The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1928-10-26


Cornwall 10 understand this Western
miseonception of the Cornish char
acter. Certainly no more kindly or
hospitable man exists than the Corn
ishman upon his native heath. Yet
the Cornish are assuredly a race
apart, just as Cornwall differs in as
pect from its neighboring county Of
Devon.
Cornish People Race Apart.
Formed of union of the primitive
tribes and the Brythonic race which
gave its name to Britain, and only
slightly modified, according to students
of the race history, by succeeding in
vasions of Romans. Saxons and Morse
men, they kept their own language
until well in the Eighteenth century.
They will speak of "going to Eng
land" as if ii were foreign country.
Cornwall is the southwesternmost
county of England. 1t is great pro-
montory, 70 miles in length, armored
against the sea with granite, slate, and
serpentine, and 40 miles wide at its
greatest, where the River lamar bars
it from Devon. 1t contains approx
imately 1856 square miles and 300,-
600 people.
Thanks to the Atlantic ocean and
the Gulf stream on one flank of its
triangle, and to the sheltered waters
of the English channel on the other,
its climate is in great part so ex-
traordinarily warm and equable that
enthusiasts refer to its coast as the
Cornish Riviera.
1t is true that snow seldom lies, and
it is also a fact that in comparison
of average mean temperatures the ad
vantage would be altogether in favor
of certain Cornish watering Slaces as
against the winter climate of the
Mediterranean coast.
Yet one should not take these asSur-
ances altogether at their face value.
The winds of Cornwall are so rough
that in the uplands the few small
bushes one sees are dwarfed and
twisted, and about Lands End the win
dowpanes are ground to opacity by the
blowing sand.
Cornwall is an unchanging land.
No doubt Diodorus, who wrote of his
visit to Cornwall in the time of julius
Caesar, found Lands End just as it is
today, save for few excrescences of
inns and lighthouses and lifeboat sta
lions. The very name has not been
disturbed, for Lands End is the Celtic
Pen-von-Las, which literally means
''the end of the EARTH" What is the
name of the Longships lighthouse, bat
tered by waves on a rock nearby, but
a translation of naves longae-"long
ships? And does not the rock on
which 1t stands suggest Roman gal
ley to one of but little imagination?
He who doubts should not come to
Cornwall. Yesterday seems very near
at hand.
Mines Mostly Abandoned.
The great central plateau of Corn
wall is of chief interest to the bust
ness man and to the archeOlogist.
There are found the many small towns
which depend on the copper and tin
mining industries, on farming, or on
the great pits from which clay Is
taken, some of which is sent to China
for the manufacture of porcelain. For
the most part, the copper and tin
mines have gone too deep to be profit
able until some new invention comes
to the rescue or prices rise out of all
reason. To this cause Is due the pow
erty and depression which may be
seen in so many places on the moors.
The Cornishman is born gambler
in hard rock When 1t became diff
cult to attract outside capital, he or
ganiZed his own local concerns to work
mines. Many companies of adventur-
Gus miners, too, were formed to work
leases on the share plan, just as
Cornish fishermen go share and share
alike in their boats.
The failure of the mines not only
bankrupted their owners, but drove
them into other lands. One now sees
pitiful succession of empty houses
on the moors-fine, square, granite
built houses that will endure the
weather for centuries-and, come to
think of it, almost every Cornishman
one meets away from home Is miner
by trade.
No part of England is as rich in
prehistoric antiquities as Cornwall.
and nowhere, one may guess, is the
study less satisfying to an archeologist.
OF the numerous Cornish crosses,
about all that can be said is that
they date from somewhere between
the Fifth and Twelfth centurieA when
Cornwall was Christianized by saints
from Ireland. many of whom, accord
ing to tradition, floated across the mar
row seas in stone collins. But enc
Cornish cross is perilously like all
other Cornish crosses.