Into the Devil's World

An Amish farm is likely to have a horse-drawn buggy in the yard and no electric lights in the house. The men of the sect (an offshoot of the Mennonites) wear wide-brimmed black hats, plain black suits, and beards; the women, plain bonnets and voluminous clothes. For some 35,000 thrifty, hard-working Amish folk, living mostly in Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania, the Devil is a sleepless foe, whom they dodge by foregoing automobiles, plumbing, cosmetics, store-bought underwear, high-school education and all manner of frivolity. Amish folk seldom break through the black homespun that seems to divide them from their neighbors, but when they do, outsiders get a glimpse of the strange life behind the curtain. Last week Hazleton, Iowa (pop. 550) was still agitated by such an escape: two Amish girls had gone out into the Devil's world.

One night last December, Emma Miller, 18, stole out of her parents' house, wearing a sinful pink blouse and a blue skirt. She got a lift into town and eventually found a job as a houseworker. One Sunday afternoon last month, her friend Anna Yoder, 18, turned up at Emma's apartment in an Amish bonnet and with a yen to cut loose, too. "I cut her hair and washed . . . and set it," said Emma. "I put makeup on her and dressed her in my clothes."

But that evening Anna's father and six other Amish men were outside in a car they had borrowed for the emergency. They talked earnestly with errant Anna on the front porch. "All of a sudden they got around Anna and carried her off," said Emma. "You could see from Anna's face looking back that she was scared to death. But they didn't hurt her. They all went away in the car."

Pink-cheeked, brown-eyed Emma had also received visits from her parents, but they did not coerce her to return. "My mother told me that God doesn't hear me pray any more because I ran away," said Emma. "She told me my soul is in hell. It is not. I have read the Bible. I know that it isn't just the Hooks* that go to heaven, like they told us. All kinds can get there if you live right."

Emma Miller is now thoroughly in the world: she goes to the Presbyterian Church and is planning to work in a beauty parlor.

*Slang for the Amish, derived from the hooks and eyes they wear on their coats and vests instead of buttons.

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