John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

[528] now and then some intellectual swell would come to pay us a visit, and he would hold a discourse or a conversation, and we were all delighted to hear him. It was like having a free lecture course every evening. But there was no communism about it. Individual liberty and independence were strictly guarded. The only thing that had the appearance of communism was the common opportunity of education and a living at the same time. Nobody could get better board than all had, and access to the means of instruction was open to every one alike; and there was a common compensation. Each man got one dollar a day, and each woman the same. That was passed to the credit of each. Each one paid for his board a certain amount; I think it was two dollars and fifty cents a week. Woman stood on the same plane as the lords of creation. A woman in that society was just as good as a man, and sometimes a great deal better.

But it didn't pay. We kept a good school, with a most extensive range of instruction, but we didn't have scholars enough, or get enough money from them. There wasn't enough money coming in. It wasn't exactly like an ordinary school, where the scholars sit around on benches and stand up when they are called on to recite. Everybody there could begin in the morning, and stay until four in the afternoon if he liked. Each pupil undertook to learn certain things, and those things he had to learn. His hours of recitation were regularly appointed, and he came knowing his lesson or else he was sent back to learn it. There was no absence of strictness in the mental discipline of the school. And yet it was a great deal freer than ordinary schools. If a young man wanted to go out and study his lesson under a tree, he had that privilege. The air of freedom and democracy about the place was one of its principal attractions. But the needed income did not materialize, and after the experiment had gone on about three years, it was concluded that we were not likely to revolutionize the social system of the world in that way. Our design was good, and we were most seriously in earnest. I never saw a more determined purpose than that pervading our membership. Here was the world suffering. The same complaints