The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-09-27

East Aurora, y. Y, Sept 90
What is East Aurora doing since
Ebert Hubbard and his wife went
down on the Lusitania? People
come here wondering If they will
find slackness or decay in the home
of the Roycrofters. Instead, there
is trim neatness about the plant,
the same busy craftsmen at work
in the shops, the same unusual at
mosphere of tranquility which
somehow has always pervaded the
place.
The Roycroft plant. you doubt
less remember, is the project start
ed by Ebert Hubbard 25 years ago.
Hubbard had lived in the village of
East Aurora for so years without
giving any signs of one day max
ing it famous. He was in the soap
business then, and had he kept on
mixing soap would in time have
been a millionaire, as his partner,
Larkin, became.
But the. life of a soap merchant
palled on the artistically inclined
Hubbard. At SO he took the first
step toward retaining his individ-
uality. He sold out and went, to
Harvard.
Then he started a little printing
shop in East Aurora, and with his
philosophy, his writings and his
personality, he gathered about him
the Roycroft community and grad
ually built what is now the Roy
croft plant with $50 workers.
East Aurora was on the map in
"a quiet way as a New York village
before Hubbard's personality be-
gan to flower Hubbard made it
popular, and gradually East Aurora
became synonymous with Roycroft
and Ebert Hubbard. You cannot
write or taFk about one without
implying the others. The homes
of the village are mainly the crafts
mems homes. The whole commun-
ity seems to center on the Shady
street where the low UNCOVERED
shops of the Hubbard plant stand
Hubbard took it for granted that
the world would recognize that he
and his Roycrofters made East
Aurora what it has become When
East Aurora got new railroad sta
ton, Hubbard wrote to the railroad
company and asked permission %
make the station sign and put the
cabalistic Roycroft trademark on
it beside the name East Aurora.
The railroad company was astound-
ed at the suggestion. Never had
any advertising marks been allow
ed on a station sign, and they
promptly informed Mr. Hubbard of
the high and lOng-standing tradi-
tons OF the road. But Hubbard
was not vanquished. He persisted
in his arguments until he convinced
the officials that the booming bust
ness in railroad tickets between
East Aurora and points in all di-
rectiOnS was due to the Roycroft-
ers and that they were East Aurora
Today the East Aurora station is
probably the only one in the coun-
try that has a sign decorated with
a trademark
The story of the new railroad sta
ton is another Hubbard story. The
town had a MISUNDERSTANDING
shack in which to buy its tickets
and pass the time of day But four
years ago Hubbard turned his at
tention to the depot Every month
his magazine carried an intense ed
itOrial about the awful depot situa-
ton at East Aurora. One month
he printed a picture of the ram
shaCkle station and beside it his
new palatial concrete hog pen. That
was too much for the railroad. It
surrendered, and even sent the
plans for the new station to Hub
bard for his approval.
The Second Hubbard.
Today, the guiding spirit of the
is Ebert Hubbard Il.
Hubbard's son is a sort
Of copy of him, but with some vari-
atoms. His hair is not long as his
father, Fra Elbertus, wore his. AMI
the younger Hubbard bears less Of
a resen blance to William Jennings
Brian, than his father did But
young Ebert Hubbard wears a
lomespun suit of brown, comfort
able SHOES, and the flowing black
tie that his father affected.
This tie is a sort of Roycroft !
badge. The young men who work
IN the shops at bookbinding, metal |