St.
Anthony, Newfoundland
April 20, 1912
Dear Mr. Editor,
The snow is still piled here around all our buildings. One of the
cottages is absolutely shut in by a wall twenty feet high. All winter long it
has been snowing and adding to our pile. The trees on the hill-top back of the
Mission settlement are entirely buried and only here and there a green tip
stand s out to modify the unrelieved whiteness of the whole landscape.
While the winter has not been as cold as last by the thermometer,
it has been much more disagreeable. Three or four heavy snow storms with high
winds and low temperature have made us realize what a northern winter really
can be when it tries.
The month of February, however, was very mild, and during that
time we were hauling out our firewood with the reindeer. Owing to the deep snow
and the inaccessibility of the moss on which the deer feed, the have not been
in the best of condition this winter and consequently could not pull as heavy
loads as they sometimes do. They have however, pulled a creditable quantity of
firewood for us.
The gasoline wood-saw given us last year by Mr. Rosenwald has
proved one of the most useful of acquisitions. Last fall all the winter’s wood
supply was sawed up during odd afternoons by some of the older boys, and as
soon as the snow has gone the wood that has been hauled this winter will be
sawed up and have a chance to season a little before it is needed for next
winter’s firing. We really need a large woodshed in which we could store the
firewood a year ahead; it would then be possible to burn seasoned instead of
green and half-green wood during the winter.
The fuel question is one that is of grave importance, and we hope
that the Geo. B. Cluett will make trips enough in the future to bring us a
sufficient quantity of hard coal so that we shall not have the dread of fuel
famine that we have always had formerly. We also need a sufficiently large
quantity of soft coal from Sydney, which we may be able to sell to our
employees. They find it very difficult to get firewood, and we might save much
of their time by providing them with coal at cost.
We are expecting this summer to get down a large cargo of soft
coal from Sydney for this purpose as well as for our own use. We find that hard
coal is the most economical fuel for our use and it is absolutely necessary
that we have enough coal to run the hospital and orphanage heaters. Wood is
very expensive before it reaches our wood fire: hauling costs so much. In
winter when it is necessary to give out work for poor relief we might cut wood
here, but otherwise it would be much better and cheaper to rely on coal for
fuel.
Doctor Little has been more than busy at the hospital all winter.
Without the assistance of another doctor he has done all the travelling besides
the regular hospital work. While he has been away, Miss Brown has been “doctor
in charge” at the hospital. More patients than usual have spent the winter at
the hospital. There have been a great many cases of tubercular bones, hip
disease, etc., which are of a very discouraging nature, as it is rather
depressing to doctor and nurses, day after day, to see the same faces without
any improvement in condition.
The carpenter shop has been running full force all winter, making
doors and sashes for the new buildings, the erection of which we are
contemplating next summer. These will be a hostel or rest house where friends
of patients who come here in the summer may be entertained at a moderate cost,
or a house in a part of which we may be able to entertain friends of the
Mission who come from the States or Canada, and who would come in increasing
numbers if there were adequate accommodations for the entertainment in St.
Anthony.
We also expect to build during the coming summer a small marine
railway or slipway where our won boats and those of the fishermen may be dry
docked for repairs. During the warmer days of the past month we have been
finishing the upstairs hall or assembly room of the school house and the
unfinished downstairs school room. The room upstairs is to have a large
fireplace and will be fitted up with games and will be used as a reading and
recreation room for the fishermen who call on us spring and fall, and for the
use of the young people locally.
We also expect to have shower baths installed in the school house
during the coming summer. The grounds will also be graded and fenced when our
student volunteers visit us this summer.
Through the kindness of Mr. Stirling some changes have been made
in the Guest House, which have made it much more comfortable during the past
winter. Adequate heating facilities have been arranged; a bathroom is now being
installed, and a new coal stove, several additional windows, and other minor
changes are contemplated before our summer visitors arrive. Indeed, it would be
difficult to overestimate the benefit of Mr. Stirlings’s visit to us last
summer. We have felt since then that we had “at the other end” a friend who
thoroughly understood conditions and needs here and who was intelligent and
interested. We have never doubted the willingness of our friends, but
naturally, when one has visited this coast he understands as never before the
needs that we are seeking to meet. By his words of kindly encouragement and by
his many generous gifts we shall long remember Mr. Stirling.
The night school has been carried on by Mr. Fallon, Mr. Blackburn,
and myself, since the first of January. Three nights a week we have had serious
study work and on Friday nights Mr. Fallon has given the boys some sort of an
entertainment, either with phonograph, magic lantern, or games. Mr. Blackburn
has conducted the book-keeping class for young men. The day school, under the
charge of Miss Appleton with Miss Copping’s assistance, has prospered. During
the coldest weather the school was divided, part meeting in one of the vacated
wards of the hospital and part in the orphanage. When the weather made
possible, school was held in the school house with a curtain drawn across the
room as a partition. Another
winter adequate heating facilities will have been installed in the school
house.
Mr. Forbes and Mr. Evans have given a recital at the church for
the benefit of a new organ. The Methodist choir, under Mrs. Halsey’s direction,
have given us special music at Christmas and Easter, with an excellent concert
at the time of the sports.
As is our custom, the early part of March the sports were held for
two days. People come for miles around to contest for the valuable and useful
prizes that are offered. A spirit of real “sport” is growing, however, and
there are some who contend for the joy of the contest rather than for the prize
to be gained. This spirit is especially noticeable in our boys who have been at
school in the States and have seen real sports in our schools.
If I may be allowed to make a request or two, I would suggest that
some of our friends who send us magazines keep the files intact, tying a year’s
subscription together, as so many people ask us for magazines that contain the
other parts of continued stories.
Some kind friends of my own have been keeping files of McClure’s,
Scribner’s, Century, Harper’s, and the World’s Work for several years and when
the file is complete they tie them in one bundle and send them to us, and this
winter I have had great pleasure in looking through these magazines, month by
month. They happened to be two years old, but this did not matter greatly as to
the interest with which I read them.
On the Strathcona people have asked me for the Youth’s Companion
or the Ladies’ Home Journal of the week or month before that they might read
the opening chapters of a continued story.
We are expecting a larger number of student volunteers than ever
this summer and will have a very busy season no doubt with all the new work
that we have in prospect. We are anxiously awaiting the snow to disappear that
we may start our spring work.
Yours very truly,
Jesse Halsey
