The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1883-11-24
LIFE EAT BROOK FARM.

itah rate Oh So
ciaI Organization With the Best IN
tentions But without a Governing
Head.
The Atlantic Monthly fer October has
q post humous article, written rbty Ralph
Waldo Emerson, entitled Historic
Notes of Life and Letters in Massachu-
sets" 1t gives the following sketch of
the Brook farm experiment in Massa-
chusetts:
The West Roxbury association was
formed in l84l, by a society of members
men and women, who bought farm in
West Roxbury, Of about POO acres, and
took possession of the place in April.
Mr.. George Ripley was the president,
and / think Mr.. Charles A. Dana was
the secretary. Many members took
shares by paying money; others held
shares by their labGrs. An old house
on the place was enlarged, and three
new houses built. William Allen was at
first and for some time the head farmer.
and the work was distributed in orderly
committees To men and women There
were many em~ploYments, more or less
lucrative, found for or brought hither
by these members-Shoemakers, ioin-
ers, seamstresses They had good
scholars among them, and SO received
pupils for their education. The parents
of the children in some instances wished
to live there, ana we're received as
boarders. Many persons, attracted by
the beauty Of the place, and the culture
and ambition OF the community, join ed
them IS beasaefs and lived there for
years. | think the numbers Of this
mixed community SOON reached 80 or 90
souls.
1t was a noble and generous move
ment in the projectors to try an exper-
iment of better living. They had the
feelings that our ways Of living were too
conventional and expensive, not allow
ing each TO do what he had 4 talent for,
and not permitting men TO combine cal-
tivation of mind and heart with a rea-
sonable amount Of daily labor. At the
same time it was an attempt to lift 9TH
9rs with themselves, and TO share the
advantages they should attain with 9th
srs now deprived of them.
There was no doubt grea. variety of
character and 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 organized it were persons impa.
tient Of the routine, the uniformity, per-
haps, they would say the sgualid content
ment Of society around them, which
was so timid and sceptical Of any pro-
gress. One would say, then, that i'm
pulse was the rule of the society, with
out centripetal balance; perhaps it
would not be sewers TO say intel
lectual sausculottism, an Impotence of
the formal, routinary character
of our educational, religious, social and
economical life in Massachusetts. Yet
there was immense hope in these young
people. There was nobleness; there
were self-sacriticing victims who COM
pensated for the lenity and rashness of
their companions. The young people
lived a great deal in a short time, and
came forth, some of them, perhaps,
with shattered constitutions. And q few
grave sanitary influences of character
were happily there, which, | was as
sured we're always felt.
George w. Curtis of New York and
his,brother of English Oxford were
members of the family from the first.
Theodore Parker, the near neighbor OF
the farm and the most intimate friend of
Mr.. Rpley, was a frequent visitor. MI.
Ichabob Morton of Plymouth, a plain
man, formerly engaged through many
years in the fisheries with success-ec-
centric, with a preserving interestin ed
ueation, and a very democratic religion
came and built a house on the farm,
and he, or members eff his family con-
tinued there to the end. Margaret Gull
er, with her iovial conversation and
large sympathy, was often a guest. and
was always in correspondence with her
friends. Many ladies, whom to name
were te praise, gave character and va
ried attraction to the place.
In and around Brook farm, whether
as members, boarders or visitors, we're
many remarkable persons, for charac-
ter. intellect or accomplishments. l re-
cal one youth of the subtlest mind-I
believe / must say the subtlest observer
and diviner of character | ever met
living, reading, writing, talking, there,
perhaps, as long as the colony held to-
gether; his mind fed and overfea by
whatever is exalted in genius, whether
inpoetry or art, In drama OF music, or
in social accomplishment and elegancy;
mar Of no employment or practical
aims; a student and philosopher, who
found his daily enjoyment not with the
elders or his exact contemporaries so
much as with the fine bows who were
skating or playing bali or bird-hunting;
forming the closest friendship with such
and finding his delight in the petulent
heroism of boys; yet was he the chosen
counsellor, to whom the guardians
would repair on any hitch or difficulty
that occurred, aud drew from himia wise
counsel--a fine, subtle, inward genius,
puny in body and habit as a girl, yet
with an aplomb like a general, never
Disconnected. He lived and thought in
1912. such worlds of life, all hinge
ng on the thought OF being or
reality as opposed to consciousness, ha-