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\ 
 
 •i* 
 
^"^ATB IJBRAE" 
 UTOPIA; 
 
 
 '\ana 
 
 OR, 
 
 The History ok an Kxtincx Plankt. 
 
 
 PSYCHOMETRICALLY OBTAINED 
 
 BY A.LKRED DENTON CRIDQE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Amplitude almost immense, 
 
 With stars numerous, and every star perhaps 
 
 A world of destined habitation. Milton. 
 
 I held in my hand a heavy, black stone, not 
 larger than a small orange. It was a meteorite; 
 and as I sat pondering over this strange visitor 
 from starry space, there came before me an oid 
 man of mild intelligent countenance and long 
 gray beard. He was clad in flowing robes of 
 blue and white; and as I gazed on him in won- 
 der he spoke in a strong and melodious voice: 
 
 " Son of Earth, would you know the history 
 of the stone your hands clasp?" With eager- 
 ness I replied: " Yes, venerable father, it would 
 greatly please me to learn the history of this 
 sidereal visitor, its nature and origin. What 
 was its previous condition in this wonderful 
 universe ? What are the laws by which it was 
 cast on the surface of this planet ? Tell me 
 that I may learn of the laws of nature, the won- 
 ders of the universe, and the wisdom of the 
 Infinite Being!" 
 
 Smiling at my eagerness the sage replied: 
 
 " My son, law operates through all the realms 
 of the infinite universe, from the drop of water 
 with its microscopic life or the grain of sand 
 on the dreary desert, to the sun that gives you 
 life or the comet that comes like a dart of the 
 gods through the heavens. The ultimate of all 
 is life, the highest form of which is humanity. 
 The white-capped mountains, where reigns con- 
 tinual winter, has microscopic life in its white 
 \ fields of resting snow. The dark and crunibling 
 
 mine has beautiful fungi in its dripping rocks 
 and moldering timbers. Various forms of life 
 are found in the depths of the ocean where man 
 cannot stand, and on the parched desert where 
 he hastens through with death's signatures to 
 mark out his path. The earth, like the tree 
 upon its mountain-side, grows to maturity, ages 
 and dies. So it is with all planets around your 
 parent sun, and with all the infinite number of 
 planets in the extending space of an infinite 
 universe ! 
 
 " The aim of life on all globes is to produce 
 humanity, the fruit of the tree of life, and 
 when produced to perfect. True it is that con- 
 ditions limit or prevent the advent of humanity 
 on many sidereal globes, as conditions prevent 
 the bearing of fruit on many trees that advance 
 toward fruition in a greater or lesser degree. 
 But life and humanity can exist under many 
 conditions; and as nature has infinite time, hu- 
 manity will come eventually where now even 
 organic life cannot exist. 
 
 " Would you know me by name ? I am the 
 Genius Psycho, and am able to unfold to you 
 many things that the wisdom of your sages has 
 not revealed to your people. Learn and profit 
 by the lessons I will give you, that your earth 
 may grow the faster and the torch of liberty 
 shine the brighter. 
 
 " Place the stone you hold in your hands to 
 
Utopia; or, the HistorN of an Extinct Planet. 
 
 your forehead and you will perceive by actual 
 vision a planet in the vigor of youth, thef pride 
 of maturity and the disintegration of old age." 
 
 Doing as the genius requested, in a few 
 minutes, following him, I left the earth behind 
 and then paused to look about me. 
 
 The earth was a globe of vapor through which 
 at intervals could be seen portions of continents 
 or oceans as they came into the sunlight. For 
 sometime I remained without moving,, to accus- 
 tom myself to the peculiar circumstances and to 
 observe the wonders of the heavens of which I 
 seemed to be the center, with the stars above 
 and around me. The sun shone with a bright 
 light, yet we were in darkness. As though in a 
 stream of light, but having nothing for the eye 
 to rest upon save the distant stars in the galaxy 
 of the heavens. A signal from Psycho and we 
 went out into space with the speed of light at 
 will. As we went we seemed to go back in 
 time and the heavens changed in appearance. 
 The sun was larger and brighter; the orbits of 
 the planets more extended and in entirely dif- 
 ferent physical conditions. 
 
 After going out until at about the distance of 
 the orbit of Saturn, we came within the influence 
 of a small globe. We circled around it some 
 time and then penetrated its atmosphere. The 
 venerable Psycho informed me that this globe 
 was about two thousand five hundred miles in 
 diameter. I could see that its seas were small, 
 its mountains high and that considerable por- 
 tions were elevated plateaus. 
 
 " This is a world," said the sage, " that had 
 an orbit more oblong than most planets, and 
 being smaller than the earth, passed more rap- 
 idly through the various phases of planetary life. 
 It had many natural disadvantages to contend 
 with compared to your world, and but few ad- 
 vantageous conditions above your own. You 
 have the power to go back or forward in time, 
 at will, and thereby to trace the progress of hu- 
 manity on this globe from its commencement 
 to a civilization that, in spite of many obstacles, 
 far exceeded that reached at present on your 
 earth. But your planet will have a far longer 
 lease of life than had this. Her fiery heart will 
 beat for many ages to come, and your people 
 pass to a stage of civilization as far transcending 
 t-heir present condition as the life of angels does 
 that of cannibals." 
 
 As we approached nearer, signs of population 
 in many places could be seen. The cities spread 
 out along valleys or over plains; their houses 
 were large, with wide streets and much open 
 space between. Psycho led me over populous 
 plains, beautiful cities, barren plateaus and rug- 
 ged mountains, to the vicinity of a small inland 
 town. 
 
 We walked along a broad highway, evidently 
 made of artificial stone, toward the town on the 
 farther side of a deep canyon, over which there 
 was a massive stone bridge of a high grade of 
 architecture. On the farther side of the bridge 
 commenced vineyards, orchards and fields of 
 grain. ^ 
 
 I noticed that the veins and midribs of the >^ 
 leaves of most of the plants werqjfcjl, and also 
 that many leaves were red as well. The vines 
 were trained to stout stakes, and standing sev- 
 eral feet from the grounci before branching out; 
 their leaves were thick and dark green in color. 
 The grapes, red and black, were large and in 
 bunches of many pounds; but I considered the 
 taste inferior to the California muscat. The 
 trees, rarely over ten feet high with dark thick 
 green leaves, bore a delicious fruit which com- 
 bined the flavor of the peach and plum, and in 
 the pit of which was a sweet oily nut. 
 
 But the sun was rising over the dark mount- 
 ains, and remarking to Psycho that its advent 
 was rather slow, he replied: " Many conditions 
 in your earth are not reproduced here exactly, 
 and, as it would take you some time to discover 
 some of them, I will give you these facts, and 
 others as well, from time to time. The days , 
 here are equal to about thirty hours of your i 
 time, and are always very nearly of the same 
 length. 
 
 " The axis of this planet is nearly perpendic- 
 ular to the plane of its orbit; therefore the dif- 
 ferences in degree of cold or heat, or of the 
 length of day or night, are very slight. The 
 actual year is equal to about thirty-one of your 
 years; but human life is no longer here than it is 
 possible to be on your earth. 
 
 " The winter is scarcely perceptible except in 
 elevated lands near the poles, and the summer 
 is only a time of growth. But grains and fruits 
 can be raised at all times; fall, winter, spring 
 and summer, as you understand them in your 
 temperate latitudes, being unknown. The in- 
 
Utopia; or, the History of an Extinct Planet. 
 
 dividual here plants when he likes, and reaps 
 when the crop is matured, the only diffeience 
 being that in winter the time required for the 
 maturing of grains and fruits is longer than at 
 other times. 
 
 " You will now," he continued, " see a peo- 
 ple but little in advance in any direction of your 
 own earth. They are where, as far as intelli- 
 gence and mechanical improvements go, some 
 of your people could be now; but your race will 
 not attain even to this in several generations in 
 all probability." 
 
 As the wise Psycho thus instructed my won- 
 derj^lg mind, we return to the broad, smooth 
 jptTad, over which a score of our carriages could 
 /4^/have been driven abreast with ease. From the 
 
 r-' 
 
 town came an«jndividual in a small four-wheeled 
 vehicle drawn by animals; and I observed with 
 great interest this new sight of a brother man in 
 an unknown planet. The animals drawing the 
 carriage strike me at once as peculiar; but little 
 larger than a Shetland pony, they stood like 
 deer, and were about the color of deer when in 
 what is known as " the gray," a grayish blue. 
 Possessing some of the characteristics of a horse, 
 they resembled in some respects the llamas of 
 South America. They would be classed in the 
 genus eqiiiis by naturalists of Earth. They were 
 driven in a span, jnilling the carriage by breast- 
 straps, the carriage having a very light tongue 
 between the animals. The carriage is on four 
 low wheels, the front ones being able to turn 
 under the box of the carriage, as do our hacks 
 and trucks. It has but one seat, and in this 
 sits a man who controls his team by voice and 
 a single line. He is a little smaller in stature 
 than the average Caucasian, with large breast, 
 his countenance denoting great intelligence ; 
 and except for a slightly yellowish shade of the 
 face, would be taken for a European, though 
 hard to place in any Earth race. His face is 
 devoid of beard, but his eyes are large and dark; 
 his hair, is long, dark and fine. His nose is 
 rather thin, with large nostrils, and his mouth 
 is firm. His forehead is high and massive, [pro- 
 jecting well over the eyes. The head covering 
 is a plain cloth cap, and his body is clad in 
 loose garments of a dark color. A light blue 
 cloth, like a blanket or toga, is over his shoul- 
 ders, and is blown back by the wind, so rapidly 
 do his fleet steeds travel. 
 
 We proceed to the town, which is built 
 around a large oval square containing statues, 
 trees and a stone stand in the center for the 
 purpose of open-air meetings. The houses are 
 large, generally of an oval shape, with porticos 
 nearly all round, being from about one hundred 
 to four hundred feet long and forty or fifty feet 
 high, having but two stories. The number of 
 houses is not more than twelve or fifteen, and 
 each one has broad grounds, with statues, trees, 
 fountains and flowers around it. Some are built 
 of a brown stone, very hard, and Psycho tells 
 me made artificially. Others are white or gray, 
 but each has beautiful representations of vines 
 or the walls in natural colors. 
 
 On the trees in the park I notice some birds 
 resembling mourning-doves but larger; and what 
 strikes me as peculiar is their very long wings 
 and large breasts. I learn this is caused by the 
 rarity of the atmosphere requiring the wings of 
 birds to be longer and more powerful and thus 
 increasing the size of the lungs and breast. 
 Other and smaller birds, some with very brill- 
 iant plumage, are flitting around, but their flight 
 is short. 
 
 To our right is a round building of gray rock 
 with a dome of brown stone supporting a lower 
 room, also of brown stone The high portico, 
 with beautifully ornamented [lillars and steps, 
 that look like burnished agate, make me ask it 
 it is not a temple. " Yes, my son," answered 
 Psycho, " a temple of science. It used to be 
 the temple of the sun, and that female statue 
 to the right of those steps, who bears a staff en- 
 twined with leaves of the vine, was the daughter 
 of the sun, and was the female emblem of nat- 
 ure and goddess of peace and agriculture. On 
 the other side is the son of the sun with uplift- 
 ed axe; he was god of war and repre.sents the 
 male emblem of nature or God. You see they 
 are perfectly nude; for the human form is here 
 looked upon as the highest form of the divine, 
 and therefore not to be concealed. But now 
 this temple is a school and observatory. These 
 and many other statues are no longer adored as 
 representations of the divine, but only admired 
 for their physical representation of the human 
 form. You see the breast of this god would be 
 considered in your world as being too expan- 
 sive; but here, the air being rare, it is very nat- 
 ural." 
 
Utopia J or, the History of an Extinct Planet. 
 
 We turn to a very beautiful house with large 
 window? and a magnificent front portico. On 
 each side lie statues of the llama animals, and 
 we wait to see a young man come up the broad 
 road toward us. He is about five and a half 
 feet high, generally resembling the man we saw 
 in the morning. He is dressed in loose yel- 
 lowish garments, with a purple cloak thrown 
 over his shoulders. A yellow cap, like a smok- 
 ing-cap, is on his head, and his straight black 
 hair reaches down to his shoulders. As he as- 
 cends the steps he throws off his cloak, showing 
 a rich yellowish jacket-like coat that is over a 
 dark garment resembling a shirt, trimmed with 
 silver threads in front. His lower limbs are 
 clothed in a baggy sort of trowsers, also yellow, 
 that are wrapped in the legs of his soft, laced 
 boots or moccasins, the toes of which, for orna- 
 ment, come to a point and turn over like a skate. 
 As he passes me I find that I am invisible, and 
 that Psycho is also. 
 
 The heavy-looking bronze doors roll back as 
 he approaches them, making no noise whatever; 
 and stopping to examine them I find that they 
 are of a substance resembling paper, and only 
 plated with bronze. An inner set of doors also 
 glide silently into the walls as the soft footsteps 
 of the well-built stranger approach them. But 
 in the apartments of the house I hear a series of 
 soft notes, sounding like a bird's song, that are 
 evidently produced by the opening of the doors. 
 We enter a round hall or parlor, with pale blue 
 walls, on which are beautiful pictures, evidently 
 painted or impressed on the wall itself. In the 
 center plays a fountain into a basin of water 
 surrounding a strong pillar. Plants and flowers 
 are outside of this, and over the floor of smooth 
 stone laid like mosaic-work, are scattered beau- 
 tiful mats of very rich silken material. Psycho 
 tells me that the silk is a vegetable fiber, and 
 from it, with the hair of the llama-horse and the 
 feathers of birds, is made the soft silken cloak 
 and the yellow garments of our stranger. From 
 a skylight, by means of mirrors, the sunlight is 
 thrown into the room during most of the day. 
 
 The furniture consists of heavy-looking little 
 tables on castors, but made entirely of paper, 
 which is bronzed, silvered, polished or stained 
 as desired. They combine beauty with light- 
 ness, and are so constructed that by tongues 
 and grooves they can be combined into larger 
 
 tables, or even temporary couches. They are 
 very useful, and moving without noise, they are 
 quickly changed at will without confusion. 
 The light chairs with low backs are also con- 
 structed of paper, and some of them are on 
 rockers. 
 
 On the farther side of the room by the large 
 glass window are seated several persons. Some 
 of them are women, and in dress are not to be 
 distinguished from the men except in ornament 
 and quiet colors. Some are in loose dressing- 
 gowns, but so also are several men; some of the 
 women have very long hair, but here is another 
 with hers rather short. The men are mostly 
 beardless, but one or two have long gray beartis 
 and strikingly resemble Psycho in appearance. 
 
 The visitor is welcomed by the laying^of the 
 hand on his shoulder, he doing the same: and 
 some lay both hands on his shoulder, after 
 which he seats himself on a double chair or 
 settee beside a young girl, and chats with her 
 and others. The language is soft and musical, 
 its cadences striking the ear like music and in 
 some respects resembling the Spanish. 
 
 Many people come in from outside and from 
 the apartments adjacent and on the second 
 story. They soon number about one hundred 
 grown persons, with possibly half that number 
 of children over the age of six, the younger 
 ones being left in another room. The several 
 little tables are run together, and more from a 
 recess added, until two very large ones are 
 formed. On these are placed dishes of fresh, 
 dried and cooked fruits, cooked grain and 
 bread, with milk and syrup. These are brought 
 in on a wheeled dumb-waiter that runs noise- 
 lessly in grooves in the floor. It is propelled 
 by electricity, and returns the second time be- 
 fore the tables are set. The dishes are light, 
 and plated with a substance which resembles 
 glass. They are generally in the form of birds, 
 leaves and fruits, and when dropped will not 
 break. 
 
 The people of all ages now sit down to the 
 simple morning meal and merrily chat, often 
 breaking out in song. One child, a little girl 
 of about seven years, of our time, is placed on 
 a little table and sings a very pretty song of her 
 own composition. 
 
 All seem happy; and following them through 
 the day I found that out oi their day of fifteen 
 
Utopia ; or, the History of an Extinct Planet. 
 
 5 
 
 hours long they labored in field or house but 
 five or six. They bathed together in warm 
 baths daily, without regard to sex, and in the 
 afternoon assembled in the park to hear lec- 
 tures, or in the temple to witness experiments, 
 phenomena, or receive instruction in various 
 sciences. Men and women are on an equality 
 in science, art and litarature, being unrestricted 
 by sex. 
 
 Marriage seemed to be with very rare excep- 
 tions congenial, and monogamic invariably. 
 Divorce was, in this town of probably three 
 thousand persons, only heard of three or four 
 timesjin a generation. Often children of the 
 .sftiTie community married, though generally the 
 /•arties belonged to separate communities pre- 
 vious to their union. The ceremony was sim- 
 ply an announcement to friends and consisted 
 
 in registering their names as husband and wife 
 in a public record for that purpose. Mother- 
 hood was honorable and parentage was mar- 
 riage, but seductions were rare and reparation 
 made invariably. The father had to support 
 his children, but to such a point of morality 
 had they arrived that physical enforcement of 
 their laws was only in very rare instances re- 
 sorted to. 
 
 After observing and inquiring for some time 
 Psycho said to me, " Come, my son,- and trace 
 the progress of humanity from the brutal can- 
 nibal to the intellectual, civilized man. I will 
 reveal to you the steps by which man on this 
 globe eventually attained a civilization higher 
 than this. Come, learn, follow," I obeyed 
 and we turned southward with the speed of the 
 eagle. 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 The thoughts that he shall think, 
 Shall not be forms of stars, but stars; 
 Not pictures pale, but Jove and Mars. 
 
 Emerson. 
 
 Soon we came to a broad plain that stretched and mountains they were smaller. The valleys 
 down to the shores of a long gulf that run up were thickly populated; but the people being in 
 from the ocean much like the Mediterranean large communities, the farms looked like well- 
 sea does from the Atlantic, but only extended tilled estates of noblemen, only there were n;' 
 about three hundred miles from its strait. The cottages for the laborers. In each valley were 
 high mountains whose lower portions were cov- one or more places where the communities 
 ered with timber, ran seveial spurs into the fer- were closer together, forming villages or cities, 
 tile plains below, dividing them off into valleys. In the largest of the villages nearest tht. 
 The mountains also fed one large river and sev- ocean, there bent in from the gulf a bay of cor: - 
 eral small ones that curved through the sunny siderable size to receive the great river that I 
 valleys to the tideless and seldom stormy gulf, afterwards learned was called the River f . 
 The valleys varied in breadth from the gulf to Snow, from its rising where perpetual fields ci 
 the main range, being from forty-five to sixty snow in the high mountains fed it. with coldc>-^ 
 miles and, in some places having a low range and purest water. 
 
 of coast hills. The gulf was about twice that Here on the east side of this bay and river, I 
 width but greatly varied. could see a very large and magnificent city, ;. 
 
 We could see that nearly every available spot being fully ten miles one way by twelve miL. 
 of land was cultivated and that the houses were the other. 
 
 large; evidently being communities, like those Across the bay was another city that was n' ' 
 in the City of the Bridge. so large, and between them ran scores of lor 
 
 High up on the sides of the foothills and narrow boats that moved very rapidly and wc; 
 mountains that bounded the fertile valleys were propelled by electricity. Between thetwocitu 
 beautiful orchards, vineyards and fields. Here at one point had been built a bridge of high, 
 there were finely built cities, but in the hills ' ornamented stone, that was at least five mik.. 
 
6 
 
 Utopia ; or, the History of an Extinct Planet. 
 
 long. Over it ran carriages, drawn by the 
 llama-horses or propelled by electricity. Broad 
 highways of smooth stone extended from these 
 cities in many directions, and out in the gulf 
 were many ships coming and going. 
 
 I remarked to Psycho, " What a large city 
 this must be. It is as large as London; let us 
 go down in it; I should like to see the people 
 who appear so highly civilized." 
 
 " The two cities together are about as large 
 as London; but do not contain so many inhab- 
 itants," replied Psycho, who continued: 
 
 "These cities together do not have half a 
 million inhabitants, as no houses except public 
 buildings are allowed to be over two stories in 
 hight. Here each building must have around 
 it four times the space it occupies, besides the 
 wide streets and avenues. In addition to this 
 one block in sixteen is devoted to public gar- 
 dens, parks or assembling squares for the peo- 
 ple. Restrain your eagerness to observe these 
 people; I have much yet, my son, to show you 
 before you go among them." 
 
 We went up the gulf to where a river ran 
 through a valley where the gulf had extended; 
 and here was a city of about four miles square, 
 and the valley was as thickly inhabited as well 
 as cultivated as those along the gulf. 
 
 On the south side of the gulf were low hills 
 not very thickly inhabited, containing but few 
 communities. This I learned was because of 
 the poorness of the soil and the scarcity of 
 water. 
 
 On still further we came in sight of a large 
 and clear lake that was ninety miles long and 
 from thirty to forty wide, with several beautiful 
 islands set like gems both in cluster and solitaire 
 in its western portion. 
 
 There also was a beautiful city here where 
 the lake was drained by a short river running 
 into the gulf. A canal connected it with the 
 ocean, and around the lake was a rich, popu- 
 lous and fertile land. We did not stop, how- 
 ever, but continued to pass over several coun- 
 tries all highly civilized. Psycho giving me con- 
 siderable information about them as we went. 
 
 Again we were over the City of the Gulf, and 
 Psycho spoke to my eager ears: " You have 
 seen, son of Earth, that this globe is inhabited 
 by a race of human beings that are highly civ- 
 ilized, intelligent and progressive. Want, fam- 
 
 ine and war are now unknown; and soon you 
 will go among them and observe their supe- 
 rior civilization. But first it will be best for 
 you to commence at the beginning of human- 
 ity on this planet, and trace its progress from 
 age to age." 
 
 The curtain of time rose as he ceased to 
 speak. Back into the ages with faster and faster 
 speed turned the globe. 
 
 Before us at the will of Psycho, the gulf grew 
 wider and larger, and the ocean overspread the 
 plains, while the plateaus became covered with 
 verdure. The mountains sank and the globe 
 grew hotter with the heat of the internal i^res. 
 Tro[)ical vegetation overspread the plains ancl 
 valleys; and first but a few and then none arS 
 all of the mountains reared their heads in hel- 
 mets of snow. 
 
 .^11 signs of civilization had disappeared. 
 
 Now we descended to one of the semitropical 
 continents and wandered through the dense 
 forests of that primeval time. Birds larger than 
 the ostrich stalked by the muddy river, fishing 
 for the large green frogs that were in the slimy 
 pools of stagnant, black water. Turtles lurked 
 in the sun or slowly proceeded to their nests 
 in the hot sand-banks. Gay colored birds 
 screamed in the branches of the trees, or indus- 
 triously gathered insects in the air or on the 
 moldering logs. Great serpents lay coiled in 
 the branches, and with glittering eyes waited 
 for the wary monkey or hunted the eggs of the 
 indignant and loudly protesting birds. 
 
 Great |)roboscidians crashed through the for- 
 ests, bathed in the shady pools or lay in the ■ 
 long grass oi the glades. Here in the jungle 
 crouched the fierce tiger or the surly lion. 
 From his cave in the hill-side shuffled the 
 mammoth bear on his way to the banks of the 
 river to slake his thirst. The fierce-eyed wolf 
 stalked to his den above the gliding waters, 
 and near him crouched the fox, intent, sly, and 
 watchful. And down the stream floated great 
 saurians like lifeless logs. 
 
 But here in the aeons of the past was man, 
 rude, naked, and hairy. In his arms a rudely 
 sharpened stone or a heavy club. Of large 
 frame, muscular; his forehead low and covered 
 with masses of dirty, unkempt hair; a protrud- 
 ing jaw and skin of brown, — truly he looks 
 hardly human. 
 
Utopia ; or, the History of an Extinct Planet. 
 
 He lives in caves with his tribe of perhaps a 
 score besides himself. His food is the wild 
 fruit and berries, the putrid flesh of animals, 
 the eggs of birds, the fish that swarmed in the 
 river, or anything alive or dead capable of sup- 
 porting life. 
 
 If belated, a hollow tree or its spreading 
 branches will serve him for a resting place and 
 his stout club will protect him from any wan- 
 dering foe that may desire to make a meal of 
 him. When with his sturdy brother-cavemen 
 and hunger urged them on, they would attack 
 even the mammoth cave-bear and overpower 
 hijn with swiftly hurled stones and swinging 
 'Glows of clubs. Or they would lure the ele- 
 phant by enraging him with dropping or throw- 
 ing stones to chase them into the marshes, where 
 they would finish him. 
 
 At one period a mountain arose out of the 
 plain and belched forth streams of lava that, 
 flowing into the river, turned its course. Fire 
 »vas before them. But they did not realize the 
 value of the gift; and, though greatly wondering 
 at the phenomena, they made no effort to pre- 
 serve the red, biting rock, and after a time it 
 died out. At another time lightning shivered 
 a tall tree, and set the dry leaves on fire around 
 it, as two hunters were hastening to the tribal 
 cave. They stopped to examine the peculiar 
 creature from the skies; for so they regarded it, 
 and eagerly watched it lick up the leaves and 
 splinters. One seeing its fondness for leaves, 
 piled some on the flames; and they laughed 
 with child-like glee when the bright blaze reached 
 up and lit the gathering darkness. But when 
 they had gathered all the leaves in the immedi- 
 ate vicinity and the strange animal had bitten 
 their fingers and toes several times, they left it 
 to die out. 
 
 The patriarch of the tribe who was bent with 
 age and whose head was gray with the marks of 
 time, was eagerly told of this peculiar adventure 
 and asked for its explanation. He remembered 
 that when a boy a tall tree in the river bed sur- 
 rounded by a pile of drift-wood had burst into 
 flame that burned long after the shower that 
 was descending; and so he gave to his auditors 
 the wisdom of his fathers and some of his own 
 opinions. This, he explained, was a sign of an- 
 ger from the Sun-god at being shut out from 
 the sight of earth, his wife, by the clouds; and 
 
 so with shouts of thunder and fierce blows of 
 lightning-clubs, he forced his way down in spite 
 of them. He told them of a youth who many 
 years before had refused to give a portion of 
 his game to the old men warriors, and while 
 leaning against a tree was struck dead by the 
 incensed Sun-god that roared in a voice of 
 thunder: " Die, ungrateful and undutiful son!" 
 and the wondering savages doubted not. 
 
 But at last fire came as a gift to stay; and 
 then commenced the upward progress of hu- 
 manity. The aged with fire made better weaj)- 
 ons, and the warriors were enabled to kill the 
 savage beasts around them and frighten off 
 others. Agriculture was discovered; at first it 
 was but a few seeds thrust into the ground with 
 the finger. Then a rude stick and next a flint 
 hoe were used to plant the scanty crops, which, 
 when harvested, enabled them to keep starva- 
 tion away from their caves in time of want; 
 and thus cannibalism as a necessity was at an 
 end. 
 
 In this world copper was very scarce, and so 
 the people had made considerable progress with 
 stone implements and weapons before they dis- 
 covered a soft, whitish, very light metal to 
 work with. They soon found iron, of which 
 mountain ranges were almost entirely formed 
 in some places; and then they pushed on faster 
 still. 
 
 The inquisitiveness of man that led him to 
 question and to theorize, founded religion. 
 
 The youths asked of the old men of the tribe 
 explanations of the things they could not with 
 satisfaction account for; and the fathers of the 
 tribe answered to the best of their ability and 
 information, often making up theories on the 
 spur of the moment to conceal their ignorance 
 from the young. These theories became by 
 age divine dogmas that it was dangerous to con- 
 trovert; and thus religions were established. As 
 tribes grew into nations it became necessary to 
 specially instruct certain youths in the legends 
 of the fathers and the traditions of their people; 
 and in this way priesthood was established. 
 The great and victorious chief of a hundred 
 battles was at death sorrowed over; and by the 
 hut fire or around the council of war, his great 
 deeds, gradually growing in size and valor, were 
 recounted by his people, his small deeds being 
 forgotten. As time went on and tribes became 
 
8 
 
 Utopia ; or, the History of an Extinct Planet. 
 
 nations a score of names were mingled with his 
 and his deeds; and thus exaggerated were put 
 in the life of one man; and then the next step 
 was to deify such a prodigy. He was declared 
 to be the son of the Sun-god and the God of 
 man. Priests claimed to bow before him and 
 hold conversation with this mighty being. Thus 
 they obtained the direction of the nation and 
 made themselves all-powerful in its councils. 
 
 With the advent of man came war; and for 
 ages with torch and sword races fought with 
 races, nations with nations, tribes with tribes; 
 and the labor of years, the civilization of cen- 
 turies, were washed away in streams of human 
 blood. Whole continents were overwhelmed 
 by invading armies who, after seizing on the 
 country, held it until in turn conquered by 
 others of their own or of some different race. 
 In various places the light of civilization rose 
 high; but being built in nearly every case on 
 slavery, blood, war and injustice, it fell but to 
 burn the brighter elsewhere in the centuries 
 that susceeded. Or Wrong seized upon the 
 temple of Progress and built within a throne 
 guarded by Superstition and Ignorance; and 
 though Science was chained by tyranny and in- 
 justice, she still lived to finally rule supreme. 
 
 Just as it looked as if a people were ready 
 to take wings to their feet and fly ahead, they 
 would be overrun by lower nations; or a revo- 
 lution caused by human slavery would reduce 
 them to semi-barbarism. Fierce wars on cus- 
 toms and religions were waged by the most pro- 
 gressive nations, the priests and aristocratic ru- 
 lers encouraging them. For by keeping the 
 people in ignorance and fighting some one else, 
 they kept control of the state. Two races 
 fought for a long time on the question of wheth- 
 er the sun was a god or not; and if he was, did 
 he have two children, male and female, without 
 a mother ? The one claimed that the sun was 
 a god and the father of the male and female in 
 the universe; the others held that the sun was 
 his own creator and that the goddess of the 
 female or spiritual was co-equal and co-existent 
 with the god of the male or material. 
 
 On these questions the two races in various 
 nations fought at intervals for centuries, and 
 when resting fought with themselves to keep up 
 the art of war. 
 
 But at last the idea of Liberty began faintly 
 
 and vaguely to illuminate the minds of advanced 
 thinkers. One isolated people, few in numbers, 
 early obtained for themselves a liberal form of 
 government that we should call republican; 
 and they retained it with slight modifications 
 century after century, rarely distubred by for- 
 eign wars or internal dissensions. In the land 
 by this gulf, which they called what would mean 
 the Gulf of the East, the people called them- 
 selves free, and changed the name of the coun- 
 try from its ancient name to one that meant 
 Liberia. Yet they held slaves of a race of dark, 
 fierce mountain people that lived on the pla- 
 teaus to the north; also of alight-skinned peo- 
 ple like themselves, and of a brutish, savage -, 
 race that originally came from a continent to , \/ 
 the southeast. While they cheered for liberty, 
 the haughty rich drove slaves in chariots and 
 lashed them like dogs. A man could sell his 
 children or himself into perpetual slavery; and 
 yet they were free, according to the statements 
 of their orators and tyrants! 
 
 And they had made progress in mechanics 
 and arts meanwhile. Populous cities, well-cul- 
 tivated fields, costly palaces, grand temples, 
 magnificent public buildings, immense and well 
 equipped standing armies were to be found in 
 several countries. 
 
 The people to the south of Liberia were 
 about equal in civilization with the Liberians 
 and though differing in religion, customs and 
 manners, they were very progressive. These 
 people were tall, slightly brown, very brave, 
 with [link eyes and very black hair. The two 
 races ultimately commingled so as to be alike 
 in nearly every respect. But beside their 
 boasted civilization and liberty dwelt barbarism 
 and slavery. The well-tilled fields were worked 
 by the weary slave beneath the driver's lash. 
 The populous cities were filled with toiling free 
 slaves and bond slaves. The temples and pal- 
 aces were next door to straw and mud huts; and 
 the mansion of the land-owner was in sight of 
 the hovels of the land-worker. Toil and sla- 
 very, luxury and ease, privation and waste, made 
 startling and significant contrasts. 
 
 While the rich reveled in costly dinners and 
 rioted in extravagance otherwise the poor lived 
 on a few roots and boiled grains or starved by 
 thousands in their cheerless hovels. The mas- 
 sive temples and statues were reared by toiling 
 
Utopia; or, the History cJf 'ArHEx'rmti^r Plai^t^ *-- ^ ^'^JI^jl.^^^ 
 
 slaves who lived in rude shelters of sticks and 
 mud around them. Ignorance among the slaves 
 and lower classes was encouraged; vice, disease 
 and famine came in to keep it company. 
 
 To the north of Liberia, the dark Arab moun- 
 tain people lived in tents or rude walled cities, 
 and often attacked the people of the plains. 
 But the Liberians were brave and more skilled 
 in the manufacture of armor of steel, and so 
 were enabled to make slaves of the mountain- 
 eers; very often they returning the favor. When 
 at peace they traded various trinkets, armor, 
 cloth, etc, for skins, llama horses, small black 
 catt'e, and the precious copper of the plateaus. 
 the Arabs worshiped idols, evil spirits and 
 ^•'the spirits of their ancestors, and often made 
 human sacrifices. 
 
 They several times poured down into the 
 gulf plains and held possession when the Libe- 
 rians were weakened with fighting the people 
 of the lake country or with themselves. But 
 in a few generations they would become Libe- 
 rians and fiercely fight the Arabs from whom 
 they were descended. 
 
 Alcoholic wines and liquors were early man- 
 ufactured; but they had also a peculiar root that 
 was something like opium and tobacco in its 
 effects when chewed. It was somewhat bitter, 
 but was ground up and mixed with sugar and 
 gum. A little of it was a stimulant; but when 
 several bites were taken it produced a sort of 
 quiet semi-conscious stupor that enabled the 
 user to forget he was hungry and to be utterly 
 regardless of the future. Its use was encouraged 
 amongst the slaves and the poor by the rich, 
 and steps to have it expelled from the country 
 were for a long time unsuccessful. 
 
 The priests had great control over the mass- 
 es, and were desirous of keeping them in igno- 
 rance; for the interest of the aristocrats and the 
 priesthood were the same. They therefore 
 preached into the drowsy ears of the disturbed 
 slaves the sanctity of government and the wick- 
 edness of revd^tion. 
 
 The aristocrats bought and sold slaves, as 
 they did their horses, goats or little black cat- 
 tle. 
 
 The free poor looked with contempt on the 
 wretched slave; and by discreet management 
 the discontent of one was used by the masters 
 to hold in check the discontent of the other. 
 
 Temples were reared and retinues of priests 
 kept them to absorb their earnings and to keep 
 them in ignorance. These cities were crowded 
 and unhealthy. The greed of these men was 
 such that air, room, and sunlight were denied 
 to the poor, only those who could pay well for 
 them enjoying what rightly belonged to all. 
 Pestilence and famine swept the rich and poor, 
 but yet the aristocrats kept their grip. The cry 
 of Liberty was heard from the slaves. The 
 priests counseled moderation, joined in their 
 councils, and when they could no longer per- 
 suade them to pray and petition their masters, 
 betrayed them. 
 
 The slaves arose but were slaughtered by 
 thousands and their bodies piled u[) and burned. 
 And the free poor did the killing for the rich 
 who commanded them. Again and again they 
 arose, each time betrayed and cursed by the ar- 
 istocratic priests and each time had to fight the 
 free poor, who only got their labor for subduing 
 the slaves. But eventually chattel slavery was 
 abolished. The slaves were free, but the free 
 were slaves; they soon found they had exchang- 
 ed the lash for starvation; and the whole people 
 revolted, burning, killing and destroying, only 
 to again change the form of government and to 
 put aristocrats on top in less than a generation. 
 The rude Arabs united together and threatened 
 to destroy the nation, when a discovery was 
 made that revolutionized the art of war. That 
 was A BO.MB that was fearfully destructive. It 
 was thrown from a small light cannon and ex- 
 ploded in from five or six seconds to half a 
 minute as desired after leaving the gun. 
 
 The inventor's name corresponded as near as 
 I can transcribe it to Loay. He was a refugee 
 Liberian in the country of the Lake people, 
 having fled from his own land after assisting in 
 an unsuccessful attempt at revolution. A chem- 
 ist and a machinist by profession he got the 
 idea of bombs, and thought by secretly [perfect- 
 ing them, his brother revolutionists all over that 
 world in various nations would be enabled to 
 overthrow tyranny and crown Liberty. 
 
 The country around this large lake was called 
 by a name equivalent to Sunland, because of 
 its people being sun-worshipers; and hereafter 
 I shall so designate it instead of the Lake coun- 
 try. 
 
 Upon his arrival at Lake city, Sunland, he 
 
10 
 
 Utopia; or, the Hisiory of an Extinct Planet. 
 
 went among his fellow revolutionists who were 
 natives of Sunland and also those who were ex- 
 iles, like himself, fron Liberia. 
 
 Loay was highly connected in Liberia, his 
 father having been a man of wealth and rank; 
 and the son of his oidest brother was then a 
 general in the royal army of Liberia. 
 
 In Lake city Loay met with a Sunlander who 
 was a mechanic or metal-smith whose name 
 sounded similarly to Coruala, and to him he 
 confided his plan; Coruala was quickly fired 
 with the ideas and patriotism of his middle-aged 
 confider, and went into it with all the ardor of 
 youth. Coruala and Loay put each the little 
 money they had into the purchase of chemicals, 
 metals, etc. , for experimenting and for the rental 
 of a cellar in a quiet portion of the city. Co- 
 ruala had a friend, a chemist and a potter, Mar- 
 dola; and upon his being told of their project 
 volunteered to put in the little hoard he had 
 saved, and to assist as he could with his earn- 
 ings as potter or chemist. They toiled and 
 worked for several of our years to get their 
 bombs perfected. 
 
 At last they got them so that the chemicals 
 were put with pieces of iron, spear heads, etc., 
 into a hollow clay globe which Mardola had 
 invented, and this was put into a rude cannon 
 the invention of Coruala and would explode 
 upon violently striking any object. 
 
 Coruala and Loay next invented a sort of 
 electric fuse that would explode the bomb in 
 about five seconds from its time of expulsion 
 from the cannon and made the bomb of paper 
 and clay so that it was not so fragile. Also, it 
 would not explode by concussion as the earlier 
 ones did. 
 
 Having reached this point Loay began to 
 make arrangements to teach his fellow revolu- 
 tionists in Liberia, as well as Sunland, how to 
 make them and sent several over to Liberia that 
 were used to shake up the residence of the king 
 a little. But Coruala had, while toiling in the 
 dark, damp cellar, with straw for a bed and a 
 little grain and fruit for food, fallen in love with 
 a young mechanic's daughter and was engaged 
 to her. 
 
 He desired to starve and toil no more, and 
 so informed his partners Loay and Mardola. 
 They were indignant and only desired to make 
 a bare and scanty living that the revolutionists 
 
 might overthrow the aristocrats. Coruala want- 
 ed to dress his wife in golden cloth and ride in 
 a chariot, live in a fine house and " fare sump- 
 tuously every day." His partners refusing to 
 accede to his demands to charge for their bombs 
 and retain the secret, Coruala privately went to 
 the official, who would here be called the Sec- 
 retary of War, of Sunland, and had an audience 
 with him. War was about to be declared be- 
 tween Liberia and Sunland, as the Sunland 
 government had found that the Arabs were pre- 
 paring to make war on the Liberians. l^inking 
 to force the Liberians by attacking them at this 
 time to compel them to give up a group of Val- 
 uable islands they possessed in the only ocean^ 
 the Sunland government \\ ere massing troops 
 and building iron war-ships with all haste. 
 
 The minister listened to Coruala with atten- 
 tion, and requested him to call again the next 
 day, giving him several pieces of copper money 
 which were nearly as precious as gold is to 
 us. 
 
 Upon returning to the cellar he had an arm- 
 ful of provisions, and thus aroused the suspi- 
 cions of Mardola. When in the morning he 
 hid three hand bombs in a basket and started 
 for the residence of the Secretary of War, Mar- 
 dola followed at a safe distance, and then see- 
 ing him enter started back to warn Loay. But 
 Loay had gone to a secret meeting of the rev- 
 olutionists to introduce his bombs and did not 
 return for several days. Coruala went with the 
 minister away from the city and showed the 
 force of his bombs by setting them off against 
 some large rocks, and told how he thought a 
 cannon could be improved so as to cast the 
 bombs possibly half a mile, but he lacked mon- 
 ey. On his return he was given a large fortune 
 for the receipt, and his ideas and his ambition 
 were thus satisfied. He hastened to find Mar- 
 dola, but that discreet individual had fled, leav- 
 ing all the bombs, which Coruala now moved 
 to the royal armory. ^_ 
 
 Coruala wrote a letter to ^Bpartner Loay 
 inviting him and Mardola to come and share 
 his good fortune, but Loay replied with such 
 bitter reproaches that the government was in- 
 duced to put a price upon his head. On hear- 
 ing of this Mardola hastened to Liberia and 
 there sold the secret to the Liberian government 
 for a large sum of money and a grant of land. 
 
Utopia ; or, the History of an Extinct Planet. 
 
 11 
 
 He wrote to Loay and Coruala saying he had 
 decided to blow himself up, as he no longer de- 
 sired to live. Loay dodged about for some 
 tunc but at last without money or friends made 
 a secret visit to Coruala, and at the point of the 
 knife got money to leave the country. He 
 would have killed him but for the pleadings of 
 his young wife. From Sunland he went to a 
 little republic across the ocean and there died 
 after seeing his invention annihilate one race 
 and enslave his countrymen. 
 
 The Liberians rejoiced and marched against 
 their enemies, completely subduing them in a 
 few months and seizing on their country. 
 
 J^ortunes were made from the copper mines, 
 ,^d other natural resources of the conquered 
 country; but the masses were in poverty and 
 degradation as before. 
 
 After cherishing what remained of their liberty 
 for sometime, they arose by thousands against 
 the growing despotism of the higher classes. 
 
 But the bomb guns, now highly improved, 
 destroyed them wherever they assembled. Ter- 
 rible was the loss of human life; and the people 
 found it impossible to effect anything in secur- 
 ing their rights by massing in large numbers. 
 They subsided into sullen, hopeless slavery for 
 a few years; but then they utilized the lessons 
 they had received, and proceeded to effect 
 their liberty by the very means their masters 
 had used to conquer them. International war 
 and rebellion was at an end, but revolution was 
 not; and the aristocrats were [jowerless with 
 their armies or their guards. 
 
 The revolutionists, after being again and 
 again subjected by fearful slaughter, at last com- 
 menced to use bombs themselves. The tide 
 turned and aristocracy once more began to trem 
 ble. But by strict watch, money and power, the 
 government managed to destroy the plans of 
 the revolutionists, buy their leaders, and exe- 
 cute those who in attempting to carry out a plan 
 were caught. Itj^^sa crime for citizens to have, 
 
 
 sell, buy or make cannon bombs, or even have 
 in possession the materials to make bombs. 
 They were manufactured by the government 
 only, with great care, and any one caught with 
 bombs, cannon, manufacturing, buying or sell- 
 ing them, was put to torture and killed. Screws 
 of steel were thrust into the flesh, heated red hot 
 by electricity, and twisted and thrust into the 
 gagged victim until he told of accomplices, con- 
 fessed or died. If publicly executed a shock 
 of electricity killed him and his body was 
 burned. In Liberia the body was especially 
 preserved, as it was a part of their religion to 
 keep the body whole. But the revolutionists 
 soon got over the error arising from this religious 
 belief. 
 
 The masses were educated in certain resi^ects, 
 but only in those ruts that the aristocrats and 
 priesthood desired. Not only was religion 
 taught, but also superstition; and when science 
 came against the dogmas of the priests, it was 
 suppressed in the various schools and colleges 
 of the state and the educational institutions of 
 the aristocrats. 
 
 Political and social dogmas were taught as 
 self-evident and not to be questioned that had 
 no foundation whatever in fact, but helped to 
 keep in mental bondage the many students of 
 the lower orders. Those who were able to per- 
 ceive the fallacy of these theories and doctrines 
 were held in contempt by the all-wise teach- 
 ers. 
 
 Inventions of great utility were being rapidly 
 developed, and art and science were making 
 great progress; but the people found themselves 
 very little better off, while the aristocrats in- 
 creased in power and wealth. The mechanical 
 and mental improvements had outstripped the 
 ix)litical and moral. Regardless of the will of 
 the people, whose servants they professed to be, 
 the aristocratic politicians outraged all sense of 
 honor or trust, and grew rich from the taxes 
 levied ointhe people. 
 
 leviea oiwt 
 
 A--^'' 
 a*^ 
 
 5> 
 
 -^^^^i^.^^:r^-fi$^^fi^i^^ 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 " She saw her sires with purple death expire, 
 Her sacred domes involved in rolling fire, 
 A dreadful series of intestine wars." Pope. 
 
 The invention of the bomb and cannon and 
 the subjection of their enemies of the hills, to- 
 gether with the utter abandonment of war with 
 their sister nations, only made the masses feel 
 the lash more keenly. Numbers and money 
 were supreme, and with standing armies collect- 
 ed from among the people, well-filled treasuries 
 from the same source, and the merciless and 
 repeated use of bomb-cannon at every effort of 
 the people to assert their rights, the aristocratic 
 classes were without fear of the masses. 
 
 But the revolutionists were not quiet long. 
 From their martyrs who had fallen before the 
 bombs of their fellow-slaves, the soldiery, they 
 learned and remembered lessons. 
 
 A meeting of revolutionists in Liberia was 
 held one night in a low cellar for the last time 
 before making a long-planned attack on the 
 aristocrats during a grand procession to be held 
 the next day. Suddenly a force of gens-d'armes 
 broke in upon them and seized every one they 
 could lay their hands on. Their earnest work- 
 ers, as they fled, carried one of the cannon and 
 several of the bombs with them a little way, but 
 being hard-pushed concealed them in a large 
 paper box in a back yard. (They made boxes 
 of stiffened paper, serving the same use as 
 wooden boxes do with us.) In a few nights 
 they returned and conveyed it by several stages 
 to a little mountain farm quite a distance from 
 the city, and buried it. There they patiently 
 worked, planted a crop, and manufactured 
 bombs. One worked as a potter, and then, 
 after much scheming, got a job in the govern- 
 ment bomb factory; but he was so inquisitive 
 that they discharged him and kept a strict watch 
 over his movements. But he carefully kept 
 away from his friends and toiled in a pottery to 
 keep them in funds. 
 
 At this time there were from forty to fifty 
 
 unitary communities in the country, where 
 from a score to perhaps a hundred families lived 
 under one roof, and co-operated in busyiness 
 matters as farmers or manufacturers. Many, 
 from inability of individuals to agree or from"-y 
 the laws that interfered with their action, had 
 given up. Since the restoration of the arbitrary 
 government of the aristocrats communities had 
 been discouraged, because of the revolutionary 
 tendencies of many of their members. In the 
 valley below the little farm of our three plotters 
 was one of the largest and most progressive 
 communities in Liberia, many of the members 
 being revolutionists. Here the two who re- 
 mained on the farm obtained work whenever 
 they desired it, but refused to join their friends 
 as they were working for a certain object, and 
 to join them would be to give it up. 
 
 After about three years of our time another 
 grand religious and military procession was de- 
 cided upon and announced, and the three rev- 
 olutionists resolved to be there. A rude wagon 
 was filled with some rather poor dried fruit they 
 had bought for speculative purposes, expecting 
 to make a corner in it. Under this they had 
 their cannon, and in front they had a lot of 
 large bombs and a box of hand-bombs, all well 
 covered with dried fruit. To this wagon they 
 hitched six horses, as I shall hereafter call these 
 peculiar animals, and ill clad the two farmers 
 started for the capital of Liberia, overtaking on 
 the road the potter, who wa^^guised as a very 
 old woman. ^K^' 
 
 On, the morning of the great li " aiiu ... 
 cession our friends are located on the mam av- 
 enue, vending their fruit to the waiting crowd. 
 The gens-d'armes come along and rudely order 
 the ignorant peddlers to leave the street, for 
 his majesty, the father of the people and the 
 representative of the sun, is to make his appear- 
 
Utopia; or, the History of an Extinct Planet. 
 
 13 
 
 soon with his nobles, priests and army, on his 
 way to the great temple to offer prayers for the 
 nation. 
 
 With great trepidation they hurry into an 
 adjoining alley and awkwardly leave their wagon 
 across the pavement only to be ordered on by 
 another party of gens-d'armes and roundly 
 abused for their stupidity and ignorance. The 
 elder farmer scratches his teeth (the customary 
 sign of satisfaction among those people) and 
 smiles to his companions. Slips of paper with 
 the order of the procession, are distributed by 
 boys, and flowers are strewn in the street by a 
 latee ihumber of girls and maidens. These slips 
 M^e the plotters exactly the information they 
 ^'wanted. 
 
 The head of the procession appears, and the 
 plotter proceeds to cover up the fruit with a 
 cloth. Next he unearths the cannon, getting it 
 ready for work under the cloth, and his com- 
 panions wait at the back of the wagon with 
 folded arms. With pomp and display the army, 
 with clanging bands and glittering banners, 
 passes by; but the peddlers do not make a move. 
 Priests in robes of white, with urns of burning 
 incense, pass, followed by carriages with proud 
 aristocrats. Still they wait. 
 
 Now in glittering armor, with silver stars on 
 their helmets, march by a superb body of men; 
 these are the royal guard and are the picked 
 soldiers of the army. Then precede and fol- 
 low the king, his nobles and high piiests. Here 
 comes the large blue and yellow banner of his 
 majesty, and now the peddlers lay their hands 
 on the concealing cloth ready to lift it at the 
 right instant. 
 
 Nearer, nearer on a palanquin borne on the 
 shoulders of men and surrounded by a trusty 
 guard and the chariots of his nobles comes the 
 ruler of the people. The [)otter in the wagon 
 says " Now !"' The cloth is torn aside and at 
 a touch of the potter's foot a bomb is cast into 
 the proud nqhjes. J>ut though his palanquin 
 is dropped, tj^^pig is unhurt. "Quick, an- 
 other!" cries W^jotter, and a second bomb is 
 cast into the procession, tearing the haughty, 
 fleeing king into a hundred pieces. The citi- 
 zens fly for their lives; the royal guard rally 
 round the spot where their masters are slain. 
 They, the sons of noblemen, are torn to atoms 
 by the revengeful and destructive bombs. The 
 
 remaining guards endeavor to flee; but their 
 companions push them on to destruction. The 
 three revolutionists are now out of cannon 
 bombs, and the desperate guards make a dash 
 for them; but hand-bombs hurl them back. 
 The cannon and fruit are dumped out of the 
 wagon as the horses are furiously driven into 
 the next avenue by the potter and his compan- 
 ions. A body of gens-d'armes endeavor to in- 
 terrupt their flight, but are driven off by a vol- 
 ley of hand-bombs. Another body only wait 
 to see two of their number fall, to run. 
 
 Now^ the soldiery with bomb cannon chase 
 the fugitives in hot haste, but so many of them 
 jump on the flying chariots that the panting 
 horses cannot overtake them. See! an electric 
 carriage flies by with express speed, but the 
 ground gets rougher as they leave the city, and 
 the fugitives still keep on. 
 
 Through all this uproar not the bark of a 
 dog is to be heard. There were no dogs on 
 this globe, the last of the small wolves having 
 been killed generations ago. But the very large 
 cats might have been seen running in all direc- 
 tions. The fugitives turn suddenly aside into a 
 piece of woods by the river side, leave their 
 team, change their garb and separate, shortly 
 joining the eager crowd of soldiery, police and 
 citizens who were chasing them, and inquiring 
 what all the commotion meant. The city is 
 given up to wild mobs, for the soldiery are de- 
 moralized. 
 
 The crowded, filthy portions of the city are 
 set on fire, and the water-pipes cut by a band 
 of men who have been fighting the outrageous 
 rack-rents that their landlords have forced them 
 to pay for the miserable death-traps. Advant- 
 age is taken by the mob during the panic to 
 sack the houses of the rich and rob the temples 
 of many valuables. 
 
 But on the morrow order is restored by the 
 army, and a new ruler takes the royal staff in 
 his hand and wears the glittering diamond seen 
 on his head-dress. The aristocrats have learned 
 a lesson and the revolutionists take new cour- 
 age. After the new government had put to 
 torture and executed several scores of victims, 
 it proceeded to make some concessions of a 
 trifling character to the people. 
 
 A party of revolutionists soon began to secret- 
 ly store explosives in the cellar of the national 
 
1 } 
 
 Utopia ; ou, thi; IIisiory of an Exiixct Planet. 
 
 representative chamber. But as several of them 
 had friends in that body and had warned them 
 to stay away, the plan fell through, as ouly a 
 part of the explosive went off shaking the building 
 and killing but a few. 
 
 Four conspirators then began from their hovel 
 to tunnel under a nobleman's residence that 
 was a long block away from them. This noble- 
 man gave parties or balls attended by the great 
 dignitaries of the state and church. 
 
 The four worked patiently for months, first 
 to dig the tunnel, then to obtain and place the 
 explosives deep under the beautiful residence of 
 this nobleman. No one knew of their project 
 and no warning was given; but one night when 
 revelry was at its hight in the beautiful palace, 
 the four toilers met in the hovel and the elec- 
 tric flash was sent along to start the horrible 
 work of destruction. The whole city was shaken 
 as if by an earthquake; for the revolutionists 
 put in more than enough to do the work. Great 
 rocks crushed through the roofs of houses all 
 around; bodies of the fair, the brave, the inno- 
 cent, and the guilty were blown high in air or 
 torn into atoms. One rock crushed through the 
 hovel of the breathless conspirators, instantly 
 killing one, and severely wounding another. 
 Fearful of being betrayed his comrades killed 
 him, and separting, fled. 
 
 The revolutionists, now greatly encouraged, 
 formed into bands of chree and four, and pre- 
 pared to enforce their rights. First they threat- 
 ened and got nothing, then they placed harm- 
 less bombs in public places and observed their 
 effect on the people. Sometimes a bomb was 
 found that would go off, and several of these 
 proved very destructive. Next they proceeded 
 to revolt but were quickly quelled, the ignorant 
 mob foolishly rushing to the public buildings, 
 to be scattered by bombs. A strong fierce lead- 
 er was found by the aristocrats and was declar- 
 
 ed '"defender of the gods," etc., and after 
 ruling with merciless severity, and having ap- 
 parently destroyed the revolutionists, he made 
 a grand march driven in a costly chariot with 
 guards and artillery and other soldiers number- 
 ing thousands before and behind him. When 
 he reached a certain square we see parties of 
 three or four together come around the fruit- 
 stand from the sewers and other places of con- 
 cealment underground. 
 
 See! they have bags of bombs and drag can- 
 non out of cellars from under fruit stands and 
 even tear them up from under the pavement. 
 The gens d'armes make a dash for them, but 
 are routed by the desperate revolutionists who 
 expected them. All the revolutionists are now- 
 massed and up and down the broad avenue; 
 quickly, skillfully and effectively they pour in 
 the destructive bombs regardless of their own 
 individual safety. The "defender" and his 
 nobles are destroyed, and his army driven with 
 great slaughter into the grand royal gardens. 
 Here they endeavor to use their artillery on the 
 revolutionists, but with little effect, fo^ .they 
 never find more than half a dozen together aad 
 if they attem[)t to seize them are blown up by 
 the reckless revolutionists. The mob knows 
 better than to assemble and the revolutionists 
 are victorious. 
 
 One man of a trio touches the electric spring 
 of a bomb, when his comrades are suddenly 
 seized and standing over it fight as if tor life 
 until it explodes and tears a score of men into 
 shreds, including the operators. 
 
 The demoralized royal army raises an arti- 
 ficial white bird fa sign of truce) on a pole and 
 beg to be allowed to surrender to some one. 
 
 But after obtaining such a victory and organ- 
 izing a constitutional government the revolu- 
 tionists divide off into factions and in a few 
 years the aristocrats are again in power. They 
 get a dictator and a sort of senate and proceed 
 to run in the old way. The revolutionists again 
 conspire, and this time with rapidity. The dic- 
 tator is seated with his senate in the great tem- 
 ple of liberty when a man walks up to him and 
 humbly asks that a petition be granted, and is 
 put off with evasive answers. He begs instant 
 action but is constantly put off. 
 
 He turns to the senate and then to the dic- 
 tator surrounded by his guards and says in ef- 
 
 fect: " Traitors, your time has come. So die 
 all enemies of humanity!" His foot touches 
 a secret spring under the rich^Het; hestami)s 
 on it; the senate spring tothei^^t, but as they 
 do so a terrific explosion takes place, and not 
 a man escapes. 
 
 After various attempts of men to assume roy- 
 al powers under various names and they, and 
 their armies are destroyed, poiverisnoc desired. 
 To appCvXF with a guard meant death, and to 
 
Utopia; or, the History of an Extinct Planei. 
 
 15 
 
 betray the trust of the people was equivalent to 
 suicide. Justice was linked with liberty and 
 the people were made the final appeal of the 
 nation. More than once men of the purest mo- 
 tives were destroyed by their enemies; but the 
 revolutionists generally were carefui before 
 condemning a man in power, to give him a 
 chance to resign or reform. 
 
 Eventually, after having several forms of a 
 democracy, a constitution was formed scarcely 
 containing a thousand words, and woman v>as 
 given full power with her brothers. Then the 
 country started after the long period of riot, 
 discord and revolution, on an era of peace. 
 Tb^ ownership of land was abolished, no house 
 ^ft any city or district could be over two stories 
 high, and the cities were given room. 
 
 The function of government was lo construct 
 public works, represeiit the people in all nation- 
 al matters, issue money and protect its citizens. 
 F.cich city, district and community managed its 
 own affairs, and in any [jublic question pertain- 
 ing to a district its peoiJie decided it; if to the 
 nation the whole people decided it. Laws 
 v.ere few and brief. Thus, lawyers, beggars 
 and millionaires were not to be seen. Labor 
 VNas honorable, idleness a disgrace. But toil 
 was banished and slavery under any name, at 
 an end. The mli.ennium had arrived but no 
 one realized its presence. 
 
 Now commenced an era of grand improve- 
 ment in every way. Science, art, literature 
 and mechanics were in the midst of the people. 
 Everything benefited the many, nothing a 
 chosen few. Disease disappeared as education 
 advanced and the average age increased rapidly. 
 Now 1 went among these great peo[)le in Li- 
 beria and Sunland, for they made progress 
 nearly parallel to each other, and observed their 
 social, mechanical and scientific improvements. 
 The car of progress rolled smoothly on with 
 liberty and justice to control its course. 
 
 Other nation^^rogressed differently from the 
 Sunland and L]^»ian people. A people of a 
 country furtherlrouth of Sunland on the coast 
 and in one large valley of a river, who were 
 called the people of Erolia or Erolians, never 
 had any terrible revolution, but by slow and 
 gradual steps acquired their liberty and kept in 
 the march of progress. 
 
 They at first had a despotism which on de- 
 mand of the [people, without bloodshed was 
 changed to a constitutional monarchy. 
 
 As the people grew in intelligence and great- 
 er love for liberty, one by one the prerogatives 
 of royalty were given to the people or placed 
 in the hands of their real representatives. Event- 
 ually the ywere their own political rulers, the 
 king or queen having only social prestige and 
 position. Then the salary of the royal occu- 
 pants was gradually reduced to nothing and the 
 offices became merely positions of honor; but 
 the people thought they must have a king. 
 
 Royalty went begging, several refusing to 
 abandon their private business, or distant heirs, 
 suddenly called upon, declined to leave their 
 native or adopted countries in other parts of the 
 globe. After some time a humble farmer was 
 found, as heir by default of two or three others; 
 but he positively refused to serve. He had his 
 crop of fruit to attend to, and the sensible com- 
 munity in which he lived could not dispense 
 with his services. So the people of Erolia sud- 
 denly woke up to the fact that they had been 
 practically without a king for a hundred years 
 and hunted no more for royal princes. 
 
 The Erolians were a gray-eyed, tall, quiet 
 people, very strong and fierce if hard pushed. 
 They resembled in stature and general [)hysical 
 qualities the Liberians, being muscular, very 
 large chested and highly intellectual. 
 
 But in the far south side of the ocean lived a 
 haughty black-eyed, coarse-haired people, who 
 ruled by their intelligence and cruelty, the 
 cringing, very ignorant black negrettoes. These 
 slaves were too cowardly to P.ght stubbornly for 
 their rights and too treacherous to each other 
 to combine. They never used the bombs to 
 destroy their masters to any great extent and 
 the foreigners who came to help them were 
 generally received coldly or betrayed. Not un- 
 til all the other nations had acquired liberty, 
 [)eace and prosperity did these people obtain 
 their rights. Then in the name of humanity 
 the other nations demanded that this slavery 
 should be stopi)ed, the land made free and their 
 trickery government abolished. 
 
 It was done; but it took years to teach the 
 aristocrats that they were masters no longer. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Science is a child as yel, 
 
 But her power and scope shall tjrow, 
 And her secrets in the future 
 
 Shall diminish toil and woe ; 
 Shall increase the bounds of pleasure 
 
 With an ever-widening ken, 
 And of woods and wildernesses 
 
 Make the homes of happy men. Mackav. 
 
 Through all these observations Psycho had 
 remained with me pointing out many thiugsas I 
 came to them, and briefly explaining phenom- 
 ena and occurrences that puzzled my under- 
 standing. These people developed in many 
 ways different from ours. Steam was never ex- 
 tensively used as a motive power, but gas 
 engines were used at first to propel boats. Lo- 
 comotives on railroads were used to more 
 bulky and heavy articles, but did not come into 
 rapid transporation of people until sometime 
 after electricity was introduced as a motor. 
 
 Until the revolutions were over the mechanical 
 improvements stopped where they were when the 
 wars broke out. But at the final triumph of the 
 people, inventions and prosperity took rapid 
 strides. We walk through the wide streets of 
 Liberia and on every hand are evidences of 
 liberty and happiness. Where were once the 
 narrow roughly-paved streets and alleys of the 
 lower portion of the city, now are broad 
 smoothly laid avenues with shaded sidewalks, a 
 row of handsome trees in the center and stat- 
 ues or drinking fountains at every corner. 
 Brown, black, gray and white stone houses of 
 large size and beautifully ornamented are on ev- 
 ery side. In the busy portions of the city, 
 where the ocean electric boats are at the busy 
 wharves, or the broad-gauged electric engines 
 are coming and going with their heavy loads, 
 the city is still open and no crowding is per- 
 mitted. The stores and business houses have 
 open plots of ground all around them and are 
 no more than two stories high. 
 
 The ground floors are handsome stores, or 
 well filled store-rooms. In some are heard the 
 hum of busy machinery ; in others the laughter 
 of children at their play. 
 
 Here is an immense building of heav^stone 
 and very little ornament in the center of a laVge 
 block. We learn that this is a national granaJy-V 
 and the train of cars being backed out of doors 
 has been unloading the tons of white grain 
 brought from a valley away to the north on the 
 other side of those dark, high mountains. We 
 pass to a Jarge, handsome building close to one 
 of the main avenues, and go with the stream of 
 ladies and children through its broad glass 
 doors and find ourselves in an immense oval 
 hall, lighted by large windows all around it. 
 Many counters and tiers of shelves are piled 
 high with delicate fabrics and beautiful cloths. 
 The scores of busy girls, ladies and gentlemen 
 waiting on the customers are not pale and wax- 
 en as we should expect to see, but rosy and 
 healthy as if they did not toil and rush fourteen 
 hours a day. 
 
 Nor do they; for long before the sun sets the 
 windows are closed, the doors slid together 
 and away go clerk and sales-woman in beautiful, 
 swiftly-moving electric carriages that hold from 
 one to forty, to their communities further out of 
 town. Or they hasten to the various parks to 
 race and exercise in various games, witness feats 
 of agility or sleight of hand. Many eo to the 
 opened porticoed massive buildings and listen 
 to the lectures, or perhaps swim in the public 
 baths in certain parks or by^ie shores of the 
 gulf. Six hours out of the t^v in their day is 
 devoted to labor, the rest to recreation, educa- 
 tion, enjoyment and sleep. No master can 
 lock the doors of his factory and say, " Toil 
 and starve, or starve any way." 
 
 Here the worker by the plying loom or the 
 clanging anvil, the roadside or the bench, is not 
 an employee but a part owner in all that his 
 
Utopia; or, the History of an Extinct Planet. 
 
 17 
 
 community controls. Generally the commu- 
 nities where the individuals reside are the 
 owners of the industries they engage in. But 
 some are communities simply for convenience 
 in domestic arrangements, and the individuals 
 are part of a hundred different co-operative in- 
 dustries or concerns. Community life did not 
 spring into existence until after the adoption of 
 the last constitution, when conditions were fa- 
 vorable for their organization, and the people 
 were waiting for something to save and util- 
 ize labor. So in less than a century of our 
 time there were very few isolated households in 
 eithpr Liberia, Sunland or Erolia, the commu- 
 nities ranging from three families in the little 
 ^•."^lountain valleys to four hundred sometimes in 
 the city of Liberia. 
 
 Communities of over three hundred families 
 were found not to work as well as those of from 
 one hundred up. 
 
 The usual time of marriage was from about 
 eighteen to twenty-five years of our time ; and 
 as a man did not require to be rich or to have 
 a bank account, he courted and married when 
 he was young, strong and hopeful. He and 
 his bride took up their residence in the commu- 
 nity of one or the other; and as poverty and 
 intemperance never came in at the door of their 
 home, love very rarely flew out of the window. 
 
 By proper education, attention to the laws of 
 heredity and careful lives generally, mothers 
 were not broken down with disease before their 
 prime, and children were not brought into the 
 world with sickly or diseased bodies or minds. 
 For a woman to have over four children was 
 unusual; to have none at all more so. For a 
 child to die was rare, but the funerals of the 
 aged were common. 
 
 The numeral system of all the people but one 
 on this planet was a duodecimal one, represent- 
 ed by twelve signs, and twelve or any multiple 
 being as easily written and calculated as we do 
 ten or any of its multiples. Their year, called 
 by them by a wend meaning a circle, was equal 
 to a very little less than thirty-one and a quarter 
 of our years. This year they divided into twelve 
 periods and each period into twelve months, 
 these months being from sixty-three to sixty-five 
 of their days in length. They calculated by 
 periods as we do by years, and circles (revolu- 
 tions of the planet around the sun) as we do by 
 
 centuries. Their watch dials were divided into 
 twelve parts or hours; these into twelve minutes 
 and these again into twelve seconds. The 
 watch was a very narrov/ oval, the single hand 
 or pointer moving across from end to end once 
 a day. They were carried in a pocket of the 
 shirt or coat, and were about three inches long 
 and about half an inch wide, often highly orna- 
 mented. The clocks were similar but larger. 
 
 Electricity was in greater abundance in their 
 world than in ours, and therefore more easily 
 obtained. It was used as a motive power at 
 every kind of work and art. The public build- 
 ings were lighted by its soft, regular and mellow 
 light, and the private rooms and halls of the 
 communities, in city and country, were lighted 
 only by it. Electricity also propelled their 
 boats, ran their machinery, drew their loads of 
 grain or merchandise, cooked their food, heated 
 houses, and furnished power to drive their 
 swiftly-gliding, unequally-wheeled carriages, or 
 to haul their smaller loads of fruit or produce 
 to market. 
 
 Smooth highways of somewhat elastic but ar- 
 tificial stone ran for hundreds of miles in several 
 directions, with many branches and subdivis- 
 ions, by-roads and cross-roads. Over these 
 roads electric carriages of three, five, seven or 
 nine wheels, and so on to any size that was con- 
 venient, could proceed with passengers or pro- 
 duce, at any desired speed not exceeding twenty 
 miles an hour. 
 
 The motive power for all their machines, 
 lights, etc., was cheaply and easily obtained by 
 the power of water and wind. From the time 
 the water began to run in the mountain courses 
 it was made to store its power in reservoirs, or 
 to light houses and run machinery close by, or 
 have its power carried to a distance. At the 
 numerous falls of the great national acqueducts 
 and of the rivers, metal cases of about two cubic 
 feet were filled with electric power and placed 
 in engines to run them, or on the cars to be 
 conveyed wherever wanted. From the mount- 
 ains to the sea the water was made to fill power 
 boxes or reservoirs to use in various industries. 
 Water passing through the houses ran wheels 
 that filled the electric reservoirs for lighting, 
 heating and cooking, as well as for machinery, 
 A box of two cubic feet was sufficient to run a 
 small carriage a hundred miles or more. 
 
IS 
 
 Utopia; or, the Historv of an Extinct Planet. 
 
 In going through the city we notice a great 
 absence of noise. The great engines on the 
 railroads come in, switch, couple and uncouple 
 from cars with comparative silence. The hun- 
 dreds of electric carriages running up and down 
 the avenues, or the little open narrow passenger 
 cars on rails, drawn by electric motors, glide 
 along the streets and highways swiftly and noise- 
 lessly, except for a whistle attached to the car- 
 riages that increased in loudness with the 
 speed. 
 
 The foot-passengers on the smooth sidewalks 
 glide along in soft shoes, like spirits. Only in 
 the shops of the machinists and in the foundries 
 is the clang and clatter heard; but even here the 
 noise is greatly reduced. 
 
 Almost in the heart of the city the enormous 
 house cats slee[) in peace on the posts of the 
 gates or in the porticos of the communities, 
 with the sunshine streaming on their sides. It 
 used to be the custom for each citizen to shut 
 up a mother-cat with her kittens in the hall of 
 his house at night. If a stranger by any means 
 got into the house the cats would make a des- 
 perate attack forthwith, and being almost as large 
 as a common wildcat is with us, the fight was a 
 hard one. When not engaged in defending their 
 kittens, under the same circumstances they 
 would only caterwaul and scamper to whatever 
 member of the household they liked best and 
 awaken them. But now they had as little to 
 do as watch-dogs; the halls of the communities 
 were open nearly all night, and so the cats slept 
 in peace. 
 
 I asked Psycho where were the public build- 
 ings, the capitol, the department buildings, the 
 residence of the president, etc., so we went to 
 about the center of the city and saw them. 
 There in the middle of a large block stood a 
 massive gray stone building of the usual oval 
 shape, three stories high, with an oval dome, 
 supported on pillars, above it. On this dome 
 was a large statue of a woman, the Spirit of 
 Unity, and at night from her outstretched hand 
 shone a very bright electric light. During the 
 day she held out a large three-sided blue ban- 
 ner with a yellow circle around a white field, 
 in which were a number of pink stars. This 
 was the national banner, the number of stars 
 corresponding to the number of districts in the 
 nation. 
 
 In the capitol building were a great number 
 of small offices, and on the second floor was th€ 
 chamber of representatives. This was only used 
 as such about three of their months in a period; 
 but the rest of the time was not idle, being oc- 
 cupied for lectures, balls, public meetings and 
 national conventions. 
 
 Across from the ca[)itol building to the south 
 was a plain brown stone building, of the usual 
 oval shape, and perhaps a hundred feet long. 
 On a flag-staff in front of the main entrance is 
 waving the national banner as a sign that the 
 building is open, and over a portion of the door 
 is an inscription in silver letters, meaning exec- 
 utive department. From the small interior hall 
 or court are doors leading to various rooms, ari^.^' 
 on one side is a broad stairway. Over the doors V 
 are other inscri[)tions, meaning office of the 
 president, office of the secretary of state, secre- 
 tary of the treasury, secretary of industry, sec- 
 retary of public improvements, secretary of 
 intelligence, the last including the postoffice 
 national institution. Up stairs were the offices 
 of the private secretaries, clerks and the execu- 
 tive library. Many of the clerks were women; 
 quite often a woman was in the cabinet, and 
 when she occupied the presidential chair there 
 was no revolution. 
 
 Near by on the same side is the patent office, 
 about the same size as the executive department. 
 Psycho tells me that its small size is due to the 
 rule that machines that are used extensively are 
 simply photographed, the model being stored 
 away or given to some institution. Patents of 
 no use are also treated in the same way; and so 
 only a few models are exposed for a period or 
 two, when they are followed by others. 
 
 On the north side of the capitol is the treas- 
 ury, where the national notes are made, the 
 money stored and the accounts kept. On the 
 east side is the national clearing-house, where 
 the accounts between the communities and in- 
 dividuals are balanced every sixof their months, 
 the government charging but a trifling percent- 
 age for the service. This is tHe largest of the 
 public buildings except the capitol itself, but is 
 only two stories high. It is built of stone, but 
 of course oval in shape, square or angular build- 
 ings of any kind, either public or private, being 
 rare. On the west side are the museum and the 
 observatory. The former is next in size to the 
 
Utopia ; or, the History of an Extinct Planet. 
 
 19 
 
 clearing-house, but the observatory is mainly a 
 hall of astronomical records, the main observa- 
 tory being fully fifty miles away on the mount- 
 ains. Next to it stands the national public 
 library, a small building, as most of the books 
 are in the many halls, colleges and institutions 
 of learning in the various cities of the republic 
 and in the city of Liberia itself. On another 
 block is the general postofifice and electric sig- 
 nal department, which occupies considerable 
 space, but I do not go to it. 
 
 I am disappointed in seeing that this nation 
 of thirty millions of prosperous people have such 
 plain and small public buildings, all of them not 
 ecn^ling in expense the state buildings of the 
 m\e State of Connecticut, in my own country 
 "on Earth. Psycho listens to my observations, 
 and answering numerous questions patiently 
 until we get thiough looking over the buildings, 
 and then replies while we proceed to other 
 points of interest: 
 
 " You are used, my son, to useless and ex- 
 pensive display of massive and empty public 
 buildings. Here the people have learned 
 that it is more than useless to put the wealth 
 of the nation into piles of stone, only to be 
 used a few days out of a period. The pres- 
 ident is only the chief clerk of the people, and 
 not having the arbitrary powers or dignities of a 
 sovereign, as the president of your country on 
 your planet, he is not called upon to display 
 extravagance or to keep up the dignity of the 
 state. Therefore no mansion or palace is fur- 
 nished him for a residence, it being considered 
 sufficient to appropriate an office for his busi- 
 ness with a number of assistants. Vast armies 
 of clerks are not needed to dispose of the peo- 
 ple's wealth, and buildings are not erected to 
 be used a few days out of a period. Every 
 building erected by the people is in continued 
 use, and the capitol is not used as a saloon or 
 restaurant, nor has it but three committee-rooms 
 around the hall of representatives. Any national 
 convention can obtain the use of this hall in 
 demanding the keys. The wealth of a nation 
 is displayed not by the magnificence of its pub- 
 lic buildings or the extravagance of its highest 
 officials, but by the actual prosperity of its peo- 
 ple and the equal distribution of the products of 
 labor. 
 
 " Rear a mountain of granite over the body 
 
 of a dead ruler, and you mix the mortar with 
 the blood of slaves. Pile up national buildings 
 costing millions of days of labor, and you build 
 a sepulcher for liberty. Borrow of the future 
 to commemorate the past, or to satisfy the ar- 
 rogant assumptions of the present entrusted with 
 the country's welfare, and you enslave unnum- 
 bered generations, plant the seeds of tyranny 
 and corruption, bind liberty in chains, and de- 
 stroy the prosperity of a nation. These people 
 have learned that they can but show their 
 strength and prosperity to others by prosperous 
 communities, equal wealth and intelligent citi- 
 
 zens. 
 
 Thus rebuked for my criticism of the manner 
 of public building, Psycho continued: 
 
 " With the experience of centuries of oppres- 
 sion and debt, these people learned that it 
 would be better for their representatives to meet 
 on the open square, and the public buildings to 
 be of the flimsl'j-t and cheapest construction, 
 than to bind burdens on the shoulders of their 
 children, or to incur a debt of any kind. 
 Therefore in letters of blood is written in their 
 constitution: 'No private debt shall ever be 
 considered binding or have any standing in law 
 or justice, and no public debt shall ever be in- 
 curred for any object or under any circumstan- 
 ces.' Thus an immense amount of litigation, 
 cumbersome legal machinery and untold expense 
 were gotten rid of. Of this constitution I will 
 tell you more by and by." 
 
 Printing was never used as we understand it. 
 For many years they simply copied by hand, 
 and although printing was afterward invented, 
 it came too late to be of use. 
 
 Photography came before printing had got 
 beyond rude wooden blocks, and it was soon 
 used for obtaining cheap and accurate copies oi 
 works, then for newspapers, circulars, etc. By 
 going into that branch of photography, inven 
 tions were brought out that enabled them tc 
 take thousands of photographs of a page of man 
 uscript with a few hours labor; and thus books, 
 pamphlets, papers, and everything we print, 
 were photo-printed. Their books and manu- 
 scripts were generally of an oval shape, or per- 
 haps the corners of a parallelogram simply 
 rounded. The phonetic characters ran from 
 left to right, but continued in the next page, 
 not in the underside of the same page; and ir 
 
20 
 
 Utopia; or, the History of an Extinct Planet. 
 
 arriving at the end of the book was turned up- 
 side down, as well as over, thus bringing the 
 conclusion on the same page as the commence- 
 ment. 
 
 Their knowledge of astronomy far exceeded 
 ours, as by some means they combined photog- 
 raphy with the telescope, so as to greatly increase 
 the distinctness of the viewed object. They 
 did not stop with simple photography, but were 
 enabled to obtain photographs so clear that the 
 picture looked almost like the reflection of a 
 mirror. 
 
 After the era of liberty, the people drifted 
 into a hopeful scientific materialism and aban- 
 doned the superstitions of their ancestors. The 
 various nations of the world commingled until 
 they spoke one common language and were one 
 race. As by better social conditions they grew 
 purer and attained a greater degree of sensitive- 
 
 ness the fact of immortality became better 
 known, until eventually in every community 
 those who had passed to a higher plane of ex- 
 istence were not lost to their friends, but met 
 face to face, and the river of death was spanned 
 by purity and love. 
 
 At my earnest solicitation Psycho enabled 
 me to go into the public library of the nation 
 and to look over their constitution, which was 
 simple, short, and because of their intelligence 
 and dislike of technical interpretations was 
 easily, cheaply and effectively administered. In 
 fact there was very little law; for the people did 
 not need it. Their constitution was ea^ly un- 
 derstood by them, their words conveying mb^e 
 than ours do; and the will of the people writv^- 
 first and highest above any branch of the gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 
 i-u 1j. 
 
M 
 
 ^ 
 
 <^ 
 
 L<5> 
 
 ^ 
 
 :.<:>J> 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ' Balked are the courts and contest is no more. 
 Despairing quacks with curses fled the place, 
 And vile attorneys, now a useless race." 
 
 Abstract of the Constitution of the Republic 
 of Liberia (of the Planet Utopia.) 
 
 As it is necessary for the preservation of Lib- 
 erty the maintenance of Justice and the co-op- 
 option of the people in building public works, 
 ►"educating the citizens of the nation, that there 
 should be a form of government, the Represent- 
 atives of the people of the Republic of Liberia, 
 form the following constitution: 
 
 Article i. This provided for the rights of 
 citizens, and that any person over ten " periods" 
 of age who could read and write Estravlian, the 
 national language, without regard to sex, race, 
 religion, or residence (if native born), could 
 vote and hold any office in the gift of the Re- 
 public. Foreign born citizens could hold any 
 office after being residents and citizens a certain 
 time. 
 
 Sections third and fourth provided jury trials, 
 but for crimes of less magnitude than murder, 
 the prisoner could have a jury of not less than 
 three nor more than twelve. A majority, in 
 minor offenses could find a verdict; in case of a 
 tie, the judge having a casting vote; but in 
 murder trials, the verdict was required to be 
 unanimous. 
 
 Section fourth provided that the State could 
 not take the life of a chizen for any crime; but 
 on conviction of murder the second time or for 
 money, at the option of the jury the prisoner 
 could be branded in the forehead and transport- 
 ed to a deep valley from which escape was im- 
 possible. 
 
 Article second provided for the form of gov- 
 ernment. This consisted of three branches- 
 legislative, executive and judicial. Sections 
 first, second and third provided that there should 
 be one representative to every thirty thousand 
 citizens, to be elected once every period and to 
 receive a salary of six thousand royars a period, 
 
 a royar being equal in purchasing power to 
 about one dollar and a half. 
 
 The representatives could meet but once in a 
 period, (two years and a half,) and could only 
 continue in session three months and sixty-five 
 days each, unless permitted to sit six days longer 
 by the president. They could, however, be spe- 
 cially convened by a call of the people, or the 
 president. 
 
 Sees, fourth and fifth provided that they could 
 pass laws and make treaties, issue legal money, 
 make appropriations, levy taxes, construct pub- 
 lic works, provide for the education of the peo- 
 ple, or anything that the people might entrust 
 to them. 
 
 Sections seven and eight provided that a law 
 passed by them could only be vetoed by the 
 people; and a bill having passed the Repre- 
 sentives could be put before the people, on a 
 demand of one-fourth the representives or about 
 one million and a half citizens. Any bill 
 defeated by a majority of four or less could be 
 put before the people on demand of a number 
 equal to the minority or the same number of 
 citizens; but any bill defeated by a greater ma- 
 jority could only be put before the people on 
 the demand of a morjority of the representa- 
 tives, or about three million citizens. Any de- 
 cision of the judiciary could be considered by 
 the representatives. 
 
 Sections nine, ten and eleven provided for 
 the executive, which consisted in executing the 
 laws, carrying on public improvements or any 
 other business that might be entrusted to them 
 by the representatives or the people. There 
 was no Vice President; but in case of the death, 
 disability or resignation of the President, the 
 presiding officer became President until the 
 end of the term, or the convening of the repre- 
 sentative?, when a president was elected by 
 
22 
 
 Utopia ; or, the History of an Extinct Planet. 
 
 them. Next to him were the members of the 
 Representatives in order of their age. 
 
 The national judges were one to ever)' six 
 hundred thousand citizens, and were elected for 
 a term of four periods. 
 
 But the judges at the end of the judiciary sec- 
 tion were warned as follows: "Judges of the 
 national courts are warned against making dis- 
 cussions on trifling and technical grounds or 
 against considering cases of no importance to 
 the Nation and interfering with the adminis- 
 tration of justice by the lower courts. 
 
 Section third was on limitations of legislation. 
 Liberty of speech, religion, of the press, of 
 public assembling, of free travel, or of bearing 
 arms in any way, could not be interfered with. 
 No private debt could be made binding, but 
 the laborer was to he considered as part owner 
 of the property until his or her wages were paid. 
 No public debt could ever be contracted under 
 any circumstances; nor could the volume of the 
 currency be increased or decreased over thirty 
 royars per capita. No aid or countenance 
 could be given to any religious institution, edu- 
 cational college or school, or any individual for 
 any purpose, object or service, real or imaginary. 
 
 Section nine provided that no law increasing 
 the salary of any public officer, elected or ap- 
 pointed, could be passed without the consent 
 of two-thirds of the people. No law could be 
 passed thai was over two hundred words long or 
 that embraced more than one subject. 
 
 No law operating especially in one district or 
 section of the country could be passed without 
 the consent of that district or section. 
 
 Article four treated of public property, and 
 section first declared that " land is the common 
 property of the people, and with the water, or 
 anything that the people may consider public, 
 shall bsl.'^.r.g to the people." Citizens by culti- 
 vating a certain portion of the land might culti- 
 vate a certain small amount of land ecjual to 
 about six acres. Communities could control 
 land up to about one thousand acres, according 
 to the number of persons in a community. No 
 water or land could be leased or granted to any 
 individual or corporation for service or con- 
 struction for the government. Section five pro- 
 vided that all highways, rivers, means of trans- 
 portation, or anything of national importance, 
 should be in the hands of the people. 
 
 Article five treated of political divisions, by 
 which the republic was divided into districts of 
 as nearly as possible, one hundred and forty- 
 four thousand citizens in each. Every district 
 had a district judge and a council or legislature 
 elected by the people. The districts were 
 again divided into districts of as nearly as pos- 
 sible twelve thousand each, and had a justice 
 who, in like manner, was elected by vote of 
 the people. The people of a district had 
 the veto power over the acts of the council or 
 legislature or tie decisions of the district judge, 
 the same as the people of the republic in na- 
 tional affairs. 
 
 Article six regulated methods of election, 
 and provided that for any office where thenuir- ,. 
 ber entitled to hold the office exceeded one';*^^^ 
 such as a district council, national judge, or na- '' 
 ional representative, the citizens were entitled 
 to but one vote for one candidate; with an al- 
 ternate. The alternate could only be valid 
 when the first choice proved to have t surplus 
 of votes over the number necessary to election 
 or to lack the required number. The candi- 
 dates who received the highest number of votes 
 cast were to be declared elected to the num- 
 ber required. 
 
 When there was but one entitled to hold an 
 office such as president, district judge, or divi- 
 sion justice there was but one vote and no al- 
 ternate; the candidate receiving the plurality 
 of votes being elected. 
 
 When in a list of those candidates receiving 
 the lowest number was duplicated the native 
 born candidate was first in rank over one of for- 
 eign birth. 
 
 But if both v^'ere natives or both foreigners, 
 the elder took precedence. This case however 
 very rarely occurred. 
 
 It was especially declared that the people of 
 the republic were to be the final appeal on any 
 case, question, discussion, law, or whatever 
 might be of national interest. And all officials 
 were warned that they were the servants of the 
 people, and that the nation could only keep 
 its dignity by the prosperity of the people and 
 tbe simplicity of its officers and servants. 
 
 The last section of the constitution read : 
 
 " This constitution may be amended, changed 
 or overruled at any time by the people, and the 
 passing of any law by the vote of the people 
 
Utopia; or, the History of an Extinct Planet. 
 
 ^16 
 
 shall make it above any constitutional provision 
 whatever. The people are to be the rulers of 
 themselves." 
 
 Approved by the people by direct ballot by 
 a majority of three millions of citizens (whole 
 number of citizens about ten millions), on the 
 38th day of the fifth month, third period of the 
 second circle of liberty. 
 
 Of course as time went on several important 
 changes were made in the constitution, and 
 when made were simply inserted in the articles 
 and sections where they belonged. The voting 
 was very simple, and the tickets rarely consisted 
 of over a dozen candidates. An election of 
 the, Nation generally took place at a different 
 tj^e from the election of the districts. The 
 offices to be filled were photo-printed on oval 
 ballots from three inches to one foot long and 
 about three inches wide. The citizen voting 
 had to write the names of the candidates under 
 the printed titles, and any number of citizens 
 could demand to see the ballots. 
 
 A citizen was not obliged to write in his or 
 her hand-writing the names of the candidates 
 desired, but could disguise their hands. On 
 voting the citizen wrote his or her name op- 
 posite their name on the Register, and thus 
 proved their eligibility as well as prevented any 
 fraud. The election usually occupied two days; 
 but the polls were open about six hours daily, 
 and then only before and after working hours, 
 that by strict enforcement of law could never 
 exceed six hours out of their days and nights of 
 thirty hours. It was considered a disgrace not 
 to vote, and a citizen whose name was not 
 written in the register during an election had 
 to give some valid reason for the omission, as 
 well as pay a fine. Any citizen who without 
 such a reason did not vote a certain number of 
 times in succession was deprived of citizenship, 
 and was considered a foreigner, the citizen- 
 ship only being acquired by a continued resi- 
 dence the same number of years as requiied 
 for the foreigner to become a citizen. Any 
 representative of the -people, either on the 
 judge's bench or in the national representa- 
 tives, who did not vote on three bills, or was 
 absent more than one day in a session, lost his 
 or her seat, and the one standing next on the 
 list of candidates at the last election took the 
 place. 
 
 For a representative or other "servant of the 
 people," as they were called, to thus lose their 
 [)lace meant political death as well as social 
 disgrace. It was looked upon in the same light 
 as we would regard an officer who resigned dur- 
 ing a battle. When the representatives met,' 
 they went to work like so many industrious 
 clerks, and for a member to speak over ten 
 minutes, unless a very able and highly respect- 
 ed citizen, meant immediate voting down. 
 Order was observed, and during the session the 
 representatives made very little noise. If any 
 member on any question spoke over half an 
 hour, no matter how highly respected, someone 
 would rise and notify the representative that 
 there were plenty of steps, public parks and 
 temples of science in the city of Liberia, where 
 the people as well as the representatives would 
 be pleased to listen after working hours. 
 
 At first when the constitution was adopted, 
 it was necessary to keep a large force of police 
 in the cities to defend citizens and to see that 
 municipal laws were not overridden, and the 
 justice's court was kept quite busy; but these 
 conditions quickly died away as individuals were 
 absorbed into conui-mnities. For a person to 
 be attacked and robbed was of such unusual 
 occurrence that often for years a justice would 
 have no such case to try. Murder was very 
 rare, but sometimes did occur under extreme 
 aggravation. Arbitration between individuals 
 and communities became the most common 
 manner of settling differences when the efforts 
 of friends could not obtain satisfaction to both 
 •parties. If arbitration was once decided on 
 there could be no appeal to law, as it was con- 
 sidered better that a little injustice be suffered 
 than that the courts should be overburdened 
 with petty cases. 
 
 So the people gradually found themselves 
 with closed courts, no police except night watch- 
 men for fire, so little law that it. was hardly 
 heard of, but plenty of justice. The streets were 
 lighted by electric lami)sthat cost comparatively 
 little. The citizens voted at the elections or 
 moved about in daily intercourse, with no jars 
 or fights. The prisons were simply workshops 
 and asylums, and about three hundred years 
 after the adoption of their constitution a prison 
 was almost unknown. 
 
 At first a murderer was put to work and paid 
 
24 
 
 Utopia; or, the Historv of ax Extinct Planet, 
 
 full wages for his services, being charged with 
 his board. The savings were divided between 
 the family of the murdered person, if they re- 
 quired it, for a certain time, and the prisoner. 
 Other criminals were treated the same. After 
 'a given time more liberty was granted them; 
 and if for many years a murderer acquitted him- 
 self of any criminal nature by industry and good 
 behavior, he could be pardoned by a vote of 
 the people in the district where he committed 
 the crime. But for a second murder the crim- 
 inal was branded in the forehead and sent to a 
 valley, from which escape was impossible. They 
 generally preferred to breathe a poisonous gas 
 and die, however, rather than go to the valley, 
 the option being usually accorded to them. 
 
 The population of Liberia never numbered ! 
 more than thirty-five millions of people, and at I 
 the time of the adoption of the " last constitu-i 
 tion," as it was called, the population numbered I 
 about twenty-five millions. For about three j 
 centuries they slowly increased to thirty mill- ' 
 ions, notwithstanding the changing conditions 
 of the planet. For about a thousand years they 
 held their number pretty well; but at last they 
 began to slowly lose ground. Hardly perceiv- 
 ing it at first, they began to realize it after a ! 
 while. 
 
 The representatives in meeting passed appro 
 
 priation bills and one or two laws necessary to 
 .start some public work. This they did on the 
 first and second day. On the third day, after 
 ; waitingto see if anything further was to be done, 
 they generally adjourned. To sit over a week 
 of five working days was very unusual, and to 
 ; hold a session six weeks was of as much import- 
 ance to their history as war is to us. 
 
 The main business of the government was to • 
 construct aqueducts and keep up the highways 
 and railroads. Water was the most difficult 
 thing to obtain; but by the most skillful con- 
 struction of aqueducts and reservoirs, and the 
 running of tunnels into the very hearts of the 
 mountains, a sufficient quantity was obtaibedto 
 satisfy all requirements. District and natio\nai. 
 
 bodies of representatives concerned themselves^ A 
 
 j with such matters alone. The people needed 
 no laws, and what few questions did come up 
 were decided without looking at the constitu- 
 tion or any book of law, justice alone weighing 
 in her scales the issue. 
 
 In spite of the lowering ocean, the rising 
 mountains, the valleys filling \Yith precipices, 
 the abandoned cities and the falling rivers, the 
 people grew in intelligence, though standing 
 almost still in mechanics. They fought Nature 
 with heroic spirit, and looked her square in the 
 face. 
 
 \) 
 
 V4 
 
 ^-.> 
 
 *0* 
 
 Jv' 
 
 ^y 
 
 
s^"^ 
 
 ■i^ 
 
 ig>^,T"T 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The stars shall fade away, the sun himself 
 Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years ; 
 But thou shah flourish in immortal youth. 
 Unhurt amid the war of clfments, 
 The wreck of matter and the crush of worlds." 
 
 Early in the dawn of civilization the idea of 
 
 a future life was entertained by many people. 
 
 And even before, when man was a wild and 
 
 nak<d savage, he worshiped the spirits of his 
 
 ^■/^<4stors and bowed to men immortalized in 
 
 ptradition as gods. 
 
 But the centuries failed to bring any more 
 than a simple hope and belief to questioning 
 man. The priests kept the people in ignorance, 
 and only used this hope to enslave their follow- 
 ers. 
 
 In Liberia, after the establishment of the last 
 constitution, the people drifted into a hopeful, 
 calm and brave materialism. So disgusted were 
 they by the acts of the priests in past ages that 
 all forms of belief in immortality were classed 
 with the dead superstitions of the past. 
 
 Early in the history of the nation as a repub- 
 lic, messengers from the other side of life had 
 made themselves manifest to mortals in the flesh. 
 Slowly but surely the glad tidings spread. In 
 spite of mistakes and dissensions, of fraud and 
 ignorance, the fact that man existed after death 
 continued to be demonstrated. At first the va- 
 rious religious sects of the civilized nations bit- 
 terly opposed the idea, and not until they were 
 about to fall to pieces before the growing en- 
 lightenment of the people did the priesthood 
 espouse immortality as a fact and not merely as 
 a vague hope or faith. 
 
 But the science of the day continued its at- 
 tacks on the sophistry of these religions until 
 there was nothing left of them to be united by 
 but the fact of immortality. For fully a cent- 
 ury spiritualism languished in the minds of the 
 people of Liberia after the final downfal of aris- 
 tocracy and priestcraft. Science, meanwhile, 
 pushed on with rapid strides in material direc- 
 tions, but refused to consider the vital question: 
 " If a man die, shall he live again }" In all its 
 
 AllDISON. 
 
 branches science was growing, and the people 
 under the stimulus of liberty were progressing 
 higher, and higher, toward a more perfect civ- 
 ilization. 
 
 At length Spiritualism once more became a 
 subject of investigation, and science with awak- 
 ened interest turned her searching eyes upon 
 its despised relation. The cool and quiet rea- 
 son of the intelligent materialistic philosophers 
 was slowly convinced, and one by one the Scien- 
 tists of the nation openly advocated their convic- 
 tions. Unimpeded by prejudice and credulity, 
 its advocates were enabled to more successful- 
 ly demonstrate and prove to the investigators 
 this glorious philosophy. Carefully sounding 
 and considering each successive step, and scien- 
 tificially weighing each piece of evidence, the in- 
 vestigators became earnest advocates. By more 
 harmonious conditions than existed when Spirit- 
 ualism was opposed by thechuruh, better mani- 
 festations were produced. The life of the peo- 
 ple was such and the laws of Nature so followed 
 that harmony was more prevalent. People 
 were born better and were therefore better able 
 to grasp truth, and to bring forth spiritualized 
 children. Crime was cured at its fountain 
 heads and, as a consequence, more and more 
 people in each generation were able to receive 
 immortality and not only receive but often to 
 be the means of demonstrating it. When the 
 faculties of mediumship, psychometry and clair- 
 voyance became as common as the faculty of 
 smelling once had been, people had to believe, 
 had to acknowledge what was palpable to the 
 senses. 
 
 Thus spirits were enabled to eventually make 
 themselves tangible to the material senses and 
 to clothe themselves temporarily with matter so 
 as to be perceptible to all. Materialization at 
 first in the dark finally was produced in the light. 
 
20 
 
 Utopia ; or, the History of ax Extinct Planet. 
 
 but never got to a point where the form was ac- 
 tually the same as the form of the material body, 
 never more than a shell or representation. The 
 vital organs were not there, the blood did not 
 pulsate, but simply as clairvoyance became more 
 common the spirits became more real. The 
 hand of the materialized spirit could be shaken, 
 but as the friend held it the form faded into 
 spirit and the grosser matter disappeared. On 
 one occasion the friends met in a large temple or 
 free college, and before several hundred invited 
 friends, many of them scientific men and officials, 
 a seance was given of great interest. Scores of 
 spirits were rendered visible and several ancient 
 leaders and statesmen appeared. One spoke 
 for a few minutes from the rostrum which was 
 exactly in the center of the building. After 
 this several failures took place, because of en- 
 deavoring to carry on these seances before too 
 strange and too large audiences. 
 
 But at last in the national chamber of repre- 
 sentives a seance was given where there appeared 
 many spirits of both sexes who had passed away 
 from earth as leaders in either science or liberty. 
 The main medium was simply slightly concealed 
 by a shawl or robe only as the spirit rose and 
 formed. The spirit would advance and speak 
 a few words first on one side of the central stage 
 and then gradually passing around to the other 
 side, as was the custom. One very venerable 
 appearing spirit who had made many discoveries 
 in science and who also had been an active de- 
 fender of liberty, spoke for fuPy twenty minutes; 
 then faded before the audience to a luminous 
 cloud, reappeared for a moment, smiled and 
 vanished. 
 
 More and more spiritualzed became the peo- 
 ple until at every assembly the forms of the de- 
 parted appeared and eventually mingled at 
 pleasure with the crowd, exciting no remarkt 
 For as I stated, they could always be distin- 
 guished by the peculiar appearance of the matter 
 composing the temporary mask and often disap- 
 peared to coarser eyes when in the vicinity of 
 uncongenial mortals. The whole planet was 
 new to the people and patriotism had extended 
 to the entire globe, while humanity realized in 
 word and deed that all were of one family; 
 brothers and sisters. 
 
 As the centuries went on the population of 
 the globe began to decrease in proportion as 
 
 the amount of arable land contracted. The 
 ocean grew smaller and deeper, the mountains 
 higher and more barren, and as a natural conse- 
 quence man was forced to follow the lowering 
 waters. Science was brought in and prolonged 
 the contest between man and inevitable law. 
 Lakes were drained to furnish land, and the rocks 
 that fell in avalanches into the deep valleys were 
 conveyed away. By the application of elec- 
 tricity and various powerful explosives, long 
 tunnels were driven into the hearts of the 
 mountains for water and vast aqueducts con- 
 veyed it to public reservoirs. Highways, that 
 often with the aqueducts ran through rminels 
 lighted by electricity, were constructed, and o\er 
 these in swiftly moving electric carriages the peci-y 
 pie journeyed or conveyed the products of dif- ^<^ 
 ferent localities. 
 
 By the failure of the water supply, the over- 
 whelming of the land by avalanches and the 
 increasing rarity of the atmosphere, communi- 
 ties decreased in number of inmate^, and valley 
 after valley was finally abandoned by the last of 
 its inhabitants after having been the home of 
 their people for centuries. Not as many lives 
 were lost by the falling rocks as we might sup- 
 pose; for science was able to predict these 
 events, and the people could remove out of 
 danger. 
 
 But with the waning planet civilization did 
 not recede; on the contrary for a considerable 
 time it advanced. At last, however, it was forced 
 to remain stationary, all the efforts of research 
 and invention being devoted to its preservation, 
 as Nature was now against progress. 
 
 Spiritualism, hand-in-hand with Science, be- 
 came a universally acknowledged philoso[)hy. 
 with the heroic war on failing Nature the immor- 
 tals were with the mortals giving words of advice, 
 of comfort and of love. In the family and in 
 the community they were ever present and recog- 
 nized; took part in the joys and s )rrows of their 
 loved ones and continued to follow and to lead 
 upward. 
 
 The atmosphere was always so rarified that 
 flying as a means of locomotion was never at- 
 tained; but from the tops of high mountains, 
 by means of a machine with very broad wings 
 and a body of gas, one or two persons for 
 pleasure were enabled to fly do7V7i for a few 
 miles. 
 
Utopia; or, the History of ax Extinct Planet, 
 
 By a gigantic series of labors the whole [seo- 
 ple of the planet tunneled through a range of 
 mountains for several miles and drained a con- 
 siderable portion of the waters of the ocean 
 into the deep basin of an ancient sea, in order 
 to make the low plains around it i)roductive. 
 In this they did not succeed so well as they an- 
 ticipated; but still homes were made for several 
 millions of people in this region. This drain- 
 age so lowered the East Gulf that after several 
 years of wonderful labor its waters were drained 
 and pumped nut and a new valley created, 
 walled from the main ocean by a mountain of 
 masonry. But all these labors rendered the 
 hWn plateaus to the north of Liberia only more 
 •^xirren and un[>roductive. As the new valleys 
 ► were opened the high jilateaus were abandoned, 
 and the ancient valleys were left to black, tall 
 precipices and barrenness. 
 
 After a few more generations the entire poj)- 
 ulation of Liberia had congregated in the one 
 valley of the gulf. The proud cities of the by- 
 gone centuries were left to crumble into dust, 
 and over their ruins man could not go, for the 
 vital air was so thin and water so scarce that it 
 was impossible to exist in these cold and barren 
 regions. But beautiful cities were below them, 
 with hap[)y, industrious and contented inhabit- 
 ants, civilized and progressive as they had been 
 for so many centuries. Science was made to 
 war against fate, while poetry and song made 
 harmony among the sons and daughters of the 
 decaying world. Art and wit gave delight to 
 the eye and mind, and with music was devel- 
 oped to a high degree of perfection. The voice 
 was cultivated esi^ecially, and with the nmsic 
 was remarkably soft and expressive. Music 
 conveyed ideas almost as defniite as if there- 
 had been a language of melody. Vocal and 
 instrumental music was cultivated in every fam- 
 ily, and for a party of people to break out in 
 joyous song was very common. A party of 
 musicians would sing and play in one apart- 
 ment, the sound being conveyed to the audi- 
 ence in another, and seeming to come softly 
 from every part of the room. In their circles 
 bevies of spirit children would often apiiear in 
 spirit wreaths from the mediums to the ceiling 
 and sing, while many mortals would join softly 
 in the chorus. 
 
 As the population decreased, great difficulty 
 
 was experienced in kee[)ing ui) communication 
 with the isolated and smaller valleys. When 
 the public roads could no longer be kept open, 
 tunnels were constructed, lighted by electricity, 
 and driven through. But these often fell in, 
 and then electric signals, through wires or as 
 flashes in the air, were utilized to convey intel- 
 ligence. Sometimes, when possible, hardy men 
 would scale the mountains; but this, owing to 
 the rarified air, could not always be done. 
 
 In one valley in the eastern portion of Libe- 
 ria, great difficulty v/as experienced in keeping 
 oiK-n the tunnel between them and the larger 
 CTulf valley. Once for several years communi- 
 cation was only had by electric signals until a 
 new tunnel was constructed. But the affairs of 
 the valley went on as before. Concerts, lect- 
 ures, meetings and circles were held as usual; 
 and despite the failing energies of the planet, 
 the light of civilization continued to shine in 
 l)rilliancy and po^ver as nature drifted death- 
 ward. 
 
 Again, after enjoying full communication for 
 a few years, the tunnel was crushed in, and the 
 inhabitants isolated from the outer worid. 
 Rocks began to fall from the mountains, and 
 fears were entertained of the complete destruc- 
 tion of the peoi)le if relief was not soon obtained. 
 Actidents and natural decrease had reduced the 
 inhabitants to about three hundred, when but 
 a century and a half previously they numbered 
 several thousand. Their countrymen worked 
 from the outside and they from the inside; and 
 at last after fifty years a small tunnel was com- 
 pleted. The remaining inhabitants fled, leav- 
 ing their home to the crumbling rocks and 
 silence. 
 
 This process of abandonment continued un- 
 til every country was only represented by one 
 or two valleys. The Gulf-valley of Liberia 
 was one of the most productive and here many 
 of the last of nations fled and were welcomed. 
 More than one community, however, cut off 
 from communication with their fellows, v.ere 
 forced to give up the fight and die amid the 
 crash of falling mountains, isolated and alone. 
 
 One of the last places to fall in ruin was the 
 valley of Sun-land where their lake had been. 
 The people gradually gathered into this valley, 
 and as the water became scarce they retreated 
 all into one small valley and excavated dwell- 
 
28 
 
 Utopia; or, the History of an Extinct Planet. 
 
 ings in the mountain sides where the rock was 
 most dura Me. To dwell in caves was impera- 
 tive because of avalanches; and by carefully 
 selecting the most durable rock the cave-dwell- 
 ings thus excavated lasted many generations. 
 
 These dwellings were nicely fitted up, for 
 electricity warmed and lighted them. From 
 the bark of the few and scrubby trees that grew 
 in open spots or in the fertile little vales, with 
 goat hair and feathers of domestic birds, cloths 
 were woven into various fabrics. With soft 
 dyes these cloths were dyed in harmonious 
 colors; and man, though living in caves, once 
 more, as at his origin, was civilized and happy. 
 Glass houses were built covering many acres, 
 the glass composing them being fully three feet 
 thick, very elastic and transparent. Under its 
 shelter vegetables were raised by the help of 
 electricity. A smelting furnace furnished them 
 with aluminum, and iron for mechanical uses was 
 secured from the mountain veins. Electricity 
 was obtained from the streams of water care- 
 fully stored for service. The land was care- 
 fully cultivated and all the resources of waning 
 nature were used to increase the happiness of 
 man and to keep the flame of civilization 
 bright. 
 
 By the force of circumstances the people at 
 last all gathered into one cave-community con- 
 sisting of perhaps two hundred and fifty per- 
 sons — all remaining of a nation once number- 
 ing millions. Here they lived for several years, 
 only occasionally terrified by the avalanches of 
 rock and debris falling into their valley. 
 
 One day the terrible roar of an approaching 
 avalanche was heard as it thundered down the 
 mountain side, carrying all before it. "To 
 the caves! to the caves!" was the cry; and all 
 outside hastened in and the flood of rocks and 
 sand filled up high the fertile little valley. Sev- 
 eral more followed and when the inhabitants 
 reached the surface they stood on a mountain 
 of rocky fragments. 
 
 'Ihe valley was utterly ruined, and it was 
 only the matter of a few weeks when famine 
 would stare them in the face, and the inevitable 
 result would be death in misery and pain for 
 all in the end. With courage they had faced 
 the future, but now hope was gone and death 
 was before them. Of death they had no fear, 
 but from torture they shrank. 
 
 In their large and beautiful lecture-room the 
 entire community assembled to consider their 
 course, and with them their friends of another 
 yet the same world were cheering their friends 
 in their extremity with words of love and hope. 
 After carefully considering every possible 
 means of escape, it was almost unanimously 
 concluded that the only relief from lingering 
 starvation was immediate death. A few could 
 have lived in one little valley very difficult to 
 reach; but it was only for a few years that even 
 this was possible. So all voted for death and 
 peace, although the attending spirits were loth 
 to have it so. Still, as nothing else could be 
 done they did not strenuously oppose it ,^ 
 
 On the floor of the beautiful hall mats were ,- 
 spread and the chemists of the community in ,\, 
 an adjoining room, from certain ingredients, 
 manufactured a poisonous vapor. The beauti- 
 ful chorus of molody came in from a group of 
 singers in still another room; and as it died 
 away it was caught up by angel voices bidding 
 welcome to the mortals about to join them. 
 
 Side by side lay or sat husband and wife, 
 father and son, mother and daughter, brother 
 and sister, lover and lover, softly conversing or 
 singing as the last moments approached. Fear- 
 lessly they had lived, and now as fearlessly they 
 passed to a. continued existence. 
 
 From the farther end of the hall came a blue 
 vapor that hid in a curling fog the statuaiy and 
 pictures on the walls. It enveloped the near- 
 est persons in its mists, and inhaling its per- 
 fume they clasped, smiled, kissed, kissed and 
 slept. 
 
 Slowly the vapor passed toward the end of 
 the hall, and the last to close their eyes were 
 two lovers that, with their arms clasped togeth- 
 er, lay by a rippling stream in a recess of the 
 wall. 
 
 Those who first slept arose as the last sank to 
 rest and met the glad Angel of Deliverance, 
 welcomed by the friends gone before, and turn- 
 ing to greet those crowding in their footsteps. 
 
 The electric lights shone on the forms so cold 
 and beautiful until the supply gave out, save 
 one, which kept vigil for many weeks; but it 
 too ceased finally to burn; and the sepulcher 
 of the last of a nation was in endless darkness 
 as their immortal spirits were in endless light. 
 But this was not the very last of humanity on 
 
Utopia; or, thf. History of an Extinct Planet, 
 
 29 
 
 this planet. By natural decrease and accident 
 the remainder were gradually extinguished, and 
 hun-Miity was eventually only remaining in the 
 valley of the gulf in Liberia. By gradual steps 
 they \vere reduced to about seven thousand 
 only at the time of the end of the Sunland peo- 
 ple, of which they were informed by spirit 
 fre'nds. As the changes went on they were 
 compelled to resort to cave dwellings, and in 
 nearly every way to follow the same path as did 
 the Sunland community. 
 
 But they did not shrink or mourn. Life was 
 
 full of i)leasure; love and joy were there in all 
 
 their varied forms. Friends from the other 
 
 ,ho/"came through the thiirveil between mor 
 
 and immortal at pleasure, and toil and strife 
 
 ,vere unknown. 
 
 Wonderful were the labors of these peopl 
 to -preserve their existence on the failing planet. 
 By means of electric machines and railroads 
 vast masses of debris falling into the valley were 
 crushed or removed, and thus soil for cultiva- 
 tion obtained. From the simplest fungi and 
 lichens, mushrooms and various products, their 
 chemists produced delicate and nutricious sub- 
 stances; and. from the disintegrating rocks they 
 obtained fertile elements for the sustenance of 
 their crops and gardens. With science as a serv 
 ant, they turned every possible thing to advant- 
 age, and lived in ease and even luxury. All 
 shared alike and no one shirked or monopolized. 
 Money was unknown and greed forgotten. 
 Eciuaiity, liberty and justice reigned amid them 
 
 ;:11. ■ , 
 
 But in spite oi ihcir utmost endeavors they 
 were reduced by accident and decay to a mere 
 i-indful They lived in one cave amid the cha- 
 otic ruins of what had once been a fertile and 
 populous valley. Above them lay vast, bleak] 
 and silent [.lateaus tliat for centuries had been 
 untrodden bv man or beast. Down the sides 
 of theinounlains rushed the avalanche, or into 
 the deep crevices fell the loosened masses of 
 rocks. In the air tlew no birds; in the tideless, 
 stagnant sea, scarce a hundred miles across, 
 swam no iish. On the vast desert where once 
 had been the ocean, wandered no human soui 
 orlivedno creature. Of animals none remained 
 on the planet save those protected by man. 
 And in this last community they had but five 
 or six goats, that fed upon mosses and shrubs 
 
 that by hard clambering they obtained upon the 
 mountain sides. Then the planet, so devoid of 
 Hfe made it more difficult for the immortals to 
 communicate; and only by great efforts could 
 they influence their friends sufficiently to have 
 them realize their presence. 
 
 Even these managed to live and learn in 
 pleasure, for they had science and studies 
 books, telescopes, and various instruments ot 
 science. Notwithstanding the appallmg draw- 
 backs to which they were subjected, they man- 
 aged to make progress in some directions, 
 "when the inhabitants were reduced to only 
 four families, one girl refused to marry. Her 
 cousin was too much like her in^ many ways, 
 and she decided it was wrong to bring anymore 
 children into the world. He in a few years 
 died t)f severe injuries received from a fall, and 
 she soon "followed. In a few years only one 
 pair remained, and their child, with the aged 
 grandfather. They had been obliged to con- 
 ttruct a new cave, and because of lack of elec- 
 tric power and numbers, the cave was small and 
 not very well finished. Before their parents 
 died it had been decided to all die by claspmg 
 hands and receiving a shock of electricity; but 
 at the last moment the wife refused. She re- 
 fused even now to give up, and contended that 
 it was their duty to live until the natural end. 
 
 One day when the young man was climbing 
 over the mountains a terrific avalanche filled uu 
 the little valley and buried him far beneath a 
 mountain of debris. The three remaining m 
 the cave were unhurt, and leaving the baby the 
 ' mother and the old man went to search for the 
 husband. He had agreed with his wife, when 
 living, that if he was accidentally killed at any 
 timerhe would come to her in spirit immedi- 
 ately. But so crushed, and so deei) was the . 
 body in Che fallen rocks that it was many hours 
 before' he was able to separate his spirit and 
 
 find his way. 
 
 The old man was confident the husbanu was 
 no more; but the wife was sure he would have 
 come to her if he was dead, and frantically 
 I searched for him. The spirit friends, owing to 
 the convulsion of tlic planet from the effects of 
 some vast falling of mountains, were unable to 
 clearly appear, and she would not listen to them 
 anyway. The aged father searched till night 
 1 and then, so changed wn. the anpearance of the 
 
80 
 
 Utopia; or, the History, of an Extinct Planet. 
 
 valley that he lost his way. In groping along 
 he passed near the edge of a crevice in the rock 
 which treacherously gave way, precipitating him 
 into the gulf below, killing him instantly. To 
 his daughter he was soon able to appear and he 
 told her all. Then, knowing beyond a doubt 
 that her husband and her father were both dead, 
 she returned in the morning to her forgotten 
 and famishing child. 
 
 The high mountains now sent down vast ava- 
 lanches, and for hours the terrible roar was all 
 to be heard. The woman lay in a stupor, and 
 in a (cw hours passed to the life of endlessness 
 and left her nursing babe. 
 
 A calm succeeded the storm; and though the 
 electric light had gone out, a diviner light shone 
 in the little cave; for many spirits were await- 
 ing the spirit of the last human being on the 
 planet. The childsoon rested in its mother's 
 arms, and humanity no longer was bound to the 
 dying world. 
 
 For ages the planet continued to exist after 
 the departure of man. All signs of animal and 
 vegetable life quickly followed humanity; and 
 the ocean, from a sultry pool in a desert of 
 sand, into chasms slowly sank, leaving only a 
 mass of salt. Rain had long ceased to fall, 
 even in the finest mist; and in due time the at- 
 mosphere disappeared, after the last drop of 
 water sank in the hungry sands. 
 
 The planet was a vast, lifeless desert of black 
 mountains, towering tens of miles high above 
 sandy seas or gloomy valleys. Everywhere 
 death and desolation reigned supreme; and at 
 last even the great globe itself seemed to die. 
 For the attraction of gravitation between its 
 particles failed to keep them together, and the 
 planet separating into innumerable fragments, 
 whirled back by degrees to the parent sun as 
 flaming comets and bursting meteors. Many 
 in their headlong course came within the at- 
 traction of the earth; and where, as in more 
 than one instance, huge meteors fell with fear- 
 ful force, great changes took place in its phys- 
 ical conditions that modern Science as yet fails 
 to adequately account for. 
 
 Again was 1 on my own earth and Psycho be- 
 side me was ready to depart. Gravely he an- 
 swered my many and eager questions and re- 
 ceived my thanks. 
 
 "Son of Earth," said he; "you have seen 
 the life of a planet from infancy to dissolution. 
 Rapidly have I shown to you the various stages 
 of development and decline of life with the 
 civilization of humanity. As a rule the larger 
 a planet the slower but the higher its develop- 
 ment. This planet we have seen was developed 
 far in advance of your earth to-day; but before 
 it had got well on toward perfection the energies 
 of mind and material science were expended in 
 keeping the lamp of civilization burning, and in' 
 securing the future of man. But with your earth 
 the altitude of civilization that will be reached 
 far transcends your comprehension or belief. 
 
 " Your descendants will have aerial navigittion 
 and go from point to point at a speed that novj " 
 would be incredible. People of separate conr^ 
 tinents will then be neighbors, and the whole 
 world be of one nation and of one language, 
 because of the close relation which people will 
 be brought into by means of science and edu- 
 cation. Means of communication will be found 
 between planet and planet, and many other 
 things as incredible to your ears will come to be 
 everyday occurrences. Methods of producing 
 food will be discovered that will render only 
 healthful and pleasant labor necessary. Gov- 
 ernment will only be an administration of pub- 
 lic improvements, mental and physical. Man 
 in relation to his fellows will be entirely con- 
 trolled by his innate sense of justice; and as the 
 brutes disappear, so will brutality die. The 
 boundary between the world of matter and the 
 world of spirit (which is but matter refined) will 
 fade away. ' Spirits will walk as with mortals 
 one,' and earth and heaven, so close together, 
 will have no separating veil of ignorance and 
 sin. And when your globe goes to feed the .ires 
 of the sun, humanity will still exist in countless 
 globes around life-giving suns, learning and pro- 
 gressing. And those who have fought the bat- 
 tles of life on the [)lanets will continue to learn 
 of the wonders of Nature throughout the aeons 
 of a glad eternity. Son of Earth, for a time 
 farewell!" 
 
 Psycho disappeared as mysteriously as he 
 came; and I was left to ponder and to write. 
 
 " End there is none to universe of God 
 Lo ! also there is no beginning." 
 
 Alfred Denton Cridoe. 
 
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 PSYCHOMETRIST, 
 
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