Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1893-04-29
wAKEmAN,s wANDERINGs.

CONCLUDED FROM FIRST PAGE
with solid mahogany frames, but the seats
are of painted pine and are wa1ed weekly. !
These are for "best," and all the best. |
For everyday use one or two "frms" or
rude benches are provided. The single |
table Is of pine, an implanted side for
daily use, and scrubbed daily, and paint
something startling in cheap goods, for the
gypsy hawkers frequent Cornwall, and
each member of the family is provided
with a real s'chany" cup and saucer with
gorgeous gilt band.
For his class the Cornish villager is o
generous liver. The young folk have an
unusual fund of games distinctive of
Cornwall; marriages provide extraordins-
ry festivals; the dead are watched" from
deossse to burial and funerals provide cub
| dued diversions with heroic feasts; leap
| ing, wrestling, running, cricket and "put-
ting the stone," are the principal amuse-
menrs of youths and men, in which they
excel; and their counties. endesred hob
COLLINS and "buccaboos," which Wesley
and Whitfield along with the railways and
telegraph were never able to Clay" draw
these sturdy Cornish villages closer togsth-
or around the flashing village smithy
forge, the Cornishmsn's chief place OF
evening resort, or within the heme.glow
of their blazing ingle-noeks, during the
long winter nights when the cruel fogs
pound in over the moors from the seething
channel, or the tempests howl across the
dreary, shuddering moors.
| Practically all English village folk are
laborers, whether operatives, shepherds,
wagoners, thatchers, drainers, or common
field laborers, Just as they have been for
hundreds of years. There may be pub
lican or innkeeper, q shopkesper who ID
postmaster or postmistress, carpenter,
who Is often a painter, undertaken, YER
ger and gravediggsr in one, q baker, q
tailor, a blacksmith and poacher, for the
latter is in every hamlet in Britain, ali
families of quality, and frequently not
that many, are known-those of the lord
of the manor or the squire, the rector, o,
! the curate and the sohoolmaater; for the
doctor 10 always summoned from neal
city or town.
English village life ia therefore found t.
lie within wonderfully close horizon.
have been much with these folk in thei
labor, their diVersions and their homes
| After looking at them long and earnestl.
o with my own eyes, I have tried to get, 81
nearly rs possible, into their personal en-
vironment, and then look out of the win
dows of their minds and their habitstios
v upon the everyday world about them. Il
this way good deal that Is not hopeless
J. and much that ia gratifying can be dis
: cerned. 1t Ia certainly true thsn an inf
:, nitely higher standard of life and living i
= | enjoyed than in the "good old days" who's
n departure the wise writer's 80 bitterly de
d plore.
Universal education has certainly cause
r | universal discomfort. But do not thin
it it carries from youth to old sge. By tn
p time these folk are twenty or twsnty-6v
Il years of age the fermentation period
n passed. Some 60 away to the cities, a
!, with Us, or to America or Australia; bu
+ those who remain are better laborers, VII
Is layers and citizsns. The English peassr
It olod has thus almost entirely disappeared
e You will not see very much knee-crookinl
e head-ducking and tuft- pulling to superiorl
+ while there is no lees genuine kind-hsar
r corduroys are less frequent. So are til
l. feasts and gorgipgs and guzzlings. BIT
these villagers are less gross. They are {
better stuff. They have more wholesom
a food to eat and greater variety. The
know something about hygiene. They II
L sist on good drainage. In humble fsshio
l. they beautify their habitations withor
n and within. What has been lost in IL
d rough and often brutal amusements of Il
y olden time has been more than gained
n and for the home. There are books an
is even a grander place than the psrson
lawn or the Drawing street. In wor
y without having lost lot of their value
IN laborers and servants, they have emery,
il from the condition of sodden male and
le male kinds to that of self respecting m,
IN and women.
Sc With this has come an individual To-
Is for the village home and the home villsg
ps The thrilii ing history of many place,
IN antiquarian marvels, its ancient legend
Mt folklore and even superstitions, are /
as longer the exclusive possession of Londt
IN savants. A deep and steadfast interest
re this sort is flaming up among them.
n BODIES Ill to the ale-house. Along with
ed surely comes an ethical development
They are beginning to share with the hi
torisn, the artist, the novelist, the vagra
wanderer Ike you and l., perception
es the matchless beauty of their enviro
es ment. That alone is proving a Nigh
factor in preserving all that is tende
r sweet and sacred about them for tho Q
quisite delight of alien eyes.
~ EDGAR L. WAKEMAN.