The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-11-12

a work by Rev. Charles Rogers, entitled
.isootland, Social and Domestic; Memorials
of Life and Manners in North Britain" we
take the following edifying description Of
Scottish life in the olden times.-
From the king on his throne to the gaber-
lunie with badge and wallet, tho men of
every class are given to sottishness. The
gentry, in times of moderation, are swilling
stoups of claret, not because the wine is more
acceptable to them, but because il is cheaper
than any other vintage, and they periodically
madden themselves with ardent spirits family
qualified with water. The inferior people
seek sluggish gladness, followed by stupe-
faction, in bad beer, in their inability to buy
n stronger and more deleterious liquor In
the houses of the aristocrncy, guests, on
creeping to their beds from drinking bouts.
find 'in their bedrooms a copious supply
of ale, wine and brandy, to allay the thirst
superinduced by their previous potations."
Every town of three thousand Inhabitants
has forty public breweries. and, amongst its
humber DANES, numerous staff of ''brew-
ster wives" who make the ''home-brewed'
which they retail to their particular freens."
When artisans treat for payment for Jobs of
work, they sometimes stipulate to be remune-
rated in fermented liquor, like William Glass,
poet and house-painter, of Edinburgh, who,
when the dwellings of the Scotch capital were
first required to DO marked with numbers,
undertook to inscrbe the numerals on the
houses Of the Canongate for tho recompense
of O glass of whisky for each numeral de-
picted by his brush On meeting TO sether
for social enjoyment, the members Of convi-
vial clubs take measures to effect their inebri-
alton as rapidly as possible, and on rceing
homewards from the scenes of their gross de-
bauchery are sometimes constrained TO ask
watchmen to guide them to their doors.
"'Whero does John Clark reside? imper-
fecIly articulated the celebrated advocate of
that name to one of the guard at four in
the morning. Why, you're John Clark him.
self, answered the guardsman, Yes, said
the querist; but was not asking for John
Clark, but for his house!" But though the
darkness of sensual indulgence is sometimes
relieved by flashes of wit and outbreaks of
humorous hilarity the drunllards are moro
disposed to dullness and ferocity than to
mirth and good fellowship. When the pro-
ceedings after tRvern-dinner are moro than
ordinarily lugubriuus, ''the landlord intro
duces farm-spades and shovels, and on these
the members of the dinner party endeavor to
raise each other by turns. The more robust
succeed in elevating the weaker whom they
next endeavor to throw TO the greatest dis
tance. The person thrown is supposed to be
protected by his neighbors from falling
heavily; but he is occasionally deposited upon
the table, whence he scatters the shivered
glass on the apartment
AS though to justify this elegant amuse-
ment by proving themselves in every respect
mere dirt, the gentlemen who thus delight in
throwing themselves to and fro with shovels
and dungforks are grossly obscene in speech
and shamelessly venal with respect to every
matter of public or private trust. The peer
sells his king, his party, his country for bag
of gold, while the mere burgher regards his
municipal influence as a commodity to be
disposed of to the highest bidder And in
accordance with the degradation and moral
deflements of men without truth and women
without modesty, the cities and villages of
this Scotland of past time reek with the
noisome exhalations of putrescent filth. Nor
are'the sanitary arrangements of rural COM
munites less repulsive. In the ordinary Scot
tish hamlet, the same channel to which the
inhabitants are indebted for culinary water is
the common sewer and public lavatory. '.In
its waters gudewives wash their linens and
gudemen clean their faces on Sundays. When
Sow day comes round, day on which the
hogs are slaughtered, the river serves the
purpose of carrying off the accumulated re-
fuse of the piggeries."
Even at the present time, one-third of the
children born in>the Hebrides and in certain
districts of the highlands die under the age
of twelve, through the unwholesomeness Of
the habitations in which human creatures and
cattle huddle together under one roof but
such were the hygienic arrangements of Mr..
Rogers Scotland in olden time, that the
reader is disposed to marvel how creatures of
human kind ever managed to grow from in
fancy to adult years in villages where the
people drank liquid manure, and in the capi-
tai, where the streets were swine-yards, in
which the daintiest damsels of aristocratic
families-such as the daughters of Lady Max
well of Monreith, of whom Jane became
Duchess of Gordon-used to amuse them
selves by riding on the backs of the hogs that
moved about the public ways in untended
droves In fact, after reading all that our
historiographer has written against the intel
lectual moral, and social condition of his
country in past days, we are inclined to con
cur with the satirist OF one Of its countless
yenal legislators, who wrote
wondered not when was told
The venal scot his country sold;
But very much did admire
That ever it could md a buyer.
With respect to Scotch marriages in for
mer time, Mr.. Rogers gives some quaint par
ticulars:-
''Among the peasantry betrothols were
conducted in a singular fashion. The fond
swain, who had resolved to make proposals
sent for the object of his affection to the
village ale-house, previously informing the
iandlady OF his intentions, The damsel,
who knew the purpose Of the message,
busked herself in her best attire, and waited
on her admirer. She was entertained with a
glass of ale; then the swain proceeded with
his tale of love- dialogue like the follow
ing ensued:-Im gaun to speir whether We
will talk me, Jenny. Deed, Jock, L thocht
= ye MIGHT hae speirt that lang syne. They
affT