The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-04-26 00:00:00

AMERICAN "COMMUNITIES"

Scattered through 13 States, branches of eight main
bodies, are 72 communities, whose central idea is that
of holding all things in common. They number some
5,000 persons, owning, perhaps, 180,000 acres of land
and 12,000,000 dole, of property. The Icarians are
French; the Shakers and Perfectionists are Ameri-
cans, although the former were organised by an
Englishwoman; the remainder are German. The
Ebenezers of Aurora call themselves " Insnirationists,"
their present leader—a woman—claiming to speak
by Divine inspiration, and this claim runs back
over a century with them in Germany before they
became communal. The Separatists came from Wur-
temberg, under stress of persecution on account of
their religious views. The Shakers, who are the
oldest and most numerous of all these groups, were
organised by an Englishwoman named Ann Lee, who,
while in prison for her religious manifestations in 1770,
claimed to have had a special revelation from God, and
was directed to come to America. The Shakers and the
Rappists or Harmonists are celibates. The Perfectionists
at Oneida, New York, and Wallingford, Connecticut,
applying their doctine of communism, go beyond the
Mormons. The Communists unite provision for the
wants of this life with peculiar religious notions which
might be called fanatical, but they are entirely free
from a spirit of intolerance. Some are spiritualists in
the ordinary sense of that word; some look very soon
for the second coming of Christ and the end of all
things, while others believe the second coming already
past; they believe in a special nearness of God to
themselves ; they have their own hymns, literature,
and observances, and seem to be moved by a desire to
separate themselves from the world. The Oneida people
are manufacturers mainly ,agriculturalists incidentally;
the rest are agriculturists mainly. All have shown an
extraordinary aptitude for invention and for ecenomiz-
ing labour. The Shakers, who are particularly well
known by reason of their numbers and their many
colonies, have a large variety of trades, and the work
of all communistic societies has an established reputa-
tion for both uniform excellence of quality and honesty
of quantity. None of the communes are rich in the
ordinary sense of the word, and they do not try to be.
They take work easily, being content with a little
more than subsistence. Mr. Nordhoff expresses his
surprise to find, in the societies in Oregon, people
satisfied with ECI little. There is an utter lack of
what are called the smenities of life. They have few
books and care nothing for the news. The celibate
societies—the Shakers and Rappists—have long been
decreasing in numbers, and the neighbours of the latter
are wondering what will become of their large pro-
perty when the old people pass away, but they profess
to expect a sign from the Lord. The Shakers take
children to bring up, but do not succeed in keeping
many of them after maturity. Of the other societies
only the Eben-Ezers and Perfectionists are increasing
in nnmbers. The latter are exceptional in assiduously
seeking to make their life attractive by systematic
amusements. An institution which after so many
years numbers only 5,000 persons in all must be viewed
as a social phenomenon, rather than as a leaven likely
to spread.—New York Times.

Sir Wilfrid Lawson, Bart., M.P., bas been elected
president of the United Kingdom Alliance, in succession to
the late Sir Walter C. Trevelyau, Bart.

A Parliamentary return shows that the cost of in.
door maint.nance and outdoor relief of the poor in Eng-
land aud Wales in 1877 was £4,230,222, or at the rate of
3s. Bd, per head on the population, which stood at 22,712,266
in 1871. The cost of pauper lunatics in asylums and licensed
houses was £911,426 The number of friendly societies
making returns was 12,258, with a membership of 4,352,879,
the ratio of members per thousand of the population being
191-7. The ratio En England alone was 1061, and in Wales
112•5. The total number of friendly societies on the register
sold supposed to be in existence was 24,814.