334 CANADIAN LOCAL HISTORY : 



advertisement, headed "Muskrats," which announces that the highest market price will be 

 given in cash for "good seasonable muskrat skins and other furs at the store of Robert Cole- 

 man, Esquire, Market Place, York." Mr. Rogers's descendants continue to occupy the identi- 

 cal site on King Street indicated above, and the Indian Trapper, renovated, is still to be seen— 

 a pleasant instance of Canadian persistence and stability. In Great Britain and Europe gener- 

 ally, the thoroughfares of ancient tovi^ns had, as we know, character and variety given them by 

 the trade-symbols displayed up and down their misty vistas. Charles the First gave, by letters 

 patent, express permission to the citizens of London "to expose and hang in and over the 

 streets, and ways, and alleys of the said city and suburbs of the same, signs and posts of signs, 

 affixed to their houses and shops, for the better finding out such citizens' dwellings, shops, arts 

 and occupations, without impediment, molestation or interruption of his heirs or successors." 

 And the practice was in vogue long before the time of Charles. It preceded the custom of 

 distinguishing houses by numbers. At imriods when the population generally were unable to 

 read, such rude appeals to the eye had, of course, their use. But as education spread, and 

 architecture of a modern style came to be preferred, this mode of indicating "arts and occupa- 

 tions " grew out of fashion. Of late, however, the pressure of competition in business has been 

 driving men back again upon the customs of by-gone illiterate generations. For the purpose 

 of establishing a distinct individuality in the public mind the most capricious freaks are played. 

 In our own streets we have, we believe, two leonine specimens of auro-ligneous zoologj', between 

 which tlie sex is announced to constitute the difterence. The lack of such clear distinction be- 

 tween a pair of glittering symbols of this genus and species, in our Canadian London, was the 

 occasion of much grave consideration in 186T, on the part of the highest authority in our Court 

 of Chancery. Although in that cause celebre, after a careful physiognomical study by means of 

 photographs transmitted, it was allowed that there were points of difference between the two 

 specimens in question, as, for example, that "one looked older than the other;" that "one, 

 from the sorrowful expression of its countenance, seemed more resigned to its position than the 

 other" — still the decree was issued for the removal of one of them from the scene — very pro- 

 perly the later-earved of the two.— Of tlie ordinary trade-signs that were to be seen along the 

 thorouglifare of King Street no particular notice need be taken. The Pestle and Mortar, the 

 Pole twined round with the black strap, the Crowned Boot, tlie Axe, the Broad-axe, the Saw, 

 (mill, .tross-cut and circular,) the colossal Fowling-piece, the Cooking Stove, the Plough, the 

 Golden Fleece, the Anvil and Sledge-Hammer, the magnified Horse Shoe, each told its own 

 story, as indicating indispensable wares or occupations. 



Passing eastward from the painted effigy of the Indian Trapper, we soon came in front of the 

 Market Place, which, so long as only a low wooden building occupied its centre, had an open, 

 airy appearance. "We have already dwelt upon some of the occurrences and associations con- 

 nected with this spot. On King Street, about here, the ordinary trade and traffic of the place 

 came, after a few years, to be concentrated. Here business and bustle were every day, more 

 or less, cre;ited by the usual wants of the inhabitants, and by the wants of the country farmers 

 whose waggons in summer, and sleighs in winter, thronged in from the north, east and west. 

 And hereabout at one moment or another, every lawful day, would be surely seen, coming and 

 going, the oddities and street characters of the town and neighbourhood. Having devoted 

 some space to tlie leading and prominent personages of our drama, it will be only proper to 

 bestow a few words on the subordinates, the Calibans and Gobbos, the Nyms and Touchstones 

 of the piece. From the various nationalities and races of which the community was a mixture, 

 tliese were drawn. There was James O'Hara, for example, a poor humorous Irishman, a per- 

 fect representative of his class in costume, style and manner, employed as beUman at auctions, 

 and so on. When the town was visited by the travelling cutters-out of likenesses in black 

 paper (some years ago such things created a sensation), a full-length of O'Hara was suspended 

 at the entrance to their rooms, recognized at once by every eye, even without the aid of the 

 "Shoot easy" inscribed on a label issuing from the mouth. There was Jock Murray, the 

 Scotch carter; and after him, "William Pettit, the English one; and the carter who drove the 

 hjrse with the "spring-halt": (every school-lad in the place was familiar with the peculiar 

 twitch upwards of the near hind leg in the gait of this nag.) The negro population was small. 

 Every individual of colour was recognizable at sight. Black Joe and Whistling Jack were two 

 notabilities: both of them negroes of African birth. In military bands a negro drummer or- 



