siderations are closely observed by the people of Strabane,
the best of whom are steady loyalists. The town is bright, brisk,
thriving, and Scotch. Or rather the Scottish element is conspicuous in
the main street, with its McCollum and Mackey, its Crawford and Aikin,
its Colhoun and Finlay, its Lowry and McAnaw. There are several shirt
factories, of which the biggest is run by Stewart and Macdonald. A
number of names which may be either English or Scotch are equally to
the front, Taylor, White, and Simms, cheek by jowl with doubtful cases
like McCosker and McElhinney, which, however, smack somewhat of the
tartan. Macfarlane issues a notice, which is printed by Blair, and
besides White I notice Black and Gray. The establishment of Mr.
Snodgrass, near the Scotch Boot Stores, was remindful of Charles
Dickens, and the small flautist piping "Annie Laurie," put me in mind
of Robert Burns, the hairdresser of Warrenpoint. It became difficult
to realise that this was Ireland. Not far away are two mountains,
named respectively Mary Gray and Bessie Bell. The hills round Strabane
retain their Irish names, but the genius of the place is distinctly
Scottish. There are Irish parts of Strabane, but they are unpleasant
and unimportant. The Unionists pay three-fourths of the rates, but
there is only one Loyalist on the Town Council, which has nine
members, of which number three retire annually in rotation. The Town
Commissioners, as a whole, are not highly esteemed by the people of
Strabane. One of them, the leading light of the local Nationalist
party, is rated at L8. Another, a working plasterer, is the accredited
agent of the Home Rule party in this division of Tyrone, and is
playfully called the Objector-General, on account of his
characteristic method of working in the Registry Court. The Chairman,
who occupies the position of Mayor, but without the title, is rated at
L13. Two small publicans are rated at L12 and L27 respectively. The
remainder, including the Conservative member, are rated sufficiently
high to be regarded as having some stake in the country, and no
objection is taken on this score. But the Strabane Town Commissioners
are intolerant. Apart from the fact that they admit only one Unionist
to a body which derives three-fourths of its funds from Unionists,
they are distinctly intolerant in the matter of employment. They
employ no Protestants. Their solicitor, Mr. William Wilson, is indeed
of the proscribed faith, but he s