Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1906-08-02

the shoddy, the tawdry, all forms :
of sham and false pretense. The
American giant has climbed up so
high that he has lost his vitality.
1t is necessary for him to come
down and touch mother earth that
he may gain strength for the great
battle with his enemies. We are
looked upon by the nations of the
old word as a people wholly given
over to sham and fraud. We have
been misrepresented and maligned
to a large extent, yet there is some
truth in the charges against US.
We have striven so hard for success
that we have neglected the higher
things of life. We have cared little
about the means, SO long as we
have cared too much for hollow dis
play. Now comes the Arcadia idea
of honest living. Those who be-
come Arcadians will agree to live
for two weeks of each year in the
nearest Arcadia to their homes, to
commune with nature, reclinc on
the grass, drink from the bubbling
spring, wear simple, comfortable
clothing, and, in every way posi-
BILE, bring themselves into contact
with mother earth.
Their lives will be governed by
several well-defined principles, pri-
mary among which are kindness,
honesty, simplicity. In its more re-
mote purposes Arcadia will strive
to populate the waste lands of the
country with the people who, in
the cities, are likely to furnish ma
terial for societies of anarchists and
other malcontents. 1t will teach
these people, both by precept and by
example, that it is good to live in
contact with the soil. For the city
man, who is earning good 1iveli-
hood and taking proper care of his
family, it will advocate the little
suburban home, where his children
may have fresh air and pure milk.
To this end it's members will
work for good suburban transit
lines and the convenicnces with
out which country life is robbed
of most of its pleasure
electric light and power and cspcc-
tally good roads.
For those who must live in the
city it will advocate certain other
things, such as better construction
of homes, simpler furnishings, so
that the housewife need not waste
all her energy in the hopeless task
of keeping things clean; less waste
of strength in keeping up appear
ances, simpler and more wholesome
food. The Arcadia will be suffi-
GENTLY strong in a few years to in
fluence legislation to compel the en-
and the numerous sanitary measures
that are now practically dead letters
on the statute books. 1t will join
forces with the straphangcrs league
and will embrace all the logical
protests against things which are
not right, but can be made right.
The first assembly of the Arcadi-
ans is to be held the latter part of
August at our own Arcadia, and
the spot where it is to be opened is
historic ground. The first ceremony
will take place beneath the General
Grant oak, the very spot where, in
August, 1861, the greatest Ameri-
can soldier received his commits
sion as general. The spot is mark
ed by statue of Grant and mon
ument to his memory, together
with two cannon which he used in
the great struggle for the preserva-
ton of the Union.
The place was selected by Judge
]. w. Emerson, cousin of the
great Ralph Waldo Emerson, and it
was through his earnest efforts that
the monument was erected by
Grants old regiment, the Twenty
first Illinois infantry. There is a
beautiful park surrounding the tree,
which will be at the disposal of the
Arcadians, and all the veterans of
Pilot Knob, both Federal and Con-
federate, will camp there and drink
toasts to each other in spring water,
for the finest spring water in the
state is the one beside which Grant
received his commission.
Among those who are to aid in
the entertainment and instruction of
the Arcadians at their first great
meeting are several from ST. Louis,
notable among whom are N. o.
Nelson and Archbishop Glennon.
Walter Williams will give his great
lecture on Missouri, and Thomas
j 4. 4. Ax.fI