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APPENDIX B
"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 alight-
ing 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 strong! y 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 arrange-
ment, 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
summerhouse. As there was no getting into this place, and nothing was to
be done but walk up and down, and look at itand 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 adora-
tion, which consists of a dance, performed by the men and women of all ages,