Chapter 5
MURRAY GIBSON: I didn't know that about you. ( to Alex ) You came from Cape Breton ?
ALEX STEWART: No, that was when I came out but I came from Wallace - Cumberland County.
BILL WADESON: And you were born ....?
ALEX STEWART: In Cumberland County
MURRAY GIBSON: Across the street, he said, from Black Jack McDonald.
ALEX STEWART: Do you know Black Jack ?
BILL WADESON: No - I've just heard of him - I'm even a little bit younger than Murray and Murray's just a Johnny-come-lately - he's only been here fifty years.
ALEX STEWART: My - he don't look a day over forty-five.
MURRAY GIBSON: Well that's a good pure life that does it.
ALEX STEWART: No doubt you've led one.
FRED MORRISH: I went to old Jack McDonald's funeral.
BILL WADESON: "When was that, Fred ?
FRED MORRISH: Oh that must be about twelve years ago - something like that.
BILL WADESON: And where was he buried ?
FRED MORRISH: Up in Rossland. Yes, old Blackjack died in the Hospital up in Rossland.
ALEX STEWART: Old Blackjack would buy a dozen drinks a day - and every time he would reach into his pocket and pull out a four-bit piece. We'd always think that this was the last one but he never seemed to run out.
ALEX STEWART: He was a beautiful writer - he wrote the finest penmanship I ever seen.
MURRAY GIBSON: Bill, this is fantastic, because I saw one of his claimposts out on the Pend d'Oreille. Fred would know the writing, and I was this ...
BILL WADESON: Copper plate ?
MURRAY GIBSON: Yes, Copper plate and it was really beautifully done ...
ALEX STEWART: He used to write cards for the business people.
MURRAY GIBSON: A prospector and a miner - you know - you would never expect him to do this really beautiful...
ALEX STEWART: He was quite a fighter, you know,
FRED MORRISH: Yes, Jack could handle himself.
ALEX STEWART: He was quite a tough boy.
BILL WADESON: Yes, Fred was telling me the story coming in, about someone shooting a deer - almost a pet deer, it seemed - out of his place down on the Pend d'Oreille.
FRED MORRISH: Yes - Syd Hunt did that. Yes - you remember Syd Hunt. Syd Hunt and Bob Head.
BILL WADESON: Bob Head, the negro.
FRED MORRISH: Yes he was the negro who had the cleaning establishment. Well they went out to Jack's place and Jack had a deer there that used to come into the kitchen. I'd been out there just a few days before that - and Jack wanted me to shoot this deer, but I said " No I won't." ... and there were some willow grouse out in his yard and he wanted me to shoot them and I wouldn't. I said "I didn't come out here to take your chickens." " I'll go up in the hills and get some." I knew old Jack when I was just like this, you know. Two or three days after Jack was away staking out some claims - Bob Head and Syd Hunt went in there - they killed the deer and cleaned it right at Jack's side door and threw the cleanings right in his woodshed there, and shot four of the chickens. So he was in the next day with a revolver this long - you know the little one he carried - about a foot long - looking for them. So I got a hold of Ben Downs to get them out of the way, but they got out of town before Jack could get a hold of them or Jack would have killed them. He told Ben Downs " I came in on purpose to kill them."
BILL WADESON: And they stayed out of town for a week ?
FRED MORRISH: They sure did. And they made sure that Jack wasn't around before they came back. But Alex, when they put him in the hospital up in Rossland - I went up to see him. And he was sitting back in bed - lying back against the pillow with his hat on.
ALEX STEWART: No!
FRED MORRISH: And his hair braided around this way.
ALEX STEWART: For God's sake!
FRED MORRISH: He wouldn't take that hat off - and he wouldn't take his underwear off
ALEX STEWART: Probably it was stuck on. Poor Jack - he was the Nova Scotian champion,
FRED MORRISH: I forget who it was - some woman up there he promised to leave all his money to but I don't think she got any - I don't think he had any to leave there at the last.
ALEX STEWART: At the last - I don't think so. He went through quite a lot.
FRED MORRISH: Yes he did and, you know, you wouldn't find a better hearted man anywhere - he'd give you the shirt off his back.
ALEX STEWART: Jack was a fine fellow.
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Note by Alfie Albo :- In fact, Black Jack left to his sister in Boston $20,000 in bonds, $100 in gold coin and the house. The house was purchased by Mr. Plotnikoff . This was from the will - J.A.McLeod and Ken Martin, Executors
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BILL WADESON: Well, did you know Father Pat, Alex ?
ALEX STEWART: Oh yes, well. Old Father Pat was a jolly fellow, I remember seeing him one day ... I don't know whether I should be talking all this stuff ...
BILL WADESON: Don't worry. Alex. We'll be very discrete indeed.
ALEX STEWART: Well, I was always in a bit of trouble, you know, and I remember this day, after we had talked a while, I remember he patted me on the back and he said, " Alex, you're the devil. " Yes he stayed here for about 20 years and every year he took a ten dollar box of candy up to the sisters.
FRED MORRISH: Yes he was quite a character was Father Pat. He was one of these fellows who, if he saw you walking down the street with a new overcoat on, he'd want it - and he'd tell you.
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Note by Wayne Krewski:- in fact Father Pat was known for giving folks the coat off his back. One of the famous stories about him was the time some folks got together and bought him a brand new green coat to replace the threadbare coat he was wearing (it was wintertime) only to come across him a few days later wearing the old coat. Father Pat explained that some other poor soul needed it more than he did.
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ALEX STEWART: Oh I 'm. sorry, I was all wrong - It was not Father Pat - Father Pat was the English preacher. Yes, I knew him well, but I was talking about Father Oslo, the Catholic priest.
MURRAY GIBSON: He was before Father Mclntyre ?
ALEX STEWART: Yes.
FRED MORRISH: Oh yes he was there a long time before Father Mclntyre - I think I was the first one Father Mclntyre met when he came to Rossland. I was working for Charlie Myers, putting in the steam pipes in the new church that they have now.
BILL WADESON: Are you a steam-fitter too, Fred, I thought that you were an electrician.
FRED MORRISH: I was, but I worked for Myers there before I was an electrician. He was short- handed there and I went to work and helped him put in this ... Joe ... Joe Harris. I don't think you'd know him. He was gone before you got there.
ALEX STEWART: Did I ever tell you the story about Hazel Domingo ? She was one of the sporting girls.
BILL WADESON: Hazel Domingo, eh ? I'd like to hear about Hazel.
ALEX STEWART: Well, I don't know if I should tell you - you mustn't put it in print
BILL WADESON: Oh, no,
ALEX STEWART: Well, Hazel, you know, was a coloured girl, and a very beautiful girl and a beautiful build. And she just prided herself on that build. And she started getting heavy and she heard about me - how I took so much exercise and kept in shape, and had trained this one and that one, so she called me up and said "I'm just worried to death, I'm losing my shape" she says, "could you advise anything. I could do - would it be possible for you to put me back in shape ?" "Well" I says, " yes. Hazel, I could put you back in shape, but it would be a tough proposition, but if you could stand it I'd guarrantee to put you back in shape." She wanted to know how much it would cost and I said it should be worth about $250. ""Will you take me on, then ?" she says, and I said " Sure I will." "What do I have to do ?" she says, and I say "You be out here at five o'clock in the morning, and be ready to go. Have a woolen under suit on and dress in heavy clothes, man's pants and man's shoes and meet me ... and we'll go down towards Trail."
I trotted her down there and she pretty near died before I got her back. I got her back and the next morning she did a little better and a little better. The I put her in the bathtub and put a blanket over the bath tub - covered her right over with double blankets - you. know. Left her there twenty minutes. Then took her out of the bath tub - laid a big double blanket on the floor - made her lie on the edge of it and rolled her over and over in it and leave her in there twenty minutes. She wanted to stop. She was going to quit two or three times. I told her " I don't care how soon you quit but you're going to pay the price." "I'm going to stay with it another day, " she said, and finally she got so that she liked it, and the weight was just falling off. I gave her the works. Brought her right down to her natural weight.
BILL WADESON: This is fantastic.
FRED MORRISH: Do you remember the pretty girl she had there, Clara Morgan ?
ALEX STEWART: Used. to dance around the post like this. She could only do it about twenty times when she started but at the finish she could do it about three hundred times.
FRED MORRISH: Well, she and Clara, when they moved out they went to Alaska. I was in the army at Victoria and I had my appendix taken out. I was standing on one crutch - on the street corner - waiting for what we called jitneys to come by. I saw these two girls standing right on the edge, you know, and I thought "God, I should know them" and then Hazel kind of turned sideways and I sad "Hello, Hazel" and she turned around and she said ". It's the Kid." She always called me the Kid. She put her arms around me, she and Clara both hugged me and people thought I was crazy - right on the street corner.
Well I asked them where they were staying and they were at that Empress Hotel - the big C.P.R. Hotel there. "How long are you going to stay ?" Well they didn't know - they'd be there a week anyway. "Well", I said, "arrange for a party to-night anyway. I'm going to have a party with you - I'll throw away this crutch and I'll be down."
I went back to the camp and Clara's friend was there - Dave ...... Oh he used to tend bar up there. He worked in the drug store for a long time and he was a druggist. Then he went tending bar in the Hoffman - Dave McLaren. He and. Clara were just like this, you know. So I went out to the camp and made arrangements for Dave to get an all-night pass. I told the old major that Dave's sister was in town and I wanted to take them down - they were great friends of mine. So I took him up to this room and I said to Dave "Now you rap at the door" I didn't tell him who was there. Well sure, of all the funny things I ever saw in my life was those two meeting after being away from one another for about ten years. They loved one another all the way up and down the hall and back and I was trying to break them up.
BILL WADESON: This was Clara who ?
FRED MORRISH: Clara Morgan.
ALEX STEWART: I had completely forgotten - and I knew them awful well.
FRED MORRISH: Oh yes. She was a dandy fellow
ALEX STEWART: Sure was. His people were quite big people. His people were quite wealthy at one time - I know they were.
FRED MORRISH: Yes, That's right. I'll never forget when I enlisted, you know. I was put out in this barracks in Victoria there and they gave me what they call a palliasse to lie on. A little thin mattress like this - those days. That was the first war. And two blankets. And in the morning, you know, I poked my head out and here's Dave's head sticking up. "Well for Christ's sake " he said " where did you come from ?" We both got ten days for that. He just pounded the devil out of me.
ALEX STEWART: You remember old P.R.McDonald ?
BILL WADESON: P.R.McDonald, who was he ?
ALEX STEWART: He was mayor for about threee or four years.
FRED MORRISH: I'll tell you the funny one who used. to be mayor.
ALEX STEWART: Oh I know who you're going to mention.
FRED MORRISH: That old fellow who had the grocery store up Washington Street there. His daugnter's name was Mrs Black. He danced a jig when he was running for mayor. He danced a jig on the platform and then he stood on his head to show that he wasn't an old man. Well he was elected - he was mayor for one year there. He took sick. I was working in Rodger's grocery store - just a little way from the other one. Every second morning without a miss .... he had his casket ..... he'd gone and picked out his own casket .... and he'd get in that and try it. And he couldn't get out and his daughter couldn't take him out so she'd phone up Rodger's store to send the boy down to give me a hand, will you.
FRED MORRISH: Mayor Martin....
ALEX STEWART: No
MURRAY GIBSON: Joe Deschamps ?
BILL WADESON: Was Joe Deschamps Mayor ....... I didn't know that.
ALEX STEWART: Yes - he was a good one. Do you remember Dean ..... John Dean ?
FRED MORRISH: He was the real-estate man.
ALEX STEWART: He was mayor that night of the fire, you know. And he had all the stock carried out on the street, you know. And they had a dummy dressed up like a man, you know - just a perfect good job. And they carried it out and leaned it up against a bunch of stock piled up in the street. And the mayor came along and said "Stewart, there's a man who's drunk - he should be locked up." Well just then Gus Swain came along and touched this dummy so that he fell right across the mayor." Arrest him. Arrest him," the mayor said. So I had to tell the mayor that it was a dummy.
FRED MORRISH: Say, Alex, wasn't Dean the fellow who was tied up with Irish Nell ?
ALEX STEWART: Oh no, I was trying to think of that fellow.
FRED MORRISH: I thought that was Dean
ALEX STEWART: Oh no. Dean was very respectable - church-going man. I'll tell you what he done when he got to be mayor. He cut the police and all the city officials $10 per month and raised himself $20.
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Note by Alfie Albo:- there is a park - John Dean Park - named after him on Vancouver Island near the Experimental Farm in Saanichton
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Short Intermission
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