The Communistic Societies of the United States: From Personal Visit and ObservationNordhoff, Charles
History
The Communistic Societies of the United States: From Personal Visit and Observation
Nordhoff, Charles
Collective settlements -- United States
They have printed also a miniature Thomas a Kempis, "for the edification
of children;" two catechisms; a little work entitled "Treasure for those
who desire God," and other works of similar character. A list, not
complete, but containing all the books I have been able to collect, will
be found in the Bibliography at the end of this volume.
At the end of the Catechism are some pages of rules for the conduct of
children, at home, in church, at school, during play hours, at meals,
and in all the relations of their lives. Many of these rules are
excellent, and the whole of them might well be added to the children's
catechisms in use in the churches. Piety, orderly habits, obedience,
politeness, cleanliness, kindness to others, truthfulness, cheerfulness,
etc., are all inculcated in considerable detail, with great plainness of
speech, and in sixty-six short paragraphs, easily comprehended by the
youngest children. The fifty-fourth rule shows the care with which they
guard the intercourse of the sexes: "Have no pleasure in violent games
or plays; do not wait on the road to look at quarrels or fights; do not
keep company with bad children, for there you will learn only
wickedness. Also, _do not play with children of the other sex_."
THE HARMONY SOCIETY,
AT
ECONOMY, PA.
THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
I.--ECONOMY IN 1874.
Traveling from Cleveland to Pittsburgh by rail, you strike the Ohio
River at Wellsville; and the railroad runs thence, for forty-eight
miles, to Pittsburgh, along the river bank, and through the edge of a
country rich in coal, oil, potters' clay, limestone, and iron, and
supporting a number of important manufactures.
To a traveler in search of the Rappist or Harmony settlement at Economy,
the names of the towns along here seem to tell of the overshadowing
influence of these communists; for, passing Liverpool, you come to
Freedom, Jethro (whose houses are both heated and lighted with gas from
a natural spring near by), Industry, and Beaver; you smile at the sign
of the "Golden Rule Distillery;" and you wonder at the broken fences,
unpainted houses, and tangled and weed-covered grounds, and that general
air of dilapidation which curses a country producing petroleum and
bituminous coal.
Presently, however, you strike into what is evidently a large and
well-kept estate: high and solid fences; fields without weeds, and with
clean culture or smooth and rich grass; and if you ask the conductor, he
will tell you that for some miles here the land is owned by the
"Economites;" and that the town or village of Economy lies among these
neatly kept fields, but out of sight of the railroad on the top of the
steep bluff.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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