1914-12-25aa

Christmas day, 1914 was marked by many traditional activities, family get-togethers, exchange of presents, special meals, and, of course, church attendance.

          Even on Christmas day in church, the increasingly disturbing news coming from the war in Europe, and other places, was present. Most priest, ministers and pastors included the message of Christmas peace being more important than ever in light of the horrors being enacted in the war.

One heart-warming Christmas story was recounted in the Spectator :

          “Earlier in the week, a letter was published in the paper from a man whose outlook for Christmas was particularly cheerless. He was out of work and out of funds. He said that he had been refused bread tickets at the relief association because he was single, preference being given to families. He had be forced to live on dry bread – once in a while a bit of jam with it.

          “The sympathy of a great many people went out to this unlucky one, and he could have had a score of Christmas dinners yesterday. Some of the people who wrote in promised other assistance, and so Christmas for this unlucky one was no so cheerless after all.”¹

               ¹ “Not So Cheerless : Many Willing to Look After Man in Hard Luck”

          Hamilton Spectator.   December 26, 1914

   

          The weather had taken a significant change as Christmas day approached. Temperatures dropped precipitously. Although relatively little snow fell in the city of Hamilton, such was not the case above the escarpment to the north :


“Hamilton was not the most comfortable place yesterday. The thermometer dropped below the zero point during the milkman hours of the day.

          “At 9 o’clock yesterday, the thermometer in partially protected places registered 2 above zero, while in the outlying districts, it failed to reach above zero until noon.

“Compared with last Christmas, the weather was several degrees colder.”²

² A Cold Snap : Weather Man Pulled Zero Stop for Christmas”

Hamilton Herald.  December 26, 1914.

        The players with the Hamilton Tiger Intermediate, O.H.A. Hockey squad certainly were able to attest that the areas north of Dunas towards Preston had indeed received a lot of snow.

          The Hamilton hockey team had a game scheduled in Preston, starting at 8:25 p.m., during the evening of Friday, December 25, 1914.

          In an article in the Hamilton Herald, published the following Monday, recounted the woes the team encountered that Christmas day:

          “The party has been back since Saturday, but was not sufficiently thawed out until yesterday to recite the chapter of incidents that occurred on that never-to-be-forgotten auto ride. It was one of those episodes that one reads about, and which, no doubt, the participants in will never cease talking about.”³

               ³ “Tigers’ Experience On Christmas Day Reads Like Real Fiction : Trouble Came in Bunches, and Party Was Given a Taste of Arctic Exploring – Never Again, Say All”

          Hamilton Herald.  December 28, 1914.

          While there was a railroad connection from Hamilton to Preston, the schedule was not convenient for the team, so it was decided to make the trip by automobile.

          Team Manager Leroy Awrey recounted the story of the Tigers’ Christmas day road trip as follows :

          “We started from the Tiger club rooms, the first auto pulling out at 4:15, the second shortly after, and the last car, in which I was an occupant, leaving at 4:45.

          “It was a cold day and all hands were hoping for a quick trip. This we got as far as Dundas. Then it was terrible.

          “We made exceptionally fast time to the Valley Town and were in hopes of making the complete journey in equally as quick style, when the last car baulked at Greensville, starting the trouble that was to come in bunches.

          “A half-hour delay occurred, we finally getting started again with the assistance of a second car and a rope. For two miles we managed to evade the snow banks in pleasing style, but a short distance on, we encountered auto No. 1 snowed in with little chance of getting out. This was near Rockton.

          “The members of the party were heartily sick of the experience and cold. I was forced to round up a farmer and pay him to get out his team of horses and pull the auto out of the snow, at the same heeding his warning that we could not get past Sheffield, and phoning ahead to the grocer to have a team ready to take us on to Galt.

          “Unfortunately, we were stuck in the snow again before reaching Sheffield, and I was again forced to go on foot for aid. I managed to reach the grocer with his team, and he drove back to get the remainder of the party.

          “With no robes to save us from the zero weather, we piled into the wagon and rumbled along into Galt, reaching there just in the nick of time to catch the trolley for Preston.

          “It was a down-hearted and hungry lot that arrived at the scene of hostilities at 8:25, and without having a chance to appease our ravenous appetites, we had to go on the ice.

          “Despite this we put up a fair game, and it was no disgrace to be beaten. Our make-shift team was certainly in no shape to play at all, but we promised the Preston officials we would be there and had to make good our promise.

          “As a matter of fact, some of the fellows wanted to turn back when we encountered our first trouble along the road, But I couldn’t see it that way.

          “No more auto rides.”³

               While the Tiger hockey team was making their way to Preston, back in Hamilton Police Magistrate was enjoying the day in the comfortable warmth of his home.

          Perhaps struck with an abundance of Christmas spirit, the magistrate decided to telephone the King William street police station and tell the officers on duty that they had his permission to release the motley collection of drunks who had been arrested on Christmas Eve.

          Some were happily thankful and hustled away from the station as quickly as possible, others who had no home, decided to forgo the magistrate’s Christmas largess and remain in the warmth of the police cells.