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Chapter 12
The Village Transformed
Table of Contents

Title Page
Author's Preface
1 The Road through Richmond Hill
2 First Peoples on the Land
3 The European Settlers Arrive
4 From Miles' Hill to Richmond Hill: The Birth of a Community
5 Tories and Reformers
6 Stagecoach Lines and Railway Tracks
7 The Neighbours at Mid-Century
8 Fire Brigades and Fence Viewers
9 Picture Post Card Village of the 1880s and 1890s
10 Rails through Richmond Hill
11 The Flowering of Richmond Hill
12 The Village Transformed
Parading, Dancing, and Skating
Richmond Hill's Fiftieth Birthday: 1923
Richmond Hill's One Hundredth Birthday: 1973
Skating in Style
Pure Water and Healthy Children
The installation of the waterworks in 1921 inspired a Richmond Hill bard to send this bit of doggerel in to the local paper:
"Mrs. Pankhurst's Lecture"
Flying Kites on Richmond's Hill
Between Old and New
"Dr. Langstaff Describes the Advent of the Horseless Carriage"
Alex Hume's Cushions and the Power of the Press
Turn-of-Century Tracks Block Yonge Street Construction
From Radial Cars to Rubber Tires
Epilogue
Appendices
Table of Illustrations
Index

"Mrs. Pankhurst's Lecture"

The auditorium of the Methodist Church was well filled on Tuesday evening with an interesting and attentive audience, the occasion being a lecture on Social Hygiene by the noted English woman, Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst.

Mrs. Pankhurst stated that the work of the Social Hygiene Council began in England during the war, and in Canada after the war. The Canadian government gives grants to support the cause. Six free clinics are operating in Toronto, and several in Montreal.

The lecturer spoke of her visit to these hospitals where such mottos as "Too Late" and "Why was I not told" were to be found over the doors, and gave a most pathetic picture of the women and children, innocent victims, who were found there suffering from contagious diseases.

Mrs. Pankhurst deplored the wrong done to children who were denied the birthright of physical health; told of young girls who were the victims of the White Slave Traffic, and sounded a warning note against the danger of much of the popular literature of the day.

The lecturer closed a most impressive lecture by saying, "There is an enemy in our midst that strikes at the root of happiness," and urged responsible men and women to strike it hard and to study the question so that our people may be healthy - physically, mentally and spiritually.

Mrs. Pankhurst's gentle manner, sweet voice, and pleasing accent, and her warning words regarding this evil, should make a lasting impression on all who heard her and incite them to do all in their power to put down this raging evil.

The Liberal,November 8, 1923

 

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Copyright © Richmond Hill Public Library Board, 1991