New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-11-03
THE BUILDING OF ARACHNE
A CITY OF THE FUTURE.

o'arkable education and one which the nine
tecnth century would hare considered impossible.
Without going into details, young Vanderbilt was
evenly dev eloped-physically mentally and morally
He had been so educated that he found happiness
ip the full and constant use OF his money and his
brains for the good OF humanity. But he was pre-
emjnentlv practical-a purified and perfected type
OF one of the industrial kings of the nineteenth
century He lived in cottage In the hills, and
A.. thought out his plans in long walks under his
trees. He was the richest man in America, and
vet he had as much freedom as any PLAIN farmer.
10 sum il all up, he had become, without knowing
it. the most unSefsh and at the same me 'iine 'he
most patient and persistent OF living met;
The friends he had were not numerous, Dut eacn
one Of them capable OF great things. ana ne
and his wife understood each other IN that compieoe
way which happens once IN q thousand or So nc,
member, j am not trying TO tel you now ~ al
came about, because that would make Volume.
Briefly, Vanderbilt wished 10 build CITY, more
pleasant and better 10 live in than any the world
had vet SEEN He wanted to see whether SUCH a
city could be established under new conditions OF
social and industrial life, and in such way that
the enormous capital he proposed 10 invest could
be restored unimpared at the end of term or
gears.
was in sheltered and fertile part OF 15e graz fon
valley-plain of California, which extends from
Shasta 10 Tehachapi. The floor OF the Vaney nu
this point sloping plain looking west, WIN
tree-oad foothills east, and hundreds OF great OAKS
scattered here and there, like the ancestral OAKS
in the heart Of England. The region was chlely
occupied by large wheat farms. Nanderpilt was
able TO purchase, through agents tract OF Iahu
nearly twenty miles square. Then he sent Tor his
engineers. ,, o.
What want" he said, is q. city capable Of
indefinite extension. The plan Is 10 be basea
sewerage water. light, transportation. ana the
other requirements Of this Utopia are to be per,
fected far as the science Of the day VIII permit
The engineers made their report. IT was q
wonderful situation, they said There was natural
gas underlying the valley water c0nld DC prougho
from the Serras railroads from all parts OF the
nrt1I aapfra in hp
commerce could occupy miles OF whhrVes-lf only
people chose 10 come and live in Arachne
Then Vanderbilt sent for several great land,
scape gardeners TO work with the engineers, and
be and his wife went with them over the valley
the golden foothills and the sea-green TUE low
lands by the sloughs As The work went on, so
broad and beautiful were the plans developed, so
magnificent the scale of operations that the IN
terest of the country was aroused ana many
persons wished TO buy and live In the as yet un-
built city; hut the reply sent out was: :" Not
vet: wait until we are ready"
The landscape gardeners said: - With this soil
and climate every home can have Its garden and
every street can be an avenue of shade and
fragrance All the trees of the temperate zones,
and many of the tropics can thrive icrc, 50 we
will have no street less than hundred feet wide,
and some of our great avenues shall even be q
hundred and fifty feet across and planted with
the country We shall lay out public squares
on every street and two great parks, one on me
wy, Which CHIC look down on the city. We shall so ar
range our squares as TO preserve the best OF the
oaks sycamOres and other trees of the valley
And, when the city is built one OF us oicers snail
be city forester. educated and efficient. 70 pre-
serve and develop all this beauty OF streets squares
and parks" And that winter they planted miles
Of avenues and hundreds of acres of forests. There
were four hundred specimens of ceclduous trees,
forty-efght species Of broad leaved evergreenS and
one hundred Of coniiers chosen TO plant on the
streets streets had one row OF trees down the
centre others had twO rows near the sidewalks
The great parks were to be not only pleasure
grounds. but also arboretums A belt of forest, a
,x-iAo fho .salia n
tect the city from the occasional nCrtherS.
The engineers arranged 70 have all the sewers
Of the city unite NJ The edge of tule marsh, by
the river, five miles beyond the city'S possible
extension, and there their contents 10 he
heated in vast furnaces. dried, ground 10 powder,
and sold for fertilizers TO farmers the world over.
They arranged for water and natural gas for
cooking and lighting, 10 he piped into every
house, free TO The consumer They arranged for
cable-cars mp and down every street and avenue,
all agcd BY one system. They laid out the
city so that every lot besides fronting on street
ran back 10 a twcnty-fve-fOot alley, and they
arranged for freight cablc-SyStem on all these
allevways They arranged for telegraph tele-
phone and phOnograph connections throughout
the entire system. Railroad. mon in those DAYS
had come 10 run cars without smoke or noise by
electricity, and il easy TO arrange for the
approach of all trains by two broad, Sunkeu
avenues. one north the other south, over which
the streets crossed. These avenues led 10 the
centre of the CITY, where union depot the great
public buildings and the offices OF all the depart
ments of public works were situated
IT would be too long story 10 explain further
the physical details OF the system OF organization
In which beauty and utility were joined in perfect
union. When the time came, there appeared one
morning in every newspap per in the United States
an announcement:
Lots for sale in Arachne, TO actual settlers.
Two hundred and fifty million dollars have al
ready been invested here. and sales will be
conducted as merely 10 restore this capital intact
Scst ue end Of twenty years to the original in
Ncstor. The object Of this experiment is not
money-malung Those who can not read and
write had better not come 20 Arachne, as the
cnarlef winch IT is hoped will be adopted does not
allow such 70 vote al CITY elections Copies Of
The proposed charter mailed TO all appl icants"
Within year Arachne was CITY Vanderbilt
ter, which could not be altered except bv three
fourthS vote OF the citizens This charter was
thc most i'm portant part of Arachne and So 7 will
give synopsis Of some Of It's provisions. As Van
0erbt stated. Mt THE public meetings Of the twenty
or thirty thousand voters who finally adopied il
almost as IL WINS written: II IS intended in this
charter, 10 give intelligence, thrift and honesty
tie controlling power in Arcbne. Some things
the people can do unitedly: some must forever be
left 70 the individual Arachne Will probably
contain both rich and poor. weak and strong, wise
and foolish 10 the end Of time, but we hope il will
contain less crime, less unhappneSs and fewer
failures than any other city in the world. The
charter Of Arachne VIII suit neither nationalist
nor slurianS hut il is worth trying, nevertheless"
Tie charter provided for the absolute equality
ancn and women before the law, and for nom
ocosaanan free schools in chain from the primary
s.sae through the university with schools OF the
"'s and industries
eec,3 en came The qualifications for voters: City
otba. ny shall be conducted separately from ali
ehie ,e'rt'ons Voters al city elections must be
ov,nir w read and write and must be freehOlders
rs one unit Of real estate
f,on, unit OF real estate is lot of fifty feet
dentb cy, sna not hss than one hundred feet In
MOI n. .snASe5hsaing 70 rear alley This unit can
eraI nrd,dsssaed though il may be held in sew
onlv ono t usu interests If used for residence,
must have ~, Ian eah be built on such lot, and 1t
in tbe ,ear "N iee' N front and twenty five feet
bujjdne mns, used for business the plans of the
The board of building nf sgri
oaisn,.. sections relating TO qualifications Of
dsre s's TO- "e5h remarkably simple: All candi-
have passe 4Jes 10 the gift Of the people shall
Of III assed through at least the grammar grade