Hi all,
I was sorting through a bunch of Victoria Jubilee when I realized that I had in my hand a very special cancel. Today (November 10th) is the 100th anniversary of Canadian's strongman Louis Cyr death.
If you don't know him, I suggest reading :
http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119....?BioId=41432Even though his urban legend and fame amplified his feats over the years, many well documented exploits still remain today quite astonishing and unsurpassed.
The stamp I have found, on this very day, recalled one of his many feats I had heard about.
It is a Scott #52, with a split ring cancel :
Chaboillez Square, Montreal, August 9, 1897
Here is a scan of it :
Unfortunately, the scan doesn't do justice to the stamp. It's quite difficult to obtain a good picture of a cancel on a dark green stamp, but I hope it is enough for you to spot it.
The story about Louis Cyr and Chaboillez Square goes something like that :
(by the way, sorry for my English, it's not my maternal tongue!)
As a policeman in Montreal (summer 1885), Louis Cyr and his partner were called on the scene of a horse death by a bystander who reported that the milk delivery man's horse had died on Chaboillez Street. It was a hot day, and the horse was old and overloaded. Upon arriving on the scene, Cyr's partner began writing a report of the event but soon realized that he didn't knew how to spell "Chaboillez". Since the street sign wasn't visible from where he was standing, he asked Cyr for help. The later scratched his head, move towards the horse, lifted it and moved it to the corner of the next street, came back to his partner and said : "Write that it died on Notre-Dame".
Chaboillez Square doesn't exist anymore. It was located between Peel and de l'Inspecteur on Notre-Dame, where the Montreal Planetarium is now (well, the Old Dow's Planetarium as it has been closed recently).
Coordinates : 45.495913,-73.563274 (copy paste in google if you want to see)
The post office that produced this cancel was located on St-James (todays Saint-Jacques), between Windsor (todays Peel) and Cathedral, it was opened a few years after these events took place, on June 1st, 1896, and closed some 21 years later, on April 12th, 1918.
I don't know if this hammer, a split ring street cancel, has been used all these years or for just a few. If somebody know and would share the info, that would be great. :)
I know that the "Montreal, Postal Station A" hammer comes from this very same post office, but then again, I don't know the dates it was in use.
You can see a map of the Square, as it was in 1909 at
http://services.banq.qc.ca/sdx/cep/...825&mention=I was just flabergasted when I found this stamp today and realized it was somehow linked to Cyr, on the very day of his 100th anniversary, and I felt like sharing. Hope I wasn't too boring! ;)
Posted 11/10/2012 4:05 pm
