The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1888-09-27
IN SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS
Sad Sights Seen in the Land of Burns an6
Scott-SGualor and Dire Poverty.

But the cottages which to the right of
our road struggled down to a rocky
stream below had no redeeming white
wash, no vines about their doors. The
turf around them was worn away.
Some were chimneyless; on others the
thatch, where weeds did not hold
it together, had broken through, leav-
ING great holes in the roof On q
bench tilted up against the wall of the
lowest of these cottages sat an old
gray-haired man in Tam O. Shanter,
his head bent low, his clasped hands
falling between his knees. 1t was a
picturesque place, and we camped out
a while under an old cart near the
roadside. Perhaps it would have
been wise if, like Mr.. Hamerton. we
could have seen only the picturesque
ness of the Highland clachan, only
the color and sublimity Of the huts,
only the fine women live within them.
But how could we sit there and not
see that the picturasqueness was thai
OF misery, that whatever color and
sublimity there might be-and to the
Sublimity | must confess we were
blind-were but outward signs of pow
sheltered not only strong young wo-
men, but feeble old men like that pa
thetic figure with the clasped hands
and bent head? We have seen the old
age of the poor when we thought it
but peaceful rest after the work of
years. In English almshouses we
have found it in our hearts to envy the
old men and women their homes. But
here despair and sadness seemed the
portion of old age. l do not know
why it was, but as we watched that
gray-haired man, though there was
space of blue sky just above him, and
the day was warm and the air sweet,
it was of the winter he made us think,
of the time soon to come when the cold
winds would roar through the pass,
and snow would lie on the hills, and he
would shiver alone in the chimheyless
cottage with its one tiny window. A
few miles away, men in a fortnight
throw away on their fishing more than
these people can make in years. Scotch
landlords rent their wild uncultivated
acres for fabulous sums, while villages
like this grow desolate. If when you
are in the Highlands you would still
see them as they are in the romance of
Scott or in the sickly sentiment of
Landseer, or as mere pleasure-ground
for tourists and sportsmon, you must
get the people out of your mind, just
as the laird gets them off his estate.
Go everywhere, by stage and steam
boat, when you come to clachan or
to a lonely cottage, shut your eyes and
pass on. Else you must realize as we
did-and more strongly as we went
further-that this land, which holiday
makers have come to look upon as their
own, is the saddest on Gods earth.
After kilchrenan the road crossed
the moorland, Ben-Cruachan towering
far to our right. We came to another
wretched village down by Loeb Etive.
Here again in the sunshine was an old
man. He was walking slowly and
feebly up and down, and there was in
his face look as if hope had long
gone from him. In England scarce
town OF village is without its charities.
But in the Highlands, while deer and
grouse are protected by law, men are
chased from their homes, the aged and
intirm are led to shift for themselves.
l think the misery of these villages is
made to seem but the greater because
of the large house which so often
stands close by.-Hrs. Pentsel, IN Har-
morris Bnp1,i,,p