ordered with rosebushes,
oleanders and geraniums, until they came to a lovely little park at the
entrance to which was a huge sign announcing that within was

THE BLUNDERLAND GAS PLANT.

To tell the truth Alice had not cared particularly to visit the Gas
Works, because she had once been driven through what was known at home
as the Gas-House district on her way to the ferry, and her
recollections of it were not altogether pleasant. As she recalled it it
was in a rather squalid neighbourhood, and the odours emanating from it
were not pleasing to what she called her "oil-factories." But here in
Blunderland all was different. Instead of the huge ugly retorts rising
up out of the ground, surrounded by a quality of air that one could not
breathe with comfort, was as beautiful a garden as anyone could wish to
wander through, and at its centre there stood a retort, but not one that
looked like a great iron skull cap painted red. On the contrary the
Municipally Owned retort had architecturally all the classic beauty of a
Carnegie Library.

"We call it the Retort Courteous," said the Hatter pridefully as he
gazed at the structure, and smiled happily as he noted Alice's very
evident admiration for it. "You see, in urban affairs, as a mere matter
of fitness, we believe in cultivating urbanity, my child, and in
consequence everything we do is conceived in a spirit of courtesy. The
gas-houses under private ownership have not been what you would call
polite. They were almost invariably heavy, rude, staring structures that
reared themselves offensively in the public eye, and our first effort
was to subliminate----"

"Ee-liminate," whispered the March Hare.

"I beg your pardon, Mr. Hare," retorted the Hatter. "I did not mean
ee-liminate, which means to suppress, but subliminate, which means to
sublimify or make sublime. I guess I know my own language."

"Excuse me," said the March Hare meekly. "I haven't studied the M. O.
Dictionary beyond the letter Q, Mr. Mayor, and I was not aware that the
Common Council had as yet passed favourably upon subliminate, either,"
he added with some feeling.

"That is because it was not until yesterday that the Copperation
Council decided that subliminate was a constitutional word," said the
Hatter sharply. "In view of his report to me, which I wrote myself and
therefore know the provisions of, he states that subliminate is a
perfectly just and proper word involving no infringement upon the rights