This Was Called "La Grande Tronciade!" Well In One Of The
Twelve Parts Of This Production, So Very Original, There Were Three
Remarkable Lines.
"Buvons, buvons, amis, de ce bon maccallome,
Venant directement du brasseur qu'il denome!
C'est ca qui vous retape et vous refait un homme?"
The effect was magical. The heart of the brewer was touched. A long
waggon on which we could read the eloquent words "pale ale and porter"
stopped next day before our door. For twenty minutes a man with
burthened step climbed the Jacob's ladder which led to the poet's
attic, and one hundred and forty-four bottles of inviting appearance
ranged themselves around the chamber. I cannot picture the joy of the
happy recipient. In his enthusiasm he offered me a community in his
good fortune - of course under a pledge of inviolable secrecy. But as I
felt the imperious necessity of communicating my emotions I was as
wanting in discretion as he had been, and that evening all the
Bohemians, students and literary friends even to the remotest degree
followed in the wake of McCallum's bottles, and invaded the attic
chamber of poor Arthur (your good-natured cousin, Mr. President.)
There we had French, English, Latin and Greek speeches in prose and in
verse. Arsene Michaud has even prepared a story for the occasion. In
brief, the hecatomb was made; the libation was Olympic, the twelve
dozen disappeared and on the morrow poor Casgrain showed me with a sad
face the Homeric remains of his one day's wealth, and in a lamentable
tone of despair he exclaimed: "I will have to write another poem."
Gentlemen, that was the first time in Canada that poetry made a return
to its author, and in tasting these delicate viands which the
hospitable city of Quebec now offers to one of those early Bohemians
in recognition of his literary success, I could not fail to recollect
with emotion this amusing circumstance now enveloped, with other
scenes of youth, sometimes glad - sometimes sorrowful, in the shadowy
robe of past recollections. Another story just suggests itself to my
mind. Lusignan and I occupied the attic of an old house in Palace
street. Our room was heated by a stove-pipe, which reached from the
lower apartments. One day I had published in Le Canadien - Tempora
Mutantur - a little poem in which was the following line:
"Shivering in my attic poor."
The next day a surprise awaited us. A dumb stove had replaced the mere
stove-pipe, and while holding our sides from laughter we heard this
speech: "Gentlemen, we are very indulgent, considering your noisy
meetings - we are not very particular when rent-day arrives - and if you
so shivered in your room, it would have been better to have
said so privately, than to have complained of it in the newspapers."
(Laughter.) Poor Mrs. Tessier, our landlady - she was not well
acquainted with figures of speech, but she has been the Providence of
many of the destitute, and more than one who hears me now can say as I
do, that no better or more obliging heart ever beat in a more pitiful
bosom towards purseless youth.
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