SHAKERS AND RELIGIOUS MUMMERS 235 



I do not know if the number of orphans so taken is 

 limited, but I believe that it is ; and the reason is that 

 most of these young people, when they attain a certain 

 age, desert their benefactors ; for which they cannot be 

 blamed, for they are little better than slaves while with 

 the community. 



The estate, or settlement, or farm on which these 

 people are established at Lebanon, and which is ab- 

 solutely their own property, consists, if I remember 

 rightly, of about 7000 acres, and is one of the most 

 perfectly cultivated pieces of land that I have ever seen. 

 There does not seem to be a square yard of waste on it, 

 and the roads which intersect it, especially the main road, 

 could not be better than they are if constructed by the 

 best engineer in the country. The land is mostly under 

 crops, cattle breeding not finding much favour among 

 the Shakers ; but everything that they consume, whether 

 food or clothing, is both raised and manufactured within 

 the limits of their settlement. The women spin, weave, 

 knit, sew, and make, with even more than housewifely 

 skill ; and both they and the men are remarkable for the 

 extreme cleanliness of their appearance, even when en- 

 gaged on what is usually called dirty work. You see 

 the men digging in snow-white shirt sleeves, as white as 

 the caps and aprons of the women, which are spotless. 

 The laundry-work is performed by the women and girls, 

 as is the preparation and cooking of the meals ; but the 

 sexes eat in separate rooms, and they also sit apart in 

 different houses when performing their evening employ- 

 ments. Those employments are all of an industrial 

 character, anything in the shape of recreation or a game 

 being condemned as sinful ; even conversation, except of 

 a strictly religious turn, is discountenanced. I say " reli- 

 gious " ; of a canting turn would be a better term, for, 

 however genuine the bulk of these people, they are un- 

 conscious hypocrites. In fact their existence is, in my 

 opinion, a distinct menace to the public morality of a 



