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
When they get up in the morning, each person takes two chairs, and,
setting them back to back, takes off the bed clothing, piece by piece,
and folding each neatly once, lays it across the backs of the chairs,
the pillows being first laid on the seats of the chairs. In the men's
rooms the slops are also carried out of the house by one of them; and
the room is then left to the women, who sweep, make the beds, and put
every thing to rights. All this is done before breakfast; and by
breakfast time what New-Englanders call "chores" are all finished, and
the day's work in the shops or in the fields may begin.
Each brother is assigned to a sister, who takes care of his clothing,
mends when it is needed, looks after his washing, tells him when he
requires a new garment, reproves him if he is not orderly, and keeps a
general sisterly oversight over his habits and temporal needs.
In cooking, and the general labor of the dining-room and kitchen, the
sisters take turns; a certain number, sufficient to make the work light,
serving a month at a time. The younger sisters do the washing and
ironing; and the clothes which are washed on Monday are not ironed till
the following week.
[Illustration: SHAKER COSTUMES.]
Their diet is simple but sufficient. Pork is never eaten, and only a
part of the Shaker people eat any meat at all. Many use no food produced
by animals, denying themselves even milk, butter, and eggs. At Mount
Lebanon, and in some of the other societies, two tables are set, one
with, the other without meat. They consume much fruit, eating it at
every meal; and the Shakers have always fine and extensive vegetable
gardens and orchards.
After breakfast every body goes to work; and the "caretakers," who are
subordinate to the deacons, and are foremen in fact, take their
followers to their proper employments. When, as in harvest, an extra
number of hands is needed at any labor, it is of course easy to divert
at once a sufficient force to the place. The women do not labor in the
fields, except in such light work as picking berries. Shakers do not
toil severely.
They are not in haste to be rich; and they have found that for their
support, economically as they live, it is not necessary to make labor
painful. Many hands make light work; and where all are interested alike,
they hold that labor may be made and is made a pleasure.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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