The Icarian Community at Nauvoo.
We had yesterday the pleasure of a visit from M. CABET, the founder and head of the Icarian Community at Nauvoo, Ill., and were glad to see him looking quite as young and vigorous as when we met him some three years since at Paris. He is now on his way to London, whence, if the political atmosphere is sufficiently tran-quil, he will go to France to seek justice in respect of the legal condemnations passed upon him since his absence in this country, on accu-sations and evidence which could only be enter-tained in a time of public commotion and bitter party feeling. If all is quiet, M. Cabet is confi-dent that the sentences will be reversed on his appeal.
We learn from him that the Community at Nau-voo is in a state of prosperity and that he regards it as successful; indeed, were it otherwise, he would hardly leave it for so long a time. The benefits of Association he considers are fully de-monstrated by his experiment. Greater cheap-ness of living, social happiness and intellec-tual improvement, are among these benefits, and although the Community suffers from the want of adequate capital and means of organizing the various branches of industry, it has still made satisfactory progress and is regarded by its foun-der and members as firmly established.
The Icarians, now about three hundred in num-ber, occupy fifteen acres of land in the town of Nauvoo, where are most of their workshops and residences. There too they have a kitchen garden of 10 acres. At five miles distance is their farm of 700 acres, leased lands. Of this they now have 100 acres in wheat, 150 in Indian corn, 50 in oats and 50 in barley. They have al-so in growth, nurseries, vineyards, &c., the whole requiring the constant labor of six farmers and gardeners with reinforcements from the oth-er trades in case of necessity. They keep 14 horses, 8 yoke of oxen, 30 cows and heifers and a small flock of sheep. For fuel they use wood procured en the islands in the river, belonging to the government, and brought down to Nauvoo, a distance of some five miles, on flat boats, and coal which they dig almost at their doors. They have a steam mill with two run of stone, which enables them not only to grind their own flour, but to accommodate the people in the vicinity, and two circular saws. This, with a whisky distillery adjoining, occupies some 15 men. The Community also numbers 15 tailors, 12 shoema-kers, 12 cabinet- makers, 6 carpenters, 5 coopers, 6 masons, 6 machinists, 6 printers, 2 rope makers, 2 weavers, 1 watch-maker, and 1 tanner, so that it is well provided in respect to mechanics. The tailors and shoemakers not only make clothes and shoes for the Community and its neighbors, but send their products to be sold at St. Louis, where the Community keeps a store, and where the whisky of the distillery and other surplus ar-ticles are also sent. The machinists also work as blacksmiths, and the men of the other trades find more or less employment in repairs, &c. for the people of the vicinity.
The domestic arrangements are far from com-plete, though, as is the case with every other department, they are constantly improving. The community occupy one large house with 40 apartments, in which 120 persons, married and single, have their lodgings. There are also some twenty smaller houses, four of which are occu-pied by the Schools. A large edifice, 150 feet by 60, is now nearly completed, the ground floor of which will serve as the kitchen and dining-room, with apartments above. This dining-room will accommodate above eight hundred persons at table.
The whole body now eat together except the children at school, who are served in a separate building, where they are also lodged, at some dis-tance from the common dining room, whither their meals are carried from the kitchen. The carrying of these meals being a comparatively difficult and unattractive duty, owing to the dis-tance and to the fact that in bad weather the way is muddy, it is done by the leading men of the Community. The same persons also serve the tables in the dining room. There are three meals daily, at 8 A. M. and 1 and6 ½ P. M. Meat is served at all, the severe labor of the men be-ing thought to render that necessary. The bev-erages used are water, tea and coffee. There is excellent fishing by seine in the river, which often supplies the table of the society. For a single meal 250 lbs of fish are required.
The labor of the kitchen and dining room is performed regularly by four men and three wo-men. After tea, four other women come in to help, and in this latter function all the women of the Community take turns a week at a time. On Sunday the cooks also have two other men to aid them. There is no cooking at private kitch-ens except for nurses and the sick, all the meals being prepared and taken in common.
The washing is done at a half-a-mile distance, on a little creek which flows into the Missouri. The clothes are received by two women charged with that duty; they are carried in a wagon to the wash-house, where the labor of washing is done by 14 women with the assistance of one man. After being dried they are handed over to the menders, and finally to the ironers, from whom they are again taken by the two overseers and distributed to their owners.
The Schools are far from complete, and in consequence the Community has been obliged to decline many applications which it has received for the admission of pupils from abroad. From this source, as soon as the proper arrangements are completed, the institution may derive a large income.
The affairs of the Community are discussed and decided in weekly meetings, held on Satur-day evenings, when all the members, men and women, are expected to be present. The ma-jority decides. Women take part in the deliber-ations, but not in the votes.
The Community publishes a weekly paper called The Popular Tribune, of whose merits we have before spoken. It has some three or four hundred subscribers. Most of the original arti-cles are written in French by M. Cabet and the other editors, and translated into English before going to the compositors.
Sunday is devoted to recreation, as is the habit of the French at home. The Community has among its members fifteen instrumental musi-cians, and the young people, and indeed the greater part of the other members, are trained to sing in chorus. There are dances in the open air, and the Theater within doors. A temporary stage is erected and arranged in the large dining hall, and there comedies and vaudevilles are per-formed for the amusement of both actors and audience. The children take part in the per-formances, and exclusion from the stage or the chorus on Sunday is the severest punishment that can be inflicted on the disorderly at school.
No religious ceremonies are observed in the community. M. Cabet regards his doctrine as being purely that of the Founder of Christianity. In his view, work and happiness are the best and truest worship, and a Society based on and living in equality and fraternity needs no other ritual. This, with the mode of spending Sunday, has scandalized some of the neighbors, but none who have visited the Icarians on that day have been able to deny that they seemed happier than peo-ple in the common world without.
