Our inn is one of those inns and lodging2 houses which have a minimum tariff3, inns which are partly regulated, and, in the default of private enterprise, maintained and controlled by the World State throughout the entire world. It is one of several such establishments in Lucerne. It possesses many hundreds of practically self-cleaning little bedrooms, equipped very much after the fashion of the rooms we occupied in the similar but much smaller inn at Hospenthal, differing only a little in the decoration. There is the same dressing-room recess4 with its bath, the same graceful5 proportion in the succinct6 simplicity7 of its furniture. This particular inn is a quadrangle after the fashion of an Oxford8 college; it is perhaps forty feet high, and with about five stories of bedrooms above its lower apartments; the windows of the rooms look either outward or inward to the quadrangle, and the doors give upon artificially-lit passages with staircases passing up and down. These passages are carpeted with a sort of cork10 carpet, but are otherwise bare. The lower story is occupied by the equivalent of a London club, kitchens and other offices, dining-room, writing-room, smoking and assembly rooms, a barber’s shop, and a library. A colonnade11 with seats runs about the quadrangle, and in the middle is a grass-plot. In the centre of this a bronze figure, a sleeping child, reposes12 above a little basin and fountain, in which water lilies are growing. The place has been designed by an architect happily free from the hampering13 traditions of Greek temple building, and of Roman and Italian palaces; it is simple, unaffected, gracious. The material is some artificial stone with the dull surface and something of the tint14 of yellow ivory; the colour is a little irregular, and a partial confession15 of girders and pillars breaks this front of tender colour with lines and mouldings of greenish gray, that blend with the tones of the leaden gutters16 and rain pipes from the light red roof. At one point only does any explicit17 effort towards artistic18 effect appear, and that is in the great arched gateway19 opposite my window. Two or three abundant yellow roses climb over the face of the building, and when I look out of my window in the early morning — for the usual Utopian working day commences within an hour of sunrise — I see Pilatus above this outlook, rosy20 in the morning sky.
This quadrangle type of building is the prevalent element in Utopian Lucerne, and one may go from end to end of the town along corridors and covered colonnades21 without emerging by a gateway into the open roads at all. Small shops are found in these colonnades, but the larger stores are usually housed in buildings specially22 adapted to their needs. The majority of the residential23 edifices24 are far finer and more substantial than our own modest shelter, though we gather from such chance glimpses as we get of their arrangements that the labour-saving ideal runs through every grade of this servantless world; and what we should consider a complete house in earthly England is hardly known here.
The autonomy of the household has been reduced far below terrestrial conditions by hotels and clubs, and all sorts of co-operative expedients25. People who do not live in hotels seem usually to live in clubs. The fairly prosperous Utopian belongs, in most cases, to one or two residential clubs of congenial men and women. These clubs usually possess in addition to furnished bedrooms more or less elaborate suites26 of apartments, and if a man prefers it one of these latter can be taken and furnished according to his personal taste. A pleasant boudoir, a private library and study, a private garden plot, are among the commonest of such luxuries. Devices to secure roof gardens, loggias, verandahs, and such-like open-air privacies to the more sumptuous27 of these apartments, give interest and variety to Utopian architecture. There are sometimes little cooking corners in these flats — as one would call them on earth — but the ordinary Utopian would no more think of a special private kitchen for his dinners than he would think of a private flour mill or dairy farm. Business, private work, and professional practice go on sometimes in the house apartments, but often in special offices in the great warren of the business quarter. A common garden, an infant school, play rooms, and a playing garden for children, are universal features of the club quadrangles.
Two or three main roads with their tramways, their cyclists’ paths, and swift traffic paths, will converge28 on the urban centre, where the public offices will stand in a group close to the two or three theatres and the larger shops, and hither, too, in the case of Lucerne, the head of the swift railway to Paris and England and Scotland, and to the Rhineland and Germany will run. And as one walks out from the town centre one will come to that mingling29 of homesteads and open country which will be the common condition of all the more habitable parts of the globe.
Here and there, no doubt, will stand quite solitary30 homesteads, homesteads that will nevertheless be lit and warmed by cables from the central force station, that will share the common water supply, will have their perfected telephonic connection with the rest of the world, with doctor, shop, and so forth31, and may even have a pneumatic tube for books and small parcels to the nearest post-office. But the solitary homestead, as a permanent residence, will be something of a luxury — the resort of rather wealthy garden lovers; and most people with a bias32 for retirement33 will probably get as much residential solitude34 as they care for in the hire of a holiday chalet in a forest, by remote lagoons35 or high up the mountain side.
The solitary house may indeed prove to be very rare indeed in Utopia. The same forces, the same facilitation of communications that will diffuse36 the towns will tend to little concentrations of the agricultural population over the country side. The field workers will probably take their food with them to their work during the day, and for the convenience of an interesting dinner and of civilised intercourse37 after the working day is over, they will most probably live in a college quadrangle with a common room and club. I doubt if there will be any agricultural labourers drawing wages in Utopia. I am inclined to imagine farming done by tenant38 associations, by little democratic unlimited39 liability companies working under elected managers, and paying not a fixed40 rent but a share of the produce to the State. Such companies could reconstruct annually41 to weed out indolent members. [Footnote: Schemes for the co-operative association of producers will be found in Dr. Hertzka’s Freeland.] A minimum standard of efficiency in farming would be insured by fixing a minimum beneath which the rent must not fall, and perhaps by inspection42. The general laws respecting the standard of life would, of course, apply to such associations. This type of co-operation presents itself to me as socially the best arrangement for productive agriculture and horticulture, but such enterprises as stock breeding, seed farming and the stocking and loan of agricultural implements43 are probably, and agricultural research and experiment certainly, best handled directly by large companies or the municipality or the State.
But I should do little to investigate this question; these are presented as quite incidental impressions. You must suppose that for the most part our walks and observations keep us within the more urban quarters of Lucerne. From a number of beautifully printed placards at the street corners, adorned44 with caricatures of considerable pungency45, we discover an odd little election is in progress. This is the selection, upon strictly46 democratic lines, with a suffrage47 that includes every permanent resident in the Lucerne ward9 over the age of fifteen, of the ugliest local building. The old little urban and local governing bodies, we find, have long since been superseded48 by great provincial49 municipalities for all the more serious administrative50 purposes, but they still survive to discharge a number of curious minor51 functions, and not the least among these is this sort of aesthetic52 ostracism53. Every year every minor local governing body pulls down a building selected by local plebiscite, and the greater Government pays a slight compensation to the owner, and resumes possession of the land it occupies. The idea would strike us at first as simply whimsical, but in practice it appears to work as a cheap and practical device for the aesthetic education of builders, engineers, business men, opulent persons, and the general body of the public. But when we come to consider its application to our own world we should perceive it was the most Utopian thing we had so far encountered.
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1
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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2
lodging
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| n.寄宿，住所；(大学生的)校外宿舍 | |
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3
tariff
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| n.关税，税率；(旅馆、饭店等)价目表，收费表 | |
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4
recess
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| n.短期休息，壁凹（墙上装架子，柜子等凹处） | |
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5
graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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6
succinct
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| adj.简明的，简洁的 | |
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7
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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8
Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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9
ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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10
cork
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| n.软木，软木塞 | |
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11
colonnade
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| n.柱廊 | |
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12
reposes
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| v.将（手臂等）靠在某人（某物）上( repose的第三人称单数 ) | |
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13
hampering
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| 妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的现在分词 ) | |
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14
tint
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| n.淡色，浅色；染发剂；vt.着以淡淡的颜色 | |
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15
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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16
gutters
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| （路边）排水沟( gutter的名词复数 )； 阴沟； （屋顶的）天沟； 贫贱的境地 | |
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17
explicit
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| adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的 | |
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18
artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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19
gateway
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| n.大门口，出入口，途径，方法 | |
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rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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colonnades
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| n.石柱廊( colonnade的名词复数 ) | |
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22
specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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23
residential
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| adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的 | |
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24
edifices
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| n.大建筑物( edifice的名词复数 ) | |
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25
expedients
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| n.应急有效的，权宜之计的( expedient的名词复数 ) | |
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26
suites
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| n.套( suite的名词复数 )；一套房间；一套家具；一套公寓 | |
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27
sumptuous
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| adj.豪华的，奢侈的，华丽的 | |
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28
converge
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| vi.会合；聚集，集中；(思想、观点等)趋近 | |
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29
mingling
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| adj.混合的 | |
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30
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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31
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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32
bias
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| n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见 | |
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33
retirement
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| n.退休，退职 | |
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34
solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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35
lagoons
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| n.污水池( lagoon的名词复数 )；潟湖；（大湖或江河附近的）小而浅的淡水湖；温泉形成的池塘 | |
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36
diffuse
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| v.扩散；传播；adj.冗长的；四散的，弥漫的 | |
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37
intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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38
tenant
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| n.承租人；房客；佃户；v.租借，租用 | |
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39
unlimited
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| adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的 | |
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40
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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41
annually
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| adv.一年一次，每年 | |
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42
inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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43
implements
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| n.工具( implement的名词复数 )；家具；手段；[法律]履行（契约等）v.实现( implement的第三人称单数 )；执行；贯彻；使生效 | |
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44
adorned
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| [计]被修饰的 | |
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45
pungency
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| n.（气味等的）刺激性；辣；（言语等的）辛辣；尖刻 | |
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46
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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47
suffrage
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| n.投票，选举权，参政权 | |
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48
superseded
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| [医]被代替的，废弃的 | |
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49
provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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50
administrative
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| adj.行政的，管理的 | |
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51
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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52
aesthetic
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| adj.美学的，审美的，有美感 | |
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53
ostracism
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| n.放逐；排斥 | |
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