Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1860-02-15
THE WHITE ouAKERs OF DuBLrn.

and Irish papers, illusions to these people,
but the first complete and thoroughly ntelli-
gibie account of them that we have ever met,
is given in the following letter to the Anti
Slavery Standard, Dated
DUBLIN, Ireland Oct l. 1859.
L have been good deal interested by a pa
per in recent number of Howitt's Journal.
II is entitled s:Singular Sects-a day with the
White Quakers,' and it gives an account of
number of seceders from the Society of
Friends who have settled in community on a
handsome farm of $50 acres. about six miles
from Dublin, where they eschew animal food,
hats and bonnets, and mahogany. They wear
white clothes, and shoes made of leather of
the natural color. They go to rest with the
sun, and rise at very early hour, ssto COM
mencc their labors of weaving, sewing, spin
ming, discriminating, &c, while one OF the
members reads aloud from some instructive
and amusing work, selected for the purpose.
Having breakfasted, they adjourn to the fields.
Men, women and children alike assist in the
cultivation OF the farm, for it is one of their
aXioms that every hand is able and ought to
supply its owners mouth with food. The COM
munity consists at present OF thirty persons,'
children included. 1t was at one time still
more extensive, but the increasing strictness
of their rules has caused the lukewarm and
unworthy to fall away. They have large gar
dens, handsome greenhouse and grapery, a.
bundance OF fruits and flowers, native and ex-
otic, luxuriant crops of wheat oats, beans. &C.,
the whole the produce of spade labor. Their
whole establishment is a model of neatneSs and
cleanliness. They appear to live very happily
together, and are extremely kind and charita-
BILE to the poor in the neighborhood. They
hold that the earth was given to all for a heri
tage, and that the distinction of noble and pea
SAINT, rich and poor. are but the creation of a
corrupt order of things, which is sure to give
place to brighter and happier day. Besides
a nf q library
well stocked with books, the walls covered
with maps, and the stables strewed wish sere
raj volumes of beautifully illustrated works.
What struck Us most was the chaste simplicity
and exceeding purity Of the whole"
Now this report is AL very pleasant, and
believe it is true, for it agrees substantially
with an account oil this community had from
a friend of mine who visited it about q year
ago. Yet it is difficult to comprehend how
such a civilized and peaceful Arcadia, SO near
an approach to an uneXceptionabe monastery,
could have been the work Of such a people as
the White Quakers were but few short years
ago. The leading members Of the sect were,
without exception, -rigidly strict and consist
ent, straght-laced members of the Society OF
Friends, severe against all departures from the
''testimoniais," stern upholders of the disci
pline-very worthy, good people-kind to the
poor, and wishing we'll to all, but chiefly in
terested tor the prosperity and purity of their
them was the most valued of the society's
ministers, a female Boanerges, who denounced
mixed marriages with such awful warnings as
must often have made the blood of s.yonng
women Friends curdle within them," and she
enforced planness of dress with terrible ener
G.. There was an elder and an overseer a.
monS them, and all the rest were steady
Friends, pillars in the society, with the pro-
foundest faith in all stories Of Quaker mira
cleS, dreams, portents, revelations, and prophe
cies. They We're, in short, the very last of its
members from whom the society could have
apprehended an insurrection. But they re-
volted, nevertheless and in this wise -
Joshua Jacob, their leader, who was at that
time prosperous trader, a Friend in good
standing, regular attender of meetings for
worship and discipline, good neighbor, kind
to the poor, and greatly espected-began to
'.appear in the ministry" or, in plain terms,
began to preach. An initiated person, like
you or me, would not have been able to per-
ceivc much difference between his communi-
cations and those of the most approved minis
ters. Suffice it to say that they were marked
by all the peculiarities of the Quaker gallery,
equally free from the teXt-taking, connected
ness, and other trammels of pulpit eloquence.
But his preaching did not satisfy the elders,
the appointed judges among Friends, o. the
acceptableneSs and right mission of the candi-
date for the ministry. Joshua was advised to
withhold his communications and was coun-
selled and labored with. and degree OF pa
tience was exhibited toward him. such as |
verify believe would not have been extended
to a refractory priest in any other community
in Chrstendom. He kept on, never needing,
and preached all the more, the more he was
advised to be silent. At length the elders
brought the matter before the monthly meet
ing. But the monthly meeting had no terrors
for j Joshua he refused to withdraw when his
case was under consideration, and when they
sent messengers to him he denied their juriS-
dicton. At length he was formally disowned.
But rs he held stoutly to the doctrine OF the
inward light, and did not look on himself as a
ssman- made Minister oras amepable to man s
Judgment for the exercise of his gift, he
preached without intermission /; and when the
Friends, wearied with his obstinacy, kept him
out of the meeting house, he preached in the
passage. He had fine ringing voice, and a
tremendous sing-song, which would have
thought very holy when was little boy.
The disapproval of his course was pretty
general in the society, but there were impor-
tant exceptions among the more rigid profess
sors, in many of the monthly meetings. They
looked on him, as he looked on himseif-that
is to say, they had very high opinion OF him.
They espoused his cause, talked Of ssa perse-
cuted recusant," prophesied an evil day to the
society, preached like him, were equally re-
fractory, and were in like manner disowned,
were KEPT OUT oI the iHeeIinS iihc HiiA, "hu
held forth in the passages as he did.
Joshua then assumed white dress, of un-
dyed cloth, wore untanned leather in his shoes,
banished all his mahogany furniture, using
deal instead, pulled down his bell, abstained
from clocks and watches, brought forth his
| looking glasses and broke them to pieces in
the open street for testimony to the people.
cramped his business as much as possible, and
at length he put away his wife. This last ex.
| tremity he resorted to because she seemed un-
able to keep up with him in the rapid progress
| Of his reforms He also denounced. with I'm.