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In old St. John's town,
I'd love to go down
Every Christmas, on the west end,
To their Water Street store,
Where a hand bell rang out,
And the young lads would shout,
Hey, Mister, buy a ticket.
Help the poor orphans out!
Hey, Mister, buy a raffle
For the boys in Mount Cashel!
Merry Christmas!
Could you buy just one please?
You may be lucky and win your Missus a turkey.
Come on now and buy one from me!
Some years there I went,
And spent every cent
That I had in my pocket at the time;
And how good you would feel,
When they'd spin the big wheel,
And you'd win,
But you wouldn't cash in!
In old St. John's town,
I still love to go down,
But it's just not the same any more,
And I sure miss the roar
In that Water Street store,
When the crowds
Would come tramplin' in.
What a pity and shame,
Our loss, no one's gain,
Those lads and Mount Cashel are gone;
But a warm glowing ember,
I'll always remember,
Those orphans to Christmas belong.
See more Newfoundland and Labrador Christmas songs.
Historical Note:
The Mount Cashel orphanage was run by the Christian Brothers, a Roman Catholic order. The order had been respected in the community for many years, but reports of physical and sexual abuse began in the 1980s.
Eventually more than 300 former students alleged they had been abused physically and sexually at the orphanage, and some of them claimed that the government and church tried to cover up the problems. After the allegations were publicized, the school was closed. In 1996, a court in Ontario ordered the Christian Brothers to cease operation in Canada and pay the equivalent of about $46 million to the victims.
On 28 May, 2004, CNews reported that John Evangelist Murphy, 75, who was convicted of four counts of indecent assault on boys who lived at the Mount Cashel Orphanage in the 1950s, was given a 20-month conditional sentence at Supreme Court in St. John's.
Police said that Murphy's trial is the last known case involving sexual abuse at the hands of the Christian Brothers, the lay order which ran the orphanage in St. John's for 115 years.
