Monday, March 9, 2020

the last book I ever read (Cabbagetown by Hugh Garner, excerpt one)

from Cabbagetown by Hugh Garner:

A few houses on almost every street were as verminous and tumbledown as any in the city, but next door or across the street was the same type of house, clean and in good repair, reflecting the decency or pride of its occupants, or reflecting the fact that the tenant was buying it. In 1929 most Cabbagetowners rented their houses, from the ingrained habit of generations or because they refused to tie themselves down forever in the district. This was a neighborhood almost without tenements, and the streets were lined with single-family houses, many of whose upper stories accommodated a second family.

The citizens of Cabbagetown believed in God, the Royal Family, the Conservative Party and private enterprise. They were suspicious and a little condescending towards all heathen religions, higher education, “foreigners” and social reformers. They were generally unskilled working people, among whom were scattered, like raisins in a ten-cent cake, representatives of the State—such as postmen, civic employees, streetcar conductors and even a policeman or two.



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