The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1877-01-20
The New Utopia.
AN ENGLISH sorENTIsT's PLAN FOR A
MODEL CITY.

AN ENGLISH sorENTIsT's PLAN FOR A
MODEL CITY.
DR.. Richardson is an English scien-
tific person who has invented new
style of scientific city, which is shortly
to be built upon land already secured
for the purpose. All that remains to
be done is for DR.. Richardson to build
his city and to invent population will
ing to live in it. It is to be hoped that
helwill succeed in both these endeavors,
for the plan of this new city, as set forth
in an elaborate pamphlet, is extremely
ingenious and attractive. ~ 100
Hygeia, as the model city will be call
ed, is to be built on the slope of hill,
so as to afford ample facilities for drain
age, and for sliding in icy weather. It
is to be laid out in rectangular form,
and the streets are to be paved with
wood set in asphalt. There will be no
street railways, but underneath each of
the principal avenues will be under
ground railroads. The houses, Of which
there are to be exactly $1,000, will be
built of brick, and placed on vaulted
foundations, without cellars. Each
house is to be nicely surrounded with
trees, and, in addition to hot and cold
water and gas, will be supplied with
ozone from a central ozone manufac-
tory. The sewage is to be used for
farming purposes, and the corses of
dead inhabitants will be buried in wicker
baskets, wherever they will do the most
good, instead of being wasted in ceme-
teries. None of the residents will be
allowed to drink wine q to use tobacco,
and even the chimneys will be forbidden
to smoke. It is DR.. Richardson's opin-
ion that, with the aid of an able munich
pal medical staff, the death-rate in Hy-
geia will be reduced to eight in every
1000. AS the death-rate in New York
is twenty-eight per 1000 there is no
doubt that the Hygeians will be, in COM
parison, ON exceptionally healthy peo-
pie. But how the doctors municipal
medical men are to amuse themselves
in such an exasperatingly healthy city
he might find some difficulty in explain
ing.
In spite of the manifest advantages
which the new city will possess, it is
possible that DIR. Richardson will be dis
appointed in the working of certain de-
tails of his plan. For example, he has
decided that the population will be
100. 900, living in 10000 houses, built
on 4 1000 acres Of land" and he dwells
with much emphasis on the fact that
the health of his city will depend to o
great extent upon this equal distribu-
ton of the Inhabitants" Now, at first
L. Ill ~ oh svsv ~
his 100 900 inhabitants and distributing
them in families Of five each. The
trouble is that after he has thus nicely
sorted and arranged his citizens they
will Immediately proceed to uproot his
'equal distribution" What will the
doctor do when scientific family of
five persons is suddenly increased by
the addition of scientific baby? There
will be six persons in that disordered
household, and the g equal distribu-
ton" of the inhabitants will be compro-
missed. He cannot build q new house
to meet the contingency, for he has
strictly limited the city to 20 900 houses
and even then if new house could
be built and inhabited exclusively by
the intruding infant, his scheme of
equal distribution would DO spoiled.
Unless every inhabitant of the new city
is compelled to sign lease containing
q covenant against the introduction of
infants, there will be no such thing as
the permanent equal distribution of
100, 900 people in u, 900 houses. Doubt
less, DR.. Richardson has entirely over
looked this weak spot in his calcu!a-
tons, but he will have it fixed upon his
attention to maddening extent before
the end of the first year Of his city's ex-
istence.
Again, the plan of building houses
without cellars, and placing the kitchen
on the upper floor of each house, is at
first glance Objectionable, but little
scrutiny will show that it has its faults.
Where will DIR. Richardson's people
keep their old bottles, and where will
the family cat be placed at night? Nat
ural philosophy teaches that the smell
of heated dinners ascends. How, then,
can the careful housewife, living in q
city where all the Kitchens are on the
top floors, ascertain what the neighbors
intend to have for dinner? Very prob
ably DR.. Richardson imagines that in Q
purely scientific city there will be no
crime or disorder, and no use for po-
licemen He must admit. however. that
it is pod1lbl for scientific citizens to
quarrel, and even to steal fossils, and
valuable bugs. In such an event, the
police, instead of darling out of the
area gate and capturing the offender,
would have to descend from lofty kitch-
ems, where their soup would grow cold
before they could carry their prisoners
to the station house and return to their