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ENQUIRER-SUN: COLUMBUS, GEORGIA, SUNDAY MORNING. DECEMBER 7, 1890.
HOW THE FISHERS LIVE.
SCENES ON THE EAST COAST FISH
ING GROUNDS.
THEIR UNIQUE MARRIAGE CEREMONIES.
GREAT FESTIVITIES—WOMEN AS
LABORERS—HONEST AND
LOYALTO THEIR
VOWS.
[Copyrighted for the Enquirer Sun.]
Burravoe, Shetland, November 30.—
^Special.]—Having shown in. my prece
ding article the extraordinary importance
to Scotland of her herring fisheries, an in
dustry now annually providing for the
world’s food supply over 1,100,000 barrels
cored herrings, some account of the every
day life of the 00,000 or 70,000 people who
practically devote their lives to this one
vocation, will be of interest to American
^readers. Five-sixths of the herrings taken
are landed within the seventeen fishing
districts of the east coast. Three-fourths
of these are taken off the Aberdeen,
Bank, Elgin, Ross, Sutherland. Caith
ness. Orkney and Shetland shores: and of
the fishermen and “curers’-crews” requi
site for labor in this imperial domain of
the herring, fully two-thirds come here
every summer season from the fisher-
crofter hamlets of the Scottish west coast,
from all the contiguous coastwise islands
north of the Mull of Cantyre, from Syke,
from Harris and Lewis, from north and
south L'ist, and from all the little ocean
girdled specks fringing the outer Hebrides.
After these men and women return to
their western homes, in September, the
crops of their little crofts are to be gath
ered. These comprise oats, a bit of sickly
grass for hay of the “beasties” in winter,
potatoes and the universal Scotch “kail”
or cabbage. Then the women take to
their knitting and laud-looms, and if there
be winter herring-fishing in the sea-lochs
near their homes, this is prosecuted by
the men in small open boats of 18 to 22
feet keel, at much bodily risk and under
tortuous severities of wind and weather.
In these boats all the fire they can have
for cooking and warmth is carried and
■kept in huge iron pots; and in
sleeping
THEY TUMBLE DOWN ANYWHERE
in their sea-clothing and oil skins and
cover themselves with rags or sails. If
likely to remain for a time on the lochs,
they build sod hots alongshore, thatching
them with “bracken,” a coarse fern also
used in thatching their houses. If there
be no fishing, the natives have little or
nothing to do from the harvest until
March and April, when the cutting of
sea-weed for manure begins, and later,
when the annual cutting of peats for fuel
is done. Among these primitive people
the rights of women to at least labor were
long since beyond gainsaying. I have
seeu the husband lift a halt barrel (70
pounds) upon his wife’s back and calmly
walk home beside her. In peat-cutting
time, when the day’s work is done, the
husband will throw the crooked wooden
spade over his shoulder, and the wife,
gathering her skirts into an ample sack,
will carry sometimes for miles to the croft
a weight of peat for immediate use under
which a Highland sheltie would stagger.
And my friend, David M. Rosie, a Fishery
Board officer to whom I am indebted for
much exact information, tells me of an
incident of sea-weed cutting where a croft
er’s wife, with a rope tied about her waist,
was lowered over a crag to gather sea
weed among the slippery spume-covered
rocks, while her philosophic husband,
safely ensconced in a sunny cleft above,
was quietly enjoying his pipe. But neither
the Highland nor Island crofter must be
judged by our standards. No human be
ings love their wives and homes more loy
ally than they. All lowly classes follow
ing the saa or the lives of fishermen re
gard the man’s labor done when his vessel
is anchored in port, or his fishing-buss
is beached at the fishing hamlet shore; so
that the fishing crofter and his spouse are
contentedly traditionally correct in their
adjustment of labor and duty.
THE HOME OF THE WESTERN HIGHLAND
and Island fisher crofter is much inferior
to that of the east fisherman or even of
the northern Highland crofter. Nearly
all their cabins are built on a line with
the slope of a brae or hillside, the rear
xoof-slope forming an obtuse angle. The
walls are never more than six feet high,
oftener but five; but they are frequently
four feet thick. They are built of round
or rubble stone. Some of the walls are
double, with a layer of earth between for
additional warmth. The roof-beams rest
on the middle of the walls, and are laid at
the same angle on three.sides,with a lesser
angle on the hillside incline. Some are
neatly thatched with straw; but many are
covered with bracken or heather. You
can never effect an entrance to
one of these structures through the single
door without pushing aside a cow, a sheep
or some manner of “beastie” sheltered
in file capacious doorway or occupying
a part of the hut itself, meagerly parti
tioned off for a byre. On entering you are
nearly suffocated with smoke. The place
Is dark. There are two or three small
windows. Often there are none; small
Apertures, closed at night, admitting such
light and air as can penetrate. The
iS re is seldom allowed to go out, and when
siot blazing brightly in use, smokes and
smudges from a slight depression the cen
ter of the floor, precisely as in a Sioux
Indian’s teepe. Some of these fire-places,
If they may be so called, are built in little
stone troughs, and flat slabs of stone sur
round them. Immediately above the fire,
in die center of the roof, is an aperture
In which is set a half-barrel, or other de
vice to answer the place of a stove-pipe
or chimney. The smoke
AFTER LEISURELY PILGRIMAGES
about the cabin, finds its chief exit here.
The roof is black as night from smoke
deposits, and here and there on the poles
a glistening, oily substance, from the
moisture in the thatch and the action of
the peat smoke, is forming into tiny glob
ules , ready for dropping; and whatever
they fall upon is indelibly stained. An
iron chain hanging from the roof supports
the huge round iron pot in which the po
tatoes, the porridge, and the kail-brose
are c oked; while the universal tea-pot
and bannock-pan or griddle stand endless
guard beside the fire. One room usually
comprises the interior; although a bed
room with its roof slanting down to the
very ground, will occasionally be found.
The furniture is an odd jumble of ancient
oak and later-day things in varnish; cloudy
delph and radiant china; olden iron and
pewter and cheap tinned utensils; Gaelic
wooden “methers” and Brumagen things
which shine.
THERE ARE SQUARE BUNKS FOB BEDS
in. which a whole family can repose; gen
uine antiques here and there such as may
often be found in the lowly homes of Brit
tany : trundle beds which are hidden be
neath larger ones by day, and do service
anywhere by night; and here and there
the sea-faring instinct has caused the rig
ging of hammocks from rotten nets, or
more ingenious ones still from lines and
barrel staves. Creels and tubs are many
and various. Chests black and huge are
ranged along the walls. And there are
chairs constructed from driftwood or tree
limbs, and seats of square-hewn stone.
The food of these people in general use
is “loaf-bread” from Glasgow, which is
unfortunately supplanting the more
healthful oat-cake and porridge, potatoes,
fish and tea. The few oats they raise are
not made into meal. These are reserved
for the cattle; and there are few instances
where they are not compelled to purchase
city manufactured oat meal for food and
seed oats for each year’s seeding. The
dress of the men and women is almost
exclusively of home-spun material, the
Harris (island) tweeds being famous for
warmth and durability. The odor of their
garments, from impregnation with peat
smoke, is at first very disagreeable to a
stranger. Both men and women are fond
of colored materials, especially in hand
kerchiefs, neck-ties and scarfs, and on oc
casion V
SOME WONDERFUL COMBINATION RESULTS.
I have seen a blue gown, a red tartan
shawi and a huge white bonnet displayed
by a most modest and retiring young wo
man. But intercommunication with
Glasgow, which is the London of these
folk, is gradaily modifying these peculiar
bare walls. The churches, and especially
the alert and active Free church, of Scot
land, are now sending evangelists among
them; and the latter, who remain at the
fishing ports during the entire season, are
doing a noble work among these women
both in temporal and spirtual matters.
The lives of the east coast fisher folk
are far less hard and sunless. The fam-
lies almost invariably follow the vocation
of their parents; the sons to the fishing,
and the daughters doing their part ashore
in mending the nets, baiting the lines and
selling the fish, while many work in the
herring season with the west coast women
among the curers’ crews.
THEIR HOUSES ARE FAIRLY GOOD.
They contain two and sometimes three
and four rooms. While their kitchens of
necessity, in baiting the lines, are often
untidy, at least one room of every house is
neatly furnished, and if always a bright if
humble picture of tidy-handed housewife
ry. Men, women and children are uni
versally intelligent. On the Banffshire
and Aberdeenshire coasts a deep religious
feeling and character prevail. They are
all keen politicians, “Liberal” in party af
filiation, and are extraordinary disputants
in theological questions, their choice of
language, logic and illustrations compar
ing fovorably with that of their ministers.
Their amusements are not many. Con
certs are a favorite; balls are occasionally
known, the bagpipe is giving way to the
violin; many melodians are found: and
strolling acrobats and mountebanks are
SNOW FLAKE
HOMINY
?
We
are the
%
sale
ities or dress. Their outdoor amusements ^ kindly received and well patronized. Their
old drinking customs are dying out; teto-
talism is fast increasing; and I think that
sobriety and the newspaper and family
journal, for they are great readers, are
working a happily directed evolution
among them. Bnt all these crofter and
fisher folk of Scotland, east and west,
possess the rugged qualities of integrity,
honesty, loyalty, with an undemonstrative
but sincere hospitality, rendering them
ever patient and steadfast in their lowly
lives, and a folk it does one good to come
among and know. , t
Edgar L. Wakeman.
are meager. This is most noticeable at
the schools where the children indulge in
few games, displaying in these far less en
thusiasm and skill than with the fisher
children of the east coast. “Shinty,” or
as they call it Skye, “clubs” is the prevail
ing youths’ game, and the other one of
note is “patting the stone.”
It is difficult to understand where and
how “courting” is accomplished. My
friend lived nearly five years' in Skye, and
he asserts that in that time he never saw a
couple walking together for pleasure who
were known to be lovers. Two instances
of their matter-of-fact ways, where affairs
of the heart are concerned, came under
his personal notice. A young man pro
posed for the hand of a neighbor’s
younger daughter. The crofter father de
cided" that the elder should be first mar
ried, and the young courtier obediently
took her away, apparently perfectly con
tented. Another young crofter
PROPOSED THREE TIMES
during one winter before securing a
bride. In asking the father’s consent the
lover is accompanied by a “best man”
who sees that a sufficient dowry is given
with the bride, a cow, a “sheltie” or one
or more sheep, as the standing of the
bride’s father warrants. The lover's best
man had been too timid to ask for this,
and until one was procured, at the third
proposal, with the bravery to ask the
bridegroom’s traditional dues, the sage
crofter father did not feel like trusting
his daughter’s fortunes where a prospec
tive son-in-law showed such improvidence
regarding his own.
There is one prevailing custom among
them where labor and pleasure are very
winsomely blended, and this may provide
all necessary preliminary to crofter mat
ings. It is called “waulkiug the cloth,”
that is “fulling” the cloth. The expres
sion doubtless has its derivation, as do
many other Scottish provincial words and
idioms, from the old German. Waulk-
rnuller is old German for a fuller; and
“wauket” or “wauk-miller” has the same
signification in Scotch. “Fulling” or
shrinking the fine-spun woolens is a com
mon occupation of the woman during the
winter evenings. In this operation of
“waulking the cloth” a half dozen women
usually grown lasses, sit on each side of a
long, wide deal table. The dampened
cloth is held firmly between them, and
each side in turn strike the cloth sharply
upon the table. They do this with a very
pretty swaying motion, while the leader
sings and the remainder give a hearty cho
rus. While this is in progress the young
men begin to arrive singly and in groups.
Some one has brought a bagpipe, perhaps
another a violin, althaugh the latter is of
quite recent introduction. Shrill accompa
niments then often
INSPIRE THE LASSIES AT THEIR LABOR
and singing; but in no other manner will
the lads interfere until, the “stint” of
“waulking” for the evening being accom
plished, dancing generally follows. At
marriages in Syke the whole neighborhood
follows the bridal couple in a body to the
church. The bride and at least one
bridesmaid wear tremendous white veils,
if the remainder of their costume comprise
the most barbaric colors, and the wearing
of these veils is repeated at church on the
Sabbath morning following the marriage.
On returning to their home after the cere
mony is performed, the bridal party is
reeted along the entire way with a fusil-
ade from all manner of rusty fire-arms and
by extraordinary hallooing and cheering.
Sweeties” are freely distributed and
thrown to the children at intervals. After
substantial “wedding supper” when
health and toasts are enthusiastically
druuk, the night is passed in
dancing, eating and drinking;
and a large number of relatives and par
ticularly friends return the following even
ing to prolong the festivities. As the
Gipsy is often absolutely ruined by bis
;enerosity during marriage festivities, so
the fisher-crofter pair, from the same gen
erous cause, find themselves entering
upon the realities of life sadly distressed.
The departure of these people for the
east coast in June and July, is marked by
many ludicrous and pathetic scenes.
They leave in groups of from a dozen to
fifty. The entire neighborhood bids them
farewell. The leave-takers will start, one
at a time, down a long line comprising
their friends who remain, and shake hands
with and kiss or embrace every one pres
ent with as much intensity of emotion as
though they were parting from them for
ever, instead of for but, at longest, a few
weeks. Formerly the scenes at Stornoway
were anything but elevating. Steamers
would be literally packed for the nine
hours’ passage to Strorne Ferry, where
cattle trucks had to be pressed into ser
vice. Departing at different date has les
sened the crowds; but only this year at
Oban in a crowd of 200 men and wowen
there was a tremendous uproar,
men leaping out and through carriage win
dows, and women weeping and wailing
under extraordinary excitement; drink as
usual, being the great impelling power
with these highly-strung Highlanders.
Arriving at the east-coast fishing ports,
the men and women are housed in sepa
rate quarters, usually rough sheds on the
herring curers’ grounds or “stations.”
Three to nine women are huddled into
single apartments. Their tin or wooden
chests form their only seats and tables.
Perhaps a few designs in cut paper and
some ^heap nick-packs may relieve the
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Snow Flake Hominy
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LIPPMAN BROS., Proprietors,
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lippman Block. SAVANNAH. GA.
CARTER & BRADLEY
Cotton Factors and Wholesale Grocers,
COLUMBUS GEA.
W. B. BROWN, President.
GEO. WHITE3II>K,;Sec’y andTroas.
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WHOLESALE BY
Brannon & Carson, and Patter
son & Thomas,
COLUMBUS, CA
“Hello! Tom. Glad to see yon, old fellow!
It’s almost ten years since we were married. Sit
down: let's have an experience meeting. How’s
tim wife f ”
“Oh! she’s so-so, same as usual,—always want
ing something I can’t afford.”
“ Well, we all want something more than we’ve
got. Don’t you f”
“ Yes: but I guess ‘ want will be my master.’ I
started to keep down expenses; and now Lil says
I’m ‘meaD,’and she’s tired of saving and never
having anything to show for it. I saw your wife
down street, and she looked as happy as a queen! ’•
“ I think she is ; and we are economical, too,—
have to be. My wife can make a little go further
than anyone I ever knew, yet she’s always sur
prising me with sume dainty contrivance that
adds to the comfort and beauty of our little home,
and she’s always ‘merry as a lark.’ When I ask
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‘Oh! that’s my secret!’ But I think I’ve dis
covered her ‘secret.’ When we married, we both
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made one condition: she would have her Magazine.
And she was right 1 I wouldn’t do without it my
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“What wonderful Magazine is it f ”
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and I told her it was an extravagance.”
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on my wife's accouut: she’s bound to have a chin
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My gold watch was the premium 1 got for getting
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A LIBERAL OFFER.
WEEKLY ENQUIRER-SUN
DEMOREST MONTHLY
for only §2.60 a year.
Order at once. Address
ESQriRKR-SCN.
Columbus, i a
C0LUMB0S IRON WORKS CO..
FOUNDERS AND MACHINISTS,
OOLUMBUS, - C3-JL.
Manufacturers] of
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FOR SALE BT
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Suffering from the effects of youthful errors, early
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Prof. F. C. FOWLER, IToodu»,Comi.
1
So mnch admired and extensively used by cotton manufacturers of the present day. They consis
principally of live Rollers, six inches in diameter, 10 inches long, two of them hollow, being a recep
tacle for steam. They are furnished with all necessary pipe ana valves, fitted np ready to be attached
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line of Shafting. It only requires a trial to demonstrate their indispensability.
Wo are Sole Manufacturers of Stratton’s Improved
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file most PRACTICAL, ECONOMICAL and DURABLE ICE MACHINE ewer
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IfflS I
Southern Plow Company,
MANUFACTURERS OF THE
COLUMBUS SIUSTQ-ILE] PLOW STOCK,
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RP The high qualityof these goods will fce maintained, and are sold on as favorable terms as bj
any house in the United States.
WOOD WORK IDIEBLA-B^T-TVriEjS: T.
The largest dealers in the State in Lime, Shingles. Dressed and Undressed Lumber, Matched
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LUMBER BOUGHT AND SOLD IN ANY QUANTITY.
The Columbus Iron Works are agents for Royal Pumps, Judson Governors, Standard Injectors,
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novSdly
IOHjTJIM: BTTSa C3-A-.