Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1885-03-05


The Friends have been always an i'm
portant element of the population in
Rhode Island, and the Newport Yearly
Meeting is kind OF annual convocation
or general assembly Of that silent COM
rnunion which is very familiar. In the
older days, when the narrow streets of
the town were filled with the plain
garb of the brethren and sisters from
all parts of the country how true
seemed the gracious words "The very
garments of Quaker seem incapable
Of receiving q soil, and cleanliness in
them to be something more than the
absence of its contrary. Every Quaker
ess is a lily, and when they come up in
bands to their .Whitsun conferences,
whitening the eastern streets of the
metropolis, from all parts of the United
Kingdom, they show the troops OF the
Shining Ones"
If the young Whittier was ever
brought to the May meeting in old New
port, he would have thought it soft
diabolic enticement if some fancy had
whispered to him that one day he would
be held in reverence and honor as a
writer OF verses, and that his portrait
would be cherished among the chief
ornaments of school of his unworldly
fraternity. The MUSES. were but pagan
goddesses to the older Quakers. James
Naylor and George Fox would have put
aside the sweet solicitations Of color
and Of song, as st. Anthony avoided
the Establishments of the lovely siren
whom he knew to be the devil. But
gently the modern Quakers have been
won over. The grim austerity, as of
the Puritan, has yielded to kindly
sympathies, and the wholesome gay
cites and the refining graces of life are
not disowned by the quietists. Nay,
even in severer day was there not a
certain elegance of taste in Friends raj
ment? If the bonnet were rigidly of
the Quaker type, was it not of exquis-
lite texture? Was not the fabric of the
dress as delicate and soft as if woven
in Persian looms? Was sense of
Quaker aristocracy unknown, and has
no Quaker equipage been seen which
rolled with an air as superior as that of
q cardinals carriage?
But what delightful character the
Quaker tradition impaired to every
thing that it touched A certain grave
and sweet simplicity, an air of candor
and of plain rectitude, frank and fra
ternal heartiness-these were all dis
tinctively Quaker. They were initiated
to base ends, indeed, and no rogue SO
roguish as a counterfeited Quaker; no
stories of such SNUG duplicity as those
which were told of the smooth knaves
in drab. But it was only the homage
to virtue. Knaves wore the Quaker
Justly identified with honesty. Those
whose early youth was familiar with
Friends, as with them and among them,
but not of them, still delight in the rec
objection, and associate with them still
q refined superiority.
That the rigid traditions have been
relaxed is apparent from the very incl
dent that We have mentioned. The
Muses. have penetrated the Friends
Boarding School. There is piano in
the hall. There are busts and portraits
Of famous Friends. There were elo-
quence and poetry in commemoration |
Of Quaker poet. There were univer-
sal affection and gratitude for the
singer and his song. Bernard Barton |
was Quaker poet. But Whittier is
the Quaker poet. 1t was a curious il
lustration of the happy fusing of differ |
ing creeds in generous human sympa-
thy and admiration that at the Puritan |
dinner in New York on Forefathers'
l nles"J tSfSgs T. Yfaafse, The RAmf5hsG SdR6-
cate, said to the Easy Chair, My poet
Of poets is Whittier" John Bright |
has publicly testified his honor and re-
gard And who does not? That purity |
and simplicity and native dignity of
life blending with the pure and tender
and humane song-they are q national
possession, they are ennobling and in
spring. That example in the sight of
all American youth, that steady fidel-
ity to plain living and high thinking, is
valuable. 1t is not APP
and it can not be, by the
religious community to which |
the poet belongs 1t is common ben
William Curtis, IN Hdr-
peT'S MAGAZINE.