The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1876-10-13
THE DUNKERS.s
A curiou. ct and Curiou. Ca.tom..


Cincinnati Commercial, from the Ger
man verb dunken, to dip or duck, a
| word used in familiar, conversational
German. The German Baptists immerse
| their converts in manner wholly Pc
culiar. They take the convert down to
the waters edge, always to river or
running stream, none of your new-fan-
gled warm church cisterns, and have him
| kneel down in the water. Then the
preacher takes him by the back of the
neck and dips him under the water, face
| foremost, you understand, not backwards,
as do the other Baptists. They dip him
under, face foremost, three times, once
in the name of the Father, once in the
name of the Son, and once in the name
of the Holy Ghost, thus giving him a
| triple or trine baptism. Hence the nick
name bunker or Ducker.
The men of the church part their hair
| in the middle, wear both hair and beard
quite long, and look like pictures Of the
old Bible patriarchs. They wear long
hair and beard because the patriarchs and
| 'postles did, and are forbidden to crop
| their hair short or to shave their beard
off.
The religious ceremonies which par
ticularly distinguish this from other
christian churches, are kissing, feet-wash-
ing and soup-eating. In various places
in the the New Testament the " holy
kiss and the " kiss of charity" are
mentioned therefore when these breth-
ren and sisters meet at church they
shake hands and kiss. When a brother
comes into church he shakes hands with
and kisses all the brethren, a sister ditto
the sisters. | confess it nearly upset my
4 b Cd old IL
lows come in and kiss one another, with
a sounding smack, all around. L dare
say one could get used to it though. The
brethren kiss the brethren and the sis
tiers kiss the sisters.
But they never kiss across.
In the matter of greeting cOlored
brethren with the holy kiss, the church |
rules say that inasmuch as some white |
members have a weakness against kissing |
colored folks, it is considered advisable" |
that the coiered brethren put up with !
that weakness for the present, and excuse |
the holy kiss until such time as the |
white brethren become stronger in the |
faith.
The German Baptists take their chill
dren to church, babies and all, in ancient
pioneer fashion. There were people in
the little Westinghouse from seventy
years to six moths old. The old bunker
women have the peaceablest, prettiest
faces 1 ever saw on any old lady. The
faces of the women, from the oldest to
the Youngest, are all so fair
and sweet-looking. There sat a
venerable grandmother with snowy
hair and calm, fair face. Be
side her a beautiful young mother
with her baby, the cunnlngest little
bright-eyed bunker baby, a perfect pic
ture of the Madonna and child. And, if
you'll believe me, even that bunker
baby wore on its face the bunker look
of inefable calm and peace, too.
You won't be surprised that the Dun
ker sisters faces look fair and unwrinkled
and sweet tempered, when Itell you how
they dress. Their dress-up church cos
tune is plain cut calico dress and cape,
and a gray calico sun bonnet. The
mems dress is of the very plainest cut,
too. Only think of it, friends. Suppose
we could one and all suddenly cut away (
cumbrous and uncomfortable
from our dress and from our lives, and
have no more overskirts, bustles, ruffies, :
tight boots, tight dresses, tight coats, ]
tight heads or corn doctors; no pearl
powder, false hair, false smiles
Or false hearts, no worry and !
leartache and schening to dress i
Is well as this woman or that one, {
md no wicked envy or spite in our '
hearts because we can't do it; suddenly t
20 throw all this rubbish aside forever, g
md be simply natural and comfortable. {
The very thought of it makes wOman's t
leart ache TO fly away and be bunker I
lister, too.
1t must be something in the peaceful, I
imple lives of these women which makes |
hem so pleasant to look at. 1t appears 7
o me l never saw SO many silk dresses @
ogether in my life as / saw in Cincin t
lati congregation last Sunday, AID yet,
mong all these elegant ladies, failed I
o see one face rs serene and fair and l
,urc as the faces of the bunker sisters a
hat Sunday in the rude little church. S
t must be there is some hidden spell. Il
90, in a straight, light calico dress and n
ray sun bonnet, for the young bunker Il
iris, who mostly wore the worlds dress, r
Doked coarse and commonplace beside Il
heir mothers in the bunker costume. r