Baltimore, 7 February, 1777.
I think in some letter I sent you since I left Bethlehem I promised you
a more particular account of that curious and remarkable town. When we
first came in sight of the town we found a country better cultivated and
more agreeably diversified with prospects of orchards and fields, groves
and meadows, hills and valleys, than any we had seen. When we came into
the town, we were directed to a public-house kept by a Mr. Johnson,
which I think was the best inn I ever saw. It belongs, it seems, to the
society, is furnished at their expense, and is kept for their profit or
at their loss. Here you might find every accommodation that you could
wish for yourself, your servants, and horses, and at no extravagant
rates neither.
The town is regularly laid out, the streets straight and at right
angles, like those in Philadelphia. It stands upon an eminence, and has
a fine large brook flowing on one end of it, and the Lehigh, a branch of
the Delaware, on the other. Between the town and the Lehigh are
beautiful public gardens. They have carried the mechanical arts to
greater perfection here than in any place which I have seen. They have a
set of pumps which go by water, which force the water up through leaden
pipes from the river to the top of the hill, near a hundred feet, and to
the top of a little building in the shape of a pyramid or obelisk,
which stands upon the top of the hill, and is twenty or thirty feet
high. From this fountain water is conveyed in pipes to every part of the
town. Upon the river they have a fine set of mills; the best grist mills
and bolting mills that are anywhere to be found; the best fulling mills,
an oil mill, a mill to grind bark for the tanyard, a dyeing house where
all colors are dyed, machines for shearing cloth, etc.
There are three public institutions here of a very remarkable nature.
One a society of the young men, another of the young women, and a third
of the widows. There is a large building divided into many apartments,
where the young men reside by themselves and carry on their several
trades. They pay a rent to the society for their rooms and they pay for
their board, and what they earn is their own. There is another large
building appropriated in the same manner to the young women. There is a
governess, a little like the lady abbess in some other institutions, who
has the superintendence of the whole, and they have Elders. Each
apartment has a number of young women who are vastly industrious, some
spinning, some weaving, others employed in all the most curious works in
linen, wool, cotton, silver and gold, silk and velvet. This institution
displeased me much. Their dress was uniform and clean, but very
inelegant. Their rooms were kept extremely warm with Dutch stoves, and
the heat, the want of fresh air and exercise, relaxed the poor girls in
such a manner as must, I think, destroy their health. Their countenances
were languid and pale.
The society of widows is very similar. Industry and economy are
remarkable in all these institutions. They showed us their Church, which
is hung with pictures of our Saviour from his birth to his death,
resurrection, and ascension. It is done with very strong colors and very
violent passions, but not in a very elegant taste. The painter, who is
still living in Bethlehem, but very old, has formerly been in Italy, the
school of painting. They have a very good organ in their Church, of
their own make. They have a public building on purpose for the
reception of the dead, to which the corpse is carried as soon as it
expires, where it lies until the time of sepulture.
Christian love is their professed object, but it is said they love money
and make their public institutions subservient to the gratification of
that passion. They suffer no lawsuits with one another, and as few as
possible with other men. It is said that they now profess to be against
war. They have a custom peculiar respecting courtship and marriage. The
elders pick out pairs to be coupled together, who have no opportunity of
conversing together more than once or twice before the knot is tied. The
youth of the two sexes have very little conversation with one another
before marriage.
Mr. Hassey, a very agreeable, sensible gentleman, who showed us the
curiosities of the place, told me, upon inquiry, that they profess the
Augsburg confession of faith, are Lutherans rather than Calvinists,
distinguish between Bishops and Presbyters, but have no idea of the
necessity of the uninterrupted succession, are very liberal and candid
in their notions in opposition to bigotry, and live in charity with all
denominations.