Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1892-06-23

everywhere here term of friendship and
respect.
The fisher and mining folk are unequiv.
ocally hospitablc. The fisherman will take
care Of you III his little cottage without
question, without locking a thing in his
habitation against you, but still with a
dumb sort of quiescence. The miner is
more rough and ready fellow, and il not
always hearty about it, settles the matter
for or against you at once. All this the lit
erary tramp will quickly discover; and
shortly began directing my diplomacy
towards the ordinary home in the mining
villages.
Yon will find them through nearly all
the length of Cornwall from liiskeard to
Penzance, and they are seldom clustered in
dirty villages contiguous to the mines as in
our country. ! do not recall single in
stance Of this sort during my entire jour
neying Two three, four half dozen and
sometimes score, may be found together.
They are in all sorts Of odd and out-of-the-
way places. on the roads and off. Like the
irish cabins, they are oftenest az the back,
instead of at the front. of somewhere or
anywhere. Nearness to a mine seems to
possess no advantage.
Few are as near as half mile; thousands
are miles away. "Pairdners' in core
(corps) who combine their labors, and
work one of the three eight-hour shifts"
of each day, may live in as many different
directions from the "baln or pit; Jack, len
or Jan often occupying homes from six to
ten miles apart. But wherever these little
miners hamlets are, their walls are all of
everlasting stone, empowered in brilliant
Cornish roses and creepers, with cement
floors and matched roofs, every one sub
ject to interminable repairs from OH
slaughts of vicious sparrows, themselves
tiny miners, endlessly sinking shafts and
drilling ''eross-cutsh and 'levcls" in the
soft aud yielding straw.
was soon able to march squarely up to
Jack and Jenny at their cottage doors and
boldly ask for accommodations for the
night There was no hating in the nego-
tiaIions ON either side,
Nass say, jenny" the burly fellow
would pleasantly ask of his honest wife.
shall aw lay un oOp?'
Lay un oop,' it should be explained
did not mean that the stranger should he
attacked ar hustled 1t is Cornish for en-
tertaning, caring for, or housing him.
IF tina thee, thou Gun stan I'm, Jack, I"
the wife would reply,
''All right, I'm son. would be the re-
ioindcr, addressed to me. III tina Gun
stan un, maak a sci (yourself) thoam "
There was no further ceremony about
the matter. ! always slept in the half
story garnet beneath the thatch There is
one room below; sometimes two. one
door, the front one, is found sufficient. \
window IS at either side of this, and often
directly above these are tiny lights for the
garret. Each cottage is provided 1t one
end or at the back, with IN open fireplace
in the centre of the wall. It has a sort OF
range at one sidecovered with outlandish
brass ornaments, ut which the Cornish
housewife is endlessly polishing. At the
other side is the ungconer.n This ha.
"heps' or upper and under doors, hehint
which are stored tnrzc faguts or other fuel
The single table is Of pine, ono tot
coming flush with thr sides the other
detached, two inches thick, one side un
painted and secured snowy white daily
with ''growder,M a rotten granite which
fathers like soap and the other sid,
painted for Sunday or company use
and drawer beneath for rude cutlery
The tableware is something startling II
cheap goods and each member Of tn,
family is provided with real "chany'
cup and saucer with gorgeous gilt band
Two or three rude engravings, general,
of scriptural subjects in cheap oakei
frames, such Us the village carpenter ma,
make, with the beds and bedding unde
the thatch, complete the furniture Of tn
miners cottage.
For his class and means he Is a generou
liver. soups and stews are CONSUMED b
the gallon. For his breakfast, if lie is Oh
OF the mine, "mawther,p the wife vii
provide the usually villainous ''tayH cor
! stunned by the English and Irish workin
classes, infreqnenily an egg, perhaps b
; of saifron-cake, Cornish favorite Of
parently devoid of everything but swet
and color, and, may be, bread twithor
butter) and treacie Sometimes this
varied With "butter.sops.n stale brea
A scalded and seasoned meagerly. At moor
or for the mine ''croust' or lunch
! there are "taty pastics,n or potatoes an
e vagrant meat scraps enclosed iii a crescen
shaped crust, interchangeable with iigg
pasties, the same Us ''taty-pasties,
:, with few raisns added ''hol
gans' or round pork-pies, and "faggans,
G tough crust cakes 50 hard, at least
G Cornish renown. that they would n,
5 break if hurled down 900 fathoin mir
g shaft, For supper, ''croust," that i
I lunch IF any sort left over from the day
I provisions, or perhaps baker o'tatie.
u which means mashed potatoes fried
S grease, turned and Drowned, and cut in
a many seglnents as there are members
Il the family, may be provided. The oi
big Sunday meal, however is seldom lac
5 ing in generous supply of boiling mes
y and as every cottage has its acre or hal
: acre garden. there is always. in summit
q bountiful supply Of vegetables in ii
'e Cornish miners home
IS EnGAR l.. WAKEMAN.