Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1889-01-24
How tho scott.sh Crofsers Lave.


The gray wretchedness of the a9ter.
noon was fit prelude to BarrA When
we came to Castle Bay, rain was fall-
inc unon its waters. on the battlemcnt-
ed castle, perched upon q rocky. sea-
weed-covered islet, and on the town
set against background of high bare
hills. But the steamer stopped. and
we went ashore to look about Us. A
few ugly new houses, shops with plate
glass windows, often cited rs proofs of
the islands prosperity. and then the
real Barra: mass of black cottages
compared to which those of Null were
mansions, those of Kilchrennan pala-
ces-rpnning up and down the rocky
hillside. Only by polite figure OF
speech can the stone pile in which tho
Hebridean crofter makes his home be
called a cottage. It is, as it was de-
scribed many years ago. but ''a heavy
matched roof thrown over few rude
ly put together stones" The long
low walls are built of loose rock black
ened by constant rain. The matched
roof, almost as black. is held in place
without by network of ropes, within
by rafters of drift-wood. The crofter
has no wood save that which tho sea
yields, and yet in some districts he
must pay for picking up the beams
and spars washed up on his wild
shores, just as he must for the grass
and heather he cuts from the wilder
moorland when he makes his roof.
Not until you come close to the rough
stone heap can you see that it is q
house, with an opening for doorway,
one tiny hole for window. From a
distance there is but its smoke to dis
- a
around it.
s.scenes of misery" as Pennant called
them one hundred years ago. were
grouped together, there was not even
rock, rough, ragged, and broken, As
God made it. The people who live
here are almost all fishermen, and, as
if in token of their calling. they have
fashioned the thatch of their roofs into
the shape of boats. One cottage, in.
deed, is topped with genuine boat.
There were few chimneys, but smoke
came pouring from the doors, from
| holes in the thatch and walls. Many
of the roofs had luxuriant growth o.
| grass, with here and there a clump Of
| daisies, or of the yellow flowers which
give color to Highland road-sides. But
| this was all the green we saw on theil
hillside of rock and mud.
Through open doorways we had
glimpses of dark, gloomy interiors,
dense with smoke. We did not cross Z
threshold, however; to seek admittanc<
seemed not unlike making show o.
the peoples misery. The women ant
girls who passed in and out, and stood
to stare at US, looked strong ane
healthy. Theirs is life which mus
either kill or harden. Many were
handsome, with strangely foreign
gypsy-ike faces; and so were the bon
neted men at work on the pier. l
may be there is truth in the story
| which gives touch of Spanish bloo(
to the people of the Outer Hebrides
If the hips of the Armada went dowl
with all their treasure, it is said thei
crews survived. and lived and tool
unto themselves wives in the Islands
from which chance of deliverance wa
small. We heard only Gaelic spokel
while we were at Castle Bay. Tn,
! people at Great Britain need not g,
abroad in search of foreign parts; blu
an Englishman, who only wants to Sc,
the misery and wrongs of nations for
eign in name as well as in reality
would find little pleasure in Barra.-
Elizabeth Robins Pen,seL, in Harper
Magazine.