The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1883-11-23
LIFE AT BROOK FARM.

LII IL III
The Inside History Of Famous Uto.
plan Experiment.-The Fate ola So.
cial O g - cation With the Best in.
tent,ons But Without q Governing
Head.
The Atlantic Monthly for October has
a post humous article, written by Ralpt,
Waldo Emerson, entitled "Historic
Notes of Life and Letters in Massacllu-
setts." 1t gives the following sketch OF
the Brook farm experiment in Massa-
chusetts: r
The West Roxbury association was
formedin ls4l, by a society of members
men and women, who bought a farm in
West Roxbury, Of aboat 30 acres. and
took possession Of the place Ia April.
Mr.. George Ripley waa the president,
and think MI. Charles A. Dana was
the secretary. Many members took
e}hafes by paying money; others held
shares by their labors. An old house
On the place was enlarged, and three
g HOUSES built. William Allen vas at
first and for some time the head farmer.
II the work was distributed in orderly
committees to men and women. There
We're many emplovments, more or less
lucrative, found for or brought bither
by these Observation-Disclosures, ioin.
ers, seam,tre ses. They had good
scholars among them, aud so received
pt pills tor their education. The parents
o. me children in some instances wished
70 i've there, an were received as
aearders. many persons, attracted bv
the beauty of the pld,t 1nd the culture
and ambition OF The community, join ed
them as boardtrs and lived there for
years. l think the numbers of this
mixed community soon reached 80 or 80
souls.
1t was a noble and generous move
ment in the projectors to try an exper-
lment of better living. They had the
feelings that our ways of living were too
conventional AMI expensive, nof allow
ing each 10 do what tie had a talent for,
n not permitting men 10 combine cul-
sonable amouu Of daily labor. AT The
same time 1t was an attempt to lit 9TH
ars with themselves. and to share the
advantages they should attain with OH
ers now deprived of them.
There was no doubt great variety of
character aud purpose in the members
of the community. 1t consisted in the
main OF young people, few of middle
age and none old. Those who inspired
and organ zed it were persons impa
tlent of the routine. the uniformity, per-
haps, they would saw the squalid content.
ment of society around them, which
was so timld and sreptical of any pro-
gress. Que would say. then, that i'm
pu'se WAS the rule Of The society, with
out centripetai balance; perhaps it
would not he Severe to say intel
lectual sansculo tisln, an impotence of
the formal, routinary character
of our educational, religions, social and
economical life in Massachusetts. Yet
there was immense hope in these young
people. Their" WAS nohlenuss; there
were selt-sacriticing victims who com.
pelsated for The lenity and rashness Of
uheir companions. The young people
lived a great deal in a short time, and
came forth. some of them, perhaps,
with shattered constitutions. And Il few
grave 50 tltary Influences of character
were happily th-re, which, l was as.
sured were always fell.
George w. CARTS of New York and
his brother of English Oxford we're
members of the family from the first.
Theodore Parker, the near neighbor Of
the arm and III, most intimate friend of
Mr.. h nirv, WIS a frequent visitor. Mr..
Ichabob Morton of Plymouth, a plain
man, formerly engaged through many
years in the fisheries with euccesS-ec-
centric, with a preserving interestin ed.
ucatiuD, and a very democratic religion
came and bull a house on the farm,
n he, or members of his family con
tinued there to the end. Margaret Gull
er. with her joViaI conversation and
large syinpa by, was o ten a guest. and
was always in correspondence with her
friends. Many ladies, whom to nalnc
Were to praise, gave character and va
ried attraction to the place.
In aud around Brook farm, whether
as members, boarders or visitors, were
many remarkable persons. for chirac-
ter. INTEL G. or accomplishments. ! re-
ca | one youth of the subtlest mind-I
believe | musr say the subtlest o server
and dlvi"er OF character | ever IN It
living. reading, writing, talking, there,
perhaps, as long as the coIouy held to-
eetller; his mad fed and overle4 BY
whatever is exalted in genius. whether
inp1etry or art in draml o, music, or
in social accomplishment and elegancy;
Il man of no employment or practical
aims; Il student and philosoph +, who
found his daily enjoyment not with the
el,iers or his exact contemporaries SO
much as with the fine boys who were
skating or playing bali or bra-hunting;
forming ihcclOsest friendship with ssct,
heroism of boys; yet WIS he the chosen
counsellor, TO whom the guardians
wou d repair on any hitch or difficulty
that occurred, and drew from b m Il wise
counsei-a tiue, subtle, inward genius,
puny in body and habit as a girl, vel
with an apio ub like general, never
uisconceried. He lived and thought In
1912, such worlds of life, nil hinge
rg on the thought Of being o,
reality as oppese& To consciousness, Ia,
ting Intellect WITH the ferocity ola Swed
enberg. Re 3as the able or spiritua
rather, from his religious bias. His rea,i
ing lay in ~AIschylus, Plato, Dante, Cal
deron, Shakespeare, and in moderl
novels asi romances OF merit. There
too, WIS Hawthorne, with his cold, We,
gentle gen us. if he failed to dojastice te
this temporary home. There was the
accomplished doctor Of music, who has
presided over its literature ever since
in our metropolis. Rev. William Henri,
Claiming, now of London, was from the
first D student of socialism in France anc
England. n in perfect sympathy witt
this experiment. An English baronet
Sir John Caldwell, was a i,equenlvisitol
and more or less directly Interested ii
the leaders and the success.
Hawthorne drew some sketches, no
happily. as | Think should rather sa,
quite unworthy of his genius. No frienl
VINO knew M:rgare4 Fuller could recog
nize her rich and brilliant gen,ns under
the dismal mask when was meant fol
her in that d~isakreeable story.
The founders of the Brook farm shonlc
have this praise: That they made what
all people try to make-an agreeable
place tJ live in. All omers, even th,
most fastld GUS, found il the ple asantps