The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1909-04-21

| few years later removed to Stoc kbrloge,
Mase., where his wife died, and where
two or three weeks ago he was remarked
at the age of seventy. Last summer he
paid Honesdale visit and so impressed
his old friends with his youthfulness and
vigor, notwithstanding his honorable
tale of years as shown by the family
Bible, that no one was surprised to hear
of his second venture on the matrimon-
| ial sea.
With the settlement of business af-
fairs between the Barnes estate and Mr..
Shaw, and the final crowding out of the
latter as a commercial traveller by the
encroachments of PcMr Henderson and
other seedsmen, it is many years since
the quaint and distinguishing garb Of
the Shakers has been seen on our thor
oughfares. It NAV be remarked here
that the nickname "Shaking Quakers, "
was altogether misnomer. The sect
originated in England in l747, under the
leadership of Mother Ann Lee. The
members differ from the Quakers both
in doctrine and practice. They style
themselves the Omitted Society of Be-
levers in Christ's Second Appearance. "
They do not marry, and their commun-
al name originates from their move
ments in dancing, which form part OF
worship. The sect is now confined to
the United States, and is steadily weaken.
ing here.
To what an extent the Shaker settle
nent at New Lebanon to which the Shaws
belonged has beenreduced is disclosed by
recent alleged scandal, in which one of
the elders or head of a family has been
sent forth into the world without che
benediction of his superiors. Back of
this casting out lies the fact of poverty
of numbers of the Shakers, else he had
not come among them. He is Swiss
and his advent at Mount Lebanon fif-
teen years ago was the result of Euro
pean proselytizing in order to recruit
the depleted ranks of the brethren and
sisters. Others of foreign birth came
over to join the community, and it was
hoped that the infusion of fresh blood
would revive the waning prestige of a
community doomed to death by dry rot.
1t is worthy of note, however, that the
Shakers are rich, and it is therefore
rather strange that cupidity has failed
to attract, where arid righteousness had
palled.
The present families of Shakers are
composed of old or elderly people and
there does not seem to be any reason
able hope that young folks will ever be
induced to ally themselves witha people
holding out so few allurements from a
worldly point of view.
We pause to remark on this condition
of our old friends, the Shakers, because
it marks the decline of almost the last
of that once very popular form of COM
munistic experimentation which bore
fruit in the Oneida Community of John
Humphrey Noyes, the Hopedale Com
munity of Hosea Ballou, the Brook Farm
hazard of Charles A. Dana, Horace
Greeley, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mar
garet Fuller and Others, the New Har-
mony settlement in the west, and others
which have made a lesser stir in the
world. Of later years there have been
other ventures of the sort, butthey have
lasted even for shorter than those en-
umerated. In all of them the basic idea
has been community of property and
purpose, an altruistic and generally i'm
practicable theory of.brotherly love, and
also, in most instances, some fantastic
religious schism, as for instance, the
complex marriage of the Oneida Com
munity. In all of them, however, be it
noted, money has been made and the
central idea was beautiful, ASS theory.
The conclusion inevitably to be de-
duced from these numerous failures is
that the time is not ripe for the COM
munistic ideal to be realized. 10 be-
come thus ripe presupposes a vast
amount of unselfishness, industry and
disinterestedness, such as mankind has
not yet had instilled into it, and Bellamy
was well warranted in placing the date
of his famous romance as far in the near
future as he did.
In fact the trend of opinion is dis
tinctly from, instead of towards, such ex-
periments. Fewer and fewer are now
established, and the old ones have all
passed away (as strictly communities lin
the old sense) with the exception OF
these worthy old Shakers, who are all
a-futter over the escapade which ex-
poses their diminishing numerical
strength rather than demonstrates any
yielding to carnal Impulses on their part.
Xnu0n Men WantoL