The Ram’s Head
Byron Adams recently visited The Scottish Home in Chicago, which was built in the 1870’s as a rest home for elderly men and women of Scottish ancestry where they could spend their last years in comfort and dignity. Chicago by then had a large Scottish immigrant population and there was plenty of help for the project from the Illinois Saint Andrew’s Society and numerous movers and shakers of Chicago society. Byron recommends the book Scots of Chicago – Quiet Immigrants and their New Society.
I was fascinated by the description and photos of The Ram’s Head. This device was a ram’s or sheep’s head converted into a “movable humidor complete with a holder for cigars and snuff.” On top was a large cairngorm stone surrounded with Scottish thistle. The cigar case had the arms of Scotland on it and the inscription “Nemo me impune lacessit” which means, more or less, “Nobody dares mess with me.’’ The arms of the U.S. and city of Chicago also are inscribed on the beast, and two large thistles with amethyst stones perch on the tips of the horns.
What a magnificent creation! Our ancestors were certainly unafraid of their wives. Come now, gentlemen, would your wife allow you to install such a magnificent ram’s head in your den? I know mine would have immediate objections. Actually I suspect the ram’s head was originally meant to silently defend a special place for the master where he could hide from his wife.
The Ram’s Head. Eye to eye with the beast (below) by Byron Adams.
Robert Burns statue, Garfield Park, Chicago
