The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1869-05-01

Friends Yearly Meeting.-Being i'll Phil
standing that the Friend Yearly Meeting
was in session, I felt some curiosity to see
a large body of that society together, as
with us they are only seen in small num-
bers, and also from the fact that | have al
ways felt a degree of veneration for Quaker,
on account of his plain speech and dress,
and his temperate habits. / can recollect,
when boy, of reading g Barclays Apollo
gy.' and thinking that his doctrine was
plain TRUTH and his arguments unanswera-
BILE. So walking up to their venerable
church on Aarch street. between Third and
Fourth, the Friends were gathering for
their business meeting. There is a large
yard in front Of their church, nicely set
with grass, and the women came in at one
gate and the men at another. They also
entered the house by seperate doors. The
elderly ladies were neatly attired in plain
dresses and plain bonnets, which have not
known the fluctuations of fashion, and still
for neatness, comfort and good taste, they
are unsurpassed. Then there was an air of
contentment and independence, and such a
degree of good health as was worthy of adj
miration. know not whence such large
numbers of tidy matrons came. but felt as
sured they were the representatives of many
happy homes, where neatness, industry,
frugality and the comforts of life abounded.
no loAi sorpI Inv
looking, but had in some degree departed
from the plain dress Of their mothers, and
| some were seen with hats of scanty proper
tions, and dresses approaching the Grecian.
The men were clad in good cloth, but the
shad-belly' was the prevailing coat pattern
the hats were generally black and the
brims very wide, and some with the stove
pipe crown. Taken altogether they were
a remarkably healthy body of men, and the
average size was larger than we find in
bodies of men convened ON similar occas-
sions. Their appearance recalled fact
in the statistics of the city of London, which
have long been taken with great care
From these it appears, that of all those
reaches the age of four score, while among
the Society of Friends. born in the same
metropolis, not less than one in every ten
reaches that age. This is no doubt, in a
great measure attributable to their temper
ate habits, and their regular manner of liv-
ing. 1t was of such that Armstrong hath
written:
:'Their equal days. feel not the alternate fits
Of few IRISH mirth, and sick objections.
Blest with divine immunity from ills,
Long centuries they live-their only fate,
Is ripe old age, and rather sleep than death.
Persons who have Travelled in Quaker
communities, must have observed one pc
culiarity about their churches-they provide
comfortable shelter for their horses, so that
while they themselves are comfortably situ-
ated, their faithful horses shall not stand
IN the storm, and the pinching cold, nor
unsheltered from the fierce rays Of the sum-
The Friends do not suffer their poor to be
chargeable on the county, but indeed it
may be said that with their industry, pru-
dence and temperance, there are rarely any
poor persons among them. There are many
traits in the character of the Quaker, which
other societies, who think themselves more
orthodox, would do we'll to initiate.
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