The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-11-11

our own nails. We're going to take care
OF ourselves here. There won't be any rent
10 pay or any gas bill 10 meet, and tina first
day in Altruria-"
You own this land together, all of you
! people,, and you will all own your own
aabo1f tb out srrne gas; now; anu me- she c1 ~ nov nov
bill comes IMP
The little woman laughed. II know how
as you do till I studied the thing up. You're
SO used to money that you don't believe
About coal, now. we've found some coal
in the bed of the creek, and we're going to
ourselves. If f'1 we Shouldn't ind ceaiIWeii.
Ill nave to explain our whole system TO
son to do that. 1 promised to help about
dinner"
Mr.. Nelson was chopping wood. but he
laid down his ak and came up to the porch
"Mr. Nelson / said. "how are you going
70 get your coal and your tea and sugar and
things without money!"
I'VE have a store in the city," he said in
has said many times before. "a cooperative
store. We Will raise vegetables, and We are
going to have chickens and eggs and fruit,
and by and by shoes and other things to
Now, a man who works in the shoe shop.
say, take him for an example. Suppose
there are ten men in the shoe shop and
you're one of them. Now, at the ecd Of
t thst m Saya ybo ean own maS Gne5 dnr,na OF IT. the n sn9es
You get a check which calls for the value
Of one-tenth of those shoes. Not a bank
but the Altrurian check, which will be
honored In our store. IL you need coal
yep'n ing gst cG ndD and 1d If you you >, need sugar you'll
About that one-tenth." L said. IF 1
should work faster or longer than the rest.
check would have TO call for more than
one-tenth OF the value of the shoes, Of
"Of course not" said Mr.. Nelson. "An
our people are equal. We will have 10 rich
and no poor; If we did your way ard gave
than the rest, we'd be going right into an
archy again. You'd be getting rich, if not
In money then in goods. and thai wouldn't
But il I made better shoes than the
"You would know that you were doing
good work, and that would make you
but would get no more than the poorest
n more. II the poorest workman was
could do well. If he was a poor workman
because ne was careless or lazy, we'd put
for nothing in Altruria. The man who
edits a paper ard the man who digs drains
S"He gets the same reward. Only. the
man who digs drains works shorter hours
because the work is harder"
muttered the artist from the swing, 'but
it's a little hard on the editor"
Mr.. Nelson didn't hear this, but a man
who was washing his hands at the foot of
one of the big oaks did hear it, and he
said, quickly:
at isn't hard on him if he's the right kind
OF a man. If he's that he gets his happi-
ness out of his power of doing we'll; his
work is a pleasure to him. If he isn't the
right kind of a man it ought to be hard on
him"
MEN NOT EQUAL.
You see," said a man who was sharpen
ing a knife on a stone, ''the world is all
right. and human nature is all right. Men
have made you people out there in
the world believe that nature is all wrong,
and that artificial honors and distinctions
are all right. We don't believe that all men
are equal with u.s."
was just going to ask the man who was
sharpening his knife what he thought
about the things he called artificial dis
t~inctions in the brute world. I wanted to
see what he would say about the animals
which. are so inferior that they are preyed
upon by every other animal that lives. and
if he thought any system in the world could
make them any better worth the saving,
when the man who was washing his hands
to Altrurian IDEAS. A friend of mine Was
laboring with me the other day, and he
said: Why. MS all nonsense What if
one or you fellows should want to go to Eu-
rope, and his share wasn't enough so he
could, and you wouldn't let him rustic and
4 get money enough on MS own nook, what
then?' 1 just looked at him. He had on an
old hat that had been brushed until it was
bald, and L knew that he didn't have 500 in
Look here I SAID, : why don't you go
In the midst of the laugh which followed
this sally the dinner bell rang.
Come in and have some dinner with us"
said a brlght,faced. live woman. bustIing to
the door. It's kind OF a picnic dinner.
We've had to cook 1T as best we could, but
l guess you'll make out"
We went into a low, old-fashioned room,
where the tables were set, and sat down
to a good. substantial, old-fashioned mid
day dinner, There were fried steak and
pickles and coffee, and some very good jelly
At the head of my table sat a man with a
a professional man of some sort. Next to
him sat a well-featured, smooth-faced
full real-estate dealer from his appearance.
The rest of the men looked like mechanics
all intelligent. and they had wide-open,
earnest eyes. so much alike in a ~cetrain ey-
preston OF candor that they all looked as
II they might belong to one big family.
said the bustlineg little Woman. pausing on
bread. w don't think washing IS women's
work. It's too heavy, so it's TO be done by
men and machinery. A woman has an
equal voice with her husband in the man
agement OF affairs. and a woman who
brings - up ,6 a family Of children gets her
her husband gets his share for making
shoes"
"She don't get a bit more for nursing a
lot of children through all their whooping-
cough and measles, and worrying herself
sick over 'em, than her husband does for
sitting still and putting good uppers on to
good sOles; and that" said the man who
had had his say about the drain digger.
don't seem quite fair. But then, YOU See.'
he went on, as he passed the artist a dish
OF preserves, "she gets her happiness out
of her work. No worry, no fretting over
old age coming or sickness, no envy or hate,
or what the Anarchists call competi-
ton. Everyone will have his own work TO
dO-work that he can do-and he can go on
in peace and happiness and know that he's
going to grow old as the trees and the ami
mails grow old-without an anxiety or a
care. When he's past work he can sit still
and watch Altruria grow and grow, until
all the world shall be Altruria."
The artist and j climbed up a steep hill
crowned with vines and looked out upon
the world. We saw the neat little villages
spread out like a map under our feet. In
the distance the bay snOne like a silver
shield, and we knew that across the silver
shield lay the great. busy, teeming city,
with it's misery and its wealth, its sorrows
and its joys, its envy, its hate, and all it's
uncharitableness, and we looked down into
Altruria, and the men trying to rub the
lichens off the green old wheel of the mill,
and we wondered If the old. old wheel
would turn TO this new music they had
brought with them out of anarchy"
Carpets or Rugs: