know what this statue commemorates? I don’t.” It was a view of the Girondins. Just the sort of communication that would have Sam going to an encyclopaedia, Ruth knew, to discover details of the political party, named Girondins for the members of the French Legislative Assembly and National Convention from the Gironde region between 1791 and 1793. Their views were verging more on republicanism than the Parisian deputies, but ultimately they were defeated by the Montagnards. Ruth was well aware of Ted’s compulsion to learn and to investigate every field that came to his attention. In November, Ruth visited Paris and wrote, “Paris is lovely. We drove through the Arc de Triomphe along the Champs Elysee, saw the Eiffel Tower. Love to all.”
Ted had been working long hours every day, six days a week after his graduation. On Friday August 15, Sarah made him a little presentation. “My dear Ted. Birthday greetings. Here is Harry’s tie pin. I know you will take care of it and perhaps value it as highly as he did.” But Ted’s birthday was August 12. She missed it by three days and Harry had been dead for nine years. One wonders how strong a memory Ted retained of the brother who had died nine years ago. In the hundreds of Ted’s letters to his relations later in life that have survived, never once was mention made of Harry.
The family’s interest was centred on the faraway doings of Ruth. How the family must have marvelled at their Ruth seeing the wonders of the world! Postmarked again from Bordeaux, she wrote to Paul, “You should see the big carts drawn by little donkeys about the size of Buster.”
By December Ruth was one of the hard working nurses caring for the French wounded in the disastrous offensives of late 1915. On December 26, Ruth wrote to Martha, “We are having a party — plum pudding — and I may be incapacitated. I got a real American fruit cake for the blesses and champagne and we had a grand treat this afternoon. Last night at midnight mass in the chapel — the patients went on stretchers, chairs and crutches. It was a sight never to be forgotten. Our Abbe is a dear old soul.” Sarah kept this letter so presumably Martha shared its contents. Ruth drinking something alcoholic, going to mass in a Catholic chapel and speaking so warmly of a Catholic priest — George and Sarah must have had grave misgivings about temptation assailing Ruth and that more than the war was contributing to the world’s downfall.
For Ted, the combination of his new world of learning at Meredith and Meredith, together with Ruth’s accounts of a sophisticated existence, made for a broadening insight on the world which contrasted strongly with the blinkered attitude of his religious upbringing.
Ruth encouraged Martha, Ted and Paul to learn French and, early in 1916, sent Martha a ring made by a wounded French soldier, out of apiece of German shrapnel. As the war drew on, Ruth wrote more and more frequently of food shortages, sugar every other day and lack of heating for the patients. She frequently reminisced about the food in her family home, Paul’s maple syrup, the hens laying fresh eggs and about an animal, Sherry, who “is most disappointing in the matter of progeny.” She did manage to get a Swiss cowbell for Buttercup, and from a letter of Ruth’s, we learn that Sarah’s mother, Martha Amanda, was making one of her prolonged and tiresome visits. George and his mother-in-law did not find each other companionable, a family situation bound to be upsetting to the sensitive Ted. By August Ruth had been promoted to Major and had started her long search for a suitable present for Ted. It was to be a chess set worthy of an up and coming young lawyer and Ruth kept on searching until she found what she wanted.
Sarah kept many letters from Martha Amanda. In one short note her mother details her travels from one relative to another, discusses her health and ends with a post script, “You forgot to send the money.” This last is possibly a contribution to Martha Amanda’s welfare or an agreed upon sum to be sent by all the sisters to Bertie, but it must have been a drain on the Weir finances. Martha Amanda Bayne’s letter to Sarah in July of 1916 asks rather anxiously about Paul, “How is Paul standing the work?” Allowances were made for the baby of the family by everyone.
Ted continued to work hard at Meredith and Meredith and to save every penny he could. For the next three years he would have to live in Toronto when attending Osgoode Hall, the only way to qualify for the bar in Ontario. He seems at this juncture to have had no social life at all outside church attendance. Martha, at twenty-two, obtained her B.A. with honours in her English and History course and won the Governor General’s gold medal for obtaining the highest marks of all arts graduates. Ruth wrote to her in August upbraiding her for not learning to swim. “So what if you swallow some water?” but ending with “Hope you get a nice school. How does Ted like the law?” By the last year of the war, Ruth was worried about Sarah’s health and urged her not to work so hard — “Let things slide a bit.” While Paul’s health was a concern to Ruth, she asked her mother about Ted. Martha apparently had written to say that Ted was not well. Ruth was continually concerned about Ted’s heart troubles. She speaks of being very cold, that they cannot keep the hospital warm with its hard stone floors and the lack of coal for the fires. Sarah had obviously found the cows a chore, and Ruth’s advice was “to do what you please with the cows.”
In 1917 after two years of successful articling, Ted went off to Toronto for his studies at Osgoode Hall. Shortly before his lectures were to begin in September of that year, he left home and made his way by train to the big city. His feelings can be imagined on the ride from London into Union Station, a mixture of the excitement and anticipation any young person must feel at the start of a major adventure, coupled with concerns and worries about the state of his finances. Had he saved enough? Would there be expenses he had not counted on in his budget? Apparently he went directly to a boarding house run by a Mrs. Susan O’Shea, listed as a designer who let rooms at 74 Baldwin Street. It was Martha who travelled to Toronto to see how he was making out. She spent Labour Day weekend with him, leaving very early on the Monday morning in order to get to Sarnia for commencement of her teaching duties on Tuesday morning.
Ted wrote home: —
“Labour Day 1917 Dear dad and all: — Martha got here safely and Mrs. O’Shea let her have a room. The train was an hour late caused, I suppose, by Exhibition and Labour Day traffic. We went to the Exhibition Saturday afternoon. There was a crowd and that made it difficult to see the exhibits. I expected, at least, to see something extra-ordinary but was disappointed and although there was a huge conglomeration of things I found nothing of interest but some rattlesnakes, deep-sea fish, a West Indies Exhibit, and some cottage cheese mixed with a little peanut butter and moulded in various shapes.
I got up early this morning and went down with Martha to the Union Station, breakfasted at the Walker House Cafeteria, spent the morning reading at the office and wandered around town this afternoon. I will read some more tonight but I find it tedious and hard to keep my interest up. I haven’t touched law.
A week ago Sunday I sat out on the Island and finished Salton on “Hereditary Genius.” I now have on hand Hamerton’s “Intellectual life,” “Essays in the Art of Writing” by R.L. Stevenson, “The Ocean,” by Sir fohn Murray and a book on authors called “18th Century Sketches.” Quite a collection as you see.
I’m a bit worried about my Law School work. In the first place, I don’t know how to study. I thought of taking a heavy meal in the morning and quitting supper but it wouldn’t be feasible when boarding. I have decided to try getting up at 5.30 and have some toast and cocoa and study until breakfast. I will try walking or exercising an hour after supper to overcome its effect of drowsiness and reading say from 7.30 to 9.30. I have some doubt whether I can stand that much work but it will probably be necessary.
The enclosed circulars were got at the Exhibition. I wish you could send me some magazines for light reading — some Literary Digest if you have any. Martha found her pin — Ted.”
Both loneliness and anxiety were Sam’s lot as he began the formal part of his legal training, and his reading material as he outlined to his father was
