The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-04-29

pdIlbI w 1Iuk tiCuf itoht - 1Ntts
haunts, and exhibit their true qualities
in the garish light Of day. Their OBJ
J~ections to notoriety we're strong and
deep-rooted, and the eloquence Of the
district attorney had tn be employed to
vile to the public gaze these gentle
souls. An unsympathetic indictment
charged them with cutting timber on
government lands, and an unsympa-
thetic jury has found them guilty Of
the offence
How easy it is to mlsrepresent the
greatest work OF the greatest men!
These modest philanthropists, trustees
and leaders" as they ENORMOUSLY styled
themselves, had entered upon a g
crusade, and n barbarian law steps in to
quench their efforts. They had drunk
deep OF the gospel according to Bel
lamy, and we're fired with a noble pas
sion to put the new salvation into prac-
teal shape. No doubt, it was Il tritie
d~iscomposing that the lack of filthy
lucre and base earth should render the
initiation of the enterprise difficult. But
before the efforts of determined souls
all difficulties must vanish. The where
withal should be- furnished by humber
disciples whose brain powers were less
conspicuously developed than those OF
the trustees and leaders, and kind,
generous Uncle Sam should provide the
realty. On the surface, a notable work
of genuine philanthropy, and yet the
grovelling instincts of faint-hearted
converts, and the prosaic nature OF a
district attorney have brought the
whole airy fabric down in a mass of
ruins.
For a time, indeed, things went we'll.
In October, 1855, the forty-two trustees
and leaders we like to roll that pathet-
ic little touch on our tongue-made en-
tries on lands famous for big timber in
Tulare county. That was to be the
future center of the civilization of the
future. and the trustees and leaders be-
gan to see visions and dream dreams.
Now can any man refuse to sympathize
with these reformers, when he learns
that only two short months later, the
land commissioner withdrew these
lands from entry? Was the worlds whole
future progress to be impeded by
an official, who was still in the swad-
ding clothes of fearful ignorance re-
gardlng the gospel of Bellamy? These
tender hearted trustees and leaders re-
solved to push on with their beneficent
enterprise, at the risk of their lives or
their freedom. They built a road
eighteen miles long to reach their
claims, and they ended-in the district
court, and indeed, the end is not yet.
But ignominy and even imprisonment,
we are compelled to believe, they would
cheerfully bear, if the faithful had only
stood by them. But, alas! the faithful
have turned upon their trustees and
leaders, and wish to rend them. Sad
commentary on human gratitude. For
these leaders had done mnch for the
humber disciples. They had secured
them a peaceful retreat far from the
haunts of men, where they might prac-
tice their %insanities free from the bale
full shadow of a lunatic asylum. And
the faithful yelp fraud and deception.
! What would they have? The laborer,
we are told on the best of authority, is
worthy of his hire, and even a philan-
thropist cannot live without his daily
bread. 1t follows, of course, that forty
two of them are entitled to canvass back
and Clicquot. That result can be got at
by a simple process in arithmetic. And
whose delight should 1t have been to
house and clothe and feed the trustees
and leaders of the flock in a name befit-
ting their exalted services? Whose but
the disciples9 And the disciples are tear
ing their hair, because they have sunk an
initiation fee OF 500 and a good many
monthly balances of s. in a scheme that
the interposition of a wretched nlne-
teenth century statute has caused tc
peter out. They have in their posses.
sion, however, a considerable quantity
of checks, signed by their late "trustees
and leaders," and when this little un:
pleasantness is over, no doubt the hon.
orable gentlemen lately at the head o.
the colony will work their fingers to the
bone before their signatures shall bt
dishonored. Not q doubt about it
But if, by any chance, we should be
wronging the philanthropists in attrib
uting to them a desire for honest, man.
ual labor, we hasten to assure the colo
nists that the experience they have
bought is cheap at the money, and tha1
it takes experience and a club as a ruiz
to educate every member of the long
cared fraternity.
INTERESTING figures showing wher,
the city's money goes are given in on
report of council proceedings. The cit,