1883 - July - 8

The excursion to Hamilton Beach organized by the Knights of Pythias for Saturday, July 19, 1883 was an immense success.
          Beautiful weather was the order of the day, adding to the enjoyment of the huge numbers of city residents who made their way to the sand strip between Lake Ontario and Burlington Bay to take in the proceedings:
          “The Knights went down in a body at 2 o’clock accompanied by the Thirteenth Battalion band. About 4 o’clock in the afternoon, they formed on the bay side, and went through their regular for about three-quarters of an hour. They drilled well, as they always do, and their neat uniforms were greeted with applause by the onlookers. The members of the Thirteenth band put up their stands immediately in front of the Ocean house and played there all afternoon. String bands for dancing to were playing all afternoon and evening in the ball rooms of both the Lakeside and the Ocean house .”^1
1 “The Knights of Pythias”  Hamilton Spectator. July 21, 1883.
          The reporter in attendance in the afternoon estimated the crowd for the event at 2,000, and noted that “fresh crowds came down by every train.”¹

                Some incidents, and the newspaper coverage, deserve to be recounted exactly as appeared originally in the press:
          “There was a great scare in a residence on George street last night. Just as an astonishing roll of thunder came, one of the ladies of the home happened to be going upstairs with a lamp in her hand. The thunder frightened her so that she shook the chimney off the lamp, and it went downstairs with a crash. Coupled with the terrific thunder, the crash of broken glass led the inmates to believe that the house had been struck. Several ladies shrieked and it is believed that two men crawled under their beds. As the house didn’t fall through, they came out and showed bravery. At the breakfast table, everyone said that they had never got such a fright in their lives. A young man who said he never heard it and had slept undisturbed had to hide his head in shame.”^2
2 “A Crash of Glass” Hamilton Spectator. July 21, 1883.
          There was a lovely, and most  newsworthy, service held on Sunday afternoon, July 20, 1883 at St. Mark’s Anglican Church, Bay and Hunter streets. It was called a “Flower Service” and among those present were more than 100 children, each carrying a bouquet of flowers.
          As described by the Spectator reporter who was invited to attend:
          “After a brief, bright service of praise, the little ones advanced to the chancel steps in order and laid their floral offering upon a tray supported by two gentlemen vested in cassocks.
          “The flowers, together with the alms, were then presented reverently to the priest, the Rev. R. G. Sutherland, M. A., who humbly presented them before the altar, on whose lowest step they were then deposited.”^3
3 “Flower Service at St. Mark’s : The Inmates of the Asylum and Home of the Friendless Cheered” Hamilton Spectator.  July 21, 1883.
          What followed at this point in the service was “a ‘chalk talk’ or blackboard address, bringing out, chiefly from the children themselves, the lessons which the flowers teach. Not a few of the parents were present, and seemed to enter heartily into the evident pleasure of the little ones.”³
                After the service, the flowers which had filled the church sanctuary with color and fragrance, were divided up with a portion going to the Hamilton Asylum for the Insane at the top of the James Mountain Road, and the other portion being taken to the more nearby Home for the Friendless, just a few blocks away at Hess and Duke streets.
          The Spectator article concluded with a brief overview of the popularity of Flower Services at the time :
          “Although this service is a novelty in Hamilton, it is by no means so in England, where not only in Anglican churches, but in those of the non-conformists, it is found to be a pleasant and useful break upon the customary exercises of the Sunday School.”³