St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1888-07-14
AMONG THE SHAKERS,
a Queer Sect Whose Members Practice
Celibacy and Communism

a queer Sect Whose Members Practice
, Celibacy and Communism.
Life in the various Shaker connmuni-
ties differs so little in its details that a
description of the practices and meth
DDS in vogue here at Mount Lebanon
answers for them all. The society is
composed of about three hundred mem
Ders-men, women and children. These
are divided into what are known as
families of twenty or sixty persons
! each, the members of family residing
together in one house Families are
OF two classes, novitiate and church:
the former receive for spiritual train
ing those who desire to become MEM
bers OF the society and entertain visit,
ing strangers; the church families are
composed OF those who in the search
for spiritual truth have withdrawn as
far as possible from the world and
have no intercourse with outsiders.
At the head of the society, and exer-
cising general supervision over its af-
fairs, is a ministry of four persons,
two males and two females, the
first in the ministry being the
elder of the society Mem
bers of the ministry are not elected,
but are chosen by the brother or sister
who may happen at the time to be the
Oldest in office. At the head of each
family are two elders, male and fe-
male, who have a care for it's spiritual
interests, and a deacon and deaconess,
who supervise its temporal affairs, and
under whom are care-takers who have
charge of the various industries car
ried on. The heads of families are
chosen by the ministry. Autocratic
as this system of government may
seem it has proven entirely salts
factory, and discussions and disputes
among the Shakers are unknown.
The Shaker family rises at four in
the summer and at five in the winter,
and by nine in the evening every one
is in bed. The men and women sleep
in opposite ends of the immense houses
in which the families are housed but
all eat in a general hall, the women at
one table, the men at another, and the
children at third. Visitors dine in
separate room, apart from the family.
The fare is very simple. Little meat
and no pork is eaten. Each brother
has assigned him a sister,
who looks after his clothing
and supplies the needs he
would be apt to neglect. The general
house-work is all done, the sisters tax
ing turns in its performance, before
breakfast, and, that meal over, the
days labor i'll shop and field COM
mences. Every one, from the Oldest
of the ministry to the most
humble brother or sister, engages in |
some kind of manual labor, but the |
Shakers are not avaricious, and their |
daily tasks are always light. The |
!, 0OO-acre farm, under minute and per-
feet cultivation, and upon which only |
the most approved agricultural methods
are employed, claims the time of many
Of the male members. Several in
austries, among them broom, basket
and chair making, are also carried on
in buildings ranged about the family
houses. The Shakers make their
clothing and shoes and raise their own
God. Their savings are always in
rested in land, and they never fail to
prove kind and indulgent landlords
They are scrupulously neat in all their
and even their barns
md shops are models of cleanliness.
The furnishings of the houses, how
'ver, are simple to the point of bare
less. There are few, if any, pictures,
md but little carpet ON the floor.
The days duties ended the evening
lours are given up to what the elders
egard as seasonable diversions. On
sunday evening the members visit
ach other, half dozen sisters visit
ng as many brothers in their room
! brother and sister are never left
lone together, a third party be-
ag always present. At these
title Sunday evening gatherings
ne time is spent in singing and con-
On Monday evenings the
lembers of the family gather in the
eneral meeting-room and listen to
ne reading of newspapers and of let
ers from other Shaker societies. Tues
ay evening is given up to singing;
7ednesday evening to conversation;
thursday evening to religious service;
riday evening to the study of new
,ngs and hymns, and Saturday even .
lg to worship.-M. Lebanon IN. r. :
or. ST. Louis Globe Democrat.