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The Girls I Might Have Married (Part II)

Part II of A Series of Sketches by a Prominent Bachelor, written for the Canadian Jewish Chronicle Read Part One When I reached the age of 21, I had become the foreman of my department and was earning $25 a week. This was in the days when a man who earned fifteen hundred a year had a…

“Mashers I Have Met” — Toronto Girl Tells All (1913)

From the Toronto Star Weekly, July 5, 1913 One popular fellow-singer proposed a jaunt to the Eastern States — Stopped on Yonge Street — How a pretty pianist saved herself from pursuer — jabbed him with hatpin If a girl in any vocation in Toronto would be thought safe from molestation you naturally would presume…

Helen Keller at Massey Hall, 1914

A WONDER WOMAN AT MASSEY HALL Helen Keller Spoke to Large Audience Who Were Spellbound. HER FAMOUS TEACHER Mrs. Macey Taught Blind, Deaf Mute to Speak and Hear. From the Toronto Star Weekly, January 1914 A magnificent audience almost filled Massey Hall last night, attracted by the appearance of Helen Keller and her almost as…

Ups & downs of a department store elevator (1900)

From the Toronto Star, 1900 Character Sketches Among the Throngs Who Travel Up and Down in the Big Departmental Stores of Toronto David Harum, who said, when striving with his rich friend, that many a wealthy man would duck his head instinctively at the cry, “beware bridge,” knew what he was talking about, for nearly…

Panic at Yonge Street crossing (1910)

A Little Panic at Yonge St. Crossing — Crowd Burst Around Behind One Train and Ran in Front of Another From the Toronto Star, 1910 Careless shunting almost caused a serious accident at the Yonge street crossing on Saturday night. The Chippewa came in about 10.30 with a crowd of passengers, anxious to get to…

Davisville hotel to disappear (1928)

Photostory From the Toronto Evening Telegram, June 1928 Old North Toronto landmark at southeast corner of Yonge and Davisville has been sold for $80,000 — may become site for an apartment house. The sale was made to a Toronto investor through Sam D. Boyd, Ltd., St. Clair and Yonge realty firm. ♦    

First Home of Heintzman Piano Factory

From Toronto Evening Telegram, 1928 When King Street, from Yonge Street to the Market, was Toronto’s busiest shopping district, Heintzman’s piano factory was at number 117, just east of Church Street, opposite St. James Cathedral. This is a picture of the factory taken about 1880. “Ye Olde Firme” occupied these premises until removal to the…

Toronto’s ‘400’ Sometimes Visit Pawnbrokers (1914)

From the Toronto Star Weekly, June 13, 1914 “It is a great mistake,” said a local pawnbroker, “to imagine that the pawnbroker deals only with the poverty-stricken classes. The pawnbroker in a big way of business could reveal, if he so chose, some very surprising secrets of the business he transacts with customers whom the…

Infuriated Toronto Youths Riot Over Showing of Swastika (1933)

Police Rushed to Willowvale Park After Ball Game to Restore Order From The Montreal Gazette, August 17, 1933 Toronto August 16 — Hundreds of infuriated Jewish and Gentile youths clashed, and a mob of 10,000 surged riotously around Willowvale Park tonight after a large swastika emblem painted on a white quilt had been displayed on the…

Saving the Babies of Toronto’s Poor—Pure Milk Depots Doing Grand Work (1911)

From the Toronto Star Weekly, August 26 1911 Enterprise of the Household Economic Association Has Achieved Wonderful Results—Little Ones so Frail They Had to Be Carried on Pillows Have Been Bolstered Up Into Strength—Certified Milk Sold for Eight Cents a Quart, the Society Paying Difference Between Cost and Selling Price — Three Depots in Active Operation.…