BEN LAY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 December 1940, Page 5

BEN LAY

STRANGER THE OLDER HE BECAME. One busy market day in the American city of Philadelphia an oddity appeared. He was a very little man, no more than four feet seven inches high, with humped back and a queer face. His legs were much too thin, but he was full of life and energy, and there he was —with folk haggling on every side —brandishing teapots and teacups. One by one he smashed them, and then went home, well satisfied. He was Benjamin Lay, and he had been breaking teapots and teacups as a protest against drinking tea. That was only one of his curious tricks. Born about 1677, Ben lived at Colchester in England in his youth. He joined the Quakers, but I doubt if those good men were glad to have his company, for he was so odd that he brought disgrace upon them. At last they' turned him out of their society, but he continued to be a Quaker to the end of his days. • Becoming a pioneer in the abolition of slavery, this eccentric fellow went out to Barbados where he preached against slavery and got himself so thoroughly disliked by the slave-own-ers that he had to leave the West Indies and take shelter at Philadelphia. The older he grew the stranger he became. One day he had lost his temper when a pig ran into his house, and having killed it brutally he was so worried in his thoughts about it that he swore he would never again eat any animal food or wear anything which came from animals. In consequence he went barefoot, wore a coat and trousers of tow, and refused to shave his beard, which was of an unusual milk colour. All America had scarcely a more odd-looking man than this little deformed chap who loved to do good and had a great mission to perform, but went about it all in the strangest way.

He never ceased pleading for the release of slaves,, and he helped to sow seeds which brought a harvest many years after. He died in 1759,