The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1899-10-14

encourage life insurance. lghtning in-
gur8nce or secret societies. The churen
forbidB them to have photographs tax
en-, and Sunday school plcnies, celebra-
lions and musical Instruments In the
sanctuary are barred.
At their conferences are love feasta,
followed by foot-waShing SERVICES,
when the older members kneel beside
their commandments and perform the
lowly service. The brothers feet are
washed by an elder, the listers feet by
q sister OF standing II the church. Up
and down the row the washers go,
touching the barred feet With pure water
and then drying them with a towel,
while a text Of blessing Is Whispered.
The baptism Is In running water, and
It Is no unusual thi1s for them to cut
the Ice for the ceremony In all they
seek to follow Bible customs literally.
While It Is true that the giddy social
and the animated fair and sewing circle
do not offer delights TO them. there are
other ways OF enjoying themselves.
The women. who SIT by themselves In
church, gather at one SIDE after the ser
vice and have q friendly chat. They
have no worldly amusements, but en-.
10Y life in their own way. The greatest
Of all their delights 10 to go back to
Pennsylvania on a visit. Wet or dry,
corn crop or not, they are always ready
for It. At first the railroad agents did
not understand It. One day after q
long spell Of drought that made every
body else look blue and caused the pes
simlstic ones to think Of moving back
east to the wife's folks" the River
Brethren began coming into Abilene.
All had big baskets and were prepared
for journey. The tOwnspeople were
frightened; 1t looked like depopulatlon'
The leaders went down to the Union Pa
cIfic station, followed by the company.
They walked to the ticket window and
planked down $500 FOR round-trip
tickets to Lancaster, Pa, nearly taking
the agents breath away. They have
kept II up ever since. In September,
when the crops are gathered, they make
their pilgrimage.
There e great strife among the rail-
way agents to secure their patronage,
and all the travelling passenger agents
visit Abilene to get It, all but one; he
knows better. Three or four years ago
he loaded party into a chair car "a
Pullman Is an undreamed-ot LUXURY
and when they reached Kansas City IN
order that the other lines should not
secure them, as they had not yet pur-
chased tickets farther east, he locked
GIle pdA9EUbGIH III lAN Ithlf WhNh 80
Iong-haired pilgrims found what had
happened they were indignant. Two Of
them crawied through the window and
bought tickets for the crowd over an
other line. The road represented by the
agent has been boycotted ever since.
AS class the River Brethren are
careful managers, shrewd at bargain,
and stand by each other through thick
and thin The church has eleven bish-
OBS, all farmers and serving without
remuneration They preach all the
sermons, though any member may talk
in meeting IL he feels himself so inclin-
ed. They hold three council meetings
each year. q harvest Thanksgiving
meeting and a general international
conference. all marked by an extreme
conservatism somewhat agBravating
to the younger generation. But their
religion makes good citizens Of them,
and in all their twenty years in Kansas
there has not been single pauper and
only one criminal among them. That is
a good record for 5000 people for two
decades.