The record-union., 1891-12-12

CRowAcy (Cornwall), Nov. 2S, 1881.
1t is talk and a scat,' as Cornish folk
themselves say, that is a word and blow,
and oftener the blow first, in the disci-
pline of Cornish children, and particu-
larly Cornish boys.
The girls of Cornwall give nobody
trouble in early life. They are little au-
donations IN youth, silent as pagan stone
circles in girIhood, voiceless and blushing
thereafter until welded, when they at
once develop such strength of character,
temper and tongue that half the men of
Cornwall are known individually as
'Jinny's jack" and in raillery are
greeted with the inquiry:
"How's the woman as owns 'ee?"
Whether or not the boys require rough
treatment, they get it. They seem to ex-
poet it. And they thrive under it. They
are all boys Of parents who labor severely,
and whose fathers before them for more
than thousand years have drudged and
striven in the same sturdy way. Senti-
1nent i'll child-training is here unknown.
4 drill-hanmer, a hOb-nailed boot, or
hinge flst goes along Smartly with the rep
2imand. Disobedience is almost un-
known. Whenever it occurs it is nine
days wonder TO the entire village. Re-
Gently / witnessed an instance in
aiming village. A miner had given his
boy command.
4 went do'tH' replied the lad stoutly.
'Tha wusn't, eh? Well, if thee doesn't,
III give th' thump III the nudeck (back
of the neck -
The words were not out of the fathers
mouth before he had knocked the boy
senseless by blow in the ''nudeck." No
one expressed surprise at the treatment,
ana the boy was left where he fell until
MS senses returned, when he marched
Stralghtway to carry out his fathers COM
lnand. But the astonishment and horror
1T the boys disobedience set the entire
village in an uproar.
The Cornish boy is not permitted to
Imagine himself proficient. One boy |
know, apprenticed to his grandfather, the
Village Joiner and undertaken, had made
q little doVe-tailed box with hinges, lock
and key, in which to store his pennies
and other boy treasures. He was natur-
ally proud OF the achievement, and asked
the old man If the work was not we'll
done. The latter Immediately proceeded
10 kick the too-aspiring lad from one end
OF the village to the other.
AS rule our American boys have
keen ambition to 90, be, or possess some
thing, and are encouraged in such ambi-
ton. cannot find trace Of this in
Cornwall. Its boys simply exist until old
enough for endless labor and then take
their places unflinchingly in the danger
Gus tlshlng-boat, on the farm, or in the
mine, the hardest working and the most
blunt, rough and honest men in the
world.
Still, in their way and within their rig
Orous conditions of life, the boys OF Corn
wall are perhaps as jolly lot and secure
as much rough, boyish enjoyment as the
lads of any other country in the world
10 Of 4 II,
about 10 is peculiar, and gives them the
appearance ofrudely dressed girls. Their
feet are shod with light hob shoes. over
which short coarse woolen stockings are
always hanging. A bare reach OF shin
1nterveneS between these and the canvas
and corduroy trousers. Over the latter is
skirt, as with the boys of the west of
Ireland, reaching to the knees. Trousers
and skirt hang from rough wooden
waist; and over all is loose ''savel, /" or
saveal, of canvas or course muslin, some
thing after the pattern of short SlnOck
frock. The head-gear is supplied by the
discarded caps or biily-cock hats of
feathers, with the best of ventilation
always provided.
At this age the Cornish boy is simply
voraciOus little animal, bent solely on
supplying a never wholly satisfied hnn-
ger, and his mothers chief duties toward
him consist in providing an adequate
supply of what he is forever demanding
in the form of ''trecle mossel." He
means treacle and a morsel of bread, and
the happieSt hours of his life are en-
ployed in its consumption. He has few
chores" or errands, his chief labor be-
ing to supply the household with water.
This is brought in buckets or delft pitch
ers from long distances, from a half-mile
10 two miles, from 'pen-stalks," springs
or ancient Celtic holy wells, and this he
manages to convert into diversion. as he
Is never without company.
The Cornish boy, either while skirted
or when he has reached the corduroy age.
is never lonesome in his little labors or in
his various sturdy pastimes. All Cornish
folk live in communities, move about in
groups, and even migrate in crowds.
Cornish fishers live in villages: miners
are universally found in little mining
towns; and from three or four to a dozen
farmers with their steadings and tiny
1armhouses are huddled close together
SO there are score of young cousin
.!acks'' in the smallest hamlets: and the
advantage and pleasure of nu1nb bers are
invariably possessed. Their few enioy-
Inents are thus the heartIer; their royster-
ing the more boisterous; and their oppor-
tunity for that ceaseless round of harm
less mischief, which is the crowninp
glory Of all true and healthy boyhood, is
delightfully."- increased.
Indeed the most marked characteristic
Of the Cornish boy is his endless partici-
patton IN mischief. 1t never goes the
length OF brutality and harm; but it is as
though his whole year were a mild form
of Halloween license; and it otlen seems
Civinely ordained as acompensative form
q punishment and Scourge to those de-
serving occasional reminder of penury.
IleanneSs and irr2scibility. The ''pas-
SON. as the village rector or curate is
called, must lead a most godly life to es-
cape this \ stlngy shopman loses more
than generosity would otherwise deprive
him of. A scold is peculiarly the object
Of their attentions. a drunkard, who is
lated in Cornwall almost as thoroughly
IS stranger, never knows peace. x
niserly farmer who shuts his fist and
door TO the tender old custom of Cornish
giving to all who come on many of the
least days of the year, is sure to lose MS
1urZe-ricks IN the old Beltaine fires of st.
Johns Day. While lords of nlanors. who
refuse their parks to Cornish folk for am
annual outing, find much difficulty in
securing one good days t'shoots, for their
city friends in all their vast preserves.
The games and pastimeS of Cornish
boys are distinctive, and are markedly
different from those of boys OF the same
quality elsewhere in England. For in
stance, football, the universal bows game
Of England, IS altogether unknown in
Cornwall. CrickeGng is only kept up
through the combined efforts OF the
Church of England eurates. But kite
tying is q passion with all Cornish bows.
Jt even extends to men. 1 have seen
many a miner, after his long davis toll.
below grass, seated upon some old pa
gan menhir or tor above his village home.
smoking his short pipe, and in kind of
grave rapture flying kite taller than
himself, in an endeavor TO outdo similar
achievement on the part of his own boy
and other village lads.
m. - l. L.