The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-01-17
HE TRUTH ABOUT IMMORTALITY
AMONG THE PILGRIMS OF NEW ENGLAND

~OOD Americans are becoming
more deeply interested each
wear that passes in the init
mate. every day life of those
.b, buiIt up this country. In her new
h,,s Social Life in Old New England"
ruhlished By Little, Brown and Com
n,ny Mary Caroline Crawford throws
= lot Of illumination on this phase of
ts,ory. Among other things she ex-
mains that the marriage customs among
hc New England Puritans were any
thing but circumspect.
So one who reads history intelligently,
,,vs the tu,hor, can have failed to OBJ
,rve that morals, as well as social
customs, are lneXtricably bound up with
climatic Conditions, transportation IA
,lties and the current standards of
living. The fact that Madam Knight,
mon making her renowned journey
,,om Boston to New York in 1904, fire.
ouen,ly shared her sleeping room with
arrange mcu-travellers like herself
soes not a. all mean that this estimable
Boston schoolmistress was lady OF
Bghf morals. but simply that the ext
fenries OF the situation and the customs
Of the tine made necessary this, to us,
revolving custom. In a similar way we
nay account for the much more re-
voltng custom Of bundling, as 1t was
called. which so frequently prefaced
marriage In old New England. Histor-
ans generally are inclined to touch
nga,Iy If at all on this phase of our
Early soct, life. feeling, very likely, that
10 give such an institution the promi-
nencc il really possessed would be to
detract from the dignity of their mar
ratiuns Ny excuse for taking a some
Shat different attitude on this matter
must # an Excuse Is needed lie in the
contention Thomas Wentworth Higgin-
son was wont 10 make; that the truth
Of history is a sacred thing, a thing
Gar more important than its dignity.
The almost systematic suppression of
ty.drnc- IN regard to the laxity of SEX
val relations IN early New England is
particularly to be condemned for the
reason that contemporary literature re-
peatrdly refers with utter frankness to
bundiuE as a social custom. In The
Contrast" one of the earliest of Ameri-
can plays. which was written by Royal
Tyl,r. a New Highlander. and first pro-
duced at the John Street Theatre in
foundly suubbed for philandering with
Jenny. declares thoughtfully that II
that is the way city ladies act, he will
continue to prefer his Tabitha, with her
twenty acres of rock, her Bible, a COW,
and "a little peaceable bundling."'
Again Mrs John Adams, in a letter
written .u 1884 to her elder sister. Mrs.
Crluch. refers 10 this custom in quite
as casual a way as we might to-day
To analogous moral lapses among peo-
pie who's plane of intelligence is not
quite ours. Necessity" she says, as
She describes the common cabin OF the
sailing vessel in which she is just then
crossing the Atlantic. necessity has no
hw hut should l have thought on
yhorr 10 have laid myself down in COM
mon with half dozen gentlemen? We
have curtains. II is true, and We only
in part undress-about as much as the
Yankee bundlers."
Bunding II should be understood. was
not replrded as an immoral CUSTOM il
was a practice growing out of the primi-
tive social and Industrial conditions of
IN times, and was tolerated, If not en-
tourlged, in the country districts as a
means Of promoting matrimony. Two
young people who intended to marry
lived far apart and worked early and
hte all the week. Only on Saturday
evening and Sunday could they meet
for love making. Accordingly. on the
eve OF the Sabbath, the man would
buruey to the home of his beloved and,
quite regularly, stay there until Sum
day, Throughout the evening they
would be able to see each other only