The Opelousas courier., 1889-10-19
AMERICAN DUTCH.
THE QUAINT OLD COLONY IN
PENNSYLVANIA.
Customs of a Domestic, Home
Loving People = funeral
Feasts-Courting Among
the Young Folks.

ago the Quaker Assembly of Pennsyl-
vania ordered that none but English
speaking emigrants should be the SUBJECTS
of naturalization. The same body pro-
vided a few years later that every for
eigner to the English Government arrlv-
ing after the passage Of the act should
pay a duty of forty shiliinGs and swear
allegiance to Great Britain and the pro-
vince. These and other measures dis
couraging to prospective emi@rants who
fell within their scope were all aimed aG
the Germans. Prior to the year l727
more than fifty thousand of them were
snugly established in the Quaker pro-
vince. In spite of these laws more were
coming by every ship, and the followers
of Penn were disturbed in spirit. But
the prescribed German stolidly bided his
time. He came, paid his duty and stayed.
He took possession of the rich farms
along the Susquehanna, the Lehigh,
and the Juniata, and filled the glorious
valleys which lead down to the rivers.
He began to have things his own way,
and when the new order was established
after the Revolution, fe held in his
hands the political power of the great
State which he had turned into a gar
den where the gods might dwell. The
most timorous Quaker, fearful of Ger
man ascendancy, could scarcely have
had a provision of the complete triumph
attained by his Teutonic rival at the be-
ginning of the present century, The
Quaker was already little more than a
memory; the German the potent fact of
the social and political order. But 10!
when the victor proclaimed his conquest
it was in a s~trange+pngue; he no longer
thought nor felt as a German. The
Fatherland was not beyond seas, but
here. Germany was no more to him than
it was to Patrick. He had become a
Pennsylvania Dutchman.
THESE people have retained all the -
!, mirable domestic, home-loving chase
t~eristics of the race from which they
sprung. No wives are more loyal, 40
mothers more devoted to their children,
than these. Among the young people
the singing-school is a weekly entertain
ment during the winter, and dancing is
held in favor.
No event calls out SO large a number
| of people as a funeral. The moment one
of the family dies the survivors begin to
bake and cook and gather supplies. There
is little time for grief; the funeral is but
three days off at most, and if there should
be any skimping of the feast, to which
the minister will be authorized to invite
from the pulpit all the friends of the fam
lily, it would be disrespectful to the dead
and discreditable to the living. And
there, too, must be prepared the mid
night lunch for the watchers who will
guard the remains. Two young men OF
the neighborhood will be detailed for
this purpose, and it will be their priv
lege to select the two young ladies who
are to help them while away the long
hours. In a room adjoining that in
which the body is lying these watchers
amuse themselves in whatever way they
choose. Every hour the young men en-
ter the death-chamber and look upon the
features of MIN who sleeps the eterna1
sleep; while the two girls, awed and
nervous at being alone so near the visible
presence of death. tremblingly wait the
return of their gallant companions. It
is a beautiful custom, that of watching
over the dead, and characteristic of u
reverent and affectionate race. Yet it
must be confessed that owing to the
presence of the young ladies the watch
ers generally manage to extract more
pleasure out of it than is consistent with
its solemnity. It will be found that the
| abundant preparation of tsfuneral baked
meats" has been timely enough. As
soon as the service is ended at theAgrave
all the assemblage returns to he house,
and the feasting ends not UNI the last
neighbor has gorged himself as only a
Pennsylvania Dutchman can on a holiday.
Hundreds of them partake of these
funeral feasts, and they regard it as a
matter Of pride when the number is
larger than usual.
The Pennsylvania Dutch young man
rarely takes a lady to church or singing
school. When the meeting is ended the
young men hurry out and stand in a row,
or a double row on each side of the walk.
When the girl of his choice comes by.
the young man steps up with assumed
holiness and a display of confidence not
warranted by his feelings and shoves out
his elbow. Sometimes she pulls back
her arm with a contemptuous little jerk
and a saucy toss of the head, to the great
Joy of a luckier fellow further down the
line; while the rejected swain steps back
into his place to undergo an unmerciful
guying and wait for another with whom