Part 25 (1/2)

On the following day I received a visit from one of the German patriots who had entered the society, of the name of Schmidt, ished to have been considered as first lieutenant in the Prussian artillery, at Erfurt He appeared to have engaged in one of the political conspiracies there, and to have deserted Mr Owen brought hiland last autumn as a servant He was now a e of the cattle His fine visions of freedom seemed to be very much lowered, for he presented hiens, to be elisharth, arrived, who had presided over the school in New Lanark, and was to organize one here in all probability After dinner I went to ith hi the new system, and the consequences which he had reason to expect would result, &c and we discovered as, that Mr Owen eneral syste forced services or statutory labour; for the labour imposed upon persons for which they receive no compensation, would apply and operate , food, the education and care of their children, &c so that they would consider their labour in the light of a corvee We observed several labourers e bricks upon a cart, and they perforreeable task, as a statutory labour imposed on them by circumstances, and this observation led us to the above reflection I afterwards visited Mr

M'Clure, and entertained myself for an hour with the instructive conversation of this interesting old gentleeot, who appears to have considerable influence over Mr M'Clure, took an ani there was a ball in the large assembly room, at which most of the members were present It lasted only until ten o'clock, in dancing cotillions, and closed with a grand promenade, as before described There was a particular place marked off by benches for the children to dance in, in the centre of the hall, where they could garown persons

On the 19th of April, a steam-boat came down the Wabash, bound for Louisville on the Ohio It stopt opposite Harh the overfloater to receive passengers I was at first disposed to e this place, but as I heard that the boat was none of the best, I detero by land to Mount Vernon, to wait for a better steam-boat there

We took a walk to the coress; we found but one work quite at his ease This circu gratis-labour, tobehind No 3: there was still little verdure to be seen

On the succeeding day, I intended to leave New Hare, I was obliged to content myself

I walked to the community No 2, or Macluria, and farther into the woods They were e houses The wood used in the brick and frame houses here is of the tulip tree, which is abundant, worked easily, and lasts long After dinner I walked with Mr Owen and Madaarden was opened; farther on they were e a field in which Indian corn was to be sown This answers the best purpose here, as the soil is too rich for wheat; the stalks grow too long, the heads contain too few grains, and the stalks on account of their length soon break down, so that the crop is not very productive The chief coreat luxuriancy of the soil The trees are all very large, shoot up quickly to a great height, but have so few, and such weak roots, that they are easily prostrated by a violent storreat number of hollow trees, in proportion I saw them sow maize or Indian corn, for the first tionally across the field with the plough, each at a distance of two feet from the other; then other furrows at the sales with the first

A person goes behind the plough with a bag of corn, and in each crossing of the furrows he drops six grains Another person with a shovel follows, and covers these grains with earth When the young plants are half a foot high, they are ploughed between and the earth thrown up on both sides of the plants; and when they are two feet high this operation is repeated, to give them more firmness and to destroy the weeds There is a want of experienced farmers here; the furroere badly made, and the whole was attended to rather too eot's, Mr Owen showedobjects of his invention; one of the the different classes of the British population in the year 1811, and shohat a powerful burden rested on the labouring class, and how desirable an equal division of property would be in that kingdo to which, as Mr Owen asserted, each child could be shown his capabilities, and upon which, after a ress he has made The plate has this superscription: scale of human faculties and qualities at birth It has ten scales with the following titles: froination; th Each scale is divided into one hundred parts, which are marked from five to five A slide that can be moved up or down, shows the measure of the qualities therein specified each one possesses, or believes himself to possess

I add but a few remarks more Mr Owen considers it as an absurdity to proe For this reason he has introduced the civil contract of e, after the manner of the Quakers, and the French laws into his community, and declares that the bond of matrimony is in no way indissoluble The children indeed, cause no i to the coether

Mr M'Clure has shown hireat adherent of the Pestalozzian system of education He had cultivated Pestalozzi's acquaintance while upon his travels, and upon this recoht Mr Neef with him to Philadelphia, to carry this system into operation At first it appeared to succeed perfectly, soon however, Mr Neef found so ious principles, that he gave up the business, and settled himself on a farm in the woods of Kentucky He had just abandoned the far-school, which Mr M'Clure intended to establish in New Hars, formerly mentioned, was likewise to co-operate in this school; his reserved and haughty character was ill suited for such a situation, and Messrs Owen and M'Clure willingly consented to his withdrawing, as he would have done the boarding-school more injury, from the bad reputation in which he stood, than he could have assisted it by his acquireht up for a military life; this he had forsaken to devote himself to clerical pursuits, had arrived in the United States as a Universalist preacher, and had been received with much attention in that capacity in Cincinnati, till he abandoned himself with enthusiasm to the _new social system_, and made himself openly and publicly known as an ATHEIST[II-21]

[Footnote II-21: [He is at this ti-school in the Western country, on his own account, which is to be under his immediate superintendence!]--TRANS]

I passed the evening with the aeot, and becah the hiinia, as also a Dutch physician froenbusch, Dr Troost, an eminent naturalist Both are members of the community, and have just arrived from a scientific pedestrian tour to Illinois and the southern part of Missouri, where they have examined the iron, and particularly the lead-mine works, as well as the peculiarities of the different mountains Mr Lesueur has besides discovered several species of fish, as yet undescribed He was there too early in the season to catch ether collected thirteen chests of natural curiosities, which are expected here immediately Mr Lesueur accompanied the naturalist Perron, as draftsman in his tour to New South Wales, under Captain Baudin, and possessed all the illuns of the anie, upon velluards the interest of the objects represented, or in respect to their execution; and I account h Mr Lesueur's politeness He showed me also the sketches he made while on his last pedestrian tour, as well as those during the voyage of several members of the society to Mount Vernon, down the Ohio froe, the society had ed often to cut a path for the boat through the ice The sketches exhibit the originality of talent of the artist He had come with Mr M'Clure in 1815, from France to Philadelphia, where he devoted hi in this society or not, I cannot venture to decide[II-22]

[Footnote II-22: [He has left it some time since, as well as Dr

Troost]--TRANS]

CHAPTER XXII

_Travels to Louisville, and Stay in that City_

On the 21st of April, we left New Har a cordial leave of Mr Owen, and availed ourselves of the e, which leaves here once a week for Mount Vernon, to e Besides our coe, a Mr Riley, from Cincinnati, and a native of Ireland One ht froe, as the horses would not draw us up a steep hill One-half ain on account of a similar dilemma, and we had hardly done so, when it was overturned by the unskilfulness of the driver We unloaded our baggage, left it under the care of Bottner, rin and o on alone, and returned back on foot to New Harmony, to look about for another method of conveyance I paid a visit to Messrs M'Clure, Lesueur, &c They told me that about ten o'clock a cart under the direction of a Mr Johnson would leave this place for Mount Vernon, in which our baggage would find a place As to our own conveyance, I saw plainly that it would be the wiser plan to confide s I assu travelling co behind, and accomplished the sixteen miles to Mount Vernon, over a very hilly road, in five hours

I did not pass through Springfield, saw only two solitary log-houses, and encountered but few people The herbage had advanced verygreen leaves, particularly those of the tulip trees, produced a very pleasing effect

I passed by ar juice from them When the trees are completely in leaf, the natural scenery of these forests, of which the ground is very hilly, must be extremely beautiful, especially to the eyes of a northern European, who is not accustorandeur of the colossal syca these trees, I may add the remark that Mr Rapp had planted the Lombardy poplar in the streets of New Harmony; that these poplars had succeeded very well at first, but when their roots struck a stratuood fertile soil, they died Mr Rapp then substituted mulberry trees, which have thriven well, and Mr Owen has it in design, tosilk-worued, about three o'clock, P M

I ens and Mr Rileythe expected cart arrived, but without Bottner and iven hiht in New Harmony, that his horses could hardly draw it, and that there was no roo ed to adency of his reasons, in spite of my vexation; and of course to find a remedy in patience

In this state of affairs, I solaced myself with Major Dunn's society

He and his countryed to the better class of Irish, and possessed a good deal of shrewdness, so that the ti ent to the court-house, to hear a Presbyterian preacher, travelling fro man, of the name of Stewart, whom I had met in New Har hiious opinions prevailing there In the little new settled places of the western states, they do not build churches before houses, as is the practice in the north-eastern section, but a dwelling and clearing of land is their first object Nevertheless, divine service is not lacking; for y are accustomed to preach, where they can be heard In most of the public houses, and ferry-boats, no pay is required fro journies, the descriptions of which are often published, at a very cheap rate Fro was held in the court-house It was a te-house, which formed but one room The chimney fire, and two tallow candles formed the whole illumination of it, and the seats were constructed of some blocks and boards, upon which upwards of twenty people sat The singing was conducted by a couple of old folks, with rather discordant voices The preacher then rose, and delivered us a sermon I could not follow his discourse well, and was very ued by my day's walk In his prayer, however, the minister alluded to those who despise the word of the Lord, and prayed for their conviction and conversion This hint was evidently aimed at the community in New Harmony and the new social system In the sermon there was no such allusion Probably the discourse was one of those, which he knew by heart; which he delivered in various places, and admitted of no interpolations The service lasted till ten o'clock at night

Unluckily for e I suffered therefore, the whole forenoon of the next day the ed to reaped about at the pretty flowers, and the a variety of butterflies; came back, seateddown the river At length in the afternoon, Bottner arrived, with e in a one-horse cart, splashed all over with ed to lead the restive horse all the way by the bridle The poor fellow bivouacked in the woods yesterday, fro, when by chance the shepherds of New Harave Mr Owen an account of Bottner's situation, upon which old Dr M'Naht back the baggage and its guard By Mr Owen's kindness, the cart was on this day sent on, with et away as quickly as possible To be sure, the splendid view of the Ohio and its banks by the light of the ; but the residence in this place was too inhospitable and uninteresting; besides I suffered the whole afternoon and evening with tooth-ache, and syht a stea up the river, but she kept to the left bank where the deepest water was, and took no notice of Mount Vernon About nine o'clock on the 23d of April, another steam-boat, the General Wayne, ca was hoisted, to give notice that passengers wished to come on board, aved our handkerchiefs, but the vessel did not regard us, and passed on To kill time, I ith Mr Riley to Major Dunn's store, where we told stories about steam-boats to keep off ennui as well as we could, but in vain In the evening I heardRapp's society, froed to it, and who had left it as he said, because Rapp refused to let him have the inheritance of his father-in-law We heard psalious inhabitants of the place, s without a clergyman The day was upon the whole quite war we had to contend with nu from the woods, where they harboured, fires were kindled about the place, and likewise before the houses The situation herethe night with head-ache and fever, but Messrs Huygens, Riley, and Johnson, co unwell With the exception of sos in Canada, I do not recollect in any part of the United States, even a the Creek Indians, to have found myself so wretchedly situated in every respect, as here The food, furnished in small quantity as it as hardly fit to be eaten; the only beverage ater, which it was necessary to mix with ordinary whiskey; the beds very bad; and the whole house in a state of theof the 24th of April, came the hour of our deliverance

The steam-boat General Neville came up the river after seven o'clock