The Month That Was – July 1864

All articles originally appeared in The Oshawa Vindicator

July 6, 1864, Page 1

Great Improvement in Canadian Politics and Politicians
There are some things occurring in Parliament which we notice with great satisfaction. 1^st. The very magnanimous and dignified positioned assumed throughout the present extraordinary crisis by the late Lower Canada Premier, Mr. Dorion.-That gentlemen fully conceded the right of Mr. Brown or any other to act as he thought best for the country, entirely irrespective of past political or party relations, or of individual claims. This is high and patriotic ground. The country first; parties and individuals afterwards. Such a course will not hurt Mr. Dorion, who may be truly called the Bayard of Canadian politics, – the chevalier sans peur et sans reprochee.

Page 2

From Sherman’s Army
New York, July 1. The Herald’s correspondent with Sherman, under date 22^nd ult. Says of the battle of Kenesse on the 17^th: Heavy skirmishing opened, and towards night the rebels commenced firing fiercely. Bradley’s and Bridges’ batteries were brought to bear upon them with considerable effect, and Logan and Blair’s batteries also fiercely shelled their weeks. Hooker having repulsed them, was pressing forward while Schofield was swinging around their left, capturing many prisoners. Soon heavy musketry firing was heard, and the rebels made repeated onslaughts upon the position our troops had taken from them, but were repulsed each time.

Closing Taverns
Section 44 of Mrs. Dunkin’ Temperance Act provides that no sale of liquor, except for medicinal purposes or to travellers or boarders, shall take place at any hotel between the hours of nine o’clock on Saturday evening and six o’clock on Monday morning. This is not so stringent a provision as war formerly the law, but if it is carried out strictly, will be productive of some good at least, while the law, as it has herefore stood, has been very generally violated. We are informed that it is the intention of our Village Constable to see that the new law, with reference to sales after nine o-clock, is strictly enforced.

Oshawa School Board
On Wednesday, of last week, and adjourned special meeting of the school board took place, for the purpose of deciding upon the tender out in by Messrs. George Edwards and William T. Dingle for the erection of the addition to the school house.

July 6, 1864, Page 3

Page 4

Idle Girls
The number of idle, useless girls in all of our large cities seems to be steadily increasing. They lounge or sleep through the morning, parade the streets during the afternoons and assemble in frivolous companies of their own and the other sex to pass away their evenings. What a store of unhappiness for themselves and others are they laying up for the coming time, when real duties and high responsibilities shall be thoughtlessly assumed. They are skilled in no domestic duty-may they despise them; have no habits of industry, not taste for the useful. What will they be as wives and mothers? – Alas, for the husbands and children, and alas for themselves! Who can wonder if domestic unhappiness or domestic ruin follow! It is one of the world’s oldest maxims, that idleness is the nursing mother of all evil and wretchedness. How sadly strange is it that so many parents – mothers especially – forget this, and bring up their children in dainty idleness. They are but sowing the wind to reap the whirlwind.

July 13, 1864, Page 2

Bridge Broke Down
On Friday evening last, as Mr. John Bone was crossing the bridge near the tannery, just below the dam of Grans’ mill-pond, with a load of flour, one of the braces of the bridge gave way at the tenon, causing the bridge to break in two at the centre and precipitate Mr. Bone, with his team, wagon and flour into the stream beneath. The way was not deep, but horses, flour and driver were considerably injured by the fall. Very fortunately Mr. Bone escaped without broken bones, but got his leg sprained, and came very near being crushed under the weight of the barrels, two of them falling one on each side of him.

Unfortunate Children
On Thursday evening last, three of Mr. John Clifford’s children, two boys and a girl, were convicted of stealing iron from Mr. Arkland’s premises, and sent to Jail at Whitby, to await their trials at the next […]. Subsequently some of their friends entered bail for their appearance at court, and they were allowed to return home. It would be a mercy if they were sent off, after trial, to the Reformatory for a year or two, to give them time to overcome the propensity to which they have repeatedly shewn such a remarkable partiality.

Letter from a Canadian in the War
About a year ago the youngest brother of the editor of this journal, a lad of about 17 years, crossed the lake to Rochester to visit some friends, and finally, attracted by the $700 bounty, enlisted in an artillery regiment and went to Elmira. Here he was transferred to the 1^st N.Y. Veteran Cavalry, and received the appointment of the Corporal in Co. C. As soon as the regiment- an old one- had fully recruited and drilled its raw reinforcements, it was sent to join Gen. Sigel’s command, at Martinsburg, Va., some twenty miles north west of Harper’s Ferry. Since that time he has been in all the battles under Sigel and Hunter.

July 20, 1864, Page 1

Another Great Display of Falling Stars Expected
The writer of this was among the fortunate few who witnessed the wonderful shower of meteors in the night of Nov. 13, 1833. Being at a large boarding-school, it enhanced that some of the boys caught sight of the fiery rain, and the around the whole school. For an hour to two we sat watching the sublime spectacle with mingled interest and awe. The sky was constantly lighted with hundreds of stars, shooting forth from the neighbourhood of the senith, and streaming across the heavens; each leaving a bright streak in its track that has gradually faded away.

Page 2

The War
The rebel raid into Maryland has come to an end, and is now found to have consisted of only about 15,000 troops. If its object was to capture Washington by a surprise, the involvement was a failure. But if it was merely a foraging expedition, it was exceedingly successful, for while we have accounts of an immense quantity of plunder going towards Richmond, we have not the first word of either rebels or plunder being captured by the […] of Hunter and Sigel, who are supposed to be in pursuit of the retreating columns.

The New Temperance Act
Through the kindness of Mr. Dunkins, M.P.P. we have been enabled to public, in full, in advance of all our contemporaries, the temperance act of 1864, generally known as Mr. Dunkin’s Bill. The Act is two distinct parts. The portion which we published last week, is that which provides for complete prohibition of the retail traffic in intoxicating liquor in any municipality wherein a majority of the electors are in favor of such prohibition, and furnishes the machinery for carrying out the prohibition and rendering it effectual.

July 20, 1864, Page 3

July 27, 1864, Page 2

Physical Exercise
The position of children in school is most unfavorable to sounds lungs, healthful bodies, and grateful forms. Stewart says – “A variety of exercises is necessary to preserve the animal frame is vigor and beauty.” Spursheim appropriately remarks, that “Children are shut up, forced to sit quiet, and to breathe a confined air.” This error is the greater, the more delicate the children, and the more premature their mental powers; and a premature death is frequently the consequence of such a violation of nature. Bodily deformities, curved spines, and unfitness for various occupations and the fulfillment of future duties, frequently result from such mismanagement of children.

A Public Park
A respectably signed requisition- embracing forty tolerably influential names- has been presented to the Reeve asking him to call a public meeting for the purpose of considering the propriety of securing a plot of ground, by the issue of debentures, to be used as a public park for the village, for all time to come. In response, the Reeve has called a meeting for the purpose, to be held at the town hall on Saturday evening next, commencing at half past seven o’clock.

Do Not Kill the Frogs
All night long these musical little fellows are busy singing; a few moments, and they stop to eat the larvae of insects so rabidly bred in stagnant waters. Frogs are clean animals, and love clean water, but they subsist mainly on insects. Would you kill a frog when he sings for you part of the time and spends the rest of the night in destroying mosquitoes, gnats, flies, or the eggs, are resting or deposited in the plants by the water pools? Toads in the garden are estimated as worth five dollars even to the gardener for they are constantly, night and day.

July 27, 1864, Page 3