The Weekly Kansas chief. [volume] (Troy, Kan.) 1872-1918, 1873-01-09
DkseLArk SCOTLAND.

Mes Rx.eaiy she Picture 81 Caledonia that
Eer Psess P:iss fer ss-fe.dslisn. sqnaisr
To pass from England into Scotland is to go
from prose into poetry But the poetical in road
life is not usually the comfortable. In the bull
ding of cities, Charles Dickens observes that
cholera and the picturesque are commonly found
to be associated. Scotland pays for her beauty
by having to turn herself into shOw-place, and
for her poetry by great deal of feudalsm, dis
comfort and poverty. know country where
the distinction of estate is more sternly and even
cOarsely marked out. The local Duke or Mar
qnis seems everywhere to he regarded almost
exactly rs he might have been in the feudal
times-as q sort of heaven appointed ruler and
King. In England, after ALL nobody cares much
al,out Lord, except people who have chance
of being invited to dino with him. The average
middle-class Briton, who never dreams Of such
a privilege, concerns himself little about Peers,
and has no more natural reverence for a Duke
than he has for Lord Mayor. But in Scotland
you live always under the shadow of the Duke
this that, ssand the other Duke. Go into little
Highland inn, and you see the Dukes portrait,
the Duchess portrait, a volume containing an
account Of all the Dukes ancestors and family;
the talk is of what the Duke will not allow,
what he has promised, whether he will not per-
NIT the road to be made here the hotel to be
built there, when he il coming from London
returning thither, who has seen him at church,
and 80 forth. The Dukes country house, where
you pay a shilling aud of the roorls, is
called "The Palace" confess grew weary of
the Duke as HippOlyta did of the Moor and wish
he would change. and even find il relief to pass
from the dominion of one Duke into the domain
of another. In the meanwhile the country seems
to mere traveller to be all but depopnla:ctl.
There are no cities, of course, and in the pictnr-
esque places there are the hotels, and there
the palaces of the Dukes. and the shouting lodges
of the English gentry, who come in the to
shoot grouse. Besides this there is-nothing, one
might say. You travel for hours and see nobody
Some OF the Highland villages, when you do see
them, are miserable collection of novels rs
could be found even in the west of Ireland. Dirt
squalor and naketlness are everywhere. YOu will
scarcely see anywhere woman who wears shoes
and stockings. The children are all but naked
We saw the other day a big, rawboned girl, fully
fourteen years old. l should say. amusing herself
in the open air with other children. The rain
was pouring heavily. The girl had apparently
no garments but ragged frock with very short
skirt. Her legs and feet were bare. of Int
in that condition she was only like everybody
else. Her poor little frock however, was all
torn from the neck Ia the waist; could hardly he
said to have body left to it, and her whole chest
was rs bare as her forehead to the peltng rain.
We here are accustomed to regard Scotland as a
highly prosperous country, model of energy and
intelligence an example and shame to poor Ire
land. Well, Glasgow is great, flonrishing city,
and GreenOck is busy, and the Clyde is alive with
but outside the cities, see conn
try which is fast becoming depOpuated. Pros-
perify! Is this place which lock upon from my
window prosper0uss If it is, then so is the At
lantic prosperous as yOu gaze over il from the
deck of one of the Cunard steamers. There yon
have a steamer, and good dinner, and we'll
dressed guests on board and the ocean Ontsi,lc.
Here yon have hotel well filled with tourists,
and outside wilderness. All around this one
big hotel there is absolutely no population.