from Zoar and Economy and one or two Americans have joined. The "Great
Council," in its desire to maintain the homogeneity of the group,
rejects the large number of applications for membership received every
year. Over sixty per cent of the young people who have left the
community to try the world have come back to "colony trousers" or
"colony skirts," symbols of the complete submergence of the
individual.

Celibacy has been encouraged but never enjoined, and the young people
are permitted to marry, if the Spirit gives its sanction, the Elders
their consent, and if the man has reached the age of twenty-four
years. The two sexes are rigidly separated in school, in church, at
work, and in the communal dining rooms. Each family lives in a house,
but there are communal kitchens, where meals are served to groups of
twenty or more. Every member receives an annual cash bonus varying
from $25 to $75 and a pass book to record his credits at the "store."
The work is doled out among the members, who take pride in the quality
rather than in the quantity of their product. All forms of amusement
are forbidden; music, which flourished in other German communities, is
suppressed; and even reading for pleasure or information was until
recently under the ban.

The only symbols of gayety in the villages are the flowers, and these
are everywhere in lavish abundance, softening the austere lines of the
plain and unpainted houses. No architect has been allowed to show his
skill, no artist his genius, in the shaping of this rigorous life. But
its industries flourish. Amana calico and Amana woolens are known in
many markets. The livestock is of the finest breeds; the products of
the fields and orchards are the choicest. But the modern visitor
wonders how long this prosperity will be able to maintain that