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10 self-supporting, still producers, because they perform a large part of all the lighter manual labour needed for the sustenance and well-being of the community.

But the whole class of women who keep servants,—a class which is intelligent and refined, and many of whose members are cultivated, accomplished, and intellectual,—this immense feminine host, I say, has sunk from its former rank of manufacturing producers into that of unproductive consumers, i.e., of persons who do not pay back in mental or manual labour an equivalent for the necessaries they use or the luxuries they enjoy. Children, the aged, and the infirm are the only persons that in a well-regulated community by right compose this class,—the first, because, if nourished and educated during their period of helplessness, they will grow up producers of material or intellectual values; the others, because they may have once been such producers, and, were they not disabled, would still be so. But for healthy, educated, intelligent adults by millions to be supported by the extra toil of the rest of the community, as educated women are now, is a state of things entirely contrary to the natural division of labour,—is one of the monstrous defects of modern civilization, and perhaps the most fruitful source of disorder, suffering, and demoralization that could possibly be devised.

If the mere necessaries of life were given to us, as to an army of soldiers, even this would be a heavy burden upon society, as we learned during our war, when it cost the North one or two thousand millions to provide our troops with coarse food and clothing and rude shelter for four years only. But upon us are lavished the wealth and luxury of the world from generation to generation. The expensive residences, the costly furniture, the rich jewels, silks, and laces, the dainty or dashing equipages, the delicate tables, the thousand articles for comfort, convenience, or delight that one sees in even every modest home,—for whom are