

“T
HE CHALLENGE WILL BE met. Howsuccessfullyit will be
met will depend on all of us.”

These words inthe NewYear'smessage of Newfoundland Board of Trade President
Lewis Ayre on Jan. 3, 1949, appear to reflect the thought of many
Newfoundlanders in that Christmas season 25 years ago, as they prepared to give
up their independent status and become citizens of the much larger nation of
Canada.

As Christmas 1973 rapidly approaches its high point, and the province prepares
for next year's 25th anniversary celebrations, many Newfoundlanders' thoughts
are undoubtedly reflecting back to that Christmas in 1948—a few, however, even
today, with a kind of mixed emotion.

Some observers on the scene today say they feel there were no sorrowful regrets
during that Yuletide season which followed the long and bitter struggle for
Confederation, but there are others who recall a Christmas tinged with more than
a little feeling of bitterness.

“Christmas is Christmas, ” said former mayor of St. John's H. G. R. Mews, 76,
leader of the Progressive Conservative Party in 1949, who feels there was
generally no adverse feeling on the seasonal festivities in 1948 because of the
Confederation issue.

Mr. Mews added that most people were actually looking forward
to Confederation as they figured that they would be better off . . . “and
indeed, they were.”

There were no sorrows, he said, but in fact, there was perhaps “a feeling of
thanksgiving.”

Mr. Mews, who was defeated in the 1949 general election in St. John's West,
following which he became mayor of the city, summed up his thoughts with the
suggestion that “we have a lot to be thankful for.”

Poultry farmer Greg Power, Joe Smallwood's chief lieutenant in the fight for
union with Canada, who became a cabinet minister but later fell out with Mr.
Smallwood and resigned, also feels the Confederation issue had little effect on
Christmas 1948.

He suggested that most of those who had voted against Confederation had acted
out of sentiment rather than for a specific case.

Mr. Power said what most people seem to overlook is “what a wonderful vote
Responsible Government got and how bad its case was.”

He doesn't feel there was much bitterness remaining by Christmas as people had
gone through a couple of years of real tough competition and they knew “it was
going to be better” after Confederation.

Hon. W. J. Browne, a PC Member of Parliament for a number of years, and a
former federal cabinet minister as well as MHA also says he doesn't recall “any
particular sorrows or regrets” 25 Christmases ago.

He said that once the final terms of union were signed in Ottawa, on Dec. 11,
1948, Confederation became virtually a fact, and benefits to come such as the
“baby bonus, ” and improved old age pensions were being outlined for the
people.

Most of those who had opposed Confederation soon turned over he added, and he
pointed out that in the 1949 provincial election, the Liberal Party under Mr.
Smallwood won 22 of the 28 seats, with five going to the PCs and one to
independent Peter Cashin, who had been one of the chief leaders of the
Responsible Government movement.

In fact, about 14 of 22 Liberal seats were won overwhelmingly and most of the
other eight districts gave Liberal candidates comfortable majorities.

Mr. Browne was one of a group of people who, in early December 1948, tried
unsuccessfully to stop the move toward Confederation by court action.

There are other observers, however, who feel quite distinctly, that
there was not such a harmonious feeling during that last
Christmas as an independent country.

A. B. Perlin, associate editor of the
Daily News
and long time political
observer, gave some indication of that in an article entitled “History of Modern
Newfoundland, ” in Volume Four of the
Book of Newfoundland
.

“It was a divided country that faced the advent of union with Canada, ” says
Mr. Perlin, “although by districts the Confederates would have won an
overwhelming majority.”

Mr. Perlin said that the anti-confederate vote came from the large urban
areas.

Any feeling of bitterness or dismay over the advent of Confederation in
December, 1948, seems to have been kept at a personal or private level
however.

A check through the
Telegram
issues for the month of December, 25 years
ago, shows there were very few letters to the editor or other public comment
opposing or criticizing Confederation.

Even editorial writers and columnists seemed to go in more for observation and
explanation rather than definite critical comment.

But the
Telegram
's associate editor today, Wick Collins, who was
secretary of the Responsible Government League, suggests that the apparent lack
of outcry in December was mainly due to a sort of “numbness” that was being
experienced by those who had fought so hard to ward off Confederation.

He said people were “drained out” after the bitter campaigning through the two
referenda, and were feeling that it was all over, there was nothing more they
could do . . . “they didn't want it (Confederation) . . . they didn't vote for
it.”

Mr. Collins said it was definitely a sad and sorrowful Christmas for many
people.

Sometime after the New Year began, as the reality of union with Canada crept
closer, some active public opposition to the idea did arise but it did not carry
much weight and was to little avail.

Lawyer Richard Greene, who was an active supporter of the anti-confederate
movement and later sat with Tories in the House of Assembly for three years,
remembers a general sort of “frustration, ” particularly among the old times in
late 1948.

He feels there was indeed a great deal of bitterness at the time.

People did not generally become resigned to Confederation
until quite sometime afterward he suggests.

“Very few automatically dropped the principles they had fought for, ” Mr.
Greene added.

City businessman and Metro Board chairman John R. O'Dea, who was a Tory MHA
from 1959-62, feels much the same way.

He feels Christmas, 1948, was indeed less joyful for many people in view of the
move toward Confederation.

Apart from the people who were firmly opposed to the idea on Confederation in
itself, there were also those who abhorred the way in which it was being brought
about.

Richard Gwyn, in his biography,
Smallwood: The Unlikely Revolutionary
,
says that the constitutional issue—whether the union between the two countries
should be consummated in any way except by two elected governments— “was
resolved by the expedient of ignoring it.”

Mr. Gwyn said in his book that with hindsight it was clear that the terms of
union signed in 1948 were seriously inadequate.

One member of the delegation, businessman Ches Crosbie, refused to sign saying,
“I would not and could not take the responsibility of committing the people of
Newfoundland to financial suicide.”

Another member of the Newfoundland delegation told a colleague the night before
the signing that he had agreed to sign because there was no alternative.

Said Mr. Gwyn: “Nor was there; Newfoundland was committed to union, whatever
the consequence.”

After the official signing took place in the red carpeted Senate chamber in
Ottawa on the morning of Dec. 11, 1948, an RCAF band played God Save the King
and O Canada. It had intended to play the Ode to Newfoundland, but the music
could not be found in Ottawa.

Mr. Gwyn relates that after this Mr. Smallwood was active making sure he would
become premier of the new province and that his close colleague, Gordon Bradley,
would be named to the federal cabinet.

As early as Aug. 6, 1948, less than a month after the second referendum, Mr.
Smallwood had won a standing ovation at the national Liberal convention in
Toronto in a stirring speech, using the peroration, “We Canadians.”

Mr. Gwyn adds in a footnote that feelings in Newfoundland
remained high, though the campaigning was over and the outcome accepted by
Canada.

He said that when Mr. Smallwood's appearance at the Liberal convention was
recorded for the newsreels, “going to St. John's movie houses to boo Smallwood
whenever his face appeared on the screen became a popular form of
entertainment.”

In his New Year's message in 1949, the board of trade president, Lewis Ayre,
obviously made some attempt to bring unity to the Newfoundland scene.

He pointed out that the problems that would arise in Confederation could only
be solved by “a combined effort on the part of all Newfoundlanders working
together in the common interest.”

Mr. Ayre went on to say that in the future, as had been in the past,
Newfoundland's problems would be largely her own and their resolution would
rest, as it always had in the past, upon Newfoundlanders themselves.

“In the days of readjustment, ” said Mr. Ayre, “there will be little room for
dissention among us.”

He urged that people should forget past differences and go into the New Year
resolved to do their share.

“The past is behind us, the future will be largely in our own hands.”

Meanwhile, the current president of the St. John's Board of Trade, W. A. Neal,
doesn't feel the Confederation issue had any real great affect on business in
December, 1948.

Mr. Neal who was active in the board of trade in those days, but not so much as
today, said that “things were good, ” for the business community, although not
as good as they later became after Confederation.

Business got a boost with Confederation he explained as things were stepped up
considerably with such benefits as the baby bonus and the improved old age
pensions.

Generally speaking, Mr. Neal felt there was no great difference in Christmas,
1948 because of the advent of Confederation.

Former Premier Joseph Smallwood, of course, has said frequently in the past
that Confederation was the greatest blessing ever bestowed on
Newfoundland.

With regard to the attitude of the business community in the days
approaching union with Canada, Lewis Ayre, at a board of
trade annual meeting, Feb. 20, 1959-10, years after Confederation—recalled more
remarks he had made in early 1949.

“There can be no doubt, ” he said at that time, “that the change in national
status will require, on the art of business, the ability to adjust and adapt
itself to the radical new conditions implicit in a change of this
magnitude.”

“Beginning in April, Newfoundland commerce will have to conform to the Canadian
pattern.

“While the change will not be easy, the path of business in Newfoundland has
never been so smooth that we need be dismayed by any difficulties of adjustment
that lie ahead.”

Some idea of the position Newfoundland was in at the time of Confederation was
indicated in an article in the
Monetary Times Annual
, by correspondent
George Perlin, shortly before the 10th anniversary of Confederation,
in 1959.

Mr. Perlin said that until the middle of the 19th century when she was granted
responsible government, Newfoundland was regarded by her European discoverers
nothing more than a safe harbour from which to fish the teeming waters of the
Grand Banks. No effort was made, he said, to explore or develop her other
resources.

“Forced to devote themselves to maintaining an uncertain stability in her
single-industry economy, her governments through her ensuing decades as a
dominion had little time to consider the building of a network of public
services.”

Thus when she entered Confederation in 1949, he added, “Newfoundland was nearly
a century behind the rest of Canada in terms of roads, schools, hospitals and
other vital services.”

Meanwhile, it seemed that once the Canadian government had accepted the result
of the second referendum—a majority vote for Confederation—Canadian authorities
soon set machinery in operation for integration of Newfoundland into
Canada.

As early as the first week of December, various officials began coming to
Newfoundland from Ottawa to confer on the adjustments that would have to be
made.

Representatives of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the
family allowance service, the banking industry, the department of
transport, Canadian National Railway, CMHC, and others visited here at various
times throughout the month—even before the final terms of union were
signed.

In early December as well, a three-man delegation from the Responsible
Government League went to London, England, with a petition
from 50,000 Newfoundlanders, seeking to stay negotiations for union with Canada
and a restoration of self-government.

The delegations were received by Philip Noel-Baker, the British Commonwealth
Relations Secretary, and later said the trip was successful because it let the
British people know their position.