HOMES NEAR TO NATURE 



33i 



sibilities of the future. The founda- 

 tion of the new Assembly 1 1 all is com- 

 pleted and paid for. We need only 

 about fifteen hundred dollars to ereet 

 the building. We have land, or can 

 readily obtain it, for the new dormitory 

 that is needed, for a students' biologi- 

 cal laboratory and for an astronomical 

 observatory. We want a dormitory 

 and a dining room to accomodate at 

 least fifty students, and who knows but 

 that the time will come when we shall 

 here have such a University of Nature 

 as to recjuire accommodations for many 

 times that number. 



In the adjacent grove and the sur- 

 rounding territory, we desire to erect 

 log cabins, tents and portable buildings 

 to gratify the tastes and wishes of those 

 who shall come to make their summer 

 home with us. Building lots and 

 houses in the vicinity can be secured 

 and added to Arcadia as it shall grow. 

 It is generally recognized by the local 

 community, and by the friends of the 

 AA, that your President and his family 

 should be personally thankful for what 

 has been done, not only in saving a 

 wreck, but in putting things in a con- 

 dition far better than that in which 

 they ever were. He and his family are 

 truly grateful, but if Arcadia were to 

 end here, or if its continued existence 

 he regarded as a personal matter, that 

 would be an appalling misfortune, 

 a misfortune almost as great as 

 that which threatened us, and 

 from which we have so happily es- 

 caped. Eet it be stated, and emphati- 

 cally stated, that we are zvorking for a 

 greater Institution, not for personal ad- 

 vantages and conrforts. We want the 

 conveniences and the facilities to make 

 this important work more influential, 

 powerful and efficient in every way 

 The Institution needs more extensive 

 headquarters, greater facilities for 

 work and a greater number of co-opera- 

 tors, not only in the department of 

 finance, but in that of scientific study 

 and investigation. 



YYe lost, as we were plainly told in 

 our letters, our former Arcadia because 

 it did not furnish personal prosperity 

 to the Bigelow family. We do not 

 know how we could more convincingly 



prove that the interests of the Bigelow 

 family are only a small factor in the 

 ideal of a great and extensive Univer- 

 sity of Xature. 



We are personally comfortable now, 

 thank you, but we are more than ever 

 desirous to abrogate personal matters 

 and ambitious to go onward, carrying 

 you with us so that we all may co-op- 

 erate in building and in achieving the 

 ideals for which we have never lost a 

 particle of our devotion. Let there 

 be no misunderstanding in the future 

 The troubles of old Arcadia arose be- 

 cause others placed personal benefits 

 in advance of the ideal, and overlooked 

 the fact that the work is absolutely and 

 emphatically altruistic. The Agassiz 

 Association calls from its present van- 

 tage grounds to every one for co-op- 

 eration in its advance to things that 

 are great and really worth while. We 

 are bold enough to state that we want 

 now not a few thousand dollars to 

 overcome a calamity, for we have over- 

 come that, but that we want many 

 thousands with which to build a Univer- 

 sity of Xature. Everything in the trend 

 of affairs points that way, and urges us 

 onward. There is no better location 

 than new Arcadia for great growth in 

 this vicinity. The course of circum- 

 stances, through a series of surprises 

 to everybody who participated, seems 

 to point in one direction in a miracu- 

 lous manner. Old Arcadia was a series 

 of a continuous surprises, good and 

 bad, to your President, and so it was 

 to the patron who conceived the idea 

 of building Arcadia. He must have 

 been pleased with many things, al- 

 though he was, as he said, surprised 

 and pained, but "Through no fault of 

 yours or mine." The gift to The Uni- 

 ted Workers was astonishing to that 

 oiganization, and their disposal of the 

 property, though meeting with univer- 

 sal approval, was the greatest surprise 

 of many to your President. There has 

 been a trend of events in all the AA 

 affairs, as one looks back over its thir- 

 ty-seven years of life, that sa\ - plainly, 

 "With an increase of wealth and lei- 

 sure, we are leading to greater things 

 with the cry, 'Hack to Xature", and 

 with an increased interest in nature as 



