All are Germans and use the German language.

The Shakers are the oldest society of communists in the United States. The
parent society at Mount Lebanon, New York, was established in 1792, being
the outgrowth of a religious revival in which there were violent hysterical
manifestations or "shakes," from which they took their name. In this
revival one Ann Lee, known among them as "Mother Ann," was prominent. This
woman, of English birth, emigrated to Niskayuna, New York, about seven
miles north-west of Albany, where she pretended to speak from inspiration
and work miracles, so that the people soon came to regard her as being
another revelation of Christ and as having his authority. Being persecuted
by the outside world, her followers, after her death, formed a community in
which to live and enjoy their religion alone and: undisturbed. Their
principles may be summed up as special revelation, spiritualism, celibacy,
oral confession, community, non-resistance, peace, the gift of healing,
miracles, physical health and separation from the world. Like the Rappists,
they neither marry nor have any substitute for marriage, receiving all
their children by adoption. They live in large families or communes,
consisting of eighty or ninety members, in one big house, men and women
together. Each brother is assigned to a sister, who mends his clothes,
looks after his washing, tells him when he needs a new garment, reproves
him when not orderly, and has a spiritual oversight over him generally.
Though living in the same house, the sexes eat, labor and work apart. They
keep apart and in separate ranks in their worship. They do not shake hands
with the opposite sex, and there is rarely any scandal or gossip among
them, so far as the outside world can learn. There are two orders, known as
the Novitiate and the Church order, the latter having intercourse only with
their own members in a sort of monkish seclusion, while the others treat
with the outside world. The head of a Shaker society is a "ministry,"
consisting of from three to four persons, male and female. The society is
divided into families, as stated above, each family having two elders, one
male and one female. In their worship they are drawn up in ranks and go
through various gyrations, consisting of processions and dances, during
which they continually hold out their hands as if to receive something. The
Shakers are industrious, hard-working, economical and cleanly. They dress
unif