Page:The Diothas, or, A far look ahead (IA diothasorfarlook01macn).pdf/177

 almost automatic in its operation, reduced the requisite labor to a minimum.

I was once admitted, under the escort of Ulmene, to the great laundry of the village. I was filled with surprise, not only by the novelty of seeing so many beautiful and high-bred maidens engaged in what, to my prejudices, was so humble an occupation. Not one was there but could trace back her pedigree through thousands of years of culture and refinement, not one but had received a training, moral and intellectual, such as is at present, even for the most favored, a dream or an aspiration. Yet each was attending to her allotted task with youthful zeal, as diligent, as well as graceful, as her fair prototype, Nausicaa, amid her primitive appliances.

I was also filled with astonished admiration at the amount of ingenuity that bad been expended on the curious mechanical contrivances that met my eye at every turn, from the huge centrifugal drier, to the machine that turned out, by the dozen, garments smoothly mangled and neatly folded. One important task that could not be performed by machinery was the assorting, and packing into panniers, of the articles belonging to each household. These panniers were then stowed, by the strong arms of zerdars, in the locomotive wagon that conveyed each to its destination.

The maidens were not, however, nearly so hard-worked as the young men were during their zerdarship. Three hours a day, and that only on alternate weeks, were all that was required for these communal duties. There were some domestic duties at home. But these, from the scientific construction and sensible furnishing of their