| Show WAKE WAKEMANS MAhS wanderings LONDON jan 23 no one who has visited algiers will ever forget the lovely though 0 1 ugh diminutive mosque of sidi abd el 1 rhaman which stands above the garden of marengo and overlooks the he sea its surroundings are charming and within its little cemetery are eucalyptus and fig trees shading the quaint old tombs the inner chap chapel el is a sort of shrine from abing bei the burial place of numbers of WO moslem em saints pachas and deys and a wondrous number of sacred relics emblems and carvings with lamps ostrich eggs embroideries grotesquely decorate the columns walls and hang from the ceilings more than a million francs have been expended on such drifts s and tokens vil it t is in this little mosque that one will see C so many arab women the glittering silk faiks hide bide their faces but there is a constant atmosphere of perfume an endless tinkle of concealed and half concealed jewelry a continuous murmur of f musical voices in in prayer and a ceaseless rustle of womans comans attire as they come go or prostrate themselves in in their devotions the latter are certainly solemn and impressive whether aown down among the old fisher folk at the grand mosque with the maleki rite or here where the wealthier arab men and women come clad in the richest textures of the orient and laden often with jewels which would purchase a kings ransom the moslem must pray five times each day every act of prayer b begins ins with these words from the koran fraise praise be to god the lord of all creatures the most merciful the lord of the day of judgment thee do we worship we implore thy aid direct us in the right way yav p this and other passages are repeated led by the ghalib a sacred scholar and an old man in the nature of responses the faces of all are toward the east their mecca at each mention of the name of god every worshiper pr estrates prostrates pro ps strates aimse himself if so that seven parts of a the body the head hands bands knees and feet touch bouch the macrea sacred carpet together the booksellers of scotland and particularly particular jy the secondhand second hand bookseller dealing in curious and valuable works of whom there are very many in edinburgh all agh and glasgow do not entertain a for the of th ary epry kindly feeling memory the ta e lord ord tennyson the cite many little b unpleasant characteristics of the laureate aate as a man but their particular reason n for unfriendliness lies in the fact dehat as the they mist insist he was even more of Il Shylock lock t than n ruskin in all his relations with it h booksellers and that not many years since he nearly caused the ruin of one of their number mr robert forrester bookseller of the royal exchange st georges square glasgow A stranger one day sauntered into aft r For resters shop meanly clad grizzled and unkempt and betraying all the ordinary marks of a seedy customer beneath a slouch hat he was very anxious he said to get a very cheap chi ap copy of two of Tenny sons poe poems ins as ag gifts to poor folk who were not able to purchase them he was shown several copies of the cheapest copyright english editions but these were far too dear mr forrester something within his means perhaps one of those cheap american reprints oh yes he had bad two copies left by some family bamily re turning from america but it was illegal to sell them that would not matter in so good a cause the grizzled J stranger pressed the purchase and finally secured the two copies for four shillings he was none other than lord tennyson himself and through the unmanly artifice he succeeded in mulcting mulching ting mr forrester to the extent of everybody in the united states knows or knows about brave and good old robert collyer who though for a quarter century one of our greatest of preachers works in his study beside the very anvil on oh which his prentice days were passed before he became a full fledge yorkshire blacksmith his master was jackie birch the village smith of quaint old ilsley ilkley in wharfedale Whar fedak fedale when you stand by its ancient church of all saints and look in upon its mossy graves and the runic crosses your hands will grasp the bars of its huge iron gates they were forged on jackies anvil by this same hearted yorkshire blacksmith and somehow as one turns away from ilkley ickley the feeling comes strongly that there was wrought into these roads and bars a hero grit more impressive and imperishable than is revealed in all other monuments or tokens left in wharfedale Whar fedale since the da days s when he romans trod these pleat pleasant ways there is an old quatrain among the irish peasantry the origin of which for the spirit of prophecy it contains might fairly be attributed to the provident genius of one of the characters to which it refers while ireland elandis Ir is ireland have forevermore tor evermore the and the corrad beside the cabin door the borough was the wandering min minstrel and storyteller story teller of ireland re he had keen scent for every spot where geniality and generosity flourished but poverty v erty oppression and sorrow have hav e loo long ng ago withdrawn the scant cheer that once gave him place the borough is gone but the other one the corrad who requires no raiment 1 food or housing bo using remains with within in th the shadow of the irish cabin door through out Coti Con namara and particularly in a former tramp down from the Ballin doon district to cloghmore and the sea I 1 saw one ol of these silent dried up old fellows trembling in in the wind b by the door of every hut or cabin I 1 passed evea T to my fancy each one took on a separate individuality and seeming this one stood there defiant as if repellant of your approach that one had a saucy air as if to intimate that a fine right blackthorn was concealed about his person another seir seemed ried decrepit and weary from silent vigil out there in in the bitter mountain wind another was bent and leaning as though it could stand there no longer another seemed to beckon the passer to enter or to hint with weary gesture that you keep upon your way and many very many stood bowed and sadly attentive as if listening in in reverent solemnity to endless tales of want and woe that come in hopeless tones from the half starved souls soul within the corrad is but a tall bundle of limbs or bisers set before the deorto break the hurt of the savage mountain blasts the man of the branches the peasants call it but one sometime feels that this insensate cyp typified fiod pro protector te C of the irish cabin was me t e anty bal object bb e ct n guise of of human that ever got th thus as near the man neglected godforsaken god forsa forsaken k en peasantry of this pitifully conditioned land to my mind a scene in early morning on grand canal in venice is fare more interesting than one in the early evening when the faded aristo aristocracy aristocrat crac of the city are moving about with apparent listlessness in their private black gori gondolas dolas decorated with their owners coats coat s of arms propelled by private gondoliers gondo liers lieis in ridiculous li veries or at night when the canal in general is wholly and offensively a show object to open mouthed strangers in the very early morning w while hile the gray is i S yet et upon the water and the gurgling 07 of the tides is like the chuckling of night imps in the dark retreats ret teats of the lowest arches and angles then it is that the oddest and most fascinating processions professions process ions pass and repass away down there in the shadows beneath your yogi window scores of little long barges loaded with vegetables from the flat outlying islands are on their way to the market at atthe the ria Rialto I 1 to the sails are red with blue tips and yellow center pieces and most grotesque figures of are painted somewhere on their gaudily colored sterns stems these barges are yo uro belled by poles in the hands of men in purple pur ale pink blue and orange garments and very often a bareheaded peasant woman is is piled in with the vegetables here and there a a lighter and more graceful bark than the gondola darts dart graceful by it is rowed by two raw men with hassled caps like the fisher men A half dozen goats are tied head and tail to the gunwale and women and children are milking these on their way to the next customer barcas with soldiers speeding to or from guard changing fill the shadowy way with a din of chattering profanity here are four nuns with bowed heads beings beine owed rowed on some errand of mercy again agaid 0 whole families of the lowlier classes especially pious through some common bereavement are setting out to be present at some very cheap and early mass here come a crowd of boats with villagers vegetables fowls flagons flagens of milk bestow besto wedin ed in dewy wisps of grassi grass rolls df of butter in last years sweet white corn husks and numberless and name less stuffs for the mercato they are from the mainland hamlets and must have been astir at midnight Follo follower wt ing these is a curious procession of gondolas piled higher than the gondo liers lier heads with household goods and the people owning them who are thus moving 1 I follow in their own gondolas suggesting a funeral of household goods cut short in its cortege I 1 there are friars with huge baskets in their gondolas setting out to the markets to buy and breg beg for their brethren and the poor tired fishermen with boatloads of gleaming fruit of the sea sailors subdued and sullen after an all nights roistering roy r 0 y g on their way back to their dogs dog s life ii fe and the ships messengers with it th the e ni nights collection of telegrams telegram sl bakers in white linen caps and shirts with boatloads of black brown and ana white bread water carriers with hugi huge ca casks ks and wagons of drinking water butchers icemen icamen grocery men all al in boots making makin their first morning rounds and all of them thein down there upon the tha 0 water in the shadows seeming like some weird and silent maskers in a dream scotland has never been more thrilled in expectancy or disappointed in outcome than in the career so far of her at one time most promising of poets alexander anderson there is a penny home paper called the P peoples eo files friend published at dundee it encourages contributions from country home folk and the lowly strivers in towns about twelve years ago some tender heart rh rhymes y mes rugged and rough but with master masterful ul pathos athos in them among which were cu cuddle A le doon and jennie wi the aim crooked teeth were noticed in this sheet over the name of alexander anderson widely copied and commented on then came a poem which electrified the land ol 01 0 cakes and which will ever remain as much a heart song of the he entire scottish people as any verse ever penned by robert bums it was called castles 11 I 1 the air and there is the first stanza as I 1 recall it from memory the ile bonnie bonnie bairn wha sits a the ace ashes glowering Glo i the fire wi his wee round fae face baughin Iau rau ghin at the puffin lowe flame darts what sees he there ha the young dreamers biggin castles i the airl air the rev george gilfillan pastor of the U P church at dundee one of the many editors of burns hunted up the unknown genius and first brought his personality to public notice he found the poet to be what we call in america a section hand that is one of A gang keeping railway tracks in repair sur fa cemen they are called in britain and this strapping young youn 9 fellow who had given v en scotland its finest fireside poem FI for r a half century was earning but three shillings shilling 1 0 sixpence sixpence per day the 31 discovery s covery caused immense excitement cit ement in scottish literary circles and sir noel paton her Maje limner for scotland painter of oberon and titania light of the world christ in the garden etc at once took the bird bard under his powerful patronage it resulted in securing for the poet the appointment of librarian in the edinburgh university library that seemed to end the mans genuine poetical career his rhyme appearing at long intervals is stilted and and scholastic this is held in the deepest resentment by those still fondly crooning cuddle doon and castles P I 1 the air I 1 tell my scottish literary friends they must let the man sup at fount for the terrible arooth dr that was on him that then he will nod and doze and hibernate and that by and by he will sing bike like a prisoner bird across the ars 1 in in memory of his lowly hours mu bears ut t they will not believe me me and insist that the next poet who is is given a life position in scotland will be brot oer the heckle pins sair lyl the minstrels of ireland are not all gone 0 I 1 e from the highways and byways of N erin M the mournful harp and plaintive cipe pipe may have given way to the breezy banjo and crooning violin but the songs which these accompany are the songs of ireland still down by the rotten clad dagh wharves of old galway town I 1 recently came upon a rapt audience enthralled thrall ed by the dulcet notes of tim brennan the wandering of tipperary one of the sweetest singers J I 1 ever heard and one who would have been great were it not for the love of the cinder in it as they aptly term the west of ireland mountain dew dew I 1 had seen tim many many times before in ireland our trappings tram pings had brought us into the same relations of artist and responsive auditor so many times that as he tipped me a comforting w wink k of recognition and I 1 noticed that bi his violin had been replaced by the temporary though ample musical makeshift of a banjo wrought from the head bead of an ancient irish churn jin in the pause following i n his ballad I 1 felt emboldened to toss b him ig aback back his wink with the query and tim why you bring the churn chum with its head bead faith yer honor he replied in a flash and with a winsome smile holding the churn head banjo aloft so all could see faith I 1 never argue wid a lady an yer honor a bould irish wooman stud at its other andl I 1 had bad got a taste of his sprightly and never vicious wit and he as quickly got my shilling for that same more power to the quick hinges of th nimble tongue of the wandering minstrel 0 of f Tipper tipperary aryl EDGAR L WAKEMAN |
