Evening journal., 1899-09-16
FEMININE BLAcKsMIrHs.
A south African Convent Where the
Sisters of Sc. Dominic Heve
Learned to Shoe Hersen.

The sisters of st. Dominic, near King
Williams Town, Cape Colony, South
Africa, have established black
smiths shop and have adopted the role
Of the new woman in a brand-new char
acter. The sisters of st. Dominic
eager to sow the seeds of religion in
Africa, turned their backs on the time
honored converts of Europe and estab-
lished settlement in Cape Colony
where they purchased an extensive
farm. Finding that farm laborers were
scarce in a land where most of the
digging was for gold and diamonds, a
far more profitable use Of the spade
than digging for potatoes. the nuns
quietly put their hands to the plow.
But accidents win happen even in a
convent, and in time the plowshare was
broken.
There being no blacksmiths in that
region, the nuns sent to Capt Town and
got the materials to build and the tools
and implements TO supply a smithy. A
blacksmith as a tutor, was secured, and
now the nuns have learned how TO do
their own smith work. They have thus
far proved not only their equality with
man, but their superiority TO him, for
when the blacksmith, disregarding his
religious environments and the respect
due TO the noble women who hired him,
went on a prolonged spree, they
bounced him out of the settlement.
In the new country where the nuns
have set up their habtation the Boer
neighbors regard their work with sus-
picion and resentment, the English
stand and wonder and the natives look
on with awe and reverence. The visitor
who rides to the convent from King
Williams Town comes upon the nuns,
brown clad and busy hoeing, plowing.
pruning and grating, or perhaps driv-
ing strong-limbed oxen TO the water.
At close range the most striking effect
in the appearance of sister Of St.
Dominic as seen in South Africa is her
rosy, tanned face, so different from the
bloodless, white complexion of the nun
under ordinary conditions This nat
ural bronze is well earned. Day after
day, week after week, month after
month, the nuns toll at the forge and
in the field, exposed TO the rays Of the
African sun and the fierce heat of the
forge.
The feminine biacksmiths of the Do
minican convent are experts. The pre-
cision of the hammer-swinging nuns
seems to exercise a sort of fascination
over the rest Of the sisterhood. for they
win &c out of their way on their daily
tasks to gaze at their hard-worl1ing sis.
ters of the smithy.
i A recent visitor to the sisters Of St
Dominic, who had the good fortune &c
i possess a letter of introduction from
bishop to the mother superior. en-
tered the occasion in detail in his diary
! The abbess proved TO be a woman en-
dowed with uncommonly good sense
She was practical, and her persona
spirituality was so aided and TEN
pered with a knowledge Of human ma
ture and a sense of humor that sh
f, captivated the visitor. After tour 0
inspection Of vines, fruit trees an,
growing crops the abbess drove him Il
the blacksmith shop. The smithy wa
a long, narrow building. with a strong
frame, the sides clapboarded and tn
whole surmounted with a red cupola
with slated sides, through which tn
smoke of the forge drifted Within
were a well-built brick forge, strong
capacious bellows of OK hide and al
! the customary paraphernalia incident
al TO the vocation of votaries Of Vul
, can.
= Tethered to a strong oaken rack Il
- the center of the shop was a draugh
!, horse, whose big bones and shaggy fei
2 locks proclaimed the Flemish anima
Z With nail box beside her, a nun ben
over the nigh hind foot. with foo
resting in her lap, and with a pair q
: tongs was fitting a red-hot shoe to III
scorching hoof With the assistanc
! of a sister, the nun nailed the sho,
d and, patting the side Of the horse, sh
= proceeded TO lift another hoof and rs
t peat the performance with a secon
shoe.
Once or twice the nun drove nail
a direction that did not satisfy he
+ Such she withdrew, but at last the sho
g was firmly nailed, nails clinched an
T. sharp corners all neatly rasped dow
n and the big horse was shod as neatl
and as we'll as the average blacksmit
. could have done il.
While The horseshoeing was in pros
8 ress another nun was busy maxim
n hinges, hooks and staples. ringboli
If and other articles of builders hare
10 ware out of small rod and bar iroi
She hammered away in rather an e.
perimental fashion, and frequently e.
'e hibited her work to the nun who ha
q shod the horse, seeking her advice upo
n knotty points of the smiths art. Al
" other nun was repairing farm mi
ia chinery, and seemed TO be an adept (
,r the work.-N. Y. Press.
vi Dead Languages.
re There are certain languages whic
although they are still spoken an