News from Nowhere

gantly-built much ornamented houses, which I should have called villas if they had been ugly and pretentious, which

e were a great many cherry-trees, now all laden with fruit; and several times as we passed by a garden we were offered baskets of fine fruit by children and young girls.

d see, of apricot-trees, in the midst of which was a pretty gay little structure of wood, painted and gilded, that looked like a refreshment-stall. From the southern side o

ack; the roadway thronged with a sweltering and excited crowd, dominated by omnibuses crowded with spectators. In the midst a paved be-fountained square, populated only by a few men dressed in blue, and a good many singularly ugly bronze images (one on the top of a tall column). The said square guarded up to the edge of the r

's business to alter it, since the name of a dead folly doesn't bite. Yet sometimes I think we might have given it a name which would h

e here in or about the year 1887 (I am bad at dates). Some people, says this story, were going to hold a ward-mote here, or some such thing, and the Government of London, or the Council, or the Commission, or what not other barbarous half-hatc

and it IS true; except that there was no fighting, merely unarme

, with the first unpleasant expression

HAD to put up with it

seem to know a great deal about it, neighbour!

hat a good many people were s

oners?" said the old

id I, "of th

t that you have been reading some rotten collectio

d I, "what I have b

eighbour," said the old man, "but I do

e Dick, who had been sitting with knit brows, cogitat

ving in this beautiful and happy country, who I suppose had feelings

ve you not read of the Mediaeval period, and the ferocity of its criminal laws; and how in those days men fairly seemed to have enjoy

ience, as your remark about their God (which is true) shows, and they were ready to bear what they inflicted on others; whereas the nineteenth century ones were hypocrites, and pretended to be humane, and yet went on

"they did not know what

e years afterwards. Look you, neighbour, they couldn't fail to know what a disgrace a prison is to t

ave you no pris

for Dick flushed red and frowned, and the old man looked surprised and pain

notice that the people about the roads and streets look happy? and how could they look happy if they knew that their neighbours were shut up in prison, while they bore such things quietly? And if there were people in prison, y

here are NOT any prisons: I'm afraid you will think the worse of me for losing my temper. Of course, you, coming fro

nerous in his heat, that I liked

nge the subject, and ask you what the stately building is on

hings inside it, too, mostly pictures, some very old. It is called the National Gallery; I have sometimes puzzled as to what the name means: anyhow, nowadays wherever there is a

y; but I pulled out my magnificent pipe and fell a-smoki

able in this country, and your architecture is so good, th

l of me, after having received such a fine present; bu

e, if carvers were scarce they would all be busy on the architecture, as you call it, and then these 'toys' (a good word) would not be made; but since there are ple

ter all, you must admit that the pipe is a very pretty thing, with the little people under the tre

for its use, p

said he; "I don

ilding, in which work of some sort seemed going on. "What building is that?" said I, eagerly; for it was a pleas

t is; but we don't call them factories now, but Banded-workshops

I, "power of some

hich working together is necessary or convenient; such work is often very pleasant. In there, for instance, they make pottery and glass - there, you can see the tops of the furnaces. Well, of course it's handy to have fair-sized ovens and kilns and glass-pots

coming from the

ick; "why shoul

ather a sweltering job; but some folk like it very much indeed; and I don't much wonder: there is such a sense of power, when you have got deft in it, in dealing with the hot

tongue and

ip of a six-year-old boy, who had his arm thrown over the neck of a big mastiff, who was as happily lazy as if the summer-day had been made for him alone. As I eyed the pile of clothes, I could see the gleam of gold and silk embroidery on it, and judged that some of these workmen had tastes akin to those of the Golden Dustman of Hammersmith. Beside them lay a good big basket that had hints about it of cold pie and wine: a half dozen of young women stood by watching the work or the workers, both of which were worth watching, for the latter smote great strokes and were very deft in their labour, and as handsome clean-built fellows as you might

can get into an hour; and I can see those neighbours know their business well. It

"but to tell you the truth, I

dmit it is pleasanter the second week than the first. Not that I am a good hand at it: the fellows used to chaff me

of a joke,

leasant spell of work on, and good fellows merry about us; we fee