The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-05-01
STORIES OF SOME
LIGHTS THAT FAILED
Remarkable Communities Have
Been Established in America
BROOK FARM MEMORABLE
New Albany, Ind, Was Once Destined
to Be the Educational Center
of the United
States.
BROOK FARM MEMORABLE
BY FREDERIC j. HAsKIN.

For many centuries there have been a
lew followers of the altrulstic idea that
work done by people living in a COM
munity is more beneficial to humanity
Than work done by the Individual for his
sole interest. Each decade has found
some man eager to demonstrate this the
DRY, and has brought men and women
eager to follow him. Failures have been
lar more numerous than successes. At
jamestown in 1907 and at Plymouth in
1870 the plan of having all earnings
placed in a common stock was tried
without success. The Labadist COM
munity of Protestant mystics, one hun
dred strong, settled on 1000 acres in North
ern Maryland in 1880 and the Com
munity Of the Woman of the Wilderness
was established on the Wissahickon river
IN pennsylvania in 1884. Both soon be-
came things of the past. Religious bodies.
/ and non-religlous bodies followed on the
heels of these, but after wavering glim-
mering flicker these little lights of en-
deavor sooner or later failed
Charles Fourier, the famous socialist of
France, was responsible for many COM
! hluilty settlements in the nineteenth cen
/ fury. he believed In common holdings
with a small division of profits In his
/ opinion the net earnings of the com
munity should be divided into twelve
parts Five of these parts were to go to
I labor, four TO capital and three to talent
Robert Owen of Lanark. Scotland the
Irst man in the world to secure legisla-
tlon that protected women and children
III factory life and established shorter
! working hours, was another inspiration
Tor communal colonies. Each had his
ideas represented in some part of the
wilderness country of the United States.
The most notable communistie settle
ment in the United States was probably
Brook Farm, because of the high ideals
! IL means to maintain, and because of
the brilliant men and women connected
with It, In 1871 a club composed of peo-
pie who called themselves Transcenden-
eaHsts chose farm nine miles out from
Boston, organized a stock company to
hnance 1t, and under the leadership of
rev George Ripley went in for the simple
IRE with vengeance. They established
thelr lives on the basis of wisdom and
purity, Justice and love. Poets. preachers
arusts teachers, philosophers and ora
LOTS joined and went to work in the fields
sue by side with plain farmer folk as
tne spirit and law Of the colony decreed
Ihey left the rustry framework of So
clety behind them" and brought great
zeal and self-sacrifice to the task Even
IL they did hoe up the corn, and assidu-
/ ously cultivate weeds, as has been
CANNED, or turn over the beans and peas
that persisted in growing upside down.
| they were earnest and sincere, and set a
i good example of brotherliness helpfulness
and high ideals in general
! hawthorne was member of the colony.
ana one OF his tasks was to HELM feed
ana mix the cows In the morning He
| writes in his American Note Book" of
! MS experiences, and because one COW was
| especially Independent and tyrannical. he
always persisted in affirming she must
belong to Miss Margaret Fuller, for whom
ne mad little liking. Charles A. Dana.
John b. Dwight, Albert Brisbane. VIII
liam Ellery Claiming, William H. Chan
ming, Elizabeth Peabody Margaret Full
Ter and Burrll Curtis, who so often posed
Tor portraits of the Christ were members
| or the colony. That genial philosopher
Amos Bronson Alcott, father of Louisa.
M. Alcott, meant to live there, but TIL
ire was not yet on a plane as high rs
( ne would have 1t, and with other ki.drad
| spirits he established the short-lived :,om-
/ munity of Fruitlands, where animal food
| IN any form was not tolerated. where
water was the only beverage, and where
| early rising and cold baths were part of
the stoical regime.
| Brook Farm did not last very long be-
ing dissolved in 1915, though Horace Gree
| ley Emerson and Theodode Parker were
constantly offering encouragement and
inspiration Their school had become IA
nous In its time, and drew pupils from
| Manila, Havana, Florida and New Eng
land. The instruction for the elder pu-
| pills was wide. Lecturers came each Sun
| Gay and on week days. Ripley calculated
| rant and Spinoza on Sunday afternoons
/ fupils, seated on the grass, read the Di-
| VIVA Commedia in the original and
| scholars did the work of some of the
| 1lliterate that they might attend classes
! Hawthorne wrote his "Blithedale Ro-
! nance" from his experience there and
other real romances found contamination
| In fourteen marriages that took place
among the members The farm has been
! absorbed in the overwhelming limits of
Boston, and its identity Is now lost In
that of the Martin Luther Orphan home
which occupies the old quarters.
The next communstic settlement of i'm
| portance, in so far as its ideals and its
| membership are concerned, was that of
| New Harmony, Indiana. under the imme-
date direction of Robert Owen of Scot
land. The village and the 10000 acres
surrounding 1t were purchased outright
from religious society that was anxious
to find another location. Owen paid
$4,000 for the whole, This was in 1926
and the colony prospered with 900 mem
bers engaged In almost every branch of
industry that an Independent colony
might require-agrculture manufacture
ing, stock raising and brick making. All
the goods, houses and lands were held
In common, and the individual was lost
in the general scheme of things.
Education was great factor in the
plan, the first day nurseries and schools
for little children in the United States
were there. Eminent men were among
the members-Robert Dale Owen, whose
name is next only to Smithson's in the
National museum in Washington: Will
liam Mcclure. father of American ge-
ology; Thomas Say, the noted entomol-
ogist and one of the founders of the
Academy of Natural Sciences: DR.. Troost,
who made the finest geological and min
eral collection in the world, and was
sent in 1910 on scientific expedition to
Jamaica by Louis Bonaparte. king of
Holland; Charles Leseur, the French nat
uralist; Prof. Joseph Neef, a student of
Pestalozzi and soldier of Napoleon; Jo-
seph Chapplesmith. the English artist and