Chapter XIX

The Books we have Lost—"The Lost Arts"—The Libraries of St. John which were Burned—The Pictures which were Lost—The Few that were Saved—A Talk about Books and Pictures—The Future—What St. John men must Do—Acknowledgments—Conclusion of the Story of the Fire.

It is only when we come to look around us that we can discover how much we have lost. In one's lifetime a thousand little things are gathered and put away, and we find ourselves turning to them every now and then. Money cannot supply these. Many of them are endeared to us through association. Some are the gifts of friends who have since passed away, never to return, and others again came into our possession in various ways. We may supply, with a portion of our insurance money, a few books, copies of the ones which we have lost, but these will not be the same. They will not be our copies. We love to read our own books. No Suckling can be the same as the one we lost the other day. It was not a rich copy, but it was a whole-souled, generous old fashioned we like to take up now and then, just to fill in the odd moments of our lives; books of engravings and the like, and volumes of Punch, and great volumes of cartoons of say forty and fifty years ago. These are all gone now and few can be replaced.

What great inroads the fire has caused among our private libraries, what a wreck it has made of those precious books we all loved so dearly. And those pamphlets, too, upon which we placed so much value, and the thousand little odds and ends of literature which we so tenderly gathered year in and year out. And our scrap-books—great, good-natured fellows, with broad sides and liberal pages, ready to take in all sorts of matter. These are no more. And whole hosts of unbound magazines, which we had tied together, and expected every day to send off to the binders. These are ashes too. We hesitate before we turn over the books we rescued from the burning, lest we discover greater losses, and miss fairer treasures. How many sets of books have been destroyed, how many massive tomes have been withered by the heat, how many dainty books of poetry have been swept away!

What lovely companions books are. What glorious friends they make. How kindly they speak to us and tell us what they think. We read gruff Tom Carlyle, and pause at his estimate of Cromwell, and hunt through the histories of England to see what Smollett and Hume have to say about the same grim protector. We run through a few pages of Taine and the masters of English literature, but after all we go back fondly to our own Arnold, and read what he has to tell us before we quite make up our mind that the clever Frenchman is right. We sit at the feet of Holmes and read a chapter or two of his matchless Autocrat, and then with our mind full of the delicious sweets, we get down our copy of Hunt and after skimming a page or two of his "Seer," dip into the crisp and sparkling pages of Hazlitt's Round Table. Ah, yes! the fire may take all else we have if it will only leave us our books. True, a man, as the bard hath it—

But after all the mind craves as much for food of its kind, as the stomach does for meats and bread.

Though in St. John we had no public library, there were very many private collections of books in the city. Some of them were very large and well-selected. Dr. Wm. Bayard's collection, not one volume of which was saved, was beyond all question the fullest and ripest medical library in the Dominion. It was the accumulation of many years. The collection was begun by his father and added to largely by the Doctor himself. Some rare medical works, rich in plates, costing as high as £30 sterling each, were to be found here, besides books covering the whole range of medical thought and practice. The English classics, exhibiting the very cream of letters, and some fine specimens of modern literature filled acceptably the doctors shelves. Not a volume was saved. Indeed a photograph album was the only article rescued from the burning house. Mr. James R. Ruel, the Collector of Customs had a fine library, rich in theology and literature of the higher class. Controversial wealth. His collection of pamphlets, the labour of thirty years, was unique and full. He had the whole of the famous Connolly and Wilmot controversy, the scattered papers of the late Dr. Gray, the Maturin pamphlets, the Colenso pamphlets, the notes on the Lost Tribes of Israel, and a thousand others, neatly and carefully put away in cases specially prepared for them. Those are all gone, and not a fragment remains. The gorgeous library of John Boyd, Esq., of Queen Square, with its enormous collection of works belonging to modern literature, its rare list of old books, its magnificent sets of presentation volumes from the authors, its numberless volumes that come from the publishers to Mr. Boyd as gifts, were swept away in an instant. The books in Mr. Boyd's cases were a reflex of the owner's taste and judgment. He had not a poor book among the whole. The entire range of English and American essayists, the whole course of British and American poetry, the cream of historical books, the ripest thoughts of the philosopher, the most delightful gems of fiction, the works of the scientists, and the great tomes of biography, clad in the most luxuriant of luxurious bindings, were the companions of Mr. Boyd's study. His lectures, common-place books, scrap-books, in fact everything which he possessed of a literary character were burned. Even the literary notes which he made from time to time in his record books during the odd moments of his too unfrequent leisure, and the bits of criticism on new poems which he occasionally made for future use on the platform and elsewhere, perished in his desk. His entire intellectual labour vanished in an hour. Mr. A. L. Palmer's splendid library with his own valuable annotations, Mr. A. A. Stockton's voluminous and admirable library, begun by his late uncle, and Mr. Chas. W. Weldon's Law and general library were destroyed before their owners could save a single book. The Rev. Dr. Watters's library, so rich in theology and biography, was burned almost entirely. Lately large additions had been made to this delightful collection. A good many of the late Judge Chipman's best books found their way here, and the most of these were lost. Rev. Mr. Stavely's books were all burned, and not one of Rev. Mr. Carey's fine collection escaped. Some of his books were very rare and high-priced. Mr. Robert Britain's books were of general and private interest. The former embraced almost the whole range of English literature, and the latter included the best books on chemistry and science. Indeed in books belonging to the latter class, it will be difficult to find so large a collection anywhere. Mr. J. D. Underhill possessed a library of rare beauty and value. It was very large in historical works and the writings of the principal British, American and French authors. In biography and fiction of the higher order there was trated and exquisitely finished, were bound in heavy antique morocco. His books of plates, his dramatic library, his collection of plays of the Cumberland edition, his books on costumes from the time of the Saxons to our own day, represented large value, and a refined and cultured taste. In dramatic literature alone, Mr. Fairweather's library was probably the fullest in the Dominion. Indeed his loss in this department is a positive loss to literature, and a collection such as he owned can never be again supplied. Many of the books are out of print, and cannot be purchased to-day at any price. The books lost in the city, on the day of the fire, will number many thousands of volumes. No city of the size of St. John could boast of finer private collections of books, anywhere. It will be many years before collections as rich, as unique, and as delightful can be procured again.

In pictures, the loss met with is really irreparable. We had no public gallery, because our citizens, whose means admitted it, purchased for the walls of their own houses a charming bit of colour now and then, or a delicate engraving or a drawing. A few of the masterpieces of the English and American artists found their way here from time to time, and in the way of engravings the collection was really quite large. We can only give a tithe of the pictures lost. Dr. McAvenney possessed a decided gem in water-colour, by Birket Foster, and a charming landscape in oil from the brush of Mayner, an Irish artist. The latter was a twenty pounds' picture, and one of the prizes which came to St. John last year from the Irish Art Union. It was exceedingly vigorous, and, though small in size, every detail was perfect. In addition to these, Dr. McAvenney lost several fine engravings and one or two exquisite drawings. Dr. Wm. Bayard's loss in pictures is quite large. He owned a capital landscape, The Vale of Strathmore, by John Cairns, of Edinburgh. This was burned, with some others of lesser note, together with a good many engravings, chiefly London Art Union subjects. Mr. R. M. Longmaid lost all but one of his pictures. Some of these were of great value, and included, among a number of others, Francis I. and Henry VIII. on the Field of the Cloth of Gold, by the late G. F. Mulvany, R.H.A., and one of Cairns' Scotch subjects, showing a striking bit of Highland scenery, called Glen Cairn. The one picture saved was a Welsh Landscape, by A. Vickers. This had been lent to a friend in the upper part of the town, and was accordingly not burned. Mr. Charles Campbell managed to preserve a number of his pictures; among them the bold Coast Scene, by John Cairns, which will be remembered by many who saw it as a very striking study. Mr. W. C. Perley, among the very few articles rescued from his house, saved two very pretty little landscapes, one an Irish scene and the other a delicious specimen of C. C. Ward's art. Mr. B. Lester Peters lost nearly all of his engravings, but succeeded in rescuing a study by F. W. Hulme, and a little gem by A. Vickers. Hon. George E. King saved a few water colours by eminent British artists, which he had. Mr. Donald G. MacKenzie, who had half-a-dozen striking oil paintings, recovered them all a few days after the fire. Mr. John Sears lost heavily in the Department of Art, but saved his one great picture, a portrait which is an undoubted Rubens, and one or two family likenesses. Mr. Stephen J. King, whose treasures consist in drawings by McKewan, Philps and others, and some oil-paintings, saved them all. Mr. W. P. Dole lost a pair of very beautiful water-colour drawings of Canadian scenery, by D. Gale, and three or four excellent engravings. He was fortunate in saving however, two charming works by Hulme, two small bits by Vickers, two by G. A. Williams, one of C. C. Ward's pieces, and one of the late John T. Stanton's best works. Mr. Stanton was a New Brunswick artist of fine taste and decided skill. Mr. Dole also saved some of his water-colours, notably those by Bell Smith and Frantz. The author lost an excellent drawing illustrating an idea in Thackeray, and a number of clever caricatures from the pencil of an amateur artist, Mr. Forbes Torrance, of Como, besides several engravings of merit, and a massive bronze figure representing Painting. Mr. Henry Vaughan lost his large costly painting from the John Miller collection, of Liverpool, England. Mr. James Stewart lost his whole collection of paintings; several of these were of his own work, while a number were by foreign artists. Mr. Stewart copied a landscape painting by an English artist which came out here as a prize, some years ago, and when his work was finished and the two paintings hung side by side, the owner did not know which was his own picture. This copy was for some days in Mr. Notman's studio before the fire, and it is believed that it is lost, as no trace has been had of it. The reader will see from this scanty enumeration of known losses, how great has been the destruction in art-treasures alone. We have not even hinted at the wholesale destruction of bronzes, bas reliefs and bits of sculpture and statuary. In these departments the loss has been also very severe. No money can replace these treasures. These were the things which rendered home bright and happy. It is the love of art and literature which refines and beautifies mankind. It is the book and the picture, and the figure of pale marble which rouse a thousand new delights. They take away the brutal in our nature. They lift us up as it were. We look around the room and the eye rests on something beautiful. We feed our tastes. The picture on the wall refines us, the open book fills the mind with a hundred delicate, footless fancies. We breathe a new air. The etchings on the table, the portfolio of drawings and the books of engravings give to our mind a delight as wonderful as it is delicate and delicious. Can money replace these? Can money buy for us these pictures and books which have been for so many years our companions and friends? Can money replace the bronze figure? Can money bring to us again the portrait of the dear one who lies out there in the green wood buried? Can money supply us with that precious volume of poetry which the author gave us just a year before he died? We may make our homes bright again. We may hang pictures on the walls. We may fill to the full our book-cases and hanging-shelves once more with the great things in literature, but our thoughts will wander back to the days before the fire came and robbed us of all those delights which peopled and filled our homes. But we must not give way altogether to gloom and despondency. We must try and forget the past and devote all our energies, all our brains and skill to the rebuilding of the homes and workshops which have been scattered to the winds. We must never rest till the great end is accomplished; we must never cease working. As Christians, as men, as the proud descendants of a sturdy and stalwart race, we must show the world that we are not a generation of pigmies, and that from these very ashes and ruins a brighter, a more glorious and more prosperous city will arise and resume her old place as the metropolis of the Lower Provinces.

I have told the story of the great fire in St. John in my own way. I have tried to do justice to my theme. Like many others I have passed through the flames, and received as it were my first "baptism of fire." My book has many imperfections. It was necessary that it should be hastily prepared. My publishers demanded this, and gave me a fortnight to write it in. I can therefore claim nothing in favour of the book from a literary point of view, but this I can claim—the history is reliable in every particular. Not a statement within its pages was committed to paper until it was thoroughly and reliably avouched for. I have verified every word which this volume contains; and while the haste in which it was prepared precluded my paying much attention to style, the book is a complete record of the fire as it was, and not as a lively imagination might like it to be. Before taking leave of my readers, I must publicly thank Mr. Joseph W. Lawrence for the splendid aid which he gave me in furnishing the data and historical information about our old churches and other edifices. I had full access to his records and commonplace books, and through these means was enabled to verify much that had come to me in an imperfect condition. To Mr. Gilbert Murdoch, C.E., and Mr. Wm. Murdoch, C.E., of the Water Works and Sewerage Departments, I must also return my thanks, for valuable information about the water supply, for the capital map which accompanies this volume, and for facts connected with the acreage and streetage of the district burned. General Warner, Mayor Earle, Mr. A. C. Smith, Mr. John Boyd, Mr. A. P. Rolph, Mr. Dole, Mr. Hiram Betts, Mr. Elder, Mr. J. L. Stewart, Mr. McDade, Mr. O'Brien, Mr. Stanley, Mr. G. B. Hegan and others, also largely rendered me assistance in collecting information, and to these gentlemen I return my grateful thanks.

The little picture of the ruins, by moonlight, of the Germain street Baptist Church, was very kindly supplied by Mr. John C. Miles, a St. John artist of good reputation. I have great pleasure in acknowledging his politeness here, and at this time.

In conclusion, I might add, that to Mr. E. Lantalum belongs the credit of sounding the first alarm of our great fire.