Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1890-10-18


were suddenly oyertaken by a little ro-
nance.
Bursting into the room in a great state
of trepidation our kindly landlady of st.
Andrews, Mrs. Steele, breathlessly stated
in the richest Aberdonian dialect that q
wedding dinner and a wedding itself were
in the process of spelling for the want of
a ''meenister." They had come all the
way from Alloa, poor souls, with kith and
kin, and their parson had missed the fer
~; and everything and everybody would
be ruined if my friend ''dinna COON ava
doom the coffee-room an join the puir
bodies directly"
No; my friend was obdurate. 1t was
his vacation. Besides, how did he know
they were Fright in their lines" But the
brisk landlady had him there She had
been school-teacher; had already exam
ined their ''lines' herself; and the pair
were entitled to succor on that score No,
again; because he had been cycling, was in
grays, and knickerbockers, to boot; and
who ever heard of a clergyman marrying
or burying anybody without the regula-
ton blacks But 1 had him there; and
soon saw him clapped inside black even
ing suit of my own. But oh, Scotch per-
versity, he had no white collar and cho-
ker. Then 1 cornered him again; this
time with q Yankee pspe--collar and ha'-
penny white muslin tie; and we were now
sure of victory, for under these condi-
tions We got him to the landing below.
Here he baked Completely. On how
slight thread hung the fate of this
wretched chuple theni He had not the
form of service with him, and proceeding
without it was utterly out of the ques-
ton. Bless those secondhand books, this
time they were the recourse. I bade the
landlady hold the man of prayer, and
with visions of loss and the aroma of a
scorching dinner prompting. she held him
like wise. In a moment more / had
bounded to my room, with emotions of de-
feat, hope, victory, had swept my eyes
along the mildewed covers of my second
hand books, and finally pounced with ex-
ultant delight upon little brown volume
of 1855, "Anderson's Minister'S Diecto-
ry." Bounding back to our captured
''meenister," placed this in his hands,
opened at page IL, and before he could Of
fer further protest that vigorous Scotch
landlady and myself had him in front OF
the blushing bride and bridegroom, per
spring through an Established church
form of marriage ceremony; and within
ten minutes times Isabella Mccarthy Cam
eron and Charles Macdonald, burgh and
parish of Alloa, shire of Clackmannan,
kingdom of Scotland, were made man and
wife; had set my name down with bold
ness and flourish as one of the witnesses;
the "rosy cheekit" Alloa girls accompany,
ing the pair had hustled the bride until
the window-panes ratified, for the one first
rubbing her left shoulder against brides
left shoulder will first be married; with
laughter and jest and many sally at the
captured parson, we all partook of the
4 - Ill
the more graciously served as the landlady
got two prices for at least two plates of it;
my friend surely got a sovereign for his
enforced clerical labors: and /, with the
good fortune ever favoring those who res
cue love-lorn folk from plight and distress,
was, in turn, perforce made to come to the
glorious north with my home in a sweet
old manse where could see, for SO long
as my fancy willed, life as it truly is in
the very heart of the remotest Highlands
of Scotland
1t was strange, weird coach-load OF
folk, speaking in a strange, weird tongue,
and we rolled rapidly along through s
strange, weird country. Every soul oi
the dozen or more within the wagonette
but myself, spoke the Gaelic tongue, and
not word was spoken during the entir,
| journey in English, save when 1 was ad
| dressed. 1t was an immediate revelation
of a condition of things in the Highland
which even intelligent Scotchmen in tn
large lowland cities are unacquainted with
| or affect to be ignorant of. From ever,
| source of book, newspaper and oral infor
nation outside the Highlands, You gair
| the impression that the Gaelic language i.
dead; that perhaps somewhere among ths
peat and mists of inaccessible peaks il
Donegal and Connaught, in ireland, or oi
S,rthor1an1 S1-.-a a,,l @1,a ua1,,- L.
in Scotland, there are few old men anG
women who have retained few words OF
a language once common to the CymriS
Celts; and indeed that the Gaelic language
with the crumbling remains of the glori
| GUS antiquities of Ireland and Scotland
are but the fabrics of zealots' dreams
But if you will come far enough You vii
find this language in all its original rich
ness, purity and power, and will be as
| founded to know that every soul in many
districts in Ireland and, geographically, il
the larger portion of Scotland, speak i
every waking hour of their lives precisel,
as their forefathers spoke it for unknown
cycles of years before them.
''Oh, yes" explained my friend, ''w,
are all Gaelic still, north of Perthshir'
and Aberdeen-shire, and in all the outly
ing islands," And then modestly, and a
though there might be something of tn
lingering old Jacobitic sedition in it: &c
preach to my people in Gaelic every othe
| Sunday
'tAnd do they all understand its''
Understand it, They Will tell you ths
Adam spoke Gaelic; that the scripture ca
be alone properly expounded in Gaeli,
my English sermons are given to empt
benches; the Gaelic Sundays bring hearel
from twenty miles away; and every face
a picture of radiant devotion and joy
even to the last one of their brave COLI
dogsl"
Bless them for loyalty to their trad
tions and language, it must be so; for b,
low and behind us there came a roar
song that echoed wildly through the gler
and passes. They had worn out I'll
thread-bare gossip of Strathglass, and, &
all without exception had had the cookie
of their hearts warmed little this day
"a cinder in their glasses" as the Higl
landers affectionately term drop of pc,
whisky, moodiness and silence, after I'll
, ceilidhn or gossiping was exhausted, we
succeeded by impetuous song. ''Coil
Cheathaich" was the name of the first OF
they sang and the very title, from coir
kettle, and cheathaich, steamy, vapory,
''The Misty Delr' as applied to a low,
Highland valley or hollow, is illustrate
of the exquisitely poetic significance
' words in all Gaelic original. Here is Il
> first stanZa:
Sc Coire-cheathaich. nan aighean siubhlach.
An Coire rumach is urar fonn,
Gu lurach miad-thehrach, min-sheal. sughar,
Gas iusan fiuar bu chubhraidh lean;
| Gu molach, dubh- ghorm, torrach, luisreagach
Corrach, pluranach, dlu-ghlan, GRIM.
Caoin baliach, ditheanach, canach misleanaC
' Gleann mhilltich's an lionmhor mang.
!, My own Misty Corrie, by deer ever haunted,
3 My beauteous valley, my own verdant dell,
q From every fair fiow'r 1 love dear and well;
. Thickly all growing, brightly all blowing,
MOSS canach and daisies @ adornne it its maze:, nH
Through which CANDLES lightly the 1.-the gra
: full fawn!
f SIT will be my turn soon," said 1
+ friend in a whisper and with a grimace
8 resignation.
/ s'Your turns"
f ssThey will tire of their sIMisty De
70 shortly, and then every one, women a
, all, will begin such a doctrinal expositi
a and catechism as, could You hear it
It English, you would regard as little e
le than assault. Oh, yes, every one of !
II flock, and indeed all Highlanders, love
q get their minister outside the kirk, a
l. harry him little. ALI Scotchmen
,r right kind of flame to their zeal and Il
l, are masters of polemics. One glass NAL
d one of my people q doctrinal enthusia
le two sets him to expounding the most di
l. cult theologic problem; and, sometin
ID think, with another he would stop on
g. way into heaven and engage st. Peter hi
i'd self"
s. His prediction was true one. One
IN one they approached the cherished s
G. ject They were answered kindly and