The people of Jupiter excel in mechanical skill.  They build houses, but not by long, tedious days of painstaking labor.  Such things as plaster and paint are unknown.  A Jupiterite can purchase, from one of the mammoth structural factories, house sides, house ends, house floors or partitions, after any general design he wishes, and have them trimmed in any style his fancy suggests.  The materials used are non-combustible and water-proof, and will wear indefinitely.

These houses can be put together in a few days and the trimmings adjusted in less than two weeks, unless the structure is very elaborate.  Nearly all of their house furniture is also non-combustible, and no one has ever conceived the idea of forming a fire insurance company, simply because there is no need for one.

As the people are so much larger than we, so are all things relatively larger than we see them in our world.  Wagons and carriages and cars appear as if they were made for mastodons.

I saw one of their largest bridges spanning a molten lake.  Aside of it the East River bridge would be a dwarf, either in height or length.  It is certainly thrilling to step into a world where all things are so gigantic.  At times a feeling of insignificance crept over me, but I took courage when I thought that a man’s greatness consists in his mental powers and not in his physical bulk, for it is true that the fifty ounces of brain in the skull of a Newton have accomplished more marvels than the ten pounds of brain-matter found in the most cultured Jupiterite.

We must give the people of Jupiter credit for exercising a large amount of common sense.  In many ways they are more practical than we, and this is quite as noticeable in their language as in any other respect.  They have one simple language for the whole globe and in its use they are all agreed.  Their vocabulary is small because they have not yet branched out into the infinite varieties of manufacture and invention.

Their words have a marvelous correspondence with the thought or the action expressed, the manner of emphasizing syllables going a great distance toward expressing the shade of emotion desired.

I admired especially one thing on this bulky planet.  They have but one authority for language.  Hence there is no Century, Webster, Worcester or Standard, each rivaling the others for supremacy, to confuse the honest student with diverse spellings and pronunciations.

The words of the language of Jupiter are all embodied in one unique dictionary which is revised at intervals by a board of official educators; to this board all suggestions for inserting new words and changing the classification of old ones must be given for their consideration.

This dictionary is printed by the government, and a copy of it is furnished free to all public places and to each private family.  When a revision is made, a copy of all the changes is furnished to each dictionary holder.  The authority of this dictionary is final, and no one is permitted to publish a conflicting work.