The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-18
THE SKYE CROFTERs.
The Miserable Society and Privation in
Which They Live.

The Miserable Society and Privaticn in
Which They Live.
st. Jsmes's Gazette.
will describe typical Idrigi house, which
is occupied by the aged daughter and three
grown-up grandchildren of fisherman named
John Macdonald, who has been dead for many
years The croft upon which it stands slopes
southwark toward the Bay of Ulg, and is one of
$50 that belong to Major Fraser, of Kilmuir. 1t
is about two and half acres in extent, and pays
nominal rental of rather more than e5; a
temporary reduction of 25 per cent off that sum
having, however, been conceded during the last
two or three years by the proprietor. Near the
center of the croft is a sea of sticky mud; and
amid the slough are two very small stacks of
corn, each about nine feet high by six in dame
ter, carefully matched, and covered with old
nets to prevent their being scattered to the
winds Close at hand is the house-a building
of rough, unmortared stone, measuring perhaps
ten feet by twenty. and very thickly rooted; first
with "divits' of turf then with close thatch of
heather, and finally with fragments of coarse
netting weighted with Jumps of gray trap. The
door is broken, and will not shut properly; there
is no chimney, and the sole window, consisting
of single pane of glass, has an area of not more
than three square feet Flom the doorway, and
from a small hole in the low roof volumes of
peat-smoke escape; and when I entered the hut
| could not for several minutes distinguish any
thing within, owing to the dense fumes that rose
from a scanty fire smoulderng on the floor in
the middle of the gloomy room. At last my eyes
| became accustomed to the semi darkness and l
was able to make out the forms of the inmates
of the hovel. They sat huddled together on
low, black settle, warming themselves and
greedily watching battered pot that, suspended
from improvised tripod above the fire, con-
tanned quantity of thin broth, the main iugre-
dients of which were. as afterward discovered,
potatoes and fish l shared the poor peoples
meal 81 broth and oaten cake, while the smoke
I, euTieS .spward and hung beneath the roof in an
| impenetrable cloud the whole making, with the
| festooned fshing-nets and the tattered oiskins
on the walls, an interior which Teniers would
have delighted to paint if there had been
any jollity in the scene. There was no table
but at one end of the room there was a shaky
dresser on which was arranged a poor display of
cracked crockery and rusty tins. The inside of
the house divided by means of rotten parti-
tions about six feet in height, into three small
chambers, one being the living room, second
the bedroom and the third lumber and store
room. In the bedroom the clothes were simply
old rags and sacking, barely sufficient to cover
poor humanity; al the floor throughout was
formed, so far as could see of the hard earth
Yet this house of the Macdonalds was a palace
in comparison with some of the huts [ visited
elsewhere. One had neither door nor window.
l crawed into it through irregular aperture
less than three feet high, and found myself
( amongst some ducks that were picking up some
scraps from amid the garbage with which the damp
floor was Uttered. The sole tenant of this hovel
was old woman who had a hacking cough
In another hut the rainwater dripped from the
broken roof and flooded the only room, in which
seven people sat crouching
One might reasonably expect to find that the
people who live in such wretchedness are stunted
and evil looking But they are not. They are
thick-set intelligent race; and some of the girls
are models of buxomness, although before mid
dle-age all the women become withered. They
are long-lived too. Their faults are that they
are idle and saturated with superstition and
prejudice. In only one out of at least score of
crofters' houses which entered did l see any
sign that the inmates regularly devoted them
selves to remunerative home employment In
that one, two women were weaving home-spu
tweed, and capital cloth they made their awk
ward loom. l am glad to be able to say that
most of the Skye landlords wear this tweed
when they can get it; but if there were a wider
demand there would be larger supply and the
islanders would be proportionately benefited
Until quite recently there were weavers in al
most every township, and the art might be easily
revived The crofters now get cheaper ma
teria for themselves from Manchester, and it is
almost exclusively the richer classes who use the
tweed of the island.