IRON PYRITES. 786 IROQUOIAN STOCK. IRON PYRITES. Sec Tvrites. IRONS. Till- Iftlers used for confininj^ prison- ers. Tlicy consist of hiiiulrull's, or hamliroiis,
- iiid Ufiiiuiis, a pair of tlic latter beinj; cou-
nectfd with liglit elmins of siilTn-icnt lenjarfli to porniit the prisoner to walk, taking short steps. Irons are used to confine men for punishment, or for safekeeping when viident (as they fre- quently are when intoxicated), or when await- ing trial, and it is feared they m.ny attempt to esca|)c. The Spanisli used to confine their pris- oners in billiuis, wliioh consisted of shackles around the ankles joined by a bar of iron. Jn the seventccntli and eighteenth centuries bilboes were used to some extent in the ISritish Navy, and tile name survived for a long time after the character of the irons had changed. IRONSIDE, Xestor. A nom-dcplume used by Sir lliihai'd .Steele in the Giiar<li(ni. IRONSIDE, Jsiii. A knight of Arthur's Eound Table. . IRONSIDES, Otn. A name popularly used of the Iniiiil Stales frigate Constitulioii. See t'o.N.sl III jkjn. Tiiic. IRONSMITH. A barbet. Sec Coppeksmitii. IRONTON, i'em-ton. A city and the county- scat of Lawrence County. Ohio. 140 miles south- cast of Cincinnati ; on the Ohio River, and on the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton, the De- troit .Southern, and the Norfolk and Western railroads (Map: Ohio, E 8). The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, on the opposite side of the river, maintains a free passenger ferry and a large freiglit transfer. Ironton is the centre of a region rich in iron ore. bituminous coal, and (ire and pottery clay, and has extensive manu- factories of 'ion (including foundries, iiiacbinc- shops, blast-furnaces, rolling-mills, wire-drawing and nail works, etc.), cement, lumber, machinery, boilers, stoves, furniture, doors and mantels, and fire-brick. The city has a memorial hall. Ma- sonic Temple. Odd Fellows' Hall. Tiriggs Public I-ibrary. and Kingsbury School. The park^ are Reechwood. River View, and Lincoln. .Settled in ls;i2. Ironton was incorporated in 1840. The government, under a charter of 1868, is vested in a mayor, elected biennially, and a unicameral council. The city owns and operates its water- works. Population, 1890, 10,030: in 1900, 11,- 808. IRONWOOD. A city in Gogebic County, Mich., 150 miles west of Marquette: on the Chicago and Northwestern and the Wisconsin Central railroads (Map: ^fichigan. C 2). Iron- mining is the principal industry, though lumber- ing is of considcralile im[iortance. Among the more prominent buildings are a fine city hall, the Luther L. Vriglit High .School, aiid the Carnegie Public Library. Settled in 1884 and incorporated in 1887. Ironwood is governed under the revised charter of 189."!. which provides for a unicameral council, and for a mayor, elect- ed annually, and controlling, subject to the con- sent of the council, the appointments of all sub- ordinate ofTicials excepting the school trustees. Population, in 1890. 774.5; in 1000, 9705. IRONWOOD. A name given to the bard, heavv- timber of various trees. Metrosidcros vera, a native of -lava and other Eastern isl- ands, is much valued by the Chinese and .Japa- nese for making rubl)ers, etc., and is exported in small nuantities. The bark is used in Japan as a remedy for diarrhoea and mucous discharges. -Mesus ferrea, a native of the East Indies, ia planted near Ruddhist temples for the sake of its fragrance and rose-like flowers, with which the images of Ruddlia are decorated. In Aus- tralia the name ironwood is given the timber of Melaleuca genistifolia, .Myrtus gonoclada, Note- hea ligustriiia. and t)lea ]ianiciilata. In the l"iiiled Stati's it is applied to Ostraya Virginicii and Cariiiiius .Vniericaiia (see lloit.iiK.M ) . and other trees which have tough wooil. Oka laiiri- lolia and Sideroxylon inerme, called iroiiwoo<l in the south of Africa, are valuable timber-trees. IRONY (Lat. irnnin. from Ok. ripuiWo, piVfl- nria. dissimulation, irony, from tJpwv, ein'm. dis- sembler, from I'lptiv, < uTi'ii, to talk I . The name given to that (Kculiar style of thought and ex- pression by which words arc made to convey a meaning exactly opposed to their literal .sense. When skillfully used, irony is one of the most crushing and irresistible ligures of rhetoric. It was such an instrument in the hands of Swift, who gravely Jiroposcd to the people of Ireland that they should rid themselves of poverty by eating their children. Irony united with a kindlier feeling is one of the charms of Thack- eray's style. There is also the irony of fate, or of events, where the i.ssue is otherwise than might he expected. Representative of this high- est form are the great tragedies of Sophocles and Shakespeare: for example, .Uaclieth. Avhere the equivocations of the witches lead the hero step by step to his ruin. IROQUOIAN (Ir'.'.-kwoi'an) STOCK. One of the iiiu>i iiiipoitaiit linguistic stocks of the American Indians, fonnerly inliabiling a large jiart of the present Ontario. New York. Ohio, and Pennsylvania, with portions of eastern Vir- gini.i and North Carolina and the whole of the southern .Mlegheny region. The stock name is derived from that of the Iroquois (q.v.), or con- federated rive Nations of New York — the Mo- hawk. Oneida, Ononilaga, Cayuga, and Seneca. Other important tribes were the Wyandot (or Huron). Neutral Nation. Erie, Conestoga, Not- toway. Mehcrrin. Tnscarora. and Cherokee. Roth tradition and history- indicate the lower Saint Lawrence region as the early home of the Iroquoian tribes, whence they gradually worked their way up the river, the Hurons, Neuters, and others finally establishing themselves in the peninsula of Ontario; the Iroquois proper, with the Erie, Conestoga, Nottoway, and Tuscarora, turning southward, while the Cherokee, who ap- pear to have constituted the advance guard of the migration, wandered so far from the body of their kindred that for a long time the rela- tionship was considered doubtful. The primary cause of (he removal of the Iroquoian tribes from the Saint Lawrence country appears to have been the hostility of the neighboring Al- gonquian tribes. In 15.3.') Cartier found an Iro- quoian people holding the sites of the present (juel)ec and Montreal; but seventy years later the same territory was in possession of .lgon- qiiian tribes. Tlic formation of the Iroquois League checked the Algonquian invasion and enabled the Iroquois to assume the offensive. Linguistic and other evidence shows that the separation of the Clierokee from the parent stock must have far antedated this period.
