The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1875-02-04
THE sHAhkERSi::f

der, composed Of men and women
living in what are called families" J"
s: and depending upon agriculture as
their t. n chief industry, i though they
unite one or two simple ayocations
with Il thiss. ii. They adopt a uniform
costume, ll 4, 9 address Dr. 81 each other by their
first y. ;n' names, and, in their style Of ar ch-
itecture and habits of living. are
purely utili1tarian, it,, :--rigidly avoid ing
grace, b beauty, ~ and (! ornament, = in their
dress E,9'S "A and ,i surroundings. They pre-
pron6funced Spiritualists in creed;
and hold, ID, among oea2g other tEy tenets, THAT
the second appearance Of Christ on
earth has taken place, and that they
NF a9e + the only true Church. !. They are
chiefly Of American birth, and, in
their daily life, exhibit in a marked
manner the beautiful traits prevalent
in the Communistic orders, of ind U.S.
Try, f'n fft'ugsa.lliity, s.lliit serenity, honesty, .nd
teil!esa4pliiness. ti!s I i. IS -
II The sect was founded by, Ann Lee,
an English woman Of humble origin,
the daughter Of q blacksmith, md
herself- a. laborer in aac0ttenfactorry
in her childhood, and, later, in admit
ter's shop. During a religions, ree-- ree-
Yiyal among the Quakers; in l747,
members seeded from the. Society,
and at the head of, these was, "A hn
Lee, then asgirl of 2S.. From their
i. unusual manifestations of religious
fervor, they acquired the man,. of
Shaking q Quakers, " which WAS grad
ually cut down to the simple term
= '"'ssh,salkers." 81 a Ann Lee was totally i'm
educated, 1l9 never through her life be-
ing: able to read or. write; but Che
"! was . woman Of strong character, per-
feet integrity, and resolute purpose.
Her aphoristic teachings-such as :
DO al your work as though you had
2 Thousand years. to live, and as you
would if you knew you must die to-
morrow :" "Be diligent with your
hands, for godliness does not lead to
idleness )" and "You ought never to
speak to your children in q passion,
for if you do, you will put devils into
them''- show. her practical comm on
sense and simpl. piety. T.
In LIZA, Ann Lee, or. Mother Ann
as; she6was now called, came with d
few followers to America, aud settled
at Watervliet, n. Y. The aSocisty
gradually grew in numbers until in
1892 there were: eleven branches sct-
tied in five different States. In 874
thereiwere eighteen Societies, lcompris-
ing 58 C Communities; with a pepqla-
ton Of 887' males and 1923 females,
owning 1926 acres of land. The re-
turns tl Of land i include: only the home
farms. ftr ., IN 4 addition 4 to these, several
Of the Societies ',,c,1 own considerab BILE
areas Of land in distant States. The
Shakers have had in previous times
quite double their present populatio on,
"a fact of open Significance. OF
course, their increase must depend
upon accessions from without, and
| these have been few Of late years.
Besides, the Societies !: do not take
children, as they used to do, althoqg gh
there are still some in every Com
mune. Experience has shown that,
when the children grow up, they, are
often discontinued and desert, making
it no return for the trouble and cost of
rearing. During the late War, a
great many young Shakers enlisted,
and from this cause the population Of
fthe Society was seriously diminished.
fGreat p1r:ecaatiotan il exercised 8, s. Il ais,
vs. Is in u all 1otthSear; tthSa;'@ Commuai{{tic
[societies, with regard t., 'tts TIE al adnais: is:
sion Of new members, and yariPus
reasons combine / to 8 create !decreps
father than an ie Increase xss in init thei2r9 h29in nlm
1IE.t 10 =. s'.:s. NWtt' I:U!.IIJ,. l3 y
The rule Of life among the Shakers
is simple and metkodical. All share
alike in work, assswell as in the serbia u hs
pleasures and The satisfactorryy; X; fcdatant: i Is