Part 16 (1/2)

They have no physician, but in the infirmary the sisters in charge have sufficient skill for ordinary cases of disease.

The people are not great readers. The Bible, however, is much read. They are fond of music.

In summer they entertain visitors at a set price, and have rooms fitted for this purpose. In the visitors' dining-room I saw this printed notice:

”At the table we wish all to be as free as at home, but we dislike the wasteful habit of leaving food on the plate. No vice is with us the less ridiculous for being fas.h.i.+onable.

”Married persons tarrying with us overnight are respectfully notified that each s.e.x occupy separate sleeping apartments while they remain.”

They had at Canterbury formerly a printing-press, and printed a now scarce edition of hymns, and several books. This press has been sold.

The trustees here give once a year an inventory and statement of accounts to the elders of the Church Family. In the years 1848-9 they suffered severe losses from the defalcation of an agent or trustee, but they have long ago recovered this loss, and now owe no debts.

Agriculture they believe to be the true base of community life, and if their land were fertile they would be glad to leave off manufacturing entirely. But on such land as they have they cannot make a living.

The leading elder of the society remarked to me that, though in numbers they were less than formerly, the influence of the Canterbury Society upon the outside world was never so great as now: their Sunday meetings in summer are crowded by visitors, and they believe that often their doctrines sink deep into the hearts of these chance hearers.

_Enfield, N. H._

The Society at Enfield lies in Grafton County, about twelve miles southeast from Dartmouth College, and two miles from Enfield Station, on the Northern New Hamps.h.i.+re Railroad. It is composed of three families, having altogether at this time one hundred and forty members, of whom thirty-seven are males and one hundred and three females. This preponderance arises chiefly, I was told, from the large number of young sisters. There are thirty-five youth under twenty-one years of age, of whom eight are boys and twenty-seven girls. In 1823 the Enfield Society had over two hundred members; thirty years ago it had three hundred and thirty members. They do not now receive many applications for members.h.i.+p, and of those who apply but few remain.

This society was ”gathered” in 1793, and consisted then of but one family or community. It arose out of a general revival of religion in this region. A second family was formed in 1800, and the third, the ”North Family,” in 1812. They lost some members during the war of the Rebellion, young men who became soldiers, and some others who were drawn away by the general feeling of unrest which pervaded the country. They like to take children, but are more careful than formerly to ascertain the characters of their parents. ”We want a good kind; but we can't do without some children around us,” I was told.

The society has about three thousand acres of land, part of it being an outlying farm, ten or a dozen miles away. The buildings are remarkably substantial. The dwelling of the Church Family is of a beautiful granite, one hundred feet by sixty, and of four full and two attic stories; some of the shops are also of granite, others of brick, and in the other families stone and brick have also been used. There is an excellently arranged infirmary, a roomy and well-furnished school-room, a large music-room in a separate building; and at the Church Family they have a laundry worked by water-power, and use a centrifugal dryer, instead of the common wringer.

Nearly the whole of their present real estate was brought into the society as a free gift by the founders, who were farmers living there; and many of the early members brought in considerable means, for those days. When they gathered into a community they began to add manufacturing to their farming work, and the Enfield Shakers were among the first to put up garden seeds. Besides this, they made spinning-wheels, rakes, pitchforks, scythe-snaths, and had many looms.

Until within thirty years they wove linen and cotton as well as woolen goods, and in considerable quant.i.ties.

At present they put up garden seeds, make buckets and tubs, b.u.t.ter-tubs, brooms, dry measures, gather and dry roots and herbs for medicinal use, make maple-sugar in the spring and apple-sauce in the winter; sew s.h.i.+rts for Boston, and keep several knitting-machines busy, making flannel s.h.i.+rts and drawers and socks. They also make several patent medicines, among which the ”Shaker anodyne” is especially prized by them; and extracts, such as fluid valerian; and in one of the families the women prepare bread, pies, and other provisions, which they sell in a neighboring manufacturing village. Finally, they own a woolen-mill and a grist-mill; but these they have leased. One of their members has invented and patented for the society a folding pocket-stereoscope.

Besides all these industries, uncommonly varied and numerous even for the Shakers, they have carpenter, blacksmith, tailor, and shoemaker shops, and produce or make up a great part of what they consume.

Moreover, as in most of the Shaker societies, the women make up fancy articles for sale.

The members of the society are almost all Americans, and the greater part of them came in as little children. Of foreigners, there are one Englishman, two of Irish birth, one of Welsh, and two French Canadians.

As elsewhere, Baptists, Methodists, and Millerites or Second Adventists contributed the larger part of the members.h.i.+p.

They hire from twenty to thirty-five laborers, according to the season of the year.

Most of the members are under forty, and almost all are farmers. I heard of one lawyer; and one when he entered had been a law student. Almost all are meat eaters, and they use both tea and coffee. A few of the older men are allowed to chew tobacco. There are no fevers in the society, and their health is excellent, which arises partly I suppose from the fact that the ground upon which the buildings stand has thorough natural drainage. Some of their members have lived to the age of ninety--which is not an uncommon age, by the way, for Shakers--and on the register of deaths I found these ages: 89, 86, 86, 80, 80, 79, 76, 75, and so on.

They have a library of about two hundred volumes in each family, exclusive of strictly religious books; and almost all the younger people can read music, one of the members being a thorough teacher and good musical drill-master. They read the Bible a good deal, and sometimes pray aloud in their meetings. Once or twice a week they hold reading meetings, at which some one reads either from a book of history or biography, or extracts from newspapers.

There was some years ago a defalcation in one of the societies, which ”came largely if not entirely through neglect of the rule not to owe money.” The family which suffered in this case has not entirely recovered from the blow; it still owes a small debt.

An annual business report is now made by the trustees to the ministry who are set over this society and that at Canterbury.

There is but one Shaker Society in Connecticut, at _Enfield, Conn._