About Columbus enquirer-sun. (Columbus, Ga.) 1886-1893 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 28, 1890)
12 SHETLAND ISLANDERS. WAKE MAN TELLS MORE OF THEIR CUSTOMS. SOV THE WOMEH WORK—THEIR CON TEMPT FOR THE LERWICKERS—A NATION OF KNITTERS. [Copyrighted for the Enqurier Sun.] Lerwick, Shetland, December 15,1390. Whatever their condition in the past, it ■would be difficult to find any lowly people more generally prosperous and comforta ble than the Shetland Islanders at the present time. Their industries are kelp gathering and burning, sheep-raising, band-making of hosiery and other knit goods, whaling and the universal fishing 'fThe minei al wealth of the islands has so tar been of little importance. At Sand- lodge, opposite Mousa Island and its famous Pictish tower, there is an aban doned copper mine with idle and rusting machinery. Over against grim Fitful 'Head I found another abandoned mine where, in search for copper, thousands of tons of iron pyrites had been thrown into the sea. Chromate quarries at Baltasound, In the North Isies, have remained un touched for years; while in Bressay Island are slate quarries, but the slates are too heavy for modern houses, and the thicker strata are utilized for paving stones, Ler wick being paved with ‘-Bressay flag#’ The manufacture of kelp was formerly carried on extensively, and still is a means of Subsistence by many. This kelp-gath ering and burning which is still a source •of livelihood on the Arran Islands, Ire land, on the west coast of Scotland at Tiree, in the Argyleshire Hebrides, and in many places on the Shetland coasts, is dangerous and destructive of health. Though the word “kelp” is often applied to seaweed, it is really the product from ■the burning of seaweed, from which the alkali soda once so largely used in the manufacture of glass and soap was ob tained, and from which iodine is still secured. The seaweeds are called by natives “tangles.” They are detached from the sides of rocks, and frequently great storms sweep fortunate piles of the datumy stuff in upon the ledges of the gios. They are gathered, stacked, thatched aad dried for several weeks, and in the -Autumn are burned in rude open pits or ovens along the shore, the ashes fusing into a solid substance of the density of freestone,' which is broken up before being seat to the market. Kelp gath ering furnishes many picturesque scenes along the desolate shores, as women and children are largely employed. THE FAMOUS SHETLAND HOSIERY. The hosiery and other knit woolens which come from the hands of Shetland ■women are famous. They are as ceaseless knitters as those of Connemara and Done gal, in Ireland, and produce fabrics of wondrous delicacy of texture. The pre paration of the yarn has much to do with She lightness and softness of. their work. -Fleeces are never shorn. The cruel practice of “rueing” or removing the wool from sheep by pulliing it out by the roots, in bandfulis is still prevalent. The finest wool is thus procured; and the the average •weight of the most prized fleeces is but two pounds. The knitting work of these niinoie-fingered women formerly consisted •only of coarse wooden stuffs aad fine Shetland shawls did not become -common until about 1840. The finest col lection of knit goods, over produced in the islands was presented to the Princess of Wales on her marriage in 1863. This sea son a large shawl was sold at Lerwick for $75. It only weighed two and five-eights ounces; and another which sold for $45 ■weighed but two and one-half ounces. ••Some of the designs are marvellously beautiful. THE WHALING INTERSST. "TtreTdifijrhead and other whaling ships formerly-eeizpleted their crews at Lerwick aad these tmes were always periods of great activity. Of late years Shetland’s interest in whaling has been principally confined to driving the monsters ashore. This exciting work is often tremendously profitable. In 1845 a shoal of 1540 “ca’- ing” whales were driven ashore in Quen- ' djde Bay, the southermost bay of Shetland, * lying between Sumburgh and Fitful Heads; and in June of the present year a shoal of several hundred was successfully landed on the east coast. Until quite recently these shore whalers were illy requited for their •raptures. The financially omniverous 'landlord, called the “laird” here, true to Ms octopus instincts, claimed the right, up to 1839, to tax the poor Shetlanders one- iialf of the entire proceeds of all whales driven into shoal water opposite, or upon the shores of their domains; “a sort of ri parian right on the Almighty for what was sent to save man from starvation on ac count of rents and other burdens imposed itj the ‘iaird’ himself,” an old Shetlander explained to me. As the value of the blub ber will average $30 per ton the “laird” •often thus secured from $2,000 to $5,000 as his right to a single catch. From 1839 to 1883 the “lairds” were considerate enough to rob the whalers of but one- tkird. In September of that year the elaim was lesislcd in the courts; the whalers won their cause; and the “lairds” hive since been compelled to content themselves with the meager enjoyment of witnessing, rather than profiling by, the hazardous work. THE WHOLE TOWN GOES MAD. When a whole drove of “ca’ing whales appear on the coast, the news spreads like oil drops on marble. As the whole town of St. Ives, Cornwall, goes mad when a shoal of pilchers is sighted; so does every live Shetlander desert every other voca tion, even to a wedding, to join in the -‘drive.” A rush is made by the men for the boats, while women and children ■wildly collect guns, ammunition,harpoons, scythes, lances, knives and even bags of atone, indeed anything portable which may assist in the hoped-for destruction. The whalers make all haste and splendid •cunning in getting between the whales and the open sea. Their fleet of all man ner of craft then gradually closes in upon the pack or drove, directing by the splen did manoeuvres of the different boats the course of the whales to the shallow bay. So expert are these Shetland whalers in driving that a shoal of whales is seldom lost, if time is given for forming the drive well outside the drove. If the whales once enter the chosen bay, their pursuers come to close, quarters, and THEN THE CONFLICT REGINS. Finding the water becoming shallow terrified whales endeavor to make for the open sea, but are m;t at every point by a wall cf bolts, altogether filled with hun- <ireds and sometimes thousands of men seemingly desperate in their efforts at capture; and the howling, shouting, screaming, lashing of the water, discharge of fire-arms, stone-throwing and rushing to arnljfo of the equally desperate whales, ENQUIRER-SON: COLUMBUS, GEORGIA, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1890. > SECURE THEIR FUEL SUPPLIES. For peat-cutting in Shetland a long T narrow spade with a sharp iron edge, and an iron plate some seven inches long, placed at right angles, is used. Peat-banks or beds are generally three peat-lengths in depth, and tliej size of the “toysker,” as the peat-spade is called, determines the size of the peat. When cut each block is about one foot long, six or seven inches broad, and about three inches thick. The peats are then laid in rows on the bank, like unbaked brick, for the first drying. After lying for three weeks they are then “raised” that is, stood on ends in small piles, for complete drying. “Leading the peats” is taking them home in the “may- sies” on the ponies’ backs, or in the “kashies” on the womens ’ backs, when they are usually “stacked” alongside the cabins for winter use, as on the Scottish mainland. The stranger will still find many curi ous and interesting RELICS OF OLDEN DAYS and ways in Shetland. The ancient vil lage or “touu” of Sound, two iuildS from Lerwick, is a veritable nest of odd, old folk and tliiugs. The inhabitants pique themselves on possessing the exact spot of ground on which their ancestors dwelt for more than a thousand years. They show fine scorn for “oopstart Lerwick” in the oft quoted couplet: “Sound was Sound when Lerwick was nane; Sound'll be Sound when Lerwick is done!” and the “Sound wives” still visit Ler wick on Saturdays with their “kashies” on form as exciting a scene as one ever wit nessed outside a genuine field of battle. Occasionally a few break through the line and escape. As a rule the school is doomed. Once driven into shoal water where they can only flounder in mighiy struggles, or high and dry on land, where they often toss themselves in their mad efforts to escape, their butchery, which is always a savage and sickening sight, pro ceeds with wonderful dispatch. In this bloody work the hardy and powerful Shet land women take a gleeful and almost frenzied part. THE CHIEF INDUSTRY OF THE SHET LANDERS must always be that of fishing. Cod, line and herring are taken. -The boats form erly used were “sixerns,” or ancient six- oared boats, of aboat twenty feet keel, and fiddled-shaped at bow and stern; but the great loss of life in 1881, which occurred in the “Haaf, or deep-sea fishing with long fines, in which ten boats went down and fifty-eight fishermen perished, paved the way for the adoption of the large decked boats, described in a recent article of this series on the Herring Fisheries of Scotland. Cod and ling fishing is exten sively prosecuted, many of the Shetland smacks going as far as the Faroe Islands and to Iceland. The number of these two varieties of fish taken by Shetland vessels in 1888, was 1,566,446, representing a weight of 5,576,600 pounds when cured and dried; more than one-third of this class of fishing for all Shetland for the same year. In general, however, Shetland annually produces fully one-half of the total catch for Scotland. RUGGED HANDS AND HEARTS. The Shetland crofter differs little in character and environment from the Scot tish Highland crofter of the North and West shores of the Scottish mainland. He is a God-fearing, rugged, hardy, honest, simple feilow, with scarcely other than the two impulse* of being, in living and right living. It' he possesses faults, they are inherited rather than acquired. His sodden fatalism, despite his almost fierce religious faith, is the outcome of those curious superstitions of all lowly races living alongside the material relics and re mains uf Pagan progenitors; and his ap parently easy-going nature, which cheerily contemplates most of the burdens of home- life and croft-toil falling upon his faithful spouse, is the traditional one existing among all seafaring people. The islands being deeply indented with voes, or arms of the sea, the crofts are generally situated along the shores of these. Croft-holdings comprise from three to ten acres of arable lands, with hill-pasture in common. The laLter is known here as scattal, pronounced by the natives “scathold” but the land is reckoned by so many merks value; the merk being an old Norse coin worth about $3.22—thus a “5-merk croft,” “a 20- merk croft,” etc., the value, rather than the size of the croft being thus in indi cated. A BARBAROUS SYSTEM. The “truck” system, that barbarous in iquity still prevalent in some portions of our own country, which formerly kept Shetlanders in precisely the same abhor rent condition of slavery as that suffered by the miners of Pennsylvania, Indiana and Illinois, having a few years since been ext rpated from Shetland by the same British public sentiment which fixed “fair rents” for Scottish crofters generally, the Shetland fisher-crofters are prosperous and content upon their bits of land, as the re sult of their labor upon the crofts and in fishing; for every Shetland peasant is both fisher and crofter. At each croft-home ‘will be found a few sheep, great flocks of geese, often a cow, and always the stumpy little Shetland pony and cart. The ponies are very hardy, wondrously sure-footed, and, being as much compan ions as beast of burden, are left pretty much to the freedom of their own wills when not required for use. SHETLAND PONIES. These ponies are of course used in all manner of carrying capacities like the lit tle donkeys of the Azores, but one irresist ibly connects them in the thought with peat carrying. You can hardly turn your eyes upon any road or pathway in Shet land without somewhere seeing a Shetland 1 pony half hidden under great straw pan niers, or “maysies,” as the natives call them, going f,r or returning with peat, while the Shetland guidwife or maiden jogs along in company, knitting -with an almost savage sedulousness and energy. But there is another carrier here that does almost the work of the Shetland pony. That is the Shetland woman. All the manure for the crofts, comprising thou sands of tons of gathered sea-weed, the millions of fish in the operations of landing and curing, and a large portion of the peat, is carried not on ponies’ backs, but on the backs of women in the univer sal “kashie” of the islands. This is a creel made of twisted and woven straw like the “maysies” It i3 also written ‘cassie” aad its pronunciation is best in dicated in the spelling “kyshire” or kishie” Shetland women step off nim bly with from seveuty to eighty pounds weight in their “kashies,” but knit, knit, knit, forever and forever. Peat is the principal burden, for there is no wood- t'uel in Shetland. Nearly all the high inte rior surface of the islands, consists of wild dreary scattalds or peat mosses, common for pasture as well as for peat; anil from these nine-tenths of the Shetlanders their backs, their knitting m full swing, and their noses high in lofty contempt, waiting on one another until all are done with their errands or shopping, and then returning to Sound the embodiment of haughty toleration. The old implements of labor and ancient costumes are yet com mon in some quarters. You will still find men clad in jackets and trousers, reaching a little below the knee, of roughly tanned sheep skins, the large blue bonnets of the Tam O’Shanter variety on their heads and their feet encased in “rivlins,” the “pampootas” of the half-naked wretches of the Irish Arran Islands, consisting of oblong patches of rawhide, tied over the feet with thongs. THE HAIR IS NEXT THE FOOT and the sole and sides only are covered, The ancient “elivans” or fire-tongs fre quently weigh twenty pounds. Grain is universally cut with the sickle, threshed with the flail, and winnowed by bein, tossed in the breeze. The old wooden harrow is common; crooked wooden ploughs are still seen; many households possess the quern or stone hand mill as old as Aryan history; and little huts of water mills, where larger querns are whirled about by rude wheels against which water from little rills is shot horizontally, and where the grain is fed into the upper stone by hand, are numerous in the islands. The Shetlanders as a people are most frank, engaging and courteous, though underneath it all there is A WISE CANNINESS OF RESERVE far exceeding that of the mainland Scotch, A genuine charm to the stranger is their softness and almost liquidity of speech although it is at first difficult for even Scotchman to wholly understand the lan guage of the country people and fisher men. A few illustrations may be given A grandfather is a “gutcher;” a house is a “ljora;” a “crus” is a sheepfold; “clivin” is the tongs; the thole-pin for a boat is a “kaibe;” dog-fisli are “hoes;” and a buoy is a “bow,” and fish-gall has no other name than “huggie-staff.” The use of “du” and “de” for “thou” and “you” is universal; and an answer by a bright guidwife to whom I had applied for one or two Shetland superstitions, is the best example which could be given of the Shetland dialect: “Guid truth, gin I wid tell de ony thin de wid shuue (surely) liae it in prent; an da guid o’t to me wid be dune.” Edgar L. Wakkman. lemon Its Wonderful Effect on the Liver, Stomach, Bowels, Kidneys and Blood. Dr. Mozley’s Lemon Elixir is a pleasant lemon drink that positively cures all bil iousness, constipation, indigestion, head ache, malaria, kidney disease, dizziness, colds, loss of appetite, fevers, chills, blotches, pimples, pain in back, palpitation of heart and ali other diseases caused by disordered liver, stomach and kidneys, the first great cause of all fatal diseases. Fifty cents and one dollar per bottle. Sold by druggists. Prepared only by H. Mozley, M. D., Atlanta, Ga. LKMOiM HdT DROPS. For coughs and coids, take Lemon Hot drops. For sore throat and bronchitis, take Lemon Hot Drops. For pneumonia and laryngetis, take Lemon Hot Drops. For consumption and catarrh, take Lemon Hot Drops. For all throat and lung diseases, take Lemon Hot Drops. An elegant and reliable preparation. Sohi by druggists. 25 cents per bottle. Prepared by H. Mozley, M. D., Atlanta, Ga. SCOTT’S Fiulsiom Of Pure Cod Liver Oil with Hypophosphltes Of Lime and Soda. There are emulsions and emulsions, and there ia atilt much skimmed milk ■which masquerades as cream. Trtj as they will many manufacturers cannot J ■ so disguise-their eort liver oil as to- make it palatable to sensitive stomachs. Scott’s \ Emulsion of PURE NORWEGIAN COD • El I EH OJXi, comhitied with Rypopkos- ! phites is almost as palatable as milk. I Eor this reason as well as for the fact I of the. stimulating qualities of the Uypo- I phosphites,,Physicians frequently pre- | ) scribe it in. cases of j CONSUMPTION, SCROFULA, BRONCHITIS and \ CHRONIC COUGH or SEVERE COED. I All Druggists sell it, but be sure you get j the genuine, as there are poor imitations. RADAM’S HIICROBE KILLER. The Greatest Discovery of the Age. OLD IN THEORY, BUT THE REMEDY RECENTLY DISCOVERED. CURES WITHOUT FAIL CATARRH, CONSUMPTION, ASTHMA, HAY FEVER BRONCHITIS, RHEUMATISM, DYSPEPSIA, CANCER, SCROFULA, DIABETES, BRIGHT’S DISEASE, MALARIAL FEVER, DIPTHERIA AND CHILLS. In short, all forms of Organic and Functional Disease. The cures effected by this Medicine are in many cases MIRACLES! Sold only in Jugs containing One Gallon. 1 yice Three Dollar*—a small investment woe a Health and Life can be obtained. “History of the Microbe Killer” Free CALL ON OR ADDRE68 O. W. Wakefield, Bole agent for Columbus, Ge. No. 8 Twelfth street WEAREOFFERING Inducements to Buyers of Li A V I Columbia Eiver Salmon, American - Sardines ♦ STARCH IN NICKEL PACKAGES. JELLY IN WOODEN BUCKETS, CARTER & BRADLEY \ Cotton Factors and-Wholesale Grocers. COXjXTjytBTTS O-JL CENTRAL, PEOPLE’*? —AND— Columbus ft Gulf Navigation LINES OP S TEAMEB S Ogmjmbus, Ga.,’September 5,1896. On and after September^, 1880. the local rates of freight on the Chattahoochee. Flint and Apa lachicola rivers will be as follows: Flour, per barrel. f 2t Cotton Seed Meal, per ton 1 It Cotton, per bale 5f Guano, per ton 13 Other freight ih. proportion. Passage from Columbus to Apaiaohloola, 86XX) Other points in proportion. aenttu. Steamers leave Columbus as follows: Steamer Fanny Fearn Tuesdays at 18 a., m. Steamer Naiad-Thuisdajs at 8 a. m. Steamer Milton H. Smith Saturdays at 6a.m. Above schedule will be run, river, etc., permit^ ting. Schedule subject to change without notioe. Boat reserves Hie right of not landing at an? i dared da point when cocsii _ _ Boat will not stop at any point not named in list of landings furnished shipper* dangerous by the pilot, point not narnec ippers under date of December 16, 1889. Our responsibility for freight ceases after it hM been discharged at a landing where no person it there to reoeive it. GEO. B. WHITESIDE, Sec’y and Treas. Central Line of Boat* W. R. MOORE, Agent People’s Lin* .JOSEPH I. JOSEPH, Pr esident Colmnbas and Gulf Navigation C-> h\ Estate Eor Money, Now & til* tsime to buy you a home on invest ment when money is so tight. When thi} 5*‘M)0,000 of cotton now held in Columbus is sold* the price will advance and yon can sell for a good protit. FIRST. I have for sale an elegant new two-story resi dence loeated east of (frorting) court house square. This is one of the handsomest homes in tile city, 7 large rooms with high ceiling, kitchen and servants’ rooms; batli,ro in. waher closet,hot and cold water, hay window in parlor, also, on second floor; roof of cypress shingles, painted. This house is built te last. NEXT. I offer a new residence in good neighborhood for S13. Kj cash. If money was- easier this place would not be offered for less than 81750. NEXT. For $50P0 a residence of 7 rooms, hath, gas, water works; lot 67 ft. 7 in. x 147.10. that would bring easily i4500 if house were off; located in one of best neighborhoods in city, on west side of street. If you wisli a nice residence that you will be alwajs satisfied with, call and see me. NEXT. A $2300 investment that will pay you 10 per cent. On this lot are 8 dwellings and room for 2 more. NEXT. Rose Hill. I will s 11 on weekly or monthly in stallments. I have also a dwelling of 3 room’s on Rose Hill for sale; S5 a mouth. -NEXT. New 2-story East Highland residence on diunmy line, close in; will sell for $3030, part cash, bal ance §23 a month. NEXT.—- Corner lot. Third avenue anil Eighth street, $18 0, and will also sell the neat dwelling next south, both lot and dwelling $3000. NEXT. Dwelling and lot 35 feet front (large pile of brick in >ard) opposite north of Clegg s factory; $1160 will buy the house, lot and hric i. NEXT.—— Nos. 802, 806 and 810 Third avenue; alley in rear for benefit of ah; will sell all or either one. NEXT. The Briggs warehouse east of jail, on dummy; also side tracks connecting with all railroads. Owner being a non-resident, wiil sell cheap and give time to pay for it. Brick residence Twelfth street, north of Bap tist church; 12 rooms, furnished with all modern conveniences, on street car line, and so close in that it will always rent well for boarding house, club room or transient hotel. JOHN BLACKVIAR, Real Estate and Insurance Age nt, Rond and Stock Broker. C. M. KINSEL, (Successor to Wittich & Kinsel), Will sell at Ntw York prices my new and well selected stock • Diamonds, Watches, Clocks, Jewelry, Silverware ar d Sp ; claries. IGUARANTEE RELIABLE (lOOilS, BOTTOM PRICES AND FAIR DEi LINGS. Inspector of watches for Central Railroad of Georgia CORNER BROAD and TWELFTH STREETS. W, K. BROWN, Prj*iclem. ai o. WHIT*- IDS. Sec’y udTnu. COLUMBUS IRON WORKS CO., FOUNDERS AND MACHINISTS OOIaTJiwd: IB TXiS, Q-.A.. Manufacturers'Col TIE IMPROVED CALENDER ROLLERS So muoh admired and extensively need by cotton manufacturers of the present -day. They consls of Are Rollers, six inches in diameter, 40inches long, two of them fallow, being a recep taelc for steam. They are furnished with all necessary pipe and valves, fitted np ready to be attache 1 SLfa .. latest improvements on same, including the Selvage Kellers and Cloth Yard ““I loose Pulley, 20 inches in diameter, 4 inches face, all ready to be connected to line of Shafting. It only requires a trial to demonstrate their indiape usability. We are 8ol« Manufacturers ot Stratton’s improved Absorption Ice Machines (he moat PRACTICAL, ECONOMIC AI. and DURABLE ICE made in America.; IACHIIIk ever Southern Plow Company, manufacturers of the OOILTTIvtlBTTS SIHSTG-ZLIE! IPULiOW STOCK, SOLID aml WINO SWEEPS, STEEL, WROUGHT and CAST IKON PLOW BLADES, HEEL BOLTS, GRASS RODS, CLEVISES, SINGLE- TREES, and all other Agricultural Implement*. any ?hfuid^d L '° mainteined ’ sold on as favorable terms as bj WOOD WORK Dealers in Lame, Laths, Shingles, Lumber, and everylng in the Building Line. LUMBER BOUGHT AND SOLD IN Building ] ANY ^QUANTITY, ng£ screw Cotton prf^’ ~ ccieoratou 131 bkovisd i
