The peculiarity of this community is that there is no intercourse between the sexes of any kind.  In 1807 they gave up marriage.  The husbands parted from their wives, and have henceforth lived with them only as sisters.  They claim to have authority for this in the words of the apostle:  “This I say, brethren, the time is short; it remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none,” etc.  They teach that Adam in his perfect state was bi-sexual and had no need of a female, being in this respect like God; that subsequently, when he fell, the female part (rib, etc.) was separated from him and made into another person, and that when they become perfect through their religion the bi-sexual nature of the soul is restored.  Christ, they claim, was also of this dual nature, and therefore never married.  They believe that the world will soon come to an end, and that it is their duty to help it along by having no children, and so putting an end to the race as well as the planet.

Their property is all held in common and managed by a council of seven, from whom the trustees are chosen.  From four to eight live in each house, men and women together, who regard each other as of the same sex, and are never watched.  Each household cooks for itself, although there is a general bakery, from which bread is taken around to the houses as they have need.  The members are fond of music and flowers, but they discard dancing.  Though Germans, they have ceased to use tobacco; which loss, it is said, the men feel more heavily than that of the wives.  They make considerable wine and beer, which they drink in moderation.  They are said to be worth from two millions to three millions of dollars, and speculate in mines, oil-wells, saw-mills, etc., doing very little hard work, and hiring laborers from without to take their places in all drudgery.  They are engaged principally in farming and the common trades, and supply nearly everything for themselves.  They are nearly all aged, none of them being under forty except some adopted children.  All are Germans and use the German language.

The Shakers are the oldest society of communists in the United States.  The parent society at Mount Lebanon, New York, was established in 1792, being the outgrowth of a religious revival in which there were violent hysterical manifestations or “shakes,” from which they took their name.  In this revival one Ann Lee, known among them as “Mother Ann,” was prominent.  This woman, of English birth, emigrated to Niskayuna, New York, about seven miles north-west of Albany, where she pretended to speak from inspiration and work miracles, so that the people soon came to regard her as being another revelation of Christ and as having his authority.  Being persecuted by the outside world, her followers, after her death, formed a community in which to live and enjoy their religion alone and:  undisturbed.  Their principles may be summed up as special revelation, spiritualism,