The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1944-12-28

ture. These separate dormitories were
lhr stone structure, known as the
connected by another large and SINH
/ church. Here, once a week the men
and women were allowed to be to-
| gether. Their physical proximity was
confined to eating a common meal on
! the Sabbath. Their doctrine being
/ that of German Seventh Day Bap-
/ lists they observed Saturday rather
+ than Sunday as their Day of Worship.
| This common meal was both sacra-
mental and ordinary. 1t was truly a
religious meal. The men sat on one
! side and the women on the other of
long tables. Beneath the tabletop
cut down at slant-were elongated
! shelves in which were kept their
prayer and hymn books. Before and
after meals there were Devotions, the
| singing of the Psalter, the rehearsal
j of their hymns from the compilation
! known as Die Turtletaube." Com
munion was observed each Sabbath.
! All in all, from early until late on
{ Saturday the celibate men and cell
I bate women Of Ephrata Cloisters lived
/ together unto the furtherance of spir-
itual harmony and unto the glory and
praise Of God
J During the other six days of the
week-they were separated and work
ed at separte tasks, both the humble
routine Of house and field, and the
arts and handcrafts. Everything they
| lived by and lived with was made by
their own hands. Glass was made for
windows, jars, glasses, etc. The wom-
en- weaved baskets for every purpose.
Of course they made their own
! clothes. They could have woven car
pets but the use of carpets was con-
sidered worldly They invented many
gadgets one of which was water
! clock. 1t was encased in ornate ma
| hogany and the face Of the clock was
most artistically and symbolically
painted. A few years ago The Met
ropolitan Museum of Art offered the
heirs of Ehprata Cloisters $500 for
this one item-but the heirs turned
down the offer. But perhaps the most
| important contribution Ephrata Clois-
! ters made to American art was the
hand printing with marginal illustra-
tons in vaIi-colored ink of over 1000
| hymns in the hymn-book known as
| die Turtletaube" (Song Of The Lone
some Turtle Dove).
Three copies are known to be exist
ing: one is at Ephrata Cloisters, an
other is in the exhibit of The Penn
sylvania Historical Society, and the
| third is in The Library of Congress,
| Music Dept. The leather binding, the
paper, as we'll as the ink were made
| by these monks. | have examined the
, copies at Ephrata and Washington;
both paper and ink have retained
their original freshness over a span
of 200 years.
) The copy now jealousy guarded in
The Library of Congress came there
in a roundabout way. When Benja-
min Franklin was assigned as Embas-
sador to France the Superior of The
Cloisters Rev Miller, friend both of
Franklin and Washington, presented
Mr. Franklin with a copy of this fam
Gus hymn-book. He told Franklin to
show the Europeans this book and
thus help to discourage the fashion
of European writer's of that period
whose habit was to lampoon the
American wilderness peopled by mon
keys, the vulgar, the incorrigibly
/ ignorant-and only prodigal with
plumber Mr. Franklin used his OPP
portunities well in Paris, thus giving
the cultivated classes of Europe a
new insight into the industry, thrift
and simple ways Of the people on this
new continent. Upon leaving Paris
Mr.. Franklin sojourncd for a few
weeks with friends in England by the
name of Wilkes. Upon leaving he
gave them as a souvenir of his visit
this copy of the Ephlata hymn-book.
Not until 1926 do we hear of this
book again. In this year the heirs of
the Wilkes family decided to sell at
public auction number of valued art
objects in order to resuscitate to some
degree their lost inheritance. Among