LA Times circa 1919

[Monkey@Arms]

Thought you all might enjoy this snippet from a New Year's Day editorial that orginally appeared in the Los Angeles Times on January 1, 1919.

when you come right down to what New Year's Day is you will find that it is really a day invented for Scotchmen. This and the birthday of Robert Burns are Scots days, pure and simple, and nothing else. Wherever on the face of the earth there are as many as two Scots gathered together they will celebrate this day down to the last dry whistle there is in it. They will toast Prince Charlie and Robert Bruce and St. Andrew in glasses that have the smell of burnt heather and peat smoke in them. They will put on their kilts and play the bagpipes and look and act just as they did when they chased the Hun over the map of Europe and marched with Kitchener into Khartoum. It is good to be a Scot any day of the year, but it is glorious to be one on New Year's Day….

Best regards and wishing you all a happy 2008,

Jake

[Clockwork John]

Thanks for sharing that. It was really neat.

[James MacMillan]

Isn't it interesting that in 1919 they referred to somebody as "Scotchmen" instead of Scotsmen. Of course maybe they are referring to people who drink the elixir of the Gods and not those whose blood came from the highlands?

[macwilkin]

Jake,

Many thanks for posting that wee snippet -- I'll be sure to pass that along to our St. Andrew's society's newsletter editor -- heck, it may find its way into my Immortal Memory this year!

Could you post the rest of the editorial?

T.

[Nick]

Isn't it interesting that in 1919 they referred to somebody as "Scotchmen" instead of Scotsmen. Of course maybe they are referring to people who drink the elixir of the Gods and not those whose blood came from the highlands?

Most things I've seen from that time used "Scotchmen" or "Scotch" to reffer to the people. Did the Scots call themselves Scotch at the time, or was it just everyone else?

And on that (completely unrelated, of course) note, I could use a scotch right now.

[seanboy]

Most things I've seen from that time used "Scotchmen" or "Scotch" to reffer to the people. Did the Scots call themselves Scotch at the time, or was it just everyone else?

And on that (completely unrelated, of course) note, I could use a scotch right now.

I dont think we ever called ourselves scotchmen

[auld argonian]

I dont think we ever called ourselves scotchmen

Oh, I think it's kind of quaint and adds to the period quality of the piece,

Like reading Hermann Hesse and finding the word "esquimo" and puzzling for a few seconds before I realized it was "eskimo" only in Nine-Teen-Teens language.

Best

AA

[Galician]

I dont think we ever called ourselves scotchmen

Perhaps, but it might have been accepted in the American media of that period.

Btw, welcome to X Marks!

[macwilkin]

I dont think we ever called ourselves scotchmen

"The Scotch are hardy and as hard as the granite of our Scotch Hills."

-- Sir Harry Lauder, a native Scot, to a reporter from the Oregon Journal, circa 1920.

Granted, that's just one example...

T.

[James MacMillan]

And on that (completely unrelated, of course) note, I could use a scotch right now.

Ditto