Sketcher.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XX, Issue 2061, 29 April 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

Sketcher.

Cape Breton Marriages

Courtship is by no means a necessary preliminary to marriage. To begin at the beginning : When a young man decides that he will marry he often first builds a house ; and it is no trivial matter here, where most of.the lumber is sawn by hand in a pit. A man may be said to be in earnest when he begins his suit with months of such hard labor—and that, too, from a disinterested motive, not having the faintest idea, perhaps, as to who will be the mistress of the house. We saw a number of such expectant buildings, in all states and of many ages ; for some, failing to get a tenant, stood without windows or doors, the image of a desolate heart.

John , a young man duly prepared and determined to marry, had set out the previous week with his spokesman to get a wife. He had no particular preference for any one, but they decided to go first to the house of Mary—, one of the biggest girls of the parish, whom he had often noted, but with whom he had never spoken. When they entered the house a hint of their object was given to Mary, and she retired from the room. The spokesman then delivered his speech, in which he praised the peraprral qualities, the fortune, the soeitu position of his friend and asked the hand of Mary for him. As the father had no objection to the offer, he at once consented to leave the matter to his daughter. She was called in, and the spokesman conferred quietly with her in a corner, and she consented to the marriage. The spokesman then led her out to the middle of the floor, and John came from this corner and took her by the hand ; thus the contract was accepted, under the usual penalty of forfeiting eighty shillings in case the engagement was broken. The young man afterward engaged the priest to publish the banns for the first and last time on the following Sunday. But Mary had her own plans in all this ; she knew that the affair would reach the ears of Sandy , for whom she had a strong preference, and perhaps bring him to a prompt proposal. Sandy did come, and the upshot of it was that ho and his father went late on Saturday night, roused the priest, and had Sandy’s name substituted in the banns for that of applicant number one.

Tliis new shuffling of the cards was common enough, so that it caused but a passing smile among the friends of the parties most interested. But a certain young man who heard the banns went home in such depression that he asked his father for ten dollars. When questioned he explained that the girl whom he had intended to marry was to become the bride of Sandy , and he was going away to the States. “ Well, and why don't ye carry her ofl and marry her yersel’, Malcolm > I'll give ye the upper farm this minute. (Jo get yer brother, see the girl, and bring her home here. We’ll keep her safe.” Now it happened that Malcolm was the richest of the three applicants, besides being 1 will suppose for charity’s sake, a good fellow Suffice it to say that they brought the girl home bag and baggage, by stealth, that Sunday night, and mounted a guard that presented the success of any stratagem on her part or the part of others, and they were married on the following Tuesday. These persons were by no moans of the lower rank ; the girl was described to me by an old fisherman as “a noble-minded lookin’ gill, sir ; a line specimen of the Highland craft.” A man is all the more highly esteemed for such a feat. The rejected fellow does not lose heart ; ho generally keeps on with his negotiations, day after day, house after house, until he finds a partner. An intelligent woman, while admitting the general predominance of worldly interest in these matters, and the suddenness with which marriages are made, said that unhappy families are nevertheless rare among this people. Scottish ” Fools.”

The Orientals respect an insane man, thinking that the farther he is removed by the loss of reason from men the nearer ho is brought to (Jod. A similar trait is found in the Scotch habit of looking with a kindly eye upon a half-witted person. Sometimes he is called a “ fool,” but usually he is spoken of as “daft ” or the “ poor natural.” Not a fcwwif these halfwitted folk made such good use of their remaining wits that local tradition has kept green not only their memories, but their bright sayings and keen replies. One of these wise fools by his keen reply to a clergyman, gave rise to the proverb, “The mair fool are ye, as Jock Amos said to the minister. ” On a Sabbath morning the minister as he was on his way to the kirk, discovered daft Jock Amos whittling. “Jock,” said the clergyman, “ can you repeat the fourth commandment t Which is the fourth commandment ! ” “ I dare say, sir, it'll he the one the third,” answered Jock, whittling on. “ Can you repeat it ! ” “ I'm no sure about it." The clergyman repeated it ; but as Jockwhittled on, he changed his tactics. “ Hut, Jock, what is the reason you never come to church ! ’’ “ Because you never preach on the text I want yon to preach on." “ What text would you like to hear me preach on t " "Oh the ninc-and-twenty knives that came back from Babylon.” “ I never heard of them before.” “ It is a sign yon never read your Bible. Ha, ha, ha ! sic fool, sie minister ! ” The clergyman gave up the daft Jock and went away to search for his odd text. He found it in Ezra i. 0; and the story going abroad gave rise to the proverb. Another of these poor “ naturals ” was Jamie Flecman, whoso witty saws were long remembered in Aberdeen. When ho was dying one of the group about him said- ■ “ I wonder if he has any sense of another world ? ” “Oh, no,” answered some one, “he is a fool ; what can ho know of such things ! " Jamie, overhearing the talk, opened his eyes, and looking the rude speaker full in the face, said—“l never heard that (iod seeks what he did not give ; hut I am a Christian, and dinna bury me like a beast. ’ Then he died. ()n the small granite stone that marks his resting place, his last prayer is chiselled : “ Dinna bury me like a beas ! '

Prince Poniatowski was verv anxious to -■ euro a libretto from the pen of Alexandre Iliimns the elder. •• I can't think of such a thine. ’ said Dumas ; there'.- a,.thing I dread So niU'-h as I'oiieit.e.v .kid in n ; e. p.n 1 ieo hi) 1 1 when he rumpuses it hinrell',''