The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-01-26
MEAOF SCOTIA
Continued from Page -

do we find 10 be the net result of al
these celebrations and discussions and
resea riches? Is il not that, as the years
go by, his name is more widely hon
ored and his memory more deeply re-
vered? Never has there been proph-
ecy more amply fulfilled than that Of
Burns when he said to his faithful
wife: Jean, they'll think mair o me
a hundred years after this!"
His songs have most emphatically
stood the test Of time and are, today
by far the most popular of any Scot
fish songs-and the number of Scottish
songs is legion, for all ScOtsmen are
poets-or think they are! 1t is sald
that, on the occasion of the visit OF
one of the weI-known poets TO the
| comparatively small .town of Paisley IL
hope I am not wounding the feelings
of any "Paisla buddies'' here tonight
when I call it that-it isn't really so
big as its reputation would lead one to
suppose), he was greeted with the re-
mark, Come ava, there's ABBOTT
seventy MAR o. Us here!" 1t is GER
ItainIy a fact that nearly all Paisley
people are poets and it is generally
| believed that they all carry cOrkscreWs.
Whether or not there is any connection
between these two characteristics | am
not prepared TO decide.
| have said that Burns songs are by
far the most popular of any Scottish
J songs. Why they are not invariably
sung at Scottish gatherings is prob
ably because many of the tunes to
| which they are set are rather hard to
| sing properly and are unsuited to mas
| culine voices. But what love songs are
there like Annie Laurie Green
I 4. ~
The Lass O. BaHochmyle, ALTON
| Water" ''Ye Banks and Braes!" John
Anderson My Jo," "Ae Fond Kiss
90 a the Airts.'' My Nannie's Ava,
| My Luve is Like a Red Red Rose"
Comm Through the Rye" 90! Vert
Thou in the Cauld Blast?
We have been familiar with these
songs all our lives, but they never
grow old or wearisome. Sir Walter
Scott said that the lines in "Ae Fond
kiss
Had we never lo'ed sac kindly
Had we never 1o'ed sac blindly
Never met and never parted=~s
We had ne'er been broken hearted
contained the essence of a thousand
love stories.
But Burns wrote more than love
songs. His many sidedness is one of
his most striking characteristics and
is at once evidence of the bigness OF |
his heart, the breadth of his sympathy, |
and the keenness and shreWdneSs of |
his vision in observing the peculiari- |
ties and foibles of his fellows in every
walk of life. Read his Jolly Beggars, |
in which he describes the alehouse
carousal of a band of harum-scarGm /
vagabonds, and you would imagine that !
Burns had lived amongst them all his
life. How apt1y he expresses their /.
ideas of, and contempt for, those mis-
cradle, law-abiding mortais who dwell |
in towns and lead quiet, hundrum, re
spectacle lives!
"A fig for those by law protected!
a glorious feast;
Courts for towards We're erected
Churches bullt to please the priest!'
Then turn to The Cottar's Saturday
Night probably the finest poem Burns
ever wrote. Where will you find any
thing to compare with that graphic
description Of an ideal Scottish peas
ants home? The toil-worn cottar aud
his frugal gufdwife seated in their
CHEEKY hut, with their BARNS
around them. partahing of the homely
fare the halesome parritch, chief o
ScOtia's food 1t was parritch, too,
remember: 10 half-cooked mush or
fusionless rubbish for !
them, bat good. honest oatmeal, boiled
until the horn spoon stood upright in
the bowl. and washed down with warm,
sweet milk from the hawke that yont
the italian snugly chews her cud."
And then the sage parental advice,
the sound worldly commonsense help
ing their BARNS for the incoming
weeks work in field or kitchen and
those still more precious words OF Coun-
sell guarding them against the pitfalls
and temptations of life and helping to
mould characters and lives so that, in
after days, they should follow in their
fathers footsteps, a credit to their up
bringing and the backbone of their
country. z4a.
The cheerful supper done. Wi serious d,
They roond the ingle form circle
The sire turns Ger wi patriarchal
The big ha' Btble-afnce his fathers :.
pride: I
His bonnet rev'rently is laid aside, V
His lyart haffets wearing thin and s
bare
Those strains that once did sweet in
Zion glide
He wales portion with judicious
care,
And Let US worship God he says, "
with solemn air.
THEIR DEVOTIONS SIMPLE.
Their devotions are simple and sim n
ere and Burns paints the picture with a
he hand of an artist and with the fl IT
eiIty to life of one to whom such ..
Gene was quite familiar Truly From !,
Genes Ike these 10 aud Scotia OF
randeur springs THAT makes her ~
owed at home, revered abroad" It is r.
aid that what Burns considered the a,
nest compliment he ever received was s.
he remark of a servant girl who, on .,