Chapter 6
ALEX STEWART: He used to tell us what a hunter he was, but all the fellows knew that he couldn't shoot. He wanted to keep up the bluff though and he got a gun and went out into the hills to get a bear.
Pretty soon he came running back with the bear at his heels and he ran right through the group shouting "You skin this one and I'll go out and get another."
FRED MORRISH: Who was it - up there in Rossland - Old Joe Deschamps - tied the bear up on top of the mountain. They had it up on a stand there and they'd move it about, you know. They'd move it about with ropes and there were two or three of the boys went out and shot that thing full of holes.
ALEX STEWART: I'll never forget one day, Deschamps was coming out of this alley, you know where they had the lumber yard up on Second Avenue. He was driving and there were a couple that had just got married - they were all dressed up, you know, and he headed straight into them. Well, Golly, the fellow jumped out, you know, in an awful splather and Deschamps apologised and told them how sorry he was and that he'd. pay all damages. Well the fellow was satisfied with that and Deschamps gets back into his car and. backs up about ten feet and then goes forward and hits them again and knocks them right out into the street.
FRED MORRISH: He was driving out to his mill one morning in that little one-seater of his - it steered, with one of those handles - a tiller - and he was coming up that hill by Rodger's store there and the sidewalk was up about this high above the road, you see. When he got there the car stalled. He did something to the gears and the car started to run backwards and he twisted the wheel - the handle - and the seat of his car caught the sidewalk ( it was just a plank-walk ) and upset the whole thing. And here old Joe was saying "Whoa, "Whoa "Whoa,"
BILL WADESON: I didn't know Joe, you know. I knew Mrs. Deschamps and the daughters but I didn't even know that Joe was mayor.
MURRAY GIBSON: Oh yes, he was a very colourful mayor.
FRED MORRISH: Speaking of Mrs Deschamps, and her sister Mrs Chapman - Well, in Rossland in the early days they never used to plough the streets the way they do now. They had a big twelve by twelve and the fire horses would level it all off, you know, and you had steps to go up this side and steps to go down the other side. Well one morning it was one of those rainy mornings and everything was sloppy, you know, and I came by the Bank of Montreal and I wanted to go over to the Allen Hotel. So I walked across. Started down the steps to the Allen Hotel ( that was when they first started to use shoes without rubbers ). Well I hit the first step but on the second my feet went out this way and down I went, slid through this water and who did I catch but Mrs Descharaps, right in here and down she came on top of me and she pulled her sister down too. Well - that's when I almost learned to speak French. The dressing-down I got and she's still sitting on me. And the old fellow at the Allen there, the old man ( what was his name ?) he came out and helped her up. Old Davis. Dick had the Allen Hotel there - he had grey hair - I can still see him.
ALEX STEWART: You mean Jim Davis ?
FRED MORRISH: Yes Jim Davis. Well, I can still see him tugging at Mrs Deschamps to lift her, you know, and he couldn't.
ALEX STEWART: Yes he was one of - Jim Davis was one of the four husbands.
FRED MORRISH: Wasn't he the last one ?
ALEX STEWART: Yes he was the last one.
FRED MORRISH: Well I had the pleasure of getting on the "Goose" - you know the one that went down through Columbia Gardens to Spokane - I was going down one morning to have my eye fixed - and who was on there but Mrs Chapman. And I said "You know, you owe me an apology " and she started to laugh and she said "I know what you're referring to but I laughed so hard I couldn't apologize, I couldn't say a word." And she did, too. But she remembered falling down.
MURRAY GIBSON: You know I'm thirty years younger than you are, Alex, but I wish I'd been born when you were and lived through the times that you did.
ALEX STEWART: Yes, I wish you had - we sure got around at that time.
FRED MORRISH: Well, I tell you one thing that we had in those days and you don't see it any more. That is, for instance, you're a stranger in town, you probably have sickness or death in your family - everybody in town would be with you - you had friends right away. Anything you needed, all you had to do was mention it. Now, if your house burned down, I know we were always a big family but mother could always find boy's clothes or girl's clothes for those people - they need it and you don't need it. You can use your old one. But the best went out to those people. Always a pillow, a blanket or a comforter went to them right away. Not only that but every day my eldest sister or my mother would bake something to go to those people.
ALEX STEWART: That's right.
FRED MORRISH: And before you knew it old Barry would be there and old Murdoch Henderson too. "Anything you want in the line of lumber just order it - pay for it when you can. And the carpenters would get together - "What kind of a house do you want ?" And you'd find dozens of fellows there putting up that house. There were no questions asked - no pay - no nothing.They speak of their Community chest to-day. We had one in Rossland that they never could touch,
ALEX STEWART: No, I don't think there was any place in the world that could touch Rossland for three years.
FRED MORRISH: That's right - there were some wonderful people up there but they're all gone now.
MURRAY GIBSON: Alex, this is Ernie Morrison's story, but maybe you'd know more about it. He told me about it. A bunch of the fellows had someone they wanted to have a joke on and they went into the International, and the way Ernie described it there was a main floor and. a balcony up above. And they arranged with one of the girls to come out on the balcony and point this fellow out and call him by name and she had a revolver and fired a blank at him. And he ran out the door and she after him and she chased him all the way up to the City Hall there and he came down around the corner and back to the Bank of Montreal comer and then Ernie Morrison and these fellows walked across and met him and then kind of let him know what the joke was and I guess he was so mad at them that he could have shot them.
BILL WADESON: Do you remember the fellow's name Alex ?
ALEX STEWART: No, that's the worst of it. Maybe to-morrow I'll remember it but right now I've forgotten.
BILL WADESON: What were Mrs. Chapman's and Deschamps names before they were married ?
FRED MORRISH: Degagne.
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Note by Alfie Albo:- the sisters were Angeline (Mrs. Deschamps) & Helene Degagne (Mrs. Chapman)
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MURRAY GIBSON: Well I should know because my wife talks about them a lot and she knew them before they were married.
FRED MORRISH: You know when I worked for the telephone people I had a pass between Rossland and Trail and my biggest thrill was to get on the evening train and come down to Trail and take Helene
Degagne home. They lived up there by the fire hall you know. And the old telephone office was right there where Bill's Cafe is. And the old man - one night he kicked my pants. He says "I tell you before - you not come here," and he took me by the shoulder and he gave me three or four kicks that I had marks to show for it the next day. But when I started to work in the smelter he was foreman of the carpenters. And he remembered me as soon as I walked into that shop. He says "You - you want your pants kicked, again ?" I said "No, not now." He was a dandy old fellow when you got to know him.
MURRAY GIBSON: When did you leave Rossland, Alex ?
ALEX STEWART: In 1911
MURRAY GIBSON: So you came to Nelson in 1911 ? You lived in Rossland in all of the most stirring times in Rossland.
ALEX STEWART: Yes, I saw a lot since 97. I saw the whole works. And what a place. You know the buildings were always so nicely painted and everything - all wooden buildings. That Columbia Avenue at that time was about the nicest street in British Columbia.
MURRAY GIBSON: And it was so wide .....
FRED MORRISH: Paved with gold ..... It had that name all through the district.
ALEX STEWART: Yes and all the buildings so nicely painted - there were so many buildings that were two and some were three storey, but after the fire they were all gone.
MURRAY GIBSON: Well I came just before ..... I saw Columbia Avenue in Rossland just before the two fires; only just before.
ALEX STEWART: You would know Johnny McLeod who just died recently ?
BILL WADESON: Yes I was an honorary pall-bearer for Johnny
ALEX STEWART: He was kind of gone in the head before he went ?
BILL WADESON: He was pretty good until the last few months and he was slipping a bit
ALEX STEWART: I saw him in Rossland about a year before he died.
BILL WADESON: He didn't know you ?
ALEX STEWART: Well I went up and shook hands and he looked at me, and I said " you know me, Johnny, don't you ?" and he said "Yes, I know you " but I don't believe he did.
ALEX STEWART: You didn't know Mr.Wasson, the city clerk, did you ?
BILL WADESON: Oh yes, I knew Bill Wasson
ALEX STEWART: About thirty-five or forty years ago he was the dead picture of you, Murray.
BILL WADESON: By Gosh, that's right there is a resemblance.
MURRAY GIBSON: There was a chap over here by the name of "Gibson" who was here for a long time. What did he do ?
ALEX STEWART: John Gibson ? Oh he was the postmaster.
MURRAY GIBSON: Yes, well his family came from Dumfries, Scotland and my family came from Dumfries, Scotland and I always meant to talk to him because I'm sure that we were related a long piece back some place or other.
FRED MORRISH: There's a funny thing has happened to me just this last week or so. There's a fellow in Victoria with the same name as mine, Frederick Morrish. And here some time ago he was canning air and sending down to the States and sending down to our members of parliament - canned air. Well M Vipond came up to the house about a week ago from Victoria and he says " That's an awfully nice thing that you did in Victoria." I said " What do you mean ?" Well apparently they have a replica of the Eiffle Tower in Victoria. It's all put together and now it's a case of lift it up in place, and to do that will cost $5,000. But he says that it came out in the Victoria papers in "big headlines " Fred Morrish of Trail,B.C. donated $5,000 to have the tower lifted."
BILL WADESON: That was real nice of you Fred, and you don't drink.
ALEX STEWART: I never had a drink of beer in my life. That's quite a record.
FRED MORRISH: Well I haven't had a drink of anything for a good many years now.
ALEX STEWART: It was back when I was 15 or 16 years old, a fellow told me he was going to buy me a drink, and of course, I thought it was lemonade, you know, and I was just dying for the taste of that sweet drink. And, Golly, he gave me a glass of Bass's Ale and it tasted something horrible and that was enough for me.
MURRAY GIBSON: This Sourdough Alley, that was the name of the main street of Rossland at one time, was it ?
FRED MORRISH: That was on First Street, Sourdough Alley
ALEX STEWART: Yes, the first street above Columbia
FRED MORRISH: Do they still call that First Street ?
BILL WADESON: First Avenue they call it now.
FRED MORRISH: They talk about housing shortages to-day, but when we first came to Rossland we lived in a five-room house and it didn't seem any wider than that and it went straight up for two storeys and a basement. But we were only nine kids in that house besides mother and father. And I've often laughed about it, you know. The Dining room was right here and the kitchen would be right there. There was a door with just a curtain hanging down overit and that was the toilet.
BILL WADESON: An indoor toilet in 1898 ? Pretty classy accomodation in 1898.
FRED MORRISH: Oh yes, that was swanky, but with all those kids, sure as blazes one or two of them would have to go in there while we were eating..
ALEX STEWART: A funny thing happened, about four years ago. I was down in California at that gambling place - what's the name of it ?
BILL WADESON: Just outside California ? Los Vegas ?
ALEX STEWART: Yes, I was down there - drove down in a car and I thought I would go out for a walk and. have a look. And I walked out about a couple of miles and when I turned around to go back - Gosh a "bus came along and I says " I'm going to take a bus ride back. It was really hot. And I got on the bus and the bus driver kept looking at me - I sat right on the seat across from him, you know. And he kept looking and looking at me and finally he pulled in and stopped to let somebody off and he says "I think I know you." I says " I don't think so - I'm thousands of miles from home." I says " And I've only been here three days." "Yes, I know you," he says " Your name is Alex Stewart." I says " Holy G. you're right." He says " you're Chief of Police in Nelson." I says " You're right again." We started talking and he apologized to the crowd for holding them up, you know but they said " No, Ho, go right ahead." I says " Well, I can't remember you." He says "Well, no, probably not, but I can tell you something that you will remember me. Do you remember the panic days when there were so many people living dovn on the C.P.R. Flats ? In holes in the ground and under stumps and trees, and the city was feeding them ? I says " Yes, I remember well." "Do you remember when I came to .you one day and asked you for a meal ? And you said that you were only allowed to give a 40 cent meal ? And the fellow said " Well I'm awful hungry but a 40 cent meal would help a. lot." "Well," you says " All right, if you're really hungry, I'll put you down as two men, McDougal and McPherson, and I'll give you a real meal." "Do you remember that ?" he says. And I says " Gosh, I remember well because when I took him in to the hotel, you know and told Benwell " This is Mr. McDougal and Mr.McPherson." Well he kept looking around and he couldn't understand it. I says " Give them two meals" because I had to keep check on them and I could only go 40 cents, do you see ? "Well", he says, "I'm here now and I've got a good job and I'm married and I've got two little girls," and he says " I want you to come out to dinner with me." " I'll be off this shift in a short time. Come and have dinner with me." So I told him that I couldn't do it because my gang was waiting for me down at the Motel. Wasn't that funny ?
Another thing - a fellow that I wrassled here in Nelson. This lady was with us and when she was ready to go home she wanted to buy her husband a masonic ring and she had it spotted in this jewellery store and she wanted it in the worst way and she went in to see if she could make a deal for it. And he told her the price for that thing - said it was $40 or something. She says
"I'm awful sorry, I haven't got that much money"
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Here intervened the McGregors
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EDDY McGREGOR: Did Alex tell you about the time he and Chief Long went out chasing these rollers and they got out in the country and they were all poohed out so they decided they would have to bunk down in a hay stack. Well they bunked down for the night and later they found that the robber was underneath them in the hay stack.
ALEX STEWART: That's right. He was a murderer too.
FRED MORRISH: Ben Downs from Trail was in that too, wasn't he ?
EDDY McGREGOR: I'd like to bring up the story of The Gunner from Galway. Gunnar Devlin. This one on Pa. Jack Devlin, he was quite a character. Alex and Whiteman and Chief Long were going to get the Gunner from Galway. They were really after him. And the Gunner says to me "Eddie, I want you to go up to the Hume Hotel and get my effects out of there, and don't let anyone see you go in. I says " I can't do that." He says " Oh, yes, you've got to do it. They want me and I've got to get out of town." So I sneaked up to the Hume Hotel, and I got the Gunner's stuff out of his room and I slipped it down to the station and I met the Gunner around behind a freight car, I gave the Gunner his stuff and I said "What goes on here ?" He gave me a $10 for doing this and he says "The police are all looking for me - Alex Stewart, Jim Whitman and Tom Long - they're after me." At that particular time Tom Long was taking a prisoner to Vancouver and I got the Gunner's stuff down to the train without Alex or Tom Long seeing him and they got out here by the old Slaughter House and the old Gunner walked up and he shook hands with Chief Long and he says "Chief Long, you didn't get me this time, did you ?" Of course it was then out of the city and out of his jurisdiction. The old chief said " How in Hell did you get on this train ?"
ALEX STEWART: What do you think of that for a son-in-law ?
FRED MORRISH: Is it too late to arrest him now ?
ALEX STEWART: One time, you know. Dr. Mackenzie ( you remember Dr. :Mackenzie ) he was playing cards with me in Bush's Cigar Store, and they were talking about Gunner from Galway ( and he really was a wonderful fellow ). And Doc Mackenzie says, "By Golly, where is he now ?" Well no-body knew where he was. He says "Well that's one man I've heard so much about him. I'd like to see him." All of a sudden the swing doors going into the cigar store swung back and " THE GUNNER FROM GALWAY " and there he was.
EDDY McGREGOR: Are you interested in that character we're talking about The Gunner from Galway ? His name was Devlin. Now I'll tell you an incident back in 1917 - 18, my dad and I went down to Spokane - my mother had the flue ( incidentally she died at that time - it was the epidemic ). Well we walked into the bar in the Coeur D'Alene. There was an old peg-legged bar tender in there. "Oh," he says " you're from Nelson,?" Dad. says "Yup," I was only a punk kid, about 17 or 18 years old, you see. He Says to Dad. " Did you ever hear of a character from that neck of the woods named The Gunner from Galway ?" This was right down Dad's alley and he said "Why, of course I do. That's Jack Devlin, I know him very well and my boy knows him." The bartender says " It's a funny thing, one time, years ago I was sitting in the bar here - things were quiet - and a fellow burst in, big as life and twice as natural and he says "I want to borrow fifty bucks" He said " I'm the Gunner from Galway, give me fifty bucks " just like that." And the bartender said " As stupid as could be I just handed him fifty bucks and after a while I began to think and I said to myself ""Who in Hell is the Gunner from Galway"? He thought he was out fifty bucks. So about six months or a year later another fellow burst into the bar, big as life and twice as natural, put fifty bucks down and twenty-five bucks beside it. He said " I borrowed fifty bucks from you and here it is " Set 'em up for the house" The bartender said "Who in Hell are you ?" He said "I'm the Gunner from Galway."
EDDY McGREGOR: He went up here in the high hills one time and he was wildcatting. He went up in the hills and he had a prospect there. Every place he came to where there was a high rock he stuck up a piece of stovepipe - here and there all over his claim. Well he got some people out from England and he was going to sell them a gold mine. He took them up there - they went up on snow-shoes and while the Limeys were looking around he was saying "There is the bunk house, there is the cook-house and there's the shaft over there," And they bought the mine. This is not fallacy - this is true. and when they went up there in the spring and hauled the equipment up there, all they could see was pieces of stove-pipe laying on tall rocks. He made a big killing here and he chartered a special train C.P.R, from Montreal - right to Nelson from Montreal from his girl-friend's and back again. He was a fellow that made a fortune several times over and spent it as fast as he made it. He should go down in history because he was fantastic. We had fabulous characters in Nelson - Coal-oil Johnny .....
ALEX STEWART: His hole is still up there on the side of the mountain
EDDY McGREGOR: Silver-King Mike. Another fellow who should go down in history is Tatter-Jack ?
EDDY McGREGOR: One more story and this one about old Chief Long. He was up on Observatory St. investigating an accident involving a dog that had been run over and he said "Take that dog down into Silica St., I can't spell "Observatory".