y he said: "Perhaps it is
true that the Scotch, when they leave their native land, seldom return.
If so, there is surely precedent. In truth, Englishmen have been known
to go to Scotland, and never return. Once there was quite a company of
Englishmen went to Scotland and they never returned. The place where
they went was Bannockburn." In literature Scotland has exceeded her
quota. From Adam Smith, with his deathless "Wealth of Nations," and
Tammas, the Techy Titan, with his "French Revolution," to Bobbie Burns
and Robert Louis, the Well-Beloved, we have a people who have been
saying things and doing things since John Knox made pastoral calls on
Mary Queen of Scots, and saw the devil's tail behind her chair.

Doctor Johnson pretended to hate the Scotch, but he lives for us only
because he was well Boswellized by a Scotchman. And now nobody knows
just how much of Boswell is Doctor Johnson and how much is Boswell.

What Connecticut has done for New England, Scotland did for Great
Britain. The Scotch gave us the iron ship, the lamp-chimney, the
telephone. Also, they supplied us Presbyterianism. And this being true,
they also supplied the antidote in David Hume.

We have been told that it is necessary to agree with a Scotsman or else
kill him. But this is a left-handed libel, like unto the statement that
the reason the Scotch cling to breeks is because the breeks have no
pockets, and when the drinks are mentioned Sandy fumbles for siller, but
is never able to find the price, and so lets some one else foot the
bill. Another bit of classic persiflage is to the effect that there are
no Jews in Scotland, because they could no more exist there than they
could in New Hampshire, and this for a like reason: they find
competition too severe.

The canny Scot with his beautiful "nearness" lives in legend and story
in a thousand forms. The pain a Scotsman suffers on having to part with
a shilling is pictured by Ian MacLaren and Sir Walter. Then came
Christopher North and Doctor John Brown with deathless Scotch stories
of sacrifice and unselfishness that shame the world, and secure the
tribute of our tears.

To speak of the Scotch as having certain exclusive characteristics is to
be a mental mollycoddle. As a people they have all the characteristics
that make strong men and women, and they have them, plus. The Scotch
supply us the eternal paradox. Against the tales of money meanness and
miserly instincts, we have Andrew Carnegie, wh