Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1868-08-01
The Oneida. Community. e &;
From the watsonvillo Ccall Paisror

From the Watsonvillo (Cal.) Pajaronian.
Near the town of Oneida in the State
of New York, live a singular body OF
people calling themselves Perfection
ists." They number about two hundred
aud have held together for twenty years,
losing few by secession during that
time but making up the loss by new COR
veris. They are known outside as the
",0neida Community J" and from time
to time articles have appeared in the
Eastern papers describing with more or
less s'circuihstahtialitv their religious be-
lief, the rules and regulations by which
they are held together, and their incrca-
sing worldly prosperity. Great promi-
nence is eiventos the latter item. We
are assured that their well-made traps
for bears and smaller creatures are in de
nland from Sitka to Florida, and their
morocco satchels and canned fruit are
equally above criticism. These accounts
are written with such evident fairness,
and there is such manifest desire to see
the bright side of the picture, and to do
no injustice to body of fanatics who
are living theory, that the public can
hardly arrive at the truth i'll the casc-
ii case farther removed from nature than
either MorinonisIn or Shakerism.
This sect extracts its peculiar doctrines
from the New Testament: "The King
dom of Heaven is within YOU" "ln
Heaven rs neither marrying, nor giving
in marriage" They are supposed to
teach an absolute freedom of the affect
ions, us also the right of the mother to
choose her own time for her maternal
work. In the matter of property, they
are unqucsiiUued communicates. The
public could not anticipate for Il moment
that any beings higher than the Austria
lian savage could so far defy the laws Of
nat,re as to teach II communism of per
sons. Nevertheless, under the strict
surveillance Of a spiritual despotism,
more absolute than that Of the JesuitS;
this is fact. f-r
They declare that the desire to hold
Your being sacred To one other being is
selshuess old Adam. n 20 relations
are entered into wi,l9ut the consent OF
the head council. Ht a young woman has
vic lied her affections to another, and
then after time is approached by Il
third party, and lshripks from the new
rdlatior, if the heads Of depart mcnts ap-
prove, she is taught that this unwilling
ness to abandonshersef is a sign of an
unrt generated nature. v lSss f'ss
| was curious TO see the faces of those
who had lived these theories for twenty
years ard to sec. the sschildren born of
such comli,ions. Nowhere had I seen
such Collection Of ugly .Gomely) old
women! Thcjs must have been gathered
from themost ignorant class of laborers,
on a level With the Norman W omen, and
who, like them, being on the animal
plane, were led by their men. l dbser-
we'd the'want of individuality-of spirit,
and spiritual beauty, i'll the faces of the
young woinen.. They had had possibili-
ties ii was evident, but the violation OF
the most sacred instincts of the soui had
divcsted the countenance of every charm.
OF course when people do wrong when
acting from what, to. them are religi GUS
principles, h injury to character is not
so great rs if they were, consciously vio-
lating a law. The fanatic retains his
self respect, whichever else he may lose.
SO withsthese communists They could
respect themselves as the better class of
Mormon, Women do, who consider poly
gamv a cross The Lord wills they should
bear, aud for the bearing of which they
shall be1rewafded in the next world. =
Nirtually;sthes first article Of their
creed is thatzthe Lord has. raised up AIR.
Noycs and Inspired him TO inaughiate
the Kimgdop of Heaven on earth. Bat
if the social life Mr.. Noyes has iIIstit,l-
ted is any intimation Of the millennium,
alas for all artists and poets, and wor-
shippers of the beautiful, when the mi.len-
nil IN shall be full upon us :! Imagine
eighty or a hundred women, most of them
OF the drudge class, few rising to the
external intellectual, none to the spirit
ual-every one, young and old, with riie
hair shingled Tor cut short at the necs)
every one with the ugliest of bloomer
dresses, VIZ, the straight, mans pants,
below dingy calico, dress to match,
with collars and breastpins SO similar
they must have been bought by the
gross, with faces out of which every YES
tige of individuality had been religiouslv
efadicated, and you see the feminine side
of the millennium. This, with plenty to
eat and drink, cleanliness and shelter,
comprises the first step.towards the mill.
ennium. Nothing could be imagined
more dreary. The eye longs for color,
for graceful curves, for variety OF every