Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1905-07-15
Historic Old Wales
Especial Correspondence)

Shoulder to shoulder the Scotch
man says; "Ceade mile feaItha" Ga
hundred thousand welcomes), says the
Irishman when he wishes to show his
good will; "Cymru fydd, cymru fu''
(the Welshman stands by Welsh
men), is the slogan of the Welshman,
who is more clannish than either of
his fellow-subjects, Sandy or Paddy.
1t is wonderful, in this age of en-
lightenment, how little is known of
that historic strip of Great Britain
called Wales. 1t contains more his
toric monuments of an ancient race
than probably any strip of its size on
TINS broad earth From Cestria (Ches-
teri, on the River Dee of poetic
memory, to Almwch on the western
edge of Mona (the Isle of Anglesia) is
eighty-nine miles, and in a straight
line there are in sight thirty-six an
clent castles or fortresses Not your
modern building of some paltry three
or four hundred years young, but such
as Mol Gaer, in Flintshire, an old
fortress when the Romans tried to
conquer it a thousand years ago. Not
a stone-walled structure that defed
all the ancient engines of warfare
but just plain, sugar-loaf mountain
a thousand feet above the surrounding
country, with its top shaved of level
and depression sunk therein, and
its best bulwark the breast of the
Cymry.
The Cesaerean 1egions struggled in
their armor up to its sides, only to
be hurled back by the half-naked
painted Britons armed with ak and
shield. spear and bow. The uncon-
quered Roman had to confess he had
met his match, and wisely gave up the
contest, and contented himself with
building dyke (Ona's Dyke, or wall,
from the Dee to the Severn. Even
that and his sixty miles of guards did
not suffice to keep the irrepressible
Welshman (who is always a rover) at
home, when he wanted a little plum
der or a few captives to grace his
heather festivities, as many a battle
field and monument testifes, on the
borderland, to this day.
wales, beautiful Wales: dear land
of my fathers" sings the Welshman,
when he holds his regular gatherings;
and beautiful is a good descriptive
word for that land of mountain.
stream and vale.
Mountain upon mountain, Pelion
sea, there is hardly ever a stretch of
fat land mile square. Every vale
is a fit subject for the pencil and
brush, every stream a mine of the
most delicious trout and salmon.
Grouse, and, once in a while ptarmi-
gan, will reward the tolls of the
hunter.
Song and story have for centuries
told of the beauties of Wales, but if
one lauds the beauties of the country.
what shall he say of Jenny Jones'
and her sisters? Theme of the poet
from time immemorial, beautiful in
feature, graceful in form, intellectual
and polished in manners and knowI-
edge, earth holds no womanly type
to the Welsh girl
With all these wonders of history,
and people, what marvel.
then, that the land teens with ro-
pOesy and tradition especially
as music, in all its forms. may be said
10 be the national characteristic? For
every man, woman and child in Wales
s born with music in his or her soul
For instance, tourists often go I'D
he road to Tearberis, where the great
slate quarries are. to listen to the work
men singing as they come down the
mountain after their days labor.
From the nature of the district where
he slate quarries are situated. there
5 no place for the workmen's cot
ages, hence they have to live at the
seaport town of Port Dinorwic. be-
-ween which place and the quarries is
/ miniature railway, the gauge of
which is only twenty-six inches wide. |
The cars that carry the states down |
ire open boxes on wheels, three feet
ong and two feet wide, and probably |
800 on a train On these boxes or |
,ars the men pile by hundreds; they |
arrange themselves in groups of ten
'rs, bassos, falsettos, altos and so
orth, and as the train winds slowly
Town the mountain. they sing in uni |
son, and it icing another Characters |
ic of the Welshman that he is almost |