Part 22 (1/2)
We desire to know through your own candid view of your prospects, as well as present condition, whether we may be justified in so disposing our affairs as to ultimately join your a.s.sociation. At present I am laboring on my farm, near Cincinnati, having no definite plan of future action.
Please write me definitely upon what terms we may join you, how much I must put into the a.s.sociation to secure the support of my family and myself--it being understood that we take hold as the rest of you do.
Besides my wife I have a son sixteen years of age, another eleven, a third seven and a daughter four. We are all healthy, and I believe are about as well disposed as most families to live by our own personal exertions.
Yours very respectfully,
WILLIAM H. BRISBANE.
_Verbatim Letter._
BOSTON Ma.s.s. Feb. 23 1844.
_Mr. Ripley_ DIR SIR I was requsted to pit the following on paper for the consideration of your society. R. H. wife and four children the oldest ten the youngest thre the two eldest boys, the two youngest girles. Furniture wile consist of thre beds and bedding one bedstead one tabel and workstand six or eight chairs crockery ware &c. Tooles and machinery as follows 1 planing machine 1 upright boaring machine 1 circular saw, irons for an upright saw morticing machine 1 turning lathe and belting 1 doz of hand screws 1 copper pot to make varnish in, two dimejons 3-5 gls. each for varnish and oil tooles for cutting bench screws &c likewise 1 cow 3 cosset sheep 1 yew & 2 wethers the cow 11 years old and little lame in one foot otherways a veryry good cow, also a verry light handcart. There are other articles not mentioned perhaps that might be usful to the a.s.sociation that would be thrown in for the benefit of all.
The a.s.sociation can consider the above articles and select wat articles would be usful or beneficial and let me know their action thereon at the next meeting of the a.s.sociation If I should be called to visit my family before the next meeting you will pleas direct a line to me.
Yours--
ROBERT DAY.
The Brook Farm wits would say that the writer of the above letter should go to college ”for a _spell_.”
_Seeking Success in Life._
LOCKPORT, Oct. 28, 1842.
DEAR FRIENDS, if I may so call you: I read in the New York _Tribune_ a piece taken from the _Dial_, headed ”The West Roxbury Community.” Now what I want to know is, can I and my children be admitted into your society, _and be better off than we are here?_ I have enough of the plainest kind to eat and wear. I have no _home_ but what we hire from year to year. I have _no property_ but movables, and not a cent to spare when the year comes round. I have _three children_, two boys and one girl: the oldest fourteen, the youngest nine. Now I want to educate them. How shall I do it in the country? There is no chance but ordinary schools. To move into the village I could not bring the year round, and the danger they would be exposed to without a father to restrain their wanderings, would be an undertaking more than I dare attempt.
Now if you should presume to let me come, where can I live? Can our industry and economy clothe us for the year? Can I keep a cow? How can I be supplied with fire in that _dear place?_ How can I _pay my school bills?_ How can I find all the necessary requisites for my children to advance in learning? If I should wish to leave in two or three or five years, could I and mine, if I paid my way whilst there? If you should let me come, and I _think best to go, how shall I get there?_ What would be my _best and cheapest route?_
How should I proceed with what I have here, sell all off or bring a part? I have three beds and bedding, one cow and ordinary things enough to keep house. My children are all called tolerable scholars. My daughter is the youngest; _the neighbors call her an interesting child._ I have no pretensions to make; my only object is to _enjoy the good of the society_ and have my children _educated and accomplished._
Am I to send my boys off to work alone, or will they have a _kind person_ to say, ”_Come boys_,” and _relieve me from the heavy task of bringing up my boys_ with nothing to _do it with?_
If your religion has a name I should like well enough to know it; if not, and the substance is love to G.o.d and good-will to men, my mind is well enough satisfied. I have reflected on this subject ever since I read the article alluded to, and now I want you to write me _every particular;_ then if you and I think best, in the spring I will come to you. We are none of us what may be called weakly. I am forty-six years old; able to do as much every day as to spin what is called a day's work--not that I expect you spin much there, only that is the amount of my strength as it now holds out.
I should wish to seek _intelligence_, as you must know 1 lack greatly, and I _cannot endure the thought_ my children must lack as greatly, whilst mult.i.tudes are going so far in advance, no better qualified by nature than they. I want you to _send me quite a number of names of your leading characters_. If it should seem strange to you that I make the demand, I will explain it to you when I get there. I want you to answer _every item_ of this letter and as much more as _can have any bearing on my mind_, either way, whether you accept this letter _kindly or not_. I want you to write an answer without delay! Are there meetings for _us to attend?_ Do you have singing schools?
I do thus far feel friendly to your society.
Direct your letter to, etc.
M. R. JOHNSON.
_A Southern Applicant._
ALEXANDRIA, BENTON CO., ALA., July 13, 1845.
_Mr. G. Ripley,_