Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1888-10-27
AMONG THE SHAKERS.
Queer Sect Whose Members Practice
Celibacy and Communism.

Queer Sect Whose Members Practice
Celibacy and Communism.
Life in the various Shaker commune
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
bers-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 men,
bers of the society and entertain visit
ing strangers; the church families are
composed of those who in the search
for spiritual truth haye withdrawn as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 its spiritual
interests, and 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 dissensions 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 a
separate room, apart from the family.
The fare is very simple. Little meat
and no pork is eaten. Each brother
has assigned him 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 in shop and field com
mences. Every one, from the oldest
member 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
6,000-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.
dustries, among fthem 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
food. Their savings are always in
vested in land, and they never fail to
prove kind and indulgent landlords.
They are scrupulously neat in all their
surroundings, and even their barns
and shops are models of cleanliness
The furnishings of the houses, how.
ever, are simple to the point of bare,
ness. There are few, if any, pictures
and but little carpet on the floor.
The days duties ended the evening
hours are given up to what the elders
regard as seasonable diversions. Or
Sunday evening the members visi
each other, half dozen sisters visit
ing as many brothers in their room
A brother and sister are never lef
alone together, a third party be-
ing always present. At thes'
little Sunday evening gathering
the time is spent in singing and con
versation. On Monday evenings tn
members Of the family gather in tn
general meeting-room and listen II
the reading of newspapers and of let
tiers from other Shaker societies Tues
day evening is given up to singing
Wednesday evening to conversation
Thursday evening to religious service
Friday evening to the study of ney
songs and hymns, and Saturday even
ing to worship. MI. Lebanon IN. y
Cor. st. Louis Globe Democrat.
Smiling Acquaintance.