St. Landry democrat., 1889-11-09
A sHAKERToWN In KENTUCKY
A Colonized Remnant of the Disciples
of Ann Lee.
THE INDUSTRIAL HABITS, RELIGIOUS WOR
SHIP, AND HOME LIFE OF
SHAKER COMMUNITY.

SHIP, AND HOME LIFE OF
SHAKER COMMUNITY.
| just where the dimpling wales of the
| blue grass region melt into the rich broad
tobacco fields of southern Kentucky, is the
village built many years ago by the SbaSs
kers, curious religious sect founded by an
English woman named Ann Lee, to whom
was revealed the saving grace of celibacy
and communism. 1t was, perhaps, owing
| to the fondness of Americans for new
creeds that the doctrine found its warmest
advocates in this country, and that there
are now some twenty communities of Sha-
| kers scattered over the Union.
The community in Kentucky, the only
Southern State in which Shakerism exists,
was founded in the wake of great relig-
ious movement which swept over the
State some eighty odd years ago, and
which had as one of its peculiar features a
curious nervous manifestation of which old
people still speak with awe, but which
went by the undignifed and descriptive
name of 1.-THE jerks" According to the
traditions of that time, business and
amusements were alike suspended. The
jovial Kentuckians forbore for season to
either race horses or swap them, barbecues
tire country gave itself up to the consider
alton of its soul. 1t was then that the
presence of some spiritual power was made
manifest by the sinner ''under conviction"
being taken by a violent and painful
twitching of the nerves and muscles that
threatened to rend every bone asunder and
made the long hair of the women crack
like whip cords
Of course all this happened so long ago
that when people talk of it the Oldest in
labitant has the floor ; but certain it is that
as this religious excitement began to wane
missionaries from the Shaker communities
of New York and Ohio came to Kentucky
and found harvest ready for gathering
Taking the vows of celibacy, the idea of
giving up husband and wife, houses and
lands, of owning everything in common
| and doing daily menial WORK from exalted
religious motives, seems to have appealed
strongly to hearts already afame with
spiritual enthusiasm, and SO the Sh,e>ker
community in Kentucky was composed of
| some of the best blood and wealth of the
State. In short while the village was
built, with 1000 acres of rich blue grass
and tobacco land rolling off from it, and
with stores and mills and factories that
not only supplied their own wants, but
| yielded handsome revenue.
For many years all went well. Under
the broad brimmed Shaker hats were
shrewd business heads that directed the
affairs of the little community. The men,
bers worked faithfully at their tasks, and
Shaker preserves and blankets and seeds
gained deserved reputation for excellence,
out by and by the wise men died off, and
sharpers found the unworldly little COM
munity only too easy to victimize, and the
Shakertown of to-day is hardly what it was
fifty years ago.
| Such, at least, was what they told me
the other day when drove up the broad,
grassy street of ibis quaint little village,
and looked about me. The air was full of
| the haze of Indian summer. and it seemed
the quietest and peacefulest spot on Gods
earth. Scattered up and down the street
| were the big, bare, barn Like houses in
which the families of fifty or more reside,
each house under the rule of head man
| and woman and each provided with it's own
dairy, poultry, house garden, etc. Here
was the store, there the church or meeting
house; under broad row of naples was a
walk of white stone, and a wind mill made
point of color against the forest that
skirted the orchards and meadows.
| Asweet. faced woman wearing the Shaker
dress-a plain, short gown with snowy
kerchief pinned across her breast and a
white cap under the straw bonnet on her
| head-showed me about the place and
''thee'd and "thou'd" me, and answered
demurely yea and nay to my questions.
| The big, bare walls of the houses were
scrupulously clean, as were the rooms
! opening off of them-the mem s apartments
being on one side and the women's on the
other. In the dining rooms were two
| heavy tables, at one of which the women
eat after they have served the men. In all
| household arrangements the men are con-
| sidered first, and one could but wonder that
woman should have started a religion
that put her own sex at such obvious dis
advantage. 1t might just as well have
been the work of man.
| There was hum of gentle voices on the
air, and following the sound we found
ourselves at the great preserving house
where the women were busy stirring
masses of aromatic ounces slowly stewing
in FURNISHED copper kettles over furnace
| fire. 1t was almost the last of the pre-
serving season, but packed away in the
cellars were tiers and tiers of glass jars OF
ruby cherries and plums and peaches and
pears floating in their own golden juices
hive of sweets which one would think
would be standing temptation to the
| very young Shakers who have not yet
| learned to overcome the appetites of the
world
| The numbers of pretty, rosy children
playing about seemed somewhat out of
place in this quiet village, but as matter
of fact the Shakers are often left bequests
of children, and never refuse to give shell
ter to the orphans thrown upon their
bounty, and curiously enough these child
rem nearly always leave them when grown
| the great world is too near and too seduc-
tive for them to remain in their quiet re-
treat Many women who have no means
of livelihood come with their childrenand
| join the Shakers, but these, too, are apt
to return to the world.
"What vows do those take who become
Shakers p asked of my guide.
"Very few" she responded. "They
must conform to the rules of the house
not marry; work; but they are free to go
when they want to. We keep nobody
unwilling to stay.
There are, of course, some who are
Shakers by principle and who believe in
the doctrines of their foundress, but for
| the most part they are men and women
who bring the wreck of wasted and unsuc-
cessful lives here, or else are only waiting
in this snug harbor for some turn in the
tide of their fortunes that will drift them
! out into the swim again.