The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1878-10-01 00:00:00

1 tiK SHAKERS.

Vaggf•lane is free of hir.. (Brunt and her " fuzzily,- to
the inamenve relief 01 the litgbway Board and the
Lymington magistrates, who, good !Donis, had a duty to
perform &gainer which their better nature rebelled. But
the Skiekers are only a little better off than when they lay
ender it. luxuriant hedges. They are free from dread of
the police, and that is all. The rain still rain, upon them,
and the chill wind 'of autumnal nights nips them as it
blowe over the field into which they have turned the
cat'b.. Yet they continue faithful. The bond that unites
these people eaunot he oli.soiVed 17 rain. It does nut
=mutt. at the turret of hunger end thirst, nor relax at
the ',oldie' of eelfiehnerf. Now, whatever we may
think of Sh!keriesn, here are.faels and ftraitre (apt..

I have rifledt • cOninitini • strange, but hardly ime of
its prineiplea or practices, as for as I am acquainted with
Noma, is without precedent in odizious and social record.
There is entities new under the sun of the parish of
only an exhibitloo of the rare. Beyond doubt,
the brother and sister theory, eitendbly governing the re-
lation of the sage., i• worked, even before strangers. in •
manner adapted to recite suspicion. Its chief outward
and visible sign seem, to be an abundance of kissing, and
on each oneeion when I viaited tie "family,' and wit.
nersed, after service, the kayo-taking of those not residing
under the maternal roof, the o•culationt, especially
StMing members, Were worthy of • veritable
Agapensore. Again, it is not unusual, in the midst of the
ball.frenxied demonetrations attendant upon Shaker
worship, i.e torot ar.d si•ters to embrace. Even after
the hystericsl demonatrations had subsided on that
occasion, the pair iot whom! spoke, their arms around each
other'. necks and waists, niarebed up and down the aisle
amid the dancers without appeasing to be regarded as at
all singular. Tbi., and the like of it, may he consonant
with perfect innocence, but • censorious world would
lump to • different conclusion with tar less to provoke it.
As to the real facts, I was assured. not long since, by a
man who once " believed," but bag now "gins beck," that
daring repeated and lengthened visita to the camp he had
found nothing inconsistent with the claim of the com•
mislay to teed pure and Chriatian lives. Nor can I forg.t
the int,nie inilignation—wooderfully well assumed if not
real—with which Mrs. Gifting t 'ld me how, on one of
their unwelcome visits, the bailiff's men called the sisters
by an approbrious name. "They have • right to do their
duty," she exclaimed her bright eyes dashing fire, " but
so tight to insult those whom I know to be chaste and
good" Mrs. Hiding did not tell me hut a " brother" did,
that the episode ended by the bailiffs !Indies themselves
borne into We road, with an injunction to curb their
t,nguea for the future.
Regarding the authority wielded ny Mrs. Gifting, as
mother •nd priestess of the "family," much might be said.
Many attempts have been made t i explain it, in the desire
to avoid concluding that it rests upon tee intelligent rib-
s. lesion ‘,l all to her as their ordained spiritual snide.
The remarkable power the exercises has been aacribed to
mesmerism, aaitual magnetism and what not beside of
"isms" that are supposed to render poesible an involuntary
obedience. The theory is convenient, because, while no-
body can prove it, neither can anylsidy disprove it. Those
who hold the motion might, however, ask for what
reason, during the frenzies of the Shaker worship, Mrs.
Girlie; moved about making her solemn and not ungrace• ;
ful "passes." Ido not pretend to give an answer, but I
can say that if Mrs. Girling threw the crooked and
denunciating old lady spoken of in my letter from the
camp into a state of convulsion, she must, while sitting I
quietly at • table, have sent her power into a distant and I
obscure corner of the hall. But, however explained, the I
authority of the "mother" is reel, and het survived no
ordinary shocks—survived, also, no ordinary pretensions ;
I have beard Mrs. thrling publicly claim for herself the I
dignity and mission of the prophets and apostles, asserting
that We Diviu• Voice speaks through her, and thiat she is I
the last of the long line of Heaveneent museengers and I
deepositories of truth, the Master Himself being near at •
hand to close the .. dispentation." Blasphemy or no
blasphemy, she has sold this, and I connot con-
...ea. a nnont more daring, and at the tante time
nteos dangerous, inasmuch as by it her followers must
unaware her acts. More than this, I heard
declare, three years ago, that believers had
•...„„...td beyond the reach of death—that they were
Tee•The'n tr,T;,,,,su. the number who are " alive and remain'
at the seeoad Ath-eut. Since then 11 of the ceinmanity
have shared the co,7ttooll lot of tuortals ; but even this
.teen reproof haa not abilten the mother's power. I well
renteniber that, when as
.vet all were afire, a brother
acting as my cicerone could .'othr 40t to entertain the
thought of death entering the rammo se an assumption.
" Whet is the use of assuming an imi'vlsiblo °Tent r teid
he, •nd there the iliscusition ended .44ettioded ef his
words is few days ago, with • oigniticant reference
to
eliu.cliyaral, my guide could only fall ;ea upon
the undeniable truth that the trays of the Supreme' ate a
mystery lam told, and can well believe it, that the
death greatly shocked the community. Than, if ever,
Mr., influence must have seemed on the point
14 V 5014.1114 • into the air," and grave were the debates,
and fen rut the prayers for light in the unexpected dark•
new, h,, matter of routes, the claim to be exempt from
tbe laws of nature was given up, and now it is foreseen
that, in Ileaveu:o good time, the brethren end sister. will
"fail on bleep. But that Mrs. GirlinEs authority has
outlasted all such vicissitude astoniabee even three who
have had the opportunity of estimating her singular
personal influence.

It must, however, be something more than personal
influence that hinds these strange people together. Tbe
phenomenon can only be explained by assuming the
existence of the most powerful of human motives, a
sincere religious belief. If sacrifice be evident)* of
sincerity it will he allowed on all hands that the Shakers
have furnished an abundance. These skilled and
intelligent roechairict need not sleep under hedges. These
decentlooking women need not be in worse MN than the
foxes which har, holes and the bird, of the air which
have nests. Nor are hunger and cold io themselves an
attraction to anybody. But thyy endure all, because they
believe, like Christian in the Valley of the Shadow, Mat
that way lies the road to Celestial City. The road, how-
ever, may present more rharms than we wet of. Some
essay to tread it and turn back. but those who go on have
the intenselY emotional nature which finds an intoxicating
pleasure in the character of the worship. Undoubtedly it
I. • low form of worship, ...ut for dome to whom it appeals
It offers almost delirious excitemeat and an exaltation
of fervour that seems lobe regardel as a foretaste of heaven.
I sometimes hear the remark that the scenes witnessed at
Shaker services are "got up," but only those MY an
who have never looked on In person. Attribute three
3.orinP and dancing., these ecstatic utterances and
delirious cries, to what influence you may, they are
certainly not a comely played to order. Even the " beck-
slider," to whom I have referred before, declares that in
his days of belief the " Writ" came upon him with un•
ozontrollable power, and lam convinced that no conackere
offort could produce the extraordinary convulsions at-
widant upon the first seizure. But the phenomenon Is
Dot unique. Fanaticism in all use has id to similar
results, nor are physical demonstrations the only point in
which Shaker wordilp la a reproduction. There may be
living who remember how Edward Irving used to
bow his grand head in reverence when some old lady of
the congregation began chattering in an " unknown
tongue." So did Mrs. Girding and her disciples listen the
other sundae while a young girl, apparratly unconscious
of all ironed, poured forth a Wee= of sound, =lntel.
liehls but strangely mellifiduz Another, curiously
eenned to go back to the days of Infancy, sad
In helmt earje do fondled the "mother."
This to take the werehlppers by
resdlie
aorpone.""Me."o leat=wanbar eeneenory
..feaseever bY " Seibold I y unto yea,
wham...Ter te least In or at lionant Is gessuse
ihali John the Bale . as with ass Vales, the
...i.asorsjod Mem Tort. An thla—sey the ...me.
liaginedty, in even, ens al he s-.- I.
gal. sod out of lomemenv with the n_s. tons
tzto k„0„, ask by their Innis, and if theeM
as wiz whit.= nakfabasssln
:Fe,: Win I. impaher. abia