Page:The Diothas, or, A far look ahead (IA diothasorfarlook01macn).pdf/86

 unconscious song, informed me of the personality of the operators.

I had, afterwards, frequent opportunities of seeing the ladies' workroom, the counterparts of which were to be seen in every home. The apartment itself was as diverse from the aspect of the typical factory-room as is the boudoir of a princess from the kennel of a Caffre's female drudge. Beneath the protecting covering of wide sheets of ualin, the walls were adorned with designs exquisite in drawing, and harmonious in color.

One end of the apartment was occupied by glazed wardrobes containing, some, materials; others, finished products. The loom, as well as the other machine, which proved to be a sort of stocking-frame, was finished in the style of the machinery I had seen in the city, and was worked by electric power. The ingenuity of man, exerted through thousands of years, had brought these machines to a degree of perfection that awoke in me ever increasing admiration in proportion as I became more capable of appreciating the genius employed in their construction. They might, indeed, be called "poems in metal;" embodying, as they did, the hopes, the aspirations, the enthusiasms, of a long line of inventors. Anxiety had been shown, not only to insure rapid and delicate work, but also to render less irksome the task of the operator, by admitting several changes of posture. Every thing was maintained in a state of exquisite neatness: not a speck of dust or fluff was to be seen.

In another place will be found an account of the system on which the people of this period arranged their time. It will suffice, for the present, to give an account of my