The morning times., 1897-01-24

the glitter of the golden TranSvaal and
the alluring diamonds of the Kimberly
beckoned to them from beyond. The nuns
therefore took up the sledge hammer,
hung their weight upon the bellows, and
merrily flew the sparks from the CHEEKY
red metal, which was to shoe the settlers
waiting steed.
Tie Sisters Of st. Dominic, with full
faith in their mission to soften existence
and SOW rcligiouS seed in the South African
regions, turned their backs on the time
honored customs and hunI-drum convent
life OF Europe and established this, their
new settlement, near King Williams
Town, Cape Colony. Their first move
was to purchase the most extensive farm
in the market. Quickly the nuns dis
covered that farm laborers were so scarce
that it was impossible TO get sufficient
number or to retain and rely on the few
they could secure. Land without labor
proved unprofitable, ana tile vows of their
order compelled their self maintenance.
And so the nuns quietly put their hands
to the plow. But accidents will happen
ana i'll time tile plowshare was broken.
There were no blacksmths, so the nuns
sent to Cape Town and had shipped to them
the materials to build and the tools aud
implements to conduct smithy. a black
smith as tutor was secured This was six
months ago, and now the nuns have just
begun to do their own blacksmithing. They
have thus proved not only their equality
with ms II, but their superiority to him, be
cause when the blacksmith, disregarding
his religious environment and the respect
due to the noble women, went on pro
lunEed drunk. he was incontinently fired
out Of the settlement.
The Dominican farm is one OF the most
attractive sights of the Cape Colony. Its
management, for system and intelligence,
is unsurpassed. IN a comparativ .ly new
| country such attention to details as the
sisters give To their agricultural operations
! Seems to their slowgoing Boer neghh )Ts Il
work OF supererogatOn, to the English
it appears too finicky, and to the natve
KaffEr and Hottentot helpers it seems
akin to the miraculous and fills them
| with awe and reverence.
+ The feminine blacksniths of the Domini-
can convent farm are the stars. The per-
soaality and expertness OF the hammer
swinging nun ever seems TO continue TO
exercise sort of fascination over the
rest of the siSterhUOd, for they 60 ont of
their way while at out their daily tasks
on the farm, to look in, even if but for
q n oment, at their hard-working sisters.
a recent visitor to the Sisters OF st.
Dominic, entered the occasion Of his
visit as red-lCtter day III his diary. The
abhess proved TO be a woman endowed with
unoonmonly good sense. She was practical
and her personal spirituality was so eided
and tempered with a Knowledge Of hUman
nature and an ability to perceive the
humorous side OF things that she capt.
waited the visitor.
The visitor did not intimate that a
view of these sturdy nuns was the es-
pecial object of his trip, but simply eX-
pressed wish to see them at their work.
The smithy was q long, rather narrow
building, with strong frame, the sides
clap-boarded, and it was topped with a
red cupola with Slated sides, through
winch smoke laZily drfted into the clear,
dry outer air. Within q well-huilt brick
forge, strong, capacious bellows of
Oxide, and all the customary parapher-
naa incidental to the vocation of vO-
taries of Vulcan
The revelation as to the enlargement of
womanS sphere, to the extent of includ-
ing blackSmithing, was in one instance, at
least, startling. Tethered to a strong
oaken rack in the center of the shop was
draught horse, whose big bones and
sha ggy fetlocks proclaimed a Flemish strain
in his blood. Nail box beside her a nun
was bent over, with the horse's nigh
hind foot over her knee, and with red
Rot horseshoe held with pair of tOneS,
was fitting the shoe to the sCorching huof.
The abbcSS smiled family at the I'm
concealed startling effect created on the
visitor, aud the nun just then dropping
the huge Eoof closed up the glowing shoe
a little more around the horn of the anvil.
Presently with a few strokes from a
helpful sister the stoe was completed.
With n preliminary reassuring word and
a pat upon the horses side the num- who
was a large woman, and undoubtedly the
physical superior of ordinary men not
developed by blacksmithing, again picked
up the horses foot. The horse turned his
head and bent upon the woman blacksmith
searching equine look of inquiry His
verdict apparently was that he was sat
isfied she Knew her business, because he
| balanced his fourteen hundred weight
admirably on his tripod OF three legs, while
his feminine shoemaker proceeded with
her task.
whose direction did not satisfy her. These
she withdrew, but at last the shoe was
firmly nailed on, the nails clinched, hoof,
protrudng nails, and the sharp corners of
the shoe all neatly rasped down, and the
big horse was Shod, as well, so far as all
appearances went, as the average man
blacksmith would be likely to do it.
OF the half dozen nuns generally at work
| becoming particularly adept at ironing
wagons, repairing farm machinery and
implements and turning out considerable
variety of wrought iron hardware While
Sister Joanna was, with her helper, busily
| enga ged in shoaiug the horses, Sister Marta,
/ with another wn-gowned sister, lend
| ing Il helping hand, was forging new
connecting rod for u mower and reaper,