Mr. Owen then conducted me to Rapp’s former dwelling, a large, well-built brick house, with two lightning rods. The man of God, it appeared, took especial good care of himself; his house was by far the best in the place, surrounded by a garden, with a flight of stone steps, and the only one furnished with lightning rods. Mr. Owen, on the contrary, contented himself with a small apartment in the same tavern where I lodged. At present, the offices, and the residence of Mr. M‘Clure, the associate of Mr. Owen, are in Rapp’s house.[II.17]
Mr. M‘Clure is a man distinguished for learning, who has published a geological chart of the United States. He told me that he was in Germany in the year 1802, and also at Weimar, where he had become acquainted with the literati residing there: I was introduced by him to a native of Alsace, of the name of Neef, a rather aged man, who had the superintendence of the boys. Mr. Owen’s two eldest sons were also here shown to me, pupils of Fellenberg, who is greatly respected. Afterwards Mr. Owen made me acquainted with Mr. Lewis, secretary of the society, from Virginia, and a relation of the great Washington. He was already pretty far advanced in years, and appeared to have united himself to the society from liberal principles, as far as I could judge from our short conversation. Another acquaintance that I made, was with a Mr. Jennings, from Philadelphia, a young man, who was educated as a clergyman, but had quitted that profession to follow this course of life, and had united himself to Mr. Owen. He intended, nevertheless, to leave this place again, and return back to Philadelphia. Many other members have the same design, and I can hardly believe that this society will have a long duration.[II.18] Enthusiasm, which abandons its subjects but too soon, as well as the itch for novelty, had contributed much to the formation of this society. In spite of the principles of equality which they recognise, it shocks the feelings of people of education, to live on the same footing with every one indiscriminately, and eat with them at the same table.
The society consisted, as I was informed, of about one thousand members; at a distance of two miles are founded two new communities. Till a general table shall be instituted, according to the fundamental constitution of the society, the members are placed in four boarding-houses, where they must live very frugally. Several of the most turbulent, with an Irishman who wore a long beard, at their head, wished to leave the society immediately to go to Mexico, there to settle themselves, but where their subsistence will be procured with as much difficulty.
In the evening Mr. Owen conducted me to a concert in the non-descript building. Most of the members of the society were present. The orchestra was not numerous, it consisted at first only of one violin, one violoncello, one clarionet and two flutes. Nevertheless the concert was surprisingly good, especially as the musicians have not been together a year. The clarionet player performed particularly well, and afterwards let us hear him on the bugle. Several good male and female vocalists then took a part, they sang among other things a trio accompanied by the clarionet only. Declamation was interspersed among the musical performances, Lord Byron’s stanzas to his wife after their separation were extremely well recited. Between the two parts of the concert the music played a march, each gentleman gave a lady his arm, and a promenade took place, resembling a Polonaise with pretty figures, sometimes in two couples, sometimes in four; two ladies in the middle, the gentlemen separated from the ladies, then again all together. The concert closed with a lively cotillion. I was, on the whole, much amused; and Mr. Huygens took an active share in the dancing. This general evening amusement takes place often in the week; besides, on Tuesday, there is a general ball. There is a particular costume adopted for the society. That for the men consists of wide pantaloons buttoned over a boy’s jacket, made of light material, without a collar; that of the women of a coat reaching to the knee and pantaloons, such as little girls wear among us. These dresses are not universally adopted, but they have a good appearance. An elderly French lady, who presides over the department of young mothers, and the nursing of all the very small children, stuck by my side during a large portion of the evening, and tormented me with her philosophical views. All the men did not take a share in the dance, i. e. the lower class, but read newspapers, which were scattered over the side-tables.
The public house in which we lived was conducted on account of the society. General Evans was looked for, who was to keep the house; in the mean time it was directed by the physician of the society, Dr. M‘Namee, from Vincennes. Among the public buildings I remarked two of which the lower part was strongly built with rough stone, and provided with loop-holes. The larger of these was the granary, and it was reasonably thought that Rapp had this built as a defensive redoubt for his own people. At the first period of his establishment in this country he not only had the Indians, but also the rude people known under the general title of backwoodsmen, who not only saw the establishment of such a society with jealous eyes, which they knew would be wealthy in a short time, but also entertained a grudge against Rapp’s unnatural rules of chastity.
On the morning of the 14th of April, I strolled about the place to look round me. I visited Mr. Neef, but found his wife only at home, a native of Memmingen, in Swabia. Her husband was in the act of leading the boys out to labour. Military exercises form a part of the instruction of the children. I saw the boys divided into two ranks, and parted into detachments marching to labour, and on the way they performed various wheelings and evolutions. All the boys and girls have a very healthy look, are cheerful and lively, and by no means bashful. The boys labour in the field and garden, and were now occupied with new fencing. The girls learn female employments; they were as little oppressed as the boys with labour and teaching; these happy and interesting children were much more employed in making their youth pass as pleasantly as possible. Madam Neef showed the school-house, in which she dwelt, and in which the places for sleeping were arranged for the boys. Each boy slept on a cot frame, upon a straw bed.
We went next to Rapp’s distillery: it will be removed altogether. Mr. Owen has forbidden distilling also, as well as the use of ardent spirits. Notwithstanding this, the Irishmen here find opportunities of getting whiskey and fuddling themselves from the flat boats that stop here, &c. We saw also a dye-house and a mill set in motion by a steam-engine of ten horse-power. The engine was old and not in good order, Mr. Owen said however, he hoped to introduce steam-mills here in time from England. From the mills we went to the vineyard, which was enclosed and kept in very good order. I spoke to an old French vine-dresser here. He assured me that Rapp’s people had not understood the art of making wine; that he would in time make more and much better wine, than had been done heretofore. The wine stocks are imported from the Cape of Good Hope, and the wine has an entirely singular and strange taste, which reminds one of the common Spanish wines.
We went again to the quondam church, or workshop for the boys, who are intended for joiners and shoemakers. These boys sleep upon the floor above the church in cribs, three in a row, and thus have their sleeping place and place of instruction close together. We also saw the shops of the shoemakers, tailors and saddlers, also the smiths, of which six were under one roof, and the pottery, in which were two rather large furnaces. A porcelain earth has been discovered on the banks of the Mississippi, in the state of Illinois, not far from St. Louis. Two experienced members of the society, went in that direction, to bring some of the earth to try experiments with, in burning. The greater part of the young girls, whom we chanced to meet at home, we found employed in plaiting straw hats. I became acquainted with a Madam F——, a native of St. Petersburg. She married an American merchant, settled there, and had the misfortune to lose her husband three days after marriage. She then joined her husband’s family at Philadelphia, and as she was somewhat eccentric and sentimental, quickly became enthusiastically attached to Mr. Owen’s system. She told me, however, in German, that she found herself egregiously deceived; that the highly vaunted equality was not altogether to her taste; that some of the society were too low, and the table was below all criticism. The good lady appeared to be about to run from one extreme to the other; for she added, that in the summer, she would enter a Shaker establishment near Vincennes.[II.19]
I renewed acquaintance here with Mr. Say, a distinguished naturalist from Philadelphia, whom I had been introduced to, at the Wistar Party there; unfortunately he had found himself embarrassed in his fortune, and was obliged to come here as a friend of Mr. M‘Clure. This gentleman appeared quite comical in the costume of the society, before described, with his hands full of hard lumps and blisters, occasioned by the unusual labour he was obliged to undertake in the garden.
In the evening I went to walk in the streets, and met with several of the ladies of the society, who rested from the labours of the day. Madam F—— was among them, whose complaints of disappointed expectations I had listened to. I feared still more from all that I saw and heard, that the society would have but a brief existence. I accompanied the ladies to a dancing assembly, which was held in the kitchen of one of the boarding-houses. I observed that this was only an hour of instruction to the unpractised in dancing, and that there was some restraint on account of my presence, from politeness I went away, and remained at home the remainder of the evening. About ten o’clock, an alarm of fire was suddenly raised. An old log building used as a wash-house was in flames, immediately the fire-engine kept in a distinct house, was brought and served by persons appointed to that duty. They threw the stream of water through the many apertures of the log-house, and quickly put a stop to the fire. In a quarter of an hour, all was over. Since the houses in the place all stand separately, there is nothing to fear from the extension of fire, unless in a strong wind. The houses, however, are all covered with shingles.