[twinkling piano] [Voiceover] Straight from the land of fantasy, amidst the oddities, the curiosities, the magic, and the wonder, we present Mr. Murgle's Musee. [twinkling piano] [loud and fast strings] [humming] [Mr. Murgle]: Let me see now, a dab of yellow over here, and a touch of green right here. There. Now, that's just about it. It's done. Yes, it's finished. Oh, it looks mighty pretty and colorful, if I do say so myself. [giggles] [humming] [Elfin]: What are you doing, Mr. Murgle? Oh, oh, that's pretty, very pretty. And those colors are so bright, Mr. Murgle. [Mr. Murgle]: Yes, yes, indeedy. Like, I like a little color myself. [Elfin]: What is it? [Mr. Murgle]: It's a beanpot, with a Pennsylvania Dutch design on it. [Elfin]: Golly, it certainly is nice. And- and the writing on the top says, um, "we- we grow old too soon and too late smart." [Mr. Murgle]: Well, that's a Pennsylvania Dutch saying, Elfin. [Elfin]: It doesn't sound like English. At- at least it doesn't all sound like English. [Mr. Murgle]: Well, well, that's because it's a sort of a mixture. You see, it's part English and part Pennsylvania Dutch. [Elfin]: "We grow old too soon and too late smart." What does that mean, Mr. Murgle? [Mr. Murgle]: Well, you know what the  first part means, don't you? [Elfin]: Uh- Yes, sir! [Mr. Murgle]: Well, whoever made that saying up, felt that we don't become smart until we're grown up and are much older. But hold on here, Elf. I've got some other Pennsylvania Dutch sayings. Now, you listen to this one. "Throw Papa down the stairs his hat." [Elfin]: Golly. [Mr. Murgle]: Listen to this one. "Throw the cow over the fence some hay." [Elfin]: Well, well, that just doesn't sound right to me. Oh, oh, I get it. I understand. They didn't mean to throw Papa down the stairs, they meant to throw his hat down to him. [giggles] And we could never throw the cow over the fence. That's silly. [Mr. Murgle]: [laughs] Yes, and that's Pennsylvania Dutch talk. [Elfin]: You mean, you mean, that that's the way they talk in Pennsylvania? [Mr. Murgle]: Oh, goodness, not everybody. Just a group of people known as the Pennsylvania Dutch. [Elfin]: Oh, do you mean that there's a group of people in Pennsylvania who speak another language? And wear pretty bright color clothes, like the bright color design you painted on the beanpot? [Mr. Murgle]: Well, not  exactly. Oh, gracious, now, how should I explain this? Well, you see, they don't all wear colorful clothes and they're... Well, they speak our language with a mixture of the German language. [Elfin]: But you said they were Dutch. [Elfin]: Pennsylvania Dutch. [Mr. Murgle]: Oh, hold on there. [Mr. Murgle]: Hold on, hold on. I can see that we must start right at the beginning, the beginning of the Pennsylvania Dutch. So tell you what, Elfin, let's take the two words, Pennsylvania Dutch, and make three words out of them. Penn, Sylvania, and Dutch. And now, let's start with the word Penn. Now, Mr. Penn, Mr. William Penn, was the son of a wealthy admiral, and Mr. William Penn was also a member of a religious group known as the Quakers. And he lived over here in England. Now, this was about 300 years ago, Elfin, and people were leaving England, you know, and coming across the Atlantic Ocean, to the New World. Now, there was a group of people known as the Puritans. And they had already settled down, you see, up here in Massachusetts. And there was another group of people, the followers of Lord Baltimore, and you see they settled down here in Maryland. So you see, there were people over here already. And here Penn said, 'Here's a nice place, I think we'll call it New Wales," but the King of England didn't like that name. So then Mr. Penn suggested Sylvania. You see Elfin, that's the second word, Sylvania. Oh, so the king said, 'All right, then we'll call this new land Pennsylvania,' but Mr. Penn was real modest about the whole thing, and he preferred not to have the place named after him. But the King of England was quite wise, and so he said, 'Oh no, no, the word "Penn" before the word "Sylvania" is to honor the Admiral, your father. And so Elfin, Pennsylvania, Penn's Woodland, was written on the map of the new state. [Elfin]: Golly, I didn't know that. Pennsylvania, Penn's Woodland, Pennsylvania. [Mr. Murgle]: [laughs] And then William Penn came over to the new world, and made friends with the Indians. And he paid them in cloth and bells, kettles scissors, mirrors, shoes, and everything. And right here you see he's making a treaty with the Indians, for the new land. You see, that there's Mr. Penn in his three-cornered hat. And he has his hand outstretched toward his new Indian friends. And now that William Penn owned the land he said, 'Wouldn't it be wonderful if everybody could go to the church of his choice and worship as he pleased?' [Elfin]: Do you mean that the men who lived in those days couldn't go to whatever church they wanted? [Mr. Murgle]: Well, I'm afraid not, little one. You see, they weren't fortunate enough to have that privilege. Fact is, there were men over in Europe who were fighting over this very problem. You see, they were fighting over religion. And if you look at the map right here, there was a group of German people who lived in a place called the Palatinate, and that's in Germany. And there was another group of people around Switzerland, and a few other smaller places. And these people had a religion, they wanted to have nothing to do with the religious wars, you see, they wanted religious freedom. So Mr. William Penn offered them that freedom in the New World. And so they boarded some boats, just like these, and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to what we now call the United States, and they settled down in Pennsylvania. And so they became known as the Pennsylvania *Deutsch*. Now, *Deutsch* here means Germans. You see, it's the German word for German. And after a while, people started pronouncing the word Dutch, instead of *Deutsch*. And so you can see what happened. Today we call them the Pennsylvania Dutch. And so you see, now there are our three words, Penn, Sylvania, and Dutch. Now, you saw the boat that brought these people to the New World just a while ago. [Elfin]: Yes, sir. [Mr. Murgle]: Well, those boats also brought over some of the artworks that these people did. They had gaily painted chests that looked something like this. And they had the prettiest colored boxes you ever saw. And this is how some of the things that the Pennsylvania Dutch owned were brought over to the New World. And so you see, little one, the brightly colored boxes came down to us through the years as a folk art. And so you see, we continue today just like I did with the beanpot. The Pennsylvania Dutch design beanpot,  right here, you see. Back there, little Elf. I think the colors used in today's designs are much brighter than the colors used years ago. But that's beside the point. Now you know when these people landed here in the New World with their things, there were no houses waiting for them, no siree. You know, they had to dig holes in the side of hills, and get grass sod, and just try to make themselves as comfortable as possible, until they received their land from the governor. And when they did get their land, it was just about the prettiest place ever. Say, I have an idea, Elfin. Why don't we take an imaginary visit to the land of the Pennsylvania Dutch. Well, here's Pennsylvania, and here's where we'll visit, Lancaster County. You see, way over here on the east side of the state. [Elfin]: Well that didn't take long, Mr. Murgle. Imagine traveling all the way to this place in Lancaster County [Mr. Murgle]: Well, it's quite a quaint old village. Why looks like it hasn't changed too much over the years. [Elfin]: Oh, look over there, Mr. Murgle. A horse pulling a wagon. [Mr. Murgle]: Why goodness, yes. Yes, Elfin. Oh yes, they use a lot of horses around here. Quite a bit. [Elfin]: But, but, why don't they drive around in automobiles? [Mr. Murgle]: Well, Elfin, some of the Pennsylvania Germans do drive around in cars. The people you just saw drive by in the horse-drawn wagon, belong to a special group known as the Amish. Now this is a highly religious group of Pennsylvania Germans, who are dressed in the same way for hundreds of years. You see, the little boys dress in the plainest clothing, you see wide brimmed hats, special haircut, dark trousers, plain shirt. You see, Elfin, when these little boys reach the age of 14, they're then considered as young men. And it's at this time that they are allowed to dress as young men, you see, like this. And still the same broad brimmed hat and suspenders, and now look, you see, his face is clean-shaven. and he must shave until he reaches the age when he marries. Funny thing about these clothes, lad, there are no buttons on the Sunday clothes. No sir, no buttons at all. And if you look very closely, you'll see that, instead, they use hooks and eyes to fasten them together. You see here, now, there are no lapels on the coat, and, well look here now, this is a married man, and you can tell he's married because he has a beard, and still a broad brimmed flat hat. They usually wear straw hats during the summer, and black cloth hats in the colder weather. Now the little Amish ladies dress something like this. They wear plain clothes, most of them part their hair in the middle, and in most cases they keep the same pattern of clothing when they grow into young womanhood. And they usually trade the braids then, that they had as children, and then they simply knot their hair in the back. Well you see there, they're not allowed to cut or curl their hair at all, so a young Amish lady looks like this. Then when the young ladies reach marriageable age, they look like this. [Elfin]: They dressed the same, Mr. Murgle. [Mr. Murgle]: Just about, didn't they? [Elfin]: Look, Mr. Murgle, here's a quaint little home. [Mama]: Go look the *window venster*. See what's coming the *gaarde*. [Watson]: *Ja*, Mama. [Mr. Murgle]: Well, hello. [John]: Hello. [Mr. Murgle]: Well, my name is Murgle, Mr. Murgle. I own a musee. [John]: *Ja*, my name is John. *Exkyuse*. Yaakob, go now and throw the stairs over the fence and pee, *ja*. [speaking Pennsylvania Dutch] [Mr. Murgle]: What did he say, Mr. Murgle? [Mr. Murgle]: Well, well, he wants his son,  Jacob, to feed the cows, and he told his other son, John, to water the grass. [John]: No, my name is John. And what for kind of a thing is that? [Mr. Murgle]: Oh, why, he's Elfin, yes, and he's an elf. Say hello, Elfin. [Elfin]: Hello. Ask him, Mr. Murgle, ask him, please. [Mr. Murgle]: Oh, gracious, yes, I almost forgot. On the way out here, we passed some beautiful farmhouses. [John]: Oh, *ja*, those over there, *ja*. [Mr. Murgle]: Well, the  buildings are so huge, and the farm buildings are so well-kept. Well, we wondered, well, do you see over there the big circles with the pretty designs? Well, we wondered what they're for. [John]: *Ja*, those are what some people call hex signs. [Elfin]: Hex signs? Oh, I know what that means. They keep away evil spirits. [Mr. Murgle]: Oh, that's what many people think. [John]: *Ja*, *ja*, they think it, but it's not true. See, there are more on this barn over here. No, they don't keep away those spirits away. Those pretty signs are put on barns just for nice. Just for nice? You mean they're only decorations to make the barn look pretty? [John]: *Ja*. [Mama]: John, come here, man. [John]: *Ja*, mama. We are go to the [unintelligible] now. And I must be going upstairs and changing up. Come again if you're here sometime. Bye. [Mr. Murgle]: Goodbye, John. [Elfin]: Goodbye, John. [Mr. Murgle]: Gracious little one. Oh, look at the time. We must be leaving this little Pennsylvania Dutch town right away, quick. But before we do, Elfin, why don't you show everyone out there? [Elfin]: Over there, Mr. Murgle? [Mr. Murgle]: That's right. Why don't you let them hear how you speak Pennsylvania Dutch? [Elfin]: All right, Mr. Murgle. Everybody, and I mean everybody out there, come again if you're here sometime once. [Mr. Murgle]: That's a boy. [Mr. Murgle and Elfin laugh] [Voiceover]: With settings by Jack Dunleavy. The lady is Nancy Ryan. The man is Erling Jorgensen. [Voiceover]: Mr. Murgle is... [Ron Newbert]: Ron Newbert, [Voiceover]: And Elfin is... [Errol Kaufman]: Errol Kaufman. [Voiceover]: And they live in Mr. Murgle's Musee, which was directed by Les Harcus. This program is created and produced by William H. Tomlinson and originates in the Little Green Meadow near Michigan State College. [twinkling piano]