rab and mouse color of the prosperous Quakers contrasting with the
uniforms of British officers come to fight the French and Indian wars.
Sound, as well as color, had its place in this busy and happy colonial
life. Christ Church, a brick building which still stands the perfection
of colonial architecture had been established by the Church of England
people defiantly in the midst of heretical Quakerdom. It soon possessed
a chime of bells sent out from England. Captain Budden, who brought them
in his ship Myrtilla, would charge no freight for so charitable a deed,
and in consequence of his generosity every time he and his ship appeared
in the harbor the bells were rung in his honor. They were rung on market
days to please the farmers who came into town with their wagons loaded
with poultry and vegetables. They were rung muffled in times of public
disaster and were kept busy in that way in the French and Indian wars.
They were also rung muffled for Franklin when it was learned that while
in London he had favored the Stamp Act--a means of expressing popular
opinion which the newspapers subsequently put out of date.

The severe Quaker code of conduct and peaceful contemplation contains no
prohibition against good eating and drinking. Quakers have been known to
have the gout. The opportunities in Philadelphia to enjoy the pleasures
of the table were soon unlimited. Farm, garden, and dairy products,
vegetables, poultry, beef, and mutton were soon produced in immense
quantity and variety and of excellent quality. John Adams, coming from
the "plain living and high thinking" of Boston to attend the first
meeting of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, was invited to dine
with Stephen Collins, a typical Quaker, and was amazed at the feast set
before him. From that time his diary records one after another of these
"sinful feasts," as he calls them. But the sin at which he thus looks
askance never seems to have withheld him from a generous indulgence.
"Drank Madeira at a great rate," he says on one occasion, "and took no
harm from it." Madeira obtained in the trade with Spain was the popular
drink even at the taverns. Various forms of punch and rum were common,
but the modern light wines and champagne were not then in vogue.

Food in great quantity and variety seems to have been placed on the
table at the same time, with little regard to formal courses. Beef,
poultry, and mutton would all be served at one dinner. Fruit and nuts