BROOK FARM 



951 



BROOKLYN 



fall of the Western Empire. Typical of the 

 times and the people, they often bore inscrip- 

 tions, and it is an interesting fact that the 

 oldest example of Latin now in existence is 

 inscribed on a brooch. Brooches were often 

 used, also, as a kind of amulet or talisman. 

 They are now made chiefly of gold, silver or 

 platinum, some set with jewels or decorated 

 with enamel, while others are merely engraved. 



BROOK FARM, an experiment in "brotherly 

 cooperation" which owes much of its continued 

 fame to Hawthorne's Blithedale Romance. In 

 1841 a number of the New England Transcen- 

 dentalists (see TRANSCENDENTALISM) decided to 

 put some of their theories into practice, and 

 accordingly bought at West Roxbury, Mass., 

 200 acres of land, where they organized the 

 Brook Farm community, under the direction of 

 George Ripley. The object was to prove that 

 people might live happily and inexpensively on 

 the product of their labor, and have abundance 

 of time for intellectual pursuits. Hawthorne, 

 Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Charles A. Dana, 

 George W. Curtis and Amos B. Alcott were at 

 various times members of the community, 

 working with the rest at their allotted tasks 

 for a certain period each day. All were paid 

 equally for their labor; all had the same claim 

 on the property and products of the establish- 

 ment. Of this interesting experiment Holmes 

 said that everything was common there but 

 common sense. 



At one time there were as many as seventy 

 members, and visitors from all over America 

 came to view the experiment; but financial 

 difficulties, together with the destruction of 

 the chief building by fire, led some of the 

 members to withdraw, and in October, 1847, the 

 association was dissolved. 



BROOKLINE, MASS., the wealthiest suburb 

 of Boston, also claims to be the richest and 

 most beautiful town of its size in the world. 

 The population is largely American, with a 

 mixture of Hebrews ; it increased from 27,792 in 

 1910 to 33,490 in 1915. The town is situated 

 in Norfolk County, about three miles southwest 

 of the State House in Boston, on the Boston 

 & Albany Railroad. It is also connected with 

 Boston by an electric road. The area is more 

 than six square miles. 



Brookline has long been regarded as a model 

 suburb. It is laid out as a vast park, with 

 elegant villas and country seats, beautiful gar- 

 dens and shrubbery. On the northeastern bor- 

 der of the town flows the Charles River. Fred- 

 erick Law Olmsted, the landscape gardener, 



resided here, and the floral beauty of the town 

 bears testimony to his art. Brookline is con- 

 nected with Boston Common by the boulevards 

 of the Metropolitan park system. At Clyde 

 Park are located the clubhouse and grounds of 

 the Boston Country Club, and Corey Hill 

 affords a fine .view of Boston and the surround- 

 ing country. The town hall is built of granite. 

 The library contains about 64,000 volumes. 

 The wealth of the town is estimated at $150,- 

 000,000; of this sum $17,000,000 is deposited in 

 one bank. Though chiefly a fashionable resi- 

 dential district, it has manufactories of electric 

 appliances and motors. 



Brookline was settled in 1635 under the name 

 of Muddy River, and was incorporated as a 

 town under its present name in 1705; up to 

 1793 it belonged to Suffolk County, in which 

 Boston is situated. The growth of the latter 

 city has 1 almost surrounded Brookline, and on 

 account of its great wealth many attempts have 

 been made to annex it, which so far have not 

 succeeded. The town limits include the villages 

 of Cottage Farm, Longwood and Reservoir 

 Station. s.CJ. 



BROOKLYN, N. Y., the largest city in Amer- 

 ica ever absorbed by another, was at the census 

 years of 1860, 1870 and 1880 the third com- 

 munity in size on the continent. It lost this 

 latter distinction to Chicago ten years after- 

 ward, and in 1898 gave up its individual govern- 

 ment and became a part of New York City. 

 Were it still independent it would again be 

 the third city, for it now contains more people 

 than Philadelphia. In 1910 the census reported 

 1,634,351 population, but there are now nearly 

 2,000,000 within its area. 



Though it is generally thought of as "The 

 Sleeping Room of New York," Brooklyn is also 

 a great manufacturing city, exceeding in the 

 value of its products all others but New York 

 ( Manhattan) , Chicago and Philadelphia. Espe- 

 cially famous are the mammoth sugar refineries 

 and the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where warships 

 are built. 



With the island of Manhattan, Brooklyn is 

 connected by four suspension bridges, by sub- 

 way tubes, railway tunnels and ferries. It is 

 situated on Long Island, and occupies the whole 

 of King's County. Its name survives from the 

 Dutch hamlet of Breuckelen, founded in 1636. 

 The chief influences which have kept the name 

 alive since incorporation with New York are 

 the world-famous Brooklyn Bridge and its 

 newspapers, one of which, the Brooklyn Daily 

 Eagle, was once edited by Walt Whitman. 



