CHAPTER XXXIV

SOCIOLOGICAL MOVEMENTS

I

CARE OF THE AGED, FOUNDLINGS AND INFANTS

GREY NUNS--PROTESTANT ORPHAN ASYLUM--SISTERS OF PROVIDENCE--THE CHOLERA EPIDEMIC OF 1832--L’ASILE DE MONTREAL--MONTREAL LADIES BENEVOLENT SOCIETY--THE SHIP FEVER OF 1847--ST. PATRICK’S ORPHANAGE--HERVEY INSTITUTE--PROTESTANT INFANTS’ HOME--PROTESTANT INDUSTRIAL ROOMS--MONTREAL DAY NURSERY--L’ASSISTANCE PUBLIQUE--OTHER INSTITUTIONS.

A city’s life is not fully told unless the record of its charitable, philanthropic and sociological progress is at least indicated. That of Montreal will be found to be full, inspiring and satisfactory. The following record is a study of movements and origins rather. It is not a directory. Nor is it in any way meant to be a comparative appreciation of the work done by the various societies or institutions mentioned. Its scope is historical. Innumerable obstacles stand in the way of the preparation of such a chapter as that now offered, but it should nevertheless be attempted if only to gather together as many as possible of the early links of the many excellent social works of the city and to bind them to those larger ones which have been forged by the present day busy workers who in their active present are working busily and wholeheartedly for the growing needs of the hour and have not, through one cause or another, the historical means of surveying the early humble beginnings of works with which they or others have linked their names and their self-sacrificing endeavours.

The first pioneer social movements of Montreal under British rule were those embracing the care of the aged and that of foundlings and abandoned children. These were found together under one roof but in different departments in the Hôpital Général of the “Grey Nuns” or the “Sisters of Charity” according to their official title. At the time of the capitulation the above, with the Hôtel Dieu, founded on May 17, 1642, since the early days of the colony, sufficed for the charitable needs of the small community; for although the “Congregation” established in 1657 by Marguerite Bourgeoys, had cared for many orphans and thus in some sense might be said to have been the forerunner of the modern orphanages of the city and had shared in other social experiments, its work must be considered to have become specifically educational. Again although the Hôtel Dieu also still maintained, as it did until recent years, a number of aged persons and orphans, its special function had been mostly exercised as a hospital for the sick. Its history having been already told, that of the Grey Nunnery is now in place as the peculiar pioneering institution for the aged, orphans and general charity under British rule.

THE GREY NUNS

On taking possession of the Hôpital Général from the Charron Frères, in 1747, Madame d’Youville and her companions devoted themselves to works of charity of every kind, receiving into the institution all classes of unfortunates without distinction of age or sex, never refusing any. During several years the Sisters cared for fallen women and had rooms for twelve. In 1756 a ward was opened to receive English soldiers, sick and wounded, who had been taken prisoners at Oswego under Shirley and Pepperel and others during the “Seven Years’ War” before the capitulation of Montreal. On September 7, 1760, the hospital being mistaken by the English as an outwork of defence, was about to be reduced by the cannon when a soldier ran to the general and on his knees implored him to save the hospital where he and his companions had been tended in the “Salle des Anglais.” The result was that the officers went in and were hospitably received by Madame d’Youville with biscuits and wine.

After the capitulation the hospital, as well as those of other communities in the town, suffered by the depreciation of paper money, receiving a very small percentage of its worth from the French government, thereby losing more than a hundred thousand francs.

The work of caring for abandoned children began on November 16, 1754, but was not developed till shortly after the conquest in 1760, when Madame d’Youville one day found the body of a little child frozen in the ice with the dagger still in its throat and its little hands raised as in supplication for justice. This incident with others caused her to develop this work which was then first undertaken systematically on this continent. Funds, however, were wanting. Under the old régime certain moneys had been appropriated for “enfants trouvés,” foundlings. The new military government, approached by Madame d’Youville and the Rev. M. Montgolfier, the brother of the inventor of the balloon, and the superior of the Seminary, could only procure a sum of 288 francs. On September 13, 1771, Madame d’Youville approached the sympathetic Governor Carleton, but with no good results. Yet, in spite of the extreme poverty of the sisterhood the work continued, supported by their needlework. Another contributing cause for their poverty was the loss of their hospital in the great fire of May 18, 1765, which devastated the lower part of the town. This was more disastrous to them than the fire of 1745, for it reduced their home to ashes. The children and the aged poor were about to be transferred to the barns of the farm belonging to the Grey Nuns at Point St. Charles when M. Montgolfier came with an invitation from the nuns of the Hôtel Dieu offering their hospitality. As, however, the number was too considerable, the nuns of the “Congregation” shared the problem of housing them. Not losing heart, Madame d’Youville dared, on the 9th of June following, to begin rebuilding, relying on the sum of 6,000 francs contributed by the Montreal faithful and the Indians of the settlements of Caughnawaga and the Lake of Two Mountains.

[Illustration: THE GREY NUNNERY OF TODAY]

[Illustration: THE OLD “GREY” NUNNERY As it looked from McGill Street in the late ’60s before the new building was erected on Dorchester Street. This site was that of the original General Hospital, founded by M. Charron in 1692, and transferred to Madame D’Youville in 1747. A portion of these buildings still remains in 1912, being employed as warehouses. The new Custom House is to be built on this spot.]

But the Seminary came to her aid with a loan of 15,000 francs. By order of M. Montgolfier the workmen laboured constantly, even on Sundays, so that by September 23d the part for the aged men was ready. The Sisters entered their convent on December 5th and the poor women on Christmas Day. The rest of the buildings were not finished till 1767, the church being blessed on August 30th. Though housed, money was very scarce; yet Madame d’Youville had dared even nineteen days after the fire of 1765 to complete a contract already arranged since August 25, 1764, for the acquistion of the seigneury of Chateauguay, originally accorded in 1673 by Frontenac to M. Lemoyne of Longueuil, and then belonging to the family of Robutel de Lanouë. The development of this farm, which scarcely gave any revenue, was the object of the zealous solicitude of Madame d’Youville and now is the sanitarium and country house of the Grey Nuns for their different foundations. The property of Point St. Charles was afterward built upon for a country house for the children and the aged poor. It was burnt down in 1842 but re-erected in the following year. The death of this “mulier fortis” occurred at 8:30 P.M. on December 23, 1771, at the age of seventy years after a life full of fatigues, privations and sacrifices. The work undertaken by her devoted followers has spread from Montreal far and wide. On October 7, 1871, the Mother House was removed from its oldtime position “down town” to the block bounded by Guy Street, St. Catherine Street, Fort Street and Dorchester Street. The old buildings were converted by merchants into warehouses, part of which are still standing. The new custom house, being erected in 1914, marks the site of the southwest corner of their estate.

The following resumé of the work of the Grey Nuns is interesting:

In 1801, at the request of the government officials, the insane were admitted and a special annex built. Previous to this, the sisters had already received twenty-three such patients and until this work was discontinued in 1839, the number received was 114.

In 1823, the community undertook the care of Irish orphan girls.

In 1846, at the request of the priests of the Seminary, a “dispensary” for the poor was opened and a system of house to house visitation was established.

In 1847, the sisters nursed the poor Irish immigrants stricken with typhus fever.

In the same year a temporary “home” was opened for the women left without resources after this terrible plague epidemic.

In 1849, at the request of the mayor of Montreal, the sisters undertook the nursing of the cholera victims in the “sheds” constructed for the typhus patients.

In 1851, St. Patrick’s Orphan Asylum was opened and the Grey Nuns took charge.

In 1858, the first “kindergarten” conducted by the Grey Nuns in Montreal was founded on Bonaventure Street by the Rev. Father Rousselot, a Sulpician. It was known as Salle d’ Asile St. Joseph, but was ultimately closed, because its proximity to the railroad made it dangerous for the small children who came there to school.

In 1861, the Nazareth Asylum for the Blind on St. Catherine Street was opened.

In 1885, during an epidemic of small pox, forty Grey Nuns devoted themselves to the care of the victims in their homes and in the hospitals.

Since the days of their foundress, the Sisters each year have provided for a certain number of poor students who board in the establishment.

In the Mother House, on Guy Street, at present, the Grey Nuns care for foundlings, orphan boys and girls, poor and aged men and women, besides having an industrial school for young girls.

THE FOUNDLINGS

The number of foundlings received annually is between four hundred and fifty and five hundred. Since the founding, 37,168 infants have been admitted.

The number of children averages between one hundred and one hundred and twenty. There are at present in the nursery 126. The children who survive, when not kept in the nursery, are either placed out to board or adopted by good families. In 1911, fifty-five were adopted.

When about three years of age, the little children leave the nursery and are placed with the orphans. These foundlings come from all directions and belong to all nationalities.

A course of lectures has been opened at the nursery for the training of children’s maids.

THE ORPHANS

There are in the Grey Nunnery 300 orphans, of which 170 are boys from three years to twelve years of age, and 130 girls from three years to eighteen or twenty years of age.

Since 1748, when the first orphan girl was received, there have been admitted 5,788 orphans, 2,875 boys and 2,913 girls.

From 1823 to 1873, these children were almost exclusively of Irish origin. Since the latter date, the majority are from Montreal, though some few are from the suburbs. Almost all are French-Canadians, there being a few English speaking children and some Indians. The greater number are received gratuitiously, very few being able to pay their board.

At the age of twelve, the boys who are not claimed by relatives, are placed at the orphanages of Montfort or of St. Arsène, or adopted by respectable families.

The girls on leaving the orphanage enter the industrial school, where they are taught domestic economy.

Those who have relatives wishing to claim them can leave. The others are adopted by good families or placed out to earn their living.

THE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL

The industrial school was opened in 1908. Since then 297 pupils have been received, 270 of these being Canadians, 19 English and 8 Indians. There are at present 60 pupils in this department.

These young girls are employed in the different departments and work rooms of the house.

In the sewing room they are taught sewing and mending as well as knitting, embroidery, etc. In the kitchen, laundry, book bindery, printing office and pharmacy, they are trained to become useful members of society.

Several hours are also spent each day in the schoolroom.

THE AGED AND INFIRM

There are 195 aged poor and infirm at present at the Mother House, 95 men and 100 women.

Since the founding of the institution in 1747, 6,250 aged poor and infirm have been received, of whom 2,952 were men and 3,298 women.

These comprise cripples of all kinds, and persons afflicted with epilepsy or cancer. The number of the latter cases has considerably diminished since the opening of the Hospital for Incurables in Montreal.

Until 1910 the only grant from the provincial or municipal authorities was $105.00, but the provincial government now grants for the different works of charity an annual appropriation of $2,905.00, in which is included the $105.00 for the nursery, the expenses of which amount to $25,000.00 annually.

In 1910 and in 1911, the City of Montreal allowed $1,000.00 to the institution. In 1912, this allowance was increased to $1,200.00. The balance of $98,550.00, which is the amount of the annual expense for the support of the 660 inmates, must be provided by the community. The average cost per capita is 41 cents a day.

Although there is no dispensary at the Grey Nunnery for outside poor, these are continually assisted in many ways. Thus in 1911, 1,200 meals were given, and 300 persons were assisted materially.

Besides the Mother House, the Grey Nuns have in Montreal:

Three hospitals with training-schools: Notre Dame Hospital, St. Paul’s Hospital, and the Ophthalmic Institute.

Four kindergartens: Nazareth, Bethlehem, St. Henry’s, and Ste. Cunegonde’s.

Five orphanages: St. Patrick’s, St. Henry’s, Ste. Cunegonde’s, Bethlehem, and St. Louis’.

One institution for the education of blind pupils.

Two homes for working girls: “Youville” and “Killarney.”

Three homes for the aged poor: St. Bridget’s, Ste. Cunégonde’s, and St. Anthony’s.

One industrial school: St. Joseph’s.

In Canada, outside the City of Montreal they have:

One school at Côte-des-Neiges, one at Chateauguay, and one at St. Benoit, with a home for infirm and aged women.

Four homes: in Varennes, Beauharnois, Chambly and Longueuil, for aged and infirm women and orphans. A few lady boarders are received in these homes to help support the works of charity. The sisters visit the sick.

One hospital at St. John’s, with a home for old men and women; also, a kindergarten.

In Western Canada, the Grey Nuns direct twenty-five establishments, and in the United States, fourteen.

THE PROTESTANT ORPHAN ASYLUM

The next movement for orphan children was on the part of the English ladies who formed before 1822 a Female Benevolent Society. This was followed by the “Protestant Orphan Asylum,” the connecting link being provided as follows by the following extract from the original minutes.[1]

“Upon the dissolution of the Female Benevolent Society in February, 1822, the officers and members of that institution consigned their orphan proteges and their flourishing little school to the care and maintenance of the Protestant churches of the city. The rector of the English Episcopal and the ministers of two Presbyterian churches accepted the charge.”

Founded therefore in 1822, without endowment the Protestant Orphan Asylum trusted entirely to the generosity of interested friends. The clergy of the city undertook to preach charity sermons for its benefit, and a substantial sum was thus raised. The constitution of the new charity was framed by the Rev. John Bethune, D.D., Dean of Montreal, and the Rev. Henry Esson, D.D., Pastor of St. Gabriel’s Presbyterian Church.

The first building occupied as an asylum (in 1833) was situated in St. Louis Street. The expenditure in this year was £211 10s 4d. In 1838 removal was made to more commodious premises in St. Antoine Street, the expenditure that year being £248 4s 5d.

In 1848 the annual reports were first published, and in the spring of the same year the foundations of a new home were laid, on land generously donated by Judge Smith on St. Catherine Street where Holland’s store now stands. This was sufficiently finished to permit the taking possession thereof June 4, 1849. The present building at 93 Côte des Neiges Road, was completed and occupied 1895.

It is interesting to compare the small beginnings of the earlier years with present conditions. For instance, in 1833, as previously stated, there was no endowment, and the expenditure for the year was £211 10s 4d, about $846. In 1911 the market value of its endowment fund amounted to $178,962, yielding a revenue of $9,143.50, and this with the annual subscriptions provided for the year, $10,109.80.

In the annual report for the year 1859 attention is called to the remarkable sanitary fact that out of upwards of six hundred children received into the home since its foundation, only forty-seven had died, notwithstanding the epidemic of cholera and typhus fever, at different times prevalent. And it may be added that this record has been maintained, and even surpassed, in the years that have followed.

THE MONTREAL LADIES’ BENEVOLENT SOCIETY

On the occasion of the epidemic of cholera in 1832 there arose a corresponding effort among the English Protestant ladies. The Montreal Ladies’ Benevolent Society was then founded “for the purpose of affording relief and support to destitute women and children” and the work which its founders inaugurated eighty-two years ago has been carried on ever since. The Society was incorporated in 1841.

The list of its presidents previous to 1849 was destroyed by fire. Since 1849 the following ladies have served it as president:

1849--Mrs. Renaud. 1850--Mrs. Davidson. 1853--Mrs. Tulford. 1855--Mrs. Geddes. 1873--Mrs. Mackenzie. 1875--Mrs. Molson. 1876--Mrs. Vanneck. 1877--Mrs. Wheeler. 1882--Lady Galt. 1883--Mrs. Cramp. 1889--Mrs. Edwyn Evans. 1890--Mrs. Cramp. 1896--Mrs. John G. Savage. 1907--Mrs. Lachlan Gibb. 1910--Mrs. Alister Mitchell. Honorary President--Countess Grey.

Many names prominent in social and philanthropic work in Montreal during that period are to be found on the roll of its past and present committees.

The original building still stands with the added wings on Ontario, formerly Berthelet, Street.

There are seven old women and ninety-eight children in the home--fifty-two boys and forty-six girls between the ages of six and fourteen years. Every effort is made to start these children suitably in life. But unfortunately, when they reach a wage-earning age, they are frequently taken away by their parents or nearest relatives, who up to this period have, more often than not, ignored their existence--whereas if the children were only left long enough in the home, they could receive special and individual instruction and better positions could be found for them.

Fifty-five destitute children and children of delinquent parents have for many years been sent in through the city for whom the city pays $7 per month for girls and $8 per month for boys. The cost of each child averages $13.75 per month.

THE SISTERS OF PROVIDENCE

The succeeding movement in the charity for the aged, orphans and the poor was that started in 1828 by another Montreal lady, Madame Gamelin, who founded the “Sisters of Providence,” a religious congregation, in 1843, the Asile de la Providence having been incorporated on September 11, 1841, and being erected canonically in 1844.

By 1905 the congregation had spread over eighteen dioceses and had seventy-seven houses. In 1913 it had ninety-seven houses. Its foundress, Marie Emmeline Eugene Tavernier, was born on February 19, 1800. On June 4, 1823, she was married to Jean Baptiste Gamelin, a man of fifty, described in the marrage register as a “burgher,” the appellation then given to a proprietor living on his income. Three children were born of the union. Two died three months after birth. In 1827 Mr. Gamelin died and the following year the third child also. The widow’s heart now turned to the aged and poor. On March 4, 1828, she opened a modest refuge on the ground floor of a small parochial school, directed by the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame, situated on the corner of St. Lawrence and St. Catherine streets. The first beneficiary was a widow named St. Onge, 102 years old. The refuge was shortly removed to two houses rented on St. Philippe Street with her charges, which soon reached the number of thirty, not always over-grateful.

About this time Madame Gamelin formed a society of lady auxiliaries, Mesdames François Tavernier, E.R. Fabre, Maurice Nolan, Augustine Tullock, R. St. Jean, Paul Joseph LaCroix, Joseph Gauvin, Simon Dalorme and Julien Tavernier. This society, founded on December 13, 1827, and organized on December 18th of the same year, still exists as the “Society of the Ladies of Charity.” Each of these agreed to pay a monthly board for one poor woman. During the cholera outbreak of 1832-1834 Madame Gamelin did not spare herself in visiting the sick. The “yellow” house was secured for the growing needs of the refuge by M. Olivier Berthelet, whose name is linked with Montreal’s charities. It was a modest frame building, two stories in height, standing on St. Catherine and Hubert streets. During the political troubles of 1837-38 there commenced the work, still pursued by her followers, of visiting the Montreal jails. Writing in his “Patriots of 1837-38” Mr. L.O. David, afterwards city clerk of Montreal, and a senator, said: “There are two names in

## particular deserving of special mention and which the prisoners

have never forgotten, Madame Gamelin, who later became the foundress of the Providence, and Madame Gauvin, mother of Doctor Gauvin, who himself took part in the events of 1837.” In 1841 Madame Gamelin’s asylum obtained civil incorporation through a measure, introduced by the Hon. D. Viger and the Hon. J. Quesnel, under the name of “Corporation for Aged and Infirm Women of Montreal.”

In 1841 the work was so well founded that to secure its permanency as a constituted diocesan charity the ladies associated with it, under the beautiful name of the Ladies of Providence, determined to give it over to the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, then lately visited in Paris by Bishop Bourget. A new building was forthwith determined on to receive them, and for the funds for this, the first bazaar recorded in Montreal was organized, in Rasco’s Hotel on St. Paul Street, on May 15, 16, 1842, and netted 500 louis. The directresses were Mesdames Gamelin, Gauvin, St. Jean, Fabre, Levesque, Boyer, Moreau and Lafontaine. Other sums were raised and the corner stone of the house opposite the “yellow” house was blessed on May 10, 1842. About the middle of June, 1842, Bishop Bourget gave Madame Gamelin and the Ladies of Providence a rule modelled upon that which St. Vincent de Paul had drawn up for a society of ladies in Paris who had consecrated themselves to the work. The Daughters of St. Vincent de Paul did not come, after all, and Bishop Bourget determined to create a diocesan order of the Sisters of Charity of Providence. On March 25, 1843, the first clothing took place of the first six postulants in the “yellow” house, who were to obey Madame Gamelin as their superior. As yet she was not herself a religious, but on July 8th, on one of the postulant’s returning to the world, Madame Gamelin determined to take her place and she was accepted by the Bishop as one of the new order of the Sisters of Providence, one of whose early works was to carry on the work of the care of the aged and infirm already begun by Madame Gamelin in 1827. In 1860 her institute established an asylum for “abandoned” children, French Canadian and Irish, which was opened on September 25th.

The work for the insane at Longue Pointe, begun in 1849, is told elsewhere.

L’ASILE DE MONTREAL

Meanwhile the year of the cholera, 1832, had seen the birth, on July 18, of the “L’Asile de Mountréal pour les orphelins Catholiques Romains” or “Les Orphelins des Récollets,” so called because these orphans were first cared for in the convent of the Récollets. The asylum received its incorporation in September, 1841. The work was promoted by a Sulpician, the Rev. P. Phelan, and a widow, Madame Gabriel Cotté, who became its foundress and received her helpers from among the “Ladies of Charity.” Among the Ladies of Charity under whose auspices the new work was placed and still continues, were those of the best society of Montreal. The first president was Madame Marie Charles Joseph LeMoyne, Baroness de Longueuil, the wife of Captain David Alexander Grant, of the Ninety-fourth Regiment, who died on February 25, 1841. The vice presidents were Madame de Lothbinidère and Madame de Beaujeu. On the death of the Baroness de Longueuil she was succeeded as president by Madame Berthelet, Madame D.B. Viger, Madame C.S. Cherrier and Madame T. Bouthillier. Under the board of directors the asylum was conducted successively by Madame Chalifoux and Madamoiselle Morin. The present president is Madame J.O. Gravel and the vice president is Madame Rosaire Thibaudeau, niece of the esteemed foundress, Madame Cotté.

The institution has remained under lay control, although since 1889 the Grey Nuns have been invited to undertake the internal management. Madame Cotté was its first treasurer, being succeeded by her daughter, Madame Quesnel, who supported the work till her death. The foundress, Madame Cotté, endowed the work with a gift of land, that named “Pres de Ville,” on Lagauchetière Street, and with a legacy in money. Her heirs exchanged the original land for that on St. Catherine Street on which the institution stands today, a part of which was built by the legacies in money left by Madame Cotté and Madame Quesnel.

In 1913 the orphanage and grounds were sold and a spacious property bought for the new orphanage site at Notre Dame de Grâces. The new buildings have been commenced but have been interrupted by the European war of 1914.

The dire year of 1847, that of typhus fever, saw great activity among all these French and English institutions for charitable works. As the incoming immigrants were mostly Catholics the

## activities of the Catholic institutions of the period may

naturally be recalled. The “Providence Sisters,” lately erected as a religious congregation, were called by Bishop Bourget to second the Grey Nuns, the Nuns of the Congregation and the Nuns of the Hôtel Dieu at the fever-stricken sheds at Point St. Charles. The work of caring for the 600 or more orphans of the emigrants was confided to the Sisters of Providence in the two provisory hospitals. The religious of the Good Shepherd, who had been called to Montreal in 1844, finally took charge of the girls, and Madame Gamelin’s “Providence” Sisters took the boys to Mrs. Nolan’s house on St. Catherine Street. Bishop Bourget’s pastoral letter of 1848 describing the transference of the children through the street states: “The spectacle of hundreds of children famishing with hunger, covered with rags and in danger of succumbing to the attacks of that terrible disease which had deprived them of their parents was so poignant that it can never be forgotten.” Twenty-seven of the “Providence” Sisters were stricken with the plague and three died, and similar disaster befell other charitable “Congregations” or lay associations of all sections.

On the 1st of October the orphans were removed from their temporary home in Mrs. Nolan’s house to the former convent of the Good Shepherd, situated on Beaudry Street, then Black Horse Street, the new Hospice of St. Jerome Emilianus. From the 11th of July Mother Gamelin had received 650 orphans. Of that number 332 died and 188 were placed out or adopted. In the month of March, 1848, 130 remained in addition to 99 who stayed in the sheds at Point St. Charles. An appeal at this time was made by Bishop Bourget and colleges, convents and lay people responded in adopting the children. Sixty remained with the Sisters of Providence and were distributed among the different houses or apprenticed to trades. “In adopting these poor children,” says the same pastoral, “they will become our companions in faith, good priests, fervent religious, excellent citizens,” as, indeed, they did.

THE ST. PATRICK’S ORPHANAGE

This leads up naturally to the history of the Irish Catholic charities, and of the St. Patrick’s Orphanage, in particular.

Before 1800 few Irish reached the city, yet they came early in the nineteenth century, so that by 1823 the number of orphan children of Irish parentage was such that M. Roux, the superior of the Sulpicians, arranged with the Grey Nuns[2] to receive the first five of forty children in the “Salle des petites orphelines Irlandaises” which was opened February 14, 1823. Until 1886 the Sulpicians unostentatiously supported no less than 848 little Irish orphans.

In the fall of the year of “Black ’47” the Rev. M. Pinsonneault rented a house on Colborne Street of fifteen apartments, in which he lodged fifty families of those who, though destitute, had escaped the terrible ship fever. This was known as the “House.” Mrs. Brown, a good Catholic Irishwoman, undertook to teach the children and M. Pinsonneault founded a band of ladies for the purposes of organizing bazaars for the support of the struggling institution which was even vilified in the press. The “Ladies of Charity” were organized in 1849 as a permanent body to assume the upkeep of the work and to collect subscriptions.

Meanwhile during the visitation of 1847 it was rendered necessary for 650 little Irish orphans to be taken from the pest sheds of Point St. Charles and taken care of, as is told elsewhere, by the religious daughters of Mother Gamelin, the foundress of the Sisters of Providence.

On June 20, 1848, Father Dowd had arrived and, being appointed in September almoner of the poor, he became superior of the House. He quickly determined that a new asylum was needed. This was secured in a small house on Craig Street, opposite the Champ de Mars, generously loaned by M. Augustin Perreault, who added numerous other benevolent gifts and services. In October, 1849, the asylum was opened and Mrs. Brown was joined by Mrs. McMahon, better known as Mrs. “Mack.” A fire on June 9, 1850, nearly threatened the existence of the new house.

About 1850 a parishioner of St. Patrick’s church, M. Bartholomew O’Brien, bequeathed a sum of £1,000 for an orphan asylum. Father Dowd formed a building committee of Messrs. Charles T. Palgrave, Francis McDonnell, Charles Curran, P. O’Meara, P. Lawlor, J. McGovern, Patrick Brennan, Thomas O’Brien, Patrick Lynch and Mathew Ryan. The latter acted as secretary till February, 1850, when he was succeeded by Mr. Thomas Bell. A lot of ground, 100 feet by 10 in front on Dorchester Street, with 120 feet of rear, was given, in trust for the building of an Irish orphan asylum by the Fabrique of the parish of Montreal.

On November 21, 1851, the unfinished house was entered by the orphans, two or three planks laid against the principal entrance being the only door. The formal blessing of the building by the bishop took place on February 2, 1852. In this same year the treasurer, Mr. T.C. Palgrave, received a grant of £500 from the provincial parliament. The act of incorporation received the royal assent on May 30, 1855. In 1859 Father Dowd resigned his directorship, leaving a balance to the poor of $157.39. He was succeeded by the Rev. Michael O’Brien, who afterwards became the first superior of St. Ann’s church. In 1861 Mr. Edward Murphy, afterwards senator, joined the board of trustees, becoming secretary in the place of Mr. Bell.

His Excellency, Viscount Monck, governor-general, visited the orphan asylum on July 3, 1862, when an address was read by Mr. Thomas Ryan, afterwards senator. On the death of Mr. Bell, in 1864, Mr. John Fitzpatrick became a trustee. Dying in the same year, he made the orphanage his residuary legatee.

Through the efforts of the indefatigable Father O’Brien there was acquired the property on Lagauchetière Street, where the St. Bridget’s Refuge was afterwards built, the act of the transference by the corporation of the asylum to the refuge by resolution being dated June 24, 1866. In 1859 it was proposed to build St. Bridget’s church for the Irish in the Quebec suburbs and money was collected, but, as the bishop could not be prevailed upon to permit its creation, at a meeting of subscribers held on March 9, 1867, it was resolved unanimously on the motion of Mr. B. Devlin, and seconded by Mr. M.P. Ryan, that the money collected (about $8,000) by Fathers O’Brien and O’Farrell (afterwards bishop of Trenton) be appropriated as follows: “one-half to the Montreal St. Patrick’s Orphan Asylum and the other half to the Rev. Father O’Farrell and his successors for Irish Catholic charities in the St. Ann’s suburbs, the whole to be invested by them in stock in the new St. Patrick’s Hall, now in course of erection.”

The history of the ill-starred St. Patrick’s Hall, a magnificent structure, a credit to the Irish people of the city, tells of two disasters, in the last of which it perished by fire. The association determined to wind up its affairs, which resulted in the stockholders receiving 55% for their investment, the asylum being, therefore, a considerable loser.

On the death of the Rev. Michael O’Brien in 1870 Father Dowd was again appointed director by the bishop. In 1877 there was terminated a long dispute which was settled in the ecclesiastical court, resulting in the non-divergence of the funds, originally collected for St. Bridget’s church and given with the consent of the subscribers, half to the orphan asylum and half to the Fabrique of St. Marys, who claimed the original gift for the St. Bridget’s church, when permission to build this had been at last granted by the bishop in 1873. The case for the asylum in civil law was entrusted by the trustees to Mr. J.J. Curran, Q.C., M.P., afterwards the Hon. Justice Curran, his view in favour of the asylum being endorsed by Mr. Lacoste, Q.C., afterwards Sir Alexander Lacoste, chief justice, K.B.

In January, 1873, Lord Dufferin, the distinguished Irish governor general, visited the asylum. On January 30, 1874, Sister Forbes, who since 1853 had succeeded Sister Reed as superioress of the asylum, celebrated her “golden wedding” as a nun. Mother Forbes died three years later, on March 28, 1877, after her twenty-third year in the superiority of the asylum, to the great grief of the Irish population.

The last of the original trustees died on May 26, 1889, the Hon. Thomas Ryan, senator for the Victoria division of the province. On the 26th of December, 1889, the following gentlemen were trustees, Edward Murphy, J.S. Mullin, W.H. Hingston, Owen McGarvey, James O’Brien, John B. Murphy, Patrick Kennedy, Hon. Judge Doherty, James McCready, J.J. Curran, Q.C., M.P. In December, 1891, Father Dowd died. He was held in greatest respect by all denominations in the city. The flag on the city hall was placed at half mast and the funeral was a public demonstration. He was succeeded by Father Quinlivan, who had assisted him for some time before his death. In 1892 the Hon. Senator Murphy died. His name deserves to be remembered among the great philanthropists of the city. His memory is perpetuated in the “Edward Murphy School” and the Edward Murphy medal given by the Catholic School Commissioners. In 1902 the trustees of the orphanage were Hon. Sir William Hingston, Hon. Marcus Doherty, Hon. J.J. Curran, J.S.C., Mr. Michael Burke, Mr. Patrick Mullin, Hon. James O’Brien, Mr. J.C. Collins, Mr. C.A. McDonnell and Mr. P. McCrory.

In 1909 the orphanage, being declared unsafe, was removed to the new asylum built under the direction of Mr. W.E. Doran, architect, of gray stone, fireproof and three stories in height, on St. Catherine Road, Outremont. The estate is a valuable farm of forty-five acres, with its own orchards and vegetable gardens. Its internal direction is still under the Grey Nuns. Its trustees at the time of the change were the Rev. Gerald McShane, pastor of St. Patrick’s church, the Hon. C.J. Doherty, Messrs. M. Burke, P. Mullin, C.F. Smith, C.A. McDonnell, P. McCrory, J.A. Macdonald, M.D., who has also given his services free for thirty years, and Donald Hingston, M.D. At present Messrs. A.J. Trihey, H.J. McKeon, T.W. McNulty, W.J. Rafferty, have joined the board since the deaths of Messrs. M. Burke, C.F. Smith, C.A. McDonnell and P. Mullin.

The names of Dr. H. Schmidt, Dr. Henry Howard, Dr. J.A. Macdonald, Dr. Thomas J. Curran, should be remembered in connection with the medical care of the orphans.

The great burden of sustaining the funds of the institution fell during many years on the “Ladies of Charity.” The first annual bazaar was held in 1849 under their auspices. The first president was Mrs. Charles Wilson, the wife of the Hon. Charles Wilson, mayor of the city. In 1850 she was succeeded by Madame Vallières de St. Réal, the wife of the well known judge. This Irish lady remained president till 1861. Mrs. O’Meara succeeded but died in 1862, when Madame Vallières was recalled till 1866, when she was made honorary life president. Mrs. M.P. Ryan became president till 1882, when with Mrs. Campion she became honorary life president. Mrs. Brennan took office in 1882, and Mrs. Edward Murphy in 1883, remaining till 1900. In 1900 the following ladies were installed in office: Mrs. M.P. Ryan, Mrs. Campion and Mrs. E. Murphy, honorary life presidents; Mrs. E.C. Monk, president; Mrs. E.C. Amos, vice president; Mrs. D. Boud, second vice president; Mrs. Loye, third vice president; Mrs. Whitney, secretary. Of late years this organization has not been called upon for the same active services for the orphanage, but their members individually have been foremost in other growing English-speaking Catholic charities.

THE HERVEY INSTITUTE

Among non-Catholic charitable works called forth at the time of the ship fever was the Hervey Institute, founded in 1847.

Its first home was on St. Antoine Street; two small houses followed. Then the Home found itself at 215 Mountain Street, in 1875. The new Home, opened by their Excellencies, Earl and Countess Grey, on December 16, 1908, is situated at the corner of Windsor and Claremont avenues, Westmount.

Like most similar organizations the Hervey Institute rose from humble beginnings, little idea being in the minds of the group of ladies who began the work of the magnitude of the scale of future undertakings. It now has accommodation for eighty-five persons.

Miss Hervey, for whom the Home is named, was born in 1807 and came to this city from Scotland in 1846. The following year she started the home in a small way, calling it an industrial home. She was led to do this by the extreme need for such among the poor--for at that time there was little organized relief among the Protestants other than that given by the churches--and the mother left with her small children to support, owing to the death of the father, was in a sad plight. Miss Hervey and her associates gathered these children together, taught them to sew and also the elementary subjects of education as well as the performance of domestic duties.

Among well known names connected with the Home in those days were Mrs. John Stirling, Mrs. John Redpath, Mrs. Neil MacIntosh, Mrs. John McDougall, Mrs. Hannibal Whitney, Mrs. John Lovell--the last mentioned still showing an active interest in the Home--Mrs. (Doctor) Scott, another member of the original committee, worked unceasingly to accomplish a piece of work desired by Miss Hervey, that of a separate Home for the tiny children and young babies, as it was found impossible to continue the reception of children of all ages. Thus the Protestant Infants’ Home was established, as an offshoot in 1870, by this same untiring worker, Miss Hervey.

The following ladies have been the presidents of the institution:

1847-75 Miss Hervey 1875-78 Mrs. H.L. Routh 1878-81 Mrs. J. Ross 1881-82 Mrs. James Tasker 1882-86 Mrs. J.H. Moody 1886-92 Mrs. Alex Murray 1892-96 Mrs. Langlois 1896-1904 Mrs. G. Summer 1904 Mrs. J. Henderson

The Home was incorporated in 1875 when Mrs. J. Routh was president, other signers of the charter were: Mrs. Holmes and Mrs. M.L. Clarke, the last mentioned being at present on the committee of management. The original intention of caring for, teaching, and training in domestic duties half orphan girls, has been carried on, but more than that, the special provision made for boys in the comparatively new Home on Windsor Avenue, Westmount, shows the result of many anxious thoughts directed to the problem of the growing boy without a home. Boys as well as girls are now trained for their work in the world; boys are kept until fourteen years of age, girls until sixteen.

In receiving girls and boys into the Home, the idea is to keep family life as nearly normal as possible, so the mother or father may place their children in the same home knowing they are at school and may play together.

Half-orphan children, between the ages of five and fourteen, are received, qualified teachers are in attendance, one children’s trained nurse and other nurses and over all a superintendent.

The parent pays whatever possible; all other cost of maintenance is met by the voluntary subscriptions.

A development of late years has been the purchase of a summer home at Morin Heights in the Laurentian Mountains, in healthy and beautiful surroundings. It is owing to this annex, to which the children have been sent for two months for nine years, that the directors owe the wonderful record of no annual drug account over $25.00. This for a home of seventy-five children is a record, as is the fact there have been but four deaths in the sixty-eight years in which the Home has been in operation.

Since the inception in 1847 many hundreds have passed through the Home and have made successes. The girls have become efficient nurses and teachers and the boys successful business men, while two of the more recent inmates are doing their duty by their King and Country in the Canadian overseas contingent.

THE PROTESTANT INFANTS’ HOME

As mentioned, it was through the energy of Miss Hervey and Miss Scott that the Protestant Infants’ Home was established on April 30, 1870, the by-laws being adopted on that date and the constitution in May following. The first home of Miss Hervey’s Institute was on St. Antoine Street. It was destined to receive unmarried mothers, together with their babies from the Maternity Hospital as well as destitute children and even those paid for. The age for children admitted is between fourteen days and five years.

Among the first directors were Mesdames Henry Baylis, J.M. Gibson, G. Ferrier, F. Henshaw, B. Christie, T. Campbell, J. Alexander, I. Harper, G. Brown, C. Hart, G. Aitken, Aikman, W.H. Clare, Godfrey G. Shaw, C. Pelton, Scott, Wilk, and C. Brown.

The home was transferred from St. Antoine Street to different places and is now located on Queen Mary’s Road.

THE MONTREAL DAY NURSERY

This was followed on the English side by the Montreal Day Nursery, located at 50 Belmont Park, which was started in 1888 and incorporated in 1900.

The object of the Day Nursery is to take care of the children of women who, for various reasons, are obliged to work by the day to support their families. The Nursery is open every week day from 7 A.M. to 7 P.M. Children from three weeks to twelve years of age are admitted by the day. They are fed, kept clean, medically treated, and, when necessary, clothed. The younger children are under the supervision of a resident governess, the older ones are sent to the Belmont Street and St. Patrick’s schools. The Nursery is non-sectarian, there are no restrictions as to creed, nationality or colour, and it is supported by voluntary contributions.

When the Nursery was first opened about ten children were taken care of daily. The increase in numbers has been steady until now there are from ninety-five to one hundred and ten cared for, divided as follows: Infants, twenty; runabouts, between two and four, forty; and about fifty between the ages of four and twelve. A charge of ten cents is exacted for one child, and five cents more for each additional child from the same family.

The Montreal Foundling and Baby Hospital was started in 1891 and has admirably carried out its title.

L’ASSISTANCE PUBLIQUE

A modern form of charity for the old and sick and for children was founded on October 30, 1903, by MM. L.H. Lesvesque, Joseph Hoostetter, A. Rivet, Ludger Gravel, G. L’Archevesque, Leo Fournier, Charlemagne Rodier, Dr. E. H. Desjardins, under the name of L’Assistance Publique, situated on 338-340 Lagauchetière Street. Its incorporation is dated January 28, 1907. Its object is the protection, housing, boarding and clothing, temporarily as long as the board shall see fit, of children, women, old people, the sick and other afflicted persons (with the exception of those suffering from incurable or contagious diseases). It aims at finding employment, or placing those in their charge into suitable charitable institutions. The work is restricted to citizens of Montreal, of all nationalities. The work has progressed so that it became necessary to build a large wing, which was inaugurated on February 5, 1911. It has four dormitories, an infirmary and three refectories. Over one hundred and five aged and poor persons dwell permanently in the hospital. The institution does not lodge casuals, this work being abandoned on the erection of the Meurling Institute in 1913, but it serves dinners to needy unemployed. The society is administrated by lay people, of whom the present officers are: MM. Joseph Lamoureux, president; A.A. Labresque, vice president; Trefflé Bastien, treasurer; and A. Godin, secretary. The internal management of the home for ten years has been in the hands of Mlle. Morache.

NOTE

The foregoing are types of the leading philanthropic institutions concerned in the movement for the care of the aged, orphans and children. There are others of great importance. The following list indicates most of the other activities under the above head:

Homes for the Aged:

Hospice Auclair (Sisters of Providence), Rachel and Sanguinet streets. Hospice Bourget (Sisters of Providence), 2200 Ontario Street. Hospice Gamelin (Sisters of Providence), 1281 St. Catherine, East Street. Hospice du Sacré Cœur (Sisters of Providence), 401 Pie IX Avenue. Sisters of Providence, 109 St. Dominique Street. Hospice St. Antoine (Grey Nuns), 76 St. Paul Street. Little Sisters of the Poor, Seigneur Street. Providence Asylum, 369 St. Catherine Street. St. Anthony’s Villa (Lay), 865 Dorchester Street. St. Bridget’s Home (Grey Nuns), 297 Lagauchetière Street. St. Cunegonde Home (Grey Nuns), corner Atwater Avenue and Albert Street.

Orphanages:

Bethlehem Asylum (Grey Nuns), St. Antoine Street. Orphélinat Catholique (Grey Nuns). Grey Nunnery, 25 St. Mathew Street. Huberdeau (In the Laurentians) (Filles de la Sagesse). Maison Ste. Genevieve (Sisters of Providence), Dorion and Gauthier streets. Montfort (For Boys) (Fathers and Brothers of the Company of Mary). Orphélinat St. Arsene (Brothers of St. Gabriel). St. Alexis Orphanage (Sisters of Providence), 247 St. Denis Street. St. Cunégonde Asylum (Grey Nuns), St. Cunégonde. St. Henri Asylum (Grey Nuns), St. Henri ward. Hospice Auclair (Sisters of Providence). Hospice Bourget (Sisters of Providence). Hospice du Sacré Cœur (Sisters of Providence). St. Patrick’s Asylum (Lay Trustees and Grey Nuns). St. Vincent de Paul Orphanage (Grey Nuns), 110 Visitation Street. Filles de la Sagesse, 620 Notre Dame Street.

Infants:

The Sœurs de Miséricorde (Maison St. Janvier), Sault au Récollet.

Day Nurseries and Créches:

Bethlehem Asylum (Grey Nuns), 1 Richmond Square. Hospice St. Antoine (Grey Nuns), 76 St. Paul Street. Jardin L’Enfance (Grey Nuns), 110 Visitation Street. Nazareth (Grey Nuns), Mance and St. Catherine streets. Sisters of Providence, Mother House, 1271 St. Catherine Street. St. Cunegonde Home (Grey Nuns), Atwater Avenue. St. Henri Asylum (Grey Nuns), 63 College Street, St. Henri. French Protestant Home---Orphans and Children.

II

RELIEF MOVEMENTS

THE PROTESTANT HOME OF INDUSTRY--ST. VINCENT DE PAUL SOCIETY--THE OLD BREWERY MISSION--THE SALVATION ARMY SOCIAL WORK--THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY--THE MEURLING MUNICIPAL REFUGE--OTHER RELIEF AGENCIES.

THE PROTESTANT HOME OF INDUSTRY

The beginning of the nineteenth century marked a decided growth in the English population and there can now be seen its efforts to organize its relief work. The present chapter will also indicate the progress of the movement towards organized charity.

In 1818, an act was passed forming a corporation of the “Wardens of the House of Industry at Montreal.” This was in order to carry out the wish of a John Conrad Marsteller, who in 1808 had left two stone houses and other buildings on St. Mary Street for the erection of a House of Industry, but the amount not being sufficient, there was delay till the act of 1818 created the “wardens” or overseers and visitors of the poor. No regular steps seem to have been taken for the appointment of these wardens till April 2, 1827, when a commission, signed by the Governor General, Earl Dalhousie, appointed as wardens of the House of Industry, François Desrivières, Saveuse de Beaujeu, Samuel Gerard, Jean Bouthillier, Horatio Gates, Rèné Kimber, Henry McKenzie and James Kimber.

In 1863 an act of incorporation was granted for a “Protestant House of Industry.” A building site was secured at the corner of Dorchester and Bleury streets, for which the proprietor, Mr. John Donegani, was paid £3,750. Upon this property a large brick building was erected, three stories in height with a high basement. It became the center of sociological activity. “During the year 1865,” says Mr. Sandham, the historian, “the missionaries of the different religious societies formed themselves into a City Missionary Relief Society and were liberally aided by the citizens in carrying on their work. The following year it was thought advisable that all assistance should flow out through one channel and accordingly a United Board of Outdoor Relief was formed in connection with the institution.” This institution is still in operation in the city.

ST. VINCENT DE PAUL SOCIETY

St. Vincent de Paul Society, to which no work of charity is foreign, started poor visiting and relief in Montreal in 1848. The parent body was originally formed in Paris in May, 1833, by eight students under the direction of M. Bailly, the general council being established at Paris in 1840, and the particular council of Montreal being founded on March 18, 1848. The city is now divided into the central, northern, eastern and western

## particular councils with local parish conferences to each. In

December, 1914, these were more than fifty-four.

THE OLD BREWERY MISSION

An English exponent of a further phase of the relief movement is the Old Brewery Mission, which was established in 1890 under the following circumstances:

About the middle of the winter of 1890 there were many suffering from cold and hunger through lack of work. A suggestion came that much good might be done could a soup-kitchen be opened to furnish cheap and nourishing food to the needy. A suitable place was found in an old house on Dalhousie Street. There were two rooms. The back one was used as a kitchen--the one in front as a reading-room. It was furnished with benches and tables on which were magazines. A grate-fire made the place homelike and cheerful. Young ladies voluntarily served the soup. As the place began to get crowded, it was thought best to have short addresses delivered to the men. The work was so satisfactory and evidently so badly needed that when the old house was torn down in the spring, larger quarters were found in an old brewery (hence the present name) on College Street. After this the work so grew that a missionary was engaged and regular evangelistic services were held. But there was so many disadvantages about this place, and the locality was found so unsuitable, that another site was chosen--a shop on St. James Street, near Inspector Street. About this time the movement was started to put up the present building, where for fourteen years the work has flourished.

THE SALVATION ARMY SOCIAL WORK

In 1884 the Salvation Army came to Montreal and its method of organized charity work has been one of gain to the city.

Early in its life the rescue work for men was instituted, as has been recorded. That for women and girls was also early inaugurated and this latter has since remained one of the important branches of the Army’s activities. Today the Young Women’s lodge receives young women and girls who are employed, furnishing pleasant rooms and good board at a nominal rate and at the same time a safe and congenial home.

In addition to this work the Army opened up, on the 1st of February, 1899, at 398 St. Antoine Street, a Working Women’s Home, where floor scrubbers, window cleaners, etc., are furnished room and board within their means and also employment when needed. During the last year 11,494 beds were occupied in this department and positions were found for 3,860 women.

With the erection of the Metropole, about 1903, the training college was removed to Toronto and this building became the home for the Social Corps for men. Board and lodgings are furnished at a small price to those able to pay and employment is found for those in need thereof.

The Industrial Home for men is located on Chatham Street, and here, if employment is not found for applicants within a week, they are put to work for the Army until permanent employment is secured. At this place there is a store, with departments for furniture repairing, shoe repairing, tailoring and paper sorting. The men are put to work at repairing furniture and shoes which are secured by the workers of the Army from all over the city, and these repaired articles are sold at the store at very low prices, the sale taking place about noon of each day. There, poor people, who are reluctant to ask for charity, are allowed to pay a very small price for furniture, clothes, shoes, etc., and thereby retain their independence. The material sold is fashioned from donations taken from all over the city and waste matter generally. In this way the aim of the Army is accomplished, to bring the waste matter of the city and the “down-and-outs” together, thus utilizing the one and saving the other with absolutely no cost to the city. The Industrial Home, through this means and through the sale of waste paper, which, when sorted, they are able to dispose of to the very best advantage and command the best price, is practically self-supporting, and the men are not only given board and lodging while waiting to find permanent employment, but also are paid a sum of money for their services, which they are advised to save up as a reserve capital upon which to start in their new line of work when secured.

The Army has recently purchased a lot at 520 Outremont Avenue, upon which it is planned to build a large building for hospital purposes.

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY

The advent of the most modern form of organized charity work in Montreal dates from 1894, for in that year the Charity Organization Society really came into being, though it did not come officially into the name until 1900. The incorporators of the Society were George Hague, Lady Drummond, Charles F. Smith, Emanuel P. Lachapelle, Harry Bovey, Louis J. Forget, Herbert B. Ames, Frank J. Hart, Mrs. Margaret Thibeaudeau, Sir William Hingston, Lady Margaret Hingston, Joseph B. Learmont, Mrs. Charlotte Learmont, John C. Reid, Frederick L. Beique, John Cox, Mrs. Caroline O. Cox, R. Wilson Smith, J. Damien Rolland, Robert Craig, Miss Helen Reid, Jeffrey H. Burland, Trefflé Berthiaume, Daniel F. Hamilton and Alphonse Turcotte.

Its work began in the former year when the Local Council of Women took up the question of organized charity relief work. It collected and studied trunks full of information about it, mastered its principles and details, went about explaining it, drew up a constitution and was ready. Then, in conjunction with a number of influential men, it called a public meeting in the old Board of Trade hall, in December, 1899. Lady Minto came from Ottawa to be present. The hall was packed, and there and then, with much enthusiasm, the resolution was taken and the Charity Organization Society shortly opened its doors at 98 Bleury Street. There it remained for some twelve years, till last May it opened its new office at 70 Mance Street. Its first secretary, Mr. Francis McLean, guided it with wisdom and discretion through those first critical years. Then came the late Mr. Richard Lane, who won for it wide recognition and sympathy, through his unusual gifts and personality. At his death he was succeeded, about 1911, by Mr. Rufus Smith.

The work as developed by this association, in league with others of the same world-wide reputation for scientific efficiency in relief management, is an important factor in civic sociology. The society is very fortunate in having among its directors many of the original incorporators, who are all connected with divers other charities in this city, so that this central board has far-reaching influence as a bureau of exchange in the solution of relief problems.

THE MEURLING MUNICIPAL REFUGE

The latest relief movement in Montreal is the Meurling Municipal Refuge, installed by the municipality. Its establishment was brought about through a windfall in the form of a donation by a former Montreal citizen, Mr. Gustave Meurling, who died recently in France.

On the 19th of May, 1913, the contract was awarded for the erection of the Meurling Municipal Refuge to Mr. Théodore Lessard for the price of $116,000. The total cost of the Refuge amounted to $180,000. The city received from the Gustave Meurling estate, after deducting all expenses, $72,429.19, so that the city’s share amounts to $107,770.81.

The building, although it is simple and without luxury, is quite solid and safe. It is entirely fire-proof. In order to reduce to a minimum the cost of maintenance, the inside facing of all the outside walls and of all the divisions other than those which are glazed has been made of pressed brick. The foundation walls are of stone concrete. The floors, which are all of concrete finished with cement, have a slight slope, which permits of their being thoroughly washed. A steam and hot water heating system runs through the whole of the building. The tank is provided with a heater for summer. Improved appliances (among others three fumigators of the most modern type) have been installed in the laundry.

The walls have been constructed sufficiently thick to support the additional stones which may hereafter be erected. The Meurling Municipal Refuge is now, in 1914, in full operation.

The following table shows the number of destitute persons who have been harboured gratuitously in the police stations and night refuges since 1901:

1901 55,125 1902 50,207 1903 46,685 1904 61,400 1905 65,184 1906 62,228 1907 59,713 1908 78,548 1909 59,097 1910 58,726 1911 76,334 1912 82,731 1913 90,076 or 7,345 more than in 1912.

As will be seen by these figures, the establishment of a municipal refuge could no longer be delayed. The Meurling institution is undoubtedly of great service to the homeless poor.

Among other relief bodies are:

Refuge de Nuit (Ouimet); Refuge Français, 71 Viger Avenue; Refuge of the “Union Nationale Française,” founded October 20, 1886, by M. Victor Ollivon.

III

SICK VISITATION AND NURSING BODIES

GREY NUNS--SISTERS OF PROVIDENCE--OTHER BODIES--THE VICTORIAN ORDER OF NURSES

GREY NUNS

The visitation of the sick in their homes has always been one of the forms of charity in this city. As a more pronounced movement the Grey Nuns took up domiciliary visits on October 23, 1848. Among the works of the Grey Nuns for 1863 Jacques Viger, in his “Servantes de Dieu in Canada,” has the following:

Number of the poor helped in their homes 1,418 Number of house visits 4,943 Number of night attendances among the sick 300

SISTERS OF PROVIDENCE

The Sisters of Providence who were engaged in the same work according to the Annuaire de Ville Marie of Huguet-Latour, in 1863, were thus active:

Number of poor and sick visited in 1863 13,243 Night attendances 622 Assisted at death 136-758

Thus the work was carried on by the early religious communities and their work is now supplemented by other new congregations, notably by the Sœurs del ’Esperance, on Sherbrooke Street, who make this work a specialty, and by the Tertiaries (lay) of St. François, and others. The work has also been carried on by groups of ladies connected with the Protestant churches and as well by nursing bodies organized of late years.

With regard to the modern organized nursing system, reference has been made to the training of nurses for hospital work. There are schools attached to each of the great hospitals. There are now, however, several bodies who are trained to work in the homes of the people, such as the Canadian Order of Nurses, Phillip’s School for Nurses and the Victorian Order of Nurses. The latter movement being the latest development and one that has reached Dominion prominence, deserves especial historical recognition.

THE VICTORIAN ORDER OF NURSES

The Victorian Order of Nurses was inaugurated in 1897 as the Memorial of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee in Canada. The suggestion that this should be the Canadian Memorial came from the National Council of Women of Canada, of which Her Excellency, the Countess of Aberdeen, was then the presidential head. In 1896 the urgent need of medical aid and trained nursing in the northwest territories and outlying districts of Canada had been brought home to the council through its affiliated societies in the Canadian west. A scheme was thought out and laid before the prime minister and other members of the government and at a public meeting at Ottawa in 1897 a resolution in its favour was moved by the Hon. Wilfrid Laurier, seconded by the Hon. Clifford Sifton, minister of the interior, and carried unanimously.

After consultation with some of the leading doctors, public meetings were held in Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto, and representative committees were formed in these and other cities for the promotion of the scheme. On the advice of the friends of the movement in Montreal it was decided that only fully trained hospital nurses, holding a diploma from a recognized hospital school, after training in maternity and district work, should be admitted into the order. Very strict rules were made forbidding the nurses to go to cases where no doctor was in attendance, placing the nurse in all cases under the control of the doctor and limiting the nurse’s attendance on the patient to visits of short duration, thus safeguarding the interests of the ordinary professional nurse.

It was agreed to administer the order through a central board and local boards of management who would supervise the nurses’ work and be responsible for their salaries, board and lodging. It was hoped that enough money would be collected for the permanent endowment of the order for work in all parts of Canada, but, owing mainly to the strong opposition of the large majority of medical men who misunderstood the objects of the order and pronounced against it, public opinion was adversely affected and only a tithe of the money required was collected and that mainly for local purposes. So many new facts, however, had been brought to light emphasizing the great need for such a nursing order throughout Canada that it was decided to make a start with the money in hand and four training centres, namely, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and Halifax, were established under district superintendents with a New Brunswick lady, Miss Charlotte Macleod, of the Waltham Training School, as chief lady superintendent.

Meantime a constitution and by-laws had been drawn up and an application made to Her Majesty for a royal charter for the new order, which was duly granted in 1898. By the end of the following year there were eighteen Victorian Order districts throughout the country with thirty nurses. Today in Montreal alone we have ten districts, with seventy-one Victorian Order nurses, while in Canada generally there are two hundred and thirty-two. Cottage hospitals have been started all through the country districts and in addition to these there are small centres with two nurses who attend patients scattered over a wide area and also receive emergency cases at the homes.

As the aim and object of the order became better understood the opposition on the part of the doctors and nurses changed into cordial sympathy and co-operation and the Victorian Order have now no better friends than the medical and nursing professions. So happily inaugurated with Lady Aberdeen as its first president, the order has always enjoyed the warm support of the successive governors general of Canada and their consorts. Lady Minto’s exertions secured the money for the Cottage Hospital fund, Lady Grey raised the necessary funds for the country nursing centres, and it was owing to the interest and energy of H.R.H., the Duchess of Connaught, that a large sum of money was collected last year for the central fund. The Victorian Order has been fortunate in attracting to its service devoted women to whose singleness of purpose no less than to their highly trained intelligence must be ascribed its marvellous growth and success.

IV

MOVEMENTS FOR THE “UNFORTUNATES”

FALLEN WOMEN--LA MISERICORDE--THE SHELTERING HOME--GIRL DELINQUENTS--THE “GOOD SHEPHERD”--THE GIRLS’ COTTAGE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL--BOY DELINQUENTS--ECOLE DE REFORME--SHAWBRIDGE BOYS’ FARM--THE JUVENILE COURT--THE CHILDREN’S AID SOCIETY--THE MONTREAL SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN--CANADIAN SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS. NOTE: COURT COMMITTALS.

The care of fallen women was early tentatively engaged in by Madame d’Youville before British rule. Doubtless this was also desultorily undertaken at a later period by her companions and other religious communities of women, but it was not specifically and regularly undertaken as a special work until Madame Jetté founded her work which is perpetuated in the Hôpital de la Miséricorde.

THE HOPITAL DE LA MISERICORDE

The Hôpital La Miséricorde owes its origin to Mgr. Ignace Bourget, to whom so many of the Catholic works of charity and education of the city owe their inspiration and encouragement during his thirty-six years in the episcopate, from 1840 to 1876. His name is written in indelible characters in this city. In the year 1845, after having long thought of means of founding some establishment for fallen girls he called to his aid a pious widow, Madame Jetté, who had been engaged in much private charity in helping unfortunate girls, and invited her to found a community to perpetuate the good already commenced by her. The first home, opened with one “penitent,” was called the Hospice Ste. Pélagie, a garret reached by a ladder above a dilapidated wooden building on St. Simon Street, in the tenement now numbered 208 St. George Street. Her family thought her demented and said that she was disgracing them, and there were not wanting the criticisms and sarcasm of the cynics. Madame Jetté was joined on July 20th by another devoted widow, Madame Raymond, who had worked towards the founding of the Good Shepherd Institution in Montreal. A more comfortable building was shortly secured on Wolfe Street (now numbered 207 and 209). More penitents were able to be received.

By 1846 there were five workers and in July, 1846, Bishop Bourget gave a “rule” to the Congregation de Sainte Pélagie. On April 26, 1847, they moved into another house at the corner of St. Catherine and St. André Street, today a common restaurant. On January 16, 1848, the little group of women was erected into a canonical body under the title of “Sœurs de Miséricorde” (Sisters of Mercy). Madame Jetté, the foundress, became Sister de la Nativité and Madame Galipeau, Sister St. Jeanne Chantal, was appointed superior. In 1848 the number of penitents reached eighty-seven and in 1851 it increased to ninety-seven. During the first six years the institution saved the lives of 390 new born infants. In 1851 the community moved to the corner of Campeau and Lagauchetière streets, the site where the present mother house now stands. New buildings were ready in October, 1854. By 1862 further ground had been purchased to extend to St. Hubert Street. On April 5, 1864, the foundress, Mother de la Nativité, died.

But the work progressed. At the end of 1872 there were fifty-six professed sister, ten novices, 323 penitents were received and there were 230 births in the hospital. In 1876 the west wing was completed. On April 26, 1887, the present maternity hospital, fronting St. Hubert Street, was dedicated. Up to 1889 the children born in the hospital had been transferred to the Grey Nuns. These Sisters now found themselves in this year unable to accept the children and the infant asylum in the rear of the Mother House was consequently built and entered into about 1898. At present the children born in the hospital are kept there until three months old, when they are sent to the country crèche at Sault au Récollet. At this establishment they are taken care of until six years of age, when they are placed, if possible, with responsible parties.

THE SHELTERING HOME

The next important development for fallen women was the founding of the Sheltering Home by Protestants.

Late in the ’50s, perhaps about 1858, work was instituted in Montreal by some of the officers of the regiments stationed here and by prominent men of the city, for fallen girls, mostly maternity cases, one of the leaders of this movement being T.M. Taylor. This home was called the “Magdalene” and continued for a number of years, disbanding, however, after the regiments left Montreal. On the 2d of March, 1868, the home on Seigneurs Street, a direct outgrowth of the previous disbanded Magdalene, was established for the reception of destitute and fallen girls. Major General Russell and Captain Malan were among the principal promoters and Mrs. T.M. Taylor and T.J. Claxton were trustees. This was called the “Female Home Society.” Mr. and Mrs. Taylor had general charge of the work, the former being president.

In 1878 Miss Barber, who had been closely connected with the work, was asked by the matron of the jail to visit a woman who, in company with her husband, had been imprisoned for theft. Miss Barber tried to find a home or place of employment for the woman, but was not successful, and finally she took her to the “Female Home” which, though crowded at the time, made a place for her. This incident brought to Miss Barber’s notice the need of a shelter for released prisoners, and at once she began a department of work in connection with the Home to cover that need. In May, 1885, owing to lack of funds, the board of trustees believed it necessary to close the Home, but Miss Barber, knowing the value of the work being done, begged for its continuance, stating that if they would give her the house and one year in which to continue it, she would take full charge and raise the funds to carry on the work for that length of time. This was permitted, and during the year 1885 she was responsible for the money.

At the end of that time when a meeting was held and her report given, she stated that the Home was too far from the centre of the city, where most of her work lay, and she asked the board to sell the property on Seigneurs Street and with the money thus acquired purchase another nearer the centre of the city. In 1885 Mrs. Frost became secretary of the Society, with Miss Barber continuing as its manager. The old property was sold for $9,000 and after all outstanding debts were paid, there was given over about $800 to Miss Barber and invested $8,000, the interest from which was to be used in carrying on the work. Two adjoining houses, in order to classify the inmates, were taken on Dorchester Street. The advisory board, chosen by Miss Barber, consisted of Mrs. M.H. Gault, Mrs. A.F. Gault, Mrs. S. Finley, Mrs. Aiken, Mrs. H. Botterell and Mrs. E. Frost, secretary-treasurer. By 1891 it was proved that the Home was in a good locality for the furtherance of its work, but as the street was to be widened about that time, the buildings were to be sold and it was again necessary to search for a home. The present location on St. Urbain Street was found and as the house was for rent Miss Barber called the old original trustees together and, making her report, placed the matter before them. It was decided to turn over the $8,000 invested to Miss Barber, with which she purchased the permanent home on St. Urbain Street. The house was remodelled and work has been carried on ever since.

The classes of inmates who are assisted are as follows:

1. Discharged prisoners and those whom the Recorder wishes to be placed in a home rather than imprisoned.

2. Inebriates, many of whom apply for shelter while others are placed by friends.

3. Girls from the streets and houses of infamy.

4. Maternity cases, many of whom are more sinned against than sinning.

5. What is called the “floating” class--patients discharged from hospitals before strong enough to work; the weak in body and mind; incompetent, idle girls, who, not vicious, would, however, if allowed, sink to the abandoned class.

The Sheltering Home was incorporated on the 29th of September, 1898, the incorporators being Mrs. Sarah Hibbard, Mrs. Enoch Frost, Mrs. John Murray Smith, Mrs. Ebenezer E. Shelton, Mrs. Matthew Hamilton Gault, Mrs. Robert Ward Shepherd, Mrs. George B. Burland, Mrs. James Day, Mrs. Joseph Savage, John Dillon, Herbert B. Ames, Seth P. Leet, Walter Drake, Samuel Finley, Hugh McLennan, Albert A. Ayer, Charles Alexander and George Hague.

GIRL DELINQUENTS

The work for girl delinquents was taken up by the Good Shepherd Nuns in 1870.

The Community of the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd in Montreal is an offshoot of the original body founded in Caen, Normandy, in 1641, by Jean Eudes, founder of the Eudistes Fathers. June 11, 1844, marks the arrival of the four first sisters in Montreal from Angers, Mesdames Marie Fisson, Eliza Chaffaux, Alice Ward and Andrews. Their first home was on Brock Street in the Quebec suburbs. On July 25th they took possession of a fine stone convent of four stories built on ground given by Madame D. B. Viger. Their work was: (1) receive women penitents, (2) Magdalens from the first class, who, however, may never join the order itself, and (3) the education of young girls. The work of the Magdalens began in 1864 and that of the preservation of the “penitents” began in 1847.

The work of the reformation of young Catholic girl delinquents was inaugurated on May 3, 1870, with twenty subjects. These now are sent by the court or placed by their parents under a useful training in industrial works. In 1893 the industrial school was transferred to Laval des Rapids, near Montreal. In addition to the above work these Sisters have the direction of the female jail on Fullum Street.

THE GIRLS’ COTTAGE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL

A recent effort by Montreal ladies to supply the need for the special treatment of young girl delinquents between the ages of twelve and sixteen, otherwise than in the Female Jail, hitherto their only harbour, was crystalized in the opening, in September, 1911, of a Girls’ “Cottage” Industrial School at Outremont, which, however, was shortly removed to Front Street, St. Lambert’s, in healthy and pleasant surroundings. It was incorporated by government in 1913. The work is carried on in connection with the juvenile court, but it is also open to friendless and destitute girls, being supported by voluntary subscriptions, and some government assistance. It has been placed under government inspection. Very useful lessons have been the outcome of this experiment. It has been shown that most of those “committed” by the law are the victims of the _moron_ type of mental defectiveness and retarded intelligence and that others are the victims of a carelessly trained childhood and vicious environment. It has been found that the best method to rehabilitate these cases is by building up their health and by concentrating at present the educational part of their training upon domestic lines, to make them good housewives and able to support themselves hereafter. The “Cottage” system with its possibilities of homelike and industrial training is claimed to effect better cures than the cold and formal methods of the usual government reformatory. The presidents of the school have been: 1911, Mrs. F.H. Waycott; 1912, Mrs. J. Macnaughton; 1913-14, Miss Beatrice Hickson.

BOY DELINQUENTS

Modern reformatory work for boys began in Montreal in 1865. In 1858 a reformatory school for juvenile criminals was established at Isle aux Noix, near the frontier and at the head of the Richelieu river. Being an old military post it was again deemed necessary to occupy it and the reformatory was removed to St. Vincent de Paul, near Montreal, in 1861. In 1863 there were about fifty inmates in the institution.

The name of M. Berthelet and the Brothers of St. Vincent de Paul now became connected with this work. The latter Congregation was founded in Belgium, in 1807, by Rev. P. Priest, a Canon of the Diocese of Ghent, shortly after the French revolution, to care for the sick and poor, the aged and orphans left destitute through the expulsion of the religious orders.

Canada heard of their eminent services abroad. At the time, there was in Montreal a gentleman, named Berthelet, and relief of the poor seemed to be the goal of his ambition. In fact, M. Berthelet’s happiness consisted in relieving their wants. He, too, heard of the Brothers’ good work, and he begged Bishop Bourget to invite them out to Canada. They accepted the kind invitation and accepted the charge of a home for old people and neglected children of the city, at the Asile St. Antoine provided by M. Berthelet on Labelle Street. Four Brothers of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul arrived on February 22, 1865, but moved to a larger home on Dorchester Street, opposite the Convent of La Miséricorde, on May 10, 1865. From there they moved to the new home built by M. Berthelet on Mignonne Street, now De Montigny, taking possession of it on February 19, 1868. The same work was continued but with doubtful success, till it found its present vocation as an industrial school, in 1873.

In 1870, the Government of the Province of Quebec had founded a reformatory for youthful delinquents and incorrigible children. Recognizing that happier results would be obtained, if it was under the supervision of a religious body, familiar with the work, the Government made overtures to the superior of the Brothers, but it was only in 1872 that matters were definitely arranged to the satisfaction of both parties. The Brothers have been in charge ever since. The reformatory is a blessing in disguise for many a family and for the community at large. Hundreds of its inmates are today honorable and law-abiding citizens with trades in their possession or equipped for a livelihood. They would have always been so had their parents or guardians done their duty by them and given them the example of an industrious, sober, honest and Christ-like life.

The four Brothers have now grown to 150. In addition, since 1874 they have founded off shoots of their Community in Canada and the United States.

SHAWBRIDGE BOYS’ FARM

Reformation work for non-Catholic boys is conducted at Shawbridge in the Laurentian Mountains.

As told elsewhere the “Boys’ Farm and Training School” at Shawbridge owes its first active steps to the farm committee of 1906 of the “Corporation of the Boys’ Home,” and its immediate inception to the board of nine directors of the “Boys’ Farm and Training School,” chosen out of the board of fifteen governors of the “Boys’ Home” in accordance with the reconstituted amendments granted in March, 1909, to the original charter, these amendments having been prepared by Mr. J.S. Buchan, K.C., to provide for the twin corporations of the Boys’ Home and the Boys’ Farm, the latter, however, being a distinct but subsidiary corporation. The first board of directors of the Boys’ Farm were J.R. Dougall, Rev. Dr. Eagan Hill, J.C. Holden, S.M. Baylis, C.S.J. Phillips, J.S. Buchan, K.C., F. Hague, F.S. Todd and G.W. Stephens. This board elected as their officers the following: President, J.S. Buchan, K.C.; vice president, S.M. Baylis; honorary secretary, F. Hague; honorary treasurer, C.S.J. Phillips. Mr. J.R. Dougall shortly became president on the resignation of Mr. Buchan. The reformatory is conducted on the cottage system, the prison atmosphere being carefully eliminated, so that it is rather a country farm home school than anything else, although the pupils are those committed thither by the courts of justice. Everything at the farm makes for health, virtue and hope, and is a good demonstration of the modern view of juvenile reformation.

THE JUVENILE COURT AND THE CHILDREN’S AID SOCIETY OF MONTREAL

The Juvenile Court, which of recent years has been established to treat younger delinquents than those already mentioned, was largely the effort of the promotion of the Children’s Aid Society of Montreal.

This association developed out of a movement inaugurated by the Montreal Women’s Club, which, in 1905, formed a committee having as its object the establishment of reforms in the methods then in use in dealing with the children of the city who had offended against the law. The members of the club had become convinced from personal observation during the course of their charitable work that, not only was juvenile crime increasing to an alarming extent in Montreal, but also that the existing legal machinery was very badly adapted to cope with the situation. The “Juvenile Court” committee, therefore, began by collecting information regarding the methods in use in children’s courts and the probation system in various cities of the American continent and Europe, and interviewed many public men in Montreal in the interests of reform. Of these the first to offer definite encouragement and assurance of personal support was Judge F.X. Choquet, who, in an interview with some members of the committee on the 28th February, 1907, expressed his opinion that complete reformation of the law respecting juvenile offenders was urgently needed, and that a juvenile court with a special magistrate and officials was over-due in Montreal, in order that children’s cases might be promptly and efficiently dealt with, the circumstances and family history of the cases being investigated before sentence should be pronounced. It was recommended to the committee as their first step that a petition should be framed and sent to the Minister of Justice asking for a new law regulating the treatment of children’s cases before the courts.

Another public official to whom credit must be accorded for encouragement given in the initial stages of this reform is Governor Vallée of the Montreal jail, who stated as the result of personal experience that the greatest wrong was being done to the youth of the city by the system then in vogue; that he was familiar with the juvenile court methods, and heartily in favour of their introduction in Montreal.

A petition was prepared and was subsequently sent to the different branches of the Legislature bearing the signatures of over five thousand citizens. Public interest was increased in the movement by an address given by Mr. W.L. Scott, president of the Children’s Aid Society of Ottawa, before the Montreal Women’s Club, in the autumn of 1907, on juvenile courts and probation officers, and as a result of this address the club undertook to defray the cost of supporting a probation officer, for a time, provided the magistrates would sanction the innovation. Approval and promise of co-operation having been obtained from Judge Choquet, Mr. Recorder Weir, and Mr. Recorder Dupuis, a French lady, Mlle. Maria Clément, was engaged to fill the position.

It was now thought that the growth and prospects of the movement warranted the formation of a Children’s Aid Society, and the first meeting of ladies and gentlemen to form the executive board of such an association was assembled at the residence of Senator and Mme. Beïque on Sherbrooke Street, February 1, 1908, with Judge Eugène Lafontaine in the chair. Although the probation officer had only been at work during a few weeks it was stated at this meeting that her services had already proved of much value. Judge Choquet explained the purposes and need of the proposed society, whose officers were elected as follows: President, Judge F.X. Choquet; vice presidents, Mme. Beïque, Mme. Choquet, Judge Lafontaine, Miss Ferguson, president of the Montreal Women’s Club, Reverend Dr. Symonds, Mrs. Waycott, Mr. J.M. Wilson; secretaries, Mrs. Weller, Dr. St. Jacques; treasurer, Mr. F. Beïque.

By kind permission of the Protestant Board of School Commissioners, the meetings of the council of the Children’s Aid Society were subsequently held in the board room of the Protestant High School on Peel Street.

The members of the juvenile court committee of the Women’s Club were incorporated with the council of the new society, and subsequently, until the official organization of the juvenile court, held meetings twice a month with the probation officer at the home of Mme. Beïque in order to assist with the probation work.

In June, 1908, the Juvenile Delinquents Act was passed by the Dominion Parliament, and at the meeting of the Children’s Aid Society in September of that year a letter was read from Mr. W.L. Scott, one of the original framers of the bill, in which he stated that, “the success of the Juvenile Delinquents Bill has been due in great measure to your Society, and particularly to your having secured the interest of Senator Beïque and Mr. Bickerdike.”

The Society next exerted its effort towards having the act proclaimed by the Provincial Parliament as a preliminary to its being put into force in the province. To this end a public meeting was arranged, which was addressed by the Chief Justice, Sir Charles Fitzpatrick, and by Mr. J.J. Kelso, the originator of the juvenile court system in Toronto.

During the following year the Society continued to co-operate with the probation work, and endeavoured to effect regulation of newspaper selling on the streets by small children and girls, and to secure suppression of the deleterious features of the moving picture shows, which were just beginning to overrun the city.

In 1910, the Juvenile Delinquents’ Act was formally proclaimed by the provincial authorities, and arrangements as to division of expenses, etc., having been adjusted between the province and the municipality, a house at No. 209 Champ de Mars Street, was acquired and fitted up by the city for use as a detention home, the formal opening taking place on the 22d March, 1912.

In accordance with the provisions of the Juvenile Delinquents Act two Juvenile Court committees were appointed from the membership of the Children’s Aid Society, consisting of the following persons:

For the Catholic Juvenile Court Committee:--Madame Beïque, Lady Hingston, Mesdames Crevier, Moreau, Ethier, Miss Quigley, Miss Murphy, Mlle. Marie Mignault, Rev. Canon Gauthier.

For the Protestant Juvenile Court Committee:--Rev. F.R. Griffin, Reverend Doctor Symonds, Messrs. Owen Dawson, K.J. Hollingshead, Lyon Cohen, Maxwell Goldstein, Mesdames F.H. Waycott, H.W. Weller, W.S. Maxwell.

The society sent in a unanimous request to the provincial authorities for the appointment of Judge F.X. Choquet as judge of the Juvenile Court, for Mr. O.C. Dawson as clerk, and for the retention of acting probation officers, Mlle. Clément, and Mrs. Henderson, in a permanent capacity, and all of these appointments were made, as asked for.

In 1912 the Children’s Aid Society cooperated with the executive of the Child Welfare Exhibit by taking charge of the subsection of that exhibit dealing with delinquent and dependent children.

MONTREAL SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN

An association which has done very effective work since 1882 among the sufferers at the hands of the delinquent classes is the Montreal Society for the Protection of Women and Children. Its work is largely preventative and has succeeded in the protection of women and children from every kind of wrong, abuse and cruelty, arising from nonsupport, wife beating, desertion, assaults, child cruelty and miscellaneous causes. The society has steadily pursued the aim of reform regarding prison labour wages in favour of those who suffer from the incarceration of the delinquent husband, the breadwinner.

THE CANADIAN SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS

The following movement may be chronicled sufficiently appropriately here among the charities for unfortunates:

The Canadian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was incorporated in 1868, its charter being granted at the request of Thomas Workman, M.P., H.J. Joseph, Henry Bulmer, T.J. Claxton, E.A. Prentice, H.L. Boulter, J.J.C. Abbott, James Ferrier, Jr., R. Mowat, A.M. Foster, T. Mackenzie, George Stephens, James Hutton, G.W. Weaver, Jesse Joseph and others.

In 1898 a woman’s auxiliary was formed with Mrs. W.R. Miller as its first president.

The above association was the first in Canada. It is the head office of the Province of Quebec, having several branches in other towns. For the first twenty years progress was slow, but in 1913, as many as six thousand cases came to the association.

COURT COMMITTALS

The statistics for the year 1913 regarding the children committed to industrial schools by the City of Montreal is as follows:

Number of applications 1,227

These applications were accepted or refused as follows: Committals accepted 330 Committals refused 216 Recommittals accepted 397 Recommittals refused 53 Committals accepted by the Government 4 Recommittals accepted by the Government 5 Applications discontinued 100 Applications for release 126

Children in industrial schools[A] on the 31st of December, 1912: At the expense of the city 747 Half at the expense of the Government 68 ----- Total 815 Committed during the year 1913:-- At the expense of the city 330 Half at the expense of the Government 4

Recommitted during the year 1913:-- At the expense of the city 397 Half at the expense of the Government 5 ----- Total 736 ----- Grand total 1,551 Released, discharged, etc., during the year 1913:-- At the expense of the city 732 Half at the expense of the Government 13 ----- Total 745 In industrial schools on the 31st December, 1913:-- At the expense of the city 752 Half at the expense of the government 54 ----- Total 806

[A] It is now desired to change the charter so that Reformatory schools should be renamed Industrial schools and former Industrial schools be renamed Trades and Labour schools.

Of the 806 Montreal children confined in the industrial schools on the 31st of December, 1913, 463 were Catholic boys committed to the Montfort Orphanage, 422 at the expense of the city and 41 at the joint expense of the city and Government, 290 were Catholic girls confided to the care of the Good Shepherd Nuns, 277 at the expense of the city and 13 at the joint expense of the city and Government, and 53 were Protestant children (33 boys and 20 girls) placed in the Ladies’ Benevolent Institution, Berthelet Street, Montreal.

Number of boys 496 Number of girls 310

The expenditure in connection with the maintenance of uncared for juveniles amounted to $69,450.15 in 1913, or an increase of $2,582.49 as compared with 1912.

V

VOCATIONAL TRAINING FOR THE HANDICAPPED

DEAF MUTES: BOYS (CLERICS OF ST. VIATEUR)--GIRLS (SISTERS OF PROVIDENCE)--THE MACKAY INSTITUTE FOR PROTESTANT DEAF MUTES AND BLIND--THE INSTITUT DES AVEUGLES--MONTREAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE BLIND--SCHOOL FOR CRIPPLES (CHILDREN’S MEMORIAL HOSPITAL).

In a separate chapter we have treated of education only in the old sense of the term, vocational training as such also being treated in the notice on the technical schools of the city. The origins of that for physically handicapped children, the deaf, the blind and the crippled, have now to be recorded. There is as yet no provision for the mentally handicapped in the city or province though the subject is being at present promoted. This section is, therefore, placed here rather than in the educational chapter since the institutions it deals with are as yet conducted on sociological and volunteer lines rather than as an established part of the recognized educational systems of the city.

There are at present in Canada seven institutions for deaf mutes.

1. The Catholic Institution of “Sourds Muets,” deaf mutes, boys, founded in 1848 and now conducted under the direction of the Clerics of St. Viateur at 1941 St. Dominique Street, Montreal. 2. The Catholic Institution of “Sourdes Muettes,” girl deaf mutes, founded in 1851 under the direction of the Sisters of Providence, 595 St. Denis Street, Montreal. 3. The Mackay Institute, for girls and boys, founded in 1870. 4. The Institution at Halifax, Nova Scotia, founded in 1857. 5. That at Belleville, founded in 1858. 6. Winnipeg, in 1888. 7. St. John, New Brunswick, in 1903.

THE CATHOLIC INSTITUTE FOR DEAF-MUTE BOYS

Montreal, therefore, might claim at present the lead in this great educational work. Quebec, however, opened a school for deaf mutes in 1831 under Mr. Macdonald, a lawyer who had studied at Hartford, Connecticut, under the direction of M. Laurent Clerc, a pupil of the Abbé Sicard, who had learnt under the famous Abbé de l’Epée. In 1817 Laurent Clerc came to Hartford to found under M.H. Gallaudet, the first institution for deaf mutes on the American continent. The school established by Macdonald was unfortunately closed in 1836, owing to the withdrawal of subsidy by government. The Abbé Prince, afterwards bishop of St. Hyacinthe, endeavoured to support a school under the direction of the young Caron, a pupil of Macdonald, but through want of funds it closed in 1840. Later the Abbé Lagorce, of St. Charles on the Richelieu, attempted to teach the deaf mutes of his parish by pictures. In 1848 he was invited by Bishop Bourget to establish a school for deaf mutes at Hochelaga, in the hospice of St. Jérome-Emilien (the old house of the Good Shepherd) on Brock Street in the Quebec suburbs. He was assisted by a young man named Reeves, a deaf mute and a pupil of Caron. The school was afterwards transferred to a house on Dufresne Street, given by M. Dufresne. In May, 1850, it was transferred to a building on Coteau St. Louis (Mile End) on a piece of land given by Dr. P. Beaubien. It was closed temporarily in May, 1851, on account of a visit made by the Abbé Lagorce to France for the purpose of study. He returned to Canada in October, 1852, and was installed at Joliette. In 1853 he returned to the house at Coteau St. Louis. There he remained till January, 1856, when he relinquished his work in favour of Brother J.M. Young, a cleric of St. Viateur. The latter, himself a deaf mute, had been invited by Bishop Bourget on his return from Rome in 1854, when he found M. Young a professor at the Forestier Institute in Lyons. M. Young entered the novitiate of the Clercs de St. Viateur at Vourles on the 15th of October, 1854, and after pronouncing his vows on October 21, 1855, embarked for Montreal, arriving in December. In view of his advent the classes had not recommenced in September but were again opened January 7, 1856. After the vacation of 1856, the establishment was removed to Chambly but, not succeeding, it was definitely reinstated in Coteau St. Louis after the vacation of 1857. Meanwhile, in 1856 Brother Young was joined by Father Bélanger. To him are due the many important developments, such as the opening in 1865 of the first workshops for printing, binding and shoemaking. In 1878 he added two stores to the principal house and in 1881 joined the workshops to it by a viaduct. In 1870, after a year’s study in Europe, he introduced teaching by words and again in 1880 the purely oral method. In 1883 he was forced to take a rest till 1895, but in 1900, he definitely retired, being succeeded by the Rev. Father Cadieux, of the Clerics of St. Viateur. The establishment gives a complete education to the pupils in its vast halls and workshops, where, besides printing, binding and shoemaking, other trades are taught, such as tailoring, sadlering, joinery, wheelwright’s work, painting, blacksmithing, etc. English Catholic children are also admitted.

THE CATHOLIC SCHOOL FOR DEAF-MUTE GIRLS

The next school, for girl deaf mutes, was established in 1851 at the time when that for boys was in a precarious condition. Its home was first at Longue Pointe and it was opened, under the auspices of Mother Gamelin, the foundress of the Sisters of Providence, by Sister Marie de Bonsecours (Albina Gadbois) on February 19th, with two pupils. The work for the unfortunate children was not then understood in Canada, being even thought useless. In 1852 there were four pupils, in 1857, thirty-two. The school which had then become too small was transferred to the hospice St. Joseph in Montreal. In 1864, the institution was definitely established upon its present site on St. Denis Street. Its first buildings have been gradually enlarged. The first teachers studied for a year at Joliette under the Abbé Lagorce. In 1853 they went to New York to study under the celebrated Isaac Peet, director of the Institute for Deaf Mutes in New York. Two years later they returned thither for further instruction. In 1870 they went to Europe to familiarize themselves in the oral method, but it was not till 1879 that the intuitive pure oral method, replacing signs and imitation, was applied in its entirety. In this they were greatly assisted by the Abbé Trepanier, honorary canon of the Cathedral of Montreal, who was for eighteen years attached to the institution of the deaf mutes on St. Denis Street. In 1912 the establishment numbered 260 girl pupils and fifty-four religious.

THE MACKAY INSTITUTION FOR PROTESTANT DEAF-MUTES AND THE BLIND

Prior to the establishment of the institution known as the Mackay Institution for Protestant Deaf Mutes and the Blind, there was no school among the Protestant community for the unfortunates who might be either blind or deaf. During the year 1868 the subject was being agitated and on the 7th of January, 1869, a public meeting of those interested in this work was held and the following prominent citizens formed themselves into a society to establish an institution for Protestant deaf mutes and the blind in the Province of Quebec, then better known as Lower Canada:

Mr. Charles Alexander, Thomas Cramp, Frederick Mackenzie, Thomas Workman, John Dougall of the Montreal Witness, William Lunn, G. Moffatt, J.A. Mathewson, J.H.R. Molson, Hon. J.J.C. Abbott, Edward Carter, Q.C., P.D. Browne, John Leeming, W.H. Benyon, J.F. Barnard, S.J. Lyman; and the following ladies:

Mesdames Andrew Allan, R. Redpath, J.W. Dawson, Major, Bond, Cramp, Fleet, Moffatt, Brydges, Brown and Workman.

The following officers were elected: Mr. Charles Alexander, president; Thomas Cramp, vice president; Frederick Mackenzie, secretary-treasurer; Thomas Widd, principal; Mrs. Widd, matron.

On the 19th of January, 1869, another meeting was held at which it was announced that the sum of nearly $6,000 had been subscribed, and more promised. The members worked vigorously to raise sufficient funds.

The work of the honorable secretary-treasurer was no sinecure. He sent out hundreds of circulars to ministers in all parts of the province to obtain the names, age, sex and circumstances of all Protestant deaf mutes in the province. On the 26th of January, 250 circulars to Protestant ministers had brought only 23 replies, reporting 5 deaf mutes and 5 blind.

On the 10th of March, 112 replies had been received, reporting 38 deaf mutes, 8 of school age, and 34 blind, of whom only 5 were of school age. On April 30th, 210 replies had been received, reporting 57 deaf mutes, 35 males and 22 females; eligible for school, 8 males and 5 females.

On the 4th of May, another meeting of the committee was held and it was decided that Mr. Widd should look out for a suitable house and grounds to open school for September. A house and ample grounds were found in Côte St. Antoine at an annual rental of $400 with an option to purchase in five years for $8,000. The house contained accommodation for about twenty pupils but very scant provision for teachers.

The doors were opened on the 15th of September, 1870, and 11 pupils admitted, 9 boys and 2 girls. Six paid full fees of $90 for the scholastic year and 5 were free. The number in attendance was later increased to 16; 13 boys and 3 girls, one of the latter being deaf, dumb and blind.

The institution had a hard struggle for existence for many years, especially about 1876, which was a year of great financial depression; but with the help of kind friends it was kept open and attracted the attention of the late Mr. Joseph Mackay, who finally bought a piece of ground in Notre Dame de Grâce and erected thereon a handsome building capable of accommodating about eighty pupils and their teachers, and the name was then changed to the “Mackay Institution for Protestant Deaf Mutes and the Blind.”

Mr. Widd retired from the principalship about 1882 and was succeeded by Miss Harriet E. McGann as superintendent, who later married a most talented teacher, Mr. John I. Ashcroft, and after his death carried the superintendentship alone to the present date.

There are now about seventy pupils of whom eleven are in the blind class. The subjects taught the blind are the ordinary English branches, music, typewriting, raffia work, knitting, plain sewing, chair caning and piano tuning. For the deaf the Masterson method is used in the kindergarten classes, dressmaking and domestic economy, besides the ordinary public school course. In the industrial department the boys acquire a good knowledge of carpentry, wood carving, cabinet making, shoemaking and chair caning.

THE INSTITUT DES AVEUGLES

The “Institut des Aveugles,” or the Institute for the Blind, at “Nazareth,” St. Catherine Street, the first established in Canada, was founded in Montreal in 1860 by the Rev. V.B. Rousselot, a Sulpician, who sacrificed his private fortune for the work of his predeliction. The course given aims at providing a classical and religious education and follows the practical methods adopted in Paris at the Institution National for the young blind. Music is especially cultivated. In 1892 the Grey Sisters, who have charge of the institution, added an Institut Opthalmique. Eye diseases are also treated at the Hôtel Dieu and Notre Dame Hospital.

THE MONTREAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE BLIND

The latest development is now being enterprised by the non-Catholics under the foregoing name.

In response to a circular letter sent out by a blind citizen, Mr. P.E. Layton, inviting personal friends and others to meet at his residence on Tuesday evening, April 21, 1908, about fifteen blind men and their friends responded. The meeting having been arranged by Mr. Layton, it was unanimously agreed that he should take the chair. In a few well-considered words the chairman set forth what he considered to be a pressing need in our community, the establishment of an association to promote the interests of the English-speaking blind in the Province of Quebec. He was of the opinion that an up-to-date school for the blind was an urgent necessity and that in connection with this, workshops for blind adults should be established so that the non-seeing might by instruction and training become self-supporting. In the discussion which followed it was unanimously decided that such an association should be formed, having the aforesaid objects as its ultimate aim. The officers of the society were then elected as follows: Dr. A. Fisher, honorary president; Mr. C.W. Lindsay, president; Mr. W. Stewart, vice president; Mr. P.E. Layton, treasurer; and Mr. S. Fraser, secretary. The above officers, with the addition of Messrs. H. Baker and T. Stewart, formed an executive committee of management. At a subsequent meeting Messrs. A. Ross and I. Mullhollin were added to this committee. By the end of the first year $12,608.48 had been realized from subscriptions.

[Illustration: MONTREAL SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND]

[Illustration: MONTREAL DEAF AND DUMB INSTITUTE]

[Illustration: NAZARETH ASYLUM FOR THE BLIND]

[Illustration: MACKAY INSTITUTION FOR THE PROTESTANT DEAF-MUTES AND THE BLIND]

A library of books in the raised type has been established. A workshop for the training of blind adults in broom-making was opened on December 1, 1908.

On June 4, 1910, an act to incorporate “The Montreal Association for the Blind” was passed by the provincial legislature. The principal incorporators were Sir Edward Clouston, Baronet; Sir Thomas Shaughnessy, K.C.V.O.; Sir Melbourne Tait; Sir William Macdonald; Sir Hugh Graham; W.M. Aitken; George Smithers; Charles W. Lindsay; Philip E. Layton; H.F. Armstrong; E.B. Busteed, K.C.; Septimus Fraser, and other persons.

During the next four years Mr. and Mrs. Layton were actively engaged as treasurer and secretary of the society in collecting funds for the erection of a school for the English-speaking blind and a sum sufficient for the purpose was raised. A piece of land 8½ acres in extent was purchased at Sherbrooke Street, at the corner of Notre Dame de Grâce, in 1910, and in 1912 the school was built and opened for the admission of pupils in October of that year. It was almost entirely furnished by donations of friends. The official opening by the Premier of the Province, Sir Lomer Gouin, took place in October, 1913. Thirty-two pupils have been enrolled since that date. Funds have been raised during the present year, 1914, for the erection on the school grounds of an industrial home for the adult blind, and the building is now in progress and will be ready for occupation on March 1, 1915. This building will accommodate about twenty-five to thirty adults. Various trades will be taught and the boarding accommodations will be a great boon to the sightless workmen.

THE SCHOOL FOR CRIPPLES (Children’s Memorial Hospital)

The Montreal movement for a school for cripples is of especial sociological interest as a further instance of the trend of modern educational impulse.

Less than a year after the founding of the Children’s Memorial Hospital, in 1904, the members of the committee of that institution realized the dire ignorance of most of the little patients who were brought to the hospital for treatment, some having never attended school, others having attended school during but short and broken periods of their young lives.

A school was shortly organized in connection with the hospital for the young patients in the temporary quarters, 500 Guy Street. The scholars studied reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, grammar and geography; in one or two instances shorthand, typewriting and music have been commenced. Some of these pupils could sew, knit, crochet embroidery and make bead chains.

The aim of the committee of the Children’s Memorial Hospital after the removal of the patients in 1909 to the new hospital has been to have a separate school building on its grounds on Cedar Avenue, which school would be not only the school for the resident patients but also the school to which the crippled and deformed children of Montreal and the surrounding vicinities would be brought every morning in special conveyances, and there receive instruction which would fit them to become independent and useful citizens as they grew to manhood and womanhood. The children would receive their mid-day lunch at the school and later in the afternoon be conveyed to their respective homes.

The first step taken was in approaching the Protestant School Commissioners, who gave permission for a collection to be taken by children in their schools for the School for Cripples.

The second step was that of forming a committee and having collecting cards printed. After the gracious permission was accorded by the Protestant School Board of Montreal, and that of Westmount, upwards of twenty thousand of these collecting cards were distributed to the scholars attending the schools under the control of these respective boards. The school inspectors of the Province of Quebec rendered valuable assistance, also supplying lists with the names of the schools and the teachers under their inspectorates. These schools were supplied with collecting cards also, together with a number of private schools and academies in Montreal and the surrounding districts. As a result of the efforts of the school children of the province and the kind supervision of the principals and teachers, a very large sum was collected.

The committee for the organization of the School for Cripples held its first meeting in February, 1910. At the last meeting which was held in May, a deputation, composed of the following members of the committee: Mr. C.J. Binmore, Mr. W.D. Lighthall, His Honor Mr. Recorder Weir, D.C.L., Doctor Rexford,--was appointed to attend a meeting of the committee of the Children’s Memorial Hospital, which was held the week after. At this meeting the following report, read by Mr. C.J. Binmore, recommended that provision should be made for three distinct divisions of children.

1. The inmates of the hospital who are able to go from the wards to the class-rooms.

2. The pupils who may be brought daily to the school from their homes.

3. The children resident in the hospital who are either temporarily or permanently unable to leave their cots.

The school has at last, in September, 1914, been completed in the grounds of the Children’s Memorial Hospital at the foot of the hill adjoining Cedar Avenue, and is ready for formal opening. It will have two departments, one for the hospital crippled children and the other for the same unfortunate class from the city. It will be taught on the same efficient lines as those employed in the city schools. But special vocational training will be added to equip the handicapped children for the battle of life.

The board of management, separate from that of the hospital, is as follows: President, McKenzie Forbes, M.D.; vice president, Rev. Herbert Symonds, D.D.; Mr. C.J. Binmore, treasurer; Miss Sarah Tyndale, and Mr. W.D. Lighthall, K.C., honorary solicitor.

VI

IMMIGRATION WORK

EARLY ACTIVITIES--YEAR OF CHOLERA--DOMINION AGENCY--THE WOMEN’S NATIONAL IMMIGRATION SOCIETY--CATHOLIC IMMIGRATION HOME.

Writing in 1839 Mr. Newton Bosworth, in “Hochelaga Depicta,” says that “the citizens of Montreal are distinguished by one feature which is highly honourable to them, standing out as it does in pleasing and strong relief--and that is a habit of active benevolence. Perhaps there is no place where in proportion to the number and wealth of the inhabitants more has been done to relieve the wretched and support the weak by deeds of real charity than in this city--and this not by thoughtless and indiscriminate profusion, but in the exercise of cautious and painstaking administration.” As an illustration of this fact he quotes, “On the authority of Nathaniel Gould, Esq., London, a warm and steady friend to Canada, that the Montreal Emigrant Society during the past year (1832) forwarded to their destination, or otherwise relieved, 10,744 of these poor creatures at an expense of £2,126 11s 4d. Too much praise cannot be bestowed on the exertions of those pure philanthropists, who during a season of much distress and danger gave up their time, money and health to so worthy a purpose.” The last quoted writer is speaking of the year of the cholera epidemic of 1832.

THE DOMINION IMMIGRATION AGENCY

But immigration from the institutional point of view may be dated at about 1834, when the national societies, as recorded elsewhere, arose to safeguard the interests of their own country people coming to the city. These societies either had houses such as the St. Andrew’s Home or St. George’s Home to receive them, or they did it by providing them lodging and care otherwise.

The Dominion Government has long had its immigration agency in the city. Its home is now at 150 St. Antoine Street, where the new building with its detention hospital was publicly opened on May 1, 1914. Its previous locations were 306 St. Antoine Street, the late one, the former residence of a former mayor, C.S. Rodier; then 219 Cathedral Street; before that 183 Common Street; 517 St. James Street; then at a point opposite the Grand Trunk Station (St. Bonaventure) and at Point St. Charles, etc. The present agent, Mr. John Hoolahan, was appointed in 1893 and he was preceded by Mr. Daly, father and son.

THE WOMEN’S NATIONAL IMMIGRATION SOCIETY

An important philanthropic movement was started in 1882 under the title of the Women’s Protective Society, which was changed some years later to its present name, “The Women’s National Immigration Society.” Its first president was Mrs. Gillespie, who was succeeded at her death in 1913 by Mrs. H. Vincent Meridith. As Montreal is a port of importance, the sociological value of the movement is apparent.

As Montreal is a port of importance the sociological value of this movement is apparent.

The home of the society situated at 87 Osborne Street is recognized as a government receiving home for the Dominion of Canada, where all newly arrived women immigrants are given twenty-four hours free board and lodging. It has no business connection with any employment agency in Great Britain or Canada.

The object of the society is the receiving and protecting of newly arrived immigrant women irrespective of creed or nationality. Should they remain in Montreal they can board in the home at a low charge and assistance is given to them in every way possible to obtain employment. If they are going further afield help is given them in preparing for their journey and they are seen safely onto the trains.

From the foundation of the society in 1882 to December, 1913, 11,366 newly arrived immigrants have been registered on the books. In the first two years of the society’s existence those registered totaled 459, as compared with the figures for the last two years, 1,697. A comparison of these figures will show how greatly the work has increased.

An outstanding feature of the work is the receiving and assisting of large parties of immigrants brought out under the auspices of the “British Women’s Emigration Society” of London, England. These parties traveling under the care of experienced matrons have been coming to the home for the past twenty-four years and have grown rapidly of late years both in frequency of arrival and numbers. At the present time they usually consist of from forty to fifty persons, though on one day of August, 1912, a party of over ninety was received and catered for at the home, while waiting for trains for different points in the country.

Individual passengers are met by request at the steamers and trains and assisted with their arrangements for their further journeys. These form a very large class annually and as they usually prefer to go forward with as little delay as possible they are generally taken direct to the stations and are thus not included in the above totals which only cover those newly arrived immigrants registered at the home.

THE CATHOLIC IMMIGRATION HOME

A similar work to that of the last named association is now being performed by the Catholic Immigration Home at 450 Lagauchetière Street.

On April 10, 1913, their property was purchased, but numerous alterations had to be made to make it suitable for immigration work.

The Home has become very popular with the young women, strangers in a strange land, who look upon it as their home where they are well looked after by a competent matron.

On Saturday, June 28, 1913, the Home was officially opened for the reception of the immigrants. Among those present were the following: His Grace the Archbishop of Montreal; Hon. J.J. Guerin, John Hoolihan, dominion immigration agent; E. Marquette, provincial immigration agent; Denis Tansey, M.L. A.; Mr. E. Dufault, deputy minister of colonization, Quebec Government; J.B. Lambkin, dominion agent for the suppression of white slavery; W.G. Kennedy, president of St. Patrick’s Society; J.L.D. Mason, M.D.

Representatives of the Home meet the incoming steamers and trains, and assist the immigrants, both male and female, arriving in the city. The young women are protected at the Home, and saved from the evil of white slavery while employment is secured for them. It is managed by a board of life governors with a chaplain, the Rev. F.J. Singleton of St. Patrick’s Church. It has a matron and staff for the internal government.

Among other immigration activities may be mentioned the National Societies, Union Nationale Francaise de Montreal, St. Anthony’s Villa.

VII

HUMANITARIAN MOVEMENTS FOR BOYS

THE BOYS’ HOME--THE PATRONAGE DE ST. JOSEPH--THE BOY SCOUTS--PARKS AND PLAY GROUNDS ASSOCIATION.

THE BOYS’ HOME.

Among the striking developments of humanitarian efforts for boys there are several which stand out conspicuously.

The Boys’ Home of Montreal is a logical and lineal descendant of the “Infant School Association,” which established a schoolhouse on Barre Street in 1868 in connection with Zion Congregational Church, Mr. Charles Alexander, James Baylis, J. Dougall, Fred Perry and others being associated with the work.

On the Protestant School Commissioners taking up infant teaching, as the charter of the above association permitted other charitable work, by a resolution of May 5, 1870, in the Mechanics Hall, it was utilized for the promotion of work for waifs and strays, and in 1871 the association changed its name to the Boys’ Home of Montreal and established itself in the building erected by Mr. Charles Alexander, on Mountain Street, known as the Shaftesbury Hall, after the model of the Lord Shaftesbury homes in England. The work commenced on February 1, 1871, with twelve boys, to whom were added six others next day. They were street boys of all religions and each boy paid ten cents for supper, bed and breakfast. These were a rough lot and it caused Mr. John Ritchie, the first superintendent, some trouble to handle them. Still the work progressed. Mr. and Mrs. J.R. Dick took charge of the boys about 1882 and have continued in this work till today. The growth of this home from such humble beginnings is best told by its buildings. In 1886 the present centre building, costing $13,000, was built; in 1893 the north building for educational purposes; and in 1904 the new Alexander wing, costing $30,000, including gymnasium, swimming bath, etc., replaced the old Shaftesbury Hall. The work has overflowed so that the home was instrumental in fathering the Shawbridge Boys’ Farm. This had long been projected through the efforts of Mr. Alexander, the president, who had desired to accomplish some betterment of the miserable conditions, officially acknowledged, attaching to the care and reform of the Protestant juvenile delinquent in the Sherbrooke reformatory, which was nothing more than a part of the Sherbrooke jail. As early as 1902 the matter was brought before the board by Mr. J. R. Dick. In 1906 it was again urged that the Boys’ Home board was the right corporation to bring about the reform so long required, through the establishment of an industrial farm, which eventually opened its doors to the fourteen boys from Sherbrooke Reformatory on March 31, 1909, the contract with the government having been concluded on March 8, 1909. The first immediate step, however, was taken in 1906 by the corporation of the Boys’ Home through its farm committee under Mr. J.S. Buchan, with Messrs. S.M. Bayliss, Frederick Hague and C.S.J. Phillipps. In 1907 the Goodfellow Farm of 300 acres and cattle was purchased at Shawbridge, forty miles from the city on the Nominique Division of the Canadian Pacific Railway. It has a station also on the Canadian Northern Quebec Railway, the farm being conveniently situated about a mile from the city. Its grounds were laid out under the direction of Professor Nobbs and Mr. F. Todd, with Mr. Cecil Burgess as the building architect. A simple inauguration was held in December, when the work was commenced. Mr. G.W. Mathews, late of the Kibble Institute, Paisley, Scotland, arrived in March, 1908, to take the position of superintendent on May 1st, when the farm came into the possession of the corporation. The formal opening of the Boys’ Farm took place on October 26, 1908. Its subsequent history belongs to the section on “Reformation.” The Boys’ Home, which still retains its original character, has merited the good will of the citizens. Since 1868 it has had only two presidents, Mr. Charles Alexander, who died on November 6, 1905, and Mr. J.E. Dougall, his successor.

PATRONAGE DE ST. JOSEPH

Although there are numberless forms of charity among the French-speaking population it was not till 1892 that young orphan boys of the apprentice class were specially catered for, when, on September 8th, the Patronage de St. Joseph was opened for such at the southeast corner of Dorchester Street and St. Charles Borromeo. The idea was conceived by the conference St. Laurent of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, under the direction of its president, M. Sénécal, and its chaplain, the Rev. M. Hébert. Shortly after six months the location was removed by an offer of land from the Seminary of St. Sulpice to the corner of Lagauchetière and St. George streets. The new dwelling was even still too small for the growing number of apprentices and through the generous assistance of M. Froidevaux great enlargements were added within four months to the first building. Two years later, in 1895, a third building was commenced, but was not utilized till May, 1897, by the act of the Rev. M. Colin, superior of the Seminary, who has made it possible by furnishing the necessary funds.

The work has given asylum since its twenty-two years of existence to more than fifteen hundred young boys learning their trades, either in the Brothers’ workshops or in the town, returning to the Patronage at night. At present ninety apprentices are housed and only inadequate means prevents more from being served.

Other activities for boys beyond these two representative institutions are connected with the churches and social works of the city with numerous clubs for mental, moral and physical uplift.

THE BOY SCOUTS

The scout movement, founded in England by Lieut.-Gen. Sir Robert S.S. Baden-Powell, for building boys into strong, virile manhood, is really organized clubdom for boys, bringing to them physical, moral and intellectual training. It was intended at first by the founder to be used by existing boys’ organizations, such as the Y.M.C.A., Boys’ Brigade, School and Cadet Corps, but it grew beyond those bounds.

The first permanent work in connection with the Boy Scout organization in Montreal was undertaken by Mr. Nigel Young during the winter and summer of 1910. On September 2, 1910, Lieut.-Gen. Sir R.S.S. Baden-Powell, the Chief Scout and founder of the movement, visited Montreal and addressed a meeting of the citizens in the arena with the mayor, Doctor Guerin, in the chair. On the following day he reviewed the troop of the city and addressed the scoutmasters. The Chief Scout was accompanied by Lieutenant-Colonel Burland, who had the previous day been appointed commissioner for the Province of Quebec.

In July, 1912, eleven scouts and three scoutmasters were present at the rally and review held by His Majesty at Windsor during the coronation events. The whole Canadian contingent, numbering in all 136, was commanded by Lieut.-Col. Minden Cole, chairman of the Montreal council.

In the autumn of 1911 Mr. David Evans was appointed assistant commissioner and secretary for the province, since which time two others have held that office, Mr. Russell Patterson, in 1912-13, and Mr. Lordly, in 1914.

During the winter of 1911, through the efforts of the late Lieutenant-Colonel Whitehead, honorary treasurer of the Montreal Scout Council, a tract of land 300 acres in extent, with two fine lakes, was purchased in the Laurentian Mountains for a permanent camping ground for the scouts of the province. This has been improved and a new up-to-date men’s hall has been erected. A full equipment of tents, boats, etc., was supplied to accommodate 175 scouts at one time.

In September, 1914, Lieut.-Col. J. Burland resigned the commissionership of the province and his place has been taken by Lieutenant-Colonel Starke, appointed by H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught, chief scout for Canada.

At the present time there are in Montreal 12 local associations, 54 scout troops, 53 scoutmasters, 49 assistant scoutmasters, 1,423 scouts, 23 king scouts, and 3 silver cross scouts.

PARKS AND PLAY GROUNDS ASSOCIATION

A most important factor in the life of a city is the provision of open spaces and breathing places for the working classes, and especially for the children. In the winter of 1895-6 a few ladies founded the Parks’ Protective Association. Its first executive committee was: Mrs. N. Peterson, president; Mrs. Hugh Graham, Mrs. N.V. Meredith, Mrs. Frank Redpath, Mrs. John Cox, Mrs. Charles Hope, Mrs. F. Walton, Mrs. Kenneth Macpherson, Mrs. Charles Whitehead and Miss Edith Watt, honorary secretary. In April, 1900, its scope was enlarged by a larger association being formed, with men admitted to committee work, to carry on its work under the title of the “Parks and Playgrounds Association.” A special object of the new association is to promote public playgrounds for the children and urge the city authorities to do this. The association was incorporated in 1904. Its presidents have been: Sir William Hingston, Sir George Drummond and Sir Alexander Lacoste. It has fostered a growing sentiment in favour of public playgrounds and in 1913 it had seven of these under proper supervision. Admirable modern playing apparatus has been installed during the last two years. The movement has public favour and the association’s slogan of 1912 for “$1,000,000 for playgrounds” as the extent of a grant desired from the city hall, has had the result of urging the city to purchase a great quantity of land for definite further playground expansion. The city has now also undertaken the care and management of its own public playground property and the association at present confines itself to its own playgrounds at Hibernia Road, and two others. Its record is very creditable as a voluntary public service.

VIII

HEBREW SOCIAL WORKS

BARON DE HIRSCH INSTITUTE--LADIES’ BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATIONS--OTHER SOCIETIES.

The social work of the Hebrew as such may be treated separately as an indication of social endeavour on racial lines.

The philanthropic institutions of the Hebrews of Montreal have become numerous. The most important one is the “Baron de Hirsch Institute,” which was founded in 1863 under the name of “The Young Men’s Hebrew Benevolent Society.” When afterwards the late Baron de Hirsch sent them large sums as a fund for assisting in the onerous work which had fallen on this society through the large influx of Jews from Eastern Europe in the ’80s they changed the name to “Baron de Hirsch Institute and Hebrew Benevolent Society.” Among its founders were Lawrence L. Levy, who was its first president, Isidor Ascher, Tucker David, Charles Levy, Lawrence Cohen, M. Gutman, Moise Schwob and S.E. Moss. Among its presidents have been Jacob L. Samuel, Lyon Silverman, Jacob G. Ascher, Lewis A. Hart, N. Friedman, Harris Vineberg, David A. Ansell, Mortimer Davis, Lyon Cohen and Samuel W. Jacobs, K.C. Mr. Ansell held office for fourteen years. It was during his administration that the large building on Bleury Street, now occupied by the institute was acquired. He was a very active worker in the cause of education and his name will always be especially identified with that branch of the work of the Baron de Hirsch Institute. He also was Consul General for Mexico. Each of the above-mentioned presidents in turn did yeoman service for the advancement of the institute, which has grown in importance from year to year.

The Ladies’ Hebrew Benevolent Society, founded in 1877, is the oldest and most important of the Hebrew women’s charity organizations. The Hebrew Free Loan Society, which was founded some years ago, largely through the efforts of Z. Fineberg, does splendid work in making loans to those requiring aid who refuse to take charity and who pay back the loans thus made as their condition improves. The Herzl Free Dispensary, the Hebrew Sheltering Home, the Hebrew Sick Benefit Association, the Hebrew Young Ladies’ Sewing Society all do noble work in their separate branches, and there are a large number of other equally meritorious Hebrew organizations doing work in every field of philanthropy.

IX

COOPERATIVE MOVEMENTS

WOMEN’S WORK--THE MONTREAL WOMEN’S CLUB--THE LOCAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN--LA FEDERATION NATIONALE--THE MONTREAL SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION--THE CITY IMPROVEMENT LEAGUE--THE CITIZENS’ ASSOCIATION--THE CHILD WELFARE EXHIBITION--ITS LESSONS--THE MILK STATION MOVEMENT.

Up to 1892 charitable and social work was conducted busily and self-sacrificingly, but often without sufficient inter-relation between the workers of the various institutions and bodies and churches. Accordingly the movements for cooperation which now began mark the beginning of a most fruitful epoch. The first signs of the new period were manifested by the foundation of the Montreal Women’s Club in 1892 and that of the local Council of Women in 1893, to be followed by La Fédération Nationale in 1907.

Lengthy notices are given of the women’s movements, for historically the period we are now in is peculiarly theirs. It is also indirectly a summing up of the very large part played by the women of Montreal in the charitable and humanitarian work of this city, as this chapter amply testifies.

THE MONTREAL WOMEN’S CLUB

The Montreal Women’s Club was founded by Mrs. Robert Reid, December 7, 1892--the object of the club being to promote agreeable and useful relations between women of artistic, literary, scientific and philanthropic tastes. The legal incorporation of this club was secured on April 4, 1893. The weekly programme, at first used as a means of personal culture, soon became an important factor in the life of its members, revealing to them abuses to be abolished or reforms to be instituted. To-day, like so many modern clubs of women originally of a literary origin, this club also is trying to assist in solving some of the many complex problems which affect childhood and womanhood, as regards industrial, educational, economic, civic and home conditions. The necessities soon arose for specialized efforts, hence the formation of the many standing committees, the success of whose work has brought credit to the club and much benefit to Montreal, through reforms promoted or actually initiated through the committees attached to departments bearing on “Home and Education,” “Social Science” and “Art and Literature.”

The first Social Science Committee, Medical Inspection of Schools (1902), laboured for four years, educating public opinion, and influencing other organizations whose consent was necessary before a system of medical inspection could be established.

The Hygiene Committee provides educative reports and recommendations along civic and natural lines of hygienic conditions.

The Moral and Social Reform Committee (1909) has given educative reports on the moral problem. This committee has been acquiring information, distributing literature, and through the publicity of the press seeking to make the public realize conditions as they are to-day in Montreal, caused by the influx of foreigners, overcrowding of tenements, poor wages, and lack of compulsory education.

The Forestry Committee (1908)--now Conservation--shows that the club has a national outlook.

The Juvenile Court Committee (1904) began its work by directing the movement in Montreal to assist in securing the passage of the Dominion Act, which established children’s courts (passed June, 1908). With the financial support of the club, this committee was the nucleus of the Children’s Aid Society of Montreal, formed in February, 1908. Subsequently when the Provincial Legislature adopted the Dominion Act, the City of Montreal agreed to its provisions, and then purchased and furnished the necessary detention home.

The Child Labour Committee (1906) took a very important part in the Child Welfare Exhibit of 1912.

The Civics Committee (1906) secured the placing of “anti-spitting” notices on street corners, and during 1912-1913 worked to secure the abolishment of the smoke nuisance, as well as for the suppression of noises caused by milk and coal carts, and by defective car wheels.

The efforts of The Industrial Committee (1906) were principally directed to the continuance of the work of the Mary Laura Ferguson Girls’ Club.

The establishment in the city of a Consumers’ League has been promoted through this committee.

It also organizes lectures on its main subjects of intellectual and artistic culture. On the social side it has committees of courtesy, library and hospitality. In general it cooperates with all civic movements to make Montreal a better place in which to live.

The gifts to philanthropic work included grants to the relief funds of the Royal Edward Institute and the Victorian Order of Nurses.

The club is affiliated with the Local Council of Women, the Civic Improvement League and the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, and is represented by delegates to the Parks and Playgrounds Association, and to the Child Welfare Moving Pictures Committee.

The club, this year attained its majority and celebrated the auspicious occasion by the usual Charter Day luncheon, entertaining as guests, the distinguished women of the National Council, in convention here. The felicitations and congratulations received, prove that the work, worth and earnest endeavours of the club have richly justified its existence.

The presidents of the club have been:

Mrs. Robert Reid 1892-02 Miss Eglaugh 1902-03 Mrs. F.H. Waycott 1903-06 Miss Mary Ferguson 1906-09 Mrs. Alfred Ross Grafton 1909-11 Mrs. Ninian C. Smillie 1911-13 Madame Héliodore Fortier 1913--

THE MONTREAL LOCAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN

The Local Council of Women was organized as a component part of the National Council of Women, which was founded by Lady Aberdeen, the wife of the Governor-General of the time. As the aims of the Montreal Local Council of Women are modelled on those of the National Council, the following preamble to the constitution of the latter will illustrate the spirit of the local phase of the same movement:

“We, Women of Canada, sincerely believing that the best good of our homes and nation will be advanced by our own greater unity of thought, sympathy and purpose, and that an organized movement of women will best conserve the highest good of the Family and the State, do hereby band ourselves together to further the application of the Golden Rule to society, custom and law.”

The general policy is thus stated:

“This Council is organized in the interest of no one propaganda, and has no power over the organizations which constitute it, beyond that of suggestion and sympathy; therefore, no Society voting to enter this Council shall render itself liable to be interfered with in respect to its complete organic unity, independence or methods of work, or be committed to any principle or method of any other Society, or to any act or utterance of the Council itself, beyond compliance with the terms of this Constitution.”

In 1893 the Local Council of Women of Montreal was founded on a similar basis in relation to the many separate associations, which, in its turn it should hope to draw together.

It is therefore an organization which aims to secure the united

## action, of both men and women and all existing organizations

of women, into closer relations through organized effort. Each society entering the Local Council preserves its own independence in aim or method, and is not committed to any principle or method of any other society in the council, the object of which is to serve as a medium of communication and a means of prosecuting any work of common interest.

Believing, therefore, that the more intimate knowledge of one another’s work would result in larger mutual sympathy and greater unity of thought, and therefore in more effective action, the various women’s associations interested in philanthropy, religion, education, literature, art and social reform thus formed a local council, its date of organization being November 30, 1893. Thirty societies united at first, the majority of which still adhere. There are now fifty societies affiliated with the local council. The first president was Lady Drummond, who is still active in the work of the body. The first board consisted of the following officers, in addition to the president: Madame Thibaudeau, vice president; ex-officio vice president, president of all affiliated societies; Miss Fairley, late principal of Trafalgar Institute, corresponding secretary; Mrs. Clarke Murray, recording secretary; Mrs. Carus Wilson, associate secretary; and Mrs. Wurtele, treasurer. Subsequent presidents have been Mrs. John Cox (deceased), Mrs. Bovey, Miss Carrie M. Derick and Dr. Ritchie England, now presiding.

Among those who served either on the presidential board or as officers for many years after the establishment of the local council were: Mrs. H.C. Scott, who was early elected secretary and served for several years; Mrs. William MacNaughton, Mrs. Robert Reed, Mrs. Learmont, Mrs. John Cox, Mrs. Frank Redpath, Mme. Gérin-LaJoie, Mme. Beïgue, Mme. Dandurand, Mrs. Warwick Chipman and Mrs. John Savage. Mrs. William MacNaughton, Mrs. Plumptre, Mrs. Walton and Miss Helen Reed served as chairman of the presidential board when this body conducted affairs instead of a president. The following names have also appeared on the roll of officers during the early years, for long or short terms: Lady Hingston, Mrs. A.D. Durnford, Mrs. E. McNutt, Mrs. F. McLennan, Mrs. E. Hanson, Mrs. Gillespie, Mrs. John McDougall, Miss Galt, Mrs. Hugh Allan, Mrs. Wolferston Thomas, Mrs. J.F. Stevenson, Mrs. DeSola and Mrs. Leo.

The present officers are: Dr. Ritchie England, president; Mrs. Warwick Chipman, Mrs. N.C. Smillie and Mrs. J. Henderson, vice presidents; Mrs. Walter Lyman, corresponding secretary; Miss Eleanor Tatley, recording secretary; and Mrs. A.K. Fiske, treasurer.

Individual local members represent the local council of Montreal in the National Assembly on committees such as laws for the better protection of women and children, the custodial care of feeble-minded women, work for dependent classes, finance, immigration, press, vacation schools and supervised play grounds, the equal moral standard and the prevention of traffic in women, on peace and arbitration, on public health, on education, covering problems of childhood.

It may be mentioned that the National Council was federated to the International Council in 1897. The value of this threefold relation established by so many women’s societies of Montreal makes their work likely to be very universally useful, for many questions suggested first at international or national meetings have been taken up locally and _vice versa_.

The publication of the many phases of the work that the Local Council of Women and the affiliated societies have enterprised in the civic life of Montreal, especially in the last twenty-one years, would fill many pages, but as there is no doubt that in the story of Montreal the action of women in every sphere of civic activity has done much for the uplift of the people, credit and notice must be given to this very important outlook on Montreal’s growth. Some of the particular activities of the council, therefore, may be recorded.

Its patriotic efforts have been of a two-fold nature, racial and imperial. Work for peace and arbitration was begun in 1894, and has continued as part of the work of the National Council. During the Boer War it gave aid to the volunteers and their families, and during the present war of 1914 it has worked in connection with the Canadian Patriotic Fund, the Canadian Women’s Fund, the Red Cross Society and work for unemployed.

It has worked to obtain reports, and has recommended local

## action, in regard to hygiene, education, labour, laws affecting

women and children, the equal moral standard and prevention of traffic in women.

Since 1894 the council has promoted progressive reform in nursing facilities leading up to the establishment of the Victorian Order of Nurses. It has engaged actively in the crusade against infantile mortality and that which led to the Pure Milk League, out of which grew the movement for milk stations, which finally received subsidies from the city. It engaged in the preliminary anti-tuberculosis movements which finally ended in the establishment of the Royal Edward Institute in 1909, and subsequent institutions.

The local council has dealt in all matters which affect civic life, even in municipal government. It has entered into various departments of civic government, such as public baths, clean streets, eradication of the smoke nuisance, inspection of schools, the civic hospital for contagious diseases, etc.

One of the first committees established to obtain the appointment of women on the school boards was that of the council, but this plan never reached fruition. Many investigations and petitions were made by the council regarding training of teachers, the further extension of domestic science and manual training, school hours, home lessons, etc., and reports on these subjects were carefully made out and submitted. The Home Reading Union was established by the council and for some years was carried on as a part of this body.

The Aberdeen Association, to supply literature to people living far from larger centres, had its inception through the council, which has worked efficiently for the promotion of art, music and literature. It was instrumental in introducing band concerts in the public squares, has succeeded in obtaining public days at the Art Gallery, and has cooperated with the Natural History Society in matters of hygienic education.

The local council has done much to encourage Canadian handicrafts, having started through the attempt to help the Doukhabours. This work then passed from the council’s committee to the Women’s Art Society, and is now carried on by the Canadian Handicraft Guild, established for this purpose.

In 1896 a committee of the local council began to hold lectures on sex hygiene and advocated the suppression of impure literature, which work they still continue very effectively.

The Social Study Club, established between 1898 and 1902, which led up to the formation of the University Settlement, owes its existence to the Local Council, and as early as 1894 the latter body was considering the question of industrial education. Investigations into industrial conditions were made and reports presented to the Royal Commission. Laws affecting women and children, and labour conditions, have been promoted so that women factory inspectors and the amended shop act were obtained, and many other ameliorations for the women workers.

It has made careful study of the questions relating to special treatment of mentally defective children and the segregation of feeble-minded women of child-bearing age, while the matter of segregation of male defectives has also been considered.

The education of mentally defective children in the province has been studied and recommendations given to the provincial government, while another important matter which it has endeavoured to promote is compulsory education. Great interest has been taken in the recreational and social side of education, notably in the supervision of play grounds. At a meeting held under the auspices of the local council an outgrowth was the resolution to form a larger movement which developed from the already existing Parks Protective Association into a Parks and Playgrounds Association, as the new organization became in name, having the addition of women on its board.

Among other social reforms the council has secured the registration of births since 1899. Various jail and reformatory ameliorations, such as police matrons and assistance for discharged prisoners, have been accomplished, and the movement promoted which, through the efforts of the Montreal Women’s Club, led to the formation of the Children’s Aid Society, the chief result of which has been the establishment of the Juvenile Court. The preliminary agitation which ended in the formation of the Charity Organization Society was conducted by the local council, seven members of its executive becoming members of the first board of directors of the Charity Organization Society.

The cause of temperance has received careful attention from the council, in conjunction with the Fédération Nationale, so that 70,000 signatures were signed in favour of an amendment to the license law, the suggestion being adopted by Government.

Notably, since 1910, the local council with the Fédération Nationale and other women’s societies have cooperated with the Citizens’ Association and other bodies working for municipal reform. A large proportion of the 8,000 women voters of the city registered at the polls, showing the success of the new movement, which has been continued to 1914.

In 1912 the Child Welfare Exhibition found the local council from the first one of the coordinate cooperating societies organizing and carrying out the exhibition. In this the women’s societies of Montreal, French and English, took charge of the sections relating to their special aptitudes and previous experience. The council were represented on the executive and beyond special work in the exhibition, undertook the charge of the “Explainers” committee in English and Yiddish.

In aid of the combined women’s charities of Montreal the Local Council has cooperated with the Fédération Nationale in holding two successful tag days.

The council has also taken interest in the subject of immigration and suggested useful ameliorations.

The latest movement has been the promotion of the movement which led to the formation of the Montreal Suffrage Exhibition early in the same year.

The first concrete formation of the movement for women suffrage through the peaceful means of an educational campaign, took place on April 24, 1913, when at a meeting in the Stevenson Hall the officers for the Montreal Suffrage Association were elected as follows: President, Prof. Carrie M. Derick; vice presidents, Dean Walton, Mrs. C.B. Gordon, Reverend Dr. Symonds; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Oliver Smith; recording secretary, Mrs. John Scott; treasurer, Mrs. George Lyman; convenors of committees--legislative, Mr. C.M. Holt, K.C.; press, Mrs. F. Minden Cole; literature, Mrs. H.W. Weller; with an executive of Mrs. Walter Lyman, Miss Cartwright, Mrs. Alister Mitchell, Doctor Guthrie, Mrs. Macnaughton, Reverend Mr. Dickie, Mrs. Fenwick Williams, Mrs. Hayter Reed and Mrs. Rufus Smith.

Among the first to respond to the war call in the last days of August, 1914, was the Local Council of Women, which summoned its workers of the affiliated societies from their vacation homes to form together for the organization of the relief committees taken up in connection with the general patriotic fund of the Dominion.

LA FEDERATION NATIONALE

A second council of French-speaking women has since adopted similar methods for combined action in social work.

La Fédération Nationale St. Jean Baptiste is the name which a section of the ladies already connected with the St. Jean Baptiste Association took in 1907 with the idea of federating a number of existent women associations among the French-Canadians which arose in the winter of 1906-7 to meet various social problems peculiarly affecting women. While leaving to each association its own autonomy, a central board of delegates from each organization was formed with its central office in the Monument National. The association obtained a special charter in 1912 (3 George V) with a special seal “Vers La Justice par la Charité.” It still works, however, in union with the Men’s Association of St. Jean Baptiste. This union has been productive of great value for the life of the French-Canadian women in Montreal. It has made them study the principal obstacles to social, moral and intellectual progress in the various classes and callings in woman’s sphere.

The works undertaken by committees from the associations federated, such as those of the office employèes, shop workers, telephone operators, factory workers, the teachers and others, are divided into three classes, charitable, economical and educational. The _charitable_ works are those which had the relief and aid of the neighbor as their goal, and thus their committees are engaged on church, hospital and social betterment bodies. The _economical_ are those which develop the women’s interest in bettering their material conditions, while the _educational_ are those which aim at the uplift and development of the individual. The movement is sanely progressive. It has effected many reforms in social conditions; it has attacked the evil of alcoholism and it has opposed movements destructive of the home life; while it has fostered all it builds up its well-being. In the great Child Welfare Exhibition of Montreal in 1912 it played a conspicuous part. Imitating other modern women’s movements it has held its congresses at regular intervals and it has gathered around the movement a body of writers and social experts well able to be of great value to the development of French-Canadian womanhood. The transactions of its congresses are printed, as well as those of its various committees in the annual reports of the works of the federated association.

It has an official organ called “La Bonne Parole,” issued monthly, which began in February, 1913. Among its chief writers is Madame Gérin Lajoie, its editor, and one of the most vigorous organizers of the fédération acting as its first secretary, with Madame Beïque as its first president. Madame Gérin Lajoie is now its president. The administration of the association is conducted by an executive committee with an inner “bureau de direction.” The executive includes the delegates of the various associations who elect the board of directors who control the organization. The following list of officers published in the report of 1911 may be reproduced as showing the constitution and personnel of this modern woman’s movement:

_Déléguées des œuvres fédérées_:

_Dames patronnesses de l’Hôpital Notre-Dame_: Mme Fitzpatrick, Mme D. Rolland. _Dames patronnesses des Sourdes Muettes_: Mme Globensky, Mme O. Rolland. _Dames patronnesses de la Crêche de la Miséricorde_: Mme J.L. Archambault, Mme Hénault. _Dames patronnesses de Nazareth_: Mme Vaillancourt, Mme L.D. Mignault. _Dames patronnesses de l’Hôpital Ste-Justine_: Mme L. de G. Beaubien, Mlle Rolland. _Dames de charité de l’Hospice St.-Vincent de Paul_: Mlle Renauld, Mme Giroux. _Dames de l’Assistance Publique_: Mme Tessier, Mme Lamoureux. _Le Foyer_: Mlle Bonneville, Mlle Frappier. _Association des Institutrices_: Mlle Bibaud, Mlle Bélanger. _Patronage d’Youville_: Mlle Auclair, Mlle Vaillancourt. _Section française, société Aberdeen_: Mme Terroux, Mlle Desjardins. _Association des Employées de manufacture_: Mlle Robert, Mlle Vauthier. _Ass. des Employées de magasins_: Mlle Marin, Mlle Simoneau. _Ass. des Employées de Bureau_: Mlle Joubert, Mlle Godbout. _Ass. des Employées de téléphone_: Mlle Longtin, Mlle Meunier. _Cercle des demoiselles de St. Pierre_: Mlle L. Bélanger, Mlle N. Paquette. _Les écoles ménagères_: Mme Mackay, Mlle Anctil. _Association Artistique_: Mlle Idola St-Jean, Mme Baril. _Cercle Notre-Dame_: Mlle M. Gérin-Lajoie, Mlle LeMoyne. _Cour de l’Immaculée Conception_: Mme H. Papineau, Mme Lacombe. _Les Aides Ménagères_: Mlle Leblanc, Mme Brossard.

THE CITY IMPROVEMENT LEAGUE

We have recorded movements of concentrated efforts through the cooperation of women associations; the year 1909 saw similar efforts mostly by men, viz., the organization of the City Improvement League and the Citizens’ Association. Both arose through dissatisfaction among the citizens with the municipal government, the former endeavouring to assist in promoting better hygienic, æsthetic and civic progress.

The City Improvement League of Montreal was founded on March 9, 1909, at a meeting held in the medico-chirurgical rooms. It grew directly out of the success of the anti-tuberculosis crusade held in the city shortly before, and its object, in the words of its original constitution, was “to unite the efforts of all who are trying to improve and to cultivate the spirit of right citizenship in order to make Montreal clean, healthful and beautiful.”

The league was designed to effect this, by becoming a central clearing house and bureau of intercommunication for existing city betterment societies, or for individual citizens anxious to assist the city, so that by economizing energy, time, money, by federation, by surveying the whole field of municipal activities, by the prevention of overlapping and by filling up of gaps and by judicious dovetailing of effort, a central and solid unifying organization might be found to put the force of all the societies behind any particular one or individual cause, and thus to make the strongest possible appeal when needed to the authorities and to public opinion.

The league was formally inaugurated at the Board of Trade assembly rooms on April 12th, being presided over by His Excellency the Governor-General.

The audience and the speakers were widely representative of cosmopolitan city life. All present hailed the new movement as likely to be of permanent value in uplifting the city which had long been suffering from a lowness of civic probity in high places, consequent upon a supine apathy and neglect of civic pride in the people generally, so that many scandals flourished openly unchallenged and unchecked.

The league seemed to provide the antidote for the hour by an appeal for the increased cultivation of an enlightened civic consciousness of responsibility in the citizens, and met with an immediate and warm welcome, notably in the press.

The league has since promoted and carried out useful reforms. Its especial successes have been the establishment of the Metropolitan Parks Commission, and the initiation and the call of the Child Welfare Exhibition, which came from the league, which, on January 27, 1910, discussed the matter, at the suggestion of Mrs. J.B. Learmont, and by resolution encouraged the secretary to proceed to New York to visit the first Child Welfare Exhibition then being held there, and to report concerning the possibility of some adaptable form for the conditions in Montreal. On February 17th, on a favorable demonstration of its feasibility, the secretary was thereupon empowered to call a meeting of the betterment associations for the city. On May 24th a meeting of delegates of sixty societies approved the holding of a Child Welfare Exhibition in the course of 1912. A joint meeting was held on April 25th of English and French-speaking organizations, called in the rooms of the St. Jean Baptiste Association, when Dr. J.G. Adami, Mr. Olivar Asselin and Dr. W.H. Atherton were appointed to draw up a scheme to suit the English and French communities of Montreal. This was placed before the latter on May 16th in the Monument Nationale. The scheme was adopted and the patrons, honorary presidents and vice presidents and the active executive board were elected.

Finally the Child Welfare Exhibition was carried out in October, 1912, by the special cooperation of coordinate associations of women, notably those of the Local Council of Women, La Fédération Nationale and the many associations affiliated with each of these.

The League has led the van in the city planning and better housing movements for the working classes and as an offshoot the Greater Montreal City Planning and Housing Association arose in 1912 to further promote these desired reforms. It initiated the City Cleaning Day adopted by the municipality in 1911 and 1912 and with the Montreal Publicity Association organized the larger “Clean-up Week” of 1913. The league has cooperated with many business, national, civic and women’s societies for municipal reform and general city progress, and has largely helped to develop the sense of combined citizenship in common causes throughout the various sections of the cosmopolitan city of today, and to foster a common civic pride. The league has had a wide outlook and has worked for a league of city improvement associations of Canada. At the International City Planning Congress, held in Toronto in 1914, it advocated the establishment of a Dominion town planning and housing bureau, which has already been partially established. Among its officers have been, since 1909: President, J. G, Adami, M.D., D. Sc.; vice presidents, Mrs. J.B. Learmont, Madame Archer, Madame Beïque, Prof. Leigh R. Gregor, Hon. J.J. Guerin, M.D., Messrs. U.H. Dandurand, J.V. Desaulniers, Farquhar Robertson; honorary secretaries, Prof. J.A. Dale, M.A., Messrs. Olivar Asselin, A. Lesage, M.D., J.U. Emard, K.C., C.H. Gould; honorary treasurers, Farquhar Robertson, J.F. Boulais, N.P., and the executive secretary, W.H. Atherton, Ph. D.

THE CITIZENS’ ASSOCIATION

The “Citizens’ Association,” which was organized in 1909 by the best and most representative citizens of Montreal, was a sequent of the various other associations then either existent, moribund or actually dead, among business men in the past whose aims were to seek charter reform for better municipal government. It arose out of the dissatisfactory state of municipal politics at this date.

Its lines are along those of civic vigilance and it aims at the suppression of attempts at corruption or malversation at the city hall by watching the conduct of those responsible and by seeing to it that future candidates coming up for municipal election should be honest and respected citizens. Its earliest work was the promotion of the amended charter which established the Board of Control system and of securing a “clean slate” at the election of 1910, as already told. It has also promoted reforms for the better regulation of public utilities and for better city management and administrative progress. It has endeavoured to act as a clearing house for other associations having a civic political tendency. In 1913, it sought to promote a simplification of the ward system and at the beginning of 1914 to secure a good representative slate in the municipal elections, but without the dramatic success of 1910. The career of such an organization is necessarily chequered, but good men stand by organized effort for the public good. While its activities should primarily be placed in the constitutional or municipal sections of this history, yet as sociological progress depends so much on good municipal government, it deserves record here as an adjunct of the bodies enumerated.

One gratifying aspect of the movements of late years has been the growth of the spirit of civic cooperation through the central representative associations of a now complex city life.

CHILD WELFARE EXHIBITION

References have been made to the great Child Welfare Exhibition of 1912. This took place in the Drill Hall on Craig Street, opposite the Champ de Mars, on October 8th and lasted for a fortnight. It was the work of all the social workers acting for their institutions of every class--national or religious--in the city. The movement arose out of a desire to combat, by a dramatic object lesson, the evils of infantile mortality, then becoming to be realized more and more in an ever-growing and congested city. But the welfare of the older child or the young person under tutelage was also illustrated by charts and lectures and living demonstrations of what was being done along progressive educational lines at home as well as abroad. It was practically an exhibition of modern social endeavour centering around the home of the children, in their city environment. While it was modelled on a similar exhibition in New York in 1910, it had a peculiar Montreal aspect, as it was conducted largely on local lines and embraced the phases of local endeavour. It had lessons, however, for the Dominion, in bringing to the attention the need of regard for human conservation as well as that of our forest and animal resources. The municipal, provincial and federal governments by gifts of $5,000 each, assisted local subscribers in the organization of the exhibition so that it was able to be thrown open to the public for a fortnight free of charge, with the result that as a public educative movement it surpassed anything previously attempted, at least, in Canada. Thousands of parents crowded the immense hall and annexes daily, as well as large numbers of civic officials, teachers, medical and professional men, clergymen and religious men and women in their habits. It has been the most notable public exhibition in the history of the city and was marked by the spirit of universal cooperation in a degree very gratifying to the promoters.

The exhibition paved the way to the immediate success of many forward movements already existing, notably those for better library and playground accommodations for the city, and the establishment of milk stations or gouttes de lait. As this latter was among the primary by-products of the main thesis of the exhibition which sought to lessen the dangers of infantile life, productive of infantile mortality, this may be now specially noticed. In 1913, from May 11th to the 13th, there was held the first convention of the French “Gouttes de lait,” which outlined hygienic ameliorations through organized educational campaigns that will be of great future value to the virility of our people. Similar movements were initiated or continued among the English-speaking sections.

To mark its approbation of the movement the municipal authorities largely came to the rescue by subsidizing the efforts of the social organizations of the city.

MILK STATION MOVEMENT

The following table of results obtained at each (subsidized) milk depot in 1913 may fitly sum up this notice:

Average Consulta- Milk Depots Infants Deaths death rate tions

M.L.C. of Women 466 10 2% 3,222 St. Peter Parish 230 11 5% 252 St. Joseph Parish 204 11 5% 2,041 Mothers’ Clinic 161 4 3% 13,320 St. Arsène Parish 153 18 12% 1,440 St Cunégonde Parish 150 5 3% 480 St. Justine Hospital 147 8 5% 5,816 St. Henry St. Zotique Parishes 146 12 8% 285 St. Enfant-Jésus Parish 123 8 6½% 539 St. Brigide Parish 112 12 10% 481 St. Edouard Parish 109 4 4% 608 Iverley Settlement 102 9 9% 462 St. Clothilde Parish 85 8 9% 166 St. Jean-Baptiste Parish 80 8 10% 452 Mtl. Babies Hospital 72 0 124 University Settlement 71 2 3% 720 Hochelaga Parish 66 7 10% 130 Babies Dispensary (Emard Ward) 61 12 20% 185 St.-Jean Berchmans Parish 60 3 5% 174 St. Helen Parish 53 1 2% 659 Chalmer’s House Settlement 33 0 78 St. James Parish 25 2 4% 75 Bonsecours Parish 20 1 5% 80 ----- --- ---- ------ 23 Milk Depots 2,729 156 6% 31,789

Pints of Milk Depots Outdoor milk dis- Pds of ice visits tributed distributed

M.L.C. of Women 3,045 78,048 24,210 St. Peter Parish 2,776 St. Joseph Parish 245 1,477 2,000 Mothers’ Clinic 10,749 St. Arsène Parish 160 1,666 St Cunégonde Parish 340 1,000 St. Justine Hospital 10,986 St. Henry St. Zotique Parishes 60 1,326 St. Enfant-Jésus Parish 20 3,953 St. Brigide Parish 631 4,388 St. Edouard Parish 5 913 Iverly Settlement 462 4,500 St. Clothilde Parish 297 St. Jean-Baptiste Parish 3,174 Mtl. Babies Hospital 1,042 100 University Settlement 770 8,110 Hochelaga Parish 20 Babies Dispensary (Emard Ward) 30 4,500 1,500 St.-Jean Berchmans Parish 3,111 St. Helen Parish 218 908 Chalmer’s House Settlement 110 9,126 200 St. James Parish 15 1,506 Bonsecours Parish 1,433 ----- ------- ------ 23 Milk Depots 5,966 154,692 28,010

Milk Depots Receipts Expenditure Subsidy

M.L.C. of Women $5,165.81 $5,149.56 $900.00 St. Peter Parish 290.00 289.15 350.00[A] St. Joseph Parish 966.07 888.28 900.00[A] Mothers’ Clinic 3,928.31 3,909.55 500.00 St. Arsène Parish 515.00 604.00 400.00 St Cunégonde Parish 632.00 638.00 600.00 St. Justine Hospital 1,699.12 1,659.42 1,000.00 St. Henry St. Zotique Parishes 566.33 508.99 600.00 St. Enfant-Jésus Parish 996.77 874.09 700.00 St. Brigide Parish 700.00 692.39 700.00 St. Edouard Parish 530.00 523.87 500.00 Iverly Settlement 362.17 362.47 300.00 St. Clothilde Parish 500.00 495.47 300.00 St. Jean-Baptiste Parish 847.03 766.72 700.00 Mtl. Babies Hospital 200.00 200.00 200.00 University Settlement 1,206.89 955.17 450.00 Hochelaga Parish 300.00 278.84 400.00[A] Babies Dispensary (Emard Ward) 400.00 400.00 400.00 St.-Jean Berchmans Parish 567.86 621.16 400.00 St. Helen Parish 467.11 413.22 400.00 Chalmer’s House Settlement 300.00 255.50 300.00[A] St. James Parish 410.00 387.56 400.00 Bonsecours Parish 165.00 127.80 100.00 ---------- ---------- ---------- 23 Milk Depots $21,715.77 $21,001.21 $11,700.00[B]

----------

[A] A sum of $524.38 voted was returned in part as follows: St Joseph Parish, $60.00; St. Peter Parish, $60.00; Hochelaga Parish, $100.00; Chalmer’s House, $100.00; Convention of French Gouttes de lait, $64.38.

[B] In addition the French Gouttes de lait Convention received $1,000.00.

X

MOVEMENTS FOR SAILORS AND SOLDIERS

THE MONTREAL SAILORS’ INSTITUTE--THE CATHOLIC SAILORS’ CLUB--THE SOLDIERS’ WIVES’ LEAGUE--THE DAUGHTERS OF THE EMPIRE--THE “LAST POST” IMPERIAL NAVAL AND MILITARY CONTINGENCY FUND.

MONTREAL SAILORS’ INSTITUTE

Montreal is well equipped in its seamen’s charities, having two institutions which supplement one another harmoniously in helping the seamen.

Philanthropic work among the sailors coming to Montreal can be traced back to the year 1836-7. “Rev. Father” Osgoode, a representative of the American Seamen’s Friends’ Society, who had associated with him, among others, Mr. J.A. Mathewson and Mr. J.T. Dutton, started the work in a little building called “The Bethel,” situated at the entrance to the canal at the foot of McGill Street.

Father Osgoode dying in 1850, the work was continued by the Rev. Samuel Massey and the Y.M.C.A., until in 1862 the Montreal Sailors’ Institute was organized with Mr. Hugh Allan as president. Among the founders were Messrs. J.P. Clarke, P.S. Ross, Charles Alexander, John Ritchie and others. Rooms were engaged on McGill Street and Mr. David Linton was installed as superintendent. These rooms served the purposes of the institute only for a few years when larger premises were secured on St. Paul Street, where the institute was housed until 1875.

In 1869 the Montreal Sailors’ Institute was incorporated by special act of the Quebec Legislature, with the following officers: President, Mr. Andrew Allan; vice presidents, Messrs. George Moffatt and John McLennan; treasurer, Mr. John Rankin; secretary, Mr. P.S. Ross; and a board of management of twenty gentlemen, prominent in shipping circles.

The rooms on McGill Street having been outgrown, in 1875 the two upper flats of Boyer’s Block, corner of Commissioners Street and Custom House Square, were rented and Mr. John Ritchie engaged as manager.

Upon the death of Mr. Ritchie in 1888, Mr. J. Ritchie Bell was appointed manager. The need of a building suitably situated and specially adapted for the purposes of the work had been constantly kept in mind from the beginning and many attempts had been made to secure such. In 1897 this was accomplished. The institute purchased the “Montreal House” an hotel which had been famous in the early days. This was rebuilt and in May, 1898, the institute moved into its own home. Continued growth of the shipping of the port made it necessary to enlarge the premises. This was done in 1907 when the adjoining property was purchased and the accommodation doubled, so that today the Sailors’ Institute has a building in which to carry on its work, conveniently situated on the water front, with an equipment which compares favourably with that of most of the great seaports of the world.

THE CATHOLIC SAILORS’ CLUB

The second activity for seamen is that carried on by the Catholic Sailors’ Club at 51 Common Street, a large building at the corner of St. Peter and Common streets. Its first home was in a humble garret at 300 St. Paul Street, close to the wharf. Its inception in 1893 was due to a Men’s Catholic Truth Society, formed by the Rev. E.J. Devine, S.J., in 1892. These, notably a Mr. J.J. Walsh, Mr. J.A. Feeley and Mr. H.C. Codd, approached Lady Hingston and Miss A.T. Sadlier and a joint association of ladies and gentlemen resulted for work for Catholic seamen. Lady Hingston became from the first the president of the ladies’ committee. In 1897 the Catholic Truth Society board had retired and the annual report gives the following officers for the club: President, Lady Hingston; vice president, Mrs. F.B. McNamee; second vice president, Mr. J.P.B. Casgrain; secretary-treasurer, Mrs. S.R. Thomson. In 1896, the present building was purchased and the mortgage paid in 1913. In 1900, the club was incorporated and two boards were again instituted, the ladies board, continuing with Lady Hingston as president till today, and Mr. F.B. McNamee as president of the general board.

The presidents have been as follows:

1900 Mr. F.B. McNamee 1901 Mr. Patrick Wright 1902 Mr. F.B. McNamee 1907 Mr. Felix Casey 1909 Mr. Charles F. Smith 1911 Commander J.T. Walsh, R.N.R.

In 1908, Mr. W.H. Atherton, Ph. D., entered into the life of the club as its first manager. The chaplains of the club have been distinguished Jesuits, among whom the present one, the Rev. E.J. Devine, has served three terms of varying lengths.

The club has had among its advisory board many prominent Catholic citizens and of the board of life governors, besides those mentioned, there are several who have been with the club from the inception, including the honorary treasurer, Mr. Bernard McNally; the honorary secretary, Mr. Arthur Phelan; Dr. F.J. Hackett, vice president, and the following ladies actively interested in the internal management: Lady Hingston, Mrs. Robert Archer, Mrs. J.B. Casgrain, Mrs. J. Cochrane, Miss K. Coleman, Mrs. P.S. Doyle, Mrs. Charles F. Smith, Mrs. F.B. McNamee, Miss L. O’Connell, Mrs. W.J. Tabb, Mrs. S.R. Thomson, and Mrs. J.T. Walsh.

THE SOLDIERS’ WIVES’ LEAGUE

On the outbreak of the Boer War in 1899, Lady Hutton founded the first branch of the Soldiers’ Wives’ League in Montreal, assisted by a small group of Montreal women. So urgent was the need of such an organization that it rapidly spread throughout all the military districts in Canada.

The aim of the league as defined in the constitution is “to bring the wives and relatives of all soldiers, whether of officers, non-commissioned officers or men of the staff, permanent corps and active militia of Canada, into closer touch and sympathy with one another so that whether in sickness or in health they may be able mutually to aid and assist one another and their families in times of difficulty, trouble or distress.”

It will readily be seen that at the present time there is pressing need for the active work of the league. The military authorities at Ottawa have always recognized the standing of the Soldiers’ Wives’ League. At the time of the Boer War the funds raised for the soldiers’ families were distributed in Montreal through the league by voluntary workers to the satisfaction of all concerned. At the military conference in Ottawa two years ago, the Montreal league was invited to send representatives.

In 1914, the league is repeating its useful services.

The present officers of the league are: Honorary president, Mrs. Denison; president, Mrs. Busteed; recording secretary, Mrs. Woodburn; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Minden Cole; treasurer, Mme. Ostell. Executives: Mrs. J.G. Ross, Mrs. Gibsone, Mrs. Fages, Mrs. Stewart, Mrs. Anderson, Mme. LeDuc, Mrs. Molson Crawford, Mrs. Gunn, Mrs. Carson, Mrs. Cooper, Mrs. Sadler, Mrs. Bridges, Mrs. Lacey Johnson, Mrs. Creelman, Mme. Labelle, Mme. des Trois Maisons, and Mrs. Kippen.

There is also a Westmount branch of the League.

THE DAUGHTERS OF THE EMPIRE

The Daughters of the Empire and the Children of the Empire, a junior branch, was formed in Montreal February 10, 1900, by Mrs. Clark Murray, with the motto “Pro regina et patria.” Its object was to stimulate and give expression to the sentiment of patriotism which bound the women of the Empire around the throne and person of their gracious and beloved sovereign. It was also to provide an efficient organization by which prompt and united

## action might be taken by the women of the Empire when such action

was deemed necessary. It was promoted vigorously in Australia, South Africa, India, England and Scotland, and is now all over Canada as a great activity of chapter work. The movement is very warm in Canada. Toronto has become the head office. A journal entitled “Echoes” chronicles the doings of the chapters. There is a municipal chapter for each large town and a provincial chapter in the capital of each province, and individual chapters adopt patriotic names chosen from events in the history of the Empire. Imperial education in the schools, stimulated by prizes given for essays on imperial subjects, is one form of carrying out the object of this association. The occasion of the present war is just one of those special emergencies foreseen for the activity of the chapters of the Daughters of the Empire and they are busily engaged in all the charitable works required in connection with the patriotic movement for the welfare of the soldiers and their families.

THE “LAST POST” IMPERIAL NAVAL AND MILITARY CONTINGENCY FUND

In 1909, an association, sadly unique in the British Empire, was founded in Montreal under the name of the “Last Post” Imperial Naval and Military Contingency Fund under the viceregal patronage of Earl Grey. Its main object is to give honorable burial to any soldier or sailor who has served under the colours in the regular or auxiliary forces and has fallen into destitution in the Province of Quebec. It is also empowered to extend its operations to other parts. It is a voluntary association unsupported as yet by an Imperial grant or patriotic fund. When the association was formed, it received letters of commendation from the chief military authorities of the Empire, who were deeply in sympathy with the patriotic movement, which is an obvious need as a tribute of gratitude to the Empire’s defenders and at the same time they expressed surprise that it has been overlooked in the economy of the Imperial services. The first trustees of the fund were: Brig.-Gen. L. Buchan, C.V.O., C.M.G.; Commander J.T. Walsh, R.N.R., and the Rev. Canon Almond, who was also the first chairman. The first treasurer was Mr. Lucien C. Vallée and Mr. Arthur H.D. Hair, its secretary, was the original promoter. Among its vice presidents have been Col. C.E. Paterson and W.H. Atherton. Since its inception men who possessed medals gained in most of the campaigns of modern times have been interred with military honours in the Protestant and Catholic cemeteries of the city, through the auspices of the Fund.

XI

TEMPERANCE MOVEMENTS

SOCIETY FOR “PROMOTION OF TEMPERANCE”--THE YOUNG MEN’S TEMPERANCE SOCIETY--MONTREAL TEMPERANCE SOCIETY--ST. PATRICK’S TOTAL ABSTINENCE SOCIETY--THE SOCIETE DE TEMPERANCE DU DIOCESE DE MONTREAL--OTHER SOCIETIES.

The author of “Hochelaga Depicta,” writing in 1839, describes the temperance movement of his date, as follows:

“The increasing prevalence of drunkenness, and the awful consequences thence arising, have induced a general desire among the sober and virtuous part of the community to stay the progress of so fearful an evil. Temperance societies have been formed, with this express view, both in Europe and America, and have been productive of the happiest effects. Thousands of drunkards have been reclaimed from their destructive habits.”

A society for the “Promotion of Temperance” was formed in this city on the 9th of June, 1828, at the suggestion of the Rev. J.S. Christmas; the declaration was against the use of distilled spirits only.

The Young Men’s Temperance Society was formed on the 29th November, 1831. The two were afterwards united.

On the 27th of February, 1834, an executive committee was appointed by a convention then held, which continued to act till the formation of the Montreal Society for the Promotion of Temperance on the 22d of October, 1835.

This society had the two pledges of abstinence from ardent spirits, and total abstinence from all intoxicating liquors. On the 1st of September, 1837, the society was remodelled on the total abstinence principle alone under the name of the Montreal Temperance Society.

St. Patrick’s Total Abstinence Society was established on the 23d of February, 1840, by the Rev. Patrick Phelan and organized on the 12th of February, 1854, by the Rev. J.F. Connolly.

The Société de Temperance du Diocése de Montreal was established in the city on January 5, 1841, by His Grace, the Bishop of Nancy, and canonically erected by Mgr. Ignatius Bourget on January 25, 1842, when the patronal name of St. Jean Baptiste was given it. This society was established in various sectional branches.

Other movements have followed and Montreal has profited by them. Among the present societies working in the city today are: Missionaries of Temperance, La Ligue, Anti-Alcoolique de Montreal, the Temperance Committee of La Fédération Nationale St. Jean Baptiste, the Dominion Alliance (Montreal branch), Catholic Total Abstinence Union (Canadian), St. Ann’s Total Abstinence and Benevolent Society, St. Ann’s Juvenile Temperance Society, St. Gabriel’s, St Patrick’s, organized in 1854, St. Aloysius Society, Société de Temperance de l’Eglise de St. Pierre and the society organized by the Franciscan Fathers, etc.

The city has houses for inebriates as follows:

House of Good Shepherd, 64 Sherbrooke Street (women), and St. Benoit Joseph Asylum (men).

XII

THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE CONDITION OF WORKERS

EARLY ASSOCIATIONS OF WORKERS--PROTESTANT INDUSTRIAL ROOMS--THE LABOUR MOVEMENT--THE Y.M.C.A.--THE Y.W.C.A.--LE FOYER--THE CATHOLIC GIRLS’ CLUB, ETC.

EARLY ASSOCIATIONS FOR WORKERS

This chapter will record those movements which have tended to safeguard the varied economical and educational interests of the working classes. By consulting Mr. Huguet-Latour’s “Annuaire de Ville Marie” records of early bodies of a mutual benefit association character among French-Canadians will be found as follows:

In 1848, the Société St. Blandine was founded for domestic servant girls.

Then came the era of mutual benefit associations for working people, viz.: “Union St. Joseph,” founded March 22, 1852, by Louis Leclaire, and incorporated July 11, 1856.

Société de St. François Xavier, founded in 1853, by Rev. E. Picard, a Sulpician, and incorporated May 13, 1863.

Société Bienveillante de Notre Dame de Sécours, founded July 1, 1853, and incorporated May 30, 1855.

Société Canadienne des Carpentiers et Menuisiers, founded December 6, 1853, by Antoine Mayer, George Rivet and Edouard F. Duncan. Incorporated July 24, 1858.

Association St. Antoine, founded May 2, 1856, by Rev. E. Picard, a Sulpician, and incorporated April 10, 1861.

Union St. Pierre, founded April 19, 1859.

Union St. Jean Baptiste, founded May 18, 1861, by P. Cerat, A. Normandin, F.X. Caron and Charles Bourque. Incorporated May 5, 1863.

Union St. Louis (Coteau St. Louis), founded March 24, 1862, by Ignace Boucher and Dominique Dupré (fils).

St. Patrick’s Benevolent Society, founded on September 7, 1862, by Mr. Thomas Brennan, and incorporated on May 5, 1863.

Association de Bienveillance de Bouchers Canadiens-Francais, founded June 2, 1863.

Union St. Jacques, founded March 1, 1863.

Caisse de la Section St. Joseph de la Société de Tempérance, founded September 6, 1863.

The following provident movements for inculcating prevision and thrift may be recorded as follows:

Caisse d’Economie des Instituteurs, December 22, 1856.

Caisse d’Epargnes des Petites Servants de Pauvres (a lay association), founded February 6, 1859, by Rev. E. Picard.

Caisse d’Economie de la Congrégation St. Michel, founded March 6, 1859.

Of late years there has been founded in the Province of Quebec the Caisse Populaire, of which the Children’s Savings Banks in the Immaculate Conception and the Infant Jesus parishes, and that of the general _caisse_ in the Immaculate Conception and St. Eusebe parishes are examples.

The numerous modern institutions of mutual assurance, public employment agencies and the helping associations for servants and workers which have arisen of late years need not be treated historically.

THE PROTESTANT INDUSTRIAL ROOMS

One of the best principles in all social amelioration in the condition of workers is to help the poor to help themselves. As an instance of this the history of the movement of the Protestant Industrial Rooms of Montreal, which is now more than half a century old, is rightly in place here. Sixty years ago Miss Hervey, who founded the Hervey Institute, did a wise and kind act when she opened a “Repository” for giving out to deserving females the surplus work of families, so creating the “Protestant Industrial Rooms” of Montreal, which has grown up observing the same fundamental principles. The first start was made in 1862 in the rooms of the Hervey Institute, then on Lagauchetière Street, and shortly a transfer was made to St. Antoine Street, then one of the principal streets. In 1864 the Home of Industry and Refuge was built on Dorchester Street and the governors invited the ladies to take up quarters there. Until 1900 the kind offer was accepted. The work of providing sewing work to be done at home by poor but respectable women is now carried on at 57 Metcalfe Street.

THE LABOUR MOVEMENT

French-Canadians began to learn the use of trade unions before 1836, when they had commenced to migrate to New England countries. In this year the first union was founded in Quebec, known as the Association Typographique de Quebec. About the same time there was founded at Montreal, the Shoemakers’ Union which was followed, in 1844, by the Stone Cutters’ Association. Little by little the work of organization developed and became so general that, at the time the movement of the Knights of Labour arose, numerous lodges in the cities of Montreal and Quebec were formed. But, in 1886, the order of the Knights of Labour were taken to task by the majority of the clergy with the result that all the lodges were broken up within a short time.

On the ruins of the Knights of Labour there arose the International Union of Cigar Makers, which concentrated for a certain time all the strength of the international labour movement and was the first one to inaugurate the celebration of Labour Day in Montreal.

Then it was the turn of the Typographical Union, No. 145, made up exclusively of French-speaking members, and the Montreal Typographical Union, No. 176, followed by the Carpenters’ Union, which has developed to such an extent that, today in Montreal, it has seven locals and about three thousand members. Local No. 134 of this union is made up exclusively of French-speaking workmen and comprises about two thousand three hundred members. An impetus had been given, and the international labour movement is still powerful. Today there are 194 international unions in the Province of Quebec with a membership of over forty thousand members, of which 109 locals, comprising over thirty thousand members, are in Montreal. The proportion of French-speaking members belonging to these unions is:

Building trades, 75 per cent; boot and shoe industry, 90 per cent; cigar and printing trades, 90 per cent; metallurgy, machinists, etc., 25 per cent; railway employees, 50 per cent; musicians and others, 80 per cent.

As an example of what can be accomplished by political action combined with trade unionism, it may be pointed out to the credit of the workingmen of the City of Montreal, that it is the only city throughout the whole Dominion which found a way of electing one of its own labour members to the House of Parliament, Mr. Alphonse Verville, who was returned in 1906 by a strong majority, being reelected twice since by a still larger majority.

In the City of Montreal, another worker, Joseph Ainey, was elected as city commissioner by a majority of 8,000 votes over and above that of the second commissioner elected in the City of Montreal.

It is well to place a record here of the average annual salary of various classes of wage-earners in Montreal at present:

Bricklayers $800.00 Carpenters 700.00 Plumbers 750.00 Plasterer 750.00 Stone Cutters 800.00 Granite Cutters 800.00 Painters 700.00 Electricians 700.00 Structural Iron Workers 600.00 Building Laborers 500.00 Brass Workers 750.00 Moulders 750.00 Machinists 750.00 Blacksmiths 750.00 Typos 900.00 Pressmen 800.00 Bookbinders 750.00 Stereotypers 650.00 Cigarmakers 750.00 Shoemakers 650.00 Musicians 800.00 Butchers 650.00 Barbers 600.00 Tailors 600.00 Weavers 600.00 Laundry Workers 500.00

A central executive entitled “The Trades and Labour Council” has done very effective work in harmonizing difficulties and in promoting useful legislation for the working classes.

THE YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION

[3] The development of the modern moral and intellectual assistance for the worker may now be instanced. The work of the Y.M.C.A., now so largely developed on the American continent, owes its origin to Montreal. Its history is briefly thus. It was in the Baptist Church on St. Helen’s Street, in the ’50s, that the beginnings of the association took form. The official date given on a tablet placed on the Gault Building on St. Helen Street places the date as November, 1851.

Among those present were Messrs. F.E. Grafton, T. James Claxton, W.H. Milne, F.H. Marling, and John Holland. Mr. Marling, who was a student in the Congregational College, was chairman of the meeting. A canvass was made of the churches and encouragement obtained for the project. One of the planks in the constitution was that the association would never admit any intermeddling with those matters of faith and polity on which the Protestant church may differ.

There was a general committee appointed and this body rented the Odd Fellows’ Hall on St. James Street. In 1851, the Rev. Donald Fraser, the pastor of Coté Street Presbyterian Church, delivered the inaugural lecture.

The young association had much difficulty to realize growth, but a city missionary was appointed to give his whole time to the work of obtaining support, and of familiarizing the churches and the people generally with the objects of the work.

Mr. John Holland, one of the original members, moved to Toronto in 1853, and was instrumental in forming the first association in that city.

There was a confederation of all the associations on this continent in 1855, and to this the local association gave its adhesion. All the European associations met this same year at Paris, and reached what was known as the “Paris basis,” to which the local association also gave its adhesion.

In 1856 the Confederated Association met in Montreal, and adopted the basis of union. Montreal was, therefore, not only the birthplace of the organization on the continent, but at the meeting in the city the basis of union was adopted, which has since bound all the associations on this continent together.

The Montreal association moved to 205 Notre Dame Street, where its membership reached 205. Some of the names of the then members have an interest for the present generation of Montrealers. Men like Charles Alexander, James Baylis, George S. Bransh, T. James Claxton, J.P. Cleghorn, George Childs, W. Cooper, David Bentley, Robert Gardner, F.E. Grafton, E.K. Greene, Alexander Harte, W.R. Hibbard, Robert Irwin, F.W. Kay, Joseph Learmount, S.H. Burnett, Thomas Leeming, John Louson, Theodore Lyman, A. McGibbon, Samuel Massey, G. May, John Murphy, William Muir, A.A. Stevenson, Robert Dow, Henry Drummond, Kenneth Campbell, Henry Morton, J. Tees, J. Holland, P.L. Ross, H.A. Nelson, Alfred Savage, John Torrance, Joseph Rielle, John Dougall, John Lewis, R.C. Jamieson, and many others.

In 1857 the slavery question in the United States became acute, and was felt its influence here. It was the slavery question which was the cause of the Montreal association withdrawing from the confederation. A resolution was passed declaring that slave holders were ineligible for membership. The international convention was to be held in Richmond. The Montreal association was asked to vote on the question. It resolved that as southern associations which rejected men of color, were connected with the confederation, the Montreal association resigned its connection with the same. This slavery question created much feeling at the time. Many outside associations followed the Montreal example.

In 1858 the association removed to 90 McGill Street. It was in this year that the late Sir William Dawson connected himself with the work, remaining with it till his death. It was the habit, long before the erection of the present Sailors’ Institute, to visit all the ships coming into port and talk to the sailors who were given suitable literature.

The fortunes of the association were at a low ebb in 1862, and, in fact, there was talk of disbanding. A meeting for that purpose was called; but the result was a determination to prosecute the work with more energy than ever. Rooms were secured over the Bank of Upper Canada, then on St. James Street. The association began to flourish. A fire broke out in the building, and in 1863 a new suite of rooms was secured adjoining the postoffice. Each year onward showed from this point increased success.

The city was properly classified; the bands of workers increased. Mr. Alfred Sandham was secured as general secretary, and remained in the position till 1876, when he was succeeded by Mr. Budge.

In 1867 the association removed to the Bible House at the corner of Craig and Alexander streets. In this year, the twelfth international convention was held in the city. This convention represented 106 associations and 597 delegates. Major-General Russell, commander of the British forces, and Sir Henry Havelock were among the speakers on the important occasion. Occurring at the close of the Civil War, the meetings were remarkable for the interest and fervour, for the slaves had been freed, at fearful cost, and it was a sight to see the delegation of colored men who were, for the first time, received as accredited delegates.

The idea of the association was to have its own building, and great efforts were made in this connection. It was in 1870 that steps were taken to secure the property at the corner of Craig and Radegonde streets. The cornerstone was laid in 1872 by Mr. J.T. Claxton. Revs. G.C. Wells, Doctor Burns and Doctor Wilkes, were among the speakers. Comfortably installed in their new building, the work progressed. It had been in seven different buildings since its inception. It now owned its own premises. Mr. Budge began his work in 1874 as general secretary. The total membership was in this year 1,360.

It was the late Mr. Moody who decided upon the present site of the association. The work had become too large for the accommodation on Victoria Square. The population had greatly increased. The membership felt this increase. Enlarged interests had been cared for; and the training and education of boys had been undertaken. Mr. Moody had been in the city and held a most successful series of meetings in what was known as the old Crystal Rink on the corner of Metcalfe and Dorchester streets facing Dominion Square. There was doubt as to the location of the new association building. He was asked for his opinion. “Why not build it on the site of the Crystal Rink?” he said. His counsel prevailed, and in 1888 the deed was signed, which transferred the site of the present building to the association.

Here the work grew marvellously. It has branched out in many important directions. It has supported men in India; it has sent out men to South Africa during the Boer war; it has added to its membership and activities and its recent triumph, when it raised over $200,000 for the further extension of the work in the new and enlarged building, is within recent memory.

The new home on Drummond Street was entered on August 1, 1912, and was formally opened in September.

From the little Baptist Church on St. Helen Street to the palatial home of the association is a long step, but it is an answer to the demand for this sort of service on behalf of the young in our city.

THE MONTREAL YOUNG WOMEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION

The Montreal Young Women’s Christian Association was organized and incorporated in 1874 under the presidency of Mrs. P.D. Brown, its central idea being that of helpfulness--physical, moral, and spiritual--for industrial women.

Its first purpose was to provide a boarding home which should be in no sense a charity, where young business women and students might find a safe home free from the numerous temptations which beset the young woman in the city. This part of the work has only been limited by the size of the building; today about eighty-five young women are housed in the association building, and fifty in an annex which was opened in 1908. Early in 1914 another building, to accommodate fifty more, was opened.

Its second purpose was to provide an employment bureau where suitable work was found for the stranger.

Some of the activities of the association may now be mentioned.

In 1880, the necessity for a diet kitchen was felt, and in the basement of the American Presbyterian Church, under the wing of the Young Women’s Christian Association, one was opened. Here the ladies themselves prepared suitable articles for diet for invalids, the food dispensed only to applicants provided with a card from clergy or the medical profession. In a few years this work became so necessary that it separated from the Young Women’s Christian Association and carried on its good work alone.

The Montreal Day Nursery, or crèche, was begun by the Young Women’s Christian Association in 1888, but like the Montreal Diet Dispensary it outgrew its sponsors and branched out for itself, and has long been one of the most popular of Montreal’s charities.

The Helping Hand sewing school was opened in 1875, its object being to teach the children of the poor to sew.

In 1894, the first school for cookery in Montreal was opened by the Young Women’s Christian Association, its object being to teach the poorer classes habits of thrift and economy. This continued for many years, or until the normal and technical schools took up the work.

Thus the Young Women’s Christian Association has been the pioneer in many of the flourishing charitable and philanthropic works of Montreal.

Educational classes have been a large factor in Young Women’s Christian Association work, classes being held nightly in dressmaking, millinery, shorthand, first aid to injured, French, bookkeeping, and elementary subjects.

The first Montreal Young Women’s Christian Association work began at 47 Metcalfe Street. Three moves were made as the work developed, until in 1897 the present building was bought, but even then the opportunity for progressive movement has been hampered by the limited space. Plans for a larger and more modern building are under consideration.

In addition there is the Fairmount Branch Y.W.C.A. and those branches at 323 Mackey Street and 25 St. Famille Street.

LE FOYER

An important work for French business girls on the same lines as the Young Women’s Christian Association is conducted by “Le Foyer,” which was established in March, 1903, under the direction of the Curé of St. Jacques, on St. Denis Street--M. Henri Gauthier. The first house of the society was at 207 Champ de Mars and its first directress was Mlle. Marie Imbleau. As the work progressed a branch house was instituted at 14 Osborne Street, the first directress of which was Miss Gabrielle Taschereau. Later a second branch house was opened at 55 St. Denis Street under the direction of Mlle. Leona Bonneville. In addition there is a country house at Ste. Adèle, which receives during the summer months thirty-five boarders a week. The organization has a central office at 60 Notre Dame Street and its government is under a committee of lay people of whom Mlle. Emma Beaudoin is the present president. Each of the three houses has its own secretary. There are 800 meals served daily in the three houses, with about five hundred at the chief house on Champ de Mars, while there are 125 regular boarders besides transients. The pension is $2.50 a week. The activities include the _Bureau d’emplacement_ in which situations are arranged for, and the _Bureau d’enseignement_, which provides for culture and education through lectures, classes, etc. There are also social, musical, domestic science and other clubs in connection with this varied work.

THE CATHOLIC GIRLS’ CLUB

A work which is conducted on somewhat similar lines to the Young Women’s Christian Association is the Catholic Girls’ Club.

On March 20, 1911, Lady Hingston called together a number of ladies from the various English-speaking parishes and invited their cooperation in forming a Catholic Girls’ Club. The idea was enthusiastically received, a committee was promptly formed and, with Lady Hingston as president, the scheme was fairly launched. A house, 63 Victoria Street, was rented for a year and thanks to an efficient committee, was furnished and ready for occupation in an incredibly short space of time.

Early in June the rooms were formally opened by His Grace, Archbishop Bruchesi, under the name of the “Catholic Girls’ Club,” while the opening for the members took place on June 6th.

A large and successful bazaar, under the convenership of Mrs. Cornwallis Monk, was held in October, 1911, the proceeds of which enabled the committee to arrange for the purchase of the present handsome club house, 311 Mackay Street, and to make the first necessary payments.

Among other agencies for business girls may be mentioned “Ave Marie,” La Providence, Maison St. Nom de Marie, Patronage d’Youville and the business organizations under affiliation with La Fédération St. Jean Baptiste. There are many also among the non-Catholic population, the branches of the Young Women’s Christian Association, and the like.

XIII

RECENT SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

NEIGHBOURLY CHARITIES--THE KING’S DAUGHTERS--THE UNIVERSITY AND IVERLEY SETTLEMENTS--THE SETTLEMENT IDEA--SOCIAL STUDY ORGANIZATIONS--THE CANADIAN SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.

“Neighbourly” charities in Montreal flourish in many a corner too numerous to individualize. Of late both in the French, or English and foreign sections of the city, Free Air and Summer Vacation committees, and others such as the “Holiday” Home, the various crèches and relief associations and churches, do their utmost to give rest and holidays to poor mothers and children. Other bodies assist in sewing and making garments for them such as the “Needlework Guild,” and the sewing circles of the various church clubs. Then there are associations with a wide scope which are ready to take up the social work most needed for the hour, such as the Victorian Sunshine Society, which originated at Westmount, and many others.

THE KING’S DAUGHTERS

One of the latter societies is the “King’s Daughters,” an international association founded in 1886 and established in Montreal in 1888 by the Ready Circle in connection with the American Presbyterian Church. This work is now carried on by the crèche on Côte des Neiges Road opposite the old entrance to the Mountain Park. The primary aim of the King’s Daughters is to deepen the spiritual life and to engage in social works. The crèche is one form of such and since its establishment in 1908, first at Outremont then at Côte des Neiges and now at the above place it receives poor families with their children during three months of summer for daily rest, fresh air and relaxation, even paying their transportation thither.

THE UNIVERSITY SETTLEMENT

The “settlement” or “neighbourhood” movement which culminated in the formation of the University Settlement House at 159 Dorchester Street West in May, 1910, when two of the organizing committee, Mrs. W.P. Hodges and Mrs. D. McIntosh set to work cleaning up the little tenement and founded the nucleus of a settlement round the classes of the McGill Neighbourhood Club, may be traced to an earlier move originating with social workers in connection with McGill University. The following synopsis will show in brief the progress accomplished from 1889 to 1913:

1889--The Mu Iota Society was formed by the women graduates of McGill University.

1890--Its name changed to Alumnæ Society.

May, 1891--Girls’ Club and lunch room was opened by the Alumnæ Society at 47 Jurors Street.

May, 1894--Girls’ Club was moved to 84 Bleury Street. Evening classes, etc., were held. First Christmas tree and entertainment for 100 children of the neighbourhood.

May, 1895--Dwelling over shop was rented, giving sitting room and bedrooms for working staff and four club members.

1895-96--Library opened. Addresses on settlements were given.

May, 1896--Adjoining shop rented.

1899-1900--Further addresses on settlement work, one by Dr. Graham Taylor, of Chicago Commons.

1902--Moved to east side of Bleury Street. Shop and dwelling rented.

1903--King’s Club for boys and girls was formed in fall.

May 1, 1905--Girls’ Club closed.

1905-07--King’s Club continued--Bi-weekly use of rooms in Dufferin School was made possible by courtesy of the Protestant Board of School Commissioners.

Christmas, 1906--First Christmas dinner held in rooms of Montreal Protestant House of Industry and Refuge. Eighty-two boys and girls of King’s Club were present.

1907-8--Rooms taken for the King’s Club at 308 Lagauchetière Street West.

October, 1908--Workers’ Committee formed into “The McGill University Neighbourhood Club” as part of the Alumnæ Society.

January, 1909--McGill Y.M.C.A. formally joins in the work of Neighbourhood Club.

Fall, 1909-Spring, 1910--The use of the Belmont School granted by the Protestant Board of School Commissioners.

January, 1910--Settlement Committee formed by the Alumnæ and McGill University Neighbourhood Club.

February 8, 1910--Lecture by Miss Sadie American on “Settlements,” given under the auspices of the Montreal Local Council of Women in the interests of the Neighbourhood Club. Boy Scouts organized.

May, 1910--The University Settlement of Montreal formed and recognized by the corporation of the University. House rented, 159 and 161 Dorchester Street West. The use of Dufferin School gymnasium again granted by the Protestant Board of School Commissioners. The first president was Prof. J.A. Dale of McGill University.

October, 1910--Annex of rooms at 189 Dorchester Street West, made necessary. Becomes headquarters for Scouts, library, and kindergarten.

December, 1910--First salaried headworker engaged.

January, 1911--Use of two rooms in St. John’s Parish House, Ontario Street West, given by Rev. Arthur French. Becomes headquarters of Boy Scouts. No. 189 Dorchester Street West retained for library and kindergarten.

October, 1911--Factory flat rented on Dufferin Square. Second salaried worker engaged (kindergarten).

April 3, 1912--Incorporation.

April, 1912--Property purchased on Dorchester Street West, near Dufferin Square.

August 12, 1912--Summer camp with one tent at St. Rose, Quebec.

February 13, 1913--New building opened by H.R.H. Duke of Connaught in a handsomely remodeled bottling factory at 179 Dorchester Street West.

THE IVERLEY SETTLEMENT

The Iverley Settlement followed in September, 1911, through the instrumentality of Mrs. Ivan Wotherspoon and her friends, the organizing committee meeting on June 4th preceding.

A house was taken on September 13th with the approval of Judge Archer and Mr. Eugene Lafleur, K.C., who from the first have evinced their entire sympathy with the work, and active preparations were made for its development. From the moment the Iverley was ready, children and their parents flocked in, thus showing the value even of the settlement idea as a powerful modern force for social betterment. Other settlements of a more parochial or church affiliation have since adopted the movement.

The settlement idea has been productive of imitation or a readjustment of other forms of charitable endeavours so long employed in connection with the many churches, religious and other institutions of the city.

SOCIAL STUDY

The social movements just recorded also have succeeded in bringing social students together. Cooperation between the English and French associations began about 1910 to be more frequent in social enterprises. Intercommunication by lectures and round table conferences, the interchange of literature and intercourse with expert sociologists from England, the United States and the continent, have had a very broadening effect on our sociological life. A school of social study and publication started up in the French educational circles about 1912 under the title of L’école Sociale Populaire, the English Catholics having previously, about 1911, started a Social Study Guild. In connection with the leading social organizations, a Social Study Club was also founded about 1912 for discussion among experts of problems of sociology. All these forces having influence in high civic circles, Montreal received at this period a stimulus in social reform which has been distinctly a phase of our present civic life.

XIV

MUNICIPAL CHARITIES

The action of the city as such has been partially noticed also in other social works. Its Department of Assistance Municipal, organized about 1904, dispenses the city’s charities regarding the reformatories and industrial schools; the insane, of whom in 1913 it supported 242 at St. Jean de Dieu and 98 at Verdun insane asylums; the incurables, of whom 43 were kept in 1913 at Notre Dame de Grace Hospital for Incurables and the Grey Nuns; tuberculosis patients, for whom in 1913 the sum of $14,300 was apportioned as follows:

Hôpital des Incurables $7,500.00 Royal Edward Institute 3,300.00 Grace Dart Home 500.00 Bruchesi Institute 3,000.00

The department deports from the city for causes of misbehaviour, illness or insanity. In 1913 448 cases were deported to England, Ireland, Scotland, Jamaica, Judea, Egypt, Russia, United States, Austria, Guadeloupe, France, Italy, Normay, Germany, Australia, Switzerland, Greece and Belgium.

Two hundred destitute persons were repatriated in 1913, or fifty-eight more than in 1912.

Relief is given to homeless poor and unemployed, which was larger in 1913 owing to the economic crisis prevailing over Canada and to the fact that in the fall many immigrants flocked from the harvest fields in the West to the city, and also because there was an extraordinary influx of foreigners whose cheap labour caused the discharge of others of British origin. The number of cases dealt with in 1913 by the city apart from the ordinary regular volunteer charities, was 648 (or 105 per cent more than in 1912).

These 648 cases reported to the city department and handled by the Charity Organization Society for it, were dealt with as follows: 181 were temporarily relieved, 79 repatriated, 43 committed to the “Assistance Publique,” 10 committed to various institutions, 9 committed to the Hôtel-Dieu, 6 given with employment, 6 deported, 5 confined in the Notre-Dame Hospital, 5 referred to the Society for the Protection of Women and Children, 5 given legal advice, 5 referred to the Municipal Labor Bureau, 4 committed to the Hospital for Incurables, 4 referred to the Baron de Hirsch Institute, 4 placed in the Royal Victoria Hospital, 3 referred to the “Union Nationale Française,” 3 placed in the Protestant House of Industry, 3 placed in the General Hospital, 2 referred to the Old Brewery Mission, 2 placed in the Institution of the Grey Nuns, 2 placed in the St. Bridget’s Home, 2 referred to the Salvation Army, 2 referred to the St. Vincent de Paul Society, 1 was placed in the Bruchesi Institute, 1 placed in the Maternity, 1 referred to the Montreal Ladies’ Benevolent Society, 1 placed in the St. Henry Asylum, 1 placed in the Youville Patronage, 1 placed in the Nazareth Asylum, 1 placed in the Sheltering Home, 1 placed in the St. Benoit Asylum, 1 placed in the St. Paul Hospital, 1 referred to the Belgian Society, 165 were refused relief and 88 did not report.

The city in 1913 made grants to the charitable institutions and public bodies of Montreal to the amount of $105,996.00. The city, however, remits a great amount of the assessment of charitable institutions.

The value of the properties belonging to charitable institutions and exempted from taxation, in 1913, was $23,131,660.00.

The assessment of 1 per cent therefore represents $231,316.60.

The City of Montreal paid, in 1913, for the relief of destitute persons a sum of $497,712.35, as follows:

Remittance of assessments $231,316.60 Grants 105,996.00 Maintenance of insane 83,249.60 Maintenance of children in industrial schools 69,450.15 Miscellaneous 7,700.00 ----------- Total $497,712.35

Or $53,809.94 more than in 1912.

In 1912 $443,902.41 In 1911 356,758.00

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Quoted from “Hochelaga Depicta.”

[2] The Sulpicians and the Grey Nuns early commenced their connection with Irish orphans. In 1758, M. de Lavalinière, a Sulpician, succeeded by his entreaties and promises in rescuing an Irish child of the name of O’Flaherty from the hands of fierce Indians. She was but a few months old and was already tied to the stake to be burned alive with her mother when the generous liberator came to the rescue. Madame d’Youville voluntarily consented to take charge of her, and the child became a Grey Nun.

[3] Cf. the reminiscences of a leading citizen given in the Montreal Star of January 2, 1912. The work itself is so well known that the writer has thought it necessary to indicate only its general history.

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