The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1876-01-15
ChGppGgua dnd its Friends.


THE QUAINT QUAKER PEOPLE OF THE TOWN MADE
FAMOUS BY GREELEY.
Chappaqua, in the upper part of Westches-
ter county, is not village but town. 1t has
a postoffice, but is minus a tavern, and seems
destitute of place which offers that very
questionable commodity that goes under the
general designation of "Refreshment for man
and beast"-the beast generally getting deci-
dedly the best of it. The town is chiefly noted
for containing the farm of Horace Greeley, the
place where he pruned trees when a candidate
for Presidency, and raised the abbages that
cost sc cents head and learned what he knew
about farming. The farm belonged to Mrs.
Greeley, ard was left by her will to her daugh-
ters, who show their good taste by keeping at
q safe distance from it half the year. 1t is a
fine place in which to raise turnps and grow
old.
Chappaqua is hilly and picturesque, and from
the top of its highest hills the waters of the
Hudson and Long Island Sound may be seen
in the distance over a fine stretch of hill and
dale, spotted with pleasant villages. There are
nice farms and plain, home like farm houses
nestled under the hills and along the winding
rsadways and by the brook-sides. Fashion has
not found the place, and nobody has succeed
it with "vlla sites" for sale, nor set up those
burlesques on architecture known as rural cot
| tages, which have all the modern conveniences
but none of the old-fashioned comforts. But
people who like quiet and good wholesome fare
and plain ways, and do not care for the glitter
of society and fuss and fret of fashion, have
discovered the place and begin to seek summer
quarters in its farm houses. A goodly number
| of Friends reside here. Some of them we'll
to do, and preserve the fashions and walk in
the ways of the founders of that quaint but
! eminently respectable order. Others have
| dropped more or less of what is distinctive in
garb and manner till it is hard to tell exactly
where the line between the saints and the
| worlds people is drawn. But they are a re-
markably quiet, excellent people wthal. They
have Quaker meeting house, which is a
riosity in its way. If you want to see a model
| of ecclesiastical architecture, you have only to
| visit that plain frame house, with its deep gal
| lery, its sliding partitions which divide it in
| three or four separate rooms when occasions
| call for them, its separate benches for men and
| women, its high seats fronting the congregation
| for the elders, and its broad stoops suggestive
of endless hand-shaking and thou a nd theeing.
| There is here also academy, built and
| dowed by the Friends and under their manage
| ment-a plain structure, finely located on a
| hillside looking away towards the west. 1t has
principal and two assistants, with between
| fifty and hundred pupils, and is conducted
on the good old Quaker plan of putting utility
first and letting complishments take care of
| themselves. Unlike the boarding schools
which are all rufle and no shirt, it is all shirt
and no ruffle. These sturdy friends see no neces-
sary connection between starving the D0dy ana
stufing the brain, and instead of pinching the
pupils they provide all the plain and substan-
tial food they can eat, and they are quite as
healthy, vigorous youths and maidens as can
te found anywhere. The cleanliness and sim
plieity and order and homelkeness about the
establishment are in striking contrast to the
cheap displays and shabby gentility of some
fashionable establishments.
y
Among the residents of Chappaqua is Isaiah
H. Williams. the we'll known lawyer-a an
of irrepressibe activity, who farms and lee
lures and breaches for recreation. He has a
pleasant place, overlooking lovely valley set
in frame of magnificent bills. The visitor to
Chappaqua is surprised to find place so per
fectly rural and SO quiet, SO picturesque and
country-like, within an hour and a halt of the
City Hall, How long it will remain SO, how
ever, is a question that is already often asked
-Rsporter, in the Hearth and Home. aa
Mg-"Was the crowd tumultuous 2" inquired
one man of another who had just come from a
mass meeting. "Too multuous," replied the
other "Oh, no! just about enough to comforta-
bly, fill the hall"
Es-"The strongest propensity in woman's
nature" says careful student OF the sex, sis
to want to know what is going on, and the aex'
| =. l. L.. IL soIff