Page:Life in a thousand worlds.djvu/262

 hundred years the school houses in the district of the laborers were torn down, as it was impossible for these children to receive an education, since they must needs work for their sustenance.

After many ages the members of the Trust had become so hardened that they no longer regarded the wishes of the laboring people, but pushed everything to increase their own selfish gain, insomuch that they succeeded in securing the passage of certain laws making the burdens of the laborers still more heavy.

And now, when the capitalists saw that the people did not rebel, they again counseled among themselves on this wise:

"Why should there be so much labor lost in continually quarrying new sepulchers in our diamond ridges, and why should there be so much dust lying idle in the old graves? Come, let us have a law that the dust in all graves over one hundred years old shall be sold at auction, unless the graves are redeemed by a certain amount of soil. Then these empty tombs can be again filled with the dead of our servants and their children.