Mrs. Elizabeth Butt Is 97 Years Old<br /> Spaniard's Bay, October 3 - Mrs. Elizabeth Butt of Spaniard's <br /> Bay was ninety-seven years old on October 5 and although since February of this year she has been confined to her bed she likes to receive visitors and <br /> always finds something interesting to talk about. She was eight years old <br /> when Cyrus Field in the &quot;Great Eastern&quot; entered Heart's Content having <br /> successfully laid the cable (the cable laid previously having broken). Mrs. <br /> Butt has told us of this historic event as she remembers it. She recalls <br /> that when the &quot;Great Eastern&quot; arrived, everybody seemed to be scurrying <br /> around. Some seemed to be busily engaged, some were dressed in their <br /> fineries, others were just watching the goings on while others were just <br /> plain indifferent. Being a child, she with the other children were in the <br /> centre of things, not because she was interested in the historical <br /> significance of the occasion, but because she merely wanted to see what was <br /> going on. After all it was not every day that a ship as big at the &quot;Great <br /> Eastern&quot; came into the little quiet fishing village of Heart's Content. She <br /> says that many of the men and women present went on board the big ship to <br /> have a look around and some of the children managed to go aboard also and <br /> see what all the fuss was about. It was about dinner time that they go out, <br /> and with her chums she looked the ship over, ending up by following their <br /> noses to the direction from which came pleasant smells - the galley. When <br /> they stopped at the galley door, the man inside (presumably the cook) spoke <br /> to them and gave them some &quot;figgy duff.&quot; &quot;We were too shy to stand there and eat it,&quot; says Mrs. Butt, &quot;so we went aft and sat down. Some of the <br /> girls wondered if they should eat it or not, but it looked good, smelled <br /> good and tasted good, so I ate mine, and you can see for yourself that it <br /> didn't kill me.&quot;<br /> When she was a young woman, she and her sister walked from Heart's <br /> Content to Harbour Grace looking for work which in those days meant only one thing, to go &quot;in service&quot; with some Labrador planter. It wasn't easy to get a job then, as planters wanted to be sure of the girls they hired, and there <br /> were plenty girls around from which to choose. As anybody knew either she <br /> or her sister, they had some difficulty. Her sister did find employment at <br /> Harbour Grace South and in later years married there. Elizabeth came on to <br /> Spaniard's Bay and by a streak of luck found a planter looking for a <br /> servant, and so she went to live with Mr. John Butt. Four years later, at <br /> the age of twenty three, she and Mr. Butt's son, Josiah walked to Upper <br /> Island Cove and were married in the Old Church there on St. Stephen's Day, <br /> <br />   Submitted By: Cindy Snow