The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-09-22
AN IDEAL COLONY.
California People Who Believe In
BrOtherly Love.
New Community Not Seeking Politi.
cal or Municipal Reform.

The bleached slopes of Corte MADEIRA, In
California, are shortly to blossom like the
rose in a social experiment TO be tried by
some half hundreds young people of con-
genial tastes and amiable character who
call themselves the Merry Colonists.
These young people feel within them
selves throbbing and mighty desire to
build town, and they have selected a
knoll on the Marin hills, where the wind
doesn't blow, because 1t can't, and fogs are
specially excluded by contract
The place is a side hill, like those In
Portugal where the farmers plow around
and around In circles, so that every Por-
tuguese farmer limps In consequence OF
having one ieg shorter than tho other. As
the Merry Colonists are not going to farm,
the slope doesn't matter The only things
they intend to plant are their own vines
and fig trees, one for each house
The Merry Colonists are such believers
in human nature that they think that 80
families can live In peace and amity with
out jar. Most likely none Of them has
ever been camping but SO mild Is the
Marin climate that the founders Of the
model village believe 1t will make all the
colonists peaceable and delightful to live
with or by.
There Is to be nothing communistic or
socialistic In the scheme. Each cottager
will run his menage simply or luxuriously
as suits his taste or his pocketbook. There
will be no common dining room, and only
the ordinary noighborhood borrowing
whose disappearance would mark the up
proach Of higher civilization.
Nothing that smacks Of Brook Farm or
a cooperative commonwealth Is to find
lodgment on this hill. 1t was the original
intention TO have the village for summer
camping ground, but some of the merriest
colonists, with q penchant for country
sights and sounds, are SO enamored OF the
place that they are going to build perma-
nent houses and grow up with the country
all the year round. Among these Is Ed
ward w. Hill, the suggestor Of the scheme
and secretary of the enterprise. His house
will be commenced in a few days, and he
expects to be- country gentleman-one of
the country families-before winter.
The first thing that colonists have to do
Is to build "a nucleus for their town. Some
towns mover get beyond the nucleus, but
Corte MADEIRA will be protected from any
such dry rot or premature decay. Inc
nucleus Is to be n pavilion, a sort of gener-
al jollilcation house, where camptires and
neighborhood dances and general festiyity
may take place Everybody will have n
stake in the pavilion, and It's title win be
vested in the Merry Colonists rs company.
1t is even suggested that the pavilion may
be used for wedding ceremonies, as there
are number of unmarried people among
the colonists, and everybody knows what
spring breezes and frequent meetings do.
In fact, matrimony Is the only way by
which any Individual can acquire more
than two lots BY joining of hands
and property-one householder may ac-
quire four lots. AT present the colony is
divided into 100 lots, each one 40 by so
feet. Each purchaser has an option on tho
adjoining lot to his own for a year, and
most people buy two which Is tho limit.
The price is Sl00 lot, which excludes
speculation. Forty per cent of the pEv-
chase price for the tract must be devoted
by the Pixley estate, from which the lots
were purchased, to the improvement of
the colony. The pavilion, the road through
the woods and the draining Of the tract is
provided for by this fund.
w. ii. Harmon, who il one of the
founders of the scheme, was once in u Sim
ilar colony in ST. Louis, which failed be-
cause tho colonists wouldn't pay taxes for
common improvements. This time the
tax Is in the purchase price.
The colony discrimipates against age.
Nobody over 85 years of age can become a
purchaser The colonists don't want wise
acres. The young married people propose
to do the chaperoning themselves.
The colonists expect TO have the very
merriest community in all the country
round, town without officials a village
without red tape, free from supervisors
and the other unpleasant things that char
acterize city life--in fact, a return to na-
ture. .--Pittsburg Dispatch.