IRONWOOD 



3063 



IRRAWADDY 



to the American species, are woven together to 

 make the curious live fences, or roofed walks 

 in gardens. Although the wood is very heavy 

 and hard to tool, it will last indefinitely when 

 once in shape. In Southern Florida and the 

 West Indies it is used for shipbuilding because 

 it resists all attacks of the shipworm, while in 

 Europe yokes made of it last for years, be- 

 coming as hard and smooth as horn. Sled 

 stakes, tool handles, wedges, fence posts and 

 levers are made from it. 



IRONWOOD, MICH., a lumber and mining 

 center of Gogebic County, situated in the 

 extreme western part of the Upper Peninsula, 

 about twelve miles south of Lake Superior and 

 thirty-three miles southeast of Ashland, Wis. 

 It is on the Montreal River and on the Chicago 

 & North Western and the Minneapolis, Saint 

 Paul & Sault Sainte Marie railroads, and has 

 the service of short interurban lines. The 

 area of the city is about six square miles. In 

 1910 the population was 12,821 ; in 1916 it was 

 14,779, by a Federal estimate. 



Its name suggests the chief industries of the 

 city, iron mining and lumbering. Here are 

 some of the largest iron mines in the United 

 States, and coal and pottery clay are found in 

 the vicinity. The industrial establishments are 

 foundries and machine shops, blast furnaces, 

 rolling mills, wire-drawing and nail works, and 

 manufactories of machinery, boilers, stoves, 

 lumber, furniture and cement. 



Ironwood has a city hall, the Luther L. 

 Wright High School and a Carnegie Library. 

 The city was settled in 1884 and incorporated 

 in 1887; its charter was revised in 1893. 



IRONY, i'roni. This word, which comes 

 from a Greek term meaning to dissemble, or to 

 say less than is meant, is used to describe one 

 of the most forceful figures of rhetoric. The 

 writer or speaker who employs irony makes a 

 statement, apparently in all seriousness, when 

 in reality he wishes to convey just the oppo- 

 site meaning. In his wonderful speech over 

 Caesar's body, for instance, Antony refers sev- 

 real times to the "honourable men whose dag- 

 gers have stabb'd Caesar," and thus by his 

 ironical use of the word honourable stirs up 

 his hearers to a frenzy. Defoe and Swift are 

 perhaps the two great masters of irony in Eng- 

 lish literature, but while the irony of the 

 former is kindly, that of Swift has an almost 

 insane bitterness. 



IROQUOIAN, irokwoi'an, INDIANS, one 

 of the most important groups of North Ameri- 

 can Indians, whose stock name is derived from 



that of the Iroquois, who figure so largely in 

 early American history. The largest single 

 tribe of Iroquoian descent is the Cherokee 

 (which see). The Iroquois Indians were a 

 league of five tribes the Mohawks, Oneidas, / 

 Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas. Later they 

 were joined by the Tuscaroras. To them the 

 English applied the names "Five Nations" and 

 "Six Nations." According to legend the five 

 tribes were persuaded to form a confederacy 

 by their great chieftain, Hiawatha, whom Long- 

 fellow has made the hero of his poem of that 

 name. 



The Iroquois Indians were settled in Central 

 and West^rn New York when, in 1609, they 

 were found by the French explorer Samuel 

 Champlain. He, unfortunately for France, 

 made friendly overtures to their hated enemies, 

 the Algoriquians, and in the subsequent wars 

 between France and England the Iroquois lent 

 powerful aid to the latter nation. During the 

 American Revolution all of the Iroquois except 

 the Oneidas and a few of the Tuscaroras sided 

 with the English, and the Mohawks and Cayu- 

 gas, led by Joseph Brant, went to Canada. 

 Nearly all of the surviving Iroquois in the 

 United States are on reservations in New 

 York; the majority, in Canada, live on the 

 Grand River reservation, Ontario. They num- 

 ber in all about 17,000. 



These Indians were above the average in 

 intelligence. They had organizing ability of no 

 mean order, lived in well-built bark-covered 

 houses, and were skilled agriculturists, basket- 

 makers and potters. 



Related Subjects. The reader is referred to 

 the following articles in these volumes : 

 Brant, Joseph Five Nations 



Champlain, Samuel de Indians, American 



IRRAWADDY, or IRAWADI, irahwah'di, 

 the principal and most picturesque river of 

 Burma, flowing for over 1,500 miles through 

 rocky mountain gorges and thickly-populated 

 agricultural districts down into the broad, flat 

 rice fields on the delta, through which it 

 enters the Bay of Bengal. It rises near Mount 

 Daphabum, on the extreme northeast border. 

 Small steamers ply regularly to Bhamo, which 

 is over 1,000 miles from the mouth of the 

 river. For 100 miles from the sea extensive 

 embankments have been built to protect prop- 

 erty along the delta, for it is in great danger 

 during the summer months, when the river 

 rises. A railroad runs through its valley from 

 Rangoon to Bhamo, and crosses it at Man- 

 dalay. 



