scenes he had encountered while looking after the
stories of so many short-lived Communities, had given
him a tinge of melancholy. He was indeed the "Old
Mortality" of Socialism, wandering from grave to
grave, patiently deciphering the epitaphs of defunct
"Phalanxes." We learned from him that he was a
Scotchman by birth, and a printer by trade; that he
was an admirer and disciple of Owen, and came from
the "old country" some ten years before, partly to see
and follow the fortunes of his master's experiments in
Socialism: but finding Owenism in ruins and Fourier-
ism going to ruin, he took upon himself the task of
making a book, that should give future generations
the benefit of the lessons taught by these attempts
and failures.

His own attempt was a failure. He gathered a huge
mass of materials, wrote his preface, and then died in
New York of the cholera. Our record of his last
visit is dated February, 1854.

Ten years later our attention was turned to the
project of writing a history of American Socialisms.
Such a book seemed to be a want of the times.
We remembered Macdonald, and wished that by some
chance we could obtain his collections. But we had
lost all traces of them, and the hope of recovering
them from the chaos of the great city where he died,
seemed chimerical. Nevertheless some of our asso-
ciates, then in business on Broadway, commenced
inquiring at the printing offices, and soon found
acquaintances of Macdonald, who directed them to
the residence of his brother-in-law in the city. There,
to our joyful surprise, we found the collections we were
in search of, lying useless except as mementos, and a

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