The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-09-23
Amnnr the shnl,ers.

To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 On the extreme eastern boundary of New York state, and nearly opposite Pittsfleld, Mass, in the town of Leban- on, there is a community which has solved some important social problems in a radical way, The name Shaker" is familiar in connection with Shaker medicines, seeds and chairs, but the Shakers as people can only be under stood by direct observation of their daily life.
 It was the writer's good fortune, with friend, short time ago, to visit the Shakers of Mount Lebanon, which is now the center of Shakerism in the United States. There are communities besides in Enfield, Conn, in Canaan, N. T., in West Pittsfield, Mass, in New Hampshire and in Kentucky, The sect is said to have caught the name Sha- kers because whenever they thought themselves liable to sin in any way, they would shake as hard as they could to shake it off. As one comes down the mountain from the Massachusetts side great view opens out suddenly at a turn of the road There lies spread out the length of the Lebanon valley, banked by the green of the opposite hillside and in the distance dwellings, and fields and forest growth and will lage spire. It is truly coming out of the mountain wild and desolate, as the Shaker hymn says, into the pleasant valley. Directly at the base of the | mountain are number of huge build | ings, wood and brick, four or five sto- l ries in height, These great barracks | are the dwellings of the Shaker com- | munities. A nearer approach shows | them to be the perfection of cleanliness. Horace's saying, simple in neatness, " could well be applied to the secured | stonework, gleaming window-pan and white walls of these great struc- lures, so bare and plain as whole. | One can see the same neatness in all | the details of the interiors. Order, method, harmony, are applied to every thing from the washrooms to the round-1oofed church of the colony. | The settlement is divided into five fam | flies known as the South" Second, /" Center" Church" and North fami- 1 lies. By a family" the Shakers mean a company of persons, men and women, | who give their work for the common l good, and are fed and clothed from the | common store The North" family l claim that their barn is the best in the | county. Built of solid stone-work, per l fected mechanism is used tossecure live stock for silo for removing and using manure, and for lofts and stalls. The
 business of this family is mostly the shipping of fruit to market, while the farm work necessary for the family supplies is done by hired hands.
 The life of the community centers about religion. The great meeting of
 the week is the so-called marching meeting on Sunday afternoon, ir
 which the whole family join in process sion, two by two, marching up and
 down the polished floor of the meeting hall, in time to some original vigorous march-music, waving their hands anC singing to the accompaniment. This is interspersed with remarks and other Shaker hymns. All their music an6
 hymns are composed by members o1
 the communities
 Religion does not absorb all their fac.
 ulties, for we found them well-in-
 formed on questions of the day, espe
 cially the problems of taxation, land
 government control of monopolies, golt
 and silver, though they never use tht
 right of the ballot. The venerable Sha
 ker Elder explained to us patiently or
 Sunday morning the why and tht wherefore of their belief and practice
 The Shaker theory starts from ''tht
 Malthusian horror" that except fol
 war and famine, population is in dan
 ger of increase beyond the resources O.
 the earth. The early history of theil
 church says that Mother Ann Lee
 perseeuted in England, emigrated witl
 some followers to this country in 1774