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MY VISIT TO THE SHAKERS

'HE beautiful mountains of Columbia County, N. Y., reach their fullest charm at Lebanon. All the valley is brimmed with beauty like a cup that cannot hold another drop. On Mount Lebanon stand a group of buildings-substantial, ample, dignified in their entire absence of pretension or ornament-and here reside, honored and beloved by their neighbors, the two or three families that remain of what was, years ago, a much more numerous community of Shakers. They own and cultivate a wide dominion, embowered in fruit trees, waving with corn, tilled with wisdom and industry. A celibate Order, the brethren and sisters share everything in common as the primitive Christians did, the government and administration of the several households being committed to elders and eldresses, men and women of great tact and discretion, who know how to exercise authority without petty interference with individual liberty, and whose character is a guarantee of their influence. To them, the members of the community resort, very much as children to a parent, asking permission to go or come, and referring to them all mooted points.

I wish the housekeepers who read this page could see the immaculate and sweet-scented cleanliness of the Shaker kitchen, and homes. Everything shines with such grace of absolute wholesome tidiness, that it is a rest of heart and eye to behold the floors and tables. The reposeful atmosphere is felt everywhere about the Shaker homes, so pure and clean, and so devoid of superfluous bric-a-brac and incumbering, dust-concealing draperies. Flowers, however, flourish in garden beds and borders, and bloom lavishly in

the windows, for the dear Shaker sisters have a love of the beautiful, and gratify it in cultivating vines and thrifty plants. The kitchens, and the cool, fragrant dairies, are replete with labor-saving contrivances and every modern convenience. There is a great deal of work to do, but the old adage, "Many hands make light work," finds verification here, for the labor is subdivided, and apportioned, and every one takes hold heartily and does whatever is the duty of the hour, I truly believe, as unto the Lord. The brethren undertake the outdoor work and the heaviest indoor tasks fall to them. The sisters do whatever belongs to woman's province, from preserving and pickling to plain sewing, from buttermaking and breadmaking to the most painstaking work of the laundry.

Shaker cloaks are made by a group of sisters under the direction of a lovely-looking sister, Emma Neal. These long hooded wraps, with their graceful folds, are made of the finest cloth, and the stitches set in them are fitting for the wardrobe of a queen. Many American queens know this and buy these garments, one bride of a year ago ordering four for her trousseau. They make particularly sumptuous carriage wraps for luxurious people. Besides these garments, these sisters, pledged to the austere life of celibacy, make the finest, daintiest clothing for the nurseries of women who know the joys of motherhood; make little socks for baby feet, and blankets for baby cribs, shawls, slumber shoes, rugs. A great variety of useful and ornamental articles are made by their deft fingers and sold for the benefit of the community.

These sisters receive and teach a limited number of pupils, to whom they give an excellent book education, instructing them at the same time in the practical accomplishments of the home-maker.

Among the women gathered here are some of liberal education, and of native gifts of a very high order. One sister has published a volume of felicitous verse. Another

has compiled a very useful book of brief biographies of famous men and women. A brother, who has spent his life since his eighth year on that lofty hill, who is now beyond three score and ten, spends much time in writing thoughtful and able treatises on the Shaker doctrines.

Eldress Anna, Sister Catharine, Sister Corinne, Brother Alonzo, Brother Timothy, you and the others are among the good people one likes to meet. The marvel is that you do not know how to grow old. Shaker sisters at eighty are vigorous women, with unwrinkled cheeks and bright eyes. Probably the regular and simple life, freed from excitement, competition and anxiety, has something to do with the freedom from sickness and the longevity of the Shakers.

A picturesque sect, they are not increasing. They are in odd contrast to the restless, hurrying, fiercely onrushing world of the twentieth century beyond their doors. They are a reverent community, worshiping God after their unique fashion, observing the Lord's Day with care, and passing hence when their earth-life ends, in the hope of the resurrection.

M. E. S.

As far back as the first half of the eighteenth century, the Shakers were known as a distinct religious body. They were accustomed to trace their origin to the Camisards of France (a sect which made its appearance in that country during the terrible oppressions towards the end of the seventeenth century). These Camisards were so called from the fact that they wore the Camise, or peasant's jacket. Many of them were put to the torture in 1702 and 1705, and died the death of martyrdom, while others found a refuge in England, and there propagated their doctrines and found many followers. In 1757 Ann Lee joined the Society, and became its head. It was about this time that these people adopted the name of Shakers. In 1774 Ann Lee and a number of her followers left England for the United States. Their first settlement was at Watervliet,

near Albany, N. Y. Mother Lee died in 1784, having already formed her little following into a model for Shaker organizations, and having also formulated her ideas of community of property. Elder James Whitaker succeeded her as head of the movement, and under his administration the first Shaker church was built in 1785. He died in 1787. In that year, Joseph Meachem, a convert of Mother Lee, assembled all the Shaker following and founded the present settlement in New Lebanon. In the five years following, ten other Shaker settlements were founded, viz.: At Watervliet, N. Y., Hancock, Tyringham, Harvard and Shirley, Mass.; Enfield, Conn.; Canterbury and Enfield, N. H.; and at Alfred and New Gloucester, Me. In 1805, six other settlements were established, all the communities together numbering probably between 6,000 and 8,000 souls.

In their religious belief, the Shakers hold that God gives to man four revelations, viz.: 1. Through the patriarchs by promise; 2. Through the law by Moses; 3. Through Christ's appearance in the flesh; 4. Through the second appearance, yet to come. They teach the immortality of the soul, the resurrection, celibacy (not imperative, but as desirable), and non-resistance and non-participation in any earthly government. They believe oral confession of sin necessary to receive power to overcome it; they practice healing through prayer and dieting; they regard themselves as under the immediate guidance of the Holy Spirit. They decline to take oaths in court or elsewhere; they abhor compliment and exaggeration, and they abstain from all games of chance. Their peculiar methods of worship, their religious dances, their quaint and not unmusical singing, and their earnest exhortation to all to lead pure, spiritual lives, are probably too well known to need any extended description here.

Two brethren and two sisters compose the usual Shaker ministry in a parish, which may include from one to four societies. Members are divided into three classes: Novitiates,

juniors and seniors. The Novitiates are those who "accept the doctrines of the Society, but do not enter into temporal connection with it, remaining with their own families, and controlling their own property." The Juniors are "those who become members of the Society and unite with it in labor and worship, but who have not surrendered their property to the Society, or if so, only conditionally." The Seniors are "those who, after a satisfactory probation solemnly agree to consecrate themselves, their services, and their property to the Society, never to be redeemed."

In many things the Shakers set an example that might be profitably heeded by other religious bodies. They are kind, hospitable, charitable; they have reduced to practice the principles of a Christian commune; they esteem purity of character and a helpful life as greater than worldly riches and honors. As their name of "The Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing" implies, their hope and expectation are constantly and steadily fixed upon that event as the ultimate means of the redemption of a sinful world.