The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-11-02

m lr;d ~ LIN: Ir: t, d:r 1t, u etc.
l. The heavens declare the glory OfGOd Il ana
the frma Ineut showeth his handywork.
2. Day unto day utter eth speech, and night
unto night. showeth knowledge
And thus, with quaver rapid utterance of
sustained notes, and with frequent SOL
eml pauseS, they swept through the four
teen verses Of Psalm XIX.
Then after this weird and Joyous canticle,
followed prayer by the minister of Fasna-
kyle. 1t was nOue of your hating, limping,
rheumatic prayers that 60 by fits and starts
on splintered. spiritual clutches. 1t was a
hearty, healthy Highland prayer. full of
feryor, yigor, spirit, which filled the whole
manse with both sound and brightness,
even as these mountain torrents roar
and fash and echo through their
mighty gOrges and gens; and il
pilerim writer ever got notice where prayer
is heard and welcomed, one certainly had
impressive attention directed to his needs
this hospitable night. Then with hand
G~Isps all around, the host and hostess hot
forgetting their silent landmarks in the
goodnight ceremony, the inmates of the
manse separated. And in my great chamber
that night, even with
THE LARCHEs BEATING GREwsoMELY
At the windows, and the Highland winds
wiistling so wildly down the passes that
the house shook and the chimney creaked
above and soughed drearily in their fire.
places beneath, | passed from consciousness
u slccp dliu ultdIUS Will lllb OUb Thought
above all: that the far-away world and its
grinding activities hold naught in all their
mighty possibilities like the blessed content,
peace and faith beneath The roof of this one
lonely Highland manse.
There is something positively bewitching
IN digging out the meaning Of the Old Gaelic
names OF things and places, still retained in
the everyday topography of Scotland. The
beauty and eXDressiveneSs of their applica-
ton are remarkable. Take the single word
strath as an example. Strath is English for
tile Gaelic srath. It means a valley. But
it means still more. 1t is valley confined
by hills or mountains on either side, through
which a river runs. Then to any enc who
has lived, or wandered lovingly, in Scotland,
how perfect in description, covering whole
necessary sentences in our own language,
are the compact suffixes. Stranraer, in
Wig'own, from trdth-an-radhair, is the
valley of good grass or pasture. Stratbgroy,
in Perthshire, from Srath-dhruidh, is the
valley where the Druids dwell. Strachur, in
Argyle, was once Srath-a-choire or valley
OF the ravine. Strathcrombel in Ross-shire,
Is from Sralh- crom-beul, or the valley of the
curved opening, an exact description in
the fewest possible words. Then there is
Strafhearn, or Srath-ear-an, in Perthshire,
the valley OF the east-running river. Strath-
brock, in Linlithgow-shire is from Srath-a-
bhruir, the valley of the badgers. Strath-
bran, found both in the shires of Perth and
Ross, was, in Gaelic, Srath-Craoin, lor valley
OIL Inc dropping or QrlZZ ing showers.
Again, in Perthshire, is Strahthallen, from
Sra.h-suinn, the fair and beautiful valley,
and Strathtummel, corrupted from Srath-
teth-thuil, is the valley of the fierce stream
or torrent. And here, away in the ragged
northern edge of the shire of Inverness is
this wonderful Strathglass,. to the Gaels
Srathglas, their gray valley; gray in the
skies above it, gray in its valley-bed where
the stubble-felds, banks of clay and dream
full river blend; gray, despite the splatches
of crimson laid by the pencils of the frost;
gray in the masses of birch, in the myriads
oil lichened crags; and gray in the very
mists Of its countless waterfalls.
Not 1000 people in all Scotland know of
the existence of this grand Gray Valley"
Not 100 families can be found within it from
end to end. No Murray" or "Black" has
ever penetrated its depths to describe it.
The old Highlanders look at me curlously
from the doors of their crofts, and doubt
that am from so far land as America
To their ken, am the first American to
know Strathgass. And what thrill comes
to one at the consciousness OF possibly be-
ing
THE FIRST AMERICAN
To be seen; .lcarIy at the threshold of the
twen.sfctn century, anywhere on the face of
rnfs great earth The noble strath opens
to the German Ocean at Beauty, and with