Welcome Wagon

[Mechanic]

I don't know if it is still the practice, but when I was living in Canada when you moved, you would get a letter from the welcome wagon, welcoming you to your new home. The letter contained information about the district and services in the area, plus vouchers redeemable for various goodies from the local merchants.

Mergenthaler and L&M England had a printing exhibition in Toronto. L&M had printing presses and Mergenthaler, of course, had a number of Linotypes. One of the Linotypes was sold off the floor to a company in Montreal. Rather than stripping the machine down and recrating, it was decided to just bolt the machine to skids and higher a moving company to deliver the machine to Montreal.

The moving company was to notify me when they were ready to deliver the machine, and I would take delivery of the machine at the printer's loading dock. In due course the machine arrived and was installed. A day or so later my wife phoned me at work and said I have a letter here for Mr. and Mrs. Mergenthaler Linotype, from the welcome wagon and it said, "Dear Mr and Mrs. Mergenthaler Liontype, Welcome to Montreal etc."

So you can see that in Montreal they don't discriminate.