This was advisable, because he was obliged to
entertain many visitors and strangers of distinction. The house stands
opposite the church; and has behind it a spacious garden, arranged in a
somewhat formal style, with box-edgings to the walks, and summer-houses
and other ornaments in the old geometrical style of gardening. This was
open to the people, of course; and here the band played on summer
evenings, or more frequently on Sunday afternoons; and here, too,
flowers were cultivated, I am told, with great success.
How rapidly they made themselves at home in Economy appears from the
following account of the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, who visited the place in
1826, only a year after it was founded:
"At the inn, a fine, large, frame house, we were received by Mr. Rapp,
the principal, at the head of the community. He is a gray-headed and
venerable old man; most of the members immigrated twenty-one years ago
from Wuertemberg along with him.
"The warehouse was shown to us, where the articles made here for sale or
use are preserved, and I admired the excellence of all. The articles for
the use of the society are kept by themselves; as the members have no
private possessions, and every thing is in common, so must they, in
relation to all their wants, be supplied from the common stock.
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