Stories : 1869-1890 22 the respective captains. Thanks to the boat men are due to the parties who interested themselves in getting up the regatta and to Capt. Malcolm McDonald , James Bourke and William Sanderson , Esqs., judges, for the trouble they took in the matter." (Weekly Examiner. Oct. 2, 1885) Georgetown Dramatic Club A performance of the Georgetown Dramatic Club was presented on Feb. 16th [no title given].The attendance was large, the stage appointments good, and all the performances especially of Mss Josephine Fairchild and Mr. Percy Jenkins were well up to their respective parts. High tributes were paid to Mr. Ewen Stewart "to whose energy and enterprise the people of Georgetown are indebted for many such entertainments." (Weekly Examiner. Feb. 26, 1886) Fleet in . "Sixty-two of Nova Scotia 's proud fleet are at anchor in our spacious harbour, seeking cargoes and charters. Twenty-three more of the same fleet grace the splendid shipping places of Montague and Lower Montague, and gladden the hearts of farmers. Nineteen more are loaded at Cardigan and Lower Cardigan . Grand River comes next with twelve, and St. Mary's Bay brings up the rear with six. Before the end of October all the fleet will be dispatched with cargoes of Island produce to their various destinations and their berths occupied by many more." (Contributed to The Clarion, a temperance paper and copied by the Halifax Herald. Nov. 4, 1886) Laving the Court House Cornerstone This occurred on July 14, 1887 as part of the Queen Victoria Jubilee Celebrations. In the corner stone were placed the Public Records of the Province for the year 1886, copies of Island newspapers, three Nova Scotian papers and the current coins of the Dominion. Hon. Dan Gordon delivered an address and introduced the Lieut-Gov. of P.E.I , who said in part. "It is now precisely sixty years since the first legislative appropriation was made to open a road through the to Georgetown and to establish inland mails in the Province. Charlottetown , up to that date being the only Post Office. ... The first Post Office for Georgetown was three miles from the site of the town, viz. at Norton's, but when her majesty acceded to the throne in 1837, the site of the town had been cleared to some extent and the principal streets opened. The buildings were very few and the churches had not been erected, although I see that the tenders for the creation of one were called for that year. The old jail and courthouse was the only public building. It was finished at that time and the first court had just been held there..... In 1837, shipbuilding and lumbering were the chief industries of the county. At Cardigan , Brudenell , Murray Harbour and Souris ships of 400 to 600 tons were then on the stocks and similar vessels were being built annually. Timber and lumber of various kinds were among the chief exports..... Money was then exceedingly scarce and although taxes were low, it was more difficult for a person to obtain five shillings in cash wherewith to pay his assessment than it would be in the present time for him to raise ten or twenty times that amount in money. The fashionable and extravagant attire now worn by all classes was then confined to a very limited number of people in the city. Linen made from flax grown in the fields, homespun or drugget from the sheep's wool raised on the farm, carded spun, woven and thickened in the house and generally made up by the good wife, was the ordinary clothing of all others. . . . Wheaten bread was rarely used.. The stalwart men who cleared the county used oatmeal. [It was] more profitable to sell the wheat and it was almost the only article for which they could obtain cash or pay the rent. The wood sleigh and the cart served all the purposes for which we must now have expensive, jaunty sleighs. The spinning wheel, the carder and the loom have been replaced by the piano, the organ and the sewing machine. The farmer's life was then one of constant toil and hardship. He had to clear and subdue the forest before he could cultivate the land and he generally began that Herculean task without a dollar in his pocket and with nothing but his axe and his hoe. He cut his crops with the scythe and threshed them out in the sweat of his brow with the flail. . ." CWeeklv Examiner. July 22- 29, 1887)