Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-07
SCOTS OF THE WEST.
Wakeman's Description Of the Lives
of the Fisher-Crofters.
IT'S INDEED A DISMAL PICTURE.
Their Homes but Little Better Than the
Teepss Of the Sioux.
HOW CUPID SHOOTS THE LASSIES

CORRESPONDENT OF THE DIsPArcH1
BURRAvoE, SHETLAND, Nov. 1O.-Hav-
ing shown in my preceding article the e1-
traordinary importance to Scotland of her
herring fisheries, an industry now annually
providing for the worlds food supply over
100, 900 barrels of cured herrings, some
account of the everyday life of the $4,000
or 10000 people, who practically devote
their lives to this one vocation, will be of
interest to American readers.
Five-sixths of all the herrings taken are
landed within the II fishing districts of the
east coast. Three-iourths of these are taken
off the Aberdeen, Banff. Elgin, Ross,
Sutherland, Caithness. Orkney and Shet-
land shores; and of the fishermen and
"curers' crews" requisite for labor in this
imperial domain of the herring, fully two
the 6sher-croiter hanlets OF the Scottish
west coast, from all the contiguous coast
wise islands north of the Null OF Cantyre.
from Syke, from Harris and from Lewis,
from North and South Uist, and from all the
little ocean-girdled specks fringing the
outer Hebrides. After these men and
women return to their western homes, in
September, the crops of their little crotts
are to be gathered. These comprise oats, a
bit of sickly grass for the hay of the
"beasties' in winter, potatoes and the uni
versal Scotch "kail" or cabbage.
HOW THEY SPEND THE WINTER.
Then the women take to their knitting
and land-looms, and if there be winter her
ring-fshing in the sea.lochs near their
homes, this is prosecuted by the men in
small open boats of 18 10 % feet keel, at
much bodily risk and under tortuous severl-
ties Of wind and weather. In these boats al!
the fire they can have for cooking ana
warmth is carried and kept in huge iron
pots; and in sleeping they tumble down any.
where in their sea-clothlng and oll-sklns and
cover themselves with rags or sails. Ii
likely to remain for a time on the lochs,
they build sod huts alongshore, thatching
them with "bracken," coarse fern also
used in thatching their homes.
II there be no fishing, the natives have
little or. nothing to do from the harvest"
until March aud April, when the cutting OF
seaweed Tor manure begins, and later. when
the annual cutting of peat for fuel is done.
Among these primitive people the rights"
of women to at least labor were long since
beyond gainsaying. 1 have seen the hus-
band lit hali-barrel GO pounds) upon his
wife's back and calmly walk home beside
her. In peat-cutting time, when the days
work Is done, the husband will throw the
crooked wooden spade over his shoulder,
and the wife, gathering her skirts into an
ample sack, will carry sometimes for miles
to the croft weight of peat for immediate
use under which Il Highland sheltie would
stagger. And nv friend, David M. Rosie, a
Fishery Board officer to whom am indebted
for much exact information, tells me Of an
incident OF sea-weed cutting where 3 croft
ter's wife, with rope tied about her walst,
was lowered over a crag to gather sea-weed
among the slippery, spume-covered rocks,
while her phllosophic husband, safely en-
sconsed in a sunny cleft above, was quietly
enjoying his pipe.
BUT THEY LOVE THEIR WIVES.
But neither the Highland nor Island
crolter must be judged by our standards.
No human beings love their wives and
homes more loyalty than they. All lowly
classes following the sea or the lives of fisher
men regard the mans labor done when his
vessel is anchored in port, or his 6shing-buss
is beached at the fishing hamlet shore; so
that the fishing crofter and his spouse are
contentedly additionally correct in their
adjustment of labor and duty.
The home of the western Highland and
of the east-coast fisherman or even of the
northern Highland croiter. Nearly all their
cabins are built on line with the slope of a
brae or hillside, the rear rooi-slope forming
an obtuse angle. The walls are never more
than six feet high, oftener but five; but they
are frequently four ieet thick. They are
built Of round or rubble stone. Some of the
walls are double, with layer of earth be-
tween for additional warmth. The rooc-
beams rest on the middle of the walls, and
are laid at the same angle on three sides,
with a lesser angle on the hillside incline.
Some are neatly matched with straw; but
many are covered with bracken or heather.
You can never effect an entrance to one OF
these structures through the single door
without pushing aside COW, sheep, or
some manner of "beastie," sheltered in the
capacious doorway or occupying a part Of
the hut itself, meagerly partirioned off for a
byre. On entering you are nearly sufocated
with smoke. The place is dark. The fire is
seldom allowed to 60 out, and when not
blazing brightly in use, smokes and smudges
from slight depression in the center of the
floor precisely Is in Sioux Indians teepe
EVERYTHING IS PRIMITIVE.
Some of these fireplaces, if they may be
so called, are built in little stone troughs,
aud nat slabs oil stone surround them. 1nl-
mediately above the fire, in the center of
the root, is an aperture in which is set
halfbarrel, or other device, to answer the
place OF stovepipe or chimney. The
smoke, after leisurely pilgrimages about
the cabin, finds its chief exit here. The
roof is black as night from smoke deposits,
and here and there on the poles glistening
oily substance, from the moisture in the
thatch and the action OF the peat smoke, is
forming into tiny globules ready tor drop
ping; and whatever they fall upon is indel-
IDLY stained. An iron chain hanging from
the roof supports the huge round iron pot
in which the potatoes, the porridge and the
kali brose are cooked; while the universal
teapot and bannockpan or griddle stand
endless guard beside the fire.
One room usually comprises the interior;
although bedroom with its roof s!anting
down to the very ground, will occasionally
be found. The furniture is an odd tumble
of ancient oak and later day things in var
nish; cloudy DELPHI and radiant china; olden
iron and pewter and cheap timed utensils;
Gaelic wooden "methers" aud Brumagem
things which shine. There are square hunks
for beds in which a whole family can re-
pose; genuine antiques here and there, such
as NAV often be found in the lowly homes of
Brittany; trundle-beds which are hidden
beneath larger ones by day, and do service
anywhere by night; and here and there the
seaiaring instinct has caused the rigging of
hammocks from rotten nets, or more ingeni-
ous ones still from lines and barrel-staves.
FOOD OF THE CRoFTERS.