The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1889-07-30
IN BONNIE SCOTLAND.
bAd Sights i'm the Highlands Seen by an oh.
serving Lady Writer.

serving Lady Writer.
But the cottages which TO the rlght
OF our road struggled down to 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 ii
together, had broken through, leaving
great holes in the roof. On bench
tilted up against the walls 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
while under an old cart near the road
side. Perhaps it would have beer
wise If, like Mr.. Hamerton, we coulG
have seen only the picturesqueness o:
the Highland clachan, only the color
and sublimity of the huts, only the
fine women that live within them. But
how could We sit there and not see
that the picturesqueness was that OF
misery, that whatever color and sub
Unity there might be - and to the
sublimity must confess we were blind
were but outward signs of poverty
and squalor, and that the huts sheltered
not only strong young women, but
feeble old men like that pathetic 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 aims
houses 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. do
not know why it was, but as We watched
that gray haired man, though there
was d 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 chin
nevless cottage with its one tiny win
dow. A few miles away. men in
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 High
lands 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
sportsmen, you must get the people out
of your mind, just as the laird gets
them off his estate. Go everywhere,
by stage and steamboat, and when
YOU come to a clachan or to q 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
r. .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
q look in his face as if hope had long
gone from him. In England scarce q
town or village is without its chart
ties. But in the Highlands, while
deer and grouse are protected by law,
men are chased from their homes, the
aged and infirm are left 90 shift for
themselves. | think the misery of
these villages is made to seem but the
greater because of the large house
which so often stands close by.-MrS.
PeHaneU, az HGrper'S Mo9aztne.