The Amish — This Strange People

Have you heard an American speak of a folk called the “Amish”?...

They are a people who live according to traditions of their own; they do not mix with society, and modern civilization has not spoiled their life... The Amish are farmers, living in security and peace, and in the very heart of the United States; they differ in their worship, their dress, even in their food and their manner of living together, and they hold fast to the old customs; their number does not exceed 250 thousand souls, scattered among the states of Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Ohio...

These people rely on the Holy Bible as the guide of their daily life; their origin goes back to the Swiss, Dutch, and German peoples who moved away when the emigration first began and settled in the new land... The sum of their faith is three words: “obedience, simplicity, and love.” Wherever this people lives, security and calm hold sway, and whoever draws near their land feels a touch of tranquil artlessness; even the very nature of their land and their fields is calm, in harmony with the character of its inhabitants...

The Amish still hold fast to the traditions of Holland in the seventeenth century; they differ from other Christians in that they do not believe in early baptism, nor do they appoint priests to perform the religious duties... Then, too, they set themselves against worldly life, so they take no drink, do not dance, and do not play cards.

The sum of their faith is three words: “obedience, simplicity, and love” — a touch of tranquil artlessness reigns over their land.

They take no drink, do not dance or play cards, and use neither telephone nor electricity.

Their life clings forever to the good earth.

Will the reader believe that these pictures show a people dwelling in the United States of America today, and not in ages gone by?...

Just so, they use neither telephone nor electricity nor the rest of the modern inventions...

Their rest is work, their life simplicity and calm. As for farming, they rely on their own arms, shunning the modern agricultural appliances — and yet their land yields the most abundant of harvests!.. They grow tobacco, but smoking is permitted only to the men, and only when they have come of age. When one of them wishes to undertake some task, all the neighbors hurry to help him, and the work is followed by the traditional feast; they finish their labors with a speed beyond all description — the building of an animal barn, however large, needs no more than a single night and scores of arms.

The Amish allow their children to receive the elementary schooling; then the girl turns to the kitchen and the boy to the farm, for their life clings forever to the good earth.

Perhaps the most curious of this people's features is the traditional dress, from which they do not swerve by a hair's breadth. The children wear the dark colors to make up beforehand for their tomorrow, since the men and women carry the wearing of artless costume to its limit, its colors never departing from black or white. The girls take a coquettish pride in wearing the traditional bonnet, and the boys appear in their uniform dress, as though they were a drilled army!..

They are skilled at several handicrafts, such as embroidery, the ornamenting of vessels, and carving on wood; and you find them free in their worship, practicing it in the home of one of their number, for they take no interest in raising places of worship.

The government has tried, several times, to intervene in their life and persuade them to fall in step with modern living, but it has not succeeded; just as the men of social science have failed to change the path that the Amish have chosen and follow today... and their sons tomorrow!...