Classic Christmas Stories (12 page)

by James J. Galway

W
HEN FOND RECOLLECTIONS PRESENT toour view scenes in
old St. John's, during the Christmas seasons of half a century ago, none is
presented more vividly than those associated with Lash's famous cake
raffles.

The building in which the raffles were held is still on Water St. It is in the
block between the Bank of Nova Scotia on the east corner and the Kodak Store on
the west, and is now occupied by the Valley Nurseries Ltd., with office quarters
of other firms upstairs.

The founders of the firm were the brothers J. & G. Lash, both being expert
bakers and confectioners. In the late 70's two of the younger generation, the
brothers Jeff and Mort Lash, sons of one of the original founders, succeeded to
the business and conducted it under the old name until just before the fire
of 1892.

The firm was celebrated for its high class products in the bakery and
confectionery line, and conducted, besides, a first class saloon and a billiard
room; but the most outstanding part of their business was the annual cake
lottery, followed by a cake raffle, with which they featured the festive
season.

Christmas since then, to most St. John's people who remember those
old December days, do not seem the same at all without
Lash's famous lottery and raffles, no more than summer to most of us if the
annual regatta were abandoned for ever.

The ground flat of the Lash building consisted of the retail double-window shop
at the front, with the portioned off saloon at the rear. The bakery was in the
basement which was approached by a back en-entrance from Stabb Rowe's Cove. The
shop had two parallel counters, partially covered with glass cases which, as
well as the shelves, large glass containers and glass cake dishes, were always
well stocked with the firm's own local made confectionery, and with their high
grade bakings of washington pies, jam tarts, light and dark cakes, ordinary
loaves of bread and the famous penny bun.

The store was generally attended by an attractive young lady and was the
essence of cleanliness and tidiness. It was always brightly lit up in the night
time with gas as the illuminant, no electric light then existing, and reflected
a brilliant radiance from its polished furnishings and mirrors.

The attractive displays of the confections and pastries, particularly under the
gas light after the shades of evening fell, drew sighs of despair from the small
boy as he realized his inability to be able to buy and devour them all, whilst
his greatest ambition was for the day to arrive when he could earn enough to go
in and purchase a washington pie.

True we have many shops with such displays today, but they are not the same to
us as Lash's, have no association with the name, and so can never supplant the
esteem and admiration we felt for Lash's when we were boys. The saloon was
usually entered from the hall door, tho' it had a connecting one from the shop.
A long mahogany counter ranged along the east side, and this branch was always
stocked with a plentiful supply of “ales, wines and spiritous liquors” of the
best brands. A private drinking room, with several tables, was also enclosed in
the saloon.

Another neat young lady assistant attended to the requirements of thirsty
patrons in the department during the regular licensed hours from 6 in the
morning till 10 at night, except in the winter months when the legal hours
were 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

None, or at least very few of the Old Tom drinkers frequented Lash's. It
catered mostly to what was considered a more exclusive class whose favourite
drinks were Bass' Ale, Guiness' Stout, or Scotch Whiskey and
Cognac, with occasional imbibings of Champagne on birthdays or other gala
occasions. “Silver Thaw, ” a mixture of wine and whiskey, “Thunder, ” a blending
of brandy and port wine, and “Negus, ” hot port wine only, were other varieties
appreciated by patrons at times. Then, on frosty days particularly, many a
customer relished a drink of “Mulled Porter, ” an appetizer which was created by
plunging a red hot poker into a pewter mug filled with the beverage.

Captains of English vessels when here, our own foreign going local coastwise
and sealing captains, prosperous outport planters, the elite amongst our city
people such as merchants, prosperous shop-keepers, master tradesmen, office,
hardware and dry goods clerks, were the principal patrons by day as well as
night, but the place was so well conducted that there was never any exhibition
of unseemly brawls.

As there were no clubs then, such as we have today, the clerks spent most of
their evenings in the billiard room over the store where many learned to become
expert wielders of the cue. The clerks particularly those in the many dry goods
stores at that time, were the gayest and best dressed boys in the city. They
were mostly smart young men brought here by the buyers from England, Scotland
and Ireland, besides a number of local city chaps and a few young men from the
outports who soon after their arrival here became assimilated into the wiles and
conventions of the cosmopolitan aggregation. As a group the clerks were
considered by parents, with marriageable daughters, to be the best matches in
St. John's. They were the life and soul of every household gathering and public
party, hence were ever welcome into the homes of the well-to-do. Neatly dressed
as they always were, and possessing splendid entertaining abilities in the line
of vocal, instrumental, and other histrionic arts, they outclassed all others in
the city and so it was a proud day for a mother when she could boast that her
daughter was engaged to a “clark.”

The flat over the shop at Lash's consisted of an extensive billiard room, with
three tables therein. This flat was set apart the first of December for the
annual cake lottery. The billiard tables were so covered as to display, along
with shelve space around the walls, the 250 Christmas cakes that were given out
as prizes when the lottery ended up about a week before Christmas.

The cakes were master creations of the best professional city bakers
such as Joe Wilson, Tom Charles and Will Goudie and their
like in size and attractiveness have never been displayed since. The first prize
was a wonderful amazing creation. It was as high as a flour barrel and of the
same circumference as the latter at the base, tapering off in a three-tier
massive construction, surmounted by a large and most attractive ornamental
adornment, with each tier of the cake also decorated with artistic scrolls of
confectionery. The contents of a full barrel of flour were used up in the making
of this first prize, and with the flour there was also mixed up a firkin of
butter, about 50 dozen eggs, a sack of sugar with many boxes of raisins,
currants, spices, citron, lemon and orange peel.

The second prize was also a wonderful cake being about two-thirds the size of
the first one. The third was another unusually large one but only about half the
size of the latter. Then the sizes diminished till they got down to cakes of
ordinary dimensions, the number of prize cakes in all numbering 250.

The price of tickets in this lottery was one dollar each, and they were sold at
a desk, in the corner of this flat, at which sat one of the young lady
attendants. When purchasing a ticket she numbered it for you, then recorded it
for future reference if necessary. The tickets were gradually bought up from day
to day and were generally all disposed of by the 15th of the month after which
there was a drawing for the prizes, this being conducted by several
representative citizens. At the conclusion a large sheet of cardboard was
displayed on one of the walls, showing the winning numbers, and accordingly
those who held the lucky tickets came and collected their prizes.

The winning of the first prize was the greatest event of the season. It
transcended every other matter however so important, whilst the winner became a
national hero, eclipsing in celebrity for the time being, even the Governor, the
Chief Justice and the Premier. The most prominent among the winners of the first
prize was George E. Bearns, then a dashing young business man of the city and
elder brother of William E. Bearns, grocer of Duckworth St. From a position of
ordinary everyday commonplace importance George E. at once automatically
ascended the heights of renown in the eyes of all St. John's people. He became
the envy and admiration of everybody, and for long after could not pass along
Water St. without being pointed out, amazingly and admiringly, as being
the man who won the first prize at Lash's. Even after he
left St. John's, remaining abroad for many years before returning, the renown
attached to his extraordinary luck at Lash's was but little undiminished, for
if, when he came back, you were passing along Water St. with one of your
friends, and George Bearns appeared in sight, the first thing your friend did
was to tell you that George was the man who won the first prize at Lash's in a
certain year.

The winner of the second prize one season was Private Secretary Mundy, an
Englishman attached to the staff of Sir John Hawley Glover, then our Governor.
The distinction he thus gained, whilst not as great as that which attached to
the winner of the first prize, was very little less, so for long after Mr. Mundy
ceased to be referred to as the Governor's Private Secretary but as “the Mr.
Mundy who won the second prize at Lash's.”

The lottery cakes having been distributed the decks of the billiard room were
cleared for action to stage the dice raffles. This feature was in charge of Joe
Wilson, one of the chief bakers, who supervised the several round tables on
which the dice were thrown and which were attended by a couple of volunteer
assistants at each, these gentlemen being regaled at intervals with cigars and
such liquid refreshments as they desired, as well as being presented with a free
cake on Christmas Eve as a reward for their good and faithful services.

The series of raffles began about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and continued till
the crowd petered out nearing the midnight hour. At each table the names of all
those entering for a throw were taken down in a pass book until 20 persons,
at 20c. each, were in, when one by one the names were called off and each
participator took his turn at the dice box. The maximum throw on the pair of
dice was 36, the minimum 6. The rooms were always fairly well crowded during the
raffle hours but it was a male assemblage exclusively as no women were then
daring enough to venture into such a gathering. Very rarely were the maximum
figures reached, the winning throws wavering on the average from 28 to 32, and
occasionally reaching the fewer higher prizes up to 35.

There was a sort of mild sensation when anyone was so fortunate as to
throw 36 and one of these is remembered in the case of William Carnell, then a
dapper, lively and popular young salesman in Edwin Duder's dry
goods store. He not alone won the first cake that was put up on the dice
that season, but he also astonished everybody in wining it on a throw of 36. He
entered the room in an unconcerned manner just in time to have his name placed
upon the pass book as the 20th man. Then the throws began, rising gradually
to 25, 30, and then 35, after a dozen men had thrown. Then the young man Carnell
stepped in where others feared to tread, confronted by such a large throw, and
in a jiffy rattled out, one after the other, three 12's, thus scoring the
maximum and carrying off the splendid prize. That evening he was induced to set
it up on a game of 45's at a dollar a head for six players. To complete the
sextet he entered himself and again won the cake in spite of a 2 out
and 40 against him in the play off with his opponent. Then he set up the cake
again, at 50 cents a head, but was quite content when he lost out this time. On
his way home however that evening he entered Lash's again just as the last cake
was being raffled. He had barely time to get his name down, and then when the
contest was on he had to face the high throw of 32. Out came the pair of dice
from his box to display three cheerful 11's and so William marched home
triumphantly with another gorgeous cake.

These raffles continued for a period of about a week, ending up on Christmas
Eve. From their commencement in the afternoon until their ending at night a
continuous stream of men and youths entered the rooms to try their luck. Every
one of such who had a shilling to spend made the venture, and many a household
could boast that it had succeeded in winning one of Lash's celebrated cakes.
Some lucky families could boast of having won four, five or six of such, and
many were very much discontented and disappointed that their luck had failed and
so they were unable to sufficiently enjoy the Christmas season with none of
Lash's cakes adorning their sideboard. The lucky families in some neighbourhoods
engendered envy and jealousy amongst the unlucky ones, and as a result many a
boy and girl, children of the former were pelted with more than their average
share of snowballs, for weeks afterwards, because their fathers had succeeded in
bringing home one of Lash's cakes.

Business was always brisk around the dice tables; there was no shouting to come
along and try your luck as the table presiders were kept going, without a stop,
entering the names of all participators. Neither at the entrance of Water Street
was there any necessity to proclaim the raffle
by the blowing
of horns or the ringing of cowbells. The fact that the raffles were on was quite
sufficient to attract the multitude from all around the city, and so no alluring
accessories were needed in the least. As those who won the cakes, and there was
a winner every few minutes, passed down the stairs and out into Water Street,
with their prizes held aloft on their outstretched palms, they usually had to
pass, in the early evenings, amidst a double file of awe stricken children who
gazed in bewilderment at the choice trophies. To add to the Christmas effects
the streets at that time were generally covered with a light snowfall whilst
sleigh bells jingled all over the town as if rendering a musical accompaniment
to the festive season.