recovered. The vicinity to Pittsburgh, and cheap water communication,
encouraged them in manufacturing. Economy lay upon the main stage-road,
and was thus an important and presently a favorite stopping-place; the
colonists found kindly neighbors; there was sufficient young blood in
the community to give enterprise and strength; and "we sang songs every
day, and had music every evening," said old Mr. Keppler to me,
recounting the glories of those days. They erected woolen and cotton
mills, a grist-mill and saw-mill; they planted orchards and vineyards;
they began the culture of silk, and with such success that soon the
Sunday dress of men as well as women was of silk, grown, reeled, spun,
and woven by themselves.

In building the new town of Economy they displayed--thanks, I believe,
to the knowledge and skill of Frederick Rapp--a good deal of taste,
though adhering to their ancient plainness; and their two removals had
taught them valuable lessons in the convenient arrangement of machinery;
so that Economy is even now a model of a well-built, well-arranged
country village. As soon as they began to substitute brick for log
houses, they insisted upon erecting for "Father Rapp" a house somewhat
larger and more spacious than the common dwelling-houses, though not in
any other way different. 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