STRANGE VOWS AND PLEDGES

Evening Star, Issue 22683, 24 June 1937, Page 3

STRANGE VOWS AND PLEDGES

ORIGIN OF "ISABELLA" LINEN

Before the siege of Ostend in 1601 Isabella, daughter of Philip 11., vowed never to change any of the garments she then wore until the place surrendered. The siege lasted for three years and 78 days, during which time she religiously adhered to her promise. In that Jong period her linen, of course, became changed from white to yellow, and although the latter colour was before field in great contempt, it was, from the circumstance, immediately introduced, and became very fashionable under the name of “Isabella.” At the bombardment of Belgrade in 1862, some Serbian patriots _ vowed never to let a razor tough their faces until they could shave in the fortress on the day on which the Turkish troops abandoned it. For five years they eschewed the services of a barber until the hour of triumph came, and then, in 1867, they marched through the Streets of Belgrade with long beards down to their knees, escorted by a number of barbers, razors in hand. In this way they entered the fortress, when the barbers, at one© proceeded to strip them of their beards.

Vienna owes its Church' of St. Charles to a vow by the Emperor Charles 11. during an epidemic. Notre Dame became the richer by a golden lamp in payment of an Empress’s vow. Roger Tichborne vowed to build a church if he married his cousin within a certain time, impelled thereto, apparently, by the success attending a similar promise by Sir Edward Doughty when his child lay dangerously

ill. In 1867 a Spanish lady, attired in the garb of a pilgrim of the olden time, appeared in the streets of Toulon. She went on her way home to Madrid, having footed it from that city to Rome, in fulfilment of a vow made when she fancied herself at death’s door. In the like extremity an Italian princess vowed to undertake •& journey to the Holy Sepulchre. . . Some regard a vow as a restraining bond of a very elastic 'character, especially when it interferes with their desires. Colonel Edgeworth, who served under William 111., was an inveterate gamester. Having lost all his money, he went to his wife and asked her to lend him her diamond ear-rings. She took them from her ears without demur, and he returned to the card table. The stake returned to the colonel all his losing. In gratitude to his wife he solemnly vowed never to touch cards or dice again, but a few days afterwards he was observed drawing straws from _ a rick, and betting heavily upon which should prove the longest. , - _ ' Pepys pledged himself to abstain from the Juice of the grape, and shortly afterwards took to drinking “ hippoeras,” which, he said, was only a mixed compound. He also registered a vow against goine to the theatre, but professed to believe he was committing no breach of his oath when he went at a friend’s expense. A JOVIAL WAITER. There is a good story of a jovial waiter whom some kind friends sought t° frighten into a vow _of sobriety. They told him a shocking tale of one who drank not wisely, but too well, and was killed by blowing out a candle, the flames of which ignited the alcoholic fumes, of his breath!_ He listened, believed, and was horrified. Calling for a Bible, ho kissed the Book and solemnly swore that never again would he—try to blow out a candle. Shrewder far was the Pittsburg man who swore never to touch another drop as long as he had a hair on his head. The same evening he had Ids head shaved and got drunk with the proud) consciousness of having faithfully kept his vow. He might have been paired with the Portuguese dame who pledged herself to go barefooted to a certain shrine. In vain her friends assured her the fatigue would kill her; she was resolute. She had made the vow and would keep it, and keep it she did l . -She went to the shrine stockingless—in a sedan chair I Damsels in love often make strange tows. We recall the case told by Dickens, of poor Miss Harrisham, who was sq overcome by her lover’s failure to appear at the wedding that she ordered everything in the house to be kept unchanged, as it had 1 been placed on that hapless day. Years went by; the wedding feast remained set on the table, the rich cakes mildewed, and were eaten by the mice, while the poor, half-demented lady flitted in and out of the deserted rooms of the house like a ghost, always wearing the white dress and) veil which, she had put on to welcome the faithless lover who never arrived. A similar ease was that of a lady of high rank in - England who. being jilted by her lover, went to bed and vowed she would never get up again. She kept her word fo.r 26 years! Vows of perpetual silence are numerous, the only trouble being that those who need the vow most do not take it! In 1840 Miss Caroline Brewer, of Portland, Maine, XJ.S.A.. vowed she would never speak another word to any human being because she had had a quarrel with‘her lover. For 32 years—until the. day of her death she was never known to have uttered a word.