oisoned nowadays. Already the Parisian
housewife gets the stock for her soup from the butcher, and transforms
it into whatever soup she likes, and London housekeepers know that they
can have a joint roasted, or an apple or rhubarb tart baked at the
baker's for a trifling sum, thus economizing time and fuel. And when the
communal kitchen--the common bakehouse of the future--is established,
and people can get their food cooked without the risk of being cheated
or poisoned, the custom will no doubt become general of going to the
communal kitchen for the fundamental parts of the meal, leaving the last
touches to be added as individual taste shall suggest.

But to make a hard and fast rule of this, to make a duty of taking home
our food ready cooked, that would be as repugnant to our modern minds as
the ideas of the convent or the barrack--morbid ideas born in brains
warped by tyranny or superstition.

Who will have a right to the food of the commune? will assuredly be the
first question which we shall have to ask ourselves. Every township will
answer for itself, and we are convinced that the answers will all be
dictated by the sentiment of justice. Until labour is reorganized, as
long as the disturbed period lasts, and while it is impossible to
distinguish between inveterate idlers and genuine workers thrown out of
work, the available food ought to be shared by all without exception.
Those who have been enemies to the new order will hasten of their own
accord to rid the commune of their presence. But it seems to us that the
masses of the people, which have always been magnanimous, and have
nothing of vindictiveness in their disposition, will be ready to share
their bread with all who remain with them, conquered and conquerers
alike. It will be no loss to the Revolution to be inspired by such an
idea, and, when work is set agoing again, the antagonists of yesterday
will stand side by side in the same workshops. A society where work is
free will have nothing to fear from idlers.

"But provisions will run short in a month!" our critics at once exclaim.

"So much the better," say we. It will prove that for the first time on
record the people have had enough to eat. As to the question of
obtaining fresh supplies, we shall discuss the means in our next
chapter.

V

By what means could a city in a state of revolution be supplied with
food? We shall answer this question, but it is obvious that the means
resorted to will de