The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1894-11-21
MISCELLANY.
ODD L,iTLE ISLE OF MAN.


Still Has Home Rule Government.
The isle of Man is only 33 miles
long and ~ wide, so that it is not
great labor to get over it, and as two
railroads run one north to south
and the other east to west you can
see how convenient it is to the visit
or. Douglas, Port Erin, Peel and
Ramsey are the chief towns. The isle
Of Man, while belonging to the Brit
ish crown, is neither English, Scotch
Irish nor Welsh, but is a separate
country, with home rule govern
ment and a language of it's own,
but yet with great loyalty to the i'm
perial government and devotion to
Queen Victoria, for everywhere you
go you see pictures of the royal fam
lily.
The government is known as the
house of keys" and consists of "a
members, elected every seven years,
but no person has vote unless he
possesses real estate of the value of
f40 or occupation of the value of
$50 per year, and women are also
entitled to vote The court of Tyn-
valid, presided over by the lieuten-
ant governor, is composed of the
council, which embraces the bishop,
attorney general, two judges, the
clerk of the rolls, water bailiff and
the vicar general. This council and
the house of keys are the active gov.
eminent of the great isle of Man.
There is one feature of special inter
est in reference to the laws, and that
is that all laws passed by the house
of keys are sent for the royal assent,
and when that has been secured then
the law must be formally read in the
English and Manx languages on Tyn-
valid hill in the open air, where the
council and the keys united form
Tynwald court, before they become
laws. This form of reading the law
at Tynwald is the Oldest style on
record, was old in 1417 and has
been continued ever since. The 9Th
day of July in each year is the day
of public proclamation of the laws
passed by the house of keys.
The coat of arms of this isle is
three legs of a man in q circle. The
motto translated reads, "Whitherso-
ever thrown, 1 shall stand" The
Manxmen apparently rather enjoy
the three legged crest for every
where you turn your face, whether
at a steamboat, a railroad, coach,
a flag or on the windows of the
stores, there you see the three legs
l had read of the Manx cats with
out tails and thought it joke but,
sure enough, the cats here are with
out tails, and saw several without
that graceful member. Some ladies
of our party who had not seen the
Manx cat We're rather doubtful of
the truth of our report, and we had
to accompany them to the house
where the cat lived, and after close
examination came away believers in
the tailless cat. don't think pussy
is improved by the absence of the
tail. Some people say this strange
act Of nature extends to the dogs
also.
The Manx language, like the an
cient language of Ireland, is fast
passing away, and in generation it
will be one of the dead languages,
enjoyed only by scholars. l met an
old woman on the side of mountain
selling milk, cakes and ginger ale,
and after asking some questions
about the locality I learned from her
that the children were not learning
the Manx language, and that only
the middle aged and old people spoke
it. She said her children only spoke
the English. l was anxious to get
book in Manx, but could not find one
in the stores. The old woman re-
ferred to showed me an old Bible in
Manx, which tried to buy, but she
said no money could buy her Bible
1t had belonged to her father. Rich