The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-04-24
PRESBYTERIAN FUED
AT NESS-1R UCE IN FIGHT BE-
 TWEEN UNITED CHURCH
And Free Kirk in the Remote
 Hebrides,

A truce has been declared in the more
 violent forms of the religious war 1T
 northern Lewis On Saturday afternoon
 both sides came to a temporary ar
 rangement about the use of the church
 building at Ness over which the strug-
 gle is Waged. The extra forces of po-
 lice that were to have arrived for Sun
 day were countermanded; the gunboat
 no longer lies threateningly outside the
 coast.
 Feeling is still exceedingly bitter be-
 tween the two parties, and boycotting is
 vigorously carried on but the Anti
 Unionist representatives of the Old
 Covenanters loudly disclam any share
 in the last act of violence--the burning
 of the minister's peatstacks. For the
 time they are content with having nc
 speech or dealings with the folk on the
 other side.
 This morning, under strong police
 protection, the Anti-Unionists once
 more held their services in the church.
 Considerably over a thousand people
 were present, and at one end of the
 church eleven constables and two su-
 perintendents of police sat ready for ac-
 tion if necessary.
 The scene was strlingly picturesque. The plain. substantial, modern building looks its best in the cold sunlight of this northern isle The land outside was white with snow that had fallen during the night. The people inside were many of them arrayed in costumes all their own; the young men, giants, many over six feet high, stood in the body of the church, all the elderly and married people sat the women with white muslin bonnets, lac-trimmed and shaped after the old Quaker fashion; the younger women all had small high bonnets standing erect with gorgeous orations-their dress was as vivid as on weekday it is demure. The service was in Gaelic. No word of triumph was spoken, but the weird music of their first Psalm, like nothing so much as the breaking of the moaning waves on the rocks nearby, echoed their triumph.
 There is no organ or other accompani- ment, and the singers, who sat while they sang, were mostly out of tune; yet the very volume and intense motion of their song lent 1t a strangely thrilling effect
 It is difficult for outsiders to realize the causes that have gone to make up this unique religious war. Ness Is one of the most remote parts of Great Brit ain, lying out of touch with the world The Isle of Lewis, of which it forms part, as 1t were, great mass of boggy peat thrown upon the Atlantic ocean to be the sport of the sea. Rain is con- stant, and for most months sunshine and showers alternate a score of times each day To reach Ness one goes, after to the furthermost point on the Highland railway, six-hours' jour ney over seas, and almost days drive through boggy land The people of the place, while splendidly built, are poor Their homes are in outward appearance like Kaffir huts, rough heaps of stone a few feet high surmounted by circular straw roofs. Chimneys, as a rule, they have none, and the reek of the peat smoke fills each home. The children | run about barefooted, and thrive on their exposure. The men earn their | bread at fishing, suplmented by a little | and the women knit. There | Is not public house in the whole town ship of 5000 people.
 Here the old Covenanting spirit has | fingered in all it's former severity The 1 people hate compromises and will have | nothing to do with modern things Some | ime ago they heard that renegade Pres oyterians elsewhere were introducing organs into their churches and singing nan made hymns. Now, to the Ness such hymns as Rock of Ages" and Abide with Me" are scarce y less wicked than the most vulgar of the lowest music hall They hold that Christian people should ing nothing but pslams When ighteen months ago the two great churches, the Free and he United Presbyterian, joined togeth- r under the name of the United Free he men of Ness determined that they would have no share in it.
 We are the men of '43," they said. We want to keep the religion of our orefathe unchanged. If we agree to his we shall have organs, and hymns, nd pianos, and other abominations oon" Their minister had joined the CIV union; four-f1fths of his congrega- ion left him and claimed the church , ulding. They hustled the old minis ar and his supporters out of it, and for ( yer year barricaded it against him. he minister appealed to the law The i wv decided in his favor Hence the in- Z ursion of police in the district to com ( el the people to give the minister and I is friends the use of the place. Now ' V compromise the two are to share in f etween them until final decision is [ rived at
 The fight has been carried on with I le utmost vigor in many ways; fisher a en will not go out in boats with men , rival theological views, and UnitedJ rec tra desmen find their customers r ave them. The very children play out le quarrel in their games, and the rls of Ness have a song of war f hch they drone as they weave. This 9 a translation of their Gaelic fighting . me. o l had a sweetheart and he wanted to y,
 marry me, r 0 you think I'd go the old Free min- :,
 ister to see?
 ot me. not me; I'd rather never mar nl'
 ried be. tl And they mean it. <. A HINDOO OBITUARY NOTICE.