before passing into
the distributing pipes.

No citizen of Mizora ever hied to the country for pure water and fresh
air. Science supplied both in a densely populated city.

CHAPTER X.

When a question as to the existence of social distinctions would be
asked the citizens of Mizora, the invariable answer would be--there were
none; yet a long and intimate acquaintance with them assured me that
there were. They had an aristocracy; but of so peculiar and amiable a
kind that it deserves a special mention. It took a long time for me to
comprehend the exact condition of their society in this respect. That
there were really no dividing lines between the person who superintended
the kitchen and the one who paid her for it, in a social point of view,
I could plainly see; yet there were distinctions; and rather sharply
defined ones too.

In order to explain more lucidly the peculiar social life of Mizora, I
will ask you to remember some Charity Fair you have attended, perhaps
participated in, and which had been gotten up and managed by women of
the highest social rank. If in a country where titles and social
positions were hereditary, it then represented the highest aristocracy
of blood. Grand dames there departed from the routine of their daily
lives and assumed the lowlier occupations of others. They stood behind
counters, in booths, and sold fancy articles, or dispensed ices and
lemonade, or waited upon customers at the refreshment tables; bringing
in trays of eatables, gathering up and removing empty dishes; performing
labor that, under the ordinary circumstances of life, they would not
perform in their own homes, and for their own kindred. It was all done
with the same conscious dignity and ease that characterized the
statelier duties of their every day life. One fact was apparent to all:
they were gentlewomen still. The refinement of their home education, and
the charm of nourished beauty were, perhaps, more prominent in contrast
with their assumed avocation.

The Charity Fair, with its clerks and waiter girls and flower sellers
called from the highest society, was a miniature picture of the actual
every-day social life of Mizora. The one who ordered a dinner at their
finest hotel, had it served to her by one who occupied the same social
standing. Yet there _was_ a difference; but it was the difference of
mind.

The student in Sociology discovers that in all grades of society,
congenial natures gravitate to