A few newspaper items from one single day, Jan. 30, 1879, tells much about what it was like to live in Montreal during the time.
1-Montrealers were obsessed with ice. Not only is there a lot of mention of ice-cutters (another day in the same period discusses a guy who fell in and drowned while sawing ice). But they also used it for transportation, so there were plenty of reports about how safe it was to walk upon.
-A span of horses attached to an ice sleigh broke through the ice into the river this afternoon but were rescued.
-Stages and habitants with produce are crossing on the fisherman’s road from Longueuil today. The road is reported to be in good condition.
-The ice shoved alone the south shore, opposite the city, from 20 to 40 feet high, yesterday and there is now over a mile in circumference of open water on the lower side of the Long Wharf It would appear form the rapidity with which the water rurns that the strong current had changed form the centre to the opposite side of the river, now that the breadth of water between Moffat’s Island and the city is covered with ice. The mild weather of today accompanied by warm sunshine, will certainly not help the bridge.
-Ice Dealers, who have been kept waiting longer than usual this season for the ice-bridge to form, are making preparations to begin operations At an early hour this morning a number of men were marking off ice opposition the Custom House. During the past week three gangs of men employed by three ice-dealers have ben cutting ice in the river almost opposite the mammoth grain elevator in Mil street. Messrs Morrice & Co. obtain their supply from above Victoria Bridge, where ice harvesting has been carried on since ht first of the present month. The ice opposite the city is not always the purest.
2-Thieves stole coats quite often. You'll note that people were thrown into jail for relatively long periods for their crimes back then.
-From Quebec: Thomas Coleman, hailing form the ancient capital, was condemned to two months’ imprisonment by the Police Magistrate today for the larceny of a coat.
3-Schools would buy dug-up corpses for medical training purposes.
Body-Snatching case- The janitor of Bishop’s College, Robert Walker, who was accused of receiving stolen goods, namely the shroud covering a corpse lately old to that institution, was today discharged by Mr. Dugas P.M.
4-Much has been said about Montreal and the Victoria Rink (Drummond and Dorch) being the birthplace of hockey but some folks preferred to use the ice to play lacrosse on.
The One – Sided play – The independent Lacrosse Club is a strong club on ice. On Monday last the members of this team, who are also members of the Victoria Skating Rink, played a match against the same number of members of the Montreal Club, also members of the rink, and won fourteen straight games from them in about an hour.
5-Bid rigging for city contracts lead back then, as it does now, to outrage. A tailor was irked by the city's failure to consider his bid for the contract to sew the police uniforms.
Those contracts – At the meeting of the Police Committee yesterday, the protest from Mr. Denis, an unsuccessful tenderer for the contract for license number, was “thrown into the waste basket,” it being shown that Mr. Denis’ tender was not the lowest. The protest from Messrs Seath, unsuccessful tenders for the clothing for police, it was ordered, shall be answered with the explanation that they did not comply with the condition upon which the tenders were advertised for.