Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1916-07-14

~ road ended and stood opposite
~ the seldom visited Island of
Achill Beg. There was only
one thing for us to do-that was to
shout and shout until someone on the
island heard US and launched q boat
to ferry us across. writes traveller to
the Emerald Isle, In Ireland. We
talked while we waited about the ul-
tra-nationalism of the friend we were
going to visit. There had been a
project to build a causeway from this
peninsula of the mainland to the is
land of his sojourn. Our friend OBJ
jected because he did not want the rs
families he lived amongst to be cor
rupted by an alien culture. We shout
ed again.
Then we saw q stir on the island
and knew that a boat was being
launched. Another wayfarer had
come up and was waiting to cross over
with US. This was a young woman
who thought little of nursing her baby
while she waited. She had taken
the child to some far-away dispensary
upon the peninsula and had received
a announcement upon its sickness.
Now she held 1t and talked to it as
II 1t was a treasure-as IL 1t was won
derful she had got the child back 50
far. This young woman took our
phrases in Gaelic as good converse
tional coin. Most native speakers talk
to learners either scornfully or
patronizingly, but she talked trusting.
iy. as II we had the Gaelic like the
flowing sea-" as they say. 1t was evi-
IDENTIFY that our friend on the island
had brought no hint of paucity in
Gaelic speech.
He lived with one of the island
families in the utmost discomfort
Meat the people seldom saw. and they
burnt it when they undertook to cook
1t. They boiled potatoes well enough
But no amount of repetition could gel
them to make drinkable tea. Oul
friend had a room that had no catch
on its door and he was waited upon by
barefooted girl. His mental nour
ishment seemed as restless as his
physical fare. There were books OF
his shelf, but they we're dictionaries
grammars. textbooks, handbooks, ex
ercises in translation. volumes o.
propagandist journals. There wal
one thing in the room that promised
some delight-our friends fiddle. W.
knew how well he could play tn,
music of fishers and shepherds of Gae
lie Scotland and Ireland.
A Stronghold Of Gaelic.
He held this remote island as ,
lonely post in q battle that seemet
long lost-a battle of languages ant
civilization. Gaelic might be surren
dered or sold on the mainland or II
the big islands, but here 25 familie
would be drilled to hold and keep II
Actually he had made this island tn
one spot in the British islands wher
English is a decaying language. H
had found it flourishing here and Gao
lie weak and ready to give out H
had restored Gaelic. The young me-
and young women who would spen
six months of the year in the field
of England and East Scotland spok
no English here. We saw him fin
the door open and dart out like
weasel when he heard an Englis
phrase used by someone in the mai
room. But the harvester was speal
ing of THE Midland Great Wester
Railway" and how could a name lik
that be put into Gaelic?
He was giving lecture that nigh
and we followed him as he went, lar
tern in hand. to the schoolhouse. w
passed closed houses before whic
geese seemed to sleep standing. W
walked amongst ducks that gave on
the impression that they were truant
from school-they slipped into pools {