, 1890-11-27

w uh"HSs' o.N iauitiy may w S'h'
centrated where most profitable re-
suits can obtain; or rentals for the
beggarly patch he Is forced to exist
upon must bc reduced to almost u
nominal sum.
PROSPERITY IMPOSSIBLE.
a prosperous pcasantry is impos'
sible where the energies Of the
family are dissipated In IA half dozen
different vocations to simply pay
rent that a thatch may be kept over
the heads of the very old and very
young Of the family.
Briefly, that is the condition of
the crofter, and IT Is all that is, or
ever has been, tho matter with him.
To merely exist he has been forced
into becoming fisher, kelp gatherer,
poacher--anything to live. His
wife becomes fisher, "gutter" or
dresser of herrings at the seaside,
mussle gatherer, or does any tortu-
Gus labor possible to add pound or
shilling to the store for meeting the
inexorable demand OF the rent The
daughters are forced from home into
service, and their altered condition
and needs deprive them OF both
their love of the Highland home
and the power to bestow more than
u pittance upon It's keeping. The
SONS become 9illies to highland
sportsmen, with few weeks of de-
moralizlng luxury and ten months
OF idleness and unrest or, better,
though still bad, are crowded to
the towns to further impoverish
labor there or, perhaps In the end
best, reach Canada or the states,
where for years the little saved be-
yond bare living finds its way
back to the crofter father and event
ually to the landlord for rent.
AS rule the oldest son marrles
and remains ut home. He seldom
has the inclination oil the means to
"hive off" and set up housekeeping
on another croft, and besides 1t Is
the infleXible policy of Highland
landlords to restrict rather than to
increase croft holdings. This leads
to IA subdivision of the already mad
equate honie.croft and two families,
Instead of one, repeat an intensified
struggle for existsnce, increasing the
evil, and giving warrant for the
ever-reCurring landlord cry of 'con-
gested crofter DISTRICTS" while mill
ions OF acres of land, idle save for
its use to sportsmen, are sweeping
away into almost impenetrable
wildernesses around them.
In all the crofter settlements estab-
lished ut the different occasions of
"clearances," there Is little of inter
est saye the
UNAvARYING DEsOLATIoN
of environment and everyday life.
This class of crofters are the most
smileless, voiceless people that live.
Fringing the entire northeastern,
northern and northwestern coasts
of Scotland may be found hamlets
of this class. There is not the sound
of mirth, the tone content, or the
look of hope, to be heard or seen in
one. The land is barren, the sea-
coast is grewsome and dreary, the
habitations are wretched, fishing is
precarious, and the entire life of
these people Is a ceaseless. sunless
effort to live. 1t Is only i'm the glens,
on the mountain sides, within the
straths, clustered In the upland
corries or hollows, or here and there
nestled by the side of mountain
lochs and rivers, where the ''re-
movals" and "clearances," like
some wild mountain tempest, swept
over the old Highlanders without
annihilating all their homes, that
the crofter of old, the crOfter of
song and story and tourists tales,
may yet be found.
He Is grave and silent In his lone
illness; but about this child of the
mist fingers nearly all the remains
of Highland tradition, folklore and
picturesqueness OF environment. The
single, lonely, isolated croft Is too
dreary for winsomeness. But you
will now and then come upon an
old "clachanh where three or four,
or perhaps half n dozen crofts nestle
in u corrie together, are huddled
under the friendly protection of
some precipitous crag, or are grouped
like brown gypsy tents beneath the
strong arms of primeval trees; and
here life and costumes are in many
respects very primitive indeed.
The "auld clachan," aside from
so universally being the hamlet
home of the crofter, is worthy of at.
tention on its own account. The
word Is occasionally u misnomer
among Scottish people themselves,
as applied to any ancient and pic
turesque hamlet of n half-score or so
of quaint old houses. Clachan has a
more ancient and honorable signif-
ication. 1t is pure Gaelic word
meaning
"A CIRCLE OF sToNEs.n
The clachan was the fame or place
of worship of the pagan Caledo-
dams. When Christianity was in
troduced the missionaries from Iona
very wisely planted the cross within
the sacred clachan. In time little
chapels, and finally churches, fol-
lowed. Houses grew up around
these, and then the tiny church
place or hamlet itself took the name
of the spot where the old pagan
rites were once celebrated. 1t is in
teresting, too, to note how exactly
identical is the Gaelic of the croftcr
Highlander OF to-day with that of
his heather ancestors of 800 or
1000 years ago. Instead of ask
ing his neighbor in Gaelic,
na,,S, Are you %a going g.if to il church to- o
you going to the stones?r
{ Am bheil thu'dol don clachan?)
The quaintest bits of primitive