The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-09-03

. T amer IllAN as w. OWL " ME hnlLlElE
4 for my meal ! heard issuing from the re
I gioaof The scullery quaint Highland song
/ ike those which might have at times re
/ CALLED the ears of the great photographer
/ iu his famous journey 10 the Hebridcs
/ Here is the first stanza, Gaelic ard all:
Sc Coirecheathaich, nan aighean stub
| An CORE rumach is urar fonn
/ Gu lurach miad-theumch. min gheal, sug
each lusan fiuar bu chubhraidh lean:
! Gu molach, dubh ghorm, torrach. luisreag-
ach.
Corraeh. pluranach, dlu ghlan grim,
/ Caoin. tallach. ditheanach, danach, mis-
leanach
Gleann a mhflluch' S an lionmhor mang
Ny own misty Corrie. by deer ever haunted
My teauteous valley my own yerdant
dell
Soft, rich and grassy with sweets ever
From every fair flower I love dear and
Thckly all growing, brightly all blowing.
over its shaggy and green-darkeucd lawn:
Moss canach ana daisies adjoining its
Through which gambols lightly the 1.-the
graceful fawn
This led TO a discovery of a peculiar
domestic feature Of Oban during the busy
summer months. Huge daughters of the
! Western island crofters come here and
I
scullery and kitchen maids, though some
are employed as chambermaids. Few can
| speak English, but they are very apt and
docile, and prove the best servants that
can be found. They do not spend penny
Of their earnings during theentire season,
and their only pleasures are found in
| their occasional evening ceilidth pro
nounced "kailey') or gossiping party, in
the kitchens of boarding houses and inns,
and the Sabbath Gaelic services which
are held for this class and the Oban
| fishermen in the Free church. When
| the season is over they sail away to Lewis
or Skye, bare-legged, bare-headed, sing
ing their songs of home going
rapturously, the happiest folk in all the
world that they mayhap carry with them
enough sovereiRns to rescue their parents
from want against bad crops or ill-luck
| with the fishing boats. The entire years
rent of the little croft is often thus paid
and when / knew their story and the hum
bic heroism of their lives / was glad that
chance had brought me TO an inn so mod
est that the revelation had its source
through scullery maids Gaelic song.
3 But Oban has its princely hotels. its
superb inns, its aristocratic boarding
houses and its beautiful villas. II is a
winsOlne town, almost wholly composed
Of these, nearly in the heart of the west
ern Highlands, Just at the edge of the
vast maze of Western Islands, sounds and
lochs, and strung like a necklace of
pearls along the edge of a semi-circular
bay, so beautiful, so shut away from the
thunderous Firth of Lorne and the sea bv
the rocky Isle Of Herrera, and still so
tenderiy within the arms of Ben Crua-
chan and over Highland peaks, that from
any point of view itappeals to sight and
sentiment with a sense of restfulness and
repose.
A number Of other almost indefnable
features and characteristics altogether
render Oban peculiarly attractive. In
the first place be it known no Scottish
summer resort or watering-place is like
any similar retreat in England or Ameri-
ca. Scotland is truly one vast and almost
iudivislble summer resort. EVERYWHERE
and lofty mountains, glorious glens, feath-
cry waterfalls, noble streams, winsome
braes. misty cOrries, vast or tiny shad-
owy lochs. All of these attract and
charm and hold. Families settle in lit
tie neighborly numbers at this or that
beautiful spot. Thousand of British noble
men and gentry haunt the vast game pre-
serves, and the tourist thrOngs move hitber
and thither, tarrying for but day or an
hour, countless bright and colorful hui
man threads and interlacings across the
sunny land
But there is nowhere a place in Scot
land like the American Long Branch.
Coney Island, Newport, Nantucket or Bar
Harbor, or like England's Southport
BournemOuth, Brighton, Margate, Rams
gate or Scarborough where bawling.
Babelbic crowds jostle and perspire while
bands blare and fakirs roar. Strathpefer
away north in Rosshire, Rothesay in Butte
near the mouth of the Clyde, and Oban
here in the Western Highlands, are the
nearest approach to what may be termed
great watering-places. Strathpeffer is
distinctly spa and is exceedingly
aristOcratic. Rothesay is chiefly the sum
mer home of Glasgow's wealthy families
Oban is spa, seaside resort and the great
temporary halting-place of British and
foreign tourists in their journeys to and
from the highlands and islands; while
fully two score of the most scenically in
teresting tours to be found in Scotland of
necessity includes a visit here. Some of
these, like the tour to Fort William and
Inverness through the greatest of Scotch
lOchs and the Caledonian canal: to Null,
Skye, Gairloch and Loeb Maree; and
above all to Staffa, Fingal's cave and the
silent, sacred ruins of Iona, are not sur
passed for historic interest and scenic
grandeur in the whole world
Were it not for the bright tides of life
continually ebbing and flowing through
Oban, the white city, mbedded in emer-
aid and blue with an outer rim of purple
WieEb bue BnOSlly mountains lie, would
impressively recall those silent, half
oriental towns of white, like flecks of
beaten foam between the sea and hills.
you will see upon the northern shores
while sailing upon the Mediterranean
waters. There is depth of color and
light here, at times beautifully softened
by feathery mists from sea and mount.
which intensihes this seeming, and is very
dear to the heart of British artists
Little is there to know or see of CAV social
life in Oban The decorOUs Scotch nature
is ever warily decorOus of passive pleas
ures; and those who are here for the
season sunsist ia sort of droning
purring Of quiet, which strongly pos
sesses all who come to idle through
day or week Quiet rest: a
drinking in of the blended sea and noun
tain air; silent contemplation of all the
grand and lavish scenes that nature
spreds to view; perhaps the gentle. men
tai tre Of coming the ancient Gaelic
pages the centuries have left to read in
the grim ruins of Castles Dunolly and
Dunstaffnage, in the latter of which was
kept the "Stone of Destiny" i'm the
Clack a-Choin pillar where F'ingal bound
his dog Bran; in Kerrera's castle Gylen
and Dairy field, where the second Alex
ander died; and in the wondrous coming
and going Of tourist folk from every land.
are found the witching thralI of Oban.
Its summer folk idle little upon its pretty
streets. They stroll listlesslv in its