A Little History

Children_playing_with_sleigh_in_the_snow_1903_(3192604250)(Photo: Frank R. Snyder, Public Domain)

Winter walking in St. John’s has long been an issue, as this editorial from the January 15, 1850 of the Morning Post And Shipping Gazette shows:

Difficulty of Perambulating The Streets of St. John’s in Winter

Solely from a desire to preserve the well-being of all classes in the community, we call the attention of the Police to the extreme carelessness manifested by the drivers of vehicles of almost every kind, in neglecting to provide them with a sufficiency of bells to give the foot passenger timely notice to move out of their way.

No person in St. John’s need be reminded of the difficulty, and often danger, of perambulating the streets of this town during the winter months, and when these are increased, the latter in particular, to an alarming extent, we think it quite time that we should point out the cause of that increase, to those whose duty it is to have the evil, remedied, but whose near-sightedness has probably prevented them hitherto from discerning it.

The Police would do well to order that all vehicles, both sleighs and slides, whether drawn by horses or dogs, shall be amply provided with bells to give timely notice of their approach; an order which, we hope will not only be given, but strictly attended to and rigidly enforced.

 

One thought on “A Little History”

  1. Just today, I wrote a letter to our councillor and mayor. The corner at Lake Avenue is a very busy pedestrian area. The pedestrians going to the grocery store, and the crowds of runners that use this area, all have to walk into the traffic zooming down Lake Avenue from Kingsbridge because the sidewalk isn’t cleared. There is a pole blocking the ability to use a plow for the sidewalk but that corner still needs to be cleared. It’s a very dangerous situation.

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