Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. I.djvu/103

 I here met with the family which had first invited me to the Phalanstery, and found them to be the sister and brother-in-law of Marcus, two earnest, spiritual-minded people, who have a profound faith in and love for the principle of association. He is the president of the institution at this place. Mr. A., who has not alone enthusiasm, but who is evidently a clever and straight-forward man of business, gifted with the power of organisation, was originally a minister, and devoted himself for a long time most beneficially as a missionary of the poor, “a minister at large,” as they are called in this country; after which he lived for ten years as a farmer in one of the western states in the valley of the Mississippi, cultivating maize and fruit, and finding himself well off amid the affluent solitudes of nature. As his children, however, grew up, it appeared to him too solitary for them; the house became too small, and for the sake of their education and their moral and intellectual development, he removed again, and came nearer to the great world of man. But in so doing he resolved to unite himself with that portion of it which, as it appeared to him, came the nearest to his idea of a Christian community. He and his wife and children, therefore, joined this association, which was established eight years before by a few married couples, all enthusiasts for this idea, and which now calls itself “the North American Phalanstery.” Each member advanced the sum of one thousand dollars; land was purchased, and they began to labour together, according to laws which the society had laid down beforehand. Great difficulties met them in the commencement, in particular from their want of means to build, for the purchase of implements, and so on. It was beautiful and affecting to hear what fatigue and labour the women subjected themselves to—women who had been but little accustomed to anything of this kind; how steadfastly and with what noble