Page:Melbourne and Mars.djvu/78

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76
MELBOURNE AND MARS.

hurrying. The hurrying would have kept us in a constant fever, and nothing would have been gained by it. Five hours' work is pleasant, and enables work that must go on constantly, as for instance railway service, to be divided into five changes of men. In this metropolis the trains run for passengers fifteen hours and ten hours during the night for goods; five changes of men are required.

The Martial man is a very clean man, and he makes no waste. The metropolitan district is dry, hence there is little need for drainage, but what little waste there is is removed during the day in which it occurs. Nothing that can make the air impure is allowed to remain a single day where it can do harm. Anything that can give off a smell is deodorised at once, and removed and dessicated in a few hours. Dried sewerage is taken to the agricultural districts; not a single particle is wasted. No foul water is allowed to lodge for a day; every part of the surface of the land is kept clean. There is no dust in the streets, and they are made so pleasant that walking is a most agreeable and delightful exercise. Our young people think nothing of walking five or ten miles, for they are light and muscular, and there is no disagreeable heat or dust to annoy them. The railways and air boats are used more by elders and by those who have plenty of work without walking.

We have very little disease, and infant mortality is almost unknown even here where a thousand million of people are brought together. The schools have ample space about them, and are of every kind and the recreation grounds; the breathing spaces are well kept. The great aim in keeping them is to make them natural. Even in shape and size no two parks are alike.

The government buildings occupy a block ten miles square. The planetary library has a mile of front to the Grand Avenue and three miles to the Central Avenue. The College of Surgeons has a front of two miles, and many other buildings are quite a mile in length. The height of our buildings is three stories, and sometimes a perfect uniformity of structure will prevail for several miles. Very high buildings were at one time fashionable, but they seemed to shut out the day from the streets, and we found that their great shadows robbed vegetation of its color and made the streets unpleasant to travellers.

There are many hostels, and some of them are very great buildings. As is the case all over, they are owned by the government, and the bills are charged to debit of annual accounts. The rank of hostel used has to correspond with the rank of worker. There is no attempt made to draw caste lines; indeed, the object of social life is to abolish them, but in spite of all that can be done the workers of certain ranks prefer to associate with their companions in labor. They are not at home with the workers of other ranks, who of necessity know more, and are more polite in demeanor. We are all