The "Thistle Mission Band"

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#81 Date: November 15, 2000

#81a ANNIVERSARY OF HALIFAX DISASTER
(The Canadian Press)
Halifax, Dec. 6 -- Canada's greatest disaster - the Halifax explosion - occurred twenty-four years ago to-day, leaving 1,600 dead, thousands injured and damage amounting to $35,000,000. Halifax was then, as it is now, one of the world's most important wartime ports. Activity in the city was just commencing on Saturday morning, Dec. 6, 1917, when the Belgian relief ship Imo and the French
munitions freighter Mont Blanc collided in the narrows of the harbor. The Mont Blanc's deckload of benzol burst into flame as the ships parted, and a few minutes later 3,000 tons of explosives in her holds blew up.
Three thousand buildings were smashed as the tremendous concussion of the explosion struck the north end of the city, leaving it a shambles.  Dazed survivors, many of them badly hurt, searched ruins for their families. Twelve hundred bodies, were located, and 400 are still listed as missing.
The great explosion is still fresh in the minds of many Halifax citizens, for many still bear the scars of that Saturday twenty-four years ago, but the city holds no special observance of the day.

#81b (Hand written at the top of the clipping - 1939.)
CHILLING NEWS.
Ithace, N. Y., April 15 -- To shivering New Yorkers, awaiting the delayed advent of warm weather, came to-day this chilling news - in 1816 there wasn't any summer! A scrapbook diary kept by the grandmother of an Elmer Dillon of Buffalo, reveals chronologically a summerless 1816 when there was snow in March, April, June and October. There was frost in the other months.

#81c FROM ALDERSHOT.
G-18122
Pte. L. Bruce,
"C" Coy. Car. York Regt.
Aldershot
March 10, 1940.
To Editor of The Daily Gleaner,
Fredericton, N. B., Canada
Sir: -- I am a private from the district of Nasonworth, N. B., near Fredericton and I am now in training with the Carleton and York Regiment in England. On an impulse I decided to try and give some idea of what we think of our Mother Country. I wish very much to have this or extracts of this article published, but of course this is for your judgment. The English scenery is very beautiful and I was impressed by the particular care that had been taken on the houses and fences which are nearly all built of brick or stone. The streets themselves are narrower than ours and accordingly the cars are smaller and the English motorists drive on the left-hand side of the roads thus the cars have all right-hand drive. London has been the main center of sight-seeing with most of the soldiers, with a few who have been given leave to more distant points, for many of our boys have relatives in Scotland and Ireland, as well as England.
At first it was almost impossible to get around after darkness had fallen for "the blackout" which is strictly enforced here, both by military and civil law was more confusing to us than the forests of
Canada, but as we grew more accustomed to our surroundings, we became more familiar with the place. My leave was given me for Liverpool where I was given an address and asked to go by a friend back home, whose relatives are living there. On my arrival I was warmly welcomed and shown many sights of interest. Among these were the Liverpool and Gladstone Docks which extend for
miles up the mouth of the River Mersey. I was then taken thorough the Mersey Tunnel which is a wonderful feat of engineering and extends for two miles under and across the river.

#81d ENGLAND

They tell us this is England
And well perhaps they may,
For in what other country
Could freedom hold such sway?

With all its fame and glory
To all the world is known,
And told that old, old story
Of England and her throne.

Where men have bravely struggled
And sacrificed their lives
To keep her name and honor,
And praise it ot the skies;

From Knights in shining armour
To soldiers of our time,
Have fought and died for England
And liberty sublime;

The fortress of our Empire,
She stands for truth and right.
Would you dare to hesitate
To help us win the fight?

Rise up, ye Allied nations,
Take heed to England's call,
To fight in desperation
Lest our Dominion fall.

To thee in salutatoin,
We give our country's pride,
The dearest of our nation,
To fight by England's side

May victory then be handed
To those who follow Him,
With arms once more disbanded,
And nations all are kin.
L. Bruce

#82 Date: November 15 2000

#82a CHILLING NEWS
...
and in Nova Scotia
1816 - The year with no summer. Freezing weather in May. Blizzards in June. Vegatables froze in garden. Animals starved. Thought to have been caused by the eruption of Mount Tambora, Indonesia on August 10-12, 1815 in which 10,000 people were killed and 72,000 died of starvation and disease.
Clemm Larsen

#83 Date: November 16, 2000

This is the last newspaper clipping in the Thistle Mission Band notebook. There is no date except the month and day, and no real genealogical information. It does have some interesting tidbits about New Brunswick. I hope the rest of you have enjoyed these clippings as much as I have, and that someone has found some help with their family's history.

#83a Unusual Features In New Brunswick Make Varied List [The Canadian Press]
Saint John, N. B. July 15 -- Oddities and unusual features are numerous in New Brunswick.  (Note: format altered for easier reading.)

• At Kouchibouguac the steeples and belfries of two churches stand separately instead of on top of the churches.
• Demoiselle Creek in Albert County has an underground lake in a vast cave where there is ice throughout the year.
• A one-tree orchard exists near Fredericton, where a horticultural enthusiastic has grafted dozens of fruit varieties to an old apple tree.
• Fredericton also has: the only golf course on the continent with a periscope enabling the driver to see from tee to hole;
• the first Church of England cathedral on North American soil;
• a house with the back door facing the street and the front door facing the backyard.
• At Grand Falls a cataract, exceeded in magnitude on the eastern part of this continent only by Niagara and the Grand Falls of Labrador, roars over a mighty rock gorge.
• Near Penobsquis a stream rushes out of a hill.
• The biggest fox ranch in the Empire is situated at Salisbury.
• A mill at Edmundston manufactures pulp in Canada and pumps it to a paper mill in the United States.
• Pipes also cross the international boundary line at St. Stephen, where the water supply of Calais and Milltown, in Maine, is pumped across from Canada.
• A museum on Grand Manan Island has a whale's jawbone for a doorway.
• Coal washed up from a submarine seam is picked on the beach of Shippegan Island by people with dog carts and ox teams.
• The largest sardine packing plant in the Empire is at Black's Harbor.
• A dog in the village of Richibucto seems able to add and subtract.
• Stranded when a river course changed, a wharf is high and dry in the middle of a field near Sackville.
• Also nearby are the remains of a railway built to carry ships,
• and the abutments of a bridge moved downstream because it was the scene of an Indian massacre and superstitious folk in the old days refused to cross if for fear of seeing ghosts.
• Not far from Campbellton there is a "Millionaires' Row" in the heart of the talltimbers - luxurious homes which their wealthy owners call "salmon camps."
• More than 100 years old, a mill at Reed's Point is owned by a family who have never carried any insurance, never had a fire and who have always allowed their employees to smoke.
• On an island in Grand Lake birds perform the function of a foghorn when the cries of nesting gulls in heavy mists warn steamboats away from an adjacent reef.
• Moncton has the famous tidal bore of the Petticodiac river; a wall of water rushes upstream twice every 24 hours.
• Near Moncton is an upside-down hill where, due to an optical illusion, a car out of gear seems to coast up it instead of down.
• At Doaktown an ingenious farmer has invented something akin to perpetual motion - a "hydraulic fish" built of old tin cans and junk. The contraption ceaselessly raises water from a stream to supply his house and barns.
• One of the most valuable farms in New Brunswick is under water. It's an oyster farm at Buctouche - a 10 acre plot where oysters are planted and grown.
• King street, Saint John, is the shortest and, for its length, hilliest and wildest main street in Canada.
• Saint John has the Mahaney children, only guadruplets in the Dominion.
• The Reversing Falls at the mouth of the Saint John River are rapids which flow backwards, or upstream, twice a day when the Bay of Fundy tide is high.
• The court house at Saint John has a circular staircase with each step supporting the next in a manner baffling to architects.
• Hartland boasts the longest covered bridge in the world.
• The world's largest lobster pound is at Northern Harbor, Deer Island. Welch-pool, on Campobello Island, in Canada, is the summer home of President Roosevelt of the United States.
• Albert County has the only known deposits of solidified oil.
• Baie Verte's altitude is the lowest of any village in Canada.
• Alma is the home of Captain Molly Kool, believed to be the only woman master mariner.

Oct-Dec 2000