A Pic for Ron Duke...

[Ross Macintosh]

My mother lives in a small town in Nova Scotia called >> Annapolis Royal <<. One of the colourful people in the Town's history was Bill Edwards who owned a local inn and was one of the first people with a car. He was however best known for his pet monkey and his trained horse. Bill, his car, the monkey named 'Jack', and the horse named 'Pat' are seen here in this photo that appeared in the local newspaper on July 16, 1914. Looks like the car may have been an RIO. (I note rear fenders are longer than Ron's recent posting of a RIO Speedwagon -- fronts of Ron's car and this one appear very similar to me).





Note Bill's monkey 'Jack' on the bonnet. Jack was a local celebrity and was regularly 'interviewed' for his take on current events by both local newspapers. Bill Edwards was a Tory and so he favoured the pro-Tory paper over the one the one that favoured Grit policies. Bill taught Jack to be able to discern between the two papers. If Jack was handed a copy of the Herald he would pretend to read it. If handed a copy of the Morning Chronicle he would tear it up. Sadly, one year after the above pic was taken Jack had an accident and was killed. Apparently Jack would ride on something called, in 1915, the "Jib Boom" of the moving car. Unfortunately he fell off and was run over by the car. Bill had him stuffed.

The horse was also a celebrity and locally considered to be the smartest horse in the world because of the many tricks he could do. In 1919 when 20 years old Pat the horse laid down and died. Moments before he had walked around to all his favorite places and had shaked a hoof with John MacKay, the Chief of Police. As far as I know Pat was not stuffed.

[Boy]

Great story!

[Ron Duke]

Ross,
What a rich, charming and engaging story.

Thanks for sharing that and the picture! A bit of history, for sure.
BTW, it’s REO as opposed to RIO.
As a side note, the Speed Wagons were REO’s line-up of trucks, buses, etc.

Thanks again, Ross!

[wizard509]

Interesting story Ross, thanks.

[Egg Bramhill]

Great history Ross.

Apparently Jack would ride on something called, in 1915, the "Jib Boom" of the moving car. Unfortunately he fell off and was run over by the car.

A jib boom would appear to be a bowsprit on a sailing vessel. Perhaps Bill Edwards had such a strange rig fitted to his car for Jack to ride on ??? Go figure.

[Ross Macintosh]

Beyond the direct sailing reference "Jib booms" are sometimes used to describe the boom arms used on tow trucks, cherry pickers, and other "boom trucks" like what those power-line technicians use. That doesn't make much sense relative to the car. I'm assuming it was the same car as in the picture. In the 1915 newspaper quote I saw it matter of factly mentioned the jib boom as if that was something every reader would know. At that time, readers in that small port town would likely been more aware of sail boat nomenclature than automotive parts. Consequently I'm thinking it was a car part they describe as a sailboat component. Zooming in on the car (and monkey) I see the radiator cap had some kind of side bar on it. Perhaps it was put there as a handle for Jack? If it stuck out the side it would be like a boom pole for a spinnaker sail. I'm thinking this forward location may make sense because the storey says Jack fell to the ground and was run over.

I have a couple more unusual stories coming from Annapolis Royal if anyone is interested...

[Egg Bramhill]

Always interested in odd /forgotten history Ross

[Ross Macintosh]

Always interested in odd /forgotten history Ross

Okay here's one more. Annapolis Royal has tidal marshes. On the edges of those marshes grows a reed grass that grows to at least 12-feet high. It is known locally as "elephant grass" and everyone there has heard this story of how it came to be there. The story goes that in the 1920s or 30's a circus came to town by train but two of their elephants were too sick to continue on. It was decided to leave them in Annapolis Royal to convalesce, and if they were better when the circus returned the following year they'd rejoin the circus. As elephants eat up to 600-pounds of food a day there would need to be enough to feed them. The circus people planted the fast-growing elephant grass to ensure a suitable food supply. The way I heard the story was one of the elephants died and was buried by the locals. (Hard to imagine how big a hole that would have needed). The grave location is lost to time.

In recent years another explanation for the elephant grass has been offered but it isn't as romantic and so isn't as widely accepted. That version also has a travelling circus but no sick elephants. When in town they'd exercise them by walking them around. One thing elephants do is produce 300-pounds of dung each day. Feeding them elephant grass the circus had brought with them meant the seeds were distributed around town via the dung. It is an invasive species of reed and when the seeds found there way to the marshes, were conditions were perfect for it, the stuff really took off.

Perhaps we'll never know the real origin. It seems the elephant grass is really Pennisetum Purpureum, also known as Napier grass, or Uganda grass, and is a species of perennial tropical grass native to the African grasslands.



I found this pic of elephant grass on Google image search. It isn't in Annapolis Royal but looks to be the same stuff. Apparently it is of interest as a crop for producing bio-fuels as it is extremely productive. It is also extremely invasive so introducing it to new areas could be more trouble than its worth. Annapolis Royal sometimes gets three-feet of snow but that won't kill off the stuff.

[Egg Bramhill]

Now that's whats called a true shaggy-dog story Ross. I love it and like all good shaggy-dog stories were there is perhaps a vestige of truth in there somewhere.

Did you find the 'where the [hell] are we' tribe by any chance in this long grass?

[Boy]

I prefer the second one. You can almost believe it's true.