You are on page 1of 990

i^,,,^i^

•^-

ml 1
^-
.'^fa.i
\

l^iigfw"'«^j!
THE CENTURY
ILLUSTRATED MONTHLY
MAGAZINE
VOL. XCIV
NEW SERIES: VOL. LXXII
MAY TO OCTOBER, 1917

THE CENTURY CO., NEW YORK


7)? ^f

Copyright, 1917 by The Century Co.


INDEX
TO

THE CENTURY MAGAZINE


VOL. XCIV NEW SERIES: VOL. LXXII

PAGE
Adolescence Hetty Hemenway 221
Allies, Reflections on the Strategy of the Winston Spencer Churchill 117
America, My Impressions of Count Ilya Tolstoy 417
America, The Man from Alden Brooks 376
Illustrations by Harry Townsend.
America, Twenty-five Years in Htigo MUnsterberg 34
Photographs.
America Help? How Can Sydney Brooks 209
Aurora the Magnificent Gertrude Hall 130
Illustrations by Gerald Leake.

Balkans, Fixing Up the Frederick Lewis Allen. . . . 156


Balkans, The Fate of the Herbert Adams Gibbons. . 177
Blood h Thicker than Water George Richards 786

Camera, Acting for the Virginia Tracy 641


Illustrations by Clarence Rowe.
Camouflage Roland Pertwee 1
Illustrations by Arthur William Brown.
Cartoons :

The Avenger 257


The Dream and the Reality 257
The Lusitania Herod's Nightmare
: 258
"The Adoration of the Magi" 258
Paintings by Louis Raemaekers.
Four Celebrities of the Theater 320
Drawings by Gluyas Williams.
"Papa !" : 640
Drawing by J. R. Shaver.

Casemate 17 Gaston Riou 16


Illustrations by Wilfred Jones.
Chop, The Extra Phyllis Wyatt Brown 958
Club Life, My Parkhiirst Whitney 159
Commonwealth, The Vision of a David Jayne Hill 740
"Consolation" H olworthy Hall 268
Illustrations by Arthur Litle.

Convoy, The First Nelson Collins 790


Correction, A 154
Country, For My Lucy Stone Keller 797
Coup de Grace Eleanor Ferris 892
Illustrations by Arthur Litle.
iv INDEX
PAGE
Derelict, The Phyllis Bottomc 101, 225
Illustrations by Norman Price.
Dinarzade's Three Weeks Gelett Burgess 621
Illustrations by Wilfred Jones.

Elam, The Emperor of H. G. Dwight 430


Illustrations by Wilfred Jones.
English Intellectuals in War-time, The S. K. RatcUffe 826
Photographs.
Equator, The City of the Harry A. Franck 283
Photographs.
Europe and Islam Herbert Adams Gibbons. . 84
Europe's Heritage of Evil David Jaync Hill 7
Eyes in His Back, The Man with Erie Johnston 762

Farmer, The Problem of the American Frederic C. Howe 625


Photographs.
FiSKE, Mrs., Goes to the Play Alexander Woollcott 71
Photographs.
Food or Famine ? /. Russell Smith 685
Food, Next Year's /. Russell Smith 633
France, How We Can Help Herbert Adams Gibbons. . 527
Photograph.
French Schools, Observations on Dorothy Can field 657
Free Wilbur Daniel Steele 518
Illustrations by Jay Hambidge.

German Plot and Democracy's Future, The David Jayne Hill 863
Ghetto, The Picturesque Hutchins Hapgood 469
Illustrations by Jacob Epstein.

Hollow Oak, Fashioning the Richard Matthezvs HalUt. 161


Illustrations by W. J. Aylward. f
Hoover, Herbert C Hugh Gibson 508
Photograph.

Ice Navigation Robert E. Peary 748


Photographs.
Imperialism, Economic David Jayne Hill 356
Inside-out Laurence Housman 603
Illustration by George E. Giguere.
International Ideals David Jayne Hill 260
Irishman, The Arthur Gleason 834
Illustrations by Florence Scovel Shinn.

Jane Meets an Extremely Civil Engineer Ruth Comfort Mitchell. . . 725


Illustrations by Oscar Frederick Howard.
Jane Shore Harvey O'Higgins 339
Illustrations by F. R. Gruger.

"King Lear" A. T. Van Laer 155

Lamentation of the Lonely, The John Roland 634


Lamps for Old, New Fanny Kemble Johnson ... 393
Illustrations by Arthur William Brown.
Liberal Party, A New Harold Kellock 885
Little Boy of Long Ago, A Grant Showerman 122
Illustrations by George Wright.
Living Off the Country Robert E. Peary 907
Photographs.
Loyalty ok the Foreign Born, The M. E. Ravage 201
Introduction by James Harvey Robinson.
.

INDEX V
PAGE
Magic Casements I'anny Kcrnble Johnson ... 871
Illustrations by J. Paul Verrees.
Merchant Marine, The Hope of Our :

I. Our Maritime Resources John Heard, Jr 245


II. Reviving Our Merchant Marine .Harold Kellock 251
"Molly McGuire, Fourteen" Frederick Stuart Greene . 668
Reproduction of jiainting by B. West Clinedinst, and decorations by John R. Flanagan.

Monroe Doctrine for the World, The Herbert Adams Gibbons. . 151
Montparnasse, The Spirit of Maricc Rutledge 406
Illustrations from photographs by Harry B. I.achman.
Munition-maker, Confessions of a 590
Reported by Donald Wilhelm.

Neutrals and the Allied Cause, The '.


Hendrik Willcm van Loon 610
Photograph.
Newspaper, The Very Human Deems Taylor 421

Northcliffe Eric Fisher Wood 920


Photographs.

"Northeaster" A. T. Van Laer 314

Onnie Thonas Beer 55


Illustrations by Oscar Frederick Howard.

Pictures, Miscellaneous :

"King Lear, Act 1, Scene 1" Edwin A. Abbey


From the painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Facinci t>aae 1
Printed in color. -^ ' ^

Reproductions of Old Masters 95


From the Widener Collection.
• "Northeaster" IVinslo-w Homer
From the painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Xew York. Facina pac/e 161
Printed in color. ^ ' -^

The Danish West Indies Lester G. Hornby 214


Drawings.
Italy A Idus C. Higgins 306
Photographic studies.

"The trance that he had often simulated had invaded


him." Howard Giles
Printed in color. Facing page 321
Familiar Boston Sears Gallagher 385
Etchings.

"Then have the kindness to inform me . . .why Marian


has consented to marry me." Norman Price
Printed in color. Facing page 485
The Hammock-buyer of Venezuela Harry A. Franck 597
Pliotographs.

The Gate of the City ^ William Jean Bcauley


From a painting of the Municipal Building, New York. Facing page 641
Printed in color.

Quaint Provincetown Lester G. Hornby 767


Drawings.
Portrait of an Old Man Hans Mending
From the painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Facina pac/e 801
Printed in color.

On the Wing Charles Limngston Bull


Studies of birds. and Frank W. Benson 859 . .

Plattsburg and Citizenship Leonard Wood 49


Photographs.
Portrait of an Old Man A. T. Van Laer 957
Prohibition and Poetry in the Last Century Margaret Armstrong 474
.

vi INDEX
PAGE
Proserpine, The Garden of Harry Esty Bounce 554
Illustrations by Arthur Litle.

Raemaekers— Man and Artist George Creel 256


Cartoons by Louis Raemaekers. Printed in color.
Rasputin Princesse Lucien Miirat. .
.
301
Illustrations from sketches and facsimile.
Red and White Roland Pertwee 533
Illustrations by Maurice L. Bower.
Ruhleben Prison Camp, In Peter Michelson 364
Illustrations from pictures made by British artists in Ruhleben.
Russia, Inside Stephen Graham 461
Russia, Little T. Lothrop Stoddard 569
Russia, The Evolution of Liberty in Count Ilya Tolstoy 716
Portrait of Count Tolstoy, from a photograph.

Second Fiddle, The Phyllis Bottome... 481, 690, 928


Illustrations by Norman Price.
Sing Sing, The University of Prank Marshall White 846
Sketching. Endicott and I go Prances Lester Warner. .
.
315
Sketches by the author.

Tardiness, Terminology of Lawton Mackall 960


Terauchi, Marshal Count, the New Premier of Japan Eliza Ruhamah Scidmorc. 545
Photographs.
Terror, The Coming of the Arthur Machen 801
Decorations by Wilfred Jones.
"Them Others" Stacy Aumonier 577
Illustrations by J. Paul Verrees.
"Through" E. F. Benson 321
Illustration by Howard Giles.

War, The Third Year of the /. B. W. Gardiner 776


Washington the Incredible Rollin Lynde Hartt 328
Lithographs by Joseph Pennell ; drawings by Jules Guerin.

Young Man Axelbrod Sinclair Lewis 188


Illustrations by W. M. Berger.

VERSE
After All and After All Mary Carolyn Davies 199
Illustrations by Caroline Horton Blackman.
Amber, In Amelia Josephine Burr ... 48
April in the Huasteca Grace Hasard Conkling ... 150
Autumn Jean Starr Untermeyer. 891 .

Borrower Mary Carolyn Davies 116

Conquerors Robert Gilbert Welsh 798


Copy ! Ethel Blair 960
Day of Rain, A .Dorothy Leonard 956
Difference, It Does Make a, Wordsworth, What? Charles Baker Gilbert 160
Eating-song, An Deems Taylor 637
Fraternity PH. Wallis 176
Graduate, The John Florance 338
Great Big Man and the Wee Little Girl, The /-. Gregory Hartswick 480
Guest-room, Verses for a Innc Arrabin 6
..

INDEX vii

PAGE
Vkrse : — Continued
Hall of Infamy, The : W. R. Burlingame
The Man Who Shouts at the Waiter 478
The People Who Ask You Informally 479
The Successful Dentist Who Sings 638
The Man Who Dresses in the Aisle 639
The Man Who is Awfully Cheery Early in the Morning 799
The Lady Who Always Appears with a Game of Letters
Where Two or Three are Gathered Together 800
Drawings by W. E. Hill.

Horseshoe Beach, At Dorothy B. Leonard 544


Letter, A Ruth Comfort Mitchell. . 843
Magazine Adv'ertisements, What Happened to the Poet
Who Read All the Corinne Rockwell Swain . . 640
"Mary, Helper of Heartbreak" Margaret Widdenier 15
Morning and I James Oppenheim 656
Movies in New York, The Mary Carolyn Davies 833
Mutations Margaret Armstrong 635
Pen-and-ink drawings by Gustave Verbeck.

Napoleon in Hades David Morton 927


Next to Pure Reading Matter E. L. McKinney 59
Night Cometh, The Clement Wood 919
Old Houses A lice Corbin 665
Philosophy, The Origin of Chester Dennis 637
Proposal, The Mary Carolyn Davies 602
Questions Cale Young Rice 70
Recollections Algernon C. Swinburne . . 608
Revelation Helen Hoyt 526
Revolution Cale Young Rice 186
Sancta Ursula William A. Bradley 405
Shulamite, The Anne Arrabin 259
Spring Rain Sara Teasdale 83
Summer, 1917 B. Preston Clark, Jr 664
Sunday Afternoon, On the Wharves Deane Whittier Coltoti .... 327
"The Kiss" Ruth Fitch 715
To One Killed in Action Alan Sullivan 906
Unfortunate Fanny Thomas Newell Metcalf . . 318
Drawings by the author.
Victory Marion Ration Waldron . . . 459
Whistle Fantasy Margaret Widdemer 956
Winter, William David Morton 739
t- s: =

7.
— —

Vol. 94
UPT

Camouflage
By ROLAND PERTWEE
11 lustrations by Arthur William Krown

FORbe the of those who may not


benefit
acquainted with what camouflage
there
be had.
was not a conveyance of any kind to

means, it might be truthfully. described as He had no notion to whom the motor-


a thin veil drawn over great events. bicycle belonged, — it was leaning against
There are endless varieties of camou- one of the officers' hutments, — but the im-
and endless uses to which it may be
flage, portant fact was its presence, with a full
put. A great white road is concealed tank, and the certain conviction that it
from the enemy's lines by a hedge of had been placed there by a divine hand.
thinly plaited twigs camouflage. An ob- He felt a great sense of gratitude when
servation-point hidden in the heart of a the engine started with the first kick, a
haystack— rrtwo«y7rt^f. A mighty gun sense which increased to the liveliest admi-
masked by an awning of fishermen's nets ration as she took the one-in-five up-grade
sprinkled with dead leaves camouflage. A from the camp at a rising twenty-five
corpse brought in from no-man's-land and miles an hour.
replaced by a live man, who watches what On the top of the hill he let her out.
is toward in the Hun trenches— again Probably the war would provide no nar-
camouflage. But perhaps the subtlest va- rower escape than the swerve he made to
riety of all camouflage is the kind that men avoid the policeman at the end of the
and women devise to screen their real trap. He laughed joj'ously at the instan-
emotions from one another and from the taneous vision of the man in blue jumping
world. sidewise to save his skin. Thereafter the
road was clear, and he settled down to all
He did n't waste much time when they the speed the engine would provide.
told him he could have till noon the next At Wilminster he bought a ticket, and
day inwhich to say good-by to his wife caught the express with barely a second to
- x ^ •
before embarkation. spare. •

To wait for the train from that out- Every compartment 'yp^ full,
first-class
landish spotwould have meant the loss of so he traveled third, thereby kyjn^ him-
a good three hours. There was a decent self open to a charge of "conduct; unbefit-
enough service from Wilminster, but Wil- ting to an officer and a ge'ntletiian." It
minster was fourteen miles away, and was an honest and friendly-e.\pre<;s, which
17, 1'y Thf Centuky Cc.

^ilits*'
Told the absurdest soldier stories while she changed into a dream of an evening dress"

accomplished the run on schedule-time and and unpaid, and being a strictly business
did not spoil its record by lingering un- man, he kept his engine ticking over for
duly outside the terminus. fully an hour before ringing the bell and
The taxi, however, was disappointing, inquiring at the door if he would be
and more than once he had occasion to wanted again.
abuse the driver for overcaution. Cer- In the little drawing-room a thousand
tainly with a little more dash they might questions and answers were hurled back-
have slipped by that motor-bus and have ward and forward. How lucky he was
avoided being held up in the traffic block to be going to France, when it might have
by Albemarle Street. been Mesopotamia or one of those other
When at last they drew up before the unfriendly places! He
had known for
little house every stone of which was certain that it was
France only that
to be
dear to him, much dearer than he ever morning. They always keep you in the
knew before the war came to teach us the dark as long as possible. Of course there
value of our possessions, he was up the were no submarines in the channel be- ;

front steps with a single bound, and ham- sides, his sleeping-bag was of a variety
mering at the door as though he would which guaranteed to keep a man afloat for

break it down. eight hours.


Of course she knew the knock, and al- How adorable she looked in her new
though she was n't expecting him, she frock! His khaki suited him uncommonly
knew at once who it was and why he had well. Perhaps his Sam Brown belt was
come, and she was out of the room and a shade new-looking, but that would soon
opening the door quicker even than his wear She was so proud of him, so
off.

dash up the steps had been. glad he was doing his bit, so very glad it
What does it matter if the taxi-driver was France!
did see their meeting? Nobody thought Then there was the baby to see— the
anything about him. He was forgotten baby who had grown so amazingly in the

2
CAMOUFLAGE
last seven weeks, whose coming was not taurant where they had dined on their

so distant an affair but the memory of it wedding-da\', six years before. And he
still awoke the added tenderness these lit- ordered all the and they
same dishes,

tle beings bring into the hearts of their drank the same vintage of champagne, and
creators. even persuaded the orchestra to play the
They mounted the stairs to the nursery same tunes. Everything was the same ex-
with arms about each other's waists, and cept the waiter, who at that moment was
the baby had the grace to greet his father cruising the North Sea in a Zeppelin.
with an expansive smile and to show further When the last delicious course had van-
proof of enthusiasm by flinging a rubber ished, and a glass retort with a blue flame
duck out of the window into the garden, beneath it was preparing coffee, she pro-
\vhere it was promptly devoured by the duced abox of tiny cigarettes that he had
puppy. given her on that famous night, and
Then they rushed off to see one or two which, out of ridiculous sentiment, they
friends who were deserving of such an dipped into onl\- on the "very specialest"
h.onor, and these friends, too, said how occasions.
glad they were it was going to be France. There followed a box at the theater,
France was so getatable, and leave so fre- the most expensive procurable. Ne\er
quent and so sure. Altogether it was an once during the entr'acts did he go out
astonishing piece of luck, enough to make for a lonely smoke, but they -prattled away
any one happy in any circumstances. Both more like an engaged couple than married
lie and she never tired of expressing their folk with a rising family.
own unmitigated delight. It was a wonderful evening, with not a
There followed a dash home, and he vestige of a shadow discernible. They
sat on the bed and told the absurdest sol- might have been setting forth for their
dier stories while she changed into a dream hone} moon on the morrow. No one in the
of an evening dress. world could have guessed they were on
The taxi, having waited so long, had the verge of separation, on the crumbling
been instructed to wait a bit longer, and edge of the saddest moment of their two
eventuallv took them to the selfsame res- lives. There would be things to say about

.p;*-r--

Funny, funny linlf iiink tiling, s/doU luck to vnul" he suki""


THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
that later, sometime before he went away, the obsolete railway time-table spoke the
but not yet, not now. Now everything truth in regard to the 10:45 to Wil-
was bright and cheery. They could laugh, minster.
talk nonsense, behave like children at a It was getting very near now. Already
picnic. It was a picnic, a night out; their the housemaid had been sent out to make
spirits outran the tragedy; masked, dis- sure of a taxi, always rare when needed.
guised, and screened it. Camouflage! Already she had gone up-stairs to put on
Even in the taxi on the way home there her hat. He did n't follow her, but
was not a vestige of seriousness in the mooned about in the dining-room for five
things they said. Perhaps they talked a precious minutes, wondering. He heard
shade less, perhaps her laughter was a lit- the nurse come down with the baby, and
tle strained, his jokes a trifle forced ; but he stood well back lest he should be seen.
nevertheless the spirit of the evening sur- From the shelter of the curtains he
vived. watched the princely infant placed in its
But they were frightened at turning pram and presently trundled away toward
out the light that night. In the dark it Kensington Gardens.
is harder to make a show of gaiety. In He had made no effort to go out and
the dark one can see more easily the white bid au revoir to the heir of his kingdom
road shining through the twigs of the he was afraid, a coward pure and simple.
false hedge, or the glint of the barrel be- It was the same cowardice which kept him
neath the fisherman's net, with its sprin- chained where he was instead of up-stairs
kling of dead leaves. with her. He looked nervously at the
They knew this and were afraid, and clock, then made a great resolve, squared
being afraid, both pretended they were his shoulders, and went down to the kit-
very sleepy and could n't keep awake a chen to say good-by to the cook.
second longer. So he knocked up the "I am sure, sir, I hope you ivill come
electric switch, as he had always done, back," she said.
with the golf-club that stood beside the The inflection suggesting that she
bed, and after a most perfunctory good thought it unlikely did him a world of
night they closed their eyes and made be- good. So much good, in fact, that he lit

lief of being asleep. a cigarette and, whistling an air from a


Hour hour they lay there without
after popular revue, sauntered up-stairs to the
the courage to say the hundred loving, bedroom.
pitiful things their souls cried out to ex- Her back was toward him. She was
press. He really believed she was asleep looking into the glass and seemed in trou-
when he got out of the bed and stole over ble with a knot of ribbon on her hat.
to peep into the baby's crib. "Everything 's ready," he said.
"Funny, funny little pink thing, good "That 's right," she answered.
luck to you !" he said. "Foggetty 's gone for a cab. Just as
He stood some moments looking down well to be in time."
and thinking of the price he had nearly "Yes, they 're awfully difficvdt to get
paid for that life among the pillows, and these days. I was trying for ages the
of how he had prayed almost like a mad- other morning."
man on that awful, awful night. He "Um. Rotten job!"
did n't know she was watching him with He fidgeted over to the mantelpiece and
the coverlet pressed tightly over her moved the little ornaments about.
mouth. "Did you like baby's bonnet?" she
Next morning there were such heaps of asked.
things to do and so little time to do them "Don't think I noticed it."

in that breakfast passed in an atmosphere "Thought you might have wlien you
of commonplace hustle. Waterloo Sta- said good-by."
tion had to be rung up to find out whether "As a matter of fact, I did n't sa^•
XVT^ T\.( Vi rj, yv V4-
.<
1/^''\-^ T^ t? W vs* M—

lie Imd made no eftbrt to go out and bid au revoir to the heir of his kins^dom;
he was afraid, a coward pure and simple""
THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
good-by— not really, I mean Had to "That 's what 's so jol about France,
ring up Waterloo Station." getting letters regularly."
"Oh, yes. I believe he '11 have his first "I should have hated you to go any-
tooth in a week or so. It seems a 3hame where else."

you won't be here." "It 's a great piece of luck, the whole
It was a deliberate effort to make him thing."
unmask. He reflected that it was a shame. "I 'm tremendously pleased about it."

It is a wonderful thing for a baby to have "So am I."

a first tooth, very wonderful. But all he He was at the door now, swinging it
said was "Yes." backward and forward in his hand.
A pause followed, and he gravitated to- "Splendid; and I 'm awfully, awfully
ward the window, and looked out until happy, really."
the glass was blurred by his breath. She "Yes."
seemed troubled with the knot of rib-
still From the street came the sound of a
bon on her hat. Her back was still to- whistle, followed by a responding honk-
ward him. honk from a willing taxi.

At last he said: They it, and suddenly his


both heard
"I 'm awfully glad you '11 be all right head pitched against the panel of the door,
about money." and he broke out with
"Oh, I shall be splendid." "P my dear — I 'm so — —
damned —
"You '11 let me know at once if there is wretched — so bloody— horribly misera- —
anything you want?" ble!"
"There won't be. Are you— shall you The camouflage was rent asunder, gone
be able to write every day?" to the four winds of heaven, and there re-
"I shall try. Dare say they keep you vealed were the naked, sobbing souls of
pretty hard at it over there. So, if I miss two young people brokenly crying on each
sometimes, you must n't worry." other's shoulders, untidily knit in each
"No: I shall understand." other's arms.

Verses for a Guest-room


By ANNE ARRABIN
HAVE no pomp to offer thee;
I Just my heart's hospitality—
A little beam, but one to light
The lodging of an anchorite.

A slumber deep, a dreamless rest,


To thee within this room, dear guest!
'T is sweet to me that thou and I
This night beneath one roof shall lie;
For this I deem most dear, my guest,
In all the world, or east or west,
Where'er thy tarrying may be,
Blessed is the roof that shelters thee
Europe's Heritage of Evil
By DAVID JAYNK HILL
Author of " A History of Diplomacy in the International Development of Europe,
Formerly United States Ambassador to Germany

the retrospect of future historians the Greek Empire, the last bulwark of Ro-
INyear 1914 may have a place not less man imperialism, already long and bitterly-
important than the year 1453, which has alienated from the Roman Curia, paid the
been accepted marking the dividing
as penalty of separatism, and fell before the
line between medieval and modern his- Ottoman assault. With it the splendid
tory. The fall of Constantinople and the postulates of the Roman imperial idea—
establishment of the Ottoman Turks in the essential unity of mankind, the su-
Europe revealed the insufficiency of the premacy of law based upon reason and
bond that had held Christendom together. divine command, the moral solidarity of
In like manner the present European War all who accepted the formulas of faith,
reveals the inadequacy of purely national and the effective organization of peace as

conceptions for the complete organization a condition of human happiness — seemed


of mankind for as Christendom failed to
; to have suffered a fatal catastrophe. In
unite the whole w^orld by faith, so civiliza- place of the Pax Romana, Faustrecht,
tion has failed to maintain itself by force. the right of the mailed fist, widely pre-
Whatever the future of the world is to vailed within the confines of Christendom.
be, it cannot be a mere repetition of the Slowly dying during a thousand years, the
past. There wnll be a new Europe, which which the
traditions of the ancient world,
will radically change the order of the old, Greek Empire had endeavored to preserve
and mark the beginning of another era in long after they had been vmdermined by
the development of mankind. tribalism in the West, were now defini-
The great tragedy of history has been tively abandoned. The future was seen
the conflict between the universal human- to belong to the separate nations, which

ism that Rome


endeavored to establish, alone possessed a strong sense of unity.
first by law and afterward by faith, and The disparity of races, the spirit of local
the tribalism of the primitive European independence, the conflict between the
races. In the fifteenth century tribalism spiritual and the temporal forms of obedi-
triumphed. In the twentieth, universal ence, combined to render possible the de-
humanism may reclaim its own, and re- velopment of powerful national monar-
assert the substantial unity of the human chies, and dynastic ambition was eager to

races. make use of them for its own designs.


In both instances there has been dis-

illusionment. In the fifteenth century It was Machiavelli who expounded the


Christendom assumed the existence of a new theory of the state and the methods
unity of belief that had not in reality been of securing its advancement ; and in this

attained. Both the empire and the papacy, he was inventing no system of his own,
in which great minds had placed implicit but merely stating in definite terms the
faith, proved unable, in the face of racial principles which successful monarchs were
conflicts, world or to
either to rule the already putting
into practice. " 'The

preserve the coherence of Christendom. Prince,' " declares \'illari, "had a more di-
AH that had given grandeur to Rome rect action on real life. than any other
seemed to have ended in failure when the book in the world, and a larger share in
7
8 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
emancipating Europe from the Middle phalia, by rendering even petty princes ab-
Ages" but it would be more exact to say
; solute, permittedmore than three hundred
that Machiavelli's work, written in 15 13 independent rulers to carry on the san-
and published in 1532, was the perfect guinary game of war for plunder or con-
expression of an emancipation from moral quest without restraint; and all, left free
restraints already far advanced. The to destroy one another, were thus entitled
Christian idealism of the Middle Ages had by public law, through war and diplo-
already largely disappeared. The old macy, to seek their fortunes with complete
grounds of obligation had been swept autonomy. Sovereignty, defined as "su-
away. Men looked for their safety to preme power," regardless of any principle
the state rather than to the church ; and of right, was conceived to be the very
the state, as Machiavelli's gospel pro- essence of the state. It remained simply
claimed it, consisted in absolute and irre- to discover by a trial of strength which
sponsible control exercised by one man power was entitled to be esteemed su-
who should embody its unity, strength, preme.
and authority. Thus began the modern When in its moral awakening the Eu-
world. rope of the latter part of the eighteenth
With the dissolution of the feudal or- and early part of the nineteenth century
ganization through the predominance of began to think for itself, or at least to —
the national monarchies disappeared the follow the thinking of Locke, Montes-
sense of mutual obligation which under quieu, Rousseau, Kant, and others who
the feudal regime had constituted an ethi- sought to find the true foundations of the
cal bond between the different orders of state in the conception of law based upon
-society. What remained was the bare con- the nature and necessities of men rather
ception of irresponsible "sovereignty" con- than upon dynastic power, — Europe found
sidered as a divinely implanted, absolute, itself under the incubus of this sinister
unlimited, and indivisible prerogative of inheritance.
personal rule, the charter right of each Without a convulsion that would shake
dynasty to seek its own aggrandizement, the whole of Europe to its foundations it
preponderance, and glory regardless of all was powerless to throw it off. Rousseau
considerations of race, reason, or religion. had in "Le contrat social" merely trans-
With such a conception of the nature ferred the idea of sovereignty from the
of the state, the whole system of inter- monarch to the people, but he had not
national relations was necessarily based essentially altered its character. It was
upon military force. Until Grotius ap- still"supreme power," still the "absolute,
pealed to the ethical motive, and the indivisible, and perpetual" thing which
treaties of Westphalia recognized the dc Bodin, seeking to give royalty a philo-
jure rights of territorial sovereignty, there sophical pedestal to stand upon, had said
was among the nations of Europe no sem- it was. Inherent in the people, it was
blance of public law which jurisprudence still the personification of all the public
could recognize. But even after the Peace powers and the volontc gcncrah, the gen-
;

of Westphalia, the so-called "law of na- eral will, regardless of its moral qualities,
tions" was little more than a theoretical was the unlimited, irresponsible source of
acceptance of the equal rights of autono- law, the possessor of all, the dictator of
mous sovereigns, each of whom could work all, and the ultimate authority in all
his will without interference within his things, which the individual man must re-
own domains, leaving to each ruler the spect and obey.
unquestioned prerogative of dictating the When the French Revolution judged
religion of his own subjects, of taxing and condemned tiie king, it was done as
them, of arming them, and of making war a sovereign act, and was, therefore, not
with their united forces for his own ad- permitted to be questioned by the mon-
vantage. In eflfect, the Peace of West- archs of Europe. Was not sovereignty
EUROPE'S HERITAGE OF EVIL
territorial? Then it belonged to France. trine of the old Europe, which merely
Was it not indivisible? Then it be- asserted itself anew in 191 4.

longed to the French people. Was it This does not signify that it has never
not perpetual? Who, then, could ever been contested. More than tiiree hundred
take it away any way dispute it?
or in years ago a now almost-forgotten German
And thus the volonte generale of one na- jurist, though recognizing sovereignty as
tion, having swept away the monarchy, the foundation of the state, defined it as

soon rose to the height of a war on all an attribute not of the people as an un-
kings; and in the person of the residuary organized mass, but of a "body politic"
legatee of the Revolution, Napoleon Bona- organized for the promotion of justice,

parte, made emperor by the assent of the deriving its authority as a moral entity
volonte generale of France, assumed to from the rights of its constituent mem-
overthe whole of Europe.
act as sovereign bers, whom it is organized to protect
There was no moment during the whole against wrong, and therefore from its very
revolutionary period when sovereignty nature charged with mutual rights and
ceased to be conceived as unlimited su- obligations. The only authority it can
preme power. Recent French writers not claim is authority to defend the rights and
only recognize, but emphasize, the fact. interests thus committed to its guardian-
The distinguished critic and academician ship. As a moral entity — for this is what
Emile Faguet declares: Althusius taught that a state founded on
rights necessarily is— it should be ready to
The French Revolution neither enthroned apply the principles of justice and equity
individualism nor suppressed absolutism. It
in its dealings with other states.
did precisely the contrary. ... It put the
Were this conception of sovereignty
sovereignty of the people in place of the
generally accepted, justice and equity
sovereignty of the king, and it did nothing
would not halt at the frontiers of a nation.
else. ... It was the absolute effacement of
The right of war would exist, but it
the Individual by the majority of his com- would not be, as the old Europe has gen-
patriots . . . voire Majorite in place of
erally recognized it to be, a virtually un-
votre Majeste — that is, without qualifica- limited right. There could be, under this
tion, the sum and substance of the French conception, no permanently subject peo-
Revolution. ples. There could be no world dominion.
There could be no legal schemes of con-
And thus the malign inheritance of Eu- quest. War would mean the punishment
rope, in so far as it was affected by the of offenders against the law of nations, the
Revolution, is essentially unchanged. suppression of anarchy and brigandage, re-
Monarchy and democracy alike, without sistance to the ambitions of the conqueror.
distinction, have regarded sovereignty But the old Europe has never been dis-

merely as "supreme power," "absolute, in- posed to give to sovereignty that meaning.
divisible, and perpetual." Thus it stands It could not do so while it was identified

in all the text-books of the law of nations. with royal legitimacy. That principle tri-
So many sovereignties, so many absolute umphed hundred years ago in the Con-
a
autocrats.Being the sole sources of law, gress of Vienna, which strove to neutral-
how can they be subject to law? And ize the effects of the French Revolution
there being no law which they may not set by ending forever the sovereignty of the
aside, since it is but their creature, sover- people. Then followed the effort to es-

eign nations are irresponsible, and have tablish Europe firmly upon the principles
no more to do with moral right or wrong of absolutism by crushing out all consti-

than so many untamed animals seeking to tutional aspirations. To accomplish this


satisfy their appetites. The right to make the unlimited right of war was necessary,
war and to be answerable to no
at will for without armed intervention by the
one, that was, and is, the accepted doc- allied sovereigns the task was hopeless.
10 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Legitimacy was to be everywhere sus- equally to the regulations concerning the
tained by the Holy Alliance. Wherever manner of conducting war that have been
a state adopted a constitution, the powers explicitly laid down, — but because no sov-
bound themselves at the Congress of ereign state has thus far been disposed to
Troppau, "if need be by arms, to bring pledge itself not to engage in war ex-
back the guilty state into the bosom of cept under conditions that in harmony
the Alliance." with its own principles of legislation
The unlimited right of a sovereign state would be considered just. "Hence both
to make war for any reason it considered parties in every war are regarded as being
sufficient, or for no reason at all, thus in an identical position, and consequently
seemed to be written into the public law possessed of equal rights." Aggressor and
of Europe, That was the unhallowed in- victim alike, triumphant force and help-
heritance which modern democracies have less innocence, these are held in equal
received from absolutism. Being entitled honor by the public law of Europe as it
to all the prerogatives of sovereignty as now stands, and this law has been tacitly
historically understood, they have not re- accepted by the "family of nations"!
pudiated the heritage. And thus they It is upon this unlimited right to resort
have tacitly accepted the evil principle of to war, and the consequent general irre-

the despotisms whose iniquities


against sponsibility in international relations, that
they have rebelled, and whose pernicious the idea of neutrality reposes; and yet
influence they were struggling to throw neutrality is historically an immense step
off. forward in the path of progress when com-
In the call for the first Hague Con- pared with the Machiavellian doctrine
ference "all questions concerning the po- that no opportunity for gain from the
litical were expressly
relation of states" quarrels of others should be allowed to
excluded from the deliberations of the pass unutilized. In every war, Machia-
conference. In that, and in the second velli declares, one side or the other will
conference, rules were laid down regard- win, and the wise course for an intelligent
ing the manner of conducting war both on prince to pursue is to join at the proper
land and sea; but nowhere were any regu- moment with the probable winner, who-
lations prescribed regarding the causes or ever he may be, in order to be able to
conditions of declaring war that were to share with him the spoils of victory.
be considered legal or illegal, just or un- The modern doctrine of neutrality,
just. As one of the best-accredited au- which considers war an unavoidable evil,
thorities on the subject says: is no doubt an amelioration of Machia-

velli's policy for, instead of widening the


;

law ought to
Theoreticall}', international
range of hostilities, it aims to narrow the
determine the causes for which war can be
area of conflict. It is inspired, however,
justly undertaken; in other words, it ought
chiefly by the consideration that it is a
to mark out as plainly as municipal law
national right to avoid the infection of a
what constitutes a wrong for which a pestilence that the neutral power has not
remedy may be sought at law. It might
caused and for which it is not responsible.
also not unreasonably go on to discourage So long as the belligerents, who are con-
the commission of wrongs by investing a
ceded the privilege of mutual destruction,
state seeking redress with special rights, and
— but often with very unequal facilities for
in the conflict, — do not too deeply
by subjecting a wrong-doer to special dis-
engaging
abilities.
offend the neutral states by their activities,
powerful nations feel justified in stand-
In fact, however, it does nothing of the ing silent and inactive while weak states
kind. The reason is not merely that there are crushed into subjection and the laws
would be no means except war for en- of war, which they themselves have helped
forcing such rules, — for that would apply to make, are violated.
EUROPE'S HERITAGE OF EVIL 11

From a moral point of view this ap- hungry, he takes a pride in his pro-
pears to be a strange proceeding for a prietorship.
member of the "family of nations" ; but It is the nation's territory, industry,
it must be considered that this is a family commerce, and prestige that are now in
of a very peculiar kind. In it each mem- question. And government, even the gov-
ber, by tacit consent, is believed to fulfil ernment of the people, is no longer merely
his whole duty by looking solely after his protective. It enters into every kind of
own interests. Governments, it is held, business, owns railways, steamship lines,
are in every case responsible to their own manufactories, everything involving the
constituents for the preservation of the life and prosperity of the people. The
safety and well-being of the nations in- state has become an economic as well as
trusted to their care, and consequently they a political organ of society. The modern
cannot act with the freedom of a private national state is, in fact, a stupendous and
person. They may not, therefore, incon- autonomous business corporation, the most
tinently plunge their people into war with- portentous and the most lawless business
out reasons that involve the national in- trust, and views other nations as its busi-

terests. Until there is a better organiza- ness rivals, aiming at the control of foreign
tion of international relations, this con- markets, and of the sources of raw ma-
dition must continue ; but it is rapidly terials wherever they may exist. And
coming to be perceived that, if civilization these vast economic entities, with their
is not to suffer shipwreck, a better organi- vision fixed on gain, combine not only the
zation must be sought. command of armies and navies, but abso-
lute freedom from effective legal restric-
Before attempting to find a basis for tion with immensely concentrated wealth,
a revision of international relations it is such as the kings and emperors of the past
necessary to consider how intimately na- never had at their disposal.
have become associated with
tional interests Whatever, from an internal and social
war. For a long time all the interests of point of view, the merits or defects of the
the state were regarded as personal to the extension of state functions may be, they
sovereign. All its territory was his ter- are bristling with war.
possibilities of
ritory. All the property of the nation and when modern nations engage in it,
was his property, of which the people en- it is no longer a dynastic adventure, but

joyed only the usufruct. Even their per- a people's war. Commanding the strength
sons and their lives were at his disposal, and resources of a whole people, and act-
for they were in all respects his subjects. ing for its alleged interests, these great
To-day the identity of the sovereign is economic corporations are fitted for ag-
changed, but not the conception of sov- gression as well as for defense. If they
ereignty. The people, standing in the were subject to the usual laws of busi-
place of the sovereign, claim the right of ness that prevail in the regulation of
succession to all the royal prerogatives. private enterprises within their own
The national interests have become their borders, in accordance with the principles
interests. The appeal to their patriotism they apply at home, these mailed and
rests upon this ground. The power, gain, armed knights of trade might not be
and glory of the state are represented to dangerous to the world's peace; but they
be theirs. Even where it has not entirely are not subject to these or to any such
superseded monarch, the nation be-
the regulations. They recognize no law which
lieves itself to have entered into partner- they feel themselves obliged to obey. In-
ship with him, and the people consider heriting by tradition from the past al-
themselves shareholders in the vast enter- leged rights of absolute sovereignty, and
prise of expanding dominion. Even the equipped with military forces on land and
beggar in the street is assured that it is sea, they are engaged in a struggle for
his country ; and though ragged and supremacy which they would not for a
12 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
moment permit within their own legal to pronounce specific condemnations :hen
jurisdiction. Were a similar organization we know what change is required and who
formed within their own borders, adopt- may refuse to participate in making it.
ing as its principles of action the privileges Undoubtedly, we have all of us been
usually claimed by sovereign states, it cherishing illusions. Let us, then, en-
would be promptly and ruthlessly sup- deavor to dissipate them.
pressed as a dangerous bandit. Wehave assumed that in some mystical
This statement implies no reflection manner progress is inherent in society
upon any particular nation, for all to some that it is necessarily produced by natural
extent share in the responsibility. What laws; that the mere duration of time car-
is here condemned as essentially unsocial ries us forward to perfection ; and that
and anarchic is the indifference of these the older civilization becomes, the wiser it

great economic corporations to


national tends to be. Trusting to these baseless
one another's rights, and above all the generalities, we have in a spirit of optim-
absence in the law of nations, as it is now ism forgotten that we have duties to per-
understood, of any accepted regulations form, renunciations to make, and sacri-
such as the lesser constituent elements of fices to ofFer if the state, or the so-called
the business world are required by these society of states, is to prosper. We have
very states to obey under their authority. formed the habit of looking to the state
If civilizationis to endure, and nations as a source of personal benefit to our-
are not to become privileged highway rob- selves, which calls for only the smallest
bers on the land and pirates on the sea, contributions from us in return. We have
this part of the law of nations must be re- made exorbitant demands upon it, as un-
vised not only as respects the rules of from over-
disciplined children extort gifts
war, but the rules of peace. In so far as indulgent parents. We have wanted bet-
a nation is should be
a business entity it ter wages, better prices for our commodi-
governed by the same principles in its ties, better opportunities of trade, better
dealings with other nations as civilized conditions of life, free schools, free books,
states apply to business within their own playgrounds, public provisions of every
limits. But international law has not yet kind at the expense of the state. In order
reached the stage of formal development to obtain these benefits, we have desired
where this is recognized. under It is still that the state should become omnipotent,
the influence of the inherited customs of seeking to augment its resources by
the past, the baneful fiction of an absolute despoiling the rich within its limits, and
sovereign prerogative. Just as Christen- exploiting or even conquering foreign ter-
dom found that it was not in fact so ritory wrested from other peoples, in the
organized as to restrain the Hun and the belief that this would render it easier to
Tatar, so we are discovering that civili- meet all our necessities, and through its

zation is not yet so organized as to re- increased power become the dispenser of
strain their modern counterparts. So long happiness. When for this purpose armies
as international business is controlled by and navies have been required, it has been
an absolute conception of sovereignty, and easy to obtain them ; for may not the state,
sustained by military force, there will be being a sovereign power, do all things
no prospect of peace or equity in the world. necessary for its own interest? Thus our
Let us not here undertake to speak of consciences have been put to rest.
remedies. We must first comprehend the This tendency of modern states and the
nature of the disease. Nor should we here sudden revelation of its meaning have
attempt to apportion blame, which would been forcibly expressed by a recent writer.
end only in bitter controversy. If the evil He says:
is in the system, then it is the system that
must be changed; and it will be time A few more teasings, a few more pistols

enough to inquire how to change it anil held at the head of the state, and a scheme.
EUROPE'S HERITAGE OF EVIL 13
we were expecting, would be forthcoming ing military force as its advance-agent,
that would render us all happy in spite of struggling for the control of markets and
ourselves. Then, one fine morning in resources, and the command of new
August, there came a rude awakening. We peoples who are to feed and move the
got a message from the state couched in awful enginery of war.
language we had never heard before. "I And this condition of the world is the
require you," said the state, "to place your logical outcome of the inherited theory of
property and your lives at my service. Now, the state. This fact is now beginning to
and for some time to come, I give nothing, be recognized, and recently there has been
but ask for everything. Arm yourselves much said regarding imperialism and de-
for my defense. Give me your sons, and mocracy, often assuming that the mere in-
be willing that they should die for me. Re- ternal form of government is responsible
pay what you owe me. My turn has come." for the international situation in Europe.
But it is not the form, it is the spirit, and
And thus Europe upon to pay
is called above all the postulates, of government
the debt its theory of the state and of the that are at fault. If democracies may act
state's omnipotence has incurred. We, according to their "good pleasure," if the
too, in America may sometime be called mere power of majorities is to rule with-
upon to pay the debt if we are not wise. out restraint, if there are no sacred and
We have trusted blindly to the pro- controlling principles of action, in what
cess of social evolution. Industrialism respect is a multiple sovereign superior to
and commerce, we have assumed, will au- a single autocrat? If the private greed
tomatically bring in a new era. Before it of a people is sustained by the pretensions
militarism, the grim relic of the old of absolutism in international affairs,

regime, will disappear. There >vill soon democracy itself becomes imperial, with-
be no need for fighting. When all the out accepting the principles of equity
world turns wars
to industry, as it will, which give dignity to the imperial idea.
will cease. Commerce will cement the In truth, the most dangerous conceivable
nations together and create a perfect enemy to peace and justice would be a
solidarity of interests. group of competitive democracies delirious
But the present war has thrown a new with unsatisfied desires.
light on the relations of militarism and If there is to be a new Europe, it will be
industry. Forty years ago, Herbert far less the result of new forms of organi-
Spencer, with his strong proclivity for zation than of a new spirit of action. Eu-
brilliant generalization, fancied that the rope must renounce altogether its evil heri-
age of militarism was soon to be super- tage. It must reconstruct its theory of the
seded by an age of universal industrialism. state as an absolutely autonomous entity.
He described their opposite polities, the If the state continues to be a business cor-
conditions of the gradual transition, and poration, as it probably in some sense will,

the final triumph of industry over mil- then it must abandon the conception of
itancy. But what do we now behold ? sovereignty as an unlimited right to act
Has militarism diminished with the in any way under the cover of
it pleases
growth of industry? Has not militarism national interests and necessity. It must
simply become more titanic and even more consent to be governed by business rules.
demoniacal by the aid of industry, until It must not demand something for noth-
war has become the most stupendous prob- ing, it must not make its power the
lem of modern mechanics? And now we measure of its action, it must not put its
see militarism wholly absorbing industry, interests above its obligations. It may
claiming all its resources, and even organ- plead them, it may argue them, and it may
izing and commanding it. use its business advantages to enforce
And why is this? It is because the them; but it may not threaten the life or
state as a business corporation is employ- appropriate the property of its neighbors
14 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
or insist upon controlling them on its own thesis that industrialism is essentially
terms. It may display its wares, proclaim pacific, and will eventually automatically
their excellence, fix its own prices, buy disband armies and navies, and thus put
and sell where it finds its advantage; but an end to war. On the contrary, modern
it must not bring to bear a machine-gun armies and navies are the result of trade
as a means of persuasion upon its rival rivalry, and are justified to those who
across the street. support them on the ground that there
No one can make a thorough and im- are national interests to be defended or
partial inquiry into the causes of the advantages to be attained by their ex-
present European conflict without perceiv- istence. So long as even one powerful
ing that their roots run deep into the soil nation retains its heritage of evil and in-
of trade rivalry. Beneath the apparent sists that it may employ its armies or

political antagonisms are the economic as- navies aggressively as an agency in its
pirations that have produced them. In national business; so long, to put the mat-
the light of history we can no longer ac- ter directly, as the nations must buy and
cept the doctrine that industrialism and sell, travel and exchange, negotiate and

commercialism by a process of natural deliver, with bayonets at their breasts, so


evolution automatically supersede militar- long defensive armies and navies will be
ism. On the contrary, we perceive that necessary, and the battle for civilization
militarism on the one hand, and industry must go on.
and commerce on the other, are at present Strange as it may seem, it is not the
partners rather than antagonists. They poorest nations, but the richest, where dis-

are different, but closely associated, ac- content is deepest and most wide-spread.
tivities of modern business policy as con- It is the great powers that are most in-
ducted by the state. If there were no clined to war, and are most fully prepared
economic questions involved, the conflict to make it; and the reason is not diffi-
of nationalities could soon be ended. cult to discern. The greater the state, the
Modern wars are trade wars. Modern greater its ambitions. It is easily within
armies and navies are not maintained for the grasp of five or six great powers to
the purpose of ruthlessly taking human secure the permanent peace of the world,
life or of covering rulers with glory. and, far more important than that, to se-
They on the one hand, armed guard-
are, cure the observance of just laws by all

ians of economic advantages already pos- the nations. But, unfortunately, govern-
sessed and, on the other, agents of in-
; ments, feeling themselves charged with the
tended future depredation, gradually or- duty of augmenting the resources of the
ganized for purposes alleged to be in- no limit to their ambitions ex-
state, find
nocent, and at what is esteemed the cept in their powers of action, which are
auspicious moment despatched upon their great. The whole future of the world
mission of aggression. Mere international has in the past virtually lain in the hands
misunderstandings are readily adjusted of a smallnumber of men, not all of them
where there is the will to adjust them monarchs, but the recognized leaders of
but against the deliberately formed policies public thought and action in their re-
of national business expansion — the reach- spective nations.
ing out for new territory, increased popu- This order of things is less likely to
lation, war indemnities, coaling-stations, continue in the future than at any time
trade monopolies, control of markets, sup- in the past. Far less frequently than in
plies of raw and advantageous
materials, former times will individual men shape the
treaty privileges, to be procuredunder the destinies of nations. No man, probably,
shadow of the sword— there is no defense will ever do for Great Britain what was
except the power to thwart or obstruct done for it Pitt, and no man
by William
them by armed resistance. will ever do for Germany what Bismarck
\Vc must, then, definitively abandon the did. And this is an important augury for
'MARY, HELPER OF HEARTBREAK 15
the new Europe. Only a few men, and ing earnestness why nations cannot con-
they but temporarily, framed and executed duct their business as the state generally
the policies that have, for example, created requires private business to be conducted,
the British Empire. As the historian in accordance with reasonable rules of pro-
Seeley said, "We
have conquered half the cedure? Many negative answers will,
world in a fit of absence of mind." And no doubt, be given, for governments are
in all this process the British people have tenacious of their traditions; but, never-
never been consulted, just as the German theless, there will be a general revision of
people were not consulted in the two the inherited conception of the nature of
critical moments of their existence ; for in the and a perception that world
state,

the past peopleswere seldom consulted re- dominion not the prerogative of any
is

garding their national destiny. But that single nation. States, like individual men,
time has passed forever. Henceforth no must henceforth admit their responsibilities
intelligent people will ever be led into the to one another, accept the obligation to
shambles of modern warfare without being obey just and equal laws, and take their
in some sense consulted. That is the first respective places in the society of states in
mark of difference that will distinguish a spirit of loyalty to civilization as a
the new Europe from the old. And, being human and not an exclusively national
consulted, will they not ask with increas- ideal.

"Mary, Helper of Heartbreak—"


By MARGARET WIDDEMER

WELL, and if so it 's over, better it is for me;


The lad was ever a rover, loving and laughing free,

Far too clever a lover not to be having still


A lass in the town and a lass by the road and a lass by the farther hill

Love in the field and love on the path and love in the little glen.
{Lad, iviJl I 7iever see you, never your face again?)

Aye, if the thing is ending, now I '11 be getting rest,

Saying my prayers, and bending down to be stilled and blessed.


Never the saints are sending hope till your heart is sore
For a laugh on the path and a voice by the gate and a step on the shealing floor-

Grief on my ways and grief on my work and grief till the day is dim.
{Lord, tuill I never hear it, never the sound of himf)

Sure if it 's through forever, better for me that 's wise.


Never the hurt, and never tears in my aching eyes;
No more the trouble ever to hide from my watching folk
Beat of my heart at click of the latch and start if his name is spoke.
Never the need to hide the sighs and the flushing thought and the fret.
For after a while my heart will hush and my hungering hands forget
Peace on my ways and peace in my step, and maybe my heart grown light.
{Mary, helper of heartbreak, send him to me to-night!)
Casemate 17
Pages from the Diary of a French Private Imprisoned in Germany
By GASTON RIOU
Illustrations by Wilfred Jones

comes strident, terrible,


mad. Sometimes they try
September 2, 1914. to take the train by storm,

HERE I am a prisoner. and are stopped only by the


What a journey! I bayonets of the German
am bitter at soul ; it makes soldierson guard in each
me sick to think of it. compartment, who growl
Across Rhenish Prussia, the threats.
Palatirrate, the grand duchy The women are even
of Baden, Wiirtemberg, more horrible than the men.
and Bavaria, for three days The murderous glance, the
and three nights, at every clawed fingers working and
station, and even as we pass tearing as if in the dream
through the country-side, of a tigress, the nostrils di-
groups of peasants and lated and twitching, the lips
gloomy crowds of citizens cyanosed, grimacing hatred
hurl execrations at us, — never before have I seen
stamp, and shake their fists, such faces of damned souls,
making signs that they such Medusa heads. Who
would •
like to cut our could believe that women
throats and tear out our could appear so horrible!
eyes. From the streets of When the train stops for
country towns, lost amid any time, richly dressed ma-
the sweltering plains, troops trons parade beside it, of-
of children assemble, wav- fering our guards mugs of
ing flags. They form In beer, cigars, and cigarettes,
line beside the track. When bread and butter and jam,
the train comes in, moving steaming sausages. Sick
slowly like a funeral con- with hunger and fatigue,
voy, the people beg for our we look on at this prodigal-
kepis; they vociferate in ity. "Above all," they say,

their own language: "Paris "gi\e nothing to these


kaput! ^ Death to the French! Let them starve!"
French !" The sight of our We are offered water.
Red Cross armlets produces Everywhere, at the sta-
paroxysmsoffury. "Death," tions, from the steeples, the

they scream— "death to the factories, the inns, huge flags

Red Cross men These are they who fin


! are waving, Chime answers chime across
ish off our wounded !" The shouting be the rivers. The big cathedral bells make
1 A slang word, generally employed, meaning "smashed
the hills reecho. All Germany is ]iolIda\-
ix " ruined." Accent on second syllable. making, drunk with blood, thrilling with
16
CASEMATE 17 17

the prospect of victory. Is torches in our faces, saying modestl\',


this the (lermanv I knew "\'ou know that our armies are only a
last year? few leagues from Paris?" The better-
I had traveled through educated regaled us with French. "La
the country as if on a pil- foila," they said mockingly, "la grande

grimage. We passed nation!" People streamed out of the


through Heidelberg, my public-houses as we went by. On the
peaceful Heidelberg, so threshold the calm and paunchy drink-
lovable in the shade of its ers M^aved their mugs and vented their
august ruin and of its oak- guffaws. The whole city was agog be-

crowned and vine-clad neath the great royal and imperial


hill; Marburg, the quiet little town with standards. It was really ludicrous, all

its professors and its workmen, resting this fuss about fifty field-hospital orderlies.

more quietly at the foot of the margrave's It was quite clear that the German
castle than even the bones of St. Elisabeth nation was the martyr of Europe. "As
of Hungary beneath the pavement of the for us," said the sergeant-major, "our
church ; Dresden, that fine seat of artistic conscience is quite at ease." Yes, we, the
and courtly life; Munich, the Teuton French, were the aggressors; we were the
Florence, blooming like a flower; Wei- apaches who had come furtively to dis-
mar, more sacred than all the others, turb the dignified repose of these excellent
where the neighboring houses of Schiller people, full of humanity, thoughtful, and
and Goethe mourn discreetly the memories gentle! It was unquestionably the anger
of the golden century, the lyrical and gen- of an offended conscience, the holy joy of
erous youth of Germany were ! We justice at length avenged, which found
charmed with these laughing cities of the expression in this tumult. I looked on
spirit. I can still picture them in the and with greater interest than
listened
limpid air of last spring; I recall their at the most exciting of plays. From the
dainty aspect, and the cheerful welcome casements, graceful beneath their Gothic
they accorded us ; I see their waters re- gables and bright with window-gardens,
flecting the blue skies and the bright imprecations rained down on us. And the
clouds. When I but think of them in gestures of the silhouetted figures standing
this damp crypt of exile, gusts of liberty, in the front of these lighted interiors
youth, and ecstasy agitate my heart. sufficed to show those among us who could
not understand Swabian the significance
The setting sun cast its rosy light over of the volleys of Homeric abuse.
the Danube and the ancient city of In- I was not in the least humiliated by the
golstadt, in Bavaria, when we passed hubbub. My condition was one of strange
through it as prisoners. Ingolstadt! The exaltation. I was very sad and yet fas-
"forty propositions," Luther, Father cinated—sad at the spectacle of mankind,
Eck, the celebrated attempt to unite the and yet fascinated at the chance of seeing
two churches, the great "disputations" of man as he really is. Tacitus, Machiavelli,
the sixteenth century! But the sight of Stendhal, Ferrero— from none of these
the bayonets of the Bavarian guard on the have I gained so strong an impression of
platform dispersed my train of remi- human reality. But I will defer my com-
niscences. ments. Thoughts conceived under the
We passed through the city under a spur of hunger and in a sort of physical
deluge of cries of "Death!" And w^hat dementia are not likely to be just. Be-
we heard "Paris kaput!
a litany of kaputs ! sides, it is difficult to keep one's head cool
Manonviller kaput! Verdun kaput!" when the whole world is crumbling
One might have imagined that the whole around one. I fear lest I may have to
world was kaput. The gentle-minded laugh some day at the partiality of this
among the townsfolk flashed electric simple and matter-of-fact story, which I
18 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
have written for some one whom I love, we amuse ourselves, we walk about, we
and in which I faithfully desire to use no hunt for lice, we dream, we are filled
colors but those of truth. with indignation, we soften, we caress
Ofour arrival at Fort Orff I can re- the dear relics hidden in our knapsacks,
call nothing but the memory of a great we retire into ourselves all this we do in —
iron gate which groaned on its hinges public. How well do I understand the
when it was opened, of a few lanterns phrase of St. Bernard, the phrase of a
held by sentinels and running hither monk, "O heata solitudo, sola heatitudo!"
thither in the darkness, of a gloomy and Take men who have nothing in common
nauseous staircase where I stumbled and but the flag; throw these soldiers pell-mell
where my nailed boots made a clatter that into a cellar, where they hunger and are
aroused distant echoes, and of a casemate, cut oH from news; subject them to med-
this casemate, with cemented floor, bare, dlesome regulations; compel them, in this
without even straw, its arches sweating wretchedness, to live always in close
damp. I threw myself on the floor, my proximity, and far from everything which
cheek on my knapsack. head was My they have hitherto known as life. Doubt-
throbbing with fever. I spent a sleepless less they will have their good hours; at
night, not thinking, but a prey to delirium. times, when their minds are filled with
thoughts of those they love and of their
September i6, 19 14. motherland, their words and their silences
The casemate is empty. My comrades will be no less pure and sweet than is a
have gone up to the nine-o'clock roll-call. long summer twilight : but at other times-
I am still "confined to my room by ill- No, I wish to forget. After all, the heroes
ness." am happy to be
I alone. It is of the great epic are only men. Why
cold. Wrapping my rug closely round should expect of them, during months
we
me, I lie listening to the bitter wind. I and months, a patience and a self-com-
am alone ; I am free. It me that
seems to mand of which many men in good society,
the current of life has swept me away to men esteemed well bred, are incapable
the end of the world, depositing me amid when a caller stays too long?
dumb deserts of infinite vastness. The effort to pull myself together and
The straw upon which I have been to become what was before these days
I

lying for a fortnight is reduced to powder. in prison is too much for my poor strength.
I roll mj'self in it as if it were a dust bath I am shivering with cold. To throw ofF

for chickens. How thin is my rug! My this should need to eat three or
torpor I

limbs shake with the cold of fever. Yester- four times as much as we are allowed.
day for a quarter of an hour I dragged Alas! the wretched half-loaf of the first

myself along in the east court, but I was few days has been reduced to a third of

unable to get as far as the first glacis. a loaf, for the German authorities are
When I was coming down-stairs on the methodically restricting our rations. Even
way back my legs seemed heavier than the dullest of the soldiers, heavy, good-
hand-grenades. I am very cold. Through natured fellows, those who never think
the upper parts of the two screened and consequently waste very little energy,
windows I catch a glimpse of a strip of find it difl^cult to keep going. Poor
sky, gray and heavy, crushing down on mothers, could you but catch a glimpse
the slope, on the portcullis on the top of of your sons, your fine lads, whom you
the slope, on the wild rose-bush which used to pet so tenderly! On the slopes
breaks the straight line of the portcullis. and in the dry ditches of the fort you
On the steep slope I see the long grass would see them gloomy and slow, with
bending before the gusts. drawn features, with a yellow and dirty
I am alone. How delightful! What skin, almost always crouching on the
wealth ! What a privilege ! Here we are ground. They look like shades in purga-
never alone. We sleep, we dress, we eat. tory. Are these the youths of France?
CASE1\ lATE 17 19

Sergeant Bertrand is the Hrst to come another." Then turning to me, and low-
down. Without saying a word he throws ering his harsh voice, he says: "Richeris
himself on his heap of straw beside me. is the happiest of us all. For him there is

Then, one behind the other, come dreamily nothing but God. If God wills it, he
in Sergeant Boude and Guido, my ter- is satisfied ; if God does not will it, he
rible and dear Guido. Soon all the rest is equally satisfied."
of the section enters, a stamping and noisy The club relapses into silence. Ber-
rout. trand dreams. Guido, his faith in original

Bertrand does not move. Leaning sin thoroughly reestablished, meditates


against his knapsack, pipe in mouth, a pipe upon misfortune and upon human malice.

carved by Boude, he looks straight in


THE FIRST I.ETTEP
front of him. He is in a fine fit of the
blues. If his fiancee could see him thus, October 8, 19 14.
his fiancee of Ciotat Yesterday the rumor was current, de-
At the end of the room, beneath the rived, it was said, from the guard, that
windows, two groups are placing cards for we were going to be permitted to write to
pfennig stakes. Beyond them, leaning our families.
against the bars, Sabatier, grave and mute, That evening I was deluged with re-

is plaiting a horsehair watch-chain. Over quests: "Riou, could you lend me your
there, from every mouth, from all the pen and ink?" "Can you spare a sheet or
Bavarian pipes hanging over the players' two of paper?" There was a regular pro-
stomachs, mount thick clouds of smoke. cession of them. The mere thought, or,
In our corner, spoken of as the "club" rather, the conviction, that they would be
by the men of the "fond," or window end, able to write home transfigured them.
every one is silent. Bertrand is in Ciotat. Home, the fireside, the loved ones, the
Guido, hunched against the wall, his kepi familiar objects, the birthplace, the
pulled down over his eyes, seems to be motherland
turning over disconsolate thoughts. Boude, Even the cooks, more practised in crit-
the good Boude, w^'th the soul of an artist icism than the other prisoners, had lost all
who has lost his way in every-day life, sense of proportion. They handled their
stands up, looking at our trio. utensils with a terrible joy. Then the
All of a sudden, Bertrand, with a yawn, tumult was stilled. A gentle atmosphere
murmurs: of harmony hovered over the stoves. The
"I would sell my life for a penny." cooks were silent and motionless. Like
Boude smiles at his alter ego. every one else, they were bewitched with
'Tor my part, old chap, I brought with thoughts of France. For France they for-
me from Marseilles a certain store of got the most serious of their immediate
philosophy." duties. One was allowed an entrance into
"That also gets used up, Sergeant the secret universe of their thoughts, as if

Boude," says Guido, "just as certainly as into a public place.


the cigar that you are smoking. And once In the evening, when roll-call was
your cigar is finished, in these times of finished, the news was confirmed.
dearth, you may find it difficult to get To-day every one has spent the morning
20 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
in writing his letter, the one and only ing only of this. What can I do to-morrow
letter to which we are entitled. But what morning to secure a supplementary loaf?
a disappointment! No more than one Little Brissot, my friend of the Alpine
company is to be allowed to send Infantry, when we were walking
letters each day. We are five com- few days ago with our two
panies. Only one letter every five French medical officers, made this
days But that melancholy barrier
!
unexpected confession
of silence which for a month and a "Only one thing can give me
half has separated us from pleasure now — to get
the world has at last been food. Only one man in-
broken down. terests me — the man who

It is true that we have is capable of getting me

been ordered to say noth- food."


ing about the war and to Even in the bravest the

instruct our correspon- soldier spirit dies. Look


dents to observe a similar at these men crouching on
restriction. This mornin^: their heaps of straw hour
these forbidden things after hour, silent and half
have disturbed us little. asleep, or look at them as
Do you think that any with hands in pockets and
one of the prisoners, when writing his hanging heads they slowly
letter, had a fancy for dissertations make their way up the
upon strategy? His wife, his fiancee, slopes of the fort-yard
his children, his mother, his whole life, who can imagine that
were before his eyes. At length people these are the men who
would know that he was alive. His fought like lions at Mont-
head was singing with voices from his court and Lagarde?
own fireside. He was intoxicated, at These sudden visions of
once giddy with excitement, softened, home were requisite to
bitter, almost mad. The most indiffer- restore many of our prisoners,
ent, the most torpid, seemed to have
been awakened with a start. Permission
^ though only for a moment,
But for how many of them
to life.
this has
to write, the act of writing, had shaken also involved a revival of suffering!
them out of their inertia. "I don't know how I shall be able to
For, fortunately, imprisonment dulls feed my three children next year unless I

our sensibilities. At first it causes poign- can get home soon. I can't help thinking
ant suffering, and suffering, of whatever about my farm, where the harvests of
kind, sharpens the faculties. But im- corn and grapes have been poorly gathered,
prisonment is above all hunger, chronic and where everything is running to
hunger. Those only who have experienced waste." The soldier who spoke thus
it can understand the effect which chronic comes from Uriage, in Dauphine. He
hunger speedily exercises even upon an stopped me when I was walking with
active brain. At first it induces hallucina- measured steps after the seven-o'clock
tions. With terrible realism the sufferer coffee, taking my anti-rheumatic constitu-
recalls meals eaten before the war, some tional on the slopes. He drew me aside
particular dinner, such and such a picnic. into a corner of the fortifications. Taking
The nerves of taste and smell, exasperated a letter from his pocket, he modestly asked
by the scanty regimen, are visited by me in a melancholy tone: "Could you tell
memories of odors and tastes. The man me if that is all right, and whether you
thinks of nothing but eating. Literally think it will be allowed to pass? Please
he is nothing but a clamorous stomach. be good enough to read it. You have my
He will lie awake the entire night think- leave." Poor comrade! It cut me to the
CASEMATE 17 21
heart to see him. He wanted to look self- round his shoulders. He planted him-
possessed, to look like a man ; but he had self in front of me. He fixed me with his
been weeping. He spoke low and quietly eyes, the cold, distrustful eves of the
in order to keep the tears out of his voice. mountain-dweller and of the priest.
The paper shook in his hand. I read Then, making up his mind to open his
"My dear Marguerite," — there was noth- thin lips, he said
ing in the letter,
— "don't worry about "You are in a gloomy mood. You have
me . . . All is well with me . . . been writing to her."
We are very well cared for ..." We went out together, I felt his
These reassuring phrases were reiterated harsh sympathy as he strode by my side.
throughout the four pages, the very Every one was out of doors, but there
words repeated again and again. My were very few groups. Each man walked
master, Jean Monnier, declares that repeti- by himself, rapt in his own visions. Guido
tion is the rhetorical flower of simple remarked
minds. What a tragedy underlay the dis- "It 's extraordinary how little noise
jointed prose! This prisoner of \\ar they make, rl('\en hundred warriors."

whose ejes shone with hunger, this hollow-


THE RUSSIANS
cheeked man who had spent all his poor
pocket-money so that he could no longer April 20, 1915.
buy any smuggled goods, bread, sugar, — The Russian prisoners whom we were
or chocolate,— wrote: "All is well with dreading have arrived. For the last three
me," "We are very well cared for," months the Germans have been threaten-
He said it and resaid it monotonously ing us with them as with the plague,
throughout the entire letter. It was es- adding, "In the camps where the French
sential that his wife should have no doubt and the Russians are together they always
about the matter, his poor wife, who had come to blows."
already much trouble to bear. I should One morning the Oberstabs-arzt inocu-
have liked to pet him like a little brother, lated us against cholera. Every one said,
tin's man already gray. "They are coming!" The sergeant-major
I also wrote my letter. Having too did, in fact, go through the casemates,
much to say, I said nothing. What are allotting five to one, ten to another, and
words when the heart hungers for ma- fifteen to some. At six in the evening,
terial presence, for a touch, for a living an hour earlier than usual, the electric
Silf ? My letter was not even of the bellrang for the evacuation of the courts.
regulation length. Immediately afterward the forty-nine
At eleven Guido came in with his rug heads of rooms were summoned, were
22 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
drawn up in line beyond the bridge, and masters, French rule prevailed. Notwith-
were told to wait. standing the order confining us to our
The gentle April twilight had already rooms, the "Frantsuz" crowded to the
enveloped the brow of the slopes, and the thresholds to greet the "little fathers."
lower red-brick front looking into "Good day, Russkis!" they cried,
the ditch lay hidden in the gath- regardless of the Bodies. "Ger-.
ering darkness as if in ambuscade. mania kaput!" They made
French prisoners were bunched roguish gestures indicating free-
round the windows. With laugh dom.
ing faces they defied The Russians got on little

the commandant, stiff faster in the corridors of Fort


and dapper, doing sen- Orff than in the attack upon
tr3^-go on the glacis. Lowicz, where their advance was
Under his very nose obstructed bybarbed wire. Every
they began to hum the door was an ambush, every
Russian national an- Frenchman an obstacle. Cigars
them. But the Rus- and cakes rained upon them.
sians did not come. And then the hand-shakings and
The great black gate, the amicable clappings on the
buttressed between the shoulder!
mossy walls of the The little fathers had had
counterscarp, starred nothing to eat since the previous
with anemone and day. The quartermaster served
colt's-foot, remained obsti- them out a morsel of cheese,
nately shut. Impatience grew. but no bread.
At sentry " Ger mania n'ret hleb" ("There is
length the outer
whistled, the Hauptmcmn no bread in Germany"), said the
went forward, and the gate Russians. "Ja, nichts Brot'' re-
opened. joined the French in their bad Ger-
The distribution of the man "but France Brot, plenty Brot."
;

convoy was effected in the Thus communicating with their


Prussian manner. Each head- friends in nigger talk, they emptied
man went to take delivery of their haversacks before the men.
his Russians outside, behind The Germans laughed on the wrong
the gate, and conducted the side of their mouths. They had ex-
supplementary squad to his pected war; what they saw was love.
casemate. This took half an Until nine o'clock the turmoil was in-
hour. In Indian file, following their French credible. Every room was treating its
corporal or sergeant, they went along at new recruits. The poorer rooms offered
a quick step, but noiselessly in their supple crusts of white bread baked in Saintonge,
jack-boots; they were muffled in huge gray or lower Brittany. In the well-to-do
overcoats, and their size was increased by quarters the men brewed chocolate and
enormous fur caps. Night fell. The served it with rusks. Since in my room,
dead color of their uniforms melted away that of the interpreters, there were no
in the darkness. The silence was absolute. Russians, I went to Casemate i6, the
Pale Scythian faces, flat-nosed Tatar faces, casemate of Corporal Dumoulin, my com-
Asiatic types with wide cheek-bones, rade-at-arms. Dinner was finished. Seated
Samoyed beards, downy and curled— all on their paillasses, doubled over, our al-
the Russians were passing. We looked on. lies were digesting the good things sent

When they had crossed the bridge the fort by French mothers. Near the window
swallowed them. a hair-dresser was already dealing with
In the interior, to the scandal of our the great mops of hair.
CASEMATE 17 23

"You see," said Dumoulin, "I want to nuts of


ot the last harvest, old sausages
smarten them up. But how pious and spiced with garlic and thyme, everything,
ceremonious they are ! Of course we even the "surprises" secretly prepared by
divided our food with them. They all the viaman for her boy in captivity —
kissed my hand. Then they took off their everything was handed over. Little
caps, said their prayers, and fed. After Stephanus of St.-Denis, who has lost his
that they got up, said their prayers again, hearing through a wound in the head,
and kissed my hand once more. But what and who, being an orphan, would receive
have you got there?" nothing from France were it not for you
"I have no Russians, so I shall adopt and Mme. Weiss, had only his fifth of a
yours. But unfortunately they have al- loaf of potato bread. He gave it. The
ready dined." comrades from the invaded regions, who
"Don't bother about that; they will have to live on the provisions of their
dine ten times over this evening." "adopted brothers," were greatly distressed
It was my turn to be embraced. that they had nothing to share but their
Gingerbread, Easter eggs, jam, petit- poverty.
hi'urre biscuits, dates, cigarettes —I was But if charity was lively, gaiety was in-

kissed between each course. One of the sane. The little fathers were stupefied
Russians, a hairy corporal, a thick-set man with astonishment. They looked upon us
with dog-like eyes, was not satisfied with as legendary bariny (seigniors), as Croe-
my hand, but kissed me on the lips. I suses flowing with milk and honey, as
suppose it is the custom of the country. magicians proof against misfortune, able
Some of them over^vhelmed me with pro- to make the desert, and even the prison
found genuflexions, as if I had been the pavement, blossom like the rose. What a

white elephant. change for them ! They had been the


Throughout the evening there was an serfs of the Boche sergeants in the Lech-
intoxication of generosity. Thrifty men feld camp, their backs were still smarting
at ordinary times, theFrench now gave all from the canings administered to revenge
they had. The round loaves
huge, the loss of Przemysl. and from this they
kneaded in the family kneading-trough and were suddenly transported to becom.e
baked in the village oven, the apples and guests at the feast of the parable! Be-
24 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
wildered and "Bi
mute, ignorant of "Hurrah!"
our language, as More tea, more cigarettes. We ask for
we were ignorant the Russian national anthem. You know
of theirs, and it. It seems to me as heavy as a convict's
having no other fetters. To relieve my ears, I demand the
means of showing "Marseillaise." Boude sings the couplets,
us their gratitude, and we take up the chorus. The swing
they kissed us in of it, the decision, the thrill, as of a
season and out, victorious charge, astonish the Russians.
y,^—^^^^-- ^nd they pros- My neighbor the Pole weeps.

I
^^^Ir^ trated themselves "You are crying?" I say to him in
* "
before us as be- English.
\ fore their own "You can't understand," he makes
icons. answer. "That air represents liberty.
You may have heard of Graby, one of You you don't know the value
possess it;
the two famous comic cyclists known in of it. We dream
of it." His debased
Paris, and indeed throughout Europe, English comes interspersed with Polish
under the name of the Brothers Abbins. phrases that ring with a sort of Latin
In Dumoulin's room I was being melted sweetness. "Don't you know that we are
almost to tears under the Russian kisses, slaves?"
when Graby bursts open the door, and, "This war will free you."
quite out of breath, exclaimed "You think so? We have fought well
'*Riou, old chap, my Slav poilus are enough. My comrades stood firm when
making ready to dance. I invite you to they were being mown down before
the party." He dragged me off. His Lown'cz. Yes, we have fought fiercely for
casemate is at the other end of the fort. the czar even while feeling that his victory
On the way he explained that he has dis- would serve only to make our chains
covered a sort of interpreter, a Pole who heavier. Poor Poland Poor Poland!" !

has been in New York, and who knows a Around us the others are enjoying
few words of English. "You '11 see, themselves like brothers reunited. Graby
now we 're going to have high jinks is begging Menard to sing the American

to-night." "Row! Row! Row!" I long to take


There are indeed high jinks. An as- my companion out on to the slopes, and
semblage of kepis and fur caps beneath a there, amid the silence, to let him talk at
huge candelabra, improvised by the hosts, length, to listen, and to make him feel that
and ornamented with aeroplanes and flags I share his dreams, that France is the
cut out of paper. A horrible menagerie friend of every nation that yearns for
odor fills the room. The banquet is over. freedom.
Tea is being handed round in old tins.
Graby, looking even more like street Arab Next day the Bavarians of the guard
than usual, is doing the honors, assisted by could hardly believe their eyes. In the
big Menard, erect, smart, as clean shaven courts, in the ditches, everywhere, among
as a British guardsman, and with the basins and heaps of imderclothing, quite
suspicion of an English accent. Prompted a tribe of naked little fathers were glisten-
by Abbins, the Pole introduces me as a ing in the sunshine. How thin they were!
French writer familiar with Russian To what skeletons they had been re-
authors. duced by two months in Germany! Smil-
"Friends!" ing, making awkward little gestures, each
"Friends!" one of them allowed himself to be manip-
"Comrades!" ulated by a Frenchman, who soaped him
"Sayousniki!' all over, rubbed him down, punimeled him,
CASEMATE 17

dried him, and finally dressed him as a the uniform of


French infantryman. "Now, then, we the two armies.
must wash your dlids. Come along." For an entire
And the French mama led his great little week the height
Slav to the well, helped him to pump some of the fashion in
water, arranged him a bench. Then botli Casemates 44 and
set to work and scrubbed. 46, aristocratic
when the
In the evening, roll was c.illed, regions, was to
the Hauptmayin exclaimed : walk out in mu-
"But where on earth are the Rus- zhiks' blouses.
sians?" Le Second, Poi-
"There answered Junot,
they are," ret's pupil, had
sergeant-major of Casemate 46. worked after his
"But what is the meaning of this own heart. Little
masquerade?" Mitka's blouse, a
"Mon commandant, their clothes are brilliant gray-green, embroidered in black
drying on the slopes, and you see they at the collar and wristbands, was his great
could not attend muster in a loin-cloth." triumph.
These first days were pleasant. It was Gradually the little fathers came to
good to make friends. To share without understand that they must not kiss our
thought of the morrow, to live without hands, and that genuflexions were by no
calculation, to act solely as the heart dic- means to our taste. It must be admitted
tated — was like paradise.
it Even the that they found this repugnance somewhat
veterans of Manchuria and the Afghan- troublesome— the repugnance of men who
istan campaigns, with all their tinsmith's make a cult of equality. They love direct
shop of comiijemorative medals and their demonstrations. They are near to the
grizzled heads, even the sergeants with daj's of the "Iliad," fond of physical en-
three stripes, had become our little dearments, and the early
like children
brothers. Greeks, and a trifle fawning. But so
winsomely! Besides, they had to show
Every evening the French and the Rus- us their gratitude. If instead of the for-
walk arm
sians in arm on the slopes. In bidden gestures they made us an oration,
less than no time a conventional language we raised our hands to heaven, saying,
has sprung into being. It does not lead 'W>T ponimayu" ("I don't understand") :

very far. No matter. When the mimic what were they to do? Yesterday one of
vocabulary is exhausted, the friends walk them, in despair, threw himself upon the
side by side in silence. But if a Bavarian ground, kissing my footsteps in a trans-
sentry passes, the conversation is resumed, port of delight. Impatiently I seized him.
the same things being emphatically re- and dragged him to his feet rather roughly.
peated they clap one another on the back,
; You should have seen him, awkward,
they exchange head-gear, kepi for toque, speechless. His silence seemed to say:
fatigue-cap for its Russian equivalent. "Why do you forbid me to embrace you. to
After a few days the Russian buttons, kiss the dust beneath your feet? Do you
stamped with the two-headed eagle, had not care for my gratitude?"
found their way to our coats, while the It was thus that they reasoned within
French grenade buttons were displayed themselves, timid and embarrassed, when
upon the huge, earth-colored Russian we repelled their embraces. Then, struck
cloaks. Tatar were incased in French
feet with a sudden idea, they took the brooms
army were tucked
shoes, while red trousers from our hands, they seized the shoes that
into the supple boots of Ukraine leather. we were polishing, they ran to fetch water
Early Christian communism prevailed. for us. They did all our work for us.
Every one dressed as he fancied, mixing Soon it was impossible for the Frenchmen
26 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
to any occupation for their hands.
find the devotees break off their paternosters,
In the dark corridor leading to the great and attack the scoffers with foot or with
well, where the prisoners have to wait in fist in order to avenge the insult to their
a long queue for their turn, shouldering deity.

pitchers stamped with blue lozenges, one In Casemate 34 there are ten French-
now saw none but Russians; in the kitch- men, twelve Russians, and one Jew. Thin,
ens, when the potatoes were being peeled, sickly, with a stoop, a sallow complexion,

none but Russians; in the corner of the a timid and plaintive expression, this Jew

courts where the laundr.vmen install is the most unobtrusive of men. He


buckets and t-ables, none but Russians. seems afraid of taking up too much room.
We had to take severe measures, and to When spoken to he is abashed and stam-
insist that France should take a hand in mers. He never asks for anything. He
all the hard work. is alwaj's content. If you merely smile at
But amid this fine zeal the Moslem him, he looks at }'0u humbly, wnth a dumb,
Tatars take their ease on their paillasses, gentle gratitude.
quiet and blissful. Let others perform all As he knows some German, I have been
the arduous tasks. Christians and Jews able to talk to him. He is a good little

can scour the cement floors of the case- soul, peacefuland inoffensive, rather dull-
mates, shake the rugs, fold up the bedding, witted. He contemplates the knout and
carry the Kartoffelbrof from the tumbrel the pogroms without indignation, accept-
to the store-room. Impassive, crushing ing them as a farmer accepts hail. The
you by the glassy immobility of their in- only pleasure he knows is the negative one
trospective gaze, as indolent as mandarins, of being left unnoticed, but this pleasure
whom they resemble in their j'ellow tint, he welcomes as a wonderful act of grace.
their and their fine,
wide cheek-bones, In a word, he is one of the humble of
shining mustaches, it seems as if the heart to whom the Rabbi rejected of the
prophet had furnished them with an opiate rabbis has promised the kingdom of heaven.
against all the accidents of life. Nothing One day, when Iwas bringing him an
moves them. They ask for nothing. They orange, his compatriots leaped upon me
never share anything. They never pray. from surrounding me and
their paillasses,
Do them a service, give them something restraining me by
from approach-
force
from your own narrow resources, they ing the Jew, pointing him out with a
take it all as a matter cf course. gesture of disgust, as if to preserve me
Some of them have two or three wives. from a horrible contagion.
Without a sign of tenderness, they show "Jew! Jew!" they cried with flashing
you the portraits of these wives, fraterniz- eyes.
ing in a single photograph. Plenty, They were all speaking at once, so that
scarcity, cold, heat, a concourse, solitude, I was bewildered by their volubility and
war, exile— everything is alike to them. their passionate gesticulations. Desiring
Life breaks impotently against the bovine to clear up the difficulty, I sought an in-
torpor of their fatalism. terpreter, and as soon as we returned, the
But when the Christian Russians say cries were redoubled.
their morning prayer, standing bare- "What are they all saying?" I de-
headed, multiplying triple signs of the manded of Issajoff, the interpreter. "Why
cross, kissing the Testament, and abasing are they holding me back like this?"
themselves before the little painted icon Issajoff smiled.
in a glass case fixed to the wall above "Here is something," he said, "which
their paillasse, it sometimes happens that wins me over to France. You 're

the inhuman Moslems blaze.


eyes of the astonished that these Russians prevent you
They utter a raucous cry, "Your Lord giving help to a Jew, that they insist on
Jesus Christ he 's no good." Thereupon assuring you that he is a Jew. To them
1 Potato bread. it seems self-evident that as soon as vou
CASEMATE 17 27

know him to be a Jew you will no longer forgetting to avenge their God any longer,
wish to give him anything, but will treat they gave themselves up to the delights of
him as a leper, a pariah, a damned soul." tobacco.

The Russians continued to scream, to


look murderously at the Jew, to shake
their fists at him. As for him, with his July I, 1915.

customary air of dull indifference, he re- I AM Vassili's bnrin (seigneur). He


mained quietly in his own corner behind polishes my shoes; every morning, in the
the door, beside the dust-bin and the spit- court, he brings me water for my "teube"
toon, the dirtiest and dampest corner of he picks up balls for me in our extempor-
the casemate. ized game of tennis; if I am thirsty, he
Said Issajof?: runs to the well; if the cloth of my worn
"They say to him, 'You have crucified trousers gives way during an unusually
our Lord Jesus Christ.' They also say to vigorous movement of Swedish gymnastics,
him, 'You love the Germans; if you could, he promptly threads a needle and repairs
you would have shot us.' They also say, the damage he watches over me as one
;

'If you accept the Frenchman's present, we watches milk on the boil no valet has ever
;

"
will flay you alive.' servedme so well. What constrains him ?
Issajoff is a revolutionist and a Jew, al- Were I to forbid him to serve me, he
though he keeps this latter fact to him- would shed bitter tears. Have I ever
self. Coldly and deliberately he reported given him an order? Have I ever been
to me his comrades' w^ords but the vague ; short with him? Is Vassili my valet or
smile which played over his large features my friend ? He no longer kissesmy hands,
indicated irony and contempt. he no longer kisses my lips, he no longer
"You really find this scene surprising?" kisses theground where I have trod. He
he resumed. has given up these muzhik wa3S. He
I contemplated these disciples of the simply shakes hands with me. When I
Christ, all yapping at this poor wretch. am at work he sits on my ration-chest or
For the first time in my life I found my stands at the window, smoking cigarettes
Christianity a heavy burden. and looking at the illustrations in my
I went up to Kajedan. I pressed him books. When he likes them he exclaims,
by the hand and gave him the orange. I "Harosho! harosho!" ("Good! good!").
wanted to give him the contents of my But always I feel his faithful Siberian eye
cigarette-case, but he said he did not upon me. He divines the least of my
smoke. "Well, give them to your wishes. Do I need a book? He knows
friends." He did so. The Russians perfectly to whom it has been lent. He
greedily seized the cigarettes. They jumps up, runs along the corridors, finds
threw themselves on their paillasses, and, the man, maybe in his casemate, maybe
28 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
beneath the shade of a poplar, majbe in or maybe two, when we have conquered
one of the ditches, explains himself in nig- the autocracy which tyrannizes over you."
ger talk, and, breathless and perspiring, They stare at us blankly, utterly dis-

comes back to me with the prize. It can heartened.


hardly be said that we converse; the diffi- These poor fellows are suffering. They
culties are too great. We look at one have many children, six, seven, or eight.
another and we smile. He gives me every- Their savings are exhausted, and the wolf
thing he can ; I respond in kind. He is at the door. When we are marching to
works; I work. He serves me; I serve work they recount their troubles to Brissot
him, I know how and write, I to read and to me, confidingly and deferentially,
can influence the sergeant-major, and I as they would to an elder brother. They
can ask my relatives and friends in France are good by nature, simple-minded, some-
to send me things. For his part, he knows what subservient, weighted by innumerable
how to darn, patch, fetch water, wash up. centuries of silent submission. One per-
Thus, side by side, each at his own task, ceives clearly that they have not effected
we both work. He imagines that I am a their revolution, and that despite parlia-
barin, in which he is mistaken, and that mentary suffrage and the Reichstag they
I love him, in which he is not mistaken. are still under the dominion of the feudal
For my part, I regard him as a good fel- age.
low from Tomsk, who pines for his cot-
tage and his wife, and I would like to Through studying them closely, and
send him back to them in good condition through talking with them, it seems to
when his imprisonment is over. me that I am beginning to understand this

:i

THE COMMON PEOPLE OF GERMANY huge and mysterious Germany. I knew

AND THE WAR something of the elite of the country, but


was quite ignorant of the common people,
July 7, 1915- workmen, peasants, and lower middle
It has lasted for eleven months. How class. But these are the backbone of Ger-
much longer will it continue? many.
Our sentries are even more impatient How different is their world from ours!
than we are ourselves. They grumble In France we read the paper; we have
and find fault. political ideas; we influence the appoint-
"It is too bad," they exclaim. "Do you ment of ministers; we take sides passion-
think it will be over in a month?" they ately, for or against Pelletan, for or
ask us. against ^Clemenceau, for or against Poin-
"Pooh !" we answer ; "in a year perhaps, care; every one of our village orators has
CASEMATE 17 29
good advice to give to our admirals, our How different is Germany! The
generals, and our diplomats. How unlike country possesses an elite of persons well
Germany! Nothing can equal the ig- equipped for administration and rule, and
norance of these folk in public matters. this endows her national life with a fine
Think French agriculturist of the
of a aspect of ::ohesion. But directly we ex-
days of Louis XIV, hard-working and amine mo -e closely, we see that the co-
kindly, engrossed in domestic cares, know- hesion is ro more than apparent. There
ing that it is hard to gain a livelihood, and are those ^vho theorize about Germany as
occupied in this pursuit by day and by a whole, 1 ut there is not one Germany;
night; accepting princes, seigneurs, taxes, between the people and the leaders there
corvees. and wars as one accepts sunshine, is no intimate solidarity, no communion of

rain, hail, and frost, without venturing to love, hope, and will. Above, there is an
pass any judgment upon them saying that ; empyrean of men who believe themselves
these things have been, are, and will be, superhuman who utter claims, trace plans,
that he himself is but a poor man, that issue orders, who, as if at section drill,

every one has his own trade, that it is the thunder out commands to Germany and
king's to govern, and his to provide a to the world at large below, there is a ;

living for his family; there you have the swarm of good and peaceable folk, all
political essence of the German peasant of whom are engaged in their insignificant
and the German workman. Monarchy, private aif.iirs, and making no attempt to
republic, foreign relations, double alliance interfere in the loftier mysteries of their
or triple alliance — don't waste your time government.
talking to him about these. Should you It is not the business of the common
do so, he will listen, he will express a civil Germans to be patriots (for this presup-
assent, and will then fall asleep over his poses a degree of liberty and of internal
beer. sovereignty to which they have not yet at-
A Frenchman cannot understand how tained), but to be good subjects. To obey
utterly indifferent are the common people unfailingly and without discussion; to
in Germany to political ideas and to ques- abase themselves devoutly before au-
tions of state. A Frenchman, whether he thority; to be subservient to their leader,
knows it or not, and even if he believes whoever he may be ; to carry out orders
himself to be a monarchist, reasons like a whencesoever derived, be they democratic
leader. He speaks as if he were himself or be they CcTsarian —
this it is to be a good

a part of the king and a considerable part. German. Active as he is in private affairs,
He eagerly discusses the affairs of the he is passive in religion, with a sort of
country. Militarist or anti-militarist, he mystical fervor, and he is passive in his
is patriotic to the core— patriotic like the relationships to authority. The Germans
sovereign he is. Should the foreigner in- hardly realize this, and yet to us it is

sult France, he is personally insulted ; this obvious.


is his own business; the offense is not Here is an example. On one occasion
offered to some distant prince ; it touches I, a prisoner of war, roundly reprimanded
himself, the individual king; it makes his a sentry, reproaching him with disobedi-
own skin tingle. This was obvious at the ence to orders. Secretly I was laughing,

mobilization ; it remains obvious. For but the sentry trembled. Standing at at-

France, one and indivisible, is truly a free tention as if confronted by an officer, he


nation, a collection of autonomous persons trembled before the majesty of the com-
who have determined to live together, who mand, the Bcfchl. I had issued an order,
know themselves to have been intrusted and that is why he stood at attention there ;

with the most exalted of human missions, he was, submissive, stupefied with willing-
and each one of whom makes the fulfil- ness; he forgot that I was a Frenchman,
ment of that mission a point of personal subject to his orders, that the regulations
honor. forbade me to speak to him, that he should
have charged bayonet and touched me with clandestine conversations with the soldiers
the steel, even run me through. No, I had w^ho guard us and the peasants who em-
issued an order; man who issues
the ploy us at twenty pfennigs for the day of
orders, who commands, who gives a nine Notwithstanding all the
hours.
Bffehl, Is sacrosanct for the German. It patriotic which the recruits
songs with
is a law of his nature. make the roads resound, and notwithstand-
ing all the pratings of the pulpit and the
The reason is that the German has school, I am now confident that the affairs
never emerged from private life. He of the fatherland are not ]Michaers affairs.
lives in his house, on his land, in his fac- Whether it be that the degree of economic
tory, his tavern, his church ; he lives with emancipation he has attained supplements
his famil}^, with a few friends, with his or reinforces his ingrained instinct of sub-
professional associates. He makes his life mission to authority, in any case, the
there as agreeable as possible ; he is an able ancient sentiment, quasi-religious in

domestic economist, knowing well how to nature, and the new sentiment, thoroughly
adorn his residence, his table, his savings- utilitarian, lead to the same result: a con-

bank. The currents of modern life, social- cern with nothing but private affairs, po-
ism, liberalism, materialism, the religion litical indifference, so that one can even say

of comfort and of hygiene, have developed that in the world of politics the common
his practical aptitudes to an unimaginable German is a mere cipher. He expects
extent, to a degree unsuspected in France. nothing else.

He wants to get his belly well lined during


the week, and to be able on Sundays to This state of mind has its advantages.
go with his gn'ddige Frau and his quiverful It is favorable to the maintenance of pub-
of children, all smartly dressed, to drain lic order. Since every one rests content
several dozen tankards of beer, and to in his own
sphere, there is no friction,

spend the entire afternoon, laughing bois- there no waste of energy, no mutual
is

terously, in the arbors of neighboring suspicion between the classes. Authority,


JVirtschaften. He likes to think proudly certain of its durability, can take long
that his father lived in poverty, but that views, it h'as elbow-room. While those in
he lives at ease. He likes to imagine that authority are loved, they can give them-
no workman in the world is happier than selves up to their natural bent, which is

the German workman. As long as he has to regulate — to regulate the workman at

a full stomach, he can believe that all is home, the employer abroad, to wrap them-
well. The Government can do what it selves in purple, to cut a dash, to astonish
likes, can ally itself to Austria or to the universe. But hitherto the crowd has
France, can be licentious or straight-laced, consisted of fat kine. Association wn'th the
can obey or disobey the Reichstag. He worthy Michael day after day In these
himself, trusty Michael, is well off. Ger- times when every one is rationed, when
many, therefore, Is great, the world is poverty and death stalk abroad, has led
perfect. me to think that the political nullity of
I have gradually been able to fathom the people, precious to those In authority,
this state of mind through more or less is hardly likely to produce a tenacious and
30
trustworthy patriotism, and that in the us humbly. One of us was addressed as
long run it may well eventuate in disaster. "Most honored sir," another as "Highly
well-born Even those who have been
sir."
For nearly a year I have been studying discharged from service on account of
life in this corner of Germany. I ob- severe wounds, men with empty sleeve*
serve, I ask questions, and I listen. They and horribly scarred faces, no longer glare
are now quite tamed. No longer do they at us with the murderous hatred they
cry death on us. No longer do they call showed at the outset.
out kaput except as a joke. In the vil- At Ingolstadt, when we are waiting for
lages, when the working-gang arrives, the our parcels in the square in front of the
children flock to the scene from all di- Kommandantiir, civilians come and go be-
rections, barefooted, somewhat timid, at fore our group and converse with us. The
once shy and smiling. They have heard women are particularly attentive. They
their fathers say that the French are recognize Monsieur Pierre, "who had a
splendid soldiers, "the only ones who can frightful wound, and who, God be
hold their ground against the gray-blues." thanked is now quite well again" Mon-
;

"who — "; Monsieur Jacques,


!

The description has raised us in these sieur Paul,


youngsters' esteem. They know, too, that "who—" They smile broadly when we
we receive parcels, many parcels. They call them to order, quoting to them the
believe us to be extraordinarily wealthy. phrases in which one of the newspapers
The gossips even state with definite as- the night before has censured them for
surance that there are six millionaires and their friendliness to the prisoners.
one multi-millionaire at Fort Orff; and, Yesterday some of the gang were talking
for what reason I know not, I am the to a hoary-headed postman.
multi-millionaire. This little w^orld is "Well, Daddy, how goes it?" said
astonished that persons of such eminence, Bracke, who can speak the Franconian
terrible on the battle-field, should be so patois.
friendly with their humble selves. The "Very well, gentlemen ; very well."
German bourgeois and the Junkers, we There he stood, not knowing what to say.
gather, have less agreeable manners. He had taken off his Miitze and was wip-
Finally, the villagers have been informed ing his forehead to keep himself in
that our prison society is a true republic, countenance. Then all at once he said,
that we have suppressed all distinctions stammering slightly
of fortune, that the "sans-parcels" gain "It grieves me to think that we are at
just as much advantage from the coming war with you."
of the French mail as the "little-parcels" "No, no, old chap ; we 're not at war
and the "big-parcels." This communism, with you. Ourwith the big
quarrel is

natural as it seems to us, touches and van- guns of your country. They 're a bad
quishes them. lot they oppress you, and would like to
;

The fact is that the children and the oppress the w^hole world. But you 're a
members of the working-gang fraternize. poteau!"
Some of the poor women secretly offer us "Poteau, what 's that?"
an apple or an egg. The old men salute "A comrade, a chum."
31
32 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
The postman had tears in his eyes. middle class, cursing Austria for having
"Ah," he exclaimed, "it does me good led them into this hateful business. The
to hear you say that. I love the French. idea has become current in the villages
You are so awfully nice to every one. where the troops are quartered. Ex-
You don't despise the common people." asperated by their sufferings, the soldiers
Yes, they have changed greatly since are murmuring. Many would like to
our coming. The dogma of French de- desert. They understand perfectly that
cadence, vi^ith which they had been sed- they are the victims of a caste of nobles
ulously indoctrinated, and manufacturers mad with pride.
no longer finds cre- The}' still obey, but they grumble. A
dence. They join with German grumbler is a new phenome-
us in making fun of it. non. A fat Unterofficier spoke as fol-
It is amusing to see lows :

these humble folk, who "I honestly prefer the French to


have always been treated the Prussians. The French are good
with disdain by their fellows. They feel compassion ; they
superiors, whether civil share their bread with us. But the
or military, accept us Prussians! It 's kicks we get from
as intimate friends. them. A pack of swelled heads who
They feel flattered imagine they can do anything they
when they can talk to like, who want everything for them-
us on a footing of dem- selves, who bamboozle their own peo-
ocratic equality, for ple, and refuse to give them any rights.
they do not fail to rec- There is but one. thing we want to —
ognize our superiority, live at peace with the world. Instead
and they are greatly of that they make us go and kill.
touched that we never Why? Does any one know why?
abuse it. They feel What do we gain by it? The vil-
that we are sincere in lages are full of widows and disabled
our hatred of the pride men. It is even worse in the towns,
of caste. They applaud our republican where lots of working-class families are
speeches. In return, they confide to us positively starving. You fellows are
their grievances and their despair. The lucky. France France can send
is rich.
poor devils are absolutely unanimous in parcels to her prisoners. All that we can
detesting the horrible butchery of this do is to draw our belts tighter. They
great war. lead us to the slaughter while they leave
It is unquestionable that the terrible our wives and children to suffer. And
burden of the war, the most terrible how it drags! Peace! Let 's have done
burden of death, weariness, and misery with it! Peace at any price!"
that has ever weighed humanity down, For the last six months I have not heard
presses more heavily upon their shoulders a single German soldier use any other
than upon ours. Alternately victors and language than this. Wounded returning
vanquished, upon the Eastern front there to the front, men of the Landwehr or the
continually occurs some new gigantic ac- Landsturm on their way to the fighting-
tion, like that of the Marne. And why? line, they are unanimous. If only the tenth

In defense? "Ah," they say to us,' "if you part of their private grumblings were to
onlv knew how little we care whether we be translated into action there would be
are French or Pr Give us peace revolution throughout the country,
five us peace I have noticed a thousand times that

They no longer believe that the war is these Teuton soldiers who, through dread
a war of defense. They have heard their of their leaders, are not yet traitors in
non-commissioned officers, men of the fact, are nevertheless traitors in soul.
CASEMATE 17 33

This no longer surprises me. I under- ment alone we filled six haversacks whh
stand why they regard us without hatred, cigars, which we sent to the front to the
why they long for peace at any price, and 30th of the line, the regiment of poor
why, if the war is to continue, they look Robequain, of whose death I learned on
forward to being made prisoners. They reaching Bellegarde.
suffer too much, and their suffering has Do not imagine that this explosion of
overwhelmed their patriotism. generosity was inspired by mere pity for
Those only who love greatly can accept the wreckage of war. I am absolutely
great suffering. The ideal alone is worth confident that it was inspired by love for
more than life. France. Burghers and peasants, children
and old men, in German Switzerland
just as much as in French, all sang the
July 31, 1915. "Marseillaise." They waved the tricolor.
Our convoy crossed Switzerland last They cried, "Vive la France!" At the
night. I should have been sorry to be ill, stops they talked to us frankly, like
ill with relief and happiness, for this brothers. They handed us addresses,
would have made it impossible to describe which were hymns to "The Nation of
our reception. It delighted and, I must Valmy and of the Marne," to "The
say, it surprised me. Champions of the Rights of Man," to "The
From one end to the other of Switzer- Citizen Army which has Sworn to Con-
land, the Helvetian people, so hostile to quer or Die for the Advent of a Free
demonstrations, hailed us Europe."
w ith They sat
acclamations. I cannot describe the mad jubilation
up ail night. They over- which surged through our veins. France,
\\ helmed us with gifts. The France the beloved, France of our blood
seats of the train were and our heart, France the eternal, re-
heaped with ribbons, cockades, suscitated by the German aggression, once
flowers, boxes of cigars, more become the champion of freedom
baskets of food, bottles of the France hailed by the neutrals, and by all
celebrated vintages of Neu- men who respect the right ; I was drunk
chatel, La Cote, Lavaux, and with happiness. This single night was a
\ vorne. In my compart- compensation for you, noble fellows muti-
lated in the war ; for you,
my brother, with broken
ear-drums and split skull:
and for you, my friends,
all my dear dead friends,
who sleep in Lorraine, in
Belgium, in Flanders, and
on the Marne.
Twenty-five Years in America
The first chapter of an unfinished autobiography

By HUGO MiJNSTERBERG
Author of '
' American Traits," " The Eternal Values," etc.

was at the end of February, 1892, tions, about which we had disputed be-
ITwhen I was twenty-eight years old,— fore; but, lo! it was an invitation to settle
I was at that time assistant professor of in America
philosophy at the University of Freiburg, was a time when experimental psy-
It

in southern Germany, — that a most unex- chology had successfully started its march
pected letter from America came in my over the globe. The first psychological
morning mail. I knew the handwriting laboratory was Leipsic by
founded in

on the envelop. was a letter from Wil-


It Wundt and Wundt's pupils car-
in 1879,

liam James, the famous Harvard psycholo- ried the work far and wide. In the mid-
gist. We had met three years before at dle of the eighties two of the most bril-
the first international psychological con- liant disciples of Wundt, G. Stanley Hall

gress in Paris, and since that time we had and J. McKeen Cattell, had carried the
remained in superficial contact. He had message across the ocean, and in a few
sent me his monumental psychological vol- years many other young Americans fol-
umes, and as my modest share I had given lowed. At the beginning of the nineties
him the thinner booklets of my first con- it seemed a matter of course for every
tributions to experimental psychology. large American university to have a work-
We had also exchanged many a written shop for psychological investigations. And
word. I do not want to say letters, as now James wrote:
William James's favorites were the postal
cards; he was probably America's greatest The situation is this: we are the best uni-
good
artist in postal-card literature in the
versity in America, and we must lead in
psychology. I at the age of fifty, disliking
old times when no pictures were needed
to make postal cards picturesque. Yet I
laboratory work naturally and accustomed
to teach philosophy at large, although I
had always had a bad conscience in that

exchange. I knew that he read my Ger- could tant blen que mal make the laboratory

man with the greatest ease, but his scin-


run, yet am certainly not the kind of stuff

tillating English was too subtle for me.


to make a first-rate director thereof. We
I preferred the standard sentences in the
could get younger men here who would be
my safe enough, but we need something more
elementary grammar. In school-days
than a safe man: we need
only Greek, Latin, and French were pre-
. . .

scribed ; there had not been time for Eng-


lish. During my university years in Leip- The surprise of the invitation was com-
sicand Heidelberg I had taken some pri- plete, as up to that morning America had
vate lessons, which gave me a certain not entered into my life as a reality. I

groundwork in English, enough to read was brought up in a home which surely


a very easy text. Surely I saw a hard was hospitable to an international spirit.

task before me that winter morning when I spent my childhood and youth in beau-
the long letter from James arrived. I tiful Dantzic, "the Venice of the North,"
opened it and reached for the dictionary. where the Vistula flows into the Baltic
I expected a dissertation on muscle sensa- Sea. My father's business was to buy for-

34
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS IN AMERICA 35
and the lumber which came
ests in Russia, German was my nearest approach
edition,
down the Vistula to our Dantzic yards to the New World. When I went to the
was sent over the sea to France, Enghuid, university I became acquainted with a
and Spain for railroad- and ship-building. few American students, but they were en-
Hence it happened that my father went tirely colorless. They had a little silk

every year for weeks to eastern Europe flag with the stars and stripes in their

President Eli<

and for weeks to western Europe, and room, but were so absorbed in their studies
men from everywhere sat down in our and their new surroundings that I never
house; but in my boyhood days I never heard anything from them about their
had seen an American. It is true I still own country except occasional flippant re-
have my drama, "The Uncle from Amer- marks about the status of the higher aca-
ica," which I wrote in my eleventh year: demic work.
but then America meant only the land This changed slightly when in 1887 I

from which unnaturally rich people can began my career in Freiburg both as aca-
suddenly emerge. Otherwise Cooper's demic teacher and as husband. Some Eng-
"Leatherstocking," in a richly illustrated lish philosophers had shown generous in-
36 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
terest in my first papers, and as a result member that at my first Freiburg party
English and American students began to he reached his climax when he told the
flock to my Freiburg lecture-room and fascinated company that he had been in
laboratory, and not a few of them became a hotel in New York where his room had
welcome guests in our new home on the a private bath-room in which he could
bank of the Dreisam. One of the most have a hot bath at any hour of the night.
brilliant American pilgrims, Edmund The lady next to me relieved the dra-
Burke Delabarre— he is to-day a well- matic tension by whispering, "I do not
known professor in Brown University believe it." Well, no one believed much
was even the first student who ever pre- of what he heard concerning America.
pared his doctor thesis in my little labo- Whatever the newspapers brought out
ratory. He and I took many a walk to- about it sounded so sensational and exag-
gether to mountains of the
the lovely gerated that it was probably untrue, and
Black Forest, which frame the old uni- when papers published quiet and modest
versity town. Then I got my first glimpses news from across the sea it was believed
of American college life. When he had still less because it sounded so un-Ameri-
passed his doctor examination I was the can. Of course every German knew what
guest of honor at a regular Doktorkneipe an American duel is —a duel in which
that he gave in German fashion to his lots are drawn, and he who draws the
friends. But as these friends were mostly black lot must commit suicide. Moreover,
Americans w^ith strong temperance ideas, at that time every one liked to have at
they sang the German student songs to a home an American stove, which was prob-
lemonade that we all were sucking ably just as prevalent in America as the
through straws. Of course my reading, American duel. Besides that, the lower
too, had left the Cooper level, and I re- classes knew that, it is easy for the emi-
member well the delight with which, at grant to make money there, and the upper
the border of Lake Geneva, I read several classes knew that it is a land where no
volumes of Emerson in a German transla- other interest but the hunt for the dollar
tion, and later in Leipsic much of Poe in is known and where humbug and corrup-
German for pleasure and Washington tion flourish.
Irving in English for grammar. Was I to settle in this America? This
The one, however, who brought me was the question to decide on that dreary
nearest America was the historian
to February morning. Certainly I should
Hoist. When
I went to Freiburg as the not have given even a moment's thought
youngest instructor. Hoist was the famous to this astonishing invitation if it had
rector of the university. The torrent of been a question of my going for a life-

his oratory was marvelous. As a scholar time. William James knew that. What
he lived a double life. On the platform he proposed was that I come at first for a
of the classroom he spoke of European period of three years, and these three years
history, but hisfame was based on the six- might be covered by a leave of absence
volumes of his American history. He had from my home university. James, to be
been many years in America before he sure, wrote, "Of course we hope for per-
returned to the German university. In manence." But that was not a possibility
the lecture-room his was real life-work to which I gave the slightest thought or
silenced who would care to study Amer-
; which figured in our family discussions.
ican history? But in the drawing-room On the other hand, to take a leave of
he did not talk of anything else: America absence for six semesters and to use it for
and America again. As his rhetoric made a kind of scientific expedition to the New
it impossible for any other guest to open World, with a chance to build up a model
his mouth when he was thundering, we laboratory in a distant land, that sounded
sometimes had to listen to American stories interesting and almost romantic. My
through whole dinner parties. I do re- wife and I were young and wanted to see
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS IN AMERICA 37
the world ; my parents had been great "Of course all that is humbug. Our
travelers, and I had inherited their pleas- civilization is still crude and unpolished,
ure in foreign vistas. There was little to and its harshness and and its its triviality

loseand much to gain if we tried such dirty streets will hurt youfrom the first
a change of cultural climate for a few day. There is only one fact which will
vacation 3'ears. surprise you and which you will not be-
One thing helped to overcome the lieve now: you will still be there after
skepticism of our friends. In the same twenty-five years."
week in which I was asked to go to Har- It was a most beautiful trip, a week of
vard, Professor von Hoist was called to joyful tension and hope, and yet it was

the newly founded University of Chicago, clouded by a sad ending. The pilot who
and accepted. If a former rector found came on board some hours before we
it worth while, the youngest Instructor reached Sandy Hook brought papers with
might risk it. I went to Karlsruhe, the the news that for five days the cholera
seat of the Baden Government. As uni- had devastated Hamburg, where I had
versities are state matters in Germany, it leftmany friends. IVIy life long I have
did not concern Berlin at all. I suppose been a slave of mail and newspapers, and
that in the Prussian or in the imperial have felt nervous whenever I could not be
German Government no one knew at that reached for half a day. It shocked me
time of my Hence those who
existence. deeply that had not known for almost
I

discovered later that it was the kaiser a week about the disaster at home, and I
who sent me over the ocean went slightly made up my mind that ocean travel was,
astray. The Baden minister of education after all, not the thing for me. I did
simply smiled, gave me leave of absence not foresee how soon the daily afternoon
for three j'ears, and told me, with a jolly paper, with the wireless news of the hour,
side glance, that would have
he trusted I would be a matter-of-course feature of
some queer experiences. A few weeks our voyages. I felt only that I ought not

later William James himself came with to have separated myself so far from the
his family to Europe on a sabbatical year. afflicted fatherland, and ought not to have
Freiburg was one of his first stations, and ventured such a long interruption of my
from there he and I together undertook normal life. Never again! And while
an unforgetable trip into Switzerland. In my mind was longing for home the majes-
those wanderings around Lake Lucerne ticship moved in the darkness of the eve-
we became truly friends, and for the first ning past the Statue of Liberty to its
time the real America appeared upon my berth in Hoboken. It was nearly mid-
horizon. night when the carriage stopped at the old
In August, 1892, my wife and I left Plaza Hotel, in which rooms had been
Hamburg for the great adventure. Our reserved. Half an hour later I knew all
household goods, of course, were stored about American ice-water. One hour later
at home. Wewanted to be free for our I gave up my eiiforts to open American

lark. At had a week to learn a lit-


last I windows, as they turned neither outward
tle English, as everybody on deck felt nor inward and two hours later I stood
;

obliged to draw me into conversation in before another puzzle: in the room for
order to explain to me the superiorities our maid there was no bed, but a big
of the New World. But I still see before standing box with a mirror, and no one
me the cordial face of an elderly Western of us was able to discover the secret of
lawyer who had silently listened for hours an American folding-bed. I felt dimly
to that smoking-room talk about sky- that I had still much to learn, and it was
scrapers and ice-cream andPullman cars nearly morning when I found rest for the
and Christian Science and yachts and first time in the New World and for the

shoes and what not. When the others had first time at the dizzy height of a seventh
gone he quietly said story.
38 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
After a few days in New York unrest leading university families received us
overcame us ; we wanted
our real to reach into their circle when a few weeks later
goal. On the last day of August we took the college opened and people streamed to
the morning train to Boston, and when town. That period at the beginning of
we arrived, there stood waiting for us on was perhaps the time at which
the nineties
the platform a little man with a queer, the wave of American interest in German
large, homely, and yet wonderful head. scholarship had reached its height. Twenty
I felt as if Socrates stood before me. It years before there were hardly any gradu-
was Professor Josiali Royce, the deepest ate schools in America, and hence little
thinker in America. To be sure, deep need for the characteristic contribution of
thought in logical research does not guar- the German universities. On the other
antee deep insight into the qualities of hand, twenty years later the American
furnished apartments. The quarters faculties were filled with young instruct-
which he had rented for us in Cambridge ors who had received their highest aca-
were impossible, and so Royce and I began demic training in the new American grad-
visiting all the available furnished houses uate departments, and who therefore did
in the neighborhood of Harvard Univer- not feel in any contact with the German
sity. He was preparing himself just at work. But between the two periods, just
that time for a new course on German at the time when I came, the conditions
idealism and was anxious to talk it over were most favorable for the feeling of
fully with his new German colleague. German influence. The graduate schools
And so the beginning of my Harvard life had come to their own, but their teachers
was a full week's discussion of parlor fur- were mostly men who had received their
niture and Schopenhauer, furnaces and strongest intellectual impulses in the halls
Fichte, bath-rooms and Hegel, all inti- of German universities, and had come
mately intertwined. And when it was back to foster the spirit of belief in Ger-
over, Royce had for all time settled in my man scholarly methods. I was the first
heart, and I had settled at least for a year in an American university who had actu-
in the old-fashioned house of a true New ally been a professor in a German univer-
England minister. sity. The welcome from my Harvard
The spirit of this house was new to me. colleagues and, far beyond their circle,
My wife and were accustomed to sur-
I from the intellectuals of Boston surely
roundings which were esthetically tuned made us forget at once all that we had
in color and warmth. In our new home heard on the ship about the social coldness
the surroundings looked severe and color- of Boston and Cambridge. The fact of
less and cool and yet the old colonial
; my being far the youngest full professor
furniture, the religious and historical in the Harvard faculty-room, however,
books and pictures, the somewhat austere, had the curious effect that we were re-
but genial, rooms, blended into a charm- ceived into a generation much older than
ing harmony which on me a new
cast ourselves. So it happens that most of
spell. I felt a life element which had not those whose hospitality gave us the first
touched me before; I felt the New Eng- true contact with America have long since
land Puritanism and its ethical power. I departed. Goodwin, the Greek scholar,
began to read about the American past who loved nothing better than to talk of
and to grasp the meaning of the Puritan lu's old German university days; Bow-
conscience for the molding and casting of ditch, the leader of the physiologists, the
American life. A few days later I sat favorite pupil of his great teacher Ludwig
face to face with the most striking Puri- in Leipsic; Everett, the philosopher, who
tan figure of the time, with Harvard's had translated Fichte; Lane, the Latinist;
president, Charles W. Eliot. Paine, the professor of music; Winsor,
Never shall we forget that whole- the librarian Agassiz, the famous biolo-
;

hearted, warm cordiality with which the gist Wright, the philologist J. M. Pierce,
; ;
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS IN AMERICA 39
the mathematician; the anthropologist Agassiz and Mrs. Palmer. Old Mrs.
Putnam; the jurist Ames— all honored Agassiz was touched by the thought that
me by a kindness of spirit which made me I had come to Cambridge in a similar

feel myself among friends, and all of them way, and at about the same age, as Louis
are gone. No longer can I hear the cor- Agassiz once did, and this gave her an
dial greeting of my neighbor Professor interest in my pilgrimage to which I owed
Shalcr. that rugged Kentuckian, with his much. Alice Freeman Palmer, the incom-

Professor Ilutro Miinsterbe

truly universal interests. And Charles parable president of Wellesley College,


Eliot Norton is gone, in whose reminis- opened to me wide vistas ofnew educa-
cent talk the golden literary age of Boston tional life problems. But the thought of
was still alive. James and Royce and those who can no longer read my words
Child and Hyatt are no more. And I of gratitude does not make me forget
cannot linger on the memories of those those who are still in the sunshine of
\rhose spirit blessed my early Cambridge work. Above all, the chairman of our
days without thinking of two wonderful little philosophical division, George Her-
women whose places will never be filled, bert Palmer, made a deep impression on
two leaders whose interest centered in me and
; great scholars like Pickering the
collegiate education for women — Mrs. astronomer and Farlow the botanist, theo-
40 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
logians Toy, Peabodjs Lyon, and
like fect gem of artistic biography writing,
Emerton, and not a few others, contrib- George Herbert Palmer says about the
uted much by their welcome to the intel- place that it "possessed in Mrs. Palmer's
lectual vividness of those early years. But affections a sacredness no other spot of
however stimulating and inspiring this earth could claim. Into it had soaked the
contact on the level of scholarship was, traditions of my family for eight genera-
and however much it kept alive the tradi- tions, her own early nature worship had
tions of scholarly pursuit to which I was been transferred, and here became newly
accustomed at home, its most significant enriched by many hallowed experiences.
trait, after all, was not the academic . . . Our farm in Boxford has never been
aspect, but the Puritanic one. The chaste owned by anybody but ourselves and the
spirit of that old New England house in Indians."
which I spent my days seemed to fill the It was a New England day among trees
whole town and to bring to me daily a along the brook, in the carryall, and on

message of the old, stern New England the piazza, a day spent in serenity and
past. enjoyment of nature ; but all the time we
Iremember as if it were yesterday our felt those eight generations of New Eng-
first Cambridge party. At the threshold land people filled with the spirit of sturdy
of the new academic }'ear Professor Nor- righteousness. In those early daj'S I

ton and his family had invited some scores threw off the superficial prejudices with
of friends to greet the new professors; it which I, like every educated European,
had been heralded to us as the chief fes- had been stuffed. I began to grasp the
tival event of the Cambridge season. The deep idealistic undercurrent of American
quaint, dignified home on the hill was life. It is a psychological commonplace

dimly illumined by the mellow light of a that we mostly perceive only what we ex-
few shaded lamps. All talking was in pect and disregard those traits of our sur-
the half-tones of subdued voices and ; rounding for which we are not prepared.
toned down like the light and the sound Later on I came into many more million-
was the suggestion of nourishment. There aires' palaces than ministers' homes, into
was some coffee and some lemonade, a few many more new-fashioned sk_v-scrapers
tiny brown-bread sandwiches, and, I than old-fashioned farm-houses, and it

think, some ice-cream. I had not dined may be that if my American experience
at home that night in the expectation of had started with months in the show-
the glorious feast, with an abundance of places of luxuryand enterprise, my mind
courses and wines as at such evening par- would have been remolded differently and
Germany and 3'et when we drove
ties in ; would have become blind and deaf, like
home from Shady Hill my wife and I felt that of many a visitor, to the idealistic
a joy and satisfaction such as few parties side of American life. But as I formed
had ever given us before. We
felt as if my first ideas of the moving powers in the
we had entered a truly spiritual com- New World in the peace of old Cam-
munity where the demand for high think- bridge, my mind became sensitized for
ing and plain living was the life instinct. those better and finer elements in the life
Where was that shallow and gaudy Amer- which surrounded me. I recognized the
ica, that vulgar and trivial America, that idealistic energies even where they seemed
corrupt and self-seeking America, that suppressed by the turmoil, I heard the
noisy and sensational America, of which voice of the Pilgrim fathers through the
all Europe was talking? Had no one noise of the market, and through the
ever discovered the true soul of the Amer- glamour of saw them in
a selfish time I
ican people? A few days later we spent their "trembling walk with God." The
one of those wonderful Indian summer whole of American history shaped itself
days at the Boxford farm of the Palmers. in my mind more and more as influenced

In the biography of his wife, truly a per- by the idealistic energies of New Eng-
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS IN AMERICA 41
land. When a year later the greatest was shown Leland Stanford In its first
German scholar of the century, Helm- days by President Jordan, saw San Fran-
holtz, was my guest, I show him
tried to cisco and Los Angeles. I traveled north.
the scientific institutes, took him to see I I plunged into the great
traveled south,
Harvard's famous glass flowers, and led life of New York and Philadelphia and

him from laboratory to laboratory but ; Washington. And when the three years
when we sat quietly in my study, I poured of my Freiburg leave of absence ap-
out my heart. I told him that he must not proached their end, I felt with a good con-
think that he had seen the true America. science that I had really seen something
I told him that America is not a place to of the American land and of the American
be seen, and that it can be understood people, and that I had grasped their inner
only by entering with sympathy into the meaning a little better than those tourists
deeper invisible powers at the bottom of who had supplied the continent with su-
the national soul I spoke of the America
; percilious judgments about the outside of
which I had found. He leaned back for the American house.
a long while, then h^ looked at me with Yet all the time the center of my work
his marvelous great eyes, and said quietly was my work. I loved it with all m\'
"You have a great task before j^ou if heart. I had a well-equipped laboratory

you really want to reach the mind of and eager, enthusiastic students. To be
Europe with that message." sure, I did not risk lecturing in the first
Of course I knew that I had to visit year, but with the second winter I was no
more than Boston and its neighborhood longer afraid to clothe psychology in the
if I was truly to understand the New badly fitting garment of my poor Eng-
World. I soon began to travel and to lish. My students in the laboratory whom
see for myself. Before a year had passed I had the first year in actual research did
my wife and I had passed over the Niag- not mind it from the beginning; on the
ara ice-bridge in winter-time and strolled contrary, they soon began unconsciously to
through the Adirondacks in summer days, imitate some of my Germanisms. But the
we had stayed in the great cities of the lecture audiences, too, were and
patient,
East, and spent a bewildering week at the in the third year I lectured on the whole
Chicago World's Fair. There it hap- as fluently in English as in German. My
pened that on a single day I became ac- students and I published a number of in-
quainted with three men who were to vestigations. But my daily writing at

exert deep influence on my years to come. home was on "The Founda-


a big work,
I had there my first talk with Carl Schurz, tions of Psychology," in the German lan-
and met through him Baron Holleben, guage. After all, I knew that these three
the German minister, later ambassador beautiful American years were only an
from Germany and a few hours after-
; excursion. My life-work would lie in the
ward, when I came to the scientific exhib- German university, German scholars
its of the Prussian Government in the would be my public, and so I toiled on
educational building of the World's Fair, the book of my hope in order to show to
I was led through its treasures by Fred- my colleagues when I went home that I

erick Schmidt, the young representative had not wasted those years of my journey.
of the Berlin ministry of education, to-day In May, 1895, we gave our farewell re-
the far-sighted director in the Kultusmln- ception, and a few daAS later we sailed
isterium. The following winter I under- home.
took my first trip to the Pacific, well In theautumn of 1895 we moved again
equipped with numberless introductions into our old Freiburg residence, with its
to the leading men and
in the universities beautiful vista of the somber mountains.
institutions on the way. some I was for I wandered again with my old friend
daj's the guest of the chancellor of Kansas Heinrich Rickert upon the familiar paths
University, saw Nebraska and Colorado, of the Black Forest, and he and I spun
42 THE CENTURY IVIAGAZINE
on the threads of our philosophical dis- have remained In my natural German
cussions. I opened mj^ little laboratory background. But the new cultural task
again, and again had students from many had stirred me, and for more than a year
lands. And jet the old time did not come I hesitated and wavered. This time It
back; everything had changed because I meant to burn my bridges behind me I ;

myself was no longer the same. A new should have to give up my German pro-
problem had entered into my life the — fessorship, and not a few misgivings bur-
problem America. It was only natural dened my heart. Would my young chil-
that now everybody talked with me about dren, born on Black Forest soil, find a
America, that inquiries concerning Amer- happy childhood in foreign surroundings?
ica came from all quarters near and far, Could I be sure that the cordial friend-
and everywhere I found a misunderstand- ship shown to the German guest would
ing and misinterpretation of American never suffer from political vicissitudes?
life which made me restless and forced But the inner voice was stronger than the
on me the feeling that I had no right to warning of skeptical friends. In the sec-
consider my American experience a closed ond summer I promised to return, and In
episode. Moreover, despite all my inter- the fall of 1897 we crossed the ocean
est and enthusiasm for the New World, I again, this time with all our furniture
had not failed to recognize defects and and with my whole library^, as we could
mistakes and illusions. After my return not foresee whether we should stay five
to Germany I became more earnestly years or even ten years in a foreign land.
aware of the great service which the two The old philosopher says, "You never
peoples could render each other. I had swim twice in thesame stream." Cam-
recognized the idealistic undercurrent of bridge, too, was not the same to me, as
American was an individualis-
life, but it my whole life now took a different turn.
tic idealism. I became aware that the In those first years I had only tried to
greatest failures and deficiencies of Amer- observe and to understand my surround-
ican civilization resulted from a lack of ings my new aim was to influence them.
;

that social idealism which gave meaning However much I had moved about on my
to German life. If I could carry the trial trip, I had not dared to make public

message of German ideals to America and speeches, and I had never ventured Eng-
of American ideals to Germany, it would lish writing. I knew a little of the Amer-
be a life-task which would not interfere ican world, but theAmerican world did
In any way with my professional calling not know anything about me. It was a
as scholar and teacher, but which would happy time when even the reporters had
give to it a deeper and wider significance. not discovered me, I think I did not neg-
This sentiment grew In me from day to lect my "academic work. My psychology
day. classesgrew larger and larger, my labo-
Of course this feeling would have ratory was crowded with graduate stu-
quickly burned out if my Harvard place dents who came for psj'chologlcal re-
had been taken by a successor. But long search, and In my scientific writing from
before I left the university had urged me now on I alternated almost rhythmically
to stay, and when I declined, had asked between German and English books.
me to postpone the final decision for two Only once, in what I consider my chief
3'ears. The professorship of psychology philosophical work, "The Eternal Values,"
and the directorship of the psychological did I present the same book to German
laboratory were to be kept open for me, and English readers. Another book, "Psy-
I was to remain In the Harvard system chology and Industrial Efficiency," was
In the capacity of distant adviser, and only In its English garb almost the same as the
when two years had gone was I to settle German volume. But four other Ger-
my life problem. Surely, If only my aca- man books I did not translate Into Eng-
demic work had been concerned I should lish, and seven English ones I did not
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS IN AMERICA 43
render into German. My scientific work cussed in Europe. A whole flood of es-
filled the academic year; in the vacation says in reply poured forth, and from that
I turned to that other groove of my wri- time on have never ceased to interpret
I

ting, my essays and books which aimed German for America and Ameri-
ideals
toward international amity. I began with can ideals for Germany, and to point out
a book of little essays called "American how they could be of help to each other.

The great triumvirate in the philosophical department at Harvard: Josiah Royce (with tht
book), William James, and George Herbert Palmer (standing). From the Rieber
portrait. Professors Royce and Palmer sat for this portrait; the striking
likeness of Professor James was achieved from a photograph
From a Copley print by Curtis & Cameron, Boston

Traits," marginal notes to the text of But the printed story was only the re-
American life as I read it. Iwas frankly flection of my practical moves on the
critical, but in my mind it was balanced chess-board of international affairs. The
by the sympathy and enthusiasm which I first step needed, it seemed to me, was a
poured into my next larger work, written fuller contact of Germany with the cul-
for German consumption. In two big turally higher layer of the American peo-
volumes I tried to draw the picture of ple. The German nation had no channels
"The Americans" in the German lan- of connection with the best elements of
guage for my friends at home. Probably Americanism, Germany relied on that
no book of mine has been so much dis- superficial contact between the two gov-
44 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
ernments. But while it is an essential sity of the West ought to follow. Chicago
feature of the organization of the German carried out the suggestion in the most bril-
empire that the political and governmen- liant style.A holiday was arranged for
tal and intellectual and cultural threads alldepartments of the university; in the
are completely intertwined, it was at the academic theater the president and lead-
end of the last century no less character- ing professors made speeches on the cul-
istic of America that politics and govern- tural communit}' of Germany and the
ment were widely separated from the in- United States, and the German ambassa-
tellectuallyand culturally strongest parts dor answered with an oration which was
of the people. I knew that a change of printed and widely distributed. Other
ideas in Germany could arise most quickly academic institutions followed in line.

and most helpfully if it was initiated by Soon Harvard gave an honorary degree to
the Government, and I knew that the the ambassador, and now the ice was
American sympathy could be won only if broken, and a period of cordial relations
the movement was at first kept as far as between the leading circles of Germany
possible from mere politics. The leading and America began. The thanks of the
universities, with their reserve force of emperor for the honors conferred on his
alumni, seemed to me the ideal starting- representative were a splendid gift of casts
point. In the summer of 1898 I devel- of German sculpture and architecture for
oped my plans to the German ambassador the Germanic Museum in Harvard. The
in Washington, Baron von Holleben, who emperor's brother was to bring the mes-
entered into them enthusiastically. From sage. In the meantime a Harvard man
those days to his death three years ago our had become president and united the high-
friendly relations were never- interrupted. est culture with the highest office. He
I have probably never exchanged so many entered whole-heartedly into the new
letters in my life with any other man ex- movement. On the sixth of March, in

cept my brothers. The first step was his 1902, under my roof Prince Henry of
coming for a week as my guest to Cam- Prussia officially gave the documents and
bridge. He met in my house the leading the pictures of the imperial gift to the
university people, and was then officially president of Harvard University. It was
received through a week of festivities by a fascinating gathering which had assem-
the president of the university, by the gov- bled in my library, in which I am writing.
ernor, and by many student bodies. The official Americans were led by David
The effect in Germany was the ex- J. Hill, the later ambassador to Germany;
pected one.: the illustrated papers brought towering over the German group stood
out pictures of American universities, and one of the mildest-looking men, Admiral
the Tjewspapers suddenly discovered Amer- von Tirpitz, and next to him his Ameri-
ican intellectual life. Even the academic can Admiral "Bob" Evans;
colleague,
circles had up to that time not the slightest and many other Americans and Germans
idea of remember in the week when
it. I widely known in the world listened to the
Professor von Hoist and I were called exchange of speeches, culminating in
to Chicago and to Harvard I was asked Prince Henry's spontaneous last appeal
ever so often which of the two universities that the friendship between America and
was the older one, at a time when Har- Germany never be interrupted.
vard was two and a half centuries and Now it was no longer difficult to build
Chicago two and a half months old. As new bridges, the more as thereafter I

soon as the Holleben episode at Cambridge found at all times support and welcome
was closed I went to Chicago and con- both at the White House in Washington
vinced President Harper, the most active and Potsdam. In
at the imperial palace in
of all university heads, that after Ger- the following year I went over to Ger-
many's official contact with the leading many in the name of the St. Louis
university of the East the leading univer- World's Fair to invite the leading schol-
twenty-fivp: years in America 45
ars personally to the great Congress of My own daily life had long since taken
Arts and Sciences. Nothing could demon- another character. There was seldom a
strate the new order of things more clearly week without some banquet speech in Bos-
than that two thirds of those mighty men ton or New York or elsewhere, and the
public addresses
became my pas-
time. Above
all, Europeans
of all types and
of all lands sat
down in my
study and
talked about the
future of the
world. Twenty
years ago, when
I moved into
my house, that
part of Cam-
bridge was one
large garden.
Since that time
slowly man and
moth have de-
stroyed the
beautiful elms,
and the apart-
ment - houses
have encroached
upon us. Yet I

feel as if I could
not leave my
Ware Street
home : too many
men of genius,
world - famous
message-bearers,
have stepped
over its thresh-
old and hal-
lowed it.

Only once
was I at the
poipt of leaving
Professor Miinh his study louse in Cauibr the American
field of work.
to whom brought invitations accepted,
I At the beginning of the century the Uni-
and appeared in the following summer at versity of Konigsberg called me. It was
the shores of the Mississippi. Numberless near to my beloved Dantzic home, and it
ties were formed, and the much disputed was the chair of the great Immanuel Kant
professorial exchange was more or less that fascinated me, and I cabled that I

directly the outcome of this expedition. should probably accept. But then Josiah
46 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Royce sat with me a long Sunday morning work should span the globe. An institute
and insisted that it was my higher duty to in Berlin, with the task of organizing and
stand by my Harvard post. Others might aiding the to-and-fro movements between
fill that German chair, he said, but here I the United States and Germany, seemed
was needed for more than the mere profes- to me the most desirable beginning. Hence
sional work. The philosopher must not in 1907 I had submitted to the Berlin
be a patriot only, but at the same time a authorities the plan for an Amerika-In-
citizen of the spiritual world in all lands, stitut, which might be slowly enlarged
and I should be among true friends here toward a general foreign institute. The
my life long. That night I sent a second exchange year at last brought the chance
cable declining the call. In future I for realizing this dream. German and
hardly hesitated when universities in Ger- German-American bankers had provided
many and without approached me. In ample funds, the Government offered a
1908 the Prussian Government, aware suite of seven rooms in the new palace of
that I looked on the interpretation of the Royal Library, and in September,
America as a part of my life-work, asked 19 10, I began with a staff of ten persons
whether I would accept a full professor- my fascinating work as official first direc-
ship for American civilization to be cre- tor of the Amerika-Institut. It was not
ated for me at the University of Berlin. an easy parting when I returned a year
But I declined again ; my American work my routine existence in Boston.
later to
was not completed. With the greatest The American daily work, too, had in
satisfaction, on the other hand, I did the meantime expanded in new directions.
agree to the Harvard proposal that I go In my early Harvard years my experi-
to the University of Berlin as Harvard ex- mental psychological labors had been de-
change professor. This function had al- voted to strictly theoretical interests. But
ways been a half-year task, but in my case with the beginning of the century the time
the German Government asked that I be seemed ripe for applying the new science
sent for a full year. Harvard consented, to the practical affairs of life. Efforts of
and I remained from June, 1910, to Au- that kind began everywhere, and I felt
gust, 191 1, with my family in Berlin. that. this was the next great task for our
From the day when I gave my opening laboratories. I began to give increasing
address on the between ties Germany and attention to the application of psychology
America in the wonderful new aula, in to education, to medicine, to law, to voca-
the presence of the emperor and all official tional guidance, to commerce, to industry.
Berlin, to the day when I delivered my This, too, brought me into much livelier
farewell address in the classical and truly contact with wide world than the
the
sacred old aula of the great alma mater, earlier studies. I had to visit court-rooms

it was crowning year of my life.


the and factories, schools and hospitals, and I
One feature of the exchange year gave was sometimes four and six and eight
me special delight. For a long time it had nights in the sleeper in order to study a
been a pet idea of mine that the cultural significant case. But this group of activi-
relations of the peoples ought not to be ties demands the cooperation of the com-
left to chaotic chance influences, but ought munity. The teachers and lawyers, the
to be furthered by planful organization. physicians and manufacturers, yes, the
International clearing-houses ought to be thinking public at large, must begin to
established for science and scholarship, for psychologize if such work is to advance.
technic and exploration, for literature and Hence I tried to do my share in populariz-
art, for education and social reform, and ing psychology by lectures, essays, and
all the other elements of national activities books which were widely read. All this
outside of politics and commerce. I brought me from year to year more into
dreamed of such cultural centers of or- touch with all layers of the nation. I

ganization in every capital until their net- moved among teachers and scholars, among
in Dant/ic, 'ilu- \cnic
Miinsterberg spent h

psychologists and philosophers, among not often regret my long stay in a foreign
statesmen and pseudo-statesmen, among land, I told him that, on the contrary, I

men of affairs and women with still more blessed the hour of my decision in early
affairs. The memory of them and the years, as America had given me an abun-
account of their life problems may fill the dance of inner values, of problems and
pages to come in these reminiscences of a tasks, of joy and friendship, which would
quarter of a century. last forever. At that time I planned to
So the years passed in rapid flight. Hu- go Europe again with my famih" in
to
man life is human life. Illness and sorrow June, 19 1 4. It had been our habit to
have sometimes clouded my summer day, spend four months of every second sum-
and our staying far from home demanded mer in the fatherland. Sometimes I un-
many a sacrifice and yet we could not
; dertook shorter trips besides. Once I went
have hoped for a more beautiful pilgrim- over for a family gathering at Christmas-
age. Happy were the years of my chil- time, once even for a three days' scientific
dren in and college, happy our
school congress. I got the program of the con-
home, happy our social life, happy our gress one afternoon, and saw a paper an-
work; and when in the spring of 1914 a nounced in it which interested me one ;

German guest asked me whether I did hour later President Lowell had given me
47
48 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
leave of absence for two weeks, and the In June, 1914, we hoped to visit the
next morning I sailed from New York. I young American sister-in-law and her
left the boat at Ph'mouth, rushed through baby, but before that we wanted to stop
England, reached Berlin the next after- for a while in London as guests of my
noon at four, heard the paper at half-past niece; the only daughter of my second
four, and at five I took part in the discus- brother had married a well-known Eng-
sion. The last time we were at home was lisli author and government official. This
in the summer of 191 2. In the old Al- summer visit with the new American and
satian garden in which we had been mar- English relatives in London and Berlin
ried my wife and I celebrated our silver seemed to me almost a symbol of my life

wedding, and then we all enjoyed once desire to work toward lasting harmony
more a superb trip through southern Ger- and friendship amongthe three great
many, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy. Teutonic nations, America, England, and
We left for New York from Naples. In Germany. I felt that much had been im-
Lugano my eldest and my younger brother proved, and yet that too much was still
joined us: one went as delegate to the to be done if ever real cordiality was to
Boston Congress of Chambers of Com- unite them and to secure the peace of the
merce, the other went to study the Chinese world. I had planned various moves both
art collections in American museums. On on British and German soil to further that
the steamer near the Azores my daughters international work ; the steamer tickets
introduced my j^oungcr brother to a young were in my pocket. But my younger
Vassar girl whom they had just met. He daughter became ill with scarlet fever,
talked with her a few minutes ; then she and when she recovered the physician sug-
left, and my brother said to me, "That is gested that we should not at once under-
the girl for whom I have waited my life take a voyage. So we did not sail ; and
long." A short time after they married, then at Serajevo a shot was fired, the war
and he took her from Buffalo to Berlin, a broke out. When shall I see my father-
new American-German tie in our familv. land again?

In Amber
By AMELIA JOSEPHINE BURR

THF' day that nothing can undo,you wore


Those beads of amber that
In their transparent gold held fast
Frail tiny creatures of the past,
With gauzy wings inert and dead
Fixed as in flight forevermore.
While I have lived my bleak years through,
Like amber from a wounded tree
Out of my my songs have bled
heart
And fixed in them who looks may see
What was once your love for me
And what was once my faith in you.
Plattsburg and Citizenship
By LKONARi) WOOD
Major-General, U. S. A.

THE vice.
Plattsburg idea
It is
is national ser-
founded upon an ap-
is to continue to be open to all the world

and at the same time be a melting-pot,


preciation of individual obligation for something more effective must be done
service to the nation in war as well as in than has been done in the past. I1ic

peace, upon a realization of the necessity new-comers in America nuist drop the an-
of building up a better spirit of national tipathies and racial prejudices growing out
solidarity. of the struggles and traditions of the past,
We hear frequently in these days the and accept and live up to American ideals,
expressions, "America for all the world," and we must find some way of bringing
"America the melting-pot." If America them into close and immediate touch with
49
Bubinebs men getting then equipment at Plattsburg

our people, and impressing upon them an have her. Nor is she a melting-pot in the
appreciation of the obligations of the new sense that she must be if the republic is to
citizenship. All the world is indeed com- meet, as a people homogeneous in senti-
ing, and America is not the melting-pot ment, the strain of our next great struggle.
to anything must be if
like the extent she Our new-comers too often look upon
we are to build up a homogeneous people. America as a land where obligation for
All the world is coming to-day and inay national service does not exist. They mis-
come in greater numbers to-morrow. The take license for liberty, and, copying the
question we should ask ourselves is, Do views of many of our own people, assume
they find conditions here which tend to that they have the right to volunteer to
make them good Americans and to realize let others do their service and war duty
that they are people of a new nation? for them. When the idea of obligation
Our immigrants often come in racial is suggested, it is resented as placing
groups, and too frequently dwell in racial a on the new freedom, a re-
limitation
areas, and, what is most unfortunate of striction on their new-found liberty to do
all, are fed too long by a dialect press— what they wish, and nothing else. This
a press which gives them too much of that sentiment, unfortunately, is shared by
which tends to keep alive racial feelings many of our native-born people, who,
and antipathies, and too little of the spirit while demanding equality of privilege and
of the great republic in which they are opportunity, deny that there is any
about to claim citizenship, and the ideals equality of obligation. Here iswhere the
and policies of which they must accept if great work must begin. We must educate
they are to form a source of real strength not only the new-comer, but many of
to the nation. our native-born people, and build up
All who look beneath the surface know among them a proper appreciation of the
that under present conditions America is principle that the privileges and the obli-
not assimilating the new elements to any- gations of citizenship in a democracy are
thing like the extent we should like to inseparable.

50
Company G on a hike at Plattsburs;

We must make clear to them that hav- ing it through failure to support the right
ing given them without stint all the privi- or to meet the demands of duty, cost what
leges of citizenship, withholding nothing it may.
of opportunity, they must accept their full We
do very little to bring these new-
share of citizenship responsibility in comers into contact with those who have
stormy as in fair weather, in war as in been here for a long time, with the native
peace. If we had withheld anything either born, with those who have in their blood
of opportunity or privilege, they could the tradition of generations of citizenship
with a show of reason refuse to accept and struggle. Something is accomplished
their full share of responsibility for service through the public-school system, but it
intime of peril. But we have given freely, lacks concreteness. Instruction is rather
and they must on their part assume the diffuse. There is a sad lack of intelligent,
obligation of men of a democracy. There honest teaching of our national history.
can be no secure national life, no real na- There is too often little or nothing said
tional sodality, where men demand and about the individual responsibility of each
receive a full share of privilege and elect and every citizen of a democracy. There
to volunteer to let their fellows bear the is too little said of responsibility for na-
obligations of service in time of danger. tional service. There is a great deal more
As a people we have drifted far afield than necessary said about the results in
under the emasculating teaching and the way of employment and salary that
words of many present-day leaders. At will follow the acquirement of a certain
heart the spirit of our people is sound ; amount of education.
but it is sleeping. We
must arouse it to The Plattsburg movement is the first
throw off the false teaching which has movement of the kind — at least the first
claimed that progress and life can be one of any importance— that has been
independent of struggle and sacrifice. undertaken in this country, the main pur-
Not only must we arouse our own people, pose of which is the building up of the
but we must bring these new-comers idea of national service — service not only
in touch with the real, though slumber- in peace, but in war ; service to the limit
ing, spirit of America —
the spirit which of our mental and physical capacity. And
loves peace, but not to the extent of gain- when I say "our" I mean both men and
51
52 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
women, the youth of both sexes as well as trained and disciplined, and he urges train-
those of more mature years, all who are ing in order that we may be prepared,
physically and mentally fit. knowing that if we are prepared, the
This is the real spirit which animates chance of attack will be greatly dimin-
the Plattsburg movement. Plattsburg is ished, and, if war is forced upon us, the
simply a term, a generic term, which ap- training will enable us better to meet
plies to all camps where the Plattsburg the stress and strain, and more effectively
spirit and the Plattsburg method of train- to discharge our plain obligation, and to
ing prevail. The military training aims do this with a minimum loss in life and
to prepare the man to discharge his citizen- treasure.
ship duty better in war, and to impress There has been a feeling that those at-
upon him the fact that he is one of the re- tending Plattsburg represent a certain
sponsible units of the nation. class of the population, that all who go
The Plattsburg camps were established there expect to be officers, that the mass of
in 19 13. The second series of camps were the people are not represented. This as-
drawing to a close in August, 191 4, sumption is not correct. Every effort has
when the present great war began. The been made to bring into the camps all

establishment of these training camps was elements of our population, rich and poor,
in no way connected with the war, al- Jew and Gentile, upper and lower social
though their growth has been stimulated class, the native born, the son of the alien
by it, as the war has enabled many of our and the foreign born, representatives of
people to visualize the possibilities of the labor and of capital, in fact, men of all
future, and has brought home to them a classes. The only requirements insisted
realizing sense of the need of a peace in- upon have been a reasonably sound
surance in the form of national pre- phj'sique and sufficient education to make
paredness. it possible for the man to follow in-
But preparedness for military service telligentlyand profitably the prescribed
was only one of the things aimed at at course. A man wholly without education
Plattsburg. A governing motive behind could not take the Plattsburg course with
it was national service, citizenship re- advantage to himself or without great dis-
sponsibility, an appreciation of the basic advantage to those associated with him.
principle of democracy that hand in hand Where evidence is lacking of graduation
with equality of privilege and opportunity from a suitable school or college, other
goes equality of obligation. The Platts- evidence of ability to absorb readily the
burg training is not intended merely as a principles has been accepted, such as the
preparation for war of the men who at- man's standing in his community, his at-
tend camp, but has in view the building tainments in civil life. If he has reached
up of an adequate appreciation on the part a point that indicates that he must possess
of allwho undertake the training of how initiative and a certain amount of ability,
much there is to learn : that men cannot he is accepted, and little is asked concern-
become trained soldiers by donning a uni- ing his education except to ascertain if

form and seizing arms; that the soldier's he has the most elementary educational
art, like any other, can be mastered only qualifications and is of good character. In
by earnest effort; that time and devotion other words, he must know how to read
are required. The man who serves at and write and he must have learned some-
these camps becomes an active agency for thing of elementary mathematics. The
the dissemination of the truth concerning door has been opened just as wide as pos-
training, and an earnest advocate of that sible. We
want men with the hearts and
well-thought-out, done-in-time-of-peace purposes of men. All we ask in the way
preparedness which will be an insurance of education is enough to enable them to
against war. He has learned the folly of follow the course intelligently.
sending untrained men to meet men On arriving in camp every effort is
Major lialstead Dorey, in command of the 1' rg camp, addressing tlic "rookio"

made to break up school, college, social, language, his performance of duty, come
and business groups. The men are assigned under critical observation. If a man
to organizations in small detachments, measures up as honest, hard-working, and
and, on arriving at the organizations, competent, he stands upon as high a level
again distributed, so that the squad (eight as any man in the camp. There is abso-
men) as eventually made up represents lutely nothing of class grouping or class
very frequently pretty much every ele- distinctions. In other words, we have
ment of our social order. The camp-life here a grouping of very many elements
is an absolutely straight democracy. All of the American population under con-
men have equal privileges, and are given ditions of absolute equality. As a matter
an equal opportunity, and every one is of fact, the well-known man is rather at
charged with an equal responsibility for a disadvantage. There is a fine spirit of
prompt and thorough performance of loyalty on the part of the men to their
duty. The man's past disappears, his officers. Most of these men are for the
present social or business status neither first time in their lives receiving first-hand
advances nor retards him. He rises or impressions of typical army officers, and
falls entirely on his own merits. He is sim- the contact is helpful to the army and en-
ply Private X of Company D, with the lightening to the civilian.
same opportunity as every other man in Plattsburg, in a word, represents a con-
the company and no more. He is dressed dition which would be general if we
exactly like his neighbor, who may have should ever adopt universal training. In
been his employer in some great bank, or a limited way (limited only because its

may be the man who drove his machine last membership is limited) it illustrates what
year; the professor and the student are could be done in the way of making
shoulder to shoulder. All stand on exactly America a real melting-pot, through uni-
the same footing. All have before them the versal training in citizenship obligation,
same opportunity. They are clothed alike, under conditions where all men are
fed alike, and follow the same plan of brought together upon terms of absolute
training. They soon come to judge one an- equality, and where they stand or fall
other very soundly. A man's habits, his solely on their own merit or through their
53
54 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
own shortcomings. They live amid sur- gations of citizenship in the nation from
roundings that teach obligation for na- which he came. He has impressed upon
tional service in peace and war, respect for him also the necessity of receiving such
the flag, the uniform, and the constituted training as will enable him to discharge his
authorities. They learn to do things obligation effectively and eflliciently.

promptly as told and when told. They In the Plattsb'irg idea you will have
learn to obey, and consequently to com- much of the fuel for the fire which will
mand. The rigid discipline of the camp make America a real melting-pot, and
applied to all alike is especially beneficial such a melting-pot she must be if she is

to American youth. The instruction and ever to go through the strain of any great
lectures are intended to impress upon the national upheaval, involving a struggle
men under training a deep sense of in- with one of the great and highly organized
dividual obligation for service, to bring powers of to-day. The Plattsburg idea
home to them (andmost of them for
to and the Plattsburg spirit encourage arbi-
the first time) a true knowledge of their tration, cultivate a desire for peace with
country's history, especially from the honor, a belief that it is desirable to keep
military point of view, and an appre- the peace if it can be kept zvithout break-
ciation of the needs of organization to ing the faith. The Plattsburg training
meet the conditions of organized prepared- tends to sweep away much of the fog of
ness which exist throughout the world to- conceit and misinformation which has ob-
day among all peoples who appreciate scured our view, and to shatter many of
citizenship obligation. the beliefs which a shallow teaching of
The camp-life as well as the instruction history has built up in American youth.
and training tend to implant habits of The spirit is conservative; it is strong in
promptness and thoroughness in the dis- faith that the nation can be prepared and
charge of duty, respect for authority, and 3'et tolerant, armed and yet free from the
scrupulous regard for the rights of others. spirit of aggression. It teaches that the
The training tends to improve the physical real sinews of war are not gold and num-
condition of those who attend, and al- bers, but the bodies and souls of men
most without exception they leave camp trained and disciplined and backed by a
feeling that they have had the most valu- sense of individual obligation and a spirit
able and useful experience of their lives of sacrifice, and that without the latter a
an experience which impresses upon them people are but sheep ready for the
what a great good could be accomplished slaughter, a mass without a soul.
if the system were of general application. It welcomes the poor and the repre-
The new-comers, the sons of the foreign sentatives of the working-class with even
born, often for the first time in their more cordiality than it does the well-to-do,
lives, come in close contact with the native for it recognizes that the heavy burden of
born. They are for the first time in their upon the great
citizenship obligation falls
lives shoulder to shoulder, engaged in the mass of the people in peace and war, and
discharge of a common obligation. The that this mass is made up of those who
association is beneficial and helpful to both, work that they may li\c.

for each learns to good


appreciate the As I see it, it is a movement full of
qualities of the other, and they find many. promise, and means much for the future
They find that they have more in common of the nation. It is the forerunner of uni-
than they had ever realized, that many versal obligatory and servicetraining
distinctions are largely artificial, and the under conditions where all who are physi-
real measure of a man is the way he does cally and mentally fit must play their
the day's work. The new-comer has part, share and share alike. In a word, it
brought home to him the fact that he has breathes the purest soirit of democracy.
an obligation in this country just as bind- Its effect will be preparedness without

ing, just as far-reaching, as were the obli- militarism, strength without aggression.
Onnie
By THOMAS BEER
Author of "The Brothers"

Illustrations by Oscar Frederick Howard

MRS. RAWLING ordered Sanford to


take a and with the clear
bath,
vision of seven years Sanford noted that
no distinct place for this process had been
recommended. So he retired to a sun-
warmed tub of rain-water behind the
stables,and sat comfortably armpit deep
whirring a rattle lately worn by
tlierein,

a snake, and presented to him by one of

Sg»

Stfiod with a red hand on eacli hip, a o;rin

the Varian tribe, sons of his father's fore- A


shadow came between him and the
man. Soaking happily, Sanford admired sun, and Sanford abandoned the rattles to
his mother's garden, spread up along the behold a monstrous female, unknown,
slope toward the thick cedar forest, and white-skinned, moving on majestic feet to
thought of the mountain strawberries his seclusion. He sat deeper in the tub,
ripening in this hot Pennsylvania June. but she seemed unabashed, and stood with
His infant brother Peter 3'elled viciously a red hand on each hip, a grin rippling the
in the big gray-stone house, and the great length of her mouth.
sawmill snarled half a mile away, while "Herself says you '11 be comin' to her-
he waited patiently for the soapless water self now, if it 's you that 's Master San,"
to remove all plantain stains from his she said.
brown legs, the cause of this immersion. Sanford speculated. He knew that all
56 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
things have an office in this world, and to the touch. He allowed her to kiss him
tried to locate this preposterous, lofty and to carry him, clothed, back to the
creature while she beamed upon him. house on her shoulders, which were as
"I 'm San. Are you the new cook?" hard as a cedar trunk, but covered with
he asked. green cloth sprinkled with purple dots.
"I am the same," she admitted. "And herself 's in the libr'y 'drinkin'
"Are you a good cook?" he continued. tea," said his vehicle, him on
depositing
"Aggie was n't. She drank." the veranda. "An' what might that be
"God be above us all ! And whatever you 'd be holdin'?"
did herself do with a cook that drank in "Just a rattle off a snake."
this place?" She examined the six-tiered, smoky rat-
"I don't know. Aggie got married. tle with a positive light in her dull, black

Cooks do," much entertained


said Sanford, eyes and crossed herself.
by Her deep voice was soft,
this person. "A queer country, where they do be
emerging from the largest, reddest mouth bellin' the snakes! I heard the like in
he had ever seen. The size of her feet made the gover'ment school before I did come
him dubious as to her humanity. "Any- over the west water, but I misbelieved the
how," he w^ent on, "tell mother I 'm not same. God's ways is strange, as the priests
clean yet. What 's your name?" will be sayin'."
"Onnie," said the new cook. "An' "You can have it," said Sanford, and
would this be the garden?" ran off to inquire of his mother the dif-
"Silly, what did j^ou think?" ference between women and ladies.

"I 'm a stranger in this place. Master Rawling, riding slowly, came up the
San, an' I know not which is why nor driveway from the single lane of his vil-
forever after." lage, and found the gigantic girl sitting on
Sanford's brain refused this statement tlie steps so absorbed in this sinister toy
entirely, and he blinked. that she jumped with a little yelp when
"I guess you 're Irish," he meditated. he dismounted.
"I am. Do you be gettin' out of your "What have you there?" he asked, using
tub now, an' Onnie "11 dry you," she hismost engaging smile.
offered. " 'T is a snake's bell, your Honor, w^hich

"I can't," he said firmlv ; "vou 're a Master San did be givin' me. 'T is wel-
lady." come indeed, as I lost off my holy medal,
"A lady? Blessed Mary sa\'c us from bein' sick, forever on the steamship
sin! A lady? M\self? I 'm no sucli crossin' the west water."
thing in this world at all ; I 'm just Onnie —
"But can you use a rattle for a holy
KiUelia." medal?" said Rawling.
She appeared quite horrified, and San- "The gifts of children are the blessin's

ford was astonished. She seemed to be a of Mary's self," Onnie maintained. She
woman, for all her height and the extent squatted on the gravel and hunted for one
of her hands. of the big hair-pins her jump had loosened,
"Are 3'ou sure?" he asked. then used it to pierce the topmost shell.

"As I am a Christian woman," said On- Rawling leaned against watch- his saddle,

nie. "I never was a lady, nor coidd I ing the huge hands, and Pat Shcehan, the
ever be such a thing." old coachman, chuckled, coming up for
"Well," said Sanford, "I don't know, the tired horse.
but I suppose you can dry me." "You '11 be from the West," he said,
He climbed out of his tub, and this "where they string sea-shells."
novel being paid kind attention to his di- "I am, an' you '11 be from Dublin, by
rections. He began to like her, especially the soimd of your speakin'. So was my
as her hair was of a singular, silky black- father, who is now drowned forever, and

ness, suggesting dark mulberries, delightful with his wooden leg," she added mourn-
ONNIE 57
full}^ finding a cord in some recess of her ried an employee before a month could
pocket, entangled there with a rosary and pass. The valley women regarded Rawl-
a cluster of small fish-hooks. She patted ing as their patron, heir of his father, and
the odd scapular into the cleft of her bosom as temporary aid gave feudal service on
and smiled Rawling.
at "Them in the demand ; but for the six months of his
kitchen are tellin' me jou '11 be ownin' family's residence each year house servants
this whole country an' sixty miles of it, must be kept at any price. He talked of

Their wives called hiin everythiiii; from '


lieari'

love '
to '
little cabbage " '

all the trees an' hills. You '11 be no less his domain, and the Irish girl nodded, the
than a President's son, then, your Honor." rattles whirring when she breathed, muf-
Pat led the horse of^ hastily, and Rawl- fled in her breast, as if a snake were
ing explained that his lineage was not so crawling somewhere near.
interesting. The girl had arrived the "When my father came here," he said,
night before, sent on by an Oil City "there was n't any and there
railroad,
agency, and Mrs. Rawling had accepted were still Indians in the woods."
the Amazon as manna-fall. The lumber "Red Indians? Would they all be dead
valley was ten miles above a tiny railroad now? My brother Hyacinth is fair de-
station, and servants had to be tempted parted his mind readin' of red Indians.
with triple wages, were transient, or mar- Him is my twin."
58 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
"How manj^ of you are there?" owner who gave their children schools
"Twelve, jour Honor," said Onnie, and stereopticon lectures in the union
"an' me the first to go off, bein' that I 'm chapel, as his father had before him. He
not so pretty a man would be marryin' went where he pleased, safe except from
me that day or this. An' if herself is con- blind nature and the unfriendly edges of
tent, I am pleased entirely." whirling saws. Men fished him out of
"You 're a good cook," said Rawling, the dammed river, where logs floated,
honestly. 'How old are waiting conversion into merchantable
Hehad been puzzling about this; she planking, and the Varian boys, big, tawny
was so wonderfully ugly that age was diffi- \oungsters, were his body-guard. These
cult to conjecture. But she startled him. perplexed Onnie Killelia in her first days
"I 'II be sixteen next Easter-time, your at Rawling's Hope.
Honor." "The agent's lads are whistlin' for
"That 's very young to leave home," blaster San," she reported to Mrs. Rawl-
he sympathized. ing. "Shall I be findin' him?"
"Who 'd be doin' the like of me any "The agent's lads? Do you mean the
hurt? I 'd trample the face off his head," Varian boys?"
she laughed. "Them 's them. Would
n't Jim Varian
"I think you could. And now what do be his honor's agent? Don't he be payin'
you think of my big son?" the tenantry an' sayin' where is the trees
The amazing Onnie gurgled like a to be felled ? I forbid them to come in,

child, clasping her hands. as Miss Margot —


which is a queer name!
"Sure, Mary herself bore the like among — is asleep sound, an' Master Pete."

the Jew men, an' no one since that day, "Jim Varian came here with his honor's
or will forever. An' I must go to my father, and taught his honor to shoot and
cookin', or Master San will have no din- swim, also his honor's brother Peter, in
ner fit for him." New York, where we live in winter. Yes,
Rawling looked after her pink flannel I suppose you 'd call Jim Varian his
petticoat, greatly touched and pleased by honor's agent. The boys take care of
this eulogy. Mrs. Rawling strolled out of Master San almost as well as you do."
the hall and laughed at the narrative. Onnie sniffed, balancing from heel to
"She 's appalling to look at. and she heel.
frightens the other girls, but she 's clean "Fine care! An' Bill Varian lettin' him
and teachable. If she likes San, she may go romping by the poison-i\'y, wliich God
not marry one of the men for a while." — lets grow in this place like weeds in a
"He 'd be a bold man. She 's as big widow's garden. An' his honor, they do
as Jim Varian. If we run short of hands, be sayin', sends Bill to a fine school, and
I '11 send her up to a cutting. Where 's will the others after him, and to a college
San?" like Dublin has after. An' they callin'
"In the kitchen. He likes her. himself San like he was their brother!"
Heavens! if she '11 only stay. Bob!" As a volunteer nurse-maid Onnie was
quite miraculous to her mistress. Ap-
Onnie and Mrs. Rawling was
stayed, parently she could follow Sanforci by
gratified by humble obedience and ex- scent, for his bare soles left no traces in
cellent cookery. Sanford was gratified by the wild grass, and he moved rapidly, ap-
her address, strange to him. He was the pearing at home exactly vv^hen his stomach
property of his father's lumbermen, and suggested. He was forbidden only the
their wives called him everything from slate ledges beyond the log basin, where
"heart's love" to "little cabbage," as their rattlesnakes took the sun, and the track-
origin might dictate; but no one had ever less farther reaches of the valley, bewilder-
called him "Master San." He was San ing to a small boy, with intricate brooks
to the whole valle^•, the first-born of the and fallen cedar or the profitable yellow
ONNIE 59
pine. Onnie, crying out on her saints, re- "God spare us from purgatory!" she
trieved him from the turn-table-pit of the shouted, "Me to sew for the eight of
narrow-gage logging-road, and pursued his you ? Even
/en in the fine house his honor
fair head up the blue-stone crags behind did be givin the agent I could not stand
the house, her vast feet causing avalanches the noise of it. An' who 'd be mendin'
among the garden Master San's clothes?
beds. She withdrew Be out of this kitchen,
!"
him with railings BillVarian
from the enchanting Rawling, suffocated
society of louse-in- with laughter, reeled
fested Polish children, out of the pantry and
and danced hysteric- fled to his pretty wife.

ally on the shore of "She thinks San 's

the valley-wide, log- her own kid !" he


stippled pool when gasped.
the Varians took him "She "s perfectly
to swim. She bore priceless. I wish she
him off to bed, low- 'd be as careful of
ering at the actual IMargot and Pete. I

nurse. She filled his wish we could lure


bath, she cut his toe- her to New York.
nails. She sang him She 's worth twenty
to sleep with "Drol- city servants."
ien" and the heart- "Her theory is that
shattering lament for if she stays here
Gerald. She prayed there 's some one to
all night outside his see that Pat Sheehan
door when he had a does n't neglect —
brief fever. When what does she call
trouble was coming, San's pony ?" Rawl-
she said the "snake's ing asked.
bells" told her, talk- "The little horse.
ing loudly ; and petty Yes, she told me she 'd
incidents confirmed trample the face ofi
her so far that, after Pat if Shelty came to
she found the child's harm. She keeps the
room ablaze from one house like silver, too ;

of Rawling's cigar- and it 's heavenly to


ettes, they did not find the curtains put
argue, and grew to up when we get here.
!"
share half-way her She bore him off to bed . Heavens! listen
superstition. sang him to sleep " They were in
Women were scarce Rawling's bedroom,
in the valley, and the well-fed, well-paid and Onnie came up the curved stairs. Even
men needed wives; and, as time went on, in list house-slippers she moved like an
Honora Killelia was sought in marriage b}- elephant, and Sanford had called her, so
tall Scots and Swedes, who sat dumbly pas- the speed of her approach shook the square
sionate on the back veranda, where she upper hall, and the door jarred a little
mended Sanford's clothes. Even hawk- way open with the impact of her feet.
nosed Jim V^arian, nearing sixty, made "Onnie, I 'm not sleepy. Sing Gerald,"
cautious proposals, using Bill as mes- he commanded.
senger, when Sanford was nine. "I will do that same if voii '11 be Ivin'
60 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
down still, Master San. Now, this is San's door if he comes home wet or has
what Conia sang when she found her son a bruise. It 's rather ludicrous, now that
all dead forever in the sands of the west San 's fourteen. She writes to him at
water." Saint Andrew's."
By the sound Onnie sat near the bed "I told her Saint Andrew's was n't far
crooning steadily, her soft contralto filling from Boston, and she offered to get her
both stories of the happy house. Rawling cousin Dermott —
he 's a bell-hop at the
went across the hall to see, and stood in —
Touraine to valet him. Imagine San
the boy's door. He loved Sanford as with a valet at Saint Andrew's!" Rawling
imaginative men can who are still young, laughed.
and the ugly seemed natural.
girl's idolatry "But San is n't spoiled," Peter observed,
Yet this was very charming, the simple "and he 's the idol of the valley, Bob,
room, the drowsy, slender child, curled in even more than you are. Varian, Mc-
his sheets, surrounded with song. —
Comas, Jansen the whole gang arwi their
"Thank you, Onnie," said Sanford. "I cubs. They 'd slaughter any one who
suppose she loved him a lot. It 's a nice touched San."
song. Goo' night." "I don't see how you stand the place,"
As Onnie passed her master, he saw the said Mrs. Peter. "Even if the men are
stupid eyes full of tears. respectful, they 're so familiar. And any-
"Now, why '11 he be thankin' me," she thing could happen there. Denny tells

muttered
— "me that 'u'd die an' stav in me you have Poles and Russians— all sorts
hell forever for hi N( I must go of dreadful people."
mend up the fish-bag your Honor's bro- Her horror tinkled prettily in the
ther's wife was for sendin' him an' which Chinese drawing-room, but Rawling
no decent fish would be dyin' in." sighed.
"Are you going
n't to take Jim A arian ?" "We can't get the old sort — Scotch,
asked Rawling. Swedes, the good Irish. We get any old
"I would n't be marryin' with Roosy- thing. Varian swears like a trooper, but
velt himself, that 's President, an' has he has tofire them right and left all sum-

his house built all of gold! Who 'd be mer through. We


've a couple of hundred
seein' he gets his meals, an' no servants who are there to stay, some of them born
in the sufferin' land worth the curse of a there but God help San when he takes it
;

heretic? Not the agent, nor fifty of him," over!"


Onnie proclaimed, and marched away. Sanford learned to row at Saint
Andrew's, and came home in June with
Sax FORD never came to scorn his slave new, flat bands of muscle in his chest, and
or treat her as. a servant. He was proud Onnie worshiped with loud Celtic ex-
of Onnie. She did not embarrass him by clamations, and bade small Pete grow up
her all-embracing attentions, although he like Master San. And Sanford grew two
weaned her of some of them as he grew inches before he came home for the next
into a wood-ranging, silent boy, studious, summer, reverting to bare feet, corduroys,
and somewhat shy outside the feudal val- and woolen shirts as usual. Onnie eyed
ley. The Varian boys were sent, as each him dazedly when he strode into her
reached thirteen, to Lawrenceville, and kitchen for sandwiches against an after-
testified their gratitude to the patron by noon's fishing.
diligentcareers. They were Sanford's "O Master San, you 're all grown Tip
!"
summer companions, with occasional visits sudden'
from his cousin Denis, whose mother dis- "Just five foot eight, Onnie. Ling
approved of the valley and Onnie. \"arian 's five foot nine ; so 's Cousin
"I really don't see how Sanford can let Den."
the poor creature fondle him," she said. "But don't you be goin' round the cut-
"Denny tells me she simply wails outside tin' camps up valley, neither. You 're too
The sim])le room, the drowsy, slender child, curled in his sheets, surrounded with song"

way
5'oung to be hearin' the awful these you things they hear. Use the Varians
new hands do talk. It 's a sin to hear Ling and Reuben are clever. I pay high
how they curse an' swear." enough wages for this riffraff. I '11 pay
"The wumman 's right," said Ian anything for good hands and we get
;

Cameron, the smith, who was courting her dirt!"


while he mended the kitchen range. Sanford enjoyed being a detective, and
"They 're foul as an Edinburgh fishwife kept the Varians busy. Bill, acting as
— the new men. Go no place wi'out a assistant doctor of the five hundred, gave
Varian, two Varians, or one of my lads." him advice on the subject of cocaine
"Good Lord! I 'm not a kid, Ian!" symptoms and alcoholic eyes. Onnie
"Ye 're no' a mon, neither. An' ye 're raved when he trotted in one night with
Cameron, grimly.
the owner's first," said Ling and Reuben at heel, their clothes
Rawling nodded when Sanford told him rank with the evil whisky they had poured
this. from kegs hidden in a cavern near the val-
"Jim carries an automatic in his belt, ley-mouth.
and we 've had stabbings. Keep your "You '11 forever with some
be killed
temper if they get fresh. 're in hotWe Polack beast! O
Master San, it 's not
water constantly, San. Look about the you that 's the polis. 'T is not fit for him,
trails for whisky-caches. These rotten your Honor. Some Irish pig will be
stevedores who come floating in bother shootin' him, or a sufferin' Bohemyun."
the girls and bully the kids. You 're "But it 's the property, Onnie," the boy
fifteen, and I count on you to help keep faltered. "Here 's his honor worked to
the property decent. The boys will tell death, and Uncle Jim. I 've got to do

61
62 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
something. good wh kv at the
They sell send for the sheriff and have some thug
store, and just smell me," arrested. A blackguard from Oil City
But Onnie wept, and Rawling, for has opened a dive just outside the property,
sheer pity, sent her out of the dining-room. on the road to the station, and Cameron
"She— she me!" Sanford said. tells me all sorts of dope is for sale in
"It 's not natural. Dad, d' you think?" the boarding-houses. We have cocaine-
He was sitting on his bed, newly bathed inhalers, opium-smokers, and all the other
and pensive, reviewing the day. vices."
"Why not? She 's alone here, and After this outburst Sanford was not sur-
you 're the only thing she 's fond of. Stop prised when he heard from Onnie that his
telling her about things or she '11 get sick father now wore a revolver, and that the
with worry." overseers of the sawmill did the same.
"She 's fond of Margot and Pete, but On the first of June Rawling posted
she 's just idiotic about me. She did scare signs at the edge of his valley and at the
me!" railroad stations nearest, saying that he
Rawling looked at his son and won- needed no more labor. The tide of appli-
dered if the boy knew how attractive were cants ceased, but Mrs. Rawling was
his dark, blue eyes and his plain, grave nervous. Pete declared his intention of
face. The younger children were beauti- running away, and riding home in the
ful;but Sanford, reared more in the forest, late afternoon, Margot was stopped by a
had the forest depth in his gaze and an drunken, babbling man, who seized her
animal litheness in his hard young body. pony's bridle, with unknown words. She
"She 's like a dog," Sanford reflected. galloped free, but next day Rawling sent
"Only she 's a woman. It 's sort of
— his wife and children to the seaside and
"Pathetic?" sat waiting Sanford's coming to cheer his
"I suppose that 's the word. But I dn desolate house, the new revoher cold on
love the poor old thing. Her letters are his groin.
rich. She tells me about allnew the Sanford came home a day earlier than
babies and who 's courting who and how he had planned, and drove in a borrowed
the horses are. It is pathetic." cart from the station, furious when an
old cottage blazed in the rainy night, just
He thought of Onnie often the next below the white posts marking his her-
winter, and especially when she wrote a itage, and shrill women screamed invita-
lyric of thanksgiving after the family had tion at the horse's hoof-beats. He felt the
come to Rawling's Hope in April, saying A-alley smirched, and his father's worn
that all would be well and trouble would face angered him when they met.
cease. But his father wrote differently "I almost w^ish 3'ou 'd not come, Sonny.
"You know there is a strike in the West We 're in rotten shape for a hard summer.
Virginia mines, and it has sent a mass of Go to bed, dear, and get warm."
ruffians out looking for work. We need "Got a six-shooter for me?"
all the people we can get, but they are a "You ? Who 'd touch you ? Some one
pestiferous outfit. I am opening up a would kill him. I let Bill have a gun,
camp in Bear Run, and our orders are and some other steady heads. You must
enormous already, but I hate littering the keep your temper. You always have.
valley with these swine. They are as in- Ling Varian got into a splendid row witli
solent and dirty as Turks. Pete says the some hog who called Uncle Jim the —
village smells, and has taken to the woods. usual name. Ling did him up. Ah,
Onnie says the new Irish are black scum here 's Onnie. Onnie, here 's

of Limerick, and Jim Varian's language The cook rushed down the stairs, a

is n't printable. The old men are com- fearful and notable bed-gown covering her
plaining, and altogether I feel like Louis night-dress, and the rattles chattering
XVI in 1789. About every day I have to loudlv.
ONNIE 63
"God 's kind to us. See the chest of needed cheering, and Ling Varian, if ob-
him! Master San! Master San!" tainable, would make a third at dinner.
"Good Lord, Onnie! I was n't dead, His intimate hurtled down the tunnel of
you know! Don't kill a fellow!" mountain ash directly and assented.
For the first time her embrace was an "Wait till I go back and tell Reuben,
embarrassment her mouth on his cheek; though. I 'm cooking this week. Wish
made him flush. She loved him so desper- Onnie 'd marry dad. Make her, can't
ately, this poor stupid woman, and he you? Hi, Reu! I 'm eating at the house.
could only be fond of her, give her a sort The beef 's on, and dad wants fried onions.
of tolerant affection. Honesty reddened Why won't she have dad ? You 're grown
his face. up."
"Come on and find me a hard-boiled He trotted beside the mare noiselessly,
egg, there 's a —" chewing a birch spray, a hand on his
"A hard-boiled egg? Listen to that, friend's knee.
your Honor! An' it 's near the middle "She says she won't get married. I

of the night! No, I '11 not be findin' hard- expect she '11 stay here as long as she lives."
boiled eggs for you oh, he 's laughin' at— "I suppose so, but I wish she 'd marry
me Now you come into the dinin'-room,
! dad," said Ling. "All wear-
this trouble 's

an' I '11 be hottin' some milk for you, for ing him out, and he won't have a hired
you 're wet as any drowned little cat. girl if we could catch one. There 's a
An' the mare 's fine, an' I 've the fishin'- pile of trouble, San. He has rows every
sticks all dusted, an' your new bathin'- day. Had a hell of a row with Percival
tub 's to your bath-room, though ill fate yesterday."
follow that English pig Percival that put "Who 's this Percival? Onnie was
it in, for he dug holes with his heels! cursing him out last night," Sanford
An' would you be vvantin' a roast-beef recollected.
sandwidge?" "He 's an awful' big hog who 's pulling
"She 's nearly wild," said Rawling as logs at the runway. Used to be a plumber
the pantry door slammed. "You must be in Australia. Swears like a sailor. He 's
careful, San, and not get into any rows. a —
what d' you call 'em? You know,
She have a fit. What is it?"
'd a London mucker?"
"What do you do when you can't "Cockney?"
care about a person as much as they care "Yes, that 's it. He put in your new
about you?" bath-tub, and Onnie jumped him for going
"Put up with it patiently." Rawling round the house looking at things. Dad 's

shrugged. "What else can you do?" getting ready to fire him. He 's the worst
"I 'm sixteen. She keeps on as if I were hand in the place. I '11 point him out to
six. S-suppose she fell in love with me ? you."
She 's not old — very old." The sawmill whistle blew as the trail
"It 's another sort of thing. Sonny. joined open road, and they passed men,
Don't worry," said Rawling, gravely, and their shirts sweat-stained, nodding or
broke off the subject lest the boy should waving to the boys as they spread off to
fret. their houses and the swimming-place at
Late next afternoon Sanford rode down the river bridge.
a trail from deep forest, lounging in the A group gathered daily behind the
saddle, and flicking brush aside with a engine-yard to play horseshoe quoits, and
long dog-whip. There was a rain-storm Sanford pulled the mare to a walk on the
gathering, and the hot air swayed no leaf. fringes of this half-circle as old friends
A and impertinent, hopped
rabbit, sluggish hailed him and shy lads with hair already
across his path and wandered up the side sun-bleached wriggled out of the crowd
trail toward Varian's cottage. Sanford to shake hands, Camerons, Jansens, Nat-
halted the mare and whistled. His father tiers, Keenans, sons of the faithful. Bill
64 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Varian strolled up his medical case under ing before Varian, with a glance at San-
an arm. ford.
"I 'm eating with you. The boss asked "Give me something with some balance.
me. He feels better already, Come in Hi can show ^er. Look!"
and speak to dad. He's "I 'm looking," said
hurt because he 's not the foreman ; "an' I

seen you, and you ain't deaf, neither."

stopped to see Ian at " 'Ere 's wot you


the forge. Hi, Dad!" blighters carn't 'eave.

he called over the felt Learned it in Auck-


hats of the ring, land, where there 's refil
"here 's San." men." He fumbled in
"Fetch him in, then," his shirt, and the mare

cried the foreman. snorted as the eight-


and Ling led the
Bill inch blade flashed out
nervous mare through (
of its handle under her
the group of pipe-smok- nose. "See? That 's

ing, friendly lumber- the lidy ! Now watch


men, and Varian hugged There 's a knot-'ole up
his fosterling's son. the palings there."
"Stop an' watch," he whispered. The crowd fixed a stare on the green,
"They '11 like seein' you, San. Onnie 's solid barrier, and the knife soared a full
been tell in' the women you 've growed a twenty yards, but missed the knot-hole
yard." and rattled down. There was fiat deri-
Sanford settled to the monotony of the sion in the following laughter, and Perci-
endless sport, saluting known brown valdug his heel in the sod.
faces and answering yelps of pleasure "Larf ahead! Hany one else try 'er?"
from the small boys who squatted against "Oh, shut up!" said some one across
the high fence behind the stake. the ring. "We 're pitchin' shoes."
"That 's Percival," said Ling as a man Percival slouched off after his knife,
swaggered out to the pitching-mark. and the frieze of small boys scattered ex-
"Six foot three," Bill said, "and strong cept a lint-haired Cameron who was nurs-
as an ox. Drinks all the time. Think ing a stray cat busily, cross-legged against
he dopes, too." the green boarding.
Sanford looked at the fellow with a "Yon 's Robert Sanford Cameron,"
swift dislike for his vacant, heavy face said the smith. "He can say half his
and his greasy, saffron hair. His bare catechism."
arms were tattooed boldly and in many "Good kid," said Sanford. "I never
colors, distorted with ropes of muscle. He could get any —"
seemed a little drunk, and the green clouds Percival had wandered back and stood
cast a copper shade into his lashless eyes. a yard off, glaring at Bill as the largest
"Can't pitch for beans," said Ling as object near.
the first went wide.
shoe When the "Think I can't, wot?"
second fell beside it, the crowd laughed. "I 'm not interested, and you 're spoiling
"Now," said Ian Cameron, "he '11 be the game," said Bill, who feared nothing
mad wi' vainglory. He 's a camstearlie alive except germs, and could afford to
ring' it an' a claverin' fu'." disregard most of these. Sanford's fingers
"Ho! ahead!" snapped the giant.
larf tightened on his whip.
" 'Ow 's a man to 'eave a bloody thing "Ho!" coughed the cockney. "See! "\'ou
at a bloody stike?" — there!"
The experts chuckled, and he rufHed Robert Cameron looked up at the shout.
about the ring, truculent, sneering, paus- The blade shot between the child's head
ONNIE 65
and the kitten and hummed ji;ently, quiver- ain't off the property in a hour you '11 be
ing in the wood. dead. You hear?"
"Hi could 'a' cut 'is throat," said Perci- "He ought to," muttered Ling, leading
val so complacently that Sanford hoiled. the mare away. "Dad has n't yelled that
"You scared him stiff," he choked. loud since that Dutchman dropped the
"You hog! Don't—" kid in the— hello, it 's raining!"
" 'Ello, 'oo 's the young dook?" "Come on home, Sonny," said Rawl-
"Look out," said a voice. "That 's ing, "and tell us all about it. I did n't
San, the—" see the start."
"Ho! 'Im with the Hirish gal to 'elp But Sanford was still boiling, and the
'im tike 'is bloody barth nights? 'Oo 's owner had recourse to his godson. Ling
he? She 's a
— told the story, unabridged, as they
A second later Sanford knew that he mounted toward the house.
had struck the man over the face with "Onnie 'U hear of it," sighed Rawling.
his whip, cutting the phrase. The mare "Look, there she is by the kitchen, and
plunged and the whole crowd congested that 's Jennie Cameron loping 'cross lots.

about the bellowing cockney as Bill held Never mind, San. You did the best you
Cameron back, and huge Jansen planted a could ; Swine are swine."
don't bother.
hand on Rawling's chest, arrived sud- The was cooling Sanford's head,
rain
denly with the first raindrops. and he laughed awkwardly.
"No worry," he said genially. "Yim "Sorry I lost my temper."
an' us, Boss, our job." "I 'm not. Jennie 's telling Onnie.
Varian had wedged his hawk face close Hear?"
to the cockney's, now purple blotched The smith's long-legged daughter was
with wrath, and Rawling waited. gesticulating at the kitchen trellis, and
"Come to the office an' get your pay. Onnie's feet began a sort of war-dance in

You hear? Then you clear out. If you the wet grass as Rawling approached.

They passed men noddinir or waving to the boys


66 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
"Where is this sufferin' pig, could your creased, and the fall became a continuous
be tel me ? God be above throbbing so steady that he hardly heard
With my name in his black, ugly mouth the telephone ring close to his chair ; but
I knew there 'd be trouble; the snake's old Varian's voice came clear along the
storm was
bells did be sayin' so since the wire.
comin'. An' him three times the bigness "Is that you. Bob? Now, listen. One
of Master San! Where 'd he be now?" of them girls at that place down the sta-
"Jim gave him an hour to be off the tion road was just talkin' to me. She 's
property, Onnie." scared. She rung me up an' Cameron.
"God's mercy he had no knife in his That dam' Englishman 's gone out o'
hand, then, even with the men by an' there bile drunk, swearin' he '11 cut San's
Master San on his horse. Blessed Mary! heart out, the pup He 's gone off wavin'
!

I willgo wait an' have speech with this his knife. Now, he knows the house, an'
Englishman on the road." he ain't afraid o' nothin' — when he 's

"You '11 go get dinner, Onnie Killelia," drunk. He might get that far an' try
saidRawling. "Master San is tired, Bill breakin' in. You lock up—"
and Ling are coming— and look there!" "Lock up? What with?" asked Rawl-
The faithful were marching Percival ing. "There 's not a lock in the place.
down the road to the valley-mouth in the Father never had them put in, and I

green dusk. He
walked between Jansen have n't."
and Bill, a dozen men behind, and a flying "Well, don't worry none. Ian 's got
scud of boys before. out a dozen men or so with lights an'
"An' Robbie 's not hurt," said Miss guns, an' Bill 's got his. You keep Bill
Cameron, "an' San ain't, neither; so don't an' Ling to sleep down-stairs. Ian 's got
you worry, Onnie. It 's all right." the men round the house by this. The
Onnie laughed. hog '11 make noise enough to wake the
"I 'd like well to have seen the whip dead."
fly, your Honor. The arm of him! Will "Nice, is n't it. Uncle Jim, having this
he be wantin' waffles to his dinner? whelp out gunning for San I '11 keep !

Heyah! more trouble yet!" The rattles the boys. Good night," he said hastily as
had whirred, and she shook her head. "A a shadow on the rug engulfed his feet.

forest fire likely now? Or a child bein' The rattles spoke behind him.
born dead?" "There 's a big trouble sittin' on my
"Father says she 's fey," Jennie ob- soul," said Onnie. "Your Honor knows
served as the big woman lumbered off. there 's nothing makes mortal flesh so wild
"You mean she has second sight? Per- mad as a dog does know
whipping, an' this
haps. Here 's a dollar for Robbie, and the way of the house. Do you keep the
tell Ian he 's lucky." agent's lads to-night in this place with
guns to hand. The snake's bells keep
Bill raced up as the rain began to fall ringin'."
heavily in the windless gray of six o'clock. "My God! Onnie, you 're making me
He reported the cockney gone and the believe in your rattles! Listen. Perci-
men loud in admiration of Sanford so ; val gone out of that den down the road,
's

dinner was cheerful enough, although swearin' he '11 kill San. He 's drunk, and
Sanford felt limp after his first attack of Cameron 's got men out."
killing rage. Onnie's name on this ani- "That 'u'd be the why of the lanterns
mal's tongue had maddened him, the re- I was seein' down by the forge. But it 's

action made him drowsy but Ling's win- ; black as the bowels of purgatory, your
ter at Lawrenceville and Bill's in New Honor, an' him a strong, wicked devil,

York needed hearing. Rawling left the cruel an' angry. God destroy him! If

three at the hall fireplace while he read a he '(i tread on a poison snake! No night
new novel in the library. The rain in- could be so black as his heart."
ONNIE 67
"Steady, Onnie!" when V'arian telephoned that there were
"I 'm speakin' soft. Himself 's not able tlu'rty men searching, he felt more com-
to hear," she said, her eyes half shut. She fortable.
rocked slowly on the amazing feet. "Give "You 're using the wires a lot,Dad,"
me a pistol, your Honor. I 'II be for said Sanford, roaming in. "Anything
sleepin' outside his door this night." wrong? Where 's Ling to sleep?"
"You '11 go to bed and keep your door "In Pete's room. Good night. God-
open. If you hear a sound, yell like per- son. No, nothing wrong,"
dition. Send Bill in here. Say I want But Sanford was back presently, his
him. That 's all. There 's no danger, eyes Avide,
Onnie; but I 'm taking no chances." "I say, Onnie 's asleep front of my door
"We '11 take no chances, your Honor." and can't get over her.
I What 's got
She turned away quietly, and Rawling into the girl ?"
shivered at this cool fury. The rattles "She 's worried. Her snake's bells are
made and suddenly his val-
his spine itch, going, and she thinks the house '11 burn
ley seemed like a place of demons. The down. Let her be. Sleep with me, and
lanterns circling on the lawn seemed like keep my feet warm. Sonny."
frail glow-worms, incredibly useless, and "Sure," yawned Sanford. " 'Night,

he leaned on the window-pane listening Billy."


with fever to the rain. "Well," said Bill, "that settles that,
"All right," said Bill when he had sir. She 'd hear anything, or I will, and
heard, " 'Phone the sherifif. The man 's you 're a light sleeper. Suppose we lock
dangerous, sir. I doctored a cut he had up as much as we can and play some
the other day, and he tells me he can see checkers?"
at night. That 's a lie, of course, but he 's They locked the doors, and toward
light on his feet, and he 's a devil. I 've midnight Cameron rapped at the library
seen some rotten curs in the hospitals, but window, his rubber coat glistening.
he 's worse," "Not a print of the wastrel loon, sir;
"Really, Billy, you sound as fierce as but the lads will bide out the night. They
Onnie. She wanted a gun." 've w^husky an' biscuits an' keep moving."
The handsome young man bit a lip, and "I '11 come out myself," Rawling began,
his great body shook. but the smith grunted,
"This is San," he said, "and the men "Ye 're no stirrin' oot yer boos, Robert
would kill any one who touched you, and Rawling! Ye 're daft! Sin you met this
they 'd burn any one who touched San, ganglin' assassinator, wha' 'd be for mais-
Sorry if I 'm rude." ter? San 's no to lack a father. Gae to
!"
"We must n't lose our heads." Rawl- yer bit bed
ing talked against his fear. "The man 's "Gosh!" said Bill, shutting the window,
drunk. He '11 never get near here, and "he 's in earnest. He forgot to try to talk
he 's got four miles to come in a cold rain. English even, I feel better. The hog 's

But-" fallen into a hole and gone to sleep. Let 's

"May I sleep in San's room?" go up."


"Then he '11 know. I don't want him "I suppose I tell Onnie San 's with
if

to, or Ling, either; they 're imaginative me, she change to my door," Rawl-
'11 just
kids. This is a vile mess, Billy." ing considered; "but I '11 try. Poor girl,
"Hush ! Then I '11 sleep outside his she 's faithful as a dog!"
door. I will, sir!" They mounted softly and beheld her,
"All right, old man. Thanks. Ling huddled in a blanket, mountainous, curled
can sleep in Pete's room. No\\- I '11 outside Sanford's closed door, just oppo-
'phone Mackintosh." site the head of the stairs. Rawling
But the sheriff did not answer, and his stooped over the heap and spoke to the
deputy was ill. Rawling shrugged, but tangle of blue-shadowed hair.
The cockney's wet bulk hurling ilself lowaril the great woman wlieie ->1r
"
her arms flung cruciform, guarding the empty room
ONNTE 69

"Onnie Killelia, go to bed." The rattles whirred as if their first

"Leave me be, your Honor. I 'm — owner Rawling pressed the switch.
lived.

Sleep cut the protest. The rattles Honor!"


"\'our Onnie screamed.
sounded feebly, and Rawling stood up. "Vour Honor! Master San! Be lockin'
"Just like a dog," whispered Bill, steal- the door inside, ALaster San! Out of this,
ing off to a guest-room. "I '11 leave m>- you! You!"
door open." He patted the revolver in his Rawling's foot caught in the doorway

jacket and grinned affectionately. "Good of the bright hall, and he stumbled, the
night. Boss." light dazzling on the cockney's wet bulk
Rawling touched the switch inside his hurling toward the great woman
itself

own door, and the big globe set in the hall where she stood, her arms flung cruci-
ceiling blinked out. They had decided form, guarding the empty room. The
that, supposing the cockney got so far, a bodies met with a fearful jar as Rawling
lightless house would perplex his feet, and staggered up, and there came a crisp ex-
he would be the noisier. Rawling could plosion before he could raise his hand.
reach this button from his bed, and si- Bill's naked shoulder cannoned into him.
lently undressed in the blackness, laying the charging, and Bill's revoh'er clinked
automatic on the bedside table, reassured against his own. Rawling reeled to the
by all these circling folk, Onnie, stalwart stair-head, aiming as Bill caught at the
Bill, and the loyal men out in the rain. man's shirt but the cockney fell back-
;

Here slept Sanford, breathing happily, so ward, crumpling down, his face purple, his
lost that he only sighed when his father teeth displayed.
crept in and did not rouse
beside him, "In the head!" said Bill and bent to
when Rawling thrust an arm under his look, pushing the plastered curls from a
warm weight to bring him closer, safe in temple. The beast whimpered and died;
the perilous night. the knife rattled on the planks.
The guest-room bed creaked beneath "Dad," cried Sanford, "what on

Bill's two hundred pounds of muscle, and "Stay where you are!" Rawling gasped,
Ling snored in Peter's room. Rawling's sick of this ugliness, dizzy with the stench
nerves eased on the mattress, and hypnotic of powder and brandy. Death had never
rain began to deaden him, against his will. seemed so vile. He looked away to the
He saw Percival sodden in some ditch, his guardian where she knelt at her post, her
knife forgotten in brandy's slumbers. No hands clasped on the breast of her coarse
His mind
shout came from the hillside. white robe as if she prayed, the hair hid-
edged toward vacancy, bore back when ing her face.
the boy murmured once, then he gained a "I '11 get a blanket," Bill said, rising.
mid-state where sensation was not, a mist. "There come the men! That you, Ian?"
The smith and a crowd of pale faces
He sat up, tearing the blankets back, be- crashed up the stairs.

cause some one moved in the house, and "God forgie us! We let him by— the
the rain could be heard more loudly, as if garden, sir. Alec thought he

a new window were open. He swung his "Gosh, Onnie!" said Bill, "excuse tne!
legs free. Some one breathed heavily in I get some clothes on.
'11 Here, Ian

the hall, Rawling clutched his revolver, "Onnie," said Sanford, in the door-
and the cold of it stung. This might be —
way "Onnie, what 's the matter?"
Onnie, any one ; but he put his finger on As if to show him this, her hands, un-
the switch. clasping, fellfrom the dead bosom, and a
"Straight hover —
hover the way it streak of heart's blood widened from the
was," said a thick, puzzled voice, "There, knife-wound like the ribbon of some very
that one! 'Is bloody barth!" noble order.
Questions
By CALE YOUNG RICE

WHAT
How
shall
fare on
I do when blows blind me?
when counsels cross?
Where shall I turn when life behind me
Seems like a course run at a loss?
Through what throes shall I beat to windward,
Uncontent with a lesser port?
Whom shall I trust when Heaven of me,
Heaven itself, seems making sport?

How shall I answer a knave's rating.


Done in a liar's arithmetic?
What shall I say to a fool's prating,
In destructiveness as quick?
How shall I meet a friend's treason
When it has scuttled the good ship Faith ?

Whose are the stars, if wide disaster


At its will can do me scathe ?

Answer there is, a brief order:


"Bear all blows, and yet be free;
Let no bitterness set a border
To your will, no treachery.
Speak, if you are the bigger for it;
Keep the silence, if you are less;
And if the stars indeed be godless.
Steer still by their godliness."

t^m
Mrs. Fiske Goes to the Play
An afternoon renumbered by ALEXANDER WOOLLCOTT

FISKE allowed me escort her


MRS. the to distinction? What a priceless asset for
play.
to was one afternoon
It in the actor or actress, distinction of man-
New York when she herself was not play- ner and personality! Three of the most
ing,and she was fired with a desire to watch gifted of our younger actresses are with-
with her own eyes a fairly celebrated ac- out it. It is too bad. It is heart-break-
tor who was filling one of our theaters at ing. Each possesses strong dramatic in-
the time. If he were all they said of him, stinct, great intelligence, charm, humor,
she had a tremendous program of plays emotional understanding; but each is ut-

planned, all unbeknown to him, for his terly without the 'grand manner.' No
immediate future. So we talked of him matter how earnestly they aspire and
as we settled back In the shadow of an work, they can never become commanding
upper box to wait for that expectant hush figures in the theater. That is," she
when, as Mr, Leacock says, the orchestra added doubtfully, "unless distinction can
"boils over in a cadence and stops," when be acquired. I wonder if it can be. Once
the house grows suddenly dark, the foot- a very clever, experienced, and splendidly
lights spring to life, and at last the cur- trained young actress played a certain in-
tains part. Which was naive of us, for genue part with us. She had acting to
this was in New York, and there is no her finger-tips, but she lacked the won-
hush; only the clatter of unblushing late derful something her rather amateur suc-
arrivals mingling pleasantly with the chat- cessor possessed in a high degree. When
ter of an audience which had brought its the successor took the place, it was as if a
manners from the movies. rose had suddenly blossomed into the play.
Mrs. Fiske was comfortable in what Distinction— that was it. Has our friend
she fondly believed was the incognito af- of this afternoon distinction?"
forded by a sheltering hat and an impene- I refused to commit myself. I rather
trable veil; but had you been peering thought he did have dignity, considerable
down from the last row in the gallery, I of it.

do not see how you could have failed to "He is terribly in earnest," I confided,
recognize her. One glimpse of those alert "and I have a sneaking suspicion it grieves
and extraordinarily characteristic shoul- him inexpressibly that his art is only for
ders, the sight, perhaps, of a familiar hand the hour, and cannot live to tell the tale
uplifted eloquently to score a point, and when he is gone."
you would have known as well as I that Her eyes began to twinkle mutinously
Becky Sharp had come to see the play. at that.
But she was unaware of your scrutiny from "You cannot mean it," she protested.
the gallery: in fact, I doubt if there was "Do actors really fret about that any
any gallery. Her all-consuming interest more? Did they ever? I suppose they
at the moment was the star of the after- did. At least they said a good deal about
noon. it. I remember a delightfully melancholy
"Does he know his business?" she bit on the subject in Cibber."
wanted to know. "He does? Has he vi- out of her inexhaustible memory
And
tality? Sometimes I wonder which is the she gave me in tones of mock solemnity
more important. So many of these these stately words, set down long ago
younger actors seem half asleep. Has he by that famous actor, critic, dramatist,
dignity? Most important of all, has he and annalist of the stage, Colley Cibber:
71
72 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Pity it is that the momentary beauties ing, we seem to be witnessing the renewal
flowing from an harmonious elocution can- of the theater. I know I felt something
not, like those of poetry, be their own rec- of that when
saw the glow of Gareth
I

ord! That the animated graces of the Hughes's performance in 'Moloch.' But
player can live no longer than the instant as for carving a statue in snow—"
breath and motion that presents them; or, And here Mrs. Fiske laughed so gaily
at best, can but imperfectly glimmer through that it was impossible to be serious any
the memory or imperfect attestation of a more. Indeed, when she can be persuaded
few surviving spectators! to talk about the theater at all, it is

usually with incorrigible lightness. And


"But you do not have to go as far back as she brought her inquisitive lorgnette
as Gibber," I put in. "I am sure Mr. to bear upon the program, I felt a sudden
Jefferson was feeling a little afflicted understanding and compassion for any
when he said there was nothing so useless one who had ever tried to interview her.
as a dead actor, and I know Lawrence I knew they had tried again and again,

Barrett used to lament lugubriously that and if the results have been meager, I
it was his fate every night of his life to realized it was not because they were re-
carve a statue in snow." buffed, but because they were baffled. I

Whereat Mrs. Fiske indulged herself was sure none of the tried and trusted
in the most irreverent smile I have ever baits would serve. I doubted if she w^ould

seen. rise even to that old stand-by, "Mummer


"Did Mr. Barrett really say that? Worship," the contemptuous essay in
Dear! dear! how seriously we take our- which George Moore speaks of acting as
selves! And how absurd when we are "the lowest of the arts, if it is an art at
paid in our own lifetime so much more in all," and one which "makes slender de-

money and applause and fame than we mands on the intelligence of the individ-
often deserve, than any mortal could de- ual exercising it," the scornful paper in
serve! But, above all, how unthinkable which he describes the modern mummer
that any one who looks at all beyond the as one whose vanity has grown as weed
hour of his death could be concerned with never grew before till it "overtops all
anything less personal and momentous things human." Let the interviewer ask
than the fate of his own soul, could be almost any actor what he thinks of
anything but utterly engrossed by the in- "Mummer Worship," and he will get
tense wonder and curiosity as to what his five columns of material without the need
life hereafter would be! There is some- of another question. I wondered. I in-

thing interesting. The great adventure. vestigated. What did Mrs. Fiske think
"Yet, mind you," she went on, "I am of "Mummer Worship"?
not so sure there is no immortality for the She gazed at me with mild surprise.
actor. Of course the prodigious Mrs. "W^hat do I think of it?" she asked.
Siddons — she must have been 'prodigious "Dear child, I wTote it."
— lives in the enthusiasm, the recorded I might have known.
enthusiasm, of the men and women who "Of course," she added, "there is no
saw her Drury Lane. But w^ho shall
at end of offensive nonsense in it; but in the
say her work does not survive in still an- matter of acting's place among the arts, I

other way? The best dramatic school I am not sure that even our dear Mr. Lewes
know is just the privilege of watching the realized why he had been led to think so
great performances, and I like to think often that the actor was the less exalted
that the players Sarah Siddons inspired and less creative artist. I suspect it was
have handed on the inspiration from gen- because he had seen most of them in Shak-
eration to generation. Thus would ge- spere, an immeasurably greater artist than
nius be eternally and every
rekindled, any actor we know of. None could be
once in a great while, quite without warn- compared with him; yet, in the estimate
'

Mrs. Fiske in her present part Erstwhile Susan

of the actor's place in the arts, they all guished though he be, this writer betrays
have been compared with Shakspere, I himself as one untrained in the psychol-
think. But there are times when the actor ogy of the theater. We
actors are time
as an artist is far greater and more crea- and again compelled to 7-ead values into
tive than his material, when he does some- plays— values unprovided by our authors.
thing more than 'repeat a portion of a Think of Duse in 'Magda.' Out of her
story invented by another,' as Mr. Moore knowledge of life, out of her vision, by
has it. Yet quite as distinguished a writer virtue of her incomparable art, she created
has said the least gifted author of a play, depths in that character which Sudermann
the least gifted creator of a drama, is a not only never put there, but never could
man of higher intellectual importance have put there."
than his best interpreter. Now, distin- "I remember," I said, "that somewhere
74 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Arthur Symons sighed over Duse, and "But what," I persisted, "is the an-
wept that the poets of the day left empty swer?"
that perfect 'chalice for the wine of im- "Answer? There are seven answers
"
agination.' which occur to me of¥hand."
'Tie upon the poets!" Mrs. Fiske "Tell me one."
agreed; "and yet always seemed to me
it "Duse," she replied triumphantly.
that the rich wine of her own imagination "And the other six are Irving, Terry,
kept that chalice full almost to the brim. Mansfield, Jefferson, Rejane, and Sarah
But mind you," she whispered while we Bernhardt. I am sure if we went back
drew our chairs forward as the lights went over all the reams and reams that were
down for the play, "as for the first part of written about this splendid seven, we
'Mummer Worship,' it was a little thing should find a good deal about their 'just
of my own." playing themselves.' Yet when the wri-
ters on the stage brandish that phrase,
When a blaze of anger from one of the when they talk of 'immersing the person-
women in the play brought down the cur- ality,' I suspect they are engrossed for the
tain at the end of the first act, Mrs. Fiske moment with personal appearance, man-
devoted herself to a few moments of nerisms, matters of mimicry, and disguise.
approving applause. They are engrossed with externals. Yet
"Admirable!" she exclaimed. "That, can they possibly think these factors, in-
my friend, was the essence of acting." calculably important though they be, are
And I pounced on the phrase, for here Involved in the essence of acting? So
was a little problem in dramatic criticism much of the confusion of thought can be
that interested me enormously, because it traced, I think, to the very use of the
seemed to hold the key to half the wild words 'mannerisms' and 'personality'
confusion of thought in contemporary when they mean a larger thing. They
comment on the art of acting. "The es- mean style. What they see recurrent in
sence of acting!" I fished from my pocket each impersonation of a great artist is just
a frowzy envelop on which some time be- this style. It is a part of the art of all
fore I had scribbled sentences from two artists, but only the actor is scolded for it.

essays of the day. One of them had said, Wagner is intensely Wagnerian even in

"A good actor is one who is successful in the most humorous passages of 'Die
completely immersing his own personality Meistersinger.' Whistler is always Whis-

in the role he is playing." And the other had tler,and Sargent always Sargent. Dick-
said, "The very essence of acting lies in ens was always Dickens. The one time
the capacity of assumption and impersona- he lapsed from his own style was when
tion of a conceived character and person- he wrote 'The Tale of Two Cities,' and
ality differentfrom that of the player." only those who do not love Dickens at all
I showed them to Mrs. Fiske not like that book the best. Only Charles
merely because, to me, they seemed wild, Reade was at his best when he was not
but because they seemed typically wild, himself. Chesterton is always extrava-
not merely because these men had said gantly himself even when he writes for
them, but because many had implied them the theater. Imagine a Barrie book that
and reared thereon shaky structures of was not Barriesque, or a Barrie play that
dramatic criticism. She read them with was not at all Barrie. In that sense Duse
the smile with which one greets an old was always Duse and Irving was always
friend. Irving."
"Speaking as a dramatic critic," Mrs, "Suppose,"I ventured, "that an actor

Fiske began in a profoundly judicial man- in your company were called upon to play
ner. Then she paused, and smiled a lit- an old Scotch gardener in a towering rage.
tle as though some mischievous thouglit What would be the essential thing?"
were trying to dispel her judicial calm. "The rage," she answered instantly,
MRS. FISKE GOES TO THE PLAY 75

and then added in a moment of caution, is truth ?" And she held up her hand as

"though if he did not suggest gardening if to draw it in through the tips of her

and age and Scotland, the director should fingers. "It is everjwhere, in the skies, in

plot his undoing. He should want him the mountains, in the air around us, in

out of the company. But the rage would life. The essence of acting is the con-

be the heart of the matter, the real test of veyance of truth through the medium of

him, the essence of his acting." the actor's mind and person. The sci-

When I remember Duse ... I think only of the essential


"
thing, the style, the quality, that was Duse'

"Then the essential thing is the emo- ence of acting deals with the perfecting
tion —" of that medium. The great actors are
"I am afraid of the word. It has been the luminous ones. They are the great
depreciated by 'emotionalism,' whatever conductors of the stage."
that may mean. If it does not mean act- She laughed a little.

ing, it does not mean anything. No," she "Are we getting too mystical?" she
went on reflectively, "I have never tried asked.
before to put it into words, but it seems "Somewhat."
to me that the essence of acting is the con- "It will do us good. But be sure of
veyance of certain states of mind and this, the essence of acting is the expres-
heart, certain spiritual things, certain sion of the abstract thing, courage, fear,
abstract qualities. It is the conveyance despair, anguish, anger, pity, piety. The
of truth bv the actor as a medium. What great roles are, in that sense, abstractions.
76 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
So Juliet is youthful love, and Lady Mac- I wish that Ellen Terry, and all the
beth is will power or ruthless ambition, rest of tlie world, for that matter, could
as you will. Think of Duse In 'La Lo- have seen and heard Mrs. Fiske as she
candiera.' As for her mannerisms, as to spoke these words for remembrance.
the extent of her disguise, as for the dif- "But," she added, smiling, "it is n't
ference between her role and her own per- Ellen Terry this afternoon, and here is

sonality, I do not remember. In many our second act."


matters of externals she was careless.
You know she was almost theatrical in When the curtain fell again, and the
her untheatricalism. Her make-up for house began to buzz even more vigorously
MirandoUna and Santuzza was virtually than while the scene was in progress, we
the same. MirandoUna in that delightful caught at the loose ends of our first

comedy is the coquettish hostess of the inn. entr'acte.


I do not remember how exactly she repre- "We made our little definition on the
sented or suggested a hostess of an inn. spur of the moment," said Mrs. Fiske,
What I do remember is that she was more "but I think I could prove it b) the great
than a coquettish hostess. She was more actors I have seen."
than a coquette. She achieved a sublima- "Who was the greatest actor you ever
tion. She zuas coquetry. I think of her saw?" I demanded, who have a passion
in tlie book scene from 'Paolo and Fran- for such things. "What was the greatest
cesca.' There she played the guilty lover, single performance?"
but she was more than a guilty lover : she Mrs. Fiske gazed distractedly about her.
was guilty love. And so," said Mrs. "I could not possibly tell."
Fiske, "I think there must be something "Of course not. We never can. What
amiss with those definitions on the back was the greatest short story? Shall we
of your envelop, for when we look on the say 'A Lodging for the Night' to save the
great actors of our time, the questions trouble of thinking it out ? Ask any nov-
those definitions raise may vanish utterly elist to name the greatest novel, and he
"
—vanish into thin air. Indeed, the great- will say 'Tom Jones.'
est actors have, in a sense, always played "But," said the heretic, "it might em-
themselves. When I remember Duse, I barrass him dreadfully, poor man, if you
cannot think of her degree of success in were to ask him to name any of the char-
"
this or that impersonation. I cannot think acters in 'Tom Jones.'
of her variations. I think only of the "Of course it 's an impossible question,
essential thing, the style, the quality, that I know but I should like to know what
;

was Duse. Just as we think of a certain names come to jour mind when you try to
styleand quality at the very mention of answer it. Suppose," I persisted
— "sup-
Whistler's name. When I remember pose you were asked at the point of a
Irving and Terry, I am inclined to think loaded gun to name the greatest perform-
that Miss Terry was the greater actor, ance you ever saw, what would you say?"
the more luminous medium, just because, Mrs. Fiske had an answer for that:
while I can think of Irving in widely "Shoot!" So I threw away the gun

varied characterizations, I can think of and surrendered.


her only as the quality that was Ellen "But, j'ou see," she explained, "I have
Terry, the indescribable iridescence of had such mere snatches as a playgoer. I
her, the brilliance that was like sunlight have been very little to the theater. Often
shimmering on the waters of a fountain. the great actors have played here in the city
When I think of Ellen Terry in her when I was here, and yet, evening for
prime, were it Portia or Olivia or Bea- evening and matinee for matinee, I, too,
trice, I think of light, light, radiance, ra- was plajing and could not see them. We
diance, always moving, moving, moving, of the stage who are critical, but respon-
alwavs motion." sive, playgoers, and who go more than
MRS. FISKE GOES TO THE PLAY 77

half-waj' meet every play, have


to few him carefully many times. I am fearful of
opportunities at your side of the foot- making a blunder. No artist is so likely to

lights. So I saw Edwin Booth only be over-keyed us the really great actor,
when he was too old and Mansfield only and if he is over-keyed, he gives a hope-
when he was too less performance.
young. I never saw "There is one
him in his mature minor actress, how-
years. If I were to ever, of whom I

speak slightingly of have always been


him, you might a merciless critic.

wring from me the That is myself. I

admission that I had acted 'Salvation


seen him in none of Nell' steadily for
his great roles. two and in all
years,
Then I know, if you that time I gave only
do not, how players one performance
vary in a single role, that I approved,
how unfair a chance only one that was
glimpse of them on really ffood. That
an off night may be. solitary performance
The worst perform- was given, by the
ances I ever, gave as way, in Bridgeport,
Becky Sharp were Connecticut. Did
both in New York. you happen to be
One was at the there?" she asked,
premiere of the play with mock concern.
the other was on the "I was afraid not.
first night of its re- But you see why I
vival. I should not hesitate to play
care to be judged on critic out of my
those. would be
It meager experiences
absurd. They were as a playgoer.
shocking perform- "Then, too, I

ances, both of them. know that some of


Indeed, the annalist the finest things lie

of the stage who al- unchronicled far off


lows himself to write the beaten track. I

positively on the often wonder how


work of a really great stage artist at one many of them I have not only missed, but
sitting on is unsafe ground. A really never even heard of. I know one of the

great master in any art must be studied. most stirring performances I ever witnessed
We may not understand him at all at was in a little German West, theater out
first. Particularly is the critic of great and one of the most stimulating play-
acting in danger. Great actors are not houses I know is the Neighborhood Play-
so steady as great painters, composers, house far down in Grand Street. It wins
sculptors, or writers. They are not so one's admiration and respect at once. It

dependable. I have seen Miss Terry, is a rest and delight to enter its lobby.
Duse, and others of high degree give Rare good taste prevails everywhere, in
shockingly bad performances. Personally, the auditorium, in every department be-
I am cautious as a critic. I am careful not hind the scenes — good taste, good sense.
to give an opinion on the work of an actor The Neighborhood Playhouse has made
of great reputation until I have studied no pretensions; its policy is dignified and
78 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
practical. The higher and more 'advanced' the first time— to me sitting there on his
dramatic literature is given careful, sym- knee — his famous lullaby. He had charm in
pathetic, and intelligent interpretation. the sense that Lotta had it, and still has it.

More than that, one is as apt as not to "So I saw a good many of the great
experience the thrill of a moment of genu- folk in those days, but I doubt if I ever
ine beauty here and there. And surprises appreciated a performance as great until
are in store. The whole spirit of the I saw Adelaide Neilson as Viola. I was
thing is one cannot help hop-
so fine that thirteen then, and to this day I remember
ing it will grow eventually into something the beauty and the very technic of that
bigger and of greater service. performance. I remember perfectly bits

"We must be careful, though, not to of 'business.' Certainly Miss Neilson


take the tone of patronizing discoverers comes to my mind, and moments of the
when we tell of the out-of-the-way thea- great Janauschek. Then Duse as Miran-
ters. remember an American professor
I doUna, as Francesco, and in 'La femme de
writing home from Italy years ago of a Claude' Irving and Terry in 'The Vicar
;

performance he had stumbled on in an of Wakefield' and 'The Merchant of


obscure and dingy theater in Venice. He Venice'; Jefferson as Bob Acres and Rip;
was really quite impressed, and added and Calve as Carmen and Santuzza. You
graciously that some of our fairly good may think of Calve only as a great singer.
American actors might do worse than con- I think of her as a great actress.
template such sound and unpretentious "But that was long ago. I do not
endeavor. It was not until long after- know when in later years I have been
ward that he found out whom he had more impressed than by the work of Fran-
seen that afternoon," she said, with a de- ces Starr and Harriet Otis Dellenbaugh
lighted laugh at the recollection. "As he in 'Marie Odile,' and certainly I must not

had not bought a program that day in forget the fine playing I have witnessed
Venice, it was not until she came in tri- not from the auditorium, but from my
umph to America that he knew he had own corner of the stage. Let me pay my
stumbled on that out-of-the-way actress, respects to George Arliss in 'The New
Eleanora Duse." York Idea' and 'Leah Kleschna,' John
"But the greatnamesthat come to mind ?" Mason and Marian Lea in 'The New
I prompted at the sound of one of them. York Idea,' Tyrone Power in 'Mary of
"Well," she said, "I have played with Magdala,' Holbrook Blinn and Gilda Va-
a good many. I played with Barry Sul- resi in 'Salvation Nell,' William B. Mack
livan, Laura Keene, E. L. Davenport, in 'Kleschna' and 'Hedda Gabler,' and
John McCullough, Junius Brutus Booth, Carlotta Nillson in 'Hedda.' How many
Mary Anderson. But you cannot expect of these mind
come There was Fuller
to !

me to remember what I probably did not Mellish and Albert Bruning in 'Rosmer-
even notice at the time. And having sholm,' Arthur Byron in 'The High Road,'
started at three, I was such a tiny child and Florine Arnold as Ma in "Mrs.
when I played with most of those. I Bumpstead-Leigh.' How can I hope to
could not have been five when I was in tell you all I have admired ! As for the
Miss Keene's company. Of all those best of all, was something of
I suppose it

with whom I played when I was a mere Duse's. Or But there


Terry's, perhaps.
baby, my most vivid memory is of J. K. I go again. I do not know."

Emmet, and I have never known since And there went the curtain again. The
then a more overwhelming charm than third and last act was on, and the few
that graceless comedian had. I played moments of reminiscence were over.
with him in New York in a piece called
'Carl and Lena,' a momentous occasion, These were fleeting, haphazard reminis-
for was then
it that Mr. Eiske first beheld cences of Mrs. Fiske as a playgoer. Her
me, and it was tiien that Emmet sang for reminiscences as an actress inav not he
MRS. FISKE GOES TO THE PLAY 79
setdown here, for her thoughts are too noon cind helped her into it, I thought, as
much of to-day and to-morrow for the I walked away, how amazingly long and

past to find much place even in her most varied that story would be. Most of the
idle conversation. We all know that the present generation of playgoers would ex-
story of her life on the stage, an adven- pect to find little beyond the chapters

^^m
^^^^t - '^M ^^m

P
^^^^
^
i^'im^When I think of Ellen Terry in her prime ... I think of light,
light, radiance, radiance, always moving, moving,
'"
moving,* always motion

turous, multitudinous career covering dealing with that most significant and
nearly half a century of the American most productive period of her career, the
theater, would be engrossing reading, but years of the Manhattan Company, from
it hard for me to imagine her ever
is her appearance as Tess to the presentation
becoming sufficiently interested in that here and in Chicago of Hauptmann's
story to set it down on paper. wonderful "Hannele." But there would
After I had lured a cab out of the jam be so many other chapters.
of traffic in Forty-second Street that after- The storv would have to account for a
80 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
very small actress trotting obliviously But, unorthodox even then, she be-
through the children's roles back in the sought him to be indifferent to "perspir-
late sixties and early seventies in the cav- ers." She tried this new reading at the
ernous playhouses along the lower reaches first performance with devastating effect,
of the Mississippi. It would then have to particularly on the Macbeth of the eve-
account for the spirited and capricious ning, no less a person, as it happened, than
Minnie Maddern journeying all over Barry Sullivan. He left the stage a shat-
America in the hoidenish comedies of a tered being, but when the culprit was
day gone by; for the new actress named brought before him, he could only roar
Mrs. Fiske who came back to the stage with laughter at the sight of so prepos-
in the nineties to play some of the most terously diminutive an actress and prom-
somber tragedies of ise forthwith to buy
our time, and to her a lollipop. And
lead with Mr. Fiske he did buy It. It
the independents in was probably that
the mighty battle f^^. new and fascinating
against
cate;
glittering
enne
now
who
the
then for

is

revisiting
syndi-

comedi-
the

even
old
1 word which
that
her
brought
to us.
adventure
memory and
it
fastened

In
in

so
time

theaters and old


"a. The account of
friends the country
over as the
elocutionist
"Erstwhile
woman

Susan."
in
I her
"Pinafore"
have to come
for
appearance

the
would
in

later,
juvenile
And even then the companies which are
story
finished.
would not be
.^m- described in the
chapter of so
first

many
had anything
If I stage biographies
Mrs. Fiske at the age of sixteen or seventeen,
to say it, which
about found Minnie Mad-
about the time when she first won the
seems wildly improb- dern already a vet-
admiration of Frohman and Belasco
able, I am sure the eran. There would
first chapter would tell of her appearance have to be a chapter devoted to the time
in "Macbeth." Every once in so often when she sang that imperishable opera for
some critic, newly impressed by her ca- a hundred performances, if for no other
pacity to represent will power incarnate, reason than the rather startling one that
has been inspired to at least a column of she was not the Josephine or even the Hebe,
which the gist is that he would like to see but that lowly suitor, Ralph Rackstraic.
her play "Macbeth," ignoring the fact One chapter would cover the painful
that she did play it once with sensational transition period of her early teens when,
effect, although it must be admitted she at twelve or thirteen, she would step
was not suffered to be the bloody lady of boldly forth as Louise In "The Two Or-
Inverness, but was compelled to hide her phans," perhaps, or as Lucy in "The
light as the crowned child who rises from Streets of New York," and then struggle
the caldron in the black cavern to make during the next week to conceal and nul-
the prophecy about Great Birnam Wood. lify her ambitious legs beneath the short
By way of preface, thisciiild must exclaim : frocks- of Little Eva.
In that story old friends of all of us
Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care would enter for a time and disappear.
Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers EthelbertNevin, Eva Booth, Madame
Rcjane— who knows whom we miglit not
MRS. FISKE GOES TO THE PLAY 81

meet? Out in Denver, for instance we might have known," she groaned
"I
would be sure to meet Eugene Field, the when 1 brought the story to her for veri-
Eugene Field of the needy "Tribune" fication. "I suppose all the 'gentlemen of
days when red-haired jMinnie IMaddern the Denver press' in those days could not
toured the far West and tried to be just have raised ten dollars among them."
as much like Lotta as possible. Hien Eugene Field, wag and chivalrous com-
was the Tabor Grand in its glory, that rade, passes out of the story in time, but

celebrated op'ry-house tvhere Field saw then enters Professor Copeland, the be-
"Modjesky ez Cameel' and even tried to loved "Copey" of Harvard, who has only
disrupt her perform- to intimate that he
ance, Mrs. Fiske might read a bit of

tells me, by a se- Kipling at the


pulchral cough of Harvard Club to

which he was in- pack to the doors


ordinately proud. that York
He would practise gathering-place of

it long and patiently his old boys. A


in the open country, formal and forbid-
and then produce it ding biography of
at the theater in all Mrs. Fiske might tell
its beauty until the of the lecture on her
ushers dragged him art she once de-
to the street. On livered — in a mo-
little IMissMaddern, ment of abstraction,
however, he would I suspect — from the
expend such flatter- stage of Sanders
ing attention and Theater in Cam-
such horny-handed bridge, but the story
appreciation that at we are after will tell

last was be-


she rather of the time
trayed into coming she journeyed out
happily before the there to have tea at
curtain and blush- ike at four, a year ufti
with Pro-
Hollis
ing over a bunch of debut on the stage Copeland.
fessor
violets that hur- The old "Advocate"
tled down at her feet from the Field box. boys still tell how they waylaid her at the
She bent to pick them up, and then the station, bore her in triumph to the "Ad-
happiness was his, for back they were vocate" office, and so lavished their atten-
yanked across the footlights. He had tied tions on her that the afternoon was half
a string to them. Not that she learned spent before a stern messenger-boy ap-
enough from that bitter experience, for peared with a note for her. One glance
after the engagement, at the farewell din- at and with overwhelming gestures of
it,

ner they gave her, she was genuinely despair, contrition, and farewell, she van-
touched when Field made a glowing ished from their sight. The message had
speech, and in behalf of the "gentlemen fluttered unheeded to the floor. It was
of the Denver press" placed in her hands simply this, brief, but imperious, "Minnie,
a handsome jewel-case. She made a trem- come over to Copey's."
ulous little speech of acceptance, and then We should meet Copeland, then, and
opened the case. Within were ear-rings, Lotta and Janauschek. Not the Lotta of
two of them, each made of glass and each the sixties and seventies, but the Miss
the size of a seckel pear. The fury at her- Crabtree who lives in sedate retirement,
self for letting them take her in still burns. and whom Mrs. Fiske visits whenever she
82 THE CENIURY MAGAZINE
is in away each time filled
Boston, to come man made his way to a florist's and de-
with wonder at a charm and comic spirit manded as fine a bouquet as his funds
that have never flagged. Not the Janau- would buy. Then, with his arms full of
schek of the thunderous and bosom-beat- flowers and his head full of dreams, he
ing times, but the kindly Hausfran who made for the theater where 'Togg's
used to search her memories of the palmy Ferrj " was the bill. As he approached
da)'s as she rocked comfortably in the the alley leading to the stage-door his
evenings on the veranda of INIrs. Fiske's heart sank at a strange apparition. There,
home in New York. entering the same
And if it were alley, with the same
left for me to write token under his
that story, would
I arm, was the young
certainly want some Belasco. It was too
reference to "Fogg's much. The two
Ferry," the wild met at the stage-
Western melodrama door, each grimly
with which in the determined that his
early eighties Miss flowers and his offer
Maddern herself should go in first.

came out of the A scuffle followed,


West. Only the and soon the stage-
other day the man hands were rushing
who wrote it passed to the heroine of the
on. It was her first story with accounts
appearance in our of the pitched battle
part of the country between her atl-

as a and she
star, mirers. She could
could not have been not have guessed
more than sixteen at that the fight for
the time. Not her favor was be-
from her, but as a S:ir;\li IJevntiardt ranliin- Blaiuhaid tween two who
friend of a friend would achieve in-
of Frohman's, I learned how profound ternational reputation in the theater of
was the impression she made then on two twenty years after. She was merely
young adventurers of the theater who gratified, exhilarated, and delighted be-
crossed her trail in Boston and aspired yond measure by the flowers and the
to place her under contract forever and fight. I have never been able to learn

ever. One was named Charles Froh- whose bouquet did pass the door first, but
man, the other was named David Belasco. I suspect it was Frohman's, for thirty
One evening they met in the lobby of the years later when he hobbled back-stage at
old Boston Museum and poured forth to the Hudson Theater when she was pla\-
each other their faith in the new star that ing there in "The High Road," his first
"

had shot across the theatrical firma- greeting was, "Did you keep the flowers?
ment. Soon Frohman became so worked Whereat she beamed upon him and heUI
up that he borrowed two dollars and out both her hands.
hurried away. It is not puzzling that "O my dear Mr. Frohman," she said,
he should have had to borrow that "would that I could have!"
staggering sum in those lean days, but But, then, that is just a scrap from a
it is a little mysterious that Belasco story I hope will be written one of these
should liave had it to lend. Witli it Froh- fine da\s b\ sonieboch- else.
a a
Spring Rain

By SARA FEASDALE-

T THOUGHT I had forgotten,


-'^
But it all came back again
To-night with the first spring thunder
In a rush of rain.

I remembered a darkened doorway


Where we stood while the storm swept by,

Thunder gripping the earth

And lightning scrawled on the sky.

H The passing motor-busses swayed,


For the
Lashed into
street

little

In the lamplight's stain.


was a river of rain,

golden waves
H
With the wild spring rain and thunder

My heart was wild and gay


Your eyessaid more to me that night

Than your lips \\ould ever say.

H I thought
But it

To-night with the


I

all

In a rush of rain.
had forgotten.
came back again
first spring thunder
H

S H Z Z7
S
Europe and Islam
The Problems of the CaHfate and of the Devolution of
Mohammedan Lands

By HERBERT ADAMS GIBBONS


Author of" "The New Map of Europe," "The New Map of Africa," etc.

lier allies have "awarded" to her Con-


I
stantinople in the future treaty French ;

DURING the thousand years between public opinion claims Great


Syria;
Tours and the Battle
the Battle of Britain, ensconced in Mesopotamia, is
of Vienna, which marked the extreme making desperate efforts to reach Bagdad
advance of Islam in western and eastern Persia is the scene of bitter struggles be-
Europe, states and Mo-
Mohammedan tween the belligerents, none of whom
hammedan were a constant menace
races has paid the slightest attention to Per-
to the security and prosperity of Europe sian protests against the violation of her
because of their military strength, their neutrality ; Italy makes no secret of her
control of the Mediterranean, and the intentions in regard to Albania and Asia
temptation alliance with them afforded Minor; Austria-Hungary holds most of
to European states to strike at one an- Albania, and is credited with ambitions in
other to the detriment of Christianity Macedonia to the detriment of Bulgaria
and civilization. In the decadence of and Greece; and Germany, with one foot
Islam, Mohammedan states have re- on Belgium and the other on Serbia, de-
mained a menace to the development of clares her own territorial disinterested-
European civilization and to interna- ness, and claims to be the protector of the
tional harmony and understanding. Their integrity of the Ottoman Empire, and
flags no longer float on the Mediter- the sole friend left to Islam. •

ranean, their military power is broken; When one is writing on a special phase
but their very impotence makes them of a complex problem there is danger of
more dangerous than ever before. They over-emphasis, of exaggerating the im-
are more susceptible to diplomatic in- portance of the particular phase vmder
trigues. Their defenselessness has kept consideration. Perhaps it would be as
whetted the territorial appetite of the naive and as oblivious to a multitude of
European powers. Some choice mor- issues to say that the present war arose
sels have already been devoured: Russia in the near East as to say that Great
was eating steadily until she reached Britain came into the war to defend the
Armenia across the Caucasus in 1878; principle of Belgium's neutrality. And
France and England did not stop for half \et the history of international relations
a century until Tunis was consumed in during the last hundred years shows in
188 1 and Egypt in 1882; Austria revived almost every decade the decisive influence
the European traditions of the generation of the question of the devolution of Mo-
before Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1908;
in hammedan lands in the foreign policy of
Italy and France in Tripoli and Morocco the great powers. Who can deny that
in 1 91 1 the Eastern Question, created by the de-
And after the present war, what more ? cadence of Islam and kept in the fore-
Russia already has her hands on the rest ground of diplomatic preoccupations by
of Armenia, and has publicly stated that the fear of each power that e\ery other

84
EUROPE AND ISLAM 85
power was trying to "get in on the ground wisely toward these races of the near
floor" in Mohammedan countries, has East when their claims come before the
heen tlie principal factor in European al- peace conference, and the adoption of a
h'ances and European conflicts since the pan-European policy toward the problem
Congress of Vienna? of the cahfate, are questions of vital im-
Napoleon's lack of success in holding portance in the reconstruction of Europe.
Alexander after the Tilsit interview the ;

impairment of the Holy Alliance over


the questions raised by the War of Greek We do not know how many Moslems
Independence the policy of
; England there are in the world. It is impossible
toward France in regard to Mohammed to arrive at even approximate figures.
Ali the Crimean War and the Treaty
; Missionaries and travelers speak "in
of Paris French intervention in Syria
; round numbers," sparing or generous with
Bismarck's bribe to Russia in 1870; the millions to such an extent that the student,
attitude of England and Austria toward astounded and bewildered by the discrep-
Russia in the Turkish war of 1877 and ancies in becomes skeptical of
estimates,
the Congress of Berlin ; Italy's entrance statistics. many
parts of Asia and
In
into the Triple Alliance after France took Africa the absence of data upon which to
Tunis; the Anglo-French Agreement of compute population, much less the relig-
1904, with Egypt and Morocco as the ions professed by the people, puts estimates
principal "compensations"; the Anglo- of Mohammedan totals into the field of
Russian Agreement of 1907, for whicli speculation. But where the population of
Persia paid the piper; Russia's use of her states or regions compiled by
has been
opportunity in Serbia after Austria- government ofl'icials who have facts to go
Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzego- upon, and where that population is pre-
vina; the effect of maritime considera- ponderantly Moslem, fairly reliable esti-
tions upon Italy's international relations mates are possible. Such is the case along
when she found herself in Tripoli and the Mediterranean littoral of Africa, in
Rhodes; the change in the attitude of the a few African protectorates, in Russia
Balkan States toward one another when and portions of Asiatic Russia, in India,
the powers imposed the Albanian embargo and in the Dutch East Indies.
— had all these events no part in prepar- A conservative estimate of Moslems
ing and precipitating the Great War? under European rule or effective Eu-
Are they not exercising a potent influence ropean protection is as follows:
upon the course of the war? Shall we
Great Britain 85,000,000
not have to go back to them, and take
Holland 30,000,000
them into account, in the reconstruction of
Russia 17,000,000
Europe? To put Prussian militarism in
France 15,000,000
the place of devolution of Mohammedan
territories as the summurn malum from There are also Moslems in colonies
which Europe is suffering does not augur owing allegiance to Germany, Italy,
well for the world's hope of a durable Spain, Portugal, and the United States,
peace. and Austria-Hungary and the Balkan
to
The bearing of the Islamic problem Statesdirectly as citizens. But their
upon the Eastern Question has an im- number is not large enough to call for
portance all its own. Here we have a definite Mohammedan colonial policy.
the aspirations of Mohammedan races, From an international point of view
independent and under European control, the Mohammedan question is not a com-
and the sufferings and hopes of Chris- plicated one for Holland, Her Moslems
tian races still in subjection to Moham- are on and their relations with
islands,
medans. The difficulties that will arise Mohammedans of independent states and
in connection with acting jusrl\- and the colonies and protectorates of other
86 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
European powers can easily be controlled. ning of her imperial policy, of watching
Great Britain, Russia, and France, on the Islam in e\ery place where Islam is in-

other hand, cannot divorce the problem of digenous. Great Britain cannot afford
Islam from their general colonial and to be ignorant of any question, of any

foreign policy. Their unique position in movement, that affects Islam. Eastern
the Mohammedan world was one of the Africa and Zanzibar and Somaliland come
compelling forces that gave birth to the into contact with Arabia, western Africa
Triple Entente. The necessity, perhaps with Sudan and Tripoli, Tripoli
the
unconsciously divined, of standing to- and Sudan with Egypt. Egypt is
the
gether to protect their Mohammedan in- adjacent to Arabia and Turkey. The
terests led them to compound colonial Malay states and Ceylon are in communi-
rivalries. Thus "the next European war" cation with Java and Sumatra and India.
showed a grouping of powers very differ- India comes into contact with central
ent from that which the observer of Asia and by way of Afghanistan with
European affairs might reasonably have Persia. Aden, the Persian Gulf states,
prophesied at the beginning of the twen- and Baluchistan are invariably affected
tieth century. In 1900, Great Britain by eventsTurkey and Arabia and
in

was not yet ready to abandon to Ger- Mesopotamia. Moslem penetration into
many the title of defender of the integ- central Africa has become a subject of
rity of theOttoman Empire, and British study and reports on the part of Nyasa-
statesmen were in a frame of mind to land and Rhodesian officials. It is not

look upon France and Russia rather than beyond the province of British prudence
upon Germany and Austria as the dis- to watch Islam in Siam and to wonder
turbers of world's peace who had to be how many Moslems there are in China.
fought and cured of unhealthy ambitions. The establishment of the French pro-
The new orientation of British foreign tectorate over Morocco in 19 12 left very
policy began in 1902, and was deter- little of the Moslem world outside of
mined by the French Agreement of 1904 European control or "protection." The
and the Russian Agreement of 1907. five remaining Mohammedan countries,
Most Russian Moslems are Russian all of them except Afghanistan struggling
subjects. They form compact masses in at the present moment to prevent being
southern and southeastern Russia, the subjugated by Europe, have an approxi-
Caucasus, the trans-Caspian district, cen- mate Mohammedan population as fol-

tral Asia Turkestan), and the


(with lows :

protectorates of Khiva and Bokhara. Al-


Ottoman Empire
though Russian Moslems are in contact
(including Arabia) 14,000,000
with their coreligiotinaires in Turkey,
Persia 9,000,000
Persia, Afghanistan, and India, they have
Afghanistan 5,000,000
no pronounced separatist tendencies, and
Tripoli (with
have not been a source of anxiety to Rus-
Senussi hinterland) 700,000
sia except in the Caucasus and on the
Albania 500,000
Persian frontier. On the other hand,
Russia has used her Moslems to make
trouble for Great Britain and Turkey. Albania is occupied militarily by Austro-
During the first decade of the twentieth Hungarian, Italian, and Bulgarian armies.
century Turkey conducted an agitation The Italians have a foothold at se\eral
against France from Tripoli and Egypt. places on the coast of Tripoli, and had
But the Italian and Senussi wars have secured European
acknowledgment of
shut, off French Moslems from Cairo and "annexation" before the Great War
Constantinople for the last five years. broke out. Russians, British, and Turks
Only upon Great Britain is the necessity are fighting in Persia, where the two
imposed, as it has been since the begin- former have not been able to maintain the
EUROPE AND ISLAM 87

cynically established "spheres of influence wishes corroboration of my assertions may


of rgoy. Turkey is a belligerent, allied go. And do not the facts as set forth in
to the Central powers and Bulgaria. compact text-books of nineteenth-century
European states have come into con- European history speak for themselves?
flict with Islam and with one another From Vienna, 1815, to Bukharest, 1913.
through commercial and political ex- has the concert of European powers, or
pansion into Mohammedan countries. any one power, maintained a consistent,
The history of international diplomacy or shown an altruistic, policy in dealing
in the Islamic world is an unbroken with the emancipation and devolution of
record of bullying and blundering on Mohammedan territories? Has there
the part of all the powers. In govern- been a traditional grouping of the powers,
mental policies one searches in vain for some as champions, others as oppressors,
more than an occasional ray of chivalry, of small nationalities? What power has
uprightness, altruism, for a consistent line not played the game of encouraging Chris-
of action in attempting to solve the problems tians under the Mohammedan yoke, and
that were leading Europe from one war then abandoned them to their fate in

to another, for constructive statesmanship. order not to offend Mohammedan senti-

European cabinets used the aspirations of ment? The evolution of Serbia, of Ru-
Christian subject races to promote their mania, of Bulgaria, of Greece, of Crete
own ends against one another and to the sufferings of Armenia and Syria ; the
threaten Turkey. Then, for fear of sac- anarchy of Arabia; the vacillating policy
rificing what they thought they had in Eg}'pt and northern Africa; the in-

gained, foreign offices and ambassadors trigues at Constantinople; the handling


allowed the wretched Christians to be of Persia and Afghanistan— all these give
massacred for having dared to respond to us the formula of European diplomacy. It
European overtures and to put faith in is this: selfish national interest endeavor-
promises of protection. European diplo- ing to thwart other selfish national in-
macy inspired Abdul-Hamid to make terests. Frequently events have proved
Panislamism a political propaganda, thus that the distrust which led to wars and
denaturing one of the most promising and to threats of wars was unfounded. In
beautiful religious revivals of Islam. France and Great Britain public opinion,
When saw their mistake,
the diplomats when enlightened, has sometimes called for
they tried to wrest away the w^eapon they a policy dictated by justice and inspired
had put in the sultan's hands and to use by humanity; but such a policy has not
it against one another. In their eagerness been adopted.
to thwart one another and to win con- One might remonstrate that it is un-
cessions and colonies for their own coun- gracious and profitless to recall the re-
tries, there was alternate bullying and grettable past now that we are in the
fawning a/l nauseam. The idea of the midst of a war of glorious idealism, when
"universal califate" is wholly foreign to the sins of the ancestors are being dearly
Mohammedan genius and traditions. It paid for in human blood, and when the
emanated from the brains of European world is moving irresistibly toward a
statesmen whose knowledge of Moham- peace that will rectify the injustices of
medan laws ami history was, to say the nineteenth-century diplomacy. But this is

least, \agne. precisely why we need to set forth clearly


The indictment of European diplo- the issues that are at stake, and to study
macy in the near East is terrible ; one might the means of avoiding the old pitfalls and
even say that it But
seems incredible. of securing the triumph of the principles
there are a dozen thoroughly documented for which millions are giving their lives.
treatises on the Eastern Question avail- Since we hope that this war will bring
able in all large libraries to which the about a general liquidation of the politi-

reader of independent judgment who cal ills from which mankind is suffering,
THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
the fate of Moliammedan races and of of Christian monarchs from Francis the
Christian races calling for emancipation First of France to his own grandmother,
from Mohammedan rule must perforce Queen Victoria. Ever since the Turks
interest us as much as the fate of Belgium set foot in Europe the Ottoman sultans
and Serbia. In response to President have been solicited to give their aid to

Wilson's note, both groups of belligerents, Christians against and have


Christians,
while declaring that there is no necessity been brothers-in-arms of French against
for American mediation, make an official Spanish and Germans, French against
bid for American sympathy and support English, English against French, French
in establishing a post-bellum world status and English against Russians, French
upon principles of justice and liberty for against Austrians, Austrians against
all nations, especially for small and wealc French, Italians against one another, and
nations. If we want to get a world vision, of each Balkan race in internecine strife.
then, of a world peace, it is incumbent In Asiatic and African expansion, during
upon us to acquaint ourselves with extra- the last half-century, Germany has been
European as well as with European the latest comer in the dangerous and
problems. The relations of Europe with treacherous game of European powers
Islam, the future of the califate, the dev- tPA'ing to use Mohammedan fanaticism to
olution of Mohammedan territories, the menace one another. The most striking
status of emancipated Christian races — examples are Russian intrigue- against
we want to know what the belligerents Great Britain in Afghanistan and French
have mind as a solution of these ques-
in intrigue against Great Britain in Egypt.
tions. For these questions affect vitally Who does not remember, only a decade
the bases of a durable world peace. ago, the agitation of the British press over
Limits of space prevent a magazine ar- Russia's policy in regard to India and the
ticle from being more than suggestive. Persian Gulf, and the powerful support
The writer can deal with subjects only in the Young P^gyptian agitation received in
outline, trusting that the reader will be France?
moved to seek the catalogue of his library The movement for a Mohammedan
or, better still, to consult his librarian. renaissance took form during the period
In America the library catalogue is a between the Crimean and Russo-Turkish
treasure-house that needs no key, and the wars. Its leaders, Al Afghani, Al Kawa-
librarian is the able and indispensable ally kebi, Sheik Mohammed Abdu, and Ahmed
of the school-master and the publicist. Khan, were inspired by religious, and not
Since this is so, I do not hesitate to at- by political, ideals. They saw that the
tempt to trace in a few paragraphs several decadence of Islam could be checked only
factors in the reconstruction of Europe by a spiritual awakening that followed
that are unfortunately too little in the and was nourished by an intellectual
public mind. awakening. They wanted to revive the
old glory of Mohammedan learning, and
to create a spirit of solidarity among Mos-
A RECENT manifesto American educa- of lems such as they believed existed among
tionalists and clergymen that was quoted Christians. Ahmed Khan, in India, laid
widely in the French and British press emphasis upon education, spread not only
condemned the action of Kaiser Wilhelm by schools, but by books and reviews;
in trying to arouse Islam against liis ene- Sheik Mohammed Abdu, in Egypt, worked
mies. The condemnation is just, for for the casting aside of uncanonical
Kaiser Wilhelm, as a Christian monarch, doctrines and traditions and customs with
is faithless in this action as in many others which Islam had become incrusted, and
to the true interests of Christianity and which, he declared, would prevent the re-
European civilization. But, unfortunately, generation of Islam ; Al Afghani traveled
he has only followed the traditional policy far and wide, preaching Mohammedan
EUROPE AND ISLAIVI 89
unity and solidarity, anc foundin^j socie- lished,and need have had no anxiet_\ about
ties newspapers to promulj^ate his
and the regeneration of Islam in independent
ideas;and Al Kawakebi gave his life to states. They would have welcomed any
denouncing the evils from which Islam movement working for reform and for
was suffering and to pointing out the democracy. They would have seen in
remedies. Panislamism, if generously aided by them
It would be
idle to speculate upon the to keep its original spirit, a force that
influence Panislamism would have had, might rehabilitate Islam, and enable Mo-
and the development it would have taken, hammedan races to follow in the path
had it come fifty years earlier. But arising of European races to self-government, in-
when it did, the movement w^as a cause of dependence, and vigorous national life.

uneasinessand alarm to the European But that is precisely what the men who
powers who had been and were still seiz- guided the foreign and colonial policy of
ing Mohammedan countries, and also to European states did not want, precisely
Sultan Abdul-Hamid, the beginning of what they have always been willing to
whose reign was marked by the humiliat- precipitate wars to prevent. To prepare
ing defeat at the hands of Russia and the Mohammedan colonies and protectorates
imposition of the Treaty of Berlin. for self-government, to strengthen and
European diplomacy looked upon Panis- help to rehabilitate weak Asiatic and
lamism as a menace to the success of the African would be sheer madness.
states,

plans of extension of sovereignty over Not only would commercial and political
Moslem countries. Hamidian diplomacy advantages be lost, but if the hold already
feared that Panislamism, taken up by the acquired on Mohammedan countries was
Arabs and centered in Mecca, might be lessened or released, and if opportunities
used by the European powers to foment a of getting a hold on the remaining inde-
separatist movement in the distant parts pendent Mohammedan countries were al-
of the Ottoman Empire. There was. lowed to pass, some other power would
then, a common opposition on the part of not be so squeamish. No power, not one,
the Turkish calif as well as of Christian was squeamish. The result is that virtu-
statesmen to the spread of the Panislamic ally every Mohammedan country in the
movement. But the fear of guilty Euro- world has been treated by European
pean consciences gave Abdul-Hamid an nations as Belgium and Serbia and Poland
idea. He put himself, as calif, at the head have been treated. Their wrongs cry out
of the Panislamic movement, and saw in to Heaven to be redressed, their aspira-
it means of carrying on a political
the tions cry out to the sense of fairness and
propaganda throughout the whole Mo- justice of all mankind to be heard. In a
hammedan world. Panislamism was to similar position are the Christian races
bring about the revival of the Ottoman still waiting to be emancipated from the
Empire in all its ancient glory and power. Ottoman yoke. If the wrongs are not
Abdul-Hamid's agents penetrated every- known, it is because the world is ignorant
where. The sultan began work on a rail- of and indifferent to things that happen
way from Damascus to the holy cities of "far away"; if we are less familiar with
Islam which would transport pilgrims to the aspirations of Asiatic and African Mo-
and from Mecca through Turkey. hammedan and Christian nations than we
Abdul-Hamid would not have suc- are with the aspirations of certain subject
ceeded in gaining power and prestige from races in Europe, it is because selfish politi-

his Panislamic propaganda had the polic.\ cal and not humanitarianism, is
interest,
and intentions of European powers toward to-day the motive power behind champion-
Mohammedan and Mohammedan
states ship of small nationalities in every single
races been honorableand just. For then belligerent country of Europe.
they need have feared no dissatisfaction Panislamism was neither fanatical nor
where their control was already estab- political in its inception.It need not have
90 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
become so in its development. It did not activity, manifested by the presence of
have in it the danger the European states- foreigners in Mohammedan countries, is

men feared, and as a powerful influence actuated solely by the desire to exploit the
throughout the Mohammedan world, natives;and the reason of fanaticism
which could be wielded as he chose by toward indigenous Christian elements is
the Turkish sultan, Panislamism was a the belief that their fellow-Christians are
chimera, an absurd unreality. The disil- conspiring with European governments to
lusionment of Germany in the present dispossess them. I am not holding a brief
war has proved that European statesmen for the reasonableness of the Mohamme-
have long been slaves of a mythical Frank- dan attitude. I am stating the fact.
enstein, the creation of their own intrigues It does no good to utter disclaimers and
and imaginations. Aside from the radical to argue that the Mohammedans are
divisions of Sunnites and Shiahs, there are laboring under a misapprehension. If
numerous other sects in Islam. The fol- this war is to solve the question of the
lowers of Mohammed are no more united Orient, the peace conference must prove
in religious belief and ecclesiastical af- to the Mohammedan world by acts, and
filiation than are the followers of Christ. not by high-sounding phrases, the inten-
In fact, the bonds in Islam are so loose, tion of Europe to put local Mohammedan
the ideals so democratic, the foundations interests ahead of European interests in
so lacking in hierarchical tradition and Mohammedan countries by: (i) abstain-
possibilities, that Islam does not enjoy the ing from partitioning or bringing under
spirit of unity, does not possess the ele- direct European sovereignty those coun-
ments of solidarity. tries of the Moslem world which have so
It undoubtedly true, on the other
is far succeeded in escaping the territorial
hand, that we must guard against inter- greed of the great powers; and (2) taking
preting the failure of Islam to march with upon themselves the mutual solemn obli-
Turkey in a holy war as a proof of love gation to prepare for self-government and
and loyalty of Moslems to their European eventual separate national existence Mo-
masters, and also against denying the ex- hammedan countries now held as colonies
istence of a Panislamic sentiment in re- or protectorates. For is not the only jus-
gard to Europeans. In densely ignorant "eminent European domain"
tification of
and remote and savage countries that have the happiness and well-being of extra-
no national history the sectators of Mo- European peoples in subjection? If so,
hammed bear no grudge against the for- the complete control, especially in internal
eigners who rule them. The loyalty and affairs, of the* European benefactors must
evident good-will of the Sudanese to the be exercised in such a way that the people
British, of which I have written recently may be prepared for self-government as
in The Century Magazine, is striking rapidly as possible ; and the people need to
proof of this. Senegalese loyalty to France be convinced by acts —words no longer
is another proof. But in Egypt, Arabia, count for anything — that the officials im-
Turkey, Persia, and Albania, Frangi (the posed upon them place the interests of the
Arabic word includes all Europeans) are occupied country and its inhabitants before
anathema. The dislike and distrust of the interests of the occupying country.
Europeans is general, and no distinction is Let no reader exclaim that I am a
made by the mass of the people between dreamer, setting forth an absurd and un-
Europeans of this or that particular and impractical polic_\'. It was
realizable
power. They are all l''ran<ji. The dislike the American policy in Cuba. It is the
and distrust has come to include native American policy in tlie Phih'ppine Islands.
Christians, who lived for centuries in com-
parative peace under Mohammedan rule.
The reason of the xenophobia is the belief rui-: relations of Europe with Africa
that iMHopean political and commercial md Asia ha\e been allowed during the last
EUROPE AND ISLAM 91

thirty years to be troubled and upset by lie assumed the title of calif and turned
a curious and wholly unfounded supposi- against Persia.
tion upon the part of European statesmen German scholars know all this, but their
that Islam had to have a universal califate. kaiser evidently did not. Else he would
As different powers aspired to be pre- have been prepared for the failure of a
dominant in Constantinople and Arabia, repercussion in the Mohammedan world
it was believed by each of these powers wlien his Ottoman ally unfurled the green
that the califate could be captured and flagand solemnly declared a <ljehad (holy
used for the greater glory of the success- war) of "the faithfid" against the ene-
ful power and the confusion of the rival mies of Germany.
powers. Hence we read constantly in the The Arabian cali-
idea of reviving the
newspapers and magazines of Europe and fate means of hastening the disin-
as a
America the statement that the Sultan of tegration of the Ottoman Empire has long
Turkey- is calif of the entire Islamic been gravely discussed. From the British
world, a sort of pope whose religious point of view there have been pros and
authority is e\'erywhere acknowledged, cons ; also from the French point of view.
and articles are frequently written about The British have opposed the idea when
"the revival of the Arabian califate." they felt friendly to Turkey and when
The erroneous conception of the uni- they feared that an Arabian califate might
versal califate was born of European in- lead to a free Arabia, which would en-
trigues and rivalries. Abdul-Hamid was danger their positionin Egypt they have ;

quick to seize upon it, however, and to encouraged the idea when they wanted to
use it as the means of making himself the threaten Turkey and when they hoped
center of Panislamism. In their eager- that Mesopotamia and the holy places
ness to thwart one another's schemes of might fall under their political control.
expansion and upset one another's already France has viewed the Arabian califate in
acquired hold in Moliammedan countries, the light of its advantages and disadvan-
the statesmen of the powers acknowledged tages in furthering her ambitions to ac-
Abdul-Hamid's possession of an office that quire Syria and to consolidate her Moham-
liad disappeared with the immediate suc- medan northern African empire. Before
cessors of Mohammed — an office which the Agreement of 1904 many French-
the ancestors of Abdul-Hamid, in the men interested in the near East looked
heyda}- of their prestige three centuries favorably upon the Arabian califate as a
before, had been unable to revive to their means of ousting the British from Egypt.
profit. Austria-Hungary and Italy were During the present war the agitation
so anxious to get away with their loot for an Arabian califate has come to the
that in the treaties of 1908 and 191 2 with front again as a war measure against Tur-
Turkey the sultan was recognized as the key. The Sherif of Mecca, encouraged
spiritual suzerain of subjects lost to the by Great Britain and France, and now
Ottoman Empire by the Bosnia-Herze- actively aided by contributions of muni-
govina and Tripoli grabs. The same tions and the sending of native regiments
blunder was planned for Albania. The from Mohammedan colonies of the En-
action was as foolish as it was meaning- tente powers, is in rebellion against the
less; it created a dangerous precedent. Turks. He calls himself "King of
Since Islam is organically theocratic, a Arabia," and is formally recognized by
Moliammedan ruler cannot be calif of France and Great Britain as "King of the
people who are not under his political ju- Hedjaz." But the poor sherif has not
risdiction. It is possible to conceive of a made good his right to the limited title
universal califate only if all Mohammedan the French and British authorities are
countries are united in a single Moham- willing tolet him bear. To the south of
medan empire. That is what Selim I had Mecca, Said Idris and Imam Yahia, both
in mind when, after the conquest of Egypt, of whom are "strictlv nevitral" in this
92 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
war, are much more powerful Arab rulers the people for self-government and refrain
than the Sherif of Mecca; and on the from exploiting them.
north, the new "king" {melek is not a But we have Egypt, whose status has
Mohammedan title, bj^ the way) is meet- not yet been determined by international
ing with serious difficulty in conquering agreement the independent countries,
;

the second sacred city of his "kingdom." Turkey, Persia, Afghanistan the country ;

At this writing Medina is still held by the Italy is trying to conquer, Tripoli ; the
Turks. As cabinet ministers the former country Austria, and the Balkan
Italy,

sherif has appointed three of his sons, States are eager to possess, Albania and ;

and his army is led by the implacable foe the quasi-independent Arabian sultanates
of Italy in Tripoli, Aziz Ali Pasha. Be- and tribes.
fore the assumption of sovereignty by the From the material point of view Great
sherif, France sent to Mecca a delegation Britain has governed Egypt justly, and
of distinguished African Moslems, a tenta- there can be no question of the material
tive step toward recognition of the sherif benefit the Egyptians have gained from
as "calif of the Mohammedan world." the British occupation. The sovereign of
This mission, which cost the French the country is content to be under British
budget over a million dollars, indicates protection, and from my personal know-
that French statesmen are persisting in the ledge I feel sure that the Egyptians do not
old error of believing in the universal cali- want to return to Turkey or to exchange
fate— a belief as contrary to the interests their British masters for any other actual
of France as it is contrary to reality. or formal European protection. From
There ought to be no question of the the point of view of the population, then,
califate for Europe. It took centuries for if the officials of the British Government,
Europe to learn the folly of trying to use following out a policy definitely estab-
the Christian religion as a cloak for ter- lished by London, rule in such a way as
ritorial ambitions and aggression against to prepare the Egyptians for internal
enemies and rivals, of working to control autonomy. Great Britain is welcome to
the head of the church for political ends, remain in Eg\'pt. From the European
of setting up ecclesiastical establishments and world point of view, however, Brit-
for reasons of diplomacy. Can we not ish control of Egypt is dependent upon the

apply to and Africa the lesson


Asia solution of the question of the world's
learned? Califs and the Mohammedan waterways. Other nations control pas-
religion ought to have no connection with sages from ocean to ocean the United :

European chancelleries. If European States the Panama Canal, Germany the


chancelleries believe that the connection Kiel Canal, Turkey the Bosporus and the
should exist, it is because they have in Dardanelles. would be incumbent upon
It
mind schemes of conquest and exploitation the British to give up the guardianship of
of Mohammedan countries. the Suez Canal only if the Americans and
Germans and Turks are willing, or are
made, to accept the internationalization of
In discussing the devolution of Mo- the world's waterways. Unless argu-
hammedan countries, it is difficult to go ments based on principle are applied to all
back of the status quo — not only difficult, parties alike, can we hope for the "durable
but unprofitable. Once started, there is peace"?. And how else will right prime
no end to the labyrinth. One wanders in force than by the prevalence of argu-
circles, and finds himself in culs-de-sac. In ments based on principle ?

regard to Mohammedan territories already The peace conference, seeking an equit-


in possession of European powers, one can able and durable peace based upon the
hope only for the strict application of freedom of small nations, will guarantee
twentieth-century principles of treatment the neutrality of Afghanistan and Persia.
of subject races — that the holder iirepare Such a measure is an act tiemaiuled not
EUROPE AND ISLAM 93
only by a sense of justice, but also by a keeping for themselves what they have
sense of political wisdom. The independ- rescued from the actual or potential grasp
ence and integrity of these two Moham- of "the empires of prey and their Balkan
medan states, an independence and in- and Turkish accomplices." Where does
tegrity assured by international sanction the rightful owner come in ? Have only
and not by alliance with or protection of a few favored nations and races, and not
one power or group of powers, are as essen- all nations and races, the right to dispose
tial for the equilibrium of western Asia freely of themselves? Is there any differ-
as are the independence and integrity of ence between the right of the Belgian and
Belgium, similarly assured, for the equilib- the Serbianand the right of the Greek and
rium of western Europe. cannot We Armenian and Syrian and Arab and
presuppose a permanent alliance and a per- Egyptian and Persian ?
manent common policy between Great The Armenians are a nation, with a
Britain and Russia. history of fifteen centuries, a language, a
I Albanian question in
shall treat of the literature, and a church, who have re-
my article next month on
Italy and the sisted every effort of non-Christian bar-
Balkan balance of power. There remains barians to uproot them or assimilate them.
the rock upon which peace conferences We want to see them freed, not put under
have always split— the Ottoman Empire. the yoke of Russia to suffer as the Finns.
Here, as in Austria-Hungary and Russia, Poles, and Ruthenians are suffering. The
we have the problem of a dominant race Syrians of the Lebanon Mountains are
ruling conquered races which have a his- Christians whose separate national exist-
toric past and which have preserved their ence is guaranteed by an international
separate language, customs and national treaty, signed by the European powers.
consciousness. The problem is more com- France cannot make Syria a colony with-
plicated and aggravated in the Ottoman out regarding this treaty as a chiffon de
Empire, however, for several of the sub- papier. And who dares to advocate with
ject races are of a radically different re- honest conscience that the Entente powers,
ligion, and all of them have been horribly whose program is the freedom of small
treated, especially in recent years, by the nationalities, consent to putting the Greeks
dominant race. It is impossible to con- of the vTgean islands and the Asia Minor
cei\e of a peace that will leave to the coast-line in political subjection to their
Turks power to finish the most atro-
the traditional and worst enemies, the Ital-
cious crime of modern history, the system- ians ?

atic extermination of the Armenian nation The problem is a thorny one, and, I am
by massacre, starvation, and forcible con- told by m}- diplomatic friends, "exceed-
version. There are the Syrian Christians But that is only because
ingly difficult."
and the Jews of Palestine, also, to con- European statesmen and politicians have
sider. made it so. Let every power in Europe
A partition of the Ottoman Empire proclaim its own disinterestedness, and
among the European conquerors is advo- state that it does not regard this war as a
cated by writers of repute in serious war of conquest, but as a war of emancipa-
journals of France, Great Britain, Russia, tion, and. lo! the problem disappears. A
and Italy. One is shocked at the lack of Syrian state in Syria, an Armenian state
moral sense revealed in their arguments. in Armenia or Cilicia, under the collective
One is amazed at the inconsistency of men guaranty of all Europe, and the union of
who ask^ for sympathy and support of the Greek islands and the middle portion
neutrals on the ground that they are fight- of the Asia Minor ^^gean littoral to
ing the battle of human freedom, spe- Greece — this is the only program that will
cifically defined as "the defense and eman- satisfy the aspirations of the subject
cipation of small nationalities," and in the Christian nationalities and assure a dur-
same breath declare their intention of able peace in the near East. As the Turks
94 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
— including all Mohammedans who re- after the proclamation of the Kingdom of
gard themselves as Turks— number nearly Arabia, stated this in no uncertain terms.
ten millions and are a virile nation, it is "Al Kibla," the new king's official journal,
them and
foolish to talk of dispossessing reports him as saying, when he announced
subjecting them. Desires do not make to the Arabic-speaking world that France
realities. The Greek and Armenian and and Great Britain were collaborating with
Syrian frontiers will have to be drawn him to establish Arabian independence:
moderately.
If we have expelled the Turks from our
Beyond and Syria tliere are no
Cilicia
territory, it is because we have considered
Turks, and we can assume from the les- them as foreigners, and they have no part in
sons of history and from indications mani-
our historical and religious traditions. How,
fested everywhere in Syria and Mesopo-
then, could we be willing to accept the
tamia and Arabia to-day that the Arabic-
supremacy of other foreigners? We have
speaking Mohammedans will make no
prepared our own rebellion against the
effort to conserve the tie that has bound
Turks. No person not of our own race has
them for centuries against their will to the
taken part in it. We have begged the
Ottoman Empire. The political future
powers of the Entente not mix up in
to
of the Arabic-speaking Mohammedans, our affairs. We have made them well un-
the relations of the rival emirs with one
derstand we are determined to pre-
that
another, with the Syrian Christians, and
serve Mohammedan independence against
with the Palestine Jews, is too complex
all attacks. The Entente powers are
. . .

a question to be broached here. I can only


allies whom we respect and friends whom
assert that the difficulties, however, are no
we love. But, I repeat, our alliance with
more formidable if the principle of "emi-
them is based upon the most complete inde-
nent European domain" is waived than if
pendence.
it is maintained. Here, again, there is

need of a declaration of territorial disin- All the Mohammedans in the world are
terestedness all around the table at the of the opinion of the King of Arabia.
peace conference. The Sherif of Mecca, Islam wants friends, not masters.

i
REPRODUCTIONS
OF OLD MASTERS
Fro//i the Jf 'dener Collectio?i
I

"MADONNA AND CHILD," BY SPINELLO


"NELLIE O'BRIEN," BY SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS
A PORTRAIT, BY AGNOLO BRONZING
"WOMAN AND CHILD," BY AGNOLO BRONZING
'COUNTESS AND CHILD," BY SIR ANTHONY VANDYKE
'WOMAN WEIGHING JEWELS," BY JOHANNES VERMEER
"NELLIE O'BRIEN," BY SIR JOSHUA RKVNOLUS
A PORTRAIT, BY AGXOLO liRONZlXU
1',1

jp 41 "1

l#'^^
J

'WOMAN AND CHILD," BY AGNOLO BRONZING


'COUNTESS AND CHILD," liV SIR ANTHONY VANDYKE
WOMAN WEIGHING JEWELS," BY JOHANNES VERMEER
The Derelict
By PHYLLIS BOTTOIVIE.
Author of "The Dark Tower," etc.

Illustrations by Norman Price

Synopsis of Chapters I-llL— Geoffrey Amberley had irritated his famib- by becoming a
painter; even becoming a successful painter had left them indifferent: but his engagement
to Emily Dering delighted them. Emily was beautiful, lovable, and wealthy; but she also
had a mission to make people — fallen people — stand on their own feet, and itwas in the
pursuit of this aim that she called in the unwilling Geoffrey to assist her in making F'anny
stand on her own feet. Fanny was beautiful, too, but, as Emily vaguely explained, "had
been cut to pieces by life."

Part 11. Chapter IV


had been a true Amberley, he
IF Geoffrey cisive splendor of Marcel Dupln. I\Iar-
would have known precisely what he cel was Geoffrey's greatest friend ; he was
meant to do about painting Fanny. If it also an extremely able joung French
had been fun to paint Fanny, he \vould sculptor. He prided himself upon two
have painted her; if not, he would have things: seeing all that there was to see,
planted his refusal firmly upon all fours. and the dexterity with which he trans-
Bill would have said: "Hang it all! ferred vision into practice. His dexter-
my dear Emily, I 'd do anything to please ity was as sharp as a razor, and his vision

you, but a fellow can't go round painting as keen as a hawk's. Half of his feeling
stray women. Ton my
word, you 'd bet- for Geoffrey was pity, the other half was
ter not ask Don't you get mixed up
it. the respect of a fellow-artist. He be-
with queer starts. If she 's down on her lieved in Geoffrey's talent, but he was un-
luck, give her a check for a fiver and let easy as to the use he would make of it.

her rip." Tom would have contented "I have come," he announced, "to see
himself with even less expression of sen- how you are getting on. Your letter an-
timent. He would have said, "Not my nouncing your engagement excited me; it
line," and even Emily would have rested is true that for six months I have not an-

upon that finality. Dislike with an Am- swered it, but during that time the excite-
berley was backbone; but it did nothing ment mounted. Do you mean to tell me
to relieve Geoffrey from the wobblings of you are still engaged? What a wonder-
a jellyfish. ful people the English are, so precisely
There were times when he was n't even described by their beautiful proverb, 'We
sure that he would dislike to paint Fanny. turn forever down a long lane'! Non.^
But something in him was less undecided If I had been in your place, for instance,
than his mind his vision of Fanny was
; I should have been prepared for you to
perfectly clear. He made a water-color produce a christening-mug!"
sketch of her from memory, and hid it "I dare say I shall be prepared for that
behind a row of the portraits of Emily's by and by," said Geoffrey, without annoy-
friends. He was n't sure that he meant ance, "but over here w^e don't arrange
to do anything with it; but he knew that things so much beforehand. As a matter
he could never have painted from memory of fact, I did n't arrange my marriage at
any of Emily's friends. all ; it was as inevitable and as unmanage-
Upon his inconclusiveness burst the in- able as a summer day."
Itil
:§ "^ -"S g
"*!
5 _

*^ r c S .

s
? ?
'5 « •- f=
^
<='

-S ^ -^ s

^5-^ t^
THE DERELICT 103

"You should not have summer days gave a long, low whistle as he drew the
that are unmanageable," said Marcel. "I sketch out into the light. It was Fanny,

admit that many of them appear to have just as she had sat in the old cloak and
that defect; but I am on
meet the fire to the battered, scarlet straw hat, digging
English fiancee, and meanwhile you must her toes Into the carpet.
show me your work. That is to say, if "Mon Dull!" murmured Marcel.
you have any work; for all I know an "This time you ha\e not been making
English engagement may be In itself a money. Ions y vies! Work this up.
profession. It has one of the qualities of —
For the rest, forgive me if I say, love —
a profession, — duration, — but I am not lias disagreed with you. Perhaps by the
quite so certain that it pays." time \'ou painted this you had got over
"You can look round j^ou," said Geof- it?"
frey, a little nervously; "but don't expect Geoffrey frowned.
much. I 've been, on the whole, more in- "Youcan't get over the kind of feel-
dustrious than satisfactory. Emily has ing have for Emily," he explained. "I
I

been wonderfully clever at getting hold dare say it has made my work go to pieces
of people for me to paint, and I 've been, temporarily, but what you fellows don't
as you see, hard at it; but I confess that understand is that to love one woman
people of one class, with five meals a day tremendously and all the time Is worth
and the same ideas, look incredibly alike. what you have to pay for it."

I 'm not sure one would n't get as much "My dear, to whom do a'ou say It?"
variety out of sheep — or
Chinamen." laughed Marcel, perching himself on the
"Ah, my dear fellow," Marcel mur- window-sill and flicking an Imaginary
mured, "do me one really good China- speck of dust from his blue silk socks.
man!" He flitted to and fro about the "If the love of one woman is like that,
studio, dragging out canvases and turning figure to yourself the love of dozens! Did
them to the light, spinning them aside I not tell you In Paris that the hearts of
with the hasty judgment of a man who are the school of But
knows what he is looking for and where have no imagination ;
your eyebrows rise
he is certain not to find it. Meanwhile at the word dozens. I should recommend
Geoffrey watched him with increasing to your notice the progress of the spring.
discomfort. Is the violet out of place because of the
"You 're thinking," he said, "that I 've daffodil, and have j^ou no room for the
been wasting my time running about on tulip when It rises simultaneously with
the surface? They \vanted representa- your little milk-faced primrose? And I

tions,— people do, you know, — and I 've assure you. If you judge of the value of
represented them. I suppose you think I love by the price. It is far more expensive
ought n't tohave given 'em what they to pay for dozens than for one."
wanted? Well, I promise you I won't "No; there you 're wrong," said Geof-
once 'm married. I '11 have a line of
I frey. "It is less expensive, for you don't
my own then and stick to it." pay with j'ourself."
Marcel looked gloomily across the "But Mar-
never, never, never," cried
studio at him. cel, vehemently. "That is the last and
"But where is it," he demanded, "this the most clumsy of human errors. I Im-
line of your own? What you have here, plore you, and a little in vain I am afraid,
my poor friend, is n't a line at all; it 's having looked at your pictures, to keep
'

an abyss. You should have sent made- yourself out of It! The secret of passion
moiselle's amiable friends to the photog- is self-preservation. You have not pre-
rapher. There are such good ones now, served yourself. If you had, you would
too. They should be allowed to take a not have perpetrated these types. They
little something our shoulders."
off are so many your lost soul."
pieces of
Then Marcel unearthed Eannv. He "I beg your pardon," said a laughing
104 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
voice from the door, but how has Geof mistake to imagine that Frenchmen flatter
frey lost his soul?" upon a question of fact; it is only in the
The two men sprang to their feet; region of fancy that they allow themselves
both looked equally guilty. Emily stood to evade the rigor of perfect accuracy.
in the open doorway, her arms full of Marcel's light eyes fixed themselves
early spring roses. with a certain hardness upon Emily's
"I knocked, and you never heard," she vague, gray ones.
said to Geoffrey; "but I sha'n't apologize. "No, Mademoiselle," he said firmly, "I
I Ve been shopping, and I thought of tea regret to say he has not. It was of this
but Monsieur— Faust, is it?— has n't yet subject that w^e spoke as you entered. You
answered me." have been engaged for six months, have
"Ah, Mademoiselle," said Marcel, "I j^ou not? Well, forgive me, but to be in
forget what happened to the soul of En- love with a very beautiful woman like
dymion but I know that he loved the
; yourself, who may
any moment appear,
at
moon. That was always some excuse. I in j'our perfect English freedom, at his

recognize now the excuse of Geoffrey." studio door, is very bad for a man's art."
"I am not sure," said Emily, holding Emily stared a little.
out her hand to him, "that that is not the "Oh," she said, "but, you see, I never
most compliment I ever re-
invidious come near him in the mornings."
ceived but I forgive you in advance, for
; "I can understand how that must make
I have guessed you are Geoffrey's friend him dislike that time of day," said Mar-
Marcel Dupin, and I am Emily." cel, remorselessly; "but the lure remains
She could n't perhaps have done it bet- the same."
ter, except that Marcel thought her gra- "The what?" exclaimed Emily, color-
ciousness a trifle too matronly. Marcel ing to her forehead. She was n't only
had very distinct ideas about women. He astonished ; she was annoyed. She won-
respected mothers, but he did not wish to dered if Marcel meant something French.
meet the maternal aspect in any woman "It is a little difficult to explain, Made-
under forty. moiselle," said Marcel, hesitating. "If
Geoffrey left them to go out to buy you were his wife— well— then he would
cakes for tea. He thought that they were have arrived, would he not? And if there
the two most wonderful people in the were some other arrangement, in that also
world, and he rejoiced in the certainty of there would be a point of decision but ;

how they would get on together. They an engagement that is very free and con-
got on together as well as the two most tinuous and does not arrive, one wonders
wonderful people in the world would be a little if the imagination is capable of
likely to get on together. leaving it enough to do good work. Per-
"I 'm so glad to see you for a few min- sonally I should say, looking about me at
utes alone," Emily said, with her ready Geoffrey's attempts, no. He is wool-
eagerness, "for now you can tell me what gathering, the poor child. These ladies
I want most to know about Geoffrey's and gentlemen, — pardon me, — but
do you
work. He has made me feel as if you not think they have a resemblance to
wool ?"
were an oracle. Has n't he made a great
advance?" "I don't think I quite know what you
Emily was quite sure that Geoffrey's mean," said Emily, a little awefully. Em-
work had improved she liked his pictures
;
ily always knew exactly what people
better herself. A certain queerness in meant unless she was seriously annoyed
them had evaporated lately, something with them. "Must n't an artist paint the
which made them unlike the pictures of types he has orders from ?"
anybody else and, besides, he had had the
;
Marcel shrugged his shoulders.
great incentive of her love. She smiled "I would rather model a suet-pudding
reassuringly upon Marcel Dupin, It is a than starve," he agreed, "but short of a
1 've thou^lu of soiuclhing wonderful,' she cxphi

constriction around the stomach I should twenty-five pounds as if they were the
avoid modeling too many suet-puddings. same thing.
Geoffrey has been doing what does not When Geoffrey returned he felt as if

inspire him. That is always possible, it a cold wind had got into the room.
is sometimes a necessity; but to make a "I did not know," said Emily, pouring
rule of it is bad. None of these canvases out tea, "that you had begun to paint
bear the look of people ; they are casts. Fanny."
Oh, but I make a mistake,"— he drew "Oh, that," said Geoffrey, hastily, "is

Fanny out with a certain flourish, "this — just a sketch from memory, you know; it
one is alive. For her Geoffrey has had an came into my head. I did n't bother you
idea. He has not said to himself: 'I am a with it because I rather thought that if I

young man who wants very much to be did seriously study her I 'd work it up."
married. Therefore I will earn twenty- "But, of course," said Marcel, flying
"
five pounds.' forward for his tea, "you must seriously
Emily's benevolent eyes turned sud- study her. You have an idea, an idea like
denly hostile. She disliked Marcel Dupin that, and you talk of playing with it!
thoroughly. He spoke of marriage and The English are surely the lightest race
in,-)
106 THE CENTURY IVIAGAZINE
under the sun ! As light as gnats! If this held the door open for her, "have such a
puritan conscience of yours, won cher, we way in this country of being serious!
are told so much about worked where They seem also to be oftenest upon
there is a convenience for conscience, the side that says 'No.' Repudiate it.

mademoiselle and I would share the fe- Mademoiselle, this side that says 'No.'
licity of your arrival somewhere. But if It is like a lady that has lived too long
you do not seriously study your ideas, al- without a husband."
low me to assure you you will arrive — Emily ignored this appeal, but she
nowhere." turned to him with a certain grave sweet-
"Conscience," said Emily, "is an inner ness before she left the studio.
spirit, Monsieur Dupin ; it deals with "I shall remember," she said, "what
everything either in art or in life. I have you have told me about Geoffrey's work,
no fear that Geoffrey will not listen to it." Monsieur Dupin."
"Comment?" demanded Marcel, nib- Geoffrey followed Emily down-stairs.
bling without appreciation an English Marcel returned to the picture of Fanny.
rock cake. "A ho tine a tout faire? What He eyed it with a certain sympathy.
a role you provide her with, Mademoi- "Women," he said to himself, "should
selle! Are you not afraid the poor little never be treated well. The result is so
one will become imwholesomely fa- unsatisfactory."
tigued ?"
Geoffrey intervened hastily ; he was
watching Emily's foot on the floor. It
CHAPTER V
tapped, and he had never seen her tap her Emily could do what she disliked better
foot before. than most people can. For one thing, she
"Don't you worry, Glared, old boy," very seldom did it, because she was al-

he said, putting the sketch of Fanny back most always sure that what she disliked
against the wall. "I '11 work up as hard was wrong. On the rare occasions when
as I can at any tail-end of an inspiration she accepted a challenge to her will she
that comes my way ; I dare say my con- did with a force which overrode not
it

science can stand it." only her own dislike, but the dislike of
"But this Fanny, where is she?" de- everybody else who was involved in it.
manded Marcel, giving up the rock cake It was in one of these infrequent mo-

in despair. "I am very intrigue; may I ments that she accepted Marcel Dupin 's
not share her with Geoffrey? I think I criticism. It broke against her most cher-

could do a little with her here in Lon- ished faith that her love was helping
don. One sees she has good bones." Geoffrey to paint. She could hardly bear
"I am afraid not," said Emily, deci-
i- to believe it possible that she hindered
sively, drawing on her gloves. "Fann\- is him. How could love, the redemptive,
not an ordinary model." assuaging passion, be a thing to stab your
"No, no; of course not," said Marce 1, artistic toe against? It did not make her
with cordiality. "One sees what she is, think less of Gcoffre\', she was too fond
how shall I put it? — one of the more of him for that, but it made her think
unconventional ladies? But for all that. rather less of men. She said to ]\Irs. Der-
Mademoiselle, she is a model in a million ing, in a Hash of impatience
and if you allow the good Geoffrey to "I can't understand men. There is a
benefit by her, you must not mind ex- certain coarseness—" She left her sen-
posing me. As far as that goes, I may tence vague.
frankly say that exposure is one of my "There ought to be," said Mrs. Dering,
habits." mysteriously.
"There are serious reasons against it," Emily left this cryptic remark alone;
said Emily,moving toward the door. she did not wish to have to think her
"Reasons," Marcel murmured as he mother coarse.
THE DERELICT 107

Emily, like everybody else, knew that was trying not to be disappointed in Geof-
what she wanted was truth it had n't oc-
; frey,

"and I thought them all over after-
curred to her that what she did n't want ward, Geoffrey darling. For a little while
was truth as well. She made a new plan, I want you to go away from me."

and sent for Geoffrey. He came with an Geoffrey said


eagerness which set her heart at rest. "Where?" Any other Amberley would
They sat hand in hand on the sofa in e said "Damn id "D amn : w ould
Emily's studio. Emily wore a cloudy blue have been better than "Where?"
dress embroidered with silver lilies. "I think it had better be St. Ives," Em-
"I 've thought of something wonder- ily said firmly, "because mother would
ful," she explained —
"something I want like us to take a cottage there this sum-
you to do for me. Will you, Geoffrey?" mer, and you could find one for us in your
"Blind?" asked Geoffrey. He took her spare time. And it 's full of the most
in his arms and kissed her. wonderful bits to paint."

He knew that he would probably do it Geoffrey cleared his throat. He had


blind even if she gave him explanations. never been able to make Emily understand
Emily was unaware that she loaded her how totally useless other people's won-
dice before she played them she never ; ders are in the field of art.
meant to be unfair. "It 's too far away for week-ends,"
"Of course I '11 tell you first," she said, Emily went on, "so that would be a
it

returning his embrace. "Only you must real separation. And you must take
be good and listen. After you left us yes- Fanny there and paint her."
terday Marcel Dupin told me something
which I 'm horribly afraid was true. He
said you were n't painting as well as you
did, and that it was my fault."
Emily paused. She rather hoped, after
all, that Geoff would laugh at the idea,

and that it would n't be her duty to do


what she did n't like but he sat with his
;

eyes lowered and said nothing.


"He said all kinds of strange things,"
Emily went on a little hurriedly,— she

, v*^*.'". ^t»-

she had upencd her heart to Fanny


108 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
must do what!" cried Geoffrey.
"I cult to see that no one has the least right
"Good God, Emily, you 're mad! Why, to this foriu of sacrifice unless the only
in Heaven's name, saddle me with that victim is oneself.
girl!" Emily did not see it ; she knew she was
Emily had expected a little resistance, going to miss Geoffrey, and she cried a lit-

hut she was startled at the \'ehemence of tle, pleasantly, against his shoulder. Geof-
Geoffrey's exclamation. It seemed almost frey did n't cry; he urgedand implored
a pity to have to make him do what he her change her mind.
to And Emily
resented. Still, she knew she would have kissed him through her tears, and said
to make him do it. how glad they would always be that the}-
"It must be Fanny," she explained pa- had been impatient and studied per-
n't
tiently. "Of course you can do St. Ives, sonal happiness at the expense of saving
too. But I saw what Marcel Dupin a soul alive. Together they would see
meant. You really are a portrait-painter, Fanny through. Geoffrey's pictures
and you must have, at any rate, to start would convince the world and the Amber-
with a subject that perfectly appeals to leys of his genius, and then they would
you. Fanny does appeal to you. I saw have plenty of time to get the house prop-
how good she was for your work from the erly furnished and the wedding arranged.
sketch you did of her." A hurried wedding sH.illied an ideal.

"Well, let me wait till I come back," "Because we know the highest, truest
Geoffrey urged. "Fanny '11 keep. I don't type of human love," she explained, "we
want that girl on my hands; she might have a great responsibility to show it to
fall into all sorts of mischief. And how the world, with all its dignity and love-
the deuce am I to manage her? I can't liness fresh upon it ; and then even more
do it; honestly, I can't, Emily!" I feel we have deep responsibility to
Emily smiled gently. Fanny."
"You don't know how wonderful you A responsibility to the downtrodden
are, dearest," she said inexorably. "Fanny Fanny was far plainer than a responsibil-
came back from the country this morning; ity to the upright Geoffrey. It was plainer
she is n't really strong yet. The whole even to Geoff'rey. He gave up argument
thing will fit in perfectly ; besides, I don't and fell back upon simple invective.
want Marcel Dupin to see her. He is "I won't be good to her," he asserted.
just the kind of man who might be bad "I hate her. I always did hate that kind
for Fanny. want her taken out of his
I of woman and I 'm not likely to like her
way. You will help her far more than any better for having her palmed off on
you know. The quiet companionship of me to paint when I want to be with you."
a man who respects women Avill be like Emily explained how bad hatred was
another life to her. You realize, dearest, for such a woman. She said several wise
how utterly I trust you ?" and generous things about her unfortu-
Geoffrey groaned ; he realized it. nate sisters, but she had come up against
"Look here," he said, "I '11 agree to something quite immutable in Geoffrey.
any plan you Timbuctoo, the Scilly
like, He disliked the whole subject and said so.
Isles, Clapham Junction, but, for Heaven's He 'd go to St. Ives and paint Fanny if

sake, Emily, come with me! Marry me! he must, but he 'd be hanged if he 'd help
Don't send me away alone, not now." her.
Emily was tenderness itself, but she Emily had to be contented with this.
was She was secretly a
quite inflexible. She wondered that men's hearts could be
little relieved to see how much Geoffrey so hard, and had no idea that her safety
cHsliked her plan. What they both dis- depended upon Geoffrey's ability to keep
liked much must be very good for
so his heart hard enough. She kindled the
them. She bound the sacrifice with chains intensity of his love for her, and then sent
to the horns of the altar. It is verv diffi- him awav.
h:! H'ii.

rr;

""
Ih

'•p'anny stood at the window''

On the outside he met Fanny


steps wore some of Emily's old clothes. They
coining and scowled at her. After-
in, had to be taken in for her ; but she looked
ward he thought of that look as the wick- very lovelyin them, and taller than Em-
edest act he had ever committed. Fanny ily. She took a large arm-chair opposite
gave him in return a bold, unw^ivering Emily and asked if she might smoke.
stare; but she had flushed before she "If we 're to talk," she explained, "I 'd

stared. be betterwith something between my


Emily had spent a most satisfactory teeth. I never was much of a talker."

week-end with Fanny. They had taken "Dear Fanny, do just as you like," Em-
walks in the woods, and she had opened ily murmured. "I want you always to
her heart to Fanny. Fanny had followed feel perfectly comfortable with me."
her almost like a dog, and listened as if "Well, you can hardly expect me to be
she were drinking in Emily's words. She comfortable, can you, when you 've been
had cried suddenly and noiselessly when so good to me?" Fanny remarked unex-
Emily went away. She had n't, it is true, pectedly. "It 's no use pretending I can
made any answering confidences to Emily ;
talk to you as if you were a man, is it?"
but Emily thought that on the whole it Emily was not quite sure how Fanny
w^as better for Fanny not to look back talked to men, so she let the subject drop.
upon the past, but forward into the fu- "You really do feel better?" she asked
ture. tenderly.
Fanny quite agreed with that. She said "I feel all right," Fanny said; "I could
she never had been one to brood. do all sorts of things now."
Physically she 'vwas much better. Her "Well, then," said Emily, gaily, "I feel
eyes had more light in them,and her sure you can do what I particularly want.
cheeks the faintest natural color. She I don't think you are fit for London just
109
110 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
yet, but my great friend Mr. Amberley want," Fanny agreed, "while he 's keen
is going to St. Ives, and I should like you about you that 's where you get them.
;

to go there, too, so thatyou can act as a Still, what I say is, live and let live. No
model for him. I have found a nice, com- matter how funny his ideas are, a man 's
fortable room for you at Carbis Bay, and a man, is n't he? You can't get away
you can walk over to St. Ives and sit for from that. Besides, I should think you 'd
him whenever he wants you. I know you want him yourself."
would you are earning money
like to feel Emily colored with annoyance then she ;

and helping me at the same time." reminded herself of how little opportunity
"Will you be at Carbis Bay," Fanny poor Fanny had had to understand any
asked, "or at St. Ives?" She did not ideal relationship. No wonder her im-
seem to see any other alternative. agination had been tainted by the dingy
"I shall stay here," said Emily; "but falsities of her experience.
you '11 be all right at Carbis Bay. The "My dear," Emily said patiently, "one
landlady is an old friend of mine and has day perhaps you will realize as you can-
children." not do now how true men and women
"Look
here," said Fanny, suddenly love. I don't blame you in the least, but
leaning forward and touching Emily's will you do what I ask you meanwhile,
knee with her hand, "don't you do that! and go down month and
to St. Ives for a
You 're making a big mistake. You don't Amberley paint you?"
let iVIr.

want to send Mr. Amberley away like "Oh, I '11 do what you ask me right
that! \'ou 're going to marry him, are enough," said Fanny. "Just look at the
n't you?" money you 've spent on me!"
Emily's arched eyebrows rose a trifle That was not what Emily wanted
ominously. Fanny to look at, but it was what sent
"Yes, my dear," she said. "Certainly Fanny to St. Ives.
I am going to marry him ; next spring or
summer, probably."
"Well, why not now?" asked Fanny,
CHAPTER VI
looking about her. "It can't be money." They traveled to St. Ives separately.
"It is n't altogether money," Emily ex- Geoffrey spent the journey in smoking
plained, "though Mr. Amberley would interminable cigarettes and thinking of
like, I think, to be earning more. It is Emily. Fanny spent it in not thinking
one of my theories, dear Fanny, not to at all. She wondered idly from time to
marry too prematurely, but to grow into time what would happen if she made eyes
each other's ways and ideas. I think that at a young man in the opposite corner.
perfect- community of tastes before mar- Ultimately they went into the dining-car
riage makes for much greater happiness together, and he said grace before his
afterward." lunch. Fanny was not sure how
Still,

"Still, what 's a theory," asked Fanny, much that would have helped him. She
"compared to flesh and blood?" had known piety crumble more easily than
Emily frowned. She did n't like talk- savoir-faire. Savoir-faire was more elas-
ing about flesh and blood. tic. However, she was n't going to try,
"I don't suppose, Fanny," she said, of course.
"that you know what the love of a good Geoffrey took a studio the day before
man is. It is far higher and finer and Fanny arrived. It was not exactly what
more disinterested than you can imagine. he wanted. No studio has ever been ex-
Mr. Amberley loves me in an ideal way. actly what any artist wanted, but he saw
He only wants what is best for us both that he could work in it. It seemed to
he knows that in the deepest sense of all grow upward out of a gray rock.
I am his forever." The lower part of St. Ives has a strange
"Of course a man '11 do what you affinity to rocks, and tlie houses hang and

i
'"I can't make you out,
Fanny '

hidden by sandy alps and


hideous!}- spotted by bunga-
lows and residences. On the
left of St. Ives a small green
flap of land runs out into the sea.
It is known as the Island, and be-
yond it the coast spreads, bleak and wild,
free bungalows and railway lines, a
of
land elfin enchantment, meager and
of
rock-strewn, the haunt of old secrets, a
dumb, close-lipped companion of the sea.
Geoffrey had chosen his studio in one
of the narrow, cliff-like streets overlook-
ing the Island. He
Fanny by a post- told
card when he when she
expected her, and
came he painted her. He was the type of
man who, in being agreeable to one wo-
man, is likely to be disagreeable to all the
cling together, up the short, uneven streets, rest. He did not set out to be disagreea-
like a heap of shells. ble ; he simply did not notice them.
Above it are reared the statelj- biscuit- He painted Fanny with an absorption
boxes, designed for lodgings, readily which was not so much hostile as unhu-
found in all English watering-places; and man ; he hardly spoke to her, except to
around the village, in a wide half-circle, order her poses, for three days.
murmurous blue
stretches the bay. Fanny sat tnere listlessly, with her
Carbis Bay is to the right of St. Ives, hands in her lap. She had a formidable

111
112 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
capacity for sitting st 1; through the would tire you, would you ?" Fanny asked,
studio window she could watch the em- obediently rising to her full height and
erald-green Island and the fishermen lifting her arms above her head with a
spreading their delicate nets on the grass. splendid long movement of relief. "It 's
Sometimes the Island would blaze up having to, I suppose. Funny what a lot
with all the colors under the sun light- : of starch that puts into things, is n't it?"
red table-cloths, sky-blue overalls, pink Geoffrey did not answer ; he saw no
garments of singular shapes and sizes, reason why he should discuss the disabili-
blew and unfurled themselves before her ties of law with Fanny.
the moral
watching eyes. This was on washing- After they had had tea, he asked her
day, and only if the sun was lenient. how she liked St. Ives. Fanny stood at
"I 'm having a good rest, anyhow," the window looking out over the bay.
Fanny thought to herself. "Oh, I like it all right," she said at
Then Geoffrey woke up. Perhaps you last. "I 've always liked the sea: it keeps
cannot paint any human being for long going all the time. Funny these roofs are
with understanding, and remain perma- they look for all the world like the sea-
nently unsympathetic toward her, and gulls' wings."
Fanny's face had been responsive to life. Geoffrey joined her. A catch had just
It was not a brilliant mask, or the face of come in ; the bay was filled with the
a lovely china doll, all surface and no swooping, swirling lightning of the sea-
depth. It had the quality of incandes- gulls' wings, and the little fisher houses,
cence; a light shone through her from her crowding down to the brim of the bay.
inner self, a curious, fitful light. On the their roofs aslant, and silvery with rain-
third day Geoffrey said to her in a friendly washed slate, seemed on the verge of join-
voice the only words he had yet addressed ing in the flight.
to her which were not perfunctory or "Curious I had n't noticed it before,"
practical. Geofifrey murmured. "They do shape
"You 're the best model," he said, like wings I must paint them. I '11 take
;

throwing down his brush and giving a a gray day; it '11 bring it out more.
sigh of satisfaction, "I ever had, bar Thank you for the idea. Miss Fanny."
none." Then he asked her if she was comforta-
"Well, that 's something, is n't it?" said ble where she was and feeling stronger.
Fanny. Fanny stared at him, but it was not the
She took him where she found him. bold, unwavering stare she had given him
There was no resentment in her voice, in London. It had a different quality, a
and no irony ; only a certain inconsequent little startled and pathetic, as if she was

friendliness. surprised that any one should care to


It occurred to Geoffrey that he had n't know how she was or whether she was
been very pleasant to Fanny. He had comfortable or not.
never asked her was comfortable in
if she "Thanks," she said a little uncertainly;
her lodgings or liow she was or whether "I 'm all right." Then she added, witli
she liked St. Ives. He had determined a sudden spark of pleasure in her eyes,
from the first only to use her as a model, "They gave me lots of cream ; I sent some
but he might have been more civil. The to Miss Emily this morning."
way of transgressors is hard, but the vir- Geoffrey was touched. He had not
tuous sometimes make their pathways thought of sending cream to Emily; he
harder still. had thought of nothing but his work.
"I dare say you 're tired," he said Of course he wrote to Emily every day,
kindly. "\'ou can rest now; there 's a and Emily wrote to him, beautiful, long
spirit-himp somewhere about if you care letters, full of her demonstrative tender-

to make yourself a cup of tea." ness. They kept him up.


"You wouhl n't think just sitting still He wondered a h'ttle what kept Fanny

1
THE DERELICT 113
up. He
thought he would try to make more communicative, Fanny dealt with
things pleasanter for Fanny. his friendliness exactly as she had dealt
He did make things very much pleas- with his coldness, as something in the
anter. After the work of the day was atinosphere which could n't be helped and
over they explored the coast together. must be accepted. If it was cold, you put
Fanny, hatless and gloveless, trod the on wraps and shivered if the sun came ;

yellow sands with a new, happy freedom. out, you sat in it and enjoyed yourself.
She laughed often, and sang sometimes, It was as if her whole attitude toward
tuneless melodies that sounded like
little, life was without condemnation or per-
the rise and fall of the sea. The color sonal recognition. She had learned that
filled her cheeks; the haggard lines van- her place in the universe was small.
ished and the hollows from
from her face, Geoffrey became first less guarded and
under her eyes. Her laughter was good then frankly incredulous. He could have
to listen to; it had no ring of silliness or sworn she was innocent— innocent not,
coarseness. It w^as the easv laughter of a perhaps, of experience, but of all contami-
child. nation from
experience. He was not
Her speech was very infrequent and right :was contaminated but for the
she ;

plain ; she did not want to talk much, but moment he was right, for she had forgot-
she liked Geoffrey's companionship. She ten her contamination.
strode along beside him. with her head up It was he himself who brought it back
and the wind in her hair, as unaware as a to her.
boy and as unprovocative as a blade of "I 'm damned if I can see," he ex-
grass. claimed suddenly, "how
it ever happened.

She was quite friendly to Geoffrey now, Hang it all! jou don't look the kind of
but it was a more impersonal friendliness person, — after all, I 've seen lots of them,
even than his own. It struck Geoffrey as — who goes under or stays under. I can't
odd how little Fanny could have known make you Fanny."
out,
of friendliness. She seemed to have no They were sitting on the gray rocks, be-
language for it, and no small exchange of tween the violent bushes of flowering
little kindlinesses. gorse. The sea lay far below them, a
He asked her once: long, blue line. Geoffrey had been paint-
"Have n't you made any friends down ing Fanny in a circle of gray rocks. She
here — besidesme?" wore a blue linen frock of Emily's, the
Fanny shook her head. shade of a gentian. The light had altered
"No," she said. "They would n't like too much for Geoffrey to go on painting.
it if they knew what I was, and I would He stopped, and moved abruptly so that
n't like it if they did n't; so there 30U he could face her.
are." "I can't understand it," he repeated
Geoffrey was brought up curiously savagely. "It must have been a beastly
short by this reply. He had quite forgot- shame. You I could
are n't like that!
ten what Fanny was. He had believed swear it was any fault of yours."
n't
that his only safeguard was a cold im- The color went out of Fanny's face her ;

perviousness to her presence. mouth grew sullen.


Now he discovered that her presence it- "You don't know what I 'm like," she
selfwas the most impervious substance he said in a low voice. "What 's the use of
had ever come across. talking about it, anyway?"
Thrown with her day by day for many "Are n't we friends?" demanded Geof-
hours, there were a hundred opportunities frey. "I 'm not so cold-blooded as all

for the obtrusion of little intimacies. He that. I 'd like to know your stor}% I
could n't, however cold he was, have pre- would n't have at first; rather not. But
vented their arising; but they did n't arise. then I did n't know what a good sort you
When he became more friendlv and were. W^hy, you 're no end of a chap!
114 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
We had three weeks together now,
've the Furies. There were no Furies pursu-
and we 've got on like anything; so I ing him. They remained behind with
think you might trust me." Fanny, and Fanny never looked at him
"That where trouble begins," said
's like that again. She settled with the Furies.
Fanny, coldly, "trusting people. No. I She appeared in the studio toward sup-
don't mean my troubles this time ; any- per-time with a basket packed with mush-
body's troubles. You want to steer clear rooms, a lettuce, and a cream cheese. She
of confidence tricks stewed the mush-
if you mean to keep rooms in milk,
on the right side of mixed the salad, and
things. It 's true laid the table, while
we 've had a good Geoffrey, pretend-
time, but the less ing not to notice
said about it the her, wrote to Emily.
better. Have you For once Emily did
finished what you not notice some-
've been doing?" thing wrong, and
"Oh, all right, all yet there was some-
right," said Geof- thing wrong in
frey, stiffly. "Yes, Geoffrey's letter. It
I 've finished for to- was the defensive
day, thanks. Per- letter of a good man
haps you 'd like to in a bad temper.
go home?" Then Fanny
Fanny's heavy lids Urging a donkey and cart up walked over to him
the narrow street"
lifted slowly. She and laid a hand on
looked at Geoffrey. his shoulder.
It was a look that drove the blood to his "Comealong now," she said gently,
face. Her lips parted in a curious, ironic "and eat the mushrooms while they 're
smile. hot." Her tone was that of an indulgent
"Good Lord !" she said, /hat fools mother to a wayward child ; but it was a

men are! If I were Miss Dering, I would safe tone, and Geoffrey ate his mushrooms
n't let you out of my sight for gold- coinfortably.
mine. And you think it 's you I m not After supper, when Fanny had washed
trusting! You cut along home; 'm all up and cleared away, she sat in the open
right — by myself." doorway, at the top of the high, narrow
And Geoffrey left her. He wanted to street.

believe he left her out of sheer temper, she "You can come here, Mr. Amberley,"
had been exasperatingly rude and off the she said. "I thought over up there
it

point, or out of chivalry at the appeal of what you said, you know. I 'd forgotten
her defenselessness ; but he knew that he about it at the time, and it made me cross
had left her from fear. to have to think of it again. But I don't
He felt his weakness. He thought he mind you knowing — all there is know.
to
had been guarding against it, he thought Fetch the kitchen chair up, so I don't have
Emily's beautiful were preven-
letters to shout. I don't want to astonish the
tives; in a flash he had seen he had no pro- natives. Have you your cigarettes? Well,
tection whatever except the singular ab- give me one, then, and you won't tell Miss
sence of all attack froin Fanny. Dering, will you? It 's no use ladies
Her look had been an attack, and the knowing the way things are. It only up-
only way he had been able to stand out sets them. What they like to think is

against it was by precipitate flight. He we 're just weak or wicked. 'Unfortu-


ran down the hill as if he were pursued by nate sisters,' Miss Emilv calls us; love and
THE DERELICT 115

the world well lost, that 's their idea. men urging a donkey and cart up the nar-
It 's and I dare say it 's love
lost all right, row street. It was a difficult operation,
sometimes; but with nine out of ten of us and it interested her very much.
it is n't love. It 's what it was with me, "There were lots of things we needed at
I expect, being too much pinched to stand home," she continued. "I had a brother
it. I had an offer of twelve pounds a next to me. I wanted him to go to a good
year, all found, as a nursery governess school he was a clever little chap. Then
;

when I was seventeen. There were eight there was my sister with a bad back she ;

of us in the family. My father was a ought to have been taken up to London


clergj'man, a bit too fond of cider; my for proper treatment. And boots — we all

mother was a farmer's daughter. He met of us were always wanting boots. I never
her at the farm he 'd first started drinking had a decent dress in my life, and we werq
in, and as soon as I could get out I had n't supposed to play with the village chil-

to get out. He had a hundred and twenty dren, and any other children would n't
pounds a year, so you can figure what that play with us.
meant, can't j^ou?" "There was the squire's family, and
Geoffrey sat there figuring what it young Henry— he was the squire's son-
meant. He had n't the slightest inclina- stared his silly eyes out at me in church.
tion to tell Fanny's story to Emily, but, I thought a lot about that. Once or twice
strangely enough, it was not to spare Em- when I went to do the marketing he met
ily. He felt as if he wanted to spare me coming back through the fields. He
Fanny Emily's knowledge of it. Emily was n't much to look at, but he had a lot
would go down to the root of things, and of money. Henry promised me a good lot
the roots of things are unpleasant places of money for Jimmy's school and Hetty's
to be taken down to. back and the boots, and he gave it to me,
Fanny spoke without the slightest ef- too, directly we got to London, and father
fort or self-pity. She simply stated facts; sent themoney back to me, with, written
that made it easier for Geoffrey to listen. on a paper round the check, 'The wages
He smoked hard, looking over the top of of sin is death.' That was all right, of
Fanny's head out to sea. course; but I did n't have eight children,
Fanny did n't see the sea; while she and spend on cider what ought to have
talked she watched two very stout fisiier- kept them, did I?

" He ran down the hill as if he were pursued by the Furies


116 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
"When you come to think of it, it must too seedy to look them up; besides, they
be a lot easier to slop out a text than keep were n't people you could go to if you
it. You can't blame religious people that were seedy. Finally, I had to take to
they prefer slopping out; only it 's apt to lodgings. The hotels I was used to were
put you off religion. too expensive, and then I got quite laid
"Henry promised to settle some money up with pain, and light-headed, and
on me, and I dare say he would have done finally the doctor that the landlady called
it, only he got killed in the South African in got me taken off in an ambulance to
war before he 'd arranged it. the hospital. So that 's all there is to it."
"I dare say you wonder why I came to "You did n't like that kind of life,"
pieces so suddenly at my age. I 'm twenty- said Geoffrey, in a low, moved voice;
two, you know, two years younger than "you did n't like it, Fanny?"
Miss Emily. But I got ill; that did me Fanny got up. She always went back
in. I had to sell some of my jewelry to to Carbis Bay before nine, and she heard
get back to England I was in Paris at
; the church clock striking.
the time. I hung about in London selling "Well," she said consideringly, "I don't
things, and living on what I got for them suppose most people like their lives, do
for a while before I got really bad. they? I did what we all have to do: I
"I had friends, you know, but I was lumped it."

( To be concluded )

Borrower
By MARY CAROLYN DAVIES
SING of sorrow.
I I sing of weeping.
I have no sorrow.

I only borrow
From some to-morrow,
Where it lies sleeping,
Enough of sorrow
To sing of weeping.
Reflections on the Strategy of the Allies'
By WINSTON SPENCER CHURCHILL
Formerly First Lord of the British Admiralty

ALL through the war the Germans military and political delegations from all
-^A. have had an enormous advantage the Allied states will never provide an in-
over the Alh'es in one respect. They strument of war direction comparable
seized the initiative at the outset, and with with that which is being used against them
only occasional interludes they have re- by their enemies. Trust in one another,
tained it until now. Their war direction faith in their cause, loyal and unselfish
throughout has been pursuing three con- effort, operating by telegraph, can at the
ceived plans, while the Allies at almost best produce only imperfect results. In
every stage have been compelled to adapt peace wisdom may be found in a multi-
their action to that of the enemy. The tude of counselors ; in \\ar the reverse is

German centralized control was, even at true.


the very outset of the war, intimately If the Allies could get the leading
operative upon Austria; it has since be- 7nan of each of the four great Allied pow-
come absolute not only upon Austria, but ers, whether sovereign, general, or states-
upon Bulgaria and Turkey. All the re- man, to sit in constant conclave at some
sources of these states, themselves com- central point, and each supported by the
bined in each case in the hands of one or unswerving obedience of iiis nation, that
two men, are now gripped effectively by fact in itself would be worth more than a
"main headquarters," and "main head- million soldiefs a year to the Allied cause,
quarters" has gradually focused itself into and would probably conduce to a speedy
Hindenburg and the kaiser. victory. The enemy has had this, or some-
The on the other hand, have
Allies, thing very like many months; we
it, for
made much slower progress toward unity are still far from it. But we are making
of war direction, and in this respect even progress toward it, and we shall some day
now stand at an incomparably lower level attain it unless the war comes sooner to
than their opponents. Indeed, there have an end.
been positive retrogressions ; in England,
especially since the advent of the coalition, Nothing would conduce so easily and
and in France many people have had to be speedily to a united war direction among
consulted. In Russia a variety of strong the Allies as the discovery and develop-
forces are always at work about the center ment of a successful form of initiative by
of power. . Physical and geographical dif- any one of them. If, for instance, in the
ficulties have long necessarily obstructed spring or summer
1915 Allied fleets
of
a closeand constant personal consultation and armies, mainly British, had been able
of the Allied chiefs. Great efforts have to open the Dardanelles and dominate
been made to overcome these difficulties, Constantinople, the elimination of Turkey
and considerable advances have been made as a military factor would probably have
during the last year. The constitutional followed, and it might then have been pos-
changes which have recently taken place in sible to assemble at Constantinople a
Great Britain, France, and Italy should united and permanent war council for all
render possible a much greater advance. the Allies, great and small, and from this
The mere gathering together at occasional central situation, always one of the vital
conferences round the •
common table of nerve-centers of the world, to lay broad,
1 Copyright, 191 7, by Winston Speincer Churchill. All rights reserved.

117
118 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
deep, and far-reaching plans which would had any real prospect of breaking the line
have regulated and coordinated the naval, in the preceding year. But if the war en-
military, economic, and diplomatic meas- ergies consumed forever in Artois and
ures of the year 191 6. Success would have Champagne had been saved until the
bred success, and out of victory would spring of 1916, and had been launched
have come the means of further and final then with some novel method at some mo-
victory. But the Allies have never been ment w^hen the Germans were fully ex-
able to get their heads sufficiently above tended in their attack on Verdun, the
water for anything like this, and though chances of a decisive victory would cer-
good-will, and generous emula-
fidelity, tainly have been enormously enhanced.
tion have sustained them and kept them Similarly, perhaps, if the great effort made
all together, no single power or common on the Somme in 19 16 could have been
policy has ever yet secured that paramount limited to the minimum necessary to re-
position which would swiftly bring suc- lieve the pressure at Verdun, and all the
cess. rest carried forward, the prospects for
It is a frequent mistake to confound the 19 1 7 would certainly have been far more
initiative with the offensive. The one by favorable.
no means implies the other. The initia-
tive may seize swiftly and suddenly cer- The method and consequences of Ru-
tain vital and neglected positions or strate- mania's entry into the war will remain
gic theaters and compel the enemy to adopt one of the tragic surprises of history.
the offensive to regain them. The posi- Here was a martial state possessing an
tions which the Germans captured in army three or four times as big as the
France at the outset of the war have left British army before the war. She was
them, broadly speaking, in continuous pos- united to the Allied cause by strong ties

session of the strategic initiative in the of interest and sentiment. Throughout


West. The strategic initiative as distinct the war her neutrality was benevolent to
from the tactical will not be recovered the Allies ; but being a small state in a
merely by assumptions of the offensive, partly isolated position, she was forced to
but by the discovery of a method by which delay her entry into so supreme a quarrel
three men can certainly beat two continu- until the general war situation offered a
ously. The initiative which was seized hope that her intervention would be de-
by the British navy at the very beginning cisive.

of the war has never been lost, although The wonderful victories of Brussiloff
the Germans have from time to time and the failure of the Austrian offensive
shown much enterprise in the adoption of against Italy, combined with the begin-
minor offensives. In order to obtain the ning of the Anglo-French offensive on the
initiative in war it may be necessary to Somme, led the Rumanian chiefs to be-
wait, constantly making preparations, for lieve that the moment for action had ar-
a very long time. Premature action of an rived. One would have expected that a
offensive character may delay and possibly neutral state with manj' German connec-
prevent altogether the transference of the tions would have had accurate means of
initiative. informing itself as to the interior condi-
We can see now plainly that there tion and resources of the Central empires;
never was any chance of the great offen- that their competent military leaders
sives at Champagne and Loos in 1915 would have been able, after waiting so
succeeding. Judging by the limited re- long, to choose the right moment for ac-
sults obtained latelyon the Somme, with tion ; that their and impartial
detached
the enormously increased resources in men study of the course of the war would have
and the incomparably increased resources enabled them to learn its lessons and ap-
in artillery and munitions, it is surely ob- preciate more accurately even than the
vious that the Anglo-French armies never actual belligerents their true position ; and
REFLECTIONS ON THE STRATEGY OF THE ALLIES 119
that two and a half years of ceaseless prep- jury, and has added another to the already
aration would have furnished their armies long list of miscalculations and misfor-
with the most modern armament and tunes which have dogged the Allied policy
equipment. in the Balkans.
One might also have hoped that after Again, the attitude of the Allies toward
this long period of war the coordination of Greece from the very beginning of the
action between the great Allies and their war down to the present moment illus-

accumulation of military experience would trates with bitter point the famous obser-
have enabled them to offer sure and far- vation that "the genius of comedy is the
seeing guidance to their new ally; that same as that of tragedy, and that the
they would not allow her to come in until writer of tragedy ought to be a writer of
they were certain that her intervention, comedy also." There have been at least
while being effective, would not expose her four occasions when Greece could have
to undue hazard, and that the plan of been prosperously and honorably brought
campaign of all the Allied armies opera- into the war on the side of the Allies.
ting in this theater would have been First, at the very beginning, before Turkey
closely concerted and would have been di- had declared herself for the Germans, and
rected according to the highest military while she was still threatening Greece
conceptions. The exact contrary occurred. with a local war; secondly, after the fall
The Central powers, in the grip of Prus- of the outer forts at the Dardanelles;
sia, were found capable of an unexpected thirdly, in the present year, when M.
effort of military strength. Brussiloff was Venizelos, having secured a majority at
brought to a standstill the great Austrian
; the election and been acclaimed with all
army which he had destroj'ed was replaced the prescription of a newly chosen par-
by a new and still larger army, and enor- liament, was and unconstitu-
arbitrarily
mous additional forces were provided for tionally dismissed from power by the
the attack on their new Rumanian antago- Greek court; and, fourthly, at the mo-
nist. The initiative which Germany had ment of Brussiloff's victories and Ruma-
lost by her failure at Verdun and the de- nia's entry into the war. It is difficult to

feats in Volhynia was immediately recov- understand why; after all other opportu-
ered,and is still fully operative. The Ru- nities had been missed, this last should not
manian armies, although exhibiting splen- have been chosen as the moment when the
did bravery, were found to be woefully Allies should have summoned Greece to
deficient in many of the vital necessities fulfil her treaty obligations toward Serbia.
for modern war. It is indeed ungrateful and ungenerous to
From the outset the Rumanian plan of cast the blame of this on Great Britain or
campaign revealed obvious military faults. Sir Edward Grey or, indeed, upon any
Instead of there being a great Russian and single power. The cause of the evil is to
Rumanian army ready on the declaration be found in that hiatus whence many of
of war to strike south toward the Con- our misfortunes have sprung, namely, the
stantinople railway, andhands
to join difficulties of truly concerted action among
with an adequate Allied army from Sa- great and separate Allies, and the lack of
loniki, the Rumanian forces were disposed any primacy of leadership or control.
in disconnected detachments along the
Danube, or plunged in fan-shaped move- To appreciate what was accomplished in

ments along an enormous front into the the great Battle of the Somme it is well
defiles of Transylvania. Russian aid ar- to look at the past. All the previous great
rived only in time to save Moldavia, and offensives in the West since the flank
the Saloniki army was unable to make any reached the sea and trench w%arfare super-
effective diversion. Thus the arrival of vened failed to secure decisive strategic re-

an ally, instead of proving a help, has sults. First was the German thrust for
proved up to the present an apparent in- Calais in October and November, 1 914.
120 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Here the enemy had enormous superiority was characterized by many new features.
of numbers. The line in front of them It was what might be described as an "an-

was pitifully thin. Supports and reserves, vil attack."A salient sector of the French
cavalry, odd battalions, camp-followers front,which it was rightly believed they
all had to be used to fill in the fighting would endeavor to hold at all costs, was
front. Trench warfare was in its infancy. made the target for an immense artillery
The shelter-pits and trenches of the lines bombardment unequaled up to that time
that were defended were dug under the and this prodigious blasting process was
full severity of theenemy attack the artil- ; combined with an increasing succession of
lery and ammunition of the defense were infantry assaults prolonged over five or
scarce; their machine-guns few and far sixmonths. Despite all the novel features
between ; barbed-wire was almost non-ex- and profound knowledge which launched
istent: and yet the whole might and fury this onslaught, it constituted in the upshot
of the German attack was broken, and the the greatest rebuff and disaster which Ger-
flower of fresh armies cut down. man military annals contain.
Secondly, in May and June came the Preceded by these heralds, the Battle of
persevering French offensive near Arras, the Somme began in July last. This bat-
with corresponding British cooperation. tle, in its scale, its ruthlessness, its carnage,
This was considered necessary in view of exceeded all former armed conflicts of
the Russian situation. These attacks con- mankind. The finest armies that have
tinued for many weeks and involved a ever existed, supplied with weapons and
great slaughter without producing any munitions never before wielded by human
strategic result or appreciable gain of hands, and instructed by all the experience
ground. The German losses were also of former battles, met in prolonged and
heavy, but their methods of defense un- merciless grapple. At the most moderate
derwent considerable improvement and re- computation a million British, French,
finement. and German soldiers shed their blood, and
Thirdly, came the September attack by according to official figures of the German
the French in Champagne and the British losses, this number must be greatly in-
at Loos. On these the highest hopes were creased. Verdun was saved. The losses
based. All the Allied enterprises against inflicted on Germany were most serious.
Turkey were sacrificed to them. A fur- Seventy thousand prisoners were taken.
ther enormous slaughter ensued ; the des- But the German line, though dented, re-
perate heroism of the troops was quenched mained unpierced. Nor were they pre-
by nothing but death. The skill of the vented from carrying out, though perhaps
commanders was exhibited by a variety of only to a modified extent, other important
ingenious expedients. But although it operations of the highest consequence in
caused a number of German divisions to other theaters.
be transferred from the East to the West, Let us examine the anatomy of these
and thus aided the Russians in their ex- vastmodern battles as exemplified by Ver-
treme need, the German front in France dim and Somme. You select a battle-
remained unbroken and its alineinent vir- field. Around this battle-field you build
tually unaltered. a wall, double, triple, quadruple, of enor-
Then, fourthly, with the New-year mous cannon. Behind these you construct
German unwisdom came to the relief of railways to feed them and pile up moun-
the Allies' disappointments. While all the tains of shells. All this is thework of
great opportunities for the Germans to months. Before long the enemy learns
gain against Russia were neglected, we what you are doing, and he in his turn
witnessed the launching of an attack on makes his gigantic concentration of artil-
Verdun, with a preparation, intensity, and lery. Thus the battle-field is completely
perseverance unprecedented by all that encircled by thousands of guns of all sizes,
had gone before. This German attack and a wide oval space is prepared.
REFLECTIONS ON THE STRATEGY OF THE ALLIES 121

Through this awful arena all the divisions these circumstances the superior personal
of each army are made to pass in succes- qualities of our troops, and the devoted
sion, as if they were the teeth of interlock- leading of their officers, found a scope long
ing cog-wheels grinding one another, and hitherto denied them. It is a tremendous
battered ceaselessly by the enveloping ar- fact that the new armies of Great Britain,
tillery. In the end nearly every division the civilians of yesterday, showed them-
in the West, British, French, and Ger- selves capable of mastering in the closest
man, is "put through the mill," and is in conflict the best soldiers of the Prussian
the process cut down by half or more of military regime.
its fighting men. Some are put through The consequence is that of all the great
two or three times as the cog-wheels re- offensives which have been undertaken by
volve. Every object in the arena is pul-' both sides in the West since the beginning
verized. The surface of the earth is of the war the Somme is undoubtedly the
changed. The very blown away.
soil is one which has yielded the most important
For month after month the ceaseless results. The effects produced upon the
cannonade continues at its utmost inten- German armies and upon the German na-
sity, and month after month the gallant tion are profound and During
lasting.
divisions of heroic human beings are torn the whole of last summer and autumn the
to pieces in this terrible rotation. Then Germans were continually oppressed by
comes the winter, pouring down rain from the sensation of their armies being exposed
the sky to clog the feet of men, and draw- to the relentless and successful attack of
ing veils of mist before the hawk eyes of enemies their equal in discipline, their su-

their artillery. The arena, as used to hap- numbers and munitions. During
perior in
pen in the Colosseum in those miniature the whole of that time they were sub-
Roman days, is flooded with water. A jected to continued humiliation in the
vast sea of ensanguined mud, churned by field. Our own men steadily gained the
thousands of vehicles, by hundreds of consciousness of personal military ascen-
thousands of men and millions of shells, dancy over their foes.

replaces the blasted dust. Still the strug- The results of this process may be far-
gle continues. Still the remorseless wheels reaching. That the morale of the Ger-
revolve. Still the artillery roars. At last man army has been affected is evidenced
the legs of men can no longer move they
; by the readiness with which large bodies
wallow and flounder helplessly in the of men have offered themselves as prison-
slime. Their food and their ammunition ers in recent actions. Moreover, the oper-
lag behind them along the smashed and ations conducted by the French have been
choked roadways. The offensive is sus- specially profitable, and the methods of
pended till the spring. attack in both armies have been continu-
The most remarkable tactical feature ally improved. Numerous instances can
about this almost superhuman clash of na- be cited where British and
important
tions undoubtedly the much greater ap-
is French attacks have not only been suc-
proximation to equal terms of the offen- cessful, but profitable, and even highly
sive and the defensive. The superiority profitable, so far as relative losses are con-
of the Allied artillery, and the complete cerned. The extraordinary results
mastery they ha^e won in the air, in com- achieved at Verdun by General Nivelle
bination enormously facilitated the attack. are evidences of a development of an or-
The prolonged and intense bombardments ganization and a machinery which, if ap-
in many cases obliterated the trenches, and plied with sufficient frequency and on a
over the whole battle-field barbed wire might well prove decisive.
sufficient scale,
was largely destroyed. The battle, there- It is method and machinery
surely to
fore, in many of its episodes, has been a rather than to numbers and to heroism
great field action between the armies in a that the Allies must look in the long suc-
wilderness of craters and shell-holes. In cession of red months that are before us.
" 'Now let me
put your collar
on and slick
your hair' "

A Little Boy of Long Ago


By GRANT SHOWERMAN
Author of "A Country Chronicle"

Illustrations by George Wright

LETTIE
MY mother
home by
saj's:

nine.
"Now, you must be
You know that 's
mer. She has n't any father, only her
mother and her Uncle Harry.
always your bedtime, and I don't s'pose Lettie's Uncle Harry is always laugh-
Lettie's mother lets her stay up later than ing and joking. When he meets me on
that." the road going to school, he almost always
I say: "All right. I will." stops and says: "Good morning, young
My mother says: "Come here. Now let man. Does your mother know you 're
me put your collar on and slick your out?" Then he takes hold of me and
hair." throws me up, or whirls me around till I
I say: "Oh, I do' want to put a collar almost fall down. Tip and I both like
on. I s'pose you '11 want me to put my him.
boots on next." Lettie's real name is Aletta. She takes
Mymother says: "No, you can go bare- her slate and books to school in a kind of
foot if you want to, but you can't go up bag. It hasA. C. on it in red and black
to play with a nice little girl like Lettie yarn. She writes crooked, and reading
without your collar and coat on. And, and spelling are harder for her than for
then, her ma would n't like it. 'T ain't Gertie and the rest. But I like her bet-
too warm. Come!" ter than any one else, and I like to go and
My mother gets out one of my paper play with her. Tip likes her, too.
collars and puts it on me and then puts Teacher scolded her so hard once about
on my necktie. It fastens with a loop of missing words that she cried. I felt sorry
elastic, and is always hard to get on. I for her. Teacher did, too, afterward.
don't like to wear a collar. I always feel I look at Tip's house when I go by. I
as if I could n't move my head. know he had to go down to Newbecker's
Lettie lives up near Tip's and the after pie-plant, so I don't yell. Anyway,
school-house. They moved here last suni- I like to play with Lettie by ourselves.
122
A LITTLE BOY OF LONG AGO 123
I go around to the woodshed door and books until we get tired, and then try to
go in. It is so dark I can hardly see to play games with cards. Then we make
find the kitchen door. Lettie's mother tents and houses of the cards.
hears me, and comes and opens it. It has Their house is n't anywhere near as big
a latch that clicks instead of a knob like as ours. The organ and the chairs and
their other doors. the stand take up so much room that you
I say, "Is Lettie home?" can hardly sit down. The bedroom next
mother says: "Oh, how do you
Lettie's to the sitting-room is so little that the
do? Come in, come in. Yes, she 's here. door hits the bed when you open it. They
Let-ti-i-ie!" She is always good to me have n't any up-stairs at all.
that way. Lettie has a white apron on. It but-
Lettie comes running in from the other tons behind. Where it goes over her
room. Her apron flies up and down, and- shoulders it has a crinkly border that
her hair, too. She says: "Hello! Have sticks up. There is a little green in it.
you come up to play ? How long can you It always makes her look fresh and cool
stay?" even when it is a hot day. It comes up
I say, "Ma says I got to be home by almost to her chin, and then goes around
nine." her neck. I like to have her look at me.
mother says for us
Lettie's to go into I like it when she sits close to me or leans
the parlor. We sit and look at picture- on the table with me to look at things.

'•
'Good morning, young man. Does your mother
know you 're out?' "
We sit and look at picture-books until we get tired
"

Lettie says: "Now see! I 've got my cheeks are round and smooth. Her eyes
palace all built, and
'm going to play
I and mouth don't look so pretty that way.
there 's a big wind comes and blows it She blows, and the cards all tumble down.
down. Now look!" She makes sure I I hear their clock make a little clicking
am looking. She says: "Now!" She puffs sort of noise.
her cheeks out and gets all ready. Her Lettie says: "There goes that naughty
124
A LITTI.E ROY OF LONG AGO 125
utes, and then you can get home soon
enough. You '11 have plenty of time."
She goes and gets another little basin for
herself. She says, "I wish your Uncle
Harry was here to have some."
We eat and talk. The pop-corn tastes
so good that we have it all eaten up by
the time I have to go.
When I get to the door that opens into
the woodshed, Lettie's mother brings the
lamp and holds it. She says: "It 's terri-
bly dark out there. Let me hold the light
for you till you get outdoors."
I turn around and say good night to
Lettie. She stands away over by the other
door, looking at me. She says, "Good-
by." Her voice sounds nice and clear.
Lettie's mother says, "Are n't you go-
ing to shake hands with him, or any-
thing?"
Lettie looks at me. She starts and runs
across the floor to where I am. Her apron
and her hair up and down.
fly She
•'
Lettie's mother comes in with two stretches out her arms while she is com-
" ing,and when she gets to me she puts
little basins full

them around my neck and gives me a kiss


old clock! It always makes me think of on the cheek. I can smell her apron. It
our hen clucking to her little chickens." always smells sprinkled and ironed. Then
In a few minutes it will be half-past
eight. Their clock alwa.vs strikes once at
half-past,
I say: "I must n't forget. When it 's

ten minutes to nine I got to go."


Lettie says, "Oh, do you have to go
then?"
I say: "M-m-m. I always have to be
in bed by nine."
Lettie jumps up. She says, "I 'm go-
ing to ask mama if she '11 pop some corn."
She always says "mama." Tip says that 's

all right for girls, but he likes "ma" and


"pa" better.
Lettie runs out into the other room.
She comes back and says: "Why, mama 's
got it all ready to pop now% The frying-
pan all hot, and everything." always We
say "spider" at our house.
'7 "-'^^-^^'M
After a while we hear the corn pop-
ping, and then begin to smell it. Lettie's
She stretches out her arms while she
mother comes in with two little basins is coming, and when she gets to me
full. She says: "I s'pose I ought to have she puts them around my neck and
begun sooner, but you '11 have ten min- gives me a kiss on the cheek"
126 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
she runs back to where she was. She there is a long piece before I get home.
turns around and says, "Come again, The big maple-tree is just half-way, and
won't you?" there is a bush. I always imagine the
Lettie's mother laughs. She says to me, bush is a bear. I hope I am not going to
"I 'm sure you ought to be satisfied with meet anybody. If I do, I '11 have to cross
that invitation." over to the other side.
My face feels warm. I liked it when I run as fast as I can. My feet make
Lettie ran up and kissed me, but I don't slapping noises on the path, because the
know what to do. I say: "M-m-m! I '11 ground is flat and smooth and damp. Just
come. Good go out through
night." I as I come jumping on to the veranda the
the woodshed and the yard to the road. clock begins to strike, I come in all out of
When I get to the bottom of the hill breath. My mother says, "Just in time."

THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL


TEACHER says: "You may have ning over to where w^e are. She sa3's:
twice as long for recess to-day if "Say, let 's all run over to the woods and
you want to, seeing it 's the last day." get teacher some more flowers. We 've
She saj's, "Dismissed !" all get up We got time enough. Shall we?"
and go out. We all start and run up the road. The
Some of us are in our Sunday suits. I little Dutch boys can't keep up with us.
have my paper collar Lettie and I run
and necktie on, and along together. Her
it makes me feel aw- hair and apron flutter
fully stiff. The girls up and down. She
have their best says: "I wisht
dresses on, and nice, teacher 'd 'a' had
clean apro'ns. Let- speaking for the last
tie's apron iscrinklier day. Don't you ?"
than ever around the ^>z^. I say:"Na-aw. I

edge, and she has a don't like to speak."


new blue ribbon Lettie then says,
around her hair. "Why?"
We stand on the I say, " 'Cause I
steps awhile, and don't like to get up
then go out under in front of 'em."
the maple-trees. We Lettie says, "Oh,
don't feel like play- that 's nothing to be
ing the way we do 'fraid of." We get
when we have our all out of breath.
regular clothes on. Her hair and apron flutter up an When we get in-
Georgie says: "I to the woods Gertie
don't like to be dressed up. Do you?" says: "Now we must pick as fast as we
I say: "No. I never feel as if I could can and go right back. You know 't ain't
move when I have to wear a collar. If I like noon, when
there 's a whole hour."
had my way, I 'dnever dress up." The and violets are about all gone,
lilies

Lije says, "What do you do it for, but there are some other kinds. We don't
then?" know what their names are. They are
I say, " 'Cause ma makes me." pink or white or purple, and shaped like
The girls all stand together under the a round cup, and have lots of leaves, Oin*
big basswood-tree. Gertie is saying some- bouquets are greener than the ones we
thing to them. Prettv soon she comes run- got for teacher before.
A LITTLE BOY OF LONG AGO 127

The Dutch boys and girls have hardly Teacher goes up to her desk and stands
got started with theirs before we start there. The blackboard behind her is all

back. They are afraid they will be late, clean and ever so much blacker than it

so they stop picking, and run along be- was. That makes her look more dressed
hind us with what they have. up than ever. She waits a minute until
We run into the school-house and put she is sure we won't make any more
our flowers on the desk. They make such noises, and says: "We '11 not have any
a big pile we can hardly see teacher when recitations. I thought I 'd let you go
she sits down. We don't go out again, home a little earlier the last day."
but stand around and talk. Some of us We knew that was how it would be.

sit down in our seats. Now we wonder what kind of cards we


Teacher has her best dress on. When are going to get.
she goes down the aisle to ring the bell she Teacher reaches down under her desk
makes a loud, rustling noise. There are and gets a package. There is n't room on
only a few outside. When she comes the desk, on account of the flowers, so
back, we are all in our seats, and it is she lays the register on top of the bouquets
still all over the room. and puts the package on top of it. She
We feel sure there are n't going to be undoes the string. We can see the pile of
any lessons. Our
and books and
slates nice, clean cards. They have gilt edges,
everything are packed up on our desks. and when she liftsone up we can see
We did that before recess. We did n't pretty colors.She takes them in her hand
really need to, but we did n't feel satis- and comes down and begins to give them
fied until we had them all ready the way to us. She has them all arranged accord-
we wanted to carrv them home. ing to where we sit.

The cards have our names written on


them, and under that It says, "From his
Teacher." Then there is teacher's name.
The pictures are different. My card has
two little boys with red and yellow clothes

'
Teacher says : ' Vou may have twice as long for recess to-day
'
128 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
on. One of them is playing a drum, and and run to the shelves for our dinner-
the other a fife. On top it says in gold pails. Some of the boys yell: "School 's

letters, "Reward of Merit." My father out! School 's out!" Two or three say,
can play a fife. He can play "The Girl "Good-by, Teacher!" We all start for
I Left behind me," and another tune with- outdoors.
out a name. He says the fifers used to I get almost to the road. Then all of

play them in the army. a sudden I remember what my mother said

Some of the boys yell: 'School 's out! School 's out!' Two or
three say, 'Good-by, Teacher!' We all start for outdoors"

When the cards are all passed around, this morning just before I started to
teacher goes up and stands by the desk. school. She said: "Now, you must n't
She says, "Well, I guess that is all." She forget to go up to your teacher the last
waits a minute. She says: "I hope you '11 thing and say good-by real nice. Don't
have a real good time this vacation. And go and run off the way most of 'em do,
I hope you '11 be happy all your lives." and not say a word."
She smiles at us. She says: "All right. I run back. I meet some of the girls

Now you may go." coming out. Lettie is crying. It makes


We all jump up and grab our books me feel sorry. Jennie says: "What 's the
A LITTLE BOY OF LONG AGO 129
matter? Forget something?" I go in Lettie and Gertie. We look at each
without answering. other's cards. We talk about the new
Teacher is sitting tliere behind the desk, school-house they say we are going to have
thinking. I go up the aisle and around to next winter. We wonder who will be
where she is. She stops thinking, and teacher.
looks at me. I say, "Good-b\-, Teacher!" Lettie goes in. She says, "Will you
Teacher says, "Oh, is that it?" She come up and play with me some time?"

rr

"Teacher has her head (hnvn on lier liands on top of

puts her arms around me and says, "Good- I say: "M-m-m. I will."
by, little boy!" I turn around and start Tip is sitting on their steps with his
down the aisle. When I get to the door books on his legs. He yells: "Yah-'oo!
I look around a Teacher has her
little. You know! Come on up to-morrow.
head down on her hands on top of the Don't forget the Fourth o' July picnic
desk. I am afraid she is tired or has next Monda\-."
the headache or something. Gertie says: "I 'm goin' to catch up
I run as fast as I can and catch up with with the sirls. Come on I Run!"
'Come, let us reason toirether, Aurora
Aurora the Magnificent
By GERTRUDE HALL
Author of " The Truth about Camilla," etc.

Illustrations by Gerald Leake

Chapter XX
AURORA of the excellent three-times- woman, whose smile and everything about
-/jk- a-day appetite, Aurora of the good her apologized, and deprecated displeas-
sound slumbers, picked at her food and ure. She must be the kitchen-maid, fan-
slept brokenly for part of a week at that ciedAurora, engaged by Clotilde, and not
period, such was her impatience at the supposed to show her nose above the sub-
dragging length of time, the emptiness of terranean province of the kitchen.
time, undiversified and unenhanced by the "There is the signorino down in the
presence in her house of any man devoted garden," Ildegonda acquitted herself of
to her. No odor of tobacco smoke in the the charge laid upon her by the donor of
air, no cane in the corner; Tom on his the silver franc still rejoicing her folded
way to America, Gerald hurt or cross or fingers, "who says if you will have the
both. But, the ladies agreed, when Au- amiability to place j'ourself one moment
rora had told Estelle the latest about Ger- at the window he would desire to say a
ald, her refusal could not possibly occa- word to you."
sion a cessation of relations, since his of- "All right." Aurora nodded to the
fer, chivalrous and unpremeditated, had Ildegonda, inviting her by a motion of the
been at most a cute and endearing exhi- hand to go away again.
bition of character. His sensitiveness Aurora rose, and softly closed the door
could not be long recovering, and every- which, when open, made an avenue for
thing would be as before. sound from her room to Estelle's. She
Aurora was one of those healthy sleep- slipped her arms into a sky-blue dressing-
ers who have no care to guard themselves gown, and with a heart spilling over with
against the morning light. Her windows playful joy, eyes spilling over with child-
stood open, her bed was protected from ish laughter, went to look out of the win-
winged intruders by a \eil of white net- dow, the one, naturally, farthest from
ting gathered at the top into the great Estelle's side of the house.
overshadowing coronet. "Good morning! Good morning!"
She was in the fine midst of those came on the instant from the waiting, up-
sweetest slumbers that come after a pearly turned face below. "Forgive me for rous-
wash of dawn has cleaned sky and hill- ing you so earl>-," was said in a voice sub-
tops from the first smoke-stain of the dued so as to reach, if possible, no other
night when a sense of some one else in ears, "but \ou promised you would go
the room startled her awake. There stood with me one day to Vallombrosa, and one
near the door of her dressing-room an un- has to start early, for it is far. Will you
known female, wearing intricate gold ear- come?"
pendants and a dingy cotton dress with- "Will I come? Will I come? Wait
out any collar. and see! Got your horses and carriage?"
"Chi e vol/" incjuired Aurora, lifting "Standing at the gate. How long will
her head. it take you to get ready ?"

"I ani the Ildegonda." answered the "Oh, I '11 hurry like an\ thing.
132 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
" 'Wash, dress, be brief in praying. crushed down over his right ear. To
Few beads are best when once we go make the excursion pleasanter to himself,
a Maying.' he was by permission taking along a com-
panion of his own age, who occupied the
"I won't pray, won't put on beads.
I low seat beside his elevated one.
But, see here, what about what they call It seemed to Aurora that never had
in this country my collation? You know there been such a day, so fresh and un-
I 'm a gump on an empty stomach." stained and perfect, a day inspiring such
"We '11 have our coffee on the road, at gladness in being. The sense of that
a little inn-table out of doors in the sun- priceless freedom of a whole
boon, the
rise." long day together, elated her with a joy
"Fine! By-by. See you again in about that knew only one shadow, and that un-
twenty minutes." remarked for the first half of it— the
Every fiber composing Aurora twittered shortness of the longest earthly day.
with a distinct and separate glee while she Now the horses slowed in their pace;
hurried through her toilet, a little breath- the ascent had begun among the shady
less, and mortally afraid
a little distracted, chestnut-trees. The driver's friend scram-
Estelle would hear and come to ask ques- bled down, and plodded alongside the
tions. From her wardrobe she drew the horses ; the driver himself descended and
things best suited to the day and her hu- walked, cheering on his beasts with noises
mor: a white India silk all softly spotted that nearly killed Aurora, she declared.
with apple-blossoms, of which she had said As it took them between four and five
when she considered acquiring it that it hours to reach their destination, and as
was too light-minded for her age and size, Aurora chattered all the time, with little
but yet, vaulting over those objections, intervals of talk by Gerald, to report their
had bought and had made up according to conversation isAurora, want-
unfeasible.
its own merits and not hers a white straw ; ing in all knowledge which
that varied
hat with truncated steeple crown, the those who are fond of reading get from
fashion of that year, small brim faced books, had yet a lot to say that some un-
with moss-green velvet, bunch of green prejudiced ears found worth while.
ostrich-tips, right at the front, held in As Gerald leaned back in the carriage
place by band and buckle. at her side, bathed in the wavering green-
She passed out through the dressing- and-gold light of the chestnut-trees among
room, she crept down the stairs, laughing which the road wended, his face, beneath
at her own remark that it was awfully the brim of his pliable white straw, bent
like an elopement. down over the eyes and turned up at the
At the door she greeted Gerald with back, Italian st\le, did not look sickly.
all the joy of meeting again a playmate. On the contrary, it looked better and
He had on the right playmate's face. She stronger since his illness; he even had a
gave him both hands, and he clasped them little color. He was not perceptibly sad-
to the elbow, shaking them with satisfac- eyed, either, that see, though
she could
tory fire, while their eyes laughed a com- his eyes must always be the thoughtful
mon recognition of the adventure as a kind. As for spindle-shanked, he filled his
lark. loose woolen clothes better than before.
At the gate waited the open carriage, a It grew very warm; the way, though
city-square cabriolet, but clean and in re- pleasant, was beginning to seem long when
pair, drawn by two strong, little, brown they arrived. The old monastery, now a
horses, with rosettes and feathers in their school of forestry, the Cross of Savoy,
jingling bridles, ribbons in their whisking, where pilgrims rest and dine, gleamed
braided tails, and driven by a brown white in the cloudless noon, amid the cen-
young man of twenty, with a feather, too, tury-old trees that long ago, before
in his hat, which he wore aslant and Dante's time even, earned for the spot its
AURORA THE AFAGNIFICENT 133
beautiful name V^allonibrosa, Umbrageous a renewal, more devoted perhaps than ever,
Vale. of the determination to maintain an un-
In a state of physical and mental well- compromising purity of aim in his work.
being such as can be bought only by an The incomparable scene stimulated within
early rising, an inconsiderable breakfast. him a sense of power to produce things
a long ride in the warmth of Tuscan mid- rivaling what lay under his eyes; he,
May, an abundant and repairing repast, atom, rivaling his Maker in the creation
taken, amid sweet conventual coolness, in of beauty. In her it was a determination
company which leaves nothing to wish for toward the Provider of
of greater loyalty
beyond it, they went forth to spend the undeservedly happy days to man, whose
time that must be granted the horses for heart is wicked from his birth, as her
rest before the return to Florence. mother had been wont to tell her.
Aurora sought to enliven the hour for Hearing her hum very softly to herself,
Gerald. He never omitted to laugh, he asked what she sang. She said, her
without being able to enter enough into mother's favorite hymn, and gave it aloud,
her fun to join her in the same species. with the words
An incapacity; still, there was no disguis-
ing the basking enjoyment possessing him, "Father, whate'er of earthly bliss

his love of her gaiety, if not at all moments Thy sovereign will denies,

of the form it took.


Accepted at Thy throne of grace

Finding entrancing up Let this petition rise:


it there, they
decided not to start for home til] the last
minute possible. A limit was set to the
"Give me a calm, a thankful heart,

time they might linger by the necessity From every murmur free;
for some degree of daylight in making the
The blessings of Thy grace impart
descent. From the edge of the curving And make me live to Thee."
road the mountain dropped away without
the protection of any parapet. Like one with an impeccable ear, but
When they had found the ideal place with small esteem for his gifts as a singer,
in which to sit on the warm earth in the Gerald murmured the melody after her,
shade and look off over valleys and moun- just audibly, to show he cared to have his
tains into azure space, Aurora at last con- share in her memories. But mainly the
sented to be still. She became dreamy, two of them thought of each other.
appeared sweetly fatigued, and was for a So they sat, two little dots, two trem-
long time mute. bling threads, against the screen of the
It looked from w^here they sat as if the universe and eternity, and their two selves,
land had at some time been fluid, and been under the spell of a world-old enchant-
tossing, green and purple, in a majestic ment, loomed so large to each that the
storm, when some great word of command universal and the eternal were to them
had fixed it in the midst of motion, and two little dots, two threads.
the waves became Apennines; then in an Gerald saw how the afternoon was
hour of peculiar affection for that plot of mellowing toward sunset, and the impor-
the earth a faultless artist from the skies tant things of day had not been
the
had been set to oversee nature and man at touched upon. Hehad traversed great
their work there, and prevent the intru- spaces in the region of sentiment during
sion of one note not in harmony with his the preceding two days. The first of
most distinguished dream. them had been spent far from Aurora, even
In the quiet that descended upon Ger- as she supposed, for the sake of letting
ald and Aurora the native piety in each the impression of having been laughed at
groped for some acknowledgment to make wear off a little. Already for some time
of their consciousness at the moment of un- before that forced climax Gerald had been
usual blessing. In him it took the form of haunted by the feeling that he ought to
134 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
offer himself to Aurora, as it were to reg- last Friday ?" he asked, with a fine imita-
ularize his status in her house. After tion of the comradely ease which had

hanging around as he had been doing, one marked all their intercourse that day.
might almost say that good manners de- He was looking over the valley, as if

manded it. Her fashion, on that evening still preoccupied with its beauty rather
in the garden, of treating the idea that than with her.
he could be enamoured of her assured him Thus misled, she did not guess right.

that she would refuse. He would have She said


done his duty, and they would continue "About Charlie, you mean ? Just fancy,
to drift, he shutting his eyes to the pen- I n't thought of him once all day!
have
alty awaiting his self-indulgence, the taxes Little varmint! Don't I wish I had the
of pain rolling up for the hour when her spanking of him But I guess it would !

necessary departure would involve the up- lame arm." my


rooting of every last little flower in that "Not about Charlie. I asked would
wretched garden of his heart. With such you marry me, and you said you would
a mental pattern of the future he had not. Will you to-day?"
gone to bed at the end of the first day. "Not for a farm!" she answered, with

On the next morning something had emphasis equal to her precipitation.


effected a change. A heart-throb, a stroke "Why not?" he asked, undisconcerted.
of magic, had so lifted him up that over "Because."
the top of the wall edging the road of "Come, let us reason together, Au-
life for him he had seen a thrilling gar- rora." He changed position, arranging
den outstretched, smiling in the sun, a himself on his elbow so as to be able to
sight that so enkindled him with the look at her. His eyes were steady. "For
witchery of its promises that he felt he a man to ask a woman to marry him is of
should seek for a way into that garden course the greatest piece of impertinence
till he found it; should, if necessary, de- of which he could be guilty. I have rather
molish the wall. less to offer than any man in the world,
That day he went walking on the hills but I am bold because you, dear, are just
beyond Settignano, and the new light, the the one to be blind."
intoxication, persisted — the vision of him- "Oh, it 's not that, of course," said Au-
self as Aurora's lover. Why not? An rora, hurriedly.
escape from the past, a different adventure "Don't suppose for a moment that I

from all prefigured in his dull expectations am troubled by the size of your fortune
before! In his theory of living Gerald my own. You have n't any
or the size of
had always admitted the gallant advis- money, dear. Others have your mone\
ability of burning ships. There was room I have almost to laugh at the splendid
in his theory of living for just such a di- speed with which that open granary of
vergence from design as he now meditated. yours will be eaten clean by all the birds
When the call conies, summon it to never coming to pick one seed at a time."
so improbable places, the poet and artist "You need n't laugh, then. Some of
obey. He had gone to bed on the second it is going to be pinned to nie solid, so
night with these thoughts and a plan for that nothing can get it away from me, not
the morrow. even I myself."
Now he cleared his throat, took a rea- "I am sorry to hear it. Tlie other was
sonable air, a tone almost of banter, to so complete. Well, if you had nothing, I
say what, influenced by the long precedent should still have just enough to keep us
of their converse together, he could say from hunger, though perhaps not from
only in that manner, covering up as best cold in these dear old stone houses of
he could the fact that his heart trembled Italy. And you — I know you well enough
and burned. to be sure of it — you are exactly the one
"Shall we resume our conversation of to learn how much there can be in life
AURORA THE MAGNIFICENT 135
besides its luxuries. Since my illness, too, have frankly shown me. It 's that, after
Aurora, let me confide to you, there have all, which has given me courage."

been in me reawakenings, I have felt the "No, no; there 's nobody else."
beginnings — I am speaking with refer- "Well, then, why can't you? \Vhy
ence to my work, — I have felt intimations won't you ?"
— No, it is too difficult to express without "I —" She hesitated, as if to think.
seeming to boast, which is horribly un- There was a silence. Then she asked
lucky. In short, I have felt that I might slowly, like one who finds some difficulty
do the turn still of forcing a careless gen- in laying her tongue on the right words:
eration to pay attention." "Do you remember all those things you
"O Gerald, how nice it is to have you said that evening in the garden the night
say that!" she warmly rejoiced. "I 'm so you came in to meet Tom for the first
glad to hear it!" time? How
you would n't for anything
"Now tell me why it is you won't in the whole world let yourself get tan-

marry me. Stop, dear. Don't say be- gled up again with caring for a person?"
cause you are not in love with me. I have "Perfectly. I could only picture it as
difficulty in seeing how any one in her meaning more of trouble and unrest. But
right senses could be in love with me. It things change, dear. We change. There
would be enough, dear, that you should has taken place in me
no mat-
since that,
be to me as you were during those happy, ter for what' reason, an increase of self-
happy days when I was so beastly ill. You confidence and confidence in fate such as
are so generous, it would be merely fulfill- turns men into nuisances or makes them
ing your nature. And I, upon my word, successful. In the last twenty-four hours
dear, would try to deserve it. I would particularly. Now, as I look at the in-
give you reason to be kind. I am not convenience of getting tangled up again
without scraps of honor— wholly ; I would with caring for a person, I find I don't
do my best to make you happy." mean at all to suffer. I mean to bother
"No," — she
shook her head decidedly. you until you say and then to bej'es,
— "no, Gerry," she added, to take the happy. You could never wilfully torment
sharp edge of? her refusal, "no, Gerry; me, I know you are incapable of it. Then,
;

'Rory won't." when you have graciously consented to


"You have only to lose by it, that is marry me, I feel as if I might build up
obvious, and I to gain, and nothing could my life on new lines."
equal the indecency of insistence on my "I can't, Geraldino; I can't."
part; but I feel that I am going to persist "You can't. So you have said. And I
to the point of persecution. You are fond have asked you to tell me )'our reasons,
of me, you know. I only dare to say you that I may combat them one by one."
are fond of me because you have said it "It 's no use. We 're too different."
yourself more than once. And you are "That we are different, thank God! is
always sincere, and I would n't be likely a reason for and not against."
to forget. Now,
you are fond of me.—
if "No, no; not when it 's such a huge
very, very fond, you have said repeatedly, difference. We 're like a bird and a —
—why do you refuse? I would n't be a fish."
bore of a husband, I promise. I would "Don't call me a fish. I object."
leave you a great deal of liberty." "We don't think the same about hardly
"No, Geraldino; no." anything."
"You need n't tell me there 's somebody "But we feel alike on ever\thing of im-
else. I don't believe it. Though you feel portance."
only fondness for me, I know that you are "There 's hardly a thing I do that 's

not in love with anybody else. When one quite right as you see it. No, don't take
is in love, there is no room in life for the trouble to contradict me ; let me do
such warm and dear friendship as you the talking for a minute. You 're so
136 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
critical and so conventional and so cor- much as if it had been serious, and I saw
rect ! No matter how much you say you what would be the one safe course for lit-
are n't, you are. And while we 're like tle me. I must n't; that 's all there is to

this, I don't have to care. I rather enjoy it. Everything is wrong for it to turn out
shocking you. And while I 'm none of happy in the end. I 'm terribly fond of
\ our business, you don't have to care what you, but I should be scared to death of
1 do or what I 'm like. can have our We you, simply scared to death, as a husband.
fun and be awfully fond of each other, We 're not the same kind. If I could for-
and it 's all serene and right. But if I get it on my own account, I have only to
were Mrs. Gerald Fane, all my faults and remember how it would strike Estelle.
shortcomings, my not knowing the things And Estelle 's got no end of horse-sense.
that everybody in your society knows, my It 's according to horse-sense we must act
not having any elegant accomplishments, when it comes to settling the real things
would show up so glaring that I should of life. I expect —" she had the effect of
know you must be mortified. You could turning a page or a corner ; she dropped
n't help it." from heights of argument to low plains —
'Stop,d( You enrage me. You "I expect I shall be big as a mountain by
put me beside myself. You are so super- and by. I don't see any help for it. I

ficial. And dense. And you hold me up to starve myself, I drink hot water, I take
myself in the features of a beastly cad exercise, — nearly walk my legs off, — and
I won't have it. For one thing, let me the next time I get weighed I 've gained
tell you that if I were the Lord Ronald three pounds! What 's the use? Then,
Macdonald of that song we 've heard I 'm older than you."
Miss Felixson sing, and you were that "Not at all. I 'm older than the ever-

canny lass Leezie Lindsay, I should know lasting hills ;


you are the youngest thing
jolly well that after I 'd carried you off that lives."
to the Hielands my bride and my darling "That 's all right, but you were twenty-
to be, would be a very short time before
it eight your last birthday, and I 'm thirty.
Lady Ronald Macdonald had all the airs I 'm afraid my character 's already pretty
and of speech of my sisters and
tricks well fixed in its present form. When it

cousins. That, however, is neither here comes over me, for instance, to play the
nor there. Who wants you to be differ- clown, I 've got to do it or burst. And
ent? Aurora, if you only knew yourself! you 're naturally a tyrant, you know; you
Ceres, or Summer, or Peace sitting among are."
the wheat-sheaves, what would it matter "I am. I am critical, carping, conven-
that she had not been educated at a fash- tional, and a tyrant, everything you say
ionable boarding-school? Let her just but just because I am those things, you
breathe and be, beautiful, benign, and any ought to be able to see, dear Aurora be- —
man not utterly a fool will prefer to lie cause I am those things and know it, they
at her knees, keeping still while her silence are the things least to be feared in me.
appeases and reconciles him, to hearing the Do you suppose Marcus Aurelius was
most brilHant conversation of a lady nov- really calm and philosophical ? Because
elist." he, on the contrary, was anxious and pas-
"You can talk beautifully, Gerald, sionate, he wrote those maxims to try to
that 's one sure thing; but talk me over live by. When you would go and be a
you can't. Seems to me I should have to negress, did I make a scene? I gnashed
be crazy to forget all in a moment what my teeth and gnawed my knuckles, but
I 've over and over to myself and
said when I saw you afterward, was n't 1 de-
drilled myself not to lose sight of. After cently decent?"
>ou asked me the other day, though 1 "Yes, but you took to your bed. If I
knew it was just on the spur of the mo- were Mrs. Gerald, and the pope of Rome
ment, I thought it all out in the night as sent for me to do Lew Dockstader for him
AURORA THE MAGNIFICENT 137
and his cardinals, you know you would n't cool dryness. They would
get no further
let me go." along with talk on this occasion, that was
"You are wrong. I should make a clear. "I meant, you know, let 's go back
point of it. I should only ask to be per- to Florence. I 'm afraid it 's high time.
mitted to retire into solitude until all the We ought to have daylight at least until
vulgar people had stopped talking about we get to the foot of the mountain."
it." "Cross, Geraldino?"
"Oh, you 're a dear, funny boy; but "Not at all."
put it out of your mind, Geraldino, do, "Good friends as e\er?"
dear,when we 're so happy as it is. Let 's "Assuredly."
go on just as we 've been going; you know "Oh, I 've had such a beautiful day!"
yourself that it 's the wisest, and what she sighed, getting up by help of his two
really you would prefer. If you 've asked liands, and brushing down her dress. "I

me to-day, mind, I don't say you have; certainly do love to be with you
!"

but // you have, to save my vanity and — With the inconsequence of a woman
back up the proposal you did n't really she wanted, in order to console him for
mean the other day, — because you 're al- rejecting him, to make him sure she loved
ways such a gentleman ;
you 'd rather die him deeply, nevertheless; and so she said,
than not behave like a gentleman, — let it turning upon him eyes of sweetest, sincer-
go at that. But if you should feel now est affection, "I certainly do lo\e to be
!"
that )ou 've got to back up your declara- with you
tion that you 're going to persist and
follow this up, just ask me over again Ix the carriage they were silent, like

every few days to show there 's no unkind people tired out by the long day, talked
feeling, and I promise it will be safe: I 'II out, and certain of each other's consent to
refuse you every time. It '11 be our little be still.

standing joke. For don't you go dream- The two young fellows on the box were
ing that I'm going to let go of you \o\\ ! quiet, too. The horses now needed no
can call me pudgy if I let you get away. encouragement to go; the scraping of the
I love you too dearly. Was n't everything brake gave evidence rather of the need to
all and lovely until the other day
right hold them back. The driver's friend,
when you came out with that stilted named appropriately Pilade, sat hunched
speech, "doing you the honor" ? We '11 with chilly sleepiness but Angelo, the ;

take up again just where we left off, and driver, was kept busily alert by the re-

bimeby make fun of all this. You who 've sponsibility of making a safe descent in the
read all the books ever written, don't you fast-failing light. Owing to the dilatori-
know where two like us went on
of cases ness of the signori they had been later in
being just friends, and taking comfort in starting than was prudent.
each other on and on to the end of the When they emerged at last from the
tale?" shadow of the chestnut-trees and the brake
"There ha\ e been examples, yes, a very blessedly was released, it was accomplished
few, and not on the whole encouraging." evening. The dome of the firmament
"You know we never thought of any- spread above them so wonderful for
thing else until three days ago, and were darkly luminous serenity that the signori
perfectly contented. Let 's call all this behind in the carriage arranged themselves
in between a mistake, like taking the to contemplate it comfortably, with their
wrong road and having to turn back to feet on the forw^ard bench, their heads
be where we were before. Let s go propped on the back of the seat.
back." Thus they passed through glimmering
"\'es, let 's go back. I won't bore you hamlets, between high walls of orchards,
any more." past iron gates opening into cypress ave-
He had all in an instant changed to nues, with dim villas at the other end, ter-
138 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
races with olive-trees garlanded with heard seem possible. I want to keep solid
vines, all of a dark silvery blue, and did earth under my feet."
not vouchsafe a look at anything but the Gerald was not so devoid of the right
inverted cup of the nocturnal sky. masculine spark as not to recognize the
Even this they did not see more than moment for one of which advantage
in secondary way, for the interposing
a should be taken by any creature capable
thoughts and images. of growing a mustache. The thing to be
Aurora, uplifted on a great wonder and done was to put his arms around her like
pride and illogical happiness, was think- a man, and lay his head on her shoulder
ing of the days to come, the immediate like a child, and treat as simply not ex-
to-morrows, rich in a tenderness pro- isting the barriers which she described as
founder still than that which had linked dividing them.
her before to the companion staring at the Often enough in his life Gerald had
stars beside her; she thought of how she wished he might have been a masterful
should through a wise firmness and God's man, capable of the like things. But al-
help steer their course into ways of a safer ready a vague sickness of soul had suc-
and longer happiness than that which he ceeded his momentarily dominant mood.
had tendered. Distrust of his own character, his aims,
"Itwould seem rather unnecessary," and his destiny filled
his talent, his health,
came from him through the transparent him. His dreams had but recently taken
darkness in what was to the young driv- the form in which he had that day ex-
er's ears a monotonous bar of insignificant pressed them he had not grown into;

sound, "it would seem to me almost im- them. Under the depressing effect of fail-
becile, to say to you that I love you, when ure he was no more sure than she had pro-
for months I have been hovering around fessed to be that the proposed union would
you, as must have been evident to the not be a rash mistake. He saw the wis-
dullest, like the care-burthened honey-fly, dom of a return to his gray policy of want-
possessed with the fixed desire to hide his ing nothing, asking nothing. For the
murmurs in the rose. When for months moment heaviness possessed him ; he made
I have been, in fact, like a dog with his no motion.
nose on your footprints, asking nothing Signs of the nearing cit}' came thicker
but to.lie down at your feet with his muz- and thicker; the street lamps became fre-
zle on your shoe." quent and consecutive. Aurora sat up
She impulsively felt and for his hand, and composed her appearance.
pushed her own "Don't say an-
into it. She continued aloud for Gerald to hear
other word, Gerald. I daresent do what a conversation she had been holding men-
you wish, I just daresent. I 'm plain tally :

scared to And I 'm such a fool that I 'm


! "Estelle says we must go away some-
nearer to it this minute than I like to be where for the summer, because it 's aw-
by a long sight. I 'm fond enough of you fully hot down here in Florence, we 're

for almost anything, and you know it, told. We 're thinking of taking some
but I niusjt keep my level head. It can't sort of place at the seashore for the batii-
be done —a greyhound tied down to a ing season, ^'ou "11 be coming down to
mud-turtle. I know what I 'm like, — no visit us, won't \()u
?"'

disparagement meant, Mrs. Hawthorne, "You can lea\e me out of \()ur plans
— and what \ou 're like, and I won't let for the future. I am going aw a\ to forget
myself forget. I 'm looking out first of you.
all for myself, but I 'm looking out for "Ol 1, n o, you 're not. ^ ou 're cominsJ:
you, too, dear boy. Don't say any more to see me to -mo now Fi \ e o'cl ock at the .

about it to-night, Gerald, please, with the ver\ 1; ;ites t ~-he;iir?"


'•[
stars shining like that, and the air so 'm afiraid vou will h a\e to excuse
sweet that all the fair\'^tales \ou e\er
AURORA ^ HE MAGNIFICENT 139

"You would n't break my heart like I should prefer, which would be better for
that for anything, Gerald Fane ! You you in the end."
would n't let the foolish doings of this "Do you meanto tell me you 've been

day destroy all the months have built up sitting here allday stewing and fretting
You 're not so mean. When I tell you about that? Did n't you ever in your
it '11 be all right and just as it was be- life go buggy-riding with a feller, and

fore —" did it always end with the grand plunge?


But he stubbornly would not agree, and You know it did n't. ^'ou know you
they quarreled, as so often, half in pla_\ could ride from Provincetown to Boston,
half in real exasperation, each calling the with the moon shining, too, and not even
other selfish. exchange a chaste salute."
But at her door, when he took her "Nell, there 's one thing I know, and
hands to thank her for the day she had it 's that my scolding and warning and
given him, he dropped quite naturally, beseeching will do exactly as much good
"Until to-morrow, then," and she entered as an old cow mooing, with her neck
her great white hall with a happy, shin- stretched over a stone wall. \'ou know
ing face. what I think. I 've had plenty of time

for reflection, walking up and down the


In the half-light of the solitary hall-lamp floor in there in the dark and long before ;

the white-and-gold door between the curv- you finally got home 1 'd made up mv
ing halves of the stairway stood open up- mind not to be an idiot and make myself
on the blackness of the unlighted ball- a nuisance trying to influence you. It 's

room. At the threshold appeared Estelle, your funeral. What you choose to do is

and stood with folded arms until the ser- none of my business. What I said when
vant who answered the bell had been you came in just escaped me. Stand ofi
heard retreating down the back stairs. and let me look at you."
Then she came forward with a tired, While making the request, she herself
troubled, pallid, and severe face. drew off to get a more comprehensive view
"Well, I 'm glad you 've got back!" of her friend.
she said, as much as to say that she had Something of the sunshine, the moun-
given up looking for her. And as Aurora tain sweetness, the unpolluted breezes and
unexpectedly cast mischievous, muscular wide perspectives of the heights, the
arms around her and tried to squeeze the dreams of the starlit homeward ride, the
breath out of her, she gasped amid spasms triumph in man's love, was shining forth
of resistance: "Stop! Don't try to pacify from Aurora, with her fresh sunburn, her
me ! I 'm in no mood for fooling ! I 'm untidied hair, and softly luminous eyes.
as cross with you as I can be!" Estelle felt herself suddenly on the point
"You little slate-pencil! You little of tears. But she stiffened.
lemon-drop, you!" said Aurora, squeez- "Well, you do look as if jou 'd had a
ing harder, then suddenly letting go. good time, you crazy thing!" she said
"I 'm in no mood to be funny; I 've dryly. "What made you put your best
been worried half to death. Where 've dress on if j'ou were going to sit round on
you been so long, 'way into the night, long the ground ? You 've got it all grass stains.
past eleven o'clock?" Nell," she melted, "while \ou '\e
"Did n't you find my note on the pin- been off gallivanting, I 've just about wor-
cushion? That informed you where I 've ried mjself sick over a paper Leslie left.
been." 1 've been longing for you to get back to
"I thought youmust have met with an see what you make of it."

accident, to make you so terribly late, or "A paper? What do you mean?"
else made up \our mind to go off with "A newspaper. Come on up-stairs. I

that young man for good and all. Tell left it on the desk. Leslie called in the
you the truth, I did n't quite know which forenoon, but 1 had gone out. Then she
140 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
came again in the afternoon, so I knew it For the space of about forty seconds Au-
must be something special. But I simply rorawas unpublishable.
could n't bring mj'self to see her and let "But how on earth did he get at it?"
her know you 'dwholegone off for the wondered Estelle.
day with Gerald Fane. So I got the maid "After he 'd opened that letter of mine,
to tell her we were both out. Everybody he wrote to the amiable writer thereof
does that over here. Anyhow, I went and and asked for information."
stood on the terrace while the maid was "Honestly, P^ell, I don't think he 's had
delivering my message. So Leslie went time."
off, but she left this Italian paper for the "I guess he has — just time. Well, I

maid to give us. And, my dear,— now don't Aurora folded the paper
care!"
don't faint, — there 's a long piece in it tight and flung it from her. "Enemies
about you." may do what they please I 've got friends. ;

"For goodness' sakes! about me? Why? If everything comes out as it really hap-

Where?" pened, I have n't anything to fear, except


"There. It is n't marked, and I was that it 's mighty unpleasant,"
the longest time trying to discover why
Leslie had left the paper. After I 'd gone
all over hunting for a marked passage,
it' CHAPTER XXI
I thought must be a mistake and that
it Leslie, arriving early the following fore-
she 'd simply left it because she was tired noon, read off the newspaper article, mak-
of carrying it round, and the maid had n't ing a free translation of it, as follows:

understood. But going over it column by


column, I at last saw the word Haw- "When a thwg is too successful, it is sel-
thorne and those other names. 'Una dom natural; and so when there appeared
Afiiericana — 'An American' the arti- — in our city a signora, blonde of hair, azure of
cle is entitled. It looks to me, Nell, as if eye, with the complexion of delicate, lumi-
your whole life's history might be printed nous roses, red and white, whose name was
there." at once Aurora and Albas pina, — Haw-
"For the land's sake! Now, who do thorne, — floral counterpart of dawn, we
you suppose can have done that ? What
. should have had suspicions. That we had
on earth would anybody want to—" none does not prevent our feeling no very
"I 've been puzzling over it and puz- great surprise when we learn that the bearer
zling over 'm about played out
it till I of the poetic and more than appropriate
trying to make sense of it, and my head name is called in sober truth Elena Barton.
aches like fury. Oh, never mind my The more name was adopted by a
beautiful
head! Now you 've got back, I don't child acting out it was re-
its fairy-stories;
care." membered and re-adopted by a woman when
"Bother!" said Aurora, thoughtfully, she wished to detach her life from a past
with her eyes on the cryptic print. Es- which neither charity, fidelity, nor devotion
telle sat close, examining the sheet over to a sacred duty had succeeded in keeping
her shoulder. "Elena means Helen, does from sorrow and the deadly aspersions of
n't it? I guess it must, as it comes here malignity.
before Barton. They 've got my old "The (jentilissinia person of the irradiating
name. And there 's Bewick— Bewick, smile, which, however briefly seen, must be
and here 's Colorado. They 've got the "long remembered, whom we have grown ac- ^

whole thing fast enough. It 's tiie doing customed this winter to meeting In the sa-
of an enemy ; there can be no doubt of lons where assembles all that Is most dis-
that." tinguished among foreigners, whose name
"I know who \<)u 're thinking about," we have grown accustomed to iinding fore-
said Estelle. most In every work of charity, has a title to
"Charlie Hunt, of course, Scamii!" our esteem far be\()nil the onliiiarN member
AURORA THE MAGNIFICKNT 141
of an indolent and favored class. To alle- "The rest, Aurora dear, is pure flat-

viate suffering has been the chosen work of tery, which it becomes me not to speak
those hands that Florence also has found nor you to hear. I won't read it."
ever open and ready with their help. It "Well, I never!" breathed Aurora.
was in effect the extent of their beneficence "Who did it?"
which brought about the black imbroglio "We did My
it. father and your Doc-
from which Elena Barton chose to flee and tor Bewick and Carlo Guerra and I. \Ve
take refuge in the City of Flowers under did it to be before anybody else, set the
the soave and harn>oniou^ name by which worst that could be brought up against
we know her. you in a light that explains and justifies.
"Her life had been for several years de- We did our best to fix the public mind
voted to the care of an old man afllicted and show it what it should think. You
with a most malignant and terrible cancer know what the mind of the public is.
in the face. She had filled toward him so We 've hypnotized the beast, I hope; it

perfectly the part of a daughter that his has taken its bent from us."
gratitude made her upon his death an equal "But-"
sharer in his fortune with the children of "This was the wa\' of it, my dear. The
his blood. Thence the law-case Bewick day after Brenda's wedding was at the I

versus Barton, which for a period filled the Fontanas, —


she was a Miss Andrews, you
city of Denver in Colorado of the United know, of Indianapolis,— and there was
States as if with poisonous fumes. The Charlie, too, and there was likewise Ma-
literal daughters, two in number, who had dame Sartorio, who is Colonel Fontana's
shown no filial love for the unfortunate old niece by his first marriage. We were talk-
man, in trying to annul their father's will, ing in a little group when something, I

left nothing undone or unspoken that could forget what, was said about you, Aurora.
help their turpe, or evil, purpose, even at- Charlie — for what reason would be hard
tempting to prove that not only had the de- to think, unless one had a sharp scent for
voted nurse been their father's amarite what goes on under one's nose — Charlie
[You can guess what that is, Aurora. They interrupted, to introduce as a sort of pa-
are much simpler here than we at home renthesis,'Mrs. Hawthorne, whose real
about calling things b}- their names, and name, by the way, is Helen Barton.' The
much more outspoken on all subjects], but others were naturally taken aback, except
had likewise been the aniante of the son, Madame Sartorio, who could not quite
sole member of the family who supported disguise a cat-smile.For a moment none
her claim to the share of the fortune ap- of us knew what to say, and Charlie went
pointed by the father. Justice in the event on, with his air of knowing such a lot
prevailed, but a tired and broken woman more than anybody else
emerged from the conflict. What to do to " 'Yes. It seems that all winter we
regain a little of that pleasure in living have been warming in our bosom, so to
which blackening calumnies and rodent ill speak, the heroine of a cause celebre at
will, even when not victorious, can destroy a place called Colorado in America.'
in the upright and feeling nature? The "That was enough for me. I stopped
imagination which had prompted in child- him.
hood the acting out of fairy-stories here " 'Don't say any more, Charlie. All I

came into play. Leave behind the scene of wish to know about Mrs. Hawthorne is

sorrows, take ship, and point the prow to- what she cares to tell me herself,' and I

ward the land of orange and myrtle, of insisted that the conversation should re-
golden marbles and wine-colored sunsets turn to other things.
change name, begin again, do good under a "When I got home I told mother, and
beautiful appellation which the poor should she repeated to me what you, Aurora, con-
learn to love and speak in their prayers to fided to her when we first knew you. We
the last of their davs. . . . told father, and when Doctor Bewick
142 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
came that evening to say good-by we con- I should be believed guilty of just that
sulted, and here in this newspaper you undue influence I was accused of, and
have the result, put into Italian journalese lose the money into the bargain. So I

by Carlo Guerra, whom we called in to had to hedge and shuffle and mislead, and
aid us. He likes you so much, Aurora; me under oath to tell the truth! You
did you know it? He met you at An- need n't wonder if I 'm sick still at the

tonia's. So there you have the whole thought of it, wonder that I 'd like to
or
story. I 'm bitterly ashamed of Charlie, forget it. The was I did know be-
truth
my dear." forehand the judge meant to leave me one
"Never mind about him!" Aurora fourth of his money, and I was tickled to
flicked him aside. "I don't care. And death. I gloried in it. I loved to imagine
you say Tom helped. And he never told the rage it would throw his wicked daugh-
me, or wrote me a word about it. I had ters in, and his mean, little, miserable son-
a letter from him this morning. Well, in-law. I was glad, besides, out and out,
well, you certainly did make a good- to think I should have the money. I plain

sounding story of it, among you. And wanted it, I did. I won't say I earned the
the main facts are true, far as they go; I money; it was too much: but there were
can't say they arc n't. But, oh, my dear some hours of my tending him, poor soul,
Leslie, there was a lot more to it than when it did seem to me a nurse came
that. I 've got to tell you, so 's not to pretty near earning anything the patient
feel like a fraud. You 're so sharp; you could afford to pay. All the same, I

know me pretty well by this time, and I would have done what I did for the old
guess you don't suppose in me any of those boy if he had n't had a cent, I had so
awfully 'fine feelin's' that could make a much respect for him, as much as for my
blighted flower of me because, while in- own father, and I felt I owed so much to
nocent as a babe unborn, I 'd been dragged his son. Then about his son, the doctor.
through the courts by wncked enemies. If Cora's old nurse-girl, who w^as kept on

My enemies were pretty wicked I stick ; in the house as a servant, though she was
to that. Cora Bewick, off living abroad, past her usefulness, lied in court when she
studying some strange religion, while her said she saw Tom and me kissing at such
kind old pa was dying at home, and she an hour, in such a place, still, the truth
never once coming near him till he was was that I had at different times kissed

underground; Idell Friebus, never com- Tom, You can't tell why it seems all

ing into his room except with her nose right you to kiss one man when it
to

wrinkled up with disgust at the smell of would seem a very queer thing to do to
disinfectants, or disgust at him, it was kiss another. When Tom had been away
none too plain which. They made a fine for any length of time, I always kissed
pair of daughters. But when it came to him when he came back it seemed natu- ;

fighting over the will, the lawyers on the ral to both of us. But there in court I

Bewick side gave out just what itwas had to try to appear as if I never could
that a perfectly noble woman would have descended to committing such an
have done myin place of the old man's immoral act, as well as to give the im-
nurse. And my lawyers would have it pression that if I 'd known the old man
that everything that did n't accord with had any notion of making me co-heir with
that ideal simply must be kept dark, or his own would have strained
children I

public feeling would go against us. It 's every nerve to stop called them all in it,

that that made it so nasty— pretending, to help me curb him if necessary. Pshaw!
and avoiding and keeping off the
this, the humbug of it turns my stomach now.
other. It amounted to lying, no matter Leslie, my \'crdict is, you can't come
what they said. But they told me if 1 through a law-suit chdii. I W gi\e a
did n't do as my counsel instructed me, good deal to cut that page out of my life."
the result would be the worst lie of all. Aurora's e\es, filled with shadows of
AURORA THE MAGNIFICENT 143
the past, and her face, with the dimples and as if under inspiration, re-
to herself,
expunged, were to Leslie almost unfa- sponded by a little speech of her own,
miliar. Aurora, oppressed in her moral composed on the spot. It was drowned at
nature, gave a glimpse of herself that the end by hand-clapping all around tiie
would change and enlarge the composite table. Aurora seemed to herself to be
of her aspects carried in Leslie's mind. h'ving in a fair\ -story.
"There, stop thinking of it!" said Es-
telle. "You always work yourself up so." As it was after five o'clock when she got
"The point of my coming bright and home, she was sure she would find Gerald
early like this," nimbly managed
Leslie waiting for her. She had the whole day
a diversion, "was, asyou have guessed, to long been looking forward with a sweet
catch you before you could possibly have agitation to the moment of being with
gone out. My mother desires you, dear him and telling him all about it.
ladies, to accompany me back to lunch a — She was more disappointed than she
triumphal lunch, Aurora, to grace which remembered ever being, even as a child,
she has collected those special pillars of not to find him or any word from him.
society whose countenance and support She did not allow it to become later by
ought make you scornful of any little
to more than half an hour before she
weed-like growth of gossip that might scratched a line and sent the coachman to
sprout up from seed of Charlie's sowing. his house with it.

You know them all more or less, having The man came back with nothing but
been associated with every one of them in the barren received from
information,
some form of beneficence." Giovanna, that the signorino was absent,
Aurora, who had been listening with having gone to Leghorn.
expanded, gathering-in eyes, cheeks flush- "Well, here 's a pretty howdy-do!"
ing deeper and deeper, turned her head thought Aurora, sore with surprise and
sharply away to try to keep from falling the smart of injury. "If every time I re-
or being seen two unaccountable tears half fuse him he 's going off like this to stay
blinding her. away for days and days, what am I going
The sight of her, by infection, mois- to do?"
tened the eyes of the other women.
Estelle sought a quick way out of the
CHAPTER XXII
emotional silence. "If this is the way it is going to be,
"Nell," she said, albeit with cracked and I 'd known it before, I 'd have kept
voice, "if we 're going out to lunch, I better watch over my affections," said
guess we ought to be dressing. Go along, Aurora upon Gerald
to herself, reflecting
child; put on your best bib and tucker." in Leghorn, where he was bending his

"Oh, my best bib and tucker!" wailed will industriously, no doubt, to the work
Aurora. "Sent to the cleaner's this morn- of forgetting her. At the end of every
ing, all green stains at the back!" wearisome day she gave thanks that for
still another twenty-four hours she had by

If Leslie had not called it a triumphal grace of strength from on high been able
lunch, might not have appeared so very
it to fight off the temptation to write to
different from any other women's lunch Gerald.
at the season of roses. To the heroine of This for nine days — the nine days it

the feast was an inexpressibly


it exciting, takes for a wonder to become a com-
grand, and memorable occasion. Aurora monplace, or a scandal to lose its prom-
hardly knew herself, so much the object inent place in conversation.
of attention and graciousness. She was Then, in the way once sweetly habit-
in the mood to give half of her goods to ual, there came rapping at the door, the
a
the poor. After the hostess had risen and entrance of a ser\*ant, and the announce-
made a little speech, Aurora, unexpected!}' ment, "C'e il signorino."
144 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Aurora for a second either did not summer sojourn, a vastly deeper conversa-
really grasp the import of the words or tion was taking place between them, which
did not trust her senses. She asked: we think it not amiss to report, because
"What signorinof Signorino What?" by the nature of things the words they
"The signorino who has come back," would say aloud on this occasion would
said the servant, unable on the instant to be meager and colorless by comparison
recall the foreign name. And if he had with the things they would feel and to
felt interest in the complexion of one so some extent convey to each other through
far removed from him as his mistress, he mere proximity.
might have seen her turn the hue of a "O Aurora," exhaled from Gerald,
classic sunrise. while, looking not far from his usual self,

Gerald stood, verj' collected, if a trifle he said that Ardenza by the sea, a mere
pale, holding, like a proper votary, a bou- three miles from Leghorn, was a very
quet,— starry handful of sweet, white pretty place
— "Aurora, j^ou are warmth,
hedge-roses, — which he offered as soon as you are shelter, you are rest. I have no
Aurora entered, saying he had picked hearth or home except as you let me in
them for her that morning in the country out of the desperate cold of loneliness, and
near Castel di Poggio. grant me to warm myself at your big
The meeting, in Aurora's jubilant sense heart."
of it, went off beautifully. She said in a And Aurora, mechanically pulling off
pleasant, easy tone and her company Eng- her rings and putting them into the brass
lish receptacle, then taking them out of it and
"So you 've got back. It 's awfully nice putting them back on her fingers, while
to see you again. How well you are look- she chattered on, describing the advan-
ing. I was sure a change would do you tages of a furnished villa at Antiniano, to
good.' be preferred because they were some Ital-
And Gerald said 3'es, he had found the ian friends of Leslie's who desired to let
sea air a tonic. He
had been staying with it, was in her inmost speaking to the in-
the Johns Vincent's mother lived in Leg-
; most of Gerald. The hardly self-con-
horn. He had worked a little, made a scious meanings within her bosom made
few drawings. Digressing, he mentioned as if an extension of her in the air com-
a trifling gift he had brought her, and parable to the halo around the moon on a
produced a small brass vessel, fitted with misty night, and this atomized radiance
two hinged lids, meant to contain grains had language. It said: "Oh, to draw
of incense for the altar. He said he had your head down where it desires to be!
found it in an antiquarian's shop and To warm and comfort you! To be to
thought she might care for it to drop her you everything you need I lean to you,
!

rings into; he supposed she took them off I cling to you like a vine with every wind-

at night. Its shape, he informed her, ing tendril. But I am so afraid of you!
seemed to him to possess more than com- so afraid ! I am of common, j'ou of finest,
mon elegance. clay. How can I give into any hand so
Aurora called it adorable, and his giv- much power to hurt me?"
ing it to her sweet. They talked as if While two souls thus trembled and
they had been making believe, for the gravitated toward each other, bathing in
benefit of an audience, to be the most or- each other's light, it is almost mortifying

dinary friends. to have to show to what degree that which


And while they talked of the weather, took place at the surface was different
as they fell to doing when they had dis- and inferior.
posed of the subject of the little incense- "Now, what made you run off like that,
holder; and, after that, while they talked I want know," Aurora asked in the
to
of Leghorn and the various seaside places flowing American which she reserved for
which Aurora had to choose from for her real friends and sincere moments, "after
AURORA THE MAGNIFICENT 145

you 'd said when you left me at tlie door, there taking care of you because I was
'Good-by till to-morrow?'" your friend."
"My reasons were several, all simple," "You are hopelessly compromised.
he replied, with a faun-look up from the Look to me to set you right."
corner of his eye, which watched her ex- "Gerald, I shall d(j nothing of the
pression. "First, I wished to flee from kind."
that newspaper article — dreadful! — till "Ah, I see that your prejudices liold
the danger of any reference to it in my firm. was afraid of it when I came."
I

hearing was greatly reduced. Then, aside His mask of flippancy slipped for a mo-
from a slight natural need to recover my- ment; deep feeling made his voice uncer-
self, I felt I must for manners' sake allow tain. "I am not that hardy and master-
a little time to pass before I approached ful man, Aurora, who could break them
you again on the subject of marrying me ;
down and clutch you above their ruin.
one scruples to make himself a bore. But you will find me very faithful to a
It therefore would be better not to see hope, which, in fact, to relinquish now
you, and in order not to see you, better would be beyond what I can expect of
not to be in town. Lastly, Auroretta, I my courage." He reassumed bluffness.
conceived the infernal ambition to make "I told Vincent he might look for my re-
you suffer from absence the minutest frac- turn to-morrow."
tion of what I should suffer myself." "No, sir!" she came out with lively di-
"Don't say a word I 've missed you so
! rectness. "You 're not going back to Leg-
my bones felt hollowed out!" horn if I can help it! Now, I — I have a
"Reflect then, my dearest, upon the suf- plan."
ferings you are preparing for yourself if "You have a plan? From your face I
you have n't a kinder answer for me than am afraid not a good one. You look so
the other day to the same question." dubious."
"O Gerald, you ought n't to keep on "Perhaps it is n't a good one, but it 's

trying! I do wish you would n't! No, the only way I can see. Listen." She
don't say any more about it!" she pleaded looked down at her hands, and kept him
in weak anguish. "You ought n't to go waiting. "One evening last winter at a
on battering against the little bit of com- party a young Italian naval officer got
mon sense I 've got left." talking to me in a green bower under a
"Common sense! I advise you to speak pink paper lantern away from the rest.
of it!" he affected to jeer, remarkably Something in the atmosphere, I guess,
braced by her misery. "Common sense, made him want to talk to somebody of his
as representedby a decent concern for heart-affairs, and he chose me, though we
your good name, ought to prompt you to knew each other. He told me he
scarcely
enter as quickly as you can into an en- had very much in love with an
been
gagement with me. I met our dear Dot- American girl, but they had n't the money
tore Batoni in the street yesterday on my to marry on or the hope of ever having it
way home from the station, and he amia- — like Brenda and Manlio at first. Yet
bly asked how was my fidanzata, or be- they could n't keep apart, and so they just
trothed. It was a difficult moment for became engaged, knowing it could n't end
me, because he told me that you had told as an engagement is supposed to do. In
him you were that." that way they could see each other all

"I told him nothing of the sort. I said they wanted, and be seen together without
I was your friend, in French." anybody making a remark. And then
"A friend, in French, may mean a good when she was obliged to go home and it

deal. Save )'our reputation, dear; I give had to end, it looked merely like a broken
5'ou the chance." engagement."
"What nonsense! I explained to him "And you propose —
as well as I could, in French, that I was "We might try it, Gerald. Then if it
146 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
did n't work well, if I found I was all when Estelle came forward
swirl of silk
the time outraging your sensibilities, and who was there.
to see
you hurting my feelings, we 'd call it off. With delighted good mornings the wo-
In any. case we 'd give ourselves plenty of men exchanged the foreign salute, which
time to realize our foolishness. And you 'd Leslie had adopted and Estelle submitted
promise that when the time came you 'd to, a mere touching of cheeks while the
go like a lamb, with a pleasant face, not lips kiss the air.

saving up anything against me. Make up They sat down on the rococo settee to
your mind now that it '11 have to be a talk, Leslie, quick of eye, wondering what
long, long engagement, if we don't repent had happened to give Estelle that unusual
and break it off inside a week. But as it air, —
an air of no, it was indefinable. Ex-
seems so likely we will, let 's don't tell citement had a share in it, and possibly
the others right off, Gerald not, anyhow, ; chagrin, and, it almost seemed, exaltation.
for a week or ten days." The chief thing about it, however, was
"Admired Aurora, it surely is the most that she was trying to conceal it; doing
Immoral proposition that ever came from her best, but it was a poor best, to appear
fair lady so well brought up as you!" cried natural. Leslie graciously allowed her to
Gerald. "I accept without hesitation. I suppose she was succeeding, and entered at
promise whatever you ask. From this once upon the reason for her early call.

moment onward we are fidanzati, then. "I really think, Estelle, that the villa
And, my blessed Auroretta, you who are at Antiniano would suit Aurora. As for
such a hand at calling names, have your you, I am positive, my dear, that you
servant's permission to call him all the would adore it. It is a little out of the
names 3'ou can think of that signify an thick of things, but has a very fine view
ineffable blunderer on the day when you of the sea, also a very pretty garden."
!"
succeed in freeing yourself from him Estelle began to laugh. Leslie, warned
by a note in Estelle's laugh, watched her
with suspicion while it developed into a
CHAPTER XXIII nervous cackle. She saw her cover her
The servant who opened the door for eyes with one hand, and with the other
Leslie on this softly brilliant June morn- vainly feel for her pocket. She was cry-
ing, being well accustomed to admitting ing. Leslie tendered the little handker-
her, obligingly anticipated her question, chief found on the floor, and knew then
"Are the ladies at home?" that had dried tears before on that same
it

"The signorina is in the salottino/' he day. She waited, tactfully silent, merely
said. From which Leslie understood that placing a condoling hand over that of her
the person whonf she chiefly had come to friend.
see was out. It did not really matter, for "I might as well tell you," Estelle got
she had time to wait. Aurora was likely out, when her crying fit permitted her to
to come back for lunch. speak, "that Aurora is n't going to take
She released the man from attendance any villa Antiniano
at this summer.
by a little wave of her hand, and directed She 's gone away."
her footsteps toward the tall white-and- "Gone away? What do you mean
gold door standing partly open. asked Leslie, surprised into a very com-
On her way to it she picked up off the plete blankness of expression.
floor a small lawn handkerchief. "What I say." And in her incalculable
A sharp bark preceded the tumbling out frame of mind Estelle again was laugh-
through the salottino archway of a little ing. "Oh, I don't know which to do,
white mop on feet. Upon recognizing whether to laugh or cry !" she explained,
Leslie, this performed evolutions expres- with eyes bright at once from laughter
sive of great joy. and from tears. "One moment I laugh,
She had stopped to pat the excited little next moment I cry,"
Then she sat down on the bed. . . . T 'm goin<r to mairv Gerald," she said'
148 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
"You say that Aurora has gone away. "One mother and me
of the reasons for
Where?" wishing for consummation was the
this

"Where Gerald pleases, I guess. She 's broadening of life it would afford Gerald.
gone with him." Gerald does n't think about money.
"With Gerald ? Now, my dear friend, Aurora's money, all the same, will do a
please explain." lot for him in making possible his getting

"I mean they have eloped, or as good away from here, w^here the truth is he
as." stagnates. Then, too, she will cure him
"No, no; people don't elope when there of his morbidness. He sees red if one so
is no possible reason they should n't marry much as breathes the suggestion that his
each other." art is morbid. But of course it is."

"I wonder what you would call it, "Aurora might go to live in
said they
then. As late as twelve o'clock last night Paris, because she thought it would be
I did n't know a thing about it, and this good for his art."
morning early they left together in a car- "Now that 's what I want to hear
riage, with her trunk strapped on the about. Go on and tell me what Aurora
back." said and what happened between midnight
"So it was earnest!" Leslie said and their extraordinary elopement, as you
aloud, yet as if speaking to herself. call it. But, first of all, why, in the name
"Mother has won her bet, and I have lost. of common sense, did they elope? From
Well," — she tossed her head and faced what did they elope?"
Estelle,— "I am glad of it. I don't see, "From me, I guess. I don't see what
my dear Estelle, what you can find to cry else. Oh, yes, I do. From the talk there
about." would be. But principally, I suspect, he
"Is that the way
you?" it strikes hurried her into it to make sure of her,
"My dear, I could n't say which I for she, too, had her moments of doubting
thought the luckier, Gerald to get Au- thewisdom of what she was doing. That
rora, or Aurora to get Gerald." much I know. They had only been en-
"You surprise me. To me it seems gaged two weeks, and all that time I did
just about the riskiest combination that n't even know they were engaged. I had

could be imagined. I have felt it all n't been nice about Gerald, I feel bound

along. Those two have no more in com- to confess, so she thought best not to tell
mon, I have said, than a bird and a fish." me. She went around the house with a
"Nonsense, my dear girl! Nonsense!" look of cheerfulness apart from me that
"I have heard him get so impatient made her seem like a stranger. I was

with her because simply she did n't pro- pretty sore, I can tell you, but I would n't
nounce a word right. I 've seen him so speak of it. I went to bed last night think-
annoyed he nearly trembled trying to ing to myself, 'Well, Nell Goodwin, if you
choke it down." think I 'm going to stand much more of
"But did she mind? I mean, his im- this, you 're mistaken.' I fell asleep. First
patience?" thing I knew I was awake, looking to see

"I can't say she did; but — who 'd come into my room. And there
"There you have it. They are marve- was Nell in her night-dress, holding her
lously suited. Have n't you noticed that hand round the candle so it would n't
complex natures are rather given to unit- shine in my eyes. I simply can't tell you
ing with simple ones, and finding happi- what it was like ; the candle lighting noth-
ness with them? An artist marries his ing but her made her seem like a vision

model, a philosopher marries a peasant." in the She put down


middle of a glory.
"Go on!" sighed Estelle. "Go on! I the candle and, instead of going into ex-
love you for making me feel better!" Her planations, bent over and gave me a good
eyes moistened again in an almost luxuri- hug. And I said, hugging back: 'You
ous melancholy. better had, you horrid thing! You better
AURORA THE MAGNTFICENT 149
had !'
Then she sat down on the bed. working creature a real vacation and
'Hat,' she said,'I was going to do a mean treat. Then when they go to Venice, she
thing, but 'm not going to do it. I was
I wants me to join them, and the three of
going to slip away without a word, but us to have a regular jamboree. Then next
I 'm going to tell you the whole story. winter, after 1 've got home, she wants
I 'm going to marry Gerald,' she said. me to go to Colorado to visit the Grand
"Then she went on to tell me, and Canon and see the great sights of my na-
what do you think, I did n't say one word tive country before settling down again
in objection, not one! Because I could in East Boston. She made me a present
see she was dead in love, and what was of Ami."
the use except to spoil her happiness, and "Ami?"
I want to. She told me how they 'd
did n't "I 've changed his name from Buster-
decided it would be just as well not to etto. Don't you like it better? Little
wait, but take a short cut. So they 'd Tweetums! He 's the only darling I 've
made up their go off to Leghorn
minds to got left!" She pressed a kiss on the warm
without a word to anybody, and be mar- top of his head. "She made me a present
ried just as soon as it could be done. She of all the clothes and things she was n't
'11 be staying with Mrs. Johns till the taking with her. She made me a present
ceremony. She said she should write of everything in this house thatwe did n't
your mother from there. Then she find in when we took it— turned it all
it

showed me Gerald's ring that she 'd been over to me to do what I please with. And
wearing on a chain round her neck where I 'm sure I don't know what I shall do

I would n't see it, and she talked about with it all unless I set up a store. Any-
Gerald's wonderfulness. She 's perfectly thing you see and think you 'd like to
wrapped up in him. All I hope is he have, please say so."
appreciates it." "She gave you all these things? Do
"His inducing her to elope with him you mean it?" asked Leslie, surprised de-
would seem to indicate some warmth of spite what she had already known of Au-
feeling on his part. The suggestion can rora.
hardly have come from her." "Yes, and along with the things, of
"You 're right. I guess it 's as bad course, the responsibility of settling up
with him as with her. What 's wrong — everything, dismissing the servants, send-
with me is that I 'm selfish, I guess," said ing Livvy back to York. New
Such a
Estelle, looking contrite, "and don't like job! Luckily, there no hurry; the lease
's

having to give her up to him, after all the does n't expire until October. When you
beautiful things we 'd planned together. came I 'd been sort of looking round.
What I ought to feel is nothing but thank- After what I 'd just been through, saying
fulness for her having such a chance of good-by to them, the sight of all the things,
happiness, and then thankfulness for all with their associations, did n't do much to
she did, trying to make up for her de- raise my spirits, as you can imagine."
sertion." "Good-by to thejn, did you say? Then
Without transition, Estelle went back you saw Gerald, too, before they left?"
to the story of the past night. "You can "Yes. I could have done without, but
imagine there was n't any more sleep for she 'd have been hurt. So I shook hands,
that spell. I got up, and we went to her and managed to wish him joy. He was
room, where she had all the lights lighted nice; but, then, Gerald always is that.
and was in the middle of packing her I 've never for a moment said anything
trunk. While she was at work packing different. He said he wanted me to feel
she planned for my summer — that I 'm to that I had n't lost a sister, but acquired a
invite Mademoiselle Durand to go travel- brother. Just as they were driving off I

ing with me, so I can improve my French remembered something, and called after
at the same time as give that poor hard- Nell, 'What about your portrait?' for I
150 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
could n't think she meant to give me that be wed, saw this equivocal masterpiece
along with the Gerald said before
rest. with a difference. Not Aurora alone
she could speak, 'Take it away!' And looked forth from the canvas. Gerald,
Nell said right off: 'Oh, yes. Keep it, self-depicted in every subtle brush-stroke,
Hattie; keep it!' That lovely portrait he looked, too.
painted of her ! I don't see how she could Estelle gazed upward at the painting
bear to part with it. But of course, now with a wistful, well-nigh solemn look,
she has him, she can have as many por- Not being able, hampered by a dog in her
traits as she wants. Come and tell me arms, to clasp her hands, she expressed
what you think,whether it would be safe the same impulse by clasping the dog close
to pack it, frame and all, or better to un- to her breast in token that her wishes for
frame it, or, better still, to take the can- her dearest friend's good were more than
vas off the stretcher and roll it." wishes, were a prayer.
They stood beneath the portrait, and She felt a hand laid on her forearm,
with the image present to their minds of "You need n't be afraid," said Leslie;
painter and sitter hasting on their way to "they '11 be happy."

April in the Huasteca


By GRACE HAZARD CONKLING

DARK on the gold west,


Mexico hung inscrutable, like a curtain of heavy velvet
Before a lighted shrine.
Black on the west.
All Mexico stood up from the gulf, colossal, perpendicular, superb;
Mexico secretly veined with metals,
Mexico preoccupied with volcanoes, palm forests,
Deserts, cities, jungles.
Plantations of coffee and maguey,
Unknown vallej's, hills of iron,

Orchids.
I heard the river flash down the caiion between the rosewoods.
And the scream of parrots going to roost above the water.
Through the tracery of bamboo-plumes against the afterglow
I saw mystery flicker along the sky-line

And vanish over Yucatan.


Exotic the thought of Northern trees.

Oaks, maples, beeches, ,

Elms still unfledged in the early April


For April here was wild white lilac,

Jargon of mocking-birds.
Air that glittered with the voice of a river.
Heaped shell-pink of rosewood blooms,
Bamboo-feathers etched on the sunset,
And below the sunset, hanging hills like a weighted curtain of velvet
Before the shrine of an indifferent god.
The Monroe Doctrine for the World
"No peace can last or ought to last which does not recognize and accept the principle that
governments derive all their just powders from the consent of the governed, and that no
right anywhere exists to hand peoples about from potentate to potentate as if the.\ were
property. . . . Henceforth inviolable security of life, of worship, and of industrial and
social development should be guaranteed to all peoples who have lived hitherto under the
power of governments devoted to a faith and purpose hostile to their own. ... am 1

proposing that the nations should with one accord adopt the doctrine of President Monroe
as the doctrine of the world: that no nation should seek to extend polity over any other
nation or people, but that every people should be left free to determine its own polity, its

own way of development, unhindered, unthreatened, unafraid, the little along with the
great and powerful. ... I am proposing government by the consent of the governed.
. . . These are American principles, American policies. We could stand for no others.
. . . They are the principles of mankind, and must prevail." — President Wilson to the
American Senate, January 22, 1917.

EXCEPT in socialist and extreme ment, and endeavoring to show where and
and radical circles, whose
liberal how Mr. Wilson is wrong. The criticisms
official newspapers reflect the opinion of of the message have either evaded the
minority parties, the message of President issues altogetherand discussed irrelevant
Wilson to the American Senate was re- matters, or have been born of blind pas-
ceived with coldness and reserve in all the sion and sentimental hysteria. Nowhere
belligerent countries. There was little in Europe does one find a disposition to
difference in the editorialcomment of consider any other peace than that im-
London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Rome, posed by force for the benefit of the victor-
Petrograd, and Constantinople. Un- ious group of belligerents. In every bel-
fortunately, the diplomacy of the Euro- ligerent country, including even Turkey,
pean powers has refused during the present I know personallymen of the highest
war to cut loose from the traditional standing and authority who think exactly
foreign policy of the nineteenth century. as President Wilson thinks; but with the
It is impossible for any of the belligerent single exception of Signor Giolitti, former
powers to agree offhand to follow the premier of Italy, not a statesman who
path of peace and justice unequivocally set played a part in the diplomacy of the dec-
forth the President of the United
by ade preceding the present war has the
States. Adherence to the principles that moral courage to approve President Wil-
President Wilson quite rightly calls son's conditions for a durable peace.
American policies would mean the end of The American President and the Ameri-
European imperialism and the abandon- can people have not had a good press in
ment of the doctrine of European "eminent Europe since August, 1914. American
domain." neutrality has been persistently misunder-
Europe has made no effort to combat stood and bitterly resented. There has
the logic of President Wilson's conditions been a tendency to consider the people of
of a durable peace. I have searched in the United States oblivious to moral issues,
vain for an editorial or an article or a bent on money-making, and divided into
speech taking up in detail the points of unassimilated groups according to their
the Presidential message to the Senate, European origin. Much of the misunder-
contesting the facts or the line of argu- standing of America can be traced to

151
152 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Americans resident abroad, who have not agreements, entered into without the
hesitated to speak ex cathedra about knowledge of the nation. We have no
matters of American social and political world empire to retain and increase.
life, which they had limited and im-
of The United States is European civiliza-
perfect, if any, knowledge. During the tion transplanted and developed by Euro-
last two years I have talked with Ameri- peans. The process has been different
cans in London, Berlin, Munich, Vienna, from that of any other American state,
and Paris who told me that they were Canada remained in the political system
ashamed of their native country for ex- of a European power. Immigrants to
actly opposite reasons. According to the Canada either retained their Old-World
place in which they lived, these Americans allegiance or were compelled to transfer
thought that President Wilson had dis- their allegiance from one Old-World gov-
honored the American flag and denied ernment to another.^ In Central and
the traditions of American history by not South America the stock for three hundred
declaring war against Great Britain or years was mingled with native blood or
Germany. Few of them knew anything remained so distinctively Latin that the
about either the underlying causes of the later European immigration has not been
European War or the history and social assimilated. The United States is the
and political development of the American only country in the world in which all the
commonwealth. European races have succeeded in fusing
President Wilson's message of January into a new nation.
22, 1917, the embodiment of American
is When one considers how the American
idealism. This idealism is not to be nation has been formed, and is still being
sneered at and ridiculed. When Presi- formed, he realizes the absurdity of
dent Wilson sets forth the fundamental criticisms in connection with our attitude
conditions of a durable peace, declaring toward the European War, hastily made
that "these are American principles, by publicists who know nothing of Ameri-
American policies," and warns the world can history and American life, and taken

that the United States "could stand for up and glibly repeated by the unthinking.
no others," his meaning is perfectly plain. The outstanding criticisms are: the United
The weight and influence of America in States is not a nation, but a collection of
the peace conference will be thrown into unassimilated European groups; Ameri-
the balance on every question that is cans cannot understand the issues at stake
brought up to secure "government by the in Europe.
consent of the governed." The entry of Alarmists talk of unassimilated immi-
the United States into the war should not grant groups in the United States who are
mean that American principles and Ameri- not "genuine Americans" and who can-
can policies are in any way modified. not feci like "genuine Americans." They
Long before deliberate provocation made believe that large immigration to America
necessary a break with Germany Ameri- other than Anglo-Saxon phenomenon
is a
cans had passed judgment upon Germany's of the last generation or two. But this
methods of submarine warfare. Belliger- is not borne out by the facts. In propor-
ency cannot destroy the persistent ideal- tion to the total number of inhabitants of
ism of the American vision of world peace.
1 Canadians are not allowed to forget the British North
It enhances, on the other hand, the sig-
American Act. After writing the above lines, I read
nificance of that idealism by testing its that the Supreme Court had just declared unconstitutional
sincerity. Active participation in the the direct legislation law passed by the' Manitoba Legisla-
ture The five judges were unanimous in holding that
war should not entail the blindness of direct legislation was unconstitutional, since it was con-
Old-World traditional prejudices and trary to the British North American Act. One of the
Old-World racial passions. We are not judges remarked in his written opinion: "The public
are not sovereign in this country. In the United States
entangled in the meshes of Old-World the people are sovereign, but we get our sovereign power
diplomacy. We are not bound by secret from England."
THE MONROE DOCTRINE FOR THE WORLD 153

the United States, the immigration from perialism that threatened to carry the
continental Europe has always been large. United States into the maelstrom of in-

It was large even in colonial days. At no ternational colonial rivalry after the war
time in our national history has this conti- with Spain? The marvelous growth of
nental immigration proved difficult or America during the last two generations
slow of assimilation. Nor has it ever suc- is largely due to the desire of Europeans
ceeded in forming colonies with political to get away from compulsory military
attachment to a European motherland. I service, and from the financial, economic,
have not ceased since the beginning of the and political handicaps of a continent
war to protest against the unfounded and continually disturbed by international
cruelly unjust German-American scare. rivalries.^ Our immigrants were not
From the Revolutionary War down to the driven to America because of inability to
present time the United States has never hold their own in Europe, and because
had any reason to question the loyalty of they felt that transplantation would bring
the German-American element. Ameri- a change of luck. Since 1848, just as in
cans of German stock are just as good the two preceding Europeans
centuries, the
Americans as those of any other stock. who emigrated America have been the
to
We may not be able to make Americans enterprising elements, clear-headed and
of the first generation of our immigrants full of spirit, who dared to cut loose from

unless they come to us in childhood, but the past and venture everything in order to
we never fail to cast the second generation win religious and political freedom and
in the American mold. Our schools and better economic conditions.
early environment are irresistible influences The nineteenth-century immigrants met
of assimilation. Even
some of our large
in their colonial predecessors, then, on com-
cities, where first generation immigrants mon ground. They came to have a share
have tried to transplant the Old World, in the "government by the consent of the
the second generation proves refractory to governed" that the older stock had es-
what it instinctively feels are exotic in- tablished. If they had not appreciated to
stitutions. the full the advantages of the New-World
By American census, thirteen
the last democracy, they would not have come.
million Americans were of foreign birth, They were ripe for assimilation from the
and nineteen other millions were born of moment they landed on our shores. The
foreign parents. An additional five mil- American immigration of each succeeding
lions have gone from Europe to America generation, far from threatening to destroy
since the census of 1910, and the foreign our institutions, has strengthened them.
born already in the United States have Through the immigrants, indeed, Ameri-
been more prolific than the native born. cans of older stock have been constantly
Is it to be presumed that this large por- reminded of their blessings under the
tion of our population has not brought to New- World dispensation.
America know-
a keen, intimate, personal
ledge of the ills from which Europe is 1 The criticism that the American attitude is because of

suffering? Do not our American Poles, ignorance through distance has as sponsor Premier Lloyd-
George, who in a recent Abraham Lincoln's birthday-
Irish, Germans, Bohemians, and Jews
message to " The New York Times" said " It has been :

know what political and religious perse- difficult for a nation separated from Europe by an ocean
cution means? Do not our immigrants and without political relations with the European peoples
to grasp the true significance of this war," etc. Mr.
hold in detestation racial antagonisms and
Lloyd-George is one of the most insular of Englishmen,
the crushing taxation due to the main- who knows as lif^le about the United States as he knows
tenance and increase of armies and navies? about the nations of continental Europe. Not more than
Is it forgotten that the foreign elements ten per cent, of the population of the British Isles has any
connection with Europe, and the connection of that ten
of the American electorate, inspired by
per cent, is extremely slight. Forty per cent, of the peo-
their own bitter experience in Europe, ple in the United States have an intimate connection
were solidly opposed to the wave of im- with Europe from the I'ral Mountains to the North Sea.
154 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
The Monroe Doctrine was established, good in the foundation and development
and has been constantly upheld, by the of our own national life, and which we are
American people. They were unwilling making the basic principle of our own
to have the baneful handicaps because of foreign policy? We
cannot be convinced
which they had left the Old World follow by the polemicists and partizans of either
them to the New World. Nearly a group of belligerents that the panacea for
century of history has proved the wisdom the world's woes is the destruction of
and the success of the Monroe Doctrine. Great Britain's naval supremacy or of
The United States has been able to keep Germany's military supremacy. Nor, de-
out of entangling alliances, and to pro- spite our horror and detestation of what
tect every other American republic from Jews and Poles and Armenians and Bel-
the inevitably disastrous results of the in- gians and Serbians are being made to suffer,
heritance of European racial rivalry do we think that the punishment of and a
through the extension of European im- change in the political status of Russia,
perialism. Turkey, Germany, and Austria-Hungary
To-day Europe is looking to her chil- would prevent the renewal in the very near
dren in America for aid in establishing a future of wrongs inflicted upon small and
world peace. We are willing, we are weak nations. With President Wilson
eager, to give that aid ; but how can we we propose "government by the consent
offer to Europe any other solution than of the governed" as the formula for the re-
that which we have tested and proved adjustment of the world.

Paris, February 20, 191 7. Herbert Adams Gibbons.

A Correction
Mr. Harold Kellock, in his article, ard bill under consideration, at the request
"Fair Play for the Railroads," in the Feb- of the executive committee of the National
ruary issue, made the following statement Association of Railroad Commissioners, of
which he was then president, presented the
Thereafter Senator Shepard of Texas in-

troduced a
fact that the National Association of Rail-
bill in the Senate to abolish the
road Commissioners had indorsed the prin-
doctrine of the Shreveport case. In a hear-
ing on this bill
ciple of the Shepard bill. Although at the
it developed that while Loui-
instance of certain Virginia shippers the
siana was protesting against rate discrimi-
Virginia commission had filed a petition
nation on the part of Texas, the city of
with the Interstate Commerce Commis-
Natchez, in Mississippi, was making a simi-
sion complaining of certain interstate rates
lar protest against the action of Louisiana in
which had been prescribed by the Inter-
which excluded the business men
fixing rates
state Commerce Commission, neither the
of Natchez from the Louisiana markets.
Virginia commission nor Judge Prentis
Moreover, one of those who appeared in
while a member of that commission had
favor of the bill was Judge Prentis, chair-
ever made any complaint before the Inter-
man of the Virginia railroad commission,
state Commerce Commission of intrastate
which was at that time complaining that the
rates in North Carolina which had been
state rate-fixers in North Carolina had dis-
prescribed by the North Carolina commis-
criminated against Virginia cities.
sion and Judge Prentis's appearance and
;

We are informed that this statement is action before the Senate committee was in
not exactly correct, but that, in fact, no way inconsistent with any action of his
Judge Prentis, when he appeared before while he was a member of the Virginia
the Senate committee which had the Shep- commission. The Editor.
"King Lear"
By EDWIN A. ABBEY

YEARS ago, when Edwin A. Abbey was known the world over as
America's best illustrator in pen and ink, he had already become a
student of the tragedies and comedies of Shakspere. He turned to them
instinctively as offering fitting themes for his peculiar genius. At that

time, too, he made exhaustive studies of the costumes of the periods and
countries of Shakspere's plays. It was therefore in no way a surprise
when in 1898 he exhibited for the first time, at the Royal Academy, his

large and important canvas, the "King Lear." He chose the lines in
Act I, Scene I, in which Cordelia makes her farewell address to her two
elder sisters, Reffan and Goneril, after the king renounces her, his young-
est daughter, for her seeming lack of filial love.

Cordelia, in a flowing gown of creamy white, occupies the center of


the canvas. From underneath a purple hood falls a long braid of twisted
auburn hair. She turns her face, sad but beautiful, toward her sisters

and bids them farewell. Regan, holding the heavy folds of her deep-red
draperies in her outstretched hands, receives Cordelia's message with a
more austere and haughty Goneril, robed in a
cynical smile, while the
gown from her shoulders, stands unmoved.
of black that falls in folds
The young King of France, all sympathy for the unfortunate youngest
daughter, stands just back of her, and is in the act of stooping to kiss
her hand. His costume of greenish blue forms a pleasing transition note
from the lighter garment of Cordelia to the rich tapestry just beyond.

Leaning heavily on the shoulders of two 30ung attendants, the aged


king takes his departure.
Not only did the dramatic situation in this incident appeal to Abbey,
but he had the true painter's eye for the beauty and color of the cos-
tumes, and with a master's skill has woven them into every inch of his

composition. Moreover, Abbey has here shown his love of varying tex-
tures, for the costumes are painted with a free, sweeping movement, while
the faces and hands are wrought with greater technical care. Forming
a background across the canvas is a rug, sumptuous and elegant, which

falls well to the mosaic floor of the great hall.


The "King Lear" was a success from the first, and though later ex-

hibited in many places, was always the sensation of the occasion. It is

fifty-four inches high and one hundred and twenty-seven inches wide.
It was presented to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, by
Mr. George A. Hearn. A. T. Van Laer.
(
See frontispiece to this tiJimder)
HTER VEI]

Fixing Up the Balkans


By FREDERICK LEWIS ALLEN

THE
me
other day Travers approached
in the club with a large book
"I wish you
the thing in
'd

your
tell me how you
head," I w^ent
keep
on.
under his arm and a conversational ex- "They all sound so much alike. Now, if

pression on his face, and I knew we were you asked me riglit off what country
in for settling the affairs of the universe. Bukharest is in, I 'd probably guess
Travers was always a perfectly normal wrong."
person till one day he overheard somebody "Come, come, you 're exaggerating!"
calling him an interesting young fellow. cried Travers, laughing heartily. And
Ever since then he has regarded himself then a queer thing happened. The laugh
as a thoughtful person with an intelligent lost its heartiness and died away, his ex-
eye for national and international prob- pression suddenly grew vague, and with a
lems, and has busied himself broadening gloating heart I realized that he was chas-
his outlook. His outlook is now so broad ing Bukharest up and down his mind in
that he takes a personal interest in the the frantic hope of locating it. He
Brazilian elections and loses sleep over a changed the subject abruptly.
famine in Abyssinia. I drew a long breath "This book I 've been reading," he ex-
as he approached, and waited. plained, "brings out a good many points
"I 've been reading an astonishing book that most of us have not understood in
on the Balkan situation," said Travers, the past. It is virtually a comprehensive
seating himself beside me, taking off his attempt to redraw the map of the Balkans
ej'e-glasses, and assuming his most intelli- on the basis of nationality."
gent manner. "You 're interested in the "Indeed," said I. "How fascinating!"
Balkans, are n't you?" "The situation in Slovenia is particu-
"Theoretically, yes," I replied. "I 've larly striking," pursued Travers. "Ever
read lots of stuff" about them, but for prac- since the ascendancy of Peter XXVIII
tical purposes it 's no good; I can't keep and the Ruthenian Alliance, the Croatian
them straight. As far as I 'm concerned, element has been fiercely nationalist. This
the Balkan problem is to remember whicii book" — here he laid a persuasive fore-
is which." finger upon the tome which he carried —
"Oh, but you must," said Travers, "this book tells the full story of the perse-
kindly, but firmly. "If people in this cutions of '75 which culminated in the
country don't keep in touch with the sub- massacre of '92. Under the leadership of
ject, what will become of the Balkans?" Fedora Pushpush, the ardent Croatians
"Is that a conundrum?" I asked. "I used to meet in a humble garret over a
hope not; I 'm only fair at the Balkans, cheese-shop in Nish, and teach each other
but T 'm rotten at conundrums. I give the folk-songs of their native highlands,
it up." and drill the little children in the Croatian
Travers seemed a little put out. alphabet, which has no 1, x, or w. At
150
IN LIGHTER VEIN 157

times they dauntlessly held their spelling- "Some authorities," he began in a pon-
bees while the police were gathered in the derous manner, "and, I may add, the bulk
very room beneath, drinking the native of the Pan-Ukrainian irredentist faction,
drink of the Magyars, which is a com- favor the partition of the mountain region
pound of cheeses. Then came the massa- on the basis of equal shares in the riches
cre of '92. The spelling-books were all of Bgosh, which, with its celebrated de-
burned, the folk-songs torn bar from bar posits of ores, is destined to be the com-
and thrown into the river. Yet the Croa- mercial center. These authorities would
tian spirit remains acutely nationalist, not make Bgosh a neutral province, under in-
to say irredentist. And in the face of ternational jurisdiction, and allow all na-
this," concluded Travers, his voice rising, tions equal access to it. The disposition
"the chancelleries of Europe would draw of the Balkans would then be somewhat
the map of the Balkans without regard as follows." He produced a map:
for the inalienable rights and insatiable

ambitions of this small people!"


"Perhaps there are other elements in the
problem," I suggested timidly. J/ J'X \
"Yes," admitted Travers, "there are
also the Pan-Albanians, whose aspirations
include the valuable mineral deposits in
the hills north of Nish. And the district
isclaimed also by the Ukrairaans, from
whom it was taken in 1836 after the Bul-
gar-Slovenian riots forced Peter XXXIV^
to assume Slavic suzerainty over it. And
there is also strong Mohammedan influ-

ence at work to gain proportionate repre-


sentation in the Vodka, or county assem-
bly, to say nothing of the Macedonian
agents secretly intriguing to open the
pepper-mines of the interior to communica-
tion by water with the Black Sea."
"The problem looks simpler every min-
ute," I replied gratefully. "I 'd go right "It looks like a pie," I commented
ahead with were you. And when
it if I finally.

you Ve got the answer, come right around "In a sense it is a pie," replied Travers,
and tell me. I want to be in on this." much struck with the idea. "A mince-pie

"Don't be silly," said Travers, rising of nationalities, let us say." He paused a


and putting on his glasses again. "You 'd moment in quiet appreciation of this con-

look at the thing differently if you read ceit. "But we are wandering from the
this book. It 's most enlightening ; really subject.

an exceedingly able presentation." And "Other authorities wish to apply a dif-

he wandered away to convert somebody ferent principle— that of language. Such


else to the rearrangement of the near East. a redistribution of territory would be di-

But the next day, just as I was settling rectly in line with the aspirations of the
down for a quiet cigar in the reading- Lithuanians, Bessarabians, and other racial
room, Travers spied me again ; and before groups. And of course there is the prece-

I could slip out the side door he bore down dent of the Treaty of Sophia."
on me with his solutions of the Balkan "Of course," said I. "The very treaty
problem. He had a lot of maps with him. I had in mind."
I could see that the near East had gone to "Such a plan," continued Travers,
his head. "would necessitate a re^•ision of the map
158 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
on a radically differentprinciple, which magnifying-glass. I have the map here,
would make allowance for the doubtful and I am confident that it represents the
districts, where two languages struggle final answer, I have n't put on the names,
for preeminence. The Balkans would but that 's only because there is n't room
emerge, perhaps, in a scheme something for them. See!" And he produced a
like this." He pulled out a second map: third map

I looked at the map for a moment in "Travers, old man," I said reverently,
astonishment. "you 've solved it."
"That 's very interesting," I said. "By He smiled a beatific smile.
the way, remind me to tell you the story "I think I have," he replied modestly.
about the conjurer and the ring-trick." "But would n't you like me to loan you
But Travers swept on ; there was no this book? It explains how the Bessa-
stopping him. rabians, whose hinterlands are given over
"The bulk of enlightened opinion, how- to the cultivation of the hgoUi, or creep-
ever," he announced, "contends that the ing onion, the fiber of which is used ex-
basis of a permanent settlement must rec- tensively in the manufacture of Turkish
ognize the rights of small nations." bath-mats, rebelled in 1883 against the
"Bravo, Travers!" I cried. "And don't royalists under Peter XXXVII, also
forget this: the smaller the nations, the called Peter the Mongrel, and leaving the
more permanent the settlement." onion fields

"Precisely," he replied in a tone of tri- I heard no more, for already I was
umph. "That is our central principle. sneaking out the side door to safety. Poor
According to these authorities, the nations Travers ! For all I know he is still there,
should be made so small as to be almost instructing my empty chair in the political
invisible, at least without the aid of a ambitions of the Balkan Peninsula.

'^f^^S'-^^K^^^^'^
IN LIGHTER VEIN 159

Next to Pure Reading Matter


By E. L. McKINNEY

YOUOf of a hundred changing gowns,


fashions multifarious,
One hand on hip, one held just so.
One knee half bent, pose dcgage.
Child of a thousand different towns, Face feelingless but who may know ;

Monotonously various, What you may think, what you might


I 've seen you dressed for woods say!
and sea Features fated fore'er to be
In half a hundred stales— and stages, Youthful and fair throughout the ages,
From dishabille to dancing tea, A haunting, hopeless mystery
Maid of the Advertising Pages. Made of the Advertising Pages.

My Club Life

By PARKHURST WHITNEY

FROM the moment that Beardsley put for my guest-card and give me a chance
me up at the Cambridge Club dates to sleep nights and enjoy my days in
"
a nightmare of fourteen days' duration. peace.'
For two weeks, Beardsley told me, the Of course I never did.
were mine I could
privileges of the place ; At the beginning of the second week I
sit in the comfortable chairs, read the instituted a new campaign to force a
magazines, sign checks for anything, and crisis: I began to sign checks. I hoped
give tips to no one. that by running up a big bill* I would
Then he gave me a guest-card. arouse suspicion and put the club manager
"If the servants ask any questions," he on my trail.

said, "just show them the card." I would


start the day by ordering the
No questions were asked the first day most expensive breakfast the club kitchen
or the next, and when a third day passed provided. In the middle of the morning
uneventfully began to worry. Far from
I I would return for a light luncheon of

fearing a quizzing, I courted it I wanted ; three or four expensive items. In the af-
to be held up at the outsetand get the ternoon I would come in for coffee and
ordeal over. I hate having things hang- cakes. At night I surpassed all previous
ing over me, efforts of the day.
I began to haunt the club. A mad de- I had my shoes polished every time I

sire to be questioned virtually superseded entered ; sometimes I would order the boy
every other ambition. Whenever I had a to do them twice at one sitting. During
spare half-hour I would drop in and roam the evening I 'd sit in the most remote
around, purposely getting in the way of corner of the library and ring insistently
as many servants as possible. for special service.
"Now, Stiggins, old man," I 'd argue, At the end of four days my account
"you must get this thing off your mind be- totalled eighty-seven, and I had n't even
fore you leave to-day. If necessary, go received a suspicious look.
up to the kindliest-looking servant and Then I began to bother the club mem-
say: Tor God's sake, old chap, do me a bers; if the servants would persist in ig-
favor. I have a right to be here, and I noring me, I concluded, I 'd see what
can prove it, and I want to prove it. Ask could be done with their masters.
160 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
I. would enter the reading-room, seize The servant was a big fellow, the big-
half a dozen new magazines, and sit on gestand most formidable one I had seen
five while I read one. Whenever I needed around the house. For a time I watched
an ash-tray, I took it from a table where him straighten up the magazines on the
two or three men sat smoking. I 'd long library table.
glower at them as I bore it away. I would And then I saw him heading for me.
elbow them roughly as they waited for "It 's come," I gasped; "it 's come. He
their coats in the check-room. I tried knows that were a Cambridge man
if I

every objectionable trick of which I am I 'd be in the bar on such a night."

master, hoping that some one would get I fumbled in an inside pocket for my

mad and ask who the devil I was. guest-card. It was n't there. I fumbled

I failed completely. in an outside pocket; it was n't there. I


When the last hours of my two weeks fumbled in all my pockets; it was n't an}'-
arrived I was a nervous wreck. For thir- where. I had left it in another suit.
teen days I had lived
in torment. All my It was too late to run. The fellow was
life Ihad longed to be a member of a club upon me ; in fact, he had me cornered. I
and sign checks and give orders to waiters trembled slightly as he picked up the
and never give tips. The chance had come empty ginger-ale bottle at my elbow. He
and gone, and it had been such an experi- looked just the sort who would break it

ence as I never wished to duplicate. over my head first, and ask questions af-
Too jumpy to enjoy myself, too tired to terward.
try any new scheme, I spent the last eve- "Well
—" I gurgled. I intended to
ning crouched on a lounge in the reading- protest that I was entitled to one more
room, trying to digest a treatise on auto- hour.
mobile engines. It was the night before "Beg pardon, sir," he said; "but I sup-
the big foot-ball game, and I and a ser- pose you '11 be going up to the game with
vant were alone in the room. all the other old Cambridge men, sir."

It Does Make a Difference, Wordsworth, What?


By CHARLES BAKER GILBERT

THOID Avenue was where she lived. She was a foist-rate little lass,
This maid; or, rather, goil Quite voituous was she;
Naught knew she of the springs of Dove; But when she sounded R, alas!
This Lucy's name was Foil. The difference to me
K^J^Ei^
^
Public Libracy,

^,
;

Vol. q4
Pulifrarary, 1
URY

Fashioning the Hollow Oak


By RICHARD IVIATTHEWS HALLET
AutlK.r of" " The Lady Aft," "Trial by Fire," etc.

Illustrations by W. J. Aylwaid

NOT long ago we had


ing ships in our town.
stopped build-
No keels
Golden Fleece may still serve to reward
the quest of wooden argosies. Glittering
were being laid, the chips were gray in tales were told of ships in the African
the yards, and the very bed-logs on which mahogany trade paying for themselves out
the hulls of some of the fleetest and most of the profits of a single voyage. And
famous ships in all the world had first then overnight we shook off the "Giant
been pitched now rotted away. Even the Lethargy" and began to build ships again.
reminiscence of seamanship had grown One morning I found old Judson in a

dim, and of the old builders there re- dusty mold-loft, "fairly down on his mar-
mained nothing but their shells, decayed row-bones again," as he confessed, and
old mansions on the river-front, with woe- laying down the lines of a new vessel.
ful port-holes staring from under shaggy There was a wonderful tangle of lines

eaves in the direction of departed ships. on that smooth floor. A great number of
Things had come to such a pass that old vessels long since broken up, or left to

Judson was heard to say mournfully that rot in Hospital Cove, stared up at him
never again in this life would he see a there. They came up one by one to the
raft of Eastern mixed timbers floating tender tracing of his thumb, and towered
down the river. before him, redolent of tar, invincibly
The pale monster Steam had gobbled hewn and bolted. Or
had seemed so it

all, it seemed. White wings had vanished but for the most part they were only
from the seas like cut cobwebs from old wraith ships now, dismantled, dead, and
rafters. A great pity and a crying shame, gone, early loves, old charges, some of
Judson averred. He would not concede which he had built, some of which he had
himself to be afloat in steam.The hollow sailed, at least one of which had foundered
oak mansion was, with Eastern mixed
his under him in an open seaway.
substituted in the place of nobler woods, "I whittled them out first," he said
it must be added. Oak, the king of woods, softly, and hummed a little tune. He had
has come to be scarcer than hen's teeth whittled them out. It was even so. Men
in our neck of the woods. of this day speak reverently of the powers
Then came delectable evidence that the of that mighty sculptor who had held
Copyright. 1917, by THE CentUKV Co. All righl

IGl
162 THE CExNTURY MAGAZINE
great ships, like infants, in the hollow of the imposition of the ship itself. The
his hand; projected them entire from a keel comes first; and it must bear and
block of wood, and pronounced them sea- suffer all.

worthy while they were still no more than And now


the yard was growing yellow
trees "up north." He launched them first and spongy as of old stinging fragrance of
;

on invisible ways. pine mingled with sourness of oak and ;

Halc3'on days! A good many men chips flourished like wavelets in a wooden
might have been found then to whittle out ocean. Faces were seen hovering over the
a model of a ship, but they have passed, keel-blocks strange to the new generation
and old Judson is alone in his proficiency. — faces of ancient ship carpenters derelict
His knowledge and his cunning are these many years, outcast, forgotten.
unique. He bears himself a trifle austerely But smoldered in them. In
the art still

in consequence. There are no more like these finger-ends and shoulder-joints ax-
him. Do you see what that may mean in cunning still persisted. The knowledge
an age when human parts, no less than of the workman, as of the master work-
iron, are now well standardized? man, is learned in a hard school, handed
"Here 's the James K. Whitehead, down to him by word of mouth or ush-
now," murmured Judson, as who should ered into him by salutation of foot while
say, "Alas! poor Yorick!" "She went he is young.
I asked old Judson if there

down here last winter off Falmouth with was not book on building wooden ships,
a
a load of paving-stone. I was well out of and he said he thought there was. It
her, however. I had only a sixty-fourth seemed to him that he had heard tell of
in her. There 's the floor timbers of the one. Well, he had built ships enough to
Sally Hooper. One of the last vessels I know for certain if books had been neces-
had a hand in. Burned at sea." sary to the building. Knowledge had
He stared sorrowfully, picking them up seeped into him, rather. Very possibly all
from memory, proud ships, swift ships, his life he had been porous to the fluid
showing the East Indian fleet a clean pair solicitations of this science.
of heels. Strong ships, too, as strong as A shipyard makes a wonderful loafing-
wit of man and weight of oak could make ground. What better, place to "bask and
them ; but yet these myriad blurred lines dream" on summer mornings, listening to
were all that remained of them, and even the snarl of the mill, the tramp of great
these indistinguishable to all but Judson. horses on the spongy soil, the multitu-
"They don't much outlive a dog," he dinous knocking, tumult of woods, clink
told me in sad tones. "Fifteen years' in- of chains, creak and whine of tackle, and
surance at the most." the stutter of the riveters? The blue
And now he was sending men into the foaming among tlie bed-
river rushes past,
north woods to cut the frames for still logs aft;and there, just out of reach, the
another, which is to say, the ribs according fat, yellow bones of the new sea ad-
to the molds, and the molds according to venturer hang glistening. Beginning aft,
the lines traced on the loft floor. Nature they haul them into place, eight ribs a
is generous and variable. A grain will be day on each side. To articulate the skel-
found somewhere among her knotty roots eton of a ship seems as easy as to weave a
to flow precisely as these molds require. basket. Indeed, with the frame "hung
Planking may be steamed, but the ribs of up," as the expression goes, she looks much
the ship must grow to their destiny un- like some great yellow market-basket of
forced, even from the dreaming heart of the gods, ready for wattling.
the acorn. And now they swing the stem-piece
But long before these frames were into place, the very nose of her, of oak de-
floated down the river a keel had been cidedly, and painted robin's-egg blue. The
square-hewn, shod, hair-jointed, painted stem is held at the proper slant by giant
red, and left on the keel-blocks to await shears, taking heavy purchase, until the
ii

CUTTING THE TIMBER

frames can be brought forward to fill the an inviting gesture he shouldered his way
gap. This single stick of wood, rough between two of her ribs on the port bow.
hewn though it still is, has cost the builder "But she has the spine of a sperm-whale
close to three hundred dollars in the labor already."
of axes. He pointed to the great keelson atop
At this stage there is to be noted the the keel, and the sister keelsons bedded
terrific provisional character of the ship. deep on each side.
In her frames alone she is without "Strong as mortal man can make them,"
strength, a very egg-shell ; then day by he rumbled, "and still not strong enough.
day, plank by plank, bolt by bolt, seam by There 's a last straw waiting somewhere
seam, she stiffens and catches the support out yonder to break the back of this
of her spine. Her strength, like the camel, and never you forget it."

strength of man, perhaps, is only the sum Still, acknowledging her weakness, he
total of blows dealt her from without. surveyed her with pride, and found her
The treenail-drivers alone hit her, on a worthy of a birth-certificate at least.
sober calculation, half a million times. "Planking will bring out her lines," he
"She has n't a leg to stand on yet," assured me. "I want you to watch for the
Judson said at a time when she had yet out-plank gang."
to feel the constraint of planking. With He was right. The subtilities of the
164 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
ship-builder's craft are perhaps best dis- A horse dragged end of
it smoking at the
played in the out-planking, for this is the hook and chain bow, and
to the port
true skin and much-enduring cuticle of there a cry of "Hot plank!" went up from
the ship, and must be veritably sweated the leader of the axmen. Those eight
on in such wise that it will stand sea grief. robust reasons why plank should not be
One balmy morning I saw steam spurt- sawed, but axed, rather, dropped their
ing from the rusted corners of the steam- axes, girded their loins, took up the plank,
box, and noted a line of coffee-cans warm- walked it to the side of the ship, and
ing at the top against the noon-hour. clapped it into place.
Down in the shadow of the ship the broad- "This is the first plank of the upper
ax-men were hew^ing mightily to the line garboard-strake," said Judson. "Watch
and not a hair over,. all with that easy and it curl. Did ever you see the like ? Five
disregardful motion learned in the good inches through, and by heaven ! it lays
old days. The good old days, as Judson down like you
butter in a tub. I tell

might say, when air-driven augers were what, ability to make a wagon %poke is
unheard of, when twenty axmen were in no sign that 30U can build a ship. There
requisition in place of eight, and when is n't a straight line here. The bevel of
men carried beams into the ship on their that plank changes every foot or so. Hah,
own shoulders, and shirts not infrequently hear it sing! They '11 have it sprung in

stuck before nightfall to the over-driven in a jif¥}'."

flesh. Efficiency was never heard of then, The broadax-men, seemingly beyond
and yet ships staggeredsomehow into fear of superannuation, sang all together
being, notwithstanding. on the plank:
"I hate to be cramped the way I am for "Ye ho! Come to you a trifle! Now,
!"
axmen," said Judson in my ear. hold hard
"I have heard talk of using a band-saw The planking boss applied a self-hold-
on those planks to get the bevel, in place ing screw, like an iron leech, to the for-
of axmen," I said. "I should think that ward end of the plank. But could it then
would be faster business." be sprung in against the ribs all its length,
Judson tweaked his hairy nose and seeing that here, on a fairway of twenty
looked at me with a bleak eye. feet, the surface of the oak must be twisted
"What kind of consideration is that until it was at right angles with itself?
showing to broadax-men?" he inquired. Ring-bolts hung above and below the be-
I answered nothing, and to clench me leaguered plank, and through these giant
he threw out this: rings they thrust battered, sledge-bitten
"Then, again, if I let those axmen go, logs; "ringstaffs," they are called. These
who is going to carry the plank to the side in place, they drove in oak wedges be-
of the ship, I wonder?" tween the staffs and the outer surface of
Who indeed? Do you suggest a tackle the plank; and as they sledged, the plank
of some sort? A hoist? It is not so that began to sink to its seam, creaking. Creak,
it was done of old. Did not the Egyptians creak.
carry plank to the ship on their shoulders? "Every time. Drj welt her home! Oh,
!"
The patriarchs of the yard would view spring her in
with grave mistrust a ship which had been They tortured the plank with an ap-
treated to too liberal a dose of the band- plication of pressure every way, top side
saw. Rats might not go aboard such a and bottom and face.
side, butt, bevel,
ship, and in that case it would be more The prying genius of oaken wedges forced
than the devil and Tom Walker could do the plank until it seemed as if the wood
together to ship a crew. itself must disintegrate, so huge its un-

As if to verify Judson in his argument, willingness to be wrung, so grievous the


a plank that had been steaming half an urgency of the wringing. The self-hold-
hour was drawn out of the steam-box. ing screw forward bit deep into the grain,
X '

MAKING THE MODEL

and the oak bulged and protested. A "Wood to wood," sang the axmen,
vesselsurely is born with agony to her jocularly.
timbers. The grizzled planker shoved his rule
"Look there," said Judson, "she must into the seam. The outer edges of it were
be sprung in close, she must be snugged in quite a quarter of an inch apart. Was it,

all she will hold once and for all. All the then, wood to wood, inch for inch, on the
spikes and trunnels in the world won't inner seam?
draw her closer than she can be wedged. "^Vood to wood is the theory of plank-
They have all they can do to hold what ing," said Judson; "but there is room
the wedges win." enough for theory inside the ship. It

1G5
166 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
goes better in the cargo than in the seams, as they are called ? What but wooden
eh? Look here, I have had men here spikes — tree nails in good truth — by means
daft enough to say that the plank ought of which chiefly the vessel is pegged to-
to come down you can't shove so
until gether. Wood makes a stronger fastener
much as the point of a case-knife through than iron for a wooden ship. Fiber en-
that inner seam= Well, consider. Those gages fiber; wood has a better "cling"
planks, in the nature of things, are going than metal ; and once fairly lodged in the
to soak and swell and then,
;^
sir, if they frame, these wooden pegs become incor-
have n't a trifle of elbow-room at the seam, porated with the ship, as much so as if it
they will draw their butt-bolts to get it. had grown one skin. Treenails play with
I don't know anything more wilful than the ship, yield as the planks yield, and re-
an underwater plank when it don't lay turn as they do ; whereas iron, if it should
comfortable. A sick boy won't thrash draw or move with some wrenching of the
around any more." ship's side, holds its new angle intractably,
What was to be avoided, he said, w^as a and never subordinates itself to the person-
hollow seam and that was where the
; ality of the hull.
planks were farther apart on the inner Treenails above the water-line are made
seam than on the outer. of locust, the fiber of which does not
"A ship with hollow seams will spew shrink; under water, chiefly of greenheart
her oakum, no matter how you boss it into oak.
her." The treenail-drivers, ranging them-
He fastened his eye upon the ship's dub- selves along the plank, dipped the tree-
ber, away up forward. That man was nail ends in grease, and stepped them in
snapping chalked twine, like a spar-maker the holes appointed. Next they went at
getting his "eights." He had nailed the them with silver-nosed mauls, and pelted
ends of and now he picked it up like a
it, them smartly in. "Tick, tock; tick, tock."
harpstring, and twanged it against the The handle of the maul slid loosely in
crude and unfair ribs. A chalk-line re- the web of the right thumb. The wielder
sulted, jumping from rib to rib, for the thereof never closed his right hand tight;
space of eight or ten ribs. The dubber indeed, did not appear even to watch the
lifted his adz, and began to hew away treenail-head, but the maid traveled ir-
shavings of the thickness of rice-paper. resistibly, as if in an air groove appointed
He was responsible for the true sculptur- to it. The pitch of the treenail music goes
ing of the ship ; the planks can no more ringing higher and higher with each
than bend themselves to his lines. stroke ; there isno sound more heartening
"In the old days before the fairing pro- it is, in fact, the most musical of all the
them up by the naked
cess they used to fair ship's noises. I should suppose the xylo-
eye," said Judson. "Stand at the stem phone might have been invented by a
and squint your eye down port and star- treenail-driver.
board, and decide to take off a leetle mite The alternated strokes of the treenail-
here and a leetle mite there. And that drivers have an automatism like the move-
was why those old ships were sometimes ment of a clock; and, as with the clock a
crabs on the port tack, while they would strong beat is followed by a weak one, so
nestle down to starboard like a lady, and with the treenail strokes where an old man
contrariwise." and a young one work together. The
Now came the treenail-gang to fasten treenails speak sweetly, and with a frosty
the plank. First, men with augers, who tang in the utterance, while the treenailers
bored through the plank, two holes at sway and sledge, sway and sledge, in a
each rib, the upper one going clear fine-spun and with a languid,
reverie,
through the skin of the ship; and then the dream-like, yet powerful motion. It seems
treenail-drivers. as if they might be set to driving treenails
What, then, are treenails, or "trunnels," in their sleep and never get enough of it.
FASHIONING THE HOLLOW OAK 167

It has, in fact, a medicinal value, it ap- in its length which suggested the merciless
pears. It is in the tradition of one yard convexity of the mast.
that a rich young man cured himself of "What thickness, Mr. Spar-maker?"
sleeping lethargy by driving treenails. It "Thirty inches at the heel."
'is further averred that this same young "Something better than a toothpick, I

man became so clever with his tools that believe."

Jiy^\
}^.^m--4

THE SHIP IN FRAME

he could set a treenail-end on a kid glove "A bean-pole. I 've seen 'em go as high
and bring the wood to a point with his as thirty-six."
ax, and yet not so much as graze the Resinous shavings writhed upward
leather. Very little of this wizardry of through the body of his fascinating plane.
the craft is left now. Great shavings and small shavings and
"There, now," said Judson, "that plank very meticulous shavings and shavings that
is on for keeps." were no shavings, all to the crisp tune of
"You think it will hang on?" well-conditioned steel engaging wood.
"Like grim death to a rusty nigger," he That was evidently intent on
old fellow
replied. outdoing smoothness itself. Each shaving
was a deep and perfumed satisfaction to
When the ship was only partly planked, the heart.
the spar-maker began to fashion her four As a boy I used to stand by the hour,
lower masts. Day by day he shaped those slack-witted, tranced, to behold planes
ninety-foot-octagonal-butted sticks into and drawing-knives slither over and back,
miraculous roundness where they lay in over and back, on that yellow, gleaming
theshadow of the ship. In the late after- round. Smooth, smoother, smoothest.
noon their satiny surfaces were all one Now, now at last the thing is smooth
blinding yellow glare from the slanted and then, when it seems as if the very
rays of the sun. desideratum of smoothness has been
"Smooth as a girl's cheek, I guess," said reached, yet another shaving. A haunting
the spar-maker. mystery is spar-making.
His stooped and ape-like old body
swayed fore and aft to accompany his Ox pleasant evenings critics collected
plane. His body had a chronic concavity in the shadow of the ship, sitting on the
168 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
dewy spars, prowling through her ribs, or, I took note of the massive hanging-knees
at a later stage, peering thoughtfully which support the deck-beams — knees as
dcwn her hatches. They came through thick as knees of elephants. Frail and
the dusk and shook their heads sadly over withered the hand of the builder as it
what they saw. The old order changeth. rested on the vertebrae of that tremendous
The ship had no lines, they said, for one spine. He was a midge engulfed in the
thing. There was no sharpness in her bowels of that leviathan, no more to look
bow, and no sweetness in her stern. She at than Jonah in the belly of the whale.
was a very moonfish in design, a century Yet he had bodied forth and launched
old while still lying in her cradle. The into the services of men many such. Some
deck-houses were too high ; they should were living and some were sunk in
yet,
have been saddled, and not framed. Oh, the mud-flat at Hospital Cove, eaten to
the bitter workmanship of these degen- the heart with the slow fires which burn
erate days! the old iron out of them. A sad con-
But the vessel, the thing in itself, de- trast w^ith these fat, yellow bones, their
fied them, shriveled them with her mottled surfaces newly axed. And yet,
monstrous bulk, and made criticism a as for the new ship, with her nose now
thing of naught in the presence of her pointed so disdainfully heavenward for
invincible strength. ease of launching, "let her paint an inch
Was she, then. so mvmci bk Froi thick, to this favor she must come."
her deck the blackened bones of ships in "Maybe, if she was to batter on a reef,
Hospital Cove rose up in serried ranks she would break up in course of time,
to confute so proud a claim. What had but never in an open seaway," affirmed the
old Judson sorrowfully said ? She would deck-planking boss.
not much outlast a dog. "They will crack in a seaway," said a
"She looks as if she would never break sad voice behind us, the voice of Judson.
up in this world," I said one afternoon to "Well, maybe some ships, but not those
the boss of the deck-planking gang. they used to put what you could call
"Look you there," he answered, with workmanship into. Why, man alive, I
a gesture into the gigantic oak-and-pine have been away from here a good many
abysm at our feet. Mysterious bellowings years, but I remember in the old days
and rumblings proceeded out of it, as if one ship where the. keelsons were built
Victor Hugo's mad cannon were let loose up to a height of nearly five feet above
down there, or a consignment of wild the floor timbers. Do you suppose that
bulls. ever that would crack? It ain't in

"Come now below." reason."


We swung ourselves down to her floor "It would crack, yes," reaffirmed old
timbers. Judson. "It would crack if it was
There, running the length of the ship, plagued."
were the timbers making up keelson and He was seaman no less than builder.
sister keelsons, bedded together, thick-set He knew the power of ships, but he knew
and enormous, lock-scarfed, strapped with the power of the sea as well.
iron, bolted, a huge fagot of timbers, each "Never that ship," returned the
timber fourteen inches square at the butt, carpenter. "You should have seen the
a fagot two hundred feet long and nearly knees of her. The ceiling was nine inches
four feet square— the backbone of the ship, deep over her floor timbers, with a thick
no less. It staggered the imagination to streak of twelve inches at the bilge. She
peer into the gloomy recesses of that was oak all through. White oak, man,
echoing cavern, sofull and bold in the even the hanging-knees. Why, I remem-
jowl. Theseemed to have been
place ber going to the old man and saying,
hewn and hollowed out of one primeval 'Hack is oak for hanging-
better than
log, a dugout of incredible proportions. knees,' and he drew off and says, 'Jim,'
he saj-s, 'if there is anything grown better "Was she so?" returned old Judson.
than white oak, I don't want to see it "Well for me I 'm indestructible my-
"
coming aboard at my time of life.' self, then, for I 'm here to tell the tale,
"What was the name of that ship, and I was boson of her when she broke
Jim?" in two like a stick of candy."
"The bark Paraxon." "Broke in two!" muttered the carpen-
Judson took out of his pocket a black ter. "There was her backbone piled as
plug, and bit into it with a slow and \v>ise high as my chin. I could just reach up

motion. to it with my dinner-pail when I was


"The Paragon. By the merciful! old dubbing her floor timbers."
stager, you have been away from the coast "No matter, it went like that," said
these late years, I reckon." Judson, snapping between
a splinter
"True enough." thumb and finger. "We were coming
"Now, what would you say if I was to from New Caledonia loaded with nickel
tell you that that selfsame ship, the Para- ore, and one minute she was a solid ship,
gon, was lost like you say she could n't and next she hung out over a wave. Lord
have been lost, in an open seaway?" God, the devil, and Tom Walker could
"If it was any other living man telling n't have held her together then. She
me, I would say he lied," mumbled the foundered, and that 's mattef of record."
carpenter. "Of course, if you tell me—" "Where did she go?" inquired the ship's
"Exactly so." carpenter, more subdued.
"Ain't you thinking of some other ship, The watch
"Just for'ard of the beam.
blister? That Paragon was just in- below had come on deck to take in top-
destructible, if a ship ever was." sails; there was I whooping like mad on

IfiO
170 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
the yard-arm when there come a shudder "You 're a lucky man to be alive, in my
through her like as if she had stumbled opinion."
down went the yard I was on, cockbilled "The sea will never cheat the gallows,
to port, and there she was, opened just I reckon."
for'ard of the beam, as I say." The old builder went off to see to the
"You don't say!" said the shipman, sor- salting of his charge. For just as men
rowfully. "Opened." are salted in the blood stream, so, too, the
"Stood open like a grave. And next I ship must be salted. From fifty to three
knew the masts were going past my ears hundred hogsheads of salt are usually
like tall shadows." shaken down between her ribs before the
"Thirty-two inches at the butt they last few streaks of planking are put on.
were," murmured the carpenter, plain- This invisible cargo of salt, never un-
tively, twitching out a shaving from his loaded, but sometimes renewed by their
belt. "I can hear them now, as if it was salacious majesties, forms, with the in-
yesterday, entering the step. Just before evitable leak through the planking, a brine
the mainmast was hard down the old which trickles down and keeps her timbers
man slipped a five-dollar gold piece under sound, shiver though they may. At the
the heel of it for luck." line between wind and water, which is the
"Ship's luck is in the wind," retorted line of lightest load, there should be a
Judson. "Those masts were jolted out wooden salt-stop wedged in between the
of her, I tell you, like quills out of a ribs before the planking covers them.
porcupine. Snapped off short, and down Inside, air streaks are left in her ceil-
they came, and next a ring of foam around ing, — the planking on the inner surfaces of
the ship where she squatted down, and a the ribs, that is,— both for the renewing of
roaring over the fo'c'sle-head and then ; salt and to let in air upon her bones. A
it was lights out, and no more noise, and ship is an organism very imperfectly pro-
plump I went in the water like a kitten tected at best from the ravages of decay.
into a wash-boiler." She is weather-beaten even lying in her
"In the open sea, too!" repeated the cradle. Now, a ship's skin, like man's,
carpenter. "She was hung up as solid as must breathe ; or, like the gilded boy who
a fort, to all appearances." headed the pope's procession, she will
"Here you are building ships, and j'ou make a quick end by suffocation. Man,
don't know nothing about the power of therefore, in constructing this organism,
water," said the seaman, with the age- clumsily adopts the perfected devices of
old contempt of his tribe for the land nature, and lets in air and brine in goodly
where he had brought his bones to rest at measure to play upon her vitals. So it
length. "It staggers a man like all the is also that the leakiest boat which will

powers of hell rushing to the south. still float is the longest-lived and least

What 's a ship amount to in a wind ? Her subject to dry rot. Old barges hove to-
weight is what brings her to grief." gether like baskets for coal-carriers are
"That is mortal truth," replied the sound and sweet after the dear knows how
shipwright. "If only she had the strength long a service; and a packet that was put
there is the bolted frame, and the
in together tighter than a miser's dream of
weight of an egg-shell along with it, no heaven begins to stink between the wind
God's legion of pounding would break her and water in six or seven years. Then
up. She could stand any sickening when the insurance men open her flanks
quantity of grief then. But, sure enough, fore and aft, port and starboard, above
her weight stands in her way when it water and below, the rot can be scooped
comes to rocks and coral-reefs and the like out with a shovel. The poet truly says:
o' that."
"The best of 'em will come to grief," ies that fester smell fai than
said Judson. veeds.
FASHIONING THE HOLLOW OAK 171
At length the ship was planked, planed over the destined spot. And now a man
over all, the mellow clack of calking took the mast squarely between two huge
hammers resounded, and the time had and leathery palms. An instant he stood
come to pick up those afore-mentioned so, wrapt, considering, poised like a
bean-poles; in short, to step the masts.
They up mighty shear-poles on
raised
the deck over the foremast-hole. These
were crossed high in air a few feet from
their tips, and bound there with a great,
3^ellow shear-head lashing of twenty turns
or more of rope. These giant shears were
guyed fore and aft; their heels were
stepped port and starboard in movable
wooden sockets, which could be sledged
over a greased deck when it became neces-
sary to walk the shears from one mast-
hole to another.
From the head of the shears hung the
mast purchase, a block, or pulley, in which
was set an iron ring. This ring they low-
ered overside, and took twenty
turns of rope through it, and
around the mast, nearer the truck
than the heel — that is, nearer the
top than the bottom. The rope
led from this lashing to a block at the
top of the shears, thence to the stem of
the vessel, thence to a monstrous block
on the ground, and last of all seven turns
around the shining barrel of a horse-crab,
or windlass with a perpendicular drum.
Even as I watched, two heavy horses be-
gan to plow a black circle round the crab W» U
in the spongy dirt, the truck of the mast
upreared, and a man stationed on the
lashing itself began to shout out to his
subordinates: Snug in
"Slack the guy!
Get that gant-line higher
the heel there !

up! There! Hold that!"


He went on from this to a volley of
unintelligible, ringing yells, and the horses
revolving about the lustrous barrel of the
weather-beaten crab arched their necks
and seemed proud to exert their strength nil- KIGGHR
in so tremendous an employment.

Higher and higher the truck erected woman threading a needle with bated
itself with a stealthy motion, as if meaning breatli. The sun flashed from the brass
to surprise the ship and slink aboard un- rim of a horn grease-pot at his hip. Un-
observed. At length the heel itself was lessyou raised your eyes to the purchase
swung inboard ; the greasy, yellow stick and the crossed shears, you beheld him
reeled against the sky ; the shears quivered. holding the mast balanced by his own
With a handv-billv thev drew the heel might. The heel, notched half a foot deep
172 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
across its diameter moved an incli or two like the foot of an elephant on a match-
over and back. box.
!"
"Lov^'er away!" "Hard down
Thej' slacked the fall, and the mast sank And in moment the monstrous
that
like a serpent through the hole. round of the mast assumed a look of im-
I ran down into the hold. The yellow mobility, as if it had not moved since time
butt was sliding through the 'tween-decks began, as if not all the machinations of
with same suggestion of noiseless
the man could ever coax even the it to give
stealth— the more noiseless for the boom- fraction of an hard down,
inch again ;

ings on every hand caused by the fall of and guaranteed to stand without hitching,
mauls and calking-hammers on the outer wind and weather permitting, for the
skin of the ship. space of twenty years. And yet a moment
Next appeared the boss rigger's chief back had twirled like a watch-charm
it

assistant, seething with objurgation. at the end of its chain.

"Slack away on the fall!" he yelled. "This is a quiet crew," said the carpen-
The notched heel of the mast, con- ter, mildly. He dusted his palms to-
tinuing its miraculous progress into the gether. "In the old days they used to
bowels of the ship, had come to wathin a pick up these sticks and step them with
few inches of the step appointed to receive their mouths, as you might say."
it. The good old days— days of the clipper-
"Lower a little inch! Hold!" ships, days of the vinegar ships! Mar-
This wild shriek was reechoed from the velous marvelous men, too.
rigs, They
deck above, borne aloft in muffled ac- had a stomach for anything then. In that
cents until itrebounded from the vault golden morning tide of life, it seemed, a
of heaven. And now the mast myster- skipper would think nothing of slipping
iously twirled, so as to bring the notch in a five-dollar gold piece under the heel
the heel precisely fore and aft; but it was of the mast as it was going into place. He
not quite over the step. valued his ship; and besides, it was a day
"Wedge her forward!" of faith. Later the gold dwindled to a
Heavy blows fell ; the heel crept over bright penny. Men
were losing confi-
its socket. dence in maybe; but it
their ships then,
"Hold! Slack away on the fall!" was a fact that the trade-winds had never
A faint voice called been the same since. Was it likely that,
"Fall all gone." if there was any demon of sailor's luck

"What wrong, then? She 's entered


's prowling the seven seas, he would be
the step. She 's clear all round." fooled by a bright penny ?
He peered delicately all round that Truly the old order changeth.
orifice, brushed it with his finger-tips, as A day came when she was ready for the
if a grain of dust had checked the mast plunge. Her sticks were in, her paint
in its descent. Next he began to swear was on, she was copper painted below
and lash out at a wedge simultaneously. water, because that paint continually
The invisible man above picked up this scales and disposes of borers before
off,

red refrain like a torch, whirled it round they can get; a foothold. Her stores were
once or twice to fan it into flame, and slung aboard, a fire kindled in the galley,
cast it up out of the pit he was in. a cook installed to watch and still no
it,

"Ease away the wedges for'ard, then!" movement in all the length and breadth
cried my ship's carpenter. of her.
He hit the mast once more, and now Now comes her destined hour. A hush
with an invincible pung, that shook the has fallen on the yard for once. The
ship all round, as if a battering-ram had sawmill no longer puffs forth its yellow
found its mark, the mast fell into place. cloud over the rushing river; neither
That heavy heel tramped on the keelson clink of chain nor cluck of broadax falls
v.-

Jl^

THE LAirNCHING OF A SHIP

on the ear; a touch of frost is in the air. Nothing remains but to split out the keel-
The ship lies rotund and gleaming in her and let the great new foundling of
blocks,
cradle, her jib-boom pointing to the skies. the seas slide into her element.
So slowly has she come into being here A flag-draped platform has been built
that she now seems part and parcel of the against her nose ; the daughter of the new
landscape, our hopes and
one with all owner stands there with a bottle of spring
fears; wedged and blocked and bill-shored water.
here as if for all eternity. Judson, strolling out from a critical in-
And yet even now all hangs by a hair. spection of the forward keel-blocks, turns
The ways have been built up to her bilges his bleak eyes taward that platform,
the bilges rest on boards, the under faces tweaks and mutters:
his hairy nose again,
of which are smeared with beef tallow "There 's two of the handsomest women
or the like. These boards in turn rest on in town brought face to face and rubbing
the top of the ways, similarly greased. noses."
173
174 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
And touching one of these same hand- Men were coming nearer with the axes.
some women, the sincerity of his compli- Behind the axmen came a boy carrying
ment is not to be questioned for a moment. a pot of paint with which he painted in
The grim builder has faith in the lines desperate strokes the uncovered portions
of his ship. of the shoe as the keel-blocks dropped
The giant enterprise is near an end. away. The ship, almost released, hung
It remains to be seen huge and long if so on his very shoulders, and he was in a
calculated a pile will veritably start, move, hurry.
plunge away, all of a piece as she is, mak- "She will snap out twenty or thirty
ing her final bow to the reedy marshland blocks in all likelihood," said Judson.
of her birth the sea adventurer, coming
; The ship hung over us with every hall-
out of that first dip with a personality all mark of animmovable body still. Then
her own, something stately and stead- did it seem as if she had moved a grain,
fast, but something rebellious, stubborn, the thousandth part of an inch? I fast-
too, it may be, or even antagonistic to her ened my eye on a knot in the shoe, but
builder. After all this time she is to could not verify that movement. That
roll out of her cradle, this baby of a mil- the ship should actually move seemed as
lion love-taps, go her own gait, take her unlikely as a fable. The axmen, how-
destiny out of these pygmy hands forever. ever, came faster and faster. They saw
There is astVciinoi Frankenstein's monster nothing of the fable in it. Besides, they
in the thought. These men have mj'Ster- had a certain distaste for work of this
iously endowed the ship with a certain description.
nature, good or ill, stiff or cranky or easy; "She 's on a shoe-string now," they
she wmII sail better or worse according as whispered.
the shavings shall decree which old Jud- Thirty blocks to go. The last ship from
son dropped from his model six months theseways had snapped twenty-five. The
back. Were they well and truly taken? youth whose sacred duty it was to paint
A single shaving there, more or less, might the bottom of the keel braced himself
make the difference between a swift and and lashed out with flying strokes. Surely
a slow ship. • By all means these should be the time of this leviathan was at hand.
well-meditated shavings. On a shoe-string. The mighty struc-
And what of Judson himself while all ture now clung to twenty blocks of pine
hangs in' the balance? He saunters fore as lightly as a withered oak leaf to its twig.
and aft as the sound of the axes biting It needed nothing but an inspiration, per-
into the after blocks comes to his ears. haps, to start it —a shout, a breath of
Will the ways hold? They are built up wind, a yielding joint, perhaps a child's
of keel timbers, and are calculated to with- finger laid on the immense prow. The
stand the mightiest lateral thrust, but the song of a bird will shiver a glacier into
ship's bulk transcends mathematics a little action.
in its unrelenting and ponderous reality. All this while we stood about, kick-
Nothing, then, can be certainly predicated ing at chips and waiting — waiting for her
of it. "to take a fancy to it." But it seemed as

A
powerful draft, always moving along if she could not ever break out of bounds
the ship's bottom, through openings be- as long as that habit of stock-stillness was
tween the keel-blocks, ruffles the old fel- fastened on her. Perhaps if only the
low's gray hair. He picks at a blob of imaginations of men, to say nothing of
grease on the ways, stretches up an arm their axes, would credit her with the pos-
to the garboard-strake, touches a joint in sibility of movement she would move.
the shoe, — hair-joints every one, — and an- For if the men who put all but the breath
other coat of paint would lick them out of of life into her falter at this moment, on
sight. His eye kindled with admiration of whom is she to lean? She has not yet
a good job. come into her own.
"The grease may have stuck," said Jud- splintering;twenty blocks were mashed
son, calmly, standing a little aside. and rolled end for end, and the youth
There had been times, he said, in hot with the paint-pot jumped like a hare to
weather when the ship's launching com- escape squirting splinters. The ship
pany had had to jump up and down fore settledon the ways, and with the magic
and aft to start her. Judson had met his smoothness of a dream wherein vast solids
first wife while jumping up and down at seem to float like feathers, the hull with-
a moonlight launching. drew into the river.
Suddenly his eyes gleamed. I was awareof the draft tliat blew
"She is gone." under the ship, of a harsh burr and
She had moved as imperceptibly as a whisper from the ways as the giant shoe
swan drifting moved overhead then she was gone, like
;

a gray cloud rolling aw^ay. The draft


A thrill of life along her keel.
was no more, and I was confronted by a
The phrase of the poet isworn thin, is long laneway of sheer space, that the bul-
ancient coinage; but the moment is the warks of the ship had seemed to fill in-
most tremendous to which the labor of vincibly a moment back.
man can give rise. Came a cracking, a The good ship Little Turk was in the
175
176 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
river, with three tugs straining to check "She is a good ship," I said.
her from fetching the other bank. A faint "She 's a good ship if she will sail," said
cheer was wafted from her bow. Judson.
Judson stared at her wonderlngly. He In these words he confessed that she
picked his way among yellow shards of was strange to him. He held the model,
keel-blocks, going toward the river's-edge ;
horizontal between his thumbs and raised
andnow I saw that he was tossing up and his eyes slowly, slowly.

down in his hand the model of the ship "She went in easy, I '11 say that much.
the little block of wood
which she owed
to Well, she 's all ready for the rats to come
all she had of seaworthiness and all the aboard, and —
I reckon we can still build

graces of her being. ships."

Fraternity
By J. H. WALLIS

ONE
A
day among the ants
leader bitterly complain
I heard

"Our midget millions, born and slain.

Are proof that God or Nature erred


Why can we not, like men, attain
Some notable significance.
Be large, be lords of death and pain ?

But, no; we live and die as ants!"

Once among men a poet's groans,


Heavy with anguish, smote my ears:
"We mortal men whose little years
Run swiftly to a cold unknown
Are nothing to those giant spheres
That rule in vast and endless state.
Who laugh at the prodigious fears
Of men and' men's poor, futile fate."

Once Sirius to Vega hurled


A wail that strangely startled me,
Winging the wide, ethereal sea:
'How puny are we, gripped and whirled
In cosmos' harsh immensity.
Whose beams such little systems fill.

Whose transitory heat will be


Nothing in Time's eternal chill."
The Fate of the Balkans
By HERBERT ADAMS GIBBONS
Author of " The New Map of Africa," etc.

One can scarcely count upon a durable peace unless three conditions arc fulfilled: (l)
existing causes of international troubles should be eliminated or reduced as much as possi-

ble; (2) the aggressive objects and the unscrupulous methods of the Central powers should
be discredited in the eyes of their own peoples; (3) above international law, above all the
treaties having as object the prevention or hindrance of hostilities, there should be estab-
lished an international sanction which would stop the most daring aggressors. Foreign
SECRETAR^ Balfour in a cablegram ambassador at Washington, January
to the British

15, 1917-

EVERY student of international affair? France. Did he expect to make intelligent


and the Great War, every thinker men believe that the Entente powers have
who has his mind fixed upon the problem no "aggressive objects" and are guilty of
of a durable peace, every lover of hu- no "unscrupulous methods"? If he could
manity, will indorse the three conditions assure us that Japan is prepared to hand
laid down by Mr. Balfour, with one modi- over the Shan-tung Peninsula to China,
fication. In the second condition, justice that Russia waives her claims to Constanti-
as well as common sense leads us to sub- nople and Armenia, that Italy has no ter-
stitute "all the powers" for "the Central ritorial ambitions in the Balkan Peninsula
powers." Only one who is blinded by and i^^gean Islands and Asia Minor, that
passion and prejudice, or who feels that Serbia had not been plotting against
some special interest compels him to keep Austria- Hungary for years before the war,
alive the fiction that all the right is on that Rumania joined the Entente with no
one side and all the wrong on the other, "aggressive objects,'.' and that no members
still allows himself tht privilege of an I- of the Entente coalition had been guilty
am-holier-than-thou attitude. While the of "unscrupulous methods," — that is, mas-
fighting is on there is such a thing as a sacre and pillage in invaded countries,
sacred cause. France and Belgium, who barbarous treatment of prisoners, ruthless
took up arms in defense of their soil, have repression of rebellions at home, cruelty on
felt and are still feeling the moral force the battle-field, breaking of international
of being in the right. An appeal to fight law on the high seas, — he would be justi-
for a principle brought to the British Gov- fied in saying "Central powers" instead of
ernment the support of the Anglo-Saxon "all the powers" in setting forth the second
race in the colonies and in the United condition.
States as well as in the mother country. Partizanship is natural. No man with
But there never was a quarrel that did not red blood in his veins can keep from tak-
have two sides, and no quarrel was ever ing sides and expressing preferences. If
mended unless the acknowledgments and neutrality does not mean ignorance, it at
concessions were mutual. least means indifference. But if partizan-
We must remember that Mr. Balfour ship is maintained in examining the ante-
was talking about a zcorld peace, and. was bellum period and is carried over to the
commenting upon the reply of ten states post-bellum period, it is as harmful to
to Mr. Wilson's peace overture. He was one's friends as it is to one's foes. There
not speaking for Great Britain alone, nor must be no pro-Ally or pro-German point
was he speaking for Great Britain and of view in writing on the causes of the

177
178 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
war or on the reconstruction of the world Frenchman or Englishman or Canadian
after the war. Before we can hope for or Australian or New-Zealander to the
the reconstruction of Europe on just and moral issues of the war, but we do not
durable bases there must be a remorse- share their illusions about liberal Russia
less pointing out of past errors, a frank and disinterested Italy. On the other
acknowledgment of each nation's part in hand, we know that British and French
the development of general causes for the statesmen have been making, and are still

European War, a mutual willingness to making, bribes to Russia and Italy that
meet on new ground. constitute a flagrant denial of the prin-
The people of France and Great Britain ciples for the championship of which they
and the British colonies have a belief in ask our support and sympathy. Has it

the justice of their cause, and a sincere never occurred to our French and English
desire to see a new Europe, a new world, friends that we are neither stupid nor
come out of the present cataclysm of suf- credulous, and that we are not to be
fering. Until President Wilson gave carried off our feet by the proclamation
Count Bernstorlf his passports they were of the principle of defense of small nation-
grieved and angry at the people of the alities in a document which specifies the
United States, and could not understand application of the principle only in cases
American neutrality in the face of the -where the emancipation of subject races
crimes of which Germany had been guilty. ivould impair the political unity of hostile
They believed that American lust for gold powers?
and desire for ease have blinded us to Then if we might read, "The ag-
the moral issues at stake. This is be- gressive objects and unscrupulous methods
cause they saw only one side of the of all the powers should be discredited in
shield. They thought only of their the eyes of their own peoples," we could
enemies and the guilt of their enemies. say Amen to Mr. Balfour. And let us
They see peace attainable only through begin in the Balkans. And let us begin by
crushing their enemies. They do not real- his statement to the American people:
ize that Americans know more about the
complexity of interests at stake in the war It may be argued, it is true, that the ex-

than they do, because we have continually pulsion of the Turks from Europe is neither

held before our eyes both sides of the a logical nor natural part of this general

shield.^ We are as keenly alive as any plan [to establish a durable peace]. The
maintenance of the Turkish Empire was for
1 Ever since the beginning of the war have been
I generations considered essential by the
writing in the American of
press in defense of the cause maintenance of
world's statesmen for the
the Entente powers, and have pointed out the wrongs of
Belgium, the cruelty of the Germans in invaded regions, European peace. Why, one may ask, is the
and the aspirations of certain subject nationalities. The cause of peace now associated with the com-
result has been that I have had communications and a flood
plete overthrowal of this political tradition?
of literature from all sorts of "national committees"
with headquarters in theUnited States. There are Irish, The reply is that circumstances have en-
Polish, Finnish, Ukrainian (Ruthenian), Lithuanian, tirely changed.
Armenian, Arabian, Syrian, Persian, Egyptian, Indian,
and Chinese committees, whose charges against Great
Britain and Russia and Japan, and whose claims for inde-
Mr. Balfour does not tell us how or why
pendence, are in most cases as fully substantiated and as
well worth being considered as the claims of nationalities circumstances have changed. The Turks
subject to Austria-Hungary. The lugo-Slavs (whose are no more cruel and hopeless of reform
emancipation the Entente powers' response to President
to-day than they were in 1878, when the
Wilson specified)seem to fear Italy more than their tra-
ditional oppressor. Jewish committees and the Ruthen- British Government, after trying to hush
ian committee have sent me evidence of cruelties com- England the story of the Bulgarian
up in
mitted by the Russians in Courland and Galicia on a larger
scale than those of the Germans in Belgium. Ameri- massacres, threatened Russia with war in
can editors and writers will bear me out in the state- order to keep Russia from getting Con-
ment that we are constantly confronted with these charges
stantinople.
and claims from sources that can in no way be suspected
of being subsidized by or sympathetic to Germany. From the Turkish and Balkan point of
THE FATE OF THE BALKANS 179
view circumstances have not changed at stantinople and to gain commercial con-
all. They have changed only from the cessions, as well as to give proof of loyalty
point of view of British diplomacy. Here to alliances that were forming and strength-
we have the secret of the evil from which ening, tile three Occidental powers made
the world is suffering. The statesmen of a show of defending Turkey while secretly
the great powers, without the knowledge countenancing the aggressive conspiracies
of their electorates, make diplomatic com- of their actual or potential allies. This is

binations that plunge their own countries no sweeping assertion, nor is it raking up
into wars and sacrifice weak nations and forgotten and abandoned policies. We
races. There is no hesitation, no com- need to go back no further than the Young
punction. \Vhen a policy inconsistent Turk Revolution of 1908. We can limit
with a former policy is adopted the public ourselves to citing events in which the
is told that "circumstances have entirely responsibility of statesmen who are still
changed." The public accepts, and the in oflfice was engaged. Any one who looks
best blood of the nation goes to death with- into the diplomacy of the Bosnia-Herze-
out knowing why. Clever casuist as Mr. govina and Tripoli grabs, the bull\ing of
Balfour is, he could explain only by telling M. \>nizelos and Greece over the Cretan
the truth. For reasons that have nothing question, and the London ambassadorial
whatever to do with Constantinople and conference of 191 3, cannot fail to be con-
the Balkans a few men decided that Rus- vinced that in so far as the Balkans are
sia and Great Britain should be allies. concerned the diplomacy of all the Euro-
What Great Britain fought one terrible pean chancelleries is tarred with the same
war, and was ready to fight another, to brush.
prevent, she is to-day fighting to achieve. To show how recent is the conversion
The men who fell in the Crimea and on of the British Foreign Office to the belief
Gallipoli, two generations apart, cannot that "circumstances have entirely changed"'
both have died in a righteous cause. in the Balkans and necessitate the expul-
In the Congress of Berlin, which at- sion of Turkey from Europe in order to
tempted to decide the destinies of the assure peace, let me quote the famous note
Balkan nations, Rumania, Bulgaria, of October 8, 1912, which the great pow-
Greece, and Serbia were not allowed a ers delivered to the Balkan States to in-
voice. The great powers showed an utter timidate them from taking the step ]\Ir.
disregard for the interests and rights of Balfour now believes essential to the peace
the Balkan nations. From 1878 to 191 of Europe. In diplomatic circles it was
the Balkan diplomacy of the great powers currently reported at the time that this
followed faithfully the policy that guided chef-d'(ruvre emanated from Downing
Beaconsfield and his fellow-conspirators Street. At any rate, four years ago Great
at Berlin. For what were conceived, often Britain put her signature to a document
wrongly, to be the interests of the British which said
Empire and of other empires that were
being built up or projected, European The powers condemn energetically every
statesmen showed invariably a ^\ illing- measure capable of leading to a rupture of
ness to sacrifice the interests of the Balkan peace. Supporting themselves on Article 23
nations, repress their logical national de- of the Treaty of Berlin, they will take in
velopment, and use their national aspira- hand, in the interest of the population, the
tions to pitone against the other, Russia realization of the reforms of the adminis-
and Austria-Hungary and Italy, having tration of European Turkey, on the under-
conflicting imperial programs that fore- standing that these reforms will not dimin-
shadowed political control of the Balkans, ish the sovereignty of his Imperial Majesty
were most guilty. But Great Britain, the Sultan and the territorial integrity of
Germany, and France had their share of the Ottoman Empire. If, in spite of this
blame also. To curry favor with Con- note, war does break out between the Bal-
180 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
lean States and the Ottoman Empire, the to forsake the deplorable diplo-
powers will not admit, at the end of the macy that has soaked Europe in blood.
conflict, any modification in the territorial Where is the statesman In any belligerent
status quo in European Turkey. country who dares to come out openly and
call a spade a spade?
The Balkan States, which had waited in The facts are painful. At the beginning
vain during thirty-four years of oppres- Serbia was the only Balkan country in-
sion and suffering for the application of volved in the European War. It was the
Article 23 of the Treaty of Berlin, knew desire of the other Balkan States to re-
that no faith could be put in promises of main neutral. All of them, with the ex-
the great powers. They knew, too, that ception of Rumania, had suffered heavily
suspicion of bad faith of each power in the two preceding wars and needed a
toward each other power made the last long period of peace for recuperation.
statement of the note ridiculous and mean- None had the equipment in heavy artillery,
ingless. Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, and ammunition, and aeroplanes to engage in
Montenegro, united for the first time in war against a great power.
their history, went ahead, and ac- Serbia resisted with admirable skill and
complished the work of emancipation in courage the first Austro-Hungarian in-
defiance of the will of the great powers. vasion. Her armies routed the invaders
They would probably have divided the completely. But the victory had been
territories wrested from Turkey without dearly purchased, and precious stores of
serious friction had not the ambassadorial ammunition expended. Serbia's power-
conference of London and the underhand ful allies were in honor bound to take steps

intrigues of at least four of the six powers to protect her against a second invasion.
forbidden Serbia the access to the Adriatic Since Turkey had entered the war, in-

that she had won by her arms. Sir terest also dictated the necessity of re-

Edward Grey afterward said that his part provisioning in war material, and rein-

in this disgraceful and disastrous decision forcing the armies of, the country that
was justified by his desire to avoid a stood between the Central powers and
European war. By implication at least their Ottoman ally. But the Entente
British writers have since tried to establish powers were thinking of themselves and
the fact that Austria- Hungary was di- their own territorial ambitions. They
rectly responsible for barring Serbia from hoped to Turkey into a separate
force
the sea, and that Germany was the real peace very speedily, and when that moment
culprit, Wilhelmstrasse, so we are told, arrived they planned to have in their pos-
was Instigating and backing up Ballplatz, session the portions of Turkey they wanted
This is true but it is only half the truth.
; to keep. Until the critical days came, no
Italy was equally responsible, and Russia attention was paid to Serbia and Monte-
played an Ignoble role in the affair. negro. Then the Entente powers, who
The world has moved too fast during had some months previously showed their
the last years to waste time and
three unwillingness to accept Greek advice and
energy lamenting what might have hap-
in aid in the campaign against Turkey or to
pened and did n't. But the duty is none promise to protect Greece against Bul-
the less incumbent upon us to keep in garian aggression, suddenly called on
mind the Balkan tragedy of 19 13 in order (ireece to go to the aid of Serbia. At the
that a repetition of it may be avoided. For same time negotiations were carried on
none of the participants in the European with Bulgaria and Rumania. In all the
interference of that year has abandoned Balkan capitals. Including that of their
the great-power attitude toward the faithful little ally, the ministers of the
Balkans. One can see in the Balkan Entente powers bullied and blundered
events since the outbreak of the present and bluffed without being able to offer
war no desire in any European foreign any tangible reward for Balkan aid. The
THE FATE OF THE BALKANS 181

Balkan States knew well what rewards path of the strong must be exterminated
France and Great Britain had guaranteed or amalgamated.
to Russia and Italy. What was left for Without ignoring or denying the ex-
them? Russia balked at giving Rumania number of contributory
istence of a fac-
even as much as Bukowina, let alone Bes- tors, we can get to the very heart of the
sarabia and Transylvania. Italy refused Balkan problem when we are willing to
to yield one iota of her imperial ambi- see and set forth the most important
tions,which could be realized only at the reason of Balkan lukewarmness for the
expense of Greece and Serbia. Bulgaria cause of the Entente powers. While recog-
could not be promised the return of her nizing the Teuton menace, because fully
Macedonia irredenta, because the veto aware of Teuton aspirations, Balkan na-
of Italy prevented powers
the Entente tions attribute the same conception of na-
from promising Serbia compensation on tional expansion to Russia and Italy. The
the Adriatic for giving up Macedonia to statesmen of Rumania and Serbia and
Bulgaria. Great Britain and France Montenegro, and the leaders of thought in
could not assure to Greece effective pro- these three Balkan countries allied to the
tection against an invasion of the Ger- Entente powers, think on this point ex-
man, Austro-Hungarian, Bulgarian, and actly as do the statesmen and leaders of
Turkish armies. It was diplomatic in- Bulgaria and Greece. So does M. Ven-
coherence and military impotence. izelos, head of the Greek revolutionary

The events in the Balkans of the second government at Saloniki. Before the con-
and third years of the war have saved the quest of Serbia, M. Pachitch was un-
Central powers from a humiliating defeat able to prevent embarrassing interpella-
and Turkey from dismemberment. If tions concerning Italy's intentions in the
public opinion in France and Great Nish Skupshtina. In fact, the premier of
Britain persists in believing that the de- Serbia has not had a happy moment since
bacle of the Entente cause is due to the Italy joined the Entente. The statesmen
stubbornness of Serbia, the pro-German of broad vision in Rumania fought bit-

sentiment of King Constantine and his hour the irresponsible


terly to the very last
general staff, the cowardice of the Greeks, forces at Bukharest that w^ere bent upon
the treason of Bulgaria, and the foolhardi- the destruction of their country through
ness and lack of military virtues of Ru- following blindly the Transylvanian will-
mania, the Central powers will have won o'-the-wisp. When M. Venizelos, humili-
definitely the war no matter
in the East, ated and discredited, feels that it is time
what happens on the Western front, and to speak out the truth, he will have a sad
the Berlin-Bagdad dream will be as much story of betrayal to tell. On the plat-
of a reality as Mitteleuropa. German form of the station at Ljons, King
domination in the Balkans may be a justi- Nicholas, coming to France for the exile
fiable ambition from the German point of thatmay have no end, declared, "Francis
view, but not from the point of view of Joseph struckme on the head, but Victor
the Balkan races. No races have ever Emmanuel has struck me in the heart."
been happy under German control, and The King of Montenegro has no illusions
the events of this war have not given the about the part his son-in-law's government
world reason for believing in a change in played by abstention in the crushing of his
the selfish and barbarous attitude of Ger- kingdom.
mans toward other nations, especially Russia's pretensions to Constantinople,
when those other nations are weaker. We and the general opposition of the Balkan
know the German theory of national ex- races to Russian ambitions, have been dealt
pansion. It has been set forth over and with in an earlier article. In exposing to
over again by the ablest German scien- President Wilson their aims in the war
tists and historians, especially in relation and their ideas of the bases of a durable
to the Drang nach Osten: the weak in the peace, the Entente powers evaded a defi-
182 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
nite statement on this important question. The contemporary school of Italian im-
They spoke only of driving the Turks perialists have lost their heads entirely. If
from Europe. None denies the justice of the statesmen of the Entente powers had
assuring Russia's passage to the open sea, studied closely the literature and the pro-
but it is difficult to reconcile Russian con- grams of the Dante Alighieri Society and
trol of Constantinople with the principle the Dalmatian League, and followed the
of the rights of small nations to self-gov- development of the colonial and irreden-
ernment. Russia is ruled by a cruel, tist propagandas during the last decade,
despotic, and irresponsible bureaucracy. they would have supported with all their

Even the Liberal Nationalists in Russia power Signor Giolitti and the non-inter-
have proved themselves as intolerant of vention elements in the spring of 1915.
the rights of subject nationalities as have Italy's neutrality was a valuable asset to
the Young Turks. From the Balkan the Entente. Italy's refusal to march
point of view, Russia at Constantinople with her central European allies, and the
and the (which would mean also a
straits assurance to France that there was noth-
large portion ofThrace) would bring into ing to fear on the Alpine frontier, helped
the peninsula a powerful country who is incalculably the Entente cause, and was
hated because she is feared by all the for Italy herself the course dictated by
Balkan nations. national interest. But active participa-
Five years ago much was written by Oc- tion in the war on the side of the Entente
cidental observers on the subject of Italian has been beneficial neither to the Entente
imperialism ; but when the present war nor to Italy. The statesmen of France,
broke out, the criticism of Italy ceased. Great Britain, and Russia have come to
Berlin hoped to keep Italy neutral. Paris realize that Italian irredentists and im-
and London wanted to detach Italy from perialists are without shame or limit in
her former allies, and get her to enter the their ambitions, and are incapable of con-
war on the side of the Entente. The re- structive political vision. They have had
sult was disastrous for Italy, who began to yield to Italian demands, though, in
to feel that destiny was calling upon her order to keep the coalition intact. The
to play the decisive role in European his- result has been the sacrifice of the Serbians
tory. The hope of extending her sov- and the loss of Greek aid. Inside the
ereignty over the Trentino
and Triest, Austro-Hungarian Empire the increased
and the making of the Adriatic an Italian military handicap from taking on a new
sea, could be realized only by intervening enemy has been offset by the strengthening
on the side of the Entente. But the price of the loyalty of lugo-Slavs to the Haps-
of intervention mounted at Rome each burg crown. Italy, who needed all her
month as the importunity of the Entente resources for internal development and
increased. Italy wanted her full share in for the completion of the conquest of
the partition of the Ottoman Empire. Tripoli, is spending herself in the pursuit
After the failure of the Dardanelles and of illegitimate aspirations.
the Saloniki expeditions, the appetite of The men who are controlling Italian
Italian was whetted.
imperialism One policy could not subscribe to Mr. Bal-
does not know how much Italy has been four's conditions for a durable peace any
promised in the event of an Entente vic- more than the men who are controlling
tory; but one does know that the French the policy of Germany. Italy wants to
and English statesmen who promised any- make the Adriatic an Italian sea, to re-
thing at all to Italy beyond the Trentino tain the Greek islands she has occupied
and possibly Triest did so in wilful dis- since the Treaty of Ouchy and get more
regard of the ideals they had set before Greek islands, and to win a generous slice
them, and for the triumph of which they of Turkey by extending her sovereignty
had solemnly proclaimed to the world that over the whole Mediterranean littoral of
the sword of justice and liberty was drawn. Asia Minor from the corner of the ^T.gean
THE FATE OF THE BALKANS 183

Sea to the Bay of Alexandretta. It is a she is wrong, and the Government


in the

far cry from the natural and just demand is supported in all sincerity by intelligent
of sober-minded patriots for the Italian public opinion. Germany is gaining
Tyrol and the rectification of the disad- ground rapidly in Balkan public opinion,
vantageous Austrian frontier to this pro- for nothing succeeds like success. The
gram of spoliation. The realization of Entente powers must remember that Ger-
Italian aspirations in the Adriatic would many is in possession. They have one
enslave Slovenes, Croatians, Dalmatians, chance left to turn the tide in the Balkans,
Montenegrins, Albanians, and Greeks, and that chance is not by reinforcing Gen-
and would deprive central Europe of its eral Sarrail's army at Saloniki. The for-
cnly outlet to the Mediterranean. The tune of arms has failed them in the Bal-

realization of Italian aspirations in the kans, insincere and secret diplomacy has
yTgean and Asia Minor would enslave also failed them ; but they can still put in

Greeks, Turks, and Armenians. Thus specific terms, applied to the Balkans,
would disappear all that the Serbians have what they have stated in general terms to
been fighting for and suffering for, and be their aims in the war. They can send
the dreams of Pachitch and Venizelos, a joint note to friends and foes, Monte-
loyal friends of France and Great Britain, negro, Serbia, Rumania, Bulgaria, Greece,
who have risked everything for the En- the Venizelos government, and the Alba-
tente cause. nian tribes, declaring that the Entente
When one talks about the Balkans, just powers are willing to guarantee the Bal-
as when one talks about the Poles and kan Peninsula to the Balkan peoples, and
Armenians and Irish, the common answer promising unequivocally that, if they are
is,"They are a bad lot, hopeless, don't successful in expelling Turks and Austro-
you know; would always be cutting one Hungarians and Germans, they do not in-
another's throats ; never could govern tend to introduce any other foreign ele-
themselves even if they were let alone." ment. They can promise to work jointly
This wide-spread impression is the result for the establishment of a just Balkan
of "giving a dog a bad name." No proof balance of power, by waiving their own
of the assertions and charges is possible, territorial ambitions to make possible a
because the experiment of letting these na- durable peace and the triumph of the high
tions work out their own salvation has not principles for which they are now valiantly
been tried. How dare we, then, say that fighting.
it would fail? Exactly the same attitude Wehave had a hundred years of "prac-
was taken by the rest of Europe during tical" diplomacy in the Balkans. Ever
the decades of the slow process of Italian since Greece and Serbia began the strug-
and German unification. Everything that gle to shake off the Ottoman yoke Euro-
is being said so glibly about the unfitness pean statesmen have been "practical."
for self-government of subject and divided They have viewed Balkan conditions not
nationalities was said seventy-five years as men with a conscience knew they ought
ago about Italians, to whose unification to be, but as men playing a game thought
the chancelleries of the powers were bit- they were. They are doing the same to-
terly opposed. Italy was unified, and day. If they deny the possibility of an
peace and prosperity reigned in the Italian altruistic attitude in dealing with Balkan
peninsula only when the Italians were affairs, are not the Entente statesmen, who
freed from foreign masters, foreign in- are said to have arrived at a secret agree-
trigues, foreign internal interference. ment on the future of the Balkans,— an
Germany not going to be put hors de
is agreement the terms of which are un-
combat in the duel by the weapon she her- known alike to their own people and to
self chose. She cannot be forced into sub- the people of the Balkans, playing Ger- —
mission or repentance by the armies of her many's game? The formula of putting
enemies. Germanv does not admit that might before right is popularly supposed
184 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
to be German and ; in the Balkans at least by translating ancient dynastic rivalries
the might is on Germany's side. It is per- into modern national aspirations.
fectly plain, then, that the Entente powers The Balkan States, in their natural de-
must put right before might in their Bal- velopment, need not have turned against
kan diplomacy, and must say to the Bal- one another. There was no necessity for
kan nations, "We are fighting to protect the Macedonian question. If Greece had
you from Teutonic overlords for your own been allowed to expand into Epirus and
sakes, and not in order that we may be to follow her maritime bent by forming an
your overlords." No other argument will Greek islands, Greece
island empire out of
convince the Balkan races that it is to would hardly have come into conflict with
their interest to risk now,- and in the fu- Bulgaria in Macedonia. If Serbia had
ture also, opposing the Drang nach Osten been allowed to expand to the Adriatic
by cooperating with the enemies of Ger- through Bosnia and Herzegovina and
many. Having revealed in the Balkans Dalmatia, historic Serbian lands inhabited
their inferiority in military strength to by Serbian-speaking races, she would not
Germany, the alternative to defeat for the have been induced alternately by Austria
Entente powers is renunciation of ambi- and Russia to make a propaganda against
tions and methods similar to those of Ger- Greeks and Bulgarians in Macedonia. If
many. the Treaty 0^ Berlin had not given Ru-
If the natural expansion of each Bal- manian Bessarabia to Russia and "com-
kan State along ethnographic and eco- pensated" Rumania south of the Danube
nomic lines were allowed to develop with Bulgarian Dobrudja, there need not
freely, causes for antagonism and conflict have been an Alsace-Lorraine question be-
could be removed, and there would be a tween Rumania and Bulgaria. These
possibility of peaceful national develop- hypotheses are not fanciful, or to be re-
ment and of federation in treating foreign jected without careful examination ; for
affairs. they represent the intimate conviction of
Throughout the period of nearly a hun- eminent Balkan patriots, who have de-
dred years, during which the Osmanlis voted their lives to a struggle against the
were gradually losing the Balkan Penin- limitations imposed upon them by the
sula, there has never been a time that Eu- rivalry and jealousy of the great powers.
ropean diplomacy has not been active in Aspirations as noble, as just, as sacred as
repressing the natural expansion of the those of Belgium and France have been
emancipated Every rebellion against
races. disregarded and sacrificed, and are still
the Ottoman j^oke, up to and including, being disregarded and sacrificed, by Euro-
as wehave seen above, the 19 12 war of pean diplomacy in the Balkans. And the
liberation, has been viewed with alarm by blame and shame of European diplomacy
the European powers. In the guise of aid- is all the greater when we have many in-
ing and protecting, the Balkan nations, the dubitable proofs, in studying the negotia-
powers have interfered to frustrate every tions between the powers and the Sublime
effort to win independence and national Porte, that considerations wholly outside
unity. One cannot insist too strongly on of anything affecting the Balkan Penin-
the point that the antagonisms between sula and its most often in-
inhabitants
the Balkan States are not primarily due to spired the efforts of the powers to keep the
conflicting aspirations inherited from ante- Balkans in slavery to the Turks.
Ottoman days. In reviving fourteenth- Balkan antagonisms can be healed, con-
century conflicts and historic counter- flicting Balkan aspirations can be recon-
claims and traditions, Greece and Serbia ciled, a just and permanent balance of
and Bulgaria and Rumania are victims of power can be established in the Balkans.
thwarted natural expansion. European What needed is not a victorious group
is

diplomacy, imposing a veto upon natural of powers Imposing their will upon the
expansion, caused history to be denatured Balkan nations, but the sincere applica-
THE FATE OF THE BALKANS 185

tion of Mr. Balfour's three conditions for liance with Ital^- or with Austria-Hun-
a durable peace. One can suggest the out- gary.
standing lines of a settlement that is based 3. Montenegro. The Central powers to
upon the interests of the nations concerned restore Montenegro to its territories as
and not the ambitions of outside powers. they were at the outbreak of the present
1. Rumnnia. Whatever inspired and war, and Austria to cede the lower end of
interested "authorities" may write, there Dalmatia from the Bay of Cattaro to the
can be no doubt that the tcrre ii-rcdentc of present Montenegrin frontier. In return,
Rumania, Transylvania, and Bukowina, if Montenegro to assume the same obliga-
were taken, would vote to re-
a plebiscite tions as Serbia concerning the fortification
main with the Austro-Hungarian Empire: of the Bay of Cattaro and the formation
so Rumania should renounce solemnly her of offensive and defensive alliances with
aspirations in connection with these prov- the two great Adriatic powers, and to
inces in return for evacuation of her terri- promise to submit to a plebiscite the ques-
tory by the Central powers. Russia should tion of political fusion with Serbia.
restore a portion at least of Bessarabia to 4. Bulgaria. Evacuation of Rumania
Rumania, and Rumania should cede back against the cession of the Dobrudja dis-

to Bulgaria the part of the Dobrudja she trictwhich Bulgaria lost in the Treaty of
stole from Bulgaria in 19 13. The Dan- Bukharest, and evacuation of Serbia
ube states, Germany, Austria-Hungary, against cession of the Pirot district and all
Serbia, and Bulgaria should be guaranteed of Macedonia below the minimum Serbian
unobstructed passage on the Danube line of the Serbo-Bulgarian treaty of 1912.
through Rumanian waters even in time of Evacuation of Greek Macedonia against
war. the cession by Greece of ^Macedonia east
2. Serbia. Evacuation and restoration of a line drawn from the Mesta River,
of independence upon the follown'ng basis: where it crosses the present Greco-Bul-
the Central powers to agree to reconsti- garian frontier, south between Serres and
tute the kingdom as it existed before the Drama to the Gulf of Rendina, thus giv-
Treaty of Bukharest, with the exception ing Kavala to Bulgaria ; the recognition by
of the Pirot district, which should be re- Greece of Bulgaria's rights to Macedonia
tained by Bulgaria to give Serbia north-
; west of the Vardar from the present
ern Macedonia up to the minimum line Greek frontier to the minimum Serbian
established in the Serbo-Bulgarian treaty line of the Serbo-Bulgarian treaty of
of 1912; to cede to Serbia Bosnia, Herze- 191 2 and the cession by Greece of Thasos
;

govina, and Dalmatia from the Narenta and Samothrace to Bulgaria.


River to the Bay of Cattaro not to op- ; 5. Greece. Extension northwest to in-
pose any future political union between clude Epirus south of a line drawn from
Serbia and Montenegro; not to oppose a the southern end of Lake Ochrida to Khi-
possible future division, of Albania between mara (north of Santi Quaranta) on the
Serbia and Greece. Serbia to agree to re- Ionian Sea. Cession to Bulgaria of east-
store the Pirot district to Bulgaria; to ern end of Macedonia, as outlined above.
waive all claims to Macedonia south of All the Greek islands in the ^gean Sea
the line established as the minimum of her (except Thasos and Samothrace, which are
pretensions in the Serbo-Bulgarian treaty essential for the protection of the Bulga-
of 191 2; to bind herself not to make a rian coast, and Tenedos and Imbros.
propaganda officially, or to permit the Na- which control the Dardanelles) to be
rodna Obrana or any other' irredentist or- handed over to Greece. This means that
ganization to make a propaganda among Italy evacuate the Dodecanese and Great
the southern Slavs of Croatia and other Britain Cyprus. Greece must undertake
portions of the Austro-Hungarian Em- not to fortify Mudros or any other part of
pire; not to fortify the Bay of Cattaro; the island of Lemnos.
not to make an offensive and defensive al- 6. Albania. Albania will have to re-
186 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
main temporarily as at present constituted, regime for the other great international
with the exception of the southern Epirote waterways, the Balkan balance of power,
portion, which ought to be allotted imme- as well as the general world equilibrium,
diately to Greece. Albania presents the is best secured by leaving Constantinople

most perplexing problem of Balkan re- and the straits to the Ottoman Empire,
adjustment, and Mill have to be kept, un- with the stipulations that all fortifications

der international or pan-Balkan control, be destroyed, free passage be assured to


as an autonomous region for a period of merchant vessels of all nations and towar-
trial years. If Albanians are able to fuse vessels of the countries bordering on the
into a nation, disinterested international Black Sea.
control,from which both Austria-Hun- I realize fully that these suggestions are
gary and Italy must be rigorously ex- open to objection on many points, but in
cluded, will establish the contentions of their ensemble they represent the applica-
Albanian nationalists. If the experiment tion of the principle that nations have a
does not succeed, Albania should eventu- right to decide their own destinies, no na-
ally be divided between Serbia and Greece. tion being subjected to another nation by
7. Constantinople and the straits. The force. submit that they are practical
I

reasons against Russian occupation have who are opposed


suggestions, too, for those
already been set forth ui an earlier article. to German political expansion in the near
If the Turks are driven out of Europe, this East. For if the conscience of the world
region ought to be internationalized, with is not alive to the necessity and the justice
the Enos-Midia line as the Bulgarian of leaving the Balkan Peninsula to the
frontier. But as internationalization pre- Balkan races, Germany will keep the hege-
sents insurmountable difficulties, unless mony in the Balkans that she has already
the peace conference establishes a similar won.

Revolution
Russia risen : Germany bound

By CALE YOUNG RICE

THE
The
spell is broken.
evil centuries drop away like sleep.
Freedom has spoken,
And by that token
The gyves of tyranny, that trenched so deep,
And ate into the flesh and soul of a nation
Till gangrenous damnation
Seemed running leprous through it,
Are rent, are rent away, in a swift hour.
With wild power,
Bv the millions who so long were made to rue it.

The spell is rent


From the Arctic to the Caspian in twain.
And from the prison plain
Of stark Siberia to the Baltic main
And now, O Earth, a free host shall be pressed,
As in the West,
REVOLUTION 187

Against autocracy, at last shut lean,


From all wide Europe else, into one land.
Where it shall starve and bleed and starve and die.

Unless along its veins, too, leaps that cry


For self-rule, which alone God will let stand.

And shall that cry not come?


Shall Russia rise,

Russia a serf under her staring skies,

And on her starven steppes.


Yet not A'z/////r-acclaiming kaiserdom?
Shall the untutored peasant seize the dream
Of liberty, once more through the world astream,
While that great race,—
Whose reckonings in many a darkest place
Of the dead past
Might well have swept its spirit, first, not last,

To the democratic day,


Fails to surge up at the future's trumpet-blast?

No, people of the Rhine,


Who have freed music, brought it from the deeps
Of the heart's prison chambers
Who have freed thought, that now no more remembers
Its one-time fear to face the universe
Who have freed God— opened the church door,
That would have held Him shut within a creed,

Until He now may speak to any need,


Through Book or star
Or the star-shivering sea,—
No, no ! Rise up in your humanity,
And set yourselves free,
And war no more save for an end to war!
Rise and say to your foes,
'We want no mastery save of the world's woes."
Out of the hurricane tides of war-madness
Lift such a flag
Of arbitrage that all your cruel brag
And frenzied might shall be forgot in praise,

And not endow with sadness


Your sons' sons, and be their bitter drag!
Rise and say: "Join us. All have sinned.
Let us no longer reap the dire whirlwind.
For peace is the price neither of bravery
Nor cowardice, but of the will to see
That the earth is all men's— all.
And so, can so be kept
Only when nations from their shrines have swept,
At a world call.
!"'
That lo-ud self-worship, nationalitN'
Young Man Axelbrod
By SINCLAIR LEWIS
Author of "The Job," " Our Mr. Wrenn," '< The Trail of the Hawk," etc.

Illustrations by W. M. Berger

THE Cottonwood
enly and plebeian habit.
is a tree of a slov-
Its woolly
j's and w's, he spoke the twangy Yankee
English of the land. He was the more
wisps turn gray the lawns and engender American because in his native Scandi-
neighborhood hostilities about our town. navia he had dreamed of America as a
Yet it is a mighty tree, a refuge and an land of light. Always through disillusion
inspiration ; the sun flickers in its tower- and weariness he beheld America as the
ing foliage, whence the tattoo of locusts world's nursery for justice, for broad, fair
enlivens our dusty summer afternoons. towns, and eager talk ;and always he kept
From the wheat- a young soul that dared
country out to the sage- to desire beauty.
brush plains between As a lad Knute Axel-
the buttes and the Yel- brod had wished to be
lowstone it is the Cot- a famous scholar, to
tonwood that keeps a learn the ease of foreign
little grateful shade for tongues, the romance
sweating homesteaders. of history, to unfold in
In Joralemon w^e call the graciousness of wise
Knute Axelbrod "Old books. When he first

Cottonwood." As a came to America he


matter of fact, the worked in a sawmill
name was derived not all day and studied all

so much from the evening. He mastered


quality of the man as enough book-learning to
from the wide grove teach district school for
about his gaunt, white two terms; then, when
house and red barn. he was only eighteen, a
He made a comely row great-hearted pity for
of trees on each side of faded Lena Wes-
little
OR HOURS AT A TIMIi HE SAT ON
the country road, so BACKLESS KITCH1;N-CHAH<" selius moved him to
that a humble, daily marry her. Gay
sort man, driving beneath them in
of enough, doubtless, was their hike b\'

his lumber-wagon, might fancy himself prairie-schooner to new farm-lands, but


lord of a private avenue. And at sixty- Knute was promptly caught in a net of
five Knute was like one of his own poverty and family. From eighteen to
cottonwoods, his roots deep in the soil, his fifty-eight he was always snatching chil-
trunk weathered by rain and blizzard and dren away from death or the farm away
baking August noons, his crown spread to from mortgages.
the wide horizon of day and the enormous He had to be content — and gcnerousl>
sky of a prairie night. content he was— with the second-hand
This immigrant was an American e\i'ii glory of his cliiUlren's success and, for him-
in speech. Save for a weakness about his self, with pilfered hours of reading -that

1S8
YOUNG MAN AXELBROD 189
reading of big, thick, dismal volumes of men were fools to work so hard. Around
history and economics which the lone, this coatless old man, his stained waist-
mature learner chooses. Without ever coat flapping abouthuge torso, in a
a
losing his desire for strange cities and the shanty of rumpled bed and pine table
dignity of towers he stuck to his farm. covered with sheets of food-daubed news-
He acquired a half-section, free from debt, paper, hovered all the passionate aspira-
fertile, well-stocked, adorned with a tion of youth and the dreams of ancient
cement silo, a chicken-run, a new wnnd- beauty.
mill. He became comfortable, secure, and He began to take long walks by night.
then he was ready, it seemed, to die; for In his necessitous life night had ever been
at sixty-three his work w\as done, and he a period of heavy slumber
in close rooms.
was unneeded and alone. Now he discovered the mystery of the
His wife was dead. His sons had scat- dark; saw the prairies wide-flung and
tered afar, one a dentist in Fargo, an- misty beneath the moon, heard the voices
other a farmer in the Golden Valley. He of grass and cottonwoods and drowsy
had turned over his farm to his daughter birds. He tramped for miles. His boots
and son-in-law. They had begged him were dew-soaked, but he did not heed.
to live with them, but Knute refused. He stopped upon hillocks, shyly threw
"No," he said, "you must learn to stand wide his arms, and stood worshiping the
on your own feet. I vill not give you naked, slumbering land.
the farm. You pay me four hundred dol- These excursions he tried to keep secret,
lars a year rent, and I live on that and but they were bruited abroad. Neighbors,
vatch you from my hill." good, decent fellows with no nonsense
On a rise beside the lone cottonwood about walking in the dew at night, when
which he loved best of all his trees Knutc they were returning from town,
late
built a tar-paper shack, and here he drunk, lashing their horses, and flinging
"bached it" cooked his meals, made his
; whisky-bottles from their racing demo-
bed — sometimes, sat in the sun, read many crat w agons, saw him, and they spread the
books from the Joralemon library, and tidings that Old Cottonwood was "get-
began to feel that he was free of the yoke ting nutty since he give up his farm to
of citizenship which he had borne all his that son-in-law of his and retired. Seen
life. the old codger wandering around at mid-
For hours at a time he sat on a back- night. Wish I had his chance to sleep.
less kitchen-chair before the shack, a wide- Would n't catch me out in the night air."
shouldered man, w^hite-bearded, motion- Any rural community from Todd
less; a seer despite his grotesquely baggy Centre to Seringapatam is resentful of
trousers, his collarless shirt. He looked any person who varies from its standard,
across the miles of stubble to the steeple and is morbidly fascinated by any hint of
of the Jack-rabbit Forks church and medi- madness. The country-side began to spy
tated upon the uses of life. At first he on Knute Axelbrod, to ask him questions,
could not break the rigidity of habit. He and to stare from the road at his shack.
rose at five, found work in cleaning his He was sensitively aware of it, and in-
cabin and cultivating his garden, had clined to be surly to inquisitive acquaint-
dinner exactly at twelve, and went to bed ances. Doubtless that was the beginning
by afterglow. But little by little he dis- of his great pilgrimage.
covered that he could be irregular with-
out being arrested. He stayed abed till As a part of the general wild license of his
seven or even eight. He got a large, new life, — really, he once roared at that
deliberate, tortoise-shelland played
cat, startled cat, the Princess: "By gollies! I

games with it let it lap milk upon the


; ain'tgoing to brush my teeth to-night.
table, called it the Princess, and confided All my life I 've brushed 'em, and alvays
to it that he had a "sneaking idee" that wanted to skip a time vunce,"— Knute
190 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
took considerable pleasure in degenerat- whimsicalities of algebra fiendish. They
ing in his taste in scholarship. He wil- had nothing to do with actual life as he
fully declined to finish "The Conquest of had lived it. But he mastered them he ;

Mexico," and began to read light novels studied twelve hours a day, as once he
borrowed from the Joralemon library. So had plodded through eighteen hours a day
he rediscovered the lands of dancing and in the hay-field. With history and Eng-
light wines, which all his life he had de- lish literature he had comparatively little

sired. Some economics and history he did trouble ; already he knew much of them
read, but every evening he would stretch from his recreative reading. From Ger-
out in his buffalo-horn chair, his feet on man neighbors he had picked up enough
the cot and the Princess in his lap, and in- Plattdeutsch to make German easy. The
vade Zenda or with Trilby.
fall in love trick of study began to come back to him
Among the novels he chanced upon a from his small school-teaching of forty-
highly optimistic story of Yale in which a five years before. He began to believe
worthy young man "earned his way that he could really put it through. He
through" college, stroked the crew, won kept assuring himself that in college,
Phi Beta Kappa, and had the most en- with rare and sympathetic instructors to
tertaining, yet moral, conversations on or help him, there would not be this baffling

adjacent to "the dear old fence." search, this nervous strain.


As a result of this chronicle, at about But the unreality of the things he
three o'clock one morning when Knute studied did disillusion him, and he tired
Axelbrod was sixty-four years of age, he of his new game. He kept it up chiefly
decided that he would go to college ! All because all his life he had kept up onerous
his life he had wanted to. Why not do it? labor without any taste for it. Toward
When he awoke in the morning he was the autumn of the second year of his ec-
not so sure about it as when he had gone centric life he no longer believed that he
to sleep. He saw himself as ridiculous, would ever go to college.
a ponderous, oldish man among clean- Then a busy little grocer stopped him
limbed youths, like a dusty cottonwood on the street in Joralemon and quizzed
among silver birches. But for months he him about his studies, to the delight of the
wrestled and played with that idea of a informal club which ahva3S loafs at the
great pilgrimage to the Mount of Muses corner of the hotel.
for he really supposed college to be that Knute was silent, but dangerously
sort of place. He believed that all col- angry. He remembered just in time how
lege students, except for the wealthy idlers, he had once laid wrathful hands upon a
burned to acquire learning. He pictured hired man, and somehow the man's collar-
Harvard Yale and Princeton as
and bone had been broken. He turned away
ancient groves set with marble temples, and walked home, seven miles, still boil-
before which large groups of Grecian ing. He picked up the Princess, and, with
j^ouths talked gently about astronomy and her mewing on his shoulder, tramped out
good government. In his picture they again to enjoy the sunset.
never cut classes or ate. He stopped at a reedy slew. He gazed
With a longing for music and books and at a hopping plover without seeing it. He
graciousness such as the most ambitious plucked at his beard. Suddenly he cried:
boy could never comprehend, this thick- "I am going to college. It opens next
faced prairie farmer dedicated himself to veck. I t'ink that I can pass th'' examina-

beauty, and defied the unconquerable tions."


power of approaching old age. He sent Two days later he had moved the
for college catalogues and school-books, Princess and liis sticks of furniture to his
and diligently began to prepare himself for son-in-law's house, had bought a new
college. slouch hat, a celluloid collar, and a solemn
He found Latin irregular verbs and the suit of black, had wrestled with God in
LET IT LAP MILK UI'(.)N THL TABI

prayer through all of a star-clad night, Ray Gribble, who had been teaching
and had taken the train for Minneapolis, school in New England, and seemed
on the way to New Haven. chiefly to desire college training so that
While he stared out of the car- window he might make more money as a teacher.
Knute was warning himself that the mil- Ray Gribble was a hustler; he instantly
lionaires' sons would make fun of him. got work tutoring the awkward son of a
Perhaps they would haze him. He bade steel man, and for board he waited on
himself avoid all these sons of Belial and table.
cleave to his own people, those who He was Knute's chief acquaintance.
"earned their way through." Knute tried to fool himself into think-
At Chicago he was afraid with a great ing he liked the grub, but Ray could n't
fear of the lightning flashes that the swift keep his damp hands off the old man's
crowds made on his retina, the batteries soul. He
had the skill of a professional
of ranked motor-cars that charged at him. exhorter young men in finding out
of
He prayed, and ran for his train to New Knute's motives, and when he discovered
York. He came at last to New Haven. that Knute had a hidden desire to dabble
in gay, polite literature, Ray said in a
Not with gibing rudeness, but with shocked wa>-
politely quizzical eyebrows, Yale received "Strikes me a man like you, that 's

him, led him through entrance examina- getting old, ought to be thinking more
tions, which, after sweaty plowing with about saving your soul than about all these
the pen, he barely passed, and found for frills. You leave this poetry and stuf? to
him a room-mate. The room-mate was these foreigners and artists, and you stick
a large-browed, soft, white grub named to Latin and math and the Bible. I tell

191
192 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
you, I 've taught school and I 've learned piety. In revenge for cringing to the
by experience." insolent athletes whom they tutored, they
With Ray Gribble, Knute lived grub- would, when safe among their own kind,
bily, an existence of torn comforters and yammer about the "lack of democracy in
a smelly lamp, of lexicons and logarithm colleges to-day." Not that they were so
tables. No leisurely loafing by fireplaces indiscreet as to do anything about it.

was theirs. They roomed in West They lacked the stuff of really rebellious
Divinity, where gather the theologues, the souls. Knute listened to them and
lesser law students, a whimsical
sort of marveled. They sounded like young hired
genius or two, and a horde of unplaced men talking behind his barn at harvest-
freshmen and "scrub seniors." time.
Knute was shockingly disappointed, but This submerged tenth hated the dilet-
Ke stuck to his room because outside of it tantes of the class evenmore than they
he was afraid. He was a grotesque figure, hated the bloods. Against one Gilbert
and he knew it, a white-polled giant Washburn, a rich esthete with more
squeezed into a small seat in a classroom, manner than any freshman ought to have,
listening to instructors younger than his they raged righteously. They spoke of
own sons. Once he tried to sit on the seriousness and industry till Knute, who
fence. No one but "ringers" sat on the might once have desired to know lads like
fence any more, and at the sight of him Washburn, felt ashamed of himself as a
trying to look athletic and young, two wicked, wasteful old man.
upper-class men snickered, and he sneaked With the friends of his room-mate be-
away. gan Knute's series of disillusions. Humbly
He came to hate Ra\' Gribble and his though he sought, he found no inspiration
voluble companions of the submerged and no comradeship. He was the freak
tenth of the class, the hewers of tutorial of the class, and aside from the submerged
wood. It is doubtless safer to mock the tenth, his classmates were afraid of being
flag than to question that best-established "queered" by being seen with him.
tradition of our democracy — that those As he was still powerful, one who could
who "earn their way through" college are take up a barrel of pork on his knees, he
necessarily stronger, braver, and more as- tried to find friendship among the athletes.
sured of success than the weaklings who He sat at Yale Field, watching the foot-
talk by the fire. Every college story ball try-outs, and tried to get acquainted
presents such a moral. But tremblingly with the candidates. They stared at him
the historian submits that Knute discov- and answered his questions grudgingly —
ered that waiting on table did not make beefy youths who in their simple-hearted
lads more heroic than did foot-ball or way showed that they considered him plain
happy loafing. Fine fellows, cheerful and crazy.
fearless, were many of the boys who The place itself began to lose the haze
"earned their way," and able to talk to of magic throughwhich he had first seen
richer classmates without fawning; but it. Earth whether one sees it in
is earth,
Just as many
them assumed an abject
of Camelot or Joralemon or on the Yale
most convenient pose.
respectability as the —
campus or possibly even in the Harvard
They were pickers up of unconsidered yard! The buildings ceased to be temples
trifles; they toadied to the classmates to Knute ; they became structures of brick
whom they tutored ; they wriggled before or stone, filled with young men who
the faculty committee on scholarships lounged at windows and watched him
they looked pious at Dwight Hall prayer- amusedly as he tried to slip by.

meetings to make an impression on the The Gargantuan hall of Commons be-


serious-minded ; and they drank one glass came a tri-daily horror because at the
of beer at Jake's to show the light-minded table where he dined were two youths
that they meant nothing offensive by their who, luning uncommonly penetrating
YOUNG MAN AXELBROD 193

minds, discerned that Knute had a beard, ling over it when Ray Gribble came into

and courageously told the world about it. the room and glanced at the reader.

One of them, named Atchison, was a "Huh!" said Mr. Gribble.


superior person, verj' industrious and "That 's a fine, funny book," said Knute.
scholarly, glib in mathematics and man- "Hull! 'Alice in Wonderland!' I 've

ners. He despised
Knute's lack of definite
purpose in coming to col-
lege. The other was a
play-boy, a wit and a
stealer of street-signs,
who had a wonderful
sense for a subtle jest;
and his references to
Knute's beard shook the
table with jocund mirth
three times a day. So
these youths of gentle
birth drove the sham-
bling, wistful man
old
away from Commons,
and thereafter he ate at
the lunch-counter at the
Black Cat.
Lacking the stimulus
of friendship, it was the
harder for Knute to keep
up the strain of study-
ing the long assignments.
What had been a week's SAY. PROFESSOR, YOU
pleasant reading in his
shack w^is now thrown at him as a day's heard of it. Silly nonsense. Why don't
task. But he would not have minded you read something really fine, like
the toil if he could have found one as Shakespere or 'Paradise Lost'?"
young as himself. They w^ere all so dread- "Veil—" said Knute, but that was all

fully old, the money-earners, the serious he could find to say.


laborers at athletics, the instructors who With Ray Gribble's glassy eye on him,
worried over their life-work of putting he could no longer roll and roar with the
marks in class-record books. book. He wondered if indeed he ought
Then, on a sore, bruised day, Knute not to be reading Milton's pompous an-
did meet one who was young. thropological misconceptions. He went
unhappily out to an early history class,

KxuTE had heard that the professor who ably conducted by Blevins, Ph.D.
was the idol of the college had berated the Knute admired Blevins, Ph.D. He was
too-earnest lads in his Browning class, and so tubbed and eye-glassed and terribly
insisted that they read "Alice in Wonder- right. But most of Blevins's lambs did
land." Knute floundered dustily about in not like Blevins. They said he was a
a second-hand book-shop till he found an "crank." They read newspapers in his
"Alice," and he brought it home to read and covertly kicked one another.
class
over his lunch of a hot-dog sandwich. In the smug, plastered classroom, his
Something in the grave absurdity of the arm leaning heavily on the broad tablet-
book appealed to him, and he was chuck- arm of his chair, Knute tried not to miss
194 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
one of Blevins's sardonic proofs that the "Well, well, that 's very gratifying,
correct date of the second marriage of I 'm sure. And if you will be a little more
Themistocles was two years and seven careful — "

days later than the date assigned by that Blevins, Ph.D., smiled a toothy, frozen
illiterate ass, Frutari of Padua. Knute smile,and trotted off to the Graduates'
admired j^oung Blevins's performance, 'and Club, to be witty about old Knute and
he felt virtuous in application to these his way of saying "yust," while in the
hard, unnonsensical facts. deserted classroom Knute sat chill, an old
Hebecame aware that certain lewd man and doomed. Through the windows
fellows of thelesser sort were playing came the light of Indian summer clean, ;

poker just behind him. His prairie- boyish cries rose from the campus. But
trained ear caught whispers of "Two to the lover of autumn smoothed his baggy
dole," and "Raise you two beans." Knute sleeve, stared at the blackboard, and there
revolved, and frowned upon these mock- saw only the gray of October stubble
ers of sound learning. As he turned back about his distant shack. As he pictured
he was aware that the offenders were the college watching him, secretly mak-
chuckling, and continuing their game. He ing fun of him and his smile, he was now
saw that Blevins, Ph.D., perceived that faint and ashamed, now bull-angry. He
something was wrong ; he frowned, but was lonely for his cat, his fine chair of
he said nothing. Knute sat in meditation. buffalo horns, the sunny door-step of his
He saw Blevins as merely a boy. He was shack, and the understanding land. He
sorry for him. He would do the boy a had been in college for about one month.
good turn. Before he left the classroom he stepped
When class was over he hung about behind the instructor's desk and looked at
Blevins's desk till the other students had an imaginary class.

clattered out. rumbled He : "I might have stood there as a prof if

"Say, Professor, you 're a fine fellow. I could have come earlier," he said softly
I do something for you. If any of the to himself.
boys make themselves a nuisance, you yust
call on me, and I spank the son of a guns." Calmed by the liquid autumn gold that
Blevins, Ph.D., spake in a manner of flowed through the streets, he walked out
culture and nastiness: Whitney Avenue toward the butte-like hill
"Thanks so much, Axelbrod, but I of East Rock. He observed the caress of
don't fancy that will ever be necessary. I the light upon the scarped rock, heard the
am supposed to be a reasonably good dis- delicate music of leaves, breathed in air

ciplinarian. Good day. Oh, one moment. pregnant with tales of old New England.
There 's something I 've been wishing to He exulted
speak to you about. I do wish you "I could write poetry now if I yust —
would n't try quite so hard to show off if I yust could write poetry!"
whenever on you during quizzes.
I call He climbed to the top of East Rock,
You answer and
at such needless length, whence he could see the Yale buildings like

you smile as though there were some- the towers of Oxford, Long Island Sound,
thing highly amusing about me. I 'm and the white glare of Long Island itself
quite willing to have you regard me as beyond the water. He marveled that
a humorous figure, privately, but there Knute Axelbrod of the cottonwood
are certain classroom conventions, you country was looking across an arm of the
know, certain little conventions." Atlantic to New York State.
"Why, Professor!" wailed Knute, "1 He noticed a freshman on a bench at the
never make fun of you ! I did n't know edge of the rock, and he became irritated.

I smile. If I do, I guess it 's yust be- The freshman was Gilbert Washburn, the
cause I am so glad when my stupid old snob, tlie dilettante, of whom Ray Gribble
head gets the lesson good." had once said : "That guy is the disgrace
YOUNG MAN AXELBROD 195

of the class. He does n't go out for any- "Yes; I t'ink the Acropolis must be like
thing, high stand or Dwight Hall or any- this here."

thing else. Thinks he 's so doggone much "Say, look here, Axelbrod ; I 've been
better than the rest of the fellows that he thinking about ^ ou."
does n't associate with anybody. Thinks "Yas?"
he 's literary, they say, and yet he does n't "We ought to know each other. We
even heel the 'Lit,' two are the class scandal. We came here
erary fellows to dream, and
Got no time for these busy little
a loafing, moon- goats like Atchi-
ing snob like son and Giblets,
that." or whatever
As Knute }our room-
stared at the m.ate's name is,

unaware Gil, think we 're

whose profile fools not to go


was fine in out- out for marks.
line against the You may not
sky, he was ter- agree with me,
rifically public- but I 've de-
spiritedand dis- cided that you
approving and and I are pre-
that sort of cisely alike."

moral thing. "What makes


Though Gil you t'ink I come
was much too here to dream?"
well dressed, he bristled Knute.
seemed moodily "Oh, I used
discontented. to sit near you
"What he at Commons
needs is to vork and hear 5'ou
in a thrashing- try to quell
crew and sleep jolly old Atchi-
in the hay," son whenever
grumbled Knute he got busy dis-

almost in the cussing the rea-


virtuous manner sons for coming
of Gribble. to college. That
"Then he vould ••THEV WFRF. WAXnF.RINT, MINSTR
old, moth-eaten
know when he topic ! I wonder
vas veil off, and not look like he had the if Cain and Abel did n't discuss it at the
earache. Pf^!" Eden Agricultural College. \ ou know,
Gil Washburn rose, trailed toward Abel the mark-grabber, very pious and
Knute, glanced at him, hesitated, sat down high stand, and Cain wanting to read
on Knute's bench. poetry."
"Great view!" he said. His smile was "Yes," said Knute, "and I guess Prof
eager. Adam say, 'Cain, don't you read this
"
That smile symbolized to Knute all the poetry ; it von't help you in algebry.'
art of life hehad come to college to find. "Of Say, wonder if you 'd like
course.
He tumbled out of his moral attitude wMth to look at this volume of IMusset I was
ludicrous haste, and every wrinkle of his sentimental enough to lug up here to-day.
weathered face creased deep as he answered Picked it up when T was abroad last year."
196 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
From his pocket Gil drew such a book steal apples and to exclaim over silvered
as Knute had never seen before, a slender hills, taking a puerile and very natural
volume, in a strange language, bound in joy in chasing a profane dog. It was Gil
hand-tooled, crushed levant, an effeminate who talked, and Knute who listened, for
bibelot over which the prairie farmer the most part; but Knute was lured into
gasped with luxurious pleasure. The book tales of the pioneer days, of blizzards, of

almost vanished in his big hands. With a harvesting, and of the first flame of the
timid forefinger he stroked the levant, ran green wheat. Regarding the Atchisons
through the leaves. and Gribbles of the class both of them
"I can't read it, but that 's the kind were youthfully bitter and supercilious.
of book I alvays t'ought there must be But they were not bitter long, for they
some like it," he sighed. were atavisms to-night. They were
"Let me read you a little. It 's French, wandering minstrels, Gilbert the trouba-
poetry." dour with his man-at-arms.
Gil read aloud. He made of the alien They reached the campus at about five
verses a music which satisfied Knute's in the morning.

sixty-five years of longing for he had never Fumbling for words that would express
known what. his feeling, Knute stammered

"That 's — that 's fine," he said. "Veil, it vas fine. I go to bed now and

"Listen!" cried Gil. "Ysaye is play- I dream about

ing up at Hartford to-night. Let 's go "Bed? Rats! Never believe in wind-
hear him. We '11 trolley up, make it in ing up a party when it 's going strong.
plenty of time. Tried to get some of the Too few good parties. Besides, it 's only
fellows to come, but they thought I was a the shank of the evening. Besides, we 're
nut." hungry. Besides— oh, besides! Wait here
What an Ysaye was, Knute Axelbrod a second. I 'm going up to my room to

had no notion; but "Sure!" he boomed. get some money, and we '11 have some
When they got to Hartford they found eats. Wait! Please do!"
that between them they had just enough Knute would have waited all night. He
money to get dinner, hear Ysaye from had lived sixty-five years and traveled
gallery seats, and return only as far as fifteen hundred miles and endured Ray

Meriden. Gribble to find Gil Washburn.


At Meriden Gil suggested: Policemen wondered to see the celluloid-
"Let 's walk back to New Haven, then. collared old man and the expensive-look-
Can ike iti ing boy rolling arm in arm down Chapel
Knute had no knowledge as to whether Street in search of a restaurant suitable
it was four miles or forty back to the to poets. They were all closed.
campus, but "Sure!" he said. For the last "The Ghetto will be awake by now,"
few months he had been noticing that, said Gil. "We '11 go buy some eats and
had to be careful, but
despite his bulk, he take 'em up to my room. I 've got some
to-night he could have flown. tea there."
In the music of Ysaye, the first real Knute shouldered through dark streets
musician he had ever heard, Knute had beside him as naturally as though he had
found all the incredible things of which always been a night-hawk, with an aver-
he had slowly been reading in William sion to anything as rustic as beds. Down
Morris and "Idylls of the King." Tall on Oak Street, a place of low shops, smoky
knights he had beheld, and slim princesses lights, and alley mouths, they found the
in white samite, the misty gates of forlorn slum already astir. Gil contrived to
towns, and the glory of the chivalry that purchase boxed biscuits, cream-cheese,
never was. chicken-loaf, a bottle of cream. While
They did walk, roaring down the road Gil was chaffering, Knute stared out into
beneath the October moon, stopping to the street milkily lighted by wavering gas
'THEN AT LAST HH RHAU HIS OWN POETRY

and the first feebleness of coming day ; he not unspiced with lively references to
gazed upon Kosher signs and advertise- Gribble and Atchison and Blevins, all

ments in Russian letters, shawled women asleep now in their correct beds. Gil
and bearded rabbis and as he looked he
; read snatches of Stevenson and Anatole
gathered contentment which he could France ; then at last he read his own
never lose. He had traveled abroad to- poetry.
night. It does not matter whether that poetry
was good or bad. To Knute it was a
The room of Gil Washburn was all the miracle to find one who actually wrote it.

useless, pleasant things Knute wanted it The talk grew slow, and they began to
to be. There was more of Gil's Paris days yawn. Knute was sensitive to the low-
in it than of his freshmanhood cloisonne
: ered key of their Indian-summer madness,
on the mantelpiece, Persian rugs, a silver and he hastily rose. As he said good-by
tea-service, and books.
etchings, Knute he felt as though he had but to sleep a lit-
Axelbrod of the tar-paper shack and piggy tle while and return to tliis unending night
farm-yards gazed in satisfaction. Vast- of romance.
bearded, sunk in an easy-chair, he clucked But he came out of the dormitory upon
amiably while Gil lighted a fire and spread day. It was six-thirty of the morning,
a wicker table. with a still, hard light upon red-brick
Over supper they spoke of great men walls.
and heroic ideals. It was good talk, and "I can go to his room plenty times now;
197
198 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
I find my friend," Knute said. He held he added : "This is what I come to col-
tight the volume of Musset, which Gil lege for— this one night; I live for it

had begged him to take. sixty-five years. I go avay before I spoil


As he started to walk the few steps to it."

West Divinity Knute felt very tired. By He wrote a note to Gil, and began to
daylight the adventure seemed more and pack his telescope. He did not even wake
more incredible. Ray Gribble, sonorously sleeping in the
As he entered the dormitory he sighed stale air.
heavily At five that afternoon, on the day-coach
"Age and youth, I guess they can't team of a westbound train, an old man sat smil-
together long." As he mounted the stairs ing. A lasting content was in his eyes,
he said: "If I saw the boy again, he and in his hands a small book in French,
vould get tired of me. I tell him all I though the curious fact is that this man
got to say." And as he opened his door, could not read French.
After All and After All
By MARY CAROLYN DAVIES

p
r
K

; I

I \

gr
:<-i
---'Hk'.^"
k \l

i<i.^

•3"^
Lr_«Hl-C^

T^REAMING of a prince.
Cinderella sat among the ashes long ago
Dreaming of a prince,
She scoured the pots and kettles till they shone; and so,
After all and after all,
Gaily at the castle ball
Cinderella met her prince long and long ago!
"^—X^PT-^
1

^i 1!

p
|[r»

\
\

:
j

Dreaming: of a prince,
Sleeping Beauty lay in happy slumber, white and still

Dreaming of a prince,
She waited for a hundred years, and then his bugles shrill.
After all and after all,

Woke the castle, bower, and hall.


And he found her waiting him long and long ago

Dreaming of a prince,
I polish bowl and tea-pot and the spoons, each one
Dreaming of a prince,
I hang the new-washed clothes to wave a-drying in the sun :

After all and after all,

Great adventures may befall


Like to those that happened once long and long ago!
The Loyalty of the Foreign Born
An interpretation

By M. E. RAVAGE

Introduction by JAMES HARVEY ROBINSON


Professor of History, Columbia University

The Great War has come as a challenge to many of our old ways of thinking, and
has forced upon us a painful revision of long-accepted standards and ideals. Among
the revered terms of the past even "patriotism" is being subjected to a closer scrutiny
than ever before, for the simple reason that it bears such bitter as well as sweet fruit.
In the Noveinber issue of this magazine, under the title "What is National
Spirit?" I attempted to show how modern patriotism has developed from a deep and
strong savage instinct that has always led the members of the tribe to rush to its de-
fense. It is precisely this instinctive character that makes
hard to discuss patriotism
it

fairly and patiently. One who begins to ask questions about it seems to many high-
minded people to be impeaching the duty of loving one's native land and of dying for
it if necessary. He is accused of being a selfish coward, perhaps an enemy and alien at
heart. The patriot is highly sensitive and impatient when once his old instinct is inflamed
by opposition or even by the most reasonable hesitation. And this touchiness, this prone-
ness to suspect disloyalty and treason, is exactlywhat makes patriotism, despite all its

noble traits, dangerous, as the world is now arranged. For the ancient tribal spirit

is not simply affection for one's own group, pride and confidence in its natural
superiority and past achievements; it is contempt, suspicion, jealousy, and misunder-
standing of other groups, and easily lapses into hate and war and unspeakable atrocities
and carnage. Some of us are so impressed with this fact that we are becoming down-
right afraid of patriotism ; it seems like a devouring fire, which, instead of yielding a
genial national warmth, is devastating the world.
Our country has not been able to hold aloof from the general European conflict for
the simple reason that the Atlantic Ocean is no longer a barrier, but has now become
a vast highway of human intercommunication and interchange; just as the ancient
bulwarks which once protected medieval cities have been turned into spacious boulevards
upon which men go to and fro. So we must have a new patriotism to suit these new
conditions before there is any hope of permanent peace. The old patriotism has always
found too many good ready excuses for underrating, misunderstanding, and hating other
races and peoples. The world is so small and intimate now that our whole attention
should be focused upon the encouragement of emotions befitting this novel situation,
and perhaps it is just our own beloved country that offers some hint of better things.
In a way all of us, except the red Indian, are foreigners, with reminiscences of a
mother-country other than that in which it is our good fortime to live. We ourselves
may have been born in Europe, or our parents or grandparents may have handed
down to us their love for a native land other than this. If we are of English or Dutch
extraction, we may be separated by nine or ten generations from our ancestors who
lived in Europe; but this does not necessarily break the tie with peoples beyond the
Atlantic whose blood flows in our veins. I, certainly, feel myself an Englishman by
eight or nine removes, and the Brownists of the time of King James I are nearer to
201
202 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
me than Huguenots or Moravians. We are all hyphenated, except the poor black man,
who is scarcely ever suspected of a double allegiance. I find myself warmly resenting
the assumption of certain new-comers that we who
are sprung from English stock
are not quite as much upon England's conduct as Mr.
entitled to look indulgently
George Sylvester Viereck and Senator O'Gorman upon that of the Germans or Irish.
There is no more convincing instance of the ugliness of bat-eyed patriotism than the
supposition that only British gold or "Wall Street" can account for the existence of
English sympathizers in a country settled by Englishmen.
In view of the existence of this double patriotism in the United States, primary and
secondary, which makes our situation a very delicate and complicated one, it behooves
us above all other nations to examine critically the older notions of national loyalty
and see what may be done to encourage a sentiment less threatening to peaceful relations
among governments and We
must frankly recognize that patriotism is a
people.
heritage from our savage past, despite noble elements of devotion and self-sacrifice
which it brings out. We should make a careful distinction between public spirit and
all forms of chauvinism, between an honest and intelligent dedication to the country's

welfare and the primitive and wholly unworthy and fatal temptation to treat other
countries with suspicion and arrogance. We make this distinction in pri\'ate affairs,
why not in national?
can scarcely imagine anything that could more strongly reinforce these considera-
I

tions than the following article by a Rumanian immigrant who tries to rise above the
contradictions of a double loyalty. He not only has had more vivid experiences than
those of us who have American ancestors, but he has a philosophic mind, a seeing eye,
a simplicity and strength ofwhich all of us might well envy. He speaks for tens
style
of thousands of inarticulate new-comers who have had his hopes and suffered his dis-
appointments. His wisdom comes from his disappointments, and he is able to see fur-
ther and deeper than those of us who may have been here longer, but who are less wise
and penetrating than he when we permit ourselves to talk the outworn jargon of the
old, thoughtless, instinctive patriotism which has been fully exposed by the horrors
of the last three years.

MY estimable
somewhat sobered out
neighbor the
of his usual
native, decency, I must at
sensible of a debt of gratitude to her.
the very least be
I

complacency, begs me to answer him an was oppressed and hunted, and she has
earnest question. His country, as he is given me asylum and the protection of a
pleased to put it, is faced with a serious great state. I was poor and ignorant, and
crisis, and he fain would know where I she has opened the door of opportunity to
stand. Frankly, he is quite bewildered me. Am I properly appreciative of all

about me. Just what Americaam I? these bounties? And what ofmy attitude
has welcomed and adopted me and made toward the land of m\' birth and my child-
me as one of her own, until I have become hood?
a factor in her councils. It is no good "'^'ou see," he goes on with unwonted
blinking the fact, he must reckon with me. gravity, "what gives me pause is not the
In any country otiier than his I would be mere prospect of war with a European
counted as a foreigner, and there the power or group of powers. That is only
matter would end. But here, thanks to the direct occasion of my perplexity. The
the liberality of America's policy with im- problem strikes deeper than passing inter-
migrants, I am a complex phenomenon, a national disagreements. It concerns the
technical hybrid, at once an alien and a very roots of our national life. There
citizen. Well, now, in my own eyes what was a time, less than three short years
is my status? How do I feel toward ago, when we thought of ourselves as a
America? Certainly, as a point of pure nation. Our historians wrote books and
THE LOYALTY OF THE FOREIGN HORN 203
entitled them 'The American Nation' guest, but as an invader, not to look you
our statesmen and our press never tired of over, but to make you over. Did you ever
insisting on^ the point. Then we had all stop to ask him what his views of you
the earmarks of national unity. We had a were? Did you, indeed, think that he had
Hag and a civil government, territorial any ? Because the immigrant was in-
boundaries and a language. We even had articulate you concluded, I fear, that he
a kind of army. And while we were not was insensible. He was dumb, and you
homogeneous in blood, we made up for thought him blind and deaf as well. Yet
it by our common allegiance to the Con- all the time, while you were ignoring

stitution and the splendid tradition that it him or making good-humored jokes about
represents, with the consequence that we him or pitying him a little, he went his
were tolerably united in spirit. At least way, very much on the alert, registering
we thought we were until certain rever- impressions, making mental notes, and
berations from the great clash abroad set laboriously piecing out a picture of
us doubting, and for cause. We have dis- America which, as I shall endeavor to
covered with a painful shock that the im- show you, is fundamentally at variance
migrant whom we have befriended and with your own, if not hopelessly antago-
with whom we have unstintingly shared nistic to it.

our unique privileges has remained an How this picture of America originated
alien at heart. Unmindful of his oath to in my mind — for I am one of your alien
the land of his adoption, he has not ceased Americans — and what it is like, it will
to love the country where he was born — be hard for you to grasp until you have
the country, mind you, that has driven him first understood the causes that impelled
into exile and thrust him upon the benev- me to forsake my ancient home and to
olence of strangers. Now, candidly, how accept voluntary exile in yours. No one,
do you stand toward America? Do you I assure you, embarks upon the adventure
love her? In a crisis like the present are in a light-hearted mood. In one sense it
you with her or against her, or are you is precisely as my native friend puts it

calmly indifferent to her fine aspirations? I was driven into exile. Not from with-
America is bent on unifying her national out, pray understand, but from within.
soul. Is your being already merged with My own rebellious spirit was the spur. I
hers, is it going to be, or are you forever revolted against the Old World — against
to remain that conglomerate thing, an its folly, its insolence, its degradation.
alien citizen, a floating, unattached, un- From birth onward I had been made a
assimilable element festering in her victim of every species of discrimination,
corporate body?" of poverty, of oppression. I suffered un-
How do I feel toward America? There, endurably from the gendarme,
soldier, the
crisis or no crisis, war or no war, is the the tax-gatherer; from ignorance, from
heart of the whole irritating question. bigotry, from snobbishness. As long as I
What, more precisely, does America mean was a child I submitted to it all unques-
to me, to the immigrant generally, with his tioningly as to the order of nature. I

manifold attachments, his double culture, took hunger as a punishment from


his composite point of view as an outsider Heaven, and religious persecution as a
and an insider at one and the same time? divine testing of my faith. When I asked
I am glad the question has at last been why my family was deprived of its bread-
raised. For a whole century you have winner for months and why he
at a time,
been seeking and listening attentively to was compelled to drill in manoeuvers, and
the conflicting opinions of foreign travelers why a strange man with a badge came to
and criticson your institutions and our house to ask for money, and took away
character. But there was a foreigner our table-silver and our pillows when it
right here who had come to America not was not forthcoming, my mother told me
as a sight-seer, but as a settler, not as a with tears in her eves that it was the law.
204 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
and I asked no more. But as I grew to wrongly in the Old World, had erred and

manhood I began to see these things dif- blundered and floundered to its own de-
ferently. I began to see that class dis- struction and then a handful of choice
;

tinctions were stupid, that oppression was spirits risen in arms against the de-
had
an impertinence, that poverty was an cayed tradition of Europe, determined that
affront to the dignity of human beings. humanity should have a new start. Ever
And I came to despise the Old World, since that time the dreamers and the
with its mischievous egotism called na- rebels and the heroes of all nations had
tionality, its narrowness, its distrusts, its beaten a fan-like convergence of paths to
prejudices, its wilful blindness to the clear her gates. She had become the model of
destiny of the race, and its obdurate op- revolution and the Mecca of revolution-
mass of
position to the aspirations of the ists, from France to China, and from
mankind. I wanted violently to lay hands Koseiuszko and the forty-eighters to the
on the whole outworn pile and set it modern Russian bundist. America was
tumbling. But as I could not do that, I not merely the New World she was the
;

emigrated to the New World. new life. What was taking place here was
I emigrated, but I left my heart be- not the establishment of a new nationality,
hind. The farther I traveled from my but the very antithesis of all nationality.
own country, the dearer it became to me. The American people were an interna-
I had broken with the tradition of my tional society of lovers of libertv. They
people, but I could not dissolve the bonds were the hope of mankind. They were, in

that held me to them. They had become truth, the chosen people, the elect of all
stronger, and I found myself loving my the nations of the earth.
country as I had never loved it before. This startling departure in the affairs
How could I help it? Love is not a of the world had given expression of it-

reasoning thing. I had been born there. self in several notable instances. There
I had spent my childhood on its hillsides could be no mistaking the genuineness of
and by the banks of its rivers. The America's mission. The hunted, starving
sharers of my boyhood exploits even now Irish had been welcomed and fed and their
tilled its ancient soil. My ancestors lay battered souls nursed here. The Jew, for
buried there. A vast storehouse of mem- centuries misunderstood and mocked and
ories and associations clutched me to them. suppressed, and heaped with every indig-
I had rebelled not against my country or nity, the stepchild of the nations, the target
my people, but against their misfortunes. of the bigot, the safety-valve of the tyrant
That they still endured the sorrows I had and the reactionary — the Jew likewise had
escaped only increased my affection for been fraternally received into this all-em-
them. That I had freed my soul from the bracing society, and allowed, for the first

enslaving creed of my father and mother time in the history of his long, heroic exile,
and had embraced a new faith in no way to live in peace and usefulness. America
impaired the love I bore them. had engaged two wars, one for the lib-
in
For that, of course, is precisely what eration of the negro from her own back-
America meant to me even before I landed sliding States, the other to free the Cuban
on her shores— a new faith. I did not from the yoke of the Spaniard. She had
come here in quest of a new nationality. even gone the length of meddling with the
I had run away from the very idea of private affairs of foreign lands by abro-
nationality, at the cost of endless, bitter gating the treaty with Russia and by send-
sacrifice. America to me was not a nation, ing a now famous
note to Rumania, much
and if she ever becomes one, I shall re- to the amusement of the astute diplomats
volt against her as I once revolted against of Europe and the shrugging of their dis-
the land of my She was not even a
birth. creet shoulders. America seemed resolved
country. She was an ideal. It seemed to become the quixotic champion of the
to me that huinanitv had started out under dog, a knight-errant among the
THE LOYALTY OF THE FOREIGN BORN 205
nations. To become one of such a society, creaking machinery that elsewhere was
I felt, no price was too high. thought indispensable. To be sure, there
To one arriving in America the first was a White House in Washington, with
breath of her air was like a confirmation a good deal of the paraphernalia and the
of faith. The reality, indeed, seemed like gold lace of officialism, and there were
a wild exaggeration of all my dreams. American representatives abroad dabbling
Beside this, what
dwarfed thing
a poor, in diplomacy, and a shadow of an army

it was that had pictured


fancy The ! was lounging in out-of-the-way barracks
atmosphere of America was charged with but all this was no more than a decent
revolution. Here one heard as much of concession to the usages of mankind, the
liberty and democracy and the inalienable youthful, inspired giant deferring to the
rights of the people as of Kultur in Ger- weaknesses of senility, as a philosopher
many or of the empire in England. For might submit to the cramping absurdity
the Old World, with its kings and its of a dress-suit when addressing a gather-
nobles, its armies and its wars, its preju- ing of fashionable old ladies. The spirit
dices and its intolerance, there was that of American institutions was new and
contemptuous irreverence that the en- different.
thusiast of a new, burning faith .has for the My disillusionment came in due time.
unconverted. I was in the midst of a Daily contact with actual things is bound
world of kindred spirits. I went to to reveal their failings, and in the end
an Independence-day meeting, and was reality must inevitably fall short of the
amazed at the fiery utterances made there ideal conceived in the mind. I soon
by apparently respectable people in high learned that those glorifications of democ-
hats and frock-coats; I listened with a racy, those tributes to the sovereignty of
heaving of the heart to the enumeration of the masses, those eternal reminders of our
my limitless privileges as a sovereign of the imperishable liberties, which to me had
republic ; and my teeth chattered at the meant much, were, surely enough, com-
thought that any moment the policeman monplaces. The slogans of the idealist
who was hovering background
in the and the revolutionist had become the
might seize the inflammatory orator by the banalities of the conventional, the clap-
collar and clap him into jail. But I trap of the political demagogue, the stock
glanced around, and saw that the police- in trade of the vote-catcher. Popular
man was yawning, seemingly bored to ex- government in America had, I discovered,
tinction. The heresies of Europe had be- ample, sinister motives for being invisible.
come the commonplaces of America. Public in the most democratic
affairs
There was no government in America country in world were as chaotic as
the
that anybody could see, none, at any rate, in the most autocratic; but whereas in
of the obtrusive, interfering, inquisitory Russia it was the hereditary oppressor
kind that had been the bane of my life at who looted the subject, which was logical
home. What there was of it occupied and natural, in the United States the peo-
itself in distributing cigars and mailing ple fleeced one another, which was beyond
garden-seeds and bulletins, a government understanding. The average individual
of helpful servants altogether in harmony American, too, whom I had expected to
with my what a
theories as to government find a fiery preacher of the Word, a high-
should be. That was perhaps the most strung prophet worthy of the splendid
striking evidence of the radical departure mission of his heroic ancestor, was some-
the New World had taken from the ways what of a disappointment. He was kindly
of Europe. America seemed dedicated and likable and a pleasant companion, but
to the task of proving to mankind by her in matters of the spirit he was exasperat-
own actual practice that a people may ingly phlegmatic. Far from being heroic,
manage its common affairs without force he was a slave to comfort and the where-
or panic and with only a minimum of the withal of comfort. His ideal of America
206 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
was a paradise for the low-brow and the realizing that the worker justly expects
Philistine. more America than he does of less
of
The state of economic affairs in America fortunate and less democratic countries.
was to me a rude awakening. I was not I say "justly," and I suppose I am be-

of the class of alien, if the class exists, traying my sympathies. Well, it is


who imagines every one in America to be natural for me to lean toward the cause
rich, but I certainly had not expected to of the proletariat. I do not know what
find such extremes of destitution as I Americanism is if it is not a prejudice in
constantly met. Least of all did I look favor of the under dog. Have j'ou not
for industrial injustice in the United observed this tendency in the foreign-born
States. In my enthusiasm for democracy American? Has it ever struck you that
I had unconsciously fallen into the habit your agitators and your radicals and your
of thinking of it as a thoroughgoing busi- trouble-makers are, for the most part, in-

ness. Political freedom and the right to telligent "foreigners"? If you have
vote were all very well but they were ; noticed have you asked yourself why?
it,

only the shell of the thing, the mere I will you why. At least I can give
tell

means to an end. The substance of you two broad hints. First, it is because
democracy was clearly something more the immigrant is, as I have, I hope, made
solid, something that pervaded the whole clear to you, a revolutionist. He at least
of life from the basic human need of is a thoroughgoing democrat. He wants
earning bread to the crowning human American life to be as free as its promise.
need of wasting it on pink teas to the Rightly or wrongly, he looks upon him-
accompaniment of small talk in a decora- self as the spiritual descendant of the
tivedrawing-room. But during my early founders of the republic, and in his point
struggles in the slums I repeatedly of view he is carrying forward the great
stumbled on scenes of the most degrading American tradition of liberty, justice, and
misery. I saw underfed children with equality from the realm of politics to the
tears in their eyes, the cold numbing their domain of economy. For this reason you
ragged little bodies, selling newspapers on cannot consistently quarrel with him. He
the streets. Many a time I came upon a is taking you at your word. He is naive
huddled woman, with a babe at her breast, enough to in your revolutionary
believe
guarding a stack of household goods that protestations and while you may declare
;

had been tossed out of her tenement dwell- him a simpleton and a nuisance, you can-
ing, while the passing throng of sym- not, I think, save your face and be severe
pathetic poor unobtrusively deposited with him as a criminal. And, secondly,
coins in the bowl that surmounted the the immigrant American is almost in-
pile. In the meantinie the sons of the variably of the under-dog class himself.
American revolutionists, the sons of those He it is who digs your subways and mines
sturdy fathers who had fought their own your coal and carts your garbage and
mother-country that the world might see builds your roads and your railways. He
a better day, were investing their surplus does the better part of your physical dirty
income high-power motor-cars and the
in work. Wherefore, no matter where
services of lackeys and the daughters of
; fortune may land him, no matter to what
the American revolutionists were carrying class he may ultimately belong, spiritually
forward the tradition of democracy by de- he will remain of the hand-to-mouth order
veloping a taste for Bulgarian costume and \\'ith whom he started.
East Indian occultism. In the East and in As I went on living in America I began
the West the country was in the throes of to seek explanations for these discrepancies
industrial civil war, and my philanthropic in the theory and the practice of American
native friends kept assuring me that the life. I told myself that it was absurd to
lower classes were better paid in this land expect a man to go dancing about raptur-
than anywhere else in the world, not ousl\- for ;i ceiitiirv or more over the
THE LOYALTY OF THE FOREIGN BORN 207
liberty his father had won for him. indemnity case, in four-power loan
the
Sooner or later the hero will be obliged incident, and in a multitude of lesser re-
tohang up his musket and his trumpet and lations, with
that of the great powers
settle down to the daily routine of caring toward that nation. Our godlike patience
for his family. Freedom of thought, self- with an obstreperous, distraught neighbor
government, and the open door of op- like Mexico, our determination in the face

portunity were new to me; therefore I of intolerable provocation and temptation


was excited about them but to the native ; to be fair and just and magnanimous
they were as natural as the air he breathed, toward the weak, is humane to the point
and he took them calmly for granted. I of quixotism. No wonder the trained
made allowances even for the corruption diplomats of other continents laugh at us,
and the chaos in the conduct of the state, and our own fire-eaters gnash their teeth.
although that came hard. Much harder And it is not hard to imagine the merri-
still was the justification of the savage ment of those w^orld politicians at our
economic scramble. But I persuaded my- philanthropic adventure in the Philippines.
self to look at these things broadly. They "Schoolmastering," I can hear them say,
were, I said, the price we must be ready "is not building an empire." But America
to pay for freedom. If, as an old proverb is happily not intent on "expansion."
has it, you are going to let the bars down, Internally the spirit of America exhibits
you must expect the wolf as well as the itself quite as strikingly. I read and re-
sheep to enter. Supposing that equality read the President's recent address to the
of opportunity does tend to become a mere Senate, and my mind can scarcely credit
opportunism, supposing that liberty does my eyes. No European in a high govern-
degenerate into unchecked spoliation, it is ment position would ever dream of mak-
still better than autocracy or paternalism. ing any such "wild, visionary" assertions.
It is the essence of liberalism that it rests They would not enter his head. His
on the golden rule, and it is one of its entire training and antecedents and out-
glorious weaknesses that it is susceptible to look would make the thing impossible.
abuse. American democracy, I kept assur- Even an unofficial person would think
ing myself, is yet only dimly aw^are of twice before making himself liable to be
itself. There is no cause for despair. sent to Siberia or at least to Coventry.
Time and the living soul of Ainerica will It is the sort of thing that the initiated
set things right. scoff at and label idealistic, amateurish,
For the spirit of America was as vital revolutionary. But that is one of the dis-

as ever. The esprit de corps of a people is tinctive peculiarities of America, that her
something distinct from the sum of all its officials are often revolutionists. The
individual wills. You must add the people w'ho in Russia and Rumania, and
factor of tradition, a certain intangible even in Germany and would France,
quantity that hovers in the air, to balance be the ragged, underground
suspected,
the equation. I took stock of America's "enemies of society" are in America at
policy in her dealings with foreign peoples, the rudder of affairs. A fantastic dreamer
and told myself exultantly that here, with- with silly notions about the treatment of
out a doubt, was a definite break with the criminals is here made the warden of the
jVIachiavellian tactics of Old-World di- prmcipal prison in the foremost State
plomacy. Here, surely, was imagination of the Union. A quiet, literary gentle-
as well as humanity in international con- man, a sociologist of the millennium, is

duct. Conceive, if you can, of any the commissioner of immigration at the


European chancellery giving as much as a chief port of entry to the United States. A
tolerant ear to the just demands of an out- radical publicist, an enemy of exploitation
raged state of the insignificance of of poor by rich, becomes a judge in the
Colombia. I never tire of contrasting our highest court in the land. A rabid
own behavior with China in the Boxer preaching reformer, whose ideas of gov-
208 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
ernment would land him in a Russian jail, To me Americanism can mean only one
is elected to the mayoralty of a great city. thing— devotion to the ideal of liberty,
And to cap the climax of the whole in- equality, and human brotherhood, the
credible business, the chief executive of distinctive contributions of America to
the Union is a university doctrinaire, a civilization. To you it is altogether an-
philosophical student of statecraft, a other matter. Your Americanism, as I

theorist with a passion for showing up understand it, is a decided departure from
the accepted stupidities of the traditional the unique heritage of America. It is a
notions of internal and international gov- return to the old, familiar tradition of
ernment for the musty shams they are. national honor and national interest and
Now, these are expressions— all too my country first, the tradition that I have

rare, alas!— of that spirit of American rebelled against, and that the younger
humanity for which I have renounced the blood of Europe is fighting desperately to
heritage of my fathers and accepted exile get rid of. It is nothing more distinctive
among you here. To this I am loyal with than the ancient, worn-out cloak of Ger-
all the strength not of unreasoning love, manism and Little Englandism and Slav-
but of conviction. For this I am ready to ism that you are attempting to drag over
shedmy blood and to do battle against the broad, youthful shoulders of interna-
my own brothers, just as your ancestors tional America.
fought against their mother-country. It Can you, then, expect me to stand up
is my religion, my faith in a higher destiny and cheer for this queer brand of Amer-
for the race of man and woe to him who
; icanism? I am weary of the old nation-
dares attack it in the vain hope of trans- alism, I abhor the old patriotism and its

planting to this new soil the seed of inseparable concomitant, the headless
European discord and disaster! I may military monster. It is to escape them
be mistaken in my faith ;
perhaps the that I have fled to America. What shall
splendid hope of democracy by which I the convert do who has embraced a new
lay such great store is only a foolish dream. faith only to discover that it has sunk back
All the same, it is the only bond of union to the formalism and the idolatry of the
between you and me. It is the basic prin- orthodoxy he has abandoned ? There is
ciple upon which the great international only one course open to him, I think to —
society of America is built, and as long as it rejoin the ancient fold, with its mellowed
retains its semblance of reality, you have my beauty and its rich associations. If I
whole-hearted support. As soon as you can must go back to the hideous nightmare of
convince me that that principle is menaced, the Old World, then I may as well go
you need have no doubts of my loyalty. back, at least in thought, to the land that
But when you come to me with your gave me birth and to my own people.
weariness of democracy, your craving for I am not threatening; I am merely
a parvenu nationality on the old model, prophesying and interpreting.
your demagogue-inspired desire for vast
armies for the defense of institutions that I HAVE tried very earnestly, in writing
no one has the time or the ability to this paper, to avoid, as far as the subject-
threaten in short, when you conduct your-
; matter permitted, any association between
self like a burgher, who, having amassed a my utterances and the present interna-
fortune in trade, seeks admittance among tional crisis. I have felt all along that my
the aristocracy, pray remember that you theme was a general one, that an inter-
are not promoting the unification of pretation of the immigrant's attitude to-
America, but are severing the one vital tie ward America, his hopes and his dreams
that has held America together for genera- and his fears for the democracy he cher-
tions. I am a literal-minded person ishes, has something more than a passing
therefore I am totally out of sympathy interest for Americans, if it has any inter-
with your latest notions of Americanism. est at all. Mv thesis from the beginning
HOW CAN A^ ERICA HELP? I 209
to the end has been briefly this: that the case? To this I can only answer that the
immigrant, by the very nature of his case, immigrant will feel and act as all the lib-
is a thorougligoing liberal. His mere com- erals of America, the native included, will
ing to America, when one considers the feel and act. He will say: "God knows I
sacrifices it costs him, is excellent proof of have not willed this calamity. It has been
his belief in popular government and the forced upon us from within and from
freedom of opportunity. He, of all the without. I am a democrat and a believer
elements of American population, is fresh in representative government therefore it ;

from the bitter contact with the tyranny is my duty to accept war when Congress

of the Old Worldtherefore America to


; has declared it. Now more than ever
him is still,most real sense, a young
in the democracy is exposed to untold perils, and
republic, and he cannot help sharing with I must serve her cause in whatever way

Jefferson and Franklin a deep solicitude I can, with a gun, if necessary. Above all.
for its existence and its perpetuation he ; I must keep a watchful eye on the internal

cannot help harboring, with the Fathers dangers that war invariably brings in its

of the Revolution, a constant fear against wake. It is in war-time that reaction, tak-
the dangers that beset its beloved institu- ing advantage of the popular anxiety, rears
tions from without and from within. its horrid head, and under the plea of mili-

But, owing to the seriousness of the tary necessity tramples upon all the hard-
times, it is gravely to be doubted whether won achievements of centuries of progress.
the reader's mind can be kept off the im- It is in war-time that freedom of opinion
mediate concern. Since this article was and fieedom of utterance and public san-
written and sent to press America has ity and human brotherhood are constantly
definitely committed herself to war, and threatened. As my primary pa-
a liberal
the great question that patriotism will ask triotic duty isdo everything in my
to
itself as it contemplates these lines is, power to keep democracy and liberalism
What is your attitude now in the concrete alive among my own people."

How Can America Help?


By SYDNEY BROOKS
Author of "The Irish Question," etc.

NO —
Englishman and least of all one
who, like myself, has known the
more than Great Britain and the LTnited
States. They are destined to be the
United States and studied it for over pivotal point of all international politics
twenty years, and had done what he could for as long a future as my reasonable mind
to interpret it to his own countrymen — cares to measure. They are either the key
can possibly sit down to write of America's to unlock the door to universal peace or
entrance into the war without an initial that door will never be unlocked at all.

expression of his deep thankfulness. The When war is over it will be found
the
dearest political wish of his heart is to have left two capitals peculiarly su-
mere fact of a working co-
realized in the preme in world affairs, London and Wash-
operation between the English-speaking ington. On their vision and statesmanship
democracies. When British and American and on the degree of genuine understand-
soldiers are fighting side by side in the ing and sympathy which the war develops
Army of Liberty, a new and most memor- between the British and American peoples
able chapter will have opened in Anglo- will depend the fate of mankind through
American relations. And Anglo-Ameri- some of the most critical decades in all
can relations, in my judgment, concern historv. For in entering the war the
210 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
United States has entered the world, and unaffected. It would leave no secret
whether she wishes to or not, she cannot source of weakness unexplored. It would
again withdraw to the seclusion of her old mean the demolition by piece of
piece
hermitage. Having sat down at the table, nearly all and arrangements
institutions
she will stay in the game ; but it is not a and their "reconstruction on a new model.
game which permits the playing of a lone But while the advantages to the United
hand. America will be effective in Welt- States from such a general overhauling
politik and in establishing the scheme of might be many and great, it is questionable
things on a sounder basis only so far as whether the Allies would equally benefit.
she works hand in hand with Great Britain. Let me, to make my meaning clearer, give
Such an association, reinforced by the one or two specific instances. If America
power and the good-will of the French were to duplicate the enormous effort put
and Russian democracies, has for the forward by Great Britain, she would have
British people the attractiveness and in- to raise, arm, train, and equip an army of
spiration of an ideal. And it is an attain- not fewer than 12,000,000 men. Is such

able ideal. It has been made so by an army needed ? Could even a fifth of
American intervention and by that great it be effectively employed? Would not
process of political education and expres- its organization and munitionment involve

sion which the people of the United States an expenditure of time and thought and
are about to undergo. One may even say energy that might be better used in other
that America will have come into the war directions? Similarly we in Great Britain
with little ultimate benefit either to the have found it not merely desirable, but
world or herself if it does not unite her necessary, to take under government con-
with the sister democracies of Europe in trol virtually the whole engineering and
a solid concert not merely of sentiment, chemical industry of the country and de-
but of action and policy. vote it to war purposes and in addition ;

But that is music of the future. My we have built about a hundred colossal
more immediate purpose is to consider national factories and switched off some
some of the ways and means in which forty-five hundred firms from their normal
American participation in the war can be businesses in order to manufacture muni-
turned to the best account. And as a tions. The United States, under similar
starting-point in any such inquiry one has urgency, both could and would do as we
firstto resolve the question whether the have done. But is the urgency similar?
United States would be of more service to In setting on foot such an industrial reso-
the common cause by limiting and con- lution as Great Britain has been obliged
centrating her efforts or by getting into to effect under the stress of immediate
the struggle as deeply as possible. For needs, would not the United States be
her own sake I should certainly like to overdoing it? Would she not be under-
see America grappling with the innumer- taking the superfluous? Might she not
able problems that arise when a com- be of greater service to the Allies if she
mercial and unorganized nation is forced used both her human and her industrial
by circumstances to transform itself into resources in other waj^s?
a military power of the first rank and to For let us get the broader and determin-
dedicate to that task, in the President's ing aspects of the situation clearly in our
words, "Our lives and fortunes, every- minds. The United States has stepped
thing that we are, and everything that into the arena just in time to take part in
we have." Such an experience would the final or, at any rate, the penultimate
be for Americans, as it has been for us round. The problem before the anti-
in Great Britain, an exacting education Teutonic powers is not so much the win-
in efficiency, resourcefulness, citizenship, ning of the war— it is won already— as
and sacrifice. It would leave no part the ending of it and the military value
;

of the social, political, or industrial fabric of American intervention is less that it


HOW CAN AMERICA HELP? 211
makes the assurance of victory doubly tributions that America is in a position to
sure than that it promises, if rightly util- make to Germany's defeat than the put-
ized, to expedite the inevitableand relieve ting into early commission of all the
the belligerents of the waste and agony of \'essels seized in American harbors, the
a needlessly protracted struggle. immediate institution under governmental
I'hc issue of the war was long ago de- direction and control of a standardized
termined, but it will be none the less an ship-building program, and the use of the
incalculable service to humanity if the American navy and of the ingenuity of
United States is able to hasten its con- American inventors in rounding up raid-
clusion. Her function in the nature of ers, smoking out submarine bases, if any

the case and at this late hour must be can be found off the coasts of Mexico and
mainly ancillary. It is for her to rein- the United States, and in helping to clear
where they are weak, to
force the Allies the Atlantic trade-routes. With things
supply them with what the}' most need, as they are, an extra hundred thousand
to place at their disposal her entire re- men employed in the shipyards would be
sources of men and material and organized doing more for the Allied cause than five
power, and to decide with them in what tim'es that number under arms.
directions these resources can best be em- Linked with the question of tonnage,
ployed so as to supplement and not to and dependent upon it, is the question of
duplicate the achievements and assets of food and fuel. As much in her own in-
her partners. Each and all of the Allies terest as in that of the Allies, the United
in Europe have had to develop their ut- States should initiate at once a compre-
most strength along every line of endeavor. hensive scheme for increasing the supply
The United States, coming in at the tail- of food. We have reached a stage in the
end of the war, and herself secure from war where agriculture and mining, wheat
serious and direct attack by the enemy, and coal, are seen to be just as essential
is under no such compulsion. Her task is to victory as men and guns. Not only the
one of selection and discrimination. It is belligerents, but the whole world, is
that of making good deficiencies, of fill- threatened with a severe shortage of all
ing gaps, of restoring attenuated places in the principal crops, and the United States,
the cordon that has been drawn round the while not the only, is by far the largest
Central powers; and the right attain- and most productive, area available for
ment of these objects demands from meeting the deficiency. Upon the secre-
Americans not that they should be forti- tary for agriculture, upon -the state agri-
fied at all points, but that they should be cultural colleges, upon the individual
immensely strong at some where the Allies farmer, stock-raiser, and market gardener
are weak, and relatively weak at others throughout the country, is thrown the
where the Allies are strong. duty of increasing the acreage under the
One obvious condition has to be ful- plow, of adding immediately to the pro-
filled if American assistance is to be of ductiveness of the soil, of cutting off all
any use at all: communications with possible sources of waste in the distribu-
Europe must be multiplied and made safe. tion of food-stui¥s, and of devising means
In other words, ships and yet more ships for keeping prices within reasonable limits.
must be built, and the sea lanes to French There is the experience of both Ger-
and British ports must be kept open. The many and Great Britain to prove how
shortage of tonnage and the menace of the huge and complicated is the task thus out-
submarine— these are the two problems lined, and what endless drafts it makes not
that most anxiously preoccupy the minds only upon the administrative energies and
of the Allies; and on the solution of both judgment of the authorities, but upon the
of them the United States might well good faith of the producer. Yet the task
concentrate her first activities. I can will have to be undertaken if the United
imagine, indeed, no more effective con- States is not to find herself not onh" short
212 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
herselfand faced with famine prices, but railroads, but a railroad policy; and
unable to relieve the growing, but not yet Americans are preeminently qualified to
intolerable, stringency among the Allies. provide her with both. Russia, once more,
As for coal, any one who knows what is terribly in need of doctors, surgeons, and

France and Italy suffered last winter from hospital supplies and ambulances and all ;

the lack of knows also that Americans


it these the United States is in a position to

could hardly be more usefully engaged furnish abundantly.


than in doubling, if that is possible, the Were Americans to specialize on the
output of their mines, and delivering the variegated tasks that sorely need to be
surplus at French and Italian ports. taken in hand if the new-born Russian re-
It would seem, then, as though an public is to be properly equipped for war;
organized division of labor to ship-build- were they to organize their munitions in-
ing, agriculture, and coal-mining were dustry, their merchant marine on the
among the steps that the United States Pacific, and their transcontinental rail-

might profitably take. No readjustment, road services with a single eye to making
however, of that or any other sort, but good Russia's deficiencies; were they to
just plain good sense and good-will," is take over the development of Russia's in-
needed to enable Americans to take off ternal communications and the administra-
Great Britain's shoulders a part, at any tion of the transsiberian railroad and to
rate, of the financial burden she has so keep up a continuous stream of physicians,
far borne almost unaided and with amaz- surgeons, engineers, medical necessaries,
ing endurance. There are well-nigh end- and military supplies — were Americans to
less ways in which this financial assistance do all this, not only, is it contended and —
can be extended. But one of them, un- who can dispute it? — would the name of
questionably, and a most efficacious one, the United States be as imperishably as-
is to see to it that for the future the Allies sociated with the birth of Russian freedom
have to pay no more for their purchases as that of France is interwoven with the
of American metals and raw material than struggle for American independence, but
has the United States Government itself. they would be rendering one of the most
So far as Great Britain and France are direct and at the same time one of the
concerned, virtually all the orders for broadest services m their power to the Al-
munitions placed in America have now lied fortunes —
a service that would instan-
been fulfilled or canceled. Some Russian taneously react on all the theaters of war.
orders for and guns are still
rifles, shells, The idea appeals to me, and must, I
on the books of American manufacturers, should think, appeal to all Americans.
and a few Rumanian and Italian orders. And there are not a few similar contribu-
But in general what the Allies most re- tions that the United States might make
quire from America now is raw material to the land whose heroism and sufferings
and supplies, and it will be very much to in this war have passionately moved
their advantage if they are enabled and American sympathies. I have a vision of
permitted to buy as cheaply as the Ameri- American contractors and engineers sys-
can war and navy departments. tematically rebuilding the wasted country-
The very interesting suggestion has been side, the torn roads, the broken bridges of
made that the United States should make France ; of American surgeons and nurses
a special study of the needs of Russia, taking over many both of the French and
with a view to their speedy and complete the British base hospitals, and supplying
satisfaction. Russia has men, but is still them with all they need from American
deplorably short of munitions. It should sources; of American physicians and sani-
be the business, as it would certainly be the tation experts starting in France a cam-
pride, of the United States to furnish her paign against tuberculosis such as they
with all the supplies and equipment that waged so brilliantly and so devotedly
she lacks. Russia, again, needs not only against t_\phus in Serbia. Never has there
HOW CAN AAIERICA HELP? 213
been such a chance for American medicine medical and engineering ser\'ices to France
to prove its worth. and Russia, and above all in increasing her
But above and beyond all this the output of munitions, and so reinforcing
United States will share as a matter of the striking power of the Russians on the
course in the actual fighting. Her people Eastern front.
ha\e no otlier thought or intention than There are two further proofs that might
that of sealing in blood the brotherhood be taken into advantageous consideration.
of arms into which they have entered. It The first is, that by devoting special atten-
would be a stroke of supreme policy if at tion to the Russian problem, the United
least one fully equipped division of Ameri- States would necessarily be drawn into the
can troops were to be sent to the Russian closest kind of cooperation with the Gov-
front and maintained there in undi- ernment of Japan. The two powers
minished strength till the end of the war. would, indeed, be working together to fur-
The moral and sentimental value of such nish Russia with what It would
she needs.
an would forge between the
enterprise be a joint undertaking which America in

Russian and American peoples an unbreak- and Japanese army officers and adminis-
able chain of affectionate good-will. trators would participate on equal terms.
In addition, I take it for granted that I can imagine nothing but good coming

American troops will appear in scores upon from this association, this interchange of
scores of thousands — and the sooner the ideas and services, between the two coun-
better— on the Western front, to wipe out tries. It is a commonplace that China is
once and for all the insensate legend that to be the next world question. Whether
Americans are too proud to fight, and to it is also to be a source of future wars de-

win back for the United States at the only pends very much on the relations between
price at which it can be bought the price — Japan and the United States, and nothing
of life and suffering— her old prestige, her that draws those nations into a better un-
old benign and reconciling influence, derstanding ought to be neglected.
among the democracies of the world. The other point that in my judgment
Those worth living for when
will be days should govern all American preparations
the first American contingent reaches Eng- for the waging of the war is this: that
land, is welcomed in London, crosses over wherever American troops are sent they
to France, and takes up in the battle-line should be equipped with the same arms
of freedom its natural position as a con- and ammunition as the forces by whose
necting-link between the French and side the\- are fighting. If the Allies had had
British armies. from the beginning the foresight to pool
On what scale the United States should and standardize their armaments, to adopt,
order her military preparations I am not for instance, one particular type of rifle,

qualified e\en to suggest. But I should field-gun, howitzer, machine-gun, etc., the
think that it might be possible for her whole problem of munitionment would
to and train and equip an army
raise have been greatly simplified, and the war
of 2,000,000 men without shelving or might easily have taken a different course.
scamping those other and more vital tasks If Americans fight on the Eastern front,
that I have enumerated. If, however, in let them do so with the Russian rifles. If
the present scarcity of labor that under- on the Western front, then let their arms
taking should prove impracticable, then and equipment be interchangeable with
unquestionably would be better to build
it those of the British troops. A community
up a smaller army rather than impede the of all the implements of war has both a
great work which America can do in or- positive and a negative value. It makes
ganizing the supply of ships and food and for economy and success. It averts con-
money and raw material, in rendering the fusions that at a pinch might be disastrous.

(This article was written four days after the declaration of war, and as we go to press there is ground for believing that the
policy of the Government is likely to be in striking accord with the suggestions herein brought forward. — The Editor.)
THE DANISH WEST INDIES
Pictured f The Centurt
07^

By Lester G. Hornby

DRAWINGS MADE IN THE ISLANDS OF


ST. THOMAS, ST. JOHN, AND
SANTA CRUZ
CHAKI.OTTK AMAI.IE, THE PORT OF ST. THOMAS. THE ISLAND ACROSS THE HARBOR IS 0.\E
OE THE MOST IMPORTANT COALING-STATIONS IN THE WEST INDIES. I.YINC, AT ANCHOR
NEAR THE ISLAND ARE TWO INTERNED GERMAN BOATS THAT CAME IN TO
SEEK SHELTER, AND WERE HELD BY THE DANES
't"^^:*^/^'-'-/.

IHE MOST IMl'URTANT liUlI-DlNG OK 111 IS


:OVKK.\.\lKNT HOUbli, ST. JUH.N, I 111. I- isi.wn
JHK ONLY OTHER HOUSES ON THE ISLAND ARE SMALL NATIN HW
I,

MOSTLY OF KAY-CULTIVATORS. IT IS HERE IN ST. JOHN THAI


HAY IS CROWN FOR ST. THOMAS'S MOST IMI'ORTAN I

INDUSTRY, THE MAKING OF BAY-Rl'.M


I ,,...^vt.?„ ... -i:
yKrxkP.Wr ^•^'^rr-'T"'r-:.r^^^

r I.*

mmm--^./"(i.

-**;l^jjA
/^i

'/ 1
i

y^
;i^y.

jss^^^-J'
THE CATHEDRAL AND THE MAIX THOROUGHFARE OK FREDERICKSTED, SANTA CRl Z
''0'^'^MmmjmS^^

H'»nil/',,.„t.a..t.i'
A bl KLLl IN OI U t IIKISI VN^IJ IJ, SVN A CM /
I 1 I III SI \ 1 Ol (.0\ 1 KNMl N I Js IN
LHRI'5lI\.NSU I), WHICH, Bl IN(r ON IHI A\IND\\\RI) sIDI OI Nil
lil AND, IS LOOl hR 1H\N lis Rl\ \I J <>W N, ] RI DI UK kS I I I),

W llL) IN1 KN HO V Is Ol V
I S \1 R ]I \K1 (Jk,
I

UUK TO HKR LKKWARD Sri'lAl'loX


AEANUUM:.!) Mill, u K AN VIA) SICAK-IM-ANTATIO )R.MKR1.Y, WHKN PLAN
I

THEIR OWN cam:, IIIKUE WERE HUNDREDS OF THESE WINDMILLS ON THK ISLAM
TO-DAV \ IRl'lAI.LY ALL THE CANE OF THE ISLAND IS CONTROLLED h\
A FEW COMPANIES, WHICH HAVE MODERN STE\M-MI1.I.S
IN PLACE OP THE WlNDMU.l.
Adolescence
By HETTY HEMENWAY
ANNE-MARIE and Celeste dawdled But Celeste was n't interested in the
always a few feet behind their gov- Minerva. She gave it a perfunctory
erness. They kept exchanging meaning glance, and her soft eyes reverted and
glances, squeezing hands, smiling at each lingered with unfathomable admiration
other. on the white, graceful messenger god. He
Mme. De Saule walked briskly in front regarded her, as he regarded everything
of them, but constantly twisted her head in the room, with his smile, mysterious
around, mother goose, and ex-
like a and aloof, of disdainful tenderness,
claimed, sometimes in French, sometimes "What are those impudent young men
in German (she was Swiss) : over there laughing at?" cried Mme.
"What are you girls babbling forever De Saule. "Don't look round, Anne-
about behind there? I declare, we shall Marie. One can't do such things in
never see Naples at this rate ! Here we Italy."
are at the National Museum, and instead Anne-Marie turned about, and re-
of looking at things, you 're always garded the three young men attentively.
whispering and laughing. We might just "I rather think they like Celeste's and
as well be back in the convent. I shall my looks," saidAnne-Marie, who always
never take two such headless young things spoke the truth. She was a beautiful,
traveling again!" seventeen-year-old girl, with the touching
She spoke with a vehemence that she and sheltered purity of a little child.
tried ro make sound convincing. It was Certainly the men were looking at
difficult. In the course of her whole Celeste. She was looking at the Hermes,
drab, prosaic life she had never had so smiling to herself and humming. The sun-
much pleasure as now. It was such a light spilling through a stained-glass win-
treat to leave her crabbed and invalided dow spattered his dazzling body with
old mother, to whom she was devoted, and multicolored light.
take these two rich girls from the convent The governess looked at her and burst
traveling in Italy. Therefore she re- out laughing. Celeste started guiltily.
peated very often: The party proceeded into the Pompeian
"I declare, I shall never take young room.
girls traveling again ! Such responsibility! They lunched on the open terrace of
I 'm exhausted. It 's terrible, terrible. a hotel overlooking the bay, with Vesuvius
We 're going up now to see the Pompeian puffing in the distance.
relics," she announced. "Oh, yes, we "Ach! IVunderschon! Colossal! Look,
must see them everybody goes to see the
; girls!" murmured Mme. De Saule, con-
Pompeian relics. I declare, what are you stantly. It exasperated her that Anne-
looking at now?" Marie and Celeste appeared to take as
Celestewas standing before a figure of much pleasure in their dinner as they did
the Hermes of Praxiteles. She had let in the view. She felt that this was gross.
go of Anne-Marie's hand. It was part of her conscientiousness that
"Come, don't look at that," said the she must be ahvays expressing aloud her
governess, hastily consulting her guide- appreciation of the beautiful to some ab-
book. "It 's only a plaster cast; it 's not stract creator, just as some tiresome guests
the real thing. Now, that Minerva over are always thanking and complimenting
there, it was—" She began to read. their host. Anne-Marie and Celeste, with
221
222 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
the marvelousand pleasing egotism of "This is what we shall all come to
gods and children, accepted beauty and eventually," said the old monk in a
drank it in without self-consciousness. It sepulchral voice. Anne-Marie closed her
was the natural background and scenery eyes, smiling, and clasped her hands tightly
for themselves, so they scarcely thought of together. Even Mme. De Saule was af-
it. fected. Celeste looked about her at the
After lunch they drove to a monastery, gleaming, hollow heads, leering like Jack-
described in the under the
guide-book o'-lanterns in the dusk. She took a deep
"Interesting-Environs" column. It was breath of the stale, lifeless air; quite sud-
gathered to the side of a great, dusty hill, denly an armless, legless skeleton reminded
and its porticos gleamed white among the her of the statue she had seen that morn-
clustering vineyards exposed to the full, ing. A great wave of ecstatic buoyancy
azure glare of the Neapolitan sky. An leaped within her.
old monk, a brown-hooded
dressed in "I 'm young, young, young," she cried
around his waist,
cloak, with a rope tied to herself, bracing her tingling feet against
to which was attached a bunch of keys, the stone floor as if she could draw life

showed them about. like a plant from the earth, rich with the
Inside the gray walls was a mellow ashes of countless dead. She looked at
hush, an immaculate stillness. The sun- madame's sagging face in the green light
light inundated the court, falling hot on and the lined, parchment countenance of
the flagstones between the white pillars of the old monk, and she continued to thrill
the cloisters, where other brown-clad and to tingle and to cry to herself, "I 'm
brothers were walking sadly, their eyes young, young, young; I shall never die
fixed on the ground. Anne-Marie and never, never, never!" She smiled im-
Celeste thought that they had never be- pudently and coyly into the graves dotted
held such abundant sunshine or such deep with white heads. She caught the old
shadows or known such stillness. Their monk's glowing eye upon her, and he
hearts were full of awe and reverence be- seemed to divine her mood, for all at once
cause of the sun and the silence, and the he threw back his head, and his old eyes
brown brothers walking sadly with their glowed and lighted.
eyes on the ground. Even Mme. De Saule "Vive la jeunesse! vive la jeunesse!" he
was impressed, and read from her guide- cried, raising high the torch, and saluting
book in a hushed, monotonous tone, as if Celeste playfully with it. "Our Saviour,
it were the breviary. too, was young, and knew the joy of life,"
"We must see the crypt. It says the he added, crossing himself and smiling
mosaics are of special interest. It says tenderly and queerly.
the underground passages are more in- "These brothers!" said the governess
teresting, on a smaller scale, than the when they were once more in the car-
Catacombs at Rome," she whispered to riage, rattling along the dusty pavement.
the girls. "I would n't trust them. They 're just

The cold breath of the crypt fanned full, full of tricks. You can't trust even
their faces as they descended the sunken the gray hairs, children," she added, with a
stone steps. Underneath the chapel the cunning, satisfied expression. She was not
air tasted stale and fuzzy. They were in content to spend the evening at the hotel
the grave of the church. Celeste looked and go to bed early. She looked mysteri-
at Anne-Marie, at her calm, deep, ]\Ia- ous all through dinner. At dessert she
donna-like face. All about them, piled said wearily
against the mosaic walls, were bones and "You go up and put on your best
girls
skeletons disposed about as carelessly as dresses. We
're going to the opera."

curios in a cabinet.Empty heads gleamed The clerk at the desk informed them
from dark corners, and there was a dank that the opera was over in Naples at that
odor that made the flesh creep. time of year.
ADOLESCENCE 223
"But there is a very beautiful \'iennese in ordinary life could only be imagined.
operetta, 'The Waltz Dream.' You She heard an intellectual-looking French-
must see it," he added authoritativelj'. woman behind her remark
"Is it young ladies?" in-
suitable for "What taste! Look at that ridiculous

quired Mme. De mixed


Saule, with the ceiling!"
timidity and effrontery she used toward Anne-Marie and Celeste wondered how
employees. The clerk shrugged his any one could be blind to so much beauty.
shoulders. Madame, scanning severely The play was in Italian. Celeste did
Anne-Marie and Celeste's eager faces as not understand one word that the actors
if it would be their fault if the play was were saying, but she was vaguely and
not proper for them to see, bought the exquisitely entertained just the same. She
tickets. felt instinctively that the play was im-
Anne-Marie dressed herself in a white proper, but the fact did not interest her as
dress and put a blue ribbon in her hair. it did madame.
Celeste put on a white dress because Anne- The music made all the trivialities on
Marie did, and put a blue ribbon in her the stage seem romantic. Every time the
hair, too. She was distressed because the hero, who was a little fop in a red fez,
shade of blue was slightly paler than Anne- with something ludicrous in his motions,
Marie's blue. All the way in the car- approached the heroine, the orchestra
riage she held Anne-Marie's cool, smooth played the "Waltz Dream." The melody
hand. It was necessary for the perfection began in a low and
key, swelling higher
of her happiness that she should be near higher, and intensifying its
repeating
or touching Anne-Marie all the time. It poignant refrain, till it became so pleading
relieved a happiness which was almost too and insistent that the audience began to
She often felt
great for her to bear alone. sway with it. Some persons nodded their
thus,happy and elated, for no reason she heads or tapped their feet others lay back ;

could explain, and during the dri\'e her in their chairs and smiled dreamily with
fifteen-year-old heart gave her sensations closed eyes.
that, in grown-up person, would have
a In a box, elevated over the stage at one
been cause enough to send post-haste for side, she recognized an Italian officer she
a doctor. had seen at the museum ; he was resplen-
Madame wore a stiff, black silk dress. dent in a pale-blue uniform ; the metal
Money from her savings had been taken trappings on his coat and his sword re-
to buy it. A great deal of anxious thought flected the light of the stage and twinkled
had gone into it. To
them it looked like multicolored jewels in the semi-
exactly as any black silk would look on a darkness of the orchestra. His head was
stout, elderly woman but madame, who ; fair and large, and shaped like that of
had never had anything pretty to wear, the Hermes His lips wore
of Praxiteles.
was as much concerned with her appear- the same expression of aloof and slightly
ance in a new silk gown, and felt as de- mocking tenderness. When the "Waltz
liciously important, as if she were still Dream" was played, he stood up and, with
young and good-looking. his arm about a comrade, swayed his slim
Anne-Marie and Celeste had ne\cr been body with the rhythm of the music.
in so big a theater as the one at Naples. There was an elemental and spontaneous
They were thrilled by its vastness and all grace in the unself-conscious motions
the ornate trimmings. They admired in- which told any one whose eye happened
tensely the pale-blue ceiling, painted in to follow the sinuous figure that he was
imitation of the sky, with white clouds intoxicated with the music, that he felt
and angels floating across it. It seemed its caressing and insistent melody running
to Anne-Marie a touchingly beautiful through him.
idea to paint the ceiling of a house like Celeste, from her seat in the dark
the sky, and to include the angels, which orchestra, kept turning her e_\ es in the
224 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
swaging figure in the box.
direction of the pure in the fitful light of the passing street-

She felt the music running through her, lamps.


too. She squeezed Anne-lMarie's hand, "I 'm so tired!" murmured Anne-
but it did not satisfy or console her en- Marie. "You know, Celeste," she added
tirely. The wistfulness of her mood, in- dreamily, "I would be so
think it

duced by the music, seemed to her to be- lovely to live always in a monastery—
come so vast as to be almost unendurable. —
mean a convent like the one we saw this
It was as if the persistent burden of the afternoon, don't you? I think it would be
song was reminding her of something for- lovely to die young, don't you?"
gotten, something once known and amaz- Celeste wondered, and did not answer.
ing, an intimate mystery, poignant, beauti- She wondered how any one could feel
ful, and unfinished. tired. She thought about the convent, and
The music subsided softly. The she remembered again the wave of ecstatic
curtain dropped while the audience ap- life that had welled up within her as she
plauded. The play was over. There looked at the poor armless skeleton. No,
was a sudden stampede for cloaks and she did not wish to die young; her little
hats. Anne-Marie and Celeste were soul and body were exquisitely troubled
jostled by the crowd. Madame scolded by the presence of an energy rampant
loudly and angrily, as she always did when within her, which was more significant
she was frightened. The girls laughed. and alive than she was herself.
Suddenly Celeste gave a little cry; a Her eyes were dreamy, but not with
strange hand from the crowd was passed sleep. Later, as they were getting ready
swiftly and caressingly over her bare neck for bed, she sat in one position for fully
and down between the shoulder-blades. ten minutes, caressingly passing her
She felt the fingers close about her small fingers through her unbound hair.
neck and shake her playfully. Simultane- She lay beside Anne-lVIarie for a long
ously a mocking voice in her ear said gently : time in the darkness, hearing, but not
Bimba mia!"
"Cattiva, cattiva, listening to, her peaceful breathing. Softly
shrunk toward Anne-Marie,
Celeste she crept out of bed, and lighting the pink
and wheeled about just in time to see a light by the dressing-table, she looked over
tall figure in a blue military cape shoul- her shoulder and surveyed her plump
dering his way through the crowd. neck above the thin shoulder-blades.
"Look at that man! See what he did Reverently and cautiously she passed her
to me!" she cried out indignantly. "He hand over them.
put his hand right down my back!" She turned out the lights, and, going to
"It was the same officer who was stand- the open window, laid her head upon the
ing in the box over the stage. I saw him," sill. Oh, the Bay of Naples, rippling in
exclaimed Anne-Marie. the moonlight, and Vesuvius, serene and
Celeste was hot all over. Tears stood terrible, clothed in the starlit mist and
in her eyes. darkness! The sweet, sweet fragrance of
"Serves you right," said madame, Vv-ho the spring, rising from the orange blossoms
was engrossed in signaling to the cabman. — all this! But Celeste did not see the
"Why did you stare at him during the Bay of Naples or even mighty Vesuvius,
whole performance? I saw you. What mounting alive out of the night. She
do you expect? I told you one can't do was only vaguely aware of the teeming
these things in Italy." scent from the pale, closed buds below.
Finally they secured a fiacre. The She was thinking of a smile of disdainful
governess, puffing withwent tofatigue, tenderness, of a caress arrogant and fleet-
sleep in the corner, her head
nodding on ing. Her dumb little being was stirred
her breast like a great, homely child's. and jarred by a stupendous wonder, and
Celeste had Anne-Marie's hand again, there was spring in the fifteen-year-old
and she watched her ^ladonna-like face, heart that night.
The Derelict
By PHYLLIS BOTTOIVIE
Author of "The Daik. Tower," etc.

Illustrations by Norman Price

Part III. Chapter VII

FANNY had learned to perfection the get the existence of railway's, though, of
art of letting sleeping dogs lie; she course, they would have to be near enough
was so delighted to have them asleep that to get things down from town.
she never even went in their direction. And then Fanny lost her head com-
It an unusual art with women, and
is pletely : she fell in love with a cottage.
Geoffrey profited by it. There were no It was, as Geoffrey saw at a glance, hope-
more uncomfortable moments between lessly out of the question.
liim and Fanny. Day after day they It was on the way to Clodgy Point,
worked and chatted together. They talked quite beyond everything else, a little sil-

about Geoffrey's pictures and Fanny's fu- very-roofed, forbidding cottage— a cottage
ture profession, and they discussed inex- which knew its way about in a storm and
haustibly the question of Emily's cottage. had dealt pitifully and hopelessly with an
Fanny was, to begin with, the more abandoned garden. What it did n't know
practical of the two. She ruled off the about the north wind hardly needed
narrow, climbing streets; they were cer- teaching, but it had no water-supply of
tainly picturesque, but there was Mr. any kind, hot or cold, and depended on a
Dering's stiff knee, pump in the garden.
which would be sure Fanny would n't
to resent cobbles. admit the failure of
She forced Geoffrey hope she pointed
;

to see that Mrs. out the growth of


Bering would pre- a blossoming apple-
fer a good kitchen tree in a sheltered
range to a high angle behind the cot-
north light, and hot tage, and the pres-
water to the whole ence of wall-flowers,
of the Atlantic out of against all scriptur-
a bedroom window. al authority, thriv-
••A LITTLE SILV1-:KV.R00I-ED, FORBIDD
They must re- COTTAGE ing
•• permanently
member, too, that upon stony ground.
IVIiss Emily would not like the smell of At the foot of the cottage were rocks
fish, which might n't all be fish, but some and the open sea, and behind it, and not
of it drains from the lower town, despite part of the garden, as Fanny tried to
the county council. make out, was a group of gorse-bushes so
It would probably be better to have a compact and flaming as to account, per-
Irouse outside the town. Carbis Bay was haps, for the turning of Fanny's usually'
the obvious direction, but Emily had level head.
pleaded not to have the railway line any- Inside — the}- got in quite easily through
where near. She said she wanted to for- an unlatched window— was a kitchen
v>i25
226 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
where the inhabitants had alwaj^s lived. Geoffrey had never before seen Fanny
It was black with venerable age and smoke excited. It was like seeing the sleeping
and generous sheltering. It was just the Fury wake up and smile at you. This
kind of kitchen Fanny liked. It shared the would be a disconcerting impression, but
floor with a small, stiff, chilly parlor, a no one would want to stop her smiling.
dreadful place of wool mats, china dogs, Geoffrey temporized basely.
and angular, unnatural shells. A revised "Well," he said, "let 's tell her all

form of step-ladder led to an upper story. about it. But don't exaggerate, or she '11

There were three rooms ("It 's quite be disappointed."


a large cottage!" Fanny exclaimed tri- "She '11 never be that," said Fanny,
umphantly), a double room, the size of confidently, as she descended the chicken
the Derings' bath- ladder backward, "and it

room and one that


; won't be exaggerating to
Geoffrey mistook for say there are two flower-
a cupboard. "I ing-currant-bushes outside
could sleep there the door, will it?"
easily," Fanny ex- There was nothing else

plained hurriedly, in the garden but some-


"and work for Miss thing which looked like
Emily. You know, a disappointed potato
I really can cook, and an uncongenial
and you never saw sardine tin.

me tidy a house. I "We 're to ask at


have n't for years, the lighthouse about
of course, but I it," Fanny said,
always used to at reading a notice on a
home." broken board at the
There was also a gate. "I 'm sure it '11
room which Fanny be almost nothing.
hailed with delight write to Miss
I shall

as "perfect for Miss Emily to-night."


Emily." FANNY STRANGELY CLUNG TO HER Geoffrey had n't
Geoffrey eyed it the heart to tell her
doubtfully over Fanny's shoulder. It that he had in his pocket, sent to him that
would have suited St. Ursula. There was morning by Emily herself, the address of
room for an angel by the door, and her a "desirable summer cottage at Lelant."
small slippers and a lily by the bedside. It He went to see it secretly next day. The
was doubtful if there was room for the door was opened by a butler. The house
large American trunk that Emily always stood in a garden dramatically laid out
took about with her. American trunks with scarlet tulips, exactly the same dis-
take up more space than angels. tance apart, and when the
tulips were
had a rather large window looking
It over, there would be roses and dwarf
over the rocks and the sea. The noise of sweet-peas. There were three sitting-
the waves ran through the house resound- rooms and six bedrooms, with a kitchen
ingly, as if it were a shell. somewhere out of the way at the back.
"Won't she love it!" cried Fanny, ex- The front door opened on a hall, with
ultantly. "And I '11 work and do every- an old clock and a good oak settle. In
thing, and bring them up early tea. Don't fact, it was just the kind of cottage the

you understand, " she almost stammered Derings would be sure to like. It was
in her eagerness, — "it '11 be my way of called "The Nest." He told himself sav-
paying her back for all she 's done for agely as he banged the gate on the scarlet
tulips that it would be too ridiculous to
VUU DON r DO \VH\.T I TKLL YOU, FAN.NV, 111: SHOfTED, "l J.L DROWN!'
228 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
expect the Derlngs to take Fanny's absurd Fanny differently. This one with the
cottage. Why on earth should they? gorse and the gray rocks has such a curi-
This, of course, was what he was being ous look, as if she 'd been beaten down
savage about, not because he knew they into the rocks, and yet was not at all sad."
would n't. "I don't see Fanny as sad," Geoffrey
Emily was come down in June
to to explained briefly.
settle the matter. She would stay at a "Oh, don't 30U?" asked Emily. "But
hotel on the hill above St. Ives, a beauti- you can't be beaten without being sad, can
ful hotel, once a private house. There you?"
was a wood on the grounds which was, in Geoffrey frowned. He did n't want to
the spring, like romance itself. Hart's- talk about Fanny being beaten.
tongue ferns were there, as green as cu- Emily, however, did talk about it; she
cumbers, and bluebells like dark flames, almost went on about it. They had n't
and above them elm and ash and oak, seen each other for five weeks, and Geof-
birch and pine, weaved gold and silver frey did n't really want to talk about any-
leaves- together. Convenient seats were thing. He felt like a dried rock, with the
placed at intervals. tide returning to it but as long as Emily
;

Geoffrey met Emily by the five o'clock ate splits and talked, it would n't quite
train. He was to take her to tea at his return. He found himself wishing that
studio. Fanny had prepared it with great Emily would n't drink so much tea.
care, and it included bluebells, Cornish The next day Emily insisted on taking
cream, splits, raspberry jam, and an un- Fanny with them to see the cottage. Em-
pleasant cake with icing on it from the ily had gathered from Geoffrey's letters
grandest of the small confectioners. that Fanny loved her discovery, and
As soon as it was ready Fanny hurried though Geoffrey was afraid it would n't
away to Carbis. She wanted them to have do, Fanny seemed to have set her heart
it all to themselves, though she would upon it.
have loved to see Emily meet the blue- Emily had privately wished that if the
bells. She went away as completely as cottage was unsuitable, Geoffrey would
she could but on every wall in the studio,
; take Fanny's heart off it; but he obviously
and piled up to the roof, Fanny remained. had n't done so, and probably the opera-
There was the picture of Fanny, in the tion needed tact. Emily had come pro-
blue dress, against the gray rocks; and an vided with quantities of exquisite tact. A
interior, with a pot of geraniums behind good deal of it had to be used on the way
her head ; and a curious full-length one of to the cottage. Fanny said nothing at
her, rather dark, with ashadow across all, but looked persistently out to sea.
her face. Fanny had never liked it. She Geoffrey, singularly clumsy and nervous,
thought shadows were silly when you stuck his hands into his pockets, kicked at
could have sunshine. And there was the small pebbles, and whistled.
one Fanny liked best, of the cottage itself, Fortunately, Emily was full of gaiety,
with her standing under the apple-tree and swept them both along toward the
only she had scolded Geoffrey for not hav- cottage as if she were a laughing wave and
ing put in the pump. they were two pieces of rather passive sea-
There was something in all those pic- weed. She gave a charming little cry of
tures which Emily had never seen in Geof- pleasure at the sight of the little silvery,

frey's work before —a certain ruggedness obstinate cottage set above the rocks.
and virility that was n't at all pretty. "But what a dear little place this is!"
"You have n't made her half as beauti- she exclaimed. She looked a little sur-
ful or half as sad as she really is," Emily prised when Geoffrey explained it was
complained as she ate the splits and cream. actually the cottage they had come to see.
"I don't mean the pictures are n't won- She had apparently thought it something
derful; but somehow I 've always seen thrown in on the way. She lent herself
THE DERELICT 229

to the blossoming apple-tree and the flow- "Oh, yes, I see that now all right,"
ering-currants, but her eyes were doubt- said Fanny. "May 1 stay and lock up,
ful over the pump.She thought it might and you and Mr. Amberley go on?"
make rather a charming sketch. When "Well, it won't take you very long to
they let her in,— they 'd brought the key turn a key in a door, will it?" asked Em-
this from the coast-guard, she
time — ily, playfully.
looked round her with laughing eyes and She was afraid that Fanny might be
said: "But, my dears, where is the dining- sulky. Her voice had sounded reluctant
room?" and uncertain, and Emily thought she
Of course this really settled it. Still, ought to break up sulkiness. But Geof-
she went up-stairs, and heard the sea frey seized her suddenly by the arm.
whisper and withdraw and whisper again "Come on, Emily," he said, almost
through the little house. She sat on one dragging her out into the garden. "Leave
of the rickety beds. It had lumps in it Fanny to lock up."

even for the casual sitter. The next day Geoffrey and Emily went
She got up and down the chicken ladder over to Lelant and took "The Nest."
with Geoffrey's aid, and sniffed a little It was exactly what the Derings
before she pointed out a black beetle in wanted, but Fanny did n't offer to work
the kitchen. She put her hand on Fanny's for them ; it would n't have done in a

shoulder and made her sit down beside large house with three other servants.

her on the kitchen table, while Geoffrey Fanny saw that for herself ; there w^as no
went to the window and turned his back need to point it out to her. It went with
and then Emily explained. the cottage.
It seemed to Geoffrey that she ex-
plained too much, it went on so long, and
CHAPTER VIII

was so reasonable and thoughtful and The catastrophe would never have taken
kindly ; also some of the explanations re- place if Emily had not seen a new and
peated themselves as if they were too good exquisite duty, and performed it. It may

to be used only once. have been the wood with the hart's-tongue
Geoffrey wished Emily could have said, ferns and bluebells that decided her, or

"It won't do, Fanny, my dear; it won't the hunger in Geoffrey's eyes, or the fact
do," and left it at that. But Emily never that there was no doubting the power he
left things until she had altered them. had got into Fanny's portraits; but what-
What she wanted to do now was to ever the pressure that unlocked Emily's
make Fanny see, ever so gently and kindly, heart, she let St. Mary Abbott's go, she
that the cottage was was
a mistake ; and it let her triumph over the Amberleys go,
unnecessary because Fanny had seen from she agreed to an almost immediate mar-
the moment Emily had asked where the riage with Geoffre\-.
dining-room was that the cottage was a They would be married in the little
mistake. Only she loved her mistake, and wind-blown Cornish church on the downs
Emily could not alter that. of Lelant, facing the golden sands ; and
Geoffrey said, "Come on ; let 's go," meanwhile, despite the increasing fullness
once or twice, but neither of them paid of the days of preparation, Emily never
any attention to Geoffrey. forgot Fanny.
"You see, dear," Emily wound up, "it 's That was probably where the mistake
and I
a dear, little, funny, pretty cottage, came. Fanny, forgotten, would ha\e
simply love to have seen it, we might — looked after herself and found her own
even come out and have tea here one day, level.

might n't we, Geoff, if we brought a But Emily was far too thoughtful to
thermos-flask? —
but it would n't do to forget Fanny, and she found an American
live in. You do see that now, don't you, sculptor, an enthusiasticand energetic
Fannv?" ladv, to whom she committed her.
230 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Miss Adelaide P Loomis seized upon She said this once to Emily, who changed
Fanny with rapture. the subject; but she came back to it again
"You have given me Venus, you have later because she wanted Fanny to realize
given me the Madonna !" she said to Em- the dedication of marriage. She thought
ily, a figure of speech likely to displease that for Fanny to have this ideal in her
heart might preserve her from any baser
feelings. She told Fanny this, and Fanny
said that she was n't sure that having
things in your heart was much of a help.
Still,Emily could see that Fanny was im-
proving. Her mind seemed to dwell upon
higher things. The next evening Fanny
walked across the sands to meet Emily.
She had not done this before; she had al-
ways waited for Emily to come to her.
They talked about Emily's wedding-
dress. After Emily had described it— it
was being made in London Fanny gave —
a deep sigh. Then she said
"That 's a thing I used to think a lot

about, being in white and orange-blos-


soms and so on. You would n't believe
HER GRLAT what a time it took before it got out of
my head."
both her famous companions. To Fanny Emily urged upon Fanny the deeper
she said, "My dear, you are Helen of things, which need never leave her, and
Troy." then Fanny said
Fanny said she was n't. Her name was "Miss Emily, what would you do if
Fanny and she came from London. you were sick of life?"
She sat to Miss Loomis for three hours It was a curious question, and Fanny

every morning, and in the afternoon she asked it curiously, drawing in her breath
played with the landlady's children. a little and digging her fingers into the
One of Emily's ways of keeping Fanny sand while she waited for an answer.
in her circle of happiness was to describe Emily gazed out tenderly over the still

to her the life that she and Geoffrey pur- sea. The waves hardly broke ; they seemed
posed to lead in London. It was to be a to lift and sink as quietly as the heart of
broad, full life, lived, if possible, in an a child asleep.
oak-paneled house in Chelsea, and it was "Dear Fanny, I should seek a new one,"
to include Fanny. she answered softly. "Newness of life
Fanny listened with an absorbed atten- that 's the most beautiful phrase I know."
tion, especially to Emily's description of "Yes, it does sound nice," agreed
the house. It was wonderful to Fanny Fanny.
to imagine a place where you could really When she left her that evening Emily
stayand have your things to yourself, and kissed Fanny, and Fanny strangely clung
not have first one man and then another, to her. Emily had often kissed Fanny
and servants who knew you were married. before, but she had never known Fanny
Fanny had often had maids who knew she to cling.
was n't. It was this new softness in Fanny that
And then Emily spoke of the great sanc- made Emily agree to Geoffrey's request.
tity of marriage and motherhood, and She felt that Fanny was developing a
Fanny thought of the landlady's children. moral sejise, and when Geoffrey urged
Fanny herself could never have a child. that IMarcel Dupin should at last be al-
FANNY STOOD BKFORE III.M
'
232 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
lowed to join them, she looked to Fanny's then drew back, and were swallowed up,
moral sense to preserve the situation. only to fringe it once more in a wild,
"It's difficult to keep on putting him
breaking whiteness as they roared past the
off," Geoffrey pleaded, "and I don't see black rocks and flung themselves in heaps
that it matters very much even if he does upon the shore. He passed the point, and
run across Fanny now, do you?" saw the rocks were virtually cut off. A
Emily considered thoughtfully, then she few feet off, foaming water separated
said them from the shore; the thunder of the
"I don't like their being much together; breaking waves and the high shriek of the
but Fanny is so busy just now with Miss gulls filled the noisy air with glee. Far
Loomis, and so wonderfully improved and out on the farthest rock was a figure, ob-
deepened, that I should think it would be livious in the tumultuous sound, watching
safe. I '11 him atalk to little, myself. If the oncoming hosts, with her back turned
he knows her story and is, on his honor, I to the side rush of the tide.
think we can confide in the chivalry of a Geoffrey knew
in an instant whose the
Frenchman." figure was. She had sat to him in the
"Oh, Marcel be
Geoffrey
'11 all right," same position, her elbow on her knee, her
agreed hurriedly. He
had a dislike he chin on her hand. He had a strange flash
could n't quite understand to any talk of wondering what her eyes were like,
about Fanny as if she needed safeguard- facing the terrible seas.
ing. He flung off his coat and boots; he
He could n't have explained quite what would have liked to forget the pull of his
he felt just now about Fanny, but he did great happiness, but he could not forget
not really like to talk about her at all. it. He cursed Fanny under his breath as
Whenever he thought of her or her name the waters caught him, bitter and cold,
was mentioned, he felt as if he had trod with their thrusting, vicious force. There
on a thorn. were only a few yards of sea between him
The next day a storm came up. The sea and the rocks on which Fanny sat. He
was gloriously wild, and Geoffrey and held his breath for the struggle. Twice
Emily spent a morning watching the he clutched at the nearest rock, and twice
breaking of the waves at Clodgy Point. he was washed from his hold and dashed
After lunch Geoffrey went back alone. heavily against the precipitous, high sides.
The wind was still strong, and the water The wave receded he flung
third time the
thundered and pummeled at the rocks, himself upward into safety. Then he
with an mtermittent, gigantic sound. shouted. Fanny turned at the sound of
Geoffrey pushed on beyond Fanny's cot- his voice. Her eyes were all terror, but
tage to the desolate expanse of headland, she never looked at the sea ; her terror
where there was nothing but the wild was only for him.
gorse, the black rocks, and the enraged "O Mr. Amberley!" she cried, "why .

and foaming sea. did 3()u come! Go back! Go back!"


There is probably no coast in Cornwall "If you don't do what I you.
so safe as the coast of St. Ives, but if you Fanny," he shouted, "I '11 drown
walk far enough you can come to danger. He wondered afterward why he had
There is a point where a group of rocks n't said, "you '11 drown !" At the time he
run out into the sea. At the rise of the knew why he said it.

tide they are cut off from the shore, and "I "11 do whate\cr you tell me," said
at the tide's height they are completely en- Fanny.
gulfed. It was too windy to paint, but "Put your hands on my shoulders and
Geoffrey felt as if he could watch forever get to one side of me," Geoffrey said.
the oncoming of the waves; he loved the "Don't hang round my neck, d' you un- —
feathered flight of them, as the tops derstand?— and if you let go, I '11 go to
seemed to bend above the solid green and I 'm not going back without you." He
THE DERELICT 233
was quite sure he hated FanriNS but he and breathless. Then a wave ran up and
knew he was n't going back without her. licked their feet; that galvanized them
"All right, Mr. Amberley," said into life. They got up stiffly, and, lean-
Fanny; "I won't let go." ing on each other, reached the cliff path.
He was back into the water as he spoke, They took shelter in a coast-guard's hut,
dragging her after him. It was only up and Geoffrey told their story, while
to his knees, but the undercurrent dragged Fanny, wrapped in blankets, lay on a
at them with a blind and awful force horsehair sofa, her great eyes fixed on
then the waves rushed in, half a dozen of him.
them, one after the other. They were off When Geoffrey told her to drink hot
their feet in a moment, and Geoffrey was brandy and water she drank it, but she
fighting his way up then, and diving down said nothing, not even when he said
beneath their death-like fringes. Once "Now, Fanny, you 're not to worry
the surf caught them, they would have no about this. Neither of us has been
further chance. drowned, and I must cut along and tell
The weight of Fanny was appalling Miss Emily, or it '11 be all over the place."
and intolerable. She eased it by holding Her eyes still followed him to the door.
on to only one shoulder and attempting to He came back, and stood looking down at
swim beside him. lier a little awkwardly.
They went down together under the "It 's all right, Fanny, is n't it?" he
green waves three times. Geoflfrey dared said. He spoke as a man speaks who has
not look at the shore. The tide was set- been found out very much in the wrong.
tling in toward it, and the current was It was as if he ought to be rather ashamed
with them, but the current set to a more of himself for having saved her life.
distant point of shore, and it was no use "I did n't know you 'd be there," Fanny
attempting to fight against it. whispered.
Geoffrey weakened slowly ; his stroke "No, of course not," said Geoffrey, re-
grew uneven and jerky. The weight of assuringly, "or the Atlantic, for that mat-
Fanny was heavier; probably she could no ter."
longer atte'mpt to swim. Suddenly he She shut her eyes as if she agreed with
heard her voice. him about not knowing that the Atlantic
"We 're very near in; can't you stand, would be there.
Mr. Amberley?" Emily was extraordinarily sweet over
He tried to gain his footing; then sud- the whole business. She went to see Fanny
denly he failed to ride the oncoming green later in the evening, and the only thing
wave. It broke above them, the surf she said to her which could possibly be
caught them, smothering over their heads construed into a reproach was
with a deafening roar. His struggle "And you '11 never, dear Fanny, go out
stopped. on to those rocks again, will you?"
When he opened his eyes he found they "No," said Fanny, slowly, "I won't do
had been thrown over and over on the that again. I have n't got the nerve, and
beach, and as if by a miracle on the only that 's a fact."
piece of sand along the rock-strewn shore.
Fanny was bending over him, but when
she saw his eyes open, she lurched face CHAPTER IX
downward on the sands beside him. He At St. Ives, Marcel Dupin made a charm-
saw her hands clench and unclench like ing second impression. He took the story
the hands of the dying. He could not see ofFanny from half a word, and prevented
her face. He
thought he heard her sav Emily from feeling any awkwardness in
"Then that 's that!" and "O God! O telling it.

God!" "You have touched me profoundly," he


They lay there for a long time, beaten assured her. "Englishwomen are a race
234 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
apart; they trust the men they love and her, but it would be Emily's Fanny she

are kind to other women. It is an aston- would make room for, not the Fanny
ishing combination. I shall never forget Geoffrey had known.
it." The Fanny he knew had not survived
To Geoffrey he was a trifle less sympa- Emily, and he had taken part in killing
thetic. her, the coward's part of standing aside
"I hear," he said, "that I am to treat a and simply letting her die. It was true
young lady who is not innocent as though that she had made it easy for him to stand
she were innocent. When am I to begin?" aside she had allowed herself to be killed
;

"You won't find her in the least like without a gesture and without a sound.
that," said Geoffrey, but he omitted to say He did not blame Emily, of course, for
how Marcel would find her. Marcel was this transformation. It would have been
not long in discovering Fanny's portraits. impossible to keep Fanny in his life as she
"Now, 7non vieux," he said, "you have had been in it before, but it took the taste
consoled me for the sharpness of the blow out of his happiness.
you gave me in London. After all, I was Du-
"Yes, your pictures are delightful,"
right when I said in Paris, 'There is a pin continued. "They give me a feeling
certain little Englishman who will make that I should like to show you what could
our cleverness look like an old shoe.' I be done with her in other ways. Come,
do homage to these pictures; but again you since we have Mademoiselle Emily's per-
are careless. You do not take advantage mission, let us proceed to the original."
of opportunity. You should have let that "I dare say we shall find her," Geoffrey
model drown. Then no one else could admitted a trifle grudgingly, "in Miss
have touched her; and who knows but Loomis's studio. Miss Loomis is an
what would have been good for your art American sculptor with a great deal of
might not also be of use in your life? I conversation and some talent."
have, as you know, received the interest- "In that case," agreed Marcel, "let us
ing confidence of mademoiselle j'our be- hope she will give us the conversation
trothed upon the history of Fanny. Cer- rather than the talent. Talents, I know,
tainly I should have let her drown. You speak for themselves; but I can do with-
have spoiled your situation, which was su- out that type of conversation, and the
perb. Now you must beware of an anti- speech of the American always delights
climax." me. They have so much to say, those
Geoffrey frowned. He did not like to charming people, and no background at
talk of Fanny as a model or as an anti- all from which to say it. They must have
climax, and he did not wish to talk of his been brought up in paradise, with an enor-
situation at all. He did not want to think mous quantity of fig-leaves and no know-
he had a situation. ledge of good and evil."
He could not understand his feelings Marcel slipped his arm into Geoffrey's
about Fanny, for it still seemed to him as and took him rapidly in the direction of
if he were guilty of drowning Fanny in- Miss Loomis's studio.
stead of the hero he was held to be for Miss Loomis's studio was close to the
having saved her life. sea. It looked out on the smallest of the
There was only one thing which really beaches, a low, gray hutch with a silvery
gave him any satisfaction: Fanny had roof. She welcomed both young men with
never thanked him. He felt that no one enthusiasm.
understood Fanny except himself, and as "Well, Mr. Amberley," she said, "it 's
if he wanted to forget how well he un- how you 've been keeping
the oddest thing
derstood her. There was no room what- away from me any one would think you
;

ever in his new life for the Fanny he had were jealous of my model. Not that I 'd
understood. blame you if you had lost her, for I never
Emily would no doubt make room for knew any one who led one on so; there
THE DERELICT 235

docs n't seem any end to what you can do thought about it before, he would have
with her. And this is Monsieur Dupin, known she would have to sit for it sooner
the famous young Parisian sculptor! I or later. But he had n't thought about it
am delighted to receive you, Monsieur before, and thinking about it in front of

Dupin. I adore Paris. There is n't a the statue, with Dupin's exclamations of
thing I don't know about it, and there is delight sounding in his ears, was curiously
n't a thing I don't love. There 's a con- annoying. It did not seem to him the way
fession for you. When people ask what in which Fanny ought to be treated.
my country is, I just say, 'I live in Paris.' Thestatue was, on the whole, a clever
That 's my address, and in a sense it 's my piece of work, but it was not the work it-

nation." self that so delighted Dupin. He could


"Madame," said Dupin, "let mc con- see from it that the model was one to in-

gratulate Paris upon your nativity. You spire a great sculptor. Every line of the
have some beautiful things here. May I figure was gracious, and every curve of it
ask which of them are your own crea- was delicate and fine.
tions?" "I was right," Dupin murmured, "a
"Yes, Loomis replied
indeed," Miss thousand times I was right: we sculptors
cordially. "I am always proud to show a have an opportunity you painters miss
fellow-artist my work. I don't carry my we have the roundness of life."
things round with me, but that child's Geoffrey his unwilling eyes and
lifted

head over there is mine, and I 'm working saw the and beyond it, in the open
statue,

on a young Englishwoman just now from doorway, stood Fanny.


the nude. I spoke to your fiancee about She stood quite still, looking at Geof-
it, Mr. Amberley. She seemed to feel so frey. He never forgot her eyes. They
responsible for Fanny, and I understand did not judge him, but they were the eyes
this is the first time she has sat for the ofsome one who has been hurt by a friend.
figure. Miss Dering felt just as I do Geoffrey thought then, and he thought
about it, and just the way all artists' w^ves more strongly afterward, that he had
should feel : she accepts the sanctity of the never seen such improtected eyes.
nude. I know all Americans don't feel Miss Loomis gave an exclamation of
that way, and I 'm very sorry, but we '11 annoyance ; she pulled the cloth hastily

come to it in time. We 're a new coun- over the figure again. It was an av/k-
try, and the moral sense has got to get ward moment. Dupin began
used to itself before it takes on tags. I "But why—" and then, looking up, he,
don't want to speak as if I had a low esti- too, saw Fanny. '^La voila — la petite!"
mate of art. Monsieur Dupin, but com- he exclaimed softly.
pared with the Puritan conscience, and as Fanny was the first to recover herself.
looked upon from the point of view of She said to Miss Loomis:
America, I guess art is a tag, all the same. "I came to make the tea. I don't think
Now, in Paris, it 's the other way round, there areenough cups."
Mr. Amberley. Art comes first, and as "Well, you can give me a glass, Rus-
far as possible nothing else after it." sian fashion," said Miss Loomis, good-
"But what should come after it?" mur- humoredly, "and you must n't mind hav-
mured Marcel Dupin, "but more and bet- ing your statue looked at, Fanny. This
ter art? Allow me, Madame." He gentleman is a sculptor. As a matter of
stepped forward, and drew off the sheet fact, he 's a very famous French sculptor,
which covered the half-finished figure. and it '11 be a very good thing for you to
Geoffrey drew back. He was surprised meet him."
to find himself angry. Why had Emily "I don't mind him looking at that
never told him Fanny was sitting for the statue," Fanny, calmly.
said "Do they
figure? Of course there was no reason in want cream with their tea?"
the world why she should n't. If he had "Oh, that 's all right, Fanny," said
236 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Geoffrey, quickly. "Don't bother about and he wants his tea. I never saw such
us; we '11 take anything you 've got." people as the English are for their tea."
Fanny neither met his eyes nor an- Fanny gave them their tea. There
swered him. were plenty of cups because she did not
"Well, I guess there is some, Fanny," take any herself. When she left, she said,
said Miss Loomis, consideringly. "You "Good-by, Mr. Amberley." It was the
go into the kitchen and see. I generally only thing she did say to him, so that
have some around. It 's such wonderful Geoffrey remembered it.
stuff, Monsieur Dupin, this Cornish
cream. You have no idea, but I dare n't
take too much of it ; there is n't any doubt CHAPTER X
it 's a great flesh-producer. Now what Marcel Dupin sat and smoked in the
do you think of my Fanny?" flower garden of the hotel. In front of
"Ah, Madame," said Dupin, "if she is him were three round beds of forget-me-
your Fanny, what would I not give to nots picked out with pink tulips, and three
make her mine! She is a model in a cen- square beds of white stocks intercepted by
tury; yes, yes. Your statue, —I shall not scarlet tulips. Behind the flower garden
forget It,— there is in it a—je ne sais qtioi. the rooks cawed with the peculiar mixture
You have, you Americans, a certain flair. of abandon and vulgarity common to
I said to Amberley we came along,—
as rooks; otherwise it was a serene and per-
did I not, mon che?-? — 'Explain to me fect June day. Nevertheless, as Marcel
why are the Americans as clever as sin smoked his morning cigarette he frowned.
without the disadvantage of a drop from To-night he was to return to Paris, and
virtue. It is not the Venus of the Me- he wished to leave with his mind made up
dici this one, — I have seen her on the about the situation he was leaving behind
boulevards, —
nor ours of Milo. I mean him. His mind was very clear, and he
no disrespect to her, but I can alwa^^s im- put before it in order, as they came, cer-
agine her in an English nursery. This tain salient facts.
one you have here, this Fanny, she is like Something was the matter WMth Geof-
the Venus of the Terme in Rome. You frey nothing was the matter with his
;

know her perhaps, headless, alas! but with work. Emily was perfectly satisfied.
an expression of the body as soft as a Geoffrey did not know what was the mat-
south wind. You remember her, Geof- ter with himself, and Emily had no idea
frey?" that there was anything the matter with
"Oh, remember her all right,"
yes, I him.
said Geoffrey, crossly. "Let 's leave the And Fanny? Well, Fanny did not act
damned thing alone and come and have according to her type. Marcel had been
tea. I beg your pardon. Miss Loomis! exceedingly discreet, but he had studied
It 's not that I don't admire your work; Fanny. Studying Fanny had indeed been
it 's-it 's-" part of his discretion. She had shown him
"It 's that you admire the work of na- nothing, she had put no obstacles to his
ture more?" laughed Dupin. "Be care- study of her, but she made no response to
ful, my good friend. Nature has already his delicate, tentative advances. She
supplied you with what to admire." might have been innocent or simply per-
Geoffrey gave him a glance so furious fectly stupid,— great beauty has occasion-
that Dupin stood still and stared but ; ally this preservative,— or else she was
Miss Loomis saved the situation by not submerged, absorbed in some secret pas-
seeing that there was any. sion but she had no time to expend upon
;

"Why, you can swear just as much as a passion, Miss


for she sat patiently to
ever you like,Mr. Amberley," she said Loomis all the Miss
morning, and in
kindly. "I know just how you feel. He 's Loomis's studio she had allowed Marcel
got a St. Ives appetite, Monsieur Dupin, to model a small bust of her in the after-
THE DERELICT 237

noons. At night the landlady at Carbis knew what would become of it f it con-
Bay would obviously account for her to tinued beyond a certain point.
Emily. Marcel smoked in the bright summer
Emily was charmingly and at her ease sunshine and reconstructed the telling of
extraordinarily conciliating to Marcel. it to his Paris friends.

Marcel perfectly understood Emily. She "Whatever happens, it will make an ex-
wanted Geoffrey's friends to find her ad- tremely chic little conte," he pronounced
mirable, and to conciliate Marcel was also to himself; then he shot suddenly to his
to act as a screen for Fanny. feet. Fanny stood before him. She wore
Marcel reviewed her processes with im- Emily's blue linen dress and a shady hat.
perturbable clarity. He had not fallen a Her eyes were very grave, and her voice
victim to Emily's charm ; he resented a sounded uneven as she said
woman who manipulated virtue. Never- "May I talk to you a litfle?"
theless, he was perfectly fair to her. She "With all the pleasure in the world,
wanted to serve Geoffrey, and she would Mademoiselle," exclaimed Marcel, with
serve him at the cost of any personal sac- the slightly exaggerated respect he always
rifice; the difficulty that remained was showed to Fanny. "Permit me to bring
that the only personal sacrifice really re- you a chair. Bo you not find this little
quired of her was one that it would never garden charming?"
occur to her to make. She could only Fanny's eyes considered the forget-me-
serve him by leaving him alone, nots and the pink tulips lingeringly, but
In all probability the matter with Geof- she had not come to talk about gardens.
frey was that, owing to an appalling blun- "I heard," she said, "that you were go-
der on Emily's part, she had sent him ing back to Paris to-night. Miss Emily
away for five weeks with a woman who toldme."
could leave him alone. "Helas! yes," murmured Marcel. "I
He was still in love with Emily, but am too sadly dragged away before the
he was suffering from the contrast, and wedding. It is what alwaj's happens to

what was Fanny doing? It seemed to me when a wedding is in the air. Let us
Marcel that Fanny was letting Geoffrey hope it will not become a habit and take
go she was letting him go to a tune that
; place before my own."
Emily never heard. Marcel heard it "I want to go away, too," said Fanny.
clearly enough, and he knew that you do "Will you take me with you back to
not let a man go unless you have already Paris?"
held him. Marcel's figure strung itself into sud-
All these delightful, blind English peo- den alertness mind stiffened with at-
; his

ple satround Fanny in a ring, Mrs. Ber- tention and when Marcel became visibly
;

ing, with her gift of irony and her habit alert, he became also strangely sharp.

of toleration, which evaded rather than "Why, Mademoiselle?" he asked her,


overcame obstacles; Mr. Bering, daintily fixing her with a gaze that was like the

stepping over facts as if they were mud to drawing of weapon.


a
be kept from shining boots; Emily, a "I want to go away," said Fanny, mois-
watchful redeemer, watching
invariably tening her lips. "I must go away," She
the wrong things; Geoffrey, priding him- was not afraid of his eyes. He saw in a
self on his shaken bliss —
all of them under moment that she had come to that point
the impression that they were guarding of human endurance which goes beyond
and protecting this lost sheep among them. personal fear.
And Fanny sat there silent and intensely She expected anything of fate for her-
anxious, protecting them. She held dan- self except kindness.
ger like a lamp in her hand, but she would "But, Mademoiselle," said ^Marcel,
not let it shine upon them. quickly, "I am not here to consider your
It was a charming picture, and God wants. I am the friend of Geoffrey Am-
238 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
berley and in a sense of Miss Dering. I "This life that you want to return to is

should be committing an infamj^ if I took evidently not your metier."


you away from their protection." "I don't know what that means," said
"Ah !" she said, drawing in her breath, Fanny, "but there is n't anything else to
!"
"it 's for them, for them go back to. I can't be a model and not
Marcel regarded her curiously. have anything, like they think, and see it
"You must forgive me," he said more all going on— the things they 've got and

gently, "if I annoy you by my questions their life together. I thought I could, but
but you will understand that I must have I can't. That 's why I want to go to
very good, clear reasons to act against Paris. I could start afresh there. I know
their wishes. You are not satisfied, then, Paris, but I have n't any money; so I

with being a model?" he asked her. "It thought I 'd just see if you would take
is fair to tell you that I think you could me."
earn a living by it." Marcel spread out his hands.
"I was satisfied with being his," said "And do j'ou, may I ask," he demanded,
Fanny, fiercely. Then she said more "admire her, then, this Miss Emily?"
quietly: "Miss Emily did n't understand. "Oh, I admire her all right," said
People who have got everything, and al- Fanny, quickly "don't make any mistake
;

ways have had everything, never under- about that. She 's good she 's so good ;

stand —
that you must have something, too she does n't see what things mean.
— something of your own, I mean. I There 's lots of ways I know him better
could get on all right as long as I cooked than she does. She should n't have sent
for them, either of them. I'm like that, him down here with me that way. She
and I enjoyed it. That 's something for did n't know, though I tried to tell her;
yourself— working for people. I loved but I was afraid to say too much. You
getting his meals and one thing or an- are with good people; they get such ideas
other. I wanted to do it for Miss Emily, in their heads; they think things worse
too; I 'd have done anythmg I did black than they are. Besides, I did n't know
his boots, but he did n't know it, of course. him then. I thought he was just an ordi-
Down here the sea takes the polish off; nary man."
so you have to know how, and take trou- "You interest me. Mademoiselle," said
ble to get a shine on them. wanted to I Marcel, "quite extraordinarily. But what
take a cottage and work for Miss Emily, makes you think Geoffrey is not an ordi-
but she would n't let me. She never saw nary man?"
how you want to do things back." Fanny swallowed nervously.
"But Geoffrey— he saw that?" Marcel "Well," she said, "as far as that goes,
asked. He had let his cigarette go out, I suppose I may as well tell you. I tried
and was watching Fanny with an unhur- him, and even after that he was good to
ried intensity. me just the same, not because I was
"He did n't see anything," Fanny said what I was, but because I was me. I 'd

softly. "He was just a friend. Miss never let him down after that, never!"
Emily was good to me because 1 was bad, Fanny paused; then she said, with a quick
but Mr. Aniberley is n't that sort; he glance at Marcel, "I could, though, quite
just — well, he liked me. I 'd never been easily."
liked by a man before. You know what "And that 's why you want to go
I mean. There 'd always been the other away?" Marcel asked.
thing, and that puts you off." "Yes," said Fanny.
"Pardon," Marcel interrupted her; "it "But you say always," Marcel objected,
puts you off what?" "that he only liked you. One gathers that
"It puts you off liking thcni," said he retained his love for his betrothed.
Fanny, simply. Why, now then that his marriage is ap-
"Ah, that is a pity!" said Marcel. proaching, is he not safer still?"
THE DERELICT 239
Fanny frowned. Fanny stared. It was the bold, un-
"I let him be safe then," she said, "be- swerving, stupid stare of her class. With-
cause I was all right myself I was doing
; out a word she turned and left him.
things for him. It 's funny how that "Mon Dieu!" said Marcel, going back
makes you feel. I could have gone on to the tulips and opening his paper, "that
always like that, but when that stopped, is a derelict— one of those boats that sink,
I got frightened ; I could n't keep my but never sink enough, on which the un-
mind off him." wary strike! For the unwary I have al-
"But,
Mademoiselle, forgive — me, — ways had pity, but this is the first time that
said Marcel, "do you realize at all that I have found myself pitying the derelict!
what you say implies that you care very Personally, I am a little on edge with the
much for myand that this emo-
friend, affair. do not like women who are not
I
tion will make a return to your former in love with me, but one must make sac-
existence extremely difficult? Have you rifices upon the altar of friendship. Also,
considered this point?" when she arrives in Paris, she shall sit to
Fanny gave a sudden laugh. me for the figure. That will repay me
"That 's why I went on those rocks," for a good deal. Le bon Dieu knew per-
she said, "considering it. I could n't do fectly how to make her, though He seems
it again ; the water felt so cold. But you to have overlooked the necessity for tak-
can't say I have n't tried to get out of it, mg any precautions afterward. It seems
can you ?" a great pity."
"No, Mademoiselle," said Marcel, gen- Before Marcel caught the evening train
tly; "you have been very faithful to your he wrote a short letter to Geoffrey
friends."
"Well, j'ou see, I never had any be- Mon cher, what I am about to do ap-
fore," Fanny explained. "If you think pears singularly base. I wonder if you will
I 've behaved all right, will this make you know that it is not. We have lived together,
take me to Paris?" worked together, understood each other as
Marcel's softness disappeared. far as in this imperfect world it Is possible
"About that," he said, "we must be for two beings to understand each other.
practical." I know that you do not pick pockets or lie,

"All I want is for you to take me over it is possible that you also know the same of
there; then I '11 find my feet. I never me. But women finish these things, in men's
have been helped much by people." hearts, where they wish to find only room
"Very w^ll, then," said Marcel, slowly; for themselves and their conveniences. I

"I will do this thing. It will be a very do not say all women, not even all good
grave scandal, but to break a marriage, women, but many good women they make —
that, I take it, is worse. We will say what is called a clean sweep. Think what
farewell now, Mademoiselle. I take the on the whole is easiest of me, then; Miss
from St. Ives.
five-thirty You will be Emily will guide you. But remember this:
kind enough to go by an earlier train to I am a man who has never respected wo-
the little junction beyond, at which my men, but I respect Mademoiselle Fanny;
train arrives at six. There I shall find do not, therefore, respect her less than I.

you." When you have been married five years


Fanny rose. She looked relieved. come alone to Paris, and I will explain the
Marcel did not offer to shake hands; reason for our action. In the meantime
he did not even smile. He regarded her accept my strongest felicitations for your
very gravely, and taking off his hat he happiness and for that of the charming
bowed, holding it in his hand. Mademoiselle Emily, who will never for-
"Allow me to say. Mademoiselle," he give me.
said, "that I very much respect you for
what you are about to do." Emilv never did.
240 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
"Understand it!" cried Emily."What
CHAPTER XI
is there to understand ? The man is a
Geoffrey took Marcel's note to "The cad, simply an unscrupulous French
roue;

Nest." It was all he could do, hut he and Fanny— I see that now; I trusted her
did n't want to do it. too much— Fanny is really bad. I never
There was a high wind blowing; the knew human nature could be so utterly
scarlet vulips were over, and
there was Think, Geoffrey, think what I 've
vile.
nothing left of their glory but their rather done for her!"
unsightly sticks. The sweet-peas and the Geoffrey thought. Emily had spent
come out. very nearly twenty pounds on Fanny.

roses had n't yet

It early in the morning, and Geof-


was She had lent her her cottage for a fort-
frey refused to go in. He did n't want to night, she had given her some old
clothes

and a great deal of good advice. He re-


breakfast-
see them all sitting round the
table being shocked at Fanny. membered what Fanny had wanted to do
He was n't shocked himself; he was for Emily, and he looked away^ from
the

completely bewildered and stunned.


He flushed, indignant face before him.
did n't see the point of it, but it
had al- Fanny would n't have got angry if Em
had done something wrong she would
of it
ready occurred to him that the point ily ;

was n't being shocked. It seemed to him have wanted to cover it up. Emily was
alone
that to see Emily in the garden uncovering Fanny.
as
would be quite enough. "I had safeguarded everything as far
There are some women whom high I could," she went on. "I never gave her
winds suit they look their best with
their paid
;
money. I always managed to have it
clothes
hair blown about their eyes, their for her. It is always safer not to let a
Geof-
flowing, and their color heightened. person like that deal with money
direct.
in a wind
frey had thought that Fanny She could n't have paid for her railway-
was like the figure in the Naples Museum ticketif that wretched man
had n't taken
called "A Girl Hastening." But Emily
her."
was not slim enough to hasten, and moral "Good God!" cried Geoffrey, "what on
very
indignation and a high wind proved earth became of that check I gave
you foi
unbecoming to her. She came down the her, foi the sittings?"
never gave her that," said Em-
pushed
garden path as if she were being "Oh. I
had
from behind. Geoffrey saw that she ily, "I arranged with her that it
calmly.
already heard from Fanny. was to help with her expenses. I thought
"Look," Emily said, "at this!" She held it better not. Why do you look as if you
between her finger and thumb, at some were angry, GeofFrey? Surely I
had a
littledistance from her, a note from right to do what I thought best
for her?'|
right,"
Fanny. Fanny had written: "I don't see that you had any
said Geoffrey, hotly, "to keep
money from
Dear Miss Emily: I know you won't like
dreamed
her that she had earned. If I had
and 'm very sorry, but I had to get
I
of such a thing, I should have insisted
away. I have gone with Monsieur Dupiii Can't you see that
upon her being paid.
to Paris. It was n't his fault. I made him without takingjus
she could n't get away
tak e me. Du-
Fanny. mone^ ? You forced her to go with
pin
"What perfect jionsense, Geoffrey!"
incredible! Is n't it utterly
"Is n't it
"Besides, why
Emily almost said Emilv, impatiently.
loathsome and base!" go away un-
a on earth should she want to
shrieked at Geoffrey as they entered
less she was thoroughly
bad? If she du/.
small summer-liouse together. They
had
she could have said so. Do be sensible
to get somewhere out of the wind. how
about I think you are forgetting
"I can't understand it," Geoffrey mut-
it.

found Fanny and what I have done for


T
tered helplessly.
THE DERELICT 241

her. have spent a great deal more than


I pletely without adoration besides, he
that on her, and I would have gladly spent spoke as if he was on tlie side of Fanny
twice as much to save her; but I don't and Marcel.
know why we are talking about money. "Surely, surely," said Emily, ''you don't
This is n't a question of money ; it is sim- condone what they have done?"

S Ml ANs, CEOFI-KEV?' SHI£ SAID'

ply a question of moral evil. How could "My dear girl," said Geoffrey, "I don't
they be so base?" condone or condemn anything that I can't
"How do you know they are base?" make head or tail of. Here is INIarcel's
asked "Everything one can't
Geoffrey. letter. Read it for yourself. You will
understand is n't necessarily base." see there they had some extraordinary rea-
Emily had never heard Geoffrey speak son what they did. That 's what
for
like this before. His voice had a hard, bothers me; I can't make it out."
cutting quality, and he eyed her com- Emily hurled back iier hair, and read
242 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
what Marcel had written Of course she "declared that at my special request she
did n't believe a word of it. had made a point of being present at all
"Do you mean seriously to tell me," she Monsieur Dupin's sittings. She says she
asked, "that you 're taken in by this stuff? was never out of the room and that noth-
My dear Geoffrey, a child would see that ing passed between them whatever. Some-
Monsieur Dupin has just concocted this times Monsieur Dupin spoke to Fanny,
to get out of an awkward situation. All the simplest civilities, but generally he
that about respecting Fanny is simply the talked to Miss Loomis herself. Fanny
most disgusting hypocrisy. You don't take never looked at him. Think how sly she
girls whom you respect to Paris." must have been ! The whole thing makes
"You might," said Geoffrey, perversely me perfectly sick."
"you might take people anywhere if you "I do wish," said Geoffrey, fiercely,
respected them." "that 5'ou would stop talking as if they
Emily saw for the first time what the were a couple of deceitful conspirators.
Amberleys meant about Geoffrey. He was Even if they did go off together to be as
incalculable. He might get under the ten immoral as you like, as far as I can see
commandments or do something silly. She they are under no obligation to either of
took a deep breath before she answered us to advertise the fact. There was no
him; then she said with kindly patience: reason why they should consult us. I

"Come, Geoffrey, do you really mean admit it 's disappointing for you about
to say that you think Monsieur Dupin has Fanny, but nothing you did for her gave
taken Fanny to Paris to treat her like a you the slightest right to dictate her course
sister?" of action. She did n't hoodwink you. As
Geoffrey swore under his breath. She long as she could live the kind of life yon
had him there. He knew quite well Mar- had urged upon her she did it, and when
cel would not treat Fanny like a sister. for some reason best known to herself she
He felt as if the summer-house was ex- decided against it, she gives you the
tremely small and as if he could n't get straight tip and walks off. I 'm hanged
out of it.Emily filled it she filled every-
; if I can see what you want to tear the
thing, and she was being more sensible roof off for about Fanny. As for Mar-
than she was adorable. cel, I know him like the back of my hand.
"Men
always stick up for each other in He 's absolutely truthful. If he 'd car-
the most absurd way," she said after a ried Fanny off for the fun of the thing,
pause. "Now, I was really fond of Fanny, he 'd have said so. If he says he did n't,

and yet I don't pretend to make excuses I 'm willing to take his word for it. I
for her." came up here prepared to apologize for
"I think you ought to," said Geoffrey, him, but you 've taken the wind out of
stiffly. "I mean — I don't see why you my sails. You accuse him of too much."
say you were fond of Fanny. Why don't "Geoffrey," said Emily, quietly, "I do
you say you aref She 's the same Fanny." not think you are quite yourself this morn-
"Oh, no, dear, she is not," said Emily, ing. Don't j'ou see, can't you understand,
ine.xorably. "She deceived me. I went that something really dreadful has hap-
at once to Miss Loomis before breakfast pened ? It can't even be hushed up. Peo-
this morning and to Fanny's landlady. ple know all about it. It 's been most
Neither of them had the slightest suspi- disagreeable for mother and father! Oh,
cion. Mrs. Cadge said no gentleman had I never dreamed I should have to urge
ever been near the place, or she would you to see how horrible it all is! It 's

have seen him. They must have met se- immoral it 's impossible to accept such
;

cretly." things as the end of civilization."


Geoffrey winced. He wondered why "As far as I am concerned," said Geof-
privacy should be called secrecy. frey, bitterl}^, "civilization can end to-

"And Miss Loomis," Emily went on, morrow."


THE DERELICT 243

He was thinking of what civih'zation seen them both, and stronger than his

had contributed toward Fanny. Perhaps sense of bewilderment was the sense of

Emily had done rather better out of it; how Fanny did n't like it, did n't like this
at any rate she sat down and covered her life to which she had suddenly turned
face with her hands. back without a reason, without a fare-

Geoffrey stood with his back to her at well.


the door of the summer-house. Every now He heard Emily's voice behind him, a
and then his eyes wandered over "The little faint as to tone, but quite steady and
Nest." It was an extremely comfortable, rather like a gimlet.
well-built house. "I suppose you know what this means,
"Geoffrey," she said at last. He turned Geoffrey?" she said. "It means the end
at the sound of her voice and looked at of our engagement."
her. Geoffrey pulled himself together with
"I was n't going to tell you," said Em- difficulty.

ily, "but I think I must now.


slowly, "That 's for you to decide, Emily," he
What do you suppose Miss Loomis said said. am
at your service.
"I I will do

when I told her about Fanny?" whatever you like, but I can't give up
"I don't know," said Geoffrey In a caring for Marcel and Fanny."
bored voice. "I don't see why you told Emily rose slowly and came out of the
her anything." summer-house.
"She said," Emil.v went on him
fixing "If you care for what is bad," she
with strange, watchful ejes, "Well, if asked, standing beside him, "how am I to

Fanny had a fancy, I should have thought believe you really have cared for what is
"
it was Mr. Amberley.'
for your good?"
Geoffrey walked down the steps of the She separated the two quite easily, and
summer-house and began kicking at the he saw that in her own eyes she stood for

gravel. what was good. The Amberleys, of

"I hate American women," he said course, would have agreed with her.
shortly,without looking up. "My dear," said Geoffrey, "is n't the
"Of Emily, steadily, "I
course," said good— what there is of it— big enough for

told her there had never been anything, all of us? Have we got to be always pick-
not the least little thing to make us think ing and choosing in other people's lives?"
that. There never has been, has there, "Ah," said Emily, bitterly, "you make
Geoffrey?" it worse. You do condone it. I know
"I suppose," said Geoffrey, "you think why now: it 's simply because you like
you have a right to ask me a question like her."
that? Well, you have n't. You have a She hesitated for a moment, but Geof-
right to ask me if I cared about her, and frey said nothing more. He was n't, at
I '11 answer you. I 'm hanged if I know this time of day, going to deny that he
whether I did or not." liked Fanny.
He ought n't to have put it like that Hedid not watch Emily leave him,
he knew he ought n't. What had upset blown between the tattered tulips toward
him, what had made him angrier and the house. He was still wondering what
angrier and less and less a lover, was that on earth Fanny had done it for? Could it
Emily only seemed sorry for herself. He have been just to avoid what had already
kept waiting and hoping that she 'd say, taken place, the breaking of their engage-
"Don't you see it 's because I mind so ment? If she had, how sickening to have
horribly about Fanny?" But she did n't had to let her sacrifice be wasted! And
seem to mind it for Fanny. She never yet, was wasted? For he knew now
it

seemed to have seen the real Fanny at all, that if it had n't been broken, things more
either theFanny who could do it or the sickening would have happened still.
Fannv who would mind it. Geoffrev had Fannv had broken their happiness, but
244 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
could she have broken anything that was Still, it was rather hard on Emily.
n't so fragile as to be a standing danger to Geoffrey continued to think it was rather

life? hard on Emily, and everybody else agreed


It was n't Fanny's fault or Fanny's with him. The Amberleys were furious.
flight; it was the way that Emily had They were furious for two years, at the
taken it that had torn the heart out of his end of which time civilization recuperated,
devotion for her. and Emily married Tom.
The Hope of Our Merchant Marine
I. Our Maritime Resources

By JOHN HEARD, Jr.

THE war-time
marine
demand upon
chant United of the
the mer-
States is
What equipment can our maritime
roads put at the disposal of the country?
rail-

likely to be threefold: On January i, 1917, the total tonnage of


1. Vessels which can act as tenders and the United States was approximately 4,-
supply-ships for our navy. 000,000 tons,^ exclusive of the tonnage on
2. Vessels suitable for the transporta- the Great Lakes, which was slightly over
tion of supplies and munitions. 3,100,000. Disregarding the latter for
3. Vessels capable of serving as trans- the moment, let us examine how the 4,-
ports in the event of our sending 000,000 tons is About 3,250,000
divided.
men abroad. tons, or eighty-one per cent., is owned by
To understand the situation, a few forty-one companies. The balance is dis-

words of explanation as to the type of tributed among


number of small a large
vessels best adapted to these several pur- concerns, each owning two or three ves-
poses are necessary. The ships which are sels. For convenience of tabulation, how-
called upon to cooperate with the navy ever, it will be as well to disregard them
are known as bulk-freighters; they are as component parts, and. also to eliminate
designed to carry such materials as coal, the tonnage of sailing vessels from our esti-

grain, and similar cargoes that can


ore, mates. The
above 3,250,000 tons divides
be loaded in a mass, the bottom part of itself roughly into the following groups,-
which will not suffer from the great with their relative percentages of the total:
weight of the upper layers. Such ships
Oil 1,083,000 tons, or 33.3 per cent.
are of the utmost importance not only to General cargo . 744,000 tons, or 23.7 per cent.
our navy, which is very insufficiently sup- Bulk cargo . . 270,000 tons, or 8.3 per cent.
plied with colliers and supply-ships, but Passenger and
cargo . . . 1,129,000 tons, or 34.7 per cent.
to the English navy, operating in the
North Atlantic, where supplies of fuel To the casual observer it would ap-
and food will be of material assistance. pear that the country is not badly off for
The second type is composed of the ships. Several very important facts, how-
ordinary freighters, which are usually ever, should be noted. 33.3 per cent, of
operated on fixed lines or as "tramps," our ships, the oil- and molasses-carriers,
which would be necessary to transport
IThis figure, like all similar subsequent figures in this
munitions and food to Europe.
article, is computed in dead-weight tonnage.
The third class, although not so im-
3 These groups are in turn divided according to individ-
mediately needed, since obviously we can- ual ownership, as appears in the following table
not send troops to Europe for a year, if Oil
Texas Company 74i750
at all, should not be overlooked in re-
Standard Oil Companies 529,700
viewing our marine resources. It is in Associated Oil Company 43,110
every way impractical to send men abroad Cuba Distilling Company 42,170
Atlantic Refining Company 2 1 500
,
in contingents of fewer than a thousand,
Gulf Refining Company 67,000
and usually two thousand are considered as Petroleum Transport Company 7S)6oo
few as it is advisable to transport in one Shell Company 41.780
Sun Oil Company 57)°°°
detachment. Consequently, a specialized Union Oil Company 84,320
form of vessel is needed. Vacuum Oil Company 46,000
•245
246 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
are adapted, and can be adapted, for no shortage of sugar would soon be felt that

other service than the one for which they the country would suffer severely. The
are constructed, since a tanker has no same is equally true of the fleets that
hatches, no cargo-handling gear, no venti- carry coal to the New England mills and
lation, and is usually divided into tanks of those freighting raw materials, such as
useless for cargo. 34.7 per cent., the pas- hides and wool, from South America. In
senger and cargo boats, although available a word, should any substantial part of our
for other service in emergency, are highly vessels be taken from their usual business,
specialized, built for a certain trade, and many of the industries on which -we most
ill suited any other. This is partic-
to count not only for domestic purposes, but
ularly true of the United Fruit, Atlantic for the munitions and supplies which it
Gulf & West Indies, Matson Line and will be our part to contribute to Europe,
Munson Line vessels. The bulk-freighters will be paralyzed.
are good enough of their sort, but con- From the point of view of possible
stitute only 8.3 per cent, of our merchant troop-transports, the greatest number of
fleet, w^here many times that number is ships which could be called upon within
necessary. The general-cargo steamers are a month capable of crossing the Atlantic
nearly all excellent ships, but there are and carrying a thousand or more men, with
deplorably few of them. Perhaps of para- nothing but their actual field equipment, is
mount importance is the fact that, as may fiftv-six, and of these very few — not more
be seen from the present abnormal freight- than ten — could carry over a thousand
rates, there is a very great shortage of men. Assuming that every ship capable
tonnage. In other words, since these ves- of carrying troops or of being converted
sels are already incapable of handling our from freighters to passenger-boats within
water transportation, how is it possible for a year was commandeered, there would
them to increase their activities in case of even then be only ninety-six ships avail-
war? The argument will doubtless pre- able. If each ship made one round trip
sent itself that a large percentage of our a month, and, for the sake of argument,
bottoms are engaged in private enterprises, carried fifteen hundred men, it would take
which, if the welfare of the nation de- one year to transport 1,000,000 men to
manded it, could be abandoned. This is a Europe, with no equipment, assuming that
fiillacy in that, although the United Fruit not a single ship was lost, laid up for re-
and Munson fleets, for example, are oper- pairs, or delayed.
ated for the benefit of the stockholders of Unpleasant as it is, we are forced to
those companies, they are engaged in busi- admit that our merchant marine is utterly
nesses that are essential to the welfare of incapable of meeting the demands which
the country at large. If, let us say, the would be made upon it in the event of
two fleets above mentioned were com- war.
mandeered for government work, such a It is not particularly encouraging to

General Cargo Crowell & Thurlow S.S. Company 23,500


Crowell & Thurlow S.S. Company 25,000 Darrow-Mann Company 25,000
American Hawaiian S.S. Company 212,000 Geo. E. Warren & C. H. Spr.igue . . 6,500
American Transportation Company 20,875 United States S.S. Company 16,000
American Trans-Atlantic Company 30,600 Panama Railroad 30,000
Atlantic & Pacific S.S. Company 82,000 United States Steel Products Company 23,000
Barber & Company . 36, 125 Passenger and Cargo
A. H. Bull S.S, Company 71,325 Munson Line 55,625
Robert Dollar S.S. Company 39,3' 1
A. G. & W. I. (including all subsidiaries) . 313,000
Luckenbach S.S. Company 142,175
Matson Line 62,410
Oceanic S.S. Company 28,975
Pacific Mail S.S. Company 99,840
United States Steel Products Company . . . 54,000 International Mercantile Marine 1 11,875

Bulk Cargo Southern Pacific Company. . . 172,722


Coastwise Transportation Company 80,000 United Fruit Company i 76, 1 1 7
New England Coal & Coke Company. ... 41,300 Alaska S.S. Company 49, 360
Berwind White Coal Company 2^,035 Pacific Coast S.S. Company 38,350
THE HOPE OF OUR MERCHANT MARINE 247
realize that in eighteen months the situa- and boilers is not practical for deep-water
tion will not be materially changed by the service. Naturally these objections can be
addition of new vessels now building, or overcome to some degree, and during the
under contract to be built, in the various last year or two a number of such vessels
shipyards- of the United States. The have been put into the Atlantic. In ad-
reason is that, unless the Government dition to these objections, the
fundamental
takes over all these contracts in one way reason why this large proportion of our
or another, very nearly forty per cent, of tonnage is not available is that it cannot
them ma-
will pass to foreign owners, the be taken out of the lakes. The Welland
jority of which are Norwegian. Canal can handle ships only up to 261 feet
On January i, 191 7, contracts placed in length, or of approximately 3000 tons.
and ships under construction amounted ap- All larger vessels must be cut in two, taken
proximately to 2,023,000 tons, subdivided through in pieces, and then reconstructed.
as follows: Before the war the Canadian Government
Atlantic Fadfie Great Lakes was planning to increase the size of the
\ards yards yards
canal, so thatit could handle ships up to
Oil 514,000 188,000 3,100
General cargo . 498,000) „ 114,600 10,000 tons; but all work has been sus-
5>20o
Bulk cargo . . 139,000 I
^ ,^0,800 pended, and will not be resumed until
Passenger and None None
after the termination of hostilities.
cargo . . 46,800 reported reported
Total . . . 1,197,800 573,200 248,500
Of tonnage now under construction in
the Great Lakes yards, thirtA'-seven ships,
Of thismust be remembered that
it of about 118.500 brought
tons, could be
forty per cent, is for foreign account. Yet through the canal. Probably almost every
even if this was all taken over by the Gov- steamer now in commission which could be
ernment, the following result would be used for ocean service has already been
reached, assuming a constant loss of ten taken out of the lakes, so that, unless great
per cent, on totals, and figuring on six- alterations were undertaken, no further
month periods: at end of eighteen
the tonnage could be counted on. Even were
months the total tonnage of the United such alterations deemed advisable, it is

States exclusive of the Great Lakes fleets obvious that the time necessary would be
would be only approximately 4,700,000. great, in addition to affecting most
These figures conclusively prove that, seriously the Great Lakes industries as
although generally the impression is that well as taking the time of shipyards that
we are rapidly marine
increasing our should be devoted to the construction of
resources and threatening to assume a new tonnage.
prominent position among marine powers, This only emphasizes more strongly the
we are not, and if we wish to gain such a fact that the country is deplorably deficient
position, we must redouble our efforts. in ships.

The next question which naturally It must always be kept in mind that the
presents itself is. What of the 3,000,000 power and effectiveness of a navy is not
tons of shipping now on the Great Lakes? only enhanced by, but to a great extent
Why is it not available? depends on, the support of the merchant
Lake-built ships are a highly specialized marine. We plan prodigious naval pro-
type evolved by degrees to meet local re- grams, yet we do virtually nothing to as-
quirements, and not specially suited for sist the less showy, but almost equally im-
ocean service. The construction is weaker, portant, branch of marine preparedness.
and ill adapted to the greater strain of In June, IQIS. Admiral Benson, acting
ocean weather; few, if any, of these ships secretary of the navy, was asked
are fitted with condensers, since, operating
in fresh water, they need none, taking their Considering our navy as it is to-day, and
boilerwater directly from the lakes the ;
having reference to its maximum usefulness
arrangement of accommodations, bridge. and efficiency In time of war, what number
248 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
of merchant vessels and what total tonnage reasons many people cognizant only of
would be required? the lake yards consider us well provided,
or, knowing nothing of the coast yards, the
He answered only ones of real value, judge them by
There would be required 400 merchant analogy with the lake plants. To be sure,
vessels for auxiliaries, with a total of 2,668,- during the last two years the great de-
000 tons.^ In addition to the above, should mand for ships has so filled the coast yards
our own coast be invaded or even occasion- that financially they are prosperous, and
ally visited, there would be required a large owing to pressure they have been forced to
number of small vessels fitted for mine- improve and systematize their plants, until
sweeping; at least 324 of such vessels, all to-day they are far more efficient than two
about 150 gross tons each. years ago, although still utterly incapable
of meeting the nation's requirements.
In other words, 67^ per cent, of our Taking the more prominent yards from
total maritime resources, not making pro- the point of view of usefulness to the Gov-
vision for the small vessels above men- ernment in case of emergency, they divide
tioned, would be necessary to bring our themselves into three classes.
own navy to maximum efficiency. Note Class A, which should be commandeered
that if this were done, we should be immediately, is composed of:
obliged to accomplish with 3 2 J/ per cent, 1. The Bath Iron Works at Bath,
of our merchant fleet what 100 per cent, Maine.
of that fleet has found it impossible to per- This yard is especially adapted to the
form. Note further that not one ship construction of torpedo-boats, submarines,
would remain for transporting supplies or and small gunboats. As a repair yard it
troops to Europe after supplying our own is not important, having no dry-dock, and

naval and industri?ll requirements. Will for the construction of merchant vessels
nothing arouse the country to this fact? it is ill equipped, having capacity for only

Let us now examine the situation as two ships of not over 9000 tons each.
far as our shipyards are concerned. We 2. The Maryland Steel Company at
have seen the inadequacy of our existing Sparrows Point, Maryland.
maritime resources. What facilities have This yard is especially well adapted for
we for increasing them? the construction of all sorts of vessels
A sharp distinction should be drawn which could be used as naval tenders. It
between the Great Lakes ship-building has no dry-dock for repair-work. It is

plants and those on our coasts. Perhaps a large yard and has six slips, but could
the clearest way of demonstrating the dif- probably not handle battle-ships, although
ference is to express it in terms of the a few alterations would fit it for any sort
financial standing of the two types. In of construction work.
the middle West ship-building has been Fore River Ship-building Corpora-
3.
highly successful; ship-building securities tion,Quincy, Massachusetts.
are looked upon as very high-grade in- This is one of the largest and best-
vestments, are well known, and are very equipped yards in the country, and is
popular. In the East shipyards have not capable of handling any sort of construc-
been successful. Ship-building securities tion, regardless of size.
are a drug on the market, are little known, Newport News Ship-building
4. Sc Dry
and are considered very doubtful invest- Dock, Newport News, Virginia.
ments. This is due to the fact that coast This is one of our largest shipyards,
yards have been unable to compete with and is capable of handling all sorts of con-
foreign countries, England in particular, struction and repair-work. At the present
whereas the lake yards have driven their time it is hampered by insufficient quarters
competitors from the field. For these in the neighborhood to accommodate the
1
1
,
1 72,000 tons gross. necessary number of men. In case of gov-
THE HOPE OF OUR MERCHANT MARINE 249

ernmental control, this difficulty would be 5. The Sun Ship-building Company,


obviated by disposing of the extra labor Chester, Pennsylvania.
in tents, thus increasing the capacity of the All the above yards are equipped to
yard. construct small naval vessels, fleet auxili-

5. New York Ship-building Corpora- aries, cruisers, etc., and to do repair-work,


tion, Camden, New Jersey. although for one reason or another their
This yard is capable of handling any facilities arc not of a sort which would
and all forms of construction, but has no make them of immediate importance to the
dry-dock for repairs. Government in case of war.
6. William Cramp & Sons' Ship 5: .Class C includes shipyards not well
Engine Building Company, Philadelphia. adapted to the work required early in the
Pennsylvania. war, and are plants which would be taken
This yard can handle any size con- over only in the case of a protracted
struction work, has one dry-dock, and can emergency. The following should be in-

do repair-work on vessels up to 8000 tons. cluded :

As it has kept space open for government 1. Penns^-lvania Ship-building Com-


work, which up to last February had not pany, Gloucester, New Jersey.
been awarded, it could handle a little 2. Standard Ship-building Corporation,
more business. New York City.
7. Seattle Construction & Dry Dock 3. Texas Ship-building Company, Bath.
Company, Seattle, Washington. Maine.
This yard could do any form of work 4. J. F. Duthie (Sc Company. Seattle,
required and has dry-docks for repair Washington.
purposes. 5. Skinner & Eddy Corporation. Se-
8. Union Iron Works, San Francisco, attle,Washington.
California. 6. Willamette Iron & Steel Works,
This is the largest yard on the Pacific Portland, Oregon.
coast, and can handle any form of con- 7. California Ship-building Company,
struction or repair-work, although all the Long Beach, California.
materials used must be brought from the 8. Chester Ship-building Company.
East. Chester, Pennsylvania.
9. The Robins Dry Dock & Repair The above three classes are naturally
Company, Tietjen & Lang Repair Com- very rough divisions and contain only the
pany, Shewan & Sons, and the Morse Dry names of the more prominent concerns.
Dock & Repair Company, all of New Others exist, but, like many of the ship-
York, as well as a number of smaller yards building companies, are individually of
in other places, would all be taken for too little importance to receive detailed
lepair purposes, although only the Shewan attention in an article of these dimensions.
and Morse yards could be used for dry- In summing up, we find that of all the
docking large battle-ships. yards only two are not booked to maxi-
Class B comprises yards which. would mum capacity, and furtherrhore it will be
be of ultimate value, but which presumably found that it is impossible, even by bring-"
would not be commandeered at the outset, ing additional pressure to bear, materially
and includes the following: to increase the total output of the United
1. The Baltimore Dry Dock & Ship- States yards. In case of emergency only
building Company, Baltimore, Maryland. one course can be adopted to hasten the
2. Harlan &: Hollingsworth Corpora- construction of vessels. It has been esti-

tion, W^ilmington, Delaware. mated that if the Government was to take


3. Pusey & Jones Company, Wilming- control of the steel mills which supply
ton, Delaware. material to the yards, the output might
4. Staten Island Ship-building Com- be increased twenty-five per cent., and
pany, Port Richmond, New York. even this is far from a certaintv.
250 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Some people will doubtless cry out that self-supporting, at least commercially,
more yards should be built. This most which must depend on foreign bottoms to
certainly is true, but from the point of carry its exports and imports. Certainly
view of immediate assistance the jdea is England has given us proof positive of the
absurd, since, if everything were prepared, necessity of a merchant marine in times
eight months is the minimum in which a of stress, and yet we, productively and
yard can be constructed. Add to that an- .strategically one of the best adapted na-
other eight months for the building of a tions of the world to acquire maritime
ship,and it will be noted that sixteen superiority, if not supremacy, have re-
months at the very least would elapse be- fused to lift a finger.
fore a new ship could be floated. Maritime power is only to a certain de-
The only conclusion one can possibly gree in the hands of the Government.
reach from the above statements, which With it, to be sure, lies the important
are believed to be accurate, is that not factor of encouraging or discouraging
only is our merchant, marine pitifully de- shipping enterprises by proper legislation.
ficient, but that our shipyards are to-day But it is the individual men of the nation
hopelessly incapable of affording the as- who hold the whip hand. If capital will
sistance our Government in war-time or lend its assistance or, better still, turn its

our industries in peace may need. attention to this field of investment, the
The United States has suffered losses Government will soon follow their lead,
in the war, although these losses have been and very few years will elapse before the
relatively small the United States has an
; stars and stripes will be restored to the
inadequate merchant fleet, and at the commanding position it once held.
moment inadequate yards. On the other We cannot build shipyards if no one
hand, the United States has everything at will back them financially. We cannot
hand to increase her maritime power. maintain shipyards if no one will order
Every sort of raw material necessary for ships. We cannot order ships unless some
ship construction exists abundantly within one will agree to pay for them. Forth-
our borders. Formerly we were the with the cry goes up from the capitalists:
masters of the Many
of our citizens
sea. "We have tried and we have lost money.
have derived and should have
fortunes Why should we throw more gold into the
derived seafaring traditions from their sea?" This is not true; most emphatically
ancestors. Our engineers have been found this is not true. The truth is, that with
equal to any problem set them, and not almost no exception shipping enterprises
"
only equal to, but superior to, those of organized and run by shipping men have
other nations ; we have never seriously been successful, and shipping enterprises
entered on any field of activity in which undertaken and managed by bankers have
we have not been able to hold our own. been unsuccessful. Is it surprising?
Whole districts available for shipyards Would one expect a railroad run by a
have never even been contemplated as pos- sailor, a mill managed by a doctor, to
sible locations. The Chesapeake Bay prosper? That we can engage profitably
region is admirably adapted for ship- in ship-building has been amply demon-
building plants, and yet only one yard strated in the Great Lakes districts,
exists in that region. Many sites along where our yards have driven competitors
the Maine coast are suitable for ship- out of business. And why? Because the
yards; not a plant of any importance is public was willing to lend its financial
to be found in the South Atlantic and backing, was willing to invest in ship-
Gulf States. But the country does noth- building -properties and securities; above
ing to grasp the wonderful opportunity all, took an interest in the enterprises.
presented to us to reinstate ourselves in Steamship American-
lines like the
the front rank of maritime powers. Hawaiian, the Crowell & Thurlow, and
It is almost axiomatic that no nation is the Luckenbach, organized, financed, and
THE HOPE OF OUR MERCHANT MARINE 251

managed by shipping men, have proved the vast middle West. In terms of simile,
conclusively that shipping is profitable we built our factory. We
have now built
even under onerous legislation. our plant, probably the finest in the world
Until the middle fifties, despite the bit- we are ready to export; our railroads,
ter opposition of England, we were a rec- built by private capital, are ready to carry
ognized and preeminently successful mari- our products to the sea-coast. Shall
time power. We
were then a tract of American goods be carried in American
land along the sea-coast, living by trade, bottoms or in the ships of foreigners?
import and export. Many causes even This great country of ours must not be left
prior to the Civil War combined to check completely at the mercy of foreign nations
our activities in that field, until England in its trade relations with them because we

had gained such a superiority in maritime lack the necessary ships; our navy, our
affairs that, rather than attempt to over- greatest and only defense against the
come her lead, we turned our attention to world, must not be left crippled through
the development of our internal resources, the lack of a supporting merchant marine.

II. Reviving Our Merchant Marine

By HAROLD KELLOCK
Author of " Fair Play for the Railroads," etc.

AUTHORITIES agree that we have promises to break all records for American
-/l- arrived most important turning-
at a ship-building.
point in the history of American shipping. The history of the American merchant
If the European War had not occurred, marine in foreign trade for the quarter of a
this point would inevitably have been century preceding the war is a record of
reached, but probably much more slowly. frustration and failure. During this period,
War conditions have brought into start- while the merchant tonnage of the world
ling relief the significance and the dangers almost doubled in amount, our tonnage
of the decadent state of our merchant ma- registered for other than domestic service
rine. They have brought home to the remained virtually the same. In 1891
Government and commercial interests
to and in 1914 it was about a million tons.
generally the necessity of abandoning our At the outbreak of the Civil War it was
old policy of allowing American shipping about two and a half millions. This is a
to develop at haphazard. Incidentally the shameful loss.
war has opened to us an opportunity for Meanwhile we had built up on the
expansion in marine affairs such as we Great Lakes a splendid fleet of over three
have not had in a century and a quarter. million tons, probably the most economi-
The question is, Will the impetus given cal merchant vessels in the world, able to
by war conditions be merely transitory, or carry cargo at of a cent per mile,
can it be utilized as the start of a long and return a good profit to the owners.
period of great marine development? The During these years the tonnage produced
answer lies wholly with our own wisdom by the shipyards of the Great Lakes ex-
and initiative. ceeded that of the yards of the whole At-
The auguries are favorable. Indications lantic coast. In addition to the lake fleet,
are multiplying that at last the United we had our steadily growing coastwise
States is preparing to reconquer its lost fleet, including the fine vessels plying be-
position as a real factor in the parrying tween our continental ports and our is-

trade of the world. In two years after land possessions, all this traffic, except that
the war began we doubled our tonnage in to and from the Philippines, being pro-
foreign trade. The current fiscal vear tected against foreign competition by the
252 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
law requiring that our domestic commerce in our tremendous internal development.
be carried in American bottoms. The exploitation of our natural resources,
We had in 1914 the second largest mer- the upbuilding of our railroads and man-
chant fleet in the world, but fewer than ufactures, promised greater and steadier
one seventh of our ships sailed between returns for investors than shipping. The
our ports and those of any foreign nation. sons of our seamen went into factories or
A American, had vessels
single line, the business or migrated to the West. They
running between the United
regularlj' could earn more money in lesshazardous
States and European ports. Aside from occupations, offering greater opportunities.
these steamers, the sight of the American From every hundred square miles in conti-
flag on a merchant ship in any European nental United States, according to a recent
port was a rarity. government estimate, only five men seek
We have been on the sea.
slackers employment as seamen, as compared with
Alone among the nations we have trusted two hundred and forty men in England
to Providence to build up a merchant ma- and forty-three in Germany.
rine for us. Aside from occasional trust- Many things contributed to our decay
busting forays and intermittent tinkering on the American ships had to be
seas.

with the tarifF, it has been our custom to built American yards.
in Wages here
trust to Providence in economic affairs. were from a quarter to a third higher than
The results have not been happy. At the in British and materials ran to
yards,
beginning of the war our railroad develop- about fifty According
per cent, higher.
ment was in a condition of stagnation to a German authority, a few years before
business generally was suffering from the the war steel plates were selling at $41.40
results of acampaign of ten years of gov- per ton in the United States, $25.50 in
ernmental hostility and repression we had ; England, $30.25 in Germany. In many
barely succeeded, after years of discussion, lines of production American manufactur-
in modifying our medieval banking and ers, through standardization and a high

currency laws, which led us into periodi- degree of factory efficiency, had been able
cal financial disturbances, causing wide- to make up for higher wages and materials
spread misery; we had built up a great and compete most successfully with Euro-
navy, but had characteristically done noth- pean rivals in foreign trade. This has
ing to develop the merchant marine that been effected notably by manufacturers of
must furnish the auxiliaries to make the automobiles, farm machinery, tools, and
navy effective in time of war we were in- ; sewing-machines. But the moderate de-
creasing our foreign trade faster than any mands on our shipyards militated against
other nation, but alone among the nations such efficiency.

we were not adding to our merchant ton- ]\Ioreover, American ships were more
nage to carry that trade. In short, our costly to operate than foreign ships. The
lawmakers had shown a disinclination or running charges were greater. Our laws
inability to solve our great economic prob- and customs required higher standards of
lems by adopting progressive national poli- food and accommodations for the seamen
cies. Our shipping world
interests in than those observed on foreign ships. The
trade probably suffered from this more wages of our ships' officers have been
than any other branch of commerce, be- nearly double those paid abroad, and of
cause other nations made it a practice to the men about twenty-five per cent,
force the development of their shipping. higher.
The decline in our merchant marine Among other great nations the building
began in the late fifties. A vast amount of a merchant marine has been considered
of capital was withdrawn from investment so essential to the welfare of the nation
in shipping during the Civil War, and it in peace, and in war so vital for national
was never returned. defense, that a policy of coddling and sub-
Since that time we have been absorbed sidizing the shipping industry has been
THE HOPE OF OUR MERCHANT MARINE 253

general. It is estimated that Great Brit- might rules. • Even our ships were dis-

ain pays out from $4,000,000 to $5,000,- criminated against in many subtle ways
000 yearly in subsidies or bounties. The through port regulations and the like, be-

construction of great liners like the Lusi- cause we were


an inconsiderable factor on
tnnia and Mauretania has been financed the seas. There are strong indications that
by the Government. Germany has paid keener commercial competition between
postal iiubventions to lines to the colonies, the great maritime nations after the war
and construction bounties in the form of will increase their discriminations.
customs exemptions and preferential rail- Some of our big corporations in foreign
road rates for ship-building material. In trade have tried of late years to overcome
addition the Government makes special the disadvantage of having their products
railroad rates on goods from the interior under foreign control in transport. The
bound for the East on German lines, and Standard Oil Company built up a great
the Turkish and Bulgarian railroads have fleet of tankers, though some of them

cooperated to extend this practice in the sailed under British or German registry.

case of German ships. Of late years France Since the war the company has been de-
has been paying as much
$12,000,000 as prived in some instances of the use of its

annually in subsidies and bounties, and the ships under foreign registry, which have
Japanese Government not far from $10,- been pressed into use as auxiliaries in the
000,000 on its carefully arranged system British navy, thus affording another argu-
of subsidies. Little Norway, which stands ment for sailing under the American flag.

fourth among the nations in merchant ton- The United Fruit Company runs a fleet

nage, pays out $5,000,000. Belgium has carrying its own products, and so has the
made large three-per-cent. loans to ship- United States Steel Corporation,
ping companies and admits building mate- Since the early seventies our successive
rial duty free. Virtually all the other tariff laws have usually contained clauses

European nations have some form of di- favoring in a limited way materials for
rect or indirect subsidy. building American ships. Up to a few
For years the United States has been years ago, however, the benefit of this dis-
paying upward of a million dollars annu- crimination fell only on ships built for for-
ally to certain American steamship lines. eign trade. The result was that few
Beyond that, up to 191 2, virtually noth- builders cared to avail themselves of the
ing was done by the Government to de- cheaper materials and. thus debar their ves-
velop American shipping. We trusted to sels from at any time entering the pro-
muddle through. tected field of domestic trade. The
In world commerce our dependence on Panama Canal Act of 19 12 at last pro-
alien ship-owners, alien insurance compa- \ ided for free materials for all American
nies, and foreign-made shipping regula- ships, and this was confirmed in the Un-
tions was growing year by year. Though derwood Tariff Law of the following
there was plenty of competition for our year. The Panama Canal Act also pro-

freights, there were also occasional omi- vided that foreign-built ships less than five
nous cases of discrimination against \ears old could be "naturalized" and sail
American goods. Other things being under ou/ flag. This and the creation of
equal, the British ship-owner naturally free building materials marked the first
favored British as against American com- steps toward a national shipping policy.
mercial interests. He also naturally fa- Up to a few years ago there was no
vored German as against American com- organized movement among our greater
mercial interests, because the German ship- commercial interests to build up an Ameri-
owner was in a position to reciprocate. In can merchant marine. Now all that is
marine affairs we had sunk to the position changed. The formation In 191 4, a few
of a small nation, and we suffered the con- weeks before the war began, of the Na-
sequent disadvantages in a world where tional Foreign Trade Council, composed
254 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
of representatives of leading interests in Of perhaps even greater importance
foreign trade, gave great impetus to a than the consolidation of great resources
movement to American shipping.
foster of capital back of our shipping interests
The councilcommitted to an ambitious
is has been the adoption by the Government
program of marine development, including of a powerful machinery for the develop-
the building in ten years of an American ment of our peaceful interests on the sea.
merchant marine for foreign trade of from Government action crystallized last au-
6,000,000 to 10,000,000 tons gross, capa- tumn in the passage of the law creating
ble of carrying sixty per cent, of our for- the United States Shipping Board. Fully
eign shipping, instead of the less than ten as wide-spread as the control of the United
per cent, carried in American bottoms be- States Commerce Commission over rail-

fore the war. Such a tonnage would make road rates and the railroad business gen-
us reasonably independent of foreign ship- erally is the control of the new board over
owners, and provide us in war with ample shipping. The books of shipping compa-
naval auxiliaries. nies are open to it at all times. It may
Organizations like the United States investigate the action of foreign govern-
Chamber of Commerce, the National City ments with respect to their treatment of
Bank, and that youthful colossus of com- American vessels, and where it finds un-
merce, the American International Corpo- fair methods may apply retaliatory meas-
ration, are cooperating in the work of re- ures. It has at its disposal $50,000,000

storing the flag to the seas. The motive with which it is empowered to build, pur-
power of these organizations interlocks. chase, and operate merchant vessels or
Their financial momentum is enormous. form for that purpose corporations of
"The American International Corpora- which it shall own the majority of capital
tion," said the London "Statist" recently, stock.
"promises to be — if indeed it has not al- The establishment of the Shipping
ready achieved that position — one of the Board, with its remarkable powers, is a
largest and most important financial cor- great step toward a constructive national
porations in the world and from what ; policy in shipping. "The future of the
has already been done it is evident that the American merchant marine rests with the
United States has entered upon a new board," a representative of one of the
phase of its financial history, indicating greatest shipping interests remarked to the
that the transformation from a position of 'writer. Most shipping men seem to agree.
financial provincialism to that of interna- Private shipping interests are virtually
tionalism ... is well advanced." united in opposition to the Government's
The corporation has acquired "a sub- entering the shipping business. In this
stantial interest" in the International matter the newly organized board has not
Mercantile Marine Company, which con- announced its intentions. Practical ship-
trolsthe American Line and the great ping men on certain modifica-
also insist
British transatlantic steamship lines except tions in the Seamen's Law, signed by
the Cunard line. It has taken over large President Wilson in 191 4, which unques-
ship-building interests and is constructing tionably has added to the cost of operating
vessels to carry and its activities
our flag, American ships. Without entering into
embrace trading and development enter- the merits of the controversy, it must be
prises of every description. Its agents are acknowledged that the Seamen's Law is

reporting opportunities from all parts of primarily a labor law, and such statutes
the world. In Russia, for instance, they have a habit of sticking to the statute-
are laying plans to secure to the American books without substantial change. Ship-
manufacturer his share in the immense re- owners object chiefly to the clause, de-
habilitation after the war. In China they signed to increase the number of American
have recently contracted for tlie building seamen, requiring that seventy-five per
of over a thousand miles of railroad. cent, of the crew must be able to under-
THE HOPE OF OUR MERCHANT MARINE 255

stand any order given by the officers. Meanwhile, under war conditions,
Great Britain has a law that her merchant American yards for the first time are
seamen must be British subjects. Never- building ships as cheaply as they can be
theless, her ship-owners get around it by built anywhere in the world. In less than
employing large numbers of Chinese, who three years our coast shipyards have made
are rated as residents of the British port greater advances in efficiency than they
of Hong-Kong. Perhaps as time goes on made in several decades before the war.
the Seamen's Law may be somewhat They are" employing and developing a great
amended in practice so that it will not army of skilled working-men who will
work undue hardships on our ship-owners. form an essential factor in our future ma-
The United States Chamber of Com- rine development.
merce has recommended that for a period The war has brought to us capital in
of years the Government should make the billions, a full share of which is ready
loans to ship-owners, preferably those in to be diverted into the shipping industry.
foreign trade, rather than undertake gov- On the heels of the war will come a great
ernmental operation. The National For- reconstruction Europe, with
period in
eign Trade Council has recommended an great demands on shipping, probably ex-
extension of the policy of postal sub- tending over the next decade. After that,
ventions. It is likely that the Government with the restoration of normal shipping
\yill give friendly consideration to these conditions, we must prepare for the real
proposals. Other shipping interests still trial. Shall we then be able to
compete
clamor for direct subsidies, though there is world ? Can
for the carrying trade of the
no immediate indication that Congress we maintain our progress on the seas?
will reverse its policy and grant them. This is the period for which the Shipping
There is also in some quarters insistence Board, in conjunction with private enter-
on tarifiF discrimination in favor of im- prise, must plan carefully.
ports carried in American bottoms. The But even the Government, aided by our
Underwood Tariff Law provided for a great financial interests, cannot succeed
five per cent, rebate on such imports, but unless the people as a whole learn to take
this clause was declared by the attorney- American shipping. We
a vital interest in
general a violation of our treaty obliga- must realize that an inadequate merchant
tions with foreign powers, and its opera- marine that hinders naval preparedness is
tion isstill held up by the courts. If we as much a menace to the man in Kansas
start a policy of tariff discrimination there City or Little Rock as it is to the man in
Is every reason to believe that Great Brit- New York or San Francisco. We must
ain will retaliate with a similar law, and realize that the farmer in Iowa or the
in this case we shall stand to lose more miner in ^Montana has as direct a stake in

than we gain. getting our products a square deal on the


At present the shipping business is at a high seas through the development of our
point tremendous stimulation.
of An shipping as has the capitalist with shipping
enormous mercantile tonnage has been lost or trading investments. We must realize
in the war. By some authorities this is that every dollar of the enormous sums we
estimated (April i) as high as six million pay to alien ship-owners for handling our
tons, though the guesses of the United foreign trade puts a tax on that trade. We
States commissioner of navigation and the must merchant ma-
realize that a great
chief statistician of the National City rine cannot spring up overnight, like Alad-
Bank would indicate a figure considerably din's palace, but must come as the result
lower. Our share of these losses has been of a national cooperative effort of all

disproportionately small. Six million tons classes, must be worked for and paid for.
ofGerman and Austrian shipping are idle. We must bring home to our legislators the
probably be many years before Ger-
It will realization of these matters. Only thus can
many can regain her position on the seas. we restore our flag to the seas.
Raemaekers — Man and Artist
By GEORGE CREEL
Author of " Military Training in the Schools," etc.

MANY
down
great names will be handed
to posterity as a result of the
where men have soul, Raemaekers will be
heard, whether the place be Iceland or
present war— names of soldiers, statesmen, Asia.
churchmen, descriptive writers, inventors, A vast incredibility clouds the whole
and organizers. So far, at least, the arts European conflict. Nothing has been per-
have been singularly silent, almost dazed, mitted to retain its old proportions. The
it would seem. But one figure, hitherto regularities of life, earthquaked, suffer
unknown, has already risen to an imper- weird exaggerations. Heroes rise, giants
ishable fame throughout the world, a mod- are dwarfed commonplace is
suddenly,
est Dutch landscape-painter turned to an transfigured, and shining shapes sink from
avenging fury, lashing out with the most view in mud. Of it all, few things are
effective weapon at his command. more amazing, more incredible, than the
The cartoons of Louis Raemaekers take story of Louis Raemaekers, the remote
the people of earth on a strange, haunted Dutch landscape-painter called from his
journey through the bleeding heart of hu- tulips to be the sword of truth.
manity, past ancient savageries and old Born in Holland forty-seven years ago,
bestialities new sprung to life, by vast, the son of a country editor, he grew to
shadowy forms of grief and despair, and manhood in the simple environment of the
along tear-drenched ways that lead to average Dutch middle-class home.
aspiration. In time he became an artist; he mar-
It is no more possible to consider this ried he daubed the usual amount of can-
;

Dutch genius as a mere artist, a worker vas, som.etimes with sheep, sometimes with
with paper, ink, and lines, than it is to faces, doing neither worse nor better than
view the Apostle Paul as an itinerant ora- the scores of other young Dutch artists
tor,Joan of Arc as a military figure, or that clutter the Low Country. About
Rouget de Lisle as a casual song-writer. seven years ago he became cartoonist on
The tremendousness of his appeal does the Amsterdam "Telegraaf." That was
away with the medium entirely, for even where the outbreak of the war found him.
while one holds the drawing, eyes cease to The peace of the world was shattered to
see, mind ceases to grasp, and there is con- atoms HohenzoUerns sprang at the
as the
sciousness only of a great, imperative hand throat of the world. From Belgium came
tearing among the very roots of being. a death-cry, smoke clouds darkened the
It may well be that this man is more day, and the skies at night were as red as
hated by the HohenzoUerns than any blood with the glare from burning vil-
other, for more than any other he has lages. And red as blood were the fields
bared Hohenzollernism to the gaze of the where golden boys gave up their lives to
world. Whether victory or defeat, stem the invading hosts of organized su-
whether peace or continuance of struggle, perstition.
the pictures of the inspired Dutchman will It is a sophisticated age. It has little

thunder their accusations down the ages. belief in miracles ; and yet in the case of
They speak the universal language. The Louis Raemaekers there is nothing else to
artist, like the composer, stands no need
in believe save that a flash of the light that
of translation. Where men have sight, blinded Saul on the road to Tarsus found
256
CARTOONS
By Louis Raemaekers

-I.ou,s-l^a.^o,t:f,-.-._^

THE AVENGER
KNOW THIS JOB: I 'VE DONE IT BEIOKE'

THE DREAM AND THE REALITY


•I HAD SUCH A DELIGHTFUI, DREAM THAT
THE WHOLE THING WAS NOT TRn-"
"^

I^^^^^^^^KT^ '/-^^^^^

BSE jSct^^BK-^mm^
'"'*'" ''

' ^yffyM?SiiiC^^jfrj

'j/l^¥^
1 .-.^^.^mmjpw^M*^"^

'

-m
THE lvsitaxia: herod's M<;inMAKE
ARE THHY CKVINi; 'MOTHKR' IR MURDER
( '
'•

HK AUiJKAIIIlX OK -I'lIK .MAOl"


RAEMAEKERS-]\IAN AND ARTIST 257

its way into the dinp3' office of the Am- Raemaekers draws with his life's blood.

sterdam "Telegraaf," striking full upon In every line there is an intensity that
the face of the Dutch cartoonist, driving catches at one's throat. Even in his mo-
straight into his vague, blue eyes. ments of sardonic humor, when he exposes
What else indeed ? Until that time he Ferdinand, the sultan, the crown prince,
had done nothing that showed genius or or the kaiser to pitiless ridicule, there is

even first-rate ability. His canvases had the sense of an indomitable purpose.
been conventional, and his cartoons were When he draws Belgium there is a sob
of the sort that hundreds of plodding art- and a caress in every subtle stroke, his
ists were turning out drearily in newspa- visualization of the widows and orphans
per offices all over the world. Not even of France brings tears, and there is a stark
in the small puddle of Amsterdam politics loathing in the bestial features of his

had his work made a ripple. Huns; but behind every picture there is

What is it but a miracle when such a the same deathless will to rouse the whole
one, in a day, gains power, authority, and world to a realization of horror.
purpose, each with the swing and cut of It is a cruel injustice to write down
a sword ? What is it but a hint of divin- Raemaekers as a mere "pro-Ally." It is

ity when an obscure artist changes sud- like saying that Abraham Lincoln was a
denly, swiftly, terribly, into the invincible Republican or George Washington a Vir-
champion of an outraged humanity ? ginian. The man is pro-humanity. Not
I seem to see him standing there at a the rights of England, France, or Russia
window looking toward Belgium, startled excite him, but the wrongs of Belgium
at first, a trifle confused, and then turning and Serbia, the stolid, efficient deviltries
slowly back to his drawing-board, throw- of Prussianism, the smug complacences of
ing away the half-finished banality on neutrality.
which he had been working, taking down His mother was German, and at the
a new sheet, driving ahead with passionate outset of the war Holland was strongly
strokes, and at the end staring with strange pro-German. Every selfish, cowardly in-
eyes at "Christianity after Twenty Cen- terest drew him to the cause of the Cen-
turies," the first of the war cartoons, and tral powers, and when he took his stand
probably the first Raemaekers cartoons, against the Hohenzollerns and Prussian-
that tell of inspiration. He saw that ism, the path that he chose was barbed
bowed figure, with anguish, hopelessness, with every sacrifice and danger. Great
and shame in every line, the bared back artist indeed, but greater, braver soul.

sinking under the weight of naked


fell From the first a violence of hate drenched
blade and brutal scourge, with blood on him; for the German influences at the
the blade and on the scourge, and over all Dutch court were strong, and the prudent
the sad shadows of a futile Calvary. burghers, keenly aware of the menace of
From that day to this one tremendous German guns, went sick with fear of trou-
picture has followed another, each epito- ble. In Amsterdam, as well as from Ber-
mizing all that the human heart has ever lin, hands reached out to throttle him, and
known of pathos, anger, contempt, grief, persecution reached a point where he was
ardor, and despair. The range of Rae- tried in the law courts for alleged breach
maekers is the range of the world's emo- of Holland's neutrality.
tion. Critics, attempting to classify him, Small wonder that the Dutch Junkers
will seek to compare him with Hogarth. hated him equally with the German Jun-
There is no comparison. Hogarth's spirit kers. His scorn cut them like whips, and
was without wings. He had the gift of day after day he made the nation look
savage satire and a certain heavy morality, upon its shame. There is a picture in
but never did the flame of his burning which he shows Holland, hitched like a
soul throw light into the dark places of dog to a wagon that is driven by a Prus-
the world. sian. At the side of the road there is the
258 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
cross that mark the grave of murdered of a country, his lash is ever ready for the
Belgium. back of cowardice, but no pacifist in the
"So !" grins the German whip-wielder. world has ever equaled Raemaekers's ter-
"You worthy Dutchman. He who
are a rific exposure of the ghastly hypocrisy that
lies there was a foolish idealist." attempts to veneer blood lust with philo-
Holland writhed, but Holland rose. sophic phrase. There are those in Amer-
The trial that was to have been Raemae- ica, as well as in Prussia, who seem to feel

kers's disgrace became his triumph. A pub- that war should take the place of the fox-
lic sentiment, sweeping all before it, de- hunt in our national life, and who, in the

clared the cartoons the voice of Holland, very face of the European horror, have
and the artist was acquitted. The Cologne not been ashamed, to preach a religion of
"Gazette," speaking the deep anger that valor that is thin cover for the killing pas-
was Prussia's, made this declaration in the sion. Such as these should make careful
course of a leading article: "After the war study of the Raemaekers cartoons, espe-
Germany 'will settle accounts with Hol- cially that one in which he pictures a few
land, and for each calumny, each cartoon of the people who do not understand the
of Raemaekers, she will demand payment, "beauties of war": the widow crying for
with the interest that is due her." the lost husband, the orphan waiting for
In Europe they speak of Raemaekers's the father who
never come home
will
pen as a sword. It is that. Indeed, but far again, and the old mother mourning the
more. The cartoons in which he slashes strong son who was to have been the prop
away the solemn pretenses of the centuries, of her old age. Each face has its own
destroying utterly the grandiose illusions anguish, and over all are the gray tones of
built up through cunning years, burn into a despair that will never lift.

memory but ; those that take complete pos- Others may deal blows against
terrific

session of the soul have to do with love the iron shape of militarism thatshadows
and pity and tears. Europe, but Louis Raemaekers stands out
"All is quiet in .Belgium." This is the as the one great Interpretative factor of
caption of a picture that brings a sob into the war. He has given direction to a just
the throat, that strikes through the pro- anger, he has cleared the path for pity, he
tective selfishness with which man pro- has endowed horror with dynamic force,
tects himself down to the ultimate deeps and into every premeditated confusion he
of humanity. A peasant woman fallen has shot the white light of his passionate
against a wayside shrine, a desolated land understanding.
lying bleak and bare under a sullen sky, No man in Europe, not even the heroes
in the chill distance the broken spires of is more loved and admired.
of battle-fields,
a ravaged city — that is the cartoon. In France has awarded him the Legion of
the sad curves of that huddled shape, in Honor, and his visits to Paris have been
the harsh unloveliness of the fields, and in made the occasion of such tributes as only
the ruins of what once were hames the the Latin, unashamed of his emotions, can
story of a violated treaty is told as orators give. London, breaking through traditional
and statesmen can never tell it. reserve, has acclaimed him in equal degree,
There is another picture that he terms even though his introduction to the English
"Mater Dolorosa." The roof has fallen people can hardly be termed felicitous.
in, the dead bodies of father and husband A London editor or owner, probably
lie limp against the wall of the little cot- Northclifife, asked the distinguished visitor
tage, and the joung mother, crouched over to draw a cartoon based on first impres-
the stark corpse of her little one, lifts eyes sions. He did. It was entitled "Inside the
that mirror dawning madness. Savoy," and in merciless fashion the pic-
At no time does he stoop to the glorifi- ture showed the scene of silly pleasure,
cation of war. His clarion sounds in with chinless young gentlemen gaily danc-
praise of the courage that dies in defense ing about with an equal number of chin-
THE SHULAIMITK 259
less young women. Here are
and lights cartoons are the tears of women, the bat-
laughter, but the genius of the man makes tle-shout of indomitable de"fenders, the in-
one see through the silken curtains to dignation of humanity, the sob of civiliza-
lonely graves in Flanders and on to dying tion. They will go down into history.
men "somewhere in France." They are history. To take the great book
Courage, perhaps, is the great note in of them, to turn page after page, is to
Raemaekers's work though it is not greater
; knotu the European War, to see it face to
than his sincerity. Just as he fears noth- face as a child sees, and not through a
ing, so is it the case that he exaggerates glass darkly.
nothing. Even when he twists faces into It is one of the great works of the
weird shapes of terror, there is the convic- world which he has done. Perhaps genius
tion that he has simply seen down into was only dormant, waiting for the cry of
the soul, and is painting the hideous real- general catastrophe to bring it forth into
ity that has been hidden too long a time. vivid, terrific life. And yet — for who
If a certain sheer tremendousness attaches shall say that all things in heaven and
to the simple figure of a peasant mother, earth are understood? — it may be that
it is because he sees in that one wretched those same voices that called through the
soul a nation of mothers crying to God orchard of Domremy called to the car-
for the return of slaughtered sons. toonist in the office of the Amsterdam
Let it be said again that it is not possi- "Telegraaf," that into his simple soul,
ble to judge Louis Raemaekers as an art- recommended to Godby its love of flow-
ist. He is a voice, a sword, a flame. His ers, there fell a tear from on high.

The Shulamite
By ANNE ARRABIN
FROM out the misted margent of dead years
saw a masque of regal women move.
I

And some were pale, some passionate with tears,


While others smiled these were the Queens of Love.
:

Out of the mists they moved in stately wise.


Purple and gold upon each garment's hem.
And looked at me aloof with alien eyes,
Who them go and spoke no word with them.
let

So passed, till suddenly I was aware


Of one who moved among the sandaled throng
Barefoot, a wreath of grape bloom in her hair.
And lips that seemed to tremble with stilled song;
On her young limbs a golden hue of sun
That pallid made appear the beauties white
Simple her garb ; of gold and jewels none.
Who art thou, Loveliest:^ The Shulamite.
The cinctured queens in silent scorn depart.
Tarry, Beloved! lie are one at heart.
International Ideals
By DAVID JAYNE HILL
Author of " A History of Diplomacy in the International Development of Europe," etc.
Formerly United States Ambassador to Germany

DESPITE the heritage of evil in the blest walks of life men are now discussing
absolute conception of the state and difficult questions of jurisprudence and di-
the relations between states; and, in truth, plomacy in the light of stirring events of
on account of it, men of reflective habits world-wide significance, and they are ask-
of mind have devoted much attention to ing one another. What is to become of
the ideas that ought to prevail when, civilization? Will it perish in the conflict
either in the course of progressive evolu- of national interests or will it enter upon
tion or at some critical period of readjust- a new era of development?
ment, the opportunity for amelioration Justice, peace, cooperation, culture — all

may exist. these appear to be imperiled by national


At the very outset, however, we are con- antagonisms; and yet they are aspirations
fronted with the question how far the that all nations profess to entertain. How-
thought and purpose of man can affect may they be realized? By intelligent
such vast issues as social, political, and in- organization, no doubt; butit must be of

ternational organization. Judging by the a more thorough kind and on a larger


past, we should, perhaps, be led to con- scale than has ever before been attempted.
clude mere theories have, on the
that It cannot stop at the national boundaries
whole, very little to do with the mass it must include the whole family- of man.
action of mankind, and that such action is
almost universally determined by the blind Before great progress can be made in
instincts and irresistible appetites of men harmonizing national interests it will be
rather than by reason with the result that ; necessary .to reconsider, in the light of
it is useless to expect that anything of modern knowledge and experience, the
national magnitude will happen simply true nature of the state, and by a readjust-
because it is reasonable or that interna- ment of opinions upon that subject prepare
tional affairs will ever cease to be more the way for a change in the attitude of
unreasonable than they have been in the nations toward one another.
past. The present is an unusually auspicious
were no important change in
If there moment for reflection upon the true nature
the human units that make up the popula- of the state, for the battle between the
tions of what we call the civilized nations opposing theories has not yet been fought
of the world, this hopeless prospect might out. What is the purpose of the state?
be justified ; but, in fact, a very radical Does it exist for the individual man, as
change has occurred in these later decades. democracy contends, or does the individual
It consists in an ever-widening common man exist for the state, as absolutism
consciousness regarding national and in- claims ?

ternational affairs. Great world events, As a question of philosophy the oppos-


portrayed in terms generally intelligible ing types of conception regarding the
and brought home to the masses of man- nature of the state may perhaps be best
kind everywhere, have awakened the in- illustrated by comparing the theories of
telligence of the common man as it has Kant and Hegel, the one emphasizing the
never been aroused before. In the hum- freedom, development, and responsibility
260
INTERNATIONAL IDEALS 261

of the man, the other the power the glory that rights " without duties cannot be
and the divinity of the state. sustained, and he therefore laid the prin-
It is Kant who best marks the transi- cipal stress upon duty— duty to the state
tion to distinctively modern thought not and duty to all mankind.
only On account of his having lived in a While Kant's conception of the state
period of revolt against absolutism, but v.as making practical progress in other
on account of the place he assigns to man parts of the world, his fatherland was
as a factor in history. To his mind the harried by invasion, subjugated by con-
great necessity -for man is freedom. All quest, and in the Napoleonic domination
the forces of humanity are locked up in a new imperialism was holding all con-
the possibilities of the individual being. tinental Europe in its grasp. Fichte ap-
The great problem of society is to release plied the Kantian conception of duty to
the free activity of human faculties. the fallen fortunes of the Prussian state,
Personality is not a means to an end ; it for a strong doctrine of nationalism be-
is an end in itself, and therefore should not came the necessity of the hour. But it was
be treated as a mere thing, or made the Hegel, after liberation had been achieved,
creature, the instrument, or the victim of who made the state the shrine of the in-
arbitrary force. dwelling absolute, and for the cosmo-
The business of government, therefore, politanism of Kant was substituted a
is remove the hindrances to freedom,
to theory of the state which proclaimed it an
which are found in the love of power, of organ of divine action, identified patriot-
glory, and of gain, motives engendered by ism with religion, and rendered the sepa-
the natural instincts which man shares rate nationalities as unapproachable for
with the lower animals. purposes of rational understanding as the
Such a conception appears at first sight planets in the solar system.
to be not only cosmopolitan, but anti- For Hegel the individual man is noth-
national ; but it is not anti-national in the ing in himself. Wliatever he has of moral
sense of denying the value and necessity of personality is the creation of the state. In
the nation. What it aims at is the exten- his earlier writings Hegel, like Kant, laid
sion of local order until it becomes general stress upon personality but in his later;

order, by so conceiving the state as to philosophy, when he had assumed the task
allow of its cooperation with other states, of glorifying the state, he made of it the
with the purpose of insuring general only vehicle through which the absolute
harmony and, therefore, permanent peace. reaches humanity, and he always means by
Here is presented, no doubt, a concep- it the Prussian state,— the Prussian state.
tion of the state which renders internation- as Haym has said, as it existed in 1821,
alism possible without the destruction of when Hegel wrote.
nationalism. But we find in Kant only But this was a necessary corollary of
the beginning of a complete political Hegel's conception of history as immanent
philosophy, for the reason that he had not reason. It was idle, he thought, to speak
seen the idea of personality as the basis of of what a state "ought to be." Being an
political organization anywhere effectively incarnation of the absolute, it is what it is,

worked He
had not witnessed the
out. and cannot be other than it is. It is right
development of constitutionalism, which in all it does. All changes are divine acts.
was only just asserting itself, and his con- The individual man must take his orders
servative spirit in matters practical was from the state, because it alone has the
rudely shocked by the enormities of the right to command. The state being an
French Revolution. Yet he perceived that embodiment of the absolute, it is foolish
it w'as upon the inherent rights of the in- to try to make constitutions, as if we had
dividual man that the state must be any right of choice. Parliaments are only
founded if despotism is to be abolished. mediating bodies, which should take their
But he also apprehended the deeper truth directions from the permanent ruler in
262 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
order to enlighten the masses as to how sion, then there is law for states as well

they are to execute these orders. The as for individualmen. If, on the contrary,
state is an organism in which every con- law is a sovereign decree emanating from
stituent part is subject to the will of ..the a dominant will regardless of limitations,
whole. But as this unity is not found in there can be no law for states until such
society, it must be sought in the will of a a superior will is established over them.
dominant person, the monarch through Both ideas have been worked out in the
whom the absolute speaks. And thus the development of modern states. Some have
philosopher sinks at last into the sycophant, followed the absolutist theory even in their
Crowning his system with the dogma of internal and in these au-
organization ;

divine right, and ending with the adula- thority w^ithout restriction emanates from
tion of a notoriously weak and reaction- a superior, an individual ruler or a gov-
ary king! erning class. In others authority proceeds
Evidently, if all states are like this, from the constituents of the state under
and this is intended as a theory of the definite forms of limitation, in which
state in the abstract,— there can nowhere checks upon the pretensions of absolute
be a restraint upon the purpose of the sovereignty are embodied in the very
monarch. He and all states
is absolute, structure of the state. Only states of the
are absolute. There being no law but the latter kind are truly constitutional. They
sovereign's own will, there can be no such are by their very nature creations of law.
thing as international law; and, as the They recognize the fact that whatever
state's omnipotence includes the unlimited rightful authority there is in the world is
right of making war at the will of the derived from claims to justice antecedent
sovereign, there cannot be a permanent to all legislation and inherent in person-
peace. Such a condition is an "empty ality. When all the resources of sophistry
dream." It is through war that the have been exhausted in trying to derive
absolute carries forward the work of his- rights from power, —
that is, to prove that
tory. might is right, — we shall be obliged to go
Almost with unanimity, after being for back to Kant and admit that human per-
a time under the spell of Hegel's specula- sonality as such is a source of claims to
tions, some decades ago philosophers justice and equity, or we must confess
abandoned absolutism as a system of that and wrong are merely imag-
right
thought, and raised the cry, "Back to inary distinctions, and jurisprudence a
Kant !" In the theory of the state, how- system of purely mechanical ideas.
ever, Hegel still exerts an influence. The It has been said that all men may have

picture of it as a self-subsisting and dom- "interests," but nobody has any "rights"
inant power serves well the designs of until government has accorded them by
imperial ambition. Religion, war, and an act of legislation. In some technical
further domination seem to be reconciled sense this may be true, but in a broad
by the assertion that the individual man human sense it is not true. If it were true,
exists for the state, and that the state is it would be absurd to fight for another
not founded on the rights of the in- man's rights. But all the progress the
dividual man. world has ever made, all that distinguishes
Hence there is to-day a contest between civilization from barbarism, springs from
these opposing conceptions — a contest upon some one's sense of duty, which means
the decision of which the future of inter- simply the recognition of another man's
national throughout the world
relations right, which is as real when it is denied
will depend. If, as Kant's theory assumes, as when it is conceded.
law is the formulation of justice and Certainly these inherent rights do not
equity, resulting from a consensus of belong to human beings in an isolated and
social needs interpreted in the light of non-social state, for men never existed in
reason, of which the state is an expres- a non-social state. Allmen are members
INTERNATIONAL IDEALS 263
of a series and members of a group, and world of "In the world,
hostile forces.
it is in these relations that they recognize right can only prevail through might."
their claims to justice and to equity Therefore the state must be strong, and to
whether they are granted or not. be strong it must be armed, as the in-
Thus the idea of law is a part of the dividual man under the protection of the
mental furniture of every being capable of state need not be. How otherwise can it

an act of reflection. To say with Hegel — fulfil its sacred trusts?


or with Austin or with any legal posi- All this is true and of the first im-
tivist— that there is and can be no inter- portance; but while it justifies the pos-
national law, because there is no inter- session of force by the state, it makes it

national sovereign to decree it, is to de- very plain that the strength of the state is
fine law by a mere accident and not by not an end in itself, but merely a means—
its essential nature. an instrument for the protection of rights
It is singular how this notion lingers. and interests intrusted to its care. The
A modern disciple of Hegel, for example, end of the state is, therefore, not aggres-
argues thus sion or profit or power, but justice. The
primary reason for the existence of a gov-
The whole of international law rests on
ernment is that every citizen shall be pro-
the principle that treaties are to be observed.
tected in his rights.
But behind all this there is the sheer fact of
It is this that distinguishes the state
the separate Individual Powers, each abso-
from other forms of human association.
lute In Its limited area; so that, at bottom,
the whole fabric of International rules and
Its function is primarily protective. Upon
this foundation rest all its special and
customs is just an agreement of separate
peculiar prerogatives. Here is the reason
wills, and not an expression of a single
for its authority, and this is limited by the
general will.
reason for its existence. Society has mani-
And he sees in this a reason why inter- fold functions, but they may be normally
national agreements cannot have the left to individual and corporate enterprise
quality of law, forgetful of the fact that in within the state, which may be a complete
all modern constitutional states every law and perfect "body politic" without them.
of every legislative body is an agreement On the other hand, these functions may be
of separate wills expressed in the votes in part,and even to a great extent, taken
of the legislators. But if the separate over and performed by the state, but they
wills of a congress or a parliament may are not necessary to its existence. They
pass a law, why may not separate and in- do, however, modify its character. When
dependent states pass a law for the govern- the state, in addition to its protective func-
ment of their own conduct? And having tion, assumes those of industry', transporta-

pledged themselves to it, being law in the tion, and commerce, as the modern state

most perfect sense, are they not bound by sometimes does, it undergoes a radical
transformation. It itself then becomes a
There no doubt, an ineffaceable dis-
is, business corporation, a rival and a com-
tinction between the, nature of a state, petitor in the world of trade.
even a constitutional state, and a human Now, what is most important to con-
being. The state is the guardian of private sider is that, while this expansion of its

rights and interests. It acts for its con- functions profoundly changes the character
stituents in a fiduciary capacity. It is, in- of the state, it does not confer upon it any
deed, an "ark of safety" to which com- new authority. It does multiply and ex-
munities of men have committed the keep- tend its interests, but it does not in any
mg of their lives and treasures on the respect render the state absolute or endow
troubled waters of an uncharted world. it with unlimited right of command.
It is the vehicle which carries the whole Mere business cannot be regarded as a
value of life. Furthermore, it exists in a source of absolute sovereignty.
264 THE CENTURY IMAGAZINE
For constitutional states, therefore, forts to express in definite formulae what
that is, governments based upon the
for justice and equity demand. In this re-
protection of human rights, and not upon spect international law is comparable with
some superhuman claim to authority, like science. As the man of science is engaged
that of the divine right of the monarch, in a continuous effort to discover and state
there is no logical ground for claiming truth, so the jurist and the statesman, in

sovereign rights in the absolutist sense. so far as he is really such, persistently


Such states are free and independent, but seeks to formulate the requirements of
they do not represent the will to power. justice. In both cases the formula^ ar-
They represent and embody the will to rived at may be plainly incomplete ; but
justice, and the principles of justice are, justice, like truth, is not a mere creation
ifiso facto, their law of action. Every- of the mind. It is an object of research
thing violative of justice is for them and discovery and as far as it is discovered
;

usurpation. They may commit acts of in- and agreed upon it is obligatory, although
justice, they may explain them, they "may our knowledge of it may still be incom-
excuse them ; but they cannot logically plete.
justify them. As an organ of justice the It is, therefore, a solecism to speak of
state exceeds its prerogatives when it is international law as "destroyed" or "non-
unjust. existent" because it is sometimes violated.
It can never be destroyed. It will con-
Undoubtedly this implies that inter- tinue to reassert itself; and, as public
national law is self-subsistent. For con- order and state authority appear more nec-
stitutional states it exists regardless of essary after a period of domestic anarchy
customs and conventions, and would be than they ever did before, international
their law if no customs or conventions had law, after an orgy of violence and atrocity,
ever existed, for its principles enter into appeals with new strength to the reason
their very purpose and structure. For of mankind something that possesses
as
them to deny these principles in their con- an inherent claim upon our respect and
duct would be to denature themselves. obedience.
Written or unwritten, international Although criminally violated, it is an
law is accepted by all constitutional states error to suppose that international law
as binding upon them. By some, as in the has been wholly disregarded in the great
United States, it is expressly declared to European conflict. On the contrary, it

be a part of the law of the land. Ac- has been recognized and appealed to as
ceptance of it should be the condition of never before in human history. Never in

recognition of a government; for in so any previous war have such efforts been
far as a community of men does not admit put forth by belligerents to justify their
its existence, it is not a state in any de- own conduct, and to prove that their
fensible sense. An aggregation of de facto enemies have openly disregarded the prin-
forces it may be, but in so far as it is ciples of justice as well as the merely
merely an embodiment of the will to technical rules of warfare. The volumi-
power and not the will to justice, it falls nous white, red, yellow, and other books
below statehood and is merely a predatory published by the governments are all
band, an outlaw that deserves to be pro- eloquent tributes to the authority of inter-
scribed and refused a place in the society national law, which they constantly accuse
of states. their enemies of violating, and appeal to
In practice the specific rules of inter- as abody of rules that ought to be obeyed.
national law are established by a general In truth, the approval and disapproval of
consensus. They
are sometimes inferred their acts by the neutral nations are based
from custom and sometimes defined in almost entirely upon the evidence that
conventions but these rules are admitted
; these accusations are true, and the weight
to be merely partial and tentative ef- of condemnation corresponds with tlie pre-
INTERNATIONAL IDEALS 265

ponderance of guilt resulting; from inten- depredation that have not brought terrific

tional disregard of the principles of justice. retributions; and, although law-abiding


How trivial it is, the.n, to speak of in- stateshave sometimes been subjected to
ternational law as being of slight im- infamous encroachments, it is a fact sup-
portance, and especially to treat it as if it ported by statistics that the citizens of
had no claims to the title of binding law small and inoffensive states, like Switzer-
because it does not have an immediate ex- land and Holland, pay lower taxes and
ternal sanction ! An ultimate sanction it borrow money at lower rates of interest

unquestionably has. If it were generally than the imperial powers that have from
disregarded, it would involve the complete time to time attempted to subjugate their
ruin of civilization. If, on the other hand, neighbors, thereby sowing dragons' teeth
it were generally obeyed, if all the great of reprisal and revenge that exhaust popu-
powers, not to speak of the smaller ones, lations and burden them with public debt.
earnestly sought to carry out in all of The cost of overgrown armies and navies
their relationswith one another the prin- and the far heavier cost of young life

ciples which they profess to stand,


for offered as a sacrifice to national pride and
and which they endeavor to enforce with- national greed — are not these a penalty for
in their own jurisdictions and demand that disregarding a law of life w^ritten in the
other governments should observe in re- reason and the conscience of man?
spect to themselves, it would seem like a What, then, is law, if it is not that prin-
dififerent world. ciple of self-regulation by which a being
Is It, then, not idle to pretend that in- realizes the true end of its existence? Our
ternational law has no sanction when statements of it may vary from time to
obedience or disobedience of its precepts time, for the perception of it depends upon
carries such far-reaching consequences to the development of our intelligence. But
mankind ? In the present condition of the it does not depend upon our will. It is

world, as the rain on the Just falls alike inherent in our being. It is manifested
and on the unjust, even under municipal through our reason. It is confirmed
law the victims of unprovoked aggression through our experience. There is a law
often suffer while the guilty escape the of nations as well as a law of individual
penalty the state would impose upon them ; which we have only partly discovered,
life,

but we do not on this account deny the because we have not sought the highest
existence of the law. Nor can it be said good of all, but only the highest good of
that no penalty is attached to the violation a limited number. But nature deals in
of the law of nations. In general, besides universals. So long, therefore, as all na-
its direct consequence of resentment and tions, or even some nations, insist upon a
hostility on the part of the nation wronged, right of territorial expansion at the ex-
it should involve the general reprobation pense of others ; so long as they fail to
of mankind. And, in fact, the penalties recognize that, and
irrespective of size
for violations of international law are far strength, they are members of a com-
more specifically apportioned and executed munity of jural equals; so long as they
than we sometimes imagine. The per- claim that their will is law, so long war
petration of injustice by one state upon will be the ratio ultima, and preparation
another invariably deteriorates its own for it the highest wisdom of statesmanship.
citizenship, and destroys within the body If it is impossible to place confidence in
politic itself values far more precious than leagues of peace, it is still less possible to
those by an unjust w^ar.
obtained "A confide our destinies to a league to enforce
state," it has been well said, "can do no peace, if it is to be composed of powers
wrong to another which is not equally, that need themselves to be placed under
and even more, a wrong to itself." Re- guardians. The only league that could be
garded from a historical point of view, trusted effectually to enforce peace would
there are few projects of international be one composed exclusively of states that
266 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
are disposed to recognize the obligations of sumption is not only unphilosophical ; it is

international law, and voluntarily to unhistorical. "Culture is not, and never


pledge themselves to protect and obey it. can be, an inherent quality peculiar to a
But, to speak plainly, peace is not in it- particular nation or language. It is the
self a human ideal. As long as it leaves heritage of the whole human race,
unsolved the problems of justice, it is not cherished, enriched, and transmitted by
even a desirable aspiration. It may even one generation to another, from one corner
be repugnant to the moral sentiments of of the earth to another. Human lan-
an enlightened conscience. It is to be de- guages are the vessels in which culture
sired only when it is the concomitant of resides. No language has been a culture-
realized social good, for it is in no sense an language from the beginning, and none is
end in itself. But the word is not to be incapable of becoming such in the end."
set aside as representing a mere negation, Culture in any true sense is not a national
as if it were sim.ply the absence of strife. monopoly. It is an affair of the human
Peace on earth would mean the liberation soul, and any vehicle of expression against
of human faculties for the highest and which the soul is in revolt is doomed to
noblest achievements of which human defeat, or culture will perish in the
nature is capable. It would mean a struggle.
splendid efflorescence of art, literature, Here speak with voices that cannot be
science, philosophy, and religion, in short, silenced and with pleadings that must be
culture in its best sense, as the spontaneous heard the suppressed nationalities, whole
unfolding of the powers of personality. peoples smitten with the sword, torn up
And when we consider what an absolut- from their historic roots, and made to serve
ist state might do to repress human the narrow, selfish purposes of dominant
spontaneity, destroy the sense of person- dynasties. It is useless to speak of peace
ality, and render its own dogmas definitive, while these enormities exist. How can
we see what an incubus upon ci\ ilization peoples v/ho, through mere numerical su-
it is capable of becoming. If the tendency periority and military power, have over-
to monopolize and direct for its own pur- whelmed subject races, and by the menace
poses all human energies in channels of its of the sword forbidden the use of native
own devising were unrestrained, we should languages and the retention of historic
eventually have an official art, an official memories, speak seriously of superior
science, and an official literature that culture? It is only by the power of per-
would be like iron shackles to the human sistenceunder conditions of perfect liberty
mind. that the superiority of a form of culture
These things, being human, are essen- can vindicate itself, for that is for each
tially cosmopolitan, and thrive best where nation the highest which is best suited to
international intercourse is least restrained. its powers of achievement; and when a
If, as the absolutist theory of the state dynastic ruler by violence strips a subject
assumes, a particular government did in race of its spiritual inheritance, it reverses
reality embody the indwelling absolute, and destroys the process by which true
the source and shaper of all mtelligent culture is developed. There is no people
existence, as Hegel would have it, would in the world who would not resist it if

it even then have the right to dictate this procedure were practised upon itself.
what language should be employed, what A people, therefore, cannot fit itself

arts should be encouraged, what forms for international society or realize its

they should take, and what purposes they own normal development as a state until
should serve? What a narrow view it is it is ready to recognize the claims. of
to assume that any national culture is a personality. Where mixed races compose
world culture, or that it has a right to im- the population, and nationality is identi-
pose itself upon recalcitrant peoples who fied with a dominant race, there can be no
have a culture of their own! Such an as- true national unity, because there is no
INTERNATIONAL IDEALS 267

spirit of cooperation. On the other hand, not wholly dependent on purely specula-
it has been shown by the experience of tive thought. They are closely inter-

Switzerland and the United States that twined with practical experience. They
different races may coexist in the same gain new strength from every new disil-
nation without in the slightest degree de- lusionment regarding the value and ex-
stroying their personal freedom, and that pediency of schemes of conquest and the
they may cooperate together successfully effort to secure social prosperity by
in the organization of liberty. Many na- military force. We have, therefore, to

tions may still be unripe for this higher take into account existing realities. No
development of nationality, and the con- more than the old will the new Europe
test for race segregation and race domina- be a mere structure of thought. It is.

tion may still continue ; but the obstacle to materially shaping itself now before our
harmony does not proceed from the es- eyes. It is being forged and fashioned
sential nature of the state. It consists amid the smoke and flame and torture of
rather in the arrest of political evolution battle. It is to be determined not only by
at a stage where true statehood has not yet what men love and desire, but by what
been achieved ; for a nation organized they hate and by what they from in
recoil

merely for power, for conquest, and not horror. Its battle-cry is: "Never again!
for justice, is not yet a state in the proper Never again!" Thrones may be shaken
meaning of the word, but an unsocial and or they may endure ; but out of the
anarchical survival of primitive despotism. anguish, the disillusionment, and the fad-
The complete realization of interna- ing of iridescent dreams the new Europe
tional ideals must, therefore, wait on will come forth chastened, reconstituted,
further political evolution. But they are and redeemed.
'^Consolation'
By HOLWORTHY HALL
Author of " Alibi," "The Luck of the Devil," etc.

Illustrations by Arthur Litle

WITHOUT prejudice, ft was the his self-schooling for them as though his
gown which first attracted Mere- life depended on the outcome. For three
dith's attention. It was the simplest of hours every morning he had practised
all possible gowns, a black-velvet remi- diligently, beginning with two-foot putts,
niscence of an old daguerreotype, drooping and working methodically backward to
delicately from the shoulders in short, jigger, iron, cleik, spoon, and driver.
puffed sleeves it had a trim, pointed little
; Thirty minutes of each forenoon he had
bodice, and a gently flaring little skirt, spent doggedly in sand traps, seeking now
and not one woman in a thousand would for distance, now for accuracy on short
have remembered to wear it without chips to a neighboring green, now for
jewelry and to avoid any artificial con- simple outs from difficult lies. After
trast of color. The girl who was danc- lunch he had played a painstaking round
ing in it, however, was an artist ; she had alone, preferably over the No. 2 course,
n't even stooped to the banality of a red with hundred and ninety ambushed
its

rose for her corsage, and she had done hazards, and had struggled religiously to
her hair to suit the period of her costume. erase from his mind any record of his
She was so pretty that Meredith, after medal score. He did n't want to be elated
enjoying the sheer luxury of staring at or distressed by his performances; he
her, refused to rest until he had un- wanted to bring about a logical develop-
earthed a friend who could present him ment of his game until it approximated
she was and lovable that
so ineffably sweet his undergraduate standard. He was in-
after he had met her and talked with her terested in the present only as a stepping-
and danced with her to the swing of stone to the future. Not oftener than
"Butterfly," which was the prime obses- twice a week he had played against a
sion of that Pinehurst season, he could flesh-and-blood opponent, and on the next
hardly credit the obvious reality that they day he had revisited the same course, and
were both alive and abiding. This was practised faithfully all those shots on
in December, and by the middle of the which he had made mistakes. The result
following month he was head over heels of this sound preparation was that Mere-
in love with her. The delay was chiefly dith, without achieving any notoriety, was
due to the fact that, unless it rained, he habitually under eighty on his solitary
saw Miss Winsted only during the eve- rounds but partly because he had so re-
;

nings and on Sundays. lentlessly effaced himself, and partly be-


In the meantime he had gone resolutely cause his collegiate reputation had n't
about his serious business in Pinehurst, preceded him to the Carolinas, he was still
which was compensate himself for a
to registered at the club-house in Class B,
four-years' hiatus in his golfing career and which, being interpreted according to the
to renew his quondam skill at the game equable Pinehurst system, required him
to which he was passionately devoted. He to qualify not lower than the second flight

had two objectives, the St. Valentine's and in any tournament or be disfranchised.
the spring tournaments, and he went about Not having a national rating, and not
2GS
"CONSOLATION' 269
having played in previous events at Pine- he determined to remove himself as far as
hurst, he was n't eligible to Class A, possible from the links. He would re-
which would have compelled him to make fresh himself spiritually as well as phys-
the first division or to withdraw; and this ically. He would rest for the afternoon,
pleased him inordinately, because he knew and tee to-morrow with no handicap
ofif

that when he came to match-play his of nerves or staleness. So he quitted the


partners would expect Class B golf from club-house without lingering to analyze
him, and would n't get it. his and walked back toward the
score,
He was bitterly disappointed to dis- hotel and when on the way he encoun-
;

cover that Miss Winsted, although she tered Miss Winsted feeding loaf-sugar to
rode and swam and played tennis, and the fawns in the tiny deer-inclosure, he
spent the majority of her waking hours realized at once that the meeting was
out of doors, did n't comprehend even the providential.
terminology of golf. Furthermore, she "Good morning," he said cheerfully.
displayed some slight antipathy to it. "Well, it 's on the knees of the gods."
Golf, she said, might be a very nice game, "What is?" she inquired with equal
— indeed, it probably was,— but she her- cheer. She was probably the only girl in
self liked the more active sports. She had all Pinehurst who did n't know who were
observed whenever you scratch a
that the favorites in theon the first
pool
golfer, you find a chatterbox, and she sixteen, and she hardly knew there was a
could n't understand why people should competition
talk all night to explain why they had "The St. Valentine's Tournament," ex-
played badly all day. When an afternoon plained Meredith. "Starts to-morrow-
of tennis was over, it was over; when the two hundred and fifty entries."
hounds had caught the fox, every one but "Oh." Miss Winsted had apparently
the fox was satisfied, and in the evening expected something more important. "Are
there was either dancing or bridge. Mere- you playing in it?"
dith, of course, was an exception, and she Meredith could n't check an invol-
admired him for his versatility of con- untary smile.
versation ; but even in his case she could "Rather!" he said. "It 's what you
n't promote a thrill at his report of a might call epochal for me. I 've been

miraculous recovery from the Bermuda looking forward to it for two solid j-ears.
grass, and on the tenth
his story of a three Think of it, until last month I had n't
hole left her as unmoved as though he had a club in my hands since the inter-
had merely purled two and knitted two. collegiates in 1912! And all that time,
Still, despite the vital defect, he fell in when I was too busy to play, I planned
love with her. And this proves that she for this and dreamed of it and saved up
was superlative. my vacation forit; and now I 'm here!

On the day before the qualifying round It 's almost too good to be true."
for the St. Valentine's he had gone out at, Miss Winsted dispensed the few re-
half-past seven in the morning for his final maining cubes of sugar, and dusted her
grooming, and when next his spikes bit palms neatly.
the floor of the locker-room he was in- "You do seem awfully happy about it,"
wardly radiant. On this, his last trial, he she commented.
had achieved a sterling seventy-three his ; "It 's a curious game," said Meredith.
long game had been adequate, his ap- "It 's the most curious game there is. My
proaching and putting almost professional. idea of a pure vacation is to play golf,
There was nothing left for him to do and yet I 'm doubly joyful to-day because
he must stand or fall on the quality of his I 'm not going around again this after-

game as he had established it. Buoyantly noon it


: 's a respite within a respite.
he put away his clubs; then, because he Why can't we do something together this
was mindful of the principles of training, morning?"
270 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
She regarded him half humorously, and there are a lot of men in Pinehurst to play
her intonation was bantering. for this trophy ; 'm going better
but I

"You don't mean," she said, "that30u 'd and better, and next Saturday I 'm going
sacrifice golf for a girl — on a day like to give it to you —
for an engagement
this!" present!" He indicated a massive platter
"No sacrifice at all," denied Meredith. built on the lines of a terrace. "That 's
"I 'm at liberty for nearly twenty-four for the championship!" His expression
hours. So if there 's anything you 'd was seraphic ; he could translate now the
especially like to do, and if you are n't tied motives underlying the ancient courts of
up to a party, and if there are n't too chivalry, and although the killing of
many other why, ifs, I do wish we could Saracens has gone out of fashion as a
fix it up somehow." pledge of affection, her first pride in him
"I '11 tell you," said I\Iiss Winsted. should nevertheless be for a famous
"I Ve an appointment at eleven, but you conquest.
come and lunch at our table, and we '11 Miss Winsted glanced apprehensively
talk it Wil you at him and at the platter. The magnifi-
The upshot of it was that they went cence of it, and its extravagance of etch-
riding, and that Meredith presently found ing, frankly appalled her. She strongly
himself expounding his ideals, a danger- approved his zeal to win a memento for
signal which Miss Winsted chose to dis- her, but her tastes in decorative silver-
regard. Vastly heartened by her manner, ware were highly conservative. She hesi- '

Meredith ventured to touch upon his age tated, and finally put her forefinger upon
and his income. And somewhat later, a small card-tray, plain and unadorned
when the geography of the ride was favor- save for the Pinehurst crest and a line or
able, he abruptly told her that he wanted two of script engraving.
her and needed her. He admitted that he "I 'd tfiucli rather have that one," she
did n't deserve her, and yet, by the usual told him, flushing.
boyish implication, he invited her to dis- Meredith was startled, but he respected
pute him. When he had quite finished, her ingenuousness, and spoke with great
he reined close to her and pnt his arm courtesy.
around her and kissed her awkwardly "But, my dear, the big one is the Presi-
and, to his amazed beatitude, she looked at dent's trophy!"
him with soft and shining eyes and con- Aliss Winsted was utterly unimpressed.
fessed that she was glad. When they "You could n't very well give me a
eventually reappeared at the hotel they stealc-platter for an engagement present,"
were engaged, and Meredith had con- she said, wath a ripple of laughter. "Why,
ceived an idyl which, to any woman who Dicky! But I 'd love to have you win
played golf, would have appealed. that little tray for me. It 's so nice and
He did n't endow her with the romance repressed. And everything else there is

until after dinner. Then, when they had here is just— blatant."
shyly separated themselves from the merry "That little tray," said Meredith, ex-
circle in the lobby, and assured each other amining it indulgently, "is for the runner-
that they had kept their vows of secrecy up of tlie second flight."
except for letters to their immediate "You win it for me," she begged him,
families, he escorted her to the corner "I 'd be so proud to have you in a game —
where stood a huge table loaded witli you like so much."
heavy silverware. Although he had n't by any means lost
"Dearest," said Meredith under his his sense of humor, IVIeredith was begin-
breath, "if you played golf yourself, you 'd ning to be vaguely troubled. Miss Win-
know what this means to me. For four sted was so positive, so unyielding in her
years I 've suffe?-ed —
and now I 've got innocence. There was something almost
it back again, and got you, too! And pathetic in her deprecation of glory and
"ON rui: \\A\ );ack nv. encul ISS WINSTK
272 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
her predilection for the chaste Httle tray, n't you rather give me a prize / like than
and he adored her for it but he had been ; a horrible platter all over rosebuds?
a golfer long before he became a fiance. Please, Dicky Please You promise me
! !

"I 'm sorry, dear." he said kindly, "but you '11 win this one. I want it."
I have to play for the other one, you know. Meredith's gesture was negative, but
It is n't exactly ethical to go out for any- not impatient.
thing but the best." "But, Eleanor, I 'm not joking; I 'm
Miss Winsted, whose ignorance of golf serious. You don't know the first thing
was colossal, lifted her face to his. Her about tournaments, do you? So you '11

whole bearing was that of a pleader not have to take my word for it; golf is n't
subject to overruling. that sort of game. Everybody does his
"You '11 let me pick out my own en- best, and takes what comes to him. I

gagement present, won t you, Dick^ "But it 's only a gaine, is n't it?" Her
Her voice was subtly freighted with emphasis was pregnant.
astonishment that she had been compelled "Yes — and no."
to ask twice. "Then I should think," said Miss Win-
Meredith was increasingly thoughtful. sted. judgmatically, "that if you have
"Eleanor," he said, with reassuring all the fun of playing, and if j'ou 're so
tenderness, "3'ou don't understand. Why. anxious to call this an engagement present,
I 'd rather not play in the tournament at you 'd ivant to let me have my card-tray."
all than to win the runner-up prize in the
—" "But — you see, it 's like this: you
second flight. You see He stopped qualify, and then — "

short at the reaction which showed in "If you won't do that much for me,"
her eyes. For a matter of hours they had she grieved, "I don't see how you can pre-
been engaged, and already he had hurt tend to love me so very well. And I 've

her. She was n't cognizant of golfing set my heart on that tray!"
morals; she did n't fully grasp Meredith's Meredith gasped. He perceived now
overwhelming infatuation for golf; all that a casual explanation would n't do
she knew was that here w^ere prizes, and ]\Iiss Winsted required elementary edu-
that specifically she wanted one of them cation. An endeavor to convince her at
and no other. Palpably, she thought that this juncture, while their relationship was
he was unreasonable and perhaps a trifle so new, must inevitably lead to mis-
stubborn. fortune. She was so incredibly naive, so
"But I zvant you to play," she insisted. wholly unfamiliar with the facts, they
"I just ivant you to win me something for might even quarrel. Meredith shivered
a remembrance. Can't you play for what- at the mere imagining of it. Besides, what
ever prize you like?" was the St. Valentine's in comparison with
"Not exactly," said Meredith. "Of matrimony? He had been longing to
course it 's humanly possible to try to win demonstrate his love for her ; could there
any definite trophy, but —
"
be a greater renunciation than this?
"Then I want the card-tray," said Miss Could there be loftier heroism than to slay
Winsted, firmly. "I 'm crazy about it. his ambitions for her sake? And later,

and I '11 be so proud of you


— when she had come to understand what he
"My dear girl, I 'm afraid I can't " — liad done for her, would she ever forget
"Can't?" she puzzled. "I thought you it? Meredith swallowed hard. Then a
were a good player." flood of pity and of altruistic ardor swept
"I know; but the point is that I 've been over him, and he had his initial taste of
working for this tournament for weeks. the bitter-sweet of solemn sacrifice. Golf!
I 've looked forward to it for years. I 'm Faugh She loved hir Hf iled

going pretty well, and


— !

bravely at her, and she clutched his arm


"But don't you see? I want you to and pressed it excitedly.
play, Dicky; of course I do! But would "You will, won't vou, Dickv?"
"CONSOLATION" 273

"Anything you want," said Meredith, "Piffle!" said Scott. "You '11 have to
deliberately, "I '11 get for you, or die be close to eighty-five. Don't talk

trying. Let and dance."


's go in nonsense!'^
As they moved from the table he could "Very in-and-out golf. They 're clear
console himself only by the recollection now. Your honor."
that if he had n't come to Pinehurst, he He had decided to shoot expressly for
would n't have met Miss Winsted. an eighty-seven, which should land him
Simultaneously with his oblique promise, comfortably in the lower half of the
he regretted that he had given it; but as second division ; and to furnish the public

he contemplated her joy, he did n't dare to with a visible reason for this figure, he
retract. Sorrowfully, as they passed down had plotted out a campaign based on the
the long corridor to the ball-room, he peculiarities of the course itself. All he
wondered what had been
sort of prizes needed was a little wildness from the tees,

purchased for the spring tournament. As and the sympathy of many friends would
far as the St. Valentine's was concerned, be spontaneous. So, after Scott had
he was a renegade, and he had sold his driven a low ball straight down the
birthright. course, he began his meretricious policy
by intentionally hooking into the first of
On" the first tee of the championship many traps, and by playing from the
course Meredith and his qualifying hazard to the green with all the cunning
partner, a Sleepy Hollow crack named at his command. Through this procedure,
Scott,waited for the pair in front to ad- which should enable him to secure a con-
vance beyond the white stake which sistent average of one over par, he ac-
marked the safety zone. Meredith had quired a six, which was his desire, on the
n't slept well: he was depressed and en- first hole.

ervated, and, to his further discomfiture, "Tough luck!" said Scott. "Lots more
he was acutely aware of the gallery ; he holes, though."
felt that he was being eyed suspiciously, "I '11 straighten'em out," predicted
and that people would detect his ruse and ^Meredith, hooking carefully from the
misconstrue it, and call him a mug-hunter. second tee. "I 'm working to counter-
But Eleanor wanted that tray she could ; act a slice."
n't see why she should n't have it, and He played faultlessly from the rough to
Meredith was Penthesilean. He had es- the cup, and took his five, one over par
sayed feebly to convert her to his point but as he stepped back, to remove his
of view, and failing, he had sworn her shadow from Scott's line of vision, he
never to mention the incident to a soul, and was suddenly overcome by a revulsion of
in perplexed loyalty she had consented. feeling which sickened him. He was pur-
He was a conspirator, but he was safe posely failing to play his best; he was
from indictment. He prodded the ground meticulously designing to place himself in
with the driving-iron he had elected to a division where he did n't belong; after
use for the get-away, and rolled his wrists winning three easy matches he was to
to ascertain their suppleness. stultify himself by throwing away the
"How 's your game?" he inquired of finals in order that ^liss Winsted might
Scott. "What 'd you do yesterday?" have her card-tray! It was unbelievable.
"A sloppy eight}'." It was n't within the bounds of sanity.
"Eighty does n't sound hopelessly It was n't golf, and not for all the women
sloppy to me." in the world could he become a traitor
"It was, though. I had all the breaks. to his sportsmanship. He would n't go
You 've been doing very well, have n't on with the farce; he would n't!
you ?" "Your shot, Dick. Down the alley this
"I 'm erratic," lied Aleredith. "Best time, now!"
I expect is the second flight." Meredith, witli his mind in the club-
274 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
house, topped dismally among the wiry to a green on which an inept pitch is fatal,
grasses. He attempted a recovery, but and took a four when one more oscillation
the ball, slewing to the left, sought lodg- of the sphere would have given him a
ment in a His third ran
deep heel-print. birdie three. "I expect to turn," said
swiftly to a cavernous trap, and bobbed Meredith, brightly, "in a snappy forty-
against the embankment. six."
"You looked up," his partner accused "With a twelve in it? I 've got an-
him. other box of balls that says you 're an in-
"That," said Meredith, wide-eyed, "is corrigible optimist."
what Grant Rice calls the 'Tragedy of the "You 're on," agreed Meredith. "Do
Hoisted Bean.' Well, I deserved it." these balls break if you hit 'em too hard?"
Niblick in hand, he descended to the His heart was singing now, and his
depths of the pit. The ball was virtually mood was exalted. Two strokes, no more,
unplayable it had dropped into a crevice
; he had tossed away. His drive from the
formed by the face of the trap, and by third tee had gone wrong through no in-
a bushel or two of sand which had poured tent of his own his troubles in the pit had
;

down from it in a miniature avalanche. been fortuitous. He had discounted his


Meredith studied the lie and sighed intelligence only by the first two tee-shots;
prodigiously. he had been honestly penalized he would ;

"I have to waste enough shots to


'11 have to play flawless golf to qualify even
cut away the back of this canon before I in the second flight. All his depression
can feach the ball at all," he announced had vanished; he felt no longer enervated;
dolefull)^ "Well, it 's got to be done." he was alert, and keen, and daring, and he
The sand was obdurate. Meredith, could play the best that was in him.
flailing vigorously, played four and five "Beau-tiful drive!" said Scott.
and six. His seventh shot was a master- "I '11 begin to land on 'em in a minute,"
piece of destructive engineering; his eighth promised Meredith, stoutly. "There 's

extricated him nicely; he was on in ten another twenty yards to those if I can
and down in an exact dozen, and his score ever connect."
for the first was twenty-three.
three holes He did n't turn in forty-six, — he was
Yesterday he had placed them for a total fortj'-seven, — but it was a gross indentation
of thirteen. of the sand of the ninth green which
"Too bad! Darned tough lucki" said robbed him of his par three. For six
Scott. "I never saw a worse lie than that successive holes he had played to the card
in my life. It was impossible." he was indubitably certain that he could
^Meredith, who in his absorption had come in under forty; he would have both
forgotten all about the h\pocrisy to which the satisfaction of good golf and of Miss
he had consecrated this round, grinned Winsted's praise ; the Furies were kind to
broadly. His ill fate operated as a re- him. Then for the first seven of the in-
lease from his hated penance ; he was free holes he took only thirty strokes, and as he
"Got 'em all out of my cosmos now," drove with a jigger on the short seven-
he declared. "Here goes for that eightv- teenth, he told himself that his eighty-
five." five was assured. Whereupon the ball
"Hope you make it; but you '11 have to veered inconsiderately to the left, and bur-
shoot close to even fours, old top." rowed into the finely granulated floor of
"Bet you a box of balls I 'm eighty- tile farther trap.
seven or better," offered Meredith, It took him five for that hole, and four
rashly. for the eighteenth, and he was gratified
"Take you!" said Scott. "And I don't not only by the mathematics of the medal
care if I lose. Double it?" round, but also because he had netted a
"Right!" said Meredith. He whaled box of balls from Scott. He hurried to
out a terrific drive, pitched an approach the second floor of the club-house and
(
"CONSOLATION" 275
scanned the score-boards; noted that al- of downfalls. Yesterday he had dreamed
ready a respectable number of high seven- of triumph after triumph; now, as he lo-
ties and low eighties had been recorded, cated his ball nestling at the trunk of a
and dashed back to the hotel to join Miss small tree, he was hot with anger and re-
Winsted. They lunched together in the sentment. He, a man with a seventy-
utmost harmony, they sat together on the three over the No. 2 course on Monday,
veranda afterward, they were amicably was playing on Tuesday to break a tie
agreeing that Westchester cottages possess for last place in an inferior division, and
inherent advantages over Riverside Drive his was the worst of five inglorious drives!
apartments, when a boy summoned Mere- And what a fool he 'd look if he went
dith to the telephone. When he emerged down to the third flight!
he was apologetic. He could get no easy stance, and the
"What is it?" she queried. tree prevented him from even a quarter
"More golf," said Meredith, sheepishly. swing. He had to chop the ball, and
Miss Winsted was mildly offended. although he sent it skipping clear from
"But you told me you did n't have to the pine-grove, he was still in the rough
go out again until to-morrow — and most irritating of strategic posi-
in the
"Unfortunately," said Meredith, tions. He played three, and he played
"everybody shot the same sort of game four; he was ten good yards from the
to-day.The low score in the second flight green, and the other four balls were well
was an eighty-four, and the highest was on.
an eighty-six. Five of us tied for three "How many?" he inquired of the field
places. I 've got to go over for the play- in general.
off." "Four."
"I '11 come with you," said Miss Win- "Three here."
sted, rising promptly. "It counts for my "I 'm four, too."
tray, does n't it?" "I lie four."
So when the five tense golfers gathered Meredith scowled. If he played safely,
for the combat which would eliminate two he had a sure six; but two of the other
of their number, Meredith had the per- men were dead to the hole, one had a six-
sonal backing of the prettiest girl of Pine- foot putt, and the most distant ball be-
hurst, and he liked the consciousness of longed to the player who was on in three.
it, even although he knew that she was There was a certainty, then, that iMere-
indifferent to all but the tangible token dith could hope for nothing better than a
of his success. miscue by one of those who lay dead. The
He was the last to drive, and all of his six-foot putt, if would result in at
missed,
predecessors had bungled. Meredith least a six, and two sixes would thereby
smiled as he swung his weighted iron. be scored against three potential fives.
The hole was a par five, but barely over There was n't one chance in a million,
the 425-yard limit. On innumerable oc- however, that either of the men who lay
casions he had made it in four, but in a dead would miscue. Neither would they
play-off in which two men out of five be attacked by vertigo.
were slated for defeat, he realized that "In a play-of¥ for the second sixteen,"
the higher figure would unquestionably be said Meredith, cynically, to himself, "I '11
good enough to insure him his place. He shoot for the hole!"
therefore spared the iron, and, to his With a few other spectators, Miss
horror, sliced execrably into the woods. Winsted was standing a few feet behind
During his younger days he had often him. He knew that she was watching
known the exquisite agony of playing the him attentively, but he did n't dare to
decisive hole against grave odds. He had turn his head. Three things must occupy
accomplished his share of victories under his mind, the club, the ball, the hole.
these conditions, he had met with his share There was no room here for Miss Win-
276 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
sted. He sighted with his putter across the group in the locker-room. "I went
the sandy soil and across the level surface out in thirty-six, and ought to be that
of the green. good for ^ow^thing in Class B any day!
"Caddy," snapped Meredith, "take This man Hendricks took forty-six, and I
away the flag!" was one doiun!"
He putted, and the ball never deviated "It can't be done," said Scott. "Who 's

from the line; it ran pleasantly to the got an adding-machine?"


zinc, and tinkled home. "Well, had two par holes,
it was. He
"Down in five," said Meredith, rigidly three Heaven knows how
birdies, and
controlling his facial muscles. The man many shots on the other holes! About
with the six-foot putt straightway missed eleven apiece. You never saw such a
it, both the men who were dead missed match-play round in your life. Then I

theirs, the man who had been on in three went all to pieces, and took forty-five to
was down in five, and seized Meredith's come home he got a forty, and we were
;

arm and beckoned to Miss Winsted. all square. It was the same thing, only
"IVe 're both in it," he proclaimed. reversed. I had all threes, fours, and
"The other fellows have got to keep on sevens. We halved the first extra hole in
playing. Was n't that some shot of thi two eagles! I was on in two, and
Dicky's from ofF the green. Miss Win- took one putt, and he holed out a full
sted?" mashy! Then he went up in the air a
"I did n't see it," she conceded, squeez- mile. The twentieth I won in four to
ing Meredith's hand. "Did it count for eight. We were both on in three, and I

my ouch!" Meredith had squeezed back. took one putt to his five. Sofiie golf!"
"How could you help seeing it?" he "You '11 have your hands full to-
demanded. morrow," prophesied Scott. "Wilson 's

"Why, I was looking at that piccaninny )ld -horse. Look out for him!"
with the flag," she said artlessly. "What "With both eyes ide open," said
was he doing?" ^Meredith, departing.
"Zowie!" choked their companion, and, He departed to search for ^liss Win-
being a gentleman, proceeded to enlighten sted, and found her on a bench overlook-
her in detail. ing the trio of practice-greens. She was
But Meredith was thinking that he leaning slightly forward, so that her at-
could probably teach her a great deal be- titude was suggestive of rather studious
fore the spring tournament. He 'd have contemplation ; and as she made room for
to. Meredith, she motioned in the direction
of two ancient devotees who were squab-
According to his reckoning, there were bling over half-stymies.
three days of bliss in store for him, three "I think I could do that," she remarked.
days in which he could extend himself as "As well as they can, anyhow."
he liked without regard for the awful "Let 's see," exclaimed Meredith, his
anticlimax to come. He cherished, to be heart pounding. "You wait here a
!"
sure, the hope that by Saturday he would second
succeed in coaching Miss Winsted so that He was back in a jiff\', equipped with a
she would be willing to let him win the hitherto unused putter and a pocketful of
ornate inkstand which was the secretary's brand-new balls. He was n't going to
trophy; but prior to that he could swamp detract from Miss Winsted's timid en-
three antagonists in a row, and right thusiasm by furnishing second-hand im-
vengefully he sallied forth to swamp them. plements.
And Wednesday evening found him "There," he said, "try a couple. Oh,
thankful to be a victor at the twentieth not so far away! Stand about here. Now
hole. hold it the way I do."
"Why, it was uncanny!" he related to Miss Winsted putted clear across the
"CONSOLATION" 27:

sand, across the adjoining green and out match, would judge him and judge the
into the roadway, game by her first impressions. He was
"Let me try another, Dicky," she de- two down at the ninth, and there she an-
manded, coloring. nounced that she was tired and thought
"Not so hard," he admonished. "Re- she 'd go back; whereupon, Meredith,
member, it 's only about ten feet. Swing freed from his inhibitions, proceeded to
like this. want 3'ou to
I feel the club." win his match four up and three to go.
Miss Winsted putted eight inches. The old war-horse stated in the locker-
"We go a little
'11 nearer, dear. That s room that Meredith had played the second
fine. Now putt!" half of the course in one under fours, but
Miss Winsted obediently shoved the this was naturally taken as a slight exag-
ball, and pushed it into the hole. The geration devised to show that the old war-
blade of the putter descended with it and horse himself had been playing respect-
jammed. Miss Winsted was outspokenly able golf.
delighted. On Friday ^leredith awoke to find that
"But you must n't push it," expostu- a typical Pinehurst cold wave had crept
lated Meredith. "See, like this." upon them in the night and that the
"Like this?" ]\Iiss Winsted smote the thermometer was perilously low. ]\Iore-
toward the club-house, and
ball sixty feet over, a- ghastly wind was cutting across
was suffused with shame. the plateau, offering no solace and threat-
"Once more, dear." ening dire punishment to those who had
She grasped the club firmly, and focused to face it. He went out in the expectation
upon the hole with great ferocity. of being chilled to the bone, and although
"This time," she said, "I '11 put it in." he wore two sweaters in addition to his
She did. From four feet she holed out Norfolk jacket, he was duly confirmed in
in four shots. And then because people his opinion. He went after his man
were calling to her from the veranda, and brutally, piled up a lead of five holes, with
rallying her, she defaulted. seven to go, and suddenly succumbed to
"L'm embarrassed now," she said con- the knife-edged wind. He had lost a bit
fidentially to Meredith ; "but you come of his lead, but he was n't worrying about
out with me when there 's nobody look- it until it occurred to him that this was

ing — Really, Dicky, it is n't so awfully really the crucial match he must neces-
;

simple, is it? I thought it was so easy it sarily win it in order to lose to-morrow.
!"
was childish Distraught by this requirement, perturbed
"You follow us part way round to- by the regularity with which his knees
morrow," he proposed, animated by an. were knocking together, and tormented
unholy joy, "and see what golf reall)' with doubt becausehis hands were rapidly

looks like. Will you?" growing too numb to hold the clubs, he
"Well, if you "11 promise to win my plowed along to the seventeenth without
tray for me." once getting the ball off the ground. By
Meredith coughed. For the moment he that time the match was all square, and
had n't been thinking of the disgrace his antagonist was colder than ]\Ieredith.

scheduled for Saturday. Consequently, the last hole was a classic.


"You watch me," he said with meaning Sears, a gaunt slasher from Dunwoodie,
ambiguity. began by hitting a good foot behind the
ball in his haste to get the shot over with
On Thursday Meredith met the type of and hands back in his pockets. Subse-
his

golfer who never plajs under eighty or quently he batted a lumber-ng grounder
over ninety, the hardest possible opponent into the rough, and retired behind his
for a nervous man to beat. And Meredith caddy to warm his face. Meredith's
was nervous, largely because he felt that driver twisted in his grip so that he caught
Miss Winsted, who was following the the ball squarely with the toe of it, and
278 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
achieved a rod and a half. On his second Miss Winsted rose, and led him to the
endeavor, whenwere running
frosty tears table where the prizes were displayed.
down his cheeks, and all his fingers were "If you win from Mr. Osborne," she
stiff and wooden, he missed the ball com- inquired, "you '11 get that inkstand?"
pletely; but Sears was clawing his road "I 'm afraid I will," said ^leredith. "It
to the fairway, and polluting the atmo- certainly is a he inkstand, is n't it?"
sphere with fervid expletives. Side by side Miss Winsted bestowed a final look of
they pushed on past the yawning trap farewell upon the plain little tray she had
Meredith reached the green in six to coveted. As for the inkstand, she could
Sears's seven ; both took two putts and n't remotely imagine it in her own room
broke for the club-house without linger- or anywhere in her house; it properly be-
ing in the open air for any hand-shaking longed on a huge desk in a club library.
formalities that could be fully as well per- But, after had a significance which
all, it

formed in front of an open fire. But formerly had escaped her. In any event.
Meredith had gained the finals, and the Meredith would merely be complying
card-tray was Miss Winsted's if he chose with the usual custom if he bought her
to take it for her. an engagement gift instead of winning
That night he told her explicitly just one.
what she had asked of him and what he "You play the best you can," she said
had done. impulsively. "I don't care if it 's for a
"Maybe," he said,"you could n't platter or an inkstand or an egg-cup, you
understand it before, because you could n't do your Dicky!" And it was with
best,
visualize the situation, dear. But now that resolve, and in the loftiest of moods,
I 'm in the finals. I can get your tray that he approached his ultimate match on
for you without going out of the hotel. Saturday morning.
All I need to do is to default, and that The weather had moderated, and the
would be what men call 'yellow.' Or I day was clear and balmy. A brief rain
can go out and lose deliberately. Well, at midnight had put the greens in superb
suppose I do. I '11 simply have deprived condition a warm sun had added the pre-
;

somebody else of a privilege that I don't cise degree of crispness that Pinehurst turf
want. I '11 have acted like a dog in a demands there could n't have been a finer
;

manger. And more than that, it is n't morning on which to live or to play a
really fair. I do hope you '11 understand. round of golf. Meredith was in ecstasy;
It is n't the material trophies we 're play- he cared less for golf to-day than he did
ing for —" for living; he was so thoroughly imbued
"Ido understand now," she granted •with the spirit of the fraternity of man
quickly. "I 've been awfully silly, Dicky. that he hoped for Osborne almost as much
It did n't mean anything at all to me; I as he hoped for himself. On a day like
thought it was quite all right. I do see this, what difference did it make who won
now, though, because I 'm getting in- or lost? They could play golf.
terested. Here you ought to have been in But Osborne had drawn first
after
a higher class
— blood, Meredith's temper changed, and
Meredith shook his head. he was very ready to dispose of his excess
"I 've been mighty glad," he said, "that of vivacity. By another hole or two he
after I blew those two strokes in the recognized the fact that he was playing
qualifying round I did get into a mess. against a man who also was worthy of
Even if I 'd started out well, I could n't the championship division. Instead of le-
have beaten eighty-four, and that would sorting to strange expedients in order to
have put me in the second flight, any- lose, he must force himself to the extreme
way. Those two strokes were all I blew. in order to win. His eyes brightened,
The only thing to consider is about to- and he set courageously about his task.
morrow." In the competition of two men like these
\KVKR DEVIATED FKdM THE I.IXE; IT KAN I'LEASAMLV
Id IHE ZINC, AND INKLED HuME"
i
280 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
there is, as Henry Leach has said, at least inch or two, and Meredith groaned in-
one element in common with the prize- wardly with astonishment and chagrin.
ring. Each stroke is upon
a direct attack "Your hole," he granted, crushing down
the opponent's poise. Each shot has not his wrath.
only a purpose in itself; it also aims to "Too bad !" sj'mpathized Osborne.
produce a upon the ad-
definite effect "You 're beating yourself / 'm not." ;

versary. It is a species of moral assault They halved the twelfth, but on the
and battery, a duel of nerves and reflexes. next hole Meredith had another terrible
And Osborne and Meredith, both students putt of a yard, and went into a fit of the
of the game and craftsmen of it, fought fidgets. Once he had overplayed from
to the ninth on even terms. this distance, once he had underplayed
It was at the tenth hole that Meredith's this time he would be trebly sure. He
luck deluded him. He had driven far surveyed the and swung the putter
line,

over the pond hazard and up the hill, and with great care. If the line had been
his second shot was a scant yard from straight, Meredith would have had his
the cup. Osborne, playing logically, went half; as it was, the ball paused opposite
for the hole, and overran, got down in the center of the hole, a bare inch to the
four, and stood apart, communing with right.
the gods. Meredith had privately set "Two down," he said, stooping, "and
down his three; he played mechanically, six to go. Still your honor."
and for an instant he thought, so con- On the fourteenth he missed a seven-
centrated had he been upon the stroke, that footer for a four, and got a half in five.
he had holed. Osborne exclaimed sharply. Utter demoralization on the greens had
The ball was hanging over the cavity so seizedhim he was two down, with four
;

near the edge that it seemed continuously to play, if he could have had what
and
in the act of falling. A three-foot putt, any golfer would be pleased to call his
and Meredith had n't given it a chance! just deserts, he would have been dormy.
He had squandered a hole, he had thrown But Osborne was in trouble on the 212-
away a golden opportunity yard fifteenth, and Meredith had no
"A half," he said, affecting a smile. mercy.
"You deserve to win it," claimed Os- "Now for the inkstand," he told him-
borne, generously. self on the tee.
"I '11 go after you on the next one," He had chosen a spoon, and he played
laughed Meredith, scourging himself. it impeccably. He was reflecting that the
The eleventh hole was a lusty four match would be decided not by what
hundred yards and over; Osborne was Osborne did, but what Meredith did and ;

short on his second, and Meredith was after he had construed the wild gesticula-
hole high. Both ran up well, Osborne was tions of the caddy ahead, he was aware
away, and negotiated a par four w^ithout a that he had made the green, and held it.
tremor. He was wholly callous to Osborne's
"This for a half," said Meredith, splendid pitch from the rough; he was
gaging the distance. rather contemptuous of it. After all,
He was warning himself not to repeat what was the profit in winning or losing
the error of putting too softly; and as lie the second flight? In one case, a transient
made the injunction permanent, lie re- pleasure and a desultory series of con-
called Miss Winsted's grotesque attempt gratulations ; in the other, a silver card-
on the practice green, when she had sent tray for a pretty girl who did n't know a
her ball traveling out to the roadway. It brassy from a maul-stick.
may have been this image which misled "Oh, rubbish!" said Meredith to him-
him, for his shot was too powerful by the self as he nonchalantly holed a prodigious
slightest ofmargins; the ball struck the putt for a two. Aloud he stated, "You 're
back of the cup and bounded over by an one up and three to play, Mr. Osborne."
'CONSOLATION" 281

They halved the sixteenth after a heart- "It 's a funny game," he repeated, "the
breaking struggle; at the 165-yard seven- funniest game in the world. Vardon was
teenth Meredith saw that ]\Iiss Winsted right ; he says it 's an aivful game. I think
had wandered over from the club-house, I must believe in foreordination. I 'd bet
and was watching them from the shade of a hundred to one this goes down! And
the trees near the green. He gazed at we 're playing for a piece of junk neither
her for a moment, and turned to Osborne. of us would have in the house if it did n't
"Now, as man to man," said Meredith, represent this match, and we 're both set
bluntly, "I want to know what you think on winning it! A hundred to one!" He
of that ink-pot we 're shooting for? putted, and never a ball rolled straighter
Honestly." to its goal. "A two to your three." he
Osborne, somewhat taken aback, grinned remarked to the stupefied Osborne. "All
widely. square, and one to go. Just a second."
. "Hideous thing, is n't it?" He walked over to Miss Winsted and
"Suppose you win it," said Meredith, patted her arm affectionately.
teeing his ball, "what '11 you do with it?" "Are you ahead of him?" she asked,
"Hide it, I suppose. Funny game, is n't with anxiety.
it? Two of us breaking our necks for "We 're all even so far."
something neither of us wants. But my "You '11 win, won't you?"
wife would give her soul for that dinky "Is that what you want? I came over
little tray they 've put up for the second to find out."

prize." "I do, dear; I do! And I thought —


Meredith grimaced. you 'd like to know I I took a lesson — —
"She would, would she?" from Peacock this morning!"
"Absolutely. She 's mad about it." "You did!" cried IVIeredith, astounded.
Meredith glanced at the green. "You did! Well, you just wait until I
"Well, you '11 have to hole out to beat win this hole, and see what you get!"
me, Mr. Osborne." Transported, he drove magnificently,
"I usually do from here." Both and Osborne was alongside. With inex-
laughed. pressible rapture, he played perfectly be-
Meredith drove, and was on ; and Os- tween the twn'n traps guarding the green,
borne,, after deep cogitation, played a care- and Osborne was with him. He ran an
ful shot to the very boundary of the green. approach within a precious yard of the
Abreast they marched through the inter- hole, and Osborne was a foot farther

vening rough. away. And Osborne, too deliberate to


"I almost hope you win," said Mere- be accurate, missed the hole by a hand's-
dith, absently. "I don't want that ink- breadth.
stand." "I '11 give you that for a five," proffered
"Neither do I ; but I 'm doing my Meredith. "And I 'm playing four— for
darndest to take it away from you, don't the hole and match."
you think ?" "It looks like your inkstand," admitted
"You 've got nie working. But it looks Osborne, whitening, although his lips

as though I 've got the edge on you here," were curving. "You ought to fill it with
said Meredith. champagne."
"Hardly," said Osborne, with charming Meredith nodded appreciatively, and
friendliness. "I '11 halve this with you took his putter. Miss Winsted was again
and win the last, two up!" behind him, and he felt her presence, and
"Shoot from there!" commanded Mere- welcomed it. She 'd taken a lesson, had
dith. she? She was adopting the game because
Osborne shot, and went dead. Mere- he loved it, was she ? He owed her some-
dith bent over his putter, and then stood thing for that — something more than
erect. ordinary gratitude. And now that she
282 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
had come to share his laurels with him, "Well, I hope you do. Take
she should see at least that golf is more time

than a simple game pla3'ed for prizes ; she "Drop!" breathed Meredith to the ball,
should see that it is a cross-section of life, and missed the half by an eyelash. Os-
plaj'ed for whatever reward is decreed. borne had beaten him one up.
The rule is to plaj^ hard, and take the
consequences. His jaw tightened, and he Late that afternoon he went with Miss
shook off a fantasy which had crept upon Winsted to the table loaded with silver-
him, a fleeting notion to shut his ej'es as ware, removed the card-tray, and pre-
he played, and to make Miss Winsted a sented it to her with unction.
gift of his pride and of her card-tra}'. He "It 's yours, dear," he said; "but if I 'd
frowned, and dismissed the sordid con- kept my wits about me—"
ception. Love is love, but golf is golf, and "Mr. Osborne 's told everybody about
Meredith had a simple putt for the win. it," she said quietly. "He says he would
He was sorry for Miss Winsted and he n't have known about your touching j'our
was sorry for Osborne, but the match ball if you had n't told him yourself and ;

and the inkstand belonged to him. Os- even if you did n't win, it 's a consolation
borne's wife would be jubilant, and Miss to know you lost like that, is n't it? By
Winsted would some day fathom the penalizing yourself when you need n't
mystery of the game, and be hedonic, too. have

He addressed the ball and whimsically a ; "Also," said Meredith not too truth-
picture of the unsuitable prize rose be- fully, "to give you the present you picked
fore him, and a chuckle died in his throat. out. And to have you take up golf as a
And then, staggered by the
' paralyzed, result of this tournament. I '11 remember

egregious had committed, he


fault he it always." He remained staring into
straightened himself, and looked at Os- vacancy until Miss Winsted pinched his
borne. elbow and brought him back to earth.
"What 's up?" "What are you thinking about?" she
"I touched it!" said INIeredith, thickly. demanded.
"Go on! This is a gentleman's game." "Oh — nothing," said Meredith, avert-
"This is golf," corrected Meredith. "I ing his face. was
just wondering
"I
touched it, and it moved." whether you 'd better take lessons of Pea-
"I waive the penalty. Shoot!" cock or Alec Ross." Once more he had
"You can't waive it. That 's mighty spoken falsely; he had been thinking about
decent of j'ou, but it 's against the rules. the spring tournament and his bad short
I 'm playing five, for a half." game during the finals to-day. And then
"Oh, look here—" the real consolation came over him, and
"It 's all right," said Meredith, gnaw- he was placidly content. "Let 's go out
ing his lip. '^^You did n't make the rules. while it 's light enough," he said, and his
I ought to have had more sense." smilewas again seraphic, for at least Miss
"Here, you forget it
— Winsted could accompany him. "We '11
"Playing five," said Meredith, sternly. putt awhile together. Is n't it funny how
"I may halve it yet." you can miss the short ones?"

J
The City of the Equator
Quito, capital of Ecuador

By HARRY A. FRANCK
Author of " Tramping through Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras," etc.

SETTLED down for months in information that no parcel of any shape or


I Quito. Not only were my Canal Zone description had come from Colombia by
experiences to be written,^ but I had long mail in months, the second was the discov-
since planned to become a real resident ery that the traveling-man had not ar-

of a typical small South American capital. rived. It was hard to realize, that we had
I in the home of Senor
took up quarters outwalked all the established means of
Don Ordonez V, in the calle
P^rancisco transportation in this equatorial land.
Flores, and Leo Haj's, my companion The somewhat
people of Quito were
since Panama, hung up his hat in sumptu- Beau Brummel than
less rigid disciples of

ous surroundings around the corner. those of Bogota, but they were still far
But not so fast. Not even whole- from negligent in dress. Except for
hearted "Don Panchito" would have re- tailor-made suits, the cost of replenishing
ceived me in the state of sartorial shabbi- a wardrobe was startling. Ready-made
ness of our arrival on foot from Bogota. clothing for men is rare in the cities of
The greater part of the clothes necessary the Andes, and it is far more economical
for our entrance into the ranks of the to order in one of the sastrerias that
gente decente had been mailed in Girar- abound in almost every street. These are
dot, the rest had been turned over to an single small rooms, of dingy appearance,
American "drummer" in Cali. The first the fronts entirely open doorways in which
shock the city had in store for us was the sit anemic half-breed youths, sewing lan-
guidly, but incessantly, now and then car-
1 "Zone Policeman 88," published while Mr. Franck
was still exploring wild South America. The Editor. rying the charcoal-filled goose out into the
284 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
street to blow out the
and as de- ashes, largest size in stock. The merchant hov-
pendent on inspiration from the passing ered on the verge of tears.
throng as the craftsmen of Damascus. "Why, Setior," he gasped, gazing re-

THE LOCKS ON A SHOP, THE ENTIRE STOCK OF WHICH MAY liH


WORTH A HUNDRED DOLLARS

As the more Northern capital, the


in sentfully at the offending member, "there
line demarkation between the gcnte
of is not a foot in Quito as large as that
decente and the gente del pueblo of Quito shoe."
is the white collar. Naturally the tend- He did notmean exactly what he said,
ency is to makewide and distinct
it as but it was natural that he should have in
as possible. When I had canvassed the mind only the small minority of Quitenos
entire city I found my customary brand who wear shoes. These squeeze their feet
at last,— at four times its American price, into articles of effeminate, toothpick shape
— but the lowest collar in stock was for custom's sake, as they force their necks
weirdly suggestive of some species of hu- into collars that come little short of hang-
man giraffe. ing them, and have their trousers made
"You misunderstood me," I protested. wide at the bottom, like a sailor's, to
"I did not ask for a cuff, hut for a col- make their feet look still daintier and
lar." more ladylike. One cannot, of course,
"But this is a collar, Seiior," cried the pose as an aristocrat on the broad hoofs
shopkeeper. of a barefoot Indian.
"Something lower, please." In the end I was forced to buy botas de
"But this is a very low collar. It is so hitle. an imitation patent-leather shoe
low that no one in Quito will wear it, and made in Guayaquil.
we are not importing any more." Hays concluded that with a general
In the matter of shoes I found at last overhauling he could perhaps pass muster
a Massachusetts product that might have until our bundles arrived, but on one
been endurable; but when I had beaten point immediate renewal was unavoidable.
the dealer down to about twice the Amer- He paused in the doorway of one of the
ican price, a seven was found to be the little sewing-dens to ask:
THE CITY OF THE EQUATOR 285

"Can you make me a pair of trousers newed exercise. The "best families" lead
by Saturday night?" a very sedentary and idle existence, vir-
For all the excellence of his Spanish, tually spending their lives at the bottom
Hays could never remember that Castilian of a hole in the ground, for such the cen-
trouserscome singly. tral plaza and the few adjoining squares
"Un par, Senor!" cried the tailor. "Ah, about which it is customary to stroll
no ; it is impossible so soon. I can make might be called. Yet there are innumera-
you a trouser by then, but not two of ble picturesque views and corners to re-
them. Then while you are wearing the ward him who will climb out and climb ;

one I can perhaps make the other, if the he must, for the city lies in a wrinkle of
senor is in such haste." the skirts of Pichincha out of which al-

"Oh, all right," said Hays, suddenly most every street mounts more or less

recalling that trousers are — I mean is — steeply.


singular in Spanish "go ahead. I '11 try
; The central plaza is the heart of Ecua-
to get along with one over Sunday." dor. Inmiddle rises a tall and showy
its

The error persisted, however. It w^as monument topped by a bronze Victory


not three days later that he was halted at or Liberty, or some other exotic bird, and
the door of his lodgings by a whining at its base cringes an allegorical Spanish
beggar. lion,with a look of pained disgust on his
"Una caridad, Caballero! Have you face and an arrow through his liver.
not perhaps some old clothes to give a poor Much of the square is floored with ce-
unfortunate?" ment, blinding to the eyes most of the
"Sure," said the generous ex-corporal day under the sheer equatorial sun, and
of police, turning back. "I '11 bring you only mildly by staid and too
relieved
down a pair of trousers." carefully tended plots where violets, pan-
He did so, whereupon the beggar sies, yellow poppies, and many a flower

growled angrily: indigenous to the region bloom perenni-


"But you said a pair. Where is the ally. Its diagonal walks see most of Quito

other one?" pass at least once a day. But neither In-


I had not been three days in Quito be- dians nor the ragged classes pause to sit

fore I besan to feel the necessitv of re- in it. nor may any one carrying a bundle

)1- MV K«)<,).M
286 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
pass its gates unless the guard chances to and whatever the wealth or boasted aris-
be doing something else than his ap- tocracy of a family, it is come
certain to
pointed duty. On the east it is flanked into daily contact with the unwashed
by the two-story government "palace" gente del pueblo that inhabits its lower
housing the presidency, the ministry, both regions and there performs its menial
houses of congress, the custom-house, the tasks.
post-office, and considerable else, yet still There are shops enough in Quito, to
leaving room for several cubbyhole shops all appearances, to supply the demands, if

under its portico. On the south, siding not the needs, of all the million and a half
on rather than facing the square, is the inhabitants of Ecuador. These are for
low cathedral, its towers barely rising the most part small, one-room dungeons
above the roof. On the third and fourth without windows, flush with the sidewalk,
sides are the archbishop's palace and the and with no other front than the doors
municipality, both with portales, arcades that stand wide open during business
beneath which are dozens of little den- hours and present at other times their
like shops, and filled from pillar to pillar blank faces ornamented with several
with hawkers and their no less motley enormous padlocks. The Quiteno puts no
wares. trust in the small locks of modern days.
Every street of the city is roughly cob- Many a shop the entire stock of which is

bled, with a row of flagstones along its by no means worth hundred dollars is
a
center for Indian carriers and four-footed protected not only by bolts and bars
beasts of burden, and on each side a nar- within, but by half a dozen of those huge
row, slanting slab-stone walk. Every and clumsy contrivances that the rest
street rambles up a rolling, at times al- of the world used in the Middle Ages.
most hilly, region, with rarely a level To "shut up shop" is a real task in Quito,
block, and virtually all are due sooner or of which the lugging home of the enor-
later to run off into the air on a hillside, mous keys is by no means the least bur-
like the toes of a Turkish slipper, or to densome. Naturally, if a real burglar
fade away suddenly in an obscure, noisome cared to take the trouble to journey to
lane. Quito, he would find far less difficulty at
Quito has no residential part. Its his trade than in a city ostensibly less

chiefly two-story buildings are with rare secure.


mud blocks on
exceptions constructed of Besides the establishments of hundreds
frames and beams of chaguarqiiero, the of men w^ho would rather wear a white
light, pithy stalk of the giant cactus, with collar than work, there are innumerable
roofs of dull-red tiles. Whitewash and little holes in the wall run by "women of
paint of many colors strive in vain to con- the people" in conjunction with their
ceal this plebeian material, and many a scanty household duties, where chicha and
facade is gay with ornamentation. Well- stronger drinks and the few food-stuffs of
to-do people, who are commonly the own- the Indians and the poorer classes are dis-
ers of the building they dwell in, occupy played — and sold, though there
sometimes
the second floor. The lower story of the are barely customers enough to go round.
city is the business section. That portion Clothing stores, or more exactly cloth-
of the house facing the street is almost cer- shops, are perhaps most numerous, count-
tain to be given over to from one to several less useless duplications of the selfsame
shops, the patio serves as a yard for the stock, with hundreds of bolts of as many
loading and unloading of pack-animals, different weaves piled high in the open
while the bare adobe cells opening on it doorways. Every merchant, however
house the family servants and Indian re- meager his supplies, announces himself an
tainers. To dwell almost anywhere in "importer and exporter," and after morn-
the city is to live in the upper air of a ing mass women wander for hours from
combinatiun uf slums and business houses, shop to shop, haggling for a fancied dif-
MORNING MISTS RISIXG Ki I ).\

ONLY lU

ference of half a cent in some purchase man's place of business is distinguished


which in the end is as apt as not to be with a
abandoned. Business is at best petty, and (black)
its ethics are extremely low. The native PROPIEDAD
Quiteno is commonly a weak competitor
(white)
of the foreigners that swarm in the city.
Italians, especially the rascally Neapoli-
ALEMANA
(red)
tans, and "Turks," as the ubiquitous
Syrians are known in South America,
capture much of the trade. A foreigner
remains a foreigner in Ecuador, for the Within a few blocks of the main plaza
country has but w^eak powers of assimila- may be noted the following 'Tropie-
tion. dades": "Espaiiola, Alemana,
Francesa,
A unique note in the life of Quito are Belga, Danesa, Inglesa, Italiana, Holon-
the "Propiedad" signs. Revolution, with desa, Sueca, Chilena, Colombiana, Peru-
its accompanying looting, is ever immi- ana, Venezolana, Turca," and one or two
nent. The native shopkeepers are frankly more. The stars and stripes and the
at the mercy of the looters, who only too words "Propiedad Americana" appear in
often are the very Government itself. But only one place, on the door of a small ex-
the foreigner despoiled of his wares can port house.
always lodge a complaint with his home Every one appears to be entitled to

Government ; reparation may possibly fol- three guesses on the population of Quito.
low, and even the punishment of the loot- The figures range from fifty to eighty thou-
ers is conceivable. To warn these of their sand, with the truth somewhere near the
peril and induce sober thought in times of seventy-five thousand attributed to it in

riot, the foreign merchants paint on their Stevenson's time. Though more in touch

shop-fronts a huge flag of their country, with the outside world than Bogota, it has
similar to that used by neutral steamers in much of the same atmosphere of a city
war-time, with surcharged words convey- apart, a peaceful, restful spot, with some
ing the same information to those unac- of the principal modern conveniences of a
quainted with the colors. Thus the Ger- crude, break-down-often sort, but with lit-
288 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
tie of the complicated life of the great cen- been cut much shorter. In the Colom-
ters of modern days. It is a splendid place bian capital we were alwaj^s suffering
to play at life, to lie fallow, and to catch more or from cold in our waking
less

up with oneself, with nothing more excit- hours except near midday; here it was
ing to stir up existence than the evening con- possible to sit on a plaza bench at mid-
cert in the plaza mayor, where few of the night. With all the stages of nature
inhabitants do not come to stroll at least from planting through blossoms, fruit,
once a week. A score of carriages rattle and harvest existing side by side, the daj's
over its cobbled streets. The rails of a were like the best half-dozen culled from
street-car line had already been laid years a Northern May. Flies swarm in Quito
before our arrival, but the requisite cars a fly that found itself in Bogota would
had not yet even been ordered. We of shrivel like a plucked flower.
more powerful nations hardly realize Yet the American schoolma'am accus-
what it means to live in so small a coun- tomed to tell her pupils that the people of
try until it is brought home by some such Quito all dress in white would be startled
incident as hearing the entire congress of to see what attention even a woman in
Ecuador debate two hours whether it light-colored garb attracts in its streets.
shall or shall not order two new electric- On a few rare occasions, to be sure, a
light bulbs put up in front. of the govern- man in whitest cotton array passed
ment palace. through the overcoated plaza during the
Somewhere there may be a finer cli- evening concert; but this meant only that
mate than that of Quito, but it would the tri-weekly train from Guayaquil had
scarcely be worth while to go far looking arrived. We met, too, an American
for it. We had been warned that the drummer, more noted for his ability as a
place would turn out even colder than "mixer" than for his knowledge of geog-
Bogota, being higher and not enough raphy, who had arrived with a carefully
nearer the equator to make any apprecia- chosen wardrobe of thin, white linen suits
ble difference. But Quito lies in a shel- — and proved a godsend to the tailors of
tering valley, or our stay there must have Quito. Incidentally he had come down
AX A.MHK1CAN SE\VI\(j-M ACHIXB GuINC, LIKE I£\'LkVTHLNG ELSE, ON INDIAN-BACK.
INDIAN WEARS A GRAY HAT, RED PONCHO, AND WHITE "PANTIES"

to introduce American plumbing in Ecua- in the city there were few days when it

dor; but that is another and still sadder did not rain ; but the shower came almost
story. always at a more or less fixed hour of the
The truth is that moderate winter afternoon, and the resident soon learned
clothing is never out of place in Ecuador's to lay his plans accordingly. The rain
capital. Even with one's shadow
at noon, always seemed heavier than it was in real-

a round disk under foot and the sun glar- ity, for tin spouts pour the water noisily
ing to the eyes and burning the skin in the out into the middle of the cobbled street,
thin upland air, a leisurely climb up one the wide, projecting eaves protecting the
of the cobbled streets brought no memo- sidewalks. Now and then came a day
ries of the tropics. heavy with massed clouds far more often ;

As in all high altitudes, there is a all but an hour or so was brilliant with
marked difference between sunshine and sunshine. There is not a chimney in

shade. The first greeting in a quiteno Quito, and no breath of smoke was ever
house is sure to be, "Cubrese usted" ("Put known to smudge the smallest bit of her
on your hat"), and however strange it transparent equatorial sky.
may seem to the new-comer, none but the Factories, in our modern sense, are un-
unwise will disobey the admonition, nor known cooking
; is the same simple opera-
uncover until he has become acclimated tion as in the rural districts of the Andes,
to the room; for to catch cold in Quito and the Quiteno knows artificial heat, if

is a serious matter, and the road from at all, only by hearsay. I chanced to be
a cold to pneumonia, which is easily fatal in the reception-room of the minister of
in this thin air, is short and swiftly down- foreign afifairs one afternoon, —a sumptu-
grade. Thanks to the altitude, it is the ous pink-and-blue adobe chamber, with a
common experience, especially of new- score of bullet-holes in the walls as me-
comers, to be either unduly exhilarated or mentoes of the latest request of the popu-
in the depths of despondency. lace to the president to resign, — when a
There is a popular saying that it rains newly appointed Argentine minister
thirteen months a year in Quito. But this dropped in for his first informal call. In
is slander. During all the time I spent the course of tlie carefully sandpapered
•J59
290 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
small talk the diplomat mentioned a new preached a four-hour sermon on "the most
law in Buenos Aires requiring the heating atrocious crime in the history of Quito,"
of public buildings during certain months and were finally hanged, drawn, and
of the year. The minister, an unusually quartered, and hung up, still dripping
well-read and educated man for Ecuador, with blood, in sixteen parts of the town.

stared a moment with the dreamy eyes of The and their followers dug up a
priests

one favored with an entirely new bit of potful of earth where the holy wafers had
information, and, leaning forward with been found, and deposited it in a heavy
undiplomatic eagerness, replied: vase of solid gold that is still one of the
"Why, I suppose you ivould have to precious relics of the cathedral. Then
have some kind of artificial heat in those they caused to be erected over the spot the
cold countries." chapel of Jerusalem, where it stands to
Quito has always been a fanatical town. this da}^"And," adds the archbishop,
Among a score like it, the present arch- "no fiel [faithful one] will deny that they
bishop tells the following story in his met their just fate for so vile and un-
"History of Ecuador." About two hun- precedented a sacrilege."
dred years ago some one broke into one of Ah, but that was two centuries ago.
the churches and stole the sacred wafers, True, but permit me to bring the fanati-
together with the gold ciborium in which cism of Quito up to date. Less than a
they were kept. A few days later the year before our arrival the perennial
stolen property was found lying in the struggle between the Liberals and the
refuse of a ditch. Amid great weeping a Conservatives, the latter the church party,
procession of the entire population bore had broken out again in revolution. A
the sacred emblem back to its church. queer-looking little man, with a white
For weeks the entire town dressed in goatee sprouting from a mild-tempered
deepest mourning; the audiencia gave all chin and wearing habitually a hat that
its attention and the police force all its would have been the envy of a slap-stick
efforts to running down those "vile trai- comedian, had for years been president of
tors, bestial swine, and venial sinners," as Ecuador. He had been an official of more
the gentle archbishop calls them, leaving than average honesty moreover he had ;

little misdemeanors like robbery and mur- done the country much service, among
der to look after themselves. Not a clue other things having induced an American
was uncovered. At
famous length a to complete the railroad from the coast
Jesuit of the time preached a sermon that to Quito. But the Conservatives were
lashed the populace into such fervor that against him. To be sure, the queer little

the congregation poured forth into the man had objected to turning over his of-
streets beating themselves with chains and fice to a newly elected incumbent; but
scourges, most of them, men and women, that is a common South American pecca-
naked to the waist, —I am quoting the dillo. When the populace rose and ex-
archbishop, — in a procession and religious pressed itself in the manner that has left
fury that lasted from eight at night until holes in the mud walls of the pink-and-
two in the morning. A scapegoat was blue ministry he went down to the coast
imperative. The officers of the audiencia, and gathered an army of his fcllow-roi'-
in peril of being themselves forced to as- iciios. But luck had deserted him. After
sume that role, redoubled their efforts, a few battles he was captured, together
and at length found some distance south with several sons, nephews, and henchmen.
of the city three Indians and a half-caste The Conservatives were triumphant. The
who were reputed to have confessed to the Government ordered the captives to be
nefarious crime. The four miscreants sentup to Quito. The general in com-
were brought back to the city, kicked mand at Guayaquil protested that such
about the street by the populace, trussed action was unsafe until the fury of the
up In chains in the church while the priest populace evaporated. The Government as-
THE CITY OF THE EQUATOR 291

sured him the danger was visionarj', and dow of what was later my own room, as

repeated the order. A special train was the bodies of the former president and his

made up, and set out on the long climb eldest son were passing. They show a

PROBABLY NUT HIS DESPITE THE CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE AGAINST HIM

up to the plateau. That was on a Satur- throng made up exclusively of cholos,


day. At noon on Sunday word came that those of mixed blood who constitute the
the train had arrived, and the prisoners bulk of Quito's population. Not a white
were hurried by automobile to the Panop- collar of the gente decente or the broad felt
tico, the wheel-shaped penitentiary up on hat of an Indian is to be seen. On through
the lower flanks of Pichincha. The popu- the entire length of the city the barbaric
lace quickly gathered. The bullet-holes procession continued. At length the mob
through the false stone walls of the dismal reached the Ejido, the broad, green play-
littlemud cells, in the narrow corners of ground of Quito. Here they hacked the
which the prisoners crouched, were still bodies of the victims in pieces with ma-
fresh when we wandered through the chetes and whatever implement came to
place, distributing cigarettes to the harm- hand. Some carried to their huts as sou-
less-looking inmates. Among the most venirs the heads of the ex-president and
fanatical of the mob were the police and his sons, from which they were recovered
those whose duty it was to guard the with frenzy had
difficulty only after the
prison. In the excitement some twoscore died down and been slept off. Such were
prisoners escaped, and joined the rioters. los arrastres ("the draggings"), to which
The little ex-president and his compan- the educated Quiteno refers, if at all. in
ions, dead or dying, were stripped naked, shamed undertones.
ropes were tied to their ankles, and they Quito is not so light of complexion as
were dragged for hours through the cob- Bogota. Not merely is her percentage of
bled streets of Quito, the frenzied popu- Indian blood higher, but even those of
lace raising the echoes of the surrounding unmixed European ancestry have a sallow
ranges with their shouts. or olive tint, and little of the color in
I have two photographs taken by Don their cheeks frequent in the more rigorous
Jesus, nephew of my host, from the win- capital of Colombia. Negroes are un-
292 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
known as residents. There is a carekil formed the j^outh in a courteous, not to
gradation in caste, yet chiefly a void in say humble, manner
that he had been or-
place of what in other lands would be a dered not to any one walk on the flag-
let

middle class. The population is divided ging. The descendant of Ecuador's foun-
rather clearly betw^een those brutalized der became a brilliant red, asif his noble

from carrying ox-loads on their backs and house had been vilely insulted, then so
those who remain soft and effeminate white that his blond hair seemed to turn
from careful avoidance of any muscular dark brown. He strode across to the offi-
exertion. For even the cholo is economi- cer, who was considerably larger than he,
cally either Indian or white, depending caught him by the coat, and all but jerked
on his wealth or occupation. To carry him off his feet. The policeman humbly
even a small package through the streets apologized. The "best people" do not real-
is to jeopardize one's standing as a mem- ize that it is not the individual policeman,
ber of the upper class. "Don't hurry," a their "inferior," giving them orders, but
frock-tailedQuiteno told me in all seri- lawful and orderly society speaking
ousness one day. "People will think you through him.
are ocupado" busy, that is, with vulgar As in the days of Stevenson's travels, a
work. It is customary to raise one's hat century ago, "the principal occupation of
to every male "of your own class or persons of rank is visiting their estates,
above" and to pause and shake hands with particularly at harvest-time." By far the
every acquaintance considered 3"our equal, greater portion of the year they spend in
ask him how he has amanecido town, however, leaving their haciendas in

("dawned"), inquire after his family in- charge of rnayordojuos little acquainted
dividually, and shake hands again before with modern agricultural methods. The
parting, and that as often as 3'ou meet city has so few recreative attractions that
him, though it be every half-hour during it is hard for any man of education to
the day. Americans who have lived long avoid a more or less studious life, be it
in South America have the hand-shaking only as a pastime. Yet, although Ecuador
habit chronically. The greeting, or more is not without her literature, it has come

exactly the acknowledgment of the greet- more frequently from other towns than
ing, of one's inferiors varies from a patro- from the capital. The game of politics,
nizing heartiness to the corner tailor to a not without its perils, engrosses the atten-
half-audible grunt to an Indian. The tion ofmany. Then, as in most Latin-
latter is always addressed in the "tu" American society, not a few dissipate their
form, "because," as one of my Beau energies in the "pursuit of pleasure" of a
Brummel acquaintances put it, "there is rather specific kind. So assiduously does
no reason whatever to show any respect the average Quiteno devote himself to
to the Indian." During several months' this from early youth that it is not strange
acquaintance I found no great reason to that an old man of this class is rarely seen.
show any to the speaker but that perliaps
; There is a considerable provincialism even
is beside the point. among the best educated classes of the
Howwholly lacking the place is in capital. I heard often such questions as
genuine democracy is frequently illus- "What is a sleigh?" "When is summer?"
trated. I was strolling in the plaza mayor The story is well vouched for that a con-
one day, for instance, with the grandson gressman asked a colleague just back from
of the "Washington of Ecuador," a youth abroad, "Can a man get to Europe in

of American school training and of un- three weeks on a good mule?"


usually high standards, when he stepped llius far I have said little or nothing
on the flagging around the monument in of the, if not most nmnerous, at least
the center of the square. The cholo police- most conspicuous, class in Quito, the In-
man on guard hesitated for a time, but dians. Exclusive of the very considerable
finally screwed up unusual courage and in- number in whose veins runs a greater or
THE CITY OF THE EQUATOR 293
less percentage of aboriginal blood, those bauched dialect of Quichua, tiie tongue of
in whom it is still without admixture make the Incas, mixed with some words of the
up perhaps forty per cent, of the popula- conquered Caras, though all understand
tion of the city, and give it most of its Spanish, or at least the Indian-Spanish
color. There is town,
not a house in spoken in Quito.
from the bright-yellow, three-story adobe In build the Indian of Quito is stocky
dwelling of the president down,
without its Indians, family ser-
vants, and burden-bearers hud-
dled in the mud cells in the cob-

bled patio of the lower story, or


homeless wretches who lie by
night in any unoccupied corner
and pick up a precarious existence
by day in competition with don-
keys and pack-animals. Their
earth-floored kennels form the
tassel-ends of almost every street,
they scatter out along all the
highways, and dot the flanks of
every range and mountain spur in
the neighborhood.
If they have changed since the
Conquest, it is for the worse. In
habits and condition they vary
scarcely at all from those of the
dreary Andean villages through
which we had passed on our jour-
ney. They have not the faint-
est notion of any line between
filth and cleanliness, avoiding
only that which is obviously poi-
son by an instinct common to the
lower animals. I have often seen
one pick up the core of a mango
or other discarded morsel from a
heap of offal in the street and,
without even brushing it off, fall
to munching it as unconcerned
and unashamed as a monkey. I lALF-IXDIAN BOY CARRYING A SKY-BLUE COFFIN' \VITH CILT
have seen Indians drink water TRIMMINGS TO THE HOUSE WHERE A CHILD HAS DIED
that I am sure a thirsty horse
would not, and that despite the fact that and short, \ery muscular, with the
fresh water was to be had a few yards strength of a mule for carrying loads on
away. They literally never wash so much his back, indefatigable on foot, but weak
as a finger except on some rare occa- for other labor. His color is between a
sion such as a church fiesta, when they tarnished copper and a more or less in-
may pause at a pool or mud-hole on the tense bronze. His head is large; his neck
edge of a town to scrub their feet with a thick and long, his eyes small, black, and
stone. Their favorite food is the churn, penetrating; his nose is always bulky and
a tiny snail, eaten shell and all, raw or somewhat flattened and spread; his teeth
boiled with grasses. They speak a de- are white, even, and alwavs in splendid
294 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
condition ; his long hair, worn sometimes shoddy, wrapped tightly around her draft-
flying loose, sometimes in a single braid horse hips from waist to calves in guise
wound with red tape, is jet-black, without of skirt, always slit, or open on one side,

luster, abundant, perfectly straight, strong, showing an inner petticoat, generally


and mane,
as coarse as that of a horse's gray,— once white,— though sometimes in
without even a tendency to baldness. His striking solid colors, in marked contrast to
lips are thick and heavy, the lower one the outer skirt and a blanket, smaller,
;

somewhat hanging, giving him a sugges- but as audible in color as the poncho of
tion of sulkiness. His forehead is low, his the male, thrown round her shoulders
mouth large, and
prominent cheek-
his like a shawl. She is fond of gaudy ear-
bones and large ears give his face an ap- rings of colored glass or some similar rub-
pearance of great width. He is broad- bish, ranging in size from large to colos-
shouldered, with a chest like a barrel, but sal from one to a dozen strings of cheap
;

slender of leg and small of foot. He red beads, often the bean of a wild plant
grows no beard, and has almost no hair indigenous to the region, around her neck
on the body. generally brass rings on every finger; and
Men and women alike, except a rare often many beads wound round and round
male with a sole of home-tanned leather her bare arms. She is completely devoid
secured by thongs, are bare-legged at least of feminine charm. She needs none, for
half-way to the knees, their feet, like cal- she is amply worth her keep as a beast of
loused hoofs, marked by stony trails and burden.
years of barn-yard wallowing. The male As far as I know, there is no law in
wears a broad, round, light-gray hat of Quito requiring an Indian woman not to
thick felt, a kind of pajama shirt or blouse be seen without a babe in arms, or, rather,
of fancily colored calico or lienzo, a very in shawl but if one exists, it is seldom
;

roomy pair of "panties" of thinnest white violated. In an hour I have seen, by


cotton that reach anywhere from his knees actual count, more than three hundred fe-
to half-way to his undomesticated feet. male aborigines pass my window in the
Besides these garments, he is never seen calle Flores, and not a score of them but
without his ruana, or poncho, — like a bore on her back a child of from two
blanket, with his head thrust through a weeks to two years of age. When the
hole in the center, — which serves him as infant is tiny, it is carried lengthwise at
a cloak and carry-all by day and as a bed the bottom of the blanket-shawl knotted
and covering by night. This is always of across the mother's chest. When it is

some startling, crude color, deep red pre- older, it is tossed or climbs astride her
dominating, with such screaming combi- broad back, lying face down, with legs
nations as magenta and purple, carmine spread, while she throws her outer gar-
and yellow, though when it is sufficiently ment about it, ties the knot on her chest,
soiled and sun-bleached, the old rose and — or on her forehead if the child is

velvety brown, the brick red or turquoise heavy,— and trots along at her work the
blue, take on all the soft richness of Ori- day long without the least apparent notice
ental rugs. It is this commonly home- of the offspring, which alternately falls
spun garment, and the corresponding one asleep and from its point of vantage gazes
of the women, that make Quito such a with curious, yet rather dull, eyes at the
color-splashed city. world as it speeds by, peering over the
The woman, too, copies the dress of her mother's shoulder like an engineer from
ancestors to remote generations. She his cab, eats such food or refuse as falls
wears the same hat as the male,— hat-pins into its hands, or plays with the mother's
are unknown to her all down the Andes, tape-wound braid. The Indian woman
—a beltless waist of coarse cloth either never carries her offspring any other in
always open or else thin and ragged ; sev- manner except when, in her role as a com-
eral strips of colored hayetn, a woolish mon carrier, she picks up a load too bulky
^H™3^^H™*C^2liaHFHwl^1»^'SS6^i^w^»**«

r '
mmm^^^'''^'MmM:,

MHX A.\D BO\S TEASING A YEARLING BULL AtTER A BLT-L-FIGHT

or heavj' to place the infant atop, such as place for the next comer. It is a compar-
a bedstead, a bureau, or two two-bushel atively common experience to hear an In-
sacks of wheat,— these are not exaggera- dian child ask in a perfectly fluent tongue,
tions, but frequent cargoes, — when she for a serving at the maternal source of
hangs the child in front, in the concave of supply.
her figure, like a baby kangaroo in the ma- There is scant difference in appearance
ternal pouch, knotting the supporting gar- between the two sexes, and none whatever
ment across her shoulders. in their labor, except that, if there is only
The youngest baby is already incon- one load, the woman carries it, and the
ceivably dirty, and due to remain so, or, baby in addition. In both the half-breed
rather, to get more and more so, all its and Indian classes the women are more
life. Yet the^' are almost always robustly imcleanly than the men. The women,
healthy in appearance, though the infant like the men, work at all the coarser un-
mortality of the class is appalling. It is skilled tasks, shoveling earth, mixing and
an unusual experience to hear an Indian carrying mortar, cobbling streets ; while
baby cry. From its earliest years it seems in the matter of loads there is nothing un-
to adopt that uncomplaining attitude to- der two hundred pounds in weight which,
ward life that is marked characteristic
a once on their backs, they cannot trot along
of the adults. While the mother treats under at a kind of limping gait that seems
her offspring with no active unkindness, tireless. Indians come
in from the coun-
South America
in all the years I spent in try looking likewalking loads of alfalfa or
I have never seen an Indian mother strike fire-wood, perhaps with a chicken or two
a child,— the aboriginal woman seems to or a baby mixed up in them. Almost any
endure it in a passive manner, like any day the furniture and entire possessions of
other burden thrust upon her and from some moving family is displayed to public
which there is no escape, carrying it where gaze as it dog-trots through town on the
it will be least troublesome, and never, at backs of an Indian family. Women
least openly, showing any caressing fond- trotted daily past my window carn'ing
ness for it. The child that is old enough to from the city slaughter-house a bullock's
toddle about the streets often remains still head, still dripping with blood, or a score
on the mother's back, as if to hold the or more of legs of the animals, cut off at
295
296 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
the knee. The chief water-supply is a assertive, bold, and ferocious. Silent and
constant string of Indians from the foun- abstracted, he takes no apparent heed of
tain opposite the government palace, with what goes on about him. Of phlegmatic
huge, red earthen jars sitting on their hips temperament, a truly wooden equanimity
and supported by a thong across the fore- of temper, melancholy, taciturn, and re-
head. Even United States mail-sacks come served, he is noted above all for a distrust

trotting in the two miles from the railway that is perhaps natural, buti more likely
station to the post-office on the backs of the result of centuries of privations since
Indians. It is common to meet one carry- the coming of the Spaniards. He has a
ing the gaudy image of some saint larger blind submission to authority, great at-
than himself. Cheap coffins of half-rotten tachment to the house in which he lives,
boards, painted sky-blue or pink and deco- and is so cowardly that he lets himself be
rated with strips of gilded paper, fre- dominated by the most despicable mem-
quently mince past, secured by the bril- bers of other races. A complete outsider
liant poncho of the carrier knotted across in government and public affairs, he is

his chest. I had occasion one day to trans- treated by the rest of the population like
port a type-writer a few blocks. The In- a domestic animal. The merchant of
dian prepared to sling it on his back with Quito who requires a carrier to deliver
a rope. When I objected to this method, some bundle does not wait for one to
I found that the fellow not only could offer himself. He steps into the street
not carry it in his hands, but that he and snatches the first Indian who passes,
could not lift it to his head. When I though he be on his way to a dying parent
placed it there, however, he trotted away or preparing his child's funeral; and the
as if he had nothing on his mind but his Indian performs the task as uncomplain-
hat. ingly as some mechanical device, and re-
Frequently an entire family takes a turns to wait perhaps an hour or two for
large job, such as carrying a building the few cents the merchant chooses to give
from one end of town to another, adobe him. Only when he is drunk does the
brick by brick. Such a one passed my aboriginal's manner change. Then he is

window for weeks. All day long they garrulous and mildly disorderly. But
dog-trotted back and forth in single file even on a Saturday afternoon, when the
along the line of smooth-worn flagstones highways are lined with reeling Indians
in the middle of the street, their bare feet of both sexes on their way homeward to
making absolutely no sound, never a word their hovels, the gringo passes unnoticed,
or a sign of complaint finding any out- in marked contrast with the gantlet of
ward expression. The man and woman insolence, if not, indeed, of actual danger,
each bore the same number of mud bricks which he must run in similar circum-
piled up on their backs, and the latter stances in the highlands of Mexico.
always bore the baby in her pouch, though The new-comer's sympathy for tlie In-

they made a hundred trips a day. Why dian of Quito gradually evaporates with
the infant could not have been left at one the discovery that he is utterly devoid of
end or the other of the journey it was ambition, as completely indifferent to his
hard to guess. Two children, one a little own betterment as any four-footed ani-
fellow of five with one brick on his back, mal. Pad out this fact with all its details

his brother of seven or eight with two, and ramifications, discarding entirely the
trotted all day long between father and American's ingrown tendency to imbue
mother, as if they were being systemati- every human being with a striving char-
cally trained for the only life before them. acter, and the hopelessness of the Indian's
The Andean Indian is even less like the condition will be more clearly realized.
tall and haughty red-skin of our country The Government of Ecuador gives scant
in manner than in appearance. Compared attention to the education of the Indians;
with him, the Mexican Indian is self- but even if it provided schools and forced
THE CITY OF THE EQUATOR 297

attendance, there would still remain the muscular young Indian hroke away and
problem of arousing in these people any ran toward me, his long, black hair
interest or effort for self-improvement. streaming out behind him. At his heels,

IS THROWN 1

An episode will go far to visualize the cursing, came three cholos, ugly with
temperament of the Indian of Quito, and liquor, in the dark felt hats, more sober
perhaps even make a bit clearer the ease blankets and trousers of their caste, with
with which Pizarro and his handful of shorn hair and straggling suggestions of
tramps overthrew the empire of the In- mustaches. The bare feet of the quartet
cas. I had gone out for a stroll one after- slapped along through mud and pools to-
noon along the road to Guallabamba by ward me, strolling slowly, lost in thought.
which we arrived. Some three miles from I was not armed — one does not trouble to

town a light rain turned me back. There carry weapons about Quito— and in my
were no houses near, but numbers of In- bespattered road garb I had certainly no
dians were going and coming. A short appearance of protective authority. When
distance ahead was a group engaged in he reached me, the frightened Indian, in-
noisy contention. Suddenly a handsome. stead of running on, turned as sharply as
298 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
about a corner, and pattered along close a moment later religiously la^'S before the
at my heels, breathing quickly. I con- guest with silver-plated pincers. Yet
tinued my languid stroll. The drunken clients in frock-coats and of outwardly im-
half-breeds, far more muscular than I, maculate grooming are never known even
hovered about ten steps in the rear, cry- to raise a voice in protest. There is ex-
ing : actly one way to escape these conditions
"Ah, coward ! You run to the senor in Ecuador, and that is to keep out of the
!"
for protection country. The world's richest man would
Yet not a step nearer did they approach be forced to endure the same, for though
during the furlong or more that the pro- he brought his own servants and even his
cession lasted. Then as we passed the •food-supplies with him, the Ecuadorian
entrance to an hacienda the Indian sud- would find some means of reducing him
denly sprinted away up its avenue of euca- to an equality of condition, if only by
lyptus-trees faster than the cholos could opening the supplies in customs and run-

follow. At length they overtook me again, ning unwashed hands through them.
his

and protested in plaintive tones: Among our table companions were law-
"Ah, seiior, ese sinvergue7iza de Indio yers, university professors, newspaper edi-
did not deserve your protection." tors, commonly with several rings on their

Then they fell behind, while I, who fingers yet rare was the man whose fin-
;

had been an entirely passive actor in all ger-nails were not in deepest mourning,
the scene, strolled on into the city. It or whose manners were not befitting a
would be hard to imagine a similar inci- trough. On the street the passing of the
dent in Mexico. women is marked by the all but
usually
Unpleasant though it be, to pass over overwhelming scent of the cheap and pun-
in silence its uncleanliness would be to gent perfumes to which all their class,
give a false picture of Quito. Only its male or female, is addicted, and though
altitude saves the city from sudden death. their faces are daubed a rosy alabaster, it
Its personal habits are indescribable. I is rare to see one with clean hands or

do not use the adjective to avoid the labor without a distinct dead-line showing at
of finding one less trite, but because no 'the neck.
other could be more exact. If I described The
city is gashed by several deep gul-
in detail one fourth its daily insults to the lieswith trickling streams at their bot-
senses, no reputable publisher would print toms. These serve as general dumping-
it, and no self-respecting reader would grounds. Not even the carrion-crow
read it. The city is surrounded by an mounts to these heights, and the city is

iron ring of smells which the susceptible denied the doubtful services of this tropi-
stranger, accustomed to the moderate de- cal scavenger. When he has noted these
cencies of life, can pass only in haste and customs and worse, the visitor to the capi-
trepidation. The condition of the best tal will be startled into shrieks of sardonic
kitchen in Quito would arouse a vigorous laughter when he runs across a large two-
protest from an American "hired man." story building bearing an elaborately
However foppish a quiteno family may painted shield announcing it the "Oficina
be outwardly, anybody is considered fitted de Sanidad."
to the task of washing its dishes or wait- Yet the Quiteno is extremely jealous
ing on its table. Among all the tramps of any offer of other races to do for him
of the United States I have never seen one that which he gives no evidence of being
so incrusted with filth as the human crea- able to do for himself. Once out of Co-
tures that hang around hotel dining- lombia, we had hoped for relief from the
rooms, or at least in the one or two perpetual growling at Americans, chiefly
higher-priced establishments are to be in fiery and ill-reasoned newspaper edi-
found just behind the scenes kicking about torials. Rarely had we crossed the fron-
the earth floor the rolls which the waiter tier, however, than we found the latter
THE CITY OF THE EQUATOR 299
raging with a new grievance. The execu- houses had been seated in the largest cham-
tive branch of the Government had re- ber available in the government palace.
cently invited the doctor in charge of the The diminutive old minister of foreign af-
sanitation of Panama to inspect Guayaquil fairs, who had lived long enough abroad
and bring recommendations to the cap-
his to acquire a point of view, explained the
ital. A strict censorship on cable mes- exact truth of the situation as clearly as
sages keeps the outside world largely in a disinterested foreigner might have done.
ignorance of the real conditions in the But neither congress nor the populace
"Pearl of the Pacific." Inside the coun- would hear his reasoning. The latter
try,however, the real state of affairs is hooted him vociferously, calling him
more nearly common knowledge. One "Yanqui!" and accusing him of being in
could pick almost at random from the the pay of the United States. The con-
local newspapers such items as this: gressmen rose one after another to charge
him wn'th fostering a conspiracy to surren-
Gua\ aquil, 22d. Yesterday forty cases
der Ecuador to the United States, with
of bubonic plague broke out in Public School
many references to the "Beegee Steekee,"
No. 5. There are seven survivors.
and the meeting ended with the roar of a
The resident, too, soon learns the real bull-necked senator
motives that hamper the sanitation of that "Undoubtedly, Senor, we want Guaya-
pest-hole. Once it is "cleaned up," argue quil sanitated but we want
; it sanitated
its short-sighted merchants, foreign com- by Latin Americans."
petitors will flock in upon them. As to The pesuha and other evidences of sani-
themselves, they are, with rare exceptions, tary notions of the crowd that hemmed us
immune two plagues to which the
to the in gave the speech a ludicrousness that
port is subject from having recovered from none but an enraged partizan could have
them at some earlier period of life. Those missed. But that night the little minister
who have not recovered have no voice in of foreign afifairs resigned, and when
the matter. There are even German and morning broke he had disappeared.
other foreign residents who bend their en- For all the handicap of the complete
ergies to upholding this barrier to compe- absence of factories and street-cars, Quito
tition. might easily lay claim to the world's
These interests, now, abetted by unseen championship in noise. The din from its
European elements fostering the discon- church towers alone would bring it one of
tent, and the eagerness of the opposing the first prizes. No one is fonder than I

party to make political capital out of any of sitting out on a sunny hillside listening
cloth, whole, or otherwise, had stirred up to the music of ringing church-bells as it
the noisy little native papers into a furor, isborne by on the Sunday morning breeze;
genuine or financed, against the Govern- but in Quito they are neither bells nor
ment. The people in their turn had are they rung. In tone they suggest sus-
worked themselves into the conviction that pended masses of scrap-iron, and there is
the invitation was only an opening wedge not a bell-rope, as we understand the
of the "Colossus of the North" to gain a word, in the length and breadth of the
hand in the rule of the country which it Andes. Barely has midnight passed
isalways the part of the opposition papers when Indians hired for the nefarious pur-
to paint as imminent. Before we had pose and mobs of street urchins eager for
been long in Quito the attitude of the pop- the opportunity climb into the church
ulace grew so serious that a joint meeting towers and, catching the enormous clap-
of both houses of congress was called to pers by a rope-end, beat and pound as if

explain the government view of the trans- each was vying with the others in an at-
action. The diplomatic corps was pres- tempt to reproduce the primeval chaos of
ent in force, and as much of the public as sound, ceasing only when they drop from
could find standing-room after the two exhaustion. No corner of the citv is free
300 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
from the metallic uproar. Santa Cata- must show off to his admiring friends and
lina tower was a bare hundred yards the fair sex in general by forcing his ani-
above my pillowed head, and I know mal to canter and capriole up and down
scarcely a block of the town above which the line of flagstones in the middle of the
does not rise at least one such source of street.

torture, hung with at least half a dozen In those rare moments around midnight
bells — to use the word loosely— of vary- when the city threatens to fall silent it is

ing and degrees of discordance.


sizes these guardians of law and disorder them-
Once awakened, the city is never per- selves who tide it over. An officer's whis-
mitted to fall asleep again. By the time tle screeches at a corner, to be answered
it has begun to doze off once more, the down block after block until it all but
ringers have recovered, and, taking up dies out in the distance, then begins again,
their joyful task with renewed vigor, re- and continues unbrokenly until the church-
peat the performance at five-minute inter- bells drown it out. Not only that, but he
vals until sunrise and often far into the is a rare policeman who does not while
day. away the night and keep up his courage
This has disturbances of its own. The by playing discordant tunes on his whistle
game-cocks, which no self-respecting cholo whenever it is not in o6ficial use.
would be without, challenge one another But when its noise grows overwhelming
shrilly from their respective patios; that and its picturesqueness pales to mere un-
moment is rare when a child is not squall- cleanliness, the stout-legged visitor has
ing at the top of its voice, the mother, only to climb again over the outer crust
after the passive way of Quitenos, making of Quito in almost any direction to revel
no effort to silence it ; cholo men whistle in the stillness and on vistas
feast his eyes
all day long at their labors or pastimes; of rolling valleys and mountains fresh-
men and boys habitually call one another spring green to the very snow-line. A
by ear-splitting finger-whistles ox-carts, ; path, for instance, zigzags up the first

mule-trains, or laden donkeys move only falda of steeper than any


Pichincha,
while several arrieros trot behind them Gothic through the scattering of
roof,
incessantly screaming and whistling; red-tiled Indian huts called Guarico, and
droves of cattle are led through the streets climbs until all Quito in its Andean
by an Indian blowing a bocina, a horn- pocket sinks to a mere toy city far be-
like, six-foot length of bamboo unoccu- ; neath. Not far off a highway mounts
pied youths like nothing better than to doggedly round and round mountain spurs
kick an empty tin can up and down the and headlands until it is lost in the clouds,
cobbled street; every school-boy on his and only the immediate world is visible.
way home or to school twice a day takes The air grows almost wintry; oxen and
a big copper coin, or in lieu thereof an Indian women, and now and then a man
iron washer, and throws it at every cob- of the same downcast race, come down
blestone of his route in a local game of out of the mist above with bundles of cut
"hit it" ; the barking of dogs never ends brush on their backs. Far up the road
every Indian who loses a distant relative swings round on the brink of things,
or can concoct some other fancied cause pauses a mofnent as if to gather courage,
for grief sits on the sidewalk just out of then pitches headlong down out of sight
reach of the contents of one's slop-bucket, in a light-gray void, as through a curtain
rocking back and forth, and burdening the shutting off the "Oriente," the hot lands
air with a mournful wail that rises and and unbroken forests of eastern Ecuador,
falls in cadenced volume for unbroken where the Ama-
a totally different world,
hours; iron-tired coaches clatter over the zon begins to weave its network, and
uneven cobbles ; every native on horseback "wild" Indians roam mitrammeled.
Rasputin
By PRINCESSE LUCIEN MURAT
Russia everything mysterious, and Years before, in his own village, he was
INnothing is secret,"
is

said Madame de known as a profligate ; but he lamented his


Stael, that most brilliant type of the sins publicly, striking his breast and tear-
French "advanced woman," who dared to ing his beard before the holy icons. His
resist Napoleon him- was a simple creed
self. God loves a repent-
Her phrase sums ant sinner; there-
up all Russian poli- fore one must sin.

tics; it explains the The one strayed


complicated wheels sheep is of more ac-
within wheels of count to Him than
those strange secret the ninety and nine
associations, ever that remain in the
winding and un- fold ; therefore one
winding, which for must stray. Bare-
centuries have footed, clothed in
brought about as- white, he retired to
sassination and the the forest for medi-
shedding of blood. tation, like the an-
I remember the cient Russian be-
first time that I lievers. All his
\l-
heard the name of hereditary impulses
Rasputin. It was at reappeared. Of old
a cinema in Petro- ^l his ancestors thought
grad in 191 3. The »% that by making autos
stranger
lightly
who
pronounced
had "'i?c^. da
they
fe of their

would go
bodies
di-

the name had no rectly to heaven.


idea of the impor- The czars had the
tance that was then greatest trouble in

beginning to be at- ^,
preventing these in-

tributed to the mys- RASPUTIN. FROM THE SKETCH cinerations and in


terious muzhik. MURAT
I'KINCESSE LUCIEN saving from the
"Be careful how flames thousands of
you speak of that man," a Russian whis- peasants who, in their candid faith, be-
pered, "or some day we shall miss you sud- lieved these sacrifices necessary to their re-
denly, and you may wake up in some far- demption. In Rasputin there existed two
off Siberian village, in Rasputin's own distinct natures, the visionary and the
birthplace, perhaps." deep drinker, the dreamer and the satyr.
In 19 1 6 I met him. If the road from The devout him to be a saint, the
believed
Siberia is long, the favors of the great are profligate considered him superhuman.
still longer to conquer; but he had suc- Once a remorseful lady said to him
ceeded with amazing rapidity, for he knew "Perhaps what we do is wrong, Greg-
marvelously well how to adapt himself to ory Effimovitch. Perhaps it is a sin." He
the capricious inclinations of the times. replied
301
302 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
"No, my child; our flesh was given us ing apace, especially at the capital. With
by God, and we may dispose of it fully." the subtle-mindedness of the peasant, the
A lady of high rank told me that he muzhik understood quickly the part he
had expressed to her his mystical belief in could play among the great.
himself in the following words It is a platitude to say that the Slav is

"Within me is a particle of the Supreme a mystic. It is less known that in the


Being. By my intercession one can be upper classes, where he is nearly a pagan,
saved. To be saved, one must be blended he is quite as superstitious as a peasant.
with me, corporeally and spiritually. All He crosses himself incessantly, and is full
that emanates from me is a source of en- of small superstitions. He shudders at the
lightenment that purifies sin." sight of three lights at a time. A raven
So Rasputin lived for years, an ancho- on his right hand, or a solitary magpie,
rite and a voluptuary. He had visions, disturbs his equanimity for a whole day.
or at least the villagers of Pokrovskoe, In ancient times the king's fool played
easily mystified, believed that the Virgin a great part, for it was he who told the
appeared and spoke to her unworthy ser- truth to his sovereign under cover of wit.
vant but if, in his repentance, he filled
; In Russia, in the twentieth century, Ras-
the forest with his lamentations, his vic- putin realized that his power lay in telling
tims protested strongly the truth and in prophecy; he understood
At this time of his life he was probably also that he must be simple of soul, that
utterly sincere. He made use of a hyp- his strength consisted in being the repre-

notic strength of which he felt the power. sentative of the lower classes, one who
He was the healer of the village, the medi- must be obeyed because he is ignorant and
cine-man, who attempts the laying on of poor. He proclaimed the virtue of pov-
hands and gives blessed herbs. In Russia erty. At the most luxurious of all courts
the law prosecutes all this, but somehow he openly declared that he despised wealth.
he kept within the law or avoided the law. He what he preached. He sub-
practised
One day an enamoured woman, weary rooms were simple, his
sisted scantily; his
of his infidelity, wounded him seriously furniture was common. In a country
but the prayers and good care of his other where graft exists from the highest to the
favorites saved his life. lowest, where bribery is methodically or-
To thank God for his miraculous re- ganized, he adopted or played the part of
covery, he took the pilgrim's staff and set disinterestedness.
out for the Holy Land. During his jour- So his influence and power increased
ney he wrote his impressions in a diary, rapidly. One eventful day he happened
which he entitled "My Thoughts." This to be at the imperial palace during an ill-

manuscript is unknown save to a few in- ness of the czarevitch. had a The child
timates, and has never been translated. high fever, and the doctors were power-
He it to me personally.
gave As some less to relieve him. The empress was
interest may be found in these impressions greatly affected. At that moment Rasputin
of his journey to Palestine, I have trans- entered. He approached the bedside and,
lated some of the most typical passages. like Christ of old, extended his hands
These mystic aspirations, vague and unco- over the j'oung prince. Suddenly the pain
ordinated, but wholly sincere, may help to was soothed, and the fever abated. Twice
explain the ascendancy he had over his the little child was thus mysteriously
sovereigns. cured.
It is generally thought that Rasputin After this Rasputin's position became
was a monk but he was not even a dean,
; impregnable; his power was complete.
and had not taken holy orders in the The mother was strong to defend against
church. any calumny the man whom she consid-
On his return from Jerusalem he found ered the savior of her child.
that his fame, his legend, had been grow- On my return to Russia in igi6 my
RASPUTIN 303
curiosity led me to see the man of whom himself with patting my arm in an afifec-

every one was talking, some to curse, others tionate way.


with a secret thrill. People pretended "Let us form a circle," he said, "touch-
that he was sold to the Germans, that he ing one another, that our fluid may not
was leading Russia to its ruin. The go astray, and our souls may thus come
whole aristocracy was in intense efferves- into harmony."
cence against him. \'isions of Mesmer, of Caglipstro,
I asked him to receive me, and added
that I wished to make a sketch of him.
It was an audience, but
difficult to obtain

I finally succeeded.
I started out on a typical Russian day.
It was icy cold ; the rivers were frozen ;

the city was plungedheavy lethargy in a


the passers-by, muffled up, moved about like
ghosts; the sledges, driven by children,
slid rapidly through the solitary spaces.
I never saw more detectives than on his
stairs ; every step seemed to hold one.
They were In such absurd and slightly
concealed disguises that I could not help
smiling. There were many other people,
too, in ancient frock-coats, flowered waist-
coats, and wide-brimmed hats, and many
old ladies with comical feathers dangling
over their faces. Who were they all?
Petitioners, perhaps ;
place-hunters, suit-

ors of every description.


I had come with

guard as an escort.
two officers of the
I was a little ner-
y^^u^j
vous, afraid of the satyr, perhaps.
We rang. A pretty girl of about four-
teen opened the door. It was his daugh-
ter. She wore a red-silk handkerchief floated before my eyes. I began to under-
over her head. Her eyes sparkled. She stand Rasputin better. examined him
I

seemed out of place there, like a country closel}-. His eyes were blue, bluer than
girl sent to town. forget-me-nots. They fixed one strangely,
She led us into a study, simply furnished piercingly; they fascinated. His dark-
with a desk, a green imitation-velvet sofa, brown hair fell in a tangle on his shoul-
and a few chairs. ders. His slightly flattened nose was not
While waiting for the master of the without a kind of nobility; his forehead
house, the bell rang incessantly. Gor- was large and powerful, his mouth fine,
geous officers, aristocratic ladies, people the lips sensual, the chin obstinate, though
from every class, were seeking Rasputin, well delineated. His fifty years wore well.
to speak to him, to hand him a petition, to His frame was full of power, and he ap-
solicit an office, a situation, or an employ- peared to be a man strongly balanced, who
ment. Certainly the man was a power in made use of his passions and was not mas-
the state. tered by them.
He and kissed the men
entered at last, As I looked at him a wave of sympatliy
who accompanied me on the lips, as is toward him came over me, and I felt that,

the custom in Russia. Instinctively I despite everything, he was good.


drew back. He smiled, and contented "Tell me." I said, "how do you come
304 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
to have such ascendancy over all manners coat on his shoulders. His long hair, all
of JDCople, over every one small and great ? drenched, fell on his face like seaweed.
What is the secret of your power?" The ice had been broken, so that his body
"Love," answered Rasputin. "Love is could be thrust into the black river. The
consolation, melancholy, and pain the joy ; ice itself still reflected the lights of the
of love outweighs all." festivities in palaces where only lately he
While I sketched his features, my eyes had taken prominent part.
a
strayed to his yellow smock frock, held by Rumors were spreading. They whis-
a leather girdle such as peasants wear to ; pered of a sumptuous palace, a palace in
his blue trousers; to his shoes, which were which are hung the most splendid Rem-
turned up at the and looked as iftoes, in which he found
brandts of the world,
they had been designed by Bakst. His his death ; they described a banquet, an
hands were not cared for, but were per- ambuscade, which young, splendid, and
in
fectly shaped. powerful princes set themselves up as
As he could sit only a few minutes for judges and executioners to save Russia.
his portrait, he asked me to go that same The rumors spoke of young and beautiful
evening to a reception given in his honor women, who were present; even their
by an artist. There were strange rumors names were whispered. On the next day
about these revelries, about mysterious they shut themselves up in their palaces;
baths, performed ritually, simulating bap- the princes were banished to far-off des-
tism. It was whispered that, stretched on erts. Who were the instruments of the
a sofa, he selected in autocratic simplicity crime ? Mystery.
the companions of his pleasures, and that "In Russia everything is mysterious,
the selected were never known to refuse. and nothing is secret." But some day
My sketch was coming to an end when the truth will be known.
a bell sounded ; he explained that he was
summoned to the court, apologized for EXTRACT FROM THE DIARY
leaving me, and disappeared, escorted by OF RASPUTIN
his followers.
A Jerusalem
few weeks later, while visiting some
samovar was singing gaily
friends, as the Before passing from the stormy billows of
and we were about to have tea, I was the world to this place of absolute and
rung up on the telephone. peaceful stillness, my first duty was to
"Rasputin is dead; Rasputin has been pray. I cannot describe the feeling of joy
murdered," I was told. that I was conscious of; my tears ran with
It was unbelievable. There were con- gladness. It is here that God suffered.
sternation and rejoicing, but the rejoicing One can see the Virgin herself near the
was general. Never have I seen such cross. Everything is untouched. People
happy faces. People kissed one another in come and go, and in the same costumes, as
the streets; coachmen refused their tips. they did at that time. The holy days are
To believe them, Russia had been rescued the same. I came from the Temple, where
from deadly peril by this death. Hence- all those mysteries have been performed,
forth no separate peace, no discarded where Christ himself shed tears. What in-
Duma. The golden age was to reign stant can be compared with that moment
once more in the empire. when I came near the Sepulcher? Then I
As a foreigner I knew that they exag- felt that it was the sepulcher of lo\e. It

gerated the power of the man suddenly was such an intense feeling that I had a
shot down. But
any case he was dead
in longing to love all men. My love for all

he had disappeared. Who were his mur- humanity was so great that all men ap-
derers? Mystery. The police at last peared to be saints in my eyes; for love dis-
found his corpse under the Christofsky covers in them no fault whatever.
Bridge, the legs bound together, his over- What a siijht that Sunday mass in the
RASPUTIN 305
church! Christians of all nations were when they come out of their sanctuary, it

prostrated there. We
were taken to the can be seen that they do not possess Easter
red doors where Christ was judt^ed for the in their hearts. They are like heathen, for
last time. We saw the place where His even when they have received the Easter
disciple slept, and where Christ came sev- communion their faces are gloomy. When
eral times to awake him. As for us, we the face is not full of light, it is proof that
always sleep, when we are awake as well the soul does not rejoice. When the Ortho-
as when our evelids are closed. O Lord, dox go to church, their bodies from head to

PRINCICSSl

awaken us ! We shall sin no more, O Lord foot praise the Lord; all that surrounds
Save us by Thy suffering! them seems radiant.
How happy we are, we Orthodox. No It is not for me to settle the question. 1

religion can be compared with ours. In the make only a mere comparison between our
religion of the Catholics no delight exists. Easter feast and that of the Catholics as 1

I attended their Easter feast in Jerusalem. have seen it celebrated near the Holy Scp-
I observed and I compared. In our religion ulcher. As an Orthodox, I felt an immense
everybody rejoices. On the believers' faces joy. Our faith has always shone abr>ve its

the light plays, and we can see all the fibers persecutors. We can show how God pro-
of their bodies rejoicing, while even in their tects us as He did in the days of John of
churches the Catholics show no joy, no ani- Kronstadt, who sent so many thousands of
mations ; it is as if some one were dead ; and men, safe and io\ful, to our Lord's mercv.
Along the Riviera

and West meet in San Renio


^^^^^
\ pool in the garden of the \
d'Este, Tivoli
'^ Northeaster"
By WINSLOW HOMER

TT /"E like to speak of Winslow Homer as the painter most truly


* ' American, for less than any other does he show in his life and
work the influences that come from abroad. He was of old Mass-
achusetts stock and came legitimately by his love of the sea, for he

claimed a pirate among his ancestors. Born in Boston in 1836, he


lived in that city and in Cambridge, working as a lithographer, until

he moved to New York.


During the Civil War he made pictures at the front that first won
him recognition as a painter. They were scenes of camp-life in the

South, and bore such titles as "Rations" and "The Sunny Side."

After the war he spent his summers along the coast, and in 1884 he
built his studio on the cliffs at Prout's Neck, near Portland, Maine, and
took up his real life-work, the painting of the sea.

The "Northeaster" is one of a number of scenes painted near the


shore. It gave Homer the opportunity he loved for strong contrast

between the water and the rocks, the ever-moving sea and the immovable
cliffs, the sparkling ocean and the dull, heavy ledges. Homer's method
of work was simple and natural, and may be understood from the stud)'
of his unfinished canvases. The large masses are laid in solidly, the dark

parts dull and thin, the lighter portions with bold brush-strokes and

heavy pigment of a creamy white. If there are figures, they are firmly

drawn from the start, and any necessary corrections are made with chalk
over the well-dried paint. He was in no haste to develop the picture

from the hurried impression. "After waiting a year, looking every


day," he wrote a friend. "I got the light and the sea I wanted."
Masses of spray are sent high into the air in the "Northeaster," but
Homer has let fancy play with the white tracery of the foam forms that
lie upon the deep greens of the big waves. He was a true realist; in
these interpretations we hear the roar of the elements and taste the
salt spray blown through the air.

It was this painter's habit to spend a portion of every year in Nassau


and Cuba, and rich was the harvest of vigorous water-colors, fresh and
direct, that he brought back with him. A devoted himter, he also made
frequent visits to the Adirondacks, and there found the motives for many
of his best-known works. A. T. Van Laer.
I See front hpii'ce to this inimtier]

J
\s^:m^^^^
IM LIGHTEIR VEI]
^^^ -(gfe^^^sa^

Endicott and I Go Sketching


By FRANCES LESTER WARNER

"A SKETCH," said Endicott, "is not ahead of time by a minor prophet. I

-^1-only a memorandum; it is a reve- longed wistfully to be as versatile as

lation." Endicott.
That was in the early my ex-
days of The first time we were alone for a
perience with Endicott, when we were peaceful afternoon together after the
making the final preparations for our bustle of thewedding and departure, he
wedding-trip. He took me into the sta- produced the sketch-books and passed one
tioner'sand bought two sketch-books. tome. We were sitting near the bluffs at
"But I can't draw," I objected. Montauk, and at our feet the low-tide
"Neither can I," said Endicott, be- breakers, full of shell and seaweed and
nignly, and pocketed the books. green light, were rolling endlessly. I am
Little by little, as I was able to grasp it, always hypnotized by surf. At that par-
he unfolded to me the theory by which he ticular moment I was helping the tide to
governed his art. He began by saying turn, an anxious habit which I outgrow
that every civilized being should habitually only after days of conscientious attention
keep a sketch-book wherein to jot down to the waves. I did not want to sketch.
his vision of the world. This drawing Who can sketch and see the tide home
should, moreover, be done naturally, never both at once? I surmised, however, that
with one eye out for critics. How else Endicott might not understand my role
are we to originate a distinctive and pro- as chaperon to the tide, and I politely ac-
gressive manner? We should draw what cepted his best pencil.
we see. had done just enough drawing in my
I

At first was inclined to


I be conten- school-days to know a few principles and
tious. That was before I had seen Endi- to shrink from practice. With a helpless
cott's manner. feeling I looked up toward the bluffs, de-
"When / draw things," said I, "they ciding that they, with their bold and stable
never turn out to look like what I see." outlines, were the safest subject in sight.
"It does n't matter what it looks like," Endicott, at a little distance, began to
assented Endicott. "If j^ou draw the sketch busily, and I realized that for the
thing as you see it, every stroke of the first my life I was sitting for a
time in
pencil is a shorthand symbol. Years after- portrait. There was exhilaration in the
ward, one glance at the sketch brings it thought that I was about to see how I
all back to you, if to no one else. The really looked to Endicott. For him, he
act of making the marks shows you the announced graciously, there was only one
scene in a new light, and the sketch pre- object on that beach.
serves it." Finally, just as I had begun desperately
In this wise the Cubist doctrine in its to block in my sketch, Endicott rose.
rudiments was proclaimed a generation "Now, I dare say that nobody else

315
316 THE CENTURY AIAGAZINE
would consider this a good portrait," he pated genius. Memorable among his land-

began, "but I shall never look at it with- scapes was view of "Conklin's-
his sunset

out seeing j'ou just as you are now." by-the-Sea." All these years our children
All this happened thirt.v years ago, when have admired the Conklin ducks, skil-
I was young and proud of spirit. The fully arranged with inspired perspective
shade-hats that year were at their sweetest, so that the fowls nearest the observer
were ostrich-like in proportions, grow-
ing smaller and smaller as the procession
neared the house, until those by the door
appeared scarcely larger than the landlady
herself.
Surreptitiously, Endicott portrayed
"Old Grumbler," our one fellow-hoarder,
and mine was a vision of white lilacs and an Englishman with pipe and sun-hat, rem-
iniscent of Kipling and India. have
and white. My dress was a
silver-green
I

soft and graceful thing which "fell in


always been more deeply impressed by
Endicott's character interpretations than
folds" my boots were notably trim. Just
;

how much by his studies from still life, remarkable


of this, I wondered as I looked
as they often turn out to be.
at the portrait, had really been wasted
upon Endicott? I think that I blushed,
"My Cousin Abby does n't like to have

but I know that I did not laugh. I did


not dare to. Endicott's theory of a sketch
as a revelation was too serious a matter.
There was, moreover, a certain virile
which
flourish about the artist's signature
bespoke finality. "E. M. A. pinxit." This
was his changeless hall-mark upon com-
pleted works. What was I that I should
quarrel with an early Cubist about de-
tails t)f chin and waist-li )iffui

Of course, if Endicott saw it that way —


Through the weeks that followed our
companionable adventures were celebrated
always by a sketch. My own efforts were
touchingly conscientious. me sketch," mused Endicott one after-

"You always try to draw as you ought noon, putting the finishing touches to a
to," sighed Endicott, hopelessly, glanc- freshly drawn cartoon of a casual way-
ing through my neat copies of headland farer who had put in a mysterious ap-

and farm-house Try pearance at Conklin's, "but I intend to


keep just such a book as this through all

our vacations to come."


He did. There is an entire volume of
Watch Hill scenes, among which the most
notable is an "interior" of the seaside
chapel, where the officiating rector
preaches forever unheard, while the be-
holder's attention divides itself between
the curious texts upon the chapel walls and
the still more curious dog barking savagely
in penciled balloons just outside the place
might, I could never learn the secret of pra\'er. A later book contains Block
which chartered my companion's emanci- Island sketches, including one of "Camp
IN LIGHTER VEIN 317
As You Like It," where the grazing horse At sunrise, however, he had felt less en-
appears to range unbridled in the sky ; and terprising,and noticing that there were
a "study from life," where 1 windmills on the wall-paper, he easefully
am apparently sliding down sketched one of these instead. In con-
the face of South Cliff, while spicuous exception to his usual fervid man-
our eldest daughter, in her ner, this sketch has served as a copy for
baby-carriage, coasts mirac- one after another of the toiling children
ulously at my side. but not for Barbara. One thrilled glance,
Cousin Abby, as had been through the ancestral sketch-books, and
predicted, cordially disap- Barbara was off after ducks and fence-
proved. She is an artist, and rails and a horizon of her own. No wall-
had been a convenient crony paper windmills for her!
of Endicott's in his law-school dajs. Endi- It was Barbara's book that Cousin Abby
cott takes always the attitude that he cre- found. She took it to Endicott. She
ated Cousin Abby, brought her up, and took it seriously.
rested the seventh day. In her occasional "It does n't so much matter about you,"
visits to our home, as years went on, I she began, with dry decision, "but it is

noted her unchastened way of commenting wrong to let Barbara do Lookso. at the
with open sarcasm upon Endicott's various pattern on that piano-lamp! Look at the
convictions, but I never heard what shingles on that farm-house
Cousin Abby could do in the cause of and the black spots on the
truth and righteousness until by chance tiger-lilies Notice
! the
she found one of the children's sketch- leaves on that rose-bush!"
books lying open to the offended sunlight. "Barbara saw them," said
Endicott, subtly discouraged with me, had Endicott.
provided a complete series of sketching- "But she should n't draw
blocks for his son and daughters, and had them !" Cousin Abby turned
pointed them each the road to freedom. suddenly from the conflict.
Barbara was the only one who took to Not debate, but action was
freedom. The others steadfastly con- her specialty. She led the adoring Barbara
sulted models. Their favorite pattern was through a perfect paradise of light and
the one sketch in their father's book which shade; of door-steps that stood nobly out
was flatly conventional. That was made from the verandas of the houses; of long,
upon one of our flying trips through East- gray roads tapering beautifully to a point
hampton, the village of many windmills. among the trees ; and of lonely sky-lines,
Endicott announced his intention of ris- with one dim ridge of hills to mark the
sunset. She gave her a box of water-
colors and talked about flat washes and
atmosphere. Cruelly she spoiled Barbara's
joy in depicting the sun's rays. Barbara
had always used the same general plan
for the sun as for a many-footed spider.
After Cousin Abby's visit she felt a little
shy about her sunrises, her high noons,
and her sunsets. She often left the sun
to shine from a point just off the margin
of the paper. Cousin Abby, however,
could not be expected to forestall every
possibility. Barbara still drew the moon
with eyes and nose and mouth.
ing before time for our early tram to Expert opinion, decidedly expressed,
sketch one of the windmil Is on the bluff. carries a great deal of weight with me.
318 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Was Barbara indeed a child of promise, and over her houses grew vague tracery
led deliberately into sin? Endicott was of vines without a bud or flower, un-
unmoved. He said that the reason why visited by any humming-bird or wander-

so few people draw naturally is because ing dragon-fly. That was proof.
there are so many Cousin Abbys in the We compromised. Endicott, though
world. He held that it was time for some still laying in supplies of sketch-books for
hardy souls to rise and insist that they do himself, gave me a camera, and engaged
see the flower-pots in the windows and for Barbara a drawing teacher. Thought-
the cat on the ridge-pole and the honey- fully he watched the work of many artists
bee coming a long way off. Who cares for adequate paintings of surf and windy
for a gray monotone of homestead wall shores. Upon our walls now hangs the
on which one may paint no lichens at all, best of these, a painting of Montauk
and the trumpet-vine only as a green breakers, with all their surge and foam
puddle on the roof? He was glad that and changeful light. I love the stately
Barbara, in her sea-shore sketch, had made picture. But where are the frightened
her sister the dominant note in the land- little sandpipers that were always hurry-
scape. What matter though Margaret, ing along the shore?
passant, did obscure the sky-line and tower To-day, feeling homesick for old times,
above the sailing yacht at her elbow? It I gather up the
little heap of sketching-

was pleasant to reflect that she was more books and glance them through again.
to Barbara than all of these. Sea winds and flowing tide and comfort-
Gradually, however, Endicott came to able memories. I wonder if the windmill
see that with Barbara the damage had al- is still there? And "Josiah Peckham, his
ready been done. Sophisticated now, she House" — is it still upon the sand? Here
could never again fully enter the realm indeed are all the little intimate signs of
of the unspoiled amateur. Her trees, of life,the shorthand notes for all our
old so strongly built that birds of heaven memories even the ducks and flying gulls
;

lodged in their branches, nests and all, and fisher-nets oifshore. When Endicott
were now leafless blurs of misty green ; went sketching he saw these.

Unfortunate Fanny
Bv THOMAS NEWELL METCALF
KIND Reader, shake hands with my
wife,
My Fanny, assiduous creature,
Divine caryatid of life.

Whose were her principal feature


teeth
For thanks to the same she made
excellent wages
In circus-arenas and \ aucknille stages,

llaxing bit (many feet from the ground)


On tiie end of a rope, she would
dangle,
Contentedly wiiirling around
At a horrid, centrifugal angle.
'Fhe public would yell like its lungs
would bust 'em,
it

And Fanny would slip me her pay,


as per custom.
IN LIGHTER VEIN 319

Slie kept me in comfort without

So much as a care or a tremor


Until she contracted the gout
In the tip of her sinister femur.
The doctor we called said that all of her dolors
Were due to her teeth, and extracted
her molars.

And when my industrious love,


A prey to acute indigestion,
Renounced the majority of
Her molars to settle the question,
She had to admit she was almost unable
To bite as she used on the end of her cable.

Physicians dismantle our jaws


For any conceivable reason.
There ought to be Federal laws
Allowing the teeth a closed season,
Because if they don't discontinue
this ruthless
Extraction of teeth, we shall all become
toothless.

And therefore, though sentenced to death


For chewing a doctor to chowder,
I shall till my ultimate breath
WITH ONLY EIGHT THETH BE'l
AND STARVATION •' Vociferate louder and louder,
'I want information concerning the virtue
The last of her canines was tossed
Of losing your teeth if your vertebrae
On the altar of faulty nutrition
hurt ^ou."
Her noble bicuspids were lost
Because of an acid condition.
Imagine my rather bizarre situation
With only eight teeth between me
and starvation

Seriatim unfortunate Fan


Had goiter, thrombosis, hay-fever;
Each visit the doctor made, an
Incisor or so had to leave her.
"O Doctor, have pity!" I cried at this pillage
"A tooth or two more and I '11 be on
!"
the village

"To the teeth," that assassin replied,


"Are laid by adept diagnosis
All ailments from pain in the side

To cerebro-spinal-sclerosis."
"Enough of your medico-dental caprices!"
I ventured to say, and I bit him to pieces. UuCToK, HAVE I'lTV
Four Celebrities of the Theater
(Nazimuva, Drew, Faversham, and Arliss)

Indicated bv Glu\as Williains


tiil; TRA^CI: tiia HAD Ol'TEX SnULATKD HAD I.WAUED HIM,
"
\\D HE KXIAV NO THING MORE
i;d 1-or rnii ciiXTCRY by Howard giles

niiistyatins " Through"


Vol. 94 JULY, 191'
URT No. 3

"Through"'
By E. F. BENSON
Author of" Dodo," " Dodo's Daughter," etc.

Illustration by Howard Giles

RICHARD WAGHORN was among dead friend or relative who spoke through
- the and most popular of
cleverest him.
professional mediums, and a never-failing As a matter of fact, Waghorn would
source of consolation to the credulous. not be in a trance at all, but perfectly
That there was fraud, downright, un- conscious, extracting, as he sat quiescent
adulterated fraud, mixed up with his re- and with closed eyes, the knowledge, re-

markable manifestations it would be im- membered or even forgotten, that lurked


possible to deny; but it would have been in the mind of his sitter, and bringing it

futile not to admit that these manifesta- out in the speech of Mentu, the Egyptian
tions were not wholly fraudulent. He control, or of the lost friend or relative
had to an extraordinary degree that rare about whom inquiry was being made.
and inexplicable gift of tapping, so to Fraudulent also, coming from the in-
as
speak, not only the surface consciousness telligence of discarnate spirits, were the
of those who consulted him, but, in pieces of information he gave as to the
favorable circumstances, their inner or conditions under which those who had
subliminal selves, so that it frequently "passed over" still lived, and it was here

happened that he could speak to an in- that he chiefly brought consolation to the
quirer of something he had completely for- credulous, for he represented the dead as
gotten, which subsequent investigation happy and busy, and full of spiritual ac-
proved to be authentic. ti\ities. This information, to speak
So much was perfectly genuine, but he frankly, he obtained entirely from his own
gave, as it were, a false frame to it all by conscious mind. He made it up, and we
the manner in which he presented these cannot really find an excuse for him in
phenomena. He pretended, at his seances, the undoubted fact that he sincerely be-
to go into a trance, during which he was lieved in the general truth of all he said
controlled sometimes by the spirit of an when he spoke of the survival of individ-
ancient Egyptian priest, who gave news to ual personality.
the inquirer about some dead friend or Finally, deeply d\ed with fraud,and
relative, sometimes more directly by that that in crude, garish colors, were the
1 Copyright, 191-', by E. F. Benson. All rights reserved.

Copyright. 1Q17. py The Cen


321
322 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
spirit-rappings, the playing of musical Gardner, wanted to arrange a sitting alone
boxes, the appearance of materialized for next day. No address was given, but
spirits, the smell of incense that heralded he made an appointment for half-past two,
Cardinal Newman, all that bag of con- and without much enthusiasm went back
juring tricks, in fact, which disgraces and to his dinner.
makes a laughing-stock of the impostors "A stranger," he said to his sister, "with
who profess to be able to bring the seen no address and no reference of introduc-
world into with the unseen
connection tion. I hope I shall be in better form

world. do Waghorn justice, he


But to to-morrow. There was nothing but rap-
did not often employ those crude con- pings and music to-day. They are boring,
trivances, for his telepathic and thought- and also they are dangerous, for one may
reading gifts were far more convincing to be detected at any time. And I got an in-
his sitters. Occasionally, however, his fernal blow on my knuckles from that
powers in this line used to fail him, and new electric tapper."
then, it must be confessed, he presented his Julia laughed.
Egyptian control in the decorations of the "I know. I heard it," she said. "There
Egyptian hall as controlled by Messrs. was quite a wrong noise in one of the taps
"
Maskelyne & Cooke. as we were spelling out 'silver wing.'
Such was the general scheme of pro- He lit his cigarette, frowning at the
cedure when Richard Waghorn, with his smoke.
sister as accomplice in case mechanical "That 's the worst of my profession,"
tricks were necessary, undertook to re- he said. "On some days I can get right
veal the spirit world to the material world. inside the mind of the sitter, and, as you
They were a pleasant, handsome pair of know, bring out the most surprising in-
young people, gifted with a manner that, formation; on other days— to-day,
but
if anything, disarmed suspicion too much, for and
instance; there have been
and while futile old gentlemen found it —
many such lately there 's a mere blank
quite agreeable to sit in the dark holding wall in front of me. I shall lose my posi-
Julia's firm, cool hand, similarly consti- tion if it happens often nobody will pay ;

tuted old ladies were the recipients of thrill- my fees only to hear spirit-rappings and
ing emotions when they held Richard's, generalities."
the touch of which, they declared, was "They 're better than nothing," said
strangely electric. There they sat while Julia.
Richard, breathing deeply and moaning in "Very little. They help to fill up, but
his simulated trance, was the mouthpiece of I hate using them. Don't you remem-
Mentu and told them things which, but for ber, when we began investigating, just
his indubitable gift of thought-reading, it you and I alone, how often we seemed on
was impossible for him to know or, if ; the verge of genuine supernatural mani-
the power was not coming through prop- festations? They appeared to be just
erly, they listened, hardly less thrilled, to round the corner."
spirit-rappings and musical boxes and un- "Yes; but we never turned the corner.
verifiable information about the conditions We never got beyond mere thought-
of life where the mortal coil hampers no reading."
longer. It was all very interesting and He got up.
soothing and edifying. And then there "I know we did n't, but there always
suddenly came an irruption of something seemed a possibility. The door was ajar:
wholly unexpected and inexplicable. it was n't locked, and it has never ceased
Brother and sister were dining quietly to be ajar. Often when the mere thought-
one night after a busy, but unsatisfactory, reading, as you call it, is flowing along
day when the tinkling summons came from most smoothly, I feel that if only I could
the telephone, and Richard found that a abandon my whole consciousness a little
quiet voice, belonging, so it said, to Mrs. more completely, something, somebody,
'THROUGH' 323
would really take control of me. I wish auxiliary paraphernalia in case the gen-
it would and yet I 'm frightened of it.
; uine telepathy was not on tap. So with
It might revenge itself for all the frauds voice dreamier than before and with
I 've perpetrated in its name. Come, let 's slower utterance as he was supposed to
play piquet and forget about it all." be beginning to sink into trance, he just
said
It was settled that Julia should be present "I can't foretell the manner in which
next day when the stranger came for her they may choose to make their presence
sitting, in order, if Richard's thought- known."
reading was not coming through any He gave one loud rap, which perfectly
better than it had done lately, that she conveyed the word "No" to his sister, in-
should help in the rappings and the lumi- dicating that the conjuring tricks were not
nous patches and the musical box. Mrs. to be used. Subsequently, if really neces-
Gardner was punctual to her appointment, sary, he could rap"Yes" to her, and the
a tall, quiet, well-dressed woman who music and the magic lights would be dis-
stated with perfect frankness her object in played. Then he began to breathe quickly
wishing for a seance and her views about and in a snorting manner, to show that
spirit-communication. the control was taking possession of him.
"I should immensely like to believe in "My brother is going into trance very
spirit-communications," she said, "such as quickly," said Julia, and there was dead
I am told you are capable of producing; silence.
but at present I don't." Almost immediately a clear and shin-
"It is important that the atmosphere ing lucidity spread like sunshine, after
should not be one of hostility," said Wag- Waghorn's brain.
these days of cloud, over
horn in his dreamy, professional manner. Every moment he found himself knowing
"I bring no hostility," she said. "I am more and more about this complete stranger
in a state, shall we say, of benevolent who sat with hand touching his. He felt
neutrality, unless" — and she smiled in' a his subconscious brain, which had lately
charming manner— "unless benevolent lain befogged and imperceptive, sun itself
neutrality has come to mean malevolent under the brilliant clarity of illumination
hostility. That, I assure you, is not the that had come to it, and in the impressive
case with me. I want to believe." She bass in which Mentu was wont to give
paused a moment. vent to his revelation he said
"And may I say this without offense?" "I am here; Mentu is here."
she asked. "May
you that spirit-I tell He felt the table rocking beneath his
rappings and curious lights and sounds of hands, which surprised him, since he had
music do not interest me in the least?" exerted no pressure on it, and he supposed
They were already seated in the room that Julia had not understood his signal,
where the seance was to be held. The and was beginning the conjuring tricks.
windows were thickly curtained, there was One hand of his was in hers, and by the
only a glimmer of light from the red lamp, pressure of his finger-tips in code he con-
and even this the spirits would very likely veyed to her, "Don't do it." Instantly
desire to have extinguished. If this visitor she answered back, "I was n't."
took no interest in such things, Waghorn He paid no more heed to that, though
felt that he and his sister had wasted their the table continued to oscillate and tip in
time in adjusting the electric hammer a very curious manner, for his mind was
(made to rap by the pressure of the foot steeped in this flood of images that im-
on a switch concealed in the thick rug pressed themselves on his brain.
underneath the table) behind the sliding- "What shall Mentu tell you to-day?"
panel, in stringing across the ceiling the he went on, with pauses between the
invisible wires on which the luminous sentences. "Some one has come to con-
globes ran, and making ready all the sult Mentu. It is a lady, J can see her.
324 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
She wears a locket round her neck, with called her Q— he called her Queenie.
a piece of black hair under glass between Will Queenie speak?"
the gold." Waghorn felt the trembling of her

He felt a slight jerk from Mrs. hand he heard her twice try to speak,
;

Gardner's hand, and in finger-tip code but she was unable to control the trem-
said to Julia, "Ask her." bling in her voice.
Julia whispered across the table "Can Denys speak to me?" she said
"Is that so?" thenin a whisper. "Can he really come
"Yes," said Mrs. Gardner, and Wag- here?"
horn heard her take her breath quickly. Up to this moment Waghorn had been
He remembered that she was not in
just enjoying himself immensely, for after the
mourning; but that made no difference. days in which he had been unable to get
He knew, not guessing, that Mrs. into touch with his rare and marvelous
Gardner wished to know something from gifts of consciousness-reading, it was bliss-

the man or woman on whose head that ful to find his mastery again, and, be-
hair once grew which was contained in the sieged with the images which Margaret
locket that rested unseen below her Forsyth's contact revealed to him, he had
buttoned jacket. Then the next moment been producing them in Mentu's impres-
he knew also that this was a man's hair. sive voice, reveling in his restored powers.
Thereafter the flood of sun and certain Her mind lay open to him like a book;
mental impressions poured over him in he could read where he liked on pages
spate of sunlit waters. familiar to her and on pages which had
"She wants to know about the boy remained long unturned. But at this
whose hair is in the locket. He is not a moment, sudden as some qualm of sick-
as
boy now. He is, according to earth's ness, he was aware of a startling change
eyes, a grown man. There is a D I see ; in the quality of his perceptions. Fresh
a D. Not Dick, not David. There is a knowledge of Denys Bristow came into
Y. It is Denys. Not Saint Denys, not his mind, but he felt that it was coming
French. English Denys— Denys Bris- not from her, but from some other source.
tow." Some odd buzzing sang in his ears, as
He paused a moment, and heard Mrs. when an anesthetic begins to take effect,
Gardner whisper: and opening his eyes, he thought he saw a
"Yes; that is right." strange patch of light, inconsistent with
Waghorn gave vent to Mentu's jovial the faint illumination of the red lamp,
laugh. hovering over his breast. At the same
"She says it is right," he said. "How moment he heard, though dimly, for his
should not Mentu be right? Perhaps head was full of confused noise, the
Mentu is right, too, when he says that violent rapping of the electric hammer,
Denys is her brother? Yes; that is and already only half-conscious, felt an im-
Margaret Bristow who sits here. Not potent irritation with his sister for em-
Margaret Bristow. Margaret
— ploying these tricks. He struggled with
Waghorn saw the name quite clearly, the oncoming of the paralysis that was
but yet he hesitated. It was not Gardner swiftly invading his mind and his physical
at all. Then it struck him for the first being, but he struggled in vain, and next
time that nothing was more likely than moment, overwhelmed with the onrush of
that Mrs. Gardner had adopted a a huge, enveloping blackness, he lost con-
pseudonym. He went on : sciousness altogether. The trance that he
"Margaret Forsyth is Denys's sister. had often simulated had invaded him, and
Margaret wants to know about Denys. he knew nothing more.
Denys is coming. He will be here in a
moment. He has spoken of his sister be- Hli came to himself again, with the feel-
fore. He did not call her IMargaret. He ing tiiat he had been recalled from some
"THROUGH" 325
vast distance. Still unable to move, he feel sure that I shall find just what Denys
sat listening to the quick panting of his described. May I telephone to you about
own breath before he realized what the it at once?"
noise was. from which the
His face, "Yes, pray do," said Julia. "We shall
sweat poured on some-
in streams, rested be most anxious to hear."
thing cold and hard, and presently, when Richard got up to show her out, but
he opened his eyes, he saw that his head having regained his feet, he staggered, and
had fallen forward upon the table. He collapsed into his chair again. IVIrs.

felt utterly exhausted and yet somehow Forsyth would not hear of his attempting
strangely satisfied. Some amazing thing to move just yet, and Julia, having taken
had happened. her to the door, returned to her brother.
Then as he recovered himself he began It was usual for him, when the sitting
to remember that he had been reading was over, to feign great exhaustion, but
Mrs. Gardner's, or Mrs. Forsyth's, mind the realism of his acting to-day had al-
when some power external to himself took most deceived her into thinking that some-
possession of him, and on his left he heard thing not yet experienced in their seances
Julia's voice speaking very familiar words: had occurred. Besides, he had said such
"He is coming out of his trance," she and extraordinary things.
strange, detailed,
said. "He will be himself again in a He was where she had left him, and
still

moment now." there could be no reason, now that they


With a sense of great weariness he were alone, to keep up this feigned
raised his head, disengaged his hands from languor.
those of the two women, and sank back in "Dick," she said, "what 's the matter?
his chair. And what happened? I could n't under-
"Draw back the curtains," he said to stand you at all. What did you say all
Julia, "and open the window. I am those things for?"
suffocating." He stirred and sat up.
She did as he told her, and he saw the "I 'm better," he said. "And it is you
red rays of the sun near to its setting pour who have to tell me what happened. I
into the room, while the breeze of sunset remember up to a certain point, and after
refreshed the air. On his right still sat that I lost consciousness completely. I

Mrs. Forsyth, wiping her eyes, and smil- remember thinking you were rocking the
ing at him and having opened the
; table,and I told you not to."
window, Julia came back to the table, "Yes; but T was n't rocking it. I

looking at him with a curious, anxious in- thought you were."


tentness. "Well, it was neither of us, then," said
Then Mrs. Forsyth spoke. he. "I was vexed because Mrs. Gardner
"It has been too marvelous," she said. — Mrs. Forsyth had said she did n't want
"I cannot thank you enough. I will do that sort of thing, and I was reading her
exactly as you, or, rather, as Denys, told as I never read any one before. I told

me about the test; and if it is right, I will her about the locket and the black hair, I
certainly leave my house to-morrow, tak- got her brother's name, I got her name
ing my servants with me. It was so like and her nickname Queenie. Then she
Denys to think of them, too." asked if Denys could really come, and at
To Waghorn this meant nothing what- that moment something began to take pos-
ever ; she might have been speaking He- session of me. I think I saw a light as
brew to him. But Julia, as she often did, usual over my breast, and I think I heard
answered for him. a tremendous rapping. Did you do either
"My brother knows nothing of what of those, or did they really happen?"
happened in his trance," she said. Julia stared at him a moment in silence.
Mrs. Forsyth got up. "I did neither of those," she said; "but
"I will go straight home," she said. "I they happened. You must have pressed
326 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
the breast-pocket switch and trod on the with a gold safety-pin set with a pearl.
switch of the hammer." He had bought it for her birthday present,
He opened his coat. and had hidden it there till the day came.
"I had not got the breast-pocket switch," He was killed, as I told you, two days be-
he said, "and I certainly did not tread on fore. And she, half sobbing, half laugh-
the hammer-swMtch." ing, said, 'O Denys, how deliciously se-
"
Julia moved her chair a little closer to cretive you used to be!'
him. "And is that what she is going to tele-
"The hammer did not sound right," she phone about?" asked Waghorn.
said. "It was ten times louder than I "Yes, Dick. ^Vhat made you say all
have ever heard, and the light was quite that?"
different somehow. was much brighter.
It "I don't know, I tell you. I did n't
I could see everj^thing in the room quite know I said it. And was
She that all?
distinctly. Go on, Dick." said something about leaving her house
"I can't. That 's all I know until I to-morrow and taking the servants. What
came to, leaning over the table and bathed did that mean?"
in perspiration. Tell m.e what happened." "You got very much distressed. You
"Dick, do you swear that is true?" she told her she was in danger. You said —
asked. Julia paused again. "You said there was
"Certainly I do. Go on." something coming, fire from the clouds,

"The light grew,


and then faded again and a rending. You said her country
to a glimmer," she said, "and then sud- house, which I gathered was down some-
denly you began to talk in a different where near Epping, would be burst open
voice: it was n't Mentu any longer. Mrs. by the fire from the clouds to-morrow
Forsyth recognized it instantly, and I night. You made her promise to leave it

thought what wonderful luck it was that and take the servants with her. You said
you should have hit on a voice that was her husband was away, which again is the
like her brother's. Then
it and she had a case. And she asked if you meant Zep-
long talk must have lasted half an hour.
; it pelins, and you said you did."
They reminded each other how Den> s had Waghorn suddenly got up.
" "
come to live with her and her husband on 'You meant,' 'you said,' 'you did,'
their father's death. He was only eighteen he cried. "What if it 's 'he meant.' 'he
at the time and still at school. He was said,' 'he did'?"
killed in a street accident, being run over "It 's impossible," she said.
by a bicj'cletwo days before her birth- "Good Lord! what 's impossible?" he
day. All this was correct, and I thought asked. "What if I really, am that which
I never heard you mind-reading so clearly I have so long pretended to be? What if

and quickly; you hardly paused at all." I am a medium, one who is the mysterious
Julia was silent a moment. bridge between the quick and the dead ?

"Dick, don't you really know what I 'm frightened, but I 'm bound to sa\-
followed ?" she asked. I 'm horribly interested. All that you tell

"Not in the smallest degree," he said. me I said when I was in trance never
"Well,I thought you had gone mad," came out of Mrs. Forsyth's mind. It

she said. "Mrs. Forsyth asked for a test, was n't there. She did n't know about the
something that was not known to her, and pearl pin she had never known it.
; Nor
never had been known to her, and you had I ever known it. Where did it come
gave it instantly. You laughed, Den}s from, then? Only one person knew, the
laughed, the voice that spoke laughed, and boy who died ten years ago."
told her to look behind the row of books "It yet remains to be seen whether it

beside the bed in the was still


room that is true," said she. "We shall know in an
known as Denys's room, and she would hour or two, for she is motoring straight
find tucked awa\- a little cardboard box down to her house in the countr\-."
ON THE WHARVES, SUNDAY AFTERNOON 327
"And if it turns out to be true, icho was Soon the voice came through.
talking?" said he. "Mr. Waghofn?" it said.
"Yes."
The sunset faded into the dusk of the "I have found the box in exactly the
clear May evening, and the two still sat place described. It contained what we
there waiting for the telephone to inform had been told it would contain. I shall
them whether the door which, as Wag- leave the house, taking all the servants
horn had had seemed so often ajar,
said, away, to-morrow."
and never quite closed, was now thrown
open, and light and intelligence from an- Two mornings later the papers contained
other world had shone on his unconscious news of a Zeppelin raid during the night
mind. Presently the tinkling summons on certain Eastern counties. The de-
came, and with an eager curiosity, below tails given were vague and meager, and
which lurked that fear of the unknown, no names of towns or villages where
the dim, mysterious land into which all bombs had been dropped were vouchsafed
human creatures pass across the closed to the public. But later in the day
frontier, he went to hear what news private information came to Waghorn that
awaited him. Forsyth Hall, near Epping, had been com-
"Trunk call," said the operator, and he pletely wrecked. No lives, luckily, were
listened. lost, for the house was ernpty.

.On the Wharves, Sunday Afternoon


By DEANE WHITTIER COLTON

THE harbor swell, that surge of long, ^ray miles,


Eddies and sucks at the kelp on dockyard piles
A battered tramp of ancient, Old-World lines
Against the string-piece shoves her nose and whines
And frets for freedom. Nor can shadow hide
The which peeling open on her side
paint,
In gaining sores, shows in the outer skin
The sluggish inactivity within.
Brown rust-paths, with their ever-trickling streams
Of bilge, link port to wave. Senile, she dreams
Of blue lagoons, of alien slips, world marts.
While from some open hatchway faintly starts
The smell of drying fruit. A rat, half seen.

Gains by a rope the under-wharf 's cool green ;

The wharf-planks, splintered by the rending feet


Of great draft-horses, in the pulsing heat
Of breathless noon begin to ooze black lines
Of tar, which creep in wavering, strange designs;
And everywhere the droning, high-pitched hum
Of green-backed carrion-flies that loudly come.
Zigzagging a crazy course in endless quest.
To light and rise and finally sink to re^t—
A murmurous throng that films the overflow
Of gum spilled on a truck two days ago.
/^

Washington the Incredible


By ROLLIN LYNDE HARTT
Author of "New York, the National Stepmother," etc.

FLAGSTAFFS; three gilded eagles poles; majestic temples sheltering the de-
gleaming aloft ; a ripple of red, white, partments ; a sky-piercing, pale-gray obe-
and blue; a monument, half bell-like, half with peep-holes at its tip all these
lisk, —
mound-like yonder an open
;
plain, and in you had foreseen, but not the headlong
the distance three pearly silhouettes of commercialism, or the little red school-
buildings, one supreme in its joyous, colon- houses on yellow wheels trundling sight-
naded immensity, thrusting heavenward seers hither and yon, or the hundred thou-
the noblest and stateliest of all soaring sand negroes whose political riots led Con-
domes— this is your first glimpse of Wash- gress to disfranchise the entire District,
ington. or the village-like atmosphere that wins
Framed in an archway of the station, and caresses you. Within fifteen minutes
what a picture! You bareh' suppress a you feel that you have lived in Washing-
cheer; for we go to Washington very ton as many years, and strangers at the
much as we salute the flag or as we spring hotel seem convinced that you have, so
toour feet when a band plays the national intentl\ do they stare, hoping to identify
anthem. Once there, we feel an exultance )ou with some statesman half-toned in the
of anticipations more than realized. No newspapers.
other capital flings itself upon the visitor Now, since every patriot begins his
so instantaneously; no other city dramatizes more intimate explorations by going afoot
itself with half this dazzling effectiveness. from the Capitol to the White House.
Away spins your taxi. You have named >ou set forth in high spirits; and, alas!
your hotel, adding instinctively, "But first here beginneth the second lesson. Pure
run past the Capitol." Nearer, taller, marble in your fancy, the Executive Man-
more exquisitely graceful looms the match- sion screams with white paint, as only
less dome. Your heart leaps. In Amer- paint could hide the marks of fire after
ica we have no monarch to link adminis- the visit of our attentive British cousins in
tration with administration that dome is ; 1814. Pennsylvania Avenue, in your ex-
king. pectation the Broadway of Washington,
Vistas; statuary; a profusion of shade- is more or less its Bowery, since proprie-
trees; broad avenues immarred by trolley- tors, aware tiiat the Government will soon

328
THE IiAST 1-RON r OF THE CAP,
Lithograph h y Joseph Pennell

take over their holdings, see no object in ago. The composition falls apart and dis-
improving them. Dowdy hotels bid for appoints, rousing a hot fluster of esthetic
lodgers at fifty cents a night ; twenty-five. indignation. There was excuse for paint;
even. Shop-windows teem with souve- but not the slightest for wings in Massa-
nirs: the Capitol on brass slippers, the chusetts marble, sure to turn gray and
Capitol on silver puppies, the Capitol on matching the paint no more in texture
patriotic dust-pans, the Capitol illumined than in tone.
with mother-of-pearl. Chop-suey resorts You go in by a painfully insignificant
abound. On the way to his inauguration door; but this, you remember, is not the
each new President passes a "home of bur- Capitol's front, and thereby hangs a tale
lesque," a penny arcade, a tattooist's for Washington set out to grow eastward,
studio, and the shrine where a "beautiful fell among real-estate speculators, balked
lady palmist" reveals your name. And yet at their extortionate prices, wheeled right
at the end of this amazing thoroughfare about face, and grew westward instead.
rises the matchless dome that crowns the Up 3'onder the statue of armed Liberty
Capitol, which crowns a lordly eminence. shows its back to the city.
There, surely, you \\-ill regain }our first Just within the entrance a doorkeeper
elation. in plain clothes lays a foot on his desk.
Do you, though? Fine old sycamores You and the next mo-
cross a vestibule,
line the approach to a marble staircase. ment stand beneath ineffable dome,
the
There are broken slabs on the landings, and could tear your hair and weep. In
and green drip from bronze charmingly a vast and gaunt rotunda there lurks a
discolors the balustrades, while dense ivies dusty, gray-brownish sadness where radi-
and rich clusters of dark, glistening mag- ance and glory and high splendor should
nolias lend a grateful picturesqueness ; but be. Immense canvases display a style that
the faqade above white paint again, ex-
is was copied by chromo-lithography, and for
cept for dull gray wings which, newer which mankind banished chjomo-lithog-
than the rest, failed of their share in the raphy from the earth's surface. A colossal
cousinlv attentions bestowed a centur\- head of Lincoln, admirable, but misplaced,
330 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
rests upon a marble block, which rests Poor America! Seeking the sublime,
upon the floor ; inference, the guillotine. attaining the feebly ridiculous. But the
In the painted frieze you behold a person- corridor leads straight to the National
age with three arms, and question a House of Representatives, where solemni-
stranger. Yes, he, too, sees it. Such ties are about to begin. With its reward

•calamities to happen here, of all places! at hand, why resent the preliminary haz-
Away with them ! They are not yet sacred, ing? You have blushed for your country;
for the dome itself reached completion only now, so you trust, will come thrills.

in 1865. At a word from Congress (speed You mount to the gallery that frames
the day!) its rotunda will glow with an immense hall. Spectators sit waiting
beauty and outrival the very Invalides. there, lost in admiration of its dismally
A corridor leads to what Washingto- stenciled walls, the crude little pictures in
nians have conservatively christened the its glass roof, and its murky, demoded air
"Chamber of Horrors." State worthies of-shall I '—boarding-house gran-
in marble or bronze, in all sizes, all atti- deur.
tudes, all costumes,and surmounting ped- A dozen bitterly prosaic congressmen
estals of all colors, shapes, and sizes, enter chattering. The sergeant-at-arms,
throng the edges of an enormous semicir- nonchalantly coddling a rather small and
cular room. Illinois immortalizes Miss rather sheepish-looking mace, enters. That
Frances E. Willard. Virginia, with touch- bauble he sets more or less upright against
ing fidelity, erects a statue of Lee. At the a white marble tribune that rises in stages.

general's feet lies a wreath of fresh flow- The Speaker enters unattended, wearing
ers. So far, interesting; but the jumble of a business suit. He mounts the tribune,
haphazard images suggests an auction, and and stands at its summit beneath a mag-
j'ou listen for "Going! going! gone!" And nificent, gold-starred United States flag,

how your heart goes out to those mani- while the mace takes a loftier perch than
festly unenticing effigies of Glick, Gorrie, at first, and officials in business suits range
Kirkwood, Curry, CoUamer, and Shoup themselves upon the white marble stages
M4/ ^^f^^P'^ '"'mnr.

i'^m "V w»'«g? 4.--

//^'^I — ^^-^^ «-. ^-^ ---^ ..„ .,„ .. .^^^^


' -.^^^^^- '
I I
uinnij
ii
o i wi T
)iiiiM8t* li wo i II III iriwiii ii ii

THE STEPS AND TERRACE OF THE WEST FRONT OF THE CAPITOL


Lithograph by Joseph Peiniell

below. The mingling of pomp and tweeds Rut the Senate, the suave, learned Sen-
recalls Mr. Chesterton's warning, "Give ate, renowned for its decorum and more
the king a crown, but don't give him half than unctuous courtesy, at least remains,
a crown." Thither you hasten, to find the Vice-
The Speaker thumps mightih" with a President arrayed in a ceremonious black
huge gavel, commanding order. During cutaway and enthroned in solitary dig-
an extempore prayer by the chaplain the nity upon a rostrum resembling a judge's,
twelve congressmen stand, with heads while order reigns throughout the cham-
bowed. Then to work amid pandemo- ber. Does it always? I quote from the
nium; the instant a member rises to ad- "Congressional Record":
dress the House, it is a signal for loud-
voiced conferences. This grows. Several ^^R- Vardaman : "It is difficult to hear

additional congressmen arrive, vociferating ^^^ senator. Would it be too great a strain

as they come; the Speaker plies his gavel; "PO" ^is vocal cords to speak loud enough

demented urchins streak to and fro; and to be heard above the din?"
scarcely twenty intelligible words can you ^^^- Kenyon: "I am willing to speak
hear. But the orator takes it all in good 'o"d enough to be heard above an ordinary

part. What cares he for the four hundred ^'"' but not above the usual senatorial din."

empty seats or for the members who con-


verse in heavy tones or for the few who At present, however, you count barely
unfold their newspapers? Years ago a eleven senators. Are more on the
there
statesman from Buncombe County, North ^^ay? Should a bell ring— but a famous
Carolina, noticed that his fellow-congress- senator has explained this to a nicet\- in
men were leaving while he spoke. "Leave, explaining a recent misadventure:
the whole pack of you," said he; "I 'm
only talking for Buncombe." There are When the bell rings, I come down from
many Buncombes. Yonder silver-tongued my committee-room, where I work from
orator hails from one, and it hears. six to eight hours a day attending to my
?31
332 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
correspondence and other things for my con- matter how many cities, there was never
stituents, and answer to my name if it is a club like this. It is an academy, an in-
, a roll-call and vote if it is a vote. I inquire stitut. By indirection your Government
of some senator upon whom T think I can made it. Despite the dearth of genius on
rely as to what the question to he voted on Capitol Hill, Congress has founded in

is. In this instance I voted "No" when I Washington a colony of most charming
wanted to vote "Aye." savants. You call to mind the Scottish
professor of divinity who ministered to a
Not long since a senator desired the village kirk and, feeling indisposed one
Senate reallj' to hear him. Complaining Sunday, sent a theologue as substitute ; for
of no quorum, he demanded a roll-call, then it was that Deacon Kiltie ]\IacFar-
and in poured the absentees. While they thing said of the professor, "He maun be
were departmg he gave them two para- a kight honest mon to turn oot preachers
graphs, then talked of other matters. better than himsel'."
Again he bewailed no quorum. A second How strangely mercurial you become!
roll-call fetched them back. During the and then joker,
Idealist, cynic, enthusiast,

next hejira he gave them two paragraphs you lean at last toward tolerance; thanks
more. By keeping that up, in a kind of to good company and good cheer, you can
serialized recessional, he eventually said almost forgive Congress. Are its eccen-
his entire say. But this morning's senator tricities worse, really, than those of other
exhibits no such spunk. Like the congress- parliaments? Members wear hats in the
man, he is "only talking for Buncombe." Commons. Members doze in the Lords.
Enough of all that! You bolt. Members cry "Canaille!" in the Deputies,
Through unlovely corridors you go, be- Members pull noses at Budapest. Mi\
neath mediocre paintings in Brobdignag- BritUng was right: all governments,
ian frames, and past committee-rooms looked at closely, are incredible. In certain
the mural wonders of which affront the noteworthy respects our own has im-
intelligence no less than they affront the proved. It no longer pollutes mosaics with
eye. In grim sincerity you could write: tobacco-juice. It seldom cracks a head.
"My dear Uncle Sam: I have seen your Not for years has a page carried that once-
Capitol. O my dear Vncle Sam!" frequent message, "The Speaker's compli-
Sunshine, open air, then a visit to the ments to Mr. , and will he please
Congressional Library, and a rebound take down his feet?" Deserted seats there
from aggrieved dejection. What a pal- are, and uproar and "talking for Bun-
ace! Devoid of fusing grace, it is true, combe"; but consider. By preference the
and much too garish within, where chrome Senate performs its real work in commit-
clashes with vermilion, and both with the tee-rooms; of necessity the House does.
chill bluish-white of gleaming marble, yet "Sir," quoth Bourke Cockran, "this House
overflowing with exquisite details. Those is organized for disorder and incapacity.

Shirh Those Alexanders Those en- ! Look at it. Distances are such that con-
chanted, gracious Vedders! versation is rarely regarded as an inter-
And now back through the city. Your ruption. In the resulting confusion it is

Government made that. A planned city, impossible to follow or understand the


it achieves what other villcs d'art only proceedings,"
strive for. grows finer
Architecturally, it History relates that when Charles
year by year, for taste improves wonder- Lamb heard that no mother would allow
fully. You are proud of America, proud, her daughter' to read "Rosamund Gray,"
and only the more so when an old acquaint- he cried: "Hang the age! I '11 write for
ance bobs up (Washington is the City of antiquity." In a like spirit a congressman,
Long-lost Cronies) and takes you to lunch with salvos of unquenchable verbosity in
at the Cosmos Club. No matter how him and no one to listen, might exclaim:
many clubs you may have known, in no "Hanti the House! I '11 talk for Bun-
p3^V?;i;:f"^¥:^5£r^';^:^t*?^«^;?v»f ?"-»;.-;;;'

C'^^^.

IHW FKUM THE ThkKACh, LuuKlNG N\


Drawing by Jules Guerin

combe." Yet it is not by any means thus Strangely lifelike the "speechless speech"
that he reasons, though he comes out at may After a recent widows' pen-
appear.
the same door. Observe him. sion bill had sped through without roll-
Within every congressman's breast call or debate and become irrevocably a

flames a vi^hite-hot yearning for reelection. law, congressmen voted themselves five
But fate has bound him hand and foot legislative days in which to "extend their
immobilized at the Capitol, he cannot remarks in the 'Record.' " Result, an
roam up and down his Buncombe, "point- ex post facto outpouring of persuasiveness
ing with pride," "viewing with alarm," enriched with such heart-throbs as "Let
and displaying his "famous vote-getting us pass this bill and be just!" and "Mr.
smile." Nor can he hope to mimeograph Speaker, coming now to the immediate
letters enough or sprinkle free seeds bill before the House, let us pass it, not

enough. Yet, behold ! Custom bids him as partizans, but as patriots!" However,
excogitate his campaign speeches at Wash- congressional ingenuity can outdo even
ington, thunder them
House, have in the that. When a member iiappens upon a
them printed in the "Record," folded poem, an article, or an editorial fore-
without charge, tucked into eleemosynary ordained to wheedle votes, he imagines it

envelops, and franked to his adorers. A his "ex-tension of remarks," gives it an in-

merry old soul is old Uncle Sam, and a troductory, albeit speechless, puff, inserts
merry old soul is he, even encouraging it in the "Record," and has it distributed
representatives to brighten the "Record" free throughout his bailiwick.
with those "speechless speeches" that fig- There is something deliciously small-
ure as appendices in the daily issue, but as boyish about an outsider's adventures in
addresses actually delivered before an awe- Washington. You feel like Old Sleuth.
struck House in the "home edition." If After a few weeks, you can actually con-
a congressman writes "applause" after a struct a worm's-eye view of Washington
rounded period, then in goes "applause." as seen by some innocent congressman ex-
333
334 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
posed for the first time to the dangers of a minious "mawsh" member. You know the
great capital. pretty word ? from the initials
It derives
No doubt the immortal George and his of "might as well stay home."
high counselor Major L'Enfant would Drop a tear for our innocent congress-
turn over in their graves at the bare sug- man. Morally, he cannot afford to stand
gestion of dangers besetting our precious in with the machine politically, he cannot
;

innocent. How solicitously' the}' took pains afford not to. Only thus will he enable
to protect him against violence, mob-pres- the Speaker to recognize him and "get on
sure, and the wiles of foreign princes good committees" and secure "a slice for his

With inspired prudence they established district" and feel confident of reelection.
the Government at a place unpeopled by He wavers. He has come to Washington
aliensand unlikely ever to be, a place re- with a bill neatly drafted. It represents
mote from large and overweening centers party pledges "back home." The cam-
of population, a place so planned that a paign was fought on that issue. The bill
few field-pieces on Capitol Hill could must pass. And all the while he has the
sweep radiating avenues with deadly fire. children on his mind, not to mention an
But there their foresight stopped. They ambitious dame known endearingly as
failed to protect him against temptations "ma."
that have come into being without blame She, too, feels "mawsh." In society at
to any one in particular and the abolition of Washington— or, at all events, in the so-
which it is not the business of any one in ciety of officialdom — women shine by the
particular to accomplish. In what follows light of men ; and while a congressman as
I intend no rebuke to our innocent congl'ess- such is not impossible, he is quite definitely
man ; I merely bewail his circumstances. improbable. So "ma" desires her lumi-
He has a very questionable little some- nary to increase his candle-power. Con-
thing on his conscience by the time he gressmen have become senators congress- ;

reaches Washington. An ancient law, en- men have been head-lined as "Presidential
acted in the days of stage-coaches and possibilities"and have been "groomed"
wayside inns, allots him twenty cents a and uproariously advertised. By dint of
mile for traveling expenses, and his wal- long service (and politeness to journalists)
let bulges with the overplus. Ought he congressmen have attained such world-
not to return it? If so, then where- is the wide celebrity that even Washington un-
grated window before which representa- bent.
tives form in a line to do the honest thing? Then, too, there is daughter. She trots
None exists. With a distinct squirm of from the Corcoran to the Smithsonian,
uneasiness, the congressman "keeps the from the Smithsonian to the superb new
change." National Museum. She has a private den
A much less ancient law allots him fif- at the library, drops in at the foreign
teen hundred dollars for clerk-hire. Some book-store, takes lessons, in Spanish, and
congressmen spend that and more, but the dreams of entering the life class at Zol-
majority economize, and profit nobly nay's. She haunts a feminist stronghold
thereby. With and in the
a straight face within view of the White House. Night
House itself a famous congressman said before last she danced with an attache of
recently of clerk-hire, "It is not the salary the Chinese embassy. She knows a Fili-
of a clerk ; it is an allowance to the mem- pino, three Cubans, a Liberian, and a duel-
ber." ist who, when prodded, owns up to baro-

But let that pass. An incomparably nial ancestors. Although she scorns tuft-
more subversive temptation assails him hunting, her letters home indicate a wav-
next. To his boiling disgust, he discovers ing, wind-blown opulence of exceedingly
that unless he surrenders his independence nice tufts. It would break daughter's
and "stands in with the machine" he is now heart to leave Washington it would break ;

and henceforth a helpless, lujpeless, igno- son's. It would break "ma's." Inciden-
VIEW VF THE WASH jTuN -MUN LME.NT AS SEl
Drawing by Jules Guerin

tall}', it would break our innocent con- "jokers," skulks in committee-rooms when
gressman's. to vote would mean "going on record,"
He likes "glory," and while the invalu- and considers himself "paired" for the
able "Hon." will stick to him through life, same heroic reason yet he is boldly out-
;

he dreads the anguish of hearing himself spoken in his allegiance to a rivers and
referred to before long as "former con- harbors bill that "approaches as near to
gressman." He and won-
likes his salary, perfect depravity as the infirmities of hu-
ders where else he could count on seventy- man nature will permit."
five hundred a year, with office-rent free I pause to retouch his portrait, which
and clerk-hire and mileage thrown in. has appeared a trifle too innocent from the
He likes the Capitol ; he likes the city, so first, since our congressman encounters
clean and burnished and radiant it looks, nothing at Washington that he has not
with its three hundred factories using gas already encountered in miniature at home.
engines or electricity, and its unspeakable He was a politician there. Long before
tenements all cleverly hidden away in rear his departure, gossip attributed to his ge-
courts. How it thrills him to live in a nius the maxim, "For 'public service' read
show-town 'public serve us.' " Dogging his career,
So the congressman capitulates. To get •one might soon amass material for "The
his bill through, he helps others get theirs Life and Crimes of an Innocent Congress-
through. He secures "a slice for his dis- man," though personally I should christen
trict" by rolling the harmless, necessary it "Somehow Good." That fits. The
log. Tiny hamlets receive monumental vast bulk of legislation at Washington is
post-offices; villages of no strategic emi- neither frivolous nor depraved.
nence recei\e "forts." Our hero inserts Nor can it be; for the day has ac-
336 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
tually arrived when partj^ platforms have worth. Uncle Sam had been an indi-
If
the dignity of contracts and when per- would not now be in business."
vidual, he
fidy spells "Go." If one chamber sets From month to month they peruse the
out to pull down the starry heavens, the "Searchlight on Congress." It tells of a
other takes fright them up
and props committee that has not held a meeting for
again; if both would pull them down, thirty-seven years. It tells of another that
then comes the Presidential veto. More- within seven days befriended four thou-
over, there sits a court of nine black-robed sand private pension claims, all of which
justices, and Congress dreads the chance liad previously been proved ridiculous by
that, after all the aching drudgery of en- the pensions department. It calls Con-
acting a law, the nine irreproachables may gress our "Supreme Court of Spoils."
find it unconstitutional. Moreover, from How can Washingtonians see what they
first to last Congress dreads the little gold see, hear what they hear, guess what they
gridirons in certain cravats at Washing- guess, and refrain from brandishing the
ton. 7 hey represent the press. So Con- red flag?
gress for the most part behaves. Fleeced Your mirror will give you the answer,
extensively, humbugged a little, and now or at least a hundred millionth thereof.
and then rasped, we sleep soundly o' Washingtonians believe in our institutions
nights, and by day there is business as because they believe in America. We
usual. wanted representative government. The
Hence, a Washington unique among Government we got represents us, and a
great capitals for its downright sensational Washingtonian is not at all seriously dis-
placidity. Berlin has its Liebknecht, and turbed when critics from abroad seem
shudders. Paris has its Orleanists, who skeptical. Nothing strikes him as funnier
post amazing handbills: "The hour has than a Frenchman's disparagement: "No
struck! Frenchmen, proclaim your king!" negroes in your Senate! Ah, fuessieurs,
London has its coteries disgusted with we order these things better in the France.
those upstart "tons of soil," its multitudes We have black senators toujours. From
disgusted with lordships who "have the colonies," unless, perchance, there may
merely taken the trouble to be born." Yet gleam a more pleasing comicality in an
all is quiet on the Potomac, where no one Englishman's interrogation, "I say, how
exclaims,"A fine morning; let us go out many bishops have you got in your House
and overthrow the Government!" Wash- of Lords?"
ingtonians believe in their Government Indeed, whole classes go unrepresented,
so implicitly that they feel free to poke if you accept the sample-case theory of
fun at it or gently chide it. representation. Not until 1916 was a wo-
Their faith abides, though sundry as- man elected to Congress. There are no
tonishing phenomena conspire to uproot Indians in the House. There is only half
it. They likewise have not forgotten an Indian in the Senate. And yet the
the department of agriculture's illustrated sample-case theory meets with a far too
report on mushrooms and toadstools, with languid acceptance in England, where Sir
every mushroom marked "Poison," every Lionel of Market Benham stands for elec-
toadstool marked "Edible." They have tion in Stoke Pogis or Wormwood Scrubs.
not forgotten the embalmed beef of ninety- So Washingtonians talk back. Our rep-
eight or the comment, "Be sicrity iv war resentatives at least represent localities;
if ye must, Hinnesy, but don't be sicrity and if foreigners berate our lack of a "re-
iv a war." They recall an epoch when sponsible government," meaning a cabinet
congressional pianos enjoyed free trans- doomed to becomes
resign the instant it

portation by mail. The other day they odious, the Washingtonian has seen many
read Mr. Morse's remarks on governmen- a cabinet officer sent "kiting" and more
tal bookkeeping:"No mortal knows what than one chief magistrate "snowed un-
the Government owns or how much it is der" in due course.
WASHINGTON THE INCREDIBLE 337
There are moments, to be sure, when ers have shared it. Said Aliinsterberg,
the supreme luxury of being a Washing- "The number of powerful and striking
tonian appears to consist in owning a gov- countenances to be seen in the House is

ernment and at the same time mildly de- greater than in the German Reiclistag."
spising it. With desperate seriousness the Indeed, Washingtonians believe that,
Sixty-second Congress changed the name for better or for worse. Congress even rep-
of Sixteenth Street to "the Avenue of the resents us morally. In the wrong mood
Presidents"; with a seriousness as desper- they describe us as a rabble of greedy, un-
ate Sixty-third Congress changed it
the principled communities eking out a shame-
back. Washingtonians jeered. Then, ful existence by robbing the cooperative
too. they encounter obstacles whenever clothes-line — robbing
it by proxy at that,

they would convince a President that, by making our honored deputies do the
since charity begins at home, he should pilfering, and threatening them with po-
sacrifice thecountry at large to the pri- litical electrocution if they fail.

vate, economic whimsicalities of Wash- But Washingtonians are not uniformly


ingtonians. Moreover, Washington teems as cross as all this. If they recognize our
with departmental clerks who cannot as shallowness, our weakness, and our mis-
yet read their titles clear to higher sala- guided selfishness, they recognize also our
ries and a Saturday half-holiday. They underlying honesty, and hold to a convic-
wail. All Washington hears them and tion that year by year we improve. For
vaguely sympathizes. ^leanwhile it hears so we do.
the slurring, disgruntled, sourly cynical And so do our representatives. When
term, "professional politicians." and harbors bill reached
last year's rivers

Professionals, are they? A race apart? the Senate, a well-known voice shouted,
A caste? In the nature of things quite "If the price of my seat is to vote for
dismally unrepresentative? The next mo- bills of this kind, then the seat may go!"
ment these same scoffers are crying, "Now In the House the Speaker actually
you see what comes of being governed by broached a plan to abolish "talking for
amateurs!" This states the truth pre- Buncombe" by abolishing the "Record."
cisely. Americans blunder into politics. And there arrived in Washington that
They begin as lawyers, reporters, school- wonder of wonders, an independent con-
masters, and what not
something hap-
; gressman. He belongs to no party. He
pens. The amateur on in them
spirit lives owns his soul. He will keep on owning
after thirty years in Congress a country it. In both wings of the Capitol he is

lawyer from Ohio is still a country law- envied.


yer from Ohio. Washingtonians know it; For a new spirit has^ begun to pervade
the m.ore they see of Americans, the more Congress. "Mr. President," declared a
they respect congressmen. senator, "I am not a seventh son of a sev-
Living in our only non-sectional city, enth son, but I risk the prophecy that
they view us through unprejudiced specta- there will never be another rivers and
cles as all America streams past their harbors bill like this of 1916." Members
doors: office-seekers, reformers, lobbyists, detest the policy of skinning Peter to tickle
travelers, convention-goers, scientists, and Paul. They detest log-rolling. They de-
men of afifairs big and little. Seeing us as test being mere attorneys for neighbor-
we are, Washingtonians never twit us hoods and men. They detest duplicity.
with being ruled by our inferiors. Then, They detest a system that reaches deci-
too, they see Europe. It comes to them. sions in committees and debates them
In summer, when Washington Eu- sizzles, afterward "for Buncombe." The Senate,
ropean capitals invite, and Washingtonians like the House, desires to become once
have a passion for studying governmental more a deliberative body.
systems abroad. They return with re- ^'our sojourn ends. \'ou stand again
newed admiration for ours. Even foreign- within the cream\-white archwav of the
338 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
station. As you turn and look back, is ever since. The real and wholly legiti-
there mockery in the three gilded eagles mate exultance comes now, for yonder a
gleaming against the sky? Or in the rip- city is building. There is as yet no Wash-
ple of red, white, and blue? Or in the ington ; there is only a project. By the
far-off, soaring dome? Not the least. same token, there is as yet no America. In-
You left home in a string-tie mood redo- stead, there is a project, original, daring,

lent of Webster's "Reply to Hayne." momentous. We struggle toward democ-


You arrived in a mood out-Fourth-of- racy. We shall win.

Julying the most glorious of Fourths. You What, then, have you seen? A hope, an
have had your emotional ups and downs experiment, and withal a great adventure.

-.,Ki^

THli WASHINGTUN MUxNUMli.N'l AND THE TERRACi; AS iEli\ IKO.M TIlli WHITE IIULSE
Drawing by Jules Gu^rin

The Graduate
By JOHN FLORANCE

OLDAutumn where you and


friend, I

has given to another heir,


were once at home.

And other feet come drumming up the stair


Where oft I waited for your feet to come.
We have gone by, and I shall never share
The music of your samovar at night,
Or on a morning full of April light
Come striding through the door and find you there.
But in the slow-returning dusk once more.
Less eagerly, less certain of my part,
I come with an old music
'11 in my lieart

Down Holyoke to that familiar door.


Knowing you have not entered it all day,
I shall go very quietly away.
J ane Sh ore
By HARVEY O'HIGGINS
Author of " Silent Sam," etc

Illustrations by F. R. Ginger

YOU know Jane


You know her as you
Shore, of
know Maude
course.
all.
That is to sav, vou do not know her at

Adams or Ethel Barrymore. Or Julia And a closer acquaintance would not


Marlowe. You know her features better altogether supplythe knowledge. \'ou
than you know your own. You have seen might have been making occasional notes
them oftener, on the bill-boards, in the on Jane Shore for more years than she
frames and stands of the theater lobbies, would care to admit,— sketch-pad notes of
in the dramatic columns of all the news- moods and glimpses, memoranda of dates
papers, on the magazine covers of most and anecdotes and biographical bits, jot-
of the news-stands, in silver frames in tings of character study and outlines of
jewelers' windows, in packages of cigar- portraiture, — and she might have assisted
ettes, with the flags of all nations and stage you gaily, as she surely would, supplying
favorites in tights, in the advertisements a new and illuminating reminiscence or a
of corsets and perfumes and talcum pow- more than ever ultimate pose or a fresh
ders and cold creams and such products contradiction, mischievously, as if adding
of the munition works of feminine pre- another cryptic rhyme to a charade that
paredness, on the bands of "Jane Shore" you were trying to guess, as interested —
cigars, in the handles of penknives and the as if Jane Shore were some stage role

bottoms of paper-weights and the tops of that you were helping her to study for the
candy boxes. And you have read about purpose of making clear and consistent her
her endlessly, everywhere, in the fictions public exposition of it, — and still you
of the press-agents, the competitive and would be puzzled. And so would she;
dissenting judgments of dramatic critics, as puzzled by herself, apparently, as you
the special articles of monthly experts, the were, and asking: "Well, have you got
gossip of the stage-gossipy, and the at- me? Tell me, who am I?" And de-
tributed repartee of the anecdotal. And lighted when you answered "No, you 're :

you have seen her in Thomas's "A Man 's nobody. You 're not there. You 've been
a Man," and Shaw's "Satan's Advocate," badly written by a playwright who had no
and Barne's "A Window in Thrums," character sense."
and Belasco's "Romeo and Juliet," and We are all, no doubt, different with
Channmg Pollock's "The World, the different people and at different times
Miss Montgomery," and
Flesh, and Little but Jane Shore is wilfully so, particularly
Galsworthy's "The Quality of Mercy," when she sees that she is being watched
and so forth. So that, all told, you know and to study her unnoticed is to make
her as you know Cleopatra from what the flash-lights of a night-hawk asleep on its
poets have mvented about her, or Hamlet eggs. It is unpossible to find any one
from what the authorities have not de- story of her that gives her inclusively. It
cided in their disputes about him, or Sar- is difficult to choose an incident that seems
gent from the portraits of other people wholly characteristic. The best you can
that he has painted. do is to offer your portfolio of pencil
1 Copyright, 19 1 7, by Harvey O'Hieeins. All rishta reserved.
340 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
studies, and say: "Glance over these. single rein in both hands and pulled on it

You '11 find one or two that you '11 recog- savagely. The horse leaped aside, the car-
nize." riage swooped into the ditch, a front
(At one time I had a dozen photographs wheel dished and broke at the hub, and
of her tacked up together over a book- they overturned. They were saved from
case, and invariably the stranger would being kicked to a pulp by the tugs break-
say: "Who are all the good-looking girls? ing and freeing the horse. When they
I recognize Jane Shore, but who are the picked themselves up from the mud, the
others?") girl, her face blazing with excitement,
Take, for instance, the earliest anecdote cried: "Daddy! Let 's do k again!"
that I have of her —
the story of how, at And the point is that she knew what
the age of six, she rode her pony into a she was saying and said it partly because
corner drug-store and demanded of the she really had enjoyed the excitement,
soda-fountain clerk that he serve her and partly to reassure his anxiety about her,
her Shetland with ice-cream soda. She and largely for what you might call the
did it with childish seriousness, and the dramatic effect. This she has admitted.
j'oung clerk humored her by pretending to That is to say, she has admitted that by
water the pony with fizzy drink while she some duality of mind, even at the age of
had her glass m the saddle. And you eight and in such a moment, she was capa-
might consider the incident typical of her ble of a theatricality.
imperious directness and unconventional- It is the more puzzling because she was
ity if there was not ground for suspicion evidently a frank and natural child She
that she knew what she was doing,
exactly was not precocious or seif-conscious. Nor
knew that the clerk would be amused by was she ever paraded in any public way by
it, and knew that the story would be rel- her parents. They were not stage people.
ished by her parents. Far from it. Her real name is Fanny
And the ground for this suspicion is Widgen. Her father was Matthew Wid-
found in the following consideration gen, a Philadelphia business man, a rice
Once, when she was no more than eight, importer, of Quaker descent. Her mother
she was out driving with her father, be- was the daughter of a Calvinist minister,
hind the fastest and most vicious of the of an old Huguenot family. And unless
young horses that he delighted to fight you blame the French blood of the great-
and master, when the breeching of the grandmother, there is no inheritance to
harness broke, and the frightened animal, account for temperament, artistry, and the
being butted into by the carriage, kicked stage.
back at the whippletree, broke one of the Jane Shore herself gives a curious ex-
shafts, put a hoof through the dash-board, planation of the origin of her career —
and then bolted, with the harness breaking more curious than credible. She says, that
anew at every plunge and the hanging mother developed
just before her birth her
shaft prodding him on. They were on a an unaccountable passion for the theater,
country road so deeply ditched that they and the staid Matthew, forced to humor
could not turn out of it into a fence ; they her, took a bo.x at every possible perform-
were approaching a bridge, and it was im- ance and sat stonily in the public eye,
probable that they would be able to cross with his wife concealed behind him. The
it safely, the carriage was swinging so future Juliet was all but born in that box.
from side to side. "Well, young lady," After her birth Matthew Widgen's aver-
her father said through his teeth, "I think sion to the stage as one of the open gates
we 're done." She clung to her seat in to hell prevailed again in his family, un-
silence. He saw a shallower part of the opposed. And when at the age of live
ditch ahead, where there was an open gate young Fanny was found standing on a
into the fields, fortunately on the opposite chair in front of a mirror whitening her
side from the broken shaft. He took a face v\'ith flour, it was with horror that
342 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
her mother cried, "I ve marked her for peculiar tragic hinterland of thought into
the theater!" which she retires at her most lively mo-
That is all very dramatic, -and it may be ments, unaccountably, with an air of al-
true, as far as it goes; but it omits to most cynical detachment when )'ou would
mention that Mrs. Widgen provided her least expect it. But that came later. As
daughter with lessons in singing and danc- the immediate result of her mother's
ing and the parlor arts of. water-color death, she was sent away from home, to
painting and piano-playing. It overlooks -
the Alisses Leslie's Select Boarding School
the encouragement that she gave her child for Young Ladies. There she remained
in the imaginative games which they en- for three years, chiefly distinguishing her-
joyed together, secretly, in the attic self as a leader in various dormitory es-
games that one time included a minia-
at capades and in the school's amateur the-
ture stage and elaborate costuming. It atricals, in which she generally played
fails, in short, to explain what is quite male parts, with a deep voice and a gal-
evident in ' Jane Shore's recollections of lant stride. Her success in organizing
her parents ;namely, that her mother was mischief ended by the ]\Iisses Leslie de-
a suppressed personality, kept palled in the manding with firm politeness that her fa-
shadow of her husband's rightepus domi- ther take her home and her success in the
;

nation, and making an unconscious revolt school gave her the idea of
theatricals
in the person of her ."daugjjter. If she going on the stage. When her father
"marked" her child for the theater, she received her, disgraced, in his library, she
did it, I mother of three
believe, as the turned the flank of his wrath at her ex-
solemn sons, oppressed by the tight- pulsion, characteristically, by announcing
mouthed ]\Iatthew, and turning involun- that she was done with school, anj^way,
tarily to the light and romance of the that she was going to be an actress. He
stage from the drab respectability of her sat grasping the arms of his library chair,
smothered life. To understand her, you like a ruler enthroned, confident of his
have only to see Jane Shore's photographs authority.
of her and her husband and their blank- "Never!" he said. "No more of that.
windowed, white-brick house, with its You '11 your mother's place here
take,

black metal deer on each side of its en- "Dad," she cut in, "you 've let me
trance-steps and the metallic-looking black have ni}' way too long to start bullying me
pines surrounding it. You will under- now. I 'm going on the stage."
stand why, as long as she lived, she never "Never!" he said, with a gesture of
allowed the girl to be checked in any finality. "Never!"
natural impulse or the expression of it. She folded her hands. "If you wanted
It happened, as it frequently happens, to do it, nobody in the \\orld could stop
that the father admired a spirit in his you. And I 'm like you."
daughter which he would have crushed His face hardened in a cold fury.
jealously in his wife. Fanny had inher- "You '11 not disgrace my name."
ited his strength of will ;he was proud of "I '11 change it," she said cheerfully.
"
it in her, and she had her way with him. "I 'm going to call myself 'Jane Shore.'
In fact, she did as she pleased with them "Not while I live," he shouted. "Not
all, including her horse-faced brothers, while I live."
whom she named after the three bears of "Well," she said, "jou can spend the
the fairy-tale. She began with the
life rest of your life fighting mc if you want
dominating spirit of privileged youth, and to, but I 'm going to do it."

it carried her far. And of course she did it. She took her
Her mother's death, when she was only mother's place as housekeeper for a month,
had an abnormal effect on her.
fifteen, and during that time she secretly pawned
It put a shadow permanently into the or sold everything that could be removed
background of her mind, established a from the house without being missed. She
JANE SHORE 343
put into her own purse all the money that then engaged to take a similar part, with
she could get for the household expenses a similar scream, in a melodrama by an
and she paid no She sent her trunk
bills. author whom
knew. It was his first
I

unnoticed to the railroad station, with accepted play. I went to hear him read it
the aid of a young gardener who was her to the company, on the stage where they
slave, and having dressed herself for a were to rehearse, and I was struck by the
drive, she took her satchel in her dog-cart, fact that in the semicircle of actors who
drove to an exchange stable where she was sat around him only two seemed to listen
known, sold the and her little mare
cart to the play. The others listened to the
for two hundred and bought her
dollars, speeches of their individual parts, coming
ticket for New York. That night she forward to these with their interest, so to
settled in a studio room on Twenty-third speak, like children to receive their pres-
Street, with a former classmate who was ents from a Christmas-tree, and examining
studying music. She had seven hundred the lines that they received, invidiously,
dollars. She had left her father the pawn- with one eye always on what the others
tickets and a letter addressed to "Dear were getting.
old Daddykins" and signed "Jane Shore." The two who seemed to be hearing the
It informed him, gaily, that as soon as her play as a whole were a little girl, who was
money ran out she would be back for evidently to take the role of the kidnapped
more. child, and a young woman in a dark street
She had chosen the name of "Jane gown, who listened with a consistent in-
Shore" because she had read Sir Thomas terest, her eyes always on the reader. She

More's description of the original Jane in wore a sort of three-cornered hat, and she
a history of famous court beauties which sat back in her kitchen chair, with one
she had borrowed from a room-mate arm outstretched to rest her hand on the
whose reading was secretly adventurous, knob-handle of her parasol, in the attitude
and she thought that the description fitted of a cavalier with his cane. She had an
her. So it did, somewhat and at least it; air of easy alertness, an air of intelligence,
shows what she was ambitious to be. an air of personality. Her place near the
It runs: "Proper she was, and faire: middle of the semicircle indicated that she
nothing in her body that you would have had only a small part in the play, for the
changed but if you would have wished principals sat at each extremity, near the
her somewhat higher. Yet delited not footlights, by some stage convention of
men so much in her bewty as in her pleas- precedence, and the others had arranged
ant behaviour. For a proper wit had she themselves in order of importance in the
and could both rede wel and write mery ; arc. (The star, of course, was not pres-
in company, redy and quick of aunswer, ent.) She did not strike me as remark-
neither mute nor f ul of bable sometimes ; ably beautiful — not until I saw her prop-
taunting without displeasure and not erly made up, in the glory of the pinks
without disport." and ambers of the foots. But there was,
Her vitality, her will, and her high as Sir Thomas More said, "nothing in
spirits carried her unwearied through the her body that you would have changed
obscure hardships of her first four years but you had wished her somewhat
if

of struggle as a chorus-girl, as a gay young higher" and greater height would have
;

widow in a musical comedy, as an ingenue handicapped her in her beginnings on the


in a Washington stock company, and fi- stage, where the men are rarely tall and
nally as the mother of a kidnapped child rarely willing to play opposite a woman
in a vaudeville act. She made a hit in the who dwarfs them.
last by virtue of one nerve-shattering, was probably her hat that gave me
It
shrill scream with which she lifted the the feeling that shewas a horse-woman,
audience from their seats when she found and this impression was confirmed when
that her babv had been stolen. She was the reading was finished and she rose to
344 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
walk about the stage with what used to be up the money for the play, had the first
called a "lissome" carriage, a supple- right to say what should be in the play
waisted and firm-shouldered bearing that for which he had put up the money.
obviously came from horseback-riding. I The stage-director, hired to rehearse the
remarked her to the playwright, using production, began immediately to suggest
some phrase about her "carriage," and changes in order to show that he was
when he introduced me to her he repeated worthy of his hire. The star attempted
it as an excuse for the introduction. not at all to subdue his personality to the
"Yes," she said, regarding us gravely part he had to play ; he busied himself sub-
"it got me my start in the profession." duing the part to his personality. And
He was called away by the stage-director, not merely that. He did not care whether
and I remained to ask her, "How was or not he was true to life ; he considered
that?" being already curious about her. only whether or not he was true to the
She replied demurely, "I sold it for a sympathies of his audience. He was the
hundred dollars," and left me puzzled. hero, and he would not say or do any-
It was not until I heard later of her thing that was not heroic. He had to
selling her dog-cart to leave home that I dominate every scene in which he shared
understood the pert creature had been the positions and the speeches of the other
punning. She apologized for it then by characters had to be arranged to show his
explaining that she had been nervous. dominance; and the whole play had to be
"I was frightened to death," she said. remolded to that end.
"It was my first engagement with a regu- It was one of those plays that have since
lar company, and I did n't know how to come to be called "crook melodramas."
behave." I do not believe a word of that. The hero of it was a desperado who had
I do not believe that she was ever fright- stolen a child. He was in love with the
ened in her life. Faro Nell of the gang. He contracted a
She left me, as I said, puzzled. She salutary passion for the mother of the
did not invite any further acquaintance, kidnapped girl, and under her influence he
and I did not seek the invitation. My reformed and he converted his fellow-
curiosity about her was lost for the time criminals. The author had been a police-
in a curiosity about the stage conditions court reporter before he became a the-
that appeared to my astonished apprehen- atrical press-agent, and his crooks were
sion as the rehearsals progressed ; and since real and their lines true, though his plot
those conditions have largely helped to was "bunk," as he admitted. It was sup-
make Jane Shore what she is, I should posed to show the saving influence of a.

like to indicate them briefly. "good, pure woman" upon the criminal
In the first place, I had supposed that mind.
the rehearsal of a play by a stage-director The star had already objected to talk-
and his company was like the rehearsal ing "thieves' slang," and his lines had been
of a musical composition by an orchestra rewritten. Now he objected to the unre-
and its conductor. I expected to hear it quited ending of his devotion to the child's
studied, practised, faithfully Interpreted. mother; so she was made a widow; she
I imagined that the author would rise at fell arms at the final curtain, and
into his
impatient intervals and say: "No, no. Faro Nell had to cherish the only un-
That is n't what I meant. Take it this requited passion in the play. This, how-
way." ever, left him
reformed criminal.
still a
Nothing of the sort. Quite the op- The author improvised for him a noble
posite. The author proved to be as little motive of revenge upon a world that had
important at the rehearsals of his work done him wrong, but it was not sufficient,
as a father at the birth of his baby. He "I '11 lose them," he said of the audience.
was lucky if they did not order him out of "I 'U lose them if I steal that child." The
the house. The producer, who had put diflliculty was overcome by making Faro
JANE SHORE 34.5

Nell take the actual guilt of the kidnap- even appealed to me as a friend of the
ping, and he assumed the responsibility in author, and 1 began to discover, behind
order to protect her because she loved him. the outward seeming of the rehearsals, a
Poor soul, she loved him. And then, in concealed activity of intrigues, stage pol-
the second week of rehearsals, he arrived itics, personal ambitions, plots, and
glowing with an The hero should
idea. counter-plots. Parties had been formed
not be a criminal at all. He should be Influenceshad been organized. The re-
an honest, though desperate, man whose sulting with its alliances and
struggle,
child had been kidnapped and whose wife compromises, its victories and its defeats,
had died of grief. He had joined the was called a rehearsal. A detailed ac-

criminal band to learn their secrets and count of it would read like a court memoir
betray them to the police. Great! Great of the days of a grand monarch. And the
idea !It was acted upon at once. welfare of the play that was to carry
By this time the meaning of the play them all seemed to be consulted as little as

had been cheerfully obliterated. The the welfare of the country that supports
curtains had all been changed. The char- a grand monarch's court.
acterization of the hero was a crazy-quilt. Jane Shore was obviously of the star's
And the author was anxiously trying to party and high in his favor. He de-
add explanatory lines to account for ac- prived her of some of her best lines for —
tions that the recording angel himself various pretended reasons, but really be-
could not have audited correctly. "That 's cause they competed with his own and —
all right," the star would say. "Don't she merely said studiously "I see. Then :

worry about that. They won't think of I take the next cue, do I?" He made
it till they leave the theater." her work down stage, with her back to the
To do the author justice, he was not footlights, so that he might face the

greatly worried by what was going on. audience when he addressed her; and she
Above all else he wished his play to suc- said: "Just a minute. Let me mark the
ceed, and these expert emendations were position on my part." He made her
designed solely to achieve success. The "noise up" her scenes with him, so that he
producer seemed equally satisfied he had ;
might play 'at the top of his voice, which
seen such things done before it was the ; was his only way of expressing emotion,
way successes were written. And the and she ranted diligently. He made her
actors, accustomed to the divine right and stand as motionless as a dummy while he
ruling egotisms of stars, accepted their spoke lines to her, because he wanted the
losses and their gains — as the alterations audience's undivided attention for himself,
either reduced or fattened their parts — and he moved and gestured as much as he
with Christian humility and resignation pleased while she replied. She obeyed him
when they stood in the eye of authority, religiously, and with every look she called

and with a fierce contempt and jealousy him master. It was touching to see.

among themselves. When you consider that she knew exactly


Throughout it all Jane Shore was what he was doing and despised him for
wonderful. Whatever folly the star did, it, it was a masterpiece of art.

whatever absurdity he said, she watched He took her" out to luncheon with him.
him and listened to him with a deep-eyed He took her home in a cab when it rained.
admiration that was so meek and so trust- They were seen together in a box at a
ful it would make a sick dove blush for benefit. They dined at his hotel. She
its arrogance. Faro Nell had no such art. was pointed out as his new leading woman
She argued with the star at the third re- and then as his latest affinity. He was
hearsal, and when her part began to already paying alimony to three others,
dwindle, she knew it was because he dis- and the company began to bet on whether
liked herand wanted to keep her down. Jane, by marrying him, was going to take
She began to scheme against him. She the first step toward joining his Alimony
346 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Club. They were a respectable lot of legitimate." Nothing less like a theatri-
hard-working men and women, but the\' cal magnate could be imagined.
had no illusions about their star. He was He was the embodiment of quiet, plain-
a handsome bully, an egotistical cad, a tive-looking, white-faced silence, with an
bone-headed matinee idol, a strutting lady- unblinking eye and an impersonal voice.
killer,with all the delicate impulses of a He is still that, although he now divides
caveman. Or, as Faro Nell summed it the control of the American stage with
up, "He 's the lowest form of humanity what is left of the Big Three. He is a
I 've ever had to associate with." study. I believe his success is due to the
While they were betting on Jane's fact that he is so pathetic, so apparently
chances for the Alimony Club it began to trusting and so appealing, that the Big
be evident that the producer had opened Three assisted him out of mere charity.
another competition. He had been seen at As a matter of fact, he is as crafty in
the opera with her. Some one whispered business as a society woman. He breaks
it about that he was calling on her in her contracts like a tearful widow when he is

apartment, which she still shared with her losing money by them. When it is the
musical friend. He had not yet acquired other party to the contract who is losing,
the reputation that has since distinguished he can be as chalkily indifferent and im-
him, but he was not regarded as an ascetic placable as a Chinaman.
bachelor. They began to watch Jane Jane Shore discovered in him the soul
Shore with a new interest. What was of a musician. It had been his first ambi-

her little game ? How was she playing it ? tion to be a violinist. All that he could
As far as I could see, she was not play- save from his earnings as an office-boy he
ing it at all. At rehearsals she was en- had put into a fiddle, and he still played
tirely frank and natural, absorbed in her it secretly, with much melancholy feeling,

work, diligent and biddable. It was evi- but no tcchnic. Hence his original venture
dent that she had real imagination she ; with the Hungarian violinist whose art
read her lines in the correct emotion, with- he had appreciated instantly when he
out fumbling, and her voice was rich and heard him in an East Side cafe. Hence,
true. She had a good stage p'resence and also, his visits to Jane Shore's apartments,
some of the authority of experience, de- where her friend played the violin and
spite the meekness that made her appear Jane sang to the piano.
unaware of her art. Whatever game was "He was in love with me, I know,"
being played, she seemed rather the in- Jane has since confessed; "but I found
nocent stakes than the chief player. She out that he was mad about his mother,
deceived me completely'. She certainly de- and she was so orthodox that it would
ceived the star, and I think she deceived have killed her to have him marry a Chris-
the producer. tian. He 's really rather a dear. It 's his
He had been an East Side boy, out of mother's fault— the way he 's going on
the Ghetto, an office-boy in a theatrical now with chorus-girls."
agency, a messenger-boy and assistant in There is no doubt that Jane Shore's
a box-office, where he finally became beauty and culture and air of "class"
treasurer. While he was still behind reached some early marrow of subservi-
the ticket-wicket he rented the theater for ence in his bones. When he was with
a Hungarian violinist who had come to her, as one of the company expressed it,

this country unknown, in the steerage. "he looked as wistful as a sucked orange."
The violinist startled the critics with a Her success with the star was another
brilliant and poetical
virtuosity, and matter.
charmed a fortune into his own pockets "All he wanted," she says, "was a mir-
and his manager's. The production of my ror," a flattering feminine regard before
friend's play was to be the entrance of which he could pose and admire himself.
this coming theatrical magnate into "the "He never talked; he boasted. He
JANE SHORE 347

boasted of how much money he 'd made At the dress-rehearsal, when he opened
with how much he 'd won
his other phiys ; out to nothing but a resonant vacuity,
on the stock-market how he 'd picked a ; we could net believe our ears. "I need
twenty to-one shot on the races how he 'd ; my audience," he explained. "I 'm dead
told Augustin Daly what he thought of without it," and we all accepted the ex-
him ; how he 'd pulled Charlie Frohman's planation as sufficient —
except Jane all

nose; what he said to a fireman who tried Shore. She had endured much from him
to stop him smoking behind the scenes in the belief that though he was an ego-
how he 'd thrashed a cheeky waiter and an tistical and selfish bore, he could act.

elevator-man who him and a cab-


insulted After her first scene with him at the dress-

man who tried to overcharge him and ; rehearsal she realized, with professional
even how he 'd silenced Maurice Barry- contempt, that "he was n't there." Con-
more with the superior brilliance of his fronting him, with her back continually
repartee." allowed a mild with-
to the footlights, she

He never boasted to her of his previous drawal of her admiration to appear in her
conquests. No doubt they had been face, and that discouraged him.

merely mirrors, as she said. As long as When they came to the big scene in the
they gave him a flattering reflection he third act, the love-scene in which he re-

treasured them. As soon as one grew turned her child to her, she suddenly let
tarnished in the brightness of her com- herself go. At sight of her little daughter
placency he tossed her into the matri- coming through the door she uttered a
monial dust-box, paid for the breakage scream of agonized joy so poignant that it

like a gentleman, and looked for another stabbed into you instantly and struck tears.
glass. An audience was a sea of mirrors She fell on her knees and caught the girl

to him, and the image that he saw re- to her in a sort of animal transport of
flected there was that of a fine, upstand- maternal ecstasy; and instead of kissing
ing, robust hero who never did a human the child on the face, she kissed it on the
thing on the stage or said a true one. He breast, so that you saw the adored little

was an actor by virtue of the fact that he body naked from the bath, and her nuz-
"put across the footlights" the fictitious zling it, panting inarticulate endearments
personality that had made him popular. hysterically, choked with heart-easing
And he did not know it was fictitious. sobs. It was a truly dramatic moment,

Obviously not. He saw himself in the and it came upon the dull mediocrity of
eyes of admiration only, and never sus- the rehearsal like a flash of genius. It

pected the truth about himself. frightened the little girl, who began to
At the dress-rehearsal there began to cry. It took the stage away from the star;
appear one truth about him that few of us he stood staring at her in jealous silence.
suspected: he could not act. He had al- Behind me I heard a quaint sort of nasal
most no imagination. had a certain He moan, and looked around, to see the little
easy grace, a confident manner, and a large producer struggling to control the whim-
voice. The rest had been done for him by pering distortion of his face.
good stage-directors. In this case the The star came down to the footlights
stage-director had been unable to control and began whole scene
to explain that the
him because he owned a fifty-per-cent. would be ruined if she overplayed it that
interest in the play in lieu of salary, and way. It was a love-scene. The point of
the producer had let him have his way it was, did he get her, not did she get the
unchecked. As a consequence, he had child. Her emotion should be one of
been so busy telling every one else how to gratitude to him for returning the girl to
act that no one had noticed his own per- her. This cat-fit over the kid would kill

formance. It was taken for granted that the whole movement of the plot.
when the moment arrived he would open Whereupon the stage-director said im-
out like a magic rose. patienth :
348 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
"Yes. Go ahead with the act. We '11 She rose as she saw him coming, and she
fix it after the rehearsal." greeted him rather excitedly.
The scene went on. The director joined "I 'm so glad you came!" she said in a
the producer, behind me, and 1 heard him low voice, clinging to his hand. "I 've
say: had such a fright!"
"There 's nothin' else to it. She 's "What is demanded, instantly
it?" he
immense." And — though I did not ap- protective. "What
happened?" 's

preciate at the moment what had hap- "It 's all right now," she said. "A
pened — with those w'ords Jane Shore was man 's been following me." And she
launched on her triumphant career. moved her eyes to indicate an adjoining
After the rehearsal there was a long table, where a lonely diner sat reading his
and angry conference between the star, newspaper, or pretending to, and smoking
the director, the producer, and the author. a cigar.
The star said a great deal, the author said Unfortunately for the decorum of the
nothing, the producer said and the
little, dining-room, as the star looked at him he
stage-director said '
one thing over and lowered the paper and spied over the top
over. It was this: of it at Jane Shore with an air of watching

"It 's sure fire. We 've got to have it. her from ambush. All the actor's rage at
It 's mother love, I tell you. It 's mother the stage-director instantly focused on this
love. Broadway '11 fall for it with a yell. peeping Tom. And his rage was rein-
It 's sure fire. It never missed yet. forced by policy: he wished to do some-
Broadway 's always strong for its mother. thing to put Jane Shore under grateful
Its wife 's a joke; but its mother! Oh, obligation to him. He crossed at once to
boy ! It 's sure fire. We 've got to have the tableand struck down the paper, with
it. It 's mother love, I tell you. It 's an oath. In doing so he uncovered the
mother love." And he struck his breast proportions of a man whom he would
argumentatively every time he said never have challenged if he had seen him
"mother love," to indicate the seat of the first. The man rose to his feet and struck
appeal. And every time he struck his back. Jane Shore slipped quietly away.
breast the producer nodded solemnly. When the waiters rushed in to stop the
It was evident that Jane Shore had disorder, the star was
sitting on the floor,
chosen the right scene to steal. his nose bleeding and one eye closed, and
"I knew it," she laughed. "I knew the stranger was walking composedly to
they 'd never let him take that away from the door with his cigar in his mouth.
me." She had seen the producer's face, He overtook Jane Shore in the hall.
as I had seen it, contorted with emotion. "You 've forgotten me, Miss Widgen,"
"He 's mad about his mother," she ex- he said.
plained. She looked at him with bright intent-
This was Sunday afternoon, in Atlantic ness.
City. The play was to open Monday "Oh, of course!" she cried. "/ know!
night in a theater on the board-walk, and You 're Tom! From the drug-store!"
when the star failed to shake the power of He nodded, smiling. She held out her
mother love in the breast of the manage- hand, delighted. He was the clerk who
ment, he hurried to Jane Shore's hotel in had given her pony a drink of soda-water
the hope of persuading her to give up the the day that she rode into the drug-store
scene. She had expected him. She was and demanded refreshment for herself and
out taking the air in a rolling-chair. She her horse. Evidently he was no longer a
remained out till after dark, and he did clerk, but slie did not ask for any expla-
not find her till he caught her at her din- nations.
ner that evening, alone in a far corner of "Why," she cried, "I did n't know you.
the dining-room, and far away from the Why did n't you speak to me?"
music. "I was n't sure it was you."
.\o more! not even to-night! take me away!'
350 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
She took his arm and hurried him away ner of recalling her and her pony and the
from the dining-room, where the star, with sight of her driving past the blue and
his nose in a table-napkin, was explaining crimson bottles of his window in her dog-
to a friendly head-waiter that it was noth- cart.

ing, a private affair, a gentlemanly mis- She explained then about the star,

understanding. laughing unblushingly.


"How strange," she said girlishly, "to "I did n't want
him back the
to give

see you here after all these years! What scene and I did n't him want to talk to

are you doing? Come up and sit on the about it. I could n't say I would n't, you
porch with me." know. That would have made too much
She did not ask what he had done with trouble. So I let him think you 'd been
the star. She guessed it from what she annoying me. I had n't recognized you,
had seen over her shoulder as she passed of course. I knew I could escape if he 'd

out the door. And Tom did not make any only start a row. And he 'd boasted so
guilty explanations. He had not been much about 'beating up' waiters and ele-
following her. He had been finishing his vator-men that I thought he 'd jump at the
dinner when she sat down at a neighbor- opportunity to make a hero of himself for
ing table, and he had stared at her only me. Did you hurt him?"
a little more than she was accustomed to "I don't think so," he said modestly.
being stared at in such circumstances. "Not much. I may have blacked one of
"Who was that fellow who— who spoke his eves."

to me?" he asked as they went up-stairs. "Blacked hi

"Oh, he 's a crazy actor," she said. "They must have been all el r-bov!

"I '11 tell you about him later. Tell me that he 'd been beating up."
first about yourself." "He probably never fought any one in
And he told her, on the balcony, in the his life before," she said. And she added
moonlight, looking out at the misted reflectively, "Blacked his eye."

ocean, while the star was having his That was serious. It was serious for
bruised face washed and bandaged by his everybody, the producer, the author, the
valet in the bath-room of his suite. And whole company. How was he to play his
what he told her was one of those fairy- part with a black eye? And if he could
tales of modern American business that put not play his part, how about the opening?
to shame the inventions of fiction.. Briefly, He kept his room all the following day,

he was no longer a druggist's clerk; a and we had to- be satisfied with second-
moment of prophetic thought had made hand reports". He explained that he had
him a millionaire. It had occurred to tripped on the* board-walk and fallen, with
him, over a bottle of extract of pepsin, his face against the railing. Rumor
that the two American passions for chew- promptly added that he had been drunk.
ing-gum and for patent medicine might Jane Shore did not contradict the rumor.
be profitably combined if you put pepsin She contented herself with telephoning to
in the gum. He had sold the idea, on a thank him for his gallantry and his silence.
royalty basis, to a chewing-gum manu- "It was so kind of you," she said, "to

facturer. And after successfully defend- protect me from


gossip by not telling

ing himself in court from an attempt to about that awful man. I suppose you

steal his rights, he was now devoting him- nearly killed him." He replied, grimly:
self to his health, his leisure, physical cul- "Well, he '11 never bother you again."
ture, and the search for safe investments. ( She repeated that to us, weeks later, with
He was not married. Fanny Widgen had gurgles of delight, as if it were a piece of
been an unattainable ideal of his days be- boarding-school mischief.)
hind the counter, and he still felt roman- He wanted to see her, to talk to her,

tic about her. He did not say so; he did and she invited him to be at the theater

not need to. She knew it from his man- at seven. He was there. They had a
JANE SHORE 351

long conference. She had another v\ ith his emotional passages sheopened and
the producer. I heard from the author closed them, unknown tp him and they
;

that the star had threatened to give up the were as expressive as the dumb mouth of
play unless was played the way he
it a gasping fish. She killed the biggest mo-
wanted -it. There were more conferences, ment of one of his most thrilling speeches
while the audience gathered in the the- by dropping her handkerchief behind her,
ater and the orchestra struck up a rusty as from fingers paralyzed with secret
if

overture. They were still conferring emotion. A shudder of her shoulders was
when I went out front to find a vacancy more eloquent than his ranting, and when
in the back row, and the stage-director, as it came to the scene with the child, she

I passed him, was saying: took the stage away from him, took the
"I tell you, he 's a four flush. You house away from him, took the applause
watch him to-night. Never mind her. Let and the curtain away from him, and
her play to her limit. Watch him." topped it all by receiving across the foot-

I watched him myself. When he came lights an armful of roses, after a pretty
on the stage, for an entrance that had play of girlish shyness and hesitation, as
been carefully built to, the chill that quiv- Thev can't be for
ered over the house was almost an audible me! Are n't they the star's?" until the
expression of perplexity. He was made up audience had to authorize and enforce the
very pale, with his eyes darkened, — both tribute with an ovation of hand-clapping
eyes, — and one of them bloodshot. He and gallery whistles and the pounding of
wore a wig that came low on his forehead imperative feet. (The
was af- hesitation
to cover the lump of a bruise. He looked fected, of course. The
were Tom's, roses
sinister, unwholesome, anything but the and she had expected them.) She was al-
matinee idol that we had come there to most compelled to make a speech. She did
see. And I of^er it without apology: go so far as to shake her head in a refusal
Jane Shore had done it. She had per- to make one.
suaded him that as a desperate man who "That finishes it," the author groaned
had lost a wife and child, a tragic widower in my ear. "He '11 never play it again.
defying death among a band of criminals, Never."
he ought to be made up in this "interest- The last act was entirely hers. The
ing" manner. And it would conceal his star sulked his way through it, saving
bruises. mere words. The author left me. I sup-
His failure was unqualified, as unquali- posed he had gone to throw himself into
fied as her success. Everything heroic the surf. The audience crowded out, say-
that he said was contradicted by his ap- ing: "Who is she? Is n't she wonder-

pearance, and any one who has worked in ful?" "Charming! Such grace!" "Well,
the theater will understand how the eye she certainly takes that part off fine." Out
will overcome the ear in such circum- of sympathy for the author I went back to
stances. He was immediately aware that the hotel and to bed without joining in the
the house was cold to him, and not being post-mortem. I had felt all along that the
able to see himself with the eyes of the play was a conglomeration of fatuous non-
audience, he did not know what was the sense, anyway. One always feels that way
matter; he thought that the part was "un- about a friend's play.
sympathetic." He could not get any heart And next morning I found that, as
into and Jane Shore did not help him.
it, usual, while I slept all the really impor-
She played in a low key, with repressed tant things of life had happened. The
intensity, in a technic that he could not others had been up all night. The star
handle; and when they were on the stage had left for Florida with an incipient at-
together the audience went to her. Even tack of press-agent's pneumonia, having
with her back to them she dominated him. broken his contract, abandoned his inter-
She clasped her hands behind her, and in est in the production, insulted Jane Shore,
352 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
and had his other eye blacked by a little utterance of emotion with sincere con-
property-man named Fritz Hoff who vincingness, and the other watches the
hated him. An unexpected millionaire audience, the stage, and her own perform-
had "bought in" on the play and this ; ance with critical detachment You will
was the same millionaire who had been see her come ofi from a big scene with her
guilty of the barrelful of American Beauty lower face working hysterically and her
roses across the footlights. "Tom, the eyes unconcerned and cold. When enthu-
Gum-man," we came to call him. The siasm crowds into her dressing-room to
author was busy rewriting again in order congratulate her, she receives it, like roy-

to make a star part for Jane Shore. The alty an audience, with a charmingly
at
was helping by beating his
stage-director happy smile, but with a back thought
more
breast like a gorilla and howling for showing, if you look for it, in the attentive

mother love. A young leading man, in scrutiny of her gaze.


answer to a wire from Jane Shore, was However, it is not her art that I am
coming from Washington to rehearse the concerned with. She is a great actress
part in which the star had fallen down. perhaps. She is certainly a fascinating
A New York manager had agreed to take character. have done her injustice in
I

the Atlantic City theater of^ their hands this account of her first success if I have

for the latter part of the week, and the not indicated that though she was incred-
producer was leaving for Broadway and ibly crafty in her handling of the star, she

the booking-oflfices to arrange for an out- was also impulsive, full of deviltry, a per-
of-town opening for Jane Shore in "a new son of incalculable temperament. It was

American drama" within the month. certainly an impulse of mischief that


Her success in that opening is so much prompted her to start that dining-room
a part of the history of our stage that I fight, although she took excellent advan-
hardly need refer to it. There is an tage jof the results of it. She is tricky.
accurate account of it in one of William "Of course I 'm tricky," she says.
Winter's books. He hailed her, if I re- "Could any one who is not tricky get
member, as a young Madame Janauschek; ahead in the theater?" She is deeply
for she played her cheap melodrama with egotistic. asks, "do you think
"Well," she
such eloquence and distinction that com- it 's modest as a hermit-
possible to be as
parisons with the old school were inevit- thrush and still make your living singing
able. She showed in her later plays that at the entrance to Brooklyn Bridge dur-

shewas modern and naturalistic, and Mr. ing rush hours?" She has faults of pet-
Winter felt that she was a noble promise tiness that seem impossibly opposed to her

unfulfilled. She shrugged her shoulders large and generous qualities; but with all
and went ahead. What her theory of her the disintegrating impulses of variable

art is I do not know. I suspect that she temperament and contradictory moods,
is largely innocent of any. Virginia Tracy she has a strength of will that gives her
has written of her: "I don't believe she character and direction.
ever in her life gave two thoughts to any- My friend the author fell insanely in
thing except the smashing out of certain love with her. She petted him and encour-
congenial dramatic effects quite unrelat- aged him amiably until it came to a ques-

edly to anything but her will to put those tion of marrying him.
individual effects across." And in that "No," she said. "No. Never." Well,
respect she is certainly the creature of the but why not? "Because it 's impossible."

conditions on the American stage. She refused to see him. She would not
Her acting, I should say, is intuitional. answer his letters. He behaved like a
It is not the result of any logical process lunatic, drinking and weeping in all the

of thought and study, although she pre- cafes of the Rialto. I went to her to

tends that it is. She acts with two lobes speak in his behalf, and she listened to me,
of her brain, one of which governs the sitting bolt, upright beside her reading-
TANK SHORE 353
lamp, with her hands on the arms of her and he was scandalized by the love-scenes,
chair, as unmoved as a judge. Then she which she played with frank passion.
said "All right. Dad," she said. "There was
"I can't help it. That 's the way life twelve hundred dollars in the house. You
is. He '11 have to get through it the best know, you have to be a bit scandalous to
way he can." I begged her to see him. do that amount of business in a godly
She shook her head. "I '11 never see him town like Philadelphia. Nothing has
again." And word for years.
she kept her drawn as well as that here since 'The
"
Tom, the Gum-man, came to a simi- Black Crook.'
larly violent end with her. "It 's a disgrace," he scolded. "A
"He 's too possessive," she said. "He daughter of mine going on like that in

thinks he invented me. He '11 be in court public! A respectable girl!"


next, defending his royalty rights in me," "Respectable!" she cried. "I 'm so re-
He went off in a rage and married the spectable I can't get my name into the
daughter of another prophylactic million- papers without paying for it."

aire. She sent him a framed photograph Indeed, she was so respectable that
of herself as a wedding present and appar- whenever any one attacked the conditions
ently forgot him. on our stage. Airs. Fiske, in replying,
On the other hand, she never rested till never failed to refer to the immaculate
she won her father back. As soon as she record and reputation of Jane Shore.
made her first success she sent him the With whatever abandon she played
seven hundred dollars that she had "bor- Juliet or the proposal scene in Shaw's
rowed" to leave home. He returned the "Satan's Advocate," she was always
check without a word. She sent it back, primly chaperoned of¥ the stage by the
and he returned the letter unopened. She inhibitions of her Calvinistic and Quaker
made out the check to her brother Ben, ancestors. The nearest she ever came to
who had and she wired her
a saving habit, scandal
father: "Have sent Ben the money. With It was recently, at Madame Bern-
thanks," She subscribed to a clipping bu- hardt's professional matinee in the Empire
reau for him and ordered every printed Theater on her last tour, Jane- Shore was
word about her sent to him. He tried to in the stage-box on the right-hand side
countermand the order, but the bureau with her old admirer, Tom, the Gum-
continued to fill it, and she paid the bills. man, (A wife and three children had not
The larger they were, the happier she was. prevented him from returning to an ap-
"Send him everything," she ordered, parently platonic devotion for his first

"even the advertisements." She wired love.) And from the rise of the curtain,
him good wishes on his birthday, on from the first sight of Bernhardt as
Christmas and New Year's, on holidays Hecube on her throne, Jane Shore wept
and holy days. On Lincoln's birthday she quietly, continuously, without a word of
telegraphed, "Let us have peace." On explanation, without a movement of ap-
Washington's: "Are you prouder than plause. She wept not at the tragedy of
G. W. ? He was the father of his coun- the queen or the soldier mortally wounded
try, and now look at the darn thing!" on the "field of honor" or Camille dying
He wired, "Stop sending me silly tele- in her lover's arms; she wept for the
grams." She wired back: "Letters did greater tragedy of that' indomitable artist,
not seem to reach you. Am writing." pinned down by bodily infirmity, with
She wrote without replies and sent him nothing left to her but her head and her
presents without acknowledgments, and hands, struggling, and with such heart-
finally she called on him in his office, rending success, with the voice of a young,
when she was playing in Philadelphia, and unconquerable spirit, with an art that
laughed him out of his resentment. He ought to be eternal— struggling to hold
went to see her in "Romeo and Juliet,'" her little circle of light and brilliance
354 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
against the dark stifle was
of oblivion that "My God!" he said. "If you 'd done
closing in on her, that was creeping up on this ten years ago!"
her, that had risen already to her throat. "I know," she sobbed; "but I did n't!"
Here, after such a career as Jane Shore He began to walk up and down the
could never hope for, here was the visible room.
end. When that voice ceased, when that "I would n't care for myself," he ex-
unsubmerged, defiant head sank under that plained, "but I can't take advantage of a
silence, what would be left of the fame mood like this to rush you into a posi-
and the triumphs even of Sarah Bern- tion — You 'd blame me. You 'd hate
hardt? me. You don't appreciate what you 're
"What 's the matter?" he asked her in doing. With the people waiting for you
the automobile on their way home. and the seats sold, running away like this
"Don't cry like that. You '11 make your- —
with a married man and all the publicity
self ill." and the scandal."
She shook her head. She reached out She sat up, staring at him. He was a
and took his hand blindly. They drove big, dark man, black-mustached, and he
in silence through the evening drizzle. stood uncomfortably, with his hands deep
She did not speak until they were in her in his pockets, his head down, blinking at
front room. She was dry-eyed and tragic- the floor, and talking in a rumbling,
looking. grumbling voice. "He looked," she said
"Come here," she said, holding out her afterward, "like a fat boy who was being
hand to him. He sat beside her on the tempted to hookey from school."
play
sofa. ( It was the sofa from the proposal And suddenly, in the midst of his per-
scene of "Satan's Advocate.") She said, fectly reasonable remonstrances, she began
"Take me away from all this." to laugh.
"What?" He started as if she had struck him.
"Take me away. You want me. You He turned on her, red, ridiculous.
've always wanted me. Take me away, "Have you been playing some damn
out West somewhere, where you can get game with me?" he demanded.
your divorce." "N-no," she shouted at the top of hys-
"But, my dear girl," he said, "do you terical peals of laughter. "No! I was
know what you 're saying ? Do you know se-se-serious!"
what it means?" He had released her "Then what have I done?" he cried.
hand, blank with amazement. "What have I said?"
"Yes, yes," she cried, "I know. I want She was too hysterical to explain.
to end it more!
all. No Not even to- "There I had been," she told of it, "for
night! Take me away!" years pursued by these ravenous monsters,
He rose slowly. men. And you 've no idea what a nui-
"But," he said
— "but — sance they are to an actress. They see
She flung up her hands. you all beautifully made up, in the ro-
"I know. I know. The talk— the mantic stage lights, being everything
scandal — I don't care. I don't want ever sweet and noble and heroic that a play-
again to see their silly faces over the foot- wright can make a woman out to be, and
lights. It 's all— it does n't matter. It 's of course they go crazy about you, and
nothing. You 've wanted —
you 've always come around offering to leave wife and
wanted me. You 're unhappy. We 're family and home and mother and business
both unhappy. I want to end it. I want and good name for you, and threatening
to get— whatever there left for me to 's to throw themselves into the Hudson if
get— before 'm old and — and pitiful.
I I you don't instantly throw yourself into
don't want to be alone then — now— ever their arms. Why, they 'd plagued me like
any more." And she began to weep again, a lot of wolves. The maiden pursued !

bitterly. And liere, now, when I turned on the


JANE SHORE 355

most ferocious one of them all — and you skill as a stage carpenter that made her
ve no' idea what a scene he 'd treated me house so deliciously picturesque and theat-
to only day before— and when I
the rical with its window-seats and diamond
turned on him and said 'Well, take me, : panes and Belasco lights and Juliet hang-
then! Here I am! Take me!' he began ings. He went with her when the most
to make excuses. Funny ! I laughed so famous of her managers took her, and it
hard I nearly fainted from exhaustion." was about Fritz that they had their quar-
He grew more and more angry. He rel, I understand. (I know nothing about
stormed and swore. She could only stam- it. All I know is that after her last per-
mer, "It 's— it 's so funny!" And at last formance under his management, I asked
he stamped out of the house enraged, hu- her: "Well, how do you feel about it,
miliated. now?" And she answered: "Feel!" —
"And he '11 never come back," she said. raising her arms to draw a long breath
"Never. Because he knows that if he ever — "I feel like a wax figure escaped from
does come back I '11 never be able to look the Eden Musee.") Fritz became her
at him with a straight face." personal manager, watched the men in the

And some of that explains one thing box-office like a prison guard, exercised her
that seems to have greatly intrigued her bad-tempered little Pekingese, tacked up
public — whyJane Shore has never mar- dodgers for her in prohibited places, quar-

ried. Her suitors, she thinks, have not been reled with her company for her, accepted
in love with her; they have been in love summonses would not let her
for bills he
with Shakspere's Juliet or Shaw's Patricia pay, let her scold and rage at him serenely
Beauchatnp or Barrie's Grizel or some whenever anything went wrong for which
other ideal that is not Fanny Widgen. he was not responsible, and stood out
And they bore her. across the street from the theater as his
She will not marry an actor. "I won't only apparent reward, and enjoyed the re-
marry one," she says, "for the same rea- flected glory of her name in electric lights

son that I won't co-star with one. There over the entrance.
is n't room for two of our egos in one It is Fritz Hoff who has made pos-
house." The fact is, she will probably sible her whole later career. And she
end by marrying Fritz Hoff. the property- will marry him. She will have to if he
man who blacked the star's other eye for ever has sense enough to say, "I '11 leave
her in Atlantic City. you if you don't." And in the purely
He has served her like an adoring practical world in which Jane Shore
watch-dog ever since that first defense of has to live— the world of the theater
her. He was her property-man and stage- — it would be the best thing that she
manager in her first success. It was his could do.
Economic Imperialism
Germany's Self-revelation of Guilt

By DAVID JAYNE HILL


Author of "A History of Diplomacy in the International Development of Europe," etc.
Formerly United States Ambassador to Germany

the discussion of international ques- cal motives. Politically, imperialism


INtions it is a common oversight to \ny merely a dynastic interest; but economi-
is

the principal stress on political organiza- cally, it is made to appear that territorial
tion, to the neglect of economic facts and expansion and extended domination are in

aspirations. It is evident that if all na- the people's interest. In this representa-
tions were living under a truly constitu- tion there are, however, two abuses of the
tional regime and were disposed to apply people's confidence: for, while a few spe-
the principles of constitutional states in cial interests may profit by an imperial
their dealings with one another, it would policy, the average person is not rendered
not be difficult to establish a world organi- richer or happier by imperial triumphs
zation with a settled code of law, a court and, if he were, it would still be a crimi-
of arbitral justice,and perhaps a council nal act to seduce a people into partnership
of conciliation to propose methods of ad- in a policy of plunder on the ground that
justing controversies arising from a con- advantages may be obtained for them
flict of national policies. But such an or- through the power of the state which
ganization would provide only a set of could not be procured by private persons.
institutions; it would not reach the na- AVhen a government embarks upon a
tional motives that move the world to policy of imperial aggression, it virtually
action. says to the nation, "Provide us with the
Among the causes of conflict the most necessary power, and we shall win for you
difficult to control are the economic mo- increased advantages in which you will all
tives; for it is these that are at present the share." A people thus deluded are the
most influential in determining the ambi- victims not only of deception, but of cor-
tions of which are not merely
nations, ruption. By becoming shareholders in a
"bodies politic,"economic corpora-
but joint-stock operation the object of which
tions, seeking to acquire and possess the is illicit gain, they furnish the capital for
resources of the world. Regarded from a predatory enterprise, only to discover in
this point of view, the external aim of the end that they do not share in its fruits
national existence is efficiency rather than 'liven when these are obtained by conquests
justice. Its purpose is not alone the pro- and annexations. On the contrary, they
tection of rights, but the augmentation of find burdened with public
themselves
power. As long as competition in indus- debt, impoverished by the neglect of their
tryand trade seems to the great powers business, and saddened by the loss of their
more advantageous than cooperation in the sons killed or maimed in battle. It may
utilization of the earth's resources, war well be doubted if, when the balance is

will appear to be a natural, and to some struck, any nation, though victorious in

a justifiable, method of national develop- war, has on the whole been to any impor-
ment. tant extent enriched by imperial aggres-
Modern imperialism Is, in fact, far sion. New territory may have been ob-
more actuated by economic than by politi- tained, new accessions may have been
350
ECONOMIC IMPERIALISM 357
made to the mass of the population, wider world has been created by military power.
political control may have been acquired, To those who accept the absolutist theory
but rarely, if ever, has the sum of happi- of the state there is nothing reprehensible
ness been thus increased. in the spirit of conquest and imperial
To most civilized peoples the thought domination. Why should any nation hold-
of aggressive war for purposes of gain, ing this theory refrain from extending its

involving as it necessarily does every vari- power as far as possible?" It is, in truth,
ety of crime, — robbery, murder, outrage, certain thatit will not do so; but it fol-

and sacrilege, — revolting to the con-


is lows with logical necessity that as long as
science and repellent to intelligence ; but this theory is held the conflict of nations
in reality imperial aspirations are never so will continue.
repulsively presented to the mind. They The whole future of civilization turns
are invariably disguised for the great mass upon the decision whether the state is to
of the people under a mask of virtuous be henceforth a creation of force or a
pretenses. Alleged* defense against in- creation of law. If it is to be considered
tended invasion, the undoing of historic merely a creation of force, then prepara-
wrongs, the attainment of "natural bound- tion for war is the only wisdom for only ;

aries," the unification of divided peoples, the strong state can survive, and it must
the restoration of suppressed nationalities, be at all times ready to fight for its ex-
the extension of the benefits of a higher istence. But if, on the other hand, the
culture to lower races — all these are the state is rightly to be conceived as a crea-
reasons set forth in public proclamations tion of law, then all states accepting this
and diplomatic apologies for schemes of theory are menaced by the existence of
aggression, while the advantages to be strong embodiments of power which refuse
gained are represented as merely inciden- to be governed by the rules of law. As
tal concomitants of these lofty purposes. long as they exist, as long as they arm

It would, of course, be unreasonable to themselves for aggression, as long as they


deny that long-obstructed national aspira- devise and entertain schemes of conquest,
tions and a desire for equality of privilege so long the truly constitutional states must
with other nations may be perfectly legiti- be prepared to defend themselves and even
mate,— as, for example, the unification of to defend one another.
Germany and of Italy,— or a determina- Considered by itself, mere dynastic im-
tion to put an end from mar-
to exclusion perialism is not at present a menace to the
kets and waterways over which unfair world's peace. There is probably no na-
monopolies have been established. In cases tion so devoted to a dynasty and to the
where whole peoples have by force been dynastic conception of government as to
rendered economically dependent there endanger the peace of its neighbors for
may no doubt, just grounds for de-
be, purely dynastic reasons. Mankind has
manding changes but in the main these
; passed that point. But territorial expan-
are fit subjects for negotiation and trans- sion, the extension of political control for
action, in accordancewith legitimate busi ^ economic reasons, the lust for markets, the
ness methods, rather than for the exercise quest for resources, the command of great
of military force. Resort to violence for waterways, supremacy on the sea these ^
the attainment of national ends has not are the driving and compelling forces that
only been customary in the past, but it has make imperialism a terror in the world.
seemed to follow as a logical corollary In the hands of an efficient, irresponsible,
from the absolute theory of the state. If and remorseless great power, these ambi-
that theory is still to be maintained, then tions would render this planet a place of

there is no escape from the perfect legiti- torture to every law-respecting people.
macy of wholesale conquest, limited only Beyond dispute it was economic imperi-
by the power of a state to attain its ends alism that caused the present war, and
by force. Every existing empire in the plunged all Europe into it. No one can
358 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
fail to see the opposition of interests that For the historian at least it is difficult

led up to it. They were real, they were to accept these high resolutions as certain
obvious; but it was an anachronism to to endure. History has never been an
fight about them. They were primarily advance in a direct line toward the fulfil-

business interests — markets, resources, ment of great ideals. There are frequently
trade-routes.These were the issues. To reactionary movements, but they are sel-

them advantageously, the sword was


settle dom complete. Human nature does not
thrown into the scale, great armies were radically change, but in great crises men
mustered "and despatched upon their er- see a new light; and, having seen it, it is

rand of hewing their way to the heart of never quite so dark as it was before.
opposing nations. Has it been a good At all events, a new standard has been
method of transacting business? It was raised. Let us, therefore, rally to it. Let
easy to begin it, but it is difficult to end us make it easy to perform acts of peni-
it. It can never be ended by mere fight- tence and contrition. Let who believe
all

ing. The lesson of must be learned and


it in the constitutional state, who base it
accepted by all ; and, whoever wins on the upon the rights of the person, who would
battle-field, no real victory can be at- subject it as far as possible to moral law,
tained that does not result in the triumph and who wish to banish from the earth
of principles of justice and the renuncia- the shadow of the sword, unite in accept-
tion of material advantages as mere spoils ing this standard. At least one step of
of war. Unless the victory resulting from progress has been made since the confer-
this war is a triumph for humanity, who- ences at The Hague. Then no one dared
ever the victor may be at the making of to raise the deeper issues. No one in those

a treaty, it will not be a peace, but the conclaves ventured to question the pre-
seed of future conflicts. rogatives government.
of No one felt
Herein, then, lies the foreshadowing of that the moment had arrived to discuss the
a new Europe, that hereafter the stronger real causes of war or to rebuke the greed
may not profit by his superior strength. It of the great powers. There was of neces-
sounds, indeed, like a new doctrine, and it sity an atmosphere of courtesy, but it

will be hard to live by ; but it has its apos- was breathed through a veil of mutual
tolate. It is explicitly announced as a suspicion. The very fact that there
creed. Whatever sympathy the Entente were subjects that could not be frankly
Allies have received in America has been considered rendered impossible perfect
given to them because they were the first confidence.
to announce it, and because it is believed There can be among really constitu-
that they are sincere in proclaiming that tional no discrimination based on
states
law is to be respected and the right of the mere forms of government. These grow
stronger is to be denied. They have out of the exigencies of every nation, and
opened a great issue, and they will be held by its own principles every constitutional
to it. The small states, the weak peoples, state is prohibited from dictating its form
the submerged races, they affirm, must <j.f government any other. Monarchy,
to
henceforth receive from the powerful just oligarchy, or democracy, all and equally
consideration. The state is no longer to may enter into the family of nations as
be regarded as an entity existing only for long as they accept and respect the princi-
its own augmentation of power, above the ples of law. But economic imperialism is
law, defiant of humanity, and responsible a spiritand not a form. Until that is
to no one for its action. There is to be renounced there can be no society of states,
a society of states in a true sense, in which because it is anti-social, predatory, and
international law is to be respected. In based on arbitrary force. As long as na-
brief, there is to be an end of eco- tions,whatever their form of government,
nomic imperialism. It is to be a different resort to military power in order to sub-
world. ordinate other nations and extort from
ECONOMIC IMPERIALISM 359
them economic advantages, so long civili- as that regime lasted,
no disturbance of
zation will find itself face to face with a the peace was looked for from Germany.
dangerous enemy. Prince von Biilow himself quotes Bis-
If the Entente Allies are sincere in this marck as saying: "In Serbia I am an Aus-
war, they are prepared to make an end of trian, in Bulgaria I am a Russian, in
forceful exploitation, and to enter into sol- Egypt I am English." At the Congress
emn engagements to keep the faith. They of Berlin, in 1878, all Europe except Rus-
have appealed to the conscience of man- sia was willing to accept the great chan-
kind. They have defined their own con- cellor at his own valuation as an "honest
ceptions of right and wrong. They have broker," interested chiefly in the peace of
professed to be ready to die for them. Europe; and as regards Russia, that was
They have insisted upon the sanctity of in Bismarck's mind "the wild elephant"
treaty obligations. They have proclaimed that "was to walk between the two tame
the rights of defenseless peoples. They elephants, Germany and Austria."
have asserted that humanity and national But Prince von Billow's own interpre-
morality are to be preferred to empire. tation of the meaning of German unity is,
In this they have risen to a great height it must be confessed, somewhat disquiet-

from which it would be humiliating ever ing. The voluntary and spontaneous
to descend. To all who believe in their movement of the German people, he af-
sincerity thej^ have spoken with a divinely firms, could never have created the em-
prophetic voice. pire. It was only through a struggle with
What, then, is the attitude of the Cen- the rest of Europe, he explains, that the
tral powers, Germany and Austria, to- Germanic spirit could be evoked. "The
ward this standard ? Are they also ready opposition in Germany itself could hardly
to accept it? be overcome," he continues, "except by
If the German Empire has an author- such a struggle. By this means national
ized champion and apologist, entitled by policy was interwoven with international
position and attainments to be heard and policy ; wMth incomparable audacity and
credited, it is the former imperial chan- constructive statesmanship, in consumma-
cellor, Prince von Biilow. In the first ting the work of uniting Germany, Bis-
sentence of his book on "Imperial Ger- marck left out of play the political capa-
many," published just before the war be- bilities of the Germans, in which they
gan, he says: "Germany is the 5^oungest have never excelled, while he called into
of the Great Powers of Europe ; an unin- action their fighting powers, which have
vited and unwelcome intruder when it de- always been their strongest point."
manded its share in the treasures of the These are illuminating words by the
world." The reason is frankly stated. former chancellor of the empire, uttered
"This union of the states of the Mid- in a spirit of historic truth and it is in ;

European continent," he says, "so long the same spirit that they are here cited.
prevented, so often feared, and at last ac- The world would have no fear of the
complished by the force of German arr. s German people, although unified and
and incomparable statesmanship, seemed strong, if their old-time qualities were in
to imply something of a threat, or at any control ; but almost against its will, it

rate a disturbing factor." seems, Germany became an imperial power


It may well be doubted if, at the time and entered international politics, for
of the establishment of the German Em- which Prussian domination opened the
pire, it was regarded by the world at large way, and centralized military ascendancy
as a "disturbing factor," much less as a furnished the means of action. Prince
"threat." German unity having been von Biilow does not permit the German
attained, avowed policy was
Bismarck's people themselves or their neighbors to
to guard from danger from any possi-
it forget that it was not the political capa-
ble coalition of adverse powers. So long bilities of the constituent states, but Prus-
360 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
sian military prowess alone, that created man intellect in the name of order." Be-
and can further extend the empire. tween them, he assures us, there is as yet
"The German Empire of medieval no real reconciliation.
times," the former chancellor writes, "was It does not admit of doubt that, if Ger-

not founded by the voluntary union of the many were to-day in the mood it was
tribes, but by the victory of one single when the German universities and culti-
tribe over the others, who for a long time vated classes voiced their sentiments in

unwillingly bore the rule of the stronger." 1848, there would be a vigorous move-
And in order to leave no doubt of the ment for internationalism. Instead of
indebtedness of the German people to this, on its cloistered side, the German
Prussia, but rather to show them their nation conceives of itself as a universal
complete dependence upon its force of spirit of righteousness — humanity inspired
arms, he continues: "As the old empire by divinity — working for incarnation in

was founded by a superior tribe, so the mankind through its superior forms of cul-
new was founded by the strongest of the ture. In other countries, it is assumed,
individual states. ... In a modern form, individual men are seeking only their own
but in the old way, the German nation private happiness. They have no sense
has,after a thousand years, once again, of universality or principle of organiza-
and more perfectly, completed the work tion. The German state cares for all its
which it accomplished in early times, and own. It alone, therefore, has the secret
for whose destruction it alone was to of ultimate victory. It alone can save the
blame." world from degeneration and decay. For
It is precisely this return to the past, this overwhelming reason it ought to con-

this frank revival of the methods in use a quer, dominate, and reconstruct the world !

thousand j^ears ago, this acceptance of a


Dies ist unser! so lass uns s<i2;en und so
theory of the state that civilization has es behaupten.
everywhere rejected, and this frank em-
phasis upon the intrinsic superiority of Considered by itself, this IFeltan-
"fighting powers," that have made Eu- schauung would be entirely harmless, a
rope afraid of Germany, and created a form of innocuous spiritual pride; but,
distrust of the use intended to be made of taken in connection with the Prussian
its tremendous energies. military organization, to which it looks as
And is not removed by the
this distrust a means of action, it has become porten-
picturewhich Prince von Biilow paints tous. Like the faith of Islam, with
of the intellectual state of Germany. which Pan-Germanism unconsciously com-
"German intellect," he says, "had already pares itself, it has kindled a fire of fanati-

reached its zenith without the help of cism that does not shrink from extremes
Prussia. The princes of the West were and thus, to the pride of culture, is added
the patrons of German culture; the Ho- the zeal of religion
henzoUerns were the political teachers and Wir sind dcs Hammergottes Geschlecht
taskmasters." There is as yet, he affirms, (, LJnd wnllcn sein Wcltrcich t'robern.
no fusion between the Prussian and the
German spirit. Representatives of Ger- This spirit reaches its full flower in the
man intellectual life, he assures us, some- Pan-German movenient, the publications
times regard the Prussian state as a "hos- of which, widely scattered in cheap popu-
tile power," and the Prussian at times lar editions, have done vast damage to the
considers the free development of the reputation of tlie empire. Among these
German intellect as a "destructive force." publications the most elaborate is the book
"Again and again," he declares, "in Par- entitled "(^ross-Deutschland," published
liament and in the press accusations are at Leipsic, in iqii, by Otto Richard Tan-
leveled against Prussia in the name of nenberg.
freedom, and against the undaunted Ger- Here is recited and interpreted ethno-
ECONOMIC IMPERIALISM 361
logically, statistically, chartographically, not signify; it is an afifair of ethnic unity,
and prophetically the German dream of the restoration of long-lost brothers. That
Welt-politik. With erudition that has in- other races occupy these territories also,
volved years of research, and with a defi- sometimes exceeding in numbers the Ger-
niteness and perspicuity that leave nothing man occupants, does not render this less
unexplained even down to the definitive necessary. "If all the German tribes ex-
treaties of peace after the Great War shall isted to-day," writes Tannenberg, "and
have accomplished its purposes, we have in had the force of the Low Saxons, there
this elaborate work a complete exposition would be neither Latins nor Slavs. The
of economic imperialism as contemplated frontiers of Europe would be the fron-
by the Pan-Germanists — an exposition tiers of Germany
in Europe."
sown broadcast among the people. But scheme of Germanic expansion
this
There is here no question of diffusing does not end with the unification of the
German culture for the benefit of other Teutonic race in Europe. There would
nations, and no attempt to prove the moral be other Germanies, all definitely outlined
value of superior organization ; there is and marked on the map an African Ger- :

nothing, in fact, but a w^orld empire, pro- many, stretching across the dark continent
duced by the vivisection of civilized na- from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean
tions under the edge of the sword. a near Asiatic Germany, covering the
This urgent exhortation to prompt mili- whole of the Ottoman Empire a far Asi- ;

tary aggression, with incredible frankness, atic Germany, embracing the greater part
makes no pretense of anything forced upon of China; an oceanic Germany, including
Germany, but declares it to be both ex- all the Dutch islands in the Pacific; and

pedient and practicable to acquire new even an American Germany, covering the
territory, expel its occupants, and enjoy whole of the southern half of South Amer-
its resources, without the slightest recog- ica. Such are the Teutonic ambitions and
nition of any rights or any law. Being the Teutonic plans of conquest as deline-
strong, numerous, and well prepared, it ated upon Tannenberg's future map of the
insists that the time has come for Germans world.
to strike for world dominion. "The Wherever there are Germans, wherever
period of preparation," Tannenberg de- Germans go, there the standard of the im-
clares, "has lasted a long time (from 1871 perial eagle should be set up. "We are
to 191 1 )— forty on land and
jears of toil eighty-seven millions of representatives of
sea, the end constantly in view. The need German nationality on our continent,"
now is to begin the battle, to vanquish and runs this exhortation to universal domin-
to conquer; to gain new territories lands — ion. "Our country is the most populous,
for colonization for the German peasants, the best organized. The new^ era is at
fathers of future w\arriors, and for the hand. We shall fight and we shall con-
future conquests. . . . 'Peace' is a de- quer. . . . If in the time of the great mi-
testable word ; peace between Germans grations a man
mental and military
of
and Slavs is like a treaty made on i^aper, strength had arisen to group the formida-
between water and fire. Since we . . . ble, unnumbered, and innumerable mass
have the force, we have not to seek rea- of the German people, to give it one will,
sons." one thought, in politics or in religion, that
Once brought within the fold of the admirable force, perhaps the greatest that
Greater Germany, there would be in Eu- has ever existed, would not have been dis-
rope, aside from the Balkans, eighty-seven sipated by an insensate individualism. The
millions, contributed by Holland, Bel- movement would have united to the force
gium, Switzerland, Austria, and the Bal- of Islam the German tenacity. . . . The
tic provinces of Russia, originally of Ger- culture of Europe
would to-day be purely
man stock. That some of thes-e popula- German, and with it the entire world."
tions have ceased to speak German does How terrific this incorrigible spirit of
362 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
tribalism is can be realized only when we marck's opinion that Turkey and the Bal-
stop to reflect what the culture of the time kans were not worth the bones of a single
of the great migrations was, and what this Pomeranian grenadier was no longer to be
unchained brute iorce and tenacity would entertained. It was, in fact, to the East
have inflicted upon Europe, if it had never that his vision turned.
been tempered and ameliorated by the "No sensible man," he declares, "will
Latin influences that gave it the first sem- ever entertain the idea of recovering either
blance to civilization. nation.al or political influence over the
"In the good old time," writes Tannen- lands in the South and West which were
berg, "it sometimes happened that a strong lost so many centuries ago." For these
people attacked a feeble one, exterminated losses, he admits, "compensation has been
it, and expelled it from its patrimony. granted by Providence in the East."
To-day, these acts of violence are no "Those possessions," he concludes, "we
longer committed. The little peoples and must and will retain."
the debris of peoples have invented a new If there has, in fact, as German states-

word, 'international right.' At bottom it is men profess, been an "encirclement" of


nothing but a calculation based upon our Germany, is it to be w^ondered at, in view
stupid generosity. Some one should . . . of the frank proclamation of German plans
make room either the Slavs of the West
; of territorial expansion? No part of the
or the South, or ourselves! As we are the world has been considered immune from
strongest, the choice wmU not be difficult. attack. "For us," says Tannenberg, "it is
... A people can maintain itself only by a vital question to acquire colonial em-
growing. Greater Germany is possi-
. . . pires which will enable us to remain inde-
ble only through a struggle with Europe. pendent of the good-will of our competi-
Russia, France, and England will oppose tors, offer us a market for our products

the foundation of Greater Germany. Aus- and our industry, and give us the possibil-
tria, powerless as she is, will not weigh ity of procuring the raw materials so nec-
much in the balance. At all events, Ger- essary and so precious which now are
mans will not march against Germany." wanting. I mention, for example, only
Of course none of these aspirations is the need of cotton. It may be to us of no
put forth with official authority, but importance at whose expense it shall be
not being officially suppressed they appear taken. It is essential that we have these
to have a certain sanction. Certainly they colonies, and that is why we shall have
have never been disavowed by the imperial them. Whether it be at the cost of Eng-
German Government. Prince von Billow, land or of France, it is only a question of
for example, writes: "We have carefully power, and perhaps also of a little risk."

cultivated good relations with Turkey and How much risk it would be advisable
Islam, especially since the journey to the to run may be inferred from Tannenberg's
East undertaken by our Emperor and Em- complaint that Bismarck's policy was
press. These relations are not of a senti- "senile," because as early as 1885 it did
mental nature, for the continued existence not r-ach out for Cuba and the Philip-
of Turkey serves our interest from the pines, Cuba, "the pearl of the
especially
industrial, military, and political points of Antilles," as large as Bavaria, Wiirtem-
view. Industrially and financially, Turkey berg, Baden, and Alsace united, as he in-
offered us a rich and fertile field of activ- forms us which, Tannenberg asserts,
;

ity . which we have cultivated with


. . "was well worth a little war" And he !

profit"; and he concludes by expressing could not drop this subject without adding
the reliance of Germany upon Turkey in an insult to the citizens of German origin
the event of a general European war, in the United States by saying: "The posi-
while for Austria Turkey is described as tion of Cuba relative to North America
"the most convenient neighbor possible." would have created a new relation be-
For Prince von Biilow, as he admits, Bis- tween the German people and the ten
ECONOMIC IMPERIALISM 363
millions of German emigrants domiciled in and Switzerland into the German Empire;
the United States; and, besides its situa- cedes to Germany the twelve milliards of
tion,would have given us the preponder- francs lent to Russia; renounces all colo-
ance in the Gulf of Mexico." nies and pays to Germany a cash indem-
;

"After all," runs this outspoken exhor- nity of thirty-five milliards of marks. By the
tation to aggression, "politics is a busi- supposititious treaty of Riga, also drawn
ness," a statement that recalls Prince von up in 191 1, Russia cedes vast territories to
Billow's observation that "politics is a Germany kingdom of Poland
; creates a
rough trade in which sentimental souls on its own where the Prussian Poles,
soil,

rarely bring even a simple piece of work to be expelled from Prussian Poland, may
to a successful issue." "Justice and in- reside; and accepts the Incorporation of
justice," continues Tannenberg, "are no- Austria, ceded by the Hapsburgs to the
tions which are necessary only in civil Hohenzollerns, Into the German Empire.
life." And yet, he pleads, it is "unjust" As an Inducement Great Britain to to
that small states, like Belgium and Hol- sanction these proceedings, the French and
land, should possess rich colonies and en- Portuguese colonies are by these treaties
joy nearly double the per capita wealth to be divided between the two empires on
enjoyed by subjects of the German Em- the assumption that British neutrality
pire, "only because these two countries do could be thus Insured.
not bear arms, as we
"For that rea- do." In citing these documents, so frankly
son," he says, "they capitalizewhat they disclosing the Pan-German dream of ex-
save, and laugh in our faces." But why pansion, there is no intention to insist, as
should not Germans do the same? Is Andre Cheradame has asserted, that these
economic imperialism, after all, an un- specific plans were originated by the high-
profitable business? est official authorities of the German Em-
Itwould be easy, Tannenberg declares, pire ; but It is a disturbing reflection that,
to make it profitable. Think of Luxem- as he points out, ninety per cent, of the
burg, with a total military strength of whole program of the Pan-German propa-
only 323 soldiers and officers, only one ganda, so far as the continent of Europe
man to a thousand of the population And ! is concerned, has, despite unexpected oppo-
Belgium, rich in colonies, a great center sition, actually been carried Into tempo-
of industry and commerce, with its coal rary effect.
and iron, and only a paper protection What Is most discouraging from the
"Yet Belgium," he reminds us, "was once point of view of International society is the
a part of the German Empire." fact that the official philosophy of Prussia,
A subject that awakens very serious re- which, as Prince von Biilow reminds us.

flection Is presented in the appendix to this "attained her greatness as a country of


remarkable work, which contains the text soldiers and officials . . . and to this day
of the treaties to be concluded when the is still In all essentials a state of sol-

war for European conquest is end- id. By diers and officials," has taken command
the imaginary treaty of Brussels, .'d -awn of German intelligence and industry.
up France cedes to Germany the
in 191 1, That philosophy is explicitly stated by the
Vosges, with Epinal; Moselle and former imperial chancellor in the follow-
Meuse, with Nancy and Luneville the ; ing words
town of Verdun and the Ardennes, with
;
"It is a law of life and development in
Sedan. France further gives asylum to history that, where two national civiliza-
the inhabitants of this territory, and estab- tions meet, they fight for ascendancy. In
lishes them elsewhere within her own bor- the struggle between nationalities one na-
ders, in order to make room for German tion Is the hammer and the other the an-
settlers ; declares its assent to the Incorpo- vil ; one is the victor and the other the van-
ration of Belgium, Holland, Luxemburg, quished."
(The foregoing paper is the author's third artic in the series on the reconstruction ot" Europe.)
1?uh/fh*r, ,</,(,,

In Ruhleben Prison Camp


Bv PETER MICHELSON
Illustrated with pictures made by British artists iji Ruhleben

you had been in the historic city of in fact, British civilian residents of Ger-
IFSpandau, many. They were
Germany, on the sixth day being taken as prison-
of November, 19 14, you would have wit- ers to Ruhleben Race-track, which would
nessed strange and stirring scenes. Span- be their prison until the war was over.
dau, where the war indemnity wrung In this first group to arrive were a number
from France in 1871 is guarded in a medi- of distinguished men. At another time
eval tower, was finding an unusual oppor- they would have been welcome guests in
tunity of displaying that rage toward Eng- the best homes in Berlin.
land which the entire nation was just then Curiosity might have impelled you to go
feeling with characteristic German effi- to the sidewalk. There you would have
ciency. between the Eng-
listened to a controversy
You would have noticed the little group lishmen and their guards. How far was
of men that stepped off the Berlin local Ruhleben? It was about a mile. How
and hurried quickly across the station, were they to get there? Walk. Walk,
avoiding so far as possible contact with the indeed^' They were Englishmen. They
populace, who closed in about them. It would ride in taxis. Who would pay?
did not need the shouted taunts of the One promptly produced
of the prisoners
crowd you that these were hated
to tell a well-filled pocket-book. The taxis were
"Englanders." You knew that they were ordered. The prisoners got in, heads
not only Englishmen, but Englishmen of erect, and the taxis started, followed by
refinement and distinction, and if you had the crowd, hooting at them as they speeded
been long in Germany, you would have away. Last to drop off was an old man
recognized the two men in citizens' clothes with white hair who held a dictionary in
who formed a human shield between them his hand in which he was constantly
and the angry crowd as members of Ber- searching for fitting expletives to apply to
lin's secret police. The Englishmen were, these latest enemies of the fatherland.
364
IN RUHLEBEN PRISON CAMP 365
All da.v lon<^ the trains brought more master who had many American pupils;
prisoners amid such scenes as this. Some- C. H. Horsfall, whose portrait of Kitch-
times they were sailors out of the deep-sea ener has recently been hung in the British
ships; sometimes clerks or a group of stu- Museum; Tooley of the Munich Acad-
dents. Occasionally you detected the emy and Wiggin,
; the painter of Belgium.
scholarly mien of a college professor or a Captain Fryatt of the Brussels was
noted British scientist. Beneath the care- brought there after his capture, and in fact
above the black string-
lessly slanted hat, spent his last hours before his execution
tie,you noted the pale, sensitive face of in Ruhleben. With the exception of Fry-
the artist. If you had been a policeman, att, all of these men had been visitors or
you would have been interested in two residents of Germany prior to the war.
men who slunk toward the center of one Only the accident of war made them hated
group, evidently just as well satisfied not foes, to be carted away like criminals in
to be noticed. Finally, strumming their the first patrol-wagon.
banjos and crooning their melodies, came This is the first modern war in which
the negroes, happy-go-lucky roustabouts, non-combatant enemies have been impris-
hailing from nowhere, bound for nowhere, oned. Austria was the only one of the
but "Henglish, seh, Henglish," to the what
early belligerents to keep her sense of
core. It was motley a throng of prison-
as was due the stranger within her gates, and
ers as has ever been brought together. Al- to this day Englishmen are free to walk
together, there were in Germany at the the streets of Vienna unmolested. Presi-
outbreak of the war about six thousand dent Wilson has announced that the United
Englishmen. Of these many got safely States will not imprison German citizens
across the frontier, and others were held who observe the laws of this country.
for a time in other camps, so that the Speaking for the leading Englishmen in
number at Ruhleben never exceeded four Ruhleben camp whom I saw in Berlin and
thousand at one time. whose views I know, this broad policy will
Conspicuous among the early arrivals receive their unqualified indorsement.
was John Balfour, nephew of Britain's They know the senseless cruelty, not
foreign minister, and Matthew Prichard, dictated by any military need, that com-
former curator of the Boston Museum of pels law-respecting men to spend two or
Art. Others were Joseph Powell, manager more of their best years in a prison camp.
Motion Picture Company of
of the Eclair Even an ideal prison, if there can be such
Vienna; George Fergusson, the singing a thing, is not the place one would choose
366 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
to spend two years, and no makeshift the imagination of the reader. Added to

prison can be made ideal on an instant's the physical discomfort was their mental
notice. The stories of hardships suffered worry over the sufferings of their families.
by the unfortunate British civilians during All their property had been seized, and
their first six months in Ruhleben rival their families were dependent upon the
those that came out of the concentration bounty of the German overseer. Of course
camps of our own Civil War. this property will have to be returned after
The German officials themselves are au- the war. It is just one more instance of
thority for the statement that during those war hatred venting its fury on the inno-
months Ruhleben was "not fit for
first six cent.
swine." Ruhleben was an old race-track I visited Ruhleben camp in November,
that was converted into a prison camp by 191 6, two years after its organization.
the simple procedure of stretching three Every facility for inspecting the camp was
lines of barbed wire above its board fence. afforded me by the military authorities.
It is a literal fact that the prisoners spent I even had opportunities of talking to the
had been
their first night in the barns that prisoners alone and when there was no
vacated by the horses only that morning. reason for them to be circumspect or
Vermin soon made its appearance. A ras- guarded in their statements; I therefore
cally contractor is accused of having made feel that I can give a very accurate and
away with large quantities of meat, so that impartial account of the camp. I have
the chief diet was a watery soup. The heard the statement made that the Ger-
men were generally undernourished, and mans maintain Ruhleben as a sort of
pneumonia and other sicknesses found "show-camp" to parade before the neutral
them easy victims. The prisoners them- world. This may possibly be true. How-
selves had to organ- ever, to me Ruhle-
ize a committee to ben is important as
take care of the showing how a
young boys and old prison can be made
men, and it was to serve the ends of
largely due to the humanity. Clothe a
effort of this com- blind, unreasoning
mittee that more fury in the uniform
deaths were not re- of military necessity,
ported. Although drag useful men
there was a mile from useful work to
square of race-track, a prison, if you
the men were con- must but at least
;

fined for their exer- give them a chance


cise to the narrow to continue to be
space directly in useful to the world
front of the grand while they pay the
stand. On rainy penalty vengeance
days, or when some demands.
one disregarded one Although I had
of the verbotens that asked to visit Ruhle-
in those days were ben when I first ar-

as many as the pWlJf^fPR rived in Berlin early


wooden splinters in in October, it was
their beds, the entire camp was confined to nearly six weeks later before I received
the dark, gloomy barracks. What this the desired permission. Then one stormy
meant to four thousand men as fond of morning the telephone in my room at the
the outdoors as the Britisher is I leave to Hotel Adlon rang, and a deep-bass voice
IN RUHLEBEN PRISON CAMP 367
fired a perfect volley of directions at me German guard regarded us from within.
in German. I risked jail by replying in After the lieutenant had given his mes-
English. The man on the wire apologized, sage, thedoor closed, and we waited. A
and in perfect English instructed me to few minutes later the gate opened wide,
be ready to leave at and we found the
one o'clock. One German commander,
o'clock accordingly A. l-Jt^'A L!.' 1''
XMV ;,
!./,M) Couijt Schwerin-
found me aboard the Wolfshagen, and his
overhead steam rail- entire staff waiting
road, accompanied for us inside. With
by a j'oung lieuten- them was an Eng-
ant from the crack lish prisoner, bare-
Berlin regiment, headed, with a shock
the regiment that of curly, brown hair,
marched through with broad shoul-
Belgium and dashed ders set on the frame
itself to pieces in the of an athlete, and
mass attacks during the agreeable smile
the early days of the of an English gen-
war. Our conver- tleman. As a pro-
sation was entirely tection from the
in English. The rain, the prisoner
only other occupant had drawn the col-
of our first-class car- lar of his threadbare
riage was a 3'oung coat up over his
woman of the mid- neck. This man
dle class. She sud- was Joseph Powell,
denly interrupted \ Ih 1 ) h ^%^1\ ^rl-l whom the camp has
our conversation, chosen as its captain
and said something ^ rihu i;i x. ( .TMASCAKD or mayor. He had
to the young lieu- been, as already
tenant, who colored up to his eyebrows. Stated, the manager of the Eclair Motion
He afterward explained that she had ex- Picture Company and was
in Vienna,
pressed surprise that he, an officer in the one of the organizers of the Consular
imperial army, should be speaking the Academy at Vienna.
language of the enemy. At Spandau we Passing through the gate of Ruhleben,
left the railway for a trolley. Half one walks in upon a city even stranger
an hour's ride through a pleasant, rolling than the imagination of a Stevenson could
country, divided into miniature vegetable have pictured. The whole thing is so like
gardens, with here and there a trench for a scene from a tale of adventure that one
training the new recruits, mostly .small, would not be surprised to be told that it
under-developed men, brought us to had been set up overnight for a great mov-
Ruhleben. ing-picture spectacle. To our left, as we
From the outside Ruhleben did not look stood inside the gate, lay Fleet Street, with
any more like a prison than do the Polo its quaint shops built of rough pine boards.
Grounds. The three lines of barbed wire Decorative signs told us that here was a
might have been stretched above the six- shoemaker, there the tobacconist, here
foot fence as a discourager to over-ambi- again the barber or the jeweler. There
tious small boys. When we knocked at were the church, the synagogue, the Y.
the gate, a small door, such as I have seen M. C. A., the theater, the motion-picture
used by the lookout in a Chinese gam- house, and the post-office. It was a city
bling-den, slid back, and the eye of the complete in itself, a little crude, perhaps,
368 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
but nevertheless a city. rain, whichA rain nor imprisonment is permitted to in-

was little more than a London fog, cast terfere with the national custom.
a haze over the street. Grizzled seamen Directly in front of us was the athletic
in oilskins lounged about its doorwa3's, field. It had been the center of the race-
smoking their pipes, track, and had been
and evidently taking rented by the prison-
their imprisonment ers from the race-
with stolid indiffer- track association.
ence. Young men, It was laid out
with whiskers too into a golf-course,
new to be described running-track, and
as grizzled, gener- cricket-ground. I do
ally hatless and col- not believe there
larless, and with a ever was a crazier
cord hitched about golf-course. It zig-
the waist-line in lieu zagged back and
of suspenders, hur- forth like the trail

ried up and down of a fancy skater,


its narrow lane. and only the most
From beyond came vivid imagination
the tinkle of banjos could have cleared
and the merry shouts its imaginary bar-
of negroes at their riers. The race-
games. Directly at course proper had
the end of the street been divided into
was a cheese-box tennis-courts. De-
structure, with a huge smoke-stack that spite the rain, the prisoners were seat-
threatened to uproot it. A long line of men, tered over the field in every conceivable
each with a pitcher in his hand, stood pa- costume from spotted tennis flannels to
tiently waiting at its entrance, apparently union suits.
indifferent to the rain. This was the tea- One of the German officers, who acted
house. It had two immense boilers, each as spokesman, pointed to the stone bar-
racks to the right.
"That is where the Pro-
Germans live," he said.

I looked my disbelief, but I

found it to be a curious fact


that even this camp of Eng-
lishmen is divided on the ques-
tion of the war. The Pro-
Germans are Englishmen, most
of whom have spent their lives
in Germany. Some of them
are sons of German mothers.
They frankly lean toward the
side of Germany. One inmate
THE. aiR.0-CA<;6 of the Pro-German barracks
is the man without a coun-
holding a thousand quarts of water, al- try. H is an old German who had
ways kept at the boiling-point, for the lived 1 England for fifty years and
purpose of keeping the Englishman sup- whose two sons are fighting with the
plied with his favorite beverage. Neither Allies. England deported him because he
IN RUHLEBEN PRISON CAMP 369
was German, and Germany promptly in- with a reputation that would do justice to
terned him because his sons were fighting a railroad gang boss, in a particularly
with the English. It was intimated to me amiable mood.
that before the Pro-Germans were segre- Powell was almost bowled over by
gated several intensely interesting argu- Count Wolfshagen's proposal. It was

ments had developed, in which the German nothing more or less than that the prison-
guard had been compelled to take an ac- ers themselves should run the camp with-
tive part. In the illustration drawn by out hindrance from the German authori-
EgremiOnt, which accompanies this article, ties, and the German guard should be
the Pro-Germans are
seen goose-stepping
behind a banner read-
ing "Home, Sweet
Home."
Ruhleben is the one
prison camp in the
world that enjoys self-
government. Free-
dom, at least .such
freedom as is possible
within a prison, came
to the camp in quite
an unusual way. Two
days after their intern-
ment, each barracks—
that is, each dormi-
tory — had organized
its own committee for
the purpose of keep-
ing the quarters clean.
These captains had
come together in a ii i ki:

larger committee
known as the captains' committee, and placed outside the fence. There were no
had chosen one of their number, Joseph strings attached to the proposition except
Powell, to be captain of captains. The that the committee of captains should
purpose of committee was
this to take promise to report any missing prisoners
care of the weaker prisoners, and to pro- without delay. Powell immediately called
test to the German authorities as often his committee together, and, needless to
and as effectively as it could. After the say, the proposition was accepted.
committee had been protesting on an iiver- We know so much about the autocratic
age of once every twenty-four hours over Prussian that it is rather pleasant to pre-
a period of six months, Powell was sent this other side of his character. No
aroused one morning by a loud tattoo possible harm could come of this experi-
on his door, and was informed that his ment democracy. On the contrary, a
in
presencewas desired at the office of the lot ofgood could come, indeed, did come,
commander. Not knowing whether he was out of it. If it did nothing more, it gave
to be court-martialed or to be told that the men an interest in their prison and it
the camp must suffer some new restriction, kept them cheerful. The happiest man
he hastily dressed, and presented himself over its success was the Prussian com-
atheadquarters. He found Count Schwer- mander himself. He has allowed the
in-Wolfshagen, a bluff old Prussian officer principle of self-government to be applied
370 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
so far that the general kitchens, main- improvements, as, for example, the ath-
tained at the expense of the German Gov- letic field.

ernment, are under the supervision of An intricate system of accounts is in


British inspectors. State socialism is the force. The books of every department are
form of government chosen by the prison- audited by a chartered accountant. They
ers asmost practical for their needs. This are audited a second time by the camp
is rather curious, too, when one considers treasurer, who certifies them to the com-
that this is not a community of idealists, mittee of captains. Until the severance of
but of men drawn from every rank of life diplomatic relations, they were then
from stevedores to masters of industry turned into the American embassy, and
and even from the British nobility itself. audited a fourth time before being for-
Under this scheme of government there warded to England, where they are kept
is a uniform wage-scale for all kinds of as a public record.
labor, brain or brawn, the maximum wage The most remarkable feature of Ruhle-
amounting to ten marks a week. All the ben is the school and the laboratories for
shops are owned by the community but ; Imagine walking into
scientific research.

there is no effort to show a profit, which a prison which only a few months before
would be easy enough, as the community had been a race-track, and finding there
has a monopoly of everything. The prof- a complete school system. Its full signifi-

its from the stores, in fact from all paying cance does not come to you all at once.
enterprises, are used to cover the losses of You walk up-stairs to the loft of one of
other departments or are applied to public the converted stables. You walk into the
first class-room, and
you are forced to
blink in the unaccus-
tomed semi-darkness.
Then you begin to
distinguish objects: a
pine bench, a rough
desk, a teacher's plat-
form, a blackboard.
You see three men
stooped over desks.
Perhaps they are ships'
stokers, the toughest
men in the world,
who spend nine tenths
of their lives beneath
the water-line. Two
of them may be )'oung
men between the ages
of twenty and thirty,
the third an old sea-
dog of sixty. They
are learning to read.
In the next room a
class is studying Ger-
man. In the third
room is a nautical
school. Beyond are
classes in advanced
mathematics, physics,
IN RUHLEBEN PRISON CAMP 371

French, Celtic, even Sanskrit. You are subscribe to the School Funds. The ex-
told amazing fact that here in
the this penses of the School will be met if every
prison camp, where living has been re- Student subscribes at least 25 Pfennigs per
duced to the crudest, is a school that credits week. The term consists of 14. weeks and
its students to Glasgow University. Just the total subscription of 3.50 marks (about
to reproduce its printed course of study- 60 cents) should be paid In advance.
would require a page of this magazine.
In order to give the reader an idea of This school is just one evidence of what
the wide scope of the school and its demo- prisoners can do for themselves under en-
cratic qualities, I have taken the follow- lightened prison management. It is a re-
ing from the school prospectus: markable fact that the school has been
made entirely self-supporting. Destitute
In issuing this special Prospectus the students are allowed to work out their
Committee of the Ruhleben Camp School tuition by performing labor in the camp.
wishes to draw the attention of students to The amount wages is diverted to
of their
the following points: the school fund from the funds of the de-
I : The School Premises are now simply partment for which they have worked.
but adequately equipped. The faculty heads and their assistants
2: The Laboratory arrangements enable are either college professors or men whose
satisfactory practical work to be done. position in the business world has given
3 : A good library dealing with a wide them a thorough and practical knowledge
variety of subjects is already in Camp and of their subject. Dr. E. W. Pachett, head
further volumes can be procured easily from of the foreign-language department, for
England. example, was an exchange professor at one
4: Public examinations are being ar- of the German universities. Dr. J. W.
ranged for: those of the Royal Society of Blagden, head of the physical science de-
Arts have already been held. partment, is a recognized authority, and
5: The Board of Education has arranged only by chance was in Germany on a va-
a scheme for Recording Study which may be cation when England declared war. S. A.
used i: as a' testimonial. 2: in connection, Henriksen of the nautical department, on
with certain examinations (Permitting the the other hand, is not a college man, but a
student in the Ruhleben School to use his. sea-captain well qualified to educate prac-
credits in established schools and univer- tical seamen. On the staff are a great
sities.) many accountants and correspondents for-
6: In most subjects, the tuition provided merly employed by German firms. These
by the School, ranges from that required men are required to have a practical
by absolute beginners to that required by knowledge of different languages. In the
Advanced University Students. camp school they teach business French,
The Autumn Term begins September nth: business German, and business Russian.
the enrollment of all students, old and new, The school is an excellent example of effi-

in all Departments takes places in tht.* Loft cient mobilization, every man to the job
of Barrack 6, on Monday and Tuesday the he is At the end of
best able to perform.
4th and 5th of September, 9 to 11 .a.m. and the war, many young men, and some old
2 to 4 P.M. men, too, will graduate from Ruhleben
Before enrollment, every Student must with an equipment that will fit them for
obtain personally at the Office, aCard of better positions than they ever held.
Membership which admits to all Classes and The custom of interning law-abiding
Lectures. For purpose of obtaining Mem- enemy civilians is the exercise of a bar-
bership Cards, the Office will be open daily baric instinct. It satisfies the savage de-
(Sunday excepted) from the 1st of Septem- mand for vengeance on the innocent, but
ber (9 to II A.M. and 2 to 4 p.m.) When it may also work out as an act of Provi-
getting this card the Student is expected to dence. This thought came upon me as I
-pw S S o ^ c
y J ''
* > X. O u) w
E w S >^ j^

P fc ^ ^ u o'"
^ O ?-. z S =
w
a o w r w
IN RUHLEBEN PRISON CAMP 373
stumbled dark
Into the little cubbyhole low-prisoners affectionately refer as
that Dr. Erick Higgins calls his labora- "Young Edison." At the outbreak of the
tory. Dr. Higgins, be it known, is a war Squires was employed by electrical
scientist who. was brought to Germany by works in Berlin as a consulting engineer.
German capital to perfect a process, which Since his internment he has been assigned
he had discovered, for hardening fat. to the task of superintending the big dyna-
Stumbling about Dr. Higgins's laboratory, mos that supply light to the camp and
I was guided to where the scientist was electricity for the moving-picture theater.
standing by occasional blue flashes in the He also recharges the small pocket lights
semi-darkness. The blue flashes came from with w^hich many of the prisoners have
a delicate little instrument that Dr. Hig- supplied themselves. Squires, in his labo-
gins has invented since his imprisonment ratory, a block away from his dynamos,
and which he can work on his
calls a quad- inventions and
rant electro- still know that
meter. It will all is well in

measure the the dynamiO-


rays of elec- room. An auto-
tricity finer matic sounder
than any other warns him if he
instrument in is required at
the world. I his post. Over
asked the in- his head is an
ventor if he had electric clock
had much diffi- that regulates
culty in getting all the other
the material he clocks of Ruh-
needed. leben. Its swing
"A little," he pendulum rep-
said modestly. resents a new
A shining principle in
piece of metal clock - making.
on the electrometer caught my eye. I When the pendulum is interrupted, it

looked more closely. It was a shaving- automatically races to catch up with


soap tube. Dr. Higgins informed me that time, as do all the other clocks in Ruhle-
he had obtained some of his materials from ben. Squires's clock, like Higgins's elec-
England, but for the rest he had had to trometer, has been built largely with
depend upon odd bits that he could pick up scraps picked up about the camp.
around the camp. As I stood there, mar- In the rear of the school and laboratory
veling that such a piece of work could be is a tiny building with a quaint garden of
brought out under such condition^, and red geraniums. This is the Ruhleben Art
indignant at a world that locked its genius Studio. Conditions at Ruhleben have
in a hole like this, I suddenly realized been particularly favorable for the devel-
that if the circumstances had been dif- opment of art. While such men as Hors-
ferent, Dr. Higgins would have been fight- fall, the Royal Academician ; Charles Too-
ing in the trenches. Then it seemed al- ley, of the Munich Academy; and John
most providential that he had been im- Wiggins, the landscape artist from Bel-
prisoned at Ruhleben. gium, have found their work curtailed by
There was plenty of food for such spec- imprisonment, other men whose work in
ulation. In his own laboratory not far other professions has required all their ef-

from the school I found George Squires, fort now find time to develop their art.
an Australian engineer, to whom his fel- Some of these men show remarkable tal-
374 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
ent. Egremont, whose whimsical fancy can get shaved for a fifteen-pfennig ticket.

finds expression in cartoons and silhou- A book of fifty tickets, costing seventy-
ettes, and Wade, whose caricatures rank five pfennigs, will buy one hundred quarts
with the best, are both new-comers. Ex- of boiling water at the tea-house. You
hibitions by the artists of Ruhleben have pay for beer at the casino in camp cur-
been sent to Stockholm and London, and rency. When the plate is passed at church
have met with remarkable success. The service,you pay in blue slips. On pay-day
Knoedler Gallery in New York is show- you receive the maximum wage, ten marks,
ing the work of the Ruhleben artists. in camp currency. Up to date there has
The post-office is another remarkable been no counterfeiting discovered.
institution organized on efficiency lines. The one feature of the camp most to
As many as forty thousand parcels pass be condemned is the sleeping-quarters.
through this office in a day. All money The choice beds are in the stalls formerly
and parcels from home come this way. occupied by the race-horses, and they are
Besides the usual functions performed by not very choice. Five men are quartered
post-offices, it acts as purchasing agent to in a stall thirteen by twelve feet. Up-
bring food from Switzerland. It collects which are two hun-
stairs in the hay-lofts,

the money needed, which it forwards to dred and sixty by twenty-seven feet, bunks
the Swiss merchants, together with the or- for one hundred and twenty men have
der. When he pays for this food in ad- been installed. The bunks are built in
vance, every prisoner is given a numbered tiers, like the berths in the Chinese quar-
card. When the mail arrives, the pris- ters of an Alaska packer. The frames are
oner calls for his number, receives his par- of wood, and the mattresses are made of
cel, opens it in the presence of the German wood wool, which is nothing more than
guard, and moves on to make room for chips of wood. Ventilation and lighting
the next man. Due to this system, there are bad. Complaint of these conditions
is less confusion than one would ordinarily has been made, but the German authori-
find in the average branch post-office in ties say that the only way the overcrowd-

the United States. ing can be remedied is by moving some of


While the German Government has es- the men to a new concentration camp.
tablished kitchens, now under the super- The men have elected, however, to remain
vision of the prisoners, it necessarily cannot in Ruhleben.
supply better food than is served in Ber- Ruhleben is a world unto itself. Of the
lin. The food which the prisoners them- great events happening in the world be-
selves bring from Switzerland and from yond its six-foot fence it knows only what
England makes their lot a happier one than the German censor wishes it to know. A
that of the Berliner under blockade con- few copies of the London newspapers find
ditions. When we were in Berlin, we their way into the camp. Officially no
had several treats of coffee and white one knows how they get there ; no one
bread given us by the British prisoners. wants to know. The ragged, thumb-
For their own convenience the prisoners mark^'d paper, after its round of the camp,
have established their own cook-house, speaks eloquently of how eagerly this news
where special dishes are prepared. is sought. But, then, the camp has news
Money issued under the authority of of its own, and news, after all, is only
the committee of captains is the only rec- relative to the Ruhlebenite; a scrap in the
ognized currency. It is printed on pink barracks might be of as lively interest as
and blue slips, like the transfers m Mark a debate between Carson and Redmond.
Twain's persistent verse, "A pink slip A from Ambassador Gerard might
visit

goes with a two-cent fare, A blue slip goes be likened to King George's review of the
with a five-cent fare." One pays eighty overseas troops. Orders for lights out at
pfennigs for a book of tickets that has a nine o'clock is the subject for debate on
value of one mark at the barber's. You the rights of free-born Englishmen, while
IN RUHLEBEN PRISON CAMP 375

an escape from Ruhleben and there have into five figures, but when an effort was

been escapes is as thrilling as the retreat made him to relinquish the librari-
to get
from tlie Marne. anship, which pays him nothing, he was
There are three magazines published in ready to declare war. He said that he had
Ruhleben, and one daily newspaper, which been librarian when the library had con-
give the camp news. "In Ruhleben Camp" sisted of ten paper-back novels, and now
is a monthly magazine. It is a bright, that it was a real library, he would like to
cheerful little periodical, filled with clever see the man who was big enough to do
stories and amusing illustrations, reflect- him out of his job.
ing to a certain degree the spirit of the Ruhleben is not a camp de luxe, nor is
camp. The other magazines are published the Ruhleben prisoner the most contented
in French and Italian respectively. The person on earth. If I have given this im-
daily newspaper is a bulletin of news pression, I have overdrawn the picture.
briefs translated from the German dailies. Participation in his government has had
It is a remarkable democracy. Living the stimulating effect that democracy al-
on terms of exact equality are men from ways has. It has kept him cheerful.
every walk of life. Every one has suffi- How does Ruhleben compare with the
cient to keep him alive; few, if any, have Allies' prison camps? I put this question

more than they need. One Ruhlebenite to Powell. I did n't expect him to answer

is a thief wanted in three continents, but it, but he did.


his fellow-prisoners ignore that fact. He "I think," he said, "that England feeds
is simply "Jones" of Barracks lo, and as her prisoners better and that in England
long as he behaves himself, no one cares the housing is better, but for freedom this
about his past. camp leads the world."
There are no slackers. Captain Powell It was a remarkable demonstration of
has had men who have led a silk-stock- that quality with which we have always
inged existence at home apply for jobs on believed our Allies especially endowed—
the work gang. Every one wants to do fair play. was an Englishman's love of
It
his share. Here is the way the war has fair play that made him give his enemy
changed the vocations of a few of the Brit- his due. And yet Powell is one of the
ish prisoners: George Fergusson, the sing- most loyally patriotic men I ever knew.
ing teacher who is particularly well known This patriotic spirit was so fervid in
to Americans, and Richard Carrad of Ruhleben that the camp had refused to
a well-known type-writer company are allow its charity fund to be used to bring
kitchen inspectors. Chief of Police Butch- supplies from Switzerland, which would
ardt none other than the golf champion.
is have been a decided advantage, because
His assistants, Alcides and Stewart, are some of those supplies might go to the
sea-captains. You would never recognize, Germans in exchange for presents of to-
in the program-boy at Ruhleben Theater, bacco. That would have been trading
Fred Winter, the kaiser's former jockey. with the enemy, an unpatriotic act. On
Ruhleben has a circulating-libra,y of the other hand, you could argue all day
eight thousand books and a reference li- with an Englishman without convincing
brary of two thousand. The librarian is him thatit was in any way unpatriotic to

J. H. Platford, a partner in the firm of give an enemy credit where credit is his
Cooper & Cooper, chartered accountants due. Another form of British bull-headcd-
of London. His income is said to run ness, I suppose.
The Man from America
By ALDEN BROOKS
Illustrations by Harry Tovvnsend

Neuilly ping the Stars and Stripes, were possibly


INhadthose daj^s
some of
the hospital
the
at
aspects of a boom- the forerunner of something else. Of
town, and we of its ambulance considered course we never ventured to express a
ourselves true pioneers as we stalked about definite opinion ; but we always looked
the mud of its yards and tried to build up wise.
an efficient service. And, for that mat- Meanwhile the work went on, and
ter, we were something new. Khaki had slowly we established the foundations of
not then spread through Paris as it has the present service. To be sure, there
since,and our uniforms excited continual were wrangles among us, and in conse-
comment. Moreover, there was a rumor quence a more or less steady flow of resig-
that these speedy little ambulances, flap- nations but many new men were ever
;

376
THE MAN FROM AMERICA 377
joining up, and all in a we were endowed ^''4;%^*.y^r
with a fine vitality.
It was in these circumstances that I

became acquainted with the man of whom


I wish to write a few words here, William

S. Lincoln. In passing, let me warn the


reader that this
is not a story in

any sense, but Jf^x


merely a few
facts, briefly re-

corded, concern-
ing a personal^
friend.
I first met
Lincoln in the
ambulance head-
quarters. I hap-
pened to be on
duty at the time,
and he came in,
a tall, angular
fellow with
deep-set eyes,
and asked me to
accept his appli-
cation for mem-
bership. We
had recently had
trouble over the
problem of
whether new
members of the
ambulance were
to pay for their
uniforms or not,
and rightly or .

wrongly it had
been decided that hewent on to affirm that in any
that, pending case hewas "absolutely broke." This
definite advice was the usual cry, and I was some-
from New York, what tempted to doubt his word,
all men were to though I passed along his application.
be asked to Incidentally, a day or two later, I learned
contribute as Clarence blow^ tn that his financial status was what he said
much as they attd asks ibr sotae it was and for a rather curious reason.
could to their tight teaditig'' seemed that he had worked his way
It
expenses. Af- over on the Lusitania, —
gone down with
ter Ihad explained the situation to him as her, that is, — and, on being pulled out of
best I could, Lincoln answered that he the water stiff and unconscious, had
had been guarantied in New York that promptly come to life in order to wager
all his expenses would be paid ; and with everv cent he had with him that America
378 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
would surely be at war with Germany What 's the ambulance? Just a three-
within a fortnight. months' joy-ride along the front, with a
It must have been the knowledge of thrill of danger thrown in. And you
these wild bets that fastenedupon him for know it. If that 's your idea of doing

a time the nickname of "Lusitania Bill"; something,— just bringing in wounded


but once in uniform, he relapsed into so Frenchmen who have done the real work,
severe a silence and so occupied himself — then say so, and there 's no argument.
with learning the routine of service that I agree with you. We Americans ought
he forthwith dropped from public notice to help to alleviate the suffering as much
and became simply one more member of aswe can on and we are. But
all sides;

our unit. It was only just before many of when j'ou were calling people cowards I
us were off to the front once more that I took you at your word and thought you
obtained another glimpse of Billy's politi- meant something else. I Sf e now that you
cal fiber as I listened to him arguing with were only talking through your hat."
a fellow-compatriot, one Koenig, a would- While Billy sat there scowling, appar-
be portrait-painter. Koenig had launched ently a trifle nonplussed, Koenig rose from
into a rather wholesale approval of our his chair and prepared to leave us.
Government's conduct during the war "Come back here," said Billy. "Where
when Billy suddenly interrupted him with you gomg ?"
an unexpected outburst of caustic remarks. "Home " answered Koenig. He gave
To my mind such arguments generally us a curt wave of his hand, like a man
end about where they begin, so I said who has serious work awaiting him. "So
nothing and let them toss their opinions long. Some other day — when you know
back and forth. But shortly both grew something more about European politics."

very earnest over the matter, and finally I looked at Billy and laughed. He
Koenig said twisted back into place and, stretching out
"Look here, Lincoln, you want to be his legs, said with a gloomy, mysterious
careful how you go around calling people shake of his head :

cowards just because they happen to dis- "How that gets my goat!"
agree with you. Coward is a pretty strong
word." We went to the front on different squads,
"Sure," answered Billy, dryly; "that 's Billy and I, and a month or so later I re-
why I use it." signed from the ambulance and left France
"Well, if you 're so full of fight, wh\- and drifted out of the run of ambulance
don't you do something yourself?" affairs. But on my return from Italy next
Billy looked disgusted. autumn, one of the first persons I met on
"Ah, what 's that got to do with what the boulevards was Billy Lincoln, tower-
we 're talking about? What 's my per- ing above every one else and dressed again
sonality got to do with the way the Gov- in civilian clothes.He, too, had resigned.
ernment at Washington
conducted?" is work," he said, with a
"Interesting
It was Koenig's turn to be contemptu- scowl, "?.nd mighty useful work; but, you
ous. He turned to me and said, with a — —
know and well, I 've got something
little laugh better up my slee\e. The real thing this
"You see! They all short-skate just time."
like that when you pin them down." During lunch together I tried to obtain
Billy was silent for a second ; then he a little insight into his plans. He was
twisted his long body about nervously in unnaturally modest and bashful, but
and said rather awkwardly
his chair eventually I won from him the word
"Well, do you call working with the "Aviation." Yet that was all.
ambulance doing nothing?" "No," he insisted. "Never mind the
"The ambulance!" Koenig almost rest. I 'm not talking till 1 get the job."
shouted. "What are you talking about? Unfortunateh', he never obtained "the
THE MAN FROM AMERICA 379
job." know Paris is filled with Ameri-
I The colleague smiled benevolently and
cans who were refused by the Aviation shook his head.
Corps or whose mothers at the last minute "I don't understandit," he said.

cabled back a positive refusal ; but it is "Less dangerous," said a myopic little

only fair to Billy Lincoln to say that he man over a desk near the window as he
did his level best to get accepted, and that went on writing.
his size, weight, and poor eyesight all So Billy had got into a fight of some
spoke against him. In fact, for days after- sort. How silly of him! Without doubt
ward he was almost ridiculously depressed his opponent was Koenig. How silly of
and moody. Then some time passed, and Koenig! As if he could find nothing bet-
I saw nothing more of him. I had begun ter to do than call a gendarme!
to think that he had returned to America "Might I have the name of the gentle-
without a word to any one when one man who wishes to prosecute?" I asked.
morning I received a note from him. I
say note; there was just this one sentence,
"Can you help me out?" The address
was la Conciergerie, Palais de Justice. He
was in prison.
As I hurried along in a taxi I tried to
imagine why he had been arrested. Not
a question of money surely, for I knew he
had recently received some from America.
Billy in prison It was incredible.
!

"Monsieur," answered the commissaire


of police in charge of the.case, "your friend
is held for assault and battery upon a fel-

low-citizen."
"A fellow-citizen id scowled
"Yes, ^lon-
sieur; a fellow-
citizen, a fel-

low-citizen of
the heroic land
of Wilson."
While I stood
there speech-
less and stared
blankly at him,
the commissaire
leaned back in
his chair, lifted
his chin over his
collar, and said
to a colleague:
"Rather than
fall upon the
Germans for
killing their wo-
men, here are
the Americans
fighting among "A txyughcvcfwd, but
themselves." aU die -hards* '^
380 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Without answering, the commissaire looking over some books on modern artil-

unpinned a card from some papers, and lery and explosives, when this Clarence
laid it before me. I glanced at the card. blows in and asks suddenly for some light
"Clarence Goodrich," I read. I had never reading. He wore spats, carried a cane,

heard of the name before. and had a little dog on the end of a leash,
"This is the gentleman that says my and every one had to get out of his way
friend struck him?" or else get a good shove in the back. I

"He not only says so, but he proves it took that shove in silence because by na-
with his person," I was told. ture I 'm a peaceful man, as you know,
"It 's very regrettable," I muttered. and I was interested in what I was read-
"Is n't it?" replied the conimissaire. ing. By and by, after Clarence had
icily. stamped about importantly for a little

Though I spoke on for a few minutes, while, as if he owned the whole shop, the
and tried to lessen the severity of Billy's head clerk came back with a fistful of lit-
crime, I met with little success. Eventu- erature and spread the books out on a
ally, I managed to get to Billy
however, counter, and Clarence tried them on one
himself, or, to be more correct, we met by one. But none of them fitted him, and
half-way in a sort of waiting-room. He he was getting just real impatient and
was very disheveled and rumpled, but ap- peevish, when the clerk, an aged English-
parently perfectly happy. man, deftly pushed another book before
"Got a tooth-brush on you, by any him. 'What 's the title?' Clarence grum-
chance?" he asked. bled. "America Revisited," sir,' said the
'

I shook my head. clerk. With a howl of disgust Clarence


"Nor a pocket comb?" let the book drop and screamed: 'Take it
. "Neither." away! I don't want to revisit that damned
"Well, then, give me a cigarette." country. I don't ever want to see it or
I gave him a cigarette. He waved it at hear of it or read about it again. I 'm
the gendarme who stood guard over us. through with it once for all. Nothing
The gendarme smiled his permission. So but a dirty land of crooked money-makers,
Billy took the package from me and of- unwashed immigrants, and half-baked
fered the gendarme a cigarette also. Still politicians.' The clerk stood there a little
smiling, the gendarme took one and put it embarrassed during all this. 'It 's strange
away into his dolman. to hear an American talk like that, sir.'

"Well," said I, "what 's the dope?" Just about then I turned around and said
"The dope is simply this. I wish some to the clerk, 'Oh, don't think everything
kind friend— you, for instance— would go you see with a mouth and a stomach
is an

to my hotel in the rue des Trois-Petits- American.' 'Mr. Goodrich is, neverthe-
Anges, pay my bill, for which I '11 give less, an American,' answered the clerk.

you the money, and pack everything up." Then Clarence cut the rest short by com-
"Is it as bad as all that?" ing forward and shoving me asfde. 'Don't
He shrugged his shoulders indifferently. pay anyvittention to this man,' he bawled
"I don't know. But one thing is cer- out. 'Pay attention to me.'
tain, if they fine me, I 'm not going to "Well, that shove kind of took me by
pay a red cent; just go straight through surprise at first and I stepped back a sec-
with it, even though it be a life imprison- ond then all of a sudden I saw that I 'd
;

ment." have to soak him one on principle; and


"Well, let 's hear jour crime first. since I suspected there might be some legal
Who is this Clarence Goodrich? Where come-back like this, I made it a good one
did you run into him?" while I was about it."

"Oh, it was nothing at all, absolutely I bent my shoulders under the news.
nothing. I was down at one of those "And you call that nothing! Billy, you
English book-stores on the rue de Rivoli, 're crazy."
^^r-

"Maybe; but no frog-eyed coupon-cut- knowledge that I tried to dissuade him;


ter can spit with impunity at our country so did my friend Williams. We had noth-
while I 'm round. What 's more, if
— ing to say against the legion except that
"Still," I interrupted, "he hit you first, no one joined the legion now unless under
did n't he?" very exceptional pressure, and that to do
"Hit He did not." so in any case was simply to go courting
"Now, wait a minute. You just said death in a blunt, straightforward way.
he shoved you away with his hand." "You 're not telling me anything new,"
Billy was displeased. Billy replied with his usual nonchalance
"Why, my dear man, he only just "I 've no rosy dreams about it. But the
touched me on the shoulder. Believe me, legion is the only thing I can join up with
if that bundle of silk underwear had ever now. I 've tried everything else. They
really hit me, they 'd be busy cleaning him won't look at Americans. Just those three
up out of that store yet." openings for us: aviation, ambulance, or
"Still," I persisted, "as far as the law the legion."
is concerned, he hit you first, and that 's "What do you have to join up at all
a great point. So stick to it an^' forget for?" asked Williams.
the rest and brush yourself up a bit and "Oh, I know it 's different with you fel-

look rational again, and perhaps we can lows. You 're married men, with chil-
save you yet." dren, responsibilities, preoccupied with
The sequel to Billy's arrest is a long, your work; but I 've got nothing to do.
tiresome story; but the fact of the matter and —"
is that for several reasons Clarence Good- "It is n't a question of our being mar-
rich finally decided not to prosecute, and ried or preoccupied ; it 's a question of our
Billy left the Conciergerie a free man. being Americans."
Billy smiled at us.
A FEW days later he had made up his "Well?" he queried.
mind to join the Foreign Legion. I ac- "Well, when a man goes out to fight
3S1
382 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
of his own free will, if he goes out with dren floating around in the water, too. I

any sincerity, he goes out prepared to sac- tried to help some of them, but it was n't
rifice his life, does n't he?" much use. I was pretty well banged up

"Sure." myself. Still, that sight sort of got my


"Well, then, if your life is worth any- goat. And it does still. I hear that the
thing, since you 've got only one life to answer is, 'We should worry,' that little

give, you give it in defense of your own things like that no longer count. Well,
country." perhaps they don't with some people, but
"Right again," answered Billy. they still do with me. They count a great
There was a little silence. deal. And another thing. You two know
"Well, has America declared war yet?" as well as I do how we stand in the eyes
"No; but war has been declared upon of every other nation in the world. You
America." know the motto they 've pinned on to our
"That 's a statement that 's open to backs, 'Peace, Prosperity, and Dishonor.'
doubt." Well, that 's why I 'm joining the legion,

"Oh, sure," Billy replied; "everything that there may be one American the less
in this world is open to doubt, if you want who is too proud to fight."
to doubt it bad enough. I say that war So Billy joined the legion, and a few
has been virtually declared upon us. weeks later we heard that he had gone
and
— into bankruptcy again with the torpedoing
"Yes, Billy," I put in; "but even so, of the Sussex — another series of wild bets
we 've got towait for the hundred mil- that America would be at war with Ger-
lions over there. There 's such a thing as many within a fortnight. Poor Billy!
concerted action, you know." Of course that was easy money for all
"Sure. I understand, and I don't say those Greeks, Spaniards, Swiss, Poles, and
you 're not right; but I 'm going to join what not out there ; and they cleared him
up with the legion just the same. It 's out even to his watch.
too strong for me. I 've got to do it."

He hesitated a moment, then he said The next I heard of Lincoln was that he
quietly, with a droll expression, "I suppose was wounded, and in a hospital near
I lack that moral courage we Americans Dijon. As I was just going to Switzer-
are now so renowned for." land, I made it a point of stopping off on
Both Williams and I had to laugh the way and paying him a visit. Stretched
despite ourselves. out in bed there, one of a long row of
"Laugh away," said Billy. "I don't pale, silent faces, he seemed glad to see
mind." me. He was wounded in the chest and
"We 're not laughing, on the
Billy ; thigh. The thigh was nothing, but the
contrary, we admire your courage and chest-wound was serious. In fact, the
spirit. You 're only illogical, unreason- trim little nurse who led me to his bed
able." warned me that I could not stay long
"Oh, I have my reasons." just a l^ew words to cheer him up, and
"You have n't told us one good one that was all. She stood there a moment
yet." longer and smiled at him.
"Well, I '11 tell you just one," he sud- "Are you comfortable as you are ?" she
denly said, flaring up. "When that ship asked.
went down, the Lusitania — you remem- Billy looked up at her and smiled back.
ber, don't you ?" "Very," he muttered.
Weremembered. After she had left us alone we talked
"Well, when that ship went down, and together without finding at first much to
I was floating round in the water, cling- say. The rest of the invalids in the room
ing to my American passport and a bit of had stopped talking and were listening to
board, I saw American women and chil- our conversation, and it was all a little
THE MAN FROM AMERICA 383
embarrassing. Presently one of them said another silence, and he said, "Get laid out
in a loud voice on your back like this once or twice, and
"Oh, yess — veary well — tankoo — ale- you lose a whole big lot of your zeal, you
right." know, and you worry less about things."
With that everybody burst out laugh- Then after still another pause he went on,
ing, including ourselves, until Billy hurled his voice growing a little stronger: "How-
back some trench witticism. His French ever, the way I look at life is this: a man
had improved considerably. So the laugh has got to go the way he feels he ought
was now turned upon the other fellow, to go, no matter what happens. And, after
and soon the hum of conversation resumed all, it 's easy enough to know how you

its normal level, and we felt more at home feel if you don't stop and let your stom-
together. ach argue you out of it. What I mean is
Billy let his head sink back deeper into — well, we men are like compasses. We
the pillow ; then he said queerly may twist about and wobble around a bit
"I suppose you must think I 'm a but if we are any good, when the time
damned fool." comes, we respond to the call of the spirit
"Heavens, no! What on earth have I and point true north."
done or said to make you think that?" As I was thinking over his words the
"Oh, you have n't said or done any- little nurse returned and warned me that
thing, but I can see it in j'our eyes." I could have only five minutes more.
"Hallucinations of a sick man, Billy. Again she came to the bedside a moment
Forget it. What do you think I came and asked Billy if he was comfortable.
down here to see j^ou for, then?" Again Billy looked up and smiled back his
"Oh, well, for that matter, there are contentment.
times when I think I 'm a damned fool, "She certainly has you under her eye,"
myself. Yes, now and then one gets pretty I said afterward.
well fed up with this business ; it is a hell, "She 's a great little kid." For a few
and no mistake. And they do play us in seconds he lay there, a pleased, happy ex-
the star part all right, always where it is pression on his face ; but presently I could
hottest. You can count on it. Still, I see he was turning something over in his
suppose some one had got to lead the way, mind. Suddenly he said, as if despite
and might as well be us.
it We 're used himself, "To look at her, you would n't
to it. A rough crowd, but all die-hards. think she was in great sorrow, would
And between ourselves, that 's the kind of vou?"
man I like." "No."
"So do I." "Well, she is. Her fiance, a naval of-
"Oh, and 'm proud of belonging to
I ficer, has just been killed at sea. This is

the legion." He smiled weakly. "I don't between ourselves. You must n't let on
say that if you don't lie awake nights, you I told you. You see, she 's a little Breton
won't lose everything you own, even to a girl. Yes, he was killed about ten days
collar-button ; but once out there under ago. He must have been a good sort, the

the shells, it 's a great sensation feeling right kind. She showed me the last letter
at your elbow something that is the life- he wrote her. no business telling
I 've
size imitation of a man." you all this ; 'm the only one
for, you see, I

"At any rate, you 've done more than that 's allowed to know it around here.
your share. You can rest on your laurels I don't suppose she would ever have told

now. And with that bullet in you, you 're me anything, but I was so near done up
out of the trenches now for a long spell, when they brought me in, and she 's had
perhaps for good." to nurse me along, almost night and day.
There was a moment's silence, then and be such a sort of second sister, mother
Billy muttered —well, I don't know what you would
"Yes, it was a near thing." There was call it, that we became sort of pretty good
384 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
friends, and so when late one night she saw her eyes for the first time. There
leaned over me, and I caught tears in her was a very lovely sadness in them.
eyes, I knew there was something wrong. "Not really cured him," she said, "but
So little by little she told me her secret. did much better by him than we hoped."
But, to look at her, you would never sus- "Splendid! And what 's his address
pect anything, would you ?" now? Do you know?"
"Never." "His address!"
"She knows how to carry a stiff upper "Yes."
lip, does n't she?" "Why, he 's at the front."
"Yes." "With the legion?"
Another of those pauses, then Billy "With the legion."
said "What ! He has gone back again !"

"I like that kind of girl." "Yes."


A minute later she entered the room "But I thought he was to be classed as
with a tray and some instruments, and I 'reformed'?"
rose from my chair. For a few minutes "He was, but he would n't hear of it,"
all three of us chattered together. She smiled, and in her voice there was a
"I see he 's in good hands," I said as I sudden joyous note as she added, "There
turned to go. was no stopping him."
She bowed her head a little and, star- "Back at the front!" I could only re-
ing at the floor, muttered peat. "That is a surprise."
"Merci." "Yes," she went on; "and ive received
Before leaving the hospital I ventured another card from him this morning. He
upon a visit to the surgeon-in-chief, and must be on the Somme."
asked him a frank opinion of Billy's con- So saying, she drew from her apron top
dition. He was a stout, rosy man, wear- a postal card, and, after glancing at it her-
ing iron spectacles, something more like a self an instant, handed it to me with a
German than any Frenchman ever ought stiff little gesture.
to be ; but he was very affable. Yes, Billy "There you are."
was out of danger; but he was much sicker It was a postal card of a group of Ger-
than he looked, and in need of great care. man prisoners. Upon the back was writ-
As for his ever returning to the front, it ten: "On les aura. Billy."
was out of the question. For a year or I returned the card to her without find-
more he would not be really well. Hence- ing anything to say. In silence she re-
forth he would be classed as "reformed." placed the card behind her apron, then
looked up and said suddenly
In these succeed one another
da^'s events "He 's man, our friend Billy,
a is n't
so rapidly that one forgets a great deal he? And American."
a real
and overlooks much one should n't, and I I acknowledged that he was.
confess that in the stress of personal mat-
ters I thought no more about Billy Lincoln And that 's all. Billy is dead now. He
until the sight of the station at Dijon in died out there in the Somme, in the van-
the dim light of an early morning weeks guard of the attack on Combles. No
afterward brought him suddenly back to doubt to many of those who knew him he
mind. On the spur of the moment I de- will always be an eccentric, quixotic fel-
cided to get out and wait over a train on low who threw his life away needlessly;
the chance of finding him still at the hos- but there was a very likable something
pital in the suburbs. about him. And, for my part, I confess
He was not there, but the little Breton to feeling always a strange uneasiness
nurse was. whenever I think of him, outstretched
"So you cured Billy, after all?" there upon the battle-field, pointing north
She nodded her head and smiled. 1 up to tlie last.
CDigrit (Dtcliin£d

bij <^ea/id uaLiacjIiez


^^^xUv^\^; ;"?

tJjaiil cJ^bc\'Cte tHjoitJc


(^oniezdet &lub
r^-^^'^m-

CVc) S'tatc ffGouJc


abing'd Gkapel
C^t. ^I'auL'.s (SatlieJiaL
^"m

^-wliazf and cudtotn-lioude towei


cboMori old and new
New Lamps for Old
By FANNY KEMBLE JOHNSON
Author of "On the Altar of Friendship," etc.

Illustrations by Arthur William Brown

RODDY IVOR sat between his becoming, high twist, and wore dark blue
- Aunt Judith and a large matron where she should have worn two-shaded
with the face of a bewildered child. There brown. He did n't believe Judy cared
might have been other men present at this about anything in the world except ideas.

suffrage meeting, but he saw none save He felt that even her husband and children
those forming a background for the were to her merely delightful and whim-
speaker, a stout little lady in black, who sical flesh-and-blood ideas of her own
was assuring him that he, Roddy, other- originating,which naturally made them
wise the young man at his majority, was more interesting to her than any others.
the most perfect and important and beauti- She turned her brilliant ej^es, so much
ful of human beings. This in itself was like his father's, only darker and more
enough to rivet any young man's atten- alive, on Roddy.
tion, and Roddy hearkened, riveted, until "We '11 get out ahead of the crowd,"
the protecting gentlemen on the platform she said. "Women push so."
bore the lady away to well-merited re- She was always talking like that, he
freshment and rest. noticed, as if she were not one of them.
Afterward a local suffrage leader rushed Tn the cold of the door stood a pale,
dramatically forth and parted the audience pale girl in the late twenties. If she
from good deal in cash and promises be-
a had no bloom, she at least had charm.
fore it had time for reflection. Later a Even before she spoke Roddy felt it. Her
youthful rabbi with a face like Daniel long, light eyes, with their spreading
Derondas spoke fervently in praise of the pupils and thick, black lashes, were, he
speaker of the evening. When he had thought, responsible for it, or that corner
finished, he invited questions. Several of her pale mouth which nested in dimples,
were handed up, and one was, "Will not "How are you going to use your vote?"
woman lose her bloom and charm?" So she demanded of Roddy.
there must hav€ been another man some- At the sound of her voice Judy, holding
where back of Roddy. on to Roddy's arm, cried
But to Roddy, glancing involuntarily' "Wilsy Lieber, you look frozen. Come
about the hall, it seemed as ii few women straight home with me and get warm."
there had any bloom to lose, whatever "Oh," said the pale girl, peeping around
might be true of the charm. He received Roddy, "is he your man, Judy? Where
the impression that they had stopped car- on earth did you get him?" She smiled
ing much about their bloom, that they at Roddy, and made it sound like a joke.
were even disdaining it, perhaps, as the "He is my nephew," said Judy.
cause of their age-long undoing. His AVilsy, who had begun to come along
Aunt Judith, who had
thirtj'-five-year-old with them, now stopped dead.
undoubtedly been brought up to consider "Your what?"
her bloom of the utmost importance, ap- Judy smiled indulgently.
peared absolutely indifferent to it now. "Mv nephew, from the South."
She did her hair in a convenient, but un- "Oh," said Wilsy.

.393
394 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Roddy seemed exhaustively accounted the tray, Margie, Judy's high-school
for to her. Neither she nor Judy paid daughter, entered, having been to a movie
further attention to him. They dis- with her mates. Her eyes were dreamy,
cussed the probable effect on local suffrage and she passed through the room with the
affairs of the speech they had just heard, aloofness of one beholding visions.
and Roddy walked by them in silence like "She 's in a trance," said young Cliff to
a little boy who had been brought along. Roddy.
He flushed a bit. He had had a good He instantly became the screen hero of
many sensations in his life, but he had the visions. Mark and Wilsy went off
never before had the sensation of feeling into fits of laughter; Cliff was certainly
perfectly negligible. uncommonly like. Margie gazed at Cliff.
Late as it was, his two small cousins, "Idiot," she said calmly. She disap-
under their brother Clifford's presumed peared through an inner door.
care, . were playing all over the living- "Poor little thing!" said Judy. She
room. Roddy, turning to offer Wilsy a went after her with a bowl of soup.
chair, discovered her seated on the floor "Now, why is she a poor little thing?"
with little Ju in her lap. asked Cliff of his father.
"Who is that?" asked Wilsy of little "You should n't tease your sister," said
Ju, indicating Roddy. Mark in a conversational tone to Cliff.

"Yoddy," said little Ju, instantly and "Well," said Cliff, in a nice, reasonable
trustfully. way, "you should n't laugh at me for
"Edie," said Wilsy, again indicating doing it."

Roddy, "who is that?" "That 's true," Mark admitted at once.


"Woddy," said Edie, reluctantly and Roddy listened with an open mind and
suspiciously. almost with an open mouth. He him-
"Is n't that queer?" asked Wilsy. She self had not been brought up, that way;
added, "Do take that chair yourself." still. Cliff was a very fair fourteen-year-
Roddy obeyed, smiling. old, and no "fresher" than most kids of
"But what queer?" he asked. He
is n't his age.

kept at this because it was the first sign He lifted little Ju to his knee, and
she had given that she considered him not she had her soup on the broad arm of his
negligible. chair. After that she went to sleep, look-

"Why," said Wilsy, taking off her hat, ing like the lowest angel in a popular group
and startlingly revealing a premature of five, with her little pointed chin and
streak of gray in the dark abundance of the wide space between the eyes. Edie
her hair, "the way Ju turns R to Y while went to sleep likewise, her small brunette
Edie turns it to W." countenance showing even greater deci-
"Yes," said Judy's husband, Mark, en- sion sleeping than waking, her long, brown
tering in slippers and one of the old coats hair streaming heavily across her father's
he was saving up against the time he went supporting arm.
out on the farm he was buying, "you can In this manner they sat on, the children
easily see how odd changes in language like islands of sleep in the stream of tall^

come about. Suppose Queen Elizabeth which swirled by Roddy, exciting to him,
had turned- her R into W. Every one but only half clear. Names over which
would have been saying 'Your Woyal they flamed were only names to him, ideas
Highness' in rio time." turned familiarly by them scarcely more
He laid aside his eye-glasses and drew than newspaper gibes, movements of
up a chair, and he and Wilsy were having which he had been only vaguely aware
a very good time developing this absurdity were, it seemed, tidal urges of human
when Judy came up the steps from the feeling beating at and changing long-
basement kitchen bringing them an oj'ster fixed shore-lines of life.

stew. As Roddy sprang to help her with Wilsy, standing up to go, and arousing
NEW LAMPS FOR OLD 395
belatedly to her duty to the stranger with- Mark knew what Judy meant, and he
in Judy's gates, asked Roddy if he meant was thinking that he would n't give her
to stay long. two, and that she ought to be in southern
"Why, no," said Roddy, with a not un- California that minute instead of around
becoming touch of masculine superiority', on North Street in an absurd replica of
"I 've got to get home in time to vote." some Austrian castle in the shadow of
The wicked corner of Wilsy's mouth which old Lieber's forefathers had starved
would misbehave slightly. for generations. Wilsy was no scion of a
"How did you like our speaker?" she decadent aristocracy, reflected Mark. In
asked hastily, to get it straight again. her veins flamed the discontents of the
"He ought to like her," put in Judy, downtrodden of the ages. Wilsy gave
stooping to Ju "she told him
lift little ; the oldman away.
he was the most wonderful and beautiful Though they sat up late and talked
thing in the world." With that she car- much where Roddy came from, this was
ried of¥ her infant, leaving Roddy getting his first experience of a place where day
red in a most annoying manner, and ALnrk and night slid, the one into the other, in
grinning at him unsympathetically. so unnoticed amanner, and were utilized
"Well," said Wilsy, with her adorable mainly for the purposes of talking and
smile, "I think she was perfectly right hearing talk. It chanced to be a Presi-

about that." dential year, and Judy, as was natural in

Her eyes on Roddy were frankly ad- the wife of a philosophic anarchist who
miring. He
might have been little Ju. was the editorof a Democratic labor paper
Roddy had taken a good deal from Wilsy. with a large Socialist following, liked to
He stopped coloring, and asked in an im- find out what they all had to say for them-
pressive manner if he might escort her selves, and she took Roddy with her,
home. knowing well that he had heard only
She lived close at hand in a house about roosters crowing all his }70ung life. De-
as big and cheerful as the city building di- spite the lateness of the hour he lay awake
rectly opposite, not at all the sort of place for a considerable time thinking over what
Roddy would have imagined her living in. the stout little lady in black had had to
Clifif, who had come with them, got say for herself, and wondering about
Wilsy's key from her and ran up the Wilsy and her queer stone beasts.
steps ahead of his companions. As the She accompanied them next day on an
door swung on its guarding chain Roddy excursion into the wet State across the
glimpsed an imposing stretch of velvet river, where they paid a quarter apiece to
hall carpet and monumental hall furniture. hear a Presidential candidate. After the
"Ho, Warder!" said Cliff. He loosed speech Judy said
the chain, and it fell, clanking. "Wilsy, we include as a matter of course
Wilsy vanished, desperately suppressing what you are working for. Why don't you
laughter and a cough, and Roddy and come all the way ?"
Clifif descended to the street between "I have n't got time," said Wilsy,
strange stone beasts that sat on their though her eyes were shining, and she had
haunches and peered outlandishly through no smile to make it a joke; "I want to
the fog. work for something I can get while I 'm
When they got back, Judy was sitting alive."
on Mark's knee discussing Wilsy. As they went out, Judy's face took on
"I '11 give that girl five years," said a look as if she were sorry she had said
Judy. "They are fighting her at home.
. that to Wilsy. They walked along to a
Her father 's taken to keeping her short small park where they meant to wait for
of money this campaign." the car, and here AVilsy dropped to a
Roddy thought she meant five years for bench and asked Roddy what he thought
Wilsy to lose her political enthusiasm ; but about it.
396 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Roddy looked her In perplexed Edie was gazing at her mother with a

silence. frown.
"I don't know," he replied at last; "I "Can't me and Ju have any dinner?"
never heard anything like it before. I '11 she demanded,
have to take time to find out what 1 "Wait a minute, Mark," said Judy, re-
really do think." fastening her coat. "We '11 all go with
"That 's right," said Wilsy in the you."
funniest, school-teacher sort of tone, and Roddy saw Wilsy every day after that,
Judy said, laughing: and the more he got to knowing and lik-
"How old do you feel, Roddy?" ing her, the more the extreme inappro-
"About ten," answered Roddy, smiling; priateness of her footgear annoyed him.
but though he looked so tall and confident, He had been meditating over it the eve-
itwas nearly the truth he spoke, his eye ning he encountered Wilsy in front of
wandering to Wilsy 's little, swinging foot. suffrage headquarters, turning a suffrage
To a man it appeared shod in an unut- folder. She looked ready to drop. Her
terably foolish fashion for a foot which nose was pink with cold, and she was
had to support its owner for hours of every squinching her toes in their idiotic shoes in
day while she handed out literature or a vain effort to restore circulation as she
spoke to her ebbing and flowing street- wondered why Emma Wells, whose turn
corner audiences. Its sole was wearing it was at the folder, did not put in an ap-

paper thin, and its silly heel was inches pearance.


high. He wondered why she did not buy "I just came from the auditorium,"
herself suitable shoes. Roddy told her.
They got their car at length, and flew "I wanted to hear that," said Wilsy.
homeward between miles of steel mills, "I guess you did n't need to hear it,"

beneath a sky so beautiful with strange- returned Roddy, unsmilingly. "Can't you
colored smokes that it made 5'ou want to let that thing go and come somewhere and
write poetry or cry, and came into the get warm?"
clearer air of their own town, and climbed But Wilsy shook her head.
the hilly home street to Judy's door. Here "It 's too near election day to let any-
they confronted Margie, very indignant thing go."
over the lateness of the hour. "I '11 turn for you, then," offered
"Don't ever ask me to keep j'our babies Roddy. "Does a spiel go with it?"
again," she said to her mother.She added "If you like," said Wilsy, giving way to
coldly, "I some dinner."
'd like him in a matter-of-fact manner, and going
"You ought to be ashamed of yourself," off to a dairy lunch-room across the street.
said Mark. "Why did n't you have din- She knew Roddy would look rather re-
ner ready for your mother? You are a markable turning that suffrage folder,
thoroughly selfish little girl." but she was so tired and cold that she
"You should have brought me up bet- did n't care.
ter," countered Margie in a spirited tone. In five minutes there were such a
She sat down on the arm of a chair as nmnber of high-school girls in front of
if willing to discuss the matter. Judy sat headquarters that it resembled the entrance
down on the other arm of the chair. to a movie. No boy from Roddy's State
"That 's what we get for treating our ever objected to a crowd of girls. He be-
children as rational human beings," she gan to improvise a "spiel," gathering ma-
said to Mark. Dinner appeared a remote terial ashe turned. Older young ladies,
contingenc)'. with reluctant escorts in their wake, joined
"I '11 take Rod to a restaurant,' said the crowd. A frivolous blonde was over-
Mark. heard to murmur, "Gy-r-rl, gy-r-rl," as
"Do," said Judy, enthusiastically. 'and if imprinting Roddy's method of pronounc-

Cliff and Margie, too." ing that delightful word forever on the
•:ei„ Ronnv

tablets ofmemory. A mature gentleman some one told me to run along now. Are
in a car just drawn up at the curb said you warm? Could n't we take a little
to look at that young ass, and an anti, walk, and find out what becomes of this
turning a folder two doors below, won- interesting street?"
dered scornfully what the brazen things "It dies hard," said Wilsy, "about three
were up to now. miles down the river ; but we can go out
It was at this stage of the proceedings on the bridge and look at the lights across

that a severe-looking person addressed the river."


Roddy. It was a Saturday-night crowil, and he
"What are you doing here?" she de- said
manded. "Had n't you better hold on to my arm
Roddy, looking caught, explained in this jam?" But Wilsy answered,
meekly. Emma Wells, a high-school laughing:
teacher of twenty years' standing, was not "Oh, I could n't lose you."
a person with whom it was possible to be Close by the bridge-end a shoe-store
debonair. window entranced Roddy. In the glass
"You are very kind," said Emma Wells, case out in front stood the brown shoes
dispersing the girls with half a glance, Wilsy should have had on, indestructible,
"but we can dispense with your services low-heeled, with leather strings as soft as
now." She appeared waiting for Roddy silk to lacethem up their eleven inches or
to go, and he went immediateh' to find so. Roddy could n't be torn from the
Wilsy. contemplation of those shoes, and Wilsy
"It was great fun," said Roddy, "but began to look at them herself.

C97
398 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
"They do look comfortable, don't Roddy was an-
involuntarily spoke, and
they?" said Wilsy. Her feet were cold swered with backward yearning
a curious,
again, and she was squinching her toes, of the old African's eyes and a wistful,
and the personal note was evident in her "Howdy, howdy, Boss," as if Roddy's
voice. greeting had given him a homesick pang.
It was this that loosed Roddy of the When Wilsy reappeared, Roddy's glance
conventions, and made him say flew to her feet, and he thought to him-
"Do go there and put them on."
in self, "Thank goodness! that 's off my
"We no account here," said Wilsy.
've mind."
regretfully, "or I just would." She "Eight," said Wilsy in a businesslike
added belatedly, "And I have n't a cent tone. She handed him the bill-book.
with me." Leaning together later over the rail-

She was moving on, but Roddy stood ing at the crest of the steel bridge, he
still, and said in a voice of the most urgent asked of Wilsy 's profile:
entreaty: *
"Is itworth while?"
"See here, do borrow it of H( "Is what?" asked Wilsy.
was unobtrusively pressing something into "What you do? Is it worth giving
her hand. up whatever it is vou do give up for
Wilsy halted, holding Roddy's bill- it?"
book laxly, gazing up into his eager face Wilsy answered him with a parable.
with the smile he had come to think of "Is it better," she asked, "for the river
as expressing her more than anything else. there to stand still or to go flowing on
"I just will," she said suddenly. to the sea? Is it better for the trees on
"And wear them home," pressed Roddy. the bank to be stunted into strange shapes
She nodded, going past him with her or to grow and spread? Is it better to
light step and her smile. hurry living to death or to hold back half
He spent the time he waited for her alive?"
return watching the faces streaming
in She spoke wnth passion and energy,
by, many of them dark and foreign in a without her smile. Her face, lit by the
dozen different ways. Eyes glittered up colored bridge lights, flamed palely on
at him as if from strange lairs. Voices him.
ascended to his ears like the sound of "You never thought about any of these
waters rushing from unknown jungles. things before in your life, did you?" she
He kept noticing a group on a corner, said to Roddy.
the man holding a two-year-old child in "They were never real to me before,"
his arms, his wife pressing close to him. said Roddy. He turned her about.
Neither man nor woman would have "Here, this wind 's too raw for you.
reached to Roddy's shoulder. Their short, You 've got a cold."
large-eyed faces, which might have been Wilsy's smile came back.
charming lit by the suns and laughters "It 's some cold," she said lightl_v.
of their own land, were merely puzzled When they reached Judy's they found
and heavy beneath the harsh lights of an the living-room firelit and empty, and they
alien night. They shrank together, and lingered in its warmth, talking of the
spoke gently and gutturally in their own things that had never seemed real to Roddy
tongue. The child rolled its dusky, ring- before.
leted head across its father's shoulder, and "Something hurt me this morning," said
fastened the dark, sad, deprecating gaze Roddy, presently. "When you live in the
of a puppy on the tall young man. It country, you don't see things like it. I

wore a triangle of scarlet shawl and a suppose there 's no reason for them
wee brown petticoat, the costume of a happening."
little peasant woman. Few colored faces Wilsy's eyes musingly questioned him.
but to one of these, an old man's, She leaned her pale checks between her
NEW LAMPS FOR OLD 399
palms, and looked up at him across her sounded like a groan, sometimes it sounded
chair-arm, like a curse; but once it sounded as if he

"I chanced to be at ni}'window this were remembering something."


morning when a huckster's wagon stopped Roddy stopped abruptly, hands tightly

I'lUOtv.^ TflKOs^H

KODUV STOPFEIJ A13RLPTLV. . . . WILSVS KYES DWELT GRAVELV, VET SOMEWHAT


IRON'ICAI.LV, ON HIS DISTURBED FACE "

below, and I saw an old man standing squeezed together between his knees.
there reach out and take an apple. The Wilsy 's eyes dwelt gravely, yet somewhat
young man driving turned round and ironically, on his disturbed face. He con-
cursed him, and made him put it back, tinued, not looking up:
and told him to pay what he owed be- "And it set me thinking of what must
fore he made so free and he slunk off, ; become of old fellows like that. I sup-
his head down, like a dog that 's been pose they crawl off like old animals, and
kicked." die in a hole somewhere — alone."
Wilsy made no comment. In the ensuing silence Wilsy gazed
"And yesterday an old chap came to the enviously at Roddy, He was Spring
door in that icy rain. He was a profes- standing at the door of the Year's treasure-
sional tramp, I suppose; but he was old house, and looked it. She was twenty-
and sick and terrible, a shell for suffering. seven, and should have been in southern
He sat by the dining-room fire nearly all California that minute, and looked it. It

day ; Judy could n't deliberately turn him was rather dreadful to find your work
out. She fed him and gave him a little and feel your passion for it, only to have
money. He said hardly anything but 'Aly it all end sooner or later in southern
God!' now and then. Sometimes it California. She jumped up, her feet feel-
400 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
ing funny in their low heels, and stood for the street-cars were resuming normal
in one of her boj'ish, swaggering attitudes, activities, and Wilsy said, peering both
her eyes on Roddy's forward-leaning head. ways
He glanced up. "Do you see a Shadyside car anywhere?
" 'The wrong of unshapely things is a I 've got to speak to a woman's club out
wrong too great to be told,' " quoted there this afternoon."
Wilsy, a bitter ring in her voice. Even as she asked it one came in sight,
"Yes," said Roddy; "I should n't have and Roddy, having put her on it, walked
understood that —
before I came up here." off, so absorbedly engaged in rearranging

His eyes returned to the fire. a foolish world on a sensible working


"Well," said Wilsy, a trifle hardly, and basis that he gazed astonished when con-
as if to all blundering mankind, "mind out fronted with the imexpectedness of Judy's
how you use that vote." front door.
"Where do they all come from?" asked He found Judy in, sitting on the floor,
Roddy, encountering Wilsy the next after- idling over a pile of dusty little books out
noon as she watched a parade from the of her special bookcase.
steps of the city building. "I do wish you did n't have to go," she
"It 's a miners' protest parade," an- said, caressing "Tales of a Grandfather."
swered Wilsy, rather vaguely ; but "Going to give them to Edie to read?"
Roddy got a vivid picture out of her asked Roddy.

answer of men streaming upward from "Poor kid!"
said Judy.
dark holes in the ground and blinking She and Roddy laughed companionably
in the light. Some parades march with together, and Judy sighed, putting away
shouting; but this parade, though it car- her little books.
ried shrieking banners, marched in a "I 'd like you to stay over election, but
silence oppressive and astonishing. For I suppose your father would make a row.
the first time Roddy felt the meaning of He 'd come from the ends of the earth
the phrase "an army of industry." Here to vote, himself, if he 's the same old
was literally an army of industry. It Roderick."
had none of the cheerful accessories of an "He 's exactly the same, I imagine,"
army of destruction. It made industry ap- said Roddy.
pear extremely uninviting to necessity's "Then j-ou 'd better go," said Judy. "I
recruits. wonder if Wilsv will find time to see you
"What do they want?" asked Roddy in of¥."

a low tone, as if he would not be over- She was wondering this again as she
heard by the parade. stood with Roddy at the window where
"Not much," said Wilsy. "Just to he was buying his ticket home, and was
appoint their own check weigh-man and answered by the appearance of Wilsy,
to get paid for all the coal they dig." looking very small on the vast expanse of
Her voice was light and scornful. She station floor as she ran up to them.
had little faith in the ability of men to "The power gave out and made me
get what they needed. She turned away, late," she told them, breathlessly. She
and Roddy walked up the street with her. fumbled in her purse as she spoke, and
He was to leave on the evening train, and produced a five-dollar bill, a two-dollar
Wilsy said: bill, and a one-dollar bill. These she
"I '11 see you at Judy's before you go." wadded together and offered to Roddy.

She gave a perfectly intentional glance at He stood looking down at her, coloring

the brown shoes. slightly, unable, apparently, to put out his

Roddy looked annoyed, made as if to hand, and Wilsy, looking up into Roddy's
speak but with Wilsy's firm, amused eyes
;
face, presently said
on his face remained as silent as the pass- "You want to give them to me, don't

ing parade. It had an end, it seemed. vou?"


NEW LAMPS FOR OLD 401
"You don't know how much!' declared cident of his taking Susy, his sister-in-law,
Roddy, with intense earnestnes; There you know, up North to visit her people."
was a spreading silence. He broke it bv They stood on without further speech,
saying in a mournful voice: staring after the rear of Roddy's vanished
"And I could give you fift\ siUv roses train. Judy roused herself first.
at a dollar apiece." "Are n't you coming home with me?"

"So you could," admitted Wilsy in a she asked.


musing tone. "No," said Wilsy; "I '11 have an eve-
A few yards away a very small news- ning at my own home for a change."
boy was crying an extra. She went off into the dusk with her
"Do look at that child's toes!" said shoes and her kiss and her cough and her
Wilsy, suddenly. smile which made a jest of them all.

She beckoned him to her and bought a When she got home she climbed an
paper. imposing stairway, opened a door, and
The newsboy carefully smoothed out the stepped into a diflFerent life.

and the two-dollar bill and


five-dollar bill An erect, tiny Miitterchen sat in a small
the one-dollar bill that Wilsy had pressed rocker by a bright fire of coals and sewed
into his palm. a braided rug of blue and w'hite.
"You give me the wrong hand," said he, Her face was small and neat and well
grinning. colored and filled wnth a kindly homeli-
"It 's to buy you a new pair of shoes ness,and above it her gray hair was meekly
with," said Wilsy in a kind-lady voice. parted. She wore an ample lace cap
She handed Roddy the extra. which somehow suggested a starched hood,
Immense relief radiated from Roddy's (^n the floor by hef side was a large wil-
face. low work-basket overflowing with blue
"You 've got sense," he said. "Well, and white strips of cloth yet to be braided.
good-by." He stooped and kissed her on Her small, blunt fingers moved cleverl\'
the corner of her mouth, the one which and with decision— the fingers of a woman
nested in dimples. who must still be about something, were
"Good-by," said Wilsy, touched it only to braid useless rugs of rags.
laughter in her voice, "and— mind out Wilsy took a child's splint-bottomed
how you use that vote." rocker opposite, and watched her mother's
"Sure," said Roddy, kissing Judy, "and rhythmic fingers.
you want to mind out how you neglect "That 's a pretty rug," she said.
that cold you 've got." Her mother smiled, shrugging her
"It 's some cold," said Wilsy. She shoulders and looking about her.
blinked her eyelashes at Judy. "But where will I put eet?" she asked.
After the delay caused by the episode of AVilsy, too, glanced about. There
the newsboy Roddy had to hustle for his did n't seem to be a place for an>" more
train. The doors clanged shut on him. home-made rugs in the room.
They waved him through the cage of
to She merely smiled for answer as she
stairway, and ran out and waved to him let down her dark hair, and came and sat
again at his window. The train pulled on one of the rugs at her mother's knee.
out into the red glare of the mills up the The plume-like white streak flowed to the
river. As it vanished in the dusk, Wilsy floor with the dark, half veiling her face.
turned. The old woman laid away her work in
"Judy," she said, "I don't see how you the basket, and sat silently guarding the
can stay away from such dear people." head on her knee. Wilsy shook with her
"I 'd forgotten how dear they were," little cough. The mother's face showed a
said "You see, we
Judy, wistfully. 're trouble.
way up here. We should
so out of the n't Wilsy was tired. After a stupid after-
have had Roddy now except for the ac- noon with dull, petted suburban women
402 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
it was hard to believe in a glorious victory deadliest river town in the United States
on the morrow. She closed her eyes, and offering fools something they don't want?
lulled her brain to inactivity with one Don't you like to live? Have n't you got
word, endlessly repeated. "Nothing," any feeling for the persons who love you?
murmured Wilsy's brain ; "nothing." It How can a girl with your sense act like
became the merest velvety vagueness. an idiot? And I was another not to
"Nothing." It was a darkness, a deep understand sooner."
wherein consciousness drowned. She "What made you now?" asked Wilsy.
slept against her mother's knee. An hour "I don't know. It struck me all of a

later she sat up, startled. sudden between here and Fenwood. I

"Oh," she cried with compunction, kept hearing you say, 'It 's some cold,'
"why did n't you shake me?" I got off there, and caught the next train

"Sleep wass goot for you," said her this way. I had to come back to see about

mother. "Now I will brait the hair." you myself. I could just see you killing
She braided the hair, and thought as she yourself by yards."
braided of a tall little daughter who would "I do believe you are fond of me," said
never stand still. Wilsy, smiling.
The white streak of hair now looked "Me? I 'm devoted to you. Now will
lihe a white silk ribbon plaited in. Wilsy you tell me why you are trying to commit
rose and stood before the ancient, yellow suicide?"
dresser with rose garlands painted on it, "Oh," said Wilsy, "I suppose this is a
and wound the long braids twice around. murderous old town but it 's my home, ;

After being wound so, the white streak and I thought I might as well stay here
ceased being a silk ribbon, and became in- and help get suffrage as live a few extra
stead tiny white roses thrust at intervals in years at a sanatorium. And, anyway,"
Wilsy's crown-like coiffure. Her mother, added Wilsy, "this house is almost as
watching, saw her shiver as she stood big and cold as a sanatorium." She
there, and went to a hinged chest and took hugged the pink scarf tighter and ap-
from it a long, knitted scarf of pink, which peared to be pondering.
she placed across her girl's shoulders. It "I '11 up to the magazine-
take you
gave color to the pale cheeks. room," she She led him up several
said.

"It 's nice and warm," said Wilsy, pat- flights of steps into a cheerful little tower
ting it. She turned, hugging it to her, as room whose shelves of magazine files gave
a maid entered. "A gentleman to see me," itname.
repeated Wilsy, wonderingly. She glanced Here, just within the door, she stopped,
at the which recorded past ten.
clock, struck by a sudden thought.
Mina was truly the
assured her that such "Why," she cried, "I 've made you miss
!"
case, and Wilsy descended, thinking that your vote
Judy must have sent Mark around about "That 's all right," said Roddy. "I
something. At the entrance-arch she don't know enough about anything in the

paused with a startled expression. world to cast an intelligent vote, anyway."


"Oh, 'm real," Roddy assured her.
I He turned, offering her a chair. "Now,"
He advanced to meet her. A foot away he he said, "let 's settle it."

halted and brutally asked her a question. "Have one yourself," said Wilsy, in-

"I Ve had it," said Wilsy, defiantly, dicating a second chair. But Roddy, it
"for a year. I supposed you knew." seemed, preferred to stand, w ith his hands
"You are wicked," said Roddy, very tautly clasped behind him.
pale — "wicked." He walked away a few "Let 's settle it," he repeated.
steps, came back, and put it to her. Wilsy's face became inquiring.
"What," he demanded, "do you mean "You are not going on this way, you
by trying to kill yourself? What do you know," said Roddy, impatiently.
'
mean by standing on street corners in the "No?" asked Wilsy. .
How CAN A GIRL WITH YOIR SENSE ACT LIKE AV IDIOT?'
i04 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
"No," said Roddy. "Why do you think Roddy. His eyes dared her to say
I came back here? To take it out in different.
talking?" Wilsy sat silent, clasping her knees
Strangely enough, a hope began to lift boyishly, her gaze on the gas flame. To
green leaf wings in Wilsy's heart. She the eye she was in a steam-heated, electric-
warned herself that Roddy was an im- lighted replica of the presumed castle of
possible, blessed, wildly absurd boy, and her ancestors; but in reality she was in a
that she was a goose to sit there and cabin on a mountain bench, w^rapped to
watch a ridiculous magic plant grow ; but the eyes in a rabbit-skin, perhaps, her feet
she sat silent, gazing up at Roddy with in the fire of logs, and her face toward the

fascinated eyes. snow-laden forest thrusting its arms in at


"I 've never said anything to you about her open door.
my home," said Roddy, smiling down at "Would you be afraid of the woods?"
her, for she looked like a little girl listen- asked Roddy, watching her.
ing to a fairy-tale, "but it 's on a hill above "Roddy," said Wilsy, "I 'm going to
a river, and back of it is the highest tell you a secret, a deep, dark, beautiful
mountain in the .State. Every cabin on secret. My grandfather was a charcoal-
every bench of it looks down on the most burner in the Black Forest. I don't be-
There 's
beautiful country in the world. lieve I '11 be afraid of the woods. But
one cabin I 'm thinking of where they what shall I do for months up there?"
have a room for men who come to hunt "What you do here. There 's my
and fish. You could have it and do any- father, — he 's going into politics again if

thing you liked with it." He was looking I know the Get old
signs,— get him.
at her questioningly. Wayne. Set every simple mountain home
"Millions for defense," murmured by the ears. Only come. And — is n't
Wilsy. there anything else in the world you like

"I thought so," said Roddy. "Now, to do?"


won't 3'ou come up there and get well?" "I used to like my camera," acknow-
Wilsy, who thought she knew all about ledged Wilsy.
it, asked this simpleton of a boy who knew Roddy's face lighted.
nothing whatever about it "The very thing.You can get no end
"Oh, do you think that I could?" of pictures. Then you can write stuff
"You just come and ask old Wayne to go with 'em and sell 'em to magazines.
that," said Roddv. I see lots of stuff like that in magazines.
"Old Wayne?" Of course it won't be as exciting as stand-
"Our doctor, my father's cousin. He ing on Market Street of a Saturday night
does wonders. He claims that he can turning a suffrage folder; but think how
take a patient, a cow, and ten chickens much healthier it 's going to be. And I

up but there, you come, and let old promise that you sha'n't get lonesome. Old
Wayne do the talking. I '11 give you the Wayne and I will see to that."
chickens and the cow." "Old Wayne?" said Wilsv, thought-
Wilsy began to laugh and choke. She fully.
was seeing herself climbing a mountain Roddy's head went back in one of his
trail with ten chickens and a cow, a tot- gay bursts of laughter.
tering, white-haired medicine-man lead- "Oh, he 's only thirty or so. We call
ing the way. Roddy looked at her, dis- him that because we like him so much.
tressed. Wilsy ceased coughing by a And, then, he 's a rather lonely chap lives ;

heroic effort. all by himself since his mother died."

"I just believe I will," she said with "I see," said Wilsy.
swift resolution. "Could you rent me that "Bring everything interesting you can
cabin next spring?" think of," said Roddy, "and everything
"I can rent it for \ou next week," said warm, ^'ou '11 like it ilne." He walked
SANCTA URSULA 405
away to her window and stood staring promptly. "We 're nothing; just average
down on the lights and smokes of the long, chumps. Will you come?"
roaring town which lay along the river. "Nothing in the world could keep me
When he turned his face was grave. He from coming," said Wilsy.
took the chair in front of her, leaning When he had gone to catch his later
over. train Wilsy went back to her mother's
"I don't feel half as cheeky as I talk," room and sat in her child's rocking-chair
said Roddy. "I know I 'm asking a' lot and watched her mother sewing a strip of
of you— asking you your friends
to leave blue around a strip of white. On the
and your comfortable home and your morrow she meant toamaze the family by
work, which seems to be more than your announcing that she had decided to be
life to you but you 've the courage to
; and try to get well
sensible ; but to-night
do it, have n't you? And if ever you she sat there contentedly, hugging the
lose j'our nerve for just a minute, any old scarf which made her cheeks look pink,
night, why, the mountains will give it back watching the rug grow, seeing it beneath
to you. I 'd have been the biggest sort of her feet on the puncheon floor of a log
coward half a dozen times that I can think cabin.
of if those old mountains had n't put the "Mi'ttterchen," she said abruptly, "give
fear of myself into me, Wilsy. You can me that rug."
trust to them to stiffen you up if you ever The old woman glanced toward the
do lose your nerve for just a minute an\' door as if seeing through it intoWilsy 's
dark night." velvet-carpeted room.
"Roddy," said Wilsy, "are there many "But where will you put eet?" she
persons in your State at all like you— asked, smiling at her pale girl's whim.
and your old Wayne?" "Oh," said Wilsy, smiling back, "I '11

"Hundreds of thousands," said Roddy, find a place to put it."

Sancta Ursula
(After Carpaccio)

By WILLIAM ASPENWALL BRADLEY

THIS is her room; this is her narrow bed


Whereon each night her golden hair is spread.
This is her glass wherein each morn she looks
These are her pictures; these are all her books.
These are her trinkets, trophies girlish, gay;
These are the toys she touches every day.
This is her desk whereat she sits to write
Letters that make the day that brings them bright.
These are her fish that swim in water clear
This is her winged Love she most holds dear.
This is her rug her eager feet have pressed ;

This is her chair wherein she sinks to rest


When wearied with some simple task or pleasure.
This is her clock whose hands her young hours measure
These are her walls that hold her heart at home.
These are her windows, tempting her to roam.
This is, in fine, her world no world more wide.
;

Since all her dreams start here or here ab'ide.


The Spirit of Montparnasse
By MARICE RUTLEDGE
lustrations from photographs by the well-known American painter Harry B. Lachman

AT twilight from out quaint doors and at these schools, and are engaged accord-
-L~\ old courtyards troop the models, ing to requirements. The general classes
suddenly enlivening street corners. Dur- usually select the model of the week on a
ing lean months, tragic months, these vote of the students, led by their inassier,
bright children of the quarter have kept a student appointed by his fellows to act
Montparnasse young by upholding its monitor and business manager.
as a kind of
traditions. Not even closed academies, But in the Croquis classes, where a new
deserted studios, and attendant privations model is used every day and paid five
have altered their philosophy. It is their francs for an afternoon seance, the di-

role to be comradely, their privilege to rector of the school is apt to arrange for
share the artist's estate. They are even the sittings. Unless they are popular
now symbols of happier days when art and favorites in the quarter, the models must
romance filled familiar haunts: the Lux- come up for inspection, all too frequently
embourg Garden, the cafes, the beloved risking a refusal spiced with harmless or
little streets wind in and out of the
that even humiliating pleasantries. Out of the
Boulevard Montparnasse and the Boule- number constantly seeking engagements
vard Raspail. many are thus left unemployed for an in-
Beneath their smile, their light manner, definite period. Here is where small
their gay silhouette lies, nevertheless, a rivalries sometimes develop between the
grim knowledge of what life contains even older,professional models and volatile
in times of peace. They know the long young creatures who occasionally drift
hours when with aching back and muscles into the work without a full understand-
they must stand in a given pose, offering ing of laws of fellowship. Posing for a
its

their immobility to students or to trained particulierj as the independent artist is


masters. It is not an easily acquired pro- called, brings the greatest satisfaction. It

fession. To pose successfully, one must may mean steady work through a season,
have imagination as well as a disciplined although, except in rare cases, even then
body; one must be able to become the the earnings amount only to between five

tangible expression of an esthetic idea. and ten francs a day. The difference
They know that the artist who uses them arises because these kind-hearted children
bids them farewell and goes his way. of Montparnasse adjust their demands to
They know the seasons when work is the artist's pocket-book. They know that,
scarce. They realize the cost of bread, whenever he is able, he will share with
the cost of finery. Their standards are them whatever good comes to him. He
modest enough. One certainly cannot be- will give them small gifts, a coveted rib- —
come very rich or reckless by posing; but, bon, a new hat, a pair of slippers, — he
then, one does not associate wealth with will invite them to dinner or offer a round
Artists, or, for that matter, with any form of aperitifs at the little cafe on the corner,
of serving them. The
better-known often he will treat them to a day in the
schools —
the Beaux-Arts, Julian's, Colar- country. No price is too high or too low
rosi's, and Ranson's, for instance pay on — for the fellowship involved.
an average of twenty francs, or four dol- Instinct has banded them together, has
lars, a week. As a part of their routine brought them from dull and loveless
the models present themselves regularl\ liomc'S, from the lowest ranks of the wage-

406
THE SPIRIT OF MONTPARNASSE 40/
earner, from country villages where art is cessfully. She set the fashion in the
considered ungodly, from parents who in quarter, counseled her comrades on subtle
their day were also models, to meet and manners of combining ribbons and chif-
mingle in world on the left
this special fons. Marie found that she had a voice
bank of the Seine. It is a larger world now worth cultivating; found, also, a generous
than it once was. The Latin Quarter sum- American lady who would help her pay
mons up happy pictures of classic back- for lessons. Nanon could dajice. She told
grounds stretching, mellow, familiar, every one proudly that a manager once
from the Place St. -Michel next to the offered her a conspicuous position in a
quais, on up the "Boule Miche," around ballet, and that she refused because at the
the Sorbonne, the rue des Ecoles, the time she was posing for Mercie, the great
Pantheon, the Place Medicis, opening out French sculptor. And so it went. Those
on the threshold of garden gates and the with the busiest minds and imaginations
Bal Bullier of dancing days, the hospitable wove plans that occasionally sent them out
doors of which have been closed since the into a more ambitious world of accom-
war. But the spirit of the Latin Quarter plishment. But more often they were con-
is romantic and venturesome. Youth has tent to remain within the boundary-lines
carried it afield, over the garden ;
past the of an established zone between St.-Germain
round fountain where in summer toy boats des Pres, the Luxembourg, the Gare
with colorful sails dodge the spray and Montparnasse, and the Place Denfert-
bob on the glistening water just out of Rochereau. The old streets, the old
reach of little boys' hands past brilliant ;
schools, the studios,were their heritage.
terraces; through long alleys peopled with July, 1914, found Montparnasse on its
trees and children past the Carrousel
;
holiday. Paulette, Suzanne, Marie, fanci-
along the lively rue Vavin, to join the fully decked, were daily to be met with
Boulevard and there to
jVIontparnasse, their student playmates, lounging in

spread and branch out in numberless bright circles beneath the leafy shelter of
haunts mellow, familiar. So the spirit the Luxembourg or trotting up lazy little

travels, jealously claimed by everything, streets that led to Ranson's, Colarrosi's,


every one, it touches, leavin-g in its wake and the Cafe du Dome. Grave issues were
varied groups of students: fellows from stillremote. The charming young crea-
the Sorbonne philosophy and
studying tures had matters to gossip about other
medicine, from the Beaux-Arts,
fellows than politics and European crises. Would
from Julian's models and flower-girls and
; Rene Bonheur's picture of Louise be ac-
children, ever moving and flitting over cepted for the autumn Salon? Should
trodden paths, ever united in impulse of such good fortune come to him, he had
creative youth. promised to give a party and crown the
ToPaulette, Suzanne, and Marie the lucky Louise queen of the revels. Would
artistwas not a mysterious being compli- the English lady, as she had hinted, take
cated by moods and humors he was a ; Rosette to her villa near Fontainebleau
friend who needed their collaboration to for the month of August, there to pose in
make him famous often he was a teacher.
; a certain sunny garden ? The English
Under his facile influence their hearts and lady had very little talent and a great
minds expanded, took on new aspects, in- deal of money. Perhaps a month in the
quired, and evolved. Paulette discovered country would cure Rosette of the racking
a talent for drawing and, encouraged by cough caught last winter when she posed
her friends, entered into a happy experi- for Stanislas Podowski in his fireless

ment of alternate posing and sketching. studio. Would Nanon's American painter
Suzanne developed a gift for dressmak- sail back to his country in September?
ing. Several painters had praised her Nanon had vowed that she would kill her-
clothes, had even made suggestions and self when he left, but no one believed her.

designs, which she had carrieii out suc- She was always primed with romantic no-
408 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
tions. Was it Simone
true that the blonde ismg Simone to cl aim er atter the
was marn' Giuseppe Nenni, the
shortl}' to war.
Italian sculptor? A bad thing for Simone Then was the city shaken out of
indeed
if she took such a man. Among other dis- its fairsummer. Light-hearted plans
advantages, Giuseppe was over-fond of ab- were shattered pretty romances ended,
sinthe. Many an evening the poor girl habits of good fellowship abruptly re-
had coaxed him away from the little cafe nounced. War and its somber conse-
on the corner, scolding him gently as if quences took no account of dreaming
he were a disobedient child instead of a artists and their models. Thousands of
wild fellow who would come to no good. stoic families drew closer, awed by com-
War was to solve these questions all too mon disaster, linked by a common loss,
grimly. There would be no Salon that marshaling resources to tide them over
tragic year. Rene Bonheur, who had bril- dreadful days. There was an exodus of
liantly painted Louise's colorful youth, put uniforms, taking with them all joy, all

on a uniform and marched away, never to peace of mind. A number


of Americans,
return. The English lady, in a panic of Italians, Spaniards, and Greeks abandoned
fear, fled from Paris, leaving Rosette to the well-beloved place that long had har-
cough her frail body into a hospital eight bored their aspirations. Paulette, Suzanne,
months later. Nanon's American painter Marie, and the others were left to exist as
went ofiF to drive an ambulance in the best they could under new and relentless
Vosges. But although Nanon wept for conditions. Sobered little spirits of youth,
many a day, she did not kill herself. Giu- they drifted from familiar haunt to haunt,
seppe, the Italian sculptor, caught in a foregathering in old trysting-spots to talk
mesh of little debts, appealed to his consul over what had befallen them. With the
and, with a batch of chattering com- schools closed, their means of livelihood were
patriots, was packed back to Italy, prom- suspended. The outlook was discouraging.
A Cl'P OF TEA BETW WORKING noi'Rs

But almost immediately their valiant was in the hospital, visited her once a
philosophy accepted a state of affairs that week. Marie loaned the poor coughing
in different ways was affecting every class girl her own warm coat for the winter.
of society. Their good-will increased with the de-
"Ah, Mademoiselle, things are not what mands put upon it yet they could not hope
;

they were!" sighed an old vendor of roast for much work until the war was ended.
chestnuts to Louise. It was true that a few artists remained,

"What would you? There are others but they, also, were facing bleak da\'S. Art
lesshappy. One lives as one can," she an- was at a standstill.
swered, with an upward look that shamed "I will pose for nothing." declared the
his gloom. She spoke for her comrades. blonde Simone. "It is useless to be idle.
Bound in a cult of fellowship, dimly We can always arrange ourselves."
they perceived that at some later time art Accordingly a gaunt Russian anarchist
and aspiration, reviving, would seek them and a patient Armenian whose family had
out again. Meanwhile they offered one been murdered by the Turks in Con-
another kindly help. Paulette and Suzanne stantinople took heart again, while Simone.
agreed to share Louise's room under trotting up and down their shabby stairs,
the eaves. The room was tiny, stifling in scolded and mothered them, mended their
summer, freezing in winter, but it was clothes, posed for them, and cooked their
gay with souvenirs of pleasanter da\s, and supper, often supplying the provisions.
there was always a pot of flowers on the After all. she was happiest when she was
window-sill. Paulette and Suzanne were working. She belonged to studios as much
grateful for this hospitality, since they as did the easels, the paint-boxes, the
owed rent they could no longer pay. sketches on the high walls. Once, a long
Nanon, whose American painter had been time ago, before the graceless Giuseppe
generous, from time to time gave Rosette Nenni's day, a very nice young man wished
money for medicines, and later, when she to marry Simone. He was not an artist.
409
410 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
however. His father had been a naval tom of housewifely service in return for a
officer, and the son intended to become a saving hospitality. Nanon washed dishes,
civil engineer. Should he marry Simone, Marie passed deep bowls of soup, Paulette
she would have nothing to do but sit at pared the vegetables, kept the flowers
home and be waited on by one servant, fresh, the oilcloth cover glistening. And
possibly two. She would inherit a famih', all the while their ready wit flashed signals
as is the custom in France: the nice young of courage and good humor aptly aimed
man's mother, his grandmother, and all his to uphold
the spirits of the company.
cousins and aunts would have the right to Nothing escaped them. It even happened
overlook carefully her manners and to ad- that treachery to the nation was averted
vise her intimately as to her prospective by the keen detective work of one model,
children. Simone worked hard prepar- Genevieve. It was in this way. In the
ing such a trousseau as had never been first year of the war there came to a
seen in Montparnasse ; but when it came canteen a plausible young woman in deep
to the date of the wedding, with her future mourning who proved, with necessary
snugly assured, and a pretty apartment documents, to be the daughter of a French
chosen by the bridegroom far out of range sculptor and who was herself an artist.
of Montparnasse, its studios, its little She appeared to be in serious need of help.
cafes, good fellows, Simone suddenly
its Therefore Mademoiselle X— — , as we
flew into a panic, and dismissed the be- was taken in with
shall call her, the other
wildered young man. comrades and made welcome. She sat
"I am not a bourgeoise," she said. next to Genevieve at table. Was it an
"There is no use your family and
;
I would incautious chance word, a look, an am-
never get on. I can take care of a house biguous manner that first roused the little

when I don't have to, I can mend and lodel s suspicions I Whatever It was,
cook as well as any one ; but I will not Genevieve, with the skill of a diplomat,
give up my I will not give up
freedom. set to work to win the confidence of this
my artistsyou or any one.
for How Mademoiselle X
She accomplished.

would I be feeling if I could no longer her end by insinuating subtly that her own
visit the comrades or pose in the studios? sympathies were not entirely given over to
No, I am better off as I am." France. She was soon invited to Made-
Fortunately for the Russian and the moiselle X 's studio, where, in the
Armenian, Simone was free and could care course of an artfully directed conversation.
for them otherwise it might have gone ill
;
Mademoiselle X^ confessed that she had
with them during the war. lived in Germany forsome time before the
"Indeed," said Simone, "I would rather war and that she was exceedingly friendly
starve in a studio than eat my head off with a certain German princess who, for
in a palace. And there you are!" services rendered, could be generous. She
Soon canteens cropped up to relieve the went so far as to show Genevieve letters
increasing distress of artists and models. from this princess. Genevieve, in turn,
For a few sous or for nothing, as the hinted that she represented the Austrian
case may be, from twenty to fifty meals a Government. Meanwhile, having com-
day were served in studios transformed municated with the French secret police,
into informal restaurants. The atmo- the astute model told Mademoiselle X
sphere of these studios, directed by artists, that she was anxious to introduce into the
was made up of sociable intentions — canteen a friend of hers, a German who
blend of moral and material sustenance, was in possession of Swiss papers. It was
tendered without a hint of charity. Here Mademoiselle X herself who, falling
the children of the quarter could enter into the trap, went to the director of the
confidently and find the welcome of their canteen and asked permission to present
kind. To such canteens came gladly the a worthy artist, thus paving the way for
little Paulettes and Nanons, setting a cus- the supposed spy ; and it was Mademoiselle
X who wrote ;• letter to Genevieve His was a sympathetic ear, ready to re-
that later served as proof against her. In ceive confidences. There was not an
the letter she said : "I have done your work. owner of a napkin-ring in his establish-
You are free to bring the kaiser himself ment whose history, sad, glad, or bad, he
into the canteen, you wish." The stor^-
if had not heard.
ends here; for Mademoiselle was X Many a meal had Mere Rosalie, the
found, upon investigation, to be an im- mother of Italian models, given to Maria
portant servant of the enemy, and was orAnna without marking the debt on her
arrested with a band of accomplices. The slate. The skies of Italy beamed from
canteen knows her no more. Mere Rosalie's indulgent eyes. Her restau-
Even with the canteens crowded to their rant was quickened by the gestures and the
utmost capacity, there was always Pere cadences of Italy. The olive-tinted girls
Bretelle, Mere Rosalie, or Leduc's to who lined her tables looked ripened by
back on, places of convivial reunions
fall the sun. They smiled easily, wept easil\ :

warm with memories of work and play be- they were Madonnas in the making.
fore the war. Many a night had Pere Many a time had gentle Mme. Leduc
Bretelle sheltered one of his clients whose provided for the sick girl Mimi, whose
room and possessions had been held by a peaked, childish face, surmounted by the
heartless landlady as forfeits for unpaid Gipsy head-dress she affected, was almost
rent. Pere Bretelle knew the value of well- a fixture in a warm corner of the home-
timed kindness, discriminated humanly like restaurant on the Boulevard Raspail.
and wisely between the habitual drifter This was her haven. Even the Inquiring
and the model who. through unavoidable cat with molting fur took her for granted.
circumstance, had fallen on jobless days. The world's drama held notlu'ng new for

411
412 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Mimi. She lingered through the seasons, allowance they counted on. Her skill

knowing that, whatever came, Mme. Le- for costuming held possibilities. An
duc would not let her starve. American painter had told her that there
But it was not enough to be fed. As the was a market for French toys, and that he
heavy months of war went by, each laden could find her orders if she would con-
sider handling them. Suzanne
was not backward in profiting
by such a chance. She set to

work making rag-dolls. They


were quaint dolls, decked in

brilliant bits of stuf¥ that dar-


ingly offset their humorous,
painted faces. Suzanne fancied
the modern school of decora-
tion. She experimented au-
daciously in and color,
cut
turning out whimsical play-
beings the original appearance
of which brought delight to
young and old alike. They
were taken at once by an in-
fluential Frenchwoman who
sent them over to America.
Paulette, on the advice of
this same painter, started em-
broidering cushions after his
designs. Her brother, a boy of
twenty, was in the trenches,
and wrote wistfully of small
comforts which might help to
soften a bitter winter. Loyal
Paulette undertook to send him
packages. Every sou she earned
thereafter went to ease his

A MODEI, IN COSTUME soldier's lot. No more rib-

bons, no more finery to re-

with suffering, Paulette and her young garnish a frayed wardrobe. Her reward
friends fretted against enforced idleness. was an increasing pile of letters, scribbled
With accumulating rent, thinning ward- in a bo^'ish hand, containing embarrassed
robes, and, in many cases, people de- requests for this and that, and gratitude
pendent on them, they could not afford to for what he had received. It was a great
be idle. Suzanne's mother and father, ex- day for Paulette when her brother came
isting scantily in a Basque village, looked to Paris on leave. Before the war she
to her for support. The lively girl, so had seen little enough of him. He was
quick of eye and tongue, with Spanisli a country lad, broug^it up to simple
grace of movement, had faithfully sent the tasks in the fields; certainly he did not
old couple part of her earnings ever since belong to Montparnasse, this sturdy, pink-
the day she came to Paris with an Ameri- cheeked boy, with the clear, blue eyes
can lady to pose for her, and later to be- and the guileless smile of a peasant. But
come known as one of the best models in every three months now, in his faded,
the quarter. Even under present stress ill-fitting uniform, a battered helmet
she could not let them go without the slim perched rakislily on lu's blond head, he
IIM; m> MKAI. Willi A MOD
414 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
climbed tlie steep stairs to the tin.v room Cross, in order that she might be fitted
shared with Louise by Suzanne and his to nurse the men of France.
sister.He knew what a chattering wel- In the spring of 191 5 one by one the
come awaited him. He knew that Paul- schools opened. Back to the old court-
ette would put on her last year's hat and yards and big studios brightly flocked the
her best blue dress and that together they models, Paulette, Suzanne, and the others.
would go proudly forth arm in arm. What it matter that students were
did
Paulette would lead him to the canteen, rare, American and English artists
that
where he would be much admired she ; had for the most part left the city, that
would also take him to see the kind lady there was not work enough to go round?
who at Christmas had sent him a beauti- A semblance of the old life was renewed
ful muffler and a dozen packages of cigar- with the season, so swiftly does youth re-

ettes. He was not accustomed to such vive. Once more in the garden groups
fine company, and stood first on one leg gathered under budding trees. The ele-

and then on the other, blushing, and stam- ments of these groups were the same,
mering his gratitude. He was more at his though many familiar figures were lack-
ease when, still arm in arm, they wandered ing. Poor Rosette was at last in a hospital,

through the beloved city, Paulette for- coughing her life away. Every week
saking her quarter in order to show him Nanon and Marie visited her; every week
the sights. Perhaps they would walk they managed to bring her a few flowers
along the quais to Notre Dame, beside the or a magazine. Perched on the edge of
prune-colored Seine ;
perhaps they would her little white bed, very gravely at first,
cross the bridge, pass the stately Louvre, but warming to liveliness, they told her
and follow glittering shop-windows on to the news of the quarter. Rosette, after all,
the boulevards, where crowds, brightened was only a child. She brightened she, ;

with uniforms, surged back and forth in too, chattered. She told of her longing
endless procession ;
perhaps they would sit for the country, for the healing glory of
in a cafe and sip vermuth while he told sun and hills. But there was no way of
her tales of the valiant little poiliis. More changing matters. The sanatoriums were
than likely they would end in a moving- crowded with soldiers; even the hospitals
picture show on the rue de la Gaite, near had limited space for civilians. She could
the Gare Montparnasse. And when the not hope to be received anywhere else. So
holiday was over, he could be sure that she smiled bravely at her fate and said
Paulette would hand him a bit of pocket- "I am finished. I never shall go out again
money or a few provisions for himself and except head first. What would you ? I

his copains. So back he went to the have been very happy." Nanon turned
trenches, and back she went to her away to hide the tears, and Marie cried,
work on the cushions, embroidering far "No! no! we will cure thee!" But Ro-
into the night. sette shook her head and smiled. "We
Yvette, once a model of Whistler's, a must all pass by there. It is not so ter-
strapping girl with milky skin, and brown rible, after all," she said, adding wistfully,
hair coiled in disks over her ears, went to "The garden must be beautiful now." So
nurse in a military hospital. She paid they told her about the garden and who
for her training out of a modest sum al- was missing: the Red Cross had sent
ready laid aside, the nucleus of savings Yvette to Calais; Rene Bonheur was dead ;

with which she had intended some day, Henri Le Breton was dead Jean Senlis ;

years from then, to buy a small inn near was wounded; Jacques Lormand was
Paris. She had pictured the inn as the blind; Reggie Norse, the American, had
favorite resort of artists, herself a popular gone to Salonica ; Giuseppe Nenni was
hostess. But now she delved cheerfully back in Italy.
into the economies of three years, spending Yet, despite the missing ones, once more
the time and money required by the Red in the little cafes, between classes at the
Irr

JT.
416 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
schools, models and students mingled and but that Montparnasse has decided to take
chattered once more on the narrow streets
;
new heart, has resolved to resume habits
winding in and out of the Boulevard of work in order that the spirit of life may
Montparnasse and the Boulevard Raspail triumph over death and disaster.
jaunty silhouettes passed among women in From now on, through uncounted
black, among crippled poilus. What would seasons of sacrifice, it will be the privilege
you? Every one has his profession. Not of the children of Montparnasse to uphold
that pocket-books jingle with silver or their traditions, to keep the precious spark
that hearts are lighter; not that the prob- of art, of youth, of fellowship in trust for
lems of living are solved or that banished the dreaming youth of the world. It is a

felicity has entered again into its kingdom great trust.

A MUUhL Al- RUST


My Impressions of America
By COUNT ILYA TOLSTOY
of my lecture tour through- the need to earn the necessities of but
INoutthethecourse
United States have met many I also the veneration which is felt
life,

here for
interviewers. Ninety-nine per cent, of money. That has made of America one
them asked me, as a first question, "What of the most productive nations of the
do you think of America?" world. The technic and the ease with
Now that I have spent five consecutive which the people make use of its pov/er
months in this country, and have seen Cali- are truly astounding. The impression
fornia and the whole breadth of the land made on the foreigner is that there are no
between there and New York, I may per- insurmountable obstacles. They will build
haps risk a few general observations on with equal facility edifices of sixty stories,
my impressions. I beg my readers not to railroad bridges in places where the very
be offended if any of my remarks are not idea of building a bridge seems impossible,
altogether flattering. They should credit electric railroads, automobiles of different
me with genuine gratitude for their wel- makes by the hundred thousand, and all
come, and believe that my thoughts are types of machinery, from the smallest in
imbued with the deepest sympathy for the size to the most huge. This development
people of this great democracy. of industrial machinery, together vnth the
When we tried to give a reasonable great wealth of the land and the vast
answer, I found that both my brother and natural resources, tend to enlarge the ex-
I were misquoted. I receive letters which ternal life of the country toward incalcu-
criticize my replies. These replies may be lable limits.
misunderstood because of the difficulty to But we should not forget that all these
find in English the exact shade of words. natural gifts, and a high standard of liv-
That is why I wish to take this opportunity ing or civilization, are not the aims of life.

to speak at leisure and clearly. We are They are only arms in the hands of man.
all agreed that constructive criticism is It is not enough to be armed. One should
always worth while, and that it is the know why one takesup the arms. To
only one permissible between friends. I amass millions is not enough we should ;

can therefore trust that my remarks will know why we do it. Money is an arm
be taken in the same spirit that I am mak- that sometimes proves more dangerous
ing them. than high explosives. Frankly, does a
I am speaking of the country as a whole, man gather millions in order to spoil his
trying to take in at one glance the chief child with toys, each of which costs more
characteristics of the nation, to take in than a whole family needs to live on for
both the qualities and the faults. I am many years?
also speaking as a Russian who belongs Arms should onl\- be intrusted to hands
to a nation that is very old in comparison that can wield them, and that can wield
with the United States of America, but them to a good effect ; otherwise the
very young in democratic life. strength and power thereof will be turned
In order to gain a better hearing, I shall back on those who hold them. They act
begin with the qualities. The first thing like a boomerang. In this consists Amer-
that strikes a Russian observer in the ica's greatest peril.
United States is the activity of the people. Roughly speaking, I may say that the
This activity is often due to the urgent level of the cultural development of the
desire to make a living. I mean not only American people does not correspond to

417
418 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
the height of the lofty buildings that I exceptions; there are many of them. But
have admired here. a man must be gifted with a very strong
I can well praise the number of schools personality in order to avoid this disastrous
which America possesses. I can praise the common leveling which prevails here, and
elementary schools, the high schools, and is unavoidably linked with the standard-
the universities. All these institutions are ization of life.

large, broad, well established, richly en- sometimes think that it is I who per-
I

dowed. The Government and private haps err, and that I may be on the wrong
persons rival one another in their constant path, while America is right. It may be
attention to these means of education. that the cause lies in the fact that I belong
This combination of institutions tends to to another imbued with another
race,
bring the standard of instruction to a culture. The outlook on life is alto-
good average. In the whole land there gether different in America and in Russia.
are few Americans who lack elementary The pulse of external life does not run
education. But so fast in my country. Therefore man
Here I begin to fear that I am offending has more time to ponder at leisure over the
some of my friends; yet I promised my- more vital points of human life. Again,
self to speak my mind in all candor. This if his mind does not work in the same

average education of which I spoke, and channels as those of his fellow-men, he


as shown by the quality and the sum of survives, nevertheless, and can pursue his
information gathered by students, is very own life. Here he would perish, buried
low. This is a fact the people should under the mass of average thought. That
know ; they should be told the truth. A is why, in Russia, we can remain original

young man who leaves the high school and enjoy our own point of view. Our out-
must know that he is only then ready to look, our tastes, may differ. The orig-
begin his education. One who leaves the inality of our Eastern race springs out,
university should realize that there are in forces itself upon the world in our art, our
the world many other universities where music, our monuments, our literature.
the standard of science is much higher. Thus is mankind benefited.
One of the advantages of industry is to I do not want to speak without advanc-
bring out in large quantities standardized ing proofs. In my country, as in the other
products. Millions of pieces are turned parts of Europe, nobody need have any
out all on the same pattern. I have an difficulty in finding book-stores in small
impression that America standardizes not towns or in large cities. Here one can
only her industrial output, but also the find a cigar-store, a drug-store, all kinds
school training of her young men and of shops where luxuries can be purchased,
girls. They are all educated in the same but the seeking of a book-shop is often a
way. All are molded exactly alike ; all very hard quest. Even in New York it

are trained on the same model. is hard to find a real book-store where the
Now, individuality is the wealth of attendants know their authors and can
forms with which we are endowed at help one select the books that one needs
birth. Individuality is like the innumer- on any subject. There arc some, but none
able rays that emanate from the splendor too many. They can be counted on the
of God. Therefore this individuality is fingers of one's hands. In smaller cities

the most precious treasure of mankind. the task of finding books is a hopeless one.
I am not referring to America alone,— There are a where books are
few stores
the life of the whole world levels men sold; but what books? Novels mostly,
down to a common pattern, — but in the average ephemeral romance maga- ;

America the result is more apparent than zines with too many ill-conceived articles
anywhere else. That is the most striking containing little upbuilding criticism of
impression I am carrying back with me public life, much ill-digested information;
to Russia. I cannot sa\' that there are no and newspapers which afford little of in-
MY IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA 419
tellectual value, being mostly mediums of women's movement. Nothing will bring
advertising. American literature is yet a swifter retribution than public opposi-
poor. The good magazines are few w^hen tion to this stormy movement. I have no
compared with European reviews. The wish to do it myself. I would leave be-
inheritance of mankind, the universal lit- forehand to women all fields of activity
erature, is hardly known here. There are they may care to enter. If a woman de-
translations in sets, richly bound, but sires to show her great talent as a writer,
cheaply produced, and too often done by I am prepared to hand over my fountain-
hack writers who do not even understand pen to her with much pleasure. Let her
what they translate. They are bad trans- write; I am only too willing to retire.

lations, as a rule, but costly. Poor people Does she want to become an artist ?Here
are not able to buy them. are my paints and brushes. Does she want
Even in Russia, in the country which to shine in science? I am in favor of
Americans think uncivilized, we have having every door in whole wide
the
translations of all the world's great world open to her — museums, hospitals,
writers. These editions are appropriate to libraries, or laboratories. Politics, juris-
the means of the people. They can be prudence, let them take it all, if they feel
bought for prices from one to five cents. themselves able to tread those paths.
It is the same in England. The result is But let me warn them that they will
that the people read only newspapers and have to think less of dresses, dancing, and
magazines. In Russia, for the same price, trivial amusements. Sometimes it does
we can build a library of great books. The happen even in America that a woman
best works of Pushkin, Dickens, Shak- will bear children. Young children must
spere, Dante, Cervantes, Goethe, Tolstoy, be brought up. They are apt to remind
Heine, Victor Hugo, and countless others one of that necessity. They represent
are at the disposal of the poorest. the future generation of humanity. It
These are the two different paths on seems to me difficult to make these opposed
which the two nations proceed in the activities fit in with one another.^
building up of their culture. The future But if any woman considers she has
will show which gives the happier results. enough force, talent, and time to be suc-
True freedom means the freedom of the cessful in all those fields, they are hers so
soul, liberty of conscience, the liberty of far as I am concerned. I would gladly
forming independent opinion— a liberty change place, transform myself into one
which is built not upon laws, but upon the of those drones whom the bees turn out
foundations of life itself. It is not an of the hive when they have served their
outward freedom it is an inner preroga-
; purpose by the fecundation of their queen.
tive. Again I can make a comparison It can be seen that I am not attacking
with Russia. There, even under the late feminism. I am prepared to grant women
autocratic regime, I felt freer than here in
1 Count Tolstoy has obviously misunderstood the feminist
my inner life. In Russia I had to face
movement in this country. In Russia the intellectual wo-
only the question whether an act was al- men, though a small class, have long since possessed a free-
lowed by the police or not, but I could dom of thought, a wide influence socially and politically,
even a place in industry that has not needed the vote to estab-
speak my mind aloud without any dif- lish.The count's implication that in America most wo-
fidence about my neighbor's own views. men would be inclined to go in for politics at the expense
of the future generation is not borne out by the facts. In
Here this is not the case. In America
this country women require the vote, which they are get-
public opinion can cause more suffering to ting in one State after another, largely because public
a man than the most arbitrary police. The opinion accepts nothing without a familiar label, as the
count himself points out, and the vote is the label that
most dangerous thing in America is to go will authenticate and thereby release these mighty social
against the tide of public opinion. What- forces which are needed to equilibriate our lopsided de-
velopment. Such women as are inclined to follow poli-
ever a man's social position, he must swim
tics as a profession may not be best fitted to be mothers,
with the current or inevitably perish. just as certain professions seem to unfit men to be satis-
Try, for instance, to speak against the factory fathers. The Editor.
420 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
everything they seek or desire ncluding hues. Constitutionalists have four parties.
my admiration and my love. The monarchists have no less. The
But I was deah'ng with the subject of revolutionists are also divided. Thus is
slavery before public opinion. That is originality preserved.
one of the serious dangers of the United All this lack of individuality tends, I

States. It is so serious that it darkens the am sure, toward the destruction of the
very idea of liberty. The second yoke is inner sense of beauty. It kills the joy of
the reign of King Dollar in this country. life, it hampers the artistic feeling of man-
The slavery from which America suffers kind.
under this rule is no less serious. There As to the character of the American
is great danger that this country may be- people, I wish to emphasize the fact that it

come an oligarchy ruled by a few capital- has made a deep impression on me. Amer-
ists. icans show excellent heart, great kindness,
The same capitalism which I consider is much courtesy, and amenity. Sometimes I
endangering the liberty of the people con- wish they were less polite. I could bear
tributes, of course, to the standardization without pain the same kind of criticism
of trade. This may be no evil in itself, which I have attempted to make. It is

but it contributes to the standardization the criticism of a friend, nay, of an ad-


of the lives of the people. The sameness, mirer. I hope it is helpful criticism.
the lack and local color
of originality One of the happiest features which
throughout the land and from sea to sea, struck me here was the spirit of democracy.
is truly striking. Not only do you find In America one does not meet that spirit
everywhere the same few brands of cig- of servility, of slavery, to which one is

arettes, for instance; but you cannot find, accustomed in Europe. I am not used to
or you can find only with great difficulty, this equality. It was therefore most pleas-
the variety of brands that is obviously ant to me. I feel it to be a great creative
needed. Yet it is evident that all smokers force. There may be a little too much
do not like the same blend of tobacco. subjection to public opinion, but that is

There is only one type of hotel. When I not a permanent feature. In Russia we
enter my new room in almost any city of had, before the Revolution, less freedom
the United States, I can close my eyes and between persons, but more liberty in the
find everything exactly as itwas in the face of public opinion. The reverse is the
room I occupied in the last town where I case here.
stayed. The bath, the bed, the windows, To sum up, I wish to add that I am
the telephone are all in the same corners. leaving the United States with the best
Every newspaper throughout the country and kindest feeling for the American na-
is like unto the others in its shape, type, tion. I am more than grateful for the
and general appearance. It contains the many acts of kindness bestowed upon me
same telegrams. There may be advantages everywhere. I hope for myself and for
in this standardization of news, but I my country that the best relations will
can see also a great danger in this mold- prevail between Russia and America. Our
ing of public opinion by capitalized news two nations can derive only profit from
agencies. The leading articles are virtu- mutual intercourse and friendship. Amer-
ally the same. ica will help us to develop our enormous

Even in the political life I find Amer- material resources, and this will be most
ica virtually divided into two main parties. beneficial to lier also, (^ur economic field

Republicans and Democrats. They afford is open to >ou. Russia can perhaps con-
little scope for personal development. In tribute some of her latent spiritual great-
Russia the number of political parties is ness to the culture of America. Both to-

almost inexhaustible. Socialists, for in- gether will be greatly benefited, and this
stance, are of at least five or six different entails the general progress of mankind.
The Very Human Newspaper
By DEEMS TAYLOR
Author of ' The Fable of the Three Artists," etc.

LAST February, Representative McCall sandra." This naive oracular assumption


-^ declared on the floor of the House isseldom questioned by the average reader,
that a portion of the American press was but it leads him to expect too much.
in the pay of the munitions interests. A Sooner or later he is frightfully shocked
week or so later one of our senators ac- by the discovery that even a newspaper
cused a group of newspapers of forming a can be wrong.
cabal to hound the country into war. Sen- Of course our newspapers are not ora-
sational as these charges were, they were cles or bulwarks or palladia. They are
not particularly novel. One of the favor- sheets of paper upon which are set forth
ite occupations of our statesmen, aside sundry statements of fact and opinion
from indorsing the public utterances of the gathered, written, and edited by sundry
fathers, is accusing the public prints of highly fallible human beings. Nine tenths
bribery, corruption, and mendacity, with of the shortcomings of the press are due
intent to prevaricate. As for the average to the fact that it is a human product.
citizen, what time he is not quoting his According to congressmen, cabinet
favorite newspaper with the air of one who members, corporation officials, and others
cites scripture, he is canceling his subscrip- who from time to time come into more or
tion, and vowing never, never again to less violent collision with newspapers, the

believe anything he sees In print. chief of these shortcomings is wilful mis-


Probably the main reason why we scold representation. The charge is not literally
our press so much is that we take it so true. Our papers seldom lie ; that is, it is

seriously. We read more newspapers than rare that they knowingly print statements
any other nation on earth. Thousands of that are not at least poor relations of the
us depend upon them not only for news, truth. In the first place, competition
but for amusement, art, science, criticism, among newspapers is too keen. Let one of
and advice upon every subject under the them print one little falsehood, and its

sun from religion to dressmaking. No jealous rivals are in full cry at once, bay-
wonder that when our oracles prove falli- ing virtuously upon its trail and screaming
ble, as they frequently do, we wail "Trea- the real facts at the top of their head-lines.
son!" and spurn them with a fervor Facts themselves are explosive enough, and
equaled only by our previous devotion. scatter plenty of libel suits in their wake
Not that newspapers make any
our as itwithout a paper's deliberately
is,

heroic efforts to render our faith in them hunting for trouble by printing fiction.
less abject. Has some important event Usually, when an absolute misstatement
taken place? It happened "as exclusively has appeared in a newspaper, the paper's
predicted" in the columns of the "Morn- chief offense is in having believed an un-
ing Augur." Has a good measure been trustworthy source, a contingency difficult
enacted or a bad one repealed ? That came to guard against, since any paper is more
"as a result of the vigorous campaign" or less at the mercy of its out-of-town
waged by the "Evening Crusader." Was correspondents and news agencies. Any
a fav^orite candidate defeated ? He should correspondent can fool any paper once but ;

have heeded "the solemn warning uttered it is to the credit of editors that an over-

early in the campaign" by the "Daily Cas- imaginative correspondent rarely gets a
421
422 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
second chance to exercise his talents. After too late for him to get back and write his
all, the principal reason why our press does story before press-time. So he telephones
not print lies is that newspaper men as a the office, and tells his facts to a rewrite
class are honest, conscientious beyond the man. The latter in turn may misunder-
average, and, according to their code, stand something or fail to catch an impor-
strictly honorable. Certain things may be tant detail. The story written, the re-
permitted by that code that strike the lay- write man turns it over to the copy-reader,
man as peculiar, but deliberate mendacity who edits it and writes a head-line for it.

is not one of them. In recasting a sentence or in shortening a


Does our newspaper man, then, tell the paragraph he may leave out a fact the
whole, unvarnished truth ? Emphatically omission of which alters the complexion of
he does not. He does practise the negative the whole story. The head-line is a fresh

The party arjlvod in tiVO sectSotls,


-I first warmly praisliiir their treat-
ent by the Germans, hoc Ihe second
146 AMERICANS i.taini ng 1 lerabers who (om plained 146 AMERICANS !

lU'rIv the enforef d delav in


clr p:ltt a-, and alsi


<'l( of having-

REACH ZURlCHi 1.1

hith
to
t
leu
It- '
e l)ch1i\d
nuiin author
tl eia papers
ties desired
REACH ZURICH i

The majority
Several U. S. Consuls Con^lainj
;

!
'>\er, rep.irt«Hl
of the travellers,
that thoy had received
how- |

1
FROMGERMANYj
! studiously eourleous treatment, and I

Over Enforced Delay


i

in Their de<:lared that the string-ent regula-


'
tions enforce*! were nothing more
Departure From Germany. \ than what was to be expected in '

I
Many More U. S. Consols and'
ZURICH (Via Paris. Feb. n).~A I'iew
Safe in Switzerland
\

score of linited States consuls


lie I I Families
aaid j

Kovernment ajrents,
lUes ivoolKcl Zuricli
with
la^t
th<>lr
nig-ht
fani-
after'
|

iVlNG IP" SIil'ARATh ilAL


THE NEWS. EACH SUBHE/
'
— Several Laud Treatmenl, i

haviUB spout a move or less anxious


| IS HALF TRUE, AS THE 21.—
week iiTvaltlntf pernil.sHion leave fo ;
Zurich, via T'at 1,":. • Feb, .score
-A.

Gennany. The arrivals cousisled of! CENTER PARAGRAPH ;


oC United Stales cousvils and government
,f<a4.v-stx persons .who had KTadHaUyJ, SHOWS :
agents, with ll;^ir faini lie.i. reache d I

virtue of not lying; on the other hand, source of trouble. It must be set in a
whether innocently or to further his own certain-sized type and must contain a fixed
ends, he frequently colors and distorts the number of letters and spaces. The words
truth, and presents facts in such a way that exactly convey the essential facts of
that their real significance is totally the story may not fit, and others must be
altered. found that are of the right length, even
A certain amount of distortion or "col- though they tend to make the heading mis-
oring" of the news is inevitable. The men leading. Suppose the item concerns the
who make a newspaper face one of the rejection of a lighting company's estimates.
hardest tasks in the world — that of telling The copy-reader writes "LIGHT BIDS
facts. Considering the fact that of five REJECTED," finds that the line is one
intelligent, impartial witnesses of any hap- letter too long, and finally substitutes
pening no two will exactly agree in their "spurned" for "rejected." It is not a good
subsequent accounts of what took place, synonym it is too violent.
; However,
the wonder is, perhaps, that the truth ever work is piling up on the copy-desk, and the
gets into print at all. Added to the in- time is growing short. The copy-reader
itial difficulty is the peculiar organization lets "spurned" stand rather than rewrite
of a newspaper from the
staff, resulting the entire head.
necessity of gathering, writing, and print- l^he linotyper may contribute his mite
ing approximately a hundred thousand of distortion. Ordinarily the proof-room
words of news every twenty-four hours. will correct his errors; but the hour may
A reporter goes out to gather the facts he so late that the story must go to press
of a certain happening. Being fallible, he for the first edition with only the hastiest
may not get them all, or he may misunder- proof-reading or even with none at all.

stand the significance of those that he does "The company's uniform rates for ser-
get. His assignment completed, it may be vice" may turn into "the company's unfair
THE VERY HUMAN NEWSPAPER 423
rates for service." Lastly, the make-up ing of reporters and constant vigilance on
editor, when he comes to assign the story the part of editorial staffs. The pity is

its place on the page, may find it too long, that while taking all sorts of elaborate
and so leave off the last paragraph. If the precautions to guard against distorting or
story is properly built from a newspaper coloring news by mistake, many papers
point of view, this should not matter. On have few scruples against deliberately tint-
the other hand, that last paragraph may ing their news all the colors of the rain-
have contained additional facts the reten- bow when they happen to find it expedient
tion or omission of which makes all the to do so.

difference between a fair and an unfair The commonest form of such distortion
presentation of the case. is the "doctoring" of facts for the sake of
The very typographical layout of a so-called news interest. It results from

ANTHRACITE MI NERS |
workers 20 p. c if/cREASE
MORE PAY^FOR MINERS
175,000 AnthraciU Workers Q
HARD COAL ;

Vofuntary Waga tncrea««.


WIN WAGE increase; Optratots Recopuze Demands i

Based on High Cost of, ^v.s. ,r


-VeJuatAjy
MINERS GET |i

Pay Put Up from 11 to 35 Per Living. )17&,000mlnerd

Cent. Without Any Threat of


a Strike by tlie Union.
:)

']
HUW ONE WORD CAN AI-THK THE MEANING OF ,\
paooostI:
CALLED A TRIBUTE TO UNION i
NEWS ITEM. ACCORDING TO THE HEADS AT THl 20 Per Cent Raise ^

LEFT, THE MINERS DEMANDED AND WON A WAi.l


INCREASE. IN THE TWO RIGHT-HAND HEADS Given 17.5,000
THE WORDS "VOLUNTARY" AND " VOLIFNTARILV "
LEAD THE READER TO BELIEVE THAT THl Men Voluntarily ji

OPERATORS GA\'E THEIR MEN A RISE \\ITHon


NEW YORK. April 25.— \'olunUrj
WAITING TO BE ASKED
I

f.ije increases of approximately 20j'


c-r cent arc granted to 175,000 miners j.

newspaper tends to produce a false impres- the desire to extract the maximum of dra-
sion of the relative values of events in that matic interest from the day's happenings.
it frequently entails giving certain items In attempting to prove that truth is

greater prominence than they deserve. stranger than fiction the newspaper man
There must always be so many front-page often proves merely that a fact can be
stories, under heads of appropriate or in- made a stranger to the truth. The fact
appropriate size, every day, regardless of that a news item is called a "story" is

the state of the news market. So many fairly significant. A good ne^'-s story
activities are suspended on Sunday that in should tell of something hitherto unknown
normal times Monday is a poor day for or something unexpected, out of the ordi-
news. Nevertheless, there must be "big" nar}', foreign to the habitual. It must
stories to go under Monday's front-page have "punch," and its construction is dic-
head-lines, the result being that unimpor- tated chiefly by this requirement.
tant news is often blazoned forth with an First comes the opening paragraph, or
emphasis grotesquely disproportionate to lead, upon which the story pivots. Here
its real significance. By dying on Sunday the reporter is supposed to state the es-

afternoon, many a worthy citizen has sence of what happened, so writing his
achieved a front-page eulogy and a por- lead that all the rest of the story could be
trait, whereas had waited until
if he omitted and still leave a reasonably com-
Wednesday he might have had trouble plete summary of the events he is describ-
squeezing into the obituary column on ing. The remaining paragraphs are sim-
page eleven. ply amplifications of the various elements
Thus it is at best no easy task for a of the lead. The copy-reader builds his
newspaper to keep its contents accurate head-lines from the lead, still further sum-
and impartial, and the task is successfully marizing its contents. Such a form of con-
accomplished only through careful train- struction naturallv leads to distortion
424 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
through exaggeration, false generalizing, Now, in the first place, there is no par-
and over-emphasis. The risk is at its low- ticular reason why the utterances of a

est in the case of stories of action, of simple former secretary of the treasury upon for-
crime or catastrophe. If a man murders eign affairs should carry any tremendous
his wife or a family is robbed of its silver weight. In the second place, those utter-
or a factory burns or the Germans invade ances were not very warlike.The yellow
Belgium, you need only say so, and there 's newspapers say much unkinder things than
your lead. But how about the countless that about Japan at frequent intervals
other events where nothing nearly so defi- without arousing any excitement whatso-
nite occurs? Suppose a reporter has to- ever. However, the reporter for a Bos-
cover a public dinner. It is an important ton paper did not feel that w^ay about the
event, attended by many well-known peo- matter. Here is the head to his storv
ple; but beyond the fact that the usual
speakers say the usual things, nothing hap-
pens.
this. He
Obviously, the reporter cannot say
cannot write : "There was a ban-
THINKS U. S.
quet last night at the Hotel Expensive. A
lot of people
meal. The
were present.
following spoke"
It was
— and
a good
let It
SOON TO WAR
go at that. It is n't exciting enough. So
he listens more or
two
less attentively to

of the speakers until one speech, or


one or
WITILJAPAN
even a passage from one speech, appeals to
him
story.
as furnishing
Back to the office
material for
he hurries with-
a good
Shaw Looks for Some
out waiting to hear the rest of the speak-
ers. The next morning the startled diners
Trouble After Pres-
read an exciting yarn that leads the reader
to believe that the whole evening centered
ent Conflict
about this Heard
one portion of a speech.
in relation to its context and the other
addresses, it might not sound very impres-
The lead that followed was a bit more
moderate in tone, but still disturbing
sive emphasized by a snappy lead and a
;

enough to have plenty of punch


four-bank head, it dazzles even its author.
Let me give a specific instance of this That this country may become in-
sort of thing, for it is the essence of yellow volved with Japan after the European
journalism. On February 27 the New conflict is ended was suggested last

England Iron and Hardware Association night by Leslie M. Shaw, former Sec-
retary of Treasury, in his speech be-
held its annual banquet in Boston. One
fore 200 members of the New Eng-
of the speakers was Leslie M. Shaw, who
land Iron and Hardware Association
said in the course of his remarks:
at their annual banquet at the Som-
erset last night.
Japan will also have a scat at the treaty
table. She will have won it at slight cost Last of all came Mr. Shaw's actual
to herself. She will be justified, however, words as quoted above. This is a typical
in claiming rewards. She may go further example of the yellowing process. Notice
and demand neutrality while she adjusts how intensity increases in proportion to
with the United States the supremacy of the the degree of concentration : first, the
Pacific. Whatever ensues, the Monroe Doc- speaker's statement of a carefully qualified
trine will have to be vindicated or aban- possibility; then the lead, omitting the
doned. The period of tacit acquiescence qualifications, but still retaining the con-
will have ended. jectural quality of the original statement;
AIMS BLOW
PASSES SENAIE AT PRESS.

By 43 J 33 Senate Favors the
President Given Broad Au-
Censorship.
thority to Curb Newspapers
or Individuals
Most Radical Curb on Liberty
I By WMWIr leased AVire]
WASHINGTON. April 20,— The sen- of Speech in the History
ate iTcordcd itseir today in favor of
presi'^ cenworshiip during the war. of Our Nation,
A censorship olaiiae of the admin-
istration's espionage bill, atter decid-

HU\V TWO A.NGhLES PAPERS HHADHD SAME DESPATCH. AT


SUMMARY OF THE FACTS. THE HEAD-LINES AT THE RIGHT, HOWEVER, EXPRESS A
DECIDED OPINION AS TO THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THOSE FACTS

lastly, the head, in which "become in- chemistry than to the account of a squab-
volved with" becomes "war with," and in ble over the presidency of the organiza-
which the possibility is stated as an immi- tion. Few people are passionately inter-
nent probability. Notice, too, that the ac- ested in chemistry, but everybody likes a
tual facts are not violated. Nobody can row.
prove that the lead says anything that Mr. Public interest in a subject may sud-
Shaw did not say; nor, considering the denly increase through various causes.
head, can it be proved that Mr. Shaw does Items bearing upon this topic immediately
not think that we are "soon to war with assume great newspaper importance, and
Japan." are given corresponding prominence. The
News is not merely the unknown or the result is often a totally wrong impression
unusual; it is the unusual in which the of what is actually happening. "Crime-
average person is likely to be interested. waves," for instance, are generally news-
This average person is the cause of much paper-born. Some spectacular case arouses
distortion of news values. A great many public interest; at once every crime story,
things go on in the world that are impor- down most insignificant police-court
to the
tant and deserving of record, but in which case, is up for all it is
faithfully played
the average man is not interested at all. worth. Crime is probably no more preva-
So the newspaper, realizing the importance lent than it ever was, but it is temporarily
of these things on the one hand, and know- more interesting. During the weeks that
ing the restricted interests of its average followed Germany's announcement of un-
reader on the other, contrives to make its restricted submarine warfare, the papers,
accounts of such happenings interesting by especially those of New York and Boston,
laying all the emphasis upon what few were full of detailed accounts of all sink-

dramatic features they may possess. The ings ofmerchant ships by the U-boats. A
result is an utterly false picture, albeit a torpedoed thousand-ton bark w-as good for
lively one. Thus covering a meeting of
in a front-page "streamer" head. As a matter
some scientific body a reporter will devote of fact, the total tonnage of ships sunk in
much less of his story to the announcement December, 191 6, was nearly as great as of
of a revolutionary discovery in analytical those sunk in February ; but U-boats and
425
426 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
their doings were more interesting in Feb- paper's head-line was, "MAYOR RE-
ruary. FUSES PLEA FOR CITY HELP."
Yellowing the news to make it interest- In order to strengthen a story that is

ing is reprehensible enough, but it is partly otherwise pure gossip, a copy-reader will
our own fault. The majority of us, un- often write a head that puts an accusation
fortunately, would rather have our news in the form of a question : for example,
exciting than accurate. Then, too, Ameri- "GOVERNOR TO SURRENDER TO
cans are always after results. We would SALOON INTERESTS?" The ques-
rather snatch a hasty, over-simplified view tion-mark will probably be overlooked by
of an event by reading half a dozen lines most readers, and it avoids libel suits.
.of display type than dig into the fine print Another effective way of making the
underneath to get at the real facts. The reader see a thing "in the right light" is

printing of news items that show bias, to begin a story with an editorial lead in

however, even when it is done to express which the significance of events is ex-
the newspaper editor's sincerest convic- plained. Here is a sample, from a New
tions, has no honorable justification. The York paper:
distinction between the news and editorial
Dr. T. lyenaga's almost open warning of
departments of a newspaper has been
war between Japan and the United States
drawn for many years, and by this time
for granted that ex-
was regarded today by some of those who
any reader takes it
heard his address to the World's Court
pressions of editorial opinion will be con-
League as inspired. Dr. lyenaga is regarded
fined to the editorial page. He accepts a
as the semi-official spokesman for the Jap-
news story as a statement of simple fact,
anese government.
and any display of partizanship, or even a
distortion of the relative proportions of
incidents, is a betrayal of his confidence. A lead like this is unpardonable. It is

Therein lies the public's most just griev- none of a reporter's duty to explain that
ance against American newspapers. They a speech is an "almost open warning of
do not play the game. They let us assume war." His job is to reproduce the alleged
that they are giving us the unadorned threat and let the reader judge for him-
truth ; yet sometimes they give us less than self. If the reader lacks the brains to
the whole truth and sometimes a good deal judge for himself, there is always the om-
more. niscient editorial page to enlighten him.
The commonest place for partiality to Furthermore, who were the people that re-
show is Derogatory ad-
in the head-lines. garded this warning as inspired? "Some
jectives and adverbs are the usual symp- of those who heard the address" means
"PRISONER SULLENLY RE-
toms: nothing. It might refer to the editorial
FUSES TO TALK"; "WILSON staff of the paper in question or to the
PEEVISH AT CRITICISM." An- waiters at the banquet. The last sentence
other slightly less crude method of influ- of the extract is likewise unwarranted un-
encing the reader is to present only part of less accompanied by corroborative evidence
the story in the head. Last winter, for in the form of names of people who so
example, when food prices were high in "regard" Dr. lyenaga.
New York, Maj'or Mitchel was asked if it There are other ways of getting expres-
would not be possible for the city to buy sions of editorial opinion into the news col-
food to resell to the poor at cost. He umns. One them is a judicious use of
of
replied that although he thought the city "fillers." What more effective means of
ought to do this, he had not the power to furthering your cause than to reprint a
authorize it ; that he had vainly asked the stirring editorial from a contemporary at
state legislature to grant him just such the top of one of your news columns?
power several times in the past. Report- Especially if you print it under a regular
ing the interview, one New York news- summary head-line, so that the onlv clue
Press Restrictions
ImODIFIED SPY BILL
Are Broadened in
.REACHES THE HOUSE
f ,
House Spy Bill
I
Would Now Punish Attempts to
Obtain Information with
I

Measure, as Reported, Re-


Intent to Hurt Defense.
garded as More Drastic |

WIDE POWERS TO PRESIDENT than Amended Sen- i

* ate Act
House Measure Permits Him to U9C
j

His Judgment in Defining


Forbidden Information. Washington, April 25.^Widcr pow-
j
ers to gag: the press and free speech
I than are conferred in the present draft
WASHIXGTOK, April 20.--TJie Ad- of the espionage bill pending in the
ministration Spy bill, fiomewhat softened Senate are conferred in the bill report-
in the provisions tliat apply to news- ed-to-day by the House Judiciary Com-
papers and publicity generally, wa« In- mittpe.
troduced in the House today with a
The censorship section of the House
favorable tjommittee report by Chr'r-
Webb of tlio Judiciary Committee. bill follows:
ni8(.n.

'WHEN ORACIJ'S rwo DIAMETRICAL I'i'iisi-i) i\ri:Ri>RirrATi()Ns oi- the: provision;


THE SAME BILL, AS EXPRESSED BV TWO Ni:W YORK PAPERS

to its real character is an obscure "says the and when they die they want to go to a
Bordeaux Tageblatt" tucked away near Republican heaven. To them the mere
the end of the lead. Signed articles are fact that a man is a Democrat is prima-
useful, too. A signed article is a good facie evidence that he must have fallen out
thing, but it is not news. When run un- of his cradle when 3^oung and done some-
der a news head, as it usually is, instead of thing to his brain. Naturally each con-
under a title or label head, it has the effect siders the President's act a Dastardly
of leading the reader to believe-that he is Deed, and says so to the tune of half a
reading facts rather than an expression of column. The next morning behold four
personal views. Phrases like "it is gener- important interviews! The average
ally believed" or "opinion seems to be reader, scanning the raucous head-lines,
unanimous" abound in signed stories by "PRESIDENT'S COURSE AN OUT-
correspondents. They are "generally re- RAGE, SAYS FOOZLE": "IS PRESI-
garded" to mean that the correspondent is DENT INSANE? ASKS EX-GOV.
guessing, and wants to make his guess JOBBLE"; "INCREDIBLE AND
sound like fact. CRIMINAL BUNGLING-BEASE-
Then there is the old and tried device LY"; "COL. TOOTLE CALLS PRES.
of the rubber-stamp interview. The edi- AN ABYSSINIAN PARASANG,"-is
tor of a Republican newspaper wishes to deeply impressed to find such unanimity of
express his disgust at some act of a Demo- opinion among the leaders of the nation.
cratic chief executive. The editorial Can it be that his approval of the Presi-
writers are already preparing something dent's action was hasty and ill advised ?

hot for to-morrow's issue. But one edi- The beauty of this method is that it can-
is not enough
torial ; four would be better. not easily be attacked. You cannot deny
So a reporter is despatched to interview an editor the right to publish interviews
four prominent citizens. They are Re- even when he knows beforehand what the
publicans. They were born Republicans, opinions of those interviewed will be. The
428 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
fact that the views expressed are all on festly clear," just as "the true significance
one side of the controversy might even be of this act" is of course "instantly appar-
proof that there is no other side. ent." The fact that the President's duty
Perhaps it is a bit inhuman to expect
our papers to maintain a lonelj' and awful
impartiality in the face of the incorrigible
partizanship of the rest of the world. Cer-
tainly it is no sin for a journalist to have
strong convictions; and convictions tend
disconcertingly to make for mental color-
blindness, causing upright
low where there is truly white. It is
men to see yel- FOS SCHOOL iiK
doubtful whether any newspaper run by
mere human beings could present facts ab-
solutely uncolored by prejudice and bias.
UP FOR HEAIO
Unfortunately, the newspaper is the last to
admit that it is a human institution. If
we ask too much, it is because newspapers JReal Estate Scheme Savoring
encourage our asking. Regard for a mo- of Old Regime Confronts
ment the editorial page, the one place in
the paper where personal opinion finds
Council.
legitimate where the reader
expression,
might expect to find some hint that, after FEW EXPECT IT TO PASS
all, news is handled by men and not by

forces of nature. What do we find? At


HELPING THE READER TO MAKE UP HIS MIND. THIS
the top of the first column a few names "NEWS" HEAD WOULD MAKE A GOOD OPENING
the officers of the corporation that owns PARAGRAPH FOR AN EDITORIAL
the paper; possibly the editor-in-chief. In
the last columns a few more names — the and the significance of the act are equally
signature of you and me, who have written manifest to the rival oracle up the street
to the paper. Between, a dreary waste of as something quite different never for a
unsigned editorials, thoughts plucked from moment shakes our oracle's faith in itself;
the air, apparently, written by no human for no newspaper was ever known to be
hand, dictated to the linotyper by unseen wrong in its opinions or mistaken as to its

voices, for all the evidence to the con- facts. Why much
are bodies of men so
trary.- The whole affair is as impersonal less likable than the individual men who

as a seed catalogue save for an occasional compose them ? If any American man were
"we" thrown in to give the thing a chatty as cock-sure, intolerant, boastful, ungener-
touch. Somewhere on the editorial page ous, jealous, and unsportsmanlike in his
you will find a notice which announces in utterances as the average American news-
some form or other that "No attention paper — but perhaps he, too, would be
will be paid to anonymous communica- looked up to as a "molder of public opin-
tions." I know of no American newspaper ion."
that could logically publish its own edi- The American press has a heavy re-
torials if that rule were enforced to the sponsibility during this troubled year of
letter. soul-searching and trial for America.
Read the editorials, and the oracular Now, if ever, men need to know the simple
illusion is complete. For here opinions are truth of events, need the counsel that
offered not as opinions at all, but as facts. comes of sober thought well considered.
"We," whoever he be, never opines, never Our newspapers do their work under
conjectures, never wonders. He knows. fewer restrictions than those of any other
"The President's duty" is always "mani- nation. By giving us a respite from rumor
THE VERY HUMAN NEWSPAPER 429
and guessing, by forgetting for a time the vorite newspaper is naturally and inevita-
little squabbles and bickerings of politics, bly the one that most nearly sees things
by helping ur search for the truth instead from our own point of view. Once in a
of trying to prove their case, they have a while we may grudgingly glance through
chance to prove that their freedom is \\ell the columns of the organ of the other side,
deserved. but our patience is short-lived. Unable to
We who read the papers must learn to understand how any approximately human
be a little less blind in our faith. If news- beings could hold such views as those ex-
papers might be more conscientiously writ- pressed therein, we hurl aside the opposi-
ten, they might also be more intelligently tion sheet in disgust, and return anew to
read. It is. hardly correct to say that we the Narcissus-like contemplation of the re-
read our papers at all; we skim them. flection of our own prejudices. The atti-

The American summary head-line is essen- tude of most of us toward opinion that
tially an advertisement of the news — a few differs from our own is almost exactly, "I
choice facts put in the show-case in the never drink lemonade because, if I did,
hope of inducing the reader to come inside I might get to like it, and I hate the stuff."
the story to seek particulars. It is a char- If some of our newspapers tend to lapse
acteristic institution of a people too much from strict impartiality in reporting ne-ws,
in a hurry, a people with so little intel- if their editorial reasoning is less incan-
lectual curiosity that what it consents to descent than it might be, it is largely be-
read at all must not only be interesting, cause a majority of the readers of any
but must look it. We should not find it newspaper approach it already convinced.
hard to sift from rumor and in-
truth That is what makes them its readers. And

nuendo if we would only analyze what we one is likely to grow careless in a debate
do read. By ignoring the head-lines and where there is no rebuttal. If the average
discounting the leads one can free the American would make a point of regularly
truth from the reluctant clutches of even reading not only those newspapers that he
the yellowest of journals. liked and agreed with, but also those that
We should ha\e a much clearer con- he detested, he might ruin his temper be-
ception of what goes on in the world if yond repair, but he would also emerge
we were all less unwillmg to listen to from the fray with a broadened outlook, a
what we do not want to hear. Our fa- madder and wiser man.
The Emperor of Elam
By H. G. DWIGHT
Author of "Like Michael," etc.

Illiistiations by Wilfred Jones

I returned, and saw under the sun, that sweeps. They flashed none too rhythmi-
the race is not to the swift, nor the battle cally, it must be added, at the sun, which
to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, had just risen above the Persian moun-
nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor tains. Although the slit sleeves of the
yet favour to men of skill but time and
; fourteen oarsmen, all of them young, and
chance happeneth to them all. none of them ill to look upon, flapped
— ECCLESIASTES: ix. II. decoratively enough about the handles of
the sweeps, they could not be said to pre-

THE this
first of the two boats to arrive at
unappointed rendezvous was one
sent a shipshape appearance.
their black felt caps, fantastically tall,
Neither did
and
to catch the eye even in that river of strange knotted about their heads with gay-fringed
craft. She had neither the raking bow scarfs.
nor the rising poop of the local iiiehahi, This barge had passed out of tlie Ab-i-
but a tall, in-curving beak not unlike those Diz, and was making its stately enough
of certain Mesopotamian sculptures, with way across the basin of divided waters be-
a windowed and curtained deck-house at low Bund-i-Kir, when from the mouth
the stern. She carried a short mast in the of the Ab-i-Gergcr, the easterly of two
bow. The lateen sail was furled, how- turbid threads into which the Karun above
ever, and the galley was propelled at a this point is split by a long island, there
fairly good gait by seven pairs of long shot a trim, white motor-boat. The noise

430
THE EMPEROR OF ELAM 431
that she made in the breathless summer "Shall we pass as Kinglake and the
"
sunrise, intensified and reechoed bj- the PZnglishman of the desert did in 'Eothen,'
high clay banks that here rise thirty feet asked the stranger, smiling, in a very good
or more over the water, caused the rowers English, "because they had not been intro-
of the galley to look around. Then they duced? Or will you do me the honor to
dropped their sweeps in astonishment at come on board my— ark?"
the spectacle of the small boat cutting The slim young man, whose fair hair,
swiftly toward them without any effort on smooth face, and white clothes made him
the part of the four men it contained, as the most boyish-looking of that curious
if blown by the breath of jinn. The word company, lifted his white helmet and
firengi, however, passed around the deck smiled in return.
— that word which in one form or an- "Why not?" he assented. And becom-
other describes for the people of western ing aware that his examination of this sur-
Asia the people of Europe and their cous- prising stranger, who looked down at him
ins beyond the seas. Among the friends with odd, light eyes, was too near a stare,
of the jinn, of whom, as it happened, only he added, "What on earth is your ark
two were Europeans, there also passed an made Mr. Noah?"
of,

explanatory word. But although they What she was made of, as a matter of
pronounced the strange oarsmen to be fact, was what heightened the effect of
Lars, they caused their jinnee to cease his remoteness that she produced —a hard,
panting, so struck were they by the ap- dark wood unknown to the lower Karun,
pearance of the high-beaked barge. cut in lengths of not more than two or
The two craft drifted abreast of each three feet, and calked with reeds and mud.
" "
other about midway in the sunken basin. 'Make thee an ark of gopher wood,'
As they did so, one of the Europeans in quoted the stranger; "'rooms shalt thou
the motor-boat, a stocky, black-mustached make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within
"
fellow in blue overalls, wearing in place and without with pitch.'
of the regulation helmet of that climate a "Bitumen, eh?" exclaimed the slim
greasy, black beret over one ear, lifted his joung man. "Where did you get it?"
hand from the wheel and called out the "Do you ask, you who drill oil at Mei-
Arabic salutation of the country: dan-i-Naft?"
"Peace be unto you !" ^ "As it happens, I don't," said the slim
"Andto you peace!" responded a deep young man, smiling.
voice from the doorway of the deck-house. "At any rate," continued the stranger,
It was evident that the utterer of this after a scarcely perceptible pause, "let me
friendly antiphon was not a Lur. Fairer, welcome vou on board the ark." And
taller, stouter, and older than his wild- when the unseen jinnee had made it possi-
looking crew, he was also better dressed, ble for the slim 5'oung man to set foot
in a girdled robe of gray silk,with a on deck of the barge, the stranger
the
striped-silk scarf covering his hair and the added, with a bow, "Magin is my name,
back of his neck in the manner of the — from Brazil."
Arabs. A
dark beard made his If the slim young man did not
appearance more imposing, while stare again, he at least had time
two scars across his left cheek, to make out that the oddity of
emerging from the beard, sug- his host's light eyes lay not so
gested or added to something much in the fact of their fail-
in him which might on occasion ing to be distinctly brown,
become formidable. As it was. gra\ , or green as that they had
he stepped forward with a a translucent look.
bow, and addressed a slim Then he responded
young man who sat in briefly, holding out
the stern of the motor-boat. ^ his hand
432 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
"Matthews. But is n't this a long way time for a year or two, and then something
from Rio de Janeiro?" happens to his mainspring, and he gets the
"Well," returned the other, "it 's not sack. But he never seems to go home he ;

so near London. But come in and have always moves on to some place where it 's
something, won't you?" And he held hotter and dirtier. You should hear his
aside the reed portiere that screened the stories ; he 's an amusing devil."
door of the deck-house. "And perhaps not so d-ifferent from the
"My you do know how to do
word ! rest of us," threw out Magin. "What
for yourself !" exclaimed Matthews. His flea bites us? Why in the world should
eye took in the Kerman embroidery on you come here, courting destruction in a
the table in the middle of the small saloon, cockle-shell that may at any minute split
the gazelle skins and silky Shiraz rugs cov- on a rock and spill you to the sharks, when
ering the two divans at the sides, the fine you might be punting some pretty girl up
Sumak carpet on the floor, and the lion- the back-waters of the Thames? Why do
pelt in front of an inner door. "By I float around in this unseaworthy old
Jove!" he* exclaimed again, "that 's a ark of reeds and bulrushes, like an elderly
!"
beauty Moses in search of a promised land, who
"Ha!" laughed the Brazilian, "the Eng- should be sitting at home in the slippers
lishman spies his lion first!" of middle age? What is it? A sunstroke?
"Where did you find him?" asked Mat- This is hardly the land where Goethe's
thews, going around the table for a better Citronen bliihen."
look. "They 're getting few and far be- "Damned if I know," said Matthews,
tween around here, they say." laughinglv. "I fancy we like a bit of a
"Oh, they still turn up," answered the lark."
Brazilian, it seemed to Matthews, not too The Brazilian laughed, too.
definitely. Before he could pursue the "A bit of a lark!" he echoed.
question further, Magin clapped his hands. Just then the silent Lur reappeared
Instantly there appeared at the outer door with a tray.
a bare-footed Lur whose extraordinary "I !" protested Matthews, "whisk}''

head-dress looked to Matthews even taller and soda at five o'clock in the morning in
and more pontifical than those of his fel- this weather!"
low-countrymen at the oars. The Lur, "Why not?" demanded Magin. "Are
his hands crossed on his girdle, received n't you an Englishman? You must n't
a rapid order, and vanished as silently as shake the pious belief in which I was
he came. brought up, that you are all weaned with
"I wish I knew the lingo like that," Scotch. Say when. It is n't every day
commented Matthews. that I have the pleasure of so fortunate an
Magin waved a deprecatory hand. encounter." Rising, he lifted his glass,
"One picks up soon enough. Besides,
it bowed, and said, "Here 's to a bit of lark,
what 's the use, with a man like yours? Mr. Matthews!"
Who is he, by the way? He does n't look The younger man rose to it, but in-
English." wardly he began to feel a little irked.
"Who? Gaston? He is n't. He 's "By the way," he asked, taking a Turk-
French, and he does n't know too much ish cigarette from the box on the tray,
of the lingo ; but the blighter could get on "can you tell me anything about the Ab-
anywhere. He 's been all over the place i-Diz? I dare say you must know some-
— Algiers, Egypt, Bagdad. He 's been thing about it, since your men look as if
chauffeur to more nabobs in turbans than they came from up that way. Is there a

you can count. He 's a topping mechanic, decent channel as far as Dizful ?"
too. The wheel has n't been invented that "Ah," uttered Magin, slowly, "is that
the beggar can't make go round. The only where you are going?" He considered the
trouble he has is with his own. He keeps question and his guest with a flicker in his
THE EMPEROR OF ELAM 433
lighted eyes, "Well, decent is claimed, 'More of the spoils
a relative word, you know. of Susa ?"
However, wonders can be ac- "Ho! my trunks? I had
complished with a stout rope them made up the river, like
and a gang of natives even be- the rest. But I wonder what
yond Dizful. But here you would interest you in my
see me and my ark still whole, museum. Let 's see." He
after a night journey, too. bent over one of the chests,
The worst thing is the sun. unlocked it, rummaged under
You see, I am more careful of the cover, and brought out a
iny skin than you. As for the broad metal circlet, which he
shoals, the rapids, the sharks, handed to Matthews. "How
the lions, the nomads who would that do for a crown,
pop you from the bank, et
at eh?"
cetera, you are an Englishman. The joung man took it over
Do you take an interest in to the port-hole. The metal,
antiques?" he broke off he then saw, was a soft,
abruptly. antique gold, wrought into a
"Why, interest is a relative decoration of delicate spindles,
word, too, I imagine." with a border of filigree. 'The
"Quite so," agreed the Bra- thing was beautiful in itself

zilian. "I have rather a and astonishingly heavy; but


mania for that sort of thing, what it chiefly did for Mat-
myself. Wait; let me show thews was to sharpen the sense
}^ou." He went into the inner of strangeness, of remoteness,
cabin. When he came back which this bizarre galley, come
he held up an alabaster cup. from unknown waters, had
"A Greek kylix," he cried — brought into the familiar,
"pure Greek! What an out- muddy Karun.
line, eh ? This is what keeps "As a matter of fact," went
me from putting on my slip- on the Brazilian, "it 's an
pers. have no doubt Alex-
I anklet. But can you make it
ander left it behind him. Per- out? Those spindles are
haps Hephaestion drank out Persian, while the filigree is

of it, or Nearchus, to celebrate more Byzantine than any-


his return from India. The thing else. You find funny
people who have come and gone through things up there, in caves

this country of Elam ! I have discovered He tossed a vague hand, into which
— but come in here." He pushed wider Matthews put the anklet, saying:
open the door of the inner cabin. "Take it before I steal it."
Matthews stepped into what was evi- "Keep it, won't you?" said Magin.
dently a state-room. A broad bunk filled "Oh, thanks; but I could hardly do
one side of it, near the head of which the that," Matthews replied.
visitor could not help remarking a second "Why not?" protested Magin. "As a
interior door. But his eye was chieHy souvenir of a pleasant meeting, I have a
struck by two, three, no, four, chests, ton of them," He waved his hand at the
which took up more of the narrow cabin chests,
than could be convenient for its occupant. "No, reall\-; thanks,*" persisted the
They seemed to be made of the same mys- young man. "And I 'm afraid we must
terious, dark wood as the "ark," clamped be getting on. I don't know the river,
with copper. you see, and I 'd like to reach Dizful be-
"My word! those are n't bad!" he ex- fore dark."
434 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
The Brazilian studied him a moment. it happened, did his decorative boatmen,
"As you say," he finally conceded; "but who had not expected to row twenty-five
you will at least have another drink before miles up-stream at a time when most peo-
you go?" ple in that climate seek the relief of their
"No, not even that; thanks," said Mat- serdahs. But when Brazilians command
thews. "We really must be off. But it 's even a Lur may obey. Before nightfall
been very decent of you.'.' the barge had reached the point where
He felt Both awkward and amused as navigation ends. There Magin sent his
he backed out to the deck, followed by his majordomo ashore to procure mounts,
imposing host. At sight of the two the and at sunset the two of them, followed
crew scattered to their oars. They had by a horse-boy, rode northward six or
been leaning over the side, absorbed in seven miles till the city of Shuster rose
contemplation of the white jinn-boat. dark above them in the summer evening,,
Matthews saw his Persian servant hand on its rock, which cleaves the Karun in
up to Magin's butler a tray of tea-glasses, two.
among which stood a bottle In honor of The bazaar by which they entered the
that bottle Gaston himself stood up and town was deserted at that hour save by
took off his greasy cap. dogs that set up a terrific barking at the
"A thousand Monsieur," he
thanks, sight of strangers. Here the horse-boy
said. "I have tasted nothing so good since lighted a vast white-linen lantern, which
I left France." he proceeded to carry in front of the two
"In that case, my friend," rejoined riders. He seemed to know where he was
Magin French as good as his English,
in going, for he led the way without a pause
"it is time you returned." And he through long, blank, silent streets of in-
abounded in amiable speeches and cere- describable filth and smells. The lamp-
monious bows until the last au revoir. less gloom was deepened by jutting bal-
"Au plaisir!" shouted back Gaston, conies and by innumerable hadg'irs, or air
having invoked his jinnee. Then, after a chimneys, that cut out a strange, black
last look at the barge, he asked over his fretwork against amazing stars. At last
shoulder: "Who is this extraordinary the three stopped in front of a gate in the
type. Monsieur Guy? A species of an neighborhood of the citadel. This was
Arab who speaks French and English and not one of the gateways that separate the
who voyages in a galley from a museum!" different quarters of Shuster, but a door
"A Brazilian, he says," imparted in a wall, recessed in a tall arch, and or-

Monsieur Guy, whose surname was be- namented with an extraordinary variety
yond Gaston's Gallic tongue. of iron clamps, knobs, locks, and knockers.
"Ah, the uncle of America! That un- Of one of the latter the horse-boy made
derstands itself. He sent me out a cognac, repeated use until some one shouted from
too. And did he present you to his dame inside. The horse-boy shouted back, and
de compagnief She put her head out of presently his lantern caught a glitter of
a port-hole to look at our boat. A Lur, two eyes at a slit. The eyes belonged to
like the others, but with a pair of blister- a cautious doorkeeper, who, after satisfy-
ing black eyes, and a jewel in her nose." ing himself that the visitors were not ene-
"It takes you, Gaston," said Guy Mat- mies, admitted the Brazilian and the Lur
thews, "to discover a dame of company." Then, hav-
into a vaulted brick vestibule.
ing looked to his wards and bolts, he
After the white motor-boat had disap- lighted Magin through a corridor, which
peared in the glitter of the Ab-i-Diz, turned into a low, tunnel-like passage.
Senhor Magin, not unlike other fallible This led them into a sort of cloister,
human beings when released from the ne- where a covered ambulatory inclosed a
cessity of keeping up a pitch, appeared to dark pool of stars; thence another passage
lose something of his gracious humor. So, brought them out into a great open court.
THE E!VIPEROR OF ELAM 435

Here an invisible jet of. water made an il- yellow hair, blue eyes, constrained manner,
lusion of coolness in another larger pool, everything to sample. He called himself
overlooked by a portico of tall, slim pil- Mark or Matthew.
Rather their apostolic
lars. Between them Magin caught the air, too, except that he was in the oil com-

glow of a cigar. pany's motor-boat, though he gave me to


"Good evening, Ganz," his bass voice understand that he was not in the oil
called from the court, company."
"Heaven! is that you?" replied the "Quite so."
smoker of the cigar. "What are you do- "I saw for myself that he knows noth-
ing here, in God's name? I imagined you ing about archipology. Who is he?
at Mohammerah by this time, or even Lynch? Bank? Telegraph?"
in the gulf." This remark, it may not be "He 's not Lynch and he 's not bank
irrelevant to was
say, in German, as and he 's not telegraph. Neither is he
spoken in the trim town of Zurich. consul or even that famous railroad. He 's

"And so I should have been," replied — English." And Ganz let out a thin
the polyglot Magin in the same language, chuckle at the success of his own charac-
mounting the steps of the portico and terization.
shaking his friend's hand, "but for — all "Ah, so?" exclaimed Magin, elabo-
sorts of things. If we ran aground once. rately. "I hear, by the way, that that fa-
we ran aground three thousand times. I mous railroad marching so fast.
is not
begin to wonder if we shall get through The Lurs But sometimes
don't like it.

the reefs at Ahwaz with all the rubbish I even the English," he added, "have rea-
have on board." sons for doing what they do. This one,
"Ah, bah You can manage, going down.
! at any rate, seemed more inclined to ask
But why do you waste your time in Shus- questions than to answer them. I confess

ter, with all that is going on in Europe?" I don't know whether it was because he

"H'm!" grunted Magin. "What is go- had nothing to say or whether he pre-
ing on in Europe? A great family is ferred not to say it. Is he perhaps a son
wearing well-cut mourning, and a small of papa, making the grand tour?"
family is beginning to turn green. How "More or less. Papa gave him no great
does that affect two quiet nomads in Elam, letter of credit, though. He came out to
especially when one of them is a Swiss visit some of the oil people, and he 's been
and one a Brazilian?" He laughed, and here long enough to learn quite a lot of
lighted a cigar the other offered him. "I\Iy Persian."
dear Ganz, it is an enigma tq me how a man "Indeed! So he starts this morning, I

who can listen to such a fountain and ad- take it, from Sheleilieh. But why the
mire such stars can perpetually sigh after devil does he go to Dizful by himself?"
the absurdities of Europe. "And why the devil
Which reminds me that should n't he? He 's out
I met an Englishman here and he wants to see
this morning." the sights, such as they
"Well, what of that? are. So he 's going to
Are Englishmen so look at the ruins of Susa
rare?" and at your wonderful
"Alas! though I
no, unspoiled Dizful. Then,
notice, my good Ganz, the twenty-first, you
that you do your best to know, is the coronation.
thin them out. This So I gave him a letter to
specimen was too typical the Father of SxVords,
for one to be able to who—"
describe him. Younger "Thunder and light-
than usual, possibly ning!" Magin's heavy
436 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
voice resounded in the portico very like — the Father of I Swords has asked me to

a bellow."You, Ganz, sent this man run up to Bala Bala before I leave."
to the Father of Swords? He might be "Speaking of the Father of Swords,"
one of those lieutenants from India who said the Swiss, "did you give him an or-
go smelling around in their holidays so der?"
pink and innocent." "I gave him an order. Did n't you pay
"What is that to me?" demanded the it?"

Swiss, raising his own voice. "Or to you "I thought twice about it; for unless
M'the After all, Senhor Magin, you have struck oil up in that country of
the Emperor of Elam?" yours where nobody goes, or gold

The Brazilian laughed. "Mr. Adolf Ganz," remarked the Bra-
"Not yet. But for a man who perpetu- zilian, with some pointedness, "all I ask of

ally sighs afterEurope, Herr Ganz, and you is to respect my signature and to keep
for a Swiss of the north, you strike me as closed that many-tongued mouth of yours.
betraying a singular lack of sensitiveness I sometimes fear that in you the banker is

to certain larger interests of your race. inclined to exchange confidences with the
However, what concerns me is that you chemist, or even with the son of papa
should have informed this young man that who cashes a check. Eh ? Never mind,
Dizful is still 'unspoiled.' If Dizful is though, Adolf. As a matter of fact, I
unspoiled, he might spoil it." have a high opinion of your discretion,
"Bah! He likes to play tennis and so high that when I found the Imperial
shoot. You know these English boys." Bank of Elam I shall put you in charge of
Magin considered those English boys it. And you did me a real service by send-
in silence for a moment. ing that motor-boat across my bow this
"Yes, I know them. This one told me morning; for in it I discovered just the
he liked a bit of a lark. I know myself chauffeur I have been looking for. I am
what a lark it is to navigate the Ab-i-Diz getting tired of my galley, you know. You
at the end of July. But what is most curi- will see something startling when I come
ous about these English boys is that when back."
they go out for a bit of a lark they come "But," Ganz asked after a moment, "do
home with Egypt or India in their pocket. you really expect to come back?"
Have you noticed that, Ganz? That 's "But what else should I do? End my
their idea of a bit of a lark. And with days sneezing and sniffling by some polite
it all they are still children. What can lake of Zurich, like you, my poor Ganz,
one do with such people? Well, you will when you find in your hand the magic key
perhaps make me a little annoyance, Mr. that might unlock for you any door in the
Adolf Ganz, by sending your English boy world ? That, for example, is not my idea
up to Dizful to have a bit of a lark. How- of a lark, as your son of papa would say.
ever, he '11 either give himself a sunstroke Men are astounding animals, I admit; but

or get himself bitten in two by a shark. I never could live Europe, where one
in

He asked me about the channel, and I had can't turn around without stepping on
an inspiration. I told him he would have some one else's toes. I want room I want ;

no trouble. So he '11 go full speed, and air; I want light. And for a collector,
we shall see what we shall see. Do you you know, America is, after all, a little
sell coffins, Mr. Ganz, in addition to all bare. While here—"
your other valuable merchandise?" "O God!" cried Adolf Ganz out of his

"Naturally, Mr. Magin," replied the dark Persian portico.


Swiss. "But you have n't explained to me
yet wliy you give me the pain of saying As Gaston very truly observed, there are
good-by to you a second time." moments Persia when even the most
in

"Partly, Mr. Ganz, because I am tired hardened chauffeur is capable of an emo-


of sleeping in an oven, and partly because tion, and an unusual number of such
THE EMPEROR OF ELAM 437
moments enlivened Gaston and his
for he himself, with his servant Abbas and the
companions their cruise up the Ab-i-Diz. charvodar of whom they hired horses, set
Indeed, Matthews asked himself more out at nightfall for the mountain citadel
than once why he had chosen so doubtful of Bala Bala. For there the great Salman
a road to Dizful when he might much Taki Khan, otherwise known as the Fa-
more easily have ridden there and at night. ther of Swords, chieftain of the lower
It certainly was not beautiful, that river Lurs, was to celebrate, as became a re-
of brass zigzagging out of sight of its doubtable vassal of a remote and youthful
empty hinterland. V^ery rarely did any- suzerain, the coronation of Ahmed Shall
thing so visible as a palm lift itself against Kajar,
the blinding Persian blue. Konar-trees It was morning again when, after a last
were commoner, their dense,round masses scramble up a trough of rocks and gravel
sometimes shading a whitewashed tomb or too steep for riding, the small cavalcade
a black tent. Once or twice, at sight of came to the edge of a village of black
the motor-boat, a native canoe took refuge tents pitched in a grassy hollow between
at the mouth of one of the gullies that two heights. The nearer and lower was a
scarred the bank like sun-cracks.
Gener- detached cone of rock crowned by a rude
ally, however, there was nothing to be castle. The other peak, less precipitous,
seen between the water and the sky but afforded foothold for scattered scrub-oaks
two yellow walls of clay, topped by endless and for a host of slowly moving sheep and
thickets of tamarisk and scrub. ]\Iatthew^s goats. Below them the plateau looked
wondered, disappointed, whether a jungle down on two sides into two converging
looked like that, and if some black-maned valleys. And the clear air was full of the
lion walked more softly in it or snoozed noise of a brook that cascaded between the
less soundly, hearing the pant of the un- scrub-oaks of the higher mountain, raced
known creature in the river. But there past the tents, and plunged out of sight in
was no lack of more immediate lions in the narrower gorge.
the path. The sun, for one thing, as the Here an old Lur, putting his two hands
Brazilian had predicted, proved a torment to the edge of his black cap, saluted Guy
against which double awnings faced with Matthews in thename of the Father of
green were of small avail. Then the Swords. The Lur then led the way to a
treacheries of a crooked and constantly trail that zigzagged up the lower part of
shallowing channel needed all the atten- the rocky cone. He explained the quan-
tion the travelers could spare. And the tity of loose boulders obstructing the path
rapids of Kaleh Bunder, where a rocky by saying that they had been left there to
island flanked by two reefs threatened to roll down on whoever should visit the
bar any farther progress, afforded the live- Father of Swords wnthout an invitation.
liest moments of their day. That such an enterprise would not be too
The
evening of that day, nevertheless, simple became more evident when the trail
found our sight-seer smoking cigarettes in turned into a cave, from which a succes-
Shir Ali Khan's garden at Dizful and lis- sion of courts and corridors and stairs
tening to the camel-bells that jingled from brought them into what was evidently a
the direction of certain tall, black, pointed room of state. It contained no furniture,
arches straddling the dark river. When to be sure, save for the handsome rugs on
Matthews looked at those arches by sun- the floor. The room did not look bare,
light, and at the queer, old, flat-topped, however, for its lines were broken by a
yellow town peering through them, he re- big, pillared alcove and by a continuous
gretted that he had made up his mind to succession of niches. Between and above
continue his journey so soon. However, the niches the walls were decorated with
he was coming back. So he packed off plaster reliefs of arabesques and flowers.
Gaston and the Bakhtiyari to Sheleilieh. Matthews wondered if those black hats
where they and their motor belonged, and were capable of that. But what chiefly
438 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
caught his eye was the terrace opening out to what sorrow had led one so young to
of the room, and the stupendous view. fold the carpet of enjoyment and to wan-
The terrace hung over a green chasm der so far from his parents.
where the two converging gorges met at Matthews, disdaining the promptings of
the foot of the crag of Bala Bala. Mat- Abbas, who stood apart like a statue of
thews looked down as from the prow of a obsequiousness, each hand stuck into the
ship into the tumbled country below him, sleeve of the other, responded as best he
through which a river flashed sinuously might. In the meantime tea and candies
toward the far-away haze of the plains. were served by a black hat on bended
The sound of water filling the still, clear knee, who also produced a pair of ornate
air, the brilliance of the morning light, the pipes. The Father of Swords marveled
wildness and remoteness of that mountain that Matthews should abandon the de-
aery, so different from anything he had lights of Shuster in order to witness his
yet seen, added a new strangeness to the poor celebrations of the morrow in honor
impressions of which the young man had of the coronation. And had he felt no
been having many. fear of robbers during his long night ride
"What a pity to spoil it with a rail- from Dizful? After this he asked if the
road!" he could not help thinking as he young firengi was of the company of those
leaned over the parapet of the terrace. who dug for the poisoned water of Bakhti-
"Sahib!" suddenly whispered Abbas be- yari-land, or whether perchance he was
hind him. of the people of the chain.
Matthews turned, and saw in the door- These figures of speech would have been
way of the terrace a personage who could too dark for Matthews ifAbbas had not
be none other than his host. In place of hinted something about oil rigs. He ac-
the kola of his people this personage wore cordingly confessed that he had nothing
a great white turban, touched with gold. to do with either of the two enterprises.
The loose, blue aba enveloping his large The Father of Swords then expatiated on
figure was also embroidered in gold. Not those who caused the Lurs to seize the
the least striking detail of his appearance, hand of amazement with the teeth of cha-
however, was his beard, which had a pro- grin by dragging through their valleys a
nounced tendency toward scarlet. His long chain, as if they meant to take pris-
nails were likewise reddened with henna, oners. These unwelcome firengis were
reminding Matthews that the hands be- also to be known by certain intriguing in-
longing to the nails were rumored to bear ventions on three legs into which they
even more sinister stains. The bottom- would gaze by the hour. Were they war-
less, black eyes peering out from under the riors threatening devastation, or were
white turban lent surprising credibility to they magicians spying into the future and
such rumors. But there was no lack of laying a spell upon the people of Luristan ?
graciousness in the gestures with which Their own account of themselves the Fa-
those famous hands saluted the visitor and ther of Swords found far from satisfac-
pointed him to a seat of honor on the rug tory, claiming, as they did, that they pro-
beside the Father of Swords. The Fa- posed to build a road of iron whereby it

ther of Swords furthermore pronounced would be possible for a man to go from


his heart uplifted to receive a friend of Dizful to Khoramabad in a day. In one
Ganz Sahib, that prince among the mer- day ! For the rest, what business had the
chants of Shuster. Yet he did not hesitate people of Dizful, too many of whom were
to express a certain surprise at discovering Arabs, in Khoramabad, a city of Lurs?
in the friend of the prince among the mer- Let the men of Dizful remain in Dizful,
chants of Shuster one still in the flower of and those of Khoramabad continue where
youth, who same time exhibited the
at the they were born. As for him, his white
features of good fortune and the linea- mules needed no road of iron to carry him
ments of prudence. And he inquired as about his affairs.
440 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Matthews, recalling his own thoughts interested ears indeed. The chest, how-
as he leaned over the parapet of the ter- ever,proved to be nothing at all like the
race, spoke consolingly to the Father of one out of which the Brazilian had taken
Swords concerning the people of the chain. his gold anklet. It was small and painted

The Father of Swords listened to him, green, though handsomely enough pro-
drawing meditatively at his water-pipe. vided with triple locks of beaten iron.
He thereupon inquired if Matthews was The Father of Swords unlocked them de-
acquainted with another friend of the liberately, withdrew from an inner com-
prince among the merchants of Shuster, partment a round tin case, and from that
himself a firengi by birth, though recently a roll of parchment, which he pressed to
persuaded of the truths of Islam and not ; his lips with great solemnity. He then
good omen, in the bloom
like this visitor of handed it to Matthews.
of youth, but bearded and hardened in He was one to take things as they came
battles, bearing the scars of them on his and not to require, even east of Suez, the
face. spice of romance with his daily bread. But
Matthews began to go over in his mind it was not every day that he squatted on

the short Europeans he had met on


list of the same rug with a scarlet-bearded old
the Karun, till he suddenly bethought him cutthroat of a mountain chief. So it was
of that extraordinary barge he had en- that his more or less casual lark visibly
countered—could it be only a couple of took on a new and curious color as he un-
days ago? rolled a gaudy emblazonment of eagles at
"Magin Sahib?" he asked. "I know the top of the parchment for below the ;

him, if he is the one who travels in the eagle he came upon what he darkly made
river in a mehala not like other tnehalas. out to be a species of treaty, inscribed
rowed by Lurs." neither in the Arabic nor in the Roman,
" 'That is a musk which discloses itself but in the German character, between the
by its scent, and not what the perfumers Father of Swords and a more notorious
impose upon us,' " quoted the Father of war And below that was signed,
lord.
Swords. "This man;" he continued, "our sealed, and imposingly paraphed the sig-
friend and the friend of our friend, nature of one Julius Magin. This was in-
warned me that they of the chain are sons deed a novel aspect for a Brazilian, how-
of oppression, destined to bring sorrow to ever versatile, to reveal.
the Lurs. Surely my soul is tightened, Gu3' Matthews permitted himself a
not knowing whom I may believe." smile.
"Rum bounder!" said Matthews to "You do not kiss it?" observed the Fa-
himself. He
began to find more in this ther of Swords, as it were with a shade of
interview than he had expected. He was fatherly admonition.
tickled at his host's flowery forms of "In my country —" Matthews began.
speech, and after all rather sympathized "But it is, may I be your sacrifice," in-
with the suspicious old ruffian. Yet it was terrupted the Father of Swords, "a letter
not for him to fail in loyalty toward the from the shah of the shahs of the firen-
"people of the chain." Several of them he g'ls!" It was evident that he was both
knew, as it happened, and they had de- impressed and certain of impressing his
lighted him with their wild yarns of sur- hearer. "He has promised eternal peace
veying in Luristan. So he managed no to me and to my people."
more than to achieve an appearance of The Englishman in Matthews per-
slightly offended dignity. mitted him a second smile.
Considering which out of those opaque "The FatherSwords," he said,
of
eyes, the Father of Swords clapped those "speaks a word which
do not understand.
I

famous hands and commanded a respon- I am a firengi, but I have never heard of a

him his
sive black-hatted servant to bring shah of the shahs of the firengis. In Islam
new chest. At that Matthews pricked up are there not many who rule? And among
THE EMPEROR OF ELAM 441
them what fircngi can say who is the great- not peniu't the house of Islam to be trou-
est? So also is it in Firengistan. As for bled. From many indeed we have
this paper, it is written in the tongue of a heard it."

king smaller than the one whose subject I "Ah," exclaimed Matthews, "now I un-
am, whose crown has been worn by few fa- derstand why you have not kept your
thers. But the name at the bottom of the promises to the people of the chain!" He
paper is not his It is not even a name rubbed his thumb against his forefinger in
known to the fir-engis when they speak the gesture of the East that signifies the
among themselves of the great of their payment of money.
lands. Where did you see him?" "Why not?" demanded the Father of
The Father of Swords stroked his scar- Swords, angrily. "The duty of a king is

let beard, and looked at his young visitor munificence, or why should there be away
with more of a gleam in the dull black of to pass through my mountains? Has it
his eyes than Matthews had hitherto ever been said of theLur that he stepped
noticed. back before a stranger ? That is for the
"Truly is it said, 'Fix not thy heart on shah in Teheran, who has become the
what is transitory, for the Tigris will con- bondman of the Russian. Let the people
tinue to flow through Bagdad after the of the chain learn that my neck does not
race of califs is extinct.' You make it know how bow.to And what guest
are
clear to me that you are of the people of you to sprmkle my sore with the salt of
the chain." harsh words? A boy w^ho comes here no
"If I were of the people of the chain," one knows why, on hired horses, with only
!"
protested Matthews, "there is no reason one follower to attend him
why I should hide it. The people of the Matthews flushed.
chain do not steal secretly through the "Salman Taki Khan," he retorted, "it
valleys of Pusht-i-Kuh, telling the Lurs is true that I come to you humbly, having
lies and giving them papers in the night. no beard, and your beard is already white,
I am not one of the people of the chain, and you can call out thirty thousand men
but the king of the people of the chain is to follow you. Yet a piece of gold will
also my king. And he is a great king, lord make you believe a lie And know that
!

of many lands and many seas, who has no whether I give you back this paper to put
need of secret messengers, hostlers and into your chest, or whether I spit on it
scullions of whom no one has heard, to and tear it in pieces and throw it to the
persuade strangers of his greatness." Vv'ind of that valley, it is one!"
"Your words do not persuade me," Towhich the Father of Swords made
cried the Father of Swords. "A wise man emphatic enough rejoinder by snatching
IS like a jar in the house of the apothecary, the parchment away, rising to his feet, and
silent, but full of virtues. If the king striding out of the room without a word
who sent me this letter has such hostlers
and such scullions, how great must he his The festivities in honor of the shah's
khans and vizirs! And why do the Turks coronation took place at Bala Bala with
trust him ? Why do the other firengis due solemnity. Among the black tents
allow his ships in Bushir and Basra? Or there was much plucking of plaintive
why do not the people of the chain better strings, there was more stuflRng of mutton
prove the character of their lord ? But and pihiu. and after dark many little rock-
the hand of liberality is stronger than the ets, improvised out of gunpowder and
arm of power. This king against whom baked clay, traced brief arabesques of gold
you speak heard me draw the sigh of af- against the black of the underlying gorges.
fliction from the bosom of uncertainty The castle celebrated in the same simple
He deigned to regard me with the eye of way. The stuffing, to be sure, was more
patronage, sending me good words and prolonged and recondite, while dancers
promises of peace and friendship. He will imported from Dizful swayed and snapped
442 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
their fingers, singing for the pleasure of not. At all events, Matthews soon made
the Father of Swords. another discovery as to the possibilities of

The eyes of the Father of Swords glim- Dizful. An evening or two


later, as he

mered perceptibly when they rested on the loitered on the bridge watching a string
unannounced visitor for whom he fished of loaded camels, a respectable-looking old
out, with his own hennaed fingers, the gentleman in a black aba addressed him in
fattest morsels of mutton and the juiciest French. French in Dizful! And it ap-
sweets, a personage not unknown to this peared that this remarkable Elamite was
record, whether as Senhor Magin of Bra- a Jew who had picked up in Bagdad the
zil or as the emissary of the shah of the idiom of Paris! He went on to describe
shahs of Firengistan. For not only had himself as the "agent" of a distinguished
he felt impelled to say good-by a second foreign resident who, the linguistic old
time to his friend Adolf Ganz, prince gentleman gave Matthews to understand,
among the merchants of Shuster; he had languished for a sight of the new-comer,
even postponed his voyage down the Ka- and was unable to understand why he had
run long enough to make one more jour- not already been favored with a call. His
ney overland to Bala Bala. And he heard pain was the deeper because the new-comer
there, not without interest, the story of had recently enjoyed the hospitality of
the short visit and the sudden flight of the this distinguished foreign resident on a lit-

young Englishman he had accidentally tle \acht on the river.


met on the river. "The unmitigated bounder!" exclaimed
As for Matthews, he celebrated the Matthews, unable to deliver himself of
coronation at Dizful in bed. And by the that sentiment and turning
in French,
time he had slept ofi his fag, Bala Bala upon the stupefied old gentleman a rude
and the Father of Swords and the green Anglo-Saxon back. "He has cheek enough
chest and the ingenious Magin looked to for anything."
him more than ever like figures of myth. He had enough, at any rate, to knock
He was too little of the timber out of the next afternoon, unannounced, on Mat-
which journalists, romancers, or diplomats thevvs's gate, to follow Matthews's ser-
are made to take them very seriously. So vant into the house without waiting to
he remained in Dizful. hear whether Matthews would receive
The moon of those Arabian nights was him, to present himself at the door of the
nearing its first quarter when Dizful dim underground serdah where Matthews
treated Matthews to a fresh discovery. It lounged in his pajamas till it should be
contained. Abbas informed him with some cool enough to go out, to make Matthews
mystery after one of his prolonged visits the most ceremonious of bows, and to give
to the bazaar, another firengi. This firen- that young man a half-amused, half-an-
gi's servant, moreover, had given Abbas noyed consciousness of being put at his
explicit directions as to the whereabouts case. The advantage of position, Mat-
of the firengi's house, in order that Abbas thews had good reason to feel, was with
might give due warning, as is the custom him. He knew more about the bounder
of the country, of a call from Matthews. than the bounder thought, and it was not
Whereat Matthews made the surprising he who had knocked at the bounder's gate.
announcement that he had not come to What annoyed him, what amused him,
Dizful to call on firengis. The chief what despite himself impressed him, was
charm of Dizful for him, as a matter of to see how the bounder ignored advan-
fact, was that he there felt himself free tages of position. Matthews had forgot-
of the social obligations under which he ten, too, what an imposing person Magin
had lain rather longer than he liked. But really was. And measuring his tall fig-

if Abbas was able to resign himself to this ure, listening to his deep voice, looking at
new proof of the eccentricity of his mas- his light eyes and his two sinister scars
ter, the unknown firengi apparently was and the big shaved dome of a head which
THE EMPEROR OF ELAM 443
lie this time uncovered, the young man you ever catch, perhaps, some echo of the
wondered whether there might be some- trickle?"
thing more than fantastic about this navi- "That 's not my idea of a lark," said
gator of strange waters. It was rather Matthews, and laughed.
odd, at all events, how he kept bobbing up, Magin regarded him a moment.
and what a power he had of quickening "Well," he conceded, "Europe does
— what? A school-boyish sense of the ro- take on a new perspective from the point
mantic or mere vulgar curiosity? For he of view of Susa. I see you are a philoso-

suddenly found himself aware that what pher, sitting amidst the ruins of empires
he knew about his visitor was less than and wisely preferring the trickle of your
what he desired to know. fountain to the trickle of the telegraph.
The visitor made no haste, however, to If Austria falls to pieces, if Serbia reaches
volunteer any information. Nor did he the Adriatic, what is that to us? Noth-
make of Matthews any but the most per- ing but a story that in Elam has been told
functory inquiries. too often to have any novelty, eh ?"
"And
Monsieur What was his — "Why," asked Matthews, quickly, "is
name? Your Frenchman?" he continued. that on already?"
"Gaston. He 's not my Frenchman, Magin looked at him again a moment
though," replied Matthews. "He went before answering:
back long ago." "Not yet. But why," he added, "do
"Oh," uttered Magin. He declined the you say already?"
refreshments which Abbas at that point His voice had a curious rumble in the
produced, even to the cigarette Matthews dim stone room. Matthews wondered
offered him. He merely glanced at the whether it was because the acoustic prop-
make. Then he examined, with a flicker erties of a serdab in Dizful differ from
of amusement in his eyes, the bare white- those of a galley on the Karun, or whether
washed room. A runnel of water trickled there really was something new about him.
across it in a stone channel that widened "Why, it 's bound to come sooner or
in the middle into a shallow pool. "A bit later, is n't it? If it 's true that all the
of a lark, eh? remember I that mot of way from Nish Ragusa those chaps
to
jours, Mr. Matthews. To sit steaming, speak the same language and belong to the
or perhaps I should say dreaming, in a same race, one can hardly blame them for
sort of Turkish bath in the bottom of wanting to do what the Italians and the
Elam while over there in Europe
— Germans have already done. And, as a
"Is there anything new?" asked Mat- philosopher sitting amidst the ruins of em-
thews, recognizing his caller's habit of pires, would n't you say yourself that Aus-
finishing a sentence with a gesture. tria has bitten off rather more than she
"Archdukes and that sort of thing don't can chew ?"
seem to matter much in Dizful. I have "Very likely I should." Magin took
even lost track of the date." a cigar out of his pocket, snipped off the
"I would not have thought an English- end with a patent cutter, lighted it, and
man so dolce far niente," said Magin. regarded the smoke with a growing look
"It perhaps because we archaeologists
is of amusement. "But," he went on, "as
feed on dates. I happen to recollect, a philosopher sitting amidst the ruins of
though, that we first met on the eigh- empires, I should hardly confine that ob-
teenth of July, and to-day, if you would servation to Austria-Hungary. For in-
like to know, is Au-
Saturday, the first of stance, I have heard"— and his look of
gust, 1914." The flicker of amusement in amusement verged on a smile— "of an is-
his eyes became something more inscruta- land in the Atlantic Ocean not much
ble. "But there is a telegraph even in larger than the land of Elam, an island of
Elam," he went on. "A little news rains and fogs, whose people, feeling the
trickles out of it now and then. Don't need of a little more sunlight perhaps, or
444 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
of pin-money and elbow-room, sailed away Matthews noticed that the elder man
and conquered for themselves two entire ended, at any rate, not quite so coolly as
continents, as well as a good part of a he began.
third. I have also heard that the inhabi- "Nonsense! The thing 's so simple it
tants of this island, not content with kill- is n'tworth repeating. We have to have
ing and enslaving so many defenseless fel- more ships than anybody else because our
low-creatures, with picking up any
or empire is bigger than anybody else's and
lesser island, cape, or bay that happened more scattered. As for eating, it strikes
to suit their fancy, took it upon themselves me that Germany has done more of that
to govern several hundred million unwill- lately than any one. However, if you
ing persons of all colors and religions in know so much about islands, you must
other parts of the world. And, having also know how we happened to go into
thus procured both sunlight and elbow- India or Egypt. In the beginning it was
room, those enterprising islanders assumed pure accident. And you know very well
a virtuous air and pushed the high cries, that if we left them to-morrow there
as our friend Gaston would say, if any of would be the devil to pay. Do we get a
their neighbors ever showed the slightest penny out of them?"
symptom of following their very success- "Oh, no," said Magin, laughingly;
ful example. Have you ever heard of such "you administer them purely on altruistic
an island? And would you not say, as a principles, for their own good and that of
philosopher sitting amidst the ruins of em- the world at large —
like the oil-wells of
!"
pires, that it had also bitten off rather the Karun
more than it could chew?" "Well, since you put it that way," said
Matthews, facing the question and the Matthews, and laughed in turn, "perhaps
now open smile, felt that he wanted to be we do."
cool, but did not altogether succeed. Magin shrugged his shoulders.
"I dare say that two or three hundred "Extraordinary people! Do you really
years agowe did things we would n't do think the rest of the world so stupid? Or
now. Times have changed in all sorts of is it that the fog of your island has got

ways. But we never set out like a Caesar into your brains? You always talk about
or a Napoleon or a Bismarck to invent an truth as if it were a patented British in-

empire. It all came about quite naturally. vention, yet no one is less willing to call
Anybody else could have done the same; a spade a spade. Look at Cairo, where
but nobody else thought of it at the time. you pretend to keep nothing but a consul-
We simply got there first." general, but where the ruler of the coun-
"Ah?" Magin smiled more broadly. try can't turn over in bed without his per-
"It seems to me that I have heard of an- mission. A consul-general Look at your
!

other island, not so far from here, which, novels! Look at what you yourself are
is no more than a pin-point, to be sure, saying to me ! A man ought to say things
but which happens to be the key of the out, and stick by them," Magin continued.
Persian Gulf. I have also heard that the "He is less likely to get into trouble after-
Portuguese got there first, as you put it. ward. For example, it would have been
But you crushed Portugal, you crushed not only more honest, but more advanta-
Spain, you crushed Holland, you crushed geous for your country, if you had openly
France — or you meant to. And I must annexed Egypt in the beginning. Now
say it looks to me as if you would not where are jou? You continually have to
mind crushing Germany. Why do you explain, and to watch very sharply lest
go on building ships, building ships, build- some other consul-general tell the khedive
ing ships, always two to Germany's one? to turn over in bed. And since you and
Simply that you and your friends can go the Russians intend to eat up Persia, why
on eating up Asia and Africa and perhaps on earth don't you do it frankly, instead
Germany, too." of trying not to frighten the Persians, and
THE EMPEROR OF ELAM 445
talking vaguely about spheres of Influence, back at him. "No Englishman would try
neutral zones, and what not ? I 'm afraid to pass himself off for a Brazilian."
the truth is that you 're getting old and Magin smiled again.
fat.What?" He glanced over his cigar at "Nor would a German jump too hastily
Matthews, who was regarding the trickle at conclusions. If Iwas from
told you I

of the water beside them. "Those Rus- Brazil, I was born


spoke the truth. I

sians are younger," he went on. "They there, as were many Englishmen I know.
have still to be reckoned with. And they That makes them very little less English,
are n't so squeamish either in novels or in and it has perhaps made me more German,
life. Look at what they have done in But to return to our point: what are you
their 'sphere.' They have roads, they have doing here?"
Cossacks, they have the shah under their "I 'm attending to my business, which
thumb. And whenever they choose they seems to me more than you are doing, Mr.
shut the Bagdad trail against j^our cara- Magin."
vans — j^ours, with whom they have an un- Matthews noticed, from the reverbera-
derstanding! A famous understanding! tion of the room, that his voice must have
You don't even understand how to make been unnecessarily loud. He busied him-
the most of jour own sphere. You have self with the bowl of his pipe. As for
had the .Karun in your hands for three Magin, he got up and began walking to
hundred years, and what have you done and fro, drawing at his cigar. The red
with it? Why, in heaven's name, did n't of it showed how much darker the room
you blast out that rock at Ahwaz long had been growing. It increased, too, the
ago? Why have n't you made a proper curious effect of his eyes, making them
road to Ispahan ? Why don't you build look like two empty holes in a mask.
that railroad to Khoramabad that you are "Eh, too bad!" sighed the visitor at last.
always talking about, and finish it before "You disappoint me, do you know? You
the Germans get to Bagdad ? Ah, if they are of course much younger than I, but
had been here in jour place, you would you made me hope that you were perhaps
!"
have seen —how shall I put it?— a spirit of the first
"It strikes me," retorted Alatthews, class. I hoped that without padding,
with less coolness than he had
shown, j^et without rancor, like true philosophers, we
"that you are here already from what — might exchange our points of view. How-
the Father of Swords told me." And he ever, since it suits you to stand on your
looked straight at the man who had told dignity, I must say that I am very dis-
him that an Englishman could n't call a tinctly attending to my business. And I

spade a spade. But he saw anew how that am obliged to add that it does not help
man could ignore an advantage of posi- my business, Mr. Matthews, to have you
tion. sitting so mysteriously in Dizful, and re-
Magin returned the look frankly, hu- fusing to call on me, but occasionally call-
morously, quizzically. Then he said: ing on nomad chiefs. I confess that you
"You remind me, by the way, of a ques- don't look to me like a spy. Spies are gen-
tion I came to ask jou. W^ould you ob- erally older men than you, more cooked,
ject to telling me what you are up to as Gaston would say, more fluent in lan-
guages. It does not seem to me, either,
'What I up to?" queried Mat- that even an English spy would go about
thews, in astonishment. The cheek of the his affairs quite as you have done. Still.
bounder was really beyond everything. I regret to have to repeat that I dislike
"What do you mean ?" your idea of a lark. And not only because
Magin smiled. you upset nomad chiefs. You upset other
"I am not an Englishman. I mean people as well. You might even end by
what I say." upsetting yourself."
"No, you 're not," Matthews threw "Who the devil are \ou?" demanded
446 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Matthews, hotly, "The Emperor of too, that we do things more thoroughly
Elam?" than you. Therefore I must very respect-
"Ha, you are acquainted with the
I see fully, but very firmly, ask you, at your
excellent Adolf Ganz," laughingly re- very earliest convenience, to leave Dizful.
plied Magin. "No," he went on in an- I am quite willing to believe, however,
other tone; "his viceroy, perhaps. But as that j'our interference with my arrange-
I was saying, it does not suit me to have ments was accidental. And I dislike to
you stopping here. I can see, however, that put you to any unnecessary trouble. So I
3'ou have reason to be surprised, possibly shall be happy to compensate you, in
annoyed, at my telling you so. I am will- marks, tomans, or pounds sterling, for any
ing to be reasonable about it. How much disappointment you may feel in bringing
do you want— for the expenses of your this lark to an end. Do you now under-
going away?" stand me? How much do you want?"
Matthews could hardly believe his ears. He perceived, Guy Matthews, that his
He got up in turn. lark had indeed taken an unexpected turn.
"What in the devil do jou mean by He was destined, far sooner than he
that?" dreamed, to be asked of life, and to an-

"I am sorry, Mr. Matthews," answered swer, questions even more direct than this.
the other slowly, "that my knowledge of But until now life had chosen to confront
3'ourlanguage does not permit me to make him with no problem more pressing than
myself clear to you. Perhaps you will one of cricket or hunting. He was there-
understand me better if I quote from fore troubled by an unwonted confusion
yourself. I got here first. Did you ever of feelings. For he felt that his ordinary
put your foot into this country until two vocabulary, made up of such substantives
weeks ago? Did your countrymen ever as "lark," "cheek," and "bounder," and
trouble themselves about it, even after the comprehensive adjective "rum," fell
Layard showed them the way? No; they short of coping with this extraordinary
expressly left it outside of their famous speech. He even felt that he might possi-
'sphere,' in that famous neutral zone. And bly have answered in a different way but
all these centuries it has been lying here for that unspeakable offer of money. And
m the sun, asleep, forgotten, deserted, lost, the rumble of Magin's bass in the dark
given over to nomads and to lions, until stoneroom somehow threw a light on the
I came. I am the first European since melancholy land without, somehow gave
Alexander the Great who has seen what him a dim sense that he did not answer for
it might be. It is not so impossible that himself alone; that he answered for the
I might open again those choked-up canals tradition of Layard and Rawlinson and
which once made these burned plains a Morier and the Sherleys, of Clive and
paradise. In those mountains I have Kitchener, of Drake and Raleigh and Nel-
found— what I have found. What right son, of all the adventurous young men of
have j^ou to interfere with me, who are that beloved foggy island at wliich this
only out for a lark? Or what right have pseudo-Brazilian jeered.
your countrymen ? They have already, "When I first met you on the river, Mr.
as you so gracefully express it, bitten ofi Magin," he said quietly, "I confess I did
so much more than they can chew. The not realize how much of the spoils of Susa
gulf, the Karun, the oil-wheels, they are you were carrying away in your chests.
yours. Take them. But Bagdad is ours. And I did n't take your gold anklet as a
And you will exercise that logical pro-
if bribe, though I did n't take you for too
cess of which your British mind appears to much of a gentleman in offering it to me.
be not altogether destitute, you can hardly But all I have to say now is that I shall
help seeing that this part of your famous stay in Dizful as long as I please, and
neutral zone, if not the whole of it, falls that you had better clear out of this house
into the sphere of Bagdad. You know, unless you want me to kick you out."
THE EMPEROR OF ELAM 447
Magin laughed. first saw no reason why a stupid war on the
"Heroics, eh? You obstinate little fool, Continent, and the consequent impossibility
I could choke jou with one hand!" of telegraphing home except by way of
"You Matthews.
'd better tr} !" cried India, should affect the oil-works, or why
He started despite himself when a muf- his friends should put him in the position
fled boom suddenl)' answered him, jarrmg of showing Magin the white feather. But
even the sunken walls of the room. Then as he turned over the Bakhtiyari's scrap of
he remembered the sunset gun, that voice paper the meaning of jt grew, in the light

of the drowsing city, bursting out with of the very circumstances that made him
the pent-up brew of the day. hesitate, so portentously that he sent Ab-
"Ah!" exclaimed Magin. strangely, bas for horses. And before the Ramazan
"the cannon speaks at last You will hear,! gun boomed again he was well on his way
beside your fountain, what it has to say. back to Meidan-i-Naft.
That, at any rate, you will perhaps un- There was something unreal to him
derstand—you and the people of your is- about that night ride eastward across the
land." He stopped a moment. "But," he dusty, moonlit plain. He never forgot
went on, "if some fasting dervish knocks that night. The unexpectedness of it was
you on the head with his mace or sticks only a part of the unreality. What pulled
his knife into your back, don't say I did him up short was a new quality in the
n't warn you!" general unexpectedness of life.Life had
And the echo of his receding stamp in always been, like the trip from which he
the corridor drowned for a moment the was returning, more or less of a lark.
trickle of the in^•isible water. Whereas it suddenly appeared that life
might, perhaps, be very little of a lark.
The destiny of some men lies coiled So far as he had ever pictured life to him-
within them, invisible as the blood of their self he had seen it as an extension of his

hearts or the stuff of their will, working ordered English country-side, beset by no
darkly, day by day and year after year, hazard more searching than a hawthorn
for their glory or for their destruction. hedge. But the plain across which he
The destiny of other men is an accident, rode gave him a new picture of it, lighted
a god from the machine or an enemy in romantically enough by the moon, yet
ambush. Such was the destiny of Guy offering a rider magnificent chances to
Matthews, as it was of how many other break his neck in some invisible nullah,
unsuspecting young men of his time. It if not to be waylaid by marauding Lurs
would have been inconceivable to him, as or lions. It even began to come to this
he stood in his dark stone not too articulate young man
room listening to Magin's that romance and reality
receding stamp, that anything might be the same thing, ro-
could make him do what mance being what happens to
Magin demanded. Yet some- the other fellow and reality
thing did, the last drop of the being what happens to you.
strange essence Dizful had He looked up at the moon of
been brewing for him. war that had been heralded
The letter that accom- to him by cannon, and tried
plished this miracle came to to imagine what, under that
him by hand of a
the same moon far away in
Bakhtiyari from Meidan- Europe, was happening to
i-Naft. It said very little. the other fellow. His own
It said so little, and that experience* had an extraor-
little so briefly, that Mat- dinary air of having hap-
thews, still preoccupied pened to some one else, as he
with his Qwn quarrel, at went back in his mind to his
448 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
cruise on the river, his meeting with the And even Shuster felt the distant commo-
barge, his first glimpse of Dizful, the in- tion, in that the bazaar had already seen
terlude of Bala Bala, the return to Dizful, fit to put up the price of sugar and pe-
the cannon, Magin. Magin ! He was troleum. Not that Shustershowed any
extraordinary enough, in all conscience, as outward sign of commotion as the two
Matthews tried to piece together the var- threaded their way toward Ganz's house.
ious unrelated fragments his memory pro- The deserted streets reminded Matthews
duced of that person — connoisseur of Greek strangely of Dizful. What was stranger
kylixes and Lur nose-jewels, quoter of Scrip- was to find how they reminded him of a
ture and secret agent. The bounder must chapter that is closed. He hardly noticed
have known, as he sat smoking his cigar and the blank walls, the archways of brick and
ironizing on the ruins of empires, that the tile, the tall badgirs, even the filth and
safe and settled little world to which they smells. But strangest was it to listen to
both belonged was already in a blaze. Of the hot silence, to look up at the brilliant
course he had known it, and he had said stripe of blue between the adobe walls,
nothing about it. But not least extraor- while over there
dinary was the way the bounder, whom, The portentous uncertainty of what
after all, Matthews had seen only twice, might be over there made his answers to
seemed to color the whole adventure. In Ganz's questions about his journey curt
fact, he had been the first speck in the and abstracted. Yet he found himself
blue, the forerunner, if Matthews had looking with a new eye at the anomalous
only seen it, of the far more epic ad- exile w^hom the Father of Swords called
venture into which he was soon quickly to the prince among the merchants of Shus-
be caught. ter, noting the faded, untidy air as he had

At Shuster he broke his journey. There never noted it before, wondering why a
were still thirty miles to do, and fresh man should bury himself in such a hole
horses were to be hired. But he was not as this. Was one now, he speculated, to
ungrateful for a chance to rest. He dis- look at everybody all over again ? Ganz
covered in himself, too, a sudden interest was not the kind of man to interest the
in the trickle of the telegraph, and he was Guy Matthews who had gone to Dizful,
anxious to pick up what news he could but it was the Guy Matthews who came
from the few Europeans in the town. back from Dizful who did n't like Ganz's
Moreover, he needed to see Ganz about name or Ganz's good enough accent.
the replenishing of his mone^^-bag; for not Nevertheless, he yielded to Ganz's insis-

the lightest item of the traveler's pack in tence, when and


they reached the office,

Persia is his load of silver krans. the money-bag had been restored to its
At the telegraph office Matthews ran normal portliness, that the traveler should
into Ganz himself. The Swiss was a step into the house to rest and cool off.
short, fair, faded man, not too neat about "Do come!" urged the Swiss. "I so
hiswhite clothes, with a pensive mustache seldom see a civilized being. And I have
and an ambiguous blue eye that lighted at a new piano," He threw in as an added
sight of the 3'oung Englishman. The inducement, "Do you play?"
light,however, was not one to illuminate He had no parlor tricks, he told Ganz,
Matthews's darkness in the matter of and he told himself that he wanted to get
news. What news trickled out of the on but Ganz had been very decent to
;

local wire was very meager indeed. The him, after all. And he began to perceive
Austrians were shelling Belgrade; the that he himself was extremely tired. So
Germans, the Russians, and the French he followed Ganz through the cloister of
had gone in. That was all. No, not the pool to the court where the great basin
quite all for the bank-rate in England
; below the pillared portico glittered in the
had suddenly jumped sky-high— higher, at sun.
any rate, than it had ever jumped before. "Who is that?" exclaimed Ganz, sud-
THE EAIPEROK OF ELAM 449

denly. "What a tone, eh? And what a bent over to listen to the ripple, partly
!"
touch showing his face as he turned his ear to
Matthews heard from Ganz's pri\ate the keys. He showed, too, In the lessening

quarters a welling of music so different gloom, a smile Matthews had never seen
from the pipes and cow-horns of Dizful before,more extraordinary than anything.
thatit gave him a sudden stab of home- Yet even as Alatthews watched it. In his
sickness. stupefaction, the smile changed, broad-
"I say," he said, brightening, "could it ened, hardened. And Magin, sitting up
be an\- of the fellows from Meidan-i- straight again, with his back to the room,
Naft?"" began to execute a series of crashing
The ambiguous blue e^e brightened, chords.
too. After se\eral minutes he stopped and
"Perhaps. It is the river music from swung around on the piano-stool. Ganz
'Rheingold.' But listen," Ganz added, clapped his hands, shouting, "Bis! Bis.'"
with a smile. "There are sharks among At that Magin rose, bowed elaborately,
the Rhine maidens." and kissed his hands right and left. He
They went on, up the steps of the por- ended by pulling up a table-cover near
tico, to the door which Ganz opened him, gazing intently under the table.
softly, stepping aside for his visitor to pass "Have you lost something?" Inquired
in. The room was so dark, after the Ganz.
blinding light of the court, that Matthews "I seem," answered Magin, "to have
saw nothing at first. He stepped forward lost half my audience. What has become
eagerly, feeling his way among Ganz's of our elusive English friend ? Am I so

tables and chairs toward the end of the unfortunate as to have been unable to sat-
room from which the music came. They isfy his refined ear? Or can it be that
gave him, the cluttering tables and chairs, his emotions -were too him?" much for
after the empty rooms he had been living "He was in a hurry," explained Ganz.
In, a sharper renewal of his stab. And "He is just back from DIzful, you know."
even a piano ! made him think of Kip-
It "Ah?" uttered Magin. "He Is a very
ling and the "Song of the Banjo": curious young man. He Is alwa^'s in a
"I am memory and torment — I am hurry. He w^as in a hurry the first time
I had the pleasure of meeting him. He
Town
was In such a hurry at Bala Bala that he
I am all that ever went with eveninL';
did n't wait to see the celebration which
you told me he went to see. He also left
But what mute Inglorious PaderewskI of DIzful In a surprising hurry, from what
the restricted circle he had moved In for T hear. I happen to know that the tele-
the last months was capable of such parlor graph had nothing to do with It. I can
tricks as this? Then suddenly he saw. only conclude that some one frightened
He saw, swaying back and forth against him away. Where do you suppose he hur-
the dark background of the piano, a domed, ries to? And do you think he will arrive
shaven head that made him stop short in time?"
that head full of so many astounding Ganz opened his mouth but If he In- ;

things ! He saw, traveling swiftly up and tended to say something, he decided In-
down the keys, rising above them to an stead to draw his hand across his spare
extravagant height, and pouncing down jaw. However, he did speak, after all.

upon them again, those predatory hands "T notice that you at least do not hurry.
that had pounced on the spoils of Susa Majesty. Do you fiddle while Rome
They began, In a moment, to flutter lightly burns?"
over the upper end of the keyboard. It "Ha!" laughed Magin. "It is not
was extraordinary what a ripple poured Rome that burns. And I notice, ]\Ir.
as If out of those hands. Magin himself Ganz, that vou seem to be- of a forgetful
450 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
as well as of an inquiring disposition. I who knows what? As you know, I am a
would have been in Mohammerah long versatile man." And swinging around on
ago if it had not been for your son of his stool, Magin began to play again.

papa, with his interest in unspoiled towns. "But even fat old women sometimes
I will thank you to issue no more letters know how to bite," objected Ganz.
to the Father of Swords without remem- "Not when their teeth have dropped
bering me. Do 3'ou wish to enrich the out," Magin threw over his shoulder, "or
already overstocked British Museum at when strong young men plug their jaws."
my expense? But I do not mind reveal-
ing to you that I am now really on my Two days after the abrupt departure of
way Mohammerah."
to Guy Matthews from the house of Ganz,
"H'm," let out Ganz, slowly. "My the galley and the motor-boat whose acci-
dear fellow, have n't you heard that there dental encounter brought about the events
is a war in Europe?" met again. This second
of this narrative
"I must confess, my
good Ganz, that meeting took place in the Karun, as be-
I have. But what has Europe to do with fore, but at a point some fifty or sixty
Mohammerah ?" miles below Bund-i-Kir. And now the
"God knows," said Ganz. "I should moon, not the sun, cast its paler glitter
think, however, since you are so far from between the high, dark banks of the
the gulf, that you would prefer the route stream, when Gaston, rounding a sharp
of Bagdad, now that French and Russian curve above the island of Umm-un-Nakhl,
cruisers are seeking whom they may de- caught sight of the sweeps of the barge
vour." flashing in the moonlight. The unex-
"You forget, Mr. Ganz, that I am so pected view of that flash was not disagree-
fortunate as to possess a number of valua- able to Gaston ; for, as Gaston put it to
ble objects of virtue. I should think himself, he was sad. And spying the flash
twice before attempting to carry those ob- of those remembered oars, he bethought
jects of virtue through the country of our him of the seignior of a Brazilian whose
excellent friends the Beni Lam Arabs!" hospitable yacht, he had reason to know,
Ganz laughed. was not destitute of cheer.
"Your objects of virtue could very well When he was near enough the barge to
be left with me. What if the English make out the shadow of the high beak on
should go into the war?" the moonlit water he cut off the motor.
"The English go into the war? Never The sweeps forthwith ceased to flash.

fear. This is not their affair. And if it Gaston then called out the customary salu-
were, what could they do? Sail their tation. It was answered, as before, by the
famous ships up the Rhine and the Elbe? deep voice of the Brazilian. He stood at
Besides, that treacherous memory of yours the rail of the barge as the motor-boat
seems to fa.il you again. This is Persia, glided alongside.
not England." "Ah, mon vli'ux, you are alone this
"Perhaps," answered Ganz. "But the time?" said Magin, genially. "Where
English are very funny people. There is are the others?"
a rumor, you know, of pourparlers. What "I do not figure to myself," answered
if you were to sail down to the gulf and Gaston, "that you derange yourself to in-
some little midshipman were to fire a shot quire for my sacred devil of a Bakhtiyari.
across your bow?" As for Monsieur Guy, the Englishman
"Ah, bah! I am a neutral. And Bri- you saw the other time, whose name does
tannia is a fat old woman. Also a rich not pronounce itself, he has gone to the
one, who does n't put her hand into her war. I just took him and three others to
pocket to please her neighbors. Besides, Ahwaz, where they meet more of their
I have a little affair with the sheik of friends, and all go together on the steamer
Mohammerah — objects of virtue, indigo, to Mohammerah."
THE EMPEROR OF ELAM 451
"Really! And did you hear any news guest. "To the victor!" he said, "And
at Ahwaz ?" sit down, won't you ? There is more than
"The latest is that England has de- one glass in that bottle."
clared war." Gaston was enchanted to sit down and
"Tiens!" exclaimed Magin. His voice to sip another cognac.
was extraordinarily loud and deep in the "But, Monsieur," he exclaimed, look-
stillness of the river. It impressed Gas- ing about again, "you travel like an em-
ton, who sat looking up at the dark figure peror!"
in front of the ghostly Lurs. What types, "Ho!" laughed Alagin, with a quick
with their black hats of a theater! He glance at Gaston. "I am well enough
hoped the absence of Monsieur Guy and here. But there is one difficulty." He
the Brazilian's evident surprise would not looked at his glass, holding it up to the
cloud the latter's hospitality. He was ac- light. "I travel too slowly."
cordingly gratified to hear the Brazilian Gaston smiled.
say, after a moment: "And they tell us "In Persia who cares?"
that madness is not catching! But we, at "Well, it happens that moment
at this
least, have notour heads. Eh? To
lost I do. I have affairs at Mohammerah.
prove it, Monsieur Gaston, will you not And in this tub it will take me three days
come aboard a moment, if you are not in more at the best, without considering that
too much of a hurry, and drink a little I shall have to wait till daylight to get

glass with me ?" through the rocks at Ahwaz." He low-


Gaston needed no urging. In a trice ered his glass and looked back at Gaston.
he had tied his boat to the barge and was "Tell me: why should n't you take me
on the deck. The agreeable Brazilian was down, ahead of my tub? Eh? Or to
not too much of a seignior to shake his Sablah, if Mohammerah is too far? It

hand welcome or to lead him into the


in would not delay you so much, after all.
cabin where a young Lur was in the act You can tell them any story you like at
of lighting candles. Sheleilieh. Otherwise I am sure we can
"It is so hot, and many strange beasts
so make a satisfactoryarrangement." He '

fly about this river," Magin explained, put his hand suggestively into his pocket,
"that I usually prefer to travel without a Gaston considered it between sips. It
light. But we must see the way to our really was not much to do for this uncle
mouths. What will vou have? Beer, of America who had been so amiable. And
Bordeaux, champagne?" the Brazilian would no doubt show a
Gaston considered this serious question gratitude so handsome that one could af-
with attention. ford to be a little independent. If those
"Since monsieur has the goodness to in- on the steamer asked any questions when
quire, if monsieur has any of that fine the motor-boat passed, surely the Brazil-
champagne I tasted before — ian, who was more of a seignior than any
"Ah, yes; certainly." He gave a rapid employee of an oil company, would know
order to the Lur, then he stood silent, his how to answer.
eyes fixed on the reed portiere. Gaston "Allans! Whv not?" he said aloud.
was more impressed than ever as he stood, "Bra- ?d the Brazilian, with-
too, heret in hand, looking around the lit- drawing his hand from his pocket. "Take
tle saloon, so oddly, yet so comfortably that as part of my ticket. And excuse me
fitted out with rugs and skins. Presently a moment while I make arrangements."
the Lur reappeared through the reed por- He disappeared through the reed por-
tiere, which aroused the Brazilian from tiere, lea\ing Gaston to admire five shin-
his abstraction. He filled the two glasses ing napoleons. It gave him an odd sen-
himself, waving his attendant out of the sation to see, after so long, those coins of
cabin, and handed one to Gaston. The his country. When Magin finally came
other he raised in the air, bowing to his back, It was through the inner door.
452 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
"Tell me, how much can you carry?" gin. "It is a good thing there is no wind
he asked. "I have four boxes I should to-night. Go ahead."
like to take with me, besides a few small Gaston cast off, backed a few feet, re-

things. These fools might wreck them- versed, and described a wide circle around
selves at Ahwaz and lose everything in the the stern of the barge. It made a strange
river. It would annoy me very much, picture in the moonlight, with its black-
after all the trouble I have had to collect curved beak and its spectral crew. They
my objects of virtue. Besides, the tub shifted to the other rail as the motor-boat
will get through more easily without them. came about, watching silently.

Come in and see." "To your oars!" shouted Magin at


"Mon Dieu!" exclaimed Gaston, them. "Row, sons of burnt fathers! Will
scratching his head when he saw. "My you haveme wait a month for 3'ou at
boat won't get through more easily with Mohammerah ?"
them, especially at night." He looked They scattered to their places, and
curiously around the cozy state-room. Gaston caught the renewed flash of the
"But it will take them, eh?" inquired sweeps as he turned to steer for the bend.
Magin. "If necessary, we can land them It was a good thing, he told himself, that
at Ahwaz and have them carried around there was no wind to-night. The gun-
the rapids." wale was nearer the water than he or the
The thing took some manceuvering boat cared for. She made nothing like her
but the Lurs, with the help of much flu- usual speed. However, he said nothing.
ent profanity from the master, finally ac- Neither did Magin until the dark shadow
complished it without sinking the motor- of Umm-un-Nakhl divided the glitter in
boat. Gaston, sitting at the wheel to front of them.
guard his precious engine against some "Take the narrower channel," he or-
clumsiness of the black-hatted mountain- dered then. . And when they were in it

eers, looked on with humorous astonish- he added : "Stop, will you, and steer in
ment at this turn of affairs. He was des- there, under the shadow of the shore? I

tined, it appeared, to be disappointed in think we would better fortify ourselves


his hope of cheer. That cognac was really for the work of the night. I at least did
very good, if only one had had more of it. not forget the cognac, among my other
Still, one at least had company now, and objects of virtue."
he was not the man to be insensible to the They fortified themselves accordingly,
fine champagne of the unexpected. the Brazilian producing cigars as well.
When the fourth chest had gingerly been He certainly was an original, thought
lowered into place, Magin vanished again. Gaston, now hopeful of experiencing ac-
Presently he reappeared, followed by his tual cheer. That originality proved itself
majordomo, to whom he gave instructions anew when, after a much longer period
in a low voice. Then he stepped into the of refreshment than would suit most gen-
stern of the boat. The majordomo, tak- tlemen in a hurry, the familiar flash be-
ing two portmanteaus and a rug from the came visible in the river behind them.
Lurs behind him, handed them down to "Now be quiet," commanded the ex-
Gaston. Having disposed of them, Gas- traordinary uncle of America. "What-
ton stood up, his eyes on the Lurs who e\'er happens, we must n't let them hear
crowded the rail. us. If they take this channel, we can slip

"Well, my friend," said Magin, gaily, down, and run part way up the other.
"for whom are you waiting? shall We We shall give them a little surprise."
yet have opportunities to admire the ro- Nearer and nearer came the flash, whicli
mantic scenery of the Karun!" suddenly went out behind the island. A
"Ah, monsieur takes no other object — recurrent splash succeeded It, and a wild
of virtue with him?" nielanchol\' singing. The singing and the
"Have ^ou so much room?" said Ma- recurrent splash grew louder, filled the
THE EMPEROR OF ELAM 453
silence of the river, grew softer ; and pres- to me. I will arrange myself a little. As
ently the receding oars flashed again, be- for you, turn around and see how quickly
low the island. But not until the last you can carry me to the charming resort
glint was lost in the shimmer of the wa- of Bund-i-Kir, where Antigonus fought
ter, the last sound had died out of the Eumenes and the Silver Shields for the
summer night, did the Brazilian begin to spoils of Susa, and won them. Did you
unfold his surprise. ever hear, Gaston, of that interesting in-
"Que (liable allait-on faire dans cetie cident?"
gaVere!" he exclaimed. "It 's the first "Monsieur is too strong for me," re-

time I ever knew them to do the right plied Gaston, cryptically. He took oft
thing. Let us drink one more little glass his cap, wiped his face, and sat down at
to the good fortune of their voyage. And the wheel.
here, by the way, is another part of my "If a man is not strong, what is he?"
ticket." He handed Gaston five more na- rejoined Magin. "But you will not find
poleons. "But now, my friend, we have this cigar too strong,"he added amicably.
iSome work. I see we shall never get any- Gaston did not. What he found strong
where with all this load. Let us there- was the originality of his passenger, and
fore consign our objects of virtue to the the way that cognac failed, despite its

safe keeping of the river. He will guard friendly warmth, to cheer him. For he
them better than anybody. Is it deep kept thinking of Monsieur Guy and the
enough here?" others as he sped northward on the silent,
It was deep enough. But what an af- moonlit river.
fair, getting those heavy chests overboard ! "This is very well, eh, Gaston?" ut-
The last one nearly pulled Magin in with tered the Brazilian at last. "We march
it. One of the clamps caught in his better without our objects of virtue."
clothes, threw him against the side of the Gaston felt that he smiled as he lay smok-
boat, and jerked something after it into the ing on his rug in the bottom of the boat.
river. He sat down, swearing softly to "But me," he went on presently, "how
tell

himself, to catch his breath and investigate is it, if I may


ask, that you did n't happen
the damage. to go in the steamer, too, with your Mon-
"It was only my revolver," he an- sieur Guy? You do not look to me either
nounced, "and we have no need of that, old or incapable."
since we are not going to the war. Now, it was, the same question, which
There
mygood Gaston, I have changed my mind. reallyseemed to need no answer at first,
We will not go down the river, after all. but which somehow became harder to an-
We wnll go up." swer every time! Why was it? And
Gaston stared at him. how could it spoil so good a cognac?
"Up? But, Monsieur, the barge — "How is it?" repeated Gaston. "It is,

"What is my barge to you, dear Gas- Monsieur, that France is a great lady who
ton? Besides, it is no longer mine. It does not derange herself for a simple vaga-
now belongs to the Sheik of Mohammerah bond like Gaston, or about whose liaisons
—with whatever objects of virtue it still or quarrels it is not for Gaston to concern
contains. He has long teased me for it, himself. This great lady has naturally
and none of them can read the note they not asked my opinion about this quarrel.
are carrying to him. Did n't I tell you But if she had, I should have told her that
I was going to give them a little surprise? it very stupid for everybody in Europe
is

Well, there it is. I am not a man, you to begin shooting at one another. Why?
see, to be tied to objects of virtue. Which Simply because it pleases ces messieurs the
reminds me : where are my portman- Austrians to treat ces ?nessieurs the Serbs
teaus?" de haut en bas! What have I to do with
"Here, on the tank." that? Besides, this great lady is very far
"Fie! and vou a chauffeur! Give them awav, and by the time I arrive she will
454 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
have arranged her affair. In the mean- He who wrote it, however, was far from
time there are man.v others, younger and sentimental.He was a fellow-country-
more capable than I, whose express busi- man of mine — and of the late Abraham
ness it is to arrange such affairs. Will who loved your country so much that he
one piou-piou more or less change the re- lived in it and died in it." And Magin
sult of one battle? Of course not. And sang again, more loudly, the first words
if I should lose my hand or my head, who of the song:
would buy me another? Not France. I "Ich weiss nicht, was soil es bedeuten,
have seen a little what France does in such Dass ich so traurig bin;
cases. My own father left his leg at
Ein Marchen aus alten Zeiten,
Gravelotte, together with his job and my Das kommt mir nIcht aus dem Sinn."
mother's peace. I have seen what hap-
pened to her, and how it is that I am a Gaston listened with admiration, aston-
vagabond, about whom France has never ishment, and perplexity. It suddenly
troubled herself." He shouted it over his came back to him how this original Bra-
shoulder,above the noise of the motor, zilian had sworn when the chest caught
with an increasing loudness. "Also," he his clothes.

went on, "I have duties not so far away "But, Monsieur, I thought — are you,
as France. Up there, at Sheleilieh, there then, a German?"
will perhaps be next month a little Gas- Magin, after a second, laughed.
ton. If I go away, who will feed him? "But, Gaston, am I, then, an enemy?"
I have not the courage of monsieur, who Gaston examined him in the moonlight.
separates himself so easily from objects "Well," he answered slowly, "if ^our
of virtue. Voila!" country and mine are at war

Magin said nothing for a moment. "What has that to do with us, as you
Then just now so truly said? You have found
"Courage, yes. One needs a little cour- that your country's quarrel was not cause
age in this curious world." There was enough for you to leave Persia, and so
a pause as the boat cut around a dark have I. J'oila tout!" He examined Gas-
curve. "But do not think, my poor Gas- ton in turn. "But I thought you knew
ton, that it is I who blame you. On the all the time. Such is fame I flattered !

contrary, I find you very reasonable, more myself that j'our Monsieur Guy would
reasonable than many ministers of state. leave no one untold, whereas he has left
If others in Europe had been able to ex- us the pleasure of a situation more piquant,
press themselves like you, Gaston, Mon- after all, than I supposed. AVe enjoy the
sieur Guy and his friends would not have magnificent moonlight of the south, we
run away so suddenly. It takes courage, admire a historic river under its most suc-
too, not to run after them." He made a cessful aspect, and we do not exalt our-
sound, as if changing his position, and selves because our countrymen, many hun-
presenth- he began to sing softlv to him- dreds of miles away, have lost their
self. heads." He smiled over the piquancy of
"Monsieur would make a fortune in the the situation. "Strength is good," he
cafe-chantant," commented Gaston, who went on in his impressive bass, "and cour-
began to feel at last, after the favorable age is better; but reason, as you so justly
reception of his speech, a little cheered. say, is best of all. Wherefore," he added,
He felt cooler, too, in this quiet, rushing "allow me to recommend to you, my dear
moonlight of the river. "What is it that (jaston, that you look a little where you
monsieur sings? It seems to me that I are steering."
have heard that air." Gaston looked. But he discovered tliat

"Very likely you have, Gaston. It is a liis moment of cheer had been all too brief.
little song of sentiment, sung by all the A piquant situation, indeed ! The pi-

sentimental young ladies of the world. quancy of that situation somehow com-
THE EMPEROR OF ELAM 455
plicated everything more darkly than be- one asked who you I or where you
fore. If there were reasons why he should were going."
not go away with the others, as they had Magin yawned.
all taken it for granted that he would do, "Well, you seem to have satisfied your-
was that a reason why he, Gaston, whose self now on those important points. I
father had lost a leg at Gravelotte, should might add, however, for your further in-
do this masquerading German a service? formation, thatI think I shall not go to

All the German's amiability and original- Bund-i-Kir, which looks too peaceful to
ity did not change that. Perhaps, indeed, disturb at this matutinal hour, but there,
that explained the originality and amiabil- on the western shore of the Ab-i-Shuteit.
ity. The German, at any rate, did not And that reminds me. I still have to pay
seem to trouble himself about it. When you the rest of my ticket."
Gaston next looked over his shoulder, He reached forward, and laid a little
IVIagin was lying
on his back in the
flat pile of gold on Gaston's seat. Gaston,
bottom of the boat, with his hands under watching out of the corner of his eye as
his head and his eyes closed. And so he he poured gasolene, saw that there were
continued to lie, silent and apparently more than five napoleons in that pile.
asleep, while his troubled companion, hand There were at least ten.
on wheel and beret on ear, steered through "What would you say, Monsieur," he
the waning moonlight of the Karun. asked slowly, emptying his tin, "if I were
The moon was only a ghost of itself, to take you instead to Sheleilieh. where
and a faint rose was beginning to tinge there are still a few of the English?"
the pallor of the sky behind the Bakhtiyari "I should say, my good Gaston, that
Mountains, when the motor began to miss you had more courage than I thought.
fire. Gaston, stifling an exclamation, cut By the way," he went on casually, "what
it off, unscrewed the cap of the tank, and is this?"
measured the gasolene. Then he stepped He reached forward again toward Gas-
softly forward to the place in the bow ton's seat, where lay Gaston's knife, an
where he kept his reserve cans. Magin, odd, curved knife of the country, in a
roused by the stopping of the boat, sat up, leather sheath. Gaston dropped his tin,
stretching. and made a snatch at it. But Magin was
"Tiens!" he exclaimed. "Here we are!" too quick for him. He retreated to his
He looked about at the high clay banks in- place at the stern of the boat, where he
closing thetawny basin of the four rivers. drew the knife out of its sheath.
In front of him the konar-trees of Bund- "Sharp, too!" he commented, with a
i-Kir showed their dark green. At the smile at Gaston. "And my revolver is

right, on top of the blufF of the eastern gone!"


shore, a solitary peasant stood white Gaston, very pale, stepped to his seat.
against the sky. Near him a couple of "That, Monsieur, was given me by my
oxen on an inclined plane worked the rude Bakhtiyari brother-in-law— to take to the
mechanism that drew up water to the war. When he found I had not the cour-
fields. The creak of the pulleys and the age to go, he ran away from me."
splash of the dripping goatskins only made "But you thought there might be more
more intense the early morning silence. than one way to make war, eh? Well, I
"Do you remember, Gaston ?" asked at least am not an Apoche. Perhaps the
Magin. "It was here we first had the sharks will know what to do with it."
good fortune to meet, not quite three The blade glittered in the brightening air
weeks ago." and splashed out of sight. ^lagin, fold-
"I remember," answered Gaston, keep- ing his arms, smiled again at Gaston.
ing his eye on the mouth of the tank he "Another object of virtue for the safe cus-
was filling, "that I was the one who todv of the Karun."
wished you peace, Monsieur, and that no ut not al cried Gaston, thickly,
456 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
seizing the little pile of gold beside him me and nourishment till the
free lodging
and flinging it after the knife. end of the war. Whereas you, Gaston —
Magin's smile broadened. you do not seem to have reflected that life
"Have you not forgotten something will not be so simple for you after this.
Gaston?" There is a very unpleasant little word by
"But certainly not, Monsieur, " he re- which they name citizens who do not re-

plied, putting his hand into his pocket. spond to their country's call to arms. In
The next moment a second shower of gold other words, Mr. Deserter, you have
caught the light. And where the little taken the road which in war-time ends be-
circles of ripples widened in the river a tween a firing-squad and a stone wall."
sharp fin suddenly cut the muddy water. Gaston evidently had not reflected on
"Oho! Mr. Shark loses no time!" cried that. He stared at his nickel cap, turning
Magin. He stopped smiling, and turned it around in his fingers.

back to Gaston. "But we do. Allow me "You see?" continued ]\Iagin. "Well,
to say, my friend, that you show yourself then,what about that little Gaston? I do
really too romantic. This is no doubt an not know what has suddenly made you so
excellent comedy which we are playing much less reasonable than j'ou were last
for the benefit of that gentleman on the night I at least have not changed.
; but
bluff; but even he begins to get tired of And no reason why that little Gas-
I see
it. S( He starts to say his morning ton should be left between two horns of
prayer. So be so good as to show a little a dilemma. In fact, I see excellent rea-
of the reason which you know how to sons not only why you should take me
show and start for shore. But
you first that short distance to the shore, but why
might do well to screw on the cap of your you should me to Dizful.
accompany
tank, if you do not mind a little friendly There I am am more than
at home. I

advice." any one else emperor. And I need a man


Gaston looked around absent-mindedly, like you. I am going to have a car, I am

and took up the nickel cap. But he sud- going to have a boat, I am going to have
denly turned back to Magin. a place in the sun. There will be many
"You speak too much about friends, changes in that country after the war. It

Monsieur. I am not your friend. I am is evident that your heart, like mine, is in

your enemy. And I shall not take you this part of the world. So come with me.
there, to the Ab-i-Shuteit. I shall take Eh, Gaston?"
you into the Ab-i-Gerger— to Sheleilieh "Heart!" repeated Gaston, with a bit-
and the English." ter smile. "It is you who speak of the
Magin considered him, with a flicker in heart and of —
But you do not speak of
his lighted eyes. the little surprise Avith which you might
"You might perhaps have done it if you some day regale me, Mr. Enemy! Nor
had not forgotten about your gasolene, do you say what you fear that I might —
and you may yet. We shall see. But it take it into my head to go fishing at Umm-

seems to me, my enemy, that you make un-Nakhl!"
a miscalculation. Let us suppose that j^ou "Ah, bah!" exclaimed Magin, impa-
take me to Sheleilieh. It is highly im- tiently. "However, you are right. I am
probable, because you no longer have 3'om- not like you. do not betray my country
I

knife to assist you. I, it is true, no longer for a little sa\'age with a jewel in her
have my revolver to assist me ; but I have nose. It is because of that small differ-
two arms, longer and, I faticy, stronger ence between us, Gaston, between your
than yours. However, let us make the people and my people, that you will see
supposition. And let us make the equally such changes here after the war. But you
improbable supposition that I fall into the will not see them unless you accept my
hands of the English. What can they do offer. After all, what else can you do?"
to me? The worst they can do is to give He left Gaston to take it in as he twirled
his metal cap. "There is the sun already,"
Magin added presenth-. "We shall have
a hot joLirne}-."
Gaston looked o\er his shoulder at the
quivering rim of gold that surged up be-
hind the Bakhtivari Mountains. How
sharp and purple they were, against what
a deepening blue ! On the bluff the white-
clad peasant stood with his back to the
light, hands folded in front of him,
his
his head bowed.
"You look tired, Gaston," said Magin,
pleasantly. "Will you have this cigar?"
"No, thank 3'ou," replied Gaston. He cap and the still-burning match, toward
felt in his own pockets, however, first for the mouth of the tank.
a cigarette and then for a match. He was "This!" he answered.
indeed tired, so tired that he no longer Magin watched him. He did not catch
remembered which pocket to fumble in or the connection at first. He saw it quickly
what he held in his hand as he fumbled. enough, however. In his pale, translu-
Ah, that sacred tank Then he suddenly
! cent eyes there was something very like a
smiled again, looking at Magin. "There flare.
is something else I can do." "Look out, or we shall go together,
"What?" asked ]\Iagin as he lay at ease after all!"
in the stern, enjoying the first perfume "We shall go together, after all," re-
of his cigar. "You can't go back to France peated Gaston. "And here is your place
!"
now, and I should hardly advise you to in the sun
go back to Sheleilieh, at least until after Magin still watched as the little flame
the war. Then there will be no more flickered through the windless air; but he
English there to ask you troublesome ques- did not move.
tions." "It will go out; and you have not the
Gaston lighted his cigarette, and, keep- courage, Apache!"
ing his eyes on Magin, he slowly moved 'You will The match
his hand, in which were both the nickel stopped at last abo\e the open hole; but
457
458 THE CExNTURY MAGAZINE
the hand that held it trembled a little, den bright trail of red, redder than any
and so did the strange, low voice that said, fire or sunrise. It paled graduallj'^, the

"This at least I can do for that great smoke melted after the steam, the current
lady far away." caught the last charred fragments of
wreckage, and drew them slowly out of
The peasant on the bluf¥, prostrated to- sight.
ward Mecca, with his forehead in the The peasant watched it all silently, as
dust, was startled out of his prayer by a if waiting for some new magic of the fi-
roar in the basin below him. There where 1-engi,from his high bank of the Karun,
the trim, white jinn-boat of the firengi had that snow-born river bound for distant
been was now a blazing mass of wreck- palms that had seen so many generations
age," out of which came fierce cracklings, of the faces of men, so many of the barks
hissings, sounds not to be named. As he to which men trust their hearts, their
stared at it the wreckage fell apart, began hopes, their treasures, as it wound, cen-
to disappear in a cloud of smoke and steam tury after century, from the mountains to
that lengthened toward the southern gate- the sea. Then at last the peasant folded
way of the basin. And in the turbid wa- hishands anew and bowed his head to-
ter, cut bv swift sharks' fins, he saw a sud- ward Mecca.
Victory
By MARION PATTON W'ALDRON

MAN\' and many are weeping for


For the shallow graves
lovers;
Flanders they are weeping, in
their

For the lovers heaped with earth who cannot come to them,
While I — I have my lover back again!

First, word that he lay upon a narrow bed


As in a grave without the grave's release.
Death had despoiled his body, claimed his soul
Yet those who tended would not give him up
To the earth's rest, and I who waited could not.
By that brave magic which proves man a god
Only less cunning than a modern gun
The surgeons mended bit by broken bit
Patiently blew to spark the reluctant ashes.
Built with their will upon his power of anguish,
While I compelled his spirit with my spirit

Aloment by moment, holding, drawing him back.


They wrote at last that he was coming home

It was dusk they brought him back to me


at
And him gently down and covered him
laid
Lingered, wanting to speak, yet silent, troubled.
Till awkwardly they left me with my living.

He lay so still, so still beneath the covers,


Itwas as if they had said, "Your soldier 's dead."
But when I laid my hand
on him I felt
The warm blood beating, and he spoke. His voice

His voice it was and he was calling me!

All night I crouched with my head against his arm


To feel its warmth. It was as if Idoubted
The miracle. I dared not lift his shroud.
But watched beside him as a wife beside
Her husband laid in death— a wife who, turning
As in old griefs to her old comforter.
Longing to cower against him, and yet fearing
Lest he should shut her from him, he be cold
When most she needs him, he be stone to her.
460 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Suddenly hears his answers fill her silence,
Feels the touch of the dead healing her pain.
Such was my miracle.

O lover's body with its man's grave beauty,


lover's eyes in which I launched my soul
1 shall be hands and feet to him, and eyes!
And he can never see me if I falter
No, and he cannot see me. God forgive me
If I shrink and sicken when I look at him
Before I learn to bear it There will be years, !

There will be years and years to learn. Even now


I can laugh when he makes jests about the fingers

He left to fight for him while he ran home!

Through the long, useless hours what are his thoughts?


What is he thinking all the idle days?
Sometimes he hides his marred face close against me
Like a tired child. That 's easier, almost sweet.
Till I mind me of the old times when I teased him
Because he was so big, and called him little,

Half vexed, half pleased him calling him my baby,


He who planned always how he 'd care for me
With his great strength, how he would always spare me.
My man, my man that 's turned a poor stale joke;
But I can't think of any other now.
So I keep silent, thinking out my thoughts.

They say the lame child is his mother's dearest.


He is my child now, yes, our child, our child.
Not like the son we dreamed of long ago
No, but the child of our renunciation.
Born of his beautiful body that went away,
Born of my spirit that sent him forth and waited.

What though the fruit of us be blighted and broken ?

We have fought with death, the odds against us, and conquered !

( Hush ! What was that echo of terrible laughter?


Who laughed? I fancied a far-off, cynical mocking.)

Many and many are weeping for their lovers


For the shallow graves in Flanders they are weeping.
For the lovers heaped with earth who cannot come to them,
While I — I have my lover back again!
Inside Russia
By STEPHEN GRAHAM
Author of " Russia in 191 6," etc.

was made possible by the great war some that his tears would have started
ITstrain. Two and a half years of strug-
in

into
;

armed men, and such a force risen


gle with Germany wore out the system. behind him that the handful of daring
It was so weak at last, and the revolution- idealists and socialist agitators in Petro-

aries were so skilful, that there was no grad would have been swept away. But
"bloody revolution." The czar was re- no. Fate, the circumstances of the time,
moved almost as it were by magic or war sorrows, and a strange,
the addition of
sleight of hand. Suddenl}' the most glimmering light of new destiny inter-
mighty and mysterious monarch of the vened, making the peasant more stupid,
world found himself running about the blinder, deafer, divided in himself. The
streets of a wretched provincial town, un- revolution was accomplished without even
attended, unreverenced, and without mien the birth of a royalist movement, and there
or bearing, looking like a bewildered is no prospect that the poor little boy
townsman who had lost his way. He Alexis will be a Russian Prince Charles.
went into a church full of peasants praj- In igo2, Tolstoy wrote in a sort of
ing, fell on his knees, wept, prayed valedictory letter to Nicholas II that how-
ardently aloud, and then through his tears ever good and wise a czar may be, he
asked forgiveness of the worshipers. But cannot rule one hundred and thirty mil-
they for their part appeared stupefied, not lion subjects. The rule was bound to
quite able to understand who he was or pass out of his hands into those surround-
what he meant. He went out into the ing him. A czar could not choose disin-
street again. A company of soldiers was terested and able helpers, for he knew
passing. Once they had been czar-wor- only a few score men who through chance
shipers, making the sign of the cross after or intrigue had got near him and were
singing the national anthem, "God Save careful to ward off all who nu'ght sup-
the Czar!" The emperor saluted them. plant them. Autocracy was in reality an
"Hail, my fine But they did
fellows!" obsolete form of government.
not return his salute or answer his words. And yet it served in time of peace, and
The czar was a gentle and religious the czar did find and use Stolypin, Sazo-
monarch but even had he been an Ivan
; nof, and Bark. It needed two and a half
Grozny or a Nero, one would have years of war to show that the system
thought that the spectacle of the "sacred would not really work well, was unfitting
person" abased would have evoked parti- for the time, was, in fact, obsolete, because
zanship, the impulse of devotion, at least of the very defects which the ancient Tol-
4GI
462 THE CENTURY IMAGAZINE
stoy adumbrated to his "brother,'"' as he system, were openly talked of in London,
called him. and there was a general assent both offi-
In the first splendor of the opening of cialand unofficial. On the other hand,
the war the czar never stood higher; he news of pacifists and pro-Germans in the
apparently obtained complete forgiveness revolutionary camp was carefully elimi-
for errors in the past. He could dispense nated by censors or interested editors. Ex-
with his enormous body-guard and the cepting the swiftness of the success of the
"ten thousand soldiers" to guard him. On rebellion, this testifies more than all else
the impulse, the anthem was sung every- to the impotent state to which the Gov-
where and by all classes. There was no ernment had been reduced.
hint of revolution. Fortune smiled on Last summer in Russia I often heard
Russian arms, and her victories and the the opinion expressed that the old army
heroic deeds of individual soldiers cast a had passed away, and the new one was
glamour upon the throne from all Rus- taken from a different class of people. It
sia. At the same time the remarkable contained far more artisans and middle-
vodka prohibition appealed to Russian in- class people. There was a different spirit
telligence. Both heart and mind ac- in and propaganda made great prog-
it,

claimed the czardom, and who could have ress. This partly, though not entirely,
surmised that these splendors were eve- explains the military support with which
ning splendors, that a melancholy twilight the revolutionary change was carried out.
would succeed them, and then suddenly Furthermore, the conservatives persis- —
the night shut in? tently called reactionaries abroad — freely
Yet so it happened. The diminuendo backed the revolution, and some, like \I.
of incapacity set in. Defeat in Poland Purishkeyevitch, — "Right of the Right,"
shed a lurid light from the western hori- as he called himself, — gave passionate
zon upon Petrograd, and showed the lit- force to their backing, and led the aristo-
tle, incompetent men of office more and crats against the throne. They did so not
more dwarfed, more and more helpless. to establish a republic, but a constitutional
Then the strange Siberian peasant gained monarchy. Without their aid M. Keren-
stature and importance. sky and M. Miliukof would not be where
The czardom became so weak that it they are. The British and French gov-
could not look after its own elementary ernments also backed the political con-
interests. It could not find representa- spiracy, believing in the moderacy of its

tives to go to London and Paris, but let objects.


its enemy IVIiliukof stand for Russia. It Beyond all these things, one must sup-
could not influence the British and French pose that the time had come. All the
press, but let all manner of dangerous and forces in Europe tended one way : revo-
anti-dynastic rumors, true and untrue, go lutionary idealism in Russia, military ne-
unanswered. For months only revolution- cessity in Germany, business instinct in

ary opinion regarding Russia was printed England, the money and hate of the Jews,
in the British press. Its strongest Con- America's need to reconcile half her alien
servative organs made the word "reaction- population to the Allied cause. So it was
ary" serve instead of "conservative" as far easy at last, and Russia, which talks and
as Russia was concerned. Our populace talks and yet never does, at last was silent
became of the opinion that the czar was for three days and did.
making tremendous efforts to secure a sep- The czardom has gone, and there is little

arate peace. Rasputin was written up in piospect of its return. Nicholas II is not
various papers, and even the empress was a v'onspirator by nature, not ambitious,
not spared. There was not a word of re- and his child has no future. If he had

monstrance from official Russia. The de- wished to regain power, the voluntary
tails of the plot to depose the czar and writing of his own decree of abdication
obtain a regency, with a constitutional was most unlikel> . That resignation lib-
INSIDE RUSSIA 463
erates the thought and will of loyal Rus- rails, to run whole new forests of timber
sia. There is no question of the Constitu- to the rivers. Capital will be forthcom-
ent Assembly voting whether they will ing for the development of the butter in-
have a czar. They will decide, or try to dustry on a hitherto undreamed-of scale.
decide, what form of democrat'c system Russian sugar will undersell all other Eu-
Russia will adopt. Although the fifteen ropean sorts. Russia will begin to supply
million or so Old Believers are said to be herself with all the raw cotton she re-
in favor of a limited monarchy, it is highly quires: the mills will capture almost the
unlikely that a monarchy of any kind will entire market of Asia. Discoveries of
be established. Russia does not care for gold in Siberia will multiph' and swarms ;

compromise. Despite her admiration of of diggers will follow. Great companies


England, she has none of the English love like that of the Lena and Kishtim will be

of caution and half-measures. One of her formed for the exploitation of Russia's
grievances against Nicholas II was that he marvelous wealth of copper, zinc, lead,
was moderate in the use of his great platinum, asbestos, naphtha, etc.
silver, A
power. Russia seems bound to plunge to frozen-meat and canning industry will be
the other extreme— democracy. and express itself in Chicagos
established,
Russiafree, and what she is free for
is of the East. The wool and horsehair of
is a much more interesting question than the innumerable herds of the nomads will
what she is free from. It is not a leisure find better markets. In commercial sig-
time in history, when we can afford to nificance what land can compare with
concern ourselves long with what has been Russia? Virginal America did not offer
and will be no more. It is a time of in- a richer return. Without a czar, Russia
creasing destruction, and the future which is the land of opportunity, and not onl\'
we keep in view is a future of the rebuild- the land of opportunity for Russians, but
ing of civilization. Russia's hour has for all enterprising peoples, British, Ger-
come, and she is put at large. All eyes mans, Belgians, Americans, Japanese. It

are upon her, expectant of various things is there, after the war, that the vultures

— of gain, of interest, of inspiration, of will be gathered together.


revenge. What, then, is to be her future? Of a surety, despite Russia's present
One of the first results will be a gen- wretched material state, she will become
eral rise in wages and an increase in the prosperous without parallel within ten
value of house property in the great cities. years of the corning of peace, attracting all

No discrimination is to be made in the speculators and investors and fortune-


rates of wages paid to Chinese and other seekers, the commercial counterbalance in
alien laborers. The war wage is higher the East of America in the West.
than has ever been known in Russia, a Possibly she may be more than that. If

ruble and a half, two, and even three ru- Russia decides to be free for all com-
bles a day being paid upon occasion for mercial enterprise, she should offer greater
unskilled labor. The old sixty-copecks-a- attractions than America. The flow of
day wage has vanished. Henceforth the European migration United States
to the
Russian working-man will be paid at the should turn the other way into Russia, and
same rate as his brother laborers in other a great cosmopolitanization of certain
European countries; and with the rise of parts of it America being fed
will set in.

Russian industry after the war, his wage merely from the British Isles and colonies,
should rise above even that level. and thus obtaining the necessary leisure to
One of the first meanings of free Rus- crystallize nationally and achieve her own
sia is that Russia has become free for com- cultural and spiritual ideals.
mercial exploitation. There is no longer Russia, if she chooses, can become a
the drag on business imposed by the old great business republic, at first thought an
regime. It will be possible to get the coal even greater one than that of the United
out of the ground, to lay the necessary States, because her population is better
464 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
spread over a vaster area, and she has statewhere she can be reasonably argued
ready access to the millions of China and with. But the Russian people as a whole
less prejudice against them. But one re- do want something better, and especially
sult of the revolution will be to draw back those idealists whose voice has arisen.
population from the remote parts of They did not pull down the fruitless czar-
Asiatic Russia, and cause an emptying in dom to install Mammon in its place. They
vast regions. want more spiritual kingdom.
a The
What sort of Russia would that be? It Russia which is now vocal is not middle-
would be gay and thrilling, very immoral, aged Russia. "Men" and "women" of
very extravagant. The music-halls of the age of twenty are to have a vote. It is
Moscow would outshine, with their star- young Russia, unmarried Russia; and
constellations, theColiseum and the Palace earnest youth is always a seeker of the
of London and the shows of Broadway
all ideal rather than of the material. The
in New York. There would be bosses and Russia of ideals and dreams, religious

trusts and Tammany and graft, and con- Russia, is more than ever to the fore. The

flicts against them, though the problems great coming clash is not of the "old
would be always greater and more com- regime," or royalism with liberals and
plex. A certain Anglo-Saxon genius for radicals. That old scenery can be swept
simplicity has stood America in good stead. from the arena. The clash will be be-
But there is no genius for simplicity in tween business and idealism^ between
Russia. The people love complexity. middle-aged Europe and young Russia,
Russian psychology must be taken into ac- but in any case between business and
count, and first and foremost comes this idealisnl
instinct for complexity, and with it an The Orthodox Church swings free of
anarchic temperament that loves to escape the state. The new procurator of the
from its own imbroglios by extreme action. Holy Synod is turning out all the cor-
There are, too, an extreme curiosity and rupt bishops and priests and bringing in the
wish to experience new things, an ad- earnest spiritual reformers. "The corner-
venturesomeness with regard to Provi- stone of my policy," says M. Vladimir
dence, lack of the power of moral re- Lvoff, "is the freedom of the church.
straint, and a Tatar instinct for spending The church will be disentangled from the
a long time over business. It will be a political system, and the state cease to have
Russia that will attract materialists, not power to interfere in the church system.
a Russia that will attract idealists. The The church must and will become free
czardom, putting itself first, army
the to arrange its own life." In brief, dis-
second, the church third, and commerce establishment.
fourth or fifth, at least exhibited to There lies no terror in disestablishment.

foreigners the ideal side of the Russian The church would lose some adherents to
people, and drew pilgrims from the West other sects, but its great natural strength
but the business republic would attract would be free to develop. The puritan
seekers after real, not after spiritual, gold. sects rise into prominence, though it should
The choice of taking this prosperity be borne in mind that the present revolu-
would seem obvious to the Western world. tion is not in any way due to them. They
And possibly Russia, seeking to identify arc too slight. But they have a root in

herself with the West, will take it. Great Russia, and their chapels will now spring
pressure will be brought on her to take it. into being in e\ei\ town. Literature,
Only the foundations of this material music, and fine art, with their source
prosperity would be laid by foreigners. in national religion, ought to develop
They could lay them, and start Russia on strongly, especially literature, which at

the road, and would be an immense ad-


it this moment is in a poor way and rather
vantage to them personally. Russia's huge below the general world standard. The
debts, moreover, place her in a subjective opinions of men like Prince Yevgeny
INSIDE RUSSIA 465
Trubetskoi, ]\Ierezhko\sk}-, and Bulgakof The new s\nthesis will be worked out
ought to count for more than they have by individual men, but necessarilj- also by
done in the past. And the change which nations. The collective voice of subject
the revolution has wrought in the destinies peoples will be heard. Finland may be-
of mankind brings to the fore the work come separate and cease to count-as Russia,
of the great philosopher Vladimir Solovyof but tlie otiier races cannot easily be elim-
with his vision of a united humanity and inated or obtain complete independence.
a universal church. There is no suggestion as yet from the
Russia has always wished to fashion Russian side of a complete liberation of
something new, to be something new in Poland. The Ukraine that is. Little —
humanity. Even its most ardent reformers Russia — is too much of one flesh with
have urged that they did not wish to fol- Greater Russia to be separated. And
low simply the example of the republics of what of Letts, Lithuanians, Armenians,
the West. They wished a new synthesis. Jews, Georgians, Persians, Ingooshi,
Now the political idealists are flocking Ossetines, Kirghiz, Turkomans, Sarts,
to Petrograd. There is a general amnesty Tatars, Bashkirs, Zirians, Samoyeds, to
to all who have suffered for the cause. mention only a few of the scores of races
Prison doors have opened, and every pro- in th e empire What of Siberia as a
i

vincial jail in Russia has discharged suf- separate interest, of the Caucasus as a
ferers. The penal prisons of Siberia, in- separate interest, of central Asia as a sepa-
cluding the famous Alexandrovsky Cen- rate interest?
tral, about which how many songs have Russia as a republic may be profitably
been composed, have been broken up. compared with the United States. There
Great numbers of vetchniki, or those serv- are as many varying races; and now that
ing life-sentences, have been redeemed. the czardom has gone, these races can no
The exiles from the fringes of the tundra, longer be looked upon as conquered or
beyond the arctic circle, and from all parts subject peoples. Their voices have full
of Siberia, are to come home. Red-Cross value. The difference is that in America
trains await them at the nearest railway there is an assumption that the diverse
stations. Finally, all those languishing Europeans entering the country are ready
through political fear in England, France, to give up their particular national feeling
Switzerland, America, and elsewhere have and sink everything in the common term
their passages paid. Lenine and his America. But in Russia there is no such
brother-socialists obtain a free pass from readiness to sink all in the common term
the kindly Germans that they may more Russia. The nations have geographical
swiftly pass to Petrograd to work for associations some have language and
;

peace. Russian socialists interned in Ger- culture. They are proud of their dis-
many may also obtain release. The tinctions. The territory of Russia is wide
voices of all these will count, for they have enough, not a little plot like Great
suffered. And they have not suffered in Britain where Scots and Welsh and
order that Russia may become a business English easily mingle. The smaller
republic, with commercial slavery or a peoples, moreover, live together; they are
militant empire enslaving other nations. not spread over the land and lost collec-
They have suffered for freedom, an al- tively as in the United States. The future
most mystical word in their hearts and of the Russian republic is therefore one in
souls. I do not think they merely want which nations as well as individual men
revenge. They are idealists, and their speak. Even if a United States of Rus-
force will be ranged against materialam- sia be realized, it could not be a United
bitionsand vulgar conceptions. But they States as in America, but must rather be
are bound to cause another great storm in a United Nations.
Russian opinion and public life next How much anxiety the Russian Revolu-
autumn, if not before. tion caused to those who knew Russia
466 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
But w+iat a strange and unexpected ex- of the "League of Peace," which has now
hilaration followed —a sort of relief from given way to the much more promising
war depression ! The most precious in- formulation of the "League of Nations."
heritance of the past was endangered in At the same time a ferment of republic-
Russia, but for Europe a new vision and anism threatens all the thrones in Europe.
promise was vouchsafed. Then for the It is generally realized that the barriers
first time one definitely understood that which keep nations apart must be removed.
death-sentence had been passed upon the But at the same time, owing to the ex-
old Europe; nothing could be patched up ample of affairs in Russia, it is realized
and allowed to revert to pre-war condi- that the nations are intent on keeping their
tions; the old had to pass away. It meant nationhood. The unity to which we are
almost inevitably the eventual fall of going forward is the unity of the recogni-
kaiserdom, also. Vast and potential tion and toleration of difference, love of
Russia had suddenly become material free difference, not the unity of reducing all

to be shaped, attendant upon creative to standard types.


destiny. It promised, and does promise, It may be remarked now how ill suited
that all Europe shall come to that same is the average British or German intel-

humble and subjective state, ready to be ligence to the new


accommodating task of
recast as something new. There becomes the new elements and expressing them in
possible a new vision for humanity, not all their complexity to make a great unity.
simply a vision of safety, for we do not The Teutonic race is naturally intolerant
really deeply care for safety, but a vision of other races. Possibly German intoler-

of a new and greater unity. ance will be blasted away by war and by
The problems of the new Russia are the wholesome lesson of the despised
monitions of the problem of the new- French beating them and by Russians beat-
Europe. There is the hope that after the ing them. But the British intelligence, ex-
war it may be possible for all our nations cept when modified by the sympathy of the
to think of Europe in a new way, to find Celt, is more inclined to simplify by break-
in the idea and name of Europe a com- ing or excluding than by understanding
mon spiritual and material interest to and including. Love and patience are re-
which all can be loyal. As the peoples of quired beyond all other qualities. The
Russia come to be to Russia, so may the Italians bring gifts of this kind, but, on
peoples of Europe, including Finland and the other hand, inherit bad traditions..

Ireland, be to Europe. Their consciousness is still in the old


The first days of. the war saw the great Europe, nourishing ideas of territorial ag-
affirmation of the sacredness of nationality. grandizement, and pursuing with that end
There followed a radical movement a steady, persistent, though secret diplo-
against nationality, inspired possibly by the macy. Because of the Italians, our sad
non-Zionist Jews, whose natural ideal is Balkan friends, who have suffered so
cosmopolitanism, mixed nationality, im- much, constantly tremble or are possessed
plying a mongrelization of races, one type', of hate. Even the unduly despised Greeks
one and everybody speaking Esper-
state, might join in the great understanding but
anto, much business, and no war. But the for fear of wolves in sheep's clothing.
idea of making Europe or Russia a melt- France is patient and tolerant though suf-
ing-pot for races was distasteful, and could fering, but even she nurses the need for
not have won its way. It was also not revenge. There remains Russia, and
practicable. The nations of Europe care turbulent though her conditions are, she
too much for their national culture and has yet the model psychology for the great
ideals to efface themselves, even were this problem. I do not speak of all her tribes,

war ten times the material calamity it is. some of which are savagely intolerant of
The conception, however, had attraction other people, but of the central Russian
for some. Its abortive expression was that race, which, after all, has the power in its
INSIDE RUSSIA 467
own hands and can arrange the home al- langu;ige will he one that embodies all the
most as it will. Russia loves complexit\- partial languages.
she is tolerant ; she is also profound in Russian social philosophs', moreover,
thought, not given to superficiality. She contemplates an all-inclusive human so-
has a far-reaching vision, and her church ciety, a true Catholicism, supported first

at least has for long been preoccupied with on the recognition and tolerance of all
the idea of the union of humanity. Pan- diversity of expression, the scaffolding of
human ideals have long since been ex- the City of God, built and cemented with
pressed, and many who died in their love and mutual enhancement. To say
struggle against the old czardom did so that we are all disjecta membra of Christ
not so much in the name of local freedom ismerely theology to us in the West but ;

and a partizan political view, as in the in the East it is a living daily under-
name of universal brotherhood. standing of our pathos on the road of
It is of course true that the phrase destiny. The vision is of a world republic.
"universal brotherhood" as used from No, of more than that: of a world church,
working-men's platforms is little more of all humanity as one in love and mutual
than the expression of a domestic senti- imderstanding and praise of God.
ment. The narrowness of the life and Because of this vision, which, even if
outlook of the poor workers' voicing it seen or realized only in a small part, is

evokes the scorn of the cultivated and the stupendous and greater than anything our
traveled, especially among our own peo- earthly records tell of in the past, the Rus-
ple. The same is true in Russia, w^here the sian Revolution is the first and most sig-«
working-man is more illiterate and nar- nificant solution that the war has caused.
rower in outlook than those of the same The League of Nations has been called
class in the West. But there is this great the germ of the super-state. The change
difference in Russia, that the idea of in the conditions of the Russian people
brotherhood, and even universal brother- reveals the possibility of an agreement and
hood, permeates all classes of society. And an understanding and a unity in pAirope.
in social, if not yet in political, relation- It is that which has given to the great de-
ships tolerance rules. Condemnation and structive calamity a new creative aspect.
exclusion, the boycott and the sending to The old must all be pulled down in order
Coventry, "cutting" and giving the cold that the new may be built.
shoulder, and even calling for punishment, To revert however to Russia, it may be
God's punishment, on the neighbor, are said that she is the hope of Europe. If
not frequent in the Russian vocabulary she settles her problems beautifully,
and literature. The Russian charity is an Europe may be trusted to do so also. But
almost all-inclusive charity. Hence at this if she becomes a prey to anarchy and
late era it is still possible for Russian so- disruption, is more devastated, and falls
cialists to dwell in a state of love and to pieces, Europe in future may be also
charity with their German confreres. "In one of extreme desolation and low life.
the future there will be one language," If she becomes a brassy, blatant business
says Solovyof ; "but it will not be an ex- state, Europe also will turn all her energies
clusive, but, rather, an all-inclusive, lan- to commerce, with trade-wars and bread-
guage, not an Esperanto or Volapiik, but wars following. For it is an error to sup-
a great and mighty organic language em- pose that separate republics are less capable
bodying all the partial languages men are of making war on one another than mon-
speaking." archies. If Germany becomes a business
He conceived this in the realm of ideals. republic and lives in a state of unreconciled
With regard to our ideals, we babble in spiritual and material interest with her
little selfish tongues, not understanding neighbors, she will make war again and
one another but when the ideals
; of man- more successfully. Russia has the role of
kind are made common for all, the new saving the prologue of the new drama.
468 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Rightly understood, the prologue fore- ings and formations not lost in the dis-
shadows what the story is, and the five cipline and rigidity of ordinary socialism,

acts following it tell it at more length and Russia the God-bearer, as Dostoyevsky
make the substance of it. It is as yet un- called her, giving to Europe the marvel-
decided ; nothing is clear except the ma- ous Christ-child.
terial out of which the new m-ust emerge. It is by faith that all who love Russia
The great hope is that Russia will show us can see her new. Destiny is in our keep-
a new experiment in democracy, and that ing, in our hearts. As we look creatively
there may be a further realization of the on chaos, there arises and form.
shape
complex and beautiful genius of the peo- And looking creatively whereas
is love,

ple. We may see in the course of time looking destructively is hate, idealism, and
something without counterpart in the old, criticism, the substance of peace and the

not merely the realization of some West- substance of war. And after the greatest
ern idea of government such as republican- period of destruction and dissolution comes
ism or socialism not merely the culmina-
; naturally the greatest reaction toward con-
tion of opportunism and selfishness, a struction and unity that humanity has ever
business state ; but the birth of a new child, known. Hence the vision. It may be
a new body with its dreams and
politic, merely the vision in a dream. Mankind
daring, itsand splendor. And that
vision has ever lived for dreams and visions, and
which is best and truest in Russia will expected the outside, varying world to con-
come forth and have the pride of place. form to its ideal. In the past it has al-
Nothing beautiful of the old will be lost: ways failed to conform. But if the world
it will be carried on into the new, re- must be desolate, and the altar on which
dreamed, refound, reexpressed, its Christi- we sacrifice show itself merely as a sense-
anity not failing ; its literature and art not less, all-devouring bonfire ; if Russia, in-
failing; its brotherliness, frankness, and stead of showing external unity, be swept
generosity not failing; its colors not lost by anarchy or become a Mammon-serving
in mere republican grayness; its com- state, the dream will remain. Humanity
plexity of form and genius for new group- has at least been united in one heart.
Dm Ml b> I I ub I
p

A HI bilk bTKLLT CKOWIJ

The Picturesque Ghetto


By HUTCH K\S HAPGOOD
Illustrations by Jacob Epstein

THEwith when it is approached


Ghetto,
sympathy and understanding,
stern realist in literature, of the school of
Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky; or, on the other
becomes a place rich in meaning and in a hand, an untutored actor, sweat-shop
certain kind of beauty. worker, or street-merchant, he is always
An intense seriousness is the dominant serious. Every face seen in the Ghetto is
quality of the Ghetto Jew. He is serious picturesquely serious; some express the
in thought, in literature, in business, and solemnity of religion or of thought, some
in relaxation. Whether he is an old Tal- the melancholy of fatigue or longing:
mudic scholar, with the feeling for the the same intensity that some put into the
holiness of his disinterested passion en- interpretation of the holy law others put
graved upon his face a rabbi whose soul; into business. The new Ghetto is in-

is devoted to an interpretation of the law


;
tensely interested in becoming American,
a starving, but impassioned, poet in the is enjoying feverishly a municipal life, is

ancient Hebrew; a stormy socialist; a becoming "successful." The old Ghetto


469
470 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
ing hard all day, in serious
conversations in which there is

no lightness or humor, al-


though there may be, and often
is, a sense of the incongruous
or of the ridiculous.
An understanding of the
Ghetto such as that expressed
by Jacob Epstein's drawings
would not, therefore, add at
all to the gaiety of life, nor to
what is charming and delicate
and suggestive. And yet the
Ghetto has a message, and a
very important one, for us
Anglo-Saxon Americans. For
in our life there is a great deal
of what seems unreal to the

Drawn by
Lcob Epstein.

ngraved by
^ >^ R.C. Collins

THE SHOP

puts the same emotional force into an


advocacy of the old culture and the old
\ /\-
religion; while the "intellectuals" strive
passionately to further their almost re-
ligious ideas in society or literature. .^
Americans are accustomed to say that
nothing can be really good that does not
show a "sense of humor." A person who,
no matter what his defects may be, has
that irradiating light, is saved, and it is

that quality in a book which we pick out


with perhaps the greatest approval. But
the serious Ghetto is entirely lacking in
the genial sense of humor. The Russian
Jews do not know how to play, either
physically or intellectually. There is no
play in their art, their literature, or their
life. They do not understand what is Russian Jew. Our attitude toward books
light and graceful. Charm of the mere and plays is a striking instance. We regard
evanescent kind, the charm of the nuance, such things as mere sources of amusement,
is lacking. The spirit and the art of the to be enjoyed after tlie day's work is
Japanese are the opposites of tlie spirit clone. It is not only "the crowd" who
and the art of the Ghetto Jew. The young look in this way upon art and literature,

men of the Ghetto those of the intellec- but the greater number of educated and
tual type — pass their nights, after work- refinetl people. They read and go to the
THE PICTURESQUE GHETTO 471

theater for relaxation, not to learn more,


throut^h the medium of art, about the
"strange rh\ thm of life." The serious
and intense Ghetto Jew, on the other
hand, seeks the intense joy of ideas.

Every season many plays are given at the


lowly Yiddish theaters on the Bower\-
which are genuine "criticisms of life":
realistic pieces portraying contemporary
manners and customs, showing how the
poor Ghetto Jews live, what their prob-
lems, their ideals, are, plays w^itnessed, in
large measure, by very poor people in-
deed, but people who, although they en-
joy comic buffoonery, also enjoy still more
a faithful picture of their lives. And the
plays are acted directly and simply, with-
out aft'ectation. Would it not be well if,
Drawn by Jacob Kpstein.
Half-tone plate engraved by R. C. Collins
atour fashionable theaters on Broadway,
ON THE K\E OH THE CHANUKAI
we had plays which seriously sought to
give a picture of New York society in the
larger sense of that word? upon him by the old Ital-
D'Annunzio, writing in "II Trionfo ian city of Orvieto, says
della Morte" of the impression made that the which
thing
seemed alive was the architecture,
and that the dead things were the
people. That is largely true of
Italy in remnants of
general : the
the old civilization are vital and
beautiful, the actual men and wo-
men one sees seem dead. New York
is just the opposite. It is impossible
to see there a really beautiful monu-
ment, but what a wealth of human
beings! If one has the talent for
knowing people of all sorts, one may
never lack color, picturesqueness,
and charm in New York. There
are infinite variety, vitality, and life.

And in a city so peculiarly rich in


interesting persons, perhaps the quar-
ter which is richer than any other is

the Ghetto. The volume of life


there is enormous. One may follow
back the threads into indefinite his-

tory, — that is a charm in addition,


but the contemporaneous thing, the
way the old culture meets and strives
with the new ideas, the conflict be-
tween Old World and New World
lb Epstein. Halftone plate euaraved by C. \V. Chad« conceptions of literature and life, the

TELLING FORTUNES WITH RATS processes of adjustment to our spe-


It. ilitt-cunvedby U M Lewis
A I'UI.ITICAL niSCLSSlOM AT 1 .DLPLNDLM CAl L ON OKAND STKLI 1

cial American conditions, with the later makes no attempt to say the agreeable
and SociaUstic difficulties involved this is — thing, and is much hated in consequence
a state which gives birth to a very large by easy-going, sensitive, or lazy persons.
number of forcible, vehement, and most Much of his picturesqueness is due not.

interesting personalities, and creates a of course, to his rudeness, but to his rather
milieu which is, in the most profound sense thorny individualism — an individualism
of the word, picturesque. The element of which leads, however, to some rather seri-

melancholy, a quality always expressed in ous drawbacks, as well as advantages,


the paintings and literature of the quarter, when he is regarded in the light of an
adds to this picturesqueness ; for it lends American citizen. He is so independent
to it sympathy and pathos. To an\' one that he will follow no leader. Political
who has met some of the beautiful old organization in the (ihetto is, therefore,
scholars of the Ghetto, the horrors at a difficult affair; for e\'ery Jew follows
Kishinef and elsewhere, suggesting as they his own lead.
do that some of these remarkable men may In America tlie Jews stand on the
have been included among the victims, threshold of full participation in the na-
seem peculiarly terrible for no one wants
; tional life. The result is that there is a
to lose from the world a fine thing. modern "awakening" in tlie Ghetto which
One of the most noticeable characteris- is similar to, and yet very different from,
tics of a —
Ghetto Jew perhaps of any Jew the spirit of the early Renaissance. There
— is an extreme individualism. He lacks are the same eagerness and acquisitiveness,
smoothness to a remarkable degree, and the same energy; but the hopefulness,
in manners he is peculiarly deficient: he lightness, and grace in art and character.

472
A SWEAT-S

the sense of plastic beauty-, so charming in whether he be push-cart peddler, scholar,


fifteenth-centur}^ Italian civilization, are or worsliiper in the synagogue. The spirit
lacking to make the parallel with the of the Ghetto is the spirit of seriousness,
Ghetto complete. About even the most of melancholy, of a high idealism, which,
modern, energetic, and Americanized Jev\^, when interpreted by the sympathetic artist,
full of push, there is yet something melan- illumines even the sweat-shop, the push-
choly, something suggestive of their sad cart market, and the ambitious business
historw This is even more noticeable in man. This combination of the highly
the "real" Jew, he who remains stead- ideal with the highly worldly is, when seen
fastly faithful to the spirit of the old cul- from a disinterested point of view, deeply
ture. This is the Jew of our illustrations, picturesque.

A HUSTliK STKHtT MAKKl


Prohibition and Poetry in the Last Century
By MARGARET ARMSTRONG
NOT long ago I

dreds of shabby
came
little
across some hun-
books of poe-
comic, though of course
very last thing they had in mind.
humor was the
In
try, all American and most of them writ- fact, the absence of humor and the pres-
ten in the sixties, herded together on the ence of a moral are the commonest char-
shelves of a large library. They are dingy acteristics of the species. "Poems moral
little volumes, bound cheaply in that hard religious and sentimental, calculated to
cloth of pebble-goat texture so unsympa- refine the taste, elevate the mind and at-
thetic to the touch ; their sides are still tract the attention of the youth of both
crudely tinted with magenta or mazarine- sexes," the title of a purple booklet even,
blue, stamped with some trite ornament more anemic than its fellows sums up the
such as a harp or a bird but their backs
; predilections of the day, for a touch of
have faded to a sickly drab, and the names reproof or advice, if not a complete poetic
of the long- forgotten authors are almost homily, was evidently essential.
illegible. Reproof is plentiful: "To a young Wo-
The contents looked as dull as the bind- man who wore her dress extremely low
ing, but as I turned the yellowing pages I on the Breast and Shoulders"; "On being
found myself pausing more and more often disgusted with the Tobacco Spitters in the
to read, or, rather, to smile, for these poor Methodist Church, \'icksburg, by a Gen-
little poets were often unconsciously tleman of Nature"; "Lines to a Clergy-
IN LIGHTER VEIN 475

man in consequence of his asseitinji that advantages of getting a fashionable daugh-


the Piety of Woman was of little avail ter of? his hands. Incidentally he drinks.
being always the result of disappoint-
Her father laughed as the wine he quaff'd,
ment." These last verses betray a not 'T was more than mere pretenses,
unnatural feminine impatience. For he felt that he was now to be
Advice is also abimdant. The "Eleg}' Released from her expenses.
to a young Lady, advising her not to seek
a cure for Love in Dissipation," is thor- In another tale less flowing in style,
oughly sensible, as are also the lines "To called "Eternity's Shore" for no reason
Mrs. Page of Rosewell who averred that that I could discover, we find a like dis-
Poetry was inconsistent with a Wedded approval of the smart set as seen at Flo-
Life.'' reen Park, which must have been a fine
But unquestionably it was the moral we gather that they
establishment, for
tale in verse, long drawn out, that really
kept a butler.
stirred the last generation. Novels were
The door was soon opened by a man
still taboo in middle-class American so-
strangely dressed.
ciety fifty years ago, as we find indicated

in more than one poem. "Novels not With short coat, and short pants and gold
buttons on his vest.
mental food, or the poisoned Ewe-Lamb,"
is the title of a horrid little poem by
Eaglesfield Smith, author of a "Lullaby
As usual in these fashionable circles the
master of the house is a wine-bibber.
to a Lady of Fashion." It portrays the

lamb's death with brutal realism Mr. Alphonsus Bull Is as merry as a king.

"Let us drink," says he, "and our sorrows


The poison soon began t' inflame.
to the winds let us fling."
And agonize the swollen frame;
She wildly ran and fiercely cried.
These are not, however, true temper-
Then feeble grew and gasping died.
ance tales, nor can we include the many
short poems on the subject, such as "The
Another author, with the uncommon Little Sup," or "The Address to the Ten
name of Refine Weekes, expresses the Thousand Drunkards of New York";
same sentiments: but the volume called "High-toned Sprees"
is a wonderful collection of short stories.
By novels that the path of virtue stain-
The annals of "Spoon River" seem tame
By books alluring to a great degree
when we scan the table of contents in this
Of darkness, vice and Infidelity,
neat, brown book, written in 1874:
That draw the minds of the unguarded youth
From the sublime enjoyments of the truth. The Engineer on a High-toned Spree.
The Minister on a High-toned Spree.
The Spruce Young Man on a High-toned
Evidently the pill of fiction had to be
Spree,
disguised in the jelly of morality rather
than the other w^ay about.
and many other members of society too
The evil of intemperance was the favor-
numerous to mention. "The Lady on a
ite subject of these poetical uplifters.
High-toned Spree" is one of the most
Sometimes was only lightly
the string
graphic.
touched, as in the romance "Ten Scenes
in the Life of a Lady of Fashion," writ- A lady of exalted mind

ten in 1862, which ends with the descrip- A lover seeks, wise and refined

tion of a wedding. Fashion, that bugbear Scott's novels, Shakespeare's mirthful plays.

of fifty years ago, has so hardened the Sage Milton's high exalted lays
heart of the heroine's father that he sees Each standard work of prose and verse
nothing in the solemn occasion but the He nuist be able to rehearse.
476 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Her standard is so high that we are not He 's brave and he 's handsome, the best
surprised to find that she is disappointed one of all

in her final choice. She seeks consolation The valiant coterie that ever did call.

first in tobacco and then in drink. He sings from best poets the sweetest of
songs.
She smokes and spits tobacco juice;
He never was guilty of criminal wrongs."
She chews and spits very profuse,
The pastor's own parlor was cheerful and
And thus her home keeps brown and sear,
bright.
Like dying autumn all the year.
Adelia and Jurist were wedded all right.
Then still more vigor to supply
A little brandy thinks she '11 try.
But the mother's doubts were justified.
Harder she smokes and chews and drinks.
Till on the floor senseless she sinks! Adelia toiled faithful to have a good home,
Such is the disenchantment drear, While Jurist drank freely and went forth
Of whisky, gin and larger beer. to roam.
He mixed ale and porter, wine, brandy and
The experiences of "The Captain on a
beer;
High-toned Spree" are even more terrible.
They boiled in his stomach, the riot was
The Captain on the dark blue sea, near.
Far from his home and family,
No crystal stream sees bright and clear,
Jurist's character is well summed up in
No purling fount salutes his ear,
these pithy lines:
Sees no green fields nor blooming flowers
To cheer his weary lonely hours. He would leave pastures fresh and green.
"What can," he asks, "make full amends He had good sense but would act mean.
For loss of these familiar friends?

A little gin suppose I sip." But despite everything, for some time
He does, at first with dainty lip; Adelia does not despair.
Soon more he craves — yes, does require.
"Fire! fire! here! here! the ship 's on fire!" While life remains there still is hope
Where are the men? Half drunk on deck. That erring ones will cease to tope.
Too late they rouse to save from wreck.
They 're plunged beneath the raging deep, But even with the consolations of drink
Where whales and sharks their vigils keep. home life proves too dull for Jurist, who
is evidently a good mixer.
By same author we have "The Ma-
the
ple Dell of '76." This little book, with a You scarce could find a sprucer beau
maple leaf stamped on the cover, is still From pine-clad Maine to Mexico.
to be found in village homes, for I happen The bon ton guests delighted hark
to know that it was peddled from door to While he sings gay as summer lark.
door through New Jersey, probably by the The creme de la creme laugh
author. It begins rather abruptly Over the alcohol they quaff,

The eve before marriage a good mother


said: and soon his lawful wife ceases to charm
Adelia, wait longer, 't is solemn to wed. him.

She never in the woods at dark


But Adelia is sure that her choice, a law-
Could study Botany and spark,
yer with the odd name of Jurist, is all

that he should be.


and he makes up to a gayer lady.
"Please give your consent, and his fortunes

I '11 try. Delilah lively as a hawk


He never will cause me to famish and sigh. With her he took the inside walk.
IN LIGHTER VEIN 477

To her he sings a serenade called "The Hut matters are even worse when he
Lawyer's Vesperee in the Maple Dell": presumably gets out of cash, stops "chap-
eroning on," and returns home.
Awake my love to Jersey hie,
While clouds are in the midnight sky. He came in boisterous from the street,
Rabid with whisky's boiling heat;
Our night will change to nuptial day
With Cupid on the Newark Bay. The large round oaths were on his tongue.
The broken chairs around were flung,
The burning lamp dropped on the floor,
Delilah's "Vesperee' less passionate,
The batter smeared the wall and door;
hut much to the point The dining table lost a leaf.
Chaos reigned in that house of grief.
Amply for me you '11 provide.
She begged and prayed him to desist.
I 'm so happy at your side.
But he was in a whisky mist.
He caused an injury severe,
and Jurist invites her to accompany him That troubled her year after year.
to the Centennial in an alluring "Mati- Made organs from their place depart,
nee" : That needed Esculapian art.

We '11 go to Fairmount Park and see


Further on we read that on another oc
Our nation hold its Jubilee.
casion he again
We '11 make a long delightful call
Within each exhibition hall. Dropped burning lamps upon the floor,
Give Adelia fits of mania Brought loaded pistols through the door,
Ring the bells of Pennsylvania. Then hired Henr>' Santica
To help Adelia move away.

While this reprehensible couple are A foot-note tells us that Henry Santica
amusing themselves in Philadelphia Adelia was "A respectable colored man, whose
is having a hard time, for Jurist has been occupation was that of a carter."
"providing" so liberally for Delilah that The narrative meanders on for many
the food at home is very, very bad. tragic pages, and the moral is, of course,
as Adelia truly says:
Sometimes it was a putrid waste
No chemist could restore its taste.
Alas when doings of wine and gin

From mouldy wheat she could not bake Thus separate the nearest kin.

Good bread or nice soft ginger-cake.


Let us wind up these temperance teach-
In fruit all sickly with decay
ings with some good advice from still an-
Nectarious virtues would not stay.
other of the very minor poets whom we
It was the lawyer's legal scheme
have been discussing:
To bury her in Lethe's stream.
While he went chaperoning on Keep regular hours — the wise and good live

Am.id the gayest festal throng mostly in the light,

Herself and child were left alone While vice, and crime, and fashion hold their
To nibble on a crust and bone. orgies in the night.
478 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE

The Hall of Infamy


Jominations in verse by W. R. BURLINGAME
Seconded in charcoal by W. E. HILL

/
I. THE MAN WHO SHOUTS AT THE WAITER

THIS person I abominate. The Hall of Infamy, I trust,


He what 's on his plate
will not eat Will soon contain this person's bust,
But bellows with Gargantuan roar And underneath the words he used
Remarks I never heard before. To waiters whom he thus abused.

He stamps his feet, blasphemes, and frets, And we shall guard tiiese words of rage
And calls the waiter epithets. From those of tender sex and age,
And terrifies him so that he And those for whom it is not fit
Forgets to come and wait on me. Shall not be let to look at it.
IN LIGHTER VEIN 479

II. THE PEOPLE WHO ASK YOU IN'FORMALLY'

Observe the persons here portrayed \Vhen asked informally, that I


In faultless evening dress arrayed Should wear my pink and striped tie.

Upon my right and left, while I


Have on my pink and striped tie. When I am very great and rich
I '11 dedicate a special niche
If Ihad painted cubist screens Within the Hall of Infamy
Or done free verse for magazines, To hosts who dine informally.
Perchance it would not seem amiss
For me to come in garb lilce this. For every host a bust will be,
And they shall all be dressed like me,
Vet, though I am a simple soul. And I shall gaze in hurt surprise
It had not struck mv sense as droll. Upon tiieir pink and striped ties.
480 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE

The Great Big Man and the Wee Little Girl

By F. GREGORY HARTSWICK

THEDanced great big man and the wee little girl


through the long December night.
Her hair had the tiniest bit of a curl;
Her cheeks were pink and her eyes were bright;
And the things she said were uncommonl.v trite
(They had you see),
just been introduced,
And she mentally classed him as "rather nice"
And forgot about him in half a trice.
But, fairy slipper and feathery fan,
She danced through the dreams of the great big man.

The great big man and the wee little girl

Strolled through the moon-drenched June-time night;


And the lake was a mixture of jade and pearl.
And summer-time troths are easy to plight,
And kisses and kisses m.ore kisses invite
(They had known each other six months, you see),
And she said that she loved him, and made him stop.
And went to bed and slept like a top.
But the big man tramped till the night was gone
And shouted his joy to the coming dawn.

The wee little girl and the great big man


Stood in the mellow October night.
And she said she was sorry the thing began.
And she said she hoped she was doing right;
But as for her it was finished— quite
(The engagement had lasted three months, you see).
And he kissed her once for old times' sake.
And he said, "Oh, well, another mistake,"
And forgot the affair with. a laugh and a song.
But the wee little girl cried all night long.

THE UEVINNK PKESS. NEW


"'TIIENf IIAVK THE KINDNESS TO INFORM MK . . . W 1 1 V MARIAN
HAS CONSENTED TO MARRY ME'"
I'AINTKD FOR THE CJ-WTVRV BY NORMAN l'KU:i-;

lUustratiiig " The Second Fiddle"


THE CENTURY
Vol. 94 AUGUST, i9'' No. 4

V
isks^

The Second Fiddle


By PHYLLIS BOTTOAIE
Author of " The Dark Tower," etc.

Illustrations by Norman Price

Part I. Chapter I

ON the whole, Stella preferred the Ex-


press Dairy Company A. B. C. to the
distinguished both her utterances and her
actions, that if she did n't hear Chaliapine
It was a shade more expensiva, but if you she would die. He was like an ache in

ate less and liked it more, that was your her bones.
own affair. You were waited on with Eurydice had never discovered that you
more arrogance and less speed, but you cannot always do what you want or have
made up for that artistically by an evasion what you very ardently wish to have. She
of visible grossness. believed that disappointment was a coin-
Stella had never gone very much further cidence or a lack of fervency, and she set
than a ham sandwich in either place. You herself before each obstacle to her will like

knew where you were with a ham sand- the prophets of Baal before their deaf god.
wich, and you could disguise it with mus- She cut herself with knives till the blood
tard. ran.
On this occasion she took a cup of tea Stella hovered anxiously by her side,

and made her meal an amalgamation. She stanching, whenever she was able, the
hoped to leave work early, and she would flowing of Eurydice's blood. On this oc-

have no time for tea. She was going to casion she had only to provide seven shil-
hear Chaliapine. lings and to make, what cost her consider-
All London — all the London, that is, ably more, a request to Mr. Leslie Travers
which thinks of itself as London— was rav- to let her off at five.

ing about Chaliapine ; but Stella in general Mr. Leslie Travers had eyed her with
neitherknew nor cared for the ravings of the surprise of a man who runs a perfect
London. They reached her as vaguely as machine and feels it pause beneath his
the sound of breaking surf reaches the fingers. He could not remember that
denizens of the deeper seas. Stella Waring had ever made such a re-
It was her sister Eurydice who had quest before.
brought Chaliapine hom.e to her. She had Her hours were from nine to five daily,
said plainly, with that intensity which but automatically, with the pressure of her
Copyright, 191;, by THE CENTUKY Co. ghts reserved.

481
482 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
work and the increase of her usefulness, moment, her eyes seemed to say, "It must
they had stretched to six or seven. be nice for you, then, that I never do
Mr. Travers had never intended
Leslie what I ought." Then she drew her sec-
to have a woman
secretary, but during the retarial manner like a veil over her face.
illness of a competent clerk he had been "You will find the drainage papers for
obliged to take a stop-gap. Miss Waring Stafford Street in the second pigeonhole
had appeared on a busy morning with ex- on your desk," she said sedately, "with the
cellent testimonials and a quiet manner. inspector's report. I have put the plumb-

He told her a little shortly that he did not er's estimate with it, and added a few

want a woman in his office. Her fine, marginal notes where I think their charges
humorous eyebrows moved upward, and might be cut down."
her speculative gray eyes rested curiously "You had better see them about it your-
upon his irritable brown ones. self," said Mr. Travers; "then there won't

"But I am a worker," she said gently. be any unpleasantness."


"If I can do your work, it is my own He did not mean to be polite to Stella;
business whether I am a man or a woman. he merely stated a convenient fact. When
You shall not notice it." Stella saw people on business there was no
Mr. Travers felt confused for a moment unpleasantness.
and as if he had been impertinent. In the Stella bowed, and left him.
course of a strenuous and successful life Mr. Travers looked up for a moment
he had never felt impertinent; he believed after she had gone. "I am not sure," he
it to be a quality found only in underlings. said to himself, "that there are not some
He stared, cleared his throat, read her things women can do better than men
testimonials, and temporarily engaged her. when they do not know that they are
That was two years ago. doing them better." He did not like to
Miss Waring had kept her promise she ; think that women had
any superior mental
was a worker and not a woman. She took qualities to those of men, but he put them
pleasure in keeping her wits about her, down to mother wit, which does not sound
and Mr. Travers used them as if they superior.
were his own. Sometimes he thought they Stella went through the outer office on
were. wings. They were all her friends there;
She had many agreeable points besides her exits and her entrances were the events
her wits, but they were the only point the lesser clerks liked best during the day.
she gave to Mr. Travers to notice. She Her smile soothed their feelings, and in
deliberately suppressed her charm. She her eyes reigned always that other Stella
reduced his work by one half; he never who lived behind her wits, a gay, serene,
had to say, "You ought to have asked me and friendly Stella, who did not know
this," or, "You need n't have brought me that she was a lady and never forgot that
that." Her initiative matched her judg- she was a human being.
ment. Theoretically there is nothing but busi-
It did not occur to Mr. Travers to ness in a business office, but practically in
praise her for this most unusual quality, every smallest detail there is the pressure
but he paid her the finest tribute of an of personal influence. What gets done or,
efficient worker: he gave her more to do. even more noticeably, what is left un-
He woke up to that fact when she tenta- done is poised upon an inadmissible prin-
tively asked him if he could make it con- ciple, the desire to please.
venient for her to leave at five. The
office watched Stella, tested her,

"Five," he said, "is your hour for leav- judged her, and once and for all made up
ing this office. Of
course you may go its mind to please her.
then. You ought
always to do so." Stella knew nothing at all about this
A vague smile hovered about Stella's probation. She knew only all about the
lips; she looked at him consideringly for a office boy's mother, and where the girl
THE SECOND FIDDLE 483
typists spent their holidays, and when, if drama; and the moment the town hall
all went well, Mr. Belk would be able door swung behind her she forgot her
to marry his young lady. Mistakes and municipal juggling and started the drama
panic, telegrams and telephones, slipped of play.

"A PROCLAMATION WAS READ BY iHAT PERSON FROM A BEDIZENED BAIXONY"

into her hands, and were unraveled with On Thursday afternoon she stood for a
the rapidity with which silk yields to moment considering her course. There
expert fingers. She always made the was the Underground, which was always
stupidest clerk feel that mistakes, like the quickest, or there was the drive above the
bites of a mosquito, might happen to any golden summer on the swinging
dust
one, even while she was making him see height of a motor-bus. She decided upon
how to avoid" them in future. She had the second alternative, and slipped into
the touch which takes the sting from small infinity. She was cut off from duty, sur-
personal defeats. She always saw the rounded by strangers, unmoored from her
person first and the defeat afterward. niche in the world.
Her day's work was a game of patience This was the moment of her day which
and and she played it as she used to
skill, Stella liked best ; in it she could lose her
play chess with her father. It was a long own identity. She let her hands rest on
game and sometimes it was a tiring one. her lap and her eyes on the soft green of
but hardly a moment of it was not sheer the new-born leaves. She hung balanced
484 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
on her wooden seat between earth and me. I got a messenger-boy to stand here
sky, on her way to Russian music. for an hour to keep your place. The
The brief and tragic youth of London suspense has been agony, like waiting for
trees was at its loveliest. Kensington the guillotine."
Gardens poured past her as liquid as "But, O Eurydice dear, I do hope you
golden flame. The grass was as fresh as will enjoy it!" Stella pleaded.
the grass of summer fields, swallows flitted "I shall enjoy it, yes," said Eurydice,
over it, and the broad-shouldered elms gloomily, "if I can bear it. I don't sup-
were wrapped delicately in a mist of green. pose you understand, but when you feel
Hyde Park corner floated beneath her; things as poignantly as I do, almost any-
the bronze horses of Victory, compact and thing is like the guillotine. It is the death
sturdy, trundled out of a cloudless sky. of something, even if it 's only suspense.
St. George's Hospital, sun-baked and Besides, he may not be what I think him.
brown, glowed like an ancient palace of I expect the opening of heaven."
the Renaissance. The traffic surged down Eurydice usually expected heaven to
Hamilton Place and along Piccadilly as open, and this is sometimes rather hard
close packed as migratory birds. The upon the openings of less grandiose places.
tower of Westminster Cathedral dropped A stout woman in purple raised an effi-

its alien height into an Italian blue sky cient elbow like an oar and dug it sharply
across the vista of Green Park and all into Stella's side.
down Piccadilly the clubs flashed past "O Stella, would n't it be awful if I

her, vast, silver spaces of comfort reserved fainted before the door opens!" whispered
for men, full of men. Stella did not Eurydice.
know very much about men who lived "The doors are opening," said Stella.
in clubs. Cicely were very
said they "People have begun to plunge with um-
wicked and danced the tango and did n't brellas."
want women to have votes but Stella ; The purple woman renewed her rowing
thought they looked as if they had very motion ; the patient queue expanded like a
good shoulders. Probably she would see fan. Stella moved forward in the throng.
some of them less kaleidoscopically at the She was pushed and elbowed, lifted and
opera later. driven, but she never stopped being aware
Even men who danced the tango went of delight. She watched the faces sweep-
to hear Chaliapine. It was not only his ing past her like petals on a stream ; she
voice; he was a rage, a prairie fire. All flung down her half-crowns and seized her
other conversation became burned stubble metal disks, dashing on and up the narrow
name.
at his stairs,with Eurydice fiercely struggling
The City was very hot, and all the behind her like a creature in danger of
world was in the streets, expansive and drowning.
genial. Piccadilly Circus shot past her They sprang up and over the back
like a bed of flowers. It was the hour ledges of the gallery on into the first row,
when work draws to an end and night is breathless, gasping, and victorious.
still far of¥. Pleasure had stretched down "How horrible people are!" gasped
the scale and included workers. People Eurydice. "Dozens of brutal men have
who did not dance the tango bought straw- stepped on my toe. Your hat 's crooked.
berries and flowers off barrows for wonder- Is anything worth this dreadful mingling
ful prices to take home to their children. with a mob ?"
In the queue extending half-way down "Does one mingle really?" asked Stella,
Drury Lane Eurydice, passionate and taking off her hat. "Only one's shoulders.
heavy-eyed, was waiting for Stella. Besides, I think I rather like mobs if they
"If you had n't come soon," she said, are n't purple and don't dig. I 've just
drawing Stella's arm through her own, been thinking how dull it must be to walk
"something awful would have happened to into a box having done nothing but pay for
THE SECOND FIDDLE 485
it, and knowing, too, you are going to petual music of the Slav, ungovernably
get it ! The lady beside me has been to tragic and insecure. The people were a
every opera this season. She sits on a restless,barbaric crowd, beyond or beneath
camp-stool from two o'clock till eight with morality religious, incalculably led by
;

milk chocolate, and knows every one's sensation. They could be unimaginably
name and all the motives and most of the cruel or sweep magnificently up the paths
scores. going to lend me this one.
She 's of holiness. The steep ascent to heaven
She says the excitement of not knowing was in their eyes, and they got drunk to
whether she is going to get a front seat attain it.

or not has never palled." The English audience watched them as


The great opera-house filled slowlw if they were looking at a fairy-tale. They
There was splendor in it — the splendor were a well-fed, provided-for, complacent
put on for the occasion in the cheaper audience. drunk, it was an
If they got

seats, and every-day splendor taking its accident, and none of them had ever been
place later and more expensively because holy. They had never been under the
it did not know how to be anything else but heels of tyranny or long without a meal.
splendid. They took for granted food, water, light,
Women's dresses that summer were and fuel. They began to live where the
made as much as possible to resemble Russian peasant planted his dreams of
underclothes. From the waist upward heaven. Death was their only uncertainty,
filmy specimens of petticoat bodices ap- and it was hidden behind the baffling in-
peared were wonderful jewels to
; there sincerities of doctors and nurses. It did
be seen above them immemorial family : not take them on the raw.
jewels, collars of rubies and pearls. The The crowd upon the stage became sud-
older the woman, the finer the jewels, and denly shaken into movement. Then fires

the more they looked like ancient mosaics were lighted, bells rang, food was carried
glimmering archaically in early Roman about in processions. Cossacks with long
churches. knouts struck back the dazzled, scattering
The safety curtain was let down reassur- people. A
proclamation was read by a
ingly before a bored audience that was not great person from a bedizened balcony.
afraid of fires. Stella knew no Russian ; she had no
Some one on the left of Stella remarked idea that anything w^orse could happen to
that there was a rumor that the Crown this seriously broken people ruled by
Prince and Princess of Austria had been knouts. But there was still something
assassinated in Serbia. It did not sound that could happen: this proclamation
very likely. Eurydice flung herself for- touched their religion.
ward she hung over the ledge, poised like
;
seemed that they actually had a pos-
It

an exultant Fury. She dared life to dis- session that they were n't prepared to let
appoint her. go. They could let their daughters and
Then the real curtain rose. The Rus- sons go, their houses and their lives; but
sian music began — fiery, melancholy music, there was something they held on to and
drunk with sorrow. refused to renounce.
Stella leaned back in her seat with a Then
Chaliapine entered.
little thrill of excitement. Everything Eurydice gave a long gasp of emotion,
felt so safe, and sorrow sounded beautiful and sank silently into her dream no more ;

and far off. could be expected of her as a companion.


Stella endeavored to be more critical.
CHAPTER II
She felt at once that Chaliapine's power
The curtain lifted, and civilization swung was n't his voice. It was a fine, controlled
back. They were in Russia in the twelfth voice, seemed more resonant and alive
it

century — or any other time. It hardly than any other in the company, and vastly
mattered when the music was the per-
; easier ; but his genius was behind his voice.
486 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
It was not merely hi acting, though im- man in the early thirties, but he had made
mediately every one else on the stage ap- his place in the world. He looked as
peared to be acting, and Chaliapine alone secure as royalty. With a strange little
was real. thrill that was almost resentment Stella
Jt consisted, Stella felt, in that very realized that she knew the woman beside
uncontrollable something that tyrants can- him. Marian sat there very straight and
not kill, that circumstances do not touch, slim in the guarded radiance of her youth,
that surmounts every stroke of fate, and as intact as some precious ivory in a
is the residuum which faces death. There museum. She was Stella's greatest friend ;

was a little more of it in Chaliapine than that is to say, she gave to her the great-
thereis in most people. est amount of pleasure procurable in
She tried to follow the score of "Boris her life.

Godonof " it was not easy music, and


; Stella could not have told why her heart
the story hardly seemed to matter. sprang meet Marian Young's. She had
to
Chaliapine was the leader of the re- nothing in common with her. They had
that the czar was going to
ligious sect met at a course of lectures on the Renais-
stamp Everything was against him
out. sance, and out of a casual meeting had
was he going to conquer? The English grown a singular, unequal relationship.
audience expected him to conquer. It Marian saw Stella very rarely, but she
understood conquests. First, you started told her everything. She had not, how-
all wrong, because you had n't taken the ever, told her of this new man. His strong,
trouble not to, because you had n't meas- clever face had in it something different,
ured your antagonist, and because you did something unnecessarily different, from
not think that preparation was necessary. Marian's other young men.
The audience allowed for things going He lifted his head, and looked up
wrong to begin with, and sat cheerfully toward the balconies above him. His eyes
expecting the miracle. did not meet Stella's, but she took from
The opera went on, and it became ap- them the strangest sensation of her life.
parent to Stella that Chaliapine was not A pang of sheer pity shot through her.
going to get his people out of their diffi- There was no reason for pity, she felt;
culties. he looked aggressively strong and per-
The English audience listened breath- fectly sure of himself. He even looked
lessly and a little surprised, but not sure of Marian, and not without reason.
troubled, because they felt quite sure that He was all the things Marian liked best
everything would come out all right in in aman, courageous, successful, handsome.
the last act. Providence had thrown in his brains.
Religion would triumph ; it always did, That was the unnecessary quality.
even when you took no notice of it. Stella wondered a little wistfully what
The melancholy minor Russian music it must be like to talk to a really clever
could n't mean that you were n't going man. Her father was very clever, but
to get anything out of it. It would wake he was not socially pliable, and he did n't
up and soon be triumphant. exactly talk to Stella ; he merely expressed
In the pauses between the acts Eurydice in her presence conclusions at which he had
sat in a trance. Stella amused herself with arrived. It clarified his ideas, but it

picking out the kind of people she would did n't do anything particular to Stella's.
have liked to know. One in particular, in The curtain rose again, and the last

a box to the right of them, she found her- act began.


self liking. His frosty-blue eyes had the Chaliapine did not turn defeat into
consciousness of strength in them ; the line victory ; no rabbit rose triumphantly, to
of his jaw and the ironic, well-chiseled satisfy the British public, out of a top-
mouth spoke of a will that had felt and hat. Chaliapine led his people into a fire,

surmounted shocks. He was still a young and thev were burned to death.
THE SECOND FIDDLE 487
Some of them were frightened, and he her. She heard Sir Julian saying in a
had to comfort them, to hold them, and determined, resonant voice:
sustain them till the end. He had noth- "Well, of course I 'm glad you liked
ing at all to do it with, but he did sustain it. Chaliapine is a good workm.an, but
them. They all went into the flames, personally I don't think much of Russian
singing their disheartening music till the music. It has a whine in it like a beg-
smoke covered them. Chaliapine sang gar's, sounds too much as if it had knocked
longest, but there was nothing victorious under. Myidea, you know, is not to
in his last notes. Thej' were very beauti- knock under."
ful and final then they weakened and
; And Stella, slipping into the crowd, was
were still. aware again of a sharp pang of pity for
The stillness went on for some time him, as if she knew that, after all, his
afterward. Everybody had been killed, strength would meet, and be consumed by,
and life had been so unendurable that they fire.

had faced death without much effort to


avoid it. Still, they could have avoided it
CHAPTER III

if they had given up their faith. Their Nothing in No. g Redcliff Square ever
faith had vanished ofi the face of the earth, got done; it happened, as leaves drop in
but they had n't given it up. autumn, or as dust accumulates, percolat-
Stella gave a long sigh of relief ; she ing softly and persistently through doors
had been saved from some-
felt as if she and windows.
thing abominable that might have hap- The Warings had reached Redcliff
pened. Square as accidentally as a tramp takes
Applause broke out all round them, a shelter under a hedge. Professor Waring,
little uncertainly at first, because it was whose instinct was to burrow like a mole,
difficult for the audience to realize that blind and silent, into his researches, failed
the heavens were n't going to shoot open too completely to teach what he had dis-
and something definitely successful
do covered and as he had never made the
;

about it; but finally sustained and pro- discovery that teaching was what he was
longed applause. Chaliapine had taken paid for, his payments gradually ceased.
them all by storm. It was not the kind of When he found himself faced with an
storm that they were used to, but it was a increasing family and a decreasing income,
storm. he thought of the South Kensington
"I love Russians," a lady exclaimed to Museum. He thought of it as an habitual
Stella. "Such delightful people, don't drunkard evicted for not paying his rent
you think, so full of color and what d' vou thinks of the public house.
call it?" He brought his family as near to it as
Eurydice shook herself impatiently like he could, dumped them down in a silent
a dog after a plunge through water. and slatternly street, and disappeared into
"Hurry! Let 's get out of this," she the museum regularly every morning at
said to Stella, "or I shall be rude to some- nine. When he came out he wanted
body. Idiots! Idiots! Don't they see only cocoa, a back room, and the postage
that we 've been listening to the defeat of necessary for his researches. A Peruvian
the soul?" mummy went to his head like gin.
"No, no," whispered Stella half to her- Mrs. Waring had been a gentle, dreamy
self; "we 've been listening to how it can't girl with a strong religious tendency. She
be defeated, "how nothing touches it, not had married Professor Waring because
even death, not even despair, not even he had wide blue eyes and a stoop and did
flames. The end of something that has not look at all coarse.

never g'ven in is victory." Professor Waring had married her be-


They passed behind ]\Iarian outside the cause he wanted to get married a little

opera-house, but Stella did not speak to and had noticed her at that time. He
488 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
was under the impression that women away. What was lost was never seen
managed households, meals, and children again, or seen onlywhen you were hunt-
without bothering their husbands. Mrs. ing for something else. It was like a
Waring tried not to bother her husband. gambler's system at Monte Carlo: you
She lost her religion because the professor looked for a bootjack, and were rewarded
had n't any, and she thought at first he by black treacle ; or you played, as it

was sure to be right. When she ceased were, for black treacle, and discovered the
to have this magic certainty, she sought bootjack.
out fresh religions that told you you had Mrs. Waring never finished anything;
everything you wanted when you knew even her conversations, which began at
}ou had n't. breakfast, jogged on throughout the day,
She got through maternity in a desul- and were picked up at much the same spot
tory way, with a great deal of ill health in the evening. She had covered a quantity

and enormous household bills. She did of ground, but she had invariably escaped
not manage anything, and when she was her destination. Through long years of
very unhappy she said that she was in perpetual indecision she had nearly suc-
tune with the infinite. ceeded in outwitting time and space.
From their earliest years her children Nobody minded this attitude except
fended for Eurydice with
themselves, Cicely. She fought against chaos from
'

storms of anguish and through a drastic her youth up. They all dreaded her
series of childish epidemics; Cicely with a tongue and clung persistently to their
stolid, cold efficiency; and Stella with an habits. The professor fled earlier to the
intuitive gentleness so great as to hide a museum, sometimes in carpet slippers.
certain inner force. Immediately after breakfast Mrs. War-
About two hundred pounds a year ing retired with a little book to an un-
trickled in on them from uncertain sources. tidied bedroom.
Mrs. Waring never knew quite when to Eurydice, dropping manuscripts, hair-
expect it, and when it came it soaked it- ribbons, and defiance, escaped to a locked
self solemnly up on non-essentials. The attic; and Stella remained as a gentle
children never had proper clothes or a adjutant to her severer sister. Cicely did
suitable education. They were Egyptolo- get a few things done. She saw that meals
gists before they could spell, and the were cooked, windows opened, beds made,
Koran was an open book to them when and clocks wound but nothing continu-
;

they should have been reading "The ous rewarded her efforts. The power of
Water Babies." the human will is a small weapon against
The professor spent what he considered consolidated inertia.
his share of their upon hiero-
income For five years Cicely played upon No. 9
glyphics, and Mrs. Waring, never person- Redcliff Square like an intermittent search-
ally extravagant, bought quantities of light ; then she gave it up, and became a
little books to teach people how to live, student in a women's hospital. The house-
how to develop the will, how to create a hold breathed a sigh of intense relief at
memory, and power through repose. They her departure, and collapsed benevolently
had one servant, who had to have wages into chaos.
and insisted every now and then upon a Nobody except Stella regretted it. The
joint of meat. professor was openly thankful.
There was no waste-paper basket in the "She may become a student," he ob-
house, and a great deal of linoleum. served coldly when it was explained to him
When Waring made up her mind
IVIrs. where Cicely had gone, "but she will never
that she must be more economical, she al- become a scholar. She has a superficial
ways went out and bought linoleum. She hunger for the definite.
had been told it was a great saving. She "I really do not think it will be neces-
never tidied anything up or put anything sary for me to take my supper at a given
THE SECOND FIDDLE 489
hour. Stella will know that, whenever I pital Stella was taking cheap lessons in

ring my bell, 1 mean cocoa." the City in shorthand and type-writing.


"Dear Cicely is a pioneer," murmured None of the three girls had what is called
Mrs. Waring, with a gentle sigh. "I any "youth." They were as ignorant of
can always imagine her doing wonderful young men as ifthey had been brought up
things in a desert with a buffalo." in a convent. Neither Professor nor Mrs.
"Now I shall be able to have my Waring had ever supposed that parents
friends at the house without their being ought to provide occupations or social re-
insulted," cried Eurydice, triumphantly. sources for their children, and the children
"Last time when Mr. Bolt was in the themselves had been too busy contributing
middle of reading his new poem, 'The to the family welfare to manage any other
Whirl,' a most delicate and difficult poem life. Cicely had read statistics and mas-
set to a secret rhythm. Cicely burst in and tered physiological facts at fifteen. She
asked for a slop-pail. It looked so lovely was under the impression that she knew
I had covered it with autumn leaves and everything and disliked everything except
placed it half-way up the chimney. It work. Her feeling for men was singularly
might have been a Grecian urn, but of like that of a medieval and devout monk

course she dragged it out. She dragged toward women. She had an uncomfort-
out everything." able knowledge of them as a necessary evil,
Eurydice had a profession, too. She to beevaded only by truculence or flight.
was a suppressed artist. She felt that she When her work forced her into dealings
could have painted like Van Gogh, only with them, she was ferocious and unat-
perfectly individually. She saw everything tractive.She was a pretty girl, but no-
interms of color and in the shape of cubes. body had ever dared to mention it to her.
Railway lines reminded her of a flight Even Stella, who in an unaggressive,

of asterisks.Flowers subdivided them- flitting way dared most questions, had


selves before her like a tartan plaid. She avoided telling Cicely that she herself liked
saw human beings in tenuous and dis- men. Stella often felt that if she could
jointed outlines suggestive of a daddj'- meet a man who was capable of doing all

long-legs. She could not afford paint and kinds of dull things for you, very charm-
canvas, so she had to leave people to think ingly, and had a pretty wit, it would add
that theworld looked much as usual. quite enormously to the gaiety of life to
Eurydice had always felt that she could put yourself out a little in order to make
write out her thoughts as soon as she and him laugh.
Stella were alone and able to arrange her The men Stellaworked with would n't
room in black and scarlet. When Cicely have done at all. They would n't have
left, Stella bought black paper and pasted cared for the kind of jokes Stella wanted
it over the walls, and dyed a white-wool to make, and of course Stella had n't time
mat, which had long lost its original to meet any other men. Perhaps she
purity, a profound and sinister scarlet. would n't have believed there were any
Eurydice did not want very much, if it had n't been for Marian. Marian
either. None of the Warings wanted knew them ; she knew them literally in
very much. What as a family they failed dozens, and they were generally in love
to understand was that not having the with her, and they always wanted to make
money to pay for what they wanted, some her laugh and to do dull things for her.
more personal contribution of time and Stellaused to be afraid sometimes that
effort was necessary in order to attain it. Marian, in an embarrassment of riches,
Stella grasped this fact when she was might overlook her destiny. But Marian
about eighteen. She said afterward that knew what she wanted and was perfectly
she never would have thought of it if it certain that she would sooner or later
had not been made plain to her by Cicely. get it. Stella had no such knowledge;
Still, before Cicely had gone to the hos- she had long ago come to the conclusion
THE SECOND FIDDLE 491

that the simplest way of dealing with her CHAPTER IV


life was to like what she had. Darling:
She took a scientific secretaryship at Do come Sunday to tea. Mama is out of
nineteen, and left it only at twenty-six, town, and 1 must have some support. Julian
when her scientist, who was very stout is going to bring his mother to see me for
and nearly sixty, died inconveniently from the first time. I believe she 's rather alarm-
curried lobster. He left Stella an interest- ing — awfully blue and hooky; just your sort.
ing experience, of which she could make I have n't had time to tell you anything.
no immediate use, and a testimonial which It 's so jolly being engaged, but it takes up

won her her job at the town hall. It was all one's spare moments. I did n't really
very short. "This young woman," the mean marry Julian; he swept me off my
to
learned scientist wrote, "is invaluable. feet. I suppose I must be awfully in love

She thinks without knowing it. I have with him. You know what explorers are.
benefited by this blessed process for seven They go away for years and leave you to
years." entertain alone, and then people say you
It did not seem to Stella that she was don't get on; and of course exploring never
invaluable. She alwa3^s saw herself in the pays. He has a little place in the country
light of the family failure, overlooking the and about £2000 a year. It 's awfully little,

fact that she was their main financial really, but it 's wonderful what you can put
support. up with when y(Ai really care for a man;
Cicely was the practical and Eurydice besides, he 's sure to get on. Don't fail me
the intellectual genius; but she was con- Sunday. I shall really be rather nervous.
tent if she could be the padding on which Old ladies never have been my forte. Julian
these jewels occasionally shone. is such a dear! You 're sure to like him.
Sometimes she met Cicely in a tea-shop He meet you awfully, but he does
wants to
and had a real talk, but Eurydice was her n't think ought to work. He is full
women
chief companion. Eurydice shared with of chivalry, and has charming manners. It

Stella nearly every thought that she had. does n't in the least matter what you wear.
She seized her on the stairs to retail her Heaps of love.
inspirations as Stella went up to take her Mari.an.
things off. She sat on her bed late at
night, and talked with interminable bitter-
ness about the sharpness of life. Even It was this last reflection that gave
while Stella buttoned up her boots and Stella courage to ring the bell. She had
flung things at the last moment into her never been in the Youngs' house before.

despatch-case, Eurydice pelted her with She had vaguely known that it was in a
epigrams. She sometimes quoted Swin- very quiet square, with a garden in the
burne while Stella was catching the corner middle, quite near everything that mat-
bus, till the bus-conductor told her not tered, and quite far away from everything
to let him catch her at it again. There that did n't. It was the kind of house that
was only one subject they did not discuss: looks as if no one was in it unless they
neither of them voluntarily mentioned were giving a party. The interior was
Mr. Bolt. Mr. Bolt was the editor of a high, narrow, and box-like. A great deal
magazine called "Shocks," to which Euryd- of money had been unpretentiously spent
ice with trembling delight contributed on it, with a certain amount of good-
weekly. Mr. Bolt had met her at a meet- humored, ordinary taste.
ing of protest against reticence, and he had Marian was sitting under a high vase
taken to Eurydice at once and almost at ; of pink canterbury-bells; by some happy
once he told her that her charm was purely chance her dress was the same pale pink as
intellectual. Emotionally he was appealed the bells. She looked, with her hands in
to only by fair, calm women with ample her lap, her throat lifted, and the sun on
figures. her hair, like a flower of the same family.
492 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Her manner was a charrning mixture of "Engagements are such interrupted
ease and diffidence. times," Lady Verny observed, with a
Stella was late, and Lady Verny and charming smile. "One likes to poke a
Julian had arrived before her. little opportunity toward the poor dears

Lady Verny was like her son. She was when one can."
very tall and graceful, and carried her- "Yes," said Stella, eagerly, with her
self as if she had never had to stoop. Her little, rapid flight of words. "You 're al-

eyes had the steady, frosty blueness of ways running away when you 're engaged,
Julian's, with lightly chiseled edges; her and never getting there, are n't you?
lips were ironic, curved, and a little thin. And then, of course, when you 're married,
She had piles of white hair drawn back you 're there, and can't run away. It 's
over her forehead. When Marian in- such a pity they can't be more mixed up."
troduced her to Stella, she rose and turned "Perhaps," said Lady Verny, still smil-
away from the tea-table. ing. "But marriage is like a delicate
"I hope you will come and talk to me clock; it has to be wound up very care-
a little," she said in a clear, musical voice. fully, and the less you take its works to
"We can leave Julian and Marian to pieces afterward the better. Have you
themselves." known Marian a long time?"
Lady Verny leaned back in the chair "Three years," said Stella; "but when
she had chosen for herself and regarded you say 'know,' I am only an accident. I
Stella with steady, imperturbable eyes. don't in any real sense belong to Marian's
It struck Stella as a little alarming that life; I belong only to Marian. You see,
they should all know where they wanted I work." She thought she ought, in com-
to and with whom they wanted to talk,
sit, mon fairness to Lady Verny, not let her
without any indecision. She thought that think that she was one of Marian's real
chairs would walk across the room to friends.
Lady Verny if she looked at them, and Lady Verny overlooked this implication.
kettles boil the moment Julian thought "And what is your work, may I ask?"
that it was time for tea. But though she she inquired, with her grave, solid polite-
was even more frightened at this calm, un- ness, which reminded Stella of nothing so
conscious competency than she had ex- much as a procession in a cathedral.
pected to be, she saw it did n't matter "I was a secretary to Professor Paul-
about her clothes. She knew they were son," Stella explained, "the naturalist.
all wrong, as cheap clothes always are, He was a perfect dear, too, — it was n't
particularly cheap clothes that you 've only beetles and things, — and when he
been in a hurry over and not clever enough died, I went into a town hall, — I 've been
to match. Her boots and her gloves there for two years, and — that 's more ex-
were n't good, and her hat was horrid and citing than you can think. It is n't
probably on the back of her head. Her theories and experiments, of course, but
blue-serge coat and skirt had indefinite it 's like being a part of the hub of the

edges. But Stella was aware that Lady universe. Rates and taxes, sanitary in-
Verny, beautifully dressed as she was, was spectors, old-age pensions, and the health
taking no notice whatever of Stella's of babies run through my hands like water
clothes. They might make an extra point through a sieve. You would n't believe
against her if she did n't like her. Stella how entertaining civic laws and customs
could hear her saying, "Funny that are — and such charming people! Of course
Marian should make friends with a sloppy I miss the other work, too, — it was like
little scarecrow." But if she did like her, having one's ear against nature,— but this
she would say nothing about Stella's is more like having one's ear against life."

clothes. As far as the Vernys were con- "I think you must have very catholic
cerned, the appearances of things were tastes," said Lady Verny, gently. "My
always subsidiary. son knew Professor Paulson ; it will in-
THE SECOND FIDDLE 493
terest him to know that you worked for lighted. An
engagement to him is like
him. And Marian — did she enjoy your some thumping insurance which somehow
scientific experiences?" or other prevents one's house being
Stella moved warily across this ques- burned."
tion; she had never spoken to Marian Lady W'rn> laughed.
about her work at all. Marian, as she "Let us hope your theory is a correct
knew, thought it all very tiresome. one," she said, rising from her seat. "I
"You see," she explained, "they were am going to talk to her now, and you can
n't my experiences ; they were Professor talk to the insurance company."
Paulson's. Marian could n't very well be Stella gasped. She wanted to run away,
thrilled at third hand ; the thrill got only to catch Lady Verny's graceful scarf and
as far as me. Besides, half of what I do tell her she could n't really talk to any-
as a secretary is confidential, and the other body's son. Agreeable, massive beings
half sounds dull. Of course it is n't who explored continents and lived in clubs
really. I 've been so lucky in that way. ought come her way. But Julian
n't to

I 've never had anything dull to do." crossed room to her side with the
the
"I can quite imagine that," said Lady quickness of a military order. His man-
Verny, kindly. "Dullness is in the eye, ners hid his reluctance. He was at her
not in the object. Does Marian like life service in a moment. His keen eyes,
better than intellect, too?" harder than his mother's and more metal-
"Ah, Marian's life," said Stella, a little lic, met hers once and glanced easily away.

doubtfully, "is so different!" They said nothing to Stella except that he


They glanced across at the distant tea- was a watchful human being who could
table. Julian was leaning toward Marian n't be taken in, and was sometimes perhaps
with eyes that held her with the closeness unduly aware that he could n't be taken
of a frame to a picture. in.

He was laughing at her a little, with the "I 'm very glad indeed," he said cor-
indulgent, delighted laughter of a man dially, "to meet Marian's greatest friend.
very deeply in love. She was explaining You must tell me all about her. You see,

something to him, simply and gravely, I 'm a new-comer I 've known her only
;

without undue emphasis. Stella guessed six weeks, and I 've been so busy trying to

that it was one of the things Marian impress her with my point of view that
wanted, and she did not think that Julian I quite feel I may have overlooked some
could get out of giving it to her by laugh- of hers. Women always understand wo-
ter. men, don't they?"
"Marian's life has n't got divisions in it He was n't going to be difficult to talk
like mine," she explained. "She 's just a to. That unnecessary ingredient in his
beautiful human creature. She is equable composition saved Stella. As long as she
and strong and delightful and absolutely had a brain to call to, and was n't only to
honest. She 's as honest as crystal but she ; be awed by splendor of appearance and
has n't had to bother about choosing." forms as difficult for her to cross as five-

"Ah," said Lady Verny, "you think barred gates, she need n't be afraid of
that, do you? But, my dear Miss Waring, him. It never was people that Stella was
sooner or later we all have to bother about afraid of, but the things, generally the
choosing. Beauty and' strength don't save silly things, that separated her from them.
us. Absolute honesty often lets us in, and "We do and we don't understand each
sometimes, when the scales weigh against other," she said swiftly. "I don't think
us, we cease to be equable." women can tell what another woman will
"But they you see," Stella said
w^on't, do ; but granted she 's done it, I dare say
eagerly. "They can't weigh against her most could say why."
now. Lady Verny. Don't you see? Julian laughed.

There 's your son it 's why one 's so de- "Then have the kindness to inform me,"
494 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
he said, "why Marian has consented to sides you and Marian : there 's life. You
marry me. Incidentally, your reply will can only take all the risk there is if yoil
no doubt throw a light for me upon her take all the life. Iwhat you would
see
mental processes." like. Sir Julian : you want a figurehead
saw he did not want any light
Stella guarantied against collisions. Unfortu-
thrown anj^where; he was simply giving nately there 's no guaranty against col-
his mother time to get to know Marian. lisions even for a figurehead. Besides, as
Then he was going back to her that was ; I you before, Marian 's strong. Iron
told
his light. wills don't make good figureheads."
She gave a vague little smile at the sub- "Ah, you 're one of these new women,"
limated concentration of lovers. She liked said Sir Julian, indulgently. "I don't
to watch them ; she would never have to mind 'em you know, myself, all
a bit, —
be one. steel —
and ginger, and quite on to their
It was some beautiful wild
like seeing jobs. I admit all that. But Marian ain't
creature of the woods. It would n't be one of them. Her strength is the other
like you at all, and yet it would be ex- kind — the kind you get by sitting still,

ceedingly amusing and touching to watch, don't you know; and if I may say so in
and sometimes it would make you think passing, if I run a ship, I don't collide.
of what it would feel like to be wild and But let 's have your third reason. I see
in those woods. you 're keeping something back. She 's

She reminded herself sharply, as her going to marry me


'm strong and
because I

eyes turned back to Julian, that it would because I 'm sure I approve of both of ;

n't do to let him think she thought him them, sound business reasons. Now, Miss
wild. He was behaving very well, and Waring, what 's the third?"
the least she could do was to let him think "Ah, the third is n't a reason at all,"
so. She gave herself up to his question. said Stella; "but it 's the only one that I

"You 're very strong," she said consid- thoroughly agree with as a motive: she
eringly. "Marian likes strength. She 's likes you for j^ourself."
strong herself, you know probably;
that 's Sir Julian's eyes suddenly softened ; they
one of her reasons." softened so much that they looked quite
"Good," he said cheerfully. "Physically different eyes, almost as if they belonged
strong, d' you mean, or an iron will? Iron to a very pleased little boy.
wills are quite in my line, I assure you. "Oh," he said, looking back at Marian.
Any other reason?" "I should n't in the least mind being guar-
"Strong both ways," said Stella; "and antied that, you know."
you 're secure. I mean, what you 've Lady Verny rose and walked toward
taken you '11 keep. I think some women them.
like a man they can be sure of." "I have some other calls to make," she
"Let us hope they all do," said Sir said to her son. "You '11 stay, of course,"
Julian, laughing. "It would imply a very Stella joined her as soon as she had
bad business instinct if they did n't." given the happiest of her smiles into
"I do not think I agree with you," said Marian's expectant eyes. Lady Verny's
Stella, firmly. "The best business is often face, as they stood together outside the
an adventure, a risk. Safe business does door, was perfectly expressionless.
not go far; it goes only as far as safety." Without a word she descended the
"Well, I 'm not sure that I want wo- stairs side by side with Stella, When she
men to go particularly far," said Sir Ju- reached the front door she held out her
lian. "I like 'em to be safe; let 'em leave hand to Stella and smiled.
the better business with the risk in it to "I hope I shall meet you again some
men. I '11 be content if Marian does that." day," she said, with gracious sincerity. "I
"I think Marian will," said Stella. enjoyed our little talk together very
"But there are other things, of course, be- much."
THE SECOND FIDDLE 495
She said nothing whatever about in which you caught the other fellow out.
Marian. She got very tired of hearing him say,
"You see, Miss Waring, the weak point
CHAPTER V of this case is
—" or, "I think we may just
It was a very hot morning in July, a point out to him that he renders himself
morning when .work begins slowly, con- liable to — "

tinues irritably, and is likely to incite hu- He was a master hand at an interview.
man paroxysms of forgetfulness and tem- To begin with, he always let the inter-
per. It took the form with Mr. Leslie viewer state his case completely. He never
Travers of his being more definite than interrupted ; he would sit there smiling a
usual. He was an extremely intelligent little, with his steady, observant e\es fixed

man, and most of his intelligence con- on the man before him, saying in a suave,
sisted in knowing where other people were mild voice: "Yes, yes; I quite see. Ex-
wrong. The heat lent an almost unbear- actly. Your point is—" and Stella, listen-
able edge to these inspirations; the office ing, would feel her heart sink at the dan-
boy, the mayor's secretary, and two typists gerous volubility of his opponent. She
withdrew from sanctum as if they had
his would have liked to spring from behind
been in direct contact with a razor. the screen where she was sorting the corre-
Stella wished, as she had often wished spondence and say, 'Tor Heaven's sake!
before, that the inner office in which she keep that back! You 're letting yourself
worked could not be invaded by the man- in !" As soon as the breathless and usually
ner in which Mr. Travers conducted his verbose and chaotic applicant had drawn
interviews. She respected him as herchief, his final breath, Mr. Leslie Travers gave
she even considered him with a kind of him back his case as boned as a chicken set
loyal awe augmented by her daily duty. in aspic. The points were simply elimi-
She pleased him, she catered for him, she nated, and the defenseless places laid out
never any circumstances let him down
in before him, soft, invertebrate, and as un-
or confused him by a miscalculation or a manageable as a jellyfish. It was hardly
mistake. necessary for Mr. Leslie Travers to say,
It is impossible to do this for any man with his dry little smile, "I think you see.

for two years and, if he has treated you my dear fellow, don't you, that it would
with fairness and respect, not at the end really be advisable in your own interests
of that time regard him with a certain not to go on any further with the matter?
proprietary affection. This was how It will be no trouble to us at all if you

Stella regarded Mr. Travers. He was a decide to push you take my ad-
it ; but if

clever man, and he never expected any one vice, 3'ou will simply go home and think no
under him to work miracles or to give him more about it." People usually went
trouble. He knew what you were worth, home, and if their case had been important
and sometimes he let you see it. to them, they probably thought- about it to
He was handsome in a thin, set, rather the end of their lives; but that did n't
dry way, and w^hen he put his finger-tips affect Mr. Travers. It was his business to
together and smiled a little ironic smile he safeguard the interests of the town hall,
had, and leaned forward with his shoul- and the more cases you could drop, the bet-
ders hunched and his eyes unusually ter. Of course he never dropped a case
bright, as if they 'd been polished like a that could be used against him he held on ;

boot-button, he had an air of intellectual to these until they could n't. He had to
strength which usually brought terror to perfection the legal mind. He never
an opponent. He always knew when his touched what was n't a safe proposition.
adversary was in the wrong. It sometimes A peculiar idea seized Stella as she listened
seemed to Stella as if he never knew any- to him dismissing a worried rate-payer
thing else. who had asked for lower rates, claiming
He had reduced life to a kind of game the decreased value of his property. "We
496 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
shall act immediately," Mr. Travers said intelligent, cultivated, knowing clerk, and
benevolently. "We receive proof that your he 'd be awfully upset if I told him he had
property has decreased in value; but it a smut on his collar."

does n't do, you know, to come here and Mr. Leslie Travers put to one side the
tell me the neighborhood is n't what it two or three letters he had reserved for

was. No neighborhood ever is. Good himself to answer. Stella gathered hers

morning." together into an elastic band ; but as she


What, she asked herself, would Mr. turned to leave him he said:
Leslie Travers be without his impeccable "Miss Waring, one moment. You
tie, and definitely creased
his black coat, came to me on the understanding that
gray trousers, the polish on his boots, the your work here was to be purely tem-
office background, and, above all, the law? porary. Circumstances have prolonged
Was he really very awe-inspiring? Was your stay with us until it seems to me that

n't he just a funny little man? It was we may fairly consider you, unless you
curious how she felt this morning, as if she have other plans, a permanent member of
would have some one large
liked to see our staff!"
and lawless face Mr. Travers and show "I hope so," said Stella, with a sudden
him that his successes were tricks, his in- flicker in her eyes, "unless you think wo-
terviews mouse-traps, his words delusive men should n't be permanent."
little pieces of very stale cheese. He was Mr. Leslie Travers permitted himself a
too careful of his dignity, too certain of very slight smile.
his top-hat. You could n't imagine him "That disability in your case," he said,
dirty and oily at the north pole, putting "we ^re prepared to overlook in view of
grit into half-frozen, starving men. You your value as a worker. As my perma-
could n't, that is to say, imagine him at a nent secretary I should wish to raise your
disadvantage, making the disadvantage salary ten pounds yearly. I have put this

play his game. before our committee, and they have seen
His games were always founded on ad- their way to consent to it."

vantages. He was n't, in fact, at all like Stella's eyebrows went up. Ten pounds
Julian Verny, nor was there any reason were worth so much to that muddled,
why he should be. But yesterday Stella penurious household standing behind her
had seen Julian Verny, and to-day she on the verge of utmost poverty The man !

saw, and saw as if for the first time, Mr. whose place she had taken had been paid
Leslie Travers. three hundred a year; her rise brought up
"Now, Miss Waring," Mr. Travers her salary to one third of this amount.
said, looking up from his desk, "the corre- "It is a disability, Mr. Travers," she
spondence, please, if you are ready." He said gently, "being a woman; I see that it

always spoke to her, unless he was in a is going to cost me two hundred a year."
hurry, as if he were speaking to a good, Mr. Travers looked at her very hard.
rather bright little girl who knew her He knew that she did her work twice as
place, but must n't betempted unduly to well as the man she had replaced. That
forget it. When he was in a hurry he is why she had replaced him. He thought
sometimes said, "Look sharp." of her market value as a worker, and he
Stella brought the correspondence, and knew that he was doing a perfectly correct
they went through it together with their thing. A hundred a year was a fair wage
usual celerity and carefulness, and all the for a woman secretary. He said :

time she was thinking: "We 've worked "You see. Miss Waring, you have not
together every day for two years except got a family to support."
Sundays, and he 's afraid to look at me Stella flushed. She did have a family to
unless we 're discussing a definite question, support, but she did not intend to admit
and he won't risk a joke, and he 'd be it to Mr. Travers.
shocked if I sneezed. He 's just a very She said
THE SECOND FIDDLE 497
"I beg your pardon, I had not under- ten pounds she would n't have laughed at
stood that wages were paid according to a him, if she really had laughed at him.
worker's needs. I had thought that the was a most disquieting thought; it
It

value of the work settled the rate of haunted him all day long, even more than
payment." the possibility of a European war. He
Mr. Travers was astonished. He had could n't help the European war if it did
never dreamed that Miss Waring would come oflf but he wished very much that he
;

argue with him. He had looked forward had been able to prevent Miss Waring's
to telling her of this unexpected windfall enigmatic laughter.
he had expected a flushed and docile grati-
tude. She was a little flushed, it is true,
but she was neither docile nor grateful, and
CHAPTER VI
he did not quite see his way to continuing When anything happened, Julian's first

her line of argument. She had, however, instinct was to happen with it. He had
put herself in the wrong, and he pointed never been in the rear of a situation in his

this out to her. life. The blow of the Austrian ultimatum


"I am afraid I cannot see my way to reached him on a yacht in mid-channel.
offering you more than the increase I have There was a cabinet minister on board, for
suggested," he said ; "but as you were ap- whose sake the yacht slewed round to
parently satisfied to accept a permanent make her way swiftly back to port. Julian
post at my original offer, I may hope that went directly to him.
an extra ten pounds will prove no obstacle "Look here," he said, "we 've got to go
to our continuing to work together." in. You grasp that, don't you?"
"I do not suppose," said Stella, quietly, Julian had one idea in his head, the cab-
"that it will be any obstacle to you that I inet minister had a great many ; every one
do not think it fair." but Julian was leaving him alone to sort
"Really, Miss Waring, really," said these ideas out. Julian spent the six hours
Mr. Travers, "I do not think you are in which they were flying to port in eradi-

quite yourself this morning. The heat, cating one by one the cabinet minister's
the disquieting news in the papers — Per- ideas.

haps you had better go on with the corre- The two men stood together, leaning
spondence. These questions are not per- over the ship's side. It was a clear sum-
sonal ones, you know; they—" mer evening, with a bloom upon the wa-
Stella interrupted him. ters. The lights of the boats they passed

"All questions that deal with human — green red and gold
and were like —
beings, Mr. Travers," she said, "are per- glow-worms in a Southern night. The sea
sonal questions, and the heat does not was very easy under them it had little ;

affect them." movement of its own, and parted like riven


For one awful moment Mr. Travers gauze to let the ship through.
thought that Miss Waring was laughing "We can't let France go under," Julian
at him; there was that strange glint in pleaded. "Look at her, sou-stripped, after

her eyes that he had noticed before. She 1870. How she 's sprung up! But thin,

had extraordinarily pretty eyes, usually so you know— thin, like a gallant boy.

gentle. It was most upsetting. "Immoral small families? By Gad!


She disappeared with her correspon- how righteous comfortable people are!
dence before he could think of a suitable How could she help it? Look what she 's

reply. Legally he had been perfectly justi- had to carry— indemnities, cursed war
fied, more than justified, because he was burdens, and now the three-years service!
under no obligation to offer her ten But she 's carried 'em. I know the
pounds more. French. I 've Irish in me, and that helps
This is what comes of generosity to me to value their lucidity. Lucidity 's

women. If he had n't offered her that sense, you know; it ain't anything dressy
498 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
or imaginative ; it 's horse-sense gone clean people. Go to Paris,— not the Paris of
as lightning. The French are a civilized our luxury-rotte"d rich, who have asked it

to be only a little private sink of their



own, but to a Frenchman's Paris. Well,
you '11 find him there, brain and a heart
under it. And, good Lord, what nerve!
"I tell you we 've got to get down to
our own nerve. We 've fatted it on the
top, but the French have n't. They 're
like live wire, with no cover to it. They
're the most serious people on earth, fire

without smoke. It 'u'd be an unspeakable


shame to help set that damned Prussian
heel on them again. When it comes, it '11

come as solid as themountain that blotted


out Messina, as solid and as senseless, and
j^ou '11 let that happen because we
are n't 'involved' ! Good Heavens,
man, don't sop yourself or your
conscience with catch-
words! If this war comes,
and I feel in my bones
it on us, any man who
is n't involved is a
cur."
The cabinet min-
ister interrupted
him. He cleared
his throat, and said
that he was hope-
ful steps might be
taken.
Julian flung
himself upon the
phrase.
"Of course they
'11 be taken," he
shouted across the
quiet, shadowy sea.

"They 're being


taken every minute.
Are we the only
fellows wlio 've
got feet?
"What about
strategic railways?
Ever studied 'em?
What about this
spring's having
seen Alsace and
Lorraine white
"THE SPARK BFNF.ATH THhM WAS bUCKEIJ INTO UAKKNtSS' with camps? What
THE SECOND FIDDLE 499
about Tirpitz slipping his navy votes "Look here, Verny, I 've been im-
through the Reichstag, Socialists and pressed, devilish what you
impressed, by
all? I beg your pardon; it 's not your 've said ; but have you considered what
department, of course. We 've let a kind of force we 've got? Picked men, I

strip of sea as small as a South Ameri- grant you, but, as you say yourself, when
can river cut us off from the plain the Germans do come on, they '11 come like
speech of other nations. What speech ? half a mountain moving. What 's the use
My good sir, the plain speech of other of sending out a handful of grasshoppers
nations is their acts. But it 's no use to meet half a mountain?"
raking up what we 've slid over. We 've Julian laughed.
the national habit of sliding; it 's a gift "Are you a great man on dog-fights?"
like any other, and if you 've a good eye he asked. "I 've seen a bulldog, quite a
for ice, it does n't let in. But what
you small chap he was, bring down a Great
Liberal Government ever had a good eye Dane the size of a calf. The Dane had got
for the ice in Europe? I 'm speaking bit- a collie by the throat; friend of my little
terly, but I 'm a Liberal myself, and I 've chap's, I fancy. He could n't get at the
seen in odd places of the earth that it 's no Dane's throat, for fear of piling his weight
good going slap through an adverse fact, on the collie so he just stepped forward
:

smiling. You disarm nothing but your- and took half a leg between his teeth, and
self." buried his head in it. I heard the bone

"We are not," said the cabinet minister, crack. The Dane tried to face it out,
who had a happy disposition and a strong he was a plucky fellow and the size of a
desire not to be shaken out of it, "really house,— but after a bit he felt held down.
tied up any Balkan outbreak— I mean
to So he wheeled round and seized the bull
necessarily, of course. Other issues might by a piece of back (the collie crawled off;
come in. But I see no reason, my dear he 'd had enough, poor brute!), but the
Sir Julian, why we should, in this very bull did n't stir. He went on cracking
disagreeable crisis, not remind ourselves— that bone ; he gave the Dane all the back
and I am like you one of the greatest ad- he wanted. Devil a bit he turned till the
mirers of the French— that an entente is whole leg went like a split match that
not an alliance. Political sympathy can do hurled the Dane over, and I had to take
a great deal to affect these questions. I Chang (that was his name) off, or he 'd

can imagine a very strong note^" have finished him up. He 'd just begun to
"Is an engagement nothing till you 've enjoy the fight, with half his back chawed
got the ring on?" asked Julian, savagely. over
"Are you going to let down France, who 's "We 've got a navy that '11 do just that
not very often, but has just lately, trusted to Germany if we hold on long enough.
us? If we do, let me tell you this: we Don't you forget it. It 's pressure that
shall deserve exactly what we shall get. tells against size — pressure on "the right
And make no mistake about it we shall ; spot, and persistent."
get it. The channel ports, taken from a The cabinet minister tried to say to him-
vindictive, broken France, used, as they self that countries were n't like dogs ; but
ought to be used, dead against us. little A he was a truthful man, and he thought
luck and a dark night, and I would n't that on thewhole they were.
give that for England." rose up suddenly before them
England
Julian flung his lighted cigarette into out of the darkness. They were coming
the sea; a faint hiss, and the spark beneath into Plymouth Sound. The port lights
them was sucked into darkness. Neither held them steadily for a minute, and the
of the two men moved. Julian lit an- steam yacht bustled soberly toward the
other cigarette, and the cabinet minister docks.
gazed down into the lightless sea. After "If your little lot sit down under this,"
a pause he said in a different voice said Julian, straightening his shoulders
500 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
and holding the other man with his insist- again, we should of course have no com-

ent eyes, "by God! I '11 cut my throat munication with you whatever. Also, you
and say, 'Here died a Briton whose coun- would need German papers — birth-certifi-
"
try had lost its soul.' cates, registrations. I really do not know
"Bit of Irish in him of course," mur- at a time Ijke this what you might not find
mured the cabinet minister as Julian necessary. The work, if you came back,
swung away from him. "Still, I suppose would be invaluable."
what I shall say is that on the whole, tak- Julian nodded.
ing everything into consideration, I think "Don't you bother yourself about pa-
we should be wiser to support France." pers," he said. "I 've been in a German
consular office, and I 've got a German
birth-certificate.It 's one of the things I
CHAPTER VII do particularly well. As long as they 're
Julian had spent thirty-two years— his not suspicious they won't ram the papers
mother included his first— in seeing what home, and I don't propose to let them get
he wanted to do and doing it. He had suspicious. I shall be Caesar's wife.
never consulted anybody else, because he Three years of Heidelberg have oiled my
had always seen his way clearly but he ; throat to it. My mother me I
tells often
had made from time to time reports to his speak English in a hearty German voice.

mother. He had been hostile to his father, My idea is to go out as soon as possible,
who had opposed him weakly and some- through Belgium. They '11 strike there, I

times unfairly till he died. Julian never feel pretty sure, and I '11 come back the
felt disheartened or found any opposition same way — October to November, if I
in himself to what he wanted to do. Op- can. You I 'm ofi to
can put about that
position in others he liked and overcame. the Arctic Ocean. 'm not back by
If I

Nothing in him warned him that love de- Christmas, don't expect me. I shall have
mands participation and resents exclusion. no communication with any one until my
On landing, he hurried to London, and return."
went at once to see an old friend of his Burton smiled.
in the War Office. "My dear Julian," he said, "one mo-
"Look here. Burton," he said, "you re- ment. have not yet congratulated you
I

member 191 1, don't you?" upon your engagement. I do so with all


Burton drew on the blotting-paper with my heart. But do you intend to tell Miss
a pencil he was almost overwhelmingly
; Young? She may not like the Arctic
cautious. If he had not been, many more Ocean or she may expect you to fight. She
serious things than caution would have will also, no doubt, look for some com-
been overwhelmed. munication from you and, as you very ;

"I think," he said, "if I remember right, rightly assert, there can be no communica-
you went' abroad." tion with anybody until you return."
Julian chuckled. Julian hunched up his shoulders and
"I was a German navvy for six whistled.
months," he said. "I ate like a German, "She 's the pick of women," he said
I drank thirty bottles of beer at one sit- softly. "Leave her to me."
ting for a bet, and I lost my head and "It 's all going to be left to you,"
my temper in German. It seems as if the said Burton, you live,
gravely. "If
best thing I can do just now is to repeat you '11 get no apparent acknowledgment;
the experiment." if you die, no one will ever know how. I

"You did it at your own risk," Burton do not say this to dissuade you, — there are
reminded him. "It was certainly service- toomany things we want to know, — but
able, but we limited our communications when I saw the announcement of your
with you as much as possible. If it should engagement in the paper, I said, 'Well,
"
enter into your mind to do such a thing we 've lost him.'
THE SECOND FIDDLE 501

Julian rose, and walked to the window. without lines, without rigidity, as soft as

Until that moment he had not given drifting snow.


Marian a thought. He was full of a The village had been the seat of a tre-

lover's images of her, but he had not con- —


mendous castle, little of these famous
nected them with what he was going to ruins were left, — but the old, yellow stone
do. He remembered what Marian's in- walls still girdled Amberley in the shape
conspicuous-looking little friend had said of a broken crown.
of her, honest as crystal, equable, strong. There was only one street, a sleepy,

Then he turned back to his friend. winding, white down road, which ran be-
"You have n't lost me," he said steadily. tween mossy barns and deep-thatched cot-
"After all, if we 're up against anything tages under the Amberley Wall. The
at all. Burton, we 're up against a pretty castle was older than Amberley House, yet

big thing. I must do exactly what is most Amberley House was a respectable three
useful. Of course I 'd rather fight. One hundred years, and had been all that time
likes one's name to go down and all that, the home of countless Vernys. It had not

and I 'd like to please Marian ; but the retreated into relentless privacy, as most
point, both for her and for me, will be the old English homes have done it stood, ;

job." with its wide porch, stoutly upon the moss-


"Ah," said Burton. "Then if you '11 grown cobbles.
just come with me, I '11 take you to a But it was better than its promises. If

fellow who will let you know what we it had no park, there lay behind its front-

want particularly just now to find out. age not a park, but a garden— a garden
You 're quite right as far as we are con- that fitted in with nature, only to excel it.

cerned ; but it 's not fair to rush a man Lady Verny loved two things, her gar-

into our kind of fight. It 's not like any den and her son but she had been able to
;

other kind. It 's risks without prizes." do most with her garden. There were
"What you get out of a risk," said Ju- terraces that swung from point to point
lian, with a certain gravity, "is a prize." above the long, blue valley there was a ;

Burton looked at him curiously he ; lawn hemmed in by black yew hedges,


rested his hand for a moment on his over which the downs piled themselves,
friend's shoulder. bare and high, with only the clouds be-
"That 's a jolly good phrase, Julian," yond them. There was a sunken rose-
he said quietly, "and I think it 's true; but garden, with rough-tiled pathways leading
it 's not necessarily a personal prize. You to a lake with swans. Three hundred
pay the piper, and he plays the tune but ; years had helped Lady Verny with the
you might n't be there to listen to the lawn, but the herbaceous borders had been
tune." her own affair. Julian, crossing the lawn
"Don't be a croaking, weather-beaten, toward her, was the same strange mixture
moth-eaten old Scotch raven!" laughed of her hand and time and she had always
;

Julian. "Take my word for it you get ;


known that when she had done all she
what you want out of life if you put all could for Julian and the garden, she
you 've got into it. That 's just at this would have to give both up. With all
moment what I propose to put." their difficulties, their beauties, and their
"And that," said Burton, without re- sullen patches, they would pass into the
turning his smile, "is what we propose to hands of some young and untried person
take, Julian." unchosen by herself.
The person had been chosen now.
Marian was already at Amberley for a
CHAPTER VIII week-end, and knowing that Julian was
Amberley hung upon a cliff of land above expected, she had left Lady Verny sitting
the water meadows. Rising high behind by the tea-table under the yew hedge and
it, fold on fold, were the Sussex Downs, gone up toward the downs.
502 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Julian would like this; he would not she must at no time in her career person-
wish his bride to meet him half-way. He ally She must be a
handle an experience.
would delight in Marian's aloofness; her wife and mother (unmarried women,
deliberate and delicate coldness w^ould though often presumably virtuous, were
seem to him like the bloom upon a grape. only the shabby bankrupts of their sex),
But the coldness of a future daughter-in- but, once married and a mother, she must

law is not the quality which most endears be kept as far as possible from all the
her to a mother. implications of these tremendous facts.
"Julian," Lady Verny said to herself Julian was kinder to women than his
as he approached her, "will make a very opinions promised, because, being strong,
trying lover. If he is absorbed in Marian, he was on the whole gentle toward those
he will interfere with her; and if he is who were weak ; but his kindness was a

absorbed in anything else, he will ignore personal idiosyncrasy, not a principle.


her. He needs a great deal of judicious Lady Verny looked at him a little help-
teasing. Marian takes herself too seri- lessly.There was something she wanted
ously to see the fun of Julian ; she sees very much to say to him, but she suffered
only the fun of sex. She w^as quite right from the disability of being his mother.
to go up downs.
to the It '11 amuse him There is an unwritten law that mothers
now to pursue her, but it '11 bore him should not touch upon vital matters with
later; and in the end he '11 find out that their sons. Lady Verny believed that
she does n't keep him off because she 's got Julian was a victim of passion. She did
so much to give, but because she 's so not think he had understood Marian's
afraid of giving anything." nature, and she knew that when passion
"Where 's Marian?" asked Julian be- burns one of two things is left,
itself out,

fore he kissed her. comradeship or resentment. She had lived


"She went up toward the downs," said with resentment for twenty years, and she
Lady Verny. "She left no directions be- knew was not an easy thing to live
that it

hind her. She 's a will-'o'-the-wisp, my with, and that it would have been worth

dear." while had she known more about it earlier,


Julian laughed. to have found out if there was comrade-
"She knew I 'd follow her," he said; ship under the passion before the flames of
"but I '11 have my tea first, please." ithad burned her boats.
"She has always been followed, I imag- "I wonder," she said consideringly, gaz-
ine," said Lady Verny, giving him his tea, ing into the bottom of her tea-cup, "if
"and she has always known it." your lovely Marian has a sense of hu-
Julian looked pleased ; this was the kind mor?"
of wife he wanted, a woman used to ad- "Humor?" said Julian, taking two sa-

miration, and who never made the fatal vory sandwiches and wrapping them in

mistake of seeking it. bread and butter. "What does she want
He had not much knowledge of women, with humor at her age? It 's one of the
but he had very strong opinions about things people fall back on when they 've

them, unshaken by any personal reckoning. come croppers. Besides, I don't believe in
One opinion was that nothing too much comradeship between the sexes. Infer-
can be done for a good woman. She must nally dull policy; sort of thing that ap-
be protected, cared for, and served under peals to a book-worm. What I like is a
every ordeal in life. She must be like a little friendly scrapping. Humor 's easy.
precious jewel: bars, safes, banks must be I never have cared much for brains in a
constructed to insure her inaccessibility woman."
from all the dangers of the open world. He smiled at the woman he knew best
She must be seen the East receded — in the world, who had brains, and had
from him at this point and admired; but — given him the fruit of them all her life

she must be immaculate. That is to sav, with kindlv tolerance.


THE SECOND FIDDLE 503
Probably she was jealous; but she Julian looked a little uncomfortable.
would n't be tiresome if she was, and he Burton, who was a man, and might there-
would make things as easy for her as pos- fore be assumed to know better than a
sible. woman what a woman felt, had come to
Lady Verny saw that Julian thought the same conclusion.
that shewas jealous. She looked away Julian was prepared to give everything
from him to the terrace where he had he had to Marian— Amberley and all his

fallen as a baby and struck his head against money and himself. There was some-
the stone cornice of the sun-dial. thing in the marriage service that put it

She could never look at the sun-dial very well, but did n't, as far as he remem-
without seeing the whole scene happen bered, say anything that included one's
again, and the dreadful pause that fol- plans.
lowed it when the small, limp figure lay "I hope she likes Amberley?" he ven-
without moving. Julian was the only tured.
child she had ever had. She shivered in Lady Verny filled his cup a second time,
the hot summer air and gave up the sub- and answered tranquilly:
ject of human love. There is generally "Marian thinks it a charming little
too much to be said about it to make it a place to run down to for week-ends."
good subject of conversation except for Then she added very gently: "This is go-
lovers, who want only each other. ing to be very hard for Marian, Julian.
She pointed to the newspaper that lay You '11 remember that, won't you, when
between them that also was serious.
; 3'ou tell her?"

"My dear," she said quietly, "this ap- "Damnably hard," said Julian under
pears to be a very bad business?" his breath. "Of course I '11 remember.
"Yes," Julian acknowledged. "This I wish to Heaven she 'd marry me first.

time there '11 be no ducking; there 's noth- By Jove, I '11 make her!"
ing to duck under." Lady Verny's lips closed tightly. She
"And I dare say," said his mother, was n't going to tell Julian anything, be-
without moving the strong, quiet hands cause she did not believe in telling things
that lay on her lap, "j-ou have been think- to people who will in the course of time
ing what you are going to do in it?" find them out for themselves. She knew
"Oh, yes, I Ve decided," said Julian. that Marian would not marry him at a
"I shall be off in ten days. You '11 guess moment's notice. She knew that he was
where, but no one else must know." asking Marian already to stand a very
"It was a big risk before, Julian," she serious burden, and she did not think
said tentatively. Marian's was the type of love that cares
"This time it '11 be a bigger one," he for very serious and unexpected burdens.
answered, meeting her eyes with a flash She gazed at the bushes of blue anchusa.
of his pleased blue ones. "That 's all. It The gardener had planted pink monthly
'11 need a jolly lot of thinking out." roses a little too thickly among them. She
"And you — and
Marian has agreed
've could alter that; she did not think there
to it?" Lady Verny asked anxiously. was anything else she could alter.
"I have n't told her yet," said Julian, Julian strode toward the downs full of
easily. "It did n't occur to me to men- seriousness, eagerness, and pride, and in

tion it to her first any more than to you. her heart Lady Verny prayed not that
I knew you 'd both understand. Obvi- God's will might be done, which seemed
ously it was the one thing I could do. to her mind superfluous, but that it might
She '11 see that, of course." as far as possible be made to square with
"I 'm different," said Lady Verny, with Julian's. She was a wise and even a just
a twist of her ironic mouth. "I 'm your woman, but she thought that Providence
mother. A mother takes what is given ; a might be persuaded to stretch a point or
wife expects all there is to give." two for Julian.
504 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
"The world too small here, and
CHAPTER IX 's it 's

mine, you know. You should n't have


JuLiAX walked easily and swiftly up the come here if you had wanted to escape

slopes of the downs, whistling as he went. me."


He knew the point from which he would "Let me go, Ji ilian," she murmured.
be sure to see his flying nymph. The air "I 'm sure there s a shepherd close by.
was full of the songs of larks : beneath his Sit down and be sensible!"

feet the short grasses and wild thyme sent "Shepherds be hanged!" said Julian,
up a clean and pungent fragrance. kissing her. "Do you suppose anybody 's
The little, comfortable beauties of the ever been more sensible than I feel now?
summer's day filled his heart with glad- Kissing you is the most sensible thing a
ness. There was no sound in all the sleepy man ever did ; but don't let anybody else

country-side ; the peaceful shining clouds guess it."

floated over the low, green hills as vague He sat down at her feet and looked up
as waking dreams. into the beautiful, flushed face above him.
The cropping of the sheep upon the It was as lovely as a lifted flower; but
downs, the searching, spiral laughter of unlike the flower, it was not very soft. It

the larks, were part of the air itself; and was even like a slightly sophisticated hot-

the shadows ran an interminable race house flower ; but she had the look of race
across the long, green meadows. he loved. Her level, penciled brows, small,
Julian had had experiences of love be- straight nose, curved lips, and chin like

fore, but he had never been in love as he a firm, round apple, were the heritage of
was now. He compared these earlier ef- generations of handsome lives. Her col-

forts in his mind with the light clouds that oring was only a stain of pink upon a deli-
melted into the sunshine. Marian was cate, clear whiteness but the eyes beneath ;

the sunshine she thrilled and warmed his


; the low, smooth forehead were disappoint-
whole being. She was like an adventure ing. They were well-cut hazel eyes, with-
to him. He felt very humble in his heart out light in them. They lay in her head a
to think the sun had cared to shine upon little flat, like the pieces of a broken mir-
him, and very strong to meet its shining. ror.
He noticed little things he had never Just now they were at their tenderest.
noticed before: the feathery, fine stalks of Her whole face, bending over him, cool
the harebells, and the blue butterflies that and sweet as the southwest wind and as
moved among them like traveling flowers. provocative as the flying clouds, moved his

Usually, when he walked, he noticed only She was like an


heart almost unbearably.
the quickest way to reach his goal. He English summer day, and he knew now
noticed that now, but he tried not to crush what it would mean to leave her.

the small down flowers on his way. "I could n't bear to stay down there,"
He caught sight of Marian from a ridge she explained. "I was frightened, not of
of down, sitting motionless and erect upon you, you absurd person, but of being glad.
the rim of an old chalk-pit. A long, blue I 'm afraid I don't like big feelings very

veil hung over her shoulders like the wings much. I can't explain exactly but the pa- ;

of a blue butterfly fluttering before him. pers frightened me, too. I wanted to see

She saw his shadow before he reached her, you too much. Yes, sir, j'ou may keep
and threw her head back with a little ges- that for a prize to your vanity; and I
ture that was half a welcome and half a knew that if there should be war—" She
defiance. stopped, her lovely lips trembled a little.

He came swiftly' across the grass toward "I shall have to let you go so soon!" she
her, but it was she who was breathless whispered.
when he took her in his arms. He bowed his head over her hand and
"Trying to run away from me, are kissed it passionately.
you?" he asked, smiling down at her. "If I could spare you this pain," he said,
1 'M AFRAID 1 IK. VHRY MUCH

"I 'd take a thousand lives— and lose them youth and love about them, unmenaced
to do it!" and erect.
"No! no!" she murmured. "Keep one, "I 've a piece of work I 've got to
Julian!" do," Julian went on, "and I can't tell you
He lifted his head and looked at her anything about it. It '11 take me three
steadily. months, I fancy. I can fight afterward."
"I swear I '11 keep it," he said. "I '11 She looked at him with eyes in which
keep and bring
it, it back to you, cost what astonishment turned almost hostile.
it may." "Not fighting?" she said. "But what
It did not look as if it were going to do you mean, Julian? If we go in,

cost verymuch, with the light clouds pass- every one must fight. I know you 're not
ing overhead, and the soft down grasses a soldier, but there '11 be volunteers. With
under them, and their great citadels of all your adventures and experiences, they
o05
506 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
are sure to give you a good post. Every- you '11 give up all idea of it, and try to
body knows you. What do you mean— get a commission like other people. Surely
job you can't tell me about, unless, of that hard enough for me.
's But I '11 bear
course, it 's something naval?" that; I will never make it difficult for
Julian turned his face to the wild you by a word or a look I would n't hold ;

thyme. He shook his head. you back a day You 've not settled any-
!

"No, not that," he said. "Can't you thing, of course?"


trust me, Marian?" He told her that he had settled every-
"Trust you!" she said impatiently. "Of thing, and that in two days he must go.

course I can trust you, but why be so mys- A terrible silence fell between them, a
terious? Might n't I equally say, 'Why cold silence that was like the pressure of
"
don't you trust me?' a stone. Neither of them moved or looked
"It 's part of my job," said Julian, at the other. Julian took her hand. She
quietly, "not to trust the ground we 're on did not withdraw it from him, but she
or the larks in the sky or the light of my left it in his as unresponsive as a fallen
heart, — that 's you, Marian, — and it does leaf.

n't happen to be the easiest part of my "Marian!" he whispered, "Marian!


job." Love me a little!"
He waited for her to make it easier for She would not turn her face to him.
him, but he waited in vam. Marian ex- "Why do you talk to me of love," she
pected easy things, but she did not expect asked bitterly, "when without consulting
to have to make things easy. These two me you do something which involves your
expectations seldom go together. whole life and mine!"
"Do you mean to tell me that you are He caught her in his arms and held her
going to be some kind of spy?" she asked close to him, kissing her cold lips till they
in a tone of frank disgust. "O Julian! answered him,
I could n't bear it! It 's so— so— un- "My darling! my darling!" he whis-
English!" pered, "I love you like this and like this!
Julian chuckled. He ought not to have It 's sheer murder to leave you ! I feel as

chuckled. If a man does not like a wo- if it would break me. But I 've got to go!
man with brains, he must learn not to Don't you see, don't you understand?^ It 's
laugh at their absence. Marian stiffened work I do well, it 's important; just now

under his laughter. it 's more important than fighting; it 's

"England 's got awfully un-Eng-


to be not one man's life that hangs on it, but
lish in some ways wants to win this
if it it 's thousands. Believe me, there 's no
war," he explained. "But you must n't dishonor in it. Love me or vou '11 break
even to yourself put a name to what I 'm Ma Don't be against me! I

going to be. I 'm just on a job that '11 could n't stand it. Say you '11 let me go;
take me three months, and I 'm afraid, for if I go and you don't say it, I '11 go as
my darling, I can't send you a word. That a broken man."
cuts me all to bits but you 're so brave,
; She pushed. him gently away from her,
so brave, you '11 let me go." considering him. She knew her terrible
He buried his head in the grass; he was power. She was very angry with him,
not brave enough to bear to see the strain and she had hurt him as much as she
he was putting on her courage. Nor was meant to hurt him. She had no inten-
Marian. tion whatever of breaking him. If he

"No, Julian," she said, "you must n't was going to do this kind of work, he
ask such a thing of me. Not to know must do it well. Perhaps, after all, it was
where you are, and not to be able to tell rather important ; but important or not,
any one what you are doing! To let you he should have asked her first. She laid
go out into the dark at a time like this! her small hand over his big one with a
It 's too much to ask of me. Promise me delicate pressure.
THE SECOND FIDDLE 507
"Never settle such a thing again with she know which she was? There were
out teUing me," she said gravely. more immediate difficulties. Her parents
Julian promised quickly that he never were in Scotland hurried weddings were
;

would. He saw for the first time that always very awkward you could n't have ;

love was not liberty,and for the moment bridesmaids or wedding presents; and a
he preferred love. He had not felt deeply few hours' honeymoon, with an indefinite
enough to know that there is a way in parting ahead of it, would be painful.
which you may widen liberty and yet keep Even if a marriage under all these dis-
love. abilities was legal, would n't it be worse
"I shall let you go," Marian said gen- than would n't it be rather funny?
illegal,

tly, "and I shall try to bear it as best I Julian was sometimes impossible; he
can." had been nearly overwhelming, but he was
At the thought of how difficult it was quite impossible. He might be a danger-
going to be to bear, not to be able to tell ous man to marry in a hurry. She would
anybody anything, she cried a little. Her have to train him first.
face was uncontorted by her tears. They "It 's out of the question, Julian," she
streamed down her blossom-colored cheeks said firmly. "The whole future is too
like drops of pearly dew. Julian thought uncertain. I should love to, but I can't
her tears were softness, and he struck at do it. It would n't be right for me to do
his chance. Now perhaps she would sur- it. We must wait till you come back."
render to his hidden hope. Julian returned to his study of the short
He pleaded, with her head against his down grasses. He knew that if she had
heart, that she would marry him, marry loved would have done it. He had
to, she
him now, at once. He could arrange it all a moment that was bitter with doubt and
in twenty-four hours. He presented a pain ; then his love rose up and swallowed
thousand impetuous arguments. All his it. He saw the uncertainty for her.
wits and his ardor fought for him against He wanted her now because he knew
her soft, closed eyes. She was his ; she that he might never have her. He wanted
would be his forever. He would go with her with the fierce hunger of a pirate for
that great possession in his heart ; he would a prize; but the very sharpness of his de-
go like a man crowned to meet his future. sire made him see that it was sheer selfish-

She opened her eyes at last and moved ness to press his point. He overlooked the
away from him. At that instant she would fact that would have been perfectly use-
it

have liked to marry him, she would have less. No would have changed
pressure
liked it very much ; but besides the fact Marian. Pressure had done what it could
that she had no things, there loomed the for her already: it had moved her to tears.
blank uncertainty of the future. Would She dried them now, and suggested that
she be a wife or a widow, and how should thev had staved on the downs long enough.

( To be continued
Herbert C. Hoover
By HUGH GIBSON
HERBERT C. HOOVER, a Quaker, and then be sent "East" to Earlham or
was born on an Iowa farm forty- some one of the other small Quaker col-
three years ago. His father and mother died leges of the middle West. On the con-
when he was httle more than a baby, and trary, he announced his intention of going

he was passed on to the care of a host of to a modern scientific university, though

uncles and aunts. These were old-style he himself would probably be at a loss to
Friends, who de- say how this de-

voted much termination was


energy to bring- fostered, for he
ing him up in had never heard
harmony with admiration ex-

rigid Quaker pressed for such


doctrines. One institutions. By
of the results of the time he was
this training was fourteen he had
a youth drilled announced that
to an astonishing he would not go
degree in the lore to a Quaker col-

of the Bible and and that by


lege,

the strict observ- some means he


ance of Quaker would go to a
forms and ser- * big university.
vices. His ac- Argument was
tive mind could in vain, and as
not unquestion- force could not
ingly accept any be used, the
full set of rules, family an-
but more or less nounced that he
unconsciously he .would not be al-
has absorbed, HERBERT C. HOOVER lowed to devote
selected, and to this ungodly
adapted his own set of principles, to which undertaking the educational fund left by

he is chained as firmly as any of his his father.


Quaker forebears to the tenets of their None the less the boy persisted. He
faith. One marked characteristic he ab- realized that the local academy offered no
sorbed from his surroundings— an intense adequate preparation for the university,
dislike for artificial forms and customs. and consequently he set out for Portland,
When the time came for him to think to make his own way and prepare for the
of the question of higher education he entrance examinations. In two and a
was with an uncle Oregon. He did not
in half years he did it. He earned his own
fall in with the family assumption that living, and nights and Sundays he worried
he should attend the local Friends' academy by himself through the studies he would

1 Mr. Gibson, now attached to the state department in Washington, in the first two years of the European War
was the first secretary of our legation in Brussels, Belgium.

508
HERBERT C. HOOVER 509

have had at preparator}' school. English, student activities had its own separate
grammar, and rhetoric he dipped into only being, its own officers and funds— or debts,

to discard, and fell back on the effective and was free from any financial control.
expedient of expressing himself exactly as Hoover proceeded to work out a general
he felt. He tried no languages, but system whereby all funds passed through
plunged with enthusiasm into history, one central treasury, all requisitions had
geography, physics, and. above all, mathe- to be passed by a central board of con-
matics. trol, and those activities that were more
In89 1, Stanford University opened its
1 than self-supporting were called upon to
doors, and Hoover decided that he would defray the deficits of others that were de-
go there. In the spring the head of the sirable, but financially unprofitable. The
department of mathematics came to Port- handling of all these affairs was more than
land to give entrance examinations. He most undergraduates could assume in ad-

was sufficiently impressed by the sixteen- dition to their studies, so Hoover had it

year-old boy to help him with the choice of established that thereafter the treasurer of
his subjects, tutoring, and ways and means, the student body should be a graduate
and has since been a devoted friend. student and should receive a fitting salary.
Hoover arrived at Stanford with a very He stipulated, however, that the salary
few hundred dollars, the first boy to enter was not to begin during his own term of
the university and to sleep in the big office.

dormitory. Although he had passed in Dr. Branner preached the importance


the prescribed num.ber of subjects, he dis- of graduates going off to the mines and
covered that it was desirable to pass in taking up ordinary work of mine
the
one more. Having twenty-four hours to laborers for a few months, in order to
prepare for the ordeal, he looked over the learn the commonplaces of mining, get
subjects and chose physiology, a subject light on the handling of men and the other

of which he knew nothing. He bought innumerable questions connected with


a text-book, spent most of the next twenty- labor that no man will ever learn for him-
four hours upon it, and passed, though self by being merely an employer. Upon
not "with honors." his graduation Hoover went off to Grass
He registered in the department of Valley and took a job as an ordinary
geology and mining, and soon became a miner. He stuck to the job as long as he
close friend of Dr. Branner, head of the felt he had anything to learn from it, ris-
department. His work on engineering ing during the process to the rank and
subjects was unusually good. The same dignity of shift-boss. One day he made up
was true of history, economics, and other his mind that the time had come to throw
subjects dealing with what man has done. down the pick and shovel, and he did it

His teachers in these subjects were en- without more ado.


thusiastic over his lucid and brief papers, The next day he started for San Fran-
but he was the despair of his English cisco. He did not attach great importance
teachers, who
clung to consistent spelling to what he was to do, but was fully awake

and adherence to the rules of composition to the importance of picking out the best
and rhetoric. people of his profession to work with. He
His funds did not last long under the "picked" Louis Janin, the mining engineer
drain of tutoring and other initial ex- with the highest reputation in the West at
penses, and he cast about for revenue. He that time. Janin received the young
not only took care of himself, but found aspirant kindly, but explained to him that
time to undertake a general reconstruc- he had no positions to give and that the
tion of student affairs. In his senior year waiting-list was long. Hoover calmly
he was elected treasurer of the student announced that salary was no object to
body, and found chaos and only a small him, as he was concerned solely with train-
store of treasure. Each of the manv ing under ^Ir. Janin. He had only a few
510 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
dollars in his pockets, but he begged for a Neither had there been any mining law in

position without pay. Janin replied very the country, miners holding their tem-
definitely that he had no place vacant save porary titles by favor of the crown or under
that of type-writer at forty-five dollars a the varying regulations of the local au-
month, which he knew would not appeal thorities. So Hoover was called upon to
to a trained engineer. On the contrary, explore the country, advise as to the de-
Hoover claimed that that was just what velopment of its mines, and draw up a
he wanted, and inquired when he should mining code to meet the needs of the em-
report for duty. pire. This last was a task to stir the blood
He was put on Mr. Janin's staff, and of any engineer familiar with the hopeless
for eighteen months worked in California, and uncouth growth which constitutes
Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, and Arizona, the mining law of all civilized countries.
with enough interesting adventures to fill The first year was one of unalloyed
a book. At the end of that time he re- pleasure. It was devoted entirely to ex-
ceived a flattering offer from a firm in amination, and all the promised privileges
Western Australia, and took it straight to were granted. He
had an adequate for-
Mr. Janin, who advised him to go for the eign stafF, drawn from the or-
largely
broadening experience. ganization he had built up and learned
The mining world was a broadening to love in Australia, and all the Chinese
experience for the young man, with its ad- interpreters, clerks, and draftsmen that he
venture, its prospects, "finds," rushes, wanted. His own daily life and his per-
deals, the usual number of frauds and sonal retinue were a never-failing source
swindlers, and, above all, the unusual sit- of pleasure and amusement for him, as
uation brought about by the waterless con- were the scale of his exploring parties, the
dition of the country. long cavalcade, the huge staff, the cere-
Hoover developedhis mines with grati- mony, and the provision of all imaginable
fying success. He
examined hundreds of luxuries; for as one interpreter had ex-
prospects, and found one great mine, plained, "Mr. Hoover is such expensive
which he himself developed and which has man to my country my country cannot let

paid big dividends ever since, and all this him die for want of small things."
amid the excitement of work in a pioneer But then came the awakening. It was

country of unknown resources, where in learned that the post was "advisory."
the absence of ordinary facilities of trans- Examination, exploration, reports were
port and workers dependence had to be looked upon with favor, but there was no
placed on camels and Afghans; where favor for actual work, development, and
everything was about as different as it real mining. And with the awakening
could well be from his previous experience came the abomination that Hoover always
at home. feels for a post that does not carr\- ample
After a few years in Australia, Hoover executive authority to do the work.
was offered the position of director of But just then his whole attention was
mines of the Chinese Empire, His firm demanded for other troubles: the Boxer
released him from his contract, and he Uprising caught Hoover at Tientsin. He
started for China by way of America in was recovering from an acute attack of
the spring of 1899. influenza and about to start on a trip into
The new position was about as interest- Mongolia. So he was in the thick of it,

ing as any that could fall to the lot of a for in Tientsin there was hot fighting for
mining man. China had been mined for a month. It was an active siege that
thousands of years, but always In a small would fill a book in the telling — of shells
and most primitive way. The surface had bursting in the houses by day and night,
been scraped ofi and sifted over, but no up the earth in the garden
bullets kicking
one knew what was underneath, and little paths,and not a word from the outside
mining had been done by modern methods. world for weeks on end. And with it
HERBERT C. HOOVER 511
allwas the knowledge that when strength these tragic days.For instance. Hoover
or ammunition failed it was a question of had a cow famous and influential in the
a bullet apiece as the easiest way out. community, and the cow was the mother
Hoover was there through it all only be- of a promising calf. One day the cow
cause he chose to be. He had warning was stolen, and Hoover set to work with
from devoted Chinamen concerned for his all his energy to find her. After a fruit-
safety. But he could not bring himself to less search through the town he had an
run away from his Chinese employees, inspiration. He took out the tiny calf,
who had been faithful to him he could ; and by the light of a lantern led the little
not leave them to be dealt with by the orphan about the streets crying for its

soldiers of many nations who might not mother. Finally, as they passed in front
know how to distinguish between the of the barracks of the German contingent,
different sorts of Chinamen. As Mrs. there was an answering moo, and Hoover
Hoover refused to go alone, the two stayed walked up and claimed his property. The
on to care for a few hundred yellow men. sentry, disregarding Hoover's statements,
It is well known that in those hectic countered with the inquiry, "Is that the
days was not
there alwa3's a fine dis- calf of the cow inside?" Upon receiving
crimination shown as to those Chinamen an affirmative answer to his Ollendorff
who were deserving of punishment and question, he calmly confiscated the calf and
those who were guiltless. Hoover and a sent Hoover home empty-handed. It may
few others made themselves unpopular in be remarked in passing that this was
certain high quarters by going twice a day Hoover's first passage at arms with the
to the guard-house at "shooting-time" and Germans, and that the Germans paid for
rescuing such of the Chinamen as they that cow.
could vouch coming back unnerved
for, Chang Yen Mow% the minister of mines,
from the sights they had seen. took such an anti-Boxer attitude in the
Admiring newspapers have credited councils of the empire that he was forced
Hoover with directing the military de- to flee from Peking, and escaped in dis-

fense of Tientsin, but he disclaims this. guise to his palace in Tientsin to seek
He had enough to do to look after the foreign protection the wrath of
against
feeding of his hundreds of employees and his own people. He
had been dragged
keep them supported mentally and emo- forth from that same palace and stood up
tionally under the strain of the rumors before a shooting squad, and in saving him
that flew about the place and the more or Hoover got himself into disfavor with the
less accurate knowledge they acquired of authorities. Fortunately he had the whole-
actual happenings. With all his European hearted assistance of a Russian colonel
and American staff he kept the terrified whose soldierly threats finally decided the
Chinamen at work building innumerable question in favor of Chang.
barricades of rice and sugar sacks, bring- In the days that followed Chang was
ing ice and provisions from the warehouses disturbed by the thought of what was to
on the other side of the settlement, and become of a great mining property of his
constantly fighting fires. They made at Tongshan, about eighty miles from
themselves generally useful doing what Tientsin. He offered it as an outright gift

they could, so that the entire force of to Hoover in order to insure its safety
twenty-three hundred military men could from confiscation. The ex-director of
devote their whole energies to fighting. mines (he might safely be called ex-di-
Even with that it was a close thing, for it rector, for the Government which had
was all they could do to hold off the tens appointed him was hard to find he had no ;

of thousands of well-armed, madly brave salary, and the only evidence he possessed
fanatics who failed only because of their of official dignity was an office riddled

faulty strategy and tactics. with shells by that same Government)


But there was a lighter side even in agreed to go to Europe and organize a
512 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
company to work Chang's mine, the com- fering through hours of difficult Chinese
pany to furnish the working capital and discussion, following him for days to-

pay Chang a reasonable share of the gether from town to town, from palace
profits. The company law of England to palace, and from room to room meeting
;

made it desirable to form the company in all the excuses raised by the wily old man,
London, but for political considerations everything from the bad luck sure to fol-

it was desirable to secure Russian and low signing while his son and heir was ill

Belgian participation. of the measles to the impossible character


With minute written instructions from moment.
of the pens in the palace at the
Chang, Hoover set out for London to ar- But in the end the perseverance of the
range the deal. And he did arrange it, young men was rewarded. For under
fighting hard for the old Chinaman and their pressure Chang changed his mind
maintaining his rights against people w^ho again and decided to stick to his bargain.
felt that as long as they kept the letter of This having been accomplished, Chang
the agreement they were justified in mak- wanted Hoover to stay on and develop the
ing away with as much of his property as property, and so did the bond-holders in
they could. However, within the stipu- Europe. He undertook to remain for six
lated time he had everything arranged months and get things started. It soon
and was back in China. became known that there were certain
In the meantime the situation had en- "pickings" that had been overlooked in
tirely changed. Chang had come to a the original bargain, and these Hoover
realization of the fact that China was proposed to divide share and share alike
not to be partitioned, that private property among the various interests. One of the
was not to be confiscated, and that affairs foreign groups could not see the need of
in general were settling down to a more this, however, and sent up a big man who
stable condition than they had been in was to dispose young American
of the
before the war. He concluded that, since and see to it that the old Chinaman did
this was so, he could drive a better bargain not get any more than was considered
for his mine than he had stipulated in good for him. The big man came and re-
writing for. the young engineer. So he mained for months, and then "important
changed his mind and repudiated the interests" recalled him to southern China,
whole thing. And although Hoover's ar- and the Chinese continued to get their
rangement had been made at his request fair share of the profits.
and under his written instructions, there From a purely mining point of view
was no law in China that could hold him this new venture was of great value. It

to his part of the contract. was a huge coal and Hoover had
deposit,
The Belgian interests which Hoover dealt previously with nothing but precious
had enlisted in the matter had sent over a metals. It was on a big scale, ready for
young Belgian engineer named Wouters, reorganization, having many hundred
a fine type of Belgian gentleman, now in miles of tunnels, from fifteen to twenty
Brussels working quietly and effectively thousand workmen, a fleet of ocean-going
for his suffering people. and Hoover He steamers, and other enterprises necessary
settled down upon the old Chinese and to so vast a machine. The work of run-
endeavored to force him to sign the ning this was an experience very different
papers within the time set by the contracts. from conducting the scientific investiga-
Both the young men knew that their repu- tions of thedepartment of mines.
tations and their professional careers de- The mine had not been disturbed dur-
pended on getting Chang to carry out his ing the Boxer Outbreak, and had gone on
part of the bargain. In looking back on quietly turning out coal. None the less,

those days there is a good deal of humor to with characteristic German thoroughness,
be seen in their activities —
the two young four months later Waldersee sent an
men hounding the unwilling Chinese, suf- armed force to afford "protection" to the
HERBERT C. HOOVER 513
property. The first night the sentries lief when he could cast off and go to work
opened fire on the night shift coming on for himself. He sold his interest in the
duty at two o'clock in the morning and firm and branched out alone.
killed about twenty of them, because, as From that moment he prospered. \'alu-
was afterward explained, they were a band able associations came to him from all
of riotous peasants attacking the mine! over the world, and he branched out to
This is strangely like some later explana- the four quarters of the globe. South
tions of other murders committed by the Australia developed a new zinc business
same authority. due to Hoover's handling in anew way of
When his six months with Chang's discarded old "tailings." Burma showed
mine were up. Hoover was offered a a field of marvelous reorganization from
junior partnership in an important London almost prehistoric Chinese lead workings
house, and went to it with enthusiasm. It by the construction of railways, smelters,
was another remarkable and broadening and ships. Russia, up in Kyshtim, had
experience for a man still in his twenties. an estate as large as Belgium that for over
He learned a lot about the office side of a century had been the largest iron-mines
mining, and received some hard knocks and works of Europe, but had fallen into
that taughthim a lot about "big business." a sad state because nobody knew how to
It was expensive learning, but has since adapt its ways to those of the new metal-
stood him in good stead. Finally came a lurgy that had grown up on the western
big crash that brought with it the most side of the Atlantic. The greatest in-
trying experience of his life. terest in this fascinating problem, greater
The financial member of the firm de- even than those of railways, metallurgy,
camped with about a million dollars, rep- or reconstruction, was that of reviving a
resenting peculations over a term of years. fainting people. For generations they had
Incidentally he made off with all the ready been one of the most advanced regions of
money Hoover had in the world. Not Russia, thrifty, educated. Intelligent; from
only had he robbed the firm, but he had that they had sunk to become demoralized,
also defrauded a lot of small investors and almost penniless. Famine was literally
had forged various documents, and with upon the land, driving people out and
them had cheated city firms which had in killing off those who stayed. The great
perfect good faith advanced money on the problem lay in the race with life itself

worthless paper. in the rush to provide work for these tens


The senior member of the firm w^as in of thousands of workmen upon the land
China, but Hoover took upon himself
it of their fathers. And in those first months
to say that, although the firm was not much artificLl work was made to keep the
legally responsible, all these frauds would people alive on the land until the real
be made good. When the senior member mining work was ready for them. And
heard about the situation he cabled frantic- it was one of the great joys of Hoover's

ally to protest, but fortunately he was too life to go back afterward and find the old

late. prosperity of which he had heard again


When he returned to London there firmly settled upon the hills and the pine
were stormy scenes, but the young Ameri- forests.
can set his jaw and held to the position Other vast reorganization followed in
that they had to pay. Then began a six- Russia. Nicaragua and other Central
years' grind to pay off debts that could American countries were taken in turn,
not have been enforced in any court in the and hardly a mining country in the world
world. These were the hardest years of but came up periodically for inspection.
Hoover's life, and were filled with trials At the time of the organization of the
that will make an epic when they can be company to work old Chang's mine the
written. Chinese had stipulated that there should
Finallv came the dav of tremendous re- be a Chinese board, with a Chinese chair-
514 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
man, as well as the board in London, in lengthy judgment, so received little men-
order that they might keep their "face" tion in the press and brought little satis-

with their own countrymen. It was ar- faction.


ranged that this should be a purely orna- From the time that he launched out for
mental board, with showy functions and himself until the beginning of the European
certain occasional payments and perquisites. War Hoover tended more and more to the
When the company got into good run- reorganization of badly managed .and
ning order the Europeans repudiated these bankrupt properties. He had as much
formalities. The Chinese directors made business as his big organization could at-
violent protests and demanded their un- tend to, and could have had as much more
doubted rights. But, as we have noted, as he cared to accept. A glance at
the mining laws in China were lacking in "Who's Who" gives an impressive idea
certain respects, and there was no way of of approximately how many big prop-
forcing the Westerners to live up to their erties he did manage, and some indication
part of the bargain. However, at every of his position in the mining world.
annual meeting Hoover and Wouters When the war broke out Hoover was
solemnly moved that the company com- living in London. The confusion of those
ply with its agreement with the Chinese, firstweeks is an old story: the thousands
and with equal regularity the motion was of American tourists, fleeing from the
scoffingly voted down. But for years they Continent to England and thence to
kept a member on the board for the sole America the scarcity of ready money and
;

purpose of making an annual bid for the difficulty of cashing checks and drafts
justice for the Chinese. the lost families and the lost luggage the ;

But slow-moving justice finally arrived. thousand and one things that made for
Chang came on an expedition to London, confusion that turned London into a
accompanied by a vast retinue and an old veritable whirlpool. The embassy, with
German as special adviser to appeal for its little peace-time staff, was completely
justicefrom the English courts. The overwhelmed. Hoover was summoned,
Chinese and German advisers had not and responded with his usual effectiveness.
bothered to look into the views of the He called together the most able American
young American engineer who had been business men in London, secured the
present when the bargain was made, and ground floor of the Savoy Hotel, divided
casually included him among the de- the work up into departments, and turned
fendants. it over to the men who were to run it. He
The various Europeans could not agree himself was everywhere, overseeing, cor-
among themselves, and there was civil war recting where correction was needed, ad-
in each of the groups. The only point on vising, helping, and guiding. By his
which they all agreed was that the Ameri- efforts and under his direction in the first
can was at fault for having let the Chinese two months of the war about a hundred
have such a share in the proceedings and and fifty thousand Americans were sent
led him on to make such preposterous de- back to this country. Hundreds of thou-
mands. sands of dollars were advanced on checks
The upshot of it all was that the China- that otherwise would have been refused
man got justice, that the Europeans were or accepted only at a big discount. The
properly flayed, and that incidentally in a lost were found, families reunited, lug-
few lines the court gave judgment that gage in vast quantities was recovered, and
Herbert C. Hoover had acted scrupulously Americans in general were made to
within the confines of his authority at the realize that they were being carefully
time of the sale, and that he had done looked after.
everything in his power later to enforce Early in October some weary men set

the carrying out of the lapsed clauses. It about winding up the affairs of the Ameri-
was a little sentence buried in a dull and can committee. About this time the
HERBERT C. HOOVER 515
seriousness of the situation in Belgium own credit and that of his associates to
began to be fully understood. At first, an extent that makes them gasp when they
when the food shortage had manifested it- pause to think of it now.
self, it was agreed that the war would So the first food was bought and loaded
soon be over and that the emergency could on the ships that had been chartered, and
be dealt with by emergency methods. Hoover went to the proper British official

Within a very short time, however, it be- and asked permission to ship food. Sym-
came evident that despite all that could be pathy there was in plenty, but it was
done by able men in Belgium starvation gently explained that in view of the diffi-

threatened unless help could be had from culties of securing tonnage, the over-
outside. worked condition of the railroads, and
Millard Shaler, an American mining the shortage of the food market, he was
engineer resident in Brussels, was de- asking altogether too much. When this
spatched to London to endeavor to effect' was said. Hoover remarked that these
some arrangement for the purchase and difficulties had been met, and all he re-
forwarding of food-stuffs into Belgium quired was just what he asked for— the
through the blockade. Shaler laid the permission to export the food from the
situation before Hoover, who was quick United Kingdom. When the official re-
to recognize the scopeand possibilities of covered from his surprise the permission
the work ahead. After ascertaining was granted, and the food was on its way
through Mr. Page, the American am- within a few hours.
bassador in London, that the Govern- When comes to be written, the his-
it

ment at Washington would look with tory of Commission for Relief in


the
favor upon the relief of Belgium, Mr. Belgium will fill volumes, and a great
Hoover enlisted the services of his as- part of these volumes will be filled with
sociateson the American Relief Commit- the activities and achievements of Hoover
tee. On October 22 the American Com- for he was throughout the guiding spirit,
mission for Relief in Belgium was form- the active directing force, and the in-
ally launched. spiration of the body of picked men who
Organization M'as effected in record carried on the work and made possible the
time. With his breadth of view Hoover greatest work of conservation in the his-
quickly divided the work into its logical tory of the world — the conservation of
parts and found trained men to start one of the finest races that civilization has
things moving. One man was hurried produced.
off to Rotterdam and charged with the Despite the fact that the people were
establishment of an oflice with all the fed, — and before long the people of the
machinery for transhipping cargoes of occupied portion of northern France were
food to barges and despatching them to added to the Belgians, — there never was
Belgium ; another was given the handling a moment of security, never a moment
of charters, another of insurance, another when the breakdown of the whole work
of the purchase of food, another of public did not seem more or less imminent for
appeals, and so on down through the long one reason or another. And all the
list. burdens were borne by one man. There
In the first days there was little money was always some sort of trouble in the
tobuy food with aside from a slender gift air, always some sort of fight or con-

from the British Government. But troversy, always somebody trying to stop
Hoover knew that money would be forth- the machine or interfere with its efficient
coming from all over the world as soon running. There was a running fight with
as the plight ofBelgium was understood, the German authorities to make them
and with the courage that the situation de- observe as far as possible their undertak-
manded he went ahead and bought as ings, and so far as the actual seizure of
much food as was required, pledging his food-stuft"s is concerned, they must be given
516 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
credit for the fulfilment of their promises. men, many of them just out of college,
Tliere was constant discussion with Allied and none of them with training in the
governments as to the conditions under technical side of the work they were to
which thej' felt it was safe to allow food undertake. Yet despite this the efficiency
to go into the occupied territor3^ There was of a high standard. The enthusiasm
were unending difficulties in securing and energy that were put into learning the
shipping in competition with all the Allied details of the work and the devotion to
governments. There was the serious loss the drudgery for over two years became
of ships from time to time by mine or sub- an inspiration to those who saw it. First
marine. There were big and little trage- and last there must have been some two
dies and every sort of minor trouble that hundred and Americans in Belgium
fifty

can be conceived and whenever trouble


; as volunteers. They
were idealists,
came, Hoover was summoned. When though some of them would have scoffed
things got into a bad way in Belgium re- at the suggestion, for no other sort of man
lief-workers were apt to remark, "About would stick to the hard and wearing task
time the chief was coming over." And of the American delegate unless he ap-
usually he came, and about the time that preciated the significance of what he was
he had straightened out the tangle there doing and was willing to pay high for
was usually a message from Berlin or the the privilege. They were all under a
general staff in the north of France or severe emotional strain, for the sights they
from Paris or London, clamoring for his saw and the tales they heard were enough
presence. to move the most callous. They were
And that is the life he led during more under temptation to render service to the
than two years. He was the only man one side or the other— service that would
alive permitted to travel freely from one have been of value to the cause they
belligerent country to another, received in favored. But in two years and a half not
entire confidence by the leading men of all one of these men was guilty of a single
those governments. His passport bore a act of which we had reason to be ashamed.
British vise authorizing him to enter or The German authorities were constantly
leave any port in Great Britain without bringing charges against them, and were
previous notice, the only one in existence. always disappointed when it was found
The heads of warring governments dis- possible to prove that the charges were
cussed matters with him in a way that without foundation. They could not for
would have made ambassadors envious. the life of them understand the plane on
And he merited every bit of that con- which these men worked, and were for a
fidence from both sides, for he always long time convinced that if they kept at
played the game and scrupulously fulfilled it long enough it would be possible to catch

all the obligations that were imposed on these Yankees in something wrong. But
him by his own strict code. As a matter of disappointment still reigns at German
were mr.ny people close to him
fact, there headquarters. No band of crusaders ever
who had no conception as to what his set out with a higher purpose than these
views were about the war, and he was as matter-of-fact Americans maintained
meticulously honest with the Germans as through their stay in Belgium. Their
with his own people. record is one of which America should
Hoover would have deserved well if he be proud.
had never done anything but bring to- From
the early days of the commis-
gether the group of men who composed the sion was seen that its demands would
it

volunteer staff of the commission. There be beyond anything that had ever come in
never was a finer body of men assembled the range of human experience. Hoover,
on any single undertaking, though their with courageous imagination, decided that
worth has been but little appreciated at he would require five million dollars a
home. They were for the most part young month to carrv on the work. Before he
HERBERT C. HOOVER 517
was through he was spending over seven- came known to a group of men who are
teen millions a month and was laying his his devoted friends. They took comfort
plans to get more. He built up a fleet of in his remarkable directness, his way of
seventy cargo-boats despite all the efforts dispensing with forms and ceremony that
of belligerent governments to corner all is attractive because founded upon real,
shipping for their own had
needs. He deep-seated, natural courtesy that is not
thousands of canal-boats and barges and dependent on forms of any sort.
railroad-cars. Every year the people of His one pursuit in life is getting things
the occupied territory consumed the wheat done— things that count. Efficiency re-
produced by nearly a million and a half ceives his devoted service, but always with
acres. The scale of the whole work that discrimination that never loses sight
staggers the imagination, but it was done of the human element of the people he is

and done well. It was done despite working for and those that are working
every handicap in the way of difficulty of with him. And right there is the secret
transport and communication, the arbi- of the devotion to Hoover of the men who
trary actions of military authorities, and have worked with him. It is no small
countless new obstacles that rose up thing for a man of great affairs, em-
and confronted the commission every ploying in his various interests more than
day. a hundred thousand men, to be able to
When Hoover has a job in hand he is say that he has never had a strike. There
apt to have a rather single-minded pur- is not one of the hundreds of men who
pose. In Belgium he developed the idea have been associated with him in Belgian
that the reason he was there was to feed relief work who is not now an understand-
the Belgians. And that idea was a life- ing and devoted friend.
preserver for the Belgian people. Few In his struggle for efficiency one of his
men have ever had the temptations that cardinal principles is to focus publicity and

were given Hoover to throw down a task. credit upon the organization that is doing
When the situation became completely the work, and not upon the individual men
hopelessHoover was wont to remark, composing it. All the publicity work of
"But we must remember that we are here the Commission for Relief in Belgium
to feed the Belgians," and grit his teeth, was by his direction concentrated on secur-
and go on working. Sometimes the provo- ing popular approval and support for the
cations became so intolerable for some of commission itself and Hoover's name was
;

the other Americans that after working studiously kept out of the papers. His
upon one another's feelings they would de- work has become known, but it is be-
cide that the time had come to stop the cause of its outstanding importance and
whole business as a punishment to the against his own efforts. He is modest to
Germans or to some set of persons. But it an extent that is sometimes painful to
never went any farther than that, for a people who deal with him, and never
few words from Hoover were always suffers such when being
acute misery as
enough to put everj^body back on even extolled what he has done.
publicly for
keel and to cause them to wonder that Even in Belgium his name was little
with millions of innocent lives at stake known, and for the first eighteen months
they could have thought of anything so of the war, when his name was mentioned,
preposterous as abandoning the great work one often heard: "Hoover? Who is
they were privileged to share in. Hoover?" And this from people who
It was in these days of constant trouble thanked the Commission for Relief in
and anxiety that the very real Hoover be- Belgium for their very lives.
Free
By WILBUR DANIEL STEELE
Author of "On Moon Hill," etc.

Illustrations by Jay Hambidge

toward night, still raining; and halted after two or three


ITthegotclayon bottom was deep with
in the
tated,
Luke Petit let his straw suitcase down
steps.
in
mud. A man stood in the dusk at the cor- themud and put his hands into his pockets.
ner of a snake-fence, leaning on a shot- And so, face to face, the brothers took
gun, silent, motionless, as the minutes stock of each other. Both faces showed a
went by, peering down through the thick- little gray in the gathering night.
ness at the faint, watery lights of the vil- "Shake!" said Luke Petit.
lage. The "five-fifteen" had come and John Petit put out a hand.
gone half an hour: he had heard the whis- "This is the day I 've been waiting for,
tle, and for a moment, over yonder in Luke; you don't know how."
Schauer's Gorge, glimpsed the file of its "You look about the same, John."
yellow windows swimming down toward "You look about the same, Luke. Trifle
the coast. Once he filled his pipe with poorer about the face."
clumsy fingers and forgot to light it; once "Poorer! You ought to 'a' seen me a
he combed his hair back under his hat with year ago, John, after the bit in solitary.
an uncertain hand beyond that he re-
; Poorer! Did you think five years in
mained as expressionless and immobile as prison was going to put flesh on to a
a statue. man ?"

By and by another figure came into "It 's been had, Luke."
view a little way off through the murk, "Bad! I guess! I tell you one thing,
climbiag up the muddy track from the John for ; a man that 's been five years in
village. a cell, when he comes out's nothing there
The men hailed each other in tones con- in the world too good for him. What *s
strained and excited. John Petit, who had the gun for, John?" •

been standing by the fence so long, started "Nothing. The Wallow folks are a
forward with a gesture of eagerness, hesi- mite ugly, that 's all. They won't do
518
FREE 519
anything, though. I just carried it for it, and honors me for it, too. She 's wrote
luck." me a letter every single day."
Luke Petit peered about him. "And every single day," John him told
"Where 's the mare? I 'd 'ave thought in a curiously marked
hard voice, "she 's

you 'd 'ave brought the rig, John." off the date on the calendar and numbered
"I 've been sawing cord-wood with her the days to come. It 's made a difference
all day, and it 's such a short step over the in Belle, Luke. Belle 's a woman now.
hill. I figured you 'd rather walk. Here, These five years have told."
I '11 carry your suitcase." "These five years have told" it kept —
They started off in the soggy going, echoing in John Petit's brain as he sat
Luke trailing a pace behind. there staring down at the knuckles of the
"But after supper," he said, "we '11 put hard hands on his knees, afraid to look at
the mare in the buggy all right, John." his brother. He would scarcely have
The other stopped and looked back at known him at a casual meeting. Five
him. years in prison had certainly done Luke
"To-night? Go over to Belle's to- no good.
night, Luke?" Though John touched nothing, Luke
"Why not? Say, look here, John, you had begun to eat ravenously, picking out
got my letter about the minister?" sardines with his fingers from the can be-
"Yes."
John spoke slowly, his face tween his elbows. After he had done for
turned half away. "But to-night, Luke one can, however, he pushed everything
— you 're pretty tired to-night." away from him with a sudden gesture of
"What of it? After five years? You revulsion.
try waiting five years, John." "I '11 bet Belle 's got supper ready for
A misty star in the kitchen window led

me," he said "chicken and mashed pota-
them down the farther slope to the farm- toes and squash-pie and things. I 've lived
house. John had laid the table for their on hogwash for five years, and now I 'm
supper before he went over the hill to out, I 've got something fancy coming to
wait two cans of sardines, a can of corn,
: me. I 've had plenty of time to think

heavy bread made laboriously with his over there, John, and I 've figured it out
own hands, a peach-pie bought in the vil- if a fellow goes to work and does a fine,

lage, coffee set on the back of the stove. brave thing, and gets jugged for it, why,
That afternoon he had washed up the the world 's got nothing he can't have
accumulated dishes of a fortnight, but when he gets out if he wants it. Is there
somehow, for all he could do, they began anything to drink in the house, John, old
to gather in the sink again. boy?"
"I wish it was fancier," he said, with a The other arose, got a dipper from the
touch of wistfulness as Luke sank into a sink, and was starting heavily for the cel-
chair at the table. "I 've tried to get a lar stairs when Luke protested across the
woman work, but there has n't been
to table:
any, and none of the Wallow niggers "Not cider! Good Lord, John, cider
!"
would come since you finished Maje. for a man just out of hell
They 're a mite ugly about it. They say John stopped, and stared into the shin-
Maje was only fooling that time, and no- ing bottom of the dipper. A faint per-
body else would have thought a thing spiration dampened his brow.
about it." "You used to be sparing of— the other,"
"But would.
Black or white, I 'd
I he muttered. "A bit at Christmas, ma\ be,
have done the same for any man that and— and —
scared my girl like that. I 'm built that "Christinas! Well, if this ain't bet-
way." ter 'n Christmas!" Luke hung over the
"Yes, I know. You did right, Luke." table, pounding the oil-cloth with ecstatic
"Sure, I done right. And Belle knows fingers. The whites of his eyes seemed
520 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
more tlian usually prominent. John lifted Twice he filled the coffee-cup from the
a blanched face. bottle and emptied it. At rest so, in the
"I 'm sorry, Luke, but there 's none in yellow rays of the lamp, his face
pitiless,

the house." showed more plainly than ever the price


Luke tipped his chair over backward, that had been asked of him. The skin
walked to the cupboard above the sink, hung colorless and loose, and beneath it

rummaged on the top shelf, and returned one felt that there was no longer anything
to the table, carrying a three-cornered to bind it together. The circular muscles
black bottle. ^
Hepoured out a coffee-cup about the lips had and let
lost elasticity

of the spirits and drank it down before he them fall apart. In the eyes alone re-
spoke. mained anything penetrating and alive.
"I would n't 'ave believed it, the day I And they dreamed of the plunder of a new
come out of prison, denying me, your own world. Why not? To a man famished
blood-brother! Denying Luke! Luke!" in the desert five long years for a brave
Color whipped John Petit's face; the deed, who w\\\ deny all he will drink at
features were set in a grimace of pain. the springs?
Leaning across the table, he confronted His finger-nails kept up a continuous,
his brother. rapid thrumming on the table, and outside
"It 's not that, Luke. God knows you the rain droned its dun orchestration
can never be paid, nor half, nor a quarter across the world. His eyelids drooped as
paid, for what you Ve gone through. the liquor mounted to his brain, and the
Don't you think I 'd do it if I could? rhythm of the beating fingers slowed by
I 'm doing my best, Luke. I 've made imperceptible degrees.
over my share in the farm to you, and I 'm He shook himself out of it suddenly,
clearing out. I 'm going West to-night lifting his head, and inclined an ear to-
on the twelve-two. It 's a good farm, ward the outer door. Then, with a
Luke; the wheat 's splendid this year. muffled exclamation, he leaped up, flung it

You '11 do well." open, and ran out into the streaming dark.
"And —^and with Belle's place, too
— "John!" he cried. "John! John!
Luke looked up abruptly. "Going West, John!"
you say? Where to?" The wheels ahead stopped, and his
"I don't know. 'm just clearing out."
I brother's voice came back.
John's eyes left his brother's and passed "Yes?"
from object to object about the room, half Luke came to the buggy, panting with
frightened, half wistful. He grew ner- the unaccustomed exertion.
vous, like one hunted, and shifted toward "What Where you going?"
you doing?
the staircase door. "I 've got a few 'Trying to trick me '.

things to pack," he mumbled. John's hands were in his lap, id his


Luke turned in his chair to speak after chinwas buried in his collar.
him. "No, no, Luke. I— I just thought
"When you 're ready, John, put the maybe you 'd decide you were too tired to
mare in the buggy, and I '11 go along. go over there, after all. I— I was just
You 've got plenty of time to go round figuring to drive down to the village the
by the mountain, and you can drop me short way and wait for the twelve-two.
at Belle's." I 'd leave the mare and
in Kolquist's stable
John's heavy footfalls paused on the have him fetch her up morning."
in the
stairs, half-way up. Luke leaned his head on the wheel and
"All right," the leaden answer came began to sob. His tears, uncontrolled and
down out of the dark. painless, mingled with the rain. He could
Alone in the kitchen, Luke put his el- have done nothing more spectacular.
bows farther apart on the oil-cloth and John reached across the wheel with a
settled his cheeks deeper in his palms. sudden excess of tenderness mingled with
FREE 521
self-abasement and patted the sunken "John ! John !" the voice came dowri
shoulders; then, with an urging hand un- once more, lifted in a tenser note. "John
der the other's arm, pulled him into the Petit, has he come? Have you brought
buggy. him, John?"
"Dear me, don't take on so!" he "Yes, Belle."
pleaded. Luke, old fellow, I '11
"\'es, yes, With a jerk at the head-stall, John
drive you over. I 'm going to take you to swung the mare into the yard. The dog
Belle's. Don't you hear me?" was snapping at his legs; it was a comfort
He got around into the mountain road to kick out at him with vicious jabs of the
and drove slowly, letting the animal find boot. The door faded out of sight as they
her way. After a few moments he pulled approached. John cramped the wheels to
up, took off his rubber coat, and threw it let Luke get down.
over Luke's drooping shoulders, then went "You coming in?" Luke asked him.
on again. Neither spoke. By and by the "No, I guess not. I guess I '11 go on
mare stopped dead in the road. down to the village and wait for the train.
"Here 's Tolley's Hill," John sug- Good-by, Luke, old man."
gested tentatively. "Remember?" And then, as if with another thought,
Luke settled down a little farther in the he flung the blanket over the mare and
seat. hurried to catch up with his brother at the
"I '11 feel stouter in a few davs," he porch steps.
protested in a weak voice. "I been shut They opened the door without knock-
up five years." ing, being already announced. The room
"That 's right." John got down, and, was full of the comforting glow of a big
going to the mare's head, led her up the oil lamp and the red shaft from the door
helping her along
steep, slippery incline, of the "air-tight." A table was set with
by a strong pull on the head-stall. And a white cloth and good things to eat —
so, dragging and blowing in the blind del- chicken, mashed potatoes, squash-pie, pre-
uge, they came finally over the ridge. cisely. Luke's eves took fire, gleaming,
A dog started barking a little way off gloating, unstable; the tip of his tongue
to the right of the road. There came a followed the perimeter of his lips; he
sudden rectangle of light in the night, rubbed palms together.
his
streaming with oblique jewels and fram- "Look at that, will you?" he cried to
ing the figure of a w^oman. Her voice his brother. Sinking down into a chair,
was heard, calling to the dog: he leaned forward on his elbows, encir-
"Stop it, Shep! Be quiet, can't you, cling a plate with his forearms. "Did n't
Shep!" And then, lifted: "Who 's there? Poor Luke! The best in the
Is that— you?" land for Luke, who 's been m a cei fi^

Neither man answered. The buggy had years for her. Ha! ha! ha! I
And you
stopped in the road, and from the seat thought I was too tired to come, John
Luke Petit stared upward at the bright That 's a joke on you, old boy. Bellewas
body still half crouching, one
vision, his waiting for me."
hand writhing on the other wrist, his face "Yes," said John, moving painful lips.
muscles moving painfully as realization "I tell you she 's been waiting for you all

struggled with the lees of the liquor he these five years."


had drunk. Twice he rubbed the rain "But where is she? Where 's she
out of his eyes, as if he could not really gone?" Luke started up, jerking his eyes
believe. this way and that. On John's face there
John Petit, at the mare's head, was not was a flame of shame and anger running
looking up at the door, but down into the up his cheeks to his forehead. His hands
darkness about his boots. His square knotted behind his back, and then, as if

shoulders seemed to have fallen in upon getting away from him, reached out sud-
themselves as if by their own weight. denly and thrust Luke back into his chair.
522 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
"Look here, Luke." His voice lost its toward the living-room and the stairs,

edge then. His words began to stumble. John, studying him, retreated behind the
"You know it 's — it 's kind of hard for stove and fumbled in the bottom of the
the girl, Luke. It 's a big thing, after all, boot-closet. His hand brought out an
and she 's got to— to kind of get her old earthenware jug, stopped with a roll
breath when it comes to the minute. I of paper.
would n't give a cent for her if she was "By Christmas!" he feigned surprise,
n't like that, and you would n't, either. "here 's Uncle Witte's whisky-jug, stood
She '11 be round in a second, Luke. Give here in the closet since the day he died.
her time." What say, Luke ? Let 's have one to your
"Time! More time!" An unhealthy coming out."
rancor moved the man's face. When Luke had asked for whisky down
"I 'm hungry," he protested, "starved. at their own it had given John a
house,
Here, John; sit down and let 's eat. She moment of sickness; for he, too, had been
'11be round when she finds I 'm not run- waiting for Luke and thinking about Luke
ning after her." He began pulling off and depending upon Luke for five years.
flakes of meat from the chicken's breast But now he watched his brother drink,
and them between his teeth.
putting leaning forward on the table and keeping
"Belle," he called aloud, with a taunting track of Luke's eyes as a surgeon with a
gaiety, "we 're eating!" blessed and desperate anesthetic, and the
The note of the rain booming through sweat rolled the furrows between his
the darkened rooms be3'ond was all the brows.
answer he got. John, falling in eagerly Luke began to talk. Though John's
with his mood, took a chair himself and eyes were staring at him, he seemed not
made Luke
a laborious pretense of eating. to realize that John was there in front of
seemed what he was doing, his
to forget him.
hands moving more and more mechani- After a while John was n't there, for
cally from plate to lips, and his eyes, fixed he had slipped away and out through the
on the cloth, filled with dreams. Now door leading to the living-room. He
and then the corners of his lips twitched. passed through the living-room on tiptoe,
He passed a hand over his brow like a peering at the shadowy furnishings,
man awakening, and then looked up through the black hall beyond and the
quickly. blacker parlor, calling "Belle! Belle!"
"Wh-wh-where 's the minister, John ? under his breath. He received no an-
1 forgot. Where — John, you promised to swer. He lifted his voice slightly, moved
have the minister here to-night," by the mastery of silence. He turned back
John's eyes dropped to his own plate, and ascended the stairs, groping and call-

"Mr, Teele 's off to conference," he ing. Still she failed to answer. His hand
said. "I did n't know it till late to-day." touched her form, huddled on the bed in

He did n't want to look at Luke, but her own room.


the continuing silence made him. What She started at the touch, and he had a
he saw in his brother's eyes brought him sense of her cringing.
jumping to his feet. "Luke!" she gasped. "Luke Petit!"
"But he '11 be back to-niorroiv," he "It 's John," he told her in a heavy
cried. whisper.
To- ou can say to-mor- "Oh!"
row'! You 've never been five years in For a time there was no sound in the
prison, or you could n't say it like that chamber beyond the ceaseless drone of the
!'
' to-morroiv rain on the shingles. Belle's hand, grop-
A thwarted devil crept into Luke's eyes. ing, found his and clung to it. He could
They became less erratic, and moving with not see her face, and he was glad she could
a new slowness, they sought the doorway not see his just then. He could not un-
s \

HE FUMBLED IN HIS POCKET FOR A MVfCH, LIGHTED IT, AND BLINKED


DOWN AT THE FIGL'PE SPR.\WLED OVER THF. SILL"
524 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
derstand himself; he was shivering all "You 're going away,"— her voice was
over without any reason, slow and wondering, —
"you mean you 're
"Belle," he pleaded a little wildly, going away and leave me alone, John?"
"don't take on so!" "With Luke."
Her fingers tightened on his hand. It seemed to bewilder her, as if in a

"I did n't know it was going to be like moment's interim she had forgotten.
this, John." She was talking into the hol- "With Luke," she echoed— "with
low of her arm. "I— was all right till— Luke." She sank back on the bed, taking
till the minute I heard you outside and her face out of sight. Her words came to
knew he was there, and then— oh, I don't him after a moment, lifeless, unreal:
know — I don't know
— "I suppose he 's waiting for me down-
John did n't know either. stairs. I suppose I ought to go down
"I suppose," she said, "it 's because I 've right away. He 's probably wondering
been thinking about him so long." why I don't hurry and come down."
John had, too. That was the trouble "He looked to find Mr. Teele here.

with them both; they had been thinking He was cut up."
about Luke Petit so long. After a while "Yes, yes. He wanted to be married
the girl began to speak as if to herself to-night. Yes I suppose when a person 's

"It having a prince coming for


's like been in prison
;

five years

me— a prince that 's been through fire. Her face was near him again.

I 'm lucky. I 'm an aw^ful' lucky girl. "John," she whispered in panic, "I tell

It is many girls who are as


n't lucky as you, he is coming up! I heai- him!"
I am, who have fellows who 've done "No, Belle; no—"
what Luke 's done for me. It makes it He had stopped to listen. In the boom-
somehow John! J-o-h-n!" ing silence the stairs outside the door were
She raised herself suddenly on an elbow, creaking under a slow and uncertain
and her fingers were like wires on his weight; creaking and groaning and mut-
wrist. tering nearer and nearer. There was
"John, he 's coming up! No, no! something incredibly sinister about this in-
Don't let him, John!" sensate advance upon them. Scarcely
John reassured her after a moment. knowing what he John put an arm
did,

"I don't hear anything, Belle," he said. about the girl's shoulders and drew her up
He did n't understand what was wrong toward him.
with her. She was beginning to under- "What— what is he saying?" she whis-
stand, and when she spoke again the sense pered.
of the treachery of her own soul struck "Nothing."
through her words. The footfalls and the thick, muttering
"I did n't know it would be like this. voicecame nearer all the while. Luke
It — it frightens me. John, you 've been was in the hall now, at the top of the
awful' good to me. And now that Luke 's stairs, groping and fumbling in the blind
back, I — — I I suppose you won't have to place. John lifted his voice like a sudden
look after me. You won't have to come cannon among the little noises:
over the ridge every day — now. I sup- "Stop it, Luke! Stop it, or, damn you,
pose it 's good riddance, is n't it? Have I 'U-I
'11-"
— have Ibeen an awful bother, John?" He broke off, appalled at himself.
He could see her face now, a gray The horrible thing was that there was
shape, curiously near and tense and appeal- no answer from the hall; nothing but the
ing. rain, a muffled whinny from the mare,
He shook his head and muttered wretched in the pouring yard beneath, and
"No." And then, almost roughly, the almost inaudible crying of the bed as
"I 'm going West to-night on the — the girl took her weight away from it and
twelve-two." stood up straight and rigid beside him.
FREE 525
And then there was the ticking of his saw the procession of the days of those five
watch in his pocket; he could hear that, years suddenly and incredibly radiant with
and he could n't hear Luke. His scalp the moving picture of this woman at his
began to prickle. The girl at his side was side. He looked back across that dim,
trying to hold her breath. It was all very day-to-day battle with his soul, that inter-
queer. minable agony of turning his face the
There was a sudden sound in the hall of other way. He was glad it was all over.

something coming to the floor, not a boot- This moment in the silence and the dark,
sole this time the impact was heavier and
; standing side by side with Belle Muller
of a metallic quality. And then followed on the edge of things, beyond hope or de-
a leaden chuckle, prolonged, introspective, spair, beyond conscience, beyond right and
shaking with a naughty glee. wrong— this was a gift princely and splen-
Belle was saying in John's ear: did.And that crouching spider-shade in
"He 's got hold of Uncle Witte's shot- the doorway was the giver of the gift. A
gun." Her voice was flat and matter-of- wave of gratitude passed
queer, irrational
fact, almost lazy. over him. The watch ticked in his pocket.
Her spirit of acceptance took hold of Why did n't it happen?
John. Belle's lips touched his cheek at the cor-
"Oh, yes," he murmured, "the gun." ner of his lips. He turned his head slowly
Luke must have come crawling on his and looked down into her eyes. And then
hands and knees, for the first sense they she spoke to him out loud and with an
had of him was a shadow crouching on incredible carelessness:
the threshold of the doorway, perfectly "I did n't know it would be like this—
quiet for a long while. He had said noth- John."
ing since his last chuckle in the hall. He seemed to have been dreaming, and
Now he seemed to be in trouble ; they that woke him up. He became aware sud-
could hear him making obscure noises in denly of the sweat streaming cold down
his throat, grumbling, impatient, exas- his face and of what he was doing. He
perated, changing to maudlin determina- turned his eyes toward the door.
tion, then oaths, incoherent and menacing. "Don't shoot, Luke! If you love dear
And along with these ran the soft, busy God, Luke, don't shoot yet! You would
fumbling of his hands. By and by he n't want to hurt Belle, would you? Wait!
sighed with a daft content. His fumbling Can you see me?"
hands had found what they were after at He pushed the girl off with a ruthless
last, and the listeners beside the bed heard violence, flinging her hands away.
the sharp click as the hammer came back "See," he pleaded. "I 'm going over to
under his thumb and the trigger was set. the left here. Here, Luke. See, I 'm all
Time went on ; in John's pocket it alone here now. Can you see me?"
ticked itself away into the past with meas- And still the trigger in the dark hung
ured and infinitesimal beats. The rain fire, squeezing out one more moment of
was lulling on the roof. To John Petit, sweet suspense. And still Luke Petit
strangely, it was a space of profound would not speak.
peace. He was bearing the girl's weight John begged him passionately, hearing
in his arms now, and as the dragging sec- Belle stir.

onds passed, her head came over to his "Quick! For God's sake, Luke, pull
and rested there, the soft hair light on his that trigger quick before she comes!"
cheek. Perspiration wet his face and neck, His voice, raised, echoed through the
running down in channels on his skin, but narrow space. He felt Belle groping for
he did not realize it. him, and he fled, batting out at the invisi-
It was as had been set free
if his brain ble hands, forgetting everything but the
and allowed to wander back into memory, fact that he must remain a fair target,
without care now of what it saw and it ; alone. His boot struck something and sent
526 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
it spinning across the floor. He knew by been said between them in the waiting

the ring of it that it was the shot-gun. silence of thatupper room.


For an instant^ standing quite still, with Belle Muller took nothing with her ex-
his eyelids pressed together, he seemed to cept the cloak which John threw over her
sink a great way into a void. When he shoulders. She did not so much as glance
had struggled back again, he fumbled in about the familiar stage of her girlhood
his pocket for a match, lighted it, and before s'he stepped out of it forever, a kind
blinked down at the figure sprawled over of fugitive.
the sill. One of the arms hunched up a "He can have it all," she said, and
little in unconscious protest against the turned her back on it.

light, and then heavily sank back again. A sense of miraculous liberation carried
John Petit's voice sounded shallow and them along. After the unstirring air in
idiotic. the house, there was something incredibly
"Why, he 's asleep! He— he 's gone to soothing in the wild whips of the rain, the
sleep!" crying of the strained harness, the grunt-
They went down-stairs, leaving him ing mare, the lunge in the unseen and the
there in the deep peace of oblivion. Once, unknown, the sense of the "twelve-two"
in the glowing kitchen, their eyes met for roaring westward toward them some-
a moment, but there was no need of where out there in the blind chaos of the
words. Everything that need be said had night.

Revelation
By HELEN HOYT

ONE friend shall


"All that I am
know me
to him
utterly,"
I
I said
will disclose.
;

Surelyfrom perfect knowledge grows


it is

The makes two natures wed.''


perfect love that
With fearful care before him then I spread
All of my life : the doors I ne'er unclose
Now opened wide; each grace of me, each pose.
Dissolved for him, till there remained no shred
Of cloak between me and love's fullest gaze.
Faults, virtues, dreams I made myself confess,
And every part and pattern, every phase.
With unbefitting answers, eyes adaze,
He stopped my words; with an old, gay caress.
No stranger could have wished to know me less.
How We Can Help France
By HERBERT ADAMS GIBBONS
Author of "Constantinople: Principle or Pawn?" etc.

BEFORE the United States entered the lief-work were engaged in a multitude of
war afew Americans were helping activities,and the American Relief Clear-
a few French, The French as a people ing House in Paris dispensed money by the

were appreciative of the aid that came millions and sent out boxes by the thou-
from America, and there were remarkable sands. Other Americans were not con-

HERBERT ADAMS GIBBONS

testimonials of this appreciation. Our tent to work for France. They fought for

ambulances were seen on the French front, France in the Foreign Legion and in the

and Americans in Red Cross work lost Aviation Corps. But all this was the

their lives on the field of battle. In many effort of individual men and expressed the
places American hospitals, served by sentiment of individual men. The United
American doctors and nurses, cared for the States was neutral, and so long as the
French wounded. Organizations for re- United States remained neutral the
528 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
American nation could not help the French their complexity and multiplicity. But
nation in the death-struggle. The hero- the French did not do this. They could
ism and the self-sacrifice and the warm not do it. The storm broke, and broke
partizanship of individual Americans did upon them. The violation of Belgian
not make up for American neutrality. neutrality brought the Germanic hordes
Whether the French should have under- into France. Civilians suffered, provinces
stood our neutrality and have acknow- were devastated, and through their initial
ledged our right and reason to remain unfair advantage the Germans were able
neutral is not to the point. The fact is to seize and hold northern France. The
that we were neutral. instinct of self-preservation called France
to arms, but very quickly the defenders of
AMERICA AND HER NEUTRALITY IN their homes came to identify the national
FRENCH EYES cause with that of human liberty and
Only Americans who knew how France twentieth-century civilization. Before
felt about America could realize how they had been in the war a week the Ger-
France felt about American neutrality. mans aroused in their opponents a feeling
The feeling about America may have been of moral revolt, dictated by international
erroneous; but only if it were erroneous reasons fully as much as by national ones.
(which God forbid!) could the feeling Hence France looked to the United States
about American neutrality he unreason- not to help France in her own defense, the
able. Have we ever realized the French success of which was assured by the Battle
feeling about America? Far deeper than of the Marne, but in defense of the prin-
the impression, gained from contact with ciples which all Frenchmen believed were
our tourists, of America as the land of as dear to Americans as to them. We
dollars and dollar-chasing, lay the belief Americans who lived in France during the
in America as the land of liberty, the de- first tragic thirty months of the war knew

fender of right and justice in the relations full well that our humanitarian efforts
between man and man and between nation were of no avail in the face of the fact of
and nation. The French have idealized American neutrality. We spoke of Ameri-
American history in much the same way can sympathy, proved by relief contribu-
that they have idealized their own history. tions and by editorials of New York news-
Our national heroes, Washington, Frank- papers. But the French ideal of the
lin, and Lincoln, are as real to
Jefferson, United States demanded official action by
the French as they are to us, and the con- Washington. I believe that I am right in
nection of Lafayette and Rochambeau stating that, despite the sore need of our
with the birth of the United States is material aid, France would gladly have
taught in French schools as it is taught foregone all Americans were doing
that
in our schools. This feeling has been and could do for an official condemnation
specially true under the Third Republic. by the American Government of the policy
We have been regarded as the sister and the acts of Germany.
democracy, different in manner of life and —
At last the change or was it the awak-
thought, different even in civilization, but ening? — came. Now we are allies of
alike in ideals. It was not 3'esterday that France. In time of war friends are synony-
a portrait, a bust of Franklin or Wash- mous with allies. Neutrality may be
ington, was placed French mairies, and
in natural, reasonable, explicable, just; but
other cities than Paris have long given the what logic can be opposed to the thought,
names of the fathers of the American Rev- "He that is not with me is against me"?
olution to streets and squares.
In a spirit of historical detachment, far
AMERICAS DELICATE PROBLEM AS THE
ALLY OF FRANCE
from the fray and unaffected by it, one
may be successful in studying the causes Bygones are bygones. We have come
leading up to the war and in pointing out into the war, and we have come in at the
HOW WE CAN HELP FRANCE 529
critical moment. We have come in whole- tions of the pastand has evolved a democ-
heartedly. Perhaps our aid is more ap- racy similar to our own. We contrast
preciated for the timeliness of it and the French individualism with German con-
unexpectedness of it. If we do not fall formity, and think that the French are
assuming that we are the
into the error of freed from the shackles of convention by
deus ex machina, and of adopting the at- the democracy they have constituted. We
titude of saviors, all will be well. contrast French gaiety with English dour-
"
We made a good beginning. Marshal ness, and think that the French are hail-
Joffre was greeted in the United States fellow-well-met like ourselves. Let us
with an outburst of enthusiasm and af- correct immediately and entirely these no-
fection that put heart into the French tions. And since we are going to France,
nation at a moment of wide-spread dis- and France is not coming to us, let us
couragement. The April had offensive remember that we must try to understand
failed, the submarine menace was becom- their point of view without insisting upon
ing alarming, and the state of anarchy in their understanding ours. The French
Russia was causing apprehension. The are bound by their past. Despite revolu-
adoption of a series of practical measures tions and republics, they are hostile to
at Washington, coinciding with the re- new ideas and attach a tremendous im-
ception of the French mission, proved that portance to form. Both in thought and
American cooperation was not going to action they are less individualistic than the
be confined to manifestations of senti- English, They are proud and sensitive
mental hysteria. No ally of France has and reserved. Then, too, the French have
acted more promptly and more advisedly. been keyed to the breaking-point of nervous
We voted conscription, placed immediately tension during three years of war. We
enormous sums at the disposal of our cannot expect them to be calm and patient
allies, gave the President control over the and grateful. If they need help badly, it

export of food-stuffs, passed the espionage is because they have borne the brunt of
bill, promised active participation this the German war of aggression. France
summer on the battle-fields of France, and has given everything, suffered everything,
sent a fleet of destroyers to Europe as an and sacrificed everything where her allies

earnest of our intention to sacrifice life have given and suffered and sacrificed only
as in combating Germany.
well as treasure in part. Russia, like France, has had
and decisive aid, however, can-
Efficient enormous losses in fighting, and portions
not be given by us if we go to France with of her territory are occupied by the enemy
an imperfect or incorrect conception of the but Russia has more than twice the popu-
essential conditions of our cooperation. lation of France, and the territories that
We must see problems as France sees them, the Germans hold are not an integral part
and we must help to solve them in the of the Russian Empire or a vital part of
French way and not in the American way, Russia's economic life. England and Italy
remembering that the war is being fought are not invaded, and their industries have
on French soil. Otherwise we shall fail, not been paralyzed by the mobilization and
and generous impulses will come to naught. the maintenance on the front through years
Instead of a permanent understanding of their entire manhood population.
with France, there will be mutual disil- We are going into a country the soil of
lusionment. The French will dislike us, which is consecrated by the life-blood of
and we shall dislike them. What calls a million soldiers and desecrated by the
more insistently for the rarest qualities of German occupation. We are going among
tact and delicacy than helping a friend? a people who have been and are still living
in hell, and who stand undaunted and
America's misconception of france
glorious in the midst of bereavement and
We are accustomed to regard France as a desolation. It is the holy of holies that we
nation that has broken with the tradi- are privileged to enter, and we must go
530 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
in with bowed heads. We go to learn, made with peculiar force for the children
not to teach, and the man of us who says, of France who were deprived of their
"You ought never to have done it this fathers. Had not the French fathers died
way," or, "I '11 show you how to do it," for us, for the world, as well as for their
ought to be taken out and shot. own children ? But while an American
Yes, I mean what I say. Lack of con- committee could fittingly raise money
sideration, thoughtlessness, bluntness, im- for French orphans, it could not fittingly
patience to reform things, are qualities that distribute this money. No outsider, no
have no place in the house of grief and matter how good a friend, could enter and
suffering. Our opportunity to walk into exercise authority in French homes. He
the heart of France and to win the most would encroach upon and influence re-

precious national friendship on earth is ligionand education, the precious preroga-


unique ; but, oh, how we need insight and tives of the family and the state. An
gentleness! The problems are open, bleed- American committee could not give money
ing war-wounds, every single one military, to sectarian organizations in France for
political, economic, social. Of course one the bringing up of orphans. No matter
recognizes that many of them existed be- how perfect the good faith and intention
fore the war or have been born of seed of the givers, the nation would resent
sown before the war. Many of them are money coming from abroad for this sacred
due in part to defects in French character purpose if it had a string attached to it.

and French institutions. But the aggra- To distribute money is harder than to beg
vation and the seriousness of the problems it ; to give it away is harder than to make
have one cause the war. —
And if the it. In the case of the orphans, intelligent
problems do not exist in England and friends of France will keep their money
Italy as they exist in France, it is because in their pockets unless handed it is to be
France is on the cross and the others are over unostentatiously to a French com-
not. Congestion of ports, scarcity of mittee, representative of and designated by
ships, difficulties of railway transporta- the nation.
tion, bad repair of rolling stock, caring for We must be careful how we do things.
refugees, meeting the needs of the widows We have to curb and keep in leash a
and orphans and mutilated, fighting tu- natural instinct. The typical American
berculosis and prostitution, ministering to has his mind upon the goal. He is after
the wounded, distributing food-stuffs and results, and the way in which he accom-
fuel to civilians, finding money, regulating plishes what is set before him he does not
the economic life of the country, moving consider of much importance. The
troops, provisioning the front — all these Frenchman, on the other hand, is hedged
are the problems that are confronting in from birth by form. There is a right
France and in the solution of which our and proper way to do everything, and one
aid is needed. would rather not have it done at all than
Insight and gentleness— can we have not do it in that way. The French pride
the insight unless we appreciate what themselves upon their individualism and
France has been through, how these prob- their personal independence. They make
lems have arisen, and what the French fun of their governmental institutions and
think about th( Can we use the gentle- are remorseless critics of the bureaucracy
ness unless we put ourselves in the place and the police. But if you watch a French-

of the dwellers in the house of grief and man in discussion with a public official, a
suffering and view the problems through rare occurrence, you will notice that the
their eyes? Let me cite only one illustra- crowd is invariably on the side of the
tion. An admirable movement was put representative of authority. The unfor-
on foot in the United States to raise a sub- givable sin in France is not being en regie.
stantial fund for French war orphans. It Hence, however much one may protest, he
was a great idea, and an appeal could be conforms; and established institutions and
HOW WE CAN HELP FRANCE 531
established procedure persist through rev- While our flag on the French front is a
olutions and reactions just as they were in sinequa non of the alliance, and while its

the olden days'. Bergson, in setting forth moral effect cannot be overestimated in
his "philosophy of form," which was hailed relation to American public opinion as to
as a novelty in Anglo-Saxon countries, was French public opinion, the extent of our
reflecting the Latin civilization to which military cooperation must not be de-
he belonged. termined by the longing for excitement
and adventure and glory that is being
France's misunderstaxdixg of the
awakened among our young men. If the
volunteer army of roosevelt French and the American governments,
When President Wilson, in the face of working together in perfect harmony, de-
adverse criticism and pressure from all cide that a large American army should
sides, declined Mr. Roosevelt's offer to be sent to France, well and good. But if
lead a volunteer army to France, he other means of serving the common cause
showed remarkable perspicacity. A very are pointed out to us as more pressing and
serious blunder was avoided. I have not more vital, we must be ready to subordi-
the slightest doubt thatMr. Roosevelt and nate our generous impulses to the exigen-
his friendswere actuated by the sole cies of the situation as it develops. It
motive of wanting to serve France but ; is probable that France is going to need
their love of the French was greater than shipsand food and fuel and war material
their knowledge of the French. What- more than fighting men, and our factories
ever the newspapers may have said, in the and our granaries may continue to be, as
desire to avoid looking a gift-horse in the they have been in the past, more essential
mouth, the people of France did not under- than our armies. In every kind of human
stand the Roosevelt scheme. It perplexed endeavor, where cooperation is necessary,
and worried them. They would have in- directors of concerted effort find that in-
terpreted its adoption as a sign that our efficiency in helpers is due to inability or
Government did not have sufficient unwillingness to perform the service re-
prestige among the American people to quired. The difficulty is not in getting
help France in the regular way, or that workers, but in getting workers who will
the American people were so opposed to take positions they can and which need
fill

the war that President Wilson was com- to be filled. This is the prime— I might
pelled to fall back upon private initiative almost say the sole —
reason for unemploy-
and enterprise for military cooperation ment. In this war France looks to the
with the entente powers. It was only American nation for aid. Our Govern-
when telegrams from Washington an- ment at Washington directs the enterprise
nounced that General Pershing would of aiding France. There will be unem-
command the first troop;? sent to France, ployment, lack of opportunity to serve,
and that these troops would be an official only for those who want to dictate how
American army, that the French realized they shall serve. The test of love for our
the significance of America's entry into the own country as well as for France, of
war. Now they know that theAmerican desire to help the world to a better life
nation, represented by the Government at after the cataclysm throughwhich we are
Washington, is helping France. passing,comes right here.
Whatever combinazione French states-
THE TEST OF AMERICA'S BEST GIFTS IN
men and diplomats may have dreamed of,
THE WAR whatever imperialistic aspirations may
The primary and obvious form of aid to have received sanction in secret treaties
France is the sending of an army. Yet between France and the other powers of
here also we have to exercise an unusual the Entente, the voice of the people will
degree of self-restraint. The most spec- count when it comes to the making of
tacular help is always the easiest to give. peace, and the people are not Hghting for
532 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
the advancement of selfish national in- WHAT FRANCE MAY GIVE TO US
terests. Only if Germany comes to the
I STARTED with the question, How can we
peace conference crushed and powerless,
help France? I cannot end without the
which will not be the case, can the French
question. How can France help us? For
public be seduced by the imperialists and
it would be a waste of time to consider
the
led by the diplomats. There is an over-
former without having simultaneously in
whelming sentiment in France that the
mind the latter. Long ago, at the be-
objects of this war are the return of Alsace
ginning of our national life, France did
and Lorraine and the restoration of the
for us what we in small measure are try-
invaded departments, with an indemnity
for rehabilitation. For more than that
ing to pay back now. But we have not
grown beyond the need of what France can
France will not prolong the war, and
still give. Far from it. Over against our
France is not counting on American sup-
port to attain objects that are in conflict
New World energy, our proud progress

with French and American principles.


m science and in things material, stands

We have a right, then, to believe and hope


France's Old World refinement and proud
that comradeship in arms will lead to a progress in thought and things spiritual.

durable entente between France and the France can be our gateway to the Europe
United States. That
and hope form
belief
that we do not know, the Europe whose
the basis of cooperation now. For other- moderation and modesty are needed to
wise harmonious cooperation, even at this temper our neophytism and self-conscious-
critical moment when our aid is so precious, ness. We
are of mixed ancestry, but our
would be impossible. political and social institutions, our lit-
erature and language, have stamped us in
AMERICA A CO-WORKER, NOT A the Anglo-Saxon mold. With the good
BENEFACTOR we have inherited the bad, and the bad has
We mustguard ourselves against the become accentuated in the unformed, ex-
pernicious and illogical notion, advanced pansive life of our vast continent. We
by the unthinking, that our aid is disin- have taken from England her two dis-
terested, and that we are giving it freely. agreeable Teutonic traits, race superiority
There a big difference between assuring
is and cant, which have been fostered in the
our enemies that we covet nothing of British Empire and in the United States,
theirs, and assuring our friends that we as they have been in Prussia, by Protestant-
look for no return for the help we give ism. The Germans have waked up late
them. Benefactors bestow largess upon to the philosophy of the tjhennensch and
inferiors ; between equals there can be only thedream of world supremacy. Anglo-
a quid pro quo. Without the idea of Saxondom has long practised the one and
reciprocity,our aid would be an insult to tried to realize the other. Alliance with
France. If we do not go to France with the British Empire would tend to increase
the idea that we are going to discharge an our self-esteem and our arrogance and
obligation that we have incurred, and are stimulate our belief in a world mission

going for our own benefit fully as much as had we not the splendid anchor to wind-
for the benefit of France, it would be ward the alliance with France, virile
in

wiser to stay at home. May we not have exponent of the undying Latin civilization.
a false conception of our role in this war! Germany of the Tugendbund might have
We go not to save France, but to assist grasped this anchor, and not have broken
France, though late in the day, to save from her moorings. The anchor is strong
the world, and we must feel that the enough to hold us ; but we must realize
friendship of France is as beneficial to us that it is an anchor and we must be willing
as is our friendship to France. to use it.
\Vf

^<- .i:

m<.. -ft,
^^i^H
Ked^ and X\J Kile-
'~
' ,rr^"^'Pf

^'^^
1
By ROLAND PERTWEE
"
Author of " Camouflage

Illustrations by Maurice L. Bovver

If we could but forget by heart When we grow up, I often wonder, do


The many things we never knew, we all grow beastly ? Do we all see things
Should we not give a greater part wrong and and miss the best
twisted,
To what is fanciful and true? every time? It seems to me we do, and

so I hate all grown-ups as much as I hate


AM sixteen and a half and quite old uncle and aunt. I think I shall go away

I enough to know better. That 's what somewhere and hide, or be a hermit and
uncle said, and I hate him, yes, I do, even spend the rest of my days remembermg
though I believe it was aunt who made Alooly and trying to forget all the rest.

him say it, and of course I never could But before I go I want to make a clean
stand her. If they went down on their breast of everything in the hope that there
knees and begged me to forgive them, it is some one who will see it just
at least
would n't be any use. as it and truly is.
really
Between them they spoiled the most My name is Dorian Festubert, and my
beautiful thing that ever happened and mother died when I was born, so she never
made it look all horrid and wrong— and had the chance to be as lovely to me as I
— I can't think of the word. And I know know she would have been. When my
now that if I met Mooly I should go all father heard that she was dead he went
red, and she 'd go all white, and we 'd talk up to the bedroom and kissed her and said,
some nonsense about bicycles or whether "What a happy time we 've missed, my
it was fine or not, and try and get aw^ay dear!" Then he went into the garden
from each other as quickly as we could. and shot himself.
We shall feel we ought to be ashamed of I have always been awfully proud of

something there was no shame in, but the my father for that, and one day when I
heavenliest time two people ever spent to- heard aunt telling some one the story, and
gether. saying, "They were a very hysterical fam-
533
534 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
ily," I flew into a fearful rage, and said tual, too. Old aunt used to bend her knees
all sorts of things I should n't have said before sitting on the church pew at exactly
about her mothers' meeting and the rotten the same second every Sunday in the year.

presents of vegetables she gave to the par- I am sure she believed that if she had been
ish poor. There was no end of a scene, a moment late Peter would have bolted
and uncle said I was an ill-conditioned the gates of heaven on her for good and
young pup and did n't know what respect all.

meant. We never knew anybody worth know-


"Well," said I, "vou don't know what ing; all were frightfully
their friends
love means and never will.'^ plain, and were simply
the servants
After that I had a hiding, four with the chronic. They were the "Now, Master
back and two with the bristles; but I Dorian, you must n't do that" kind of ser-
was n't a bit sorry, because what I had vants.
said was true. How I longed for a decent pal, some
They would n't let me go to a decent chap I could talk to or go strodding with
public school, like any other boy, because A strod is you know. I in-
a catapult,
of its "polluting whatever
influences," vented the word myself I had to keep it ;

they may be. I should think uncle must jolly dark that I had a strod. Sometimes
have gone to a public school all right, and I used to steal out early in the morning

got properly polluted —


and aunt, too. and go and smash bottles on the big rub-
I had governesses with spectacles until bish heap a quarter of a mile away. But
I was twelve years old. They wore dresses it was n't much fun when there was no

that buttoned down the front because one to sing out, "Good shot!" or,
none of the servants would ever do any- "Bossed !" and that sort of thing. Things
thing for them. They taught me gram- were n't much better when the last gov-
mar and arithmetic, and read aloud from erness went and I was "put with" the
the New Testament and Thomas a Kem- vicar's class.
pis. There were about five other boys there,
We lived in a big house with what rotten, swotting chaps with round specta-
might have been jolly grounds. The rea- cles and pimples. I think they hated me
son why they were n't jolly was because because I was tall and had wavy hair and
there were no wild parts. Every square —well, my pater was jolly good-looking,
inch was cultivated. You know, close-cut and people used to say I was very like him.
grass, horrible cactus, carpet beds, very Then, again, they were fed up with me be-
tidy gravel paths, and rolls of wire net- cause I used to say potty things about how
ting round all the little trees. stunning the rhododendrons looked and
The inside of the house was just as bad. how the water seemed to laugh in the mill
Everything had a place. If you moved brook. They said I was putting on side,
an ornament half an inch, it was always but I was n't really. I could n't help no-
put back. When there was a spring clean- ticing all the jolly colors and sounds in
ing on, and the furniture was piled up in the country, and I don't see any reason
a heap, you could see a map on the pile of why a chap should n't talk about 'em.
carpets showing where every single chair They are much more interesting than pen-
or table had to go. There was nowhere cil-boxes or nibs.
where a chap could make a good old mess. From the way they mugged at their les-
Even the outhouses were the same nails — sons they ought to have been awfully
in the beams to hang the bass brooms on, clever. They had n't eyes or ears for any-
and all that kind of thing thing else. I remember
I had once, after
Uncle and aunt were crazy about order- seen a from the high
crocodile of girls
liness and method. Never in my. life did school go by, —
one or two were so pretty
I hear either of them say they had lost that I 'd have liked to speak to them I ;

anything. They were frightfully punc- have hardly ever spoken to a girl, I asked —
RED AND WHITE 535

one of these chaps— his name was Clum- days before she was expected, aunt had a
ber; a hideous sort of name,' which just letter at breakfast and said
suited him— if he had ever kissed a girl, "Jane asks if Elizabeth may bring a
and what it was like. school friend with her on Friday. Ap-
"Don't be beastly," he said. parently she is staying with them for the
I said that I could n't see anything holidays, and as Jane wants to shut up
beastly in it, and thought it would be house for a week, it will be awkward if

jolly nice, if she was pretty. we can't have her."


"It 's beastly to talk about those things," "Can't she go to her own people?" said
was all he answered. uncle.
I am sure, if uncle and aunt had had a "Apparently she is an orphan. Jane
son, he 'd have been just like old Clum- took it for granted we would not refuse,
ber. But whoever it is who arranges these because she says here that Miss Muriel
thinks knew, I expect, that it would be O'Reagh has some relatives at Felton who
a rotten sort of family for a boy, and so want her and Elizabeth to go over there
they never sent one along. on Friday night."
Orderliness, method, and routine are "Oh, well, if you can arrange it," said

things that any decent boy properly hates. uncle.


What he wants is plenty of fun and some "Dori'an could drive them there in the
one to be jolly sympathetic with him when car and see that they come home in good
he feels down. time."
There was no sympathy with uncle and "So long as I 'm not bothered with a
aunt. It was what I should call a no-kiss- whole lot of details," said uncle.

ing household. Uncle did n't approve of I felt rather a thrill at the idea of this
kissing, and aunt kissed people only after strange girl coming to stay with us, but
they were dead. They would n't have let my spirits fell a bit when I thought she
her do it if they had been alive. would most likely turn out a second Eliza-
The only person who ever kissed me beth, only more so.
was the old doctor who had attended my Well, on Friday, about midday, I

mother. started up the car and went off to the sta-

Uncle used to spend the entire day in his tion. Aunt would have come, but as it

study, and aunt, when she had finished was only a two-seater, with a dicky be-
her orders and had a good pry round for hind, and I had to collect two people, she
dust, did parish calls, or knitting with gray stayed at home.
wool. They never spent much time to- It was a simply lovely morning, birds
gether. singing like blazes and the sun shining like
The most exciting thing that ever hap- old fits. I felt in no end of a jolly state of

pened was when uncle bought the motor- mind, and I took some of the corners on
car. He used it for visiting some of his the way in fine style. I arrived at the sta-
property, and as he was too mean to keep I walked up
tion ten minutes too soon, so
a chauffeur and in a blue funk of driving and down the platform waiting for the
himself, he had me taught. train. Presently I heard it in the distance,

Once a year their niece Elizabeth came and knew in another few minutes Eliza-
down to spend a few days. I never took beth's face would be at a carriage window,
much notice of her because aunt trotted in an awful stew for fear there would be
her round all day. Besides, she was n't no one to meet her. When the train
my sort. She was a flat little thing, and pulled in there was no sign of Elizabeth,
I always suspected her of telling tales; so however, but looking out of one of the
her visits were hardly an event. Never- carriage windows was the loveliest girl I

theless, was through her


it that the won- had ever seen.
derful day came about. She had a little, white, oval face, and
At the end of the summer term, a few her hair was the color of old copper the
536 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
day before it 's cleaned. Redd}' gold, you she did n't notice me much, because she
know, with bluey lights on it. Her eyes was aiding old Elizabeth's faltering foot-
were green the sort — of green turquoises steps.

get if you wash them. I don't know how It was rather jolly being in sole charge
to describe these things ; I only know that of the car, but unfortunately, Elizabeth
nothing in heaven could hold a candle to being ill, I had to ask her to sit beside me.

her. Muriel was on the dicky-seat behind, and


I forgot all about Elizabeth, and ran to as it was not too safe, I drove home pretty

the place opposite which her carriage had carefully— for me. Just once I brought
stopped just to have another look. It off rather a showy bit of steering between
seemed pretty certain she would n't get a dog-cart and a hay-wain. Elizabeth let
out at our potty little station, so I had to go a scream, but Muriel did n't; so I
make the most of her while she lasted. knew she was plucky as well as perfectly
Thenthe most extraordinary thing hap- lovely.
pened. She opened the carriage door and W^hen we arrived at the house, aunt
stepped out, and there behind her, sitting came out, and made no end of a fuss at
on the seat and looking very strange, was the sight of Elizabeth and declared she
Elizabeth. must go straight to bed she took scarcely ;

Of course, when I saw that, I made a any notice of Muriel.


dash for the carriage door, and she — the It had been arranged that they were
she, not Elizabeth— asked : to share a room, but aunt said, as Eliza-
"Are you Dorian Festubert?" beth might have something catching, Mu-
Although I could scarcely speak, I man- riel must sleep in another, which was
aged to say I was. down the same corridor as mine.
"But you are not Muriel O'Reagh, are I carried up her things, and loosened the

you?" I said. straps so she would n't have to bother.


"Why not?" There was a jolly spray of tea-roses grow-
"I — I did n't think you possibly could ing outside the window, and I cut it off,

be." and put it in the water-jug to make things


"Elizabeth has been taken ill," she said, look cheerful. I was going to wait for
as if she had suddenly remembered her, her to come up; but just then I heard
"with a most dreadful headache." aunt calling, so I had to chuck that
Well, I pulled myself together at that, scheme.
and pretended to be awfully bucked to see I was to go and fetch the doctor at
Elizabeth. She certainly did look jolly ill. once, said aunt, because "Miss O'Reagh"
Her face was a sort of pasty white, with thought it was measles Elizabeth had got.
red blotches on it. It was simply fright- They had had it badly at school, and Eliza-
ful to look at her after Muriel O'Reagh; beth was the only one who had escaped.
so I just turned and looked the right way. I was pretty fed up at having to go out,
Then Muriel said especially as the doctor lived five miles
"Had n't you better get out our bags? away; so I suggested that Muriel might
The train '11 be moving in a minute." enjoy the ride. But aunt said certainly
It sounded ripping as she said it, though not ; that she would be busy putting away
it does n't "look up to" much written her things until lunch-time.
down. Then I remembered how aunt always
I managed on to
to hitch old Elizabeth inspected visitors' rooms to see that they
the platform, where she tottered about like had arranged everything as she thought
one o'clock and to show how strong I
; proper. I sort of guessed Muriel would
was, I got hold of all their luggage, and fling her clothes about a bit, so I pretended
portered it myself to the car in one go. I I had left my cap on the bed, and slipped
never felt prouder than while I was car- upstairs to give her the tip.

rying Muriel's bag. As a matter of fact. The door of her room was open. She
538 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
had taken off her hat, and the sun was der the shade of a tidy little tree and pre-
shining on her head. Then I noticed that tended to read.
she seemed to have two sorts of hair, the After giving aunt and uncle about
smooth sort that went all over her head twenty minutes to get off, I slipped out
like a little, wavy cap, and just above that into the garden and joined her.
a kind of dancy fluff that reminded me of "Are you enjoying that book?" I asked.
halos in Bible pictures. "No."
I must have looked rather a fool stand- "Did you like uncle and aunt?"
ing there staring, but she did n't seem to She shook her head.
mind. She lookedat me, too, with her "It must be awful to live with them,"
sad, green eyes, and presently she said she said.
"You are tall, Dorian," "I should think it is!" I answered.
I did n't know what to answer, so I "Have you always?"
just blurted out about aunt's fussings I nodded.
around. "Ever since I was a baby. My mother
"Thank you," she said. "I should have died when I was born, and so my father
thrown everything about if you had n't shot himself."
warned me." "How splendid!" she said, with her
"I have to fetch the doctor," I told her. eyes very wide open. "IVIy mother and
"Would you like to have a walk this after- father were like that, too. They lived in
noon?" India,— came home when was five, you
I I

"Rather!" know, — and he got cholera. Mother


"Right-o. After lunch, then." would nurse him, although they begged
When brought back the doctor, and
I her not to. She knew he was going to die,
he said there was no doubt Elizabeth had and she did n't want to be left behind."
the measles, uncle got into an awful stew, "That 's what I call love," said I; "but
because he could n't remember if he had it 's a little sad for us. Who looks after
ever had it or not. you now?"
He would n't let aunt go near the room, "School-mistresses in the term-time, and
for fear she would "take it," so he said in the holidays generally some one is hired
but as a matter of fact was because he
it by my guardian."
was frightened of catching it from her if "Who 's your guardian? Is he nice?"
she did. "He 's a firm of solicitors; that 's all."

The conversation at lunch was simply I waited for a minute before saying:
awful. I felt frightfully ashamed of both "I wish they 'd engage me."
of them. They made it quite plain that "I wish they would. I 'd like that."

Muriel's being there was, "under the cir- "Would you?"


"
cumstances, most unfortunate." As usual "U-m."
they jumped down my throat every time I "Do you like me, then ?"
spoke a word, and, what was worse, uncle "Yes, awfully.''
corrected me twice for table manners. "How lovely! I don't think anybody
"I shall be out this afternoon," said ever has before."
aunt, "and Mr. Ransart will be busy in "Why not? I should n't have thought
his study [Asleep, that meant]. I hope they could help it."

you are interested in reading, for there "Uncle and aunt seem to help it all

will be little else for you to do." right," I said.


!"
"Thank you," said Muriel. "Perhaps "Poor you
if Imight sit in the garden with a book
"
— Then I asked
Then aunt fetched a bound copy of "Have you any one,
n't either, who
"The Churchman," and went off to her makes a fuss over \ou ?"
meeting. Uncle went to his study, and "No."
Muriel, looking very crestfallen, sat un- "Is n't it funny? We are just alike."
RED AND WHITE 539
"I suppose a boy does n't mind so which was little and pink and warm, and
much." held it in mine for simply ages, and neither
"Does n't he, just? I can tell you he of us said a word.
does. awful sometimes.
It 's I used to It seems funny, but being frightfully
think it was bad when I was little, but happy makes one stop talking. All sorts
it 's much worse now. Often I lie in bed of glorious thoughts pour into your head
and long and long— I don't rightly know but when you try and put them into
what I long for. Perhaps it 's my mother, words, won't come good enough.
they
or, at any rate, somebody to love me. Do They stop at the back of your throat and
you know?" make you gulp. But every time a thought
"U-m. I feel like that often. It 's comes you know and she knows, because
horrid to be lonely, and to know you just you hold each other's hands a wee bit
must be lonely and there 's no help for tighter, and all the unsaid words thrill
it." backward and forward through your fin-
She had the sweetest way of saying gers.
things I ever heard. When I spoke at last it was n't in the
"I have never talked to a girl before," least the sort of thing you 'd have ex-
I told her
— "not really talked." pected.
"I Ve never really talked to a boy, but "I was going to drive you over to Fel-
I 've often wanted to. Do you mind be- ton to-night in the car."
ing called a boy?" "Yes. Won't it be nice?"
"No; I 'd rather. Aunt speaks of me "I expect, now Elizabeth 's ill, aunt 'U
as a 'youth,' and uncle as a 'growing lad.' try and stop us going. It would n't be a
Don't }0u think that they are horrible bad idea to ask her to come, too."
words?" "But s'pose she says 'Yes'?"
"Almost as bad as a young lady." "She won't. But perhaps she would
"That 's bad enough. How old are n't stop us going if you asked her. D'
you?" you see?"
"Sixteen." "I '11 ask her, then."
"I 'm that, too— sixteen and a bit. It 's After that we went
for a walk round
a jolly age. I don't want to grow much the grounds, and showed her all the hid-
I

older. Did you hear aunt correct me for ing-places I had made when I was a kid.
calling you Muriel? You did n't mind, There was one in the middle of some
did you?" rhododendron-bushes where I had plaited
"I 'd sooner you called me Mooly." branches and made asecretwigwam. In one
"Would you really?" corner was a tiny cemetery of pets I had
"Yes; because nobody ever has." had who died a bullfinch, two white mice,
:

I can't tell you what it was like calling and a little robin that was half tame and
ner Mooly for the first time, and when she used to eat crumbs out of my hand. There
decided that I should be Dory instead of was an oyster-shell at the head of each
Dorian, wanted to hug her.
I grave, and on the anniversaries of their
"Mooly," I said, "you are the most deaths I used to put down very small
loveliest and dearestest girl in all the wreaths of lawn daisies. It seemed so
world, .and I love you always and abso- strange to be telling any one about these
lutely." things, which I had never spoken of be-
"Oh, I 'm glad you do," she said, "be- fore; but somehow, once I was started, I
cause I do you, too; and if you had n't, I could say anything I liked to Mooly, and
should have been as miserable as wretched she could do just the same with me.
could be." By the time tea came we had n't any
"Then you need n't," I cried out, "be- secrets left at all.
cause I adore you twice as much as I did "About this visit to your friends at Fel-

a minute ago." And I took her hand. ton," said aunt.


540 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
"Yes," said Mool}^- "I was going to ask "So am I. I feel as if we are all alone
if you could come, too, Mrs. Ransart." in the world."
"That would be impossible," she an- "Would n't it be lovely if we could

swered but what Mooly said had saved


; drive on like this until the dawn comes."
the situation, for I know she was going "I wish we could forever," I said.

to stop us. As it was, she let us go, after Then for nearly two miles we said
giving us all sorts of instructions, and in- nothing, and I thought of the glorious
sisting we should not be later than nine- week we would spend together.
thirty. "I don't know what I shall do when
At six o'clock I started up the car, and you go, Mooly," I said at last.
away we drove. And what a drivewasit "We must n't even think of that. You
We just whizzed along, and there was look so big and splendid in the moonlight,
Mooly close beside me, with her lovely Dory."
red hair blowing across my face. I felt I "Shall I tell you how beautiful you
wanted to sing; I did sing, and all the are?" I asked; and when she said "Yes,"
woods and the fields seemed to be singing, I turned my head to look down on her, so

too. Of course I went miles out of the that I could see every little feature that
way, and we did n't turn up until quarter I wanted to praise, and the car ran into a
to eight. heap of stones and burst the front tire.
They were real nice people, those friends Wehad a very narrow squeak of being
of Mooly's father and mother. They gave tipped into the road. I got out at once
us a top-hole dinner, and actually had the to see what had happened. The old tire
decency to chuck me over a case of ciga- had gone badly.
rettes. "There 's a spare tube in the back," I
There was a sort of ripping disorder said. "I '11 whip this off and put it on."
about the house. Not untidy, you know, So I got a jack and some levers from
but homish, as if people kept everything under the seat, and after about ten min-
where they liked it best, I saw a pair of utes had the burst tube out.
slippers under an easy-chair, and when IVIooly sat on the stone heap and
one of the sons, who was a bit late for watched while I worked, and I told her
dinner, came in, he kicked ofi his shoes in she was like a fairy on a toadstool.
the hall and yelled to one of the servants Of course, when I opened the box at
to sling him down a pair of pumps. the back of the car, I found the other tube
That 's what I call living. I tried to pic- had been left at home.
ture aunt's face if I were to have done the "Is n't it there?" she asked.
same. I shook my head.
was simply rotten having to leave at
It 'm awfully sorry, but we shall
"I say, I

nine o'clock, and if it had n't been that have to walk. It won't take long across
Mooly and I were to be together, I should the fields then I can fetch a stepney wheel
;

have chanced the row and stayed a bit and come back for the car. I was a fool
longer. to run into those stones."
After saying good-by about twice all "You could n't help it," she said.
round, we hopped into the car and started Then I took her hand, and we started
for home. The moon was out, and the off along a little path through the green
stars looked bright and winky, and there wheat.
was a husky sort of feeling in the air. It "I like this best, Dory," she said.
was a wee bit cold, so Mooly nestled up "It 's just as if we were Adam and Eve."
very close, and as there was a foot-accel- "Just," I answered; "only I 'm sure
erator, drove with one hand, and put
I Eve was n't half so lovely as you are."
my other arm round her shoulder. "Do you love me a lot, Dory?"
"Iam happy. Dory," she said. "If I were to try and tell you how
And I whispered much, Moolv, vou 'd never believe."
Y THt TIME. TEA CAME WE HAD N'T ANY
4' ^ECRtTJ LEFT AT ALL'' -
A»vm iwjunj uMuiJL'Uimmagmm
>
542 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
"But I should like you to try." "What is it, Dorian?"
So I tried, and told her that I loved "I — I thought you called me," I lied.

her like two looking-glasses opposite each "I did nothing of the kind. Please
other which reflected backward and for- hurry. We don't want to be up all

ward, forward and backward, until at last night."


they came to a tiny gray point no bigger And as there was nothing I. could say
than a midge's eye and too small for any I just went. In a kind of a dream I got
one to see. that beastly stepney wheel, and tramped
"And that 's forever, IVlooly," I said, back over those hateful fields.

and looking up, I found we 'd arrived Mooly was going to-morrow— my
home, and there was a light in the dining- Mooly. She was going away, and perhaps
room window, where aunt was sitting I should never see her again.
waiting for us. I think I felt then as my father felt
When I saw it I turned to Alooly. when mother banged the old
died. I just
"We had better say good night now, stepney on anyhow, chucked the tools into
because when I 've taken you in I must the car, jerked up the starting-handle, and
go back for the car." flung myself into the driver's seat.
"You promise to take great, great care It was about two miles by road and I

of yourself?" went as recklessly as I could, and did n't

"Of course." care. I only just missed hitting the para-


"I sha'n't go to sleep until I know you pet of the little bridge and landing in the
are safely back, and I shall be thinking stream below. I was sorry I had missed.
about tramps all the time." I wished I could drive over a precipice or
"I '11 just tap at vour door to show I 'm fling myself under a train.
all right. Shall I?" Then I remembered my promise to
"Yes, please." Mooly to be careful, and slowed up a bit.

"Then good night now." J TX7QC T-Ynirii^ inrr r

"Goo' night. Dory." Was she as miserable as I N(



"Mooly, I I want to kiss you awfully. could be.
May I?" Up the drive I went, skidded into the
"I want you to." garage, kicked up the switch of the head-
And I did, and it was like — oh, I don't light, and walked into the house.
know what it was like, but never anything How vile it looked, the tidy umbrella-
so sweet had ever happened to me before. stand, the plate with the visiting-
silly

It was the first time I had ever felt happy cards, and the row of brushes hanging on
all over— so happy that I wanted to cry. brass hooks I loathed it all
! I would ;

We went in and explained to aunt what like to have set the whole place on fire.
had happened. It was half-past ten, and I went to my bedroom and dragged off

although she was better about it than I my clothes. In the looking-glass I saw
expected, she was pretty shirty. that my face was filthy with smears of
"Go to bed as quickly as you can," she oil on it that made me furious. So I
told Mooly. "And you, Dorian, must shoved on a dressing-gown and, collaring
lose no time in bringing back the car. my pajamas, went off to have a bath. I

When you do come in don't make a noise honestly believe that bath saved me from
and disturb your uncle." doing something violent, for under the
As 1 was crossing the hall I heard her warm water I lost my horrible resentful-
saying: ness and could think only of what a won-
"Mr. Ransart and I have decided, in derful day it had been and remember that

the circumstances, it will be best for you never-to-be-forgotten good night in the
to return to my sister in the morning." garden. Then I dried myself, put on my
I spun round as if I had been shot, and pajamas and dressing-gown, brushed my
walked back to the room. hair, and turned off the light.
RED AND WHITE 543
As I passed down the passage I could in, and her lovely hair was on her shoul-
hear uncle and aunt having their snoring ders like a shawl but I saw that her eyes ;

competition. Aunt's was the worse by a were all wet and dim.
long chalk. She had a frantic habit of "Have you been crying?"
leaving ofi for a second or two, then giv "Yes; because I was afraid, and be-
ing a kind of "snork" like a pig. Often cause —"
I thanked Heaven my room was a long "Because you are going away from me
way from theirs, because once, when there to-morrow?"
was a spring cleaning and I moved to one She bit her lower lip and nodded, and I

next door, I could n't sleep all night for broke out with
the vile row they made. "O Mooly, IVIooly, when I think of it

Iblew out the candle at the top of the I want to cry, too!"
stairs and turned down the passage lead- And I sat down by the bed, and I kissed
ing to my room. her, and she kissed me, and we clung to
Outside Mooly's door I stopped. The each other so tightly that we could hardly
moon was shining on her two little shoes breathe.
put out to be cleaned. I picked them up "This is like years ago, when I was
and kissed them. five," she said at last.

"She 's asleep by now," I thought. "It "It 's like never before with me," I an-
would wake her up if I kept my promise swered "but I know now that what I 've
;

and knocked." Oh, how I longed tohcarher always longed for was this."
voice just once more! But I was very strong- After a while she dropped her head on
minded, and, so as not to make a sound, the pillow and my arm was round her
I stooped down and put the shoes back in neck and my head beside hers.
their place as quietly as a mouse. And "Is n't this lovely?" she — what is the
then saw that there was a wee flicker of
I word? Is it "crooned"? I don't think
light coming through the crack under the there is a right one. I only know I could
door. My heart gave a big thump. She scarcely hear what she said, but I could
was n't asleep, then, or peihaps she had feel it against my cheek.
fallen asleep and left the candle burning. And so we remained for ever so long,
That thought made me awfully panicky. and both my slippers fell off to the floor,
Suppose the candle fell over and set fire and the candle burned very low.
to the bed. "It 's worth having been lonely for
I stood a long time biting my nails and years not to be lonely now," I whispered.
wondering what to do. At last I made up "Did two people ever before love each
my mind. I would knock ever so softly, other as much as we do?"
and if she did n't answer, I would steal I felt her shake her head in the dark,
into the room and blow out the light. for the candle flickered and went out as I
Taking a deep breath, I tapped just spoke. I held her a little tighter then,
once, and in an instant I heard because I could n't see her any longer, and
"That jou, Dorv?" she sighed in a way that sounded happier
"Yes."' than anything in the world.
"Oh, I 've been so frightened. I thought It 's hard to talk in the dark, so we
you 'd had an accident. I never heard you did n't try, and th^ time stole on ; after a
come back." long, long while 1 knew that she was
"I 'm all right, Alooly. Good night, asleep. Then, oh, more gently than you
dear." would believe, I put my cheek against
"Won't you come and kiss me good hers and closed my eyes.

night?" was broad daylight when I was wak-


It

And was what I had prayed and


that ened by a hand shaking my shoulder.
prayed she would say. Looking up, I saw uncle standing by the
She was sitting up in bed when I stole bed. A little way off was aunt, and her
544 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
mouth was closed so tight that it had al- talking I knew that aunt was saying the
most disappeared. I could see uncle was same hateful wicked things to Mooly.
furious ; but before he could speak I said When he had finished he locked me in
!"
"Hush Don't wake her up
! his dressing-room. He might have saved
"Take him away," said aunt; "I '11 re- himself the trouble, for I should n't have
main here." come out until she had gone. He had just

I was going to flare up at that, but spoiled everything.


uncle, who was very strong when he liked, And now you know why if I met Mooly
clapped a hand over my mouth and, grip- I should go all red and she 'd go all white
ping me by the collar of my dressing- and we 'd talk about bicycles or rubbish.
gown, dragged me from the room. I heard the cab that took her away soon

after nine, and I just stood in a corner and


I AM not going to tell any more of this choked and wished I 'd never been born.
story. I would n't repeat a word uncle It 's a horrible, hateful world, and all the

said to me if you paid me a hundred mil- people in it excepting Mooly are beastly,
lion pounds. And all the vile time he was beastly, beastly.

A
At Horseshoe Beach
By DOROTHY B. LEONARD

HOW
The
can you dwellers near the sea-coast
sea-starvation of an inland soul,
know

You who but step to hear Atlantic roll


And feel the acrimonious sea-winds blow?

Or can you guess the long, long thirst I quench


Upon this solitary moon of sand —
I, hitherto beleaguered by the land,
Who now in sea-delight my spirit drench ?

Behind this ridge of rose and bayberry


I lie and gloat upon my trove of shells,
Or scoop the warm, soft sand in shallow wells,
And count the curious sails that slip to sea

And like a rock-pool, when the tide comes in,


I fill and fill, where drying weeds have been.
Marshal Count Terauchi, the New
Premier of Japan
By ELIZA RUHAMAH SCIDMORE
Author of "Jinrikisha Days in Japan," "As The Hague Ordains," etc.

MARSHAL COUNT TERAUCHI, shiu. These two are the great fighting
president of the council of minis- clans, and heredity and family traditions
ters, the so-called Kitchener of Japan, is tell in the genius for arms. Young Te-
the benevolent despot who quietly, easily, rauchi studied in France and in French
without force or friction or any "inci- military schools, and always speaks French
dents," annexed Korea, and, continuing to with foreign guests. He knows English,
govern it for seven years, has so recreated as a flash of the eye sometimes betrays in

and redeemed the peninsula that it stands the social and unofficial countenance, but
as a sufficient answer and triumphant that language as well as German he
monument to the charge given him. If learned only that he might study military
the politicians and the yellow press will literature, that he might read of the
give him time, he will accomplish much chivalry and strategy of Stonewall Jack-
for the home empire. son, and the ignoble precepts of Bernhardi,
He has been called the Kitchener of each in their original texts. A saber-
Japan with reason, for as an organizer and cut on the right hand and poor surgery
administrator he has no equal but he is a ; disabled member, which, like the
that
Kitchener with a heart, great sympathy kaiser's, immovable at the sword-
rests

for the lowly, and a saving sense of hu- guard, while he shakes hands with the
mor, and he holds diplomatic talent of the left. He has the same tall, dome-
first order. Nothing further from the like head of Prince Ito, of Kang Yu Wei
mark could be said than to call him the and other scholarly Chinese, and strangely
Bernhardi of Japan or a jingo, or to class drooping eyelids conceal the keenest eyes
him as unfriendly to the United States. that ever reviewed troops, inspected garri-
His elevation to the premiership marked sons, or spied a foreign friend across the
the triumph of the saner and more con- largest railway station. When the East
servative elements in Japanese public life, was suddenly flooded with the little im-
the ascendancy of the Genro, or Elder ages of our "Billikin," and they were
Statesmen, over the ruck of present-day sold in all seriousness as "the foreigners'
politicians, almost a return to the old clan god of Luck," the cartoonists were quick
government after the reign of the popular to note the resemblance of the high, bald
demagogue. head to Count Terauchi's. No one enjoyed
Marshal Terauchi comes from Choshiu the joke better than the victim himself,
province, the birthplace of Prince Ito and and a little Billikin had a place on the
Marshal Yamagata. In early Meiji the drawing-room table in the residencv at
Choshiu 5'ouths as naturally went into the Seul.
army as the Satsuma j^ouths adopted the In the Japanese cabinet, or council of
naval profession, and the old Sat-Cho ministers, the minister of war is always a
combination is a sacred tradition still in general of the army, and the minister of
the two Every Japanese admiral
services. the na\y is an admiral in the service, those

you meet is Satsuma man


as naturally a two branches of the Government being so
as the generals are nearly all from Cho- vital and their problems so technical that
545
546 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
It is not thought possible for any civilian ciety and all their resources being at his

satisfactorily to discharge the duties of command in this latter undertaking. Still

chief. By contrast, the minister of justice more admirable was the ease with which
in the Okuma cabinet was by profession "his Efficiency" provided good quarters

a journalist, and one can picture the ex- and European food for the seventy thou-
citement in this country if any but a dis- sand and more Russian prisoners of war,
tinguished lawyer were made attorney- — more than double the number of Ger-
general. General Terauchi was minister man and Austrian prisoners of war that
of war in three cabinets, that portfolio be- England now cares for,— a feat that
ing recognized as entirely outside of poli- could not be matched in the suburbs of
ticsand party wrangles. In the sam.e way, Berlin after two years of war. There
by the same reasoning, he now retains the was never a scandal or on the
a slur
ministers of war and marine of the Okuma reputation of the minister of war, and
cabinet. scamping and crooked army contractors
A
few months before the opening of the had a sorry time with him. Tales were
Russian war General Kodama, the great told of his curt speech and threatening
military genius and strategist, was minis- manner when he had such gentry to deal
ter of war, but resigned that position to with, and it must be they who have lately
become chief of the general staff, a con- written the sketches of the imaginary Te-
spicuous sign which the Russians failed to rauchi that have found their way to the
read. By that manoeuver. General Te- American press.

rauchi became minister of war and had After the assassination of Prince Ito,

full chance to demonstrate his wonderful Viscount Sone was for a brief period the
organizing and executive ability. With- Japanese resident in Korea, and then Gen-
out hitch or muddle or blunder he trans- eral Terauchi was sent to the peninsula,
ported, munitioned, and supplied his half- and calamity-howlers foretold a reign of
million men in Manchuria, and main- force and militarism. Annexation fol-
tained a model hospital service, the million lowed quietly and painlessly, and the poor
members of the Japanese Red Cross So- old empire of slipshod and decay came to
MARSHAL COUNT TERAUCHI, THE NEW PREMIER OF JAPAN 547

enjoy the system and order of a modern, Everything had to be done at once.
up-to-date Japanese administration. An Railways, roads, harbors, waterworks,
orderly, trim, and tidy, an energetic, schools, hospitals, lighthouses, a census, a

soaped, and deodorized Korea is grow- land survey, a meteorological bureau,

Photograph bj' Underwood & Underwood


MARSHAL COUNT TKRAUCHI REMIER OF JAPAN

ing up, in the towns and along the telegraphs, post-offices, courts, and a na-
railroad tracks at least. The new gov- tive constabulary had to be established at

ernor-general had a free hand, and he as- a stroke. The bitterest critics of the new
sembled a brilliant staff about him, the order were those of General Terauchi's
son of Marshal Yamagata and the son of own countrymen whom he would not per-
General Kodama being nearest in the offi- mit to rob or oppress or exploit the Koreans.
cial family. He chose Dr. Watanabe, Laws and regulations had to be drafted
formerly a Christian pastor and a most while inquirers and offenders waited, and
unusual character, as chief-justice for the one saw the advantage of the military
organization of all the courts. Justice mind. When the governor-general or-
Watanabe's presence was a promise of jus- dered the seizure and destruction of a
tice and mercy, and an assurance that the ship-load of cheap, adulterated sake, or
greatest sympathy and allowances would rice brandy, that could not be sold in

be extended to the erring and untutored Japan, a howl went up that filled the yel-
Koreans. low journals of Tokio. Immediately there
548 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
was promulgated a pure-food law for had long been installed at the foot of
Korea more drastic than anything hith- Nam-san. During two winters that I spent
erto known. It has been rigorously en- in Seul, walking two and three hours
forced, and amended only to make its pro- every one of those gloriously sunny, frosty

IRRIGATION RESERVOIR AT KINEKI ON THE KONAN LINE, KOREA

visions more specific and its penalties more afternoons in every street and slum and
severe. All firms and persons wishing to corner within the walls, I never saw a

transact affairs or pursue a trade or pro- Korean struck or maltreated but once, and
fession in Korea have to lay bare every that time it was a Chinese storekeeper
detail and be registered and licensed. who struck a loaded Korean pack-carrier
Regulations of this sort ended any idea of full in the face. The Korean stood still
Korea being a refuge for the rascally and and bawled, with wide-open jaws and
undesirable while General Terauchi was streaming eyes, and when, with a first-
dictator. He has cleared the peninsula aider's zeal, I had insisted upon a Japan-
of the camp-followers and adventurers ese policeman from the palace gate coming
who made Prince Ito's life a burden and to the rescue, the Korean had nothing to
long injured the name of Japan. say,no charges or complaints to make. He
"There are ten thousand Japanese over wiped his face, and a well-aimed kick from
here that I am going to get rid of," Prince the Chinese directed him toward the
Ito once said in an after-dinner conversa- South Gate and the railway station, his
tion in Seul. knees wobbling under a load no S. P. C. A.
"What will you do with them?" would allow on a mule's back.
"I shall send five thousand back to Not only the undesirables among the
Japan." Japanese camp-followers departed with
"And the other five thousand?" the new regime, but the great, galleried
"Oh, I shall bury them," said the tea-houses in the Chinkokai closed their
prince. doors for want of patronage, and the
Whatever befell them, the island bully flocks of gay geishas went back to Japan,
and crook and adventurer had certainly being no longer tolerated at official enter*

gone from Seul before General Terauchi tainments. Their patrons complained of
MARSHAL COUNT TERAUCHI, THE NEW PREMIER OF JAPAN 549
the puritan standards and the Spartan life inhuman grades for burden-carriers. A
at the residency; but about that time the hotel was built by the government rail-
moving-picture shows came over in a rush, way bureau that would win praise on the
and there were newer distractions. The Riviera, with a manager wlio went to

governor-general may have been a Spar- America and served a long apprenticeship
tan in his ideas, but he was not inhos- in the largest hotels on the Pacific Coast
pitable, and having an incomparable chef and in New York in preparation for such
and a renowned cellar and as positive a a life-work. Harbor-works have been car-
genius for entertaining as for campaign- ried on at different ports, and the railway
ing, his dinners were frequent and note- has been extended across to the east coast,
worthy, and no visitor of note failed to and the romantic region of the Diamond
enjoy his hospitality. By the quiet sweep Mountains made accessible, with govern-
of those half-veiled eyes one saw that the ment rest-houses and motor services at
host was as cognizant of every placing, command.
every detail of ornament and service, as The governor-general was specially
if it were a garrison parade or a military considerate and sympathetic toward the
review that he was conducting. dispossessed sovereigns of Korea. The
The governor-general improved every- half-imbecile young emperor and the
thing in Seul but his own official resi- crafty and slightly less-imbecile old em-
dence, continuing to occupy the long, pink peror, who was forced to abdicate, were
frame-building hastily erected as an en- very gently set aside, and relegated to an
largement of the old Japanese legation. innocuous desuetude that seems very tol-
Sewers, sidewalks, shade-trees, pavements, erable to those and spineless ones.
soft
electric lamps, and hydrants were all in- There was no outward demonstration, no
stalled in quick succession. Broad streets uprising, no last stand by any old guard
were cut through congested slums, and or faithful retainers; no one wept or
civic centers were made more tramways
; wailed, committed suicide, or made sign
were built, and motor roads were run of grief and undying loyalty when the old
through all the suburbs, and reduced some rulers were set aside. The Koreans went
550 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
about their business same old wa3%
in the and lesser train, as befitted their less noble

or mooned over long-stemmed pipes,


their estate. They met again at Tokio in the

and none noted any other change than a gala week of November in time for the
greater display' of the Japanese flag over emperor's birthday ball and the season of
doors and gates. garden parties. The noble Korean ladies
The Augean palaces were cleaned, and in their court costumes were the sensation
with fixed incomes, budgets, auditors, of the ball given by the minister of for-
books, and accounts the ex-rulers began a eign affairs. They were all rather elderly,
new existence. Impeccable Japanese they were undeniably the plainest of the
chamberlains in frock-coats made plain the plain, their pale, faces, the most ex-
flat

meaning of salaries and charges and ac- pressionless masks, were topped by the most
counts in place of the old slipshod squeeze gigantic chignons, rolls and rolls and coils
and graft and grab-bag arrangement by and coils of false hair testifying to the very
which thousands of hangers-on and all grand toilets they had made for the occa-
their relatives had made a living off the sion. They wore voluminous silk skirts
court. System and order, eternal cleanli- of a violent mazarine-blue, yards too wide

ness and sanitation, may bewilder them, and too long, bunched up at the belt in
but the ex-rulers have compensation in front, and very short-waisted jackets of

comforts and luxuries, pleasures and bright green. By no stretch could they
amusements, and such peace of mind, bod- be called court beauties, and the fascinated
ily safety, and ease as they never dreamed company gazed in polite silence at these
of in the days when plots and counter- fearsome dames of a certain age, these
plots, intrigues, murders, and evil machi- dour old noblewomen in their excruciating
nations kept them in perpetual fear of clothes.

their lives; when every one of the five ''Why did you not bring over some
thousand grafters battening on the impe- young and pretty ones if you expected us
rial purse in the old rabbit-warren of the to congratulate you on your satrapy?"
palace mazes wanted something out of asked one son of a daimio who had gone
them. They drive to and fro in court aside after a fascinated look.
carriages or speedy motors through the "Mais — mais," said General Terauchi,

open streets, and no one salutes or pros- his eyelids drooping inscrutably, "les belles
trates himself or makes any sign of devo- ne sont pas si avancees."
tion or any demonstration over them. The Besides a land survey to reduce bounds
young crown prince, son of the old abdi- and meets and land tenure to something
cated emperor, won the interest of Prince more than guesswork and old custom, an
Ito, who saw signs of promise in the archaeological survey was established, and
badly spoiled little fat boy, took him away the two great volumes de luxe of the re-
from harem influences, and sent him to ports published equal any of the wonder-
Japan, where after a year of intensive ful publications concerning Japanese treas-
training he entered the peers' school. He ures and monuments of ancient art. The
has fulfilled all the hopes of Prince Ito, old frescos, much like the wall paintings

proved exceptionally clever even in com- of the Ajunta Caves, were sought out and
petition with the sharp wits of the fine protected and copied, and in their colored
flower of young Japan, will marry the reproductions tiie art world has a new
daughter of Prince Nashimoto, and have problem to consider. The last old art
a command in the Japanese army. treasures in the palace storehouses, all the
A few months after annexation a party medieval trappings and accessories of court
of Korean nobles, with their wives, was life and street pageants, all the rare finds
invited to Japan.
visit It took endless of the Arch:rological Survey, were gath-
conferences to arrange such a momentous ered into a museum in the palace grounds
affair, and finally they set forth, the no- that is a revelation to every visitor. M.
bles on one dav and their wives on a later Komiva, who made the museum his ab-
MARSHAL COUNT TERAUCHI, THE NEW PREMIER OF JAPAN 551

sorbing occupation, has assembled there most fascinating of novelties to them. In


such old Korean potteries, sculpture, the autumn of 1915, at the great exhibi-
paintings, urns, and objects from burial- tion held in the abandoned North Palace,
mounds as make the modern Korean shine the three features which most impressed
m the reflected glory one who had known
of his ancestors Korea since 1886
After the long pro- were the wonderful
scription of Bud- revival of the old
dhism on the penin- celadon pottery, the
sula, the status of the great improvement
many Buddhist tem- in quality and
the
ples was restored, size of fruits and

and those shrines vegetables, and the


recognized as hav- amazing presence of
ing the same stand- hundreds and hun-
ing as the buildings dreds of women and
of other creeds. Re- children dressed in

ligious freedom is the newest and whit-


guaranteed, and the est clothes, their
Buddhist monuments heads no longer
are cared for. shrouded in green
At the time of an- coats. Daily for
nexation the emperor weeks these holiday
of Japan made a crowds of women
gift of seventeen flocked to the exhi-
million yen from his bition by thousands,
private purse "for and their emancipa-
the good of the tion, their freedom,
Korean people," and their enjoyment of
with the interest of the music, the
that fund over a crowds, the sights,

hundred stations and all things that


have been established had come to them
for training im- under the new rule,
poverished Korean were encouraging to
officials and literati see.

in undertakings af- General Terauchi


fording a means of took the keenest per-
livelihood. Those sonal interest in all
who had always de- educational schemes
spised work have as measures of the
taken up serici- LASS KOREAN first necessity for the
culture, weaving, uplifting of the
agriculture, fishing, the manufacture of Korean people. There were weeks and
paper, hempen cloth, matting, charcoal, weeks in spring when no one could envy
and other staples. The young men of the the governor-general, doomed to sit by
once-idle classes have changed their whole the hour every day in full uniform on
mental attitude, and eagerly compete for a platform listening to graduates' essays
prizes at agricultural fairs and industrial and the recitations of frightened children,
exhibitions. The hitherto idle women of distributing prizes and diplomas, and
such upper-class have taken up
families making speeches of exhortation and en-
sericiculture, weaving, and knitting, the couragement, all from a sense of duty.
552 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
The Japanese Kitchener ruled kindl}', up who mildly says to his teacher:
wisely, and with merciful justice, pre- "Teacher, we don't care to hear so much
ferring the welfare of the Koreans to the about Jericho and the George Washing-
schemes of many of his own countrym.en, ton. We
want to learn about electricity
desirables and undesirables. In the end and machinery and aeroplanes, and how to
his course won unstinted praise from the make automobile, like those Japanese
American mission workers, who were at boys."
times so critical and hostile toward Jap- In the first years after annexation the
anese rule in Korea that their mission sum of twelve million yen was annually
boards had to urge them to restrain their appropriated from the Japanese treasury
fiery partizanship and political activities. for improvements and necessary develop-
Such older missionaries as Dr. Horace ments in Korea. The appropriation has
Underwood, who finally could not say now been reduced to ten million yen, and
enough in praise of the Japanese rule in every year the new Korea will be nearer
Korea; Dr. Gale; Bishop Harris; and to self-support and to paying for all its

other cooler heads set a good example to own improvements, just as Formosa came
their colleagues, and many of the bitterest slowly to its own feet and to financial in-
opponents now admitthe good that has dependence.
come and the country. The
to the people Convinced that in agriculture lay the
annual appropriation of ten thousand yen best hopes for Korea's prosperity. General
that Prince Ito made to the Y. M. C. A. Terauchi laid great stress on agricultural
at Seul has been continued ever since, and schools, model farms, and sericicultural

General Terauchi has subscribed in the stations. Silk culture is possible in all the
same way to the Salvation Army, which southern provinces, and that of the wild,
is doing good work among the very poor- or pongee, silk from the huge worms that
est. All are aids to help Korean
lift the feed on the wild oak in the northlands,
out of the slough of ages and advance him with American upland cotton flourishing in

in enlightenment. the middle regions. Few foreign visitors


The Koreans were better off after seven fail to visit the Suigen model farm and agri-

years of Japanese rule than their sooth- cultural school twenty miles from Seul,
sayers could have dared to foretell. The the director of which, D"-. Honda, is a

effects ofgood government and just taxes brother of the Japanese expert who for
are apparent on city streets and country more than thirty years has been the right-
roads, in the better clothing and housing hand man of Luther Burbank on the ex-
of the people, in their very gait and bear- perimental farm at Santa Rosa, Califor-
ing. In the single item of deposits in sav- nia. Dr. Honda has the regeneration of
ings-banks there is a plain tale of pros- Korean agriculture well mapped out in
perity, for therehad grown from nothing his far-reaching plans, and his belief in the
at all in 1909 a deposit by Koreans of future of the peninsula is inspiring and

5,692,059 yen in the year 19 14. Under convincing. The Korean farmer had
their own rulers the Koreans buried their everything to learn in the selection of
money and simulated poverty to escape the seeds, the use of fertilizers, and a persist-

rapacious tax-gatherers ; now they may ent war on insects ; for, having killed off
flaunt their riches if they will, pay the the protecting birds, the Korean farmer
same fixed taxes as every one else, and that was at the mercy of more kinds of per-
is the end of it. And they get something nicious insects than he knew about. When
for their taxes: schools for their children, they had followed the Honda advice for
good water, good roads, charity hospitals, two and the yield of their rice-
seasons,
and free instruction in the many things fields had nearly doubled, one peasant said :

the Korean needs to know


full-grown "If we Koreans should put up statues
about farming and everything else. An now, it would be to Terauchi and to this
amazing sort of young Korean is growing saint, Honda. He comes to our villages
MARSHAL COUNT TERAUCHI, THE NEW PREMIER OE JAPAN 553
every winter and preaches to us about ministration the governor-general was pa-
growing more, and better rice, how to treat tient, sympathetic, and optimistic. His
the mulberry-trees, how to get bigger eggs great interest in afforestation, as another
and pears and egg-plants. And he shows of the great needs of the country, led to
us, too." regulations obliging every office-holder,
In official plans Korea is to be the fruit- every householder, and every school-child
farm, of the East, and if government in- to plant: a certain number of trees or seed-
tention can transform a fruit as the Jap- lings on Arbor day, April 3. Every year
anese Government has made over the the governor-general himself planted one
peach in Japan, it will all come true* hundred trees on the Nam-san slopes. The
American apples, pears, grapes, straw- day is a great fete-day all over the coun-
berries, blackberries, and raspberries outdo try, and every hillside blooms with the gay
themselves in luscious perfection and colors of Korean children's gala
the
beauty. Much credit is due to the Amer- clothes, when whole families and schools,
ican missionaries who introduced many of down to the lowliest toddlers in kinder-
these things' for their own gardens in the gartens, go forth, each one with a tiny
early days, and one mission teacher ex- pine, oak, poplar, or chestnut seedling to
plained his* absence for a few weeks by set out. It takes many more picnics dur-
saying: ing the year to make sure that the infant
"I have been seeking the hardships of trees thrive, and to reset them after the
mission life in Korea. I have been all summer's deluge, and there are stringent
around, and I have just traveled from one laws to punish the disturber of such sap-
strawberry-patch to another. I shall al-. lings. In the first year after annexation
ways make my rounds at this time of the four million trees were set out, and then
year." Every fruit but the orange flour- ten million, twelve million, and fourteen
ishes in Korea, in that best climate of the million on successive Arbor days, while
world, that land of eternal sunshine, by official afforestation schemes in five
where there is never any bad weather save provinces many millions of seedlings were
in the four weeks of the hot rainy season set out in water-conservation districts.
in midsummer. By the Terauchi program, The Mitsui firm has planted more than
Korea is also to be the sanatorium of the fifty million trees on their properties, and
East, and the long-neglected hot springs the Oriental Development Company as
here and there will soon be availed of by many Korea
miOre; so that in twenty years
the Japanese, with their obsession for hot will be the green and beautiful country
baths. Theregovernment horticul-
is a the great governor-general has intended it

tural station at Tokuson, a suburb of to be. Already about Seul a landscape


Seul, and any bona-fide farmer may go like that of the moon is changing as clouds
there and buy the m.ost amazing apples of green begin to overcast the bare gran-
and pears for a copper apiece, and will ite hills.

receive free grafts and bud-wood for his It was a special providence that General

own trees, with instructions for using. Terauchi came to Korea the summer be-
Other people cannot buy at all, for the fore the bubonic plague ravaged southern
benevolent dictator intends that the pub- Manchuria, for, with a total lack of any
lic wait upon the Korean farmer's
shall sanitary regulations in the old regime, the
and then buy of him. Jam fac-
efforts, pestilence would have swept the peninsula.
tories and canning stations are also By the most stringent and effective meas-
planned by the official projectors of the ures not a case or a suspect entered Korea,
experimental fruit farms, and they see no for in order to maintain a thorough sani-
reason why the Koreans cannot do all tary cordon, General Aoki had his sen-
that is now being done in Japan in those tries posted more closely along the whole
lines. length of the Yalu River than they had
Through his seven weary years of ad- been during the Russian war.
The Garden of Proserpine
By HARRY ESTY DOUNCE
Illustrations by Arthur Litle

Here, where all trouble seems "Won't be red ink if he 's dining Ethel
Dead winds' and spent waves' riot Carewe."
In doubtful dreams of dreams. "He is. And who 's Miss Carewe?"
— "The Garden of Proserpine." "Girl he 's trying to marry. I like to
watch 'em."
WISH to own up in confidence that "Attractive girl?" I demanded. "It 's

I I have killed a poet. Not with my a beast of a night outside."


own bow and spear, exactly but I set his ; Cadigan laughed.
slayer upon him. Any jury would find "Orphan, country place at Lenox, town
against me if jurors could be made to be- house East Seventy-umphth, two doors
lieve in killings of this variety. He was a off Fifth. Attractions enough for you?"
good poet, a fine specimen, they tell me. I rattled back down to the 'phone. He
And yet I don't mean to boast of him grinned when I returned.
I like good poets as a species, and wish "I would n't figure on cutting Wheaton
mine had been a bad one. out."
Still, I am not remorseful, either. I "But I gathered it is n't settled." I

am glad. Three other people are glad was rummaging in a closet.


w^ith me. There will be a fourth some "No more it is or will be." —
day. The poet would make the fifth, I "Then why can't a little child like
believe, if he could know the facts. me —
"What 's that for?"
Cadigan made me go down to the 'phone. had hauled something out, and was
I

He was coiled in galley proofs, his filthiest trying to get a light on it that would
calabash gargling, his slippered feet pro- soften its need of pressing.
faning the edge of my bed. Most of "That is for Miss Carewe," I explained
Cadigan's work done on the margins
is with dignity.
of his proofs, for which I suspect his pub- "Put it back."
lishers don't love him. "I won't. I look my best in soup-and-
"One Wheaton," I reported, "would flsh."
have us to dine at a spaghetti joint at "Soup-and-fish would be relished at
seven," Simeoni's. Besides, you 're wanted to
"Wheaton? The playwright?" look your worst. Muss your hair, slop
"Would a Doctor Wheaton be the swim around in Sixth
ink on yourself, and
playwright?" Avenue and buy you a Windsor tie. Too

"Oh," Cadigan came to life,— "that 's bad you don't wear shell rims!" said Cadi-
Arthur Wheaton, the psychiatrist. We gan, wiping his.

accept with pleasure." "What 's the disgusting idea? We go


"The ivhat did you say?" as Bohemians, do we?"
"Mind-and-nerve specialist. A good "As intellectual leaders. Much the
fellow." same." He heaved himself lazily out of
"Is red ink the extent of his good-fel- his chair and his gown.
lowship ?" "I am not in on this picnic."
SSI
THK GARDEN OF PROSERPINE 555
^'
"Now don't be unintelligent. "Ever read 'Hcdda Gabler'?" he in-

worth seeing."
find the girl quired.
"She 's one of your 'cases,' is she?" "That 's a pretty remark to make about
"Oh, yes, in a way. She 's one of a girl," I said.

Wheat's, if he could only see it. Odd "Oh, P^thel is n't Iledda: but she would
how science does n't save a man falling the be except for her fads. She saves herself
wrong way in love. No man will marry by fads. Her new one 's social service;

Ethel. Men enough have tried." she 's now in the stage of preparing for a
"Have you tried?" career. Hence her thirst for intellectual
Cadigan's pipe abruptly turned the leaders. Wheaton's job is to cater to her

room a thicker blue. He stripped his big thirsts."

shoulders, and chose a fresh soft shirt. "The Lady Bountiful uplift thing?"

ONE WHEATON.- I REPORTED. •


WoLLD HAVE US TO DINE AT A SPAGHETTI JOINT AT SEVEN'
556 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
"She 's got more sense than that." At sight of another writer Mrs. Rut-
"Penance of some kind?" ledge was heavily bored.
"N-no, I don't think so. Who else is "Why, Jere," cried Miss Carewe, "it 's

he asking? Tell you?" been ages!


"He mentioned Mrs. Rutledge" Cadi- — Cadigan, taking her hand, inquired
gan pulled a horrible face— "and some- whose fault it was. He told her how fit
body named Owens and a girl." she was looking. Something about her
"Tev Owens and his fiancee!" Cadigan had surprised him plainly enough.
whistled, then shook his mane and roared. "Pig! You mean fat," she said mock-
"Oh, that 's worth sitting next the Rut- sternly —
"aging and fat. You need n't
ledge for ! Lord I 'm much obliged to
! rub it in. Do you wonder I 'm not asking
Wheaton's evil genius." you to view me in this condition?"
"What 's evil to the combination?" I "It 's extremely becoming. Where 's

asked. Owens? I 'm here on his account. I

"Well, for one thing, those two are so- trust.Doctor Wheaton, that I have not
cial workers, real ones. No make-up. been hoaxed ?"
That won't go big with Ethel." Wheaton said Owens had telephoned he
"Don't be clever, Cadigan. What 's would be late. Miss Meade could not
startling about it?" make it, unluckily.
Cadigan flashed his watch. "Unlucky enough," said Cadigan.
"Come, signs of life! Even intellects He was looking straight at Miss Ca-
must n't be more than an hour late." rewe it made me yearn to kick him. Miss
;

It was not "red ink," but a dated Bor- Carewe was not at all fat, and she was
deaux, and the dinner was not the stereo- radiantly lovely, a most human little per-

typed atrocity for which Simeoni collects son to the eye, a miniature Spanish in-

sixty cents a head from the seekers after fanta, blackand ivory, with an exquisite
atmosphere whose cars line the curb in long throat and perfect arms. Cadigan
front. The ordering had been done in ad- had prepared me for a witch of nerves.
vance by some one who knew northern There was not the least visible ground for
Italian cookery, and the cook had risen his brutalities: "temperament" to burn,
gratefully to his knowledge. brilliant eyes, a continuous, telling play of
We had to ourselves what might have pretty gestures. All the sooner should I

been the original dining-room of the base- have backed a Wheaton to win, and
ment house. Cadigan and I found the wished him well, with envy. But the
antipasto already served. The eminent hand she gave me was ice.
Mrs. Rutledge, a blonde frump in lilac Cadigan, as he had feared, was seated
velvet,was eying it greedily. Still, she was next Mrs. Rutledge. Between him and
bearing up, for Miss Carewe was asking me was Miss Meade's vacant place. On
nice questions about her books. my left and Miss Carewe's right was
The social workers had not yet arrived. Owens's.
Mrs. Rutledge smoked with a silver "It 's just my luck," said Miss Carewe.
holder, poising the cigarette high, and "I 'd counted on knowing Miss Meade.
lounging in her chair. Miss Carewe was I 've heard so much of her work. Do talk
not smoking. Big, wholesome Wheaton, to me about her."
his eyes on her face, never noticed our en- I referred her to Cadigan.
trance. Wheaton glowed ; could no more "Emily Meade? Stunning girl," he as-
have dissembled than a school-boy. I sured her, watching her.
thought, as she saw who had come, that "Oh, you find her so, Mr. Cadigan?"
Miss Carewe's shoulders relaxed, but she This was Mrs. Rutledge, asthmatic from
made her face lively for gaiety. This cigarettes, "Emily 's interesting, of
brought Wheaton to earth, and he course, interesting and capable ; but as for
bounded up to welcome us. her being stunning — Doctor Wheaton,
THE GARDEN OF PROSERPINE 557

should describe Miss Meade that said Cadigan. "I 'm hungry, too, though,
way?" Wheat. These pickled minnows appeal to

"Beg pardon?" said Wheaton, dropping all my finer sensibilities."

back from cloud-land. We began. The door-knob turned. I

*"Mr, Cadigan calls Emily Meade a was looking at Miss Carewe — staring, I

stunning girl. Should you?" am afraid — and I caught the slightest


Wheaton smiled. bracing of her shoulders. But nothing
"I 'd call her a brick," he said. more thrilling walked in than a likable
"Thank you. The word I wanted. little chap in baggy clothes, inclined to
stoutness, with the air of hav-
ing come a long way in a hurry,
which he had enjoyed.
This air, you could see, was
habitual he was thriving on a
;

crowded life. His coat and


umbrella trickled his eyebrows ;

glittered with the rain. He was


still young and distinctly pre-
possessing, but his clothes be-
tokened a settled, wheel-horse
sort of man.
His clear eyes beamed in-
clusively on the party.
"I 'm sorry to get here late,"
he said, not at all discomfited.
"Mr. Owens, Miss Carewe,"
said Wheaton, with a big hand
on his shoulder.
"I believe I know Mr. Owens
from lang syne."
Her voice, a contralto, had
deepened, and had taken on a
pseudo-Scottish flavor suggest-
ing Maude Adams in Barrie.

"You 've kept it mighty


quiet," Wheaton laughed.
"Ethel! Why, how do you do?"
exclaimed the social worker,
•MRS. RUTLEDGE SMOKLD WITH A SlI.VIiR HOLDER. POISIN
THE CIGARETTE HIGH. AND LOUNGIN-G IN HER CHAIR" artlessly delighted. "I 'd never
have known you, I 'm sure."
Brick, sound and structural, not too orna- "Ye 'd not, eh? Well, I 'd known you.
mental. I hope the uplift business won't Ye 're fatted a wee yersel'."

have that effect on Miss Carewe." We all did the proper thing in laughter.
"It could n't," said Cadigan. "Could I glanced at Cadigan. He was keen set,

it, Wheat?" his tongue between his lips.

Wheaton blushed. Miss Carewe looked Owens sat down by Miss Carewe, who
round at him kindly. drew him into rapid, intimate chat be-
"Speaking for one," wheezed Mrs. Rut- tween themselves. If Wheaton, good fel-

ledge, "I think we might begin. It would low, got a natural reaction, he covered it

make ]VIr. Owens twice as uncomfy to successfully. Cadigan watched Mrs. Rut-
find us waiting." ledge ladle down her minestrone. I gave
"\ ou can't make Owens uncomfv," mine the strict attention of a boy at his
558 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
first dining out, for I was beginning un- there was until the sweet. Owens kept
easily to had stayed at home.
wish I his gaze on his plate, and twice absently
Little Owens had found an old ac- emptied his glass again.

quaintance. That was all it meant to him. The sweet was a warm, noggish cus-
Her Scottish trick he seemed to take as a tard, edged with brandy. It reminded

matter of course. Mrs. Rutledge, so she said, of Swinburne's


"Miss Carewe contemplates entering songs. Thereupon Owens looked up, and
your field," said Mrs. Rutledge, who did began in a new voice to talk poets like a
not quite see why any two persons pres- god inspired. Don't misunderstand me.
ent should leave her out of a tete-a-tete. He was not a particle drunk, and he was
"Indeed? That 's splendid, Ethel. Of quieter than before. His talk was per-
course you want a certain amount of pre- fectly sane, and it was wonderful and
liminary training. I '11 speak of it at the compelling.
institute; they '11 send j'ou a prospectus." He began before the "Song of Roland,"
He noted on an envelop to do it. and came leisurely down through the ages,
"I would na fash masel' ; it 's na set- quoting much, caressing each great lyre
tled," said Miss Carewe, and shifted a lit- with a sure and privileged hand. In talk
tle in her chair. "Am juist a-conseederin', Oscar Wilde must have resembled what
Everaird. An' why did ye say ye had na we heard, except that Owens had pro-
luiked me up?" found conviction. Thinking it over, I
"Well, you see, since I came to New realize he held us not through our sur-
York I 've had a lot of work
— prise, for that had passed, but through

"Havers!" she doubted gaily. sheer prestige as an acknowledged author-


Between courses Mrs. Rutledge asked ity. The oracle was speaking to Miss
me loudly enough to call the table to or- Carewe's eyes and ears. He turned to her
der what I thought of the free-verse poets. occasionally, smiling.
She answered the question herself. Cadi- His valuations were most entertaining.
gan chipped in a sardonic epigram. Whea- I remember he rather slighted Hugo to
ton said their stuff was too much for him. dwell upon Baudelaire, and that Leconte
"And what do you think, Tev?" Miss de Lisle impressed him more than Ros-
Carewe demanded. tand, and that with Shelley he stopped
It was here that Owens began to seem naming English poets and mentioned
diffident, uneasy. poems: "Love in the Valley," "The Gar-
"I —I don't read new poetry much," den of Proserpine," "The City of Dread-
he faltered. ful Night," "The Harlot's House," until
"N( ;e Of course you read it.
! he launched upon a eulogy of Yeats.
Write some of it, I '11 warrant. Where "America?" Cadigan suggested.
are your things published? I never see Owens's reply was indulgent,
them." "Two short poems. Well, possibly a
"What 's this?" said Cadigan. "Owens third. 'To Helen,' and 'If the Red
write poems? Or
do you merely infer it Slayer,' possibly 'Annabel Lee.' It runs
from the fact that he lov to fustian, like so much of Poe."
"Oh, merely that, of course." "Masefield?" said Mrs. Rutledge, with
"Mr. Owens in the role of poet is new a deference absurd from that quarter, if

to me, too," said Wheaton. anything could have been absurd just then.
"He was to me." Owens's laughter Calmly and kindly Owens explained.
was just a little boisterous. Then he re- Once she tried to argue, seeming to feel
tired into a shell. The waiter brought the she owed it to herself, and without a breach
chickens and refilled the claret glasses. of good manners he set her right.
A certain constraint subdued us all ex- The waiter, having made coffee,
cept Mrs. Rutledge, whom nothing could slammed the door. Owens scowled and
subdue. She ran such conversation as broke off. He lifted his cup.
THE GARDEN OF PROSERPINE 559
"Mr. Owens," said Mrs. Rutledge, "Would he know what it 's writing?"
"no one but an artist can talk of art like "He 'd know the pencil was moving."
that. If you don't publish, won't you "And what would he write?"
show me your work some time?" "Formless scribbles generally; some-
Owens begged her pardon. She re- times words; sometimes" — he smiled — "a
peated. message."
"My work?" he echoed. "My work?" "A message from whom?"
Abruptly he was himself as he had "From his deeper self, the unconscious,
come among us, a candid, genuine little as you termed it." He laughed quietly.
self of prose, sorry for abstractedness, but "I should n't tell a spiritist that unless you
cheery. want a row. They account for it by 'the
"
"Why, yes. We should be glad to have Other Side.'
you visit our center. I '11 have to pledge Miss Carewe said it sounded thrilling.


you" with his winning smile "not to
— Could any one write?
work us up for 'copy.' Those boys and He shook his head.

girls read more than you 'd think, and of


course they have their little sensibilities."
She was staring. We all were. She
managed to thank him, and promised
about the "copy."
"What mighty good coffee she said
"Docs Simeoni roast it here I won

The conversation lay dead on the table.


Four of us did our best to cover it up with
leaves. The others were Owens, in his
serenity,and Miss Carewe.
"You know" Mrs. Rutledge, scowl-—
ing with impatient, hurried thought, lit a
cigarette
— "I 've— I 've come to a place in
a novel where one of the characters ought
to do some automatic writing. Not the
occult, of course. The — un-
conscious you call it nowadays,

don't you? wonder. Doctor


I

Wheaton — would you tell me


how it 's managed ? The busi-
ness of it ; I 've never
seen it done."
"Oh, it 's all simple
enough," said Wheaton.
"Straight writing, with-
out the planchette or
the ouija-board, is done
with the hand devital-
ized and the pencil
held so." He carried
through an explana-
tion, ending: "Keeps
his mind as blank as
possible and waits.
The hand mav write." •I 'M SORRY TO GET HERE LATE,' HE SAID. NOT AT ALL DISCOMFITED'
560 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
"What kind of person would be likely white Its point was just clear of the
paper.
"I should say a hysteric. Some one "No go," she laughed. "No uncon-
with repressions and a door ajar the door — sciouses in this crowd, no friends on the
hypnosis opens." Other Side."
"He has to be hypnotized?" "Oh, well, I know how it 's done," said
"Not that kind of person. He '11 work Mrs. Rutledge. "Your light 's a fine
his own hypnosis." touch, Miss Carewe. I '11 use it in my

"Let 's try it! Could we? I want story."


to," Miss Carewe cried eagerly. Cadigan suggested more alcohol, and
Indeed, we were all eager but the un- giving it another whirl.
suspecting Owens. "Come on Tev. Don't you want to
in,

When Cadigan, very blandly indeed, get a message from Henry George?"
had supposed no hysteric was present, she "Do, Tev! Please do!" Miss Carewe
caught Wheaton's smile. coaxed. As I say, I felt, and feel, sure
!"
"Arthur, are n't you horrid she did not realize what she was doing.
"Not at all. It does n't mean having She was "wild to see it worked."
'hj^sterics,' necessarily. I see no objection "All right." He accepted my pencil,
to trying if no one else objects. But I and placed his hand. "Should I look on?"
doubt your getting results. You 'd have Wheaton said one did n't, as a rule.

to be in earnest." Miss Carewe's little hand was now


"We '11 all be as earnest as owls. What flattened on her menu, the fingers spread,
do we need now? Pencils? Let 's have the turn of the wrist making seductive
the waiter bring some and more menus. creases. Owens contemplated it benevo-
The back of that menu would be the very lently.
thing." "I 'm writing,I think," he announced

"The lights should be low," said Whea- almost moment, looking away.
in a

ton. "Don't you look!" warned the eager


"I '11 tell you!" girl.

She jumped up, caught the alcohol lamp His pencil crossed the rough, brown
from the percolator on a side-table, spilled paper busily and steadily, keeping a neat,
salt into it, lit it, and snapped off the elec- straight line. I could see that the letters
trics. A green flame danced on the wire- were sharp and detached and that the
cloth, and turned our faces ghastly hued, words were spaced.
like death. "Bravo!" said Mrs. Rutledge. Cadi-
"How 's yon for spooks!" she crowed. gan nudged her. Owens gave no sign that
We were still a pencil shy, and Owens he had heard.
said in a natural way that he knew he "It 's interesting, is n't it?" he re-
would be best as a spectator. Three of us marked in his usual placid way, but with
at least were crestfallen, but it did not some abstraction. "How do you say you
seem a thing you ought to urge a man to account for it. Doctor Wheaton?"
do. He looked at his watch ; he had to He did not take his eyes off Miss Ca-
leave early, he said. rewe's wrist.
At the end of five dragging minutes "As Mrs. Rutledge has said, by the un-
Wheaton's pencil and mine had not been conscious, or subliminal." Wheaton got
moved. Cadigan's had jerked a short, the words out rather slowly. "Something
black dash. A few irregular ups and buried takes the chance you give it of ex-
downs were traced under Mrs. Rutledge's pression. Too deep for your knowledge
pencil. of machinery ?"
Out of the corner of an eye I caught "I don't think so."
Miss Carewe cheating. Her was
pencil "In exceptional cases there is a com-
gripped so hard that her knuckles were plete buried personality, a second self, so
562 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
to speak. Then one does get a real 'mes- "Yes; he could write. Arthur, I 'm
sage' of much interest." Pausing, he sorry, — it 's early, — but there 's been so
caught in turn the eyes of each of us ex- much festivity — would you mind looking
cept the girl, and with a meaning delib- out for the car?"
eration added "What do you think?" asked Cadigan
"Those are the famous 'dual personali- when Wheaton returned with her cloak,
ties.' They 're commoner than you might "Think it was genuine, do you?"
think. Many exist unsuspected even by "Oh, quite; perfectly genuine. I wish
their possessors." we might have seen it."

"I see," said Owens. "It does n't sound Miss Carewe turned for the cloak,
quite sanitary, does it? My arm 's asleep flashed her good nights and all In one,
— prickling. Aha!" fairlywhisked through the door.
The pencil had completed a centered "What did you think?" the cynic
block of manuscript. It jumped to make echoed as we were sploshing homeward.
a fantastic dash below, and fell from the When I had told him, explicitly, he
chubby fingers, which quivered like palsy. seemed hurt.
Owens took up the paper with his other "Did / bring them together? Did /
hand. Miss Carewe bent to look on with propose writing?Did /—
him. So did I. "You need n't have acted like a vivi-
Tt seemed to be a beautiful, fair copy of section clinic."
a sonnet. He laughed. It is no use disciplining
"Why-" Cadigan with anything short of a club,
She bit an outcry short. and he is a good sort, really. I asked how
Owens gave a quiet chuckle as he read. matters had stood nine years before.
"I don't believe I qualify as a grave- "She was her season's premiere debu-
yard. It 's doggerel I remember writing tante. The papers were smeared with her
in college years ago." pictures, and all that. She 's better-look-
He crumpled it, and stuffed it into his ing now used to be thin. And
; he was in
pocket. It seemed to me (I divined rather a fair way to be— oh, Keats, if he 'd got
than saw this, and may have been mis- her, or got T. B. perhaps."
taken) that Miss Carewe had checked an "Keats? Is this you talking, Cadi-
impulse to reach and snatch. gan?"
Owens rose. "You heard me, sir."
"Oh!" Mrs. Rutledge protested, "your "That little tub Keats?"
'doggerel'— are n't we to hear it?" "Was n't a little tub then."
"Not as the author values your good "How do you know what he was?"
opinion." "Satterwhite was teaching in some jerk
He shook hands, made his manners to college up-state. Owens was a student
Wheaton, and left. there. She visited there Junes. I '11 take
Mrs. Rutledge covered a counterfeited word
Satt's for a poet any time."
yawn ; the novelist in her shone in her lit- "Well?"
tle eyes. "Owens did n't graduate ; broke down
"You knew the poem. Miss Carewe, I the June of his junior year. Then he
conjectured. Could you say it?" bobbed up serenely, doing this social
Smiling, under perfect control, too — work."
perfect, like a pampered youngster's Horse "Yes, but—"

Show riding form Miss Carewe shook "That 's all I- Hi! Oh, the devil!"
her head. The lamp's green glimmer We were crossing a street; a car had
might have left a wash on Miss Carewe's splashed our trousers.
face.
"Should you say it was good poetry, a Over his newspaper at breakfast a fort-
creditable piece of writing?" night later Cadigan whistled, then swore.
THE GARDEN OF PROSERPLXE 563
" 'Mrs. Rhinelander Carewe an- wed Arthur Wheatons. Thought I would
nounces' — Well, she would. I might n't trouble the Rutledge unless you should
have known." insist."
"Which would zvhat, you Indian?" This stood me up at attention.
"Ethel and Arthur Wheaton." "You don't approve."
I roared. I said, among several other things, that
"Good for 'em ! That 's a drink on they would never come.
you." "You '11 find 'em all there. They may
"It 's one on somebody, all right," said not want to come."
Cadigan, grimly. "I '11 bet you

"When 's it to be?" "I would n't.'m telling 'em each
I

"Next month. I '11 take it in, by Jupi- that all the are coming."
others He
ter! or die in the attempt." snorted. "Can't you see it? Ethel won't
"Suppose you 're not asked?" back out for fear of what Wheat would
"Then I '11 cover it for 'Gotham Gos- think. Wheat— I
'm sending his sepa-
"
sip.' rately, to his office— won't dare raise ob-
He took it in, and came home disap- jections. Neither '11 Owens's girl if she
pointed. knows the ancient history, which I doubt.
"Plain, smooth sailing. For Panama, And Owens will be delighted."
I gathered." made a few remarks,
I

"See Owens there?" " 'Mucker trick!' It 's a duty to sci-


His eyes opened. ence and art. Dear dear what language ! !

"You are improving, Watson." Don't go and make another date."


"Did you?" "You expect nie to

"Sure. Just behind the relatives, as "I 'm counting on your morbid curios-
happy as a clam. His girl with him, too. ity."
They were n't at the reception." There indeed they were, all but Owens,
In ]\Iarch, so the cards had informed who was late again. Miss ^leade had
us, the Wheatons would be at home. Two come alone. I had Miss Meade to my-
or three times I ran into Owens in the self and liked her much. She was strong,
streets, always hurrying contentedly, bob- partly with health, chiefly with the quiet
bing up out of a subway kiosk or Leander- poise of a worker who has done big things
ing a stream of traffic. Once he was with alone. In her ready-made suit and the
a girl, a big, vital young person, taller waist she had laundered she was not at
than he, not pretty, but almost handsome. all out of place near Mrs. Wheaton's rare
Half an eye at half a block could have plumage, nor did she either cringe to this
seen how proud she was of him. or scorn it. Two agreeable young wo-
One evening in the turn from nasty men more in contrast could hardly have
weather to spring Cadigan cleared his ta- been confronted. You had to address her
ble and wrote notes. He sealed the last to draw her, but you listened to what she
one and swung around, grinning above said.
his pipe. She joked well; her humor was her-
"Doing anything Thursday night? If self, and came to us unstrained. It was
not, I 'm having a party." a blessing, easing the air of a tension.
"Loud and continuous cheering," I said. She told me Owens was belated at a
"Where?" center he was opening— a center in the
"Simeoni's." banner neighborhood for blackjacks and
"Then maybe I '11 come. Who are the knives and "gats." Other socializers had
fillers-in?" given it up as hopeless Everard thought ;

"Nice little amicable gathering." He he saw how the cobras could be tamed.
chuckled. "Owens,— remember Tev Such problems were his recreations. Like
Owens?— his lady-love, and the newly bridge, if I understood. Dangerous? The
564 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
worst danger she saw was of making him "I don't faint or anything," she told us
irregular at meals. No, indeed ; she would conversationally. "Will one of you please
not quarrel with his pleasures. Should I get a taxi — quickly, please."
like being henpecked myself? "I '11 take you; I '11 beat any taxi,"
I tried some flat speech about it depend- Wheaton said.

ing on the hen, and, turning to her with Pressing around her gently, we got her
it, happened to see her peep at her watch. down the steps and into the car. Wheaton
A moment later she made a reply to Cadi- prepared to drive.
gan abstractedly; then I knew the big, "I won't come, Arthur. I 'd be in the
steady girl was sick with anxiety for her way unless she wants me." Mrs. Whea-
lover. I wondered how Mrs. Wheaton ton chattered like a bather too long in cold
would have been bearing herself had seas.

Wheaton been detained in a "violent Cadigan's heavy bass erupted out of


ward," its inmates loose about him. him.
"Here we are! Come in, Tev!" Cadi- "You 've got to come. He wants you;
gan shouted. "Don't be so perniciously it 's you. He 's off his head."
polite." "Ah!"
But the knock was an Italian waiter's, She dropped beside the girl, put out a
and the waiter was hashing a telephone hand toward hers timidly, recovered it.
message for some one "Meess a Coo
— — — And she said in something like a natural
Coo
— voice
Miss Meade settled back and exhaled. "Will 3-ou mind very much. Miss
"Carewe?" I suggested. He nodded, Meade?"
laughing, showing his teeth. Wheaton was telling me to get in, so I
"Can't be," said Cadigan. "Everybody missed any answer. When I saw them, by
knows Miss Carewe 's no more. The girls a street lamp's brushing flash. Miss Meade
are blamed glad of it. AH right, Nick. was sitting bolt upright, clutching her
I '11 see what it is." Mrs. Wheaton had a veil,
jacket's lapels.
He was back in about three seconds. and was pulling it down.
"Oh, Wheat," he said quietly, beckon- But that was after I banged the car
ing with his head, "excuse yourself a min- door in Cadigan's rueful face.
ute, will you?" Until we were inside the hospital no
His eyes for once were grave, his mouth one but policemen had anything to say.
was a portent. I puzzled Miss Meade
; Wheaton drove the car's limit. rode We
read, and what she read catapulted her dark, and laid back Seventh Avenue as
upon him before Wheaton's fork touched twin streamers of yellow lights, to a din
his plate. of angry gongs and the horn's croakings.
"Mr. Cadigan — Everard ! Oh — it is So long as I had to trust a drive in Whea-
Everard, is n't it?" ton's possible mood, I was as glad it was
He tried to brush her away. he as any other.
"Wheat—" To the specialist the hospital doors
"It is!" She caught at his arm, and he swung back without halt and parley. We
gave up, found ourselves' in a waiting-room, with
"Yes. Now, steady! It is Tev magazines and a bowl of narcissi on a
steady! He may not be much hurt — table. The tinted walls were less re-
Ikne " she gasped, after a terrible poseful than some one had meant ; the
littlepause. "I knew it! Shot?" flowers had a mortuary stiffness.
"No! no! Knocked out— blackjacked. Wheaton an intern and ques-
called
They telephoned from Roosevelt — Help tioned him. Miss Meade sat down. I
here. Wheat!" studied a framed engraving.
But she dodged free, her face dead- "Mr. Owens," Wheaton reported
white. rather formally to his wife, "is suffering
THE GARDEN OF PROSERPINE 565

from a concussion; but he lucid — in a


's you he recover. "11 Such cases are my
way. Almost the moment they picked him business. Don't worry any more than you
up he told them your mother's address. can help."
She telephoned for us; that 's how they She said she understood.
found you. He
wants to see you. He "He ought to make a good recovery.
wants you— as Miss Carewe." He cleared He will have every care —
his throat. "He wants you as Ethel Ca- "Yes. Now, please, would you leave
rewe." me alone?"
She had herself short-reined now, with We closed the door outside. The sani-
the whip at the correct angle. All her tary corridor was blinding. There was
blood was deep inside; she was looking just carbolic reek enough to keep one,
old. how^ever distraught, aware of pain near.
"But surely, Arthur, it is Miss Meade Wheaton's eyes made me uncomfortable
he means." She did that so well I wanted for an instant. Then, almost whimsically,
to applaud. he smiled.
"No, he does n't." He turned to the "You come and tell me that, will you,

girl. "I 'm sorry. You realize, of every few minutes?"


course
— At the moment it seemed most suitable

Miss Meade's self-command, of the to take his elbow and make him walk the
natural kind, was slipping. corridor. It was a long corridor. I think
"Oh," she blazed, "go to him! Why we may have covered it twenty times
don't you go to him! How can you stand when Mrs. Wheaton stumbled out of the
there arguing when he may be dying! elevator-car. The car was in the way, or
Go!" I should have popped like a rabbit down
"Will you come with me?" the shaft.
"Of course not." "Well?" said Wheaton, and a little

"Of course not," Wheaton echoed. louder, "Well?"


"Ethel, go!" The first and last peremp- She spoke very wearily.
tory note, I imagine, in his marriage. "He 's back in college, Arthur."
The intern was there by the door, and "So I had supposed. Well?"
Mrs. Wheaton left us three together. "He 's— Arthur, don't look like that!

Miss Meade was hunting a handker- Is he going to die?"


chief. I had a fresh one for her. Wisps "Die? No. Now, about you? Speak
of her hair were loosened. Her eyes were up! Are you 'back in college'?"
dry. Her eyelids sagged. His hands took
"I hate to make a scene," she whispered. her shoulders, but gently.
She was just at the point to break. "Well?" he said again, choking.
Poor Wheaton, hands behind him, was Her eyes opened. His must have
pacing a patterned border in the tiles. I burned, but she met them full. They
had a frantic urge to do something, and stood so a long moment, husband and
gave it its head. bride.
"Doctor Wheaton," I stammered, "I don't — know. O Arthur. I don't
"would like to tell you— he 's going to tell know! I want to get away."
you— that Mr. Owens is not himself— not She started, and he followed. So I had
himself at all; that now, for the present, to wait with Miss Meade and take her
he 's an invalid, to be humored and that — home when she had been told by the house
— that

" Giddy work, but imperative, I physician that Owens's life was sure. I

thought— "that Mrs. Wheaton— that the did my waiting outside the heavy door.
doctor is very happy. Don't you, Doc- Cadigan, I am bound to say, I found
tor?" suitably contrite even before I had told
"Exactly. Thanks. That states it all him what little I did. It has all of it been
right, Miss Meade. I — could promise good for Cadigan.
566 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Owens drifted off that night in a nor- and had not been sleeping nights. He
mal haphazard dehrium. The third day proffered a large cigar, and he himself
they said he was better, conscious again, in dry-smoked one to rags in half a minute.
his new, or older, fashion. Every time I "Doctor," I said, "what 's the prospect
called I found Miss Meade down-stairs. in cases like Everard Owens's?"
They would not let her see him. She Wheaton had no ambition to talk about
understood why, of course. It seemed to cases like Everard Owens's.
help her a little to be with some one who "Perfectly good," he snapped. "He 's

knew the whole story, and I was the only certain to recover."
available qualified person. The Wheatons, "Recover himself?"
kept informed by telephone, sent flowers. "Which self?"
"It 's cruel," Miss Meade said once, "Miss M— er— the social worker, of
"her having married. It 's like being course."
buried alive for both of them, I think." "Ah, that" — he spiffed out cigar-leaves

It was like that for her, apparently — "that 's less certain."

enough. "Probable?"
"No," I said, "it is n't. He loves you. "Hardly."
And Mrs. Wheaton is deeply, very deeply "Possible?"
in love with her husband." "The — other personality would be ex-
"But she could n't be!" The girl spoke pected to stay on top."
patiently, wondering at me. "Any scientific way of turning it un-
"But she is. You must trust me, won't der, Wheaton?"
you the two, you know, that He straightened some trifles on his desk

night, when she came down." with his forefinger.

This did not seem to convince. "It 's been done," he said slowly.
"Anyway, he does n't love me now "There was that casePrince—"
not that boy up there. There was one "Thank you. That 's all I wanted to
who cared. But this— this is n't that one. know."
This is some strange boy I never knew." "Wait." He caught my sleeve, so per-

"That one will come back," I assured force I waited, pulled down into the pa-
her. "He won't remember this." tient's chair, the one that faces the light.

"Truly do you think "I — am not sure it ought to be— at-


myself to myself, for of course I knew tempted— in Owens's case."
nothing about it. "People have told me," "Why not?"
she faltered, "of other cases—" "Those choices, between personalities,

"They 've told you Thomas Rot. I 've really are— high justice. Prince as-
"
been studying these things up." sumed —
She reached for my hand. "But ivhy not, Wheaton?"
He tried, I suppose, to turn it lightly.

Presently I set out to do my murder. "A genuine poet—"


"He 's talking a lot," the intern in- I consigned all genuine poets to the In-

formed me. dex Expurgatorius.


"What 's he talking?" "Had n't we better be doing our think-
"Seems to be poetry mostly. He 's a ing for the ffirl/'"

poet." That brought it.

"Yes, I know," I said. "I 'm going to "I am thinking for a girl. It 's one
kill him." against the other. 'm think-
Naturally, I

That intern had no sense of humor at ing for my —


my patient." His mouth
all. They ought to make it a requirement twisted. "That 's why I won't have tried
in hospitals. He shepherded me watch- what you suggest. You know I 'm di-
fully to the street. recting the treatment of Owens's case."
Wheaton was in his consulting-room "Wheaton," I said, "you 're sick.
THE GARDEN OF PROSERPINE 567

You 'd better clear out for a while. Do "I 'm sure enough. Oh, why did I ever
you think the lord of high justice ought to suppose that girl could care for me?"
be an interested party?" "I see. ]\Iy mistake." I was feeling
He glared like a trapped lion, then anything but sneerful ; still, anger might
asked help him to sense. "You are n't sick.
"What would you do? Man, what You 're an ass. Good afternoon."
would n't you do for happiness— for /;< r/" Once upon a time a wise, older man in
I said mildly:
"Are you quite sure it is one against
the othe
"You know as much as I know
rather not discuss it."

"ANVWA-^-. Hit DOES NT LOVE JSE NOW—


NOT THAT BOY IP THhKE ' •

"But I should want to be positive, I had dug some nonsense out of me.
his line
think." This man's place was my next port of
Then he turned petulant. call.

"Why, damn you, do you suppose I 'm He said when he had listened
doing research on the point ? I try not to "Mrs. Wheaton has been a patient of
think about it. Don't succeed any too mine. Possibly she did have, and re-
well. I 'm going to be more decent with pressed, some feeling as a young girl for
fool patients after this." that youth. Possibly now, being married
"Wheaton, if it 's up to you, you 've — oh, yes ; all sufficiently possible. Still,

got to be utterly sure." it would be well if he returned to his so-


He groaned. cial work."
568 THE CENTURA MAGAZINE
"Hooray!" I shouted absurdly Are Shaking his hand again, I ouched. He
you going to take on?"
it had lost his gage of his strength.
"Not so fast. He 's Doctor Wheaton's "Why, in that event," I said, "I '11 'fess

patient." up to a foul murder. At three o'clock


I commented on ethics. He hid a smile I 'm to tell Miss Meade her young
under his beard. man" — And I explained.
"Wheaton was one of my young men," "You took a risk." He laughed.
he mused. "The best of them, on the "You were for taking a bigger one. See
whole. At Roosevelt, you said ?" now where you 'd be, all around, if you 'd
"How long will it take you— this hyp- gone ahead. Here 's luck and joy to"
nosis business?" the lot of you, Wheaton, if you don't
"Months or j'ears. It may fail totally; mind. Say my name politely to her, will

you understand that, do you? However, you? I don't suppose she '11 want to see
from what you tell me — me."
He talked to the door. I asked if Miss For once in her life Miss Emily Meade
Meade could not be given a crumb of hope. luxuriated in hysterics. She giggled and
"M-m. Well, vaguely. Very dis- wept, and the tears revived her, like rain
creetly. She may have a conscience, too. on some hardy flower three months
Awkward thing, a conscience, in such a parched. She was not told that there had
predicament. You and I, having none, been an alternative only that he was well ;

will see to it young lady knows


that the and would remember nothing.
little and Wheaton nothing. Jre you dis- And this was the truth. Mr. Everard
creet? It 's just what you call it, mur- Owens would live out the rest of his day?
der, from that point of view, remember." with a hiatus in his memorv.
Owens was removed from Roosevelt to Hi -has he asked for me?'
a private sanatorium. This was done "at "He 's talking of nothing else."
the request of friends." The Wheatons She hugged me.
left town, I imagine for different destina- "When can I go?" she demanded.
tions. Miss Meade worked. We told "Soon? I //my see him soon, mav n't

her that Owens had had a relapse, and I?"


concocted the bulletins for her. "In about two hours and thirty-five
"I 'm tough," she said one day, half to minutes if you make the 4:03 train."
herself. "I '11 pull through if

Cadigan was delighted, really overjoyed,
Sooner than he had been expected back, until he could start to think. Then the
I happened upon Wheaton in the Univer- corners of his mouth drew down.
sity Club. He was fined down and sun- " 'John Keats, who was killed off by

bronzed, but he was at peace, a Shadrach- one critique' — or probably was n't.
Meshach sort of peace, but real. It did You and Jeffrey, ^'ou 've more on your
me good to see as we shook hands. soul than Jeffrey had, you know."
"It 's all right," he whispered. "You I guessed my soul could stand it, and
get me? It 's going to be all right." refrained from saying something about
I said I had known it would be, and Cadigan's own soul.
guyed him gently for his earlier misgivings. "But, after all," he grumbled, "a poet
"N-no, I was n't sure then. I 'm not gone for twowomen The world 's chock- !

full of women —
"
sure now how things stood then. Perhaps
she is n't, either. I '11 never know. But "God bless 'em!" I said. "He must
it 's going to be all right." like 'em better than poets."
He paused and smiled, a new smile that Somehow Cadigan's ham-like mask
transfigured him. grew unhappy. He struck his match.
"The Lord had provided," he told me. "You need a pipe. I '11 buy you one,"
"Even then. We did n't know." he said.
Little Russia
By T. LOTHROP STODDARD
Author of "The Blundering in Greece," " Present' Day Europe," etc.

man's historic evolution certain But with human, as wnth life


INcritical epochs stand forth as periods of distance lends enchantment.
still,

Seen from
"revaluation ofall values." Such were the afar, mountains appear as an unbroken
Reformation and the French Revolution. wall ; approached, they become separate
Such also is the present war. In these peaks sundered by deep vallej-s. So is

great crises the solid crust of tradition it with the vision of Russian "unity."
cracks and splits in every direction, while Under close scrutiny seeming uniformity
from the depths below white-hot lava resolves itself into surprising diversity. Of
floods of long-repressed idealisms well into the 80 million inhabitants of the empire
1

the outer world. slightly more than eighty millions are non-
This is notably true of Russia. The Russians, while even the one hundred mil-
war has shaken Russia to its foundations, lions of Russian blood are not the homo-
and behind the double veil of distance and geneous block that it is generally sup-
a rigid censorship we Qatch the loom of posed. The race is cleft into three sharply
mighty stirrings in the vast Northern defined branches, "Great," "White," and
empire. In fact, these stirrings are much "Little" Russians, respectively. It is the
more complex and far-reaching than are sixty million "Great Russians" who are
generally supposed. They involve forces the real keystone of the vast Northern
which may not only transform Russia's dominion. These are the "true Russian
governmental structure and social life, but people" to them alone is vouchsafed that
;

which may even transmute its very being consciousness of "Holy Russia" which is
into something radically different from the mystic cement of empire. Even the
anything that we now know. It is the Great Russian type is not wholly uniform.
most momentous of these transmutive pos- There are at least two well-marked sub-
sibilities which is the subject of the present types, the northern, or "Novgorodian,"
article. and the southern, or "Muscovite." And
Seen from without, Russia gives an im- of course the Great Russians are not
pression of overpowering synthesis. We pure Slavs. Great Russia is the fruit of
were, it is true, aware of certain non- the Slavic Drang nach Osten, and its folk
Russian fringes, such as Poland and Fin- all show in varying degree the mingling
land, rebellious to assimilation but we ; of Slav colonists with the original Finnish
long believed that behind these outposts inhabitants. Nevertheless, centuries of a
of empire lay a huge, compacted Russian common and the iron rule of
culture
mass, one hundred millions strong, stretch- Muscovite czars have finally welded the
ing uninterruptedly from Poland to the Great Russians into an indissoluble unity.
Pacific and from the Euxine to the Arctic Between the Great Russians and their
Ocean, a boundless sea of homogeneous "White" and "Little" Russian cousins,
humanity into the unplumbed depths of however, no such unity exists. The
which all the non-Russian elements must W^hite Russians, to be sure, are of small
ultimately be drawn. This was the leg- moment. Numbering at the most six mil-
endary "Holy Russia," which Muscovite and inhabiting the wretchedly poor
lions,
Panslavists eloquently assured us was swamp and forest country' to the east of
destined to absorb the whole earth. Lithuania, they cannot possibly have any
570 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
important historical or cultural future. tion came from Byzantine Constantinople.
They show deep traces of the Polish- It was from Kief? that light went forth to
Lithuanian dominion under which they illumine the somber barbarism of the Great
long lay, many being Roman Catholics. Russian North. During the tenth and
The race consciousness is very low. White eleventh centuries the grand princedom
Russia thus forms a debatable border-land of Kieff stood in the forefront of Euro-
between Great Russia and Poland, into pean powers. Its close contact with both
one or other of which it will ultimately East and West is shown by the fact that
be absorbed. one of its princes married a Byzantine
Far different is the case with the third emperor's sister, while another prince took
branch of the Russian race. Right to wife the daughter of Harold, last king
athwart east-central Europe lies a solid of that Saxon England which fell before
ethnic block of over thirty million people. the onslaught of William the Conqueror.
Resting upon the Black Sea as its southern It is certain that Ukrainia would have
base, it stretches eastward to the Don bulked large in world history had it not
River, with scattered outposts still farther been for the terrible series of Asiatic in-
to the southeast as far as the Caucasus vasions that now overwhelmed eastern
mountain-wall. Its northern boundary is Europe. For overhundred years the
a
the belt of swamp and scrub which extends princes of Kief? battled manfully with the
across the mid-Russian plains and sepa- nomad hordes ; but in the thirteenth
rates the open prairies of the south from century came the great Mongol invasion,
the forest country of the north. Its west- which broke the old Ukrainian state ut-
ern confines leap the political frontiers terly to pieces. Kieff was razed to the
of the Russian Empire and include the ground, the wide prairies of southern
greater part of the Austrian province of Russia were swept bare, and the western
Galicia, together with the Carpathian up- remnant of the Ukrainian folk fell under
lands of Bukowina and northeastern the political dominion of the rising king-
Hungary. Such is the spacious home of a dom of Poland.
folk whom Muscovite writers term "Little Then began the long martyrdom of the
Russians," but who call themselves Ukrainian people— a martyrdom which
"Ukrainians." has lasted uninterruptedly to this day.
Indeed, Ukrainians believe them-
the The Poles, though Slavs, had received
selves the truer Russian race- and culture- their religion and culture from the Roman
type, deeming the Muscovite Great Rus- West, whereas the Ukrainians had taken
sians a half-Finnish blend which has lost theirs from the Byzantine East. As
many vital characteristics of the parent Poland's grip tightened, she endeavored to
Russian stock. And a glance at Russian force Roman Catholicism upon her Orth-
history certainly seems to bear out these odox Ukrainian subjects. The land was
Ukrainian contentions. In the early Mid- parceled out among Polish nobles, and
dle Ages, when the Great Russians were beneath the merciless tyranny of his big-
rude colonists wrestling with still ruder oted masters the unhappy Ukrainian
Finnish tribes amid the gloom of the vast peasant became that most wretched of
Northern forests, a genuine state was beings, a heretic beast of burden.
growing up on the rich grass-lands of the However, it was precisely this time of
South. This budding polity showed all suffering which revealed the extraordinary
the marks of a vigorous young civilization. tenacity of Ukrainian race consciousness
Its capital, Kieff, situated on the middle and which forged the national soul to a
reaches of the Dnieper River and lying steely hardness capable of enduring the
fair on the immemorial trade-route from even sterner trials to come. In fact, the
the Black Sea to the Baltic, was a city of Ukrainians presently made another bid
wealth and importance. It was to Kief? for free national life. The decay of the
that Christianity and European civiliza- Mongol power made existence once more
LITTLE RUSSIA 571
upon the southern Russian grass-
possible itsunhappy people. Althougii Russia and
and into this ancestral domain now
lands, Poland had both persecuted, their aims
swarmed bands of hardy Ukrainian ad- had been different, and the Ukrainians
venturers called "Cossacks," who estab- had therefore at least been in no danger
lished themselves in fortified posts capable of being crushed into a single mold of con-
Tatar raids. The
of resisting the periodic formity. Henceforth Russia felt no check
most famous of these posts was that at the upon her efforts to transform the Ukrain-
Dnieper cataracts, which soon developed ians into Muscovites. Accordingly, the
into a formidable military republic known last vestiges Ukrainian political and
of
as the "Zaporogian Sietch," or the cultural life were put under a ban. The
"Stronghold below the Falls." The glad native tongue was pursued with special
tidings of freedom spread
renascent fury. Ukrainian differs from Great Rus-
through Ukrainian village and
every sian fully as much as Dutch does from
stirred wild hopes in Ukrainian breasts. German. In fact, the highest learned
Poland made desperate efforts to crush body in the Russian Empire, the Petrograd
this dangerous movement, and the first Imperial Academy, admitted a few years
half of the seventeenth century saw a ago that the Ukrainians possessed a dis-

series of ferocious race wars in which tinct language and culture of their own.
quarter was neither asked nor given. The That, however, was not the Russian Gov-
Cossacks fought with tremendous courage, ernment's view of the matter. "There
and under their gifted "Hetman" Khmi- never has been, is not, and never will be
elnitzki they actually succeeded in throw- an Ukrainian language or nationality," de-
ing off the Polish yoke. But the Cos- clared a Russian minister of state in 1863,
sacks foresaw that they could not perma- and this was merely the formal expres-
nently stand alone against the implacable sion of what generations of Russian
Polish enemy. Accordingly, they turned bureaucrats had already considered as
for aid to the neighboring country of axiomatic. All official business was car-
Muscovy, hoping that their Orthodox ried on in Russian, a language almost com-
Great Russian kindred would play them pletely unintelligible to Ukrainians, all

fair. In 1654 the Cossack Republic of Ukrainian writings save certain old books
the Ukraine accepted the czar as overlord, of devotion were rigidly proscribed, and
the czar granting in return full self- Ukrainian education was so strictly pro-
government and religious autonomy. But hibited that in many parts of the Rus-
the Muscovite proved a broken reed, and sian Ukraine even to-day there are fewer
treacherous attempts to subjugate the schools than there were two centuries ago.
Ukraine roused the Cossacks to revolt The only way for a talented Ukrainian to
against the new suzerain. Thereupon the print his ideaswas in Russian, and many
czar, feeling himself unable to hold the names in Russian literature,
of the greatest
entire country, signed a partition treaty such as Gogol, Kostomaroff, etc., were
with the king of Poland, the Dnieper really Ukrainians forced to employ this
River being the common frontier. There- alien tongue. What happened to those
after Russians and Poles vied with each who dared clothe their thoughts in the
other in tyrannizing over their respective native idiom may be judged by the ter-
spheres, and the lot of the unhappy rible fate of that greatest of all Ukrainian
Ukrainians became, if anything, worse poets, Taras Shevchenko. For the "abom-
than before. When Poland herself fell a inable crime" of having composed some
century later, Russia seized most of her exquisite little verses celebrating the
Ukrainian territories, only a small corner natural beauties of his Ukrainian home-
of Ukrainian land, the eastern part of the land, this youthful genius was sentenced
province of Galicia, going to Austria. to ten years' penal servitude in Siberia,
This Russian acquisition of virtually and returned from his hell of suffering a
the entire Ukraine spelt fresh woe for broken, prematurely old man, only to die.
572 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Beneath so crushing a yoke it is indeed cultural edifice upon such unpromising
surprising that the Ukrainians did not foundations speaks volumes for Ukrainian
succumb. But persecution has ever one idealism and tenacity.
of two results: it either breaks a people The results of all this abnegation
utterly or it lends it fresh strength. In showed clearly at the time of the Russian
the Ukraine it was the latter which hap- revolution of 1905. For more than a
pened. Forbidden all public manifesta- year thought in Russia was free, and the
tion, Ukrainian culture took refuge in the hidden life of the Russian Ukraine burst

rich folk-lore of the people, and in humble into sudden and startling bloom. But
peasant cottages the stirring ballads of old the springtime of Russian freedom was
Cossack days kept alive the flame of free- short. Stolypin's "Circular" of 1907
dom and the hope of a better morrow. So heralded a reaction which left the Rus-
the national consciousness lived on, furtive, sian Ukraine almost as badly off as be-
but indomitable. fore. The disappointment was bitter.
What roused the Russian Ukrainians The political consequences were no less
to their present vigorous strivings toward profound. The Ukrainians
had had
true national life was the fresh breeze the cup of life dashed from their parched
which began blowing from the Austrian lips, and saw themselves handed over to

Ukraine about half a century ago. At the tender mercies of persecuting bureau-
the time of the partition of Poland, it will crats once more. But this was not all.
be remembered, Austria had received the Their hopes were doubly blasted by a ter-
province of Galicia, the eastern portion rible disillusionment. Hitherto, what-
of which was inhabited by a Ukrainian ever their hatred for the Russian Govern-
population. Austria soon discovered in ment, they had believed in the Russian
these people a useful counterweight to people. All through the long autocratic
the Poles, and accordingly placed no bar- night Russian and Ukrainian revolution-
riers to the growth of Ukrainian cultural ists had fought shoulder to shoulder, and

life. Quick to take advantage of the the revolution had seen a general frater-
least favoring circumstance, the Ukrain- nization. At that moment no Ukrainian
ians, or, as they were locally termed, the separatist feeling was anywhere apparent.
"Ruthenians," made the most of this op- All the Ukrainians then asked was cul-
portunity, and eastern Galicia soon be- tural liberty, local self-government, and an
came the culture center of the folk, an in- assured seat in a liberalized Russian Em-
tellectual "Piedmont" for the whole pire.
Ukrainian race. Despite the best efforts Unfortunately, the Ukrainians now dis-
of the Russian gendarmes, bright young covered that their Great Russian friends
Ukrainians slipped away by thousands to had very different ideas. "All the Slav
the schools of Lemberg and Tarnopol, brooks must lose themselves in the Rus-
where thought and speech were free, while sian sea," sang the poet Pushkin long ago,
from the Galician printing-presses streams and that is precisely the creed of most
of books and pamphlets flowed forth to Russians to-day. In 1905 the Great Rus-
irrigate the thirsty culture-soil of the Rus- sians had won a definite share in the
sian Ukraine. This rapid cultural flor- management of their country's destinies,
escence is all the more remarkable when but they at once testi'fied to that historic
we remember that eastern Galicia had truth, proved by every triumphant popu-
felt most heavily the weight of the Polish lar movement from the French Revolution
yoke. Even to-day the vast majority of to that of the Young Turks, that an
the Ruthenian population are poverty- emancipated nation is a worse tyrant to
stricken agricultural laborers terribly ex- racial minorities than was the autocrat
ploited by Polish landlords and Jewish who is displaced. In Russia this showed
middlemen. To have succeeded in thus especially soon, and the very first years
erecting a really imposing educational and of the new era saw a truly amazing
LITTLE RUSSIA 573
growth of "Pan-Russianism," perhaps the lion czars pledged to the ruthless de-
most ambitious and intolerant nationalist struction Ukrainian race identity.
of
gospel that the world has ever seen. All Obviously the Ukrainians could expect
the old dogmas anent "Hoh' Russia" and no good from even the most democratic
her divine mission to conquer and absorb "Pan-Russian" Empire Only beyond the
the whole earth came forth tricked out in bounds of such an empire might they en-
the new formula of Great Russian joy the blessings of race life and cultural
nationalism. freedom. Accordingly, the decade between
It is easy to see how disastrously this the Russian revolution and the European
reacted upon the Ukraine. The Petro- War saw the rise of a deep-going sepa-
grad Imperial Academy might declare the ratist movement throughout the Russian
Ukrainians possessed of a separate lan- Ukraine.
guage and culture, but most Russians This movement was not the desperate
vastly preferred the old bureaucratic adventure, which might at first sight ap-
dictum that there never had been, was pear. The whole drift of European pol-
not, and never would be such things. This itics was playing into the separatists'
was the opinion not only of old-fashioned hands. The Bosnian crisis of 1908 ush-
Panslavist fanatics, but also of lifelong ered in that grim Austro-Russian duel for
radicals, who now discovered that they Balkan supremacy which prefaced the
were Russians firstand Liberals a long present war, and Russia then began her
way afterward. The concept of a Rus- incitement of Pan-Serb ambitions culmi-
sia liberalized into a federation of au- nating in the tragedy of Serajevo. But
tonomous nationalities was indignantly re- there was a reverse side to the shield. If

jected by nearly all Great Russian polit- Russia encouraged the Serbs to tear aw^ay
The continuance of a Russian
ical parties. all southern Austria-Hungary and erect
Empire, the supremacy of the "true Rus- a Yugoslav Empire which should shut the
sian people" and Russian culture, must Hapsburg monarchy from the Adriatic,
at all costs be maintained. The reply to Austria now spurred on the Ukrainian
Ukrainian aspirations was therefore grimly separatists to tear away all southern Rus-
uncompromising: "Liberty and equality sia and. erect a Ukrainian empire which

as Great Russians, certainly; as Ukrain- should exclude the Muscovite czardom


ians, never." from the Black Sea. The two movements
To such a verdict the Ukrainians could strikingly complement each other. Serbia
make only one answer— separatism. Up and Galicia became rival "Piedmonts,"
to this time aspirations toward independ- while the. presses of Belgrade and Lem-
ence had not been seriously entertained. berg poured inflammatory floods across
Of course the Ukrainian people had for- the near-by frontiers
gotten neither the glories of Kieff nor the Great was Russia's alarm at this shrewd
wild days of Cossack freedom ; but their Austrian counter-thrust. Here indeed was
sufferings had been so great and Russia a deadly blow at Russian imperial great-
was somighty that all Russian Ukrainians ness. To non-Russian fringes of empire
save a few dreamers would have been well like Poland and Finland wide concessions
satisfied with local autonomy and cultural might in the last extremity be made, but
liberty within the Russian Empire. This a separatist Ukraine would cut athwart
is what they had hoped from a Russian Russia's very vitals, and would forever
revolution. That revolution had now block the Muscovite North from its age-
come, and their hopes were irreparably long march toward Constantinople and
shattered. The dream that had sustained the Mediterranean. All parts of the Rus-
them through the darkness of bureaucratic sian press raised a united and furious out-
absolutism had turned into a nightmare. cry. Listen to the "Kiewlanin" of early
Instead of one autocrat, the future dis- 19 14: "The Ukrainian movement is more
closed the appalling prospect of sixty mil- dangerous to Russia than all the other
574 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
national movements put together. It is taining the Orthodox liturgy and dis-
our duty to maintain at all costs the unity cipline. These religious differentiations
of the Russian people and the Russian had no practical weight with Ukrainian
state. This, the citadel of our nation, is patriots on either side of the border, but
threatened solely by the Ukrainian move- Russia knew that if ever Galicia fell into

ment, which thus appears as our greatest her hands the Uniat Church would offer
national peril." Ukrainian national feeling a powerful
So menacing was the situation that Rus- rallying-point under persecution. It was
sian public opinion demanded a final set- therefore Russia's obvious game to win
tlement of the whole Ukrainian question over the Ruthenians to Orthodoxy as a
in Russia's favor. It was patent that this first step to Russification. Accordingly,
rising national movement could never be the years preceding the European War
stamped out while any part of the Ukrain- saw Galicia and the adjacent Carpathian
ian race remained beyond the reach of the uplands overrun with Russian agents well
Russian gendarme. Accordingly, not only supplied with rubles and headed by Count
was Austria threatened with war unless Bobrinsky, a notorious Panslavist firebrand
she ceased her fostering of Ukrainian na- from Moscow. A fair sample of this
tional consciousness, but many voices de- Russian propaganda is the following mani-
manded the immediate acquisition of festo circulated among the ignorant Ru-
eastern Galicia and the Bukowina as in- thenian mountaineers of the Carpathians:
tegral parts of the Russian Empire. "We "The Russian czar is angry with our
forgot," exclaimed the "Novoye Vremya" emperor. He will soon conquer all the
of late 1912,"when we began the fight for Hungarian districts inhabited by Ruthen-
an 'All-Russian Empire,' that four mil- ians. You must at once join the Russian
lions of Russians are languishing under a Orthodox Church, for when the czar
heavy foreign yoke." "The four million comes into this country he will place the
Ruthenians in Galicia and Bukowina," Ruthenians who have embraced Ortho-
wrote the Russian publicist L. Varonin doxy on his right hand and the Catholic
early in 1914, "are now often called the Ruthenians on his left, and will then order
'Piedmont' of the Little Russian national the former to shoot the latter."
renaissance. A new nation is being born, Despite energetic efforts and a great
the Ukrainian. It would be a veritable expenditure of money, however, this Rus-
ostrich policy to deny the danger that is sian propaganda had an indifferent suc-
thus made to threaten the unity of Rus- cess. The Ukrainian patriotic organiza-
sia. We cannot
stand idly by when we be- tions were quick to warn the people of its
hold our twenty-eight million little Rus- ultimate objects, and some Muscovite
sians slowly, but surely, imbibing from agents met with a reception akin to that
Galicia the doctrine that they arc not accorded a Panslavist member of the Rus-
Russians." sian Duma sojourning in partibus in-

Toprepare the ground for a future fideliuiji, who was thrashed within an
conquest of Galicia, Russia proceeded to inch of his life by a crowd of infuriated
stir up all possible discontent against Ruthenian peasants. The Austrian gov-
Austrian rule. Russia's best lever was ernmental authorities were also on the
that Polish and
economic su-
political alert, their vigilance resulting in numer-
premacy which lay heavily upon the ous arrests and "treason trials" like those
province. She also attempted to unsettle of Lemberg and Marmaros-Sziget at the
the Ruthenians' religious faith. Under beginning of 191 4.
Polish dominion the Ukrainian inhabitants So matters stood at the opening of the
of had been converted to the
Galicia Great War. The initial phase of the
"Uniat" Church, a half-way house be- struggle was of course a terrible blow to
tween Rome and Byzantium, which ac- Ukrainian hopes. The crushing Austrian
knowledged papal supremacy while re- defeat at Lemberg gave the Russians con-
LITTLE RUSSIA 575

trol of virtually all Galicia and afforded Eulogius, Archbishop of VoIh\nia, no-
them the opportunity of putting their Pan- toriously the most bigoted Orthodox
slavic theories to the proof. The omens fanatic that the Russian Church has pro-

were, it Is true, none too good. Although duced since Pobiedonostsef. Eulogius's
the small pro-Russian minority had jubi- first act was to arrest the head of the

lantly welcomed incoming Russian


the Uniat Church, Metropolitan Archbishop
troops, the bulk of the Ruthenian popula- Count Szeptitzky, who was shipped off

tion displayed sullen apathy or open fear, to aRussian monastery for "instruction."
more than two hundred thousand fleeing Another high Uniat ecclesiastic. Bishop
with the Austrian armies to the west. Chekhovitch, was incarcerated in a for-

Nevertheless the Russians asserted that tress, where he soon afterward died. An
this was due temporary misunderstand-
to attempted wholesale conversion of the
ings, and the new Russian governor an- Uniat priesthood ignominiously failed,

nounced boldly: "One year after our only fifteen out of two thousand priests
fortunate occupation of the country the accepting Orthodoxy. But this so en-
enemy will have no chance left. The im- raged Eulogius that he had the recalci-
mense majority of the Uniats will have trants ejected from their parishes in favor
become Orthodox, the others Roman of imported Muscovite "popes," and sent
Catholics, and the whole thing will be them prisoners to distant parts of the Rus-
settled." The fact that this governor was sian Empire. The only successful measure
none other than Count George Bobrinsky, was an attempt to stir up peasant fanati-
brother of the arch-agitator, lent the state- cism against the Jews, numbers of whom
ment added significance. No secret was perished in a series of atrocious pogroms.
made of the impending Russification. While the spiritual arm was thus busily

Count Bobrinsky 's first public proclama- engaged, the civil authorities were care-

tion declared Galicia to be "Russian land" fully weeding out lay opponents to Rus-
which was to receive the Russian language, sia's plans. All leaders of Ukrainian na-
Russian laws, and Russian organization. tional feeling were arrested and deported
The preparations to this end were to Russia, as commanding a figure as

certainly thorough enough. The twin Professor Michael Hrushevsky, one of the
bulwarks of Ukrainism in Galicia were most noted scholars of the Slavonic world,
the Ruthenian educational system and the being sent to Siberia. Indeed, so violent
Uniat Church. Against both of these Rus- become that even
did the Russian measures
sia now struck quick and hard. The the Ruthenian minority took
Panslavist
Ukrainian language was formally out- alarm, and quarrels broke out between
lawed, all the Ukrainian were
schools them and their Muscovite "liberators."
closed, and the printing of Ukrainian Such was the state of affairs in Galicia

books and newspapers was rigorously for- when the great Austro-German drive of
bidden. A whole corps of Muscovite 19 1 5 broke the Russian armies on the
schoolmasters was sent in, headed by such Dunajec and hurled them out of the
notorious Russifiers as Dr. Yavorsky of province. Needless to say, the Teutonic
Kieff and the equally notorious Plesky, troops were everywhere hailed as saviors.
whose name had long been a terror Regarding conditions in the Russian
throughout the Russian Ukraine. The Ukraine not much is known, but what
w^atchword of these new educational little news has leaked out indicates -a.

mentors was, 'Tor Russian Galicia nothing state of affairs bordering on terror. At
but Russian schools." They certainly the very beginning of the war the Russian
lived up to their motto. Government imposed a regime of excep-
The assault on the Uniat Church was tional severity.Wholesale arrests cowed
equally thorough. The ecclesiastic whom the popular and the Russian
spirit,

the Russian Government appointed as Ukraine, flooded with troops, sank into
spiritual shepherd to the new flock was deathlike silence.
576 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
The immediate Ukrain-
prospects for The outstanding feature of the last dec-
ian freedom depend, of course, upon the ade of Russian political life has been the
outcome of the war. Should the Austro- rapid growth of Great Russian national-
German armies overrun southern Russia ism. This has powerfully affected the
as the}^ have Poland, they will unquestion- Russian liberals or "intelligentsia," Lib-
ably set up a Ukrainian state. On the eral leaders like Peter Struve having
other hand, if the Entente Allies win, Rus- abandoned their former belief in a de-
sia will claim Galicia as part of the spoils, centralized federalism in favor of a strong,
and the entire Ukrainian race will thus centralized Russia founded upon Great
find itself under Muscovite rule. In that Russian political and cultural supremacy.
case the Ukrainians will certainly suffer Indeed, as I stated in the preceding
drastic Russification. But will this set- article, this is the way popular revolutions
tle Ukrainian question?
the Most as- usually work out. After a brief frater-
suredly no. Consider the past. Nearly nization of all elements on the downfall of
seven hundred years ago the old Ukrain- the old regime, there comes a quick de-
ian state perished beneath the Tatar velopment of nationalistic feeling in the
hoofs, and since those far-ofif days the dominant race group, and the ultimate
Ukrainian people has suffered every con- position of national minorities is sometimes
ceivable political, religious, and economic more trying than before.
persecution which Polish or Muscovite There is, to be sure, an element in the
ingenuity could invent in the effort to present revolutionary Government which
stamp out Ukrainian race identity. Be- remains true to the older, non-nationalist,
side this age-long martyrdom, what is Liberal tradition, its ideal being a federal-
Poland's century of subjection or Fin- istic Russia, with local autonomy and full
land's struggle of twenty years? Yet the cultural rights for all the non-Muscovite
Ukrainian phenix to-day rises from the nationalities. This element is represented
ashes of the dreadful past virile with life in the new cabinet by Minister of Com-
and hope. How can such burning faith, munications N. V. Nekrasov, always an
such race tenacity, be overcome? ardent champion of the rights of the minor
peoples. But though the revolutionary
POSTSCRIPT
Government will probably grant wide free-
The preceding pages were written some dom to Poland and fuU autonomy to Fin-
time before the Russian Revolution, but I land, it is doubtful whether it will ad-
have determined to make no changes in the vocate such autonomy for the Ukraine.
text, because I do not believe that the Rev- The Ukraine's peculiar position makes the
olution will of itself solve the Ukrainian granting of Ukrainian autonomy impos-
question. In fact, while writing the fundamental
sible except as the result of a
article, I had mind the possibility of a
in change in the Russian governmental sys-
coming to power of the present Liberal tem, which would transform Russia from
regime, and I then stated that the Ukrain- a centralized state into a loose federation
ians could not normally expect that such akin to Switzerland. And such a trans-
a government would grant the extensive formation, as I have said, does not appear
autonomy which would alone truly satisfy to lie within the purview of the bulk of
their aspirations. Russian Liberals to-day.
"Them Others"
By STACY AUxMONIER
Author of" Olga Bardel," " The Friends," etc.

lustrations by J. Paul Veiiees

ITthingsalwaysintodisturbing
is to me when look down into these back yards. We
pattern form, when, in
fall shall be liable to a fine of forty shillings,
fact, incidents of real life dovetail with according to a by-law of the railway com-
each other in such a manner as to suggest pany, for doing so, but the experience will
the shape of a story. A story is a nice, justify us.
neat little thing, with what is called a There are twenty-two. of these small
"working-up" and a climax, and life is a buff-brick houses huddled together in this
clumsy, ungraspable thing, very incom- road, and there is surely no more certain
plete in its periods, and with a poor sense way of judging not only of the character
of climax. In fact, death, which is a very of the individual inhabitants, but of their
uncertain quantity, is the only definite note mode of life, than by a survey of these
it strikes, and even death has an uncom- somewhat pathetic yards. Is it not, for
fortable way of setting other things in instance, easy to determine the timid,
motion. If, therefore, in telling you about well-ordered mind of little Miss Porson,
my friend ^Irs. Ward, I am driven to the the dressmaker at Number 9, by its garden
usual shifts of the story-teller, you must of neat mud paths, with its thin patch of
believe me that it is because this narrative meager grass and the small bed of skimpy
concerns visions — Mrs. Ward's visions, geraniums? Cannot one read the trag-
my visions, and your visions. Conse- edy of those dreadful Alleson people at
quently I am dependent upon my own poor Number 4? The garden is a wilderness
powers of transcription to mold these of filth and broken bottles, where even the
visions into shape, and am driven into the weeds seem chary of establishing them-
position of a story-teller against my will. selves. In fact, if we listen carefully, and
The first vision, then, concerns the back the trains are not making too much noise,
view of the Sheldrake Road, which, as you we can hear the shrill crescendo of Mrs.
know, butts on to the railway embank- Alleson's voice cursing at her husband in
ment near Dalston Junction station. If the kitchen, the half-empty gin-bottle be-
you are of an adventurous turn of mind, tween them.
you will accompany me, and we shall creep The methodical pushfulness and prac-
up on to the embankment together and ticability ot. young Mr. and Mrs. Andrew
577
578 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
MacFarlane is evident at Number 14. toil and struggle her long, bony arms,
They have actually grown a patch of slightly withered, moving restlessly in the
potatoes and some scarlet runners, and direction of snails and slugs.
there is a chicken-run near the house. "Oh dear! oh dear!" she was saying,
Those irresponsible people, the O'Neals, "what with the dogs and the cats and the
have grown a bed of hollyhocks, but for snails and the trains, it 's wonderful any-
the rest the garden is untidy and unkempt. thing comes up at all!"
One could almost swear that they were Mrs. Ward's garden has a character of
connected in some obscure way with the its own, and I cannot account for it.
theatrical profession. There is nothing very special growing—
Mrs. Abbot's garden is a sort of play- few pansies, a narrow border of London-
ground. It has asphalt paths, always pride, and several clumps of unrecogniz-
swarming with small and not too clean able things that have n't flowered. The
children, and there are five lines of wash- grass patch is in only fair order, and at
ing suspended above the mud. Every day the end of the garden is an unfinished
seems to be Mrs. Abbot's washing-day. rabbit-hutch. But there is about Mrs.
Perhaps she "does" for others. Sam Ab- Ward's garden an atmosphere. There is
bot is certainly a lazy, insolent old rascal, something about it that reflects her placid
and such always seem destined to be richly eye, the calm, somewhat contemplative
fertile. Mrs. Abbot is a pleasant "body," way she has of looking right through
though. The Greens are the swells of things, as though they did n't concern her
the road. George Green is in the grocery too closely ; as though, in fact, she were too
line, and both his sons are earning good occupied with her own inner visions.
money, and one daughter has piano lessons. "No," she said in answer to my query,
The narrow strip of yard is actually "we don't mind the trains at all. In
divided into two sections, a flower-garden fact, me and my Tom we often come out
and a kitchen-garden. They are the only here and sit after supper. And Tom
people who have flower-boxes in the front. smokes his pipe. We like to hear the
Number 8 is a curious place. Old Mr. trains go by."
Bilge lives there. He spends most of his She gazed abstractedly at the embank-
time in the garden, but nothing ever seems ment.
to come up. He stands about in his shirt- "I like to hear things — going on and
sleeves, and with a circular paper hat on that. It 's Dalston Junction a little

his head, like a printer. They say he was further on. The trains go from there to
formerly a corn merchant, but has lost all parts, right out into the country they
all his money. He keeps the garden very do— ever so far. My Ernie went from
neat and tidy, but nothing seems to grow. Dalston."
He stands there staring at the beds, as She added the last in a changed tone
though he found their barrenness quite un- of voice. And now perhaps we come to
accountable. the most important vision of all — Mrs,
Number 1 1 is unoccupied, and Number Ward's vision of "my Ernie."
12 Mrs. Ward's.
is I ought perhaps to mention that I had
We now come to an important vision, never met "my Ernie." I can see him only
and I want you to come down with me through Mrs. Ward's eyes. At the time
from the embankment and to view Mrs. when I met her he had been away at the
Ward's garden from inside, and also Mrs. war for nearly a year. I need hardly say
Ward as I saw her on that evening when that "my Ernie" was a paragon of sons.
I had occasion to pay my first visit. He was brilliant, handsome, and incredibly
It had been raining, but the sun had clever. Everything that "my Ernie" said
come out. We wandered round the paths was treasured. Every opinion that he ex-
together, and I can see her old face now, pressed stood. "my Ernie" liked any
If
lined and seamed witii years of anxious one, that person was always a welcome
'THEM OTHERS' 579
guest. If "my Ernie" disliked any one he and daughter jVIrs. Ward
adopted an
was not to be tolerated, however plausible affectionate, mothering, almost pitying at-
he might appear. titude; but with "my Ernie" it was quite
I had seen Ernie's photograph, and I a different thing. I can see her stooping

V^

^i ^: V 1

'r^r^ '111 ^
!l!! i"

SHE GAZED A13STRACTHULV AT THE EMBANKMENT"

must confess that he appeared a rather figure and her silver-white hair gleaming
weak, extremely ordinary-looking young in the sun as we came to the unfinished
man ; but, then, I would rather trust to rabbit-hutch, and hear the curious, wist-
Mrs. Ward's visions than to the art of any ful tones of her voice as she touched it

photographer. and said


Tom Ward was a mild, ineffectual- "When my Ernie comes home —
looking old man, with something of Mrs. The war to her was some unimaginable,
Ward's with nothing of her
placidity, but but disconcerting, affair centered round
strong individual poise. He had some job Ernie. People seemed to have got into
in a gas-works. There was also a daughter some desperate trouble, and Ernie was the
named Lily, a brilliant person who served only one capable of getting them out of
in a tea-shop, and sometimes went to the- it. I could not at that time gage how
aters with young men. To both husband much Mrs. Ward realized the dangers the
580 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
boy was experiencing. She always spoke The trouble Mrs. Stelling was
with
with conviction that he would return that she could speak only a few words of
safely. Nearly every other sentence con- English, but Mrs. Ward said "she was a
tained some reference to things that were pleasant-enough little body," and she es-
to happen "when my Ernie comes home." tablished herself quite definitely in Mrs.
What doubts and fears she had were Ward's affections for the reason that she
recognizable only by the subtlest shades was so obviously and so passionately de-
in her voice. voted to her two sons.
When we looked over the wall into the "Oh, my word, though, they do have
deserted garden next door, she said funny ways, these foreigners!" she con-
"Oh dear! I 'm afraid they '11 never tinued. "The things they used to eat!
let that place. It 's been empty since the Most peculiar! I 've known them eat
Stellings went away. Oh, years ago, be- stewed prunes with hot meat!"
fore this old war." Mrs. Ward repeated, "Stewed prunes
with hot meat!" several times, and shook
It was on the occasion of my second visit her head, as though this exotic mixture
that Mrs. Ward told me more about the was a thing to be sternly discouraged. But
Stellings. It appeared that they were a she acknowledged that Mrs. Frow Stel-
German family, of all things! There ling was in some ways a very good cook ; in
were a Mr. Stelling, a Mrs. Frow Stel- fact, her cakes were really wonderful, "the
ling, and two boys. sort of thing you can't ever buy in a shop."
Mr. Stelling was
watchmaker, and he a About the boys there seemed to be a
came from a place called Bremen. It was little divergence of opinion. They were
a very sad story Mrs. Ward told me. both also fat-faced, and their heads were
They had been over here only for ten "almost shaved like convicts'." The elder
months when Mr. Stelling died, and Mrs. one wore spectacles and was rather noisy.
Frow Stelling and the boys went back to "My Ernie liked the younger one. Oh,
Germany. yes, my Ernie said that young Hans was
During the time of the Stellings' so- quite a nice boy. It was funny the way

journ in the Sheldrake Road it appeared they spoke— funny and difficult to under-
that the Wards had seen a good deal of stand."
them, and though it would be an exag- It was very patent that between the
geration to say that they ever became great elder boy and Ernie, who were of about
friends, they certainly got through that the same age, there was an element of
period without any unpleasantness, and rivalry which was perhaps more accentu-
even developed a certain degree of in- ated in the attitude of the mothers than in
timacy. the boys themselves. Mrs. Ward could
"Allowing for their being foreigners," find little virtue in this elder boy. Most
Mrs. Ward explained, "they were quite of her criticism of the family was leveled
pleasant people." against him. The
rest she found only
On one or two occasions they invited She said she had never
a little peculiar.
each to supper, and I wish my
other heard such a funny Christian name as
visionswere sufficiently clear to envisage Frow. Florrie she had heard of, and even
those two families indulging this social Flora, but not Froze. I suggested that
habit. perhaps Frow might be some sort of title

According Mrs. Ward, Mr. Stelling


to but she shook her head and said that that
was a kind little man, with a round, fat was what she was always known as in the
face. He spoke English fluently, but Mrs. Sheldrake Road, "Mrs. Frow Stelling."
Ward objected to his table manners. Despite Mrs. Ward's lack of opportunity
"When my Tom eats," she said, "you for greater intimacy on account of the
don't hear a sound, — I look after that, language problem, her own fine imagin-
but that Mr. Stelling! Oh dear!" ative qualities helped her a great deal. In
'THEM OTHERS" 581

one particular she seemed curiously vivid. dumb way they forged the chains of some
She gathered an account from one of them desperate understanding. When Mrs.
— 'm not sure whether it was Mr. Stel-
I Frow Stelling went back to Germany they
ling or Mrs. Frow Stelling or one of promised to write to each other. But they
the boys — of a place they described near never did, and for a very good reason. As
their home in Bremen. There was a Mrs. Ward said, she was "no scholard,"
narrow street of high buildings by a and as for Mrs. Frow Stelling, her English

canal, and a little bridge that led over was such a doubtful quantity that she prob-

into a gentleman's park. At a point ably never got beyond addressing the
where the canal turned sharply east- envelop.
ward there was a clump of linden-trees "That was three years ago," said Mrs.
where one could go in the summer-time, Ward. "Them boys must be eighteen and
and under their shade one might sit com- nineteen now."
fortably and drink light beer and listen
to a band that played in the early part If I have intruded too greatly into the
of the evening. intimacy of Mrs. Ward's life, one of my
Mrs. Ward was curiously clear about excuses must be not that I am "a scholard,"
that. She said she often thought about but that I am in any case able to read a

Mr. Stelling sitting there after his day's simple English letter. I was, in fact, on
work. must have been very pleasant
It several occasions "requisitioned." When
tor him, and he seemed to miss this luxury Lily was not at home, some one had to
in Dalston more than anything. Once read Ernie's letters out loud. The arrival
Ernie, in a friendly mood, had taken him of Ernie's letters was always an inspiring
into the four-ale bar of The Unicorn, at experience. I might perhaps be in the
the corner of the Sheldrake Road, but Mr. garden with Mrs. Ward when Tom
Stelling did not seem happy. Ernie ac- would come hurrying out to the back and
knowledged afterward that it had been an call out:

unfortunate evening. The bar had been "Mother! a letter from Ernie!"
rather crowded, and there were a man And then there would be such excite-
and two women who had all been drink- ment and commotion. The first thing was
ing too much. In any case, Mr. Stelling always the hunt for Mrs. Ward's specta-
had been obviously restless there, and he cles. They were never where she had put
had said afterward them. Tom would keep on turning the
"It is not that one wishes to drink letter over in his hands and examining the
only
— postmark, and he would reiterate:
And
he had shaken his fat little head, "Well, what did you do with them,
and had never been known to visit The Mother?"
Unicorn again. At length they would be found in some
Mr. Stelling died suddenly of some unlikely place, and she would take the
heart trouble, and Mrs. Ward could not letter tremblingly to the light. I never
get it out of her head that his last ill- knew quite how much Mrs. Ward could
ness was brought about by his disappoint- read. She could certainly read a certain
ment and grief in not being able to go and amount. I saw her old eyes sparkling and
sit under the linden-trees after his
quietly her tongue moving jerkily between her
day's work and listen to a band. parted lips, as though she were formulat-
"You know, my dear," she said, "when ing the words she read, and she would

you get accustomed to a thing, it 's bad keep on repeating:


for' you to leave it off." "T'ch ! T'ch! Oh dear, oh dear, the
When poor Mr. Stelling died, Mrs. things he says!"
Frow Stelling was heartbroken, and I And Tom, by the door, would say, im-

have reason to believe that Mrs. Ward patiently :

went in and wept with her, and in their "Well, what does he say?"
582 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
She never attempted to read the letter teen. They would be fighting, too. They
out loud, but at last she would wipe her would be fighting against Ernie. This
spectacles and say: seemed very peculiar.
"Oh, you read it, sir. The things he "Of course," she said, "I never took to
says!" that elder boy ; a greedy, rough sort of
They were indeed very good letters of boy he was. But I 'm sure my Ernie
Ernie's, written apparently in the highest would n't hurt young Hans."
spirits. There was never a grumble ; not She meditated for a moment as though
a w^ord. One might
gather that he was she were contemplating what particular
away with young bloods on some
a lot of action Ernie would take in the matter.
sporting expedition in which foot-ball, She knew he did n't like the elder boy,
rags, sing-songs, and strange feeds played but she doubted whether he would want
a conspicuous part. I read a good many of to do anything very violent to him.
Ernie's letters, and I do not remember "They went out to a music-hall one
that he ever made a single reference to night together," she explained, as though
the horrors of war or said anything about a friendship cemented in this luxurious
his own personal discomforts. The boy fashion could hardly be broken by an un-
must have had something of his mother in reasonable display of passion.
him despite the photograph.
And betw^een the kitchen and the yard It was a few weeks later that the terror
Mrs. Ward would spend her day placidly suddenly crept into Mrs. Ward's life.

content, for Ernie never failed to write. Ernie's letters ceased abruptly. The fort-
There was sometimes a lapse of a few night passed, then three weeks, four weeks,
days, but the letter seldom failed to come five weeks, and not a word. do not I

every fortnight. think that Mrs. Ward's character


at any
It would be difficult to know what Mrs. time stood out so vividly as during those
Ward's actual conception of the war was. weeks of stress. It is true she appeared a
She never read the newspapers, for the little feebler, and she trembled in her
reason, as she explained, that "there was movements, while her ej^es seemed ab-
nothing in them these days except about stracted, as though all the power in them
this old war." She occasionally dived into were concentrated in her ears, alert for
Reynolds's newspaper on Sundays to see the bell or the knock. She started visibly
if there were any interesting law-cases or at odd moments, and her imagination was
any news of a romantic character. There always carrying her tempestuously to the
was nothing romantic in the war news front door, only to answer a milkman or a
it was all preposterous. She did, indeed, casual hawker. But she never expressed
read the papers for the first few weeks her fear in words. When Tom came
but this was for the reason that she had home, — he seemed to have aged rapidly,
some vague idea that they might contain he would come bustling out into the
some account of Ernie's doings. But as garden and cry out tremblingly
they did not, she dismissed them with con- "There ain't been no letter to-day,
tempt. Mother?"
But I found her one night in a peculiarly And
she would say quite placidly
preoccupied mood. She was out in the "No, not to-day, Tom. It '11 come to-

garden, and she kept staring abstractedly morrow, I expect."


over the fence into the unoccupied ground And she would rally him and talk of
next door. It had dawned
appeared that it little things and get busy with his supper.
upon her that the war was to do with And in the garden I would try to talk to
"these Germans," —
that, in fact, we were her about her clump of pansies and the
fighting the Germans, — and then she latest yarn the neighbors, and I
about
thought of the Stellings. Those boys tried to getbetween her and the rabbit-
would now be about eighteen and nine- hutch, with its dumb appeal of incom-
'THEM OTHERS' 583
pletion. And I would notice her staring but they could not amplify the laconic
curiously over into the empty garden next telegram.
door, as though she were being assailed by Then the winter came on, and the
some disturbing apprehensions. Ernie gardens were bleak in the Sheldrake Road.

'IF THKM OTHERS CAN STAND IT, WE CAN STAND IT, 1 SAV

would not hurt that eldest boy; but sup- And Lily ran away and married a young
pose, if things were reversed — There was tobacconist who was earning twentj-five
something inexplicable and terrible lurk- shillings a week. Old Tom was dismissed
ing in this passive silence. from the gas-works. His work was not
During this period the old man was proving satisfactory. He sat about at
suddenly taken very ill. He came home home and moped. In the meantime the
one night with a high temperature, and de- price of food-stui^s was going up, and
veloped pneumonia. He was laid up for coalswere a luxury. So in the early morn-
many weeks, and she kept back the telegram ing Mrs. Ward would go off and work for
thatcame while he was almost unconscious, Mrs. Abbot at the wash-tub, and she
and she tended him night and day, nurs- would earn eight or twelve shillings a
ing her own anguish with a calm face week.
for the telegram told her that her Ernie It is difficult to know how they managed
was "missing and believed wounded." during those days, but one could see that
I do not know at what period she told Mrs. Ward was buoyed up by some
the father this news, but it was certainly poignant hope. She would not give way.
not till he was convalescent. The old man Eventually old Tom did get some work to
seemed to sink into a kind of apathy. He do at a stationer's. The work was com-
sat feebly in front of the kitchen fire, paratively light, and the pay equally so
coughing, and making no effort to control soMrs. Ward still continued to work for
his grief. Outside the great trains went Mrs. Abbot.
rushing by night and day. Things were My next vision of Mrs, Ward con-
"going on," but they were all meaningless, cerns a certain winter evening. I could
cruel. not see inside the kitchen, but the old man
We made inquiries at the War Office, could be heard complaining. His queru-
584 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
lous voice was rambling on, and Mrs. but she did not hear. She was full of
Ward was standing by the door leading reminiscences of Ernie's and Lily's child-
into the garden. She had returned from hood. She recounted again and again the
her day's work, and was scraping a pan story of how Ernie, when he was a little
out into a bin near the door. A train boy, ordered five tons of coal from a coal

shrieked by, and the wind was blowing a merchant to be sent to a girls' school in

fine rain against the house. Suddenly she Dalston highroad. She described the-
stood up and looked up at the sky ; then coal-carts arriving in the morning, and
she pushed back her hair from her brow,' the consternation of the head-mistress.
and frowned at the dark house next door "Oh dear! oh dear!" she said, "the
!"
then she turned and said things he did
"Oh, I don't know, Tom ; if we 've got She did not talk much of the Stellings,
to do it, we itiust do it. If them others but one day she said meditatively
can stand it, we can stand it. What- . "Mrs. Frow Stelling thought a lot of
ever them others can do, we can do." that boy Hans. So she did of the other, as
And then my visions jump rather wildly, far as that goes. It 's only natural-like,
and the war becomes to me epitomized in I suppose."
two women : one in this dim doorway, in

our obscure suburb of Dalston, scraping As time went on, Tom Ward lost all hope.
out a pan and the other, perhaps in some*
; He said he was convinced that the boy was
dark, high house near a canal on the out- killed. Having arrived at this conclusion,
skirts of Bremen. Them others! These two he seemed to become more composed. He
women silently enduring, and the trains gradually began to accustom himself to
rushing by, and all the dark, mysterious the new point of view. But with Mrs.
forces of the night operating on them Ward the exact opposite was the case.
equivocally. She was convinced that the boy was alive,
Poor Mrs. Frow Stelling ! Perhaps but she suffered terribly.
those boys of hers are "missing, believed There came a time — was in it early
killed." Perhaps they are killed for ,
April — when one felt that the strain could
certain. She is as much outside "the not last. She seemed to lose all interest in

things going on" as Mrs. Ward. Per- the passing world, and lived entirely with-
haps she is equally as patient, as brave. in herself. Even the arrival of Lily's baby
Mrs. Ward entered the kitchen, and her did not rouse her. She looked at the child
eyes were blazing with a strange light as queerly, though she doubted whether
as

she said any useful or happy purpose was served


"We '11 hear to-morrow, Tom. And by its appearance. It was a bo}'.

if we don't hear to-morrow, we '11 hear Despite her averred optimism, she lost
the next day. And if we don't hear the her tremulous sense of apprehension when
next day, we '11 hear the day after. And the bell rang or the front door was
if we don't — if we don't never hear — again tapped. She let the milkman and even the
— if them others can stand it, we can stand postman wait.
it, I say." When she spoke, it was invariably of
And then her voice broke, and she cried things that happened years ago. Some-
a little; for endurance has its limitations, times she talked about the Stellings, and
and the work was hard at Mrs. Abbot's. on one Sunday she made a strange
And the months went by, and she pilgrimage out to Finchley, and visited
stooped a little more as she walked, and Mr. Stelling's grave. I don't know what
some one had thrown a cloth over the she did there, but she returned looking
rabbit-hutch, with its unfinished roof. very exhausted and unwell. As a matter
Mrs. Ward was curiously retrospective. of fact, she was unwell for da>s after this
It was useless to tell her of the things of and she suffered violent twinges of
visit,

the active world. She listened politely, rheumatism in her legs.


'THEM OTHERS' 585
I now come to my most unfor;i;etable dying from the shock of such an ex-
vision of Mrs. Ward. It was a day at perience.
the end of April, and warm for the time of As it was, she nicrel\- dropped the basin
year. I was standing in the garden with and stood there trembling like a leaf, and
her, and it was Ernie laughed
nearly dark. hnid and up-
A goods-train roariously. It

had been shunt- must have been


ing, and mak- three or four
ing a great deal minutes before
of noise in she could re-
front of the gain her speech,
house, and at and then all
lasthad disap- she could man-
peared. I had age to say was
not been able "Ernie! My
to help notic- Ernie!"
ing that Mrs. And the boy
Ward's garden ..si,.-: mu x.n talk > CH 01- THK sTKi.i.iNc.s" laughed, and
was curiously ragged his
neglected for the time of year. The grass mother, and pulled her into the house, and
was growing on the paths, and the snails Tom appeared, and stared at his son, and
had left their silver trail over all the fences. said feebly
I was telling her a rumor I had heard "Well, I never!"
about the railway porter and his wife at I don't know how it was that I found
Number 23, and she seemed fairly in- myself intruding upon the sanctity of the
terested ; for she had known John Hems- inner life of the Ward family that eve-
ley, the porter, fifteen years ago, when ning. I had never had a meal there be-
Ernie was a baby. There were two old, fore, but I felt that I was holding a sort
broken Windsor chairs out in the garden, of watching brief over the soul and body
and on one was a zinc basin in which were of Mrs. Ward. I had had a little medical

some potatoes. She was peeling them, as training in my early youth, and this may
Lily and her husband were coming to have been one of the reasons that prompted
supper. By the kitchen door was a small me to stay.
sink. When she had finished the potatoes, When Lily and her husband appeared,
she stood up and began to pour the water we sat down
to a meal of mashed potatoes
down the sink, taking care not to let the and onions stewed in milk, WMth bread
skins go, too. I was noticing her old, bent and cheese; and very excellent it w^as.
back, and her long, bony hands gripping Lily and her husband took the whole
the sides of the basin, when suddenly a thing in a boisterous, high-comedy manner
figure came limping round the bend of that fitted in with the mood of Ernie. Old
the house from the side passage, and two Tom sat there staring at his son, and re-
arms were thrown round her waist, and peating at intervals:
a voice said "Well, I never!"
"Mind them skins don't go down the Mrs. Ward hovered round the boy's
sink. Mother. They '11 stop it up." plate. Her eyes divided their time be-
tween his plate and his face, and she hardly
As I explained to Ernie aftervv-ard, it was spoke all the evening.
an extremely foolish thing to do. If his Ernie's story was remarkable enough.
mother had had anything wrong with her He told it disconnectedly and rather in-
heart, it might have been very serious. coherently. There were moments when he
There have been many cases of people rambled in a rather peculiar way, and
586 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
sometimes he stammered, and seemed un- brute. The food was worse than in the
able to frame a sentence. Lily's husband prison, and they were punished severely
went out to fetch some beer to celebrate for the most trivial offenses.
the joyful occasion, and Ernie drank his It was here, however, that he met a

and spluttered. The boy must


in little sips sailor named Martin, a royal naval re-
have suffered considerably. He had a servist, an elderly, thick-set man with a
wound in the abdomen, and another in the black beard and only one eye. Ernie said
right forearm that for a time had par- that this Martin "was an artist. He
alyzed him. wangled everything. He had a genius for
As far as I could gather, his story was getting what he wanted. He would get a
this: beefsteak out of a stone." In fact, it was
He and a platoon of men had been am- obvious that the whole of Ernie's nar-
bushed and had had to surrender. When rative was colored by his vision of Martin.
being sent back to a base, three of them He said he 'd never met such a chap in his
tried to escape from the train, which had life. He admired him enormously, and
been held up at night. He did not know he was also a little afraid of him.
what had happened to the other two men, By some miraculous means peculiar to
but it was on this occasion that he received sailors,Martin acquired a compass. Ernie
his abdominal wound at the hands of a hardly knew what a compass was, but the
guard. sailor explained to him that it was all
He had then been sent to some in- that was necessary to take you straight to
firmary, where he was fairly well treated England. Ernie said he "had had enough
but as soon as his wound had healed a escaping. It did n't agree with his
little, he had been suddenly sent to some health"; but so strong was his faith and
fortress prison, presumably as a punish- belief in Martin that he ultimately agreed
ment. He had n't the faintest idea how to try with him.
long he had been confined there. He said He said Martin's method of escape
it seemed like fifteen years. It was prob- was the coolest thing he 'd ever seen. He
ably nine months. He had solitary con- planned it all was the
beforehand. It
finement in a cell, which was like a small fag-end of the day, and the whistle had
lavatory. He had fifteen minutes' ex- blown, and the prisoners were trooping
ercise every day in a yard with some other back across a potato-field. Martin and
prisoners, who were Russians, he thought. Ernie were very slow. They lingered ap-
He spoke to no one. He used to sing and parently to discuss some matter connected
recite in his cell, and there were times with the soil. There were two sentries
when he was quite convinced that he was in sight, one near them, and the other
"off his chump." He said he had lost perhaps a hundred yards away. The potato-
"all sense of everything" when he was field was on a slope, and at the bottom
suddenly transferred to another prison. of the field were two lines of barbed-wire
Here the conditions were somewhat better, entanglements. The other prisoners passed
and he was made to work. He said he out of sight, and the sentry near them
wrote six or seven letters home from called out something, probably telling
there, but received no reply. The letters them to hurry up. They started to go
certainly never reached Dalston. The up the field when suddenly Martin stag-
food was execrable, but a big improvement gered and clutched his throat. Then he
on the dungeon. He was there only a few fell over backward and began to have an

weeks when he and some thirty other epileptic fit. Ernie said it was the realest
prisoners were suddenly sent to work on thing he 'd ever seen. One sentry ra.i up,
the land at a kind of settlement. He at the same time whistling to his comrade.
said that the life there would have been Ernie released Martin's collar-band and
tolerable if it had n't been for the fact tried to help him. Both the sentries ap-
that the commandant was an absolute proached, and Ernie stood back. He saw
AS IT WAS, SHE MERELY DROPPED THE BASIN AND STOOD THERE TREMBLING
LIKE A LEAF, AND ERNIE LAUGHED LOUD AND UPROARIOUSLY"
ETCHED ON CUPPER FOR THB CEXTURY BY J. PWL VERREES
588 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
them bending over the prostrate man when there ever was. Of course there was a lot
suddenly a most extraordinary thing hap- of trouble one way and another. It was
pened. Both their heads were brought to- n't always easy to find wooded country
gether with fearful violence. One fell or protection of any sort. We often ran
completely senseless, but the other stag- into and they stared at us, and
people,
gered forward and blindly groped for we shifted our course. But I think we
his rifle. were only addressed three or four times
When Ernie told this part of the story by men, and then Martin's methods were
he kept dabbing his forehead with his the simplest in the world. He just looked
handkerchief. sort of blank for a moment, then knocked
"I never seen such a man as Martin, them clean out, and bolted. Of course
I don't think," he said. "Lord! he had they were after us all the time, and it was
a fist like a leg of mutton. He laid 'em this constant tacking and shifting ground
out neatly on the grass, took off their coats that took so long. Fancy ! he never had a
and most of their other clothes, and flung map, 3'ou know nothing
; but the compass.
'em over the barbed-wire, and then We did n't know w^hat sort of country
swarmed over like a cat. I had more diffi- we were coming to — nothing. We just
culty, but he got me across, too, somehow. crept through the night like cats. I be-
Then we carted the clothes away to the lieve Martin could see in the dark. He
next line. killed a dog one night with his hands; it
"We got up into a wood that night, and was necessary."
Martin draws out his compass, and he
says: 'We 've got a hundred and seven It was impossible to discover from Ernie
miles to do in night-shifts, cully. And how long this amazing journey lasted ; the
if we make a slip, we 're shot as safe as best part of two months, I believe. He
knife.' It sounded the maddest scheme was himself a little uncertain with regard
in the world, but I somehow felt that to many incidents whether they were true
Martin would get through it. The only or whether they were hallucinations. He
thing that saved me was that— that I suffered greatly from his wound and had
did n't have to think. I simply left every- periods of feverishness. But one m.orning
thing to him. If I 'd started thinking, I he said Martin began "prancing." He
should have gone mad. I had it fixed in seemed to develop some curious sense that
my mind : 'Either he does it or he does n't they were near the Dutch frontier. And
do it. I can't help it.' I reely don't re- then, according to Ernie, "a cat was n't in
member much about that journey. It was it with Martin."
all a dream, like.did all our travel- We He was very mysterious about the
in' by compass, and hid by day.
at night actual crossing. I gathered that there had
Neither of us had a word of German. been some "clumsy" work with sentries.
But, Gawd's truth ! that man Martin was It was at that time that Ernie got a bullet
a marvel ! He turned our trousers inside through his arm. When he got to Hol-
out, and made 'em look like ordinary land he was very ill. It was not that the
laborers' trousers. He disappeared the wound was a very serious one, but, as he
first and came back with some other
night, explained
old clothes. We lived mostly on raw "Me blood was in a bad state. I was
potatoes we dug out of the ground with nearly down and out."
our hands, but not always. One night he He was very kindly treated by some
came back with a fowl, which he cooked Dutch sisters in a convent hospital. He
in a hole in the earth, making a fire with was delirious for a long time, and when he
a flint and some dry stuff he pinchedfrom became more normal, they wanted to com-
a farm. I believe Martin could have municate with his people in England but ;

stole an egg from under a hen without this did n't appeal to the dramatic sense
her noticing it. He was the coolest card of Ernie.
'THEM OTHERS" 589
"I thought I 'd spring a surprise-packet I don't think she wasaware of
really
on you," he said, grinning. me. She still appeared immersed in the
We asked about Martin, but Ernie said contemplation of her inner visions. Her
he never saw him again. He went away eyes settled upon the empty house next
while Ernie was delirious, and they said door, and I thought I detected the trail of
he had gone to Rotterdam to take ship a tear glistening on her cheeks. I lighted
somewhere. He thought Holland was a my pipe. We could hear Ernie and Lily
dull place. and Lily's husband still laughing and talk-
During the relation of this narrative my ing inside.
attention was divided between watching "She used to make a very good pud-
the face of Ernie and the face of Ernie's din',"Mrs. Ward said suddenly, at ran-
mother. I am quite convinced that she dom. "Dried fruit inside, and that. My
did not listen to the story at all. She never Ernie liked it very much."
took her eyes from his face, and although Somewhere away in the distance, prob-
her tongue was following the flow of his ably outside The Unicorn, some one was
remarks, her mind was occupied with the playing a cornet. A train crashed by and
vision of Ernie when he was a little boy disappeared, leaving a trail of foul smoke
and when he ordered five tons of coal to that obscured the sky. The smoke cleared
be sent to the girls' school. slowly away. I struck another match to
When he had finished she said light my pipe.
"Did you meet either of them young It was quite true. On each side of her
Stellings?" cheek a tear had trickled. She was
Ernie laughed rather uproariously, and trembling a little, worn out by the emo-
said "No," he did n't have the pleasure of tions of the evening.
renewing their acquaintance. There was a moment of silence unusual
On his way home, it appeared, he had for Dalston.
presented himself at headquarters, and "It 's all very — perplexin'. and that,"
after a medical examination had received she said quietly.
his notice of discharge. And then I knew for certain that in
"So now you '11 be able to finish the that great hour of her happiness her mind
rabbit-hutch," said Lily's husband, and was assailed by strange and tremulous
we all laughed again, with the exception doubts. She was thinking of "them
of xMrs. Ward. others" a little wistfully. She was doubt-
ing whether one could rejoice, when the
I FOUND her later standing alone in the thing became clear and actual to one. with-
garden. It was a warm spring night. out sending out one's thoughts into the
There was no moon, but the sky appeared dark garden to "them others" who were
restless burden of trembling stars.
with its suffering, too. And
had come out she
She had an old shawl drawn round her into this little, meager yard at Dalston and
shoulders, and she stood there very silent, gazed through the mist and smoke up-
with her arms crossed. ward to the stars because she wanted
"Well, this is splendid news, Mrs. peace intensely and so she sought it with-
;

Ward," I said. in herself, because she knew that real peace


She started a little and coughed and is which concerns the heart alone.
a thing
pulled the shawl closer round her. She So I left her standing there and went
said very faintly: my way, for I knew that she was wiser
"Yes, sir." than I.
Confessions of a Munition-maker
Reported by DONALD WILHELM
Author of " Great Business Men — Irving T. Bush," etc.

JOFFRE stopped Kluck at the


had at eighty and ninety cents an hour, with
Marne. England was calling for am- once and a half their regular pay for every
munition, and Russian soldiers, for want hour of overtime.
of it, were soon to use their rifles as clubs, One of the first effects of the war, then,
when our factory, the first of three in which was the creation of a tremendous demand
I was a superintendent, turned to making for American machinery. Machine-mak-
shrapnel, something never before made ers in America were far from being

commercially in the United States. rushed when war broke out. They
the
As soon as we got the order to go ahead, sent agents to London to get orders. On
we flashed it on to an engineer. the same boats went the representatives of
He took a gang of three surveyors out not a few companies that were ready to
upon a virgin swamp. He ran a line, make finished shells. The best of the
drove a stake. He ran other lines, drove foreign and New York agents made hardly
other stakes. Almost miraculously an enough allowance for changing labor con-
army of workmen debouched upon that ditions, increasing costs of materials, and

swamp. The word went around that a a thousand uncertainties attendant upon
munition-plant was going up. Some of manufacturing in a time of crisis; and the
the villagers went to work. Many were worst of the agents did not even have
willing to work for a dollar and a half a plants to fall back upon.
day, for the times were hard, and labor The situation in relation to the machine-
was plentiful. makers was further complicated by Ameri-
Four months went by. Where there can manufacturers who had orders for
had been a harbor-front wilderness on finished munitions abroad competing with
which wild ducks yearly gathered, now one another to get machines.
there was the beginning of a tremendous In short, at just the time that we set out
deep-water pier; where cattails had grown, to get our machinery not only were other
now there were powder-magazines; and American companies trying to get in

where there had been a muck of slime and ahead of us, though we were all trying to
water, now there were the numerous be- help the Allies, but the representatives of
ginnings of the buildings of Hell Fire France, England, and Russia, along with
Road, and the tall chimney was peace- innumerable others, were also trying to
fully sending up the first of its many get the same kind of machines. It fol-

smoke wreaths. lowed, of course, that in very short order


Four months had worked wonders in machine-works of every kind were almost
our plant and labor and industrial con- overwhelmed.
ditions all over America. Ohio has many small cities. In one of
When we started to build, labor was these— one so typical that I thought it
plentifulat a dollar and a half a day, would be overlooked altogether was a —
and tool-makers were available at forty well-established machine-works that had
cents an hour. When, less than half a been handed down through three genera-
year later, our plant was ready for its tions, with an able corps of workers every

workers, labor was demanding two dol- one of whom, having served an eight-year
lars a day, and tool-makers were precious apprenticeship, had traditionally been con-
CONFESSIONS OF A MUNITION-MAKER 591

tented with three dollars a day. We then we get over toward Hell Fire Road,
telegraphed orders; the reply was, "Too and they all bolt when they see powder—
busy." We
went out there; their answer all but fifteen or twenty or so. They last
was, "We 've got more w^ork than we can till the second week, because we hold back
handle, and we 're working night and a week's pay, and then they 're on their
day." We suggested that we could send way, drifting on somewhere else. I

a crew to use their patents and plant to reckon. Captain, that every man in this

make our machines; "But we 're nearly plant represents a dozen."


swamped with the orders we have," they That means, if the estimate of Budd is

said. Our answer was, "Here 's a bonus correct, that in two years we have hired
of fifty thousand dollars for getting our over a hundred thousand to maintain a
work done first; and we 're going to send force of ten thousand, when pay has been
a gang to see that it 's done." what three years ago would have been con-
We crew out there. We com-
sent a sidered fabulous ; when wages generally
miserated that small manufacturer as we have been higher than ever in the history
did so. "It is a grim joke to do this," one of America, and when the work we re-
of our officers said. "Our men will spread quired of all these misfits was so simple,

word of the big wages here, and the old specialized everywhere, as had been, that
it

man's plant will see a strike." girls, wMth a day or two of coaching, had
It was two months after that that
just excelled experienced men in doing it.

we had notice from our men that they More than a hundred thousand in

would not return unless we promised a year to maintain a force of ten thou-
them higher wages. The small plant in sand spells waste— waste fifty times more
the segregated town had offered them subtle and useless than that which befalls
more than we w^re paying! Our men, a manufacturer in the form of strikes.

this is quite confidential! — instructed to Our employment office, which is typical


coax their skilled mechanics away, had of most, has been for months a caravansary
been coaxed away themselves! for human misfits a hundred in kind and
Soon we had presented to us in our thousands in number.
factory something of a cross-section of At the head of the line one day was a
American materials and men, a fever- round-faced Irishman of forty-five, a
chart, if you will, of a nation that had "cabby" aspiring to become a machinist.
long suffered not a few industrial ills. "Machinist?" demanded Peter, glaring
Men— and women! came from every- — over his spectacles. "Can you run a
where to our little employment shanty by lathe?"
the main gate, where Peter, old and wary "Sure!"
diagnostician, with his associates, ques- "What size?"
tioned, passed quick judgment on men and "Twenty-five hundred pounder."
women all day long. "You mean," said Peter, "a five-foot
men at the main gate."
"I get a hundred lathe? Will you take a job shoveling?"
said Budd, one of our foremen. "Well, "How much?"
I lead 'em in. Captain. We meet one of "Thirty cents an hour."
the company guards in uniform, and some "Sure!"
of the hundred say, 'Look here, Boss, you Then come others, thousands of them.
got cops in here? Then I 'm on me way!' "What can you do?" Peter demanded
Well, I lose ten, say. Perhaps they 're of a typical one.
prison-birds; I don't know. And then the "Carpenter work."
rest see a sign 'No Matches,' and some "You 've been doing what?"
boy pipes up: 'What 's this. Mister! Is "Working on ladies' coats."

this a powder-factory? I don't want to "Come to-morrow and lacquer shells."


be blown up.' So I lose twenty more, At last there came a giant with the smell
ready to follow a leader in a minute. And of liquor on his breath reaching yards.
592 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
"Drink anything?' asked Peter. workers at the tasks they wanted to do,
"Anything." yet they were, I think, usually put at
"Get out!" tasks they could do, if they had wanted to.

We had trouble even to get a force of It was not possible to take them into an
plant guards. apprentice or vocational school to explain
I grant that the nature of our organ- "a shrapnel is something
like a cannon
ization added to our difficulty. We were within a cannon. This cannon within a
building up a new organization ex- cannon is fitted to and fired out of a
pected to last at b'est only four or five brass cartridge-case. You can get some
years. Established employers can afford idea of the intricacy of the workmanship
to exercise patience in the effort to bring when we tell you that the discharge of
out the best that is in men. We felt it the gun throws the nose of the cannon
was not our allotted task to attempt to within a cannon back upon a firing-pin
educate. Peter, with his associates, hav- that ignites a time-train ring made of
ing received a requisition from any par- powder. This time-train ring has to burn
ticular department, filled that requisition as long as the gunner has set it to burn
with a fairly experienced idea of the needs but if the shell strikes an obstruction, it

of that department. But even he, though is exploded, anjway. Now, at what point
indeed an experienced employment agent in the business of making such a mechan-
and an experienced shop-man, too, had not ism can each of you be useful? At what
more than a fairly capable understanding part have you had experience? At what
of the exact needs of every department in part do you want to begin ?"
an industry altogether new. Thus we Such a speech would have met with no
have had to operate to some extent more definite a response than "We want
crudely. And in the nature of things, it to work at what pays the most," for the
was, as Peter said one day: "A catch- reason that not one out of one hundred, I

as-catch-can game, Bob. We 've got to believe, of all the ten thousands who went
take what comes." to work in our plant knew what he could
Very often we took on young man a do or had had any assurance what he was
who desired to do piece-work, which paid qualified to do. Each one wanted a job.
the highest wages, when he had had no He wanted the job that paid most.
experience whatever to qualify him for Whether he could do the work seems to
that work. have been with each one a matter al-

"To put you to work on piece-work at together secondary.


this machine," we would explain to him, Not only were the thousands oblivious
"would mean that you would wreck it, of what they could do, but they were ut-
and we 'd have to let you go." So we terly devoid of any sense of discipline or
would start him with work conveying ma- of loyalty. I find in this consideration
terials or helping an experienced man at clear-cut justification for universal mili-
a machine, and usually he would stay a tary training.Even a very little military
week or so. training, army officer has noted,
every
Almost always men quit when they gives a man some notion of obedience.
were asked to serve even a short apprentice- The great mass of our men were simply,
ship. Quitting, not firing, was the rule. as we superintendents said over and over,
It my judgment that, poor as were the
is "clock-watchers and whistle-jumpers." All
men we got, vastly more quit than were they were looking for was pay. This
fired. They quit "to try something else," means, in other words, that they were
to get transferred to some other depart- wanting seriously inpowers of concentra-
ment, to apply one of the other con-
at tion, in energy, and in common intel-
tiguous plants, or to be "on their way," ligence.
drifting. Remembering that we were paying
It was not always possible to put new tremendous wages and knowing that other
CONFESSIONS OF A MUNITION-MAKER 593
munition-makers were having difficulties easily to have done a great deal more
quite as severe as ours, I realized that the work,
great change was beginning to have its con- O'Gara, one of our superintendents, has
sequences. "Labor, with its links stretched tremendous faith in women at machines.
round the world," 1 said, "is making a In fact, all of us superintendents have.
chain-gang of all us employers." But I hold O'Gara's opinion to be espe-
I now that employers generally,
think cially valuable because O'Gara is a very
and we munition-makers specially, be- calm and unemotional man. He takes
cause we were working in a race with facts as he finds them. Three years ago
time, would have had to bow our heads his doctor told him: "O'Gara, you 're
and become the slaves of labor if women going to die from heart trouble. You
had not "arrived" to save the day for us better get ready. You can't live six
and for America. Indeed, we would months." But he 's working still.

not have accepted their aid then had not An extract from my diary for October
labor, in our plant at least, made demands 18, 1916, will serve to introduce him:
that were altogether exorbitant and threat-
ened strike. O'Gara is trying to get the pellet-machine
"Strikeyou can," we retorted at last,
if to working. To-day It blew up again. It 's

"but we strike first." And with that we getting on the nerves of the girls In Old F.
discharged twelve hundred of them and To-day twelve of them fainted, and two
put women in their places, with what O'Gara went over
got hysterical. to report.
startling results we shall later see. He 's been here now only a month, little

There no use to evade the obvious


is man, blue eyes, never smiles.
fact that without the help of women we "Captain," he said, "women are all right
could not, in our plant, have finished our In a plant. I learned that at the arsenal.
contracts. Women "called the bluff" They 're better 'n men; they work more
(I know no other idiom) of men; they than men do. Better workers naturally.
made the secret processes, the laborious But they 're darn fools sometimes. Fainted
delays, the needless and short-sighted pro- to-day. Captain, you got to fire a couple
nouncements of men look ridiculous, and for fainting. That '11 teach 'em."
by so doing they made our men more pro- Instead, we put up a notice to the effect
ductive. For illustration, we had an ex- that since a few explosions are inevitable
perienced man operating a multiple drill on a thoroughfare like Hell Fire Road, It

that drilled eight holes at a time. This Is necessary for girls not to faint or get
man went about his work laboriously. He hysterical, so that, as O'Gara pointed out,
fussed with oils and bits, he talked much "The firemen can fight flames, If necessary."
about his processes and his skill ;
yet all Therefore, be It known, we said, in sub-
the while his output was lagging. At last stance, "Any girl who faints or gets hys-
we set an inexperienced girl beside him, at terical when there 's an explosion must leave
a single sensitive drill. She was coached the employment of the company."
for two days, and then she began. The October 19. Pellet-machine blew up again
first day, though she took out fifteen min- to-day. Not a girl fainted.
utes of every *
hour to rest, therefore 1 brought back some of the powder
worked actually a fourth fewer hours than pellets to conference and tossed them into
the man, who plugged along all day with the cuspidor, after having asked for a new
only fifteen minutes out for lunch, she, test. A little later Wacker came In.

with her single drill, did ten per cent, Wacker Is a very serious man. He had a
more work than this experienced man did grievance. He said:
with his multiple. Yet by all the rules, "Well, Bob, I 've got a little gump down
had their speed and skill been the same, here named Mickle MacFarland. He 's

he ought to have exercised an advantage only about four feet three and he limps-
in his multiple drill. He ought, in short, Well, to-day he licked one of the guards

594 THE CENTURY :MAGAZINE
"Hire him and fire the guard," the captain course an explosion like that makes a lot
ordered. of heat and fire, but when you 're in the
"What!" Wacker, and dropped
said his same room with it, even when it 's a little
cigar into the cuspidor. There was an ex- room not much bigger than a stall, though
plosion, and the brass top of the cuspidor the room may be rent asunder, you don't
hit the ceiling and banged down on top of get such a blow as you might expect, be-
my desk. Wacker said, "My God, Bob!" cause the atmospheric pressure is increased
was just explaining that I had supposed
1 all around you at same time.
the I ex-
there was water in the cuspidor when we pected that last explosion was going to send

heard something let go out in the plant. me down to the harbor when it let go; but
It was the pellet-machine again. It 's I did n't get blown as far as I expected."

getting on our nerves, but not a girl fainted.


Our notice has taught them self-control. O'Gara, one can see, is n't emotional.
October 20. O'Gara reported to-day that One can trust his judgment of women.
after he moved the pellet-machine out to a That is why I was glad he was present
building of itsown it had exploded three in the officers' room of the company eat-
times in as many hours. He said: ing-quarters when the report was made in
"Well, Bob, it let go once and banged me detail of the strike schedule to take place
up against the side wall. I did n't mind that. the following Monday morning. He
I 'd just got it started when it let go again, made a speech, saying:
banging me up against the wall and hurting "Gentlemen, we 've all known women
the back of my head. Budd looked in practically all our lives— ever since we
through the safety window. He said, were born practically. Most of us get to
'O'Gara, what 's the matter with Maude thinking that a woman can't do me-
now?' and then it let fly again. Well, Bob, it chanical work because they 're always
not only burned Budd's face and shoulders, willing to let a man use the hammer, that
but it blew me through the wall. That being something he thinks he can do. But
made me sore." a woman can do
it. A woman can do
Being blown through the wall did n't seem anything that a man can do, and most
to disturbed O'Gara much.
have What things better, but men can't do anything
reallymade him indignant was Budd's re- near what women can do. Now maybe
mark to him. O'Gara was lying flattened you can imagine what women can do as
out by a lot of debris when Budd ran over mechanics, and I know what they can do.
to him and said, "Say, O'Gara, that pellet- Leaving out big girls, I say women can
machine exploded!" do any kind of mechanical work that 's

Budd reported that O'Gara looked up at consistent with their strength better than
him and said, "So I heard." men."
And then, Budd reported, O'Gara smiled, Another superintendent, a new man,
on seeing the carpenters coming at a run said he had thrown out a hundred men in
to get the building up. "Good men!" he his plant "back in Ohio" and put girls in
said. "Well trained." Then he fainted their places, and he had found them better
away. all around.
I sent word to O'Gara to report to me as O'Gara's speech turned' tlie tide in our
soon as he was able to leave the company anxiety.
dispensary. "What 's the use," I asked, "of keep-
"Look here, O'Gara," I told him. "You ing this bunch of strikers?"
know you 're supposed to have a weak The consen:.us of opinion was that there
heart. You 'd better keep out of the reach was no use.
of that pellet-machine." So that very afternoon we began dis-
O'Gara's answer was a philosophical one: charging the men who were scheduled to
"Maude will be all right. Captain, as soon strike, and hiring girls for their places.
as I get the powder-feed adjusted. Of Before the hour set for the strike that
CONFESSIONS OF A MUNITION-MAKER 595
perhaps would have stopped our plant we their duty here, as they could,
and for en-
had sent out of our employ more than tailing numerous impositions upon us
twelve hundred men. They went down munition-makers who had to pay and pro-
and out of the main gate in one procession, vide for their factory subordinates with-
figuratively speaking, and a long line of out any authority whatever over them.
girls and women came in in another pro- They came as Russians and behold we ; !

cession. The strikers could n't attack the vv'ereAmericans. Doubtless they found
girls. They could n't keep them from fault with us and our methods. Perhaps
entering our plant. We may well think they had little sympathy with our ex-
of them as sitting disgruntled and baffled pediency, our directness.
watching women taking their place in in- On April 2, 19 16, Baron S with ,

dustry not temporarily, but for good. No Captain Z , and an interpreter, ar-
intelligent employer will hire men for rived. The captain, who was to be sta-
work that women fittingly can do better. tioned here with the subordinate inspectors
And in all mechanical work consistent he picked and we paid for, was a giant,
with their strength women can do better about seven Inches taller than any man I
than men. ever saw on a college crew. The baron
Great changes often have commonplace was a stooped little man with a worried
beginnings. Woman has taken her place look. He carried a lawyer's green bag
at machines to forge one more link in her with something heavy In It. He would
economic power. We
do not hire men for not let the bag out of his possession.
that work now. Bomb?
Wehad another serious problem— the His greeting, through the Interpreter,
Russian inspection of munitions, for we was
dealt solely with Russians. "I wish a cigarette."
Russians individually are complex. I had none, as I do not smoke cig-
Most of those who were sent to America arettes so I borrowed a new box from
;

to inspect brought very limited training my chauffeur. But the baron looked at
or experience with them, and ballistic the captain, and the captain looked at the
formulas that were antedated and in error. baron, and both glared at me and decided
They brought a distrust of Americans not to smoke.
that was painful and had startling mani- At the plant, before luncheon,— we had
festations. They came with curiously com- to supply the Inspectors with meals at the
plex social ideals. I invited one to plant, — I took the baron out to show him
dinner, overlooking another, inferior in my packing-boxes, four thousand of them.
rank. This other was insulted, sulked, de- For weeks had wrestled with box-makers
I

manded a written apology because the to get those boxes,and then I had wrestled
one to whom I had given preference was with transportation companies to get them
a Poland Russian, socially his inferior! delivered. There they were neatly piled
One of our New York bankers by way — beautiful boxes.
of good-fellowship touched one on the "Baron," I said through the Interpreter,
shoulder when inviting him to lunch. "we can begin packing at once In those
The Russian straightened up, refused in- boxes. Are n't they fine boxes?"
dignantly, and by letter demanded an The baron waved his hands.
apology because a "civilian had touched "I reject the whole lot," he said. They
an officer on the shoulder"! They came wanted boxes with a sloping roof, to
from the Government of the czar, addicted shed the rain.
to intrigue, from a Government that The check that I put through for the
rarely commended its servants for good baron, endorsed by the captain, was re-
work and punished harshly as a stimulus turned marked. "No funds." We had to
to better. get used to little things like that. What
They are not to be blamed for doing worried me was the gages. Not bombs,
596 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
but gages, in the lawyer's green bag ! The Later an agent who had been sent to
captain guarded them constantly. I had to Russia to obtain orders opened our eyes
duplicate those gages, and he would n't to our difficulty.

let me. "I can tell you of one instance within


"Captain," I said one day, "will you my own knowledge where the Russian
let my
master mechanic duplicate them?" Government desired a large number of a
"They will not be Russian gages then," certain article for the troops," he said.
he said. "You have the official Russian "The Russian contractor, an army officer,

specifications. You use the specifications, paid a dollar and eighty cents for each
and we use the gages." article, and he charged the Government
"But, Captain," I argued, "the speci- from two dollars and thirty cents to two
fications are not correct." dollars and a half. There were nearly five
He was insulted. He said they were million articles in the deal.
made in Russia! "I was just about to come home. I was
I pointed out that we were making the a pretty sad young man after having been
nose of the shrapnel, and some other manu- sent over there by my firm on my first

facturer w^as making the detonator that big trip. But I met General X .

" 'General,'
I said, 'I 'm going home.
was to be threaded into the nose. I ex-
plained that the specifications provided for I Petrograd to-night. I 've got a
leave
the same diameter for the detonator and big plant back of me in America and I
the aperture in the nose, hence that the one have not got an order.' The general
could not be threaded into the other any said casually
more than a square plug could go into a " 'Have you been to General Y 's

round hole. He insisted, "The specifica- house?' I said: 'Yes. To dinner.'


tions were made in Russia!" " 'Very nice dinners?'
Word came from the assembling plant " 'Yes.'

that detonators, twenty-two thousand of " 'General Y has a very nice


them, would not fit our noses. I told the wife?' he said. I agreed. He went on:
captain, and he said 'But I don't see how they can afford on
"The work of the Russian inspectors is their salary to give these fine dinners.'
beyond question." I think it is. Then he added : 'Very nice woman.
I telegraphed to the technical bureau in V'ery cordial hostess ; she always takes
New York, but received no reply. The one's coat.' Well, then he said something
bureau does not answer telegrams. So I about coat-pockets and hundred-dollar bills,
told the captain that I would write him and I concluded I would stay over for an-
a letter in full. He answered other dinner. When I started to the house
"We do not do business that way in I felt ashamed of myself as I put a brand-
Russia." He would not answer my letters. new one-hundred-dollar American note in
Later I said: my overcoat pocket. came out I When I

"Captain, you reject all our work. hardly had the nerve to put my hand in
We make the noses according to speci- but when I did, the money was gone.
and the specifications are wrong,
fications, Well, two da\s later I got my first big
and then you reject the gages that are not order."
made to specification." With our new light on Russian in-
He was indignant. He held the gages spectors we obtained our gages at last;
to his heart ; he appeared about to cry. but we are of the opinion that the Japanese
In his great voice he declared are right in not permitting an inspector in
"The gages are not to be questioned. their munition-plants. They prefer to
They were made in Russia, and have been offer a rebate, if their ammunition does
kissed by the czar." not work on the battle-field.
THE HAMMOCK-BUYER
OF VENEZUELA
Photographs a?id text

By Harry A. Franck

_OPEZ,THE CHJXCHOKERO, OR HAM .MOCK-lif V£R, OF


VENEZUELA. ON HIS TRAVELS HE WEARS THE
CHARM AGAINST EVIL SPIRITS AND THE
DANGERS OF THE ROAD, BUT AT
HOME HANGS IT UP IN
THE KITCHEN
A.'SEXEZUELA SLEEPS IN HAMMOCKS, MADE CHIEFLY OF THE TEXDER CEXTER LEAF
OF THE MORICHE ?AL>[, GROWIXG IX IMPASSABLE SWAMPS. THE MEX OF THESE
IXDIAX VILLAGES CLIMB THE PALM-TREES FOR THE LEAVES AXD

HE WOMEX GET UP VERY EARLY IN THE MORNING TO ROLL ON A BARE LOG DURl."
IHE DAMP HOUR OF DAWN AND SUNRISE THE' LEAVES INTO A SORT OF YARX
FROM WHICH LATER IS MADE SUCH FINISHED HAMMOCKS AS ARE
SEEN HERE IN THE BACKGROUND
LOPEZ HALlb AI EACH HUl''1 INSPECT AND Bl^Y SUCH HAMMOCKS AS HAVE
BEEN WOVEN SINCE HIS LA.ST TRA.MP ACROSS COUNTRY, PAYING
FROM EIGHIY CENTS TO $1.20 FOR EACH

HE i'URCHASE CONCLUDED, HE AND HIS ASSISTANT .-SKKJJ-KO LOAD THE SCORE


OR MORE OF CHINCHEROS ON ONE OF HIS ASSES
AND ALL THE DAY THROUGH FOR A LONG WEEK OR MORE HE PLODS THE BROAD,
FLAT, RED-HOT I.I.ANOS AND WOODED STRIPS OF VENEZUELA,
DRIVING HIS POSSESSIONS BEFORE HIM

'J Aj> *"•


M
yf^^-M
SOMETIMES ALL THE DAY THROUGH THE HAMMOCK-KU VER AND HIS RARE FELLOW-
TRAVELERS ARE DELIGHTED TO FIND SIX INCHES OF LIQUID MUD ALONG
THE WAY TO QUENCH IHEIR RAGING TROPICAL THIRST
''W.^^ll^
^^<^..^

AS HE PASSES A WAVSIDE SHRINE, WHERE SOME FELLOW-TRAVELER HAS BEEN DONE


TO DEATH L\ THE BAKINc; WILDERNESS, LOPEZ REVERENTLY UNCOVERS

^^^HPmi^^MHP
"^ ^:/
N^i
> ^•>••
11
pP^

^
IIIIIJI^J^'"-'*-^-!

9^p IP*" '


%
'^^^^^^^B

^^^^^W|HB
n
V
ILL A 1'
LAST,AFTER TRAMPING HOT AND AVEARV DAYS, THE H AM MOC K-BL VER
ENTERS HIS NATIVE VILLAGE OF EL PILAR DE BARCELONA
AFTER NEARLY A MONTH OF ABSENCE
The Proposal
By MARY CAROLYN DAVIES

THE See
carved chair
how
is

straight and
angry with me.
stiff it is.

It disapproves
Because I have on my green slippers
And because I have danced a hole in my stocking,
And perhaps, too, because I am happy.

The mirror loves me;


And so I bend to kiss it
Where my own lips show leaning to meet me.

The mirror understands.


Because it has seen into the hearts of many women.
And I shall be a woman soon.

Swaving curtains, you are not more beautiful


Than I
You are not more graceful.
Nor does the wind curl its fingers about you more readily.
You sway and dream.
Even so do I sway in the wind of life, and dream.

Fire on the hearth,


What do you know?
Iam very young.
And you have lived through the ages.
Tell me.
But perhaps I would not believe, after all.

Portrait of a kissed lady.


Portrait of a man who is growing old.
Portrait of a child who would rather be playing,
Portraits of dead people,
Do you live again when you see me?
Do 3^ou remember, too?

Square ceiling,
You have kept the sky from me for a long time.
But now I have found the sky.

Walls, your arms have held me close,

But soon other arms shall hold me.

Shadows playing in the room,


Leaping, clutching at one another.
You are too young to understand.

Romp, shadows ! Frolic and leap


When the fire goes, you shall not play any more.
Inside-Out
The Story of Bunder-Runder, the Jailbird

By LAURENCE HOUSMAN
Illustration by George E. GIguere

BUNDER-RUNDER was in jail. He I shall not belong to it. I shall be old,


was there for having talked too much, but I shall have made nothing." And as
for saying things which the owners of the he thought thus, his very blood seemed to
jail did not at all like, and which those be weeping— the warm, swift blood which
who did not own the jail liked only too ran strenuously through him, touching as
well. with tears the heart and head and feet
The people of the country did not and hands, which henceforth were to be
own the jail; that you must quite under- useless.
stand. It was owned by those of another Every time he began thinking, grief
country ; the natives only paid for it. That took hold of his thoughts and drew them
was Bunder-Runder's complaint, or one to the same end.
of them. He did not yet know how good "I am shut up in walls," he cried. "It
itwas for a people not to own jails at all, were better that I were dead." Just as
and how much better it was to be in a his blood went weeping through his body,
jail than to own one. Would he ever find so through his went
brain his thoughts
that out, do you think? What can a jail weeping from place to place; round and
teach one? round wearily they went, beating a high-
In this jail Bunder-Runder was to re- road for grief to travel by.
main for ten years. He was a young man, After he had been in prison for a while,

strong, rather beautiful. Women loved food was brought to him, and he ate; but
to look at him. They laughed when they he did not know why he ate.

saw him put forth his strength easily to "I am eating only to become old," he
do them a service; they laughed more said to himself. "What good is that to
when they put their children into his arms me?" He left off eating.
for him to play with. He had not yet any But presently he grew so hungry that
children of his own. That was soon to food seemed good to him again, and time

have been love, marriage, and home. not so long or so vain a thing as dying
The vision he had long had of them was without having learned all that there was
then to become a dear, kind, foolish reality, to learn.
a little world of his own to shape and So when food was again brought to him
cherish and make grow, sweeter and more he ate, sitting to it in seemly fashion, with

beautiful than all the bigger world around thoughts turned aside from grief for a
him. But now, no. That little world, while to the strange beauty and brother-
on the making of which his mind had been hood of which grew and were
things
bent, had fallen from his hand, shattered. serviceable toman.
Ten years! Then his mind went out to the rice-
"When I come out," Bunder-Runder fields, green and waving and changing
said to himself, "I shall be old. Every color toward ripeness from day to day;
one will have forgotten me. It will be changing, too, as the light fell on them,
like another world my thoughts will not
; morning or evening, from east or west
have gone into it, or anything I have done and at night, under moon and stars, more
603
604 THE CExNTURY MAGAZINE
wonderfull}^ changed still, and always dif- through ignorance and cruelty and fear.
ferent, yet always inwardly the same. Because they don't know, that is why peo-
But as soon as he had finished eating, ple are afraid of one another and being ;

his thoughts came back to him with a afraid, they become cruel. That is why
shock, and he remembered that he was a they build walls, not here only. All over
prisoner. the world it is the same— walls, walls.
"I shall see the rice-fields shining no As walls grow rotten and old, as long as
more," he said, "till I am old. Then they fear lasts, they will make us build others
will have ceased to shine, for then with in place of them."
my old eyes I shall no longer see them." Bunder-Runder laid his hand on his
And turning his face to the wall, he wept. prison-wall; he felt the strength and the
It was always the same wall his thoughts depth of it, how well it was built, what a
came back to. lot of brick and stone lay there, im-
The same wai How long had that prisoned like himself, but for much longer
wall been there? How had it come? a time. Of that imprisonment not ten or
Who were the men that had built it? He twenty or would see the end.
fifty years
began to look at and to examine it. It "Brothers," Bunder-Runder, "I
said
was strong, but it was not very old ; not am sorry for you. For your setting free
so old, he thought, as his own father. is further away than mine; before you
Yet it seemed older, for already within its even begin to be old I shall be dead. Old
narrow space many young lives had pined age is good, is it not? But it is so far
and faded and grown old waiting for away."
freedom. Thus to his prison-wall he spoke, pitying
Then, as he' bethought him, he knew it.

how it had com.e, and what men had had Suddenly he had a thought: it stood up
the building of it. They were his own and looked at him. It seemed to be stand-
brothers, his countrymen and they, not ; ing only on one foot, on the very point of
gladly or willingly, but being ordered to a toe, as if to show, even without motion,
it and for payment, had built this wall how light and quick and alert it could be.
to be a prison for themselves and others. Then it seemed as though it lifted a hand
They had drawn clay from the beds of and beckoned to him,
dried rivers, they had made bricks, they "Let us go out!" it said.
had hewn stone and timber, they had "How can one go out through this
mixed plaster and mortar, they had reared wall?" said Bunder-Runder. "We are in
up beam and roof, cutting off light and prison."
air from the space below, dividing it into "There no wall that / cannot get
is

cells and now into this space below he,


; through," said his thought. It gave a

their brother, had come to be kept, wasted flick of its foot, and was gone.

and useless, to bury bit by bit, one day at A moment later, and it was back again,
a time, with nothing of change to make "Outside there is sunshine," it said.
one seem different from another, the ten "Yes," said Bunder-Runder, very at-
most beautiful years of his life, with all tentive.
their gladness taken out of them. "There has been rain," his thought went
"Oh, Brothers, why have you done this on. "The wells are all full, the streams
to me?" he cried. are running down from the hills ; the frogs
And suddenly his own thoughts an- are singing in the marshes, and the rice-
swered for them. fields are beginning to look green."
"Because we could not help ourselves; "I know," said Bunder-Runder.
because we are all broken parts of that Other thoughts began cropping up thick
which was meant to be one whole. All and fast in and out they went.
; It was

over the world men are building walls, quite true that there was no wall they
dividing themselves each from each, could not get through.
606 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
They began crowd in on him.
to less he is planning some way by •hich to

Bunder-Runder let them come and go escape.

again just as they liked. He made them The governor seemed to think as the

all welcome. If they wished to stay, they jailer did ; he caused Bunder-Runder to
stayed ; if they wished to go, they went. be brought before him, and examined him
Bunder-Runder sat in a sort of dream. up and down, and could discover nothing.
"This wall is wearing thin," he said to He caused his cell to be searched, and, to
himself and laughed, while quicker and make doubly sure, had him transferred to
quicker his thoughts went in and out. another. But despite it all, the singing
Presently he began singing. First he of Bunder-Runder went on, and some days
began imitating the song of the frogs, then it was as though he were burying not
of the birds. Hearing so much noise going one rich uncle, but ten.

on within, one of the jailers looked in on In a way that is what Bunder-Runder


him. But Bunder-Runder was outside, was doing. He was burying one after
and did not see him; Bunder-Runder was another all the injuries that life had done
up in the hills. He had climbed quite him in the days when he was at liberty,

high he was looking down on the plain


; and from the grave of every injury and in-

he could see all the streams shining a way justice that he buried a little kindness
through the grain-fields he could see ; men sprang up to life and came to keep him
driving bullocks along the road he could ; company. Bunder-Runder's cell became
hear them call as they passed to other full of these little kindnesses. They sat

men working in the fields; he could hear round him and under him, they leaned
"Hi, you!" cried his jailer for the third over him, they laughed and jested, push-
time. "Not so much noise in there!" ing him this way and that. Every morn-
Bunder-Runder came with a
back ing when he woke they pushed him into
bound, and sat cross-legged, smiling up at the open. He left his cell behind, passing
the eye which looked in on him through through the thin walls, and followed their
the hole in the door. leading away over the shining plains and
"High and mighty and merciful, I beg into the lives of people he knew and of
pardon," said Bunder-Runder, respect- others he had never known, and of others
fully; "I forgot myself; I did not re- still who had not yet been born.
member where I was. It is a beautiful He began to make a poem about them
day, is it not?" all in his own head ; he must not write it

The jailer grunted and withdrew, and down. That occupied him day by day ;

Bunder-Runder was off again. He came it grew larger, filling his mind.. He sat
back to his cell to sleep, quite tired, but very silent his jailer no more complained
;

most wonderfully refreshed. Truly, as of him.


he had said, it had been a beautiful day. "His spirit is properly broken," said he
After that the days grew more and more to the governor; "he has become good."
beautiful. In and out went his thoughts; And the governor gave him a good-con-
they never left him alone. He was always duct mark.
forgetting himself, and sang without In the course of three years Bunder-
knowing it. Runder earned a lot of good-conduct
His jailer reported him to the governor. marks, but he did not know of it. The
"Bunder-Runder," he said, "is always poem was nearly finished that was ; all he
making more noise than he has any right cared about.
to. From the way he sings, Sahib, you It was a very beautiful poem, all about
would think he was at a festival or at a children— children of tender years, chil-
wedding or at a rich uncle's funeral. I dren in the spring of youth, in the full
can't cure him of it I 've left him without
; strength of manhood, and in the decline of
light and I 've left him without food, and age ; for he had found out that secret
still he goes on. It 's not reasonable un- which keeps ali\e the common child in us
INSIDE-OUT 607

all. When the governor of the prison a wonderful scent filled his brain ; he
came and spoke to him, Bunder-Rundcr ceased to see the faces that thronged about
heard him— under his beard and inside him or hear the voices of the people. For-
that fat, red his— babbling like
face of ward and forward he moved till he came
a child ; and putting it into his poem as to a deep sleep.
soon as the governor's back was turned, he In the evening, just before sunset, the
swung his head this way and that and jailer opened the door of Bunder-Runder's
laughed : for the babbling of the governor's cell. He looked in then, without looking
;

voice was as sweet to him as the sound of again, he ran fast, fast to fetch the governor.
a brook that runs down to empty itself into He was almost too frightened to speak
the great river and into the sea. It but what he did say was enough to make
wanted only that: the poem was done. the governor understand that the prison
Out in the world everything had begun rules were being broken. So the governor
to spring; flowers and the young green put on an angry countenance and came
fields of rice and music ifi the living heart with him to the door of Bunder-Runder's
and from every tree, a little shaken by the cell.

wind, came fragrance to catch the breath Inside sat Bunder-Runder very still,
and a twinkle of leaves make delight to
to his legs crossed, his hands resting upon his
the eye. Bunder-Runder was there in the feet ; and all about him hung garlands of
midst of it all; oh, yes, he was there. His flowers, breathing incense very strange.
poem was finished now, and he stood on The cell was full of their fragrance.

the ridge of hills looking out over the "Number 109," said the governor,
villages of the plains, and in every village, "where did you get those flowers?"
he knew, festival was going on, and peo- Bunder-Runder did not answer.
ple were rejoicing, perhaps not knowing "Go and give him a shake," said the
why. But he knew that it was because governor. "He is asleep."

the eternal child in Nature was looking "Sahib, I dare not," replied the jailer.

once more into men's eyes as unspoiled as So the governor went and did it him-
ever, as clear and shining and pure as in self. At the governor's touch Bunder-
the days of old. For hundreds and Runder bowed softly forward, his face to

thousands of years wrong and cruelty had the ground and suddenly all the garlands
;

been trying to possess and cover the earth ;


of flowers that were upon him faded away,
but it had failed, and Nature was as much leaving only their fragrance behind.
a child as she had ever been. The governor turned and ran out of the
Bunder-Runder, with his finished poem cell, for he too was afraid. Bunder-
in his heart, followed his thoughts from Runder was just as harmless now that he
village to village; and everywhere he went was dead as ever he had been in life, and
he found a home waiting for him. He yet the governor w^as afraid. That is often
had not to speak: the meaning of his the way. People are afraid of things they
poem was in his face; people came and do not understand.
looked at him, then ran to tell others, and The where Bunder-Runder lived
cell

word of him went before. Everywhere those years making his poem has
three
he went that day whole villages came out been many times washed and disinfected
to meet him. The children and the young but there is still something the matter with
women threw garlands upon him as he it, and it is almost, useless, for when a

passed. He became a wagon of flowers; prisoner is put into it he sings.


By ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE
It is evident the "Recollections," hitherto unpublished, was ad-

dressed to W. B. Scott, and was intended as the dedication to

"Poems and Ballads: Second Series," 1878, but was held back
when Swinburne determined to dedicate that volume to Richard
Burton. "Poems and Ballads: Third Series" was dedicated to
Scott in a poem which contains two lines that occur in "Recol-
lections."— E. G.

YEARS have sped from us under the sun,


Through blossom and snow-tides twenty-one,
Since first your hand as a friend's was mine.

In a season whose daj's are yet honey and wine,


To the pale, close lips of Remembrance, shed
By the cup-bearer Love for desire of the dead ;

And the weeds I send you may half seem flowers


In eyes that were lit by the light of its hours.
For the life (if at all there be life) in them grew
From the sun then risen on a young day's dew,
When ever in August holiday-times
I rode or swam through a rapture of rhymes,

Over heather and crag, and by scaur and by stream,


Clothed with delight by the might of a dream.
With the sweet, sharp wind blown hard through my hair,

On eyes enkindled and head made bare,


Reining my rhymes into royal order
Througli honeyed leagues of the nurthland border
Or loosened a song to seal for me
A kiss on the clamourous mouth of the sea.

So swarmed and sprang, as a covey they start,

The song-birds hatched of a hot, glad heart,


With notes too shrill and a windy joy
RECOLLECTIONS 609
Fluttering and firing the brain of a boy,
With far, keen echoes of painless pain
Beating their wings on his heart and his brain.
Till a life's whole reach, were it brief, were it long,
Seemed but a field to be sown with song.

The snow-time is melted, the flower-time is fled,

That were one to me then for the joys they shed.


Joys in garland and sorrows in sheaf,

Rose-red pleasure and gold-eared grief,


Reared of the rays of a mid-noon sky,

I have gathered and housed them, worn and put by


These wild-weed waifs with a wan-green bloom
Found in the grass of that old year's tomb,
Touched by the gleam of it, soiled with its dust,

I well could leave in the green grave's trust,


Lightly could leave in the light wind's care
Were all thoughts dead of the dead life there.

But if some note of its old glad sound


In your ear should ring as a dream's rebound.
As a song that sleep in his ear keeps yet.
Though the senses and soul rewaking forget.
To none so fitly the sprays I send
Could come as at hail of the hand of a friend.
The Neutrals and the Allied Cause
By HENDRIK WILLEM VAN LOON
Author of " The World after the War," " ' Planmaessig '
and 'Ausgeschlossen,' " etc

THE key to immediate victory


great European War is in the
in
hands
the nations.
refuse to
Yet
risk
these
a single
same small nations
man or a single
of the small neutral states of the Con- dollar for the benefit of the good cause.
tinent. If the Scandinavian countries or They allow own boys and
us to waste our
Holland or Switzerland were willing to our and ultimately they will reap
billions,

open their frontier to either party, a the benefits of our victory, together with
sudden thrust at Germany or England the rest of the world. Meanwhile they
would undoubtedly bring triumph to the keep their armies along their frontier,
favored neighbor. against both sides, and do not come to our
The truth of this statement is well assistance." And the neutral thereupon
known, and often it puzzles the American is asked to give an account of himself and
observer, to whom the intricacies of to make clear to all why he follows so
European history are a profound and strange a course during this serious crisis

somewhat negligible mystery. Then he in history.

is apt to reason as follows: "Here we To answer this question, the corre-


Americans and Englishmen and French- spondent of The Century Magazine
men and Serbians and a score of other has visited the Scandinavian countries and
countries are making every possible sac- Holland and has tried to learn the exact
rifice to gain a victory which ought to ap- causes which make these small states un-
peal to the democratic little nations of willing to join with either party. He
Europe. They all know that they have wrote down his observations on the spot,
nothing to fear from us. We have stated in order that they might be fresh, and not
our own unselfish aims,and the rulers of suffer from the introspective philosophy
our allies have repeatedly insisted that they which is apt to creep into the work of the
fight this war for the benefit of the small professional historian.
610
THE NEUTRALS AND THE ALLIED CAUSE 611

a nation in the most restricted sense of the


Stockholm, Sweden. word. Every individual citizen of the
The clock of Swedish history struck in small republic in the heart of Europe feels
the year of grace 1648. There were a few himself to be Swiss,first, last, and all the

vague rumblings half a century later. time. His personal sympathies may be
After that everything was quiet. Sweden, with the French, the Italians, or the Ger-
deprived of her role as a great power, con- mans, but he does not allow his personal
tinued to exist and to perform very sympathies to interfere with his faithful
valuable services in a more humble fashion. allegiance to the interests of his common
But whenever the people of the country in- country. What is true of Switzerland is

quire after the time of day, they look at true in an even larger degree of the
their old timepiece, and feel contented Scandinavian countries. These Northern
that the world has stood still for at least nations are not very demonstrative in

two centuries. It will be well to re- their feelings. The climate and the fright-
member connection with the com-
this in ful difficulties of mere existence have made
plications which at the present moment the people taciturn and reticent, poverty
exist between Sweden and the Allies. has driven them to all corners of the earth
These complications are not dangerous. but the feeling of home, the affection for
They may be avoided entirely. But it will the barren farm, remains forever. As soon
take a certain amount of good-will on both as enough money has been gathered, the
sides to escape a misunderstanding be- emigrant turns immigrant, and goes back
tween this country and the Entente, two to his home. Watch a boat carrying pros-
parties who at heart have every reason to perous farmers from Minnesota or Wis-
be good friends and no cause at all to be consin sailing up the fiord of the old
enemies. These remarks are not written country, and you willknow what I mean.
in a spirit of criticism. They are the at- Swede, Norwegian, and Dane, each with
tempt of a neutral observer to light a little a thousand years of honorable history be-
candle of information in the dark gloom hind him, are proud of what has been
of ignorance in which, from a newspaper done, and fully intend that more shall
point of view, our Scandinavian friends follow. But they insist upon working out
are doomed to live. The lack of positive their own salvation after their own fashion,
knowledge about the neutral countries, and being guided by their own counsel.
especially about their historical traditions, And after this general introduction, let
issomething which fills an unbiased critic me come down to the concrete facts about
with a great deal of fear. Many un- Sweden.
fortunate things may occur at any moment, A witty French journalist once said to
and they would be entirely due to the me, course we Frenchmen shall al-
"Of
thorough misunderstanding of our neigh- ways be good friends with the Russians:
bor's point of view. Indeed, one often they live two thousand miles away from
wishes that those brilliant writers who are us." There was very much political
now at the front, and who use their shrewdness in the observation. The present
ability to chronicle the events of a slow, attitude of every neutral state is the re-
but certain, victory, might be sent to their sult of its geographical situation and its

neutral neighbors to assist in bringing historical development. A single look at


about a more sympathetic feeling in those the map of Sweden will tell the reader
countries where the ultimate sympath}- of more about that country's attitude toward
the people may yet be gained. Russia than many pages of writing.
One thing and ought to be
is certain, Draw between Stockholm
a straight line
well understood in America the small : and Abo. in Finland, and right in the
neutral states of Europe are, each in its middle of that line you will find the Aland
own way, compact national units. Even Islands.
Switzerland, with its three languages, is These islands, together with Finland,
612 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
used to be a Swedish possession. They by the House of Romanoff. And the
were lost at same time that Finland
the Swedish people are solemnly assured that
came to Russia. The Swedes claim, and against further Russian aggression they
apparently with some right, that Russia can count upon one single friend. That
guaranteed to leave these islands unforti- friend is Germany.
fied. This stipulation did not interest Not a chance is omitted to bring home
them much when the treaty was made in the virtues of the German cause against
the beginning of the nineteenth century. the threat of "barbarian Russian hordes"
At the present moment, however, with and envious commercial rivals. Just
guns that carry an incredible distance, the recently the book-stores have been flooded
fortifications of the Aland Islands almost with a German book about the Battle of
threaten the mouth of the harbor of Stock- Jutland. It is an excellent piece of work
holm. The Russian fleet, with a base at from the point of view of the printer and
Mariehamn, can control the greater part the binder. It contains many illustrations,
of Sweden's navigation. To make a long maps, and some very plausible reading
story short, the Swedes do not like it at matter. There is more than that. There
all.They claim — and if their claims are is a little stroke of subtle genius hidden
wrong from the point of view of the within its pages. At the end of the book
Allies, it might be useful to show their the neutral reader finds historical pictures
error to the Swedish public —
that Russia of naval engagements of former ages. It

fortified the Aland Islands against her is unnecessary to say that they represent
solemn promise of a century ago, that engagements in which Great Britain was
Sweden complained of this treatment in not victorious. And the neutral reader
London, and that the British Government who sees these old prints gets a pleasant
never came to her assistance or even ex- feeling of pride when he recollects the
pressed official disapproval of this Russian days of glory when his own ships swept
contempt for a scrap of paper. I hope the seas. It is all an admirable piece of
that the reader will understand me. I propaganda, and shows that the admiralty
am not endeavoring to write a learned in Berlin possesses a press-agent who
treatise upon the rights and wrongs of knows his business ; for after a first perusal
the Swedish assertions. I am stating the of the German claims, the neutral citizen
Swedish case without regard to any an- who is still in doubt comes across these
swer there may be. I am telling what evident signs that the British fleet can be
the mass of the people here believe to beaten. Naturally he says to himself, "Of
be the truth, and I ask you to regard this course, if we small nations could do it,

question in the light in which the Ameri-- why not the Germans, with their well-
can people would have regarded the forti- trained fleet ?" and he goes over to the
fication of the islands of the West Indies order of the day. This is a matter which
by the Germans. is really of grave importance.
Furthermore, do not forget that the Here in Stockholm the people get the
German Government is very much awake German news days and often weeks be-
to all such matters. Learned doctors of fore they see an Allied paper. It is the
history from famous universities discuss same in Copenhagen. The German papers
the minute details of the case. The Aland are hurried across the frontier,and reach
Islands are described from the time when the Danish capital a few hours after publi-
the first Rurik landed there on his way cation. They are sent to Stockholm vvith
to the Slavic tribes of the Dniester. Their all possible despatch. Their news is
history is followed through the glorious spread broadcast in a country where Ger-
age of Charles XII and Gustavus Adol- man is quite as well understood as English.
phus up to the last disastrous wars when Except in Norway, it is usually better
Sweden's aspirations to be the leading known than English. Then, after the
power of northern Europe were defeated German version of things has had five days
THE NEUTRALS AND THE ALLIED CAUSE 613
or a week to "soak in," to use an eloquent, Stockholm and Copenhagen and Amster-
if inelegant, phrase, the English papers dam for the dissemination of news items,
come. They make statements which flatly often criminally unfair to the neutral
contradict the German assertions. The country, we have from an Allied point of
German propagandist finds it easy to view many reasons to be grateful. It
answer them. "Of course," he says, "the would not surprise us if the people of
Allies have had so many days in which most neutral countries were pro-German.
to cook up some kind of story," and the It is a cause of great satisfaction that they
British statement is politely smiled out have steadfastly remained favorable to the
of the court of historical evidence. The Allies.
classical example of this quick journalistic Nations are like families. When they
work is thenews of the same Battle of lose their come upon evil
fortunes and
Jutland. Those of us in America who days they begin to live upon the glory of
lived through it will never forget the past times. The interest which the in-
gloom of that Saturday afternoon when habitants of the small European nations
it seemed that the world had come to an take in their country's history would sur-
end and the British fleet had been beaten. prise most American people. To many
Sunday morning was little better. Finally, of them the past has a greater and more
on Monday afternoon, came the true ver- vital actuality than the present. They are
sion. By that time the German papers apt to speak and think in terms of by-
were in great mirth. From Saturday gone ages. The modern Athenian news-
afternoon on they had been predicting that papers, writing editorialsupon the Allies
England would "claim" a victory. Then, at Saloniki in words of Homeric splendor,
when England did not only "claim" a are acting upon the same instinct which
victory, but actually insisted upon having made the Swedish Government reintro-
worsted the German fleet, the German duce the cocked hat of Charles XII for
papers smiled that rather offensive smile their infantry regiments. That hat tells

of derision which used to appear upon the its own story. It proclaims to all the
faces of our Prussian friends if one dared world that the aspirations of the eigh-
to question their moral, ethical, and in- teenth century are not yet dead in this

tellectual superiority, and they said : "We country. Whether this is a childish
told you so. Give the English three days masquerade or a rejuvenation of the old
in which to invent a few plausible ex- Swedish spirit the future alone can tell
cuses, and there you are." but we have to take account of that cocked
Now, it is all very well and very easy hat. And if we wish to avoid all compli-
for the people in England to say that those cations in the future, we are obliged to
Swedes and Danes and Americans ought study the motives which are tucked away
to know better. But where can they go in the brains covered by this same old-
to learn the true version of things? It is fashioned headgear.
not difficult for the people in Denmark, Sweden, as we have said, is very proud
who were the nearest witnesses of this of its past, and it intends to maintain its

battle, to know the truth. There is not a sovereignty against the claims of all sides.

soul in Denmark who sees this battle in If the Allies suppose that it has some
any other light but a defeat for Germany. grounds upon which to complain of
But Sweden and America and Holland Sweden's attitude, let us state at once
and the other neutral countries are far that Germany is fully as discontented with
away. They must get their news abroad. the behavior of her Baltic neighbor. The
When we consider that for over two years active Swedish torpedo-boats patrol every
they have been well supplied with plaus- inch of the coast, and German submarines
ible and often most convincing German are constantly reminded of the three-mile
information, v/hile many of the Allied territorial limit by shells from Swedish
news agencies have used the head-lines of guns. Sweden is equally uncompromising
614 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
to both sides. In emphatic terms the will get it if the British publisher is will-
Swedes have made it clear that their ing to grant the terms to which his

country is neutral territory. Unless it Swedish customer is accustomed. Before


comes to the point of actual war, they will the war the book probably came through
allow no trespassing. Whether the Allies, the Leipsic clearing-house. At the present
with their great naval power, will permit moment it does not come at all. Leipsic
this to continue we do not know. On the is forbidden territory, and London and
other hand, it may be well to remember New York are indifferent.
that this strong foreign policy is main- The people in their different classes re-
tained against both sides with complete im- flect this easy access toward the Teutonic
partiality, and that no favors are shown. Take first of all the Swedish
civilization.
Often those students of foreign history They play a role in Sweden. In
nobility.
who restrict their investigations to the con- Norway and Denmark the nobility is ex-
fines of their comfortable study reduce the tinct or reduced to a state of somnolent
attitude of all neutrals to statistics about vegetation. In Sweden it stands on very
butter, eggs, and fish. If a neutral shows firm and capable legs. This nobility con-
signs of being indifferent to the claims of sists partly of the old landed gentry, partly
the Allies, the reason must be found in his of the chevaliers d'industrie who made
resentment at the i^educed import of pig- their fortunes during the religious wars of
iron or potatoes. We condemn him for the seventeenth century. was during It
his obstinacyand praise his neighbor, who the first half of that century that Sweden
is good neutral and sails into Kirkwall
a discovered a gold-mine. The name of that
without further ado. Those of us, how- gold-mine was the Holy Roman Empire.
ever, who know the neutral nations well The Thirty Years' War reduced the
are convinced that economic considerations population of Germany from sixteen to
are not the only ones to influence the four millions. It reduced a very high
opinion of an entire country. They play degree of prosperity to absolute poverty.
only a small role. The heavy carts of Gustavus Adolphus
We have drawn attention to the geo- rumbled down the roads of Pomerania
graphic and historical background of loaded with the accumulated wealth of
Sweden. Now we
must say a few words many generations of industrious German
about another item which goes to make vip merchants and artisans. The seventeenth
the sum total of Sweden's attitude toward century called these spoils "war trophies."
the war. The word "cultural" has a In the plain language of our own time
bad meaning since the day when Kultur they were stolen goods. They brought to
broke its natural bounds and flooded a poor country an amount of gold and
France -and Belgium. But the reader w^ill silver which laid the fortunes of many il-

know what mean. I have reference tO'


I lustrious Adventurers from
families.
the thousand and one small items of edu- many countries became Swedish grandees,
cation «nd reading and art and music and and their descendants enjoy the ancient
social life which, eachin its own way^ privileges as cheerfully as the grand-
contribute toward the general point of children of some Napoleonic duke. This
view of every individual man of every na- class, however, does not often come to
tion. Just as in Norway the intellectual England. It is no deep secret that
windows of the country open toward the Continental nobility docs not always en-
west, those of Sweden open toward the joy a visit to the British Isles. In the
east. In Stockholm the "Berliner Tage- United Kingdom, where plain Mr. Jones
blatt" is more commonly read than the may be of a more illustrious parentage
"Times." If you want a text-book upon than a dozen barons, the Continental
a scientific subject, you will find the Ger- nobleman does not always find the diffi-
man copy in stock. The English one must dent attitude which he expected to dis-
come from London or New York. You cover. When the summer comes, he
THE NEUTRALS AND THE ALLIED CAUSE 615

therefore goes to a German watering- editions which cost a few cents swamp the
place; and when his daughter marries, he country, while five and six shilling editions
welcomes a German son-in-law. He is stand forlornly on the counter until they
willing to pay an occasional visit to Eng- turn yellow with age.
land, but he thoroughly prefers the Conti- This exchange of literary products
nent, where "they speak his own language" works both ways. The Germans have
and treat him according to his rank. been careful to discover new talent among
Next in the social scale comes the well- the Scandinavian people. Almost every
to-do middle class. The lawyers and doc- book of importance written in Swedish is

tors and merchants of Sweden have sons, at once translated into German. The
and these sons must be educated. When author is happy to receive added fame and
they have finished their work in Sweden added Let a Swede sing or play
royalties.
they are sent abroad. As a matter of course the piano, and he is certain of a warm
they are sent to Germany. This does not welcome on the other ^ide of the Baltic.
mean that the Swede prefers the German Mind you, this is not a question of a few
character or the German
point of view years' intentional propaganda. It rep-
to that of the English. But what could resents a condition of affairs which has
a Swedish student do in the United been going on for more than half a
Kingdom? He might go to Oxford or century. Germany has endeavored to win
Cambridge if he had been educated along She has en-
the friendship of the Swedes.
the unique lines which lead up to the couraged young Swedes to study in her
entrance examinations of these ancient universities and has welcomed Swedish
and celebrated universities, but he could talent. There was nothing secret or
not obtain a degree which would assist hidden about it, no more than about the
him in his career at home. And socially German money which was invested in

he might perhaps be a bit lonely. Swedish industries. It was a very careful


Of course he could go to a technical uni- attempt to gain and retain the good-will
versity in But in his own
America. of a neighbor.
country he is work with the
obliged to Meanwhile on the eastern frontier
metrical system. The knowledge gained hardly a year went by without some cause
in England or America might have to be of friction between Sweden and her former
forgotten before he tried to apply it to the rival and her present neighbor, Russia. Of
conditions at home. And so he, too, goes Russia and its political lifeSweden saw
to a German university, and unconsciously only the worst sides. Sweden had to
he receives many more German impres- guard against wholesale smuggling. It

sions than he does Anglo-Saxon. When had to watch its frontier against unde-
he comes home he is apt to continue his sirable revolutionary elements. It was
interest in German books and German obliged to look on while a supposedly
music, and he remembers all the nice neutral part of the Baltic was heavily
things of his residence in Germany. For fortified. Then came the crash of war in

so it seems to be decreed in this world, that 1 9 14.For almost a month Sweden was
when we leave another country and go cut off from all Allied news, and was
back to live among our native surround- liberally supplied with German news.
ings, we remember everything foreign in Thereupon came a time of extreme ir-
the brilliant colors of perfect happiness. ritation caused by the blockading measures
It may be argued that a man of superior of the Allies. Meanwhile the German
education ought to take an interest in propaganda worked with steady industry.
Anglo-Saxon matters as well as in Ger- And yet, when all is said and done, the
man. That is very true. But German mass of Swedish people never accepted
books are cheap beyond belief. The Ger- the plausible explanations of Belgium's
man book trade is most obliging to its violation. If the Swedes are not highly
foreign customers. The little Reclam enthusiastic about the cause of the Allies,
616 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
neither do the\- show any desire to take sensible and peaceful living seems to have
the side of the German friend. Sweden been brought to its highest perfection. If
is the only neutral country in this war only the chauffeurs of the Danish capital
which has really and truly maintained would learn how to drive their cars, we
all its rights to the best of its ability. The should not have a single complaint to make
Swedish Government has often been too against a country where everybody seems
formalistic, too pedantic, in its attitude well fed, where beggars are as scarce as
toward practical affairs of modern politics, very rich people, and where the women
but the neutral observer knows exactly live up to the best traditions of the charm-
where Sweden stands. The cocked hat ing china which is made in the royal fac-
of King Charles may make us smile, but tories of this delightful kingdom.
there is an idea bej^ond all this naive Indeed, the atmosphere in the three
comedy. There is unity of purpose and capitals of the Northern countries is about
strength. There is the will to live up to as different as anything can well be.
the native ideal of a sovereign nation Christiania, the rustic metropolis of a
which will be the master of itsown people of small farmers and sailors ; Stock-
destiny. It may be right and it may be holm, the seat of a mighty idea, and the
wrong, but this feeling exists. And those heart of a nation which clings to its own
who wish to study the case of Sweden proud Copenhagen,
recollections; the
will do well to go beyond the statistics of center of a small country which has played
import and export. These tell something, its role, which is quite contented to let

but the real story is told in terms which bygones be bygones, and which has for all
have no connection with direct material time retired from the field of perilous in-
gain. ternational politics. Happy the land
which keeps its name from the front page
Copenhagen, Denmark. of the newspapers. Denmark enjoys this
It used to be said that each country distinction. Just at present it receives
could be known by the Jews who lived some attention on account of the sale of
within its borders. In the same way every its West Indian colonies. Many dark
city can be judged by the character of its motives have been seen behind this very
policemen. In Christiania the policeman simple exchange of good American dol-
is a mild and amiable citizen in a rather lars for some useless territory in the
shiny coat, and none too neat, who stands Caribbean. The facts of the matter are
in the middle of theroadway and tries really very simple. Denmark had re-

to maintain some semblance of order in tained these colonies because nobody had
the democratic muddle of the city's traffic. ever wanted them badly enough. Since
In Stockholm the policeman is a walking the African slave was set free, these islands
arsenal, with sword and pistol and a brass have produced nothing. The Hamburg-
helmet, and the arrest of a disorderly per- American line has been using them as a
son becomes an act of state. There the sort of coaling-station and general store-
policeman represents the high authority of house. Outside of a few Danish officials,
a proud country. He fulfils his duty with the islands were virtually the private pos-
stern severity. He is the symbol of law session of a German steamship line. It is

and established order. Let no one touch of greater ad\'antage to America to make
these fundaments of a well-regulated com- these islands the official possession of tlu^

monwealth. In Copenhagen the police- United States than to allovy them to fall
man is neither the happy-go-lucky citizen into the hands of the very high senate of
who patrols the streets of Norway nor is the Hamburg municipality. Hence Amer-
he a creature of resplendent glory like ica bought them. Since such colonies are
his colleague in Sweden. He strikes a sold only once, Denmark asked a great
happy medium. In this he is an excellent deal of money. America offered a little
representative of a land where the art of less. As soon as a happy medium was
THE NEUTRALS AND THE ALLIED CAUSE 617
struck, the islands were sold. The money often before that he does not take any
will undoubtedly be used to excellent pur- stock in it. I have written about the in-
pose for the benefit of some social improve- terest which the people of the small na-
ment in the Danish state. Everybody here When the war broke
tions take in history.
is satisfied with the transaction. So much out the continuity of historical feeling in
for Denmark's transoceanic policies. the countries was rudely broken
Allied
What about her attitude toward the off. Age-old enemies became friends, and
present struggles? Here again we touch historical traditions which have survived
a difScult subject. The Danes like the centuries of mutual prejudice were sud-
English and the French. They have an denly thrown overboard. Wellington and
admiration which borders upon a genuine Bliicher cooperating to destroy the com-
affection for the mother of England's king. mon enemy seemed to belong to a very
They like to go to England, and in many remote past. Lord Kitchener and Colonel
ways they entertain a cordial sympathy Marchand cordially shaking hands seemed
for the cause for which England is fight- no more incongruous than eulogies of the
ing. Will they ever do anything more Russian czar, whose recent efforts to sup-
than that? There is every reason to doubt press a revolution had made him and his
it. I know that this attitude in Denmark Government an object of Liberal scorn.
often puzzles the American reader. All this was quite natural. When you go
"Here," he argues, "is a country which out to fight a fire which threatens your
was deprived of one third of its territory city you do not ask whether your neighbor
by Germany, yet it does not want to come who helps you to work the pumps wor-
and help us fight the good fight and ships in the same church with you or
avenge itself for the brutal attack which drinks cognac before or after dinner. You
it suffered fifty years ago." This is an have a common purpose. All other con-
excellent bit of reasoning, but it does not siderations disappear before the grave
go far enough. The Dane continues the crisis which faces you. With the neutrals,
same line of thought, and adds: "When however, the logical line of history con-
our great hour of need came and we asked tinues without interruption even during
for help, when we appealed to those who war.
had agreed to support us, then we found The crime committed against Belgium
that Europe was not willing to go to war affected the people everywhere. But when
about a scrap of paper. We do not like you ask the Dane or the Swede or the
the thief, neither do we have any love for Swiss to draw the sword against the enemy
the policeman who had promised to pro- ofmankind who has so cruelly betrayed a
tect us and who did not move a finger to weak nation, he will ask you to whom you
rescue us when the Prussians invaded are referring, and he will recite that dreary
Holstein." list of ill-treated small nations which char-
This brings me to a point which I acterizes the history of the last hundred
should like very much to make clear to the years. Europe now asks all countries to
American public. I may be easily mis- come and punish the Germans. What
understood, but perhaps it would be better the Central powers have done cannot be
that what I have to say were more gen- excused, nor can it be explained by a claim
erally known. I now refer to the attitude of necessity. That is true. "But where,"
of virtually all the smaller states of your neutral citizens will ask you— "where
Europe toward the claim of the Allies— was Europe when Hungary was mur-
that they are fighting for a cause which dered out by the combined forces of
means the freedom and the liberty of the Austria and Ri A fevr Londc
world. Try to make clear to yourself brewers afterward tried to lynch an
what this means to the average citizen of Austrian general, but Europe did not move
Holland or Greece or Denmark. It a finger. Why did the leading powers of
means something which he has heard so Europe combine to maintain the unspeak-
618 THE CENTURY MAGAZLNE
sbleTurk in hi*^ ill-rrntl-pn
gotten 1-prrif-nripc
territories r
gentlemen who will guarantee to sell you
And why did these same powers violently or your warring neighbor anything under
deny the truth of the same Armenian the sun provided you pay cash and take
massacres which now fill the world wuth the insurance risks.
horror? Where was Europe when Den- Of the self-sacrifice and the devotion
mark was attacked by a highwayman ? which can be witnessed in the countries at
One powerful sovereign wrote a polite war the neutral citizen notices nothing.
note to an uncle, and stated that the Dan- The passport regulations of the last few
ish question was not worth a European years make traveling virtually impossible.
war and that was all there was to the
; He sees only a game of diplomatic dex-
cause of Denmark. Where was Europe terity by which the different parties try to
when !M. Thiers, the spokesman of ago- gain his support. On all sides he feels
nized France, tried to discover it? Where himself surrounded by belligerent spies.

was Europe when every wrong between Every motive of either side is at once dis-
heaven and earth was perpetrated in Italy, credited by the enemy. The neutral cigar
in the Balkans, in China, everywhere storewindows are filled with rival an- .

where the white man has ever gone ?" And nouncements of the different consulates,
w^ith the recollection of so many ills suf- which call one another by a short and un-
fered because their countries were too complimentary name. The neutral mov-
weak to defend their good right, neither ing-pictures show the spectator the virtues
Dane nor Hollander nor Swede nor Swiss and all the bad qualities of all sides.
will risk the future of their fatherland for Every claim upon neutral sympathy by
the benefit of those who were often his those who fight for the "future of democ-
enemies and rarely his friends. racy" is answered by those who fight to
Of course an argument like this, and it defend civilization against the "aggression
is much more common than you would of Asiatic barbarism."
suppose, can be answered by the simple What is the poor neutral to do? He
question, what would become of these has heard all these things before. In the
small nations if Germany should be vic- past such claims have not defended him
torious? But there we enter the domain against sudden attack by either side. He
of speculation. The recollection of former does the only thing which he feels that
disappointments is stronger than the an- safety compels him to do: he makes up
ticipation of ills which belong to the fu- his mind to keep out of it. International
ture. The neutral citizen plainly fears politics he regards in the light of high
that nothing has changed. His old sus- finance. A poor man has no business to
picion has not left him. You can tell him go and gamble in Wall Street ; a small na-
that the world has changed that ; a new era tion has no business to play the political
of international ethics will take the place game. And Denmark and her small sister
of the old system of predatory politics. He states will follow the only policy which
may be true, but that
will tell you that this experience has taught them to be com-
he understand it. He is better in-
fails to paratively safe. They will mobilize their
formed than many of the belligerents. He armies, they will send all their men to the
has very likely seen the copper trains which frontier, and th^y will proclaim in the
during the first part of the war traveled most forcible way to all sides this one
from obscure Italian harbors to the Ger- command, "Leave our territory alone."
man factories. He may have seen Rus- This does not mean hostility to the side
sian grain sold to the Austrian Govern- of the Allies. The personal sympathies in
ment. All the sordid details of interna- Denmark, as well as in Norway and for the
tional trading and smuggling take place greater part in Sweden, are certainly with
right under his nose. His hotels in Copen- France and England, and absolutely with
hagen and Stockholm are filled with a Belgium but the international methods
;

motley and nondescript crowd of flashy of the last hundred years have filled all
THE NEUTRALS AND THE ALLIED CAUSE 619
these small countries with a dread of all loaf of bread shall reach the Central
foreign complications. They are willing powers by way of Rotterdam or Amster-
and more than ready to alleviate the suf- dam.
fering of the war's victims. As for the Something which is generally ignored
war itself, they recognize only one maxim, is the fact that previous to this war Hol-

"Keep out!" land, among several other free-trading


countries, kept virtually no statistics of
The Hague, Holland. import and Things came and
export.
Of all the neutral countries, Holland things went. Except for a few goods,
has to maintain her neutrality in the most there was no duty of any sort. There-
trying and difficult circumstances. The fore it was not necessary to bother about
kingdom is situated between the devil and the details of trade. Most of the im-
the North Sea. Itno immediate
is in ported merchandise went immediately to
danger. Its defenses (a system of inun- Germany or England. The commodities
dations the counterpart of which have which Holland needed for its own use
stopped the Germans on their way to entered the country from the east and the
Calais) are ample, and every able-bodied west, and nobody bothered. Then came
man is at the frontier. It is in no direct the war, and the old trade routes were
danger of invasion. It is, however, in con- suddenly stopped. America became the
stant danger of starvation. It is obliged only purveyor of everything that was
to go abroad for all its raw material. needed. Coal continued to come from
Without coal, except for a few mines in Germany. The expense of carrying it

Limburg, near the German frontier, across the ocean would have been excessive.
without grain and iron and wool and The great problem was the import of
everything else, it depends for its daily goods from Germany. It soon became ap-
existence upon the good-will of the powers parent that the blockading rules of modern
who command the land and the water, and time had created an entirely new state of
it depends upon these to a far greater ex- affairs. The harsh rules of former times
tent than any other nation. had disappeared. The hostile country
This very difficult position seems to have was now blockaded at a thousand miles
been well understood by the British au- distance. The picturesque old days when
thorities. In the many delicate negotia- the war-ship hunted down the blockade-
which have taken place between the
tions runner had made room for more prosaic,
Government and the ministers of
British but equallyefficient, methods. A short
Queen Wilhelmina the authorities in type-written note to the efifect that such
London have repeatedly shown that they and such a ship would not receive bunker-
understand the perplexing problems of in- coal upon its next voyage made the neutral
ternational law which have faced the captain sail into the port of Kirkwall or
Dutch minister of foreign affairs. Falmouth. The nature of the merchan-
What is white in London is the deepest dise, its character as contraband or pro-

black in Berlin, and what appears to be visional contraband, these questions were
of a pink hue in the Wilhelmstrasse is all settled long before the voyage was

discovered to be a flaming red in Downing undertaken. A little room in a skj'-scraper


Street. The German Government in- of Broadway and a filing-cabinet took the
sists upon every treaty, agreement, and place of the ancient boarding vessel. In
scrap of paper, be it tissue or cardboard, Holland an elaborate machine was con-
which, since days immemorial, have given structed with the assistance of the British
the German hinterland the right to im- commercial attache at The Hague. The
port merchandise through the adjoining Netherlands Overseas Trust Company was
country of the Netherlands. The British founded to enable legitimate Dutch trade
authorities are just as insistent that not a to continue and to prevent the smuggling
solitary herring or a single egg or half a of goods into Germany. Those who pay
620 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
due regard to the difficulties of such an ever, were swept away by the sight of that
undertaking know that this Netherlands endless procession of Belgian refugees who
Overseas Trust Company has worked well. crossed the Dutch frontiers during the first
Every possible means of evading the trust's months of the war. Holland had always
regulations w^as of course tried by the com- been good neighbors, and even good
mercial class which had learned its lessons friends, with Germany. But the people in
in the good international school of modern Belgium are of the same stock as those in
commerce, in which nothing but the profits the Netherlands. They speak the same
count. One after the other the different language. They have the same traditions
tricks were detected, and after two years of political development and art. What
of war it would take a very inventive is more, they share the same faults. And
genius to carry a pound of acknowledged the Hollanders who lived through those
contraband of war into Germany. first days of the war will neither forget
It is different with the immediate pro- nor forgive what was done to Belgium.
ducts of the Dutch soil. With these the To have come into the war at that moment
Overseas Trust Company has nothing to would have meant a repetition of the
do. When a Dutch chicken lays an egg, Belgian devastation on Dutch soil. By
that egg, if its owner does not desire to staying neutral, Holland could at least
consume it himself, is in the open market. become the asylum for all those who pre-
If a Dutch fisherman catches a ton of eels, ferred a voluntary exile to living under
those eels will go to the highest bidder. Bissing's rule.
That is not a matter of neutrality or pro- This strict neutrality of Holland has
German or pro-British feeling. It is a been more detrimental to the Germans
question of that system of highest profits than to the Allies. When Germany took
upon which empires have been built. Antwerp October of the year 19 14, it
in

How far will political considerations go? obtained the strongest and most important
Some papers have suggested to use the en- harbor of the North Sea, and found it
tire power of the Allied fleet to prevent sealed with seven seals. The complete
this. Very well. Nobody in Holland possession of both sides of the Scheldt
doubts that the Entente can do this; but enabled Holland to keep the river closed.
at the same time the Dutch people as a The entire part of the North Sea coast
nation have too great a trust in the fairness which is nearest to the British Isles, and
of the English and American statesmen to which might be of the greatest value to
expect such a course in a matter in which Germany as a station for her Zeppelins
the evidence appears to be on the side of and submarines, is safely in the hands of a
the neutral countries. friendly neutral power, which upon every
As a matter of personal feeling, ninety occasion has shown the greatest leniency
per cent, of the people would rather sell toward shipwrecked men belonging to
to the Allies than to the Germans. Hol- the armies and the navies of the Allies. A
land, as a nation, has very little reason to century of abuse by her neighbors has been
love the big powers. The just treatment forgotten, and every opportunity has been
of South Africa after the Boer War was used to show that the Dutch people at
the first ray of light which seemed to an- large are on the side of the Allies. But
nounce the coming of a better day. The their participation in this war will not de-
old distrust of the big powers is as strong pend upon material gain or political calcu-
in Holland as in Denmark and elsewhere. lation. Their final resolution to join the
The more theoretical and doctrinaire part Allies or remain neutral will depend upon
of the people could see so many ills on the the new code of international ethics which
side of all the big nations that to them the small nations of Europe hope to see
it did not appear that there was much to promulgated by the President of the
choose. All theoretical meditations, how- United States of America.
Dinarzade's Three Weeks ) \

(3r, The Thousand-and-one Words'


Entertainment
By GELETT BURGESS

NOW it was the thousand-and-second night after the marriage of

Schariar, Sultan of Persia, that Shahzenan, his brother, King


of Samarkand, espoused Dinarzade, sister of the Sultana Scheherazade.
And when they were alone, he said unto her
"Lo! ever since my first wife deceived me have 1 longed to wreak
my vengeance upon women, even as did Schariar, my brother. Where-
fore, every night shall I also marry a maid, and slay her in the morn-
ing. Prepare thyself to die, and think not to cajole me as Scheherazade
cozened Schariar for verily, had I wed her, on her first night would
;

she have so bored me with her tale of the genie that surely would I
have slain her forthwith.
"Nevertheless, on one condition will I spare thy life. To my mind,
a tale should be short, merry, and provocative to the imagination ; and
a rambling narrative sickeneth my soul. If, therefore, thou canst tell
me a tale of ten words only that shall tickle my fancy, that day shalt
thou live."
And Dinarzade's heart was troubled, but she answered
"O King, thy will be done! Yet suffer me at daybreak to have in
a slave to coif me, that, should I fail, I may die as beseems a princess."
That night she despatched a messenger, privily, and in the morning
at daybreak came a slave with long, streaming hair in a cloud, and
bent over Dinarzade, and coifed her handily.
Then said Dinarzade:
"Lo! I am ready."
Said the king:
"Tell thy tale."
And then told Dinarzade the

FIRST TALE
Yauning bride's false teeth
fall out before responses at wed-
ding.

P
"But wherefore did she yawn," de- FIFTH TALE
manded Shahzenan, "and how, in such di-
lemma, was the marriage service com-
Aged lady, ambitious to become Steeple
Jack, practises village church.
pleted?"
"That is for thy wit to finish," said
Dinarzade. "Is not the tale short, merry, SIXTH TALE
and provocative to the imagination?"
Escaping murderess detected through
"Live on!" said the king, and all that
characteristic drinking milk through green
day he laughed at the bride's predicament.
veil.
And on the second day came the slave
and coifed Dinarzade, and then was told SEVENTH TALE
the
Burglar, finding suffragette under bed,
SECOND TALE unwillingly contributes swag to cause.

Clergyman's love-letters scattered by


ivind on summer hotel piazza. EIGHTH TALE
And when Shahzenan had kept silence Buried treasure in cellar proves to be
a moment, pondering on the clergyman's cat in coffin.
misfortune and how his letters fared, he
laughed mightily.
NINTH TALE
"Hast more?" he demanded.
"Enough," said Dinarzade. Animal lover spends month in stable

"Now if thou canst beguile me so for searching for pet fly.

even three weeks," said Shahzenan, "thou


shalt prove thyself greater even than thy
TENTH TALE
sister Scheherazade, who prated nigh
three years; and through thee shall all Mouse on platform disturbs 'New
wordy women be forgiven." Thought lecturer on "Banish Fear!"

"O King," said Dinarzade, "live for-


ever!"
ELEVENTH TALE
And so every daybreak came the slave,
and when she was coifed, Dinarzade told Circus fat woman obliged sleep in bag-

her tales as foUoweth: gage-car luith corpse.

THIRD TALE TWELFTH TALE


Old maid forgets to remove cotton from Drummer in far-away hotel hears wife
ears during proposal. tangoing in next room.

FOURTH TALE THIRTEENTH TALE


Affectionate lion seeks refuge in launch Debutante makes jnillionaire roller-

filled with Christian Scientists. skate Fifth Avenue to prove love.


622
W^Hx^^)
FOURTEENTH TALE Shahzenan embraced Dinarzade with joy,
saving
Fighting in dark, man cuts oivn throat,
thinking it enemy's.
"Verily art thou a pearl among wo-
men Thy life is spared for-
ever. Come now and exult
FIFTEENTH TALE with me over Schariar."
Eloping couple capture And he loaded her with
irate father; imprisoned in jewels, and they went to Scha-
cave till forgiven. riar 's palace. And he said :

"Brother, truly of the

SIXTEENTH TALE vizir's daughters have I wed


the wittier, and thou the dul-
Jew, economizing on meals lard. For three weeks hath
outside, finds his hotel Amer- Dinarzade regaled me with
ican plan. tales short beyond belief, yet
diverting withal."
Then smiled the sultan
SEVENTEENTH TALE and said
Husband of seasick bride "Let Scheherazade appear!
precipitates quick divorce by eating liver. To her shalt thou make thy vaunt."
And when the sultana stood before the
two kings, then said Schariar:
EIGHTEENTH TALE "Brother, look!"
Eating million crackers on ivager, ivin- And Scheherazade unbound her hair,
ner uills estate to breiuery. and it streamed about her in a cloud. And,
behold ! it was Dinarzade's slave ; and
Shahzenan marveled.
NINETEENTH TALE Then said Scheherazade:
Spinster dreams promenading Broad- "O Brother-in-law, for the sake of the
way undressed; wakes to find it true. diversion thou hast had, forgive thou me
and my Dinarzade for the trick we
sister

played upon thee. For in sooth Dinar-


TWENTIETH TALE zade, though a virtuous and loving wife,
Press agent's "For men only!" packs is witless in the lore of tale-telling; where-

house for religious play. fore did I, when I coifed her each morn,
whisper in her ear a tale to tell thee.

"For, since my marriage, O King, some-


TWENTY-FIRST TALE what have I learned of other lands. And
Philologist invents substitute for pro- this was told me: that unbelievers in the

fanity; experiments unsuccessfully ivith W>st do, in their daily story-papers, tell
Longshoremen's Union. first a tale in one diverting sentence, but,
repeating it lengthily, cause boredom. And
And when three weeks had passed, from them learned I my lore."

623
The Problem of the American Farmer
By FREDERIC C. HOWE
Commissioner of Immigration at the Port of New York

DURING the last three years I have France to 191 ; in Denmark to 178; and
watched the incoming tide of im- in Austria to 224.
migrants as it passed through Ellis Island Thinking that possibly the immigrants
from Scandinavia, Italy, Greece, and did not know of the farming opportunities,
central Europe, and wondered, with I gathered together 150 Italians who were
many other Americans, why it was that ready for admission. I told them of op-
on their arrival in this country the peasants portunities in the agricultural regions, with
of Europe abandoned the only calling with wages at from thirty to fifty dollars a
which they were familiar and flocked to month, and then requested a showing of
the cities and mining-camps. Three hands of those who would go out as farm-
quarters of our immigrants go into in- laborers if the opportunity were offered
dustry, while those who go to the land them. Out of the group less than a dozen
frequently drift back to the cities in a responded. I made the same proposal to
few months. It is not that there is not a group of Greeks, and only a handful
land enough, for if America were peopled of them were willing to go to the land.
as densely as are many countries in Europe, Yet almost all of these men had come from
we could sustain ten times our present farms or small villages and were familiar
population. To-day the population of the with agricultural life.
United States is only 30 for each square The attitude of these aliens reflects the
mile. In Belgium it rises to 671 a square attitude of the American people. They
mile; in the United Kingdom to 382; in are abandoning the farm. The State
Switzerland to 237; in Italy to 318; in Board of Agriculture of New York
recently announced that out of 22,000,000 of our people from the middle West moved
acres of land in that State only 8,200,000 into Canada before
the war, and thousands
or thirty-seven percent., is being cultivated, of applicants present themselves when-
and that of a total population of over 10,- ever an Indian reservation is opened up
000,000 persons only 375,000 are agri- to settlement. Moreover, there are millions
culturalists. It is said that less than one of farmers who are tenants, and five mil-
third of the cultivable land in the country lions more who are agricultural workers.
is properly tilled at all. Tens of millions This is proof enough that men, even under
of dollars are being spent by the federal the most unsatisfactory conditions, are
and state governments to encourage farm- willing to remain on the land. All over
ing and maintain agricultural colleges, and the country tenancy is increasing very
yet a large proportion of the boys trained rapidly, and along with it a rapid rise in
for farming seek other employments. the price of land. The working of farms
There is a constant drift of boys and girls is passing from owners to tenants. Tak-
from the farms to the cities, and no com- ing the country as a whole, farm tenancy
pensating drift from the city to the increased from 25.6 per cent, in 1880 to
country. The population of our cities is 28.4 per cent, in 1890. In 1900 it jumped
growing year by year, while the number to 35.3 per cent., and to 37 per cent, in
of persons engaged in the production of 1 9 10. In the latter year there were 2,-
food is relatively, if not absolutely, 354,676 tenant farmers in the country.
diminishing. In some States tenancy is becoming the
What is the matter with farming? rule. In Iowa the number of tenants shot
Why does the farmer abandon the land up from 23.8 per cent, to 37.8 per cent, in
or let it to another? Why the shortage thirty years. In Oklahoma, from 1900
of food in the most fertile land in the to 1 9 10, it increased from 43.8 per cent,
world? Surely these questions are sus- to 54.8 Alabama the in-
per cent. In
ceptible of answer. crease in thirty years was from 46.8 per
I am satisfied that the current explana- cent, to 60.2 per cent., while in Texas
tions of the decadence of agriculture are the increase from 1 880 to 19 10 was from
inadequate. I do not believe that men 37.6 per cent, to 52.6 per cent. From
leave the farms willingly or that they will 19 10 to the present time the increase in
not go to the land if it is made profitable tenancy is even more rapid than in previ-

to them to do so. Hundreds of thousands ous years. In some counties in the West
626
ON THE VUMA RECLAMATION' CLAIM, CALIFORNIA

where more recent censuses have been as it did in England and Ireland. From
taken farm tenancy had risen above 70 the time of John Stuart Mill down to the
per cent., and was close to 80 per cent, present, political economists have con-
of the total. As compared with this condi- demned tenant-farming as destructive of
tion, France is a nation of home-owning farming and the farmer as well.
farmers, while in little Denmark, the Herein is one explanation of the decay
country which has developed agriculture of agriculture in the United States.
into an exact science, only ten per cent, Nearly forty per cent, of our farmers are
of the farmers are tenants, and the number tenants. Along with this, the public do-
is being rapidly reduced. main of the nation is gone. There is no
The reports from States like Texas and more free land. Land values have gone up
Oklahoma read very much like the stories in consequence. The value of farming
of Ireland in the days of -the famine. land in the United States increased one
They show that the tenants are largely hundred and eighteen per cent, in ten
American-born whites; that the whole years' time. It has acquired a speculative
family works upon the land that their ; price, and is held at so high a figure that
united efforts keep them barely above the buyers can make a living, if at all,only by
poverty-line, and that the tenants are in- the hardest kind of application. This has
different and ignorant. They do not send made it difficult for the man with a little
their children to school; they exhaust the capital to become a farmer. This is true
ground as quickly as possible, and then not only in the East ; it is true in the West
drift on to another farm. as well, where the great estates carved out
Herediscouragement enough to drive
is of the public domain, sometimes of a mil-
these farmers from the soil; yet despite lion acres in extent, are being cut up into
all these difficulties, there are 219,000 small holdings and sold to immigrants and
agriculturalists in Texas alone who are workers from the cities. Instances have
willing to stay on the land as tenants, been reported to a California commission
while Oklahoma, Iowa, and many other of men who had accumulated from two
Western States are but little better. Now, thousand to five thousand dollars and who
tenancy is not only bad for the tenant ; it had purchased worthless farms, only to
is destructive of agriculture. Tenancy lose their entire savings because they
destroys ambition, enterprise, hope. Ulti- could meet the annual payments.
not
mately it drives the tenant from the land, They paid from one hundred to three
hundred dollars an acre for land that was of the Non-Partizan Movement of farm-
not worth one third that sum. One in- ers, which had its birth in North Dakota
stance was reported of a colony of Rus- a year ago and swept the State at the last
sians whose members had invested $150,- election, and is now expanding into South
000 in worthless hard-pan in a Western Dakota, Minnesota, Montana, and the far
State, while great numbers of persons have Western States. This Non-Partizan
been lured into the reclamation projects of Movement is a political movement, its
the Southwest, which are so inhospitable platform being the public ownership of
and hot that women are able to live there grain-elevators, of terminals and slaughter-
only a portion of the year. houses, of state credit to the farmer, and
I have in my possession reports of in- of adequate protection against the fraudu-
dividual men who have been induced to in- lent grading of wheat, and such control
vest all they possessed in land on which of the packing-houses and cold-storage
they worked for two or three years and plants as will give the farmer a secure
realized less than two hundred dollars a market for his produce.
year from it of men who had responded to
; The Western farmer that heinsists
some alluring advertisement, and had lost wants no desire to go
to farm, that he has
the accumulations of ten or twenty years' to the city, but that economic conditions
labor in a worthless investment. over which he has no control are making it
This by no means exhausts the explana- increasingly difficult for him to make a
tions of the decay of agriculture or the living. It is this that is driving him and
drift of population from the farm. In- iiis children into the city, just as it is the
ability to dispose of crops; the lack of incoming immigrant.
organized marketing facilities ; the pro- The fact is, agriculture is breaking
test against railroads, commission brokers, down. The old order of things really
and middlemen, and the feeling on the ended ten or twenty years ago, and a study
part of the farmer that if he produces a of land monopoly, of tenancy, of farm
large crop it may rot in the fields, and creditsand marketing conditions confirms
that if the crop is short the profits which Strangely enough,
the farmer's complaint.
should come to him are taken by the that which has happened to America has
speculators. It is this feeling that lies back happened to other countries, including
628
A COUNTRY SCHOOL IX AUSTRALIA

Australia and Canada. But America is settlement of 9.000,000 acres of land, or


almost the onlj^ agricultural nation that about one third of the total area of Ireland.
has not recognized these facts or the neces- An unhappy, poverty-stricken country has
sity of a new agricultural program. We been converted into a nation of contented
are almost the only people who have not land-owners. It is expected that by 1920
begun to work out a constructive policy for tenancy will have almost ceased to exist,

placing people on the land under proper at virtually no cost to the empire. The
conditions and for the protection of the money appropriated for the purpose is

farmer from exploitation after he has gone being repaid by the purchasers in instal-
there. ments, with interest. A royal commis-
Denmark was the pioneer in a new- sion England and Scotland is now
for
agricultural policy fifty years ago. Den- engaged in making a census of estates,
mark has been followed Germany,
by and is framing a law under which land
Great Britain, Russia, Norway, Sweden, will be subdivided and sold to returning
Italy, and the Australian states. Since the soldiers at the close of the war.
war broke out nearly all of the warring In the five years prior to the war Ger-
nations of Europe have worked out more many appropriated over $200,000,000 in
or less comprehensive agricultural policies, buying and preparing farms for settlers.
all following substantially the same lines, Waste land was reclaimed. In the years
and all looking to financial and other sup- prior to 1907 the number of holdings
port from the state. And all of these proj- under five acres in extent increased by
ects include cheap credit, long-term loans, 316,678, while in the same period holdings
and the purchase and sale of land for over one hundred acres decreased by 20,-
farming purposes by the state. 744. It is said that in the neighborhood of
As long ago as 1903, Great Britain three quarters of the agricultural land in
undertook a solution of the Irish question the empire is now in small holdings. This
by the subdivision of the great estates work is carried on under a settlement com-
owned by the English gentry. In thirteen mission. Even the great estates in East
years the Government has expended $550,- Prussia, Posen, and Pomerania are being
000,000 in the purchase, subdivision, and parceled out, much as was done by Stein
629
630 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
and Hardenberg a hundred years ago. began, New Zealand led the world in the
Speaking of this policy, the official report per capita value of its agricultural exports.
on land settlement says: The same policy has been followed by
other Australian states. Since 1909 over
The existence of such large landed estates
3,000,000 acres of land h'hve been bought,
[as those of East Prussia] not only hinders
subdivided, and sold to settlers, and over
the national progress of the peasant class,
$40,000,000 has been loaned to the col-
but, greatest evil of all, it is the principal
onists by the state. Speaking of the results
cause of the diminishing population of agri-
of this settlement policy, the Premier of
cultural territories, because the working Victoria, in his budget speech in 1914,
classes, finding no chances of moral or eco-
said:
nomic improvement, are driven to emigrate
to the great cities and manufacturing dis- The settlement policy is a demonstrated
tricts. Scientific researches also prove that success. Over large areas in widely sepa-
small farms nowadays are more profitable rated districts more than ten times as many
than large, above all small live-stock im- families are settled comfortably under at-
proved farms, the importance of which for tractive social conditions as were there five

the nutriment of the people is constantly in- years ago, and they are obtaining returns
creasing. from their holdings that even less than five

In 1913 the German government provided years ago were regarded as impossible. The
for the compulsory purchase of 70,000 acres demonstration that families can be fully em-
of land. Speaking of the areas which were ployed and obtain a comfortable living on
subdivided, it was stated, "Where formerly from 20 to 40 acres of irrigable land not
there had been at one end of the social scale only insures the financial success of our in-
a few rich landowners, often non-residents vestment in irrigation works but gives a
and exercising an undue political influence, new conception of the ultimate population
and at the other end a large number of which this state will support and the agri-
poverty-stricken and discontented peasants cultural wealth it will produce.

and farm laborers, there is now a great


middle class of society, devoted to the Em- The land-settlement policies of all these
pire for what it has done for its members. countries are substantially alike. They
provide for the purchase of land by the
In the last ten years the Russian Gov- Government or the use of the public do-
ernment improved and equipped farms main. The land is divided into holdings
for 3,000,000 settlers. It contracted in which can be cultivated without the aid
the United States for millions of dollars' of other labor. The size of the holdings
worth of farm machinery to be delivered depends upon the nature of the soil and
after the war, so that homes could be pro- the kinds of crops produced. Applicants
As long
vided for the returning soldiers. for farm ownership are examined to
ago as 1893 New Zealand realized the ascertain their fitness and general moral
evils of land monopoly and farm tenancy. worth. The would-be farmer is required
The experiment was very successful,
first to make an initial deposit of possibly ten

in three years'time the number of people per cent, of the total capital outlay as an
on a single estate having been increased assurance of good^ faith. The farm, when
from forty to one thousand. During the sold, is equipped with a dwelling and out-
twenty years from 1893 to 1913 New buildings, with such cattle as may be nec-
Zealand appropriated $65,000,000 for essary, and sufficient working capital for
buying, subdividing, and settling large one year's operation. Usually the farmer
estates. During these years the agri- is not required pay interest on the
to
cultural population grew more rapidly capital cost for several years. Then from
than that of the cities, and in twenty years' three to four per cent, interest is charged,
time it doubled. When the present war and one per cent, additional for the ulti-
THE PROBLEM OF THE AMERICAN FARMER 631
mate extinguishment of the debt n thirty will undoubtedly extend the colonization
or forty years. projects successfully started before the
Usually the state cooperates with the war. Canada was already experimenting
farmer by providing advice and super- with this policy as well as with the tax-
vision from experts or from the agri- ation of land values to break up large
cultural colleges. Efforts are made to estates, and will seek to lure settlers not
locate the farmers in a colony or village, so only from Europe, but from the United
that the settlers will have some social in- States. Even Mexico has worked out an
tercourse. Schools are provided, and agricultural program in some of her states
recreation as well. Farmers are aided to patterned upon the experiments in Europe.
organize cooperative buying and selling All the world will compete for able-bodied
societies, so that they can acquire goods at men in order to meet the burdens of this
cost and sell in the best markets. war and to reestablish their industry and
The state-aided settlements in all these life. And partly in anticipation of these
countries have been a success. They have conditions, the State of California has
not proved a burden to the tax-payers in created a state colonization commission
any country where the plan has been which is projecting a big program for the
carried out. In some instances they have colonization of home-owning farmers in
earned a profit. Under the stimulus of that State. Legislation has been enacted,
ownership the farmers have built better and an appropriation of $250,000 has been
homes. Owning only sufficient land for a made with which to buy a large tract of
single man to cultivate, they have brought land. The federal farm-loan board is to be
a larger acreage under cultivation. They asked to cooperate in the development of a
have improved their live stock, have pur- colony as described above. It is planned
chased more labor-saving machinery. They to purchase 10,000 acres of land, and with
have piped water to the dwellings and de- the aid of experts to determine the size
veloped irrigation projects. The number of farms, the kind of agriculture to be
of live stock has been so largely increased adopted, the character and grouping of
in New —
Zealand and the same is true of houses and farm buildings, and the edu-
other countries— that the farmers amortize cational, recreational, and cooperative
their loans in a shorter time than that pro- agencies that can be developed in con-
vided by the state. The Canadian com- nection with it. The state university is

mission says of the New Zealand ex- cooperating in the project. It is planned
periment: to limit the right of settlers to speculate

Throughout the country higher and by restricting the right to sell their pur-
a
better civilization is gradually being evolved.
chases. The individual farms, fully

The young men and women who are grow-


equipped, are estimated to cost about
ing up are happy and contented to remain at
$5000, to be paid for by the owners with-
in fifty years' time, with interest at the
home on the farm and find ample time and
opportunity for recreation and entertain-
rate of four per cent. A minimum capital

ment of a kind more wholesome and elevat-


of about $1500 is to be required from
ing than can be obtained in the city.
each applicant, a large part of which is to
be used as working capital.
When the war is over, it is safe to as- A similar measure, known as the
sume that most of the countries of Europe Crosser Bill, is now before Congress. It
will turn their attention to the intensive looks to the creation of a rotary fund of
cultivation of the land. England will $10,000,000 for the purpose of develop-
endeavor to feed herself instead of being ing farm colonies, the farms to be either
dependent upon America and Denmark. sold or leased to settlers under terms
The Russian revolution will open up similar to those provided in the California
hundreds of millions of acres of land to measure. Public lands and reclamation
the peasants of that country. Germany projects will be used for the purpose. It
THE STRUGGLE FOR

has been suggested that the money de- Nor does it insure cheap land, which is

posited in the postal savings-banks should essential to successful agriculture. It does,


be used, and as the payments by settlers however, lend the aid of science to agri-
come from year to year, that the fund
in culture. It does provide education and
be rotated, and that new colonies be direction by experts. It offers very cheap
opened in different parts of the country credit. Most important owner-
of all,

to serve as experiment stations for States ship awakens ambition and hope. It in-
or private persons that are willing to carry sures permanency of tenure. It aims to

out similar projects. reestablish conditions similar to those


The state-aided farm colony plan does which peopled America with land-hungry
not fully meet the agricultural problem. immigrants in the days when land was to
It does not solve the difficulties of market- be had for the asking, and places agri-
ing or of transportation. It does not pro- culture on a firmer foundation of security
vide cold-storage warehouses or terminals. than that which now prevails.
Next Year's Food
By J. RUSSELL SMITH
Author of "The New Farmer and his New Water-Supply, " etc.

was Napoleon, unmatclied


ITcampaigns, master of A long vacation on the farm will iielp both
who said that an army- the boy and his country. But if the young
marches on its stomach. Knowing how to man is entirely green to farm ways, the
feed an army, Napoleon brought kings to farmer will hesitate. The farmer fears
his feet. for his stuff. On the other hand, there is

Well fed also must be the Americans, abundant testimony that the city student
the Belgians, the English, the French, the makes excellent farm help after he learns. —
Italians, and all our Allies— armies and Here as elsewhere it takes more than mere
civilians alike. The task is Napoleonic in good intentions.
its size. Who will do it? There is only Last April a Philadelphia high-school
one answer to this question. America teacher took thirty-six of his students out
must do it. to camp on a farm. The neighborhood
In times of peace western Europe im- was most conservative. The farmers said
ported heavily of food-stuffs. Germany they needed help, but were sure they did
has now cut off much of this supply, and not need city boys. The teacher in charge
this at a time when the Allies' local food of the camp divided the boys into squads.
production is also lessened by the tre- With the help of the two men of the farm,
mendous effort of war. America must he taught them the elements of farm-work.
supply this double deficiency. We can do The boys curried the horses until their
it, but means that we must work as
it coats shone, they harnessed and unhar-
never before. It means that we must have nessed, they plowed, they harrowed, they
a new labor supply for the American farm. planted, they cultivated, they cut bushes
Where shall we get it? Not from Europe, with scythes. They had come to stay two
as we did four years ago. Not from the weeks in camp, but they taught the
factory already factories are busy on war
; farmers as quickly as they themselves
work. It cannot, of course, come from learned. In five days the neighboring
the army. Whence, then, the new food- farmers, converted, began to beg the boys
producer? It must come from the boys of to help them for the season.
the country. Here is work for the stay-at-home
we had only known of this last Feb-
"If patriots. Men and women of all ages,
ruary, when we were making our plans," whether in city or country, can help the
said a farmer to me when talking about making plans and
cause of civilization by
the Philadelphia High School Farm Vol- arrangements whereby town boys under
unteers— "if we had only known of it in military age get similar experience this

February instead of in May, we could season in camps or on farms. Next year,


have planted thousands and thousands of when the farmer makes his plans, these
acres of land that cannot be seeded now." boys will be known quantities and depend-
Next February these farmers will again able parts of the army of food-producers,
be planning their season's food campaign. which must give us the greatest crop ever
They will need to know what help they grown if we are to beat off the Germans
can depend on when the spring rush be- and beat off starvation from hungry mil-
gins, and when the planting starts they lions. Every city boy who gets three
will need young men by the hundreds of weeks' serious training at farm-work this
thousands. Will your sixteen- or seven- year becomes next year a national asset,
teen-year-old boy be ready to help in this and also capable of earning a fair wage
vital, wholesome, and withal safe service? during his vacation from school.
633
The Lamentation of the Lonely
By JOHN ROLAND
AFTER the departure of the brave, God for us, or God against us, do Thou
J^\. beginneth the lamentation of the so to me, and more also, if ever I

lonely. To be sung to the plain chant forget him that loved me, and the
which is set for the singing of the lamen- blood-debt of mine enemies that
tations of the Prophet Jeremiah during crieth for vengeance.
Holy Week. Beth: Gone are they all, vanished as the
Here beginneth the lamentation of the snow in summer ; torn from me, and
lonely. given over to a world of evil think-
ing.

Antiphon: Behold, and see if there is any Gone from my sheltering arms to walk
sorrow like unto my sorrow. in lonely places, without love,

Thou
friendless, and far from my caress-
God for us, or God against us, do
ing.
so to me, and more also, if ever I
forget him that loved me, and the Gone to become a prey to IVIoloch, the
god of armies; the feet to tread in
blood-debt of mine enemies that
hard ways, the hands to learn mur-
crieth for vengeance.
der, and the eyes to know no pity.
Behold, and see if there is any sorrow
Gone to be desecrated by the sweat of
like unto my sorrow.
ten thousand companions; with them
Aleph: Where are the cheeks that pressed
hurried as a beast to the slaughter;
close against my bosom? Where
with them to suffer, to die unknown,
are the lips that clung to mine in
and no longer above all men desired.
sweetest fellowship?
Gone to be torn by the leaden hail, to
Where is the soft brown skin, with its
be wounded in the glory of all its
flush of roses? Where are the quiv-
beauty; at best, to perish and lie
ering eyelids, and all the love that
alone under the stars; or else to suf-
lay between them? fer shame and die in the torment of
Where are the hands that so often up- the transgressor.
held me, the arms that lay about my Gone— gone— gone from me— gone
neck, and the voice of my beloved ? from me forever. What hope is

Where is the heart that ^ throbbed there left? What desire of life or
against my heart-beats? Where is further loving?
the thick brown hair that lay all God for us, or God against us, do
night against my shoulder? Thou so to me, and more also, if ever
Where is the soul that spoke to my I forget him that loved me, and the

soul, and knew it; in whose sight I blood-debt of mine enemies that

stood naked as God made me, and crieth for vengeance.

was found still desirable, and knew Behold, and see if there is any sorrow
neither shame nor sorrow? like unto my sorrow.
634
M LIGHTIER VEIN
T^^^^^m

Mutations
By MARGARET ARMSTRONG

THE
That Darwin's
physiologists agree
doctrines do not gee
With what we know of bugs and worms,
Of atoms and of other germs;
And paleontologists deny
That microbes slowly multiply
Until at last an Eve and Adam
Emerge from what was once macadam.
Let natural selection go ;

Its methods are by far too slow.

Survival of the fittest, too,

Is out of date for me and you,


And to the rubbish-pile is sent •
THE ELEPHANT
The shibboleth of environment.
bounds and leaps.
See, in their place, by
When first I gazed upon the world

Mutations simply come in heaps!


My nose was, like a rosebud, furled.

Poor Darwin 's dead, De Vries is 'T was small and pink and retrousse,

king ;
A very fetching little nez.

Alas it grew
! it touched my toes.
;
Mutations have become the thing.
I found I 'd lost my little nose.
I almost thought that I was drunk

It 's possible you 've never heard My nose had turned into a trunk
This new and rather curious word. That seemed to have no useful end.
Remember that it means a "sport"— You see, I did n't comprehend.
Not Belmont Park's the gardener's ; One happy day I saw with joy
sort. A peanut on a little boy.
Life stories I will now relate And all at once I, blissful, knew
This theory to elucidate. Whv to such lengths mv small nose grew

the goat
When I attained to adolescence They spoke. That instant there appeared
I had a very youthful presence. Upon my chin a handsome beard
Where'er I went to find employ They rubbed their eyes and looked again,
They said, "You 're nothing but a boy. "We now observe your beard is plain
You can't expect to earn much cash In fact, we think you imitate
Without some whiskers or mustache." A Presidential candidate.
Pray, be director in our bank!" Because she likes to see ambition
Perhaps kind Nature played this prank Secure a really good position.

PARROT
In days gone by, you may have heard, That I was somehow to the good.
I was a famous singing bird I find that billingsgate, though wrong,
The high-brows, and the Hofbraus, too. Is far more useful than a song.
Considered me a succes fou. Wise Nature, it appears to me,
But though I was a social pet, Encourages profanity.
My talents I do not regret.
One sunny morn, with waddle brisk,
I fluttered to a tamarisk. THE KANGAROO
Prepared to chaunt my matin hymn. We kangaroos, you '11 all agree,
Like nightingale or seraphim. Are proud of our agility.
I oped my beak, and forth there broke But though forever on the move.
Not liquid music, but a croak
Of family life we quite approve;
Just at that moment, from a tree
Of nuts in my proximity,
A horrid monkey chanced to throw
A cocoanut upon my toe.
Forth from my lips there poured like rain
A flood of language most profane.
The simian fled. I understood

And so, like acrobats, we leap


Yet balance babies while they sleep.
( It 's rather hard at the equator
To buy a good perambulator.)
One day— my leaps were getting bolder-
I dropped my infant from my shoulder.
636
IN LIGHTER VEIN 637
My leap had left It far behind, That very night I grew a pouch!
And so I had to be resigned. So now I pouch my children three
I sadly said, "Upon my soul! And join in any sort of spree.
I think I '11 vote for birth-control!" Dame Nature thus insures a wife
There was no need for such a groucl Maternal, yet athletic, life.

The Origin of Philosophy


By CHESTER DENNIS
THE world
Thus
is made of dirt
Wisdom bud
fraught with truth did
and water.
;

And then she grew a little fraughter,


And said these two make mud.

And from this mud at once there sprouted


The three schools of philosophy
By which mankind have ever pouted,
Or borne their destiny.

To keep our souls a little drier,

One school stands in the mud and blubbers,


The second set denies the mire,
The other gives us rubbers.

An Eating-song
By DEEMS TAYLOR
SING, my lads, a merry song! Think, and shudder, O ye glutton
Sing as loud as you are able. Scan anew the bill of fare—
Hark! the butler beats the gong: Won't you try a slice of mutton ?

Let us to the supper-table. Brothers, pass the platter round.


Buoyant hearts as light as cork, Thankful that our health is sound.
Happiness too deep to utter
Hear the clash of knife and fork Let us grasp the joys of life!

Comrade, will you pass the butter? Tarry not to doubt or question;
Raise on high the brimming plate! Bravely wield the carving-knife.
Let us eat, and laugh at fate!
Fearing naught save indigestion.
"Though the morrow bode thee ill,
Carpe diem, as they say Let to-day be bright," says Plato.
Art is long, and life is fleeting. Be the future what it will-

Heed the warning while ye may: Have another baked potato?


Let us, then, be up and eating. Fling aloft your napkin-rings!
Orchids have to live on air. Eating is the sport of kings.
638 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE

The Hall of Infamy


Nominations in verse by W. R. BURLINGAME
Seconded in charcoal by W. E. HILL

THE SUCCESSFUL DENTIST WHO SINGS


The singing person pictured here Remains a dentist still to me.
Ismost successful in his sphere, Not that his singing lacks in verve,
Which does, however, not include But somehow jars the naked nerve
The art of vocal pulchritude. And vividly recalls the rare
At home he is a dentist, and Sensations of his dentist's chair.
I never doubt his skill of hand; And so an alcove I decree
But when he sings, I find that he To operatic dentistry.
IN LIGHTER VEIN 639

IV. THE MAN WHO DRESSES IN THE AISLE

can't, in sleeping-cars, I find, Manceuver grimly to get by.


Maintain a Christian frame of mind, And others, far behind, give vent
Nor, after sleeping on a shelf. To mutterings of dark intent.
Still love my neighbor as myself Within the hall I shall devise
But most of all I cannot love His effigy, heroic size.
The gentleman portrayed above. And place it in an aisle so wide
He stands and waves his arms while I That I can pass on either side.
640 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE

" papa! "

the discriminating taste our children show at times

What Happened to the Poet who Read All


the Magazine Advertisements
By CORINNE ROCKWELL SWAIN

BELLE Limousine, je pense a toi! Clupeco thermos dioxogen, temco sonora


Le Page de Vogue, c'est gelatine, tuxedo,
Batiste et crepe Georgette — ma foi Resinol fiat bacardi, camera ansco
Beeiie i^imousme:
Li wheatena ;

Antiskid pebeco calox, oleo tycos barometer


Postum nabisco!
Je t'aime— ah, mieux que Listerine,
Gillette, Lablache et Riz-la-Croix,
Prestolite arco congoleum, karo aluminum
Bayonne Nujol, ou Vaseline!
kryptok,
Crisco balopticon lysol, jello bellans
La Veuve Clicquot — trop chic pour moi, carborundum
Mais Bon Ami est Malt Nutrine; Ampico clysmic swoboda, pantasote necco
Je n'aime pas Creme Yvette — pourquoi, britannica,
Belle Limousine? Encyclopsedia?

THE DE VINNE PRESS, NEW YORK


hi].
IV
iftt

rm
T1

m\
Vol. g4

Acting for the Camera


The Experiences of a Woman in the Motion-Picture Studios

By VIRGINIA TRACY
Author of "The Handicap of Beauty," etc.

Illustrations by Clarence Rowe

I. — INDOORS rooms deep ; a throne, with terraces of


steps; a cellar. Some of these sets were
SHE was one of those young actresses
only angles; none had more than three
out of work who ask themseh'es with
terror, "What has happened to the busi-
sides; the fourth was occupied by the
camera and by lights in tall stands and
ness?" Floundering deeper and deeper in
hanging racks. Indeed, the lights took all
that tide of panic where the majority of
the sides they could get, hemming the
the regular theaters seemed sinking, she
scenes in close and pressing forward in
had become aware that more and more of
half-circles like wolves. on a cornered prey.
her friends were clambering upon the raft
Their glare was concentrated on the sets,
of moving-pictures. Desiring to inspect
and these were so numerous and so much
this raft at closer quarters, she remembered
smaller than regular stage-sets that in the
that among "picture people" she possessed
dark loft they suggested a series of caves
a friend who was a friend of a star's aunt.
in the Chamber of Horrors at the Eden
At last she got this friend to say, "Well,
Musee. Yet each set, entirely self-con-
Edna, I '11 take you to the studio."
tained and self-sustaining, housed a dif-
There was a big skylight in the middle ferent with its own separate
picture,
of the roof. Otherwise there fell through scenario, star, company, camera-man, di-
the large loft no beam of day. There was rector, and director's staff. Between them
no air anywhere. It was a scalding after- and all round them stage-hands were
noon, but the only windows— little venti- building new sets, and the whole loft
lators bordering the base of the skylight roared and clanged and shook with the
were shut tight. The star's aunt said that noise of carpentry. Wherever building
her niece had begged to have them open, was not going on, furniture and properties
but was felt that they blew things about
it were stacked together, sometimes covered
too much. At irregular distances among with sacking or old portieres, sometimes
the shadows were set up four scenes: a boldly blushing in the uncovered pride of
prairie court-room ; a "parlor suite," three gilt and plush. Whoever had succeeded in

ENIUKV Ci;
642 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
shutting out the air had not succeeded in could not hear one word ; the actors were
shutting out the dust; grime covered speaking in conversational voices, with-
everything. out any attempts at the concerted vocal
Near the front railing, talking to an effects to which she was accustomed, and
official and dressed for the street in spot- the batter of carpentry inclosed them with-
less white, stood a young lady whose in a privacy as dense as a deadened wall.
golden curls were the most famous curls It was then that Edna observed with
in America ; within the parlor suite an wonder that all the unheard acting con-
elderly gentleman, still a distinguished centrated within the little caves was in-
Broadway star, and a pretty opera singer, credibly slow, as slow asif weighted with a

the rage of the season, discussed a point ball and chain. She was told that if one
with their director ; toward the visitors moved faster, one only made a smear across
there advanced out of the cellar, barefoot the film. So that in the very torrent, tem-
and in beggar's rags, but smiling through pest, and whirlwind of your passion you
the disarray of her dark hair, what ap- must beget a temperance —
Well, of course,
peared to be an adorable child. But she if the house was blowing up around you,

was not a child. She was the star whose after the manner of motion-picture houses,
potent name Edna's friend had invoked you must indicate that you were in some-
for their admittance; a )'oung princess of thing of a hurry but even then you must
;

the films whose lovely little shadow was make haste slowly.
the center of competing contracts and With new sympathy she presently be-
vaulting offers of salary that came near gan to recall the monotonous complaint
to rivaling Charlie Chaplin's before an of moving-picture actors, "It 's the hang-
awe-struck world. Four celebrities, the ing about that kills you." She had asked:
least of whom was enough to shake the "How do you mean?"
matinee heart into hysterics, caged in one ^"Oh, 3'ou know how you hang round at
loft at one time ! Infinite riches in a little a dress-rehearsal? Well, pictures are like
room ! For a million a year would not nothing on earth but a dress-rehearsal that
have covered the salaries of that eyeful of never comes to a final curtain."
celebrities. For their background the To-day, for instance, Edna had arrived
dust lay thick; the grimy twilight rang at the studio at one o'clock. There had
with the voice of hammers ; absorbedly, in been a crowd rehearsing in the "cellar,"
each of the blazing Musee caves, actors It was now four, and the crowd was still
were acting and pictures functioning. The rehearsing. There was no sign that it

new-comer stood bewildered. would ever stop. Since Edna came, the
In the first place, the strangely pallid star had done nothing whatever, nor had
make-up of the actors and the yellow tint any of the principals. But since at any
of garments ordinarily white looked moment they might be called upon to do
ghastly to her. She knew already that in something, they did not like to go to their
motion-picture photography white caused dressing-rooms; they did not like even to
something called "halation," which was alienate their minds by reading. They
particularly deadly if brought near peo- merely stood about, huddled on any
ple's faces; but, much as she had heard of clumps of scenery or property furniture
it, to see bed linen and table linen, gloves, they could find,— she soon learned that the
collars, and shirt-fronts all yellow proved rarest thing in a studio was a chair, — they
disconcerting. stood and waited.
In this confused and casual chaos one Edna began to watch the rehearsing of
could hardly tell a rehearsal from a per- the crowd. She discovered that a good
formance. Nothing seemed to have any part of the time the camera-man seemed
beginning or end. What was anybody to be directing the director. Everything
doing? What was any scene about? was arranged to suit his verdict the whole ;

From within the sets, a few feet away, she energy of the mechanical staff appeared
ACTING FOR TlIK CAiMICRA 643

to be bent on "focusing." Before every crowd in the cellar was so confused, why
rehearsal a board was held in front of It no story and meant nothing.
told her

a selected object to get the focus while the was not consecutive; that was why.
It

camera-man examined everything through It was taken in tiny scenes, "flashes" of

his camera sometimes this was done


;
half a minute, of a few seconds, like little,
again after the re- ^ separate, scarcely re-
hearsals ; sometimes lated eddies in an
during.the rehearsals invisiblestream ;they
the scene was rear- would be run to-

ranged to suit this gether later when


imperious camera- the flowing stream,
man ;
sometimes the whole picture,
"tests" were taken, was "assembled and
a few feet of film cut."
being run off, with Now, by this time
one person moving Edna had heard
about the scene, to often enough that
make sure that all m o ving- pictures
was well. Every were not taken in
scene was rehearsed their story sequence
several times ; then she knew that the
the lights, which scenes that were
during rehearsals taken in rotation
had been kept in were those which
eclipse, were sprung occurred in one
on again ; the direc- location, or set, un-
!"
tor said, "Camera "^ til all in that set
or "Action!" or or location were
merely "Take!" as done with, quite
his habit was the ; without regard to
scene was taken, their place in the
then taken again. story. So frequently
Everything, Edna one acted one's
now saw, was taken scenes in such order
twice. These second rj^r,..c Kc, that one buried one's
takings were the SHE WAS ONE OF THOSE YOUNG ACTRESSES OUT
husband before one
"dupes" or "re- WORK WHO ASK THEMSELVES WITH TERROR. married him, or one
'WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE
peats," made in case BUSINESS?'" died of a wound that
of accident as well as one had not yet re-
to provide a choice ; after every scene and ceived. But she was unprepared for the
every repeat a stage-hand ran forward and fact that even in the same set sequence was
held up a slate on which were registered not always the determining factor.
the name of the director, of the picture, of This afternoon, for instance, the scenes
the camera-man, the number of the scene, of the crowd in the cellar were not only
and the verdict whether it was to be ac- done first, but those scenes in which the
cepted or cast out. No wonder things principals mingled with the crowd were
took a long time. These were the legiti- reserved to tlie end, even if they happened
mate delays of motion-picture acting; of in the middle. The crowd was taken
the unnecessary delays she was to learn alone, shrinking from the advance of the
through many long hours in quite other hero, welcoming the footsteps of the vil-
studios. Now she was mainly occupied in lain, acclaiming his triumph and the hero's
trying to understand why the action of the (temporary) defeat, fleeing finally from
644 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
the arrival of the police, though neither Jimmy, and your princess is here in the
the police, the villain, nor the hero had coal-bin. Guendolin 's in the coal-bin,
as yet set foot within the cellar walls. hiding from this gang. You remember.
The made up and read}^
leading man, After this comes the scene where you
prowling and forth among the
back push her up through the coal-hole to the
shadows without having been able to go sidewalk we did that yesterday. There 's
;

out even for lunch, had now waited eight a scene comes just before this where you
hours for his biggest moment in the whole follow her here along the alley ; we, '11 do
picture —
that moment when, all fresh, that to-morrow. You 've watched her
radiant, youthful grace and manly beauty, disappear in here, but j'ou don't expect to
breathing out vitality, impassioned ardor, light on this gang. You hide your astonish-
and electric force, he was to burst into the ment, and get back to the tough-disguise
cellar like an archangel out of a bomb. manner you had in the last set; but they
The leading man was looking a trifle cross. 're suspicious this time, even when you
For to keep radiant freshness, impas- give 'em the password. Then you see that
sioned ardor, and electric vitality on tap broken board in the coal-bin move, and
for eight hours is no smiling matter. If you realize that Guendolin 's hiding there
Phoebus Apollo, ready to usher in the and that getting her out safe is up to j'ou.
dawn, had to stand waiting in his chariot Got the idea? All right. Stand back for
all night, he might lose his spirit for your entrance, Jimmy."
storming heaven's battlements. Now, at such a moment, in any studio,
But now it was so late that the leading any Jimmy has behind him no month of
man began to relax. It was becoming im- rehearsals, nor has he any eloquence of
probable that they would get to him at all the author's to lie back upon w^hile it
that day. To be sure, he still made oc- carries him on its current. He may have
casional rushes at a broken tombstone in had no moment of introductory acting,
one corner upon which reposed a powder- and certainly has had no series of scenes
pufF, a hand mirror, and a jar of to work him into the part. All that these
cold cream, for moving-picture make-up things would do for him on the speaking
crumples into patches unless frequently stage must be accomplished by Jimmy for
retouched. Finally, motioning with a himself in one silent flash, one moment of
desperate thumb at the director's back, concentrated suggestion. and Instantly
the leading man expostulated, "He 's had out of his own resources he must convey
me here since nine o'clock this morning; to the audience his surprise at the crowd,
and now I believe he is n't going to use his discovery of the Princess Guendolin,
me at all!" and his determination to act a part with
He looked at his watch and relaxed all the enemy. His means are a pause, a hint,
together. The sacred fire, which for the a turn of the head, a change of counte-
whole of every studio day must be kept nance, "a glance of the eye, Reginald, a
banked, but always burning, in one blessed glance of the eye!" Edna began to under-
instant of secure repose was allowed to go stand what moving-picture acting asked
out. At that moment the director said of you.
over his shoulder to the leading man, Whether tiie actual scene was worth it

"Come on, Jimmy! T '11 do your scene or not did not matter. If not, so much the
next." more, Edna saw, must one put into it out
Jimmy stood at the head of the cellar of oneself. It might be all very funny
stairs. He
had made his last rush at the that Guendolin should be in the coal-bin,
tombstone. Edna, privileged as a guest but what 's in a name, and what 's a coal-
of the beggar princess, had pushed near bin? Say, instead, that a girl is in grave
enough to hear the director direct. The danger, and one has to get her out of it.

scene was in rehearsal. On these sufficient grounds alone, out from


"Now the queen 's been deposed. the eves of the hero in the cellar must look
Ill-: IIANGINC, ABOUT THAT KII.

one of the world's great nightmares. If waiting since nine in the morning. With
you can show him only as an individual some buried spark of imaginative vitality
hero in a single silly melodrama, and not he achieved the impossible: he lighted his
as manliness keeping one of the world's cold fire.

great good faiths, Heaven help you ! \'ou "Now, boys," continued the director,
would better be out of the movies in par- "when he comes, you 're startled out of
ticular and the dramatic profession in gen- your wits; then you recognize him. Still,

eral ;
you would never do much better with you suspect him — that 's it! One, two,
Romeo. three — come on. Jimmy! A little stronger
This particular Jimmy had ceased to astonishment, Jimmy. Control it quick,
think about his make-up ; he had forgotten Jimmy — quick! Bill," — to the assistant
that he had had no lunch and had been director, — "did you tell your men to turn
G45
646 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
round before he 's well on ? No ! no ! no pulled aside a loose board to peep forth.
no Let him get well on
! ! We '11 try that Upon this opening in a coal-bin the di-
over. Go back, Jimmy! Now, one, two, rector and his crack camera-man now bent
three — come on, Jimmy! Astonishment, the ardor of their spirits. The camera,
control — Good Lord! you keep Bill, can't ignoring the rest of the cellar, was nosed
those men from turning round as if you up to within a distance of six feet. The
turned them on a crank? They have n't director sat on a broken stool, just out
been standing waiting for him, expecting of range of the camera, but wit'hin three
to sing, 'Hail to the Chief!' Go back, feet of the star, and began whispering to

Jimmy! See here, you, — you, there in the her with wide, eager motions of his de-
corner,— straighten up as if you heard a scribing hands. From above and from a
noise, and nudge the man next you. He level great lights were turned on her; at
listens, but he does n't turn. Come on, her feetlow stands of stretched white
Jimmy! You at the foot of the steps cloth were set round her in a semicircle
turn and move back, signaling 'em to be to reflect these lights full in her face.
quiet. You over there by the barrel—^ What does it matter if even the most ex-
keep on with your card-game; you don't pensive moving-picture actors sometimes
notice anything. The man left of center go blind ? The beggar princess herself,
— you spin right round, looking up at after prolonged work at "double ex-
him scared, and reaching for your knife. posure," had waked up one morning to a
Here! here! here! Not like that! Were world of complete blackness; but neither
n't you ever scared to death? That 's the she nor anybody else thought of that now.
idea! Go back, Jimmy. Now, one, two, Straight ahead of her she looked, while the
three — come on, Jimmy! Camera!" director whispered to her what she was
The lights blazed out ; the camera hearing the gang say, and described the
turned. action which she was supposed to see. The
"All right." description took root deep down in her
The scene was taken, then repeated. It eyes, and as it crept to the surface it grew
was over; it was over irrevocably. Jimmy into the emotion of the scene, and flowered
might not have been quite satisfied he ; there. Terror, caution, the bewilderment
might have longed to experiment, to ex- of a small, spoiled princess, the desperate
pand or tone down, to try it again dif- courage of little, hunted things — it was
ferently, like a part in a play ; but it could true that all these not so much crossed her
never be tried differently. It was done. face as grew into it. For the "close-up,"
Just as it was would go forth and carry
it like all real motion-picture acting, is not an
all over the world that moment of Jimmy's assumption of feeling, but its revelation.
after eight hours' waiting without lunch. The thing is not that something is done,
He could never again stand on that top but that, an X-ray being provided, some-
step and discover Guendolin in the coal- thing is shown. Edna could not make out
bin. how the star achieved this effect except
He was now — this
to get was
her out, by an exercise of pure imagination. The
the biggest of his big moments, — butit was outsider remembered a line from an old
suddenly decided not to do any more of poet that ever afterward remained for
Jimmy's scenes. They were going to take her the essential description of motion-
a close-up of the star and let her go home picture acting:
for the day.
The moment was tense ; for though the
Her pure and eloquent blood
Spoke in her veins, and so distinctly wrought
revelation of dramatic beauty in the phys-
ical universe may be the very eyesight of
That you had almost said her body thought.

the motion-picture, the close-up is its heart.


So Guendolin got into the coal-bin where — Only, as Edna came to :now, It must n t

hitherto she had n't been at all— and think too violentlv.
A LITTLE STRONGER ASTOXISHMEM, JIMMY. CONTROL IT QUICK, JIMMY — QUICK. ! '"
648 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
What camera
the theater diminishes the down-town studio, after ascertaining that
enlarges. Every motion, taken on strips shewould work for three dollars a day,
of celluloid an inch long, is magnified undertook to speak for her to the director.
several thousand times before thrown
it is At nine o'clock in the morning the hall-
on the screen. In consequence, any but way was already crowded ; men, most of
the slightest quiver of the lids or twitch whom suggested small clerkships, women
of the brows will loom like a thunder- who looked like duchesses, and women
storm. So much as one's action must be who looked like servants, stood packed
slowed down before the camera, so much together in uneasy waiting for the director
must it be lightly touched in. Afterward, or his assistant to arrive and make his
when Edna heard glib gabble about the selections. Though the picture was sup-
posed to begin at ten, Edna
waited an hour and twenty min-
utes. It was very cold in the
little hallway, which became
more and more jammed all the
time. The hall opened directly
off the street, and at each ar-
rival the wet November wind
swept in and took more curl out
of Edna's hair. Terrifying anec-
dotes of omnipotent, but too
human, directors enlivened,
without warming, the atmo-
sphere, as when a girl's rowdy
voice was heard in shrill and in-

jured reminiscence: "I 'd been


kneeling for two hours on a
marble floor, with nothing on
but a pair of tights and a gunny
sack, and when we got up in the
middle of the scene I rubbed my
knees. He jumped right at me
and shook me. He must have
shook me five minutes. I was
so scared I never came back."
Edna began to feel that she
"necessary exaggeration" of moving- might follow the same course.
picture acting, it made her laugh. But this director, when he at length
But how and when, if ever, Jimmy's big arrived, accepted her as if she had been
moment got done she never knew. fate. She was sent with many other girls
into a big, dusky, dusty room, where most
It was early winter when Edna, none too of the hanging space was taken up by piles
much encouraged by her glimpse of the of old scenery a room with a very dirty
;

camera's requirements, gave up her last floor, no wash-basins, a few chairs, and a

hope of a regular engagement, and joined long shelf, with several blotchy mirrors.
the procession toward the studios. She She had, of course, her own make-up, and
found the studios more densely besieged the assistant director had given her a
than the theaters themselves, and unable bundle containing a soiled Turkish cos-
to attract any one's attention in her quest tume. She was dressed by eleven o'clqck,
after a part, she decided to apply for extra but it was one before the set was ready
work. An acquaintance engaged at a in the studio.
ACTING FOR THE CAMERA 649
This set was a scene in a harem, and discover that . the principals, equally
Edna's was the absorbing duty of sitting hungry, jaded, and exhausted, were any
on the floor. She sat there until four too well informed.
o'clock, while the director was arranging Occasionally an extra exhibited interest
his scene; then the scene was taken and enough to ask another:
repeated ; then a "still," or an ordinary "Do you know the name of this pic-
photograph of the set ."then a close-up of ture?"
the star entering. Then her duties were "No, do you?"
changed ; she had to stand at a window "Do you know what It 's about?"
until six o'clock, when that scene was "About? No. Why?"
taken. She and everybody else then stood "What 's supposed to be happening in
about until seven-thirty while another set this restaurant?"
was being put up. For this scene a well- "Search me!"
known dancing-team had been engaged Once a girl, seeing that Edna was strug-
to do their Peacock Dance at a remunera-
tion of three hundred dollars. Dressed
as those rather comfortless birds, they, too,
had been "hanging around" since nine in
the morning. Now it was discovered that
the musicians— union men— had gone
home over an hour before, and there was
no use waiting any longer. The dancers
were reengaged for the next day at an-
other three hundred, and Edna was reen-
gaged at another three about fifteen
;

minutes of acting had been done that day;


no more.
It became an old story. She was em-
ployed about ten days a month, some com-
panies, when the extra furnished an eve-
ning dress, paying as much as five dollars a
day. As her face became vaguely familiar gling to hear some single line or gather
to the directors, she was kept busy more the gist of a situation, said to her
than half the time. She came to know "At the beginning you think you care,
moving-pictures as deserts of unregulated but you soon learn not to."
tedium, as yawns from six to sixteen hours Edna was beginning to despair; she
long. They existed in artificially lighted seemed to make no progress, and she could
studios that were only refashioned skat- not see how anybody ever did. How
ing-rinks, churches, and garages, often could anybody ever get up enough en-
large enough for only one picture at a thusiasm to become more than a cog in
time, fusty, airless, as well as unheated that creaking and halting machinery? As
through the long winter, with the corpse- summer came round again, the prodigal
like reflections of the yellow accessories and senseless waste of time and money,
falling dispiritedly through the mustard- the ghastly waste of spirit, were all hard-
tinted atmosphere on everybody's skin. ening for her into one blank monotony;
Music of a sort was apt to be braying she remembered the phrase of some mili-
through the extras' scenes, the director tary satirist, "Being now quite ready, we
indistinguishably bawling, the lights shak- waited four hours to begin": he seemed
ing, the carpenters hammering. One was to her the prophet of moving-picture
always racked by hours of standing, could studios. Then one day a girl said to her:
never get out for lunch, never knew why "They 're putting on a costume-play
one was doing anything. Edna could not across the river. Don't let 's mind the
650 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
car-fare. Let 's go over to-morrow and dozen, a colony in full blast. Between a
see if we can get in." brace of them stood a huge tent where
costumes were being given out; on the
II.— OUTDOORS
farther side of the nearest studiotwo more
The fogs were lifting from the river tents were arranged for extra dressing-
when the eight o'clock boat put forth, rooms. When the roll was called there
Edna had come from a down-town lodg- were seven hundred and fifty extras on
ing-house, and there was delicious novelty the grounds for this one picture.
in the bright air, the freshness, the lapping Everything here was new to Edna, but
and sparkling water, the salt smell blow- something in the air was particularly new.
ing up from the bay. The young day was When she came forth in her peasant's dress
still cool, the green on the nearing leap she noticed with surprise the "featured"
of the hills was still moist and still people — Olympians in automobiles — al-
trembled with little golden lights. On ready driving into the yard ; springing to
the boat were other girls who carried suit- earth, indeed, with the manner of those
cases, some with the uplifted air of those who had brisk business ahead of them.
whom directors had "sent for," some only It was scarcely later when the arrival of
eager, hopeful, nosing after the least ad- the director's car, the dramatic event of
vantage. It was like the beginning of an the day, thrilled through the ranks like a
adventure. The trolley-car that met the bulletin from Napoleon, and Edna could
boat carried these poor city sparrows up not but wonder what he was doing there so
rocky curves and through deep woods, soon. She made her way across the grounds
with the dewin their shadows, then
still to see what kind of set they might be build-
boldly out, cresting the wide brilliance of ing, and found the set standing ready and
the harbor. When did ever actress go to waiting! On that young day the tradition
her work by an approach like this? of inertia seemed to be tottering.
They left the trolley at sight of a high Three intersecting streets and the
vvall inclosing a space equal in extent to market-place of an old Italian city had
many city blocks. In the lane beside it been built, solid, on the solid ground.
cow-boys rode under the interlacing trees. They had been painted and stained to
From a gateway in the concrete wall the weather-mellow tenderness of tone, hung
riders were saluted by two ladies of the with deep-hued draperies, and set with
court Marie Antoinette; a Chinese
of little shops. There was an armorer with

nobleman, who had evidently borrowed an a blazing forge, there were stalls filled
overcoat from an English tourist, plunged with brass and ivory that gave back cer-
toward the drug-store
across the car-track tain tones of light; a little brown house
and out of the open gate an automobile huddled under the protection of a great
filled with young people dressed for a archway that was somehow newly over-
garden-party swung into the lane, as if grown with ancient ivy; in the square a
borne on their shouts and laughter, and fountain was in full play, fed by a hose
swept ofi on some "location" over the hills connecting with a barrel that stood on
and far away. top of a tall shed just outside the picture.
Within the gate Edna saw great spaces There were girls at this fountain, soldiers
of trodden earth that farther on turned and hucksters in the streets, good wives
into broken, grassy ground dotted scantily marketing, and a great earthen vase, car-
with trees. There were some outhouses, a ried in a sort of litter, was being filled
solid-looking building like a model factory, by water-vendors. How many attempts
and here and there and farther on glitter- at this had Edna not seen cramped in the
ing erections that, save for their height, But
spaces and artificial light of theaters!
might have been giant greenhouses. These never before sprawled widely on the rough
were the glass daylight-studios of whicli earth, with little winds blowing its drap-
she had heard nuich not one, i)ut half a
; eries under a morning sun!
'FOR THE RHAL MOTION-PICTURE ACTING,
'CLOSEUl',' I.IKH ALI, IS NOT AN
ASSUMPTUJN OH FEELING, BUT ITS REVELATION '

A man in maroon velvet, with a gold costumed figures going about their busi-
cap, stepped out upon his balcony and dis- ness through its streets, something oddly

persed some chatterers from under his like a challenge to the best that was in her,
window with an annoyance as convincing caught at Edna's heart, and the clutch
as if he had stuck his head out of a window thrilled. But just then she staggered
in the Bronx. A strangeness mingled with under another shock of smashed tradition.
an intensified, sharp realness, like an old The hero had stepped into the market-
dream come true and ; in the earthy vitality place, and he was dressed from head to
the whole outdoor aspect of that little, foot in white!
living town, the matter-of-fact gait of the Hauberk and tights and shoes, long
651
652 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
cloak embroidered in silver, and plumed woman's baby and the heroine's chauffeur
cap — all white from Edna was
tip to toe! and a visiting star dressed as a geisha,
left to conclude that though halation may calling to one another, above the din, en-
be a scientific fact, there are some studios thusiastic comment. Even the extras
where scientific counter-facts are more were no longer coolies driven in a gang;
promptly discovered than in others. But they were volunteers enlisted in a cause.
again she was left without time to think It was they themselves who were out after
by a stillmore startling miracle. Au- the right effect; the honor of the studio
thority was already manifesting itself. She had become their honor, and the success
of the picture their success. The fusty
veil of the dark studios was gone like a
fog in the sun ; everything was different
overnight the business of moving-pictures
had acquired a new face.
"That '11 do, Jake," came the director's
voice. "But where 's your distressed
flower-girl— the distressed flower-girl for
this close-up? you to get me an
I told
actress. No. Sorry, my dear
This one?
you '11 never do. Jake, did n't I tell you
an actress? Here, you, young lady!
Miss! You in green! Let me see you do
this distressed flower-girl!"
Edna had risen from the ranks, for
it was decided to have the flower-girl
carry her distress into a couple of groups
with principals. In the next picture a
Gipsy was required, and
really responsible
before long Edna had taken root in that
busy, thriving, varying colony.
As she went from studio to studio she
and the rest of the mob were being drilled. came to know that there were incom-
The director was here, ready, and he was petent directors even in Jersey, while New
explaining the action to the extras! The her engagements with her
occasional
impossible was occurring before her eyes. earlier employers sometimes uncovered
They were scheduled to begin at nine- competence even in New York; but she
thirty; at nine-thirty they began. And never quite lost the pulse of that first day
there was nothing remarkable left beneath —that day when they began on time, and
the visiting moon. diligence was rewarded, and the chains of
Life became an exciting business. There all dark tradition lay broken as if by the
was the director on horseback, shouting sunny, windy battle in that Italian market-
his directions through a megaphone, while place.
his assistants barked and ran like excited To work out of doors ! Sun-plays ! Not
sheep-dogs, forgetfully waving their own for nothing did the great Grifl^th call them
megaphones in frantic gesticulation there ; so. To get out of the studios, even the
were the six camera-men, placed hither glass studios, and act in the "yard," on a
and yon, on the ground, on steps or plat- hillside, on a sea-beach, under the open
forms, to "shoot" the scene from different sky!
points of view; there, ensconced on the
shed beside the water-barrel, like window- "Locations," the scenes taken outside the
holders on election night, were the silver studio-grounds,carrying you to Palm
hero and his bull-terrier and the wardrobe Beach or the liandiest substitute for Si-
ACTING FOR THE CAIVIERA G53
beria, to the West Indies and the Adiron sucked under a paddle-wheel and have my
dacks, to the show-palaces of Newport and back broken — My God! I 'd have to live
the harnessing of sand-storms in the desert, with myself, }ou see, all the rest of my
are the plums of the motion-picture pud- life!"
ding; they are the picnics of "If you could guarantee my being
y¥ jf^ the workshop : but, far more killed"— it was certainly a point of view!
fA\ Kr *! than in the studio, they are Yet the man with the injured sleeve had
liable to one grave disad- himself risen unscathed once, before ;

vantage. Edna's eyes, the beggar princess and she —


There came a day when a beauty! — had flung herself flat, face
Edna noticed a slim girl downward, into a deep puddle of slime-
leaving the director's office. crusted mud that had been carefully filled
She had a frowning glance, with toads ; Edna had watched
a girl wres-
and her compressed lips tlewith trained bears waist-deep in Adi-
were pale. The first person whom Edna rondack snows had seen a young man cast
;

asked about the girl pronounced the name from a runaway sleigh and dragged along
of a well-known acrobat. the road clinging to its runners, the camera
"She 's going to do the lead in the gov- grinding hard after him; one January day
ernor's new picture; got to run ahead of she had seen a star, a young girl who did
a herd of stampeded cattle." n't know how swim, walk out into the
to
"Really stampeded?" Sound in her nightgown until, chin-deep
"What else? As an actress it may n't amid floating blocks of ice, she could pull
require much, but as a sprinter—" her head under the water and pretend to
Edna turned away her head. drown but she did not drown or die of
;

She herself had clung for her life to the pneumonia. Next morning a trooper rode
sides of speeding motor-cars she had crept, ; his horse full gallop toward a frozen pool

soaked to the skin, over the slippery planks where it was "hoped" the ice was thin,
of innumerable wrecks with four other ; and cast himself over his horse's ears head
girls she had been hurled, hit or miss, off first through the ice.

a flying toboggan but these little matters,


: And he emerged un-
like being involved in the collapse of circus harmed. Edna had be-
tiers or charged by a troop of cavalry, are gun to breathe easily
somuch in the day's work that the heavy the motto of the stu-
man who complained of his sleeve being dios, "Oh, it '11 be all

ruined by .a horse's treading on his shoulder right."


only made himself unpopular by his fussi- Then came a day
ness. It took something exceptional to bring when they arranged to
about such rebellion as that of a tall youth catch one of the villains
whom Edna had lately heard unexpectedly as he stepped backward
resisting the persuasions of a whole man- off a high cliff— and the
agement. arrangement did n't
"No, I won't do it. Cancel my contract catch. What was left
if you want to, but I won't dive off the of the villain did n't
prow of a burning ferry-boat while she 's bear thinking about.
going, for any picture. What? No, I don't And now there swam
care how low you burn her. I 'II stand into Edna's memory the
on her deck till midstream, I 'II
she 's in eloquence of an un-
dive off her from the stern; but I won't happy lady, a star,
dive off in jront of her." As Edna was whom she id once heard vehemently ex-
about to admire his good sense he added postulate: I don't care how busy he was,
"If you could guarantee my being killed, I call it very inconsiderate. Anybody who
that 'u'd be one thing. But just to be knows how sensitive I am knows it was
654 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
hard enough on me that our automobile used to it and partly because, having no
should run over Willie, anyway. Then particular communication of her own to
when 'm dressing to go out in a canoe
I make, she was naturally contented to make
with a hole stove through it so it '11 sink the author's. It was impossible for her to
in God only knows what depth of water, regard that kaleidoscopic world from the
I call it a very inconsiderate director that'll point of view of those to whom it offered,
use the 'phone right outside my dressing- either in money or m art, a supreme op-
room to make Willie's funeral arrange- portunity.
ments." Edna laughed, shuddered, and Opportunity there was, of course, in
shut her eyes. plenty; freer and more accessible than
But she could not shut out that hour, Edna had ever seen it, as sensationally
near or distant, when she should hear swift, as spectacularly sudden, as the op-
some director say: "Oh, Miss Murray, portunities of Cinderella. The old, false
here 's the window-sill where you hang by stories of theamateur who steps upon the
your hands. Don't drop till I give you the stage and sets the world afire have come
word. Oh, and, Miss Murray, don't true enough in pictures, where opportun-
wear anything gauzy, so the wind '11 blow ity, indeed, comes running to one with

it, will you? Because if it should catch open arms almost at first sight, or for-
in the flames—" When that time came ever contmues to cut one dead. Only one
would she give up her hard-won citizen- must be the very special kind of amateur
ship in this new world, or would she whom the gods love one must be Cinder- ;

simply refrain from wearing anything ella herself


gauzy and drop when he gave the word? Edna had never known conditions so
Well, till then don't think about it! unequal. Here, rich were
if ever, the
She had plenty to think about that was richer and the poor poorer. The world
closer at hand, that evening, when the revolved round the stars and poured into
picture was finished and once again no tli^ir laps fortunes which the most dis-

other showed on the horizon. Edna had tinguished careers could not have earned
heard of a vacancy in the stock company of upon the stage in a long life, while the
some people who knew her work well and rank and file had less than the stage had
she was virtually certain of their engaging ever given them in money, in security, in
her if she applied. She began to write consideration. It was the increasingly
her application. crippling tendency of all modern theatrical
She had now been two years in pictures conditions, but here twenty times intensi-
half the time as an extra, half the time as a fied ; were no gradations, no
for here there
more and more established actress, one of strong class of Magna
Charta barons
the first persons whom directors sent for to stand between the people and the
when a small part was important. Of late crown. There were the stars, and there
she had begun to be intrusted with an was, so to cannon-fodder.
speak, the
important part. A pleasing, intelligent, Either one supremely or one
mattered
and highly competent little actress, recog- did n't matter at all; one was everything
nizable to any experienced eye as a re- or nothing. If there was anything one
liable, thoroughly professional worker, balked at, there were hundreds and
she had gone pretty far but she had now; hundreds of others, and anybody else
to face the fact that this was about as far would do as well. Not that Edna had
as she ever would go. Though a pretty found anywhere sweeter or lighter-hearted
girl, she had no signal personality or tem- manners than in the studios; it was n't
perament to lift her into public favor, and socially among one's mates, but economic-
as for a preference in mediums of expres- ally and by the good-natured ruthlessness
sion, Edna was no revolutionist; she in- of one's employers, that one was aware of
stinctively, automatically preferred the the gulf between the royal family and the
medium of speech, partly because she was mob. Edna had learned well enough by
ACTING FOR THE CAMERA 655
this time that it was with the mob that she ful voice went on, "to get established as
belonged, and her sole hope was to prove a lead in stunts. We 're starting the
herself of the most popular and frequently picture to-morrow; but in a couple of
needed type. If only she could be de- weeks we '11 be going west for the loca-
sirable enough to all the companies for tions, and the governor says to tell you
one company to keep her under contract! they 've worked out a trap that 's going
An ordinary picture lasted about a to be dug and roofed over. That 's all
month. Then, unless one had a contract, the far you have to run. You touch
'11

one was evicted again, left sitting on the a spring with your foot as you light on it,
curb till one could grab another picture as and it '11 open to let you through, and
the swift procession floated past. Every- close over you again just as the herd passes
thing depended on the frequency, the com- overhead. Never
show in the cutting,
'11

parative consecutiveness, of these grabs. of course. '11 make a fine picture!"


Gee! it
The gaps between ate up all one's savings. —
"And suppose" Edna found her scorn-
— "the trap does n't work?"
Then a picture devoured at least twice as ful voice
many dresses as a plaj^ Edna had accu- "Does n't work? W-ee-11, in that— case
mulated so many now that they formed an —of course

excellent capital with which to enter stock, It was the final outrage. This was the
and in a breathless desire to be done with complete example of what one amounted
this catch-as-catch-can employment, she to in pictures. Nothing they would n't
dashed off her application to the stock-com- do to 3'ou— nothing! When an acrobat
pany at full gallop. would n't run their race, they would
If she would
got the engagement, it snatch up an untrained girl, trusting her
mean fifty-two weeks' work, a whole year to save the situation, trusting her blithely
of security, of steady knowing where one with their whole investment, not even hid-
was, of rest from piece-work, of planning ing from her that the acrobat had thrown
one's costumes economically in advance in- down the picture. "Thrown down the
stead of plunging for them ruinously as picture" — dreadful phrase, as one might
they were required from day to day. say, "deserted in action, on the field of
Fancy coming to look upon twice-a-day battle." Tears of indignant helplessness
stock as rest! Rest and peace! Safety! rose in Edna's eyes. She saw the stamped-
Safety first! Almost with a gasp, she ing herd ; she felt it behind her ; she felt
stamped her envelop. The telephone rang. the shaking earth ; before her the wind
Edna took down the receiver absently that pushed to hold her back and over her
the voice of an assistant director came to shoulder the breath of death ; she saw her
her faintly as from a world already out- fleeing figure stumble, and then a shuttle
worn and far away. It was saying: turned in her brain. She saw all this no
"She 's thrown down the governor on longer on the prairie, but on the screen
his new picture because she 's afraid of a she saw it with the eyes of the breathless
few old cows!" audience as it rushed down upon them.
"Yes. Well?" "Gee! but it '11 be a fine picture!" A fine

"Scared she can't run faster 'n some picture, a new standing in the business.
poor bulls, after he 's engaged the com- Why, had n't she always said the thing
pany and all ! He 's got to have some re- was n't even a business; it was nothing

liable person in a hurry, and he wants to but an adventure? It was wrong, wrong,

know— would n't you like to do that run all wrong; it was murder, that 's what
for him?" it —
was murder.
A scarlet wave of fury swept over the "Beginning to-morrow, Joe?" she said.

tired girl. In an effort to think of some "To-morrow, studio at nine-thirty.


repudiation sufficiently violent, sufficiently Oh, and. Miss Murray, bring a wedding-
complete, words failed her. dress."
"It 's a grand opportunity," the cheer- "Nine-thirty? All right. I '11 be there."
656 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
She began to rummage in her trunks, ought n't to take her much past two A.M.
There was a satin slip in one, and where to fix up a wedding-dress, and she must
was that lace shawl of her mother's? It look rested to-morrow for the picture.

Morning and I

By JAMES OPPENHEIM

WHEN the corn is

^lorning, the blue-caped singer,


full of glorj' from the wind-play,

Crosses his legs on the hills, and with sun-eye winking,


Sings me this song:

Yoimg laggard
Why laugh as you loaf alone in the garden ?

Why laugh ?

It 's seven o'clock, and no one 's up,


Saving, of course, the chicks,
Saving, of course, the calves.
No one 's up
Why laugh as you loaf alone in the garden?

I pick a seckel pear from the grass.


Bite it, and wink back slowly at laughing Morning,
And, looking careless.
Sing him this stave:

Old lover,
I laugh because of a mighty secret that 's mine;
That 's why.
Is it seven o'clock? Then let it be;
Let the chicks go pecking the corn.
And the calves go cropping the grass.
Am I alone?
Oh, only alone with a mighty secret that 's mine.

Then Alorning bursts out laughing; twenty birds are startled to song;
And he and I in the silence
Wink once again to each other.
Had n't he been blowing kisses to I\arth miHions of years before
I was born ?
Observations on French Schools
By DOROTHY CANFIELD
Author of "Hillsboro People," etc.

THERE is no denying that the Great mar or geography or writing or reading


War has made most of us over into or "formal discipline," for there is not a
somebody else even as concerns things quite pin's between their way of
difference
unconnected with the war. One of the . treating those subjects and ours. And
results in my own case has been a new re- even as regards the differences which do
spectfulness in my attitude toward the exist, it is in no spirit of proselytism that
French I have long been a lover
schools. I am reporting them to other American
of France and a frequent sojourner in her parents. I merely maintain that it is al-
borders, but from my earliest childhood I ways wholesome to look hard at all tlie

have been steeped to the marrow of my different manners of solving the same diffi-

bones in that blandest of American aphor- culty.


isms that when it came to primary public To begin at the beginning, the very ex-
education the United States of America istence of such a school as the one my little

had the whole world beaten without half daughter attends is anan anomaly to
trying. American. It is a public school, that is, —
But since the war it has seemed to me it is under government control, all the —
that the school system which has helped to teachers are paid by the Government and
produce such a nation as the French must all are pensioned by the Government,

be worth more than the indifferent and, just remember this item, please,— and the
to tell the discreditable truth, slightly courses of study are prescribed by the
supercilious glances that I had from time m.inistry of education; and yet all parents
to time bestowed on it. This change in pay four dollars a month tuition in ad-
feeling coincided with a change in the cir- dition to their taxes. Although it was
cumstances of my family life. My little absurd to complain of paying four dollars
daughter is now attending a French lycee, a month for the excellent schooling given
and my new humility has induced me to to my little girl, I was vastly disturbed
consider attentively the differences between about the principle involved, and for some
her French and her American school, and time I declaimed on the subject in my
as always happens when one gives honest and acquaintances, com-
circle of friends
observation to other people's ways of run- fortable French bourgeois for the most
ning their lives, I have run across some part, putting a great many heated ques-
very thought-producing phenomena. tions to which — I felt a certaintriumph
There are, of course, many, many sim- in the fact — they found no ready answer.
ilarities between
our system and the It seemed to me that I was confronted
French. By mean, to put it brutally,
this I with an apparent attack on the sacred
that for the most part their conception principle of democracy.
of education is just as medieval as ours, "Was it not iniquitous," I asked, "that
and ours as theirs. But in the matter of schools which were supported in part with
certain resemblances it is the most polite the taxes of the working-classes should not
as well as the safest policy for the pot to be freely opened to their children?" I

keep a civil tongue in its head about the had discovered that the working-classes
complexion of the kettle, so I will say sent their children to the i-eal public
nothing about French arithmetic or gram- schools, the ecoles communahs, which
658 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
were, so my circle of comfortable French no pupils under existing conditions. Com-
bourgeois friends assured me, "impos- paratively well-to-do people are as a rule
sible" for "nice" children to attend. the only ones to give their daughters
Finally some one, tired, perhaps, of higher education, and comparatively well-
hearing me hold forth, suggested an in- to-do people have a deep-rooted distaste to
terview with a certain official high in the sending their children to public schools
administration of the primary schools of frequented by children of the poorer
France. When the interview was granted classes. Our ideal was of course the same
me, I found myself in the presence of as as yours, free public education for all.

thoroughly modern a personality as ever Obviously what ought to be done in


I met. He bent his sandy brows in- America and France and any other re-
tently while once more in glowing terms public is to make the free public schools so
I set forth my
unanswerable arguments good that all classes would prefer to send
about the sacred principles of democracy. their children there. As a matter of fact,
When I drew breath he threw out at me, at least as far as large centers of popula-
quite casually, an ironic, unanswerable tion are concerned, that result has not been
supposition of his own. achieved in any republic. What hap-
"The free public schools of New York, pened here was what has happened in
now— of course all the well-to-do, well- New York, what has always happened in
educated people of the city send their all very large cities. The well-to-do sent
:hild] there?' their younger children to private schools;
There was a silence as I hastily ran over and in eight years' time the private school
the list of my relatives, friends, and ac- got such grip on ever>^ child that almost
quaintances in New York City. I gazed none was ever sent to public high schools.
at him with a glassy eye. Of course they The education of the well-to-do classes
did nothing of the sort. And what were was thus entirely in the hands of private
the paltry four dollars a month I paid persons who undertook the business to
here compared, for instance, with the make a cash profit out of it; they were,
thirty dollars a month asked at my own moreover, in no wise responsible to the
old favorite school in New York, though state for that element most vital to the
by no means in the list of really expensive state, the education of its future citizens.
private schools'? The state would never dream of allow-
My interlocutor did not permit him- ing a group of wealthy citizens to take the
self a smile at my plight, but putting the sewers or the streets or the politics of their
tips of his competent fingers together, he part of the city under their private con-
gave me the following statement trol. Why should the state allow them
"Before the French Revolution the to take those children who are very apt to
education of the people was an affair of grow up into the leading class of the re-
religion; since then the effort has con- public? In Paris we were confronted by
stantly been to take it out of religion and the same facts as those which you have just
put where it belongs, along with clean
it now recognized as New York realities.
streetsand good sewers and the extension What should we do? Should we pro-
of the franchise and the development of claim in theory our imswerving fidelity
public spirit, among matters relating to to the ideal, and in practice recognize a
the public welfare, under the control of system of very expensive private educa-
the state, and hence finally under the con- tion, restricted to the few with large in-
trol of the people. But it takes a long comes, a system which, under the pretext
time to advance, as perhaps even Ameri- of admitting no alloy in democratic insti-
cans have discovered. When the lycees tutions, totally separates the very well-
for girlswere organized,— like your girls' to-do childfrom the child of the well-
high schools, you know, it was soon — paid working-man? No; in France, in-
found that in large cities they would have stead of trying to secure all of the ideal
OBSERVATIONS ON FRENCH SCHOOLS 659

and getting half, we prefer as a rule to our solution, though it is frankly a com-
try for three quarters and to get three promise, is not more undemocratic than
quarters, if you will allow me a metaphor. some others which I could name. I hope
The small tuition fee of which you com- I have answered your questions. I even
plain is quite within the means of the venture to hope I have convinced you."
fairly prosperous shopkeeper or clerk or I rose to go.
even well-paid workman. It does keep out "Monsieur," I said, "no American
the very poor element of the population." would ever admit being convinced by such
At this I could not restrain an indignant arguments. But I confess that you have
start of wounded American idealism. made a big dent in my complacency." I

"Oh, I know that does not sound well wonder if I have passed it on?
to an American," he added. "It does not
sound well to a Frenchman. But in this For was all-
that question one interview
matter of education we were not looking important. For the next one I shall need
at people as we should like to have them, to report varying opinions. This was the
but as they are. We
French educational question of the marriage of women teach-

organizers were not making speeches; we ers, or, rather, the fact of it, for there is no
were struggling sincerely and whole- question about it in France.
heartedly with the problem of devising a France is so traditional about women
system of state-controlled education which in many ways, so singularly, almost start-

would reach and benefit the largest pos- lingly lacking in so-called feminist agita-
sible number of children, and which would tions, that it seems quaint to find here an
insure the contact and good-fellowship entire in a principle which
acquiescence
during childhood of as many different ismaking slow headway in America. But
classes as possible. As possible, mind you." the French people as a whole have always
He fixed me with his shrewd, blue eye, and recognized what is, after all, the first and
waited an instant to be sure I was not most important right of women, the right
idealistically shedding the significance of to work and being endowed with a keen
;

his phrase. Then he went on "Secondly, : sense of the realities and exigencies of
the tuition fees, plus the subvention of human nature, it has not occurred to them
the state, add enough to the resources of to make work for women a privilege to be

the lycee3 to permit them to indulge in purchased only by celibacy and childless-
those ornaments and elaborations of school- ness. Half of the French women teachers
life to which the well-to-do give im- of my acquaintance are married and
portance, in my own opinion a greatly ex- mothers, often of grown-up children. My
aggerated importance. Personally I think little daughter's teacher is fifty-eight years

that the open public schools of Paris are old, and has a son of twenty-seven. She
quite as good for the children as the brings into the classroom a sort of grand-
lycees; but that is of course not the ques- motherly element of patience and wide ex-
tion. perience with children, which is a most edi-
"As a result we have gathered under fying spectacle to an American mother, ac-
state education vast numbers of city customed to see almost all teachers young,
families who would otherwise have been unmarried women not very long out of
out of touch wnth modern France ; we have their own childhood.
succeeded in fusing inside the classroom "Are there, then, no inconveniences?
representatives of virtually all classes save None of the troublesome results so dis-

the proletariat, — and that will come in the mally predicted by our ovv-n school-

future, — and we have avoided the forma- boards?"


tion of large numbers of exclusive, very To this question I received a variety of

expensive private schools that would answers. The teacher mothers them-
cater only to the well-to-do people. On selves looked reminiscent, and almost all
the whole, Madame, I incline to think that of them said the same thing, "Yes, the
660 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
first years of the children's life were hard." French equivalents for "I get you." But
I did not interrupt them to say that the I went on asking questions of other people.

first years of the lives of all children are You must understand that every one to
difficult for their mothers. "It would whom I presented the matter needed a
have been better if we could have stayed moment to collect himself, to formulate an
at home with the babies. But there are so opinion on the subject, so entirely is it
many compensations! After the children taken for granted. One of my interloc-
were old enough to go to school we really utors, when he grasped what was at issue,

saw more of them than other mothers did, leaped joyfully at the idea thatmight be it

because we were at the school ourselves. possible to prevent women teachers from
But was always hard when they were
it marrying and having families. This was
sick. But after they are grown-up an official in charge of school statistics,
Heavens! what do other mothers do, when tabulation, reports, etc. He was heart-
the children go away from home, if they felt in his denunciations of the unspeakable
have no work to fill their hearts and nuisance of married teachers. Their ir-

hands? We look forward to twenty years regularities messed up his record-cards to


of active service after that." a degree that was almost unbearable to a
"Were the children the only difficulty?" conscientious tabulator, he assured me. It
I asked. was impossible to keep things in parallel
"What other could there be?" columns. If he had his way, marriage
"Husbands, housekeeping." lines would automatically bar any women
"Oh, modern, wage-earning husbands from connection with the school system.
are never at the house except in the eve- This sounded very like old times in New
ning. And as for housekeeping, the extra York.
money we earned paid three times over for The head of a department in the min-
the extra service we needed to hire. And istry of education said judicially:
we were not tied to the dish-pan ; were "From the technically administrative
better thinkers, better companions for our point of view the motherhood of women
children, for our husbands." teachers has undoubtedly many incon-
I carried the question to an old French veniences. From the strictly educational
philosopher, who said meditatively: one I never have been able to see that there
"What do you suppose would be the was any difference between unmarried and
answer of a doctor if you asked him married teachers. Of course from the
whether his life would n't have been on point of view of the welfare of the state it

the whole easier and less complicated if he is of the highest importance that the most
had never married and had children who instructed class of women should not be
are apt to be sources of anxiety just at the the childless ones. You do not perhaps
time when he needs all his calm for a know that in every way we officially
critical case? Do
you think he would be facilitate the marriage of women teachers

likely to answer that he would have been and try to make life easier for them in the

a more useful member of his profession if case of children." No, I did not know it.

he had always lived in a room in a hotel This did not sound a bit like old times
free from all entangling human relation- in New York.

ships? Don't you think it possible that an At the last I went to the head of the
expert accountant is occasionally less effi- hierarchy himself, M. Liard, the greatly
cient if his wife is very ill? Perhaps it reverenced rector of the University of
would be for the best interests of the Paris, and from that militantly vigorous
grocery business if the law forbade the person I had a final and ringing answer.
scattering of the grocer's energies by the "I have," he said, "just one complaint
inevitable erosion and attrition of domestic to make about married teachers, and that is
life." that there are not enough of them. If
I stopped him by one of the decorous I had my way, every woman teacher in
OBSERVATIONS ON FRENCH SCHOOLS 661

France would have a good husband and know, I am sure that you are giving the
babies of her own." same start of indignation with which I
I ventured to murmur something about received that intimation. Yet to all ques-
"administrative difficulties, ".and had them tions about the reason for that rule I met
blown away like chaff. only with the blank wall of "Good
"Oh, such compared with real live
trifles gracious! Whoever thought of doing any-
children ! Any form of life is more compli- thing else!" which is the most unsurmount-
cated and troublesome than death. If it is able obstacle known to the professional
good for every one else to marry and have searcher after reasons. To tell the truth,
children, it is good for women teachers. I never have found out why all casual
And it 's good for education, because they visitors are carefully shut out. But, re-
undoubtedly have in the long run more duced to mere conjecture as to cause, 1
patience for and comprehension of chil- have had all the more leisure to concen-
dren than childless women, and because trate on effects. For one thing, it seems
their years of service to the state are so to me that there is vastly less emphasis
much longer than if they retire when laid on immediate results in French pri-
they marry. And of course it 's good for mary work than in American. This may
the state that such women should be be, probably is, due to many other deep-
mothers. What good for?"
is n't it lying, national causes. But it is possible
My tabulator seemed too unimportant that the complete absence of visitors may
to mention just then, so I merely asked: alsohave something to do with it. With
"May I quote you, Monsieur Liard?" nobody before whom it is more or less
He gave a large, but slightly astonished, advisable or desirable to "show off," an
assent. immense number of well-known tempta-
"Why should any one be interested in tions are removed from the path of teacher
my opinion about the advisability of mar- and pupils. I do not need to name them.
riage? It 's a pretty well-established in- Every one with any experience of class life
stitution." will think of them at once. For instance,
"Because, Monsieur Liard," I said, there is no reason to call frequently on the
"until recently any married woman teacher clever, forth-putting child to recite because
in New York City who gave birth to a he can always be counted upon to make a
child was thereby automatically dismissed good showing and no reason to avoid toil-
;

from the service of childhood in the ing over a problem with a slow child
schools. And such mothers are even now whose progress is apparent to his teacher,
frowned on by the authorities." but who makes an impression of dumb
Even when it is not to your own imbecility on the casual visitor. There is
credit, there is always something pleasing no need by hasty pressure of personality
about being the bearer of genuinely and the employing of emergency measures
astounding news, and on a wave of this to galvanize the class into the feverish
dubious triumph I left M. Liard's office. animation of interest which always pleases
He was frankly dum founded, managed to visitors, but which teachers know has an
articulate, "Incredible! Monstrous!" but inevitable reaction. There is nothing to
was beyond any other comment, prevent unhurried, steady, consecutive in-
dustry in the class. It is also to be noted
I HAD plenty of side-lights cast on that in this connection that, with the excep-
subject, but on the question of the ex- tion of an occasional showing of hand-
clusion of parents from French school- crafts, that diabolical institution known in
rooms have been reduced to solitary
I America "annual school exhibition"
as the
meditations. Perhaps you do not know has never been heard of in France. The
that parents are as rigorously shut out children study in order to understand their
from French classrpoms as German spies lessons, not in order to produce something
from French fortresses. Now that you do which may be shown to the credit of the
662 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
teacher and the school in competition with to them orto any one else. Individually
other teachers and other schools. our had amounted to nothing for
visits

Furthermore, let me cite the large num- us. Collectively they had represented a
ber of comfortable, plump, matronly, considerable sym of irregularity and inter-
middle-aged teachers whom one sees in ruption for the schools.
France, going their round of daily work Understand me, I do not in the least
with calmness and poise, the gray coming say that the French are right here and we
Into their well-dressed hair, the crow's- are wrong. I still have a lively distrust of
feet coming at the corners of their clear anything which takes place behind closed
eyes, with none of those annually recurring doors. This is a racial characteristic, per-
signs of nervous tension and uncertain haps a characteristic of a rather primitive
mental equilibrium which along about people. You remember the apocryphal
will
March and April we expect to see in our story of an effete Easterner who hung a
own younger and more vigorous teaching towel across the window of the shack where
force. Of course this is due partly to the he was taking a bath, and the cow-boy who
fact that a family life is not denied them. twitched it down, exclaiming, with honest
It may be due partly also to the fact that distrust of hidden processes, "What 's so
French cooking is better than Yankee, or damned private going on in here?" At
that the servant problem is net so cruel. any rate I still have my feelings hurt, as
But do not think it fantastic to connect
I any self-respecting American would have,
it also with the absence of the friction and at the idea that I am forbidden to go to a
loss of energy caused by the coming and place to which I would go with extreme
going of irregular, casual, criticizing or infrequency if I were allowed. I call to

gushing visitors, who, whatever else they your attention the above phenomena only
do, always dissipate the attention of the in the hope that they may arouse in your
classroom. When the French school- mind, as in mine, that grudging, but sal-
teacher settles down to a morning's work utary, interest we all feel when we ob-
it is with the entire certainty that she is serve that policies totally different from
going to have her children all to herself our own do not lead to certain destruction.
for hours of quiet, uninterrupted activity As to the institution of the repetitrice I
and not only that day, but the day after venture to predict that your interest will
that and the day after that, and so on till be anything but grudging. I give the

the end of the year. I wonder how many French name of that school official because
American teachers would heave a wistful there is no such person in American
sigh to learn of this detail in the life of schools. She exists there only as the po-
their French colleagues. tential solution of one of the most trying
Finally, taking a leaf from the book of and formidable problems in school ad-
the official who had given me so shrewd a ministration. There are few American
nip about the attendance of well-to-do families who do not number a school-
children in the New York public schools, teacher among their connections, and so
I asked myself seriously just how often I almost all American families are familiar
had taken advantage of the open door in with the doleful complaints of school-
American public schools, how often I had teachers about the strength, time, and
gone to visit the school-rooms of my town, effort consumed by work connected with
how often my brother and my sisters and the administrative side of the school organ-
my cousins and my friends had visited their ization. Nearly all of us have heard
children's classrooms. Among all those school-teachers cry out: "It is not the
typicalAmerican instances I remember not teaching which uses us up so. If, when
one whose visits had been frequent enough we were finished with teaching, our days'
or informed enough or consecutive enough work were over, we would be in paradise.
to make their formal exclusion from the As it is, we sometimes think the actual
classroom a matter of the least importance teaching the least part of our work. We
OBSERVATIONS ON FRENCH SCHOOLS 663

are responsible for order in the halls, for she is not suited by nature or training is

the entrance of our pupils, and for the con- not good for her teaching of history.
duct of pupils studying at their desks. For In the lower grades, with little children,
tardiness or absence we must write notes where the personal element is still very im-
to parents and see them when they come. portant, where the teacher is almost a
We lose long afternoons in teachers' meet- mother, this division of labor is less clear-

ings not discussing methods of instruction, cut ; but exactly in proportion as the work
but how to keep the cloak-rooms in better of actual academic instruction becomes
order; and always and always we spend more formal and exacting, the purely ad-
hours bent over our desks long after the ministrative work is removed from the
children have gone, making out averages, teacher's cares. A professor of literature
reports, filling up blanks, filing papers, and in a French high school walks into her
figuring out attendance averages. Heaven classroom in the morning to find her class
only knows what all those statistics are assembled, counted, and ready to receive
for. We are only sure that they have instruction. When that period is over,
nothing to do with teaching the pupils, she has no responsibility for anything they
which is the work that we are supposed do thereafter. She teaches literature for
to do." about the same number of periods a day as
American educators have long deplored her American colleagues, and when she has
theseburdensome tasks they have brought ; done that, she gathers her compositions to
them up for discussion and anxious con- correct under her arm, walks out of the
sideration in educational conferences. classroom, and goes home. No one thinks
American ingenuity has exhausted itself of bothering her about securing better at-
in devising administrative systems which tendance from the pupils or better dis-

will be slightly less onerous to the teach- cipline in the halls any more than of asking
ing staff; but apparently no one has her to see that the furnace drafts work
thought of the simple expedient employed well or that the drains are in good con-
by the French to avoid giving this work dition. She is no more obliged to do
to teachers; that is, giving it to somebody clerical work, such as making out and
else. Now you see why there is no copying reports or filling up blanks, than
English word for rcpctitricc. The rc- she is obliged to clean the snow from the
pL'titriccs in French school are
a big school-house steps. The state has taken
women who have little or no connection considerable trouble to secure her expert
with teaching, and the teachers, paradox- services in the matter of teaching lit-

ical as this sounds to an American, are erature, and the state expects her strength,
women who do little or nothing except freshness, resiliency, and staying power to

teach. The French consider that- after be concentrated on that undertaking.


the state has paid a considerable sum to Are you asking, "And who, pray, can be
teach a woman, already especially fitted found to undertake all the tedious, dis-

for that purpose, how to impart a know- agreeable administrative work?" Why, if

ledge of grammar, it is rather a wasteful you please, it is tedious and disagreeable


procedure to use her nervous force in only when it is loaded on the back of peo-
marshaling pupils up and down halls, in ple wholly interested in something else,
watching over a "study period" of sub- who have not been trained for it, who do
jects not her own, in making out reports it in scraps of their time, and with what is

about shades that will not work, radiators left of their strength after they have done
that will not shut off, or children who will a day's work already. It is in reality very
not come to school regularly. It is quite important and worth-while work, and to
possible that a very good teacher of his- people who have an aptitude for it, who
tory may not make
good supervisor of
a are paid for it, expect to do it, and who
a high-school lunch-room, and the nervous do nothing else, it presents none of the
strain involved in doing work for which drearv difficulties which we are accustomed
664 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
to associate with it. It is in many cases The upshot of the matter seems to be
another career in the educational world that the French have seen with clearer eyes
open to people with organizing, executive than we that there are at least two kinds
ability who otherwise might misguidedly of holes in the organization of the typical
take up teaching as a life-work. How large modern school, the square and the
many a painstaking, over-conscientious round ; and, bearing in mind the tradi-
teacher havewe all seen who would have tional waste of energy connected with mis-
made a far better clerical worker! How fitting pegs and holes, they have bestirred
many professors of history who know themselves to secure the accurate distri-

much more about "keeping good disci- bution into the right holes of both round
pline" than about presenting the march and square human pegs.
forward of the centuries, how many teach- Is not such accuracy of peg-filling, after
ers of literature deeply imbued with the all, one of the important and distinguish-
spirit of Shelley or Milton who are incapa- ing marks of an intelligent, a flexible, and
ble of adding up the averages in a report! a genuinely democratic civilization ?

Summer, IQ17
By B. PRESTON CLARK, JR.

WATCHED the dusk upon the sea delay.


I And in the shallows the black herons stalked.
And in the leaves some lonely spirit talked.
Then a gray pause— and then the end of day.

I saw the tide turn by the river's-edge.


And cedars stand more black against the sky.
And something dark that swooped and fluttered by.
And herons leaving the tide-covered ledge.

Stars stirred at the beginning of the night.


And wind, descending, made the still leaves quiver.
And once a fish splashed in the silent river.
There was no beauty in the white stars' light.

Then, as a thread breaks and disaster comes,


Came in the stillness a far roll of drums.
old Houses
By ALICE CORBIN

THE
Old
images of old houses are as beautiful as old tunes,
faded music that brings a remembered pain,
Music that awakens music,
Like pain added to pain.
How many old houses are scattered
In the white ghost-field of the brain

A room with four white walls


Where I read the Bible at thirteen
Who can find a virtuous woman ?
For her price is far above rubies."
And "Evangeline" and "Lucile,"
And the dark mysteries of Poe;
And when T was tired.
Powdered the face of the old negress
Who had fallen asleep
And who would awake
To see herself in the glass.
I was afraid to sit up alone.

A room in another house


I remember when I stood with my hand on the knob,
Uncertain.
That door is no longer there.

665
666 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Where the door hung there is no house.
Yet I can open the door and pass in,

And take down my coat from the corner,


And brush the books from the chair.
And down and look out the window
sit

Over an orchard of blossoming apple-trees


At a landscape that has disappeared
Only the sky remains.

V'^-'f'-
0{f}K-
«'o

House of my childhood,
As I grow older you come back to me
And stay withme
Old house on Main Street,
Where cattle browse in the ruined garden,
And hollow-eyed memories
Dwell in the dark shadows of the hallways,
And rooms let to lodgers
Behind the heavy red curtains
Of the recessed windows
Were many curious little baskets
Covered with painted flowers and fish and shells
Where lovers sat and whispered.
Is it your unhappy shades
Haunting the corridors?
Sorrowful Mansard windows.
Gazing down upon the grinning faces
Of the darky quarter,
It is not thus that I remember you.

House of love.
House that is gone, house that is destroyed,
Hidden and forgotten to make way
For the bigger house built over you,
For me you can never be destroyed or forgotten.
OLD HOUSES 667
I run up and down your steps
Steps of thin air;
I go to fetch the broom
From behind the door-
Door that has vanished ;

I answer the impatient ch'clc


Of the little gate on the stairs ;

I go through all the rooms,

Shells of sunlight or moonlight,


And through all the rooms
Love follows me.

I remember an old house in France

Ah, countless old houses in northern France!


They stand in rows, in broken ranks;
They wait quietly in the sunlight.
Where they used to stand
There is a hollow filled with water,
And the wide sky overhead.

Do you think that old houses have no souls?


That they do not stay
Where the body perished ?

In a forgotten place
I have seen the corner of a crumbling basement
And the stunted half
Of an old apple-tree
Whispering together.

The lip of an old well-curb


Pushed up through the grass
With forgotten secrets.
It did not matter whether anybody
Listened or remembered.

.--V
CAUETS ()!• THK VIRCIXIA MllllARV 1 \S rnUTK AT TIIK KATI l.K OK NKW MAKl'
IKOM THl- PAIM INi, IW H. W i:ST Cl-INI-DINST
cc
Molly McGuire, Fourteen''
By FREDERICK STUART GREENE
Author of" The Bunker Mouse." etc.

Decorations by John R. Flanagan

GENERAL TAZEWELL entered his The general joined her.


office and, humming a tune slightly "I believe you are more concerned about
off the key, searched rapidly through his Duval than I am about Fourteen's letter.
morning mail. Reaching the last envelop, I 've been too busy to read Mrs. Duval's
he clucked softly, and followed the odd note. Did it please you ?"
sound by a prolonged, gently breathed She took his arm and drew him out
"Ah-h!" through the wide doorway to the porch.
"I wonder," he said aloud, "what 's "Oh, it must mean so much to the old
wrong with my friend Molly, Fourteen. cadets to feel that they are a part of all

This is the first alumni day in nine, yes, this!" Her gesture took in the level acres
ten years, that he 's failed to report." of the parade-ground, glimmering brilliant
Edward Tazewell, superintendent of green under the morning sun. Beyond,
the Virginia Military Institute, looked the mountains stretched mile after mile, an
years younger than his friends knew him unbroken chain of rugged, blue peaks.
to be. On this June morning, trim in The general smiled into her glowing
white uniform, his shoulders held, as al- face.
waj's, well back, he did not appear a day "They wuth your bright
can't all see it

above fifty. A rustle of skirts interrupted eyes, Evelyn," heand not one of the
said,
the general's thoughts. He rose quickly, six hundred cadets under his command
standing at attention. would have recognized his voice. "But
"Has it come. Colonel?" He had held tell me about IVIrs. Duval's letter."
that rank during their courtship, and Mrs. "Every sentence in it has a nice, whim-
Tazewell seldom used the higher title. sical twist. I know I shall like her."
"No, my dear; his letter is not here." "You were careful to say I could make
"Well, don't be disappointed the insti- ; no definite promise?" the general asked
tute does n't need the money." Mrs. seriously.
Tazewell had a brisk, cheerful way of "Indeed I was. She has not told her
speaking. husband a word about what we hope the
"I don't care a hang about the money, board will do she has persuaded him to
;

Evelyn I want to see him make good. To


; come just to please her."
have him fail now would hurt." "How about Duval's mother?"
"Perhaps the mail is late." She glanced "I 'm not going to tell that dear old
at the clock. "My gracious! They '11 all lady a word until everything is settled.
be down in a minute, and I have n't told She can reach here in four
Mrs. hours."
Lydia about the waffles." At the door she Tazewell held up her hand. "Listen!"
stopped and asked eagerly, "Is it all right From far down the valley came faintly the
about Mr. Duval?" sound of a whistle. "That 's the Rich-
"I think it will be; the hoard is to de- mond train. I feel sure it will bring Four-
cide his case to-day." teen's letter." She turned quickly.
"Edward, they just must agree!" Mrs. "Gracious! I 've forgotten all about
Tazewell declared. Lydia!"
670 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Finals were in full swing, the most try- "Great General! do you get them
Scott,

ing time of the year for the general and like that every day?"
his wife, a week of morning drills, review Mrs. Tazewell sprang to her feet.
and parade at sundown, and dances at "There! I knew Fourteen would not fail
night, at which they must at least appear. you!"
The small college town was jammed to the Two one-thoilsand-dollar bills had
last attic-room with fathers and mothers fallen from the opened envelop, and
of the cadets, with all of whom the gen- though the general did not smile, content
eral must shake hands. His own home was showed in his homely face.
crowded with officials from Washington "Now the day is nearly perfect," Mrs,
and Riciimond. In his big heart General Tazewell said to the distinguished guest
Tazewell liked all this gay turmoil; the on her right, no less a personage than the
knotted contour of his forehead had come chief of staff of the United States Army.
from concentration upon higher mathe- "With such a windfall, Madam, and
matics, not from impatience. such waffles, I should call the day entirely
perfect," the officer answered.

Given unlimited funds to spend, it would


still be impossible to build another insti-

tution that could have the spirit of V. M. I.


That collection of historic buildings domi-
nated by the war-scarred barracks, the pa-
rade-ground on which Jackson and Lee
reviewed the cadets, the library filled

with records and portraits of the institute's


battle-famed sons, the grounds studded
with war-trophies— all these give to the
little kingdom tucked away in the heart of
the Blue Ridge traditions that are unique.
To an outsider the officers will speak of
the Battle of New Market, that red-hot
engagement in the valley where the V.
M. I. battalion made its charge. With
sparkling eyes they tell how those boys—
pitifully young boys, called in the dying
hours of the Confederacy — waited from
daybreak, fretting to go under how
fire;

they steadily worked their way forward,


reaching the front late in the afternoon,
and charged in perfect formation through
a straggling regiment of beaten, retreating
Later that morning, when Mrs. Taze- veterans. They will describe that steady
well had poured coffee from her ancient rush across the open wheat-field straight
silver urn for her many guests, an orderly into a driving hail of Minie balls, while
entered, and placed a letter before the gen- shells, bursting above, tore ragged gaps in
eral. He glanced at the large envelop, but the ranks; how, without disorder, those
put it aside unopened. gaps were closed, and finally, with a rebel
"Oh, Colonel, please!" Mrs. Tazewell yell ringing shrilly from their young
smiled down the long table. "Won't you throats, the battalion plunged up the hill,
all let him take just one look? We 're so captured the batterv, and put the eneni\' to
anxious for a certain letter to-day!" Hight.
The superintendent opened the envelop. With eyes that do not sparkle they tell
"IVIOLLY McGUIRE, FOURTEEN' 671
more: how, of that band of two hundred times before, which one of the hundreds in
and seventy-nine, fifty-seven boys fell the corps when the arsenal blew up was
wounded and dead on that shot-torn field. the mysterious person who for ten years,
If you still show interest, you may hear without a break, had written to him. Al-
that Stonewall Jackson was an officer of ways his letters contained a cash remit-
the institute how in a day after Virginia
; tance, and always the last page had been
had seceded he changed from an eccentric signed.
professor to an inspired soldier, and, Gratefully yours.
gathering a company of the older cadets,
seized a canal-boat packet, and floated
down the James to Richmond and undying
glory.
And there is Lincoln's answer to the im-
patient statesmanwho demanded to know
why the Federal Army took so long to put
down a starving nation.
"We could do it in a month," the great
man told him, "were it not for a trouble-
some little school down in Virginia that Heaven knows the skull and cross-bones
turns out new officers as fast as we kill off with the two M's were familiar enough.
the old ones." Evidently it was Molly to
a law of the
These are only three out of the many marked in red some-
leave these insignia
traditions that the outsider may find set where near the spot where one of their
down in the printed history of the old bombs had been exploded, and the number
school; but others are known to the in- of the member who had lighted the fuse
sider, and chief among the secret ones are was added as a final touch of bravado.
Molly
the acts of that mysterious band, the The general had seen the sign numbered
McGuires. Who
members of this
the from one to thirteen at many places in and
carefully selected organization were none out of barracks, but nowhere except on
save a duly initiated Molly ever knew; but these annual letters had he found the num-
every one connected with the college, from ber fourteen. He thought that he knew
the negroes who swept the long barracks who had blown up that arsenal. The pres-

galleries up to the superintendent himself, ent finals marked the twentieth reunion
knew that the sole aim of this clan was to of the "Arsenal Class," and one of the first
make life interesting for the officers and returning members to report at alumni
faculty. headquarters had been Boiling, the man
Being in intimate touch with military he suspected. The general had recognized
affairs and gunpowder, a Molly Mc- him at first glance, though his once black
Guire's favorite means of expressing him- hair was streaked with gray As their

self was through an explosion, and the hands clasped and each looked steadily into
greatest of their many ingenious plots was the eye of the other, the general sounded
the blowing up of the arsenal. Though his friendly cluck and then said, with his

this was carried out twenty years ago, you, broadest smile
if you are an insider, will hear talk of it to "Ah-h, Boiling, too bad we have n't an-

this day. other arsenal ready for you."


From the fog of secrecy that shrouded Boiling, true to cadet ethics, which re-
the band only these facts drifted clear veals nothing to members of the faculty,

from the mist it was formed of boys who


:
had neither denied nor admitted the im-
could pass some difficult test it numbered ;
plied compliment. Now, while going to
thirteen, never more or less. meet his -board of visitors, the general be-
After breakfast on that alumni day the gan to doubt. But if not Boiling, who?
general asked himself, as he had countless He reviewed in memory everv member of
672 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Boiling's class. There were a dozen boys when a motor, rounding the corner of bar-
of that year who had sufficient daring; be- racks, turned into the drive leading to
sides, there was always the chance that headquarters. The general rose, and
some member of another class might be walked down the brick pathway.
guilty. The general dismissed the prob- "Welcome, Duval!" he called, then
lem. He had the Duval affair to discuss paused. Was this determined-looking
now, and opening the council-room door, man the dreamy boy he had known?
he saluted the members of his august The new arrival sprang from the car,

board. and saluted in old-cadet fashion. A tall,


The conference lasted the better part of well-knit man, he held himself with mili-
an hour, but when the superintendent left tary straightness. One look into his frank
the room he was smiling. With the spring eyes ended the superintendent's uncer-
his step still held he crossed the parade- tainty-.

ground and signaled to his wife when he "I Ve come to report for duty. Gen-
passed her on the porch. Mrs. Tazewell eral." Duval's deep voice had a pleasant
left her guests, and hurried to join him in ring.
his office. "We 've waited twenty years to have
"Tell me quickly, did tliey agree?" she you, my boy," the general answered, and
asked eagerly. their hands gripped hard.
The general began a very creditable jig "I 'm glad to be back. It 's good to see
step, smiling at her the while. It was a the old place again, and it 's good to see
boyish trick he allowed himself when well you. General." Holding the superinten-
pleased and sure that no cadet was within dent's hand, Duval looked toward bar-
range. racks. "I 'm glad she made me come,"
IVIrs. Tazewell put both hands upon his he said, as if thinking aloud, and with a
shoulders. note of the old shyness the general had
"Now everything is just right," she said not forgotten. During the moments they
happily. stood together he studied Duval, and was
The
general's jig came to an end. not disappointed.
"But why are n't they here? I would "Here, you scamp, I have no more time
n't have Duval miss finals now on any to waste on you," he and turned to said,
account." Mrs. Duval, helping her from the car.
"He '11 be here on time. Mrs. Duval "Ah, Madam," he said and bowed, "I
telephoned from Staunton ; they're com- see New England is to be charmingly
ing by motor." represented at our finals." The general
"Well, you can now safely notify his liked her thoughtful gray eyes.
mother; she '11 have to make an early start Mrs. Duval blushed.
to-morrow." He followed his wife to the I had known what I 've been miss-
"If
door; when she was about to open it, the ing, I should have persuaded my husband

general took both her hands. "Evehn," to bring me here years ago." She gave
he said slowly, "we are two very happy him a quick smile. "Is that the proper an-
people, are n't we?" swer to a Virginian's greeting? But tell

She showed that she held full partner- me. General, has he changed ?"
ship in his happiness, and tlie}- left the "Attention, Peyton Duval!"
room together. Duval straightened.
"Luncheon will be a little late," Mrs. "Ready for inspection, sir," he said, a
Tazewell said to her guests "we 're wait- ; smile easing the firm line of his mouth.
ing for some new-comers, the Duvals. It 's "I 'd have known him anywhere by
the* twentieth reunion of Mr. Duval's that studious look. But, man, 30U must
and he 's bringing his wife,.who was
class, be a good two inches taller than when
a New England girl, I believe." you graduated." The general stopped
She was still talking of the Duvals abruptly ; lie had caught the quick flush in
"MOLLY McGUTRE, FOURTEEN" 673
Duval's face. He was relieved to hear I 've asked myself a thousand times, Why,
his wife's voice. in the very last hour, he did that— that in-

"I could n't let the colonel keep you credible thing?"
away from me any longer," she said, shak- Mrs. Duval hesitated before answering.
ing hands with Duval. She turned to "It is almost impossible to explain
Mrs. Duval, saying, "I believe your hus- something we women, Mrs. Tazewell, can
band was his favorite cadet." never quite understand."
She took her guest's arm, and all four "Ah-h, then he has told you his mo-
walked toward the house. Before reach- tive?"
ing the porch the general saw Mrs. Taze- "Oh, many times! He said that he
well lean close to her companion though ; hated being called 'Demeritless Duby.'
he caught no word of the hastily whispered He had grown tired of hearing how easily
sentence,Mrs. Duval's glance toward her he took calculus and analytical geometry.
husband told him what had been said. He longed, he told me, to be known as a
During the introductions he noticed daredevil, if for only just once." Mrs.
that Duval drew immediate attention. His Duval looked appealingly at the superin-
manner, even during this trivial observ- tendent. "Can you possibly understand
ance, left an impression of quiet strength. it all?"
Later, the chief of staff said : "Yes, I can understand," the general an-
"Yes, General, I get the same idea. swered thoughtfully. "I could understand
That line from ear to chin is strong. He it better, however, in some other boy, for

looks like a man who finishes things, and Duval was the one man of that daredevil
I '11 wager he prefers the hard jobs." class never in a scrape of any kind." The
After luncheon the superintendent general remained silent for some moments,
found opportunity to ask a question that his brow knotted in deeper ridges. Then
had long puzzled him. All the guests had suddenly he rose.
left the house except Mrs. Duval, who "I have it!" he exclaimed.
had stayed behind at his request. "What is it. Colonel?" Mrs. Tazewell
"Come into myyou two girls,"
office, asked.
he said, his eyes twinkling, "and we will "I 've just found out, my dear, that
complete the plans of our conspiracy." your husband has been blind to several
When they were seated, Mrs. Duval things for a very long time." He turned
leaned toward the general, and her ear- to Mrs. Duval with keener interest.
nestness showed how much this interview "What else did he tell you ?"
meant to her. "He has often said that he wanted to be
"I don't know how to thank you for all a Molly McGuire. That name does n't
—all you have done for Peyton. It will sound daredevilish, though, does it?"
mean, oh, so much to him! More than General Tazewell chuckled softly.
he has ever admitted even to me." "Evelyn, you would never think to see
Her voice broke, and the general flashed him now that he was once dreamy, shy,
an appeal to his wife. Mrs. Tazewell always keeping in the background except
moved to a seat close beside her guest and in studies. But Duval a Molly!" A
said smile smoothed the superintendent's
"Nothing the colonel has done all this mathematical brow. "Impossible! So he
year has given him half so much happi- did that fatal thing because he wanted his
ness." She took in her own the tightly classmates to think him a daredevil?"
clasped hands in Mrs. Duval's lap. The remained in session
conspirators
The general's softest "Ah-h!" followed sounding across
until the call for review,
an embarrassed cluck. the parade-ground, ended the conference.
"Will you permit a question?" he said Then three contented people left the gen-
gently. "When I recall Duval's fine rec- eral's office. But Mrs. Tazewell made
ord until— until that unfortunate last dav, one last protest.
674 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
"Colonel, I
's mean.
think Can't
it The crowd under the maples, edging
Mrs. Duval give him just one little hint?" forward, breaks into applause. Every head
"No, Evelyn." The general tried to look in that double line out on the field is

stern. "The board has given orders that thrown high, every shoulder stiffens. Now
only we three are to know what 's going and again, above the applause a rebel yell
to happen." is cried. Often it comes in rusty tone
from some old boy no longer able to hold
The biggest day in all the year at V. himself in check.
M. alumni day, and the biggest pa-
I. is One after another the companies halt.
rade of her many parades is the alumni When all are in place, the gray coats
review. It is the only formation that per- stretch in two long lines from end to end
mits the mother to hold in one great em- across the broad field.
brace her sons of to-day and her sons of "Present is called, and six hun-
yesterday, and yesterday on back through dred pieces snap to salute before the
the years. Once in a year, on a golden alumni.
day in June, she gathers her children and ; The band crashes out once more, and
all, from the boys still under her care to "Dixie" gives place to "Maryland, My
the gray, age-worn men long gone from it, Maryland"; but now the time is not so
thrill with loyal memories at her call. fast, for the old boys are to have their turn

Under the maples bordering the parade- at marching, and the mother remembers
ground is gathered a great throng, a happy, that many of them are in truth old boys.
expectant crowd of mothers and fathers, The general and his staff step off; behind
sisters and sweethearts of the cadets, im- them, his snow-white head held high, fol-

patient younger brothers, longing for the lows a man walking alone. He is dressed
day when they may take their place in the all in gray, and his uncertain step is stead-
ranks. ied by a long staff of mountain laurel. He
A hundred feet beyond the maples, well is the only one left of 1859, but he carries

out on the field, another crowd is waiting, for his alma mater a love still young in his
a long double line of men. The superin- eighty-year-old heart. There is a gap be-
tendent and staff are on their right, he and hind him, for the institute has lost all her
his aides arrayed in the splendor of full sons of '60. Then come two old men, sup-
dress, gold-corded and tasseled. At the porting a third between them. These wish
general's left stands the oldest of V. M. it known that '61 has not forgotten, so
I.'s sons; from here on down that waiting they march with their war-maimed
line age runs the scale. The extreme left brother, who refuses to be left standing
is flanked by the youngsters only last year like a crane behind. What matters if one
released. These last joke and laugh, a bit leg lies buried at Seven Pines. He ivill

self-conscious in this great gathering of the march.


family. Slowly passes this record of the years;
The ringing notes of a bugle sound from from its tottering front ranks of the men
the sally-port. Instantly six hundred ca- of yesterday, through its steady center of
dets come to rigid The cap-
attention. the men of to-day, on to the rear-guard of
tains' swords leap from scabbards. Drums eager, ambitious youth, the old cadets
beat a short sharp roll, and Company A march on. The long column circles about
comes swinging into view. In perfect step, their young brothers and returns, with
with every musket held at precise angle, faces aglow, hearts beating faster.
these boys stride over the close-cut turf. "Pass in review!" Again the band
Following Company A, another and an- plays, a quickstep now, and the gray ranks,
other come through the sally-port, until breaking front, take up their swinging
the world seems crowded with high-strung, stride. In straight lines, every foot strik-
manly lads, marching inspired to the stir- ing and leaving the ground as one, com-
ring strains of "Dixie." pany after company sweeps past the
'MOLLY McGUIRE, FOURTEEN" 675
alumni, all the white trouser-legs creasing 'But Duval surely left in good stand-
and smoothing in unison, as if the twelve ing
hundred knees were being bent and "That 's just the trouble; he did n't."
straightened by machine. The colors flut- The general drew thoughtfully at his ci-
ter by in the June breeze, the Stars and gar. "He was the youngest boy in his
Stripes on the right, the blue field-flag of class and a good soldier, having no de-
Virginia at its left, and the men of the merits charged against him and you know,
;

alumni line stand stiff at attention, every sir, that 's a record hard to gain here or at
head bared. West Point. Well, as you will see to-
When the last gray-clad boy had passed morrow, our final exercises are opened
from sight through the sally-port, the chief with a ceremony we have carried out for
of staf^ hurried to General Tazewell. many years. In the recess back of the
"That 's the finest thing I 've ever seen rostrum hangs a fine portrait of General
in a military way," he said, wringing the Francis Smith, the founder, builder, and
superintendent's hand. rebuilder of the institute after its destruc-
The general flushed. tion durin-g the er— the unfortunate occur-
"Then our boys marched well?" rences of sixty-four."
"They always do; but that review is The chief of staff smiled. "You mean
more than marching; it 's the very essence when General Hunter, after shelling the
of V". M. L spirit, past and present, spread barracks, committed that act of vandalism
out a picture before us." of burning all your buildings to the
The general, plainly moved, thanked the ground."
officer for his appreciation, then turned to General Tazewell bowed assent.
search the crowd. "This portrait," he continued, "is con-

"Have you seen Duval?" he asked. cealed by a curtain. After the tribute has
"Yes, he stayed in his car. Is he ill? been spoken, the audience rises, the band

His face was white, and once, just as the plays an old march that General Smith
colors passed, I saw his wife reach over had been fond of, and the curtain is drawn
and touch his hand." slow^ly aside."
General Tazewell was silent for a mo- The army officer touched the general's
ment. arm.
"Come my office," he said finally.
to "Let me interrupt you. If we in the
"I '11 you about Duval; it may save
tell North could be sentimental as you people
you both embarrassment." down here are, without being afraid of
When the superintendent had unbuck- seeming ridiculous, our institutions might
led his sword and cigars were lighted, he gather tradition to their advantage."
began speaking with more than his usual Again the superintendent bowed.
earnestness. "We had an unusually large crowd in
"Duval's old home place, where his Duval's year, Fitz Lee made the final ad-
mother still lives, is in the adjoining dress,and the rostrum was filled by digni-
county ; but his interests are now so wide taries. After General Briggs, then super-
that he makes New York his headquar- intendent, had spoken in memory of Gen-
ters. Of all the boys who have been here, eral Smith, the audience rose; but when
there is not one for whom I hold a higher the curtain was drawn the band stopped
regard ; and yet Duval is not entitled to dead. For a moment a tense silence held
take part in that review.''' the crowd, then from every throat came a

The chief of staff, a good listener, sharp gasp, followed again by silence. The
merely bowed. strange stillness lasted perhaps five sec-
"Any man, whether he receives his de- onds, then some one laughed ; another and
gree or leaves before the four years are another took it up until the room shook
served, is considered an alumnus provided with uncontrolled shouts. Briggs, who
he left here in good standing." faced the audience, veiled to the drum-
676 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
major for music; but the shouts of laugh- some moments, "Well, the cur-
silent for

ter rose above the band's notes. He tain, was redrawn, and later,
of course,
wheeled at last and faced the picture, and during one of the speeches, Briggs handed
I shall never forget the black look that set- a sheet of paper to the adjutant. After
tled on his face. It is a full-length por- the exercises the order that he had hastily
trait; the general is seated in deep thought written was read before the battalion
at his desk: but now from the chin and the crowd witnessing the last forma-
hung a long, bushy beard made of cotton tion on the parade-ground. It was as sig-

pasted across the calm lips were jet-black nificant as it was brief: 'Cadet Duval,
mustaches, the horse-hair ends turned for conduct unbecoming a soldier and a
fiercely up; a villainous black patch cov- gentleman, is hereby dismissed from the
"
ered the left eye ; and above this were institute.'

heavy, cotton eyebrows. You can imagine "I understand now why he did not join
how these decorations altered the expres- his classmates in that Impressive review,"
sion of the benign old gentleman. And the chief of staff said.
there was more. In front of the canvas, "Could not join them," replied General
rigged out in a moth-eaten uniform of Tazewell.
General Smith's, —
Heaven only knows
where he got it,— with face made up to The evening events of alumni day run
match the changed portrait, was seated, in unfinished into the following morning.
the same pose, scowling in exactly the There is the superintendent's reception at
same way, a replica of our revered super- headquarters, when the old mansion is

intendent. Briggs reached that boy in one filled with Southern beauties, visiting and
bound and tore away the false beard and institute and a gentle hurricane
officers,

patch. Then the figure in the ludicrously of soft, slow-speaking voices. Later the
bagging uniform rose and bowed to the old boys form on the general's broad
faculty and the hysterical audience. It lawn, and, with the band leading, march
was our exemplary cadet, Peyton Duval!" through the summer night to the mess-
The army officer put aside his cigar. hall for their annual smoker. Here
"Had he gone suddenly crazy?" until midnight speeches of V. M. I.
"I had some such idea until to-day," the achievements are applauded as heartily by
general answered. "But to end my ac- the women as by their husbands. Then
count : Briggs was trembling with rage. follows another traditional ceremony,
" 'Report to your room under close ar- never omitted. When the last speech has
rest, sir!' he ordered in his gruft rumble. been made, the members of the class cele-
And that boy, saluting with exaggerated brating its twentieth anniversary gather
deference, turned and marched down the about the superintendent and march back
aisle, through all that crowd of people, his to headquarters to enjoy just one hour
head high and a smile of triumph on his more of memories. They cling, these old
lips. sons of V, M, I,, to the last minute of the
"No" — the general paused, distress in day set apart for them. When all are
his kind face— "no, that 's not altogether seated about the general's big office table.
correct. I saw his mother in the audience. Old Ben enters, smiling his wide smile and
She sat stunned, white, no tears in her carrying two great pitchers, their silver
shame-stricken eyes. Duval saw her, too. and bunches of fresh
sides thickly frosted
He faltered when he reached her; then mint showing above their wide mouths.
walked on again, his head held not so Following Old Ben comes Old Ben's boy,
high." a man of twenty-five who will some day
"What a fool trick! What a breach of take his father's place as the superinten-
discipline!" the chief of staff exclaimed. dent's head butler ; he carries a small regi-
"He paid for it; you saw to-day that ment of long-stemmed, silver goblets.
he 's paying still." The general remained Bringing up the rear, marches Old Ben's
'MOLLY McGUIRE, FOURTEEN" 677
son's son, barefooted and bow-legged, his bring Duval in here dead or alive, His
white teeth gleaming behind the grin that order raised another shout.
splits his black, shining face. On little All three left the office. General Taze-
Benjamin's tray are piled beaten biscuits, well returned with the chief of staff, and a

divided in exact halves, with slices of Vir- moment later Boiling and Ainslie entered
ham between.
ginia with Duval.
The night that the "Arsenal Class" The men greeted their dismissed class-
gathered for its hour, the general rose be- mate as if liis coming was in no wise
fore the toast to absent members had been unusual. Duval's lips were tightly closed ;

proposed. before taking his seat he studied each


"Gentlemen, your institute's guest of face about the table, and the general
honor this year is the chief of staff of the knew that had he found one dissenting
army; with your consent I should like to look he would have left the room. The
have him with us." superintendent, diplomat that he was,
Boiling rose quickly. steered the talk into easy channels, and be-
"By all means; and I want to break fore cigars had been well started all out-
another rule. I move we have Duval in ward traces of tension disappeared. Then
here, too." the general bade Old Ben clear out, and
His motion was carried by a shout of following the negro, made sure that the
approval but the general shook his head.
; door was closed. When he returned there
"I took the liberty of asking him to join was mystery in his face.
a look of
you, urged him to do so, but he refused." "Gentlemen, I 'm going to tell you a
Looking about him, he saw regret. He secret to-night, one known only to Mrs.
hesitated a moment longer, then, and the Tazewell and me. It 's about the arsenal.
old boys smiled, he clucked softly: "Ah-h, The story of the arsenal, sir," — General
Boiling and you, Ainslie— I detail you to Tazewell bowed to the army officer,
— "is
678 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
old to all here except you ; but if I don't Boiling, who had listened excitedly,
talk about it, they will, so I '11 save you leaped to his feet.
from them. Twenty years ago the State "O you Molly boy! here 's to you!" he
owned a double-walled building on that cried. And in the presence of their su-
hillover yonder," and the general waved perintendent those youngsters of forty or
hishand toward the north. "The roof and more rose and drank to the unknown hero
outer wall were of stone, the inner wall who had made their class famous. The
eighteen inches of hard brick. Inside this chief of staff, falling in with their mood,
solid pile of masonry we had gunpowder suggested that he and the general join
stored, four thousand pounds of it. One them, and that good sportsman, smiling,
of these boys" — smiled at the men about held his goblet high.
the table
— "canheprobably you what tell "Here 's long life to the scamp!" he
kind of job he had to cut through those called. "And may we never have another
!"
walls. For the life of me, I 've never un- like him
derstood how it was managed. It cer- "But, General, if thishappened imme-
tainly required heavy labor and good tools diately after supper, why could n't you
but — and bear in mind that building was find the cadet who had been absent from
inspected daily — those walls were cut roll-call?" the ofl^cer asked.
through. The man who did it—" "You answer that, you rascal," the su-
"Don't look so hard at me, General!" perintendent said to Boiling.
Boiling interrupted. "He 's at me again!" Boiling assumed
"Keep your guilty conscience quiet, sir," an injured tone. "Nothing I say can hurt
the general advised. "The man who did my reputation, so here goes. Whoever
itmust have worked for weeks, always at blew up the arsenal, sir, probably lighted
night and between inspections, not more his fuse two or three hours before the
than an hour at a time. He had to re- spark reached the powder. He was at sup-
move and hide all debris, and reface the per all right with the rest of us; and the
outer wall after each shift. I tell you, sir, man clever enough to get through those
any boy who worked half as hard at his walls was smart enough to be talking to
studies would graduate first in his class." some officer, very likely the commandant
"And all this just to make a noise?" his himself, when that glorious explosion went
guest asked. off."
"Exactly. Do you wonder my hair is "Yes, that 's clear. But surely, General
gray? Look at these scamps about you. Tazewell, you had suspicions?"
See that sparkle in their eyes? There 's A good-natured laugh greeted the ques-
not one of them that does n't gloat over tion.
the affair to this day. "Every boy in the class was under sus-
"Well, it came off one rainy, dark night picion at one time or another."
about a month before finals. The corps "Oh, no, General, not so bad as that,"
had just returned from supper, the boys Ainslie protested. "There was little Bev-
were enjoying a quiet half-hour before erly, the librarian, and Duval here, Russel
study drum, when a terrific blast shook the Coles, and one or two others who were not
earth, a tremendous report that sounded even called before the court of inquiry."
like the bursting of a hundred big guns. know what you did
"I 'm interested to
A blinding flash lighted up the whole your man," the officer persisted.
to catch
place, every buildingon the grounds stag- "We were extremely clever about it."
gered, and a moment after a shower of The general winked broadly at the Ar-
brick and stone struck the metal roof of senal Class. "Long-roll was beaten imme-
barracks. This with the noise of glass, diately, but the sergeants reported all pres-
falling in a torrent of shivered panes, made ent or accounted for. We held the men
a din that, I tell you, sir, was simply in ranks, however, while we inspected bar-
terrifving." racks. Result: one pair of muddy shoes.
MOLLY McGUIRE, FOURTEEN' 679
The next morning we found strips of bur- ceived this letter." He opened one of the
lap wrapped like a turban about the head envelops and read
of Washington's statue, and later discov-
ered tracks leading from the arsenal. \'ou Dear General Tazewell:
know, sir, what a steep bluff there is on I am sending $500.00 in cash on account
this side of the Nile. for bill inclosed. I

Well, after our blew up the arsenal.


Molly crossed that It has taken me all

stream his tracks were these years to realize


worthless as a clue, tliat what I once
for had slipped
he thought a joke was
backward six inches nothing less than a
at each step. His crime against the msti-
footprints looked as tute and the State.
if a giant had made As large a remit-
them. 'We '11 get tance as I can afford
him on the flat will be sent each year

ground on the other until the entire amount


side,' we said, and is paid. Will you
hurried across the kindly keep these let-
stream to fit the cap- ters secret? It will
tured shoes into what oblige me if you will
prints we might find turn the money over
there. No use ! We to the treasurer, say-
picked up the trail, ing it comes from one
but the steps were who begs you not to
huge, shapeless af- reveal his name. 1

fairs ; the thought- hope to wipe out the


ful gentleman had obligation in ten years.
wrapped both feet in You may then speak
burlap for his enter- of the matter if you
prise. He used it wish.
later, I fancy, for The name in which
Washington's head- this letter is registered

dress." is fictitious, but I

"That boy. Gen- know if I ask it you


eral, had a greater will make no effort to

genius for making discover my fdentity.

trouble than any reg-


ular in the army," General Tazewell
the chief of staff de- spread the letter on
clared. the table, and all saw
"I suppose that 's a the crudely drawn
compliment, sir; not, however, for our de- skull and bones, the two M's and the fig-
tective powers. But now, gentlemen, for ure 14.A swift exchange of meaning
that secret I promised." The general glances passed between at least four of the
brought a bundle of papers from the safe. men about the table.
"Here 's the strangest thing connected "Why fourteen?" Duval asked, joining
with the arsenal affair; and I '11 ask you for the first time in the general talk. "I
to consider what I say from now on an thought there never was a fourteenth."
institute secret." Chairs were drawn "Of course therewas n't," Boiling an-
closer to the table. "Ten years ago I re- swered. "That fellow must be crazv."
680 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
"Well, gentlemen, here 's the itemized morning was just under one hundred dol-
bill." The general showed a neatly type- lars."
written statement. The chief of staff rose.
"If you will permit a stranger," he said,
Molly McGuire, 14. and bowed to the men of the Arsenal
to Class, "here 's to Molly McGuire, Four-
The Virginia Military Institute Dr. teen,who, if I 'm any judge, is a soldier
and a gentleman."
Value of building destroyed . . $5,000.00 And the toast was drunk standing.
Black powder, 4000 lbs.
@ 12 cts 480.00 The next day shortly before the final ex-
Glass replaced, 1800 panes, ercises General Tazewell spoke to his wife.
@ 20 cts 360.00 "Be sure, Evelyn, to start with Mrs.
Repairs to roof of barracks . . 250.00 Duval in five minutes. I have given or-
ders to let old Mrs. Duval wait in the
Net amount $6,090.00 quarters of the officer of the day. Join her
Compound interest, 10 years
and take the seats reserved for you."
there,
@ 6% 4,816.22 New guests were approaching and Mrs.
Tazewell had time only to nod assent.
Total $10,906.22
The general went at once to his office.
Less on account 500.00
"My compliments to Mr. Duval," he
Balance due said to an orderly, "and ask him to step in
$10,406.22
here. You will stay outside and see that
we are not interrupted."
During the comments following the in- The superintendent seated himself with
spection of the statement. Boiling called a troubled sigh. "I '11 have some difficulty
out tragically: with .him," he thought. He shook his head
"At last I stand vindicated ! You know. doubtfully, but turned smiling to Duval
General, I could never have computed that when he entered.
compound interest." "You sent for me, sir?"
"I 'm not so sure," the superintendent The general caught the strain in Du-
said dryly. "Some of you fellows have val's voice ; he knew how hard this day
mighty smart stenographers. was likely to be for his guest.
"But to finish my story. Each year, "Sit down, Duval; we 've a few min-
always on or just before alumni day, I utes before it 's time to go." When the
have had a letter from Molly, Fourteen. superintendent chose he could put much
They have come from all sorts of places. kindness in his tone. He so chose now as
The was postmarked San Francisco,
first he asked, "You 're coming with us to
there were two from London, one from Jackson Hall, are n't you?"
Dawson City, and so on. The money Duval rose and paced the room.
inclosed, except to-day's remittance, which, "If you don't mind, I '11 let Mrs. Duval
by the way, came from Montreal, has al- go without me." He brought the words
ways been in one bill. Once he sent fifty out with an effort.
dollars and apologized, saying he had had "No, Duval ; I want you to go with us."
a bad year of it." The general paused and "But, General, it will be—" Duval
thoughtfully collected the papers. "I 'd stopped and looked steadily at the super-
have sent that back if I 'd known where intendent. "There is something behind
to reach him." all this."
"How does the account stand now. "Yes, there is; but what it is, you must
General?" leave to me," the general said earnestly.
"The interest has been carefully re- "You make it hard to refuse you." Du-
computed each year. The balance this val's voice was less strained ; for a moment
"MOLLY McGUIRE, FOURTEEN" 681
the superintendent thought his point won. showing the misplaced button carelessly
But suddenly his guest's hands clinched. pinned to his coat after he had given the
"No, General, I cannot do what you ask!" original to that little girl in Winchester
"Come, come, man! It was twenty who cried for it when the great soldier
years ago." rode one day through the town.
"Yes, twenty years! Twenty years of From the flower-covered rostrum,
regret," Duval said fiercely. "Twenty stretching to the rear wall, the cadets sit

years remembering the look on my


of twenty abreast, clear-eyed athletes, trained
mother's face when her son walked from to the last ounce after their year of drills
that hall disgraced." and sports. All are eager, expectant, for
"My boy, this is morbid. Once more I each will hear for the first time to-day his
ask you to come with me. I 've saved a standing in his class. In the front rows
seat on the rostrum for you." The gen- are grouped the first classmen who soon
eral's tone was still kind. must leave this place that for four years
Duval took a quick step toward him. has been home to them. One look into
"And face that crowd when half of these faces tells better than can a thousand
them know that I, a dismissed cadet, have written words their love for the old school.
no right even to enter the building? No 1" The eagerness in their eyes is veiled by
His voice shook. "No, I will not do it!" sadness; there is sadness In the way they
The superintendent rose, his shoulders search uneasily about the familiar room,
straight, heels together. or turn to one and another, forcing smiley,
"Steady, Duval!" It was the ringing to keep up their drooping spirits.

command that so many cadets had heard The side seats are set apart for the
and obeyed. "You '11 accompany me, sir, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters,
to final exercises to-day!" of these boys. Southern families are large,
Then for both these men life turned but all must be here to see "brother"
swiftly back; in the fraction of a second graduate. The balcony filled by summer-
twenty years of time lay flattened on the clad girls curves a great horseshoe above
trail of its recoil. Duval's body jerked the main floor; here and there the gold-
erect his hand swung to prompt salute.
; braided uniform of some young officer adds
"Ready, sir!" he answered firmly, a still brighter tone to this circling bank
though his face had lost all color. of color.
"Come then, boy!" The general took Mrs. Tazewell once said of this gather-
his arm, and together they headed the ing: "Those gray-coated boys at attention
group of special guests that filed across the in the center, surrounded by the many-

parade-ground. colored, moving fans, always remind me


Final exercises are attended by as many of a still, blue-gray field with hundreds of
people as can possibly crowd into the butterflies fluttering about its edges."
Gothic hall dedicated to the memory of When the general and his guests reached
Stonewall Jackson. The enthusiastic au- the platform he turned to Duval.
dience and the room, stored with pictured "Well, boy, we 're mighty glad to have
records of V. M. I. history, make an in- you here again." He felt Duval's arm

teresting sight. Between the high leaded trembling in his.

windows are paintings of former institute "If I only had the right, I should be
officers:Colonel Claud Crozet, president proud to be here," he answered earnestly.
of the first board of visitors and before Then indicating a far corner: "May I

that an officer under Napoleon ; Preston, take that seat?"


famous for his gallantry in the Mexican "Anywhere you like," the general an-
War; Brook, designer and builder of the swered casually; but he was pleased that
Merrvnac; and a score of others in Con- Duval had chosen the seat reserved for
federate uniforms. In the place of honor him. A palm concealed the greater part of
hangs a fine portrait of Jackson, the one the audience from his view.
682 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
There are features in the ceremonies ful face. It all comes so naturally, so sim-

that followed unknown to other colleges, ply, this tribute to parents from these
and two that for a visitor from above the manly boys, that no one wonders no one
Mason and Dixon Line are altogether smiles.
extraordinary. The first is the valedictory And so it goes, name after name, on
address, or, rather, what happens immedi- down through the class, applause follow-
ately after; for here as elsewhere the stu- ing each cadet who answers. Then at last
dent orator thunders platitudes as if pro- the general pauses, and though he has gone
claiming hith- through this for

erto unknown many years, hu-


truths. But to mor kindles
these boys who anew in his eyes
have lived for when he calls
long under the the cadet who
same roof his has graduated
words are less last in his class.
impersonal ; the At this name
class listen all the applause
tensely to remi- that has gone
niscences of before is as a
their struggles summer breeze
and friend- to the storm of
ships. When the hand-clapping,
speaker leaves the cries and
the platform, cheers that
usually over- burst from class
come by the and friends. For
scenes he has sketched and which they all this boy, one helped over the
the last
know can never live again, his classmates, fence, has received the "Bull Dip." He
crowding about him, grip his hand
hand- ; marches to the platform as proudly as did
kerchiefs come suddenly and are
into view, the first-stand man and who shall say that
;

pressed to eyes that are not ashamed. And his mother is not happy when her boy's
the visitor, looking on, be he never so diploma, snatched from the teeth of de-
world-hardened, does not smile. feat, is safe at last in her keeping?
The graduation address, which that day When the degrees have been given there
was a call to the patriotism of these boys are only a few minutes left, and that day
made by the chief of staff, is followed by the audience began to stir, making ready
the conferring of degrees. As each name to leave after the army appointments as
is forward to receive
called a cadet steps lieutenants had been announced. But the
his diploma, signed and sealed by Vir- superintendent held up his hand.
ginia's governor. Applause sounds through "There is one thing more. Before the
the room friends cry out his name above
; battalion forms for the last time this year
the cheers of classmates. Then the cadet I have another duty to fulfil." His eyes
turns and searches for the one who is wait- swept the crowd. He saw his wife reach
ing to share his victory, usually some out and take Mrs. Duval's hand. Next to
mother who watches proudly her boy's Mrs. Duval a white-haired woman was
approach. And when he has placed his sitting straight in her chair, her lips
degree in her outstretched hand, that man, pressed hard together. "To-day," the
be he twenty or twenty-seven, lowers his general continued, "the institute will do
head, his arm closes about the mother's something for which there is no precedent
shoulder, and as though the world held in her history." The room became sud-
only themselves, he kisses her happy, tear- denly still ; not one fan in that crowded
"xMOLLY McGUIRE, FOURTEEN' 683
audience was moving. "Twenty years ago He thrust the diploma into Duval's
a cadet whose record until the final day hand, who stood before him white, shaken,
of his four years had been without a flaw his trembling fingers hardly able to hold
forgot himself." He glanced toward the this mark of his reinstatement. Again the
far corner of the rostrum, and saw a face crowd broke into applause, and the gen-
flushed from chin to forehead. Duval had eral, throwing his arm about the dazed
turned toward the speaker; both hands man's shoulder, shouted above the noise:
gripped one arm of the chair. "Forgot "It 's all right, boy! It 's all right at
himself so far," the superintendent went last!"
on in even voice, "that he very nearly When the applause died down he asked
broke up the final exercises of that year." Duval if he cared to make some reply;
The general turned squarely to Duval but his old pupil stood still dazed, looking
with his kind smile. aimlessly over the crowd. Suddenly he
"I 'm afraid we 're a bit old-fogy down started in surprise; a smile parted his set
here at times, for it has taken us all these lips. He had seen two upturned faces
years to catch the humor of that joke. But, that were smiling back at him through
my friends, it w^as a good joke," — he faced happy, tear-dimmed eyes. Instantly all
the audience, which was now smiling with hesitation dropped from the man's bearing.
him,
— "too good! It caused the dismissal Duval left the rostrum, his eyes fixed upon
of one of the best students this institute those faces, and walked up the crowded
ever matriculated." aisle. Before the two women he stopped
The set lips of the white-haired woman and put the degree into his mother's old
parted ; she covered her eyes with one hands; then he bent low and gave this
trembling hand. mother the kiss he had lost for her twenty
The general raised his voice. years before.
"And now that time has robbed that The crowd was silent while he walked
joke of its sting, the institute wishes to back to his place; no one moved from his
give that man all the honors the boy had seat. But a stir went through the gray
won and would have received." field in the center of the room. Every eye
Far back in the hall where the men of in the cadet ranks had followed their older
twenty years ago were gathered a cheer brother; they knew him now for such, for
burst from some strong throat, and in- he had carried out to the last act the last
stantly the tension that held the crowd tradition of the corps. When Duvar
broke. Wave after wave of applause rang reached the platform the first captain of
through the big room. The general, sig- those boys sprang to his feet.
naling for silence, turned to the man hid- "Together, nine for Duval!" he
den behind the palm. shouted.
"Mr. Duval, step to the front, sir." Instantly a mighty cheer roared out, ris-

The great audience rose. Again there ing and falling in unison as they gave the
was applause, every pair of hands in the call:"Rah! Rah! Rah!"
room beating furiously together. For a Nine times the cry rang from six hun-
moment Duval did not move then with ;
dred young throats, followed by the crash-
an effort he rose and walked unsteadily to ing ending: "V. M. I. Duval! Duval!
the front. V. M. I."

"Mr. Duval,"— the general's voice While the visitors were applauding this
filled the room,
— "your institute now con- demonstration the general watched the
fers upon you the degree which for so long two women holding tightly that age-tinted

has been withheld. You will find the parchment. He clucked softly and
number (four) WTitten in its proper place, breathed a long-drawn "Ah-h." There
and as fourth graduate of your class your are moments, he thought, moments in this

name will appear hereafter in the reg- life.

ister." At his order the cadets marched from


684 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
the room, company after company, and "There is nothing you need say, boy,
after them the guests filed out. For the now or later." The general held out his
better part of two hours the general had hand. Duval caught
it in both his own.

been standing; he sat down now with a gave the general a hard grip, and walked
sigh of relief. From his chair he would quickly from the room.
be able to see the formation out on the For a long time the superintendent sat
parade-ground, and the music of "Auld motionless, smiling.Outside the band had
Lang Syne" would float in to him through plaj'ed "Auld Lang Syne" half-way
the open windows; so he asked to be left through before he lifted the hand Duval
alone. The last to go, coming from his had pressed. A crisp yellow bill, released
corner behind the palm, was Duval. He by his opening fingers, rolled open. It was
stopped at the superintendent's chair. wrapped about a leaf torn from a note-

"There is nothing nothing I can say. book, and on this paper, scribbled in pen-
General; not just now." He was danger- cil, the general saw: "When not even sus-
ously near breaking down. "Perhaps— pected in the arsenal affair, I became des-
perhaps later
— perate. Paid in full."

Bf^ '^--.

,1 /-^'.'W^

ic?^^ ib;.'

-rr^'
Food or Famine?
The American conscience will decide, and the selective draft in
industry is the answer

By J. RUSSELL SMITH
Author of " The Island and the Continent at War," etc.

WAR much
was easy in David's time.
prefer it to the present vari-
We Zeppelin and David's
dustry, and transport have knitted
sling. Science, in-
whole
ety. Look at the simplicity of that historic peoples into units. In war they press
campaign between the Israelites and the against each other as two glaciers flowing
Philistines, culminating in a combat in slowly, but solidly, down from opposite
which the mighty David established a rep- sides of a valley, until finally they press

utation so brilliant and enduring. The against each other with their entire weight,
two armies lay lazily in camp, facing each grinding each other to bits at the awful
other across the vale of Elah. Every morn- point of contact, but still pressing, still

ing the giant Goliath came out and dared grinding on with their whole slow weight.
the Israelites to send a man to meet him. War has become a struggle of whole peo-
"Choose you a man for you, and let him ples, a veritable tug of war, an industrial
come down to me. If he be able to fight struggle of railroading, of mining, of man-
with me, and kill me, then will we be your ufacturing, of farming, of ship-building.
servants: but if I prevail against him, and The side that fails in any one of these may
kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and lose the victory just as surely as it may be
serve us." lost by inferiority in flying above the
For forty days this restful camp con- clouds, diving beneath the sea, burrowing
tinued, with nothing to stir it save the gen- in trenches, or blowing up barbed-wire en-
tle morning excitement of Goliath's de- tanglements preparatory to the final sick-

risive challenge. The simple commissary ening bayonet-charge against the few re-

arrangements are indicated by the fact that maining machine-guns.


the three sons of Jesse were fed from When, in early June, the British blew
home, the younger son David being sent up a section of the German line in Bel-
down with parched corn, loaves, and gium, they used millions of pounds of ex-
cheeses. The campaign was finally settled plosives planted in a system of tunnels
not by warfare between the two tribes, or deep in the earth. After it was over they
even by a pitched battle between armies, found a yet deeper, but uncompleted, sys-
but by the fight of the two champions, and tem of German tunnels 120 feet beneath
the decisive munitions were five smooth their own lines. The deadly torpedo of
stones from the bed of the brook that the U-boat is a more expensive machine
flowed through the vale between the than a fine limousine. A single shell of a

camps. Such simplicity, alas! is no more. great gun costs more than the yearly wage
War is not settled to-day by picked of a working-man. It costs less to run a

champions or even by far-flung armies great university for a whole year than to
manoeuvering and clashing in battle. The bombard the Germans in a French village
kind of campaign of r86o or 1870 seems to for an afternoon. The trenches of the
be as definitely extinct as is the fight of Western battle-line represent an amount
champions in David's time. War is trans- of engineering skill and labor that would
formed. Think of the contrast between a almost have rebuilt civilization. War is

685
686 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
the labor of whole peoples. How do they ises — bonds— to pay something sometime.
strip for the contest? The answer is in We were getting well pinched by that, and
two words, This thing,
"selective draft." were beginning to get the results in high
fully applied, welds a whole people and all prices and scarcity of usable things, while
their resources into one mass, as snow- our allies had approached the starvation-
flakes are finally congealed into the solid, point. Then we entered the war. Now
grinding glacier. hundreds of thousands must be withdrawn
The June listing of those ten million from industry; other hundreds of thou-
young men who may be ordered to the sands must minister to them. The hungry
trenches was a recognition of the fact that ones across the waters are our allies now
in times of danger or disaster the individ- and must be supplied. They can no longer
ual man belongs to the nation. Look at pay, but, nevertheless, they must be fed.
the awfulness of it. The nation says, in Ships must be built, whole fleets of them,
effect, to half a million or two million of and cargoes must be fed to the submarines.
us who happen to be young and healthy: Our own hundred millions of people at
"The general welfare requires that a few home must not be forgotten. They, too,
hundred thousand men shall be shot. You must be fed and clothed and warmed and
go." And we do go. We go to death, to sheltered. Truly this war is a call to la-
maiming, to blindness, and to blasted, bor. Leisure cannot go on as usual ; nei-
shattered lives of torture. ther can business.
If it lieth in a man to be sobered, it is The old volunteer system is gone from
to be a part of a nation that has taken that the army, going from industry. We are
dreadful step. We are that nation. Al- one people. We
must work as a unit to a
ready we have applied the selective draft common end. All our resources must be
to men now what is the next step ?
; It is used most effectively, whether those re-
that we must apply the selective draft to sources are laborers, dentists, engineers,
industry, or the war cannot proceed. As bachelor girls, blocks of wood, or blocks of
we have called some men to the unusual metal.
must we call mil-
business of fighting, so
lions of other men and women to the In May came the announcement that
equally unusual business of making and the canners of the United States had been
transporting the almost inconceivable forbidden to use tin for canning soup or
amounts of goods, materials, and supplies beans. What did this mean? It meant
that will be required in this the greatest that tin was scarce, and that we had more
task of history. human com-
It is all past imperative use for it than for the canning
prehension, but even if we
we can do it of beans; for they will keep as well dried
cannot fully comprehend it. But we can- as with tin around them. Some other
not do it merely by sending men to the goods, such as green vegetables, will not,
trenches in France; it cannot be done at and so the very wise order went out from
all we readjust the life of the mil-
until Washington to spare the tin for vital uses.
lions who stay at home as definitely, Industry spared the tin. Until the war is

though not so extensively, as we readjust over, industry in America will receive


the life of those whom we send to the some such order on an average of about
army. once a day. Sometimes it will be a specific
The nation must work. It must work order; sometimes it will come in the guise
as a unit. Never was greater task placed of prohibitive prices ; always, if wisely
upon any people. have had nearlyWe done, It will be a lopping off of the things
three years of busy munition-making, dur- that can for the time be spared, and an
ing which we have been sending off bil- increasing of the things that cannot be
lions of dollars' worth of goods, and get- spared.
ting nothing in return but inedible, un- We are to be like the ship in which
wearable, and at present unusable prom- Jules Verne, the romancer, had his globe-
FOOD OR FAMINE? 687

trottingchampion cross the Pacific. She the iron industry? By no means. This is

ran out of coal, but had to reach San a war and steel.
of grain Increase the
Francisco by a certain date to win the smoking furnaces and the roaring mills
wager; so the crew burned the surplus whence cometh the steel for gun and shell,
food, most of the furniture, and then engine and ship, track and truck, nail and
started in on the superstructure of the ship wire. No man can be spared from this
itself. The deck-houses went into the fur- industry unless a youth or a woman takes
nace, then the upper deck, then the second his place. Shall we build a new steel sky-

deck; but the hull and the engines re- scraper on Broadway? Take the steel over
mained, and, consuming herself, half a to the ship-yard on the meadows, and take
wreck, but still floating, she steamed on the men to build the ship. What becomes
and made port, cut down almost to the of the branch line that a transcontinental
water's-edge. We must do that, too, if railroad company planned to build in Ok-
the war lasts. Like the other warring lahoma this season ? The money goes into
countries, we must strip ourselves to bare liberty bonds, not railroad bonds. Part of
necessities, use up our capital, and work it bought the steel that was meant for the
like beavers m the first cool nights of au- railroad, but the steel is going to France
tumn. to build new lines to supply the base camps
Ships, food, flying-machines,and men — for our army and to replace worn-out lines
these and in that order are the first wants along the battle-front. Instead of buying
of Europe, according to Marshal Joffre's ties, another portion of the money that
plea to the American people. What does it might have built the railroad in Oklahoma
involve? We must increase our labor out- was used to buy timber, and the workmen
put at the same time that we greatly re- who were not drafted flocked to the gulf
duce our apparent labor supply. That coast to build it into ships. The railroad
means two things one is to get work from
: can wait ; the ships cannot.
people who did not work before, create a A woman of wealth, not sobered into
new labor supply ; and the other is to draw temperance of exnenditure, decides to buy
workers from the industries that we can a new limousine, but finds that there is
do without if we must. none. The factory is busy making flying-
Does a woman wear high-heeled slip- machines and motor-trucks for the army
pers? She may find that the shoe factories that army wins which has the best air
and the shoe operatives have been com- service and best truck service. She must
mandeered by the Government for work content herself with a second-hand ma-
on the millions of broad-toed, foot-shaped chine, and she must learn to drive it, for
infantry shoes that are necessary if the sol- the chauffeur has been drafted into the
dier endure the weary marching of
is to army transport service.

the battle-front. She does not hnve to Shall we build a new house for the sub-
have the high-heeled wonder. She can urbanite or shall we build new buildings
wear street shoes for a year or two, at an army training camp? We have not
patched ones, if necessary. Nearly all of the men and the materials for both, and it

the better-dressed people in our cities could has been decreed that we shall have an
wear last year's suit or last year's dress, army, and the army must have camps, so
though a bit shabby, perhaps, and out of the thing settles itself.

date. But we shall find, as the Germans England has been through all this. She
have, that it still covers and warms us, has spent three arduous, painful, dreadful
and that by sticking to it we have spared years learning how to use most efficiently

the wool and the workers for the dirt-col- allher resources both material and human.
ored, man-concealing apparel of him whom She started with a volunteer army, letting
we have ordained to be target for the any one join who would. Then in three
deadliest missiles ever yet devised. months she learned that it was to be a war
Can we reduce the number of men in of artillerv, machiner^", and goods as well
688 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
as a war of men. She called on her ma- we were fed as by miracle. Suddenly the
chine-shops for shells, shells, a double, seven seas are almost closed, and food is

triple, quadruple, tenfold output of shells. scarce on all their shores. By some esti-

"I cannot do it," said the manufacturer. mates sixty million people in Europe are
"John and Bill, the foremen, have joined busy in one way or another with the war.
the army. Send them back, and I will It engrosses the activities of millions here

make you the shells." For months the Brit- in America. In the piping times of peace
ish Government combed its army, taking we of the Western World thought that
out expert machinists, mine bosses, and we had our hands full in keeping starva-
other technical men whose industrial skill tion from most doors, and now sixty mil-
was more valuable to the nation than was lion people are put to work on destruc-
their presence in the trenches of Flanders. tion, the submarine ravages the sea, and
There is the principle of the selective draft the battle-lines chop world trade in two.
which England has slowly evolved and is Before the war about half the bread of
now applying in a very complicated, but western Europe came from eastern Eu-
effective, way. We in America are to a rope,— Russia, Rumania, and Bulgaria,—
surprising extent profiting by Great Brit- with rich contributions of meat, butter,
ain's experience, and beginning where she and cheese from Sweden, Denmark, and
now is. This principle must be applied to Switzerland. Germany has shut all this
food as well as to employment and indus- off with her control of the Dardanelles
trial raw materials. and the Baltic. The shortage of shipping
prevents the arrival of the grain of Aus-
The food question is already acute, and tralia and Argentina, and the labors of
is forcing upon us far-reaching changes. war reduce production in France and
Within nine months wheat jumped from Italy hence the unexampled need of a bil-
;

one dollar to three dollars a bushel, and lion bushels of foreign grain in western
flour reached nineteen dollars a barrel. Europe from this year's harvest. There
The price of meat has also climbed to un- is only one place from which it can come

precedented heights; so has the price of — North America. Under any ordinary
potatoes. The importance of bread, meat, conditions we should say that we had not
and potatoes in the American dietary the fifth of it to spare. Nevertheless, we
makes it very clear how this doubling and m.ust give up that billion. It will come
trebling in price means inevitable under- hard. It will tear our habits, our palates,
nutrition for hundreds of thousands, prob- and our pocket-books but we can do it if
;

ably millions of people, right here in rich ships can be found to take it across the
America. It makes us listen with sobriety sea.
when Mr. Hoover cables to the American How can we spare a billion bushels when
people, as he did from London in April, under ordinary conditions we should not
"We must plant everything and every- have the fifth of it? The miracle is made
where it will grow, or this time next possible by the fact that agriculturally
year the world will face absolute starva- North America is a continent of unparal-
tion." leled riches. Our people live at the peak
What has happened ? We are dealing of an agricultural pyramid with an animal
with world conditions which have been base. Look at China for a moment, and
kind to us for a few generations, banishing our advantage becomes apparent. The
famines from the world, but which have people in China are so numerous in pro-
now suddenly become malevolent. In a portion to the land that each person has
busy half-century Western civilization has only the fraction of an acre. This patch
developed a world trade and a world mar- is not large enough to permit the man to
ket. If there was food anywhere upon the grow food for animals and for himself
shores of the seven seas or their far-reach- also. Therefore he has few beasts of bur-
ing arms, the ships brought it to us, and den, cultivates his patch with a hoe, and
FOOD OR FAMINE? 689
raises food for himself direct. In America, The armies need wheat bread, hut the
with our broad land, we devote the bulk patriotic civilians of this and allied coun-
of the produce of our agriculture to the tries will heed the appeal of ]\Ir. Hoover
feeding of millions of cattle, horses, mules, to spare thewheat flour and divide our
sheep, and swine, which, in the aggregate, wheat with our allies. Hence the neces-
far outnumber us. We, the people, eat sity of an unparalleled season of food
five or six hundred million bushels of preservation in our homes, so that the fac-
grain ; they, the beasts, eat five times that tory product may go to fill the unexampled
much. The food of the American beast, void across the sea.
that three thousand million bushels of Then, too, we must find substitutes for
grain, is the reservoir that will save the meat. Prices and statistics alike demand
Western World from starvation and the it. The beasts are being reduced in num-
kaiser's heel. bers. They perish that we may live. If
Here comes the selective draft again, we eat the corn, the oats, and the barley
this time applied to food. We face a task of the beast, it is plain that the beast can-
of substitution, and food substitution is not eat it. Hence
numbers decline, the
his

not pleasant. But we should rejoice that price of meat and we must learn to
rises,

we have the possibility. There is not do with less. Here is where the principle
wheat enough to go around. Europe of the selective draft calls upon the patri-
needs to import five hundred million bush- otic and thrifty housekeeper, if she has not

els,and we shall have barely the third of already gone ofF as a wage-earner to the
itabove our normal needs. Liberty bonds factory making war supplies.
cannot increase the amount. No, not ten Grain is higher than ever before in the

billions of them, nor could a price of history of America, but even so the farmer
twenty dollars a bushel increase the wheat must keep up the supply of %vork ammals,
supply this year. A dollar or a liberty or disaster is upon us. As Chinese agri-
bond is not a fairy-wand ; it is merely a culture depends upon the hoe, so American
medium for the exchange of goods that agriculture depends upon the plow drawn
already exist. Crusoe found that out. by the beast of burden. While we are re-

The wheat for next winter's bread was all ducing our total animal population, we
sown by the end of May, and we must put must do it with discretion ; for we must
up with this harvest until July, 191 8. We increase the horses, the mules, and the
can economize some and substitute much. milch cows to help keep down the famine
We can be thankful for corn. Corn, In- that will threaten even for two or three
dian corn, the food that saved the Pilgrim years after the war ends. As our farm
fathers in that first bleak winter in Massa- animals are of three classes, — work ani-

chusetts, is at our disposal again. It is our mals, milch animals, and meat animals,
rock of salvation. We feed
2,500,000 mil- it is plain that the increase of the first and
lion bushels of it to our animals every second must produce sharp reduction in
year. It is also good food for men, and the third. Therefore, for a time at least,
the peer of wheat in nutrition. It is the we must perforce take a strong step to-
chief breadstuff of many millions of people ward the vegetarian diet.
in the Balkans, Italy, Spain, Portugal, With changes in work, changes in in-
China, and the United States. Corn-bread vestment, changes in food, changes in
has the one great drawback of not keeping clothes, changes in the crops and beasts
well, of not being good when it is cold ; but upon the farm, it will be impossible to find
toasted corn pone is surprisingly good, and the intelligent, patriotic person to whom
no epicure questions the excellence of well- the principle of the selective draft does not
made, hot corn-bread. bring changes in the daily conduct of life.
'don't make me cry!' said STELLA, SUDDENLY
The Second Fiddle
By PHYLLIS BOTTOM K
Author of" The Dark Tower," etc.

Illustrations by Norman Price

Synopsis of Chapters I-IX.— Professor Waring of the South Kensington Museum lives
in London at No. 9 Redcliff Square, with his wife and three daughters. Stella Waring is
employed as secretary to Leslie Travers
at a town hall. She asks for leave upon a certain
afternoon to take her sister Eurydice (who has "dared life to disappoint her") to the Rus-
sian opera. Cicely, the third and "practical"' sister, is now a student in a women's hospital.
A few days later Marian Young, Stella's best friend, invites her to tea to meet Sir Julian
Verny, Marian's fiance, and his mother. He is an explorer. Marian is really not in love
with Sir Julian, though she thinks she is, but he is with her. On returning to her daily
work Stella begins to encounter the financial injustice done to women in business. She sur-
prisesMr. Travers by speaking her mind. The Austrian assassination now begins the
European War, and Sir Julian, who is at the time cruising on a yacht, returns to 'London
determined to serve his country by going over into Germany as a spy. He has to break this
news to Marian, who has gone to his mother at Amberley. He wishes Marian to marry
him at once. She demurs, and begins to reveal her real attitude toward him.

Fart 11. Chapter X


'T sometimes seemed to Stella as if council hall became a recruiting office.

Chaliapine had brought on No. 8, the peculiar sanctum of the sanitary


^ the war. Those last, long inspector, was given up to an army sur-
summer days were filled geon. Tramps asked the cashier questions.
i v--^,^ with his music, and then It was like the first act of "Boris Godo-
^^l^sillpiiL suddenly out of them flashed nof." Even food was carried about on
"'•
, ^P; the tents in the park, the trays, and somebody
as for proclamations,

"^^T-^"^ processions of soldiers and or other was proclaiming something all


//|lj.^i« bands, the grim stir that day long.
< swept over London like a There was no religion, and no dancing,
squall striking the surface of a summer but there was the same sense of brooding,
sea. implacable fate; it took the place of music,
The town hall did not collapse, but it and seemed, without hurry and without
shook. It was a place where, as a rule, pause, to be carrying them all along in a
the usual things took place, and even un- secret rhythm of its own toward an un-
usual things happened usually but there ; seen goal.
were several weeks at the beginning of the Mr. Travers ruled most of the
Leslie
war when all day long strange things hap- town and he required in-
hall committees,
pened strangely. Officerswere changed, numerable statistics to be compiled and
the routine of years was swept up like dust ready to be launched intimidatingly at the
into a dust-pan, and a new routine, subject first sign of any opposition to his ruling.
to further waves of change, took its place. Stella, to whom the work of compiling
Workers voluntarily offered to do work fell, had very little time to consider the
that they were unaccustomed to do. The war.
692 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
When she got home she usually went to as few officials in the Foreign Office can
sleep.From time to time she heard Mrs. ever have been fitted, to point out to the
Waring announcing that there was no German professors the joints in their ar-
such thing as war and Eurydice reciting mor.
battle-odes to Belgium. They had a great deal of armor and
For the first time in her life Eurydice very few joints, and it discouraged Profes-
shared a common
cause. She was inclined sor Waring to leave these unpierced spots
to believe that England was fighting for to the perhaps less-practised hands of neu-
liberty. She knew that France was, parth' trals.

because France was on the other side of But it was not until the destruction of
the channel and partly because of the Louvain that he grasped to the full the
French Revolution. The destruction of reaction of his former antagonists. When
Louvain settled the question of Belgium. Professor Waring read a signed letter
To Eurydice, whatever was destroyed was from some of the German professors
holy. Later on she became a violent agreeing to the destruction of the famous
pacifist because Mr. Bolt said that we our- Belgian library he acquiesced in the war.
selves were Prussian ; but for the moment He stood in front of his wife and he woke
nobody, not even Mr. Bolt, had traced this Stella up in order to make his decided
evasive parallel. declaration.
Professor Waring wrote several letters "Henrietta, there is a war," he an-
to the papers, askingwhat precautions the nounced. "It is useless for you to assert
Belgians were taking about Sanskrit man- that there is not. Not only is there a war,
uscript. He had a feeling that King Al- but there should be one and if I were ;

bert, though doubtless an estimable young twenty years younger, though wholly un-
man and useful in the trenches, might, like accustomed to the noisy mechanisms of
most kings, have been insufficiently edu- physical destruction, I should join in it.

cated to appreciate the importance of As it is, I propose to write a treatise upon


Sanskrit. That men should die in large the German mind. It is not one of my
numbers to protect their country was an subjects, and I shall probably have to
unfortunate incident frequent in history, neglect valuable work in order to under-
but that a Sanskrit manuscript should be take it ; still, my researches into the rough
destroyed was a national calamity, for the Stone Age will no doubt greatly assist me.
manuscript could never be replaced. Many just parallels have already occurred
He made an abortive effort to reach to me. I hope that no one in this house
Belgium and see about it himself, but at will be guilty of so uneducated a frame
the Foreign Office he was stopped by a of mind as to sympathize with the Teu-
young man with a single eye-glass, from tonic iconoclasts even to the extent of
whom the professor had demanded a pass- asserting, as I believe I heard you assert
port. The exact expression used by this just now, Henrietta, that none of them
ignorant young person was, "I 'm awfully exists."
sorry, sir, but I 'm afraid just at present Mrs. Waring murmured gently that she
Sanskrit manuscript will have to rip." thought an intense hopefulness might re-
Professor Waring promptly addressed finedegraded natures, but the next day she
letters of remonstrance and advice to sev- bought wool and began to knit a mufHer.
eralGerman professors upon the subject. She had capitulated to the fact of the war.
They were returned to him after three While she knitted she patiently asserted
weeks, with a brief intimation that he was that there was no life, truth, intelligence,
not to communicate with the enemy. Pro- or force in matter ; and Stella, when slie

fessor Waring had considered German came home in the evening, picked up the
professors to be his natural enemies all his dropped stitches.
life; this had been his chief reason for it was strange to Stella that her only
communicating with theiu. lie was fitted, personal link with rlie war was a man
THE SECOND FIDDLE 693
whom she had seen only once and might though Julian had, and could, involve
never see again. She thought persistently her actions, he had never involved
of Julian. She thought of him for Marian ? Was love a game in which the
Marian's sake, because Marian was half weakest lover always wins?
frozen with misery. She thought of him "Of course I 've never been in love,"
because unconsciously he stood in her mind Stella said "and I have n't the
slowly,
for England. He was an adventurer, half- slightest idea how it 's done or what hap-
god, half-child, who had the habit of win- pens to you but I fancy quarreling might
;

ning without the application of fear. She be made very agreeable. Love is so tre-
thought of him because he was the only mendous, is n't it, that there must be room
young, good-looking man of her own class for concealed batteries and cavalry charges
with whom she had ever talked. and yet of course you know all the time
Marian was afraid that Stella might that you are loving the person more and
think she had been unsympathetic to Julian more outrageously, so that nothing gets
about his mission. She told Stella, with wasted or destroyed except the edges you
her usual direct honesty, how angry she are knocking off for readjustments."
had been with him. "I don't think I do love Julian out-
"I know I was nasty to him," she said. rageously," Marian objected. "I did n't,

"I can't bear to have any one involve me you see, do what he wanted : he had a mad
first and tell me about it afterward." idea of getting a special license and having
"Of course you can't," agreed Stella, a whirlwind wedding, leaving me directly
flaming up with a ^ust of annoyance more afterward. Of course I could n't consent
vivid than Marian's own. "How like to that."
him ! How exactly like him to be so high- "Could n't you?" asked Stella, wonder-
handed Fancy whirling you along be-
! ingly. "I don't see that it matters much,
hind him as if you were a sack of potatoes! you know, when you give that kind of
Of course you were annoyed, and I hope thing to a person you love. If you do love
you gave him a good sharp quarrel. One him, I suppose it shows you 're willing to
only has to look at Julian to see that he marry him, does n't it? But how, when,
ought to be quarreled with at regular in- or where is like the sound of the dinner-
tervals in an agreeable way for the rest of bell. You don't owe your dinner to the
his life." dinner-bell it 's simply an arrangement
;

"I don't like quarrels," Marian said for bringing you to the table. Marriage
slowly. "They don't seem to me to be at always seems to me just like that. I

all agreeable; but I don't think Julian will should have married Julian in a second
act without consulting me again." if I 'd been you but I should have made
;

Stella looked Marian curiously.


at him understand I was n't a sack of po-
What was this power that Marian had, tatoes, if I 'd had to box his ears regularly
which moved with every fold of her dress, every few minutes for twenty-four hours
and stood at guard behind her quiet eyes? at a stretch."
How had she made Julian understand "Surely marriage is sacred," said Ma-
without quarreling that he must never re- rian, gravely. Stella's point of view was
peat his independences? Stella was sure so odd that Marian thought it rather
Marian had made him understand it. coarse.
It would be no use to ask Marian how "But it need n't be long," objected
she had done it, because Marian would Stella ; "you can be short and sacred simul-
only laugh and say: "Nonsense! It taneously. In fact, I think I could be
was perfectly easy." She probably did more sacred was quick about it I
if I ;

not know herself what was the secret of should only get bored if I was long."
her power; she would merely in every "You have such a funny way of putting
circumstance in life composedly and ef- things," said Marian, a little impatiently.
fectively use it. Was it perhaps that "Of course I know what vou mean, but I
694 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
don't like being hurried. love Julian
I much of Julian — the fear that he might
dearly, and I marry him when there
will be dead. would not interfere with
It

is time for us to do it quietly and prop- Marian or with Julian. Hopes interfere:
erly. Meanwhile it 's quite awful not but Stella had no personal hopes; she did
not even envisage one. She
claimed only the freedom of her
fears.

CHAPTER XI
It is disconcerting to believe
that you are the possessor of one
kind of temper —a cold, deadly,
on-the-spot temper which cuts
through the insignificant flurries
of other people like a knife
through leather— and then to
find a sloppy explosiveness burst
from you unaware.
Mr. Travers had never
dreamed that in the town hall
itself he could ever be led to
lose a thing* he had in such en-
THERE /S A WAR,' HE ANNOUNCED tire control as his temper. He
did not lose it when the blush-
hearing from him. I have never been so ing Mr. Belk had the audacity to stop him
miserable in my life." in mid-career, on his way to his sanctum
Stella sat on the floor at Marian's feet through No. 7, the outer office of the as-
with Marian's misery. She entered into sistant clerks, though they were, as a body,
it so deeply that after a time Marian felt strictly forbidden to address him while
surprised as well as comforted. She had passing to and fro. Mr. Belk was so ill

not thought grief so pictorial. She felt advised as to say


herself placed on a pinnacle and lifted "If you please, sir, it 's four o'clock, and
above the ranks of happier lovers. She Miss Waring has n't been out to lunch
thought it was her love for Julian that yet." Mr. Travers merely ran his eye
held her there; she did not know that it over Mr, Belk as a fishmonger runs his
was Stella's love for her. Stella for a time eyes over vulnerable portions of cod laid

saw only Marian Marian frozen in a out for A:utting, and brought down his

vast suspense, Marian racked with silences chopper at an expert angle.


and tortured with imagined dangers. She "Since when, Mr. Belk," he asked, with
did not see Julian until Marian had gone, weary irony, "has Miss Waring's lunch
and then suddenly she put her hands to been on your list of duties?"
her throat, as if she could not bear the Then he passed swiftly into his office

sharp pulsation of fear that assailed her. and faced Stella, closing the doqr behind
If all this time they were only fearing half him. Temper shook him as a rough wind
enough and Julian should be dead ? shakes an insignificant obstacle. He could
She whispered, "Julian dead !" Then not hold it; it was gone. It blew inside
she knew that she was not feeling any out, like a deranged umbrella. He glared
more for Marian. She was feeling for at Miss Waring. There was nothing in

herself. Fortunately, she knew this did her slight, bent figure, with its heavy,
n't matter. Feeling for oneself was sharp brown hair neatly plaited in a crown about
and abominable, but it could be controlled. her head, which should have roused an\'
It did not count and she could keep this
; town clerk to sudilen fury.
THE SECOND FIDDLE 695
"It 's abominable," IMr. Travers ex- They are not like women thcv liave no
claimed, bringing his trembling hand down dimples.
with a bang upon Stella's table, ''how Mr. Travers was .prepared to be the
women behave!" stern, but just, employer again. He re-
Stella said out loud, "One hundred mained seated, and Stella leaned over his
pounds, ten shillings, sixpence," and then shoulder. He had not expected that she
looked up at her employer. She asked would do this.

very quietly who had vexed him. There "What have you had to eat?" he asked.
might have been a fugitive gleam of laugh- It was not at all what he had intended to
ter at the back of her eyes, but there were say to Stella.
shadows under them that made her look "A cup of tea, two ham sandwiches, and
too tired for laughter. a bun— such a magnificent spread for
"You, of course," he cried. "How sevenpence!" replied Stella, cheerfully.
are we ever to get through with our "You 've forgotten to put in what the in-

work if you won't eat? It 's so silly! surance will be— there at the bottom of
It 's so tiresome! It 's so uncalled for! the page."
Why doing these wretched lists Mr. Travers rose to his feet. He was
taller than Stella, and he considered that
"Because," said Stella— and now the he had a commanding presence. Stella
laughter ran out at him unexpectedly and slid back into her seat.

tripped him up
— "the town clerk has a "You ought to have had," said Mr.
meeting at five o'clock at which these sta- Travers, with labored quietness, "beef-
tistics must be at hand to justify him in steak and a glass of port."
having his own way." "Anybody could tell," said Stella, tran-

"Put them down!" said Mr. Travers, quilly, "that you are an abstemious man,
savagely. Stella laid down her pen with
the ready obedience which can be made so
baffling when it proceeds from an uncon-
senting will. "Now go out and get some-
thing to eat," he went on, "while I do the
wretched things. And don't let this occur
again. you have too much to do,— and
If
I know the correspondence gets more and


more every day, mention it. We must
get some help in."
She was gone before he had finished his
sentence— gone with that absurd dimple in
the corner of her cheek and the sliding
laughter of her eyes.
She had left behind her a curious, rest-

less emptiness, as if the very room itself

waited impatiently for her return. It was


half an hour before she came back. The
town clerk had had to answer three tele-
phone messages and four telegrams. If

the outer office had not known that he was


"STHI.LA SAT ON THE FLOOR AT MARIANS KEET
there and Miss Waring was n't, he would ^VITH MARIANS MISERY"
have had more interruptions. Neverthe-
less, the figures had helped Mr. Travers Mr. Travers. Port! Port and steak!
to recover his temper. You mean porter. All real drinkers know
He was an expert accountant, and you that port is sacred. Bottles of it covered
can take figures upon their face-value. with exquisite cobwebs are kept for choice
696 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
occasions; they are brought in softly by ers ; he stopped blushing. He was relieved
stately butlers, walking delicately like to think that the world could n't go on like
Agag. It is drunk in companionable Stella ; but there was something in him, a
splendor, tenderly ministered to by noth- faint contradictory something, that made
ing more solid than a walnut, and it fol- him glad that Stella did n't go on like the
lows the courses of the sun. There, you world.
did quite a lot while I was away, and if He went to sleep with these two points
you don't mind just looking through those unreconciled.
landlords' repairing leases on your desk, I

dare sav I shall have finished this before


CHAPTER XII
five." Stella had always known that it would
Mr. Travers opened his mouth, shut It come she had spent two months seeing it.
;

again, and returned to his repairing leases. It had usually taken the form of a tele-

He was not an employer any more. He gram falling out of Mrs. Waring's wool,
was not an Icy, mysterious tyrant ruling or Eurydice standing upon the steps, Cas-
over a trembling and docile universe: his sandra-like, to greet her with a' message
own secretary had literally told him to run from Marian. Marian would come to
away and play give her the message, but she would n't
But it was In the night watches that the wait she would drive swiftly away In a
;

worst truth struck him. He had been motor, and leave the broken universe be-
furious with Miss Waring for not spend- hind her. But disasters do not come as we
ing more upon her lunch, he had upbraided have planned their coming.
her for it, and she had never turned round It was a dull November day, the streets
and "Look what I earn!" The op-
said, were full of dying leaves, and at the end
portunity was made to her hand. "How of the cross-roads surrounding the town
can women secretaries earning a hundred hall a blue mist hung like a curtain.
a year eat three-and-sixpenny lunches?" Marian, in black velvet and furs, with old
That ought to have been her answer. Spanish ear-rings gleaming from her shell-
Why was n't it? She had n't been too like ears, stood in disgust upon the step^
stupid to see it. She had seen it, and she of the town hall. Her small face was
had Instantly, before he had had time to frozen with unexpected pain, but she could
see it himself, covered it up and hidden it still feel annoyed with the porter. She
under that uncalled-for eulogy on port. It stood in the thronged corridor and asked
was not fear. She had n't been afraid to decisively for Miss Waring.
stand up to him (uncalled-for eulogies The porter told her that Miss Waring
were standing up to him) besides, she had ; worked in No. 7, or, at any rate, No. 7
previously called him unfair to his face. would know where she was working.
It was something that Miss Waring
just Marian stared slightly over the porter's
ic^<75— something that made the color spring head.
into Mr. Travers's face In the dark till his "My good man," she said,"how am I
cheeks burned ; something that had made to know where No. 7 is? Go and tell her
Mr. Belk dare his chief's displeasure to to come to me. Here is my card."
get her lunch ; something that was n't All the way to No. 7 the porter con-
business. cocted brilliant retorts to this order. He
"She would n't take an advantage, be- would tell her he was not a footman and
cause I 'd given It to her," he said to him- that thiswas n't Buckingham Palace. He
self. "I thought everybody took an would say roughly that, if she had eyes in
advantage when they had the sense to see her head, she could find No. 7 for herself.
it but she does n't, though she has plenty
; But he was intimidated by Marian's ear-
of sense. But the world could n't go on rings. A secret fear that she might turn
like that." out to be the lord mayor's daughter drove
This brilliant idea reassured Mr. Trav- him to No. 7,
THE SECOND FIDDLE 697
Stellawas filing letters when he No. 7; "and I will make my own arrange-
knocked, and when she saw the card she ments about your work."
knew the messenger had come; hut she did Stella Hed. Again he felt the sense of
not forget to say as visual. "Oh, thank you, wings, as if he had opened a window, and
Humphreys." a bird had flown past him into liberty.
She finished filing the letters hefore she He did not want her to be grateful, but
looked for Mr. Travers. he thought she might have looked back.
He was coming out of the council cham- She had noticed him only as a barrier un-
ber at the top of a expectedly fallen.
Hight of stairs. She She had not seen
stood there for a mo- how strange it was
ment, holding him that a barrier of so
with her eyes, her stubborn and erect
lips parted. She a nature as Mr.
looked like a bird Travers should have
that has been caught consented to fall.

in a room and de- If any one else


spairs of finding the had asked him for
way out. an afternoon with a
Her face was friend in trouble,
strained and eager, Mr. Travers knew
and her sensitive eye- that he would have
brows were drawn said, "Your friends'
together in a little troubles must take
tortured frown ; but place outside office-
she spoke quietly as hours." But when
soon as her breath he had seen Stella's
came back to her. face he had for-
"Mr. Travers, a gotten office-hours.
friend of mine is in Marian was sit-

trouble. May I go A NI'RSE ()PFNED THE POOR ting on a chair in the


to her for the after- corridor. Her ex-
noon? There is still a great deal to do,— pression implied that there was no such
I know I ought not to ask you to let me thing as a town hall, and that the chair
go,— but Mr. Belk and Miss Flint are was mere concession to unnecessary
a
so kind that I am sure they would help space. She said as she saw Stella
me. I — I should be very grateful if you "Please be quick about putting your
could spare me." things on. Yes. it 's bad news about Ju-
"Certainly not," said Mr. Travers, lian."
sharply. "I mean, of course, you can go; Stella was quick. Marian said no more
but won't have Mr. Belk or Miss Flint
I until they were seated together in the mo-
near me. I will do the work myself." tor ; then she gave Stella a letter she had
"Oh," she cried, aghast at this mag- received from I^ady Verny. Lady Verny
nanimous humility on the part of her em- wrote
ployer, don't! Do let me ask
"please
them! much rather—"
I 'd so My dear Marian: You must prepare
Mr. Travers waved her away. He yourself for a great distress. Julian is in

wanted to do the work himself, and he England, but he is very much injured. I

wanted her to be aghast. He descended want you to go to him at once. Whenever


the stairs rapidly beside her. he is conscious he asks for you. My dear,

"You may leave immediately, Miss if he recovers, — and they think that if he
Waring," he said sternl\- as the\ reached has an incentive to live he will live, — he
698 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
will be partly paraljzed. I know that meet him ? What good has love been to
he will want to free you, and it will be me? A
few hours' happiness, and then
right that you should even now feel free; this martyrdom set like a trap to catch us
but till then — for a month — will you give And I don't like invalids. I have never

him all you can? All he needs to live? It seen any one very ill. I sha'n't know

is a great deal to ask of you, but I think you what to say to him."
are good and kind, and that I shall not ask "Oh, yes you will, when you see him,"
this of you in vain. His life is valuable, said Stella ; it was all that for a while she
and will still be so, for his brain is not could say.
affected. Before he relapsed into uncon- She had always believed that Marian
sciousness he was able to give the Govern- had a deep, but close-locked, nature. Love
ment the information he acquired. I think presumably would be the key.
it is not wrong to help him to live; but of It was unlocked now. Pain had un-
course I am his mother, and it is difficult locked it, and Stella shivered at the tear-
for me to judge. All this is very terrible for less hardness, the sharp, shallow sense of
you, even the deciding of whether you ought personal privation that occupied Marian's
to help him to live or not. If I might sug- heart. She had not yet thought of Julian
gest anything to you, it would be to talk himself.
about it with that friend of yours. Miss Stella told herself that Marian's was
Waring. only the blindness of the unimaginative.
Come to me when you have seen him. Do The moment Marian saw Julian it would
not think, whatever your decision is, that I pass, and yield before the directer illumi-
shall not realize what it costs you, or fail to nation of the heart. Marian's nature was
do all in my power to help you to carry it perhaps one of those that yields very
out. slowly to pain. When she saw Julian she
Yours affectionately, would forget everything else. She would
Helen Vernv. not think of her losses and sacrifices any
more, or her duties.
Stella dropped the letter and looked at Stella felt curiously stung and wasted
Marian. Marian sat erect, and her eyes by Marian's use of the word "duty." Was
burned. She was tearless and outraged that all there was for the woman whom
by sorrow. There are people who take Julian loved ? Was that all there was for
joy as a personal virtue and sorrow as a Julian?
personal insult, and Marian was one of But she could deal only with what
these people. Happiness had softened and ]\Iarian had; so, when she spoke again,
uplifted her; pain struck her down and Stella said all she could to comfort Ma-
humiliated her solid sense of pride. rian. She spoke of Julian's courage; she
"Why was n't he killed?" she asked said no life in Julian could be useless that
bitterly,meeting Stella's questioning eyes. left his brain free to act. She suggested
"I could have borne his being killed. that he would find a new career for him-
Value! What does Lady Verny mean by self,and she pictured his future successes.
value? His career is smashed; his life is Beneath her lips and her quick outer mind
to all intents and purposes over. And she thought only of Julian, broken.
mine with it! It is very kind of her to They stopped In a large, quiet square,
say he will release me. do not need his I at the door of a private hospital. There
mother to tell me that. She seems to have was no sound but the half-notes of birds
overlooked the fact that I have given him stirring at twilight in the small square
my word! Is it likely that I should fail garden, and far off the niufHed murmur
him or that I could consent to be released ? of distant streets.
I do not need any one to tell me my duty. A nurse opened the door.
But I hate life! I hate it! I think it all "You are Miss Young?" she said to
stupid, vile, senseless! Why did I ever Marian. "Yes, of course, we were e\-
THE SECOND FIDDLE 699

pecting you. Sister would like to see }ou into a mold. Only his eyes lived — lived
first." and flickered, and held on to his drifting

They stood for a moment in a small consciousness.


neat office. The sister rose from an old The nurse guided Marian to his bed.
Dutch bureau, one of the traces of the and, drawing a chair forward, placed it

house's former occupants, and held out close to him. Marian leaned down and
her hand to Marian. Her eyes rested kissed his forehead. She had determined
with intentness upon the girl's face. to do that, whatever he looked like and ;

"Sir Julian is almost certain to know she did it.

you," she said gently, "but you must n't His lips moved. She bent down, and a
talk much to him. He has been much whisper reached her: "I said I 'd come
weakened by exposure. He lay in a wood back to you, and I have." Then he closed
for three days without food or water. his eyes. He had nothing further to say.

There is every hope of his partial recovery. Marian did not cry. After the first

Miss Young; but he needs rest and reas- moment she did not look at Julian ; she
surance. We can give him the rest here, looked away from him out of the window
but we must look to you to help us to She did not feel that it was Julian who
bring back to him the love of life." lay there like a broken toy. It was her

Marian stood with her beautiful head duty. She had submitted to it; but noth-
raised proudly. She waited for a moment ing in her responded to this submission
to control her voice; then she asked except her iron will.
quietly The nurse had forgotten to bring a
"Is the paralysis likely to be perma- chair for Stella. She leaned against the
nent?" door until a red-haired boy with a band-
The sister moved a chair toward her, aged arm, on the bed nearest to her. ex-
but Marian shook her head. claimed earnestly:
"It is a state of partial paralysis. He "Do take my chair! You look awfully
will be able to get about on crutches," the done."
sister replied."Won't you rest for a few She was able to take his chair because

moments before going up to him. Miss her hands were less blind than any other
Young?" part of her, and she smiled at him because
"No, thank you," said Marian; "I will she had the habit of smiling when she
go up to him at once." thanked people. Then her eyes went back
She turned quickly toward the door, to Julian. Her heart had never left him.
and meeting Stella's eyes, she took and held and she knew now that it never would
her arm tightly for a moment, and then, leave him again.
loosing it, walked quickly toward the She did not know how long or short it

stairs. Stella followed her as if she had was before Marian rose gracefully, and
no being. She had lost all consciousness said in her clear, sweet voice. "I shall come
of herself. She was a thought that clung again to-morrow, Julian."
to Julian, an unbodied idea fixed upon the Marian stopped at each of the other
cross of Julian's pain. She did not see the bedsides before she joined Stella. She said
staircase up which she passed she walked ;
little, friendly, words to the
inclusive
through the wood in which Julian had other two men. which made them feel as
lain three days. if they would like to sweep the floor un-

He was in a large, airy room with two der her feet.

other men. Stella did not know which "All the same," the red-haired one ex-
was Julian until he opened his eyes. plained after the door closed, "it was the
There was no color in his face, and very untidy little one, piled up against the door,
little substance. The other men were that minded most. I dare say she was his
raised in bed and looked alive, but Julian sister."

lay like something made of wax and run He had no m'vd to lower his voice,
700 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
though he did lower it, for fear of its Marian was there with smiles and flow-
reaching Juhan. ers, just as he had so often pictured her;
Juh'an had been reassured, and now he but she sat down with a curious solidity,
was resting. Consciousness had ahogether and her voice sounded clearer than it had
receded from him, perhaps that it might sounded in his dreams.
give him a better chance of resting. "Nothing alters our engagement, Ju-
lian," she said. "Nothing can."
She spoke with a finality that stopped
CHAPTER Xni his thinking. He had finished his sentence,
Julian roused himself with the feeling and it seemed hardly fair to be expected
that he had said only half of what he had to start another on the spur of the mo-
intended to say to Marian. It had been ment. He gave himself up to a feeling
in his mind a long time. They had winged of intense relief: he had got off his cipher
him in the Tyrol, and his life had been to the Government and he had released
saved by an Italian peasant who had found Marian.
him in a wood. It was while he was He had known these were going to be
lying out under the pine-trees that he had difficult things to do. The cipher had
realized what he had got to say to Marian been the worst. The French doctor had
if There was a compli-
he ever got back. taken some time to understand that Julian
cated cipher message for the Government, must neither die nor be attended to until
which he had kept quite clear in his mind, he had sent the cipher off; and now the
and eventually given to an intelligent doc- business about Marian was over, too. He
tor to send off and there was the message
; had only to lie there and look at her day
to Marian, which he himself would have by day coming in with roses. They did
to say when he saw her. not talk much. Julian never spoke of his
"I Ve come back, as I promised; but I symptoms, but they were too radical to
can't marry you now, of course. I 'm a free him. He lay under them like a crea-
crock." ture pinned under the wreckage of a rail-
The first time he saw Marian he had way accident.
got through only the first part of the sen- Slowly, day by day, his strength came
tence. There was no hurry about the back to him and as it came back, peace
;

rest of it. The doctor and the sister had receded. His eyes lost their old adoring
both assured him that there was no hurry. indulgence; they seemed to be watching
They had been very kind, and quite as Marian covertly, anxiously for some gift
honest as their profession permitted. They that she was withholding from him. He
said Marian would come back, and he did not demand this as a right, as the old
could tell her then. Julian would have done, breaking down
They admitted, when he cross-ques- the barriers of her pride to reach it. He
tioned them with all the sharpness of pleaded for it with shamed eyes that met
which he was capable, that he would be a hers only to glance away. Something in
cripple. They did not bother him with her that was not cruelty as much as a
futile commiserations. They gave him baffling desire to escape him made her re-
quietly and kindly the facts he asked for. fuse to give him what his eyes asked.
He would never be able to walk again, but Julian had loved her for her elusiveness,
he could get about easily on crutches. and the uncaptured does not yield readily
Julian did not want to live very much, to any appeal from the hunter. The prize
but his mother's eyes hurt him when he is to the strong.
tried not to;and then Marian came again, She would not have withstood a spoken
and he got through the rest of his sentence. wish of his but there is something in
;

"You see," he explained in a low whis- speechless suffering from which light sym-
per which sounded in his head like a gong, pathies shrink away. Pity lay in Marian
"marriage is quite out of tlie question." a tepid, quickly roused feeling, blowing
•WOMEN LIKK VOl" CAN'T MAKKV LOGS OF WOOD''

can't," and turned away his head. He


was afraid to trust himself. He wanted
to tell her everything. He was afraid that
if he began, his reticence would break
down, and he would tell her things which
must never pass his lips. He longed for
neither hot nor cold. She cried easily over her to know that every day, and nearly
sad books, but she had none of the mater- every hour, he had fought and conquered
nal instinct which seizes upon the faintest intricate, abnormal obstacles. He had
indication of pain with a combative pas- slipped across imminent death as a steady
sion for its alleviation. She became an- climber grips and passes across the face of
tagonistic when she was personally dis- a precipice.

turbed by suffering. He had never faltered. All that he had


She was keeping her word to Julian gone to find he had found, and more. At
while her heart was drifting away from each step he had seen a fresh opportunity,
him and he, while he desired her to be
; and taken it. He had been like a bicyclist
free, instinctively tried to hold her back. in heavy traffic assailed on every side by
They had both put their theories before converging vehicles, and yet seeing only
their instincts, and they expected their in- the one wavering ribbon of his way out.
stincts to stand aside until their theories And he had won his way out with know-
had been carried out. ledge that was worth a king's ransom.
Perhaps if Julian could have told her He could have borne anything Marian if

his experiences he might have recaptured would realize tiuit what he had borne had
her imagination ; but when she asked him been worth while. But after her first un-
to tell her about them, he said quickly, "I answered question, Marian never referred
701
702 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
again to what he had done, She behaved Julian frowned. He profoundly hated
as if his services had been a regrettable the word "comfort" in connection with
mistake. himself.
She talked with real feeling about the "You don't understand," he said, a little

sufferings of those who fought in the war. impatiently. "I know every inch of it,

Her eyes seemed to tell him what her lips and it 's quite jolly in the winter. We
refrained from uttering, that she could are above the water. I want to see the
have been sorrier for him if he had been downs. One gets tired of milk-carts and
wounded in a trench, and not shot at and barrel organs, and the brown tank on the
abandoned by a nervous sentry firing in roof across the way. You remember the
the dark. He could not remember the downs, Marian ?"
exact moment when out of the vague tur- His eyes met hers again with that new,
moil of his weakened mind he gripped this curiously weak look of his. Marian turned
cold truth Marian was not tender.
: her head away. How could Julian bear
When she was not there he could pre- to speak of the downs?
tend. He could make up all the beauti- She saw for a moment the old Julian
ful, loving little things she had not said, springing up the hillside assured and eager,
and sometimes he would not remember the fine, strong lover who had taken her
that he had made them up. Those were heart by storm. She spoke coldly to this
the best moments of all. He believed then weaker Julian.
that she had given him what his heart "Yes," she said, "I am not likely to
hungered for. He was too much ashamed forget the downs. I spent the last happy

of his ruined strength to feel resentment hours of my life there; but I cannot say
at Marian's coldness. It struck him as I ever wish to see them again."
natural that she should care less for a Julian's eyes fell, so that she could not
broken man. see if he had even noticed how bitterly she
His mind traveled slowly, knocking remembered Amberley.
against the edges of his old dreams. The next day she found him sitting up
He thought perhaps a nursing home for the first time. He was propped up by
was n't the kind of place in which people cushions, but it made him look as if he
could really understand one another, all had gained some of his old incisive
mixed up with screens and medicine bot- strength.
tles, and nurses bringing things in on The other two men had been moved,
trays. If he could see Marian once at and they had the large, bare room to them-
Amberley for the last time, so that he selves.
could keep the picture of her moving No sound came from the square be-
about the dark wainscoted rooms, or look- neath them in the house itself there were
;

ing out from the terrace above the water- passing footsteps and the occasional per-
meadows, he would have something pre- sistent buzzing of an electric bell.
remember for the rest of his life
cious to "Look here," said Julian in a queer,
and she might n't mind him so much dry voice, "I 've got an awful lot to say
there,surrounded by the dignity of the old to you— d' you mind drawing your chair
background of his race. One day he said nearer? I meant to say it at Amberley.
to her I 'd have liked it better there. I rather
"I want to go to Amberley as soon as hate this kind of disinfected, sloppy place
I can be moved. I want to see it again for talk. You must loathe it, too. But
with you." here or there it 's got to be said. You said
"In December?" asked Marian, with something or other when I first put it to
lifted, disapproving brows. "It would be —
you about our engagement never being
horribly damp, my dear Julian, all water- broken. It was awfully good of you, of
meadows and mist. You would be much course. I could n't see through it at the

more comfortable here." time. I wanted to let things slide. But


THE SECOND FIDDLE 703

it 's all nonsense, my dear girl. Women could, I 'm such a weak hound, I 'd lie

like you can't marry logs of wood." here and take you wanted me, Ma-
it. If

He looked at her anxiously. Her eyes rian,— wanted a broken fragment of a


were shut to expression. She sat there, man fit for a dust-pan, I 'd land you —
just as lovely, just as sphinx-like as some with it. But, 'pon my word, it 's too
old, smiling portrait. There was the same steep when you don't want it. Out of
unfluctuating, delicate color in her face, some curious sense of duty toward the
and the same unharassed, straightforward dust-pan —
I 'm afraid I 'm being uncivil

glancing of the eyes. She was not the to the universe, but I feel a little uncivil

least perturbed by what he said ; she ex- to it now. No; you 've got to go.
just
pected him to say it. I 'm sorry. Don't touch me. Just let
"We should be foolish," she answered me be; but if you could say just where
quietly, "to try to ignore the terrible dif- you are before you go! But it does n't
ference in our lives, Julian, and I was sure matter. I should n't believe it. I would

you would want to set me free but you ; n't believe the mother that bore me now.
cannot do it. I took the rislc of your ac- I end of love.''
've seen the
cident, unwillingly at first; but, still, The burned themselves away from
tears
eventually I accepted it, and I will not his eyes; they gazed at her as sunken and
be set free." blue as the sea whipped by an east wind.
His eyes held hers compellingly, as if Rising to go, she turned slowly toward
he were searching for some inner truth rile door.
behind her words, and then slowly reluc- "I want you to remember, Julian," she
tant tears gathered across the keenness of said, "thatI meant what I said. I mean

his vision. He leaned his head back on it still. I TL'isli to carry out our engage-
his pillow and looked away. ment."
"I don't think," he said slowly, "you 're Julian said something in reply that
glad to have me back. I don't want to Marian did n't understand. He was re-

marry you, I could n't marry you but I : peating out loud and very slowly the
wish to Heaven you 'd been glad O ! cipher he had sent to the Government.
Marian, I 'm a coward and a fool, but if After all, it had been easier to send the
you 'd been glad, I 'd have gone down cipher to the Government than to release
under it I 'd have married you then.
! Marian. His mind had sprung back to
I ought n't to say this. It 's all nonsense, the easier task.
and you 're quite right. It 's awfully fine
of you to want to keep your word but,
CHAPTER XIV
;

you see, I did n't want your word. It 's


your heart I wanted. I used to say out It was not often that Stella took anything
there sometimes, when things were a bit for herself, least of all Saturday after-
thick: 'Never mind. If I get through, noons. They belonged by a kind of sacred
"
she '11 be glad.' right to Eurydice, and what was left over
Marian drew herself up. This did not from Eurydice was used on the weekly
seem to her fair of Julian. She had prayed accounts. Mrs. Waring found it easier
very earnestly to God for his safe return. to explain to Stella than to any one else
Neither God nor he had been quite fair why one and sixpence that was really due
about This was not a safe return.
it. to the butcher should have been expended
"I don't know what more I can do, Ju- upon "The Will of God," bound in white
lian," she said steadily, "than offer to share and gold for eighteenpence, an indisputa-
my life with you." ble spiritual bargain, but a poor equivalent
"That 's just it," said Julian, with that to the butcher.
curious look in his eyes which kept fight- But this Saturday afternoon Stella
ing her, and yet appealing to her simulta- hardened her heart against Eurydice and
neousl\. "You can't do more. If you turned her mind away from the vista of
704 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
the weekly bills. She wanted to think away from the eager, friendly crowd,
about Julian. glued together in indissoluble groups upon
Marian had left London the day after the pavement. She wanted to be alone
her interview with him. She belonged to and not to have to keep reminding herself
that class of people which invariably fol- not to think of Julian until she had fin-

lows a disagreeable event by a change of ished what she had to do.


address but she had found time before she
; She turned down a narrow lane with
went to write to Stella. There was some- high brick walls. Silence and solitude
thing she wanted Stella to send on after were at the turn of a corner. London fell
her from the army and navy stores. She away from her like a jangling dream.
was really too upset and rushed to go there She passed an gateway
iron-scrolled
herself. Julian had been so extraordinary which led into an old garden. The low-
he apparently expected her to be fonder of browed house, with its overhanging eaves,
him now than when he was all right. She was once the home of a famous poet. Po-
had really made tremendous sacrifices go- etry clung about it still it was in the air,;

ing to that horrid nursing home every day and met her like the touch of a friend's
for a month. Both her parents were de- hand. A little farther along the lane she
lighted engagement was at an
that the came to an opening in the wall, and saw
end, and of course it was a relief in some before her a small, surrounded field of
ways, though horribly sad and upsetting, grass. It was a Quaker burial-ground.
especially as Julian behaved as if she were This unique and quiet people, in their
to blame. Marian was afraid he was n't enmity with form, had chosen of all forms
as chivalrous as she had always thought. the most resilient. They had made in the
She had idealized him. One does when heart of London a picture, and a place of
one is in love with people ; but it does n't peace, for death.
last. One wakes up and finds everything There was no sense of desolation in the
different. silent field ; only the sunshine, the old
Stella wanted to forget Marian's letter. walls,and the green emptiness. It might
It seemed to her as cursory and callous as have been the grass-grown citadel of Tus-
a newspaper account of a storm in China. culum spread out at Stella's feet, it was a
It was all so far off, and drowned China- spot so acquainted with the air, with soli-
men are so much alike and yet she had ; tude, and with a nameless history.
written to tell Stella about Julian and the Beyond it lay a maze of old and narrow
end of love. "Many waters cannot quench streets, with quaint, lop-sided houses, un-
love" it had not taken many waters to
; even roofs, and winding causeways.
quench Marian's. It occurred to Stella At the end of one of these she came sud-
for the first time that the quality of love denly upon a waste of waters the color of
depends solely upon the heart that holds a moonstone. Stella had never been
it not even divine fire can burn on an un-
; abroad ; but she felt as If a wall between
tended hearth. It was a mild December her mind and space had broken down and
day ; winter had given itself a few soft shown her Venice. Drifting slowly down
hours in which to brood upon the spring. the broad stream were two white swans,
London, the last of places to feel the touch and across the river a green bank stood
of nature and the first to profit by it, had beneath a row of shining towers.
passed into a golden mist. They were a row of factory chimneys;
Stella left the town hall at two o'clock, but rising out of the mist, above the moon-
and walked down the busy highway. All stone flood, they looked like ancient tow-
the little, lively shops were awake and ers. Stella sat upon a wooden . float ; it

doing their noisy business of the week, made a luxurious seat for her opposite the
while farther west all the big, quiet shops, drifting swans. She felt as if all her
with other habits, closed in the face of thoughts at last were free. There was no
their departing customers. Stella slipped one in sight; old and dignified houses
THE SECOND FIDDLE 705
leaned toward the water-front : but for all Stella said
the life that inhabited them, they might "Yes, very"; and then, meeting his sur-
have been the ghosts of houses. Nothing prised eyes, she hastily corrected herself.
stirred, but sometimes up the river a sea- "No, not at all." Then she gave a little,
gull, on level wings, with wary eyes, helpless laugh. "Forgive me!" she said.
wandered above the watery highway, chal- "You surprised me so. Has anything gone
lenging the unaccustomed small spaces of wrong at the town hall ?"
the sky. Mr. Travers did not immediatelj an-
Stellawished for the first time that Ju- swer her question. He had never sat on
lian were dead.She did not believe in a a float before. Still, it was not this fact
capricious or an impatient God, moved by which silenced him. He had not been
well-timed petitions; but all her being ab- sure when he approached if Stella was
sorbed itself into an imconscious prayer crying or not. There was still something
for Julian's peace. that looked suspiciously like thepathway
She could not have told how long she of a tear upon the cheek next him, and
had been there when she heard the sound though she was laughing now, it had not
of footsteps, strangely familiar footsteps, the sound of her usual laughter it stirretl ;

direct, regular, and


She looked up,
swift. in him a sense of tears.

to meet the grave, intent gaze of Mr. Les- "I think I shall confess at once," he said
lie Travers. finally, "that
I followed you. I wanted

Stella rubbed her eyes as if she had been to talk you without interruption.
to I

asleep. Surely in a place of whispering might have called upon you at your home,
silences, town clerks did not burst upon of course, but I have not had the pleasure
you except in dreams. of meeting your family, and in this in-
Of course Mr. Travers might live in stance my business was with you."
one of these old, quiet houses, though it Stella gave a faint sigh of relief. She
did not seem very likely to Stella. She was glad it was business. She was used to
thought he must some place where
live in business with Mr. Travers. She was not
the houses looked as they knew more if used to pleasure with him, and she was
what they were about, and did not brood not in the mood for new experiences.
over a deserted w^iterway. "I shall be glad to talk over anything
with you about which I can be of use," she
Seeing all their own mischance said gently, "and I think this is a beauti-
With a glassy countenance, ful place to do it in."
"The rents," said Mr. Travers, glanc-
like that immortal gazer, the Lady of Slui- ing critically at the silent houses, "must be
lott. very low, necessarily low. I hope > ou do
Mr. Travers did not pass Stella with not often come here," he added after a
his usual air of cutting through space like a pause. "It is the kind of place in which
knife. He crossed the Hoat gingerly, and I should strongly suspect drains. We
asked firmly, but with kindness, if he might mention it to the sanitary inspector
might sit down. and ask him for a report upon it."
Stella gave a helpless gesture of assent. "Oh, must we?" murmured Stella.
She could not stop him, but he was inap- "Not if j'ou would rather not," said
propriate. The row of factory chimneys Mr. Travers, unexpectedly. "In that case
ceased to disguise themselves as towers; I would waive the question."
the float looked as if it knew suddenly how Stella glanced at him in alarm. Was
unsuitable it was for a winter afternoon's Mr. Travers going mad from overstrain
repose. The swans,
approaching fatally at the town hall ? He must be very nearly
near for the ideal, were very nearh black. mad to come and sit upon a float with his
"Do you not find it damp here?" asked secretary on Saturday afternoon and waive
Mr. Travers. a question of drains.
706 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
"But that would n't be business," she lately about relationships. Now I think
said gravely. of 'm quite sure you have. I have
it, I

"Yes, it would," said Mr. Travers, re- always enjoyed my work with you, and
lentlessly. "It is my immediate business you have never been inconsiderate to me.
to please you." But I used to think people were n't very
Stella's alarm deepened ; but it became real to you, as if you wanted to hurry

solely for Mr. Travers. She did not mind through them and stick them on a neat,
if he was sane or not if only he refrained tight file, like the letters, according to
from saying anything that he would ulti- their alphabetical order. But now I know
mately regret. you 're not like that. Even if jou had n't
"I know whether you realize,
don't told me about the cat I should have known
Miss Waring," Mr. Travers continued, it."

"that I am a very lonely man. I have no "Thank you," said Mr. Travers.
contemporary relatives. My father died "Thank you very much."
when I was a young child. I lost my For a while he said nothing at all, and
mother two years, ago. My work has not Stellawondered if that was all he wanted.
entailed many friendships. I began office She hoped it was all he wanted. Then
work very young, and it has to a great he turned and looked down at her.
extent absorbed me. I think I should be "I have formed an attachment now,
afraid to say any one but you, it
it to — Miss Waring," he said, "and I am in a
would sound laughable, but my chief at- — suitable position to carry it out. You have
tachment of late years has been to a cat." been the best secretary a man ever had.
It was curious that, though Mr. Trav- Could you undertake to become my wife?"
ers had often been nervous of his secre- Stella bowed her head. She had come
tary's humor, he understood that she here to think about Julian, but she had
would not laugh at him about his cat. not been able to think about him for very
"Oh," she cried, "I hope it loves you long. She did not think about him at all
as well. They won't sometimes, I know; now. She thought only about Mr. Trav-
you can pour devotion out on them, and ers. She was so sorry for him that she
they won't turn a hair. But when they could not look at him. What compensa-
do, it 's so wonderfully reassuring. Dogs tion was there what she had not got
for
will love almost any one, but cats discrimi- to give him, and in what mad directions
nate. I do hope your cat discriminates does not pity sometimes drive ? For a mo-
toward you, Mr. Travers." ment she felt as if she could not say "No"
"I think itwas attached to me in its to him but to say "Yes" would make
;

way," said Mr. Travers, clearing his nothing anyeasier, for after she had said
throat. "It was an old cat, and now it is "Yes" she would have nothing more to
dead. I merely mention it in passing." give.
"Yes, yes," said Stella, quickly. "But There is seldom any disastrous situation

m so sorry ! I hate to think you had to in which there is not something that can
lose what you loved." be saved. Stella saw in a flash what she
"You would," said Mr. Travers. "But might still She could save
save out of it.

the point I wish to make to you is that a Mr. Travers's pride at the cost of her
man whose sole dependence is upon the own. She was a very proud and a very
attachment of a cat does not know much reticent woman
would take the deep-
; she
about human relationships. I fear I am est show it to Mr.
thing in her heart and
exceedingly ignorant upon this subject. Travers that he might not feel ashamed at
Until lately this had not particularly dis- having shown her his own.
turbed me. Now I should wish to have "I can't," she said quickly, slipping her
given it more consideration." small, firm hand over his; "not because it

"But I think you have," said Stella, is n't beautiful of you. It is, of course;
eagerly; "I mean I think you 've changed it 's one of the most beautiful things I 've
IN^
THIS, STEI.I.A THotC'.Hr To HKRSKI.F, "IS I. IKK A liATTl.K
708 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
ever known, because you know nothing mendous, — almost all the other compan-
about me, and I 'm so glad I 'm not what ionships of life are intermittent, — but it 's

you would really like if you did know me. the building up of fresh life out of a sin-
Remember that afterward." gle love."
"Excuse me," interrupted Mr. Trav- Mr. Travers looked away. He w^as
ers, dryly; "I am the best judge of what surprised that Stella had not shocked him.
I like." The idea of any woman mentioning the
"I wonder if you really are," said existence of a child until she had a child
Stella, with a little gasp, as if she had might have shocked him ; but Stella failed
been running. "I wonder if I really am to move his sense of propriety. It even
myself. But we both think we are, don't struck him that marriage would be less in-
we? We
can't help that and the very — clined to lapse into the sordid and irregu-
same thing has happened to us both we : lar struggles of his experience if it was
've seen and wanted a little something — based upon so plain a foundation. He
that would n't do— that would n't do at looked away, because he felt that now he
all for either of us ever. If you had to could not change her.
like somebody that would n't do, I think Stella wished that they were in a house.
I 'm glad j^ou came to me, because, you It struck her that a room would give more
see, I know what it feels like. I can be of the advantages of a retreat to Mr.
sorry and proud and glad you 've given it Travers. She was very anxious to make
to me, and then we need never talk about his retreat easy for him.
it any more." "Would you do me a tremendous ser-
Mr. Travers looked straight in front vice?" she asked gently.
of him. Stella had not withdrawn her He turned quickly to face her.
hand; but Mr. Travers pressed it, and "Thatis what I should like to do you,"

laid it down reverentially between them. he said. But he looked at her a little sus-
He would never forget that he had held piciously, for he was not sure that the
it, but to continue to hold it until she had service Stella asked would n't, after all,
accepted him would have seemed to Mr. be only some new way of helping him.
Travers a false position. "You said the other day," she said,
"There is another point to which I meeting with unswerving candor,
his eyes
should like to draw your attention," he "that I might have extra help if I wanted
said after a slight pause. "Marriage does it. I do want very much to find some

not necessarily imply any feeling of an work for my sister Eurydice. She is very
intense nature by both parties. I wish to clever; cleverer than I am a great deal,
ofiFer you security and companionship. As only in a different way. She used to write
I told you before, I am a lonely man; I books, but that did not pay her very well,
could be content with very little. I have and when the war came, she went into the
noticed that when you come into a room cityand worked for a secretarial diploma.
it makes a difference to me." I would be of use to you, if you
think she
"Don't make me cry!" said Stella, sud- would go slowly with her and make al-
denly, and then she did cry a little, a ner- lowances for her different ways of being
vous flurry of tears that shook her for a clever. Would you like to help her?"
brief moment and left her laughing at the Mr. Travers hesitated. Then he stood
consternation in his face. up and held out hand to her.
his
"You see how silly I am!" she said. "The sun has begun to go," he said "I ;

"But however silly, I 'm not a cheat. You assure you it is not healthy for you to
offer me everything. I could n't take it linger here. Of course T will engage your
and not offer you everything back. To sister."
me marriage means everything. It is n't Stella gave a little sigh of relief. She
only— is it?— a perpetual companionship, felt that she had found a way out for
though when you think of it, that 's tre- Mr. Travers.
THE SECOND FIDDLE 709
self-pity, in which the fmest qualities of
CHAPTER XV the human spirit sink like a stone?
After the arrival of Eur>dice, Mr. Trav- Step by step Stella passed with him, by
erssaw very little of Stella. At certain all the hidden and vivid obstacles between
moments of the day she came and asked his soul and victory, between it and de-
him for orders, but in some mysterious feat.

manner, she seemed to have withdrawn She could do nothing, but she could not
herself from personal contact. She had stop her ceaseless watchfulness. She was
been impersonal before, but only in a busi- likesome one who strains his eyes forever
nesslike and friendly way. She was as down an empty road. The days began to
impersonal now as if she was not there lengthen into a long, cold spring. There
at all. were no outward changes in her life the :

She could control her attention, but she drafty town hall, the long bus-rides, the
no longer felt any vitality behind it. She bad news from France, and at home the
knew where her life had gone, and she pinch and ugliness of poverty. She had
was powerless to call it back to her. It stopped being afraid that people would
hovered restlessly about the spirit of Ju- notice a difference in her. Nobody no-
lian. Stella had never known what it ticedany difference. She behaved in the
was to repine at her own fate. If there same way and did the same thijigs. She
were many things she wanted that she had gone down under the waters of life
could not have, she had consoled herself without so much as a splash.
with driving her desires into what was left "I suppose," Stella said to herself, "lots
to her. But she could not do this for of us see ghosts every day without know-
Julian. ing She had a vague feeling that Mr.
it."

He had had so much farther to fall. She Travers knew it, but that he kept it in
saw his face as she had seen it first, with the back of his mind like an important
its look of human strength ; his frosty, blue paper which it was no use pro-
in a case,
eyes, his heavy sledge-hammer chin, and ducing unless you could act upon it.
all the alertness, the controlled activity, of It was an awful day of snow and wind.
his young figure. She saw him again like Everybody but Stella and the porter had
something made of wax, emaciated and gone home. She had been stupid over the
helpless, with flickering eyes. He had not municipal accounts over and over again
;

believed in knocking under, and he had felt her flagging mind stuck at the same mis-
defeat incredible. take. At last she finished. She was still
But defeat had met him, a blundering sixpence out but she might see the six-
;

defeat that wrecked his body and left his pence in a flash the next morning, and
unprotected heart to face disaster. there would be no flash in anything she
Would he have courage enough for this could see to-night.
restricted battle against adversity? Cour- When she reached the door she found
age did strange things with pain. It trans- the gale had become formidable and
formed and utilized it; but courage does chaotic. She staggered out of the town
not spring from a mortally
readily hall into the grip of a fury. All London
wounded Marian, with a complete
pride. shook and quivered ; trees were torn down
lack of intention, had robbed Julian of his and flung across the road like broken
first weapon. She had dissipated his re- twigs ; were blown into lamp-posts
taxis
sources by undermining his confidence, the icy air tore and raged and screamed
and left him perilously near to the stulti- as if the elements had set out to match
fication of personal bitterness. and overwhelm the puny internecine strug-
Would it be possible for Julian to gles of man. "This," Stella thought to
escape resentment? Or would he pass herself, "is like a battle — noise, confusion,
down that long lane which has no turn- senselessness. I must hold on to whatever
ing, and ends in the bottomless bog of keeps stillest, and get home in rushes."
710 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
But nothing kept very still. She was her life forces, but I hardly like to bother
doubtful about trembling lamp-posts, and her about them just now. Perhaps brandy
area-railings twitched and shook under her would be better; but I can't quite remem-
hands. Her skirts whipped themselves about ber if we have any. There was a flask
her like weeds in a river, trying to trip her of something in the biscuit-tin, but it may
up or hold her down. The darkness was be empty now. If we all believed that
blown across the sky, lifting in strange health was holiness

pauses, to show a battered moon and the "If you want Cicely," said Eurydice,
pale silver of the falling snow. She could in whom panic was overcoming fury,

only breathe, with her head held down, in "why not send for her? Lizzie, here are
strange, short gasps that seemed compul- two shillings; go out and see if you can
sory and forced upon her by something find a taxi."
outside. Beaten and tremulous, half lost what might happen
Stella tried to say
and faint, there was a strange sense of to Lizziejn the search for a taxi, but the
pleasure in her: she was pitting her brain effort to speak finished her strength.
against a monster. Little by little, craftily When she could realize what was happen-
and with many pauses and precautions, she ing again, Cicely had arrived. She
slipped and stumbled down the long high- pounced upon the emergency as a cat upon
way narrower
across the bridge and up the a mouse.
street which led toward Redcliff Square. In a few minutes Stella was tucked up
Tiles were tossed about the road like warm and dry, poulticed and eased,
fallen leaves from time to time there
; capable of a little, very short breath,
would be the sharper crash of a broken propped up by pillows. The professor had
chimney. The street was empty. It retired to his study with a cup of cocoa
stretched through the night, with its half- hotter than he had known this cheering
darkened lamp-posts, like the long-shaken vegetable to be since Cicely's departure.
strip of a Futurist drawing. It was a Mrs. Waring was breathing very slowly
victory to be alive in it. Stella could not in her bedroom to restore calm to the
believe in her own door-step it seemed ; household, and Eurydice was crying bit-
like some wild rescue out of a dream. terly into the kitchen sink. She was quite
She tried to laugh as she began to tell sure that Stella was going to die, and that
her adventures to her assembled family Cicely would save her.
but when she laughed, a pain so cruel cut The second of these two calamities took
across her breath that she collapsed help- place. Stella was very ill with pleurisy,
lessly into an arm-chair. She could not and remained very ill for several days.
explain anything after that. The house- Cicely interfered with death as drastically
hold wavered and shook about her. Pro- with everything else. She
as she interfered
fessor Waring gazed solemnly at her. dragged Stella reluctantly back into a
If she mummy he would have
had been a shaky convalescence.
known what to do. As it was, he
exactly "Now you 're going to get well," she
touched her wet clothes and murmured, announced to her in a tone of abrupt re-
"Surely there must be some suitable cere- proach. "But what I don't understand is

ments?" the appalling state of weakness you 're in.

Eurydice spun him aside, and in a fury You must have been living under some
of panic and anger began giving contra- kind of strain. I don't mean work. Work
dictory orders to the household. alone would n't have made such a hash of
"This," said the professor, wandering you. Come, you may as well own up.
toward his wife, "seems to me almost the What was it ?" •

moment to accept the presence of Cicely." Stella blinked her eyes, and looked
"Yes, yes," agreed Mrs. Waring. "I round her like a dazzled stranger. Usu-
forget what comes when you can't focus ally she was very fond of her room, — it

the invisible. I think Stella ought to rally was a small back room, over a yard full
THE SECOND FIDDLE 711
of London cats,— but it struck her now mersed in other work, but if by any possible
that there were too many things she knew chance you should be at liberty and cared to
the sight of. It was the same with Cicely. make the experiment, could you come here
She dearly loved and valued Cicely, but for a few weeks? You would be conferring
she knew the sight and sound of her ex- a great favor upon us, and if the secretary-
traordinarily well. ship developed out of your little visit, we
"Nothing," said Stella, deprecatingly. would arrange any terms that suited you.
"It 's no use applying gimlets and tweez- I may add that I find my son has no
ers to my moral sense, Cicely. Not even remembrance of your association with
the Inquisition could deal with a hole. Marian; indeed, he has forgotten the oc-
Heretics were solid. I have a perfect casion of your meeting.
right to be ill from a cold wind. The He has been so very ill that you will
world seemed made of it that night, and understand and excuse this, I feel sure; and
I swallowed half the world. It must be In the circumstances I think we had better
rather a strain for a thin person to swallow not refer to It. I am very anxious to divert
half the world on an empty stomach. I 'm his mind from the past, and I have a feel-

quite all right now, thanks to you. I was ing that if I could count upon your coopera-
thinking I ought to get back to the town tion, we might succeed.
hall next week. Only, queerly enough, I Yours sincerely,

had another offer of work. Still, it 's so Helen Verny.


sketchy, that I could n't honestly fling up
my own job for it, though it soxmds rather "I don't see anything sketchy about it,"

attractive." said Cicely, slowly ; "in the circumstances,


"Let 's see it," said Cicely, succinctly. I mean. You need n't definitely chuck the
"You do conceal things, Stella." town hall. You '11 get a couple of weeks'
Stella withdrew an envelop from under holiday. They '11 give you a fortnight's
her pillow. She looked a little anxious extension easily, and
if the job comes your

after its surrender. Cicely always made way, would be a suitable one. Anyway,
it

her a little anxious over a tentative idea. }ou must of course accept it provision-
She had a way of materializing a stray ally-"
thought, and flinging it back upon Stella as "I don't see why I must of course ac-
an incontrovertible fact. Stella was very cept it," said Stella. "You never see any
anxious not to think that what was in the alternatives, Cicely. Your mind is like
letter she gave to Cicely was really a fact. one of those sign-posts that have only one
It was some strange dream that has
like name on it, with fields all round and
n't any right to come true. Cicely read heaps of other places to go
to. It must be

awfully confusing to be as simple as you


Dear Miss Waring: You will think this are. Why could n't I go back to the town
a most extraordinary request for me to hall next week?"
make, and in many ways it is too unform- "Well, you one reason why,"
I '11 tell

ulated to be a request. You will have heard said Cicely, grimly. "Simple or not, Vour
from Marian that six months ago her en- heart 's as weak as a toy watch you very ;

gagement with my son came to an end. This nearly died a week ago, and in my opinion
was the natural and right thing to happen, if you went back to the town hall, you 'd

but it has left him in his invalid condition be signing your own death-certificate."
very much without resources. "I could n't do that," said Stella,
You were, I remember you telling me. gravely "it 's not legal. I 'm not the next
;

a secretary to Professor Paulson. I am in- of kin to myself. I know much more


clined to think that my son might have his about death-certificates than you do. If
mind directed to some scientific work if he I go to Lady Verny at Amberley, what 's

could meet any one who would interest him to become of Eurydice?"
anew in the subject. Probably you are im- "Eur\dice will stay where she is," said
712 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Cicely. "If you ever saw to the end of under shaking trees. The air was full of
your nose, you 'd know that she is as glued the earth scents of growing fields. The
to the town hall as she used to be to sky was wide and very near and without
'Shocks,' only this time, let us hope, more strangeness.
successfully. Some women have to be A porter, lurching out of the surround-
married. They contract a fatal desire for ing darkness, told Stella there was a car
it, like the influenza habit every winter. from Amberley House waiting for her.
Eurydice is one of them. It takes dif- It could be only for her, because no one

ferent forms, of course. This time it 's else was on the platform.

Mr. Travers; the Mr. Bolt attachment The station-master himself put her into
was more dangerous. I have decided
far it. She sank into soft cushions, and shut
that she will marry Mr. Travers, if it 's her eyes to feel the soundless speed. Stella
humanly speaking possible." had been on rare occasions in a taxi but ;

"Oh," said Stella, "will she? How this creature that leaped without friction

clever you are. Cicely ! You know nearly forward into the darkness, flinging a long
everything. Why do you say 'humanly .road behind it with the ease with which
speaking possible' ?" an orange is peeled, was a wholly new ex-
"Because you 've always made him out perience. When she opened her eyes again
as cold as a fish and as hard as iron," said they became gradually accustomed to the
Cicely. "He may be one of the few men flying darkness, which was not wholly
who w-on't yield to vanity or fancy." dark trees loomed up mysteriously out of
;

"I see," said Stella. "It 's not very it, and the tender shapes of little hills as

nice of you to want Eurydice to marry soft and vague as clouds.


an iron fish. But, as a matter of fact, I 'm Stella was sorry when the car stopped ;

not quite so certain about Mr. Travers. she could not see the doorway of Amberley
The iron and the fish are only on the top. House, hidden under a mass of ivy. It
I think, humanly speaking, he 's quite opened suddenly before her into a dusky
possible. I 'm going to sleep now. When hall lighted by tall candles in silver candle-
you 've made up my mind about Amberley sticks.

you can wake me up." The hall was full of shadows. There
was a fragrance in it of old roses and
lavender, and it was quiet. It was so
CHAPTER XVI quiet that Stella held her breath. She
There are two winds in March one ; felt as if for centuries it had been still, and
comes in like a tight-lipped school-master as if no one who had ever lived there had
set on punishment. It is frequently ac- made a noise in it. She was afraid of the
companied by dust, sunshine, and influ- sound of her own voice.
enza. It has all the cold of winter, and At the farther end of the hall there was
acts as if life could be produced solely by a glow of firelight on old oak panels. A
formidable harshness. door opened, and Lady Verny came
But there is another wind, a mild, toward her, very tall and stately, but with
sensitivewind which carries the secrets of thesame kind, steady eyes.
the spring— a wind that wanders and sings Lady Verny came all the wa}' across the
on sunless days, penetrating the hard crust long, shadowy room to meet Stella, and
of the earth as softly and as inveterately as held out both her hands; but when she
love, a wind that opens while its forceful came near, Stella saw that only her eyes
brother shuts. were the same. Her face was incredibly
It waswind, calling along the rail-
this older. The firm lines were blurred, the
way swinging train, that
lines against the delicate color was gone. The woman who
brought Stella to Amberley. It lifted her looked down at her was at the mercy of
out of her carriage to the small, wayside the years. Grief had forced her pre-
station, embracing her with its welcome maturely out of her comfortable upward
THE SECOND FIDDLE 713

path. Even her smile had changed quickly as if she were afraid that it might
carried no serenity. shake.
"I am very glad you have come," Lady "Since his illness he has taken less in-

Verny said gently. "We will have tea in terest in local matters," she finished tran-
my room, I think, and then you must rest. quilly.
I can see you have been ill." Stella did not dare to ask if Julian was
She led the way into a room that seemed better. She did not like to speak about his

":'^fi^
'
THE AIR BLEW FRESH UPON HER FACE, FULL OK SWEETNESS

curiously like her. It was spacious and interests ; it seemed to her as if almost any-
convenient, with very few small objects in thing would be better than to say some-
it. Even the pictures on the walls had thing stupid to Lady Verny about Julian.
the same quality they were very definite,
: "It was a lovely journey," she said
clear-colored French landscapes, graceful quickly,"and I would have hated not to
and reticent. change at Horsham. I was so sorry it

The china, on a low table by the fire, was nearly dark. Shelley lived there once,
was old and valuable but it was used ; did n't he? I wanted to go and look for
every day. Lady Verny had no special the pond where he had sailed five-pound
occasions, and nothing that she possessed notes because he had n't anything else to
was ever too priceless ot- too important for make boats with. Amberley came much
use. too soon and I could n't see anything
;

"I hope you did not have a very tiresome but a bundle of dark clouds. I could only
journey," she continued. "I do not like feel it, awfully friendly and kind, blow-

a change on so short a run, but we have ing across the fields!"


not been able to arrange to have a train "Yes," said Lady Verny, consideringly,
straight through from town. Julian was it is a kind
giving Stella her tea; "I think
thinking of doing something about it some little place. There is nothing dreadful
time ago, but the matter has dropped." about it, not even an ugly chapel, or one of
Stella noticed that as Lady Verny spoke those quite terrible little artist's houses,
of Julian her voice hurried a little. It did you know the type I mean, — as uncom-
not shake; but it passed over his name fortable as a three-cornered chair. The
714 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
kind that clever people live in and call looked out over the garden to the flooded
cottages. They 've quite spoiled the water-meadows.
country round Pulborough ; but merci- "I don't know if you like gardens."
fully the station is inconvenient here, and Lady Verny said a little shyly. "It 's

a good deal of the land is Julian's. I hope rather a hobby of mine. You '11 see it to-
you will like it," — she met Stella's eyes morrow."
with a long, questioning look, "because I
— "I like even my own," said Stella,
hope you will stay here for a long time." "though it only holds one plane-tree and
"As long as you want me to stay," said ten cats. At least it does n't really hold
Stella, firmly. the cats. They spill
in and out of it in

"We must not spoil your other oppor- showers like the soot, only more noisily;
tunities for work," said Lady Verny; and I pretend there 's a lilac-bush in the
"that would be most unfair. I must con- corner."
fess to j^ou, Miss Waring, that I am leav- Lady Verny stood by the door for a
ing the whole question very much in the moment as if she were making up her
air. It v/ould be more satisfactory to have mind for an immense advance, an almost
the arrangement come direct from Julian. dazzling plunge into a confidence.
If, as I hope, by your presence the old in- "I have a feeling," she said slowly, "as
terest and the old questions come back to if you would make a good gardener."
him, he will ask you to stay himself. For After she had gone, Stella opened the
the present I have simply told him that window, and leaned out into the garden.
you are my friend and that you have given She could see nothing but the soft dark-
up your secretarial work to come here for ness, sometimes massed in the thickness of

a much-needed holiday but we must not ; the yew-hedges, and sometimes tenuous
waste your time or do anything against and spread out over the empty spaces of
your interests. I could not allow that." the lawns.
"Itwon't take very long, I expect," The air blew fresh upon her face, full
Stella answered, "because he would take a of sweetness and the promise of life.

dislike so quickly. And if he did that, Stella told herself bitterly that nature was
it would n't do, of course. We should cruel ; it let strong young things die, and
see in a week or two. If he does n't dis- if that did n't matter (and she sometimes
like me, I can easily talk to him about thought dying did n't), nature did worse:
Professor Paulson. I remember they had it maimed and held youth down. But
an argument once about reindeer-moss. — nothing in her responded to the thought
Your son said he had discovered it where that nature was cruel. A tiny crescent
Professor Paulson had said it did n't ex- moon shone out between the hurrying
ist. I could bring that up quite com- clouds, and shadow of silver
cast a slim
fortably. The mere mention of a fellow- across the dark waters. "Things are
laborer's effort stings a man into the wish cruel," Stella said to herself, "but what is
to prove something or other about it and ; behind them is not cruel, and it must
once you start proving, secretaries follow." come through. And I 'm little and stupid
"Make them follow," said Lady Verny, and shy but some of it is in me for Julian,
;

smiling. "I don't think he will dislike and he '11 have to have it. I sha'n't know
you, — we usually dislike the same people, how to give it to him. I shall make
—only Julian always goes further than I hideous blunders and muddles, and the
do; he dislikes them more." Then her more I want to give, the harder it '11 be
smile faded. "You will see him to-night to do it. Fortunately, it does not depend
at dinner," she said gravely. She could on me. I can be as stupid as I like if I 'm
not smile again after she had said that but ; only thinking of him and only caring for
she took Stella herself through the dark him and only wanting it to come through
oak hall and up the broad, winding stair- me. Nothing can stop it but minding be-
case to a little, old, square room that cause I 'm stupid. And as for being in
"THE KISS' 715

love, the more I 'in in it the better. For the wind in the garden playing among the
that 's what we 're all in really, only tree-tops. She listened for a long time,
we 're none of us in it enough. As long until she thought that the garden was
as I 'm not in it for anything I can get upon her side, and then she heard another
out of it, everything will be all right. If sound. She knew in a moment what it

I do mind, it does n't matter if only what was; it struck straight against her heart:
I want gets through to Julian." it was the tap-tap along the passage of
She lay down on the bed and listened to wooden crutches.

( To be continued)

^^The Kiss"
(A statue by Clio Bracken)

By RUTH FITCH

THE hurrying people push and stare,


Pausing to praise in idleness
Now laughing faun, now bronze Despair.
Silent, I stand before "The Kiss."
Like two white birches, joyous, swayed
Into a wind-sweet harmony.
So are their slender bodies made
A symbol of love's ecstasy.
Close-crowding memories blind my eyes
I fear my lips will cry your name.

Yet all the tenderness we prize


Isbut the shadow of the flame.
This marble passion that endures
In loveliness, untouched by tears.
Could it but hold my soul and yours

In white perfection through the years!


The Evolution of Liberty in Russia
By COUNT ILYA TOLSTOY

WITH dynasty
the fall

in
of
Russia
the
the
Romanoff
greatest
ditions in Russia, I
about the views of
must say
my
a
father,
few words
the late
stronghold of absolutism in the world Leo Tolstoy, in relation to recent political
came down. None of the victories on any changes. He never approved of revolu-
front of the present terrible war can rival tionists who to change the forms
desire
in importance this most significant tri- of government by violence. He used to
umph of the Russian nation. It was an say that the methods which they advocated
almost bloodless revolution and had hardly were utterly opposed to the principles of
any organized preparation. 180,000,000 true Christianity. His and their methods
peoplewho yesterday were the slaves of only seem to be alike, whereas in truth
the most despotic power on earth are to- they are as far apart as the poles.
day free citizens of a free Russia. Believing only in the teachings of
This is not merely the triumph of a Christ, whom he regarded as the greatest
nation. It is the victory of an ideal, that interpreter of love and the brotherhood
of liberty ; it is therefore a triumph for all of man, Tolstoy affirmed Christ's ideal
mankind. of non-resistance and repudiated the use
If I were to be asked, Was it the of any kind of physical force. He there-
peasants who instigated this revolution ? I fore entirely disapproved of any form of
should answer no our peasantry was
; government, because government cannot
voiceless, patient, and apathetic in its dark exist without force.
despair. We should not fear to face the light.
Was it the Russian nobility? No; for Let us not fear to acknowledge the im-
although they knew that many things were perfections of our human institutions. Let
wrong in the country, and most of them us open our minds wider to the light of
admitted that reforms were necessary, truth, and we shall see for ourselves that
they thought it better to postpone all vital we are not on the right path, that we have
changes until after the war. gone astray
Was the revolution brought about by The causes of human calamities are deep
the Russian army? No; for the armies rooted in the fallible nature of man, in
were pluckily fighting a foreign foe, and his imperfect instincts, and in the great
soldiers should always be disciplined and difficulty he finds in overcoming them.
conscientious, and not take part in revolts The most powerful and destroying in-
against their rulers during a war which stinct of all is that of egotism. Without
endangers their families and their homes. conquering this instinct, how can we pre-
Was it the members of the Duma alone tend to preach love, brotherhood, or the
or the leaders of labor? Again I answer freedom of the soul ? This instinct, when
no. manifested by a person, we call egotism
The glorious Russian revolution was but when manifested by a whole nation it

brought about especially by the increasing becomes patriotism or nationality.


intellectual enlightenment of the whole This is the instinct which separates
Russian nation. This is the reason why people and divides them into nations,
the climax came so suddenly and unex- l^his sentiment of nationality is inflamed
pectedly. and glorified by all the governments of
Before speaking about" the present con- the world, with the result that the strug-
710
THE EVOLUTION OF LIBERTY L\ RUSSIA 717
gle of the individual man against this The abolition of war is impossible by
sentiment is indeed most difficult. Only external means. Yet, nevertheless, war
those who have reached the more com- must be abolished. It is appalling, it is

manding heights of the world of ideas are unthinkable, that humanity should con-

COUNT 1L\A TOLSTOY. l-KOM A PHOTOGRAl

able to secure a broader vision and fully tinue along the dark paths of the past.
realize this evil. But what is the remedy? Where is the
Leo Tolstoy believed that so long as right path?
armies and governments continued to ex- The answer Leo Tolstoy was clear
of
ist, the abolishment of war was impossible. and definite. The
only way to overcome
This belief he expressed publicly after the evil, he thought, was to arouse to activity
close of the first Hague Conference. It in every person the highest virtues of the
goes without saying that Tolstoy could human race,— the virtues of love and self-
never believe in securing peace by force; abnegation, — and this activity can be
for, according to his convictions, force is reached only by the path of individual self-
and is diametrically opposed to love
evil, development. This is in accordance with
and peace, and evil can never produce the teachings of Christ and of all the
good. greatest sages of the world. Here is the
718 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
source of life, the sun, toward which every After this event reaction asserted itself

blade of grass lifts which every


itself, to with even greater severity. The entire
new-born child extends his hand, and period of the reign of Nicholas I was, in
toward which we all aspire. fact, one of the most reactionary in the
I know the current objection that this whole history of Russia. The Crimean
is merely a Utopian ideal that can never be War proved Russia to be the most back-
realized. I know this, but I also know ward European nations. For this
of all
that if the wise men of the East had not reason was defeated, and in conse-
she
seen the star above their heads, they would quence Alexander II was at last compelled
never have found Christ. I may say, to grant liberty to the Russian peasantry.
therefore, that every step toward the ideal This was in 1861, only fifty-six years ago.
is a toward the realization of the
step In recognition of his action, the Russian
kingdom of God on earth. Toward that people bestowed upon Alexander II the
end every son of God should take his way. title of "Deliverer."
We cannot arbitrarily dismiss dreamers, for The communities of peasants were freed
it is from dreamers like Christ, Buddha, from slavery, and a considerable part of
Confucius, Socrates, and others that the the land belonging to the nobility was al-

race has gained its most precious intel- lotted to them. They paid for their land
lectualand moral legacies. in the form of taxes to the Government for
Every nation has its own history, and a period of fifty years, and these payments
has had to make its own struggle for were completed only a few years ago.
liberty. It has been said that every people But the liberty of the people was only
has the kind of government it desires. nominal, is they were entirely uneducated,
This may be true, yet step by step with subservient to an army of officials, and
the development of the individual men that directed by petty local rulers almost as
constitute it, a nation, when choked and ignorant as themselves. Being also system-
hindered by the bonds of despotism, strug- atically corrupted by the use of vodka,
gles to breathe the air of freedom. And the national poison, Russia could not
the Russian nation struggled a long time. arouse herself to and remained
liberty,
Speaking of the present revolution, I wrapped in a deep slumber, often dream-
wish to remind my American readers that ing, but never awakening.
the ideals of liberty were long ago in- From the sale of vodka the Government
culcated by leaders of thought in Russia. derived its principal revenue, and know-
Even before the beginning of the nine- ing that only ignorant people can be ruled
teenth century our greatest prose writers autocratically, it purposely kept its subjects
and poets suffered from the persecution of both intoxicated and uneducated. The
our despotic Government. primary schools of Russia, as I remember
Later, in the reign of Nicholas I, there them from my childhood, were a disgrace
developed a revolutionary plot among the to the nation. Only a small percentage
nobility known De-
as the Conspiracy of of the peasants were taught to read and
cember. It only resulted in the arrest and write, and even these few very badly. At
exile to Siberia of all the leaders, most the same time, owing to the lack of rail-
of whom were great men, prominent by roads, mails, and every other form of
their birth, their education, their lofti- communication, it was extremely difficult
ness of thought, and the greatness of their for the people of Russia to come into con-
achievements. Dostoyevsky was one of tact with one another and with the bene-
them. men were the noblest
These fits of civilization.
characters of our country, and to this day Their only instructors in morals were
the children and grandchildren of these who were frequently more in-
the priests,
exiled nobles are revered by all Russians toxicated than their flocks. Their club
because of the self-sacrifice of their fore- was a tavern, where they drank oceans
bears. of vodka, and their rulers were the- cor-
THE EVOLUTION OF LIBERTY IN RUSSIA 719
rupt police, called in Russia Our'tadnik. was forced by the pecuniary interests of
These were the leeches who sucked the certain adventurers, among whom were in-
life-blood of the Russian peasantry. cluded members of the imperial family.
Toward the close of the sixties and dur- The war was not desired by the people,
ing the seventies the self-consciousness of and was therefore unpopular.
Russia began to be aroused, especially the On January 9, 1905, a great crowd of
newly formed class, which was united unarmed people whose only desire was to
in different political organizations were see the czar and tell him of their humble,
more or less radical. The aim of all these but desperate, needs, were brutally beaten
parties was the liberation of the people. in'Petrograd by the whips of the Cossacks
Of course they were persecuted by the and shot down by the soldiers.
Government. Czar Alexander II, how- During the whole of that year strikes
ever, had some progressive tendencies, and and disturbances were frequent. The
through the influence of one of his min- greatest of these occurred in October.
isters he was finally persuaded to give the This was a general strike of workers, in-
country a constitution. But poor Russia volving the railroads, mail service, tele-
was unfortunate. The articles were al- phones, telegraphs, city waterworks, and
ready drawn up and were ready to be electric plants. For several days both
announced when the czar was killed by the Russian capitals, Petrograd and Mos-
the bomb of an anarchist, and his son and cow, were in darkness and without water
successor, Alexander III, continued to or food. In the streets were barricades,
perpetuate absolutism in Russia. and here and there the exasperated popu-
But the most reactionary reign of all lation fought the police and the soldiers
was that of Nicholas II, who, now ab- with firearms. On October 17, 1905, the
dicated, was, I hope, our last Russian czar. czar was forced to accede to the will of
His reign was the most unfortunate, the the people, and the first Russian constitu-
most sanguinary in the history of the tion w^as drafted.
empire. I cannot recall without horror This constitution was not what the
the terrors that were perpetrated just be- people desired. It was merely a sugges-
fore the beginning of the Russo-Japanese tion of the real thing; but it was better
War. This was the time when my father than nothing, and Russia had to be sat-

refused to read the newspapers because he isfied, at least temporarily.


could not bear to contemplate the atroci- I well remember that evening when the

ties of the Government in its criminal news of the adoption of the constitution
struggle against the people. Every day came to Moscow. I remember with what
we read the accounts of more capital joy even strangers on the streets congrat-
punishments, and every day the reaction ulated one another on this poor semblance
and the terrorism became more pro- of liberty. Order
in the country was re-

nounced and cruel. stored as by magic, and industry was


if

It was at this period that my father once again resumed.


wrote his famous article, "I can no longer That evening some of the constitutional
remain silent." It created the greatest leaders assembled in a club where we
sensation among all classes in Russia. It discussed the text of the manifesto issued
began with the words, "Again murders, by Nicholas II. The meeting opened
again capital punishments," and was pub- with a powerful speech from Professor
lished in the leading Moscow paper ; but Paul Miliukoff, who was for a time minis-
it resulted only in the temporary suspen- ter of foreign affairs in the provisional
sion of the newspaper. Government.
The working classes were aroused, and He severely criticized the very evident
sometimes manifested their indignation defects of the constitution, the cowardice
by striking. Then began the ill-fated of the emperor in fearing to give his sub-

Russo-Japanese War, into which Russia jects greater political liberty, and espe-
720 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
cially themanner in which the members of Prussia, the Russian army advanced in

the Duma were to be elected. Galicia to Lemberg, and also to the


Despite all efforts of the Russian Gov- strongest of the Austrian fortresses, Przem-
ernment to influence the election of the ysl, and later to the Carpathians. But
members of the Duma, the first representa- soon those heroes who had no fear of the
tives of the Russian nation were demo- enemies in front of them were compelled
cratic and liberal. The country was at last to yield to enemies at home, far
temporarily and waited for the
satisfied, back behind the firing-lines.

results which they hoped would be ac- Quite unexpectedly Russia discovered
complished by the Duma. They waited that she was being deprived of munitions
in vain. and guns. Then began the retreat of one
Nicholas II, fearful for his precious of the world's greatest armies, equipped
throne, and dreading lest the idea of lib- with shovels, and some cases with sticks,
in

erty might be carried too far, issued his instead of firearms, and supplied with shells
ukase dismissing the Duma. At the same that by some strange coincidence fitted
time he altered for the worse the already only the guns of their enemy.
defective method of electing representa- All Galicia and all Poland had to be
blow to the people.
tives, a terrible surrendered to the Germans without a
At first the members of the Duma re- struggle. Treason was rampant through-
fused to obey the royal ukase. Assembled out the empire ; but, concealed behind the
in the city of Viborg, Finland, they at- walls of autocracy, it was not readily de-

tempted to continue their deliberations, tected. Only one of the arch traitors, an
and issued a public address to the people in army ofl!icer, was apprehended. He was
which they advised the citizens of Russia tried and hanged by order of the Grand
not to pay taxes and not to enlist in the Duke Nicholas.
army until the Duma was restored. But The principal leader of the conspiracy,
this resulted only in the arrest of the dep- the minister of war, Sukhomlinoff, re-
uties, who were sent to jail and deprived mained at large for a long time, and even
of all theirpolitical rights. This is a continued unhampered his acts of treason.
typical example of the methods employed The German party of the Russian court,
by the Russian Government to rid itself which has existed for generations, found
of its most enlightened, most progressive its support in the wife of the
principal
citizens. The Dumas which followed czar. She had a most pernicious and ready
were no more successful than the first one. tool in Rasputin, her personal friend and
Thus did the convulsions of liberty in adviser.
Russia continue until the present time. That man was the most dangerous
The period just preceding tha European menace to the interests of Russia and her
War was marked by moral decadence allies. A common peasant from Siberia,
throughout Europe, and from this decad- devoid of education, barely able to sign
ence Russia did not escape. The field of his name, Rasputin had an influence that
our literature was invaded by trashy de- one can hardly explain.
tective-stories and unsavory romances not Was it the influence of an immoral
unlike many which have been
of the books fascination over her, such as he had prac-
recently widely read in America. Art was tised upon other women of high society
contaminated by the influence of Futurism and the court, or was his influence due to
and Cubism. Classic dances were replaced the power of mysticism ? Perhaps both.
by the tango and indecent performances However that may be, Gregory Ras-
the political life of Russia was dormant. putin was the unquestioned ruler of Rus-
Such was Europe's moral preparedness sia until he met his death at the hands of
for the war. Nevertheless, at the opening an assassin a short time ago. One word
of the conflict Russia appeared to be suc- from Rasputin to the czar was suflicient to
cessful. After the invasion of East displace a minister in the cabinet. All the
THE F.VOLUTION OF LIBERTY IN RUSSIA 721
recent changes in the cabinet were made of the stupid and greedy agents of the
at the suggestion of this man, and all were Government.
equally bad. I will not say that all these Tons of rotten meat were burned in

ministers were disloyal to Russia, but Petrograd before the eyes of the people
among their number was Stiirmer, the who for weeks had been deprived of meat.
minister of foreign affairs and president of The same criminal irregularities oc-
the cabinet. This man was appointed to curred in the manufacture of munitions.
the position for the specific purpose of The blowing up of ships in the port of
concluding a separate peace with Ger- Archangel, the explosion of powder fac-
many. This was in 191 6. He remained tories in Petrograd, and similar destruc-
minister until a member of the Duma, tion of munition factories in the United
Professor Paul Miliukoff, disclosed all States cannot easily be explained as ac-
of Stijrmer's machinations and publicly cidents. All these disorders were known
branded him a traitor. After that he was not only to the educated people of Rus-
dismissed, and his post given to Trepof. sia, but also and the
to the peasantry
The only organization which worked soldiers. Allsome radical and
felt that
conscientiously in furnishing munitions fundamental changes had to be made.
and supplies to the Russian army was the Only one who understands the Russian
zemstvos, or county councils, at the head character can properly understand the
of which was, until to-day, Prince George patience and forbearance of the people in
Lvoff, the present minister of the interior such trying circumstances, and their un-
and premier of the free Russian nation. faltering faith in themselves and their
Frequently the Government, supported future. Had not Russia undergone in the
by the czar, attempted to discredit and past worse sufferings than these? But at
abolish this organization. They did not last the cup of their patience overflowed.
succeed, because the whole population of After the murder of Rasputin, who was
Russia was behind these popular county killed with the connivance of certain mem-
councils, because even the most ignorant bers of the royal family, the czar com-
muzhik appreciated their value. pletely lost his head. When the riots

Russian munition factories were until caused by high prices and scarcity of food
recent times almost all inthe hands of in Petrograd broke out, he issued a ukase
Germans. This was altered only under dissolving the Duma, by that act depriving
the continued pressure of protests from the country of the only national organiza-
the workers. tion representing the people, of the political
The Russian population, especially in body in which they had faith and to which
the large cities, now began to suffer from they could look for guidance and leader-
lack of food. This was due to the ineffi- ship.
cient and corrupt management of the gov- That ukase was the last drop in our cup
ernment railroads and to speculation. of bitterness. The representatives of the
Prices began to rise abnormally. Rus- Duma and with one accord
disobeyed it,

sia, which formerly produced so much the whole people revolted against their
sugar that she was able to export great oppressors and formed solidly behind the
quantities to England and Persia, now delegates of the nation. I'he police wore
discovered that she did not have enough unable to suppress this movement, and for
even for her own consumption. the time in the history of Russia the
first

Russia used to have bread enough not sixty thousand soldiers of the garrisons
only for herself, but even for half of refused to obey the commands of their
Europe; yet now she suffered from a officers, some of whom, indeed, favored

famine in flour, and there were times the people. By this act the Russian army
when both Moscow and Petrograd were proved that they were the true sons not of
without the bare necessities of life, with the rotten government of the last of the
grain and meat decaying in the warehouses Romanoffs, but of free Russia.
722 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
This revolution, accomplished with the Seventh, the proper settlement of the
loss of only a few hundred lives, proves land question.
that the whole nation was weary of ab- These are the principal changes that I
solutism and ready for a new form of gov- see ahead, that all Russia earnestly longs
ernment. I am sure that the soldiers at for and will certainly have. Americans
the front will stand by the people and sup- should be patient, helpful, and wary of
port them, because they also are tired of false rumors. The weaknesses attributed
treason and disorder. to the new regime are the accumulated
I do not know what form of govern- deficiencies of the autocracy. We shall
ment will be adopted in Russia. I hope it remedy them as fast as we can.
will be a republic, but I am sure that we Among these questions the most diffi-

shall never return to the despotism of the cult of solution is that of the land. It Is

past. I know personally many of those not a new one, but it Is the most urgent,
who are now in power. They have been because eighty-five per cent, of the i8o,-
my friends for years. 000,000 population in Russia work on the
Long ago, before the constitution was land. This is the only means of existence.
granted in Russia, there was an associa- The present disorders, which I trust will
tion of the most prominent people. It soon cease, are due to the Infamous inher-
formulated the main outlines of a more itance of the late dynasty. The past mis-
desirable form of government. Their management explains why the Russian
meetings, which I attended, were secret people have always felt the need of more
and under government espionage. Never- land. This has caused constant local up-
theless, these people continued to meet. heavals in Russia. The sole ambition of
They were the chief exponents of the most the illiterate peasant is for more
land,
liberal thought of the time. I rejoice to land, and again more land. This ques-
say that many of those progressive men tion will be the principal problem to
are now in power, representing free Rus- face not only at the present time, but in
sia. They are Prince Lvoff, the premier; the future.
Professor Miliukoff, late minister of for- All the government land, combined
eign affairs; Professor Manuiluff, minister with that of the royal family and that
of education ; Ridichiff, governor-general belonging to the Russian monasteries,
of Finland ; Gutchkoff, Rodzienko, the will never satisfy the peasantry. They
president of the Duma; and many others will never be content until they obtain the
of the leaders of that body, who are now lands of the large land-owners, who are
supporting the present Government. mostly members of our ancient Russian
Knowing these people and acquainted nobility. This question cannot be settled
with their political views, I can predict by the abolition of property in land, be-
some of the changes which are likely to cause that would be an attack upon the
take effect in Russia. Indeed, many of principle of propertyitself. It cannot be
these are taking place at present. determined by state purchase of the land,
First, direct election of representatives. and therefore the question will remain, I
Second, freedom of speech, of the press, fear, the most acute problem for Russia,
and of religion. and one which will not infrequently prove
Third, the autonomy of Finland, the cause of new disturbances in the
Poland, and probably of the other nation- future. The only solution must be found
alities on the outskirts of Russia. in an increased tax on land, and this
Fourth, the abolition of all restrictions principle leads us inevitably to the doctrine
upon the rights of the Jewish people In of the single tax as advocated by the great
Russia. American economist Henry George.
Fifth, a responsible cabinet of ministers. Leo Tolstoy, who lived closer to the
Sixth, amnesty of all political prisoners people than any other man in Russia,
in Russia and Siberia. realized the needs of the Russian people
THE FVOLUTTON OF FTHERTY IN RUSSIA 723
and their struggles for land. He devoted nuirder of one man by the state, is

to this question a great deal of his atten- already abolished in Russia; but the
tion, believing that the solution of the murder of millions in war is still justified
problem was in the adoption of the single and glorified by all governments. The
tax. After studying Henry George's world must at last rid itself of this hideous
"Progress and Poverty," he became a con- nightmare. The only way to realize such
firmed believer in the latter's principles, an aim is to forget forever the prime cause
and wrote several on the subject,
articles of dissension among nations, the senti-
particularly "The Great Iniquity" and ment of nationalism.
"The Slavery of Our Times." He even You talk of war. You have opened re-
consecrated to this ideal the whole of the cruiting offices in the streets. Everywhere
second part of his great novel "Resurrec- I see soldiers. Do you know what war is?
tion." Let. me tell you something about it, for I

He also tried to interest the members of have met war face to face as a worker for
the second Duma and the president of the the Red Cross in Russia.
cabinet.But single tax interested only a I shall not speak of the hospitals, where
few members of the more radical party. I saw thousands of mutilated men. I shall

Henry George's followers in Russia are not speak of the sufferings of these people,
not many, and I fear that during the of the nights I spent hearing the unceasing
present crisis his beautiful ideal will not cries of the wounded and the moans of the
have adequate support, although I hope dying. Terrible as all that is, it is as noth-
that at some future time his dream will be ing compared with the scenes on a battle-
realized in Russia. field after a fight.

This, in brief, is the history of the I saw such a battle-field in Galicia. I

evolution of liberty in Russia. rode over it alone on horseback. It was


Does not the fact that the revolution a dreary, dull autumn day. A drizzling
was accomplished quickly and apparently rain was falling. Far ahead I saw the
without serious opposition prove that the dome of a church shattered by shells.
people are now at last ready for free in- Through the twisted columns of the arch
stitutions? This is the fruit of several I could catch glimpses of the gray sky.
generations of earnest effort on the part Not far from the church were the trenches.
of progressive leaders. It indicates the Nothing in the world gives a more im-
probable permanency of the revolutionary pressive idea of chaos than deserted
reforms now in progress. trenches after a battle: empty tin cans,
He who has once seen the light will torn bits of clothing, shattered shells,

never again return to darkness. A peo- broken guns and rifles, twisted bayonets,
ple that has once enjoyed liberty will never dismantled artillery of all kinds, and
again bow, will never return blindly, to everywhere, as far as the eye could reach,
absolutism. This I know, and in such enormous cavities made in the earth by
knowledge I rejoice. bomb explosions. Silence and death ap-
Rather let us look more deeply into the peared where only a short time before
unsolved problems of humanity. My were life and intense activity.
countrymen have now won individual As I rode along one of these trenches
liberty, and have thus been placed upon an mj^ horse picked up his ears and shied at
equal plane with the inhabitants of other every object. In my heart I felt a sink-
free nations. But this is not the highest ing, a dread, as of a man entering a
standard. The souls of the people are morgue or a graveyard for the first time.
still bound by the prejudices of patriotism Some distance ahead I saw in the bot-
and nationalism.. The greatest evil of tom of one of the trenches a^dark-looking
the human race is not yet overcome. I object. It was a corpse. ALy horse shied
refer to war. as we passed. A step or two farther I
Capital pimishment, v>hich is the found other bod-ies. Again and again I
724 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
saw them before me. As far as the eye picture, but soon felt that I could no
could reach the whole field was dotted longer stand this awful pageant of death ;

with these gray figures, stretched out, or so I closed the cabinet and ran to my
piled up in every possible attitude. horse. In order to reach it I had to
Just in front of me, lying in a crater jump across a trench. Making a good
caused by the explosion of a shell, I saw start, I sprang over the wide ditch. But
two legs and the lower half of a man's to my horror I saw that was about to
I

body. I looked around for the other half land on the face of a corpse that was peer-
of the trunk, but could not find it any- ing from the earth with cold, glazed eyes,
where. A short distance away I saw a staring up at me. In landing, I made a
small wood. The
were cut and
trees frantic effort to avoid it. Without a
hacked by shells, and the bark was second look mounted my horse and rode
I

stripped, so that the trunks and limbs were hastily away. Then suddenly from under
white and bare. Here had been the hot- his feet came the fluttering of wings as
test part of the fight, and here were a frightened partridge flew up, startling
hundreds of corpses lying on top of one both me and my horse. There was at
another, jumbled together in heaps. The least one other living creature besides me
dead bodies revealed most dreadful in that valley of death.
wounds, being torn by shells, or ripped The world must finally rid itself of
by bayonets in hand-to-hand encounters. this nightmare. We may accomplish it

Having my paints and brushes with me, by forever forsaking the prime cause of
,1 selected a pile of corpses that seemed to dissension among nations, the sentiment of
form a typical picture. Dismounting, I nationality.
tied my horse to a tree and opened my Do not charge me with being a dreamer,
cabinet. The shaking of the box in rid- especially you Americans. Have you not
ing had caused some of the colored tubes already realized this dream? Have not
to leak, among them the carmine. All the your Stars and Stripes united the peoples
inside of the cabinet, the palette and the of all nations? Is not your country a
brushes, were smeared the color of blood. practical demonstration of the general
While spreading the paintson the brotherhood of man?
palette, I soiled my fingers, and my hands Was not this a dream in Washington's
were red, as if I had touched blood. In time? To-day it So permit
is a reality.
front of me was this heap of corpses. On me to dream and you to share
to invite
top was the body of a young Austrian with me this beautiful vision. Let us
officer, a boy not more than eighteen years hope that, if not now, at some future day
old, with a beard just beginning to grow. it will be realized in Russia also and
I noticed his black, hair and a
silken throughout the whole world
terrible wound in open breast.
his His The day will come when we shall real-
boots, like those of most of the corpses, ize not only the brotherhood of individu-
had been stolen by some marauder. als, but the essential unity of all mankind.

I thought of this lad's parents, back The race must not only shake off the bonds
home, perhaps hundreds of miles away in of despotism, but must free itself from the
some peaceful village. I could see in slavery of national separatism. All are
imagination the father and mother of this brothers, all children of the same Father.
boy and the parents of all the thousands The barriers which divide nations are
who in the morning were alive and strong, artificial. I believe the time is at hand

but now were rotting corpses. Blood on when these barriers will fall, like the walls
my hands, blood on my palette, blood be- of before love's trumpet sum-
Jericho,
fore me, blood, blood, blood and I alone ; mons; when the banner of brotherhood
in the midst of it, in the gathering dusk and freedom will float forever over a new
of the evening. federation, -THE UNITED STATES
I had begun to sketch the outline of my OF THE WORLD.
Jane Meets an Extremely Civil Engineer
By RUTH COMFORT MITCHELL
Author of "Jane Proposes," etc.

Illustrations by Oscar Frederick Howard

On a meandering train bound, more of touch with real living. I was too keen
or less, for Guadalajara, to do, and not keen enough to be. Ex-
December 7. actly. I was overdoing and under-being.

Sally dear: (Rather neat?)


"Can this be I ? Can this be I?" I So I thought I 'd fly out to the Bud-
feel like the woman in the fairy-tale. I ders, mother's cousins, in San Francisco.
have n't written you for eons, but it 's a I sent them a cordial invitation to invite

best-friend penalty to be treated worst. me, and, having a warm welcome by wire,
Besides, did n't we make a bargain long ho-ed Westward.
ago our hectic young careers that when-
in I found the Budders (Does n't Budder
ever we had time to write each other a sowd as if I ad a code id by ed?) sitting
letter we 'd take a nap or a walk instead ? on their trunks, with their tickets in their
Just now, lolling across a languid land- hands, and mine reserved, and this Mexi-
scape in this Stevenson train, — its motto can trip all arranged ; and of course I was
is, "To travel hopefully is a better thing pleased pink. They 're nice, restful old
than to arrive," and we 're eleven hours things, the sort who are called the "salt
late already, — I find it hard to remember of the earth," but are n't at all, really.
that eight days ago I was feverishly, fran- They 're the boiled potatoes and Graham
tically busy. bread and cereals, wholesome and nourish-
Hence this vacation. In any sort of ing, but not piquant. You, now, Sally
creative work there comes a time for plac- Machree, are the strawberry jam, and
ing hooky. Write and run away, and live there 's not half enough of you, and I 'm
to write another day. I was talking about the olives and salted nuts and anchovies,
my work with a stuffy capital W. I was a little goes a long way, —
and IVIichael
getting attitudinous and platitudinous, out Daragh is the rich and creamy milk of
726 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
human kindness, and he 's always being Now, too, have labored somewhat in
I,

skimmed by a needy, greedy world. my and I 've frankly looked forward


time,
Behold me, then, ambling through to matrimony as a sort of glorified vaca-
Mexico with a Spanish phrase-book in my tion. Not that I 'd wish to sit on a cush-
lap and peace in my soul. ion and sew a fine seam and live upon
Adios! strawberries, sugar, and cream exclu-
Jane. sively; but somewhere in the middle dis-
tance between that and washing the dishes
p.s. I 've just re-read this. Fiction of and feeding the swine I did visualize a sort
purest ray serene. I was n't overdoing of gracious-lady leisure, with a worship-
in the least. I simply had to fly for my ful being in the hazy-mazy background
life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. making me take care of myself.
Sarah, I was falling in love. At any Woops, my dear
rate, I felt myself slipping. You see, I I fly while the flying is good.
intended Michael Daragh to be only an Jane.
interesting character part in my New
York drama; he 's threatening to take the
December 8.
lead, and it would n't do at all. That
That was a silly screed of yesterday,
man's goodness is simply ghastly, and I my woes and
poor, dear receptacle of all
could n't endure having a husband so in-
wails.The chapter is closed. I 've neatly
contestably better than I. Why, all my made up my mind to fall in love some-
been a "wonderful influence for
life I 've
where on this trip. Why not ? One finds
good" with my masculine friends. In
so many perfectly delightful people trav-
kindergarten I coaxed sling-shots away and Mrs. Bud-
eling, as witness Professor
from bad little boys and signed them up
der and their charming cousin from New
for the S. P. C. A.,and I was always get-
York. (I understand she writes!)
ting bad big boys to smoke less and drink
Something, which is to say somebody,
less and study more and dance with wall-
may turn up at any moment.
flowers and write to their mothers. Really,
Yours, Micawbering, j
when I think of the twigs I 've bent and
the trees I 've inclined, I feel there ought p.s. I hope you don't expect to glean
to be a tablet to me somewhere. a lot of statistics and useful information
But the woman who marries Michael about Mexico in my letters. The Bud-
Daragh, I don't care who she is (Lie: I ders are deep in histories and guide-books,
care enormously), will always be burning but I don't know whether the Chichimecs
incense to him in her sinful soul, always were people or potterv, and I hope I never
on tiptoe to breathe the rarefied air in shall.
which he lives and moves and has his
p.s. II. Cousin Dudley, just returned
being.
from the smoker, says he 's been chatting
You see, Michael, what time he re-
with a most interesting civil engineer.
nounced the fleshpots and embraced the
Settlement, took to bride the Ladye Pov-
erty with such "perfect blythenesse" that December 9.

any literal spouse will be only a sort of We are so late now that we have lost

morganatic wife, anyway. I don't mean all social standing. We slink into sidings

that he might n't adore her and be won- and wait shamefacedly for prompt and
derful to her after he 'd ministered unto proper trains to bustle by. I don't mind.
a drove of sticky immigrants, but he 'd ex- At this rate I shall be able to converse
pect her to prefer having him assist at ripplingly in Spanish by the time we reach
the inopportune arrival of the eleventh Guadalajara. Cousin Dudley knows a

little Lazcanowitz in a moldy cellar than professor person there who will help to

keep a birthday-dinner date with her. plan our trip.


TANE MEETS AN EXTREMELY CIVIL ENGINEER 727
Spanish is deliciously easy. It seems bronzy-brown hair and gentian-blue eyes,
rather silly to make it a regular subject and his skin is burned to a glowing copper
in our schools. luster. He is just idling about, slaying
I adore the stations, especially at night: time during a vacation too short to make
black-velvet darkness studded with lan- it worth while to go home to Michigan,
terns and torches and little leaping fires; and shows strong symptoms of willingness
old, blind minstrels whining ballads; the to act as guide, philosopher, and friend to
mournful voices of the sweetmeat venders wandering tourists.
chanting, "Dulce de Morelia!" "Cnjeta dc We are actually going to reach Guada-
Ci'laya!" Those candies, by the wa}', are lajara to-morrow morning! Some one
the most must be giving us a tow.
Adios, Tiiuy am'u/a m'ui!
December 1 1. J nana.
Alas! 7nuy Sally ?nia, when I meant to
P.S. The C. E. is going to hear my
drop you a line every day! Perhaps it
Spanish lesson.
was because, just where 1 left off, Cousin
Dudley came in with his C. E., and really P.S. II. Is n't Nctzahualroydtl a cun-
there 's been no spare time since. ning word ?

How 's that for a demonstration of Mr.


Burroughs's theory about folding your Guadalajara, December 12.
hands and waiting and having your own Oiierida Sarita:
come to you ? We sight-saw all the morning in this
He 's an extremely civil engineer and lovely, languid, ladv-like city, and this

very easy to look at. He has close-cropped. afternoon we called on the Morales fam-

i^j;^-^ -?^^

<^'^i -,

v>'
•HE . . . SHOWS SYMPTOMS f)F W III INT.VHSS TO ACT AS OlTDl^, Pllll-OSOPUtR, AND FRIEND"
728 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
ily. They were expecting us, and as our desirable love-af¥air, so the aunt told
coche drew up to the curb the door flew Cousin Ada. They 're taking us to the
open and el profesor flew out, seized plaza to-night, and I flv now to sup w^ith
Cousin Ada's limp hand, held it high, the C. E.
minuet fashion, and led her into the house. Jane.
The senora, a mountainous lady with a
rather striking mustache and the bosom of
p.s. 1 1 :3o P.M. The plaza is still the
parlor in Guadalajara, and enchant-
her black gown sprinkled with a light it 's

snowfall of powder that could n't find


ing: the staid background of chap-
erons in caches; the slow procession of
even standing room on her face, conducted
youths and maidens, two and two, girls
Cousin Dudley in in the same manner,
in one line and boys in the other; eager,
while I fell to the lot of a beautiful boy.
The sola was awful, with bamboo forward looks; a whisper at passing; a
furni-
note slipped from hand to hand, a linger-
ture and crazy with what-nots and knick-
knacks and running over with people ing,backward glance; all classes, yet each
class intact,rich man, poor man, beggar
plump, furrily powdered senoritas with
young mustaches, cunning kiddies with
man, thief; and over all, through all, the
pleading, pulsing call of the music.
gazelle eyes and weak-coffee-colored skin,
and the oldest woman ever seen out of a
Sally, never did you make melody like
pyramid. that, decent littleAnglo-Saxon that you
There was an agonizing time getting us are. It 's so poignantly sweet and search-

all introduced, and a still more agonizing


ing, so unverschamt, so sin verguenza!
stage wait afterward. Then Cousin Dud-
They played "La Golondrina"
which —
ley — I thirsted for his gore — said chirp-
means "The Swallow" to start with, —
ily, "My niece has learned to speak Span-
and everything else a hungry heart can
ish."
pack into it. Lupe and I walked together,
and she was spilling her dewy young con-
My dear, it made the Tower of Babel
sound like "going into the silence." Every- fidences into my ear before we 'd been
twice round the circle. Montagues and
body talked to me at once! In my frantic
boast and foolish word about the easiness
Capulets ! The rich uncle who reared her

of Spanish it never occurred to me that


is the bitterest enemy of Emilio's papa,

people would talk to me! If the wretches


who is a general of revolutionary fame.

had just held their peace and let me ask


"Me," she said and shrugged, "I can never

them to have the kindness to do me the marry. J^estire los santos" ("I shall dress

favor to show me which way was the ca-


the saints"). Is n't that cunning? Old
maids, you see, have unlimited time for
thedral, or whether it was the silk hand-
church work.
kerchief of the rich Frenchman which the
young lady's father needed, all would
O Sally dear, how I 'd like to have a
finger in this pretty pie!
have been well.
Then came rescue. The sweetest, soft-
Meanwhile I could do with a bit of
sleep.
est pussy-willow of a girl, with a delicious
accent, said, "So deed I also feel in the
Buenas noches! j

conevent when they all at once spik in-


gles." She was in pearl gray; no powder,
no mustache, and slim as a reed. Her December 14.
name is Maria de Guadalupe Rosalia Sally ! The loveliest idea came and sat
Merced Castello, but they call her "Lupe" on my chest in the pearly dawn I 'm !

(Loopy, Sally, dear). She 's a penniless going to take Maria de Guadalupe Ro-
orphan, just visiting the Moraleses, lives salia Merced Castello on this tour as my
with an uncle at Guanajuato, where Spanish teacher! She accepted with tears
delves my C. E. when he 's not on holi- of joy, and the Morales family bore up
day, and is in disgrace because of an un- bravely. They will be glad of a few
'SHE IS MADDEN'ING, ^VITH HER UTTER HOPELESSNESS, HER AnSOLlTE LACK

nights' sleep, they sa3\ Lupe's gallants pretty sister in charge of the playground
come to "make a serenade" nightly, not a burst into eager narrative.
lone guitar, but the tenor from the opera- Six years ago a young physician was
house, with a piano trundled through the called at night to the peon quarter. To
streets! The more costly the ingredients, his amazement, his patient was a lady, a
the greater the devotion. girl whose patrician manner was proof
To-day we visited the hospicio (see the against her terror. She utterly refused to
Budders for valuable information). I look at her child, and said if he left it with
can only remember a little girl of six who her she would smother it. He took it
sat by herself on the playground, the small, temporarily to the hospicio, and one day,
clear, cameo face, with its mournful eyes, going as usual to call on the mother, he
a pathetic arrogance in the lift of her chin. found her vanished. There was a note
I knew she must have a story, and the for him, requesting him to blot the inci-
730 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
dent from his memor}', and a royal fee. names." I argued till I was limp. She
The neighbors knew only that they had would only shrug and say:
heard a coche in the night. The child — "Oh, eef you love some ol' horse more
Dolores Tristeza they called her — was al- than you' brawther!"
ways the doctor's protegee. One day he The C. E., who says he could spare her
came in great excitement to tell the pretty very cheerfully, helps me
to understand
sister that he had been summoned the her and, through her, Mexico, the sad,
night before to the death-bed of a wealthy bad, pitiful, charming, hobbled land. Even
old man. The family was grouped about in her love-affair she is maddening, with
the dying father; among the weeping her utter hopelessness, her absolute lack
When he was
daughters was his patient ! of initiative. Sometimes when we 've
leaving, him squarely in the
she looked gone to our rooms at night she will do a
eye and said "You are a new-comer in
: veritable mad scene with her yards of inky
Guadalajara? You must be, for / have hair swirling round her ivory face ; then
never seen you before." He told no one quite suddenly she will shrug and say,
but the and not even
sister of the affair, "But my uncle and his papa!" and begin
to her did he divulge the name. But two to nibble dulces with excellent relish.

days later, returning from a call in the Emilio by way of being a poet, it ap-
is

outskirts of the city, he was shot. Sarah, pears, and he has sent her a little song,
is n't that themost eery thing you ever which we translated, and I put into
heard? To happen /o-^fly.' Dolores Tris- rhyme, and the C. E., who has a very
teza I dashed out and bought her a gor-
! decorative voice indeed, hums it to a lone-
geous doll, and she gave me a slow, gra- some little tune distantly related to "La
cious smile. Loads of people have wanted Golondrina." Here it is:

to adopt her, but she would never go with


Through the uncolored years before I knew
them.
you
Off Queretaro to-morrow to drop a
to
silent tear on Maximilian's dressy little
My days were just a string of wooden
beads
tomb, the Budders, Lupe, the C. E., and
I told them dully off, a weary number
I. "Follow my mother to market!"
The silly cares, the foolish httle needs.
Adios, querida ?nial
Jane.
But now and evermore, because I 've

known you.
Queretaro. They 've turned to precious pearls and
I 've paid proper tribute to the poor limpid jade,
pawn of empire who lived so sillily and Clear amethysts as deep as seas eternal,
died so finely, but the real zest of this pil- And heart's-blood rubies that will never
grimage is Lupe. Fresh every hour! Her fade.
mental processes are delicious. I was la-
You never knew, and now you never will
menting her frank delight in bull-fights,
know.
and she said
Some joys are given; mine was only lent.
"The firs' time I see a horse keel' I am
You see, I do not reckon years or distance;
ver' seek. Noiu they keel four, seven, ten
Somewhere I know you are; 1 am content.
horse', I like ver' ?noach." When I tried
to make her realize, she turned on me 1 do not need your pity or your presence
with, "But you watch you' hraivther get To bridge the widening gulf of now and
keel' in foot-ball game." then
"Pussy-willow," I said, "there 's no It is enough for me to know my jewels
parallel. Our brothers are free agents; Can never turn to wooden beads again.
they adore it. They
and sweated
've toiled

and prayed for the chance, and thousands Of course he 's alicuys known her, and
are making tlie welkin ring with their she is frantically well aware of his devo-
JANE MEETS AN EXTREMELY CIVIL ENGINEER 731

tlon,and he can reckon the time and dis- p.s. I remark in passing that
might
tance quite easily by having recourse to a it 's a perfectly good corazon again, free
railroad-folder; but, as the C. E. says, "it as a bee on a huckleberry-tree, and can
listens well." only dimly summon a memory of New
We are off to la Ciudad de Mexico in York,
the morning. Mexico City.
Con todo mi corazon. There 's no use trying to date my let-

Jane. ters, Sarah ; I 've lost all count of time.

\sKi 1) iiiM II I III IIS nil 1 1 \' \ ^\I I k s \ vcvTiON II I I \ir) him
IWICI IHL \\LLKb LVKM\i.b IN \r)\ VNCL
732 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
We 've been here for many golden days families, three generations, and they bring
and silver nights in a land of warm eyes everything they own with them: their
and soft words, where peons take off their burros, if they are so opulent, their chick-
sombreros and step aside to "let my Grace ens, their goats, always their dogs. And
pass," and Murillo beggar boys are named when they go into the church to worship,
"Florentino Buenaventura, awaiting my with them go all their worldly goods;
commands." anything left behind runs the risk of being
We sight-see so ardently that lazy little appropriated by another pilgrim. Is n't it

Lupe is "tired until her bones," and then whimsical and delicious and Mexican?
we go alone, the C. E. and I. Oh, yes, Lupe and the C. E. both warned me
the Budders are still with us, but they are sternly against giving to the beggars; but
keener on facts than fancies, and we capit- I could n't resist, and soon I was rivaling
ulate only once in a while. Yesterday w^e the favorite saint with my swarm of sup-
went with them to see Diaz's model prison. pliants. In all I spent less than ten dol-
My dear, after seeing how the people live lars in our money, but, my dear, the plain
in freedom, one is convinced that here the and fancy blessings with which I am
wages of sin are sanitation and education. fitted out Nothing can happen to me
!

I should think ex-convicts would be now. I in charms. Even the


'm armored
madly in demand for leading citizens. C. E., when he came to rescue me at last,
We were fascinated by a display of the his nice nose in the air, was hailed as my
skulls of prisoners who had been put to 7iovio and given a full assortment of bless-

death in times past. I found one small, ings for himself and a half-interest in
round, dainty one that looked as gentle as mine.
a kitten's,and I read the tag indignantly Buejias uoclics, inuy am'iga in'ia!

to see what he 'd been martyred for. My J-


dear, the busy little bee had done twenty-
one ladies to death
Christmas eve.
Welisten to melting music in the Ala-
Felisces Fascuas, Sally dear! You in
meda, we ride in the fashion-show in the
snow and fairy-land It a
the I in ! 's
Calle San Francisco, we drive out the
comic-opera Christmas, but a quaint and
wonderful Paseo de la Reforma, and
fetching one, with the long, pretty proces-
drink chocolate in the shadow of Chapul-
sions of singing children through the
tepec — chocolate made with cinnamon and
streets, the gay puiatis ,—\\\.\^z paper
and thick almost bends the spoon
so rich it
dolls filled with didces, the childlike, —
to stir it. One remembers with difficulty
merry people, the music, the color.
that one is a self-supporting young wo-
I keep thinking of little Dolores Tris-
man, heir of all the ages in the foremost
teza. I sent her a wonderful box.
files of time, who beats sprightly thoughts
My pussy-willow girl is star-eyed over
from a type-writer for six stuffy hours a
a and my C. E. has told me
telegram,
day. Or that one was. what he wants for Christmas. I 've asked
Hoy — to-day — for me. Manana ma;-
for a fortnight's grace.
never come. t .xrr.
JANE. I am your servant who kisses >our
iiands.
Go with God, best of friends!
The next evening.
Jane.
We went to Guadalupe
the shrine of
for the sunset. Lupe was named for it
Maria de Guadalupe. Cuernavaca.
Up the endless stone steps the pilgrims Every month in the full of the moon
crawl; the lame and the blind and the the ghosts of Maximilian and Carlotta
halt, the too-dreadful-to-describe, and be- walk in the Borda Gardens, the old wo-
fore the church they are encamped, whole man told me. I believe it. I believe
JANE MEETS AN EXTREMELY CIVIL ENGINEER 733

everything in Mexico. I even believe that gusty sigh, and they ambled thankfully off.

I, Jane Vail of the type-vi-'riter and the The crowd thought me mildly mad, and
booking-offices and the swelling royalties the C, E. was a little annoyed at me. He
and the rejection-slips, am a creature of said he would have attended to it for me
light, a being so fair and frail that not if I 'd just asked him. I said something
even the breath of heaven inay blow upon very impertinent that Lupe taught me:
me. "Cuando tu vas ya yo vengo." Which
My much more than civ 1 engineer says means in crude English, "By the time you
all his days were "wooden get started I '11 be on my
beads" before I came, and way back."
j^^^
beside the still waters
where those tragic lovers p.s. One hopes this is n't

walk in spirit I almost a habit with him, being a


believe that, as Lupe little annoved.
would say, "I have arrive'
to love this boy." Cordoba.
Distractedly, j This is n't a comic-
opera country at all,

p.s. Almost too busy with Sarah ; it 's a land of grisly


my own love-af¥air to melodrama. We 're here
stage-manage Lupe's, but in this adorable city on the
I have plans simmering edge of the tierra caliente,
for them. but the day started wrong.
An unsavory cherub of
Orizaba. eight or so, smoking a
In the market-place to- cigarette, tried to sell me
day I found such a tired a baby lizard. You know
old bear dancing for a how I love lizards, but I

bored crowd. I 've never could n't take it on a day's


seen anything quite so sight-seeing, so I gave him

weary and patient as his a copper and refused. He


eyes. The little man with said : 'Wo compra us ted
him was half asleep, but niilagatito? Bien. Mira!"
he whacked his flat tam- and before my horrified
bourine and whined his eyes he held it to his cig-
dismal little song without arette and burned it to

a pause. I left Lupe and death. I suppose I 'm


my C. E. (the Budders tired with all this rushing
were panting up the trail, about and so much on my
which the French had mind, for I went all to
AN UNSAVORY CHERLB TRIHD
. . .

built in a single night) TO SELL ME A BABY LIZARD' pieces, and when Lupe
and went out into the said sympathetically, "Oh,
crowd and patted the bear and asked the did you icant it?" it made me worse. I


man I am that handy with my Spanish told them to please go on without me, and
-how much he earned a day About I sat down in the plaza alone to think
fifteen cents in our money Well, I asked ! things over. There was a little fountain
him if I could buy the bear a week's vaca- with a gurgling drip that sounded like a
tion if I paid him twice the week's earn- teasing laugh, and I rested in the ragged
ings in advance. He accepted with a low, shade of the banana-trees and heard two
glad cry, and I believe he '11 keep his word. hours tinkled from the cream-colored,
He was as tired as his beast. The old crumbly cathedral, and came gradually to
bear came down on his four feet with a the point where I ceased to want to \'i\\-
734 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
sect the boy. Michael Daragh would say p.s. Later. We 've taken a pasco in the
that he was only— There, that 's the first velvet night, and things looked brighter in
time in days, even to myself the dark.
Well, I sat there cooled and calmed, The only reason why he gets annoyed
and presently I heard something, and is that he cannot stand seeing me in dis-

looked up to see two soldiers on horseback tress or danger. He was dear about prom-
bringing a prisoner. His arms were bound ising to help me help poor little Romeo
behind him, and great ropes ran from and Juliet.
their saddles to his neck, and the skin was We pass through Guadalajara, and I '11

all broken. The horses were steaming; run in to see Dolores Tristeza.
they must have come fast. Another sol- J.
dier went on to report or something, and
they halted right there by me. The man's
On
the train to Guanajuato.
mouth was open, and his tongue swollen,
She came running to me and
Sally!
and he was panting just like a dog, and
held out her arms! The sister says she 's
his bloodshot eyes rested on the fountain
never done that to any one before in all
and he gasped " Agua! Por el (unor de
her life. She says she 's talked about me
:

los Santos, agua!" One of the soldiers day. Is n't that the
ever since that first
gave the rope a jerk that flung his head
most touching thing? They 're going to
back, and the other laughed. They were
let me take her out for a whole day when
n't looking at me. I filled the big iron
I come back; She called, "Hasta la vista!"
cup, and I found that the chain which
and threw me a kiss. She 's quite wiped
held it was just long enough. I held the
out the lizard and the revolutionist.
cup for the man till he drained every
drop ; then I dipped my handkerchief into
the fountain and put it in the poor mouth. Later.
The who 'd
soldiers, both been watching 'm not
I a bit sleepy, though it 's nearly
the man on his way to the prison, heard to-morrow. This is the most alluring
me and turned. Just at that moment the place of 'm glad he lives here. I 've
all. I

Budders and Lupe and the C. E. came up. seen it only by dark, but I 'm keen for it.
Sarah, they very nearly arrested 77ie! The town is high above the station, and
The man is, they said, a dangerous insur- we came up in a mule-car, rattling through
recto; I was giving aid to him. Lupe was the twisting, toboggan streets. I sat near
shaking like a leaf, and the C. E. was the driver, only his bright, soft eyes show-
white around his mouth but, between
; ing between his high-wrapped blanket and
them, they got me off. But I don't care. his low-drawn hat, and he told me his
I 'd do it again. mules were named Constantino and the
The whole country is simmering and Pine-tree, faithful animals both, whom
seething with revolution. Old Diaz's he tenderly loved. The few pedestrians
throne is tottering under him. If he is scuttled into doorways or flattened them-
downed, the gringos must go, the C. E. selves against the walls as we caromed
says; but he thinks the iron hand will past, and from time to time he blew a
crush this rebellion, as it has all others. deafening blast on a lovely, crumpled
Lupe was tearful over a letter from horn.
Guanajuato; Emilio 's begging her to re- We stepped from the car straight into
turn. Her uncle has had his papa put the office of the hotel. The C. E. and I

into prison. were to take Lupe to her uncle's house.


The Budders are growing a little ner- At dark turning Lupe gave a
the first

vous and are anxious to hurry north. We soft little and melted into the
scream,
'11 go on to Guanajuato to-morrow. arms of a dusky cavalier. Emilio, when
Disillusioned, he could spare the time to be introduced,
Jane. proved something of a landscape, large for
JANE MEETS AN EXTREMELY CIVIL ENGINEER 735

a Mexican, and very much the patrician, rousing them to a vague, but rosv, state of
with his slim hands and feet and his Cas-
tilian manner. He wears the high-class To-day we visited the prison, not the
native costume, —
Guanajuato is rather model of the City of Mexico. This one is
old-fashioned, —
and Lupe says she always a hold-over from the Dark Ages. Gentle
wears a rebozo here instead of a hat. He and simple, murderers and newsboys, are
is the son of so many revolutions that I herded in together. In the huge court,
should think would make him dizzy to
it before pillars with chains fastened to
remember them, and I liked him so much them, a peon prisoner was languidly mop-
that I determined more than ever to see ping up some dark stains. Ugh This is !

them through. Poor babes in the wood the broken heart of Mexico, where tears
It needed only a look at their faces to see and blood are brewing.
that their days would be pearls and ame-
thysts together. He left us before we One morning.
reached her house, and we delivered her Our little plans are perfected ! We
to a very impressive, Bluebeardish sort of have to act quickly, for Lupe's Tio Diego
uncle. He was very gracious, and asked is more and more irate. "EmiV's" papa
me to visit her, which fits in with my languishes in prison, and the rebels here-
plans exactly. I shall go there to-morrow. about are simmering and seething rather
Meanwhile I shall go to sleep. more than in the rest of the country. The
Drowsily, Budders are thinking longingly of the
j^^^^
sanctuary of San Francisco, and we start
north day after to-morrow night. They
At Senor Don Diego Castello's. are interested in my plan for the novios,
Sally, you 'd adore this house. The and will do their part loyally.

floors are of lovely, dull-red tiles, and they It is simple. In the afternoon Lupe
are washed three times a day. They have and I shall stroll to the little old church
a flock of dove-eyed, velvet-voiced servants where she was baptized and confirmed, and
who adore Lupe and are pledged to her where the little old priest is a firm friend
cause, especially old Cristina, who waited of "Emily's" family. E. and the C. E.
on her mother before her. will be waiting. We stroll back alone,
Every night for an hour Emilio stands take a cup of cinnamon chocolate in the
under her balcony "playing the bear." dulceria, dine sedately with Uncle Diego
Lupe, her face shrouded in her rebozo as usual. Then I, reminding him that I
leans over I hover in the
and whispers. go north with my relatives, take farewell

background Nurse.
like After-
Juliet's of him, thanking him (a bit guiltily, I

ward the C. E,, who has ridden in from admit) for his hospitality, but stiffening
his work in the mountains, comes for me, my soul with the remembrance of what
and we sally forth in the night, like the an old rascal he is. Lupe and I then re-
calif, and walk slowly up and down the pair to her rooms for a last chat. Pres-
Street of Sad Children, where we have ently Emilio and the C. E. arrive beneath
the music filtered softly to us through the the balcony. I emerge, join the C. E. in

trees. Sometimes "Emily," as the C. E. the soft dusk, go with him to the station,

wickedly calls him, joins us. I shall never where the Budders are waiting, and leave
laugh at Mexican revolutions or call them for Silao on the nine-o'clock train.
merry-go-rounds again. They are too piti- Only, as the intelligent reader will al-
fully real and hopeless. My task just now ready have divined, it will be Lupe who
is infusing hope into the love-affair. Some- melts into the distance in my frock and
times their attitude of Dios no lo quiso — ulster,with my thickest chiffon veil over
(Heaven willed otherwise) makes me her face, while I, her rebozo over my
want to shake them till their teeth rattle head, lean from her balcony, and Emilio
like castanets; but little bv little I 'm who strides boldlv off at her side in the
736 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
C. E.'s perfectl_v good overcoat and hat adopter they ever saw. I know she 11
and the goggles he 's been diligently wear- come with me, and I know I could n't
ing lately, while that gentleman, in cabal- leave Mexico heart-whole without her.
lero costume, gazes adoringly up at me! Just as I arrived at this heavenly conclu-
Rather neat, what? sion I glanced up ;we were passing a little
We hold the pose until we hear the pulqueria called "The Orphan's Tear"!
heartening whistle of the train, when the Was n't it curious?
C. E. slips away and I, chap-
to change, I can't tvait to see her and tell her.

eroned by old Cristina, go back to the Jane.


hotel, following the Budders to Guada-
lajara in the morning. I don't see how it

can possibly fail.


The afternoon.

owns large ranchos up


Emilio's family
We are home from the wedding, Sally

Durango, where the runaways will be dear, and I wish you could see Lupe's
in
quite safe in a mountain fastness, and they
dewy joy. It makes me ache with tender-
will reach there craftily, stopping over, not
ness for her. I know why mothers al-

buying through tickets, doubling now and ways cry at marriages. I nearly did, and

then.
I could cry now when I think of seeing

Excitedly,
my Dolores standing so, star-eyed and
quivering-lipped.
Jane.
When she slips away in the dusk to-
P.S. After we have them safely on the night I shall put a period to my thought
train, I promise the C. E., we shall gravely of Maria de Guadalupe Rosalia Merced
consider our own case. Castello. I want to keep her in my heart

always as she is now.


The next night. Yet, ah, that spring should vanish with the
To-morrow night at this time it will be rose
accomplished, Sarah. I 've never been so That youth's sweet-scented manuscript
thrilled in all my life, not even when my should close!
play went over.
first little

But something even nearer and more I my pussy-willow


refuse to think of
wonderful than the romance of my pussj^- maid with eight weak-coffee-
in ten years,
willow is dominating me now. (No, not colored babies and a mustache. Adios,
that; not yet, at any rate.) It was this
Lupe mial Go with God !

evening, early, when she and I walked Everything is ready. The dear old
alone in the plaza before the crowd. They Budders, flushed with sentiment, will be
were playing "La Golondrina," Lupe, waiting at the train. I 'm not letting my-
deep in her own thoughts, a little dazed self think of ??ie until they are safely off.
at this sudden lifting from tragedy to I am pushing away that moment on the
bliss, did not speak. We passed the en- balcony.
trance of the Street of Sad Children, and
the mournful magic of the music brought Guadalajara,
me Dolores Tristeza, and the thought that two days later.
I should see her again and say good-by Sarah dearest:
day after to-morrow. I think I can write coherenth' now;

Then, Sarah, suddenly and serenely, I '11 try.

with no bothering ifs or doubts, I knew It all worked like a charm. They got
what I 'm going to do. I 'm going to away. I leaned from Lupe's balcony in
take her, to have her, to keep her always. the fragrant dusk and listened to the last
I 'm twenty-seven years old, I have a fine footfall. The C. E., shrouded to his eyes,
young income, fattening all the while I ; looked up and whispered that Emily's
defy them to prove I 'm not the fittest charro trousers had nearh' ruined everv-
738 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
thing at the ultimate moment ; he had decent for me to stick, too. I flung on
needed a shoe-horn and a special suppli- Lupe's coat and covered up my face and
cation to St. James to get them on. We fled after them. They did n't notice me
giggled like sixteen-year-olds. The C. E. till we reached the prison. The C. PI
said thundered at me to go back, and would
"Lattice, Lettice, let down your hair, have told them, but I hissed at him that
That I may climb by a golden stair!" I 'd never forgive him as long as we lived.
The man at the desk was half asleep. He
I was tremendously pleased with him scribbled something in a book, and pro-
for remembering his fairy-tales; I was so duced a key three feet long at least, and
pleased with him they unlocked a door, pushed us in, and
and so fond of him clanged it shut behind us.

and so happy that Sarah, we were in the main court, with


I could n't keep the newsboys and the murderers and the
my beautiful plan dark stains on the floor!
a minute longer. I A guard with gun came slouching to
a
told him about Do- us and showed us two cells opening off.
lores Tristeza We crouched on stools in the back of one
My dear! I wish of them, and the C. E. said between his
HE produci;d a key you could have teeth, "Keep \nur face covered, and keep
heard him! He stilir
was anotl ler person. It was the maddest, As I shivered there in the dark the full
wildest,most ridiculous thing he 'd ever madness of my escapade came home to me.
heard, on and on, conung back alwaxs A gringo girl in a Guanajuato prison
to the point that she was an illegiti- But every hour I stayed there saw Lupe
mate child. I told him that was per- and Emilio nearer safety. Gropingly, I
fectly mid-Victorian ; that everybody with remembered a quaint little \erse Michael
a vestige of brain knew that there are no told me, — a prov-
illegitimate children, onl\- illegitimate fa- erb, I think,—
thers and mothers. It never budged him. "The name of
He was a most uncivil engineer. "Be- the Lord is a
sides," I said, " 'beauty and wit is the love strong tower ; the
"
child's portion!' righteous runneth
It must have been funny, really, rag- into it, and is

ing at each other in whispers. He began safe." But was I

to babble about heredity, and him I told "a righteous"? I

I was planning an environment that would rather hoped I

bleach out the heredity of Lucrezia Borgia. was ; I remem-


He said it could n't be done, and I said he bered my insiir-

was a pagan, suckled in a creed outworn, rccto and my


and just then the train whistled, and at the bored old bear and my pilgrims. What
same instant old Cristina rushed out to were those plain and fancy blessings for.

tell us to flee at once, as Don Diego had if not to see me through in a pinch like
decided to have Emilio arrested. this? I "runneth-ed" into m\- tower and
But before we could spread a wing, the felt safe.

little guard of opera-bouffe soldiers were There was a nameless age of black si-

rounding the corner. I just whispered: lence, and then there was a crowded hour
"Stick! They 'd catch them at Silao!" of glorious life. When I heard the shots
when they were on him. He was a brick, I tried to remember the French aristocrats
really. He just hitched his serape higher and Sydney Carton, but the C. E. was
and pulled his sombrero lower and superb. Only, when the great door was
trudged off with them. It seemed only opened and soldiers swarmed in shouting
WILLIAIVI WINTER 739

for E/nilio Hernandez, naturally he did ground of his life, safely sheltered from
n't dash out to greet them. We both the ugly and the sordid, waiting for him
thought, of course, that his hour had to come home. That man does n't want a

struck, and you may fancy my horror and helpmate he wants a harem.
;

remorse. Well, they began a systematic They are unwinding several thousand
cell-to-cell canvass; when they flashed the miles of red tape, but at the end, like the
lanterns at us they shouted with joy. pot of gold and the rainbow, I shall find

They were not executioners, but rescuers Dolores Tristeza, and then there will be
they were revolutionists ; they had come one pair of mournful eyes the less in this

to save Emilio and his papa, the general. land of chuckles and sobs.
That gentleman arrived on the run, pant- Adios, poor, pretty, passionate, shrug-
ing, demanding his son. Alarums, excur- ging Mexico!
sions, explanations. I think the bitterest Go with God
blow of the whole hideous night for the Good-by, Sally 7nia!

C. E. was when Emilio's papa kissed him. Jane.


'm running down like a mechanical
I
p.s. The C. E.'s days before he knew
toy, Sally. I can hardly write another line.
me were just a string of wooden beads,
I was escorted to my hotel and thence to
and afterward they were a string of fire-
a train, which left for Guadalajara in the
crackers!
chill, gray dawn. The meek C. E. said
I could have the whole hospicio; but I p.s. II. Michael Daragh is going to be
said "Adios." and I think in his heart of tremendously pleased with me for wiping
hearts he was relieved. He would always the orphan's tear; but, oh, dear, he 's go-

have been a little annoyed with me. Poor, ing to make me see that there 's just as

dear, extremely civil engineer! His tastes much poetry and more punch in wiping
are simple and his wants are few: just a the orphan's nose!
limp, lovely lady somewhere in the back- J.

William Winter
I 836-191

By DAVID MORTON

HE Some would know where to seek them without fail.


shade would tell him if perchance there be
A tavern near dispensing English ale,
And there he 'd find them deep in talk, those three-
Shakspere and Marlowe and Sir Philip, shapes
Draining their mugs as some fresh yarn is spun,
Or teasing Kit, or drawing close their capes
In mimic scorn of William's latest pun.
And he would pause a moment with grave eyes
Beside the door, a keen and studious ghost,
Till suddenly the Avon bard would rise.
And lift his mug: "Good gentlemen, a toast

To this old friend and mentor of our band,"


And go to meet him, holding out his hand.
long as governments upon the
So light of a strong state to subjugate or
insist business principles to their business trans-
actions without throwing their military
to exploit against its interest a weaker force into the scale, it would not follow
state, there will be no international har- that military force could be entirely dis-
iTiony, and the world will be subjected pensed with : for, so long as there re-
to the ravages of
recurrent wars. The mained in the world even one formidable
attitude of the great powers upon this military power that persisted in using force
subject is therefore of the greatest moment, for its material advantage and refused to
for it will determine the fate of civiliza- means for adjusting con-
resort to pacific
tion ; and, in the end, this attitude will, flicts it would still be necessary
of interests,
in all but the most absolute governments, for the powers that were ready to dis-
be affected by the predominant opinions of pense with military decisions to arm them-
thoughtful men. ^
and
selves for defense against aggression,
It is, then, of interest to inquire. What perhaps combine their forces in the
to
is the present position of the great powers, interest of safety and of justice.
upon whose decisions the future peace of It would, however, mark the beginning

the world will chiefly depend, regarding of a new era if a number of great powers
the rights of the small states, and of those were sufficiently enlightened to perceive
colonial possessions which in the past have that economic imperialism is, in effect, an
often been cruelly exploited for the bene- anachronism, and that their real interests
fit of their overlords? In brief, are there would be better served by a combination
any powers that are willing to submit to a not for the balance of power, but for a

peaceful decision of their own rights in re- decided preponderance of power, that
lation to the weaker states, and \olun- would be able, on the one hand, to es-

tarily to subject themselves to principles tablish a system of legal relations and


of law and equity in their conduct gen- conciliatory policies, and, on the other, to
erally? Upon
answer to these ques-
the render militar\- exploitation an unprofit-
tions turns the whole problem of even able and even a dangerous adventure.
partial international organization and the
prospect of eliminating the military con- It would undoubtedl\ be both unwise and
trol of international affairs. E\en should luijust to limit in any way tlie extent of
it be found that a certain mmiber of international union were it not for the fact
powers were disposed to apply strictly that, until profound changes occur, a uni-

740
THE VISION OF A COMATONWEALTH 741

versal union would


seem impossible. just organization of international rela-
There is at present no unanimity among tions, it is of the highest importance to the
the nations regarding any authoritative cause of civilization that the principles
basis for a society of states. No proposal necessary to a true society of states should
has ever been made for the recognition of be clearly formulated and, as far as pos-
any such basis in any international confer- sible, accepted now, while the conflict is

ence. Because some powers have held that still going on ; and those who profess
the state is a law to itself, and that there is to champion them should not hesitate
no law which it is bound to obey, it has solemnly to pledge themselves to respect
been impossible even to suggest that there and obey them. We
should then know
is for sovereign states such a thing as out- with certainty what the purposes of the
lawry. If there is in the nature of things belligerents really are.
no super-state law, and if states cannot In a book on "The War of Democracy,"
create it v.ithout general consent, then of Viscount Bryce, whose writings and per-
course no state can be treated as an out- sonality are held in very high esteem in
law; for there is no standard by which the this country, employs in the subtitle the
legality of its conduct may be determined. expression "the struggle for a new
But it is still possible for a union of Europe." What, then, is this new
states to be formed which can determine Europe to be for which, asLord Bryce
by what law members will be governed,
its would have us believe, the Entente Allies
and it is possible for them to exclude from are struggling? Does it merely involve
it any state that does not accept this law. some changes in political geography?
It is likely that if the formation of civil Thoughtful men will not be satisfied with
societyhad been suspended until every that, for the mere shifting of frontiers,
brigand and every housebreaker in the however reasonable it may seem at the
community was ready to favor a law time, has no guarantee of permanence ex-
against robbery, civil society would never cept by means of armed force until a better
have come into existence. The only way, system of international relations is adopted.
it would appear, in which a real society of Or is it for a mere form of government
states can ever be created is for those that the Allies are contending? Who,
great powers which can find a sufficient then, has the authority to impose upon
community of interest to unite in the Europe a particular kind of polity, and
determination that they will themselves who can assure us that democracy, if

observe principles of justice and equity, made would always be wise and
general,
and that they will unite their forces in just and peaceable? No, it is something
defense of them. deeper than these outward changes that
It would be well if, at the conclusion of this experienced historian and statesman
the present European War, or, if possible, has in mind when he speaks of "the funda-
even before it is ended, certain basic prin- mental significance of the struggle for a
ciples could be laid down that would be new Europe." "The present war," he in-
accepted by at least some of the belliger- sists, "differs from all that have gone be-

ents as inherently just and equitable, and fore it, not only in its vast scale and in
solemnly subscribed to as binding upon the volume of misery it has brought upon
them. Upon no other basis would a per- the world, but also in the fact that it is

manent peace appear to be possible. Any a war of principles, and a war in which
other result would be a mere armistice the permanent interests, not merely of the
for, whatever it may have been in the be- belligerent powers but of all nations, are
ginning, the war is now declared to be involved as such interests were never in-
"a conflict of principles," a battle for law volved before."
and right on the one side, and for arbi- That the present war is on either side a
trary power on the other. purely altruistic championship of merely
If the conflict is really a struggle for a abstract principles is of course not pre-
"42 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
tended. On the side of the Entente Allies, undoubtedly a conflict of national and
as well as on that of the Central powers, racial interests, a struggle for the future
immediate national interests of great conse- control of the Balkan Peninsula and the
quence are involved. But this does not debris of the disintegrating Ottoman Em-
signify that, in its underlying principles pire. Was the prize to be possessed by the
and in its ultimate consequences, the Teuton or the Slav ? The assassination
struggle may not in some sense be an affair at Sarajevo and the part in it attributed
of all mankind. Our own country has to Serbia were only signals and excuses for
been already so vitally affected by it, and the beginning of a drama already carefully
is now so deeply involved in all of its re- staged and in which the parts were sup-
sults, that we cannot regard the fate of posed to be carefully assigned. It was to

these principles with indifference. What be a swift, short war, in which the prin-
is truly surprising to us in this country is cipal prize would be won by a com-
that two great empires, England and Rus- paratively small effort, and others inci-

sia, and the French republic, which has dentally acquired. But interests were
twice quelled the spirit of imperialism affected and forces were evoked that had
within itself and reasserted its love of not entered into the calculations of the ag-
freedom, are now solidly united in fight- gressors. It was the unexpected emer-
ing the battle of democracy. Suddenly, gence of these new
and the nature
forces,

through the mysterious working of some of the resistance met with in the course
intangible, but all-pervading and over- of the war, that entirely changed its char-
mastering, influence, we have witnessed acter, and converted it into a war of prin-
this unexpected alinement of nations, in ciples ; for the progress of the conflict dis-
which there is an almost general repudia- closed an antithesis of conceptions regard-
tion of the past, a reassertion of the larger ing matters of general hilman interest that
claims of humanity, and a spirit of sacri- had hitherto been unsuspected. The whole
fice that is an astonishment to all who be- system of law, treaties, and human obli-
hold it. There is yet to be fought a battle gations which had been counted upon as
more sublime than any ever jet waged in furnishing a sure foundation for civilized
the name of democracy, because it will be society was suddenly discovered to be with-
a battle for that which gives to democracy out solidity. In the general debacle the
its indestructible vitality — the essential hopes, the beliefs, even the friendships, with
dignity of the human person, and its in- which the present century had opened
herent right to freedom, to justice, and to auspiciouslv in matters international were
the quality of mercy at the hands of one's swept away. It is needless to dwell upon
fellow-men. This is no tribal adventure, barbarities on land and sea that a few
no thrust for territorial expansion, no years ago would have been utterly in-
quest for new markets and undeveloped credible. Our thoughts must take a deeper
resources, no aspiration for world su- direction. We must face the fact that we
premacy ; but a consolidated hiunan de- have not to deal with mere incidents, but
mand that in the future the world be so with the underlying causes of which they
regulated that innocent and non-combat- are the outward expression. If the postu-
ant peoples may live under the protection lates of imperialism are correct, there is

of law% may depend upon the sanctity of nothing abnormal in all this destruction,

treaties, may be secure in their independ- desecration,and slaughter at which the


ence and rights of self-government, and minds and consciences of many have re-
that the people of all nations may enjoy in volted for upon this assumption sovereign
;

safety the use of the great seas and oceans power is acting wholly within its rights,
which nature has provided as the high- and is even engaged in the solemn execu-
ways of peaceful commerce and fruitful tion of its sacred duty. There is there-
human intercourse. fore, upon this assumption, nothing left

In its beginning the European War was to us but to arm, mine, fortify, and in-
THE VISION OF A COMMONWEALTH 743
trench, repudiating internationalism, and Britain, and made it evident to all the
trusting solely to our physical instruments world, that British strength does not at
of defense. In truth, there are before the present consist in the exercise of an im-
nations only two alternatives: on the one perium, but in the recognition of the es-
hand, the reestablishment of international sentialfreedom and the equal rights of
existence upon a more solid foundation what the most authoritative British states-
than that afforded by military rivalry and men now call the "autonomous colonies";
the supremacy of national power, and, on and it is especially interesting to find a
the other, a return to the life of troglo- conservative, like Bonar Law, saying that
dytes. If the world is to escape perma- what was impossible before the war will
nent international anarchy, it will be be easy after it, and that the relation of
through the decision of governments to the dominions to the mother-country would
accept and loyally respect certain prin- never again be what it was before. It is,

ciples of justice and mutual obligation in in fact, a confederation of autonomous


the form of a constitution of civilization in self-governing republics, rather than an
which are recognized the reciprocal rights empire in the proper sense, that is coming
and duties of separate nations. It is with- into existence through this internal trans-
in the capacity of a few great powers to formation of the British Empire. Com-
adopt and maintain such principles and ; mon aims, common safety, common in-
they will do so whenever the masses of the terests, and common ideas — these are the
people, speaking in their sovereign right, foundations of this confraternity. It is

declare that their governments must ac- not the bugle-call of imperial command
cept andconform to them. If this is what that has brought troops from every quarter
Lord Bryce means when he speaks of the of the globe to participate with Great
"War of Democracy," then he is voicing Britain in the present struggle, but the
an appeal to all thoughtful persons in common conviction that democracy is in
every civilized nation; for the democratic danger and that free nations must stand
conception, based as on the rights of
it is together. An English historian, in the
man, is law for
the only true source of midst of the war, writes:
the rights of states also, and is alone
adapted to that general extension which This is a testing time for Democracy.
opens a vision of a commonwealth of man- The people of Great Britain and the Do-
kind in which all nations, regardless of minions, to whom all the world looks as

territorial boundaries, may rightfully claim trustees, together with France and America,
a place. of the great democratic tradition, are
Are there then any nations that are brought face to face, for the first time, with
prepared to be guided by this vision, to their full responsibility as British citizens.
forego the aspiration for world supremacy, Upon the way in which that responsibility
and to unite with one another in the crea- is realized and discharged depends the future
tion of such a general commonwealth ? of the democratic principle, not only in these
It an interesting fact not only that
is islands, but throughout the world.
the of Russia have overthrown
people
autocracy, but that, in the midst of a And' this is the conviction of the British
great crisis, another power which the Dominions themselves. To the astonish-
world has regarded as imperial should ment of the world, not one has faileil to
openly recognize the truth that it has, by respond. In an address at Montreal, Sir
the forces of its own national development, Clifford Sifton said:
ceased to be an empire in the old sense of
the word, and has become a confraternity Bound by no constitution, bound by no
of free and virtually self-governing com- law, equity, or obligation, Canada has de-
munities. cided as a nation to make war. We have
The present war has revealed to Great levied an army; we have sent the greatest
744 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
army to England that has ever crossed the levy armies to make war, you can attend
Atlantic, to take part in the battles of to your own and we will not be
business,
England. We have placed ourselves in op- referred to the head of the Empire; we
position to great World Powers. We are want you to answer our questions di-

now training and equipping an army greater rectly."


than the combined forces of Wellington and By the force of its own free develop-
Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo. ment, democracy must become interna-
tional. In no other way can it realize
Australia, New Zealand, South Africa. its own security. In no other way can it
and even India have responded volun- attain to its own ideals. "It is necessary,"
tarily in a similar manner but they did
; so, says a Canadian writer, "to declare with
not as imperial possessions, but as virtually utmost haste . . . that motives of na-
independent nations, sure of themselves, tional aggrandizement and national enmity
confident of their future, and inspired by must be subordinated to the desire for the
the vision of a union in which for all com- larger benefits growing out of peace and
ing time they are to be free and inde- international good-will." And never will
pendent participants. From the utter- theautonomous colonies enter a war in the
most parts of the earth they have gathered name of the empire in which they do not
"to honor their uncovenanted bond, obedi- have a voice. Said the high commissioner
ent to one uncalculating purpose and ; of the Australian Commonwealth, Mr.
the fields of their final achievement, where Andrew Fisher, on his arrival in London:
they lie in a fellowship too close and a
peace too deep to be broken, are the image If I had stayed in Scotland, I should have

and the epitome of the cause for which been able to heckle my member on questions
they fell." of imperial policy, and to vote for or against

But in all this fine consciousness of him on that ground. I went to Australia,

British unity there is not the slightest and I have been prime minister. But all

touch of really imperial influence. The the time I have had no say whatever about

Canadian and the Australian do not wish imperial policy — no say whatever. Now
to be rated as Englishmen, and would that can't go on. There must be some
sometimes even resent it. Common tradi- change.

tions there are; but they are not merely


traditions of race, of language, or of re- In April, 1916, at the conference of
ligion. They are primarily traditions of the Entente Allies held at Paris, the sense
liberty. It is not the state that holds them of a commonwealth took a wider range,
together ; it is the conviction that all that and this meeting, it has been held, assumed
makes the state worth saving is the pro- the form of "a legislative parliament of
tection it affords to freedom, the value it France, Russia, England, Italy, Belgium,
gives to the individual life. Serbia, Japan, and the se^lf-governing
But such an inspiration can never end British Dominions." The subject of in-
in a stolid and pertinacious tribalism. It terest was financial solidarity during the
feels a larger kinship and seeks a wider present war, and even after it. Some of
partnership. It gives unity to the nation, the exclusiveness marked that con- that
but it reaches out for international friend- ference may vanish, and w ill certainly be
ships and affinities. It seeks to establish diminished after the war is over; and it

the greater commonwealth of nations. It may well be that, "if the agreements
aspires to a place in a system. And the growing out of this event stand the test of

same Canadian who said that Canada was time, they will dispose effectively of the
ready to take part in the battles of Eng- contention that dissimilar nations cannot
land said at the same time, "I say to you act in harmony for their mutual advantage
that Canada must stand now as a nation. in matters international."
. . . The nations will sav, if you can Three of these nations, Britain. France,
THF VISION OF A COMMONWEALTH 745

and Russia, are henceforth to be bound to- _]0, reading: "The military measures
gether as at the beginning of the war it which have now come into force were de-
was never imagined they could ever be by cided five dajs ago for reasons of defense
a new sense of the value and the meaning and on account of Austria's preparations.
of democracy. They will be in relations I hope from all my heart that these won't

that will enable them to dispense to a large in any way interfere with your part as

degree with military action except for mediator, which I greatly value."
their common defense. With the support 2. A telegraphic instruction by Sir
of other nations for common purposes, Edward Grey, dated July 30, directing
there should be no room in the world for Sir Edward Goschen. the British ambas-
economic imperialism in its existing form. sador at Berlin, to sa\ to the imperial
Deplorable, indeed, would be a further German chancellor "most earnestly," that
and more powerfully organized example "the one way of maintaining the good
of it, which would be. in effect, an in- relations between England and Germany
definite prolongation of international strife. is that they should continue to work to-

But such a purpose is not in the interest gether to preserve the peace of Europe;
of these powers; and, when this comes to if we succeed in this object, the mutual
be duly considered in the treaties of peace, relations of Germany and England will.

it may happily be averted. I believe, be ipso facto improved and


The main problem of pacification will strengthened. . . . And I will say this:
be a method of insuring the future against If the peace of Europe can be preser\'ed,

new military adventures, and of providing and the present crisis safely passed, my
that armed force shall henceforth, in some own endeavor will be to promote some
manner, be placed under the restraint of arrangement to which Germany could be
law. How far purely economic measures a party, by which she could be assured that
may be devised to produce this result is un- no aggressive or hostile policy would be
certain. But the united aim of all civilized pursued against her or her allies by France,
peoples should be to see to it that there Russia, and ourselves."
should be possible in the future no re- 3. A telegram, dated July 31, from the

currence of the international conditions Russian minister of foreign afi'airs, read-


that existed on August i, 19 14. ing as follows: "If Austria will agree to
check the advance of her troops on Serbian
It is useful for us to recall what those territory; if, recognizing that the dispute
conditions were. Dismissing from our between Austria and Serbia has become a
minds for the moment all questions re- question of European interest, she will
garding the underlying causes of the war. allow the Great Powers to look into the
and without attempting to pass judgment matter and decide what satisfaction Serbia
upon any of the issues involved in .it, let could afford to the Austro-Hungarian
us fix our attention upon the military sit- Government without impairing her rights
uation as it existed on that fateful day as a sovereign State or her independence,
when the whole mechanism of European Russia will undertake to maintain her
security suddenly broke down. waiting attitude."
We may pass over the ultimatum to 4. A telegram of July 31 from Sir
Serbia, Austria's invasion of Serbian ter- Edward Grey, reading: "If Germany
ritory, and Russia's resolve to protect the could get any reasonable proposal put for-
small Slav state or procure a hearing for ward which made it clear that Germany
its case as a question of European interest and were striving to preserve
Austria
by which armed conflict might, perhaps, European peace and that Russia and
have been avoided. On August i the France would be unreasonable if the_\ re-
German emperor had in his hands the jected it, I would support it at St. Peters-
following documents burg and Paris, and go the length of say-
I. A telegram from the c/.ar. dated July ing that if Russia and France would not
746 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
accept it, His Majesty's Government back by telegraph j nd by telephone from
would have nothing more to do with the crossing the French frontier. William.
consequences."
5. A telegram from the minister of No one of these nations, it is alleged, de-
foreign affairs of Austria-Hungary to all sired a general war, but it came as a matter
Austro-Hungarian embassies and legations, of military necessity! "I hope France will
dated July 31, to be communicated to all not be nervous. The troops on my frontier
governments, reading: "Negotiations deal- are at this moment being held back by
ing with the situation are proceeding be- telegraph and telephone from crossing the
tween the cabinets at Vienna and St. French frontier." And, according to
Petersburg, and we
hope that they
still Berlin, mobilization had not even been
may lead to a general understanding." ordered until five o'clock of that same
In these circumstances, on August I, day I

the German emperor, having received no What a white light is poured by this
reply to his demand that Russian mobiliza- last telegram upon the mechanism of de-
tion against Austria should cease within struction that had been so laboriously
twelve hours, declared war on Russia, thus prepared ! Only one man in Europe who
automatically involving France, Russia's could stop the war, and he caught in the

ally, although knowing that France did fatal toils of his own machinery 1 For
not desire war. The sole reason given technical reasons — telegram too late, Ger-
for this action was that Russia had not at man troops held back on the French
that time ceased the mobilization of her frontier by telegraph and telephone, "I
army, there being no direct quarrel be- hope France will not be nervous." But
tween Russia and Germany. How unjust why this solicitude for the nerves of
the ultimatum sent on the previous day France? Was Germany nervous?
to Russia was, is shown by the telegram of I am making here no accusation. What
the German emperor to King George, on I wish to emphasize is that the machinery
August I, the day he declared war on for preserving peace had not been suffi-
Russia, when under the erroneous impres- ciently organized, while the machinery of
sion that Great Britain had proposed to war had become so efficient as to be virtu-
guarantee the neutrality of France, which ally uncontrollable. No one, we are as-
reads: sured, wanted war. All wanted peace.
Serbia' wanted justice. So also, it is said,
I have just received the communication did Austria. But Europe had not pro-
of your Government offering French neu- vided for justice to a small state.
trality under the guarantee of Great
Britain. To this offer there was added the The when Europe should
time has come
question whether, under these conditions, reassert moral unity and make an end
its

Germany would refrain from attacking of tribalism. All the machinery for in-
France. For technical reasons the mobiliza- ternational cooperation already exists, and
tion which 1 have already ordered this after- needs only to be adjusted to the purposes
noon on two fronts — east and west — must of peace. The railways and the steam-
proceed according to the arrangements ships that have facilitated the mobiliza-
made. A counter order cannot now be tion of troops and munitions of war, the
given, as your telegram unfortunately came telegraphic lines which have transmitted
too late, but if France offers me her neu- the orders setting great armies in motion,
tralitv,which must be guaranteed by the the vast factories that have been forging
English army and navy, I will naturally give instruments of destruction, are already
up the idea of an attack on France and em- convey the merchandise,
there, waiting to
ploy my troops elsewhere. 1 hope that communicate the messages, and produce
France will not be nervous. The troops on the commodities of peace. The one thing
my frontier are at this moment being kept lacking is the organization of international
THE VISION OF A COMMONWEALTH 747

justice. Let it once be agreed that each for which we are now fighting war
in this

people shall be secure in its freedom and and the establishment of a commonwealth
independence, and that nations may be as based upon them. Respect for treaties,

sure of justice as are individual men in a the rights of the small states, the rule of
well-organized state, and the transforma- law, the abandonment of conquests, the
tion would be already accomplished. right of a people to choose its affiliations,

Depending, as it does, upon good faith, the ultimate extinction of militarism as a


this regeneration is essentially an inner system, the submission of justiciable dif-
process in the minds and souls of men. It ferences to a competent tribunal, the re-
cannot be imposed from without. It can- sponsibility of states to the society of
not be forced upon one nation by another. states — these are the essential terms of a
It cannot be effected by fighting. It \v\\\ durable treaty of peace. If this can be
never come as the spontaneous act of gov- attained, there will indeed be a new Eu-
ernments. It must come from the over- rope.
whelming determination of the people of Should a nation wait to be \anquished
many nations to have it so. before accepting such a peace ? Is it not
The real testing time of democracy will the only peace in which an\ nation can
be the moment of victory ; for victory place its trust ? Against any other the
there must be, and yet a victory that is not vanquished would be in perpetual revolt.
a conquest. If the claims of democracy But in such a peace all men would at the
in this war are to be accepted, it is in- same time have the support of their own
tended to be a defense of the conquered sense of justice and secure the realization
against the conqueror, a protest against of their own highest ideals. It would be
the ordeal of battle as the decisive factor to all the peoples of Europe like a procla-

in determining the fate of nations. To mation of emancipation. With it would


invert the roles would be to abandon the come the joy of liberty, the sense of se-
cause. If there is to be a common wealtli curity, the flood-tide of human fellow-
of nations, the Central powers should not ship. For such mighty host of
a peace the

be excluded from it except by their own the dead on land and sea might well re-
will. The first article in a treaty of peace joice, if they could know, that they had

should be a statement of the principles bought it with their lives.

(The foregoing pap^r is the author's fourth article in the series on the reconstruction of Europe.)

-^A.)\ ^^t
DRYINi; SAII HI-; ROOSJirj:.l.T AT CAPn SlIliKIUAN

Ice Navigation
By ROBERT E. PEARY
The first of three papers, in which the admiral reveals
entertainingly the technic of polar exploration

ON ing
July 6,1 1908, a black, rakish-look-
steamer moved slowly up the
ship.
each
As
shore
she passed
vied
along,
with one
another in
whistles on

East River, New York, beside a puffing clamorous salutations, and passing craft,
tug. Seen broadside on, this craft was as from the little power-boat to the big sound
trim and rakish as a yacht ; seen end on, steamer, dipped flags and shrieked a greet-
the impression given was of the breadth ing.
of beam and solidity of a battle-ship. With make out on a
glasses one could
A sailor, glimpsing any feature of this pennant from the masthead
fluttering
vessel, — the slender, raking pole-masts; the RooseiH'lt. The Stars and Stripes at the
big, elliptical smoke-stack; the sharply in- stern were fluttering up and down inces-
clined stem ; the overhanging stern ; the santly, and the white jets of steam from
bows the barrel at the mast-
sheer of the ; her whistle were continuous in answer to
head,— would have noted its peculiarity, the salutes.
and looked the vessel over with great in- This was the arctic ice-fighter Roose-
terest; and yet she did not look a "freak" velt, assturdy and aggressive as her name-

The sake, built on American plans, by American


1 sixth of the month is a date of rather special in-
terest to tlie writer. To begin witli, it is his birthday. labor, of American material, and then on
Then the day on which the Roosevelt steamed north
it is
her way to secure the north pole as an
on the successful quest for the pole; the day on which
the pole was reached, and the day on which the wireless American trophy.
message of success was flashed over tlie world from the At Oyster Bay the ship was inspected
bleak Labrador station. Later it was the day on which
the writer was made grand of the Legion
and given God-speed by President Roose-
officicr of
Honor by the President of France, the day on which velt, then steamed out through Long
he began his efforts for air preparedness for this country,
Island Sound, to Sidney, Cape Breton, for
and the day (ninth anniversary of discovery of the pole)
on which this country, by the President's signature, form- her cargo of coal, then through the Gulf
ally entered the greatest of all wars. of St. Lawrence, up the Labrador coast,
748
ICE NAVIGATION 749
through Davis Strait, across Melville Ha\ must be no projection of keel or other part
and between the arctic Pillars of Her- to hold the ship or give the ice an oppor-
cules, Cape Alexander and Cape Isabella, tunity to get a grip. In the case of the
to the battle-ground and the fight for Jeanneitc. caught between two ice-fields,

which she was built — the conquest of the the ice on one side held her firmly, while
contracted channels filled with massive, the other, down and under her,
turning
moving ice which form the American gate- caught her and with resistless pres-
keel,

way to the polar ocean. sure forced it out of place, opening her
The design of the Roosevelt had been from end to end along the garboard-strake.
based upon twenty years of actual experi- The polar ship must be most heavily
ence afloat and ashore in the very region braced and trussed to enable her to keep
where she was to be used. I had reversed her shape under pressures that will lift
all previous practice in regard to polar her bodily, or when hove out on the ice as
ships,and had made this one a powerful if she were ashore on the rocks. She
steamer with auxiliary sail power instead should be sheathed along the water-line
of a sailing-ship with auxiliary steam- with the slippery, metallic-like greenheart
power. I had seen her keel fashioned and to reduce friction. For ramming, she must
laid, I had seen her ribs grow in place, I have a sharply raking stem, which will rise

had seen them clothed with planks, the on the ice at each blow. This not only
steel-cladstem and stern shape themselves, makes it possible for a loaded ship to de-
had seen every timber put into place and liver blows at full speed without danger
every bolt driven. I felt that I had be- of damaging her, but also gives her an ini-
neath m\' feet a magnificent tool and fight- tial impetus astern when she backs for
ing machine that would put me within another blow.
striking distance of the pole. When it is understood that this ram-
Many qualities are necessary in a first- ming may continue for hours (I have used
First, she must be
class polar-ice fighter. my ship in this way continuously for twen-
rounded model as to rise
of such generall) ty-four hours in crossing Melville Ba\ )

readily when squeezed, and thus escape striking a blow, backing, then going ahead
the death-crush of the ice. Then there full speed for another, the value of this

SHEAR POLl-S rOR llANDLINi. THH ROO--i£l JLRLU KLDDCR


750 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
little assistance with each blow will be turning a valve, steam from all the boilers
appreciated. The shape of the bow is also at full pressure could be turned into the
important in ramming. If too bluff, head- big fifty-two-low-pressure cylinder, more
way is deadened, and the force of the than doubling the power for a short time;
blows is lessened. If too sharp, the ship that is, for as long as the boilers could
may stick at each blow, and require more meet this excessive demand. The object of
time and power to back out each time. this was to give me a reserve of power
The run of the polar ship should be full with which to extricate the Roosevelt from
rather than fine, to keep the passing ice a particularly dangerous position. On at
away from the propeller as much as pos- least two occasions this device accom-
sible. plished all that was expected of it, and, by
The ship must be as short as practicable, resistless forging the ship ahead a length
and have a lively helm to enable her to or two against all odds, removed her from
twist and turn rapidly and sharply through the line of deadly pressure, and so saved
the narrow, tortuous lanes of water among her.
the ice-fields. The other was an enormously heavy and
In regard to engine power, my ideas strong propeller and shaft. The shaft
have been radically different from those was a twelve-inch-diameter steel forging,
of other navigators. I have believed in all a shaft of the size that would ordinar-
the power it was possible to get into the ily be put into a 2000-ton tramp steamer.
ship. The propeller was correspondingly heavy.
I know of few more comfortable feel- The object of this was to prevent the com-
ings for the commander of a ship beset in plete crippling of the ship by breaking of
the ice than the knowledge that he has shaft or propeller.
beneath his feet the power that with the This idea entailed unusual weight and
least slackening of the ice pressure will expense, but it served its purpose and was
enable him to force his ship ahead on her never regretted.
course. When in July, 1906, the Roosevelt was
Two specially distinctive features of smashed against the unyielding ice-foot at
the machinery of the Roosevelt were a Cape Union, tossed about like an egg-shell,
large "by-pass," by means of which, by and treated generally as if she were of no
account, a partic-
ularly vicious cor-
ner of an old floe

r struck her astern,


broke one propel-
ler-blade square
of^, tore off the
ponderous white-
oak skeg, or after
stern-post, and,
catching under
propeller and pro-
jecting end of
shaft, lifted the
whole after part
of the ship, as a
man wouKI lift a
wheelbarrow, un-
til her heel was
out of water, and
held her in this
ICE NAVIGATION
way for several hours until the tide
changed. Had propeller and shaft been of
usual proportions, neither would e\er ha\ e
made another revolution. As it was, ni\
12-inch shaft was not even thrown out of
line, and barring the broken propeller-
blade, the machinery suffered no damage.'
Virtually all the boats used in the his-
tory of ice navigation have been those sail-

ing-vessels built in Scotland, Norway, and


the United States for the whaling and
sealing industries.These whalers are all
short and blocky, heavily sparred, and
square-rigged. Steam was first used in
1829, when the Victory, used by John
Ross, was fitted out with auxiliary steam-
power for this work. This use of steam,
with paddle-wheels, than which nothing
could have been more impracticable for ice

navigation, proved a decided failure, and


the engine was finally torn out and thrown
overboard, and the \oyage continued un-
der sail.

Later Norwegian and American


whalers are still built on the model of the to make a ship seaworthy was sacrificed to

old-time sailing-vessels. The Scotch, liow- this one great advantage.


ever, thanks to the shrewdness of their The Gauss, the German Antarctic ship,
seamen and builders and over one hundreti is much like the Fraiii. though less pro-
years of experience in the whaling work, nounced in type, ha\ ing a broad beam of
have gradually evolved a more powerful thirty-six feet, but with a greater length
and efficient type of ship, and this type has to make her more seaworthy for the long

been used exclusively by the British even voyage to the antarctic regions. Her ex-

in their latest expeditions. cessive draft of nineteen feet, however, is a

With the advent of the Fraiii. the disadvantage in polar navigation, where
Gauss, and the Roosevelt, a new departure every increase in beam means a correspond-
was made in the construction of ice-ships. ing increase in the power required to work
The From was the first ship to be built for a way through loose ice ; and extreme draft
drifting purposes. Her beam was about makes it more difficult, if not impossible,
one third her length, and her hull was so to go closer to the shore to get around bar-
designed as to allow her to rise readih' riers or to avoid heavy advancing ice.

under ice She was very well


pressure. The British Discovery, built for ant-
adaptetl to meet this requirement; but ap- arctic exploration, was also of the sailing

pearance, speed, ability to push through type with merely auxiliary steam-power.
the ice, and virtually e\'erything that goes She was built with a little broader beam
and a draft slightly less than that of the
1 At the time ot" writing this (June, 1917) the Roosc-
•velt is lying in the harbor of Seattle, Washington, having
Scotch whalers. She differed from the
arrived there from Norfolk via the Panama Canal. She Fram and the Gauss in that she was not
is now awaiting the enlistment of a crew to proceed to
constructed under pres-
to
specially rise
Alaska as patrol-ship along that coast for the I'nited
States Bureau of Fisheries, to which she now belongs. I
sure, and the rake of her stern was some-
was on board the Rooseir/t for an hour late in May, and what greater than in previous ships.
as I stood again on the bridge, the succession of scenes
that passed before me was as rapid as the changing pic-
With the building of the Roosevelt came
tures of a movie. a complete re\ersal of former practice iii
752 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
ships for the arctic and antarctic regions. to the sides, bilges, and bottom, the vessel
She was the first arctic ship ever built that has triple side frames of solid white oak,
was first of all a powerful steamer. All her sides being from twenty-four to thirty
her predecessors had been sailing-vessels inches thick. In addition to this, she is

with steam as a secondary consideration. strutted and trussed from stem to stern
In the Roosevelt sail power was a mere with massive timbers; the bow is backed
auxiliary,and everything was given over by twelve feet of solid hardwood, thus in-
to making steam-power first and foremost, suring all possible strength where most
with strength sufficient to withstand the required.
ice. Four layers of planking and a sheathing
She combines the qualities of shape of tarred canvas rendered the ship water-
which, as in the Gauss and the Frnrn, in- tight and stiff as well as warm in cold
sure her lifting imder heavy ice pressures, weather. The motive power consisted of
with the raking stem and irresistible ram- a single, inverted, compound engine, driv-
ming qualities of the largest Scotch ing an eleven-foot, four-blade propeller.
whalers, which allow the vessel to be Two water-tube boilers and one Scotch
driven into the ice with all the force of boiler supplied steam. The engines were
her powerful engines — all that my own equipped with a simple device called a by-
personal experience of years and the pass, for turning live steam into the fiftj^-

skill of naval architects could suggest. two-inch low-pressure cylinder. With this
Thoughtful planning and earnest endeavor arrangement the power of the engines
made the Roosevelt the clean, typical could be more than doubled for a limited
American schooner model she is, without time in order to force the ship out of a
sacrificing shapeliness to strength. Un- tight place, and it has more than once
doubtedly she is the ablest ship ever built saved the Roosevelt from being crushed.
for arctic work. To protect her from the grinding of the
So much depends on the ship in serious passing ice and to enable her to slip more
work of navigation that it may be well to easily from the grip of the ice-pack, the
describe briefly the one which has proved bow, the stern, and the water-line were
herself the most powerful and successful armored with greenheart. The bow was
of ice-fighters. protected with a one-inch steel plating
She may be described as a three-masted extending from the keel to three feet above
schooner-rigged steamship. Her principal the water-line, and running aft ten feet.
dimensions are: length on load water-line, The hatch coamings were of stout white
i6i feet; length over all, 184 feet; beam, oak, and made almost as high as the top
over all, 35 feet 5 inches; mean draft, 16 of the bulwarks, to add to the effective
feet 2 inches ; full load displacement, about free-board of the ship.
1500 tons. These measurements were de- Many are under the impression that
termined in advance to be the approximate steel should be used in constructing arctic
size and proportion required to balance ships. This idea is erroneous, for though
and meet the various demands. The a ship so made would be strong in struc-
difference between her displacement and ture, she would be particularly vulnerable
her own dead weight were to go for cargo to the ragged sharp corners of heavy ice.
capacity. Wood, with its elasticity and toughness, is
She was built on a model similar to the prime essential in the construction of
modern steam whalers, but rather sharper, a ship of this kind.
the principal features being her long, Another device which added to the
tapering bow and a pronounced raking effectiveness of the Roosevelt is the ar-
stem and sloping bilges. With this pe- rangement for raising and lowering the
culiar bowl-like form she could easily and rudder. A large open well was provided,
readily rise under ice pressure. To with- reaching through the main-deck. This
stand very heavy pressure acting normally was large enough to permit the mas-
THn J^OOS/^r/TLr RESET IN WRAN'GEI. BAY

sive rudder to be drawn up and hoisted to vision, and an almost uncanny prevision
the deck. Instead of having to send a as to what the ice is going to do next. In
diver down
to unfasten the gudgeons, these order to disabuse the reader, let me say at
worked an upright groove arranged in
in once that I have absolutely no reference
the after end of the stern-post. Heavy to myself.
bolts attached the pintles to the rudder- While I perhaps might not feel inclined
post, and in hoisting the rudder, the to take off my hat to any one as regards
gudgeons came up with the rudder itself, the ice navigation of the various channels
leaving the raking, steel-clad stern-post as which form the so-called American route
smooth and clean as the stem, with noth- from Cape York to the polar ocean, with
ing for the ice to get a grip upon. Cape Sheridan or Joseph Henry on one
The problem of protecting the pro- side and Cape Brevoort or Bryant on the
peller-bladesand keeping ice away from other, that is a specific problem for which
them was solved by the full counter of the long experience has specially fitted me, and
Roosevelt. The blades of the propeller, I should make no claim to being an ice

though short, were large in sectional area, navigator in the general sense of the word
and particularly strong and massive. and in other seas.
Their extremities were so shaped as to Bartlett is the typeI have in mind, ac-

make it difficult for a cake of ice to get customed to the ice and to ships from his
between them, and the blades were so ar- early teens, with wide experience in differ-
ranged that either two or four of them ent portions of the globe, great endurance,
could be used. abundant nerve, good judgment, and with
the Intensive training and experience of
Given a suitable ship, the next necessity three voyages with me in what is probably
is a man to handle her, and an ice naviga- the worst ice navigation of the north polar
tor is born, not made'. He must possess regions.
nerve, judgment, quick decision, good Innumerable conversations during a

753
754 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
number of years with all kinds cf intelli- July or August, presents about the sim-
gent, well-read people have shown me plest form of ice-work. Two or three
conclusively that outside of the scientist, well-directed blows at full speed by a ship
the geographer, and those who have made like the Roosevelt will often start a crack
a study of polar exploration, the average across a field a mile or more wide through
person has no idea whatever of the real which the ship can slowly crowd her way.
character of polar ice. Or continuous ramming will result in

Perhaps the most general impression — progress, from half to a full ship's length
I shall not call it idea, because it is not being gained at a blow.
definite enough for that — is that the ice Ice of this character presentsno menace
of the polar ocean is a smooth, even, per- at any time to a ship like the Roosevelt, as
manent surface, and that the terrible cold it cannot crush her, and is simply irritating

of that region was the principal reason because of the slow progress it causes and
why it was not traversed long Others
ago. the persistent way in which it drags along
think that this ice is snow-covered, and the ship's side. At times like this the
still others are far enough advanced to monotony is often relieved by the cry of
think of it as rough, hummocky, or even "Nannook!" (bear) from the masthead,
ragged, but yet as fixed as land itself. and the resulting scurry over the ice in

Ideas as to the thickness of the ice are pursuit of the animal.


equally wrong, \arying from a few feet to North of Greenland and Grant Land,
a conception of the entire polar ocean as from their northern shores to the pole, the
solid. Most people take it for granted character of the ice of the polar ocean is

that the ice has been formed b)- the freez- entirely different.
ing of the ocean water. In my final journey to the pole less than
The character of ice varies in different one tenth of the ice traversed was ice

portions of the polar regions. North of formed by the freezing of the ocean sur-
Spitzbergen and Franz-Josef-Land and face, and more than nine tenths was fresh-

the long stretches of the Siberian coasts, water ice, great fields, some of them of
there may be even in midwinter miles of astonishing thickness, broken off from the
ice of a few inches or a foot or two in low, undulating glaciers of northern
thickness. This, however, the navigator Grant Land and Greenland, and the
of a ship rarely sees, as it has either been "glacial fringe" which skirts all those
broken up by the wind or melted by the Northern coasts.

sun before the season of navigation begins. The thickness of ice varied from half
In Melville Bay and the channels of the an inch to an inch on cracks and narrow
North American archipelago, like Lancas- lanes a few yards wide that had just
ter and Jones sounds and their western frozen over, to floes drawing one hundred
extensions, ice forms early in the autumn and twenty feet of water, and with hum-
and continues to increase in thickness mocks thirty feet above water-level.
through the winter until it reaches a thick- During the winter this mass of ice is foi
ness of six or eight feet or, in the fresher the most part quiet, except that at the
waters near the coast of Nortli America, spring-tides of every month cracks and
nine feet in thickness. narrow lanes form, and then freeze rap-
Some of this ice, with the advent of idly again. Violent wind-storms will

summer, slowly melts in places and disap- cause some disturbance in the ice, the
pears. Most of it, however, gradualh de- pressure against the hummocks and ragged
creases in thickness as spring progresses, pinnacles of the large fields causing them
becomes perforated with holes where the to crushany thin ice before them and
warmer and fresher water from the melt- throw up in ridges, thus leaving lanes
it

ing snow on its surface bores through, and or pools of open water behind, and causing
then moves off in great fields. a slow grinding, twisting motion of the

Ice of this character, encountered in pack, wliich, houe\er, stops, and tlie open
ICE NA\ TGATION 755

water freezes over, with the cessation of southwesterly wind and ebb-tide pushes a
the wind. fan of open water or loosely drifting ice-

In June, July, August, Septeniher, Oc- cakes out from the northern entrance to
tober, and November the mass of ice be- channel between Cape Sheridan and
til is

comes separated into its various parts, and Cape Brevoort, the ice is constantly mov-
while no water may be visible, the fields ing rapidly southward through this outlet.
and cakes of ice are simply in contact, not When strong northerly winds combine
frozen together. Then the spring-tides with spring-flood-tides, it rushes through
cause much greater motion, and a violent with a violence that is startling.
storm will set the whole mass driving be- Entering the widely flaring funnel be-
fore it, with the big floes wheeling and tween Cape Joseph Henry and Cape Stan-
smashing everything in their course until ton, then the narrower one between Cape
the storm ceases or the movement is Sheridan and Repulse Harbor, the ice is
stopped by contact with land. Wide lanes compressed between the iron cliffs of Cape
and large areas of open water form, and Beechey and Polaris Promontory (less
do not freeze over, and the whole ocean is than eleven miles), while the swift cur-
similar to a river in which the ice breaking rent of this deep gorge does not permit it

up in the spring is moving. to stop, and, despite a slight overflow into


This is the time when the ice pours into Newman Bay, it is sometimes forced a hun-
all the southward-leading channels; that dred feet up the cliffs by the resistless mo-
is, between Franz-Josef-Land and Spitz- mentum and pressure from behind. In
bergen, between Spitzbergen and Iceland, mid-channel the pressure forces the ice -to
between Iceland and Greenland, and down rafter, or ride, one field over the other, or
the American gateway between Greenland the edges of the floes crumble as they come
and Grant Land. together, and pile up the huge ice blocks in
In none of these places is ice navigation long ridges fifty or seventy-five feet high.
Many of the ice-cakes are forced far un-
der water. One who has seen a big drive
of logswhich filled a rapid river pile up
and plunge under and ride over when some
narrow rock gorge is reached can get a
crude idea.
Once through this gorge, Lady Frank-
lin Bay and Peterman Fiord give the ice

a chance to expand, and a ship may find


here in Hall Basin some open water. Then
the narrow again between Cape
walls
Defosse and Cape Bryant, and farther
south the passage is obstructed by Frank-
lin Island and Cape Constitution, till the

main channel is less than ten miles wide,


before opening out into the wide expanse
of Kane Basin, only to be constricted again
between Cape Sabine and Cairn Point to
a width of twenty-two miles.
When working north in these channels,
the only sure way much of the time is to
hug the shore, taking advantage of every
sheltering point and shallow bit of water,
a more serious proposition than in the last. crowding on all steam and forcing ahead
With the exception of brief and infrequent a few miles on the ebb-tide, then making
periods when the combination of a fresh fast with all the lines and holding on des-
pcrately during the flood-title, with the ice later, and we probably would not have
spimiing past only a few feet from the escaped.
ship's side. Occasionally courage and In 1906, when at last, late in Septem-
judgment gi\e a fifty or hundred mile run ber, the battered Roosevelt forced her way
in mid-channel, but at its end a firm shore- out uf the heavy ice some miles north of
hold is necessary to- prevent being set back Cairn Point, young ice se\eral inches thick
by the ever-southward set of the ice and extended all the way to Littleton Island.
losing all the hard-earned miles. This ice was just a little too thick for the
A kind of ice navigation that may be Roosevelt to steam through, and we rolled
encountered by polar ships returning from her, as we had rolled the Eagle years be-
a voyage late in the season is the tough, fore, and she walked steadily through it.

leathery, newly forming young ice. A A little later an easterly breeze sprang up,
fortunate experience and apprenticeship in and, with all sails set, these heeled the
the whaler Eagle, in a very late and un- Roosevelt to just the right angle to have
usual voyage in 886, gave me some know-
1 her lee bow ice under her in a
turn the
ledge of this, which proved invaluable in steady stream, and she walked along to
later years, and on the expedition of 1905- open water without a hitch.
06 kept me from being held in the Arctic At this season of the \ear a returning
a year longer with the crippled Roosevelt. ship should ne\er stop in a deep bay,
For nearly twenty-four hours on the Eagle should, if possible, not get caught o\er
voyage, her crew, rushing back and forth night in loose ice, and should alwa\s have
across her deck, timed by Captain Jack- full steam up.
man or me, rolled her from side to side, The key to all polar work is ice na\i-
while her engines, going at full speed, >,'ation. It has made possible the attain-
slowly drove her out of the clutch of the ment of the north and south poles and
young ice in CumbeiUuul Sound. A day the solution of man\' other m\steries of the
756
ICE NAVIGATION 757
surrounding regions which have baffled times. I recall distinctly how the JJ'uul-
scientists for hundreds of j^ears. It is ice ward, in August, i8g8, coming out of
navigation which puts an expedition where Etah Harbor, was obliged to force her
it can do its work, puts it within striking way through a stream of ice two or three
distance of itsand without this
objective, miles in width. The engine power of the
key the knowledge which the world now Windivard was distinctly weak, and we
has of polar conditions and geography were obliged to resort to this method to
would be comparatively little. get the ice out of her way, so that she
The history of ice navigation dates back might strike feeble blows at the firmer
to the latter part of the fifteenth century, cakes.

when for the first time the arctic circle I also remember distinctly the feelings

was penetrated by Sebastian Cabot. What with which I watched the Hope, a more
ice navigation was in the earliest days it powerful ship, less than a mile north of
is almost impossible to imagine, though us, moving steadily along through ice of
some of the old chronicles give here and the same character, finally emerging into
there a glimpse of it, and the narrative of the open water on the outside of the
Barents's voyage helps us to form an idea. stream, and disappearing from sight to the
It is no wonder that in the little craft of south before the Windivard was com-
those days the terrors of the ice to first pletely through.

adventurers loomed as terrible as the hor- The introduction of steam revolution-


rors of our childhood ghost-stories. ized arctic navigation, as it did all other
With growth of the whale fisheries
the kinds, though the first attempt to utilize
in Baffin and Hudson bays, the navigation it in the Victory was a rank failure. To
of the ice by the Scottish and American whalers with engines as well as sails,
fitted

sailors in the first whalers, square-rigged voyages, which before were a gamble, now
became a science, and the
sailing-ships, became a regular certainty, and fishing-
way in which those ships were worked grounds were sought that before were ab-
through tortuous leads under sail was al- solutely impossible.
most unhuman, if some of the stories are Without steam the conquest of the
believed. With a strong breeze, these south polar regions would have been im-
ships could even at times do a bit of ram- Weddell's surprising voy-
possible despite

ming, backing their sails to give them age in the early thirties.Without steam
sternway, and then squaring them forward the Northwest Passage and the Northeast
to go ahead. But when there was no wind, Passage might still be unnegotiated, and
then they were often laboriously "tracked" without steam the north pole would still
by their crews walking along the ice that ; be undiscovered.
is, towed along like canal-boats with a As late as the fifties and sixties the ships
tow-rope. other times a small anchor
At of Kane and Hayes were propelled by
would be carried out ahead as far as the sails alone. Hall in the seventies was the
longest hawser on board, made fast in a first American to have a steam vessel.

hole cut in the ice, and the ship slowly With the construction of the powerful
warped up to it by working the windlass. Roosevelt, built not only for avoiding ice

When the ice was in small pieces, the pressure, but for forcing her way through
crew would get out with long poles and it and, when necessary, smashing it with
push piece after piece behind the vessel, powerful blows, ice navigation became a
enabling her to move slowly ahead. Often, gladiatorial contest, a royal sport, with
however, hours and even days of laborious the Roosevelt's steel-clad bow as cestus
work would be set at naught by a shift of and her fifteen hundred tons of displace-
the wind or a movement of the ice setting ment to drive it home.
the ship back for miles. There is probably no place where ice
This use of poles to push the ice aside navigationis so hazardous as in the Smith
was the custom even up to very recent Sound, or American route, to the pole,
758 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
where the heaviest of ice. swift
currents, narrow channels, and
iron shores make the pressures
sudden, erratic, almost con-
tinuous, and of great intensity.
The negotiation of the three
hundred and fifty miles of vir-
tually solid ice of all conceiva-
ble shapes and sizes that lie
between Etah and Cape Sheri-
dan presents problems and
difficulties which will test the

experience and nerve of the


ablest navigator and the pow-
ers of the strongest vessel that
man can build. The value of mi
detailed experience in such
strenuous work cannot be too strongly turn reported the discovery of large num-
accentuated. In my earlier expeditions 1 bers of whales and walruses. As a result
have traveled the shores of these channels the arctic circle became the Mecca for the
anywhere from three to eight times, and next two centuries for hundreds of whal-
know every foot of the coast from Payer ing-ships and thousands of men from
Harbor in Ellesmere Land to Cape Joseph Northern countries.
Henry on the Grant Land shore, and the In 1773, almost one hundred and sev-
ice conditions to be encountered. It was enty-five years later, Hudson's record was
my minute familiarity with the tides of surpassed by the small margin of twenty-
these regions, the small bays or indenta- five miles by Phipps, and this new record

tionswhich would afford shelter to a ship, was not bettered until 1806, when
which grounding ice-
as well as the places Score.sby, an enterprising British whaler,
bergs would make impracticable and dan- ventured to deviate from the beaten track
gerous, together with the ice experience of the whalers and reached 81° 30' N.
and determination of Captain Bartlett, Lat.
that made it possible four times for the Several attempts were made by Parry to
Roosevelt successfully to navigate these find the Northwest Passage, and although
channels, a feat ^vhich was long regarded he was unsuccessful in this, the experience
as utterly impossible. gained in ice-work was most valuable and
The earliest voyages into arctic waters marked a new era in polar exploration.
were made almost solely in the interests of He Avas the first to suggest the idea of a
commerce— to discover, if possible, a short journey afoot from a land base to the
route to China and the East Indies. Keen north pole.
und costly was the rivalry among the va- After Parry came Ross, and later
rious European nations, and many daring Franklin; but was not until 1850-55
it

and hardy navigators were sent out by that the Northwest Passage was accom-
Great Britain, Holland, Russia, Germany, plished by McClure on foot. McClure
Norway, Sweden, and France. traversed the ice between his ship, the In-
In 1588, John Davis, following the vestigator-, which had entered the polar
coast of Greenland from Cape Farewell ocean via Bering Strait, and was crushed
to Sanderson Hope, a distance of eight by the ice in Barrow Strait, and Collin-
hundred miles, gained for Great Britain son's ship, the Enterprise, in Melville
the record of farthest north, 72° 12'. Sound, and returned to England via
Hudson in 1607 broke this record b\- Lancaster Sound and Davis Strait. The
reaching 80° 23' N. Lat., and on his re- actual na\igation of the Northwest Pass-
TCE NAVKIA'I^TON 759
age was effected by Roald Amundsen, wlio lost in the course of the search for the
in 1903-06 sailed from tlie Atlantic to the Franklin expedition. The Bremen ex-
Pacific in the Gjoa. ploring vessel 1 1 ansa was wrecked ( 1860-
Subsequently arctic navigators turned 70), and the crew forced to take to the
their attention to the attainment of the drift-ice and later to their boats. Hall's
north pole, and in 1853-55 for the first ship, the Polaris, in 1872 was caught in
time America took a part in ice navigation. and drifted with the ice, nearly destroyed
Kane discovered and explored the shores of in a violent gale off Northumberland
Kane Basin, and outlined a route to the Island, and later grounded. In 1874,
pole, which is now known as the American Payer and Weyprecht, leaders of the Aus-
route. trian expedition which discovered Franz-
Hayes, who had accompanied Kane, un- Josef-Land, were obliged to abandon their
dertook a later expedition, but did not ship, and with their crew, in four small
materially extend Kane's work. boats, struggled with the ice-pack for
In 1 87 1, Hall, another American, three months before they reached the open
forced his ship, the Polaris, to a new sea on their way to safety. In 1879
northing of 82° ll'. Four )'ears later the Jeannette, under the command of De
Nares in the Jlert attained 83° 20' N. Long, was caught in the ice, and two years
Lat. These two were the only ones
ships later was crushed and sunk, a number of
up to this time which
had successfully the party, including De Long himself,
negotiated the channels forming the Amer- losing their lives.
ican gateway to the pole. Some of these disasters have been the
All previous records for ice navigation result of inexperience, others have been
in the Arctic regions of the Western due to the disregard of the first principles
Hemisphere were broken by the Roose- of ice navigation, and still others are di-
velt, which reached Cape Sheridan in rectly attributable to the utter unfitness of
1905, and penetrated two rrjiles beyond it the ship for ice-work. Striking examples
in 1908. One ship only, the Frn?n. has of the were the Jeannette and
latter
been nearer the pole, but this higher lati- Polaris. These ships, because of their
tude was attained not under stress of her build, should never have gone into the ice.
own power, but by drifting in the grip of Wall-sided as they were, once caught be-
the ice. tween opposing fields of ice there was no
A glance at the history of north polar escape for them, as their shape made it
exploration will show that it is studded utterly impossible for them to rise and
with crushed and foundering ships. escape the deadly pressure.
Barents, in 1594-95, lost his ship and The difficulties of ice navigation in-

crew barely escaping. Follow-


his life, his crease with higher latitude. Any vessel
ing him came Bering, whose vessels were navigating in arctic waters may at any
wrecked, causing the loss of his life, and time be crushed so suddenly that nothing
much suffering on the part of his men be- below can be saved. At Etah I have al-
fore they reached safety on the coast of ways made preparations for such an emer-
Kamchatka. The Dorothea of Frank- gency, and had all the pemmican, tea,
lin's expedition in 18 18 was badly crushed coffee, biscuits, sugar, oil, ammunition,
in the ice; in the expedition of Parry and in fact, all the essentials necessary to sus-
Lyon in 1823-24 Lyon's vessel w^as nearly tain life and health,— placed on deck close
wrecked on two occasions, and Parry's to the rail, where it could easily be thrown
vessel, the Fury, was actually lost Cap- ; off to the ice. In addition to this, the
tain Ross, who started out in the Victory whale-boats, fully equipped for a w^ek or
in 1829, was obliged to abandon her. ten-days' voyage,were ready at a moment's
Franklin's two ships, the Erebus and Ter- notice to be lowered. Each boat, besides
ror, were lost. The Assistance, Pioneer. the required complement of oars, oar-locks,
Inlrepi/l, Resolute, Investigator were all boat-hooks, a liquid compass, and a bailer,
760 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
contained pemmican, conveniently packed in most seasons Kennedy and Robeson
in six-pound tins; biscuits, fifty pounds; channels could be more easily traversed on
coffee, ten pounds ; compressed tea, five the Greenland side than on the Grinnell
pounds; sugar, ten pounds; condensed Land side.
milk, ten cans; salt; oil, five gallons; a After a long, hard struggle we reached
small oil-stove; one and one hundred rifle the loose ice off Cape Calhoun, and headed
cartridges one shot-gun and fifty shells
; north for Crozier and Franklin islands.
one box of matches in a tightly corked Finding the channel which lies between
bottle one hatchet knives a can-opener
; ; ; ; Franklin Island and Cape Constitution
needles, and thread and medical supplies
; impracticable, we followed the main
consisting of quinine, astringent, bandages, channel close to Franklin Island.
cotton, gauze, boracic acid, dusting pow- As far as Joe Island it was fairly easy
der, needles, catgut, and liniment. And sailing as Arctic navigation goes. Making
every member of the party, including the Roosevelt fast to the ice-foot here, a
the Eskimos, had a small bundle of extra trip to the summit of the island showed
clothing packed, and stood ready to leave the Greenland side of Hall Basin as far
the ship immediately after throwing off the as Cape Lupton, and possibly up to Cape
supplies and lowering the boats. Sumner, free from ice, while the Grinnell
The heavy pack-ice which surges down Land coast was filled with heavy ice, mak-
Smith Sound past Littleton Island usually ing navigation out of the question. Just
makes it almost impossible to follow the beyond Cape Lupton, while breaking a
coast of Greenland northward, and on way through a small gap in the ice, a quick
leaving Etah it is necessary to cross to change in the current, which runs very
Cape Sabine, on the Ellesmere Land side. swiftly in this deep and narrow channel,
As a rule, the trip from Etah to Cape forced the ice-floes together about the
Sabine presents no particular difficulty to Roosevelt, smashing her up against and
a ship like the Roosevelt, and it may at along the ice-foot. In less time than it

times be made in continuous open water. takes to describe, it twisted the back of her
From Cape Sabine the most practical rudder, snapped her tiller-rods, almost put
course lies along the west shore, where at her steering-gear out of commission per-
ebb-tide a navigable lane of water is often manently, and necessitated a stop of se\-
to be found between the shore ice and the eral days at Newman Bay to make repairs.
moving pack. In 1905, after leaving Cape We
had hoped that a lead across Robe-
Sabine and working northward along the son Channel to the neighborhood of Cape
west shore past Bache Peninsula and Union would make the return to the west
Hayes Point, we were forced to seek shel- side of the channel comparatively easy, but
ter in Maury Bay to avoid the heavy ice in this we were disappointed.
advancing swiftly before a stif¥ northerly In 1908 the route of the Roosevelt from
wind. By keeping a close watch on the Cape Etah to Sabine and up the west coast
ice and availing ourselves of every oppor- of Kane Basin, past Victoria Head, was
tunity to advance, we followed the shore- virtually the same as in 1905. This year,
lineup past Scoresby Bay and Richardson however, we found Kennedy Channel al-
Bay. Two attempts to reach Cape Joseph most free from ice, and with no fog to
Goode failed, each time the Roosevelt delay, the Roosevelt steamed her way up
being driven back to Cape Wilkes by the the center of it, and broke all previous rec-
ice-pack. Rawlings Bay was packed with ords by navigating the channel's one hun-
ice, and conditions to the northward, on dred miles of length in one day.
the Grinnell Land side, altogether so un- Before reaching Robeson Channel we
favorable, that I determined to cross Ken- encountered ice and fog, and were once
nedy Channel and proceed northward on driven over to the east coast at Thank God
the Greenland side, previous experience in Harbor in an attempt to find an opening
this region having led me to belie\e that in tiie pack. With this exception the
ICE NAVIGATION 61
Grinnell Land and Grant Land coasts of remains to be done, and Bartlett and I

the channels were found practicable from ha\ e spent days and even weeks at a time
Cape Sabine to Cape Sheridan. in these regions without thinking of taking
On the return vo.vage from Cape Sheri- our clothes off to sleep.
dan to Etah in 1908 I determined to try The chief engineer, like his assistants,
out a new route in these narrow and ice- stood his eight- or twelve-hour watch, and
filled channels. Instead of hugging the was almost always to be found in the en-
shore, the Roosevelt, on reaching Cape gine-room when the Roosevelt was passing
Union, was deliberately driven out into through dangerous places; for any slip in
the pack-ice in order towork her way the machinery at a critical time would
down the center of Robeson and Kennedy have resulted in the loss of the ship.
channels. For a ship not specially built In all my experiences I recall nothing
for ice-work, such a course would be al- more exciting than the thrill, the crash,
most certain to result in disaster, but for the shock of hurling the Roosevelt, a fif-

one of the Roosevelt's type, and in the teen-hundred-ton battering-ram, at the ice

hands of experienced ice navigators, I con- to smash a way through, or the tension of
sider this by far the preferable return route. the moments when, caught in the resistless
It is also the quickest route, the trip from grip of two great ice-fields, I have stood
Cape Sheridan to Cape Sabine taking only on the bridge and seen the deck amidships
twentj-three days, or twenty-three da\s' slowly bulge upward, and the rigging
less time than by the old route in 1906. slacken with the compression of the sides
The navigation of polar waters demands or have listened to the crackling fusillade
incessant watchfulness and instant readi- of reports, like an infantry engagement,
ness even under apparently the most fa- from the hold, and felt the quivering of
vorable conditions. During the passage the whole ship like a mighty bowstring,
of Kennedy and Robeson channels Bartlett till she leaped upward free of the death-
was nearly always in the crow's-nest, and jaws, and the ice in snarling turmoil met
while I had almost unbounded faith in his beneath her keel and expended its fury
judgment, I spent much of the time in the upon itself.
rigging below the crow's-nest, watching Again I can see Bartlett up in the
the ice ahead, and in the worst places often crow's-nest, at the head of the swaying
relieving Bartlett of too great a load of mast, jumping up and down like a mad
responsibility by backing up his judgment man. swearing, shouting to the ship, ex-
with my own views. The periods of night horting it like a coach with his man in the
at such times might as well not have been, ring.
for it is possible to get only snatches of Ah, the \ibrating bigness of it! How
sleep in the short times when nothing else iine it would seem to be at it again
The Man with Eyes in his Back
By ERLE JOHNSTON

WT
'T

on you
7"HAT is to keep
ing a whispered conspiracy to
all at once? Why
them from form-

could n't they


jump
From a band of thick leather clamped
about one ankle the chains ran up through
the heavy belt buckled about each man's
make it up to scatter out, like a covey waist, and down to another band of
of flushed partridges? If they did, you leather fastened to the other ankle. They
could n't stop but two or three of them. effectually prevented running.
The others would get away." Stoning at last answered Rand's ques-
The two men were seated on a high tion :

roadbank, in the shade of a green-leaved "Superstition. They know I dream


water-oak. was so hot, even in the
It about 'em."
shade, that they were fanning themselves One convict, whose face was more in-
with their wide-brimmed straw hats. telligent-looking than the others, looked
Young Rand, who had asked the question, up suddenly and chuckled. He was di-
was fascinated by the spectacle in the road- rectly below the two white men. Ston-
way below them. ing scowled down at him.
Captain Stoning, in charge of the con- "Did you hear what I said, 'Rastus?"
vict road-gang, stroked his drooping blond he demanded.
mustache, arranged his long legs more "Yas, sah."
comfortably, fingered the cylinder of a big, "No, you did n't," the captain stated
ugly revolver at his side, and lazily smiled. flatly. "Did you?"
Sweltering under the rays of a July sun, "Naw, sah. Never beared a word,
about fifteen colored convicts were busily sah."
at work. Their spades, shovels, picks, and 'Rastus immediately and diligently ap-
road-scoops were gashing and gutting the plied himself to improving the public high-
earth. The rank odors of sweating horses, way.
mules, and men came up through the On the opposite side of the road, in a
breathless, heat-trembling air. There rose ditch he was deepening, a hard-featured,
the grind of cutting shovels, the thump of brown-skinned man was busily, silently at
driven picks, the rattle of straining traces, work. He was the only man in the ditch,
and the horrible clank of convict chains. which was deep enough to conceal him
The men wore as little clothing as the from the waist downward. As he worked,
law allowed Stoning did not make them
; the clank of a chain he wore could be
wear stripes. They were known to him heard. He was lifting red earth, a shovel-
by name, not by number. Nearly all ful at a time, up over the edge of the ditch,
were barefooted and bare-armed, and wore and tossing it into the road-bed. Now and
trousers as light as they could get, which then he glanced calculatingly at the trunk
were soiled with dirt and wet with of a small tree on the bank just above him.
perspiration. Only one or two wore shirts. It slanted in toward the road, and was
Most of them had on thin undershirts in- almost, but not quite, in reach of his
stead, which were open at the throat. As hands.
they moved about at their work, the half- Stoning had been watching him for an
dozen who wore chains seemed to strut. hour. Rand, still wondering over the
Stoning said they liked the distinction the captain's last statement, asked him:
chains gave them as being ''l)ad men." "What 's to keci) that liig fellow \(Mider
THE MAN WITH EYES IN HIS BACK 763
from jumping up woods when you
into the Rand shuddered.
are not looking and making a clean get- "You really don't have to shoot any of
away? You could n't chase him down and them often, do you?"
stay with the gang, too." "Only once."
"A dream I had last night," Stoning The inquisitive \oung man looked again
said in his languid drawl. at the slow-speeched, lazy-looking South-
Rand was a bit mystified, but disgusted. erner, and wondered if the man was a
"I 'm not superstitious. I don't believe brute. He was said to treat the convicts
in dreams." well. They slept comfortably at night
"Stick around. You '11 see." in "cages," iron-barred rooms not un-
little
"What has a dream got to do with that like box-cars mounted on wagon-wheels.
yellow convict making a get-away ?" All of them were well fed. Every day at
"I dreamed he would make a break to- knocking-off time he forced them to wash
day, and know in advance every move he up in some near-by creek.
will make. I 'm ready for him. 'Rastus!" Could Stoning have the heart to shoot
"Yas, sah." them down like dogs at any breach of
"Did you tell Buck Sledge I had been discipline or sign of rebellion? He con-
dreaming about him?" trolledand worked the entire gang entirely
"Sho did, jes like you tol' me to." without assistance. How did he do it?
"What did he say?" What was the secret of his power over
"Say he don't b'lieve in no dreams." them?
"Get to work!" he ordered loudlw The captain indicated a very black man
"What are you standing there looking at whose forearm had a bandage around the
me for?" Then as 'Rastus seized his fleshy part.
spade-handle and drove the edge into the "Had to shoot him a little. From now
earth, the captain asked softl\', "Did I on he '11 be a perfect gentleman. He got
say anything to you, 'Rastus?" away— fifteen feet. I had dreamed about
Still working, without looking up, the him and was ready."
convkt said hastily: A black mule, drawing a burly convict
"Yas, sah!" who stood on the bottom of an overturned
"No, I did n't," the captain said, with road-scoop, suddenly lay back rebellious
"Did I?"
low-voiced positiveness. ears and viciously kicked. The negro had
"Naw, sah. Naw, sah," whimpered the seen the mule's ears flatten and, grinning,
perspiring negro, "Did n't say a word, sprang nimbl\- out of hoof-reach.
sah." Stoning said
Stoning looked across at the tall ditch- "Ever notice how much kin mules are
digger; then he looked up between the to niggers? Did you notice the expression
leaves at the dazzling, heat-shot sky. on that black's mule's face? Pretty vicious.
'm any judge o' weather," he ob-
"If I Eook at Buck Sledge. See the resemblance
served to Rand, "Buck Sledge '11 believe between his squint-eyed phiz and the way
in dreams at exactly twelve o'clock — that mule looked just before kickin' at
noon." Sam?"
"I suppose you don't put any faith at Buck was looking out of his ditch
all in your little Gatling-gun," Rand across a shovelful of moist clay. His
stated, irritated by the heat and at the sweat-dripping forehead was corrugated
way Captain Stoning had answered his with ridges ; his coarse, black brows met
questions. across the root of his wide-nostriled nose
Stoning fingered the formidable weapon his yellow face was hard and set his thick ;

caressingly. lips were compressed. Ever>- line of every


"She 's a handy little watch-dog. Al- feature showed rebellion, hatred, surliness,
ways bites what she barks at when I pull cunning.
her tail." There was no con\ersation among the
764 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
which was strange, as Rand knew
convicts, Rand swallowed hard, and his eyes be-
that Stoning permitted them to talk as gan to feel strained.
they pleased so long as they spoke loudly "You mean — he is

enough for him to hear what they said. "He can't run with that chain on him.
Usually they joked one another and sang He 's got to get it off first. Every time
as they This morning some
worked. he draws the shovel back into the ditch,
strange influence had stricken them dumb. where we can't see it, he makes a slash at
They were not even making those grunt- the leather thongs around his ankles. Up
ing noises peculiar to laboring negroes. until an hour ago he was cutting the band
Rand thought at first that the intense around his right ankle. I could tell by
heat had made them silent; but it was no the direction the handle of the shovel
hotter to-day than yesterday, when he had slanted. Now he 's slashing loose the left
heard them laugh and sing and call each ankle-bracelet."
other unprintable names. "Why don't you stop him?" Rand was
Stoning was watching Buck and twirl- growing horrified. "Are you going to let
ing the big cylinder of his revolver. Along the man start just for the pleasure of
Rand's spine crept the sensation that he shooting him in the back?"
once had when from a helpless distance he '11 be for the good o' the community
"It
witnessed a flying express-train mangle a him work off his steam. If I stopped
to let
tramp w.ho slept on a curve of the railroad. him right now, he would be watching and
The engineer had not seen him in time. waiting for another chance to break."
"Buck was working in that
n't The captain unconcernedly lighted a
ditch yesterday," drawled Stoning. "He mild cigarette. He tossed away the match,
swapped his scraper to Sam for Sam's exhaled a cloud of smoke, then looked
shovel and went to work in that ditch slowly, carefully, over the irregular group
without any orders from me. Usually a of perspiring, silent laborers. The glare
nigger had rather run a scraper drawn from overhead was intense; heat-waves
by a horse than use a pick or shovel. He trembled between them.
figured I would sit over here in the shade "It ain't natural for niggers to work
as usual since we 've been working on this quietly."
section of road. Young Rand felt the atmosphere subtly
"He knew that ditch would have to be thicken.
cut pretty deep on account of the curve in In the roadway below the convicts stole
the hill. A shallow ditch there would sidelong glances at one another. The
make the water cut the road across the white men could see the rolling whites of
middle after heavy rains. He also took their eyes. Now and then a fellow-con-
note of that young sweet-gum-tree slant- vict stealthily at Buck Sledge,
glanced
ing over the ditch, and he knows the woods whose slow shovel continued its eccentric
come right up to the edge of the bank over behavior.
there. "It 's mighty plain to me that Buck 's

"See how he is holding that shovel? been boasting what he was going to do
He 's dipping up dirt slower than any to-day. They are scared he '11 get shot."
other man. Every time he draws the "You have figured all this out since
shovel back down into the ditch, the you 've been sitting here," Rand decided.
handle turns straight up. See that? And "That dream-business is all — "

notice that little slashy, jerky motion to it Stoning blew a smoke-ring into the
before he scoops up another shovelful. See green oak-leaves.
it? Watch the other men a minute. The "If it had n't been for my dream, I

handles of their shovels never turn up would n't be noticing anything out o' the
to vertical, and the motion is the same over way."
and over. Get the difference? Can't you Rand thought 'Rastus, overhearing, had
figure out what Friend Buck is doing?" chuckled again. Stoning must have lieard
THE MAN WITH EVES IN HIS HACK 765
the sound. He scowled downward continued. "We were about ten miles
blackly. from here. There was n't a house or
"Niggers are like children: they 've got another white man anywhere close by us.
imaginations that make 'em talk to them- Guess it looked pretty easy to 'em. I al-
selves and laugh and have a devil of a ways fool around the cage and look 'em
good time. 'Rastus is always figuring out over before I unlock the door. I can al-
some good joke and chuckling about it." ways when they are sulky or playing
tell

'Rastus straightened up, and looked possum. They are just like children in a
across the road at Buck. The ears of both lot o' ways. That morning when I went
convicts worked slightly at the sides of to the cage they were talking and singing,
their heads. It might have been some ex- making amount of noise. Their
the usual
change of signals. Then 'Rastus stooped play-acting was pretty good it might have ;

over and began lazily shaping down a fooled me. 'Rastus was close to the bars,
scoop-load of dirt just dumped by a looking out at me, his mouth working, and
scraper. His thick lips were moving his eyes mighty cunning. I just watched
silently. 'Rastus a minute, looked at the bunch, and
Stoning watched 'Rastus intently, and remarked: 'Good morning, boys! Last
calmly puffed at his cigarette. night I dreamed you rascals had made
Rand was extrejnely uncomfortable. it up to stomp my guts out when I un-
"
He could scarcely sit still. locked this shebang to-day. Is that so?'
"I dream true," said Stoning. "Buck The captain paused, critically examined
will have his other ankle-strap cut loose in the accumulated ash of his cigarette,
about ten minutes. He will swing him- flicked it off, then drawlingly finished his
self up on the little sweet-gum-trunk and narration of the little episode.
dodge into the woods." "You ought to a-seen them falling over
"Good Lord!" Rand blurted. "If you each other ; every blessed son of a gun tried
are so positive, why don't you
— to deny it first. I let 'em out one by one,

"Don't talk so loud." Stoning was in- and kept them lined up in front of me.
tently gazing at two men whose heads And they won't make up any such fool
were held close together for a moment. "I scheme again."
dream true, and I can tell what the A heavy, oppressive hand was invisibly
black rascals are saying without hearing weighing upon the spirits of the sweating,
'em say it. See those two whispering to odorous convicts. Their minds seemingly
each other in the middle of the road ? parah'zed under the apprehensi\e dread,
That little black fellow has just asked Sam some of them did idiotic things. One
who you are. Wait ; I '11 show you. dumped a spadeful of dirt, then hastily
"Sam," he called out, "tell Joe this is Mr. scooped up the dirt and put it back in its

Rand from Memphis. He is visiting his original place. One dropped his sho\el and
home-folks. They live in that farm- picked up an ax. He nearly cut his bare

house at the Forks." foot trying to press the ax into the earth as
The two convicts fell apart as if they he had been pressing the shovel. Another
had been shot at. Their mouths fell open, stooped down and up a load
tried to scoop

and their eye-balls bulged. They fell to of dirt in a scoop that was turned bottom

work feverishly, dumb with amazement, upward. Their eyes were shifting from
ashen with fear. fearful glances at the captain to wonder-
The captain smiled and smoked com- ing looks at Buck Sledge.
placently. Rand's astonishment was al- The drivers of horses and mules draw-
most as great as that of the superstitious ing road-scrapers or scoops were in eager,
negroes. 'Rastus chuckled distinctly. nervous haste to pass across the line from
"Last week these boys made it up in Captain Stoning to the convict in the

their cage one night to jump on me when ditch. At each trip and turn they
I opened the door next morning," Stoning whipped the liorses" sides with the lines.
7^6 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Buck now rested his shovel-handle in Rand's lips and tongue were stricken
the crook of his left arm ; both his hands with paralysis. He was stupefied. He
were out of sight below the line of road- was watching Buck's every move. The
edge. His snaky eyes were gleaming. tall, lithe captain must indeed have eyes

Still he did not jump. Captain Stoning behind him.


rose and stretched. "There he goes up again," Stoning
"He seems bashful. Guess I '11 have to murmured softly. "He caught it that
turn my back on him to get the thing over time. Now he is trying to swing his legs
with. I can watch him just as well with up."
my back turned." He added, "I 'd like With swift, panther-like precision of
for him to learn about the eyes I wear in movement and absolute accuracy of aim
the back of my head." Stoning turned about, picked up his gun,
'Rastus backed away from his original and fired.
position and stood in the middle of the The bark of the sweet-gum burst at
road, facing toward the road-gang. He Buck's hands; blood trickled from his
looked straight at Buck. fingers. He fell limply back into the
After turning his back toward the gang. ditch, where he lay until found, inert,

Stoning could see only 'Rastus, whose thick helpless, trembling with horror and fright.
lips were moving again. Stoning sat down. He lighted another
A thrill ofthrough Rand.
fear shot cigarette as he said
He leaped to his feet, breathing almost "Sam, you and Joe go pick him up.
suspended, eyes widening with horror. Tell him he mademy dream come true.
Words of remonstrance seethed in his He ain't hurt. I just skinned a couple of
brain, but his stammering lips could not his fingers."
utter tli€m. Stoning's quiet voice said The captain dipped his hand into his
"Now Buck has decided to seek the tall right trousers-pocket; it came out closed,
timber. He is unbuckling his belt. Ah! and he fingered for a moment with the
hear the chain fall into the ditch behind band around his hat. He held the hat
him?" awkwardly. It slipped from his fingers

To Rand the abrupt, muffled clank was and rolled down into the dirty roadway
sickening. Every man except Buck was below.
still. The lips of 'Rastus alone of his " 'Rastus, pick up my hat!" he ordered.
motionless body seemed alive. Stoning "Knock the dirt off before you hand it

did not turn. His heavy pistol lay on the back." He added sententiously, "Another
ground at his feet. He said : dream came true."
"What is he waiting for? Now he is "Yas, sah, yas, sah."
watching me. His ears are working at The intelligent face of 'Rastus wore a
'Rastus, and 'Rastus is answering the sign. pleased smile as he sprang nimbly to pick
Now Buck is looking up at the sweet-gum. up the hat. He chuckled again. Rand
He is getting ready for a leap. Ah he ! saw the negro deftly extract a silver dollar
did n't jump quite high enough!" from the hat-band.
OUAINT PROVINCETOWN
Nine rirawino-s

Made for The Centurt


BJ Lester Ci. Hornby

I. CATCH
FISHING-BOATS IN WITH THE
II. COLONY RESTAURANT
CHESCO'S, THE ARTISTS'
III. PILGRIM MONUMENT. A LANDMARK
IV. OLD WHARF, FROM BOAT-YARD
V. AN OLD WHARF
VI. THE HARBOR SEEN OVER THE ROOFS
VII. HOME OF THE LONE FISHERMAN
VIII. HOME OF THE "PROVINCETOWN PLAYERS"
IX. COMMERCIAL STREET, PROVINCETOWN
riT.r,Ri.\r mom-mi-xt. a landmark
^n\

AN oil) WHARF
rir

HOME OF TIIK LONE FIStlKR.MAN


HOME OF THE " PROVINCE TOWN PI AVERS
IMMERCIAI. STRFET, PROVINCETOWN
The Third Year of the War
A summing-up and a suggestion

Bv J. B. W. GARDINER

THE the
beginning of the third year of
war disclosed Germany in the
of that year, and immediately began the
work of formulating a general plan by
process of undergoing an entirely new ex- which the operations in every field might
perience — the experience of being attacked be conducted with maximum effect. So
simultaneously on all sides, so that she radical a change in the scheme of things
could not concentrate against any single took time to work out, and delayed some-
one of her foes. what activities that had previously been
scheduled. It was not, therefore, until
THE FRENCH FRONT early summer that the plans laid in March
From the beginning of the conflict Ger- gave evidence of fructification. These
marty has had one great advantage — the plans involved one central idea — con-
advantage of position. Operating from tinuous pressure at as many points as pos-
the center of a circle against the circum- sibleon the circle by which the Central
ference, with relatively short lines of com- powers were circumscribed.
munication, Germany has been enabled, Russia began operations on June I, with
whether on attack or defense, to throw to an overwhelming attack against the Aus-
any given point the maximum number of trian line in Volhynia and Galicia. This
troops in a minimum time. There is only was followed by an Italian offensive in

one way to neutralize such an advantage, Trentino against a line weakened by with-
and that is by exerting pressure simul- drawals made to bolster up the Russian
taneously at many widely separated points front; and finally, on July i, bj the open-
on the circle, and so prevent any point ing guns of the Battle of the Somme.
from receiving strength at the expense of August I, 1 9 16, the beginning of the third
any other. But this implies unity of con- year of the war, saw, therefore, the Cen-
trol, a single directing force which would tral powers contending for the first time
guide every move. This the Allies did not against the full strength of the Entente on
have. On the contrary, each of the Allied every important front — saw their lines in
powers was conducting the war almost in- Russia, in France, and in Italy under such
dependently, attacking when and where it extreme pressure that any transfer of
saw fit, without any comprehensive, co- troops from one front to reinforce another
operative plan. The result was that Ger- could be made onl\' in the face of possible

many was permitted to fight each of the disaster. The Allies had at last adopted
Allies separately, without ever feeling the the only \\a\' by which Germany's initial

full force of their concerted action. But advantage could be neutralized.


fortunately for themselves, for the United
States, and for democracy itself, the Allies
THE RATTLE OF THE SOMME
perceived this error before Germany could The Battle of the Somme was the great
obtain a decision. effort of the western Allies of the third
In February, 191 6, there was formed year of the war. It was really not a single
an Allied general staff composed of repre- battle, but a series of major efforts, one
sentatives of ail of the Allied powers. following the other in quick succession,
This body had its first meeting in A larch and each one directed against a particular

77G
THF THIRD YEAR OF THF WAR 777

objective. It was from


entirely different through farther south along the Somme.
any other offensive campaign of the war. Line after line of German intrenchments
There was no dominant point or area of was passed until the Germans were forced
military or political importance to the cap- to dig overnight their defenses for the
ture of which the effort was directed. next day. A deep wedge was pushed in

Nor was the object to break throu<ih the between Peronne and Bapaume, and it
German lines. The possibility- of such an seemed that both cities must be evacuated.
accomplishment had been dispelled a year But an unusually early autumn, accom-
before in the battles of the Artois and in panied by heavy rains, made it impossible
Champagne. It was rather an incident in for either artillery or infantry to move,
the campaign of attrition, of wearing down and the attack had to be suspended. In
the German strength and of thinning our this fighting the Germans lost over sev-
the German ranks until the time came enty thousand prisoners and suft'ered a

when there would not be sufficient strength total loss of not less than half a million
left to prevent a decisive action. men. Their positions were penetrated to

There was. however, a strategic objec- a depth of approximately ten miles, and
tive as well, though it was subordinate to the entire Noyons salient was thrown into

the idea of depletion of man power. This danger.


latter object can be seen by a brief survey While the fighting on the Somme was
of the battle-linebetween Arras and Noy- in progress, the French made two attacks
ons. Coming south from Arras, the line in force at Verdun. As if to demonstrate
traced a deep curve with a western convex- how well their plan was being carried out.
ity, then straightened out toward the they caught the German lines weakened,
south, turning westward on the arc of a and in the first attack recaptured forts

great circle from the vicinity of Noyons. Douaumont and Vaux, restoring most of
The fighting was directed against both of the important positions that had been taken
these curves. The plan was to press into from them earlier in the summer. An-
this line at the point where the first curve other attack toward the close of the year
turned south,' straddling the Somme River was still more successful, and resulted in

in the advance, while at the same time the recovery of almost ground on
all of the
moving along the radius of the curve from the east bank of the Meuse which had
Albert to Bapaume ; to seize Peronne, been lost in the six-months' battle. These
Bapaume, and Chaulnes, and so threaten operations closed the fighting, and all the
the great supply lines running through La belligerents in this field settled down in

Fere, St. Quentin. and Douai. In brief, their trenches for the winter.

the Idea was one of continuous nibbling The real fruits of the Battle of the
into the German positions imtil some great Somme were not garnered until the spring.
connecting link was reached, the cutting of The German high command had seen that
which would force a large section of the his line was not suflicienth strong to re-

German line to recoil as the only measure sist the pounding of the Allies' artillery,
of safety. and he was faced with the dilemma of
By an unprecedented use of artillery the either withdrawing his forces to a new line

French and British pressed on, each attack voluntarily or of having them driven back.
biting deeper into the German lines than In the latter case the retreat would have to

did its predecessor. The Germans were be made under constant pressure.

absolutely unable to hold back the ad- The former method was adopted, and
vance. One village after another, each about the middle of March
movement the

one a veritable nest of machine-guns, was was under way. The northern pi\otal
leveled by the artillery, and then taken by point was just south of Arras, and the en-
the infantry. Step by step the British tire line from Arras to Soissons was af-

crept up the valley of the Ancre Brook, fected. The object was not alone to escape

while the French hammered their wav the danger which the Allied successes in
778 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
the Battle of the Somnie had thrown salient, which had existed as a constant
around the line to the south. It was also threat against their line in the north ever
to delay the offensive that (lermany knew since the first attempt at Calais. This
was coming as soon as weather permitted. salient was guarded on the south by a
The first object was successfully achieved ridge between Wytschaete and Messines,
in a most masterly retreat. The second the only elevations in an otherwise per-
was frustrated entirely because the British fectly flat country. The entire ridge had
had never intended to attack on the been extensively mined, and at a given
Somme again, had prepared their
but signal the mines were exploded, and the
major an entirely different
effort against British artillery opened fire on the Ger-
section of the line— the section between man positions. After a brief artillery
Arras and Lens, the key to which is a preparation, went forward,
the infantry
ridge running almost parallel with the and in a day's fighting the entire ridge was
German front passing near the village of in British hands and the Ypres salient

Vimy, from which it takes its name. ceased to exist.


The Germans had just settled down The close of the year, then, finds the
after their retreat on a line running Germans in possession of a line constructed
through Croisselles, St. Quentin, La Fere, on carefully picked sites. The British and
and the Forest of St. Gobain, and over the French have reached this line, but are ap-
Chemin des Dames, when the British blow parently unable to effect a breach in it.

was launched. It took the Germans en- Except for minor gains here and there, the
tirely by surprise, and swept them back attack has been brought to a complete
over the crest of Vimy Ridge into the standstill. There is nothing to indicate
level country beyond. Almost at the same that the line can be seriously damaged un-
time the French began an offensive along til the Russian situation clears, and the
the Aisne with the object of crushing the forces of the new republic are again active
(jerman right flank at Laon. The Chemin in the field.
des Dames position was taken, and the
RUSSIAN FRONX
Germans were driven back into the valley
of the Aillette River. Here, however, the The beginning of the year found Russia
French were held. The British suffered in the last phase of the most tremendous
the same general experience. After the offensive movement the eastern European
Battle of Vimy Ridge they pushed forward theater had seen since the days of the great
against the new German positions, but the Russian retreat. Russia had swept through
way was slow and tortuous. The German Volhynia and Galicia, occupying com-
lines had been during the winter on
built pletely the Austrian crown land of Buko-
sites of Germany's choosing. Moreover, wina, pushed her lines up to the Lipa
the revolution in Russia had permitted the River in Galicia and the Stochod in Vol-
withdrawal of many divisions from the hynia, and was making most exhaustive
Russian front for use on the western front. efforts to reach the railroadbetween Lem-
The British advance, therefore, was liter- berg and Kovel. Half a million prisoners
ally made foot by foot and at severe loss. had been captured, and the Austrian lines
Finally, after weeks of such fighting, a had been penetrated to a depth of over
loop was thrown around the great coal fifty kilometers. But German reinforce-
center of Lens, which, as this review is ments had stopped all the gaps which the
being written, is almost completely sur- Russian artillery had torn in the line, and
rounded. Its fall is almost certain when the resistance stiffened at every threatened
the next attack is delivered against it. point. The fighting continued for many
While preparing blow against
for the days after the year began, but the results
the Arras sector, the British at the same were negative. Russia had used up the
time were making ready the machinery for greater part of her reserve store of artil-
the destruction of the famous Ypres lery, and had no means of obtaining more.
THE THIRD ^'r:AR OF THE WAR 779
The Russian army was almost exhausted armies, one in Trans\lvania under Falken-
by its great efforts, so that the attacks be- ha\n and the other near the Dobrudja
gan to dwindle and finally ceased. The border under Mackensen, applied the nec-
attack fell short of being a great success essary pressure diplomatically, and forced
largely through the slowness of the Rus- Rumania to act.
sians in seizing the advantage which they The Transylvanian army remained
acquired through the opening efforts. The quiet and permitted the Rumanians to
Austrian line was trul\' broken, and the drive deeply into that province. In the
Russians poured through the breach ; but meantime Mackensen began a drive
they allowed the break to heal before them. through Dobrudja which finally gave him
This was due partly to the transportation Constanza and Cernavoda, together witii
facilities, which are meager and poor but ; the great bridge which spans the Danube
was further due to the fact that the at the latter point. Then Falkenha\n be-
Russian troops were not kept in hand in gan his operations. The plan was for him
their advance, and cohesion was lost. This to drive southward from one of the passes
is all that saved the Central powers on this which lead from Trans\ Ivania to the plains
front from a long and disastrous retreat. of Rumania, cut oft" the western half of
The Russian attack, however, and the the great Rumanian salient which projects
fact that it persisted to such an extent, into Hungary, and then begin a march
proved conclusively that the revivification eastward, take Hukharest. and link up
of the Russian forces after the great re- with Mackensen. The plan was executed
treat of was an accomplished fact.
191 5 exactly as formulated. Falkenhayn broke
To Germany was the greatest shock of
it through the V^ilcan Pass, cut off nearly a
the entire year; for it showed clearly that division of Rvmianian troops to the west,
Russia was yet a tremendous hammer, and exactly one hundred da\'s after Ruma-
capable of beating the Teutonic armies nia had declared war marched into Bu-
back against the anvil of the Western lines. kharest. From there it was a simple matter
for him to extend his operations to the
Danube, where he joined Mackensen and
The Russian attack had reached the stage established the German line from Hun-
of haphazard, unsustained attacks at va- gary across Rumania to the sea. Once this
rious points of the line— a stage which was accomplished, the combined armies at-
alwaysmarks the end of an offensive when — tempted to continue the drive past the left
Rumanian neutrality was thrown aside, flank of the Rumanian army, turn at the
and this state joined the lists of German same time the Russian flank by an invasion
enemies. It does not appear that Ruma- of Bessarabia, and force another great Rus-
nia's move was either voluntary or was sian retreat. But the effort was unavail-
forced by the Allies. On the contrary, it ing. Along the Sereth and farther north
seems have been forced by Germany
to along the Trotus, the Rumanian line, now
herself.Rumania was not ready for war, an extension of the Russian line in south-
and Germany knew it. As a result of a ern Bukowina, held absolutelv fast until
treaty few months before,
negotiated a winter put an end to the fighting.
Rumania had acquired from Germany a There can be no question that this cam-
number Krupp guns in exchange for
of paign of Germany's was one of the most
food supplies. But Rumania had no Krupp brilliant of the entire war. At the same
amnuinition, and ammunition
Russian time it failed to reach a decision in exactly
would not fit Krupp guns. Germany, the same way as did the igis campaign
therefore, realizing that sooner or later against Russia. In fact, the Russian re-
Rinnania would enter the war. anyhow, treatand the Rumanian retreat were ex-
decided that she should enter it when it actly similar, and were brought about
suited the Central powers best. Accord- through identical causes, the failure of
ingly, Germany concentrated two large ammunition supply. The Rumanian re-
780 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
treat was not the retreat of a defeated and power, and although as this review is

disorganized army. On the contrary, it being written nothing definite has been
was well organized, carried out in perfect accomplished, the mere fact that Russia
order, and was accompanied by a remark- has exhibited the strength and the elan to
ably small loss in men and material. Ru- take up arms again holds out great prom-
mania did lose about twenty-five per cent, ise for the future.
of the men she put in the field as a result The Russian attack was directed against
of battle, and the troops which were cut saw such
the same section of the line which
of?when Falkenhayn split the Rumanian signal success a year ago from — the line
army in breaking through the mountains. Lemberg to Halicz. In the first few days
The remainder, however, got well away, nearly twenty thousand prisoners were
and began the work of reorganization. taken, mostly Austrians. There was, how-
Two things stand out in this campaign: ever, no breaking through the line such as
the failure of the Saloniki army to begin marked the offensive of last year. After
operations when it was evident what Ger- the initial attack, the Germans countered
many was trying to do, and the failure of heavily, but the Russians held their gains,
Russia to come to Rumania's aid. The and the attacks soon desisted.
first of these was probably caused by fear The Russian Revolution may prove of
of Constantine, at that time king of advantage to the Allies in the end, but it

Greece, the second by disorganization and came at a time when it virtually insured
treachery in Petrograd, brought about by the defeat of any plans they may have had
German agents who were working on for this year. Germany was permitted to
Russia to good effect in the interests of a weaken the eastern front and throw her
separate peace. Although Germany had forces against France and England at a
not achieved a decisive victory because of time when they held the greatest advan-
the escape of the Rumanian army, the tage since the Marne ; Austria was privi-
Allies had suffered a heavy defeat through leged to add several divisions to her Isonzo
the loss of the opportunity which the en- army at a time when the Italians seemed
trance of Rumania had opened up to them. about to grasp the control of the entire
With the undefended gateway of southern Carso region ; Turkey was given a needed
Dobrudja opening wide to Bulgaria and respite when all indications pointed to tiie

Constantinople, a remarkable opportunity complete disintegration of her entire mili-


was afforded to drive to the Golden Horn tary strength. Thus has the length of the
and separate Germany from her Moslem war been increased and its sufferings aug-
ally. But the Allies have from the begin- mented by the action of those who most
ning exhibited an uncanny penchant for strongly profess a desire for peace.
muddling in the Balkan States, and run-
ning true to form, they permitted the op-
portunity for dealing Germany a mortal Italy's plan in the war seems absurdly
blow to pass by. With the early spring simple. From the outset it has been the
came the Russian Revolution. This put same— to neutralize Trentino, blocking its

an end to all Allied hopes for 1917. There passes so as to guard against a northern
was a period when the Russian army invasion, and then to strike across the open
openly fraternized with their old enemies, front of the Isonzo River. Nothing, in-
and German Socialists appeared to be in deed, could be simpler in essence, and yet
control of the situation. But out of the in the execution Italy has been contending
confusion and chaos rose one man, Keren- against disadvantages greater than those
sky, who saw and who forced the
straight, faced by any other nation now fighting.
new republic into the paths which led to Virtually all of Italy's land frontier is

safety and honor. On July i, the anni- mountain-bound. Only at Gorizia, where
versat}' of the Battle of the Somme, Russia the rapid Isonzo emerges from the deep
again struck A\'ith something of her former gorge of tile mountains, does the frontier
THE THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR 781
open out and even there the width of the
; failure of Russia incident to the revolution
\alley does not exceed a few miles before enabled Austria to put strong reinforce-
the mountains are again encountered. No ments in the field, and so check further
matter, then, in what direction Italy advances. Italy's accomplishments in the
launched an attacic, a mountain barrier third year of the war may therefore be
had first to be conquered before any mate- summed up as follows: the capture of
rial success could be achieved. This must Gorizia, the occupation of the eastern bank
be borne constantly in mind in any effort of the Isonzo from Tolmino to the sea,
to appraise Italy's accomplishments since and the conquest of the western end of the
she entered the war. Carso Plateau. Italy, it is true, has fur-
As the third 3'ear of the war was ushered nished a large contingent on the Saloniki
in, Italy was just concluding a terrific front, but the results obtained by these
counter-offensive against the Austrians, forces have been as negative as their future
who only a short time before had threat- value is questionable.
ened the invasion of northern Italy
through Trentino. Italy's purpose accom-
THE SALONIKI FRONT
plished here, she suddenly shifted the In a belated effort to prevent the complete
attack to the Isonzo front, several miles destruction of Serbia, the Allies, toward
north and south of the Gorizia bridge- the end of the Serbian campaign, threw a
head. This city and its bridge were vital cordon of troops about the Greek port of
points in Italy's line of attack, and had to Saloniki, one flank extending well to the
be taken before the acquisition of Istria west of the Saloniki-Monastir Railroad,
could be dreamed of. The attack took the the other toLake Tahinos, an arm of the
Austrians completely by surprise, and after Struma River. This force was augmented
a brief, but bombardment the
terrific, by Italians who crossed overland from
Italian infantrywent forward, seized the Avlona and by British from Gallipoli, as
heights which guard the town on the north well as by French and Russians from
and the south, and established themselves home. The hope was evidently cherished
on the east bank of the river. Before the that through this force, aided later, per-
Austrians could react, the Italians made haps, by Rumania, a situation akin to the
themselves secure in Gorizia, and thus Torres Vedras of Napoleon's day would
completed what was really the first stage be duplicated, the back door of Austria
of the Italian offensive. pried open, and the Teutonic alliance split
The second stage, as yet incomplete, is asunder, to be subsequentl\- defeated in de-

the occupation of the Carso Plateau. Be- tail.

ginning at the Isonzo and running close There was little activity on this front
by the coast is a wedge-shaped table-land until October, 191 6. other than the natu-
which guards the approach to the city of ral clash of patrols ; but in the early part
Trieste. Honeycombed with caverns and of that month the Bulgarians took the
pock-marked with great hollows, it has offensive and penetrated deep into Greek
innumerable positions of great defensive territory south of Fiorina station on the
strength. After taking Gorizia, the Ital- Monastir road. Sudden concentrations,
ians immediately attacked this new barrier, however, effected through unusually rapid
and established themselves on its western marching, brought large bodies of French
and northern edges. At this point, how- and Russians close to the Bulgarian main
ever, they were overtaken by winter, and line of communications, and forced a re-
further operations were suspended until treat back beyond the original positions.
the advent of spring. Not until May was But the Allies did not stop here. The Ser-
the fighting resumed. In that month Italy bians, eager to recover their own land,
again took the offensi\e. Initial successes took up the burden of driving the Bul-
both in ground gained and in prisoners garians back into Macedonia. They first

taken promised material progress, but the seized Fiorina station, and, establishing
782 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
there a supply base, launched a determined favorable to the Central powers, and Ser-
and well-sustained campaign for the cap- rail, the French commander, was fearful
ture of Monastir. Their plan of campaign lest, should he reach out too far north-
was simple, and was formulated entirely ward, the Greek army would openly cham-
by considerations of terrain. The Cerna pion the cause of the kaiser, cut the
River was generally the line of advance. railroad behind him, and so destroy his

On the east of this stream the mountains supply line. This condition prevailed un-
come up almost to the water's-edge. til early June of this year, when the Allies
There is virtually no width of floor valley deposed Constantine and placed his second
on this side. West of the river, however, son on the throne. The new king at once
the valley opens out into two wide plains, brought the ex-premier Venizelos into
the plain of Fiorina and that of Monastir, power and instructed him form a new to
with a somewhat narrower plain linking cabinet. Diplomatic relations with Ger-
them together. The Serbian plan was to many were severed immediately, and
advance along the mountains buttressing Greece took her stand with the Allies. All
the river on the east, and, as these com- danger to Serrail was thus removed, and he
mand the valley floor beneath, to flank the was given free rein to plan for the future.
Bulgarians out of position as they ad- What this future will be no man can
vanced. This plan was carried out me- foresee. It does not seem possible that

thodically, and after nearly two months of much can be accomplished by the Saloniki
desperate fighting, most of it in the wild army. The difficulties of water transport,
and waterless mountains of northern with the Mediterranean infested with sub-
Greece, the Serbians forced the evacuation marines, are considerable ; the military
of Monastir. difficulties of an advance up the only line
The occupation of the Macedonian cap- — the valley of the Vardar River — almost
ital was the climax of a well-ordered and insurmountable. Moreover, the possibili-
brilliantly executed campaign. The senti- ties of this army rendering valuable co-
mental appeal to the Serbs was great, but operation were greatly lessened by the
the military results were small. Monastir defeat of Rumania. It is true that a large
is in a sense an important road center of body of enemy troops is neutralized by the
southeastern Europe, and, could it be used very presence of the Saloniki forces, but
as an advanced base for continued opera- this is an imperfect gage by which to meas-
tions, would be of enormous value. But it ure the value of active forces in the field,

is a terminal point for railroads entering and is therefore of little value as a legiti-

from the south. There is not a single mate conception. The probabilities are
railroad leaving the town for the north. that when the Greek army takes the field,
As a base for a major operation, therefore, the present forces will be greatly reduced,
its value is not great. An excellent leaving the Greeks the task of acting de-
metaled highway runs north, it is true, but fensively before the Mediterranean port.
motor transport is not adequate to keep a
large army supplied with munitions on the
THE NEAR EAST
scale demanded by modern battle condi- The Golden Horn, the Turkish gateway
tions. Consequently, after taking Monas- from Asia to Europe, is the most impor-
tir, the Allied forces settled once more tant strategic possession held by any of the
into inaction. It also appeared that they nations at war. It is not to be wondered
did not dare press whatever advantage at, therefore, that the Allies have made
they had secured. And this, indeed, was repeated efforts to destroy the military
the case. In addition to the poor transport power of Turkey and so acquire control
facilities, was another cause for their
there of this entrance. first two years of
In the
apparent apathy — a cause which is respon- the war were manifest in the
these efforts
sible for most of the lethargy on this front. attack on Gallipoli, the first campaign
Constantine, the Greek king, was openh' against Bagdad, both of which were fail-
THK THIRD ^KAR OF 'I'HK WAR 783
ures, and the Russian campaign in the meantime the Russians had begun
In the
Caucasus, which resulted in the occupation their offensive in Persia. Their object
of the greater part of Armenia and the was to force their way through the moun-
extension of the Russian line south of tains and storm the pass at Khanikin, where
Lake Van almost to Khanikin on the the main road from Kermanshah to Bag-
Turko-Persian border. During the first dad breaks through into the Mesopotamia!!
half of the third year of the war there was plain; then to move down the vallej' of
little or no activitj' in the western Asiatic the Diala and form a junction with the
theater. The only move of importance forces of General Maude, which were
was the withdrawal of the Russian right moving up the river from Bagdad. Every-
wing from the torridly hot plain of north- thing worked out according to schedule.
ern Mesopotamia to the mountains of Khanikin Pass was taken without opposi-
Persia. tion, and the Russians and the British
Early in 191 7, however, two offensives joined hands on the banks or the Diala.
were launched, one by the Russians in the Coincident with the offensives in Meso-
mountains of Persia, and a second expedi- potamia was the British move in Pales-
tion against Bagdad by the British. Some- tine. The scene of the operations was the
what later a third was added, a British narrow between the railroad
belt of land
attack in Palestine. Though widely sepa- running south from Aleppo, through Da-
rated, these attacks all had the common mascus and Jerusalem, and the Mediterra-
purpose of driving Turkey from the war. nean coast. Only one battle, preceded by
The Bagdad operations were the first to many skirmishes, was fought — the Battle
begin. The British, who for months had of Gaza, which resulted in a complete
been accumulating supplies and concen- British victory. The Turks were driven
trating men for the purpose, began an back with heavy Gaza,
losses to the city of
advance up the Tigris, aiming first at Kut- where strong reinforcements enabled them
el-Amara. The basic plan of General to make a stand.
Maude, the British commander, was to The combined campaigns against Tur-
hold the Turks in place on the left bank key demonstrated that the Turkish mili-
of the Tigris, where they were intrenched, tary power was in every way unable to sus-
and then by a series of rapid marches by tain the pressure from three fronts. It
cavalry on the right bank to flank the was deficient in numbers of trained, dis-
Turks out of position. The Turks saw ciplined soldiery, in artiller}', in air-craft.
the plan too late to take advantage of this It was, moreover, cut off bj- long gaps of
division of forces, and were compelled to incompleted railroad from both Germany
evacuate Kut in order to mrJntain their and Austria, so that its deficiencies could
supply-line. not be remedied by these powers. The in-
The British pushed this success rapidl}, itial successes of these three campaigns,
The cavalry and horse artillery, now on therefore, held out promises of speedy disin-
both banks of the Tigris, pressed liard tegration of Turkish power if the pressure
against the Turkish right, while the gun- could be continued. It is easy to understand
boats on the river caught up with the how would have come about. The gen-
this
Turkish retreat, and bombarded the col- eral plan in pursuance of which tiie cam-
umns at every opportunity-. Not even at paigns of western Asia were undertaken
Ctesiphon were the Turks permitted to was first for the British and the Russians to
halt. Not until the mouth of the Diala form a junction, and then for the British,
River was reached, ten miles south of Bag- pushing westward along both the Tigris
dad, did the Turks turn and give battle. and the Euphrates, to join with the right
After several days of severe fighting at this wing of the army in Palestine. Thus from
point the Turks finally gave way, and on the Black Sea to the Mediterranean the
March 1 1 the British marched into Bag- Turks would have been circumscribed bv a
dad. steadilv contracting circle. \Vith Damas-
784 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
cus, Beirut, and Aleppo in British hands, bined attack leading to Constantinople
the Turk would be hemmed in behind the would stand a good chance of success.
wall of the Taurus Mountains, beaten, Transportation is difficult, but not impos-
and out of the fight. separate peace A sible. The great wall of the Taurus
with the Moslem would then be in the Mountains is a barrier pregnant with de-
air, and the entire empire east of Serbia fensive possibilities; but they can be over-
would totter. come, if not by direct operations, by Hank-
But the revolution in Russia intervened, ing movements launched from the Medi-
and its effect on the Asiatic field was even terranean and the Black seas. With the
more disastrous than on the theaters in eastern Mediterranean coast in British
Europe. The inaction of Russia follow- hands, the Allied forces at Saloniki could
ing the revolution postponed the entire in large measure be transported to Beirut,
plan, postponement at such a critical
and a Tripoli, possibly to Alexandretta, to take
moment meant abandonment. The Rus- part in the movement converging on the
sians would not move, and without the Turkish It would probably be an
capital.
Russians the British could not. The net expensive campaign, but it would be worth
result, then, of all the fighting in this field half a million men.
is, as the matter now stands, indetermi-
nate.
THE UNITED STATES DECLARES WAR
But there is in the near East a greater With the coming of spring of this year,
object to be obtained than the occupation the German leaders saw the specter of
of a line east of the Taurus Mountains, defeat rising before them. In every vital
and an object which it is possible to ob- theater the fighting during the first half
tain, at great cost, it is true, but not at a of the third-year campaign had gone
cost which is excessive. Constantinople is against them. In the subsidiary field of
the keystone of the Balkan arch ; but it is Rumania alone had they achieved any sig-
more. the culmination of the Ger-
It is nal success. And although they kept the
man dream. It is the sine qua non
kaiser's conquered banners of Rumania waving be-
of a German empire of the East. With fore the people at home, they themselves
the Allies in possession of Constantinople, knew that the Allies had bested them and
the castle of the Germans would fall to that defeat was reaching out to envelop
the ground, and all their military plans them. The reasons are simple. Successful
and aspirations find their way into the war is the product of three factors, leader-
scrap-heap. Constantinople can be taken ship, mechanics, and men. In all of these
from the East by using the resources of factors had been proved that the Allies
it

the East for that purpose and it would ; were supreme. Falkenhayn, their chief of
not be surprising if this was not in the staff, had been supplanted by Hindenburg,

minds of the Bri'tish high command when the people's idol. But Hindenburg's mili-
the operations which have been previously tary genius is not of a high order; in fact,
mentioned were planned. China has a nothing that he has accomplished justifies

wealth of iron ore, Japan has enormous the high regard in which he is held by the
manufacturing ability by which Chinese German people. The defeat at Verdun
ore may be converted, India, Egypt, and and on the Somme needed a scapegoat, and
the Philippines have food, and there are Hindenburg was popular therefore he ;
dis-

no submarines east of Suez to break the placed Falkenhayn. Nevertheless, mili-


flow of supplies. Russia's greatest ore- tary men in Germany know that as a
deposits and iron-works are in the Black commanding general Hindenburg is of
Sea provinces, and the Black Sea belt is mediocre caliber.
known as one of the world's largest gran- The mechanics of war include guns,
aries. munitions, and air-craft. In all of these
From Suez, from Bagdad, and from the (Germany has unquestioned superiority on
Armenian Black Sea ports as bases, a com- tin- Russian front and has used it to great
THE THIRD YEAR OE THE WAR 785
advantage; but the issue will not be de- superiority on land could force a decision
cided on the Russian front. Germany, on the battle-field.
the backbone of the Central powers, has at One
portentous result sprang immedi-
least three quarters of her strength on the ately from this barbaric decree. The
western front, and a decision can be United States promptly severed diplomatic
reached only by the defeat of this force. relations, seized all German ships in its

And on the western front, too, where


it is harbors, and shortly afterward declared
the great mechanical superiority of the war. Future historians will convict Ger-
Allies is apparent. A modern battle is a many of many acts of stupidity, but crown-
contest of artillery. The infantry fur- ing them all will be that act which at a
nishes the final curtain, but the artillery is crucial time forced into the lists of the
both prologue and play. The success of Allies not only the wealthiest and most
the Somme fighting was an artillery tri- powerful neutral, but a nation w^hich is
umph, and proved beyond question that in potentiallythe strongest in the world's
the size and number of guns and in the family of nations. It was a direful begin-
supply of shells Germany was outclassed. ning to Germany's spring campaign.
But artillery depends for success upon ac- The close of the third year finds the
curate information and exact observation, Central powers in desperate straits. In
the former to locate the objective, the lat- money, in men, in guns, and in shell pro-
ter to correct errors in firing. These duction, in air-craft and in pilots, they are
functions are performed by the aeroplane hopelessly inferior. The submarine cam-
scout. Just as the Somme indicated the paign, on the success of which hopes ran
superiority of the Allies in guns and shells, high, while it has proved terribly destruc-
so did prove that in the air they also had
it tive, has been a failure in so far as it tends
the upper hand. As to men, it is sufficient to bring victory. The issue must be de-
to say that the Allies had two to one on cided on land, and it must be won by force
almost every front. And not alone was of arms. The only silver in the cloud is

the superiority in numbers, but in quality Russia, and recent developments in that
as well. German losses had been concen- state show that the revolution has only
trated ; those of the Allies distributed over deferred German defeat, not prevented it.

many nations. A year must pass before reorganized Rus-


This was the situation, then, as it was sia can be a dominant factor, and until that
seen by the German high command. These time arrives, Germany cannot be forced to
leaders were desperate. Their carefully make terms. The food situation in Ger-
laid plans for a Germanized Europe were many is serious, but not desperate. No
in the balance; they themselves were responsible person has yet stated that there
threatened with political oblivion. With is any likelihood of an economic collapse.
that utter disregard for the rights of others Germany is suffering, but all nations suf-
which has characterized Germany's course fer in war. No one has plenty, many have
throughout the war, Germany declared a not enough ; but life can be sustained on
submarine blockade of Europe, and an- little, and as long as that little is to be
nounced her intention of torpedoing any had, theGerman armies will remain in the
vessel found outside of certain prescribed field. One year, two years, more— none
lanes. It was a desperate gamble with a can tell— must pass before Germany ac-
last It was an admission of de-
stake. knowledges defeat. And this acknow-
feat, with only a single chance to turn ledgment will come through one instru-
defeat to victory. That chance was to mentality and one alone, superior physical
starve England and France before their forc^.
ROYAL
WELSH
FUSILIERS
ON DUTY
BEFORE
BUCKINGHAM
PALACE

Blood is Thicker than Water


The United States Marine Corps* Recollections of the
Royal Welsh Fusihers

By Brigadier-General GEORGE RICHARDS


WHENmorningthe
American people noted in
the
papers of June lo that
bon military autocrat to force his will
upon other freer, but less disciplined, na-
Major-General John J. Pershing, com- tions of Europe. History is now repeating
mander of our armies to be sent to France, itself in this particular; the Twenty-third
had at last disembarked from the Baltic is now again engaged in a like struggle

and set foot on British soil, the}^ read there with the greatest military autocrat of all
with satisfaction that the military bands time in a cause in which the American
greeted him with only one air, that to people are also consecrated. It is therefore
which the national hymns "America" and most fitting Americans should
that all

"God Save the King" are set. But there know the famous Royal Welsh Fusiliers
were a few of us, American marines, who and the circumstances of their previous ser-
were filled with greater pride in reading vice with United States forces.
this welcome news. We
saw there that It was during the Boxer Uprising in
the guard of honor that presented arms to China, in the summer of 1900, that we of
our most distinguished soldier was com- the United States formed our
marines
posed of a battalion of the Royal Welsh acquaintance with the Twenty-third Foot.
Fusiliers, the famous Twenty-third Regi- When General (then Major) Waller of
ment of Foot. The selection of the Welsh the Marine Corps landed at Taku, China,
is of particular significance to all Ameri- with a battalion of American marines, hur-
cans, for the Twenty-third Foot is the riedly despatched from the Philippines, he
only regiment of British regular infantry was joined by a battalion of the Royal
that has ever served with regular forces of Welsh. There at the mouth of the Pei-ho
the United States in battle against a com- River, more than fifty years before. Cap-
mon enemy. The Royal Welsh Fusiliers tain Josiah Tattnall of the United States
has a record of distinguished service cov- Navy, on the American man-of-war Tocy-
ering more than two centuries. Called wan, uttered his memorable words, "Blood
into being in 1689, it was created to take is thicker than water" —
words forever to
part there in the struggle of William of be cherished by all English-speaking peo-
Orange, on the English throne, against the ples. But the Royal Welsh and the Amer-
well-organized attempts of a mighty Bour- ican marines there wrote these words into
786
BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER 787
actual deeds, for almost with their arrival noted something black in the shape of a
they became engaged in battle against the triangle. "A good idea," we thought;
common enemy. These British and Ameri- "the men will know their officers in the
can forces were at once merged into a scrimmage, but the enemy in front will see
column in military operations having for no difference in the dress of either." We
their immediate object the relief of the thought no more of that, for interesting
Tientsin foreign concessions, near the things immediately began to happen to us.
walled city of Tientsin, where European Later in the day, however, after we had
and American residents, including women advanced under fire, with heavy losses, we
and children, were beleaguered under fire finally reached a position from which we
of liostile Chinese troops associated with could proceed no farther. We were then
the Boxer rebels. With them later came under the walls of the fortified city of
Russian, Italian, Japanese, and other Tientsin, on the extreme left of the line,
forces. the exposed flank, and there we were
Tientsin stood squarely on the way to joined by the Royal Welsh. We promptly
Peking. had to be taken first. These
It "dug in" together, prepared to stay. In
forces accomplished this task; opened up this effort we came know the British
to
the concessions, after marching ninety- officers better. When we had settled there
seven miles in all directions in five days, to stick, we turned to Captain Gwynne,
fighting all the way, living on one meal a who commanded the battalion. Noting
day for the entire time. With them there that the black triangle was of ribbons, we
was a force of the British bluejackets un- mentioned that w^e thought it a clever idea
der command Admiral (then Com-
of to distinguish their officers to their men
mander) Cradock, Rojal Navy, whom we and not to the enemy's snipers.
remember now as the British commander "Not so," said Gwynne. "It serves that
who more recently went to his death on purpose here, but such is not the object.
his flagship, the Good Hope, in the battle, These ribbons are the 'flash' preserved by
early in the Great War, between his fleet us in memory of our service in America
and the Germans under Admiral Spee. during your Revolutionary War."
But the writer's acquaintance with the When we pressed him for particulars, he
Royal Welsh Fusiliers came later, for added
after the Tientsin foreign concessions were "When we left England for the Ameri-
relieved, it became necessary immediately can colonies before your Battle of Lexing-
to take the walled city of Tientsin, a ton, and during our service there, every
sterner task. On the night of July 12 all one wore pigtails, or queues, soldiers and

available troops were collected at the con- civilians alike. Our active service began
cessions for an early morning attack the at Bunker Hill, and did not end until the
next day. In the darkness of that night surrender of Yorktown. Afterward the
we American marines assembled on Vic- Twenty-third returned to f^ngland, went
toria Road in the British concession. The to Martinique and San Domingo, then
Twenty-third Foot came up and halted in later to Nova Scotia. There we learned,
our immediate neighborhood. Presently a year or more after its discontinuance,
the word was given to advance. "Royal — that the pigtail was no longer in fashion.
Welsh!" was the command instead of our As we were the last regiment to wear the

"Forward march!" and away went those queue, we took the black-velvet ribbons
khaki-clad British soldiers into the dark- with which the periwig was and sewed tied
ness, the marines following. When dawn them to the backs of the collars of our
came on the open plain, on our left there tunics. Years after, at Gosport, the inspec-
was revealed to us the deployed skirniish- tor-general wanted to know what these
line of the Welsh, with the khaki-covered ribbons were doing tiiere. He declared
helmets standing clear on the sky-line. tliat there was nothing in the regulations
But on the backs of the British officers we so authorizing, and onlered tlieir discon-
788 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
tinuance. Consternation filled us, and our make their command easy and pleasant,
colonel appealed to the War Office. Sir and when one adds to that the steady gal-
Francis Gordon, at one time our colonel, lantry and power of holding on to extreme
was then quartermaster-general of forces; positions, which they displayed on the thir-
his influence we at once sought. And so, teenth instant, the result is soldiers of the
very shortly afterward, an order was given highest class." But there are many other
which read, 'The King has been graciously things that Gwynne might have told us
pleased to approve the "flashes," now worn about the Royal Welsh that we have since
by the officers of the Twenty-third Foot, learned.
or Royal Welsh Fusiliers, being hence- The Honorable Sir William Howe,
forthworn and established as a peculiarity Knight of the Bath and commander-in-
whereby to mark the dress of that distin- chief of his Majesty's armies in America
"
guished regiment.' after Gage and until 1777, was designated
All this was told us while we were un- to that high command from service as a
der the constant fire of the Chinese, with colonel of the Royal Welsh. When he
our own American dead and the British was relieved as commander-in-chief, and
dead and wounded all about us. Sir Henry Clinton was designated in his
"And so you fought at Bunker Hill?" stead, his brother, famous Admiral
the
we said. Howe, came to American shores in com-
"Yes," said Captain Gwynne "and you
; mand of the British fleet. At that time
jolly well shot us up there — some sort of the French had openly come to our help
order given your people to wait until we with a French squadron stronger than that
got to the top of the hill. At least our of Admiral Howe, under the command of
regimental history so states." Count d'Estaing, ready to dispute with the
"Yes," we said. "Every American British the control of American seas.
school-boy knows that order was, 'Wait Howe's ships were insufficiently manned
"
until you see the whites of their eyes.' he had no marines, he needed soldiers, and
"Well," said the British officer, "it cost made his wants known. Out of compli-
us eight hundred men out of twelve hun- ment to their former colonel's brother, the
dred that day. But that is all history. Royal Welsh volunteered for this duty.
It 's all over. But it is worth noting here The fleet went into engagement with the

that this is a proud day for us, for this is French, but a gale dispersed them. There
the time in the history of the two
first were isolated fights, the most notable of
nations that the regular forces of each have which was that of the French Casar, a
acted together against acommon enemy." seventy-two, with the British Is'is, of fifty
So we became real friends, to remain so guns,where the British ship carried a light
forever. Major Waller wrote in his official infantry company of the Twenty-third.
report: "I cannot speak too highly of the In Howe's report to the Admiralty he
conduct of the officers of the Fusiliers. made particular mention of the spirited
This battalion has been at our side since and gallant behavior of the Royal Welsh.
June 23. They have responded to my During its two hundred yeais of exist-
orders with the greatest alacrity and will- ence this famous regiment has been the
ingness, all the officers and men ready to recipient of many honors. The feathers of
go anywhere." And the British Brigadier- the red dragon and the rising sun are the
General Dorward, who commanded our badges of the Prince of Wales. They
left wing before Tientsin, not to be out- were given to the Welsh for its services in
done by Waller, declared in his report the Marlborough campaigns, when George
"The American troops formed a part of I, in 1714, conferred on them the title
the front line of the British attack, and so "The Prince of Wales's own regiment of
had more than their share of the fighting Welsh Fusiliers." To commemorate this
that took place. The ready and willing distinction, it advances to the command of
spirit of the officers and men will always "Royal— Welsh!" instead of to our "For-
BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER 789
ward— march!" The white horse of that many of us read of at the time. On
Hanover, the badge of George II, was Christmas eve of 19 14, on a sector manned
granted to the Twenty-third after the respectively on opposite sides by the Saxons
battle of Dettingen (1743), where the and the British, the firing suddenly ceased,
king personally witnessed the regiment's but not by orders. The Saxons shouted
gallantry. The sphinx was awarded them out "Don't shoot!"
first, The British
after the Egyptian campaign in 1 801, lads held up their hands in assent. A bar-
where the Twenty-third carried a disputed rel of beer came over the trenches. And
high sand-hill at the landing. Its battle the British in return gave over surplus
honors begin with Namur (1695), on rations that the Saxons were eager to get.
Belgian soil, near which the greater part Those British troops who responded to this
of the regiment is now fighting in the invitation were none other than the famous
Great War of to-day. Its honors also Twenty-third, the Royal Welsh, the old
include such names as Blenheim, Ouden- associates in China of the United States
arde, Egypt, Martinique, Corunna, Sala- marines. Let us remember that Christmas
manca, Peninsula, Waterloo, Inkerman, eve of 19 14 and those Saxons, our enemies
Sebastopol, Lucknow, Burma, Peking, and now in the great war of to-day. The carol
Ladysmith. No regiment which during chorus that from the German
arose
by far the larger part of its history has trenches that night came from hearts that
consisted of a single battalion has a list for the time being expressed peace on
of "battle honors" as long as that of the earth, good will to men. Their ways
Twenty-third Foot. It is worth men- are not our ways now, though their strain
tioning that they were offered the right to is in the Anglo-Saxon stock but their song ;

inscribe on their colors "Bunker Hill," but silenced for the time the crack of the rifles
declined because that fight, they said, was of the snipers leveled across no-man's land.
with Englishmen, and they did not wish it "You English there, why don't you
commemorated, which expresses in another come out?" the Saxons called, and the
way what was said more recently by one candles then burned along the parapets
of our foremost public men, that the that were hitherto guarded with ceaseless
Revolution was a revolt against a Teutonic vigilance! A British chaplain gave to a
king, George III, led by an English gen- Saxon colonel a copy of the English Sol-
tleman, George Washington. dier's Prayer, and in return received a

We are fortiuiate to know a little of cigar, with a message for the bereaved

the service of the Royal Welsh in this wounded British officer


family of a certain
Great War. Four days after its beginning who had recently died a prisoner of war.
in 19 14 its home battalions were assembled And on the following Christmas day the
atWrexham depot for service in France. Saxons and Welsh buried their dead, and
One battalion, however, remained abroad, even played together a game of foot-ball,
where its service continued in the German in which the Saxons won. That such
Cameroons w'ith the Anglo-French forces things coidd have occurred in the midst of
luider Brigadier-General Dobell, a distin- war seems unbelievable to us, but that they
guished officer of the Royal Welsh. But did occur there can be no mistake. It
the battalions from Wrexham were des- brings back our faith in the virtues of all
patched immediately to France, where mankind. But that truce was not an of-
they fought and bled in the stress of those ficial tjuce, for no kaiser willed or author-
times. When after the German advance ized it. It came from the hearts of those
was hurled back from the IMarne, and the who were bearing the brunt of the war,
modern trench warfare was initiated on but it expressed a sentiment upon which in
the Aisne, after months of the fiercest the end the world will once again be
fighting, there occurred an incident, a mo- united in jieace on earth ami a good w ill to
ment of relaxation, if it may be so called, men.
The First Convoy
With our Troops to France

By NELSON COLLINS

ON a day in June, sunny and muggy,


with a thin mist over the harbor, the
of sentry-duty. They waited hours
mist-threaded sunshine, and all
in the
the time
assembling of the ships began. From piers more dun-colored ships, with names ob-
near the Battery and from piers near the scured, but not invisible, swung in for
foot of Twenty-third Street ships made them.
their way across the North River to the It is a strange medley of authorities,
Hoboken used in times of peace by
piers in military, naval, merchant marine, over-
the Hamburg-American and North Ger- lapping but not interfering, cordial not
man Lloyd lines. We moved out into the jealous, but involving unexpected quick
North River at eight-thirty. The bridge adjustments of courtesies and responsibili-
wasj still undressed, and workmen were busy ties.

about it as we backed out into the river. In old passenger days, our ship could
As we swung toward the Hoboken pier, carry seventeen hundred with her normal
another ship, coming up from the Battery, accommodations; but now we had built
converged on our course, heading for the bunks of slightly sagging canvas across
same dock. Another showed up just the board supports, three deep, on the two up-
other side of her. We were berthed by per decks of five hatchways. Wash-houses
nine-thirty, three abreast in one dock. But had been erected on the open deck.
ships kept coming until well past three in The sun was beginning to drop behind
the afternoon, for the coastwise trade was the Hoboken warehouses when the last of
swinging into the war. the slate-colored ships made a berth. Rail-
Gradually in among us the freight- road barge after railroad barge jammed
barges, with men in olive-drab sprawled with luggage massed, about us. Tugs and
on their high-piled luggage, appeared, and excursion-steamers crowded with soldiers
lay for hours till we should be ready. kept coming up from the Battery.
Scores of tugs pushed and pulled, The embarkation lasted all night. By
puffed harshly, and became quickly silent four morning we had soldiers of the
in the

as pressure relaxed. The derrick tugs hung regular army, medical reserve officers and
about ready to lift the luggage aboard. men, and two hundred nurses aboard.
A power-boat in the naval service darted They were aboard, but not all of them were
through at thirty-five knots an hour. stowed. The medical contingent to go
Meantime detachments of soldiers marched abroad with us came about five in the
through the warehouses to the pier-heads afternoon. The officers were in uniform,
and lounged there. Fine fellows they but the men —
medical students from
were. Fine even after one had seen the Johns Hopkins, most of them, I was told,
Anzacs, the English, the Scotch, the Irish, just finished with their third year of
and the French; too fine to be killed ex- —
study had not been uniformed yet. They
cept in a cause even finer than they. They were a good body of men, excellent ma-
waved to the soldiers on the barges jammed terial, as anybody could see; but not
in among the ships and tugs, glanced curi- shaped up.
ously up the sides of the ship, then set The embarking of the regulars started
themselves to wait with the patience born after six o'clock in the evening. They
THE FIRST CONVOY 791
had been five dajs on a train, and had been age. The others joined us at long inter-
confined all the muggy day in their cars at vals. No one was allowed to go ashore,
Jersey City on top of that. They toiled and no one was allowed to come aboard.
up the gangway with their load of equip- Everybody longed to be at sea, the ship's
ment. "A good ship," one or two said crew because "a week in any port is long
appreciatively as they came over the side. enough," and the soldiers and nurses be-
"Step light, and don't rock the boat," cause of the confinement. Fog set in, and
called one. "Do I go up-stairs or down- held even the gaze restricted most of the
stairs?" asked one, pointing first to the time. Nobody slept well or settled well
ladder up to the quarter-deck and then to to any interest or occupation. We all felt

an open hatchway. Most of them said, relieved when two privates of the regulars
"What time do we sail?" or said nothing quarreled in mess-line the fourth morning
at all. There was naturally some confu- of our "hold-up," and after breakfast were
sion, but the whole thing was remarkably allowed to fight it out with bare fists,

well ordered. Men with undoubtable ringed round by the men of their company
cards assigning them to identified bunks and many others. It cleared the air for
found said identified bunks already occu- them and for all of us. The supply of
pied, and there was' no instance recorded text-books in elementary French was ap-
of the first occupant giving up the place. palling; only less appalling than the oral
By two morning the tone
o'clock in the tutoring of those who were held to have
of the ship had altered. The men had made some progress.
"carried on" for six da^s, had sat stifled At last we went out, just after noon, in
in cars all the muggy day excepting for weather that contained every portent. The
an hour on the platforms, and had been brilliant sun smoked on the water from a
cheerful on the piers. Sheer tiredness vivid blue sky piled with clean, white
made everybody a little crabbed during clouds. A lively breeze played on us from
the dead hours before dawn came. One the southwest. In Ambrose Channel, and
young found a highly original
private before we had dropped the pilot, black,
grievance for the hour and the occasion. streaked clouds climbed quickly from the
"Ain't there any place for a damned buck southwestern horizon, overshadowed us,
private to and read?" he demanded
sit and swept the decks with a vicious sum-
after inspecting the second-cabin smoking- mer shower that lasted ten minutes. In-
room, which had been assigned to officers. coming coastal steamers from Newport
By five there was deep, though not always News and Savannah, British cargo-boats
silent, peace all over the ship. Everybody bound in and out, had their rails lined as
slept. we passed.
Less than twenty-four hours after we It was a brisk breeze, with a slight sea;
tied up at the pier we backed out again, but slight as it was, it killed much of the
and slipped down to anchorage to wait for interest in elementar\- French along the
the other ships and for the convoying naval promenade-deck, and subdued the horse-
force. As we moved down the North play fore and aft, where the soldiers were
River the salutes from ships in the river stowed. Mostthem were on salt water
of
and ships at their piers, from tug-boats and for the first time. Fortunately the sea was
ferries and Sunday-morning excursion- not bad enough to overpower any but the
steamers, made us realize the errand we most susceptible ; it simply subdued the
were bound on more than all the rou- others. The three groups of watches,
tine of embarkation. We
spent that night military, naval, and merchant marine,
within a ring of cruisers and destroyers. were posted. The soldiers assigned to the
We stayed several days with that ring upper crow's-nests faced the horrors of a
of destroyers and cruisers around us, close first climb up the side of a ship's mast

to the submarine net. Our ship was the along with the misery of sea-sickness. One
first of the transports to make the anchor- unfortunate had just strength left to yell
792 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
"Look out below!" to the crowded fore- The tension of organization was down to
castle-head a hundred feet below him. a working basis.
Another climbed successfully to the I was in and out among the soldiers

crow's-nest, but went in head first instead more or less. I had a curiosity to know
of feetfirst, and it took three minutes by the individual attitude among them to-
thewatch for his mates in the nest to get ward this expedition to France. Here
him right side up in that narrow space. were regulars who were in the service be-
While at anchor bridge watches had fore 191 4 sprang its cataclysmic surprise
been de luxe. Moving-pictures by the on the world, recruits who enlisted six
foremast, band concerts on the promenade- months before our own declaration of war
deck forward, boxing-bouts in the well of last April, recruits who signed up after
the ship between, made bridge life seem the declaration. All the teens and the
like an over-idealized La Follette shipping twenties and early thirties were repre-
bill. Now that we were at sea, only the sented, and all grades from men of the
boxing-bouts were held. They came on college and other well-bred types to men
regularly and with gusto about six-thirty representing our least excellent American
every evening. citizenship. I ran on people from every

We went out in three groups, all part of the country except New England
headed, we surmised, for the same port in and the Pacific Northeast. All offered
France. This surmise was largely con- themselves to the army. Why did they?
firmed when we found systematic rendez- And of those who did it after our declara-
vous of the groups established from time tion of war, what was their idea of our
to time on the voyage. We
put to sea on reason for being in the war and their rea-
a Thursday, a group of seven ships in all. son for wishing to take part in it at the
So far as that night and Friday went, we outset ?

were alone on the journey. But occasion- The main answer to all these questions
ally a wisp of smoke was reported to star- — and many more that might come up re-
board, sometimes forward, sometimes abaft garding the origins and progress and out-
the beam. A wisp of smoke or wisps of —
comes of the war was astoundingly sim-
smoke might be anything, cargo- or passen- ple. They understood their country had
ger-boats headed east or west, even a Ger- to go to war, was forced into it because
man raider— anything but a German there was no other resource that had not
squadron, thanks to an overwhelming fleet been exhausted, and so they signed up.
of an ally in the North Sea. But the wisp That seemed an all-sufficient reason, and
of smoke grew to two, to three, to more, once offered naively as all-sufficient, it did
and kept pace with us. Late that first seem so. I had been associating for a year
Saturday afternoon one of our other two and a half with a young man who thought
groups was in good view to starboard and perhaps he ought to go into the war.
astern — ten ships in all, an imposing There was no real reason under the sun
cruiser, transports, and other escort. That why he should not go if he felt that way;

midnight the group sailed past us. At four but he had weighed it and discussed it and
in the morning they were well ahead of us, decided for it and decided against it. Fi-
getting low down on our horizon. Two nally he committed himself to the auxiliary-
days later we had not seen them again. cruiser service, and two days before he was
The whole ship's company soon fell into to start backed out. He then started off
its routine and its settled mood. There to enlist National Guard of his
in the
was setting-up drill for the soldiers morn- State for more preliminary training just
ing, afternoon, and evening; there was before the Conscription Bill would have
frequent gun practice for the naval crews. ended all his agonizings and hesitations.
Fire and boat drill came for all hands. In some way these fellows of the regiments
Manoeuvers of the transports and escort aboard made him seem unbelievably gro-
kept everybody either busy or interested. tesque. One private, nineteen years old,
THE FIRST CONVOY 793
from the open-pit iron-ore mines of north- dark of belated dawn. Her yellow eye
ern Michigan, stated the stark proposi- blinked her name and number, No. — —
tion : the S , —
and as she drew nearer her
"I figured I was born an American, I 'd name was given us again in the signal-flags
had my schooh'ng and got my first job in of the international code. Off to star-
Michigan, and that it was up to me to board, heading in toward us at about the
quit and fight. If I was good enough for same angle as the S had come in off
all I had had from the country, the coun- to port, another destroyer was reported
try was good enough for me to fight for. I from the forward crow's-nest, and was Im-
have a brother who was earning seven mediately visible from the bridge. A lit-

dollars a day running a winch at one of tle forward of the beam another one was
the mines. He quit, too, feeling the same seen farther out. That seemed like good
way. He 's in the navy. I Ve got an- measure for the two we expected. Five
other brother in the cavalry. My first minutes later the J No. tore , — ,

brother would have gone, too, first crack through the mist to port, and before long
ofF the bat, only he 's married ; and so the M showed up abaft the beam,
he '11 wait awhile. My mother 'sGer- also to port. Five of Uncle Sam's finest
man, and my father 's French. No won- destroyers from somewhere off the coast
der I got a boil on my neck. They 're of England and France had showed up to
both dead. I don't know either language." us somewhere else off the coast of Eng-
So far as the justification of the war land and France, and with our steady es-
is concerned, these soldiers seemed to ac- corts, the J and the P made ,

cept President Wilson's phrase "making seven destroyers for our little column of
the world safe for democracy" at its full the cruiser, three transports, and the col-
face-value. There is a general acceptance lier. We swung into the actual, official
of the fact that Germany has "gone the danger zone amply protected.
limit," and, if not defeated, would push Boat drill came at nine-thirty. We
that same limit a little further, in war or swung the boats to the level of the prome-
peace. nade-deck rail, and lashed them there.
The simple truth is interesting and not Portable steps were placed along the deck
discreditable. There were young recruits at each of the boats. It seemed almost a
in the bunks down in the hatchways weep- pity that so much preparation might,
ing as we sailed out of New York harbor. probably would, be wasted. But the de-
Homesickness and sheer horror of brutal stroyers had come through the mist to a
warfare in a strange land hurt to tears. dot for a rendezvous appointed a month
The same condition prevailed with a few ago for this place and hour. They w^ere
of them after we sighted the French coast cutting in and out among us. A subma-
and neared the port. And I, at least, was rine's chances were pretty slim.
not ashamed of them. They will be none It was all very impressive. We took it

the worse fighters and none the less willing and admira-
a little sardonically, necessary
fighters for it. ble as it was. You see, we were simply a
On twelfth day we entered the
the merchant ship's company who had been
danger zone or thereabouts. Shortly after used to carrying the ship and its crew and
four that Monday morning the cruiser its passengers and its cargo "through the

wigwagged that we would make rendez- zone" for two years and a half, with an
vous with two United States destroyers occasional zigzag, in about ten days' time
sometime around six o'clock. The -sea was between New York and Liverpool. For
dull the sky was overcast mist hung on
; ; eleven days now we had
been in the midst
the horizon. At five-twenty, a couple of of changing speeds, manoeuvers, flag-sig-
points ofF our bow to port, a low, swift naling, until we had wondered vaguely
shape came through the mist, telegraphing how we ever got across before. The ex-
her identification across the transient half- pedition was too important to omit any
794 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
precaution, but we were a little sated, if off the starboard beam that was finally
the truth must be had had a
told. We reduced, under questioning of the lookout,
paraphernalia of military lookouts aboard to a length of two inches; a dead fish

in extra crow's-nests, strung along the eight hundred yards away; and of course
promenade-deck, on each end of the bridge, periscopes innumerable were incidents of
who certainly were zealous, whatever else two days. The sailor out of the ship's
they were. We
half suspected inadequacy crew, stationed forward lower
in the
in our own extra man out on the forecas- crow's-nest, was seldom heard from.
tle-head, our regular man in the regular Westeered by "pegs" instead of degrees
crow's-nest, watch on
and our usual close or points; that is, black-and-white staffs
the bridge in other voyaging, though we placed on the bridge-rail for the quarter-
longed for it. When we were not step- master at the wheel to keep his line with
ping on military lookouts in the wings of the cruiser ahead, an excellent device and
the bridge we were tripping over signal- new to us. We received reports of ships
halyards lying all over the place. It was or logs or submarines at two o'clock, at
all very colorful and comprehensive, but three o'clock instead of abeam to star-
distracting. The bridge will never seem board, at six o'clock instead of astern, at
the same again on routine merchant ma- nine o'clock instead of abeam to port, at
rine watches. I wonder if it will be any half-past ten instead of four points off the
the less effective. port bow. All these are novelties that we
The signal-men were our chief delight. can assimilate ; but the reports of our sol-

"Jig, X-Ray, Tare," they would sing dier lookouts ! It were a strange sea that
out, which meant simply that the flag-ship actually held all their marvels.
had hoisted a three-flag signal in the inter- The was bound to be a house of
ship
national code for the three letters, J, X, rumors, and many more floated up to the
and T, meaning whatever the code-book bridge than drifted down from it. No-
or the secret instructions said they meant body aboard the ship knew where we were
in that combination. "Love, Mike, going, but almost every place along the
Quack," they would call out, and hoist L, Atlantic coast of France had been the
M, and Q to our yard-arm in confirma- choice of various groups. Rumors that
tion of the flag-ship's signal. Words for one or the other two groups that made up
the letters is a device that helps distinct- our total convoy had been attiicked by
ness, but has Its humor. Military lookouts submarines were followed by rumors that
.on a ship are equally delightful, even both of them were safely in port well
though, if the truth be told, not so useful. ahead of us. The soldier lookouts had
I can imagine, just imagine, that in peace heard that they were to go back with the
times, or even in other war times, where ship, because they could see so many
everything to be sighted loomed well above things, presumably. Chaucer's "House of
the water, they would be useful additions Rumor," with thousand openings and
its

to the regular ship's lookout. But lookout shifting, whispering little airs, was no
in waters infested with submarines is spe- more crowded with Items than our ship
cialized lookout. It is minute, but not airs of mid-ocean plaj'ing upon it.
with the
too minute; inferential, but not wildly We drew near the shore of simny
imaginative ; cool and collected. Anything France in dull weather with an overcast
that clutters it Well, the ser-
impairs it. sky, squalls of driving rain, and a troubled
vices of soldiers on their one voyage across sea. At night the waxing moon had a
certainly clutters and distracts the regular thin light, and got few chances between
ship's lookout. Reports to the bridge be- clouds. We had notification on Tuesda\
came fantastic, with no principle of selec- evening of a French escort, and late Wed-
tion employed. An aeroplane astern In nesday morning— late, that is, as watches
mid-ocean that disappeared the instant it go; Itwas near nine o'clock — they sliowed
was observed a "log" tluee hundred vards
; up, two sjiecks off our jiort Ijow, mosquito
THE FIRST CONVOY 795
destroyers of the French navy, tiny craft, and lay there all that day and until ten
midgets alongside even our own escorting o'clock at night. The S , lucky ship,
destroyers, but speedy. They swung to drawing only sixteen feet, went into
and one remained to port,
off the cruiser, dock She had been tail-end ship
at once.
while the other cut across our line and all the way over, and the oflBcers on her

took its position to starboard. They bridge grinned as she passed us on her
scouted ahead for the thirty hours that way to dock. It cleared in the late after-
remained of the journey. noon to a sky of curious steely gray for a
Land does not "loom" on this low-lying' summer sky, too thin and too cold, sugges-
Biscayan shore. It showed faintly, her- tive of November or February. Great
alded by a lighthouse or two, toward six ovals of dirty gray and nearly black clouds
o'clock. We had already known from six stood up in this thin light ahead, and the
o'clock the night before that our port was moon in her first quarter rose astern of us
S , at the mouth of a small river, the and to port as we weighed anchor to pass
interesting city of N lying two hours' in. The N
had weighed her an-
or more travel inland. The rain pelted, chor just ahead of us, and swept past us
half a mist persisted, and the whole with bugle-calls going, bound out. All
experience was oddly without inspira- our company aboard cheered as we passed
tion or excitement— about as thrilling as on our opposite errands.
a Hoboken ferry docking at Twenty-third The French pilot, a short, heavily whisk-
Street. S lies in a bay of its own ered man, had been aboard all day. He
off the Bay of Biscay. Two great points and I had "hit it off together," and he had
reach out into the open, with some indi- talked of the war naturally, of the sea
cations of bluf¥ cut into by sandy beaches.' even more naturally, of Catholics and
Clumps of pine stood here and there along Protestants in France, of the vineyards
these bluffs, and the cultivated fields ran and orchards and grain-fields and cattle
to their very edges. This has been a cool pastures in sight from the bridge, even of
summer, a backward season, but the green poetry, particularly of Breteil, the people's
and yellow fields and the foliage of the poet living at St. IMalot.
trees showed from the ship as we drew It was w^eather of all the portents, just
into the harbor channel in all the lush-' as had been the early afternoon we
it

ness of the end of June. We passed slowly passed out from Sandy Hook. The pilot
between the with an occasional
buoys, handled the ship, new to him, with greater
dipping of the ensign from a harbor ferry- dash and accuracy than any other pilot
boat or a coastwise freighter. A British I ever have watched. He swung her
tramp slid past us, bound out, and a Nor-' around in narrow quarters off the first
wegian tramp as well. The shore boule- dock gate, and drove her with beautiful
vard, with its stone facing, lay alongside directness and exactness into the first basin.
our course, and the beaches were bare Then he passed into a lock that seemed
with half a tide. We
took the turn and hardly wide enough to accommodate her
swung into the harbor proper, and then huge girth, though as a matter of fact a
we saw the American base. Cruisers at thousand-ton local freighter was able to
anchor, transports in the bay. United lie alongside her there.
States naval launches plying between, Here it was, in this lock, waiting for
the collier A^ , a five-masted sailing twenty minutes to pass into the second
schooner — everything afloat in that har- dock, which was the one where our own
bor was American except the French tug- berth wms assigned, that we met the
boats and the ferry-boats that run up the French people. There is a street on both
river. Meantime the rain pelted stead- and the rue du Port,
sides of this lock,
ily,an increasing blow came in from the which was on our port side, as it hap-
old Bay of Biscay, and, to our disappoint- pened, though that is a poor pun, was
ment, we dropped anchor off the docks, crowded. Since Tuesday ships of the
796 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
convoy had been arriving and passing in, bow line!" and calls from the pilot in
and this was Thursday night. But the French.
spontaneous heartiness of the French wel- Our regimental band played the "Mar-
come had not worn down. The rue du seillaise" first, and the crowd greeted it

Port was jammed with French men, with a great roar. Then it played "God
French women, French girls (it is worth Save the King," then "The Star-Spangled
while making the division), French chil- Banner," and the roar from the crowd
dren, and American sailors and soldiers. almost outdid the first response to the
This was at ten forty-five, and the "Marseillaise."
moon had worked around toward the The girls on the quay astonished every-
ship's head a bit. Just as the people body then by singing the chorus to "Tip-
cheered, she came out from behind a berg perary," the substitute in this war for
of cloud and filled in between the sparse "The Girl I Left behind me." The next
electric lights along the quay. The houses songs came from the ship, "Suwanee
were within a girl's stone-throw of the River" and "Old Black Joe." The Johns
ship's side, and the long French windows Hopkins crowd of medical students were
of their second stories, the living-quarters forward on the promenade-deck, out of the
above a line of shops, were wide open, the lights. They put pep into the proceed-
lighted interiors giving us ship-folk a ings by singing "Hail, Hail, the Gang 's
frank glimpse of their domesticity over all here," and an American voice from the

the shoulders of the residents in their lit- quay called, "Give us another; give us a
tle iron balconies. The quay is lined with rag." The university men tried to resur-
an iron railing, and the crowd himg over rect "There '11 be a Hot Time in the Old
it, or were pressed over its spikes almost Town to-night," but it languished and
perilously. faded away. They sang "America" finally,
The first attempt after the general cheer with, it must be admitted, the usual grop-
was typically French in its attempt at ing for words after the first stanza.
adaptability. A group of young French- At eleven-twenty we left the lock and
men yelled, — —
"Heep heep hoo rah!" — passed into our dock. We warped into
and the familiar words in the unfamiliar our quay there very slowly,
particidar
inflections set the American into a good- leaving the crowd behind at the lock.
natured roar. Some American sailor al- Only a group of American soldiers
ready ashore from the earlier ships saved watched for us there on the quay. "Taps"
the situation by yelling to us aboard : was heard somewhere. "Well, good
"Sing a song! Say, the French girls night," they called to the privates of the
want you to sing a song." regiment forward. "Pleasant dreams. See
They
started to sing themselves, and you morning," and one man added,
in the

the song that rose from ship and shore


first "How like France so far?" "Avast
do you
was "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean." heaving," sounded the order from the
The next one was "John Brown's Body." bridge, the signal, "Finished with the en-
In among the singing came the routine gines," was flashed below, and the trans-
callsfrom bridge and quay for locking port with its first American contingent
through the ship, "Heave away that port had arrived.
For My Country
By LUCY STONE KELLER
only seven p.m., but
ITfeigning is am I in bed, gians because both legs are for the right
acute stomach trouble. I have leg and the sleeves are upside down), and
locked the door and pulled the bed against Carrie and Ada and Ruth and the cook
it. This is not to escape doing "my bit" take turns bandaging me. At first I re-
for my country, but because it is impera- sented such intimacy with the cook, but I
tive that I have a
time to w^ire a few
little have grown to appreciate her thoughtful-
buttons on my
and to rub liniment
clothes, ness in really endeavoring to stick the
on my aching muscles, due to last night's safety-pins into the bandages rather than
bandaging. I felt in no condition to have into me.
my pressure points for cut arteries located If a man has worked hard in an office
even though my daughter's examination in all day in order to make enough extra
"first aid" does come to-morrow. I have money to pay five assessments (Ada
suggested the gardener as my understudy, thought the gardener's wife should also
as I see no reason why he should not im- belong) to the "Women's Local League
personate a wounded soldier as heroically for Defense"; to make Red Cross endow-
as I. ments for the family, the servants, and the
Through my bedroom window I can see servants' friends; and to pay tuition for
Jim Sefton and his two sons making mili- wireless telegraphy, auto machinery, hos-
tary mistakes out in their side garden. pital nursing, agriculture, and street-car
Sefton is a lucky dog. He has just as conductor schools, he will find it very hard
good a time as his boys do he drills with ; to impersonate a cheerful "maimed sol-
them, goes on five-mile hikes, plays in that dier," a pose which is original with my
trench they 've made behind their hedge, daughter Carrie, and has found great fa-
and feels as important as a major-general. vor with all the neighbors.
I Ve always liked Sefton, but lately his It consists of a fractured leg, a vicious
manner has become overbearing and un- scalp wound, a torn brachial arterj-, and
pleasant. I try to excuse his attitude, real- a cracked patella. I have forgotten where
izing that he cannot know what it means this last thing is ; I have so many sore spots
to exist in a family of violently patriotic that I cannot remember the names of them
women. Last night he and his boys went all. In this pretty little play I am sup-
to the armory They asked me to
to drill. posed to be utterly limp, with the excep-
go with them, but Ada (my wife that was, tion of my right arm, with which I hold
who now belongs to her country) has de- the "first-aid" book aloft that I may in-
cided that my first duty to my country lies struct the patriotic practice on my person,
in attending strictly to business and sup- I wish to impress upon any who read that
porting three dependent women. So in the only a man of iron constitution and per-
evenings I get into my pajamas (a left- fect health will be able to survive. Flesh
over pair that were not sent to the Bel- pinned together with large, blunt safety-
797
798 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
pins is unbelievably demoralizing to the in a locomotive engineering class, we shall
nerves, as are also the slivers in the splints. soon have enough money saved to buy half
The book is rather firm on the point that a bushel of potatoes to plant in the tennis-
splints should be padded, but Ada does not court.
consider it necessary in mere practice. Although Ada and Ruth have signed up
Perhaps I should be in better condition for a thirty-dollar agricultural course, they
to stand the bandaging were it not that do not evince the same enthusiasm in it

for an hour every evening, after an eco- as in their other activities. Thus / am
nomical dinner, I am obliged to lie on my delegated to spade up the concrete tennis-
back in the garage and wrestle with the court, a duty I do not look forward to with
chaos in the automobile engine ; for our pleasure, it has to be done
especially as
modest car has been subjected to somewhat with the furnace tools and the snow-shovel
the same activities as have I, due to Car- because every possible cent must be put
rie's forty-five-dollar course in a patriotic aside toward equipping a bed in our local
night school to learn engine mechanism. base hospital. The gardener expects to
As a result, our engine departed this life enlist and has stopped work.
of usefulness over two weeks ago, Carrie We have been working for that hospital
ha\ing found, in dissecting it, several parts bed for over a month by abstaining from
which resembled pictures in Ruth's wire- the use of potatoes and onions. Although
less-telegraphy book, and having sent them I was never acutely fond of either vege-
to Ruth's instructor for an explanation. table, I cannot seem to develop the Chinese
In this way a number were
of essentials instinct for rice. Three Belgian babies are
lost ; that is, they are not here, though subsisting on our salad courses and desserts,
Carrie is certain they are not lost. The so it has come to the point where our din-
cook has experimented with all the kitchen ners consist chiefly of faint soup and phil-
utensils, but the engine remains wisely anthropic ideals.
dead. I want to explain that were it in It irritates me to see Sefton marching
my power I should hire a mechanic, but around over there with the clothes-line
Ada has already applied to the potato fund post over his shoulder. I have a disagree-

the amount that he would be paid. able feeling that he thinks he is doing more
Unless the cook should decide to enroll for his country than I am.

Conquerors
Hy ROBERT GILBERT WELSH

BYVague, an impulse
yet compelling.
Who scorned the
Rut was induced
gift.

to accept it

The porter and the watchman At last


^Vent off on a spree. With specific gravity.

At the height of the orgw The bacchanal is o\er,


The porter di\'i(le(l the world And the celebrants
halves, Are making the rounds
Kept one for himself Of the emplo\ nient agencie:
And donated tiie otiier In the quest
With due solemnity For new worlds
To his friend the watchman. Eo conquer.
IN LIGHTER. VEIN 799

The Hall of Infamy


Verse by W R. BURLINGAME. Drawings by W. E. HILI

m
v^

1
•*^-
i!

THE MAN WHO IS AWFULLY CHEERY EARLY IN THE MORNING


The early morning is, to me, At dawn does not attract me much.
Unsuitable for gaiety This man, with whom I dwell, I find
In fact, I cannot veil my wrath Is of that wholesome turn of mind
At those who sing while in their bath Whereby he always feels most fit
In doubtful keys, and splash and shout, When I am just the opposite.
And make absurd remarks about And so I '11 place within the hall
The glorious world. The world, as such, His manly statue, bath and all.
800 THE CtxN rURY MAGAZINE

THE LADY WHO ALWAYS APPEARS WITH A GAME OF LETTERS WHERE


TWO OR THREE ARE GATHERED TOGETHER

I OFTEN like to sit and chat, With my amusement on her mind,


Upon a porch, of this and that Observe her eager tiptoe, and
And take short flights on fancy's wings The game of "authors" in her hand.
Without the aid of games and things. The hall shall certainly contain
My hostess, though, is always pained Such hostesses who entertain
To see me thus unentertained. And will not let one sit and chat
I feel her looming up hehind (Upon a porch) of this antl tiuit.
-^:^^y:-~,j'-- .m^

Portrait of an Uld Man


PAINTING BY HANS MEM LING
the Metropolitan .Museum ..f Art. New York
Decorations by Wilfred Jones

AFTP'R two years we are turning once as if it awoke from a long sleep, and began
*." to the morning's news with a
more to roll onward, overwhelming the enemy.
sense of appetite and glad expectation.
There were thrills at the beginning of the The secret of the long inaction of the
war, the thrill and of a doom
of horror British armies has been well kept. On
that seemed at once incredible and certain. the one hand it was rigorously protected
This was when Namur fell, and the Ger- by the censorship, which, severe, and some-
man host swelled like a flood over the times severe to the point of absurdity, be-
French fields, and drew very near to the came in this particular matter ferocious.
walls of Paris. Then we felt the thrill of As soon as the real significance of that
exultation when the good news came that which was happening was perceived by the
the awful tide had been turned back, that authorities, an underlined circular was
Paris and the world were safe, for a while, issued to the newspaper proprietors of
at all events. Great Britain and Ireland. It warned

Then for days we hoped for more news each proprietor that he might impart the
as good as this or better. Has Kluck been contents of this circular to one other per-
surrounded ? Not to-day, but perhaps he son only, such person being the responsible
will be surrounded to-morrow. But the editor of his paper, who was to keep the

days became weeks, the weeks drew out to communication under the severest
secret
months ; the battle in the West seemed penalties. The circular forbade any men-
frozen. People speculated as to the reason tion of certain events that had taken place,
of this inaction : the hopeful said that that might take place; it forbade any kind
Joffre had a plan, that he was "nibbling" of reference to these events or any hint of
others declared that we were short of their existence. The subject was not to be
munitions, others again that the new levies referred to in conversation, itwas not to
were not yet ripe for battle. So the be hinted at, however obscurely, in letters:
months went by, and almost two years of the very existence of the circular, its sub-
war had been completed before the motion- ject apart, was to be a dead secret.
less luiglish line began to stir and quiver Now, a censorship that is sufficiently
The Century Co. All rights rssened.

SOI
802 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
minute and utterly remorseless can do the new and incredible danger could be
amazing things in the way of hiding what overcome. It has been overcome, — rather,
it wants to hide. Once one would have perhaps, it has ceased to exist, — and the
thought otherwise one would have said
; secret may now be told.
that, censor or no censor, the fact of the I have said my attention was attracted
murder at X would certainly become by an account of the death of a well-known
known, if not through the press, at all airman. I have not the habit of preserving
events through rumor and the passage of cuttings, I am sorry to say, so that I can-
the news from mouth to mouth. And this not be precise as to the date of this event.
would be true of England three hundred To the best of my belief it was either to-
years ago. But we have grown of late to ward the end of May or the beginning of
such a reverence for the printed word and June, 191 5. The manner in which West-
such a reliance oti" it that the'-old faculty ern-Reynolds met his death struck me as
of disseminating news by word of mouth extraordinary. He was brought down by
has become atrophied. Forbid the press to a flight of pigeons, as appeared by what
mention the fact that Jones has been mur- was found on the blood-stained and shat-
dered, and it is marvelous how few peo- tered blades of the propeller. An eye-
ple will hear of it, and of those who witness of the accident, a fellow-oflicer,
hear how few will credit the story that described how Western-Reynolds set out
they have heard. from the aerodrome on a fine afternoon,
And, then, again, the very fact of these there being hardly any wind. He was
vain rumors and fantastic tales having going to France.
been so widely believed for a time was " 'Wester' rose to a great height at once,

fatal to the credit of any stray mutterings and we could scarcely see the machine. I

that may have got abroad. was turning to go when one of the fellows
Before the secret circular had been is- called out: 'I say! What 's this?' He
sued my curiosity had somehow been pointed up, and we saw what looked like
aroused by certain paragraphs concerning a black cloud coming from the south at a
a 'Tatal Accident to Well-known Air- tremendous I saw at once it was n't
rate.
man." The propeller of the airplane had a cloud it came with a swirl and a rush
;

been shattered, apparently by a collision quite different from any cloud I 've ever
with a flight of pigeons the blades had ; seen. It turned into a great crescent, and
been broken, and the machine had fallen wheeled and veered about as if it was
like lead to the earth. And soon after I looking for something. The man who
had seen this account, I heard of some had called out had got his glasses, and was
very odd circumstances relating to an ex- staring for all he was worth. Then he
plosion in a great munition factory in the shouted that it was a tremendous flight of
Midlands. I thought I saw the possibility birds, 'thousands of them.' They went on
of a connection between two very different wheeling and beating about high up in the
events. air, and we were watching them, thinking
It has been pointed out to me by friends it was interesting, but not supposing that
who have been good enough to read this they would make any difference to 'Wes-
record that certain phrases I have used ter,' who was just about out of sight. Then
may give the impression that I ascribe all the two arms of the crescent drew in as
the delaj's of the war on the Western front quick as lightning, and these thousands of
to the extraordinary circumstances which birds shot in a solid mass right up there
occasioned the issue of the secret circular. across the and flew away.
sky, Then
Of course this is not the case; there were Henley, the man with the glasses, called
many reasons for the immobility of our out, 'He 's down!' and started running,
lines from October, 1914, to July, IQ16. and I went after him. We got a car, and
We could undertake to supply the defects as we were going along Henley told me
of our armv both in men and munitions if that he 'd seen the machine drop dead, as
THE COMING OF THE TERROR 803
if it came out of that cloud of birds. AVe
found the propeller-bhides all broken ami

covered with and pigeon-feathers,


blood
and carcasses of the birds had got wedged
in between the blades, and were sticking

to them."
It was, I think, about a week or ten
days after the airman's death that my
business called me
Northern town, to a
the name of which, perhaps, had better re-
main unknown. My mission was to in-
quire into certain charges of extravagance
which had been laid against the munition-
workers of this special town. I found, as
usual, that there was a mixture of truth
and exaggeration in the stories that I had
heard. district of the disaster, a sort of industrial

"And how can you be surprised if people suburbj five miles from the center of the
will have a bit of a fling?" a worker said town. When I asked for the factory, I

to me. "We 're seeing money for the first was told thatwas no good my going to
it

time in our lives, and it 's bright. And it, as there was nobody there. But I found
we work hard for it, and we risk our lives it, a raw and hideous shed, with a walled

to get it. You 've heard of explosion yard about it, and a shut gate. I looked
yonder?" for signs of destruction, but therewas
He mentioned certain works on the out- nothing. The roof was quite undamaged ;

skirts of the town. Of course neither the and again it struck me that this had been
name of the works nor that of the town a strange accident. There had been an
had been printed there had been a brief
; explosion of sufficient violence to kill peo-
notice of "Explosion at Munition Works ple in the building, but the building itself
in the Northern District: Many Fatal- showed no wounds or scars.
ities." The working-man told me about A man came out of the gate and locked
it, and added some dreadful details. it behind him. I began to ask him some

"They would n't let their folks see sort of question, or, rather, I began to
bodies; screwed them up in cofl'ins as the\ "open" for a question with "A terrible
found them in shop. The gas had done it." business here, they tell me." or some such
"Turned their faces black, you mean?" phrase of convention. I got no further.
"Nay. They were all as if they had The man asked me if I saw a policeman
been bitten to pieces." walking down the street. I said I did,
This was a strange gas. and I was given the choice of getting
I asked the man in the Northern town about my business forthwith or of being
all sorts of questions about the extraordi- instantly given in charge as a spy. "Th'
nary explosion of which he had spoken to 'ast better be gone, and quick about it,"

me, but he had very little more to say. As was, I think, his final advice, and I took it.

I have noted already, secrets that may not It was a da>' or two later that the acci-
be printed are often deeply kept ; last sum- dent to the airman AVestern-Reynolds
mer there were very few people outside came into m\ mind. For one of those in-
high oflRcial circles who knew anything stants which are far shorter than any
about the "tanks," of which we have all measure of time there flashed out the possi-
been talking lately, though these strange bility of a link between the two disasters.
instruments of war were being exercised But here was a wild impossibility, and I
and tested in a park not far from London. drove it away. And yet I think that the
I gave him up, and took a tram tu the thought, mad as it seemed, never left me
804 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
it was the secret light that at last guided years old. Still, as the neighbors said.
me through a somber grove of enigmas. "That 's how it must have happened; and
it 's a great pity, to be sure." But this
It was about this time, so far as the date would not do when in a week's time a
can be fixed, that a whole district, one strong young laborer failed to come to his
might say a whole county, was visited by a cottage after the day's work. His body
series of extraordinary and terrible calami- was found on the rocks six or seven miles
ties, which were the more terrible inas- from the cliffs where the child was sup-
much as they continued for some time to posed to have fallen he was going home ;

be inscrutable mj'steries. It is indeed by a path that he had used every night of


doubtful whether these awful events do his life for eight or nine years, that he
not still remain mysteries to many of those used on dark nights in perfect security,
concerned ; for before the inhabitants of knowing every inch of it. The police
this part of the country had time to join asked if he drank, but he was a teetotaler
one link of evidence to another the circu- if he was subject to fits, but he was n't.

lar was issued, and thenceforth no one And he was not murdered for his wealth,
knew how to distinguish undoubted fact since agricultural laborers are not wealthy.
from wild and extravagant surmise. It was only possible again to talk of slip-
The district in question is in the far pery turf and a false step ; but people be-
west of Wales; I shall call it, for conve- gan to be frightened. Then a woman was
nience, Meirion. Here, then, one sees a found with her neck broken at the bottom
wild and divided and scattered region, a of a disused quarry near Llanfihangel, in
land of outland hills and secret and hid- the middle of the county. The false-step
den valleys. theory was eliminated here, for the quarry
Such, then, in the main is Meirion, and was guarded by a natural hedge of gorse.
on this land in the early summer of last One would have to struggle and fight
year terror descended —a terror without through sharp thorns to destruction in

shape, such as no man there had ever such a place as this and indeed the gorse
;

known. was broken, as if some one had rushed


It began with the tale of a little child furiously through it, just above the place
who wandered out into the lanes to pick where the woman's body was found. And
flowers one sunny afternoon, and never this also was strange: there was a dead
came back to the cottage on the hill. It sheep lying beside her in the pit, as if the
was supposed that she must have crossed woman and the sheep together had been
the road and gone to the cliff's edge, possi- chased over the brim of the quarr^^ But
bly in order to pick the sea-pinks that were chased by whom or by what? And then
then in full blossom. She must have therewas a new form of terror.
slipped, they said, and fallen into the sea, This was in the region of the marshes
two hundred feet below. It may be said under the mountain. A man and his son,
at once that there was no doubt some truth a lad of fourteen or fifteen, set out earl>
in though it stopped far
this conjecture, one morning to work, and never reached
short of the whole truth. 'The child's the farm whence they were bound. Their
body must have been carried out by the way skirted the marsh, but it was broad,
tide, for it was never found. firm, and well metalled, and it had been
The conjecture of a false step or of a raised about two feet above the bog. But
fatal slide on the slippery turf that slopes when search was made in the evening of
down to the rocks was accepted as being the same day, Phillips and his son were
the only explanation possible. People found dead in the marsh, covered with
thought the accident a strange one, because, black slime and pond-weed. And they lay
as a rule, country children living by the some ten yards from the path, which, it
cliffs and the sea become wary at an early would seem, they must have left delib-
age, and the little girl was almost ten erately. It was useless, of course, to look
THE COMING OF THE TERROR 8(J5

for tracks in the black ooze, for if one sion of death, who prowled darkling about
threw a big stone into it, a few seconds that lonely land, hiding in woods and in

removed all marks of the disturbance. wild places, always watching and seeking
The men who found the two bodies bear for the victims of his desire.
about the verges and purlieus of the marsh Indeed, Dr. Lewis, who found poor
in hope of finding some trace of the mur- Williams, his wife, and children, was con-
derers they went to and fro over the ris-
; vinced at first that the presence of a con-
ing ground where the black cattle were cealed madman in the countr\-side offered
grazing, they searched the alder-thickets the only possible solution to the difficulty.
by the brook: but they discovered nothing. "I felt sure," he said to me afterward,
Most horrible of all these horrors, per- "that the Williamses had been killed b\ a
haps, was the affair of the Highway, a homicidal maniac. It was the nature of
lonely and unfrequented by-road that the poor creatures' injuries that convinced
winds for many miles on high and lonely me that this was the case. Those poor
land. Here, a mile from any other dwell- people had their heads smashed to pieces
ing, stands a cottage on the edge of a dark by what must have been a storm of blows.
wood. It was inhabited by a laborer Any one of them would have been fatal,
named Williams, and their three
his wife, but the murderer must have gone on rain-
children. One hot summer's evening a ing blows with his iron hammer on people
man who had been doing a day's garden- who were already stone-dead. And that
ing at a rectory three or four miles away sort of thing is thework of a madman, and
passed the cottage, and stopped for a few nothing but a madman. That 's how I
minutes to chat with Williams, who was argued the matter out to myself just after
pottering about his garden, while the chil- the event.was utterly wrong, mon-
I

dren were playing on the path by the door. strously wrong; but who could have sus-
The two talked of their neighbors and of pected the truth ?"
the potatoes Mrs. Williams appeared
till I quote Dr. Lewis, or the substance of
at the doorway and said supper was ready, him, as representative of most of the edu-
and Williams turned to go into the house. cated opinion of the district at the begin-
This was about eight o'clock, and in the nings of the terror. People seized on this
ordinary course the family would haxe had theory largely because it offered at least
their supper and be in bed by nine, or b\
half-past nine at the latest. At ten o'clock
that night the local doctor was driving
home along the Highway. His horse shied
violently and then stopped dead just oppo-
site the gate to the cottage. The doctor
got down, and there on the roadway lay
Williams, his wife, and the three children,
stone-dead. Their skulls were battered in
as if by some heavy iron instrument ; their
faces were beaten into a pulp.
It is not easy to make any picture of the
horror that lay dark on the hearts of the
people of Meirion. It was no longer pos- the comfort of an explanation, and an\-
sible to believe or to pretend to believe explanation, even the poorest, is better
that these men and women and children than an intolerable and terrible mystery.
had met their deaths through strange acci- Besides. Dr. Lewis's theory was plausible
dents. For a time people said that there it explained the lack of purpose that
must be a madman at large, a sort of coun- seemed to characterize the murders.
try variant of Jack the Ripper, some hor- And \et there were difficulties even
rible pervert who was possessed b\ the pas- from the first. It was hardl> possible that
806 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
a strange madman would be able to keep wild surmises ; for at about this time peo-
hidden in a country-side where any stranger ple realized none of the dreadful
that
is instantly noted and noticed ; sooner or events that were happening all about them

later he would be seen as he prowled along was so much as mentioned in the press.
the lanes or across the wild places. Horror followed on horror, but no word
Then another theory, or, rather, a vari- was printed in any of the local journals.
ant of Dr. Lewis's theory, was started. The curious went to the newspaper offices.
This was to the effect that the person re- — there were two left in the county, but —
sponsible for the outrages was indeed a found nothing save a firm refusal to dis-
madman, but a madman only at intervals. cuss the matter. Then the Cardiff papers
It was one ©f the members of the Forth were drawn and found blank, and the
Club, a certain Mr. Remnant, who was London press was apparently ignorant of
supposed to have originated this more sub- the fact that crimes that had no parallel
tle explanation. Mr. Remnant was a mid- were terrorizing a whole country-side.
dle-aged man who, having nothing partic- Everybody wondered what could have hap-
ular to do, read a great many books by pened, what was happening; and then it
way of conquering the hours. He tal-ked was whispered that the coroner would al-
to the club— doctors, retired colonels, par- low no inquiry to be made as to these
sons, lawyers — about "personality," quoted deaths of darkness.
various psychological text-books in support Clearly, people reasoned, these govern-
of his contention that personality was ment restrictions and prohibitions could
sometimes and unstable, went back
fluid only refer to the war, to some great dan-
to "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" as good ger in connection with the w^r. And that
evidence of this proposition, and laid stress being so, it followed that the outrages
on Dr. JekyU's speculation that the human which must be kept so secret were the
soul, so far from being one and indivisible, work of the enemy ; that is, of concealed
might possibly turn out to be a mere pol- German agents.
ity, a state in which dwelt many strange It is time, I think, for me to make one
and incongruous citizens, whose characters point clear. I began this history with cer-
were not merely unknown, but altogether tain references to an extraordinary acci-
unsurmised by that form of consciousness dent to an airman whose machine fell to
which rashly assumed that it was not only the ground after collision with a huge
the president of the republic, but also its flock of pigeons, and then to an explosion
sole citizen. in a Northern munition factory of a very

However, Mr. Remnant's somewhat singular kind. Then I deserted the neigh-
crazy theory became untenable when two borhood of London and the Northern dis-
more victims of an awful and mysterious trict, and dwelt on a mysterious and terri-

death were offered up in sacrifice, for a ble series of events which occurred in the
man was found dead in the Llanfihangel summer of 19 15 in a Welsh county, which
quarry where the woman had been dis- I have named for convenience Meirion.

covered, and on the same day a girl of fif- Well, let it be understood at once that
teen was found broken on the jagged all this detail that I have given about the

rocks under the cliffs near Forth. Now, occurrences in Meirion does not imply that
it appeared that these two deaths must the county in Wales was alone or specially
have occurred at about the same time, afflicted by the terror that was over tiie

within an hour of one another, certainly, land. They tell me that in the villages
and the distance between the quarry and about Dartmoor the stout Devonsiiire
the cliffs by Black Rock is certainly twenty hearts sank as men's hearts used to sink
miles. in the time of plague and pestilence. There

And now a fresh circumstance or set of was horror, too, about the Norfolk Broads,
circumstancesbecame manifest to con- and far up by Ferth no one would venture
found judgment and to awaken new and on the path that leads by Scone to the
THP: COIMING OK THK TKRROR 807
waoded heights above the Ta\-. And in who tile agents of this terrible design were,
the industrial districts. I met a man by as to where they lived, as to how they con-
chance one day in an odd London corner trived to move unseen from field to field,

who spoke with horror of what a friend from lane to lane. All sorts of fantastic
had told him. attempts were made to answer these ques-
" 'Ask no questions, Ned,' he says to tions, but it was felt that they remained

me, 'but I tell yow a was in Bairnigan unanswered. Some suggested that the
t' other day, and a met a pal who 'd seen murderers landed from submarines, or
three hundred coffins going out of a works tlew from hiding-places on the west coast
"
not far from there.' of Ireland, coming and going by night;
Then there was the vessel that hovered but there were seen to be flagrant impossi-
outside the mouth of the Thames with all bilities in both these suggestions. Kver\-
sails set,and beat to and fro in the wind, body agreed that the evil work was no
and never answered any signals and showed doubt the work of Germany but noboils ;

no light. The forts shot at her, and could begin to guess haw it was done.
brought down one of the' masts; but she It was, I suppose, at about this time
went suddenly about, stood down channel, when the people were puzzling their heads
and drove ashore at last on the sand-banks as to the secret methods used by the Cier-
and pine-woods of Arcachon, and not a mans or their agents to accomplish their
man alive on her, but only rattling heaps crimes that a very singular circumstance
of bones! That last voyage of the Se/nir- became known to a few of the Forth peo-
amis would be something horribly worth ple. It related to the murder of the Wil-
telling but I heard it only at a distance
; liams family on the Highway in front of
as a yarn, and believed it only because it their cottage door. Ido not know that I
squared with other things that 1 knew for have made it plain that the old Roman
certain. road called the Highway follows the
This, then, is my point: I have written course of a long, steep hill that goes stead-
of the terror as it fell on Meirion simply ily westward till it slants down toward
because have had opportunities of get-
I the sea. On each side of the road the
ting close there to what really happened. ground falls away, here into deep shadowy
Well, I have said that the people of woods, here into high pastures, but for the
that far Western county realized not only most part into the wild and broken land
that death was abroad in their quiet lanes that is characteristic of Arfon.
and on their peaceful hills, but that for Now, on the lower slopes of it, beneath
some reason it was to be kept secret. And the Williams cottage, some three or four
so they concluded that this veil of secrecy fields down the hill, there is a military
must somehow be connected with the war camp. The place has been used as a camp
and from this position it was not a long for many years, and latel\- the site lias

way to a further inference that the mur- been extended and huts have been erected ;

derers of innocent men and women and but a considerable number of men the

children were either Germans or agents of were under canvas here in the summer of
Germany. It would be just like the Huns, 1915.
everybody agreed, to think out such a dev- On the night of the Highway murder
ilish scheme as this and they always ; this camp, as it appeared afterward, was
thought out their schemes beforehand. the scene of the extraordinary panic of
It all seemed plausible enough Ger- ; horses.

many had by this time perpetrated so man\ A good many men in the camp were
horrors and had so excelled in devilish in- asleep in their tents soon after 9 : ?o. They
genuities that no abomination seemed too woke up in panic. There was a thunder-
abominable to be probable or too inge- ing sound on the steep hillside above them,
niously wicked to be be\ond her tortuous and down upon the tents caine half a
malice. But then came the questions as to dozen horses, mad with fright, trampling
THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
the canvas, trampling the men, bruising favoriteDorking cock had gone mad. She
dozens of them, and killing two. came Forth one Saturday morning
into
Everything vi^as in wild confusion, men with her face and her neck all bound up
groaning and screaming in the darkness, and plastered. She had gone out to her
struggling with the canvas and the twisted bit of field to feed the poultry the night
and some of them, raw lads enough,
r-opes, before, and the bird had flown at her and
shouting out that the Germans had at last attacked her most savagely, inflicting some
landed. verv nasty wounds before she could beat
Some of the men had seen the horses it off.

galloping down the hill as if terror itself "There was a stake handy, lucky for
was driving them. They scattered off me," she said, "and I did beat him and
into the darkness, and somehow or other beat him till the life was out of him. But
found their way back in the night to their what is come to the world, whatever?"
pasture above the camp. They were graz-
ing there peacefully in the morning, and Now Remnant, the man of theories, was
the only sign of the panic of the night be- also a man of extreme leisure. He was no
fore was the mud they had scattered all more brutal than the general public, which
over themselves as they pelted through a revels in the details of mysterious crime
patch of wet ground. The farmer said but it must be said that the terror, black
they were as quiet a lot as any in Meirion ; though it was, was a boon to him. He
he could make nothing of it. peered and investigated and poked about
Then two or three other incidents, quite with the relish of a man to whose life a
as odd and incomprehensible, came to be new zest has been added. He listened
known, borne on chance trickles of gossip attentively to the strange tales of bees and
that came into the towns from outland dogs and poultry that came into Forth with
farms. And in such ways it came out that the country baskets of butter, rabbits, and
up at Plas Newydd there had been a ter- green peas, and he evolved at last a most
rible business over swarming the bees extraordinary theory. He went one night
they had turned as wild as wasps and much to see Dr. Lewis.
more savage. They had come about the "I want to talk to you," he said to the
people who were taking the swarms like a doctor, "about what I have called provi-
cloud. They settled on one man's face so sionally the Z-ray."
that you could not see the flesh for the Dr. Lewis, smiling indulgently, and
bees crawling over it, and they had stung quite prepared for some monstrous piece
him so badly that the doctor did not know of theorizing, led Remnant into the room
whether he would get well they had ; that overlooked the terraced garden and
chased a girl who had come out to see the the sea.
swarming, and settled on her and stung "I suppose, Lewis, you 've heard these
her to death. Then they had gone off to extraordinary stories of bees and dogs and
a brake below the farm and got into a things that have been going about lately?"
hollow tree, and it was not safe to go near "Certainly I have heard them. I was
it, for they would come out at you by day called in at Flas Newydd, and treated
or by night. Thomas Trevor, who 's only just out of
And much same thing had happened,
the danger, by the way. I certified for the
it seemed, at three or four farms and cot- poor child, Mary Trevor. She was dying
tages where bees were kept. And there when I got to the place."
were stories, hardly so clear or so credible, "Well, then there are the stories of
of sheep-dogs, and trusted beasts,
mild good-tempered old sheep-dogs turning
turning as savage as wolves and injuring wicked and 'savaging' children."
the farm boys in a horrible manner, in one "Quite so. I have n't seen any of these
case, it was said, with fatal results. It cases professionally ; but I believe the
was certainlv true that old Mrs. Owens's stories are accurate enough."
THE COMINC, OF THE TERROR 809
"And the old woman assaulted by her ried by a dog. And horses don't throw
own poultry?" people over cliffs or stifle them in marshes."
"That 's perfectly true." "No; I never meant to suggest any-
"Very good," said Mr, Remnant. He thing so absurd. It is evident to me that
spoke now with an italic impressiveness, in all these cases of animals turning sud-
"Don't you see the link betiveen all this denly savage the cause has been terror,
and the horrible things that have been hap- panic, fear. The horses that went charg-
f"
pening about here for the last month ing into the camp were mad with fright,
Lewis stared at Remnant in amazement. we know. And I say that in the other
He lifted his red e^'ebrows and lowered instances we have been discussing the cause
thei^i in a kind of scowl. His speech showed was the same. The creatures were ex-
traces of his native accent. posed to an infection of fear, and a fright-
"Great burning:;!" he exclaimed, "what ened beast or bird or insect usesits weap-

on earth are you getting at now? It is ons, whatever they may be. If, for ex-

madness. Do
you mean to that tell me ample, there had been anybody wnth those
you think there is some connection between horses when they took their panic, they
a swarm or two of bees that have turned would have lashed out at him with their
nasty, a cross dog, and a wicked old barn- heels."
door cock, and these poor people that have "Yes, I dare say that that is so. \Vell ?"
been pitched over the cliffs and hammered demanded the doctor.
to death on the road ? There 's no sense "Well, my belief is that the Germans
in it, you know." have made an extraordinary discovery. 1

"I am strongly inclined to believe that have called it the Z-ray. You know that
there is a great deal of sense in it," re- the ether is merely an hypothesis we have ;

plied Remnant, with extreme calmness. to suppose that it 's there to account for
"Look here, LewMS, I saw you grinning the the passage of the Marconi current from
other day at the club when I was telling one place to another. Now, suppose that
the fellows that in my opinion all these there is a psychic ether as well as a mate-
outrages had been committed, certainly rial ether, suppose that it is possible to

by the Germans, but by some method of direct irresistible impulses across this me-
which we have no conception. Do you dium, suppose that these impulses are to-

see my point?" ward murder or suicide ; then I think that


"Well, in a sort of way. "V'ou mean you have an explanation of the terrible
there 's an absolute originality in the series of events that have been happening

method? I suppose that is so. But what in Meirion for the last few weeks. And
next ?" it is quite clear to my mind that the horses
Remnant seemed to hesitate, partly- from and the other creatures have been exposed
a sense of the portentous nature of what to this Z-ray, and that it has produced on

he was about to say, partly from a sort of them the effect of terror, \\ith ferocity as
half-unwillingness to part with so pro- the result of terror. Now, what do you
found a secret. say to that? Telepathy, you know, is well
"Well," he said, "you will allow that established ; so is hypnotic suggestion.
we have two sets of phenomena of a very Now don't you feel that putting telepathy
extraordinary kind occurring at the same and suggestion together, as it were, you
time. Don't you think that it 's only rea- have more than the elements of what I call

sonable to connect the two sets with one the Z-ray? I feel that I have more to go
another?" on in making my hypothesis than the in-
"So the philosopher of Tenterden stee- ventor of the steam-engine had in making
ple and the Goodwin Sands thought, cer- his hypothesis when he saw the lid of the
tainly," said Lewis. "But what is the kettle bobbing up and down. \Vhat do
connection ? Those poor folks on the you say ?"
Highway were n't stung by bees or wor- Dr. Lewis made no answer. He wa>^
810 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
watching the growtli of a new, unknown an enemy airsnip; their range, it had been
tree in his garden. said, was getting longer, and Lewis was
It was a dark summer night. The moon just going to call Remnant's attention to
was old and faint above the Dragon's the sound, to its and to the
possible cause,
Head, on the opposite side of the bay, and possible danger that might be hovering over
the air was very still. It was so still that them, when he saw something that caught
Lewis had noted that not a leaf stirred on his breath and his heart with wild amaze-
the very tip of a high tree that stood out ment and a touch of terror.
against the sky; and yet he knew that he He had been staring upward into the
was listening to som.e sound that he could sky, and, about to speak to Remnant, he
not determine or define. It was not the had let his eyes drop for an instant. He
wind in the leaves, it was not the gentle looked down toward the trees in the gar-
wash of the water of the sea against the den, and saw^ with utter astonishment that
rocks; that latter sound he could distin- one had changed its shape in the few hours
guish easily. But there was something that had passed since the setting of the
else. It was scarceh' a sound; it was as sun. There was a thick grove of ilexes
bordering the lowest terrace, and above
them rose one tall pine, spreading its head
of sparse branches dark against the sky.
As Lewis glanced down over the ter-
races he saw that the tall pine-tree was no
longer there. In its place there rose above
the ilexeswhat might have been a greater
ilex there was the blackness of a dense
;

growth of foliage rising like a broad, far-


spreading, and rounded cloud o\er the
lesser trees.
Dr. Lewis glared into the dimness of
the night, at the great, spreading tree that
he knew could not be there. And as he
gazed he saw that what at first appeared
the dense blackness of foliage was fretted
and starred with wonderful appearances
if the air itself trembled and fluttered, as of lights and colors.
the air trembles in a church when they The night had gloomed over; clouds
open the great pedal pipes of the organ. obscured the faint moon and the mist\-
The doctor listened intently. It was stars. Lewis rose, with some kind of warn-

not an illusion, the sound was not in his ing and inhibiting gesture to Remnant,
own head, as he had suspected for a mo- who, he was aware, was gaping at him in
ment; but for the life of him he could not astonishment. He walked to the open
make out whence it came or what it was. French window, took a pace forward on
He gazed down into the night, over tlie the path outside, and looked very intenth
terraces of his garden, now sweet with the at the dark shape of the tree. He shaded
scent of the flowers of the night; tried to tin- light of the lamp behind him by hold-

peer over the tree-tops across the sea to- ing his hands on each side of his eyes.
ward the Dragon's Head. It struck him '!1ie mass of the tree the tree tiiat—
suddenly that this strange, fluttering vi- could n't be there —stood out against the
bration of the air might be the noise of a sk\', but not so clearly now that the clouds
distant aeroplane or airshiji; there was had rolled up. Its edges, the limits of its

not the usual droning hum, but this sound leafage, were not so distinct. Lewis
might be caused by a new type of engine. thought that he could detect some sort of
A new type of engine? Possibly it was quivering nu)\ement in it, though the air
THE COIVIING OF THE TERROR 811

was at a dead calm. It was a night on "We were interrupted just as I was
which one might hold up a lighted match putting my case to jou," he said. "And
and watch it hurn without any wavering to sum it all up, it amounts to this: the
or inclination of the flame. Huns have made one of the great leaps of
"You know," said Lewis, "how a bit of science. They are sending 'suggestions'
burned paper will sometimes hang over (which amount to irresistible commands)
the coals before it goes up the chimney, and over here, and the persons affected are
little worms of fire will shoot through it. seized with suicidal or homicidal mania.
It was like that, if you should be standing In my opinion Evans was the murderer of
some distance away. Just threads and the Williams family. You know he said
hairs of yellow light I saw, and specks and he stopped to talk to Williams. It seems
sparks of fire, and then a twinkling of a to me simple. And as for the animals,—
ruby no bigger than a pin-point, and a the horses, dogs, and so forth, — they, as I

green wandering in the black, as if an say, were no doubt panic-stricken by the


emerald were crawling, and then little ray, and hence driven to frenzy."
veins of deep blue. 'Woe !' I said to "Why should Evans have murdered
myself in Welsh. 'What is all this color Williams instead of Williams murdering
and burning?' Evans? Why should the impact of the
"At that very moment there came a thun- ray affect one and not the other?"
dering rap at the door of the room inside. "Why does one man react violently to a
and there was my man telling me that I certain drug, while it makes no impression
was wanted directly up at the Garth, as on another man? Why is A able to drink
old Mr. Trevor Williams had been taken a bottle of whisky and remain sober, while
very bad. I knew his heart was not worth B is turned into something very like a
much, so I had to go off directly, and leave lunatic after he has drunk three glasses?"
Remnant alone to make what he could of "It is a question of idiosyncrasy," said
it all." the doctor.
Dr. Lewis was kept some time at the Lewis escaped from the club and from
Garth. It was past twelve when he got Remnant. He did not want to hear any
back to his house. He went quickly to more about that dreadful ray, because he
the room that overlooked the garden and felt sure that the ray was all nonsense.

the sea, threw open the French window, But asking himself wh}- he felt this certi-
and peered into the darkness. There, dim
indeed against the dim sky. but unmistaka-
ble, was the tall pine, with its sparse
branches, high above the dense growth of
the ilex-trees. The strange boughs which
had amazed him had vanished there was ;

no appearance of colors. or of fires.


The doctor did not say anything about
the strange tree to Remnant. When they
next met, he said that he had thought
there was a man hiding among the bushes.
This was in explanation of that warning tude in the matter, he had to confess that
gesture he had used, and of his going out he did n't know. An aeroplane, he re-
into the garden and staring into the night. flected, was all nonsense before it was
He concealed the truth because he dreaded made.
the Remnant doctrine that would un- But he thought with fervor of the ex-
doubtedly be produced indeed, he hoped ; traordinary thing he had seen in his own
that he had heard the last of the theory of garden with his own eyes. How could
the Z-ray. But Remnant firmly reopened one fail to be afraid with great amazement
this subject. at the thought of such a mystery?
812 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Dr. Lewis thoughts were distracted went on to describe the bewilderment and
from the incredible adventure of the tree terror that hung like a cloud over the great
by the visit of his sister and her husband. industrial city in the Midlands; how the
Mr. and Mrs. Merritt lived in a well- feeling of concealment, or some intolerable
known manufacturing town of the Mid- secret danger that must not be named, was
lands, which was now, of course, a center worst of all.

of munition work. On the day of their Merritt made a sort of picture of the
arrival at Forth, Mrs. Merritt, who was great town cowering in its fear of an un-
tired after the long, hot journey, went to known danger.
bed early, and Merritt and Lewis went "There 's a queer story going about,"
into the room by the garden for their talk he said, "as to a place right out in the
and tobacco. They spoke of the year that country, over the other side of Midling-
had passed since their last meeting, of the ham. They 've built one of the new fac-

weary dragging of the war, of friends that tories out there, a great red brick town of
had perished in it, of the hopelessness of sheds. About two hundred yards from
an early ending of all this misery. Lewis this place there 's an old footpath through
said nothing of the terror that was on the a pretty large wood, most of it thick un-
land. One does not greet with a tale of dergrowth. It 's a black place of nights.
horror a tired man who is come to a quiet, "A man had to go this way one night.
sunny place for relief from black smoke He got along all right till he came to the

and work and worry. Indeed, the doctor wood, and then he said his heart dropped
saw that his brother-in-law looked far out of his body. was awful to hear the
It

from well. He seemed "jumpy"; there noises in that wood. Thousands of men
was an occasional twitch of his mouth that were in it, he swears. It was full of rus-
Lewis did not like at all. tling, and pattering of feet trying to go
"Well," said the doctor, after an inter- dainty, and the crack of dead boughs lying
val of silence and port wine, "I am glad on the ground as some one trod on them,
to see you here again. Forth always suits and swishing of the grass, and some sort of
Nou. I don't think you 're looking quite chattering speech going on that sounded,
up to your usual form but three weeks of
; so he said, as if the dead sat in their bones
Meirion air will do wonders." and talked ! He ran for his life, anyhow,
"Well, I hope it will," said the other. across fields, over hedges, through brooks.
"I am not up to the mark. Things are He must have run, by his tale, ten miles

not going well at Midlingham." out of his way before he got home to his

"Business is all right, is n't it?" wife, beat at the door, broke in, and bolted
"Yes; but there are other things that it behind him."
are all wrong. We are living under a "There is something rather alarming
reign of terror. It comes to that." about any wood at night," said Dr. Lewis.

"What on earth do you mean?" Merritt shrugged his shoulders.

"It 's not much. I did n't dare write "Feople say that the Germans have
it. But do you know that at every one of landed, and that they are hiding in under-
the munition-works in Midlingham and ground places all over the country."
all about it there 's a guard of soldiers Lewis gasped for a moment, silent in

with drawn bayonets and loaded rifles day contemplation of the magnificence of ru-
and night ? Men with bombs, too. And mor. The Germans already landed, hid-
machine-guns at the big factories." ing underground, striking by night, se-

"German spies?" cretly, terribly, at the power of England


"You don't want machine-guns and It was monstrous, and yet
l)onibs to fight spies with." "Feople say they 've got a new kind of
"But what against?" poison-gas," continued Merritt. "Some
"Nobody knows. Nobody knows what think that they dig underground places
is liappening," Merritt repeated, and he and make the gas there, and lead it by se-
THE COMING OF THE TERROR 813
cret pipes into the shops ; others say that stores both of food and of nuinitions were
they throw gas bombs into the factories. to be accumulated year after year till "the
It must be worse than anything they 've Day" dawned. And then, warned in time,

used in France, from what the authorities the secret garrison would leave shops, ho-
say." tels, offices, villas, and vanish underground,
"The authorities? Do they admit that ready to begin their work of bleeding
there are Germans in hiding about Mid- England at the heart.
h'ngham ?" "Well," said Lewis, "of course, it may
"No. They call it 'explosions.' But we be so. If it is so, it is terrible beyond

know it is n't explosions. We know in the words."


Midlands what an explosion sounds like Indeed, he found something horribly
and looks like. And we know that the plausible in the story. It was an extraor-
people killed in these 'explosions' are put dinary plan, of course, an unheard-of
into their coffins in the works. Their own scheme ; but it did not seem impossible. It

relations are not allowed to see them." was the Trojan Horse on a gigantic scale.
"And do you believe in the German And this theory certainly squared with
theory?" what one had heard of German prepara-
"If I do, it 's because one must believe tions in Belgium and in France.
in something. Some say they 've seen the And it seemed from that wonder of the
gas. I heard that a man living in Dunwich burning tree that the enemy mysteriously-
saw it one night like a black cloud, with and terribly present at Midlingham was
sparks of fire in it, floating over the tops present also in Meirion. Yet, he thought
of the trees by Dunwich Common." again, there was but little harm to be done
The light of an inef^fable amazement in Meirion to the armies of England or
came into Lewis's eyes. The night of to theirmunitionment. They were work-
Remnant's visit, the trembling vibration ing for panic terror. Possibly that might
of the air, the dark tree that had grown in be so; but the camp under the Highway?
his garden since the setting of the sun, the That should be their first object, and no
strange leafage that was starred with harm had been done there.
burning, and all vanished away when he Lewis did not know that since the panic
returned from his visit to the Garth and
; men had died terribly in that
of the horses
such a leafage had appeared as a burning camp that it was now a fortified place,
;

cloud far in the heart of England. What with a deep, broad trench, a thick tangle
intolerable mystery, what tremendous of savage barbed wire about it, and a
doom was But one thing
signified in this? machine-gun planted at each corner.
was clear and certain the terror of Mei- : One evening the doctor was summoned
rion was also the terror of the Mid- to a little hamlet on the outskirts of Forth.
lands. In one of the cottages the doctor found
Merritt told the story of how a Swedish a father and mother weeping and crying
professor, Huvelius, had sold to the Ger- out to "Doctor Bach, Doctor Bach," two
mans a plan for filling England with Ger- frightened children, and one little body,
man soldiers. Land was to be bought in still and dead.
certain suitable and well-considered places. The doctor found that the child had
Englishmen were to be bought as the ap- been asphyxiated. His clothes were dry;
parent owners of such land, and secret itwas not a case of drowning. There was
excavations were to be made, till the no mark of strangling. He asked the fa-
country was literally undermined. A sub- ther howit had happened, and father and

terranean Germany, in fact, was to be dug mother, weeping most lamentably, de-
under selected districts of England there ; clared they had no knowledge of how their
were to be great caverns, underground child had been killed, "unless it was the
cities, well drained, well ventilated, sup- People that had done it." The Celtic
plied with water, and in these places vast fairies are still malignant. Lewis asked
814 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
what had happened that evening: /here said to myself, 'Have I lost my way,
"
had the child been ? then?'
"Was he with his brother and sister?" She declared that the shape of the trees
asked the doctor. "Don't they know any- in the hedge appeared to have changed, and
thing about it?" besides, it had a look "as if it was lighted
The children had been playing in the up, somehow," and so she went on toward
road at dusk, and just as their mother what all this could be and
the stile to see ;

called them in one child had heard John- when she came near, everything was as
nie cry out: usual. She looked over the stile and called,
"Oh, what is that beautiful, shiny thing hoping to see her husband coming toward
over the stile?" her or to hear his voice; but there was no
They found the little body, under the answer, and glancing down the path, she
ash-grove in the middle of the field. He saw, or thought she saw, some sort of
was quiteand dead, so still that a
still brightness on the ground, "a dim sort of
great moth had settled on his forehead, light, like a bunch of glow-worms in a
fluttering away when they lifted him up. hedge-bank.
Dr. Lewis heard this story. There was "And so I climbed over the stile and
nothing to be done, little to be said to went down the path, and the light seemed
these most unhappy people. to melt away and there was my poor hus-
;

"Take care of the two that you have band lying on his back, saying not a word
left to you," said the doctor as he went to me when I spoke to him and touched
away. "Don't let them out of your sight him."
if you can help it. It is dreadful times

that we are living in." So for Lewis the terror blackened and
About ten days later a young farmer became altogether intolerable, and others,
had been found by his wife lying in the he perceived, felt as he did. He did not
grass close to the castle, with no scar on k'now, he never asked, whether the men at
him or any mark of violence, but stone- the club had heard of these deaths of the
dead. child and the young farmer ; but no one
Lewis was sent for, and knew at once, spoke of them. Indeed, the change was
when he saw the dead man, that he had evident ; at the beginning of the terror men
perished in the way that the little boy had spoke of nothing else ; now it had become
perished, whatever that awful way might all too awful for ingenious chatter or la-
be. bored and grotesque theories. And Lewis
seemed that he had gone out at about
It had received a letter from his brother-in-
half-past nine to look after some beasts. law, who had gone back to Midlinghani
He told his wife he would be back in a it contained the sentence, "I am afraid
quarter of an hour or twenty minutes. Fanny's health has not greatly benefited
He did not return, and when he had been by her visit to Forth ; there are still sev-
gone for three quarters of an hour Mrs. eral symptoms I don't at all like." This
Cradock went out to look for him. She told him, in a phraseology that the doctor
went into the field where the beasts were, and Merritt had agreed upon, that the
and everything seemed all right but there ; terrorremained heavy in the Midland
was no trace of Cradock. She called out; town.
there was no answer.
She told the doctor: It was soon after the death of Cradock
"There was something that I could not that people began to tell strange tales of a
make out at all. It seemed to me that the sound that was to be heard of nights about
hedge did look different from usual. To the hills and valleys to the northward of
be sure, things do look different at night, Forth. A man who had missed the last
and there was a bit of sea mist about but ; trainfrom Meiros and had been forced to
somehow it did look odd to me, and I tramp the ten miles between Meiros and
THE COMING OF 'JHE TERROR 815
Forth seems to have been the first to hear mm, as were begging for his life,"
it
if h
tie

it. He had got to the top of the


said he as the man said, and then rushed to the
hill Tredonoc, somewhere between
by gate and sto(jd by it, wagging his tail and
half-past ten and eleven, when he first barking at intervals. The men stared.
noticed an odd noise that he could not "Whose dog will that be?" said one of
make out at all ; it was like a shout, a lonji- them.
drawn-out, dismal wail coming from a "It will be Thomas (iriffith's, 'i>eff
great way ofif. He stopped to listen, tliink- Loyne," said another.
ing at first that it might be owls hooting "Well, then, why does n't he go home?
in the woods; but was different, he said,
it Go home, then!" He went through the
from that. He could make nothing of it, gesture of picking up a stone from the
and feeling frightened, he did not quite road and throwing it at the dog. "Go
know of what, he walked on briskly, and home, then! Over the gate with \ou!"
was glad to see the lights of Forth station. But the dog never stirred. He barked
Then others heard it. and whined and ran up to the men and
Let it be remembered again and again then back to the gate. The farmer shook
that all the while that the terror lasted the dog off, and the four went on their
there was no common stock of information way, and the dog stood in the road .uid
as to the dreadful things that were being watched them, and then put up its heaii
done. The had not said one word
press and uttered a long and dismal hou that 1

upon it, there was no criterion by which was despair.


the mass of the people could separate fact Then it occurred to somebody, so far as
from mere vague rumor, no test by which I can make out with no particular refer-
ordinary misadventure or disaster could be ence to the odd conduct of the Treff Loyne
distinguished from the achievements of the sheep-dog, that Thomas Griffith had mn
secret and awful force that was at work. been seen for some time past.
And since the real nature of all this mys- One September afternoon, therefore, a
tery of death was unknown, it followed party went up to discover what had hap-
easily that the signs and warnings and pened to Griffith and his family. There
omens of it were all the more unknown. were half a dozen farmers, a couple of
Here was horror, there was horror but ;

there were no links to join one horror with


another, no common basis of knowledge
from which the connection between this
horror and that horror might be inferred.
The sound had been heard for three or
perhaps four nights, when the people com-
ing out of Tredonoc church after morning
service on Sunday noticed that there was
a big yellow sheep-dog in the churchyard.
The dog, it appeared, had been waiting
for the congregation ; for it at once at-

tached itself to them, at first 'to the whole policemen, and four soldiers, carrying their
body, and then to a group of half a dozen arms; those last had been lent by the offi-

who took the turning to the right till cer commanding at the camp. Lewis,
they came to a gate in the hedge, whence too, was of the part>- he had heard by ;

a roughly made farm-road went tiirough chance that no one knew what had be-
the fields, and dipped down into the woods come of Griffith and his family, and he
and to Tref^ Loyne farm. was anxious about a \oung fellow, a
Then the dog became like a possessed painter, of his acquaintance who had been
creature. He barked furiously He ran . lodging at Treff Loyne all the summer.
up to one of the men and looked up at The\- came to the gate in the hedge
816 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
where the farm-road led down to Treff house. The windows were shut tight.
Loyne. Here was the farm inclosure, the There was no sign of any life or move-
outlying walls of the yard and the barns ment about the place. The party of men
and sheds and outhouses. One of the looked at one another.
farmers threw open the gate and walked They did not know what the danger
into the yard, and forthwith began bel- was or where it might strike them or
lowing at the top of his voice whether it was from without or from
"Thomas Griffith! Thomas Griffith! within. They stared at the murdered
Where be you, Thomas Griffith?" man, and gazed dismally at one another.
The rest followed him. The corporal "Come," said Lewis, "we must do some-
snapped out an order over his shoulder, thing. We must get into the house and
and there was a rattling metallic noise as see what is wrong."
the men fixed their bayonets. "Yes, but suppose they are at us while
There was no answer to this summons; we are getting in?" said the sergeant.
but they found poor Griffith lying on his "Where shall we be then, Doctor Lewis?"
face at the edge of the pond in the middle The corporal put one of his men by the
of the yard. There was a ghastly wound gate at the top of the farm-yard, another
in his side, as if a sharp stake had been at the gate by the bottom, and told them
driven into his body. to challenge and shoot. The doctor and
It was a still September afternoon. No the rest opened the little gate of the front
wind stirred in the hanging woods that garden and went up to the porch and stood
were dark all about the ancient house of listening by the door. It was all dead
Treff Loyne the only sound in the dim
; silence. Lewis took an ash stick from one
"

air was the lowing of the cattle. They of the farmers and beat heavily three times
had wandered, it seemed, from the fields on the old, black, oaken door studded with
and had come in b}' the gate of the farm- antique nails.
yard and stood there melancholy, as if There was no answer from within. He
they mourned for their dead master. And beat again, and still silence. He shouted
the horses, four great, heavy, patient-look- to the people within, but there was no an-
ing beasts, were there, too, and in the swer. They all turned and looked at one
lower field the sheep were standing, as if another. There was an iron ring on the
they waited to be fed. door. Lewis turned it, but the door stood
Lewis knelt down by the dead man and fast; it was evidently barred and bolted.
looked closely at the gaping wound in his The sergeant of police called out to open,
side. but again there was no answer.
"He 's been dead a long time," he said. They consulted together. There was
"How about the family? How many are nothing for it but to blow the door open,'
there ofthem? I never attended them." and some one of them called in a loud
"There was Griffith, and his wife, his voice to those that might be within to
son Thomas, and Mary Griffith, his daugh- stand away from the door or the>' would
ter. And I do think there was a gentle- be killed. And at this very moment the
man lodging with them this summer." yellow sheep-dog came bounding up the
That was from one of the farmers. yard from the woods and licked their
They all looked at one another, this party hands and fawned on them and harked
of rescue, who knew nothing of the dan- joyfully.
ger that had smitten this house of quiet "Indeed, now," said one of the farmers,
people, nothing of the peril which had "he did know that there was something
brought them to this pass of a farm-yard, amiss. A pity it was, Thomas Williams,
with a dead man in it, and his beasts stand- that we did not follow him when he im-
ing patientl> about him as if they waited jilored us last Sunday."
for the farmer to rise up and give them The corporal disengaged his bayonet
their food. Then the parts turned to the and shot into the keyhole, calling out once
THE COMING OF THK TERROR 817
more before he fired. He shot ami shot 1 do not think that I can last much longer.
again, so heavy and firm was the ancient We shared out tht- last drops of water a

door, so stout its bolts and fastenings. At lon^ time aiio. I do not know how mans
last he had to fire at the massive hinges, days aji;o. We fall asleep and dream and
and then they all pushed together, and at walk about the house In our dreams, and 1

that the door lurched open suddenly and am often not sure whether I am awake or
fell forward. still dreaming, and so the days and nights
Young was lying dead before
Griffith are confused in my mind. I awoke not long
the hearth. They went on toward the ago, at least I suppose 1 awoke, ami found
parlor, and in the doorway of the room was ing in the passage.
I l.\

was the body of the artist Secretan, as if There seems no hope for any of us. We
he had fallen in trying to get to the kit- are in the dream of death. '

chen. the two women, Mrs.


Up-stairs
Griffith and her daughter, a girl of eigh- Here the manuscript became unintelli-
teen, were lying together on the bed in the gible for half a dozen lines. There was
big bedroom, clasped in each other's arms. a fresh start, as it were, and the writer
They went about the house, searched began again, in ordinary letter-form:
the pantries, the back kitchen, and the
cellars ; there was no life in it. There Dear Lewis:
was no bread in the place, no milk, no I hope you will excuse all this confusion
water. and wandering. I intended to begin a proper
The group of men stood in the big letter to you, and now I find all that stuff
kitchen and stared at one another, a dread- that you have been reading, if this ever gets
ful perplexity in their eyes. The old man into your hands. 1 have not the energy
had been killed with the piercing thrust even to tear it up. If you read it you will
of some sharp weapon ; the rest had per- know to \\ hat a sad pass I had come u hen it

ished, it seemed probable, of thirst; but was written.


what possible enemy was this that besieged I have said of what I am writing, "if

the farm
and shut in its inhabitants? this ever gets into your hands," and 1 am
There was no answer. not at all sure that it ever will. If what is

The sergeant of police spoke of getting happening here is happening everywhere else,

a cart and taking the bodies into Forth, then, I suppose, the world is coming to an
and Dr. Lewis went into the parlor that end. I cannot understand it; even now I

Secretan had used as a sitting-room, in- can hardly believe it.

tending to gather any possessions or effects And then there 's another thing that both-
of the dead artist that he might possibly ers me. Now and then I wonder whether
find there. Half a dozen portfolios were we are not all mad together in this house.
piled up in one corner, there were some Despite what I see and know, or, perhaps,

books on a side-table, a fishing-rod and I should say, because what I see and know
basket behind the door ; that seemed' all. is so impossible, I wonder whether we are
Lewis was about to rejoin the rest of the not all suffering from a delusion. Perhaps
party in the kitchen, when he looked down we are our own jailers, and we are reallv

at some scattered papers lying with thu free to go out and li\e. Perhaps what \s e

books on the side-table. On one of the think we see is not there at all. I wonder
sheets he read, to his astonishment, the now and then whether we are all like this

words, "Dr. James Lewis, Forth." This in Treff Loyne ; \et in my heart 1 feel sure
was written in a staggering, trembling that it is not so.

scrawl. Still, I do not want to leave a madman's


The table stood in a dark corner of the letter behind me, and so I will not tell you
room, and Lewis gathered up the sheets of the full story of what I have seen or believe
paper and took them to the window and I ha\e seen. If 1 am a sane man, you will

began to read this: he able to lill in the blanks for yourself from
818 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
your own knowledge. If I am mad burr "What would they do a thing like that
the letter and say nothing about it. for?" asked Mrs. Griffith. "If it was steal-

I was on a Tuesday that we


think that it ing, now —
first noticed that there was something queer They seemed puzzled and angry, so far as
about. 1 came home about five or six o'clock I could make out, but not at all frightened.
and found the family at Treff Loyne laugh- I got up and began to dress. I don't think
ing at old Tiger, the sheep-dog. He was I looked out of the window. The glass on
making short runs from the farm-yard to my dressing-table is high and broad, and the
the door of the house, barking, with quick, window is small; one would have to poke
short yelps. Mrs. Miss Grif-
Griffith and one's head round the glass to see anything.
fith were standing by the porch, and the dog The voices were still arguing down-stairs.
would go to them, look into their faces, and 1 heard the old man say, "Well, here 's for
a beginning, anyhow," and then the door
slammed.
A minute later the old man shouted, I

think, to his son. Then was a great


there
noise which I will not describe more par-
ticularly, and a dreadful screaming and cry-
ing inside the house and a sound of rushing
feet. They all cried out at once to each
other. I heard the daughter crying: "It is

no good, Mother; he is dead. Indeed they


have killed him," and Mrs. Griffith scream-
ing to the girl to let her go. And then one
of them rushed out of the kitchen and shot
the great bolts of oak across the door just
as something beat against it with a thunder-
ing crash.
I ran down-stairs. I found them all in

then run up the farm-yard to the gate, and wild confusion, in an agony of grief and
then look back with that eager, yelping bark, horror and amazement. They were like

as if he were waiting for the women to fol- people who had seen something so awful that
low him. Then, again and again he ran up they had gone mad.
to them and tugged at their skirts, as if he I went to the window looking out on the
would pull them by main force awa\ from farm-yard. I won't tell you all that I saw,
the house. but I saw poor old Griffith lying by the
The dog barked and yelped and whined pond, with the blood pouring out of his side.
and scratched at the door all through the I wanted to go out to him and bring him
evening. They let him in once, but he seemed in. But they told me that he must be stone-
to have become quite frantic. He ran up dead, and such things also that it was quite
to one member of the family after another; plain that any one who went out of the
his eyes were bloodshot, and his mouth was house would not live more than a moment.
foaming, and he tore at their clothes till We could not believe it even as we gazed
they drove him out again into the darkness. at the body of the dead man; but it was
Then he broke into a long, lamentable howl there. I used to wonder sometimes what
of anguish, and we heard no more of him. one would feel like if one saw an apple drop
It was soon after dawn when I finally from the tree and shoot up into the air and
roused myself. The people in the house were disappear. 1 think I know now how one
talking to each other in high voices, arguing would feel.
about something that I did not understand. Even then we could n't believe that it
"It is those damned Gipsies, 1 tell you," would last. We were not seriously afraid
said old Griffith. for ourselves. We spoke of getting out in
THE COIVIINCl OF THE TERROR 819
an hour or two, before diiiiier, anyhow. It great old fireplace, with the round I'Icmlsh
could n't last, because it was Impossible. In- chimney going high above the house., If 1

deed, at twelve o'clock younjj Griffith said stood beneath it and shouted, 1 thought per-
he would go down to the well by the back haps the sound might be carried better than
way and draw another pail of water. I if 1 called out of the window; for all 1 knew
went to the door and stood by it. He luul the round chimney might act as a sort of
not gone a dozen yards before they were on megaphone. Night after night, then, I stood
him. He ran for his life, and we had all on the hearth and called for help from nine
we could do to bar the door in time. And o'clock to eleven.
then I began to get frightened. But we had drunk up the beer, and we
But day followed day, and it was still would let ourselves have water only by lit-
there. went to Tref¥ Loyhe because it
1 tle drops, and on the fourth night my throat
was buried narrow valley under the
in the was dry, and I began to feel strange and
ash-trees, far away from any track. There weak; I knew that all the voice I had in my
was not so much as a footpath that was lungs would hardly reach the length of the
near it; no one ever came that way. field by the farm.
And now this thought came back without It was then we began to dream of wells
delight, with terror. Griffith thought that and fountains, and water coming very cold,
a shout might be heard on a still night up in little drops, out of rocky places in the
away on the Allt, "if a man was listening middle of a cool wood. We had given up
for it," he added doubtfully. l\Iy voice was all meals; now and then one would cut a
clearer and stronger than his, and on the lump from the sides of bacon on the kitchen
second night I said I would go up to my wall and chew a bit of it, but the saltness
bedroom and call for help through the open was like fire.
window. 1 waited till it was all dark and And then we began to dream, as I say.
still, and looked out through the window And one day I dreamed that there was a
before opening it. And saw over the
then I bubbling well of cold, clear water in the
ridge of the long barn across the yard what cellar, and 1 had just hollowed my hand to

looked like a tree, though I knew there was drink it when 1 woke. 1 went into the
no tree there. It was a dark mass against kitchen and told young Griffith. I said I

the sky, with wide-spread boughs, a tree of was sure there was water there. He shook
thick, dense growth. I wondered what this his head, but he took up the great kitchen
could be, and I threw open the window not poker and we went down to the old cellar.
only because was going to call for help,
I I showed him the stone by the pillar, and he
but because I wanted to see more clearly raised it up. But there was no well. Later
what the dark growth over the barn really I came upon young Griffith one evening evi-

was. dently trying to make a subterranean pas-


1 saw in the depth of it points of fire, and sage under one of the walls of the house.
colors in light, all glowing and moving, and I knew he was mad, as he knew I was mad
the air trembled. I stared out into the when he saw me digging for a well in the
night, and the dark tree lifted over the roof cellar; but neither said an\ thing to the other.
of the barn, rose up in the air, and floated Now we are past all this. We are too
toward me. move till it was close
1 did not weak. We
dream when we are awake and
to the house; and then I saw what it was, when we dream we think we wake. Night
and banged the window down only just in and day come and go, and we mistake one
time. I had to fight, and I saw the tree that for another.
was like a burning cloud rise up in the night Only a little while ago 1 heard a voice
and settle over the barn. which sounded as if it were at my \ery
Another day went by, and at dusk I looked ears, but rang and echoed and resounded us
out, but the eyes of fire were watching me. if It were rolling and reverberated from the
I dared not open the window. And then 1 vault of some cathedral, chanting in terri-

thought of another plan, l.here was the ble modulations. 1 heard the words quite
820 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Domini Dei nostri"
clearly, "Incipit liber ira' that Lewis had come by very different
("Here beginneth The Book of the Wrath ways to the same end.
of the Lord our God"). "And yet," he said, "it is not a true
And then the voice sang the word Aleph, end, or, rather, it is like all the ends of
prolonging it, it seemed through ages, and a human inquiry— it leads one to a- great
light was extinguished as it began the chap- mystery. We
must confess that what has
ter: happened might have happened at any time
"In that day, saith the Lord, there shall in the history of the world. It did not
be a cloud over the land, and in the cloud a happen till a year ago, as a matter of fact,
burning and a shape of fire, and out of the and therefore we made up our minds that
cloud shall issue forth my messengers; they it never could happen or, one w^ould bet-
;

shall run all together, they shall not turn ter say, was outside
it the range even of
aside; this shall be a day of exceeding bitter- imagination. But this is our way. Most
ness, without salvation. And on every high people are quite sure that the Black Death
hill, saith the Lord of Hosts, I will set my —otherwise the Plague — will never in-

sentinels, and my armies shall encamp in the vade Europe again. They have made up
place of every valley; in the house that is their complacent minds that it was due to
amongst rushes I will execute judgment, and dirt and bad drainage. As a matter of
in vain shall they fly for refuge to the muni- fact the Plague had nothing to do with
tions of the rocks. In the groves of the dirt or with drains, and there is nothing
U'oods, in the places u'here the leaves are as to prevent its ravaging England to-mor-
a tent above them, they shall find the sword row^ But if you tell people so, they won't
of the slayer; and they that put their trust believe you."
in walled cities shall be confounded. Hoe I agreed wnth all this. I added that
unto the armed man, u'oe unto him that sometimes the world was incapable of see-
taketh pleasure in the strength of his artil- ing, much less believing, that which was
lery, for a little thing shall smite him, and before its own eyes.
by one that hath no might shall he be brought "Look," I said, "at any eighteenth-cen-
down into the dust. That which is loiv shall tury print of a Gothic cathedral. You
be set on high; I ivill make the lamb and the w^ill find that the trained artistic eye even
young sheep to be as the lion from the swell- could any true sense the
not behold in
ings of Jordan; they shall not spare, saith building that was before it. I have seen

the Lord, and the doves shall be as eagles on an old print of Peterborough Cathedral
the hill Engedi; none shall be found that that looks as if the artist had drawn it
may abide the onset of their battle." from a clumsy model, constructed of bent
wire and children's bricks."
Here the manuscript lapsed again and "Exactly; because Gothic was outside
finally into utter, lamentable confusion of the esthetic theory, and therefore vision,
thought. of the time. You can't believe what you
Dr. Lewis maintained that we should don't see ; rather, you can't see what you
never begin to understand the real signifi- don't believe.
cance of life until we began to study just "You must not suppose that my experi-
those aspects of it which we now dismiss ences of that afternoon at Treff Loyne had
and overlook as utterly inexplicable and afforded me the slightest illumination. In-
therefore unimportant. deed, if it had not been that I had seen
We were discussing a few months ago poor old Griffith's body lying pierced in
the awful shadow of the terror which at his own farm-yard, I think I should have
length had passed away from the land. I been inclined to accept one of Secretan's
had formed my opinion, partly from ob- hints, and to believe that the whole fam-
servation, partly from certain facts w^hich ily had fallen a victim to a collective de-
had been communicated to me, and the lusion or hallucination, and had shut them-
passwords having been exchanged, I found selves up and died of thirst through sheer
THE COiMING OK THE TERROR 8LM
madness. I rliink there have heeii such going to shut him up when a big moth
cases. Hut I luul seen tlie hody of the Hew into the room through that window,
nuirclered man ami the wound that had Huttered about, and succeeded in burning
killed him. itself alive in the lamp.That gave me
"Did the manuscript left by Secretan my cue. 1 asked Merrirt if he knew win-
jiive me seemed to me
no hint? Well, it moths made for lamps or something of the
to make confusion worse confounded. 'V'ou kind ; 1 it would be a hint to him
tlu)ught
see, Secretan, in writing that extraordi- that I was sick of his half-baked theories.
nary document, almost insisted on the fact So it was; he looked sulky and hehl his
that he was not in his proper senses : that tongue.
for days he had been part asleep, part "But a few minutes later I was called
awake, part delirious. How was one to out by a man who had found his little boy
judge his statement, to separate delirium dead in a field near his cottage about an
from fact? In one thing he stood con- hour before. The
child was so still, the\'
firmed ; you remember he speaks of calling said, that a great moth had settled on his
for help up the old chimney of Treff forehead and fluttered away only when
Loyne ; that did seem to fit in with the they lifted up the body. It was absolutely
tales of a hollow, moaning cr\' that had illogical but it was this odd 'coincidence'
;

been heard upon the Allt. So far one of the moth in my lamp and the moth on
could take him as a recorder of actual the dead boy's forehead that first set me
experiences. And I looked in the old cel- on the track. I can't say that it guided me
lars of thefarm and found a frantic sort in any real sense it was more like a great ;

of rabbit-holedug by one of the pillars; flare of red paint on a wall.


again he was confirmed. But what was "But, as you will remember, from hav-
one to make of that story of the chanting ing read my notes on the matter, I was
voice and the letters of the Hebrew alpha- called in about ten days later to see a man
bet and the chapter out of some unknown named Cradock who had been foinid in a
minor prophet? When one has the key field near his farm quite dead.
This also
it is easy enough to sort out the facts or was at night.His wife found him, and
the hints of facts from the delusions; but there were some very queer things in her
1 had n't the key on that September eve- story. She said that the hedge of the field
ning. I was forgetting the 'tree' with looked as if it were changed she began ti) ;

lights and fires in it; that, I think, im- be afraid that she had lost her way aiul
pressed me more than anything with the got into the wrong field.

feeling that Secretan's story was in the ''Then came that extraordinary business
main a true story. I had seen a like ap- of Trefi' Lovne. I took it all home, and
pearance down there in my own garden ;

but what was it?


"Now, I was saying that, paradoxically,
it is only by the inexplicable things that
life can be explained. We are apt to sa\
\ou know, 'a very odd coincidence,' and
pass the matter by, as if there were no
more to be said or as if that were the end
of it. Well, I believe that the onh real

path lies through the blind alle\s."


"Howdo you mean?"
"Well, this is an instance of what I
mean. 1 was talking with ]\lerritt, m\-
brother-in-law, about the strange tilings

he had seen in a wa\' that I thought all

nonsense, and I was wondering how 1 was


822 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
sat down for the evening before it. It gather swarms with the object
itself into

appalled me not onlj' by its horror, but of destroying human


life. But here, by
here again by the discrepancy between its the hypothesis, were cases in which the
terms. moth had done this very thing; the moth
"It was, I believe, a sudden leap of the race had entered, it seemed, into a malig-
mind that liberated me from the tangle. nant conspiracy against the human race.

It was quite beyond logic. I went back It was quite impossible, no doubt, — that
to that evening when Merritt was boring is to say, it had never happened before,
me, to the moth in the candle, and to the but I could see no escape from this con-
moth on the forehead of poor Johnnie clusion.
Roberts. There was no sense in it but I ; "These insects, then, were definitely
suddenly determined that the child and hostile to man; and then I stopped, for I

Joseph Cradock the farmer, and that un- could not see the next step, obvious though
named Stratfordshire man, all found at it seems to me now. If the moths were
night, all asphyxiated, had been choked by infected with hatred of men, and pos-
vast swarms of moths. I don't pretend sessed the design and the power of com-
even now that this is demonstrated, but bining against him, why not suppose this
I 'm sure it 's true. hatred, this design, this power shared by
"Now suppose you encounter a swarm other non-human creatures?
of these creatures in the dark. Suppose "The Terror might be con-
secret of the
the smaller ones up your nostrils. You
fly densed into a sentence the animals had :

will gasp for breath and open your mouth. revolted against men.
Then, suppose some hundreds of them fly "Now, the puzzle became easy enough;
into your mouth, into your gullet, into one had only to classify. Take the cases
your windpipe, what will happen to you? of the people who met their deaths by fall-
You will be dead in a very short time, ing over cliffs or over the edge of quar-
choked, asphyxiated." ries. We think of sheep as timid crea-
"But the moths would be dead, too. tures, who always run away. But suppose
They would be found in the bodies." sheep that don't run away ; and, after all,

"The moths? Do you know that it is in reason why should they run away?
extremely difficult to kill a moth with cya- Quarry or no quarry, cliff or no cliff,
nide of potassium ? Take a frog, kill it, what would happen to you if a hundred
open its stomach. There you will find its sheep ran after you instead of running
dinner of moths and small beetles, and the from you? There would be no help for
'dinner' willshake itself and walk off it; they would have you down and beat
cheerily, to resume an entirely active ex- you to death or stifle you. Then suppose
istence. No that is no difficulty.
; man, woman, or child near a cliff's edge
"Well, now I came to this. I was or a quarry-side, and a sudden rush of
shutting out all the other cases. I was sheep. Clearly there is no help there is ;

confining myself to those that came under nothing for it but to go over. There can
the one formula. be no doubt that that is what happened in
"Then the next step. Of course we all these cases.
know nothing really about moths rather, ; "And again. ^ ou know the counrr\'
we know nothing of moth reality. For all and you know how a herd of cattle will
I know there may be hundreds of books sometimes pursue people through the fields
which treat of moths and nothing but in a solemn, stolid sort of way. They
moths. But these are scientific books, and behave as if they wanted to close in on
science deals only with surfaces. It has you. Townspeople sometimes get fright-
nothing to do with realities. To take a very ened and scream and run would ; you or I

minor matter we don't even know why the


: take no notice, or, at the utmost, would
moth desires the flame. But we do know wave our sticks at the herd, which wouhl
what the moth does not do it does not ; stop dead or lumber off. But suppose
THE COMING OF THE TERROR H2A
ihey don't lumber off? It was a quicker men treading softlv through the wood and
death for poor Cjriffith of Treff Lo\ne: chattering to one another in some horrible
one of his own beasts gored him to death tongue; what he did hear was the marshal-
with one sharp thrust of its horn into his ing of an army of rats, their array befcjre
heart. And
from that morning those the battle.
within the house were closely besieged by "And conceive the terror of such an at-
their own cattle and horses and sheep, and tack. Even one rat in a fury is said to
when those unhappy people within opened be an ugl}' customer to meet ; conceive,
a window to call for help or to catch a then, the irruption of these terrible,
few drops of rain-water to relieve their swarming m\riads, rushing upon the help-
burning thirst, the cloud waited for them less, unprepared, astonished workers in

with its myriad eyes of fire. Can you the munition-shops."


wonder that Secretan's statement reads in
places like mania? You perceive the hor- TniiRi' can be no doubt, I think, that Dr.
rible position of those people in Tref^ Lewis was entirely justified in these ex-
Loyne not only did they see death advanc-
; traordinary conclusions. As I say, I had
ing on them, but advancing with incredi- arrived at pretty much the same end, by
ble steps, as if one were to die not onlv different ways; but this rather as to the
in nightmare, but by nightmare. But no general situation, while Lewis had Jiiade
one in his wildest, most fiery dreams had his own particular study of those circum-
ever imagined such a fate. I am not as-

tonished that Secretan at one moment


suspected the evidence of his own senses,
at another surmised that the world's end
had come."
"And how about the Williamses wIkj
were murdered on the Highway near
here?"
"The horses were the murderers, the
horses that afterward stampeded the camp
below. By some means which is still ob-
scure to me they lured that family into the
road and beat their brains out ; their shod
hoofs were the instruments of execution.
The munition-works? Their enemy was Terror that were within his
stances of the
rats. I believe that it has been calculated immediate purview, as a physician in large
that in 'greater London' the number of practice in the southern part of .Meirion.
rats is about equal to the number of hu- Of some of the cases which he reviewed he
man beings ; that is, there are about seven had, no doubt, no immediate or first-hand
millions of them. The proportion would knowledge; but he judged these instances
be about the same in all the great centers by their similarity to the facts which had
of population ; and the rat, moreover, is on come under his personal notice. He spoke
occasion migratory in its habits. You can of the affairs of the quarr>' at Llanfihangel
understand now that story of the Sc/nir- on the analogy of the people who \\ere
ainis beating about the mouth of the found dead at the bottom of the cliii's near
Thames, and at last cast away by Ar- Forth, and he was no doubt justified in
cachon, her only crew dry heaps of bones. doing so. He told me that, thinking the

The an expert boarder of ships. And


rat is whole matter over, he was hardly more
so one can understand the tale told by the astonished b\ the Terror in itself than by
frightened man who took the path by the the strange way in which he had arrived
wood that led up from the new numition- at his conclusions.

works. He thought he heard a thousanil "^ou know," he vsaid, "those certain


824 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
evidences of animal malevolence which we cial guns arms that scattered shot broad-
knew of, the bees that stun^ the child to cast, and so drove away the dark flights
death, the trusted sheep-dog's turning sav- that threatened the airplanes.
age, and so forth. Well, I got no light And then, in the winter of 1915-16,
whatever from all this it suggested noth-
; the Terror ended suddenly as it had be-
ing to me. You do not believe; therefore gun. Once more a sheep was a frightened
you cannot see. beast that ran instinctively from a little

"And then, when the truth at last ap- child ; were again solemn, stupid
the cattle
peared, it was through the whimsical 'co- creatures, void of harm; the spirit and the
incidence,' as we call such signs, of the convention of malignant design passed out
moth in my lamp and the moth on the of the hearts of all the animals. The
dead child's forehead. This, I think, is chains that they had cast of^ for a while
very extraordinary." were thrown again about them.
"And there seems to have been one beast And finally there comes the inevitable
that remained faithful — the dog at Treff "Why?" Why did the beasts who had
Lojne. That is strange." been humbly and patiently subject to man.
"That remains a mystery." or affrighted by his presence, suddenly
know their strength and learn how to
It would not be wise, even now, to de- league together and declare bitter war
scribe too closely the terrible scenes that against their ancient master?
were to be seen in the munition areas of It is a most difficult and obscure ques-

the North and the Midlands during the tion. I give what explanation I have to

black months of the Terror. Out of the give with very great diffidence, and an emi-
factories issued at black midnight the nent disposition to be corrected if a clearer

shrouded dead in their coffins, and their light can be found.


ver)' kinsfolk did not know how they had Some friends of mine, for whose judg-
come by their deaths. All the towns were ment I have very great respect, are in-

full of houses of mourning, were full of clined to think that there was a certain
dark and terrible rumors as incredible as contagion of hate. They hold that the
the incredible reality. There were things fury of the whole world at war, the great
done and suffered that perhaps never will passion of death that seems driving all

be brought to light, memories and secret humanity to destruction, infected at last


traditions of these things will be whispered these lower creatures, and in place of their
in families, delivered from father to son, native instinct of submission gave them
growing wilder with the passage of the rage and wrath and ravening.
>ears, but never growing wilder than the This may be the explanation. I cannot
truth. say that it is not so, because I do not pro-

It is enough to say that the cause of the fess to understand the working of the uni-
Allies was for a while in deadly peril. verse. But I confess that the theory strikes
The men at the front called in their ex- me as fanciful. There may be a contagion
tremity for guns and shells. No one told of hate as there is a contagion of smallpox ;

them what was happening in the places I do not know, but hardly believe it.
I

where these munitions were made. In my opinion, and it is only an opin-


But, after the first panic, measures were ion, the source of the great revolt of the
taken. The workers were armed with beasts is to be sought in a much subtler
specialweapons, guards were mounted, region of inquiry. I believe that the sub-
machine-guns were placed in position, jects revolted because the king abdicated.
bombs and were ready against
liquid flame Man has dominated the beasts throughout
the obscene hordes of the enemy, and the the ages, the spiritual has reigned over the
"burning clouds" found a fire fiercer than rational through the peculiar quality and
their own. Many deaths occurred among grace of spirituality that men possess, that
the airmen ; but they, too, were given spe- makes a man to be that which he is. And
TFiE COMING OK THK TKRROR 825
when he maintained power and f^race,
this tington and his cat no doubt represents the
I think it is pretty clear that between him adaptation of a very ancient legend to a
and the animals there was a certain treaty comparatively modern personage, but we
and alliance. There was supremacy on may go back into the ages and find the
the one hand and submission on the other popular tradition asserting that not only
but at the same time there was between are the animals the subjects, but also the
the two that cordiality which exists be- friends of man.
tween lords and subjects in a well-organ- All that was in virtue of that singular
ized state. I know a socialist who main- spiritual element in man which the ra-
tains that Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" tional animals do not possess. Spiritual
give a picture of true democracy. I do not mean respectable, it does not even
does not
know about that, but I see that knight and mean moral, it does not mean "good" in
miller w-ere able to get on quite pleasantly the ordinary acceptation of the word. It

together, just because the knight knew that signifies the royal prerogative of man, dif-

he was a knight and the miller knew that ferentiating him from the beasts.
he was a miller. If the knight had had For long ages he has been putting ofi'

conscientious objections to his knightly this royal robe, he has been wiping the
grade, while the miller saw no reason why balm of consecration from his own breast.
he should not be a knight, I am sure that He has declared again and again that he
their intercourse would have been difficult, is not spiritual, but rational ; that is, the
unpleasant, and perhaps murderous. equal of the beasts over whom he was once
So with man. I believe in the strength sovereign. He has vowed that he is not
and truth of tradition. A learned man Orpheus, but Caliban.
said to me a few weeks ago: "When I But the beasts also have within them
have to choose between the evidence of something which corresponds to the spirit-
tradition and the evidence of a document, ual quality in men we are content to call
;

I always believe the evidence of tradition. it instinct. They perceived that the throne
Documents may be falsified and often are was vacant ; not even friendship was pos-
falsified ; tradition is never falsified." This siblebetween them and the self-deposed
is true; and therefore, I think, one may monarch. If he was not king, he was a
put trust body of folklore which
in the vast sham, an impostor, a thing to be de-
asserts that there was once a worthy and stroyed.
friendly alliance between man and the Hence, I think, the Terror. They have
beasts. Our popular tale of Dick Whit- risen once ; they may rise again.
The English Intellectuals in War-time
By S. K. RATCLIFFE^
Author of " Lloyd-George, Conservative r" etc.

extravagant claim be- great an influence in any part of the


IThalf not is

of England that
to
beyond all
in

other
SO
world as they have in the country which is
countries she has been distinguished by not seldom accused of despising them.
the production of dissident minorities and What, then, has been happening to the
powerful rebellious persons. The great- English intellectuals during the last three
ness of most advanced countries may com- years? Those popular leaders and guides
monly be measured by the splendor of of ours, who for long before the overturn
their representative men, and of such had things pretty nearly all their own way,
modern England has many in politics and what has the war done to and for them ?
industry, in science and philosophy. But How have their position and influence
in dynamic literature and art she has com- been affected? How do they stand to-da\',
paratively few men who are representative and what is likely to be their plight when
in the full and simple sense of the word. the war is over and we return, if we ever
There her greater sons are apt to be an- do, to the pursuits and interests that once
archic persons, in revolt against the es- made up the lives of educated people?
tablished order, defiant of the national At least one interesting thing has oc-
ways and even of the national institutions. curred which hardly any one could have
For a man to be accepted in England as a foreseen. The war has drawn a very large
leader in ideas or the art of life, it is not number of literary craftsmen into one
necessary that he should be in harmony form or another of the public service.
with the dominant movements of his time. We hear from time to time of young poets,
Quite the contrary. We prefer to have romancers, and scholars who have been
him oppose and assail them we like the ; swallowed up by the armies, and the
insurgent and the adventurer in him. An world grieves on their account; but fur
alien observer of our enthusiasms would the most part we do not hear of the
probably say that our educated or half- writers of maturer years who ha\e been
educated public gives the largest meed of recruited by the Government as cor-
admiration to the man whose heresies are respondents or translators and for the
most pronounced, or whose scheme of many literary and semi-literary tasks com-
things is the least likely to be adopted by ing within the scope of the foreign office,

ourselves. It is indeed true that our the press bureau, and the complex enter-
generation has demanded of the man of prises of censorship and propaganda tiiat

letters that he should be a man of the this war has developed. Not by any means
world and the hour, a fighter, a debater, all of this work is of an expert or re-
or a constructive worker; and it is un- sponsible kind. Many a man of literary
deniable that we have assigned to him an gifts is to-day content to be doing a plain
extraordinary prominence and prestige. piece of drudgery as his part of citizen-
For the most part, unless his social ortho- ship in war-time. Usually it is onl\ the
doxy was unimpeachable, we have kept popular novelist or versifier to whom is

him out of tile positions of authority; and given the prize of an adventurous job as
yet it may be doubted whether during our correspondent or secret agent. A John
generation the intellectuals have wielded Masefield may share in the heroic disaster
1 See " Who's Who " in tliis number.

S2fi
THE ENGLISH INTELLECTUALS IN WAR-TIME 827
of GallipoliCompton Mackenzie in
; a \ ictory, and in the conductors of "The
Greece may be put in the way of exploits Cambridge Magazine" the most resolute
the story of which will some day make band of academic internationalists. The
"Sinister Street" seem by comparison a reasons for the contrast between the two
very dull yarn. ancient seats of learn-
Humbler members ing might not be
of the craft have to hard to divine, but
content themselves perhaps we may be
with humdrum tasks content to recall that
in the purely depart- long ago Kant re-
mental sphere. marked upon the
A word should be tendency qf scien-
said at the outset in tific studies toward
reference to those intellectual remote-
leaders of the uni- ness from the pas-
versities who, before sion of contemporary
the enrolment of the affairs.

country's manhood Plainly the Gov-


had emptied the col- ernment could not
leges, took their be making its mani-
stand, like the enemy fold use of English
professors, in the literary men and wo-
line of intellectual men if it were not
defense. In one re- that with few excep-
Ul-.RT MUR
spect we may take a tions they are fully
certain pride in our academic representa- identified with the national policy in the
tives. On the whole they have come out of war. In any other country such a state of
the ordeal better than, say, the bishops and affairs could not excite remark in England;

the editors. At all events, when we com- it is without precedent. England at war
pare their general tone with that of their has in the past always meant an educated
German compeers, we feel that the judg- public bitterly divided, with the intel-
ment of the court can hardly be in doubt. lectuals mostly in opposition. Even dur-
There was revealed, however, a difference ing the Napoleonic wars some of the
of character and sympathy between the two greatest writers of the age were openly
old universities of England. The historians admiring of their country's arch-enemy. In
and classicists of Oxford discovered an our own time, before the war, the men
unsuspected facility in pamphleteering, and most generally associated with the higher
very nearly to a man they were engaged intelligence of England have been em-
from the beginning in stating and defend- phatically of the minority. To-day, apart
ing the purposes of the Allies. On the from the Cambridge group, leaders of
other hand, the mathematicians and meta- opinion so widely Bernard
different as
physicians of Cambridge furnished intel- Shaw and Graham Wallas and Clutton
lectual leadership for the minority against Brock have preserved a remarkable bal-
thewar Oxford, from Gilbert
policy. ance of mind; but the rest have nearly all
Murray is orthodox and
to L. P. Jacks, undergone a spiritual conversion.
confident about the British case and the Take, as an example which every one
only tolerable end of the war while Cam- ; will admit to be striking, the case of John
bridge, emptied like all other uni\ersities Galsworthy, He is a minority representa-
of its youth, has in Bertrand Russell the tive if ever there was one. He belongs as
most uncompromising of non-resisters, in completely and inevitably to the few as
Lowes Dickinson the most philosophical Rudyard Kipling and Conan Doyle be-
and persuasive advocate of peace without long to the many. Such men as those
828 THE CENTURY IVIAGAZINE
are unimaginable in any other relation in his novels and plays he has offered a
they are incapable of intellectual or emo- merciless and persistent challenge. We
tional isolation. Galsworthy, on the need not be surprised that the process of
contrary, is detached in an extraordinary creation with him should be suspended,
degree. He has al- as it is with John
ways been much Masefield and al-
more (or, as the bel- most ever\' man who
letrists would say, is thinking not of
much less) than a art, but of service.
man of letters. He The one Galsworthy
is by nature a novel of war-time,
preacher, a re- "The Freelands," is

former, an agitator. a documentary story


Before the war it of ante-bellum days.

was impossible for It has no more to do


him to separate his with the experience
whether
creative gift, or the atmosphere of
in drama,
fiction, war-time than has
or satire, from his "The Lion's Share,"
preoccupation with a story which is

certain barbarities of chiefly interesting as

contemporary so- showing how com-


ciety. He arraigned pletely a mind of
the prison and the such high general
criminal law, the capacity as Arnold
slaughter-house, the Bennett's can be
blood sports of old absorbed in the poli-
England, the time- tics of the struggle
honored diversions while leaving
= his
\uRTin' _ .

of his own class,— capacity for inven-


the legal inequality of the sexes, the tion altogether untouched.
land monopoly. In all England one could Even more curious is the case of that
hardly find an eminent man of let- brilliant rebel combination, Hilaire Belloc
ters more completely endowed with the and Gilbert Chesterton. During the
qualities that put a man among the dis- lustrum before the deluge these doughty
sidents. But the war, which leaves Rud- comrades were leading what appeared to
yard Henry Newbolt and
Kipling and be a singularly forlorn hope. They were
Mrs. Humphry Ward exactly where tilting against progressivism and social re-

they were before, has transformed John construction on the plea that all the forces
Galsworthy out of recognition. He lined involved in the movement were making
himself up with the multitude of his for the consolidation of the Servile State.
countrymen he can write expositions of
; But no one whose business or interest
the war policy or exhortations to America caused him in those years to follow the
which appear without incongruity in the currents of opinion could fail to remark
popular prints. He performs, of course, that, although Belloc and Chesterton were
his own particular piece of war service plainly on the losing side, they were mak-
with the inconspicuous devotion and re- ing their weight tell. A multiple move-
sponsibility of which the English writing ment of reaction was afoot, and it was
class has furnished many instances. But— easy enough to detect the impress of their
and here is the. odd contradiction — in his combined intelligence and humor and their
propagandist writing he reveals himself as dubious conception of democracy.
u typical Englishman of the class to wh'ch The coming of the (ireat War gave
THE ENGLISH INTELLECTUALS IN WAR-TIME 829
Hilaire Belloc a unique professional op- interpreted all public affairs in terms of
portunity. He had, as he did not allow political and financial corruption. Chester-
us to forget, undergone a term of service ton was not at home in this company. He
in the French army. He had tramped denied his own genius when he permitted
over a great part of it to be linked with
the theater of war. a peculiarly bitter
He had long been sectarianism, and
an energetic, if er- trimmed his splendid
ratic, student of enthusiasm for free-
warfare, medieval dom and common hu-
and modern. By a manity to the catch-
happy stroke of words of an ignoble
business a moribund cabal.
sporting weekly was The accident of
taken over for him, his younger broth-
and for three years er's being called to
"Land and Water" the colors gave him
has supplied a be- the chance, doubtless
wildered world with most unwelcome, of
evidence of the inex- showing what he
haustible Bellocian could do with a
resources: a know- weekly journal. It
ledge of strategy and has been interesting
tactics never con- to watch Chester-
fessedly at fault, a ton as editor. He
topographical ac- cannot help turning
quaintance with all out forceful and
the fronts which no ,,,, ^^ ,5,., , ,,^- distinctive work, but
reader can with- "The New Wit-
stand, and a hardihood in prophecy which, ness" is not his organ, Chesterton fight-
after the innumerable strainings and fal- ing in another man's armor is not the man
sifications of three years, is as prolific and we knew\ The wit that was the most
confident as in the first flush of that re- effective weapon wielded by any contro-
straining optimism which bade us not to versialist in England is blunted the mar- ;

expect the entry of the Russian armies into velous vitality and fecundity of thought
Berlin before the Christmas of 1914! and phrase which made him the most
Verily, as Matthew Arnold delighted to formidable of antagonists have in large
aflRrm, Oxford is justified of all her chil- measure disappeared. Not even Chester-
dren. ton can be a boy forever, and our cam-
The fortune of Hilaire Belloc's indis- paigns and perils in these days are vastly
pensable ally has been less dazzling. It more momentous than the very restricted
so happened that Gilbert Chesterton was combatsin which he gained his spurs.

prevented from playing in this crisis the Something more, however, is needed to
conspicuous part which would seem to be explain the fact that Gilbert Chesterton,
his by every kind of right. A physical a mighty youthful champion during the
breakdown some months before the war Boer War, has no position of leadership
forced a long retirement. He was, how- in the war of the ages. The explanation lies
ever, already in partial retreat. Abandon- in this, that the crash of Europe has car-
ing the newspaper pulpit from which ried him, unresisting, into the camp of
week by week he was enabled to address the majority. Long ago he was told that
a few million readers, he had joined him- it was odd for a thoroughly typical
self to a little group of muck-rakers who Englishman, such as, by his own reiterated
830 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
description, he was, to appear so singular brought to him a large measure of eclipse.

in modern England. The simple truth is One cannot him a pacifist, and only
call

that to-dav he has no choice. He is of his an imbecile would suspect him of being
pro-German. He looks toward an ordered
world from which, apparently, force is
not to be eliminated. He believes in large
aggregates, governmental and economic.
He would rejoice over the painless ex-
tinction of every nationality and the dis-
appearance of every small state in Europe.

In August, 191 4, he affirmed that the


war was the nemesis of foreign office pro-
cedure, and England must go into it as the
only reparation she could make to Europe.
I'hree months later he published his con-
sidered judgment in "Common Sense
about the War," pamphlet which, what-
a
ever its perversity, insensitiveness, and in-
accuracy, is sure of a place among the
few pieces of polemical writing produced
during these years that will live. It was

far less widely read in England than in


America. To the generality of the edu-
cated public temper and method were
its

detestable, many of Shaw's old


and
friends, who would have had no feeling

own people ; he agrees with the multitude, against the same case differently presented,

and for a Chesterton there is no fun in were pained by it beyond expression.


that. The fight a man like Chesterton re- But three years of discussion and diplo-
joices in is a fight with his own side. The
British junker is his mortal enemy, but he
can make little of him if he is compelled to
join with the crowd in the attack upon
Prussianism. His task in these days is

to set in fresh lights the assumptions and


arguments that are the present stock in

trade of his old antagonists. He does it,

but the price exacted is the sacrifice of the


most joyous and brilliant free-lance of his
generation. It is poor compensation to
him that, while defending the greater
cause, he can keep up the assault upon the
Servile State. For that means a running
contest with Lloyd George and the war
government, as well as with the war
profiteer; and the Government, after all,
is the one constituted authority by means
of which the policy in which Mr. Chester-
ton believes can be carried into effect.
There are many who would say that
if this is not Gilbert Chesterton's war,
still less is it Hernarti Shaw's. It has
THE ExNGLISH INTKLLKCTUALS IN WAR-TIMK 831
matic disclosure have done their work in astonishing amount of hard, detailed, and
regard to "Common Sense." Within a wholly unrecognized service which he has
few months of its appearance, as Shaw performed, in the flush times as in the
remarked with justice, his hostile anal- bare, for the causes in which he believes.
ysis of Sir Edward The one keen regret
Grey's diplomacy his admirers have is

was adopted by a that the years are


powerful section of gathering about his
the British press. head. The war
The discerning mi- caught him at sixty.
nority took occasion It caught Wells at
to point out that, for fifty and Chesterton
all his exasperating at fort\ , and there
tone, Bernard Shaw has been no more
had delivered a interesting personal
smashing blow study in these da_\s
against Junkerdom, than is offered by the
but not in the Ger- varying ways in
man Empire alone which the three men
while in the neutral have reacted to its
countries it was held overpowering stimu-
that the uncensored lus.
publication of "Com- No commiseration
mon Sense about the of anv kind is needed
War" was a bril- for H. G. Wells.
liant proof that This is his war, if

England was at anybody's. For years


least still a land of he had been enjoy-
free discussion. ing its prospective
however, was not taken back
Its author, terror and mechanical surprises, always,
into favor, notwithstanding that a crow d no doubt, with the proviso that a war
can always be gathered to hear his lectures. maintained b}- the chemists and mecha-
With the exception of the prefaces nicians must be mercifully brief, issuing
to "Androcles" and to "Pygmalion," immediately in the new social order. The
Shaw's product during the war has been magazine reader, at all events, had learned
almost negligible. That once overflowing to shape the future, and has watched the
brain and pen have been surprisingly quiet. processes of the war with e\es trained to
and the wit which two hemispheres took
in the Wellsian formula.
delight has found quite inadequate scope To most literary people, as to all men of
in such rollicking trifles as "O'Flaherty, ordinary affairs, the war brought into
V. C." and "The Inca of Perusalem." new and bewildering world. To
being a
Amid the illusions of war-tim? there is Mr. Wells, first of all, it brought a
little room for that piercing intelligence miraculous fulfilment of his own dreams.
or for that merciless statement of fact While everybody else had to make an
which men and women agree to call para- entirely fresh start, he had merely to
dox or cynicism. But of course his day carry into actuality the lines laid down
will recur, and he will be there to enjoy through years of fantastic invention.
it with a zest enhanced by silence and What wonder, then, that, seeing his mili-
unadvertised labor. For there is one thing tary and mechanical predictions coming
especially about Bernard Shaw which his true with such staggering exactness, he
friends know and prize, though the world should play harder than ever at the game
could not have guessed it. I mean the of political and social prophecy? There
832 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
was no journalist or professor readier who for some years in advance of his
than he to tell preciselj' how the conHict startling discoveries in the life
and teach-
would go. Da\' b}' da.v the new Europe ing of the Founder of Christianity, had
grew under his hand, or was broken up been coupling attacks upon the idolatry of
again and remodeled kingship with the
afresh. declaration of a m^s-
The gift which tical faith in a Power
most strikingly which he no longer
marks off Mr. Wells hesitates to call God.
from virtually all of This confession of
his contemporaries is religion, in point of
the gift of an imagi- fact, is not surpris-
nation which, so far ing in either prophet.
from being be- Shaw was a preacher
numbed, is immensely of religion long be-
and incessantly stim- fore the da\s of
ulated by the general "John Bull's Other
catastrophe. Before Island"; the relig-
all else he is the his- ious evolution of
torian of contem- Wells could easily
porary change. The have been predicted
weekly paper is not from "A Modern
more up to date than Utopia" or "The
a Wells novel. And Days of the Comet."
yet, for all his swift Each would seem to
and sensitive obser- have heard of Plato
vation and response, for the first time on
he has not, in either the threshold of el-
essay or romance, ,,l(,k(.i. i; iNAKii su.xw derhood ; each stands
come near to seeing in fascinated won-
the war as it affects the multitude. Mr. derment before commonplaces of the faith
BritVtng's experience begins and ends with familiar to everj' churchgoer, and the curi-
the comfortable classes; indeed, with that ous in such matters may be tempted to
small portion of those classes which dwells make rather more than they should of the
in the country house, contributes its sons to circumstance that both alike found some-
the public service, andmakes up its opinions thing to attract them in the tenuous theism
amid the gossip of the club and the after- of Rabindranath Tagore. However that
noon tea-party. The Wells of Kipps and may be, the religion of the English in-
Le%visha?n and 71/r. Polly would have in- tellectuals is another siibject, and a decid-
terpreted it all from a startlingly different edly fascinating one.
angle ; but it is not an accident that before I close this paper upon a question which
the war the creator of Kipps had devised a we are alj, in our several ways, asking to-
new Machiavelli and learned to set his day : wiiat is the war likely to do to the
magnificent researchers to work among men of letters, and more especially to those
the governing classes and our old nobility. who, since the disappearance of the great
Tn his latest phase Mr. Wells has in- writer in his character of major prophet,
terested his public by uttering his mind had in ante-bellum da\s combined the
upon two momentous themes. He has de- functions of journalist and interpreter, if
clared against monarchy in the affairs of not also of novelist and poet? One thing
this world, while proclaiming his faith in seems certain: this immeasurable upheaval
God the Invisible King. In both direc- involves so intense a concentration of
tions he was anticipated by Bernard Shaw, energy that wliile it lasts we cannot ex-
THE IMOVIES IN NEW YORK 833
pect any great overflow of literary pro- own roads. To them may be given an
duction ; nor of course can we, amid tlie authority greater than that enjoyed by
vast and pitiful sacrifice of youth, look even the most fortunate of their predeces-
for the emergence of new genius in any sors.
of the warring countries. The end, in all Hut who can tell? It is conceivable
likelihood, will release a flow of imagina- that the world after the war may agree
tive creation, and we may well expect a in a profound and largely unreasoning
revolution in form no less than a revela- skepticism as to the value of the intellec-
tion of fresh and startling ideas and ex- tual in society. If so, few people will
perience. The young writers
of to-morrow have the hardihood to deny that there is
will be provided in overflowing abundance embodied, in the history of the overturn
with subjects more compelling than any and its antecedents, an impressive array
which have been available since the break- of evidence capable of being used to sus-
up of the medieval world, and we may be tain any condemnation to which the world
quite sure they will make and follow their may set its seal.

ft - ^: ^ -
:^-

The Movies in New York


By MARY CAROLYN DAVIES

YOUShakingme home:
give the pepper-trees.
a little in the breeze.
And rows of swaying palms. I close
My eyes before I look at those,
Like praying before food. The high,
Great palms, like swords against the sky,
The drooping ones that curve and bend,
Are each, in this strange land, a friend.
The great brown hills of home I see
Before me lie alluringly
And sunny towns like those I know:
Familiar buildings, row on row;
A house in shining, cool concrete
Like one that stands across the street
From ours at home. The acacia stirred
The old wa\- then. Mv e\es are blurred.

The I do not care or know


tale?
What and lover come and go
girl

Beneath those trees, upon those hills.


What kiss enthralls, what murder thrills,
These folk to grieving or delight;
For I am home — am home to-night!
The Irishman
By ARTHUR GLEASON
Author of " Golden Lads," etc.

Illustrations by Florence Scovel Shinn

OLD said
Peter Kerrigan was talkino;. He to do some fine day when the next lady
reformer comes around sniffing our ash-
"Give me a straight ticket, and the good cans in the third. I 'm going to quit."

old club on Fourteenth Street. Those That was n't as hasty as it sounds, be-
were the days. You knew cause he had been in poli-
where you were at. But tics for forty years. I felt

what do you have now? sure that his depression


Young reformers and split would fade out. I knew
tickets and everybody wor- old man Kerrigan well.
ried. How 's a business He was a genuine old-
man to know if he can timer. He had a big heart
stretch his awning a little and an itching palm. He
ways over the sidewalk? was straight with his

One administration tells friends and as crooked as


him to go ahead, and takes lightning in municipal
a bit for the favor. The contracts and the sale of
next administration comes illicit privilege. He had
along and fines him heavy started life in New York
for a violation. Call that as a bartender, then he
right? The Wall Street had bought the place,
bunch runs a new trolley- showing what a thrifty
line and wires it in to the man can do on twenty-
other street-cars. Next five dollars a week and

you know, a public service pickings. Later he took


commission comes down over three saloons, each of
the river and rips the V^-^ ^^^^^ S^tl,^ .
which holds down a corner
whole system into little, on the tract south of Coo-
HR RULED ALL THE ROOST SOUTl
separate one-horse con- OF FOURTEE NTH STREET" per Union, before you get
cerns, so it costs a man to Houston Street. They
ten cents to go north two blocks and turn were rough and they were money-makers.
east one. In the old days you could tear His wife never liked the job, so he gave
up the streets and give the boys a job. up appearing as proprietor, and let the
Now it 's all investigated. That 's the men he was training in handle them for
word — investigated. Look at the tax rate him. A saloon, if you own it, will run
bobbing up and down. It 's a mix-up alto- itself ; the point is to own it. Kerrigan
gether, that 's how I look at it. Politics saw the saloons all around him changing
ain't what they were. There 's no peace hands two and three times a year. And
and quietness." why ? Because the big man at the top, the
"What would you do?" I asked. brewer, owned them, and held his slave,
"I don't know what I would do," Ker- the saloon-keeper, on a chattel mortgage.
rigan replied; "T know what I 'm going All the u'ork was done bv the tenant, and

S34
THE IRISHMAN 835

all tlie profits went to the brewer. None "Drop it, Peter! Do, man We could
of that for Kerrigan. So he did the own- have a bit of a place in the country, and go
ing, and let the brewer come to him. back to County Wicklow in the summer-
The best thing about Peter was a fer- time."
tility of mind which did not permit him to Hut he would always repl\-:
go stale when most of his associates had "Wait a little, there 's a good one.
to leave politics because they could no Wait a little, and we '11 see what the boy
longer gage the current. When
down- the is going to do."
town districts were taken away from the The boy— there you had Peter's life-
other old-timers and parceled out to tlie work in a phrase. He was expecting large
newer order of politicians, with no surety things of the boy. Peter was well aware
as to where the votes would fall, Peter of his own limitations, his too-vigorous
Kerrigan still held his district solid. One talk, his abashment in the presence of the
district it was, to be sure, and in the good educated ; of the strange, cold financial oli-

days of the eighties garchy, hidden and


and nineties he ruled high, who played him
all the roost south of and all his system
Fourteenth Street. like puppets. It was
But even one district that abashment which
in the perilous new made him send his
times was a cozy son to college. He
stronghold for an old said he wanted him to
man. It was a lot learn howto wear a
less lonely than to be dress-suit and talk to
stripped and forsaken, swells. He did n't
like the McGuire want his son to take
brothers and their the back-wash of any-
cousin, the King of body. It was curious
Houston Street. how his own crudity
Yet even at that I bothered the master-
doubt if old man Ker- ful old fellow. He
rigan would have held could quell a saloon
on to his one lone out- riot and talk down a
post in the wreckage gunman or a "dip"
of lower Manhattan without rasping his
if it had not been for throat. He was a lion
his son. It is cruelly among hisown sort,
hard work to be a dis- with that mixture of

trict leader, with an ••snii-mnc, < Asm ANs sudden fierceness and
ever-flowing fund for just as sudden tender-
needy citizens, ten men a day for a job, ness which makes you forgi\e his kind
half a dozen "hand-outs," several long in- for murder where you would n't forgive
terviews, a stream of callers, situations to another type of man for walking on your
be "fixed," contracts to be "regulated," toe. But he had alwa\s felt helpless in
street repairs with a pay-roll for loyal the presence of the overlords of the city,
election-workers, and exemptions for the the big traction men who bought fran-
tenements and shops of the faithful. His chises wholesale, and let the money trickle
time was never his own. He had to keep through to the "boys." Something in their
open house, like a Roman consul, up to speech and manner from knowing the
midnight of any day, and then at it again light peoplefrom babyhood always set old
in the early morning. Peter stumbling, and he used to come
Main 's the time I heard his wife sav away bruised ami anirr\' from a conference.
836 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
His wife did n't care. She had Peter and ten years that we had known each other
the bo}% and had found fulfihnent. She when Peter sent for me.
had no desire to trail in after the opera- "The boy here is back from college and
box crowd and the flash beauties of the wants to get bus>'," he said. "Can \ou
cafes. Home was good enough for her. help him to land a job?"
So it was Peter who had his way with the My own paper was over-staffed at that
boy, and sent him to the Pottstown pre- time, but I knew that Rafferty of "The
paratory school and then on to Yale. It Advocate" was looking for young blood,
was all to be the best. so the graft was made there.
"Shove in," he said to the young Wil- William had inherited his father's turn
liam; "I back you with the money.
'11 of language, and he soon began to do East-
Spend what it costs, but sit in with the Side column stories that attracted notice.
boys. You know, hang around and look At first they were merely picturesque, with
hopeful. The gang will open up. Bin color and bits of foreign talk and funny
'em what they want." little slants on queer folks. But gradually-
So that was the way William Kerrigan he loaded them with facts, with sure-
went to New Haven. The old man was enough "dope" from the fountain-head.
worth about three hundred thousand at He would have an election-day human-
that time, after forty years of raw politics, interest yarn, and give you the full-length
and the money was still coming in from his life history of a "floater" from the time he

one district and his three saloons, though outgrew regular work till he registered
nothing like the old days. But he had from three lodging-houses, with addresses
enough to give a youngster in a salt-water and names given. Or he 'd have a sketch
college a good time, and young William all about a saloon, the "dead-beats," the
had it. respectable regulars, and the brewer's col-
He happened to fall in an unusual lector, the amount of spare change a bar-
group. was more after the order of a
It tender deducts from the cash-register on a

reading crowd at an Oxford college than wet night.


anything usually seen at our respected uni- It was n't reform stuff, nothing dreary

versities. There was actually and aston- and uplifting; but it dripped with the
ishingly a group of young literary men heady wine of inside information. Of
who were companionable. William had a course we all knew what had happened.
bright, adaptable mind, with a turn of The old man was loosening up on a life-
humor in it that was pleasant. He had time of reminiscence for the sake of giving
no difficulty in picking up the jargon, and his kid a flying start. I grew a bit wor-

tearing off more of the same, himself. He ried, because some of the stuff, had a
was elected to one of the college papers jagged the men
edge that cut close to
and did fairly clever work. higher up. was a great joke down the
It
He was graduated without honors, but Row how young Kerrigan was exposing
with a wide circle of friends and a pretty the system which old Kerrigan had helped
definite bent toward the profession of to create.
writing. That was when I was called in. I was around at their home one evening
I had been doing city hall reporting for when Big Jim himself came down from
many years on a Park Row morning pa- the little old lodge on Fourteenth Street
per, and in that line of life had come to where the red gods make their medicine.
know old Kerrigan intimately. I do not Being one of the family and a careful
think there was any one who spent more man, I was n't felt to be in the way, and
time in his home than I. He tipped me off Big Jim sailed in right before me. H<
on the political aimed me
knockabout, said
straight on franchise struggles, and gaged "Bill 's getting too fresh, Peter; 1 tell

the character of new reformers with a you straight."


deadly aocurac\'. I suppose it was all of "Mv Hill?" asked Kerrigan in a
prised tone, drawing in on his old, black now a young feller comes along with all
clay pipe. his to make, and you head him oft on the
"He 's show away," went on
giving the first lap. Have a heart."
Big Jim. "That lodging-house stor\ of "I came to talk business, Peter," re-
his was a shame." torted Big Jim. He was turning nasty.
"I read it," said Peter. "I read it twice "If your Bill pulls any more of that raw
with spectacles. His dope was good. stuff, 1 '11 get him."
What 's the kick?" Peter got up slowly. He was an old
"He 's got to quit," replied Big Jim; man and a bit rheumatic ; but he stood six
"that 's what. I 'm telling >ou." feet one, with a body that was wide and
"Quit nothing," answered Peter. "He 's thick and still good enough for a close-in

just starting. Give a young teller a fight anywhere in the third district.
chance, Jim, can't you? You 've had \our "I '11 tell you where you got ott," he
pick of the graft for twent\- \ears. Look said in a low voice that had bristles and
at those Hats of yours in the Bronx. Re- teeth in it. "If you fool with my boy,
member how the subway trailed them up 1 '11 blow you up the river. Do you think
and built stations just where the>- 're 1 ha\e n't got the goods after working
bunched? Soft and eas>'. And nobody twent\ \ears w Ith I can melt you

has said a word, have thew [iin? And into a grease-spot and wipe the floor with

S37
838 THE CENTURY MACAZINE
it. Now listen to me. All Bill's stuff is liam ;
"1 know all that. But this is n't the

pulled in my district. The only dope he Irish Question; this is something else."
uses is inside the dead-line. He ain't tell- "They
're in it, ain't they?" persisted

ing nothing on the rest of the crowd. Peter. "Well, then, that 's enough for
What he gets here he uses, and he 's wel- me. Do you think the fine, likely lads
come to it. You used to own the town, from Leinster and Connaught and Mun-
and now you can't carry your own ward. ster are going? Not they. Why should
That 's how
good a ringleader you are. you be going, then ? You 're an Irishman,
You and your bunch have to come to Ker- are n t you
rigan when you want something that 's "No, Father; I 'm an American," an-
safe and in out of the wet. It 's my dis- swered William.
trict, do you hear? What do with it is
I "Sure you 're an American. But I 'm
my business. Come down and break me, a Catholic, ain't I, and I 'm an American,
why don't you? Why, because you would ain't I? You 're an Irishman and you 're
n't have one sure thing left if you did. an American."
You leave me alone, and you leave Bill So it was left at that, and yoimg Kerri-
alone." gan said good-by to the volunteer drivers
And Big Jim had to be satisfied with and went on with his newspaper work
that. All the same, when Bill came home, but I could feel the adventure seething in
the old man said to him : him, and I knew that the son of his father
"Go easy, Son. Don't be so kind of would break through some day.
personal, as if you was doing a country Then the Irish Rebellion broke loose, a
wedding. The guests like to be called off bunch of boys holding Dublin till the
by name, with the stuff the dresses was machine-guns came, and later the execu-
made of. But some of these here drifting tions, Sackville Street a ruin, and Sinn
voters and such-like they 're modest. Fein the biggest thing in Ireland. My
They ain't looking for publicity. Train city editor and Rafferty of "The Advo-
'em in gently." cate" were the only two men in town to
"Somebody 's been squealing," said Bill, see that those dead youngsters had put
with a grin. Ireland on the map.
"Oh, nothing noisy," replied Peter; The boss said to me
"just a friendly whisper." "This thing is bigger than the war.
When the Great War came William We 're going to hear of Ireland for the
had a desire to join some of his classmates next five years. She '11 be in at the peace
for Red Cross ambulance work. The Ker- talk. The new British imperial confer-
rigans held a family council. Peter began ence will have to do business with her.
it by saying: Now want you to go over and take your
I

"I never thought to see the time come time. Get all your facts get the real in- ;

when son of mine would fight for the side of it. The old Orange slush is no
English. Why, boy, we 've fought against good. You '11 have to keep peeling off the
'em for seven hundred year'. There 's layers like it was an onion — papacy, gun-
men in your line has died rioting and running, the garrison, all the rest of them.
rough-housing, and always against the None of them is the real inside nubbin.
garrison. And here you be going over to Keep working till you Then come
find it.

them hand !" They won't let you


give a home and writf" it.

"Maybe the boy thinks they 're in the write it in Ireland. The whole place is

right of it this time. Father," said old under martial law. You may not be Irish
Mrs. Kerrigan. yourself, but you 've got an Irish name
"They could n't be," answered Peter. that will carry you like a breeze through
"It ain't in a Britisher to be in the right the three provinces. You '11 have no trou-
of it. Why, for seven hundred year' —" lile getting the stuff; only be sure it 's the
''Yes, yes, Father," interrupted Wil- right stuff. Thev 're ;i bunch of liars.
THE IRISHMAN 839
those Irish politicians. I 'in an Irishman months. They put us in solitary confine-
mj'self, so I can say it." ment for three weeks. Solitar\ confine-
Young Kerrigan rang me up next chiw ment hard on the mind, but the\- never
is

"Hear you 're going to Irehuid," lie got to me. They never got to me, because
began. 1 knew I was in it for Ireland. I '11 fight
"\ ep." for Ireland, but not for i'Jigland. The\'
"Same here," he said. "Raffert\' wants are slow. I brought out my uniform un-
a bunch of heart-burns." der their eyes.
So we went together. We started in " 'It 's a pity we can't take out our uni-
work at DubHn and Cork by getting into forms,' said the man with. me.
touch with the literary and theatrical " 'Lea\e it to an Irishman,' said I. I
groups. We witnessed a performance b\' put bag when the sergeant was n't
it in the

the Hardwicke Street Players, and were looking, put pasteboard around it, and
entertained by them after the show. Ker- brought it out under their eyes.
rigan's name was a password good for any "Go
to any country,— Australia, Amer-
of the three provinces. We had an eve- ica, anywhere in the world,— and they
ning with the group who drop in on James hate England, and they hate her for what
Stephens, and met the great A. E., Ire- she has done to Ireland, They hate her
land's poet and patriot. We spent many for those seven hundred years. Let her
hours at Plunkett House, where the Coop- go down under the sea. It is a disgrace to
erative Movement throws out its circles of serve in her army.
influence over Nationalists and Ulsterites "The reason we rose was what we have
alike, and achieves an economic synthesis suffered for seven hundred years. We
where in politics there is nothing but an- have tried the way the speaker tells us of.
gry dissension. We have been
The whole experience came to focus one peaceful. The
evening when we attended a no-conscrip- blood was get-
tion meeting. The first speaker had advo- ting rotten in
cated passive resistance. He had urged our veins. We
the young men to refuse to serve. He had needed some-
told them to be thrown into prison. Then thing to freshen
a young Irishman stood up, six feet of us. The Lon-
him. He was about twenty-five years of don 'Times"
age. He spoke with humor and fire. He wrote about
told why he and his comrades had made Mac Do na gh
the famous Rebellion of 1916, although and Pearse as
they knew it was hopeless. He told why if the\ were
he and his friends would coine for\\'ard to children, not
die if conscription were attempted. He knowing what
said they did. We
"I 've chosen the lesser of two evils. knew what we
I '11 fight. I don't expect a long life. were doing. I

I 've fought once; I 'II fight again. I was don't expect to


a volunteer. I fought in Sackville Street. come out of
I 'm an electrician. I get ninepence ha'- this alive. I

penny an hour, but I never worked for have n't an\


ninepence ha'penny as I worked in Sack- A Yor.NT, IRISHMAN sTocr) fp riHe, — that is,

ville Street for no pay at all. I work by not now, — but


the day, but not too much. My evenings I know where there are a few. If they
I work for Ireland, and there is no money put conscription on us, we '11 fight. We
in that. I belong to a club here in Dublin. '11 be fighting for Ireland. What use
"I was a prisoner in Frongach for three will twenty thousand Irishmen fighting
840 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
for England be to them? When we were the mess more complex and profound than
fighting for Ireland, we did more work he and those noble \oung visionaries real-
in six days than in twelve months. We ized. As 1 looked at it, to pay life's ar-

knocked our way through brick walls. rears in one moment of sacrifice did not
We built barricades. There was food, remedy the poverty of peasants and the
but we did n't take time to eat it. An slums of Dublin and Cork. So I steered
Irishman works best when he working
's William up against a keen young Irishman
for nothing and when he is working for who was helping to run the Cooperative
Ireland. Movement.
"I am a Christian, a Roman Catholic. "Foreign politics is the least of it," he
I hate bloodshed. saw a soldier go
I across said to William. "What Ireland needs is

the street when we were fighting. I said money— money for education, for indus-
to the man next me, 'See him.' He aimed try, for agriculture. No amount of blood-
his gun and shot him but I could n't shoot; shed wmII give us chemical fertilizer ; but
the man. I did n't want the sin on my a factory will, and that 's what we need.
soul. We don't want bloodshed but is ; We need some little light railways and
there any other way? We don't want the water-power and we need our mines work-
insult of conscription put on us." ing —
oh, and a lot of things. If some of
We came away, and the lad Kerrigan your big chaps will drop a little money by
was all aglow with what he had heard. I way of investment in Ireland, it will do
could see that he was getting caught in. more for the country than gun-running.
Something deeper than Yale and Broad- England is going to give Ireland her free-
way was speaking to him out of his hidden, dom that is certain. She '11 have to make
;

inherited life. He had never known it was Ireland as free as Canada dominion home —
there, that traditional love for the little rule. But when that comes, then the real
nation which had nourished his line. He work begins. We 've got to shake loose
walked along in a sort of silent glory for of our politicians. If we don't, we '11 be
a few minutes, then suddenly turned to eaten up by them."
me and came out with it. "English, you mean?" asked William.
"It 's like the 'sacred union' of the "English, no. Irish."
French," he said ; "it 's nationality coming "You mean that Irish politicians graft
up from the soul of these people like pure on Irishmen?" asked William.
water out of the ground. It 's caught The young cooperator laughed.
these young fellows and put a light in their "Go and see Father Murphy," he said.
faces. They '11 die with as pure a sense We went. Father Murphy was the
of rightness as Joan of Arc. And, what 's man with the facts. He got out half a
more, it 's caught me. I 'm just a muddy dozen big blue government reports. One
little man, but I can feel some of the of them contained testimony he himself
quicksilver that 's going through these had given to a crown committee.
young Irishmen. I thought I was just an "There 's nothing wrong with the
American; but I guess I 'm an Irishman, Irish," he said to us; "they 're the kindest-
too. They 've got to succeed ; we 've got hearted people in the world. But there 's

to make them succeed." a kind of noxious vermin that politics


"Are you a newspaper man or a Sinn- breed, and that 's where our trouble comes,

Feiner?" I asked. and trouble it is. The Irish politician, my


"Blamed if I know," he replied. hoy— have you ever studied the breed ?"
"Who 's paying your salary?" I argued. answered William.
"Yes,''
"I know," he answered ; "but there are "Well, well, and you so young!" said
bigger things than a job." Father Murphy. "Why, look you now.
"I can see your finish," I told him. we 've had local self-government for many
As a matter of fact, I saw his point all years, the Irish cities run by Irishmen, no
right; but there were se\eral elements in I'jiglishnian interfering at all in that. And
THK IRISH.MAN 841
do you think that-brought us freedom? "And how did you hkc- thi- oKl phice?"
Take, now, the corporation in this city, asked Peter.
Irish to a man. And run your glance "O Father, it was wonderful!" an-
through this fat report, and what do you swered William. "The \oung fellows

Y^-^>~>j'*^'''^^^ «^ ^/lO^y^ 1 .--i=S-

OI.K lAMILIHS IN A SI

find ? Rotten slum property owned by care more for their country than I '\e
members of the corporation ; fifty people ever seen men care."
using the same closet, and that a very dirtj' "Sure, they care," agreed Peter. "Why
one ; crowding, disease, immorality ;
pro- should n't they care? 'T is Ireland of the
tests filed,and nothing done. I tell you, Four Green Fields."
lad, it 's we must watch. When
ourselves "But I 've never seen anything like it,
we get our country back again, and I shall the love in them for their land. They '11
live to see it, then we must make the fine give up their life to make things right."
deeds of these young boys come true. "Tell me, now," urged Peter.
These grand young fellows go out and die So William told the story of the young
to free Ireland ; but all they do will be Sinn-Feiners we had met, and he told of
wasted if we have the old crowd on top." those we were too late to meet because
they had died. Peter's eyes filled with
It had been a crowded month, and we tears. I had known him ten years, and I
were glad to get back to the city we knew had never seen the old man moved like
and the old friends. There was nothing that.
for it but I must go to the Kerrigans' for "God bless 'em!" he said. "Be prcuul
the first dinner of home-coming welcome. \()u 're an Irishman. Son."
842 THE CENTURY AIAGAZINE
"I am," answered William and I m and die for the sake of turning over some
ashamed, too." more of their country to a gang like that.
"Be damned to you!" returned Peter. All the hopes they have for their country
"What are you 'shamed of?" will go for nothing. They '11 be sold out
"I 'm ashamed of the Irish who sell out by Irish politicians."
their own people." Old Peter sat up very straight, and
"It 's the Britisher you 're thinking of," there was a battle-light in his eye.
retorted Peter. "They rule Ireland." "Irish politicians, you say," he shouted,

"They 're not going to rule it for long," "stinking old Irish politicians running the
replied the boy; "Ireland is going to have game crooked while the boys get killed to
her Home Rule, and real Home Rule at save Ireland! 1 show 'em. I '11 pull
'11

that. But right now and for years back their dirty old wards away from them.
it 's the Irish that have been running the I '11 teach them to sell out their own Hesh
city government. And how do you think and blood. Do you hear that, Mother?
they 've been doing it? Crowding decent, Do you hear what the lad is telling us?
God-fearing Irish men and women, old Now, that settles it. It 's back to County
grandmothers, little children, into rooms Wicklow we go. The sooner the better,
that are n't fit for a pig. Whole families say 1. V'ou 've come to the right man.
in a single room. Dirt, lung-trouble, every Son. I '11 make a clean-up if it costs me
kind of filthy thing. And the very men my last dollar. Damned grafting Irish
who run the city that way have been the politicians, you say. I '11 trim them till

men who owned the houses, fat, rich Irish- the blood comes."
men, fat and rich from the misery of their And that was why Peter Kerrigan sold
own people. And the five young Irishmen his three saloons, pulled out ot the third
I 've been telling you about go to prison district, and went home to the old country.
A Letter
By RUTH COMFORT MITCHELL
High in the hills,
October afternoon.
Old Dear:
It 's days like these I miss you most,
These golden, vital, very living days.
You would adore it so Afoot, afield.
!

You would be ranging like a thing uncaged.


There 'd be no luring you indoors till dark.
If you were with me, we would mount and climb
Breathless, bare-headed, and with winged heels
Lifting us fleetly up from crest to crest
To the sharp silhouette of that highest hill,

Flung like a challenge there against the sky.


How hungrily I want you here to-dav.
Comfortable woman-person that you rare
Men are no use to walk with, as a rule:
They are too keen to get there and get back.
Too blind to small allurements by the way.
Too chin-up, chest-out, four-miles-to-the-hour
Missing you so through all this w^ordless time,
Writing you now, across a war-worn world,
A letter that I shall not try to send,
My hot rebellion crackles and leaps up
Into a roaring flame of aching rage.
What has this loathsome war to do with us?
What is this wickedness to you and me?

A little while ago and we Were there


Together—
Dresden!
In the soft forenoons
I would be struggling with a stubborn verb
While you were practising the "Miidchenwunsch,"
Unleashing "maiden wishes" of your own
In the shy candor of the melody.

Heavens, how young we were!


The windows wide,
Letting the giddy April in the house.

The proper pension curtains floating out.


Filling like eager sails in the warm wind.
Waving to winter friendly flags of truce.

And when four walls came crowding in too close,


There were the river and the new-clad woods
The Grosser Garten burgeoning to spring.
843
844 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Evenings, afloat on golden seas of sound,
We followed Siegfried, Elsa, and Iseiilt

Into a shining haven of harmony.

The long getriiitlich nights, too short for sleep,


With all the sapient comments to be made
About that breathless serial called life,

We 'd talk and talk and talk till dawn was gray.

And utter silence hangs between us now.


Like a black blanket, shutting out the light.

Here in the sweet, high places of the earth


It is so crassly unbelievable.

I look across a canon's velvet depths


To little honey-colored hills of hay.
Up to deep blue. A lone persimmon-tree
Shouts with exultant color ; clouds sail low
I call, A shy young hound with humid eyes
Rests his sleek head a moment on my knee.
The brisk tattoo of hammers on my house,
Where chaos is defeated day by day
By shining shape and order, makes me think,
With a sick wonder at the paradox.
Hearing the laughter and a snatch of song
That Jim, the ruddy Briton, and blond Hans
Would be the enemy across the sea.

Is n't it pitiful to try to say


The frenzied things that clamor to be said ?

Here are some scraps ; I have my note-book here,


Scribbled with things I thought that I could say.
One was about "Another Bethlehem":

A thoitsond field-pieces shortly to roar


Death and destrttction on a distant shore.

Shells by the Tnillion. Every one will soon


Be shrilly caroling its cold blue tune.

But something quivers in the air

As the dark days drag by.


"Oh. little toivn of Bethlehem
Hojv still ive see thee lie!"

A silly squeak of protest. Ludicrous!


I never tried to finish it, you see.

There Is a scrap on a preparedness camp


We motored through. Poor, earnest, eager things!
It made one want to cry to see them there
In the hot fever of their busy-ness,
Scuttling; like ants whose hill is troil upon.
I know, I know. 1 know what people say —
How they Hing down hard
and stamp them in; facts
How sane and sensible they make it sound ;

How deadly plain and plausible they are:


But what could be more crude and primitive.
More stupid, clumsy, hopeless,— unilhnned ?

Preparing, as the cave-dwellers prepared


Preparing, like the prehistoric man ;

Preparing, like Dark Ages, only lit

With hellish modern ingenuity


To plunge a radiant, up-standing world
Back into dank, abysmal ooze and slime.

Remember what Paul said at Ephesus?


"And your feet shod with the PREPARATION
Of the gospel of peace."
I think he meant

Something more sure and permanent than steel.


I think he meant a thing so great and strong

It will outlast the sun and all the stars.


When we shall blot out bitter boundaries.
Ceasing to sing,
My country, 't is of thre.
And say.
My countries, my ivide eartJi, my iLorld!

It 's growing late ; I must go down again.


It has turned cool ; the dog is shivering.
The sun is setting richly, and the dav,
A little stern and chill this last half-hour,
Flushes to perfect beauty at its death.

The workmen have gone home.


Here in the hills.

The quiet everlastingness of hills.


My shabby faith lifts up its head again.
Lord. I hcVtcvr ; help Thou mine unbelief!

The crickets are at vespers, and the dusk


Rises to meet me in a healing calm.
I cannot see the page.
Good night, old Dear!
T cannot see the path. T '11 feel way.my
Step after patient step, till I win home.
We have to know.
We have to knoiv!
Good bv!
The University of Sing Sing
By FRANK MARSHALL WHITE

ITonwas half-past six o'clock


an evening
Sing Sing
last December.
in The
in bade fellow-leaguers to hang the other in
the long mess-hall through which the men
weekly moving-picture show in the chapel must pass to reach their cells,and to light
was about to begin, and fourteen hundred candles from the store-room and place
members of the Mutual Welfare League, them along the platform railings of the
constituting the population of the prison, cell-block. Two seconds later he was on
were gathered there to witness the per- the chapel stage with his lantern, which he
formance on the films, crowding seats hung on a convenient nail at one side
and aisles to the utmost capacity of the big above his head, its feeble glow scarcely
room. There were no guards in the room, visible at the opposite end of the room.
the prisoners being in charge of delegates The song had come to an abrupt end on
chosen from among themselves, directed his appearance before the prisoners.
by their own elected sergeant-at-arms, the "Boys," he said, speaking rapidly, but
officer of the league who acts as disciplin- without excitement, "if you hear any old
arian of the body. The warden was away women yell Tire !'
don't throw fits.
from the prison. Just as the show was There ix a fire down below, but no danger
about to begin the electric lights suddenly if you '11 keep your heads. I want you to
went out, leaving the room in total dark- march quietly out of the chapel with your
ness. A moment later a voice that all the delegates, the members of the fire-depart-
prisoners recognized as that of George ment to report at once in the P. K.'s
Hodson, their sergeant-at-arms, rose from [principal keeper's] office, and the rest of
the black rear of the chapel. j'ou to go direct to your
cells and the

"A blown out


fuse has in the lighting dormitory. Now
you all know what the
machinery," he announced in a voice that Mutual Welfare League expects of you."
carried to the stage. "The show will be- By this time an odor of burning wool
gin as soon as we can make the necessary was rising from the floor below and
repairs. won't take long; but in the
It permeating the atmosphere, but the men
meantime some of you fellows that like to marched out of the chapel with even
hear yourselves sing might turn yourselves greaterdecorum than on ordinary oc-
loose. How about 'A Hot Time in the casions.There was no pushing, crowding,
Old Town to-night'?" or undue haste as they moved through
A thousand voices roared a more or less the gloom, although when they readied
harmonious response to this suggestion. the mess-hall the flameswere pouring from
Before the first measure of the song had the windows of the cellar directly below
been concluded the sergeant-at-arms, who them. The sergeant-at-arms had darted
knew that a furious fire was under head- from the stage of the chapel as he finished
way in the cellar of the building, was his instructions to the other prisoners.
down a Higlit of stairs and in the league's Rapidly skirting the line, he met the men
office. Here he seized one of two as they marched in order to the cell-block.
lighted lanterns in the rctoin, iuirriedl\' "Vou. O'Brien! \0u, Roach! >'ou,
846
THE UNIVKRSn Y OF SING SING 84:

Cella! You, Sweitzer! You, C). K. Hill! reported. Had the amateur il re-fighters
You, Tenny!" and "You!" to a score more been daring not only might the
less

of dependable men he cried, as thej' came hospital and the dormitory in the build-
along in double file,ordering them out of ing where the fire originated have been
line to assist the inmate fire-department of consumed, imperiling the lives of two
twenty-three men, who themselves, as they hundred and fifty men, but the flames
reached the bottom of the stairs, bolted for would have spread to the other prison
the fire apparatus, although not one of them buildings and destroyed the warden's
had ever fought a fire. The men thus sud- house and the shops. It is no slight
denly called upon were serving sentences tribute to league discipline that the men in
ranging from a few years to life, and in- the hospital and dormitory over the flames
cluded second- and even third-term pris- kept their places without a protest.
oners, who, according to all theories of The conduct of the inmates of Sing
the old penolog>% should have taken ad- Sing at this fire, according to Dr. O. F.

vantage of the confusion a serious fire in a Lewis, general secretary of the Prison As-
prison has always hitherto brought about sociation of New York, a penologist of
to strike down their guards
and escape. standing, marks the fourth of a series of
Less than four years ago, indeed, some of episodes of vital significance in the history
these same men were probably among the of penology, all occurring since the organ-
inmates of Sing Sing who set fire to the ization by Thomas Mott Osborne of the
buildings in the prison yard. Mutual Welfare League in Auburn
The Mutual Welfare League of 19 16, Prison in 1913 and in Sing Sing the fol-
under command of their sergeant-at-arms, lowing year. The first episode was the
determinedly fought flame and smoke for a field games played in the prison inclosure

solid hour and a half, despite the fact that at Auburn on the Fourth of July, when
they were without previous experience in for the first time in the history of prisons
fires and were unprovided with helmets, the inmates were allowed to gather in the
masks, or any other defense equipment yard without the presence of keepers.
such as professional firemen consider in- Hitherto the belief had been general
dispensable to the performance of their among wardens and keepers that inmates
duties. The fire fed upon manufactured of penal institutions, if removed from the

goods from the prison shops awaiting ship- direct surveillance of armed guards, would
ment, such as knitted goods, clothing, and immediately revolt, and either turn and
fiber mats, that not only produced intense rend one another or attempt to escape at
heat, but dense smoke, and into which no any cost of life or property. The theory
man ventured far except at the risk of his of the old penologists being that a man
life. It was fiaally brought under control 'convicted of crime became thereby a mere
and extinguished by relays of men who animal and generally a ferocious one, it

lay prostrate on the floor of the cellar in was considered that Warden Rattigan ran
two or three inches of water, directing a tremendous risk on that Fourth of July
streams from their hose upon the flames, at Auburn. But the fourteen hundred un-
while their companions directed other guarded prisoners conducted themselves
streams over them to lessen the effect of just exactly as would any other fourteen
the heat. The Sing Sing siren, which hundred men in the same circumstances.
summons all guards off duty to the prison, Not the slightest disorder occurred. "His-
was blown just after the fire was dis- tory was made at Auburn Prison on Inde-
covered, but if any others than prisoners pendence Day," wrote Dr. Lewis at the
ventured within the danger-zone until the time.
flames were subdued the fact is not The second episode was in Sing Sing on
recorded. The guards, as they arrived, December 6, 19 14, the first Sunday after
were put on duty about the grounds to Mr. Osborne took charge there as warden.
prevent escapes, but not one attempt was Then, again for the first time in prison
848 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
history, the inmates of a penal institution Professor George W. Kirchwey, who had
met in convention, without their guards, acted as warden ad interim, were bene-
and discussed with the warden changes ficiaries of the degree of doctor of hu-
suggested by themselves in the prison rules. manity, conferred upon them by the Uni-
This was considered by those familiar with versity of Sing Sing, represented by a
the prisons of the State to be an even prisoner in scholar's garb. Warden Os-
greater risk than the experiment at Au- borne's escort was headed by the prison
burn, since Sing Sing was the most tur- band, and in his train there followed other
bulent of these institutions, partly because prisoners in costume: the Mutual Welfare
physical conditions make it impossible to League judiciary, in wigs and gowns;
keep the inmates decently comfortable a prisoners in stripes of the last century
large part of the time, thus generating bad marching in the old lockstep ; prisoners
humor among them, and partly because carrying banners bearing jubilant legends;
it is the prison for a class of offenders prisoners posed on flats emblematic of
who are more unruly and more easily in- long-ago phases of prison life. Every-
cited to violence than men who have be- thing was conceived and carried out by
come accustomed to obey their keepers. the inmates. To this celebration came
Any intelligent penologist of the old forty former prisoners, like college alumni
school could have told Mr. Osborne that to acommencement, and there were visitors
to permit a prisoner to have any say about of prominence, men and women from all
the rules of his prison would not only pro- over the State. There were two hours of
duce comic-opera conditions within the speech-making by prisoners, officials, and
walls, but would render discipline an im- visitors. More than two hundred prison-
possibility. Yet the sixteen hundred in- ers, unattended by keepers, were outside
mates took over the government of the the prison grounds on this particular Sun-
prison to themselves that afternoon with day, and there were almost as many
every bit of the dignity and sense of re- visitors inside the yard as there were in-

sponsibility that might have been mani- mates of the institution, enough easily to
fested by any other body of men. For the have overpowered the guards and brought
first time in the history of Sing Sing not about a wholesale prison-delivery. Not an
one infraction of the prison rules was attempt at escape was made, however, nor
reported for the twenty-four hours end- an untoward act reported.
ing on the Monday morning following Another unique prison incident consti-
the assemblage of the inmates without tutes one of Mr. Osborne's most daring
their guards. Since that Sunday in 1914 experiments to prove a sense of honor
the discipline in Sing Sing, under four dif- among the men of the prisons. One night
ferent wardens, has been nearer perfect* in the spring of 1915 the delegates of the
than during the previous eighty-five years Mutual Welfare League had held an elec-
of its existence. tion in the prison court-room in Sing Sing,
The third episode of extraordinary sig- and the count was not finished until after
nificance in the series of four occurred in one o'clock in the morning. W^ardeti
Sing Sing last summer, when on Sunday, Osborne then invited tiie fifty-four dele-
July 16, also for the first time in the an- gates to his house, sent for his cook and
nals of penology, the inmates of a prison butler, both convicts, and served sand-
publicly celebrated a joyous occasion of wiches and coffee. The warden's house,
theirown. The event was the triumphant which has no bars on windows oi- doors, is

return as warden of Mr. Osborne, after a outside the prison walls; there was no
six-months' period of suspension from duty. guard within a hundred feet of it. 'I'he
On this occasion Warden Osborne was met New York Central Railroad tracks are
l)y a procession of prisoners outside the just under the windows on one side, and
prison grounds, and escorted through tlie the public highway on the other. After
gates to tile interior yarti, where he and their repast the prisoners, some of them
THE UNIVERSITY OE SING SING 849
under life-sentences, went quietl) to tlu-Ir temporarily by Professor George W. Kirch-
cells. Had any of the men escaped or w ey, that "Tough Tony" made his escape
made the attempt to escape, Warden ( )s- fr(jm Sing Sing, which was easy enough for
borne would- have been an object of deri- him, as a trusty, to do. Tony was suffering
sion and the future of the Mutual Wel- from tuberculosis, and could not live long
fare League imperiled. He was as confi- in the insalubrious atmosphere of the stone

dent that they would not take advantage pile on the Hudson and as Superintendent
;

of his hospitality as he would have been of Prisons Riley had declared that Mr.
in the instance of any others of his friends. Gsborne would not be allowed to set foot
Two other incidents unprecedented in in Sing Sing again, Tony decided to go
prison history that have occurred in Sing forth into the world, trusting that before
Sing under the Mutual Welfare League he died an opportunity might be afforded
regime are matters of individual interest, him once more to grasp the hand of his
and have nothing to do with the psychol- benefactor. How Tony's hiding-place
ogy of men in the niass. Twice during the among professional criminals in the under-
first four months of last year the honor world was found by his friends of the
system of the league pro\ed its strength Mutual Welfare League how they tolil ;

under a supreme test— the voluntary re- him that they would not reveal his where-
turn of an escaped prisoner, actuated abouts to the police or make any effort to
solely by conscientious motives, each man force him to return to Sing Sing, but that
believing that he was coming back to in- his escape had been a blow to Mr. Os-
creased punishment. And in each in- borne, who wished him to give himself up.
stance the prisoner was one whom the old though he would in all probability be
school of penologists would have declared transferred for punishment to Clinton
to be hopelessly incorrigible. Peter Cul- Prison, which the fugitive knew to be con-
len, thirty years of age, who shook the ducted on the brutal lines of the old
dust of Sing Sing from his feet on April penology and with the horrors of which
20 and resumed it three weeks later, had he was acquainted how his friends among
;

been in durance two thirds of his life, the criminals who had taken him in and
following the prescribed course of the provided him with money for his escape,
wayward boy of the New York slums, who knew of the league and Mr. Osborne
from the correctional institution in child- only by hearsay, listened to the league's
hood through the House of Refuge and agents in silence, none interfering to pre-
the Elmira Reformatory to a state prison, vent Tony's making good his obligation to
the five-year term he was serving for the organization and its founder; how he
grand larceny being the second in the went back alone to Sing Sing that night
same institution. "Tough Tony" Mareno, and turned himself over to Warden
aged thirty-two, who left Sing Sing in haste Kirchwey how the warden received him
;

on January i and returned at leisure one like a lost son, and refused to send him to
day later, had pursued a similar course, the punishment-cells — all this is matter of
and at the time of his escape was working penal history, and has been published in
out an indeterminate sentence of from penological journals of all civilized lan-
twelve and one half to sixteen and one guages.
half years for highway robbery, having CuUen's offense in leaving Sing Sing be-
served more than eight years of his term fore his time was up was aggravated by
Auburn, Sing
in three prisons of the State, the fact that he was the Mutual Welfare
Sing,and Clinton. League's sergeant-at-arms at the time. He
It was because he believed that if he re- was one of Warden Osborne's most ardent
mained in prison he might never see Mr. supporters, and he had seemed to be no less
Osborne again when that gentleman took lo\al to Warden Kirchwey. The prison
leave of absence to fight the charges against officialshave a suspicion that Cullen's
h.im in December, 1915, being succeeded escape ma\ have been encouraged from the
850 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
outside, and that it is possible that an "I am your dog friend for life," sobbed
alcoholic beverage was smuggled into the poor Tony, breaking down, for he had
prison, under the effect of which he for- been dreading the night in one of Sing
got his oath of allegiance to the league. In Sing's cold stone tombs for live men.
any event, he took advantage of the "No, no, Tony," expostulated the
privileges of his position as sergeant-at- warden ; "you are my 7nan friend."
arms go out from durance under cover
to "Dog friend is an Italian word," Tony
of darkness and return to his old com- explained tearfully. "It means that no
panions of the New York under-world. matter what you might ever do to injure
And now the marvel happened. Among me, I shall never harm you. I am dog

his friends of other days Cullen was de- friend to you all of my life, and of course
pressed and gloomy. When they con- to the boss."

gratulated him on the joyousness of free- "The boss" was Mr. Osborne.
dom regained, he gave no sign of pleasure. Tony was pardoned soon after his run-
His thoughts were continually on the away escapade because of increasing ill

league he had betrayed, and his conscience health. Peter Cullen is still serving out
allowed him no peace of mind. Unlike his sentence, with one or two years added
Alareno, who during his two days' absence thereto as punishment for his escape, which
from Sing Sing was visited by fellow- is what he knew would happen when of
members of the league who urged his re- his own accord he went back to Sing Sing.
turn, Cullen's associates knew of the honor Mr. Osborne considers the Cullen incident
system only by repute. More significant even more significant than the return of
than anything else is the fact that, profes- Mareno, in that Cullen fought the battle
sional criminals though they were, they with his conscience and made his decision
did not laugh when the escaped prisoner alone, whereas Tony was guided by his
told them the reasons of his unrest. On the friends of the Mutual Welfare League
contrary, when he talked of giving him- in reaching his determination to do the
self up, these men encouraged the idea. right thing. And of more significance
And so it wasSunday evening in
that on a still, in the view of the apostle to the dere-
May Cullen called upon Mr. Osborne, licts, was the action and sentiment of the
who during his temporary absence from criminal element by whom Cullen was
Sing Sing was living at a hotel in New surrounded during his absence illustrative

York, and poured out his remorseful soul of the changed attitude of the under-
to his friend. Of course Mr. Osborne's world to the man who wants
"go to
sympathetic advice to the fugitive was to straight." Also indicative of a changed
go back to prison and "take his medicine," attitude of the powers of evil toward the
which was exactly what he was prepared powers of good is the declaration of a pro-
to do, and did do. fessional criminal to the Mutual Welfare
An incident of "Tough Tony" Ma- Leaguers in search of Tony Mareno, that
reno's return to Sing Sing is related by "there is United States
not a crook in the

Professor Kirchwey. When he had told that would not be glad of the chance to do
the warden why he had violated his pledge a good turn for Thomas Mott Osborne."

to the Mutual Welfare League and had In "The Outlook" of December 20,
recited his experiences during his twenty- 1 91 3, just at the time that the original
four hours of liberty, Tony said league was being established in Auburn
"And now I go down to the punish- Prison, there appeared an article on Sing
ment-cells." Sing by the present writer that contained
"No, go to your bed in the dormitory." the following paragraph
said Professor Kirchwey, for Ton>', being
a sick man, had been sleeping before his The fact is that the prison edifice on the
escape in the comparatively comfortable Hudson at Ossinino; is so many square feet

dormitorv instead of a cell of hell on earth. 1 am not f\'a^y;erating an


THE UNIVERSITY OE SING SING 851
iota when I asst-rt that a person who kept a whicli hamix-red and harassetl .Mr. Os-
dog in some of the cells occupied h\ luiinan borne at e\ery point where ofricial routine
beings in Sing Sing would he pu.iu'slied for or other business brought him in contact
cruelty by any police magistrate, and that with it: despite intrigue and treachery
the man who would \oluntarily endure the by foes without and foes within, there was
moral atmosphere of the prison is a more uninterrupted progress toward a moral,
degraded beast than we have any record of mental, and material betterment of the
in history or fiction. Here are cleanly prisoners of Sing Sing under the (^shorne-
prisoners contracting deadl\- and loathsome Kirchwey-Derrick regime, and economic
diseases from unspeakable outcasts; here, conditions were never better in the history
known to keepers and guards, who are un- of the institution.
able to interfere under existing conditions, 'Ehe test of Mr. Osborne's success as
men are committing unnatural crim.es that, warden of Sing Sing should lie with his
proved them outside the prison,
against conduct of the prison during his first ad-
would send them there. There are scores ministration, from the first of December,
of drug victims in the prison, the sale of HJ14, until the first of January, n)i(),
morphine and cocaine being a traffic thus since his last from the
administration,
far impossible to prevent, with the result middle of July until the middle of Oc-
that the bestialities of half-demented in- tober, 19 16, did not last l(jng enough to
mates add to the horrors of this inferno. secure figures for purposes of comparison.
Last year one man in each 95 in Sing Sing Moreover, during this period escapes from
went mad. Sing Sing were- being proir.oted by Mr.
Osborne's enemies outside the institution.
Exactly the same conditions existed one The moral rehabilitation of a prison's in-
year later when Thomas Alott Osborne mates, the transformation of men who
introduced the Mutual Welfare League prey upon society into useful members of
into Sing Sing, abolished most of the old society, the changing of human liabilities
prison rules, including all that savored of into human assets, being the chief end of
the cruelty and brutality of the old pe- •the new penology, what Mr. Osborne ac-
nology, and began to make history. Re- complished in Sing Sing during his
sults may be said to ha\-e been in- wardenship would be an invaluable service
stantaneous. Although it was impossible even if it had been effected at the expense
to change physical conditions in the prison, of the State. In reality, the new warden
the moral atmosphere began to improve brought about these results with economic
with the advent of the new warden. Once gain to the State.
the league elected oflficers, it was a com- Before the introduction of the Mutual
paratively simple thing to rid Sing Sing of Welfare League into Sing Sing, fights
whisky and drugs, because the saner men among prisoners and attacks upon officers
among the inmates were abk to control the by prisoners were of so frequent occur-
addicts. Dealing themselves with the rence that no record was kept of them
trouble-makers in their own courts, the except when a wound was severe enough
league found that deprivation of privileges to be treated in the hospital. Measuring
among the delinquents among them proved the prevalence of fighting by the number
effective in conserving discipline. The in- of wounds treated by the prison physicians,
troduction of scholastic and industrial the discipline under Warden Osborne was
night classes, the establishment of the better by sixty-four per cent, than during
prison bank and the store
where groceries the two years previous to his administra-
and clothing might be had at cost, com- tion, which in their turn w^re the best two
bined to wake the men up and keep them years in the history of Sing Sing. During
alive to actual conditions. Despite the the Osborne regime there was onl\ one
continuous hostility, imder two superin- assault by a prisoner upon a keeper. Hie
tendents, of the state prison department. general betterment of conilitions under
85: THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Mr. Osborne's rule, as indicated by the mate destruction, and that in the league
comparative number of men driven in- outside the prison, composed of graduates
sane by prison environment during the of the universities of Sing Sing and Au-
previous four }^ears, was extraordinary. burn, a majority are living up to its motto,
In 1912, with a prison population of 1488. "Do good; make good." Of these most
it was necessary to transfer thirty-two are steady and well-paid wage-earners in
prisoners who had become insane to the various trades and industries ; some less

Dannemora State Hospital; in 1913, with well-equipped, either physically or men-


a prison population of 1442, forty-eight tally, are making an honest livelihood by
men were sent to Dannemora ; and in precarious means, but true to league prin-
1914, with the prison population 1466, the ciples, while a few, most of them feeble-
number of men removed to Dannemora minded, prison-made invalids or mental
was twenty-seven. Under Mr. Osborne's defectives, incapable of entire self-support,
administration, with the biggest prison are being assisted by their more prosperous
population in the history of Sing Sing, it fellows, and prevented from returning to
was necessary to transfer only nineteen lives of crime. When the processes pro-
men to the state hospital, virtually a re- jected by the new penologists are in
duction of fifty There were
per cent. operation, such men will be segregated and
three escapes from Sing Sing during Mr. cared for by the State with no prospect of
Osborne's first thirteen months in office. becoming burden on the outside com-
a
There were four the year before. There munity. Of
all the hundreds of members

were ten escapes in 1913, six in 19 12, of the league who have completed their
four again in 191 1, seventeen in 1910, sentences and come out into the world,
and nineteen in 1909. In 1908 there only fifteen have been sent back to prison,
were only six. That there was a and almost to a man these were of the
disproportionate number of escapes in 19 16 class described above, who in the near
isdue to manipulation on the part of future will be eliminated from the pos-
Mr. Osborne's enemies outside of the sibility of recidivation.
prison, and to the circumstance that the The inmate released from Sing Sing or
men knew that the prison department was Auburn to-day, and coming to New York,
hostile to the Mutual Welfare League and finds within five minutes' walk of the
feared that the privileges they enjoyed Grand Central Station the Mutual Wel-
under the league might at any time be fare League employment-bureau, estab-
withdrawn. For more than four weeks in lished under the auspices of the New York
191=) there was not a single case of dis- State Prison Council. Before the expira-
cipline or punishment in Sing Sing. Meas- tion of the prisoner's sentence, the head ot
ured by all tests, Warden Osborne's ad- the bureau, once a burglar with a na-
ministration was the most successful in all tional reputation in police circles, will have
the history of the prison, doubtless the visited the other in prison, have learned
most successful in all prison history. from him what kind of work he is capable
And, what is more, his conception of of doing, and may have a job waiting for
prison reform, which means the prepara- him. The new-comer will probably find
tion of the prisoner to go out of prison, other leaguers of his acquaintance at tiie

has been proving itself with cumulative bureau, some of them also looking for jobs
strength in and out of prison, ever since and some looking for jobs for others, but
Mr. Osborne resigned his wardenship. all of them ready to give him a welcome
This is attested by the circumstance that and to encourage him to "go straight." If
the efficacy of the Mutual Welfare League there is no job waiting him, he is gi\'en a

continues inside the walls of Sing Sing list of places at which to apply for the em-
despite the evident efforts of the state ployment he seems best fitted for, and
prison department to impair its force, with (h)ubtless some of the other leaguers will
a \'iew, the l(':isj;ueis belie\'e, to its ulti- ;u-C()nip;m\ him on liis {]ii('sr in friendly
THE UNIVERSITY OF SING SING 853

companionship and point out the newest honest men in reputahU- places. It ap-
fiky-scrapers to him. I'^very inmate of a pears that the game of stnss to the East
prison in the State of New York, on leav- Side was as bridge whist t(j l'"ifth Avenue,
ing, .is given a railway-ticket to the place the police estimating that at the time the
from which he was sentenced and ten dol- gunmen were at the height of theirlaw-
on which he is supposed to
lars in cash, less activities the gamblers were taking in
subsist until he begins to make his living one fifth of the earnings of that densely
again, and the outside leaguers find him populated territory. Stuss is a game some-
food and lodging at as reasonable prices thing like baccara, though with an over-
as possible in order that he may conserve whelming percentage against the player,
his money. All efforts, in fact, are made but with this benevolent point in its fa\()r,

to help him get a new start in life; and, that the dealer pays back to a loser ten per
as the number of business men who are cent, of his losses, so that he cannot pos-
willing to give employment to former sibly "go broke" at the table. Gambling
prisoners is continually increasing, and the being illegal, the owner of a stuss-game
leaguers "make good" oftener than other- was always in fear of the police, even
wise, the average industrious man is pretty though he was paying tribute to the patrol-
sure to be put in a position to support him- man on the beat moreover, those who
;

self and any dependents he may have very played the game were mostly timid folk,

soon after the prison doors close behind small shopkeepers, and artisans,
clerks,

him. whose credit would be hurt, or whose posi-


There is a seeming paradox, which is tions would be jeoparded, if it was known
really no paradox at all, in the personnel that theywere flirting with Dame Fortune.
of the outside Mutual Welfare League in Hence it was not a matter of great risk
that the men with the worst records are for the gunmen to "stick up" a stuss-
proving themselves the most useful mem- house. Klein and his gang would make
bers of society under the new order of their way into one of these places, re-

things. one were called upon to manu-


If volvers in hand, and order everybody there,
facture proof of this statement, he could dealers and players, to back up against the
not invent a situation so strong as one that w^all, and then relieve them of their
actually exists, for the man who ranked valuables. The owner of the game did
with the very foremost leaders of the not dare to call the police for fear that his
under-world when the power of these indictment for keeping a gambling-house
leaders was at its height, and whose name might be brought about, and if a police-
was writ large in the annals of the police man or detective stumbled upon a "stick-
department as well as in tHe newspapers of up," all that he asked was his even share
less than ten years ago, has demonstrated of the spoil,man for man according to
the league's motto more spectacularly than the number of gunmen on the job. As
any of The career
his fellows. of this for the players, they were glad to get away
young man (who may be called Klein, without disclosing their identity. And the
since that is was almost
not his name) gunmen not only "stuck up" the stuss-
precisely that of Cullen and Mareno, houses, but sold them protection that is. ;

previously mentioned, and of scores more they were paid so much a week for letting
members of the league — a correctional in- a gambler alone and keeping other gun-
stitution in childhood, followed by the men from robbing him and his patrons.
House of Refuge, the Elmira Reformatory, Klein's band had sometimes as many as
and then Sing Sing. When he was last six or seven gambling-houses paying them

arrested he was chief of a band of gun- for protection all at the same time. An-
men. I heard him tell Mr. Osborne of other source of revenue was when a rival
the different methods by which his band stuss-house was opened in what another
levied tribute on the under-world of the gambler considered his territor\-, and the
East Side, for the\ seldom interfered with latter would hire guniuen to go to the
854 IHK Cr.NTURY ^[AGAZINE
rival's place and "shoot itup" in order A short time ago a report was made to the

to get him "in bad" with the police. head of the manufacturing company b\
Two or three times a year Klein's band which he is employed as to the standing
of gunmen used to get up what they called of men with regard to efficiency. After
its

a "racket," a dance, a picnic, or a river Klein's name the foreman of his depart-
excursion. Invitations to these functions, ment had written, "Best man I 've got."
which were sent out to gamblers, keepers Said Mr. Osborne to the writer some time
of all-night saloonsand dance-halls, and after our interview with the former
others engaged in any illegal traffic, had desperado
one thing in common with invitations from "The sight of Klein working hard day
royalty — they
were virtually commands. after day, devoted to hisnew wife and
The invitations were invariably accepted, still newer baby, is a stubborn fact that
not necessarily because the guest was so- the under-world is still trying to digest.
ciably inclined, but because he did not It is one of the facts that will ultimately
know what a sense of pique might not cause the under-world to acquire a new
drive his putative hosts to do in the way sense of social ethics."
of "shooting up" his place of business or Klein is now twenty-seven years of age,
blackjacking him should he fail to attend and his police record began when he was
the racket and spend his money liberally. fifteen.

A racket often netted the gunmen as much There are other graduates of the uni-
as twenty-five hundred dollars. A big versities of Sing Sing and Auburn in the

strike was another pecuniary opportunity outside Welfare League whose moral re-

for the gunmen, who would hire them- incarnations are really as startling as that
selves out to "beat up" the strikers, and of the man I have called Klein, the hit-

then sell their services to the other side to ter's importance consisting largely in the
"beat up" the strike-breakers. Occasion- splendid reputation given him by his fore-
ally, also, there would be a windfall, when man. For instance, there is Harry Bolasky,
a highwayman or burglar unaffiliated with nominally Mr. Osborne's valet, but a
any of recognized gangs did a stroke of great deal more than that in that he is

business in the district controlled by Klein also the other's confidential agent and ad-
and his pals. They would visit the in- viser. Bolaskw who went to the House of
terloper in force, and purchase his loot at Refuge and who is
at the age of twelve,
their price, whether he desired to sell or now twenty-six, has served terms in El-
not. The police estimated that Klein's mi ra and Napanoch reformatories and
share of his gang's profits ranged from Auburn Prison. His adventures as pick-
five thousand to twenty-five thousand dol- pocket in the 'streets of New York and
lars a year. Klein did not seem to be other big cities of the United States during
entirely ashamed of his lawless exploits or the first twenty-one years of his life would

take the slightest pride in them. He was make volumes of criminal history. Bo-
telling his story against his will, and only lasky's own name may be used in writing
because Mr. Osborne told him that the about him. because it will not embarrass
publication of the incidents of his career as him or his employer, who made his ac-
a criminal, taken into conjunction with his quaintance in Auburn Prison.
evolution into a useful member of society, Then there is a former member of a
was likely to have a beneficial effect upon band of loft burglars in New \'ork whose
other wrong-doers. present employer has more than once
When the end of Klein's term at Sing written to thank Mr. Osborne for send-
Sing came, every effort was made to in- ing the \oung man to him from Sing Sing.
duce him to go back to the old life; but The method of the loft burglar is simple
he turned his back on all offers, took a when not complicated by police inter-
"straight" job, and has ever since been a ference. One of the band would in the
tower of strength to the outside league. (ia\time secrete himself in a wareiioiisc
THE UNIVERSITY OF SING SING 855
containing merchandise that \m\i\n he feels to lose what 1 have worked for, and
easily removed, remain in liidin<i; until the rhat makes just one more nail driven home
place was closed at night, and then pass in my ilcternu'iiarion to lead a straight life.
out the goods to his fellows. Silk was the Hurrah, sa\ I, for the thief that taught me
commodity most sought for by loft bur- the lesson
glars because of its value in proportion to
bulk. A would be worth any-
bolt of silk An exceptionally clever thief, who has
where from a thousand to fifteen hundred practised his profession in this country
dollars, and a few men might carry under and Europe, and finished a prison-sentence
their arms thousands of dollars' worth. last summer, happened to come to New
However, if silk was not available in a York from Sing Sing on the same train
loft, the burglars took anything that they with the writer, who had made his ac-
might lay their sinful hands upon, from quaintance there. It was the day after a
ready-made clothing to canned tomatoes, prisoner, an had
officer of the league,
and from lawn-mowers to live-goose feath- made and my companion's view
his escape,
ers, their program being subject to change of the other's conduct gives an idea as to
by the police without notice. The burglar how the members feel about their organ-
in question was entirely innocent of the ization.
particular crime that brought his prison "If any one had ever told me before
sentence, and he might easily have proved the ^lutual Welfare League came into
an absolute alibi, only that his alibi would existence that I w'ould do anything to help
have been that at the time the burglary the capture of an escaped prisoner, even
of which he was convicted occurred he if he were my worst enemy," he said, "I 'd
was committing another burglary three have felt like knifing him. And yet I

blocks av.'ay. spent last night and this morning tele-


Another outside leaguer, a man of phoning to every one of this fellow's
middle age, now a prosperous contractor friends know, trying to get hold of him
I

in a city near New York, has served time and get him back to Sing Sing. The dirty
in Sing Sing and Auburn in this State, in —
dog an officer of the league going back
St. Quentin in California, and in several on the league and on Mr. Osborne! I

other prisons between the Atlantic and hope they get him and send him away for
Pacific coasts. Soon after his release from life!" The indignant leaguer is now-
Sing Sing a year or so ago the deputy holding a clerical position at a good salary
warden received the following letter from in a big city in another State. One out-
him side leaguer holds a confidential position
in the office of a prominent New York
Well, all is well, and the man you trusted lawyer ; another is manager of the branch
has not to date betrayed that trust, and he agency of a big New York institution in
never will. You know, old chap, I have a neighboring city. (Others are scattered
often taken things that did not belong to me. all over the country, living up to their
I never was troubled much by so doing, but motto, "Do good; make good." Many of
when it comes to being made the goat one's them are working in automobile factories,
self, then the shoe is on the other foot, and having learned the trade in the automobile
it pinches. You see, one of the men with school established by Mr. Osborne in
whom I have been rooming went South and Sing Sing, and many are employed in
took some of my glad rags and coin. I never munition plants in adjacent States. Some
knew the feeling of an honest man who had are with the armies of the Allies in France.
some thief come along and take what he Letters by the hundred from former
has honestly toiled for until this chap made Sing Sing and Auburn
prisoners and their
love to my property and eloped with it. But friends, from other sources,
as well as
I want to tell you that it has done me all telling of men re-made under the league
the good in the world. I know now how it system, have been coming to Mr. Osborne
.856 THE CENTURY MAr7AZINE
since he was first made warden of the never answered the direct question, put to
former prison. Typical of these is the fol- him by Mr. Osborne on the stump last
lowing, which was received unsigned and fall, but his pronunciamento before the

undated while he was still in office: American Prison Congress last October
that "the solid rock of any sound system
My dear Mr. Osborne: I have watched
of prison reform is iron discipline," while
with a great deal of interest your reform
diametrically opposed to his opinion on that
work, and now why should n't I think you
are sent fromGod when I tell you that you point expressed in The Century uphold-
ing the system in operation in (jreat
have made two good men in your prison
who belong to me? My own son and step- Meadow Prison, leads to the inference
that he does not. This inference is
son have not lived a goodlife. They have
strengthened by the fact that on the re-
been in more than once, and every
prison
time they came out they came out thinking
moval of Mr. Riley in January, igi6, as
they would get even with the warden and
state superintendent of prisons, and after
having considered such a man as Professor
everybody in general. And how could it be
different in the old dreadful way of keep-
Kirchwey, a penologist of international
ing prisoners locked up with nothing to think reputation, who had successfully conducted

about but their sins and what they would Sing Sing on Osbornian lines during the
do to get a living — anything but good warden's temporary absence last year, he
thoughts? You have taught them to think then put into the place a man hitherto
right, and to know that God is no respecter unknown in penological or intellectual
circles, who has proved hostile the
of persons, and that He came to save those to

who thought they were lost.


league. This superintendent of prisons,
Keep on, Mr. Osborne, and teach your obviously acting under instructions, on the

men and women under you to think right, resignation of Mr. Osborne from the war-

and they will do right. You are teaching denship of Sing Sing, instead of appointing
them more love for all. I think that you to the place Deputy Warden Calvin Der-
are a good, brave man, and no reform ever rick. Professor Kirchwey, who would have
came without hard blows, criticizing, and accepted the post as a matter of duty, or

misunderstanding. Nobody was ever made Spencer Miller, Junior, who had been
better by rulingthem with an iron rod, and deputy warden under Messrs. Osborne and
these poor unfortunate people— lots of them Kirchwey. all three of the modern school
—would do better if they knew how. I of penology and conspicuously fitted to

know that my boys love you and are work- take up Mr. Osborne's task, put at the
ing and living an honest, straight life and
head of the prison William H. Moyer. a
bringing me money instead of spending it
warden of the old-fashioned type.
for drink and badness. While it seems incredible that the prison
If there were more unselfish men, the department of the State should contem-
world would be better. I had an education plate bringing about the disintegration of

once. I am worn out and nervous now the Mutual Welfare League, which is
over my boys and knowing that I did not do recognized by modern penologists as the
right by them. I did n't know how; but solution of the problem of prison govern-

my boys, through your teaching, are helping ment, and which has accomplished marvel-
me. God bless you! We are a he-lappy ous results in the re-making of men, there
family. are indications that point in that direction.
The league was under the greatest strain
That letter itself more than offsets all of its existence in both Sing Sing atnl
the hostile criticism of the Oshorne Auburn during few days before and
a
prison system that has ever heen written. after the last election, when former
Justice of the Supreme Court Samuel M.
Does Governor Whitman helieve in Seabury contested with Mr. Whitman his
theMutual Welfare League ? He has se:it as chief e\ecuti\e of the State. Al-
THE UNTVF.RSITY OF SINT, SINC; 857
though the governor had had much to say to address the prisoners because the depart-
in favor of the humane administration of ment of prisons wanted them to revolt
penal institutions, his views expressed and discredit the Mutual Welfare
shortly hefore as to "iron discipline," to- League? And was he punished because it
LCt'ther with tlie fact tliat he had done was belie\ed that his written appeal to
notliing to relieve the old hrutal comh- the men had pre\ ented that happy consum-
tions at Clinton, led the inmates of the mation ? It is (h'fHculr seriously to con-
other two prisons to helieve that the re- sider either postuhite; but how can the
election of Mr. Whitman would mean the situation otherwise be explained? Mean-
end of the league and a return to old while it is quite within the confines of pos-
disciplinary methods. In any event, for sibilit)- that the name of the person re-

a week hefore the election the memhers sponsible for this petty outrage upon the
of the league talked of nothing else than prison reformer who will rank in history
the respective chances of Seabury, who with or above John Howard will itself
had promised, in the event of success at go down to posterity with that of the
the polls, to reorganize the prison system youth who fired the Ephesian dome.
of the State on Osbornian lines, and Whit- The Mutual Welfare League is too
man, whom the men believed to be their powerful a machine to be destroyed.
enemy. Keepers in both Sing Sing and AV'arden Mover is said to have expressed
Auburn reported that the less tractable the opinion privately that it solves the
of the inmates were becoming morose and problem of prison go\'ernment. "The men
sullen as the governor's chances for re- discipline themselves," it is reported that
election see'med to improve, and that they he declared to a friend soon after becom-
appeared to be getting away from the in- ing warden of Sing Sing, "and I can de-
fluence of the league's officers. Informa- \ ote all my time to my other duties." The
tion of these conditions was brought to warden does not say this publicly. He re-
Mr. Osborne, who asked permission of fused to discuss the league with me at all.

the prison department to visit the men in Under the Moyer administration thus far,
both prisons that he might use his in- however, the inmates of Sing Sing arc
fluence with them to accept with calmness being treated more and more as mere
whatever might be the result of the elec- prisoners rather than responsible human
tion. His request was refused. In these beings. "The prisoners are rapidly drift-
circumstances, apprehending a possible ing back to the old suUcnness, the old re-
outbreak in the prisons should Mr. Whit- sentments, the old aloofness from the
man be reelected, Mr. Osborne addressed world outside," a friend of Mr. Osborne's,
personal notes to the sergeants-at-arms of who was familiar with the prison during
the league in each institution, informing his administration, wrote after a recent

them that a crisis in its affairs might be visit to Sing Sing. "For the first time
at hand, urging them to beg the other since the Mutual Welfare League came
members on no account, to make any into existence I found prisoners afraid to
demonstration, whoever might be chosen as come up in the old-time frankness and
the occupant of the gubernatorial
next talk o\ cr things in the light of day. For
chair,and pointing out to them that any- the first time I found them watching me
thing like violence on their part in the with wide e\es, making sure that the
event of the reelection of the governor guard who was my constant companion
would undo all of good that had already- on this trip througli the prison was just
been accomplished under the self-govern- out of ear-shot for a whisper, and then
ing system in the prisons. For this inter- confiding in lip language a message that
ference in its affairs the prison department burned with indignation, resentment, sup-
"
issued an order forbidding Mr. Osborne pressed emotion against the 'new boss.'
to be admitted to any prison in the State! The privileges of the league, imder
Was \lr. Osborne refused permission Warden Moyer, are being curtailed. The
858 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
bank and the store are no longer in ex- nowadays ; hence there are no more con-
istence. The writing and receiving of tributions to the league ; hence the league
letters, virtually unrestrained under War- is in bankruptcy.
den Osborne, has gone back to the old But the triumphant conclusion of the
system a prisoner may write one letter a
: whole matter is that despite every dis-
week and receive one. The privilege of couragement, every disappointment, every
receiving visits, most coveted of any by check, every set-back, the strong men of
inmates of prisons, has been increasingly the league in Sing Sing are holding the
limited at Sing Sing under the Moyer ad- weaker to oath and obligation, and a con-
ministration. Another inexplicable move tinuous procession of men re-made is com-
in Sing Sing, on any other ground than the ing through the prison gates to join the
impossible one that effort is being made to outside league, determined to do good
exasperate the inmates to the point of in- and make good. Despite the politicians,
subordination for the purpose of discredit- Sing Sing cannot be metamorphosed from
ing the league, is the suppression of the a university back to a mere prison-pen.
prison paper, "The Star of Hope," writ- The only method of doing that would be
ten and published by the men themselves. to abolish the Mutual Welfare League in
"The Star of Hope" is an old Sing Sing the prison itself, and it is not probable
institution, and during the more than a that any one now in power will dare to
quarter century of its existence has af- assume that responsibility. The threat
forded opportunity to many thousands of has beenmade that all communication be-
contributors and readers to pass their dull tween the members of the inside league
hours less wearisomely. and the graduates of the University of
When Mr. Osborne was conducting the Sing Sing is soon to be cut off; but, as a
University of Sing Sing, and it was edu- member of the outside league remarked on
cating men and women outside of the hearing it: "That won't prevent dis-
prison in the proper study of mankind charged prisoners from coming to us when
from the point of view of a broad hu- they have served their terms, and if things
manit)', thepenology that heals and saves, go so far that the officials are able to keep
there were many visitors to the old prison. inmates in ignorance of the existence of
These made voluntary contributions to the the outside league, which is all but impos-
treasury of the Mutual Welfare League, sible, we men at the doors
will have our
the money thus obtained being devoted en- of Sing Sing and Auburn to take charge
benevolent purposes. Thus, when
tirely to of the men whose time has been served,
the day named for the execution of a man and show them the opportunity to make
condemned to death (whose sentence has an honest livelihood."
been commuted, and who will doubtless It is impossible at present to obtain any
soon be pardoned) was at hand, the league actual information as to the affairs of the
sent for his family, which would other- inside league at Sing Sing, as all letters
wise have been unable to come, in order going or coming from the prison are cen-
that he might bid them farewell, paying sored, and in consequence inmates do not
railway fares and hotel expenses. This care to criticize anything that may go on
was done in several instances, in other there. Last summer transfers were made
than capital cases, for prisoners whose rela- of members of the Sing Sing league to
tives were too poor to come and visit them. Auburn and Great Meadow prisons, and
The league also paid the expense of Im- some of the trouble-makers whom Warden
proving conditions in the prison cemetery, Osborne had transferred to other prisons
and that of the transportation to former were brought back. That the Osbornians
homes of the bodies of brethren who died in Sing Sing were in control of the league
in Sing Sing, where relatives or friends in August was shown by the fact that in
were able to give them decent burial. that month George Hodson was reelected
Visitors are not welcome at Sing Sing sergeant-at-arms of tlie organization.
;.\rO(KS, \:\ CHARI.Ks I.IVIXCSION
/^^^

•^4j
r

w 11,11 mcK, i;\- IK\NK \v i:i-.Nsi


The German Plot and Democracy's Future
By DAVID JAYNK HILL
Author of "A History of Diplomacy in the International Development of Europe," etc.
Formerly United States Ambassador to Germany

VITAL as the principles of democracy It was not, however, tin- fear of (lerman

are believed to be to the indepen- expansion Europe that induced the


in

dence of nations and the ultimate peace United States to abandon its policy of neu-
of the world, the United States of Amer- trality. So long as the war was consid-
ica would never have enteredthe Great ered as a merel_\' lOuropean conflict of

War for the purpose of imposing a demo- power, was to be expected, following
it

cratic form of government on any people. the American tradition of non-interference


What makes the present struggle in a real in European affairs, that the contest would

sense a battle for democracy is the fact be regarded as foreign to the interests of
that the exposure of imperial designs has the American people.
produced a conviction that, if these designs Even a long succession of incredible out-
should prove successful, democracy would rages upon the citizens of the Lnitetl
ultimately be rendered impossible an>- States, accompanied with almost open in-

where in the world. Confronted by a terference with its internal affairs, did not
triumphant imperialism, self-governing na- move the American Government to aban-
tions would be obliged to protect them- don the resolution to remain neutral, nor
selves against aggression by arming them- did it awaken the American people to a
selves to the full extent of their resources. full realization of the peril to which they

and permanent centralization


to resort to a were exposed. Hundreds of American
of public powers that would divest them men, women, and children, innocently
of their democratic character. Even with traveling upon the high seas in the faith
the utmost precautions, the weaker inde- that they were under the protection of
pendent states, if left to defend themselves laws and customs that all nations had
unaided, would eventually be compelled to agreed to respect, were mercilessly slaugh-
yield to imperial domination, thus pro- tered under the orders of the Imperial
gressivelyaugmenting the resources of ar- German Government. Repeated protests
bitrary power and proportionally weak- were followed by the continued destruc-
ening the forces of the independent, self- tion of non-combatant lives and the sink-
governing states. If, for example. Cen- ing of ships without search or wariu'ng, in

tral Europe, as conceived b\ Naumann, violation not only of established laws of


should be consolidated as the result of the the sea, but of the principles embodied in
Great War, it would be onl\ a question of treaties solemnly entered into, which the
time when not only Belgium, but Hol- German Government insisted were still
land, Switzerland, the Scandinavian king- binding upon the Lhiited States.
doms, possibly France and certain!}
itself, When, finall\, the American Govern-
the Balkan States, would fall under im- ment announced that, unless the German
perial rule. A great maritime power, such Government was disposed to conform to
as would then come into existence, with the established rules of international law.
naval stations on all the coasts of Europe diplomatic relations between the twd
and the acquired colonies, could proceed to countries must cease altogether, a promise
the conquest of the world in perfect con- to pursue thenceforth a legal course was
fidence and ease. made, but qualified by the demand that
864 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
the Government of the United States If this attempt is not successful, we pro-
should serve the purposes of the Imperial pose an alliance on the following basis witli
Government with other powers friendly to Mexico: That we shall make war together
the United States. That the restriction and together make peace. We shall give
placed upon the devastations of submarine general financial support, and it is under-
torpedo-boats was intended to be only tem- stood that Mexico is to reconquer the lost

porary, and that these devastations were territory in New Mexico, Texas, and Ari-
intended to be resumed when a sufficient zona. The details are left to you for set-

number of boats should be constructed to tlement.


become really effective in suppressing You are instructed to Inform the Presi-
American commerce, is now established in dent of Mexico of the above In the greatest
a manner that exposes the utter insincerity confidence as soon as It Is certain that there
of the Imperial Government in all its pro- will be an outbreak of war with the United
fessedly friendly negotiations with the States, and suggest that the President of
United States. Mexico, on his own Initiative, should com-
On January 24, 191 7, the German sec- municate with Japan suggesting adherence
retary for foreign affairs,Herr Zimmer- at once to this plan. At the same time, offer

mann, used the following language for to mediate between Germany and Japan.
publication in the United States: Please call to the attention of the Presi-
dent of Mexico that the employment of ruth-
In the message which President Wilson
less submarine warfare now promises to
addressed to the Senate [January 22, 191 7]
compel England to make peace In a few
the Imperial German Government recog-
months.
nizes with extreme satisfaction the fact that ZiMMERMANN.
the aspirations and thoughts of the Presi-
dent continue to occupy themselves with the
One week after expressing his hopes
question of the restoration of permanent
that the President's efforts for peace
peace. The exalted moral earnestness In the
"would be crowned with success," on Jan-
words of the President insures them an at-
uary 31, the Imperial German Govern-
tentive ear throughout the world. The Im-
ment formally announced, as ivas intendtd
perial German Government earnestly hopes
before and during this ivhole period, that
that the untiring efforts of the President to
on and after February i it would adopt a
restore peace on earth may be crowned with
policy with regard to the use of submarines
success.
against all shipping seeking to pass through
certain designated areas of the high seas.
Apparently believing in "the exalted
This violation of a previous agreement
moral earnestness" of the President of the
to observe the rules of international law
United States in his "untiring efforts to
the Imperial German Government well
restore peace on earth," Herr Zimmer-
knew was equivalent to a declaration of
mann, in the midst of these efforts for
war upon the United States, made in the
peace, was not only meditating war, but
midst of "the untiring efforts of the Presi-
five days before using these expressions he
dent to restore peace on earth." It was
had communicated by secret code through
the German way of expressing "hopes"
the German ambassador at Washington
that those efforts might "be crowned with
the following instruction to the German
success." The pledge to observe the law
minister in Mexico
had lasted until hundreds of submarine
Berlin, Jan. 19, 191 7. boats were ready to perform their task of
On the 1st of February we intend to be- wrecking the conunerce of the world as
gin submarine warfare unrestricted. In an essential prelinu'nary to "the restora-
spite of this, it is our intention to endeavor tion of peace on earth !" The intention had
to keep neutral the United States of Amer- long been kept a secret, which the Cjerman
ica. luojiosal of peace negotiations had aideil \u
TIIF, GKRMAN PLOT AND DE.M()CRAC\ S FLilURF 805
concealing. On janiiai> kj the Imperial ficers, as the forces of the Ottoman Kni-
Foreign Office knew that this vast Hotilla pire are already commanded by tliem, for
of submarines would be ready by February the purpose of rendering the will of Ger-
I, and that its mission woidd impose meas- many supreme through the conquest of
ures of war upon all neutral nations; >et Europe and the mastery of the sea.
when, on February .?, diplomatic relations Fortunately, this secret purpose was dis-
with the Imperial German Government mo-
closed in time to lay bare at a critical
were severed by the United States, Berlin ment the' real attitude of the Imperial
naively professed to be "astonished." Government toward the United States,
Not until April 6, however, when overt and thus to reveal to the American people
acts had demonstrated the fixed purpose unmistakably the degeneration of the Prus-
of the Imperial Government to sink Amer- sian official mind. Happily also, both the
ican ships, was the state of war officiallr Japanese and the Mexican governments
declared to exist. was with truth that
It were sensitive to the insult offered to them
the President said to the American people, by the infamy of this proposal. Even the
"The wrongs against which we are now citizens of the United States whose racial
arraying ourselves are no common wrongs affinities led them at first to sympathize

they cut to the very roots of human life." with the German
cause, on account of their
It is German violence that, notwith- belief in themoral soundness of the Ger-
standing our peaceable purposes, has made man people, must now realize how cruelly
this our war. That the United States they themselves as well as their friends in
would ultimately be involved in it was Germany have been deceived by the so-

inevitable, for it was conceived and pro- Government's


phistications of the Imperial
moted in arrogant contempt of everything propaganda, which has everywhere made
for which the American people stand appeal to race prejudice and sordid inter-
sponsors. We have accepted the challenge est, but never to the noble humanism that
thrown down to us, as the President has was once esteemed characteristic of Ger-
said, "to vindicate the principles of peace man thought.
and justice in the life of the world as The evidence that the motives of the
against selfish and autocratic power, and Imperial German Go\ernment are un-
to setup among the really free and self- scrupulous, predatory, and ruthless has be-
governed peoples of the world such a con- come overwhelming. It^ conspiracies en-

cert of purpose and of action as will hence- velop the world. They have been directed
forth insure the observance of those prin- under the mask of friendship by official

ciples." diplomacy on our own soil. The\ la\ un-


It was at last made evident that geo- der tribute every quarter of the globe and
graphic isolation is no longer a sufficient seek partners in crime in both hemispheres.
guarantee of American security, and that Such a power is theenemy of all mankind.
it with a world problem that we now
is This at last the American people have
have to deal. Until this fact was estab- come to understand ; but they have not,
lished by indisputable evidence, and ren- perhaps, even yet fully appreciated how
dered undeniable by a prompt confession America will be afifected by the fate of

that saw in this hypocrisy nothing that Europe, for the fate of Europe w ill deter-
called for shame, few of our citizens could mine the fate of the world.
have believed that it w-ould ever enter into
the plans of the Imperial German Gov- What is the testimony of the Ciermans
ernment to propose the dismemberment of themselves regarding their aims and am-
the United States, and that it would even bitions in this war? In a book of more
designate and portion out whole States as than four hundred octavo pages the Swiss
the spoils of a war of conquest to be pro- (irumbach has collected "Docu-
publicist
moted by German gold, paid to mercenary ments Published or secretlv Circulated in
armies under the command of German of- Germany since Augiist 4, I<;i4, bearing
866 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
upon the annexation of conquered terri- from Belfort to the coast is necessary. We
tory. In his preface he declares, "No ought to do everything possible to con-
competent person can dispute the fact that quer a part of the French coast, from the
the war aims of Germany are of a nature north to the Pas-de-Calais, in order to be
to cause the greatest anxiety to the entire assured from a strategic point of view
world." against England, and to possess a better
Although the Imperial Government approach to the ocean." The German
avoids as much as possible committing it- scientific experts, it is explained by one of
self to any definite declaration of policy, the commentators on this extension of the
it allows and even encourages a popular frontier,were not aware in 1871 of the
demand for annexations and indemnities. vast treasures of coal and iron they had
Men of every party, of every class, and of failed to .claim.

every profession possessing influence in • The territory now demanded includes,


Germany have constantly
public affairs in in the west : the whole of Belgium and the
voiced the demand for annexations which frontier territories of France; that is to

the Pan-Germanist literature had made say, the part of the coast almost to the
before the war, and often in the same Somme, with a hinterland assuring the
terms. The expectations of spoils which complete economic and strategic exploita-
rendered the war popular in Germany in tion of the port on the channel ; the iron
the beginning have during every stage of mine-fields of Briey ; the frontier fortresses
its progress taken the form of urgency that with the line of the Meuse, especially V^er-
they be realized at its close. dun and Belfort, with the watershed west
Not knowing just how the war will of the Vosges between Verdun and Bel-
end, the Imperial Government dares not fort on the east "at least" parts of the
;

promise too much, but it does not hesitate Baltic provinces and the territories to the
to keep alive a popular approval of any south, in such a manner that the new ac-

conquests which the forces at its disposal quisitions would protect first of all the
may eventually enable it to make. "Com- present Prussian provinces the whole
pare," writes Grumbach, "the passivity length of the frontiers of East Prussia,
which the authorities manifested when the and also the length of the frontiers of

six great industrial and agrarian leagues West Prussia, of Posnania, and of Si-

circulated their famous annexionist petition lesia.

without encountering the least obstacle To secure these advantages, the six

with the confiscation at the moment of its leagues stated in theii- manifesto that they
publication of the petition of the anti- did not desire a "premature peace" ; for

annexionist league Neues Vaterland, in- "from such a peace," the petition runs,
tended as a reply" ; followed by the grad- "one could not expect a sufficient fruit of

ual strangling of this anti-annexionist victory"!


league under police surveillance, and the But, in addition to the defined areas of
imprisonment of its secretary. conquest, there are certain indefinite aspira-
It is important also to note that the ter- tions here set forth, "if it be possible to
ritory now claimed for annexation in the realize These include "a colonial
them."
west is even in excess of that marked out empire which would fully satisfy the mani-
for conquest by the Pan-German writers fold economic interests of Germany, be-
in 191 1. "In the interest of our own ex- sides guarantees for our commercial fu-
istence," says the petition, "we ought to ture, and the securing of a sufficient war
enfeeble France politically and economi- indemnity, paid in an appropriate form."
cally without scruple, and to render our The reasons for these additional con-
military and strategic situation more fa- quests are not that Belgium and France
vorable with regard to it. We are con- have forfeited these territories by making
vinced that, to secure that end, a serious an attack upon Germany. The iron- and
correction of our whole western frontier coal-fields specified are said to be "indis-
i fli: GF.RMAX PLOT AND IJK.XK )CRAC\"S KL'l L'RK 8G7
pensable not only for the existence of our i<ji7, a^scrtcii are "necessary." This Cjov-
industrial power, but they constitute nu'li- which declared war on Russia
ernnu'iit,

tary necessities" ; that is, they are desired and France which ordered the invasion
;

as new bases for future military activity. of Belgium which authorized Austria-
;

It is pointed out that "neutral industrial Hungary to suppress Serbia; which, in

states are constrained to make themselves July, 1914, rejected the proposals of Serbia
the tools of that one of the belligerents and the czar to submit the Austria-Serbian
that can assure them a supply of coal." By question to the Hague Tribunal ; which
possessing all the coal in western Europe, has ruined and depopulated Belgium, an-
(yermany can better exercise that restraint. nihilated Serbia, and devastated Poland —
Germany, it is urged, has already been this Government expects indemnities for
"obliged to have recourse to the Belgian the wrongs inflicted upon Germany, and to
production in order to prevent our neutral give this extortion a color of justice holds
neighbors from becoming dependent on these countries up as the guilty culprits!
England." Besides, in Belgium, it is ex- Note, for example, the attempt to heap
plained, are found also "the fundamental calumnies upon Belgium for acting in self-
elements of our principal explosives" ; and defense. "Deputy Hirsch [Social Demo-
"benzol, the only substitute for benzene, crat]," cries the National-Liberal deputy.
which we lack, and this is indispensable Dr. Friedberg, in the Prussian Landtag,
for submarines." in January, 1916,
— "Deputy Hirsch de-
For these reasons Belgium and north- and economic inde-
sires that the political

western France must belong to Germany. pendence .of Belgium be restored. But we
The native populations of these districts, it have no right to forget that Belgium was
is insisted, "shall not be put in a position in no respect the neutral country // ap-

to obtain a political influence upon the des- peared to be on August 2, 1914" ! And
tinies of the German Empire." It is also so a man who has been assassinated in his
urged that "the existing means of economic bed is to have his house plundered because
power in these territories, including the it was discovered during the murder that
medium and the great properties, shall be he had tried to make previous arrange-
placed in the hands of Germans in a man- ments with his neighbors for his protec-
ner that shall require France to indemnify tion against this very crime
and recall the proprietors"! Germany, it is said, did not desire war.
But listen to IVIajor-General Von Gebsat-
In or,der to give some appearance of jus- tel, an eminent soldier-diplomat, who is

tice to these plans for imperial expansion not afraid to confess the truth to his fel-

at the expense of Belgium and France, the low-officers. In (October, 1915, he said:
legend of a "conspiracy" to attack Ger-
many and destroy her, of which England We have not wished the war to tr\. seri-

is charged with being the instigator, and ously this time, the efficiency of our quick-
France, Belgium, and Russia the eager in- firing cannons and our machine-guns,— of
struments, has been persistently propa- that we had a very exact idea, particularly we
gated in Germanj^ and in the United old soldiers, — we wished it because we un-
States. As a penalty, runs the legend, for derstood that our people were on the wron^j
bringing this dreadful scourge of war upon road in their development, because we con-
peace-loving Germany, these guilty nations sidered the war a necessity, and because we
must repay her for the terrible sacrifices were besides aware that a war is easier — as
made by her brave sons and loyal subjects, much in its military course as for its mini-
who have given their lives and their treas- mum of sacrifices — when a people, in every
ures for the defense of the fatherland. fashion constrained to struggle for its ex-

Not only territories, but money indemni- istence, is more resolute and more prompt
ties, are expected, and these last the im- to elioosr the nioiiient favorable for ai/-

perial chancellor, as late as February 27, t/rrssioii.


THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Here is no attempt to conceal the fact cupied and no abatement of frightfulness,
that the present war was not only desired in the hope that the Allies may soon be
by the German officers, but that the time disunited or exhausted, thus leaving Ger-
for it was opportunely chosen, yet not many the victor. The HohenzoUern dy-
without serious miscalculations, and the nasty, having taken the responsibility of
whole progress of the war has shown how this vast predatory enterprise, cannot save
groundless and how ignoble the accusation its face without securing some compensa-
of an international conspiracy is. tion for the "sacrifices" imposed upon the
The orthodox German doctrine on an- people of Ge-rmany. So long as the Allies
nexations, it seems, was stated by the chief continue their opposition, these compensa-
of the National-Liberal party, Herr Bas- tions cannot be secured ; and in the mean-
sermann, as early as December, 191 4, time two changes are occurring in the
when he said in the Reichstag: minds of the German people: a growing
weariness of the war as a result of exhaus-
We shall hold till the most remote future tion, and a gradual enlightenment regard-
the countries fertilized by German blood. ing the responsibility for a war which the
. . . We shall be able to keep what we have mass of the German people believed at its
acquired, and to acquire in addition that of beginning was forced upon the empire by
which we have need. a combination of hostile powers. As a
result, the desire for peace without annex-
ations and indemnities, insisted upon by a
But we do not reach the final formula
group of Social Democrats, is rapidly be-
of German tribal ambition until we have
coming the sentiment of the country, with
received it from the chief of the Free Con-
the exception of the Junker class and the
servative party in the Prussian Landtag.
industrial imperialists, whose very exis-
Herr Zedlitz-Neukirch. He said :

tence depends upon the continued alliance


between private business and military
If the peace we aim at is to be durable,
all the territorial acquisitions, which the gen-
power. Between these instigators of pred-
atory war and the peace-loving people, the
eral staff deems necessary to shield us from
the danger of a future
imperial chancellor, anxious at least to
war must be secured
save the dynasty, dare not formulate pre-
by that peace; and no regard for our adver-
cise terms of peace, and remains mute,
saries, their country, or their people, should
prevent our imposing these conditions, least
with the intention of obtaining, as Beth-
of all the so-called righf of the inhabitants
mann-Hollweg has said, "all the pawns
of the territories that are to be conquered
and all the real guarantees possible."

to dispose of themselves.
We already have evidence that the
Imperial German Government is attentive
to changes minds of the people.
in the
The purposes
which the war was
for Why should emperor himself, \\ho
the
begun having failed of accomplishment C'laims his royal title "from God alone."
through an unexpected obstinacy of resis- propose "a people's kingdom of the Hohen-
tance on the part of the Entente Allies, zollerns," if he does not believe that* in
the problem of negotiating a peace has fact the people, if not wiser, are af least
become a serious one for the Imperial Ger- more powerful and more certain to endure
man Government. Not to make any an- than the HohenzoUern dynasty ?
nexations or collect any indemnities beyond Thus, and thus only, it would appear,
the le.vies extorted from Belgium and Po- the imperial crown may be saved. No
land during military occupation would longer able to cover its errors by appeal-
signify a defeat of the German plans. To ing to "the will of God," this shrewd
this kind of settlement all those responsi- family, which has known how to rise
ble for the war quite naturally object, and from a Swabian lordship over a handful
desire no relinquishment of territory oc- of peasants to the throne of an empire
'\'HK c;i:r.\ian piayi and di'.mocracy^ i-rri ki 8i;y

by an alternation of bargain and blood- the ([uestion whether arbitrary force or


shed, would no doubt be content to reif^^n justice is the basis of European civiliza-
by "the will of the people." tion. If the Central powers are to be
judged by what they claim as the result of
Here is the whole question at issue in this the Great War, and if the Allied powers
war — the right of peoples to dispose of are true to their professions, this is the
themselves. Once conceded, there is a fundamental between them: Shall
issue
solid foundation for the new Europe when the future of Europe and of the civilized
the peace congress meets to determine the world rest upon the assumption that a
future; for this right involves the repudi- powerful state, in order to satisfy its eco-
ation of autocracy, giving the state an eth- nomic ambitions, may take possession of
ical basis, and at the same time implies the the territory and the people of a weaker
existence of the inherent obligation of state by military force and appropriate the
every people to respect that right in others land and its people to its purposes? That
Unhappily, this doctrine has not yet is the tribal theory of the Central powers,
been clearly enunciated as a principle of as stated by themselves, against which the
public law. In Germany it is still dis- rest of the world, outside of their Turkish
puted. The eminent professor of law in and Bulgarian allies, is contending.
the University of Berlin, Dr. Joseph Koh- It was the menaced application of this
ler, writes: theory of international relationship to the
United States that clarified the vision of
The irresistible force of war and con-
the American people and enabled them to
quest takes possession of countries and peo-
perceive that neutrality toward an empire
ples. That is one of the fundamental prin-
holding, practising, and plotting to extend
ciples of international law, and it suffices to
and perpetuate that theory is impossible.
make litter of the old sentimentalities. . . .

They had hesitated to avenge their dead,


It is needless to be disquieted over the su-
cruelly slaughtered on the high seas; they
perfluous sentiment regarding a plebiscite,
had been reluctant to join in what seemed
in virtue of which it is of importance to
to be a European quarrel; they believed
consult the population to know if it wishes
that the German nation would itself rise
to belong to one state or another. The ter-
in denunciation of such enormities as it
ritory carries with it the population that in-
had been led into perpetrating they have ;

habits it; the individual who is not satisfied


waited for this in the faith that a whole
has only to quit the territory of the state.
people, a people that had risen to such
. The rational assent of a people has
. .

heights of excellence in many forms of


hardly any sense; the impulsive forces of the
civilization, could not always be blinded by
popular soul repose the greater part of the
leaders who defied all the nations of the
time below the threshold of reason and re-
earth to check what they deemed to be
flection. Thus it is all reduced to force, an
their irresistible force: but thus far they
inflexible domination.
have w^aited in vain.
Those who best know Germany and
German jurists and publicists, the au- the Germans do not look for a general
thorities to whom the people look for in- revolution while the German armies are
struction in these matters, almost without not beaten in the field. Revolt against
exception have been bred to accept this the existing system is not only extremely-
doctrine. It is a perfectly logical deduc- perilous for the persons who may propose
tion from the history of the Prussian state. it, but it is in the German character to be
Thus far the states of Europe have never loyal to the Imperial (jovernment while
formally repudiated it. On the other their country is believed to be still in peril.

hand, they have never formally asserted Not whole ghastly truth dawns
until the
it by an explicit international act. The upon them regarding the atrocities com-
time has now come to settle permanently mitted in their name, how thev themselves
870 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
have been deceived, what cruel wrongs will be made freely accessible and safe for
have been done to their sons and brothers all nations, the avenues of trade will lead
in leading them to the shambles for the to an increased number of open doors, and
acquisition of ports and mines and war the backward nations of the world will be
indemnities, and that this has brought only treated as the common wards of those more
disaster, debt, and shame upon them, will advanced in civilization.

the German people cry out for a more re- Is this the real purpose of the Entente
sponsible control of their own destinies Allies? The United States has entered
and a reorganization of international life into this struggle, and will afford the Al-
upon a basis of peace through justice. Al- lies all possible aid, in the faith that it is

ready isolated voices have been heard de- their purpose. Were the Great War be-
manding these changes. The protests lieved to be on both sides nothing but an
have come mainly from the Social Demo- armed struggle for trade supremacy and
crats, but it is not they alone who are first place in possession of the resources of
aware that Germany stands before the the globe, there would be no disposition
rest of the world as a convicted culprit on the part of Americans to engage in it.
whose good name has been lost through Many Germans, no doubt, seriously be-
an unholy alliance between private greed lieve that on both sides, a contest for
it is,

and the weird priestcraft of divine prerog- national and that it has been
primacy,
ative —
a partnership which has decked out forced upon them, as the legends of "en-
an altar of sacrifice in the name of reli- circlement" and "conspiracy" pretend.
gion in order to give to military power a The sooner this fiction can be exposed, the
sacramental sanction for the commission sooner will German confidence in the pos-
of wholesale crime. permanent international peace
sibility of a

What needs now to be pressed home be produced, and nothing could more effec-
upon the German people is that those who tually contribute to that enlightenment
are resisting the Imperial Government are than a formal declaration that exclusive
sincere in their loyalty to the principles national gains are not the objects of the
they profess, and that what they aim at is war. The exemplary spirit of renuncia-
not mere selfish national interests, but tion manifested by Russia and the known
permanent guarantees of peace with jus- absence of selfish purposes on the part of
tice. Whatever fruits of victory result the United States might well inspire such
from this war must be international fruits. a declaration. A clear statement of the
No nation should be permitted to claim principles of public law which it is desira-
them for itself or to dictate peace solely with a sol-
ble to establish for the future,
in its own interest. Claims for damage emn compact to observe and sustain them,
and advantage made by any one of the would be an appropriate preliminary to any
belligerents should be left to the judgment negotiations for peace. The whole world
of the others, not made a condition of set- would then be in a position to express
tlement by and the solidity of
Itself alone, Its Such a
adherence to those principles.
the peace will depend upon the willing- compact would necessarily involve the re-
ness of each nation to do this and the sense pudiation of the right of conquest for the
of impartial justice with which the deci- purpose of acquiring territory by military
sions are reached. If this principle is fol- forcefrom an independent state and its in-
lowed out, there will be an immense de- famous corollary that the population goes
velopment of the idea of internationaliza- with the land and becomes subject to the
tion. The seas and oceans of the world will of the conqueror.
Magic Casements
By FANNY KEMBLE JOHNSON
Author of " New Lamps for Old," etc.

Illustrations l:)y
J. Paul Veirees

w HAT
>nuth?
are these
And never
Ivor's opened on a pleasanter sight than
but the
had
eyes
Roddy
of alarm, and a hasty glance into the mirror
of the trough.
Roddy's head went back.
the one presented by Arlie Campbell skim- "\'ou arc just exactly the saiiie out-
ming herself a cup of cream from a crock rageous boy," exclaimed Arlie, indig-
on the spring-house shelf. nantly.
The crock was a deep and glowing red. "I suppose you are taking that cream
Arlie was and cool blue, except the
a crisp for a tonic," said Roddy. "Pray don't let

back of her bent head, which was the exact me interrupt you."
color of a copper kettle, and her fair arm, He took Arlie in while she sipped her
curving softly as she manipulated a skim- cream. It seemed to him that she had
mer the size, shape, and color of a full grown up more hopelessly than any of
silver moon. The willows outside door their crowd.
and window filled the place with such a "Bina sent her love," Arlie told him
green light, shot through with sun-rays, forgivingly over her cup-brim.
as mermaids love. The spring flowed in Roddy looked eagerly interested. He
at one opening, around the red crocks set was devoted to his little cousin Bina, who
in the trough, and out at another opening, had recently entered, on probation, the
with a confusing murmur of sound which hospital in which Arlie was arl assistant
accounted for Arlie not noticing Roddy's head nurse.
step on the little path between the grasses. "Think she '11 stick to it?" he asked.
However, when he put out the sun-ray "She 's a crazy child," said Arlie, "but
on her skimmer, she turned a reconnoiter- she 's a born nurse. She '11 stick to it."
ing glance, and came forward, smiling. She rinsed out her cup with a deft quirk
Except for the cap, she wore one of her of the wrist, hung it up, and came and
hospital uniforms, and with it, perhaps stood beside Roddy in the door, buttoning
unconsciously, her hospital air of calm her blue cuff down, and glancing across
competence. the yard to the house, a large, double house
"Why, I did n't know you were to be of squared logs, which had been a fort in
home Roddy, seizing
at all this year," said Indian days. Later Campbells had added
lioth of Arlie's hands. His face shone. a frame dining-room and kitchen, with a
Arlie squeezed Roddy's hands affection- long porch across the front but the small, ;

ately, and returned them to him. high windows, the tremendous stone chim-
"Oh," she said, "they sent me home to ney piled against the end of the log part, as
rest up. had a slight nervous breakdown
I well as a loophole here and there up the
from overwork." stairway, showed the building's age antl
"You certainly look it," said Roddy, former use.
heartfelt commiseration in his tone. "Your "Shall we go o\er on the porch?" asked
eyes are awfully dull, and you ha\e n't a Arlie.
hit of color." They got as far as the porch-steps. It

Arlie could not avoid a movement of was early enough for cobwebs and dew.
872 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
and Arlie was wondering what had one corner of her mouth, and she blinks
brought Roddy up the mountain at that her black eyelashes at 30U when she saj'S

hour, when he said, nodding toward a funny things, and she 's got a white streak
cabin joined to the main house by a short, in her black hair. When she plaits her
covered platform hair and winds around her head theit

came up to see about renting that."


"I white streak turns to a wreath of little
The
cabin had once been the fort store- white roses. She 's magic. It might be

house. It, too, was picturesque with vines the stone beasts."
and an end-heavy chimney, composed, in "The— the stone beasts?" echoed Arlie,
this case, of astonishingly colored stones, satisfactorily mystified.
as if they had been picked out with amaze- Roddy became gravely explanatory.
ment at their beauty. Besides the door "Her father rubbed a — a tankard," said
opening upon the covered platform, a sec- Roddy, "and the riches of Aladdin were
ond gave directly on the creek-bank and his. With them he built Wilsy a castle,
the forest. and the stone beasts guard it night and
Arlie did not feel interested in the mid- day."
dle-aged hunting-men who, as a rule, "I don't think we could possibly rent
rented the cabin. She said indifferently: the cabin to such a queer person as all

"It 's empty, for a wonder. Better see that," said Arlie, lightly getting back at
mother." Roddy. "It might vanish some night."
"It 's more in your line. I want it for "Well, of course," said Roddy, "if an
a girl with a cough." enemy got hold of the tankard; but—''
"I came up here to get away from sick "I don't think we could risk it," said
persons," said Arlie, heartlessly. Arlie. She shook her head regretfully, as
"But she is n't really sick. She only if to signify that she would have loved to
wants to keep from getting really sick." oblige Roddy.
"Women are too much trouble, Roddy. Roddy reluctantly became sensible.
You 'd never guess." "It 's this way," he said. "Her father 's

"Wilsy would n't be. She 's straight- a millionaire brewer. He objects violently
forward,- like a bov." to Wilsy 's talking suffrage, and when they
"Wilsy?" got to fighting her at home, she just went
"And she 's killing herself standing on into it heart and soul in the most reckless
cold street corners talking suffrage." manner. I got no end fond of Wilsy,

"If you 'd tell me who she is," said and so will you, Arlie. I 've set my heart
Arlie, exasperation in her tone. on old Wayne getting her well,— he '3
"Oh, just a girl I met when I stopped some doctor, you know that, and I 've —
North with my Aunt Judith, a great friend praised him up, and I 've praised the cli-
of Judy's." mate up, and I 've promised her the
"She sounds interesting," said Arlie. cabin." Every word coaxed. "See that
Her eyes sparkled mischievously. "She she gets it, please."
was a new one on \ou, was n't she, "For your sake?" teased Arlie.
Roddy?" "For hers," corrected Roddy. He
Roddy admitted reminiscentl.\' that looked Arlie iti the eyes with conscious
Wilsy Lieber had indeed been a quite new rectitude.
one on him. "You always did pick up hurt things,
"Is she pretty?" asked Arlie. It just did n't you, Roddy? All right; your queer
slipped out. Wilsy Lieber shall come, and if she gets
Roddy twinkled. He 'd known it was sick, I '11 She leaned
nurse her well."
coming. ()\er on her elbow and called: "Mo-other!

"I suppose not — exactl>'. She 's twen- oh, Mo-other!"


ty-seven and she 's pale; but, then," said Mrs. Campbell, the stabilizer of her
Roddy, musingly, "she 's got dimples at erratic household, showed her benevolent
I CAME VV TO SEE ABOUT RENTING 1 HAT
874 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
countenance in the kitchen Joorwav, and " 'Lo, Chard," said Roddy, going past
Roddy rose and went over, Arlie follow- him down the steps.
ing. "What 's the rush?" asked Chard.
Arlie played idly with her mother's "Breakfast; came off without any.
hand as Roddy unfolded his business. Are n't vou coming down this evening,
Mrs. Campbell's face remained unruffled, Arlie?"
but it was apparent that she hesitated. Arlie nodded assent, putting her chin in
Arlie gave her a pleading and unobtrusive her hands.
pinch. "I '11 be back up for you, then," said
"Mother 's afraid we could n't make Roddy.
her comfortable," Arlie said playfully to Arlie watched Roddy as he veered about
Roddy. and took the short cut down. At the wood
Mrs. Campbell said instantly and in- opening he waved back. His whistle
dignantly that Wilsy might have the cabin sounded for a long way.
whenever she liked, and Arlie sauntered Roddy found the family at breakfast.
back to the steps while Roddy settled "Arlie 's home," said he, dropping into
minor details. She found her brother his seat and reaching for the nearest dish.
Chard there. Mary's eyes beamed with pleasure. She
"Lieber?" said Chard, glancing over his was very fond of Arlie.
shoulder at Roddy. "Ain't that a—" "I 'U call up some boys and get up a
" 'Sh-h!" murmured Arlie, quickly, also little party," said Mary.

glancing over her shoulder. "How does Arlie look?" asked Roddv's
Chard grinned. pretty mother.
"What about the old man ?" "Oh, I don't know." said Roddy. "Like
"Mother can always get around father," a handful of pansies."
said Arlie, "and I won't have Roddy dis- "Roddv," said Mary, "vou are too
appointed. He 's set his heart on some silly."

girl with a cough having the cabin this But Kathy said she could just see Arlie.
winter." Her father was too absurd, Arlie stayed the night with Mary, and
thought Arlie, with his ridiculous preju- Roddy took her strolling around the lawn
dices. next morning.
Arlie and Chard presented the contrast "It 's lovely to have nothing to do for a
found oftener in our country, perhaps, than change," said Arlie.
elsewhere. Chard's education had con- It was very strange and disconcerting to
cluded with what he could not help get- Roddy to think of Arlie's arduous hospi-
ting from a country public school. He tal experiences.
would ever remain the typical mountain- "Do girls really like it?" he asked.
eer of sturdy and attractive stock, but lim- "Some do,"
"Bina does. said Arlie;
ited in the exercise of its intelligence to the But good many take it up, as 1 did, to
a
great mental game of the mountains, which get away. However," continued Arlie,
is to pit your prejudice against that of your "I "m a good nurse. I would n't bungle a

neighbor. thing." Roddy deeply approved of Arlie's


Arlie, on the contrary-, had gone to scornful tone. "But I 'm not going to
'

school with Mary Ivor to the Cedarcliff keep at it forever," added Arlie; "I 'II do
teachers,and had later taken up nursmg. other things after a while." Arlie's rest-
Of Arlie, found apart from her native en- less heart spoke in the words.
vironment, it was impossible to predicate a "I want to stay here," said Rodd>-,
class. vaguely prompted to define his feeling, "to
Chard had been one of Roddy's boy- strike roots, to be worth while in my own
hood chums, and although for four years place — like my tree there."
their paths had diverged, much of their He indicated a beautiful young oak just
earl\' affection for each other remained. iiiKJerneath the window of his room, on
INTAGTC CASEMENTS 875

the high creek-bank. Arlie gazed at it. Wilsy said that she adored old Wayne.
Suddenl}', as she gazed, briglit wings He had told her there was n't a thing in
flashed out and were gone. the world the matter with her. Or almost
"I 'm like that," said Arlie; "I 'd feel that, she amended at Roddy's vexing mas-

queer having roots." culine insistence on the absolute truth.


She smiled at Roddy, lifting her arms to "That 's about the best news I ever
tuck back a resplendent lock of hair. Her heard," said Roddy. "And how do you
white dress fluttered about her in the river like my mountains?"

wind. "I 'm afraid I '11 have to take them


"Don't fly away this morning." said home with me," said Wilsy.

Roddy. "Then," said Rodd\ , "I must come


up here and look at them a lot this

Arlie and Wilsy on a sim-warmed


sat winter."
ledge of limestone above the creek and He pretended to be shielding his eyes

showed each other their eager, active, rest- from the setting sim as he spoke, but in
less minds. Wilsy smiled as she spoke; reality he was glancing across at Arlie.

but Arlie, being six years younger, was Wilsy could see his eyes, awakened and
serious. tender, through his curving fingers. Arlie
They had finished with their minds and felt them. Her cool cheek turned hot.

got to their palms when they became aware She stole a look across to Roddy.
ofRoddy deflecting toward them from the It was very odd to Wilsy, sitting there
mountain road. just above them both, to watch it begin
"Let 's see yours," said Arlie, by way that way.
of greeting. "I 'm going in to write a letter for you
"Plain as a pikestaff," said Roddy, to mail for me," she said to Roddy.
presenting his palm for inspection. She went of¥ up the slope, smiling to
"Men's usually are," said Wilsy, crush- herself, and glancing over her left shoulder

ingly. at the valley.

Half a glance sufliiced to reveal Roddy's Roddy moved closer to^Arlie. The sun-
deep, flawless, pink heart-line sweeping rays were long and yellow. The distance
boldly to the base of the forefinger ; his was violet and golden in streaks and
serviceable head-line marked with the patches. A smoke of mist showed where
ruler of common sense straight across his the river ran far below.
palm his double life-line looped warily
; "Are n't you glad to be back. Arlie?"
around both thumbs, to make quite sure; asked Roddy, imploringly.
his fine, clear line of happy fate. There "For a— a visit," said Arlie.

were no moony vagaries in Roddy's hand. Roddy felt wing-edges flutter against his
"He 's going to live forever," said palm.
Wilsy, "and be perfectlv satisfied with his "Come for a walk along the bank." he
life."' said.

The two girls exchanged a glance, as They strolled in silence by the loud
if they were sorry for Roddy. creek,and paused in a tiny ravine filled to
"Too bad it 's not more exciting," said the brim with pale purple asters. Arlie
Roddy. He added to Arlie, "Now I '11 stoodamong them, lifting her face to the

have a look at yours." new moon.


But Arlie crumpled up her moon-struck "It 's holding water." said Arlie.
palms and hid them away behind her. Roddy watched her with open tender-
Roddy sat down on the ledge, too, ness.

slightly below Wilsy, and on a level with "Arlie," he said, putting out a hand.
Arlie, although a few feet away. "Wilsy will be through her letter by
"How do you like old Wayne?" asked now," said Arlie, hastily. "Shall we take
Roddv of Wilsv. her some of these?"
876 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
Roddy accepted his rebuff stoically. He "Pray, what does Arlie want?" she in-

gathered Wilsy an armful of purple asters quired spiritedly.


and took them to her. He filled her "She says she does n't wish to marry
brown pottery jar with spring water, any one," said Mary. "She says a woman's
helped her arrange the asters, and told her own life is automatically ended the minute
where they looked prettiest, on the funny sh gets married, if she loves her husband."
little bracket between her two windows. "No true woman wants any life of her
Arlie had vanished, and Roddy sat on own apart from her husband's," said
the porch-steps with Wilsy. She would Kathy. "Arlie will find out some day
talk about the war. that she 's been talking great nonsense."
"We can't realize it," said Wilsy. "What do you think about it, Mary?"
Roddy wished that he could say that. asked Ivor, who had been listening be-
He changed the subject as soon as he hind his book, amused, but approving
could, and asked Wilsy if she 'd made a Kathy's correct sentiments.
wish for the new moon over the pines up "Oh," said Mary, confidently, "Geoff
there. and I would n't always be wanting dif-

Wilsy said she had ; that she had made a ferent things."
beautiful wish for Roddy. She returned to her music, and Ivor
Presently Wilsy was not the only clever crossed the hall to the library.
person. He found Roddy there, poking the fire

Roddy, walking with his head in the in pure absent-mindedness. Sometimes he


clouds or the stars, supposed himself to made the sparks fly, and sometimes he
resemble any ordinary young man going rested his hands on the poker in a brown
about the every-day business of life, and study. Ivor looked over his evening pa-
he was much startled at something Mary pers in silence. They were more than
said to him one evening. They were at usually interesting and angering, and he
the piano, a little apart from the family kept at them a good while.. When he
group by the fire. finally flung them aside the rustle and
"How," Mary, picking up a hand-
said movement brought Roddy's eyes his way.
and letting them drop slowly
ful of notes, "Would you make a fuss about it,
back, "would you like it if Chard Camp- Father," he asked deliberately, "if I could
bell made love to mef" get Arlie to have me?"
More men than Roddy have wondered "Would it make any difference if 1

at the remarkable things women will say. did ?" asked Ivor, not taking Roddy with
"Whatdo you mean?" he flashed. any great seriousness.
mean what you think I mean,"
"I said "Not if I could get her," admitted
Mary, diabolically. Roddy. His tone was harassed. Even
"It 's totally and entirely different," Ivor felt an indignant twinge.
said Roddy in an enraged undertone, "and "Can't you?" he asked rather incred-
I think it very questionable taste in an en- ulously.
gaged any such question."
girl to ask But Roddy shook his head.
Mary up another handful of
picked "She loves me," he said, finding a sharp
notes, and Roddy left the room. relief in words after so much silence, "and
Mary looked over her shoulder at her she won't have me. She talks the \itterest

father and mother. stuff, but she means it. I could get

"Rodd\' 's perfectly wild about Arlie," rid of a condition in life, but I can't get
she said, "and she does n't encourage him a rid of a condition in Arlie's mind. She 's

bit. You 'd think he 'd have some pride." got me going. know what to do.
I don't
Now, Kathy had not the faintest desire If she gets away from me now I '11 never
for Roddy to marry into old Campbell's get her. She '11 keep away— because she 's

mountain clan, but she could not help a afraid." He flung the poker to its rest,

Hare of indignation. .md turned abruptly to Ivor.


'DON'T FLY AWAY THIS MORNIXG,' SAID RODDY'
878 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
"Father," he said, "I 'm crazy about hearth-rug of fox-skinsand the fan of
her." He looked in Ivor's eyes. wild-turkey tail and wings spread splen-
Ivor had a shock. He ceased to take didly behind the engraving of \^alley
Roddy's affair of the heart lightly. No Forge above the chimneypiece.
more than Kathy and Mary did he care Arlie gave Roddy her father's chair, and
for Roddy to marry into the Campbell took a corner of the green settle, herself.

clan, but not altogether the same reasons At first they found unimportant things
moved him. Still, he concluded to keep of which to speak; but finally one of the
his hands off. He
had paid Roddy that silences they were coming to dread fell

compliment for some time now. He got upon them. Arlie could find nothing
up, walked away, walked back, looked at better to break it with than
Roddy, who had taken out his watch, and "There 's Chard come
in." She looked
said: interestedly toward one of the room's six
"Well, you can give her rny love — if doors. Behind it Chard was to be heard
she '11 have yours." whistling a lively air.

Roddy's disturbed face cleared for the Roddy had laid hold of Arlie's poker by
moment. now. He had to be using his restless

"You don't think me too much of an ass, hands. He was leaning over, and he
then?" looked up at Arlie.
"Not a bit of it," said Ivor, heartily. "Shall we call him in?" asked Roddy
"She 's too good for you." in an inimical tone.
He did n't in the least think any girl "N-o-o," said Arlie.
in the world too good for Roddy; but he "My father sent you his love," said

really did think Arlie, with her beauty Roddy, watching Arlie's face. This had
:uid brightness, good enough, and he was been one of her defenses, that his father
glad he had stretched a point, because it would make a row.
sent his boy up the mountain road looking "That 's sweet of him," said Arlie,

a little happier. presently.


Though it was not quite eight when "(J/i a condition," continued Roddy.
Roddy reached Campbells', the light in She looked away, making a negative
Wilsy's cabin was already out. Wilsy, gesture.

after a long day's climbing about with her "We could be so happy," said Roddy in

kodak, had gone early to bed ; but the a heart-shaking voice.

light from the deep little windows of the Arlie's hand crumpled nervously at a

front room lay across the porch, and Arlie newspaper she had been reading when
herself opened its door to him. Roddy tapped at her door.

It was a good deal like having a door "We have n't any right to be happy
opened into a story-book, though Arlie off to ourselves when such things are going
and Roddy, being blinded by familiarity, on in the world," said Arlie.
never guessed this. The front room was Roddy had not even looked at that day's
oblong, with a large fireplace midway its paper. He
had been so desperately ab-
length on one side. The doors and sorbed in the upheaval of his heart that
mantelpiece, like ceiling and rafters, for weeks he had scarcely remembered that
showed the rich natural color of hundred- there was a war.
year-old seasoned pine. Deer-horns on the "So you 've a new reason," said Roddy.
^wall, a large and a small spinning-wheel in However, he put out his hand for the
a corner, an immense settle, over which paper, and Arlie, after a motion as if to

was flung one of the few remaining buffalo withhold it, drew back hers. She sat
robes in the country, took the interior tense and still, watching Roddy read.
back to the frontier period. A red-and-gray He had been pale; but, as he read, a
rag-carpet made by Arlie's mother covered smoldering anger nearly three yeais old
the Hoor, imd Chard had contributed the Hanied up in cheek and e\ e.
MAGIC CASE MK NTS 879
"When there 's anything to do about down, picked up the poker again, and
it," said Roddy. "I '11 do it; all of us will. prodded the logs viciously.
But just now you 're not fair to put up Arlie watched the sparks showering.
this"— he indicated the paper "between
— She did n't know what to do, either. She
us. Because vou do love me, Arlie." could give R()dd\- up while she still had
him, as she had him,
for instance, that eve-
ning; but to imagine
herself giving him up
altogether made a
cold hand close on her
lieart.

Rodd\ 's face turned


slowl_\ to hers. The
hurt in it made Arlie
sa\ to herself that she
was n't being fair to
Rodd\ that she had
;

better cut short her


time at home and get
back to her work. She
would ask to be put
on some good hard
case, some woman
who did n't really
b.a\e anything the
matter with her.
Maybe she could give
Roddy up
if she had

-,11-, \M HI u enough to take up her


,1 -,s

1 VI K \I!t time and occupy her


mind. She glanced
Arli would n't answer. She turned, inquiringly at Roddy, who had risen.
stooping to pat Rob, Roddy's setter, which "No good my staying," said Roddy,
had followed him up, and now lay at his humbly; "I don't seem able to behave my-
feet. self to-night."

Rob, intensely flattered, reared himself. With yearning eyes on Arlie, he fumbled
and stood with his paws on Arlie's knee. for his hat on the table behind him.
"Down, sir!" ordered Roddy, sternly. "Very well," said Arlie, looking pale.
"Don't be so cross with him, Roddy," She stood up politely.

said Arlie. She laid an impulsive arm "Please tell Wilsy I 'm sorry I did n't
about Rob's brown neck. get to see her," said Roddy. He swung
Roddy reached over deliberately, took off to the door.

hold of his dog's collar, set him firmly "Roddy," said Arlie, faintly.
on his four feet, got up, went to the door, "Yes," said Roddy, quickly, a flicker of

and opened it. hope in his eyes.

"Get out!" he said to Rob, the words "Good night," said Arlie, beseechingly.
sounding an oath.
like She held out her hand.
"I never saw anything so childish in my Roddy looked at it.

life!" flared Arlie. Roddy gave Arlie a "Good night," he said. He went off

driven look. without touching the hand.


That look silenced Arlie. Roddy sat Arlie's hand dropped to her side as
880 'II IK CKNTU RY AIACAZINI':
Roddy closed the door c|uietly. She stood erected and deserted some years pre\Iously
for amoment staring at its bhink surface, by an erratic Englishman who had n't been
then turned and ran up the steps and into able tomake his fancy chickens pay. How
her own room. Her white muslin curtains often had Roddy beheld Arlie and himself
waved in the cold wind. She went to a inhabiting that cottage, Ivor's now! It

window and leaned on its sill, listening to was indeed too adorable a place to stand
Roddy's going. There was no gay whistle lonely and deserted in the snow. Some-
by which to track him down the mountain times Arlie looked up and across at it.
to-night ; only a poignant rustle of dead Sometimes Roddy looked up and across at
leaves in the path. Arlie had her arm it. For one weak moment he lost him-
hard across her breast as if something hurt self in the delight of imagining Arlie
her there, but she would n't give in. She and himself climbing up the steps set in the
still said to herself: little bluff, going straight into the cottage

"It 's better to be free than anything else —


grounds going home, in fact.
in the whole world." "Say it, you idiot!" ordered Rodd\- to
himself. He stood still, hands in pocket.
"Arlie 's going back town next week,"
to "Arlie," he said, "when
I was I met you
said Mary to Roddy a few days later. coming up to tell you that you don't need
She went on vexedly : "You 've just spoiled to run from me. I won't bother you again.
everything. Roddy. AVhy could n't you Don't cut short your vacation. If yovi
let Arlie alone, with a count}' full of do that, I '11 feel like a dog."
girls?" Arlie, too, was standing still, pulling
Roddy had dropped into a dull middle nervously at her hood ribbons.
place of misery since that odd evening at "You '11 stay, won't you ?" asked Roddy ;

Arlie's. He said tonelessly to Mary that "Wilsy would be so lonesome without


Arlie need not go away on his account, you."
and forced himself up the mountain, mean- Arlie stole a baffled look at Roddy.
ing to tell her so. But a short distance She did not know whether that speech of
from home he met Arlie and Wilsy out Roddy's was deep, deep man's wisdom or
for the mail and a walk. a bit of boyish stupidity.
"Come over on my island," he said, his She said that she would stay for AVdsy. —
spirits rising at the mere sight of Arlie "That 's a good girl!" said Roddy.
in a blue hood ; "we can cross on the ice. He felt that he dared touch her now
It 's jolly inside the willows, all flat snow, that he had given her up. There was a
and rabbit-tracks scurrying where they 've dear look about Roddy's e^'es and lips as
danced in the moonlight." He smiled at he guided Arlie, like a calm brother, over
Wilsy. the rough ice between island and shore.
"You '11 be telling us fair^•-stories next," He was trying so achingly hard to be un-
said Wilsy. and he had never loved Arlie so
selfish,

"Well," said Roddy, "if there were a much, or shown to his own mintl how-
little Blue Riding Hood, Arlie would look much he did love her, as at that moment
just like her." when Arlie was thinking that Rodd^' must
"Is there a wolf on your island?" asked be getting over loving her, and, that being
Arlie, her spirits rising, too, with the sun so,there was of course no need to run
and Roddy. away from him. Her arm grew rigid in

"There '11 be nothing but a —a lamb," his respectful grasp. Presently she drew
said Roddy, reassuringly. it away, and said she could get along
Wilsy, who had her kodak along, now.
wandered away, Arlie and Roddy follow-
ing in a sort of snatched, desperate hap- ArijI' wore one of her blue uniform
l)iness. Higli up on a tiny bluff above the dresses. A bushel-basket of red winter
river sliowed the cottage that had been apples stood on the kitchen Hoor by her.
MAGIC CASEMFA rs 881
"We 've so many apples, mother decided and to Dr. Wayne, all three of whom
to make another kettle of apple-butter," cami' up hiter in tile da\.
said Arlie toRoddy, who had just briy;lit- The visiting girl was
a slim, provoca-
ened her kitchen doorway. "We want tive girl, with cloudy black hair, and, in
Wilsy to see an apple-butter b()ilin<i, any- its shadow, delicate oval cheeks the red of
way. Everybody an Indian pink.
can come." Arh'e detested her
"I'll come now," at first sight, but
said Roddy, draw- was extra nice to
ing up a chair ami her for that very
takin^i the parer reason ; and Rodd\',
()\'er. "^'ou and who thought Arlie
Wilsy can pick me must Iia\e taken a
out nice, round ap- fanc\- to her, felt

ples." rather astonished.


"Such nonsense." He disliked Miss
s:u'd Mrs. Camp- Palmer's st\ le him-
bell to Roddy as self; bur, as she
she passed through was a visiting girl,
on her way to he played with her
the smoke-house, out of pure polite-
"making apple-but- ness.

March! It's
ter in ^'hey stirred to-

all tliese craz^' getlier, and hrr


girls." jumpy, little white
Wilsy was ex- lists were always
cited over the ap- sliding up against
ple-butter boiling, Rodd\'s calm,
even tliough it brown ones. Arlie
could not be, as could have pushed
was picturesque her into the kettle.
and proper, held Roddy kept look-
out of doors, since VISITING GIRL WAS A SI.IM. PUOVOCAl ing back at Arlie.
one could not ;i., WITH CI.OITDV IJI.ACK HAIR. AND. P out of habit, no
ITS SHADOW. DHI.ICATIJ OVAI. CHI^rKS
count on March thi- ki-d oi ; INDIAN I'iNK •
doubt, for he had
weather. given her up. He
She could not belie\'e all those barrels kept saying to himself that he had, as if

of peeled apples could be needed for even he were in danger of forgetting it. She
so gigantic a kettle as Chard was at that always pretended not to see him looking at
moment swinging on the crane in the her.
kitchen fireplace —a fireplace of which it He understood at last that, though she
was no exaggeration to aver that it would n't have him herself, she could n't

stretched clear across the room. Nor bear to see another girl getting him even
could she take seriously all those pounds in play. It is only given to angels to be
of sugar and spices, or all those gallons of consistently good. A perverse devil took
sweet cider, or ever believe there would residence in Roddy. He devoted himself
be suflFicient apple-butter to fill all those openly and outrageously to Miss Palmer.
brown crocks Mrs. Campbell was bring- When she declared herself wearied of
ing across from the smoke-house for pur- stirring, he popped corn for her at one
poses of sunning and airing. corner of the big fireplace, Arlie watching
Being there, Rodd\- sta\ed, and Arlie scornfully. Afterward the\- carried a bowl
telephoned to Mary and her visiting girl of pop-corn to a secluded ht-iuh, and sat
882 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
there, heads together, Miss Palmer hold- all go out on the porch and watch the day
ing the bowl, Rodd}^ leaning over and break. Miss Palmer said she must get her
helping himself, with her assistance, and coat. A moment later Roddy came up to

gazing ardently up into her face. where Wilsy and Wayne were standing
He did not look at Arlie again but this ;
together in the confusing dawn light. He
only gave her the better opportunity to said tothem both:
look at him. From where she ranged "Amuse IVIiss Palmer for me when she
brown crocks on a table she could see that comes out."
brazen girl making a dead set at Roddy. He plunged down the steps, and
Arlie was almost certain she had got vanished just as Miss Palmer appeared,
Roddy to holding her hand in the shadow looking confidently about her.
there. Roddy was wheedling her for all Wayne pushed a porch-chair forward.
he was worth. Well Arlie knew that "You 've treated the rest of us very
pleading tilt of chin, that laughing crinkle shabbily, Miss Palmer," said Wayne,
of eye-corners. She clattered two crocks reproachfully. He gently and firmly put
together inadvertently. This attracted her in the chair. Wilsy perched on one
Miss Palmer's attention, and she called arm of it, and talked volubly concerning
insolently, it seemed to Arlie: the novel experience of apple-butter boil-
"Don't work so hard, Miss Campbell. ing. Miss Palmer, in some bewilderment,
Do come help us finish this pop-corn." responded inadequately, and kept looking
Out of bravado Arlie went and sat about her for Roddy.
down by Miss Palme-r but she regretted
; But Roddy, who had gone off head-
doing it the next instant. She was much long after glimpsing that pale blur down
too indignant to act naturally. She had a by the creek, had already forgotten that
ramrod down her throat. The handful such a young person as Miss Palmer
of little white kernels scorched her palm, existed. He knew Arlie's favorite wood
so that she crushed them as she held them. road, and crossed the creek into it. He
"You 've spoiled those," said Roddy to kept thinking he heard her. Once he put
her, kindly; "have some more." out his arms. He was sure she was
."Oh, I must go now," she said, spring- there by a big tree.
ing to her feet in too great a hurry to con- "Arlie," he called softly, then went on.
vey the idea of a perfectly poised young He stopped where four ways met. One
person. led to the house, one to the top of the
Miss Palmer, who was innocent of mountain, one to a forest clearing, one to
other intention than the natural one of a little spring where they often strolled.
amusing herself as well as possible with a He had taken a step toward the spring
good-looking young man, gazed after when Arlie stood, as noiseless as a sun-
Arlie iri some surprise. beam, at his elbow. She* really had hidden
"What a nervous girl she is!" she said behind that tree to let Roddy get ahead
to Roddy. of her.
"Not Roddy, becoming
usually," said "Oh," said Arlie, airily, "are you having
violently ashamed of himself; "but she 's a walk to get your eyes open, too?"
home resting up after a slight breakdown. "Arlie,"* said Roddy in a half-whisper,

Arlie 's a nurse, you know. There 's the "I know a hollow full of arbutus just over
kettle coming off, or, rather: the fire 's here."
getting put out under it. Shall we go Not Iv?" said Arlie, breathlessh'
over?" •It too earl\':"
Butthis- was the dull part of the busi- "It 's a sheltered place '
said Rodd}-,
ness, and the youngsters soon tired of leading the wa> , "and it
'<
been so warm
watching Mrs. Campbell's endless dip in this week."
kettle and pour in crock. It was nearly Once it was steep and rough, and he
morning, and some one proposed that they took Arlie's hand to help her down.
MAGIC CASEMENTS 883
When they gained the hollow he was still And Roddy had Arlie's heart there in
holding Arlie's hand. He continued to his palm, beneath his cheek. At last she

hold it as he dropped to his knees to part was content that it should be so. You
the drift of dead leaves. A fragrance could n't be free and happy too, it seemed.
fresher and more deli'cious than any other
in the world streamed up past Roddv to It was such a morning as often comes
Arlie. that far south in early April, a warm wind
"O Rodd) she ishi blowing in gusts, a noticeable bird or two,
for he had uncovered the sleeping face of a flush of red bud and fruit-blossom o\cr
the spring. the valley since the night before, the sun
She impulsively stooped, her free arm lighting up the tall pines along the ridges
sliding around Roddy's neck as she did so. to be candles on the altar of the spring,
He put up his hand to hold hers there. young people sitting on the porch steps
"You see," said Roddy, straiglitening up at Campbells' as if it were a summer
on his knees, "you can't help it either, morning.
Arlie." Mary andGeoff had ridden up for a
Arlie did not answer. She gazed off ride; Arlie and Roddy had just come in
into the distance, seeing herself at Cedar- from a reminiscent stroll to the hollow of
cliff forever. Forever is a long time when arbutus; Wilsy, be it confessed, had just
you have wings. It is spring and summer got out of bed. She was still blinking her
and autumn and winter, and then spring eyes at the sun. She had n't even had her
again. breakfast. Dr. Wa.\ne had stopped in

"I know I 've hroken my word to you," the evening before, merel\ a friendlv call,

said Roddy, "but I 'd have kept it, on and had kept his patient i\p until a most
my love for you, Arlie, if I could think preposterous hour.
you 'd be happier without me." Arlie sat by Roddy witli a look of pure
There was no color about Arlie except content in her eyes. For once that rest-
the brightness of her hair and the fright- less heart of Arlie's was stilled. She gazed

ened sapphire of her eyes. She knew she across the miles at the little cottage on
was about to be caught. the tiny bluff above the river, and felt

"But you could n't be," said Roddy. that, after all, her moment of forever was
"Why, we belong to each other. You too short for love and happiness. It was
could n't be, could you?" all so sweet, so much sweeter than Arlie
Roddy was pale, too, so much of Arlie in her native had e\er
independence
was an unknown quantity to him as well imagined it could be. She thought with
as to herself. Could she free herself of a smile of Roddy's oak that he wanted to
him? Would she vanish, as a bird, beat- be like. She would strike roots, too; nor
ing its way out, though torn by the broken should the fir-tree's foolish longing for
pane of escape i the imknown ever trouble her. She would
"Could 3'ou?" asked Roddy again, His grow tall and beautiful with Roddy in
eyes kept on asking it. their own place, and together they would
When she still did not answer he let feel streaming through heart and hr;u'n
go her hands very slowh . the great, free currents of emotion and
Rut she snatched his hand hack. She thought from elsewhere.
held it to her breast. She could not, oh, Roddy watched Arlie jealously. Of
she could not what did slie muse with that far look of
Roddy half turned on his knees, ami hers? Still, he could not help seeing
laid his cheek against their clasped hands. that it was an absolutel\- happy look. He
Never had Arlie had any mere thing, glanced down at the cottage just because
any trifle which she could crumple up in she did. There had not been one jarring
her hand, more wholly hers ttian Roddy note. Even Marv. though she could be
was hers at that moment. hard-hearted, was not liard-hearted t-nough
884 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
to ask Roddy any more of her remarkable Chard had remained standing. He was
questions even Kathy, however she might
; waving his
excited and talked exultantly,
wish Arlie had chosen her ancestors with paper about. Roddy, with a quick,
greater discretion, had never said a word troubled glance Wilsy's way, joined him
Arlie might not have heard with pleasure. and drew him aside. Geoff, with a hasty
And Mary had said to Kathy, apropos of word to Mary, ran after.
the whole affair: Arlie stood up, leaning slightly forward,
"Oh, Papa! He 's perfectly silly about to look after the slowly walking, gestur-
Roddy." ing boys, then wnth swift movements, melt-
It was an over-statement, but valuable ing magically the one into the other, was
as an indication of Ivor's attitude. with them on the creek bank, her bright
"Father must have gone down after the head shining, her white dress blowing
mail," said Arlie, breaking the silence, about her in the morning w-ind, her hand
idly. out to Chard's arm, her face turned to
She had scarcely spoken when they saw- Roddy.
old Campbell and Chard coming out of Mary's eyes were fixed on Geoff. Her
the wood path. Old Campbell's small, head was proudly erect. She had her in-

pointed red beard shook like a little wind- herited pose. Already she dramatized her-
blown tongue of flame. Chard ran ahead, self giving up her lover to her country.

and flung up a newspaper as he ran. Its She turned to Wilsy.


black head-lines, larger than usual, blazed "They '11 all go," she said.
in their faces. But Wilsy Lieber, whose grandfather
"It 's come," cried Chard. had been a charcoal-burner in the Black
"At last, thank God!" said old Camp- Forest, was very pale. Though she could
bell, harshly, a fanatical light in his red- not know that old Campbell, as he passed
brown eyes. He strode past them into the through the kitchen, had muttered to his

kitchen. They heard him speaking to his wife: "Send the German girl packing,"
wife there, and a moment later saw him she was saying to herself: "I must go
going down to his store, where several home. I must go at once."

horses were already tied. She rose, meaning to begin getting to-
Roddy's hand had been covering Arlie's gether her things; but, after a wistful
on the step below her. The two
as he sat glance toward the group of young people,
hands made a singular and simultaneous went instead, very slowly, to join them.
gesture of releasement, as if Roddy and They stopped talking as she came up.
Arlie so indicated, almost unconsciously, It was as if they were together and
to each other that all that would have to Wilsy was apart.
wait ; there were other things to do now. She looked from one to the other, from
The conflagration, begun so far away Arlie to Chard, from Chard to Geoff,
that none beyond its scope could adequately from Geoff to Roddy. She smiled trem-
realize had got to them at last. Month
it, ulously Roddy. There was a slight
at
by month it had crept. Now it had licked quiver at the corner of her mouth.
across an ocean dark with disaster. Their "Oh, but it 's going to be damnable!"
world had caught. thought Roddy somewhere deep down in
What to do to fight fire? Mountain- his consciousness.

dwellers know, prairie-dwellers know. With an almost unbearable pang of


You get together, you cut it off, you comprehension he put out a quick hand
start back fires; but, above all, you get and drew her into their group.
together. "And Wilsy," said Roddy.
A New Liberal Party
By HAROLD KELLOCK
Author of "Warburg, the Revolutionist," etc.

BY the time this article


lookin^j toward the
is printed, plans
entrance of a
forces of
all
war and want seem
the nations of luirope into a condition
to be lashing

new liberal party into the political arena of political unrest without jiarallel in

will probably be well under way. A con- modern histor\.


ference on the formation of such a party, The horrors lurking behind autocracy
attended by representatives of the Pro- and imperialism have been thrown on tin-
jjressive party, the Prohibition party, and screen for all to see. It has been proved
other liberal or radical groups, was held that the seeming strbility of the old civili-
in the East during the summer. A more zation was nothing but a sham, a stage-
formal gathering at Chicago has been ar- setting which a chance push could topple
ranged for the autumn. Proponents of over, leaving a chaos of hatred and blood-
the plan are hoping to effect a working shed and ruins. ^Vhe debacle is so wide-
consolidation of the Progressives, the Pro- spread that analytical persons fiml it im-
hibitionists, the powerful Farmers' Non- possible to place the hhime wIkjIIv on anv
Partizan League of the West, the Na- one ruler or any one autocracy. The
tional Woman's party, the single-taxers, whole international background is ques-
the seceding element from the Socialist tioned. There is a general feelinir that
party, and other groups, and to attract the only insurance against a repetition of
great numbers of progressive Republicans such a disaster as the war is an increase
and Democrats. Such a political amal- of democracy.
gamation would have to be treated with We have seen Russia leap dizzily from
respect. The leaders are working with complete absolutism to democ- a state of
an eye on the congressional campaign of racy that to the founders of the American
next year, but more particularly on the Republic would have seemed compounded
Presidential race of 1920. of night and chaos and the dreams of
Quietly during the last few months a madmen. Whatever may happen in Rus-
canvas has been made of voters of many sia, the revolution has given a tremendous

degrees of progressivism or conservatism advertisement to democratic ideals. Talk


throughout the country to determine how of democracy has been heard in the Reichs-
the idea of the new party would, in the tag, in the corridors of the Quirinal, and
theatrical vernacular, "get across." Hie from the lips of Mr. Balfour.
responses showed general interest and en- Radical analysts insist that a general
tiiusiasm. social revolution is the only cure for a
diseased world. Whether by such a vio-
THE WAR AXD POLITICAL L XREST
lent overturn or by a more orderl\ evolu-
For the last decade evidences of a decided tionary progress, a thoroughgoing de-
change in political thought have been mul- mocracy- to end war is growing de-
the
tiplying throughout the United States. mand in the minds of mankind. Men do
I'he war seems to have accelerated the not any longer wish to kill one another.
velocity of this Already it has
change. They will not tolerate being forced into
brouglit about a great economic and so- wholesale slaughter by the secret and sin-

cial reorganization in Europe, and at the ister material ambitions and jealousies of
present stage of the conflict the twin a visible or invisible ruling class.

S!!5
886 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
The United States has not yet been back on the old full-dinner-pail argu-
caught, strictly speaking, in the midst of ments of twenty years ago. Probably in
the European turmoil, but the thrill of the the next campaign the party wnll offer to
new driving power and the tremor of its solve all our problems by a general in-
unrest have reached our land. The war crease in the tariff rates. The Old Guard
has made us thoughtful in a political sense is still in control, members consider-
its

and self-critical. We have been examin- ably older and, if anything, more guarded.
ing our own democracy, and wondering Apparently they neither die nor surrender.
if, after all, it is the real thing. There is After the Civil War, by treating the
even a suspicion that few of our politi- Southern States like colonies captured for
cal leaders know the real thing if they see the benefit of Northern profiteers, the Re-
it, or have the least conception of demo- publican party created the Democratic
cratic evolution. solid South, which exists to this day. Dur-
The plain truth is that the war has ing the last few years a feeling has been
scrapped old political creeds. It has spreading in the western part of the coun-
scrapped the laissez-faire policy of yester- try that the Republican party has simi-
day. It has made the immutable eco- larly been exploiting it for the benefit of
nomic law of supply and demand one with outside interests. Hence the solid anti-
Nineveh and Tyre. It has ripped apart Republican West is virtually a reality
the sanctified theory of secrecy in govern- now.
mental affairs. It has roused bitter ani-
mosity against government by small se-
THE SOLID WEST — WHAT IT MEANS
lected groups of people. It has blown up The political thought of the people west
a great gale of hatred against conquest in of the Mississippi has apparently advanced
all its forms and against the rule by force far beyond the vision of the Republican
of one people against their will by and for party, and the result has been a startling
another. political transformation which is of the
greatest significance. One third of the
POLITICAL ASTIGMATISM
American electorate lies in this occidental
For the most part, our political leaders of half of the United States. In 1908, de-
both the old parties seem to have failed spite Mr. Bryan's heroic Western cam-
to realize that anything extraordinary has paign among his own people, Mr. Taft
happened in the domain of political ideas. emerged from the fight in this region with
The Democratic party has labored along two hundred thousand plurality. In 19 16,
behind President Wilson, grappling heav- Mr. Wilson had nearly half a million
ily, with obvious reluctance, at its colossal plurality.
problems of mobilization. In less than There are twenty-two States west of
four years the inevitable course of events the Mississippi (including the "solid
will eliminate Mr. Wilson from the lead- South" States of Texas, Louisiana, and
ership, and there is nothing to indicate Arkansas), with an electoral vote of 173.
that the party will not then slip quietly In 1916, Mr. Hughes carried four of
back into the groove which he found it,
in these,with 35 electoral votes, squeezing
starting anew its old campaign of trust- through in Minnesota with less than 4«^
busting and the decentralization of eco- plurality. In 1908, Mr. Taft carried
nomic and political power. thirteen States, which have under the
As for the Republican party, there is present apportionment 103 electoral votes.
nothing to indicate that it has gained any For pVactical purposes the relative politi-
constructive ideas in the last three years cal strength of the Republican party in
or, indeed, in the last thirty years. In its this territory in a national election has
disastrous Presidential campaign of, 191 shrunk two thirds in eight years. The
there was little to indicate that it had party has lost ground in every State.
even heard of the war. In the end it fell The national leaders of the Republican
A NFAV IJBF.RAL PAiriA' 887

party have appeared totally unable to In the Fast as well as in the West there
j^rasp the si[2;nificance of the progressive has been a steady, if not so striking, gain
movement in California and the extraor- in liberal thought. A combination of Pro-
dinary political nonconformist movement gressives, union-laboritcs, and liberal ele-

that has swept over the farming popula- ments from the two older parties recently
tions of the Northwest. But in the change captured a majority of delegates to the

the West has not turned hopefully to the Massachusetts State Constitutional Con-
Democratic party. The political thought \ention. In certain districts in the South,
of the coast States and the States of the notably in Louisiana, political leaders are
Northwest has as little in common with ()penl\ preaching the fallacy of voting solely
the ultraconservative Democratic- leaders on a prejudice over half a centur\- old.
of the South as it has with the reaction- They are receiving a thoughtful hearing.
ary Republican leaders of the East. Perhaps the Progressive party was more
California, for instance, accorded Wil- or less foully done to death, but in an\-

son less than 4000 plurality, but it gave event demise was seemingly- inevitable,
its

Hiram Johnson, Progressive candidate for because it really had little economic excuse
governor, 100,000 more votes than his for being. It was founded primarih' on

Democratic and Republican opponents sentiment and a hero, both in the long run
combined. North Dakota gave Mr. Wil- elusive political assets. But when the sec-

son S=i,ooo and Mr. Hughes 53,000 votes. ond call to battle came the hero listened in
The Farmers' Non-Partizan League had the privacy of his study to astute pacifist
captured the Republican state primaries, advisers, who ad\-ocated compromising
and candidate for governor polled 88,-
its with his old friends the enemy. In this
000 vf)tes to 20,000 for the Dem.ocrat. contingency the organizers were left witli

In Democratic Louisiana the Republicans their memories; and that is, in effect, the

could muster only 6000 votes, but 50,000 position of the Progressive party to-day.
persons went to the polls for the guber- The party attracted 4,119,500 voters in

natorial candidate of the Progressive igi2, twenty-seven per cent, of the total
party. Washington gave Mr. Wilson 17,- in the country. Let us assimie that in this

000 plurality and the Progressive-Repub- number there were a million incorrigible
lican Poindexter for senator 67,000. Kan- worshipers of Roosevelt, who will vote
sas gave Mr. Wilson 37,000 plurality and with religious fervor in 1920 for a plat-

the liberal Republican Capper for gov- form of hero, and, let us sa\ , the full din-
ernor 162,000. ner-pail. The others ought to go into the
West has become essen-
In short the new party. The Progressive part\ or-
tially and progressive.
liberal It has a ganization, which is now reall\ progres-
fondness for political experiment which sive, will leatl tlie way.
sometimes dismays the Eastern brethren.
xi-v> l^\R^^ i'ossikii.itiks
It has for the most part enfranchised its

women; it led in the fight for popular These men will form a splendid nucleus
election of senators; it devised the direct for a newpart\. 'Fhe Prohibitionists should
primary; it put into practice the initiative, accompany them in fact, the two parties
;

referendum, and recall. Through all are virtually merged already. The Farm-
these things the West has been grasping at ers' Non-Partizan League, that lusty po-

a greater measure of democracy. litical youngster born in the Northwest,

The West welcomed warmly the appear- would naturally gravitate toward a new
ance of the Progressive party.1 he party party with a strong agrarian and public-
seemed to promise much yet the West ;
ownership program. The unorthodox So-
was always a bit suspicious of it. '1 he cialists, who because of the rigidit\ of its

virtual dissolution of the part\ ar the Chi- political tenets or because of its strong
cago convention of 1916 confirmed these oppositif)n to the war have found them-
suspicions. selves tlrifting away from the Socialist
THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
party, should find a comfortable harbor in in the minds of two men, A. C. Townley

the new organization. It should measure and F. B. Wood. They borrowed money
up better than the old parties to the ideals to purchase a motor-car and set out on a
of those political unitarians, the single- tour of organization. To every farmer
taxers, who, continually beaten and ig- that they visited they spoke of the forma-
nored, are never discouraged, and continue tion of a league, and outlined a political
to hold fast through the years to their program embracing state ownership of
faith in a tax on idle land. Non-partizan flour-mills, grain-elevators, terminal mar-
liberals of many sorts, the great army of keting facilities of all kinds, cold-storage
mugwumpery, ought view the new to and packing-plants, as well as rural-credit
party as a friendly vehicle. Ardent suf- banks operated at cost, and exemption
fragists should welcome it. from taxation of all improvements on
If the new party is to be a success, it farm lands. If a farmer was interested
must draw its ideas and its leadership in the idea, he was asked to pay nine dol-
largely from the West, for a really liberal lars. Every one of the first hundred farm-

party can no longer be controlled almost ers visited put up his nine dollars, and
wholly by a small group of men from the then Messrs. Townley and Wood pro-
Atlantic coast. The West is essentially cured three more motor-cars and addi-
the forward-looking region of the country. tional organizers. Pretty soon a hundred
It has no fixed traditions of conservatism. little cars were carrying propaganda to all

To it would seem to belong the political parts of the State, and the league idea was
future. It is time that a President of the spreading to adjoining States.
United States was chosen from beyond the In a few months league candidates cap-
Mississippi. tured the Republican state primaries, and
One of the best arguments of the need at the next election it placed its officers
for a new liberal party is the significant in the state capitol and obtained a ma-
upgrowth of the Farmers' Non-Partizan jority in the assembly.
League, one of the most remarkable phe- Until recently the league has empha-
nomena of American politics. Because of sized its non-partizan character ; it showed
its absorption in the war, the eastern part no desire to enter the national political
of the country has paid comparatively lit- field. Now the league had far outgrown
tle attention to the league. Its rise has its original state organization. It had ex-
been swift and sudden, but it is the result tended its membership eastward into Ohio
or a long period of political unrest. and as far west as the Pacific coast. De-
mands were made for a solid bloc of farm-
THE FARMER WOULD A-VOTING GO ers' representatives in Congress to aid the
The league was born in North Dakota league in accomplishing its purposes. Last
three years ago. In that State the farmers spring it was stated to be the intention of
borrow $100,000,000 a year, on which the league to put up candidates for Con-
they have been paying an average interest gress in fifteen States at the next election
rate of 8.7 per cent., about twice the rate in 1918. In July the league definitely
paid under the rural-credit systems in Eu- entered the national political field by put-
ropean countries. According to their esti- ting up a straight league candidate in a
mate, they have been losing $55,000,000 congressional election to fill a vacanc>'
every year through unfair grading rules from North Dakota. The league man
for grain. The grading regulations arc won by a vote nearly equal to that of his
made in Minneapolis and Chicago. For Democratic and Republican opponents to-

a long time the farmers have felt that they gether.


have been deprived unfairly of a large It will be noted that, unlike former
share of legitimate prosperity. They were political movements that have arisen
growing ripe for direct political action. ;unong the Western farmers, the league's
The idea of the leaeue was conceived lirogram is based on definite and logical
A NKW LIHKRAI. PART^' 889
economic changes meet certain condi-
to world. If the United States is to hold
tions that bear unfairly upon the farm- its position in the economic struggle, it
ing population. Time-lionored wildcat will have to revolutionize its industrial
schemes to solve all the farmers' problems life, as Europe has done under the stress
by inflating the currency are happily miss- of the big conflict.
ing from the schedule. Their absence in- A platform embodying such reorganiza-
dicates that the West has attained to po- tion would have seemed almost appallingly
litical maturity. Its people are studying radical ten years ago. It seems less radi-
their affairs carefully, and seeking to bet- cal now, and it will seem far less radical
ter conditions through the application of as we are subjected more and more to the
sound economic ideas. economic pressure of the war.
If the league enters the new party, it

will bring sectional solidarity backed by


THK NEW PARTY PROGRAM
money. In North Dakota alone the farm- The new party will call for a progressive
ers annually pay into its treasury over program of public ownership of public
$500,000. In addition to the league, utilities, to be extended to include rail-
there is which still
the Progressive party, roads, telegraph and telephone lines, and
retains an organization of some sort in coal-mines. It will demand immediately
most of the States. It will reclaim much such control of transportation and mar-
of its old membership as soon as it reap- keting for food products as will protect
pears in the national political field. The both producer and consumer, a plan that
organized strength of the Prohibition will eliminate the predatory middleman.
party is far greater than is indicated by It will come out for a federal incorpora-
the 200,000 or 250,000 votes it normally tion law for corporations engaged in in-
casts in a Presidential campaign. The terstate business, thus freeing big business
party leaders have always displayed great from the waste and confusion of trying
ability to keep the war-chest well filled. governmental masters,
to serve fortN-eight
The Prohibition forces would bring to and protecting the consumer by a system
the new party a spirit of fine evangelistic of federal regulation.
zeal. Great driving power also is con- It will stand for the removal of the
tained in the National Woman's party, fundamental monopoly in land by the
and in the scattered ranks of the single- taxation of rental values.
taxers and among radicals and liberals It will insist on the most complete pro-
generally. The younger generation of tection of labor in industries, and will
writers and publicists is decidedly of a lib- pledge movements for the
support for
eral or radical trend. They mobilized betterment of working conditions and to
for the Progressive party in igi2, and did raise the status of labor in government
much valuable service. Without doubt and industry.
they would flock to the aid of the new It will call for the prohibition of the
party in even greater numbers. manufacture and sale of intoxicants.
The program of the new party, ac- It will stand unequivocally for equal
cording to plans worked out in prelimi- suffrage for both sexes in all elections
nary conferences, will be based emphati- through an amendment to the Federal
cally on the present stage of social indus- Constitution.
trial and political evolution, and will have It will favor the adoption by the States
an eye on the future. It will take into of the principle of proportional representa-
account the fact that the end of the war tion, that minorities may be adequately
will find the nations of Europe with a represented in the state legislatures. This
high degree of industrial coordination, plan gives legislative representation to

each organized on a national


for trade every party in proportion to the number
scale, and stimulated to press forward as of votes it casts. It is in operation in Swe-
an economic unit in the markets of the den, Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland. Wiir-
890 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
temberg, Denmark, several British colo- civilization to dark places, but at best that
nies, and half the Swiss cantons. is a doubtful claim. Certainly the wars
In its foreign policy the new party will that arise from a clash of imperialistic am-
be pledged to further the cause of demo- bitions spread dark places over civiliza-
cratic internationalism, and as a first step tion. What seems to be needed is a sort
it will demand the complete democratiza- of Gary system for the backward peoples,
tion of our own state department, includ- to develop their energies '
constructively
ing the abolition of all secret treaties, and along natural lines and give the slack and
the full discussion of all treaties by the wayward a chance to make something of
Senate in open session, all state-depart- themselves. To this end it will be neces-
ment documents and correspondence re- sary to eliminate national and private
lating to such treaties to be furnished to greed from the treatment of such races, a
the senators, as representatives of the peo- difficult task.
ple, on demand. This is a policy to which Undoubtedly the new party, which will
liberals are turning in virtually every some of the best interna-
attract to itself
country in Europe in which liberal thought tional minds in the country, will develop
dares to be articulate. It is based on the the plan for a league of nations to pro-
increasing realization that secret treaties mote international comity. American in-
and secret diplomacy are among the pri- fluence in such a league can do much to-
mary causes of wars. ward internationalizing imperialism and
With imperialism, the father of secret raising the status of subject peoples gen-
diplomacy and wars, the new party faces erally. A frank airing of the whole im-
a nuich more complicated problem. So- perialistic problem may show that the eter-
ciety orhuman nature is so organized that nal squabble for colonies is not worth
the powerful nations can be persuaded while, and it, is more lucrative in the long
only with the greatest difficulty to further run build school-houses in the dark
to
the simplest measures for raising the eco- places under international control than
nomic status of the mass of their popula- merely to send soldiers with machine-guns,
tions, but they will embark lightly upon followed by get-rich-quick profiteers.
the most destructive and expensive wars In the foreign as well as the domestic
to determine which of them shall rob and field the new party will be building for
exploit few thousand remote persons.
a the future. If it is sufficiently broad and
It is becoming increasingly apparent that, courageous to measure up to its opportu-
with its constant incentive to wars, as far nities, the voters beyond the Mississippi
as most of the people of civilization are should flock to it in great numbers. It
concerned imperialism does not pay. may even carry most of the Western
It is easy for a political party to de- States from the start. In the middle West
clare against imperialism ; but it is not the new party will appeal to the growing
much more effective than declaring against progressive sentiment, particularly in Wis-
rain. There remain always backwardthe consin and Ohio. Through the East it

races and the lure of ivory and lands and will profit by the profound political un-
gold. Shooting jungle folk with dum- rest that has sprung up and flourished \ir-
dum bullets will always appeal to a ro- tiiall}' without newspaper support and
mantic element in every civilized popula- without organization or leadersliip. In
tion, and appropriating the lands of the some places in the South it may even break
survivors and making the poor creatures the political spell under which that region
slave for indecent wages will always ap- has been slumbering for the last half-cen-
peal to a realistic element in the best tury and more.
Ciiristian countries. A new liber: 1 ixirtv will Iia\e great ims-
The imperialists argue that the\ bring sihllities.
Autumn
By JKAN STARR UN lERMKVKR

HOW
And how
meiiioiy cuts away the years,
clean the picture comes,
Of autumn days, brisk and busy.
Charged with keen sunshine,
And you, stirred with activit\
The spirit of these energetic da\s!

There was our back yard.


So plain, and stripped of green,
With even the weeds carefully pulled away
From the crooked, red bricks tJiat made the walk,
And the earth on either side so black.

Autumn and dead leaves burning in the sharp air,


And winter comforts coming in like a pageant.
I shall not forget them:

Great jars laden with the raw green of pickles.


Standing in a solemn row across the back of the porch.
Exhaling the pungent dill.
And in the very center of the yard,
You, tending the great catsup kettle of gleaming copper,
W^here fat, red tomatoes bobbed up and down
Like jolly monks in a drunken dance.
And there were bland banks of cabbages that came by the wagon-load,
Soon to be cut into delicate ribbons.
Only to be crushed by the heavy, wooden stompers.
Such delicate whiteness, to come to kraut!
And after, there were grapes that hid their brightness under a gray dust,
Then gushed thrilling, purple blood over the fire.
And enameled crab-apples that tricked with their fragrance.
But were bitter to taste.
And there were spicy plums and ill-shaped quinces.
And long string-beans floating in pans of clear water
Like slim, green fishes.

And there was fish itself,

Salted, silver herring from the city.

And you moved among these mysteries.


Absorbed and smiling and sure.
Stirring, tasting, measuring.
With the precision of a ritual.
I you in your years of power,
like to think of
You, now so shaken and so powerless,
High priestess of ^our home.
Coup de Grace
By ELEAxNOR FERRIS
Illustrations by Arthur Litle

CHIVALRY did not go out with mail behest out of the cloistral seclusion In
armor, nor knightly deeds with which she had immured herself on the
Lancelot. Nay, rather did chivalry in- death of Harry Loveland. She needed
carnate cross thecommon from the col- legal advice, friendly and disinterested so, ;

lege buildings toward the town some- ; she had been pleased to add, of course she
what disguised in conventional garb, for turned to //////. His face seemed set on
it was Sunday, with umbrella meticulously deeds of high emprise.
rolled, for it might rain — armed cap-a-pie He quickened his andlong strides,
against rules and weather, chivalry squared the slightwhich his
stoop to
stalked personified in the tall, lank form shoulders had accustomed themselves from
of Professor Ewing. too much study, keeping his mother com-
Not posing as a squire of dames, never pany, —
and too little out of doors, which
having succored feminine distress except would have inevitably left her alone. Now
in the prosaic eking out of his slender that his mother's absence at a sanatorium
salary to cover the few luxuries permitted left him free, it was rather pleasant to
in his invalid mother's diet, he had felt a respond to the claim of an old friendship.
moment's surprise that Grace Loveland, Very likely he could help Grace without
with a note of proud appeal, had sought reference to Payne. He had never had
his counsel. She had implored his legal Harry Loveland's physique or his busi-
advice, and he, sensing his own limitations, ness facility. Harry's field had been foot-
was armed with an unused volume, Payne's ball, while his was tennis; but in diffi-

"Legal Adviser," which had come down culties Grace always used to turn to him,
from an uncle, with other commentaries especially trustful where Harry had
taking up begrudged space on his shelves, failed her.
yet, in his mother's opinion, too good to As he turned the corner of the old
throw away. At last he hoped it might parsonage wall, he vividly recalled the de-
earn its keep. mure little girl Grace— she was nine years
He strode under the dripping maples, and small for her age— sitting uncertainly-
golden in the September dusk, spearing on the top of this same brick wall, her
the soggy fallen leaves with his umbrella legs dangling, plump and pink from the
with unwonted exuberance. He had a encircling rows of "Hamburg edging" to
passing wish that they were dry, so as to the tops of her white-ribbed socks, which
shuffle through a pile of them to hear them ended in square-toed, spring-heeled slip-
scrunch. He
had not done that for years, pers. Harry Loveland had put her up
not since Grace Whiting besought him not there.
to make her dusty from the leaves so care- "She said 1 dassent," he had boasted to
lessly stirred. Sani Ewing; "and 1 did just as easy I"
Hehad yielded to the wish, prettily ex- Then the fire-whistle sounded, and Harry
pressed with pleading, dewy eyes. Her shot across lots, leaving Grace, unwilling
wish had always been his law in the old wallflower, wailing piteously to be lifted
days. -Perhaps that was why, in this first down. Of course Sam stayed to con-
year of her widowiiood, she had issued her tri\e a descent, offering his own back as
S92
COUP m: (iRACK 893
her footstool. She demurred, quavering "\()u ha\e alwavs done this," she
her doubts: Sam looked thin and sort of greeted him, impulsively for her; "you
shaky. He might let her fall. Harry have always helped me out — or down.
was so much bigger, she repined. Remember the time on the wall?" Her
But Sam, while he heard the fire-engine blue were soft with reminiscent
eyes
tantalizingly ringing in the distance, reverie. "But first we will have tea." The
patiently reassured her. He was stronger maid with the tea-tray had come in
than he looked ; only try him. She silentlv. Other people might have trouble
stretched a tentative toe farther from the with servants; Mrs. Loveland's were in-
Hamburg edging; drew it up again. By variably well trained, Sam had heard, and
the time she was at last coaxed to earth believed it as the heavy silver tray was
and conducted home the hook and ladder noiselessly deposited and the servitor with-
had been hauled back from the fire, Harry drew.
boasting he had helped tow it both ways. "Is it still straight tea; 'just strong
They grew and while Sam was sup-
up, enough to see the bottom of the cup'?"
porting his mother and specializing in she remembered prettil\-. It was like her

biology, Harry married Grace. She had to know, though she had not poured tea
loved him, she declared, from the day he for him in five years. Her small, sinuous
forgot her on the wall, where she might hands moved surely and quietly among
be yet if it had n't been for Sam Ewing. the old china cups and complete silver
Sam had been best man without rancor service. "Yes, nice old colonial sugar-
an instructor in biology with an invalid bowl, is n't tt? My great-grandmother's.
mother could not afford to marry. But Her English muffins too. The Loveland
he had not seen much of the Lovelands, things all seem to date from only the mid-
and Grace no longer let Harry forget her, Victorian. Harry's father was, you know,
or turned Sam while Harry lived.
to a successful merchant ; but Harry and
Meanwhile Ewing had attained full pro- Bridget got their names and some of their
fessorship,and received a small legacy ways from Irish forebears who spent as
from the uncle who bequeathed the "Legal they went." Her smile excused Harry's
Adviser." By dint of scrupulous saving spendthriftness even as she acknowledged
he had several thousands in bonds against it regretfully. "That is why I had to send

a rainier day than they had yet seen. for you, Sam. I need your advice. I 'm
Now Grace had appealed to one who at not a bit well off^; poorer than I suspected,

least always understood her or was he ;


now that the property is settled. Bridget
had so perfectly
so sure of this because she has her share, of course, and Harry — well,
read him? He pondered this new thought Harry never saved." Her smile, a little

as he stood on the top step of the Love- tremulous, seemed again to exculpate her
land house till the door was opened by a husband's memory. Ewing hastened to

neat maid and he went in. add his exoneration to hers:


The room was hopelessly mid-Victorian, "Saving is uninteresting," he said.
high-ceilinged, marble-fireplaced, though "Harry was never that."
one almost forgot it in the enticement of "You are alwavs so undfrstanduu/.
low tables, inviting chairs, and books scat- Sai Her voice thanked him. No one
tered near jars of garden flowers. One else could make his stupid name tolerable

quite forgot it as the mistress entered, he had a recurrent wish to hear her say it
gracious and appealing, never so appeal- again whenever she used it. He had so
ing as now in her soft, blonde widowhood. seldom seen her during the ten years since
Her hand was held out with a welcoming her marriage that he had almost feared
look which made it seem as if she had lest, with her dainty formality and re-

offered both hands, though so much dem- serve, she might relegate him to being

onstration would not have been like her "Professor Ewing." He was glad she

delicate reserve. had not. glad to be there looking at her


894 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
fair hair, her clinging black gown, and I cannot talk things over with her very
through the window behind her, glimps- well ; we do not agree in business matters,
ing the quaint back garden with dahlias I find. Biddy is headstrong and — well,
holding up brilliant red petals in the late different from me."
"Quite," Ewing ejaculated ; but Grace
went on serenely
"I shall cut down expenses, of course,
though we never lived at all ex-
travagantly. Harry had to have
good horses some men do." She
;

again condoned the weakness in


mentioning it. Ewing nodded
sympathetically. "Bridget may
decide to take the pair for her
pig farm —"
"Her pig what?"
"Yes, is n't it like her? To
stop at nothing, I mean. \'ou
see, this house is mine, thougii
of course she lives here. The
old Loveland farm is hers. Af-
ter college she took an agricul-
tural course; learned enough
about farming not to go into it,

she says. I hoped then she would


be ready to try teaching or marry
— or something ladylike. I know
the word is obsolete ; but you
understand how I feel about it."

"Oh, yes," he assured her,

positi\el\ , eagerly. "How could


dusk. It was you not feel so?"
restful, satis- "She is raising pigs,

fying. scientifically sterilized


"Before pigs, wonderful pigs, she
Bridget comes in
— assures me. I have not
sumed" Grace. visited them."
"Ah, must she?' "
Tigs is pigs,' " as-
deplored. He hardly serted Ewing, flatl\'.

knew Loveland's \oung "\o\\ are very tender in

sisterand was quite con- your excuses for her;


tent not to, an obvious, but I abominate that
modern, up-and-coming, type of woman, self-suf-
restless lass, he judged, ficient, strident, sexless
forever on the go, and ..j,, vimdiv ki xa creatures with no (judl-

quite out of the picture i.nii.i: <.iki. (w^/ ity."


which he had been con- '

^Vn'is s'n' r i
".M\ dear Sam,"
tentedly contemplating. (irace broke in sootli-
"Must siie come in?" he now repeated. ingly reproving, "don't be hard on her.
"She always does on Sunday, with the \Ve are old-fashioned, you and 1."

dogs. 1 don't like to disappoint them." "Thank God !" His fervor, he felt, did
Grace's tone asked his leniency, too. "But not harm him in her eyes, tiioiigh she
COUP DK GRACE 895
looked her gentle reproach. "But what "Of course you would ha\e to sell," he
can I do for you, since we are bound to be said.
interrupted?" he asked, with a new feel- "Why?"
ing of self-confidence. He had left the "Oh. yoi/ could n't li\i' f)n a trolU-)-
"Legal Adviser" in the hall, and was glad. track. It would be too incongruous."
"I want your advice, a man's sane busi- "No; I really could n't livr here then,"
ness advice and help." she conceded quietly.
"I am not a lawyer or a business man," "But we must hope for the best," he
he reminded her. comforted her.
"You are you; you have always helped "What best?" she queried imexpectedl\
me." Her simplicity and reliance quick- "I'hat the trolley ma> not rout you
fiied his pulse. "Do you think you could out," he explained, and she smiled; then
Sam?"
place a mortgage for me, she suggested tentatively hanging on his
"Why, surely." He had never placed opinion
one. Where did one "place" it? he won- "Butthe mortgage. Could you get
dered; but of course he could, it must fifteenthousand dollars on the house, do
be quite simple. "A mortgage on— er — you think? It was assessed at twent\', two
some of your property?" years ago, and I believe Harry refused
"On this house." thirty-five for it once."
"Oh, must you?" he protested, think- Ewing had exactly fifteen thousand in

ing how she must shrink from it, this gilt-edged bonds, his savings and his uncle's
house to which she had come as a bride legacy. It seemed like a vast sum to raise
from the shabby old parsonage behind the on one mortgage, but it probably was not.
brick wall. The Loveland house had been "Leave it to me. I '11 see to it," he
the big house of the neighborhood when said as easily as if such little business trans-
they were children, though lately the new- actions were daily afifairs for him ; only so
residences had all gone out beyond the could he convince her that she was not
common. asking too much, rather doing him a favor
"Is the other he urged. in depending on him. "Leave it to me.
wishing to spare her, yet with nothing to I will bring you the — papers." He seized
go by in his knowledge of her affairs. that term at a venture; all business deal-
"I have decided to do it." Her tones ings had papers, he supposed.
were so even, betrayingno hint of falter- There was a sound of racing feet up
ing or of self-pity, that his heart applauded the front steps, and the front door burst
her courage. "Bridget does not approve. open, followed by a girl's laugh and a
She says rent or sell. I do not wish to do volley of yaps.
either." She hesitated, her blue eyes look- "The trio!" Grace interpreted the
ing off thoughtfully. sounds, and rang for mufHns. "You do
"No; naturally not," he concurred. not know whata load you have lifted from
"She says, were hers, she would
if it my unwise woman's mind, nor what it
rent rather than carry a mortgage but the ; means to have a man to fend for me—"
rent would not be enough to to meet my— But the trio, on one another's heels,
present requirements." Ewing wondered breezy girl and excited Airedales, were
in passing if Loveland had left debts but ; coming in as Grace spoke, and the girl's
that could not be asked, and she would be prompt protest dela\ed for no greetings:
too loyal to say so, game little woman "A man to fend for her, is it? The
"As to selling, I am not ready to do thaf. graceless Grace, when I 'm here! Am I

Bridget does n't understand." not more to vou than ten brothers, mv
"No. How could she?" His tone con- pretty . ?'
The dark head bent tempestu-
demned Bridget unheard. ously down to the blonde one, and Grace
"There is rumor that the trolley may was saucily kissed on the tip of her straight
come down this avenue. In that e\ent — nose.
896 THE CENTURY IVIAGAZINE
"There, Biddy, when you 've not spoken lid n't. I mean, she added hastily,

to Professor Ewing!" remonstrated Grace, you e not


re iit. are you
very nt, —a bit soft?

patiently passive beneath the caress. You professors and clever bookworms, like

He stood watching the girl who "did her Grace here, burn the midnight and
not She would n't, of
understand." don't exercise. "^
ou don't hate chairs as

course. Like a corrected child, she gave the pups and I do. Come over to tlie

him her hand in a warm, strong, almost courts some day, and I '11 beat } ou at

boyish grip, and as quickly snatched it tennis," she said, and looked so able to

from his undetaining fingers to seize the do it that Ewing was nettled, and unex-
collar of an Airedale in an upward leap pectedly, even to himself, accepted the

for the plate of incoming muffins. The challenge as casually as it was given.

dog-whip in Bridget's other hand fell "Very well. I am a bit soft, and shall

keenly on the dog once. have to borrow a racket. But when will

"Down, Disgrace!" she ordered. you plaster the court with my gelatinous
"Not here, Biddy!" Grace protested. protoplasm ?"
"I cannot bear to see you whip
— "Oh, I can't return that volley. We
"You cannot bear to have your china '11 call it off if it 's a match in vocab-
broken either, dear," retorted Bridget. "I ularies," declared Bridget, her eyes un-
cannot teach them Sunday manners by affrighted above her third buttery mufliii.
whipping them on Monday. Go to the "But when it 's not words, but deetls,
!"
hearth-rug, pups," said Bridget, calmly, watch me
and the dogs reluctantly obeyed, "As when you reject a certain rich man
"I feared you had forgotten it was Sun- and prefer independence and raising pigs."
day," Grace murmured deprecatingly, re- Grace's tone implied imlimited forbear-

garding her sister-in-law's green sport- ance.


coat and heavy, muddy brown boots. "Riches take unto themselves wings,"
Bridget looked at herself in the long glass quoted Bridget. "Whether pigs have
opposite. wings is yet to be proved. An>way, with
"I don't look very Sabbatical," she the present price of pork, it seemed like

owned; "but pigs will be born of a Sun- Hying in the face of opportunity not to
day." try it, considering the number of cheap
"My dear!" The shocked little protest boarding-houses in the neighborhood."
wrung from Grace brought a look of mock "They do not affect us at all," said

panic to Bridget's eyes ; but she demurely Grace, with the dainty air of superiority-

took a muffin and her tea, and, refusing that Ewing liked in her. "Many old
the chair Ewing proffered, stood near the families are still here."
dogs, imsuitably offset by the austere mid- "Yes, poor old families!" assented
Victorian marble mantelpiece, which Bridget, carelessl\' : "but they sell to

seemed coldly to reject her casual disre- boarding-houses, and the property- is run-
gard of formality. ning down. There 's no blinking tliat, my
Assuredly she was not his type of dreamer."
woman, with her fractious dark hair, tiny "Some of the best business men in town
freckles on her tip-tilted nose, and those do not agree with you," asserted (irace.
steady eyes that met his on a level. Grace "Stick to your piglets, or something you
had such a beguiling way of looking up know about, m>' dear."
at one ! She did so now, as if trying to Bridget justly divided the last muHin, a
placate his criticism of Bridget. third to the bad, two thirds to tlie good

"Won't you sit down, dear?" she gently (h)g, and changed the subject without re-

suggested. "You are keeping Mr. Kwiiig sentment.


standing." "Here, Disgrace, is more than \()u (h--

"Oh, pray don't!" said Bridget, easily. ser\e for grabbing. The other is Herb
"I always do, and \()u- look as if nou (/ (jrace o' Sunday, but just His ( naic on
•I NHED YOUR ADVICE'"

Monday," she explained to Ewing. ''The^^ and forgot Bridget utterly in Grace's
are both named for the lady of the house." smile.
Her evident adoration of Grace was He placed the mortgage. That is, after
this positive young person's one redeem- offering it to two or three acquaintances
ing quality, Ewing decided as he held and finding tliem with no funds available
Grace's hand a short moment in parting, for that particular investment, almost in-
and would have perfunctoril)- touched dignantly he took it himself. He could
Bridget's. not bear that the mortgage on her home
"Butter fingers!" she warned him, dis- ^hould go begging. It was so personal a

playing hers after the muffin. matter, almost as if her portrait should
"It 's the best butter," laughed Grace, be bandied about in the market-place like
who also knew her "Alice." a common piece of propert3^

"Or p'r'aps, if we butter his paws, like His bonds were bringing five per cent.,
the cat, he '11 come back." Bridget sug- and this rate would be the same. Tlic
gested, solemnly holding out her buttery change could not affect his income for his
hand, ready to test it. mother: of course he could not do that
"He '11 that," Grace
come without even for Gi*ace.

answered her, but looked uf) at Sam, who A young Boston lawyer with whom
absently took her hand again. mortgages seemed matters of course drew
. "May I, o//^«.''".he demanded eagerly. up the papers and asked if he should
897
898 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
search title. It would cost about fifty hat, and between her Irish-gray eyes was
dollars. Ewing curtly explained that he a little worried scowl that was unbecom-
knew the "party of the first part" and no ing, making her look older than her five

search would be necessary. and twenty years.


Immediately after signing the mortgage, Grace's eyes might fill with tears, as
Grace summoned him to be "seriously just now when she had brokenly thanked
talked to," sheShe greeted him
said. him; but she never wrinkled her brow or
anxiously. Was he very sure he wanted lost her sweet serenity. Grace was won-
to take the mortgage himself? She had derful, incomparable. He gloried in hav-
not thought of that she had merely signed
; ing served her even so little.

the papers, as he bade her. Her blue eyes But Bridget was talking, her frown dis-

besought his reassurance; her hands were pelled by a little toss of the head.
clasped solicitously. Reverently he took "Grace you have lots of tennis
saj^s

the hands to his lips, surprised at his own trophies, champion cups and other
state
temerity. She withdrew them gently. relics." Ewing wondered how^ much of
"No woman ever had a truer knight," she a "relic" Bridget thought him. He was
.said, and he was exalted as one who had not quite superannuated, even if he had
received the accolade. neglected athletics for other pastimes. She
Departing, he was brought to earth by went on cheerfully "Grace says you will
:

Bridget, whom he encountered on the give me a most awful beating. When


shall we three meet on the tennis-courts to
prove her all wrong? She will referee."
"To-morrow, if you like. I know I
am not in your class," he said smoothly.
Bridget chuckled. She quoted :

"The devil did grin,


For his favorite sin

Is the pride that apes humility."

She whistled to the dogs, then said:


"Well, beat me if you can. I play like a
man, and give and ask no quarter." She
nodded debonairly and ran up the steps,
the Airedales bounding, as usual, at her
heels. "Till three to-morrow. Beware!"
she cried over her shoulder.
Such a cock-sure young person ! Sam
determined, indeed, to give her no quarter;
no silly underhand serves, no faults over-
looked, no gallant letting her have a game
or two to soften defeat. No; since she
played like a man let her take her beating
like one. He set his jaw grimly, and with
his hat pulled well down ove^r his
soft
eyes heswung down the street, mollified
only when the recollection of Grace's
stone steps— Bridget in her durable— he confidence in his victory fell like balm
hated women's clothes to look durable- on his vexed masculinity. He liked a
khaki suit and swinging a walking-stick. feminine woman.
He hated a woman to carry a stick. Her Ten years ago the state championship
hair was blown about under a soft white had been Ewing's, and with inward relish
COUP OF. (^iRACK 899

he donned tennis Hannels ami undertook to "After all, the girls u e reall\ like are
defeat the cock-sure Hridjiet I.ovehmd just the girls who are like our mothers, said '

to show her. She mif^ht win a ^ame or Kwing, his eye resting on the feminine
two till he got his hand in and acquired \ ision at the wheel. It might have been a
the trick of the borrowed racket then ;
distaff, so demurely Grace held herself, so
let her take her woman's place and keen it. unostentatiously she exerted her control.
Grace motored him to the courts, A\here "Our mothers never drove a car," she
Bridget met them, her hair tidily con- observed, steering de\terousl\ between
fined with a black velvet ribbon. Frankl\ trolley-tracks, and slipping along the

she approved his tennis togs, while the dogs boulevard leading out of town.
leaped on him, and were kept off Grace's "It is not what you do, but how," he
white suit. decided comfortably, alread\ feeling a re-

"You look as comfy as an Airedale." turn to the philosophic mind, "a bromide
she said, "and you have just their steady and unashamed."
!"
dog-look in your eyes. Has n't he. "But I am so ohl-fashioned Grace
Grace?" softly repined. "Compared with the mod-
They pla>'ed till Bridget's cheeks were ern superwoman, I 'm an uncertain, de-
aflame and her hair escaped, tousled by pendent creature. I am running away
the wind ; till her chin was smudged by a with you now to the woods just to have

dusty and her breath came fast,


ball, '

though her eyes were still confident. The


strange racket twisted in Ewing's grip, and
a blistered palm made him feel a novice.
He tried old tricks of placing, only to
find her here and there like quicksilver,
himself, lead-footed, missing her return.
Bridget won three straight sets, then
magnanimously praised his form and
blamed the racket, and Grace, cool and
palliating on her judge's bench, accused
him of gallantry in giving Biddikins the
victory.
But Ewing, resentful of such excuses,
would none of them. Miss Loveland had
put up a splendid game, he declared, and
punctiliously he stayed to shake hands, and
hope he might be beaten by her again soine
day, not quite so badly. The defeat was
not the less galling that Bridget took it so

casually.
"Get in training," she ad\ised. "Why
rust out? ou are n't old,
"^ reall\ — not
over fifty?" she hazarded.
"Not forty," he corrected stifHy, and
thought he detected a wicked gleam in her
eye, as if she had got what she wanted.
With rather a ceremonious bow, re-
turning Bridget's cheerful nod of fare- my mind made up for me. There 's a

well, he went to Grace and the car, while confession. May I hope to be shriven?"
Bridget swung off with the delighted dogs His smile reassured her if that was needed.
on the two-mile walk to the farm and "Thank you," she said as if he had spoken.

her piglets. Thev were silent till the road branched


900 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
through oak woods, with brave, blood-red depend on him ; she exquisitely implied
leavesstill clinging in the late October that he was sending her away, that his

sun, though other trees were bare. word had been the decisive one for her.
"Tell me my duty," she implored him. He let himself deliciously recall the
"Lately what Biddy calls my Riviera half-tone which she had dropped
with
cough has returned. Harry used to take "without you." She had meant only the
me abroad for it, you know. Nothing gentlest friendliness, he told himself
serious," — she hastened

to spare him a humbly, but such friendliness was heart-
moment's apprehension, "but the doctor ening enough to cheer the weeks between
always says 'the sunny South.' Yet can letters after her going. These rare letters
I, when my house is mortgaged? Of were, as Bridget put it, "worth staying
course Bridget knows nothing about that. home for."
Tell me what to do!" Her blue eyes be- "But I thought you chose to stay home
sought his counsel, hung upon it. with your pigs," Ewing said. As usual
"Of course this jear it can't be the they had encountered, to talk Grace.
Riviera." Anxiety crept into his voice as "I stayed home because some one had
he added, "Does the doctor suggest to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear,"
Florida?" retorted practical Bridget. "Though I
"Oh, it is too and uninteresting—
flat like the deadly old town, too." Her eye
not bracing enough, I mean, either took him in. "You look less flabby than
physically or mentally. I am so foolishly you were. Been gyming, it strikes me."
sensitive to my surroundings. You will A little surreptitious training had set him
despise my weaknesses." up, but he was not crowing till tennis
"No, you are so simpatica," he told her. weather, till Grace returned from drifts

"Of course 3'ou must be so, being you." of violets to referee, to applaud his re-

"So you really think I should go?" stored game, to soothe where Bridget had
Obviously she leaned on his counsel. advised and challenged.
"Southern California?— I ought not to How docilely Grace would accept his
afford it; but—" Her little cough broke mandate to remain away, to forget busi-
in, was suppressed. ness and the bare, square brick house on
"You have no right not to go. But not its windy, dusty street, threatened by a
alone?" He had a futile wish that he might clanging trolley.
take her and take care of her ; from a fair That peril seemed now less imminent,
field of California violets carry her to he wrote consolingly against the time when
rugged health. Yet to carry her mort- she must return. There was no need to

gage was the most he could do. "Shall dread the trolley. The brisk lawyer who
you take Bridget?" had made out the mortgage had told
"Oh, no Biddy has her pigs to
; rear. Ewing that the car-line would probably
Impractical loafing near to nature — that not come within five blocks, "more's the
sort of thing does not appeal to her at all. pity!"
I 'm going, since you say I must. I can "Pity?" Sam echoed him. "Why?"
go with the Vandeleers; we are congenial "It would increase the value of the
spirits. They may take my doctor along, property," the lawyer explained patiently
too." to the professor; "for business, of course."
"Then you will be well taken care of." "Ah, perhaps, for business," Sam con-
He tried to conceal his regret tliat the ceded. "But the ohi residents don't think
carewas not to be his. of that ; they think of their homes." He
"As well as I can be taken care of heard in fancy the pensive tone of Grace:
without you." Her light way of tossing "Bridget says rent or
sell. I do not wish

him the crumb made it not too much of a to do either."


concession for her delicate femininity, yet "I have sent two notices of interest
sufiiced to send him home happy. She did due." the lawyer was saying, "with no
COUP D1-: GRACE 901
result. I it take steps to collect tor that a man should not heat at his own
you." game.
"Kindl\ do nothing of the sort," Ewing "I got m\- Iiand in ;it the gym court,"
interrupted pereniptoriK . "I'he owner he told her. "\ ou put up a bully game
is away. I do not wiVli to press the for a — "
He paused teasingly as they
matter." shook hands on it.
"Oh, very well, if—" It might iia\e "Eor a (jirl! Don't \f)u dare sa\- it!"
been on the tip of his legal tongue to add, she blazed.
"/'/ you can afford it." but he refrained, "I was going to sa\ for a beginner."
only suggesting, "The mortgage is large '"i'ou!" she "Well,
panted defiantly.
to hold on depreciating property thougli , >ou are man," she conceded. "1 used
a
of course it is good to sell for that \ et." to think you were onl^- a professor."
"There is no question of sale." Ewing Onl\- a professor he had to be during
declared with finality. "The owner mort- the next three months. lOarly and late he
gaged it temporarily on that account." tutored that hot summer, for his salary
The owner, thanking him for his news, must be supplemented to meet the in-
consented to stay on at the behest of him- creased expenses of his mother's stay at
self and Biddy, she wrote; so the first the sanatorium, with the probability of
tennis vv^eather found the house still an operation in the near future. By
shuttered and barred, while Bridget, liv- August he felt harassed and desiccated.
ing at the farm, strove for the miraculous He would ha\e let his beard grow and
conversion of the sow's ear into a silken renounced all exercise but for Bridget's
purse full of ducats. merciless reminders of his former softness:
"Her Grace needs so many things!" she and defeat ; so in the cool of the evenings
would say. "And I 'm just good for the they played tennis and sometimes swapped
getting of them." She spoke always with letters from Grace, who "only wished that
a joy in the doing, and Elwing worked she might share with them the coolness of
with her, studying theories, testing them, the eternal snows."
and elated to discover that a mind trained For she had been persuaded to linger
in bacteriological research could concen- with the \"andeleers along the coast and in
trate to advantage on problems of pig the Canadian Rockies. It seemed kinder
culture. With his help in her problems not to break up the party. The doctor
Bridget seemed quite rid of the little wor- said she was being made over, and dear,
ried frown. She wore the durable khaki, independent Biddy did not need her; in
had her racket restrung, and with an air fact,was freer without a clinging vine
of preempting a victory already' hers, chal- who was always begrudging her to those
lenged him to a first-of-April game. monopolizing pigs. She was living on her
"A day as good as another to be made principal, and her legal adviser Professor
a fool of," he said cheerfully, and the Ewing might shake his head. If he said
match was on. Ewing placed his balls so, she would return.
neatly and unexpectedly. Bridget seemed Of course she must stay. They both
winged. She laughed when his balls sped wrote her so emphaticallw conferring as
back to him as swiftly, till the first long to what arguments would be most con\in-
set was won by the man then she laughed ; cing. Blithely Bridget estimated that the
no more, but hoarded her breath and sow's-ear purse would bulge with ducats
played hard. Acquaintances on the other sufficient to enable them to keep up the
courts applauded her service. The ease old house, which Grace had even thought
was now all on his side, his racket in- of mortgaging rather than selling, though
fallibly met the and after a ralh
ball, Bridget had always opposed that expedient.
scored the point. When
he had won five "Better sell and have it over, if it comes
sets his nonchalance was unaffected he ; to that. Don't you say so?" she de-
had onlv claimed his own. Incredible manded, and he e\aded miserablv. If lie
902 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
had to foreclose, how they would both "You arc looking "frightfully fit,' as

hate him Biddy warned me." She smiled a gentle


But surely it could not come to that flattery which the incongruous words with-

shewould be able to assign the mortgage. held. "It takes me back to the old days
when —
"
Her other friends would be glad to do
what he had been privileged to be the first "When I shuffled the leaves and made
?"
to offer. The Vandeleers or this doctor you dusty
who "made up the party" would jump at "Was I such a prig?" she demurred.
the chance which he must forego, the "No, but always the pink of daintiness,"
chance to serve her. Some one would take he said, defending her against herself, even
it unless she could pay it off herself and so while his mind was on the next thing.
avert foreclosure. Should he rush full tilt upon her tent of
had come to that, so far as he was
It peace or put off the tidings with an idea
concerned, by the date of her homecoming o'f "breaking it"? With Bridget one
in golden September. Again her genth would have it over, the worst at once:
summoning note had brought him to cross that would be her way. But Bridget was
the common, and though the leaves were a strong young oak standing alone. One
dry, he had no wish to shuffle them. He could not tear away the support from a
plunged through the dusk, his mind wisteria, pendent and clinging. He began
agloom with the unchivalrous part tor to wish he had written a series of letters ;

which fate had cast him. had been kinder, a process of loosening the
Rehearse it as he might, leading up to tendrils one by one.
it or stating the bald, sordid facts, nothing "The journey was tiresome from Win-
could make it more tolerable. She had nipeg east, the trippers rampant. I 've

come home to dear associations, the dread had a wonderful time, and I 'm glad to
trolley-track deflected, her spirit at peace, be home." she lightly summarized. "You
and instead of talking poetry, or their made it all possible for me by attending to
shared aversion to vers lihrc. he must say, that mortgage-placing. Just when I

"Your money or your hearth!" He needed a man most you so beautifully


mounted the severe stone steps and rang, filled the breach, and I felt so safe about
following his first ineffectual push with Biddy with you here. It gave me the peace
one firm and long, thereby pulling him- of mind to get well. I can never thank
self together. _\ou."
As on that proud occasion a year ago, "And now Iundo it all the
've got to —
when Grace had asked his help, all was little that I did !" He
had throttled the
welcoming; for Biddy had eagerly got impulse to change the subject and poke the
things in running order, though she could fire, and he gripped the arms of his chair

n't fix flowers like her Grace. She had and blurted out the words that tore him,
wisely consulted him as to the advisability his lean face looking haggardly toward the
of a furnace fire a week beforehand, and fire, to avoid the expected distress of her
had been extravagant in the matter of ncw bewildered eyes.

copper screens, because "her Grace abhors "But w^hat do you mean?" Her tone
dust, you know." was startled, yet not raised a note. "How
Again as on that occasion, Grace can >ou undo your kindness? That is
greeted him with the look that seemed to .'iccomplished, a fact."
yield both hands, with the prett\ reserve With bitter brevity he explained his

that held out only one. Her soft air of mother's crisis and his own embarrass-
appeal was ethcrealized by a dress of ment, ending with desperate hopefulness:
delicate heliotrope ; her figure against the "But surely, if not convenient to pay it
gray-green of the high-backed chair had off, you can assign it. Any of your friends
all the grace of a wisteria cluster offset would — " He broke off for her assent.
bv its leaves. It did not come, and he forced himself to
ON TOP OF IHE WALL SAT liRIDGET — BRIDGET IN HER GREEN SVORT-COAJ
904 THE CENIT' R^' MAGAZINE
look away from the fire and to her face. just foreclose. If \ou don't quite come
It was as cahii as the traditional May out even, my other property will even-
morning, as calm as her voice as she said tually' make up the difference. Of course
"You had better foreclose. At least I I shall not tr\ to evade my obligations,
should if I were you." She spoke with though one can, by technicalities, I am
complete detachment, judicially. told. However, it is not necessary, or
"But you," he began, faltering, — her Christian, / think." The modesty of her
control seemed to him magnificent, "it — tone precluded any notion of boasting.
is your home. If it were not life and "So I am too glad to relieve }'our scruples.
death for my mother
— ^ ou must foreclose quite as if you had n
"Of course I understand," she assured business man to deal with instead of a

him. "It is the only thing for you to do." mere stupid little woman who did not
"But you — " he began again broken!). know enough to place a mortgage with-
"Oh. that is quite all right," she re- out your help."
assured him almost tenderly. "You must "Nor to suppress tlie fact that it was a

not think of me. I roi/ld realize on other second mortgage!" This was wrung from
property and pay it off; but since the him as he rose, and a slight flush touched
trolley —" her cheek ; but she only said gently
"But it is nof going through," he re- "Surely you must have known. If it

minded her, sadly : it added to the tragedy was my inadvertence, I am so sorry.


of her sacrifice. Would it have made a difference?"
"No, it is not going through, so I have "Perhaps it would not have then," he —
no interest in holding the place. I told answered, and somehow got away.
you at the time Bridget could not under- At least Grace, as ever the perfect host-
stand how I felt about it. She was al- ess, he thought bitterly, had not tried to
ways so sentimental about the house, I detain him; had let him go with no hint
would not press it; but I would have sold in her manner of the slightest estrange-
out except that if the trolley came ment; had murmured greetings for his
through I knew it would add greatly to mother, and if he met Bridget, would he
the value as business property, of course. avoid the subject of the mortgage, as she
In that case I would have paid off the would probably hate him for doing his
mortgage and held out for a high price. duty? Biddy never could understand, bless
I alw ays detested the house, it is so hope- her heart!
lessly out of date and ugly, though I made He did meet Bridget as he plunged
the best of it for Harry's sake while I had along the darkest bit of the common. The
to li\'e here, and later there was no use in youngest Airedale catapulted against him.
abusing it to Bidd\ till the time came to and Bridget's voice gave lieraway; she
give it up. I raised a first mortgage of had been crying. His hand on her
eight thousand soon after Harry died. A shoulder drew her to the first lamp-post:
lonely woman needs so much, and is "AVhat up?" he said brusquely.
s

sometimes left with so \er) little business "It 's all up," answered the girl, drear-
experience. I did the best I could." Her ily ,and though she tossed her head with
even tones seemed only bent on making the old gesture, the little frown would not
iiim quite comfortable; there was, no con-; so easily "The house is mort-
be gone.
sciousness of duplicity to be condoned. He gaged to we 've got to lose it.
the hilt ;

sat doubting his ears' evidence e\eii whWv (^irace is going to marry that doctor who
lie quieth put the question: made up their party she does n't need me ;

"Then mine was a second mortgage?" an> more." In her loneliness she put out
"Yes. You see,I had a chance to bu\ a hand and clutched his sleeve a moment.
some unimproved lots beyond the com- "She does n't want me or need me."
mon. I am not ready to sell them now, "Nor me either." he said dryly, and sud-
as they are doubling in \alvie, so \ou must denl\ determined to let it "o at tliat. Wh>'
COUP UF GRACK 905
should he tell her that Grace had needed and the operator onl\ knew that "his
them both only to use them? Bridget of part\ had cut off."
the name must always cherish her
Irish If Bridget wanted him that much lie

illusions if she would be happy. Why must go. It was not her way to ask help,
should he tear away the last shred of one but always to give it and to help herself.
that was left to her ? He had a motor out, and was at the farm
She was sad now because her sacrifices, in si.\ minutes. The simple rambling
her incense, were no longer needed wh\ ; farm-house, the elaborate up-to-date pig-
should he add his own bitter knowledg •
houses, were beyond the stone walls in ;

that the shrine where they both had wor- the bare oak-grove plump pigs were root-
shiped had ne\er held a saint? ing for acorns beneath brown leaves
"There, Bridget woman, buck up!"' lie heaped against the wall, (^n top of the
said, and at the cheering vernacular a bit wall sat Bridget — Bridget in her green
of a smile quivered on the brink of her sport-coat. She must have come out to
tears, "^'ou 've only just begun being meet him. What was the matter? he
needed. If you 've done your bit for wondered again as he jumped from the
Grace, what about me? It 's up to yo\i motor and hurried up the lane.
to keep at me, Bridget, for to-night I 'm "What is it?" he demanded. She
ossifying. The man is knocked out I 'm ; looked him o\'er leisurely, then she slowly
only a professor, after all." It was true, repeated
though he had said it only because she
" 'It seems too bad,' the walrus said, 'to
needed to be needed but that his need ;

make them trot so quick!' "


could be filled by Bridget or by any one
he had not the least hope or even desire.
He felt very old and jaded and indif- "What do you ivantf"
ferent; >'et he did n't want Bridget to feel "I 'm looking for a partner!" she said
so. cheerfully.
"You 're only a mau, after all!" said "In business?" he supposed.
Bridget, with a look that seemed to see be- "Business first, pleasure afterward," she
hind the bravado of his smile. "And it 's said and laughed a little. "Really, this
bully of you." She shook hands with him pig plant is getting beyond me; I can't run
on it, and went back along the common it alone."
path. "You want me to get you a likely young
Three days later he was summoned to man, one of the college boys—"
his mother, and a week followed of "I want you." Bridget was always to
precious hours filched from the time when the point. He gasped :

he would be utterly alone. She died, "But I 'm not a business man."
and he returned to his work. "Heaven forbid!" she exclaimed; then
The world is not much of a place, but with a wry little moue: "I know all
one has one's work in it. Bridget was about that mortgage, you guileless fool!
doing hers. "Pigs are no joke," she told You splendid simpleton ! How could she
him when they met in the rain on the com- We won't talk about that."
mon one day. "What do you want of me, a useless

"Nothing is," he answered grimly. fool," he said bitterly.

The day after that the telephone at his "I want you to swing the big end of the
laboratory rang when he was effecting a stick, the scientific end. You solved the
ticklish transference of bacilli. He let diet question when the piglets were dying
it ring, at first politely, then with a nerve- off last year. We 've got to have hundreds
racking furious tinkle, vibrating into a where we now have dozens. You '11 have
buzz when he had taken off the receiver; a laboratory and every sort of experiment
finally came Bridget's voice. we are near a pork famine in this country
"I want yon!" it said. Nothing further. and we are verv likelv near war. If it
906 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
comes we '11 make this a government stock "All right," he said. With her little
farm and raise pigs for our country." Her nod, as if on oath, she gave him her hand
voice was as if she spoke of battles and on it.

of banners. Asthey walked down the lane without


Then it came to him that we must lose words they swerved aside to shuffle dis-
our illusions to possess our realities. The turbingly through a pile of scnmching dry
blow was a stroke of mercy, after all. leaves.

To One Killed in Action


By ALAN SULLIVAN

YOU
The
who have
flush of
lived and known the joy of
venture and the high, clear
living.

call

That bade you forth, that in one ultimate gi\'ing

Lifted you, godlike, when you lavished all

The unwrit annals of your proffered years,


The unsought rapture and the unguessed tears.

Soft where you lie there drifts the big guns' mumble;
Close by your side the brown battalions swing
By day and night the transport-wagons rumble
By day and night the whining bullets sing:
Now can you hear the joke that ripples back
Through the loose ranks upon the shell-scarred track ?

You who have found the thing beyond all treasure


And made it yours in those amazing hours,
And set your life to such exalted measure
That death, deserting his funereal towers,
Walked with you as a brother, kind, but grim
Till came the moment when you smiled at him.

Flashed tliere to you no swift and brilliant message.

Some tenuous vision of the appointed end.


Some divination and departing presage
Of that far bourn to which the nations trend
When not with blood the shrinking woods are wet
And the rose drapes tiie crumbling parapet?
Living Off the Country
Bv ROBERT E. PEARY

ONE my all
of the fundamental principles of
arctic expeditions has been to
white grouse. The various species of gulls
are considered fine eating by the Eskimos
depend upon the country itself for the but in the North, as well as here, they are
fresh-meat supply. To this fact is due the a bit rank to the white man.
entire absence of scurvy on all of my voy- Of fish there are two kinds, the grayling
ages. Contrary to a general idea, the arc- and a species of char that we called rather
tic regions of northern Greenland, Elles- affectionatel)- salmon-trout. In Septem-
mere Land, and Grant Land have for the ber, 1900, this latter fish kept alive for
experienced hunter a considerable and most about ten days my party of six men and
attractive fauna, and while there are cer- twenty-three dogs. It is undoubtedly the
tain parts where it is virtually impossible finest fish food to be found anywhere, in
to find even so much as a stray polar hare, color a pale pink like salmon or unripe
there are other regions where a very fair watermelon. Living in water never warmer
amount meat can be obtained in a com-
of than forty degrees, perhaps never above
paratively short time by those knowing thirty-five degrees, it is the sweetest, firm-
how, and acquainted with arctic topogra- est fish fiber in the world.
phy and the habits of arctic animals. It is no small task to secure a supply of
The arctic bill of fare includes fish, meat sufficient to keep hundreds of dogs
riesh, and fowl in considerable variety. alive and good condition all winter,
in
The walrus and Eskimo are, of
seal of the and meat for a crew of
to provide fresh
course, known to every child. Both fur- over twenty men and some fifty Eskimos.
nish a strong and healthy diet, but few Hunting parties must be kept constantly
white men become really fond of it. There in the field during the autumn months to
are,however, other animals in the region meet the demand.
which furnish delicacies that would grace The mainstay in the way of food for the
the table of the finest hotel in any great dogs is walrus, and weighing anywhere
city, as the musk-ox, reindeer, and polar from 1000 to 3000 pounds, they pro\ide
hare. Polar bear, if young, makes a ver\ the maximum of meat at a minimum of
acceptable steak. At any age the meat is time and energ>'. .During the months of
not at all disagreeable when frozen and July, August, and September these ani-
eaten raw. mals are to be found in large herds in
Of the sea animals, in addition to the Wolstenholme and Whale sounds, where
walrus and the ringed or floe-seal, there they assemble to feed on the shell-fish

are the harp- and the square-flipper seal, abounding in those shallow waters. Here
the flesh of both of which possesses a much they may be seen basking in the sun on
less pronounced bouquet than the walrus the ice-floes and cakes of ice, singly, or in
and the floe-seal. groups ranging from two or three up into
Of birds there are various kinds; the the hundreds. I have seen anywhere from
most abundant are the little auks, and one hundred to one hundred and fifty wal-
next the Briinnich's guillemot. Then rus on one large ice-pan. with an equally
there are the eider-duck, the long-tailed large number in the surrounding water;
duck, the brant, and the king-eider. It is but only on Littleton Island in Smith Sound
possible also in some localities to get an and along the shore of the mainland oppo-
occasional mess of ptarmigan, the arctic sitehave I ever seen them on the rocks.
907
908 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
It worthy of note that during the sum-
is which* have meanwhile been brought out,
mer months males only, and chiefly the old and is ready to be carried back to the set-
ones, are to be found in Wolstenholme tlement. These hunts are continued until
Sound, the females, calves, and young late in the spring, and large quantities of
males haunting the waters about Littleton meat are secured.
Island and Oomenak Sound. Hunting walrus in a small whale-boat,
A few walrus are secured b\' the Eski- however, furnishes the most exciting and
mos in these waters during the summer, dangerous sport north of the arctic circle.
but the bulk of the annual catch, at least With an Eskimo crew at the oars; a sailor
two thirds and possibly three quarters, is at the steering-oar; two other Eskimos, ex-
made at Cape Chalon in the spring. Vir- perts with the harpoon, in the bow; an
tually all the walrus of this region winter experienced man in bow with a rifle
the
in theopen north water off Cape Chalon, and with Bartlett and me in the stern, just
sometimes separated from the cape by ten in front of the man at the steering-oar, we
miles ofsometimes by twenty-five.
ice, considered a boat well manned. In the
Strong winds break up the ice along the way of equipment there should be at least
edge of the north water early in February, three repeating-rifles. with abundance of
making the distance for an Eskimo to drag ammunition six or eight harpoons, with
;

his sledge from Cape Chalon just so much lines and floats, spare boat-hooks, and a
less. This breaking up of the border ice heavy, short-handled ax for each man, for
is usually followed by low temperatures, smashing the walrus in the face when they
which in a few hours make the new ice try to come aboard. A good supply of old
strong enough to support a sledge and coats or blankets should be taken along
dogs. The hunters leave the cape early for plugging up holes punched in the boat
in the morning and, driving out to the edge by the tusks of the walrus.
of the old ice, tie their dogs, and with a At the faintest suggestion of smoke wal-
lance, harpoon, and line begin a search out rus will quickly disappear in the water,
on the new ice for the walrus. On sight- and a party nearing a herd of these huge
ing an animal a hunter harpoons it, takes creatures by steamer should take to the
a turn of the line round the harpoon-shaft, small boats when still far enough away to
sticks the harpoon into the ice, and braces prevent its presence being detected by the
it with his foot while a companion lances ;uiimals. The whale-boats should always
the lungs of the huge creature. As soon be white to give an appearance of cakes
as the walrus is dead it is pulled out upon of ice, and the oar-locks carefully muffled
the ice, cut up, and placed on the sledges, to reduce the noise of approach to a mini-
numi. It is comparatively an
eas\ thing to harpoon a walrus
asleep on an ice-pan, and some-
times, by using small bergs as a
screen to hide behind, a party
can approach to within a few
yards of a herd, and harpoon
several before they are fully
awake. In most cases, however,
twenty yards is the nearest a
boat can get before the walrus
are aroused, and begin to slip
into the water. A few shots
quickly decide whether they
are going to fight or beat a
retreat, necessitating a long
chase possibly and adding to
LIVING OFF THE COUNTRY 909

the difficulty of harpooning


them.
The harpoon equipment of
the Eskimo is made up of a
tough line of the hide of the
square-flipper-seal, one hundred
feet long, at.tached toan iron-
edged ivory head fitting on the
end of a heavy harpoon-shaft of
wood. The other end of the
line is attached to an entire seal-
skin inflated, and some distance
from the end is fastened a rect-
angular drag, attached, like a
kite, by a bridle-line. The float,
G AND CUTTIXG L'P A KILL OF ML;)
remaining on the surface, marks
the position of the animal and prevents its foes. At such a time every one seizes an
going deeper than the length of the line. oar, boat-hook, or anything solid, and, as
Only the largest and most powerful bull the brutes attack, hits them over the head
walrus can dragit under, and that only for to keep them at a respectful distance
a few minutes. The float also keeps the from the boat while the men at the rifles
animal from going to the bottom and be- do their work. In several encounters I
ing lost after being killed. The drag re- have had a harpooned walrus draw the
tards the movements of the animal and line taut and, before he could be finished
tires him out. with a bullet, race with us in tow,
off,

The Eskimo in charge of the harpoon crashing into any which might be in
ice

has his line coiled beside him in the bow, our course, knocking the startled Eskimos
with the harpoon-shaft laid across the gun- from the thwarts, with the rest of the
wales. A few coils of the line are sepa- herd following, snorting, and charging on
rated from the rest and placed a little to all sides. A walrus can with the utmost
one side, where they can be easily and ease plunge his tusks through several inches
quickly grasped and held in his left hand of new ice, and it is no uncommon occur-
as the harpoon is launched, thus allowing rence for one to dive and come up under
the line to play out easily. As soon as a the boat, ripping a hole in it, and necessi-
walrus is harpooned, line, float, and drag tating a hasty retreat to firm ice.

are thrown overboard. Care should be The modus operandi of my big, sys-

taken to give the flying line a clear berth, tematic walrus hunts to secure the maxi-
for to be caught by a turn of it would mum amount of meat in the least time was
mean' at least a wetting and possibly more as follows:

serious results. As many harpoon outfits as possible,

In an attack by fifty or more of these fifty sometimes, complete with floats and
infuriated beasts a small whale-boat is no drags, were assembled on my ship, with
place for a nervous person, and I have the best harpooners of the tribes. Then
known Eskimos, accustomed for years to two, three, or four of my whale-boats were
such encounters, when surrounded by these kept at work, each supplied with six or
huge, ivory-tusked creatures, with angry, eight outfits. The galle\ was kept in com-
bloodshot eyes, emitting vicious roars mission continuously supplying hot coffee,
through thick, stiff-bearded lips, and mak- baked beans, and pilot-bread, and one of
ing savage attempts to get at the occupants the officers remained in the crow's-nest
of the boat, to lose their heads so com- (a barrel at the masthead) with a tele-
pletely as to drop their harpoons, begin to scope, locating the cakes of ice that had

yell, and even to spit at their formidable walrus on them. Sometimes, when the
walrus were numerous, all the boats would would jump forward, cut out the har-
get away same time in different di-
at the poon, and take and drag aft,
line, float,

rections. Sometimes one would start out, coil them carefulh' for use again, and the

and then the ship would steam on and old men and women would quickly skin
drop another and then another. Each boat and cut up the animal. By the time all
kept at the walrus until it had all its har- of one boat's kill had been brought aboard
poons and lines fast to walrus, and per- her crew had had their lunch, and, if
haps two or three dead with rifie-bullets other walrus were in sight, went away
on the ice. When all the lines and floats again after them, or, if none was in sight,
were out, the boat would pull round waited till the masthead man sighted
to each float where an animal was still more.
alive, despatch it with a rifle, then, if the In this way fort>' walrus have been ob-
ship was near, go aboard for lunch, or, if tained in a night's or a day's hunt, and
far off, stand an oar on end whaler-fash- two hundred and fifty in two weeks' work.
ion and wait its arrival. The ship, with On one or two memorable hunts they
the gangways in the bulwarks amidships came in so fast that it was impossible to
taken out and a narrow staging rigged skin and cut them up till the hunt was
down the side about a foot above the wa- over and every one had had a good sleep.
ter, would then steam alongside each float At these times the deck was hidden un-
in turn, a man on the stage would pass der the huge, brown, shapeless forms, and
the float up to the deck, and the walrus, the ship listed heavil\' to one side with the
hanging dead in the water down the length top-heav>- load.
of the line, would be pulled to the surface, In hunting walrus only powerful rifles

the man on the stage with a sharp, strong should be used, and even with them know-
knife would cut a the tough hide
slit in ledge of how^ and where to shoot will save
of the walrus, insert the hook of a heavy an enormous expenditure of powder and
tackle and fall, the man at the steam-winch lead. It is utterly useless to shoot walrus in
would turn on steam, and in a minute or the body. For a side shot, a spot on the
two the huge brute would be dropped in a head as far back of the eye as the eye is back
brown mass on deck. A >oung Eskimo of the nose should be hit. Here the small
910
DECK SCENE ON THE ROOSEfELT (NOT A PINK TEA)

brain has less protecting skull about it. The fastened to it. But these cases are rare,
back of the head is also vulnerable. A and in my later expeditions my invariable
frontal shot is almost an impossibility. Al- orders were never to shoot a walrus in the
most the only chance is, when the walrus water unless it already had a line fast to
opens its mouth, to put a bullet between it. Even when shot on the ice, unless it

the tusks and smash the vertebrse at the is a large floe, one is never sure of an
base of the skull. This shot is most likely animal until it is aboard or has a float fast

to occur with a number of bull walrus in to it.

the water close about the boat. On sev- The inert collapse of half a ton or more
eral occasions a bull walrus, rising with a of flesh and bone under the impact of a
rush close to the boat and opening his bullet in the brain is suflficient to tilt a

mouth to bellow, has been surprised by a small ice-pan and slide the dead walrus
shot, and gone like a rock to the bottom. into the water. The slightest touch of
On one occasion harpooned animal,
a the ship as she forges alongside the cake
while fast to a line and float, invariably to hoist the animal on board will have
rose to the surface facing the boat, and the same result, and on two or three occa-
had the entire front of its head back to the sions when I have lowered a boat to put
eyes literally smashed off, tusks and all, a man on the ice and make a line fast to

by eight or ten shots before it was killed. the animal, man's weight has been
the
It is an utter waste of powder and wal- enough to disturb the balance, and throw
rus meat to shoot these animals in the the precious meat into the water.
water unless they have been harpooned Seen a few feet under one's boat in the

and are fast to a line and float. If in- pale-green, icy waters of Whale Sound,
stantly killed, they go to the bottom like a herd of rushing walrus, as swift and
rocks. If mortally wounded, they strug- sinuous as seals, the great uncouth, gray
gle to the same place. On a few occasions, shapes rolling from side to side to leer
in shooting a walrus in the back of the upward with little, bloodshot eyes and
head, the blow of the bullet that killed it show a flash of white tusks, is like a night-
instantly forced its head under water, giv- mare dream of the inferno.
ing the air in the lungs no chance to Stuffed and baked, the heart of the wal-
escape, and the animal floated with a bit rus is as great a delicacy as a beef heart.

of the back exposed till a float could be Dr. Senn, a Chicago traveler and writer,
911
K Bl.AR KILLED L\ IH'CHANAN KAY, JLLY 4. (Nt)TL THL Sl/Ili Ol- Tljli I'AWS AM

A SINGLE BLOW TROM SUCH A PAW SOMETIMES Di5E.MH(,J\\ ELS AN ESKIMO,


SMASHES ALL HIS RIBS, OR CRUSHES HIS HEAD IKE AX ECGSHELL)
I

a summer \isitor on one of my auxiliary rador. has carried the dogs through the
ships, was greatly- captivated by it, and winter, and has also helped feed the Eski-
Percy, my Newfoundland steward of nu- mos, who virtually li\e on narwhal, seal,

merous expeditions, incited by the praise and walrus. The narwhal and seal also
of his discovery, became a blue-ribbon chef make valuable dog food, the former being
in cooking it. Some explorers have highly found in the Whale Sound region ; but on
praised the walrus li\er and urged its my last expedition north there was virtu-
value as a pre\cnti\e and cure for scur\y. ally no narwhal hunting.
Never having been obliged to use it for Seals are obtained in abundance at Cape
that purpose, and spoiled perhaps by the Chalon, the spring hunting-ground of the
more delicate seal, reindeer, musk-ox, and I'^skimos, and end of some seasons
at the
hare livers, the members of my expedi- large piles of this meat are stacked along
tions never seemed to care for it. the ice-foot at the village. Equipped with
The thick, tough hide of the ^\alrus fur- a seal spear, and dres.sed in the warmest

nishes a dog food of wonderful staying of furs, with feet padded with bearskin to
qualities. A small piece of it, when frozen, muffle their tread, and witli small three
will keep the strongest-jawed Eskimo dog legged stools, men, boys, and even women
occupied and interested for hours in liis may be seen sitting for liours beside a hole
efforts to soften it to the point wIutc lu- in tlie ice waiting for a seal to appear for
can swallow it whole. a breath of air. Occasional seals were al-
I have always taken on just as much ways captured on our \\a\ to and from
walrus meat and blubber as the .ship, al- A\inter quarters, and they frequently ap-
ready filled almost to her capacity with peared near the ship during the winter.
coal, etc., would allow — some fifty walrus, For the fresh-meat supply of the crew
perhaps. This, together with seventy or T have always depended on the musk-ox,
more tons of whale meat bought at Lab- and on all my expeditions ha\e been able
912
Li\ iN(; oil- Tin; coi N ^K^ 913
to find numhiTs of tlu-sc anim;il> w ithin a iKuthein j^ide of the lake had n(jt been
radius of a hundred miles of the ship oi drawn upon for years, and hunting parties
other winter quarters. Tliey can be found in this region, covering the southern slopes
at any time of the year, even durinji the of the States Range, met with
United
long arctic night, by tiiose who know liow great success. Eskimo hunting parties also
The grass and creeping-willows furnish co\ered the country from Lake Ha/en and
subsistence for them the year round, the AVrangel Bay northward to Clements
strong winds peculiar to those regions Markham Inlet with almost as satisfac-
sweeping large tracts of land bare of snow- tory results. A tew animals were kille«l

in the winter, thus enabh'ng theni to eke on the w ay north un Bache Peninsula, and
out an existence. if it had not been for the disco\er\ ot a

1 killed my
musk-ox in 1892 on the
first few of these am'mals on ni\ return from
northeast coast of Greenland near Inde- 87" b', m\ party and would lia\c \o<i
I

pendence Bay, and three years later dis- our Luckih se\ en nuisk-oxen were
li\es.

covered tracks of fifteen or twenty in the found in Xares Land, and later, on my
same region, and secured six of them. western trip, we secured se\en more near
During my expedition of 1898-1902 nu- Cape Columbia.
merous musk-oxen were killed about Fort With the exception of nine animals
Conger, seventy-odd in its immediate killed atRuggles River, the musk-oxen of
neighborhood forty in the region from
; my last expedition were all obtained on the
Discovery Harbor westward bj- way of northern coast of Grant Land, five near
Black Rock Vale and the southern side of Nares Inlet, another five at Porter Ba.\

Lake Hazen, seventeen above St. Patrick's four at Cape Columbia, and one at James
Bay, three beyond Black Cape, near the Ross Ba}-, and the record for the trip,
winter .quarters of the Jlcrt ; sixteen in iifty-two, were killed near Cape Jesup.
Musk Ox \^alle\-

twelve at the Bellows


and Black Rock ^'ale :

seventeen on Bachc
Peninsula; twenty at
the northern arm of
Buchanan Bay, ant!

one at its southern


arm ; seven on the ice-

cap of EUesmereLand
and in the autumn
of 1900 one hundred
and one were killed in
various, localities from
Discovery Harbor to
\>ry River, ninety
two of them being se-
cured in less than three
weeks. In the region ^k.^cgin.. .\ \

about Cape jMorris K.


Jesup two herds numbering fifteen and The presence of nuisk-oxen can be de-
eighteen animals were discovered, and two tected very quickly h\ the patches of luxu-
or three stray ones, but only four of these riant grass which 'mark all their rendez-

were needed for the dogs. vous, although along the inhabited parts
My 1905-06 expedition secured its sup- of the Greenland coast an unusual growth
ply of musk-ox meat chiefly from the of grass may be a sign of a former igloo.
drainage basin of Lake H: The .A. careful examination of tlicse places will
)R\VrGI \N Fk.lM BRITISH D/SCOI-ERV

SCOTCH AURORA ITALIAN STELLA POLARE

AMERICAN ROOSEl'EL 7 GERMAN QAl\

COMPARATIVE PICTURES OP VARIOUS EXPLORING SHIPS


soon show w hetluT iiuisk-oxcn h;i\(.' been knowing how makes all the difference in
about, bits of wool and fiomhair shed the world in the amount of ammunition
their shaggj' coats being scattered here and expended and the amount of meat secured.
there on the ground, while their tracks With tlie exception of a few months in
show how recent has been tlieir \isit. summer a strong rifle is reiiuired, as tin-

Fresh tracks of musk-oxen being discov- pelt of the musk-ox is \ery thickand
ered, it does not often mean a great dis- hea\y. ^Vitll a suitable rifle and some
tance to travel before the animals tiiem- experience one shot to an animal shouM
selves are and musk-oxen once
sighted ; he sufficient.
seen may be considered dead musk-oxen in my KJOO sledge trip round the north-
by an experienced hunter w irh a good dog ern terminus of Greenland I obtained ten
or two. On
approaching to \>ithin a mile musk-oxen and a polar bear with twelve
or so of them, the dogs are let loose, and cartridges. Two of these were expended
tlie hunter can follow- at a comfortable on the bear. In a \ery successfid late

pace, knowing that on his arri\al the herd September afternoon hunt on the north
will be rounded up. A musk-ox, if alone, side of Lake Ha/.en I secured twent_\-five

will retreat to the nearest clift and back nuisk-oxen with t\\ enty-six cartridges, two
up against it at the appearance of dogs. being expended on tlie bull leader, which
A herd, however, will round up anywhere, my first hurried shot had stopped, but not
with their tails together, facing the in- killed, in a charge on m\ dogs. At an-
truders, while their leader takes his stand other time, the others of m\ part\ being
on the outskirts of the group and charges awa\ I took a solitar.\ scout from camp
,

the dogs as they come up. As soon as the w ith onl\ an army Colt 4v With the six
leader is shot, another steps out from the shots in this I got five bull musk-oxen.
herd to take his place, and so on. A\'hen On the other hand, in the narrati\e of
things begin to look too bad for them, they tlie Polaris expedition, it is stated that
will sometimes make a wild break to es- some crew expended three hundred
of the
cape, or the whole herd may charge tlie shots on one arrival, and then, while the\-
enemy. went after more amnnmition. it left.
With tlie musk-ox, as with the walrus. \Vith the musk-ox, as with the walrus,
iU5
916 THE CENTURY -MAGAZINE
around a cliff may bring one or
a herd of the shaggy animals
into view.
On two occasions the discov-
ery of musk-oxen saved my
sledge-party from starvation,
and the discovery was not due
to happy chance or accident,
but was the result of careful,
intelligent search in suitable lo-
examining every slope
calities,

and valley and rock within


range of field-glasses carried

WALRUSHUN'TERS AND THEIR KII


for that special purpose, and as
much a part of the hunting
in my later expeditions I hunted them on equipment as the rifle.
a large scale and in a systematic way, with When I stretch myself or drop my hand
careful attention to details to secure the on the thick, black felt of the musk-ox
largest amount of meat and not waste an robes in my study, the touch of them con-
ounce. All hunting parties had detailed jures up many a vivid picture, and I have
orders. a more than friendly feeling for those
Aiusk-ox were to be shot back of the strange, black denizens of the highest
tore shoulder or in the neck, at the base of North.
the skull. These are the instantly fatal The favorite haunts of the reindeer are
spots. Frontal or head shots are a waste the rolling, grassy slopes about the land-
of animunition. Skins were removed with locked lakes of the North, where the pas-
feet and legs attached, rolled up in bundles turage is abundant and they are sheltered

to fit the sledges, and taken back to the from the cold sea-fogs and the sharp winds
ship to be thawed out and carefully pre- from the ice-cap. These animals, or
pared by the Eskimo women at their lei- traces of them, have been found by vari-
sure during the winter. Hearts, livers, ous explorers in Rawlings Bay, the region
and kidneys were removed, laid out to about Fort Conger in Grinnell Land, and
freeze solid, then stored under rocks away at Alexandra Haven in Ellesmere Land,
from dogs, wolves, and foxes until sledged and they have been reported in considerable
back to ship. The remainder of the vis- numbers on the western side of this land.
cera was fed to the dogs on the spot. The In 1901 one of my men found an antler as
heavy backbone, and leg bones were
pelvis, far south as Erik Harbor.
cut out, the marrow bones cracked, and In the region about our winter quarters
their contents eaten at the hunting-camp. in McCormick and Bowdoin bays in 1891-
The others were thrown to the dogs to 93 and 1893-95 d^er were most plentiful.
gnaw clean. The great brick-red hams, During the autumn of 189 1 one was killed
fore shoulders, and balls of meat from the on the plateau just back of Red Cliff
neck and ribs, all frozen like granite, were House two boat-trips to the head of ]\Ic-
;

then piled in a big stack, to be sledged to Cormick Bay resulted in fourteen being
the ship from time to time during the win- obtained, and soon after ten were found
ter. In this way nothing was wasted ; the on the northeast side of the bay in Five
bones and viscera were utilized on the (ilacier Valley. The following spring
spot, and only the clear, solid meat had to eleven were added to our larder, two from
be hauled over the arduous trails. Five Glacier Valley, one from Cape Cleve-
There is constant excitement in travers- land, the rest from Bowdoin Bay. In 1893-
ing musk-ox country. One can never tell I x'isited the southern slopes of the north-
when the opening up of a valley or a turn ern side of Olriks Bav, a favorite resort
LI\ING OFF iHF C()L^'1R^ 017
of the deer. Fi\ e hours' work added se\ -
fleeing buck reindeer to >ti>p in>tantl\ in
enteen deer to our meat supph and thirt\-
, his tracks, giving the desired shot.
three were killed later in the same place To most arctic travelers and explorers,
seven were seen in the vicinit\ of Cape and to all readers, the polar bear, some-
Athol, but onh" one was bati^ed. In Janu- times called rlic "Tiger of the North,"'
ary, 1894, hunt- has loomed largest
ing parties sent out as the "big gatne"
to the deer pastures par excellence of the
of Kangerdlooksoah North. I know of
were very successful, nothing that will ex-
brinfjing back <ift\- cite an liskinio so
four animals. luncli as the sight of

In 1905-06 we one of these huge


got eleven deer on creatures in the dis-
the northern coast t.ince : hut a contest

of Grant Land : a with e\ en three or


party sent out to tour hears and a
Porter Bay returned man armed with a
with the meat and Winchester is al-
skins of seven ; and ways one-sided and
seven more were ob- tame sport in com-
tained from a herd parison with a li\'ely

of eleven discovered w .ilrus hunt.


on Fielden Penin- None of m\- expc-
sula. These reindeer, ilitions has had the
found to be a new exciting bear adven-
Dr. J. A.
species by tures of others.
Allen of the Ameri- Bears never have at-

can Museum of BIGAMIST or tacked us, or come


Natural History. poking into our tents
were the first of their kind c\er found, nhile we were asleeji. No member of my
magnificent animals, almost pure white in part}' ever had a hairbreadth encounter
color. Later these were found to be nu- with one. We hunted them assiduously,
merous in the region between Lake Hazen partly for the meat, but more for skins to
and Cape Hecla and along the coast of supply us with trousers for the long sledge-
northern Grant Land to the westward, journeys, and we were able to secure onl\
fifty-odd being killed. enough for this purpose.
On my last expedition a Porter Ba\ Aly visualization of a bear hunt is the
party brought in fourteen of the animals constant watching of the ice-floes about
three were picked up not far from the ship, the sledge with eyes and field-glasses, the
and one in James Ross Bay. Occa-
a stray glimpsing of a cream-colored spot slipping
sionally deer are found in Whale Soimd. behind an ice pinnacle, or of great tracks
A deer means a week's rations added to in the snow. the bear had heard the
If

the meat supply of the party, and the real- dogs, the tracks were a series of huge leaps
ization of this, when bringing one down, h.eaded directly away from us the loosen- :

is from being an unpleasant sensation.


far ing of two or three of the trained dogs,
Of course deer hunting is the same the the rapid overhauling of the bear, a single
w orld over, but the Eskimos have a magic shot, or at the most two, and then strenu-
call to these animals which has been taught ous efforts to keep the crazy dogs away
to the young hunters of ever\- rising gen- from the carcass while it is skinned, cut
eration. It is similar to the hissing of a cat. up. and loaded on the sledge.
only more prolonged, and will cause a In 1886, at Ravenscraig Harbor, on the
918 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
south side of Eglington Fiord, a fleet of discovered almost one hundred of these
four whalers and the Eagle obtained ten little animals around Lake Hazen, and
bears, two of these being harpooned in the succeeded in getting near enough to hit
water by the crew of the Eagle. So en- them over the head with their rifles in-
raged was one of the animals that the stead of shooting. A stray hare or two
crews of three boats were required to keep picked up on sledge-trips make a very ac-
the bear from climbing into the Eagle's ceptable change in the monotonous diet of
boat to WTealc vengeance on the occupants. pemmican.
Just north of Cape Hooper we got three While we could scarcely say that the
more bears in the ice-pack. It is not al- North are hunted, still
sea-birds of the
ways possible to bring a bear down with thousands upon thousands of little auks
the first shot when he is traveling over and guillemots are caught every year by the
rough ice, but there need be no doubt as to Eskimos with their nets, and laid by for
whether a shot has reached its mark or the long winter. At Red Cliff House, in
not, for a wounded bear will always make 1891-93, millions of these birds were to
savage snaps at the spot stung by a bullet. be seen in the summer months, and boat-
In July, i8gi, we obtained one bear in trips were made to the loomeries of Hak-
the Melville Bay and pursued an
ice-pack, luyt, Northumberland, and Herbert is-
old bear with her two cubs
for some dis- lands for a supply of them. In the clefts
tance, but they made good their escape. of the perpendicular cliffs of these islands
The next spring one of my Eskimo hunt- the Briinnich's guillemots breed by the
ers came upon a young bear near Cape thousands. Our method of capturing
Parry, and in the spring of 1894 ^^'^ were them was to run the boat up to the cliffs

brought in from Kane Basin. after as many as could be kept track of had
During my 1905-06 expedition one been shot, and while one man collected
bear was killed near Cape Sabine, another the dead birds, another kept the boat off
in crossing Kane Basin, and two on the the rocks with his boat-hook. Not over
northern shore of Bache Peninsula. Only thirty per cent, of the birds killed would
one was obtained during my last trip, and fall into the water, the majority of them
that in James Ross Bay but on our way ; catching on the cliffs, where it was im-
from Cape Columbia to the pole we dis- possible to get at them. Millions of guille-
covered fresh polar-bear tracks over two mots, kittiwakes, and little auks, as well
hundred miles from land, and on our re- as numerous looms, burgomasters, and fal-

turn came across tracks of what we be- cons, are to be found along the cliff's be-
lieved to be the same bear. tween Cape York and Conical Rock.
Actual measurements of the broad plan- With vast throngs of these birds perched
tigrade footprints of a bear on one of my on every projecting rock or ledge, these
earlier expeditions gave a width of eleven cliffs appear to be fairly alive. Eider-
inches, with a length of twenty-two inches ;
ducks are on Duck Islands of Melville
but the dragging toes and hair of the ani- Bay and McGary Island in considerable
mal's heels in the soft snow made a much quantities. Two stray ones were killed
larger trail, closely resembling that of a near Cape Belknap in 1907.
man on snow-shoes. Brant also are sometimes found on the
Chief among the smaller animals of the northern coast of Grant Land on my ; re-

North are the polar hares, which are turn from farthest north in 1906 we
found occasionally on southern slopes came across groups of ten or eleven, and
even as far north as the northern shores near Cape Columbia I discovered a flock
of Grant Land. Like the penguins of the of as many as one hundred of these birds.
antarctic regions, they have not yet learned The only fish in the North are found in
to fear man, and it is possible to get al- the landlocked lakes of that region. They
most close enough to pick them up. On will not touch bait, and the Eskimo
my last expedition members of the party method of catching them with a spear had
Illi: NKiHI COMKlll m^
to be adopted by us. The- iiari\c spi'ars results. F,\en in Itjo^-oO, v\hen, with the
are made by setting a nail or an\ sliarp long arctic night upon us, I had to face
bit of steel in the end oi a shaft. Tuu the serious proposition of feeding m> dogs
pieces of deer antler are bound with tine and most of my Kskimos entirely up(;n the
cord to each side of the shaft so that the\ country because the whale meat purchased
point downward, and sharp nails are then in l.abradt)r pro\ ed to be bad and had to

set in these, pointing inward. A hole is be thrown awa\ I found it possible to


.

cut in the ice, and a small iish car\ ed from subsist them upon the coinitryV resources.
ivory, inwhich art the F'.skimos are sur- It is quite true, though, that such a thing
prisingl}' expert, is dropped into the w ater. would ha\e been absolutely impossible had
A fish, rising to examine the deco\ is im- , it not been for my thorough knowledge ot

mediately thrust with the spear, which, this region. Nor should ha\e found an 1

pressing down on its back, causes the por- abundance of game along the most north-
tions of antler to spread, and tiie nails to erly lands. —
the northern coasts ol Green-
sink into and makes escape almost
its flesh land and Grant Land, where Nares and—
impossible. This unique method is also Cireely's parties found none, and were re-
used in the catching of seals. duced to most serious straits, had it not
My confidence in the ability of the coun- been for my previous years of training and
try to furnish the fresh-meat supply of my experience in how and where to look for

expeditions has always been justified by arctic game.

(Thi: tlif .-fciind ot" the rtivce article? on arctic e\plor:ition bv Adniira )•)

The Night Cometh


By CLEMENT WOOD
Thr Night fald, "I plunge into tiu- fit-iy da\vn."— 'I'a'.oke.

NIGHT, you ha\e yielded me ro\ally


Your dear person.
Great was my thirst for love.
And you lifted my soul to the w ide clasp

Of your dark, star-jeweled bosom.

Now the due time of love is spent.


The sea of morning is at Hood :

You plimge into its fier\ splendor,


And I cannot call >ou back.

I will hold m\self for >our next embrace.


You will swim powerfully , lithe maiden.
Beneath the bright flood.
And arise, shaking off the dripping sunset,
(On the western shore.

^'ou do not mind these lessening tides.

There will come a time


When morning will only ebb.
And, tossing aside your dulled jewels.
You will sit quietly, communing with yourself,

For an unending season.


Northclifte
By ERIC FISHER WOOD
Author of "The Note-Book of an Attache," "The Writing on the Wall," etc.

Major Wood of the British Army has recently returned to the United States on leave
after an unusual career with the British military forces at the front.While there, and
in England, brought him into frequent contact with the men who are playing
his duties
large parts in the war. His estimate of Lord Northcliffe was the result of unusual
opportunities to know and study him, and it may be safely taken as the impression which
Lord Northclifte makes on an American who sees him for what he is and beyond the
influence of British politics.— The Editor.

London, Friday, January 23, 19 17. ting in from the middle of one of the long

TO-MORROW I leave London to sides of the room.


Big shelves along the
spend the week-end with Lord wall were with every conceivable
filled

Northcliffe at his seaside at Broad- home kind of reference volume. Several tables
stairs, on the Kentish This will coast. were piled high with letters, telegrams,
make the ninth occasion upon which I have and papers, which the secretaries were re-
met him, and I feel my impressions have quired to find instantly whenever needed.
now become crystallized enough to permit On one table were placed various tele-
me to attempt a description of him during phones, which were in almost constant use.
my stay at Broadstairs. Lord Northclifte stood by the fireplace.
I shall not feel it necessary to rehearse He reminded me of a caged lion, at any
his great achievements as a journalist, his moment ready to sally forth upon the floor
imequaled accomplishments as an organ- below. It was not because he roared that
izer, or to dwell upon his great political he reminded me of a lion, for roar he
ability, since these are already part of never does, but because it seemed as if

British liistory. I shall devote m\self to a his colossal energy was trying to break
description of his personal it\. through invisible bars that intervened be-
tween him and the immediate attainment
Broadstairs, Sunda\' evening, of a multitude of purposes.
January 25. He walked back and forth within the
Lord Northclii^e's home at Broadstairs restricted alcove, pausing suddenly from
is an Elizabethan farm-house to which sev- time to time to speak sharply and briefly.
eral additionshave been made during the Thus he settled three or four vital mat-
centuries which have passed since it was ters every minute. As soon as there was
first built. Like most of its kind, it is an instant's dela\' one saw again the caged-
a rambling and inharmonious structure. lion phase.
Its interior is very homelike and comforta- I have no intention of conveying the im-
ble, with open fires, charming rooms, much pression that Lord Northclifte is e\er
old furniture, and many books. flustered or "beyond himself." He is al-
I arrived at a quarter to six last nigiit, wa\s well within his own powers, and
and was immediately taken to his work- works smoothly, without the least squeak
room, a large, high-ceilinged apartment or friction. Indeed, he reminds one of a
which at one time had been used as a colossal dynamo working at high tension,
billiard-room. for although things may fly off from it in
An open fire was burning cheerfully on all directions, the dynamo itself continues
a hearth at the back of a raised alcove jut- to function coolly, smoothly, and evenly.
920
U.^W^ Vljfi
V^ J^(nM^
qo9 THK CENTURV .MAGAZINE
He invariabl)' gives one the impression medium-si/.e sheet of blue paper, with
of possessing great reserve force. I have "The Times" engraved at the top, and
noticed that whenever an atmosphere of consisted of a few lines only, usually from
flurry surrounds him, it is caused entirely four to eight. The lineswere single-
by office-bo)s, clerks, and other one-cylin- spaced, and in most cases were in one para-
der subordinates puffing and tearing to graph. This applied e\ en to a letter to
keep up with his smoothl\ running two- the prime minister, which touched upon
hundred-horse-power engine. Few indeed three important and separate topics. There
are the men who would not appear one- were no superfluous words; no ''I have
cylindered when in the presence of his recei\ed }our letter," and ne\ er the ad-
tireless energy. dress of the recipient. The letters began
It is impossible to enter a room where with "Dear So-and-so," and were signeil
"Lord Northcliffe is working and not be in the lower right-hand corner, usuall\- in
drawn irresistibly into activity . ^ ester- pencil, with the one word "Northcliffe,"
day evening when his greetings, courteous written at an oblique angle, mounting to-
and brief, were finished, I withdrew to a ward the rigiit, of which the following is

corner of the workroom but ; witiiin a min- a fair sample:


ute I had been dragged
out again and set to
correcting the proof of
an article which he
S^inurf.
had recently written
about the New Zea-
land Division. AVhen
that was finished, 1

was gi\en a press ca-


blegram to America to
review, and after that
was kept steadily bus}
until it came time to
dress for dinner.
I witnessed the sign-
ing of the day's letters,
of which there were
thirty-fi\e in all, and
observed a number of
interesting details. De-
spite the fact that the
letters had been taken
down and typed bj
competent secretaries,
Lord Northcliffe read
each one slowlj' and
carefully before sign-
ing it. In the whole
batch he altered only
one, and in that only a
single word, which he
crossed ou-t and replaced by a s\ non\ ui Lord Northcliffe has the reputation of
but in about every third letter he under- iu-ing ahard man touard his subordinates.
scored a clause or sentence. Me is said to drive them unmercifully, to
ICach letter was t\ped upon a single, wear tliem out, and then hcartlessh' to
NORTHCLIFFE 923
replace them with iiesher men. From His colossal energy enables him to wade
this some of his critics have concluded that through an enormous mass of matter rela-
he is cruel and hard-hearted. tive to each of the various subjects in

1 am inclined to differ from tiiis opin- which he is particularly concerned, while


ion. I think that Lord Northcliffe, al- his unique power of concentration enables
though naturally kind at heart, considers him to reduce the myriad of petty details
that in the midst of this great war the to a definite impression, expressed brief!)'
nerves and feelings of his subordinates are and pithily. He often inscribes a criticism
of little relative importance. He there- of one of his own papers in a single word,
fore sacrifices them as ruthlessly as a great which is noted down on the front page of
general might sacrifice a few privates to a copy, and is then mailed back to the
gain important ends. editor.
One cannot help feeling that he is kind- Even during breakfast he continues to
hearted, because he invariably is unself- dictate and telephone and interview, to
ishly considerate of all those who happen give orders and correct proof and thus he ;

to be about him when his high-pressure continues all through the day. Even the
hours are ended. At dinner last night, midday meal is employed in conferences
when his two and I were the
secretaries upon a dozen different matters with peo-
only guests, he anticipated our smallest ple who have been asked in to luncheon
wants. In this he far exceeded formal for that purpose.
politeness or anything to which we could The business of the day is supposed to
possibly be entitled from a man of his im- be completed and laid aside at 7:30 P.M.,
portance. It was all so automatic and so but in these strenuous war-times conver-
evidently second nature that it was diffi- sation constantly drifts back to the topics
cult to explain on other grounds than that that are closely akin to work. Lord
of innate consideration and kindness for Northcliffe retires at 10 o'clock, is in bed
others. Such indications are small mat- at 10:15 and goes to sleep at 10:30, after
ters, yet straws do show the way the wind being read to for fifteen minutes, sleeping
blows. for six and a half hours until five o'clock
If he is a hard taskmaster to his subor- comes round again. Since the war began
dinates, he demands even more of himself, he has not varied this routine. It goes on
for he is probably the most indefatigable week-days and Sundays, week in and week
worker in England. He rises at 5 a.m., out, interrupted onl>' bv an occasional
has a cup of cofiee at 5:15, and starts in at afternoon's golf and b\- his numerous trips

5:30. Breakfast is served at 8:30, lunch- to the front.


eon at 1:15, while dinner and the end of In physical appearance Lord North-
his day's task come at 7 145 in the evening. cliffe is rather thick-set, and is somewhat

From 5:30 A.M. until 7:30 P.M. he under six feet in height. His head is mas-
works steadily, regardless of meals. At sive and well shaped, combining to a re-
5 :30 A.M. all the London morning new s- markable degree the characteristics of a
papers for the day are brought to him for fighter with those of a thinker. The most
inspection. Between that time and break- conspicuous features of his face are a
fast he reads rapidly every column they strong jaw and very fine gray eyes. When
contain in order to keep himself full\' in repose he holds his head slightly thrust
abreast not only uf everything in the news- forward. The strain of the tremendous
paper world, but in the world of affairs pace which he has maintained ever since
as well. While reading he jots down the war began has only just begiui to show
notes and criticisms on everything from in his face.
type-setting to editorial policy that may be On first meeting him one receives viv-
interesting to his own editors; these notes idly the impression of tremendous reserve
he embodies in letters written to them force and dynamic aggressiveness lying
later in the dav. alertlv latent close to the surface. This
924 JHi; CKNTLRY MAGAZINK
impression persists, and increases \\itli ing, some of Axhich are emphasized by a
each subsequent nieetini:. little sidewise gesture of the head.
One quickly perceives that Lord Nortli- He seldom interrupts a conversation,
cliffe is utterly contemptuous of conven- and unless natural pauses occur he ven'
tional public opinion, and does not hesi- often does not talk at all. He is rather
tate to run counter to petty criticisms of sparing of words, but does not give the
the moment in doin<j; anything which cold imprt'ssion of taciturnity. His natural in-

reason dictates. To my mind nothing clination is rather to stimulate conversa-


better illustrates his disregard of formal tion in others, into which he injects perti-
public approval and his sterling good com- nent comments and anecdotes.
mon sense than the fact that he inxariably His pithy remarks are always original
Avears a sport-shirt ^\•ith a soft collar. He and amusing. At dinner this evening he
wears it because it suits his comfort, and had seen four
stated that in his travels he
he wears it in season and out. summer and inanimate objects which had supremely-
winter, regardless of the fact that it is impressed him the Roman Forum, the
:

considered execrabh bad form, and that Taj Mahal, the Grand Cation of the
almost no other English gentleman would Colorado, and Niagara Falls, "which," he
venture it. particularly if he had em- ;;dded. *'one does not begin to understand
barked upon a public career. until about the third da}- he has studied
It is difficult to estimate his age from it."

his appearance; he might be thirty, forty, He prophesied that the warfare of the
or fifty. Xhe question is; of slight impor- future would be almost altogether aerial,

tance. As a matter of fact, one would be :ind that e\ er\ country and all parts
xnilikely to take any interest in it unless thereof A\()uld be \ ulnerable to the attacks
one were a census-taker, for he is one of of an enem\
those rare ageless persons in whom the After dinner we adjourned to a little
number of his years seems irrelevaiit —a sitting-room, and there sat around an open
person who achieves success early or late, lire, while Lord Northclift'e la\ down at
irrespective of whether he is } oung or has full length on a couch by the fireside. The
grown old. secretarieswere commanded to bring the
When speaking he has certain peculiarly gramophone and to play furiously. They
personal traits; he utters each short sen- played rag-time and one-steps from 8 :45
tence rather rapidly, biting it off at the until lo o'clock, taking turns at shifting
end. Then comes a brief pause, during records and changing needles. Mean-
which he seems to consider the new sen- while conversation continued uninter-
tence in its entirety. It is as tliough he rupted except when the telephone bell in
waited an instant bef(jre each successix e the adjacent hallw ay rang because of busi-
phrase in order to have it all in nu'nd be- ness so important that his editors felt
fore converting thought to sound. obliged to call Northcliff'e even in the
His voice is low, pleasant, ami culti- midst of his sacred period of "rest." A
\ated, and I have never heard him raise secretary Mrote down the messages and
it even when he is most \ehement. He then came in to report.
never swears, nor does he make any use During the period between dinner and
of slang. He is not a coiner of popular ten o'clock Lord Northclift'e positively re-
phrases, markedly in this
differing very fused to get up from his couch, and pre-
respect from men like Wilson and Choate. tended to be resting constantlw It was
1 have never heard him make a bon mot. easy to see that e\en when his body rested
He expresses his tlioughts by scholarly em- his subconscious mind was as alert as ever.
ployment of the king's l*^nglish. He does On one occasion a secretary, having an-
not as a rule use long or complicated sen- swered the telephone, reported the mes-
tences, but rather a succession of very sage, and, having been told what answer
short ones to exjilain or qualify his mean- to transmit, went out again to the tele-
NORTHCLIFFE 925
phone, shutting the door behind him, use in life, being often th product of valu-
while Lord Northclifte resumed his con- able past experience.
versation. The secretary in the hall out- He is a cutter of Gordian knots, an
side, in repeating in the telephone Lord iconoclast, a man of strong convictions;
Northclift'e's reply, got one word wrong, yet these convictions seldom seem to preju-
saying "Thursday" instead of "Monday." dice the functioning of his intellect.
Lord Northcliffe, despite the discussion His greatest and most dominant moral
which was going on, heard it instantly characteristic is patriotism. He serves but
even through the door, and as quick as a one master, his country. In return he en-
shot sent the other secretary rushing out joys the distinction of being the most hated
to correct the mistake. man in England. His political friends
At 9 :30 he ordered a secretary to tele- are few and far between, for having de-
phone to "The Times" officeand obtain termined with a passionate intensity that
the details of the next day's news. This Great Britain shall win this war, he takes
is done every evening, so that Lord North- upon himself the privilege of attacking
cliffe may run over the day's items before with the weight of his press and his per-
he retires. The secretary was gone about sonal influence any official or group of
ten minutes, and brought back six or eight officials in his native country whose slow-

pages of shorthand, beginning with a re- ness or inefficiency seems to him to delay
port of a destroyer's hght in the North or hinder the winning of the war. And
Sea, and ending with a resume of a vio- under the recent "Wait
since, particularly
lent attack upon Lord Northcliffe by some and See" government, such persons and
hostile newspaper. organizations were legion, Lord North-
It is always a most illuminating side- cliffe's enemies are also legion.
light upon any man's character to observe Instead of keeping quiet and pretending
the attitude with which he sustains the that each successive mistake that England
abuse of his opponents, and it was, there- makes is another great "strategical re-
fore, with keenest interest that I watched treat," as "decent Englishmen" are ex-
this little scene. Before beginning to read pected to do, he constantly points out
the attack the secretary grinned cheerfully Great Britain's blunders, and insists upon
and expectantly, while Lord Northcliffe their being remedied with all possible
upon the couch, with his
lay at full length speed.
head turned in attentive interest, smiling It is a well-known fact that nothing in

such a smile happy contentment as


of heaven above or on the earth beneath or
would have shamed the famous Cheshire in hell below so enrages the Englishman of

cat. It was not difficult to see that he is the old type, who seems congenitally in-
a man who would be wretchedly unhappy capable of conceiving that anything in
without a plentiful supply of enemies, and England was or ever could be wrong, as
that he values their attacks more highly to be told that his country is not in the
than the plaudits of his friends. natural order of things and by di\ine right
Lord Northcliffe's most notable mental superperfect. For years and years Eng-
characteristic is a constructive imagination lishmen have irritated foreign countries
which enables him to see things as the\ and their own colonies by an assumption
really are rather than as they appear to be. and superiority in mat-
of self-sufficienc\-
His mind brutally cuts through the husks ters big and Lord Northcliffe set
little.

and shells of custom, habit, and precedent for himself the task of combating this ten-
of established systems and preconceived dency, and whenever his nation made a
ideas to the kernel within, which he ex- mistake he cried his protest through the
amines boldly and dispassionately. He is, columns of the London "Times," "The
if anything, inclined to show too little Daily Mail," and a score of other papers
consideration for these venerable shells and magazines that he owns. Whenever
and husks, which, after all, are of some he has discovered —
and he usually discov-
926 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
ers before any one else — that Great Brit- is probable that but for his continued pres-
ain was muddling along into a new blun- sure the German Navy would have been
der, his papers ha\e "gone the limit" the permitted to surpass that of Great Britain.
censor would allow and sometimes be- Since the Mar actually began, he has not
yond. only been right in every controversy, but
Since the beginning of the war, he alone has eventually converted the nation to his
among all England's citizens has con- point of view. He overruled Kitchener
stantly allow Englishmen to
refused to when the latter was opposing increased
maintain their complacent assumption of shell production to-day Great Britain
;

superiority and their hereditary belief that manufactures and effectually uses one
they are immaculate and unbeatable be- hundred shells for every one she made
cause of the accident that they were born when Kitchener said the supply was suf-
English and oh, Jupiter and Neptune
; ficient.

how heartily they do hate and detest him He protested for two years that the Al •

for this prodding! But every time they liesand neutrals Avere unwittingly ration-
are eventually forced, after undergoing ing and sustaining Germany through the
the most dreadful mental agonies, to ad- agency of Holland, Switzerland, and Den-
mit that perhaps the matter imder discus- mark, and to-day at last even the United
sion might have been a little better ar- States realizes the truth of this statement,
ranged indeed, on second thought, every-
; and has declared provisional embargoes
thing that his lordship says— blast him! — against those countries.
happens— this time— to be right. During the early months of the war he
But they do not forget him, and in any constantly urged the Asquith government
case he would not allow them to. Nor to lay in vast stores of food against the
do they forgive him. Their anger against lean years to come, and to-day Great Brit-
him grows continually. They name him ain fully realizes that such a course would
traitor and liar. They detest him with have nullified the U-boats. When he saw
tlie same fervency that a too heavy sleeper that the Asquith government was irre-
invariably displays toward one who wak- trie\'ably inefficient, he overthrew it Avell-

ens him from sound and comfortable slum- nigh single-handed, and set up in its place
ber. a more efficient one.
Much as the public men whom North- To-day he is insisting that press censor-
cliffe has scored may hate him, they fear ship most pernicious, and that in ninety
is

him even more, since no one knows who cases out of a hundred it is used solel^' to
may be the next to sustain an attack by his protect office-holders from sufi'ering the
all-powerful press; therefore incompetency consequences of their own stupidity and
sluidders, and the competent leaders in the inefficiency.

war-game are kept constantly on their He is struggling to save Great Britain


mettle. But great as are the hatred and from herself, and may yet succeed ; and if

fear which Northcliffe inspires in his own he does, history willknow him as the val-
countrymen, their need of him is still iant non-compromiser who saved Cireat
greater. Britain despite her own determination to
Foreseeing clearly the assault Avhich Ger- blunder to destruction.
many was preparing against the world, he His country is too human not to con-
began urging the adoption of conscription tinue, for the present at least, to be utterly
ten years before the fateful fourth of Au- ungrateful to this man behind the scenes
gust, 19 1 4, and for his pains Mas called is ever prodding
Avhose iighting intellect
a jingo and a yellow journalist, just as and clubbing mule-like persons in high
Lord Roberts for the same reason was places. She calls him in present-day de-
called a weak-nu"nded old dotard. rision "the man who gets things done."
He always advocated the maintenance Eventually that will become his title of
of the British "two-power" Navy, and it greatest honor ; and e\en to-day a few
NAPOLEON IN HADES 927
converts begin to appreciate him for what the same grim smile. When recently his
he is. house at Broadstairs was bombarded by
My high esteem of Lord Northcliffc's German war-ships, and a shell passed com-
services and abilities would not be in- pletely through it, but left him untouched,
dorsed by any prominent Englishmen of he immediately telephoned the hard-
to-day, for there is not one of them but worked London "Times," and
staff of his

has had his pet stupidities flayed by the informed them that "they would hear
Northcliffe press. with mixed feeling that he was unin-
In fairness to Lord Northcliffe, how- jured."
ever, must also be stated that by con-
it Americans who know him well are
trast most foreigners who are familiar unanimous in believing that his true great-
with his work would accept my valuation ness will, as years pass by, be increasingly
of his importance to England and her Allies. appreciated in Great Britain, and that
Even the Germans appreciate his worth eventually future generations, looking
to his country, and have on two separate back with a more normal perspective, will
occasions sent expeditions across the chan- come gratefully to realize that but for this
nel to attempt his life. The compliment single fearless, unselfish patriot, England's
of these attacks he seems to appreciate as doom would probably have been sealed,
much as that conveyed by attacks of his because she would have wakened all too
enemies at home. He accepts them with late from her torpor of complacency.

Napoleon in Hades
By DAVID MORTON

THEY stirred
And whispered each
uneasily, drew
to each in
close their
awed
capes.
surprise.
Seeing this figure brood along the shapes.
World-tragedies thick-clouding through his eyes.

On drew back
either side the ghostly groups
In huddled knots, yielding him way and room,
Their foolish mouths agape and fallen slack,
Their bloodless fingers pointing through the gloom.
Still lonely and magnificent in guilt.
Splendid in scorn, rapt in a mighty dream,
He paused at last upon the Stygian silt.
And raised calm eyes above that angry stream.
Hand in his breast he stood till Charon came,
While Hades hummed with gossip of his name.
HKK VOlCt \VA.S L'M-KTIKKEU MUSIC
The Second Fiddle
Bj PHYLLIS BOTTOjVIE
Author of " The Dark Tower," etc.

Illustrations bv Norman Price

Synopsis of Chapters I-XM.— Professor Waring's family reacts to the war in charac-
teristic ways. There are three daughters. Stella, the background to the other two, is

employed as secretary in a town hall. Her best friend, ALarian Young, is engaged to Sir

Julian Verny. Julian has gone as a spy to Germany, and Marian is miserable about him.
Stella Waring has recently quite upset Mr. Travers, her employer, in regard to her salary,
but he is beginning to see her point of view very vividly. Lady Verny now writes the

news to Marian that Julian is back in England, but "\ery much injured." He has been
"winged" in the Tyrol. Marian gets Stella to go to the hospital with her. It now becomes
plain to Marian, and blazingly plain to Julian, that what is holding her to a hopelessly
broken man is only her sense of honorable compact, not her loxc. The chasm grows be-
tween them. They part really bewildered, without rancor. Meanwhile Mr. Travers has
proposed to Stella Waring. He puts on a certain nobility with his declaration, but she
cannot accept him. To avoid awkward contacts after that, she inserts Eurydice, her artis-
tic sister, into the office, Mr. Travers being glad to serve by engaging her. He sees less

and less of Stella, who suddenly comes down with pleurisy, from which attack her sister
Cicely rescues her. Then comes a letter to Stella from Lady Verny, asking if she will not

visit them for a few weeks to make an experiment at interesting Sir Julian in taking up

some sort of "scientific work" or writing. Stella goes to Ambcrley feeling she must not fail.

Chapter XV
1ADY VERNY and Julian were sit- eye of pity, partly because it was a nui-
^ ting in the hall when Stella joined sance to make people feel uncomfortable,
them. It was n't in the least terrible and parti}' because it infuriated him to be
meeting Julian ; he had reduced his physi- the cause of compassion. Lady Verny had
cal disabilities to the minimum of trouble not pointed this out to Stella ; she had left
for other people. He swung himself about her todraw her own inferences from her
on his crutches with an extraordinary ease, own instincts. Lady Verny did not believe
and he had taught himself to deal with his in either warnings or corrections after the
straitened powers so that he needed very days of infancy were passed.
little assistance he had even controlled
; She smiled across at Stella and said

Iiimself sufficiently to bear without appar- quietl\ :

ent dislike the occasional help tliat he was "M\ son — Miss Waring."
forced to accept. Stella was for an instant aware of

It was the Vernys' religion that one Julian's ejes dealing sharply and defen-
should n't make a fuss over anything sively with hers. He wanted to see if she
larger than a broken boot-lace. Temper was going to be such a fool as to pity him.
could be let loose over the trivial, but it She was n't such a fool. Without a pro-
must be kept if there was any grave cause test she let him swing himself heavily to

for it. his feet before he held out his hand to her.

Julian wished to disembarrass the casual Her eyes met his without shrinking and
9'29
930 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
without emphasis, She knew she must sive one ; but he did n't, for all the fright
look rather wooden and stupid, but any- and the defiance, funk his fight."
thing was better than looking too intelli- "Let us settle Shelley at the dinner-
gent or too kind. table," said Lady Verny, drawing Stella's
She realized that she hadmade any n't arm into hers and leaving Julian to fol-
mistake from the fact that Lady Verny low. "Personally I do not agree with
laid down her embroidery. She would either of you. I do not think Shelley was

have continued it steadily if anything had a coward, and I do not think that as a
gone wrong. man he was admirable. He has always
There was no recognition in Julian's seemed to me apart from his species, like
eyes except the recognition that his moth- his own skylark ; 'Bird thou never wert.'
er's new friend looked as if she was n't He was an 'unpremeditated art,' a 'clear,
going to be a bother. Stella had n't mat- keen joyance,' anything you like but he ;

tered when he met her before, and she had n't the rudiments of a man in him.
did n't matter now\ She had the satisfac- He was neither tough nor tender, and he
tion of knowing that she owed his oblivion never looked a fact in the face."

of her to her own insignificance. "There are plenty of people to look at

"I 'm sure it 's awfully good of you," facts," objected Stella. "Surely we can
Julian said, "to come down here and en- spare one to live in clouds and light and
liven my mother when w^e 've nothing to give us, in return for a few immunities,
offer you but some uncommonly bad their elemental spirit."
weather." "People should n't expect to be given
"I find we have one thing," Lady Verny immunities," said Julian. "They should
interposed. "Miss Waring is interested take 'em if they want 'em, and then be
in Horsham. You must surely motor her ready to pay for 'em ; nobody is forced to
over there. She wants to see Shelley's run with the crowd. What I object to is

pond." their taking to their heels in the opposite


"Do you?" asked Julian. "I '11 take direction,and then complaining of loneli-
you with pleasure, but I must admit that ness. immuni-
Besides, start giving people
I think Shelley was an uncommonly poor ties, and see what it leads to— a dozen

specimen ; never been able to stand all that Shelleys without poems and God knows
shrill, w^oolly prettiness of his. It sets my how many Harriets. What you want in a
teeth on edge. I don't think much of a poet is a man who has something to say
man, either, who breaks laws, and then and sticks to the path while he 's say-
wants his conduct to be swallowed like an ing it."

angel's. Have you ever watched a dog "Oh, you might be talking about bish-
that 's funked a scrap kick up the earth ops!" cried Stella, indignantly. "How far
all round him and bark himself into think- would you have gone yourself on your
ing he 's no end of a fine fellow in spite Arctic explorations, Sir Julian, if you 'd

of it?" stuck to paths? Why should a poet run


"I don't believe you 've read Shelley," on a given line, like an electric tram-car?"
cried stammering with eagerness.
Stella, "I think Miss Waring has rather got
"I mean properly. You 've only skimmed the better of you, Julian," said Lady
the fanciest bits. And he never saw the Verny, smiling. "You chose an unfor-
sense of laws. They were own he
n't his ; tunate metaphor."
did n't break them. The laws he broke "Not a bit of it," said Julian, with a
were only the dreadful, muddled notions gleam of amusement. "I chose a jolly
of respectable people who did n't want to good one, and she 's improved it. You
be inconvenienced by facts. I dare say it can go some distance with a decent poet,
did make him and frightened
a little shrill but you can't with your man. Miss War-
flying in the face of the whole world. ing. He twiddles up into the sky before
However stupid a face it has, it 's a mas- you 've got your foot on the step."
THE SECOND EIDDLE 931

"That 's a direct challcii^f, Lad d she said, so that to w atcl was al- 1 theni
Vern_v. "I think after dinner we must most to know before she spoke what her
produce something of Shelley's in contra- swift spirit meant. Her voice was unfet-
diction. Can you think of anything solid tered music, low, with quick changes of
enough to bear Julian?" tone and intonation.
"Yes," said Stella. "All the way here Stella was absorbed in her desire to

in the train Iwas thinking of one of Shel- She wanted


give Julian a sense of Shelley.
ley's poems. Have you read it — 'The to make him see that beyond the world of
?"
Ode to the West Wind' fact, the ruthless, hampering world of
"No," said Julian, smiling at her; "but which he was a victim, there was another,
it does n't sound at all substantial. You finer kingdom where no disabilities existed

started your argument on a cloud, and except those that a free spirit set upon it-

you finish oi^ with wind. The Lord lias self.

delivered you into my hand." She was frightened at the sound of her
"Not yet, Julian," said Lady Verny. own voice ; but after the first verse the
"Wait you 've heard the poem."
till thought and the wild music steadied her.
It did not seem in the least surprising She lost the sense of herself, and even the
to Stella to find herself, half an hour later, flickering firelight faded ; she felt out once
sitting in a patch of candle-light, on a high- more the warm, swinging wind, with
in

backed oak chair, saying aloud without its through the senses to the soul.
call

effort or self-consciousness Shelley's "Ode The first two parts of the poem, with
to the West Wind." their sustained and tremendous imagery,
Neither Lady ^^erny nor Julian ever said themselves without effort or restraint.
made a guest feel strange. There w^as It was while she was in the halcj'on third

in them both an innate courtesy-, which portion of


was there to protect the feelings of others.
"The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,
They did not seem to be protecting Stella.
Lulled by the coil of his crystalline streams,"
They left her alone, but in the act of
doing so they set her free from criticism.
Lady Verny took up her embroidery, and that it shot through Stella's mind how
Julian, sitting in the shadow of an old oak near she was to the tragic unfolding of a
settle, contentedly smoked a cigarette. He fettered spirit which might be the expres-
did not appear to be watching Stella, but sion of Julian's own. She dared not stop;
neither her movements nor her expressions the color rushed over her face. By an
escaped him. She was quite different enormous effort she kept her voice steady
from any one he had seen before. She and flung into it all the unconsciousness
wore a curious little black dress, too high she could muster. He should not dream
to be smart, but low enough to set in re- she thought of him ; and yet as she said :

lief her white, slim throat. She carried


"Oh! lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cIuuJ
her head badly, so that it was difficult to
I fall upon the thorns of life! 1 bleed!
see at first the beauty of the lines from
brow She had a curious, irregular
to chin.
A heavy weight of hours has chain'd and
bowed
face, like one of the more playful and less
One too like thee— tameless, and swift, and
attentive angels in a group round a Bot-
proud,"
ticelli Madonna. She had no color, and
all the life of her face was concentrated in

her gray, far-seeing eyes. Julian had it seemed to her that she was the voice of

never seen a pair of eyes in an\- face so his inner soul stating his bitter secret to

alert and fiery. They were without hard- the world. A


pulse beat in her throat and-
ness, and the fire in them melted easily struggled with her breath, her knees shook
into laughter. But they changed with the \uider her; but the music of her low,
tones of her voice, with the rapid words grave voice went on unfalteringly:
932 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
'IVIake me thy lyre, even as the forest is. then he dragged himself up, as she had
What if my leaves are falling, like its own!" feared he would, and punctiliously lighted
their candles.

Lad)' Verny laid down her embroidery. "It 's rather absurd not having electric

Julian had not moved. There was no light here, is n't it?" he observed, handing
sound left in the world but Stella's voice. Stella her candle. "But we can't make
She moved slowly toward the uncon- up our minds to it. We like candle-light
querable end, with old oak. I 'm not prepared to give
in about your fellow Shelley but I con- ;

"Oh, Wind, fess I liked that poem better than the


If winter comes, can spring be far behind?" others have read. You must put
I me up
to some more another time."
All the force of her heart throbbed If she had made one of her frightful
through Shelley's words. They were only blunders, hewas n't going to let her see it.

words, but they had the universe behind His smile was perfectly kind, perfectly im-
them. Nobody spoke when she had penetrable. She felt as if he were treat-
finished. ing her like an intrusive child. Lady
She herself was the first to move. Verny said nothing more about the poem
She gave a quick, impatient sigh, and but as she paused outside Stella's door
threw" out her hands with a little gesture she leaned over her and very lightly kissed
of despair. her cheek.
"I can't give it to you," she said, ''but It was as if she said: "Yes, I know you
it 's there. Read it for yourself! It 's m.ade a mistake ; but go on making them.
worth breaking laws for; I think it 's I can't. I 'm too like him ; so that the
worth being broken for." only thing for do is to leave him iv.e to

Julian answered her. He spoke care- alone. But perhaps one day one of your
fully and a little stiffly. mistakes may reach him and if they can't, ;

"I don't think I agree with you," he nothing can."


said. "Nothing is worth being broken Stella shivered as she stood alone before
for." the firelight. Everything in the room was
Stella bowed her head. She was aware beautiful, the chintz covers, the thick,
of an absolute and appalling sense of ex- warm carpet, the gleam of the heavy silver
haustion and of an inner failure more candlesticks. The furniture was not
terrible than any physical collapse. chosen because had been suitable. It it

It was as if Julian had pushed aside was suitable because it had been chosen
her soul. long ago. It had grown like its sur-
"Still, I think you must admit. Julian," roundings into a complete harmony, and
Lady Verny said quietly, "that 'The Ode all this beauty, all this warm, old, shining
to the West Wind' is an admirable poem. and generations
polish of inanimate objects
I 'm afraid, my dear, you have tired your- of good manners, covered an ache like a
self in saying it for us. I know the poem hollow tooth. Nobody could get down to
very well, but I have never either under- what was wrong because they were too
stood or enjoyed it so much before. Do well bred and was It very likely that they
;

3'ou not think you had better go to bed ? were going to let Stella? She would
Julian will excuse us. I find I am a little annoy Julian, she had probably annoyed
tired myself." him to-night; but would she ever reach
Stella rose to her feet uncertainly. She him? In her mind she had been able to
was afraid that Julian would get up again think of him as near her; but now that
and light their candles but for a moment ; she was in the same house, she felt as if she
he did not move. He was looking at her were on the other side of unbridged space.
reconsideringly, as if something in his He was frightening, too he was so much ;

mind was recognizing something in hers handsomer than she remembered, and so
THE SF.COND FIDDLK 933

much more was inconceivable


alive. It brown trees on them; and sometimes they
that he should ever want to work with are a traveling mist; and then the sun starts

her. out (I have n't seen it full yet), and every-


Slie sat down before an oval silver thing 's blue — the frailest, pearliest blue.

mirror and looked at her face. It seemed Yesterday was quite empty, with only its

to her that she was confronted by an empt^- own light, and when evening came the

little slab without light. She gave it a water-meadows and the little hills were
wintry smile before she turned away from lost in amethyst.
it. I have n't said anything about the downs.
"1 don't suppose lie '11 ever want any- I can't. Wewalk on them in the after-

thing of you," she said to herself, "ex- noon. At least we walk along the lane that

cept to go a\\ay." goes through the village (it 's full of mud;
but one gets quite fond of mud), and then

CHAPTER XVIII when you feel the short turf under you,
and the fields drop down, you go up into
Later Stella wrote the sky and float.
Eurydice dearest: One begins so well, too. At breakfast
It 's the strangest household, or else, per- there 's such beautiful china, butter in a

haps, everybody else's is. You never see lordly dish, always honey, and often mush-
anybody doing anything, and yet everything rooms. Everything tastes as if it came fresh
gets done. It 's all ease and velvet and out of the sky.
bells ; and yet in spite of nothing being a I can do exactly as I like all day. No-
minute late, you never notice the slightest body's plans conflict with any one else's.

hurry. It is n't clockwork; it 's more like That 's partly being rich and partly- being
the stars in their courses. I always thought sensible; it 's quite wonderful how easy life

being properly waited on made people help- is if you 're both. There 's a special room
less; it would me in ten minutes. I can given to me, with a piano and books; and if

see myself sinking into a cream-fed cushion, I want Lady \\Tny, I can find her in the
but the Vernys sit bolt upright, and no garden.
servant they possess can do any given thing I can see her out of my window now
as well for them as they can do it for them- she 's Avearing a garment that 's a cross
selves. between a bathing-dress and a dressing-
I have breakfast in my room, with a gown, enormous gauntlets, and one of Sir

robin, and the window open — oh, open on to Julian's There are gardeners,
old caps.
the sharpest paradise! especially one called Potter. (Whenever
While I lie in bed I can see an old, moss- anything goes wrong, Lady Verny shakes her
covered barn which always manages to have head and says, 'Ah, that 's the Potter's

a piece of pink sky behind it and a black elm thumb!") But you never see them. She 's

bough in front. It 's a wonderful barn, as always doing something in the garden. Half
old as any hill, and with all the colors of the time I can't discover what; but she just
the rainbow subservient to it. That 's one smiles at me and says, "Nature 's so untidy,"
window; two look over the garden.
the other or, "The men need looking after." Botli
There and a lawn out of
's a terrace, Lady Verny and Sir Julian are very serious

which little glens and valleys wander down over their servants. In a way they 're in-
the hillside into the water-meadows, and credibly nice to them, they seem to ha\e
there 's a lake drowned out by the water, them so much on their minds. They 're al-
with swans more or less kept in it by a ways discussing their relatives or their sore
hedge of willows. throats, and they give very polite, plain

The water-meadows are more beautiful orders; but then just when you 're thinking
than all the little shiny clouds that race how heavenly it must be to work for them,
across the valley. Sometimes they 're like a they say something that chills you to the
silver tray, with green islands and wet. bone. One of the housemaids broke a china
934 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
bowl yesterday, and came to Lady Verny, alwa\'s go to church, and Lady Verny
saying: reads Montaigne beautifully bound, like —
"If you please, m' Lady. I did n't mean to Sir Thomas a Kempis during the sermon. —
do it." A great deal of the land belongs to

"I should hope not," Lady Verny said them, and I suppose they could use a lot

in a voice like marble. "If you had meant of influence if they chose. I always dis-

to do it, I should hardly keep you in the like people having power over other human
house; but your not having criminal ten- beings; but the Vernys never use it to their
dencies is hardly an excuse for culpable own advantage. In nine cases out of ten
carelessness." they don't use it at all. I heard the vicar
Sir Julian 's worse, because his eyes are imploring Sir Julian to turn a drunken
harder; he must have caught them from one tenant out of a cottage, as his example was
of his icebergs. But the servants stay with bad for the village. But Sir Julian would
them forever, and when one of the grooms n't even agree to speak to him. "I always
had pneumonia in the winter. Sir Julian sat believe in letting people go to the devil in
up with him for three nights because the their own way," he said. "If you try to
man was afraid of dying, and it quieted him stop 'em, they only go to him in yours. Of
to have his master in the room. course I don't mean j'ou, Parson. It 's your
I 'm beginning to work in the garden my- profession to give people a lead. But I

self, the smells are so nice, and the dogs could n't speak about his morals to a man
like it. Lady Verny has a spaniel and two who owed me three years' rent."
fox-terriers, and Sir Julian a very fierce, un- I expect I shall have to come back next
pleasant arctic monster, with a blunt nose week to the town hall. Thank Mr.
like a Chow, and eyes red with temper and Tr avers so much for saying I may stay on
a thirst for blood. longer, but I really could n't go on taking
He 's always locked up when he is n't my salary when I 'm bursting with health
with Sir Julian. If he was n't, I 'm sure and doing nothing. I '11 wait two more days
he 'd take the other three dogs as hors- before writing to him, but I must confess
d'oeuvre, and follow them up with the I 'd rather have all my teeth extracted than
gardeners. mention Professor Paulson to Sir Julian.
I don't know what he does all day. Sir I have n't seen the slightest desire for
Julian I mean the arctic dog growls. They
; work in him; but, then, I have n't seen any
never turn up till tea-time; then they dis- desire in him at all except a suicidal fancy
appear again, and come back at dinner. At for driving a dangerous mare in a high
least Sir Julian does. The arctic dog (his dog-cart. He never speaks of himself or
name is Ostrog) is not allowed at meals, of the u ar, and he is about as personal as
because he thinks everything in the room a mahogany sideboard.
ought to be killed first. Lady Verny is n't much easier to know,
After dinner I play chess with Sir Julian. though she seems to like talking to me. I

He 's been quite different to me since he asked her to me Stella the other day,
call

found I could; before he seemed to think and she put down her trowel and looked
I was something convenient for his mother, at me as if she thought it was n't my place

like a pocket-handkerchief. He was ready to make such a suggestion ; then she said,
to pick me up and give me back to her if I "Well, perhaps I will." I wish we 'd been
tell about, but I did n't have a life of my taught whose place things are; it would be
somuch simpler when you are with people
Now he often speaks to me as if were
I who have places. But Lady Verny does n't
really there. They 're both immensely dislike me, because I 've seen her with
kind and good to everybody in the neigh- people she dislikes. She 's much more polite
borhood, but they see as little of people as then, and never goes on with anything. Last
possible. night when I was playing chess with Sir
They *re not a bit religious, though they Julian (it was an awful fight, for he 's
THE SECOND FIDDLE 935
rather better than am, though
I can't 1
CHAPTER XIX
let

him know it) she said to him, "I hope \ou


are not tiring Stella." Stella found Lady Verny weeding. She
He looked up drew the weeds up very gracefully and
sharpl\-, as if he was
thoroughly, with a little final shake.
awfully surprised to hear her saying my
name, and then he gave me a queer little
was a hard, shivering March morn-
It

smile as if he were pleased with me. I be-


ing. Next to the bed upon which Lady
lieve they 're fond of each other, but
Verny was working was a sheet of snow-
I 've
never seen them show any sign of affection. drops under a dark yew-hedge. They
But, O Eurvdice, though they 're awfully
trembled and shook in the light air like
a drift of wind-blown snow.
charming and interesting and dear, they 're
Stella hovered irresolutely above them;
terribly unhappy. You feel it all the time
— a dumb, blind pain that they can't get
then she said

over or understand, and that nothing will "Lady Verny, I am afraid I must go
ever induce them to show. back to the town hall next week. I have
They are n't
n't been of any use."
a bit like the arctic dog, who is always dis-
agreeable unless he has a bone and Sir
Lady Verny elaborately coaxed out a

Julian. You know where you are with the


low-growing weed, and then, with a
arctic dog.
twist, threw it into the basket beside her.

Tell Mr. Travers I '11 write directly I


"Why don't you go and talk to Julian?"

have fixed a date for my return.


she asked. "He can't be expected to jump
Your a five-barred gate if he does n't know it 's
ever-loving, disheveled, enthralled,
perturbed, unfinished there."
Stella hesitated before she spoke; then
Stella.
she said with a little rush
P.S. I suppose as a family we all talk too "What I feel now is that I 'm not the
much; we over-say things, and that makes person to tell him— to tell him it 's there.
them seem shallow. you say very
If little, I mean. I don't know^ why I ever thought
it comes out in chunks and sounds solid. was. The person to him
I tell that would
You remember those dreadful old early- be some one he could notice like a light,
Saxon people we read oncewho never used not a person who behaves like a candle
adjectives? I think we ought to look them caught in a draft whenever he speaks to
up. her."

•'AITEK DI.N.NtK I PLAV CHliSS WITH SIR JCLI.^N"


936 THE CENTURY AlAGAZLXE
'My dear," said Lady Verny, ruthlessly the world to please him ; I 'd play like a
exposing, and one by one exterminating, brass band, or cover myself with bangles
a family of wireworms, "I fear you have like Cleopatra! Don't, don't think T '11

no feminine You have a great many


sense. ever be a coward again!"
other kinds —
of the mind, and no doubt "You need n't go as far as the bangles."
of the soul. You should try to please saidLady V^erny, smiling grimly. "Do it
Julian. You don't; you leave him alone, your own way, but don't be afraid to let
and in consequence he thinks he 's a failure Julian think you like him. He finds all
with you. Women with the feminine sense that kind of thing rather hard to believe
please a man without appearing to make just now.
the ei¥ort. The result is that the man "He 's been frozen up. Remember, if

thinks he 's pleasing them, and a man who he is n't nice to you, that thawing is al-
thinks that he has succeeded in pleasing an ways rather a painful process. Now run
agreeable woman is not unaware of her." along, and leave mt in peace with my
"But I 'm so afraid of him," pleaded worms."
Stella. "I don't believe you know how It cannot be said that Stella ran, but she
frightening he is." went. She passed through the hall and
"Yes," said Lady Verny; "he has lost a green-baize door, and wondered, if she
his inner security. That makes a person had been an early-Christian martyr about
very frightening, I know. He has become to step into the arena, whether she would
aggressive because he feels that something n't on the whole have preferred a tiger to

he has always counted on as a weapon Julian.


has been withdrawn from him. It 's like The green-baize door opened on a short
living on jour wits ; people who do that passage at the end of which was an old
are always hard. I think you can give him oak doorway heavily studded with nails.
the weapon back; but to do that you must She knew this must be Julian's room, be-
use all your own. You must go into a cause she Ostrog growling omi-
heard
room as if it belonged to you. It 's nously from inside it. Julian presumably
astonishing how this place suits you ; but threw something at him which hit him,
you must hold your head up. and lay claim for there was the sound of a short snap,
to your kingdom." and then silence.
"But I 've never had a kingdom." ob- "Please come in," said Julian in a voice
jected Stella, "and I only want him to of controlled exasperation. Stella stepped
be interested in the idea of writing a quickly into the room, closing the door be-
book." hind her.
"Well, that 's what I mean," said Lady It was a long, wide room \\\th a low
\'erny, decently interring the corpses of ceiling. There were several polar-bear
the worms. "At least it 's part of what I skins on the floor, and a row of stufifed
mean. The only way to get Julian to penguins on a shelf behind Julian's chair.
write a book just now is to charm him. Three of the walls were covered with
Men whose nerves and hearts are broken bookcases; the fourth was bare except for
don't respond readily to the abstract. You an extraordinarily vivid French painting
can do what I can't, because I 'm his of a girl seated in a cafe. She had red
mother. He 's made all the concessions hair and a desperate, laughing face, and
he could or ought to make to me. He was probably a little drunk. There was
promised not to take his life. Sometimes a famous artist's signature beneath her
in these last few months I 've felt like figure, but Stella had a feeling that Julian
giving him his promise back. Now are had known the girl and had not bought
you going to be afraid of trying to please the picture for the sake of tlie signature.
Julian?" Ostrog stood growling,
in front of her,
"O Lady Verny," Stella cried, "you with every separate hair on his back erect.
make me hate myself! I '11 do anything in "Keep quite still for a moment." said
THE SECOND FIDDLE 937
Julian, quickly. "Ostrog, lie down!" at first hand. That was unfortunate
The dog very slowly settled himself on second-hand accuracy leaks."
his haunches, w^ith his red, savage eyes still Stella sat down near him, and in a
fixed on Stella. minute they were launched into an eager
"Now I think you can pass him safely," discussion. She had typed the book her-
Julian added. "He has a peculiar dis- self, and had its facts at her fingers'-end.

human proximity, especially in this


like to She presented a dozen facets to her ques-
room. You can't write him down as one tions, with a light in them from her danc-
who loves his fellow-man, and I fear he ing mind.
carries his unsociability even further in Julian differed, defended himself, and
respect to his fellow-woman." explained, till he found himself at length
"It must be nice for you," said Stella, in the middle of an account of his last ex-
'to have some one who expresses for jou pedition. He pulled himself up abruptly.
what you are too polite to say for your- "By Jove!" he exclaimed, "what a dark
self." horse you are! Do tell me how you come
Julian gave her a quick, challenging to know anything about such a subject.
look. Did you smuggle yourself into an arctic
"I beg your pardon," he said. "Why expedition stowaway, or have you
as a
should you suppose any such thing?" been prospecting gold in the Klondike
"I expect because it is true," said Stella, with a six-shooter and a sleeping-sack?
quietly. "Of course you don't growl or It 's amazing what vou know about the
show your teeth,and your eyes are n't red ;
North."
but nobody could suppose when you said "It is not so uncanny as you think," said
'Come in' just now that you wanted any- SteMa, quietly. "I was Professor Paul-
body to come in." son's secretary. For five years I studied
"The chances were all in favor of its the fauna and flora of arctic regions. I

being somebody that I did n't want," ex- used to help him examine the tests brought
plained Julian, politely. "For once they back by explorers. He taught me how to
misled me. I apologize." understand and check climate and weather
Stella smiled ; her eyes held his for a charts. All the collected specimens went
moment. She did not contradict him, but through my hands. I did the drawings
she let him see that she did n't believe him. for this book, for instance. You know, a
"If he was ever really sorry," she thought, secretary is a kind of second fiddle. Give
"he would n't apologize. When he 's him a lead, and he catches up the music
polite, it 's because he really is n't any- and carries it through as thoroughly,
thing else." though not so loudly, as the first violin.
"I came," she explained, "to ask you I like being a second fiddle and I like the

to lend me Professor Paulson's book on North."


reindeer-moss. Will you tell me where it "That 's odd," said Julian, drawing his
is and let me get it for myself, if Ostrog heavy eyebrows together. "I had an idea
does n't mind?" I had met Professor Paulson's secretary

To her surprise, Julian allowed her to before."


find it Ostrog continued to
for herself. "You are quite right," said Stella ; "you
grov^^l, but without immediate menace. did meet her before."
When she had found it, she took it across Julian stared at her; his eyes hardened.
to Julian. "Do you mean that it was you I met at
"Please don't run away," he said Sir Francis Young's?" he asked her. "You
quickly, "unless you want to. Tell me are Miss Young's great friend, then, are
what you intend to look up about the moss. you not?"
I had a little tussle with Paulson over it Stella turned her eyes away from him.
once. He was an awfully able fellow, She hated to see him guarding himself
but he had n't the health to get at his facts against her.
938 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE
"I was her friend," she said in a low "I dare say I was interested talking to
voice ; "but I have not seen her or heard you," he said. "You 're such a changeling:
from her for six months, nor have I you play chess wizard and know the
like a
written." North like a witch. I 'm afraid, Miss
Sir Juh'an still looked at her, but the Waring, that interest in your conversa-
sternness of his ej'es decreased. tion is n't in itself sufficient to turn a man
She meekly beside him, with her
sat into an author."
drooping head, like the snowdrops she had Stella rose slowly to her feet. She
brought in with her from the March opened her lips as if to speak to Julian, but
morning. She did not look like a woman he was looking past her out of the w^indow,
who could be set, or would set herself, with a little bitter smile that took away
to spy upon him. He acquitted her of his her hopefulness. Ostrog escorted her.
worst suspicions, but his pride was up in growling less and less menacingly, to the
arms against her knowledge. door. Stella did not look back at Julian,
"It *s too stupid of me," he said, "not to and she forgot to hold her head up as she
have recognized you immediately; for I went out of the room. After she had
have n't in the least forgotten you or our gone Julian that she had
discovered
talk. You said some charming things, dropped two of her snowdrops on the floor.
Miss Waring; but fate, a little unkindly, He picked them up carefully and laid
has proved them not to be true." them on his desk.
Stella turned her eyes back to his. She "A curious, interesting girl," he said
no longer felt any fear of him. She was to himself; "an incredible friend for
too sorry for him to be afraid. Marian to ha\e had. I wonder what
"No," she said eagerly, "I was perfectly made my mother take her up ?"
right. I said you were strong. Things
have happened to you, — horrible things,
but you 're there ;
you 're there as well as
CHAPTER XX
the things — in control of them. Why, Lady Verny finished her weeding. It
look at what you 've been telling me took her an hour and a half to do what
the story of your last expedition ! It 's she wanted to the bed then she rose from ;

so fearfully exciting,and it 's all, as you her cramped position, and went into
say, first-hand knowledge. You brought Julian's library by one of the French
back with you the fruits of experience. windows. She guessed that Stella had
Why don't you select arid sort them and failed.
give them to the world?" Julian was lying on a long couch, with
He looked at her questioningly.

You might also like