134 Community

There was a ball at the Sea View Hotel when it was first taken over by Bannerman Cox c.1900. The Grand Ball of 1894 was held in St. Patrick’s Hall a few years after it was built. But the young people enjoyed informal sleigh rides and house parties where they played whist, sang and danced. There was a shooting gallery in the Red Rag and usually some lonely sailors at the Sailors’ Rest Hall waiting for company to play a game of cards or checkers.

In February, 1890, Souris held a Carnival in the rink. In spite of a snow- storm, 300 attended. As the Souris Band played an overture, 100 skaters in

very original costumes “glided gracefully over the glossy surface, present- ing a spectacle never before equalled in the country.” Credit was given the

rink directors for not accepting any chestnut (?) costumes “and if other rink managers would do likewise our carnivals would be far more enjoyable and more liberally patronized.”1°9 The following are a few of the entries:

Ladies

Mrs. Bannerman Cox Spanish Lady Mrs. William Knight Fair Rosamond Gertie Matthew Fair Maid of Perth Miss McQuaid Normandy Bride Sibbie McWade Martha Washington Miss B. McCarthy Esmeralda

Miss E. Kickham Goddess of Liberty Miss E. Paquet Egyptian Lady Marcella Lavie Pocahontas Jennie Lee Lady of the Lake Jessie Cheverie Mexican Girl Gentlemen

Alfred Cheverie Jockey

William Dingwell Bulgarian

F. Heartz Romeo

J .J . Hughes Knight Templar William Knight Orlando

B. Matthew Page

Frank White Chinaman

Alfred Wood Scott Act

Tom Kickham Snowflake

Frank Morrow Indian

The following is a copy of an interesting letter to the Editor of the Island Argus taken from Dr. E.B. Muttart’s scrapbook. Unfortunately the date is not given but can, no doubt, be found in a July edition of the 1873 news— paper. The letter is signed J .C.U. (John Collier Underhay) and E.B.M. (Dr. Ephraim B. Muttart).

On Thursday the 24th of July, Rollo Point, a beautiful sequestered spot, just in view of the place immortalized in Captain Marryat’s novel, The Naval Officer by the visit of Lord Thunderbolt was the scene of a picnic under the aus- pices of Mrs. Knight of Souris, at which the elite of Souris and some few friends from Bay Fortune with several strangers from Charlottetown, and the sister provinces