The Communistic Societies of the United States Part 27

RESTORATION,

FAITH,

Obedience to

_Christ,_

COMMUNISM,

IMMORTALITY.

The community system, which they thus hold to have been divinely commanded, they extend beyond property--to persons; and thus they justify their extraordinary social system, in which there is no marriage; or, as they put it, "complex marriage takes the place of simple." They surround this singular and, so far as I know, unprecedented combination of polygamy and polyandry with certain religious and social restraints; but affirm that there is "no intrinsic difference between property in persons and property in things; and that the same spirit which abolished exclusiveness in regard to money would abolish, if circ.u.mstances allowed full scope to it, exclusiveness in regard to women and children."

[Footnote: "History of American Socialisms," by J. H. Noyes, p. 625.]

It is an extraordinary evidence of the capacity of mankind for various and extreme religious beliefs, that many men have brought their wives and young daughters into the Oneida Community.

They have no preaching; do not use Baptism nor the Lord's Supper; do not observe Sunday, because they hold that with them every day is a Sabbath; do not pray aloud; and Avoid with considerable care all set forms. They read the Bible and quote it much.

They believe that the exercise of sufficient faith in prayer to G.o.d is capable of restoring the sick to health; and a.s.sert that there have been in their experience and among their members.h.i.+p a number of such cures.

In a "Free-Church Tract," dated "Oneida Reserve, 1850," there is an account of such a cure of Mrs. M. A. Hall, ill of consumption, and given up by her physicians. In this case J. H. Noyes and Mrs. Cragin were those whose "power of faith" was supposed to have acted; and Mrs. Hall herself wrote, two years later: "From a helpless, bed-ridden state, in which I was unable to move, or even to be moved without excruciating pain, I was _instantly_ raised to a consciousness of perfect health.

I was constrained to declare again and again that I was perfectly well.

My eyes, which before could not bear the light, were opened to the blaze of day and became strong. My appet.i.te was restored, and all pain removed." This is said to have taken place in June, 1847. The following case is reported in the _Circular_ for February 9th of the present year (1874), and the description of the injury, which immediately follows, is given by Dr. Cragin--a member of the Oneida Community--whom I understand to be a regularly educated physician. The sufferer was a woman, Mrs. M. Her hand was pa.s.sed between the rubber rollers of a wringing-machine. The machine was new, and the rollers were screwed down so that it brought a very heavy pressure on her hand, evidently crowding the bones all out of place and stretching the ligaments, besides seriously injuring the nerves of her hand and arm. When she came here from Wallingford Community, several weeks after the accident, not only the nerves of her hand were essentially paralyzed, but the trunk nerve of her arm was paralyzed and caused her a great deal of suffering. It was as helpless as though completely paralyzed: she had not sufficient control over her hand to bend her fingers.

"That was her condition up to the time of the cure. I could not see from the time she came here to the time of the cure that there was any change for the better. I told her the first time I examined her hand that, according to the ordinary course of such things, she must not expect to get the use of it under twelve months, if she did then. At the same time I told her I would not limit the power of G.o.d.

"Her general health improved, but her hand caused her the acutest suffering. It would awaken her in the night, and oblige her to get up and spend hours in rubbing it and trying to allay the pain. If any one has had a jumping toothache, he can imagine something what her suffering was, only the pain extended over the whole hand and arm, instead of being confined to one small place like a tooth. I have known of strong men who had the nervous system of an arm similarly affected, who begged that their arms might be taken off, and have indeed suffered amputation rather than endure the pain.

"For some time before her cure there had been considerable talk in the family about faith-cures, and persons had talked with her on the subject, and encouraged her to expect to have such a cure as Harriet Hall did. Finally Mr. Noyes's interest was aroused, and he invoked a committee for her--not so much to criticize as to comfort her, and bring to bear on her the concentrated attention and faith of the family. She was stimulated by this criticism to cheerfulness and hope, and to put herself into the social current, keeping around as much as she could where there was the most life and faith. A private criticism soon after penetrated her spirit, and separated her from a brooding influence of evil that she had come under in a heart affair.

"Still she suffered with her hand as much as ever, up to the time of her sudden cure. A few evenings after this private criticism we had a very interesting meeting, and she was present in the gallery. The subject was the power of prayer, and there was a good deal of faith experience related, and she appeared the next morning shaking hands with every body she met. Now you see her was.h.i.+ng dishes and making beds.

"_Mrs. A._--The morning she was cured I was at work in the hall, when she came running toward me, saying, 'I'm cured! I'm cured!' Then she shook hands with me, using the hand that had been so bad, and giving a hearty pressure with it.

"_Dr. C._--To show that the case is not one of imagination, I will say that the day before the cure she could not have it _touched_ without suffering pain. She had not been dressed for a week, but that morning she bathed and dressed herself and made her bed, and then went to Joppa.

"_Mr. N._--She came down to Joppa with her hands all free, and went out on the ice; I don't know that she caught any fish, but she attended the 'tip-ups.'

"_Mrs. C._--She said to me that she had attended to dieting and all the prescriptions that were given her, and got no help from them; and she had made up her mind that if there was any thing done for her, the community must take hold and do it.

"_W. A. H._--Let us be united about this case; and if it be imagination, let us have more of it; and if it be the power of faith, let us have more faith.

"_C. W. U._--Was Mrs. M. conscious of any precise moment when the pain left her in the night?

"_Mrs. M._ [the person who was cured].--After the meeting in which we talked about faith-cures, I went to my room and prayed to G.o.d to take the pain out of my hand, and told him if he did I would glorify him with it. The pain left me, and I could stretch out my arm farther than I had been able to since it was hurt. I went to bed, and slept until four o'clock without waking; then I awoke and found I was not in pain, and that I could stretch out my arm and move my fingers. Then I thought--'I am well.' I got up, took a bath, and dressed myself. After this my arm ached some, but I said, 'I am well; I am made every whit whole.' I kept saying that to myself, and the pain left me entirely. My arm has begun to ache nearly every day since then, but I insist that I am well, and the pain ceases. That arm is not yet as strong as the other, but is improving daily.

"_Mrs. C._--I have had considerable of that kind of experience during the last few years. For two years I raised blood a good deal, and thought a great many times that I was going to die--could not get that idea out of my mind. Mrs. M. talked with me about it, and told me I must not give up to my imaginations. I was put into business two years ago, and some days my head swam so that I could hardly go about, but I did what was given me to do; and finally I came to a point in my experience where I said, 'I don't care if I do raise blood; I am not going to be frightened by it; I had as soon raise blood as do any thing else.' When I got there my trouble left me."

I have copied this account at some length, because it speaks in detail of a quite recent occurrence, and shows, in a characteristic way, their manner of dealing with disease.

They profess also to have wrought cures by what they call "Criticism,"

of which I shall speak further on.

Concerning their management of the intercourse of the s.e.xes, so much has been written, by themselves and by others, that I think I need here say only that--

1st. They regard their system as part of their religion. Noyes said, in a "Home Talk," reported in the _Circular_, February 2,1874: "Woe to him who abolishes the law of the apostasy before he stands in the holiness of the resurrection. The law of the apostasy is the law of marriage; and it is true that whoever undertakes to enter into the liberty of the resurrection without the holiness of the resurrection, will get woe and not happiness. It is as important for the young now as it was for their fathers then, that they should know that holiness of heart is what they must have before they get liberty in love. They must put the first thing first, as I did and as their parents did; they must be _Perfectionists_ before they are _Communists_." He seems to see, too, that "complex marriage," as he calls it, is not without grave dangers to the community, for he added, in the same "Home Talk:" "We have got into the position of Communism, where without genuine salvation from sin our pa.s.sions will overwhelm us, and nothing but confusion and misery can be expected. On the other hand, we have got into a position where, if we do have the grace of G.o.d triumphant in our hearts and flowing through all our nature, there is an opportunity for harmony and happiness beyond all that imagination has conceived. So it is h.e.l.l behind us, and heaven before us, and a necessity that we should _march_!"

2d. "Complex marriage" means, in their practice: that, within the limits of the community members.h.i.+p, any man and woman may and do freely cohabit, having first gained each other's consent, not by private conversation or courts.h.i.+p, but through the intervention of some third person or persons; that they strongly discourage, as an evidence of sinful selfishness, what they call "exclusive and idolatrous attachment"

of two persons for each other, and aim to break up by "criticism" and other means every thing of this kind in the community; that they teach the advisability of pairing persons of different ages, the young of one s.e.x with the aged of the other, and as the matter is under the control and management of the more aged members it is thus arranged; that "persons are not obliged, under any circ.u.mstances, to receive the attentions of those whom they do not like;" and that the propagation of children is controlled by the society, which pretends to conduct this matter on scientific principles: "Previous to about two and a half years ago we refrained from the usual rate of childbearing, for several reasons, financial and otherwise. Since that time we have made an attempt to produce the usual number of offspring to which people in the middle cla.s.ses are able to afford judicious moral and spiritual care, with the advantage of a liberal education. In this attempt twenty-four men and twenty women have been engaged, selected from among those who have most thoroughly practiced our social theory." [Footnote: "Essay on Scientific Propagation," by John Humphrey Noyes.]

Finally, they find in practice a strong tendency toward what they call "selfish love"--that is to say, the attachment of two persons to each other, and their desire to be true to each other; and there are here and there in their publications signs that there has been suffering among their young people on this account. They rebuke this propensity, however, as selfish and sinful, and break it down rigorously.

III.--DAILY LIFE AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION.

The farm, or domain, as they prefer to call it, of the Oneida Community forms a part of the old Reservation of the Oneida Indians. It is a plain, the land naturally good and well watered; and it has been industriously improved by the communists. It lies four miles from Oneida on the New York Central Railroad, and the Midland Railroad pa.s.ses through it.

The dwelling-house, a large brick building with some architectural pretensions, but no artistic merit, stands on the middle of a pleasant lawn, near the main road. It has some extensions in the rear, the chief of which is a large wing containing the kitchen and dining-room. The interior of the house is well arranged; the whole is warmed by steam; and there are baths and other conveniences. There is on the second floor a large hall, used for the evening gatherings of the community, and furnished with a stage for musical and dramatic performances, and with a number of round tables, about which they gather in their meetings. On the ground floor is a parlor for visitors; and a library-room, containing files of newspapers, and a miscellaneous library of about four thousand volumes.

There are two large family rooms, one on each story, around which a considerable number of sleeping-chambers are built; and the upper of these large rooms has two ranges of such dormitories, one above the other, the upper range being reached by a gallery. All the rooms are plainly furnished, there being neither any attempt at costly or elegant furnis.h.i.+ng, nor a striving for Shaker plainness.

Above the dining-room is the printing-office, where the _Circular_ is printed, and some job printing is done.

Opposite the dwelling, and across the road, are offices, a school-building, a lecture-room with a chemical laboratory, and a room for the use of the daguerreotypist of the community; farther on to the right is a large carpenter's shop, and to the left are barns, stables, the silk-dye house, and a small factory where the children of the community at odd hours make boxes for the spool silk produced here.

There is also a large and conveniently arranged laundry.

Somewhat over a mile from the home place are the factories of the community--consisting of trap works, silk works, a forge, and machine shops. These are thoroughly fitted with labor-saving machinery, and are extensive enough to produce three hundred thousand traps, and the value of over two hundred thousand dollars' worth of silk-twist in a year.

Near these workshops is a dwelling inhabited by thirty or forty of the communists, who are particularly employed in the shops.

The farm has been put in excellent order: there are extensive orchards of large and small fruits; and plantations of ornamental trees shelter the lawn about the dwelling. This lawn is in summer a favorite resort for picnic parties from a distance. As Sunday-school picnics are also brought hither, I judge that the hostility which once existed in the neighborhood to the Oneida Communists has disappeared. Indeed, at Oneida all with whom I had occasion to speak concerning the communists praised them for honesty, fair dealing, a peaceable disposition, and great business capacity.

Their system of administration is perfect and thorough. Their book-keeping--in which women are engaged as well as men, a young woman being the chief--is so systematized that they are able to know the profit or loss upon every branch of industry they pursue, as well as the cost of each part of their living.

They have twenty-one standing committees: on finance; amus.e.m.e.nts; patent-rights; location of tenant houses; arbitration; rents; baths, walks, roads, and lawns; fire; heating; sanitary; education; clothing; real estate and tenant houses; water-works and their supplies; painting; forest; water and steam power; photographs; hair-cutting; arcade; and Joppa--the last being an isolated spot on Oneida Lake, to which they go to bathe, fish, shoot, and otherwise ruralize.

Besides these, they divide the duties of administration among forty-eight departments: _Circular;_ publication; silk manufacture; hardware; fruit-preserving; paper-box; printing; dyeing; carpentry; business office; shoe shop; library; photographs; educational; science and art; laundry; furniture; legal; subsistence; Wallingford printing; agriculture; horticulture; medical; incidentals; dentistry; real estate; musical; amus.e.m.e.nts; quarry; housekeeping; repairs; traveling; watches; clocks; tin shop; porterage; lights; livery; clothing; stationery; floral; water-works; children's; landscape; forests; heating; bedding; coal.

At first view these many committees and departments may appear c.u.mbrous; but in practice they work well.

Every Sunday morning a meeting is held of what is called a "Business Board." This consists of the heads of all the departments, and of whoever, of the whole community, chooses to attend. At this meeting the business of the past week is discussed; and a secretary notes down briefly any action deemed advisable. At the Sunday-evening meeting the secretary's report is read to all, and thereupon discussed; and whatever receives general or unanimous approval is carried out.

Once a year, in the spring, there is a special meeting of the Business Board, at which the work of the year is laid out in some detail. At the beginning of the year an inventory is taken of all the possessions of the community.

Once a month the heads of the departments send in their accounts to the book-keepers, and these are then posted in the ledgers.

It is a principle with them to attempt nothing without the general consent of all the people; and if there is objection made, the matter proposed is put off for further discussion.