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Show SWINGING ' ROUND THE CIRCLE. 375 of visionaries. It was the era when communistic experiments were in operation all over the country the era immediately succeeding " Brook Farm," Communia, and Robert Owen's New Harmony Soci-ety. The Icarians, under the lead of M. Cabet, wore a uniform, had all things in common, and worked in detailed squads. But when one man, or an executive board, has to choose what work every other man shall do, it soon appears a most unnatural system as opposed to " natural selection." Here was to be seen a former college professor herding swine; there a Paris goldsmith driving oxen, and a well-known scholar, crack- brained on socialistic theories, was made assist-ant sawyer at the society's mill. It cured him, however. The Icarians failed, of course, and were in due time succeeded by a colony of Bavarians and Westphalians, who have made a great success of the wine manufac-ture. Where the great Mormon temple once stood is now a fine vine-yard, and not one of the original stones re-mains. Three of the neighboring houses are built entirely of the beautiful white rock, and the rest has made walls and foundations all over town. This wonderful structure cost between a half and three- quarters of a mill-ion dollars in money and labor, and the Icar-ians had proposed to fit it up as a social hall and school- room. But at 2 A. M. of November 10, 1848, it was found to be on fire, and before daylight every particle of woodwork was destroyed. It was set on fire in the third story of the steeple, one hundred and forty feet from the ground. The dry pine burned like tinder; there was no mode of reaching the fire, and in twenty minutes the whole wooden interior was a mass of flames. In two hours nothing remained but hot walls, inclosing a bed of em-bers. At Montrose and Fort Madison, Iowa, they could distinguish every house in Nauvoo, and the light was seen forty miles around. BURNING OF THE MORMON TEMPLE. |
