The Women Are More Than Well-
Favoured, And The Men Fine Tall Fellows; But They Look Slipshod And
Dissipated.
As they slouched at street corners, or stood about
gossiping in the snow, it seemed they would have been more at home
in the slums of a large city than here in a country place betwixt a
village and a town.
I heard a great deal about drinking, and a
great deal about religious revivals: two things in which the
Scottish character is emphatic and most unlovely. In particular, I
heard of clergymen who were employing their time in explaining to a
delighted audience the physics of the Second Coming. It is not
very likely any of us will be asked to help. if we were, it is
likely we should receive instructions for the occasion, and that on
more reliable authority. And so I can only figure to myself a
congregation truly curious in such flights of theological fancy, as
one of veteran and accomplished saints, who have fought the good
fight to an end and outlived all worldly passion, and are to be
regarded rather as a part of the Church Triumphant than the poor,
imperfect company on earth. And yet I saw some young fellows about
the smoking-room who seemed, in the eyes of one who cannot count
himself strait-laced, in need of some more practical sort of
teaching. They seemed only eager to get drunk, and to do so
speedily. It was not much more than a week after the New Year; and
to hear them return on their past bouts with a gusto unspeakable
was not altogether pleasing.
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