Central High School - EN EM Yearbook (North Manchester, IN)

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MAPLE LEAVES. 13 emotions, and lifted very ordinary amusement out of the sphere of the common place. Even the uncom mendable habit of punning, by which the entire community was at times infected, may, perhaps, be explained as one of the forms of effervescence induced by superabundant oxygen. After meals in the evening, and when it was possible to be in the open air, the associates made happiness a duty, and their high courage held them to harmless fun when their fainter souls would have dropped at the whisperings of evil days ahead. Except in the dead of winter, the varied acres of the domain itself, as wrell as the surrounding country, served as a setting for the animation which the finished labors of the day had set free, and the younger members of the family, especially, walked and held picnics through the outlying regions. Although there would be now and then during the winter a “fancy party,” the true revels of this sort were reserved for warm weather, and were held in the still beautiful grove. Dancing was much in vogue, and was enjoyed by all who knew the art. Their Sundays were not ordinarily kept with such rigid observance as might have befitted the descendants of the Pilgrims, wrhose high enterprise, as they sometimes flattered themselves, they had taken up and had carried onward and aloft, to a point which they never had dreamed of attaining. Hawthorne, in his “Blithedale Romance,” says, “Some went devoutly to the village church. Others, it may be, ascended a city or country pulpit, wearing the clerical robe writh so much dignity that you would scarcely have suspected the yeoman’s frock to have been flung off only since milking time. Others took long rambles among the rustic lanes and by-paths. Some betook themselves into the wide, dusky barn and lay there for hours together on the odorous hay. And others went a little way into the woods and threw' themselves on mother earth, pillowing their heads on a heap of moss, and there whiled away the afternoon hours.” When about their work, the women wore a short skirt with knickerbockers of the same material; but when the daily tasks were ended, they attired themselves after the simplest of the prevailing fashions. It is said that the motive of economy was responsible for the adoption by the men of the tunic in place of the “old w'orld coat.” This favorite garment was sometimes of brown Holland, but often blue, and was held in place by a black belt. Economy of labor may have been accountable for the unshorn face, but the beard was certainly in high favor at Brook Farm, and a predilection for long hair was also current. The most immediate and at times the only source income was the school, the establishment and maintenance of which alw'ays held a conspicuous place in this scheme. The transcendental philosophy could not well avoid laying stress on intellectual development and culture, and the student life of the farm was animated by a pervasive enthusiasm and held to an unvarying standard. In certain particulars the educational policy was ideally good, proceeding as it did on the theory that perfect freedom of intercourse between the students and a teaching body of men and women whose moral attainments wrere not distanced by their mental accomplishments, could not fail to justify itself. The farm was ahvays short of “hands,” but there were never any lack of heads in the Department of Instruction. There was an infant school for children under six; a primary school for those under ten; and children whose purpose it was to take the regular course of study laid down by the institution were placed in the preparatory school, which fitted youths for college in six years. Otherwise the studies were elective. The Brook Farm failed in 1847. Since that time the place has undergone many changes. It is now the Martin Luther home for German orphans, supported by the German churches and the Lutheran societies of New England and, in some cases, the West. One object that remains, and, in all likelihood, will probably remain the longest of any is the Eliot’s pulpit, which Hawthorne speaks of in his “Blithedale Romance.” It is a mammoth rock of conglomerate or Roxbury “pudding-stone,” standing some twenty-five feet high in the pine woods, a few mnutes walk back of the farm. It was on the top of this rock that tradition says the apostle Eliot used to preach to the Indians two centuries ago, and upon which in the Brook Farm time, Hollingsworth used to lecture on the Sabbath afternoons to Zenobia. Priscilla and Cov-erdale. Instead of the birch that used to canopy its top, there now stands a large pine, straight and overshadowing. While beneath the rock is the cave with the twro entrances, one at the base of the rock, and one at the top through which the children crawl in their pastimes. The shady pine grove wiiere the masqueraders sounded in Haw'thorne’s ear as if “Connis and his crew w'ere holding their revels in one of its lonesome glades,” is still used for the same purpose, but instead of the picturesquely attired masqueraders of the “Blithedale Romance,” a chance wrayfarer on the road would now catch gimpses in the summer time of dirty, ragged German children, brought from the slums of Boston to enjoy the rare privilege of a picnic in the country. Another relic of the time when the pioneer of the new social regime worked so hard to bring about their cherished millenium is the Margaret Fuller cottage, a little picturesque, four-gabled structure, standing on the farther slope of the hill, nestled in front

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MAPLE LEAVES. 12 Aeneas consults the Cumean Sibyl and obtained the “golden bough,” which should be his passport through the under world. Thence we advance and come to the entrance of Orcus, where we are appalled at the horrible vision. Woe and Avenging Care rest on couches at the entrance; here also are pale Diseasesl sad Old Age and hideous Poverty. Besides these many monsters, various wild beasts and fabulous monsters wander around in the doorway; the hissing hydra, the two-formed Scythius and Bri-areus, with his hundred hands advance. We become terrified and Aeneas draws his dagger and rushes upon them. But in vain! And we become aware of the light existence of the spirit. We pass on and come to a portrait which leads us into utter darkness and we approach the river Acheron, which for miles seethes in a vast whirlpool. An aged boatman, terrible with filth, with gray beard and flaming eyes, guards the river, and ferries those across whose bodies have received the right of burial. Some poor shades are beseeching him to take them across and extend their hands appealingly to the further shore; but the grim boatman selects the chosen from the vast throng, and sends others away, bewailing their fate together. Aeneas, greatly amazed, advances toward the river, but as soon as the ferryman sees him, he begins to rebuke him, asking why he came armed to this place of shadows, and said it was not right that living bodies should be carried in the Stygian boat. But when Aeneas shows the golden branch, he is immediately taken into the boat and safely landed on the opposite shore; here we see him confronted by Cerberus, the dog with three heads, which guarded the threshold. Aeneas threw him a piece of cake, dipped in honey, and soon he quietly stretched his huge body on the ground. Then he proceeds on his journey and we see him enter Elesium, the abode of the blessed, where he meets his father’s spirit. But here our revelry is interrupted and we are compelled to leave the picture gallery in care of Aeneas, and to ascend once again to the upper regions of the earth. THE BROOK FARM MOVEMENT. CARRIE A. PATTERSON. The Brook Farm Movement was a community organized in 1841 by George Ripley on Fourier’s principles. It was largely an outcome of the Transcendental movement at that time. Eight miles south of Boston, on Charles River, on an estate of two hundred acres, a company of scholars and educated men and women settled down to a communistic experiment in which every member did his share of the manual work. Hawthorne was one of the founders and lived for some months on the farm in which he invested all of his savings. A charming memorial of this enterprise is his “Blithe-dale Romance.” Other principal writers who lived at Brook Farm were George Ripley, Theodore Parker, J. S. Dwight and Eliot Cabot. It was a noble and generous movement in the projectors to try an experiment of better living. Its failure, therefore, was not due to any improper motive, but to a lack of true business principles. The founders of Brook Farm should have this praise, that they made what all people try to make, an agreeable place to live in. All visitors, even the most fastidious, found it the pleasantest of residences. There is agreement in the testimony that it was, to most of the associates, education; to many, the most important period of their tlife, the birth of valued friendships, their first acquaintance with the riches of conversation, their training in behavior. The art of letter writing , it is said, was immensely cultivated. Letters were always flying, not only from house to house, but from room to room. To remodel society and the world into a “happy family” was the aim of these enthusiasts. One apostle thought that all men should go to farming; and another that no man should buy or sell; as the use of money was the cardinal evil; another that the mischief was in our diet, that we eat and drink condemnation. Others attacked the system of agriculture and the tyranny over brute nature; these abuses polluted his food. The ox must be taken from the plow, and the horse from the cart; the hundred acres of the farm must be spaded, and man must walk wherever boats and locomotives will not carry him. Even the insect world was to be defended, and a society for the protection of ground worms, slugs, and mosquitoes was to be incorporated without delay. With these appeared the adepts of homeopathy, of hydropathy, of mesmerism, of phrenology, with their wonderful theories of the Christian miracles. This association was composed of men and women of superior talents and sentiments; yet it was easily questioned whether such a community would draw the able and the good; whether those who had energy would not prefer their chance of power in the world to the humble certainties of the association; whether such retreat did not promise to become an asylum to those who tried and failed rather than a field to the strong. Enjoyment was almost from the first a serious pursuit of the community. It formed a part of the curriculum, and was a daily habit of life. Nothing bears weightier testimony to the wholesomeness of the life at Brook Farm than the simple and spontaneous character of the sports which found acceptance. Out-of-door life was a passion, which, like all noble passions, absorbed in itself many less worthy

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14 MAPLE LEAVES. of the pine woods, in exactly the same condition as it was fifty years ago. Why it is called the Margaret Fuller cottage is still something of a mystery, as Margaret Fuller was never a member of the community, and never lived in it. She was only a visitor. Then, to sum up, we find that comparatively few of the old buildings yet remain. Notwithstanding the fact that these people did all in their power to make the Brook Farm movement prosper, it lacked the real and true business principles and the vital elements of the simple and normal home life, which alone could have made Brook Farm a living reality today. THE FLORA OF CHESTER TOWNSHIP. BLANCHE G. IIINKLE. Numbering approximately nine hundred Phanerogams and six hundred Cryptogams, it has but little to distinguish it from the flora of other localities that do not possess limestone beds or extensive marsh land. Fifty years ago the forests of Chester township were thickly planted with specimens of those two great monarchs of the temperate zone, the white oak and the tulip or white poplar. The study of botany fifty years ago was surely a source of pleasure to such scientists as D. Condoll, Ehrhart, Hooker, Linnaens, Muhlenberg, Rafinesque and Torrey. When the ravages of civilization had not destroyed the sacred wilds of the floral world. How strange is the fact that all these great scientists visited this country in advance of that great destroyer of the natural, and the upbuilder of the artificial, civilized man. But with all the changes in the topographical appearances of Chester township, fully eighty of its plants found here then, can be found here now. In considering the subject matter of this paper, we deem it unnecessary to list this flora in detail, but to consider it in groups, and to form connection as far as possible with the plants under domestication. The first group of any importance in the Polypeta-lous Exogens is the Ranunculus or Crowfoot To it belong the larkspur, columbine, clematis, anemone and buttercup. The Crucifcra, or Mustard Family, can be identified with the cresses, mustard, turnip and the cabbage group, and several early spring flowers, as the tooth wart and cardamine. To the Geraniums belong the oxalis, which contains the common wood-sorrel, having petals white with reddish veins, often notched. The geraniums and touch-me-not, or balsam, are also species of this group that are found here. In the Rose family you will find our fruit-bearing trees, the apple, peach, pear, cherry and plum, the strawberry, blackberry and raspberry, which need no explanation to a “Hoosier.” The Onagra family contains the evening primrose, loosestrife and willow-herb. The Umbel group contains the parsley and parsnip of cultivation, and the poison hemlock of Demosthenes. About ten other indigenous plants can be found in Chester township. Of the Aralia family, ginseng, sarsaparilla and spikenard are found here. The Honeysuckle family, the first in the Gamopeta-lous Exogens, has for some of its members the common elder, the blackhaw and the woodbine or honeysuckle. The next large group is the Madder. Besides the use of some of its members in the coloring art, we derive from this family the coffee of commerce, Peruvian bark and quinine. Chester township is represented by the button bush of our swamps and about ten species of the galium or bed straw. The largest family division in botany is the Composite group, containing, as it does, a majority of our common weeds, such as the iron weed, golden rod, asters, dandelion, sunflower, daisy, ragweed and thistle There are about seventy distinct species in Chester township. Of the Lobelia we have five species. In this family most of the flowers are deep red and very large, growing on a single stem. The Heather family contains a great deal of our domestic shrubbery, for instance, the azalia, trailing arbutus and bay laurel, also the huckleberry, cranberry and wintergreen of the marshes. We find here five members of the Primrose family. Of the Olive family we have here only the ash in the wild form, with the fringe-tree, the lilac and the jessamine in cultivation. We have of the Gentian family six species, of the Phlox seven, and of the Waterleaf four. Boraginaceae, a large family of innocent plants contains the heliotrope, gomfrey, stickweed and the myosotis, or forget-me-not. Of the Convolvulus group we have the morning glory, the cypress vine and sweet potato of cultivation. The wild forms are the dodder and bind weed. The Nightshade family, although a large group in the tropics, has but few indigenous members in Ches ter township. To it belong the bitter sweet, Jamestown weed, tobacco, potato, egg plant and tomato. The Figwort family is represented by the fox glove, mullein and about twenty-four others. Some of them are very common and noxious weeds. Of the Mint family we have about twenty-two indigenous and eleven introduced species. The Buckwheat family is well represented in both the wild and cultivated forms. To it belong the