WILL THE PEOPLE COME BACK? 



spear was a very necessary weapon until recent times. Often 

 also, upon some monotonous grouse moor, one sees the ridges 

 that betoken a little croft where a cottager lived. 



In one parish (Troqueer) over seventy coimtry cottages 

 have been abandoned during the lifetime of a middle-aged 

 person. 



Many families, of which the laird was often the best 

 farmer in the district and his own factor, have disappeared. 

 The fine houses, with their parks and shootings, are let to 

 strangers, who come for a few weeks or months, and then 

 leave it in charge of a caretaker. Before this recent develop- 

 ment, the " family '" lived all the year round upon the land ; 

 they spent their income chiefly in wages to the country 

 people. Where once forty or fifty people were employed all 

 the year, there are now but three or foiu-. The big house 

 with shuttered windows and weed-grown walks, is a distressing 

 and saddening spectacle. 



Of course such changes must occur. The farmer's and the 

 cottar's children are now carrying out in Canada, Australia, 

 or the United States, what was done in Scotland from 1780- 

 1830. India, South Africa, and China have been developed 

 by the brains and hold the graves of many of the laird's 

 sons. 



Yet this poor old country, abandoned of her children, 

 shows signs of revival. Both the poor and the rich are 

 beginning to find out that a country life is healthier, 

 quite as interesting, and sometimes quite as profitable as the 

 overcrowded city with its manufactories, mills, and offices. 

 All new countries are beginning to fill up, and there is some 

 hope that a new and vigorous development of farming may 

 make the countryside once more vigorous, prosperous, and 

 full of healthy children. 



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