Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1880-07-24
An Account OF Some Of Pennsylvania
Queer Sects.

Amish and the Seventh Day Bapusts.
These plain and simple folks are scat
tered all over Eastern Pennsylvania.
They recently held their annual love
feast in Lebanon County, near Hum
melstown. They had an OK roast. pub
lie feet washing, a praise meeting, and
a general reunion. About six hundred
persons were present.
To the stranger these various Penn
sylvania German sects all look alike,
but upon close inquiry their beliefs.
forms of worship, habits and customs
are found to be different. One sect
baptizes by plunging the convert three
times into the water forward; another
sect plunces its converts into the water
backward One uses no buttons on
garments: another uses buttons. The
no-button people use hooks and eyes
only. The dress of one of these farm
ers is usually a very broad-brimmed
black wool hat, stiff and strong;a dark
brown GETAWAY coat, with small collar
and no lapels; hooks and eyes in a row
down in front; dark pantaioons. cut
straight up and down Ono spring bot
toms) His hair is always worn very
long. and cut of straight, like brush.
Generally they are dark-haired and
dark-eyed. Their style of dress has
not changed in hundred years, and
their tailors have used nothing but the
regulation patterns since their ances-
tors first crossed the sea The young
men follow closely in the paths of their
fathers, and the makeup Of sixteen
year-old boy is generally the same as his
fifty-year-old sire.
The women wear the plainest of gar
ments; coarse brown or dark gray
froeks with very narrow skirts; dark
silk bandkerchiefs over their shoulders;
black silk and pasieboard bonnets,
stiilly made on the scoop-shovel pat
tern; 4 pair OF rough calfskin shoes.
Thus atiired they are ready for a meet
ing. the market. or a marriage, as the
case may be- The seventeen-year-old
girl dresses like her mother and grand
mother. only the child sometimes wears
silk kerchief of color brighter than
that worn by her mother. To see their
pretty black eyes it is necessary to get
look at them from the front.
The assemblageat the love feast was
made up of just this class of people.
Some of them came twenty miles, and
their conveyances covered several acres.
These farmers generally own first-class
horses. and they take pride in driving
10 the feast in their very best turnouts.
An ample stock of feed is brought with
them, and the horses are tied along the
fences. Four ministers or speakers
were present The feet-washing was at
night. These services take place once
year before harvest, and are held to
give praise 10 the Lord for His good
ness in sending them abundant crops.
The ceremony OF washing feet is usual
Is private The men cird themselves
with towels and, with basin in hand,
wash the feet of their brothers, as a
lesson in humility. The women wash
each others feet in the same manner.
The baptisms are public. Then follows
general rejoicing, and roasted OK is
eaten.
"You are welcome" said broad
brim 10 his city visitors. - You are
welcome to partake of what we have.
All strangers are welcome"
In the conversation that followed, the
old gentleman said: I'VE very rarely
engage in law suits; never among our
selves. We settle our own grievances
between us, stick together, intermar-
~. keep honest. and that's about the
way we get along. II You want to find
the omish people You must 90 down
into the Conestoga Valley in Lancaster
County. The Dunsards live over in
Berks and Lancaster Counties, the
Seventh Day Baptists about Ephrata,
which is sometimes called Dunkard-
town; the Moravians are over in Beth
lehem. and also in Litiz, Lancaster
County. We are all pretty much cut
over the same cloth, but there are many
writers who get us mixed up in their
dissertations. Yesterday ,attended the