this stupendous system of
brazen beggary, what was it all but the necessity of a society in which
the opportunity to serve the world according to his gifts, instead of
being secured to every man as the first object of social organization,
had to be fought for!

I reached Washington Street at the busiest point, and there I stood and
laughed aloud, to the scandal of the passers-by. For my life I could
not have helped it, with such a mad humor was I moved at sight of the
interminable rows of stores on either side, up and down the street so
far as I could see--scores of them, to make the spectacle more utterly
preposterous, within a stone's throw devoted to selling the same sort
of goods. Stores! stores! stores! miles of stores! ten thousand stores
to distribute the goods needed by this one city, which in my dream had
been supplied with all things from a single warehouse, as they were
ordered through one great store in every quarter, where the buyer,
without waste of time or labor, found under one roof the world's
assortment in whatever line he desired. There the labor of distribution
had been so slight as to add but a scarcely perceptible fraction to the
cost of commodities to the user. The cost of production was virtually
all he paid. But here the mere distribution of the goods, their
handling alone, added a fourth, a third, a half and more, to the cost.
All these ten thousand plants must be paid for, their rent, their
staffs of superintendence, their platoons of salesmen, their ten
thousand sets of accountants, jobbers, and business dependents, with
all they spent in advertising themselves and fighting one another, and
the consumers must do the paying. What a famous process for beggaring a
nation!

Were these serious men I saw about me, or children, who did their
business on such a plan? Could they be reasoning beings, who did not
see the folly which, when the product is made and ready for use, wastes
so much of it in getting it to the user? If people eat with a spoon
that leaks half its contents between bowl and lip, are they not likely
to go hungry?

I had passed through Washington Street thousands of times before and
viewed the ways of those who sold merchandise, but my curiosity
concerning them was as if I had never gone by their way before. I took
wondering note of the show windows of the stores, filled with goods
arranged with a wealth of pains and artistic device to attract the eye.
I saw the throngs of ladies