Show SHAKERS ARE nearly tol followers lowers rr of mother ann loo L are ita 1 inc in number the birthplace of the shaker ion in new england Is hanani harvard a picturesque tur esque little alas town about forty milea miles west of 0 boston it was here that mother father ann lee an english woman came in the summer of 1781 with till a little band of 0 devoted followers to expound the doctrines ot of her faith today there are two settlements of shakers in the neighboring tons of harvard pad id shirley during the last fifty years interest in the shakers has ha gradually died out and the membership all over new england has grown p own smaller and smaller ae As there are never any births in a beaker bli alter family the only hope of growth lies in taking in new membership from the outside of course the logical of such a theory Is that deaths ali 11 d if the ranks and so today the communities muni ties at 11 harvard arvard and shriley are not as large a and d prosperous as all they were once A large proportion of the two families arc arp old men and women and there are a few young members to take their places in the years to come |