“Thunder, lightning and a heavy downpour of
rain could not avail to lower the spirits of the Victory Loan campaigners who
went ‘over the top’ this morning began their big task of securing in Hamilton
for the national government subscriptions to the Victory loan to the amount of
$15,000,000.”
“Rousing Rally for the Loan
: Physician and Four Others Died in Few Hours : Doctors and Health Board Will
Confer Tonight”
Hamilton Herald. October 29, 1918
A deputation of leading
citizens had appeared before the Hamilton Board of Health asking that the ban on
public gatherings be lifted just for events organized by the Victory Loan
campaign. The request was denied.
Nevertheless, the Victory
Loan campaigners had made many plans, and they were determined to proceed :
“The campaign got off to a
good start in spite of the depressing weather conditions. That it will be
crowned with success, we have no doubt.
“Let it not be supposed that
the near approach of peace will make the new war loan unnecessary. Even if the
war were to end this week, the government would need the money, for it will
take many months to bring over army home, and it will have to be maintained in
the meantime, and in the period of reconstruction, large expenditures will have
to be incurred.
“The people of Canada must
furnish the money needed, and the people of Hamilton must, as usual, be well to
the fore in their financial support to the national cause.”
“Rousing Rally for the Loan
: Physician and Four Others Died in Few Hours : Doctors and Health Board Will
Confer Tonight”
Hamilton Herald. October 29, 1918.
One positive result of the
Board of Health on the opening of schools was that it freed up many teachers,
who in turn volunteered their services as Sisters of Service volunteers :
“That Hamilton public school teachers are not
behind their more leisured sisters in the matter of prompt and effective
service at this crisis in combatting the Spanish influenza and taking care of
the many distressed cases, may be seen from the fact that about ninety teachers
have volunteered their services gratis as S.O.S. workers. Of these, thirty-five
have already been requisitioned and are acting as voluntary nurses and
assistants at the diet in the diet kitchen at First Methodist church and at the
emergency hospitals.
“Six teachers, with cars, in
charge of Miss Patton, are in daily attendance, ready to do and go wherever
dispatched, whether delivering delicacies from the diet kitchen or affording
some recovering patient a breath of fresh air, so necessary to convalescence.
These helpful ones are Misses McKenzie, Cotter, Gamble, Patton, Lake, Lester
and Mrs. Wilson.
“At the diet kitchen of the
city hospital, four teachers – Mrs. McArthur, Miss Troup, Miss Steer and Miss
Stellens – are on duty day and evening, while Miss Fairley, of the King Edward
school, has been doing splendid service as a dietician at the Jockey club
hospital. At the diet kitchen in First Methodist church , the work of the
teachers has been most capable and acceptable to the I.O.D.E. committees in
charge. Here Misses Morton, Harding, Robinson, E. Hendrie, Jamieson, Morrison,
Henderson, Marsden, McHaffie, McKindsey, Mrs. Westland and others are working
everyday.
“From the office of the
Y.M.C.A., most of the S.O.S. work has been done under the direction of Miss
Kate Smith, whose efficiency and special gifts as organizer and superintendent
are apparent in the quiet and effective manner in which the various workers
have taken up their duty at the posts assigned to them. With Miss Smith, as
assistants in clerical work etc., at central office in the Y are : Misses Marie
Jamieson, J. Wood, Stock, Allan, Cameron, Gamble, Hayward, Hunter, Johnson,
Leadley, H. Lawson, Ross, Patterson, McCallum, Middleton, Ruse, Sutherland,
Shephard, Stringer, White, Kappele, M. Lawrie, Gill, McFarlane and others. Among
the S.O.S. nurses who have been working and visiting homes stricken with the
‘flu’ are Misses Hazel Roberts, Sabine, Masha McLeod, E. McLeod, Alma Harris,
Buddy, Cody, Horning, May Schofield, and Mary Schofield.”2
“Teachers Have Answered Call : Ninety Volunteer
Services in ‘Flu’ Epidemic : Taking Care of Many Patients in Distress”
Hamilton Spectator. October 30, 1918.
Schools, theaters, churches
and even pool rooms were subject to the Board of Health ban on public
gatherings. But the ban did not mean the end of Hallow’en activities. Many
parties had been cancelled but trick-or-treaters, and pranksters, still
followed the usual traditions:
“Though
Halloween is not what it used to be in the days when a mischievous spirit of
destruction made its annual event a time of dread to householders, whose
property became fair game for the gangs of young hoodlums who took an unholy
joy in mussing things up things generally, yet the time-honored festival is
never likely to fall altogether into disuse so long as the spirit of youth and
adventure survives.
“War-time sorrows and
necessities have put a sobering touch on the gaieties, and ‘flu’ this year
still further did away with entertainments, so it was principally among the
youngsters that the observance of All Hallows eve was kept alive. Tired of
being, so to speak, ‘all dressed up and nowhere to go’ since the closing order,
the bottled up ‘pep’ of hundreds of young people found an outlet in masquerading
in many strange and original costumes and roaming the streets to the amusement
of pedestrians. One of the most popular idols, it would seem, is Charlie
Chaplin, many imitators of this star being seen, along with Red Cross nurses,
negroes, Queens of the May, shivering in summer garb and tinsel crowns and
other familiar characters. Numerous youths who had raids on the wardrobes of
their feminine relatives paraded together, and took great pains to show lengths
of white hosiery. ; several suspicious-looking young ‘men’ attracted quite a
lot of attention, their shrinking attitude giving rise to the supposition that
their masculinity was all in their attire.
“Door bells in residential
neighborhoods were given a great deal of exercise by gangs of busy small girls
and boys, who demanded the usual ‘shell out’ of edibles. Storekeepers
good-naturedly complied with many of the demands, though in some cases police
intervention had to be threatened to stop the nuisance.
“Although there were no
serious infractions of the law, the police received many call throughout the
evening from timid citizens fearful that the pranks of the young people would
develop into destructive ‘rough house’ but, on the whole, the fun was harmless
and good-natured.”
“Halloween : Mischievous
Spirit of Destruction Was Lacking Last Night”
Hamilton Spectator. November 01, 1918
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