Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 January 1885 — Grandiloquent Peasants. [ARTICLE]

Grandiloquent Peasants.

With regard to the long words which the Irish peasant is so fond of, it must be borne in mind that in the outlying districts many of the “mountaing” men, as they are called, still speak English as a foreign language and carry away from their early sohooling a good many bookish words which they reserve for their conversation with the “quality.” A ragged native once offered to carry my “thumperies," i e., traps, and another, an assiduous fisherman, has spoken of having “perused the stream for several hours.” On this point it seems that the Highlanders rej semble the Irish. Only the other day, when I was stay .ng at a shooting-bos in Boss-shire, my host related to me how his gillie had diverted him by replying to his remark that the wind was very good for driving deer. “Yes, it’s jeest classical.” Muoh that is pie* turesque and quaint in the speech of Irish peasants is due to his surround? ings and the conditions of liis life. In • asmuch as seaweed is largely used in agriculture, one can realize the feelings which prompted S' 1 countrywoman — called in at anemergency to do housemaid's work, slid seeing some alga employed as an ornament —to exclaim: -Glory to God, to think that I should live to see the manure in the drawingroom.” So, when in reply to the question of a friend of mine whether he had seen any rabbits, a native answered, “Yes, your honor, whole funerals of them," he only employed the word representing the greatest combination of length and numbers with whioh his experience had rendered him acquainted.—The Spectator. \ Ax advertiser in a Boston paper asks for “a careful man to look after the house wad be company for her dog during her absence in Europe." ) ■ .... • ' u : /