Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-11-23

were annually driven through the Gram
plan passes, and, before reaching the
\ shambles, wintered By Lowiaud farmers.
who thus secured prot,uole disposal of
immense quantities of produce. Since
the British spOrtsmen got possession OF
the northern and western gieuS, High
land shpp have become practically ek
tinct. Therefore what the Highland es-
state owners have gained br game, the
LowlaGd farmers have imneasurabiy
more shan lost. The latter have no pity
for the crofter on his own account, but
they kn W in direct, hard heaied way
that he and mis- collie dog are the best
shepherds IN the world. So these and
so'ue other pressing economic forces are
gradually blending the 'croCt-r Ques-
ton and the ''land question in Scot
land and providing uns economic guess
ton which may at last reach tim; form
of legislation which will break down the
now invisible yet inhrXible walls of these
great HIGHLAND estates, and cause the
repeOpling of their grand mountuir;. sides
and gleus. But thai can hardly CONS TO
the grave,
SAD Eyes OF TIE CROFTER
who now lives Aud il Is this man whose
condition., environment and home-llfe. |
lave set out TO describe. Whether he
lives III the same cabin where his fore
fathers lived heiore him, or is one who
has been rremovpd' from the old home
10 some new and worthless patch Of
ground for the larger liberty of deer. he
j. never the possessor. rs tenant, of more
than thirty acres of land, while nine
teuths OF he entire class do not occupy
more than five In some instances, he
ing' with others where from twenty TO
thirty sheep aud two or three COWS may
be grazed, and when this is so, he is
considered very well off. To find him in
this condition is the rarest exception;
and ordinarily his miserable patch OF
soil, of from, say. two 10 six acres,
scarcely affords him the barest means of
livelihood. For this tiny croft he pays
au average rental of S. under the new
''fair rent system, aud under the old
Track rent' regime he TIRED to
pay, but never paid, from fl0 10
Els and go. With the certain
Uncertainties of highland climate in
mind, no one can for a moment believe
ii possible for the crofter TO pay even the
reduced rent and sustain himself aud
family from the results of his labor upon
the coil alone. believe it would be
truthful assertion that the croft in no
single Instance ever sustained the
croftar. II will not sustain him under
''isir rent' system of the day. The
landlord row gets nearly the utmost
limit of what the soil itself can produces.
The salvation of the crofter can ouly~De
attained by providing him with larger
crofts, SO that the ahor of himself aud
family NAV be concentrated where most
profitable results can obtain; or rentals
for the beggarlv patch he is forced 20
exist upon must be reduced to almost a
nominal sum. A prosperous peasautry
is impossible where the energies of the
family are dissipated in a half dozen DIFF
ferrnt vorations TO simply pay rent that
thatch may be- kept over che heads of
the very old and very young of Ne
family.
Briefly, that is the condition Of the
crofter. ana il Is all that Is, or ever has
been, the matter with him. To merely
exist he mas been forced into becoming
fisher. kefpga,heTer. poacher; anything
TO live. His wife becomes fisher "gut-
teri or dresser of behring's at the sea-
side, mussel-gatherer, or does any tor
tuous labor possible to add pound or
shilling to the sto for meeting the in
exOraOle demand of the rent. The
daughters are forced from home into