August 4, 1921
What was happening a century ago this week from the front page of the Cowichan Leader.
August 4, 1921
The most dramatic story on this day’s front page is also the saddest:
FELL FROM BRIDGE – Young Irishman Loses Life At The Rips On Cowichan River.
“Railway construction invariably takes its toll of human life. The building of the C.N.R. in this district has not been favoured with exemption from this rule. On Friday afternoon, about 3 o’clock, Michael T. O’Donahue lost his life at the Rips on the Cowichan River.
“He was aged only 18 and had come to B.C. from his home in Ireland only five months ago. For a month past he had been working on the bridge gang.
“These workmen recently completed the steel span in the bridge over the Cowichan River at the foot of the lake. Then they went back down the line, to put in steel spans at the Rips and below Skutz Falls, where temporary trestlework had previously been installed to allow the tracklaying to proceed.
“O’Donohue was working with three other men at the Rips (Mile 71.6 from Victoria), and while levering a tie, 14 ft.-long, with a peavey, he accidentally fell over the bridge. Neither of the [other three] men actually saw him fall but they heard the splash and saw him floating down the river, which is about two feet deep there and rapid. The bridge stands about 30 feet above the water.
Speedily Rescued
“O’Donahuge was washed down the stream and jammed against a log. Within 10 minutes time he was rescued and pulled to the log with a rope. For more than an hour artificial respiration was performed on the log [sic] but, from the beginning, he never showed any sign of life.
“Mr. Robinson, who performed the first aid, is a skilled man. He holds the St. John Ambulance certificate and when serving on HMCS Rainbow, was a pupil of Dr. H.F.D. Stephens, RN, coroner, who, on Friday, conducted an inquiry into the accident.
“It appears that O’Donhue probably sustained concussion of the brain and was drowned without recovering consciousness.
“The boy was the son of Mr. Francis O’Donohue, of Corglass, Ballinamuck, County Longford, Ireland. This is near the country from which the Hon. John Hart [B.C. premier] hails. With three other boys O’Donohue brought a letter of introduction to the minister of finance on his arrival in B.C.
“Hon. John Hart and Mrs. Hart, Mr. Robert J. Hartley, private secretary, and Mr. W.A. McAdam came from Victoria to attend the funeral last Sunday morning at St. Ann’s, Tzouhalem. The Rev. Father Platt officiated at mass in the church and at the graveside. The pallbearers were Hon. John Hart, Messrs. W.A. McAdam, N.W. Smith and R.H. Whidden.”
The big news story of the day was a two-day convention of provincial retailers in the Odd Fellows Hall. Guest speaker was Cowichan Creamery Co-op manager Walter Paterson who spoke on ‘Cooperation between the farmer and the Retailer.” Good feeling must exist between merchant and customer, he said, but problems arose when the customer was also a producer. The Cowichan market was too small to consume all local farm production: “Consequently the shopkeeper was frequently put into the position of buying goods which he did not want from a customer he wished to retain.”
The remedy, he explained, was for farmers to seek markets farther afield. And so on. Luncheons provided by Leland’s Restaurant won high praise from the 50 delegates in attendance.
There had been a confrontation between fisheries officers and Hul’qumi’num fishermen who’d refused to shut down a weir at the junction of Somenos Creek and the Cowichan River. This led to the arrest of a man named Kuckalano for wilfully obstructing an officer of the RCMP who was assisting the fisheries officer.
His case was remanded for several days during which time Kuckalano would be held in Oakalla, the provincial jail.
Under the auspices of the Vancouver Island Council for Social Hygiene, and with the assistance of the regional Women’s Institutes, Mrs. Pankhurst [sic] held a series of meetings in the Valley. In an age of moral sensitivity, the subject of venereal diseases was an extremely touchy one. But the fact that the province had sponsored the educational program to the tune of $1800, and had opened medical clinics in larger communities, indicated just how widespread the problem was.
In fact—are you ready for this?—it was estimated that one-quarter of the Canadian population was infected “with one or the other of these diseases”!
Mrs. Pankhurst, a former leading suffragette who’d been instrumental in getting women the vote, said it was “the duty of women to join in this work. Once they understood it she was confident they would do so.” She very circumspectly alluded to prostitution as a social double standard—a means of sexual outlet for unmarried and unattached men but at a terrible cost to both parties. She reminded her listeners that the consequences often were blindness, paralysis and insanity. In fact, she stated that if VD could be prevented, three-quarters of all hospital and asylum beds would be alleviated.
In short, she declared, social diseases were a medical not a moral issue and had to be faced squarely just as the incidence of tuberculosis had been reduced by a determined governmental response.
On another contentious subject, a well attended meeting of Board of Trade directors had again addressed the issue of limiting or prohibiting property ownership by an “Oriental who is not a British subject”. They were in favour of a CNR branch line into Duncan and a proposed Saanich Inlet ferry, however.
Plans were underway for a Labour Day Soldiers’ Reunion and the Cowichan Orchestral Society’s midsummer concert rated mention on this front page for August 4 of a century ago.
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