News from Nowhere; Or, An Epoch of Rest / Being Some Chapters from a Utopian Romance

these I should have called shops, if it had not been that, as far as I could see, the people were ignorant of the arts of buying and selling. Wares were displayed in thei

e old Italian cities. About halfway down, a huge building of the kind I was now prepared to e

r guest-houses; for people from all about the country are apt to drift up hither from time to time, as folk are very thick upon

asserting itself as a centre,-an intellectual centre, for aught I knew. However, I said nothing,

he handsomer goods, as the Houses-of-Parliament market, where they set out cabbages and

said, "Perhaps you would like to d

e amusement of this most unbusinesslike people, I should like to look a little less like a discharged ship's purser. But in spite of all that had happened, my hand went down into my pocket again, where to my dismay it met nothing metallic except two rus

hat's the matter

"but I've le

t behind, you can get in this market ag

unding customs of this country, had no mind for another lectur

You see-What do think co

east inclined to laugh,

re. And, you know, I mustn't preach to you, but surely it wouldn't be right for you to take away people's pleasure of st

ng people, but I saw I had got across some ineradicable prejudice, and that it wou

well see what the inside of these booth

I get some toba

Well, Bob is always telling me that we non-smokers are a selfish lot,

slowly passing by, looking into the windows as she went. To her quoth Dick: "Maiden, would you kindly hold our horse

reature!" said I to

ocks?" said he,

d I; "Goldylo

oes not happen even now, sometimes. For you know love is not a very reasonable thing, and perversity and self-will are commoner than some of our moralists think." He added, in a still more sombre tone: "Yes, only a mo

ss, but otherwise not very different to what I had been used to. Within were a couple of children-a brown-skinned boy of about twelve, who sat read

said Dick. "My friend here wants to

t amusing. The boy looked up, and fell to staring at my outlandish attire, but pres

solemn countenance of a child playing at keep

sisting at a child's game, and wondering wh

ar, and took out a lot of tobacco and put the filled basket down on the count

d it," said I, "and-and

our bag, because you may be going where

tton print which does duty with me for a tobacco pouch

she passed the boy whispered something in his ear, and he nodded and got up and went out. The girl held up in her finger and thumb a re

t down by me and said, "Now for the pipe: that also you must l

wood very elaborately, and mounted in gold sprinkled with little gems. It was, in short, as pre

her too grand for me, or for anybody but the Emperor of th

dashed, and said, "Don't

id, "of cours

losing it. What will it matter if you do? Somebody is sure

ile I did so, forgot my caution, and said, "But

against another exhibition of extinct commercial morality; so I reddened and held my tongue, while the girl simply looked

t the pipe in my pocket, not without a qualm of doubt as to w

ers at their best which was very quaint. "It is such a pleasure to serve dear old gentle

th I, "I have been

g flask and two beautiful glasses. "Neighbours," said the girl (who did all the talking, her brother being ver

and thinks I, I am yet in the world, and the grapes of the Rhine have not yet lost their flavour; for if ever I drank good Steinberg, I drank it that morning; and I made a

ass to us, dear littl

he lass; "I like lemonade be

r-beer better," s

n's tastes changed much. And therewith we g

tiful woman. He explained to us that the maiden could not wait, and that he had taken her place; and he

u going?" sai

sbury," s

o be alone, I'll come wi

when you want to get down and I

the early days of our epoch there were a good many people who were hereditarily afflicted with a disease called Idleness, because they were the direct descendants of those who in the bad times used to force other people to work for them-the people, you know, who are called slave-holders or employers of labour in the history books. Well, these Idleness-stricken people used to serve booths all their time, because they were fit for so little. Indeed, I believe that at one ti

dering much. But t

ike young women as might be: they had hands like bunches of skewers, and wretched little arms like sticks; and waists like hour-glasses, and thin lips and peaked noses and pale cheeks; an

to be musing on his p

at disease of Idleness: at one time we gave ourselves a great deal of trouble in try

r the old man wa

many of the people afflicted by it were much secluded, and were waited upon by a special class of diseased persons queerly dressed up, so that

keep me as fresh as he could for his great-grandfather. So he burst out laughing at last, and said: "Excuse me, neighbours, but I can't help it. Fancy people not liking to work!-it's

ual good manners; and I laughed with him for company's sake, but from the teeth outwa