This wedding procession through Main Street was held in honour of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Hector.

and Island architect William C. Harris; it reinforces Ben- jamin’s picture of the town as a thriving community: “This day fortnight I went to Souris on business for W.D. Davies. I had a pleasant time of it and stayed atMac- Donald’s boarding house. DeMille (who) is in charge of the Merchants’ Bank of Halifax in Souris is hot about get- ting a Ritualistic Church put up in Souris. Souris is becoming quite an important place. There is a con- siderable amount of business carried on in it. The streets were thronged with country people and trucks contain- ing Barrelled Mackerel and other fish. While I was there 40 Yankee fishing schooners came in for shelter behind the Breakwater, where they lay as quiet as if they were in a Mill Pond. I thought as I looked out over the Bay from my bedroom window that I might have been looking up the River Mersey (at Liverpool, England). The vessels were all anchored in line and each had a light burning. On Sunday I walked to Rollo Bay and spent the day with Mr. Meade, the shipbuilder. 0n passing the RC. chapell counted 52 vehicles ranged in the road opposite the chapel. I think it is time for the country people to stop their incessant complaint of poverty — new houses and barns are springing up on all sides, with stock yards full of grain and all grades well dressed, with horses and waggons, and I may say they have comparatively no taxes and no Lancashire lingo.”

Everyday life in these decades after the middle of the century was much more comfortable than it had been earlier, but it still left much to be desired by comparison with our own times. Houses were generally low- ceilinged, although the well-to-do in the course of time gave way to the temptation to make their homes osten— tatious with high ceilinged rooms upstairs as well as down and with large attics, sometimes under mansard roofs. The exteriors were embellished with bay and oriel windows and surrounded by verandas richly adorned with fretwork decoration. Buildings were clad in clap-

board and shingles and were cheerfully painted in schemes of two and often three colours. Unfortunately, many of these architecturally handsome old houses have in recent years been cheapened in appearance by the destruction of their ornamentation and by the application of inappropriate siding.

Homes were heated by wood stoves and fireplaces. They were draughty because they were uninsulated, ex- cept for the banking of the houses in winter. The family worked and ate and sometimes slept in comfortable proximity to the kitchen stove. Bedrooms often opened off the kitchen, and the kitchen stove pipe routed through a bedroom gave it some warmth. There were two fuels, hard and soft wood, but it took a clever housewife to bank the fires so that they would last through the night. In the 18603 the old friction match, which was dangerous to use, was being replaced by pa- tent safety matches, wax vestas and cigar lights. The barn on winter mornings was probably more comfor- table than the kitchen, and for the men it was not unplea- sant at five o'clock on a frosty morning to do the barn chores and milk the cows in close proximity to warm animal bodies while waiting for the kitchen to warm up where they would later eat a breakfast of hot porridge cooked on the low stove.

Kerosene lamps were a luxury. Most people used can- dles and primitive whale oil lamps. Seal oil and pork grease were also used. They smelled and smoked, and left their residue on the low beams of the kitchen ceiling. Rush lights were bullrushes soaked in fat and stuck on a spike. Outside at night it was very dark. Tin lanterns pierced with holes held candles, but gave very poor il- lumination for nocturnal navigation.

The wood stoves and timbered houses made fire a danger as well as necessity. In Souris the whole town turned out when a building caught fire; indeed, the fire department consisted of all the able-bodied men of the