Blair Collection > Celtic magazine > Volume 5

THE EDITOR IX CAXADA, 111
Jordon, while yet a student at Dalhousie College, about which time he
'Jso published a Gaelic grammar, favourably noticed in these pages. I
■egret that I missed seeing him, for at the very time when I was in one
mrt of Cape Breton, he was being introduced, in another part, to a Gaelic-
;peaking congregation, who had just given him a call. The meetings in
Halifax are conducted during the winter by the students from the two
joUeges in turn, and in summer the work is carried on by Alexander
yiackenzie, a native of Lochcarron, and a brother of Kenneth E. Mac-
kenzie, North Sydney, already mentioned. An excellent colleague is
S'eil Brodie, a southern Scot, who not only learnt to speak Gaelic fluently,
Dut many other languages ; and he is a most enthusiastic supporter of the
Celtic cause in Halifax. The Society is called " Comunn Criosdaidh nan
Gael." The attendance is generally about 200 Gaelic-speaking people,
iirincipaUy from Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island, Pictou, and Anti-
;onish ; and those best acquainted with tho Celts of the City assert that
■here is an ample field in Halifax for a Gaelic evangelist who would
levote his whole time to the spiritual wants of the Gaelic-speaking popu-
ation.
The North British Society is one of the oldest and most useful on the
American continent, and I trust on some future occasion to find room to
;vrite more fully of its history and work than I can possibly find
;n these papers. I may, however, say that it is conducted on prin-
■iiples which must recommend themselves to aU right thinking people.
!!^o Scot in distress is permitted to go unaided ; but aU help is given on
!,he understanding that those receiving it will afterwards repay any money
lidvanced to them or otherwise expended on their behalf if ever they find
i.hemselves able to do so ; and I am glad to say that, in many cases, this
las been done by parties — widows and orphans and others in distress, whose
oassages had been paid home, or to the homes of relatives in distant parts
!)f Canada. The Society attend also to the wants of poor, respectable
l^cots, who are in reduced circumstances in the Cit}', in a manner the least
ijalculated to wound the feelings of the recipients of their bounty. Alto-
gether they are doing a patriotic and a noble work, and it is gratifying to
ind that they possess very^considerable funds — sufficient to deal liberally
jvith all the deserving, necessitous cases brought under their notice.
Halifax boasts, with justice, of the prettiest and best public gardens
n the Dominion of Canada ; and here and at the Provincial Exhibition,
.' saw, taking them altogether, the best-looking women: I ever saw any-
jvhere. I have seen a few greater beauties, especially among English
adies, but here one can hardly meet with a common-place face. They
liave the robust, healthy characteristics of the Scotch, while the mixing of
j.he races, and the fine bracing climate and sea air seem to have softened
jlown the features and painted their lips and cheeks with the most beau-
jiiful tints of the lily and the rose. It is, however, possible that my
udgment may be at fault as regards real beauty ; for I must confess that
it the Northern Meeting Games, held at Inverness in 1878, having been
-old that the famous beauty, Mrs Langtry, was among the crowd of ladies
■issembled there, I and a few others were trying to discover her, and we
i'aUed. We saw her, but we did not recognise her as at aU a beauty.
IWe thought some of our own Highland girls were very pretty ; and that
j)ne out of a few whom we saw must have been Mrs Langtry, but when the