The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-03-03

| The failure of one more socialistic COM
| munity is recorded. this time in New Jer-
| sey. 1t was called the Altruistic Colony,
and lived about Il year. The idea was to
| form settlement, in which there should
/ be no police or magisterial system, and
no laws or rules save those of courtesy.
Each member of the community paid an
| initiation fee of 50, and a weekly fee OF
| So. and was assured against most of the
cares of life, and against want or discom-
| fort, if disabled by sickness or old age.
| The scheme worked fairly well for a
! time hut with a demand for labor in the
| world outside. as the Shakers call it, the
| people of the community began to hank
er after the fesh-pots of Egypt. and
| eventually drifted back to the city Farm
! life did not suit most of them, anyway.
! The last sentence probably gives the
key to the failure of the plan. The fact
| is that farm life does not suit the popu-
lation OF today even well it did
their rorefathers; and it suits them less
when put in the shape of communism.
! The one thing which will take the aver
age man into the country to live is the
desire of possessing a little home of his
very own. 1t is this, if anything, which
will anchor him to the soil, and it is the
the cities. There is no fun in farming, if
one must do it under another mans
thumb.
After all the poetry and romance OF life
on a farm have been discussed and given
fun value, the fact remains that the
poetry is most evident to the man who
sits on the veranda and looks on. There
are hundred and fifty details in the
daily existence of the average farmer
which are anything but pretty and poetic.
There is no romance in feeding the pigs,
no picturcsqueness in turning grind
stone. no loveliness in wedding the onion
bed or grubbing stumps out of cleared
land Raking hay has its pretty ASPECT
when it is q psstime for one afternoon,
with a big black cloud rolling up from
the west, and everybody in the family,
pretty girls and all. joining in the wild
excitement of getting the loads into the
barn in time to save the crop. But rak-
ing, or spreading. or moving hay in the
hot sun, with no clouds in sight, and
ones back aching. and ones face blis-
tered with the heat, is not poetic IN any
possible way.
The only thing which will make Z II these
honely details tolerable is the feeling
that they are part of ones home. that
every weed which is rooted out of the
garden, and every insect which is de-
molished with paris green, is an enemy of
the future beauty and peace of the home
stead. Looking forward TO peaceful
old age. spent in the midst of prosperous
and smiling meadows and woodlands.
with children grown up to bear the heat
and the burden of the day. man can
endure the backaches and the mono;ony.
But when he is working in order that
some other man may enjoy those bread
acres and the money which they make,
he is apt TO think that II he must spend
the best years of his life in hard work
he would like to work where there is
going on Drudgcry seems less
where the crowds and the mu-
sic and the lights Of the city streets af-
ford recreation OF an evening. That is
why the farmers son goes TO the city |
when he fails to see any way Of paying |
OF the mortgage by staying at home.