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3. How Ozma Granted Dorothy's Request

I suppose you have read so much about the magnificent Emerald City

that there is little need for me to describe it here. It is the Capital City of

the Land of Oz, which is justly considered the most attractive and

delightful fairyland in all the world.

The Emerald City is built all of beautiful marbles in which are set a

profusion of emeralds, every one exquisitely cut and of very great size.

There are other jewels used in the decorations inside the houses and

palaces, such as rubies, diamonds, sapphires, amethysts and

turquoises. But in the streets and upon the outside of the buildings only

emeralds appear, from which circumstance the place is named the

Emerald City of Oz. It has nine thousand, six hundred and fifty-four

buildings, in which lived fifty-seven thousand three hundred and

eighteen people, up to the time my story opens.

All the surrounding country, extending to the borders of the desert which

enclosed it upon every side, was full of pretty and comfortable

farmhouses, in which resided those inhabitants of Oz who preferred

country to city life.

Altogether there were more than half a million people in the Land of Oz--

although some of them, as you will soon learn, were not made of flesh

and blood as we are--and every inhabitant of that favored country was

happy and prosperous.

No disease of any sort was ever known among the Ozites, and so no one

ever died unless he met with an accident that prevented him from living.

This happened very seldom, indeed. There were no poor people in the

Land of Oz, because there was no such thing as money, and all property

of every sort belonged to the Ruler. The people were her children, and

she cared for them. Each person was given freely by his neighbors

whatever he required for his use, which is as much as any one may

reasonably desire. Some tilled the lands and raised great crops of grain,

which was divided equally among the entire population, so that all had

enough. There were many tailors and dressmakers and shoemakers and

the like, who made things that any who desired them might wear.

Likewise there were jewelers who made ornaments for the person, which

pleased and beautified the people, and these ornaments also were free to

The Emerald City of Oz