The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1872-01-25

''ScCrCt service, CanuoI UC niauo PuOiie: ~
+ it is we'll known that large sums have been
spent, and why Or how spont if not for such
purchases of perjury as just related? Men
surrender themselves as ku klux because
hired to do so, pleaded guilty, because hired
and testified against others because hired
Lynch law there no doubt was at times III
South Carolina. just as we have it in the
North every now and then, but the ku klux
trials utterly fail to establish anything more
The surrendcrs, confessions, pleas OF guilty
&c., mean simply Mr.. Grants hire.
Bundling Among the Pennsylvania
Dutch.
The domestic felicity Of the Germans. the
happiness of their marriages and the health
and number of their children do not yet re-
licve them from the broadly prevalent impu-
tation of ''bundling," subject upon which
they are never sensitive when inquired into,
unlike the New Englanders of the Connecti-
cut and Hudson vallies, whose grandfathers
and grandmothcrs were accomplished and
systematic "bundlers," but who fly into high
dudgeon if the subject be broached. The
Pennsylvania Dutch merely laugh when the
thing is charged upon thcm, and reply:
"Well, I suppose our good ancestors lived
in rather close quarters and could not give
up the whole house to the young people, so
they allowed young man the freedom OF his
sweet hearts bed chamber, knowing that ne
would not abuse it. In earlier times marria-
ges we're made civil contract in this prov
ince, and mouth, more or less, in case OF
accidents, led to no scandle, provided the
young man did right about it IN the end
Some cases existed where thero was no form
Of marriage at all, and it is doubtful if all Of
US can discover the certificates and register
of our legitimacy except by hallowed tradi-
ton. The squire's or parsons endorsement
required fee which was onerous to our thrift
ty foreEathcrs. In those days there was less
heartlessncss and abandonment of wives and
ofsprings than We witness now, and, indeed,
bunding was the opportunity for the smart
girl to get husband. After the churches
began to preach against it, the girls held out
to the last, that by diminishing the fcrvor of
the courtship they failed to catch the man:
Bundling, was in fact, a chaste and tradition
al custom of courtship ON bed, not more will
full orfamiliar than the usual fondling or
caressing of young people mutually in love
in all ages. No person was ever shot for
seduction in those times, the husband did
not carry off his ncighbor's wife. Our do
nestle record will bear comparison with any
other people living Or past" ...-
The question may be asked if bundling is
still practiscd in any part Of Dutch Pennsyl-
vaniI ",....
tn the old and time -honered sense of court.
ing in bed with coverlct, more or less: be-
tween. | believe that the custom is now
nearly wholly extinct, although in the region
of ReamStown. Lancaster county, aud in Ol-
cy township, Bcrks county, twas not uncom,
mon up to the breaking out Of the late civil
war
The obtuscness and trustfullnoss Of Dutch
parents remains the same as before, however
and their daughters are allowed to 50 riding
all day or nigh to country frolics or pick
hicks, or to impromptu dances at the turn
pike tavcrns, the young swain always keep
ing his buggy and fast wcll-fOddered horse
in prime condition for these frequent enter
tainments. As human nature in its gross,
ness and ferYor remains about the same, the
descendants of the once sturdy bundling
couples do now, instead of doing outpart Of
the night in sound of the paternal snorc,
merely ride up and down the by-roads, IN
der the doze Of sleeping old grist mills and
sleeping forgcs and barns, the reins allowed
to drop over the pony's rump, and he in a
well regulated wag at slow, patient pace,
finds his path over the country, or while the
fiddle is playing in the little hamlet tavern,
with their low ceiling and deep stone win
dow sills, the horses remaining hitched in
front under the swinging sign Of "General
Muhlenberg"" or the "Cross Keys" and the
aforesaid buxom couples, sitting in the deep
sills of the windows or rolling through the
impassioned clumsiness Of the waltz, or stroll
ingin the moon light under the linden trees
and the sheitcring button-ball, sip their nut
brown beer and initiate their fathers remem
bered fondnesses.
These country dances are as vehement
and quaint as ever. and the amount of pick
ncking and quilting, camp-mcoting etc.
transacted in Deutchland is simply mcredl
ble
IMMENSELY OF CREATIoN.-Some astron
liners have computed that there are 10000,
600 suns in the universe. The fixed star
are all suns having like our own sun planets
revolving around them. The solar system
or that to which we belong, has about thirty
planets primary and secondary belonging te
it. The circular field of space which it oc
cupies is in the diamatre 5000, 100000 o
miles and that which it CONTROLS is mucl
greater The sun which is nearest neigh