" "Suppose a
woman wanted, in your family, to be a blacksmith, would you consent?" I
asked; and he replied, "No, because this would bring men and women into
relations which we do not think wise." In fact, while they call men and
women equally to the rulership, they very sensibly hold that in general
life the woman's work is in the house, the man's out of doors; and there
is no offer to confuse the two.
Moreover, being celibates, they use proper precautions in the
intercourse of the sexes. Thus Shaker men and women do not shake hands
with each other; their lives have almost no privacy, even to the elders,
of whom two always room together; the sexes even eat apart; they labor
apart; they worship, standing and marching, apart; they visit each other
only at stated intervals and according to a prescribed order; and in all
things the sexes maintain a certain distance and reserve toward each
other. "We have no scandal, no tea-parties, no gossip."
Moreover, they mortify the body by early rising and by very plain
living. Few, as I said before, eat meat; and I was assured that a
complete and long-continued experience had proved to them that young
people maintain their health and strength fully without meat. They wear
a very plain and simple dress, without ornament of any kind; and the
costume of the women does not increase their attractiveness, and makes
it difficult to distinguish between youth and age.
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