Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1903-07-24

name. you are that thing-not h,
The Snug and Snugly Ensconce
denizens of Union Square called a,
a Philistine, and I said, "Yes, / an
one, If Philistine is something dif
ferent from you."
My helpers, the printers, wer
about to go away to pastures new
they were in debt, the town was small
they could not make living. s
they offered me their outfit for
thousand dollars. ] accepted tn
offer.
l decided to run the "Pbilistin
Magazine" for year-to keep faitI
with the misguided who had sub
scribed--and then quit. To fill i,
the time, We printed book-printe
it like a Morris book-printed it a
well as we could.
1t was cold in the old barn wher
we first set up the "Philistine," so
built a little building like an ole
English chapel right alongside of IN,
house. There was basement, ant
one room upstairs. wanted it {,
be comfortable and pretty, and 30 W,
furnished our little shop cozily. We
had four girls and three boys work.
ing for us now. The shop was never
locked, and the boys and girls uset
to come around evenings. 1t was
really more pleasant than at home
The place got too small when we
began to bind books, 80 we built 8
wing on one side; then a wing on the
other side. To keep the three car
penters busy who had been building
the wings. | set them to making fur
niture for the place. They made
the furniture as good as they could
folks came along and bought it.
The boys picked up field stones
and built great, splendid fireplace
and chimney at one end of the shop.
The work came out SO well said:
"Boys, here is great scheme-these
hardieads are splendid building
material" So we advertised we would
pay dollar a load for niggerheads.
The farmers began to haul stones,
and at last they had hauled eighteen
hundred loads,
Two stone buildings have been
built, third is in progress, and our
plans are made to build an art-gallery
OF the same material-the stones
that the builders rejected.
Sammy the Artist blew In on the
way to Nowhere, his baggage to-
He thought ne would
stop over for a day or two-he is
With us yet, and three years have
gone by since he came. st. Gerome,
a young blacksmith with bias for
clay modelling (who, besides being a
saint, has all the attractive qualities
OF sinner, came and made andirons
for our fireplaces. Ali Baba, my old
horse-traiuer, worked at everything
and gave advice to everybody, en-
livening the tedium by many jest
bucolic. An ex-conyict with hunted
look, white with prison pallor, beg
ged us to give him a chance. We
did. and he is one of our very best
and most valued helpers. Girls that
no one else wanted or would have
around came and proved good
Then We have had a few Remit
tance Men over-educated fools, sent
to us, from q distance, without re-
tickets. Some of these men
were willing to do anything but
work-they offered to run things, to
preach, to advise, to make love to
the girls. We bought them tickets
to Chicago and without violence
them to the four o'clock
train.
We have boys who have been ex-
pelled from school, blind people, deaf
people, old people, jail-birds and
mental detectives, and have managed
TO set them all at useful work; but the
Remittance Man of Good Family, who
smokes cigarettes in bed, has proved
loo much for us-so we have given
him the Four O'Clock without ruth.
We do not encourage people from q
distance who want work to come on
They are apt to expect too much.
They look for Utopia, when work is
work, here as elsewhere. There is
Just as much need for patience, gen.
tleness, loyalty and love here as else
where. Application, desire to do the
right thing, a willingness to help
and u well curbed tongue are as nec.
sssary in East Aurora as in Tuskegee.
We do our work as we'll as we Gao,
i've one day at a time, aud try to be
kind.
The village Of East Aurora, New
York. the home of the Roycrofters,
8 eighteen miles southeast of the
city of Buffalo, and is reached by O
branch of the Pennsylvania railroad.
The place has a population of little
less than two thousand people.
The land around East Aurora is
poor, and so reduced in purse are
the farmers that no insurance com.
pany will insure farm property. in
Erie county under any conditions un.
less the farmer has some business
outside of agriculture.
However, there is no real destitu-
ton, for a farmer can always raise
enough produce to feed his family,
and in wooded country he can get
fuel, even if he has to lift it between
the dawn and the day.
Most of the workers in the Roy
croft Shop are children of farming
folk, and it is needless to add that
they are not college bred, nor have
they had the advantage of foreign
!ravel. One of our best helpers,
Uncle Billy Bushnell, has never been
70 Niagara Falls, and does not care
10 go. Uncle Billy says if you stay
1t home and do your work well
enough, the world will come to you
which aphorism the old man backs
np with another, probably derived
from experience, to the effect that q