"But if it saves money, why do not the water companies do it?"

"Because--and really here there are many excuses for the poor old
water companies, when so many of them swerve and gib at the very
mention of constant water-supply, like a poor horse set to draw a
load which he feels is too heavy for him--because, to keep
everything in order among dirty, careless, and often drunken
people, there must be officers with lawful authority--water-
policemen we will call them--who can enter people's houses when
they will, and if they find anything wrong with the water, set it
to rights with a high hand, and even summon the people who have
set it wrong. And that is a power which, in a free country, must
never be given to the servants of any private company, but only to
the officers of a corporation or of the Government."

"And what shall we do with the rest of the water?"

"Well, we shall have, I believe, so much to spare that we may at
least do this: In each district of each city, and the centre of
each town, we may build public baths and lavatories, where poor
men and women may get their warm baths when they will; for now
they usually never bathe at all, because they will not--and ought
not, if they be hard-worked folk--bathe in cold water during nine
months of the year. And there they shall wash their clothes, and
dry them by steam; instead of washing them as now, at home, either
under back sheds, where they catch cold and rheumatism, or too
often, alas! in their own living rooms, in an atmosphere of foul
vapour, which drives the father to the public-house and the
children into the streets; and which not only prevents the clothes