The Communistic Societies of the United States | Page 7

laths or plaster to go on
with, he must not go and fetch them himself, but must send a laborer
for them. In consequence of this agreement, a Mr. Booth, of Bolton,
having sent one of his plasterers to bed and point a dozen windows, had
to place a laborer with him during the whole of the four days he was
engaged on the job, though any body could have brought him all he

required in half a day.... At Liverpool, a bricklayer's laborer may
legally carry as many as twelve bricks at a time. Elsewhere ten is the
greatest number allowed. But at Leeds 'any brother in the Union
professing to carry more than the common number, which is eight
bricks, shall be fined 1s.'; and any brother 'knowing the same without
giving the earliest information thereof to the committee of management
shall be fined the same.'... During the building of the Manchester Law
Courts, the bricklayers' laborers struck because they were desired to
wheel bricks instead of carrying them on their shoulders."]

THE INSPIRATIONISTS,
AT
AMANA, IOWA

THE AMANA COMMUNITY.
I.
The "True Inspiration Congregations," as they call themselves
("_Wahre Inspiration's Gemeinden_"), form a communistic society in
Iowa, seventy-four miles west of Davenport.
The society has at this time 1450 members; owns about 25,000 acres of
land; lives on this land in seven different small towns; carries on
agriculture and manufactures of several kinds, and is highly prosperous.
Its members are all Germans.
The base of its organization is religion; they are pietists; and their
religious head, at present a woman, is supposed by them to speak by
direct inspiration of God. Hence they call themselves "Inspirationists."
They came from Germany in the year 1842, and settled at first near
Buffalo, on a large tract of land which they called Eben-Ezer. Here they
prospered greatly; but feeling the need of more land, in 1855 they
began to remove to their present home in Iowa.
They have printed a great number of books--more than one hundred
volumes; and in some of these the history of their peculiar religious
belief is carried back to the beginning of the last century. They continue
to receive from Germany accessions to their numbers, and often pay
out of their common treasury the expenses of poor families who
recommend themselves to the society by letters, and whom their

inspired leader declares to be worthy.
They seem to have conducted their pecuniary affairs with eminent
prudence and success.

II.--HISTORICAL.
The "Work of Inspiration" is said to have begun far back in the
eighteenth century. I have a volume, printed in 1785, which is called
the "Thirty-sixth Collection of the Inspirational Records," and gives an
account of "Brother John Frederick Rock's journeys and visits in the
year 1719, wherein are recorded numerous utterances of the Spirit by
his word of mouth to the faithful in Constance, Schaffhausen, Zurich,
and other places."
They admit, I believe, that the "Inspiration" died out from time to time,
but was revived as the congregations became more godly. In 1749, in
1772, and in 1776 there were especial demonstrations. Finally, in the
year 1816, Michael Krausert, a tailor of Strasburg, became what they
call an "instrument" (_werkzeug_), and to him were added several
others:
Philip Moschel, a stocking-weaver, and a German; Christian Metz, a
carpenter; and finally, in 1818, Barbara Heynemann, a "poor and
illiterate servant-maid," an Alsatian ("_eine arme ganz ungdehrte
Dienstmagd_").
Metz, who was for many years, and until his death in 1867, the spiritual
head of the society, wrote an account of the society from the time he
became an "instrument" until the removal to Iowa. From this, and from
a volume of Barbara Heynemann's inspired utterances, I gather that the
congregations did not hesitate to criticize, and very sharply, the conduct
of their spiritual leaders; and to depose them, and even expel them for
cause. Moreover, they recount in their books, without disguise, all their
misunderstandings. Thus it is recorded of Barbara Heynemann that in
1820 she was condemned to expulsion from the society, and her earnest
entreaties only sufficed to obtain consent that she should serve as a
maid in the family of one of the congregation; but even then it was
forbidden her to come to the meetings. Her exclusion seems, however,
to have lasted but a few months. Metz, in his "Historical Description,"
relates that this trouble fell upon Barbara because she had too friendly
an eye upon the young men; and there are several notices of her desire

to marry, as, for instance, under date of August, 1822, where it is
related that "the Enemy" tempted her again with a desire to marry
George Landmann; but "the Lord showed through Brother Rath, and
also to her own conscience, that this step was against