NOTE

The most important unpublished manuscript sold in the Isobel Strong Sale of Robert Louis Stevenson material, held at the Anderson Galleries in 1915, so reported a New York newspaper in its book columns at the time, was THE HAIR TRUNK, or THE IDEAL COMMONWEALTH: AN EXTRAVAGANZA, consisting of 145 pages entirely in Stevenson's hand-- because it was his first attempt to write a novel. Of greater interest to the collector must be these pages of the earliest draft of the same story, the initial words set down by the author in a form of writing complete in departure from anything he had essayed, his very first step toward fictional story-telling, for which he later won such great renown.

The origin of the motif of the story is no doubt complicated, but certainly its setting in the Navigator Islands may be traced in a note added to a letter Stevenson wrote to Mrs. Sitwell, June 1975:--

> Forgive me, couldn't get it off. Awfully nice man here tonight. Public servant-- New Zealand. Telling us all about the South Seas Isalnds till I was sick with desire to go there; beautiful places, green forever; perfect climate; perfect shapes of men and women, with red flowers in their hair; and nothing to do but study oratory and etiquette, sit in the sun, and pick up fruits as they fall. Navigator's Island is the place; absolute balm for the weary.

Mr. Sidney Colvin, in his introductory remark before the above letter (The Letters of Stevenson to his Family and Friends) says:

The awfully nice man was the Hon. J. Seed, formerly Secretary to the Customs and Marine Department of New Zealand; and it was from his conversation that the notion of the Samoan Islands as a place of refuge for the sick and world-worn first entered Stevenson's mind, to lie dormant (I never heard him speak of it) and be revived thirteen years later.

By May 1877, the new ideas introduced into Stevenson's mind by Mr. Seed, combined with his own imaginings and desires, had born fruit. He writes to Mrs. Sitwell again:

"I'm engaged upon-- trumpets, drums-- a novel! 'The Hair Trunk: or, The Ideal Commonwealth.' It is a most absurd story of a lot of young Cambridge fellows who are going to found a new society, with no ideas on the subject, and nothing but Bohemian tastes in the place of ideas; and who are-- well, I can't explain about the trunk-- it would take too long, but the trunk is the fun of it, everybody steals it; burglary, marine fight, life on desert island on west coast of Scotland, sloops, etc. The first scene, where they make their grand schemes and get drunk is supposed to be very funny, by Henley. I really saw him laugh over it until he cried."

Mr. J. A. Steuart (p.201. vol.i. R. L. S., Man and Writer) suggests the origin of the idea of an "Ideal Commonwealth" generated through Stevenson's visit to France and his intimacy with Mrs. Osbourne. When he returned to Edinburgh, "the French influences being active, he was deep in a novel, *The Hair Trunk: or, the Ideal Commonwealth*. The scene was laid in the Navigator Islands, where a company of Cambridge student-

adventurers founded a new society which apparently was to set an example
of freedom and happiness to a world suffering from too much civilization.
The adventures were wild and weird, and some of the 'comic business'
appealed to Henley; but the general judgment was that it would not do,
and it was destroyed. Meanwhile the author had adventures of his own on
hand, and for part of June and July he was again at Grez, the attraction
there being irresistible."

Perhaps "a world suffering from too much civilization" was represented to Stevenson by his desire for the "irresistible attraction,"
Mrs. Osbourne, whose husband was an uncomfortable fact known not only to
himself but also to his parents and friends. It is well that Mr. Steuart
is mistaken about the story being destroyed for it is a very clever and
biting satire on the white man's interest in the improvement of the savage;
it shows too that Stevenson was prepared by temperament to live more hap-
pily with primitive peoples than with his own kind and that when he wrote
to Mrs. Charles Fairchild, from Sydney in 1890, he had no more understanding
of the real values of life than when he was writing *The Hair Trunk*, only,
since, he had been courageous enough to put his understanding into action.
He wrote to her and said that if she wished to see a healthy and happy
people, in comparison with the hollow fraud of civilization, she would have
to come to Samoa, and:--

Let me tell you this: In '74 or 5 there came to stay with
my father and mother a certain Mr. Seed, a prime minister or some-
thing of New Zealand. He spotted what my complaint was and told me
that I had no business to stay in Europe; that I should find all I
cared for, all that was good for me, in the Navigator Islands: sat
up till four in the morning persuading me, demolishing my scruples.

How If we can raise tin, why-not-stay to go, why not raise it and stay
where we are. I-own-suppose-I-am---very-prosiee-character,-but-that-is
how-it-presents-itself-to-me. I only ask for information."

"Permit me, Mr. Strutt," replied Blackburn, "With en-equi the same cap-
ital, we might be a pair of hucksters in England, while we can live like
kings in Navigator."

"And you forget the fun of the thing," cried Turton.

"And the new society," added Hardy.

nucleus

"A society of six," said Strutt. "My-dear-boy,-you-cant... A whale in a teapot

"We are a nucleus," replied Hardy consciously.

"We go-out begin as pioneers..." said Blackburn.

"... to end as Dictators," echoed Turton.

"Gentlemen," cried Strutt, "I am silenced. If we are all to be dictators,
of-course.... why, of course there's nothing more to be said. And Any fur-
ther cavilling from a man of defective imagination like myself, would be sim-
ply unfeeling.* He affected to sigh deeply. "We-were-saying-then-that,-as
seen-as we had-these-thousands-of-pounds,-we

"Go on, somebody, he said-added.

"Mr. Ratcliffe," asked Blackburn, "have you any proposal to make about the
mere capital required? No? or you, Mr. Urquart?"

I don't see why these you fellows shouldn't give their your capital," re-
plied Urquart. "It's not entailed, I suppose like my land. If you want to
go to the South Sea, you must be ready to pay for your whistle."

* (The-blessing-of-liberty Our land will at least enjoy the blessings of
liberty," he added)

It would be impossible to deny the unpleasant effect produced by this
little sally. The countenances of Strutt and Ratcliffe decomposed. And
although Blackburn bars broke out laughing, I think even he would not
a little alarmed lest this revolutionary radical proposal should ineffect-
ently break up the convene-- whole negotiation. A Bohemian of a hundred
horse power, like Turton, spends his capital exactly as he spends his revenue,
on himself or others, on a yacht, a horse, a statue or a dinner to a bil-
liard marker, as if the such was the natural destination of capital there were
no such thing as Political Economy in the world. But the case is very dif-
ferent with the dilletante Bohemians like Strutt, or sham Bohemians like the
inept and athletic Ratcliffe. The first was really a man of considerable pru-
dence; and the second was an example of the law that it required--some a
man may have too few brains to be a fool. See Both of them, at least, re-
garded Urquart's proposal with an obvious consternation, and Blackburn-that
which grieved the single minded Turton while it, as I have said, it somewhat
alarmed the prophet himself. Blackburn had studied the dispositions of his
young companions with some care. He knew their position each to a nice-
ty, he flattered himself. He saw them struggling, knocked about, passively
many new theories of men and things had unsettled their foundations of. He saw
that they belonged to the large class of people who have been thoroughly un-
settled and nowise edified by modern theories. On the strength of these di-
vagations they had given up their old ideas, without embracing the new; and hun-
new hung between win in the wind in an element of sterility and they believed in
nothing and timi disbelieve--timidly in everything. And now hung in the wind,

a cockshot for enterprising dogmatists. This combination of Bohemianism and modern theories produces quite a remarkable absence of convictions. The morality of modern unbelief being more, suitable enough for highly respectable professors, is promptly repudiated by that large whole class of mere or less artistic social freelances, which comprises (as Turton might have said) the landscape-painter begins at the door of the gin-palace to end in the Royal Academy. It's virtues are by no means their virtues; and where they have need of indulgence, the iron heel of the athletical rabbi treads meets with a countenance of pig-iron as uncompromising as iron. I can figure to myself how I think I can see Mr. Herbert Spencer being tarred and feathered by an unruly congregation of landscape painters. I can imagine a vestryman see weeping on the neck of Mr. Herbert Spencer, much more readily, than a landscape painter. And whether it is to be regarded as a compliment or the reverse, it may be said that the whole New Gospel is likely to remain a dead letter among for the outcast and unruly.

"Well," said Blackburn, "I think I have a more agreeable expedient. The best simplest way to get a fortune in a hurry, it to take one ready made. Now, how about a treasure!"

"A treasure," said Turton, "What sort of treasure? How do you mean."

"A treasure in the respectable old story-book sense," replied Blackburn, "a treasure like Monte Christo's... a treasure like that in the Gold-Bug... or like the treasure of St. Mark in Facino Cave." Neither more nor less.

Turton shook his head sadly. "No, no," he said, "It won't do. Don't trifle with a man's finest feelings. There's not a sap enough in the world

for that kind of thing; it's all gone out along with Secret Societies, and
fellows in black masques. A lot of railway vouchers, new... or a damned
mean bank book... I daresay you may find... But not a real, glowing, gaudy,
old-high treasure."

" real, glowing, gaudy, old high treasure," repeated Blackburn. "Neither
more nor less. Old gold sequins, old gold ean Louis', old gold candle-
sticks and platters, carved some of them carved by Benvenuto and worth a for-
tune in themselves... some of them precious with incrustations... some of
them enriched by with strange inscriptions, ..others-simple some of them mere
appetising masses of brute metal, heavy and yellow... And all these crammed
away together in an old, battered Hair Trunk in a forgotten lumber room, and
waiting-only-lying-there-useless-like-Barbaresse-Fredick-Redbeard and waiting
only-a-bold-hand ready to take new shape as to a smart clippers and an Ideal
Commonwealth in the South Sea Islands. Do you think I am romancing? I give
you my word, in three weeks day's time if-we-were-ready-ehese, we might may
be tumbling out all-these golden this treasure into the sun upon a heathering
hill top. It is to take or to leave. A Big Hair Trunk Full of Gold," he re-
peated, savourily. "...and to take or to leave! It is a romance, indeed!"

Turton gasped drew a long breath.

"But look here," interrupted Strutt.

"Allow me," said the Prophet. "I am not yet done. There is a little point
to be considered still."

Here he paused for a moment, a look-of deep and not disagreeable uncertainty
visible in his face; and then breaking out into a fit of laughter, he struck
his two hands together sharply and went on.

"The point is ethical. When people start a new society, the... above all a Society on a new basis... it-is-plain-enough-that they break with some old traditions. You will admit that. You cannot keep your new wine in your old skins bottles... for reasons best known to the bottles. And-when-people-make In a coup de tete, such as we now propose, they-must-keep-themselves-above-all there must be no timidity. The whole thing-is scheme being dashing absurdity; and all the parts and parcels of it will look absurd extravagant. Mark you, that is to be expected. If you wish commonsense and common morality, stay at home by your highly respectable domestic hearths, and leave adventure to others. Or... if you chose adventure... take the bit in your teeth and go blindly. There are only two ways; either be a lump of putty between Mrs. Grundy's thumb and forefinger... or a headlong, redhot cannon ball. If we are to break with society... in God's name, let us break with it at once!"

"For my part," said Hardy, in high approval, "I don't cannot see why we should have any ethics at all in-our-society."

"O I don't say 'Amen' there to that, "Idont know," said Turton, "they're so ornamental. For instance, I would have a great deal of high pressure ethics about being polite to old people."

"Herbert Spencer has admirably incidentally exposed that prejudice," replied Hardy, "It is the young who ought to be considered... the coming generation that who should be treated with respect."

"If you think I've cut the bible, to take up with Herbert Spencer," cried Turton, in a fury"... if you think I've refused one set of authorities, and a very good set too,... to bow down before in the prime of my youth, before a confounded Natural Science man... if you imagine for a moment, Mr. Hardy..."

"Order, gentlemen, order," said Strutt, ... and Above all, let us avoid the courses of the Phalansteries. You were advising us," he continued, addressing Blackburn," to stick at nothing-- (if I may so paraphrase your eloquent remarks)--from pitch-and-toss to manslaughter. It is really very bracing to the mind. Pray continue."

Blackburn looked at the speaker with an equivocal smile that might almost pass for one of approval, and addressed himself once more again to his oration.

"Let us look at the history of all colonies. As soon as they arrive, they ... with their guns and hymnbooks, their missionaires and their new diseases... they take possession of the land around them; and te-translate in the old civil law formula, 'by force, by fraud or on an insufficient grant,' they steadily extrude the inoffensive aborigenes. If these prove refractory, the settler shoulders his gun and passes round his rum bottle. And with lead, and fire water, and civilized-diseases imported epidemics, and Gods blessing as they say, the-inferior-race-dwindles and-dissipere-like-snow-burning-flax-be-fore-the-advance-of-the-superior civilization advances with gigantic strides. The missionary looks on smiling. The M. P., attired vested in his integrity, compliments his brethren on our Colonial Empire. Christian manufactures hasten to turn out the deadliest rum and the most imperfect hand mirrors; se-as not-only-to-hasten-the-dissappearance-of-the-aborigen-but-Civilization-looks on-advances-- 'tis a vast conspiracy; theft and midnight murder are the ingredients of the bowl. Now... this civilized and civilizing process is immoral. and yet we cannot charge civilization with too much immorality in general. Plainly this is a special case. And how? Because it is international. Inter-

low citizens but not us... which effect are valid against the subjects of
England, but not against the citi members of an ideal Commonwealth in
Navigator Islands. That, gentlemen, is the theory of the matter. But in
practice, we are not purely logical animals; we are embittered-and-thwarted
by troubled with many elegant but incommensurate sentiments. And for these, I
add a few words more. This treasure is being used by nobody, and can be used
by nobody, unless we-see-it by us. Nobody, even in a legal sense, even in a
civil sense has a better right to it than we ourselves. From the point of
view of the strictest morality, I give you my word as a gentleman, the there
is nothing mean, dishonest or ungentlemanly in the whole transaction. And-I-
add,-that But I add frankly, that it will look not unlike all of these things;
that an inhabited house will have to be entered under cover of night; that pis-
tols may be fired; and that the police may-even be called in."

"So much the better, eried (Asked anxiously Turton, "Shall we wear masks?")

"Before my soul, I think we had better," replied Blackburn.

"Why men I've worn masks at school... when there was no use for it... often
and often," answered Turton, "and I never tasted a purer order of pleasure in
my life, but to wear them in solemn earnest-- to go after a real treasure, with
a real loaded pistol in my right hand... I assure you, Blackburn, I never dared
to hope for such an intoxicating moment.

"Shall we wear masques?" asked T.

"I had not thought of it; but upon my life, I think we had better," answered B.

"I've tried wearing them at school... where there was no need for it, except an imaginative need, then a thirst that from the soul doth rise," answered Turton, "and I've worn a masque to steel green apples in, so strong was my vo-

cation. And now... O lord! I could shed tears!

"That is one. And you, Mr. Ratcliffe?" said Blackburn, preparing to check off his recruits upon his fingers.

"Well, I've an aunt in at Gloucester," answered the athletic one, with singular apparent irrelevancy..." an awful decent old girl, I can tell you. If we-get-more-in-it-it-would...and-so That's why I shouldn't like to get run in. I couldn't work a false name either, I'm so well known, you see, with having been in the 'varsity boat."

"I'll guarantee you against being run in, Mr. Ratcliffe," said Blackburn.

"I will endorse the guarantee," added Hardy. "A party of intelligent, educated young men has absolutely nothing to fear from the police."

"O well, if Hardy's in, I am," said Ratcliffe. "Hardy's a devilish deep fellow, mind you."

"Two, three," said Blackburn, "Mr. Urquart?"

"I'll not commit myself," replied the laird. "I'm biddable... but I'm dry!" he-added,-with-a

"Mr. Strutt?"

There was a perceptible change in Blackburn's voice, as he-apply-made-this
beast if he anticipated a reverse rebuff. Strutt had been quite impossible
all this while, regarding the different speakers attentively through his eye-
glass. At Blackburn's question, he seemed to awaken out of a deep musing.

"I know it's very commonplace of me," he said, "but I draw the line at Prig-
ging."

Blackburn laughed aloud. Hardy-jumped-on-his

"Will you Do me the favour to walk twice or thrice round the quadrangle with