Into the simplicity of the life there entered the society centering around the military. At the close of the Union there were about a hundred officers generally stationed here, many of them distinguished men of high rank and fame. There were often four or five regiments in the town, and the soldiery fraternized with the citizens. Pranks there were, the ringing of bells, the wrenching off of knockers and signs, and more serious peccadillos, but the indulgent public was not censorious. The officers gave many parties, balls, receptions, dances and hunts, all of which the prominent citizens participated in and returned. There were not highly organized kennel or hunt clubs, but they ranged the country far and wide. The officers were good judges of horse flesh as were the humbler citizens and Tattersalls, on St. James Street, opposite the present Star offices, was a busy place for such. It was no infrequent sight to see the horses being trotted up and down past Dolly’s, St. Lawrence Hall and Banque du Peuple for inspection along the street which is today’s busy financial thoroughfare, lined with banks and insurance buildings. The ordinary people participated indirectly in the gaiety of the military régime through the brisk, lively trade with the officers and soldiery, who spent freely. The life, colour, and zest they gave were also a free entertainment. Not only were the streets bright with the uniforms of the soldiers and gay with the sound of fife, drum and brass, but the people would make their way to the Champ de Mars during the day to see the evolutions of the military, where the firing of the cannon frightened the timid boys and girls, or in the early evening the young folk would stroll sweethearting to Dalhousie Square (now the Viger Station tracks) to hear the regimental bands in Barrack Square, and the boys and girls, now no way shy, would peep in at the mysteries of the officers’ mess, which was in plain view. The music would last for hours and the square would resound with laughter till the sun-down gun from St. Helen’s Island proclaimed the time for early bed. Art, literature and music were cultivated by associations at the time and to these the military officers contributed no little initiative. The scholastic system of the two boards of school commissioners was being solidified and Montreal at the end of the Union was progressing substantially, but not so dramatically or so visibly as after the next few decades when bustle began to rule. Life was then more leisurely, more reposeful and at least quite as happy and more contented. FOOTNOTES: [1] Reminiscences of Private Fitzgerald, who came out with the Sixteenth Bedfordshire Regiment in 1861. Cf. “I Remember” series of the Star, 1913. [2] Mr. William Robb, recently city treasurer. Cf. I Remember Series, The Star, 1913. CHAPTER XXII CONSTITUTIONAL LIFE UNDER CONFEDERATION FEDERAL AND PROVINCIAL INFLUENCE