Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1905-11-16

eliminated, for the sake of simplicity,
the complicated part of their coats-of-
arms. This leaves many of the coats
of-arms of our twentieth-century gen
try as mere examples of the old Gus
tom of depicting in design puns upon
their names or their ancestors call
ings at the period when the right to
bear arms was granted.
And fearful puns, for the most part.
they are. The Abbot of Ramsey's
arms, for instance, bear simple de-
sign of a ram in the sea. Islip, Alb
bot Of Westminster, has upon his
shield the picture of a man falling
from a tree, the supposition being
that he exclaimed Il sip" In a win.
dow of the chapel at Lullingstone.
Kent, the seat of Sir P. H. Dyke, NAV
be seen the armorial bearings of Sir
John Peche which consists of two
peach trees bearing fruit. Upon each
peach is imprinted an old English E.
the whole being surrounded by a
wreath
According to some authorities the
"lys' in the royal arms of France are
the guest of the house goes to the
spelt Logs. The arms of Spain ex-
hibit, quarterly, castle and lion, a
palpable pun upon the united PROV
inces of CASTLE and Leon. Birds and
nj In
arms where the name of the bearer
can be so indicated, and make an in
teresting study. The house of Pei
ham, for example, displays three peli-
cans upon its coat-of-arms, and their
crest is peacock. The Bacon family
escutcheon dipicted a boar, and the
Lambs, three lambs. Perhaps one of
the best of the hundreds in this cate
gerry is that of the Wylies which
bears a fox, meaning willy. Count
Floric of Spain has a sunflower upon
his shield, and Delsie of Scotland.
daisies. The coat-of-arms of Miles
Standish of New York is purely play
upon the name and consists Of three
standing dishes. The crest Is an
owl with a rat in its talons. William
Elmer Wheelock of Morristown, New
Jersey, displays on his shield three
Catherine wheels. The Carter family
of Philadelphia give another example
of the simpler heraldry In three cart
wheels.
Even a hotel may have it's coat-of-
arms. Inc yellow aster, as Is we'll
known, is the emblem of the Aston
family and the architects have dis
played it most skilfully in the Hotel
Astor in New York. Throughout the
magnificent, seven-milliondolar struc-
ture it is used over and over again in
the elaborate decorative designs, will
excellent artistic effect Whether
tn guest of the house goes to the
sumptuous roof gardens, to the ban
quet rooms, the Indian room in the
basement or to any other part of the
hotel, his eye is constantly attracted
by the flower that symbolzes the dis
tinguished American family, whose
name has been given to the hostelry
Taste for heraldic lore is beyond
question growing in this country.
Even railroads, as we'll as hotels, have
their symbolic Devices If a great deal
of taking" is being done, that is
nothing new under the sun. A woman
died in England not long ago who had
devoted a whole lifetime to unmasldng
false claims in heraldry. Her in
vestigations proved that intruders
and foreigners were far more common
in the Middle Ages than they have
ever been in modern times, and that
in almost countless cases their preten
sons finally were accepted. There
are British mobiles today who are de-
seconded from rich burghers of the
18th 18th and 14th centuries who
bought their armorial trafings as
unblushingly as the American new
rich buys his. It was to dispute the
claims of pretenders that the Herald's
College-which still eXists-was start
ed in 1883 by King Richard Ill. Most
of the mischief had already been done
and fruitful field of controversy
lay open to the authorities of the col
lege-a field which has been Guilt
waited with great assiduity for more
than four centuries.
If it is OBJECTED that the use of
family symbols-such as the Astor's
yellow aster-is undemocratic the his
toran moves forward to remind us
that Washington, Jay, Livingston.
John Adams, and.a lot Of other reyolu-
tlonary heroes were addicted to the
crest habit There is, furthermore,
a tradition that Cromwell, inyeterate
hater of kings, was having his own
pedigree searched for titled ancestors
when death cut him short