chapter one

would say that the City of Montreal since it became the home of civilization has had great opportunities to enrich itself artistically and mentally, because of the environments of romance that surround it and the atmosphere of cultured men and women, who in each generation have breathed its air. The citizens are essentially lovers of everything that will raise the standard of intellectual living, but the temptation to the present generation to pursue more seriously material success, has detracted somewhat from the claims of literature and art as a valuable possession and a title to distinction. Art, literature and culture have too few patrons to endow struggling works which, if fostered, would be a lasting memorial and satisfaction to their donors and benefactors. Yet this failing is but temporary for with the passing away of the false opulence begotten of real estate booms and financial speculations, the people will come back to their real love, and art and literature with the love of the true, the good, and the beautiful in life, will take their proper place in the composite life of Montreal.

For the sake of recording the names of those who have left a reputation as artists at Montreal and Quebec the following notes may be preserved:

Père André Pierron, S.J., before 1673; Frère Luc, a Récollet; Père Pommier, about the same time; Pierre Leber; Jean Antoine Créque, born 1749, died 1780; * De Beaucourt, born about 1735; * Louis Dulogpré, worked in Montreal and Quebec from about 1790-1830; * William Van Moll Berczy, painted in Montreal from about 1800-1818;---- Audy, from about 1804-1830; Joseph Legare, born 1795, was working in 1826; * Antoine Plamandon, born about 1800, lived nearly through the century; * Cornelius Kreighoff, born 1814, died 1872; James Duncan, born 1806, died 1881; * William Sawyer, born 1820, died 1889; * Théophile Hamel, born 1814, died 1870; * Adolphe Vogt, born 1842, died 1870; * Allan Edson, born 1846, died 1888; * Wyatt Eaton, born 1849, died 1896; * O. R. Jacobi, born 1812, died 1901;---- Hawksett; * William Raphael, died 1914; * John Pinhey, died about 1911; * Henry Sandham, born 1842, died 1910; * Henri Julien, born 1846, died 1908.

Of artists now living and in most cases exhibiting regularly in Montreal there are the following:

Napoleon Bourassa, born 1827; Robert Harris, born 1849; William Brymner, born 1855; Edmond Dyonnet; Auréle Suzor Cote, born 1870; Maurice Cullen, born 1866; James W. Morrice, born 1864; (Clarence) Gagnon; F. St. Charles; J.C. Franchere; Charles Gill; William Hope; John Hammond; Horne Russell; Laura Muntz; G. Delfosse. There are also many other artists in Montreal, but the above are certainly all names which are well known to art lovers here and have been for some time identified with the art we have of the city.

THE DRAMA

Amateur theatricals have been in vogue in Montreal for many years. Among the officers of the garrison under the French régime, doubtless and certainly among the young scholars taught by the “Congregation” and the Sulpicians, whose students of the College de Montréal performed early in the British Rule the play “David and Jonathan or The Triumph of Friendship.”

However the drama proper in Montreal dates especially from 1804, when a Mr. Ormsby, from the Theatre Royal, Edinborough, established a company of comedians to perform a play in five acts called “The Busy Body” and a farce entitled “The Sultan.” A building next to the old postoffice was fitted up and the charges were: boxes, 5s. and gallery, 2s. 6d. Circuses came and went, a notable one taking place in 1812. In the early ’40s there was still standing the Theatre Royal, built in 1825 and situated opposite Rasco’s Hotel on Bonsecours Street, then the great hotel of the city and it was in this house that Charles Dickens acted during his visit in 1842. The second Theatre Royal, in Coté Street was opened in 1850, and which after a long, splendid and eventful career, closed its doors ignominiously in 1913. One of its early lessees was J.W. Buckland, who engaged a good stock company, which gave such plays as “Peg Woffington,” “Rob Roy” and “The Cricket on the Hearth.” This theatre in its palmiest days enjoyed the patronage of the élite and military of the city and when any stars visited Montreal, such as Jenny Lind, Patti and Kean, the Theatre Royal was the scene of their triumphs.[1]

The present City Hall Annex on Gosford Street is built on the site of the old Dominion Theatre, which up to 1864 had been an Anglican church, then a vinegar factory, before being turned into what the proprietors claimed to be the largest and most up-to-date theatre in the city. But it did not have a very long life. One of the first plays to be given on its stage was the “Commune,” a sensational melodrama of the French Commune. Kate Quinton, who in her day had somewhat of a reputation, was the star of the play. After one year of melodrama the proprietors tried vaudeville, principally using local talent. It was at this theatre that Madame Albani, then Miss Emma Lejeunesse of Chambly, whose father was a music teacher, made one of her earliest appearances as a pianist. In those early days the great singer did not know that she possessed the wonderful voice which has since entranced the world with its beauty. In 1871 the Dominion changed the character of its bill of fare again, this time to opera, under the name of Debar’s Opera House, though dramatic plays were given at times as a change. It was at this theatre that L. Guyon, in 1878, tried his prentice hand as a dramatist in the play “Le Secret de la Roche Noire.” The following year another play from his pen was produced “La Fleur de Lys.” The plays were staged by the local Cercle Dramatique Jacques Cartier. This society continued to produce plays until 1889 when the theatre, which had been its home was sold. Since that date many French Canadian dramatic societies, such as those at the Theâtre National Français and the Theâtre des Nouveautés, have come into being most of them being very successful, indeed it has been said by the critics that the standing of these amateur productions is often higher than that of visiting professional companies.

As the residential part of the city spread northwards the Queen’s Hall appeared on St. Catherine Street, between University and Victoria streets, being burnt down in 1874, about which time a new theatre was built called “The Academy of Music,” on Victoria Street, which in a short time took the place of the Theatre Royal as the fashionable place of amusement. On its stage many famous actors have appeared--Irving, Terry, Bancroft, Wyndham, Toole--etc. In time “His Majesty’s Theatre” became the leading English theatre and about the same time the “Français” was opened, first for the production of French plays and afterward for melodrama, as well as a number of small French theatres. The position of the English theatres in 1908 stood as follows: leading theatre, “His Majesty’s”; for musical comedy, “Academy of Music”; for melodrama, the “Français”; for burlesque, the “Royal” and the “Theatre Royal.” The “Princess” for general purposes followed immediately.

Until recently, with an occasional visit by an English company, most of the plays put on the Montreal boards were by companies from the United States, but during the last four years England’s best companies have visited Montreal, including Marie Tempest, Sir Beerbohm Tree, Sir Forbes Robertson, Sir Charles Wyndham, Horniman Players, Charles Harvey, etc. To-day there are catering to the English public, two first class theatres (“His Majesty’s” and “Princess”), one vaudeville (“Orpheum”), one burlesque (“Gaiety”), and 200 moving picture theatres, headed by the “Imperial,” which holds about 2,500 people.

There are a number of small French theatres, one or two running stock, but most of them are the home of amateur dramatic companies, and consequently circumscribed in doing really ambitious work, but as already stated, very creditable performances are to be seen at these theatres. Sarah Bernhardt, the great French actress, has played in Montreal several times and her art has always been equally acceptable to English and French, thus drawing full houses in the largest theatre available. Of late years the “Arena,” a skating rink, has been the scene of the greatest gatherings for concerts, horse shows and motor shows.

The Monument National has been the scene of many ambitious and successful French dramas and comedies. There also are given, from time to time, good dramas in Hebrew by competent artists and these plays, mostly of a serious nature, are much appreciated by the Jewish residents of Montreal.

Among the amateur dramatic societies there is La Section Littéraire et Dramatique du Cercle Jeanne D’Arc, while many of the churches, colleges and schools have their own societies, the best known of which, that attached to Trinity Church, which under the well known Montreal actor, W.A. Tremayne, gives, during the season, a production of a very high order each month. The Dickens’ Fellowship also gives each season representations of the dramatized works of the great master.

The amateur drama has not fared ill in Montreal. It was in Montreal that the great Canadian actress, Margaret Anglin, received her education in a convent of this city; other artists educated here being Maxine Elliot, Gertrude Elliot, the wife of Sir Forbes Robertson; Miss Marie Tempest, and Madame Donalda, the Canadian singer.

As a sign of the interest being awakened in the drama in Montreal, it is pleasing to record the birth, during the last two years, of the Drama League for the purposes of promoting the true interests of the theatre and the cultivation of a right drama in the city.

MUSIC

Music naturally came into this country with the French, who are essentially musical, for the church encouraged this trait by affording many occasions for the best music. Good voices were easily procurable and every encouragement was also given to orchestral music, both in the churches and in the home. From this there spread out the desire for musical associations. Among modern societies that of the Société de Ste. Cécile was founded by A.J. Boucher on November 11, 1860, and there followed in 1861 the Société Musicale des Montaguards Canadiens founded by François Benoit. The English also did not neglect musical culture and about this time the “Amateur Musical League of Montreal” was founded by a Mr. Torrington who was organist of the St. James Methodist Church.

Perhaps the most noted musical organization which Montreal has ever possessed was the Mendelssohn Choir, a private society initiated in 1884 by the late Mr. Joseph Gould, who during its whole musical life of thirty years, acted as its sole business manager and conductor. The Choir was composed of picked voices, to the number, in its later years, of about one hundred and twenty-five. Its _forte_ lay in its remarkable unaccompanied part-singing which was compared by competent judges with the best performances of Henry Leslie’s choir in London, in those days, perhaps the most famous body of its kind in the world.

The first Mendelssohn Choir concerts were given in Mr. Gould’s piano warerooms on St. James’ Street, admission being exclusively by invitation. After a few years, subscribing annual members were received, in addition to the active members. The concerts thus became, and thereafter continued to be, subscription concerts; and were given in the principal public halls, the Mechanics’ Hall, the Queen’s Hall, and others being successively used. Many of the most celebrated artists, both instrumentalists and vocalists, who have visited Montreal, were introduced to the public at Mendelssohn Choir concerts, although the chief attraction always continued to be the singing of the Choir itself, whose reputation gradually extended throughout Canada to the United States and even to Europe.

In 1894 Mr. Gould, owing chiefly to failing health, resigned his position as conductor and director, and the Choir, unwilling to sing under any other leader, voluntarily disbanded.

Two other contemporary musical societies at this period have also left a void in the city. The Handel and Hayden Society and the Philharmonic, the former being led by Professor Rayner, and the latter organization as notable as the Mendelssohn Choir, by Professor Couture. The rôle of the Philharmonic, however, was oratorio with orchestral accompaniment. The first steps for organization were taken in 1877 by three concerts given under the name of the Montreal Musical Festival held in the Victoria Skating Rink. The object was to produce in Montreal two of the grand musical productions with first class soloists, choir and orchestra, after the manner of the great English festivals.

The name of the “Montreal Philharmonic” appeared on December 17, 1877, on the first programme of the new combination, at the concert held in the Academy of Music, then new. Its first president and conductor was Dr. McLagan, who was followed in 1879 by Mr. F.E. Lucy-Barnes, and by Mr. Couture, who undertook his first concert on December 9, 1880, and who directed his large choirs, averaging two hundred and fifty voices, till the lapse of the Philharmonic in 1899. From its inception most of the great oratorios including the works of Wagner were excellently rendered, supplemented by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and others of a continental reputation. The soloists were the best available artists before the public on the continent, including Emma Thursby, Max Heinrich, Prehn, W. Ludwig, W.H. Regia, Emma Juch, Martens, Conrad Behrens, Emma Poole King, Frangcon Davies, Irene Devny, Etalka Gerster and others, the work of inviting these falling for the last eleven years on the secretary, Mr. Arthur H. Browning. The presidents of the association have been Messrs. Arthur W. Perkins, Hector McKenzie, Angus W. Hooper and Charles Cassels.

Since the cessation of these associations, which fell because of insufficient support and suitable concert halls, nothing has replaced them adequately. The most notable body of today is the “Chorale St. Louis de France,” attached to the church of that name. Other churches produce oratorios but without the same resources as the combinations of the past. Although in the more modern city the great European and American soloists are brought there is not the same degree of musical education for the people as in the more quiet and studious times of a quarter of a century ago.

Miller’s Band, attached to the British regiments stationed in Montreal, was a most popular musical institution for many years. It played often at the Viger Gardens and was instrumental in creating a taste for good music among the residents of the city. The band remained here until the military left in the fall of 1869, returning to England with the regiments. After it left, things were somewhat dull in Montreal until a number of the Grand Trunk employees organized a band made up of the musicians of the disbanded regiments who preferred to stay in Montreal rather than go back to England. The conductor was a man named Zeiglar. Early in the ’70s the Boston Symphony Orchestra began to come and small opera troupes of Italian singers about the same time who gave concerts in the Mechanics’ Hall. Christine Neilson was heard in the Victoria Skating Rink.

In 1871, a season of grand opera was given in Montreal by Sig. Enrico Corana, the company including the following stars: Madame Elena Corani, Madle, Caterani Lami, Sigs. Pietro Baccei, G. Reina, G. Pauliny, Nicolini and Nicolao. The operas included Donizetti’s Lucretia Borgia and Flotow’s Martha, but it was not until about four years ago that a full season was given in the city by the Montreal Grand Opera Company which, after running two seasons, was disbanded because of the great financial deficit. It was found that to make grand opera pay in Montreal a much larger theatre was required to hold a sufficiently big audience to pay for the elaborate production required today. Practically every modern musical genius of the world has visited Montreal and since orchestral music has taken hold of the public, both New York and Boston having sent their best organizations to the city.

The bands attached to the four local regiments and the St. Louis Cadets are well trained musicians who periodically, but not often, give concerts in the parks of the city. A number of private bands, both orchestral and military are also doing good work.

Educationally Montreal has made great advances in music during this last ten years. McGill University has added to its curriculum courses in instrumental and vocal music through its Conservatorium of Music, under the directorship of Doctor Perrin (late organist of Canterbury Cathedral, England) and gives degrees to its successful pupils, and both the Royal Academy of Music and the London College of Music have branches in the city.

But for a large city, where there is as much instrumental talent, there is a singular lack of orchestral entertainment for the public. The appetite for culture grows on what it feeds; the food being scanty the growth is small.

NEWSPAPERS--MONTREAL HISTORIES

The newspapers and periodicals of a city being among the chief means of popular education and also a running historical commentary of the times, a brief synopsis of the present situation may now be given:

At present there are the following newspapers:

ENGLISH

The Gazette, originally published by Fleury Mesplet in French on June 3, 1778, under the title of “Gazette der Commerce et Littéraire.”

(The Quebec Gazette appeared in French and English from June 21, 1764, to October 30, 1874.) The Gazette in Montreal quickly became English. Curiously enough there have been others of the same name. There was the Montreal Gazette, started on August 3, 1795, published by Edwards in both languages, till 1801. Another of the same name appeared in 1796, by Joseph Roy, but its existence was short.

The Montreal Herald was founded on October 19, 1811, and was printed by William Gray.

The Montreal Evening Star was founded as a daily in 1869 by (Sir) Hugh Graham. (The Weekly Star also appears.)

The Weekly Witness (the sequent of the Montreal Witness) was established as a weekly in 1846 and as a daily in 1860.

[Illustration: MONUMENT TO JACQUES CARTIER, DISCOVERER OF MONTREAL, ERECTED AT ST. HENRI, MONTREAL]

The Weekly Standard appeared first September 23, 1905.

The Daily Mail, published by the Daily Mail Publishing Company, appeared on October 5, 1913.

The Evening News, published by the News Publishing Company at Montreal (M.E. Nichols and B.A. Macnab editors and managers), appeared on May 27, 1914.

Beck’s Weekly, published by Edward Beck, appeared March 21, 1914.

FRENCH

La Patrie was founded on February 24, 1879.

La Presse was founded by T. Berthiaume in 1884. (A paper of the same name appeared with one issue only in the previous year, on May 1st.)

Le Canada was founded in April, 1903.

Le Devoir, founded by Henri Bourassa, appeared first on January 11, 1910. There are also the following weeklies: Le Pays, Le Bullétin, Le Canard (illustrated), La Croix, L’Opinion, Le Prix Courant and Le Samedi.

There are other racial papers, the Jewish Chronicle in English and Der Adler (The Eagle) in Yiddish, and two Italian papers. Commercial Montreal has a daily newspaper under the name of the Journal of Commerce, an amalgamation of the Journal of Commerce, established in 1852, the Shareholder, established in 1856, and the following weeklies: The Financial Times; Trade Bulletin, 1882; Le Moniteur de Commerce, 1880.

There are also published in the city a number of educational, technical, religious and trade periodicals, and the following monthlies: the Canada West Indian Magazine, the Canadian Municipal Journal, La Revue Populaire, La Revue Canadienne, etc.

It would be a fascinating study to pursue the history of defunct newspapers, but, since up to 1904 Dr. Dionne made his abstract of the names and numbers of 800 newspapers, journals, etc., printed at one time or another in French in the Province of Quebec, and 681 in English, of both of which so many have appeared at Montreal, the treatment to be given would outrun this present purpose. The same is to be said of the history of publications of a general character which in 1906 amounted to 2,921 in English and 3,092 in French, registered and published in the Province of Quebec.

Montreal has taken a great part as the publication centre of the above. As, however, the treatment adopted has been the record of institutions rather than personal works, the appreciation of Montreal writers in French and English is here foregone. A note may be placed on our historians.

MONTREAL HISTORIES

The literature of Montreal begins with Jacques Cartier,[2] who wrote a full description of his visit to Hochelaga in 1535 and described the people there. The next writer was Samuel de Champlain in the beginning of the seventeenth century, who made his map of the island and described his trading post at Place Royale. After the foundation of Montreal in 1642 the Jesuits in their “Relations” have given us sidelights of its progress and after the coming of the Sulpicians in 1657 and Dollier de Casson, the soldier Sulpician, wrote the first “Histoire de Montreal.” Another contemporary Sulpician of Montreal, the Abbé de Belmont, wrote a history of Canada. The Jesuit Charlevoix, who wrote his history of Canada later, at the end of the first quarter of the eighteenth century, penned much of his work at Montreal. Peter Kalm, the Swiss traveller, has left us a valuable picture of 1749. Later writers who have contributed to our knowledge of Montreal are Montcalm and De Levis, the soldiers who had their headquarters in this city and whose letters and journals contain much history leading to the fall of Montreal in 1760.

Under the English rule the French writers, who have contributed to our knowledge of the history of Montreal have been the following: The Montreal historian, Michel Bibaud, who in 1837 published the first volume of his “Histoire du Canada Sous la Domination Française.” Jacques Viger, the first Mayor of Montreal, began publishing his various archaeological and historical studies of the city about 1840. Between 1852 and 1865 the Abbé Fallon published the lives of Marguerite Bourgeoys, Jeanne Mance and Madame d’Youville, and his lengthy work of the “Histoire de La Colonie Française,” which only went as far as 1672 but contains valuable Montreal history. The same is to be said of the history of F.X. Garneau, who, however, is to be more closely connected with Quebec. The Montreal Societe Historique and the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society have each produced writers already named who have surveyed Montreal under the historical or archaeological aspect. The “Annuaire de Ville Marie,” by Huguet-Latour, is one of such contributions. A “Histoire Populaire de Montreal” was published by M. le Bloud Brumath in 1890.

With reference to English historians of Montreal outside the fugitive references in works by Heriot, Weld, Lambert and others, no important specific history of the city appeared until “Hochelaga Depicta” by Newton Bosworth in 1839, followed in 1870 by Alfred Sandham’s “Ville Marie, Past and Present,” which later was succeeded by the Rev. J. Bosworth’s Studies of Montreal, the History of Montreal (in 1875), that of the prisons (1886), and others later. In 1887 the Rev. Robert Campbell, D.D., published his History of St. Gabriel Street Church, which was a valuable contribution to the “Scotch” history of the city. “Lights and Shrines” and “Montreal after 250 Years,” appeared by W.D. Lighthall in 1892 to celebrate the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the city. Terrill’s “Chronology of Montreal and Canada” appeared in 1893. Of late years there have also been several sketches and semi-advertising ventures of a historical nature. In addition there have been numerous gazeteers and studies, in French and English, of Montreal personages, the last to appear being that of the History and Times of George Etienne Cartier by John Boyd.

The occasion of the international war of 1914 affords a suitable opportunity for the publication of the present work, to fill in the gaps left by earlier works on Montreal.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] One of the best known of Montreal dramatic writers was Charles Heavysege whose dramas of Saul, Count Felipo and Jeptha’s Daughter, published in the early ’60s, gave him an international reputation.

[2] See the History of Montreal, Volume I Under the French Regime. (1535-1914.)

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