“Compare this short, easy, pleasant day’s work of our cooks with the long, toilsome, unpleasant drudgery of your women, who must prepare _all_ the meals, often out of the very poorest material; who, besides preparing meals, must bear and nurse all the offspring, and work at other drudgery, generally from ten to sixteen hours a day. And this is very often not all. Many mothers, besides doing all this physical drudgery in a little penned-up house, in which an invigorating breath of wholesome air seldom enters, are called upon to please and satisfy an overworked, cranky ‘boss’ of a husband, and sometimes ignorant, uncultivated sons and daughters. This overwork is _one_ of the many causes that enfeeble your women, and that spread the robe of pallor and disease over their countenance. I say this is only _one_ of the many causes that produce feebleness and disease, but besides this one there are countless others. To some of the most conspicuous ones I shall call your attention as we proceed with our explanation. Now, I do not mean to say here that your _men_, as a rule, are not overworked, for they are very much so; but not so much so as the masses of mothers who are raising families.” “Now, Mr. Midith, will you give us a description of your dining-room?” asked Celestine. “Oh, yes. Our dining apartment is spacious, richly finished and elegantly furnished. It is large enough to seat at once all the members of the family and a considerable number of visitors besides. Each table accommodates from two to eight persons, and the tables are tastefully arranged in tiers alongside of horizontal elevators, that carry the victuals from the kitchen all along the row of tables to the further end of the dining-hall, where they are served by the waiters. On the center of each table is a tiny fountain, playing its cool liquid treasure on an exquisite assortment of gorgeous bouquets. This chemically pure, fresh, cool fountain also supplies the drink for the table. The tableware is of the finest pattern, and everything is kept scrupulously clean and in good order by those in charge of the dining-hall. “We are purely vegetarians, eating no flesh meat of any kind. Of course our primitive ancestors, like yours, were cannibals; then meat-eaters like you are now, but this habit of killing and eating flesh meat has long since become antiquated, and eating flesh meat or a dead carcass is perhaps as repugnant to us now as eating a corpse would be to you. We also use no coffee, tea, tobacco, nor any kind of intoxicating liquor as a beverage. Experience has taught us that no benefit is derived from the use of them; but often a great deal of evil.