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- 152 REMINISCENCES OF OLD VICTORIA
music was produced by the barrels, worked by a handle, and the writer on these occasions was the " organist." An amusing incident occurred one Sunday evening when I, forgetting the number of verses of a hymn to be sung, stopped playing, and the congregation commenced another verse. Seeing that I had made an error I began again two notes behind. This made confusion worse confounded, as may be supposed, but having commenced I continued to the end of the verse. This being the closing hymn, "Lord, Dismiss Us with Thy Blessing," I was not long in making my exit from the church, as I did not wish to meet Mr. Cridge or any of the church officers, being only a youth and anticipating censure, but I forget if I got it. About this time a committee of ladies of the church, among whom were Mrs. A. T. Bushby, mother of Mrs. WT. F. Bullen, and Mrs. Good, her sister, both daughters of the Governor, Mrs. Senator Macdonald, and Mrs. Cridge collected a large sum of money and sent to England for a fine pipe organ which I suppose is the one in use to-day. The first organist of this organ was a Mr. Whittaker, and of the choir, as near as I can remember them, were the Misses Harriet and Annie Thorne, Mrs. T. Sidney Wilson, Mrs. Macdonald and her two sisters the Misses Reid, Dr. J. C. Davie, Alex. Davie, his brother, Mr. Willoughby, Robert Jenkinson, Albert F. Hicks, John Bagnall, my brother Rowland and myself. Mr. Walter Chambers, as a youth, was organ blower also about this time. The first sexton and verger was William Raby, and the next John Spelde, who had charge of the Quadra Street Cemetery, digging the graves and collecting the fees for the same.
I have spun this article out beyond what I intended, but I must be excused as I don't know when I have said enough on pioneer days.
CHAPTER XVIII.
CHRISTMAS IN PIONEER DAYS.
. When I remember all the friends so linked together
. . . Fond memory brings the light of other days around me."
I HAVE been requested to give my recollection of a Victoria Christmas in the good old days, as to how it was spent and conditions generally. In the first place, in speaking of "the good old days " of the sixties, I would not convey the impression that they were literally so good, for they were, so far as I can remember, some of the hardest that Victoria has seen.
There is a something in recollections of the past that
have been pleasant that is indescribable. It is easier
felt than described, and I have no doubt is felt by many
old-timers in this city to-day. Ask them to describe
these feelings and they would be nonplussed. " Mark
Twain" was written to by the pioneers of California
inviting him to come and speak of the early days of San
Francisco, when he was himself a pioneer of the Pacific.
What his reply was I now forget, but it was something
to this effect : " Do you wish to see an old man over-
come and weep as he recalls those pioneer days?"
These were a few words of what he said in reply to that
invitation. " The good old days" may not have been
the most prosperous, nor the happiest that " Mark
Twain " may have spent, but there was a something, a
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