“I think I shall take my supper this evening in your elegant restaurant, which you have just described, if I can find some one to take me!” exclaimed Viola. “I am only too sorry that it is so far off.”

“But let me tell you, Miss Viola, in our world you would not wait for some one to take you, if you desired to go anywhere. You would start whenever you felt like it, either alone or in company with others, just as it happens. A woman in our world is as free and independent to go any and all places as a man is. She earns as much with her day’s labor as a man does, and is therefore not financially dependent on any man, as you will readily see by an explanation of our monetary system some future time.”

“How do you do your laundry work?” asked Mrs. Uwins. “I suppose that is done on the same large, easy scale as all your other work.”

“Our laundry contains a powerful steam washing-machine, which is capable of washing the garments of the whole family in less than an hour’s time, and almost without the aid of a human hand. It contains a drying room, in which the wash is dried in a few minutes. Electric irons do the ironing. To wash, dry and iron the garments of a thousand men, women and children requires the labor of only a few persons for a very short time. Every one pays for his own washing, and can get as much of it done as he wants. The laundry work is all done by experts. We wash every day, for every day we bathe and change clothes after our day’s work is done.

“In this laundry department we economize an immense amount of labor by co-operation, and doubtless conduces vastly to our average health, which is with you very often impaired by overwork, and by contracting cold when an overheated washer hangs out the clothes. Here, with you, each small family must have a washing apparatus, even if it is nothing more than a sickly woman’s hands. Each has a clothes-line, on which the clothes wear perhaps nearly as much by drying as by bodily wear. Each keeps a number of flat-irons, which are mostly operated by the muscles of an over-heated woman, many of whom are engaged in hard work for more than twelve hours a day. In your society a washer-woman is looked upon as an inferior. In our society she stands equal with the highest. No wonder that with you all try to avoid the profession of being a washer-woman. No wonder that many of your women prefer to live a life of shame and degradation, which brings them a hell during life and a premature death. Hard, hard work and little pay! It is easily seen why it is considered a hard, degraded position here. It is easily seen, too, why so many filthy garments are worn in your society, when we contemplate how few of you have water fit to wash with; how many of the poorer classes who are too poor to buy the necessary soap; how inconvenient your laundry and drying apparatus are; how laborious your ironing. It is no wonder that many wear undergarments for a week, two weeks, and even three weeks, without changing them.

“Next I may give you a description of our store, which is located in a convenient place in each ‘big-house.’ It is a very capacious department. Everything is kept as clean and orderly as the finest drawing-room. All commodities that an individual might want to buy are kept for sale there. The different classes of goods have each a certain division of this department. All the financial business of the members of the family is either directly or indirectly transacted in this department. Meal tickets, barber tickets, restaurant tickets, etc., are sold in this store-department. Of course, you understand by this time that everything in our world is sold at cost. The clerks receive pay for their work the same as an engineer or miner. We have no profit, as you will see when we get to our mercantile system. Profit results from monopoly, and we have no monopoly and hence no profit. The profit system is one of the greatest evils of your industrial world. Some of your economists condemn your competitive system. But competition is as natural, necessary and beneficial to the welfare and progress of mankind as the unobstructed natural law of supply and demand is essential for an economic regulation of production and consumption. By profit a person may be able to live an idle life; may have others produce his food, clothing, shelter and luxuries for him. By competition, a person must always work. Monopoly, from which all profit, etc., accrues, and not competition, is that great enemy of the human race.

“On some more convenient topic I shall endeavor to show you that your profit system does not only enable certain persons to live from the labor of others, but it also tends to make them dishonest and cruel.”

“I have long ago arrived at the same conclusions about our profit system,” said Mr. Uwins. “I am pleased to find that I am right in this, for I have already written considerably on this subject and intend to write much more. I know it is not a very popular subject to write on, for it cuts down the extravagant income of our so-called best society.”

“Mr. Midith, you said a short time ago that all of you bathe at least once a day. Will you be kind enough to describe your bathing conveniences?” I asked. “I have always been fond of water, and before I go to Mars—that is if I ever shall be able to go—I would like to know whether there is still plenty of water left on the surface of that planet to enjoy a good swim.”

“In the first place, Mr. Fulton, we have large, beautiful, artificial lakes for swimming and bathing purposes, which I will describe to you more fully when we get to the park and other out-door descriptions, and also under the topic of education.

“Besides these artificial lakes, which are largely used during warm, pleasant weather, we have a plentiful supply of splendid bath-rooms, supplied with hot and cold water; large mirrors and other convenient furniture and toilet articles.

“We have one large parlor with a seating capacity far exceeding all the members of the family—men, women and children. This is the grandest and most imposing apartment in the ‘big-house.’ In the center of this apartment plays a cool, refreshing fountain, which ascends its water to the high, artistically decorated ceiling; and as it descends again, the brilliant electric lights reflect its iridescence in all directions. The walls below are largely composed of windows and grand mirrors, from which hundreds of mirthful, happy faces are reflected. The furniture is of the most elaborate style. The chairs, sofas, couches, etc., are models of ease and comfort, as well as elegance. This grand parlor also contains an almost perfect electric orchestra of more than a thousand pieces. This grand band of instrumental music sends it sweet, soft symphonies, to which those of your Beethoven and Mozart can scarcely be compared, to the ears of all who are seeking comfort and happiness in this magnificent drawing-room.

“Then we have various smaller parlors and sittingrooms of different sizes, all of which are richly furnished. Each individual has also a private apartment. This arrangement affords each person an opportunity to be with a large collection of individuals in the large parlor, or with a smaller group in the various sized smaller parlors, or be all to himself in his private apartment. To be sure, two or more may room together, if they like, but this is rarely ever practiced. Under health we have no physical compulsion, no master, other than we desire, no slave, and no ‘boss.’ All the public domestic work is performed by specialists, both men and women. The public parlors are kept clean, ornamented and in tasty order by individuals of the family, who have selected that as their daily occupation. Each individual keeps his private apartment to suit his own taste. Cleanliness, order and regularity are taught, practiced and esteemed such high virtues that all persons, male and female, pride themselves in keeping their private apartment as clean and enticing as possible. You see we have an abundance of time for it. Our regular day’s labor consists of but an hour or two. Each individual sleeps in his private apartment. The grand folding beds are always clean and neatly folded by each individual owner. Every person furnishes his private apartment to suit himself. In them we have fine carpets on the floor, elegant furniture, costly curtains, elaborate paintings, rare ornaments, a complete toilet, an ornamental register for electric heating, brilliant electric lights, a few choice books and pictures, likely some musical instruments, and many other conveniences of which I shall tell you under different topics.”

“What is generally the size of a private apartment?” asked Rev. Dudley.

“They are about twenty feet square, including closets and a wash-room,” replied Mr. Midith.

“Now, let me tell you,” continued Mr. Midith, “in another part of the ‘big-house’ is a large, richly furnished hall for all kinds of amusements, games, lectures, athletic sports, gymnastic and calisthenical exercises, singing, walking, speaking, music, bicycle riding and all other amusements and sports in which Marsites desire to engage.

“Several nursery apartments for children and babies are abundantly supplied with toys. The floors of these apartments are composed of a smooth, hard composition, scrubbed or flooded several times a day. The seats, which are along the walls, are all stationary, and hundreds of children, even if left all by themselves in these departments, could do no damage to the building or furniture. Here adults can bring and amuse the babies and little children. Further on I shall describe the out-door nurseries.

“The barber department, which I have referred to before, is in charge of skillful barbers, both ladies and gentlemen. Little or no shaving is done, for nearly every man wears a full beard. Men, women and children have their hair cut short, dressed and arranged in various styles, which we found more convenient and more healthful. You must always bear in mind that as man slowly but gradually reaches a higher state of intellectual culture, he makes his habits, customs and fashions conform more and more with the laws of life and health. Because his esthetic faculties continually unfold more and more in the direction of greater well-being, the pursuit of happiness becomes a continually increasing incentive. We have many other apartments, which I shall describe under the topic to which they belong.”

“Oh, what beautiful, pleasant homes you must have!” said Celestine.

“Yes; and how short a day’s labor is there!” exclaimed Roland. “Nearly all work is done with machinery.”

“I wish we could all go and live there!” ejaculated Viola, who had been intensely interested in Mr. Midith’s description of the Marsian “big-house.”

“Why, we could live here on earth just like it, if we only knew a little more,” said Mr. Midith. “There is nothing miraculous in what I have told you, and in the way we live. All you need to live, labor, and co-operate as we do on Mars, are good, fair, intelligent, industrious, orderly men, women and children, who foster no revenge, prejudice and jealousy, who know and are willing to do their respective parts from the promptings of inward sentiments. All you need in addition to what you already have is a little more intelligence for the masses—a little more experience which teaches them that right acts only can bring happiness. Additional intelligence, as a whole, strengthens virtuous traits and weakens vicious ones.

“As soon as your masses can plainly see that you can live a much happier life the way the Marsites live, you will certainly live that way; for it is undoubtedly true that all sentient beings are in pursuit of what they believe to be the greatest happiness, immediate and remote. You require nothing new in kind; nothing that lies in inaccessible regions; nothing that is not in the nature of things to develop the mundane inhabitant so as to live a Marsian life.

“You, as well as we, can build one large family residence better than a multitude of small ones. You can build your residences and other buildings certain distances apart, and around a rectangular tract of land which we call a community, with much less labor than huddle them together in crowded cities and towns or isolate them in the country. You can build and operate railroads and motor lines, and have them pass through big-houses as well as having them pass through a lonely country. You can run pumps, electric lights, elevators, churns, laundries and all other machinery by electric power. You know how to construct, furnish and maintain grand, clean kitchens, dining halls, restaurants, stores, halls, barber shops, nurseries, parlors and private apartments. You can, if you only knew it, derive far more happiness by voluntary co-operation, by being kind, cleanly, orderly, not jealous and free, than you can by single-handed effort, by being cruel, filthy, disorderly, jealous and in slavery and superstition. No doubt the same evolutionary forces that have brought the human being above the manlike ape in the past will slowly elevate him to a still higher and nobler plane in the future. I believe that thousands of the foremost intellectual men and women of the United States, and other countries of your world, would now be ready to live a Marsian life, or one nearly like it, if they were not prevented by the less intelligent ones. Intelligence is the motive power which determines our course of action.”

“Is there not a great noise and confusion in your ‘big-houses’ on account of so many of you living in one dwelling?” asked Viola. “So many running in and out, up and down. One singing, one crying, and one screaming. A collection of a thousand persons here always causes considerable bluster and sometimes a great tumult.”

“It is very true, from the very nature of things, that a collection of a thousand individuals in your society causes a confusion, not unfrequently a tumult, and sometimes even a riot. You are not commonly prepared for such large assemblies, and we are. With you there is a rush and a scramble for the few best places, and all the rest must accept what is left. We provide first-class accommodation for all, and have even more places than persons to take them. This puts an end to all rush and scramble, for men and women scramble only for things that are scarce.

“Everything in our ‘big-house’ is quiet and orderly. All one hears on ordinary occasions is a soft, pleasing tone of conversation, and oftentimes music intermingled with songs and mirthful laughs. We do not delight in such noisy, boisterous conduct as is often practiced by a collection of your people, who think they can not enjoy themselves without freely indulging in the use of intoxicating liquor and tobacco. This pernicious practice often puts the drinker under the influence of liquor, and the smoker poisons the air his companions have to breathe. We have learned that we can reap the greatest amount of happiness ourselves by not infringing upon the equal rights of others. With but one invader in the world, the world is not as good as with no invader in it.

“You see we are never all doing the same thing at once except, perhaps, eating and sleeping. The cook does his work in the kitchen, the barber in his shop, the engineer in the engine-house, the duster in the parlor, the clerk in the store, the waiter in the dining-hall and restaurant, the farmer in the field, the miner in the mine, etc. Some are spending their leisure time in walking, some in the parlors, some in riding on trains and motors, some by visiting, some in riding bicycles, some in plays and games, some in their private apartment, and some in countless other engagements. Some of the children are in one nursery and some are in another; some are in the house and some are out doors; some are bathing and some are playing; some are at mental study, others at physical work, and so on in endless variety. There is a rush nowhere, for there is plenty of room everywhere.”

“How grand, and yet how simple, does all this appear after we hear it, father!” exclaimed Viola. “It seems that the inhabitants of all worlds ought to have sufficient intelligence to live such kind, free, rich lives. Is it not wonderful, mother?”

“It is, indeed, wonderful,” said Mrs. Uwins.

“I think it is now time for retiring,” said Mr. Midith. “To-morrow evening I shall give you an explanation, as you have already requested me, of the exterior of the big-house—the out-door surroundings. I can assure you they are as grand to look upon as the interior. Thrifty, clean, straight, orderly, symmetrical. Everything is in charge of experts, who pride themselves in the agreeable taste and arrangement they effect by their skill and labor.”