The Bellefontaine Republican. [volume] (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio) 1855-1905, 1899-07-18
AN AMANA ROMANCE.

What led Herr Schweppe TO join the
Amanites no one knew but the elders.
The Amanites did not gossip about it.
They were not given to gossiping about
anything. Work, duty. God-these
were all their thoughts. But the visit
ors to the close lying Amana villages
seldom failed to notice that Herr
Schweppe was gentleman and to won
der how he came to join the Amanites,
with their plain clothes and their lives
of toll. The mystery was hid in the
books of the elders. There was once a
visitor who claimed that he had had a
glimpse of the page and saw BIS
marck" written twice ON Herr
Schweppe' q record. The name was 'Von
Schweppe. too. this visitor said,
though it was only Schweppe now.
Be that as it may. Herr Schweppe's g
daughter Annie bore the traits of no.
BILE German birth. She was dark hair
ed. dark eyed maid. appearing among
the ether girls of the community like a
bit of Sevres ware surrounded by pieces
of useful but homely plain white china.
Little did the thrifty. godly Amanites
care for such beauty. In Amana a yard
of blue calico was accounted as worth
far more than dimple.
The sorrows of exile killed Herr
Schweppe when Annie was a child. be-
fore she had grown so beautiful. Annie
had never seen a mirror. and no one
told her of her beauty. Her mother
gloated over it in secret. She loved An
ME far better than the elders would
have sanctioned. but when the child
was near she was silent and cold. The
life of repression had had its effect on
poor Mother Schweppe.
In Amana the elders discouraged
lovemaking Men and women entered
the church by different doors. and a
line of sawdust box cuspidors marked
off the men side of the house. But
among the girls at the Amana gasthaus
were two persons who did not have the
| law of Amana in their hearts. They
were not Amana girls, but came from
permitted his daughter to be subjected
to the gaze of the strangers in the CAST
hans 1t was Madge and Nora, alas,
who put all the mischief into Annie's
| mind.
juno moonlight was falling over the
yellow wheatfields. and the fragrance
of grapevine blossoms on the wall hall
| intoxicated Annie as she leaned out OF
| the small. square window next the
slanting roof of her mothers cottage
| It was while Annie was still thinking
| of the land that might lie outside o.
| Amana that Madge and Nora came
along and asked her to go with them te
their party And Annie stole away ant
went
| A ghostly little party it was. o
Madge and Nora and Annie and only
three others in the hotel kitchen, br,'
as they sat in the glare of the oil larnI
| reflector it seemed to Annie the wild, 81
dissipation. Two sheepish young
| Amanites slouched ON the bench at ons
side of the kitchen. nervously pulling
their straw hats over their faces if any
one glanced at them. The third youns
man was entirely unlike these. Annie
/ UlS cy Co anu tA1hOAOuGs SoLSN az hAih ~
wonder. He wore such clothes as ftte(
him. His ruddy hair was brushed bacl
from his ears, not over them, in tn,
fashion of the Amanites. His face wa
clean shaven. his figure 1.-the ant
sinewy, and his merry eyes roved hithel
and thither while he regaled the com
pany with music. 1t was mouth orgar
which he played, but no matter. Tt
Annie it was heavenly. She had neve
before heard music of any kind. for tn
Amanites attached penalty even t.
whistling. Suddenly Annie was trem
bling and sobbing, and the player. con
science smitten, ceased his melody.
He was not a great stranger to her
as Annie had thought. He had not 81
very many years ago worn the blu
jean and straw hats of the community
He was none other than Hermann, tn
son of Herr Tappan. whom Annie hat
often seen in church when a child. Th
community had permitted Herr Tappal
to send his son away to a college, fo
Hermann was to be the physician o
the community, their Herr Doctor, a
they called him.
Hermann understood the timidity O
Annie. He. too. had once been restrain
ed till all his thoughts were sadness
He bade the girls take her at once t
her mothers cottage. and he watche
them all till Annie had disappeare
through the window
But why should the young Herr Doc
tor come to Mother Schweppes cottag
next day. asking for her famous win
for his patients2
"Knowest thou not have dispose
of it long before this timer erie
Mother Schweppe.
81 thought perhaps thou mightst b
making it again. faltered Hermann.
MAKE wine in June? What sort c
mani" And Mother Schweppe laughe
loudly and unmelodiously. much as on
of her cabbages might have laughed.
And while her dull eyes were close
in mirth Hermann crushed into Ar
nie's hand bit of paper. and Annie
child though she was, hid herself anon
: the grapevines before she dared to ope
D it.
''Thou art most beautiful! l low
thee. That was all.
: After that it was easy for Annie
>l:,x,h 1oxr,x, Tho from he