The trail of the swinging lanterns

If inscrutable destiny or the influence of circumstance had not planned for Andrew J. Taylor the career of a widely known railway man, it may be stated without relying on too elastic imagination that he could have qualified to an advance degree as a beloved Presbyteriann “dominie” or Catholic priest. His admirable character attracted unusual and unsolicited confidences, to human anxieties his sound sympathetic counsel applied the encouragement and comfort of a confessor and he was never without a loose shilling for the needy. Coupled with these attributes he possessed a moral and superior mental fabric and when you learn that his forebears came from a canny nook in Scotland it will explain and account for his quiet appreciation of honor and duty.

Lesmahagow or Abbey Green, on the River Nethan, Lanarkshire, was the birthplace of his father, James Mitchell Taylor, who brought his ruddy cheeked bride from the English-speaking settlement of L’Original to Ottawa. Her father succumbed to wounds received in the battle of the Wind Mill and both her military grandfathers were killed in the battle of Waterloo. In Bytown the subject of this sketch was born June 24th, 1858, and spent his childhood with four brothers and four sisters, securing his education in the private schools which predominated in those days and in the world of experience and travel.

As a boy he caused his mother more trouble than any of her other sons owing to the fact that he was always “Fighting the other fellows’ battles”, could not condone bullying and was the staunch friend and champion of a deaf and dumb playmate whom children chased and tantalized. He was fond of animals and during his life in Ottawa, mill slabs and water were delivered in the neighborhood of the river and often the horses drawing these necessities were neglected and ill treated. Invariable his gorge would rise at such treatment and he waded in causing no end of trouble.

As a boy Andy Taylor playing a hymn on the organ, selling ribbon over the counter in Elliott & Hamilton’s Ottawa store, or juggling with rolls of carpet in McIlwraith & Egan’s at Hamilton, would seem to those who knew him later, as an uncongenial occupation for the putter of the heavy shot and athletic participator in Caledonian games, but such was the case with him, and many another youth did likewise in their experimental quest for the right thing amid a variety of business pursuits.

When his father resigned the position of General Freight Agent of the St. Lawrence & Ottawa Railway he assumed charge of the passenger interests of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, and came to Toronto to represent that company—until his transfer to Pittsburg, creating in 1878 the permanent agency which was withdrawn only last December. A. J. Taylor entered his father’s employ as a clerk at Toronto in the spring of 1879, covered the territory as traveling passenger agent under his direction, succeeded him, became “C.F. & P.A.”, in 1900, and as a respected and trustworthy officer his name remained on that company’s pay roll continuously for thirty-six years.

Although his agreeable disposition and the nature of his duties in early manhood, secured him throughout Ontario and Quebec an extensive acquaintance with which he was persona grata, Mr. Taylor did not eagerly seek new companionship and he clearly recognized the line of demarkation existing between personal and business friends. However, many men whom he met through the medium of commercial connections, soon became more intimate and it was only a “casual” or extra-sensitive person that misinterpreted a certain aloofness or transient preoccupation which some thought he appeared to sometimes display.

Prior to 1885, the year when the Canadian Pacific Railway threw open a new gateway to Winnipeg, Andy Taylor was one of a lively United States railroading coterie who sought a share of that growing and intensely competitive passenger business then moving only via St. Paul to the Dakotas and Canadian Northwest. He proved his worth, building a reputation which sustained him long after, thus gaining for his employers a percentage of traffic based on good-will towards “Andy” which the road would have otherwise been denied.

More or less dogmatic, and always deliberate, in argument he was convincing and his personal prestige and lucid exposition of routes, rates and accommodation ensured regular renewal of patronage from individual travelers and professional ticketing agents from Halifax to the Detroit River. When he was in his prime—genial, popular and as strong as a gladiator—he participated in many exciting episodes of personal character and incidents arising out of the unsettled conditions governing travel, ticket scalping, rate cutting and commissions on sales. He described to me how, on one occasion the “Wabash”, “C.B. & Q.R.”, “C. & N.W.R.” and “C.R.I. & P.” made an agreement lasting for a limited period, whereby they pooled their entire passenger business ticketed through Chicago, Omaha and westward, each receiving an equal monthly division irrespective of the percentage handled individually. While this understanding was extant his employers, the “C.M. & St. P.R.”, opened their line from Chicago to Council Bluffs, Nebraska, and requested admission to the charmed circle. The quartette black-balled the new candidate and he, through the medium of increased commissions broke the cabal and the status quo shot as high as a captive balloon with feverish excitement. In 1885 one Quebec agent received for commissions on passenger business from the incoming ships destined the west, a cheque for one month’s bookings amounting to $750.00.

Like the late Robert Lewis, long connected with the Lehigh Valley Railroad, who years ago fished in the wilds of Northern Muskoka and beyond, Andrew Taylor was a devoted follower of the sport of Isaac Walton. His regular journeys and explorations in the regions of fish and game were to him anticipated fixtures and the source of much pleasure and benefit. He visited many haunts in his time, was considered an authority on ways and means to fill a creel and color a “meerchaum”. Like Theodore Roosevelt, he “dee-lighted” to handle a gun and was better than the average as a wing shot.

Passionately fond of outdoor life, with him originated the plan for a permanent headquarters in the woods, and aided by his associates Messrs. B. H. Bennett, J. J. Rose, P. G. Van Vleet and Jack Goodsell, the well equipped lodge of the incorporated Red Chalk Fishing and Game Club, six miles south of Bigwin Island in Lake of Bays, was established in Northern Muskoka, with Andrew Taylor charter president, honorary life member and pater familias of a sociable brood of thirty sportsmen.

Having been an ex-president of the Victoria Lawn Bowling & Skating Club and the Western Bowling Association, London, his office was the rendezvous of curlers and bowling committees as well as fellow members of the Toronto Lacrosse & Athletic Club.

Few of his friends had more intimate opportunities to realize his characteristics than myself and one must labor beside a person to obtain the true perspective. The antithesis of what men describe as a “fourflusher”, he could not stoop to conquer by unfair means, but was punctilious in observing the code, in the propriety of personal behaviour, in the composition of a sentence. Although endowed with Scottish caution, in many ways he was not secretive but almost boyishly candid and uniformly courteous, patient and generous to a fault. The confidante of his father, the adviser to a score of relatives, idolized by his family, A. J. Taylor’s confreres valued his friendship and regarded their intimacy with him as a golden opportunity.

Central Quartette—

Reading from left to right from top centre of circle—