The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1893-02-11

the solemn ruins of remote aces, Far Ia
the mort I'd east is the weird. sea-v al ed
coast. CIR own land is 1000 miles be-
yond those white specks of tisher-boats
10 The west. Around and above you are
only the palpable clouds and ghostly
whistle OF darling seabirds' wing. The
solemn grandeur and awful impressive
ness OF the place are appalling.
Inc descent was more dangerous than
the climbing, but we accomplished il
safely, re-entered the boat and made for
Fort Magee. l never wish to see Great
Skellig again, unless from the deck of an
Atlantic steamer, when a sight of it, as the
first glimpse of Europe, is occasionally
had, and as we rounded the reef into the
safer channel, while night was softly de-
scending, and the lights from thousand
mackerel-tishers' boats cleaned along
the western horizon, l turned with a sigh
of relief from this tremendous and DESC
late terror of the deep, to welcoming land
as from some hideous phantom of I'M
happy dreams.
Valetta, the chief city of Malta, is never
silent save in the early morning hours.
Then it is like city of the dead, but al
ways sweet and cool and winsome. AT
that time. If you are abroad alone, the ST.
lent churches, the huge auberges, the ire
mendouS ramparts, the vast archwayS,
y
comics seem to whisper anew their tales
OF romance old, their mysteries of chival-
rous and knightly days.
But soon from this patio, from that mar
row thoroughfare, another silent arch
way, from huge barren doors that open
and close with startling click, come fu-
neral forms clad in som Der black. They
glide along with bowed heads. Their adj
vent has been so sudden and their num-
Der is at once so great that you are filled
with surprise and dismay. But these do
not remain.
For soft and delicate hand. as if by
accident, with a swift motion changes the
folds of the taldetta, and the pretty faces
OF half thousand Maltese maids and
matrons are one by one turned roguishly
or kindly to yours. Then you realize
that the faithful fair of Valetta are on
their way to early mass, and you ISLAND
there, hat in hand, yourself a reverent
worshiper, mentally blessing one and
all for their piety and pretty gracious
ways.
In the vast geography and panorama OF
travel certain places and objects take on
special duplication and significance AT
least this is true in my own experince as
a wanderer. | never see in any port a
little, squatty, high-pooped brig with its
two tiny square-rigged masts, but my
mind Instantly reverts to Barcelona and
the sunny harbors of the Riviera. A
basket OF eggs in grocer'S window no
longer recalls the boyhood farm days, but
certain barren ledge upon the western
seawall of F'itful Head, where, beneath
the deafening screams of seafowl, L saw
not thousands but millions of seafowl
eggs. The taintest odor of sugar or syrup
brings back the screeching of ships
wenches as oceans of murky sweets are
being slowed in holds in the harbor of
Havana. An emigrant Russian Jew in
his quaint, patriarchal habit, flashes back
upon my mind the dumb suffering OF
these folk in Cracow. Any muffied Ital
ian shivering over his charcoal stove and
tray of chestnutS watts to my Imagination
the odor of the steaming polenta, or
brings again to sight the fair chestnut
groves OF Lombardy and Tuscany, and
so on through an infinite reach of sug-
geStlve seeming and association.
But the most dreamful, mystic, almost
pathetic suggestiveness always comes
with picture or sight of the palm tree.
Cuba, Spain, Majorica, Malta, Morocco,
Algeria, always return with this emblem
of dolorous isolation and inexpressible
loneliness. 1t hints of the camel, the Be-
douin, the desert. In art, in story, in
fact, 1T ever suggested the endless hope
lessness and impassibility of the barriers
between the races that subsist upon and
rest beneath it, and those who know and
love the maple, beech and oak.
I wish to record a conclusion from ex-
tended observation in favor of the lowly
women of Scotland. We have all read
much in books, and in the prints where
names are not often enough signed to
sweeping CONGRATULATIONS regarding for
eign peoples, to the effect that lowly
women OF Scotch towns and cities are all
wofully addicted to drink. 1 do not be-
lieve it.
They drink. but neither do all, nor even
any important percentage, indulge in
liquor at all. Those who do, often get
CHEEKY" and no doubt they would be
better off without it. But have never
seen a Scotch woman, high or low, IN or
out of Scotland, even in the most wretched
wynds and closes of Edinburgh or Glas-
gov, approaching that emphatic condi-
ton termed fighting drunk
So, too, l am inclined to believe that
the drinking prowess of Scotchmen has
been greatly exaggerated. Scotch litera-
ture, especially that portion giving ex-
preston to Scotch life and customs of a
century ago, is certainly full of the hu-
NOR and pathos OF drunkenness. Perhaps
Scotchmen were drinkers of valor then,
but there is not more moderate and
well ordered people to-day. The old
drinking-boutS of the clan chiefs, and
later, of the small nobility and country
notables, are no mere. From the great
st. Andrew feastS down through the
countless grades of social festival and
cheer to the simple notwithstanding of
the fisher-folk, besides the wild sealochs,
who We're once almost savage in their
thirst for strong drink, guiding and
drunkenness are almost unknown
"Tay"-and oceans of this-'the cup
that cheers but not inebriates," has al
most universally displaced the fry us
quebaugh of old.
If fondness for liquor fingers in Scot
land as a class popularity, it still holds
among those children of the mist"
those impetuous, canny, though ever win
some Highlanders of the North. In my
wanderings among them have found one
curious characteristic. They are born re-
ligious disputants. Warm up the cockl les
of their hearts with drop of peat whls-
ky and they are masters of polemics.
1t is then that they will stoutly assert
that Adam spoke Gaelic and that the
Bible was originally written in Gaelic
As Highland clergyman of Strathglass
once told me-:
zone glass makes them doctrinal en-
thusiasts: two sets them expounding
every point upon Justification 'Adop-
tom and 'Sanctitication' in an ecstacy of
argumentative frenzy. and. L sometimes
think, with another. they would stop on
their way into heaven and holly engage
st. Peter hlmselfr'
Many anecdotes are still related in the
north of Scotland concerning the drink
ing habits of the HighlanderS. One old
shepherd of Glen Affric fell i'll and was
cut down by his physician to an allow
ance of two ounces of whisky per day on
pain of death if this should be exceeded.
Wholly ignorant of the exact quantity,
yet ruminatively whimpering over his
misfortune, he stealthily called his grand
sonto his bedside and asked:
Bobby, dye ken yer tables noo?"
"Ay, gran fay'r, n try me then?''