Sharp County record., 1880-11-25
Rugby...The New Colony in Tennessee.

in their relations to the time, to race
and to religious faith, will be watched
in both worlds with deep interest.
Rugby-for thus, out OF regard to
past scenes and exploits, Mr.. Hughes
has named his infant settlement-has
lust been formally dedicated; and its
founder ayailed of the occasion to ex-
plain and define the aims and scope of
the undertaking In the first place, he
sought to remove an impression that
Rugby is intended in any narrow sense
to be an English colony. Its origina-
tors and pioneers are certainly En-
glishmen; but, says Mr.. Hughes, "our
settlement is open to all who like our
principles and our ways, and who care
to come here to make homes for them
selves, freely, without reserve or con-
dition of any kind which does not bind
us English alSo.n Thus, whether Rugby
is to be such an Eden as Dickens tells
us of in Martin Chuzzlewit" or some
thing, as we hope and believe, far bet
ter, even Mr.. Hannibal ChOllOp would
not be excluded provided he subscribed
to the necessary conditions.
But Mr.. Hughes has taken care that
in prime essentials Rugby and Eden
shall be widely different. In the first
place, the site of the new town is on one
of the loveliest and healthiest of the
mountain plateaus of East Tennessee.
Two beautiful rivers, indeed, traverse
the land. But they are mountain
streams and bear only the elements
of salubrity and fertility. In laying
out the town, too, strips of various
widths have been reserved on the banks
which are to be common property. By
and by there are to be walks and drives
here. The trees will be preserved and
fresh ones planted and above all, the
disfgurements that so often wound the
eye and clog the aesthetic development
of the human beings who dwell around
them will thus be restrained or pre-
vented. Dissertations so vulgar as are
seen around the Falls of Niagara, on the
Hudson River, Or on the south shore Of
Staten Island will be rendered impossi-
BILE; and this petty yet serious drawback
to the harmony of daily life will at Rug
by be unknown.
There will be, to some extent, and
for like reasons, a certain check upon
the modes and places of building. "We
must bear in mind" says Mr.. Hughes,
'that buildings are in fact, or should
be, the expression in timber, brick and
stone Of the thought Of men and women
as to the external conditions in which
folk should live. We have no money
to spare for superhuouS decoration and
our first buildings, both public and pri-
vate, must be simple and even rough
in materials and construction. But
there is no reason whatever why they
should not at the same time be slightly
and good in form and proportion; and
at this we shall all aim"
This is sound and wholesome. 1t of
course recalls the fact, which is humil-
iating, that considerations like these
have been sadly neglected in the past
and especially neglected in this country.
Bat it also suggests, which is encour;
aging. that the time has come, in this
regard at least, when a change is not
only desirable but practicable because
of the broaGer and higher artistic feel
ing among large body of the people.
There is to be no communism in the
ordinary or in Professor WoOlsey' sense
of the term in Mr.. Hughes's colony.
The inhabitants are however to have
the benefit of what in England is called
a cooperative store" but which at
Rugby will be called commissary."
Mr.. Hughes explains that this term is
used rather than the other because q
commissary is especially public institu-
ton, and so better indicates the con-
templated wishes and intentions. Shares
in the cOmmissary are to be only five
dollars each, " SO that the poorest set
tier need not be Inconvenience by the
outlay for membership" Each share
holder will get whatever profits are
made on his own consumption, and the
business will be directed and superin-
tended by board or council chosen by
the members themselves.
When to the foregoing account OF
these features it is added that there will
be no restriction whatever on religious
persuasion; and that " every one will be
free to worship in his own way, and to
provide for whatever religious ministra-
tions he requires out of his own funds
and according to his own IDEAS" a
tolerably clear outline of the character
istics of the Rugby experiment will have
been given, and some notion may be
formed of its chances of permanent sue
cess. Mr.. Hughes closed his exposition
with the summary that follows:
- In one word, our aim and hope are
to plant on these highlands commu-
nifty of gentlemen and ladies; not
that artificial class which goes by those
grand names, both in Europe and here,
the joint product Of feudalism and
wealth, but a society in which the hum
blest members, who live Gas we hope
most if not all of them WILL to some ex-
tent by the labor of their own hands,
will be of such strain and culture that
they shall be able to meet the princess
in the gate without embarrassment and
without self-assertion should any such
strange persons ever present themselves
before the gate tower of Rugby in the
New World.'
Freedom in all things save the free
dom to lead or inspire a bad life ap-
pears, then, to be the keynote of the
Rugbian scheme. The sale of liquor at