It is a remarkable evidence of the prudence and ability with which they
conduct their business affairs, that they were able to sell out the
whole of their eight-thousand-acre tract near Buffalo, with all their
improvements, without loss. Usually such a sale is extremely difficult,
because the buildings of a communistic society have peculiarities which
detract from their value for individual uses. The Rappists, who sold out
twice, were forced to submit to heavy loss each time. I do not doubt
that several of the northern Shaker societies would have removed before
this to a better soil and climate but for the difficulty of selling
their possessions at a fair price.

The removal from Eben-Ezer to Amana, however, required ten years. As
they found purchasers in one place they sent families to the other;
meantime they do not appear to have found it difficult to maintain their
organization in both.



III.--AMANA--1874.

"The name we took out of the Bible," said one of the officers of the
society to me. They put the accent on the first syllable. The name
occurs in the Song of Solomon, the fourth chapter and eighth verse:
"Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon: look from
the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions'
dens, from the mountains of the leopards."

Amana in Iowa, however, is not a mountain, but an extensive plain, upon
which they have built seven villages, conveniently placed so as to