biography of his
earlier days, and Dean Ramsay's "Reminiscences," one might almost think
that their descriptions of character and manners, in so ancient a city as
Edinburgh, were in many respects but a recapitulation of popular ways and
even of personal oddities in our own respectable American town.
Especially, the great novelist's vivid narrative of the desperate street
conflicts between the lads of the several quarters of the "auld town,"
revives many boyish recollections. In my youth, the division was into
Northenders and Southenders; but as our own residence was in the central
part of the town, we stood, as it were, between two fires. The conflicts
usually took place in the winter, when the snow was on the ground, and
though heartily engaged in, and sometimes quite too rough for play, were
generally good-natured enough to avoid any very serious danger to life or
limb. In the higher schools, the lads were drawn from every quarter of
the town; but upon dismissal for the day, or upon the afternoons of
Wednesday and Saturday, when no school was kept, the partisans of the
several sections offered combat which was seldom refused. The usual
weapons were snow-balls, which were sometimes, I regret to say, dipped in
water and frozen over night, and kept in some secure place to await the
expected battle, and occasionally a pebble, the missile commonly used by
the Scottish combatants, was inserted,--a practice which was almost
universally condemned. Very seldom did we come to a hand-fight, for a
spirited "rush," when either party felt strong enough for it, was almost
always followed by a rapid retreat on the other side. But woe to the
luckless stripling whose headlong courage carried him far in advance of
his companions; for upon a sudden turn of affairs he was a captive, and
down in an instant, and mercilessly "scrubbed" with snow by a dozen ready
hands, until the rallying host of his compatriots advanced vigorously to
the rescue. The normal alliance of us middle-men was with the
Southenders, though a good deal rougher than ourselves; and in times of
truce a solitary boy would walk a little gingerly through their quarter,
as errands or family occasions led him that way. But the principal
commercial interests centered in those parts of the town, and if, upon
the breaking out of determined warfare, we could secure, in the capacity
of leader, the services of some lubberly boy who had made a voyage, even
a mere coasting trip, to sea