In the courts – less than a pint! Montreal, 1888

Montreal Gazette, 6 March 1888

In the police court yesterday, Thomas Kilcullen, grocer, no 107 Lagauchetiere street, was fined $75 and costs or three months for selling less than an imperial pint of liquor.

Selecting dishes, Cuddy & Brodeur, Montreal, 1909

The Montreal Daily Star, 8 May 1909

An easy way to select the dishes

Messrs Cuddy and Brodeur Co, 533 St Catherine Street East, and 327 St Lawrence Boulevard, display china and glassware at these stores in such a way as to let the prospective housekeeper, select his dishes to the best possible advantage. The lines consist of china, porcelain, semi-porcelain, or plain white from iron stone China, decorated in gold or in floral design of different colours to suit the wall decoration of a bed room, or suit the styles of the dining room furniture.

The selection of cutlery requires great care, and Messrs Cuddy & Brodeur have gone to considerable pains in securing desirable articles in this line.

This firm are showing a lamp with a wrought iron finish, which is a desirable addition to the summer house, as it takes but little care.

Mr Brodeur disapproves of the custom of stamping on the price of the dinner set, claiming that many times an expensive table, which is covered with a cloth, holds a very cheap set of dishes.

The Puzzling case of Microfilmed Books being sold on Amazon, 2019

I was looking up the St Andrew’s Society of Montreal for fun on google and came across these references to several books I know have been microfilmed, and which I used when I was doing my thesis, on sale on the Amazon web site.

Here is one example:

Of course, if you don’t want to buy it for $86.03, you can see it for free on internet archive here.   It is also available in a number of libraries as a part of the CIHM Microfilm series, (this one is 55707) Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions which is now part of Canadiana.org.  The piece is also available on the Canadiana web site – the people who actually microfilmed it in the first place. (here)

There are a number of titles that I recognized, such as Hugh Allan’s 1844 history of the St Andrew’s Society, a number of sermons that were given at St Andrew’s Days services, and of course other CIHM title.

I was able to find the same titles on the Canadian bookseller’s site,  Indigo –  here .

Am I the only person who thinks that it is utterly wrong that some person has taken these microfilm scans made by Canadiana and have printed them for pure profit (at exorbitant prices) to sell on sites like Amazon and Indigo?  Shouldn’t the people who actually made the copies get some of the profit from their investment of time and money for preserving for future research?