The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-10-28
n THE ROY5R|)FT SHOP
ST. PAUL MAN DESCRIBES A VISIT
TO THE FAMOUS
SPOT
ART THROUGHOUT THE WORK
One Man Who Guides 1t All Has
Time for n Pleasant Word
With All Who APP
prOach Him.
(By Charles Cristadoro.)

CBy Charles Cristadoro)
We had frequently planned to visit
East Aurora, and having to pass through
Buffalo, decided to stop over day with
Elbert Hubbard and his Roycroft boys
and girls.
Arrived, at Buffalo, the interim between
trains was a short one, for the gateman
soon after our arrival sang out, "All
aboard; train for - Here followed a
whirlwind of sound rounded out by "Eb-
enezer and East Aurora, train for East
Aurora From the distinctness and
emphasis given to East Aurora" we
judged lit must be, as our Connecticut
friends might say, some pumpkins On
the railroad map. In due course we
reached Ebenezer. We had always
thought that, like Mrs. Harris, Ebe-
nezer was a fanciful creation of Hub
bard's brain, much like DR.. Gould's
"bushy whiskers. The train stopped
No one got off, neither did any one get
on. 1t was evidently all in the name.
Our mind ran riot with conjectures as
TO what we were to find at East Aurora,
but arrived there we found, instead of
gang of country yokels waiting for the
o'clock train to come in what one
can see in the summer time at thou
sand and one prosperous New York
state villages-a score of handsome turn
outs, and throng of Well-to-do people
at the station.
The train unburdened itself at East
Aurora. Soliciting village expressmen.
and the busting crowd of people, were
welcome change as compared with Ebe-
nezer. And no doubt the valley of East
Aurora, before the advent of the Roy
crofters, was as still and moribund as
the Ebenezer of today.
THE ROYCROFT SHOP.
Sauntering down the village street we
asked as to the direction of the Roy
croft shop, and were informed by a
village veteran that it was but a few
squares away, and "a likely place we'd
find it, that ere Hubbard having been
the making of this yere town"
Adjoining the residence of Fra Elber-
tus we saw the first shop of the Roy
crofters, an L-shaped frame building
one story and basement. Across the
way was another building, L-shaped
part two stories, constructed entirely
from field boulders with Roycroft help
And beyond this building was a third
one going up, much larger than the 9th
ers, also from field stones, piled yards
high around it, drawn in from the sur
rounding farms, and only too readily
disposed of at 81 per load.
In due course We broke bread at Mr.
Hubbard's family board, the table itself
a Roycroft shop production, of massive
oak, round, eight feet across, two inches
thick, a Banner masterpiece of the wood
working craft
Thereat sat Mr. Hubbard, much like
King Arthur of old, surrounded by his
family and trHsty knights and squires,
dispensing food for both body and mind,
seasoned with much joviality and hearty
laughter.
We adjourned to the adjacent charel-
IKE shop, and on entering came face to
face with silent body of rosy-cheeked
country boys and girls, the sons and
daughters of the villagers and the farm
ers for ten miles around
At desk to the right Mr. Hubbard sits
guiding all, yet having time for pleas
ant individualized word or two with
every one approaching him, and with
every Roycrofter at work during his
round Of inspection.
IT' this main room much folding of
Philistines goes on and much wrapping
oil parcels of Roycrof books in salmon
coIored paper for express forwarding to
ali parts of the country
UNIQUE ORNAMENTATIONs.
From the great, oaken, adze-marled
beams and rafters many things are sus-
pended for the delectation of the visitors
TO the shop.
High up is a key, not a modern beer
key, but a whisky key of the ancient
pattern, presumably used by the willy
old John Jacob, when he cheapened his
1urs in his trading with the East Aurora
Indians. This keg is duly labeled TN
spiration," and yet Fra Elbertus never
looks upon the wine when it is red This
keg is therefore a joke-Roycroft brand =
and no doubt very dry one, albeit one
hundred years old.
Again, high up is suspended a tree, a
little on the Christmas order, heavily
laden with old hats, post-and ante-food.
hats of the pre-Raphaelite school, hats of
the Elizabethan period and some other
"A
whole aggregation labeled "Ali Baba' s
Hat Rack" Poor Ali Bahia! The collec-
ton evidently spanned the earthly ex-
tstence OF Ali up to date. The hats of
his childhood days were there in all their
infantile simplicity with strings attached.
he hats of his boyhood bu!gIng ana cut
OF shape, caused, as Mr.. Hubbard states,
by telonlous use in connection with ample
orchards and hen houses-the hats of
Ali dudedom days. stunning doubtless
when those styles were ION" and finally
the most recently rejected high silk hat.
much battered, torn, and battle SCARED
worn the last 18th of March, when Ali
Bapa led Off the East Aurora Hibern-
ianS in proud review, with chest expand
ed and head thrown back, before the de-
hghted eyes of the Roycroft boys and
girls, ten deep at the work shop vim
dows.
AURORA BOREALIS OF ART.
Further on dangled a pair or corpora.
ZION SHOES, soleless, duly labeled Worn
by Sammy, the Artist when he hit Eas1
Aurora And today Samuel Warner,
esquire, good ROycroft artist and chief
designer of things beautiful around the
Roycroft shop, marshals his scores of
building artists, leading them upward in
the realms of art. Him must the tribe
OF Philistia thank for the Aurora Bore
ans OF art that sends it's rainboW-hued
radiance to the four quarters of the
globe. '-i0
And many other memory-ioggers are
either suspended from or affixed to th. q
adze-narked oaken rafters of this build
ing.
Over against the wall IS a fine steel
engraving of the man whose body lies
moldlng in the grave" whose life Mar.
hubbard has so charmingly depicted in
Time and Chance" 1t is draped with
Old Glory, and hanging from above,
over all, is Beecher's Bible, a gift from
Maj. Pond. --
When the Kansas Free State war was
on, and it looked as if the Missouri slave
holders would swoop down and CAPTURE
the polls and make Kansas a slave state
John Brown came East and collected
funds. Mr.. Beecher contributed a eoodlv
sun, with which to buy Bibles to Christ.
ianize the slave owners of Missouri and
John Brown bought the best and most
convincing Bibles for the occasion
Sharps rifles.
This particular one Maj Pond should
nave carried with John Brown on his
fatal raid into Virginia, had not the fate.
OF the lecture platform decreed differ
entity. This rife now hangs upon the