The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-11-16
THE SCOTTISH CR0FTERS,
A Part Of Humanity Ranked Lower
Than the Beasts by the
Landlords.
Cruelties Unparalleled Practiced
on the Rude But Honest High
land People.
Driven From Their Homes to Make Room
for the Deer, the Fox, and
the Wolf

Especial Correspondence Of The 1NDEPENDENr.l
THuRso, Scotland, Oct. a.-To the av-
erage American the ''crofter'' has always
been dim legend of the isles and high
lands Of Scotland. Though the ''crofter
question" has for over half century boon
the Irish question: of Scotland, and has
had much to do in effecting certain impor-
tant land reforms in the kingdom, the
"woes Of poor Donald.'' though az sad and
as hopeless a. those of the Irish peasant.
have agitated Scotland exclusively
rather than America largely. as
in the latter case. Their remote
ness have kept them from our uni
versal ken. and to that degree that, while
people of Scotch descent in the United
States and Canada have been keenly alive
to measures for the crofter's relief, there are
many ordinarily well-informed Americans
quite unable to tell you the real difference
between croft and loft, or crofter and
a claymore.
Jameson, in his Scottish Dictionary,
defines croft-land as Gland of superior
quality, which was still cropped" Cham
bers Encyclopaedia, remarkable like most
encyclopedias for ,o deepening ignorance
formation, says "a croft is q piece of
land connected with humble kind Of
dwelling, whose inhabitant, the renter Of
the land, is called .crofter." Lord Colin
Campbell asserts that the term ''crofter"
was unknown in the seventeenth century.
period the word ''crofter" is of common oc-
currence. He further states that in the
stack" or temporary holding, given
by Sir John Campbell of Gienurchy
to q "well belouit" servant, in 1850,
besides the four markland of Kincrakin
there were ''the croft Of Polgreyich and
the croft that Ewin MoEwin was wont to
have" In the twelfth century Enoiish
charters in Latin, the word Is often used.
In fact, 1t IL an Anglo-Saxon word meaning
simply "held." At the end of the eiQh
teenth century the tenants Of the smallest
Scotch divisions Of land, in distinction
from tenants holding from five to 100 acres
and upwards, were first called crofters; that
js, acre-men or crofters. In those davs
the orofters had the same relation
to Highland tenants of the impor-
tant class who cultivated something
do TO Irish and English small farmers and
the still smaller farmer, or crofter, Of the
highlands; and the Scottish crofter Of to-
day is simply that surviving relic of the
ancient Highlander. who, despite all efforts
OF the owner of great northern and western
Highland estates to extirpate him, absolute
oestors lie. on ne-hundrsdth q much land
o.. on the average. il devoted to the rearing
and killing of one red deer.
The evolution Of the wobegone crofter of
to-day from thu olden matchlessly brave
Highland warrior Of the north and vest, il.
briefly, - follows: He was long ago an in
tegral portion of the clan system. stClsn''
is Gaelic word meaning ''child." The
clansman was in the highest sense the child
OF his chief. The clan system il the family
system ON . larger scale. All clanemen
we're brethren in common family and
institutional preference for the purpose of
recognized heads and authority oould
not abolish equality IN every Other