Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1878-07-18
ed western 3O1S21ac; white western 32036c; mix
ed steady ut 3O1a Gy32c.
PROviSIONS-Pork, $1O.3ODlO.5O. Gut meats,
ndll: long clear mddles, 6.6OD6.GO. Lard, prime
ste I'M thy.
More MeMnOniteS.
New York World.

More MennOnites.
| New York World.t
The steamship Harrisburg, of the NORTH
German Lloyd line, arrived yesterday from
Bremen, having on board five hundred ane
nineteen Mennonite immigrants from the
interior of Russia in families averaging si1
persons. They are all of the class of agricul
tural laborers except one or two blacksmiths
and several carpenters. The ocean voyage
was made without any mishap, and there
we're no deaths or sickness of any kind on
the ship. The party is to be divided into
three sections, going to Minnesota, Kansas
and Nebraska, where they intend to farm it
Most of them have some money, and some
ing for their respective destinations by the
Erie railroad.
During their brief stay at Castle Garden
they awakened much interest, and were the
source of much amusement to the emigration
officers. They were marvelously attired in
garments of the most fantastic shapes and
of the most remarkable fabrics. Alpaca
shirts extensively figured with flowers were
much affected by the men, and the women
were dressed in the picturesque peasant
costume of Russia, wearing high leather
boots like the men, but discarding them and
| going barefooted as soon as they landed
One of the oldest of the Mennonites was a
YER; old, gray-headed, one-legged man, with
white hair and beard cut loose round his
large square head and face. With a long
pipe in his mouth and pair of Old-fashion-
ed, heavy, brass-bound spectacles on his
nose, he amused himself by trying to make
out the inscriptions on his railroad ticket to
Minnesota, which he held at arms length in
his hand. The children, many of whom are
very pretty, ran about the place laughing
around all old Irishwoman who was trying
to sell them cakes, and speaking to them in
her native brogue.
The luggage of the Mennonites was i'm
mense, including large, heavy, wooden boxes.
ornamented without by rude drawings Of
flowers and animals, bundles and parcels
without number, and cradles in use and
ready for emergencies. Nearly every family
group camped on the floor of the room in
Castle Garden had an old-fashioned kettle
out of which they drank from the spout
some beverage which they seemed to enjoy.
Altogether, they seemed to be enjoying
themselves very much, and altogether they
made as pleasant, promising, and picturesque
group of emlgrants as has been seen in
Castle Garden for long time.
Mennonites are Protestant denomination
who reject infant baptism and baptize adult
persons only on profession of faith, prac-
ticing also non-resistance and abstinence
from oaths, thus combining some of the
leading principles of the Baptists with some
of the distinctive views of the Friends,
though historically they preceded both. The
Anabaptists, to give them the title originally
conferred upon them by their opponents,
though they called themselves baptizers
(t0uter,) formed their first church at Zurich
in 1926, and rapidly spread through Switzer-
land. Persecution drove them to south
Germany, where more than three thousand
of them were martyred; flying to Moravia,
they greatly increased till the Thirty Years
war drove them away. It was one long tale
of massacre and outrage-their history
Under Philip II. about six thousand of the
Dutch Mennonites, (as the Anababtists,
were called after their reorganization and
indoctrination by Memo Symons) suffered
death; when William of Orange rose, the
leaders of the reformed party opposed them,
and not till 1851 did they secure toleration
in the Netherlands. Internal dissention then
beginning, harrassed them until the recon-
ciliation of 1901, since when, though their
; numbers have decreased from 100000 lin
17OO) to 10000 they have prospered greatly.
I'LL the middle of the present century the
Swiss Mennonites have not been tolerated
their children being taken from them to be
baptized. The colonies from which the en-
igrants to-day described come are situated in
southern Russia, near the sea of Azov and
along the Dnieper. Thither went their an
cestors from West Prussia in 1888, acquiring
considerable wealth, and increasing to some
10000 souls. Russia specially exempted
them from military duty, but in 1871 notice
was given that all must undergo CONSUMPTION
who did not emigrate by 1880.
This, however, is not the first Mennonite
movement to the United States. Menronites
were among the first Dutch settlers of New
York; they organized their first church in
1858, near Germantown and in 700 larger
migration began to Lancaster from Switzer-
land and the Palatinate. They are now to
be found in numbers in Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Indiana and Ontario under different names
old Reformed, New, Evangelical, Amish
or Omish, which latter discard buttons in
favor of hooks-and-eyes, and practice feet
washing. Baptism is administered at the
age of eighteen, almost invariably by pour
ing. The Lords supper is celebrated twice
a year, usually preceded by feet-washing.
Honesty, industry, and plainness of dress
and manner are inculcated; no public Office
is accepted which necessitates taking an oath
or infiicting punishment; they never go, to
Flaw.
Within the last seven years the movement
of Mennonites to this country and the Do
minion of Canada, where they have estab-
lished strong colonies in Manitoba, has been
very notable-so notable, indeed, that the
Russian government has made special con-
cessions to induce them to remain at home,
such as permitting them to perform their
military service in hospitals, or in capacities
where arms are not borne. Throughout
Minnesota, Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, and Ne
braska, numerous Mennonite settlements are
found; the inhabitants, from their peaceable-
ness, thrift, and industry, prove remarkably
valuable additions to the community. AS q
rule they bring with them considerable sums
of money, amounting sometimes to thousands
of dollars. On one recent occasion at a
western railroad station q husband and wife,
quarreling and desiring to part; separated by
the off hand ceremony of dividing piece for
piece their money between them, the share of
each exceeding So, 900. Already they have left
their impress on the social life Of the wes-
tern plains in one really important detail
the warming of their houses by the combus-
ton from time to time, during the cold
weather, of large quantitie of straw and
similar substances in large furnaces or ovens.
The temperature thus obtained ;is more
agreeable and healthful than that resulting
from a more expensive fuel-fuel, indeed,
being very rare on those treeless plains. In
deed, not q few American neighbors of the
Mennonites have borrowed from them this
idea, and found it admirable and econonnii-
ool'i -: ~ :. :. is,s..EE
E -, Il Case Of Cold Te'er sransent. tx, 4
4 A case is reported of man freezing to
death the other day near Meridian, Miss,
from exposure to the weather, and the SUM
mer is not remarkably cool in the, saouth
either. In fact the thermometer marked go
degrees where the freezing was, done. He
was a young man named james Knox who
ipresented this anomaly in nature. He had
been suffering with cold continually for
about . year, and required heavy wraps and
| bib fires to exist at all. In the meantllne