American Notes for General Circulation

by Dickens, Chales

  after health or pleasure who repair here, but inexpressibly

  comfortless to me. We were shown into an immense apartment,

  lighted by two dim candles, called the drawing-room: from which

  there was a descent by a flight of steps, to another vast desert,

  called the dining-room: our bed-chambers were among certain long

  rows of little white-washed cells, which opened from either side of

  a dreary passage; and were so like rooms in a prison that I half

  expected to be locked up when I went to bed, and listened

  involuntarily for the turning of the key on the outside. There

  need be baths somewhere in the neighbourhood, for the other washing

  arrangements were on as limited a scale as I ever saw, even in

  America: indeed, these bedrooms were so very bare of even such

  common luxuries as chairs, that I should say they were not provided

  with enough of anything, but that I bethink myself of our having

  been most bountifully bitten all night.

  The house is very pleasantly situated, however, and we had a good

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  breakfast. That done, we went to visit our place of destination,

  which was some two miles off, and the way to which was soon

  indicated by a finger-post, whereon was painted, 'To the Shaker

  Village.'

  As we rode along, we passed a party of Shakers, who were at work

  upon the road; who wore the broadest of all broad-brimmed hats; and

  were in all visible respects such very wooden men, that I felt

  about as much sympathy for them, and as much interest in them, as

  if they had been so many figure-heads of ships. Presently we came

  to the beginning of the village, and alighting at the door of a

  house where the Shaker manufactures are sold, and which is the

  headquarters of the elders, requested permission to see the Shaker

  worship.

  Pending the conveyance of this request to some person in authority,

  we walked into a grim room, where several grim hats were hanging on

  grim pegs, and the time was grimly told by a grim clock which

  uttered every tick with a kind of struggle, as if it broke the grim

  silence reluctantly, and under protest. Ranged against the wall

  were six or eight stiff, high-backed chairs, and they partook so

  strongly of the general grimness that one would much rather have

  sat on the floor than incurred the smallest obligation to any of

  them.

  Presently, there stalked into this apartment, a grim old Shaker,

  with eyes as hard, and dull, and cold, as the great round metal

  buttons on his coat and waistcoat; a sort of calm goblin. Being

  informed of our desire, he produced a newspaper wherein the body of

  elders, whereof he was a member, had advertised but a few days

  before, that in consequence of certain unseemly interruptions which

  their worship had received from strangers, their chapel was closed

  to the public for the space of one year.

  As nothing was to be urged in opposition to this reasonable

  arrangement, we requested leave to make some trifling purchases of

  Shaker goods; which was grimly conceded. We accordingly repaired

  to a store in the same house and on the opposite side of the

  passage, where the stock was presided over by something alive in a

  russet case, which the elder said was a woman; and which I suppose

  WAS a woman, though I should not have suspected it.

  On the opposite side of the road was their place of worship: a

  cool, clean edifice of wood, with large windows and green blinds:

  like a spacious summer-house. As there was no getting into this

  place, and nothing was to be done but walk up and down, and look at

  it and the other buildings in the village (which were chiefly of

  wood, painted a dark red like English barns, and composed of many

  stories like English factories), I have nothing to communicate to

  the reader, beyond the scanty results I gleaned the while our

  purchases were making,

  These people are called Shakers from their peculiar form of

  adoration, which consists of a dance, performed by the men and

  women of all ages, who arrange themselves for that purpose in

  opposite parties: the men first divesting themselves of their hats

  and coats, which they gravely hang against the wall before they

  begin; and tying a ribbon round their shirt-sleeves, as though they

  were going to be bled. They accompany themselves with a droning,

  humming noise, and dance until they are quite exhausted,

  alternately advancing and retiring in a preposterous sort of trot.

  The effect is said to be unspeakably absurd: and if I may judge

  from a print of this ceremony which I have in my possession; and

  which I am informed by those who have visited the chapel, is

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  perfectly accurate; it must be infinitely grotesque.

  They are governed by a woman, and her rule is understood to be

  absolute, though she has the assistance of a council of elders.

  She lives, it is said, in strict seclusion, in certain rooms above

  the chapel, and is never shown to profane eyes. If she at all

  resemble the lady who presided over the store, it is a great

  charity to keep her as close as possible, and I cannot too strongly

  express my perfect concurrence in this benevolent proceeding.

  All the possessions and revenues of the settlement are thrown into

  a common stock, which is managed by the elders. As they have made

  converts among people who were well to do in the world, and are

  frugal and thrifty, it is understood that this fund prospers: the

  more especially as they have made large purchases of land. Nor is

  this at Lebanon the only Shaker settlement: there are, I think, at

  least, three others.

  They are good farmers, and all their produce is eagerly purchased

  and highly esteemed. 'Shaker seeds,' 'Shaker herbs,' and 'Shaker

  distilled waters,' are commonly announced for sale in the shops of

  towns and cities. They are good breeders of cattle, and are kind

  and merciful to the brute creation. Consequently, Shaker beasts

  seldom fail to find a ready market.

  They eat and drink together, after the Spartan model, at a great

  public table. There is no union of the sexes, and every Shaker,

  male and female, is devoted to a life of celibacy. Rumour has been

  busy upon this theme, but here again I must refer to the lady of

  the store, and say, that if many of the sister Shakers resemble

  her, I treat all such slander as bearing on its face the strongest

  marks of wild improbability. But that they take as proselytes,

  persons so young that they cannot know their own minds, and cannot

  possess much strength of resolution in this or any other respect, I

  can assert from my own observation of the extreme juvenility of

  certain youthful Shakers whom I saw at work among the party on the

  road.

  They are said to be good drivers of bargains, but to be honest and

  just in their transactions, and even in horse-dealing to resist

  those thievish tendencies which would seem, for some
undiscovered

  reason, to be almost inseparable from that branch of traffic. In

  all matters they hold their own course quietly, live in their

  gloomy, silent commonwealth, and show little desire to interfere

  with other people.

  This is well enough, but nevertheless I cannot, I confess, incline

  towards the Shakers; view them with much favour, or extend towards

  them any very lenient construction. I so abhor, and from my soul

  detest that bad spirit, no matter by what class or sect it may be

  entertained, which would strip life of its healthful graces, rob

  youth of its innocent pleasures, pluck from maturity and age their

  pleasant ornaments, and make existence but a narrow path towards

  the grave: that odious spirit which, if it could have had full

  scope and sway upon the earth, must have blasted and made barren

  the imaginations of the greatest men, and left them, in their power

  of raising up enduring images before their fellow-creatures yet

  unborn, no better than the beasts: that, in these very broadbrimmed

  hats and very sombre coats - in stiff-necked, solemnvisaged

  piety, in short, no matter what its garb, whether it have

  cropped hair as in a Shaker village, or long nails as in a Hindoo

  temple - I recognise the worst among the enemies of Heaven and

  Earth, who turn the water at the marriage feasts of this poor

  world, not into wine, but gall. And if there must be people vowed

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  to crush the harmless fancies and the love of innocent delights and

  gaieties, which are a part of human nature: as much a part of it

  as any other love or hope that is our common portion: let them,

  for me, stand openly revealed among the ribald and licentious; the

  very idiots know that THEY are not on the Immortal road, and will

  despise them, and avoid them readily.

  Leaving the Shaker village with a hearty dislike of the old

  Shakers, and a hearty pity for the young ones: tempered by the

  strong probability of their running away as they grow older and

  wiser, which they not uncommonly do: we returned to Lebanon, and

  so to Hudson, by the way we had come upon the previous day. There,

  we took the steamboat down the North River towards New York, but

  stopped, some four hours' journey short of it, at West Point, where

  we remained that night, and all next day, and next night too.

  In this beautiful place: the fairest among the fair and lovely

  Highlands of the North River: shut in by deep green heights and

  ruined forts, and looking down upon the distant town of Newburgh,

  along a glittering path of sunlit water, with here and there a

  skiff, whose white sail often bends on some new tack as sudden

  flaws of wind come down upon her from the gullies in the hills:

  hemmed in, besides, all round with memories of Washington, and

  events of the revolutionary war: is the Military School of

  America.

  It could not stand on more appropriate ground, and any ground more

  beautiful can hardly be. The course of education is severe, but

  well devised, and manly. Through June, July, and August, the young

  men encamp upon the spacious plain whereon the college stands; and

  all the year their military exercises are performed there, daily.

  The term of study at this institution, which the State requires

  from all cadets, is four years; but, whether it be from the rigid

  nature of the discipline, or the national impatience of restraint,

  or both causes combined, not more than half the number who begin

  their studies here, ever remain to finish them.

  The number of cadets being about equal to that of the members of

  Congress, one is sent here from every Congressional district: its

  member influencing the selection. Commissions in the service are

  distributed on the same principle. The dwellings of the various

  Professors are beautifully situated; and there is a most excellent

  hotel for strangers, though it has the two drawbacks of being a

  total abstinence house (wines and spirits being forbidden to the

  students), and of serving the public meals at rather uncomfortable

  hours: to wit, breakfast at seven, dinner at one, and supper at

  sunset.

  The beauty and freshness of this calm retreat, in the very dawn and

  greenness of summer - it was then the beginning of June - were

  exquisite indeed. Leaving it upon the sixth, and returning to New

  York, to embark for England on the succeeding day, I was glad to

  think that among the last memorable beauties which had glided past

  us, and softened in the bright perspective, were those whose

  pictures, traced by no common hand, are fresh in most men's minds;

  not easily to grow old, or fade beneath the dust of Time: the

  Kaatskill Mountains, Sleepy Hollow, and the Tappaan Zee.

  CHAPTER XVI - THE PASSAGE HOME

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  I NEVER had so much interest before, and very likely I shall never

  have so much interest again, in the state of the wind, as on the

  long-looked-for morning of Tuesday the Seventh of June. Some

  nautical authority had told me a day or two previous, 'anything

  with west in it, will do;' so when I darted out of bed at daylight,

  and throwing up the window, was saluted by a lively breeze from the

  north-west which had sprung up in the night, it came upon me so

  freshly, rustling with so many happy associations, that I conceived

  upon the spot a special regard for all airs blowing from that

  quarter of the compass, which I shall cherish, I dare say, until my

  own wind has breathed its last frail puff, and withdrawn itself for

  ever from the mortal calendar.

  The pilot had not been slow to take advantage of this favourable

  weather, and the ship which yesterday had been in such a crowded

  dock that she might have retired from trade for good and all, for

  any chance she seemed to have of going to sea, was now full sixteen

  miles away. A gallant sight she was, when we, fast gaining on her

  in a steamboat, saw her in the distance riding at anchor: her tall

  masts pointing up in graceful lines against the sky, and every rope

  and spar expressed in delicate and thread-like outline: gallant,

  too, when, we being all aboard, the anchor came up to the sturdy

  chorus 'Cheerily men, oh cheerily!' and she followed proudly in the

  towing steamboat's wake: but bravest and most gallant of all, when

  the tow-rope being cast adrift, the canvas fluttered from her

  masts, and spreading her white wings she soared away upon her free

  and solitary course.

  In the after cabin we were only fifteen passengers in all, and the

  greater part were from Canada, where some of us had known each

  other. The night was rough and squally, so were the next two days,

  but they flew by quickly, and we were soon as cheerful and snug a

  party, with an honest, manly-hearted captain at our head, as ever

  came to the resolution of being mutually agreeable, on land or

  water.

  We breakfasted at eight, lunched at twelve, dined at three
, and

  took our tea at half-past seven. We had abundance of amusements,

  and dinner was not the least among them: firstly, for its own

  sake; secondly, because of its extraordinary length: its duration,

  inclusive of all the long pauses between the courses, being seldom

  less than two hours and a half; which was a subject of neverfailing

  entertainment. By way of beguiling the tediousness of

  these banquets, a select association was formed at the lower end of

  the table, below the mast, to whose distinguished president modesty

  forbids me to make any further allusion, which, being a very

  hilarious and jovial institution, was (prejudice apart) in high

  favour with the rest of the community, and particularly with a

  black steward, who lived for three weeks in a broad grin at the

  marvellous humour of these incorporated worthies.

  Then, we had chess for those who played it, whist, cribbage, books,

  backgammon, and shovelboard. In all weathers, fair or foul, calm

  or windy, we were every one on deck, walking up and down in pairs,

  lying in the boats, leaning over the side, or chatting in a lazy

  group together. We had no lack of music, for one played the

  accordion, another the violin, and another (who usually began at

  six o'clock A.M.) the key-bugle: the combined effect of which

  instruments, when they all played different tunes in differents

  parts of the ship, at the same time, and within hearing of each

  other, as they sometimes did (everybody being intensely satisfied

  with his own performance), was sublimely hideous.

  When all these means of entertainment failed, a sail would heave in

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  sight: looming, perhaps, the very spirit of a ship, in the misty

  distance, or passing us so close that through our glasses we could

  see the people on her decks, and easily make out her name, and

  whither she was bound. For hours together we could watch the

  dolphins and porpoises as they rolled and leaped and dived around

  the vessel; or those small creatures ever on the wing, the Mother

  Carey's chickens, which had borne us company from New York bay, and

  for a whole fortnight fluttered about the vessel's stern. For some

  days we had a dead calm, or very light winds, during which the crew

  amused themselves with fishing, and hooked an unlucky dolphin, who

  expired, in all his rainbow colours, on the deck: an event of such