pleasures outside of his family
and home. Men and women are too busy to play, and the Quakers educated
themselves out of a playful mind.

There are a few pleasures which are native and general. One of these is
public assembly, with an entertaining speaker as a central pleasure.
Quaker Hill audiences are alert and keen hearers, and indulgent critics
of a public speaker. There are only two other forms of public
entertainment more pleasing to them. The first is a dramatic
presentation. Many of the Quakers are excellent actors, and the Irish
are quite their equals, while the other newcomers are equally
appreciative. The Christmas play in Akin Hall is a great annual event,
assembling all the people on the Hill of all classes and groups, for it
embodies very many of the appeals to characteristic pleasure. Only one
other attraction is more generally responded to; I refer to a dinner.
Something good to eat, in common with one's neighbors, in a place
hallowed by historic associations, under religious auspices--here you
have the call that brings Quaker Hill all together. On such a day there
will be none left behind.

Of all these sorts is the attraction the Quaker Hill Conference has for
the people of the neighborhood. It is a universal appeal to the capacity
for pleasure in the community. It presents famous and eloquent speakers
through the days of the week. Matters of religion, farming, morals,
literature, are discussed, by men of taste and culture; and the
closing day is Quaker Hill Day. On this day, after an assembly in the
old Oblong Meeting House, erected in 1764, at which the neighborhood has
listened to papers descriptive of the past of the Hill, all adjourn for
a generous dinner under the trees of Akin Hall, or latterly under a tent
beside the Meeting House, partaken of by four hundred people, of all
groups and classes, and followed by brisk, happy speeches by visitors
present. This, after almost two centuries of keen interest in the
question of amusements, is the last and most perfect expression of the
capacity for amusement in the community.

[Illustration: OBLONG MEETING HOUSE]

[Illustration: MEMORIAL STONE]

Of active pleasure-taking, Quaker Hill, purely considered, is incapable.

It should be said that the Roman Catholic Church in Pawling provides its
people with a yearly feast, parallel with the Conference, which was for
years held in a grove on the borders of Quaker Hill.

Traits of character which