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- 88 REMINISCENCES OF OLD VICTORIA
exclaimed, " There is the old church we went to ! My father built it," and then I remembered the fact. Well can I remember the old church, with its old-fashioned windows, seats and gallery, and its organ that stood in , the gallery, facing the congregation. When I first remembered it, Mrs. Atwood, now Mrs. Sidney Wilson, was organist, and I was organ-blower. Originally it was played as a barrel organ, as it contained three barrels which contained ten tunes each, but Mr. Seeley, the owner and proprietor of the Australian House, at the north end of James Bay bridge, made and adapted a keyboard to it, and Mrs. Wilson played it in the morning and in the afternoon. In the evening the key-board was removed, and your humble servant ground out the hymn tunes as on a barrel organ.
It was in this gallery that I first met John Butts we have heard so much of through Mr. Higgins. I remember Butts as a sleek, respectable-looking young fellow with a nice tenor voice, which he was not afraid to use, and he was quite an addition to the choir, of which I was a juvenile member. In after years John fell from grace and gave up the choir, and might have been heard singing as he walked along the street, and not above taking fifty cents from someone well able to give it. He was always cheerful and goodnatured, and if a child were lost John would ring his bell and walk up and down calling out the fact.
This view of the old city is taken from the rocks on the Indian reserve, and in the foreground is a large building which occupied the site of the present marine hospital. When first I remember this building it was used as a lunatic asylum. It is the only prominent building shown on the reserve, with the exception of the Indian lodges, which by the extent might accommo-
VICTORIA IN 1859-1860 89
date easily two thousand Indians. The harbor is full of shipping, taking up the whole frontage from the Hudson's Bay Company's wharf north, which is the only one distinctly to be seen in the view. The vessels reach to the bridge across the harbor.
At anchor is the historic Beaver, and steaming out of the harbor is the British steamer Forward. On the Hudson's Bay Company's wharf is a large shed or house. I do not see the present brick building, which was not built then (1859), but Mr. Glide says in a large shed on this wharf the British Colonist first saw the light, the advance sheets being printed here in 1858. When the shed was torn down a little over a year ago there were brought to light a number of old letters, which was a good find for the man who had the job of taking the shed down, for there were lots of old Vancouver Island stamps on these letters.
The Colonist was moved from here to Wharf Street, about where the Macdonald block now stands. Also Wells, Fargo's express first did business in this shed, then moved to Yates Street, where it was located in a building, the lumber for which was imported from San Francisco, being redwood. This building was after-wards moved to Langley, between Bastion and Fort, and used as a feed store by Turner & Todd, whom we all know.
An incident by my schoolfellow Ernest Leigh, of Up-land Farm in 1859, finishes this reminiscence.
KILLING OF CAPT. JACK.
Referring to Mr. Higgins' most interesting account of the killing of the noted Indian chieftain, " Captain Jack," at the Victoria jail in the year 1860? the result
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