Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 31.djvu/82

72. These structures will be made unobjectionable by setting apart the space necessary for them, and by using electricity as the motor power. The sidewalks, paved with a gray-stone, most agreeable to the eye, slope gently toward the streets, where they meet a like gentle inclination of the streets from their centers; and by means of side-openings into the adjacent subways, which underlie the houses, the street washings and sweepings, reduced to a minimum by the abolition of street-railways, and the banishment of all traffic to the underground roads, are daily removed with the sewage; the streets are thus kept uniformly clean and dry, and the gutter being conspicuous by its absence, as the garden by its presence, the Kindergarten supersedes the Kinder-gutter in this scheme of civilization.

Underground rooms do not exist; hence there is no burrowing of human beings in dark and loathsome cellars, such as may be found in most large cities. The style of architecture does not admit even of basement-kitchens, where hundreds of our domestic classes spend the greater part of their lives, as effectually buried as are the laborers in a coal-mine. On the contrary, the living-part of every house begins on a level with the street, so that every room inhales the pure outside air and drinks in the liquid sunlight.

On the subject of the water-supply I hesitate to speak. At this season of the year, especially, it may be considered unwise to stir up the mental subsidence-basin, which must exist in the mind of every thoughtful member of this particular community; but, as this is an important feature of our model city, it calls for emphatic notice. First of all, the water is described as free from sewage or other refuse—a matter that might be supposed to go without saying, in the case of water used for drinking, were it not for the unhappy experience of more than one city which has outgrown the original source of its supply. This water, though free from all avoidable sources of contamination, is nevertheless carefully filtered before admission to the city pipes. It is also tested daily, and, if found in any degree unsatisfactory, is still further purified by the transmission through it of ozone, generated for this and other disinfecting purposes. The water, thus doubly protected, is distributed freely to every house through iron pipes, pipes of lead being strictly forbidden.

In the contemplated city of Ethica I would introduce the system of electric lighting for private as well as public uses; not only on account of its hygienic superiority, but also for its indirect moral influence, since crime lurks in darkness, and the flooding of the streets of any city at midnight with the brightness of noonday must inevitably reduce the percentage of crime, which is, to a certain extent, a matter of opportunity. The prayer, "Lead us not into temptation," is a recognition of the importance of this principle.

Radical changes in the houses appear in connection with the chimneys, the roofs, the kitchens, and their adjoining offices, for the