Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1886-07-20
AN INTERESTING PEOPLE.

The Pecullaritie5 OF the Pennsylya MIA
Germans Described by One OF Them.
Rev. Lee Heilman recently delivered
an interesting discourse on "Pennyl.
vania Germans" in Grace Lutheran
Church, Chicago. In the course Of his
remarks the speaker observed:
"The Pennsylvania Germans arc
really Americans. They have descend.
ed from foreign parentage, but reared
on Pennsylvania soil, they have SC
long stood aloof from the Germans,
that the tongue of that nation is but
poorly understood by them. They
have, however, retained the language
Of their fatherland, but with such nb-
breviations and notifications as would
make it accord with the busy progress
of American life.
Originally, many of them were
Quakers, but they have touched the
life lines of our country in all dircc-
tions and are enrolled in every branch
OF civilization fostered by American
freedom, and their tongue, with It's
mutilations. mas been heard in the halls
of National and State Legislatures with
mvarying might, dignity and credit.
They have been ridiculed for the simple
fact that they have been misunderstood.
Their customs and habits are peculiar
ly their own. They'had the happy fac
ulty of making work pleasure, and
learned the grace of tightening bur-
dens by sharing them. Their quilting,
spinning, cider-making, plowing, hay
making, husking and harvesting, while
being prosecuted in cheerful COM
panics, were robbed of irksomeness
and reduced to the level of what they
were able to consider daily pleasure.
Much of their domestic drudgery was
done in rounds, and the weaving of
bed and table linen, the sour-kraut
making, the picking, the preserving
OF fruits and smoking of meats, were all
the result of mutual interest and mutrl-
al help. The boys and girls were sent
to school supported by general SUBJ
scription, and lessons on morals were
as liberally dispensed as their hospital
ity or their assistance at the seeding
and harvesting seasons. Their churches
were simple, and so was the service
and the pew. They buried their dead
tenderly, lovingly and sorrowfully, and
with the omission of much of the false
ceremony and hollow mockcry that is
now noticeable Their courtships were
shy, and flirtations unknown, for traffic
in affections was considered too despic-
able for any honorable man or woman
to indulge in. 1t has been said that
Americans have no homes, that their
flowers are without fragrance, and their
birds without song, but the home life
of the old Pennsylvania German is
living contradiction of that libel. There
was little school life for their sturdy
little children, but the deficiency was
well atoned for in the universaiity of
home education. They studied the
ways of birds, fish, fowls and beasts, and
their knowledge of the clouds, rainbow,
seasons, moon and stars would shame
many specialist of nature. The most
Jealous care and devotion was bestowed
on the youth, and in infancy the child
was stroked, and rubbed, and turned,
so that all parts and every organ in the
little anatomy should become vigorous
and assertive. The result was race
of sturdy men and women, fit not only
to live, but to live well. They trained
from the cradle to frugality
and temperance, habits which were
confined to no condition or station,
and even to-day YOU will find them in
afiiuence early risers, abstemious and |
economic. This robust living left no
for the breeding of tramps
and rascals, although they are not with
out the average blots of humanity.
Chicago Inter Ocean,