or of two men and a team of horses to carry a small package
several miles distant.

Countless little retail merchants, with an incalculable force of
managers, clerks, book-keepers, errand boys, etc., were fairly throwing
away the public power in enormous quantities through the brainless
struggle of competitive trade.

All these imperfections could be extirpated by the abolition of the
money system, thought I, as the carriage came to a standstill in front
of a great brown stone edifice, and the driver announced that we had
reached our destination. The door of the carriage was swung open by a
uniformed employee, and, alighting therefrom, I was immediately ushered
into the main office of the leading institution of its kind in the
World--the Waldoria Hotel.

It was quite a new sensation for me to enter this great hostelry as a
guest, having spent the fore part of my life as a rough adventurer who
had never known the meaning of luxury or refinement. But still, somehow
or other, it always seemed natural for me to carry myself properly in
whatever position I happened to be placed, and on this occasion I felt
composed and at my ease as I entered and made known my identity to the
head clerk.

This pompous servant showed extraordinary affability and politeness
toward me, which caused me to wonder how I should have been received by
him had I been a shoemaker, a carpenter, or some other honest son of
toil, whose labor increases the wealth of the world, instead of a
moneyed gentleman of leisure and extravagance, as he evidently supposed
me to be.

"Your secretary has deposited five thousand dollars to your credit here,
Mr. Convert," said he, handing me a blank cheque book, "so if you will
kindly give me your signature for certification, you can then draw upon
that amount as you see fit."

In astonishment I was about to inform him that I had no secretary, and
that the money was not mine, when it occurred to me that perhaps
Arletta, or her agent, if she had one, must have pretended to be my
secretary. So I said nothing and did as requested.

Upon being shown to my apartments, a handsomely furnished suite of two
rooms and a bath, upon the tenth floor, I was further amazed to find
therein a trunk, two dress-suit cases, a traveling bag, and six suits of
fine clothes, made in different styles, from an evening dress to a sack
business suit. And the bedstead, tables and bureaus were literally
covered with articles, such as a bath-r