ODDMENTS
John Cheever was our eccentric character; not a crank, not an egotist,
not an enthusiast and not a Socialist, but just a plain, good-natured,
shrewd-witted Irishman, who, for some reason, liked to live at the
Farm. He never joined the Association or the Phalanx but just stayed on
as a permanent boarder. He was the newsman and general gossip of the
place, going about from house to house and from group to group, working
a little here and a little there, as he pleased, and always having
something interesting or amusing to tell, his brogue giving a comic
twist to his ever ready jest. Taking no part in the regular industries
except as his humor dictated, he was yet a very busy person and very
helpful in many ways. When there was any out-of-the-way job to be done
it was John Cheever who did it, and especially in the work of preparing
for entertainments, he was the handy man of the Festal Series, Stage
carpenter, scene shifter, door keeper, painter and utility man on the
stage. Though not attached to any of the industrial groups, he took
upon himself certain duties which he never neglected. In winter he took
care of the fires at night, going the rounds from the Hive to the
Eyrie, the Cottage and Pilgrim Hall in all kinds of weather with
faithful regularity. Our main dependence for fuel was peat, or turf, as
John Cheever called it, and to keep the rooms warm with this low-grade
fuel, the fires had to be renewed every five or six hours.
Another of John Cheever’s self-imposed tasks was the care of cranks.
Though somewhat peculiar himself he had no use for odd fish—queer folk
and the like—and kept a sharp look-out for erratic strangers. Of these
there was a constant succession coming to the Farm; reformers of
everything under the sun; fanatics demanding the instant adoption
of—their nebulous theories; mental aliens not quite crazy but pretty
near it; egotists, wild to be noticed, freaks and fakirs and humbugs of
every description, and, worst of all, wrecks of humanity seeking refuge
from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. These creatures, all
and sundry, John Cheever made it his business to look after. The moment
Gerrish landed one of the tribe at the Hive, the watchman spotted him,
so to speak, and presently managed to steer him off the place.
Gerrish brought a chap to the Hive one cold winter evening who
announced to the assembly gathered in the parlor after supper, that he
had discovered a method of living without sleep. Sleep was unnecessary,
a habit that could be overcome and he had succeeded in demonstrating
that life could be sustained perfectly well without that needless waste
of time. He had not slept during more than a year past and he purposed
to remain wide awake during the years to come.
It may be taken for granted that John Cheever kept an eye on this
fellow. He was treated as a favored guest, his host accepting his
theory and putting it in practice with him that same night. Toward
morning he was comfortably settled in the library with an interesting
book to while away an hour when his entertainer made the rounds to look
after the fires. Returning to the library, the fireman found the
theorist sound asleep in Dr. Ripley’s big armchair. Giving the man a
vigorous shake, John Cheever politely requested him not to snore quite
so loud as he was disturbing the family. After that there was nothing
for the sleepless person to do but wait for Gerrish to take him away.
Bonico and I trapped another fakir soon afterward though by accident
rather than design. This specimen was a genius inspired by the belief
that cooking is the source of all the ills that flesh is heir to. He
lectured us on the folly of eating boiled and roasted and toasted food,
declaring that we must subsist on nature’s products as she gives them
to us, just as other animals do. Nature affords an abundant supply of
grains and fruits and nuts and roots, and it is our place not to change
these things by fire but to take them as they are offered to us.
As heretofore noted, our fare was simple enough, and after our spare
meals there was very little left on the tables to be cleaned away. What
small leavings of scraps and crumbs there happened to be, were brushed
onto a big salver and placed outside the kitchen door. My chum and I
had to go out in the evening and take this salver out to the chicken
run behind the barn. We had seen the dietetic reformer wandering about
the place for a day or two, constantly chewing wheat which he carried
in a bag hanging conspicuously from his belt. He did not come into the
dining room or take regular meals, claiming to be sufficiently
nourished by the raw wheat he masticated so industriously. We had not
noticed him especially—no one took much notice of pretentious
faddists—but on going around to the back door for the chicken-feed one
evening Bonico and I recognized the wheat-muncher bending over the
salver eagerly picking up whatever bits and pieces he could find to
eat. He was so engaged in this employ that we did not disturb him but
quietly slipped away and reported the case to John Cheever. That
guardian of the peace immediately trotted off to the kitchen, gathered
up a plate of food and rushed out to the diet reformer, exclaiming:
“Here is your supper! No one need go hungry at Brook Farm.” That was
the last of this particular specimen; but there were others, so many
others that they would have been intolerable but for the watchful care
that protected us from too troublesome invasions.
John Cheever’s most appreciated service to the community was his
addition of Irish oatmeal to our scanty bill of fare. He did not care
for brewis and brown bread any more than I did and for his own
satisfaction he wrote to friends in the old country to send him a
consignment of Irish oatmeal. In due time Gerrish delivered a hundred
weight of this new provender, sealed in tin cans. It made such a
surprisingly good breakfast that we went through those tins cans in
short meter. A larger supply was sent for at once, and thereafter
oatmeal was always on the breakfast table. We presently found that when
a can was opened the contents very soon turned rancid; and thereupon
Glover Drew hunted up a grist-mill that ground our own oats for us.
Making more than we needed, Glover Drew tried to find a market for the
surplus, but no one would have it at any price.
John Cheever was the one person in all West Roxbury who sympathized
with my sister and myself in the most grievous trial we ever
encountered as children. The Brook Farmers and all their neighbors
ignored Christmas. They knew nothing and cared nothing about that
wondrous season of joy for the little ones, and could not in the least
understand how it was that Althea and I were so sorely hurt by such a
trifle as the neglect of an old and forgotten custom. John Cheever did
understand. He was a Catholic and while not at all devout, he still
held in reverence the sacred observances of the church. He it was who
explained to us that the New England Puritans were bitterly hostile to
anything and everything savoring of what they called Popery, imposing
severe penalties on misguided wretches who dared to show respect for
old beliefs. He said that the General Court of Massachusetts had
enacted a special law against the keeping of Christmas, visiting with
fine and imprisonment the transgressors who dared to celebrate that
Popish festival. It was the misfortune and not the fault of the Brook
Farmers that the Bethlehem Birthday was no more to them than Saint
Jude’s day or the Feast of the Tabernacles.
In the Old Colonie Christmas was the one great day of all the year for
children. We did not have the Christmas tree, but we had the Bethlehem
manger in the Dutch Reform Church at the foot of the high pulpit and
dominie Bogardus told us the story of the Birthday of Our Lord in
simple words which we could all understand. Early in the morning we ran
down to the sitting room where our stockings were hanging from the
mantel shelf filled by Santa Claus with Christmas gifts, with more
piled on the table for our friends and for poor families. That was what
an effusive writer once called the “halcyon and vociferous” beginning
of the day.
In the afternoon the boys went abroad bearing gifts, and the girls kept
open house at home receiving visitors bringing more Christmas presents.
In the evening, children’s parties were in order, with traditional
games brought over from the old country by the Walloons. Old fashioned
costumes were worn at these parties, Utrecht velvet being much in
favor. My velvet suit proved available in more than one of our Brook
Farm costume shows—only it was not worn at Christmas time.
It must have been one of the last days of December when Gerrish brought
us a belated Christmas box and Christmas letters from home. That was
the first intimation coming to Althea and myself that our most precious
holiday was at hand. Dumfounded, we realized too late that Christmas
Day had passed without our knowing it. It was simply incredible! We
could not comprehend, much less be reconciled to, such an inconceivable
state of affairs. Our trouble, however, was all our own. No one else
had any part or lot in it except John Cheever. Our dearest friends and
companions were politely sorry we had missed something, they did not
know what—and that was all. They had no more conception of what
Christmas meant to us than of what the Passover means to Israel.
Our box was filled Christmas goodies, olecokes and crullers, candies
and cookies and all the fifty-seven varieties of Dutch dainties proper
to the season; and on New Year’s eve good Mrs. Rykman made this store
of sweets the nucleus of an impromptu feast designed for our comfort
and consolation. It was well meant and well managed and the kindly
feeling manifested made up in part for the disappointment we had
experienced; but the Christmas of that year was a dead loss—a loss that
I regret to this day.
At Brook Farm, however, there was small chance to indulge in regrets
and the Christmas trouble had to give place to more immediate
interests. The Farmers were, first of all, Transcendentalists which is
to say they were philosophers and not given to repining. Their
philosophy was not stated in their public announcements but was
expressed in their lives. It may be formulated as the philosophy of
Here and Now.
Here and Now; on the spot, with the goods, at the moment. Not
yesterday; not to-morrow, but to-day, this hour, this instant is the
appointed time to live for all you are worth. Put your heart in your
work right Here. Give your mind, your skill, your energy to whatever
you have in hand just Now. Respect for the past, for its traditions and
its memories is all right but never look back intently enough to
prevent seeing what is before you Here and Now. Hope for the future is
all right, but let not dreams of the good time coming becloud clear
comprehension of the realities at hand Here and Now. That was the
philosophy of the Brook Farmers, not set forth in words, but set forth
in deeds. To be on the spot, with the goods at the moment—this was
their ideal and they lived up to it every day and all day long.
Their Puritan neighbors professed a philosophy of the hereafter, and
although they did not live up to it constantly, they proclaimed it all
the more vehemently. Not in the life of this wicked and weary world but
in the life of the world to come their hopes and especially their fears
were centered. Miserable sinners, born into total depravity could only
employ their brief sojourn on earth in striving to save their souls.
Mortifying the flesh and holding all pleasures to be foolish if not
impious, they deferred happiness to the realms beyond the skies. To
them Here was nothing and Now was nothing. The eternal hereafter was
all. Looking at life as merely a preparation for death, their point of
view was diametrically opposite to that of the Farmers who looked upon
life as a phase of existence to be made the most of and to be enjoyed
to the full with every breath from first to last. Naturally enough,
perhaps, the devout pietists regarded the cheerful worldlings as lost
beyond hope of redemption. The same sentiments that prompted the
whipping and hanging and persecuting incidents of Puritan history were
entertained by the orthodox elect of Roxbury and were manifested Brook
Farmward sometimes with sullen hostility. The young folk of the
neighborhood came to our entertainments gladly enough, but some of the
harsh-visaged elders would have found greater satisfaction in
administering stern old-fashioned discipline if their power to deal
with malignants had only been what it was in the days when their kind
ruled Massachusetts Bay Colony with a rod of iron.
It was these pleasurings of ours that brought down on us the severest
anathemas. We were idlers forever singing and fiddling and dancing when
honest folk were at work. This criticism was in part true. We certainly
did devote more time and more attention to recreation than was
customary among working folk. The two half-holidays of the week were
set apart for diversions. All care and toil came to a full stop, and
everyone was free to do exactly as he or she pleased. Usually all hands
pleased to be together, after the Brook Farm fashion, everyone joining
in whatever scheme of amusement was on foot for the day.
After the reorganization the Festal Series took systematic charge of
the holidays and there was always something worth while provided for
the afternoon or evening or both, in which all of us were ready to take
part and eager to enjoy.
The Brook Farm Association was at first organized as a joint stock
company. The stated objects of this company were the conduct of a
school, a farm, a printing and publishing business and other light
industries. The unstated purpose was the carrying out of a social
experiment; a practical attempt to form a community living what we
would now call the Simple Life. Incidentally there was a deliberate
intent to make the most of opportunities for promoting happiness. These
bright, intelligent, cultured young people set out to have a sane,
sensible, joyous good time in the world, and they certainly succeeded
wonderfully well in this endeavor. I can truly say I have never known
any company anywhere who enjoyed this earthly existence more thoroughly
than did these Brook Farmers. They believed the Good Lord meant this
life to be beautiful and harmonious and they set out in good faith to
make it conform to the Divine idea. They were happy, on principle, so
to speak. To this end they consistently demonstrated the worth of good
cheer, good companionship and good entertainment. Recreation and
amusement were as much a part of their programme as tilling the soil,
teaching school or keeping house. To wake up every morning eager to
begin an active, interesting, joyful day, without a thought of
anxiety—that was their ideal, and, like their other ideals, this was
fairly realized.
Our critics held that we had no moral right to give up a whole day each
week just for fun. This might have been true had we been trying to get
rich, but getting rich was not the first object we contemplated. Other
things came before wealth-seeking, but, all the same, in competition
with those who thought ill of our ways, we beat them all to pieces. In
Boston markets Brook Farm products were at a premium and found quicker
sale at better prices than the West Roxbury farmers and gardeners could
command. They sent potatoes in the bottom of a wagon; apples in a soap
box; berries in a battered tin pail and butter in an old cracked crock;
none of these things being particularly clean. Our girls put up our
garden stuffs in neat, regular parcels. The quality of the orchard and
farm and dairy products was invariably the best; and everything was
fresh as possible, and neat and attractive in appearance. I will
venture to say we got more money from an acre of ground in five days
than any of our neighbors did in six. Perhaps that was another reason
why they did not like us.