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

dIA people NY 10 mdkb-du agreeable
place 20 live in. All corners, even the
most fastldious, found il the pie asantest
OF residences. 1t Is certain that
freedom from household routine, vari-
ETY. OF character and %alent, variety OF
work, variety OF means, or thought and
instruction, art, music, poetry, reading,
masquerade, did not permit.sluggishness
or despondency-broke up routine.
There is agreement in the testimony
that it was, TO most of the associates, ed
1catlon; to many, the most important
Of their life, the birth Of valued friend
their first acquaintance with the
riches of conversation. their training In
behavior. The art of writing, it is
said, was immensely cultivated. Let
ters were always flying, not only from
house to house but from room to room.
1t was a perpetual picnic, a French re-
volution in small, an age Of reason in a
patty-pan.
In the American social communities
the gossip found such vent and sway as
to become despotic. The institutions
whispering galleries in which the
adored Saxon privacy vas lost. Mar
ried women, / believe, uniformly de-
cided against the community. 1t was to
them like the brassy and laquered in
the hotels. The common school was
we'll enough, but to the common nursery
they had grave objections. Eggs might
be Matched in ovens, but the hen on
her own account much preferred the
old way. A hen without her chickens
was but half a hen.
1t was a curious experience of the pa
irons and leaders of this noted commu-
nity-in which the agreement with
MANY parties wa that they should give
so many hours OF instruction in mathe.
MATES, In music, in moral and intellec-
tual philosophy, and so forth-that in
every instance, the newcomers showed
themselves keenly alive to the adyanta-
yes Of the society, and were sure to avail
themselves of every means of instruc-
ton; their knowledge was increased,
their anher refined, but they became
III that proportion averse to labor, and
were changed by the beads of depart
Inents with a certain in iolence and self
ishness.
In practice ii is always found that vir.
tue is occasional, spotty and not linear
O. cubic, Good people are as bad as
rogues, if steady performance is claimed
the conscientious runs in veins, and the
most punctilious in some particulars are
latitudinarian in others. 1t was very
gently said that people on whom be-
forehand all persons would put the ut
most reliance were not responsible. They
saw the necessity that the work must be
done, and did it not, and it of course fell
to be done by the few religious workers.
No doubt there was IN many a certain
strength drawn from the fury OF dissent.
Thus Mr. Ripley oIu theodore Parker:
'"There is your accomplished friend; he
would hoe corn all Sunday if l would let
him, but all Massachusetts, could not
make him do it On Monday"
OF course every visitor found that
there was q comic side to this paradise
of shepherds and shepherdesses. There
was a stove in every chamber, and ev-
eryone might burn as much wood as he
or she would saw. The ladies took cold
Oh washing-day, 80 it vas ordained that
the gentleman shepherds should wiring
and hang out clothes, which they pune
tually did. And it would sometimes oc-
cur that when they danced in the eve
ming, clothes-pins dropped pleutifully
from their pockets. The country neigh
bors naturally were surprised to observe
that one man ploughed all day, and one
looked out of the window all day, and,
perhaps drew his picture, and both re-
eei@ea a. night the sanfe wages. One
would meet also, some modest pride in
their advanced condition, signitied by q
frequent phrase: "Before we came out
of civilization" The question which oc-
ours to you had occurred much earlier
TO Fourier: Chow in this charming
elysiuin, is the dirty work To be done??n
And long ago Fourier had exclaimed,
GGAh r hora iktU apd iunnad with foxy
sDon't you see.n lie cried, that nothing
so delights the young Caucasian child as
dirt2 See the mud-pies that all the
children will make. If Won will let
them. See how much more joy they
find in mourning their pudding on the la
bleclotht than into their beautiful mouths.
The children from sixito eight organized
into companies, with hags and uniforms,
shall do this function of civilization"
In Brook farm was this popularity,
that there wa no head. In every family
is the father: in every factory a foreman;
iii d shop, q master; iii u boat, d skip
per but in tins farm, no authority; eacn
was master or mistress of their own &C
tions: happy, hapless anarchists. They
expressed, after much perilous exper-
fence, the conviction that plain dealing
was the best defence of manners and
morals Jetween the sexes. People can
not live together in any but necessary
ways. The only candidates who will
present themselves will be those who
have tried the experiment of in
dependence and ambition, and have
failej; and none others will barter for
the most comfortable equality the
chance for superiority. Then all COM
munities have quarrelled. Few people
can live together on their merits. There
must be kindred, or mutual economy, or
a common interest in their business or
oJner external tie.
The society at Brook farm existed, j
think, about six or seven years, and
then broke up; all the partners came
out with pecuniary loss. Some OF them
had snanf on IL the accumulation of