In defense of Canadian women slandered by a Scot

Friday, 23 July 2010 00:00

One hundred years ago: clippings from the newspapers of July 23, 1910.

Lindsay Post (July 22). A Scottish writer who slanders Canadian women in the Glasgow Weekly Record will not dare to return to this country, says the Post. Or if he does, “It will be in disguise, in order to avoid the fate that would be sure to overtake him were the women of this country to discover his identity.”

The malignant Scot says Canadian women will not work because they believe they are meant for ornaments. But they are, he says “disqualified for ornamental purposes by lack of exercise and by the over-heated air of the Canadian houses, which are warmed by stoves in order that the inhabitant may not perish from the frightful cold.”

He portrays the Canadian women as a fearsome looking creature:

“The result of her stewing and inertia is a dead sameness of strawy, sallow, featureless, expressionless, characterless, laden-eyed faces. Actually, Canadian women are, to the stranger, as difficult to identify as are Chinese. One may meet what he thinks to be the same woman 50 times, whereas it may be a different woman every time, all 50 cooked and lazed into uniformity of unattractiveness.”

“It would be folly,” says the Post, to argue with the writer “or with the newspaper that gives him temporary prominence. It is quite unnecessary to say, of course, that the women of this country are more beautiful than those of any other land under the sun. They admit it.”

NO MORE LOVING CUPS
Peterborough Review. The Review applauds the state of Minnesota in its efforts to curb the use of “the old tin cup, the gourd and the cracked water glass” at “free [water] drinking places.” A notice the state intends to post at public wells and fountains reads: “Warning. Dangerous diseases, such as diphtheria, tuberculosis, etc., are frequently communicated by the use of the public drinking cup. Provide yourself with an individual drinking cup and thus avoid the possibilities of contamination.”

MEAT EXPOSED TO DUST AND FLIES
Montreal Star. Uncovered meat, exposed to the dust and flies of summer, is being hauled on wagons or trucks through the streets of Montreal, and Chief Food Inspector Dr. McCarrey vows to put a stop to it.

McCarrey says the blame lies not with Montreal’s abattoirs but with those in the country where “there is no proper inspection, and we can only watch the carters as they enter the city.” He wants the police to help spot the offenders.

A pending city by-law would make it illegal to transport uncovered food, but in the meantime offenders can be charged with “having meat unfit for food on sale.”

“The carrying of uncovered meat through the city must be stopped. It is contrary to all the laws of hygiene, and there is no excuse for it. It is not much trouble to the butcher to cover his meat with a tarpaulin, or something that can be easily washed.”