The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-07-21
HISTORY OF wEArHERoocKs. ru
Chantioleer Has Been Deposed from
Church Spires.
(From the New York Times

''~sAA oAAo w tAts At4 4<hAASS - 40 IVA
haan." but. though Cham" sounds like
the female bird, we do not say "wheath-
erhen,'' because "haan" is word used
for the entire species, irrespective of sex.
To apply it to weathereock, by chang
Ing the SEX then might serve as explana-
tory OF the want of fxity, and we can
quote Chaucer, Changing as vane. :"
Vane is "A good old Anglo-Saxon word
derived from "fana," flag; for ancient
vanes, as we see them initiated today by
modern architects with medieval fads are
haglik in form.
In old times, however, the COOK was
always used. There is some rather doub BIZ
full authority who says that papal enact
ments in the middle of the ninth century
50 ordered it that "a cook was to be set
on every church steeple as an emblem of
st. Potter" Worshippers had their at
tention called to the cook in these words {:
For when ye behold the cooke rernem-
Der your SHINES, and, with Peter seeke
and obtain meroy.'' Whereupon soma
English skeptio of Wycliffe's time asked
Why should believe in q cooke, for he
Is not much when alive, only good to
put in the pot, and he is no live cooke,
Out dumb one on church steepla?"
As to its origin. the cock must come
down to US from the most remote times,
as far as his emblem was used to indicate
the direction of the wind There is rea-
son to suppose that the cock surmounted
EhA 'pOVAT 0f th@ n Tyt
area OF the tail and the wings gave the
cock good chance to have motion i'm
parted to it by the wind. AS to the sym
holism OF the cook, many tiresome pages
might be devoted to that topic alone.
The weathervane must have been of
the earliest introduction, for there Is q
reference to a weatheroook on church
in Brixten, in the England of the ninth
century, and on the Bayeux tapestry q
weathercook is quite conspicuous. That
people have puzzled themselves about
the origin OF the cock on the weather
vane long before now is evident from
these lines, taken from Latin do.gerel,
said to have been written carly in the
10Th century:
Multi STUNT Presbyteri Qui ignorant quare
super domun Domini gallus Eolet stare.
Quod proponO breviter vobis explanage,
81 vultus bsnevolas aures mihi dare.
There are ten more verses like this one.
and the explanation of the use of the cook
as sacred to st. Peter is presented. We
somewhat doubt the antiquity of the
dog Latin. because the ISL vultus benev-
olas aures mihi daTe''-to be rendered "if
you will kindly lend me your earsn-has
a decidedly modern smack. Anyhow,
ic Cta tod fho %
Of medieval hymn of 1920
In England during the 18th and part
OF the 18Th century, the cock and church
steeple seemed to have angered English
people, who were then boiling over with
rage against the French, for the cook
was declared to be q Gallo emblem
Somebody wrote verses directed against
cocks on top of ohurches-not on re-
ligious grounds, but because that bird
was always
Changing,
Ranging,
WhirIing,
TNirling,
and the word "yane'' was twisted into
vain, " Us Indicative of French trait.
Sometimes on old English churches
dedicated to particular saints their own
em blems were used as weathercocks. For
instance, on the church of St. Lawrence
swings gridiron sacred TO the martyr
dom OF that saint
The use of some figure to catch the
wind, other than sacred, was common.
Tbs farmer used a sheep, an OK, horse,
@ peacock, according TO his fancy In
the United States "a curious survival of
the past was noticeable some years ago
in Nantucket On the tops Of the Chin
neys were weathercocks chapel like
whales, and possibly in the long past
thcca irldi -l,o
looked at by wives and girls whose hus-
bands and sweethearts wer far away in
the Arctic foes Such old emblens, we
think, should be taken down and pre-
served as mementoes ere they are blown
to pieces.
In this country the cock surrounding
a church has gone out of fashion Chanti-
cleer mas been deposed. it is generally
the Cross which has taken his place.
somewhat Indifferent as to the exact kind
of oroed the church has adopted Gener-
ally for all public buildings the eagle has
supplanted the cock. AS explained to
the writer of this, the eagle has adyan-
tages over the cock, because the first, al
ways represented with outstretched.
wings, so catches and holds the wind
better. But tho manufacturer OF such
things, whose business is in weather
yanes," not weather cocks" does not
depend on the eagle at all to Indicate the
exact direction of the wind, and SO the
bird of freedom is supplementary to the
big arrow with its broad feathers. 1t is
the arrow. which, moving with the
wind, acts on the eagle and governs it's
actions. Pretty generally the weather
vane maker unftes with his business that
of selling and erecting fagpoles, and
surmoun6s his tall pols with his wealth
ervane. There are arrows built to crown
buildings, which are over 16 feet in
length. Some are elaborate, as the sur
mounting eagle holding in its beak an
electric light, and so the cost of q COM
pick weather yane alone runs into the
hundreds of dollars. The eagle will
often measure some eight feet across.
The metal used is copper for the bird,
and the points of the compass, in large
copper letters, would b eheld IL place by
strong iron CROSS pieces. The copper is
gilded. For q mast 100 feet high. which
appears to be about the maximum length
OF an Oregon pine stick, 16-foot arrow
would be wanted. Just now amateurs in
iagpoles look with envy On a town in
New York State which, with it's flag
stall Of 100 feet and one inch, will sup
possibly look down on all other lower
1agpoles by precisely that one inch.