The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1876-02-19
OLD THE CUSTOMS.

correspondent, writing of the large
class of Pennsylvania farmers descended
from the Germans, and known as Penn
sylvania Dutch, says:
On their farms a plodding activity is
noticeable. Males and females work early
and late, and when evening comes they
retire almost with the chickens, unless
there is some huskiDg or similar gath
ering, as in the winter months, at which
gathering work forms the principal en-
eyment, interspersed with rude plays
and eating and drinking.
During the winter months frolic or
dance is now and then INDUCED in, at
which the old-fashioned cabin music and
dances are reproduced. When the frolic
is over, which is generally toward morn
ing, the lads and lasscs move in pairs
toward the homes of the latter, and then
a short but earnest courtship or "spark-
ing" begins, and lasts till daybreak,
when the dad" calls to work, which is
continued, with few intermissions, until
darkness again breaks upon the fields.
Courtship among these people, or
"sparking," as they call it, is conducted
upon singular principle. During these
sweet pastimes of the young people, no
sitting up is permitted later than nine
O'Clock but as this is deemed too early
an hour for a loving pair to separate, the
courtship is continued under circum-
stances described by Diedrich Knicker-
booker, and known to our Yankee ances-
tors as bundling." The custom has
survived to the present day among the
Pennsylvania Dutch. 1t is practiced
with perfect innocence and responsibility,
so far as their own sense of social pro-
priety is concerned.
The custom may have had its origin
in the fact that the cold folks" are al
ways on the alert to get as much work
out of their children, female as well as
male, as possible, before they are of an
age that gives them liberty to work for
themselves, and their belief is that the
regular amount of work cannot possibly
Ike done without due amount of rest.
4 favorite resort o: these young peo-
pie is the Sunday evening church.
When service is over, rows of boys or
young men may invariably be seen
drawn up outside. The girls are thus
made to walk the gauntlet, and here and
there one is picked out and gallanted to
her home. Not unfrequently young
men from towns visit these churches
with a view to the enjoyment of an
evenings adventure among the country
girls. This sometimes creates jealousy
among the country lads, who combine
and send the town boys home with a
pounding. 1t may indeed be safely as
sumed that by far the larger number of
matrimonial matches made among these
people may be traced to these Sunday
evening meetings.
While the cold folks" are most anx-
GUS to see their sons and daughters well
off in financial point of view when mar
rage takes place, they nevertheless at
tach the utmost importance to the other
main qualities which go to make good
husband or wife, and divorce is thing
almost unknown among them. When
they start out in married life, they are
given by the parents something to start
housekeeping with, called "hausteuer,"
and, in the case of the wealthy, farm
to begin life with, after which the young
people must shift for themselves.
Special importance is attached to hav-
ing good, substantial barns. They are
content to live in huts, but the barns
must not only be solid, but also nice
looking structures. To have dilapi-
dated barn or fence they consider a
downright disgrace, while as to the con-
dition of the dwelling they may be per-
fectly Indifferent. Otherwise, their mode
of cultivating the soil is yet of some
what ancient and rude order
The same conservatism that distin-
cuisines their every day life and lends
popularity to it pervades their political
relations. They seldom break off the
party connections once formed. Party
fealty they look upon almost as an in
heritance that descends from father to
son through generations, even like unto
the farm or other property. This gives
rise to the popular saying in Pennsylva-
mia that the German farmers care not |
yet done voting for Jackson" Should |
they move into Il town or city, however, |
and live there for some time, they feel |
more at liberty to think for themselves,
and vote accordingly. In the country,
however, they can always be depended !
upon, and for that reason they receive |
special attention at the hands of the pol |
iticians, because the party that once
gains the ascendancy among them will
retain it for a long time.
Their hatred of the English has been.
transmitted to them from their forefath-
ers down, owing to a conviction enter
tanned among them that they were badly
used by the British government. This
feeling is gradually wearing away, how
ever, and there is room to hope that at
no distant day it will be entirely oblit-
Grated by intermarriage, though there is
yet Il disposition to prevent by all posi-
BILE means their SONS and daughters from
taking wives or husbands that are not
of their own nationality.
Thus they have for generations pre-
served an exclusiveness almost without
parallel, except in the history of the
Chinese. This is demonstrated by the
extent of relationship existing in those
localities where these people have
long been settled. Thus have found on
the registry in one township upward
Of one hundred Artys, more than fifty
Helpers, and an equal number of Kehl-
ers, ALI in township of less than fifteen
hundred inhabitants
1t is no uncommon thing to find aged