The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-11-07

and set up in the dreary Ozarks. He got
out attractive literature representing the
society as already in flourishing condi-
ton before single recruit had arrived on
the ground Half a dozen small houses
were put up for temporary homes. but the
big lyceum was still dream 1t has new
er been constructed These individual
shacks were pointed out by him as the
original homes of the colonists as object
lessons showing how the communistic
ideas had grown.
But the illusion of the dreamers could
not long endure the severe test of expe
rfence, and the enchantment of a co-ope-
rative life soon began to fade away and
leave the colonists face to face with pro-
sale conditions. There was more work
than play, and this constant toll earned
very few material comforts. Each morn
ing the men learned from the bulletin
board the duty that had been assigned
them by the director. The assignment OF
tasks was made arbitrarily. There was
no common council held to discuss the va
rious capabilities of the workers The
manager determined whether Smith
should pillow in field No. / or No. and
named the man that must hoe in the gar
den or cut f1rewood. All duties were not
alike arduous and trip to the postof-
flee for the colony mail was more desira-
Bile than an assignment to dig a cellar,
and thus discomfort and envy naturally
arose over the distribution of service. In
dividualism was annihlated by the neces-
sary despotism of an arbitrary manage
ment.
When the colonists began to murmur
and talk of leaving they found that their
investment could not be taken out of the
community. The founder Of the colony
had looked after that important matter In
framing the constitution of the society,"
All individual property brought to the
tt,yI 80 IT,
wealth and those who should grow tireo
of the cooperative plan must go out
empty-handed.
The spirit of characterization grew more
pronounced from day to day as none of
the promised benefits of cooperation were
realized 1t was a lonely life for the fam
lilies who had left the hustle and excite
ment of great city and the young folks
found the little colony duller even than
the tenement houses of New York. At
evening no band of musicians entertained
the villagers. The site for the colony 1y-
ceum remained a vacant lot grown up in
summer time with dog fennel and cookie
burrs. There were no holidays, no pleas
ant pastimes, no dream life on the dreary
fiat and the once hopeful converts to
the theory Of cooperation became sulen
and mutinous.
The colony was never self-supportng
and Sharpe had to furnish nearly all the
supplies except SUCH ARTICLES OIL 1000 as
the thin soil would produce. A little store
was under the control OF the manager
and he doled out few cheap goods to
the people when necessity became ex-
tremely urgent. One time when the mu-
tinous spirit threatened TO defy all the
rules Of the management Sharpe sent an
order from New York to reduce the regu-
lar bill Of fare to bread and water unless
the colonists BECAME more tractable.
But the most serious misfortune to the
cooperative scheme came when Mrs.
Sharpe ceased to be her husbands disci-
pie and patroness and refused to lend
further financial aid to his socialistic
work Sharpe then quit the field of prop
uganda and took upon himself the direct
management Of the colony. But the move
ment had already reached a hopeless
state of decline. No more recruits could
be obtained The failure of the scheme
was known abroad and each day the COL
ony became heavier loss to it's proprie-
tor. Sharpe had not money to meet the
necessities of the community and indi-
vidual effort became the only reliance of
the people.
One of the members of the colony
opened little store on the old plan of
selling merchandise for profit. and he
soon got into trouble with two fancy
county desperadoes who wanted to buy a
pair of boots on credit. In the quarrel
that followed the merchant was shot and
a stray bullet struck his wife. who hap
pened to be in the store when the firing
began. The young men who committed
this outrage were Frank and Tubal Tay-
Tor, afterwards lynched by the Taney
county Bald Knobbers at Forsyth The
hanging of the Taylor brothers, which oc-
Cured within week after the shooting
Of the merchant and his wife, inaugural
ted the Bald Knobber rule in fancy coun-
ty. and Captain Nat Kinney. the chief of
the organization. soon became dictator of
affairs about Forsyth
Sharpe, the colony proprietor, would not
brook the rule of the regulators, and he
was warned to hold his tongue about the
Bald Knobbers or leave the country.
the reformer was a man of dauntless
spirit and had never yielded to intimda-
ton. He armed himself with two rifles,
barricaded his doors for night attack
and sent Kinney word that he was ready
to receive visit from the worst mem
berss OF his regulating legons Sharpe
was never moles led.
The colony dragged on several years
through the Bald Knobber period and
Sharpe became very poor The breach
between him and his New York wife
widened and she finally began a suit for
divorce. claiming at the same time the
fancy county property on the ground
that her money had bought the land. A
bitter correspondence was carried on be-
tween the manager of the colony and the
owner of the New York plating estab-
llshment. in which Mrs. Sharpe charged
that her husband grossly violated the
postal laws of the United States She
came to Springfield, prosecuted the So
cialist leader in the district federal court
and had him convicted. Sharpe was sent
to the Nevada. NO., Jail and his wife
got a divorce. While her divorce suit was
pending Mrs. Sharpe published a pam
phlet detailing her husbands alleged i'm
moral career. She secured share of the
colony property and that ended the CO.
operative scheme on the little Ozark