The San Francisco call., 1899-04-09

y NE who had never seen IT would
scarcely have believed there could
be so solemn period in buoyant,
blithesome and flippant California.
People We're coming in ones,
twos and threes down the road in
the clear moonlight, and were soemnly
ascending the creaking wooden stairs to
an upper room of a cheap wooden build
ing. No one spoke. Even the children
who came that way and ascended to the
room were occurrences personified.
There were gaunt, solemn-faced, silent
men, with bushy whiskers about their
throats and clean-shaved upper lips. The
men were all garbed exactly alike-long
black coats, fastened together with hooks
and eyes way TO the chin, shOd with
clanking boots and surmOunted by very
broad-brimmed hats. There were also lit
tie, thin, intensely serious faced women
who came down the road and silently
climbed to the upper room. They were
specimens of Immaculate cleanliness.
They were all gowned alike. That is,
they wore black gowns of severest pat
tern, black shawls without the least or
namentation and on their heads they
wore little bonnets Of black fabric similar
TO those of the Shakers.
This was in the colony Of the strange
Dunkard sect in the little fOothin hamlet
Of Lordsburg. in the northern part Of Po-
mona Valley. on the eastern edge of Los
Angeles county ana ClOSe DeSlQe the main
line OF the Santa Fe Railroad. The time
was last Sunday evening
Then what followed in that upper room
vas as tOuchingly solemn as one cannot
easily imagine in these materiahstic and
iconoclastic days. The Dunkard sect had
assembled from all over Southern Cali
fOrnia for a semi annual observance of
the Lords Supper and a performance Of
the acts Of the Master and his disciples
on that occasion. Nothing like 1t is
known west Of the Dunkard colony at
MCPHERSON, Kansas.
The room was long and narrow. A
Puritan meeting in the days of
John Alden and Roger Williams could
not have been more severely plain. No
carpets, no upholstery, no comfort or or
nament. But the neatness and the quiet
solemnity. On one side sat on cheap
wooden benches several score of women
IN their plain black gowns and their little
black bonnets close about their ears.
None Of them looked up, and each was
wrapped In serious thought A few wept
in silence. On the other side OF the room
sat almost as many bewhiskered and
black-coated men equally serious and con-
tempative The mems broad-brimmed
black hats hung in rows on the white
washed walls At one end of the room
was a raised platform. Four aged men
with a prodigious growth of snow-white
Z
there. The men on the floor were sep
arated from the women by long, narrow
tables, upon which immaculate linen
spreads had been laid A few invited visi-
tors, upon whom the oppressive silence
had its effect, sat on one side and lis
tened.
For a full half hour no one spoke. The
rustling Of the foliage out of doors was
the only sound that came In upon the SOL
emn scene. Then one Of the aged men
on the platform rose with deliberation
and announced in slow, measured accents
that the Lords Supper would be observed
by the brothers and sisters, in imitation
Of that last night of the Master in Jeru-
salem.
Several men and women went out, pres
emily reappearing each with a small tub
Of water and towels. The men in turn
washed one another's feet. The women
did likewise among themselves. Down
the rows Of men the tubs were carried
along from one to another The brothers
ono after another removed their boots
and stockings and awaited the moment
Of his own foot-washing. When his next
brother on the left had performed the Of
flee for him, he rose in his bare feet and
girding himself about with a towel (as
the Gospels describe the original Lords
Supper and knelt and washed and wiped
the feet OF the next brother on the right.
AS he laved the brothers feet he rever-
entity uttered these words: This do /
humbly and affectionately for my brother
in Christ as the Master did" The tubs
Of water and the towels passed slowly
along the lines Of Dunkard men.
At the same time the sisters were pi
ously performing a like service for one
another. There was no sound save the
splashing of water, removal Of boots and
shoes and the almost inaudble benedic-
tions of the brothers and sisters for one
another respectively. Occasionally a
brother or a sister, moved by the spirit
Of the occasion, saluted one Of the same
sex with a silent kiss. Some men and we-
men wept in the intensity of the occa-
sion.
When the feet Of the last brother and
sister had been washed and the shoes had