22 



TO GARMOUTH AND FOCHABERS. 



SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 1884. 



To my mind, that is an excellent story of a Scotchman 

 who, in a moment of enthusiastic ecstacy, turned about 

 and briskly thumped his neighbour. Nay, it is more, it is a 

 pronounced pourtrayal of a national characteristic. Similar 

 evidences of superfluous energy are of daily occurrence, 

 however. Indeed, such a physical heartiness pervades our 

 every occupation and pastime, that the characteristic has 

 ceased to become noticeable, save when marked by the 

 thorough eccentricity I have mentioned above. A 

 lethargic Orieutal, who for the first time had mentally 

 grasped the medley of inconvenience, hardship, toil, and 

 indigestion which goes to constitute a thoroughly enjoy- 

 able picnic — hearing that it was an Englishman's holiday 

 — became speechless at such overwhelming evidence of 

 imbecility. A Turk calmly watched a keenly contested 

 fight between two cricket teams. He saw, in addition to 

 the terrible earnestness of the players, how thoroughly and 

 nervously sympathetic the vast concourse of spectators 

 were, and he became perfectly satisfied that insanity was 

 general throughout all classes of the British public. The 

 more we think of the decidedly earnest way we conduct 

 ourselves even for amusement, the more we must sympa- 

 thise with the philosophy of those heathens. Let us look 

 at it in this lisdit. Were I to ask the members of our 



