161 
common interest, by which the welfare of each individual is 
secured. Rapp does not hold his society together by these hopes 
alone, but also by the tie of religion, which is entirely wanting 
in Owen’s community; and results declare that Rapp’s system is 
the better. No great results can be expected from Owen’s plan, 
and a sight of it is very little in its favour. What is most strik¬ 
ing and wonderful of all, is that so plain a man as Rapp can so 
successfully bring and keep together a society of nearly seven 
hundred persons, who in a manner honour him as a prophet. 
Equally so for example in his power of government, which can 
suspend the intercourse of the sexes. He found that the society 
was becoming too numerous, wherefore the members agreed to 
live with their wives as sisters. All nearer intercourse is for¬ 
bidden, as well as marriage; both are discouraged. However, 
some marriages constantly occur, and children are born every 
year, for whom there is provided a school and teacher. The 
members of the community manifest the very highest degree of 
veneration for the elder Rapp, whom they address and treat as a 
father. 
Mr. Frederick Rapp is a large good-looking personage, of forty 
years of age. He possesses profound mercantile knowledge, and 
is the temporal, as his father is the spiritual chief of the commu¬ 
nity. All business passes through his hands; he represents the 
society, which, notwithstanding the change in the name of their 
residence, is called the Harmony Society, in all their dealings 
with the world. They found that the farming and cattle-raising, 
to which the society exclusively attended in both their former places 
of residence, were not sufficiently productive for their industry, 
they therefore have established factories, which in this country 
are very profitable, and have at present cotton and woollen manu¬ 
factories, a brewery, distillery, and flour-mill. They generally 
drink, during their good German dinners, uncommonly good wine, 
which was made on the Wabash, and brought thence by them: 
they left the worst, as I have remarked, at New Harmony. 
After dinner we visited the village, which is very regularly ar¬ 
ranged, with broad rectangular streets, two parallel to the Ohio, 
and four crossing them. On the 22d of May it will be but two 
years since the forest was first felled upon which Economy is 
built; the roots still remaining in the streets are evidences of the 
short time that has elapsed. It is astonishing what united and 
regulated human efforts has accomplished in so short a time! 
Many families still live in log-houses, but some streets consist 
almost entirely of neat, well-built frame houses at proper distances 
from each other, each house has a garden attached to it. The 
four-story cotton and woollen factories are of brick; Mr. Rapp’s 
dwelling-house, not yet completed, and a newly-begun warehouse, 
Vol. II. 21 
