“Now just as it has come into my head, please tell me whether thy clothing costs one hundred dollars per annum?  I ask because it was insisted upon that Mr. Weld must spend that amount on his wardrobe, and I as strenuously insisted he did not.  It was thought impossible a gentleman could spend less, but I think anti-slavery agents know better.”

To this, he answered thus, at the end of one of his letters.

“Oh!  I forgot the wardrobe!  I suppose you are going to take me to task about my shag-overcoat, linsey-woolsey coat, and cowhide shoes; for you Quakers are as notional about quality as you are precise about cut.  Well, now to the question.  While I was travelling and lecturing, I think that one year my clothing must have cost me nearly one hundred dollars.  It was the first year of my lecturing in the West, when one entire suit and part of another were destroyed or nearly so by mobs.  Since I resigned my commission as agent, which is now nearly a year, my clothing has not cost me one third that amount.  I don’t think it even cost me fifty dollars a year, except the year I spoke of, when it was ruined by mobs, and the year 1832, when, in travelling, I lost it all with my other baggage in the Alum River.  There, I believe I have answered your question as well as I can.  However, I have always had to encounter the criticism and chidings of my acquaintances about my coarse dress.  They will have it that I have always curtailed my influence and usefulness by such a John the Baptist attire as I have always been habited in.  But I have remarked that those persons who have beset me on that score have shown in some way that they had their hearts set more or less on showing off their persons to advantage by their dress.  Now I think of it, I believe you are in great danger of making a little god out of your caps and your drab color, and ‘thee’ and ‘thou.’  Besides, the tendency is quite questionable.  The moment certain shades of color, or a certain combination of letters, or modulation of sounds, or arrangement of seams and angles, are made the sine qua non of religion and principle, that moment religion and principle are hurled from their vantage-ground and become slaves instead of rulers.  I cannot get it out of my mind that these must be a fetter on the spirit that clings to such stereotyped forms and ceremonies that rustle and clatter the more because life and spirit and power do not inhabit them.  Think about it, dear sisters.”

In Sarah’s next letter to him she says:—­

“Now first about the wardrobe.  Thou art greatly mistaken in supposing that I meant to quiz thee; no, not I, indeed.  I wish from my heart more of us who take the profession of Jesus on our lips were willing to wear shag cloaks and linsey-woolsey garments.  Now I may inform thee that, notwithstanding my prim caps, etc., I am as economical as thou art.  I do many things in the way of dress to please my friends, but perhaps their watchfulness is needful.”