of the community membership, any man and woman may and do freely
cohabit, having first gained each other's consent, not by private
conversation or courtship, 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
sex 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 circumstances, 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 classes 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 passes
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
furnishing, 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; amusements;
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; amusements; 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 cumbrous;
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.
Shortly after New-Year, the Finance Committee sits and receives
estimates. This means that each department sends in an estimate of the
money it will require for the coming year. At the same time any one who
has a project in his head may propose it, with an estimate of its cost.
Thereupon the Finance Committee makes the necessary appropriations,
revising the estimates in accordance with the general total which the
society can afford to spend for the year. At or before this meeting the
returns for the past year have been scrutinized.
All appointments on committees are made for a year; but there is a
committee composed of men and women whose duty it is to appoint
different persons to their work; and these may change the employments at
any time. In practice, the foremen of the manufacturing establishments
are not frequently changed. In appointing the labor of the members,
their tastes as well as abilities are consulted, and the aim is to make
each one contented.
The appointment of so many committees makes some one responsible for
each department, and when any thing is needed, or any fault is to be
found, the requisition can be directed to a particular person. Women,
equally with men, serve on the committees.
They rise in the morning between five and half-past seven; this
depending somewhat upon the business each is engaged in. The children
sleep as long as they like. Breakfast is from eight to nine, and dinner
from three to four; and they retire from half-past eight to half-past
ten. The members do not now work very hard, as will appear from these
hours; but they are steadily industrious; and as most of them
superintend some department, and all of them work cheerfully, the
necessary amount of labor is accomplished. Mere drudgery they nowadays
put upon their hired people.
A square board, placed in a gallery near the library, tells at a glance
where every body is. It contains the names of the men and women at the
side, and the places where they can be found at the head; and a peg,
which each one sticks in opposite his name, tells his whereabouts for
the day.
There is no bell or other signal for proceeding to work; but each one is
expected to attend faithfully to that which is given him or her to do;
and here, as in other communities, no difficulty is found about idlers.
Those who have disagreeable tasks are more frequently changed than
others. Thus the women who superintend in the kitchen usually serve but
a month, but sometimes two months at a time.
Children are left to the care of their mothers until they are weaned;
then they are put into a general nursery, under the care of special
nurses or care-takers, who are both men and women. There are two of
these nurseries, one for the smaller children, the other for those above
three or four years of age, and able somewhat to help themselves. These
eat at the same time with the older people, and are seated at tables by
themselves in the general dining-room. The children I saw were plump,
and looked sound; but they seemed to me a little subdued and desolate,
as though they missed the exclusive love and care of a father and
mother. This, however, may have been only fancy; though I should grieve
to see in the eyes of my own little ones an expression which I thought I
saw in the Oneida children, difficult to describe--perhaps I might say a
lack of buoyancy, or confidence and gladness. A man or woman may not
find it disagreeable to be part of a great machine, but I suspect it is
harder for a little child. However, I will not insist on this, for I may
have been mistaken. I have seen, with similar misgivings, a lot of
little chickens raised in an egg-hatching machine, and having a blanket
for shelter instead of the wing of a mother: I thought they missed the
cluck and the vigilant if sometimes severe care of the old hen. But
after all they grew up to be hearty chickens, as zealous and greedy, and
in the end as useful as their more particularly nurtured fellows.
In the dining-hall I noticed an ingenious contrivance to save trouble to
those who wait on the table. The tables are round, and accommodate ten
or twelve people each. There is a stationary rim, having space for the
plates, cups, and saucers; and within this is a revolving disk, on which
the food is placed, and by turning this about each can help himself.
They do not eat much meat, having it served not more than twice a week.
Fruits and vegetables make up the greater part of their diet. They use
tea, and coffee mixed with malt, which makes an excellent beverage. They
use no tobacco, nor spirituous liquors.
The older people have separate sleeping-chambers; the younger usually
room two together.
The men dress as people in the world do, but plainly, each one following
his own fancy. The women wear a dress consisting of a bodice, loose
trousers, and a short skirt falling to just above the knee. Their hair
is cut just below the ears, and I noticed that the younger women usually
gave it a curl. The dress is no doubt extremely convenient: it admits of
walking in mud or snow, and allows freedom of exercise; and it is
entirely modest. But it was to my unaccustomed eyes totally and fatally
lacking in grace and beauty. The present dress of women, prescribed by
fashion, and particularly the abominable false hair and the
preposterously ugly hats, are sufficiently barbarous; but the Oneida
dress, which is so scant that it forbids any graceful arrangement of
drapery, seemed to me no improvement.
[Illustration: COSTUMES AT ONEIDA.]
As they have no sermons nor public prayers, so they have no peculiar
mode of addressing each other. The men are called Mr., and the women
Miss, except when they were married before they entered the society. It
was somewhat startling to me to hear Miss ---- speak about her baby.
Even the founder is addressed or spoken of simply as Mr. Noyes.
At the end of every year each person gives into the Finance Board a
detailed statement of what clothing he or she requires for the coming
year, and upon the aggregate sum is based the estimate for the next year
for clothing. At the beginning of 1874, the women proposed a different
plan, which was thus described in the _Circular_:
"In our last woman's meeting, Mrs. C ---- had a report to present for
discussion and acceptance. A change of system was proposed. The plan
that had been pursued for several years was to have a certain sum
appropriated for clothing in the beginning of the year--so much for
men, so much for women, and so much for children. Another sum was set
apart for 'incidentals,' a word of very comprehensive scope. A woman of
good judgment and great patience was appointed to the office of keeper
and distributor of goods, and another of like qualifications was
associated with a man of experience in doing the greater part of the
buying. Each woman made out a list of the articles she needed, and
selected them from the goods we had on hand, or sent or went for them to
our neighboring merchants. This plan worked well in many respects, but
it had some disadvantages. The women in charge had to be constantly
adjusting and deciding little matters in order to make the wants
coincide with the appropriated sum. Many unforeseen demands came in, and
at the end of the year they inevitably exceeded their bounds. This year
the Clothing Committee, in consultation with the financiers, proposed to
adopt another plan. It was this: To appropriate a sum in the beginning
of the year large enough to cover all reasonable demands, and then,
after setting aside special funds for children's clothing, traveling
wardrobes, infants' wardrobes and incidentals, to divide the remainder
into as many equal portions as there were women in the family. Each
woman then assumes for herself the responsibility of making the two ends
meet at the close of the year. It was thought it would be a great
advantage to each woman, and particularly to every young girl, to know
what her clothing, from her hat to her shoes, costs. She would learn
economy and foresight, and feel a new interest in the question of cost
and payment. The plan, too, allows of great variations in the way of
making presents and helping one another when there is a surplus, or,
when there is no need, leaving it untouched in the treasury. After due
explanations and discussions, the women voted unanimously to try the new
plan."
It may interest some readers to know that the sum thus set aside for
each woman's dress during the year, including shoes and hats, was
thirty-three dollars. A member writes in explanation:
"Minus the superfluities and waste of fashion, we find thirty-three
dollars a year plenty enough to keep us in good dresses, two or three
for each season, summer, winter, fall, and spring (the fabrics are not
velvets and satins, of course--they are flannels and merinos, the
lighter kinds of worsted, various kinds of prints, and Japanese silk);
to fill our drawers with the best of under-linen, to furnish us with
hoods and sun-bonnets, beaver and broadcloth sacks, and a variety of
shawls and shoulder-gear, lighter and pleasanter to wear, if not so
ingrained with the degradation of toil as the costly Cashmere."
When a man needs a suit of clothes, he goes to the tailor and is
measured, choosing at the same time the stuff and the style or cut.
There is a person called familiarly "Incidentals." To him is entrusted a
fund for incidental and unforeseen expenses; and when a young woman
wants a breast-pin--the only ornament worn--she applies to
"Incidentals." When any one needs a watch, he makes his need known to
the committee on watches.
For the children they have a sufficiently good school, in which the
Bible takes a prominent part as a text-book. The young people are
encouraged to continue their studies, and they have two or three classes
in history, one in grammar, and several in French, Latin, geology, etc.
These study and recite at odd times; and it is their policy not to
permit the young men and women to labor too constantly. The Educational
Committee superintends the evening classes.
They also cultivate vocal and instrumental music; and have several times
sent one or two of their young women to New York to receive special
musical instruction. Also for some years they have kept several of their
young men in the Yale scientific school, and in other departments of
that university. Thus they have educated two of their members to be
physicians; two in the law; one in mechanical engineering; one in
architecture; and others in other pursuits. Usually these have been
young men from twenty-two to twenty-five years of age, who had prepared
themselves practically beforehand.
It is their habit to change their young people from one employment to
another, and thus make each master of several trades. The young women
are not excluded from this variety; and they have now several girls
learning the machinists' trade, in a building appropriated to this
purpose; and their instructor told me they were especially valuable for
the finer and more delicate kinds of lathe-work. A young man whom they
sent to the Sheffield scientific school to study mechanical engineering
had been for a year or two in the machine shop before he went to Yale;
he is now at the head of the silk works. Their student in architecture
had in the same way prepared himself in their carpenter's shop.
No one who visits a communistic society which has been for some time in
existence can fail to be struck with the amount of ingenuity, inventive
skill, and business talent developed among men from whom, in the outer
world, one would not expect such qualities. This is true, too, of the
Oneida Communists. They contrived all the machinery they use for making
traps--one very ingenious piece making the links for the chains. They
had no sooner begun to work in silk than they invented a little toy
which measures the silk thread as it is wound on spools, and accurately
gauges the number of yards; and another which tests the strength of
silk; and these have come into such general use that they already make
them for sale.
So, too, when they determined to begin the silk manufacture, they sent
one of their young men and two women to work as hands in a well-managed
factory. In six months these returned, having sufficiently mastered the
business to undertake the employment and instruction of hired operatives.
Of the machinery they use, they bought one set and made all the remainder
upon its pattern, in their own foundry and shops. A young man who had
studied chemistry was sent out to a dye-house, and in a few months made
himself a competent dyer. In all this complicated enterprise they made so
few mistakes that in six months after they began to produce silk-twist
their factory had a secure reputation in the market.
It is their custom to employ their people, where they have responsible
places, in couples. Thus there are two house stewards, two foremen in a
factory, etc.; both having equal knowledge, and one always ready to take
the other's place if he finds the work wearing upon him.
They seemed to me to have an almost fanatical horror of forms. Thus they
change their avocations frequently; they remove from Oneida to Willow
Place, or to Wallingford, on slight excuses; they change the order of
their evening meetings and amusements with much care; and have changed
even their meal hours. One said to me, "We used to eat three meals a
day--now we eat but two; but we may be eating five six months from now."
Very few of their young people have left them; and some who have gone
out have sought to return. They have expelled but one person since the
community was organized. While they received members, they exacted no
probationary period, but used great care before admission. Mr. Noyes
said on this subject:
"There has been a very great amount of discrimination and vigilance
exercised by the Oneida Community from first to last in regard to our
fellowships, and yet it seems to me it is one of the greatest miracles
that this community has succeeded as it has. Notwithstanding our
discrimination and determination to wait on God in regard to those we
receive, we scarcely have been saved."
New members sign a paper containing the creed, and also an agreement to
claim no wages or other reward for their labor while in the community.
IV.--SUNDAY AT THE ONEIDA COMMUNITY, WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF "CRITICISM."
I was permitted to spend several days at the Oneida Community, among
which was a Sunday.
The people are kind, polite to each other and to strangers, cheerful,
and industrious. There is no confusion, and for so large a number very
little noise. Where two hundred people live together in one house,
order, system, and punctuality are necessary; and loud voices would soon
become a nuisance.
I was shown the house, the kitchen and heating arrangements, the barns
with their fine stock, the various manufacturing operations; and in the
evening was taken to their daily gathering, at which instrumental music,
singing, and conversation engage them for an hour, after which they
disperse to the private parlors to amuse themselves with dominoes or
dancing, or to the library to read or write letters. Cards are
prohibited. The questions I asked were freely answered; and all the
people in one way or another came under my eye.
Some of them have the hard features of toil-worn New England farmers;
others look like the average business-men of our country towns or inland
cities; others are students, and there are a number of college-bred men
in the community. A fine collection of birds in a cabinet, skillfully
stuffed and mounted, showed me that there is in the society a lively
love of natural history. The collection is, I should think, almost
complete for the birds of the region about Oneida.
The people seem contented, and pleased with their success, as well they
may be, for it is remarkable. They use good language, and the standard
of education among them is considerably above the average. No doubt the
training they get in their evening discussions, and in the habit of
writing for a paper whose English is pretty carefully watched, has
benefited them. They struck me as matter-of-fact, with no nonsense or
romance about them, by no means overworked, and with a certain, perhaps
for their place in life high average of culture. I should say that the
women are inferior to the men: examining the faces at an evening
meeting, this was the impression I carried away.
If I should add that the predominant impression made upon me was that it
was a common-place company, I might give offense; but, after all, what
else but this could be the expression of people whose lives are removed
from need, and narrowly bounded by their community; whose religious
theory calls for no internal struggles, and, once within the community,
very little self-denial; who are well-fed and sufficiently amused, and
not overworked, and have no future to fear? The greater passions are not
stirred in such a life. If these are once thoroughly awakened, the
individual leaves the community.