What ArcAdiA is For. 
“Bigelow, the trouble with you and 
your ArcAdiA is that you never get 
anywhere. You mean right and you 
work hard but, hang it all, the thing 
isn’t practical. You don’t, for example, 
tell anybody how to raise more corn to 
the acre, but advise them to look at the 
stars at night. Let me tell you that is 
all bosh. This is a practical age. You 
want to get right down to hard tacks 
and do something worth while with 
your talent and hard work. I read your 
article in ‘The Advocate’ but I do not 
see that you said a single word about 
what ArcAdiA is really for. Why, 
hang it. man, you don’t land anybody 
anywhere. You are up in the air like 
the stars.” 
So said a prominent and successful 
professional man who met me on the 
sidewalk one morning recently. He was 
smiling and emphasized his remarks by 
sundry slaps on my shoulder and a 
twinkle in the eye and a smile that told 
me he didn’t believe a word that he 
was speaking. He was trying to give 
paternal advice to a young man. Such 
conduct was so unusual, the experience 
was so novel to him. that he suddenly 
discovered that he was joking, and ran 
away. 
I took the trolley car to Sound Beach. 
On it I met a prominent man with 
genial manner, a man who is generally 
supposed from his occupation to glory 
in the supremacy of mind over matter. 
Today he was more material than 
mental. 
“Well,” he said. “I suppose you, like 
the rest of us, find it hard to get along 
nowadays. Business does seem to be 
having a pretty hard pull.” I smiled 
encouragingly as if I thought that the 
only purpose in life is to keep on 
pulling. 
“I suppose.” he continued, “that you 
know better than I do what you are 
driving at. but let me give you a few 
pointers. I was reminded of them by 
those Scheeper’s gardens. I am told 
they make a lot of money selling rasp- 
berry plants and such things. It oc- 
curred to me that you are well placed 
for that kind of business. You could 
get rich if you would join in and tell 
people how to raise things. I wouldn’t, 
if I were in your place, be fussing about 
the beauty of butterflies, but I would 
tell folks how to get rid of garden pests, 
what is the best way to raise this, that 
and the other thing ; how to take care of 
a cold frame, and oh. well, you know, 
all things along that line. People really 
want to know nowadays.” 
He then began his second chapter of 
advice, but I interrupted, “What do 
they want to know and why do they 
want to know it?” 
“There you go again. I know what 
you want me to say. You want people 
to study weeds and bugs, not how to 
raise crops. I don’t see any use in such 
swosh. Tear up the weeds. Do some- 
thing downright practical. I read your 
magazine but I don’t see anything in it 
that tells me how to do things unless 
it is to watch a bullfrog jump.” Then 
like a horse that breaks into a gallop 
he burst into laughter. 
Arrived at ArcAdiA I was looking 
over the mail when two visitors, 
women, were announced. I was de- 
lighted to meet them. They were smil- 
ing, pleasing in appearance, well 
gowned and vivacious. Almost simul- 
taneously they started but at the be- 
ginning one got the inside track, and 
pranced like this: 
“So you are Mr. Bigelow? Delighted 
to meet vou. Heard a good deal about 
you and your wonderful work here. 
Lived down on the shore all summer. 
Been up here a lot of times. Didn’t 
know till the other day there was such 
a place as ArcAdiA. A lady told me I 
