The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-05-03

liked the Poles and watched the colony
with interest.
ne colony was organized II CracoW
| n The early summer OF 1876, ana the
members spent the season III preparing
Ior permanent removal TO America. Inc
community treasury ne.u about soi,Vco-
Uount boLenta ana AlMe. MGuJesha put
II the savings OF several years, ana the
younger, unmarried men, as Slenkle-
wlcZ, contributed all tne.r pSIty say
lngs. he colony rendezyoused at Ber-
I'm, and sailed from bremen, reaching
NEW York in the last days or the Cen
Iennial Exposition at Pnliadeipnla.
rrobab bly, no more eXpectant, entnuslas-
&c people ever landed at New YORK.
All were beamlng at having exchanged
ene nardsslng ponucaI conditions Oh
ro.anG TOR Free America. iney were
.un OF pans Ter. u garden or cdeh III
sou. nrIu CanIornIa, and were IeStiess
% oegin ute III their cooperative COO
ny. iley nau a boXIul or arcnitecl-
ulal pans Tor lher houses, and a
sagonload OF newly bought ooons Oh
agriculture and horLicutdre.
A1oer several weeks III New York
and Philadelphia, the parry went 90
Washington at the lnv4tation OF the
russian Mlnis,er Tne coIonists We're
introduced TO President Crane, ana
having awaited themselves OF an oner
III a great mass OF government hlera-
cure on the subject or farming and
lrult-growIng, they started for enc Pa
CHIC Coast.
1t was months before the Poles doci-
ded upon acreage property to BUY tor
oheir colony. Meanwhile the real
estate men worked early and late TO
induce them to settle here and there.
every one in Los Angeles was inter
ested to some extent IN the choice of
colony site by the newcomers. But
rour among the Poles could speak far
English FINALLY the cOlonlstS decided
20 Guy a qUarter-Section-1 acres
n Santa Ana valley near Anaheim.
Work began at once on the colony
buildings, and by the spring OF 1917
Chey were finished. Then the fiel is
were LAID out, irrigation bitches dug,
and the ground made ready for plant
lng fruit-trees. All this had eaten
dig slice out of the combined capital
Of the eXpectant cOlOniStS, and there
were schemes for expanding thousands
rof dollars more before the anticipated
wealth from the product of the proper
~ should begin to roll in.
The Poles, unable to talk with the
small army of carpenters, orchard
planters. plOughmen, and irrigators
about the property, stood by, smoked
cigarettes, quilt air castles, and watch
ed che progress of affairs with delight
ed interest. They realized, however,
chat they were paying some mighty
nigh bills and that the Americans
asked the full value of everything
ohey sold or the work they did. But
ohe Poles were serene in the faith that
The books and the printed articles they
mad read were so accurate in the de-
calls of the certain profits of American
ranches, especially cooperative ones,
uhat they never begrudged the checks
they gave on their Los Angeles bank
account.
There was i'll luck for the colony
from the first day until it hOpelessly
abandoned all. By the spring of 1873
none of the common capital remained,
and the cOlonistS had to undertake
manual labor on the ranch. Notwith-
standing all the books and magazine
articles they had read to the contrary,
they found cooperative ranch life be-
set with trouble and subject to daily
losses The idyllic existence that mad
been their dream for several years
doated away among the Sierras. The
men and their wives, who had been
accustomed to studios and libraries,
were disguised with the work of fol-
lowing horse and cultivator among the
nd 70, Nf
alfalfa and of ploughing and harrow
ing soil for frequent irrigation of the
young orchards.
Some amusing stories are told by
people in Los Angeles of the philoso-
phic, easy Bohemian way with which
nearly all the Polish litterateurs, art
lists, and musicians viewed the plight
into which their fortunes and hopes
had been cast. Ordinary American
farmers would have been disheartened
or alarmed Not so the Poles. They
rolled cigarettes in the shade OF the
trees, and assumed cheerfulness #
they did not feel it. One person in Los
Angeles narrates how one day in early
1878, when the last work-mule and
COW on the place had died from some
improper feeding by the theoretical
colonists, ~and troubles of scores OF va
rietieS were coming thick and fast, she
found dozen of the young men hay
ing the happiest kind of morning In
their upstairs assemblyroom in prac-
ticing the latest Wagner music for an
orchestral concert that evening. At
another time, when the dearly bought
water right had almost dried up, and
the years crop of alfalfa was fast
whitening in the midsummer sun, the
Poles gave no heed, and had an ella Dor
ate amateur dramatic performance, n
which every one in the colony had to
perform some part.
The colony disintegrated fast in the
early summer of 1878. Money had
been raised by mortga ging the pro-