The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-04-17
COMMUNITIES AND COLONIES.

idea is that of holding all things in COM
mon. They number some 5,OOOpersons,
owning, perhaps, 10000 acres Of land
and $12,OOO,OO0 of property. The Icari-
ans are French; the Shakers and Per-
fectionists are Americans, although the
former were organized by an English
woman; the. remainder are German.
The Eben- Ezers of Aurora call them
themselves "Inspirationists," their pres
emit 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 Wurtem-
berg, under stress of persecution on &C.
count of their religious views. The
Shakers, who are the oldest and most
numerous of all the groups, were
organized by an Englishwoman named
Ann Lee, who, while in prison for her
religious manifestations in ITO,
claimed to have had special, revela-
ton from God, and was directed to
come to America. She arrived in New
York, with eight others, in 1774, and
lived in the woods until 1880. when
some unusually affected subjects of
revival in the neighborhood happened
to wander to her. Her professions of
supernatural, and even miraculous, pow
ers were kept up, and she is still called
Mother Ann" by the Shakers, and ven
Grated by them as sort of patron saint.
The Shakers and the Rappists or Har-
monists are celbates, and it is an ex-
traordinary fact that the latter, after
several years of communal life, and
while many of them were living in the
marriage relation, deliberately aban-.
doned it, a few who were unwilling to
do so Withdrawing. The Perfectionists
at Oneida, in New York, and Walling
ford, o., have what they call COM
pick marriage state, every woman being
considered as married to every man.
They say that there is "no intrinsic
difference between property in person
and property in things" hence their.
communion extends to themselves as
well as to what they have acquired, and
the relationship between the sexes is as
free as consent can make it, except that
any disposition to a permanent associ-
alton between the same two persons is
repressed as being manifestation of
"selfshness." pUG 81. 4u at.# 4
The Communists unite provision for
the wants of this life with peculiar re-
igious notions which might be called
fanatical but that they are entirely free
from 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 seq
ond coming already past; they believe
in special nearness of God to them
selves; they have their own hymns, lit
erature and observance, and seem to be
moved bya desire to separate themselves
from the world. The Perfectionists
profess to aim at complete siniessness,
and some individuals among them even
claim to have attained it. All the Com
munists are good citizens. They break
no laws; they add nothing to the public
charge on account of pauperism and
vice; they are all non-combatants, and
do not even attempt among themselves
anything beyond moral suasion, but al
low those to withdraw who become in
subordinate They have neither defal-
cations nor breaches of trust, and their
honesty in all commercial dealings is as
proverbial as their shrewdness. The
morality of their life is unimpeachable.
This must be admitted of even the
Oneida body, with the exception of their
peculiar institution, which is worse than
the Mormon practice in it's demoralizing
influence, and justifes the present agi-
tation against them in the central part
of that State.
The Oneida people are manufacturers
mainly, agriculturists incidentally; the
rest are agriculturists mainly All have
shown an extraordinary aptitude for in
vention and for economizing labor.
The Shakers, who are particularly we'll
known by reason of their numbers and
their many colonies, have large vari-
ETY. of trades, and the work of all COM
munistic societies has an established
reputation for both uniform excellence
of quality and honesty of quantity.
The Icarians, in Iowa, were led by
Frenchman, who spent sixteen years in
trying to realize a pretty dream of what
he could do in founding society if he
had half a million of money; so his fol-
lowers began with 1000 acres of land
and $4,000 of debt. To, escape from
the latter they finally surrendered the
former, and, after hard work and bitter
economy, were able to redeem 1886
acres of it; they are now independent
but reduced in numbers. The Bishop
Hill colony, in Illinois, once having 800
members and some 100000 of property,
was broken up. by inefficient leadership
and the trouble of debt, and their town
is falling into decay. But the societies
generally have rigidly adhered to the
rule of having no debts and getting
property only as they earn it. None of
the communes are rich in the ordinary
sense of the word, and they do not
try to be.