A Traveler From Altruria — William Dean Howells

Originally published in instalments in Cosmopolitan this piece of utopian fiction by William Dean Howells delivers a vision of a one class socialist utopia while at once offering a biting critique of unfettered capitalism The story centres around a visit to America of Mr Homos a citizen of a mysterious island called Altruria which is home to a one class socialist Christian society with no monetary system and no concept of the rich and poor In the course of Mr Homos visit he is appalled by what he sees occurring in late 19th century America a society which he likens to his country s own before Evolution He is clearly confused by the class system continuously embarrassing his hosts carrying his own luggage bowing to waitresses and other such acts and finds certain activities simply bizarre for example exercise for its own sake To us exercise for exercise would appear stupid The barren expenditure of force that began and ended in itself and produced nothing we should if you will excuse my saying so look upon as childish if not insane or immoral img src https s3 eu west 1 amazonaws com dia kitadagitim ckeditor_assets pictures 53 content_1_original_original jpg alt height 15 width 15 font size 1 color white font img