Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-10-19
IN THE HIGHLANDS.
Landlordism Has Exterminated the
Grandest Portion of the Scotch.
The Gaelic Language sill Spoken In all Its
Original Riehnass-All Scotchmen
Born DIsputants.
Copyright 1907


FAsNAKTLE, SCOTLAND. Sept. l5.-Leaving the
little railway station at Beauty. we saw. not an
hundred feet away, at the road head Of g long
pair of stairs a huge wagonette, already fiied
with people. This was the Strathglsss ''coach,"
50 my companion said. Two seats were reserved
| beside the driver. These scrambled into.
and before the train had steamed out of the sta
ton our coach was rolling heavily away
towards a region of silence eternal. For when
the Strathglass coach finally stops. some thirty
forty miles west OF Beauty. in every direction
save that from whence it cana, is . land that
has never known . road or a wheeled vehicle.
Once under the old clan system it was peopled
with grand and noble race. From clearance
at er clearance and eviction after eviction 1t IS
now more lone and silent than when
skin clad heots huddled in It's straths
and glens. snd savage Pagan rites were
Celebrated within it's olden stone circles
and clachans. To-day its verv footpaths and
bride paths are given over TO the game keeper.
the gillie and the red deer. Perhaps a hundred
grave-iaced crofters NAV occupy every hundred
| square miles Of land. Landlordlsm has exter-
nina ed The grandest. por ion Of the Scottish
people throughout the entire north OF Scotland,
precisely as with famine and Balfouris II, 1t is
gradually but surely numbering the entire race
In Ireland. The Green Isle is being transformed
into sheep and cattle range for London butch
ers; and the Scottish High ands from the Gram
plans to the ocean rim around the whole north
OF Scotland and to the outer cliffs of the Western
Isle, IS already 81 uply vass game preserve FOR
London 81 -tsrhen. But Gods SUNLIGHT never
sho3e on romantically be utiful a land and
the indispensable pathos OF IL all mists yonr eyes
as they look in vain for the homes where a
whole race has been
PLUNDERED OF IT'S HERITAGE.
or the scattering remnants OF these people
who. despite all injustice and loss, still cling to
the mountain eeries which gave them birth. our
coach load wal completely typical. One huge,
grave fellow was q blacksmith who lease
| little forge far up the strs.h, where he still
starved along. now and then getting driblet OF
work in sfo ing the horses kept az the geutry's
hunting 10 iges. Another man held few acres
| of Ian a I'd dreary OH inn at the edge OF the
strath, where occasionally gillies l0itered and
dropped few pence. or. at odd intervals. lords
and ladies from freak, or accii mt OF requiring
shelter, flung few pounds into his groyeling
hands. Three We're crotters, pure and simple,
with Tam o'shanter hits. bu .hy boards. hol-
eyes that seemed ever set upon som far object.
a. if iutently endeavoring TO- solve the nd,
die Of their lives of endless want and
One was a cottar's wife, mserably clad,
with an ail:ne child which had been taken .
| score of miles to Bsaulv that phvsician might
see it, as no doctor lived In all this vast region
| from sea TO sea. The ether WIS a sc-aeey old
suidwife. travel-worl. but bravely making he
| pounds in her pocket from among the herring
| curing crews at Wick or Larwick In shetland.
What sha had earned would keep the thatch over
her familv's heads another year Ano' her MN,
sleek md well fed wac from Lord Tweedmouth's
great Polled Angus stock farm and 10 Ige, far M
the sirath; end stl ano.hsr vas strath m Ts
little lint by Fasnskyie bri lge. Then there was
the drive. earnest ami awfnl. because en-
M, hrr m tSs b,E ma and 10 eempee
the -a-tv. alonTsi 'e myeaif the Rev. Mr.. Mac
knnzie. companion, Free Church minister to
in tn free Church manse. by Fasnakyle.
And how came to be gresI Of tbs man
who. cansb'e OF filing NV York pulpit: is
lo,rlv Of Those tempest ridden mountains. his
.,ice of hrmor in T. worth the telling. He had
been cycling in NORWAY and. returnn" to Scot
land, came =" the same little hotel which
honsnd me in 'inhurgh. With like symra HES
and longi-g ga to know al strangers can tell each
other, we had
rrNsrr, INTO AN ACQUAINTANCE
and mutual likinr at breakfast: were in nv own
room dire"'lv. Teasing on nile OF several HIM
bred daliriors cd volume had dug out OF the
60 ond-hand shops Of E i'nhurgh; and while
thus gosthor'ng at each other in glorious way
.ya wore suddeniv overtsken by little romance:
Bursting into the room in a great state of
trenidafinn onr kindly landl 'dy OF st. An
drnv's ME-. Steele. b-'-thlss-lv stated in the
richie t Aberdo-ian dialect that a wedding din
ner and wedding itself were in the process of
swelling for the want Of q ''meenis.er. They
hid come all the wav from A floa, poor souls!
with kith and kin. and their parson had missed
be -ui-"d II nv friend 'din"a COON ava doom
the cnffee-room, an Join the puir bodies AZ
rectlv." -
No; nv friend was obdnrate. It was his ~
ca'icn. Pe.idc=. Row did he know they wssS
"rieht in their lines - Bns The brisk l'ndl sdy
~
had already examined their ''Ines'' herself;
and the p,ir were entitled TO enccor on that
score M. again: becaIse he had been cv"linu,
was in pravs and knickerbockers. to boot: and
who evar haa-d of a cer .vna1 marrying or
hurving ANYBODY without the regul ,tion black?
Rut hal him there; AMI soon saw him G,aopsd
Scotch pervarei'v! he had M white collar and
choker. Then cornered him AGAIN: his time
with Y1nks . p,neT ooar an v snr 9a Of penny T
tory f. under these rordi Iva we got him to
the landing below. He-e he baked completely.
On hove slirht a thread hung tho Fate of this
wr he'd counle then! He had -ot the form of
service with him. and procaedinr with
ont 1t wac utterly ont Of the question.
they were the recourse. I babe the landlqdy
no 4 the man OF nraver. and with visions of loss
and the arnrna cf acorohirg dinner promoting.
she held him like 4 vice In a moment more I
hal bounded to my room, with emotions of -e-
feat, hone victory, had sweDt nv eyes along
the OF my s,m,nt nt books
q little brown volume nf 1856. "An erso''s Min
istor's Directory" Bounding back to our cap
onened at mare ii, aud before h could cffer
further protest tNat vigorous Scotch | ndlady
and myself had him in front Of the blushing
established church form o. nnar-iaV ceremony;
and within ten mnu;e s TIM Isabella Mccarthy
Cameron and Chsrles Mac ionai1, bureh and
parish Of Alloa. shire OF Clackmannan, kingdom
of Scotland, were -
MADE MAN AND WIFE.
I had set down win DOldne5S and
fourth as one of the witnesses: the ''rusv
cheekit'' Alloa girls accompanying the pair had
hustled rhc bride until the window rat
tied for the st one rubbing her left shoulder
AGAINST a brides left shou der will first be mar
ried; with laughter and st and MANY sally at
the carturad D rsou. we all partook OF the we'd
ding dinner. done to turn. and all the more
graciouslv served as the landlady got two prices
for at least two plates of it: friend surely got
sovereign for his enforced clerical lahors-sni
/. with the good fortune ever favoring those who
rescue love-orn folk from plight and distress
was in turn perfo-ce made to come 90 the
glorious North with my home in a sweet old
manse where l could see, for so long IS my
fancy willie l. life il truly Is ia the very heart
of the remotest h ighlands OF Scotland.
II was q strange. weird coach-load or folk.
speaking in O strange, weird tongue; and
rolled rapidly along through strange, weird
country Every soui OF the dozen or more
within the wagonette. but myself, spoke the
Gaelic tongue and not wori was spoken dur
ing the entire journey il Englisl save when
was addressed. 1t was an imm ediate revelation
OF condition of things in the highlands which
even intelligent SEQ chmen in the large low
land cities are unacqnainted with, affect to
be ignorant Of. From every source of book
newspaper and oral Information outside the
Highlands, you gain the impression that the
Gaelic Language is deadI that perhaps some
where among the peat md mists of iuacces ible
peaks in Donega, and Con aught, in Ireland or
of outheri and, Ross. Skye and the Hebrides
in Scotland there are few old men and women
who have retained few words of
language once common to the Cymric
Gets; indeed that the Gaelic Ian