Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1905-07-19

tllc dIuOuut VI WllCIl W Ut nAtu W
the trustees. All children and minors
after the death OF their parents and
relatives shall be orphans under
the special guardianship of the trust
ees during their minority. All
credits. if not disposed of by will, OF
any debts left by the parents, are to
be assumed by the children. Mem
bers leaving the society either by
their choice or by expulsion shall
receive back the amount paid into
the common fund without any inter
est or allowances for services during
the time of their membership.
| The migration from Ebenezer was
gradual, as the property there could
be sold. The seven villages which
have been built in Iowa now wear a
weather beaten look, for the buildings
are entirely without paint. A few of
the oldest are of sandstone quarried in
the bluffs on the Iowa, and some of
the newest are built OF brick, but most
of them are frame and in 1854 the
elders were too economical to furnish
paint for such colony of new houses
that had to be put up all at once.
In conformity with that none have
been painted. To cover the old ones
now would take fortune, and the
new must not be made to look any
better than the old, for every man s
house must be like every others.
The villagers found wagon roads and
trails across their land and built their
first town beside one. From the
windows of the woolen mill at Amana
you can look up the winding street,
the main one, to the we'll where there
once was bubbling spring. Cattle
and oxen and horses found the spring
and turned away again at an angle
with their first path, and so now the
street turns.
| The houses are not strictly alike,
but what variance there is is not con-
cerned with beauty
The yards are full of fruit trees, and
the odd looking trellies, which in
winter show bare on all the houses
to the height of the first story
windows, are in summer heavy with
grape vines and roses. Each man
may make his home as beautiful as he
can by his own efforts. if he does not
modest it as society property. SO for
four months in the year these beauty
loving Germans hide the gray of the
walls beneath vines and circle them
rOund with blossoms. All the houses
are fenced and just outside is the
two foot walk allotted to the passer-
by.
On Sunday morning or ON holi-
day. at few minutes before clock,
a neat looking burgher, with nothing
in his dress to distinguish him from
any other American citizen of mod
from his gate and follows in the
direction of score more of other
good burghers. who like him, with
their frauen und kinder, are making
their way to the church. A minute
later the wife he took to himself
against the rules of the society emerges
from her door and turns her quick
step toward her husband III the
weather is cold she will wear heavy
shawl drawn over her head and held
tightly down by her crossed arms.
Every woman on the street will wear
the shawl and every woman's elbows,
wound in her shawl. will stick out
sharply at her sides.
If this man and woman have been
married long and have faithfully lived
pious lives they will go far up the
street to their own meeting house.
where the few choice spirits like
themselves do congregate and worship
Here are the elders and the veterans
in the good fight. In second meet
ing house not in any visible way
different from the one most sacred,
those who through youth and mex
perience have not yet attained the
purest life. and those who through.
lust of flesh and worldliness are
climbing the weary way second time.
assemble for their prayers. Through
still third door may be seen troop
Of little girls and boys who are only
learning to be good with now and then
a man and woman These last are
doing penance.
Theoretically, the followers of
Christian Metz and Barbara Landmann
frown upon marriage as worldly
and unholy ordinance. to be punished
by sending the offenders back to be-
gin anew and worship with the child
rem. Yet the unmarried man or
woman is the exception in the colony.
and the leaders themselves are mar
ried. The homes in Amana are holy
ground and unhappy married life does
not seem to be known because the rule
is enforced that the men shall not
marry until they are "a years of age,
although the women may marry
younger.
The services in all three meeting
houses will be much the same. Where
the little boys and girls sit three
grave faced elders read the services