There was something indescribably touching in that curling-iron and those two mugs.  I could see the table on which the mugs would soon proudly stand, and “father” and “mother” and children thereat, and I could see the hand heating the curling-iron and applying it.  I could see the whole little home and the whole life of the little home....  And afterward, as I wandered through the warehouses—­pyramids of the same chair, cupboards full of the same cheap violin, stacks of the same album of music, acres of the same carpet and wallpaper, tons of the same gramophone, hundreds of tons of the same sewing-machine and lawn-mower—­I felt as if I had been made free of the secrets of every village in every State of the Union, and as if I had lived in every little house and cottage thereof all my life!  Almost no sense of beauty in those tremendous supplies of merchandise, but a lot of honesty, self-respect, and ambition fulfilled.  I tell you I could hear the engaged couples discussing ardently over the pages of the catalogue what manner of bedroom suite they would buy, and what design of sideboard....

Finally, I arrived at the firm’s private railway station, where a score or more trucks were being laden with the multifarious boxes, bales, and parcels, all to leave that evening for romantic destinations such as Oregon, Texas, and Wyoming.  Yes, the package of the woman of Wyoming’s desire would ultimately be placed somewhere in one of those trucks!  It was going to start off toward her that very night!

* * * * *

Impressive as this establishment was, finely as it illustrated the national genius for organization, it yet lacked necessarily, on account of the nature of its activity, those outward phenomena of splendor which charm the stranger’s eye in the great central houses of New York, and which seem designed to sum up all that is most characteristic and most dazzling in the business methods of the United States.  These central houses are not soiled by the touch of actual merchandise.  Nothing more squalid than ink ever enters their gates.  They traffic with symbols only, and the symbols, no matter what they stand for, are never in themselves sordid.  The men who have created these houses seem to have realized that, from their situation and their importance, a special effort toward representative magnificence was their pleasing duty, and to have made the effort with a superb prodigality and an astounding ingenuity.

Take, for a good, glorious example, the very large insurance company, conscious that the eyes of the world are upon it, and that the entire United States is expecting it to uphold the national pride.  All the splendors of all the sky-scrapers are united in its building.  Its foyer and grand staircase will sustain comparison with those of the Paris Opera.  You might think you were going into a place of entertainment!  And, as a fact, you are!  This affair, with nearly four thousand clerks, is the huge toy and pastime