The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1894-12-26
THE ISLE OF MAN.
Its Ancient Customs, It's Government and
Its Tailless Cats.

The Isle of Man is only thirty-three
miles long and twelve 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 visitor, says
the Richmond (Va.) Dispatch. Doug
las, Port Erin. Peel and Ramsey are
the chief towns.
The Isle of Man, while belonging to
the British crown, is neither English,
rate country, with home-rule govern
ment and a language of its own. But
yet with great loyalty to the imperial
government and devotion to Queen
Victoria, for everywhere you go you
see pictures of the royal family.
The government is known as the
House of Keys" and consists of twen-
ty-four members, elected every seven
years, but no person has vote unless
he possesses real estate of the value of
G40 or occupation of the value of EGO
per year and women are also entitled
to vote.
The court of Tynwald. presided over
by the lieutenant 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 govern
ment 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 Eng
lsh and Manx languages ON Tynwald
Hill in the open air, where the council
and the keys united form a 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 5th 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 man in a circle. The motto,
translated, reads: 'Whithersoever
thrown, I shall stand" The Manxmen
apparently rather enjoy the three-legged
crest, for everywhere you turn your
face, whether at a steamboat, rail-
road, coach, a flag or on windows of
the stores, there you see the three legs.
I had read of the Manx cats without
tails and thought it joke; but, sure
enough, the cats here are without tails
and saw several without that graceful
member. Some ladies of our party,
who had not seen the Manx cat, were
rather doubtful of the truth of our re-
port and we had to accompany them to
the house where the cat lived, and after
a close examination came away believ-
ers in the tailless cat. I 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 ancient
language of Ireland, is fast passing
away and in generation it will be one
of the dead languages, enjoyed only by
scholars. met an old woman on the
side of a 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. / was anxious to
get book in Manx, but could not find
one in the stores.
The old woman referred to showed
me an old bible in Manx, which l tried
to buy, but she said: mo money could
buy her bible" 1t had belonged to her
father. | was sorry but also admired
the old woman's love for her old bible
and was glad to see that money could
not tempt her, though she was quite
poor and few shil1ings would have
been large sum for her purse.