Christmas Eve, Monday, December
24, 1883, in Hamilton.
For most Hamiltonians in that
year, preparations for the major Christmas Day meal meant a to the Hamilton
Market, and, as usual, in 1883, the bustle at the Market Square was intense:
“Early Saturday morning, Hamilton housewives
were abroad making their Christmas purchases. A Spectator reporter struggled
through a dense crowd of women in the meat market, who were filling large
baskets with beefs and turkeys and other meats for their Christmas dinners. The
meat market presented a gay appearance. Huge quarters of beef hung suspended
from the tops of the stalls, while hogs of an enormous size, and mutton that
look very inviting, supported it on either side. The meat was all gaily
decorated with frills of colored tissue papers and the stalls were festooned
with evergreen wreaths. One immense hog had a placard placed on it that puts
its weight at over 600 pounds, and another one right beside it had a card on it
with a legend that tells its weight to be nearly 500 pounds. The display this
Christmas is the finest that has been seen in Hamilton in many years.”1
1 “Christmas
Market”
Hamilton Spectator. December 24, 1883.
Readers of the Hamilton
Times’ Tea Table Gossip entry for December 24, 1883 were treated to a Christmas
poem along with several short observations about goings on the city:
CHRISTMAS TOMORROW
“Christmas is coming!’ the children
cry,
Counting the weeks that are hurrying
by.
Dear little children, who live at
home,
And do not guess what it is to roam
From morn till night, with
stockingless feet,
Up
and down, through the ice and sleet.
‘Christmas is coming!’ thinks little
Tim:
But what can the day do for him?
His home is a cellar, his daily
bread
The crumbs that remain when the rich
are fed.
No mother to kiss him when the day
is done;
No place to be glad under the sun.
That wonderful fellow, old ‘Santa
Claus,’
Who is never idle a moment, because
He is kept so busy piling the toys
Into stockings of girls and boys.
No wonder he sometimes forgets, you
know,
Into the homes of the poor to go.
But dear little children, you
understand,
That the rich and the poor all over
the land
Have one dear Father who watches
you,
And grieves and smiles at the things
you do,
And some of the children are poor
and sad,
And some are always merry and glad.
Christmas will bring to you many
joys –
Food and plenty, frolic and toys;
Christmas to some will bring nothing
at all;
In place of laughter, tears will
fall,
Poor sad Tim to your door may come.
Your blessings are many – spare him
some.
The Christmas bells will sweetly
ring
The songs that the angels love to
sing,
The song that came with the
Saviour’s birth,
‘Peace, good will and love on
earth!’
Dear little children, ring, I pray,
Sweet bells in some lonely heart
that day.
- Good
will to men would soon bring peace on earth.
- A
servant at Beatty’s hotel, James street north, had her pocket picked on
Saturday night.
- As
soon as the weather gets cold enough to make ice, the barber commences using
cold water to lather with.
- Don’t
forget that this is the children’s day – and that all are young who have kept
their child’s heart.
- The
best sauce for a Christmas dinner are quiet, good deeds that have make
someone’s Christmas happy, which, but for you, might have been miserable.
- Whether
kept with the sacredness of a religious festival, or kept with a quiet mind and
a joyous heart in other ways, this is a time for happy thoughts, good deeds and
the general distribution of reasonable happiness
- The
boys of the Bay Street Fire Station have decorated the station beautifully with
flags, evergreens, etc. It is worth a visit to see how artistically the firemen
can do such things. It will be open tonight for the inspection of the public.
- Let
the stocking hang high tonight and all the little folks go to sleep with the
sweet consciousness that ‘Santa Claus’ is not a myth, but a real spirit, who
will come down the chimney and have an armful of good things and a wish for a
Merry Christmas.
- The
Christmas display by Hamilton merchants this year is the finest ever seen. Many
of them have gone to great trouble and much expense. Those who have brought
their goods under the notice of the public by judicious advertising have sold
well, notwithstanding that times are not so good as last year.2
2“Tea
Table Gossip”
Hamilton
Times. December 24, 1883.
Every year at Christmas, the
managers of Tuckett and Son, tobacco manufacturers, held a meeting of their
employees for the purpose of presenting prizes and Christmas gifts.
“At 10:30 a. m., a scene of
splendid animation was presented in the company’s large warehouse as the
employees, ranging in age from 13 to 60 years old gathered to receive their
gifts.
“Mr. George E. Tuckett began
the proceedings by mounting a temporary platform and addressing the assembled.
He began by thanking the employees for their cooperation with the firm during
the past year:
“Without their skill,
interest and pride taken in their work, instead of making a reputation and
profit, the firm would lose both. To show that their services were appreciated,
the firm had pleasure in distributing, as in former years, the usual prizes to
the lumpmakers and Christmas boxes to the day hands. An additional feature of
interest in their little gathering this year was that the children would draw
the prize promised to them last year.”1
1 “Worthy
Workmen : Receive Their rewards at Messrs. Tuckett and Son’s Factory”
Hamilton Times. December 24, 1883.
Mr. Tuckett then turned the
topic of his address to internal matters. In the previous year, the company had
agreed to lower the hours of labor to nine hours a day from ten hours. The same
wages for the longer day were kept for the shorter workday:
“They have been able to
advance wages in some departments of work, and had lowered them in none, and he
was glad to tell them that the books showed the experiment of working nine
hours instead of ten had so far been satisfactory and had a balance in its
favor. The balance the firm proposed to distribute in this way. Each foreman
would receive ten per cent, in addition to his prize of last year, and each day
will receive one-and-a-half weeks’ extra wages instead of a week as heretofore.
He was glad the experiment had been so far remunerative to the firm and to the
employees. We propose continuing the experiment another year and trusted that
it would eventually become an established policy of the firm as he was sure it
must continue to their domestic comfort.
“He wished them to understand
that he gave no opinion as to whether they had so far made a success would be
applicable to other industries. That was no concern of his. But he was proud
that the experiment warranted the hope that it would succeed in their factory.”1
The following list of
Christmas prizes presented was printed in the Times :
Navy Lump Makers
“A. Slaughter, first prize,
$25; Siegel & Dawson, $20 each, as 2nd prizes; Staunton &
O’Connor, $15 each, as 3rd prizes; and L. Slaughter, 4th
prize, $10; Foster, 5th prize, $5; 6th prizes, $4 each.
Solace Lump Makers
“John Tompkins, 1st
prize, $15; James Sullivan, 2nd $10; Alfred Bennett, 3rd,
$7.50; Patterson, 4th, $5; Theodore Myers, 5th, $2.50.
Mr. Myers is over 60 years of age. In order to compete for prizes, the employee
must be 9 months in the factory.
“Christmas boxes to the
foremen – John Bambrick, foreman of the press room, $55; Kruis, assistant
foreman, $27.50; Bennett, foreman rolling room, $55; Chas. Imboden, foreman
casing room, $55; Smith, assistant foreman casing room, $27.50; Langdon,
engineer, $55; Kelly, foreman of cellar, $27.50.
“Seventy-Five day hands each
received a week and a half’s wages. The children then drew for their prizes – a
proceeding in which all took a very deep interest.”1
Mr. Tuckett ended his
address to his employees by praising them one and all, stating that the quality
of tobacco products produced at the factory were second to none:
“After a couple of songs and
choruses – capitally sung – by some of the employees (new arrivals from
Lynchburg), the proceedings terminated.”1
Finally, the Hamilton Times
included a poem in its Christmas Eve, 1883 edition, a poem which could well
have been read to children across the city as they were put to bed :
Santa Claus and the Mouse
One
Christmas eve, when Santa Claus
Came to a certain house,
To
fill the children’s stockings there,
He found a little mouse.
“A
merry Christmas, little friend,’
Said Santa good and kind.
‘The
same to you, sir,’ said the mouse;
“I thought you wouldn’t mind
‘If
I should stay awake tonight
And watch you for a while.’
‘You’re
very welcome, little mouse,’
Said Santa, with a smile.
And
he filled the stockings up
Before the mouse could wink,-
From
toe to top, from top to toe,
There wasn’t left a chink.
“Now,
they won’t hold another thing,’
Said Santa Claus, with pride.
A
twinkle came in mouse’s eyes,
But humbly he replied :
‘It’s
not polite to contradict,-
Your pardon I implore,-
But
in the fullest stocking there
I could put one thing more.
‘Oh,
ho!’ laughed Santa, ‘silly mouse !
Don’t I know how to pack ?
By
filling stockings all these years,
I should have learned the knack.’
And
then he took the stocking down
From where it hung so high,
And
said : ‘Now put in one thing more ;
I give you leave to try.’
The
mouse chuckled to himself,
And then he softly stole
Right
to the stocking’s crowned toe
And gnawed a little hole !
‘Now,
if you please, good Santa Claus
“I’ve put in one thing more ;
For
you will own that little hole
Was not in there before.’
How
Santa Claus did laugh and laugh !
And then he gayly spoke:
‘Well
! you shall have a Christmas cheese
For that nice little joke!’
“Santa Claus and the Mouse”
Hamilton Times. December 24, 1883.
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