Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1899-08-03
COLONY THAT FAILED
Cultured Poles Who Didn't Make a
Success of Farming.
TITLED and Talented People Were In
terested In the California Scheme,
But Their Efforts Were
Fruitless.

Arden is all that remains of a Utopian
colony which was established here by q
party of sentimental Polish patriots
about 90 years ago. twas composed Of
refugees and reformers, artists and
;Gealists. under the leadership of Vlad-
scot, the poet, whose odes and lyrics
have since made him famous; Michael
Kroschiski, the famous and perhaps
the foremost Polish painter; Helena
Modjeska, who was then at the zenith
of her fame as an actress; Count b.
2enta, her husband, who was expelled
from Poland because of his patriotic
energy; Henry Sienkiewicz, who has
since become famous as the author OF
"Quo Vadis," and others of similar
stripe, who made vain and patriotic
attempt at cooperative agriculture,
with the most unhappy results.
There were 80 of these people all told
pa young men and nine young women,
mostly artists, musicians and authors.
Four were actors and two were scuip-
tors of eminence in their native lanE
All belonged to the artistic professionA
and none had the slightest experience
or knowledge of farming or the prac-
teal affairs of life. They expected to
live an idyllic existence in California,
like the lotus eaters in Tennyson's poem,
with much love and little labor, and
from the feeces of their focks and the
fruit of their olive and orange groves
they expected to find sustenance, while
the artists could paint the turquoise
sky and the purple mountains, and tho
rest could dream and write.
They came in 1876. They sett. ID on
tract of land in Orange county, which
they were induced to buy through the
enterprise of Los Angeles real estate
ngent, and they expended their entire
capital of $50, 900 in the purchase of the
property, the erection of buildings and
securing machinery, implements and
live stock. Only two or three could
speak English, and none had ever
worked on farm before. Therefore
they were at the mercy of unscrupulous
neighbors, who did not hesitate to take
advantage of the confding and unso-
phisticated foreigners.
It Is said that If tie Poles had been
willing to lie quietly under the orange
trees and smoke their cigarettes with
out attempting to interfere with nature
the farms would have given them liv-
ing. But being unaccustomed to manu-
al labor and undertaking to con-
duct their business upon theories
which they found in books the only re-
ward they reaped for their serene faith
was poverty and disaster. Notwith-
standing all the books they had read
and the theories they had formed to the
contrary, they found that farming was
not so much fun as they had expected,
and to the end they were never able to
understand why their books did not
contain antidotes for the misfortunes
which seemed the ordinary everyday
fate of farmers.
But during all their affections and
distress they never forgot their artistic
tastes, and one of their neighbors now
living in San Diego tells how he found
the whole colony assembled in the loft
of the barn one morning listening to o
symphony by Sebastian Bach in D mi
nor while the last COW was dying OF
collie, caused by improper food.
Starvation finally compelled the col
ony to disintegrate. Modjeska and tho
other theatrical people went back upon
the stage and Henryk Sienlliewicz went
to Los Angeles, where he lived in an at
tic and cooked his own meals until he
could get money to pay his passage
back to Poland, while the remainder
found temporary employment until
they could obtain relief.
Senkiewicz is we'll remembered by
the old residents here. He was ther
about "a years old and was always writ.
ing. He learned little English at the
boarding house where he found refuge
in Los Angeles, but no one ever sus'
pected his talent until "Quo Vadis" ap
peared in print.-W. E, Curtis, in Chi
cago Record.