The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-03-22
The Poles Of Soptu Apo
"reminiscences of a Queer

o POMONA, Cal, March 16-The seri-
Gus illness of Nine. Helena MOdjeska in
southern California, the belief by her
intimate friends and neighbors that her
career on the stage has suddenly end
ed, and her probable retirement to her
romantic home in Santiago canyon, in
this neighborhood, have revived the
recollections of persons hereabOut con-
corning her coming to Los Angeles
county twenty-five years ago to live
out her days as a practical rancher.
Nine. Modjeska is known among her
friends at home as Countess BOzenta.
Her husband is Herman BoeZnta CHA
powski, and is known as Count Be-
Zenta. The husband and wife, with her
son Ralph, by her first husband, came
to the United States from Cracow in
March, 1874. She was then thirty-one
years old. She had saved $4,000 from
her earnings on the stage in Europe,
and hel husband had a considerable
sum laid aside from his salary in news
paper work in Cracow and Moscow.
The family had been interested for a
year or two before coming to America
in articles in European publications
telling of the delights of farming and
fruit growing In Florida and California.
I'VE were immensely pleased from
the first with those stOries," said Nine.
Modjeska in speaking recently of her
first coming to California, land the
count sent to London and New York
for more information about these CO.
operative farms and the happiness and
rest there were in the colonies in the
West. l remember how we hired a
good English scholar to translate all
the articles into our tongue, and how
impatiently we followed his work, bit
by bit, so absorbed were we in the
stories of how blissfully one might live
for years and years close to nature
in the warm sunshine of the semi
tropics, and never more have to work
and scheme for a livelihood. Nothing
in literature ever quite captured all Of
us shivering Poles in our northern
homes as did the beautiful pastoral
scenes represented in those articles
written by land agents and boomers.
The idea of forming a colony Of Pol
lsh friends and relatives in southern
California took a hold on Count and
Countess Bozenta- So, with fourteen
L
The party consisted of lawyers, artists,
physicians and actors and writers. All
were glad to exchange the political re-
straints and annoyances of the mother
land for free America. They were
brimfuI of plans for a Garden of Eden
in southern California, and were rest
less to begin life in their cooperative
colony. They had a boxful Of archi-
tectural plans for their houses, and
wagon load of newly bought books on
agriculture and horticulture.
"Ah, how we laugh ourselves now
at the memory of what fond fools we
all were then" said Count Bozenta a
fortnight ago. why, we were like
so many eager, dreaming children in a
strange land.
The Poles visited with fellow coun-
trymen in New York and Boston for
a few weeks and went down to Wash
ington. Through an introduction at
the agricultural department by the
Russian minister they got several great
boxes of books and pamphlets covering
every conceivable subject that any
farmer under the Stars and Stripes
from Alaska to Key West might wish
to know through the centuries In May,
1874, the Polish party, headed by Count
and Countess BOzenta, started across
the continent for San Francisco There
were no railroads in southern Califor-
MIA in those days, so the Poles came
down the coast from San Francisco in
steamship, and, after several weeks
OF travelling in carriages about the
sparsely settled rural region in south
ern California, they settled on some
$50 acres in Santa Ana valley, near the
quaint old. German settlement of Ana
helm In 1874 there were but 1000 or
5000 persons in Los Angeles, and San
Diego had a population of but 1000.
By the winter of 1874-75 the houses and
farms at the Cracow colony were fin
ished, the fields were laid out, the irri-
cation bitches dug, and the ground
made ready for planting fruit trees.
All this had eaten a big slice out Of the
combined capital of the expectant col,
onists. and there were schemes for ex-
pending thousands Of dollars more, be-
fore the anticipated wealth from the
products of the property began to roll
In. The Poles unable to talk huently
with the small army of carpenters,