her nervous system in good working-order. And all of them are so peculiarly
constituted that the least unnecessary indulgence would result in some
derangement of function.


The work daily performed by these female laborers comprises road-making,
bridge-building, timber-cutting, architectural construction of numberless
kinds, horticulture and agriculture, the feeding and sheltering of a
hundred varieties of domestic animals, the manufacture of sundry chemical
products, the storage and conservation of countless food-stuffs, and the
care of the children of the race. All this labor is done for the
commonwealth -- no citizen of which is capable even of thinking about
"property," except as a res publica;-- and the sole object of the
commonwealth is the nurture and training of its young,-- nearly all of whom
are girls. The period of infancy is long: the children remain for a great
while, not only helpless, but shapeless, and withal so delicate that they
must be very carefully guarded against the least change of temperature.
Fortunately their nurses understand the laws of health: each thoroughly
knows all that she ought to know in regard to ventilation, disinfection,
drainage, moisture, and the danger of germs,-- germs being as visible,
perhaps, to her myopic sight as they become to our own eyes under the
microscope. Indeed, all matters of hygiene are so well comprehended that no
nurse ever makes a mistake about the sanitary conditions of her
neighborhood.


In spite of this perpetual labor no worker remains unkempt: each is
scrupulously neat, making her toilet many times a day. But as every worker
is born with the most beautiful of combs and brushes attached to her
wrists, no time is wasted in the toilet-room. Besides keeping themselves