A constant provision of coffee and
bread is made for them, and the house set apart for their lodging has
bed accommodations for twenty men. They are expected to wash at the
stable next morning, and thereupon receive a breakfast of bread, meat,
and coffee, and are suffered to go on their way. Occasionally the very
destitute, if they seem to be deserving, receive also clothing.
"But are you not often imposed upon?" I asked.
"Yes, probably; but it is better to give to a dozen worthless ones than
to refuse one deserving man the cup and loaf which we give," was the
reply.
The tramps themselves took this benevolence apparently as a matter of
course. They were quiet enough; some of them looked like decent men out
of work, as indeed all professed to be going somewhere in search of
employment. But many of them had the air of confirmed loafers, and some
I should not have liked to meet alone on the road after dark.
Economy is the home of the "Harmony Society," better known to the
outside world as the followers of Rapp. It is a town of about one
hundred and twenty houses, very regularly built, well-drained, and
paved; it has water led from a reservoir in the hills, and flowing into
troughs conveniently placed in every street; abundant shade-trees; a
church, an assembly hall, a store which supplies also to some extent the
neighboring country; different factories, and a number of conveniences
which villages of its size are too often without.
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