Western sentinel. [volume] (Winston [i.e. Winston-Salem], N.C.) 1856-1886, 1885-01-08
HOW THE CROFTERS, THE NEW
CoMERS TO N. CAROLINA LIVE.

- *2e
A Vivid and Interesting Description of
the Homes and Customs of these
HumbIy Fisher Folk.
Special C5,rcypondcnce Of the Sentinel
LONDON, Eng, Dee. 20th.-Doub'-
less many of the SENrINEL's. readers
would be pleased to learn something
Of the lives and homes of the Croftars,
colony of which people have within
the past year emigrated into your
State. If 50, they will find the follow
ing.vivid description, interesting read
ing. Ielipped it from a recent issue
of st. james >Gdzette, which the SEN
54sEL denbfless does not see., -
I will describe typical Idrigil
house, which is occupied by the aged
daughter and three grown-up grand
children of fisherman named John
Macdonald, who has been dead for
many years. The croft upon which
it stands slopes southward toward the
bay. of Uig, and is one of some $50 that
belong to Maj. Fraser, of Kilmur. 1t
is about two and one half acres in ex-
tent, an d pays nominal rental of
rather more than 60; a temporary
reduction of % percent off that sum
having, however, been conceded dur
ing the last two or three years by the
proprietors. 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 feet in diameter, carefully thatch-
ed. and covered with old nets to pre-
vent 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 t:latch of heather
and finally with fragments of coarse
netting weighed with Jumps of gray
trap. The door is broken, and will not
shut properly; there is no chimney !;
and the sole window, consisting of a
single pane of glass, has an area of no t
more thau three square feet. From
the doorway, and from small hole in
the low roof, volumes of peat smo Ike
escape and when [ entered the hut
I could not for several minutes dis
tinguish anything within, owing to the
dense fumes that rose from scanty
fire smolderiEg ON the floor in the
middle of the gloomy room. At last
my eyes became accustomed to the
semi-darkness and | was able to make
out the forms of the inmates of the
hovel. They sat huddled together on
low black settee, warming themselves
and greedily watching a battered poi
that, suspended from an Impoverished
.ripot above the fire, contained 6
quantity of thin broth, the main in
gredients Of which were, as aftcrware
discovered, potatoes and fish. | shared
the poor, peoples meal Of broth ant
oaten cake, while the smoke curlet
upward and hung beneath the roof ii
an impenetrable cloud, the who'll
making, with the festooned fishing
nets and the tattered oilskins on th
walls, an interior which Teniers woulo
have delighted to paint, if there ha'
; been any joIity in the sccna. Their
was no table, but at one end of tn
room there was q shaky dresser OIL
which was arranged a poor sdispla
of cracked crockery and rusty tins
The inside of the house was divide
! by means of rotten partitions abou
!; six feet in height, into three sma.
= chambers one being the living room
a second the bedroom, and the thiro
a lumber and store room. In tn
bedroom the clothes were simply oil
rags and sacking, barely sufficient t
. cover poor humanity, and the foe
,. throughout was formed, so far as
. could see, of the hard earth. Y ct tn
> house of the MacDonalds was a palat
. in comparison with some Of the huts
!, visited elsewhere. One had neitht
:. :. door nor window. | crawled into
) through an irregular aperture lt
e than three feet high, and found M.
) self among some ducks that we
y y picking up scraps from amid the ga
:. bage with which tie damp floor W;
- Uttered. The sole tenant of this ho
;. : ell was an old woman who hada hac
=. ing cough. In another hut rain wat
- dripped from the broken roof al
! = flooded the only room in which seyt
- people sat crouching.
- - One might reasonably expect
- :, find that the people who live in SUI
~ wretchedness are stunted and evil-loo
s. ing. But they are not They are
) thick set, intelligent race and sor
% of the girls are models of buxomne
\ although before middle age all t
8 women become withered. They q
. . long lived, too. Their faults are til
- = they ARE idle and saturated with s
~ perstition and prejudice. In on
y. y. one out of score of crefters' hou:
=, T. which I entered did | see any 81
- that the inmates regularly devot
10 10 themselves to rcmuneratiye home e
- - p1oymcnt. In that one two wonl
90 90 were weaving home spun tweed, ant
M La capital cloth they made on their az
nc nc ward loom. / am glad to be able
~ :. say that most of the Skye landlol
- wear this tweed when they can get
:. - but if there were a wider dema
IN there would be larger supply, a
- - the islanders would be proportions
~ ly benefited. Until quite recen
there were weavers in almost ev'
township, and tke art might easily
ssn gns revived. The crofters can now
war cheaper material for themselves Fl
not, Manchester, and it is almost exc
sais ons sively the richer classes who use
i at tweed of the island.
: 80