St Julien Day 22 April 1915 marked the first time a large quantity of deadly gas was deployed in battle. On that date, the Germans unleashed 160 tons of asphyxiating gas on Allied soldiers at Ypres. The unsuspecting men were not equipped to handle the yellow-green chlorine cloud that smelled of pineapples and pepper. Some […] Read more…
Playing around with prohibition Legislators added and refined clauses as they continued to debate the merits of Premier Hearst’s prohibition bill. Every municipality would have at least one licensed hotel (“standard hotels”), and boarding houses could bill themselves as such. For an annual licensing fee of $1 (just less than $20—see notes on conversion), these […] Read more…
240 men in three weeks The local military recruitment committee’s aggressive “700 men in three weeks” campaign limped to an end. The 118th Battalion’s numbers stood at 735 men—short of the desired 1000. The previous 21 days’ tonal shifts seemed to track to the waves of interest in the crusade. It began with optimism when […] Read more…
While Berliners followed Welland Canal plot developments and the Montreal Canadiens’ Stanley Cup victory over the Portland Rosebuds, local events and issues were just as engrossing. Good quality hides were scarce and leather tanners and boot makers paid the highest prices in memory. The local Board of Health was busy with ongoing meat inspection issues […] Read more…
Last month I wrote about the challenge of addressing my biases when writing Kitchener 1916 Project posts. This month the challenge is what I call “source bias.” I’m reading two English-language dailies for the Kitchener 1916 Project—The Berlin News-Record and The Berlin Daily Telegraph—therein, it’s easy to argue that by not including local German news […] Read more…
Spring comes to Alert City The ice broke on the Grand River, Robin Redbreast made his first appearance, and a young red fox trotted into town (he was quickly enlisted as the 118th Battalion’s mascot); all hopeful signs Berlin, Ontario’s cold, snowy winter would soon end. The city’s renaming contest was in its final days, with […] Read more…