Morning journal and courier., 1891-12-12
MIR. wAKEMAN,s JOURNEYINGs.

At Crowan, Cornyall-The Boys of
 Cornwall-Girls of Early Age No
 Trouble-A Refractory Boys Pun-
 fshment-Peculiar Reward for In-
 genufty-Gnmes and Pastimes-Par-
 tIeipation in Mfschief-Football Un-
 known-s'Toe-Stones and ssCob-
 Nutting'' - Long Startling Hunts
 Hush Beating-Rook Day.
 CRowAN, Cornwall, Nov. 2S. To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 It is "talk and a scat," as Cornish folk themselves say, that is word and blow, and oftener the blow first, in the discipline of Cornish children, and particularly Cor nish boys.
 The girls of Cornwall give nobody trou- ble in early life. They are little sutoms- tons in youth, silent as pagan stone circles in girlhood, voiceless and blushing there after until welded, when they at once de- velop such strength of character, temper and tongue that half the men of Cornwall are known individually as "Jinny's Jack, Y" and in raillery are greeted with the inqui- ",
 "How's the woman as owns 'eei"
 Whether or not the boys require rough treatment, they get it. They seem to ex- pect it. And they thrive under it. They arc 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- ment in child training is here unknown. A drill-hammer, a hob-nailed boot or & huge fist goes along smartly with the re- primand. Disobedience is almost un- known. Whenever it occurs it is nine days wonder to the entire village. Re- gently witnessed an instance in Q mining village. A miner had given his boy a com mand.
 'I went dot" replied the lad stoutly. . ''Tha wusn't, ehl Well, if thee doesn't I'll give tn thump in the nudeck Cback of the neck)!"
 The words were not out of the father'f mouth before he had knocked the boy senseless by q blow in the "nudeck." No one expressed surprise at the treatment, and the boy was left where he fell until his senses returned, when he marched straightway to carry out his fathers com mand. But the astonishment and horror at the boys disobedience set the entire village in an uproar.
 The Cornish boy is not permitted to i'm agine himself proficient. One boy know, apprenticed to his grandfather, the village joiner and undertaken, had made a little dove-tailed box with hinges, lock and key, in which to store his pennies and other boy treasures. He was naturally proud of the achievement, and asked the old man if the work was not well done. The latter immediately proceeded to kick the too-as- piring lad from one end of the village to the other.
 As rule our American boys have a keen ambition to do, be or possess something, and are encouraged in such ambition. I cannot find trace of this in Cornwall. Its boys simply exist until old enough for endless labor, and then take .heir places unfiinchingly in the dangerous fishing boat, on the farm or in the mine. the hard est 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 ill the world. Their costume from the age of four to about ten is peculiar, and gives them the | appearance of rudely dressed girls. Their feet are shod with light hob shoes, over which short coarse woolen stockings are always hanging. A bare reach of shin in | tervenes between these and the canvas and | and corduroy trousers. Over the latter i' skirt, as with the boys of the west ol Ireland, reaching to the knees. Trousers and skirt hang from rough woolen waist and over all is a loose "savel," or save-all | of canvas or coarse muslin, something af | ter the pattern of a short smock frock
 The heads gear is supplied by the discarded | caps or billy-cock hats of fathers, with tn,
 best of ventilation always provided.
 At this age the Cornish boy is simply
 varacious little animal, bent solely on sup
 plying a never wholly satisfied hunger
 and his mothers chief duties towards hin
 consist in providing an adequate supply 0
 what he is forever demanding in the forn | of "trecle mossel." He means treacle ant 1 a morsel of bread, and the happiest hour
 of his life are employed in its consump | ton. He has few ''chores" or errands
 his chief labor being to supply the house
 hold with water. This is brought in buck cts or delft pitchers from long distances | from & half mile to two miles, from ''pen stalks" springs or ancient Celtic hol
 wells; and this he manages to convert int
 diversion, as he is never without company
 The Cornish boy, either while skirted O
 when he has reached the corduroy age, never lonesome in his little lsbors or i his various sturdy pastimes. All Cornis folk live in communities, move about i groups, and even emigrate in crowds Cornish fishers live in villages; miners ar universally found in little mining towni 1 and from three or four to a dozen farmer with their stesdings and tiny farmhouse
 are huddled close together. So there are s score of yonng "Cousin Jacks" in il 3 smallest hamlets; and the advantage an g pleasure of numbers are invariably DO B sessed. Their few enjoyments are thu
 the heartier: their roystering the mol
 boisterous; and their opportunity for thu ceaseless round of harmless mischief whic is the crown glory of all true and health i boyhood, is delightfully."- increased. Indeed the most marked characterist
 of the Cornish boy is his endless partic s patton in mischief. It never goes u | length of brutality and harm; but it is s though his whole year were a mild form t Halloween license; and it often seems d vinely ordained as a compensative form
 punishment and scourge to those deser u ing occasional reminder of penury, meal '- ness and irrascibility. The ''passon," l, the village rector or curate is called, mu ' lead most godly life to escape this. n | stingy shopman looses more than generos I ty would otherwise deprive him of.
 scold is peculiarly the object of their 2 ,s tentions- A drunkard, who is hated ia Cornwall almost as thoroughly as stra l. ger, never knows peace. A miserly farme ' who shunts his fist and door to the tend A. old custom of Cornish giving to all vi B. come on many of the feast-days of | - year, is certain to lose his furze-ricks
 the old Beltaine fires of St. Johns ds
 While lords of manors, who refuse tho parks to Cornish folk for an annual oI G. ing, find much difficulty in securing O 7. good days ''shoot" for their city friends ys all their vast preserves.
 It The games and pastimes of Cornish bo yh are distinctive, and are markedly differe re from those of boys of the same quail e- elsewhere in England. For instance, fo
 ball, the universal boys game of Englar tn is altogether unknown in Cornwi , I Cricketing is only kept up through ne continued efforts of the Church of E