The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1868-11-24


! her trip "out West last fall:
- RIoHMoND, INDIANA.
Richmond is swndle. Of course I mean Rich
mond in Indiana, not the Richmond soldiers were
con to' during the war. ~ ltt-.+s e@z
The respect in which it is a swinde is, that from
! the windows of the approaching train it looks like
New York and Philadelphia and Boston. perhaps
/ somewha, imposing than those combined. Its
magnificent residences line the avenues, debouchpg
the track and pire with the belief that the
place is of the greatest on the continent This is
all the more extraordinary in that we know the town
to be the residence of the Quakers and have hitherto
believed that the Quskers eschew paiatiaI residences
they do other worldly delights.
This, it appears, is The Quakers no
longer living in the of Fox, Who told, in
founding the sect initiated severity of discipline
more stringent than any known to the world since
the days of the Apostles.
The magnificent residences of Richmond mostly lie
contiguous the railway. After the traveller has
brushed the dust off. and taken bite at the clean and
orderly hotel he strolls to look the Then
it is he discovers it to be swindle. That which
seemed fine city is but handsome village after
I all. .l..ss5 zr9ez1 y rcrsGHe ~s1 .#tt
b And yet learned to love the little place we'll, linz
gering there for several days. 1t is, next to Phila
delphia, the largest community of Quakers in the
United States; and to the Friends most love-
able people. Their quiet presence acts like sooth-
ing balm to my fretted spirit. Their life of unusual
seifdenal their absence from lying. hypocrisy syco
phancy and other hdeous sins which rife in that
wicked humbug enormously demonstrated the 'sbest
society" surround them with a halo of goodness
and purity which l. for one, cannot choose but
renee.
The shad-bely coat and poke bonnets, the utter
drab and decency peculiar to the sect, visible
wherever you turn in Richmond In the streets they
are on every hand, and at my lecture the audience
thickly sprinkled with them. They yielded some
what to the customs of the outer world while in my
presence, it is true; they took off their hats when
came upon the stage; they laughed will ngy as
any at the jokes: and wiped their eyes with their
handkerchef in the proper places; but their costume
was of orthodox simplicity. - -1F- %
Our sisters apt to believe that the Quaker dress
was invented for them by curious genius but
this is altogether mistake. At the sine George
Fox appeared and founded Quakerism, the present
style of Friends dress was by everybody Those
were the lys of Cromwell and the Commonw earh
| No thought given to the subject of dress until
Cromwell's overthrow, when the Restoration brought
in the piquant braveries Of rncing fashion which
/ have gone on in unceasng change until this very
hour. 1t was then that the voice ef this which
| strictly denounced the vantes of the world, was
opperes of velvet and lace, and buckle and plume.
The Cromwellian costume continued, and a
strange glimpse of the past afforded him who viii
| but look, in thus observing men and women walking
and breathing the air of to-day while wearing style
of dress which was extant in England in the of
/ the Protector Use has familiarized this curious
sight, but if TO find another people wearing
the dress of another ageknee brooches and queues,
let say puffs and fardengaies how odd it would
| seem! =! so Es-l~af .lg"t8 Lc
/ The Quaker use OF "thee" and .thcu- is founded
| upon sound princple-that of being dramatically
correct Why the generality of should
plural prononn to designate single individual is
altogether clear. have often had extreme difficulty
in explaining this defective point to French people
who, altheu gh quite familiar with yous'' for "you,
/ ca mot comprehend the strange vagaries of a Ian
qua ge which permits Of -'thee thouing'' between
4 lovers, pa ents and children. husbands and wives
/ r. "And then you have thee thou your EDgish?
asked Frenchman of day in the last gasp of
| as tonishnaent.
! ''But yes they have" answered another who was
1 supposed to know English; Sit is used how
ever, by any bodies except poets and the Quakers.'
This conclusive
! 1attended "Quaker meeting in Richmond, and
was much Impressed BY some Unusually eloquent ex-
hor tation which fell from the lips of those persons
whom the spirit had moved to utter them. These
people shun the printing press and the reporters
Shorthand notebook and thus much religions ora
tory of the best is lost the world bile rea.
deal of trash is preserved for the followers of
sects to yawn over. Discreet use of publicity would
| be wise in both cases. .z...s.f .-se. ,
Ten years ago it considered by the world at
large a startling innovation established custom
for a woman to get up address an audience. "A
woman speaker looked upon in the most obnoxi-
Gus light; she WAS Bloomerite," she was "fast"
she that terrible piece of ALTERATION, "woman's
rights woman" In the extreme Son tn, even pre-
sent doubt if lady lecturers would be received with
much favor. And those persons who first went TO
hear women speak fancied they were assisting at
something novel under the and stars. Yet for
two hundred poddng years before any of were
born my grandmother used lofty say, ';or
thought o., women speakers among the Friends had
been lifting their voices high AMI exhorting their
brethren and sisters to be good and wise and oh ari
table. When vote, which Willie soon mind you,
must not forget TO render homage where homage
is due, in recognizing that the of Friends hrst
practically acknow lodged the equality of woman.
IL wasa beautiul sunny Sunday in April. The
was odorous with spr ing balm, and the doors and
windows of the meeting house were open wide
In entering the gentlemen passed in at the right,
while and my companion-a buxom Quaker lady,
wife Of CT the richest Quaker in Richmoni--went
in at the lett. t,7 -gif}a est 8 ,fa..s7 ~
II was large room. with high ceiling, bare
walls, bare benches, bare floor but never bare
head. Every man wore his hat--every woman her
bonnet They sat in dead silence and in rows.
Down the middle of the meeting house. from front to
back ran serviceable board fence, separating the
hats from the bonnets. There was pulpit-nos
ganery--no organ-oft-no place at all in which to
fiddle and sing. Where the pulpit generally is
were a number of raised seats, which sat row
after row of the very demurest ouakers, with the
very deepest bonnets and the very broadcast brmmed
hats--uen one side, women the other. r77
How endured the long silence which ensued