The Ohio--the Indian "stream white with froth," the French _La Belle
Riviere_--is the greatest river draining the western slopes of the
Alleghenies. Its basin embraces over two hundred thousand square
miles, and it flows for a thousand miles from Pittsburg to the
Mississippi at Cairo. In the upper reaches the Ohio is about twelve
hundred feet wide, broadening below to twenty-four hundred feet, its
depth varying fifty to sixty feet in the stages between low and high
water, and it goes along with smooth and placid current at one to
three miles an hour, having no fall excepting a rocky rapid of
twenty-six feet descent in two miles at Louisville. From Pittsburg it
flows northwest about twenty-six miles at the bottom of a deep canyon
it has carved down in the table land, so that steep and lofty hills
enclose it. Then the river turns west and finally south around the
long and narrow "Panhandle" protruding northward from the State of
West Virginia. It passes through a thriving agricultural region, with
many prosperous cities on its banks, almost everyone having a great
railway bridge carrying over the many lines seeking the west and
south. In its whole course it descends some four hundred feet; its
scenery is largely pastoral and gentle, without the grandeur given by
bold cliffs, although much of the shores are beautiful, and its banks
in various places disclose elevated terraces, indicating that it
formerly flowed at much higher levels, whilst its winding route gives
a constant succession of curves that add to the attractiveness.
Eighteen miles from Pittsburg is the town of Economy, where are the
fine farms and oil-wells of the quaint community of "Harmonists."
Georg Rapp, of Wurtumberg, believing he was divinely called to restore
the Christian religion to its original purity, established a colony
there on the model of the primitive church, with goods held in common,
which in 1803 he transplanted to Pennsylvania, settling in Butler
County. A few years later they removed to Indiana, but soon came back,
and founded their settlement of Economy in Beaver County in 1824.
Originally they numbered six hundred, and grew very rich, but being
celibates, their community dwindled until there were only eighteen,
who owned a tract of twenty-five hundred acres with valuable buildings
and much personal property, so that if divided it was estimated each
would have more than $100,000. The baby "Harmonist" then was over
sixty years old, and to perpetuate the community, in 1888 they began
accepting proselytes, who assumed all the obligations with vows of
celibacy, and thus the number was increased to fifty. Economy is a
sleepy village, its vine-covered houses built with gables towards the
street and without front doors, all being entered from side-yards.
They now labor but little themselves, their factories are silent, and
their noted brand of Pennsylvania "Economy whiskey" is no longer
distilled. Their church-bell rings them up at five o'clock in the
morning, they breakfast at six, and at seven the bell again rings for
the farmhands to go to work. At nine the bell summons them to lunch,
at twelve to dinner, at three to lunch again, at six to supper, and at
nine in the evening it finally warns the village to go to bed. They
have a noted wine-cellar, and none drink water, but they give all the
hands wine and cider, and present cake and wine to every visitor. At
the church service, the men sit on one side and the women on the
other, and when a "Harmonist" dies he is wrapped in a winding-sheet
and buried in the "white graveyard," no tombstone marking the grave.
They have recently suffered from litigation, others trying to get a
share of their wealth, but they live quietly, awaiting the final
summons, firm in their faith, and thoroughly believing its cardinal
principle that their last survivor will see the end of the world.