The Huckster(1)
From 1917 to 1944 I continued making weekly trips on the Canadian National Railway from Nipigon to Hornepayne and sometimes as far as Foleyet by wayfreight(2), box car, dog team, velocipeder (3), bicycle, or by walking the track carrying anything from a packsack and two big suitcases up to six trunks filled with saleable clothing for men, women, and children, some chocolate bars, bananas and oranges for treats, or for myself if I missed a meal. At first there were no stores along the line of about 300 miles except at Longlac and Hornepayne where they had some provisions and carried mostly trappers’ supplies and some tourist outfitting supplies.
There were C.N.R. section houses located about every seven miles apart where the section foreman and family lived downstairs and the section men of about four in number lived upstairs. The houses were not insulated, so in winter there was a wood-heating stove and cook stove downstairs and a wood-heating stove upstairs. These stoves had to be fired up about every three hours on the cold winter nights, and with the heavy bed clothes and sometimes shirts on, the men would get sufficient rest for the next day’s work. There was always a good-sized pile of firewood or old railway ties on hand for the stoves, and always a pile of wood in the room near the stove. It would take a red hot stove to supply sufficient heat on the coldest nights.
Outside the trees would snap with the frost and that along with the strong north wind blowing and the howl of a wolf or hoot of an owl supplied the night’s orchestra. Quite often a section man would have his accordian to play his country favourite tunes.
In summer the working hours were changed from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. This gave the men time to go fishing or look after a trapline they had nearby. Blueberries and raspberries grew in abundance in most sections. Thrifty people would preserve a good supply for the winter months. Groceries were shipped free freight to the section foreman and to extra gangs(4) and bridge gangs along the line.
There were also trappers along the line who needed heavy clothing, so Everett (the Old Nipigon Fossil) would pack up his wares from his Nipigon stores consisting of mitts, socks, clothing, rubbers, shirts, and overalls, besides some beads and ribbons, candy treats, tobacco and snuff, and start out usually by passenger train from Nipigon going east about 5:00 a.m. to Orient Bay where there were two section houses, a pumpman, a rock watchman for the railway tunnel at Macdiarmid, some tourists, fishermen, and trappers, besides the section crews, often an extra gang of from 50 to 70 men. Everett always took his postcard-size 122 camera along with plenty of film, and took many photos of the gangs, wildlife photos, and the beautiful scenery encountered on these trips. Then he would walk to Macdiarmid with a packsack and two suitcases packed for buyers over there. Then he would go back to Orient Bay to pick up his trunks and proceed to Beardmore in any way possible, often by open box car. There were no highways in those days. From 1917 to about 1929 there was only the one section house at Beardmore besides the odd Indian trapper’s camp.
END NOTES
1 This is Everett’s own title for this article. “Huckster” means a door-to-door salesman of small items. It also has the connotation of someone who sells in an aggressive, dishonest, and/or annoying way. Everett (he always referred to himself by his family name) did promote his products earnestly but never in a dishonest or annoying way, as this author can attest, having seen him in action.
2 A wayfreight is a freight train which stops frequently to load or discharge freight.
3 A velocipede is a small open-sided railway car propelled by two section hands using a pumping action. Sometimes called a handcar or jigger.
4 An extra gang was composed of workers hired on a temporary basis for specific tasks.
