The Communistic Societies of the United States: The Inspirationists, at The Amana Community: III.—Amana—1874.

As you walk through a village, you notice that at irregular intervals are houses somewhat larger than the rest. These are either cook-houses or prayer-houses. The people eat in common, but for convenience' sake they are divided, so that a certain number eat together. For Amana, which has 450 people, there are fifteen such cooking and eating houses. In these the young women are employed to work under the supervision of matrons; and hither when the bell rings come those who are appointed to eat at each—the sexes sitting at separate tables, and the children also by themselves.

"Why do you separate men from women at table?" I asked.

When the bell ceases ringing and all are assembled, they stand up in their places in silence for half a minute, then one says grace, and when he ends, all say, "God bless and keep us safely," and then sit down. There is but little conversation at table; the meal is eaten rapidly, but with decorum; and at its close, all stand up again, some one gives thanks, and thereupon they file out with quiet order and precision.

They live well, after the hearty German fashion, and bake excellent bread. The table is clean, but it has no cloth. The dishes are coarse but neat; and the houses, while well built, and possessing all that is absolutely essential to comfort according to the German peasants' idea, have not always carpets, and have often a bed in what New-Englanders would call the parlor; and in general are for use and not ornament.

They breakfast between six and half-past six, according to the season, have supper between six and seven, and dinner at half-past eleven. They have besides an afternoon lunch of bread and butter and coffee, and in summer a forenoon lunch of bread, to which they add beer or wine, both home-made.

They do not forbid tobacco.

Each business has its foreman; and these leaders in each village meet together every evening, to concert and arrange the labors of the following day. Thus if any department needs for an emergency an extra force, it is known, and the

They instruct the children in musical notation, but do not allow musical instruments. They give only the most elementary instruction, the "three Rs," but give also constant drill in the Bible and in the Catechism. "Why should we let our youth study? We need no lawyers or preachers; we have already three doctors. What they need is to live holy lives, to learn God's commandments out of the Bible, to learn submission to his will, and to love him."

The dress of the people is plain. The men wear in the winter a vest which buttons close up to the throat, coat and trousers being of the common cut.

The women and young girls wear dingy colored stuffs, mostly of the society's own make, cut in the plainest style, and often

The strictly pious hold that marriages should be made only by consent of God, signified through the "inspired instrument."

While the married state has thus the countenance and sanction of the society and its elders, matrimony is not regarded as a meritorious act. It has in it, they say, a certain large degree of worldliness; it is not calculated to make them more, but rather less spiritually minded—so think they at Amana—and accordingly the religious standing of the young couple suffers and is lowered. In the Amana church there are three "classes," orders or grades, the highest consisting of those members who have manifested in their lives the greatest spirituality and piety. Now, if the new-married couple should have belonged for years to this highest class, their wedding would put them down into the lowest, or the "children's order,"

The young and unmarried people, if they have no parents, are divided around among the families.

They have not many labor-saving contrivances; though of course the eating in common is both economical and labor-saving.

Usually a neophyte enters on probation for two years, signing

They employ about two hundred hired hands, mostly in agricultural labors; and these are all Germans, many of whom have families. For these they supply houses, and give them sometimes the privilege of raising a few cattle on their land.

They are excellent farmers, and keep fine stock, which they care for with German thoroughness; stall-feeding in the winter.

The members do not work hard. One of the foremen told me that three hired hands would do as much as five or six of the members. Partly this comes no doubt from the interruption to steady labor caused by their frequent religious meetings; but I have found it generally true that the members of communistic societies take life easy.

The people are of varying degrees of intelligence; but most of them belong to the peasant class of Germany, and were originally farmers, weavers, or mechanics. They are quiet, a little stolid, and very well satisfied with their life. Here, as in other communistic societies, the brains seem to come easily to the top. The leading men with whom I conversed appeared to me to be thoroughly trained business men in the German fashion; men of education, too, and a good deal of intelligence.

I think, too, that his lower passions are more easily regulated or controlled, and certainly he is more easily contented to remain in one place. The innkeeper, a little to my surprise, when by chance I told him that I had spent a winter on the Sandwich Islands, asked me with the keenest delight and curiosity about the trees, the climate, and the life there; and wanted to know if I had seen the place where Captain Cook,

They have made very substantial improvements upon their property; among other things, in order to secure a sufficient water-power, they dug a canal six miles long, and from five to ten feet deep, leading a large body of water through Amana. On this canal they keep a steam-scow to dredge it out annually.

As a precaution against fire, in Amana there is a little tower upon a house in the middle of the village, where two men keep watch all night.

They buy much wool from the neighboring farmers; and have a high reputation for integrity and simple plain-dealing among their neighbors. A farmer told me that it was not easy to cheat them; and that they never dealt the second time with a man who had in any way wronged them; but that they paid a fair price for all they bought, and always paid cash.

In their woolen factories they make cloth enough for their own wants and to supply the demand of the country about them. Flannels and yarn, as well as woolen gloves and stockings, they export, sending some of these products as far as New York. The gloves and stockings are made not only by the children, but by the women during the winter months, when they are otherwise unemployed.