Nay, we are told, and we must believe it, so overwhelming is the evidence, though many of our people scarcely _can_ believe it, that even rich and powerful men, the masters of the poor devils aforesaid, submitted to live amidst sights and sounds and smells which it is in the very nature of man to abhor and flee from, in order that their riches might bolster up this supreme folly.

The whole community, in fact, was cast into the jaws of this ravening monster, 'the cheap production' forced upon it by the World-Market." "Dear me!" said I.

"But what happened?
Did not their cleverness and facility in production master this chaos of misery at last?
Couldn't they catch up with the World-Market, and then set to work to devise means for relieving themselves from this fearful task of extra labour ?" He smiled bitterly.

"Did they even try to ?" said he.

"I am not sure.
You know that according to the old saw the beetle gets used to living in dung; and these people, whether they found the dung sweet or not, certainly lived in it." His estimate of the life of the nineteenth century made me catch my breath a little; and I said feebly, "But the labour-saving machines ?" "Heyday!" quoth he.