Page:New Brunswick Magazine Issue 1.djvu/185

have made a nice job here." John Doherty, who had been around the ship when the fire started, then asked, "Do you blame me for it, sir?" "No," was the prompt reply. "I was the cause of it myself. What I am sorry for is that so many people have lost so much." After a pause he continued: " Fifteen years ago, I had the table taken from before me and the watch taken out of my pocket for debt, but I have built that ship and I am able to build another."

On the evening following the fire a public meeting was called by Sheriff White, in pursuance of a requisition headed by Chief Justice Chipman, at which the mayor of St. John, Hon. William Black, presided. A subscription list was opened and committees were appointed to collect money and clothing for the relief of the fire sufferers. The circus also gave a benefit performance in aid of the sufferers, and collections were taken in the churches.

After the fire, the Methodist body of Portland held its meetings in the upper room of the Madras school building, near at hand. In due time another church was built, John Owens taking an active interest in the work. This church stood until it was burned in the great Portland fire of October, 1877, which covered the area burned in 1841 and much more territory in that vicinity.

Mr. Hannay's reply, in The New Brunswick Magazine for August, to my article under the above title in the July number is naturally not convincing to me. To reply to him, however, would doubtless be but to begin a controversy of tedious length and small profit. In such discussions readers are more apt to be entertained by the skill in fence of the disputants than