The Toronto Circus Riot of 1855 | Episode 37

Depending where you ever grew up, there's probably some dark moment, a local history, or injustice that you're just not all that overly proud of. Well. Today, on this special bonus minisode, let's check out mine. Hello, and welcome to Doomsday Histories Most Dangerous Podcast. Together, we're going to rediscover some of the most traumatic, bizarre, and on inspiring but largely unheard of or forgotten disasters from throughout human history and around the world. On today's special extra minisode, you will finally learn why you hate clowns so much. You'll find out why early Toronto had so many teeth on the ground, and we're going to discuss biting techniques that involve thumbing and biting. This is not the show you play around kids, or while eating or even a mixed company. But as long as you find yourself a little more historically engaged and learn something that could potentially save your life, our work is done. So with all that said, shoot the kids out of the room, put on your headphones and safety glasses, and let's begin. Would you rather hug a clown or eat an onion like an apple? You had to think about it, didn't you. Most people fall on a spectrum between distrusting clowns and outright hating them. It doesn't matter if you're a cercosoleate clown or Lucciano Pavarotti himself singing Pagliacci in clown face. You are going to freak people out who've known how creepy they are for hundreds of years, but they only tried getting all statistical about it during the Great clown Scare of twenty sixteen. Remember when creepy ass clowns popped up across America. Remember they were all silently loitering around in empty parking lots at three am holding black balloons. Yeah, there you go, that clown scare. And if you look at the polling results after respondents were slightly more comfortable with the idea of an impending terrorist attack than a birthday clown. People are twice as afraid of clowns as dying, which means if a clown ever plunged a comically large knife through their chest, they could at least soothe themselves with the knowledge that at least they're only dying. That said, of those people, one third one of the government and the FBI to put more resources into investigating them, so why are clowns so unsettling? Ready, your brain perceives clowns as human, but not entirely. When you see someone frowning at you with a giant smile painted on their face, that's a huge disconnect. Psychologically, we're programmed to recognize facial patterns and body language, but oversized lips and a ball nose distort the face. It messes us up on an unconscious level. Well, today we're going to meet some clowns that have no problem expressing their emotions. We're heading back to Toronto, the first New York, the biggest city in Canada, our center of finance and business and entertainment and also raccoons which we call trash pandas, and my hometown. We're heading back to a time one hundred and sixty seven years ago when it was still pretty rough around the edges. It was more like a Pioneer era thunderdome. It had plenty of nicknames over the years. They used to call it Hogtown because of all the Canadian bacon they used to render there, and if the scent of dead pig weren't enough, they also called it Muddy York. I want to know why drainage and sewer systems weren't a thing. Yet. You got to remember eighteen fifty five was closer to Isaac Newton's Apple story than to actual Apple computers. York or Toronto or whatever was a real frontier pioneer town. New ground roots and rail lines permitted immigrants to flood into the area, and back then Toronto had about forty thousand of them, mostly from the British isles. But these were not your stiff upper lip hmmm, good show, typed Brits. Yeah. No. See, historically people from England, Ireland and Scotland are not people who get along very easily. They've spent centuries cataloging things to p hate about each other. And again this was a very rough and tumble time. Replace the skyscrapers with taverns and brothels and you get the picture. For a town of forty thousand, you could say that three hundred and fifty five different places to grab a drink sounds like a lot and it was. I mean, a contemporary town today of forty thousand might be lucky to have two gas stations. For comparison, When they tried to describe the number of brothels they didn't actually provide a number, They just say a lot. Mary Anne Armstrong ran one of those brothels, and by the time we finish this story, you're going to see how her house of ill gotten companionship became the ground zero for an event that changed the development of the country as a whole. But first, back to things that weren't things yet. Take firefighting as an example. In order for this to make sense, you're gonna need to forget everything you know about modern firefighting. Back then, you couldn't just nine to one one yourself a big truck to come put out all your stuff. You had to run to the nearest fire bell and wait for the rowdies. Yep, firemen, that's what they were called back then. Prior to the Toronto Firefighting Service, what we had was actually more like just a bunch of independent, loosely organized volunteer firefighting companies. So anyways, when they hear the fire bell, they have to hand pull a heavy ass water filled pump cart in a kind of drunken foot race against other companies trying to call DIBs on your house. And once they got there, in order to put the fire out, they had to hand pump all that water onto your home. You can tell that the work was strenuous and dangerous, but if you were there, you'd also get the impression that these guys didn't really come with a lot of training or supervision, which they didn't. But and this is a big butt. Today, you would feel so relieved to see two fire trucks pulling up to your home. But back then, if more than one fire wagon showed up, you and all your stuff were screwed. After a quick argument about who was going to be putting out your flaming abode, they would then choose to fist fight in front of you until the fight finally ended and the slightly less injured victors could get to work. Of course, they might steal a bit of your stuff while they were in there, and the losing company, well, they might nick a few things too, and maybe piss on your House's kind of a parting thought. It's not ideal, but yelp wasn't a thing yet either. For today's story, we're going to be focusing on the Toronto Hook and Ladder Company. All the companies at names like the Claw and Eyeball or the Broken Window Firefighting Company, but the members of the Hook and Ladder Company were known to be particularly awful, which is saying a lot. You'll see. They were also members of the Orange Order of British America, which is a reason that living in Toronto back then was such a dicey choice for a lot of people. The Orange Order were a fraternal order of Irish Protestants that, among other things, enjoyed throwing a fist or two whenever they came across an Irish Catholic. When they were forced to flee Ireland during the Great Potato Famine, the Orange Order was there to make sure that their welcome to the new world was at best awkward. The Order was so ingrained in all facets of daily life that people started calling Toronto the Belfast of Canada. They called the Order the corporation that ran Toronto. Politicians, mayors, councilmen, you name it, all Orange men. They had so many members of influence that when members facing charges of political or religious violence were brought to court, they generally just got excused with a handshake. Members were basically above the law. Just a few weeks earlier, the Hook and Ladder Boys arrived at a fire on Church Street at the same time as another brigade, and they were all stinke eyeing each other, and as soon as someone opened their mouth to yell dibbs, someone else yelled, oh no, you fighting, don't And it was like a starter pistol had gone off. Thists were thrown and teeth flew as the two companies rioted in the street, pause for effect, while the building went up in flames behind them. We have firefighters, but they had fire fighter fighters. When the police finally showed up to regain order, everyone shook hands, apologized and got to work saving the home. I am absolutely joking. Imagine you're a police officer. You show up at a street brawl between two groups of firefighters and you say, sorry, hey, you're not supposed to be doing that. And the two groups stopped fighting and then joined forces and now they're fighting you. Oh and the police force also Orange men. They normally focus their energy on beating up Catholics, but not exclusively. So the two fire companies and the police force all threw down in what became known as the Fireman's Riot. And to help paint the picture, this was the twenty ninth riots started by members of the Orange Order. Oh and no one went to jail over it, because when it came down to it, the police at the scene couldn't remember what happened, and the house that they had been there to protect it burned the ground. There was nothing left. But this is not the rabbit hole we're going down today. We're going to follow the Hook and Lighter Company as they made their way to work. Well, not exactly. We are headed to Marianne Armstrong's house of ill repute to the fire company. Mary Anne's was something between a headquarters and a clubhouse, but mostly a brothel. And at this point we are going to introduce another group into the mix. Ambulance crews, street cleaners. Nope, we already teased it. It's circus clowns. That's right. S B. House, Star Troop, Menagerie and circus was in town for two days only. See, the actual entertainment was pretty rare in those days, so the circus come into town was a huge draw. And what a circus. S. B. Howes was called the father of the American circus, and they'd put on one of the largest shows ever seen. They had clowns, acrobats, trick riders, and a whole bunch of exotic animals. They had big cats, elephants, they even had a giraffe. And like all circuses, because they traveled from town to town, that meant that everything that they had, all the stuff they brought with them, props, tents, stands, they all had to be erected and dismantled constantly, and a lot of that work fell to the performers themselves. And you know what that did. It meant that these clowns had two things, a hard lifestyle and a lot of muscles under those baggy outfits. But back to the bordello. The circus had the night off and the clowns had had enough of all the applause and the laughter of children. They needed high grain alcohol to wash it off them. So they visited Mary Anne's place looking to make things go honk of honker. But as far as the firemen were concerned, these clowns picked the wrong brothel. The historical record doesn't agree on exactly what happened next. Some thought that the clowns must have got mouthy and probably joked about all the fire fighting strippers showing up. They were mirthmakers, after all. Their leader was Myers the Clown, and the most popular version of what happened next was that a fireman named Fraser knocked Meyer's little clown hat off. Myers turned to the man and asked him to pick it up, which he declined. And we don't know much for sure, but this much we do. There was screaming and flying glass and chairs and blood and all kinds of fighting styles. Imagine clown fighting. I just picture the arms spinning all dramatically and then just getting rabbit punched in the face with the other. But in reality, slapstick was not on the menu in eighteen fifty five. Popular ball techniques included, but were not limited to, thumbing people's eyeballs out, fish hooking the cheek until it tore, and biting people's noses and ears off. It's a lot to remember. But here's a question. You've decided to come visit Canada. Would you know what to do? So you're visiting Canada and you know that the minute you cross the border, some shifty kanuck is gonna blindside you for even the smallest perceived light because of how high strung and aggressive they are. You no doubt. I've heard that the best fight is the one that you avoid, and it's absolutely true. For so many reasons. People straight up die in street fights. An unlucky shot to the wrong nerve and you could wake up surrounded by all your dead pets and relatives. And that's not even getting into all the legal issues you face for defending yourself. So yeah, the smartest thing you can do in a violent scenario is to avoid it and book it out of there without injury. But now we're talking about the mean streets of Canada, so you might not have the choice. You could have someone attack you from a tree, or by jumping out of a building or a moving car. Anything can happen, But self defense is more than just being aware of your surroundings and knowing how to throw a punch. I'm not really here to teach you how to bite someone's eyeballs out, but if you don't think I could. When I was twelve, my dad taught me that pulling out an eye is a waste of your time. When a well landed and intentional single knuckle blow can pop it, it uses less calories, and in Canada, you want to survive smart, not hard. But the best way to keep safe is by learning disengagement tactics. I mean more than just maintaining a distance and de escalating, which are good and practical. But I'm talking about what to do when someone steps up and they get all handsy. Most attacks will start with a grab, and if someone grabs you by the arm or the wrist, here's what I want you to practice. And this is going to make you feel more empowered and confident. Walking around a hand can be strong, but unless your attacker does finger push ups on the regular, the weakest point of their grip is gonna be where the thumb and the fingers meet. Picture a big, meaty paw holding your wrist. All you want to do is swing your arm away from the palm towards the fingers. It's the weakest part of their grip and it'll break. If someone grabs you by the clothes, with your one hand, grab the clothing right around their grip and with the other grab their wrist and pull in separate directions, same idea, they won't be able to hold on. Now, if someone grabs you by the throat, most people are going to tell you to kick for the groin. But if you are a longtime listener of the show, you know that I am much more of a fan of slap chopping the front of the throat. I know a guy who once got out of a chokehold by yelling harder, daddy. But if you are too shocked to be clever, just be smart. What if somebody grabs you by the neck, raise your arms above your head and squish your neck to your shoulders. This makes a kind of blobfish out and it loosens their grip and you can twist away. But if they headlock you, they're going to be using both arms, one going around the back of your head and one around the front. What you're going to want to do is grab the ar that's wrapped around your front and pull it downwards and tuck your neck in. This is going to keep the arm off your windpipe. Now you want to pull it down and push it away from you while you're moving your body backwards, and you should be able to force your way out of it. That one takes a little more practice, and I don't care how you do it. Take a class, watch YouTube videos, tell a friend, and practice on each other till you're amazing. Everyone should know how to defend themselves. And with this advice and the confidence that it provides, I hope that you'll feel welcome in Canada. We hope you survive the experience. Now back to the brawl. When the smoke cleared, you're probably expecting a stack of clown corpses decaying in the middle of the room. But these clowns were no laughing matter. I wasn't joking. You're picturing like when fifteen clowns show up to a thing in a tiny car and they all sprawl out and they start spraying you with trick flowers. These were more of the kind of smash a bottle against their own face and then write your name in blood across their chest kind of clowns. They demolished the firefighters. The Hook and latter crew had been forced to retreat, and two of them were so badly injured that they couldn't even walk, including Fraser. The clowns probably said something like and stay out Hong Kong and for the rest of the night they could quote, drink and have sex in peace. I know this is a minisod, but it's not that many, and the story does not end here. On the one hand, the firemen could have just swallowed their pride and chalked it up to a hilarious story and just let it go. But I said could and firefighters were orange order through and through. So they had a lot of well connected friends, and like we've established, they pretty much had unwritten carte blanche to commit as much violence as they please. And the day after the fight was Friday, the thirteenth July eighteen fifty five. The circus had one more day in town and their tents had been pitched up on a big grassy space along the waterfront called Fair Green, was just east of Saint Lawrence Market. Farmers and merchants had stalls set up all around the area to take advantage of the crowds. On this day, a crowd was forming from all points, but they appeared angry and maybe a little orange. Stall owners were told to leave as the crowd began to surround the tents. Uh oh, better call the police. Well, okay, but do you know how police got their jobs back then? It was one of those deals with the old timey, spit soaked handshake with a city councilor and the next day they'd get a baton and no instruction whatsoever accompanying it. Training on the laws that they needed to enforce was also not a requirement the chief of police at the time, he'd been a former bar owner. His name was Samuel Sherwood, and there's kind of a funny story about how he got his job. The one thing Orange politicians hated more than the Irish Catholics were would be Reformers and Liberals. During one election, Sherwood helped organize an attack on a Liberal Reform Party parade where one of the candidates kind of caught a bullet in the face. So anyways, he got to be chief of police and when he was told about the trouble at fair Green, he stalled. I mean he stalled like a pro But eventually he had to relent and he sent a few men to check it out, and by the time they arrived, it was on The circus performers and carnies couldn't even begin to understand what was happening. They did everything they could to hold off the mob, and at some point an iron bar was thrown and it injured a man, and then the rocks started flying. Imagine you work for a circus. You're putting on a family show and a foreign town and everyone's having a great time, and then a mob arrives and destroys your circus and tries to straight up murder you without any explanation. So you panic and you try crawling out from under the tent and ah the police, But one look and you know they're just as likely to hurt you as help you. Around the periphery eating popcorn and laughing, you pretty much think you'd gone crazy. They were getting physically beaten and emotionally gas lamped. Some ran and dove into Lake Ontario, maybe hoping they could swim back to America. The wagons had been flipped and burned and thrown into the lake after them. It sounds horrible, but wait. At this point, somebody rang the fire bell and the Hook and Ladder company slow walked in. The crowd demanded Meyer's head. They stormed the tents with pikes and axes and clubs. They managed to pull down all the tents and this is weird for firefighters, but they torched all of it. They beat the clowns unrecognizable. In an age where medicine was pretty barbaric, germ theory wasn't a thing yet, so antiseptics weren't a thing yet, so you know, damn well, anesthetics weren't a thing yet. The closest thing you might get is a leather strap you can bite down on while they saw off one of your limbs. For reference, Just twenty years before they invented the very first chains, and what was it for. It was used to open people's skulls and deliver babies. That's not a joke. But on the flip side, no matter what went wrong, you could still do cocaine and opium about it. She sure would stop by to grab some popcorn and check it out. But he immediately saw rioters trying to set fire to the animal cages, and he had to stop them. Even the mayor came by, but he was immediately all whoa, whoa, whoa, And he snatched the axe out of the hands of a fireman about to murder a clown. But that's all he could do. No one was listening to him, so we called in the militia to knock some heads. But even for armed militiamen this was shocking. The brawl was so frenzied they had draw bayonets just to get noticed. And after a while, when the rampage finally stopped, the mob dispersed and slowly nervously. The circus performers came back for whatever remained of their tattered belongings, and they ran like hell. We will never actually know how many of them had been killed or injured that day in a researching why, the fact is, if you were in their shoes, would you stick around to file a police report? When all was said and done, seventeen people had been charged, But when it came time to prosecute, one of the officers claimed that it was too dark to identify anyone. It was crazy, but this kind of thing happened a lot, and a few months later, during yet another religious riot, the same chief couldn't remember what he saw. A few months after that, he freed a friend accused of robbing a bank, and by now the press and the public they'd had it, And on the night of the next mayoral election, a Liberal Reform Party candidate named John Beverly Robinson actually won. Now you think about police reform and your brain just kind of goes nah. But keep this. An inquest had been held into the police's behavior, and the following recommendations were made. It was a simple three part plan. First, destroy the police department, Second, fire every single officer and third start over from scratch. Even the provincial government was on board with it. Torontonians were tired and angry after decades of living under the corrupt thumb of local government, corrupt court officials, and road warrior style public services, so they tore it all down and started over. And with that, Toronto began the transformation from a dangerous pioneer town with streets covered in poh and teeth to today's well appointed, modern metropolis. And in a rare bit of positive history, it proved that political will can prevail even over the will of a relentless oppressor. Toronto was becoming a world class city, and it quickly swelled to over two hundred thousand people. It would be almost six million by the turn of the next century, and the Orange tinge was finally erased. Toronto became so well known for its strict moral code that people added a new nickname, Toronto the Good. So thanks for hanging around with me for this minisode. You know, I did it because well, this year's been pretty tough and I don't really get to hang around with you guys as much as i'd like to, so I wanted to gift this to you and really any excuse to talk about clowns and firefighters. I mean, yeah, it's a strange story for sure, possibly the strangest even for Toronto. But the strangest thing is if those firemen hadn't met those clowns, Toronto's political and social evolution would have been permanently and unknowably altered, like a butterfly effect of historical proportions. If you asked any of the clowns or the firemen that day about their upcoming role in history, they probably would have been all would do what now? But the fact remains, and fellow Canadians hear me, the most pivotal moment in the social evolution of our country was a brothel fight. You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook as Doomsday Podcast, or you can find fire us an email to doomsday Pod at gmail dot com. Older episodes can be found wherever you found this one, and while you're there, please leave us a review or tell a friend. If you want to support the ongoing production of the show, you can buy me a coffee at buy me a Coffee dot com, slash Toombsday, or you can find us at Patreon dot com slash funeral Kazoo. But if you can spare the money and had to choose, we ask you to consider making a donation to Global Metic. Global METIC is a rapid response agency of Canadian volunteers offering assistance around the world to aid in the aftermath of disasters and crises. They are often the first and sometimes the only team to get critical interventions to people in life threatening situations, and to date they have helped over three point six million people across seventy five different countries. You can learn more and donate at GLOBALMTIC dot CAA. On the next episode, remember that time Daniel day Lewis drank up everyone's milkshake, drank it all up. Well, we're going to take that milkshake. We're gonna set it on fire. We're gonna give it a swirl, and then we're going to run for our lives. It's the San Luis Obispo fire tornado of nineteen twenty six. We'll talk soon. Safety goggles off and thanks for listening.