The Bell and the Book
by Andrew Donald Clement
In early July 1923. after a long. hot day of haying. a young man reposes on the verandah steps while the cool breezes of the night soothe his tired bones. His older sister joins him and the conversation drifts to future plans. The suggestion is made that he enrol at North Bay Normal School where they not only pay students to attend but they also give them return train fare. Behind him is a cow. a bull or two, a couple of cranky horses. A manure fork and tools for farm repair; in front of him is a bright, perhaps gleaming future in education. So begins Andrew Clement's colourful career and his autobiography The Bell and the Book.
After four years in a couple of District bush schools and a brief interlude in Toronto. the government asks him to take on wheels. The reader is then carried away on a descriptive journey through Northern Ontario in its early years of development. In the pages of this book live the pioneers of the railway, their children, their survival techniques. . .and their outlaws.
Finally, as the sun slowly sets on railway school cars we are left with a legacy—the outstanding endurance and dedication of a unique breed of people who "rode the rails" to bring knowledge and understanding to the youth of the north.
Limited number of copies left from the former Highway Book Shop.
Go Here for Table of Contents
ISBN: 0-88954-315-1 | WMPub#1250 | 8½" x 5½" | Hard cover with dust jacket | 325 pages; 113 photos, maps and diagrams | $34.95
Table of Contents
viii In Appreciation
ix Introduction
Part I
1 Shaping of a Bell Ringer -North Bay Normal School
13 Bell Echoes in Miscampbell Woods -Finn and Kentish pioneers
41 Echo from Algoma Rocks
61 Toronto lnterlude
Part II
71 The Creation of a Railroading School
74 Bell and Book Takes Wheels
82 Bear Pass
90 Huronian -la famille Chenier
101 Keego -Jack Antoniuk‘s first day in school
115 Rocky Inlet -Fort Frances. route of the Voyageurs
139 Sapawe -sweet words from a backwood hand. Graham Harris; disturbing case of Albert Maki
156 Glenorchy -in the middle of shanty town
168 Elizabeth -a typical Zorba the Greek
172 A School Car Auxilliary
174 Crilly
175 La Seine
Part III
185 Move to C.N. Line -a bit of railroad history
190 Richan -homesteaders
204 Amesdale -more pioneers. a golden wedding
217 Niddrie -superman on the coal dock. Blackspit Mousseau
220 Morgan -we bring an infant home
223 Hudson
245 Malachi -Indian burial ground; Policeman of the prairies, I890
254 O.N.R. North Bay -new wheels for bell and book
260 Mulock -from trackman to roadmaster
265 Tomiko -vigours of travel on Old Tomiko Road
275 Redwater -Chateau Clement. a tarpaper castle; Dr. Dunning makes a call
290 Rib Lake -home of the Middaugh
292 Cobalt -"town that would not die"; Paddy Martin‘s piano takes wheels
302 Osborne -shades of Old Quebec. the Lacombes
307 Last Days -a school car fades into history; list of railway school car teachers
312 Epilogue -Convocation Hall