The rooms in residence were heated by grate fires. The students studied by lamplight, a few by candle light in the earlier days. The dining hall of residence was heated by means of a large box stove, which burned wood. I have helped to chop down trees in the park to supply winter firewood for the residence stove. I have caught chub and shiners and an occasional speckled trout in the pond which lay near the road below Hart House, and have trapped wild rabbits in the bush which extended up the ravine to Bloor Street.8
The principal forms of non-academic activities in the college were the Literary and Scientific (later the Literary and Athletic) Society, formed in 1854. The “Lit” operated a reading room, supervised debates, and organized the great social event of the year, the Conversazione. Elections to the executive were fiercely contended and brought out the rivalry between the residence and the outsiders. In 1876 the presidential candidate of the Outside Party defeated the residential candidate after an all-night session. After 1876 election battles became less strenuous with the increase in the number of outside students, but the rivalry continued.
There was a good deal of drinking among the students. Loudon gave a spirited account of the Onion Club, a group of students that met in Sandy Innes’s rooms on Yonge Street. Fortified with beer, onions, cheese, and tobacco, they spent the evening in song, recitations, solos on the fiddle or banjo, and argumentative discussion.9 Not all the students were quite so uproarious. The non-drinkers enjoyed the staid activities of the YMCA, organized on the campus in 1873, and the University College Temperance League, established in 1883.
As a poor boy from rural Ontario, Cody was an “outsider.” He roomed for part of the time with his old friends the Bryants at 28 St. Mary Street, within easy walking distance of UC. One of his roommates was Howard Ferguson, later premier of Ontario. Ferguson, also a small-town boy, from Kemptville, Ontario, arrived at the university in 1887. He had arranged to room with Stephen Leacock, but his parents thought Leacock too sophisticated for Howard and arranged to have him room with Cody instead. It was the beginning of a life-long friendship, one of the most important Cody would have.
Cody went from one triumph to another in his academic career. He achieved high standing in the annual examinations, securing scholarships in classics, modern languages, and general proficiency in his first year, and in his second scholarships in general proficiency and modern languages, and medals in general proficiency, classics, and modern languages. At the beginning of his third year (in October 1887) he was awarded two additional scholarships, the Mulock and the George Brown. Cody was a little disappointed at his third-year results, but a confidential letter from a classics examiner, H.R. Fairclough, rather belied his pessimism. In four papers he had averaged over 88 percent.10
In his final year Cody swept the boards, winning the McCaul gold medal in classics, first-class honours in metaphysics, and the prize for the best English essay. He graduated with great credit in mathematics as well – his abilities and interests were not confined to the humanities alone.
By no means engrossed in his studies alone, Cody engaged in a wide range of extracurricular activities, many of them Christian in nature. He played a prominent part in the YMCA as a member of the executive and of the devotional committee. As an active member of the University Temperance League (a branch of the city Temperance League), he attended a number of temperance rallies in the city. Like some of his friends, Cody was horrified by the hazing of freshmen at the hands of second-year students. In his third year he helped to organize the Anti-Hazing League. He was elected president in February 1888, with A.T. DeLury (later a distinguished professor of mathematics) as secretary and Tommy Des Barres as third-year representative. But the league had only a brief career and was dissolved on February 8, 1889. Cody had some contacts with the Varsity, the student newspaper. After submitting an article by Archibald MacMechan, a former student, he was invited to submit articles of his own. He also participated in a few public debates at Convocation Hall, including one on December 16, 1886, on the resolution, “Resolved that a proper function of the state is to provide facilities for higher education of the subject.”
All these activities made Cody a well-known member of the student body, contributing to his greatest triumph as an undergraduate, his election as vice-president of the Literary Society in March 1888. This was a notable victory, particularly because Cody was an outsider, still a handicap though not as great as it had been a few years earlier. In the election of 1886 Cody had been defeated along with all outsider candidates. He did not run in the 1887 elections but continued to participate in the Lit debates. Finally, running as an “Independent” in 1888, Cody made it, defeating an old friend, A.H. Fraser, by a vote of 198 to 156.
Religion, politics, and university life comprised a full program for Cody, but he also took advantage of the theatrical attractions of Toronto, both professional and amateur. He saw The Merchant of Venice in the Grand Opera House; dramatic recitals by Mrs. Scott Siddons; Modjeska, the famous Polish actress, in Much Ado about Nothing; and Richard Keene as Richelieu and later Richard III. He saw an early performance of The Yeoman of the Guard, with Helen Lamont as Elsie Maynard, and The Bohemian Girl. There were also less prestigious performances like Mr. George Bedford’s dramatic and humorous recitals, including “The Midnight Charge of Rassassin.”
So much for the pattern of Cody’s university life. It remains to consider the broad areas of thought that occupied the university (and Cody) in this period. It was a time of intellectual ferment in the fields of politics, economics, and social development. There were signs of burgeoning Canadian nationalism, but the most obvious struggle was between those who saw Canada’s destiny as lying in close association with the United States (Goldwin Smith, Sir Richard Cartwright) and those who saw Canada’s destiny as lying within the British Empire (Macdonald, Sir George Parkin, D’Alton McCarthy, G.M. Grant, the Imperial Federation League). These latter saw no conflict between Canadian ambition and the British connection. They were Britons who were living in North America and were developing a unique culture, different from that of the mother country. Many of them regarded the United States as a money-grubbing, godless outfit. In the 1880s the National Policy was encountering opposition from western free traders, disgruntled labour people, and others. French ultramontanism (bishops Bourget and Laflèche) was regarded in Ontario as an alarming attempt to promote French Catholic culture in the West. The North-West Rebellion of 1885 widened the breach between French and English. It was a time when many kinds of reform were being demanded: prohibition, more rights for women, cleansing of municipal politics.
Cody took an active interest in politics during his university career. He was a member of the Political Science Club and attended many debates on subjects of public importance, sometimes at the university but more often in the city. He attended debates in Convocation Hall on such resolutions as “The present union among the provinces of Canada is not likely to be permanent” (October 30, 1885); “It would be to the advantage of Canada to substitute for responsible government a system similar to the U.S.” (December 4, 1885); “Canada should foster a military spirit” (November 9, 1888); and “The policy adopted by Great Britain towards the French Canadians has been conducive to the best interests of Canada” (December 14, 1888).
During the federal election of 1887, Cody attended a Tory meeting on February 12, at which the principal speaker was the Hon. Thomas White, the minister of the interior. On election night, he went downtown to hear the results of the election, another Tory victory. On January 25, 1888, he saw Sir Alexander Campbell, the lieutenant-governor, open the session of the Ontario Legislature.
Many political meetings concerned Irish Home Rule. Cody heard Michael Davitt and Justin McCarthy as well as Dr. Aubrey, “the defeated Gladstone candidate in Hackney.” On May 14, 1887, he attended a meeting called to oppose the activities of an Irish activist who was visiting Canada.
Cody found the pro-British and other sentiments of the Conservatives congenial, but his most immediate concerns were in the fields of religion and philosophy. For the most part, the theology of the churches with