A Modern Atlantis

Mrs Percy R. Meggy [Later attributed to Sarah Myrtle]

A Modern Atlantis

Item

Title of Story: A Modern Atlantis
Critical Introduction: For decades, Lost Race or Utopian stories have been equated with science fiction, with the general thinking that if it is a rational exploration of an alternate future of mankind then it should be classified under science fiction, where science is social science progression.

However, that is the modern view, and still equates with speculative fiction. At the time A Modern Atlantis was published, the world had already received multiple replies to Looking Backward, some full of inventions, some merely representing a progression of culture. The natural tendency to collect stories with narratives of a better society together under one umbrella detracts from the fact that there are at least two types of utopias. One that is science dominated and one that is culture dominated. As this was published at the time when people were reviewing 'science in fiction', referencing STEM, this story can't be considered vintage science fiction and is here to demonstrate the difference.

Further, this is basically Georgism disguised as fiction with the story covering all the steps a civilization needs to take to achieve only one tax and that tax being rent, paid to the State.

Interestingly, the narrator mentions a diet akin to the Mediterranean Diet, caring for the environment and not polluting it, equality for women, streets of lights (when this was only just being installed across Australia) and the connection between fat (meat), smoking and drinking. I guess we've known about these for multiple generations and we're just starting to wake up now!
Story Summary: Set in an equality driven egalitarian society, explaining the social and work structure of all the a happy people in Atlantis. Advanced Culture. Electric Trams etc.
Science Fiction Subgenres: Utopia
Future Year Set: Contemporary
Inventions: None
Science: Social science - Georgism
Science Past Articles: Henry George's one tax one rent theory
Similar Science Fiction: Looking Forward Looking Backward
How this Story was Identified: A single keyword, and then searching through all stories that refer to that keyword looking to see if it was an advanced race story. 42 stories were found in the TBC concatenated database but most were fantasy, so tried searching differently. Instead of the body I only looked in the title field. Found 2 advanced race stories revolving around 'atlantis'
KeyClouds: atlantis
Date Details Added to IA: July 2023
Attributed Author: Mrs Percy R. Meggy [Later attributed to Sarah Myrtle]
Author Gender: Female
Nationality: Australian
Single or Serialised: Serialised
First Published Date of Last Installment: 1907-04-13
Year For Sorting: 1907
Date Range: 1907-03-16-1907-04-13
Number of Installments: 12 including Prologue and Epilogue
Complete or Supplemented: Complete
Estimated Word Count: 9600 words
Length: Novellette
Links in To Be Continued: https://readallaboutit.com.au/#/title/70854
Newspaper Publisher Citation: The Critic
Newspaper Name Location Years: The Critic (Hobart, TAS) 1907-1924
Location Town City: Hobart
Location State Territory: Tasmania
Provincial or Metro: Metro
First Republished on InfiniteAnthologies.com: YES
General Subjects: Utopia; Atlantis; Socialism
Language: English
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Content Advisory: These items are historical texts digitised from their original publication, and reflects the social attitudes, cultural values, and language of the time in which they were created. Some content may include depictions or references that are racist, sexist, ableist, colonialist, or otherwise offensive by contemporary standards. This material is presented uncensored for scholarly, archival, and educational purposes. It serves as a record of past cultural attitudes and is preserved here to support critical engagement, historical reflection, and the advancement of inclusive scholarship. Reader discretion is advised.
Edition Creator: Neil Hogan
OCR from TBC and Trove: A Modern Atlantis by Percy B. Meggy Manual extraction. The edge is in shadow covering at least two words per line in one column. Close reading will be necessary to restore the text. Though, past this page, a lot is clearer. Critic (Hobart, Tas. : 1907 - 1924), Saturday 16 March 1907, page 5 ________________________________________ PROLOGUE. BY PERCY B. MEGGY. Ispring o£ the year 1899, I4 Kallis. medical student, be- |uain'ted with the extraitorv which I here propose X was at that time re- . the picturesque end of \ where the soft green of ending hills melts almost ply into the softer blue of uiding sky ; where the dark, jioliage of the cypress contificantly with the bright, Ileaves of the recently- |ums, and where the broad |he Swan meander through Ireev of lowlands on their A the sea. Strolling home Inight through Newcastle iich is, if possible, darker, nd more like an Arabian any other street in istumbled over something le of the road, and, in try- I myself from a fall, grasped iurned out to be the inert la man. I struck two or Itches, for there was a gusty pd finally managed to dis- " enough of the man's [jj convince me that he was Btose condition, and that, if got" attended to an once, he fpbably die. As a medical tod an enthusiast in all that ified to my profession, and Isides somewhat of a Samari- [sposition, I decided without do to take the man to my I see if I could restore him a accordingly stopped some Bicyclists, who are almost as 3 as the flies in Perth, and I hem to tell the nearest cabby io my help, which they very Jld, and I had the stranger llfco my quarters without any %e. There was fortunately toom in the bouse, and my being also of a com- |te disposition, helped me to he stranger as comfortable as Id. We put him in a warm 1 fed him at first on beef tea, Jor a day of two we had to gwn his throat, jsamining him at my leisure 1 he was a man of Herculean Ewith a noble forehead, long Sr aquiline nose, and matted tat had evidently once been and black, but were now wangled skein of thread, pro- Itreaked with grey. Altogether . me the impression, notwithig his comparatively emaciated ance, that he was a man of strength of character, m to having great powers of jbuple of days, as a result of learied efforts, the stranger Bed consciousness, and stared l liim in surprise. I told him B was in good hands, and that ai only to eat what was given lleep soundly, and all. would be ^ At the end of a week he was Bfco sit up in bed and talk fing that a little mental excite- I would do him no harm, and g besides not a little curious to What,-1 doubted not, must be Smarkahle adventures of this lar-looking man, I bade him tell lOW it chanced that I had found |u such a miserable plight .
CHAPTER I. A BOUK ROVER. will tell you all I can, said the nger, in the short time allotted 3 live, for I feel that my race is and that my life is ebbing fast. a' assistance has come too late, lough my hair is so profusely iked with grey, tod I liav.e such Iged,- worn-out look, I am barely pars of age. „y father and his forbears (many generations ''back spent J|i' lives roaming distant seas, phing'first at one^ouub-y then at Bther, but settling in none. I herited the family -instinct, and pged to be a 'saifoiyfoftlie sea was e natural eleraent'of our family as ,usic was of.the Baclis. I liad Iree toothers older ih'au myself. Ley al j ^opkrfp % |?atev^ jke so Kny ducl«, ;ancl wandering off at early a^^ere^erer' 0 gain.' ' * * * : •••'-/ " '. - My mother, whose favorite I was, legged me, with tears in her eyes, Black edge ends here o take warning by my brothers, and to stay on land. " If I must become a land-lubber," said I,, fori loved my mother, aud would do anything in my power to please her, " then let me be a carpenter, and with my tools in my hand, I will roam over distant countries as my fathers did over distant seas." My mother kissed me in silence, gave me a nice set of tools, and I soon learped to handle them with such, skill that I could make wooden models of almost anything I saw, and my beautifully tapering boats and ships were specially admired. When I was 20 my father died, my brothers had not been heard of for years, and my mother and I were alone. I was tired of my native place, and, prompted by my hereditary instinct, I grew restless and longed to roam abroad. Accompanied by my mother, whom I vowed never to leave, I started on my travels and visited nearly every quarter of the globe, seldom staying more than a year in one country, and probably seeing far more of the world and its ways in ten years than my sailor forbears had seen since the beginning of time. Europe, Africa, America, and finally Australia we lived in by turns, always making for places where population was increasing, houses were building, and, of course, carpenters were in request. By dint of strict economy—for my mother was an excellent housewife, and could generally earn a decent penny herself, and roaming was my only v;ce we managed to live in tolerable comfort, and whenever my hereditary instinct made me feel restless, as it invariably did before the end of a year, I went to the nearest shipping office, and could always manage to work our passage to a distant port. But while, by some fortunate chance, we were able to make our way wherever we went,I could not but observe how, different it was with many others. In what ever country I travelled I invariably observed the same phenomena—unbounded wealth side by side with appalling poverty, the very rich dying of ennui, miserable for want ot something to do, and the. very poor dying of hunger, or miserable because they had too much to do. A few mong the toilers seemed to succeed in life, and here and there even to attain a certain amount of happiness and content, but. the general tone throughout the masses wherever I went—whether in the old world or in the new—was undoubtedly one of intense dissatisfaction, and often, even of despair. In the crowded citiete of the old world, in the alleys f London or the cellars of Berlin, or, ndeed, in whatever, part we might chance to go, the squalor and the misery were like the festering sores on a leper's back, open to the eye of day. But in the slums of Chicago, and in the rabbit warrens of New York, it was every whit as bad. The new world was, in fact, as leprous as the old ; and in the newest world of all, in the rapidly growing •republic under the Southern Cross, all the leading avenues <o employment were blocked. Thousands of people, willing and longing to work, but unable to obtain it except in uncertain and precarious shifts, lived miserably stunted aud immoral lives, robbed of all the enjoyment which a rational love should undoubtedly, give, for how could they offer to iupport others who were never sure while many-were driven, to evil courses, or rushed madly to another sphere ? This was the normal state of things in the old world but 1 must confess I was astonished to see it repeated with all its ghastly horror in the new. I might no perhaps have noticed it so much but for my mother, with whom it was a constant theme, till, overcome by her sympathy with an evil which sl e could not relieve, and knew not how o avoid, she succumbed to fate, aud breathed ber last in my arms. i For some time I was mconsolab e. My motberhad Joeen my all, bhe understood and Wat^sed with me to such an extent that so lbng as 1 she lived with me, and I could earn -tfiijfiiihood %P4 >™P V I content. "Something seemed gone out of my life- Ig'™ moody and restless, and longed to oam, I knew not where. Cities ere distasteful to me. I shunned he faces of my fellow men, for their' ery laughter seemed hollow-hearted, and behind their wildest gaiety there lurked a tear. I had saved a little money, and 1 determined to build myself a boat, to load it with provisions for six months and a fancy cargo, and to sail in quest of adventures into the Southern Seas.
CHAPTER II. Fou.owix<; EASIER*; POINTER. Where was I to steer? That was my secret. Years ago when in London I had spent many an evening, after my day's work was done, in the immense library of the British Museum. Philosophy, history, noetrv, attracted me little, but books of travel, tales of adventure in foreign lands,* exercised a fascination' over my mind, which I can hardly describe. While poring over the collections of Hakluyt, the travels of Marco Polo, the voyages of Captain Cook, and of many another famous maritime worthy, I was as if bound under a magic spell, held in thrall by a spirit within me which continually urged me on to imitate, and it possible excel their deeds of tog and skill. Though 1 cared little for novels, and for those sensational narratives the events in which occur nowhere but in the author's imagination, my fancy was caught by such titles as "The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe" and iue Wandering -Tew," and I eagerly devoured their contents. B ut what interested me most of all was a black letter translation of the diary of the first voyage of Cristoforo Colombo, written by himself, and contained in the first and second volumes ot Vl.nj* After 18 years of nearly hopeless solicitation, poverty, and ridicule, the Great Commander had at last prevailed on Isabella to give him three little ships, and on the cveymemorable 3rd of August 1492, he set sail from the Port of Paloa m search of the unknown. This was the famous voyage which resulted iu the discovery of the little West Indian island of Guanaham, and in the apparent fulfilment of his prediction that the the shortest way to India lay to the west and not to the e!lBut it was not the diary of the first voyage which fascinated me so much as a supplementary and mildewed page. This contained a scarcely legible transcript, which could only, with the utmost difficulty, be deciphered of an extract from the lost log of the third voyage, that memorable one which ended so disastrously for the Great Commander, who returned to the Spanish Court bound in chains. The extract was alleged to have been written on a piece of parchment, placed in a casket, thrown overboard, and eventually picked up on the other side of the world in 1506, the very year of the Great Commander's death, ine extract was as follows: •< Christmas Day, 1499. God be praised I tae S d the Southern Cross nerpendicularly till the eastern pointer dipped below the level of the homon. The second prediction has been fulfilled Atlantis has been found! " Signed Cristoforo Colombo, ""On board the Santa Maria, " Caravel. I took a copy of this extract, thus mysteriously saved from oblivion, and carried it about with me for years. It 'constantly occupied my thoughts, and I. secretly determined that some day or other I would follow the Southern Cross, perpendicularly till the eastern pointer dipped below the level of the horizon, and see if the long submerged tlantis was still, as 1 doubted not bove the waves. That time had now arrived, and when I pushed oft from the Australian shore, it was with the determination to rediscover that lost Atlantis or perish in the attempt. For months 1 held on my course, always steering by the eastern ointer, through alternatives of torm and.calm, heat and cold, and through a silence and solitude that were often worse to bear than death itself. At times, like the prisoners in their padded cells, I shouted myself hoarse in my craving to hear the sound of the human voice, and in y longing to unburden my heart, I would gladly have welcomed , the company of the vilest criminal who ever trod the earth. But whatever difficulty,' adverse circumstance or danger, confronted my path I never relinquished my -hope of one day being able to say, with the Croat | Commander: "God be praised.) Atlantis has been found !" At last, after many and many weary midnight watchings, the Southern Cross gleamed perpendicularly above the horizon, aud the eastern pointer noticeably began to dip. But there TO no sign of land, nothing but a vast apparently endless expanse of water which made the eyeballs ache from the intensity ot its unrulHed blue. I daily grew more despairing aud sick at heart. It now occurred to me that there was no mention of longitude m that mysterious log, and that I was perhaps as far from the desired haven as before. Then came a tempest from the Frozen Zone, and swept my little bark into fields of ice. I almost gave myself up for lost, but after six days the wind abated, and I again steered: this time on quite a different tack for the Southern lOil'the very last day of the third week from the time when the storm had spent its force, I again saw the Southern Cross gleaming perpendicularly above the horizon, and the eastern pointer just commencing to dip 1 went to the masthead at break of day, in' accordance with iny invariable habit, and there, sure enough, on the weather bow, the surf was breaking on a rocky coast. With a wild throbbing of the heart and a mad ecstasy of the brain, 1 steered straight for the glistening surf The rocks were steep and rugged, but the wind being favorable 1 sailed alongside watching for an inlet where 1 could land. For two whole days the bark sped along within sight of a fertile aud apparently well watered land, tilled to the very edge of the clifl.s, and covered with trees bending from the weight of their fruit, while the air which blew off the land was redolent with perfume. Suddenly 1 came upon a break in the cliffs, into which ] steered with a bounding heart. (To be continual.) ________________________________________ MODERN ATLANTIS. [ F oe the Cm t ic . - A x l B ights Reserved- ! CHAPTER’ HI. ■pis bS iscoveeed. BY PERCY B. MEGGY. ROAD sheet o£ water lay -efore me, the shore line to -ght and left being carefully a, with habitations scattered , there, but no sign of m- ' and at the further end 3 an apparently inipene- '11 of rocks. However, I the estuary which was miles long, and was just "urn back from- the rocks at er end when I noticed a line which seemed to point to bend in the rocks. The ing propitious I steered ?{or the line of trees, and to ishment and joy the estuary, V. scattered habitations- and cliffs, was no more to be found myse s m i g 1 expanse of ^ te i_ with „ gardens and pleasure on either side, the eminences with handsome villas, and irther extremity, a well laid with broad streets, shaded ?-es, and betraying, by the of the buildings, the prethriving and industrious ty. e to relate, not a soul ivas a in the streets. I fastened to the quay,- and stepping ^walked through some of tiie |il squares The markets and ere crowded with goods and hs of all kinds. 1 was ng whether I had suddenly ike a modern Aladdin, on an -d city, when I perceived at "stance off an enormous „ of men, women, and : which wound slowly, and utmost, order and decorum, magnificent temple that the summit of a hill round ,he city seemed to be built. 11, spacious though it wa6, Black with peopld, who ted themselves in the dust "me they passed a lofty column, in front of the temple, made stened to the spot, which was d at some considerable distance .he port, and rather difficult to but I eventually arrived at ttom of the hill. A t sight of -y some involuntary impulse, •use of which I did not learn -ng afterwards, the enormous parted on either side and left path, up which I walked till ed the front of the temple, t excited my curiosity most ; column. It was apparently -£ brass, and resembled in hd appearance the statue of h Cook, in Sydney Hyde Park. JTgure on the pedastal was tnat. ajpusll-formed and muscular man | § a noble forehead, long visage, line nose and piercing eye, clad Imple attire, but with an uu- ■ akable a ii-o f authority which bed him out as one born to comd. He was apparently in the speaking, and so skilfully had ■ artist portrayed him that one Id almost hear the eloquent R u ts that seemed to tremble on Ttougue. Unable to restrain my liosity, and burning to know what p the meaning of this strange lemony, I asked a venerable man to stood beside rue me tor for an ex Illation. Not bearing, even if L |ld have understood, what 1 sa > | guessing from the strangeness o F appearance aud my puzzled au ly 1 was enquiring flings of the day,, my companion brined me in an old Castilian |ect, not altogether dissimilar n the patois I had occasionally Jrd in Madrid, that they were Bbrating pirating the anniversary of the Eovery of the island. As he 6poke ^pointed'to the column, round the P of which was ian inscription p arin g the following w o r d s “ Christmas Day, 1499. f Atlantis rediscovered. God be tpraised. Crietoloro Colombo,” p Words could not paint my Istonisbinoiit on reading ibis extra.- prdmary inscription. - Here then was Ihe end ot my wanderings ; hero was Ihe commencement of a new .life! Overcome by excitement and fatigue fmy -eenses reeled, and I fell to -tlie jeround in.a swoon.
C H A P T E R IV . t a wosdeetoi. people. On coming to I found myself lying n a conch placed on a broad verandah which ran round an airy bungalow, pleasantly situated in the midst of a charming enclosure, half garden half lawn, open to every breath of air, and to all the sweet influences of Heaven, but secluded from the prying gaze of the rest of the world. The entrance was guarded by a stately pair of Norfolk Island pines, heading a splendid avenue of palms and fern trees, which led^to a beautifully shaded road. Every inch of the garden was the home of a flowering plant, evidently tended with the utmost care. The beds, arranged with skilful art, wore a nlncc of variegated color, delightful ^ behold, and the odors which they exbaled were a revelationto a sense used to suoh dehciouS gratification. ■ I t was a living gallery of celestial art in which color and scent blended together to make a perfect whole. There is a poetry m color and in scent as well as in sound, and the residents of Atlantis were evidently poets in all three. The monotony of vegetable life was enlivened by the gambolliugs ■ an friskiugs of animals indigenous to Southern climes, while gaily plumaged birds twittered and chatted among the branches in an aviary which adorned a part of the verandah, and which was so large that the inmates must have felt as free as in their native woods. It was a veiitable Paradise which I was soon to find wa6 not without its Eve. As I was quietly enjoying the beautiful scene before me, so different from that to which 1 had been accustomed during my long and perilous voyage, and so different also from the general surroundings in the world which I had left behind, there suddenly stole upon the air from a distant part of the house soft music as if from a choir of unaccompanied harmonies, now soft now loud, which seemed to be pleading for spiritual succor from Divine Grace. The ear was entranced at the same time that the heart was subdued. It elevated the soul from the enjoyment of the pleasing scene before it to the contemplation of the Creator who has placed his creatures in a Paradise which they have generally succeeded iii transforming into a hell. The jnusic- ceased, and presently the venerable gentleman to whom I had spoken in the crowd, appeared, and, congratulating me on my recovery, welcomed me to his home. i x dm t>*------- , «/ ' . . said, “ for having brought me to this beautiful retreat.” “ Not a word,” interrupted my host, “ in Atlantis a creature in distress commands the assistance of all. And besides,” added my entertainer, “ I have no doubt I shall be amply repaid, for if I am not greatly mistaken you have a strange story to tell. But first to breakfast aud in an answer to a touch of the bell some rosy-cheeked maidens ap¬ peared, who wheeled a light wicker table to where I was sitting,.and speedilv covered it with good things. There * was cereal porridge served ^ h aud cream, savoury meiette8 made from different kinds brow n bread— there was no M°eS2 supei-ior to anything I had . P before tempting butterand aud a large variety of luscious CYlil tac’vv.u. -------1 i ~ patties, looking fruit, which grows in such rich variety in Southern climes, aud which peeped out from green leaves fashioned with nature’s most beauti- £ul mi capvice. cai ' , Were plentifully the mos n ,.nm ’rranatos mangos, supplied, ufc 1’ = ^ a nlace To and guavas a l s o - ^ ^ ntel always smacks of the shop, nlucked fre=h from the whereas £rmil.pluck“ tl":n cin.ala- tree, ’With witu the cool —r s 1 ___^ iiac n tine through its luscious pulp, Has a delicacy of flavor which no morta pen can adequately describe. 1 his and all succeeding meals consisted entirely of what could be grown in the garden, or , plucked from the I^ T h e main dish at dinner generally onsisted of some form or other of pulse; food, such a s 1 exquisitely Lima beaus, a green-colored lentil, which was very^ nutritious, and of which I grew very fond, and an indigenous species of pea from which they made delicious meal and soup, but whatever it might be it was always served with plenty of. table vegetables, and was invariably followed by different kinds of daiutily made milk puddings, several sorts of cheese and fruit. Sometimes the repast was as simple as that of the Arabians, and consisted of brown bread and dates or figs,Water, either pure or flavored with the juice of fruit, or milk, formed their only drink. The water, which w as clear, sparkling, and of delightful taste, bubbled up from a natural spring in the enclosure, or was drawn from a limpid stream which flowed over a rocky bed from an adjacent hill. No animals were used for food, and on my telling my entertainer how my countrymen gorged themselves two or three times a day with the flesh of cruelly slaughtered, and more or less tainted oxen and swine, calves and lambs, he regarded me with amazement, and bade me give the diet of Atlantis a fair trial, and tell him which of the two I preferred. I. may say here that dumlg my stay in Atlantis, which lasted exactly ten years, I gave a thorough trial to the diet recommended by my host and I soon found a remarkable change for the better in my constitution. In Australia I had contracted the national complaint, which is that of indigestion, brought' on by gulping down at each meal gallons of boiling tea, the main principle of which has a natural antagonism to the gastric juice which it at first weakens, and eventually deprives to a large extent of its digestive power, with the result that the whole system is thrown out of gear. A return to the natural drink, that of pure water soon restored my digestive organs to their present strength, and so long as I was in Atlantis I never had another attack. This benehcia result was accelerated by the use of pulse food, which I found far more tasty than I. had anticipated, as it certainly was far more wholesome and nutritious than meat. Instead of feeling sluggish and inert, as 1 frequently used to do after a flesh meal, I invariably felt extremely alert, and the brain was much sooner ready to act than I had ever known it before. An indirect but very great advantage of adopting this simple diet was that it was an easy matter to overcome the craving for drinking and smoking, both which pernicious habits are stimulated by the use of meat. I found that the inhabitants of Atlantis very rarely drank intoxicating liquors, and still more rarely smoked, yet certainly a finer, healthier, more sociable or more intellectual race I never came across ; nor, indeed, did 1 ever see a race that could so much as even approach them in any of these respects. (To be coniinved.) Critic (Hobart, Tas. : 1907 - 1924), Saturday 30 March 1907, page 5 ________________________________________ ? ' ( F or t hn Cr it ic .— A ll R igh ts R eserved.J : CHAPTER V. | FALL IN LOVE. a b BY'-PERCY “R. ^TEGGY. he third dav of my stay at a |rh e Retreat,” which was fie name by which my enterpnte was known, my host me to his daughter Eva. the famiLy choir iu the . which I have already atp describe. She was ap- -bout tiie same age as ,nd remarkable for her n in Atlantis, where ugly aiu-looking women were nown. She was neither bort, but of that moderate ich is more pleasiug than er face was oval, her cornel the glow of health, aud e fullness and grace which b to depict, while her rich ir, which lay in masses •ead, was artlessly done’ up a Grecian knot. But uck me most was the esses and the nobility of her Her’s was the intellectual the Venus of Milo rather voluptuous grace of the IMedici. I, who had never rdmired any other woman mother, was enthralled. Chevalier de Grieux to eseaut, I advanced without /test reserve towards her. thus become iu a moment ■ess of my heart. On pere she gave a slight, almost ible start, and a blush like uubeam mantled both her d then fled, leaving them However, she quickly ier agitation, the singula’- hich influenced my subsetinies in a surprising deeceived me with a natural which, made me feel at h her at once. The conin which she took part . easy grace, ranged on all topics, and she showed such f good sense combined with n, unusual at any rate iu my to girls of her age, that she 3, if possible, the favorable ion she had always made in t. -ther said that, as I was now tly recovered, he would like me round the city. To my y he asked his daughter to any us, which, as soon as she ned a broad-brimmed straw ■shade her face from the sun, rdingly did.
CHAPTER VI. \A MODEL CITY. y was laid out in a series of streets, radiating from a centre, which was the hill, summit of which stood the already described. The inof these streets was devoted s buildings, such as Goveruoflices, Parliament Houses, ities, colleges, Courts of Jusibraries, art galleries aud as, Post aud Telegraph offices, and concert halls, places of ion of all sorts, as also hosand commodious retreats for id aud infirm, all of which, I iformed, were entirely supby the State. Surrounding inermost circle was an outer orned with splendid looking and stores, and encircling these nother dotted with mansions lias, iu one of which my host Each of these streets had a carriage road running down atre, lit by the electric light, 1 by a double avenue of pts and limes, one with a ful springy turf for riders, the other for pedestrians was gravelled, and had seats at ■intervals for tired walkers, i of these three streets had its uishing characteristic, but by most frequented in the evens the middle one of the three, was liberally sprinkled with onstructed pavilions and cafes, y lighted up at night with l globes, and with cosy looking n the grass', where one could i, coffee, or some of the dely cooling /fruit drinkB, for the' inhabitants were famed, vith one’s friends, glance over b w s, and listen to the strains ding from the pavilion band. The outermost circle of all was ring of public parks, varied with otanical aud zoological gardens, ull of the rarest flowers, birds and nimals. These gardens were on a ost extensive scale, but extensive s they were, every tree, shrub, or lant had its distinctive label, and its medicinal, commercial, aud other properties were explained in a hand book, which was distributed free. Lectures were also given every week by the scientific staff, on the collections' and on the wonderful transformation the plants and animals must have undergone before arriving at their present state. These lectures, as I gathered from my companions, were free, aud were among the most popular institutions iu Atlantis, the inhabitants taking a great delight in storing their minds with all that was known concerning the wonderful planet of which they formed a part. Indeed, my fair companion astonished me by the varied amount of information she ■possessed on everything connected with the animal and vegetable worlds. These four cii-cular streets and park lands combined the characteristics of the Ring Strasse of Vienna, the Unter der Linden of Berlin, the Boulevards of Paris, and the belt of park lauds' in Adelaide which divide the city from the suburbs as in this case it divided the city from the port. Down the centre of the three streets run extremely commodious electric trams for the inhabitants of Atlantis are not behind the rest of the world iu their command of the powers of nature, while they are as far ahead of us iu their social and domestic laws. At intervals there were handsome arcades and promenades leading from one circular street to the next, in which bands discoursed most beautiful music. The people who filled the streets ere all well-dressed, well-behaved, nd had that unmistakeable air of ntelligence and education which is arely seen even in the most polished entres of the old world. There were bsolutely no poor and no unemployed. I was astonished not only at the general air of well-being which pervaded society, but also at the large number of public institutions of a philanthropic chaiacter which in the old world are either maintained by public charity, or what is more often the case, not maintained at all, but which wire here entirely maintained by the State. I naturally supposed that the food duties must be very high, and living correspondingly expensive, but my host informed me that there had not been any tax on commodities for 200 years
CHAPTER VII. THE SECRET OF SUCCESS. “ What, then is the secret of your extraordinary succes ?” I enquired with a puzzled air. “ It is very simple,” replied my host. “ If you will go to the public library and consult the records of the first council held by the original settlers, presided over by the Great Commander himself, you will fiud that it was decided to embrace the novel opportunity afforded by the discovery of a new, aud so far as was known, an uninhabited island, to make trial of an entirely new principle iu human politics. Owing to habits aud customs which doubtless originated iu force, but which had been in vogue from time immemorial, many of the fairest countries in the. old world -'presented startling, frequently Every cruel, and always very unjust contrasts between the rich aud the poor, between those who w-erc able to live in alfluence on the fat of the land, and those who dragged out a miserable existence, seldom knowing where they were going to get their next meal. It was decided by the rediscoverers of Atlantis that this state of things should not be perpetuated in this new sphere if it could be avoided. ” The principle of natural justice, said the Great Commander, “ enjoined that each individual born on the earth had an equal right with every- other individual to the use of the laud, air, aud water on which all alike depended for their necessary subsistence.’’ In order to carry this rinciple of natural justice into ractical effect it was decided to give ach of the colonists an equal share f the land, and it was made a treasonable ‘ offence,punishable by a severe fine for anyone to so contaminate either the air or the water as to make ■it injurious, to the rest of the community. . The island was accordingly parcelled out into as many separate lots as there were settlers, aud an attempt was made, which of course could only be partially successful, to secure a rough kind of equality between the lots. If any iuhabitauts should be found on the island— which, however, did not prove to be the case—they were to be used by the settlers as slaves. This was the parting injunction of the Great Commander, who was not altogether above the prejudices of his day- and generation, and who cared little for the rights of aboriginal races, regarding them rather as the legitimate spoil of the all-powerful whites. After settling the. conditions of future progress, on what he considered to be a fair and equitable basis, the Great Commander left the island, never to return. His injunctions were faithfully carried out to the very letter, and the principles he enunciated were put to a thoroughly practical test. At (he eud of a couple of hundred years, by which time the population had enormously increased, the evils arising from what had originally perhaps been a fairly- equal distribution of the soil were so great that a council of the islanders was called to consider what was the best course to pursue. It was stated at this council, and universally acknowledged, that the whole island had fallen into the hands of a few descendants of the original settleis, and that the bulk of the inhabitants, having no land and no certain means of subsistence, were forced either to act as slaves to the landowners or starve. These few landowners governed the island, Crippled trade, and greatly decreased the avenues of employment by imposing heavy duties on everything the people ate and drank. The only trade that apparently prospered was the liquor trade, and even in the liquor trade a system of credit had sprung up which ruined both dealers and drinkers alike. Almost every other shop was a dram shop, iu which the vilest concoctions were sold. The people, who frequented these dram shops in large numbers, aud often spent their last penny or pawned their last sheet in the vain hope of drowning their misery, generally came out in a stupefied condition, aud sometimes even rendered idiots for life. In the meantime a philosopher had arisen who pointed out that in order to do away with the cver iucreasing injustice arising from land monopoly, aud to put all on an equally fair and equitable footing, it was no use cutting up tbe land and granting each an equal share as had originally been done with tbe best intentions by the Great Commander. All that was necessary, he said, was to make those who used the people’s inheritance pay the people for the privilege in proportion to the value of the land they used. A frequented site in the centre of a busy thoroughfare would give the occupier a far greater opportunity of obtaining wealth than a piece of agricultural land of far larger area, however fertile it might be, while the latter iu its turn would be of much ^greater value than a similar area of waste land remote from the haunts of men. The last, indeed, would probably have no economic value at all, aud might be used by whomsoever would for nothing. The philosopher contended that in order to equalise the opportunities of all the members of the community- it was only necessary- that the occupier of the first site should pay the maximum rent to the State lor the exceptional value of opportunity he enjoyed, while the occupier of the agricultural site should pay a sum in proportion. land the occupier of ‘the waste land should have Ins free. The common fund Iformed by tbe rents derived from those who occupied town on agricultural lots like the first two would meet all the legitimate expenses that could possibly be incurred by a peace community. Of course, if they were so foolish, shortsighted, and wicked as to go in for war, no philosophy in the world could save them from the misery, degradation, and suffering which they would certainly incur and most justly deserve. The philosopher pointed out that the amount and the rent should lie measured, not by any rule of thumb a*s was generally the case when a Government had to do the work, but by open competition; the use of the opportunity being given to the one who offered the most for it. The occupier, if there was one, should in every case of course have the option of retaining his area so long as he paid the rent, the value of which was fixed at stated periods iu this public way-. In the ease of other than city or agricultural land, such as mineral lands and mines of all sorts, he urged that a dividend tax of 5 per cent, should be charged in addition to the rent, the latter being fixed, in every case, by open competition, no competition meaning no vent. All disputes should be settled by a land court, in which the verdict should be given by a jury of the people. (To be continued.) Critic (Hobart, Tas. : 1907 - 1924), Saturday 6 April 1907, page 5 ________________________________________ MODERN ATLANTIS. [_ Fob the Currie.—All E ights B eserved/] SECRET OF SUCCESS. BY PEECY E. MEGGY. tlie Great Council of Islanders met to consider tlie question, the views losopher were thoroughly *i;and after a full debate, the I which you will find in the Ewas decided to carry them ^gradually, so as to give as jrbanee as possible to the of those who had grown existing system, and avested in land under the fhetion of the State. A ^was unanimously passed, that at the end of a year date the new policy should to come into force by the ! a tax of one penny in bn laud values, irrespective pments, and that, at the a similar amount of taxa- ; be taken off commodities, ftber enacted that at the ery five years an additional Ihe pound should be im- ' and values, irrespective of ts, and a similar amount axation abolished till at 60 ~years from the inof this policy, a tax of r in the pound, or five per sli may be taken to repre- Intire annual value of the rent, would have beeu transferred from ■the .the individual landowners ^t did not rightfully belong, jjfers of the State as reprepeople, whose presence fcgiven the land whatever palue it possessed.” 1,” said my informant, rrid out ever since, and the happy results you ent of the land has gone ag from that day to this, aways been sufficient, not neet the ordinary requirethe Government, but to ad properly maintain the Ipublic institutions in our aich you have observed, and feryone connected with those Bns a fair salary for a fair |rk, which, I may say, selpeds five hours out of the Dur, all the rest being deintellectual improvement, ? exercise, and the study of : The common fund derived rent of the common being thus sufficient for all There is no taxation of |J—no duties on food or drink, fcduties.; in Bhort, no duties ad whatever. The result is j is very cheap, coui thereby stimulated, trade the avenues to employ- STiumerous, there is a con- |emand for workers, the labor are short, and wages paratively high.” seem,” I said, “ to have by peaceful means, by natural methods, and by , operation of economic laws, jy condition which a certain of the people in the old world ring forward to achieve by Idding of blood, by following :al methods, and, above all, compulsory regulation and |uent loss of liberty of every of the State. Here you have arrived at a happy between extreme socialism one hand, and extreme in- [ialism on the other. Your -if that can be called such, l takes from no one what belongs as an individual, but only |s the common property of all— gly sufficient for your highest Competition, which is the bf commerce, and as necessary regulation as the-salt is to the neither trammelled nor con- I, and each individual is free to whatever career he prefers, ed.only by that grand maxim lulgated by the Convention of that the liberty of each citizen where the liberty of another
CHAPTER VIII. IOUNTRY" OF GODDESSES. bile conversing in thi6 strain we feed a number of healthy and py-looking young women, who ently entered* lecture hall and ppeared., My cariosity b e i n aroused, I asked ,my fair companion whether the young women bad any difficulty in obtaining employment in Atlantis. “ No,” she replied, “ none whatever. After leaving school or college they are all specially trained for whatever profession or occupation they select. Many prefer to earn their living by devoting a certain portion of their time to household duties, others to more or less mechanical occupations so that they may give the rest of their time to study and enjoy it all the more by the contrast it affords to their daily toil. But all their occupations are performed with a cheerful willingness and intelligence which make them less a toil than a labor of love. Both men and women here are imbued from their earliest infancy with the idea that the highest aim on earth is to labor freely for the benefit of all.” “ Then the women of Atlantis,” I observed, “ having thus no difficulty in obtaining employment must be independent of the men.” “ Yes,” interposed my host, “ and this independence of the other sex has had a great deal to do with the improvement of the race. During the reign of the monopolists, as you may see by the records, the women had to depend for a precarious living on their good looks, or on their capacity to drudge. They were sold in the open market like so many sheep. Such a thing as love, in the present acceptation of the word, was very rare.” “ What is the present acceptation of the term in Atlantis ?” 1 asked my fair companion, not, I confess, without some trepidation, but irre¬ sistibly impelled by a desire to hear from her own lips what her idea was of the great passion that was hereafter to dominate my life. She-answered that love wa6 hard to define, but that its keynote was perfect sympathy between two souls. In Atlantis, she said, it was recognised that the sexes were necessary to each other, that tlie one was a complement of the other,. and that it required the joining together of two hearts to make, a complete whole. The women in Atlantis, she continued, were generally as well educated as the men, whose highest faculties and loftiest aims they stimulated by their sympathy and often by their rivalry. The husband confided to his wife all his noblest plans, and frequently matured in her society those schemes for the welfare of society that would otherwise, perhaps, have been premature and crude. “ In fact,” said Eva. with a glow of enthusiasm, “ a woman can have no nobler ambition than to help the man she loves with her whole nature, to assist him in his efforts for the good of others, to lend an additional zest to his studies by her intelligent interest, to comfort him in sickness or in sorrow’, and to set a good example to the children with which a gracious Providence may have blessed their union.” Thinking she had; perhaps, gone too far, she lowered her eyes and was silent, but as for me I could have worshipped the very ground on which she trod, and I felt that if I could only succeed in winning her love I should become a new being, able to climb heights to which hitherto I had not even so much as aspired' After a pause, during which I was too intoxicated by her presence to speak, I told her that she had painted an ideal which,—where I came from at any rate,—was seldom if ever attained ; that a man would have to be of a very superior mould of merit, if indeed he could merit, such a treasure ; and that the sympathy and mutual assistance of two such souls would be the nearest approach to Paradise which this world could afford. “ These are the sentiments, however,” said my host, “ which are very generally entertained by the sexes towards each other in Atlantis. They are but the natural result of that improvement in the social and mental environment which comes of sound economic conditions and propei training.” “ If,” said I, the women of Atlantis only approach the ideal which your daughter has painted, then this muBt surely be a country of goddesses, and the men, to be worthy of them, must be like g ' - - — ;
CHAPTER IX. PALACES AND COURTS. During our perambulation of the city I noticed at regular intervals handsome looking structures—apparently a combination of restaurant, cafe, bar, reading room, and concert hall—which were full of people of both sexes, sipping coffee, reading papers, chatting gaily, playing all sorts of games, and listening to recitations and songs. My host, to whom I looked for an explanation, told me that at the Great Council, held ‘200 years ago, it was decided, among other things, to take the liquor traffic out of the hands of private individuals, whose sole aim was to sell as much drink as possible, and to place it in the hands of disinterested public bodies elected by the people from the temperance party, whose aim would be to discourage the sale of intoxicating liquors, and to encourage that of temperance beverages. This had been done effectually by the erection of what were called People’s Palaces at regular intervals throughout the city, where the social wants of the people were attended to in the way I had noticed. One plain bar, said my host, separated from the rest of the premises, was set apart for the dispensing of intoxicating liquors, but this part of the establishment was now rarely visited, the people all flocking to the temperance side of the house, where the most deliciously made coffee, the finest blends of tea, beverages prepared from the juice of various fruits, and light refreshments could be obtained at a very moderate cost, and, at the same time, the social instincts of the people would be gratified. No woman ever served in the liquor bar; in fact, scai’cely anyone ever went there to be served, but in the temperance part of the establishment waitresses, attired in the neatest of costumes, flitted in and out serving the refreshments, and adding a neiv charm to the scene. All the employees were paid good salaries, and a!s no one had any interest m adulterating the drinks, in keeping the places open after the prescribed hours, or in permitting gambling or other vices to be indulged in on the premises, none of these irregularities, which had been the disgrace of the former system, were know’ll. Inspectors constantly visited the different premises to see that the liquors supplied were of the best, and that the houses were conducted in a proper way. The people themselves, however, were so quiet and orderly, or temperate in their habits, and so naturally refined, that they might be trusted to behave well under almost any circumstances. One more public institution particularly attracted my attention, and that was the Courts of Conciliation and Arbitration, of which I noticed three or four. Those, my companion told me, were for the settlement of all civil disputes, whether between employers and employed, or between citizens and one another. Whenever a dispute occurred either party could compulsorily summon the other to the Court where the merits of the case were carefully gone into by a Public Conciliator in the presence of the parties, each of whom stated his own case. The Public Conciliator then made his award, the force of public opinion being alone sufficient to induce the parties to the dispute to accept its terms, which they almost invariably did. This system, added my informant, which had at first only been applied to labor disputes, worked so well that it was subsequently applied5 to civil disputes, with the result that it prevented ninety-nine cases out of every hundred from going to a court of law. So successful, indeed, were the Courts of Conciliation as applied to civil disputes that there was only one lawyer in the whole of Atlantis, and although he had the monopoly of the entire business he could never obtain enough work, and his was the only instance known in that country of a private income being supplemented by the State. After hearing all these interesting particulars, I exclaimed in a burst of enthusiasm: “ Happy the people where the State is the only landlord and rent is the only tax, where animals are not butchered for food, and where drinking and smoking are scarcely known, where lawyers.are almost as extinct as the ■dado, and where woman is the equal and companion of man !” (To be concluded.) Critic (Hobart, Tas. : 1907 - 1924), Saturday 13 April 1907, page 5 ________________________________________ A MODERN ATLANTIS . [ F oe the Ceitic.—Ale E ights E eseeved.'J CHAPTER X. I MARRY AND DEPART. BY PBECY R. MEGGY. T h e next morning I informed my host that I had fallen in love with his daughter and begged Hm to tell me if her heart -w already engaged, and if not whether he had any objection to my trying to win her affections. After looking at mc curiously for a moment he replied that so far as he knew his daughter s heart -was free, th at every woman in Hi antis had the right to make her o,vu choice, and that if I would settle down in Atlantis, and earn my living in whatever sphere I liked best he, at ary rate, would place no obstacle in my way. I clasped his hands in silence, and at once resolved to follow his advice. ] speedily obtained work as a carpenter. an occupation which was in crreat request, and on my skill and u-ustwofthiness becoming known a contract was placed in my hands, and 1 lauuclied out as a builder. Success crowned my efforts, and having in the meantime pressed my suit with all my natural ardor was before long made the happiest of men. In the course of time children were horn to us whom we adored. One day in the excess of my happiness I asked Eva-w hat made her marry me, who bad nothing to offer her but a heart’s devotion m return for her love. “ There is a tradition, -aid mv wife, “ that towards the end of 400 years from the date of his discovery of the island the giea commander will return in the first flush of his youth, marry the fairest in the land, and by publishing abroad the story of Atlantis will regenerate the world. When I first saw you I was startled by the extraordinary resemblance you bore to the statue of the Great Commander, not in his old age as he is represented there but as he may have been m thefirstflushof his youth. I was insensibly attracted towards you, and predisposed in favor of one for whom I felt some giea destiny was reserved. Whatever that destiny may be,” said my wife, as she threw her arms round my neck and kissed me tenderly, hope to have the privilege of sharing it.” ,, T “ There may be grave doubts, 1 said, “ as to my connection with the Great Commander, but there can be no doubt that you are the fairest in the land, and w ith that I embraced her in return. The destiny of which she spoke was ultimately to be accomplished in a singular way. When I had been on the island ju6t ten years, a deputation from the Great Council, or which I had risen to be a member, waited op me and said that according to the records preserved m the public library, the Great Commandei had left positive orders on leaving Atlantis th at no communication was to be opened up with the outside world for 400 years, but that at the end of that time the existence of Atlantis must be disclosed. They further informed me that people had from the first moment of my appearance in their midst instinctively recognised me as the emissary in some mysterious way of the Great Commander himself, to whom had been entrusted the task of carrying out the Great Commander’s behests. The 400 years were now all but passed, and the deputationAsked_ me, 4 the name of the Great Council of the nation, to undertake the hazardous duty of ■disclosing ^he existence of the island to the wot Id from whence I had come. I would willingly have foregone such a task, as my roving spirit was entirely quenched, and my affections were no w entirely centred in my wife ■and family, but even my wife with tears in her eyes, joined with the -Council in urging me to fulfil the destiny which was evidently reserved for none ‘other but me. “ As for us, she said, holding out the little ones -to be kiBsed, and tenderly kissing me -herself, “ we will summon all our resignation to our aid and patiently .await ^our Teturn.* I could not resist the call of duty when so strongly enforced, and I lett ■the island in a boat, th e construction of which .1, carefully superintended myself. After a long and tern pestuous voyage, during which most of my provisions were swept away by a storm, I finally landed more dead than alive uear the mouth of the Swan. Critic (Hobart, Tas. : 1907 - 1924), Saturday 13 April 1907, page 5 ________________________________________ EPILOGUE. ' Having disburdened his conscience f this singular narrative the patient lay back on his pillow- exhausted, and apparently about to expire. Fearing that his secret would expire with him, “ Where is this Atlantis, 1 cried, “ that I may reveal its existence to the world r” The patient made a supreme effort and tried to speak, but in vain. Bending, my ear to his lips I just caught the words, “ Bring me a map.” I brought him the only7 map I had, which was a Mercator’s projection of the w orld on a small scale. I spread it before him. He had only sufficient strength left to put his broad finger on the map, thereby covering a space many housands of square miles in extent, nd to say “ Yonder is Atlantis,” hen he fell back in my arms and xpired. I buried him deceutly, and was so touched w-ith sympathy foi his fate that. I shed more than one tear over his grave. A few days afterwards when strolling by the dark and dismal vaults where the W.A. authorities temporarily mildew their splendid collection of books I went, in and to my delight found a copy of “ Navarrates Viages de los Espanoles” referred to by the deceased, supplemented by the remarkable extract quoted by him, and what, was still more gratifying a p en ’and ink sketch of the Great Commander in the first flush of his youth, which was so striking a likeness of the man, whose remains 1 had but just interred, that I could have sworn he was the Great Commander himself, who had thus literally fulfilled the Atlantean tradition in the most extraordinary l m o B way. Knowing, however, the incredulity of people on such topics as this I did not venture to breathe my sentiments to a soul, but I deteimined that I would, at any rate, put the facts to paper, make thtm public, and let the world do or say what it liked. F inis.

Item sets: Vintage Science Fiction from Australian Newspapers 1901-1939 (Australian)