DUKE UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 The Glenn Negley Collection 
 of Utopian Literature 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 Duke University Libraries 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/utopiaachievednoOObrin 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 A NOVEL OF THE FUTURE 
 
 BY 
 
 HERMAN HINE BRINSMADE 
 
 COVER BY MAURER 
 
 BROADWAY PUBLISHING CO. 
 
 885 Broadway 
 NEW YORK 
 
Copyright, 1912, 
 
 By 
 
 Herman H. Brinsmade. 
 
R6^ 
 
 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Quickly and gracefully the White Flyer steamed 
 into Newark Bay and up the Passaic River to its pier, 
 after having made an uneventful passage of five days 
 from Melbourne via the Panama Canal. It was late 
 summer and the boat was thronged with returning 
 tourists, who crowded the upper decks eagerly strain- 
 ing their eyes to catch a first glimpse of some loved 
 one from whom they had been long separated. 
 
 A little apart from the others on the upper deck 
 stood a sturdy white-whiskered man apparently closely 
 crowding upon three score years and ten, although 
 time had manifestly dealt kindly with him, and even 
 in age his form was arrow-like, his step elastic and 
 his general bearing not unlike that of a soldier. 
 
 As skyscraper after skyscraper towered aloft in the 
 Jersey city, and on all sides were seen gigantic fac- 
 tories teeming with industry, he beheld like one in a 
 dream, eagerly drinking in every sight that presented 
 itself. 
 
 "You seem much interested in viewing the scen- 
 ery," ventured a fellow passenger. "I take it that 
 this is your first trip to America." 
 
 3 
 
4 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 "No, no indeed, stranger," came the quick response. 
 "I am proud to say that this is my native land. I 
 was born in the good old state of Vermont, St. Al- 
 bans, Vt.," he added half fondly. "I, however, left 
 the country when a youth of twenty, in 19 10, just 
 fifty years ago, in order to carve out a fortune for 
 myself in far off Australia. Now it is with mingled 
 feelings of pleasure and disappointment that I once 
 more see the land of my boyhood, but oh, so 
 changed !" 
 
 "Yes, things have been moving pretty lively the last 
 few years in the metropolis. I can myself remember 
 back twenty-five years with ease, and that period has 
 been one of magic growth and expansion, but as for 
 fifty years, why that is way beyond my imagination." 
 
 "Yes," exclaimed the stranger, "I have as yet to see 
 New York, but thus far I have been revelling as one 
 in a dream at the development on the Jersey shore. 
 This new waterway amazes me — the opening of the 
 harbor of Newark to ocean going vessels. In 1910 it 
 had been discussed, but was then only a misty dream." 
 
 "It was an actual economic necessity, for the water 
 front of New York, although extending many miles 
 up the Hudson, many years ago became too congested 
 for the commerce of the greatest city of the world. 
 Then at a cost of many millions, the Passaic River 
 was dredged out, straightened and broadened. A 
 similar development of a deep harbor took place at 
 Jamaica Bay and in fact all along the Long Island 
 shore as far out as Babylon. Now three-quarters of 
 the ocean traffic, the freight and passenger piers and 
 
UTOPIA 'ACHIEVED 5 
 
 terminals are either in Newark or on the south shore 
 of Long Island." 
 
 "Well," mused the stranger, "it certainly is wonder- 
 ful. When I left, Newark was a bottled-up town, so 
 far as commerce by water was concerned, having a 
 population of about 300,000." 
 
 The man at his side laughed. "Three hundred 
 thousand ! Why Newark has now close to 2,000,000 
 and she would have vastly more, but as yet she has 
 never annexed Jersey City, Harrison, or Elizabeth, 
 although annexation has often been discussed." 
 
 The big vessel was now nearing the huge steel 
 pier, the terminal of the Australian-American line. 
 "Where do you stop in New York?" queried the fel- 
 low passenger of the aged traveller. 
 
 "Why I think I shall look up an old favorite haunt 
 of mine of half a century ago, the Hotel Astor at 
 Broadway and Forty-fourth Street." he replied. 
 
 A long, surprised laugh escaped the lips of the 
 younger man. "Hotel Astor ! Why that building, all 
 very well as it was in its day, long since was razed to 
 the ground. On its site now stands the union ter- 
 minals of the United Aero Company. It is there that 
 the entire suburban airship service of greater New 
 York centers." 
 
 It was now the turn for the other man to look sur- 
 prised. "Hotel Astor gone ! Its site the terminal for 
 an aero line," he murmured. "Strange, strange days 
 are these." 
 
 In less than half an hour, aged Thomas Harring- 
 ton was hurried through the Hudson tube of the 
 
6 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 Pennsylvania and arrived at the giant Pennsylvania 
 terminal. Here another surprise awaited him. He 
 expected quite naturally to arrive at the station at 
 Seventh Avenue and Thirty-third Street. Much was 
 his surprise at alighting in the huge train shed and 
 walking into the largest railroad terminal building he 
 had ever seen, to be informed that he was now at 
 Broadway and One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street. 
 Long since, he was told, the old Pennsylvania station 
 at Seventh Avenue and Thirty-third Street had been 
 supplanted by the huge new terminal at Harlem, as 
 Harlem was now the center of the city. 
 
 It was evening and the returned wanderer was 
 much fatigued from his long journey. In response to 
 his query as to a good hotel, he was directed by a uni- 
 formed station guide to a hotel nearly opposite the 
 terminal on One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street. 
 
 "In New York again, but oh, so changed !" half 
 murmured Harrington when a half hour later that 
 evening he sat in the lobby of the Cosmopolitan Hotel 
 and watched the passing throng from the front win- 
 dows. 
 
 "Wonderful city, isn't it?" remarked admiringly a 
 pleasant-faced man at his side, who like himself was 
 beholding the ever surging throng in the street in 
 front of the hotel with undisguised enthusiasm. 
 
 "It certainly is," was the rejoinder, "but after an 
 absence of fifty years, I see almost no trace thus far 
 of the old New York that I once knew so well." 
 
 "Fifty years, did you say?" exclaimed the stranger, 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 7 
 
 a low whistle escaping his lips, "did you say fifty 
 years?" 
 
 "Yes, fifty years almost to the day I have been in 
 Australia and have never once seen New York in all 
 this period." 
 
 "Well I have myself been away from the city nearly 
 six months and the changes almost dumbfound me, 
 but fifty years — well, that is a long time." 
 
 "How large is New York now?" 
 
 "The greater city, by that is meant the newly-an- 
 nexed adjacent territory, comprising Westchester 
 county, Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, 
 all of which is now New York, contains by the latest 
 census report approximately 20,000,000. As you of 
 course know, nearly two decades ago, New York out- 
 distanced London and is now the metropolis of the 
 world, the English city having grown much slower of 
 late and now possesses little more than 11,000,000 
 people." 
 
 The speaker was manifestly warming up to his 
 subject. "Yes the growth of this city has amazed the 
 world. Now less than half the 20.000.000 comprising 
 this city live south of the Harlem River. But a few 
 years ago, One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street 
 was called the heart of the city. Now that honor is 
 claimed by the borough of the Bronx, and in the near 
 future the former city of Yonkers will in all proba- 
 bility comprise the real heart of the metropolis." 
 
 "With such a vast area covered by the city, I should 
 think the problem of transportation would be most 
 
8 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 difficult — it certainly was the biggest problem for the 
 city fathers to wrestle with in the old days," remarked 
 Harrington. 
 
 "It has been a big problem for every city with an 
 extensive area to solve," was the reply. "New York- 
 many years ago set out to solve it with a subway and 
 elevated systems. Quickly these became inadequate. 
 Then a second subway was sunk beneath the first. 
 This assisted in handling the crowds for a time, but 
 only temporarily. Then a third subway, sunk far 
 deeper than the other two, was excavated. Mean- 
 while the elevated went through a similar transfor- 
 mation. A second and later a third story was added, 
 each elevation having tracks for the running of trains. 
 But what has been the real salvation of the New 
 Yorker who lives in the suburbs is the admirable aero 
 service. This centers at Longacre Square, the site of 
 the old Hotel Astor, which you may remember. Here 
 the United Aero Co. has its terminals, covering a solid 
 square. From here "aeros" completely cover the 
 metropolitan section, all the territory as far north a-; 
 Poughkeepsie being in the commuting district, all as 
 far east as New Haven and Patchogue and Port Jef- 
 ferson on Long Island, Philadelphia on the south and 
 Easton, Pa., on the west. Very frequent service is 
 given and the rate very low. Express "aeros" make 
 Poughkeepsie in an hour's time from the Longacre 
 terminal, and these fast through airships run every 
 hour, the commuting rate being fifty cents for the 
 round trip. As low rates and as fast time are to be 
 had to suburban points east, west and south. Besides 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 9 
 
 these express airships, there are a very great number 
 of local "aeros" stopping- all along the route at sub- 
 stations erected uniformly at distances of one every 
 eighth of a mile. The real explanation of New York's 
 present pre-eminence is attributable chiefly to her suc- 
 cessful employment of the Edison aeroplane for sub- 
 urban traffic. It has solved the housing and trans- 
 porting problem of a great city. Her bridges to 
 Brooklyn and to Jersey are no longer crowded, and 
 the subways and elevated are at last adequate to the 
 demand put upon them." 
 
 "But how did you come to leave the United States 
 for far away Australia?" curiosity beginning to pre- 
 sent itself to the speaker. 
 
 "The story was a simple one. I was but twenty, 
 a clerk in a New York department store. I saw be- 
 fore me in America no future save as a humble clerk 
 for the remainder of my days. I read much and pon- 
 dered much upon the sociological problems of the 
 day. New York seemed to me to be a duplicate of 
 Rome at her worst. All suffering humanity seemed 
 to be crying out against the preposterous conduct of 
 the rich. Money madness, trust domination, social 
 inequality, were the crying ills of the hour. The price 
 of living suddenly advanced nearly 75 per cent. The 
 outlook for the poor working man looked never more 
 ominous. Underneath the glittering glamor of the 
 plethoric rich could be felt the cry, ever unrecognized, 
 of the down-trodden soul whose faithful efforts large- 
 ly created this wealth, asking for but a crust of bread 
 to provide his daily sustenance. 
 
io UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 "Thoroughly out of sorts with the world, as it was 
 constituted politically and socially in the United 
 States in 1910, I was seized with a desire, far from 
 the scenes of my early life, to try to carve out a new 
 future. Not even my sweetheart could prevail upon 
 me to remain here. Bidding her an affectionate but 
 sad adieu, I cast my lot in far off Australia. Only 
 now am I once more back again to my native heath. 
 Fortune has smiled upon me at last and I am back to 
 renew the memories of childhood and try to see once 
 more the sweetheart of my early life." 
 
 "Well you have certainly had a romantic career," 
 declared his listener. "It has been an interest- 
 ing story to me. I am glad to state that conditions 
 to-day are in no way as bad as those you have just 
 shown to have existed in 1910. I sincerely believe 
 there is less want, better health and all round more 
 general happiness of the kind that makes life really 
 worth living in the country to-day than ever previous 
 in her history. Cut come, it is getting late. I shall 
 be only too glad to talk with you to-morrow. I rep- 
 resent an electric heater company in Boston and am 
 in and out of the city usually every few months. If 
 I can be of any service to you, feel free to command 
 me. My name is Tom Heatherton and I am surely 
 glad to have had the pleasure of meeting you." 
 
 Glad to find a friendly soul in, to him, a strange 
 land, the aged traveller gave his new-found friend his 
 card. Then they shook hands and parted for the 
 night. 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED n 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Thoroughly tired from his long trip, Mr. Har- 
 rington had not even cared to take the trouble to go 
 up to his new quarters in the hotel. He had asked, 
 upon registering, that a comfortable three-room suite 
 be set aside for his use and was informed that his 
 orders would be obeyed. 
 
 Now he was anxious to retire at the earliest possi- 
 ble moment. Summoning a bell boy, he asked to be 
 shown to his suite at once. Into a swiftly moving 
 elevator he was escorted and in a trice alighted on 
 the fiftieth floor. An instant later he was shown into 
 a well appointed room. 
 
 "Here, boy/' he cried, "I did not order a single 
 room. I engaged a suite." 
 
 "Certain you are, boss," replied the lad confi- 
 dently, "sure you're right in one of the best three- 
 room suites in all New York at this very instant." 
 Thereupon the lad touched a spring in the wall. In- 
 stantly, like the shifting of the scenes at a well ap- 
 pointed playhouse, the sides of the room began to 
 swing on a pivot set near the center. The furniture 
 was disclosed to be fastened to the walls securely. 
 Thus the lad revolved the sides, in a twinkling the 
 lounging room was instantly transformed into a well- 
 kept bedroom. Every article of bedroom furniture 
 was present from bed to commode, dresser, chairs 
 and shaving table. 
 
12 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 "Should you want your meals in your rooms, just 
 ring for me and I can instantly fix this same room 
 into a dining room," declared the boy. 
 
 "You see you have your three-room suite, but it is 
 all made by shifting the sides of the same room. 
 Nearly every hotel and apartment house in New York 
 uses this system. Space is so mighty valuable, it's got 
 to be a necessity to do so," he added by way of ex- 
 planation. 
 
 Here indeed was a new wrinkle for the Austra- 
 lian, who by this time had begun to feel like one 
 awakening from a Rip Van Winkle sleep. 
 
 Bright and early the next morning Mr. Harrington 
 was aroused by the roar of the traffic in the street be- 
 low. Springing out of bed with an agility commend- 
 able for one of his years, he began dressing with the 
 eagerness of a boy preparing for a day's vacation. 
 
 Although the morning was to all appearances a 
 sultry one, the room was delightfully cool, due to the 
 fact that the entire house was equipped with a cooling 
 device whereby the entire air of the room was cooled 
 every half hour, not only affording perfect ventila- 
 tion, but also causing the occupant to forget summer's 
 sultry heat. 
 
 Once dressed, Harrington walked to the side of the 
 room where by placing a nickel in a slot, his shoes 
 were quickly and faultlessly shined with the care of 
 a street bootblack, all by means of mechanical brushes 
 operated by electricity. 
 
 Before him stood the menuophone. At last here 
 was something with which he was familiar, for the 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 13 
 
 best hostelries of Melbourne all employed them. By 
 their use the guest was enabled to talk his order into 
 what to all intents resembled a phonograph. Five 
 minutes later, should he so wish, the table near the 
 center of the room would open automatically and with 
 the care of a faithful waitress, display temptingly be- 
 fore him the various eatables that he had ordered for 
 his first meal of the day. Wonderful as this inven- 
 tion was, he had long since become so familiar with 
 it that it possessed little interest for him. Harrington 
 started for the elevator on his way to the hotel din- 
 ing room. Once there, he was by chance assigned to 
 the same table as his acquaintance of the night before. 
 
 "Ah ! Glad to see you up so bright after your long 
 journey," was the salutation. 
 
 "Oh, I always rise early. I adhere to the homely 
 maxim, 'early to bed, early to rise/ etc. It has put 
 many dollars in my pocket." 
 
 "Speaking of dollars recalls to my mind our con- 
 versation of last night and the deplorable economic 
 conditions, social discontent, high cost of living, etc., 
 which you say existed in 1910. Now since then there 
 has been no bloodshed, no revolution in the generally 
 accepted sense of the word, no class outbreaks, yet 
 in this past half century there has, in actuality, gone 
 into effect, I am assured from what I have read, a 
 real substantial readjustment of things economic. The 
 American citizen, rich and poor, has at last really 
 learned hoz<.' to eat. I thoroughly believe that one of 
 the chief causes of the high cost of living and general 
 social discontent some years ago was due to the ill- 
 
i 4 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 regulated American stomach. To put it in the words 
 of a man long since deceased, now oft quoted for his 
 wide philanthropy, John D. Rockefeller, writing of 
 the early part of the twentieth century, "It is not the 
 high cost of living so much as high living that is the 
 reason that the average laboring man finds his purse 
 empty in the middle of the week, and the Saturday 
 pay day far in the distance. 
 
 "Now this is typical of the first class American 
 hotel — note the table d'hote menu for breakfast," 
 pointing at the same time to an illuminated card at 
 the side of the table. "Look at this: 
 
 Tomato Soup 
 Baked Sweet Potatoes 
 Creamed Carrots 
 Florida Grape Fruit 
 Cocoa 
 
 "What do you think would have been thought of 
 such .a morning menu at the Astor a few years ago ?" 
 
 "Well it certainly would have failed in popularity 
 with the majority of its fashionable patrons." 
 
 "Exactly. They would have thought the meal 
 pretty skimpy for a starter for the day's work. Par- 
 ticularly would they have revolted against the absence 
 of meat in some form. America is now becoming 
 noted as the land of simple, nourishing diet, with a 
 decided tendency toward vegetarianism. Aided by 
 the federal bureau of health, which has established 
 experimentation stations in all the large cities, to 
 show the rich and poor alike how to get the most 
 nourishment, the maximum strength and health pro- 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 15 
 
 during elements from the least amount of food, the 
 public has approached very nearly to a solution of a 
 very important problem. It has resulted in cutting 
 down the average laboring man's grocery bill fully 
 one-half, with no corresponding sacrifice, but rather 
 a bettering of health. It has nearly doubled the aver- 
 age man's dollar, which while of small moment to the 
 rich man, is all important to the poor man." 
 
 "Well I am certainly glad to know that the national 
 health bureau has worked out so well. Its founda- 
 tion was under discussion when I was a young man 
 here. Food reform was then, also, taking its first 
 shape. Horace Fletcher gave up an Italian villa and 
 a life of ease and luxury in order to take a humble 
 house on the congested East Side of New York in 
 order to teach the poor 'how to chew' or, in the par- 
 lance of the time, Tletcherize.' By many his course 
 was considered the pet hobby of an earnest but mis- 
 guided rich man. 
 
 "Indeed time has shown that he was a true pioneer. 
 What he demonstrated in the way of economy and 
 efficiency in diet has been hundreds and thousands of 
 times proved by experiments of the federal health 
 bureau." 
 
 By this time the two had finished breakfast, which 
 frugal as it at first seemed, apparently satisfied the 
 guests. 
 
 "I want to see New York right. As I can not do 
 so in the subways or air lines, I think I will take a 
 trolley ride about town a bit," declared Mr. Harring- 
 ton. 
 
16 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 "Trolley ! Well I guess you will have to go farther 
 than New York to find a trolley. The last trolley 
 was discarded ten years ago. The 'mono' is what 
 you want." 
 
 "Can it be that New York is so far ahead of Mel- 
 bourne? We have still a net work of trolleys there. 
 As yet we have no mono railroads." 
 
 "They are the only kinds of surface roads in New 
 York now. They have been adopted because they are 
 far cheaper to build and operate than the old trolley, 
 being provided with a storage battery to generate 
 their own electricity. Then, too, they are far faster 
 than a trolley. While in the city their speed is regu- 
 lated by ordinance to a comparatively slow rate, out- 
 side the city where they are used as interurbans, as 
 they now are almost uniformly, they are able to make 
 with ease sixty miles an hour, a speed that no trolley 
 could hope to maintain. 
 
 "My best wishes for a pleasant day," called out the 
 salesman in parting. 
 
 'Walking to the nearest corner, Mr. Harrington 
 boarded, as his friend had told him, a monorail car. 
 He heeded little the direction so long as he got a 
 glimpse of the city. 
 
 It chanced that the car was a northbound one, go- 
 ing up Broadway as far as Tarrytown. What was 
 his amazement to gaze upon ten, fifteen and twenty- 
 five story office buildings far up beyond Yonkers. 
 Getty Square in Yonkers to him resembled Times 
 Square in the olden days. Here was what gave evi- 
 dence of being at night another "great white way." 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 17 
 
 The car kept on its speedy course. Beyond Yon- 
 kers the retail stores began to be fewer and fewer 
 and the car soon emerged into what gave evidence of 
 being a most attractive suburban residence section, 
 not the mansions of the rich, but the homes of the 
 middle class. These were invariably of cement and 
 artistic in construction. Around each were good 
 specimens of very correct landscape gardening. 
 
 "Edison's homes pumped up into moulds and built 
 in a day,"' was the reply elicited from the conductor 
 to whom he appealed to know more of these novel 
 and apparently model little homes. 
 
 "They cost, such ones as you see there, detached 
 cottages of two story and attic, having around seven 
 rooms each, approximately $800 each,'' was the infor- 
 mation volunteered. 
 
 One thing struck the visitor as peculiar, hardly a 
 residence that he had seen anywhere around New 
 York possessed a chimney. In the good old days of 
 course a chimney was a prime requisite and in his 
 adopted Australia, chimneys were everywhere pres- 
 ent. Xew York, however, had apparently outgrown 
 them. He curiously called the attention of the street 
 car conductor to the fact. 
 
 The latter eyed him up suspiciously a moment as 
 if he beheld a curiosity of the antediluvian age. 
 "Why, man," he replied, when he had completed his 
 scrutiny, "folks don't have chimneys in New York. 
 It ain't allowed. The city ordinance says they can't 
 have any, and if it was allowed no one would want 
 anv. Evervone uses electric heaters and electric 
 
18 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 ranges. The price of electricity is just about a third 
 that of wood, coal or gas. It is far cleaner and bet- 
 ter. Danger from fire is much less than it ever was 
 with chimneys and the old fashioned fires. Then, 
 too, the smoke nuisance is about done away with 
 through the use of electricity." 
 
 Now and then Harrington would look upward and 
 observe the passage silently and swiftly as an arrow, 
 of the fast moving aero. Now and then the "mono" 
 would stop at an aero terminal, great chimney-like 
 looking structures, built plainly of brick, piercing the 
 clouds like the tower of Babel of old. Inside these 
 structures were elevators providing quick transporta- 
 tion to the upper regions. As these terminals were 
 reached, the conductor on the "mono" called them 
 out, each bearing a number in regular rotation as the 
 distinguishing feature. Whenever desired, the con- 
 ductor gave transfers to the airships, as both were 
 controlled by the same company, the United Aero 
 Company. 
 
 How strange did it all seem to see a passenger on 
 the surface car obtain a transfer to the clouds and. 
 upon reaching the desired terminal of the aero line, 
 transfer and continue in the clouds a trip begun on 
 terra firma. 
 
 In all, the morning was one never to be forgotten 
 by the returned traveller. It was like Aladdin's 
 dream. Barely could he believe the testimony of his 
 eyes as his gaze rested upon the visible evidences of 
 half a century's progress. 
 
 With all the manifestations of astounding growth. 
 
V TOP I A ACHIEVED 19 
 
 there was manifestly lacking the dazzling evidences 
 of gorgeous display of wealth. All the homes he had 
 seen in upper New York were distinguished by their 
 modesty and good taste. They bore evidences very 
 apparently of belonging to the middle class of society- 
 While gaudy display of opulence was absent, so was 
 all trace of abject want. "The era of the great com- 
 mon people has dawned in America," thought Har- 
 rington. "God bless the day." 
 
 In each borough passed through were large, com- 
 modious structures showing up most prominently. 
 
 "Those, why they are the branches of the national 
 health bureau. Busy hives of industry they are, too. 
 They keep a close check on all impure foods sold by 
 stores and groceries and watch for all infringements 
 of the pure food laws. They also have a staff of doc- 
 tors to give free medical advice to the public. In an- 
 other department they are constantly carrying on ex- 
 periments as to the best ways of cooking foods and 
 trying to find out the best suited diets for the public. 
 Busy places they are and they do a heap of good, 
 too," he added. 
 
 Another feature that impressed Harrington sur- 
 prisingly was the lack of vacant lots in the suburban 
 boroughs sandwiched in between the buildings as had 
 customarily been the case years before. Nearly every 
 town passed through was built up almost solidly, 
 there being practically no vacant lots, until vacant 
 spaces were reached, all located in a mass in the 
 breathing spots between the towns and villages. 
 
 "The single tax can be thanked for that, as well as 
 
20 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 for a whole lot of the present prosperity," replied a 
 man on the seat with Harrington and with whom he 
 had become engaged in a casual conversation. "The 
 single tax has now been tried out in this country thor- 
 oughly for the last ten years when, by a constitutional 
 amendment, it was voted to give the experiment a 
 trial. It most certainly has made good to an excep- 
 tional degree." 
 
 Just about the noon hour, somewhat tired from his 
 long ride, Harrington alighted near his hotel. The 
 morning had been one of deep interest and inspira- 
 tion. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The long, widely diversified trip of sight seeing of 
 the morning had fatigued Harrington considerably 
 and he resolved to rest in his suite of rooms for a 
 time at midday. First, however, he bethought him- 
 self that he was sorely in need of a shave. In re- 
 sponse to his question as to the whereabouts of a bar- 
 ber, he was told that his best course was to patronize 
 the automatic barber in his room. 
 
 A few minutes later he was pressing a button in 
 the wall of his marvellous "folding apartment" and, 
 reclining in a chair, experienced the novelty of a me- 
 chanical shave by a safety razor worked by electric- 
 ity. Lathering, shaving, and even hot towels were 
 applied with the care of a most conscientious barber. 
 At first Harrington was inclined to be skeptical, but 
 his courage returned when he observed the consum- 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 21 
 
 mate skill which characterized every movement of the 
 machine. It is needless to say not a drop of blood 
 was spilled. A side lever was labelled "hair cut," 
 even this delicate operation being performed by the 
 almost human machine. 
 
 The shave having been accomplished satisfactorily, 
 Harrington proceeded to enjoy another convenience 
 of the mid-twentieth century. This was one by no 
 means new to him, for Melbourne hotels nearly all 
 possessed this luxury. Again stepping to the wall of 
 his room, he pressed another lever and in a twinkling 
 a phonograph began to reel off to him the news of 
 the day as contained in the noon editions of the New 
 York papers. Resting quietly on the bed, it was in- 
 deed a luxury to hear the news of the day without 
 the physical effort of reading the paper one's self. 
 This machine was also most delicately constituted. 
 Different levers regulated the different departments 
 of the paper. So were one to wish the sporting 
 news, all that was required was to throw a side lever 
 to "Sports." The same was true of "Markets," "Tel- 
 egraphs." "Classified Ads," "Woman's Dept," etc. 
 
 After a short rest, Harrington rang for a boy who 
 in response to his request, magically transformed the 
 bed chamber into a well appointed dining room. Every 
 article of furniture revolved into place with the 
 swinging of the walls. There was a handsome ma- 
 hogany table, a mahogany sideboard to match, as well 
 as buffet. Great carved mahogany dining chairs were 
 set in place. On the floor was an oriental rug of rich 
 design. The dishes were the finest of Haviland, the 
 
22 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 entire outfit, so Harrington later learned, belonged to 
 his suite and were always there concealed in the walls 
 for prompt service. 
 
 As the well appointed dining room came into place, 
 something well nigh a feeling of loneliness overcame 
 the traveller for an instant. Here was this handsome 
 apartment, this well ordered dining room, but who 
 was there to enjoy it with him? The loneliness of 
 bachelorhood oppressed him. What good was his 
 money and all this luxury to him now? After all, 
 wasn't his life worse than wasted? 
 
 Brushing aside what closely resembled a tear, he 
 quickly assumed his usually dignified bearing, and 
 taking up the receiver of the menuophone, located 
 near the center of the table, he placed his order with 
 the silent waitress, a most fitting adjunct to a man of 
 solitude like himself. 
 
 A few seconds later, with such dispatch as was 
 never known to have been possessed by a human 
 waitress of the old days, the repast was served. It 
 differed little from the morning meal. The omission 
 of meat especially caused the guest to marvel. 
 
 After luncheon, at the invitation of the proprietor 
 of the hotel, Harrington was introduced to the intri- 
 cacies of a hostelry of the middle of the twentieth 
 century. 
 
 At the outset, he was informed that the hotel pos- 
 sessed 5,000 rooms. When the visitor marvelled at 
 the number, he was informed that in reality there 
 were but 1,000, but that the 5,000 were made possible 
 through the fact that five different rooms could be 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 23 
 
 created out of a single room by the shifting of the 
 sides of the wall just as had been done in the case in 
 his own suite. Thus many families rented a single 
 room and out of this had successively, when occasion 
 demanded, a bedroom, dining room, living room, 
 kitchen and bath. 
 
 In the basement was a huge electric furnace which 
 heated the entire building. A refrigerating plant 
 kept every room in both summer and winter at the 
 uniform temperature of 70 degrees. 
 
 The entire hotel laundry and the laundry of the 
 guests was quickly and automatically done, not a per- 
 son being required after the electric washer was 
 started. In like manner, the clothes were dried by 
 electric fans within the short space of five minutes. 
 Ironing also was by electricity. 
 
 Cooking and dish washing again was a matter of 
 the employment of an electric machine. A wire bas- 
 ket gathered up dirty dishes mechanically and by 
 means of a carrier system, not unlike a miniature 
 trolley, were conveyed to the kitchen where the bas- 
 ket, dishes and all, were passed through caldrons 
 filled with boiling water. Later they were rinsed in 
 a spray of clean hot water, then sterilized in a jet 
 of steam and mechanically returned to their respective 
 places on the pantry shelf, all inside of two minutes 
 and all without having once been touched by a human 
 hand. 
 
 In the second basement was a commodious station 
 of the second subway, while on the roof was a fully 
 as convenient station for aeros. In this way, passen- 
 
24 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 gers could leave the subway, go up the elevator to 
 the roof, and there use their transfers to the air sys- 
 tem, all without leaving the confines of the Cosmo- 
 politan Hotel. 
 
 Despite the vast size of the hotel, Harrington was 
 informed that one hundred only were employed there, 
 whereas under the old, laborious, non-labor saving 
 method of running hostelries, fully 500 would have 
 been required to care for so elaborate an establish- 
 ment. 
 
 The afternoon had been an entertaining and profit- 
 able one, and Harrington was well pleased with the 
 expenditure of time. He had seen more modern 
 wonders. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The real surprise of the returned wanderer was 
 yet to come. This came about when he started out 
 to see the congested east side as it had been generally 
 known a half century previous. 
 
 After much inquiring and several changes of sub- 
 way trains, Mr. Harrington alighted at the corner of 
 the Bowery and Grand Street. Great was his sur- 
 prise to see the former a model residence street, as 
 were all the cross streets, comprising once the most 
 congested part of New York. 
 
 Here again predominated cement houses of the Edi- 
 son type such as he had seen in the morning in the 
 northern part of the city. Few were more than 
 three stories, and two story and attic seemed to be the 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 25 
 
 favorite. Each was surrounded by tiny but well kept 
 lawns, their individuality breaking the otherwise mo- 
 notonous similarity of houses. Strange, too, for so 
 valuable a section, so far as the intrinsic value of the 
 real estate was concerned, the houses were for the 
 most part detached. Here and there in his bewildered 
 walk through the side streets, he discovered parks 
 and playgrounds. In one of the parks he was at- 
 tracted to an heroic statue of a man under whose out- 
 stretched arms was a group of poorly clad, anaemic 
 looking men, women and children. 
 
 "In loving memory of our friend and benefactor, 
 Horace Fletcher, who unselfishly came among us 
 when we were ahungered and athirst and pointed out 
 to us the real way of living." 
 
 "Erected April 8, 1930, by the citizens of the East 
 Side." 
 
 The crying crowds of homeless, tattered, famished, 
 which years before had thronged the sidewalks and 
 blocked the streets — their only breathing spot and 
 home — often, had gone. Only order, peace and 
 plenty marked what had once been the squalid homes 
 of New York's outcast poor. 
 
 Within a half dozen blocks were two large munici- 
 pal bath houses. Inquiry revealed the fact that each 
 possessed separate apartments for men and women, 
 and not only were there accommodations for personal 
 ablutions, but also each place was provided with laun- 
 dries where a poor woman or working girl could, if 
 she were financially unable to pay a washerwoman or 
 laundry, bring her soiled linen, and with the free ad- 
 
26 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 juncts of fine cement tubs, abundance of hot water, 
 electric drying and ironing equipment, do her own 
 washing without the expenditure of a penny. 
 
 A hasty, aimless walk through the district brought 
 Harrington to the corner of Mott and Pell Streets, 
 the old heart of Chinatown. Great was his surprise 
 to see a huge building, which later proved to be a 
 branch of the federal health bureau, standing on the 
 site. Broad streets had replaced the former narrow 
 winding lanes, and all traces of an oriental quarter 
 were obliterated. Instead, this too, was a good resi- 
 dential section of the poorer class. Skyscraper tene- 
 ments, each with a court and fountain, the model ten- 
 ements of the dream of optimists of the early part of 
 the century, were here. 
 
 Curiosity being on the ascendency, Harrington en- 
 tered the front door of the health building. A guide 
 in uniform met him and asked what department he 
 desired to visit. After assuring that his visit was 
 only one of inspection, he was politely ushered into 
 the private office of the manager. Quickly Harring- 
 ton made himself known and the purpose of his call. 
 
 "So you want to know more about the federal bu- 
 reau of health. You know it was started in 19 13 
 after years of discussion, political wire pulling, and 
 hostility in general. That it has vindicated itself, its 
 excuse for existence, I think you can see for your- 
 self. It is by no means infallible; it has made mis- 
 takes and now every day makes mistakes, but through 
 experimentation it is trying to work out the physical 
 betterment of humanity. 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 27 
 
 "Up to 1913, a very astonishing condition of affairs 
 existed. The average citizen was the most concerned 
 person in the world about the proper feeding of his 
 horses, cows, pigs, and other dumb animals, and the 
 public treasury at great expense and painstaking de- 
 tail, carefully experimented as to the proper rations 
 for feeding animals and with the greatest care studied 
 the cause and prevention of diseases and mortality 
 among these, but when it came to the human animal, 
 no thought was expended on his food and health. A 
 hog was worth perhaps $30, provided he was a good 
 hog, a human was not worth thirty cents to save from 
 disease and death. 
 
 "Now, fortunately, all this has changed. Congress 
 makes a yearly appropriation adequate to the needs of 
 the department. We have a corps of able, practical 
 physicians. They advise all who come as to their 
 health free of charge. Those who cannot come in 
 person, either secure advice by mail or the physician 
 calls in person. All the advice is shaped "to lock the 
 stable door before the horse is stolen.' The aim is to 
 prevent rather than cure disease. We advise not 
 drugs but a simple, hygienic life, baths, exercise, pure 
 water, and above all, correct eating. Three-quarters 
 of the attention of the department is directed toward 
 the analysis of foods to determine their correct weight 
 and purity, and last and most important, the actual 
 experimentation to determine the best balanced food, 
 the most wholesome, the least expensive, the most 
 health producing. 
 
 "Years ago there was much talk about high prices 
 
28 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 and the generally unsatisfactory economic condition 
 of the laboring man," ventured Harrington. 
 
 "Time has shown that the real fault of the times of 
 which you allude was not so much high cost of living 
 as high living — the restless desire of the throng to 
 ape the luxurious display of the idle rich. The mid- 
 dle class has at last awoke to an understanding that 
 such living provokes but three things — ill health, a 
 chronic condition of empty pocketbook, and general 
 discontent. 
 
 "Perhaps you do not know, but the same is a fact 
 proved by statistics gathered by this bureau, that the 
 average working man's family of four expends but a 
 little less than four dollars a week for food. Com- 
 pare that with conditions some years ago. First the 
 public has been taught to almost entirely depend upon 
 vegetarian fare, eliminating the expensive, and too 
 often disease producing, flesh foods known as meat. 
 We have taught the public that they do not require 
 meat and are better off without it. Greater efficiency 
 is obtained on a vegetarian diet, greater endurance is 
 obtained, and the general health and length of life of 
 the vegetarian is far longer than that of a meat eater. 
 It took a long time to convince the laboring man that 
 he could exist on a vegetarian diet. He now knows 
 by his own experience. The saving to the average 
 man is a big item. Thus it must be remembered that 
 not only is the grocery bill cut down often almost to 
 half what it formerly was, but the saving of doctor 
 bills is a matter of consideration and a factor in the 
 cheapened cost of living. 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 29 
 
 "Model tenements, constructed by many of our 
 philanthropic citizens, have greatly reduced house 
 rent, and the Edison cement house has enabled nearly 
 every man to own his own home in the suburbs, as 
 these cost as low as $500, good, wholesome, attractive 
 homes, too. Good airship service has brought the 
 surrounding country, for fifty miles in any direction, 
 into the metropolitan zone and desirable for homes. 
 With the construction of the new Edison homes, those 
 cement houses, constructed in moulds and pumped up 
 in a day's time, rent has cheapened. Where a man 
 has not the $500 or $1,000 for such a home he can 
 rent at an average monthly rental of Sio."' 
 
 "Well. I certainly am impressed with all I have 
 seen and heard. I am going to Washington in a few 
 days to see how the capital looks." 
 
 "If you go to the capital, by all means look up 
 Director Bronson at the head of the national bureau 
 of health. He can fill you full of interesting figures 
 and will more fully tell of the work of the depart- 
 ment. Here,'' he walked to his desk and in a trice 
 dictated to his stenographer a personal letter of intro- 
 duction to his chief. 
 
 "Take this and tell him I sent you. Before you go, 
 however, you must go through our place here." 
 
 A mighty hive of industry did the place prove to be 
 with its different departments of food analysis, food 
 experimentation, consultation, statistics and many 
 minor branches used to carry out the great work. 
 
 It was good and late when Harrington once more 
 reached his hotel. Dinner had been served for some 
 
30 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 time and the dining room was nearly ready for clos- 
 ing. With all dispatch he hurried thither. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The first fleeting glimpse of Newark which he had 
 obtained upon his arrival, so interested Harrington 
 that he determined to visit the city once more, spend- 
 ing more time in revisiting scenes that had years be- 
 fore been familiar to him. 
 
 Boarding a subway train which ran through the 
 Hudson tube, he soon found himself in the Jersey 
 metropolis. Alighting at the "Four Corners," he was 
 surprised to see the great transformation. Huge 
 skyscrapers from forty to fifty stories stood on each 
 corner. An elevated railroad ran its noisy trains 
 through Broad Street, a fact which he sincerely re- 
 gretted, as it spoiled the former quietness of the thor- 
 oughfare. A subway system radiated to all the 
 Oranges, Montclair, Elizabeth and other outlying dis- 
 tricts of the city. The aero system he found also in 
 evidence in the Jersey town here as in New York, it 
 being employed much as were street cars in the old 
 days. 
 
 Wandering as one in a dream, he unconsciously di- 
 rected his footsteps toward the municipal docks, where 
 he had landed upon his arrival in America, and the 
 landing place of practically all the Atlantic and Pacific 
 steamship lines. 
 
 Fine steel structures were these and he was equally 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 31 
 
 interested to learn that the great expense incidental to 
 their erection, borne jointly by the city of Newark and 
 the state or New Jersey, had ultimately paid back 
 every dollar of their cost and were now a valuable 
 income producer for the city. 
 
 On all sides in the vicinity of the water front were 
 warehouses, as he learned that Newark was the real 
 distributing point for New York — the outpost of the 
 vast trade of the country. 
 
 Upon inquiry, Harrington was informed that the 
 value of foreign imports into the port of Newark for 
 the year ending Dec. 31, 1959, were $907,350,653, or 
 nearly as great as the volume of such business of New 
 York in 1909. At the same time the exports for the 
 same period were more than $750,000,000. 
 
 Accessibility to ocean transportation, as well as un- 
 excelled railroad facilities, proximity of raw material 
 and the added advantage of the location at the "back 
 door of New York," had made of Newark the great- 
 est manufacturing center of the country. 
 
 Within the fifty years from 1910 to i960, he was 
 amazed to learn that fully $4,000,000,000 of new in- 
 dustries had been added. The figures appalled him. 
 He felt decidedly dizzy at their contemplation. 
 
 "Why," declared his informant, "this is nothing so 
 wonderful. During the five years from 1900 to 1905, 
 there were added to the industries of Newark $530,- 
 000,000, or more than $100,000,000 a year. Viewed 
 in the light of this growth, it is by no means aston- 
 ishing that in a full half century, and with the ship- 
 ping facilities now possessed, an additional $4,000,- 
 
32 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 000,000 has been added to the industrial development 
 here. 
 
 "Do you realize that in those five years just alluded 
 to, there were added to the industries here an equiva- 
 lent total investment to that possessed by Philadelphia 
 in 1900, and of Pittsburg and the whole Monongahela 
 Valley in 1905? 
 
 "In other words, this city has added a Pittsburg 
 and more, industrially speaking, every decade for the 
 past fifty years. 
 
 "These figures are all very interesting, amazing 
 and all but incomprehensible as they are, but how 
 about the Jersey mosquito, has he kept pace in fecun- 
 dity with the rest of the progress all around him?" 
 queried Harrington. 
 
 His informant, a pleasant faced, middle-aged man, 
 laughed a soft, musical laugh. 
 
 "Really, friend, you amuse me. Where can you 
 have been all these years? Long since, the Jersey 
 mosquito, like the antiquated mother-in-law joke, 
 passed practically out of existence. The deepening of 
 the Passaic River, which was done by the aid of state 
 and federal appropriation, and the drainage of the 
 marshes in this vicinity, put an end to the existence 
 of the mosquito. The commercial development here, 
 the building each year of more factories on what had 
 heretofore been swamps, meant the slow but sure end- 
 ing of the pest. 
 
 "At the present time, nearly all the swamps are 
 now occupied by factories, the sites having first been 
 ditched and drained." 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 33 
 
 "No one now fears attacks of these little pests." 
 
 The afternoon was advancing, and Harrington was 
 anxious to see more of the city ere nightfall. As yet 
 he had not taken a ride in an aero. He determined 
 to try the novel ride. In reply to a question, he was 
 told to go to the 'Tour Corners" and up the elevator 
 in the Fireman's Bank building to the roof, which 
 proved to be the forty-fifth story, where he was told 
 he could take the Orange aero. 
 
 Five minutes later he dropped his nickel fare into 
 the chopper and passed through the turnstile to the 
 airship landing. Quickly a car noiselessly, with the 
 wings of an eagle, alighted near where he stood. He 
 quickly found a seat in the car which had a seating 
 capacity of twenty-five. He was delighted to find that 
 the strictly-enforced rules of the company forbade 
 any passenger to stand. 
 
 With the starting of the car, which was somewhat 
 in the shape of an old-fashioned dirigible balloon, 
 Harrington was delighted at observing the finest pan- 
 orama of a vast city, a bustling harbor, and the more, 
 remote view of New York in the distance. It was 
 not his first ride in the clouds, for Australia had 
 many similar lines, but the view of the metropolitan 
 section was one that he had never seen the equal of. 
 
 Beneath him the largest buildings seemed like so 
 many fly specks, but he got a better view as the sub- 
 urbs were approached, as the absence of lofty build- 
 ings and other obstructions enabled the cars to run 
 comparatively near the earth. 
 
 Here he obtained an excellent view of the homes 
 
34 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 of the workers of the big Newark factories. Pros- 
 perous and well kept, too, they appeared, a large num- 
 ber being of the Edison cement variety. Altogether 
 they were very much superior to the homes of the 
 working class in the early part of the century. 
 
 As was the case over on the New York side, houses 
 were built in groups, there being scarcely a vacant lot 
 except in the extreme outskirts of the city. Harring- 
 ton recalled to mind that he had previously been told 
 that the single tax was in effect throughout the coun- 
 try and vaguely associated the idea of the absence of 
 vacant lots with this theory. He had but a misty 
 idea of it all, for in his day the single tax and Henry 
 George were closely associated and George was com- 
 monly regarded as a dreamer. He determined at his 
 earliest opportunity to learn all he could of the prac- 
 tical workings of the single tax idea in America. 
 
 By this time he was in Orange and at the terminal. 
 He had by chance boarded a limited and the first stop 
 was Orange and the running time from Newark 
 eight minutes. He decided to retain his seat in the 
 car and return to Newark instead of alighting. 
 
 Fifteen minutes later he was at his hotel, the Cos- 
 mopolitan, at One Hundred Twenty-fifth Street, New 
 York. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Once more at his hotel, Harrington again encoun- 
 tered his salesman friend. With a cheery greeting, 
 the latter enquired as to where the older man had 
 been spending the day. 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 35 
 
 "I have been over to Jersey and have been surprised 
 and delighted to see the wonderful development that 
 has gone on there as well as on this side," was the 
 reply. 
 
 "Yes, Jersey is keeping pace with the industrial de- 
 velopment, although in no way rivalling her more 
 brilliant neighbor, New York. Nature ordained that 
 she be the shipping center, having the railroad ter- 
 minals and the factories, which the greater value of 
 real estate in New York has precluded here. 
 
 "Did you go through any of the many factories?" 
 asked Heatherton with evidently increasing interest. 
 
 "My line is such that I see much of the inside of 
 these places and it is wonderful what has been accom- 
 plished in the past ten, yes, in the past five years, I 
 might say. 
 
 "Just as in the early part of the nineteenth century 
 there occurred a revolution in the industrial world in 
 England and elsewhere incident upon the introduction 
 of new and wonderfully delicate machinery, so in this 
 modern world a similar transformation has taken 
 place. 
 
 "Strangely enough, this time it has not been due to 
 the invention of any specially wonderful machinery. 
 It has come to pass through better management of 
 labor by the employers of labor. 
 
 "Over in Newark are 15,000 factories employing 
 around 500,000 persons. Their working day, surpris- 
 ing as it may seem to you, is but five hours, as re- 
 quired by the American Federation of Labor. They 
 go to work in a majority of places at 9 o'clock in the 
 
36 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 morning and work until half past eleven. The after- 
 noon hours are customarily from I to 3 :3c Yet 
 short as this day may seem, fully the equivalent of 
 the work done in the old eight-hour day is performed 
 and in addition probably one-half as much again as 
 under the old regime. All this is due to the fact that 
 the workers work with a will and under more expert 
 management, a far greater amount of work is got out 
 of the laborers. 
 
 "What the laboring men specially like is the fact 
 that their pay has undergone no cut, it being fully up 
 to the average maintained under the eight-hour day. 
 
 "What was all wrong under the old system was the 
 slip-shod shop management. All the blame for ineffi- 
 cient work was, by reason of habit, placed upon the 
 shoulders of labor. The average worker was regarded 
 by his superiors as a suspicious person much as a con- 
 vict is treated behind the four walls of his prison. 
 It was taken for granted that the worker was there 
 to shirk. He must be treated as a shirker and never 
 given a chance but rather be driven like a balky mule. 
 
 "The real fault with the old system lay where least 
 suspected, with the heads themselves. 
 
 "Not anything like the full efficiency was ever ob- 
 tained under any eight-hour system," declared Heath- 
 erton, warming up to his subject. 
 
 "Before I accepted my present position as travelling 
 salesman, I was myself the foreman in a large Boston 
 factory. My experience has taught me that there are 
 four basic principles of scientific management, and 
 the late but almost universal recognition of these are 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 37 
 
 the underlying explanation for the greater efficiency 
 of the present day. 
 
 "First, there had to be a gathering in of the knowl- 
 edge of the craft possessed by the individual trade 
 worker. This knowledge, once possessed, had to be 
 digested intelligently — in other words, reduced to 
 laws, rules, and mathematical formulae. This alone 
 has become of wonderful aid when supplied by the 
 management to the help in general. 
 
 "Second, the painstaking selection, through careful 
 psychological study, of each individual workman for 
 the special line of work in the division of labor as- 
 signed to him. Every man is essentially by nature 
 qualified to do some things better than others. Some- 
 times, as is often the case, he is unable by himself to 
 discover his own fitness. He must be assisted by a 
 foreman, who must be considerable of a psychologist 
 in the study of men, to discover what he should best 
 do. In other words, all the present tendency has 
 been to eliminate round pegs from square holes. Each 
 man is a little cog in the big machine of industry. 
 His work must be done well and to the very best of 
 his ability, or the whole fabric of industry is askew. 
 
 "Third, the fusion of science and trained workers. 
 All proper influence has been brought to bear to see 
 that only the most approved scientific measures are 
 employed. This is a forcing process, but experience 
 has demonstrated that often it is the management, not 
 the day laborers, that stands most in need of heroic 
 measures being employed. 
 
38 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 "Fourth, part of the work heretofore laid upon 
 labor has been placed upon the management." 
 
 "By way of illustration let me tell you of the expe- 
 rience of a Pennsylvania millionaire. This gentle- 
 man, whom we will call Mr. Blank, had just erected 
 a beautiful summer residence. The house occupied 
 an elevated site commanding a view of the far distant 
 river valley. Blank, however, was not satisfied with 
 the prospect. He determined to do some rare stunts 
 with landscape gardening and scoop out the entire 
 side of the hill leading up to his house so as to leave 
 a concave surface. 
 
 "A contractor was consulted and he informed Blank 
 that the excavation would be around 1,000 cubic 
 yards of earth to cost at the rate of 75 cents per yard. 
 
 "Quickly the work was started. Blank watched the 
 operation with the eye of a man whose pocketbook is 
 at stake. He was surprised to see that virtually no 
 progress was made for the first week. He resolved 
 to know the reason why. Accordingly he took a day's 
 vacation from his work in the city and just camped 
 out under a tree on his lawn in full view of the men 
 with the teams hauling off the dirt. 
 
 "Then it was that the reason for the slow progress 
 was apparent. Fully half of the horses were broken 
 winded and unable to perform a full day's work. 
 Many of the men were, likewise, inefficient. Blank, 
 after a little consideration, took things into his own 
 hands. He weeded out all the antiquated rigs and 
 discharged all but the more rapid, capable workers. 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 39 
 
 A little careful supervision had revealed to him just 
 which men were valuable to him and which were not. 
 
 "As a result of this weeding out process, the work 
 was quickly and satisfactorily performed and the cost 
 was reduced from the estimated 75 cents a cubic yard 
 to just fifteen cents a cubic yard. 
 
 "This case is well illustrative of what has been go- 
 ing on throughout the industrial world. A few years 
 ago conditions were like the 75 cent a yard charge for 
 a 15 cent job. The result was satisfactory to neither 
 labor nor capital. 
 
 "In the onward march of progress, to be sure, some 
 of the slower workmen have been eliminated, but in 
 nearly every case they have found their little niche in 
 the industrial fabric elsewhere in some other line 
 where they were better qualified. 
 
 "As I stated, very little astonishingly new labor 
 saving machinery has been invented the last few 
 years, but far better, the human machine, the greatest 
 of all, has been more thoroughly understood and de- 
 veloped to its highest efficiency, something never pre- 
 viously done. 
 
 "The five-hour day has been fully demonstrated to 
 be the best for all concerned. Laborers come to work 
 fresh for their duties. They work without trying to 
 watch the clock and the hours of toil are so divided 
 as to preclude fatigue and obtain the maximum effi- 
 ciency. Again figures show that the health of the 
 workers is wholly satisfactory, there being excep- 
 tionally few cases of illness to hamper the progress of 
 the work. 
 
4 o UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 "The workers find that the new regime gives them 
 ample time for recreation, social life, and for study 
 when the desire is present. A large number are tak- 
 ing studies in the various night schools and enabling 
 themselves to become better, more enlightened citi- 
 zens. Altogether, conditions in the labor world are 
 more satisfactory than ever in the country's history, 
 which is shown by the extreme infrequency of strikes, 
 a blot on the civilization of fifty years ago. Now 
 there is little left to be reasonably desired. Hours 
 are as short as can be asked, and the pay adequate 
 to all ordinary demands." 
 
 "You have again filled me with interest with your 
 story of conditions as they now are in the labor world, 
 and it is with a thrill of pride that I learn that Amer- 
 ica, my own country, seems to be pointing the way 
 for other countries. As yet Australia, and much of 
 Europe, I am told, are still struggling with the old, 
 antiquated, dog eat dog, cut throat practices so far as 
 industrialism is concerned." 
 
 "Well, I guess I shall have to say good-bye for a 
 little time. I leave to-night for Boston, as I have 
 been summoned to report to headquarters to-morrow. 
 I shall hope to meet you in the near future, though," 
 replied Heatherton, his face lighting up with a smile. 
 
 The two men shook hands cordially and parted. 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 41 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 It had now come time for Harrington to proceed 
 to Washington, as he was anxious to see the national 
 capital after his long absence. Accordingly, the next 
 morning early, he betook himself to Broadway at 
 Columbus Circle where was located a big aero station 
 similar to the one at Longacre Square, except for the 
 fact that this one was used solely for airships making 
 long distance trips rather than suburban service. 
 
 On the Broadway side was a huge entrance into a 
 mammoth ground floor waiting room not unlike the 
 waiting room of a large steam railroad station. 
 Handsome carved mahogany seats were there in 
 abundance and all the adjuncts of a well constituted 
 waiting room. On one side were ranged numerous 
 ticket offices. 
 
 As the time came for the different air trains, an 
 announcer in uniform called them out. This was a 
 signal for a general scampering for the elevators 
 which conveyed the passengers to a commodious loft 
 fully six hundred feet from the ground. At this ele- 
 vation were the terminals of the air line. 
 
 Harrington wanted to call it a train shed with 
 twenty tracks, for there was space for twenty large 
 airships to run abreast, numbers from one to twenty 
 designating the arriving and departing points. 
 
 Harrington found that he was just in time to catch 
 
42 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 the 8 o'clock airship for Washington due at the cap- 
 ital at 12 o'clock. 
 
 He hastened to find a seat in the long torpedo- 
 shaped machine holding about 150 passengers. Within 
 he found the arrangement similar to a steam car, 
 there being an aisle through the center and the seats 
 on each side seating two persons in each. 
 
 He found a seat with a middle-aged man who, he 
 later discovered, was a United States Senator en 
 route to the capital. 
 
 There was a dull buzzing of the engine and the ma- 
 chine was off with the wings of an eagle. The speed 
 almost made Harrington dizzy. He had never before 
 ridden at so great rate of speed. The entire world 
 beneath him was a blur. He could barely recognize 
 any object. 
 
 His seat mate informed him that the speed was due 
 to the fact that the train was a limited as far as Phil- 
 adelphia, but that from there on more frequent stops 
 were made and consequently the speed from there on 
 was slower. 
 
 The ninety miles between New York and Philadel- 
 phia were negotiated in exactly one hour. A real 
 feeling of fear, the first he had ever so experienced, 
 overcame Harrington in this mad dash. Beneath him 
 he saw the federal express tearing ahead over the 
 same course far below at the rate of nearly a mile a 
 minute. The flyer made its progress seem like that 
 of an accommodation train. 
 
 It was with a feeling of distinct relief that Phila- 
 delphia w r as reached. A stop was made of but two 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 43 
 
 minutes in the Quaker City, of which but a fleeting 
 glimpse was afforded. 
 
 Just as predicted, from there on the progress of 
 the flyer was much slower and Harrington confessed 
 to his inmost self that he was in no way sorry that 
 such was the case. 
 
 By this time the man at his side had become more 
 social and evinced interest in his companion. 
 
 "Going to Washington?" he asked by way of open- 
 ing up a conversation. 
 
 "Yes, I am to see the capital after an absence of 
 fifty years," replied Harrington. 
 
 The man at his side naturally turned and regarded 
 him with considerable interest. 
 
 "It can't be that you travel very much," he said. 
 
 "On the contrary I am a considerable of a traveller, 
 but I have been out of the United States ever since 
 my early youth. I have passed the last fifty years in 
 Melbourne, Australia." 
 
 "Well indeed that is interesting. So you are home 
 again to see the scenes of your youth?" 
 
 "That is just why I am back in this country. I 
 have really no other excuse for coming." 
 
 "What do you think of the country here after so 
 long an absence? Do you see material improve- 
 ment?" asked the man who by this time had intro- 
 duced himself as Senator Reyburn of New Hamp- 
 shire. 
 
 "Yes, indeed, there are very many material changes, 
 a very great betterment in many regards. Just how 
 great I have yet to learn. I have only been back to 
 
44 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 this country three days as yet, and of course my inves- 
 tigations are as yet limited." 
 
 "I can say, however, that I am most impressed with 
 the outward signs of the prosperity of the middle 
 classes, the working people of the country. It seems 
 to me that their existence has been made far happier 
 than was the case some years ago. I have not delved 
 deep enough .into economic conditions as yet to know 
 the true explanation for this, but I am told that the 
 general cost of living has either decreased or, per- 
 haps, to put it differently, the purchasing power of a 
 dollar has increased," replied Harrington, at once 
 plunging into a subject that was ever of burning in- 
 terest to him. 
 
 "For a person who has only made a brief and su- 
 perficial investigation, as you say you have done, you 
 have summed up the case with surprising accuracy. 
 
 "The working people, and a whole lot who com- 
 prise a class of society above the working class, have 
 been gradually taught how to live to get the maxi- 
 mum of efficiency and happiness out of existence. 
 They have, thanks to the federal bureau of health, 
 learned to eat the proper things — far less expensive 
 and far more wholesome than those things which 
 years ago they ate at a far greater expense. The 
 same federal bureau has taught how to dress properly 
 and inexpensively. 
 
 "In addition to this the development of the poured 
 cement house of Edison's has enabled people possess- 
 ing as little as $500 or $1,000 to own a house of their 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 45 
 
 own, thoroughly sanitary and wholesome, and a far 
 cry from the. old dark, ill ventilated tenements. 
 
 "Work in factories has become pleasanter through 
 the existence almost universally of the five-hour day. 
 This affords ample time for recreation and the proper 
 care of the body and mind, all at the expense of no 
 sacrifice of the efficiency of labor, which is even more 
 efficient when given more time for recreation. 
 
 "The middle class has just come into its own. It 
 has, as you most aptly put it, learned the purchasing 
 value of a dollar. It does not cost so much to clothe 
 the body well and wholesomely. Neither does it re- 
 quire great expenditure to provide for the human 
 machine the amount of fuel (food) that it requires to 
 keep it in the best working order. 
 
 "It was only when the person chose to attempt to 
 bedeck himself in the more costly of raiment and par- 
 tially enshroud himself with jewels, and eating the 
 choicest and most expensive of imported viands, that 
 living became high. High cost of living in my early 
 boyhood was the chief cry of distress heard on every 
 hand. It was really high living. A return to the 
 simpler life such as was pursued by our forefathers, 
 was what was required. That was, however, scorned 
 by the average member of the middle class as a step 
 backward in civilization. It was all very well for our 
 less highly civilized forefathers, they argued, but as 
 for us, why we were too far advanced for that. Only 
 when the way was blazed again for them did they see 
 the great light and follow where it led. That light 
 
46 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 was shed by the national bureau of health in no small 
 degree. 
 
 "Again another element has in no small degree con- 
 tributed to the present satisfactory economic condi- 
 tions now existing. I refer to the single tax. This 
 experiment has been given a rigid test and it has made 
 good. It was naturally hard fought at the outset, but 
 by a narrow majority it became incorporated in a new 
 amendment to the federal constitution and it has in 
 many communities revolutionized things. It has 
 been a godsend to the middle classes. 
 
 "But come, I fear I am wearying you. When I get 
 started talking on a pet subject I never know the 
 proper moment to quit and I often render myself in 
 danger of becoming a bore." 
 
 "No, indeed, I am, myself, deeply interested, and 
 all the more when I have the opportunity of talking 
 with a United States senator — an honor that is not 
 my lot every day." 
 
 The senator bowed and smiled at the compliment. 
 "I am glad I have not been boring you," he remarked. 
 
 "On the contrary, I am anxious to learn and know 
 all I can of the economic conditions of my native 
 land. I see on all sides marvelous prosperity, and I 
 am anxious to know just what to attribute the 
 changed conditions to. I am especially interested in 
 the health bureau and in the single tax idea. I have 
 had the pleasure to inspect the branch of the health 
 bureau in New York and talk with the director, but 
 thus far I have had little enlightenment concerning 
 the actual workings of the single tax. I desire to 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 47 
 
 know more of the latter and have been anxious to 
 know to whom to go for exact information." 
 
 "If that is the case, if you will call at my office in 
 Washington I will gladly help you what little I can in 
 this regard." 
 
 Harrington gladly thanked his new friend and once 
 more turned his attention to the fascinating panorama 
 of hill, vale and river, over which they were quickly 
 gliding. 
 
 Far in the distance, a gilt speck began to show up. 
 Quickly it increased with mushroom growth and all 
 around it were similar smaller specks. 
 
 "Just making Washington on time," smiled Sena- 
 tor Reyburn, looking at his watch. 
 
 "I shall hope to see you in a few days in my office," 
 declared the Senator in takinsr leave of Harrington. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 New surprises were in store for Harrington as he 
 strolled up Pennsylvania Avenue a few minutes later. 
 This historic thoroughfare had apparently kept pace 
 with the changes that the passing years had brought. 
 In many ways it resembled Broadway in New York, 
 although the buildings were rarely more than thirty 
 stories in height. 
 
 Here, as in the metropolis, the monorail was the 
 only system of street car running through the thor- 
 oughfare. Fleet aeros traversed the air, their vine- 
 
48 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 clad, picturesque, chimney-like landings being scat- 
 tered at intervals of about a quarter of a mile. 
 
 Everywhere newer and finer public buildings were 
 in evidence. He was interested to see at the head of 
 the street the new executive mansion recently built 
 and far more commensurate with the wealth and im- 
 portance of the nation than was the old White House, 
 despite the wealth of sentiment and history that clus- 
 tered around the old building. 
 
 "Destroyed by fire some years ago," was the laconic 
 reply in answer to a question as to what had caused 
 the abandonment of the old White House. 
 
 The capitol was there as of yore but vastly en- 
 larged, each wing being greatly expanded until the 
 structure looked one of wings rather than of a main 
 building and wings. The increasing number of Con- 
 gressmen consequent upon the growth of population 
 of the country required the additions to the House 
 wing and in order to not mar the architectural plan, 
 similar additions were made to the Senate chamber, 
 he learned. 
 
 Many of the older parts of the city where buildings 
 once stood had been converted into parks and chil- 
 dren's playgrounds. In all, Washington presented a 
 far more charming appearance than it had ever given 
 promise of doing. 
 
 East of the Congressional library, he caught sight 
 of the huge structure which he soon learned was de- 
 voted to the federal department of health. Even 
 larger than the capitol it looked in the distance. Here 
 is where he resolved to explore at another day. 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 49 
 
 Over on the mall he walked. It was even m6re 
 charming than ever. Several new statues he ob- 
 served that attracted his attention. One was to the 
 martyred President McKinley, of whom he had been 
 in youth a great admirer. 
 
 Across the waters of the Potomac he saw in the 
 distance a handsome steel arch bridge linking the cap- 
 ital with the Virginia shore. 
 
 "That, why that's the Washington-Lincoln memo- 
 rial bridge," he was told upon inquiring. 
 
 The Washington monument looked familiar, but 
 its height was far less accentuated than formerly, for 
 many of the city skyscrapers were fully as tall. It 
 no longer inspired respectful awe in its contempla- 
 tion. 
 
 As in New York and Newark, Harrington took an 
 airship for a more interesting view of the city. He 
 was directed to a point where he could obtain a belt 
 line aero giving him a bird's-eye view of the city and 
 the Virginia side. 
 
 He lost no time in taking this trip which afforded 
 an excellent ride of twenty-five miles for an outlay of 
 twenty-five cents. The ride gave him a fine idea of 
 the residential section and official Washington. 
 
 A half hour later a stop was made near the Aerial 
 Hotel which, Harrington was told, was an excellent 
 hostelry and where he hastily made up his mind to 
 stay. 
 
 He found the place quite similar to the Cosmopol- 
 itan in New York. Here again he had a suite of 
 three rooms of the variety in the metropolis, the 
 
50 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 walls, to which the furniture was attached, swinging 
 on a pivot and thus metamorphosing a single room 
 into three at the option of the occupant. 
 
 It was not solely for pleasure that Harrington had 
 made the trip to Washington. To be sure he de- 
 sired very much to once more see the city, but a busi- 
 ness errand was the chief motive for the trip. 
 
 Early the next morning he inquired his way out 
 into the suburbs where he had the business errand. 
 The distance was so great and the time required so 
 long in transacting the business that it was noon when 
 once more he found himself at his hotel. 
 
 With the passage of each day spent in America, he 
 was beginning to feel a peculiar sensation. No, it 
 was not exactly the burning love of youthful impetu- 
 osity at three score years and ten, he assured him- 
 self, but just the same his heart yearned to see again 
 at the earliest possible moment a certain Miss Jemima 
 Haggerson way up in the old familiar Vermont hills. 
 While he waited for the call for dinner in the lobby 
 of his hotel, he became wrapped in a deep reverie. 
 
 Would the dear old soul know him after all these 
 years, for the same Jemima Haggerson was none 
 other than the old sweetheart of his early life. 
 
 He knew she still lived, for only three months ago 
 there wandered to far away Australia a man from the 
 Vermont town where she lived. By chance the man 
 met Harrington and in him found a very interested 
 inquirer as to the doings in old St. Albans. Yes, 
 Miss Jemima lived there still and still in the enjoy- 
 ment of her spinsterhood and with no prospect either 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 51 
 
 of suddenly and shortly passing out of this sphere of 
 existence or of changing her state of single blessed- 
 ness. Of these two things Harrington had made 
 sure. He had also got his friend to pledge secrecy, 
 for he would not for the world have Miss Jemima 
 know that he had been inquiring about her. 
 
 After leaving America, Harrington kept up a live- 
 ly and affectionate correspondence with his lady love. 
 Then he heard in a round-about way that she was 
 soon to wed another and more prosperous son of Ver- 
 mont. At that time her letters also dropped off. 
 Unwillingly Harrington was forced at last to believe 
 the story to be true and he regretfully stopped writ- 
 ing. 
 
 Deep down in his heart, however, there was a scar 
 that time never healed. Years passed and he pros- 
 pered financially in the land of his adoption, but never 
 did he find in all the country another Jemima. In 
 fact he became known as a woman hater. Apparent- 
 ly the fair sex had little or no attraction for him. 
 
 Then the cruel truth was learned, but too late to 
 be remedied. He heard that his Jemima had had no 
 intention of marrying another. The rumor was 
 wholly false. He nursed his sorrow to old age. 
 
 Then it was that the wanderer from America and 
 from his own Vermont town had chanced to journey 
 to Melbourne and meet Harrington. That was less 
 than six months before this time. Neighbors and 
 friends of Harrington in Australia were surprised to 
 see him suddenly sell off all his ranches and other 
 realty holdings and announce that he had resolved to 
 
52 UTOPIA 'ACHIEVED 
 
 go to America for an indefinite stay, perhaps forever. 
 
 All these thoughts passed in review through his 
 mind as he sat in the hotel lobby. After all, was he 
 not perhaps an old fool? What would Jemima care 
 for him now? Why not let her think him still dead, 
 for so the St. Albans man had told him when some 
 months before in Melbourne in discussing his home 
 town and its affairs, he had asked half humorously 
 if Miss Jemima had wed and was told that once long 
 years ago she had had a sweetheart who went on a 
 long voyage to a distant land. That he had written 
 for a time regularly, but then no more was heard 
 and Miss Jemima declared she had reliable informa- 
 tion that he had perished in some fearful tropical 
 storm. 
 
 If she believed this, why trouble her declining 
 years? W r hy not let her die with the thought that 
 he had long since perished? 
 
 Still, however, there wrestled in his bosom an un- 
 controllable longing to see again those blue eyes, once 
 beautiful, and to hear the soft, melodious voice. 
 Having come thus far, he certainly would go the rest 
 of the way. As he thought of it and of her, he could 
 barely wait to get to St. Albans. Why should he 
 waste time sight-seeing with her so near? 
 
 His reverie was rudely awakened by a tap on the 
 shoulder and the announcement that dinner was 
 served in the dining room. By this time he had de- 
 veloped a good, healthy appetite, and he was glad to 
 eat once more. To go to the dining room needed no 
 second invitation. 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 53 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Dinner over, which by the way proved to be a vege- 
 tarian meal similar to those served at the Cosmopol- 
 itan in New York, and which led Harrington to won- 
 der anew if all the country had indorsed vegetarian- 
 ism, Harrington, still nursing feelings of homesick- 
 ness for his old home town and a certain individual 
 there, now that his business had been fully trans- 
 acted at the capital, laid plans for the rapid termina- 
 tion of his visit. He would spend the rest of the day 
 sight-seeing, and also the morning of the following 
 day, leaving the next afternoon for New York. Then 
 by the day after that, the third day, he would be 
 again in St. Albans. The very thought sent an elec- 
 tric thrill through his whole being. In St. Albans 
 again! How sweet the homecoming after so long an 
 absence ! 
 
 In fancy he saw once more his birth place, the old 
 well sweep, the little red school house where he 
 often played hookey fishing for trout in the near-by 
 brook when his mother thought him at school. Even 
 the old swimmin' hole presented itself to view in his 
 fancy. Once more he was in a frenzy of excitement 
 to return, and that with all speed. 
 
 It was only after the exercise of considerable self- 
 control that Harrington was able to reconcile himself 
 to delaying the Vermont trip for three days longer. 
 
 At last, however, he resigned himself to the delay 
 
54 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 and proceeded to go to the building near the Con- 
 gressional library where he had seen the sign "United 
 States Department of Health." 
 
 Through an imposing marble entrance, inlaid with 
 mosaics, he entered. Within the lobby in a conspicu- 
 ous corner, was a bust of Senator Chauncey Mitchell 
 Depew. Underneath was a bronze tablet attesting 
 that the Senator, in his late career, had consistently 
 advocated the principles of vegetarianism and a re- 
 turn to simple, wholesome living both in regard to 
 diet and personal habits and hygiene — in short, the 
 very things which the health bureau had been teach- 
 ing through practical, concrete demonstration many 
 years after the demise of the New York Senator. 
 
 As Harrington recalled, he had a letter of intro- 
 duction to the director, he entered the business office 
 on the right and asking for Director Bronson, dis- 
 closed his letter to a clerk at a desk. 
 
 Within a few minutes, after resting in an easy 
 chair in an ante room, a guide in uniform informed 
 Harrington that Director Bronson awaited him in his 
 private office. Thither the visitor was quickly ush- 
 ered. 
 
 He found the director to be an affable, big fellow 
 of ruddy complexion and pleasing manner. His eye 
 quickly ran over the letter of introduction. Then he 
 extended his hand and grasped Harrington's heartily. 
 
 "I am certainly honored to make your acquaintance, 
 Mr. Harrington,'' he said by way of greeting. 
 
 "Just down for a little visit?" asked Director Bron- 
 son pleasantly. 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 55 
 
 "I came partly for business and partly for pleasure. 
 I have been in Australia for the past fifty years and 
 was anxious to see how Washington looks to-day," 
 was the answer. 
 
 The director looked surprised. "Fifty years is a 
 good long time. What do you think of the city as 
 you now see it?"' 
 
 "I must confess it has greatly improved, but so has 
 nearly every city in the country, I presume, at least 
 all those that I have again visited have shown won- 
 derful development of what appears to be the right 
 sort." 
 
 "But come, let me take you through this building, 
 for I assume that is what you wish to see." 
 
 Fully three-quarters of an hour were consumed in 
 visiting the many wonderful departments of the huge 
 building. In all it closely resembled the building of 
 the same nature in New York which Harrington had 
 previously visited, the chief difference being that the 
 structure was far larger and all experiments con- 
 ducted on a far greater scale. 
 
 Director Bronson. with painstaking care, explained 
 every detail as the two proceeded from department to 
 department. Its scope almost bewildered Harring- 
 ton. He was really fatigued when once more he was 
 escorted to the office and resumed his seat. 
 
 "It is certainly a vast building and apparently is 
 doing a great work. Can you tell me concretely some 
 of the things accomplished?" asked Harrington 
 eagerly. 
 
 "With all modesty, as head of the work, I can say 
 
56 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 we have accomplished a considerable service for the 
 American people. I think I can safely say we have 
 taught the laboring class how to make a single dollar 
 have the purchasing value of two, as things used to 
 be constituted. Above all, they now know how to eat 
 good, wholesome, nutritious food — the former na- 
 tional disease, dyspepsia, is all but wiped out. Then, 
 too, this department has earnestly endeavored to 
 show how to dress well and attractively on a small 
 amount of money. 
 
 "The result has been that a large share of diseases 
 has been wiped out through more enlightened liv- 
 ing. Statistics show that at no previous time was the 
 health of the nation at large so good as at the present 
 time. 
 
 "The greater efficiency achieved, and the enormous 
 financial saving of the nation, is something stupen- 
 dous. Saner eating and living and observance of the 
 laws of hygiene have reduced 75 per cent, the number 
 of cases of tuberculosis in the past fifty years, despite 
 the fact that the population of the country has in- 
 creased from about 90,000,000 to nearly 200,000,000. 
 
 "Figures show that in 1910, tuberculosis cost the 
 country $622,513,904 every year. Now, with all our 
 increase of population, it costs but a little over $150,- 
 000,000, but jeven this is almost inexcusable and a 
 blot on our boasted civilization. A few years will see 
 the dread disease virtually wiped out. 
 
 "You will observe," stated Mr. Bronson with a 
 smile, "I like to refer, by way of comparison, to the 
 time when this bureau was first established. The 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 57 
 
 nearest available figures we have to that time are the 
 census figures for 1910. The figures for that time 
 showed that preventable disease, the greatest of which 
 is tuberculosis, cost each family in the United States 
 at least $100 a year. In other words, the total cost 
 to the United States per annum through tuberculosis 
 was then $622,513,904, figures which I stated to you 
 but a moment ago. At that time, fully one person 
 out of nine in the entire country died of this disease 
 alone. 
 
 "To follow the case a little closer, I may quote fig- 
 ures for the year 1910, prepared by Edward F. Mc- 
 Sweeney, many years ago chairman of the board of 
 trustees of the Boston Consumptives' Hospital. Tak- 
 ing the average family income in the country as a 
 trifle less than $800, it was shown that in Massachu- 
 setts in 1910 the cost per capita of preventable dis- 
 eases was $15. On a basis of five persons to a fam- 
 ily, this rolled up a total of $75 or very nearly one- 
 tenth of the family income. 
 
 "Statistics of the time to which I allude show that 
 the minimum individual cost of sickness, loss of earn- 
 ings and death was $2,240. In the year 1910, 165.549 
 consumptives died. Of this number, it was safe to 
 compute at least three-fourths were wage earners. 
 Computations showed the actual loss of $278,147,152 
 each year to the country, due to this cause alone. All 
 told, it was shown that the American wage earner 
 worked one day in every six to pay for the cost of 
 disease and the consequences thereof. 
 
 "With conditions like this, was it any wonder that 
 
58 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 the cry of poverty and the high cost of living was 
 heard in the land? Was it not true that a leading 
 factor in the then high cost of living was the large 
 percentage of preventable diseases ? 
 
 "Nothing has been a greater stain on our civiliza- 
 tion, glorious and much boasted as it is, than the fact 
 that in time past, and even to-day, in all too great a 
 degree, we have allowed preventable diseases to suck 
 the life blood out of the nation's finest. It has been 
 a far greater drain than war and rendered all the 
 greater through its insidiousness. 
 
 "We do not claim the gift of miracles. We are 
 very human, and naturally make mistakes, but of one 
 thing we can feel proud. We have, as I stated, in no 
 small degree been the agency that has through the 
 dissemination broadcast through every town and city, 
 of the more correct way of living, caused the great 
 economic saving to the nation of three-fourths of the 
 lives that heretofore were yearly sacrificed to the 
 white plague. We estimate roughly that more than 
 $200,000,000 are saved the country each year through 
 our success in to a large degree subduing the dread 
 tuberculosis. This alone has justified the cost of es- 
 tablishing this bureau. Of all the work accom- 
 plished, we are more proud of what has been done in 
 fighting tuberculosis than all else. 
 
 "We have taught, too, that Americans consumed 
 altogether too much meat. We have proved that it is 
 possible for day laborers to perform the hardest kind 
 of manual labor without a single mouthful of meat. 
 Our experiments have shown that meat does far more 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 59 
 
 harm than good. Besides, from an economic stand- 
 point, it is the most expensive food for persons with 
 a limited income to buy. 
 
 "Meat contains all of the poisonous, unexcreted 
 waste matter of the dead animal. Besides this, the 
 muscle cells continue to produce waste products for 
 hours after the death of the animal, accumulating far 
 more rapidly than in the living flesh, since both circu- 
 lation and secretion are stopped from the moment of 
 death. Thus the meat eater must throw off from his 
 body the waste matter of his own organism and in ad- 
 dition that of the flesh food that he has taken into his 
 system. 
 
 "This is true of all flesh food when in a healthy 
 condition when killed. Far worse is the condition 
 when the animal was in other than a healthy state at 
 butchering. Personally I believe that a very large 
 percentage of tuberculosis in humans had for its start 
 the eating of diseased meat. 
 
 "Cold storage meat is still worse. It is in an ad- 
 vanced state of decomposition despite the fact that it 
 has been kept on ice. It is in no condition to be taken 
 into the human stomach. 
 
 "Is it any wonder that before the public became 
 aware of the unhealthfulness of flesh food, their 
 eliminative organs worked over time, being afflicted 
 with uric acid poisoning and its consequent gout, 
 rheumatism and kindred human ills? 
 
 "One of our most eminent food scientists has shown 
 that the most dangerous form of disease contamina- 
 tion from flesh food is that of trichinosis. Trichina 
 
6o UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 are worm-like creatures, the early stage of the growth 
 of which is found in the flesh of swine. 
 
 "Once taken into the human digestive apparatus, 
 these creatures are revived and bore their way 
 through the alimentary canal into the human muscle 
 tissue. Trichinosis is a most fatal disease. 
 
 "Tuberculosis is the most prevalent disease among 
 animals especially among cattle. The flesh becomes 
 contaminated with the tubercle bacillus. This causes 
 the meat to be tainted, and, taken into the human sys- 
 tem when this flesh is used for food, is undoubtedly 
 the chief cause of tuberculosis in humans. To be 
 sure, there has long existed a farcical meat inspection, 
 but it has been shown that not one-tenth of the dis- 
 eased cattle offered for sale for meat are discovered 
 and rejected as they should be. Cancer, also, has 
 been shown to be caused through the eating of tainted 
 meat. 
 
 "Meat is a stimulant. It causes an excessive flow 
 of the gastric juice, and has the effect of imparting 
 an idea of energy. On the contrary, test after test 
 of the relative strength of meat eaters and non-meat 
 eaters has in every instance resulted in by far the 
 most favorable showing for the latter. 
 
 "In the days of hardest industrial conditions, I re- 
 fer to the period around 1910, which in contrast with 
 what the laboring class now enjoy seem hard times 
 indeed, the meat packers bled from the American pub- 
 lic $945,000,000 a year. This is what, in a very large 
 degree, made the cost of living high, for the poorest 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 61 
 
 worker thought he must have his expensive sirloin 
 steaks. 
 
 "The facts of the gigantic sums expended for meats 
 in 1910 would probably never been public property 
 had not the United States government in chat year 
 started a prosecution of the packers on the charge of 
 operating a monopoly in restraint of trade. Then 
 the whole world discovered the colossal sum that was 
 annually poured into the coffers of the meat packers. 
 The net profits of six big Chicago concerns alone 
 were found to aggregate $25,000,000 annually. 
 
 "Under the present more enlightened conditions, 
 despite the great increase in population in fifty years, 
 it is estimated that not more than $150,000,000, all 
 told, is expended in this country annually for meat. 
 The health of the nation has very materially improved 
 as the people are increasingly becoming devotees of 
 vegetarianism. 
 
 "We cannot enter people's homes and prescribe 
 what they shall and what they shall not eat. The 
 process has been slow. We have constantly per- 
 formed chemical experimentations as to the relative 
 food values of such and such foods. Then the re- 
 sults of these are made known through the press and 
 through bulletins frequently issued by the depart- 
 ment. They have had the effect of stirring people 
 up. Many have tried the vegetarian life with fore- 
 bodings for a week on trial. The result has in a ma- 
 jority of cases been so satisfactory that they have 
 failed ever, or but rarely, to return to the old flesh 
 food. 
 
62 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 "I fear I have wearied you with details. The sub- 
 ject is so broad and the work so expansive that it is 
 hard to know when to stop talking. I should not 
 have talked so freely, but in your letter of introduc- 
 tion, the New York superintendent stated that you 
 wished to be shown the workings as fully as possible 
 of the department." 
 
 "I am certainly very deeply indebted to you, 3.1 r. 
 Bronson, for devoting to an absolute stranger so much 
 of your valuable time. I feel more than repaid for 
 coming," declared Harrington earnestly. 
 
 "One thing, however, I should like to ask. How 
 do people, especially the hard manual working people, 
 manage to get along without meat? What do they 
 use as a substitute?" 
 
 "We are not booming any patent food house. We, 
 however, do advise, as many of the people employ, 
 the use of nuts of all kinds which possess the equiva- 
 lent food properties of meat. Eggs are of course the 
 easiest and most satisfactory meat substitute for a 
 large number. Even at 45 or 50 cents a dozen, as 
 they sometimes cost in winter, they are cheaper and 
 far better and safer than meat. 
 
 "Take, for example, egg noodles. Most any house- 
 wife can make them. They contain pound for 
 pound, several times as much nourishment as beef- 
 steak and cost one-third as much. Take for example 
 10,000 families. On a meat diet they would consume 
 on an average two pounds of meat daily. The cheap- 
 est beefsteak costs certainly 15 cents a pound. Thus 
 the 10,000 people would expend for flesh foods each 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 63 
 
 day a total of $3,000. The cost of egg noodles, af- 
 fording equivalent nourishment to the beefsteak, 
 would not cost the ten thousand families more than 
 $1,000 a day. In other words the change of diet from 
 meat would effect a saving of $2,000 a day for every 
 10,000 families. This would total a saving of $60,000 
 a month or more than $720,000 a year. Of course no 
 one would care to eat egg noodles exclusively 
 throughout the year, but other non-flesh food affords 
 an excellent variety for every day in the year and at 
 an equal financial saving. 
 
 "We have a very capable corps of physicians for 
 free consultation by the sick at every branch at all 
 the large cities. The public generally has got to re- 
 gard these places and the free medical advice af- 
 forded, not in the light of a charity to be taken ad- 
 vantage of by the poor, but as a matter of course to 
 be taken advantage of by all, rich and poor alike, 
 just as the public schools are attended by the chil- 
 dren of all classes. The public feels that it is paying 
 for this privilege just as it is paying in cities for fire 
 and police protection. It is regarded as something 
 there for the good of all and to be enjoyed by all." 
 
 "Well I am sure I have spent a most enjoyable and 
 profitable afternoon. I know your time is more val- 
 uable than my own, and I must be going now," re- 
 marked Harrington. "I shall long remember this 
 pleasant afternoon. It has been a revelation to me." 
 
 "If at any time I can be of service to you, please 
 feel free to command me," declared Mr. Bronson 
 earnestly. 
 
64 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 "I most surely shall feel free to do so," exclaimed 
 Harrington. The two men then shook hands warmly 
 and parted. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Harrington retraced his steps in the late afternoon 
 toward his hotel. The evening meal he found al- 
 ready served in the dining room. He took his place 
 at a table near the door and gave his order into the 
 menuophone. The fact that once again the meal was 
 a vegetarian one did not now surprise him. In fact 
 he would have recoiled from a flesh diet had such 
 been provided after what he had heard during the 
 afternoon. 
 
 Supper once over, he betook himself to an easy 
 chair in the lobby. Once more he fell into a deep 
 reverie. He wondered if he would really recognize 
 St. Albans and how many of his former friends were 
 still alive and living there to greet him. 
 
 And most important of all, Jemima. What would 
 the dear old girl say? Would she draw back in fear 
 as if seeing one from the dead? What fun it would 
 be to send her a telegram ! No, he would not do 
 that, for that would spoil all the fun of watching her 
 surprised and pleased look at seeing him once more 
 stand before her in the flesh. 
 
 He thrust his hand into his pocket and pulled forth 
 a gold locket, old fashioned in design, and showing 
 much wear as if it had been constantly carried. 
 Opening it, Harrington stared long and reflectively 
 
VTOPVA ACHIEVED 65 
 
 at the face within of a handsome blue-eyed girl of 
 perhaps eighteen years. 
 
 "Dear old Jemima," he murmured as something 
 very near like a tear fell from his eyes. 
 
 So deeply engrossed was Harrington that he failed 
 to observe a young man approaching where he sat. 
 
 "Pardon me," said the speaker, "but I saw you at 
 the health bureau this afternoon and overheard part 
 of the conversation you had with Director Bronson. 
 You appeared so deeply interested I could not resist 
 the temptation to stop and speak to you to-night. I 
 also live at this hotel, and I have several times ob- 
 served you seated across from me at the table. 
 
 "Jackson is my name," he said, "and I happen to 
 be the first assistant to Director Bronson. I am al- 
 ways delighted to see and talk with any one who is 
 interested in the work there." 
 
 "I had an afternoon of genuine delight and profit," 
 exclaimed Harrington, his eyes kindling with interest. 
 
 "I am sorry you did not stay longer and see more 
 of the practical workings of the place," was the reply. 
 
 "I really wanted to obtain more information, I con- 
 fess, but I observed that the time of the director was 
 most valuable and he had already been exceptionally 
 lenient with me. I did want to know a little more 
 concretely how the average working man of the pres- 
 ent day lives. I wanted to get something of an item- 
 ized account of the various average expenditures in 
 order that I could contrast them with conditions and 
 expenditures of fifty years ago." 
 
 "I may be of some little assistance to you on that 
 
66 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 score. I have as part of my work the compilation of 
 a very large volume of statistics which very fairly 
 well show the financial end of conditions so far as the 
 average family is concerned. 
 
 "Our department is concerned most especially with 
 the problem of the proper feeding, clothing and hous- 
 ing of the public and their care in illness as well as 
 in health." 
 
 "During the many years that I have been out of the 
 country I observe that there has gone on a revolu- 
 tion. Conditions, so far as I can observe, are in no 
 way like they were many years ago. I have refer- 
 ence to the middle classes especially." 
 
 "The middle class is healthier and happier in mind 
 and body than ever before," declared Jackson. "They 
 are no longer endeavoring to ape the rich but in a 
 quieter way are coming into their own. They have 
 a sphere all to themselves." 
 
 "You have been in America for many years and 
 seen the evolution that has gone on. Now, to what 
 do you attribute the changes?" asked Harrington. 
 
 "The causes, so far as I can interpret them, are 
 many," was the reply. 
 
 "I believe that the shorter working day has been of 
 inestimable value. At first it was tried very ginger- 
 ly. Many predicted that it would be the signal for 
 more continual through-the-week debauchery and 
 drunkenness than had previously been the case. Their 
 predictions were wrong. The five-hour day has re- 
 dounded to the mutual success and benefit of both 
 employer and employee. The former has been able 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 67 
 
 to obtain fully as great amount of work and of better 
 quality than under the old eight-hour day. The lat- 
 ter has benefitted mentally and physically by the 
 added hours for recreation. 
 
 "They have been enabled to enjoy healthful out- 
 door exercise, heretofore precluded. Those of a stu- 
 dious bent have pursued studies in night schools, for 
 the added hours of the day has enabled them the bet- 
 ter to prepare their lessons. Many a factory hand 
 has been able thus to prepare himself for a successful 
 life in the professions such as he could not have done 
 otherwise." 
 
 "How about salaries? Is it true that they are no 
 higher than they were some years ago?" asked Har- 
 rington. 
 
 "I must confess that there has been little advance, 
 but none was really needed. The working day has 
 shortened with no cut in pay, which in itself is really 
 an increase. Really, however, as I stated, no raise 
 was needed, as the purchasing power of the dollar, 
 after all the real essential, has very materially in- 
 creased." 
 
 , "What was always a mystery to me, and what 
 seemed to indicate fault somewhere with our indus- 
 trial fabric was the fact that under the old regime." 
 declared Harrington, "our working men were proud- 
 ly proclaimed the highest salaried in all the world, yet 
 their actual financial condition was fully as unsatis- 
 factory as that of the laboring men of other coun- 
 tries." 
 
 "You were quite right in your supposition. The 
 
68 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 shorter working day ; the more intelligent and eco- 
 nomical selection of food ; more observance of the 
 laws of health and hygiene, and last but by no means 
 least, the universal adoption of the single tax — these 
 in brief, according to my opinion, are the true expla- 
 nations of the more hopeful industrial outlook of the 
 present time. These are what have produced such 
 altered conditions throughout the United States." 
 
 "I have heard a good deal about the workings of 
 the single tax, but as yet no one has seemed to be 
 able to give me a very accurate idea of just what it 
 has stood for, and what it has to show for its accom- 
 plishment," declared Harrington. 
 
 "That is a subject so extensive that I do not care 
 to discuss it. Others are far more capable to explain 
 its workings than I," was the reply. "I can, how- 
 ever, state that its workings are remarkably success- 
 ful. To it must be attributed much of the praise for 
 the modern progress you see about you on every 
 hand. 
 
 "The earth is not a little paradise or garden of 
 Eden. Far from it. Yet I can say that there is far 
 more happiness, far less class distinction, far less eco- 
 nomic discontent and far greater health and efficiency 
 now than ever before among the great industrial 
 army. 
 
 "I can assure you it does not cost each family on 
 an average $100 a year for doctors' bills as was the 
 case in 19 10. There need be no doctors' bills at all 
 now, as all can get professional advice free of charge 
 at the various health bureaus, but still better, the gen- 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 69 
 
 eral health has so greatly improved that there is far 
 less demand for the services of a physician. The 
 American manner of eating has been all but revolu- 
 tionized. They now eat for efficiency, with the exer- 
 cise of good common sense and an idea to the wel- 
 fare of their purses." 
 
 "Now you are getting to a point that interests me 
 specially. I was very much interested to learn from 
 your director that a very large percentage of the 
 American people have discarded meat as an article of 
 diet," declared Harrington. "This was indeed news 
 to me." 
 
 "It is true just the same, and it has afforded a very 
 great economic saving. The average family of four, 
 so statistics show, expends less than four dollars a 
 week for groceries, a thing impossible with the use 
 of meat. Better still, they have not sacrificed their 
 health and strength thereby, but rather have increased 
 these. 
 
 "The three nutritive elements of food, of course 
 you know, are proteids, carbohydrates and fats. Pro- 
 tein is the most expensive article of diet, as it is the 
 one which largely heretofore was obtained from the 
 eating of animal foods. Carbohydrates, comprising 
 starch and sugars, form usually two-thirds of the 
 average person's diet. Wheat, for example, furnishes 
 all the carbohydrates essential to life. 
 
 "Science has shown that the human body needs 
 from 160 to 240 units daily of proteids, or the blood 
 and tissue builder. Of fats, from 500 to 900 units 
 are required, while of carbohydrates from 1,000 to 
 
;o UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 1,400 food units are a daily essential. The total num- 
 ber of units, known as calories, that the average per- 
 son should consume daily ought never to exceed 
 2,000. The exact number varies with the kind of 
 labor pursued, the weather, whether it is hot or cold, 
 and with the person's general health and physique." 
 
 "All this is rather puzzling and technical for the 
 comprehension of a layman," smiled Harrington. "It 
 is, however, of interest." 
 
 "I fear I am boring you with dull details. To me 
 there are no dry details ; every detail is so much alive 
 and pregnant with living, vital truth. Others, how- 
 ever, doubtless fail to find the enthusiasm that I my- 
 self find in the subject. 
 
 "Without wearying you further with details, I may 
 say that a large and important part of the work of 
 our department is to prepare for the public balanced 
 daily menus especially suited to their individual cases. 
 The menus must be wholesome, inexpensive and ex- 
 actly fitted for the particular case. From a point of 
 view of expense and hygiene, we do not, except in 
 very rare cases, prescribe a meat diet. 
 
 "Here is a case we fixed out to-day," declared 
 Jackson, pulling out a notebook. "For this party, a 
 middle-aged man, we prepared a day's menu, wholly 
 vegetarian and combining in proper proportions the 
 elements of proteids, fats and carbohydrates. Here 
 it is :" 
 
 Harrington took the notebook interestedly and 
 read : 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 71 
 
 Breakfast 
 
 Gluten gruel 
 
 Soft boiled egg 
 
 Creamed potato 
 
 Zweibach 
 
 Malt honey 
 
 Apple 
 
 Pecans 
 Dinner 
 
 Vegetable broth 
 
 Beans 
 
 Creamed potatoes 
 
 Cottage cheese 
 
 Graham puffs 
 
 Apple juice 
 
 Malt honey 
 
 Celery 
 
 Apples 
 Luncheon 
 
 Zweibach 
 
 Cherry sauce 
 
 Eggnog. 
 
 "Now that is a well balanced ration for a day. On 
 it, a laboring man will be able to do the hardest kind 
 of manual work. The absence of expensive meat is 
 well atoned for and to the infinite well being of the 
 person." declared Jackson. 
 
 "I will venture to say that thousands of people are 
 eating just such food, of course with some daily devi- 
 ations for the sake of variety, right here in this city 
 and in every city in the land." 
 
 "I have noticed that the hotels where I have 
 chanced to stop, both in Xew York and here, are al- 
 most entirely vegetarian," declared Harrington. 
 
72 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 "Hotels but tender what the public demands. Their 
 menus are well reflective of what the people require. 
 
 "Under existing conditions people do not put all 
 they make into their stomachs. They now have some- 
 thing left to spend on their heads, on the educational 
 and intellectual side of life." 
 
 "How long will you be in town?" asked Jackson 
 with interest. 
 
 "This is my last night here," replied Harrington. 
 "I did not plan a long stay here, for I am anxious to 
 get to my old home in Vermont which I have not 
 seen for fifty years." 
 
 "I very much doubt if it looks very natural to you 
 if you have been away so long. Vermont, too, has 
 progressed. For a time that state of all the New 
 England states was an economic puzzle. Settled by 
 good old Puritan stock, the life blood of the nation, 
 for a long time it seemed threatened with partial de- 
 population. For several successive decades it actually 
 lost people. Then the tendency was all from the 
 farm to the city. Now good progress has been made 
 toward settling the problem of the abandoned farm 
 and Vermont, like other states, composed very largely 
 of a rural population, has benefitted thereby and 
 taken on once more a healthy growth. 
 
 "I have an appointment and must now hasten to 
 keep it. I have very much enjoyed meeting and 
 talking with you. I hope we may meet again," de- 
 clared Jackson, rising and taking a hearty leave-tak- 
 ing of Harrington. 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 73 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Early the next morning, which was the last one for 
 Harrington in Washington, he remembered that he 
 had promised to call upon Senator Reyburn, whom 
 he had met on his way to the capital, before leaving 
 the city. 
 
 He readily found his way to the senator's office 
 and was successful in calling at a time when his host 
 was in. Reyburn quickly recognized his traveling 
 acquaintance, and with a smile bade him be seated 
 in an easy arm chair. 
 
 "So you found the way here?" he remarked pleas- 
 antly. 
 
 "I have had little difficulty in finding my way 
 around the city, changed though it is," replied Har- 
 rington. 
 
 "Well, what do you think of our town, any way? 
 Would you like to hang up your hat on the peg here 
 and call it home?" 
 
 "Really I do not know how it would seem to live 
 here all the time. Besides, beautiful as it is, there 
 are so many fine cities in the country, a choice would 
 be most perplexing. As for me, I am all at sea as 
 to what I shall do. I have some thought of settling 
 down in my old home town. St. Albans. Vt„ but then 
 again I may decide to return to Australia. I cannot 
 say with assurance. It all depends, to speak frankly, 
 
74 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 with what a certain lady in the Green Mountain state 
 may say." 
 
 "Indeed," declared the Senator, eying Harrington 
 with new interest, "I did not suspect that there was 
 a fair lady in the case. Let me congratulate you and 
 wish you every success and the highest degree of hap- 
 piness," exclaimed Senator Reyburn. 
 
 "I most certainly appreciate your well wishes. I 
 sometimes wonder if perhaps it is not foolish for one 
 at my time of life to think of matrimony, especially 
 as it is the first time. I am a confirmed old bache- 
 lor." 
 
 "Let me assure you that my personal experience 
 has been all in favor of the married state. I never 
 knew true happiness until I married," earnestly re- 
 marked the Senator. 
 
 "About the single tax, Senator," asked Harrington 
 abruptly turning the conversation, "you promised to 
 tell me more of its workings and advantages. I am 
 interested in all that goes to make up modern prog- 
 ress. I see evidences on all hands of wonderful eco- 
 nomic and industrial strides achieved in the past half 
 century. I am sincerely anxious to know to what to 
 attribute this amazing progress. I am told the single 
 tax has been a considerable factor in the work. Ac- 
 cordingly I am desirous to know all I can of this, to 
 me, innovation," declared Harrington. 
 
 "While I desire in no way to boast, it fell to my lot 
 to a considerable degree, several years ago, to work 
 to the best of my ability to get through the constitu- 
 tional amendment, making effective the single tax. 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 75 
 
 We had uphill work. Many were of the idea that it 
 was akin to socialism which had a bad ring in the 
 ears of the public. We had to deal with the preju- 
 dice of the masses. The single tax in no way spells 
 socialism. It is extremely far from it, and is no dan- 
 gerous experiment or Utopian dream that threatens 
 the basic principles of our government. It only 
 means a far more fair distribution, among rich and 
 poor alike, of the land comprising this country. As 
 ordained by the Creator, land, like air, should be 
 shared and shared alike by all human beings. There 
 should be no land monopoly. 
 
 "A careful study of conditions existing up to a few 
 years ago in this country revealed this surprising 
 fact. Modern machinery and industrial conditions 
 had so altered that in a single day a working man 
 was able to perform what, under the old regime, 
 would have required the labor of four days. Sur- 
 prisingly, however, it was true that up to a few years 
 ago the scramble for mere existence was as great 
 when a man was doing the work of four men as 
 when he did but one-fourth as much in the same 
 time. This bald fact was enough to start the dis- 
 cerning man to wonder as to the real benefits of mod- 
 ern invention to the rank and file. It showed some- 
 thing vitally wrong with our civilization. The ques- 
 tion logically asked was as to who derived the actual 
 benefits from the greatly increased output? It was 
 obvious that capital, not labor, the real producer of 
 the added wealth, obtained this. The problem was a 
 knotty one and possessed of many ramifications, but 
 
76 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 reduced to lowest terms, it was resolved largely back 
 to the land as a very important source of the evil. 
 Understand, we are not all socialists, let me again 
 impress upon you. Neither do we feel it incumbent 
 upon ourselves to solve the problems of the ages with 
 a flourish of a magic wand. We did, however, want 
 to solve the land end of the problem and set out to 
 do it. I think I can truthfully say that the present 
 favorable economic conditions are due to a very large 
 degree to the single tax. 
 
 "It is needless to say that all wealth is derived di- 
 rectly or indirectly from the land. From time imme- 
 morial, those who possessed the land held the whip 
 hand over other ordinary mortals, making them pay 
 heavy tribute as renters. This, more than any other 
 thing, has kept the people down. Now, thanks to 
 our wise Congress, the people of the United States 
 are more nearly equal than ever before. Land, like 
 air, is now the heritage of all in common. The re- 
 sults have been more satisfactory than the most optim- 
 istic ever dared hope." 
 
 "I used to be much interested in reading of Henry 
 George and what were then regarded as his very 
 peculiar taxation ideas and I certainly have been sur- 
 prised to see how well, to all that is apparent, this 
 very idea is working out in practice," declared Har- 
 rington. 
 
 "It has indeed been a surprise to many, but to those 
 of us who had made a deep study of it, we were as- 
 sured of its success from the start. Any system that 
 puts a premium on idleness is utterly deficient, for 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 77 
 
 such is the case under old taxation methods. In that 
 case a few, on whom fortune had smiled financially, 
 could largely monopolize the most valuable realty of 
 the country, depriving others of their rightful share 
 of a portion of the earth. Furthermore, as in many 
 cases, they did not perform any economic service to 
 humanity other than to hold on selfishly to their 
 realty, adding few if any improvements, collecting 
 their rents with clock-like precision from their less 
 fortunate neighbors, and in the end waxing fat and 
 rich as an indirect result of the industry of their 
 neighbors. 
 
 "An excellent example is the case of a man who 
 buys a vacant lot for a small sum. He holds on to 
 it, paying only a very small tax, under the old sys- 
 tem. He is too penurious to expend a cent that will 
 aid society through, say, the putting up of a building 
 on his lot. He just holds on and waits for a big in- 
 crease in values. Other owners of vacant lots near 
 his are fortunately not of his calibre. They are eco- 
 nomic producers. They build on their lots and soon 
 this section becomes the business center of a bustlin^ 
 city. Still the penurious holder of the vacant lot holds 
 on. When enough of his neighbors have put up 
 buildings to build up a city all around his lot and 
 raise the price of his property to a fancy figure, then 
 he sells and quickly bags the proceeds of what is noth- 
 ing more than ill gotten gains. He is a sluggard that 
 waxes rich and fat off from the efforts of his more 
 industrious neighbors. He is an enemy of progress, 
 an utter economic waste. 
 
78 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 "Now let us see how society uses the man who 
 owns the next lot to the penurious fellow, under the 
 old taxation system. This man, fortunately for the 
 public good, is not like the latter. He is an economic 
 producer. With all speed, he goes ahead and erects 
 a fitting building on his lot, thereby benefitting all the 
 other holders of lots nearby. What does he get as 
 his reward for having done something for the public 
 good? Under the old system, he finds his taxes take 
 a very decided jump. The new building has added 
 materially to his assessment. The penurious fellow 
 on the next lot erects no building and so pays no 
 higher taxation. Thus society has placed a direct and 
 heavy tax on enterprise of the kind that does things, 
 builds up cities, and increases values all along the 
 line. Meanwhile, by decree, the same society has 
 placed a big premium on the sluggard, the economic 
 misfit, the one who pulls down rather than builds up. 
 
 "We of the single tax persuasion believe that land 
 values only should be liable to taxation. We believe 
 in a fair and equal distribution of the surface of the 
 earth among all human beings desiring the same. We 
 most decidedly would destroy the holdings of persons 
 who, while benefitting society not one iota, wax rich 
 and mighty on the thrift and enterprise of their 
 neighbors. 
 
 "Understand, we do not object to a man holding all 
 the land he desires. We do, however, demand that 
 he pay society an equivalent for the advantages en- 
 joyed thereby. 
 
 "Through the putting into effect of the single tax, 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 79 
 
 the housing problem of the nation has, to a large de- 
 gree, been solved. Unimproved property, vacant 
 lots, being taxed as much as improved property, has 
 made this class of realty holdings too valuable in a 
 great majority of cases to stand thus unimproved. 
 This has led to a great stimulation of building in 
 order that the owners of vacant lots get some ade- 
 quate returns with which to pay the increased taxes. 
 Naturally the production of houses on a very greatly 
 multiplied scale has led to lower rental charges. This 
 alone has been a godsend to working humanity, the 
 wage earners of the nation. 
 
 "The real reason for the practical abolition of the 
 slums of New York city, such as they existed forty 
 or fifty years ago, has been an economic one. Single 
 taxation has forced a building up of the vacant lots 
 in the Bronx and boroughs of Richmond and Brook- 
 lyn. The large number of tenements on the market 
 have caused prices to drop so that unsanitary tene- 
 ments can no longer find occupants. 
 
 "By no means has the farmer failed to profit by the 
 new system. He has profited to a large extent by 
 the fairer means of adjustment of what he owes the 
 community at large. The taxes he pays have been 
 virtually cut in two. Speculation in farming land, 
 like speculation in city realty, has been practically 
 stamped out. Increased markets have filled the pock- 
 ets of the farmer as never before, all because, in the 
 new industrial and economic readjustment, nearly all 
 are prosperous and have the cash to spend for the 
 essentials and a fair share of the luxuries of life. 
 
80 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 "Unemployment is by far more rare than under the 
 old regime. The cause is not far to seek. Once the 
 artificial, pernicious tax on industry is removed, fac- 
 tories are able to pay far better wages and give em- 
 ployment to far greater number of men. Of course 
 human nature still is human nature ; it can by no 
 means be legislated out of existence. The lazy are 
 unfortunately with us to some degree. There are 
 still those who will not work. There always will be 
 such persons, but the really energetic need never go 
 a-begging for employment. With the better indus- 
 trial conditions, has come the reduction of the length 
 of hours of the working day. It has by no means 
 meant for a curtailment of output, but rather the re- 
 verse, and the quality has been meanwhile improved 
 perceptibly." 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Bidding Washington a last adieu, Harrington once 
 more set out for New York on his way to his old 
 New England home. With almost the fervor of 
 youth, he was eagerly counting the hours till once 
 again he should see the old familiar sights of St. Al- 
 bans and still better, the familiar face of one who 
 through all the long weary years had been the idol of 
 his dreams. 
 
 Enrapt in the deepest study, the aged traveller 
 boarded a limited flyer for the metropolis. By this 
 time he was so well accustomed to transportation 
 through the air that this new journey only slightly ex- 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 81 
 
 cited his interest and curiosity. The aero on which 
 he decided to return was in nearly all respects similar 
 to the one in which he had sped southward to the 
 capital. The first stop, in fact the only one, was to 
 be made at Philadelphia. 
 
 The early morning had been marked by extreme 
 sultriness of atmosphere. As the day progressed, all 
 humanity had been sweltering in the great humidity. 
 Each passing hour seemed to add to human discom- 
 fort. Harrington, however, was of the sort that little 
 inconveniences, such as presented by the weather, in 
 no way turned him from accomplishing his purpose 
 to travel. 
 
 Terrible as was the day on the earth, far less en- 
 durable was it far aloft in the air. In the aero, de- 
 spite the presence of electric fans, the air was all but 
 stifling. Passengers mopped their brows and shook 
 their heads while their memories started to find a par- 
 allel of this heat on a day so late in the summer. The 
 thermometer in the corner of the aero registered 101 
 degrees. 
 
 Suddenly there was a quick, short peal of thunder 
 and the accompanying vivid flash of lightning that 
 foretold a rapidly approaching storm. The single 
 peal was followed by another and another in quickest 
 succession. The blazing sun was soon hidden by the 
 blackest clouds that Harrington thought he ever had 
 seen. 
 
 Just then the motor of the craft became hopelessly 
 broken. All attempts to repair it were futile. The 
 passengers suddenly realized the horror of the situa- 
 
82 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 tion — hundreds of feet above the earth, in a terrific 
 thunder storm, their craft utterly helpless. 
 
 "There is absolutely no danger. All keep their 
 seats and remain quiet," announced the air pilot. His 
 face, however, disclosed to the observing passenger 
 that he was plainly worried over the critical situation. 
 
 With incredible rapidity, the air became black as 
 midnight as the angry clouds thickened and deepened. 
 Just then a vivid flash of lightning caused the lights 
 to be put out. In utter darkness the aero rocked like 
 a chip on the angry sea. Women screamed and 
 swooned while some men cursed and others said their 
 prayers. 
 
 In a few minutes the rain was falling in torrents, 
 affording relief from the fearful hot wave, but in the 
 present extremity no one thought of the temperature. 
 Home and loved ones were uppermost in all minds. 
 
 "My babies, my poor babies," cried out one little 
 woman in agony, "I ought never to have ventured out 
 on this trip. Last night I had a presentiment that 
 something would happen if I started out to-day. I 
 told my husband, but he simply ridiculed it. Why, 
 oh, why, did I come?" she screamed, tearing her hair 
 hysterically. 
 
 "Peace, peace, madam." It was this time the voice 
 of a man who had sat in a corner seat during the trip 
 and whose clothing bespoke the fact that he was a 
 clergyman. "We are all in the hands of a just and 
 mighty God. All will be well." 
 
 Then kneeling in the aisle, the man of God be- 
 sought the aid of a divine power to protect the trav- 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 83 
 
 ellers and bring them safely to the end of their jour- 
 ney. His action had a quieting effect upon the pas- 
 sengers who were by this time worked up almost to 
 a frenzy of despair and anguish as they realized their 
 situation. 
 
 By this time the craft was pitching heavily and list- 
 ing from side to side. All still remained in darkness, 
 the darkness of almost abject despair. 
 
 All the passengers realized that with their power 
 shut off, their greatest peril was from encountering 
 holes in the air. Happening to strike one of these, it 
 would be little short of miraculous if the heavily- 
 loaded craft failed to drop with a crash to the earth, 
 hundreds of feet below. 
 
 The air pilot made frequent trips through the car 
 with an end as much to cheer up the fainting spirits 
 of the passengers as to perform any physical labor, for 
 a look at the motor showed its condition hopeless. 
 Red lights were displayed at either end of the craft, 
 for in the air as on the earth, there must be avoided 
 the liability of a collision with other passing aeros. 
 
 Another fearful report of thunder rent the air, fol- 
 lowed by a huge burst of flame. 
 
 "My God, the aero is afire!" cried one of the pas- 
 sengers in consternation. Such, however, was not the 
 case. Instead they were treated to the spectacular 
 display of seeing a good-sized conflagration, caused 
 no doubt by the lightning at what appeared to be al- 
 most beneath their car but far below, earthward. 
 
 A huge sheet of flame shot skyward. The new 
 light revealed the fact that a great church tower was 
 
84 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 ablaze far, far below them. The car was no longer 
 enveloped in darkness, for the fire, increasing with 
 great rapidity, soon enveloped the entire church and 
 several neighboring houses. 
 
 Danger from the storm was now fortunately less, 
 the fury having to a large degree spent itself. It was 
 succeeded by a high wind, however, and the little craft 
 was in no less danger. The sky in no degree cleared 
 up with the passage of the rain. In the place of 
 murky rain clouds, were equally as dark wind clouds. 
 
 The aero was lunging fearfully, driven hither and 
 thither with each fresh gust of wind. 
 
 Far to the rear could now be seen the blazing 
 church and surrounding buildings, though the inten- 
 sity of the light was fast lessening as the flames ate 
 themselves out. 
 
 The only hope lay in summoning aid from a passing 
 aero. Of this fact the pilot frankly informed his pas- 
 sengers. He still maintained an optimistic demeanor 
 and assured all the timorous ones that all would be 
 well. 
 
 Harrington, through all the trying ordeal, had 
 maintained commendable bravery. Was it perhaps to 
 all end thus? Was he to journey way back to his na- 
 tive land to die without having seen his home town 
 and, still dearer to him, the face of one he once, yea. 
 even now, loved so well? Well, he mused, perhaps 
 it was just as well. He had lived out the span of 
 three score years and ten. What more had he a right 
 to ask ? Was not his life a finished book ? Who was 
 there to shed a tear if this was the end of all ? 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 85 
 
 A terrific crash rent the air. In an indescribable 
 twinkling he felt himself, semi-conscious, drop, drop, 
 drop. 
 
 ******* 
 
 "Poor chap, he is still alive," he heard these words 
 spoken with deepest sympathy. "He is frightfully 
 wedged in, though, in this pile of debris. Come, 
 Cyril, quick, lend a hand." 
 
 "Poor chap, he is all covered with blood," was the 
 next thing he heard. 
 
 Despite his protests he was forced to drink from a 
 cup what proved, he afterwards learned, to be a swig 
 of whiskey. 
 
 "My God, my head," groaned Harrington, as he 
 was extricated from the debris. Then he bethought 
 himself of the others. "Go help out some of the 
 other people. I am not badly hurt. There was a 
 woman on the aero who was a mother to young chil- 
 dren. Go help her out. Let me lie here as I am." 
 
 "All are cared for. What we want to see to is 
 you." 
 
 Weakly Harrington allowed himself to be carried 
 to a near-by house where he was put to bed and a 
 doctor summoned. 
 
 The physician responded quickly and made a thor- 
 ough examination. 
 
 "A really remarkable case," he exclaimed. "This 
 man has not sustained a broken bone. He is suffer- 
 ing from nervous shock, however, and he is weak 
 from loss of blood. He must have rest for a fort- 
 night. Then he will be as good as new." 
 
86 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 "I must now return to the scene of the wreck. It 
 has been a fearful disaster,'' declared the physician. 
 
 Five minutes later the physician, Dr. Grove by 
 name, stood before a scene of indescribable horror. 
 Wedged in the shattered fragments of what had been 
 the two fleetest aeros of the Washington-New York 
 line, were the horribly mutilated bodies of between 
 forty and fifty persons. It was the old story ; in the 
 darkness the two fleet cars had failed to discern the 
 approach of the other and there occurred a head-on 
 collision. 
 
 Of the horribly mangled bodies, investigation, after 
 heroic efforts to free them from the debris, showed 
 that life was extinct in all but three. Many were so 
 horribly mutilated that recognition was impossible. 
 Some were driven by force and violence of the fall far 
 into the ground. One ghastly corpse was found with 
 only the legs visible, the entire remainder of the body 
 having been driven head downward into the earth. 
 Upon removal, it was found to be the body of the 
 woman, the mother of the young children left at home 
 and who had expressed a presentiment when the 
 storm first broke that a terrible tragedy was imminent. 
 
 The body of the pilot was among the first removed. 
 Faithful to the last, he had met death like a soldier 
 heroically at his post of duty. The body was identi- 
 fied only through papers found in a pocket. 
 
 By the aid of artificial lights, the ruins were care- 
 fully explored through all the long hours of night, a 
 huge crowd of curiosity seekers, mutely and rever- 
 ently looking on. Ambulances there were in good 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 87 
 
 numbers, but there was but little need for them all, a 
 single wagon easily conveying the three frightfully 
 injured survivors to the Havre de Grace General Hos- 
 pital, for the wreck had occurred almost directly over 
 the Maryland city. 
 
 Willing hands scoured every inch of the wreck, but 
 not another living person was found. Then came the 
 work of removing the dead. Torsos, rendered thus 
 by the frightful impact, the arms and legs being 
 slashed from the body as if done by a knife, bodies 
 tangled and twisted were tenderly removed. Just as 
 the light of a new day was breaking over the Mary- 
 land hills, the night's work was completed and the 
 last corpse removed. 
 
 Several of the victims, investigation showed, were 
 citizens of Havre de Grace who had been walking 
 along the street when like a bolt out of the angry, 
 storm-swept sky, the fearful wreckage had crashed 
 down upon them, hurling them to a fearful death 
 underneath the heavy weight of debris. 
 
 The next morning the Havre de Grace papers placed 
 the death list at forty-five, with four, including our 
 hero, Harrington, surviving, with injuries of a nature 
 that need not necessarily prove fatal. An interesting 
 account of his sensations was given by the paper, be- 
 ing furnished in an interview with the clergyman, 
 Rev. Mr. Parker, who fortunately escaped with but 
 superficial injuries. 
 
 "We were tossing around, the frail craft having 
 been effectually disabled in the storm of the most vio- 
 lent nature I ever experienced, like a chip on a storm- 
 
88 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 tossed sea. Every now and then a lurch of greater 
 velocity than usual would hurl men and women from 
 their seats out into the aisle. In absolute darkness 
 we prayed, groaned and prepared to say good-bye to 
 all that we held dear on earth. In those fleeting mo- 
 ments we lived years. With bated breath every soul 
 there felt an inward presentiment that the end of 
 earthly existence was near. 
 
 "Then came that crash ; it seemed as if ten thou- 
 sand cannons were exploding in my ear. I was thor- 
 oughly conscious, which made the experience all the 
 more terrible. Think of a thousand groans, screams, 
 despairing wails as of a poor, hunted creature fatally 
 shot, then down, down we dropped. I felt as if we 
 were falling 500 miles. My heart seemed to stop. 
 My blood congealed in my arteries and veins. I felt 
 that the downward trip was a half hour in duration. 
 I lived in fancy years and years. My every sin of 
 more than fifty years I reviewed and mentally asked 
 divine forgiveness. 
 
 "We shot down, down, oh, the horrible sensation 
 as I now recall it of feeling that there is no firm sup- 
 port underneath to hold to for protection ! 
 
 "I saw the lights of a high Havre de Grace sky- 
 scraper. My God, what if we should land on its 
 lofty tower ! Still plunging downward we went. I 
 now saw the street lights all a mass of blaze. There 
 was a cannon-like crash. We struck the earth in the 
 fearful tangled mass comprising the ruins of two air- 
 ships and their precious freight. That single crash 
 fills me with indescribable horror as I think of it. It 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 89 
 
 plunged more than two score of passengers into in- 
 stant eternity. 
 
 "Providence was very kind to me. Far better than 
 I ever merited. It seems that a heap of pneumatic 
 cushions from the seats of the aero piled up in a heap 
 and dropping under me broke the force of my fall. 
 To this phenomenon I undoubtedly owe my life." 
 
 Trained workmen quickly removed traces of the 
 catastrophe. For severals days the city of Havre de 
 Grace practically suspended business out of respect to 
 the dead. Inquests were ordered, but it was impossi- 
 ble to locate the responsibility for the wreck. With 
 bated breath the citizens for some time talked of the 
 fearful accident, but then it was almost forgotten. 
 Advanced civilization had accomplished much in the 
 way of reform, but it was as impossible in i960 as in 
 1910 to overcome accidents due to the frailty of hu- 
 man nature or, as many preferred to regard it, the 
 workings of a mysterious Providence. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Fate had dealt specially kindly with Mr. Harring- 
 ton. Xot only had he in a most miraculous manner 
 escaped death in the airship wreck, but still fortunate 
 again, he had been taken into the home of one of the 
 kindest and most hospitable families in Maryland. 
 Immediately after the disaster, instead of being taken 
 to a hospital, Harrington had been removed to the 
 home of a family by the name of Harter. 
 
90 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 Here the stranger was accorded right royal South- 
 ern hospitality. To be sure the family was by no means 
 rich, but such as they possessed was readily at the dis- 
 posal of the newcomer. Mr. and Mrs. Harter were 
 quite well along in years. A married son of theirs 
 lived on a farm in the country not far from the city. 
 As soon as Harrington was brought to the house and 
 they ascertained that his injuries were not fatal, they 
 became specially solicitous as to his welfare and were 
 determined to leave no stone unturned to facilitate 
 his rapid recovery. Thinking that country air and 
 pure farm products obtained first hand would hasten 
 his recovery, they asked the physician in charge as to 
 the expediency of a removal of their patient to the 
 son's home in the country. The doctor gave his ap- 
 proval, Harrington was thoroughly willing, hence the 
 removal was made the second day after the accident. 
 
 Here among the most favorable circumstances, 
 Harrington was nursed back to health and strength. 
 
 Although he was not seriously injured, Harring- 
 ton's system had experienced so great a shock which, 
 taken into consideration with his advanced age, led 
 his physician to issue orders that he was to remain 
 in bed and remain quiet for a week or more. 
 
 It was with the greatest reluctance that the patient 
 agreed to abide by the edict of the physician. The 
 enforced period of idleness was not at all to the liking 
 of the aged traveller. Incidentally, however, it gave 
 him an opportunity which he would not have other- 
 wise have had of studying the conditions in rural com- 
 munities as they then existed. 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED or 
 
 The Harter family consisted of father, mother, son 
 and daughter. The children's ages were fourteen and 
 sixteen years respectively. 
 
 Harrington found himself installed in the spare bed 
 room where he was accorded the most painstaking 
 attention. 
 
 '"We want you to hurry and get strong and well," 
 declared Mrs. Harter, a pleasant-faced woman of 
 middle age. She was blessed with a gift for cooking, 
 and straightway she set out to prepare many kinds of 
 tempting morsels, broths and dainties. Harrington 
 was able to partake of but few of these, but the well 
 wishes and apparent sincerity and desire for real help- 
 fulness of his hosts did much toward effecting a 
 speedy recovery. 
 
 "We are just plain country folk," protested Mr. 
 Harter. "but whatever we have it is yours for the 
 asking." 
 
 The story that Harrington was a rich Australian, 
 who had just returned to America after a long ab- 
 sence, was circulated freely throughout the country- 
 side and attracted more than ordinary interest. All 
 curiosity seekers were, however, scrupulously turned 
 away from the Harter door and allowed in no way to 
 inconvenience or annoy the sick man. 
 
 Daily. Alice Harter, the winsome daughter of the 
 family, vied good naturedly with her brother, Tom, 
 in bestowing little favors on Harrington.' Each 
 morning a fine new bouquet of roses, carnations or 
 other flowers, with the dew still glistening on them, 
 were carried by Alice to the sick room, while Tom 
 
92 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 daily upon his return from his hunts exhibited with 
 pardonable pride the small game he had shot. 
 
 Each would approach the sick room on tip toe and 
 first ascertain whether or not the patient were awake. 
 Assured of this fact, they would timidly enter the 
 room, performing their errands of love. In no case 
 would they linger, for they had been carefully in- 
 structed that they must in no way tire the patient. 
 
 Thus it was that the first week of Harrington's stay 
 was passed largely in solitude. His only diversions 
 and interruptions being the visits of the doctor and 
 the calls of Mrs. Harter bringing delicacies and ad- 
 ministering medicine beside these half timid calls from 
 the two children. 
 
 There was opportunity for little conversation. In 
 fact the doctor had so ordered and Harrington was in 
 little mood for sustained conversation. 
 
 The second week found Harrington so improved 
 that he was permitted to sit up and even take walks 
 around the place. 
 
 What aroused Harrington's attention, when he once 
 was able to get out doors again, was the well kept, 
 prosperous air that pervaded the farm. Not only 
 were the buildings kept up in the best condition and 
 the stock apparently of the best, but there was an air 
 of happy contentment everywhere present. . In noth- 
 ing was there an aspect of provincialism and lone- 
 someness seen so commonly years before in average 
 rural communities. 
 
 "Why, Mrs. Harter," declared Harrington one day, 
 "you people are an inspiration to me of the value and 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 93 
 
 happiness to be derived on the farm. In my day, 
 farm life was considered so lonesome and unremuner- 
 ative that the young men were in great numbers de- 
 serting the country for the more attractive city as a 
 sphere for their careers." 
 
 "Life in the country is in no way lonesome," as- 
 serted Mrs. Harter earnestly. "Of course we have, 
 as did you in your time in America, such things as 
 rural mail delivery, telephone, street cars, but also we 
 have aero lines affording quick and frequent service 
 to the cities, but still more especially we have social 
 centers in nearly every live town in the country. 
 Community Hall over in the village is the social and 
 political center of the place." 
 
 "Indeed this is interesting news. Years ago a num- 
 ber of cities tried the experiment in the United States 
 of opening the school houses evenings as a meeting 
 place for the people, young and old," declared Har- 
 rington. 
 
 "That is just where the present movement got its 
 origin. It was realized that the farmer and the 
 farmer's wife led the most isolated and lonesome ex- 
 istence of all persons. This detracted from comfort 
 and pleasure of life in rural sections. 
 
 "The business or professional man of the city works 
 hard during working hours, but when these are over 
 he shuts up shop and goes home and later seeks diver- 
 sion at his club or at the theatre. The farmer, on the 
 other hand, until rural centers were inaugurated, had 
 no diversion. The close of a hard day's work in the 
 fields found him with still laboriously monotonous 
 
94 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 chores to do until late evening. Then, thoroughly 
 tired, he gladly retired to be up long ere sunrise the 
 following day to go through the same thing the next 
 day and every day thereafter. 
 
 "The life of a farmer's wife was fully as monot- 
 onous. It was more truth than fiction that 'A 
 farmer works from sun to sun, but the work of a 
 farmer's wife is never done.' 
 
 "We all four derive our greatest pleasure from life 
 in the country through our relations with the local 
 social center. It is an excellent meeting place for the 
 populace — a place where all who are respectable are 
 on a level. 
 
 "Aside from the social side, there is the educatfcnal 
 side. Community Hall is commonly referred to as" 
 the People's University. A large number of people, 
 farmers and their wives, sons and daughters, many 
 of them of mature years, are taking studies evenings 
 there. I am myself studying French this winter, while 
 my husband is taking German. Tom is busying him- 
 self two nights a week with manual training, while 
 Alice is making herself more proficient to take my 
 place some day by a course in Domestic Science." 
 
 "Community Hall will most certainly be one of the 
 places that I shall visit before leaving," declared Har- 
 rington, "that is, if you are so good as to invite me." 
 
 "You will most certainly be welcome," was the re- 
 assuring reply. "But now as your nurse I order you 
 to lie down and rest, for you have been talking and 
 exercising too freely for your own good, I fear," de- 
 clared Mrs. Harter solicitously. 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 95 
 
 Despite protests that he was equal to a much longer 
 walk and conversation, he was persuaded to retire to 
 his room to husband his weakened energies for an- 
 other day. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Harrington's return to health was marked with sur- 
 prising celerity. For this he gave the credit, and no 
 doubt with much justice, to the careful nursing ac- 
 corded him by his new-found friends. 
 
 "I do not see that there is any need for me to come 
 again." declared the attending physician a little over 
 a week after the accident. 
 
 "My orders from now on are that you be careful 
 not to over-exert. Just lie around and take it easy 
 for the next fortnight and you will be yourself again. 
 
 "Now one thing more, my good man. Do not try 
 to leave your present quarters too soon. Just because 
 I say you are nearly yourself again does not mean 
 that you require no more careful nursing. I advise 
 that you remain in this good family for a number of 
 days more. You will want more nursing, and Mrs. 
 Harter has demonstrated her ability beyond a doubt 
 in that line." 
 
 With a pleasant smile and bow, the physician van- 
 ished. Harrington, with a long, far-away look, 
 watched his form proceed with sprightly step far 
 down the road. 
 
 A feeling of homesickness once more began to 
 creep over him. Despite the extreme courtesy ex- 
 
96 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 tended by both Mr. and Mrs. Harter and their two 
 children, Harrington felt a longing for some one else. 
 One glimpse of a single familiar face would do him 
 far more good than the best medicine and nursing. 
 Even when surrounded by every luxury and attention 
 that money can purchase, there is something missing 
 when old, familiar faces and friends are utterly lack- 
 ing around the sick bed. Then, if ever, does one 
 crave the kindly love and attention of one's own flesh 
 and blood. 
 
 Would she come to him were he to send a telegram 
 to far-away Vermont? He was by no means sure. 
 Then again such action would destroy all the pleasure- 
 able surprise at reunion when once he stole a march 
 upon her and once again in the flesh stood before her 
 in St. Albans. 
 
 Harrington's reverie was interrupted just then by 
 the entrance into the room of Mrs. Harter. 
 
 "Why is my patient so pensive this bright morning? 
 I hope it is no reflection on my ability as nurse. A 
 penny for your thoughts," was the pleasant salutation 
 of his hostess. 
 
 "I was thinking, Mrs. Harter, that I ought soon to 
 be leaving here and thereby relieving you of a load of 
 care and responsibility that was so unceremoniously 
 thrust upon you. The doctor to-day told me that I 
 am so far recovered that he does not consider it nec- 
 essary that he call again. He wants me to remain 
 quiet for a few days more, but I am sure I am now 
 able to resume my interrupted journey." 
 
 "Now I shall hear of nothing of the kind, and 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 97 
 
 neither will my husband. You are here as our guest 
 and we expect you to stay under our roof indefinitely, 
 or so long as we treat you well," she added with a 
 smile. 
 
 "Then, too, I want you to see what sort of a com- 
 munity we are. You expressed interest in Commu- 
 nity Hall. As yet, you have not been there. To- 
 night will be an excellent time for you to see its work- 
 ings at its best. There is to be a free stereopticon lec- 
 ture by a Harvard professor; meanwhile in another 
 part of the building the classes will be in full swing. 
 If you feel able to undergo the ride over, we shall be 
 only too pleased to have you go over to town with us 
 to-night." 
 
 Harrington heartily thanked his hostess and prom- 
 ised that he would be only too glad to attend. 
 
 That night the Harters got out their big red tour- 
 ing car and carefully assisted Harrington to a seat 
 therein. A brisk ride of ten minutes over good coun- 
 try roads brought the party to Community Hall. 
 
 This structure was a large two-story building with 
 high basement. To-night the entire structure was 
 ablaze with light. A merry, well-dressed throng of 
 farmer folk was coming in a ceaseless stream in auto- 
 mobiles and smart rigs. 
 
 Harrington was escorted to the big parlor on the 
 first floor. To his surprise it possessed most of the 
 adjuncts of the well equipped club house of the early 
 part of the twentieth century. Oriental rugs adorned 
 the polished hardwood floors, the furniture was in the 
 best and most approved style. Potted plants added 
 
98 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 to the grace and refinement of the room. Oil paint- 
 ings, inexpensive, but again in good taste, were ar- 
 ranged around the walls. A handsome baby grand 
 piano was placed at one end of the room. 
 
 In this general assemblage room, Harrington was 
 introduced to a large number of the farmer folk of the 
 town and surrounding country. The lecturer of the 
 evening, the Harvard professor, was already on the 
 scene and was being generally introduced to the as- 
 sembled throng. Social intercourse, pure, free, un- 
 trammelled, was here exhibited on all sides. To all 
 apparent purposes, cast and social prestige was lack- 
 ing, all meeting on an equality, each neighbor ranking 
 socially as well as his neighbor. 
 
 After a period of social intercourse, all adjourned to 
 the auditorium on the same floor for the lecture. This 
 room was constructed with a good sized stage and 
 seats elevated in the manner customary in theatres. 
 The seating capacity was nearly 1,000, Harrington 
 was informed. 
 
 From eight to nine o'clock that night the public was 
 treated to an excellent lecture illustrated with many 
 lantern slides. A great variety of views of travel 
 were shown to the evident enjoyment of the assem- 
 blage. 
 
 After the lecture, Harrington was taken on a tour 
 of inspection of the building. On the first floor be- 
 yond the auditorium was a large room used for ban- 
 quets. A kitchen adjoining was well supplied with 
 an electric stove and all modern dishes and adjuncts 
 for the serving of banquets. 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 99 
 
 On the second floor were several class and recita- 
 tion rooms. Each evening in the week, except Sun- 
 day, various classes in the modern languages, his- 
 tory, science, political economy, domestic science and 
 manual training were held. 
 
 Harrington was surprised to see in the classes many 
 men and women well advanced in years, farmers and 
 their wives from the neighboring farms, rubbing 
 shoulders and in good natured rivalry endeavoring to 
 first master the intricacies of the German or French 
 grammar with the younger men and girls. 
 
 The basement of the building disclosed a well- 
 equipped swimming pool and various bath appliances. 
 An adjoining room was equipped with bowling alley 
 and billiard and pool tables. All were in use, and 
 the young men from off the farms were to all appear- 
 ances deriving fully as much enjoyment as do the 
 scions of the rich in the exclusive clubs in the large 
 cities. 
 
 "Well, I have certainly enjoyed my evening," de- 
 clared Harrington when he was conveyed home that 
 evening from his tour of inspection. "In this little 
 country town you have accomplished what would have 
 been regarded as remarkable in a place so small years 
 ago." 
 
 "It is only a single example and by no means an 
 especially exceptional case. It is duplicated in almost 
 every town of 500 or more people in nearly every 
 state in the Union. It is the outgrowth of an effort 
 to make life attractive on the farm and stem the tide 
 that for years was sucking from rural communities 
 
ioo UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 to the city the best young blood," declared Mr. Har- 
 ter. 
 
 "Now the tide has truly been stemmed. Life in 
 the country has sufficient charms and social advan- 
 tages to keep a large percentage of young men on 
 farms and even attracts many from the cities of the 
 desirable kinds of citizens." 
 
 "In the assembly hall where we were to-night is 
 given some lecture or entertainment nearly every 
 night. Sometimes it is a musical, consisting of local 
 talent. Again it is an amateur dramatic event. Lec- 
 tures of travel or of an otherwise instructive talent 
 are given as to-night every little while." 
 
 "All this is exceedingly interesting," declared Har- 
 rington, "but what interests me is where the money 
 comes from, who foots the bill for all this. Are mem- 
 bers taxed or assessed heavily to produce revenue for 
 all this many-sided work?" 
 
 "This is another example of the good workings of 
 the single tax, the principles of which are no doubt 
 well known to you. Every tax payer is eligible to 
 enjoy free, together with his family, all the advan- 
 tages of Community Hall. Those who own no real 
 estate and thus pay no taxes are eligible to member- 
 ship by the payment of a nominal fee. Like public 
 highways and public schools, the social or community 
 center is supported from the public purse, from the 
 funds derived from single taxation." 
 
 "Is not the expense of keeping up so costly an en- 
 terprise a heavy drain on the public treasury?" asked 
 Harrington. 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 101 
 
 "We do not feel it a heavy drain at all," was the 
 reply. "It has more than paid for itself in the added 
 amount of taxes turned into the treasury from men 
 of ambition who would have long ere this deserted 
 the farm and thus escaped payment of taxes. The 
 community work has kept them home and to a large 
 degree been instrumental in solving the abandoned 
 farm problem. But to get down to figures, what do 
 you think it cost the town last year to maintain Com- 
 munity Hall?" 
 
 At Harrington's protest of lack of knowledge, Har- 
 ter replied : 
 
 "It cost an even $2,500 to foot the bill for every- 
 thing last year. The superintendent of the work is 
 the principal of the village high school, a talented 
 young man of rising ambition. He gave his time, 
 so interested is he in the work. Besides this, he also 
 gave a number of lectures free of charge. The 
 classes are maintained chiefly by members of the high 
 school faculty, and they charge but a nominal amount 
 for their services. Of course there is a janitor to be 
 paid and also heating, lighting and other incidental 
 expenses, but these are in no way large." 
 
 "The work is wonderfully interesting," declared 
 Harter, warming up to his subject. "Perhaps my 
 wife did not tell you, but I am taking a course of Ger- 
 man twice a week and Mrs. Harter is wrestling with 
 French at the same time. Why, I am as much inter- 
 ested in that course as a boy with his first kite. In 
 my early days I did not have all the advantages for 
 an education that I desired. Accordingly, I have ever 
 
102 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 since been supplementing my limited knowledge and 
 endeavoring to prove that "it is never too late to 
 learn." 
 
 "Another very decided advantage of Community 
 Hall is the fact that it is in truth a community hall. 
 When a new bridge is wanted or the construction of a 
 new highway is deemed essential, a regular town 
 meeting free-for-all debate is held. Then tax payers 
 can appear and argue pro and con. Again, recently, 
 a man wholly unworthy to hold public office was prom- 
 inently mentioned for first selectman. A rousing 
 good mass meeting was held and served to put a dent, 
 too deep to be effaced, in the candidacy of the aspirant 
 for office. The old-fashioned New England town 
 meeting feature is by no means the least important of 
 all the functions of the work." 
 
 "But come, I fear all this excitement has been too 
 wearing, Mr. Harrington," declared Mr. Harter as 
 the auto drew up before the home door. 
 
 Harrington, much impressed with all he had seen 
 and heard, protested that he was in no degree any the 
 worse for his outing, but rather had been strength- 
 ened and mentally brightened by the new insight into 
 the conduct of a real rural social center. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 From this time on, Harrington gained rapidly in 
 strength and soon was able to take long walks about 
 the farm, inspecting the well-tilled soil, the thrifty 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 103 
 
 growing crops, and fine blooded stock. Everything 
 about the Harter farm was up to a high standard of 
 excellency. Harter confessed that many of the up- 
 to-date ideas he had received from attendance at the 
 lectures at Community Hall where, interspersed with 
 musicals, dramas and other entertainments, were lec- 
 tures frequently on farm management, diseases of 
 stock and their remedies, the growing of vegetables 
 and crops and other subjects of vital import to the 
 
 farmer. 
 
 "Really, farm life never appealed to me so much as 
 now !" exclaimed Harrington after one of his tours 
 of inspection of the place. "Why, Harter, you really 
 seem to take a real interest in your work, and life out 
 here is in no way isolated." 
 
 "As you observed that night over at Community 
 Hall a farmer now has a chance to indulge in social 
 intercourse and to, if he will, cultivate his mind," was 
 
 the replv. . 
 
 "In the cities I have heard much concerning the 
 single tax. Do you .find it works out as well in rural 
 communities as in towns?" asked Harrington. 
 
 "The single tax most certainly has made good here 
 to a decided degree," was the enthusiastic response. 
 
 "You have seen our Community Hall; you have 
 also observed the character of the highways here- 
 abouts. These two serve as concrete examples. Their 
 existence in the present fine condition is due almost 
 entirely to the single tax. Without it I doubt if Com- 
 munity Hall would be there, and I am sure that the 
 
104 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 country highways were never so fine as they are now 
 under the existing system of taxation." 
 
 "But, Mr. Harter, is it not true that your taxes are 
 actually higher now than under the old way?" 
 
 "Yes, I must admit there has been a slight increase. 
 The many new improvements required it. Under the 
 old system the aggregate tax, town, county, state and 
 national, totalled here usually about twelve mills. 
 Now, under single taxation, it is ordinarily fifteen or 
 eighteen mills. There is, however, sufficient increase 
 in general prosperity to more than meet the added ex- 
 pense. The people, rank and file, are better able to 
 pay eighteen or twenty mills than they were half that 
 sum under the old plan." 
 
 "Then, again, resumed Harter, the people get their 
 money's worth now more than ever before. There is 
 far less red tape in the collection of taxes. A whole 
 army of tax gatherers and public officials have been 
 eliminated to the financial saving of the public treas- 
 ury and for the purity of the administration in gen- 
 eral. There is less cause and opportunity for grafting 
 than formerly. One official will not steal as much as 
 ten, especially when his peculations can be more easily 
 detected." 
 
 "We used to hear so much of abandoned farms 
 years ago," declared Harrington. "Has the single 
 tax had any effect upon them?" 
 
 "Now you have struck the keynote, perhaps, of the 
 whole matter. The abandoned farm problem has been 
 very largely solved. Agricultural life has been made 
 so much more attractive that youth now in far greater 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 105 
 
 numbers remain on the old homesteads, but this is not 
 all by any means. The single tax has been the real 
 solution of this vexed problem. 
 
 '"Under the old plan of taxation, an abandoned farm 
 escaped with very light tax. Now, acre for acre, the 
 abandoned farm, if there are any (fortunately, there 
 are very few, if any), has to pay practically the same 
 tax as the farm that is in the most thrifty and highly 
 developed state. Obviously, persons cannot afford to 
 hold idle land or land from which there is little or no 
 return financially ; the result has been the reclamation 
 and complete rejuvenation of acres and acres of for- 
 saken farms." 
 
 By this time Harter and Harrington had walked 
 back to the house, as it was nearly time for the noon 
 meal. The latter was in a thoughtful mood and si- 
 lently entered the house. 
 
 A few minutes later the family was seated around 
 the dinner table. Despite the fame of Southern cook- 
 ery, and Mrs. Harter had on a number of occasions 
 since Harrington's arrival demonstrated her ability, 
 Harrington observed that the family pretty generally 
 adhered to a very plain but eminently wholesome 
 daily bill of fare. 
 
 For dinner that noon they had mashed potatoes and 
 poached eggs, boiled rice, corn bread and butter. The 
 drink was either sweet milk or buttermilk; and for 
 dessert one had the option of prunes, dates, oranges, 
 bananas or apples. 
 
 The breakfast menu was usually in the nature of 
 some cooked cereal with cream and toasted bread with 
 
106 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 butter. While at night the lunch served consisted 
 often of mush and milk, baked beans, toast, hot milk 
 and crackers, ending with assorted nuts and fruit. 
 
 "You seem to have systematized the work of a 
 farmer's wife to a surprising degree," was Harring- 
 ton's remark to his hostess at dinner that noon. 
 
 "I find my household duties exceedingly light, for 
 we lead the so-called simple life," was the reply. 
 
 "None of you four seem to have sacrificed your 
 health thereby," was the good natured rejoinder. 
 
 "We live, for the most part, strictly vegetarian lives 
 and avoid highly seasoned foods and pastry. We also 
 take much exercise in the open and accordingly there 
 is little need for a doctor," declared Mrs. Harter. 
 
 "We have not always so lived, however; it is only 
 the last few years that we have really learned to live 
 correctly and simply. Over at Havre de Grace the 
 branch of the National Health Department has been 
 painstakingly showing us how to live in accordance 
 with the laws of simple, wholesome hygiene, and has 
 shown us to adopt largely the vegetarian life." 
 
 "You are certainly good advertisements for that 
 kind of diet," declared Harrington. 
 
 "The simple life needs little advertisement," de- 
 clared Mrs. Harter, smiling, "since so many have 
 adopted such plan of living. Incidentally I find that 
 I am to a large degree emancipated from kitchen 
 drudgery. What little cooking I do requires but lit- 
 tle of my time, and I have an abundance of oppor- 
 tunity for rest, recreation and mental improvement. 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 107 
 
 That is why I am able to take a course of study at 
 Community Hall." 
 
 "You are certainly an exponent of both cooking 
 and nursing, as well as of the simple life. I feel that 
 I owe my continued unprofitable existence to a large 
 degree, if not entirely, to the great painstaking care I 
 have received here since the accident," declared Har- 
 rington. "The life you lead here on the farm has 
 been of great interest to me. What troubles me most 
 is how I shall ever be able to repay you for the kind- 
 ness extended to an absolute stranger." 
 
 "Tut, tut, no more of that," declared Harter depre- 
 catingly. "It has been only an insignificant little that 
 we have been able to do. You would surely do as 
 much for us were we placed in similar circumstances. 
 You can best repay us by bestowing kindness to some 
 other poor soul in distress or need of any kind. That 
 will be the best pay we can receive." 
 
 "I certainly will gladly do that much, but I shall in- 
 sist that I do something for you to show my appre- 
 ciation. But now I feel that it is high time that I be 
 resuming my trip, much as I regret to leave your hos- 
 pitable roof. I think to-morrow I must leave for New 
 York." 
 
 "You certainly must not think of such a thing," de- 
 clared all four in protest, and then began a long, 
 wordy argument as to why it would be unwise for 
 their guest to travel so soon after his illness. 
 
 Despite all persuasions, Harrington felt that he 
 must be once more on the road, for he was fully con- 
 vinced that he now possessed sufficient strength for 
 
108 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 the trip. Accordingly, with great reluctance, the 
 Harters consented to make the necessary arrange- 
 ments for Harrington's departure on the following 
 
 day. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Early the next morning Harrington once more was 
 conveyed over the road he had been brought by auto 
 on the night of the wreck to Havre de Grace, where 
 he took the aero for New York. The Harters, all 
 four, made the trip to the city in order to see their 
 guest off. The leave-taking was as affectionate as if 
 Harrington had been related by ties of blood to his 
 hosts. 
 
 Up to the very last, neither Mr. nor Mrs. Harter 
 would accept a cent of pay for what they had done. 
 So it was that as the aero approached, and the final 
 good-byes were said, Harrington forced into the 
 hands of both Tom and his sister an envelope which 
 later proved to be a very substantial cash remem- 
 brance. 
 
 Despite his late experience, Harrington boldly ven- 
 tured by aero rather than by train. He was by no 
 means superstitious. Also by nature he was deeply 
 religious and rested convinced that all humanity is in 
 the hands of, and is ruled by, a divine Providence 
 over which mortals have no control. 
 
 After an uneventful trip, Harrington arrived once 
 more in New York. He was consumed with desire to 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 109 
 
 proceed with all speed to Vermont, and accordingly at 
 once upon his arrival in the metropolis, he consulted 
 the timetables of the northbound New England aeros 
 and discovered that he had barely time to make con- 
 nection with one stopping at St. Albans. 
 
 Hurriedly purchasing a ticket without leaving the 
 union terminal, Harrington, with a thrill of pleasur- 
 able expectancy, boarded an aero which was to take 
 him in a few hours to the place of all places dear to 
 his heart, the scene of his early childhood, and for 
 which to see once more he had crossed the sea. 
 
 ^ Soon he was under way once more. His timetable 
 disclosed the route to be by way of Albany, N. Y., 
 then across the Vermont line and north to Burling- 
 ton. From Burlington it was but a brief flight to 
 St. Albans, the end of the route. 
 
 Harrington purchased a morning newspaper in 
 New York, but he cared little to read. He far pre- 
 ferred to dream dreams of his childhood. Would the 
 old red school house be there? Had the old swim- 
 min' hole been altered? 
 
 ^ He thought of lover's lane, where oft on a moon- 
 light night his fair one and he had gone for strolls. 
 So absorbed in his own thoughts was he that he paid 
 little attention to the scenery as he sped up the mag- 
 nificent Hudson. 
 
 In three hours' time, Albany was reached, the first 
 stop on the route. Then the aero soon passed in a 
 northeast direction and approached the Green Moun- 
 tain state. With a thrill of joy, Harrington realized 
 that he was again in Vermont. 
 
no UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 "Fine day for travelling," volunteered the man who 
 had just taken a seat beside Harrington. 
 
 "Yes, it is very fine. I have come up from New- 
 York like one in a dream. The miles have just van- 
 ished into thin ether in actual fact." 
 
 "How far do you go, to Burlington or on to St. 
 Albans?" was the query. 
 
 "I go to St. Albans, and I shall be only too glad to 
 reach there. I have travelled across the Pacific to 
 get there, and I haven't been there in fifty years." 
 
 "Well, well, you certainly have come far enough. 
 Where did you come from ?" 
 
 "I have come all the w r ay from Melbourne, Aus- 
 tralia, to once more revisit my boyhood home." 
 
 "You will certainly note changes. I have noted 
 many in the last ten years, but fifty years is a mighty 
 big expanse of time." 
 
 "That is one thing that fills me with a mixture of 
 pleasure and pain. Pleasure to return, but possible 
 pain to return and find old scenes and old faces so 
 changed or gone forever." 
 
 "Can you tell me," asked Harrington, "is there any 
 one of your acquaintance by the name of Haggerson, 
 Miss Jemima Haggerson, living in St. Albans at the 
 present time?" 
 
 "Why, there is a woman of that name living several 
 blocks from my house. She is quite an elderly lady 
 and lives all alone with her niece, Miss Eleona Sears. 
 I think it quite likely this is the Miss Haggerson to 
 whom you refer." 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED Iir 
 
 "What was her father's name?" asked Harrington 
 earnestly. &«•«" 
 
 "I cannot say positively, but I think I have heard 
 my mother say it was David," was the reply 
 
 "That convinces me that the person you mention is 
 none other than the woman of my acquaintance," re- 
 phed Harrington. "But may I be so bold as to ask 
 your name? Mine is Harrington." 
 "I am Frank Curtiss." 
 
 IW? , CUrt u S! Why ' l WCnt t0 Sch0Ql with a 
 *rank Curtiss who grew up and became a physician " 
 
 That was my father. I am named for him. He 
 
 has been dead some years," was the response. 
 
 Well well, can it be that you are Frank Curtiss' 
 
 th.vJ 7 r 1 !" father WdK We both attended 
 the little red school house." 
 
 ished hG A 'w "^ SCh ° 01 h ° USe has lon * since van- 
 ished. A big aero manufactory now stands on the 
 
 "I did not expect to find much that is familiar," re- 
 marked Harrington half sadly. 
 
 "Come, now we are approaching St. Albans Have 
 you any special place to stay?" 
 
 "What I seek is a good hotel. Can you direct me 
 to one ?" asked Harrington. 
 
 "The best place is 'Aerial Inn.' over on Main Street 
 no far from the aero terminal. A 'mono' or auto 
 will quickly convey you there. Were it not that all 
 my family are away, I should insist that you go home 
 with me You will, however, find the hotel" I men- 
 tioned all right in every respect." 
 
U2 UTOPIA 'ACHIEVED 
 
 Just then St. Albans was called out, and the two 
 rose to leave. 
 
 "I shall hope to see you again," declared Curtiss in 
 parting. 
 
 Harrington thanked his new-found friend, and the 
 two shook hands and parted. 
 
 A quick shoot down the elevator brought Harring- 
 ton out upon the street. Soon he was seated in a 
 taxi, which conveyed him speedily to the hotel to 
 which he had been directed. It was none too soon 
 to please the traveller, as the long journey had cre- 
 ated a hearty appetite. 
 
 Quickly ordering a suite of rooms, he retired 
 thither where, in the most approved style of hostel- 
 ries of the middle of the twentieth century, he ordered 
 his meal through the menuophone and soon was en- 
 abled to partake of a simple but substantial meal. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 His meal over, Harrington indulged in a short nap, 
 for the ride had been a tax upon his now weakened 
 strength. Late in the afternoon, thoroughly rested, 
 he eagerly sallied forth to see once more the town of 
 his boyhood. 
 
 The same, and yet so changed, was his mental 
 comment. Never had the town he had known as a 
 village of 5,000 people looked so well built and pros- 
 perous. Fifty thousand, he was told upon inquiry at 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 113 
 
 the hotel, was the present population. The growth 
 of the place had suddenly made a remarkably good 
 gain, as it had the past few years become noted as a 
 factory town, a number of the larger aero concerns 
 having located plants here. In fact, it was generally 
 known as the "aero city." 
 
 One or two places along the Main street had a 
 familiar look, although many alterations had been 
 made in the half century; but for the most part, the 
 seven, eight, ten and twelve-story store buildings 
 were new. 
 
 With the eagerness of a boy, Harrington sought out 
 the old site, long since passed out of his hands, of the 
 house in which he had been born and where he had 
 spent his early life. The location he found had be- 
 come a central one, and now there stood a fine city 
 library, every trace of familiar scenes having been ob- 
 literated. Only was he able to find it by noticing the 
 names of the streets at the corner where it had been 
 located. 
 
 Through the heart of the city, "monos" fleetly con- 
 veyed their passengers, as in New York and the other 
 American cities he had visited. Nowhere were trol- 
 leys to be seen. 
 
 With a half sad heart, Harrington cut short his 
 walk and retraced his steps to the hotel. He desired 
 to plan as to what was the best course to pursue in 
 regard to making himself known to the sweetheart of 
 other days. Would she be the same sweet, gentle girl 
 he had known? How would she regard his return 
 after the long interim? These and many other 
 
H4 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 thoughts flashed through Harrington's brain as he 
 directed his steps toward his hotel. 
 
 Yes, he would, as of yore, go to her house. He 
 must see her, and before another day. He half smiled 
 at his own impetuosity, such as is more often attribu- 
 ted to youth rather than to the fullness of mature age. 
 
 By this time he was at the hotel. A few minutes 
 later he was in his room, attiring himself with the 
 greatest of care. In his youth he had been conspicu- 
 ous among the young men of his home town for his 
 faultless attire. To-night he took more than ordinary 
 care. He even felt a quickened pulse beat as he ar- 
 ranged his faultless toilet. 
 
 All was now ready but the shine. This he obtained 
 easily and quickly by employing the automatic shoe 
 shiner in his hotel room. Then, with another primp 
 in the glass, he sallied forth. 
 
 A consultation of the St. Albans directory disclosed 
 the street and number of Miss Jemima. It was not 
 the same address as the one to which he had been 
 wont to call years before, but he recalled the name of 
 the street and its location, as it happened to be one 
 of the older residential thoroughfares of the city. 
 
 Thither he walked with quickened step. He no 
 longer noted the changes in the town. He saw but 
 one thing — the picture of a beautiful young girl with 
 blue eyes and dark chestnut hair as she had appeared 
 to say adieu to him many year's ago. That morning 
 and that vision had never been effaced from his mem- 
 ory. It was that tearful, longing face that had so 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 115 
 
 haunted him all these years that he felt impelled even 
 at this late date to return and make amends. 
 
 Gladly he watched the numbers run up. He was 
 now on the very street he sought. What a thrill it 
 gave him ! A minute more and he would see that face 
 again ! 
 
 Yes, here was the number, "169," which proved to 
 be a well-kept, two-story brick, surrounded by a trim, 
 old-fashioned lawn and shrubbery such as years be- 
 fore had been called good landscape effects. 
 
 He went up the steps and rang the bell. A pretty, 
 winsome, girlish figure appeared in response. Har- 
 rington felt a sudden thrill of surprise and joy as he 
 beheld what was a very striking likeness of his sweet- 
 heart of long ago. 
 
 "Does Miss Jemima Haggerson live here?" he 
 asked with bated breath. 
 
 "She does. Would you like to see her?" came the 
 prompt response in a sweet, well-modulated voice. 
 
 Then turning, she opened the door wide and led the 
 way into a well-kept but old-fashioned sitting room. 
 
 "Auntie, Auntie," Harrington heard her call up the 
 stairs, "there is a gentleman wants to see you." 
 
 With a mingled feeling of pleasure and foreboding, 
 such as most likely Enoch Arden experienced upon 
 his return, took possession of Harrington. Would 
 she be glad to see him, or would she not? 
 
 Soon his reverie was cut short as he heard the rus- 
 tle of a silk dress on the stairway. A second later 
 a tall, erect, gray-haired woman stood before him. 
 
n6 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 How greatly changed she was ! Yet a closer scrutiny 
 revealed traces of the olden beauty which time had 
 not succeeded in effacing. For a moment Harring- 
 ton regarded her as one in a trance. He could not 
 find his tongue to speak. The old affection returned 
 in a flood and all his natural instinct prompted him to 
 rush up to her with the old-time affectionate greeting, 
 yet something held him back. Presently he found his 
 voice. 
 
 "You are Miss Jemima Haggerson?" he asked. 
 
 "That is my name," was the reply in short, terse 
 manner, yet by no means unkindly. 
 
 "I presume you do not know me. Look closely. 
 Do I resemble any one you ever saw before?" asked 
 Harrington eagerly. 
 
 Closely the woman before him scrutinized his every 
 feature. 
 
 "It is a little dark and I cannot see well without my 
 spectacles," she observed. Then she took out of a 
 case on the mantelpiece a pair of glasses, rubbed 
 them painstakingly and renewed the scrutiny. 
 
 "No, I do not know that I can identify you," she re- 
 marked. Then her eyes brightened. "You are not 
 cousin Sam from San Francisco?" she questioned. 
 
 Harrington was reluctantly compelled to deny the 
 identity. 
 
 "Well, I must confess that I do not recognize you, 
 although a closer scrutiny tells me there is something 
 familiar, but I cannot place you." 
 
 "Did you ever know of a person by the name of 
 Harrington — Tom Harrington — a good-for-nothing 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 117 
 
 who went to Australia in early youth to seek his for- 
 tune?" 
 
 A cry of almost fear escaped the lips of the aged 
 woman. "Tom Harrington, Tom Harrington, can it 
 be that you have walked forth from the grave?" She 
 fell forward as if about to swoon. Then quickly and 
 surprisingly she regained her composure to a consid- 
 erable degree. 
 
 "Surely you are not Tom Harrington! But yes, I 
 can now see the likeness. You are surely he. But 
 how — how did you ever get back here?" 
 
 "Just as all other people come these days. I took 
 an aero from New York this morning and here I 
 stand before you in St. Albans." 
 
 "Wh|* I heard you were dead. I received but two 
 or three letters from you, then there was a long, mys- 
 terious silence. Later it was explained when indi- 
 rectly, but accurately, I thought, I learned of your 
 death in far-away x-\ustralia. Never did I expect to 
 see you again in the flesh like this." 
 
 "I, too, waited long and earnestly for letters that 
 never came. Then I, too, heard indirectly conflict- 
 ing stories. One said you had wed another. The 
 other was to the effect that you were dead. I much 
 preferred to believe the latter, but lately I was con- 
 vinced that you still lived and I decided to take a little 
 trip and see for myself." 
 
 "You do not mean to say that you have come all 
 the way from Australia to look me up at this late 
 day!" exclaimed Miss Jemima with much surprise. 
 
 "Certainly. Besides, I have now made all the 
 
n8 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 money I want or shall ever require, and I am deter- 
 mined to have a little play spell before I go to my long 
 rest. I have been these many years anxious to see 
 old St. Albans again. So here I am." 
 
 "Well, well, you certainly have had a long trip. I 
 fear you will find things so changed here that the re- 
 turn will have in store little of interest or consolation 
 for you. We are living in a new age. The things, 
 the people, all that we held dear years ago have gone 
 for the .most part. Dear old St. Albans, now more 
 prosperous industrially than she ever hoped or 
 dreamed to be in the old days, is to me pitifully 
 changed." 
 
 "Yes, the little I have seen has shown me the evi- 
 dences of progress. I have thus far found little that 
 savors of old times." 
 
 "Your old home is now torn down and the lot is 
 used for the new library building." 
 
 "Yes, I observed the change with much sadness. I 
 had hoped that if the old house still stood, I would be 
 able to buy it back again and restore it as far as pos- 
 sible to its former condition, both within and without. 
 Now that is rendered an impossibility." 
 
 "But now I must be going," declared Harrington. 
 "I only dropped in for a short call. I had the mis- 
 fortune to be slightly injured in an aero wreck sev- 
 eral weeks ago, and as yet I have to retire early and 
 husband my strength. It is now past my hour of re- 
 tiring." 
 
 "Before you go, I must have you meet my niece, 
 Miss Sears. She is my sister Anna's daughter and 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 119 
 
 an orphan. She and I live all alone here. If it were 
 not for her, I do not know what I should do for com- 
 pany." 
 
 "Eleona," she called at the foot of the stairs, "come 
 here. I want you to meet Mr. Harrington, an old 
 boy friend of mine." 
 
 In a twinkling the girl half waltzed animatedly into 
 the room. 
 
 "I most surely am pleased to meet any of Auntie's 
 friends," she said pleasantly. 
 
 "You will certainly call again," declared Miss Je- 
 mima as her caller started to leave. 
 
 "I will do so if you desire," was the reply. Then 
 the door closed and Harrington slowly and thought- 
 fully proceeded down the street toward his hotel. He 
 had seen his old sweetheart for the first time in half 
 a century. Was not that enough food for reflection? 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Harrington, upon reaching his hotel, did not at once 
 retire as he had intended. He was still deep in 
 thought and in no way prepared to compose himself 
 for sleep. Eagerly he revolved in his mind every in- 
 cident of the call just made. How the years had aged 
 one who was once as young and as fair as her niece, 
 Eleona! Yet the aged woman called forth all the 
 depth of affection that he had felt for the young 
 woman. 
 
 Would she accept him now or would she reject 
 
120 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 him? Certainly there must still smoulder some of 
 the old passion in her breast for the sweetheart of her 
 youth. 
 
 He pondered over her every word, her every ges- 
 ture when he made himself known. Should he offer 
 himself to her again, the mere shadow of his former 
 self, or should he restrain his affection, which, after 
 all, perhaps, was the foolishness of senility? 
 
 At last, after much thought, he resolved to en- 
 deavor to practice self-restraint. He would not has- 
 ten to throw himself again at her feet precipitately. 
 He would do nothing rash, and thus avoid making a 
 fool of himself. 
 
 The next morning Harrington was up, as is the 
 custom of elderly persons, at a very early hour. With 
 much care, he took pains to obtain a shave, employ- 
 ing the automatic shaver in his room similar to the 
 one he had used in the New York hotel. Then a 
 nickel dropped into a slot obtained for him a speedy 
 shoe shine. 
 
 Once more he was out upon the streets of the city. 
 It was a delightful time for a walk, for the populace 
 was as yet barely awake and bestirring itself. 
 
 Out through the factory section he proceeded. The 
 number and magnitude of the factories surpassed any- 
 thing he had ever dreamed of for his native city. A 
 very large number were aero factories. Whole sec- 
 tions of the city, in easy walking distance from the 
 various factories, were developed into what at first 
 glance bore unmistakable evidence of being model 
 tenements built almost exclusively of cement. So at- 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 121 
 
 tractive were they that they fascinated Harrington. 
 Here, as in New York, apparently, a struggle had 
 been made to solve the problem of housing the work- 
 ing classes adequately and well. A vision of the fac- 
 tory section disclosed to Harrington readily where 
 lived the majority of the recently added population of 
 St. Albans. 
 
 By this time workmen were coming to begin their 
 day's labor. Over at his right, Harrington saw a 
 great block of buildings, apparently model houses for 
 the working men, in the process of erection. The 
 construction was of apparently poured cement, such as 
 he had heard of in New York, and of an exceedingly 
 attractive design, even more so than was that of some 
 of the other model houses he had seen on his walk. 
 
 Harrington possessed a full degree of Yankee curi- 
 osity and he was much interested in this, to him, new 
 construction. He walked over to where the work was 
 in progress and addressed a man apparently the fore- 
 man. 
 
 "Doing some building of tenements?" he asked. 
 
 "Yes, we have fifty we are pouring here," was the 
 reply. 
 
 "I am from out of the country and this work is new 
 to me. Would you mind showing me how the work 
 is done?" 
 
 "Surely not. It is very simple. The houses are 
 constructed around a hollow square which is used for 
 a grass plot, flower beds, and also has a pool of water 
 in the center. 
 
 ''While building this group of houses, we employ a 
 
122 V TOP I A ACHIEVED 
 
 temporary miniature railroad laid around the whole 
 structure. On flat cars on this little road, as you can 
 see, we carry cinders, sand and the necessary cement. 
 As each house in the block is poured, the train carries 
 there for use the necessary cement and materials for 
 building. Then as required it moves on to the next 
 little house." 
 
 "But how are you able to pour cement? That is 
 where I am most perplexed," asked Harrington. 
 
 "That is made easy through a system of interlocking 
 metal plates like these." The foreman pointed to two 
 tiers fastened together on the side of a house now un- 
 der construction. 
 
 "Hinged rods, as you can see, enable the lower set 
 of plates to be swung up and form a new tier when 
 their work of forming the mould has been completed 
 in the lower tier. 
 
 "This is one of the chief secrets of the success of 
 this construction. It eliminates false form work here- 
 tofore the most costly item of reinforced concrete 
 construction." 
 
 "But while the sides can perhaps be thus poured, 
 how do you construct the roofs and floors?" asked 
 Harrington interestedly. 
 
 "That is very easy. The same moulds are laid hor- 
 izontally." 
 
 "Well, all this is interesting. How long does it 
 take to erect a house of this kind, and how about the 
 cost?" was Harrington's query. 
 
 "These little houses, consisting of six rooms each, 
 having a living room, dining room, pantry, summer 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 123 
 
 kitchen and porch on the first floor, and three indoor 
 and two outdoor sleeping rooms in the second story, 
 will cost about $500 each. Of course this does not 
 include the cost of the land. A single one of these 
 houses should be poured and ready for occupancy in 
 a week or ten days' time," was the answer. 
 
 "Of course the houses of this style find ready sale, 
 I should assume," was Harrington's comment. 
 
 "They most certainly do. They are so sanitary and 
 so attractive and withal so cheap, they are ever in de- 
 mand as fast as built. They make as big a hit with 
 the women as with the men, for the reason that house- 
 cleaning is reduced to a minimum of labor. There 
 is no sweeping. Cleaning is accomplished by simply 
 removing the furniture from a room and turning on 
 the hose onto the cement floor, which slants off to- 
 ward a low corner where is a pipe connecting with 
 the sewer carrying off the water." 
 
 "Well, certainly this is a wonderful way of building 
 houses. I am from Australia, and there they have 
 never employed this construction," replied Harring- 
 ton. "I am certainly very greatly obliged to you for 
 your pains in showing me around." 
 
 "You are entirely welcome. It is a pleasure to 
 show our w r ork to a man who appreciates," was the 
 response. 
 
 Wondering what they would say in Australia were 
 he to go back and report that in America they built 
 houses of reinforced concrete construction in a week's 
 time ready for occupancy, Harrington started back 
 toward the city. 
 
124 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 As he proceeded along the main street, a sign at a 
 corner over a drug store attracted his attention. It 
 read, "J. T. Pettibone, Pharmacist." The sign re- 
 called to his memory that he had long years ago gone 
 swimming in the old swimmin' hole, much to his fond 
 mother's horror, with a Frank Pettibone. Certainly 
 this was not the same one. Yet might he not know 
 of his old chum's whereabouts? 
 
 Again playing the Yankee, Harrington boldly en- 
 tered the store and asked for the proprietor. A clerk 
 directed him to a middle-aged man who sat writing at 
 a desk at the rear. Thither Harrington walked. 
 
 "Are you Mr. Pettibone?" he asked. 
 
 "That is my name," was the quick response. 
 
 "I am Mr. Harrington. Of course you do not re- 
 member me, but years ago as a boy here I used to go 
 swimming with a Frank Pettibone. When to-day I 
 passed your store and saw your sign, I wondered if 
 you could be any relation to the Pettibone I once 
 played with." 
 
 "Why, he is my father. He is now making his home 
 with us since my mother died. I am sure he would 
 be delighted to see you." Thereupon he wrote on a 
 letterhead the street and number where his father 
 could be found. 
 
 "I think I have heard my father speak of you," de- 
 clared the druggist, "and I am always glad to have 
 father meet old friends. He now goes but little, and 
 his chief delight is talking over old times with some 
 crony." 
 
 Thanking him heartily for the invitation to call, 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 125 
 
 Harrington set out for his hotel, for by this time he 
 had developed a good, healthy appetite through his 
 long walk on an empty stomach. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 That afternoon, Harrington sought out the home of 
 Mr. Pettibone. Already the druggist had, when he 
 returned for the noon meal, informed his elderly fa- 
 ther of the proposed call of Harrington, and the par- 
 ent was accordingly expectant when the caller really 
 approached. 
 
 With the greatest of alacrity, Pettibone, a short, 
 white-whiskered man, rushed out the front door when 
 he saw Harrington appear. 
 
 "Well, well, old chap, a little late in the season to 
 go swimming, but I reckon we can take a dip some- 
 where !" he cried out jovially. 
 
 "Hello, Frank, it does my heart good to see you 
 again. I did not know that you would be still on this 
 earth," declared his old chum. 
 
 "I'm not just the same old freckled-face, dare-devil 
 chap I was in those days when we both attended the 
 red school house (when we weren't playing hookey), 
 but, thank God, I am still alive and in fairly good 
 health for a man of seventy. But you look well pre- 
 served. Tell me all about your experiences. Where 
 have you been— to New Zealand, wasn't it?" 
 
 "No, I went to Australia. Have been there fifty 
 years this summer." 
 
126 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 "Well, well, how did the world out there use you? 
 I suppose you have a wife, and the Lord knows how 
 many children and grandchildren by this time." 
 
 "No, I plead guilty to confirmed bachelorhood. In 
 all these years I have failed to marry and establish a 
 home." 
 
 "Let's see now, you used to be mighty thick with 
 Jemima Haggerson. She is still among the eligibles 
 of St. Albans," Pettibone declared with a grin. 
 
 "Yes, I confess to you, Frank, time was when I ex- 
 pected to claim Jemima as wife, and a more worthy 
 one I doubt would have ever existed. I went to Aus- 
 tralia on her account more than on my own. It was 
 to get enough cash to set up an establishment worthy 
 of such a woman that I went so far away. Then fate 
 seemed to connive to part us. I understood she had 
 wed another; she understood I had died in a strange 
 land. Only lately did I learn that she was still alive," 
 declared Harrington earnestly. 
 
 "Then you crossed the sea to return to St. Albans 
 just to renew your old romance?" asked Pettibone 
 curiously. 
 
 Harrington looked slightly confused. "Not quite 
 so bad as that," he answered. "I have always wished 
 to see my old town again before I died. Now I have 
 made enough money in Australia to supply every rea- 
 sonable need, so I have closed up my affairs as far as 
 possible in Australia, and here I am." 
 
 "It sure does my heart good to see you. There are 
 few of us chaps left now. You know Tim Green and 
 John Peck? Both of them have died within a year." 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 127 
 
 Then the two enjoyed a heart-to-heart talk of the 
 good times they had had in their boyhood, and dis- 
 cussed the career of this one and that one that they 
 had known intimately. 
 
 "St. Albans is not such a town now," declared Pet- 
 tibone. "The younger generation don't have such a 
 boyhood as we had. They think they are having a 
 good time, but they can never know the times we 
 had,'' he declared fondly. "But it is all over now," he 
 added sadly. 
 
 "You know Sally Henderson? Well, she became 
 my wife, and a brave, true little woman she ever was. 
 Only a short time since she passed on." Tears 
 coursed down his cheek, and he made little attempt to 
 hide them. 
 
 "I have a family I am rather proud of, though," 
 remarked Pettibone. "One of my sons is the drug- 
 gist you met, while another is the present mayor of 
 St. Albans. I also have a daughter who is married 
 well and lives in Boston." 
 
 "I am indeed glad to hear that you have such a fine 
 family. I should hardly expect it, though, for my 
 old mother always predicted that you would come to 
 no good end and that the gallows was your most prob- 
 able fate," declared Harrington with a twinkle in his 
 eye. "I shall be pleased to meet your son. His Honor 
 the mayor, of this my native town," remarked Har- 
 rington. 
 
 "So you shall. You shall remain to lunch, when 
 he will be here to-day and you can meet him." 
 
 "I thank you most heartily, old man, but I do not 
 
128 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 think I should impose upon you. I am only a little 
 ways from my hotel and can easily return there to 
 eat." 
 
 "Tut, tut, I guess after fifty years I can have the 
 pleasure of entertaining my old pal, without any pro- 
 test on his part." 
 
 "Well, if you insist, I will stay, and I thank you 
 most heartily, but I would not have it look as if I 
 came here to get a meal off from you for the sake of 
 old times." 
 
 "Say no more. Stay you do," was the reply. 
 
 From then until the meal was announced the two 
 cronies lived over again their boyhood, each telling 
 and retelling of incidents that had never been effaced 
 from their minds in all the changing scenes of life. 
 
 At the lunch table, Harrington was introduced to 
 Pettibone's son Fred. "Mayor Fred," Harrington 
 termed him half playfully. He proved to be a middle- 
 aged man with closely cropped side whiskers and in 
 general appearance bearing a strong resemblance to 
 his father. 
 
 "So you are from Australia. Well, that is one 
 country that I have always wished to visit " declared 
 the mayor. 
 
 "It is a good country to visit, and the opportunities 
 for a poor man are fairly good, but for all that, I am 
 right glad to be back in the old U. S. A. There's no 
 place like it, after ail," asserted Harrington. 
 
 "Yes, the United States is a pretty good country to 
 tie up to," declared the mayor. "But what do you 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 129 
 
 think of our city? Was it like this in the olden 
 days ?" 
 
 "St. Albans has grown in population greatly, and is 
 a far better, more substantially built town, but I can 
 not but half regretfully wish I could see it as it used 
 to be." 
 
 "That is all very natural. I cannot blame you for 
 so thinking," was the response. 
 
 By this time they were preparing to partake of the 
 meal which was a strictly vegetarian one, and one in 
 which nuts and fruit predominated. 
 
 "In one regard, I notice a great change," declared 
 Harrington, "and that is in the matter of the Amer- 
 ican appetite. Everywhere I go I see but little meat 
 used. In my day, back here, meat was a staple article 
 without which people, especially the class doing hard 
 physical labor, thought they could not well subsist." 
 
 "A very erroneous notion. The national health de- 
 partment has thoroughly convinced the majority of 
 thinking people that a more simple, less expensive bill 
 of fare is best suited to the average person. It has 
 incidentally wrought a very great economic change. 
 Under our way of living now, the grocery bill of the 
 average family of four is cut down fully 50 per cent. 
 This alone has made a vast public saving. The pub- 
 lic health has in no way been sacrificed, a still better 
 thing, for in fact statistics show health conditions 
 better just now than at any other previous period in 
 the country's history. When sickness does occur, the 
 various branches of the federal health department, 
 
i 3 o UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 one of which you probably saw, is located nearly op- 
 posite your hotel, are prepared to give advice and 
 treatment of a wholesome, common-sense, and often 
 drugless nature. All this is free, for the work is sup- 
 ported from the public treasury." 
 
 "Yes, I have heard much of the workings of this 
 health bureau, both in New York, where it seems to 
 be doing a very excellent work, and also in Washing- 
 ton, the headquarters. But how about this matter of 
 taxation? You have now hit upon a matter that in- 
 terests me greatly. I hear that the single tax is the 
 law of the land. You, as mayor, can probably give 
 me a good understanding of how the thing has suc- 
 ceeded or failed in this community," asked Harring- 
 ton. 
 
 "I can tell you a little of what it has done, but I can 
 not tell you how it has failed, for failed it has not," 
 asserted Pettibone earnestly. 
 
 "Since the single tax was made the law of the land 
 through an amendment to the national constitution, 
 St. Albans, like most other cities of the country, has 
 enjoyed remarkable growth and industrial prosperity. 
 The many aero factories that line our streets and the 
 model homes of the men who are therein employed 
 bear witness to this prosperity." 
 
 "St. Albans owns her own water works and obtains 
 a slight revenue from her street railroad system. Li- 
 cense tax on business enterprises also produce some 
 returns, but aside from these, the single tax provides 
 all the necessary money for running the municipality. 
 In this city of around 50,000 people, the aggregate of 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 131 
 
 taxable property (realty) is approximately $40,000,- 
 000. The tax rate the last year was $2 per $100 on 
 the value of land taken irrespective of all buildings 
 and improvements thereon. Expert valuers were em- 
 ployed and assisted the city officials in their work. 
 We find our revenue adequate and far easier of col- 
 lection now than under the old tax system." 
 
 "How are you able to determine the annual rental 
 value of land?'' asked Harrington. 
 
 "That is determined most easily by the law of sup- 
 ply and demand. The new plan has dispensed with 
 a horde of tax collectors, has simplified government, 
 and in thus simplifying, has been enabled to save a 
 big sum annually to the city. It has relieved workers 
 and capitalists of unjust taxation by restoring to the 
 public what is by right its own possession. Idle land 
 in St Albans has been rendered so unprofitable that 
 speculators and sluggards have been forced to build 
 and put it to some use. This is why you see so great 
 development, so many factories and so many homes of 
 the middle class erected and in process of erection." 
 
 "But is not the single tax rather unfair? The man 
 who owns land is compelled to pay a tax thereon, 
 while the man who owns no land does not contribute 
 to the running expenses of the government under 
 which he lives. Do I understand this aright?" asked 
 Harrington. 
 
 "All men necessarily make use of land. They may 
 not own it, but they use it just the same. When they 
 pay rent for the roof over their heads, the rent thus 
 paid includes a part that goes to the public treasury 
 
133 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 as taxes. No one can escape the payment directly or 
 indirectly of taxes, whether a realty owner or not." 
 
 "I was down in Maryland recently and out in the 
 country. By the way, I found country life far more 
 pleasant than I had ever supposed it could be made. 
 The people there seemed prosperous and happy. They 
 seemed to have nearly all, if not all, of the comforts 
 of the city. What pleased and interested me specially 
 was Community Hall, a sort of social center for the 
 farmer and all his family." 
 
 "Were you to go out a few miles from this city you 
 would find just such community halls all throughout 
 Vermont and, in fact, throughout every state in the 
 Union. They have revolutionized farm life. But the 
 thing that has made all this possible has been the sin- 
 gle tax." 
 
 "While the single tax has worked out so well as to 
 silence nearly all doubting Thomases in the cities, its 
 success has been even greater in the country. The 
 farmer was, under the old regime, the most heavily 
 taxed of all persons. On all that he consumed, he 
 was forced to pay the highest indirect tax, but more 
 especially was he taxed with all severity on farm 
 buildings and improvements. When the single tax 
 was put through, and land, irrespective of improve- 
 ments, made the basis of taxation, the farmer was de- 
 lighted to see that he no longer was to be subjected 
 to unfairly bearing the burden of an unequal tax. 
 Ever since, his financial burden has been lightened. 
 The present high state of development of roads and 
 public buildings in rural sections all over the country 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 133 
 
 attest the wisdom of the single tax. Meanwhile, the 
 existing greatly increased general prosperity has 
 added to the markets of the farmer. All this has 
 spelt prosperity with a big T' to the agriculturists." 
 
 "This is all very interesting, but to my untutored 
 mind, I can scarcely discern the difference between 
 single tax and socialism. I have been very much in- 
 terested in the latter, as New Zealand, near us, as you 
 know, was for a long time socialistic. As you know, 
 the thing has proved a fizzle there and has been re- 
 cently completely abolished. With its failure, the en- 
 tire world concluded that socialism was a mere dream 
 and incapable of success when put to a test for any 
 long continued period," declared Harrington. 
 
 "There is where you are wrong, and many another 
 has confused single tax and socialism. They are as 
 different as daylight and darkness. Socialism aims, 
 directly or indirectly, to destroy government. The 
 socialist's propaganda is the theory of the lazy man, 
 to the effect that the government owes him and every- 
 one else a living. Single taxers hold that everyone 
 has a right, that the government owes it to him, to 
 give him a chance to earn a living for himself." 
 
 "Of course, now that single taxation is the law of 
 the land, imports and duties are abolished and the 
 country now free trade ?" asked Harrington. 
 
 "Yes, we now enjoy free trade, but the change was 
 a very easy and bloodless one. Of course there was 
 opposition, especially in Republican strongholds like 
 the state of Vermont, but now all, or nearly all, admit 
 that the action was timely and for the best." 
 
134 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 "Did not such a step cause pandemonium for the 
 protected industries?" asked Harrington. 
 
 "That talk was current when the thing was under 
 agitation, but it proved a mere bugaboo. In the end, 
 very few industries have been inconvenienced, and 
 where one was driven to the wall, two or three fully 
 as thrifty new enterprises sprang up to take their 
 places." 
 
 "What is this, any way, a political pow wow?" 
 asked the elder Pettibone. "You will talk Harring- 
 ton to death and I shall not be able to have any more 
 confidential chats with him on the old days and the 
 scrapes we used to get into." 
 
 "Not at all. I have been deeply absorbed in every 
 word, Mr. Mayor," declared Harrington with mock 
 gravity, "and I am sure I shall endeavor to profit by 
 what I have heard." 
 
 "To think, though, that a harum scarum chap like 
 you, Frank, should have a son the mayor of St. Al- 
 bans ! Well, well, what strange things do happen !" 
 declared Harrington with a. laugh. 
 
 "I hope we may meet often," declared the mayor as 
 he rose to leave, and grasped Harrington's hand 
 warmly. 
 
 "I certainly hope we may," declared Harrington. 
 
 While the mayor hurried back to his ofhce at the 
 city hall, the two old cronies went into the living 
 room to have a still further heart-to-heart chat and 
 exchange experiences of the past half century. 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 135 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 That evening Harrington could not resist the temp- 
 tation to go once more to the home of Jemima. Ac- 
 cordingly, shortly before eight o'clock found him once 
 more ringing the bell at her home. 
 
 Once more he was admitted by the niece, Eleona, 
 who was all smiles to-night. "Auntie will be right 
 down, Mr. Harrington," she stated. 
 
 While waiting, as was his wont, Harrington once 
 more indulged in reverie. Wasn't he, perhaps, after 
 all, an old fool for following up his old flame ? Per- 
 haps after all she cared nothing for him, so why 
 should he worry her with his attentions? He was 
 half inclined to beat a hasty retreat when a soft voice 
 almost at his side made him half jump. 
 
 "Good evening, Mr. Harrington. And how are 
 you to-day?" All thought of suddenly vanishing fled 
 as he once more beheld Jemima standing before him. 
 
 "Oh, I am feeling capital ! I have had a very inter- 
 esting day. I started it with a long walk. Then I 
 had the good fortune to find Frank Pettibone, and I 
 went up there and have spent the biggest part of the 
 day there. He is the same old Frank. I had a right- 
 down jolly time,"' exclaimed Harrington, his eyes 
 flashing fire and animation much in the manner that 
 they had been wont to do long years before. 
 
 "Then I met his son, the mayor. To think that a 
 son of Frank Pettibone would ever be mayor of any- 
 
136 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 thing ! But a right royal good chap his son seems to 
 be, and we had a very animated talk on the new re- 
 gime and single tax." 
 
 "Yes, I thought one of the first things you would 
 do would be to look up Frank," declared Miss Hag- 
 gerson. "Well, what do you think of St. Albans 
 now?" 
 
 "I see that it is a far better town industrially, but 
 still I do long for those old days," half plaintively de- 
 clared Harrington. 
 
 "Nonsense. Aren't you old enough and wise 
 enough by this time to banish such thoughts? Why, 
 you are as sentimental as a girl !" 
 
 "You used to be sentimental once," declared Har- 
 rington. 
 
 "Oh that was due to the follies of youth. I hope I 
 am now wiser, as I am certainly older; besides, I leave 
 sentiment for those younger and who have seen less 
 of life and the sharp angles we have all to encounter 
 sooner or later in our careers," came the reply. "My 
 niece, Eleona, is to be married next month. I think 
 she has chosen well, and while I feel my heart almost 
 breaking at the thought of losing her, still I know I 
 cannot have her with me always, and perhaps she 
 might wait longer and do far worse." 
 
 "Indeed, allow me to congratulate Miss Eleona and 
 yourself in that you are to have a new nephew and 
 one in whom you have respect and confidence. But 
 as for you, what do you plan to do after Eleona 
 weds ?" 
 
 "Me? Oh, I am very well able to care for myself. 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 137 
 
 I shall remain right here in this house. Where else 
 should I go?" she asked. 
 
 "Jemima," despite himself Harrington could keep 
 still no longer, "Jemima, I used fondly to call you that 
 in the old days, have you still none of the old love 
 left? I have for you, and for you alone, come half 
 way around the world. Haven't you any regard for 
 me, any smouldering fires of affection remaining for 
 me yet?" 
 
 "Indeed, you do not mean to say you came so far 
 to see me ! Surely it was your native town that was 
 the inciting cause for the long trip !" 
 
 "Jemima, you know your woman's intuition, if not 
 your heart, must tell you that it was not for love of 
 my native town that brought me back. There was 
 something nearer and dearer than that. Jemima," 
 there was a world of affection in the tones, "Have you 
 no love for me still ? Can't we yet be happy, together 
 for the remainder of our lives?" he pleaded. 
 
 "Really, Mr. Harrington, this is rather abrupt and 
 unexpected. Think of the years that have elapsed 
 and of the changes and changed conditions that have 
 come into our lives," she answered with deep feeling. 
 "Don't inflict more pain by calling me Mr. Harring- 
 ton. Call me Tom as in the old days. Now vour 
 niece is to wed, as you say, very soon, is an added 
 argument why you should marry. Picture yourself 
 all alone here in this big house. It is no way for a 
 woman like you to live." 
 "I feel equal to living alone. The thought has no 
 
138 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 fears for me, Tom," she answered. "I will call you 
 Tom if you wish. It will sound more natural." 
 
 "You haven't told me whether or not you still feel 
 any love for me. Just one word of love, one word of 
 encouragement will set back my life fifty years. It 
 will make me young once more and will fully justify 
 what may otherwise be termed a wild goose trip half 
 way around the world. You haven't yet told me 
 that," pleaded Harrington. 
 
 "Well, fifty years, as I remarked, makes changes, 
 very great changes, in all our lives. Besides, if you 
 really loved me, why did you not write in all these 
 long, lonesome years ?" she turned her large, question- 
 ing eyes toward his. 
 
 "I did not write, for I thought you were wedded to 
 another. Then I heard you were dead and I gave up 
 all hope," he answered. 
 
 "Yes, but why did you not try to verify these ru- 
 mors? Why did you wait all the long years before 
 taking trouble to find out the truth?" she asked re- 
 proachfully. 
 
 "I thought my information was accurate. I was 
 so much engrossed in business and in making money 
 that I did not feel that I could spare sufficient time to 
 make the voyage to America. This is the first vaca- 
 tion, the first breathing spell, I have given myself." 
 
 "I fear, Tom, that our lives have drifted far apart. 
 It is now too late to think of marriage. We are both 
 on the downward slope of life, but a few more years 
 remain for either of us," she answered. 
 
 "That is the very reason that I feel that we should 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 139 
 
 marry, even at this late day. As for myself, I am all 
 alone in the world. I do not know that I have a rela- 
 tive remaining. I have prospered financially in Aus- 
 tralia. I now have a very substantial fortune. We 
 can wed and prepare to enjoy the evening of life sur- 
 rounded by all the comforts and many of the luxuries 
 of life," he urged. 
 
 "I still confess I have some remaining affection for 
 you, but marriage at my time of life is something I 
 have never dreamed of. I cannot think that it would 
 be at all wise, for just stop to consider, you and I have 
 lived so very dissimilar lives. We have grown apart. 
 We have become confirmed in our habits of celibacy, 
 and I doubt if we would make a good team pulling 
 double. We will be friends, very dear friends, but 
 nothing more," she declared firmly. 
 
 "Jemima, you can not mean to dash all my hopes to 
 the ground," he pleaded. 
 
 "I see no other way. I still have a feeling of a very 
 dear friend, but I cannot marry you." 
 
 "Jemima, Jemima," he groaned. 
 
 He looked up into her kindly but firm countenance. 
 He saw resolution thereon written. He had had a 
 taste of that in the old days. Jemima used to be as 
 good as her word. His case seemed utterly hopeless. 
 Faintly he started toward the door. 
 
 "You will call just the same as if this had not hap- 
 pened?" she asked. 
 
 "I cannot promise, — I — I will try to." Then in con- 
 fusion and despair he vanished in the darkness. 
 
140 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 With a feeling of greater loneliness than he had 
 ever experienced since he left Australia, Harrington 
 awoke the next morning. He was back in his old 
 home town, but it was no longer the same. The only 
 real pleasure he had experienced was in meeting his 
 old chum. Now the real object of his journey had 
 been unachieved. What good was St. Albans, what 
 good was anything, if Jemima was left out of his life ? 
 To be sure, he had got along all these years by him- 
 self, but that was in Australia. In St. Albans it was 
 different. The very name was completely bound up 
 in thoughts of Jemima. There was no St. Albans 
 without her. He might far better have remained in 
 Australia. 
 
 In the deepest of gloom, he rose and began to dress. 
 In his mind was a half resolve to return to Australia 
 and end his days in the land of his adoption. His 
 morning electric shoe shine, his automatic shave, were 
 gone through with in a perfunctory manner. 
 
 He was in no mood to go down to the dining room 
 and meet the stares of strange faces. Accordingly, 
 he ordered his solitary breakfast through the menuo- 
 phone and a few minutes later ate of the frugal meal, 
 all that he cared for this morning. 
 
 As he entered the lobby of the hotel, this time his 
 step lacked the elasticity that had been his character- 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED Hl 
 
 istic. Just then, to his surprise, he saw a familiar 
 face coming toward him. 
 
 "Why, hello, Harrington," was the surprised cry of 
 pleasure. 
 
 "Well, well, if it isn't my new-found friend, Mr. 
 Heatherton, whom I had the great good fortune to 
 meet at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Xew York !" 
 
 "Of all the places I expected to meet you, this is the 
 most improbable!" declared Heatherton. "What in 
 the world brought you up to the Green Mountain 
 State?" 
 
 "What caused you to come up here yourself?" 
 "Well, now, you are a real Yankee, answering my 
 question with another. I am here not on business 
 connected with my company, but on personal matters. 
 I frequently take a run up to St. Albans. But, say, 
 you never told me that your destination was St. Al- 
 bans when you told me the interesting story of your 
 life in Australia. Never for a moment did I dream 
 that St. Albans was the place of your birth. You at 
 once assume new interest in my eyes." 
 
 "Really, you seem to be quite familiar with the 
 place and much interested in it. Come, what little 
 fairy brings you hither ?" asked Harrington playfully, 
 his good spirits returning now that he had seen a 
 familiar face. 
 
 "Why, how did you guess it ? Come, who gave you 
 the tip ?" responded the young man surprisedly. 
 
 "No one gave me the tip. I just thought I would 
 'josh' you. I really did not know. But now I am as- 
 sured that I hit the nail on the head all unconsciously." 
 
142 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 "Well, now you know so much I do not mind mak- 
 ing you my father confessor. I have a little sweet- 
 heart up here — the dearest little girl in all the world. 
 I hope in another month to make her my wife." 
 
 A look of interest, then of half despair, swept over 
 the face of the elder man. "Profit by my advice. If 
 you have the right girl, marry her now. Do not go 
 away and wait to make a fortune before you call her 
 your own. Marry her now," exclaimed Harrington 
 emphatically. 
 
 "That is just what I intend to do. But let me see, 
 I believe you have had a little romance in this town, 
 too. How did it turn out ? Did you find the fair one 
 waiting after fifty years, as you told me you have been 
 away that long?" 
 
 Harrington's usually composed manner showed 
 signs of giving way. "My boy," he said with half 
 quivering voice, "that is all over. It was but the idle 
 fancy of a foolish old man advancing into a state of 
 second childhood." 
 
 "Why, poor chap, you don't mean to say she is 
 dead?" asked Heatherton sympathetically. 
 
 "Not dead in actuality, but just the same dead to 
 me. She lives, but has confessed to me that she can 
 no longer think of me in the old light as her sweet- 
 heart." 
 
 "Well that is pretty plaguey tough after all your 
 trip, but cheer up ; she may yet change her mind. 
 They say a woman's 'no' means 'yes.' It may prove 
 to be so in this case." 
 
 "There is no hope of that. Last night I sought her 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 143 
 
 out and poured out my heart to her. I could restrain 
 myself no longer. The end of it all was that she in- 
 formed me that I could remain a very dear friend, but 
 no more." 
 
 "Ha, ha. a kind of sister to you. I begin to think 
 women are all alike, be they young or old. Well, that 
 is tough, but I would not care. Perhaps she is not 
 worthy of such a love as that of yours." 
 
 "That is just the trouble," half sobbed Harrington, 
 more like a youth than like a man of maturity. "She 
 is the very best, truest, noblest woman in all the world. 
 I would never marry another, for her equal does not, 
 can not, exist." 
 
 "Whew, pretty strong language for a man to use in 
 laudation of a woman who has heartlessly just turned 
 him down. If she is any ways worthy of such a love 
 as that of yours, I hope you may yet win her." 
 
 "There is no hope of that. I began this morning 
 to think of returning to Australia. I am, however, 
 glad to see others happy. Tell me more of your lady 
 love. Who is she? I may know, or rather have 
 known, her family if she is a St. Albans girl." 
 
 "Her name is Sears — Miss Eleona Sears; she lives 
 with her maiden aunt, Miss Haggerson," was the 
 ready reply. "Why, what is the matter with you ? Are 
 you ill?" he asked solicitously, as he observed the ex- 
 pression and nervous twitch of the muscles of Har- 
 rington's face. 
 
 "No, I am all right. The name startled me a little. 
 Miss Haggerson happens to be — my old sweetheart." 
 
 "The devil she is !" exclaimed Heatherton with a 
 
144 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 long, low whistle. "And she is the one who so heart- 
 lessly turned you down !" 
 
 "Do not blame her. I have no reason to reproach 
 her," declared Harrington. 
 
 "Well, isn't that strange ! How little the world is, 
 after all ! To think that we should meet here, and 
 that you should be the old sweetheart of the aunt of 
 my own little fair one," mused the younger man. 
 
 "Well, we shall meet again before I leave, I most 
 certainly hope," declared Heatherton warmly. 
 
 "I most certainly hope we shall," echoed Harring- 
 ton. 
 
 For the rest of the day, Harrington wandered half 
 aimlessly through the different sections of the city. 
 He had lost half the interest in the town that he had 
 possessed upon his arrival. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 The hustle and bustle of the industrial section of 
 the city most interested Harrington, although his in- 
 terest in anything was not as acute as it had been 
 twenty-four hours before. He wandered, however, 
 in a half careless manner out among the aero factories. 
 It was now shortly after 3 130 in the afternoon. He 
 was surprised to see vast hordes of men issuing forth. 
 At first this seemed to him to be an unusual proceed- 
 ing for so early. Then he chanced to remember that 
 his friend Heatherton had once told him while in New 
 York that the average workingman's day was but five 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 145 
 
 hours instead of eight, as had many years before been 
 the custom. 
 
 Up the street he sauntered. Then he came upon 
 one who was evidently a laboring man who looked 
 up at him with such a friendly air that he was almost 
 compelled to speak to him. "Rather early to be quit- 
 ting work, isn't it?" asked Harrington by way of 
 starting up a conversation. 
 
 "Oh, no. This is the regular time of closing each 
 afternoon," was the response. 
 
 "Well, you men have a lot of time for recreation," 
 declared Harrington. I never used to be accustomed 
 to anything like this." 
 
 "Can't be you are used to the union regulations in 
 the factories of the United States/' declared the man 
 decidedly, but not unkindly. 
 
 "No, you are right, I am not. It is not so in Aus- 
 tralia where I have been living." 
 
 "We have had the shorter working day here for 
 some years now. In the factory where I work, I am 
 a foreman and I know that the men actually produce 
 more than they did under the six-hour day which we 
 had in vogue up to the last five years." 
 
 The two men were now walking along the street to- 
 gether, as if they had been regularly introduced or 
 had been acquainted for some time. It had ever been 
 Harrington's nature to make friends wherever he 
 went, and this case was no exception. 
 
 "Our men go to work at 9 o'clock in the morning 
 and work until half past eleven. Then they return at 
 1 o'clock and work until 3 :3c While the day is much 
 
146 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 shortened thereby, the work actually accomplished is, 
 as I say, more than under the longer working day. 
 This gives time for physical recreation and for intel- 
 lectual development. The men come to their work 
 fresh and anxious to turn out the maximum product 
 in the minimum time." 
 
 "This is very interesting. I have heard the same 
 argument before, but I am glad to hear it from the 
 lips of others in a position to know, for I am thereby 
 more than ever assured that it is the truth," declared 
 Harrington. "But how do the men put in their time ? 
 In the larger cities there are various clubs and schools 
 where the men can actually improve themselves phys- 
 ically and mentally, but in a city as small as St. Al- 
 bans, what is there to do betimes?" 
 
 "Why, of course you know there are the night 
 schools and the social centers in the school buildings. 
 But what we have here and what is becoming insti- 
 tuted also in other places, is a workingman's club. 
 This city being an airship manufacturing city to a 
 large degree, the various airship factories have come 
 to a mutual agreement whereby they have established 
 a workingman's club. It has all the adjuncts of a 
 well-appointed club house, has a fine gymnasium, 
 swimming pool and all that goes with it, also a fine 
 library, smoking rooms, dining rooms, billiard rooms, 
 etc. On certain late afternoons, after factory hours, 
 and on different nights, classes are conducted in vari- 
 ous branches of study," declared the informant. "All 
 told, it is is a very novel and meritorious club." 
 
 "This is decidedly interesting," was Harrington's 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 147 
 
 comment, "but what I want to know is, who foots the 
 bill ?" 
 
 "The membership is absolutely free. There is not 
 one cent of dues. The club is maintained solely by 
 the different aero factories. They jointly and propor- 
 tionately foot the bill," was the answer. 
 
 "Well I am sure that is very obliging of Capital, 
 but is it not a great drain and unnecessary one on its 
 supporters ?" 
 
 "Not at all. The plan was entered into rather dubi- 
 ously, for it had to be tried out and make good. Now 
 the heads of the various factories in the scheme admit 
 that it has amply paid. The men are in so much bet- 
 ter health physically through the 'gym' alone, that 
 they are able to work far faster and better in the 
 shortened day. Their minds, too, are in better trim 
 for the classes and studies. Still better, to my way 
 of thinking, is the social end. In this club* the rich 
 and the poor often mingle. The factory owners often 
 there mix up with the men in their employ. This en- 
 courages good fellowship. It goes a long ways to- 
 ward bridging the chasm between capital and labor. 
 Not a strike nor labor disturbance, large or small, has 
 occurred since the club was started. It has been a 
 wonderful leveler. Employers and employees feel an 
 actual comradeship, so anything but the strike spirit 
 can thrive under such conditions." 
 
 "Well, the longer I live, the more I learn," declared 
 Harrington. "From the moment I arrived from Aus- 
 tralia I have been learning. I am sure I am very 
 
148 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 deeply indebted to you for the insight into modern 
 conditions that you have given me." 
 
 "Not at all. I am always glad to find a willing 
 listener," was the reply. 
 
 By this time Harrington had made a half circle 
 around the city and found himself at the door of his 
 hotel. Leaving his chance acquaintance, he entered 
 the hostelry in better spirits than he had been in since 
 his unfortunate call of the night before. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 That evening, time hung heavily upon the hands of 
 Harrington for the first time since he had left Aus- 
 tralia. Should he spend the evening with Jemima? 
 She had exacted from him a promise to call, when he 
 left her the night before. Yet how could he humiliate 
 himself to go over there again, and especially so soon ? 
 To be sure he felt that he would give almost anything 
 to be able to see her again that night, to review with 
 her the experiences of the day — he had been accus- 
 tomed to do so in the old days. Her smile, her quiet 
 encouragement, would mean so much to him, he 
 thought. But no, he would not throw himself in her 
 way so much, for were he to do so, her friendship, the 
 kind of regard she declared she now felt for him, 
 would turn to dislike, perhaps even hate. 
 
 Funny old world this is, after all, thought Harring- 
 ton. Some people seem to be created to enjoy happi- 
 ness, while others can but look on at the happiness of 
 others. 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 149 
 
 Just as Harrington was sadly planning to spend a 
 lonesome evening in his room, there came a call for 
 him. 
 
 To his surprise, he found it was his new-found 
 friend, the mayor. 
 
 "I am going out for a long spin in my car," he de- 
 clared, "and father insisted that before I went, I come 
 around and get you and bring you over to spend the 
 evening with him, for he is lonesome." 
 
 "Well, I was just settling myself down to a quiet 
 evening in my room, but I am sure I shall be only too 
 glad to go with you," was Harrington's answer. "It 
 was very kind of you to come for me." 
 
 "Not at all. I am orriy too glad to be able to come 
 for you." 
 
 A few minutes later Harrington was again at the 
 home of his old friend, who acted delighted to see 
 him. 
 
 "I thought if you were not away, he would bring 
 you back with him. I am all alone this evening and I 
 wanted to see you. How have you spent the day ?" 
 
 "Oh, I have strolled around and amused myself in a 
 quiet way. It has been one regret that I have not 
 seen any more familiar faces. I guess all the old- 
 timers but us are gone forever." 
 
 "Kind of seems that way to me, too. It makes me 
 sad, too, when I allow myself to dwell upon the past. 
 But how about Jemima? You certainly must have 
 seen her to-day. I expect there will be wedding bells, 
 old shoes, rice and what not ere long," he declared 
 playfully. 
 
150 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 Harrington's manner was by no means playful. 
 "No, Frank, that foolishness is not for me. I thought 
 when I started for America that there might be some 
 such ending to it all. Now it can never be." He 
 shook his head sadly, and with a hopeless air. 
 
 "Bosh, man, you have not changed your mind and 
 gone back on an old love," declared Pettibone. 
 
 "No, Frank, but she has gone back on me," was the 
 reply. 
 
 "Whew ! You don't mean to say that Jemima has 
 turned you down !" was the surprised response. 
 
 "She has told me that it is too late for her to think 
 of marriage, and I do not know but she is right," de- 
 clared Harrington with emotion. 
 
 "I am half of a notion to make a sudden break and 
 start for Australia. The Enoch Arden has made a 
 mess of it all by returning when things were all very 
 well as they were. Now it has been disagreeable for 
 her and hard on me. I was an old fool to think that 
 at this late day things could be patched up. I wish I 
 had stayed where I was in Australia and quietly ended 
 my life there, unknown, unmourned, forgotten." 
 Harrington sadly shook his head. 
 
 "Come, come, old man. It will come out all -right. 
 I'll bet my best hat that it is straightened out and that 
 you and Jemima get tied," encouraged Pettibone. 
 
 "No. there is no chance of that. It is all over. I 
 do not intend to call there again." 
 
 "You may rest assured you have my sympathy, old 
 chap. I hope, though, you will not think of returning 
 to Australia. What is there there to interest you? 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 151 
 
 Far better settle down here. That seems to me to be 
 the wisest course." 
 
 "I cannot say what I shall do. I shall do whatever 
 seems to be best; as yet I am very much undecided." 
 
 Then they resumed the old subject, stories of the 
 old days, and talked of the various careers of their 
 friends. Harrington appeared to regain much of his 
 old cheerfulness as they talked. Almost reluctantly 
 he heard the noise in the street below of the returning 
 car of the mayor, who had called to take him back to 
 his hotel. 
 
 "I had a delightful spin in the country to-night," 
 declared the mayor. "I wish you could have been 
 along, too. Some day soon, when you feel so dis- 
 posed, I would like to take you out into the country 
 where I went to-night. I want to show you what one 
 man has done to reclaim an 'abandoned' farm." Har- 
 rington thanked him sincerely for the invitation and 
 promised to take the trip whenever the mayor should 
 be at leisure and so desired. They were now in front 
 of the hotel and the two separated for the night, Har- 
 rington again thanking the younger man for his 
 courtesy. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 We will now return to Heatherton. After leaving 
 Harrington that morning, he hurried out to make a 
 call and surprise Eledha, who believed him to be still 
 in Boston. 
 
152 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 With eager steps, he ran up to the front door which 
 he found ajar. Into the dining room he bounced. 
 
 "Why, Tom, where in the world did you come 
 from?" cried Miss Sears. "Of all persons, I did not 
 expect to see you to-day." 
 
 "Well, if you are displeased or otherwise disturbed, 
 I will at once light out for Boston," declared Heather- 
 ton with mock seriousness. 
 
 "Now you know better than that, Tom," declared 
 Eleona in an abused air. "You know I am always 
 delighted to see you, but to-day I had no idea of your 
 coming." 
 
 After an affectionate embrace, Heatherton sat down 
 and explained how he had business in Burlington and 
 had taken a little extra time off and come the rest of 
 the way. 
 
 "Well, we will go and find Auntie and tell her. She 
 will be as much surprised as I was," declared Eleona. 
 
 Then the two, arm in arm, started to look for the 
 elderly woman. A search of nearly the whole house 
 was necessary before they discovered her. Room 
 after room on both floors were carefully visited, but 
 in vain. 
 
 "I wonder if she can be in the attic?" asked Eleona 
 quizzically. "That is the only half-way probable 
 place now to look for her." 
 
 Together they started up the attic stairs. In the 
 rear of the big attic store room an unusual sight met 
 their eyes. There was the aged woman reclining on 
 a chair, her head buried in her hands. On her lap 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 153 
 
 were some photographs and trinkets, souvenirs of her 
 girlhood days. 
 
 "Why, Auntie, what can be the matter? Are you 
 ill ? Come ! See Tom has come to surprise us !" 
 cried Eleona. 
 
 Like a frightened fawn, the elderly woman rose and 
 with a prodigious effort, endeavored to assume her 
 usual manner. It was impossible for her, however, 
 to hide the tear-stained cheeks. 
 
 "My dear boy, I am delighted to see you, and it is 
 all the more a pleasure that it is a surprise." In her 
 manner was utmost sincerity of welcome, but her 
 voice sounded harsh and unnatural. 
 
 "Auntie, you are certainly ill. What is the mat- 
 ter?" cried Eleona in alarm. 
 
 "No, no, my child, I am well. I was only up here 
 looking up some old clothes." 
 
 She, however, appeared weak and tottery. She 
 gladly accepted Tom's strong arm to assist her down 
 stairs again. 
 
 Her whole manner seemed strange. Both Tom and 
 Eleona silently noted it. Soon Miss Haggerson ex- 
 cused herself and went out into the garden to gather 
 flowers for the dining table. 
 
 "I do not know what is the matter with Auntie. I 
 never saw her act this way," declared Eleona anx- 
 iously. "I fear she is ill." 
 
 "Do you not know of any cause for her to act dif- 
 ferently than usual?" asked Tom. 
 
 "Why, what do you mean? You always did like 
 
154 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 to talk in riddles. If you know what is the matter 
 with Auntie, why do you not tell me?" half pouted 
 Eleona. 
 
 "Has she undergone any excitement of a nature out 
 of the ordinary?" pursued Tom, not answering the 
 question. 
 
 "Why, no. Not that I know of," was the reply. 
 
 "Has she had no callers, seen no one who might 
 affect her considerably?" asked Tom earnestly. 
 
 "Why, yes, she had a call, two calls, in fact, from 
 an old man from Australia, a Air. Harrington who 
 used to be a friend of hers in her girlhood in St. Al- 
 bans. 
 
 "Do you think that may or may not have had any 
 effect upon her mentally or physically?" asked Hea- 
 therton. 
 
 "Why, Tom, you talk strangely to-day. What pos- 
 sible effect would meeting an old acquaintance have ?" 
 she asked surprisedly. 
 
 "Oh, Miss Innocent, you are too unsophisticated 
 for this world," answered he banteringly. "Why 
 don't you cut your eye teeth and see what is happen- 
 ing under your very eyes ?" 
 
 "Will you never quit talking in riddles and let me 
 know what you are driving at ?" asked Eleona impet- 
 uously. 
 
 "Well, if I must tell you. That Mr. Harrington 
 was the old lover of your aunt. They were engaged 
 to be married when he left for Australia to make his 
 fortune and come back and claim her. Then he 
 heard she was dead and he stopped writing. Now 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 155 
 
 fifty years later he has returned with the sole object 
 of claiming your aunt as his wife. The other night, 
 when he called here, he proposed and she rejected 
 him. I believe she still loves him. I am sure he loves 
 her very ardently still." 
 
 "Well, Tom, you surprise me ! Auntie have a 
 flame! He propose and she reject him! Well, this 
 is very romantic. Never a word has she breathed to 
 me of it. I never once suspected." 
 
 "What we want to do is to try to bring about a rec- 
 onciliation. I think he is the man to make her a good 
 husband, and with you married, what sort of life will 
 she lead all alone here? Her very best course is to 
 marry him, and I feel sure she still loves him and he 
 her," replied Heatherton earnestly. 
 
 "Well, Tom, your deep intuition, mind reading, or 
 whatever quality it is that enabled you to discern all 
 this, is truly marvellous. Really, never before did I 
 realize your wonderful ability in the match-making 
 line. You have me completely discounted. Things 
 right under my eyes I fail to see, yet you know all 
 about them." 
 
 "You are not envious, are you, Eleona?" asked her 
 lover. "Besides, only by accident did I ever learn all 
 this. I chanced in New York to meet Mr. Harring- 
 ton at my hotel. He told me of his life and that he 
 was returning with just one real object in the world — 
 the claiming as his own the only woman in the world 
 in his eyes." 
 
 "Well, isn't that strange that you happened to meet 
 him?" 
 
156 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 "That isn't all that is strange. I never asked him 
 the name or home town of his old flame. I had large- 
 ly forgotten having met the man, when, upon coming 
 to St. Albans, whom did I run into in the hotel here 
 but Harrington. He was very glum. I barely recog- 
 nized him as the same light-hearted man I had before 
 seen. I was determined to know the reason for the 
 change. Reluctantly he confessed that he had sought 
 out his elderly lady love, proposed, and that she had 
 refused him. In despair, he was contemplating im- 
 mediate return to Australia which I tried to discour- 
 age. Then I received a shock. I discovered that the 
 woman in the case was none other but your aunt !" 
 
 "It is certainly strange. Think of Auntie having a 
 sweetheart! Can't I get back at her now for times 
 she has bantered me about you !" 
 
 "What we must do is to try to bring them together. 
 Employ all your innate cleverness and see what you 
 can do." 
 
 Eleona readily promised. Just then her aunt en- 
 tered with a handful of flowers, and all further con- 
 versation was cut short. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 "Auntie," began Eleona that afternoon, "why 
 doesn't Mr. Harrington come back to call? I am sure 
 I heard you invite him to call again, but he never has 
 come," declared Eleona. 
 
 "Why, my child, it was only two days ago when he 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 157 
 
 was here. Do you expect him to camp out here day 
 and night?" replied Miss Jemima. 
 
 "You used to be pretty thick, didn't you, years 
 ago?" pursued the niece relentlessly. 
 
 "Why, Eleona, what is the matter with you to-day? 
 The idea !" she remarked. "How did you ever get 
 such an impression?" 
 
 "Why, there are lots of people around town who 
 remember you two and recall his going to Australia." 
 She stopped and watched the effect her words pro- 
 duced. "Do you know," she continued, "I half be- 
 lieve you are the real magnet that caused him to re- 
 turn to America." 
 
 "Surprising wisdom for one so young!" remarked 
 her aunt deprecatingly, but in no way unkindly. 
 
 "Now I came to you from the first and told all 
 concerning my love affair with Tom. Now if you 
 have a love affair or ever had one, you should recip- 
 rocate by baring your heart to me," argued her niece 
 persuasively. 
 
 "What a funny mood you are in to-day," remarked 
 the aged woman. "Love affairs are very natural for 
 the young, but not for the old." 
 
 "But Auntie, confess, did you not once love Mr. 
 Harrington?" She turned her earnest eyes up to 
 meet the expression of her aunt. 
 
 "Well, dear, since you seem so curious, I will tell 
 you. Many years ago we were engaged to be mar- 
 ried. He was poor then and he thought he needed 
 more money before he married. Accordingly, he 
 went far-away — to Australia. He promised me he 
 
158 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 would return soon to claim me as his bride. Years 
 went by. He never came. His letters stopped. I 
 became convinced that he had died. Never did I ex- 
 pect to see him again, when now, after all these years, 
 he has returned in the flesh." 
 
 "Isn't it all so strange? But why did you not tell 
 me of it all the night he first called?" asked Eleona. 
 
 "I did not think it would interest you. I told you 
 he was an old friend. I thought that explanation 
 sufficient." 
 
 "But, Auntie, don't you still love him?" she asked 
 earnestly. 
 
 "You seem very curious this afternoon, my dear. 
 Why do you seek to pry into the secrets of my inmost 
 heart?" 
 
 "Auntie, dearest," she came and huddled on her 
 knees close to the chair occupied by Miss Jemima, 
 "you took me as a babe when your sister, my mother, 
 died, and you have been like a mother, not as an aunt, 
 to me. Now, after a long, interesting childhood and 
 early womanhood, I am soon to wed, to go away, to 
 break this happy life that we have led here. This 
 thought makes me so sad when I think of it, of your 
 being left here alone, that at times I am almost re- 
 solved not to wed but to remain ever by your side, to 
 comfort, to console." 
 
 "My dearest little child, it is true we are more like 
 mother and daughter than aunt and niece. Your hap- 
 piness is ever my own." The old lady's form swayed 
 to and fro and great sobs, half suppressed, heaved her 
 bosom. 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 159 
 
 "Don't you love Mr. Harrington just a little, 
 Auntie? I think from what I have seen that he is a 
 fine old man," declared Eleona. 
 
 "He is indeed a fine old man, and worthy of the 
 greatest respect. I cannot think of marriage, though, 
 even to the best man in the world. Do not think of 
 such foolish things again, dear," was the reply. 
 
 From the resolute expression on her aunt's face, 
 Eleona saw full well that there was no use of argu- 
 ment. Evidently she was a fizzle as match-maker. 
 She had thought she possessed sufficient adroitness to 
 accomplish the end she sought. The more she had 
 thought the match over since Heatherton had 
 opened her eyes, the more she was convinced that it 
 was the proper thing for her aunt to wed. It had 
 ever been a problem, the future of her aunt, after her 
 own marriage. Here seemed a happy solution of the 
 vexed problem, but now this had failed. 
 
 When Heatherton called later, she was compelled to 
 admit that her ability as match-maker was very lim- 
 ited and that she saw but failure ahead. Heatherton 
 was by no means discouraged. He believed that a 
 way still remained to bring the two together. To 
 find that way was still his purpose. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 "If you are so you can go this afternoon, I would 
 like to have you ride out in my car with me into the 
 country on that trip I mentioned to you," declared 
 
160 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 Mayor Pettibone upon meeting Harrington on the 
 street one morning a few days later. 
 
 "I am a man of leisure, with no pressing engage- 
 ments, and I shall be only too delighted to accompany 
 you," declared Harrington. 
 
 "Well, then I will call for ycu with my car about 2 
 o'clock and we will make the start." 
 
 "I will be ready at the hotel at that time," declared 
 the aged man. 
 
 Promptly at the hour named, the mayor's big car 
 drew up before the hotel door. Harrington was 
 ready waiting, and in a trice they were merrily spin- 
 ning over the country. 
 
 Well-kept farms lined the road on both sides, 
 crowding well up to the city limits. Fleet "monos" 
 furnished excellent interurban transportation, just as 
 did the trolleys in their day. 
 
 Over roads of macadam and asphalt they flew, 
 roads that were the equal of city streets years before. 
 
 "There do not seem to be many abandoned farms 
 around here," declared Harrington enthusiastically. 
 
 "No, there are virtually none now, for there can be 
 none when taxation is so high and computed on land 
 only. This, as I before stated, is one of the effects of 
 the single tax." 
 
 "One thing has occurred to me since our interesting 
 discussion of the other day. How has the single tax 
 affected trusts and monopolies, such as Standard Oil, 
 coal, etc.?" asked Harrington. 
 
 "Now you have struck at the root of the matter. 
 In no instance has the single tax worked out better 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 161 
 
 than in the virtual abolition of monopolies. All mo- 
 nopolies that are based on land are practically put out 
 of commission for the good of all." 
 
 "Look, for example, at the case of United States 
 Steel. Many years ago that capitalized at close to a 
 billion dollars land that had been farming land of lit- 
 tle value twenty-five years before. The vast anthra- 
 cite coal monopolies, capitalized at hundreds of mil- 
 lions, under the old regime, defied man, flesh and the 
 devil in exacting tribute from a shivering public for 
 what was designed by Almighty God to be used for 
 the good of all equally. The Standard Oil Company 
 was another example. 
 
 "Now, fortunately, all this is changed. All these 
 monopolies having their wealth derived from the land 
 are taxed according to their value, a tax eminently 
 fair for both producer and consumer. To be sure, 
 Standard Oil and these other stocks are not quoted at 
 500 or 600, nor are they paying 50 per cent, or 75 per 
 cent, dividends each year. The high taxation elimi- 
 nates the possibility of such ill-gotten profits, but the 
 return is perfectly adequate. 
 
 "Still another good point. Under the new way 
 of taxing, idle mineral land has been forced into the 
 market or has been developed ; thus more work has 
 been afforded the laboring men of the country in this 
 development work. 
 
 "The country has, to a considerable degree, re- 
 gained a large part of its rightful wealth, its natural 
 resources, filched by illegal means. 
 
 "The millennium is by no means here. There are 
 
162 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 still some trusts, some monopolies, but they are made 
 to stand and deliver for the public weal, through tax- 
 ation, more than ever before. 
 
 "Labor conditions are better than ever before. The 
 men are well paid, they have shorter hours, land is 
 more easily acquired, and the purchasing power of a 
 dollar is nearly half as much again as it formerly 
 was. 
 
 "New building enterprises, and there must be new 
 building at a good, lively rate in order to make the 
 land pay the taxes, are to be seen everywhere. This 
 has meant still more employment for the laboring 
 classes." 
 
 "If you keep on, you will end by making me as en- 
 thusiastic a single taxer as you yourself," declared 
 Harrington with a smile. 
 
 "Well, I have seen both systems, and I can most 
 heartily indorse the new way as far superior to the old 
 one. 
 
 "Then, taking the country over, you think the sin- 
 gle tax has worked out excellently and well?'' asked 
 Harrington. 
 
 "I certainly do. So must every honest student of 
 politics and of economics," was the reply. "This 
 country has now — I mean continental United States, 
 not insular United States — close to 200,000,000 peo- 
 ple. There was required to run the country a few 
 years ago, just when the single tax was instituted, 
 about $1,300,000,000 annually. Under the new or- 
 der of things, with a multiplicity of tax gatherers 
 eliminated, $900,000,000 has sufficed to pay all the 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 163 
 
 running expenses of the federal government. This 
 thing alone, in my mind, justifies the single tax. 
 
 "Way back, years ago, Prof. William G. Sumner, 
 of Yale, and John A. Hobson, of England, declared 
 that the indirect cost of the tariff due to monopoly 
 prices thereby made possible, was equivalent to a bil- 
 lion and a half dollars a year. In other words, it then 
 imposed a tax on each family of $100 each year un- 
 necessarily." 
 
 As they talked, they were riding through some of 
 the finest, most rugged scenery of the Green Moun- 
 tain State. Just then they shot through a little farm- 
 ing hamlet. High up on a rocky ledge stood an at- 
 tractive house built from native boulders. 
 
 "W T hat is that place up there?" asked Harrington 
 with interest. 
 
 k That, why that is Community Hall. Another one 
 of these social centers that have made life far more 
 livable in the country," was the reply. "I think you 
 stated that you had seen them somewhere farther 
 south. They have them everywhere now." 
 
 "Yes, I had the good fortune down in Maryland to 
 go through one of those interesting places. It seems 
 to be an excellent idea," answered Harrington. 
 
 "Now we are coming to the real objective point of 
 our ride. Just ahead is that 'abandoned' farm. A 
 few years ago the place was as wild and unpromising 
 as any piece of land in the state. See it now." 
 
 At first glance Harrington was about to exclaim 
 that the place alluded to must be a forest reserve, for 
 
164 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 it appeared all grown up to large trees. A second 
 glance set him right. 
 
 "That tract of land consists of three hundred acres. 
 It is all set out to nut-bearing trees which thrive to a 
 surprising degree in this climate. There are three 
 hundred acres of chestnut trees in that big grove." de- 
 clared Harrington's informant. "How much do you 
 think this 'abandoned' farm cost the owner, and what 
 would you judge to be the annual income?" asked 
 Pettibone. 
 
 "I really cannot give any estimate," was the reply. 
 
 "I happen to be a friend of the owner, who lives 
 in Burlington. He paid $150 for the entire 300 acres. 
 He set it out to chestnut trees and his net profits are 
 from $30,000 to $50,000 annually. Bear in mind, too, 
 the grove is not more than ten years old, either." 
 
 "That is certainly a very practical demonstration of 
 what, with the requisite enterprise, can be accom- 
 plished right here in Vermont," declared Harrington 
 enthusiastically. 
 
 "This grove contains very choice varieties. The 
 entire world — Europe, Asia and Africa — were scoured 
 in order to obtain the choicest, rarest varieties of 
 chestnut, anything that would grow and readily adapt 
 itself to the rigors of Northern New England cli- 
 mate." 
 
 "I am surprised that more do not try this way of 
 reclaiming old farms," declared Harrington. 
 
 "Others are trying the same or similar experiments 
 with nut growing and are meeting with success, but 
 on a smaller scale. The demand for nuts was never 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 165 
 
 so great as just now, as the public is more than ever, 
 as you know, turning from a flesh diet to a more 
 wholesome, equally sustaining one of nuts and foods 
 made from nuts and nut products. This has stimu- 
 lated the planting of nut groves of all kinds and no 
 land in Vermont seems better adapted than these old, 
 once abandoned farms." 
 
 The two men then got out to walk closer and in- 
 spect more minutely the most interesting grove Har- 
 rington had ever seen. After walking up and down 
 the long rows of trees towering far over their heads, 
 they once more entered the auto and started home- 
 ward. 
 
 Pettibone was in somewhat of a hurry to keep an 
 appointment, so the return was made far more quick- 
 ly than the outward trip had been made. Three- 
 quarters of an hour later, Harrington alighted at his 
 hotel. 
 
 "I do not know how I shall ever repay you for all 
 your kindness," declared Harrington. 
 
 ''Do not trouble your head over such trifles," was 
 the hearty response. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 "Well, little one, how did you succeed as match- 
 maker?" was Heatherton's greeting when next he 
 called at his sweetheart's home. 
 
 "Tom, it is no use. I am a dismal failure. I 
 sounded Auntie and got her to confess her old love 
 
1 66 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 affair, but when I tried to persuade her that she should 
 accept Mr. Harrington now, she insisted that it is too 
 late for her, that she is too old to think of marriage. 
 I tried to show her that it would be far better for her 
 to be married, especially after I leave home for good, 
 but it was all in vain. Her mind was made up. I 
 could not change it," declared Miss Sears regretfully. 
 
 "Well, that is too bad, but the case is not hopeless 
 yet. I have learned to have the highest regard for 
 Mr. Harrington. I think he would be a fine uncle. 
 If your aunt could only realize the kind of affection I 
 am sure he feels for her, I feel convinced she could 
 but relent," was the answer. 
 
 Heatherton suddenly became most thoughtful. 
 ''He hasn't called again on your aunt, has he?" 
 
 Miss Sears shook her head. "I think he must have 
 felt so hurt he will not return." 
 
 "He told me he should not call again, but that your 
 aunt had asked him to do so," declared Heatherton. 
 
 "If we could only get them to meet again, I think 
 it might be that Auntie would relent," declared Miss 
 Sears. 
 
 "I doubt if that will be, for under the circumstances 
 he is not likely to show his face here again. His 
 pride will not let him," was the reply. "Say, Eleona, 
 why can't we fix up a little deal ourselves? All that 
 is needed is diplomacy. They both love each other 
 all right. You tell your aunt that Mr. Harrington, I 
 have told you, is to leave to-morrow for Australia. 
 That his trip proving unsuccessful, he is going back 
 a heart-broken old man. Make it just as harrowing 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 167 
 
 as you can. When your aunt finds this out, if she has 
 a spark of love for him, she will send for him for at 
 least one word of good-bye," exclaimed Heatherton. 
 
 "You are quite a match-maker. We will see how 
 this effort succeeds," was the reply. 
 
 That afternoon when aunt and niece were alone, the 
 latter began to pave the way to carry out the project 
 agreed upon between herself and her lover. 
 
 "Oh, Auntie, Tom tells me that Mr. Harrington is 
 to leave early to-morrow morning. Did you expect 
 he was going so soon?" 
 
 "Air. Harrington leaving St. Albans ! Where is he 
 going?" was the quick response. There was no mis- 
 taking the deep interest occasioned by the information. 
 
 "Tom says he is going back to Australia. He says 
 the old man is all broken up, that he has aged per- 
 ceptibly since his arrival here, and that he has con- 
 cluded that he made a great mistake by coming on 
 such a long journey all alone at his time of life." 
 
 Eleona slyly watched the effect that her words had 
 produced. She could easily see that her aunt was 
 agitated. Soon the elderly woman made some excuse 
 and got up and left the room. 
 
 A short time later, Eleona started to join her aunt, 
 whose sudden leaving of the room she felt sure had 
 some connection with the intelligence she had just 
 conveyed. 
 
 All through the house she looked. Once more her 
 aunt appeared to be among the missing. The attic 
 door stood slightly ajar. Eleona went noiselessly up 
 the stairs. 
 
168 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 There in the same corner where she had discovered 
 her before, Eleona found her aunt weeping quietly. 
 In her hand was clasped the photo of a handsome 
 young man. 
 
 "Auntie, here you are again," declared Eleona. 
 The elderly woman jumped and sought to conceal her 
 agitation. 
 
 "I know you love Mr. Harrington, and I am sure 
 he loves you. Of course you will not marry him, but 
 would it not be nice to ask him to call and say good- 
 bye before he leaves? It would only be an act of 
 friendship. Would it not make the disappointment 
 of the aged man less?" entreated Eleona. 
 
 Still her aunt did not answer. Her frame shook 
 and quivered under a deep emotion that she no longer 
 sought to conceal. 
 
 "Come, just say the word, and I will drop a note 
 for you to Mr. Harrington and ask him to call to- 
 night. You know if I wait it will be too late, for he 
 leaves early to-morrow for good," pleaded the 
 younger woman. 
 
 "Yes, my child, I presume I owe Mr. Harrington 
 that much courtesy. You may write just a line and 
 ask him to call to-night," was the answer. 
 
 Her efforts were apparently beginning to succeed 
 at last, thought Eleona. Eagerly she went to her 
 writing table and wrote a brief note, as follows : 
 
 "My Dear Mr. Harrington: 
 
 "My aunt desires very greatly that you call upon 
 her this (Thursday) evening. She says it is most 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 169 
 
 important, and that she trusts you will not disappoint 
 her by failing to appear. 
 
 "Sincerely, 
 
 Eleoxa B. Sears." 
 
 In a trice, the message was on its way by a special 
 delivery boy. The writer laughed softly to herself as 
 she thought of the part she was playing. Would it 
 succeed, though, was her worry. As to that, time 
 alone could tell. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 It was with genuine surprise that Harrington early 
 that evening received a special delivery letter written 
 in a fine feminine hand, but whose identity was an 
 entire enigma to him. 
 
 Tearing open the envelope eagerly, he was sur- 
 prised to read that Miss Jemima wanted very urgent- 
 ly to see him that evening at her home. What could 
 it mean? Could it be — no, he dared not hope so 
 much good fortune. 
 
 With more animation than he had evinced for sev- 
 eral days, Harrington eagerly and carefully began to 
 dress to go over to Miss Jemima's house. 
 
 A half hour later, with much trepidation, he was 
 ringing the bell at Miss Haggerson's home. As had 
 been the case previously, Eleona answered his ring. 
 
 "Good evening, Mr. Harrington. Auntie is wait- 
 ing for you in the parlor. Go right in there," was 
 the salutation. 
 
i ;o UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 "Good evening, Tom, I am glad to see you," she 
 exclaimed cordially. 
 
 "Why have you remained away so long? Did you 
 not give me your promise that you would come back- 
 soon and call?" she asked. 
 
 "I know you got me to make that promise, but I 
 do not want to call so often as to bore you," was the 
 reply. 
 
 "You know you never have or never will bore me. 
 None of my friends bore me. That is impossible." 
 
 "I hurried around here as soon as I could after 
 receiving that note which Miss Sears wrote for you. 
 At first I feared you were ill, and I was much con- 
 cerned. Then I concluded it could not be that. Xow 
 I stand before you ready to receive whatever message 
 you may have for me. My fate is wholly in your 
 hands," declared Harrington with half mock gravity. 
 
 "Why, I do not know as I understand just what 
 you mean. I have no special message for you," came 
 the reply. 
 
 "No message, no special word ! Then, why did you 
 get me to come back? Jemima, have you no feeling? 
 Is my heart a mere plaything in your hands?" 
 pleaded Harrington. 
 
 "I sent for you, Tom, because I wanted to have a 
 chance to say good-bye before you leave for Aus- 
 tralia." 
 
 "Leave for Australia! Why, I am not going to 
 return — at least not for some little time yet." 
 
 "Why, Eleona told me that through Tom she un- 
 derstood you had decided to return and that early 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 171 
 
 to-morrow morning you were to leave St. Albans for 
 good." 
 
 "Why, I cannot understand how such a story was 
 circulated. To be sure, I did think I might return, 
 but not at once, and I have not been around publish- 
 ing that possible intention," said Harrington in gen- 
 uine surprise. 
 
 "Well, I do not know how she was so misinformed. 
 There must have been a big mistake made." 
 
 "Didn't you want me to go to Australia ?" Harring- 
 ton was beginning to see light break through the 
 clouds of doubt and despair. 
 
 "I wanted to say good-bye first. I feared you 
 would not take the trouble to look me up to make 
 your adieus," was the somewhat evasive response. 
 
 "I think I should be as well off were I in Austra- 
 lia. No one cares for me here, neither does any one 
 care for me there. It is all the same to me now 
 wherever I live," said Harrington sadly, sudden hopes 
 quickly vanishing. 
 
 "Do not talk that way, Tom. There is one who 
 does care for you. I care for you still, Tom, dear, but 
 the thought of marriage at my time seemed so pre- 
 posterous that I could not at first accustom myself to 
 such a thought." 
 
 "But yet you say you love me, yet you cannot marry 
 me because neither one of us is young. Is love, then, 
 a mere matter of, and governed solely by age?" asked 
 Harrington. 
 
 "Then think of your lonesome state after Eleona 
 marries. Alone in extreme old age, you will be lone- 
 
i;2 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 some and miserable and so shall I. Misery, they say, 
 loves company, so why can't we unite?" pleaded Har- 
 rington. 
 
 ''I confess I have thought much and deeply the past 
 few days about my condition after Eleona leaves. 
 Perhaps, after all, you are right, Tom. I cannot say 
 no to you again. As I see you more, I feel myself 
 set back fifty years. There is the same old light in 
 your eye, the same old manner. I cannot resist it 
 now any more than I once could," she confessed with 
 much emotion. 
 
 "Harrington went over to her side and imprinted a 
 warm kiss on her lips. "Dearest, then we can wed 
 and begin to live for each other, just as we should 
 have done had our little romance gone on uninter- 
 rupted ! I feel I am going to be very happy after 
 all!" 
 
 "Yes, Tom, a new happiness also comes into my life 
 as I sit here with you as in the old days. If God is 
 so good as to spare our lives, we can yet be very 
 happy." 
 
 "Now, dearest, our great mistake before was delay. 
 Had we done as we should, we would have married 
 in early life, even if we did not have so much money. 
 That need have been but of secondary importance. 
 Let us now waste no more time; let us name the day 
 quickly. We are both advanced in years, and we 
 want to have all the enjoyment that reasonably re- 
 mains for us," he declared. 
 
 "I can be ready very quickly, Tom !" was the an- 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 173 
 
 swer. "Eleona told me this morning that Tom is get- 
 ting impatient. He wants to be married now just as 
 soon as possible. Of course that will leave me all 
 alone." 
 
 "We certainly do not want such young things as 
 they are get ahead of us !" declared Harrington half 
 playfully. "That would never do at all." 
 
 Just then Eleona slyly peeked in the door with a 
 look of supreme confidence on her face. 
 
 "Come here, girlie," called her aunt. "Why did 
 you tell me Mr. Harrington was to leave for Australia 
 to-morrow ? He says he has no thought of so doing. 
 How do you explain it?" 
 
 "Forgive me, Auntie," declared Eleona, breaking 
 down, "I guess the jig is up. I thought the end 
 justified the means, and judging from present appear- 
 ances I was correct," she half arched her eyebrows 
 and looked roguishly first at her aunt and then at Mr. 
 Harrington. 
 
 "If this was all a ruse, I will forgive you this once if 
 you will not repeat it," declared her aunt. "Mr. 
 Harrington is to be your uncle some day soon." A 
 glad light came into the aged woman's eyes as she 
 looked affectionately at her aged lover. 
 
 "Congratulations, 'Uncle' Tom, I suppose I must 
 get used to calling you that, so I will start right away 
 to get in practice. I know you will be the very best 
 husband and the finest uncle in all the world! I 
 know Auntie won't mind, so I am going to imprint a 
 little kiss on that cheek." As good as her word, she 
 
174 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 gave the old, wrinkled cheek a resounding smack. 
 Harrington, as embarrassed as a school boy, received 
 the token of affection. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 With sincere delight, Heatherton learned of the 
 success of the combined efforts of himself and of 
 Eleona. Upon hearing the successful outcome, he 
 lost no time in seeking out his friend. 
 
 "Congratulations, Mr. Harrington — Uncle Tom, I 
 suppose it will be soon," cried the young man. 
 
 "Yes, your future aunt has consented to become my 
 wife, just as she consented once fifty years ago. I 
 only hope it will not take fifty years to again bring 
 her to the point of marriage," was the reply. 
 
 "I know she will make you a good wife, and you 
 will certainly be far better off married than single, 
 especially at your time of life." 
 
 "Perhaps I am an old fool, but I have made up my 
 mind to withstand the bantering and perhaps criti- 
 cism of the world," was the reply. 
 
 Heatherton that night had a most earnest confer- 
 ence with his sweetheart. He felt that he had lost 
 enough time from work. The company was getting 
 anxious that he resume his route, as work was piling 
 up fast. Why should he and Eleona not wed at once ? 
 Long and earnestly they discussed what was the best 
 course to pursue. 
 
 "Wouldn't it be simply great to have a double wed- 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 175 
 
 ding, have Auntie and Mr. Harrington, and you and I 
 married at the same time !" she cried enthusiastically. 
 
 The idea in no way displeased Heatherton, and it 
 met the approval of Miss Jemima when the subject 
 was broached to her later. Mr. Harrington was next 
 seen and the proposition put to him. 
 
 "Why, sure, that would be a bully thing !" was his 
 ready comment. 
 
 Thus it was agreed that a double wedding should 
 take place at the home of Miss Haggerson on Tues- 
 day of the following week. 
 
 It was decided that the affair was to be an informal 
 one. The house was to be thrown open to all friends 
 of either couple caring to attend. 
 
 Like wildfire, the story spread through the city. 
 An old St. Albans boy, after fifty years in Australia, 
 had returned fabulously wealthy, rumor said, and was 
 to wed the old sweetheart of his youth, who, through 
 all these long years, had remained faithful to him 
 and patiently awaited his return. 
 
 It was decided that Frank Pettibone should be 
 asked for old times' sake to stand up with the elderly 
 couple as best man. This he most readily assented 
 to, recalling to Harrington playfully that he had pre- 
 dicted such an outcome to the fifty-year-old romance. 
 
 Harrington decided that he would spend the re- 
 maining years of his life in his native city, as his 
 business in Australia was all closed up and he saw no 
 special reason for return. Besides, as he told in- 
 quirers, America looked fully good enough to him. 
 The new order of things which had come to pass had, 
 
176 UTOPIA ACHIEVED 
 
 he said, so transformed the country, socially, eco- 
 nomically and industrially, that it left little more to be 
 desired. 
 
 Miss Jemima at first suggested that they continue 
 to occupy her own home where she was living. This, 
 however, did not thoroughly please Harrington. 
 
 "I have money in abundance, so why not enjoy it?" 
 he argued. 
 
 It was accordingly arranged that Harrington was 
 to build a handsome new home of reinforced cement. 
 The gossiping public declared it was to cost a for- 
 tune, but as to its actual cost, Harrington was non- 
 committal. 
 
 "I just want to build one of these Edison-poured 
 cement houses for the fun of the thing, the kind of 
 house that they are erecting for model tenements, only 
 on a much larger scale and in detached form," he ex- 
 plained. 
 
 The wedding trip was by no means to be extensive. 
 Harrington had had nearly all the travelling he craved 
 for some time, and Heatherton's house was almost 
 imperatively calling him back to his work. It was 
 accordingly arranged that both couples should, imme- 
 diately after the ceremony, take the next aero for the 
 metropolis, where both couples would spend a brief 
 honeymoon. 
 
 At the appointed hour, the home of Miss Hagger- 
 son was thronged by a large, representative assem- 
 blage of St. Albans people. Loving hands had trans- 
 formed the front room into a bower of roses; on 
 either side of the bay window was a wedding bell. 
 
UTOPIA ACHIEVED 177 
 
 Thus two couples, embodying May and November, 
 spring and winter, of life, were made one, the ring 
 service being used, and the ceremonies going off with 
 no unforeseen interruptions to mar. 
 
 "The first to grasp the happy aged bridegroom's 
 hand was his best man and old-time chum. 
 
 "Congratulations, old pal. May all the happiness 
 in the world be the lot of both you and Mrs. Harring- 
 ton." 
 
 "I am going to turn back the calendar fifty years 
 and make a new start; there's lots of happiness in 
 store for us in life yet," was the enthusiastic response. 
 
 THE END. 
 
BROADWAY PUBLISHING COS 
 NEWEST BOOKS 
 
 All Bound in Silk Cloth and Gilt. Many Illustrated 
 Fiction 
 
 The Eyes at the Window (beautifully bound, with 
 
 embossed jacket) — Olivia Smith Cornelius. . . .$1 .50 
 
 Next-Night Stories — C. J. Messer 1 .25 
 
 Arthur St. Clair of Old Fort Recovery— S. A. D. 
 
 Whipple 1 . 50 
 
 Barnegat Yarns — F. A. Lucas 1 .00 
 
 Jean Carroll, with six illustrations — John H. Case I . 50 
 
 As a Soldier Would — Abner Pickering 1 . 50 
 
 The Nut-Cracker, and Other Human Ape Fables — 
 
 C. E. Blanchard, M.D 1 .00 
 
 Moon-Madness, and Other Fantasies — Aimee 
 
 Crocker Gouraud (5th ed.) 1 .00 
 
 Sadie, or Happy at Last — May Shepherd 1 . 50 
 
 Tweed, a Story of the Old South— S. M. Swales. . 1 .50 
 The White Rose of the Miami— Mrs. E. W. 
 
 Ammerman 1 . 50 
 
 The Centaurians — Biagi 1 . 50 
 
 The Reconstruction of Elinore Wood — Florenz S. 
 
 Merrow 1 . 50 
 
 A Nest of Vipers — Morgan D. Jones 1 . 50 
 
 Religious Works 
 
 The Disintegrating Church — Frederick William 
 
 Atkinson 1 . 00 
 
 Evolution of Belief — J. W. Gordon 1 . 50 
 
 Down Hill and Up Hill — Rev. J. G. Anderson . . 2 . 00 
 
 A Certain Samaritan — Rev. John Richelsen 1 .00 
 
 The Reunion of Christendom — Francis Goodman 1 . 50 
 What the Church Is and What It Should Be— 
 
 Lafayette Swindle 1.50 
 
 A Harp of the Heart. (Poems) — Rev. Chas. 
 
 Coke Woods 1 . 00 
 
 The Gospel Parables in Verse — Rev. Christopher 
 
 Smith 75 
 
 Who? Whence? Where? An Essay by Pedro 
 
 Batista 1 . 00 
 
 Compendium of Scriptural Truths — Marshall 
 
 Smith 1.25 
 
 The Passion Play at Ober Ammergau — Esse Esto 
 
 Maplestone 1 . 00 
 
 Israel Lo Ammi — Ida M. Nungasser 1 .00 
 
The Eternal Evangel — Solomon S. Hilscher $i .50 
 
 A New Philosophy of Life — J. C. Coggins 1 . 00 
 
 Romance of the Universe — B. T. Stauber 1 .50 
 
 In the Early Days — Adelaide Hickox 1 . 50 
 
 The New Theology — By a Methodist Layman — 
 Hamilton White 1 .00 
 
 Miscellaneous 
 
 Anvil Sparks — Radical Rhymes and Caustic 
 
 Comments, by Wilby Heard 75 
 
 The Medical Expert and Other Papers — Louis J. 
 
 Rosenberg 50 
 
 The Little Sufferers (dealing with the Abuses of 
 
 the Children's Societies) — G. Martin 1 .50 
 
 Eureka, a Prose Poem — S. H. Newberry 1 .00 
 
 Rust (a play in four acts) — Algernon Tassin (of 
 
 Columbia University) 1 . 00 
 
 Poems by Charles Guinness 1 . 00 
 
 Prohibition and Anti-Prohibition — Rommel, 
 
 Ziegler & Herz 1 . 00 
 
 Gay Gods and Merry Mortals — Verse by Robert J. 
 
 Shores 1 . 00 
 
 The Rubaiyat of the College Student — Ned Nafe . 50 
 The Deluge of England, and Other Poems — James 
 
 Francis Thierry 1 . 00 
 
 The Dragon's Teeth — a Philosophical and Eco- 
 nomic Work — T. M. Sample 1 .00 
 
 Achsah, the Sister of Jairus — Mabel Cronise 
 
 Jones 1 . 00 
 
 The Marriage Bargain Counter — Daisy Deane . . 1 . 50 
 Building a New Empire — Nathaniel M. Ayers. . 1.50 
 
 Marriage and Divorce — Jeanette Laurance 1 . 00 
 
 The Clothespin Brigade — Clara L. Smiley 75 
 
 "Forget It" — Ida Von Claussen 1 .50 
 
 The Last Word: a Philosophical Essay — James 
 
 and Mary Baldwin 1 . 00 
 
 Travel 
 
 Eight Lands in Eight Weeks (illustrated by 90 
 drawings) — Marcia P. Snyder 1 .25 
 
 Eliza and Etheldreda in Mexico — Patty Guthrie 
 (illustrated) 1 .25 
 
 The attention of clergymen is directed to our Religious List, one 
 of the largest of any house in America. 
 
 Write for free copy of our magazine, BOOK CHAT. 
 
 BROADWAY PUBLISHING CO., 835 BROADWAY, N. Y. 
 
 Branch Offices: 
 
 ATLANTA BALTIMORE INDIANAPOLIS NORFOLK 
 
 WASHINGTON DES MOINES, IOWA 
 

/y^j^-