Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1888-08-09
ENGLISH ouAkEREssEs.
They Wear Je~elry and Are Adopting
Other Worldly Fashions.


They Wear Jewelry and Are Adopting
Other Worldly Fashions
In the dress of the lady members of
the Society of Friends changes are
certain but less evident. There is
some attempt to depart from the
straightness of old days and to adopt
ion of to-day. Personal adornments
are more numerous than they were
The marriage ring, which some of the
Oldest married ladies once did not
wear, is now universal with those who
have claim to wear it. There is
fair display of jewelry, many-buttoned
gloves have taken the place of those
of old, and the hair is no longer sim
ply smoothed away under the white
cap which seemed incapable of receiv-
ing a spot 1t is true that some OF
the older Quakeresses cling to the old
usages, and you may see in the meet
ing an elderly lady now and then rise
with stiff bonnet and light long vail.
kerchief of pure white or fawn-colored
satin; dress simply and straightly
made, but made of silk such as few of
the worlds people" know of, who
will from a text evolve a few sem
fences, clearly spoken in judiciously
chosen words.
For the Quakeresses have rights be-
yond those of the ladies of most relig-
ious bodies. They hold their own
special meetings. appoint their own
clerks thereto, issue epistles to their
own sex in this country and in Amer
lea, and, as most people know, may
take an equal part with men in the
meetings of the society for worship.
When the stream of Friends enters the
courtyard of their great gathering
place off Bishopsgate it divides itself
into two parts. fling in two d.
visions-tho male Friends going
to their own Westinghouse to
the right and the Quakeresses to
the left to theirs, while, of
course, both join when the meeting is
for worship. But between the two
meetings for business there is the
courtyard, and across this pass door
keepers with letters and other docu-
ments to be read in both gatherings,
while constant stream of late-cOmers
and early-goers, of attendants on the
committees, and of other Friends, makes
the court yard between far from soil
tary. It is wonderful sight, that of
the inner courtyard when the meet
ings are breaking up, and when friends
who have not met perhaps for years
meet there and come as near the gossip
as the Quaker rule allows Longfel-
low, who wrote of the maiden who was
pleased with the thee and thou of
the Quakers," would have had his ear
gratified, for what is denominationally
called the ''plain language" predomi-
mates, and the inquiries are after ''thy
daughter Jane" or the health of Thy
son Edward"
Friendly invitations are given; pos
sibly friendly firtations are begun, for
in the thousands who attend many are
young, and certainly introductions
have been there made which have re-
suited in that most interesting and
unique gathering, a Quaker marriage;
for the social element is one of the
great bonds of quakordOm. The great
boarding-schools of the society gather
all the children of the sect together
those at Ackworth, those at York;
some at Saffron Walden; others at far
Mount Mellick in the Green Isle, and
scholarship at any of these is intro
duction usually to all Quaker homes,
so that LOO boys and girls who are
usually being taught in the great pub
lie schools, form a continuous source
whence the society is recruited.
Quakeresses are entering far more into
the world than they were, and thus
their influence is widening, while the
outward marks that distinguished them
are decaying. Queen.
Although it is not generally known