“Ring Out Old, Welcome the New : the Closing Scenes of the Year 1907 and Ushering In of 1908 : Very Noisy, But Orderly : There Were a Great Many People on the Streets Yesterday Morning”
1908-01-02 Herald
The 31st of December, 1907 was a windy, cold early winter’s day in Hamilton.
Citizens out and about the downtown streets would suddenly get caught in a flurry of cold air whipping between the buildings and across the intersections.
A Hamilton Herald reporter beginning his assignment of documenting the New Year’s celebrations observed the effects of the windy conditions in great detail :
“The old year, like a mischievous Puck, spent its last day running about the streets, full of tricks and surprises; now blowing someone’s hat down the street with its owner in full career after it, or rushing round a corner with such startling suddenness as to take one’s breath away; whisking loose pieces of paper in the air in merry sport, and playing other pranks that any aged and respectable person should have been ashamed of.”
Fortunately, the reporter noted, for those who wished to celebrate the arrival of the new year outdoors, the “mischievous Puck” of 1907 had settled down considerably as the clock ticked towards the midnight hour :
“In its closing hours, its manner became more gentle, as though to atone for the frolics of the day, and, as the end drew near, it became peaceful, clam, majestic and set forth all its myriad lights to make bright the way of the newly born year.”
Many Hamiltonians spent the last evening of 1907 in rather civilized ways. Most of the larger churches had evening services to mark the end of one year and the arrival of another.
At other locations, a lovely meal was followed by some dancing after which the celebrants made their way home.
But in the city core, the scene was anything but sedate.
Downtown Hamilton was a noisy, rowdy location as the arrival of the new year approached closer and closer. The sidewalks, and even the roadways, were jammed with a pulsating flow of humanity, loudly ready to greet 1908 with a bang.
Here follows the Herald man’s experience of the greeting given the year 1908 along James and King streets :
Such a noise and confusion as greeted the new year was enough to frighten it out of his senses. Every description of noise that was made at Babel, and several that have been discovered since, were let loose all at once. In the quiet that rested on all before the hour was struck, the bells of St. Paul’s sweetly chimed out Blest Be the Tie That Binds, The Maple Leaf Forever and Auld Lang Syne, but as the bell in the city hall tower began to perform its last office for the year, whistles screeched, bugles were blown, fish horns were tooted, drums were beaten and several unnamed nose-making devices were set in motion, and, last but not least, some bagpipes took up their station at the corner of King and James streets and did their worst.
It was the most noisy reception a new year has had in this city for many years. Between 1500 and 200 men and boys gathered about the center of the city, and, forming themselves into bands, paraded up and down King and James streets, demonstrating to all and sundry that they, at least, possessed good lung power even though their performance did not do much to their musical taste. And for an hour or two after midnight, some of the more hardy spirits continued to parade the streets spasmodically, thumping a drum or fitfully blowing a bugle of fish horn.”
The young man from the Herald undoubtedly joined in the celebrations but was clearheaded enough to pen a fitting conclusion to his article :
“Today a number of dusty parcels labelled “Resolutions” that had been carefully packed away on the shelves of memory’s storehouse early last year were brought out, dusted and carefully put back in their places again to begin another year’s accumulation of dust. The bright weather made it ideal for New Year’s calls and all day the streets were filled with a merry hurrying crowd. In the evening the theatres all did a thriving business. And so the first day of the new year passed away.”
