{"collection":"ame","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/ame/amish/am03.htm","path":"ame/amish/am03.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/ame/amish/am03.htm","text":"The Amish, by A.M. Aurand, [1938]\nGeneral Appearance.\u2014The Amish garb is peculiar to him and his kind. It is dictated in style by their old leaders and deviations are rare.\nJews, Catholics and the plain people alike prefer not to let any other faith get a hold on their off-spring until after they have lived through formative years.\nThe plain people garb themselves not in the manner of the Jew, (whom they unconsciously imitate in many ways\u2014as do all Christians), but after the priests and nuns. The older leaders of the plain people imitated the Catholic clergyman in dress and in discipline, representative of a section of Europe following the Reformation.\nHooks and Eyes instead of buttons are used by Old Order Amish as a church regulation. Their clothes are plainer than those of the plainest Quaker, but the severity of regulations is somewhat modified among the Meeting House Amish.\nThe men's hats are a distinctive, broad, stiff-brimmed type\u2014one looking just like another\u2014dust and all!\nIt is the usual thing for Old Order Amish boys to wear their hats nearly all of the time, except while in school. At recess they cannot be persuaded to doff them while at play.\nThe trousers of an Amishman do not open in the middle by means of a fly, as do those of most every other male American. The plain man's pants open toward the sides, almost at the side seams, with a resultant wide flap in the front. They are called \"broad fall.\"\nMen may shine their shoes (if they wish), and the women may buy and wear polished machine-made footwear.\nIf one could get into a friendly and understanding discourse with men of this faith, as has been done occasionally, one would learn that buttons on the backs of coats, or on coat sleeves, were actually places for the \"devil to hang\n[paragraph continues] 'somesing' on.\" Buttons are made from the bones of animals, and this is one reason for their declining to use them.\nBelts, neckties, sweaters and caps are taboo. Their coats are without the usual well-known collar. Some wear capes in cold weather, or perhaps great overcoats; at any rate they are monstrous garments\u2014covering all like the top of a buggy covers the individual.\nWomen's Garb.\u2014Women may be seen dressed in bright purple apron, orange neckerchief, or (on Sunday) white caps without ruffle; or borders and white neckerchiefs with gowns of sober woolen stuff, and all wearing aprons. Even a dark-eyed maiden of three years might have her sweet face encircled by the plain muslin cap, the little figure dressed in plain gown.\nIt is not compulsory for the young girls to wear their bonnets constantly, either at home, at school, or away from home.\nNecessary jewelry, even gold eye-glasses, is allowed. The young girls are expected not to want to own or wear gold watches. Should they use them, discipline would follow.\nDress peculiarities grew out of an effort to follow Divine injunction, \"Be not conformed to this world.\"\nThe drawers of the conservative plain women are very long, and quite tight. Seldom seen by non-Amish, at first glance they look like relics from the middle ages, rather than a convenience or need for the present.\nThe youngsters are dressed exactly after the pattern of their grandfathers and grandmothers, and it does seem strange to see such \"little ladies\" out and at play with a vigor found in boys\u2014and in children of the care-free-world. But they wear dresses reaching to their shoe-tops, as soon as they are able to walk; a white cap, and white shoulder kerchief and a white apron add their unique touch.\nAny children, neatly groomed to look like their parents at their hest, have a chance of looking \"cute.\"\nThere is only one style of wearing the hair among the Amish women, and that bears very little improvement. It is parted exactly in the middle and combed smoothly down toward the temples, where two plaits\nare started, carried around and gathered into a knot just under the edge of the white mull cap above the nape of the neck.\nHair and Whiskers.\u2014One or two Amish countrymen, when seen in Lewistown, Lancaster or Ephrata, create little excitement, but when fifty or a hundred get together in a world outside their own, that's news.\nYoung men, as well as old, have their hair and whiskers neatly trimmed, and it seems always about the same color for all ages. Sandy, reddish, may we call it, and ruddy cheeks predominate. The hair is cut very neatly in a bang in front, or parted in the middle and slicked over the side to cover the ears.\nThe moustache is shaved off for the purpose of cleanliness in eating. Two verses from Leviticus settle the question: \"Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of they beard.\" (Lev. xix, 27; xxi, 5).","title":"The Amish: Quaintness of Hair Styles and Dress Attract At...","type":"page"}