It  is  of  interest  to  note  that  in  connection  with  the  need  of  farmers
and  of  various  craftsmen  and  artisans,  such  as  shoemakers,  tailors,
linen-weavers,  tinkers,  a  brazier  and  a  coppersmith,  then  wanted  in
the  industrial  revival  and  advance,  and  to  be  secured  from  the  church
settlements  in  Europe,  if  possible,  the  decision  was  recorded  when
this  matter  was  under  discussion,  that  there  should  be  no  previous
binding  contract  with  such  men,  or  advance  of  money  for  traveling
expenses  to  America,  for  should  any  of  them  prove  to  be  useless  or
unfaithful,  the  higher  law  of  the  place,  as  based  on  Christian  brother-
hood, would  leave  them  a  charge  upon  its  resources,  if  indigent  or
sick.  Thus,  in  its  limited  scope,  Bethlehem,  at  that  time,  considered
and  pronounced  upon  the  questions  of  pauper  immigration  and
imported  contract  labor  on  which,  in  modern  times,  the  United
States  Government  makes  laws.
A  final  important  reconstruction  effected  at  the  opening  of  the
new  era,  under  Bishop  deWatteville's  supervision,  was  that  of  the
boarding-school  for  girls,  to  be  yet  mentioned  in  this  chapter.  It  is
an  interesting  fact  that  at  this  third  epoch  in  the  history  of  that
department  of  Moravian  work  in  Pennsylvania,  his  wife,  the  Countess
Benigna,  again  took  part  in  shaping  its  plan  and  course — she  who
had  opened  the  original  school  for  girls  in  Germantown,  May  4.
