At mid-March, in this sun-loved land, the genial season far outdoes our
own belated Northern May. Already, in Mesilla Valley, the peach, pear,
and apricot buds of the orchard are showing white and pink. In the
garden, rose-bushes are leaving out, and mocking-birds make the air
sweet with song.
"In the spring," said Leon Starr, parodying Tennyson one morning at the
breakfast-table, "the Koshare fancy lightly turns to thoughts of Shalam.
Why not make to-day our long-planned excursion to that famous colony?"
"All right," responded the entire Koshare; and that afternoon a party of
twelve set out from Alamo Ranch to explore that remarkable colony, some
seven miles up the valley.
A description of the place and an account of this excursion is copied
verbatim by the present writer from the journal of one of the party.
"To begin at the beginning," says the narrator, "the colony was started
by one Dr. ----, a dentist from Philadelphia. He enlisted as a partner
in his enterprise a man from that region of fads--Boston, Mass. To this
chimera of the doctor's brain, the latter, a man of means, lent his
approval, and, still more to the point, the money to carry out the
doctor's plans.
"Some few years ago the original founder of Shalam died, leaving to his
partner the work of carrying out his half-tried experiment.
"Mr. ---- lived on in the place, assuming its entire charge, and finally
marrying the doctor's widow,--a lady of unusual culture and refinement,
but having a bent towards occult fads, as Spiritualism, Mental Science,
and their like.
"Well, we arrived safely at Shalam, and were met by Mrs. ---- and a
dozen or more tow-headed kids. It is noticeable that the whole
twenty-seven children selected for this experiment have light hair and
blue eyes. Mrs. ---- kindly presented us to her husband,--apparently a
man of refined natural tendencies and fair intellectual culture, but
evidently, like 'Miss Flite,' 'a little _m-m_, you know.'
"Conventionally clothed, Mr. ---- would undoubtedly have been more than
presentable; in his Shalam undress suit he was, to say the least,
unique.
"His long, heavy beard was somewhat unkempt. His feet were in sandals,
without stockings. His dress consisted of a pair of white cotton pants,
and a blouse of the same material, frogged together with blue tape, the
ends hanging down over his left leg. Hitched somehow to his girdle was a
plain watch-chain, which led to a pocket for his watch, on the front of
his left thigh, placed just above the knee. When he wants time he raises
the knee and takes out the watch, standing on one leg the while.
"The place is beautifully situated on the banks of the Rio Grande, with
a range of high mountains across the river.
"It consists of two parts: 'Leontica,' a village for the workers, where
they have many nice cottages, an artesian well for irrigation, and a big
steam pump to force the water through all the ditches; Shalam, the home
of the children, has a big tank, with six windmills pumping water into
it all the time. Near the tank is the dormitory,--a building about one
hundred and fifty feet in dimension. Through its middle runs a large
hall for the kids to gambol in. On each side are rooms for the
attendants and the larger children.
"Chiefly noticeable was the cleanliness of the hall, and the signs over
the doors of the chambers, each with its motto, a text from
'_Oahspe_,'--the Shalam bible.
"At each end of the hall was a big sign, reading thus: '_Do not kiss the
children._' As none of them were especially attractive, this command
seemed quite superfluous. After looking over the dormitory, we were led
to the main building, projected by the late Dr. ----. This encloses a
court about one hundred and fifty feet by sixty in size, and planted
with fig trees.
"The front of the building is taken up by the library of the doctor; on
the opposite side is his picture gallery.
"Rooms or cells for the accommodation of guests occupy the long sides of
this structure.
"I was cordially invited to occupy one of these; but the place is too
creepy for me! The pictures in the gallery were all done by the deceased
doctor, under the immediate direction of his 'spirit friends.' To look
at them (believing this) is to be assured that artists do not go to
heaven, since not even the poorest defunct painter would have
perpetrated such monstrosities.
"They all represent characters and scenes from the doctor's
bible,--known as Oahspe, and written by him at the dictation of spirits.
The drawing is horrible, the coloring worse; and no drunkard with
delirium tremens could have conceived more frightful subjects!
"Mr. ----, the doctor's successor, is a curious compound of crank and
common-sense; the latter evinced by his corral and cattle, which we next
visited. I have never seen so fine a corral nor such handsome horses and
cattle. They are all blooded stock; many of the cows and calves having
come from the farm of Governor Morton, in New York State. The cows were
beautiful, gentle creatures; one of them is the largest 'critter' I ever
saw, weighing no less than fifteen hundred pounds!
"The county authorities--scandalized by the meagreness of the Shalam
bill of fare--compelled Mr. ---- to enrich the children's diet with
milk, and, thus officially prodded, he is trying to give them the best
in the land.
"The stock department of Shalam seems to be his undivided charge; while
Mrs. ---- manages the garden. She kindly showed us all over it; and it
is a beauty! With water flowing all through it, celery, salisfy, and
lettuce all ready to eat, and other vegetables growing finely. She gave
us a half bushel of excellent lettuce, which we all enjoyed.
"The Shalam idea is to take these children from all parts of the
country, to bring them up in accordance with its own dietetic fad (which
in many respects corresponds with that of our own dream-led Alcott),
feeding them exclusively on a vegetable diet so that they won't develop
carnal and combative tendencies, and thus start from them a new and
improved race. Will they succeed? God knows; but they seem to have
started wrong; for the children are largely the offspring of outcasts,
and you can't expect grapes from thistle seed. However, Mr. ---- and
Mrs. ---- are both sincere, kind-hearted reformers, trying to do what
they think right in their own peculiar way. They are doing no harm by
their experiment--hurting no one; and if the children turn out badly, it
is no worse than they would if left alone; and if well, it is a distinct
triumph of brain over beastliness. It may be well to state that no
_materia medica_ is tolerated at Shalam. The health of the colony is
entrusted absolutely to the 'tender mercies' of mental healing. Mr. ----
is himself the picture of health, and says he does not know what it is
to feel tired. ('They that be whole need no physician!') As for the Lady
of Shalam, there is a look in her face that led me to think she was
deadly tired of the whole business, but was too loyal either to her dead
or living husband to 'cry quits.'
"These children know not the taste of physic. All their ailments are
treated in strict accordance with Mental Science. They eat no eggs,
fish, or other animal matter, save the county-prescribed milk, living
solely on grains, vegetables, and fruits; and it must be said that they
all look extremely healthy. Mr. ---- informs us that he rises daily at
three A.M., goes directly to his corral and milks, comes in a little
after four and prepares the children's breakfast. They are called at
four forty-five, and breakfast at five. At five thirty devotional
exercises begin, and last until six thirty, when the father of Shalam
goes out and starts the hands on the farm. At eight the children begin
lessons or some kind of mental training, which lasts till dinner time.
"After dinner they run wild for the rest of the day.
"We left Shalam at about five P.M. On the homeward drive we discussed
this odd colony, and compared notes on what we had observed. An
irreverent member of the party thus summed up the whole business in his
own slangy fashion,--'a man who all winter long prances round in
pajamas, making folks shiver to look at him, ought to be put in an
insane asylum.' So there you have his side of the question.
"The original founder of Shalam, Dr. ----, not only aspired to be a
painter, but, as an author, flew the highest kind of a kite, giving to
the world no less than a new bible.
"A glimpse at its high-sounding prospectus will scarce incite in the
sane and sober mind a desire to peruse a revelation whose absurdity and
fantastic assumption leaves the Mormon bible far behind, and before
whose 'hand and glove' acquaintance with the 'undiscovered country'
Swedenborg himself must needs hide his diminished head.
"Thus it runs: '_Oahspe_; a new Bible in the words of Jehovih and his
Angel Embassadors. A synopsis of the Cosmogony of the Universe; the
creation of planets; the creation of man; the unseen worlds; the labor
and glory of gods and goddesses in the etherean heavens with the new
commandments of Jehovih to man of the present day. With revelations from
the second resurrection, found in words in the thirty-third year of the
Kosmon Era.'
"Oahspe's claims are thus _moderate_: 'As in all other bibles it is
revealed that this world was created, so in _this_ bible it is revealed
_how_ the Creator _created_ it. As other bibles have proclaimed heavens
for the spirits of the dead, behold _this_ bible revealeth _where_ these
heavens _are_.'
"Oahspe also kindly informs us 'how hells are made, and of what
material,' and how the sinner is in them mainly punished by the forced
inhalement of 'foul smells,'--so diabolically foul are these that one is
fain to hold the nose in the bare reading of them!
"'There is,' declares Oahspe, 'no such law as Evolution. There is no law
of Selection.' A vegetarian diet is inculcated; and we are gravely
informed that 'the spirit man takes his place in the first heaven
according to his _diet_ while on earth!'
"A plan for the founding of 'Jehovih's Kingdom on earth through little
children' is given. This 'sacred history' claims to cover in its
entirety no less a period of time than eighty-one thousand years. At
quarter-past six," concludes our informant, "we arrived, tired and
hungry, but glad to have gone, and glad to get back, leaving behind us
Shalam, with its spirit picture-gallery and its fantastic Oahspe, for
the more stable verities of commonplace existence."