The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1905-01-05

haruly any changes III
%foE~ form. have been in use for
unnumbered centuries. Many tools
and implements Of very ancient lineage
are familiar enough, but IN the course
of time in most cases they have under
gone changes and developments which
have left the modern article with but
little resemblance to lis earliest progen-
ltor But the shepherds crook is an
implement which has admitted Of lit
lie variation and such as it is today
so it was when the world was young.
1t Is simply long staff with crook
at the end, With which to catch stray
ing sheep. or one that is wanted for
dipping or other purposes, by the hind
lee. Sometimes the other end is pro
yided with spike or Is sharDened. so
as TO facilitate the knocking up OF
cod which can be conveniently hurled
at mn errins mutton" but this IS rot
an essential part Of the crook.
The use of this wogld-old implement
is probably less common nowadays in
our rural districts than 1t once was,
but it can still be seen in many parts,
especially where the conditions are fa-
yorable for pastoral pursuits on q
large scale The writer has seen
crooks in the hands of shepherds both
in the Lake District and on the Sussex
Downs But your real old-fashioned
shepherd is apt to have poor opinion
Of the modern article. which is made
in large quantities in the neighborhooi
Of Birmingham, chiefly for exporta-
lion to the Australian colonies. al
though it is said that not few of
these "Brummagen'' crooks go to form
part of the ceremonial outfit of lodges
of the two large and fiourishng friend
ly societies known as Orders Of Shep-
herds. The Sussex shepherd used TO
swear by the Pyecombe crook. Pye-
connie IS a small place near Brighton.
which was once famous for its crooks.
Mr.. Lucas in his Highways and By
ways in Sussex" says that the Pye-
combe crook was for many years I'M
approached. An old shepherd whom
he interviewed on the subject COM
planned that "the new weapon as sold
at Lewes. although nominally on the
Pyecombe pattern, is numb thing.
The chief reason which he gave was
that the maker was out of touch with
the man who was to use it. His own
crook. like that Of Richard Jefferies'
shepherd friend. had been fashioned
from the barrel of an old muzzle-load-
err The shepherds complaint Of the
loss Of touch between the maker and
the user marks the great gulf which
we now find everywhere existing be-
tween the individual handmade article
of old and the wholesale manhine-made
product Of to-day.
Jefferies, by the way, explains why
the glory departed from Pyecombe
crooks. They were made by village
craftsman who when he died left no
one able to carry on his work. The
Pyecombe crook, says Jefferies, has a
curve or semicircle. and then opens
straight; the straight part starts al. a
tangent from the semicirele. How diff
ficult it is to describe so simple mat
ter as a shepherds crook In some
way or other this Pyecombe form is
found more effective for capturing
sheep. but it is not so easy to make"
If the shepherds crook is simple
matter. its ecclesiastical cousin, the
crozier. is. on the other hand, a most
complicated subject for discussion.
Much ink has been used on questions
relating to the right use of the term
''crozier,' and also as to the correct
use of the thing itself. The results can
be briefly summarized The bishops
pastoral staff was of old called simply
his crook. In the sixteenth century it
was commonly termed a crozier's staff
or crozier- staff, the symbol being car
ried by an official known as the Gro
clarius," or crozier, and before long the
crook staff was called the crozier But
much confusion has arisen through the
latter-day application of the term
"crozier' to the cross which is borne
before an archbishop. At the time of
the late Bishop Creighton's funeral, for
instance, the newspapers spoke of
Archbishop Temple giving the benedic-
ton holding his crozier in his left hand.
What was Dorne before the Archbishop
in the funeral procession and was held
by him at the moment described was
the archiepiscopal cross, which has no
crook, and has no right. strictly speak
ing, TO be called a crozier at all. But
this error, which many nineteenth cen
tury writer's and antiquaries have COM
bined to perpetuate, will probably be
made again and again, and, after all,
no one will be much the worse.
The real crozier, or crook. is the pas
toral staff Of a bishop-an emblem Of
obvious ignifcance-and is held with
the crook turned outward or toward
the people. The early crOziers were
doubtless very simple. st. Severnius,
Bishop of Cologne who died at the end
of the fourth century, is said to have
used his as a walking stick. But, like
other ecclesiastical emblems and orna-
ments. croziers soon became more elab-
crate and ornate. Many richly worked
and ornamented medieval croziers are
etill ~ axistance Nearly twenty ypArS