1885-06-29Gore Fountain Speaks

As the eighteenth anniversary of Confederation approached, a first-term Hamilton aldermen proposed that on July 1, 1885, the Gore Park fountain be turned on and the gates opened allowing everyone access to the park during evenings for the rest of the summer months.

The transformation of the huge unoccupied downtown property, triangular in shape, known as the Gore had happened twenty-five years previously. It had been intended that a complimentary sized and shaped property would be added to the Gore to make sufficient space for a town square.

The Gore had become Gore Park with attractive fountains big and small placed in it. However, the water in the fountain was often, even mainly, not turned on and the park, surrounded by a fence, had it entrance gate only opened to the public on special occasions.

Such a major change being considered, the Spectator felt it appropriate to “interview” the Gore Park Fountain for its views, views which were published in the form of a poem:

 “Dear Spectator ;

As your paper is voted best channel for news,

I have asked your reporter to publish my views.

Your readers have clamored to know of the reason

Why I don’t choose to squirt, when it’s out of season;

I propose to enlighten the public at large

And show them how utterly senseless this charge:

They’ve long-forgotten the ways of the Good Queen Anne days

Urging blame, when I’ve merited nothing but praise.

A fact worth noting of those who should know;

I am not of this age, its inventions and show;

I belong to the times of economy rare,

When pure water was saved with the greatest of care,

When washing was only done one day in seven,

As the waste of the gift might bring vengeance from heaven;

For tho’ free as the air, and with oceans to spare

Then many believed  they must use it with care.

I am not quite at home, as just hinted before,

With the new-fangled actions as seen round the Gore;

Wooden streets, patent sweepers, electric connection

For speaking and lighting; they all throw reflection

On our forefathers’ days, when they toiled and they strained

And tho’ hard was their lot – yet they stoutly maintained

That ‘twere certainly best for the good of the rest

That inventors should hang as of Satan possessed

I must stoutly protest with supreme indignation

Against opening the Gore, and each new innovation

Why should anyone dare to make common the spot

That by lock, fence and custom is not

For mechanics who toil; nor their wives who endure,

Nor their children much needing the air that is pure ?

Tho’ the new alderman’s views I don’t care to abuse,

I will speak for myself – I will squirt when I choose.

So please let me hear of no more agitation

For modern ideas or new desecration;

Let me squirt only once a year, that is all I should try,

Just for Canada’s sake, on the first of July.

But on evenings – oh no; or on hot summer days –

I will stiffen my neck against all such displays;

I’ll economy ply, for the lake might turn dry,

In spouting its water in waste to the sky.”¹

¹ “The Gore Fountain Speaks”

Hamilton Spectator     July 30, 1885.