The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-20
A DESERTER FROM UTOPIA.
LEWIS. GENERATOR or TROPIC
NEAT FOR a.. SINCLAIR, QUITS.
Duty. Papa and Mamma and isIs Best Girl
Called Him Back TO la'c-New Man
on the furnace Job WIN Save the
Equatorial Plants. Including the Rubber

hAllcu III" " h1VN-sNT" VIM
on the Furnace-JOb VIII save the
Equatorial Plants. including the tubber
Chilly but cheerful, Helicon Hen. the
list colony that Upton Sinclair is
playing entreprsreur to up ct Englewood.
is surviving the first blow levelled ct its
young life In the cruel detection Of its
%janitor.
Harry Lewis, the Ysle senior who has
been trying 10 ring in O new golden age
by nonchalantly changing his shove agsinst
the furnace door as il he q been used
TO IL all his life, succumbed on saturday
TO the call of his hE ted class in the shape
of imploring letters from his papa, mamma
and his best girl to go back and get a DIP Iona
and not CheGJ them out Of their chance
10 be proud Of him at commenceEent time.
At last reports he WIS Logging it for a
New Have Turkish bc tn, new toothbrush
in hsnd. TO get the CoSl dust and cinders
out of his mouth,
But he will come back" declared Mr..
Sinclair hoT ehIlly, plucking at the collar
of his flannel 81 irt. HE just left to finish
his course and get his degree. He will
return in me spring with the swallows
or, "a you rut IL, when the robins nest
again"
Moreover, declared Mr.. Sinclair, with
more heat than was rushing from the
registers since. all for a handful of sheep
skin, the furnace expert had Nleft them,
the detection hal not caused the colony
the slightest anxiety. As a matter of
fact" Mr.. Sinclai- said. I'VE have never
worried about the cold. If the furnace
broke down tomorrow we humans could
atanI Il oil rirbf R,lt ~ pntIr.a the mr.
mace is most important, | might say the
very most important feature of our enter
prise. For if it broke down what, oh what,
would become of our forest of tropical
plants.
you see we nave a lot of these" point
ing TO the lofty conservatory filled with
palms and rubber plants-"and the knowl-
edge that the very life of our plants depends
upon the faithfulness Of the man who fills
the position of janitor and tends the furnace
is something that has inspired all of us,
of us more; others, including the new
janitov, less.
Blu | must say he has beer most dill
gent. Updegraff has taken Lewis's place
the Updegraf who was formerly at the
Univ ersity Settlement, you know. II just
happens that among those tropical plants
the jungle they call IL here-is a small
rubber plant that an aunt presented to
him. UPdegraff has got attached to tina.
rubber plant. Every place he has taken
it to has Immediately become home for
him-queer what a domestic thing n rubber
plant Is. And the thought of that rubber
plant in that jungle has had a good deal TO
do. | believe, with the fact that we have
been kept fairly warm. Happy is the
household that has a rubber plant in its
jungle.
long. He went crazy about the colony
when he first heard Of il and immediately
wrote me. He came on more for a lark. an
adventure, than anything else. No, not at
all. ] emphatically don't think there is
reason 20 believe that any of the other
members Of the colony have joined il in any
such spirit"
According to Mr.. Sinclair, far from being
on the decline, as the detection Of SO import
ant a factor in industrial cooperative house.
keeping as the janitor might suggest. the
colony Is more prosperous than IL has been
at any time since its inception.
we have now some forty-fve adults and
eleven children in the colony, Mr.. Sinclair
said, -aOout twenty families, although we
do not usually count by families. The hall
is quite filled and | am hoping that next
feature OF our plan-small cottages near
the main building so that the occupants
can take their meals here.
-As a matter o. TACT, we have had dif'-
culties to cope with far greater than losing
our furnace tender. |, for instance. have
found IL extremely difficult to get women
to wash the dishes whom We car take into
the colony as members. OF course, we can
not employ people to do even menial tasks
like washing dishes, %scrubbing the floor.
and all that. and be consistent.
What we are trying to prove about
this, is that twenty families can combine and
lake care Of their children and the house
hold tasks together with a great deal less
time and labor spent by each individual
than is the case when each family ives by
itself. And we are proving that right
along. / believe. Am ] writing another
Jungle? No. I'm not doing any literary
work nov I'm running a colony"