correspondant where or how they obtained the liquor. We know of no license to sell liquor at the gathering.’2

Nothing further was said or done about the matter. The club probably felt, though, that it had better organize other activities and try to take the public’s mind off the 1877 games. On 14 September, the club sponsored a regatta —— the first of its kind by this group — in Pictou, Nova Scotia. An excursion via steamer, Princess of Wales, was set up to take people to and from Pictou. The regatta was not a success, but it was an attempt by the club to veer away from the regular format of parties and drinking.33

The group held the regular St. Andrew’s Day dinner that year but respected their new resolution and served and celebrated the dinner without alcohol. It was, as the Examiner reported: “the happiest affair of its kind ever held under the auspices of the Caledonian Club.”“ An old tradition was revived as special celebration of the day; a poem, entitled “St. Andrew’s Day,” was written by someone calling himself Stephen M’Slogan and printed in the Examiner. It recalled, as usual, the bravery and honour of the Scots, the continuing bonds of kinship among them, and their ever-growing friendship with the English and the Irish.

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