THE SCOTTISH TINKERS
The Scottish tinkers, it would seem from statistics, arc not a dying race (says the ‘Morning Post’). Commenting on tie remark that their number had dwindled to fifty, a Scot till correspondent, points out that at the last, special census of _ the wandering tribe on October 21, 1917, there were 2,248 tinkers in Scotland. To this figure bad to be added 009 men then in tho Army and 171 children in industrial schools—a gross total ol 2.728. Their habits may have been slightly modified by war conditions, but. the wandering spirit is bard to kill, and the number of these strolling vendors of pots and pans, besoms, and kettles is certainly still,well over 2,000. The, Scottish tinker, moreover, lias a place, in literature. Bums and Scott both knew him, and Sir Walter has affirmed that Donald Caird finds orra things r. Wliar Alan Grigor fund the laimrs, which, being interpreted, means (hat the tinker sometimes picks up odds and ends in tho same nefarious manner as Akin Grigor appropriated his neighbor’s tongs.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ESD19240522.2.119
Bibliographic details
Evening Star, Issue 18640, 22 May 1924, Page 10
Word Count
175THE SCOTTISH TINKERS Evening Star, Issue 18640, 22 May 1924, Page 10
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