The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-02-05

Wv NAoiOheiy OliHh w huu NO-
men came TO Los Angeles and started a CO.
operative colony near Anahelm.. In the Santa
Ana Valley. Every one OF the party had
literary. musical. dramatic. or artistic tastes.
Several combined two or three talents. Nine.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS nnd.Henryk Sienkiewicz, uu-
thor OF Quo Vadis." were among It's members.
Nearly oil the members were leas than thirty
i've years Of age. Sienkiewlcz was about %.
The colony was the oulErowth OF a club in
Cracow. Poland. For years they had discussed
at their weekly meetings the possibility OF ily-
ing in a cooperative colony. where the sun al
ways shone bright. whore there was no snow or
Ice, and. particularly, where there were no no
lltical spies and literary censors to bother
them. They dreamed that somewhere in the
semi-tropics they might find n fertile spot
whore agriculture would keep the colony GO
ing with little work. and where. living GU, OF
doors, they might grow mentally and physl-
cally. while they gave their whole atten.
ton to their favnrite pursuits. When some
ono told them about southern California, II
seemed Just the place for an idyllic colony life.
The Poles spent more than $l2O.O0O for land.
buildings. planting alfalfa fields and orchards
and Tor sheep and cattle. But not one OF the
colonists knew the first thing about agriculture
IN u land where irrigation Is essential. All the
troubles that impractical. Indifferent farmers
naVe anywhere were theirs. The average
farmer would have gone wild over the losses
the Eay-hearted Poles suffered from tho first
day OF their colony life. Disease took the cat
tie and sheep, drought laid low the grain crops
and fire DESTROYED the colony buildings. Every
Pole went back to Poland as fast as he could
get remittances from home. all, except Count
Bozenta and his wife. Nine. Modjeska. They
have been occasional, residents OF the county
ever since.
Twenty-seven years ago the colony started
by about fifty Frenchmen and thirty Ameri-
cans In the Sespe Valley in Ventura county
was thought to have demonstrated the useful.
ness OF the advanced communistic teachings
OF Etienne CADET, with some American ideas
added. Nj. CADET was a French scholar, his
torian and Socialist who fed to America after
the revolution OF 1S4S and established the
communfsttc colony OF Icaria at the old Nor
mon town of Nauvoo. H.. and Inter moved the
colony to Adams county. IN western Iowa.
His doctrine was founded on the Saviour's
golden rule. He taught that i~ndividualism Is
the cause of seldshn ess and that selnshness is
the root Of all poverty. injustice and melan-
choly. The colony which came overland to
California and then went down the coast to
Ventura county was an ofrshoot from the
great colony Of 5000 persons in Adams county.
la. The separating c~olonists believed they
had an improved means for nbolishinR indi-
Noualism. and. therefore. selfish interests.
They bought 400 acres OF fertile soil along the
ocean shore and settled down in one OF the
most charming spots In southern California to
be living demonstrations Of the Joy there is In
an up-to-uate communistic colony. They
lived in Spartan simplicity and ate at a COM
mon table. and no ono had anything that all
the other oolonists were not permitted to
have. II a woman wanted a new dress her
wish was considered by a standing committee
OF her sex. II she gave a good reason for it
and proved she had no wish to appear to bet
tor advantage than her sisters. a requisition
for the garment was made on the colony store,
for no one In, CADET ev~er.saw..tho color Of money
but the steward at the colony store. The
community was charged to a large extent
with the raising Of the children OF the colo
niRts. II q parent thought his boy should
study. history the matter was referred to the
Committee on Children. II q boys parents
deemed him at for a ~fogginK the committee
passed on that point. All this was done 10
bafae the spirit Of ind~ividuallsm in.both par
ents and children. All the property in the
community was owned by the whole colony.
For several years the colony at CADET was
prosperous. Its success was cited far and
wide in socialistio publications. A commit
tee OF three Frenohmen came over from Paris
on purpose to inquire into the secret Of the
success at Cabet. SO as to get new ideas for
communistio colonies.
But the downfall Of the colony in the sespe
Valley was quick. Two successive failures in
the erape and grain crops In Ventura county
brought encouragement to the =colonists.
Then. too. about 1873 two yonnR men in CADET
each inherited a comfortable fortune from an
uncle. They declined to turn the inheritance
into the common treasury and thereby stife
their individualism. More than that. they
went to San Francisco to get the Inheritance.
1t was at the height Of the gold mining stock
speculations on tho Pacific coast. They
bought mining shares and when they sold out
In . month they were richer far than the whole
colony at CADET. Community interests and
self-abRegation were things OF the past with
them when they went back to CADET. They
we're expelled from the colony. but several
friends there followed them to San Francisco.
Those who remained had been changed by the
stories brought down from San Francisco con-
corning the ease with which one could become
rich BY speculation in Coustock mining
stocks. In 1877 :only a few people remained
in :Cabet. The colony principles had been
abandoned and the community property had
been sold for a song to a Mexican who wanted
the locality for an alfalfa field.
When Bellamy's Looking Backward" came
out. about a dozen colonies on the Bel
lamy line OF philosophy were started In Cali
fornia. At one time there were three colo
MES Of this sort in the foothills OF the
Coast Range in Kern county alone. and two
in San Diego county. A Cornell University
graduate turned all his possessions in Buffalo.
N. Y. into $4,000 cash. and. with his wife and
children. led a band OF western New Workers
to a Bethany colony near Santa Inez. In Santa
Barbara county. The colony was known as
Equality. and its history Is that OF a large
number of the other Bellamy colonies in Cali
fornia.
Equality had elaborate plans for utilizing the
power in the streams in the Santa Barbara
Mountains. for having factories Of many sorts
run by electricity. for boring for oil In that To-
cality. for having vast colony grain store
houses at Santa Inez, and enormous fig. peach
and apricot richards to be irrigated by the wa
ter which had first generated the electric
power. An architect in the colony spent half
a year on plans for opera and fair houses. fac
tories. council halls. and beautiful residences
a.. .,,Ii. .Ioa a. .hn,,Id hayn eanohal nrna-