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PALGRAVE STUDIES IN UTOPIANISM

Fourierist Communities
of Reform
The Social Networks of
Nineteenth-Century Female Reformers

Amy Hart
 Palgrave Studies in Utopianism

Series Editor
Gregory Claeys
Department of History
Royal Holloway, University of London
London, UK
Utopianism is an interdisciplinary concept which covers philosophy, soci-
ology, literature, history of ideas, art and architecture, religion, futurology
and other fields. While literary utopianism is usually dated from Thomas
More'sUtopia (1516), communitarian movements and ideologies propos-
ing utopian ends have existed in most societies through history. They
imagine varied ideal beginnings of the species, like golden ages or para-
dises, potential futures akin to the millennium, and also ways of attaining
similar states within real time. Utopianism, in the sense of striving for a
much improved world, is also present in many trends in contemporary
popular movements, and in phenomena as diverse as films, video games,
environmental and medical projections. Increasingly utopia shares the
limelight with dystopia, its negative inversion, and with projections of the
degeneration of humanity and nature alike. This series will aim to publish
the best new scholarship across these varied fields. It will focus on original
studies of interest to a broad readership, including, but not limited to,
historical and theoretical narratives as well as accounts of contemporary
utopian thought, interpretation and action.

More information about this series at

http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15242
 Amy Hart

Fourierist
Communities
of Reform
The Social Networks of Nineteenth-Century
Female Reformers
Amy Hart
Arroyo Grande, CA, USA

Palgrave Studies in Utopianism

ISBN 978-3-030-68355-9    ISBN 978-3-030-68356-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68356-6

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer
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 Acknowledgments

Writing a book is a communal task. No author has completed it without

the aid of either friends, family members, teachers, employers, editors,
advisors, or archivists. I was lucky enough to have the support of all of
these groups. While some types of support were more direct than others,
none will be forgotten. I am grateful for the tireless advice and assistance
I received on this book, primarily from my advisors at UC Santa Cruz,
Lynn Westerkamp, Jonathan Beecher, Kate Jones, and Bettina Aptheker.
Their valuable insights often complemented each other and illuminated
my many oversights. Numerous archivists shared my excitement for this
project and translated their excitement into invaluable research assistance.
I want to especially thank the archivists at Marietta College and the Ohio
History Connection, who made the archival researching experience
approachable and enjoyable. Most importantly, I want to recognize the
support from my family, who finds academic research important and
worthwhile, and thus instilled in me the desire to pursue it. The daily sup-
port offered by my partner, and the more subtle encouragement from our
feetwarming dogs, made the completion of this book possible.

v
 About the Book

This book explores the many intersecting social reform movements that
took shape during the mid-nineteenth century, specifically highlighting
the experiences of female socialist communitarians. Delving into the little-­
known history of women who joined income-sharing communities during
the 1840s, this book examines the myriad ways their experiences and social
interactions within these communal environments created networks of
reformers that extended beyond the communal setting. The communities
examined in this book were inspired by French writer and social commen-
tator Charles Fourier. Fourier’s writings prompted the creation of over
two dozen intentional communities across the United States during the
1840s, a period of economic instability and social division across the coun-
try. In a time when women in the United States faced a spectrum of legal
and social restrictions ranging from coverture to slavery, women who
joined these radical communities found opportunities and support for
engaging in social activism. Though these communities existed only for a
few years before dismantling, they nevertheless served to create links
between social reformers that existed for years, and even generations,
afterward. Using numerous sources including letters, journals, meeting
notes, and newspaper articles among other written media, Dr. Hart argues
that these female communitarians helped shape the ideological underpin-
nings of some of the country’s most enduring and successful social move-
ments, including the women’s rights movement and abolition movement.
Instead of viewing these reform movements as consisting of distinct orga-
nizations, Dr. Hart argues that they should be seen as intertwined and
interdependent, consisting of many of the same individuals and supported

vii
viii ABOUT THE BOOK

within unexpected settings, including within cooperative communal

experiments. Due to the role of female communitarians in shaping and
contributing to various nineteenth-century social reform movements, Dr.
Hart contends that intentional communities should be analyzed as a criti-
cal force in the history of social activism in the United States.
Parts of this book have been previously published as articles. These
articles are:

“On Earth as It Is in Heaven: A Study of Nineteenth-Century Religious

Communal Experiments in the United States,” Amy Hart, Religion
Compass Vol. 14, Issue 1 (Jan. 2020). © 2019 by Wiley.
“‘All is Harmony in that Department:’ Religious Expressions Within the
Fourierist Communal Experiments of the 1840s,” Amy Hart, Nova
Religio Vol. 23, Issue 2, pgs. 18–41. © 2019 by The Regents of the
University of California.
 Praise for Fourierist Communities of Reform

“Finally communal women get their due! Amy Hart’s meticulously researched and
most readable book demonstrates that modern feminism did not begin at Seneca
Falls, but was part of a milieu of reform movements, many of which crossed paths
frequently with the intentional communities of the first half of the nineteenth
century.”
—Dr. Timothy Miller, Professor Emeritus of Religious
Studies, University of Kansas

“This is a fine book and a significant contribution to the study of American

Fourierism. Amy Hart’s big theme—that her four communal experiments lived on
in the post-communal lives of their members—enables her to make fascinating
connections between various reform movements. Her resourceful research in pri-
vate correspondence enables her to discuss individual experience with a rare speci-
ficity. The personal histories come alive on the page thanks to shrewdly chosen
quotes and sharp commentary.”
—Dr. Jonathan Beecher, Professor Emeritus, Department of History,
University of California Santa Cruz

“This innovative study of nineteenth century female social reformers chronicles

the lives of women whose identities were forged during their residence in Fourierist
intentional communities of the 1840’s. It vividly depicts the idealism of those
farflung utopian experiments without glossing over their inner contradictions and
sometimes misguided ideologies. It explores ways their unique opportunities and
constraints inspired women to fight for racial justice, gender equality and eco-
nomic equity long after their return to mainstream society.”
—Steven Marx, Emeritus Professor of English,
Cal Poly University, San Luis Obispo
 Contents

1 Introduction to Intentional Communities and Social Change  1

2 Reverberations of Reform Activism: The Lasting Impact of

Trumbull Phalanx 25

3 Demonstrating Racial Diversity Within Community: The

Northampton Association of Education and Industry 71

4 Contested Community: The Wisconsin Phalanx and the

Western Frontier107

5 Brook Farm: Two Diverging Paths After Community157

6 Fourierist Futures: The Lasting Impact of the Fourierist

Communities in the 1850s and Beyond203


Appendix 1: Timeline of Northampton Association
Abolitionists223

xi
xii Contents

Bibliography225

Index245
 List of Figures

Fig. 2.1 “Self Portrait,” Lilly Martin Spencer, ca. 1840. (Courtesy
of the Ohio History Connection, H 24656) 65
Fig. 2.2 “Shake Hands?” Lilly Martin Spencer, 1854. (Courtesy
of the Ohio History Connection, H 24655) 66
Fig. 2.3 “Peeling Onions,” Lilly Martin Spencer, ca. 1852. (Courtesy
of the Memorial Art Gallery of the University
of Rochester, 88.6) 67

xiii
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction to Intentional Communities

and Social Change

In the 1840s the United States was a country in transition. Reeling from
an economic panic in 1837 that had led to a prolonged depression, the
residents of the country were facing uncertain futures in a dynamic and
evolving market economy they were only just beginning to learn to navi-
gate. At the same time, the federal government continued to acquire con-
trol of new territory to the west of the Mississippi River through treaties
and warfare with Indigenous populations, and thus the United States was
geographically expanding despite the economic downturn. Congress grew
increasingly divided between Northern and Southern factions as the
nation failed to decide a clear path forward for introducing or prohibiting
the institution of slavery in western territories. A social and political divide
was forming, which would culminate in Southern secession and the
Civil War.
During this period characterized by instability and unease, a series of
grassroots social reform efforts found expression across the country, as
individuals sought to initiate change outside of formal political institu-
tions. Reform-minded individuals formed themselves into organizations
that advocated for a variety of causes from temperance to abolition, and
some of them chose to enact their reform goals by creating planned com-
munities where they could live out their ideals together without distrac-
tion from outsiders. These plans for communal organizations were diverse
and numerous enough among some social circles that Ralph Waldo

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1

Switzerland AG 2021
A. Hart, Fourierist Communities of Reform, Palgrave Studies in
Utopianism, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68356-6_1
2 A. HART

Emerson commented in 1840, “not a reading man but has a draft of a new
community in his waistcoat pocket.”1 While many intentional communi-
ties arose during this period, this book is centered on the series of socialist
communities inspired by French utopian Charles Fourier.
Fourier created a blueprint for the ideal society based on “attractive”
labor, religious pluralism, and gender equality.2 His plans were adopted
and executed by individuals across the United States during the 1840s
who found his challenge to economic, social, and religious norms appeal-
ing. Women of various economic and social backgrounds joined Fourierist
communities for their promise of recognizing women’s labor as equally
valuable to society as men’s labor. Though most of the Fourierist com-
munities were dissolved by the end of the decade and largely fell short of
their social reform goals (including gender equality), women who joined
them nevertheless gained material and social benefits from their time at
these communities. As part of their participation in these cooperative
organizations, women cultivated social networks and learned organiza-
tional skills that they brought with them when they joined or led other
social reform movements in later years. This book highlights the experi-
ences of those women, focusing particularly on the ways these communi-
ties shaped the rest of their lives.

Utopias, Communes, and Intentional Communities

Individuals were forming themselves into planned communities with other
like-minded people long before the creation of the United States.
Though written references to “utopia” reach as far back as Thomas More’s
first usage in 1516 in his book, Utopia, the planning and formation of
utopian communities also found expression beyond the pages of
literature.3 Within both literature and the material world, utopias repre-
sent an imagined response to current problems. Proposed utopian solu-
tions typically take the shape of a nostalgic longing for the past combined

1
Letter, Emerson to Thomas Carlyle, Oct. 30, 1840, in The Correspondence of Thomas
Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1834–1872, Vol. I, ed. Charles Eliot Norton (Project
Gutenberg EBook, 2004 [1883]).
2
Unlike other socialists of the period, Fourier did not see labor as inherently unappealing,
but believed it could be made enjoyable, or in his words, “attractive.” See Charles Fourier,
Selections from the Works of Fourier, trans. Julia Franklin (London: Swan Sonnenschein &
Co., 1901), 163–170.
3
Thomas More, Utopia (1516).
 1 INTRODUCTION TO INTENTIONAL COMMUNITIES AND SOCIAL CHANGE 3

with an incorporation of present technology in order to produce a more

just, equitable future. The communities imagined by Fourier were no dif-
ferent: they both recalled the simplicities of a rural agrarian past while also
harnessing elements of industrial technology for the purpose of maximiz-
ing human pleasure and fulfillment.
The term “intentional community” is unfamiliar to most individuals
outside of the academic niche of communal studies scholarship. Yet the
term becomes more familiar to historians and literary critics when its other
iterations are referenced, including “utopias,” “communes,” or “coopera-
tives.” These names for planned communities have enjoyed popularity at
various periods throughout the decades of communal studies scholarship,
but the object they reference has remained relatively constant: those
groups of people who consciously formed themselves into communities
with a shared goal in mind. The term “intentional community” remains
the most widely utilized among scholars in recent years due to its relative
lack of pejorative connotations, unlike “commune,” which conjures ideas
of countercultural youth, or even “utopia,” which itself now conjures
ideas of naïve fantasy.
While many definitions of an “intentional community” have been pro-
posed, the prevailing definition currently utilized by communal studies
scholars was offered by Timothy Miller, who defines intentional commu-
nities as including the following criteria: a sense of common purpose and
of separation from the dominant society, some form and level of self-­
denial, a voluntary suppression of individual choice in favor of the good of
the group, geographic proximity of members, personal interaction, eco-
nomic sharing, real existence, and critical mass (at least five people who are
not all related).4 Throughout United States history, various religious, eth-
nic, and social groups have formed themselves into intentional communi-
ties that meet this definition, starting arguably as early as Jamestown in
Virginia and the Plymouth colony in Massachusetts.5 Their goals have

4
Timothy Miller, The 60s Communes: Hippies and Beyond (New York: Syracuse University
Press, 1999), xxii–xxiv. A clear summary of the definitions offered by communal studies
scholars is also provided by Eliezer Ben-Rafael, Yaacov Oved, and Menachem Topel, eds.,
The Communal Idea in the 21st Century (Boston: Brill, 2013): “All in all, communal societies
have gone by many names depending on their time, place, and economic arrangements. All
can be broadly defined as voluntary social units, whose members usually share an ideology,
an economic union, and a lifestyle.” (6).
5
See “Intentional Communities in the United States and Canada,” In Encyclopedia of
Community: From the Village to the Virtual World Vol. 1, eds. Karen Christensen and David
Levinson (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2003), 762–763.
4 A. HART

been alternatively religious, economic, or social in nature, though in many

cases the community attempts to address all of these issues in some form.
Intentional communities have traditionally been analyzed as isolated,
semi-autonomous communities of extremists. Undoubtedly, some inten-
tional communities were relatively self-isolating, attempting to exist apart
from society and discouraging interactions with those outside of the com-
munity. These were often religious groups who feared persecution from
outsiders, including the Shakers, the Oneida community, and the
Mormons.6 However, some groups who formed intentional communities
in United States history did not desire to escape from society, but instead
to transform it through the influence of their communal experiment.
Those socially integrated intentional communities attempted to provide a
model of alternative living for the rest of society, consciously making their
goals and lifestyles visible by printing publications, welcoming visitors,
holding events or lectures, and advertising their way of life. This latter
kind of community, which integrated social reform activism into commu-
nal life, constitutes the subject of this study.
Among the collection of new communities organized in 1840s United
States were a loose collective of living experiments inspired by the socialist
writings of Charles Fourier.7 Their distinctive character included a focus

6
Yaacov Oved analyzes the extent to which religious communities achieved total isolation
from surrounding society, concluding that while retreat might be stated as a goal of the com-
munity, complete isolation was impractical as community members often had to engage in
business dealings, land purchases, and petitioning the government. See Yaacov Oved,
“Communes & the Outside World: Seclusion & Involvement,” Communal Societies Vol. 3
(1983): 83–92.
7
The socialist-leaning intentional communities of the nineteenth century are often referred
to as “proto-socialist,” or “utopian socialist” to indicate their distinction from Karl Marx’s
“scientific socialism.” The notion of a utopian and scientific form of socialism was introduced
by Friedrich Engels in his attempt to uplift Marx’s socialism as the truly modern, rational
response to capitalism. Engels’s critiques of utopian socialism include the argument that the
utopian vision was only gradual, implementing few people at a time who would join utopian
societies based on the founder’s singular vision. Instead, Engels argued, Marx’s response to
capitalism addressed the source of class struggle: the ownership of the means of production.
Thus, only Marx’s response could alleviate the systemic exploitation of the working class. In
addition, Engels contended that utopian socialists lacked an overarching theory of history
that explained the trajectory of economic and social systems, thus making their plans short-
sighted. Though these two visions differed in many ways, both offered critiques of capitalism
and unregulated industrialization, and provided a blueprint for an alternative economic sys-
tem. These alternative economic theories reveal that capitalism was not universally viewed as
 1 INTRODUCTION TO INTENTIONAL COMMUNITIES AND SOCIAL CHANGE 5

on facilitating social reform activism among their members. Daily life

within the Fourierist community setting often provided opportunities for
collaboration, organization, and correspondence among interconnected
groups of reformers. This book centers these communities as essential sites
for cultivating reform networks for numerous reform efforts, including
abolitionism, temperance, women’s rights, labor rights, Spiritualism, and
health cures.
In this book, I highlight the social networks that were developed within
the Fourierist communities and argue that these communal environments
inspired future social and political activism among community members.
This study focuses primarily on female members, who are often over-
looked in the study of Fourierist communities due to the primarily male
leadership that acted as the public face for these communities. While men
left numerous written records that shaped the historical memories of these
communities for subsequent generations, those (comparably fewer) writ-
ten records left by women reveal that women often experienced those
communities differently than their male counterparts. Instead of seeing
the communities as public platforms through which bold ideas and proc-
lamations could be made, women often viewed the communal environ-
ment as a space to cultivate friendships and find educational and financial
opportunities. Though women left fewer written records during their time
in the community, the lasting imprint of communal living can be uncov-
ered by following their lives after they left the communities, as well as the
lives of their children who were influenced by the communities.
By highlighting these female community members’ sustained social
reform efforts, as well as their political engagement during and after their
time in an intentional community, this book challenges prevailing notions
of intentional communities as universally serving as places of isolation and
withdrawal from the surrounding society. Many studies of intentional
communities approach the communities as “dots on a map,” separate
from each other and their surrounding society.8 In this book I reimagine
that map as a series of overlapping lines connecting communitarians to

the inevitable global economic system during the nineteenth century, or even most of the
twentieth. See Friedrich Engels, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (Chicago: Charles H. Kerr
& Company, 1918 [originally published 1880]); see also Jonathan Beecher’s introduction of
the term “romantic socialism” as an alternative to the terms “utopian” and “scientific”
socialisms in Victor Considerant and the Rise and Fall of French Romantic Socialism (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2000), esp. pgs. 3–7.
8
Robert P. Sutton, Heartland Utopias (Northern Illinois University Press, 2009), 181.
6 A. HART

each other as well as to other social reformers not directly involved in the
communitarian movement. While scholars have previously explored the
interconnections between intentional communities themselves, sparse
attention has been paid to the interactions between communitarians and
their contemporaries within other, non-communitarian reform move-
ments.9 By expanding the study of intentional community members
beyond the time frame of their community’s organized existence, the
influence of the communal environment on shaping subsequent reform
movements in the United States becomes clear.
The book’s chapters are organized around four specific communities:
Trumbull Phalanx in Ohio, Northampton Association of Education and
Industry in Massachusetts, Wisconsin Phalanx in Wisconsin, and Brook
Farm in Massachusetts. Each chapter highlights select female members of
the communities, tracing their lives from their time in the community
through their lasting dedication to social reform activism afterward.10 As
will be explored in the subsequent chapters, many female communitarians
experienced social and material advantages in these intentional communi-
ties compared to their lives before joining the communities, but these
advantages only partially represented the ideals proposed by the commu-
nities’ constitutions and bylaws. While women’s equality was a stated goal
of many Fourierist communities, social norms and material realities in each
community often prevented communitarians from enacting these ideals to
the fullest extent possible.
Female communitarians who joined Fourierist communities in the
United States adopted those elements of Fourier’s communal vision that
best fit their own social context and specifically the race, gender, and class
dynamics within that context. Charles Fourier’s ideas lie at the center of
this study, and so understanding his lived experiences, and his vision for
the world that developed out of those experiences, is essential. Only
through contextualizing Fourier’s worldview can scholars appreciate the
myriad ways that his followers in the United States both succeeded and
failed to enact that worldview.

9
Otohiko Okugawa analyzes the interdependence of nineteenth-century communities
through a variety of interpersonal ties among members. See Otohiko Okugawa,
“Intercommunal Relationships among Nineteenth-century Communal Societies in
America,” Communal Societies Vol 3. (1983): 68–82.
10
The form of this book is inspired by the organization and writing style of Natalie Zemon
Davis’s Women on the Margins: Three Seventeenth-Century Lives (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1995).
 1 INTRODUCTION TO INTENTIONAL COMMUNITIES AND SOCIAL CHANGE 7

The Life and Worldview of Charles Fourier

Charles Fourier was motivated to create blueprints for the ideal society
following his own disappointment with economic and political instability
in his home country of France. Born in 1772 to a family of merchants,
Fourier reluctantly entered commerce at the behest of his father, who
threatened to withhold his inheritance if Fourier chose a different path.
While apprenticed to a cloth merchant in Lyon, Fourier maneuvered
through the violent years of the French Revolution and subsequent insur-
rection in Lyon, barely escaping with his own life.11 His disgust with the
chaos and abuses of power instigated by his government mirrored his
opinions of industrial factory life. As a merchant he saw laborers complet-
ing seemingly meaningless and repetitive tasks for little pay. In a cruel
cycle, he recognized that as the government set price controls on goods,
producers refused to sell their products, leading to both widespread pov-
erty and hunger as the working class possessed little money and could buy
nothing with it. Disillusioned with both his government and the industri-
alizing economy, Fourier began to imagine a better world where individu-
als found fulfillment in their labor and had their personal needs met. In his
early nineteenth-century texts, Fourier described this world as comprising
multiple planned communities existing in mutual harmony.12
Fourier’s ideas were also largely a reaction against the French Revolution
and its supporters’ apparent ideological commitment to engineering eco-
nomic and social equality through violent and unjust means. Instead,
Fourier posited that humanity is made up of diverse groups that possess
natural talents or predispositions that must be put into balance by placing
them alongside proportional groups of people with complementary tal-
ents. Individuals should not be forced to become identical, but instead
should allow their natural differences to flourish. Communities that had
achieved this balance of talents would form self-sustaining and mutually
beneficial microcosms of society in which every person could follow his or

11
Fourier’s early adulthood during the French Revolution is chronicled by Beecher and
Bienvenu in The Utopian Vision of Charles Fourier: Selected Texts on Work, Love, and Passionate
Attraction, eds. Jonathan Beecher and Richard Bienvenu (Boston: Beacon Press, 1971), 3–7.
12
Fourier’s first book was a meandering text called Théorie des quatre mouvements et des
destinées générales, published in 1808. An English translation of the text was first published
in 1857 titled Charles Fourier, The Social Destiny of Man, or, Theory of the Four Movements, by
Charles Fourier, Henry Clapp, Jr. and Albert Brisbane, trans. (New York: Robert
M. Dewitt, 1857).
8 A. HART

her desired vocation without being forced into conformity nor restricted
by social forces like gender norms, poverty, or discrimination. To Fourier,
planned harmonious communities such as these represented the future of
the world and the best response to the cruel and unstable societies being
produced by unchecked capitalism and violent governments.
Fourier’s vision of the world depicted humans as generally good,
though corrupted by institutions. He believed the political and economic
systems of his day were imposing undue limitations on individuals based
not on their personality differences, but on superficial differences, includ-
ing gender. Fourier represents an early feminist voice in France, who
traced many societal ills back to the unequal treatment of women.
Combating the oppression of women became a primary goal of Fourier’s
utopian vision as evidenced through his writings, in which he repeatedly
pointed to the degradation of women as harming society as a whole. As he
summarized: “As a general proposition: Social progress and changes of
period are brought about by virtue of the progress of women towards
liberty, and social retrogression occurs as a result of a diminution in the
liberty of women.”13 Fourier’s female disciples in France were part of the
early women’s rights movement there, including Jeanne-Désirée Véret
and Flora Tristan, who fought for women’s economic independence as the
key to liberating women from their present servile state.14 In many ways,
the women who were attracted to Fourier’s ideas in France were combat-
ting similar social and legal restrictions as those women in the United
States who would later join Fourierist communities. Under the Napoleonic
Civil Code of 1804, divorce was essentially illegal, the father held legal
custody of children, and husbands controlled all family property.15 Similar
laws existed in the United States throughout the early nineteenth century
and were partially addressed in Fourierist communities, where women

Charles Fourier, as quoted in The Utopian Vision of Charles Fourier, 195.

13

For more on Flora Tristan’s feminism, as well as her involvement with Fourier and his
14

ideas, see Susan K. Grogan, French Socialism and Sexual Difference: Women and the New
Society, 1803–1844 (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1992), esp. Chap. 8: “Flora Tristan and
the Moral Superiority of Women,” 155–174. Véret was involved with both Saint-Simonian
and Fourierist social circles as a means to promoting women’s equality. She founded The
Women’s Tribune to enable female writers to offer women’s perspectives on social issues of
the period. See Grogan, French Socialism and Sexual Difference, 100–103.
15
For more on the Napoleonic Civil Code and its impact on women, see Jennifer Ngaire
Heuer, The Family and the Nation: Gender and Citizenship in Revolutionary France,
1789–1830 (New York: Cornell University Press, 2005), esp. Chap. 5: “Tethering Cain’s
Wife: The Napoleonic Civil Code,” 127–142.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 I offer my best thanks for the letters from the following friends:
“One of your blue-eyed readers in New York;” “A little subscriber in
Canandaigua,” whom I shall always be happy to hear from; E. D. H
——s, of Saugus; C. W., of Millbury; C. A. S. and L. B. S., of
Sandwich; L. W——e, and W. B. W——e; and “A Subscriber.”
S. L.’s letter about the postage, dated Utica, April 22, was duly
received.
H. E. M. thinks that Puzzle No. 5, in the April number, is either a
hoax, or that the solution is Nantucket. We think it is a little of both:
that is, that our friend who sent it to us intended it for Nantucket; but
about that time it was “all fools day,” and the unlucky types of the
printer seem to have made a very good puzzle, as sent to us, into
“an April fool.”
 ROBERT MERRY’S
MUSEUM.

edited by

S. G. GOODRICH,

a u t h o r o f p e t e r pa r l e y ’ s ta l e s .

VOLUME IV.

BOSTON:
B R A D B U R Y, S O D E N , & C O . ,
No. 10 School Street, and 127 Nassau Street, New York. 1842.
 CONTENTS OF VOLUME IV.
JULY TO DECEMBER, 1842.

The Sense of Taste, 1

2, 50, 88, 109, 146,
The Siberian Sable-Hunter,
166
Hay-Making, 8
Limby Lumpy, 9
Lime, 11
The Voyages, Travels and Experiences of
Thomas Trotter, 12, 58, 92, 136, 170
Similes, 16
Proverbs and Sayings of the Chinese, 16
Indians of America, 17, 38, 72, 141
Ruins of Babylon, 24
Adam and Eve, 25
Merry’s Adventures, 26, 34, 66, 104, 132,
161
Gaza, 29
Knights Templars and other orders of
Knighthood, 30
A Page for Little Readers, 30
Bob O’Linkum’s Song to the Mower, 32
The Sense of Touch, 33
That thing I cannot do, 45
Skeleton of a Bird, 47
A Tragedy in the Woods, 48
Frogs, 49
Walled Cities, 55
Bells, 55
A Mother’s Affection, 56
To Correspondents, 63, 128
Puzzles, 64, 128
Seeing, 65
The Stock-Dove, &c., 79
Story of Philip Brusque, 80, 151, 181
Ingenious Contrivances of Nature, 84
Don’t be too Positive, 86
A Melancholy Event, 96
Sketches of Bible Scenes, 97
Bethesda, 97
Jerusalem, 98
Valley of Jehoshaphat, 102
Joppa or Jaffa, 103
Mount Carmel, 104
Ruins of Jericho as they now appear, 129
Askelon, 130
Bethlehem, 131
The Hippopotamus, 107
The Flying Dragon, 108
The Snail, 108
Varieties, 126, 160, 187
Rivers, 135
Boy and Bird, 135
Gall Insects, 140
Anecdote of the Natives of Porto Rico, 143
Winter Sport, 144
Clouds, 144
The Orang-Outang, 145
Field Teachers, 154
Life and Character of Alexander the Great, 157
Discovery of the Mines of Potosi, 165
Wild Geese, 169
 The Two Friends, 175
The Selfish Boy, 177
Story of Little Dick and the Giant, 178
The Flowers, 179
Christmas, 180
Winter is coming, 182
Liberty, 183
Dress and other matters in France, in the
time of Henry IV., 185
The Last Leaf of Autumn, 186
Reflections, 188

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1842, by S. G. Goodrich, in the Clerk’s
Office of the
District Court of Massachusetts.
KNIGHTS TEMPLARS.
MERRY’S MUSEUM.

V O L U M E I V . — N o . 1 .

The Sense of Taste.

 The tongue, which has so much to do with talking, has a good
deal to do with tasting. It is indeed one of the chief instruments by
which the sensation of taste is experienced. The palate is also
another organ of importance in the perception of taste.
The tongue is always moistened with saliva, which instantly
dissolves the surface of anything that is put into the mouth. Some
portion of the particles being taken upon the tongue, this latter is
pressed against the roof of the mouth, thus bringing them in contact
with the nerves which coat the surface of the mouth and palate. It is
by means of these nerves that the qualities of substances are
perceived and the sensation which we call taste is excited.
It will be perceived that the saliva of the mouth is one great cause
of all taste. When the tongue is rendered dry by disease, or any
other circumstance, the sense of taste is either imperfect or lost. The
pressure of the tongue against the surface of the mouth seems also
to be important in producing the sense of taste; for if you put
anything into your mouth, and hold it open, the sensation is hardly
produced. It is from the effect of this pressure that the act of chewing
and swallowing gives us so much pleasure.
There is a great difference in people, as to the degree of
perfection in which they possess this sense; for in some, it is very
blunt, while in others, it is very acute. There is a difference also as to
the things that people like. Some are fond of cheese, and others
cannot endure it. The Esquimaux are delighted with the flavor of
blubber oil; the Indians of Guiana feast upon monkeys; the negroes
of south-western Africa are fond of baked dogs; the Chinese eat rats,
lizards and puppies; the French rank snails and frogs among their
nicest tit-bits; yet all these things are revolting to us.
This diversity arises chiefly from custom and habit; for originally
our perceptions are, no doubt, nearly the same. It is certainly so with
animals; for every horse and every ox, in a natural state, eats or
rejects the same species of food.
The word taste is frequently used in what is called a metaphorical
sense, for the purpose of expressing the feelings of the mind. A
person who loves poetry is said to have a taste for poetry; by which
is meant that he has a mind which feels and appreciates the qualities
of poetry, just as the tongue feels or appreciates the qualities of food.
It is in the same sense that we say, a person has a taste for
painting, or music, or any other art. When we say a person has fine
taste, we mean that his mental perceptions are very acute.
 The Siberian Sable-Hunter.

chapter ix.

Agreeably to their plan, the sable-hunters continued at the hut,

following the game, day after day, with the greatest ardor. The forest
proved to be very extensive, stretching out for miles upon both sides
of a little river that flowed into the Lena. It was the depth of winter,
and snow fell almost every day; yet they were seldom prevented
from going forth by the weather. They were very successful in their
hunting, and a day seldom passed in which they did not bring home
some game. They killed several bears and wolves, and a great
number of sables, ermines, martens, squirrels and lynxes.
In all their expeditions, Alexis was among the most active,
persevering, and skilful of the party. It was a great object in obtaining
the finer furs, to kill the animals without breaking the skin of the body.
In this art, Alexis excelled; for he could shoot with such precision, as
to bring down his game, by putting only a single shot through the
head. But he was of an ardent temper, and sometimes his zeal led
him into danger. One day, being at a distance from his party, he saw
a silver fox, and he pursued him for several hours, entirely forgetting
that he was separated from his friends, and wandering to a great
distance, amid the mazes of the woods.
At last, in pursuing the fox, he entered a wild and rocky dell,
where perpendicular cliffs, fringed by cedars and hemlocks, frowned
over the glen. Plunging into the place, which seemed like a vast
cavern, he soon came near the object of his pursuit, and brought him
to the ground. Before he had time to pick up his game, he saw a
couple of sables peering through a crevice in a decayed oak that had
rooted itself in the rocks above. Loading his gun, he fired, and the
animals immediately disappeared within the cavity. Believing that
they were killed, he clambered up the steep face of the precipice
with great labor and no little danger. At length, he reached the foot of
the tree which leaned from the cliff, over the dark valley beneath.
Immediately he began to ascend it, hardly observing, in his
eagerness, that it was rotten to the very root, and trembled
throughout its whole extent, as he ascended.
Up he went, heedless of all but the game, until he reached the
crevice, where two sables, of the largest kind, lay dead. He took
them out, and, for the first time, looked beneath. He was touched
with a momentary thrill of fear as he gazed down and perceived the
gulf that yawned beneath him. At the same moment, he heard a
crackling at the roots of the tree, and perceived a descending motion
in the limbs to which he clung. He now knew that he was falling, and
that, with the vast mass, he must descend into the valley beneath.
The moment was almost too awful for thought: yet his mind turned to
his father and sister, with a feeling of farewell, and a prayer to
Heaven for his soul. How swift is the wing of thought in the moment
of peril! He felt himself rushing downward through the air; he closed
his eyes; there was a horrid crash in his ears, and he knew no more.
The sound of the falling oak rung through the glen, and in the space
of a few minutes the figure of a man, clothed in furs, was seen
emerging from one of the caverns, at a little distance. He
approached the spot where Alexis had fallen; but at first nothing was
to be seen save the trunk of the tree, now completely imbedded in
the snow. The man was about to turn away, when he saw the fox
lying at a little distance, and then remarked one of the sables, also
buried in the snow. Perceiving that the animal was warm, as if just
killed, he looked around for the hunter. Not seeing him, the truth
seemed at once to flash upon his mind; and he began to dig in the
snow beneath the trunk of the tree. Throwing off his bear-skin coat
and a huge wolf-skin cap, and seizing upon a broken limb of the tree,
he labored with prodigious strength and zeal. A large excavation was
soon made, and pretty soon he found the cap of Alexis. This
increased his zeal, and he continued to dig with unabated ardor for
more than an hour. Buried at the depth of eight feet in the snow, he
found the young man, and with great labor took him out from the
place in which he was imbedded, and which, but for this timely aid,
had been his grave. The surface of the snow was so hard as to bear
the man’s weight, provided as he was with the huntsman’s broad-
soled shoes of skins. Still it was with great difficulty that he could
carry Alexis forward. He, however, succeeded in bearing him to his
cave. Here he had the satisfaction of soon finding that the youth was
still alive; that he was indeed only stunned, and otherwise entirely
unhurt. He soon awoke from his insensibility, and looking around,
inquired where he was. “You are safe,” said the stranger, “and in my
castle, where no one will come to molest you. You are safe; and now
tell me your name.”
For a moment, Alexis was bewildered, and could not recollect his
name, but after a little time, he said falteringly, “Pultova,—my name
is Alexis Pultova.”
“Pultova!” said the stranger, with great interest; “are you of
Warsaw—the son of Paul Pultova?”
“I am,” was the reply.
“Yes,” said the other, “you are, I see by your resemblance, you are
the son of my noble friend, General Pultova. And what brought you
here?”
“I am a hunter,” said Alexis.
“Alas, alas,” said the man, “and so it is with the brave, and the
noble, and the chivalrous sons of poor stricken Poland: scattered
over this desolate region of winter—this wild and lone Siberia—
banished, forgotten, save only to be pursued, crushed by the
vengeful heel of power. Oh God! O Heaven! how long will thy justice
permit such cruelty toward those whose only crime is, that they loved
their country too well?” Saying these words, the stranger’s bosom
heaved convulsively, the tears fell fast down his cheeks, and, as if
ashamed of his emotion, he rushed out of the cavern.
Alexis was greatly moved, yet his curiosity was excited, and he
began to look around to ascertain what all this might mean. He now,
for the first time, recollected his fall from the tree. He perceived that
he was in a lofty cavern, in which he saw a bed made of skins, a
gun, and various other trappings belonging to a hunter. He justly
concluded that he had been rescued by the stranger; and when he
returned, as he did in a few minutes, he poured out his grateful
thanks to him for saving his life.
The two now fell into conversation: and Alexis heard the details of
his own rescue, as well as the story of the hunter. He was a Polish
nobleman, who had taken part in the struggle for liberty, and who
had also shared in the doom of those patriots who survived the
issue. While they were conversing, they thought they heard sounds
without, and going to the mouth of the cave, they perceived voices in
the glen. Alexis soon recognised the piercing tones of Linsk, and
immediately answered him. The old hunter, with his two sons, soon
came up, and there was a hearty shaking of hands all round. The
whole story was soon told, and the hunters were invited by the
stranger into the cave.
The evening was now approaching, and Linsk, with his party,
being pressed to spend the night at the cave, cheerfully accepted the
request. A fire was soon kindled, a haunch of fat bear’s meat was
roasted, and the company sat down to their meal. There was for a
time a good deal of hilarity; for, even in comfortless situations, a
sense of deliverance from peril breaks into the heart, scattering with
its brief sunshine the gloom that is around. So it was with the
hunters, in the bosom of that dark cavern, and in that scene and
season of winter; the laugh, the joke, and the story passed from one
to the other. Even the stern and stony brow of the stranger relaxed at
some of the droll remarks and odd phrases of Linsk, and
unconsciously he became interested in the passing scene.
When Linsk had done ample justice to the meal, he hitched back
a little from the circle which sat around, and, wiping his greasy lips
and hands, using the sleeve of his wolf-skin coat instead of a pocket-
handkerchief, he said, “Well, master Alexis, this jump of yours, from
the top of a mountain into the middle of a valley, beats all the capers
of that kind which I ever heard of; but as to your going eight feet into
the snow, that’s nothing. I once knew a fellow who spent a winter at
Kamschatka, and he says that the snow falls there to such a depth
as sometimes to cover up houses. He told one thumping story of
what happened to himself.”
 “What was it?—tell it,” was uttered by several voices. Thus
invited, Linsk proceeded to relate the following tale.
“The man I spoke of was one of your short, tough little runts, and
very like a weasel—hard to catch, hard to kill, and worth very little
when you’ve got him. I forget now what it was led him off to such a
wild place as Kamschatka; but I believe it was because he was of a
restless make, and so, being always moving, he finally got to the end
of the world. Nor was this restlessness his only peculiarity—he was
one of those people to whom something odd is always happening;
for you know that there are folks to whom ill-luck sticks just as
natural as a burr to a bear’s jacket.
“Well, Nurly Nutt—for that was the young fellow’s name—found
himself one winter at Kamschatka. It was far to the north, where the
sun goes down for six months at a time, and brandy freezes as hard
as a stone. However, the people find a way to melt the brandy; and,
by the rays of the moon, or the northern lights, which make it almost
as light as day, they have their frolics, as well as other people.
“It chanced to be a hard winter, and the snow was very deep.
However, the people tackled up their dogs, hitched them to their
sledges, and cantered away over the snow like so many witches.
Nurly was a great hand at a frolic, especially if the girls were of the
mess; and he went on at such a rate as to become quite a favorite
with the softer sex. But it so happened, that, just as the girls became
eager to catch Nurly, he wouldn’t be caught, you know—a thing
that’s very disobliging, though it’s very much the way of the world.
“There was one black-eyed girl that particularly liked our little
hero; and he liked her well enough, but still he wouldn’t come to the
point of making her an offer of his heart. Well, they went on flirting
and frolicking for some time, and a great many moonlight rides they
had over the snow-crust. Well, one night they were out with a party,
skimming over the vast plain, when they came to a steep ridge, and
the leader of the train of sledges must needs go over it. It was hard
work for the dogs, but they scrabbled up one after another.
“Now Nurly and his little lass were behind all the rest, and, for
some reason of their own, they were a good deal behind. However,
they ascended the hill; but, as luck would have it, just as they got to
the top, the sledge slipped aside, and tipped the pair over. The
sledge went on, and all the more swiftly that the dogs had a lighter
load; but down the hillside went Nurly and the girl, her arms around
him, as if she had been a bear and he a cub. At last they came to the
bottom with a terrible thump, the crust broke through, and in a
moment they were precipitated down some five and twenty feet!
Both were stunned; but soon recovering, they looked around. What
was their amazement to find themselves in a street, and before a
little church! Just by their side was an image of the Virgin!
“‘What can it mean?’ said Nurly.
“‘It is a warning!’ said the lass.
“‘And what must we do?’ said the other.
“‘Why, Nurly, don’t you understand?’ replied the girl.
“‘I’ll be hanged if I do,’ said the youth.
“‘Shall I tell you?’ said the girl.
“‘Certainly,’ said he.
“‘Well, Nurly,’ replied the lass, ‘we have been a good deal
together, and we like each other very well, and yet we go on, and
nothing comes of it. We dance and ride, and ride and dance, and still
nothing comes of it. Well, one night we go forth in the sledge; the
train passes on; it courses over a hill. They all go safely. You and I
alone meet with a miracle. We are hurled to the valley—we descend
into a new world; a church is before us—we are alone—saving the
presence of the blessed Virgin, and she smiles upon us.’ The girl
hesitated.
“‘Go on,’ said Nurly.
“‘Well—the Virgin smiles—and here is a church—’
“‘Well, and what of it—pray what does it all mean?’ said the fellow.
“‘You are as stupid as a block!’ said the lass, weeping.
“‘I can’t help it,’ said Nurly Nutt.
 “‘You can help it—you must help it!’ replied the girl, smartly. ‘We
must make a vow. Take my hand and say after me.’ He now obeyed.
“‘We do here take a most holy vow, before the blessed Virgin, and
at the door of the church, that we will love each other till death, and,
as soon as we can find a priest, that we will mutually pledge our
vows as man and wife, forever: and so may Heaven help us.’
“‘Whew!’ said Nurly; but at the same time he kissed his betrothed.
“They then began to look around. They saw a passage leading to
some houses. They passed along, and there found a village all
buried beneath the snow. There were paths dug out along the streets
and from house to house. Here the people dwelt, as if nothing had
happened. They had herds of deer, and plenty of bear’s meat; and
thus they lived till spring came to melt away the snow, and deliver
them from their prison. Nurly and his little wife stayed in the village till
spring, and then went to their friends. They had been given up as
lost;—so there was great rejoicing when they got back. Nurly was
laughed at a little for the advantage taken of his ignorance and
surprise by the lass of the black eyes; but he was still content, for
she made him a good little wife. He brought her all the way to
Okotsk, and settled there. It was at that place I saw him, and heard
the story. It sounds queer—but I believe it true.”
When Linsk had done, the stranger made some remarks, alluding
to his own history. Linsk, in a very respectful manner, begged him to
state the adventures of which he spoke, and the man went on as
follows:—
“I am a native of Poland. You see me here, clothed in skins, and a
mere hunter like yourselves. I am but a man, and a very poor one,
though the noblest blood of my country flows in my veins. I had a
vast estate, situated almost thirty miles from Warsaw. I there became
acquainted with a Russian princess, and loved her. My love was
returned, and we vowed fidelity to each other for life. The revolution
broke out, and I took an active part in it. My suit had been favored by
the emperor before, but now I was informed that he frowned upon
my hopes and wishes, and that he looked upon me with a special
desire of vengeance. Twice was I assailed by ruffians in the streets
of Warsaw, hired to take my life. In battle, I was repeatedly set upon
by men, who had been offered large rewards if they would kill or
capture me; but I escaped all these dangers.
“The princess whom I loved was in the Russian camp. I was one
of a party who broke in, by a desperate assault, and surrounded the
house where she dwelt. We took her captive, and carried her to
Warsaw. She was offended, and would not see me. She contrived
her escape; but I was near her all the time, even during her flight. As
we were about to part, I made myself known to her, and asked her
forgiveness. She wept, and leaned on my breast.
“Warsaw had that day fallen; the hopes of liberty had perished;
Poland was conquered; the emperor was master over the lives and
fortunes of the people, and too well did we know his cruel nature to
have any other hope than that of the gallows, the dungeon, or
Siberia.
“I told these things to the princess. She heard me, and said she
would share my fate. While we were speaking, a close carriage and
six horses came near. It was night, but the moon was shining
brightly. I perceived it to be the carriage of Nicholas, the emperor;
but at the moment I recognised it, it was set upon by four men on
horseback, who rushed out of an adjacent thicket. They were heavily
armed, and, discharging their pistols, killed the postillion and one of
the guard. There were but three of the emperor’s men left, and these
would have been quickly despatched, had I not dashed in, with my
two attendants, to the rescue. One of the robbers was killed, and the
others fled.
“Though Nicholas is harsh, he is no coward. He had just leaped
from the carriage, when the ruffians had escaped. He was perfectly
cool, and, turning to me, surveyed me for an instant. He had often
seen me at court, and I think he recognised me. ‘To whom do I owe
my safety?’ said he. ‘To a rebel!’ said I; and we parted.
“The carriage passed on. The princess had witnessed the whole
scene, though she had not been observed by the emperor’s party. I
returned to her. She seemed to have changed her mind, and begged
me to see her conducted to the emperor’s camp. ‘You are now safe,’
said she. ‘You have saved the Czar’s life, and that insures you his
forgiveness—his gratitude. I know him well. In matters of
government he is severe; but in all personal things he is noble and
generous. I will plead your cause, and I know I shall prevail. Your life,
your fortune, your honor, are secure.’
“I adopted her views, though with much anxiety. I conducted her
near to the Russian camp, and she was then taken in safety to the
Czar’s tent. Soon after, she went to St. Petersburgh, since which I
have heard nothing of her. The judgment of the enraged emperor fell
like a thunderbolt upon the insurgents of Poland. The blood of
thousands was shed upon the scaffold. Thousands were shut up in
dungeons, never more to see the light or breathe the air of heaven.
Thousands more were banished to Siberia, and myself among the
number. The emperor’s hard heart knew no mercy. Here I am, and
here, alone, am I resolved to die.”
This story was told with such energy, and with an air so lofty and
stern, as to make all the party afraid to speak. Soon after, the
stranger left the cave for a short time, as if the thoughts excited by
his narrative could not brook the confinement of the cavern. He soon
returned, and all retired to rest. In the morning the hunters took
leave, Alexis bearing with him a rich present of furs from the hermit,
several of them the finest of sables. One of these was carefully rolled
up, and Alexis was instructed in a whisper to see that, if possible, it
should be sent to the princess Lodoiska! At the same time, he was
told never to reveal the name and character of the stranger whom he
had met, and was also requested to enjoin secrecy upon his
companions.
Linsk and his party went back to their hut; and in a few weeks,
having obtained a large amount of rich furs, they took advantage of
the sledges of some Tungusians, going to Yakoutsk, and returned to
that place, making a brisk and rapid journey of several hundred miles
in a few days. Alexis little expected the news which awaited his
arrival.
 The following complimentary toast to the ladies was given at a
railroad celebration in Pennsylvania: “Woman—the morning star of
our youth; the day star of our manhood; the evening star of our old
age. God bless our stars!”
 Hay-Making.

No part of the business of farming is more pleasant than hay-

making. It is true, that to mow the grass, and make the hay in the
broiling sun of July, is rather hard work; yet, after all, hay-makers are
usually a cheerful, merry, frolicsome set of people.
There are few sounds more pleasant than those produced by the
whetting of the mower’s scythe. This proceeds from the ideas that
are associated with it. It is then that the summer flowers are in full
bloom; it is then that their sweet perfume is borne upon every
breeze; it is then that the song of the bobolink, the meadow-lark, the
oriole, and the robin, is heard from every bush, and field, and tree.
When, therefore, we hear the ringing of the mower’s scythe, ideas
of the flowers, of their fair forms, and lovely hues, and delicious
fragrance; of the birds, and their joyous minstrelsy, come thronging
into the mind, thus producing very agreeable emotions.