The Arkansaw traveler., 1882-12-31

ooaAscted. partly cooperative and parsi, oommnnissic, were original and cka.ac
 terisfic of the foundezs; and di< mucA Q gain forthe community the vide spsead fame which t soon enjoyed. | aimed a an impossibility-she develop
 ment for each and esery individual eon- nected with it. of life that should com bine with constant manral labor, sfudie> in the highest branches of learning and l philosophy. From the 6rss 1t was dcs t,neh to meet wish faiinre for many whs were in warm sympathy with the o6jects Sor which Il was working, doubted shs means by which they were to be obtained Emerson the gEeaaess of the sranscea. dentalists when invited to join the en. thusiastic band of reformeSs in person, was the tirst 10 refuse. For three year. Brook Farm was . reality. af5ording to the world an almost perfect example ol life q idyilic purity and total unseihsh- ness and then 1t failed, leaving its found CTS discouraged, disheaffened and worse than poor-in debt On no one did the burden fall more heavily than on Mir Ripley: but he met the disappointment with uncomplaining fortitude- IL had embodied his highes, hopes and fondes' ideals he had given his time and com manding abilities to the realization of its aims tor three years he had labored un- ceasingly with heart and hand. only to see all that he ,oiled and hoped for meet with utter defeat. The humiliation ~As heavy but he bore 1t in silence. His library, which he had spent man, years in collecting and to which he was so deeply attached. wen, to satisfy the debts which he and hls fellow W orkers had inourred. Even then the, were no, all paid but atul long after hung over him like q black and threatening cloud. He met and paid them all like the true man that he nas but Il was many years before he could say he owed no man dollar
 Now Una, the hand of tune has made Brook Farm famous II IS easy to discern what raised ii above ali the other com munities of similar nature which flour ished al that tune and that WAS the num- ber of noted men and women connected with Il. Parke Goodwin and Chas. 4. Dana, who were afterwards to stand m the iron, rank in American journalism. and Nathaniel Ha~thoTne, America $ greatest novelist. were active co-workers with Mr. Ripley while Emerson, Manga rel Fuller, Horace Greeley, Henry Thore- an and Theodore Parker were deep in terested n its welfare. Never before were so many truly great minds devoted to the success of single project for so- cial reform.
 With its failure those who had been mos, active in the workings of Brook Farm. were forced to seek other fields of labor. With his friends. Dana and God win, Mir. Ripley turned his attention 10 journalism. Slowly but surely the forces of fate had been drawing him on towards his true sphere in life and the great work which he was to do. Forced to abandon the ministry through the pleadings of his conscience he had now become an athe- ist. and such he continued until his death: disappointed m his efforts for social re- form. his ardor had been dampened bu, no, diminished, and SO at forty he gladly entered the calling for which his years of study and training had well prepared him. and ,n which he was to win success and reap unfading laurels.
 Horace Greeley's interest in Brook Farm had lead him 10 become warm friend of Mir. Ripley's, and soimmediately after its failure he rendered the latter a position as his assistant on the 7IftEae, which was promptly accepted. Thus al fo,ty- five George Ripley saw a new held of usefulness opening before him--shat of . journalist and man of letters. and he en- tered 1t with the same quie; real and ear nes;ness and the same habits of labor tha, had characterized him as a minister and At A,,s.a ous, and he wrote on a thousand and one different topics-the lates, happenings in the social and dramatic world. music. ar,. politics, or on whatever subjeo, was the first to present itself. When he first be gan his work as a book reviewer. literary criticism was not as II is now, one of the forcmos; departments oflou-nalisin. The only attention given to the current l,cra- ture of the day, even by the most pro- gressive journals, was in the form of oc- casional notices, and these were as nasty and superficial as they were rare. To Creeiey's assistant fell the task of raising this sadly neglected department to its present condition. When he began this work perhaps the scope of what he was to do in coming years was unknown to him, maybe not even thought of A, first the path seemed blind one, bu, as he worked 1t became clearer. Gradually his duties on the Tribune narrowed down to the reviewing of new books. and then that department became dissinc, feature of the paper Soon others began to fol- low the example of their more progress i've contemporary, and MT. Ripley had the proud consciousness of knowing that he had brought about a new and importan, epoch in the history of journalism. But when he set out in his new calling the vay seemed very dark. At first his szla- " vas only five dollars a week and his wife vas compelled to resort to teaching in order that they might eke out scant existence. They were compelled to ae- cept . sccond-fate boarding house to live and sleep in one room in faci to de- prise themseaves of zlmoG the necessa- nes of Hand this for several yeass i! Bus in all the trials and prixztions which casne to the hard-wosked journaliss in thsse yean 0f daxhness he was ssppossed and encoaraged by the unfziling Love and nok3e fnesieu6e Of hix vife. Al fhix lime