The Harris-Ingram Experiment

The Harris-Ingram Experiment

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Title: The Harris-Ingram Experiment
Author: Charles E. Bolton
Release Date: October 9, 2005 [EBook #16834]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE HARRIS-INGRAM EXPERIMENT
By CHARLES E. BOLTON, M.A.
AUTHOR OF "A MODEL VILLAGE AND OTHER PAPERS,"
"TRAVELS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA," ETC.

CLEVELAND
THE BURROWS BROTHERS COMPANY
1905

TO MY WIFE SARAH KNOWLES BOLTON AND MY SON
CHARLES KNOWLES BOLTON

INTRODUCTION
This volume was ready for publication when my husband died, October
23, 1901. In it, in connection with a love story and some foreign travel,
he strove to show how necessary capital and labor are to each other. He
had always been a friend to labor, and there were no more sincere
mourners at his funeral than the persons he employed. He believed
capital should be conciliatory and helpful, and co-operate with labor in
the most friendly manner, without either party being arrogant or
indifferent.
Mr. Bolton took the deepest interest in all civic problems, and it is a
comfort to those who loved him that his book, "A Model Village and
Other Papers," came from the press a few days before his death. He had
hoped after finishing a book of travel, having crossed the ocean many
times and been in many lands, and doing some other active work in
public life, to take a trip around the world and rest, but rest came in
another way.
Sarah K. Bolton
Cleveland, Ohio.

PREFACE

Mr. W.D. Howells, in reply to a literary society in Ashtabula County,
Ohio, said that most people had within their personal experience one
book.
I have often quoted Howells's words to my best friend, who has written
a score of books, and the answer as frequently comes, "Why not write a
book yourself?" Encouraged by Howells's belief, and stimulated by the
accepted challenge of my friend, to whom I promised a completed book
in twelve months, I found time during a very busy year to pencil the
chapters that follow. Most of the book was written while waiting at
stations, or on the cars, and in hotels, using the spare moments of an
eight-months' lecture season, and the four months at home occupied by
business.
I am aware that some critics decry a novel written with a purpose.
Permit me therefore in advance to admit that this book has a double
purpose: To test the truth of Howells's words as applied to myself; and
to describe a journey, both at home and abroad, which may possibly be
enjoyed by the reader, the inconveniences of travel being lessened by
incidentally tracing a love story to a strange but perhaps satisfactory
conclusion; the whole leading to the evolution of a successful
experiment, which in fragments is being tried in various parts of the
civilized world.

CONTENTS
Chapter I
The Harrises in New York
Chapter II
Mr. Hugh Searles of London Arrives
Chapter III

A Bad Send-off
Chapter IV
Aboard the S.S. Majestic
Chapter V
Discomfitures at Sea
Chapter VI
Half Awake, Half Asleep
Chapter VII
Life at Sea a Kaleidoscope
Chapter VIII
Colonel Harris Returns to Harrisville
Chapter IX
Capital and Labor in Conference
Chapter X
Knowledge is Power
Chapter XI
In Touch with Nature
Chapter XII
The Strike at Harrisville

Chapter XIII
Anarchy and Results
Chapter XIV
Colonel Harris Follows his Family Abroad
Chapter XV
Safe Passage, and a Happy Reunion
Chapter XVI
A Search for Ideas
Chapter XVII
The Harrises Visit Paris
Chapter XVIII
In Belgium and Holland
Chapter XIX
Paris, and the Wedding
Chapter XX
Aboard the Yacht "Hallena"
Chapter XXI
Two Unanswered Letters
Chapter XXII

Colonel Harris's Big Blue Envelope
Chapter XXIII
Gold Marries Gold
Chapter XXIV
The Magic Band of Beaten Gold
Chapter XXV
Workings of the Harris-Ingram Experiment
Chapter XXVI
Unexpected Meetings
Chapter XXVII
The Crisis

THE HARRIS-INGRAM EXPERIMENT
CHAPTER I
THE HARRISES IN NEW YORK
It was five o'clock in the afternoon, when a bright little messenger boy
in blue touched the electric button of Room No. ---- in Carnegie Studio,
New York City. At once the door flew open and a handsome young
artist received a Western Union telegram, and quickly signed his name,
"Alfonso H. Harris" in the boy's book.
"Here, my boy, is twenty-five cents," he said, and tore open the
message, which read as follows:--

Harrisville,--.
_Alfonso H. Harris, Carnegie Studio, New