“Yes; but I cannot drag these people from the balcony by main force. See! they are clear out of sight, on the further balcony.”
At this juncture some officials entered the conservatory, and at a given signal Felix gathered in his guests, and every window opening on the balconies was closed, while the promenaders below were warned to leave immediately, or take a drenching. From behind the French windows Charlotte’s guests watched the artificial rain-shower which burst up from the hose, capped with rose-sprinklers, even to the very roof, and descended gently for some minutes on balconies, windows, walls, and on all the masses of foliage below. In a few minutes several women, armed with mops of white cotton waste and a bucket, passed round on the balconies and removed the water. Mr. and Mrs. Müller then succeeded in getting their guests to the table, which was spread with a profusion of delicacies and luxuries, and adorned with flowers. They were delighted with everything, and the same, or fuller, explanations had to be given as those at the doctor’s table some hours before. By special request, Too Soon had been sent from the restaurant to attend Felix’s table. The only assistance Charlotte had in her simple household duties, as she explained, was a young girl whom she had taken from an orphan asylum in Boston, and who was attending the Social Palace school. To-day, of course, she had a holiday.
The sight of the gorgeous Oriental, and his quaint polite ways, amused Ella and Louise greatly. Albert went into ecstacies over a sole au grattin. “When I want a sauce like that,” he said, “I have to go to the Parker House, though I have a cook at sixty dollars a month, and furnish him three assistants. I may add, that not even at the Parker House have I ever tasted mushrooms so delicious as these.”
“You ought to live here, Albert,” said his sister; “because you are such a gourmet. Mushrooms are a perfect drug here, and we sell them by the ton. You see they grow under the flower benches in the dark. This is one of our great industries. Children pick them and pack them, and they are also very skilful in the handling of our cut flowers. They earn a great deal of money, though they all attend the schools. This is the one-thing obligatory. Every child must be kept at school.”
“What do you think, Müller,” asked Burnham, “about the occupants paying for this establishment?”
“Why, we shall do it without a doubt, in less than ten years. The profits from the stores and the cuisine alone more than pay for running the establishment. On many of the articles of food there is absolutely no profit. This is to encourage the poor and the unskilled laborers, who do not earn so much, of course, as the skilled laborers; but then their wives, being relieved from nursing and cooking, can help them put money in their rents. There are about two hundred women employed from two to eight hours a day in the nurseries and schools, in the stores, café, laundry, and in taking care of the flower business, and keeping the palace in order. Then there are many more in the silk factory and in the dairy.”
Burnham asked what the articles of food were that were furnished at cost. Felix and Charlotte enumerated: crushed wheat, certain fruits, hominy, milk, beef soup, Graham bread, mashed potatoes, plain roasts, and some others.
“Why,” said Kendrick, “that is a sufficient diet for any one. The economical can easily live on that, and make the support of the institution out of those who indulge in luxuries.”
“That is true,” replied Charlotte, “and we think it quite just. There is such a spirit of good-fellowship and honest enthusiasm here, that all goes on admirably. Our wheat and beef, we raise on the farm, and if any choose to live on simple fare, which is always excellent of its kind, they can do so on much less than one-half what it used to cost them.”
While they were talking, the great conservatory was suddenly lighted up, and Louise and Ella precipitately sought the balcony. The walk below was quite dry, and filled with promenaders, while the crystal water-drops, that still hung on the great palm fronds, glistened like diamonds in the brilliant light.