The Strength of the Strong

R C ED AROUND HIM ON THEIR A C OU H , H MS, WERE

THREE ! OUNG MEN. HIS GRANDSONS. T H E ST REN GT H OF T HE STRON G

THE VA E! OF THE MOON ETC. LL ,

WI T H F R O N T I SP I E C E

T H E M ACM I LLAN COM PAN Y 1 9 1 4 Co ri ht 1908 b The Red B oo Cor oration and py g , , y k p by Charles H . Kerr and Company t 1 09 The Curtis Publ hin Copyrgi h , 9 , by is g Compan y

an d by Charles H . Kerr and Compan y

Co ri ht 19 10 b The . . McClure Com an py g , , y S S p y Co ri ht 19 11 b B ton py g , , y en jamin B Hamp Co r ht 19 12 and 19 13 b Dodd Mead and Com py gi , , y , pany

P! RIGHT 19 14 CO , , By THE MACMILLAN COMPAN!

Set u and Electrot ed Published Ma 1 1 p yp y , 9 4

5 42 $52 (3

5 CONTENTS

TH E STREN GT H O F T H E STRON G

SOU T H OF T H E SLOT

THE U N PARALLELED IN VASION

THE EN EM! or ALL T H E WORLD

T H E DREAM OF DEBS

T H E

SAM U EL

THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG

’ Parabl es d on t lie but l r , ia s will parabl e .

- L -K ip ing .

LD h Long Beard paused in is narrative ,

licked his greasy ﬁngers , and wiped them on his naked sides where his one piece of ragged bearskin failed to cover him .

Crouched around him , on their hams , were

- three young men , his grandsons , Deer Run

- - - - o f . ner, Yellow Head , and Afraid the Dark

In appearance they were much the same .

Skins of Wild animals partly covered them .

They were lean and meager of build , narrow

- hipped and crooked legged, and at the same

- time deep chested , with heavy arms and enor mous hands . There was much hair on their

an . o o f chests d shoulders , and on the utsides their arms and legs . Their heads were matted h wit uncut hair , long locks of which often THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG

an d strayed before their eyes , beady and black

glittering like the eyes o f birds . They were

narro w between the eyes and broad between

the cheeks , while their lower jaws were proj ect

ing and massive .

It was a night of clear starlight, and below them, stretching away remotely , lay range on

- n range of forest covered hills . In the dista ce

the heaven s were red fro m the glow of a vol cano . At their backs yawned the black mouth

o t of a cave , out of which , fr m ime to time , blew draughty gusts of wind . Immediately in front of them blazed a ﬁre . At one side , partly de vo u re d , lay the carcass of a bear, with about it, at a respectable distance , several large dogs ,

- shaggy and wolf like . Beside each man lay his bow and arrows and a huge club . In the cave mouth a number of rude spears leaned against the rock . “So that was how we moved from the cave

o ld to the tree , Long Beard spoke up .

They laughed boisterously, like big children , at recollection of a previ o us story his words

c u . alled p Long Beard laughed , too , the ﬁve 2 THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG

t inch bodkin of bone , hrust midway through the cartilage of his nose , leaping and dancing and adding to his ferocious appearance . He did not exactly say the words recorded , but he made animal- like sounds with his mouth that meant the same thing . “And that is the ﬁrst I remember of the Sea “ Valley, Long Beard went on . We were a very foolish crowd . We did not know the

. Fo r secret of strength , behold, each family lived by itself, and took care of itself . There were thirty families , but we got no strength from one another . We were in fear of each

N o . other all the time . one ever paid V isits

o ur In the top of tree we built a grass house , and on the platform outside was a pile of rocks , which were for the heads o f any that might

V . chance to try to isit us Also , we had our spears and arrows . We never walked under the trees of the other families , either . My

’ -o o h s brother did , once , under old Boo g tree , an d he got his head broken and that was the end of him .

- Old Boo o ogh was very strong. It was said 3 THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG

’ H. he could pull a gro wn man s head right O I never heard of him doing it , because no man ’ . would give him a chance . Father wouldn t

One day, when father was down on the beach ,

’ - Boo o o gh took after mo ther . She couldn t run

fo r fast , the day before she had got her leg clawed by a bear when she was up on the moun

- oo h tain gathering berries . So Boo g caught her and carried her up into his tree . Father never got her back . He was afraid . Old

- BO O o o gh made faces at him . “ -Arm But father did n o t mind . Strong was another stron g man . He was one of the best

n . But o n e ﬁsherme day, climbing after sea

he ff gull eggs , had a fall from the cli . He was

o never stro ng after that . He c ughed a great

o deal , and his sh ulders drew near to each other .

’ - So father took Strong Arm s wife . When he came around and coughed under our tree , father laughed at him and threw rocks at him .

o ur It was way in those days . We did not know how to add strength together and become ” strong. THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG

“ Would a brother take a brother’ s wife ? ”

- Deer Runner demanded . “ Yes , if he had gone to live in another tree by himself . “ But we do not do such things now, Afraid o f- - the Dark obj ected . “ It is because I have taught your fathers bet ter . Long Beard thrust his hairy paw into the bear meat and drew out a handful of suet, which he sucked with a meditative air . Again he wiped his hands on his naked sides and went on . “What I am telling you happened in the long

! a o . g , before we knew any better “ You must have been fools not to know bet

’ - ter, was Deer Runner s comment , Yellow

Head grunting appro val . “ 50 we were , but we became bigger fools , as you shall see . Still , we did learn better, and

- this was the way of it . We Fish Eaters had not learned to add our strength until our

o f strength was the strength all of us . But the

- Meat Eaters , who lived across the divide in the

Big Valley, stood together , hunted together,

ﬁshed together, and fought together . One day THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG

they came into our valley. Each family of us go t into its own cave and tree . There were o - but nly ten Meat Eaters , they fought together, and we fought each family by itself . Long Beard counted long and perplexedly on his ﬁngers . “ There were sixty men of us, was what he managed to say with fingers and lips combined . “ And we were very strong, only we did not

m en c kno w it . So we watched the ten atta k

’ - Boo o o gh s tree . He made a good ﬁght, but

o o he had no chance . We l ked on . When some

- of the Meat Eaters tried to climb the tree , Boo o o gh had to show himself in order to drop stones on their heads , whereupon the other

- Meat Eaters , who were waiting for that very thing, shot him full of arrows . And that was

- h the end of Boo oog . “ - - Next, the Meat Eaters got One Eye and his family in his cave . They built a fire in the

o ut mouth and smoked him , like we smoked out

- the bear there to day. Then they went after

- Six Fingers, up his tree , and, while they were

and killing him his grown son, the rest of us 6 THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG

o ran away . They caught s me of our women , and killed two old men who could not run fast and several children . The women they carried away with them to the Big Valley . “ After that the rest of us crept back, and , somehow , perhaps because we were in fear and felt the need for one another, we talked the — thing over . It was our first council our first real council . And in that council we formed our first tribe . For we had learned the lesson .

- Of the ten Meat Eaters , each man had had the strength of ten , for the ten had fought as one man . They had added their strength together . But of the thirty families and the sixty men of us , we had had the strength of but one man , for each had fought alone . “ It was a great talk we had, and it was hard talk, for we did not have the words then as now with which to talk . The Bug made some of the words long afterward , and so did others of us make words from time to time . But in the end we agreed to add our strength together and to be as one man when the Meat-Eaters came over 7 THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG the divide to steal our wo men . And that was the tribe . “ the We set two men on the divide , one for if day and one for the night, to watch the Meat

. Eaters came . These were the eyes of the tribe

ten Then , also , day and night, there were to be men awake with their clubs and spears and ar rows in their hands , ready to ﬁght. Before ,

u when a man went after ﬁsh , or clams , or g ll eggs , he carried his weapons with him , and half the time he was getting fo od and half the time watching for fear so me other man would get him . Now that was all changed . The men went out without their weapons and spent all

o o their time getting f d . Likewise , when the women went into the mountains after roots and

ten berries , ﬁve of the men went with them to guard them . While all the time , day and night, the eyes of the tribe watched from the top of the divide . “ But troubles came . As usual , it was about the women . Men without wives wanted other

’ men s wives, and there was much ﬁghting b e

n o tween men, and w and again one got his head 8

THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG bro thers wo u ld bec o me afraid and the tribe wo uld fall apart , and we would be as weak as when the Meat-Eaters ﬁrst came upon us and

- killed Boo o ogh . “ - Knuckle Bone was a strong man , a very

m an . strong , and he knew not law He knew only his own strength , and in the fullness there of he went forth and took the wife of Three

- Clams . Three Clams tried to ﬁght, but

- Knuckle Bon e clubbed out his brains . Yet had

Knuckle - B o ne fo rgo tten that all the men of us had added o u r strength to keep the law among

the us , and him we killed , at foot of his tree , and hung his body o n a b ranch as a warning

o that the law was str nger than any man . For we were the law, all of us , and no man was greater than the law . “ Then there were other troubles , for know,

0 - o - Deer Runner, and Yell w Head , and Afraid o f- - no t to the Dark , that it is easy make a tribe .

n t t There were ma y hings , lit le things , that it was a great trouble to call all the men together to o n have a c u cil about . We were having coun cils morning, noon , and night , and in the middle

1 0 THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG of the night . We could ﬁnd little time to go out

o and get fo d , what of the councils , for there

o n was always s me little thi g to be settled , such as naming two new watchers to take the place

o ld of the ones on the hill , or naming ho w much food should fall to the share of the men who kept their weapons always in their hands and

o t g no food for themselves . “ We stood in need of a chief man to do these things , who would be the voice o f the council , and who would account to the council

- for the things he did . So we named Pith Fith

. to o the chief man He was a strong man , , and very cunning, and when he was angry he made

- th tk . noises just like that , ﬁ ﬁ , like a wildcat “The ten men who guarded the tribe were set to work making a wall of stones across the nar

o r w part of the valley . The women and large children helped , as did other men , until the wall was strong. After that, all the families came down out of their caves and trees and built grass houses behind the shelter of the wall . These houses were large and much better than the caves and trees , and everybody had a better

I 1 THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG

time o f it because the men had added their strength to gether and become a tribe . Because

th of e wall and the guards and the watchers , there was more time to hunt and ﬁsh and pick

t roots and berries ; here was more food , and better food , and no one went hungry . And

- n Three Legs , so amed because his legs had been smashed when a bo y and who walked with a — stick Three- Legs go t the seed of the wild corn and planted it in the gro und in the valley

o . h e near his h use Also , tried planting fat ro o ts and other things he fo und in the mountain valleys .

u o f the Beca se safety in the Sea Valley, which was because of the wall an d the watchers

the and guards , and because there was fo od in

n fo r t o t n to ple ty all wi h u havi g ﬁght for it, many families came in from the co ast valleys o n both sides and fro m the high back mountains where they had lived more like wild animals than men . And it was not long before the Sea i Valley ﬁlled up , and in t were co untless fami

. lies But, before this happened , the land , which

to had been free all and belonged to all , was

1 2 THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG

- ‘ divided up . Three Legs began it when he planted corn . But most o f us did n o t care abo ut the land We thought the marking of the boundaries with fences of stone was a foolish ness . We had plenty to eat, and what more did we want ? I remember that my father and

I built stone fences for Three-Legs and were given corn in return . “ So only a few got all the land , and Three

Legs got most of it . Also , others that had taken land gave it to the few that held on, being paid in return with corn and fat roots , and bear skins , and ﬁshes which the farmers got from the

ﬁshermen in exchange for corn . And, the ﬁrst thing we knew, all the land was gone . “ It was about this time that Pith-Pith died

- and Dog Tooth, his son , was made chief . He demanded to be made chief anyway, because his father had been chief before him . Also , he looked upon himself as a greater chief than his father . He was a good chief at ﬁrst, and worked hard, so that the council had less and less to do . Then arose a new voice in the Sea

- Vall ey. It was Twisted Lip . We had never I 3 THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG

thought much o f him , until he began to talk

with the spirits o f the dead . Later we called

- - him Big Fat, because he ate over much, and

did no work, and grew round and large . One

day Big- Fat told us that the secrets of the dead

were his, and that he was the voice of God .

- He became great friends with Dog Tooth, who

commanded that we build Big- Fat a grass

- house . And Big Fat put taboos all around this house and kept God in sid “ More and more Do g-To oth became greater than the council , and when the council grumbled

n e - and said it would name a w chief , Big Fat

o f Go d an d spoke with the voice said no . Also ,

Three - Legs and the others who held the land

- . o stood behind Dog Tooth M reover, the

- strongest man in the council was Sea Lion , and

- to him the land owners gave land secretly, along with many bearskins and baskets of corn . So

’ Sea-Lion said that Big- Fat s voice was truly the voice of God and must be obeyed . And soon afterward Sea-Lion was named the voice of Dog-Tooth and did most of his talking for him .

I 4 THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG

“ - Then there was Little Belly , a little man , so thin in the middle that he looked as if he had never had enough to eat . Inside the mouth o f

- the river , after the sand bar had combed the ﬁ h strength of the breakers , he built a big s trap . No man had ever seen or dreamed a

- ﬁ sh . o trap before He worked weeks n it, with his son and his wife , while the rest of us laughed

n at their labors . But , whe it was done , the ﬁrst day he caught more ﬁsh in it than could the whole tribe in a week, whereat there was great

o o n e o rej o icing. There was nly ther place in

ﬁ sh- the river for a trap , but , when my father and I and a dozen other men started to make a very large trap , the guards came from the big

- - grass house we had built for Dog Tooth . And the guards poked us with their spears and told

- us begone , because Little Belly was going to build a trap there himself on the word of Sea

- . Lion , who was the voice of Dog Tooth “ There was much grumbling, and my father called a council . But , when he rose to speak, him the Sea -Lion thrust through the throat with

Do - an a spear and he died . And g Tooth d I S THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG

- - Little Belly, and Three Legs and all that held

d - land said it was good . An Big Fat said it was the will of God . And after that all men were afraid to stand up in the council , and there was no more council . “ - a . Another man , Pig J w, began to keep goats

He had heard about it as amo ng the Meat

Eaters , and it was not long before he had many

ho ﬂocks . Other men , w had no land and no

ﬁ sh- traps , and who else would have gone hun

- gry, were glad to work for Pig Jaw , caring for his goats , guarding them from wild dogs and

n tigers , and drivi g them to the feeding pastures

- o . in the m untains In return , Pig Jaw gave them

- - goat meat to eat and goat skins to wear, and sometimes they traded the go at~m e at for ﬁsh and corn and fat roots .

t It was this ime that money came to be .

- Sea Lion was the man who ﬁrst thought of it, and he talked it over with Dog- Tooth and Big

Fat . You see , these three were the ones that

o t t g a share of every hing in the Sea Valley .

One basket o ut o f every three o f corn was

o ut theirs , one ﬁsh of every three , one goat out

1 6

THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG of things paid Dog-Too th and Sea - Lion and

Big- Fat their share in money . And they paid

o the guards and watchers in m ney , and the guards and watche rs bought their food with the

o mo ney . And, because m ney was cheap , Dog

Tooth made many more men into guards . And, because mon ey was cheap to make , a number of men began to make money out o f shell them

in selves . But the guards stuck spears them

r and shot them full of a rows , because they were trying to break up the tribe . It was bad to

fo r - break up the tribe , then the Meat Eaters wo uld co me over the divide and kill them all . “ - o Big Fat was the v ice of God , but he took

r - R b so B o ken i and made him into a priest , that he became the vo ice o f Big- Fat and did most of his talking for him . And both had other

So o men to be servants to them . , als , did Little

Belly and Three- Legs an d Pig- Jaw have other men to lie in the sun about their grass houses and carry messages for them and give com

o mands . And m re and more were men taken

so away from work , that those that were left worked harder than ever before . It seemed

1 8 THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG that men desired to do no wo rk and strove to seek out o ther ways whereby men should work

- o for them . Crooked Eyes f und such a way . He

r - made the ﬁrst ﬁ e brew out of corn . And there

t af er he worked no more , for he talked secretly with Dog- Tooth and Big- Fat and the other mas ters , and it was agreed that he should be the

ﬁ r - o o only one to make e brew . But Cr ked

Eyes did no work himself . Men made the brew for him , and he paid them in money . Then

the ﬁ re - he sold brew for money, and all men

o f o bought . And many strings m ney did he

- - give Dog Tooth and Sea Li o n and all of them . “ Big- Fat and Broken- Rib stood by Dog

Tooth when he took his second wife , and his

Do - ff third wife . They said g Tooth was di erent from other men and second only to God that

- Big Fat kept in his taboo house , and Dog

Tooth said so , too , and wanted to know who were they to grumble about how many wives

- he took . Dog Tooth had a big canoe made ,

o and many more men he to k from work, who did nothing and lay in the sun , save only when

- Dog Tooth went in the canoe , when they pad I 9 THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG

- dle d fo r him . And he made Tiger Face head

- F man o ver all the guards , so that Tiger ace be came his right arm , and when he did not like a

- m an Tiger Face killed that man for him . And

- o to Tiger Face , also , made an ther man be his

to right arm , and give commands , and to kill for him . “ But this was the strange thing : as the days went by we who were left worked harder and

et harder, and y did we get less and less to eat

But what o f the goats and the corn and the ” ﬁ sh- o - fat roots and the trap , sp ke up Afraid o f “ - o f ? the Dark, what all this Was there not

’ ” more fo o d to be gained by man s work ? “ ” “ so o - It is , L ng Beard agreed . Three men o n the ﬁ sh-trap got more ﬁsh than the whole

o ﬁ sh- tribe bef re there was a trap . But have I not said we were fools ? The more food we were able to get, the less food did we have to ” eat. “ But was it not plain that the many men who did not work ate it all up Yellow-Head de

m ande d .

2 0 THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG

- Long B eard nodded his head sadly . Dog ’ ff Tooth s dogs were stu ed with meat, and the men who lay in the sun and did no work were

fat rolling in , and , at the same time , there were little children crying themselves to sleep with ” hunger biting them with every wail .

Deer- Runner was spurred by the recital of famine to tear out a chunk o f bear- meat and

t o broil it on a s ick ver the coals . This he de vou re d - with smacking lips , while Long Beard went on “ - When we grumbled Big Fat arose , and with the voice o f Go d said that God had chosen the wise men to own the land and the goats and

h- ﬁ re - t the ﬁs trap and the brew, and hat without these wise men we would all be animals , as in the days when we lived in trees . “And there arose one who became a singer of songs for the king . Him they called the Bug, because he was small and ungainly of face and limb and excelled not in work or deed . He loved the fattest marrow bones , the choicest

fish , the milk warm from the goats , the first corn that was ripe , and the snug place by the fire .

2 1 THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG

t n o n to And hus , becomi g singer of s gs the king, he fo und a way to do nothing and be fat . And

o an d when the pe o ple grumbled m re more , and

’ so me threw sto nes at the king s grass house , the

Bug sang a so ng o f how good it was to be a

- o Fish Eater . In his s ng he told that the Fish

Eaters were the cho sen of Go d and the ﬁnest

the me n God had made . He sang of Meat

t o E a ers as pigs and cr ws , and sang how ﬁne and go o d it was fo r the Fish-Eaters to ﬁght and die

’ o th doing G d s work, which was e killing of

- o Meat Eaters . The w rds of his song were like

o ﬁre in us , and we clam red to be led against the

- o Meat Eaters . And we f rgot that we were hungry, and why we had grumbled , and were

- glad to be led by Tiger Face over the divide , where we killed many Meat-Eaters and were content . “ But things were no better in the Sea Vall ey .

The only way to get food was to work fo r

Three-Legs or Little - Belly or Pig- Jaw ; for there was n o land that a man might plant with corn for himself . And often there were more men than Three-Legs and the others had work

2 2 THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG

. an d so for So these men went hungry, did their wives and children and their old mothers .

Tiger- Face said they co uld become guards if they wanted to , and many of them did , and thereafter they did n o work except to poke spears in the men who did work and who grumbled at feeding so many idlers . “ And when we grumbled , ever the Bug sang

- new songs . He said that Three Legs and Pig

t ] aw and the rest were strong men , and hat that was why they had so much . He said that we should be glad to have strong men with us , else would we perish o f our o wn worthlessness and

- the Meat Eaters . Therefore , we should be glad to let such strong men have all they could

- - lay hands on . And Big Fat and Pig Jaw and

- Tiger Face and all the rest said it was true .

‘ ’ ‘ - All right, said Long Fang, then will I ,

’ too , be a strong man . And he got himself corn and began to make ﬁre - brew and sell it

o for strings of money . And , when Cro ked

- Eyes complained , Long Fang said that he was

o himself a str ng man , and that if Crooked Eyes made any more noise he would bash his 2 3 THE STRENGTH OF THE STRON G

o - brains out for him . Whereat Cr oked Eyes was afraid and went and talked with Three

- Legs and Pig Jaw . And all three went and

- - talked to Dog Tooth . And Dog Tooth spoke to - - Sea Lion , and Sea Lion sent a runner with

- - a message to Tiger Face . And Tiger Face sent

’ - his guards , who burned Long Fang s house

- ﬁre . along with the brew he had made Also , they killed him and all his family . And Big

Fat said it was good, and the Bug sang another song about how good it was to observe the law, and what a ﬁne land the Sea Valley was , and how eve ry man who loved the Sea Valley should

- go forth and kill the bad Meat Eaters . And again his song was as fire to us , and we forgot to grumble . “ as - It w very strange . When Little Belly caught too many fish , so that it took a great many to sell for a little money, he threw many of the fish back into the sea , so that more

o money w uld be paid for what was left . And Three-Legs o ften let many large ﬁelds lie idle so as to get more money for his corn . And the women , making so much money out of shell 2 4

THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG

- ing spears into us , and Big Fat talking about

n ew . God, and the Bug singing songs And

n an d when any man did thi k right, said so ,

- T i ger Face and the guards got him , and he was tied out to the rocks at low tide so that the ris ing waters drowned him . — It was a stran ge thing the money . It was

’ It like the Bug s songs . seemed all right, but

’ it wasn t, and we were slow to understand .

- Dog Tooth began to gather the money in . He

o put it in a big pile , in a grass h use , with guards

the to watch it day and night. And more money he piled in the house the dearer money became , so that a man worked a lon ger time for a string

o . of money than bef re Then , too , there was

o f - always talk war with the Meat Eaters , and

Dog-Tooth and Tiger- Face ﬁlled many houses with corn, and dried ﬁsh , and smoked goat meat, and cheese . And with the food piled there in mountains the peo ple had not enough to eat. But what did it matter ? Whenever the people grumbled too lo udly the Bug sang

’ - a new song, and Big Fat said it was God s word

t- that we should kill Mea Eaters , and Tiger

2 6 THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG

Face led us over the divide to kill and be killed .

I was not good enough to be a guard an d lie fat

but - in the sun , , when we made war , Tiger Face

to was glad take me along . And when we had eaten all the fo od sto red in the houses we stopped ﬁghting and went back to work to pile ” up more food . “ o u Then were y all crazy, co mmented Deer

Runner . “ Then were we indeed all crazy, Long “ Beard agreed . It was strange , all of it .

- There was Split Nose . He said everything was

o wr ng . He said it was true that we grew

o r strong by adding u strength together . And

t he said that, when we ﬁrs formed the tribe , it was right that the men whose strength hurt the — tribe should be shorn of their strength men

’ who bashed their brothers heads and sto le

’ their brothers wives . And now , he said , the

n o t o bu tribe was getting str nger , t was getting

r weaker, because there were men with anothe kind o f strength that were hurting the tribe m e n n who had the stre gth of the land , like

Three-Legs ; who had the strength of the ﬁsh 2 7 THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG

t - the t trap , like Li tle Belly ; who had streng h

- t . of all the go at mea , like Pig Jaw The thing

- o to men to do , Split N se said, was shear these o f their evil strength ; to make them go to

l et who wo rk, all o f them , and to no man eat did not work .

And the Bug sang a n other so n g ab o ut men

t- o ho b like Spli N se , w wanted to go ack and live in trees . “ Yet Split-N o se said no ; that he did not want

b t to go back, u ahead ; that they grew strong only as they added thei r strength to gether ; and

a - o th t, if the Fish Eaters w uld add their

n t to the - t o b e n o stre g h Meat Eaters , here w uld more ﬁghting and n o mo re watchers and no

o t o m re guards , and that, wi h all men w rking, there would be so much fo o d that each man would have to work not mo re than two hours a day .

Then the Bug sang again , and he sang that ‘ - Split Nose was lazy , and he sang also the Song

’ . It n of the Bees was a strange so g, and those who listened were made mad, as from the drink ing of strong ﬁ re-brew The song was of a

2 8 THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG w o s arm of bees , and of a r bber wasp who had come in to live with the bees and who was steal ing all their honey . The wasp was lazy and

n o told them there was need to work ; also , he told them to make friends with the bears , who were not honey- stealers but only very good friends . And the Bug sang in crooked words, so that those who listened knew that the swarm was the Sea Valley tribe , that the bears were the

- Meat Eaters , and that the lazy wasp was Split

Nose . And , when the Bug sang that the bees listened to the wasp till the swarm was near to perishing, the people growled and snarled, and when the Bug sang that at last the good bees arose and stung the wasp to death , the people picked up stones from the ground and stoned

Split-Nose to death till there was naught to be seen of him but the heap of stones they had

ﬂung on top of him . And there were many poor people who worked long and hard and had not enough to eat that helped throw the

- stones on Split Nose .

“ - And, after the death of Split Nose, there was but one other man that dared rise up and 2 9 THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG

- . speak his mind , and that man was Hair Face ‘ ’ Where is the strength o f the strong ? he asked . ‘ We are the strong, all of us , and we are stron ger than Dog- Tooth and Tiger- Face and

Three -Legs and Pig-Jaw and all the rest who do nothing and eat much and weaken us by the hurt o f their strength which is bad strength .

Men who are slaves are not strong. If the man who ﬁrst found the virtue and use of ﬁre had

t t o used his s reng h we w uld have been his slaves ,

the to - o f - as we are slaves day Little Belly , who found the Virtue and use of the ﬁ sh-trap ; and of the men who found the V irtue and use of the

- the ﬁ re . land, and goats , and the brew B efore ,

n o as we lived in trees , my brothers , and man w

o n e . safe . But we ﬁght no more with another

o r We have added u strength together . Then

n o o - let us ﬁght m re with the Meat Eaters . Let

o ur t n us add strength and their s re gth together .

n Then will we be indeed strong. A d then we

o ut - will go together, the Fish Eaters and the

- Meat Eaters , and we will kill the tigers and the lions and the wolves and the wild dogs , and we will pasture our goats on all the hillsides 30 THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG and plant our corn and fat roots in all the high

o m untain valleys . In that day we will be so strong that all the wild animals will ﬂee before us and perish . And nothing will withstand us , for the strength o f each man will be the

’ strength of all men in the world . “ - b e So said Hair Face , and they killed him ,

a cause , they said, he was wild man and wanted to go back and live in a tree . It was very strange . Whenever a man arose and wanted to go forward all those that stood still said he went backward and should be killed . And the

o poor people helped stone him , and were f ols .

We were all fools , except those who were fat

n o . o and did work The fo ls were called wise , and the wise were stoned . Men who worked did not get enough to eat, and the men who did not work ate too much .

And the tribe went on losing strength . The children were weak and sickly. And , because we ate not enough , strange sicknesses came among us and we died like ﬂies . And then the

- o Meat Eaters came upon us . We had f llowed

Tiger- Face too often over the divide and killed 3 1 THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG

n o to . them . And w they came repay in blood

We were too weak and sick to man the big wall .

And they killed us , all of us , except some of

. the women , which they took away with them

The Bug and I escaped , and I hid in the wildest places , and became a hunter of meat and went hungry no mo re . I stole a wife from the Meat

n to Eaters , and we t live in the caves of the high mountains where they could not ﬁnd me .

o And we had three s ns , and each son stole a

- wife from the Meat Eaters . And the rest you

o o f know, for are you not the s ns my sons “ ” - But the Bug ? queried Deer Runner . ” What became o f him ?

He went to live with the Meat-Eaters and

o f to be a singer songs to the king. He is an

n o old man w, but he sings the same old songs ; and, when a man rises up to go forward , he sings that that man is walking backward to live in a tree .

Lo ng Beard dipped into the bear-carcass and

o f sucked with toothless gums at a ﬁst suet . “ ” Some day, he said, wiping his hands on his “ sides, all the fools will be dead and then all

32.

SOU TH OF THE SLOT

LD San Francisco , which is the San

Francisco of only the other day, the

day before the Earthquake , was di

i e v d d midway by the Slot . The Slot was an iron crack that ran along the center o f Market

o street, and fr m the Slot arose the burr of the

was e ceaseless , endless cable that hitch d at will to the cars it dragged up and do wn . In

t o o truth , there were w sl ts , but in the quick grammar o f the West time was saved by call in o t g them , and much m re tha they stood for, “ ” The Slot . North of the Slot were the thea ters , hotels , and shopping district, the banks and the staid , respectable business houses . South of

o the Sl t were the factories , slums , laundries ,

- machine shops , boiler works , and the abodes of the working class . The Slot was the metaphor that expressed 34 SOUTH OF THE SLOT

the class cleavage of Society, and n o man crossed this metaphor , back and forth , more successfully than Freddie Drummond . He made a practice of living in both worlds , and in both worlds he lived signally well . Freddie Drummond was a professor in the Sociology

Department of the University of California , and it was as a professor of sociology that he

ﬁrst crossed over the Slot, lived for six months “ - n in the great labor ghetto , and wrote The U ”— skilled Laborer a book that was hailed everywhere as an able contribution to the litera ture of progress , and as a splendid reply to the literature of discontent. Politically and eco nom ically it was nothing if not orthodox . Presi dents o f great railway systems bought who le editions of it to give to their employees . The

’ Manufacturers Association al o ne distributed

ﬁfty thousand copies of it . In a way, it was almost as immoral as the far- famed and no “ ” toriou s Message to Garcia , while in its per nicious preachment of thrift and content it ran “ ” M rs . Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch a close second. 35 SOUTH OF THE SLOT

o it At ﬁrst, Freddie Drummond f und mon stro usly diﬂicult to get along among the work ing people . He was not used to their ways , and they certainly were not used to his . They were suspicious . He had no antecedents . He could talk of no previous j o bs . His hands were so ft . His extraordinary politeness was omi

o f rOl e nous . His ﬁrst idea the he would play was that o f a free and independent American who cho se to wo rk with his hands and no ex

’

o . planati ns given But it wouldn t do , as he

ac quickly discovered . At the beginning they

ce ted r . p him , very p ovisionally, as a freak A little later , as he began to know his way about

t r61e be ter, he insensibly drifted into the that

o — w uld work namely, he was a man who had seen better days , very much better days , but

o who was d wn in his luck, though , to be sure , only temporarily .

He learned many things , and generalized

o much and often err neously, all of which can be found in the pages of “ The Unskilled

Laborer . He saved himself , however, afte r the sane and conservative manner of his kind, 36 SOUTH OF THE SLOT

“ by labeling his generalizations as tentative . One of his ﬁrst experiences was in the great

Wilm ax Cannery, where he was put o n piece work making small packing cases . A box fac tory supplied the parts , and all Freddie D rum mond had to do was to ﬁt the parts into a form

the and drive in wire nails with a light hammer .

It was not skilled labor , but it was piece

o work . The rdinary lab o rers in the cannery got a dollar and a half per day . Freddie Drum mond fo und the other men on the same job with him jogging alo ng and earning a dollar

- ﬁ e and seventy v cents a day . By the third day he was able to earn the same . But he was am

bitio us. n o t He did care to jog along and , being unusually able and ﬁt , on the fourth day earned two dollars . The next day, having keyed him

- self up to an exhausting high tension , he earned two dollars and a half . His fellow workers favored him with scowls and black looks , and

t made remarks , slangily wit y and which he did not understand , about sucking up to the boss and pace - making and holding her down when the rains set in . He was astonished at their 37 . SOUTH OF THE SLOT

- o malingering on piece w rk, generalized about

o the inherent laziness of the unskilled lab rer , and pro ceeded next day to hammer out three

’ dollars worth o f boxes .

o o ut And that night , c ming of the cannery, he

who was interviewed by his fello w workmen , were very angry and inco heren tly slangy . He failed to comprehen d the mo tive behind their

t o t . action . The ac i n i self was strenuous When he refused to ease down his pace and bleated

o o t n ab ut freedom of c n ract, indepe dent Ameri

an ism o c , and the dignity of t il , they proceeded

- to spoil his pace making ability . It was a ﬁerce

o battle , for Drumm nd was a large man and an

t o a hlete , but the cr wd ﬁnally jumped on his

t ribs , walked on his face , and s amped on his

so ﬁngers , that it was only after lying in bed for a week that he was able to get up and lo o k for another job . All of which is duly narrated in

o that ﬁrst bo k of his , in the chapter entitled “ ” The Tyranny of Lab o r .

n A little later, in a other department of the

ilm ax - W Cannery, lumping as a fru it distributo r among the women , he essayed to carry two 38 SOUTH OF THE SLOT

o b xes of fruit at a time , and was promptly re

ro ache d - p by the other fruit lumpers . It was palpable malingering ; but he was there , he de cided , not to change conditions , but to observe .

o n e So he lumped box thereafter , and so well did he study the art of shirking that he wro te

o n a special chapter it, with the last several paragraphs devoted to tentative generaliza tions .

In those six months he worked at many j o bs and developed into a very good imitati o n of a

o . genuine w rker He was a natural linguist, and he kept notebooks , making a scientiﬁc study

’ o o r o of the w rkers slang arg t, until he could

s en talk quite intelligibly . Thi language also abled him more intimately to fo llo w their men tal processes , and thereby to gather much data for a projected chapter in so me future bo ok which he planned to entitle “ Synthesis of ” - Working Class Psychology.

Before he aro se to the surface from that ﬁrst plunge into the underwo rld he discovered that he was a go od actor and demonstrate d the plasticity of his nature . He was himself as 39 SOUTH OF THE SLOT

to n ished at his o wn ﬂuidity . Once having mas te re d the language and conquered numerous fas

o tidio us qualms , he f und that he could ﬂow into any nook o f wo rking- class life and ﬁt it so snugly as to feel comfo rtably at home . As he

o said, in the preface to his second b ok, The ” to n the Toiler , he endeavored really k ow working people , and the only possible way to achieve this was to work beside them , eat their

in food, sleep their beds , be amused with their amusements , think their thoughts , and feel their feelings . h He was n o t a deep thinker . He had no fait

o in new theo ries . All his n rms and criteria

o n the were conventional . His Thesis , French

n Revolution, was oteworthy in college annals , n o t merely for its painstaking and vo luminous

fo r the accuracy, but fact that it was the dryest,

o deadest , most f rmal , and most orthodox screed ever written on the subject . He was a very reserved man , and his natural inhibition

t - was large in quantity and s eel like in quality .

He had but few friends . He was to o un dem o n

trative . s , too frigid He had no vices , nor had 40

SOUTH OF THE SLOT

n o later on , whe his books sh wered him with distasteful public notice and he yielded to the extent of reading o ccasional papers befo re cer tain literary and economic s o cieties . — He did everything right to o right ; and in dress and compo rtment was inevitably co rrect .

N o t . that he was a dandy . Far from it He was a college man , in dress and carriage as like as a pea to the type that of late years is being so generously turned out o f o ur institutions of higher learning. His handshake was satisfy in l t ff g y s rong and sti . His blue eyes were coldly blue and convincingly sincere . His voice , ﬁrm

n o f and masculine , clea and crisp enunciation ,

n was pleasa t to the ear . The o n e drawback to Freddie Drummond was his inhibition . He

n never u bent . In his football days , the higher

n the tensio of the game , the cooler he grew .

He was noted as a boxer, but he was regarded

th as an automaton, with e inhuman precision of

n a machine judging distance and timi g blows , guarding, blocking, and stalling . He was rarely punished himself, while he rarely punished an opponent . He was too clever and too con 42 SOUTH OF THE SLOT tro lled to permit himself to put a p o und mo re weight into a punch than he intended . With him it was a matter of exercise . It kept him

ﬁt .

o As time went by, Freddie Drumm nd found himself more frequently crossing the Slo t and losing himself in South of Market . His sum mer and winter holidays were spent there , and,

- en d whether it was a week or a week , he found the time spent there to be valuable an d en j o y

as able . And there w so much material to be “ o o gathered . His third b k, Mass and Mas

- ter, became a text book in the American uni

o ve rsitie s ; and almost bef re he knew it , he was “ o e at work on a fourth n , The Fallacy of the ” In e ﬂi cie n t.

Somewhere in his make- up there was a strange twist or quirk . Perhaps it was a recoil

o from his environment and training, or fr m

who the tempered seed of his ancestors , had been bookmen generation preceding generation ; but at any rate , he found enjoyment in being

- down in the working class wo rld . In his own “ ” - world he was Cold Storage , but down below 43 . SOU TH OF THE SLOT

“ ” T o ts o he was Big Bill t , who c uld drink and

- smoke , and slang and ﬁght, and be an all around favorite . Everybody liked Bill , and more than one wo rking girl made love to him . At ﬁrst

o but he had been merely a good act r , as time

o n t o . went , simula ion became sec nd nature He

o no l nger played a part, and he loved sausages ,

an d o n sausages bac n , tha which , in his own

o o h-r pr per sphere , there was nothing m re loat some in the way o f fo o d .

’ o o Fr m d ing the thing for the need s sake ,

’ he came to doing the thing fo r the thing s sake .

He fo und himself regretting as the time drew near fo r him to go back to his lecture - room and his inhibition . And he often fo und himself waiting with anticipati o n fo r the dreamy time to pass when he could cross the Slo t and cut loose and play the devil . He was not wicked , “ ” but as Big Bill T o tts he did a myriad things that Freddie Drummond would never have

o been permitted to do . M reover, Freddie

Drummond never would have wanted to do

t them . That was the s rangest part of his dis

n covery. Freddie Drummo d and Bill T o tts 44 SOUTH OF THE SLOT w f ere two totally dif erent creatures . The de sires and tastes and impulses of each ran

’ o counter to the ther s . Bill T otts could shirk

c at a job with clear cons ience , while Freddie

Drummond condemned shirking as V icious,

un- criminal , and American, and devoted whole

o chapters to condemnati n of the vice . Freddie

Drummond did not care for dancing, but Bill Totts never missed the nights at the various dancing clubs , such as The Magnolia , The

n Wester Star, and The Elite ; while he won a massive silver cup , standing thirty inches high, for being the best- sustained character at the Butchers and Meat Workers ’ annual grand

T o masked ball . And Bill tts liked the girls and the girls liked him , while Freddie Drum mond enjoyed playing the ascetic in this par ticular, was open in his opposition to equal l t suffrage , and cynical y bit er in his secret con dem n ation of coeducation . Freddie Drummond changed his manners

t o ff . with his dress , and wi h ut e ort When he entered the obscure little room used for his

s transformation scenes , he carried himself ju t 45 SOUTH OF THE SLOT

to o stiﬂl . o a bit y He was too erect, his sh ulders

to o were an inch far back, while his face was grave , almost harsh , and practically expression T ’ less . But when he emerged in Bill o tts s clothes

T o ts he was another creature . Bill t did not h slouch , but somehow is whole form limbered up and became graceful . The very sound of the voice was changed , and the laugh was loud

o an n and hearty, while l ose speech d a occa sion al o ath were as a matter o f co urse on his

. T o t lips Also , Bill t s was a triﬂe inclined to

t o o o la e hours , and at times , in sal ns , to be g od naturedly bellicose with other workmen . Then , too , at Sunday picnics or when co ming home

o fr m the show, either arm betrayed a practiced

’ familiarity in stealing around girls waists , while he displayed a wit keen and delightful in the ﬂirtati ous badinage that was expected of

o a good fell w in his class .

otts So thoroughly was Bill T himself , so

o th roughly a workman , a genuine denizen o f

- South of the Slot, that he was as class conscious

o f as the average his kind, and his hatred for a scab even exceeded that of the average loyal 46 SOUTH OF THE SLOT

u . nion man During the Water Front Strike, Freddie Drummond was somehow able to stand

the t apart from unique combina ion , and, coldly

T o tt critical , watch Bill s hilariously slug scab longshoremen . For Bill T o tts was a dues paying member of the Longsho remen Union and had a right to be indignant with the usurp “ ” To ts ers of his job . Big Bill t was so very “ ” t big, and so very able , hat it was Big Bill to the front when trouble was brewing. From acting outraged feelings , Freddie Drummond, in the r61e of his other self, came to experience

re genuine outrage , and it was only when he turned to the classic atmosphere of the uni versity that he was able , sanely and conserva l tive y, to generalize upon his underworld ex pe riences and put them down on paper as a T trained sociologist should. That Bill o tts lacked the perspective to raise him above class consciousness , Freddie Drummond clearly saw .

But Bill T o tts could not see it . When he saw a scab taking his job away, he saw red at the same time , and little else did he see . It was

Freddie Drummond, irreproachably clothed 47 SOUTH OF THE SLOT

o r and comported, seated at his study desk fac “ ing his class in Sociology who saw Bill

T o tts T o tts o , and all around Bill , and all ar und the whole scab and union- labor pro blem and its relation to the economic welfare of the

Un ited States in the struggle fo r the world

’ T o tt market. Bill s really wasn t able to see beyo nd the next meal and the prize- ﬁght the follo wing night at the Gaiety Athletic Club . “ It was while gathering material for Women and Work” that Freddie received his ﬁrst warn

o f ing the danger he was in . He was too suc

e f l c ss u at living in both worlds . This strange dualism he had developed was after all very unstable , and , as he sat in his study and medi tated o , he saw that it c uld not endure . It was really a transition stage , and if he persisted he saw that he would inevitably have to drop o n e

o r world the other . He could not continue in both . And as he lo oked at the row of volumes that graced the upper shelf o f his revolving

- book case , his volumes , beginning with his ” o Thesis and ending with W men and Work, he decided that that was the world he would 48

SOUTH OF THE SLOT

and preferred not to think of it . Wherefore ,

t probably, he practiced his iron inhibi ion and

it to preached others , and preferred women of

his own type , who could shake free of this bestial and regrettable ancestral line and by discipline and control emphasize the wideness o f the gulf that separated them from what their

dim forbears had been .

Bill T o tts had none of these considerations .

He had liked Mary C o ndo n from the moment

his eyes ﬁrst rested o n her in the convention

an d hall , he had made it a point, then and there , to ﬁnd out who she was . The next time he met her, and quite by accident, was when he was driving an express wago n fo r Pat Mor t issey . It was in a lo dging house in Mission

Street, where he had been called to take a

’ trunk into storage . The landlady s daughter had called him and led him to the little bed r o f - oom , the occupant which , a glove maker,

to had just been removed hospital . But Bill

- n o t o . u h did kn w this He stooped , p ended t e trunk, which was a large one , got it o n his

to shoulder, and struggled his feet with his back 50 SOUTH OF THE SLOT

toward the open door. At that mo ment he

’ heard a woman s voice . “ Belong to the union ? ” was the question asked .

“ ’ it Aw , what s to you he retorted . Run

’ o t along now , an git u a my way . I wanta turn

’ ro un df

n The next he k ew, big as he was , he was whirled half around and sent reeling backward,

n the tru k overbalancing him , till he fetched up with a crash against the wall . He started to swear, but at the same instant found himself

’ o looking int Mary Condon s ﬂashing, angry eyes .

“ ’ Of course I b long to the union , he said .

’ ” I was only kiddin you .

“ ’ ” Where s your card ? she demanded in busi

- ness like tones .

“ ’ In my pocket . But I can t git it out now .

’ This trunk s too damn heavy . Come on down

’ ’ ” to the wagon an I ll show it to you . “ ” Put that trunk down , was the command

’ ’ What for ? I got a card , I m tellin you .

’ ’ to Put it down , that s all . No scab s going 51 SOUTH OF THE SLOT

! o u handle that trunk . ought to be ashamed o f o o co o n o y urself , y u big ward , scabbing h nest

’ o men . Why don t you join the uni n and be a man

’ o Mary C ndon s color had left her face , and it was apparent that she was in a rage . “ To think o f a big man like you turning

’ o traito r to his class . I suppose y u re aching to j o in the militia for a chance to sho o t down unio n drivers the next strike . You may belong

’ to the t . o mili ia already, for that matter Y u re the sort

“ ’ o n o ! H ld on, w, that s too much Bill

n to o o dropped the tru k the ﬂ r with a bang,

t n n s raightened up , and thrust his ha d i to his

to o inside co at p o cket. I ld y u I was only kid

’ din . There , look at that .

It was a union card properly enough .

“ ” All right, take it along, Mary Condon

’ said . And the next time don t kid . Her face relaxed as she noticed the ease

with which he got the big trunk to his shoulder , and her eyes glowed as they glanced over the 52 SOUTH OF THE SLOT

o f graceful massiveness the man . But Bill did not see that . He was too busy with the trunk . The next time he saw Mary Condon was during the Laundry Strike . The Laundry

Workers , but recently organized , were green at the business , and had petitioned Mary Con don to engineer the strike . Freddie Drum mond had had an inkling of what was coming, and had sent Bill T otts to join the union and

’ - investigate . Bill s job was in the wash room , and the men had been called out ﬁrst, that

o ff morning, in order t sti en the courage of the girls ; and Bill chanced to be near the door to the mangle- room when Mary Condon started to enter . The superintendent, who was both

’ o . large and st ut, barred her way He wasn t

’ going to have his girls called out, and he d teach her a lesson to mind her own business . And as M ary tried to squeeze past him he thrust

he her back with a fat hand on her shoulder . S glanced around and saw Bill . “ ” T o tts l . Here you , Mr . , she cal ed Lend ” a hand . I want to get in .

Bill experienced a startle of warm surprise . 53 SOUTH OF THE SLOT

She had remembered his name from his uni o n

t o card . The nex m ment the superintendent had been plucked fro m the doorway raving

t about righ s under the law , and the girls were deserting their machines . During the rest of that short and successful strike , Bill consti

’ tute d himself Mary Con don s henchman and

t messenger, and when it was over re urned to the University to b e Freddie Drummond and to wonder what Bill T o tts co uld see in such a woman .

Freddie Drummond was entirely safe , but

n Bill had fallen in love . There was o getting

the away from fact of it, and it was this fact that had given Freddie Drummond his warn ing. Well , he had done his work , and his ad ventures could cease . There was no need for

o him to cross the Sl t again . All but the last “ o f three chapters his latest, Labor Tactics ” and Strategy, was ﬁnished , and he had su fﬁ cient material on hand adequately to supply those chapters .

o o Another c nclusi n he arrived at, was that in order to sheet- anchor himself as Freddie 54 SOUTH OF THE SLOT

o Drummond , cl ser ties and relati o ns in his own social nook were necessary . It was time that he was married, anyway, and he was fully aware that if Freddie Drummond didn ’ t get

T otts married , Bill assuredly would , and the complications were too awful to contemplate .

And so , enters Catherine Van Vorst . She was a college woman herself , and her father, the one wealthy member of the faculty, was the head of the Philosophy Department as well . It would be a wise marriage from every stand

o point, Freddie Drummond c ncluded when the engagement was consummated and announced .

In appearance cold and reserved, aristocratic

n and wholesomely conservative , Catheri e Van

r in Vorst, though wa m her way, possessed an

’ inhibition equal to Drummond s .

All seemed well with him , but Freddie Drum mond could not quite shake o ff the call of the underworld , the lure of the free and open , of the unhampered , irresponsible life South of the Slot . As the time of his marriage ap

r che p o a d, he felt that he had indeed sowed wild oats , and he felt, moreover, what a good 55 SOUTH OF THE SLOT

thing it wo uld be if he could have but o n e wild

o ﬂing more , play the good fell w and the was

o n e o trel last time , ere he settled d wn to gray

- o o . lecture r oms and sober matrim ny And, fur

t r ther to temp him , the ve y last chapter of “ Labor Tactics and Strategy remained un written fo r lack of a triﬂe more O f essential data which he had neglected to gather .

So Freddie Drummond went do wn fo r the

T o t s u n last time as Bill t , got his data , and,

o f rtunately, encountered Mary Condon . Once more installed in his study, it was not a pleasant thing to lo o k back up o n . It made his warn ing doubly imperative . Bill T o tts had behaved abomin ably . N o t o nly had he met Mary Con

at o don the Central Labor C uncil , but he had

o - st pped in at a chop house with her, on the way

to home , and treated her oysters . And before

t they par ed at her door, his arms had been

an d about her , he had kissed her o n the lips and kissed her repeatedly. And her last words in his ear, words uttered softly with a catchy sob in the thro at that was nothing more nor 56

SOUTH OF THE SLOT

him , but not so severely as he would have ex pected ; and the great Meat Strike came on

T otts and left him cold . The ghost of Bill had been successfully laid , and Freddie Drum mond with rejuvenescent zeal tackled a bro “ - o n chure , long planned , the topic of diminish ing returns .

o ff The wedding was . two weeks , when, one afternoon, in San Francisco , Catherine Van Vorst picked him up and whisked him away

’ to see a Boys Club , recently instituted by the settlement workers with whom she was inter

’ ested . It was her brother s machine , but they f were alone with the exception of the chau feur .

t At the junction wi h Kearny Street, Market and Geary Streets intersect like the sides of a “ ” - t . sharp angled let er V They, in the auto , were coming down Market with the intention of negotiating the sharp apex and going up

Geary . But they did n ot know what was com

t ing down Geary, imed by fate to meet them at the apex . While aware from the papers that the Meat Strike was on and that it was an exceedingly bitter one , all thought of it at 58 SOUTH OF THE SLOT that moment was farthest from Freddie Drum

’ mond s mind . Was he not seated beside Cath ? erine And , besides , he was carefully exposit — ing to her his views o n settl ement work views

’ that Bill T otts adventures had played a part in formulating. Coming down Geary Street were six meat wagons . Beside each scab driver sat a police

. o man Front and rear, and al ng each side of

o this procession , marched a pr tecting escort of one hundred p o lice . Behind the police rear guard , at a respectful distance , was an orderly

o but vociferous mob , several bl cks in length , that congested the street from sidewalk to side ff walk . The Beef Trust was making an e ort to supply the hotels , and , incidentally, to begin the breaking of the strike . The St . Francis had already been supplied , at a cost of many broken windows and broken heads , and the ex peditio n was marching to the relief of the

Palace Hotel .

All unwitting, Drummond sat beside Cather ine , talking settlement work , as the auto , honk

traﬂic ing methodically and dodging , swung in 59 SOUTH OF THE SLOT

a wide curve to get aro und the apex . A big

o o c al wagon , l aded with lump coal and drawn

o by f ur huge horses , just debouching from

e t t K arny S reet as hough to turn down Market, blocked their way . The driver of the wagon

th ff seemed undecided , and e chau eur , running slo w but disregarding s o me sho uted warning

o o o fr m the cr ssing p licemen , swerved the auto

the the fﬁ to left , violating tra c rules , in order to pass in fro nt o f the wago n . At that m o ment Freddie Drummond dis co ntinued his co nversati o n . Nor did he resume

fo r o it again , the situati n was developing with the rapidity of a transfo rmati o n scene He

o o f m ob heard the r ar the at the rear , and caught a glimpse of the helmeted police and the lurching meat wago ns . At the same mo ment, laying on his whip and standing up to

o his task , the coal driver rushed h rses and wago n squarely in front of the advancing pro cession , pulled the horses up sharply, and put on the big brake . Then he made his lines fast to the brake- handle and sat down with the air of one who had stopped to stay . The auto

60 SOUTH OF THE SLOT had been brought to a stop , too , by his big n panti g leaders which had jammed against it . ff Before the chau eur could back clear, an old m Irish an , driving a rickety express wagon and lashing his one horse to a gallop , had locked wheels with the auto . Drummond recognized both horse and wagon , for he had driven them often himself . The Irishman was Pat Mor rissey . On the other side a brewery wagon was locking with the coal wagon , and an east

- bound Kearny Street car , wildly clanging its gong, the motorman shouting deﬁance at the

to crossing policeman , was dashing forward complete the blockade . And wagon after wagon was locking and blocking and adding to the confusion . The meat wagons halted. The

in police were trapped . The roar at the rear creased as the mob came on to the attack , while the vanguard of the police charged the obstru ct ing wagons . ’ ” m We re in for it, Dru mond remarked coolly to Catherine . “ ” Yes , she nodded, with equal coolness . ” What savages they are .

6 1 SOUTH OF THE SLOT

His admiration for her doubled on itself .

She was indeed his s o rt . He would have been satisﬁed with her even if she had screamed and — clung to him , but this this was magniﬁcent . She sat in that storm center as calmly as if it had been n o mo re than a block of carriages at the opera . The p o lice were struggling to clear a pass

o f o n age . The driver the c al wago , a big man

an d . in shirt sleeves , lighted a pipe sat smoking He glanced do wn complacently at a captain of

ho c at police w was raving and ursing him , and his only acknowledgment was a shrug of the

- - shoulders . From the rear arose the rat tat tat of clubs on heads and a pandemonium o f curs ing, yelling, and shouting . A V iolent accession o f n o ise proclaimed that the mob had broken through and was dragging a scab from a wagon .

The police captain reinfo rced from his van guard, and the mob at the rear was repelled .

Meanwhile , window after windo w in the high o ﬂi ce building on the right had been opened, and the class - co nscious clerks were raining a shower of ofﬁce furniture down on the heads

6 2 SOUTH OF THE SLOT

- of police and scabs . Waste baskets , ink

- — bottles , paper weights , typewriters anything and everything that came to hand was ﬁlling the air .

o A policeman , under rders from his captain , clambered to the lofty seat of the coal wagon to arrest the driver . And the driver , rising leisurely and peacefully to meet him , suddenly crumpled him in his arms and threw him down

to o f on p the captain . The driver was a young giant, and when he climbed on top his load

o and p ised a lump of coal in both hands , a policeman , who was just scaling the wagon

o from the side , let go and dr pped back to earth . The captain ordered half a dozen of his men to take the wagon . The teamster, scrambling over the load from side to side , beat them down with huge lumps of coal .

The cro wd on the sidewalks and the team ste rs on the locked wagons roared encourage ment and their own delight . The motorman , smashing helmets with his controller bar , was beaten into insensibility and dragged fro m his

t . pla form The captain of police , beside him 63 SOUTH OF THE SLOT

self at the repulse of his men , led the next as sault on the coal wagon . A score of police

- were swarming up the tall sided fortress . But the teamster multiplied himself . At times there were six or eight po licemen rolling on the pave

re ment and under the wagon . Engaged in pulsing an attack on the rear end of his fort ress , the teamster turned about to see the cap tain just in the act o f stepping on to the seat

t from the front end . He was s ill in the air and in most unstable equilibrium , when the

- teamster hurled a thirty pound lump of coal .

It caught the captain fairly on the chest, and

’ he went over backward, striking on a Wheeler s

o n back, tumbling to the ground, and jamming

e o f against th rear wheel the auto . t Catherine hought he was dead, but he picked himself up and charged back . She reached out her gloved hand and patted the ﬂank of the snorting, quivering horse . But Drummond did not notice the acti o n . He had eyes for nothing

t o f the o save the bat le c al wagon, while some

in where his complicated psychology, one Bill

T otts was heaving and straining in an effort 64

SOUTH OF THE SLOT

- riot clubs were out and swinging. One blow caught the teamster on the head . A second he dodged , receiving it on the shoulder . For him the game was plainly up . He dashed in sud

e l d n y, clutched two policemen in his arms , and hurled himself a prisoner to the pavement, his hold never relaxing on his two captors . Catherine Van Vorst was sick and faint at sight of the blood and brutal ﬁghting. But her qualms were vanquished by the sensational and most unexpected happening that followed . The man beside her emitted an unearthly and

o uncultured yell and r se to his feet . She saw him spring over the front seat, leap to the broad rump of the wheeler, and from there gain the wagon . His onslaught was like a whirlwind . Before the bewildered o ﬂicer on top the load could guess the errand of this con

entionall - v y clad but excited seeming gentleman , he was the recipient o f a punch that arched him back through the air to the pavement . A kick in the face led an ascending policeman to follow his example . A rush of three more gained the top and locked with Bill Totts in a gigantic 66 SOUTH OF THE SLOT

o clinch , during which his scalp was pened up by a club , and coat , vest, and half his starched shirt were torn from him . But the three police

T otts men were ﬂung wide and far, and Bill , raining down lumps of coal , held the fort .

The captain led gallantly to the attack , but was bo wled over by a chunk of coal that burst o n his head in black baptism . The need of the p o lice was to break the blockade in front b e

in fore the mob could break at the rear, and

’ Bill T o tts need was to hold the wagon till the mob did break through . So the battle of the coal we n t on .

The crowd had recognized its champion . ” o Big Bill , as usual , had come to the fr nt, and Catherine Van Vorst was bewildered by the cries of “ Bill ! 0 you Bill ! that arose on every hand . Pat Morrissey, on his wagon seat, “ was jumping and screaming in an ecstasy , Eat

’ ’ ’ ” ! em l alive l em , Bill Eat Eat em From the sidewalk she heard a woman ’ s voice cry “ — ” out , Look out, Bill front end l Bill took the warning and with well- directed coal cleaned the front end of the wagon of assailants . Cath 67 SOUTH OF THE SLOT erine Van Vorst tu rned her head and saw on the curb o f the sidewalk a woman with vivid colo ring an d ﬂashi n g black eyes who was star ing with all he r s o ul at the man who had been

Freddie Drummond a few minutes before . The windows of the ofﬁ ce building became

o f vociferous with applause . A fresh shower o flice chairs an d fili n g cabinets descended . The mob had broken thro ugh on one side the line of wagons , and was advancing, each segregated policeman the center o f a fighting gro up . The

o o t t scabs were t rn fr m heir sea s , the traces of

an d n the horses cut , the frightened a imals put in ﬂight . Many policemen crawled under the

o fo r coal wag n safety, while the loose horses , with here and there a po liceman o n their backs o r to struggling at their heads hold them , surged across the sidewalk opposite the j am

b n t and roke i o Market Street .

’ Catherine Van Vo rst heard the woman s voice calling in warn ing. She was back on the curb again , and crying out

“ ’ ! o ! ! Beat it, Bill N w s your time Beat it The police for the moment had been swept 68 SOUTH OF THE SLOT

away . Bill T otts leaped to the pavement and

o n made his way to the woman the sidewalk .

Catherine Van Vo rst saw her throw her arms aro und him and kiss him on the lips ; and Cath erine Van Vo rst watched him cu ri o usly as he

o n o n e n went down the sidewalk, arm arou d

o t t the woman , b h alking and laughing, and he with a vo lubility and abando n she co uld never have dreamed possible . The police were back again and clearing the j am while waiti n g for reinforcements and new

m ob drivers and horses . The had do ne its

as work and w scattering, and Catherine Van

n Vorst, still watchi g, could see the man she had known as Freddie Drummond . He tow ered a head above the cro wd . His arm was still about the wo man . And she in the motor

the car, watching, saw pair cross Market Street, cross the Slot, and disappear down Third Street into the labor ghetto .

a: 2k a:

In the years that followed n o more lectures were given in the University of Califo rnia by one Freddie Drummond , and no more books 69 SOUTH OF THE SLOT on econ omics and the labor questi o n appeared o ver the name of Frederick A . Drummond . On

n o the other ha d there arose a new lab r leader ,

William T o tts by name . He it was who mar r n ied Mary Condo , President of the Interna

’ tion al Glove Wo rkers Union No . 9 74 ; and he it was who called the notori o us C o oks and

t ’ t Wai ers S rike , which , before its successful

o n t t terminati , brough out wi h it scores of other

o the o a uni ns , among which , of m re remotely l lied , were Chicken Pi ckers and Under takers .

7o THE UNPARALLELED INVASION

T was in the year 1 9 7 6 that the trouble between the world and China reached its

culmination . It was because of this that the celebratio n o f the Second Centennial of

American Liberty was deferred . Many other plans o f the nations o f the earth were twisted and tangled and postponed for the same rea

o son . The world aw ke rather abruptly to its

fo r danger ; but over seventy years , unperceived, affairs had been shaping to ward this very end . The year 1 9 0 4 logically marks the beginning of the development that, seventy years later, was to bring co nsternatio n to the who le world .

- 1 0 The Japanese Russian War took place in 9 4, and the histo rians of the time gravely noted it down that that event marked the entrance

o f o of Japan into the comity nati ns . What it really did mark was the awakening of China . 7 1 THE UNPARALLELED INVASION

n n o This awake i g, l ng expected , had ﬁnally been

o given up . The Western nati ns had tried to

r . a ouse China , and they had failed Out of their n ative optimism and race - egotism they had therefo re co ncluded that the task was im

t o . possible , tha China w uld never awaken What they had failed to take into account was this : tha t be twe e n the m a nd Chin a was n o co mm o n s chol o ic e h t p y g al sp e c . Their hought

o pr cesses were radically dissimilar . There was no intimate vo cabulary . The Western mind penetrated the Chinese mind but a short dis tance when it found itself in a fathomless maze . The Chinese mind penetrated the Western mind an equally short distance when it fetched

o up against a blank , inc mprehensible wall . It

o f n was all a matter la guage . There was no way to co mmunicate Western ideas to the

Chinese mind . China remained asleep . The material achievement and progress of the West was a closed book to her ; nor could the West o pen the bo o k . Back and deep down o n the

- o f o o u tie ribs c nsci sness , in the mind , say, of

- the English speaking race , was a capacity to 7 2

THE UNPARALLELED INVASION

sian Empire , Japan promptly set about dream ing a colossal d ream o f empire for herself .

Korea she had made into a grana ry and a colony ; treaty privileges an d vulpine diplomacy gave her the monopoly o f Manchuria . But

Japan was not satisﬁed . She turned her eyes upon China . There lay a vast territory, and in that territory were the hugest deposits in — the world of iro n and co al the backbone of industrial civilizati o n . Given natural resources , the other great factor in industry is labor . In that territory was a population of souls— one quarter of the then total population

o of the earth . Furtherm re , the Chinese were

hiloso excellent workers , while their fatalistic p phy (or religion! and their sto lid nervous o r ganiz ation co nstituted them splendid soldiers — if they were properly managed. Needless

n to say, Japa was prepared to furnish that management.

B t b est u of all , from the standpoint of Japan, the Chinese was a kindred race . The b aﬂling enigma of the Chinese character to the West

baﬂlin was no g enigma to the Japanese . The 74 THE UNPARALLELE D INVASION

Japanese understood as we could never school ourselves or hope to understand. Their mental processes were the same . The Japanese thought with the same tho ught- symbo ls as did the Chi nese , and they thought in the same peculiar grooves . Into the Chinese mind the Japanese went on where we were balked by the obstacl e of incomprehension . They took the turning which we could not perceive , twisted around

o t o f the obstacle , and were u sight in the rami ﬁ cations of the Chinese mind where we could not follow . They were brothers . Long ago

’ o one had borrowed the ther s written language ,

o and , untold generations bef re that, they had diverged from the common Mongol stock . f There had been changes , di ferentiations brought about by diverse conditions and infu sions of other blood ; but down at the bottom

the of thei r beings , twisted into ﬁbers of them , was a heritage in common , a sameness in kind that time had n o t obliterated. And so Japan took upon herself the m anage m ent of China . In the years immediately fol

a lowing the w r with Russia , her agents swarmed 75 THE UNPARALLELED INVASION

ove r the Chinese Empire . A thousand miles beyond the last missi o n station toiled her en

e gine rs and spies , clad as coolies , under the guise of itinerant merchants or proselyting

o Buddhist priests , noting d wn the horsepower

the of every waterfall , likely sites for factories , the heights of mountains and passes , the stra tegic advantages and weaknesses , the wealth of the farming valleys , the number of bullocks in a district or the number of laborers that

as could be collected by forced levies . Never w

u there such a cens s , and it could have been

t a taken by no other people han the dogged , p tient, patriotic Japanese . But in short time secrecy was thrown to the

’ f o winds . Japan s o ﬁcers re rganized the Chinese army ; her drill sergeants made the medi e val

s o t warrior over int twen ieth century soldiers , accustomed to all the mo dern machinery of war and with a higher average of marksman

o f ship than the soldiers any Western nation . The engineers of Japan deepened and widened

n the intricate system of ca als , built factories

n and fou dries , netted the empire with tele THE UNPARALLELE D INVASION

graphs and telephones , and inaugurated the

- era of railroad building . It was these same protagonists of machine - civilization that dis Ch covered the great oil deposits of unsan , the

- iron mountains of Whang Sing, the copper ranges of Chinchi , and they sank the gas wells

- of Wow Wee , that most marvelous reservoir of natural gas in all the world . In China ’ s councils of empire were the Japa nese emissaries . In the ears of the statesmen whispered the Japanese statesmen . The politi cal reconstruction o f the Empire was due to them . They evicted the scholar class, which was violently reactionary, and put into ofﬁce progressive ofﬁ cials . And in every town and city of the Empire newspapers were started .

Of course , Japanese editors ran the poli cy of these papers , which policy they got direct from

Tokio . It was these papers that educated and made progressive the great mass of the popu lation . l China was at ast awake . Where the West had failed , Japan succeeded . She had trans muted Western culture and achievement into 77 THE UNPARALLELED INVASION te rms that were intelligible to the Chinese un derstanding. Japan herself , when she so sud d enl o . But y awakened, had ast unded the world at the time she was only forty millions strong.

’ o f China s awakening, what her four hundred millions and the scientiﬁc advance of the world,

co was frightfully astounding. She was the lossus n t of the natio s , and swif ly her voice was heard in no uncertain to nes in the affairs and councils of the natio ns . Japan egged her on , and the proud Western peoples listened with respectful ears .

’ China s swift and remarkable rise was due , perhaps more than to anything else , to the

o f o superlative quality her lab r . The Chinese was the perfect type of industry. He had al

Fo r ways been that. sheer ability to work, no

o o o worker in the w rld c uld c mpare with him .

Work was the breath of his nostrils . It was to him what wandering and ﬁghting in far lands and spiritual adventure had been to other peo ples . Liberty, to him , epitomized itself in ac cess to the means o f toil . To till the soil and labor interminably was all he asked of life and 7 8 THE UNPARALLELED INVASION

the the powers that be . And awakening of

China had given its vast populati o n n o t merely

to o f o free and unlimited access the means t il , but access to the highest and most scientiﬁc

- machine means of toil . China rejuvenescent ! It was but a step to

China rampant . She discovered a new pride in herself and a will of her own . She began to chafe under the guidance of Japan , but

’ she did not chafe long . On Japan s advice , in the beginning, she had expelled from the Em pire all Western missionaries , engineers , drill sergeants , merchants , and teachers . She now began to expel the similar representatives of

’ Japan . The latter s advisory statesmen were

o o showered with honors and dec rati ns , and sent home . The West had awakened Japan , and, as Japan had then requited the West, Japan was now requited by China . Japan was thanked for her kindly aid and ﬂung out bag and bag gage by her gigantic pro t! g! . The Western

’ nations chuckled . Japan s rainbow dream had

. gone glimmering . She grew angry . China laughed at her . The blood and the swords of

.79 THE UNPARALLELE D INVASION

the Samurai would out, and Japan rashly went

1 2 2 to war . This occurred in 9 , and in seven

o bloody months Manchuria , K rea , and For mosa were taken away from her and she was

hurled back , bankrupt, to stiﬂe in her tiny,

crowded islands . Exit Japan from the world

drama . Thereafter she devoted herself to art,

and her task became to please the world greatly with her creations of wonder and beauty.

o to C ntrary expectation , China did not prove

o warlike . She had no Napole nic dream , and was content to devote herself to the arts of peace . After a time of disquiet , the idea was

n o accepted that China was to be feared , t in

It war, but in commerce . will be seen that

a n the real danger w s ot apprehended . China

o t - went on c nsumma ing her machine civilization .

Instead of a large standing army, she develo ped an immensely larger and splendidly efﬁ cient militia . Her navy was so small that it was the laughing stock of the world ; n o r did she attempt to strengthen her navy. The treaty ports of the world were never entered by her visiting battleships .

$ 9

THE UNPARALLELED INVASION had supported the maximum limit of popul a tion . But when she awoke and inaugurated

- c the machine civilization , her produ tive power

n . had bee enormously increased Thus , on the same territory, she was able to support a far larger p opulation . At once the birth rate began to rise and the death rate to fall . Before , when population pressed against the means of sub

the t sistence , excess popula ion had been swept away by famine . But now , thanks to the ma

’ - o chine civilizati n , China s means of subsistence

o had been en rmously extended, and there were no famines ; her populati o n followed on the

o f heels the increase in the means of subsistence . During this time of transition and develop ment o f p o wer, China had entertained no dreams of conquest . The Chinese was not an imperial race . It was industrious , thrifty, and

- peace loving . War was looked up o n as an un pleasan t but necessary task that at times must

o . be perf rmed And so , while the Western

o races had squabbled and f ught, and world

s t adventured again t one ano her, China had calmly gone on working at her machines and

82 THE UNPARALLELE D INVASION

growing . Now she was spilling o ver the — boundaries of her Empire that was all , just spilling o ver into the adjacent territories with all the certainty and terrifying slow momentum of a glacier . Following upon the alarm raised by Bur

’ chaldter s 1 0 ﬁgures , in 9 7 , France made a long

- n threatened stand . French Indo China had bee

- over run , ﬁlled up , by Chinese immigrants .

France called a halt . The Chinese wave ﬂowed on . France assembled a force of a hundred thousand on the boundary between her un fo r tun ate colony and China , and China sent down

- an army of militia soldiers a million strong. Behind came the wives and sons and daughters and relatives , with their personal household luggage , in a second army . The French force was brushed aside like a ﬂy . The Chinese

- militia soldiers , along with their families , over

ﬁve millions all told , coolly took possession of

French Indo - China and settled down to stay for a few thousand years .

Outraged France was in arms . She hurled

ﬂeet after ﬂeet against the coast of China , and 83 THE UNPARALLELED INVASION

nearly bankrupted herself by the effort . China had no navy . She withdrew like a turtle into her shell . For a year the French ﬂeets block ade d the coast and bombarded exposed towns and villages . China did not mind . She did not depend upon the rest o f the world for any thing . She calmly kept out of range of the

French guns and went on working. France wept and wailed , wrung her impotent hands and appealed to the dumfounded nations . Then she landed a punitive expedition to march to

Peking . It was two hundred and ﬁfty thousand s o trong, and it was the ﬂ wer of France . It landed without opposition and marched into the interior. And that was the last ever seen o f it . The line of communication was snapped o n the seco nd day. Not a survivor came back to tell what had happened . It had been swal

’ u lowed p in China s cavernous maw , that was all .

’ In the ﬁve years that followed , China s ex

an sion p , in all land directions , went on apace .

Siam was made part of the Empire , and , in s pite of all that England could do , Burma and 84 TH E UNPARALLELED INVASION the Malay Peninsu la were o ver- run ; while all

o o o along the l ng s uth b undary of Siberia , Rus

’ sia was pressed severely by China s advanci n g hordes . The process was simple . First came

o the Chinese immigrati n (or , rather, it was al ready there , having come there slo wly and in sidio u sl n o y duri g the previ us years ! . Next came the clash at arms and the brushing away of all opposition by a mo nster army o f militia

o soldiers , f llowed by their families and house

o h ld baggage . And ﬁnally came their settling down as colonists in the conquered territory . Never was there so strange and effective a method of world conquest .

an d - Napal Bhutan were over run , and the whole n o rthern boundary of India pressed against by this fearful tide of life . To the

to west , Bokhara , and , even the south and west,

Afghanistan , were swallowed up . Persia ,

Turkestan , and all Central Asia felt the pres sure o f the ﬂood . It was at this time that

Bu rc haldte r revised his ﬁgures . He had been

’ o o mistaken . China s p pulati n must be seven hundred millions , eight hundred millions , no 85 THE UNPARALLELED INVASION

body knew how many millions , but at any rate it would so o n be a billion . There were two

Chinese fo r every white- skinn ed human in the

B chaldte r the world , u r announced, and world

’ n trembled . China s i crease must have begun

1 0 . immediately, in 9 4 It was remembered that since that date there had n o t been a single famine . At a year increase , her to tal increase in the intervening seventy years must be But who was to kno w ?

It might b e m o re . Who was to know anything

“ of this strange new menace o f the twentieth

— n O ld n centu ry Chi a , China , rejuvenesce t,

r ! f uitful , and militant

The Conven tion of 1 9 75was called at Phila

. o delphia All the Western nations , and s me

o f n few the Easter , were represented . Noth

n i g was accomplished . There was talk of all co untries putting bounties o n children to in t crease the bir h rate , but it was laughed to scorn by the arithmeticians , who pointed out that

China was too far in the lead in that direction .

No feasible way of coping with Chi n a was sug gested . China was appealed to and threatened 86 THE UNPARALLELED INVASION

by the United Powers , and that was all the

Conventi o n of Philadelphia came to ; and the Conventi o n and the Powers were laughed at

. qn o by China Li Tang g, the p wer behind the Dragon Throne , deigned to reply. “ What does China care for the comity of ? ” “ nations said Li Tang qng. We are the most ancient, honorable , and royal of races .

o r We have u own destiny to accomplish . It is unpleasant that our destiny does not jibe with the destiny of the rest of the world, but what would you ? You have talked windily about the royal races and the heritage of the earth , and we can only reply that that remains to be seen You cannot invade us . Never mind

’ about your navies . Don t shout . We know our navy is small . You see , we use it for police purposes . We do not care for the sea .

Our strength is in our population, which will soon be a billion . Thanks to you , we are

- equipped with all modern war machinery . Send your navies . We will not notice them . Send your punitive expeditions , but ﬁrst remember

on France . To l and half a million soldiers 87 THE UNPARALLELED INVASION our shores wo uld strain the resources o f any

o r t of you . And u housand millions would swallo w them do wn in a m o uthful . Send a

o milli n ; send ﬁve million , and we will swallow ! them down just as readily. Pouf A mere

o . o as nothing, a meager m rsel Destr y, you have threatened, you United States , the ten million co olies we have fo rced upon your shores

— ou why, the am nt scarcely equals half of our ” excess birth rate for a year .

So spoke Li Tang qng. The world was nonplussed, helpless , terriﬁed. Truly had he

’ n o spoken . There was combating China s

o t amazing birth rate . If her p pula ion was a billion , and was increasing twenty millions a

in -ﬁ e year, twenty v years it would be a billion — and a half equal to the total population of

o 1 0 . the w rld in 9 4 And nothing could be done .

There was no way to dam up the over- spilling

o o o f . m nstrous ﬂo d life War was futile . China laughed at a blockade of her coasts . She wel comed invasi o n . In her capacious maw was ro om for all the hosts of earth that could be hurled at her . And in the meantime her ﬂood 88

THE UNPARALLELED INVASION

interested in Jacobus Lan ingdal e . Next day

o the President called in his Cabinet . Jac bus

L e o aningdal was present. The pr ceedings were

o o kept secret . But that very aftern n Rufus

o f t Cowdery, Secretary State , lef Washington and early the following morning sailed fo r Eng land . The secret that he carried began to

o o f spread , but it spread only am ng the heads

o governments . Possibly half a d zen men in a nation were intru sted with the idea that had

’ Lan in e o formed in Jacobus gdal s head . F llow ing the spread of the secret, sprang up great

t - activi y in all the dock yards , arsenals , and navy yards . The people of France and Austria b e

so came suspicious , but sincere were their gov

’ ernments calls fo r conﬁdence that they ac quiesced in the unknown project that was afoot .

the the This was time of Great Truce . All countries pledged themselves s o lemnly not to go to war with any other country . The ﬁrst deﬁnite action was the gradual mobilization of the armies of Russia , Germany, Austria , Italy ,

Greece , and Turkey . Then began the eastward movement. All railroads into Asia were glutted 9 0 THE UNPARALLELED INVASION

n with troop trains . Chi a was the objective , that was all that was kn own . A little later began the great se a mo vement . Expediti o ns of war ships were lau n ched fro m all co untries .

o o an d to the Fleet f ll wed ﬂeet , all proceeded

o t c as of China . The nati o ns cleaned out their

- navy yards . They sent thei r revenue cutters

o t o and dispatch b ats and ligh h use tenders , and they sent their last antiquated cruisers and

. N o t o t im battleships c ntent wi h this , they pressed the merchant marine . The statistics

t t show tha merchan steamers , equipped

an d - ﬁ re with searchlights rapid guns , were dis patched by the various nations to China .

And China smiled and waited . On her land

o side , along her boundaries , were milli ns of

o the warri o rs of Eu ro pe . She m bilized ﬁve times as many millions o f her militia and wai ted the invasion . On her sea coasts she did the same . But China was pu zzled . After all this

o o t o o . en rm us prepara i n , there was no invasi n

She could n o t u nderstand . Along the great

Siberian frontier all was quiet . Along her coasts the towns and villages were not even 9 1 THE UNPARALLELED INVASION

o o shelled . Never, in the hist ry of the w rld , had there been so mighty a gathering of war

o f o ﬂeets . The ﬂeets all the w rld were there , and day and night millions o f to ns o f battle

h br f o ships plo wed t e ine o her c asts , and noth

t . ing happened . Nothing was a tempted Did they think to make her emerge from her shell ?

t r o ut China smiled . Did hey think to ti e her , or starve her o ut ? China smiled again .

o n 1 1 6 the But May , 9 7 , had reader been

t in the imperial city of Peking, with its hen

o o f n o o p o pulati n eleve milli ns , he w uld have

o witnessed a curi ous sight. He w uld have seen the streets ﬁlled with the chattering yello w

u u u pop lace , every q e ed head tilted back , every

n slant eye turned Skyward . A d high up in the

o t o o f blu e he w uld have beheld a iny d t black,

o which , because of its orderly evoluti ns , he wo uld have identiﬁed as an airship . From this airship , as it curved its ﬂight back and — forth over the city , fell missiles strange ,

o f harmless missiles , tubes fragile glass that shattered into tho usands o f fragments o n the

- streets and house tops . But there was nothing 9 2

THE UNPARALLELED INVASION

o ship , the ther man throwing over the glass tubes .

Had the reader again been in Peking, six weeks later, he would have looked in vain for the eleven million i n habitants . Some few of

o them he would have f und, a few hundred thousand, perhaps , their carcasses festering in the houses and in the deserted streets , and piled high on the abandoned death wagons .

But for the rest he wo uld have had to seek along the highways and byways of the Empire . And not all would he have found ﬂeeing from

- n plague stricken Peki g, for behind them , by hundreds o f thousands of unburied corpses by the wayside , he could have marked their ﬂight . it l And as was with Peking, so was it with a l

o the cities , t wns , and villages of the Empire .

The plague smote them all . Nor was it one plague , nor two plagues ; it was a score of plagues . Every virulent form of infectious death stalked through the land . Too late the Chinese go vernment apprehended the meaning of the colossal preparations , the marshaling of the world hosts , the ﬂights of the tiny air 94 THE UNPARALLELED INVASION

ships , and the rain of the tubes o f glass . The

o o f pr clamations the government were vain . They co uld n o t stop the eleven million plague

t n the o n e t stricken wre ches , ﬂeei g from ci y of

Peking to spread disease through all the land . The physicians and health ofﬁcers died at their

o - o p sts ; and death , the all conqueror , rode ver the decrees of the Emperor and Li Tang

qn . g It rode over them as well , for Li

qn o Tang g died in the sec nd week, and the

o the Emper r, hidden away in Summer Palace , died in the fo urth week .

Had there been one plague , China might

o have coped with it . But from a sc re of plagues

ho e no creature was immune . The man w s caped smallpox went down before scarlet fever .

The- man who was immune to yellow fever was carried away by cholera ; and if he were immune to that, too , the Black Death , which was the

. Fo r bubonic plague , swept him away it was these bacteria , and germs , and microbes , and bacilli , cultured in the laboratories of the West , that had come down upon China in the rain of glass . 9 5 THE UNPARALLELED INVASION

All organization vanished . The government crumbled away. Decrees and proclamations were useless when the men who made them and signed them one mo ment were dead the next .

Nor could the maddened millions , spurred on to ﬂight by death , pause to heed anything . They

o the ﬂed fr m cities to infect the country, and wherever they ﬂed they carried the plagues

o n— with them . The hot summer was Jacobus Laningdal e had selected the time shrewdly and the plague festered everywhere . Much is conjectured of what occurred , and much has been learned from the stories of the few su r vivo rs . The wretched creatures sto rmed acro ss

- the Empire in many millioned ﬂight . The vast armies China had collected on her frontiers melted away . The farms were ravaged for food , and no more crops were planted , while the crops already in were left unattended and

o never came to harvest . The m st remarkable thing, perhaps , was the ﬂights . Many millions

to engaged in them , charging the bounds of the Empire to be met and turned back by the gigantic armies of the West . The slaughter 9 6

THE UNPARALLELED INVASION

o . do naught but die . They c uld not escape As they were ﬂung back from their land fro n

. tiers , so were they ﬂung back from the sea

Seventy-ﬁve thousand vessels patro l e d the

t coasts . By day heir smoking funnels dimmed

- the sea rim , and by night their ﬂashing search lights plo wed the dark and harrowed it for

o f the tiniest escaping junk . The attempts the

N o t immense ﬂeets of junks were pitiful . one

- ever got by the guarding sea ho unds . Modern war- machinery held back the diso rganized mas s of China , while the plagues did the work .

But o ld War was made a thing of laughter .

Naught remained to him but patrol duty . China

was had laughed at war, and war she getting,

- o but it was ultra m dern war , twentieth century

an d war, the war of the scientist the laboratory,

- the war of Jacobus Lanin gdale . Hundred ton guns were to ys co mpared with the micro -organic proj ectiles hurled from the laboratories , the messengers of death, the destroying angels that stalked through the empire of a billion souls . During all the summer and fall of 1 9 76

China was an inferno . There was no eluding 9 8 THE UNPARALLELED INVASION the microsco pic proj ectiles that s o ught out the remotest hiding places . The hundreds o f mil lions o f dead remained unburied and the ge rms

t o mul iplied themselves , and , t ward the last, millions died daily of starvation . B esides , star vation weakened the victims and destroyed their natural defences against the plagues .

Cannibalism , murder, and madness reigne d .

And so perished China .

Not until the following February, in the

o coldest weather , were the ﬁrst expediti ns made .

These expeditions were small , composed of scientists and bodies of troops ; but they en tere d China from every side . In spite of the

o most elab rate precautions against infection , numbers of soldiers and a few o f the physicians were stricken . But the exploration went bravely on . They found China devastated , a howling wilderness through which wandered b ands of wild dogs and desperate bandits who had su rvived . All survivors were put to death wherever found . And then began the great task, the sanitation of China . Five years and hundreds o f millions of treasure were con 9 9 THE UNPARALLELED INVASION

in—n o t sumed , and then the world moved in

o z nes , as was the idea of B aron Albrecht, but

u o o heterogeneo sly, acc rding to the dem cratic

n America program . It was a vast and happy intermingling of nati o nalities that settled down in China in 1 9 82 and the years that followed a tremen dous and successful experiment in

- n - cross fertilization . We k ow to day the splen

o did mechanical , intellectual , and art utput that

o f llowed .

1 8 th It was in 9 7 , e Great Truce having been dissolved, that the ancient quarrel between France and Germany over Alsace and Lorraine

- recrudesced . The war cloud grew dark and

1 threatening in April , and on April 7 the Con

entio n v of Copenhagen was called . The rep re sen tative s o f the nations of the world being

all present, nations sol emnly pledged them selves never to use against one another the labo ratory methods of warfare they had em

o ployed in the invasi n of China . — ’ ! Ex cerpt fr om Walt M er vin s Certain Essays in

” H istory.

1 0 0

THE ENEMY OF ALL THE WORLD evidence and the do cuments an d records o f the time we are able to co nstruct a fairly accu rate

o o f p rtrait him , and to discern the factors and p ressu res that molded him into the human m o nste r he became an d that dro ve him onward and down wa rd al o n g the fearful path he trod .

as bo o Emil Glu ck w rn in Syracuse , New Y rk ,

1 o in 89 5. His father, J sephus Gluck , was a

t ho special policeman and nigh watchman , w ,

1 0 0 n . in the year 9 , died sudde ly of pneumonia

The mother, a pretty , fragile creature , who ,

o bef re her marriage , had been a milliner, grieved he rself to death o ver the lo ss of her

t o f o husband . This sensi iveness the m ther was the he ritage that in the boy became morbid and ho rrible .

1 0 1 the o In 9 , boy, Emil , then six years f

n to . age , we t live with his aunt, Mrs Ann Bar

’ o tell . She was his m ther s sister, but in her

n o breast was kindly feeling for the sensitive , shrinking boy . Ann Bartell was a vain , shal

. o low, and heartless woman Als , she was cu rsed with p o verty and burden ed with a hus

’ a - - band who was lazy, erratic ne e r do Well .

1 0 2 THE ENEMY OF ALL THE WORLD

Young Emil Gluck was not wanted , and Ann B artell could be trusted to impress this fact ﬁ suf ciently upon him . As an illustrati o n of the treatment he received in that early, forma tive period , the following instance is given . When he had been living in the Bartell home a little more than a year , he broke his leg. He sustained the injury through playing on the forbidden roof— as all boys have done and will

o continue to do t the end of time . The leg was broken in two places between the knee and thigh . Emil , helped by his frightened playmates , managed to drag himself to the front sidewalk , where he fainted . The chil dren of the neighborhood were afraid of the hard- featured shrew who presided over the

Bartell house ; but, summoning their resolution , they rang the bell and told Ann Bartell of the

the accident . She did not even look at little lad who lay stricken on the sidewalk, but slammed the door and went back to her wash tub . The time passed . A drizzle came on , and Emil Gluck , out of his faint , lay sobbing im in the rain . The leg should have been set 1 0 3 THE ENEMY OF ALL THE WORLD

mediately . As it was , the inﬂammation rose rapidly and made a nasty case of it . At the

t o o end of w h urs , the indignant women of the neighborho od pro tested to Ann Bartell . This time she came out and lo oked at the lad . Also she kicked him in the side as he lay helpless at her feet, and she hysterically disowned him .

c m He was not her child, she said , and re o mended that the ambulance be called to take him to the city receiving hospital . Then she went back into the house .

It was a woman , Elizabeth Shepstone , who came along, learned the situation , and had the boy placed on a shutter . It was she who called

ho the doctor, and w , brushing aside Ann Bar

o o . tell , had the boy carried int the h use When the doctor arrived , Ann Bartell promptly warned him that she would not pay him for his services . For two months the little Emil lay in bed, the ﬁrst month on his back without once being turned o ver ; and he lay neglected

fo r and alone , save the occasi o nal visits of the

a d - unremunerated n over worked physician . He had no toys , nothing with which to beguile the 1 0 4

THE ENEMY OF ALL THE WORLD

o the deserted buildings and gr unds , befriended

and misu n derstood by the servants and garden

is ers , reading much , it remembered, spending his days in the ﬁelds o r befo re the ﬁreplace with

his no se poked always in the pages of some

- book . It was at this time that he over used his eyes and was compelled to take up the wear

so o ing of glasses , which same were pr minent in the photo graphs of him published in the

n 1 1 newspapers i 9 4 .

He was a remarkable student . Application su ch as his wo uld have taken him far ; but he did not need application . A glance at a text meant mastery for him . The result was that he did an immense amount of collateral read ing and acqu ired more in half a year than did the average student in half a dozen years . In

1 0 9 9 , barely fourteen years of age , he was — “ ” - ready more than ready, the head master — o f the academy said to enter Yale or Har vard . His juvenility prevented him fro m en

so 1 0 tering those universities , and , in 9 9 , we

ﬁnd him a freshman at histo ric B o wdoin Col lege . In 1 9 1 3 he graduated with highest hon

1 0 6 THE ENEMY OF ALL THE WORLD

ors , and immediately afterward followed Pro fe sso r B radl ou h g to Berkeley, California . The one friend that Emil Gluck discovered in all

’ B radlou h his life was Professor g . The latter s weak lungs had led him to exchange Maine for

o California , the rem val being facilitated by the ff o er of a professorship in the State University .

1 1 Throughout the year 9 4, Emil Gluck resided in Berkeley and too k special scientiﬁc courses .

To ward the end of that year two deaths changed his prospects and his relations with

B ra lo h life. The death of Professor d ug took

o o fr m him the one friend he was ever to kn w , and the death of Ann Bartell left him pen n i

o n t less . Hating the unf rtu ate lad to the las , she cut him o ff with one hundred dollars . t The following year, at twen y years of age , Emil Gluck was enro lled as an instructo r o f chemistry in the University of California .

Here the years passed quietly ; he faithfully performed the dru dgery that brought him his salary, and, a student always , he took half a h do zen degrees . He was , among ot er things ,

o a Doctor of Soci logy, of Philosophy, and of 1 0 7 THE ENEMY OF ALL THE WORLD

Science , though he was known to the world, in

o o o later days , nly as Pr fess r Gluck .

He was twenty- seven years o ld when he ﬁrst sprang into pro minence in the newspapers “ o the n thr ugh publicatio of his book, Sex and

The o o - Progress . b k remains to day a mile sto ne in the history and philo so phy of marriage .

It is a heavy tome of over seven hundred pages ,

r u u t painfully ca ef l and acc rate , and star lingly

. It n o t original was a book for scientists , and one calculated to make a stir . But Gluck, in

t the last chap er, using barely three lines for it, mentioned the hypothetical desirability o f trial

o marriages . At nce the newspapers seized these “ ” o three lines , played them up yell w, as the

n t o o sla g was in h se days , and set the whole w rld

n laughing at Emil Gluck , the bespectacled you g

- o o professor of twenty seven . Ph t graphers snapped him , he was besieged by reporters ,

’ women s clubs thro ugho ut the land passed reso lutions condemning him and his immo ral the o t i c s ; and on the ﬂoor of the California As sembl c the y, while dis ussing state appropriation to the University, a motion demanding the ex

1 0 8

THE ENEMY OF ALL THE WORLD

sober, scholarly, and scientiﬁc, and, it must also be added, conservative . But in one place “ be t ln dealt wi h , and I quote his words , the dustrial and social revo lution that is taking

in o . r place s ciety A repo ter, present, seized ” o upon the word rev lution , divorced it from the text, and wrote a garbled account that made Emil Gluck appear an anarchist. At “ H t once , Professor Gluck, anarchis , ﬂamed over the wires and was appropriately “ fea ” ture d in all the newspapers in the land . He had attempted to reply to the previous

no . newspaper attack, but w he remained silent

Bitterness had already co rroded his s o ul . The University faculty appealed to him to defend himself, but he sullenly declined , even refusing to enter in defence a copy of his paper to save

o . himself fr m expulsion He refused to resign, and was discharged fro m the University fac ulty. It must be added that political pressure had been put upon the University Regents and the President.

Persecuted, maligned, and misunderstood, the forlorn and lonely man made no attempt at

1 1 0 THE ENE MY OF ALL THE WORLD

retaliation . All his life he had been sinned

n n against, and all his life he had si ed against n o n e o . But his cup o f bittern ess was n o t yet

to o n . o full verﬂowi g Having l st his position ,

o t o and being with u any inc me , he had to ﬁnd

n work . His ﬁrst place was at the U ion Iron

o W rks , in San Francisco , where he proved a most able draughtsman . It was here that he obtained his ﬁ rst- hand kno wledge o f battle ships and their construction . But the reporters discovered him and featured him in his new

t vocati o n . He immedia ely resigned and found ano ther place ; but after the reporters had

o o driven him away from half a d zen p sitions , he steeled himself to brazen out the newspaper

o persecutio n . This ccurred when he started

- his electro plating establishment in Oakland , on

Telegraph Avenue . It was a small shop , em ploying three men and two boys . Gluck him self worked long hours . Night after night , as

Policeman Carew testiﬁed on the stand, he did not leave the shop till one and two in the morn ing . It was during this period that he per fected the improved ignition device for gas

1 1 1 THE ENEMY OF ALL THE WORLD

o engines , the r yalties from which ultimately h made im wealthy.

He started his electro- plating establishment

r 1 2 8 early in the sp ing of 9 , and it was in the same year that he fo rmed the disastro us love it attachment for Irene Tackley. Now is not to be imagined that an extraordinary creature such as Emil Gluck could be any o ther than an

o o . extra rdinary l ver In addition to his genius ,

l o t his oneliness , and his m rbidness , it mus be taken i n to consideratio n that he knew nothing

s o f about women . Whatever tide desire

in ﬂooded his being, he was unschooled the conventional expressio n o f them ; while his ex ce ssive timidity was bound to make his l o ve

n making unusual . Ire e Tackley was a rather

an pretty young woman , but shallow d light

the o in headed . At time she w rked a small

’ o o candy store across the street fr m Gluck s sh p .

He used to come in and dri n k ice - cream so das

- an d . and lemon squashes , stare at her It seems the girl did not care for him , and merely played “ ” . at with him He was queer, she said ; and an other time she called him a crank when de

1 1 2

THE ENEMY OF ALL THE WORLD that night and was unable to leave the hospital fo r a week .

Still Gluck did not understand . He con tinu e d to seek an explanation from the girl .

o f o In fear Sherb urne , he applied to the Chief o f Police for permissi o n to carry a revolver,

o which permissi n was refused, the newspapers as usual playing it up sensati o nally Then

o f came the murder Irene Tackley, six days before her co ntemplated marriage with Sher b o urne . It was on a Saturday night . She had

in o worked late the candy st re , departing after eleven o ’ clock with her week’ s wages in her

o n purse . She rode a San Pablo Avenue sur

- o face car to Thirty f urth Street, where she alighted and started to walk the three blocks to her ho me . That was the last seen of her alive . Next morning she was found , strangled , in a vacant lot.

Emil Gluck was immediately arrested . Noth ing that he could do could save him . He was

n o t convicted , merely on circumstantial evi “ ” dence , but on evidence cooked up by the Oak land police . There is no discussion but that a 1 1 4 THE ENE MY OF ALL THE WORLD large porti o n of the evidence was m anu fac

r tu e d . The testimony of Captain Shehan was the sheerest perjury, it being proved long after ward that on the night in question he had not t only not been in the vicini y of the murder , but that he had been out of the city in a resort on the San Leandro Road The unfortunate Gluck received life imprisonment in San Quen tin , while the newspapers and the public held — that it was a miscarriage o f justice that the death penalty should have been visited upon him . Gluck entered San Quentin prison on April

- 1 1 2 . t o 7 , 9 9 He was then thir y f ur years of age . And for three years and a half, much of the time in solitary conﬁnement, he was left to meditate upon the injustice of man . It was during that period that his bitterness co rro ded home and he became a hater of all his kind . Three other things he did during the same period ; he wrote his famous treatise , Human “ Morals , his remarkable brochure , The Crim inal Sane , and he worked out his awful and monstrous scheme of revenge . It was an epi 1 1 5 THE ENEMY OF ALL THE WORLD sode that had occurred in his electro -plating establishment that suggested to him his unique

As co n fe s weap o n o f revenge . stated in his

o si n, he worked every detail out theoretically

o during his impris nment , and was able , on his

to release , immediately embark on his career of vengeance .

o His release was sensational . Als it was miserably and criminally delayed by the soul less legal red tape then in vogue . On the

1 1 2 night of February , 9 3 , Tim Haswell , a

o - t t h ld up man, was shot during an a temp ed robbery by a citizen of Piedmont Heights . Tim

Haswell lingered three days , during which time he n o t o nly confessed to the murder of Irene

Tackley, but furnished conclusive proofs of

Dannik er the same . Bert , a convict dying of consumption in Folsom Prison , was implicated

r n o . as accesso y, and his confessio f llowed It — - is inconceivable to us of to day the bungling,

o f dilatory processes justice a generati o n ago . Emil Gluck was proved in February to be an innocent man , yet he was not released until the following October. For eight months , a greatly

‘ 1 1 6

THE ENEMY OF ALL THE WORLD

been shot with his own revolver, but that the revolver had been explo ded in the drawer o f

t his desk . The bulle s had torn through the fro nt of the drawer and entered his body . The

o police scouted the theory f suicide , murder

r was dismissed as absu d, and the blame was thrown upon the Eureka Smo keless Cartridge

o u o Co mpany. Spontane s explosion was the p

the lice explanation , and chemists of the cart ridge company were well bullied at the inquest. But what the police did n o t know was that across the street, in the Mercer Building, Room

633 , rented by Emil Gluck, had been occupied by Emil Gluck at the very moment Hartwell ’ s

o revolver so mysteri u sly exploded .

At the time , no connection was made b e tween Hartwell ’ s death and the death of Wil

o liam Sherbourne . Sherb urne had continued to live in the home he had built for Irene Tack

1 ley, and one morning in January, 9 33 , he was found dead . Suicide was the verdict of the ’ fo r coroner s inquest, he had been shot by his o wn revolver . The cu rious thing that hap pened that night was the shooting of Police

1 1 8 THE ENEMY OF ALL THE WORLD man Phillipps on the sidewalk in front of Sher

’ o b o urne s house . The p liceman crawled to a police telephone on the corner and rang up fo r an ambulance . He claimed that someone had shot him from behind in the leg . The leg in question was so badly shattered by three .3 8 caliber bullets that amputation was necessa ry. But when the police discovered that the dam

o age had been done by his own rev lver, a great laugh went up , and he was charged with hav ing been drunk . In spite of his denial of having

o touched a dr p , and of his persistent assertion that the revolver had been in his hip pocket and that he had not laid ﬁnger to it, he was dis

’ n fe s charged from the force . Emil Gluck s co sion , six years later, cleared the unfortunate

- policeman of disgrace , and he is alive to day and in good health , the recipient of a handsome pension from the city .

imm edi Emil Gluck, having disposed of his

a ate enemies , now sought wider ﬁeld , though his enmity for newspaper men and for the po lice remained always active . The royalties on his ignition device for gasolene engines had 1 1 9 THE ENEMY OF ALL THE WORLD

mounted up while he lay in prison , and year by year the earning p o wer of his invention increased . He was independent, able to travel wherever he willed over the earth and to glut his monstrous appetite fo r revenge . He had become a monomaniac and an anarchist— not a philosophic anarchist, merely, but a violent anarchist . Perhaps the word is misused, and

o r he is better described as a nihilist, an anni fﬁ hilist. It is known that he a liated with none of the groups of terrorists . He operated

- wholly alone , but he created a thousand fold more terror and achieved a tho usand- fold more destruction than all the terrorist groups added together . He signalized his departure from California by blowing up Fort Mason . In his confession — he spoke of it as a little experiment he was merely trying his hand . For eight years he wandered over the earth , a mysterious terror, destroying property to the tune of hundreds of

o f millions dollars , and destroying countless

o f lives . One good result his awful deeds was the destruction he wrought among the terror'

1 2 0

THE ENEMY OF ALL THE WORLD

ists had bombs explode o n their persons . These bombs they had intended to throw if they go t ? the opportunity . But who was to know this The frightful havoc wrought by the bursting bombs but added to the confusion ; it was con sidered part of the general attack . One puzzling thing that could not be ex plained away was the conduct of the troopers

m o ssi with their exploding rifles . It seemed i p ble that they should be in the plot, yet there were the hundreds their flying bullets had slain, including the King and Queen . On the other f hand , more ba fling than ever, was the fact that seventy per cent . of the troopers themselves had been killed or wounded . Some explained this

o o - on the ground that the l yal fo t soldiers , wit m essing the attack on the royal carriage , had opened fire on the traitors . Yet not one bit of evidence to verify this could be drawn from the survivors , though many were put to the torture . They contended stubbornly that they had not discharged their rifles at all , but that their rifles had discharged themselves . They

were laughed at by the chemists , who held that,

1 2 2 THE ENE MY OF ALL THE WORLD while it was just barely probable that a single

cartridge , charged with the new smokeless pow

o o der, might sp ntane usly explode , it was be yond all probability and po ssibility for all the

so n cartridges in a given area , charged, spo ta n e ousl y to explode . And so , in the end, n o explanation o f the amazing occurrence was

n reached . The general opi i o n of the rest of the world was that the whole affair was a blind panic of the feverish Latins , precipitated, it was true , by the bursting of two terrorist bombs ; and in this connection was recalled the laughable encounter o f lo ng years before be tween the Russian ﬂeet and the English ﬁshing boats .

And Emil Gluck chuckled and went his way .

He knew . But how was the world to know ? He had stumbled upon the secret in his old electro-plating shop on Telegraph Avenue in the city of Oakland . It happened, at that time , that a wireless telegraph station was established by the Thurston Power Co mpany close to his

- shop . In a short time his electro plating vat

a - was put out of order. The v t wiring had 1 2 3 THE ENEMY OF ALL THE WORLD

many bad joints , and , on investigation , Gluck discovered minute welds at the joints in the wiring. These , by lowering the resistance , had caused an excessive current to pass through the “ ” o . solution , boiling it and sp iling the work But what had caused the welds ? was the ques

’ tion in Gluck s mind . His reasoning was sim

the ple . Before establishment of the wireless

at . station , the v had worked well Not until after the establishment of the wireless station had the vat been ruined . Therefore the wire ? less station had been the cause . But how

He quickly a n swered the questi o n . If an elec tric discharge was capable of operating a co he re r o acr ss three thousand miles of ocean , then , certainly, the electric discharges from the wireless station fo ur hundred feet away could produce co herer effects on the bad joints in the vat wiring .

Gluck thought no more about it at the time .

He merely re -wired his vat and went on electro plating . But afterwards , in prison , he remem bered the incident , and like a ﬂash there came into his mind the full signiﬁcance of it . He saw 1 2 4

THE ENEMY OF ALL THE WORLD

many, though aggrieved, was not anxious for

t war , and , as a peace oken , sent the Crown Prince and seven battleships on a friendly visit

o t the United States . On the night of Feb ruary 1 5 the seven warships lay at anchor in the Hudson opposite New York City . And on

a that night Emil Gluck, alone , with all his p

in . paratus on board , was out a launch This

n lau ch , it was afterwards proved , was bought

the o o by him from R ss , Turner C mpany , while much of the apparatus he used that night had been purchased from the Columbia Electric

Works . But this was not known at the time . All that was known was that the seven battle

u a ships blew p, one fter another, at regular,

o u - f r minute intervals . Ninety per cent . of the

fﬁ t crews and o cers , along wi h the Crown Prince , perished . Many years before , the American battleship M ai n e was blown up in the harbor of

n Havana , and war with Spai had immediately — fo llowed though there has always existed a reasonable doubt as to whether the explosion was due to conspiracy or accident . But accident could not explain the blowing up of the seven

1 2 6 THE ENEMY OF ALL THE WORLD battleships on the Hudson at four-minute inter vals . Germany believed that it had been done by a submarine , and immediately declared war . It was six months after Gluck’ s confession that she returned the Philippines and Hawaii to the

United States .

In the meanwhile Emil Gluck , the malevolent

- wizard and arch hater, traveled his whirlwind

n path of destruction . He left no traces . Scie

a o tiﬁc lly th rough , he always cleaned up after himself . His method was to rent a room or a house , and secretly to install his apparatus

so which apparatus , by the way, he perfected and simpliﬁed that it occupied little space . After he had accomplished his purpose he care fully removed the apparatus . He bade fair to

o live out a l ng life of horrible crime . The epidemic o f shooting of New York City policemen was a remarkable affair . It became one of the horror mysteries of the time . In two short weeks over a hundred policemen were shot in the legs by their own revolvers . In spector Jones did not solve the mystery, but it was his idea that ﬁnally outwitted Gluck . On 1 2 7 THE ENEMY OF ALL THE WORLD his recommendation the policemen ceased carry ing revolvers , and no more accidental shootings occurred. It was in the early spring o f 1 9 40 that Gluck destroyed the Mare Island navy yard . From a room in Vallejo he sent his electric discharges acro ss the Vallejo Straits to Mare Island . He

ﬁrst played his ﬂashes o n the battleship M ary

at la nd . She lay the dock of one of the mine magazines . On her forward deck, on a huge

o f temporary platform timbers , were disposed o ver a hundred mines . These mines were for

o the defence of the G lden Gate . Any one of these mines was capable of destroying a dozen battleships , and there were over a hundred mines . The destruction was terriﬁc, but it was ’ h only Gluck s overture . He played is ﬂashes

o down the Mare Island sh re , blowing up ﬁve

the o torpedo boats , torped station , and the great magazine at the eastern end of the island .

tu w Re rning west ard again , and scooping in occasional is o lated magazines on the high ground back from the shore , he blew up three

Ore o n D e laware cruisers and the battleships g , ,

1 2 8

THE ENEMY OF ALL THE WORLD

- very essence of the peril . For a twelve month the manufacture of p o wder ceased , and all soldiers and sailors were withdrawn from all fortiﬁcations and war vessels . And even a world disarmament was seriously considered at the Convention of the Powers , held at The

Hague at that time . m And then Silas Banner an, a secret service

the agent of United States , leaped into world fame by arresting Emil Gluck . At ﬁrst Banner

at man was laughed , but he had prepared his case well , and in a few weeks the most skeptical

’ were convinced of Emil Gluck s guilt . The one thing, however, that Silas Bannerman never

o n succeeded in explaining, even to his w satis faction , was how ﬁrst he came to connect Gluck with the atrocious crimes . It is true , Banner

in on man was Vallejo , secret government busi

o ness , at the time of the destructi n of Mare

Island ; and it is true that on the streets of Val lejo Emil Gluck was pointed out to him as a queer crank ; but no impression was made at the time . It was not until afterward, when on a vacation in the Rocky Mountains and when 1 30 THE ENE MY OF ALL THE WORLD reading the ﬁrst published reports of the de

r o st uction al ng the Atlantic Coast, that sud d enl o f y Bannerman thought Emil Gluck . And on the instant there ﬂashed into his mind the connection between Gluck and the destruction .

It was only an hypothesis , but it was suﬂi cient.

The great thing was the conception of the hy

o thesi p s, in itself an act o f unconscious cerebra

—a tion thing as unaccountable as the ﬂashing,

’ o for instance , int Newton s mind of the prin cipl e of gravitatio n .

The rest was easy. Where was Gluck at the time of the destruction along the Atlantic sea board ? was the question that formed in Ban

’ merman s mind . By his own request he was put upon the case . In no time he ascertained that Gluck had himself been up and down the Atlan tic Coast in the late fall of 1 9 40 . Also he as ce rtain e d that Gluck had been in New York City during the epidemic of the shooting of — police ofﬁ cers . Where was Gluck now was

’ Bannerman s next query . And , as if in answer, came the wholesale destruction along the Med

a iterran ean . Gluck had sailed for Europe

1 1 . 3 THE ENEMY OF ALL THE WORLD

— month before Bannerman knew that. It was n o t necessary fo r Bann erman to go to Europe . By means o f cable messages and the coOpe ra tion of the European secret services , be traced Gluck’ s course along the Mediterranean and found that in every instance it coincided with

o the bl wing up of coast defences and ships .

Also , he learned that Gluck had just sailed on the Green Star liner Pla to nic for the United

States .

’ The case was complete in Bannerman s mind, though in the interval of waiting he wo rked up the details . In this he was ably assisted by

o George Brown , an perator employed by the

’ o W od s System of Wireless Telegraphy. When the Plato n ic arrived o ff Sandy Hook she was boarded by Bannerman fro m a Government

an d . tug, Emil Gluck was made prisoner The trial and the confessio n followed . In the con fe ssion Gluck pro fessed regret only for one thing, namely, that he had taken his time . As he said , had he dreamed that he was ever to be discovered he would have worked more rapidly and accomplished a thousand times the de struc 1 3 2

THE DREAM OF DEBS

AWOKE fully an ho ur befo re my custo m

was ary time . This in itself remarkable ,

an d o o I lay very wide awake , p ndering ver

n t o it. Somethi g was the ma ter, s mething was — wrong I knew n o t what. I was oppressed by a premo nition o f so mething terrible that had happened or was about to happe n . But what was it ? I stro ve to orient myself . I remem bered that at the time o f the Great Earth quake o f 1 9 0 6 many claimed they awakened so me mo ments before the ﬁrst shock and that during these moments they experienced strange feelings of dread . Was San Francisco again to be visited by earthquake ?

n u I lay for a full mi te , numbly expectant, but there o ccurred n o reeli n g o f walls nor shock

o f o n r . and grind falling mas y All was quiet . That was it ! The silence ! No wonder I had 1 34 THE DREAM OF DEBS

been perturbed . The hum of the great live city t was s rangely absent. The surface cars passed

o f o n along my street, at that time day, an average of one every three minutes ; but in the ten succeeding minutes not a car passed . Per haps it was a street railway strike , was my thought ; or perhaps there had been an accident

o ff . and the power was shut But no , the silence

o was too prof und . I heard no j ar and rattle

- of wagon wheels , nor stamp of iron shod hoofs

- straining up the steep cobble stones .

- Pressing the push button beside my bed, I

o o f strove to hear the s und the bell , though I well knew it was impossible fo r the sound to rise three stories to me even if the bell did ring .

It rang all right, for a few minutes later Brown entered with the tray and morning paper .

Though his features were impassive as ever, I noted a startled, apprehensive light in his eyes .

I noted , also , that there was no cream on the tray. “The Creamery did not deliver this morn “ ing, he explained ; nor did the bakery .

I glanced again at the tray . There were no 1 35 THE DREAM OF DEBS fresh French rolls —only slices of stale graham

o bread fr m yesterday, the most detestable of bread so far as I was concerned . “ Nothing was delivered this morning, sir, Brown started to explain apologetically ; but I interrupted him . “The paper ? ”

nl Yes , sir, it was delivered, but it was the o y

’ t . thing, and it is the last ime , too There won t

- s . be any paper to morrow. The paper say so Can I send out and get you some condensed milk ? ” ff I shook my head, accepted the co ee black, and spread open the paper. The headlines ex

—J- plained everything explained too much, in fact, for the lengths of pessimism to which the

o journal went were ridicul us . A general strike , it said, had been called all over the United States ; and most foreboding anxieties were ex pressed concerning the provisioning o f the great cities .

I read on hastily, skimming much and t e

emberin m g much of labor troubles in the past. For a generation the general strike had been 1 36

THE DREAM OF DEBS wheel was turning and the whole city was tak ing an enfo rced vacation .

e I beg your pardon, sir, Brown said , as b

H armm ed handed me my cigar case , but Mr . ” has asked to see you before you go out . “ ” Send him in right away , I answered .

H armm e d was the butler . When he entered I could see he was laboring under controlled excitement . He came at o nce to the point . “ ? What shall I do , sir There will be needed

the provisions , and delivery drivers are on — strike . And the electricity is shut o ff I guess

’ ” they re on strike , too .

“ ” Are the shops open ? I asked.

the Only small ones , sir . The retail clerks

’ bi n c o are out, and the g o es an t pen ; but the owners and their families are running the little ” ones themselves . “ Then take the machine , I said , and go

o n the r u ds and make your purchases . Buy

t plenty of every hing you need or may need .

b ox n — Get a of ca dles no , get half a dozen

’ . n d boxes A , when you re done , tell Harrison to 1 38 THE DREAM OF DEBS bring the machine aro und to the club for me

‘ ” not later than eleven .

H armm ed shook his head gravely . Mr .

’ Harrison has struck along with the Chauffeurs

’ Union , and I don t know ho w to run the ma chine myself . “ ” ho Oh , , he has , has he ? I said . Well , when next M iste r Harrison happens around yo u tell him that he can look elsewhere fo r a posi ” tion . “ Yes , sir. You don ’ t happen to belong to a Butlers ’ ” H armm e d ? Union , do you , “ ” No , sir, was the answer . And even if I did I ’ d not desert my employer in a crisis like this . No , sir, I would “ All right , thank you , I said . Now you

’ get ready to accompany me . I ll run the ma

’ chine myself, and we ll lay in a stock of pro visions to stand a siege .

It was a beautiful ﬁrst of May, even as May days go . The sky was cloudless , there was no — wind, and the air was warm almost balmy .

t o driv Many au os were out , but the wners were I S9 THE DREAM OF DEBS

ing them themselves . The streets were crowded b o in ut quiet . The w rking class , dressed its

out obse rv Sunday best , was taking the air and

so u n in g the effects o f the strike . It was all

o m usual , and withal so peaceful , that I f und y

n t self enj oying it. My nerves were tingli g wi h

n o f ad mild exciteme t . It was a sort placid venture . I passed Miss Chickering . She was at the helm o f her little run about . She swung around and came after me , catching me at the corner. “

Co rf l . D o o Oh , Mr . she hailed y u know

’ where I can buy candles ? I ve been to a dozen

’ ’ o o . sh ps , and they re all s ld out It s dreadfully

’ ” t awful , isn it ?

B ut he r sparkling eyes gave the lie to her

o . n n w rds Like the rest of us , she was e joyi g

it . u t t t hugely Q i e an adven ure it was , ge ting

n t n tho se candles . It was o u til we went acro ss the city an d down i n to the wo rking- class quarter so uth o f Ma rket Street that we fo und small

o o t n o t o o c rner gr ceries tha had yet s ld ut . Miss

o bo x fﬁ t Chickering th ught one was su cien , but

to I persuaded her in taking four . My car was 1 40

THE DREAM OF DEBS

afternoon that I began to feel the ﬁrst alarm .

Everything was in confusion . There were no o an d lives for the cocktails , the service was by

the ao hitches and jerks . Most of men were

o f gry, and all were worried . A babel voices greeted me as I entered . General Folsom , nursing his capacious paunch in a windo w seat in the smoking- room was defending himself against half a dozen excited gen tlemen who were demanding that he do something . “ ” What can I d o mo re than I have done ? “ he was saying. There are no orders from

o u Washington . If y gentlemen will get a wire

’ through I ll do anything I am co mmanded to

’ do . But I don t see what can be do ne The

n ﬁrst thing I did this morni g, as soon as I

t to in learned of the s rike , was order the troops — from the Presidi o three thousand of them .

’ They re guarding the banks , the Mint , the post o fﬁ ce , and all the public buildings . There is no disorder whatever . The strikers are keep

’ i n ! o g the peace perfectly . u can t expect me to shoot them do wn as they walk along the 1 42 THE DREAM OF DEBS streets with wives and children all in their best ” bib and tucker .

“ ’ ’ I d like to kn ow what s happening on Wall ” t Womb old S reet, I heard Jimmy say as I

o u fo r passed along . I c ld imagine his anxiety,

I kn ew that he was deep in the big Consoli

- dated Western deal . “ ” Say, Corf, Atkinson bustled up to me , is your machine running ? ”

“ ” ’ Yes , I answered , but what s the matter with your own “ he . B roken down , and t garages are all closed

’ And my wife s somewhere around Truckee , I

’ o n o . think, stalled the verland Can t get a wire to her for l o ve or money . She should have ar rived this evening . She may be starving. Lend me your machine .

“ ’ Can t get it across the bay , Halstead spoke

“ ’ up . The ferries aren t running. But I tell ’ — you what you can do . There s Rollinson oh ,

o Rollinson , come here a moment Atkins n wants to get a machine across the bay . His

’ wife is stuck on the overland at Truckee . Can t 1 43 THE DREAM OF DE BS you bring the Lurle tte across from Tiburon ” an d carry the machine over for him ?

- - The Lurle tte was a two hundred ton , ocean

- o . going, scho ner yacht

’ Rollinson shoo k his head . You couldn t get a longshoreman to land the machine on board ,

o o even if I c uld get the Lurle tte ver, which I

’ the can t, for the crew are members of Coast

’ ’ Se am en s Union , and they re on strike along ” with the rest . “ But my wife may be starving, I could hear

Atkinson wailing as I moved on .

At the other end o f the smoking- room I ran into a gro up of men bunched excitedly and m angrily around Bertie Messe er . And Bertie was stirring them up and prodding them in his

’

o . co l , cynical way Bertie didn t care about the

’

. o strike He didn t care much ab ut anything . — He was blas! at least in all the clean things of life ; the nasty things had no attraction for him .

o t t t He was w r h wen y millions , all of it in safe

and ta investments , he had never done a p of — pro ductive wo rk in his life inherited it all from his father and two uncles . He had been 1 44

THE DREAM OF DEBS

’ ” ri ht l And we ll play all g cried Garﬁeld ,

“ ’ one of the traction milli o naires . We ll show this dirt where its place is —the beasts ! Wait ” till the go vernment takes a hand . “ ” But where is the government ? Bertie in

“ “ te rpo sed . It might as well be at the bottom

’ of the sea so far as yo u re concerned . You

’ ’ don t know what s happening at Washington . You don’ t know whether you ’ ve got a govern ” ment or not. “ Don’ t you worry about that ! Garﬁeld blurted ou t.

“ ’ u I ass re you I m not worrying, B ertie smiled languidly But it seems to me it’ s what you fellows are doing. Look in the glass , Gar ” ﬁeld.

Garﬁeld did not look, but had he looked he would have seen a very excited gentleman with

- rumpled, iron gray hair, a ﬂushed face , mouth sullen and vindictive , and eyes wildly gleaming .

“ ’ ! n o t It s right, I tell you , little Hanover said ; and from his to ne I was sure that he had already said it a number of times .

“ ’ Now that s going too far, Hanover , Bertie 1 46 THE DREAM OF DE BS

“ ’ replied . You fellows make me tired . Yo u re

’ - o all open shop men . Y u ve eroded my ear drums with your endless gabble fo r the open

’ o shop and the right f a man to work . You ve harangued along those lines for years . Labor is doing nothing wrong in going out on this general strike . It is violating no law of God

’ ’ nor man . Don t you talk, Hanover. You ve been ringing the changes too long on the God given right to work or not to work ; you

’ ’ can t escape the corollary. It s a dirty little

’ sordid scrap , that s all the whole thing is .

’ o n o w You ve got labor down and g uged it , and

’ ’ o o o t labor s g t y u d wn and is gouging you , tha s

’ ” o . all , and y u re squealing

Every man in the group broke out in indig nant denials that labor had ever been gouged . “ ” “ ’ No sir l Garﬁeld was shouting. We ve done the best for labor . Instead of gouging it, we ’ ve given it a chance to live We ’ ve made

’ o w rk for it . Where would labor be if it hadn t been for us ? “ off . A whole lot better , Bertie sneered

’ You ve got labor down and gouged it eve ry 1 47 THE DREAM OF DEBS

time you got a chance , and you went out of your ” way to make chances . “ ” No ! No l were the cries .

’ There was the teamsters strike , right here ” im e rtur in San Francisco , B ertie went on p

“ ’ o re ci i bably. The Empl yers Association p p tated that strike You know that . And you

’ o o fo r know I know it, t , I ve sat in these very roo ms and heard the inside talk and ne ws of the ﬁght. First you precipitated the strike , then you bought the Mayor and the Chief of Police and broke the strike . A pretty spectacle , you philanthropists getting the teamsters down and

o g uging them .

“ ’ ’ t o Hold on , I m not hr ugh with you . It s only last year that the labor ticket of Colorado

. o elected a governor He was never seated . ! u know why . You know ho w your brother phil an thropists and capitalists of Colorado worked it . It was a case of getting labor down and gouging it. You kept the President of the SouthwesternAmalgamated Association of Min ers in j ail for three years on trumped-up mur der charges, and with him out of the way you 1 48

THE DREAM OF DEBS

ﬁghting for the closed shop . And then you have the effro ntery to stand here face to face and tell me that you never got labor down and !” gouged it . Bah

This time there were no denials . Garﬁeld broke out in self- defence

“ ’ We ve done n othing we were not compelled ” to do , if we were to win .

“ ’ ” n I m not saying a ything about that , Bertie “ o is answered . What I am complaining ab ut

’ your squealing n o w that you re getting a taste of your own medicine . How many strikes have yo u wo n by starving labor into submission ?

’ o ut Well , labor s worked a scheme whereby to starve yo u into submission . It wants the closed h shop , and, if it can get it by starving you , w y ” starve you shall . “ I notice that you have pro ﬁted in the past

- o u by those very labor gouges y mention , in

o n e o f sinuated Brentwood , the wiliest and mo st astute of our corporation lawyers . The ” receiver is as bad as the thief , he sneered . “ You had no hand in the gouging, but you took ” your whack out of the gouge . 1 50 THE DREAM OF DEBS

o That is quite beside the questi n , Brent

” ’

o . wo d , Bertie drawled You re as bad as

t the o e . Hanover , in ruding m ral lement I

’ haven t said that anything is right or wrong .

’ It s all a rotten game , I know ; and my sole kick is that you fellows are squealing now that you ’ re

’ down and labor s taking a gouge out of you .

’ Of course I ve taken the proﬁts fro m the goug

o ing and , thanks to you , gentlemen, with ut hav ing personally to do the dirty work . You did — that for me oh , believe me , not because I am more virtuous than you , but because my good father and his various brothers left me a lot of ” money with which to pay for the dirty work . “ If you mean to insinuate Brentwood began hotly.

“ ’ ” — ruﬂle d Hold on , don t get all up , Bertie

“ ’ interposed insolently . There s no use in play

’ ing hypocrites in this thieves den . The high

’ and lofty is all right for the newspapers , boys — ’ clubs , and Sunday schools that s part of the

’ ’ ’ game ; but for heaven s sake don t let s play it on one another . You know, and you know that

I know, just what jobbery was done in the 1 51 THE DREAM OF DEBS

building trades strike last fall , who put up the

o b money, who did the w rk, and who proﬁted y ” “ it . (Brentwood ﬂushed darkly. ! But we are all tarred with the same brush, and the best thing for us to do is to leave morality out of it . Again I repeat, play the game , play it to

’ ’ o the last ﬁnish, but for g odness sake don t squeal when you get hurt . When I left the group Bertie was o ff on a new tack tormenting them with the more seri

' o ous aspects of the situation , p inting out the shortage of supplies that was already making

o itself felt, and asking them what they were g

t ing to do about it . A lit le later I met him in the cloak room , leaving, and gave him a lift home in my m achine .

“ ’ It s a great stroke , this general strike , he said, as we bowled along through the crowded,

“ ’ but orderly, streets . It s a smashing body blow. Labor caught us napping and struck at

’ o our weakest place , the st mach . I m going to get out of San Francisco , Corf . Take my ad vice and get out, too . Head for the country,

’ . B anywhere You ll have more chance . uy up 1 52

THE DREAM OF DEBS

o the chiefest hardship . D wn at the club there

n o o was little ews . Rider had cr ssed fr m Oak

in land his launch , and Halstead had been down to San Jose and back in his machine . They repo rted the same con ditions in tho se places as

t in San Francisco . Every hing was tied up by

o the strike . All grocery st cks had been bought o t u by the upper classes . And perfect order reigned . But what was happening over the — rest o f the country in Chicago ? New York ?

Washington ? Most probably the same things

o that were happening with us , we c ncluded ; but the fact that we did not know with abso lute surety was irritating .

General Folsom had a bit of news . An at tempt had been made to place army telegraph

o ﬂice ers in the telegraph s, but the wires had

o been cut in every directi n . This was , so far, the one unlawful act committed by labor, and that it was a co ncerted act he was fully con

in e v c d . He had communicated by wireless with the army post at Benicia , the telegraph lines were even then being patrol e d by s o ldiers all

to the way to Sacramen . Once , for one short 1 54 THE DREAM OF DEBS

o t the to instant , they had g Sacramen call , then the o wires , s mewhere , were cut again . Gen eral Fols o m reaso n ed that similar attempts to open commun ication were being made by the t authori ies all the way across the continent, but he was non-co mmittal as to whether o r n o t

t he thought the attempt wo uld succeed . Wha worried him was the wire- cutting ; he could not but believe that it was an important part of

- . b e re the deep laid labor conspiracy Also , gre tte d that the govern ment had n o t l o ng since established its projected chain of wireless sta tions .

The days came and went, and for a while it was a humdrum time . Nothing happened . The

o edge o f excitement had bec me blunted . The streets were not so crowded . The wo rking class did not come uptown any more to see how we were taking the strike . And there were not

n e so many auto mobiles run ing around . The t

o pair shops and garages were cl sed , and when ever a machi n e broke down it went out of com mission . The clutch on mine broke , and love nor money could not get it repaired . Like the 1 55 THE DREAM OF DEBS

o . rest , I n w was walking San Francisco lay

n o t dead , and we did know what was happen

o ing over the rest of the country . But fr m the very fact that we did n o t know we could con elude only that the rest of the country lay as

t to dead as San Francisco . From ime time the city was placarded wi th the proclamations of organized labor— these had been printed months before , and evidenced how thoroughly

the . the I . L . W . had prepared for strike Every detail had been worked out long in advance .

No violence had occurred as yet, with the ex ceptio n of the shooting of a few wire - cutters

the o by s ldiers , but the people of the slums

o were starving and gr wing ominously restless .

o The business men , the milli naires , and the pro fessional class held meetings and passed

t o t o f resolu i ns , but here was no way making the proclamatio ns public . They could not even get them printed . One result o f these meet

o t ings , h wever , was hat General Folsom was persuaded into taking milita ry possession of the wholesale houses and of all the ﬂour, grain, and food warehouses . It was high time , for 1 56

THE DREAM OF DEBS

ﬂung out of the bread-lines ; but that amounted

T o o o v to no thing . make matters w rse , the g e rnm en t tugs that had been hauling fo o d fro m the army dep o ts o n Mare Island to Angel

Island found n o more food to haul . The sol diers now received their rations from the con

ﬁs ate d c provisions , and they received them

ﬁrst .

The beginning of the end was in sight .

Violen ce was beginning to show its face . Law

o and rder were passing away, and passing

mo the away, I must confess , a ng slum people and the upper classes . Organized labor still ff maintained perfect o rder . It could well a ord — to it had plenty to eat. I remember the af te rn oo n at the club when I caught Halstead and B rentwood whispering in a corner . They

’ too k me in on the venture . Bren two o d s ma

n chine was still in ru ning order, and they were

- going out cow stealing. Halstead had a long butcher knife and a cleaver . We went out to

t o the ou skirts f the city . Here and there were

but cows grazing, always they were guarded by their owners . We pursued our quest, follow 1 58 THE DREAM OF DEBS

o f ing along the fringe the city to the east, and

’ on the hills near Hunter s Po int we came up o n

o a cow guarded by a little girl . There was als a young calf with the cow . We wasted no time

t on preliminaries . The lit le girl ran away screaming, while we slaughtered the cow . I

- e omit the details , for they are not nice w were unaccustomed to such work, and we bungled it .

o t But in the midst of it, w rking wi h the haste of fear, we heard cries , and we saw a number of men running toward us . We abandoned the spoils and took to our heels . To our sur prise we were not pursued . Looking back, we saw the men hurriedly cutting up the cow . They had been on the same lay as ourselves . We argued that there was plenty for all , and ran back . The scene that followed beggars de scription . We fought and squabbled over the

t division like savages . Bren wood, I remember, was a perfect brute , snarling and snapping and threatening that murder would be done if we did not get our proper share . And we were getting our share when there occurred a new irruption on the scene . This I S9 THE DREAM OF DEBS

time it was the dreaded peace ofﬁ cers o f the I .

L . W . The little girl had brought them . They were armed with whips and clubs , and there

n were a score of them . The little girl da ced up and down in anger, the tears streaming

“ ’ o ! d wn her cheeks , crying Give it to em ’ — Give it to em ! That guy with the specs he did it ! Mash his face for him ! Mash his ! face That guy with the specs was I , and I got my face mashed , too , though I had the presence o f mind to take o ff my glasses at the ! ﬁrst . My but we did receive a trouncing as we scattered in all directions . Brentwood,

Halstead and I ﬂed away for the machine .

’ B ren two o d s nose was bleeding, while Hal

’ stead s che ck was cut acro ss with the scarlet

- n slash of a black s ake whip .

10 And , , when the pursuit ceased and we had

t n gained the machine , here , hidi g behind it, was the frightened calf . Brentwo o d warned us to be cautious , and crept up on it like a wo lf or a tiger . Knife and cleaver had been left

n o behind, but Bre two d still had his hands , and over and over on the ground he rolled wi th the

1 60

THE DREAM OF DEBS

duty to maintain law and order, and he main taine o f the o d it by means soldiers , wheref re he was compelled to feed them ﬁrst of all . It was about this time that the great panic o ccurred . The wealthy classes precipitated

t the ﬂight , and hen the slum people caught the co ntagion and stampeded wildly out o f the city .

General Folsom was pleased . It was estimated that at least had deserted San Fran

o o cisc , and by that much was his f od problem

the solved . Well do I remember that day . In mo rning I had eaten a crust of bread . Half of the afternoon I had stood in the bread- line ;

tu and after dark I re rned home , tired and mis e rabl e , carrying a quart of rice and a slice of

o . baco n . Br wn met me at the door His face was worn and terriﬁed . All the servants had

o . ﬂed, he informed me . He al ne remained I was touched by his faithfulness and, when I

o learned that he had eaten n thing all day , I divided my food with him . We cooked half

it the rice and half the bacon , sharing equally and reserving the other half for morning. I went to bed with my hunger, and tossed rest

1 62 THE DREAM OF DEBS

lessly all night. In the morning I found Brown had deserted me , and , greater misfortune still , he had stolen what remained of the rice and bacon . It was a gloomy handful of men that came together at the Club that morning . There was no service at all . The last servant was gone .

I noticed, too , that the silver was gone , and I learned where it had gone . The servants had not taken it, for the reason , I presume , that the club members got to it ﬁrst . Their method

o f of disposing of it was simple . Down south

Market Street , in the dwellings of the I . L . W. , the housewives had given square meals in ex change for it . I went back to my house . Yes , — my silver was gone all but a massive pitcher. This I wrapped up and carried down south of

Market .

I felt better after the meal , and returned to the Club to learn if there was anything new in the situation . Hanover , Collins , and Dakon were just leaving . There was no one inside , they told me , and they invited me to come along with them . They were leaving the city, they 1 63 THE DREAM OF DEBS

’ a n o said , on D ko s h rses , and there was a spare

o one for me . Dak n had four magniﬁcent car riage horses that he wanted to save , and Gen eral Fo lsom had given him the tip that next morning all the horses that remained in the city were to be conﬁscated for food . There

fo r were not many horses left , tens of thou sands o f them had been turned loose into the country when the hay and grain gave out dur ing the ﬁrst days . Birdall , I remember, who

t had great draying interests , had urned loose three hundred dray horses . At an average value of ﬁve hundred dollars , this had amounted

t e to He had hoped , at ﬁrst, to

cover most of the horses after the strike was , over, but in the end he never recovered one of them . They were all eaten by the people that

ﬂed from San Francisco . For that matter, the killing of the army mules and horses for food had already begun .

Fortunately for Dakon , he had had a pl enti ful supply of hay and grain stored in his stable.

o We managed to raise f ur saddles , and we found the animals in good condition and spir 1 64

THE DREAM OF DEBS

’ ’ wo n t give me a chance to submit . I haven t had a full meal in an age . I wonder what horse meat tastes like We stopped to read ano ther proclamation

When we think our employers are ready to submit we shall open up the telegraphs and

’ place the employers associati o ns of the United

States in co mmunication . But only messages relating to peace terms shall be permitted over ” the wires .

o We r de on , crossed Market Street, and a little later were passing through the wo rking class district . Here the streets were n o t de

e e s rt d . Leaning over gates or standing in groups were the I . L . W . men . Happy, well fed children were playing games , and stout housewives sat on the front steps gossiping.

u One and all cast am sed glances at us . Little “ : children ran after us , crying Hey, mister,

’ ” ? o ain t you hungry And one w man , a nursing “ child at her breast, called to Dakon : Say,

’ Fatty, I ll give you a meal for yo ur skate ham and potatoes , currant jelly, white bread , ” canned butter, and two cups of coffee .

.1 66 THE DREAM OF DEBS

Have you noticed, the last few days , Han

“ ’ over remarked to me , that there s not been a stray dog in the streets

I had noticed , but I had not thought about

r it before . It was high time to leave the un fo

n ate tu city . We at last managed to connect with the San Bruno Road , along which we headed so uth . I had a country place near

Menlo , and it was our objective . But soon we began to discover that the country was worse o ff and far more dangerous than the city.

There the soldiers and the I . L . W . kept o r der ; but the country had been turned over to anarchy . Two hundred thousand people had

ﬂed from San Francisco , and we had countless evidences that their ﬂight had been like that of an army of locusts . They had swept every

ﬁ ht thing clean . There had been robbery and g ing. Here and there we passed bodies by the roadside and saw the blackened ruins of farm houses . The fences were down , and the crops had been trampled by the feet of a multitude . All the vegetable patches had been rooted up by the famished hordes . All the chickens and 1 67 THE DREAM OF DEBS

farm a n imals had been slaughtered . This was true o f all the main roads that led out of San

t Francisco . Here and here , away from the roads , farmers had held their own with shot guns and revolvers , and were still holding their o wn . They warned us away and refused to parley with us . And all the destruction and violence had been done by the slum dwellers and the upper classes . The I . L . W . men , with plentiful food supplies , remained quietly in their homes in the cities . Early in the ride we received concrete proof o f t how despera e was the situation . To the

r right of us we heard c ies and riﬂe shots . Bul lets whistled dangerously near. There was a crashing in the underbrush ; then a magniﬁcent black truck- horse broke acro ss the road in front of us and was gone . We had barely time to notice that he was bleeding and lame . He was follo wed by three s o ldiers . The chase went on

t among the trees on the lef . We could hear the soldiers calling to one another . A fourth soldier limped o ut upon the ro ad from the

1 68

THE DREAM OF DEBS

the reason for the attack . Dakon examined the bodies .

“ “ ’ I thought so , he reported . I ve ridden in

- P rr . that car . It was e ito n the whole family We ’ ve got to watch out for ourselves from n o w on . “ But we have no food with which to invite attack, I objected .

Dakon pointed to the horse I rode , and I understood .

’ Early in the day Dako n s horse had cast a

o shoe . The delicate hoof had split, and by no n the animal was limping . Dakon refused to ride

an d . it farther, refused to desert it So , on his solicitation , we went on . He would lead the horse and join us at my place . That was the last we saw of him ; nor did we ever learn his end . By one o ’ clock we arrived at the town of

o f Menlo , or, rather, at the site Menlo , for it was in ruins . Corpses lay everywhere . The b usiness part of the town , as well as part of the residences , had been gutted by ﬁre . Here and there a residence still held out ; but there 1 70 THE DREAM OF DEBS

n o was getting near them . When we ap

ro ache d to o p closely we were ﬁred up o n . We met a woman who was p o king about in the

s o o f . m king ruins her cottage The ﬁrst attack ,

o o n h she t ld us , had been the stores , and as s e

o talked we could picture that raging, r aring, hungry mob ﬂinging itself o n the handful of townspeople . Millionaires and paupers had

an d t fought side by side for the food , hen fought with one another after they got it . The town of Palo Alto and Stanford University had

n been sacked in similar fashio , we learned .

Ahead of us lay a desolate , wasted land ; and we thought we were wise in turning o ff to my place . It lay three miles to the west , snug gling among the ﬁrst ro lling swells of the foot hills . But as we rode along we saw that the dev astation was not co nﬁned to the main roads .

The van of the ﬂight had kept to the roads , sacking the small towns as it went ; while those that fo llo wed had scattered out and swept the whole countryside like a great broom . My place was built of concrete , masonry , and tiles , 1 7 1 THE DREAM OF DEBS an d so had escaped , being burned , but it was

’ o the gutted clean . We f und gardener s body

n t o u t i the windmill , lit ered ar nd with emp y

o . shotgun shells . He had put up a g od ﬁght But no trace could we ﬁnd of the two Italian

o the o u lab rers , nor of h sekeeper and her hus

’ t n n . band . Not a live hi g remai ed The calves ,

e o n o t th c lts , all the fa cy p ul ry and thorough

o n was n . bred st ck, everythi g, go e The kitchen

the m ob o o and ﬁreplaces , where the had c ked ,

- ﬁ re s u were a mess , while many camp o tside b o re witness to the large number that had fed

n t t n o t a d spent the night . Wha hey had eaten

n o t they had carried away . There was a bite

for us . We spent the rest of the night vainly waiting

fo r o t re Dak n , and in the morning, wi h our

o t o ff o v lve s , fought half a d zen marauders .

’ o f Dak o n s o Then we killed one h rses , hiding

for the future what meat we did n o t imm e di

ately eat . In the afternoon Collins went out

t . for a walk, but failed to re urn This was the

last straw to Hano ver . He was for ﬂight there fﬁ and then , and I had great di culty in pe rsuad 1 7 2

THE DREAM OF DEBS

on foot, they already had the ﬁre started , and

’ the last of Dakon s ho rses lay slaughtered on the ground . k As luck would have it, I sprained my an le , and succeeded in getting no farther than South

San Francisco . I lay there that night in an outhouse , shivering with the cold and at the same time burning with fever . Two days I lay t o n here , too sick to move , and the third, reel

o n ing and giddy , supporting myself an ex

o t temp rized crutch , I to tered on toward San

o . Francisc I was weak as well , for it was the third day since food had passed my lips . It was a day of nightmare and torment. As in a dream I passed hundreds of regular soldiers

the drifting along in opposite direction, and many policemen , with their families , organized in large groups for mutual protection . As I entered the city I remembered the work man’ s house at which I had traded the silver pitcher, and in that direction my hunger drove me . Twilight was falling when I came to the place . I passed around by the alleyway and crawled up the back steps , on which I collapsed . 1 74 THE DREAM OF DEBS

I managed to reach out with the crutch and knock on the door . Then I must have fainted , for I came to in the kitchen , my face wet with water and whisky being poured down my throat . I choked and spluttered and tried to talk. I began saying something about not hav ing any more silver pitchers , but that I would make it up to them afterward if they would only give me something to eat . But the house wife interrupted me . “ ! ’ Why you poor man she said . Haven t you heard ? The strike was called o ff this

’ afternoon . Of course we ll give you something ” to eat .

She bustled around , opening a tin of break fast bacon and preparing to fry it “ Let me have some now , please , I begged ; and I ate the raw bacon on a slice of bread , while her husband explained that the demands of the I . L . W . had been granted . The wires had been opened up in the early afternoon , and everywhere the employers ’ associations had

’ given in . There hadn t been any employers left in San Francisco , but General Folsom had I7S THE DREAM OF DEBS

spoken fo r them . The trains and steamers would start running in the morning, and so wo uld everything else just as soon as system could be established.

And that was the end of the general strike .

I never want to see another one . It was worse than a war . A general strike is a cruel and

r o f m an o immo al thing, and the brain sh uld be capable o f running industry in a more rational

n ff . way . Harriso is still my chau eur It was part

n . . of the conditio s of the I L W . that all of its members sho uld be reinstated in thei r old p o si

o . ti ns B rown never came back , but the rest of

’ the the servants are with me . I hadn t heart — to discharge them poor creatures , they were pretty hard-pressed when they deserted with

’ the food and silver . And now I can t discharge t o hem . They have all been uni nized by the I .

L . W . The tyranny of organized labor is get t o ing bey nd human endurance . Something must be done .

THE SEA- FARMER

” nte r Proper wu weather, he answered , after “

. U t a silence . The town is undistinct wull

’ ’ be rainun guid an hearty for the day .

M acEl rath Captain was a small man , just com fo rtably able to peep over the canvas dodger of the bridge . The pilot and third o ﬂice r

the loomed above him , as did man at the wheel ,

o a bulky German , deserted fr m a warship ,

o n whom he had signed in Rangoon . But his lack of inches made Captain M acEl rath a n o less able man . At least so the Company reck o n ed k o , and so would he have rec oned c uld he have had access to the carefully and minutely compiled reco rd o f him ﬁled away in the o ﬂice archives . But the Company had never given him a hint o f its faith in him . It was not the

o way of the C mpany, for the Company went on the principle of never allowing an employee to think himself indispensable or even exceedingly

o useful ; wheref re , while quick to censure , it

. M acEl ath never praised What was Captain r , anyway, save a skipper, one skipper of the eighty-odd skippers that commanded the Com 1 78 THE SEA- FARMER

’ pany s eighty- odd freighters on all the high ways and byways of the sea ?

o n t o Beneath them , the main deck , w Chinese

’ stokers were carrying breakfast fo r ard across the rusty iron plates that told their own grim story of weight and wash of sea . A sailor was taking down the life - line that stretched from

b a h s the forecastle , past the tc e and cargo

- winches , to the bridge deck ladder.

“ ’ 7 the A rough voyage , suggested pilot .

’ A sm o kin ot n o t y, she was fair times , but

’ thot I minded thot so much as the lossin of

’ ”

o n th n . time . I hate like y u tull loss time

M acE ra h So saying, Captain l t turned and glanced aft , aloft and alow, and the pilot, fol

a lowing his g ze , saw the mute but convincing explanation of that loss of time . The smoke

ff- stack, bu colored underneath , was white with

- salt, while the whistle pipe glittered crystalline in the random sunlight that broke for the in

- stant through a cloud rift . The port life boat was missing, its iron davits , twisted and wrenched, testifying to the mightiness of the blow that had been struck the old Tryapsic. I 79 THE SEA-FARMER

The starb o ard davits were also empty . The shattered wreck o f the life-boat they had held lay on the ﬁddl ey beside the smashed engine room skylight which was covered by a tarpaulin .

to - Below , starboard, on the bridge deck , the

the r - o pilot saw c ushed mess room door , r ughly bulkheaded against the pounding seas . Abreast

o n o of it , the sm kestack guys , and being taken down by the bosun and a sailor , hung the huge square o f ro pe netting which had failed to break those seas of their force . “ Twice afore I menti o ned thot door tull the ” “ t a E h owners , said Cap ain M c l rat But they said ut would do . There was bug seas thot time . They was uncreditable bug. And thot U t buggest one dud the domage . fair carried

’ away the do or an laid ut ﬂat o n the mess table

’ ’ an smashed out the chief s room . He was a but sore about ut.

’ ’ ” t a n It mus been a big u , the pilot re marked sympathetically . “ ut . Thun s Ay, was thot g was lively for a but . U t ﬁnished the mate . He was on the

’ e th b rudg wu me , an I told hum tull take a look

1 80

THE SEA- FARMER

- banged hum head on to]! the pipe cover . It

o sheered through hum like so much butter, d wn

’ atween the eyes , an along the middle of hum ,

’ so that one leg an arm was fast tull the one

’ ’ b rn piece of u , an one leg an arm fast tull the t other piece of hum . I tull ye u was fair grew

’ o some . We putt hum t gether an rolled hum ” in canvas u z we pulled hum out .

The pilo t swo re again .

“ ’ ut o n thun t Oh , wasna y tull greet abou ,

’ Captain M acEl rath assured him . Twas a

an n o guid ru dd ce . He was a sailor , thot mate

’ fo - fello w . He was only fut r a pug sty, an a dom puir apolo gy fo r thot same . It is said that there are three kinds o f Irish

t o t - o f— catholic, protestan , and N r h Ireland and that the North- o f- Ireland Irishman is a

n M acE ath tra splanted Scotchman . Captain lr

-o f— was a North Ireland man , and , talking for much of the world like a Scotchman , nothing aro used his ire quicker than being mistaken for a Scotchman . Irish he stoutly was , and Irish

t o he stoutly abided , h ugh it was with a faint lip-lift of scorn that he mentioned mere South

1 82 THE SEA- FARMER o f- f Ireland men , or even Orangemen . Himsel he was Presbyterian , while in his own commu n ity ﬁve men were all that ever mustered at a t ’ mee ing in the Orange Men s Hall . His com

M cGi l munity was the Island l , where seven thousand of his kind lived in such amity and sobriety that in the whole island there was but one policeman and never a public house at all .

M acEl rath n o Captain did t like the sea , and

i o had never liked it . He wrung h s livelih od t from it, and hat was all the sea was , the place

o where he w rked , as the mill , the shop , and the — counting house were the places where other men worked . Romance never sang to him her siren song, and Adventure had never shouted in his sluggish blood . He lacked imagination . The wonders of the deep were without sign iﬁ cance to him . Tornadoes , hurricanes , water spouts , and tidal waves were so many obstacles to the way of a ship on the sea and of a master — on the bridge they were that to him , and noth ing more . He had seen , and yet not seen, the many marvels and wonders of far lands . Under his eyelids burned the brazen glories of the 1 83 THE SEA- FARMER

o tr pic seas , or ached the bitter gales of the

North Atlantic o r far South Paciﬁc ; but his memo ry o f them was of mess - room doors stove

o f s t in , deck awash and hatches threa ened , of

n o an d undue coal co sumption , of l ng passages , o f fresh paint-wo rk spoiled by unexpected

r squalls of ain .

“ ’ o b z z n ess I kn w my u , was the way he often

ut it b p , and eyond his business was all that he

n o t o t m o r did kn w, all hat he had seen with the tal eyes of him an d yet that he never dreamed existed . That he knew his business his o wners

o n o were c nvinced , or at forty he would t have

the Tr a sic t held command of y p , three housand

o h r t ns net register, wit a ca go capacity of nine tho usand to ns and valued at ﬁfty thousand po unds . He had taken up seafaring through no love

u b e of it, but beca se it had been his destiny, cause he had been the second son o f his father

o f M instead the ﬁrst . Island cGill was o nly

an d the o o so large , land c uld supp rt but a cer tain deﬁnite proporti o n of those that dwelt

o . up n it The balance , and a large balance it 1 84

THE SEA- FARMER

from twice around the world he was , and from interminable junketings up and down on far

- stretches , home coming to the wife he had not t seen in eight and twen y months , and to the child he had never seen and that was already walking and talking. He saw the watch below of stokers and trimmers bobbing out of the forecastle doors like rabbits from a warren and making their way aft over the rusty deck to the mustering of the port doctor. They were Chi

- nese , with expressionless , Sphinx like faces , and n they walked in peculiar shambli g fashion , draggin g their feet as if the clumsy brogans were to o heavy for their lean shanks .

He saw them and he did not see them , as he passed his hand beneath his visored cap and

re ﬂe ctivel his scratched y mop of sandy hair . F o r the scene before him was but the back ground in his brain for the vision of peace that — was his a visio n that was his often during long nights on the bridge when the old Tryap sic wallowed on the vexed ocean ﬂoor , her decks awash , her rigging thrumming in the gale gusts or snow squalls or driving tropic rain . And

1 86 THE SEA- FARMER the visi o n he saw was o f farm and farm- house

- o t and straw thatched u buildings , of children playing in the su n and the go o d wife at the

o o d r, of lowing kine , and clucking fowls , and

’ the t the stamp of horses in s able , of his father s

o farm next to him , with bey nd the woodless , rolling land and the hedged ﬁelds , neat and orderly , extending to the crest of the smooth ,

t . was his sof hills It his vision and dream , his

o Romance and Adventure , the g al of all his

ff fo r - e ort , the high reward the salt plowing and

o the long, long furr ws he ran up and down the whole world aro und in his farmi n g of the sea .

In simple taste and ho mely inclination this much-traveled man was m o re simple and ho mely

- than the veriest yokel . Seventy o n e years his father was , and had never slept a night out of

o n o his own bed in his w h use on Island M cGill .

That was the life ideal , so Captain M acElrath

to considered , and he was prone marvel that any man , not under compulsion , should leave

to T o - a farm to go sea . this much traveled man the whole wo rld was as familiar as the village to the cobbler sitting in his shOp. To 1 87 THE SEA- FARMER

Captain M acElrath the world was a village .

’ In his mind s eye he saw its streets a thousand

t leagues long, aye , and longer ; turnings hat

’ doubled earth s stormiest headlands o r were

- the way to quiet inland ponds ; cross roads ,

t - taken one way, hat led to ﬂower lands and

the o t to summer seas , and that led her way bit

an d o ter, ceaseless gales the peril us bergs of the

. An d t great west wind drift the ci ies , bright

t t wi h lights , were as shops on hese long streets

— o sh ps where business was transacted , where bunkers were replenished , cargoes taken or

o shifted , and orders received fr m the owners

o in London town to g elsewhere and beyond,

n - ever along the lo g sea lanes , seeking new car

r r goes here , car ying new cargoes there , unning freights wherever shillings and pence beckoned and underwriters did not forbid . But it was all

to o a weariness c ntemplate , and, save that he

o wrung fr m it his bread, it was without proﬁt under the sun .

The last good-bye to the wife had been at

ff t - o Cardi , wenty eight m nths before , when he sailed for Valparaiso with coals— nine thou

1 88

THE SEA- FARME R charter and general merchandise picked up at

o Sydney, Melb urne , and Adelaide , and carried

o n on to Mauritius , L re zo Marques , Durban,

o r Algoa Bay, and Capetown . To Ceylon for ders , and from Ceylon to Rangoon to load rice

o for Rio Janeiro . Thence t Buenos Ayres and loadi n g maize for the United Kingdom or the

o . C ntinent , stopping at St Vincent, to receive orders to pro ceed to Dublin . Two years and four months , eight hundred and ﬁfty days by

an d the log, steaming up down the thousand league-long sea - lanes and back again to Dublin town . And he was well aweary.

A little tug had laid hold of the Tryapsic; and with clang and clatter and shouted com

- - mand, with engines half ahead , slow speed, or

- tt - half astern , the ba ered old sea tramp was nudged and no sed and shouldered through the

’ - r dock gates into Ring s End Basin . Lines we e

’ ﬂung ashore , fore and aft, and a midship spring got out . Already a small group of the happy shore - staying folk had clustered on the dock . “ ff a E Ring o , Captain M c l rath commanded 1 9 0 TH E SEA- FARMER in his slow thick voice ; and the third ofﬁ cer

- worked the lever of the engine room telegraph . “ Gangway out ! called the second o ﬂice r ; “ n and , whe this was accomplished, That will ” do .

o f It was the last task all , gangway out .

That will do was the dismissal . The voyage d was en ed, and the crew shambled eagerly for ward across the rusty decks to where their sea bags were packed and ready for the shore . The taste of the land was strong in the men’ s

’ mouths , and strong it was in the skipper s mouth as he muttered a gruff good day to the depart ing pilot, and himself went down to his cabin . Up the gangway were trooping the customs fﬁ ’ o cers , the surveyor, the agent s clerk, and the stevedores . Quick work disposed of these and cleared his cabin , the agent waiting to take him to the ofﬁ ce . “ Dud ye send word tull the wife had been his greeting to the clerk . “ re Yes , a telegram , as soon as you were ” ported .

“ ’ ’ ’ She ll likely be comin down on the m arnin 1 9 1 THE SEA- FARMER

o train , the skipper had soliloquized , and g ne inside to change his cl o thes and wash . He took a last glance about the room and at two photographs o n the wall , one of the wife , the other of an infant— the child he had never seen . He stepped out into the cabin , with its paneled walls of cedar and maple , and with its long table that seated ten , and at which he had eaten by himself through all the weary time . No laughter and clatter and wordy argument of

- the mess room had been his . He had eaten

n sile tly, almost morosely, his silence emulated by the noiseless Asiatic who had served him .

It came to him suddenly, the overwhelming realization of the l o neliness of those two years and more . All his vexations and anxieties had been his own . He had shared them with no one . His two young o fficers were too young

ﬂi ht t and g y, the ma e too stupid . There was no

t t consulting wi h hem . One tenant had shared

t the cabin with him , hat tenant his responsi

bilit . y They had dined and supped together, walked the bridge together, and together they had bedded. 1 9 2

THE SEA- FARME R

And again he held her away from him , this wife of ten years and of whom he knew so little . She was almost a stranger—more a stranger than his Chinese steward, and certainly far more a stranger than his o wn officers whom he had seen every day , day and day, for eight hun

. ten dred and ﬁfty days Married years , and in that time he had been with her nine weeks scarcely a honeym oo n . Each time home had

o been a getting acquainted ver with her . It was the fate o f the men who went out to the

- salt plowing. Little they knew of their wives and less of their children . There was his chief

— - a Ph — engineer old, near sighted M c e rso n who told the story of returning home to b e locked out of his house by his four-year kiddie that never had laid eyes on him before .

“ ’ ’ ” An lo die thus ull be the d , the skipper

’ o ut said, reaching a hesitant hand to the child s cheek .

bo But the y drew away from him , sheltering

’ the o against m ther s side . “ ! “ Och she cried, and he do e sn a know his ” own father . I 94 THE SEA- FARMER

Nor I hum . Heaven knows I could n o

’ a- picked hum out of a crowd , though he ll be b avin’ your nose I ’ m

“ ’ An o o your own eyes , Donald . L k ut them .

’ H e s your own fathe r, laddie . Kiss hum like ” m o n the little ye are .

But the child drew closer to her, his expres

o si n of fear and distrust growing stronger, and when the father attempted to take him in his arms he threatened to cry.

The skipper straightened up , and to conceal the pang at his heart he drew out his watch and looked at it .

“ ’ Ut s time to go , Annie , he said . Thot train ’ ull be

the He was silent on train at ﬁrst, divided between watching the wife with the child go ing to sleep in her arms and looking out of the window at the tilled ﬁelds and green unforested hills vague and indistinct in the driving drizzle

t that had set in . They had the compar ment to themselves . When the boy slept she laid him out on the seat and wrapped him warmly. And when the health of relatives and friends had I 9 S THE SEA- FARMER

been inquired after, and the gossip of Island

M cGill narrated , along with the weather and the price of land and crops , there was little left to talk about save themselves , and Captain

M acEl rath took up the tale brought home for

’ the good wife from all his world s- end wander ing . But it was not a tale of marvels he told, nor of beautiful ﬂower- lands nor mysterious

Eastern cities. “ ” - What like is Java ? she asked once .

’ 0 th Full fever. Half the crew down wu

’ ’ ut an luttl e work . U t was quinine an quinine

’ ’ arn n the whole blessed time . Each m u twas

’ quinine an gin for all hands on an empty

’ stomach. An they who was no sick made ut

’ ” ho n z out to be vu ut bad u the rest .

Another time she asked about Newcastle .

“ ’ ’ - — Coals an coal dust thot s all . No a nice

sutt . y I lost two Chinks there , stokers the both

’ of them . An the owners paid a ﬁne tull the government of a hundred pounds each for them . ‘ ’ — We regret tull note , they wrn t me I got the —‘ letter tull Oregon We regret tull note the

’ ’ loss 0 two Chinese members 0 yer crew ot 1 9 6

THE SEA- FARME R

th an gale half the time , wu hurric e force in

’ a e e n hil e s o sux wuth e n tw w , an h ve to days ,

’ ’ ’ e runn un o gines stopp d an bunker coal sh rt, an me wuth a mate thot stupid he could no pass a

’ ’ ’ shup s light o t night wi out callun me tull th e

’ ’ ’ brudge . I wrut an told em so . An then ‘Our nautical advisor suggests you kept too far

’ ’ ‘ ’ o fo r t south , an We are lo kun bet er results ’ ! from thot propeller. Nautical advisor shore pilot ! U t was the regular latitude for a wun te r V ol o a aiso passage from p r tull Sydney .

“ ’ ’ An u n t 0 when I come ull Auckland, short

’ o l et n ru f c al , after tu her d t sux days wuth the

’ o ut uth n ﬁres tull save the coal , an w o ly twenty h k ’ ’ tons in my bunkers , I was t un un o the los

’ ’ ’ ’ 0 the sin time an the expense , an tull save

’ ’ o o un i owners I t k her an out w out pil o tage .

’ as n o o Pilotage w c mpulsory . An un Yo ko hama , who should I meet but C aptun R o bins o n

’ ’ 0 D a s c ot the y p i . We g a talkun about port s

’ ’ o - an places d wn Australia way , an ﬁrst thi n g

‘ ’ ’ : S eakun — o f he says p o Auckland course ,

’ ‘ ’ C a tun ou u n ? p , y was never Auckland Yus ,

‘ ’ ‘ ’ un r I says , I was there ve y recent. Oh , ho , 1 9 8 THE SEA-FARMER

‘ - o he says , very angry like , so y u was the smart Aleck thot fetcht me thot letter from the own “ ers : We no te item o f fufte en pounds for

’ o t sh pilotage Auckland. A up o ours was un

’ tull Auckland recently an un cu rred no such charge . We beg tull advise you thot we con seeder thus pilotage an o n n e ce ssary expense ” n c rre which should no be u u d un the future . “ But dud they say a word tull me for the fu fte en pounds I saved tull them ? No a word.

They send a letter tull Captun Robinson for no

’ ’ savun f fte en : them the u pounds , an tull me ‘We note item of two guineas doctor ’ s fee at

Auckland for crew . Please explain thus o u

’ ’ ex un diture . t usual p U was two 0 the Chinks .

’ ’ h n k - I was t u un they hod beri beri , an thot was

’ ’ the why 0 sendun for the doctor . I buried

o t the two of them sea not a week after. But ‘ ut was : Please explain thus o nusual expun di

’ ’ ‘ Ca t n ture , an tull p u Robinson , We beg tull advise thot we con se e der thus pilotage an on

’ usual expense .

“ ’ B tell n udna I cable them from Newcastle , u them the old tank was thot foul she needed I 9 9 THE SEA- FARME R

’ ’ o drydock ? Seven months out drydock, an

’ the West C o ast the quickest place for foulun

’ an the world . But freights was up , an they

’ Ar hod a charter o coals for Portland . The

’ r a ta o n e o , o the W or Line , left port the same

’ z day u us , bound for Portland, an the old

’ a si sux o o t . Try p c makun kn ts , seven the best

’ ’ ut ot nu An was Comox , takun bunker coal , I got the letter from the owners . The boss hum

’ ut o t wrut self hod signed , an the bottom he ‘ un hus own b o n d : The Arra ta beat you by

’ ’ four an a half days . Am dusappo inted . Dus appointed ! When I had cabled them from

r o ck ed ot o Newcastle . When she d yd P rtland ,

h sk e s o n there was w u r her a foot long, bar

’ a e s 0 n cl the size me fust, oysters like young

o o t sauce plates . U t t k hem two days after

’ ’ c 0 ward tull clean the lock shells an muck .

“ ’ ’ An there was the mo tter o them ﬁ re- bars o t Newcastle . The ﬁrm ashore made them

’ ’ the s e eciﬁca i heavier than engineer s p t o n s, an

o t d ff e n then f rgo tull charge for the u e r ce . O t

’ uth the last moment , w me ashore gettun me ‘ t e uth : clearance , h y come w the bill Tull error

2 0 0

THE SEA- FARMER

t o o t Del a o a o t M O 1 o t o t Bal im re , g Bay , 1 ,

’ n n t Rio o t M o n tevu ddio . U t u z Ra go o , o , an n o settled yut. I tell ye , Annie , the owners are hard tull please .

He communed with himself for a moment, “ an d then muttered indignantly : Tull error on ” - ﬁ re sux . bars , pounds “ H o v ye heard of Jamie his wife asked in the pause .

Captain M acEl rath shook his head . “ He was washed o ff the poop wuth three ” seamen . “Whereabouts

’ ho s . Off the Ho rn . Twas on the T rn by

’ ” They would be t unnun ho meward bound ? ” “ A . o y, she nodded We nly got the word

’ three days gone . His wife is greetin like tull ” die . “ A good lod, Jamie , he commented , but a

’ ff o n e ot carr n sti yu on . I mind me when we

’ n u was mates together the Abion . An so

’ ” Jamie s gone .

Again a pause fell , to be broken by the wife .

“ ’ ’ Ao ye will n o a- heard o the B ankshire ?

2 0 2 THE SEA - FARMER

M acDo all o ug l st her in Magellan Straits .

’ ” Twas only yesterday ut was in the paper . “ n tr A cruel place , them Magella S aits , he “ B d m e - said. udna thot o n d mate fellow nigh putt me ashore twice on the one passage

? e e io t n a c through He was a d , a lu tu . I wo uldn a have hum on the b rudge a munut .

’ thu ck Comun tull Narrow Reach , weather ,

h o n the - o wut sn w squalls , me u chart r om , da dna ‘ I guv hum the changed co urse ? So utheast-by

’ ‘ ’ - -b - E ast , I told hum . South East y East, sir,

F fte en m n t says he . u u u s after I comes on tull

‘ ’ ‘ ’ - b e . I m the ru dg Funny, says thot mate fellow,

’ ’ no re m emb e run o ny islands a n the mouth 0

’ t o n e o t Narrow Reach . I ook look the islands

’ ‘ ’ o - a- an yells , Putt y ur wheel hard starboard,

’ - tn]! the mon o t the wheel . An ye should a seen

’ the old Tryapsic turn un the sharpest circle she ever turned . I waited for the snow tull clear,

’ u z an there was Narrow Reach , nice ye please ,

’ ’ ard un tull the e ast , an the islands the mouth

’ ’ ‘ 0 False B ay tull the south ard . What course was ye I says tull the mon ot the

‘ ’ - - wheel . South by East, sir, says he . I looked 2 0 3 THE SEA- FARME R

- ? tull the mate fellow . What could I say I

- o was thot wroth I could a kult hum . F ur

’ points duffe rence . Five m unuts more an the

- old Tryapsic would a been funushed.

’ An was ut no the same when we cleared the

’ Straits tull the e ast ard ? Four hours wo uld

’ a- seen us guid an clear . I was forty hours t n e hen o the brudg . I guv the mate his course ,

’ ’ ’ an the be arun o the Askthar Light astern . ‘Don’ t let her bear more tull the north ’ ard

’ ‘ ’ -b - than West y North , I said tull hum , an ye

’ ’ ’ wull be all right. An I went below an turned

’ n u . But I couldna sleep for wo rryun . After

o b rud e f rty hours on the g , what was four hours

’ m o re ? I thought. An for them four hours

’ wull ye be lettun the mate loss her on ye ?

‘ ’ ’ . th No , I says to myself An wu thot I got up , ’ ’ f ’ hod a wash an a cup 0 cof ee , an went tull the

’ ’ b rudge . I took one look ot the be arun o

’ ’ ’ - - Askthar . b Light Twas Nor west y West, an

Tr the old yapsic down on the shoals . He was

- e ediot . an , thot mate fellow Ye could look

’ du scolo ration overside an see the of the watter .

’ ’ Twas a close call for the old Tryapsic I m 2 0 4

THE SEA- FARME R

sh o paraiso . He asks every up he meets up n

’ the sea tull o t last he meets wuth a shup tho t s

’ ’ t Vol o araiso ca n o been ull p , an the ptu thot h ’ s up tells hum the way . An Jummy scratches

’ ’ ’ hus head an says he un de rston ds an thot ut s ” a very sumple motter after all .

The skipper chuckled at the joke , and his tired blue eyes were merry fo r the moment. “ o - He was a thun chap , th t mate fellow , oz

’ ” thun oz you an me putt together, he remarked

a after a time , a slight twinkle in his eye of p preciation of the bull . But the twinkle quickly disappeared and the blu e eyes took on a bleak “ and wintry look . What dud he do o t Volo

’ paraiso but land sux hundred fathom 0 chain cable an ’ take never a receipt from the lighter

’ . ettun o t the t mon I was g my clearance ime .

When we got tull sea , I found he hod no receipt for the cable .

‘ ’ ’ An ye no took a receipt for ut ? says I .

’ ‘ ’ No , says he . Wasna ut goin direct tull the agents ? ’

‘ ’ ’ ’ How long ha ye been goin tull sea , says

‘ ’ ’ kn o in I , not tull be w the mate s duty uz tull

2 0 6 THE SEA-FARMER d eluve r n o cargo wuthout receipt fo r same ?

’ ’ An on the West Coast o t tho t . What s tull

’ stop the lighter-m o n from ste alun a few lengths

’ ’ o ut ?

“ ’ An ut z S x h n e come out u I said . u u d rd

’ fathom went over the side , but four hundred an

- ﬁve th ninety was all e agents received . The lighter-m o m swore ut was all he received from — ’ - the mate four hun de rd an ninety ﬁve fathom .

I got a letter from the owners o t Po rtland .

’ e ut Th y no blamed the mate for , but me , an

’ ’ me ashore o t the time on shup s buss n e ss . I

’ ’ could no he the two places o t the one time . An

’ the letters from the owners an the agents u z

’ stull comun tull me . “ - Thot mate fellow was no a proper sailor,

’ n an no a mon tull work for owners . Du d a he

’ want tull break me wuth the Board 0 Trade for bein’ below my marks ? He said as much

’ An l tull the bosun . he told me tul my face homeward bound thot I ’ d been half an inch

’ ’ l o adun under my marks . Twas at Portland,

’ ’ cargo nu fresh watter an goin tull Comox tull A load bunker coal un salt watter . I tell ye , o 20 7 THE SEA-FARMER

’ ’ t f erin was nie , u takes close ugg , an I half an inch under the load- line when the bunker coal

’ ’ was un . But I m no tellun any other body but

’ ’ - e n re you . An thot mate fellow unt ndu tull

’ 0 t port me tull the Board Trade , only for tho he saw fut tull be sliced un two pieces on the

- steam pipe cover.

“ ’ a He was a fo ol . After l o dun o t Portland

’ I hod tull take on suxty tons o coal tull last me

’ tull Comox . The charges for lighte run was

’ o t heavy, an no room the coal dock . A French bark was lyin ’ alongside the dock an’ I spoke

’ ca tun tull the p , askun hum what he would

fo r o charge , when work the day was d ne , tull

’ ’ 0 haul clear for a couple hours an let me un .

‘ ’ ’ o t a Twenty d llars , said he . U was s vun money

’ on lighters tull the owners , an I gave ut tull

’ hum . An thot night, after dark, I hauled un

’ an took on the coal . Then I started tull go ’ — out un the stream an drop anchor under me

o f o . own steam , c urse

“ ’ ’ -ﬁ rst s We hod tull go out stern , an om ethun

’ wuth reve rs n went wrong the u gear . Old Mac

ut Pherson said he could work by bond, but 20 8

THE SEA- FARMER

’ shu Thot lighter alongside the p, says the

’ dudn a uth I see no lighter, says I , and w

’ : thot I steps o n bu s fut guid an hard . “After the pilot was gone I says tull the

‘ ’ : U f o o n th n mate y u dunna know y u , old mon ,

’ ’ fo r heaven s sake keep your mouth shut .

‘ ’ ’ du dn t ? But ye dud smash thot lighter, ye says he .

‘ ’ ‘ ’ ’ U f buss n ess we dud , says I , ut s no your

’ ’ tellun — tull be the pilot though , mind ye , I m

’ ’ no admuttun there was ony lighter.

“ ’ ’ ’ ’ An m arnun u z dre ss next , just I m after un ,

‘ ’ ‘ the steward says , A mon tull see ye , sir. Fetch

’ ’ ‘ ’ un . un . hum , says I An he come Sut down,

’ says I . An he sot down .

“ ’ o n He was the w er of the lighter, an when ‘ he hod told hus story, I says , I dudn a see ony

’ lighter. ‘ ‘ - What, mon says he . No see a two hun

- o dred ton lighter, bug oz a h use , alongside thot shup

‘ ’ ’ ’ shu s I was goin by the p lights , says I ,

‘ ’ ’ n dudn a shu a I touch the p, thot I know ,

2 1 0 THE SEA- FARME R

’ ‘ But ye dud touch the lighter, says he . Ye

’ ’ smashed her . There s a thousand dollars

’ ’ ’ domage done , an I ll see ye pay for ut.

‘ ’ ‘ ’ Look here , Muster, says I ; when I m

’ ’ shu ftun shu ot a p night I follow the law , an the law du stun ctly says I must regulate me ac

’ ’ 0 h n tions by the lights the s uppu . Your lighter

’ v rid n ne er hod no u light , nor dud I look for

’ any lighter wuthout lights tull show ut. m The mate says he begu s .

‘ ’ ‘ Domn the mate , says I . Dud your

’ ’ lighter hov a ridun light ?

‘ ’ ‘ ut No , ut dud not, says he , but was a clear night wuth the moon a

‘ ’ ’ z z n e s . Ye seem tull know your bu s , says I

‘ ’ But let me tell ye thot I know my buz z ne ss u z

’ ’ ’ n o a- well , an thot I m lookun for lighters f wutho ut lights . U ye thunk ye hov a case , go ahead . The steward will show ye out . Guid day

’ ’ An thot was the end 0 ut. But ut wull show ye what a puir fellow thot mate was . I

’ call ut a bl essun for all masters thot he was

- sliced un two on thot steam pipe cover . He hod

2 I I THE SEA - FARMER

’ a pull un the o ﬂi ce an thot was the why he was ” kept on . “ e The Wekl y farm wull soon be for sale , so

’ tell n the agents be u me , his wife remarked , slyly watching what effect her announcement would have upon him .

His eyes ﬂashed eagerly on the instant , and he straightened up as might a man about to engage in some agreeable task. It was the

’ o farm of his vision, adj ining his father s , and her own people farmed not a mile away .

“ ’ ” “ b e ut We wull buyun , he said , though we

’ ’ wull be no te llun a s oul of ut o ntull ut s bought

’ ’ ’ a an the money paid down . I m s vun con sud

’ erabl e ick n z these days , though p u s u no what

’ - they used to be , an we hov a tidy nest egg laid

’ by . I wull see the father an hove the money

’ f o t ready tull hus hond, so u I m sea he can ” buy whenever the land offers . He rubbed the frosted moisture from the inside of the window and peered out at the pouring rain through which he could discern nothing. “When I was a young mon I used tull be

2 1 2

THE SEA- FARME R

peered again through the misty window . He

n r o n stood up , butto ed his ove c at , tur ed up the collar , and awkwardly gathered the child , still asleep , in his arms .

“ ’ I wull see the father , he said, an hov the

’ m o ney ready tull his hond so u f I m o t sea when the land offe rs he wull no mu ss the chance tull

’ t the o h buy . An hen wners can guv me t e sack

u z z . U t un soon u they like will be all night ,

’ th ’ an I wull be wu you , Annie , an the sea can ” go tull hell . Happiness was in bo th their faces at the

n o prospect, and for a mome t b th saw the same

c . to vision of pea e Annie leaned ward him , and as the train sto pped they kissed each other across the sleeping child.

2 1 4 SAMUEL

ARGARET HENAN would have been a striking ﬁgure under any cir

cum stan ce s, but never more so than when I ﬁrst chanced upon her , a sack of grain

- of fully a hundred weight on her shoulder, as she walked with sure though tottering stride

- from the cart tail to the stable , pausing for an instant to gather strength at the foot of the

- steep steps that led to the grain bin . There were four of these steps , and she went up them , a step at a time , slowly, unwaveringly, and with so dogged a certitude that it never entered my mind that her strength could fail her and let that hundred- weight sack fall from the lean and

- withered frame that well nigh doubled under it .

For she was patently an old woman, and it was her age that made me linger by the cart and watch . 2 1 5 SAMUEL

Six times she went between the cart and the h stable , each time wit a full sack on her back, and beyond passing the time of day with me she took no notice of my presence . Then , the cart empty, she fumbled for matches and lighted a short clay pipe , pressing down the burning sur face o f the tobacco with a calloused and ap

are p ntly nerveless thumb . The hands were

- noteworthy. They were large knuckled, sinewy and malformed by labor, rimed with callouses , the nails blunt and broken , and with here and there cuts and bruises , healed and healing, such as are common to the hands of hard-working men . On the back were huge , upstanding veins , eloquent of age and toil . Looking at them , it was hard to believe that they were the hands of the woman who had once been the belle of

cGi . Island M ll This last, of course , I learned later . At the time I knew neither her history

o n r her identity.

’ She wore heavy man s brogans . Her legs

t were stockingless , and I had no iced when she walked that her bare feet were thrust into the

- crinkly, iron like shoes that sloshed about her

2 1 6

SAMUEL that this remarkable feature produced no un ff canny e ect, and , for that matter , would have

’ escaped the casual observer s notice . The mouth , shapeless and toothless , with down

- turned corners and lips dry and parchment like , nevertheless lacked the muscular slackness so t usual with age . The lips might have been hose o f a mummy, save for that impression of rigid

ﬁrmness they gave . Not that they were atro

hie d . p On the contrary, they seemed tense and set with a muscular and spiritual determina

! tion . There , and in the eyes , was the secret of the certitude with which she carried the heavy

t t sacks up the s eep steps , wi h never a false step

- or over balance , and emptied them in the grain bin . “ You are an old woman to be working like this , I ventu red .

She looked at me with that strange , unblink ing gaze , and she thought and spoke with the slow deliberateness that characterized every thing about her, as if well aware of an eternity that was hers and in which there was no need for haste . Again I was impressed by the enor

2 1 8 SAMU EL

mous certitude of her . In this eternity that

an d seemed so indubitably hers , there was time to spare for safe- footing and stable equilibrium

fo r t o cer itude , in short . No m re in her spir itu al life than in carrying the hundred-weights of grain , was there a possibility of a misstep o r an overbalancing . The feeling produced in me was uncanny . Here was a human soul that,

the o f save for most glimmering contacts , was beyond the humanness o f me . And the more I learned of Margaret Henan in the weeks that fo llowed the more mysteriously remote she he

- came . She was as alien as a far journeyer from s o me other star, and no hint could she nor all the countryside give me of what norms of liv

o f hilo so ing, what heats feeling, or rules of p phi e contemplation actuated her in all that she had been and was .

I wull be suvunty-two come Guid Friday a ” fortnight, she said in reply to my question . “ But you are an old wo man to be doing this

’ ’ ” an man s work , d a strong man s work at that,

I insisted .

Again she seemed to immerse herself in that 2 1 9 SAMUEL

o f o t t so atmosphere c n empla ive eternity, and strangely did it affect me that I sho uld not have been surprised to have awaked a century o r so

later and fo und her just begi n n ing to enunciate her reply

“ ’ ho z b e The work tull be done , an I am ” n holden tull o o n e . “ But o n o have y u children , no family rela tion s

“ ’ a a- O , y, plenty o them , but they no see fut

’ tull be helpun me .

o t fo r o She drew u her pipe a m ment, then

t o the added , wi h a nod of her head t ward

’ ”

uth m e self . house , I luv w

at the - t I glanced house , straw tha ched and

at commodious , at the large stable , and the large array of ﬁelds I knew must belong with the place . “ It is a big bit o f land for you to farm by ” yourself. “ a suvunt O , y, a bug but, y acres . U t kept

’ u n h me old mon b zzy, alo g wut a so n an a hired

’ t 0 mon , tull say naugh extra honds n u the

’ ” - un harvest an a maid servant the house .

2 2 0

SAMUEL

to was yearning . It seemed me that here the

to key her inscrutableness , the clew that if fol lowed pro perly would make all her strangeness plain . It came to me that here was a contact and that for the moment I was glimpsing into

o he the s ul of r . The question was tickling on my tongue , but she forestalled me . h’ She tck d to the horse , and with a Guid

o ff. day tull you , sir, drove

4: s: s:

A simple , homely people , are the folk of

M cGil Island l , and I doubt if a more sober , t thrif y, and industrious folk is to be found in — all the wo rld . Meeting them abroad and to meet them abroad o n e must meet them on the

fo r sea , a hybrid seafaring and farmer breed — are they one would never take them to be

to Irish . Irish they claim be , speaking of the North of Ireland with pride and sneering at their Scottish brothers ; yet Scotch they un

o doubtedly are , transplanted Scotch of l ng ago ,

the it is true , but none less Scotch , with a thou

o sand traits , to say n thing of their tricks of speech and woolly utterance , which nothing less

2 2 2 SAMUEL than their Scotch clannishness could have pre

to served this late day .

A narrow loch , scarcely half a mile wide , sep arates Isla n d M cGill from the mainland of Ire land ; and , once across this loch , one ﬁnds him

in ff self an entirely di erent country . The

Scotch impression is strong, and the people , to commence with , are Presbyterians . When it is considered that there is no public house in all the island and that seven thousand souls dwell

the therein , some idea may be gained of tem pe ratene ss of the community. Wedded to old ways , public opinion and the ministers are powerful inﬂuences , while fathers and mothers are revered and obeyed as in few other places in this modern world . Courting lasts never later than ten at night, and no girl walks out with her young man without her parents ’ knowl edge and consent . The young men go down to the sea and sow their wild oats in the wicked ports , returning periodically, between voyages , to live the old

’ o ten intensive morality, to c urt till o clock, to sit under the minister each Sunday, and to listen 2 2 3 SAMUEL at home to the same stern precepts that the elders preached to them from the time they were laddies . Much they learned of women in

n the ends of the earth , these seafari g sons , yet a canny wisdom was theirs and they never brought wives ho me with them . The one sol itary exception to this had been the scho olm as

t o f ter , who had been guil y bringing a wife

o th o h fr m half a mile e ther side of t e loch .

o For this he had never been f rgiven , and he rested under a cloud for the remain der of his days . At his death the wife went back acro ss the loch to her own people , and the blot on the escutcheon of Island M cGill was erased . In the end the sailor-men married girls of their o wn home land and settled do wn to become exemplars of all the virtues for which the island was noted .

M cGill Island was without a history . She b o asted none of the even ts that go to make his tory . There had never been any wearing of the green , any Fenian conspiracies , any land dis

turbance s. There had been but one eviction ,

— a and that purely technical test case , and on

2 2 4

SAMUEL

garet Henan , I questioned Mrs . Ross , and I knew on the instant that I had in truth stumbled upon mystery.

M cGill Like all Island folk, as I was soon to discover, Mrs . Ross was at ﬁrst averse to dis

cussing Margaret Henan at all . Yet it was from her I learned that evening that Margaret

Henan had once been one of the island belles .

the - - Herself daughter of a well to do farmer , she had married Thomas Henan , equally well

’ - to do . Beyond the usual housewife s tasks she had never been accustomed to wo rk . Unlike many of the island women , she had never lent a hand in the ﬁelds . “ ? ” But what of her children I asked .

’ ’ 0 z Two the sons , Jamie an Timothy u

’ ’ married an be goun tull sea . Thot bug house

’ - f close tull the post of ice u z Jamie s . The

’ ’ daughters thot ha no married be luvun wuth

’ ” . t them as dud marry An the res be dead . “ o The Samuels , Clara interp lated, with what I suspected was a giggle .

’ She was Mrs . Ross s daughter, a strapping

2 2 6 SAMUEL young w o ma n with handsome features and t e markabl y handsome black eyes .

’ ’ s e n Tuz naught tull be muck ru ot, her mother reproved her .

“ ’ n The Samuels I intervened . I don t u ” derstan d . “ Her four sons thot died . And were they all named Samuel ?

Ay. “ Strange , I commented in the lagging si lence . “ aﬂi rm e Ve ry strange , Mrs . Ross d, pro ce edin g stolidly with the knitting of the woolen — singlet on her knees one of the countless un dergarme nts that she interminably knitted for her skipper sons . “And it was only the Samuels that died ?” I queried, in further attempt .

“ ’ ” d . The others luv , was the answer A — ﬁne fom uly no ﬁner on the island . No better lods ever sailed out o f Island M cGill . The m unuster held them up oz models tull pottern ’ h s er e a n after . Nor was ever a w u p breath d ag i ” the girls . 2 2 7 SAMUEL

But why is she left alone now in her old

“ ’ age I persisted . Why don t her own ﬂesh ? and blo o d lo ok after her Why does she live alone ? Don ’ t they ever go to see her or care for her ? ” “ ’ Never a one un twenty years an more now.

’ She fetch t ut on tull herself . She drove them from the ho use just oz she drove old Tom ” Henan, thot was her husband , tull hus death . “ Drink I ventured .

o Mrs . Ross sh ok her head scornfully , as if drink was a weakness beneath the weakest of

Island M cGill .

A long pause followed, during which Mrs .

o Ross knitted stolidly on , nly nodding permis

’ sion when Clara s young man , mate on one of the Shire Line sailing ships , came to walk out

- with her . I studied the half dozen ostrich eggs , han gin g in the corner against the wall like a

o cluster of some m nstrous fruit . On each shell was painted precipitous and impossible seas through which full- rigged ships foamed with a lack o f perspective only equaled by their sharp technical perfection . On the mantelpiece stood

2 2 8

SAMUEL

” U t was no thot, she said . Margaret was

’ ’ a guid wife an a guid mother, an I doubt she

fomul would harm a ﬂy . She brought up her y

’ ’ - - God fe arin an decent minded . Her trouble — ” was thot she took lunatuc turned e ediot.

Mrs . Ross tapped signiﬁcantly on her fore head to indicate a state o f addlement . “ t oh But I talked wi h her this afternoon , I “ ecte j d, and I found her a sensible woman ” remarkably bright fo r one of her years .

“ ’ ’ ’ A ran t n y, an I m g u all thot you say, she

“ ’ n o e fe rrun went on calmly . But I am r tull ’ — thot . I am re fe rrun tull her wuck ed headed

’ an vucious stubbornness . No mor e stubborn

’ wo man ever luv d than Margaret Henan . U t

’ 0 was all on account Samuel , which was the

’ ’ name 0 her eldest an they do say her favo rut — brother hum oz died by bus own hond all

’ through the munuste r s m ustake un no regis

’ t o t te un the new church Dublin . U t was a

o the musfo rtun ate less n thot name was , but she

’ would no take ut, an there was talk when she — ’ called her ﬁrst child Samuel hum thot died 0 ’ h the croup . An wut thot what does she do but 2 30 SAMUEL

’ call the next one Samuel , an hum only three

’ ’ when he fell un tull the tub 0 hot watter an

. U t was plain cooked tull death all come , I

’ ’ 0 uck ed- tell you , her w headed an fo olu sh stub

’ b o rn n ess. For a Samuel she must hov ; an ut was the death of the four of her sons . After

dudn a the ﬁrst, her own mother go down n u

’ ’ ’ a-b e n l e a n the dirt tull her feet, ggu an p du wuth her no tull name her next one Samuel ?

But she was no tul! be turned from her purpose .

n Margaret Henan was always set u her ways ,

’ o n an never more so thon thot name Samuel .

l n a She was fair u tuc on Samuel . Dudn a her

’ ’ ’ neighbors , an all kuth an kun savun them thot

’ ’ luV d um o wuth the h use her , get up an walk out ’ — o t the christen un of the second hum thot was

’ cooked ? Thot they dud , an ot the very mo

’ ment the munuste r asked what would the bairn s

‘ ’ ’ th name be . Samuel , says she ; an wu thot

’ ’ they got up an walked out an left the house .

’ An o t the door dudna her Aunt Fannie , her

’ ’ mother s suster , turn an say loud for all tull hear ‘What for wull she be wantun ’ tull mur der the wee thung The m unuste r heard ﬁne , 2 3 1 SAMUEL

’ t but o z an dudn a like u , , he told my Larry after

’ ? U t ward, what could he do was the woman s

’ ’ t n o wush , an here was law again a mother

’ ’ callun her child acco rdun tull her wush .

“ ’ ’ An then was there no the third Samuel ?

’ ff dudna An when he was lost o t sea o the Cape ,

’ she break all laws 0 nature tull hov a fourth ?

’ ’ ’ - tell n he She was forty seven , I m u ye , an s hod

- a child ot forty seven . Thunk on ut l Ot forty

’ ” seven l U t was fair scand lous .

a: a: a: at

From Clara , next morning, I got the tale of

’ Margaret H en an s favorite brother ; and from here and there , in the week that followed , I pieced together the tragedy of Margaret

Henan . Samuel Dundee had been the youngest

’ of Margaret s four brothers , and , as Clara told

- me , she had well nigh worshiped him . He was going to sea at the time , skipper of one of the sailing ships of the Bank Line , when he married Agnes Hewitt. She was described as a slender wisp of a girl , delicately featured and with a nervous organization o f the supe rsensi tive order . Theirs had been the ﬁrst marriage 2 3 2

SAMUEL

’ ’ ’ an no one o them dreamin of the wuck edn e ss

’ ” they d been o t. The Imp of the Perverse must have chuckled at the situation . All things favored . The mar riage s had taken place in the ﬁrst week of May, and it was not till three months later that the minister, as required by law , made his quarterly report to the civil authorities in Dublin .

Promptly came back the anno uncement that his

n o n o t church had legal existence , being regis

’ te red according to the law s demands . This was overcome by prompt registration ; but the marriages were not to be so easily remedied .

- s The three sailor husband were away, and their wives , in short, were not their wives .

“ ’ But the m unuste r was no for alarmin the

“ ’ bodies , said Clara . He kept hus council an

’ aitin bided hus time , w for the lods tull be back from sea . Oz luck would have ut, he was away

’ acro ss the island tull a christenun when Albert

o n ex ec e d h Mahan arrives home p t , hus s up just

’ ’ docked o t Dublin . Ut s nine o clock o t night

’ ’ n t r n l e when the m u us e , u hus s upp rs an dre ssun

’ the gown , gets news . Up he jumps an calls for 2 34 SAMUEL

’ ’ ’ horse an saddle , an awa he goes like the wund

’ ’ fo r Albert Mahan s . Albert u z just goun tull

’ bed an hoz one shoe o ff when the munuster ar rives .

‘ ’ ’ wuth 0 Come me , the pair ye , says he ,

‘ ’ - fo r breathless like . What , an me dead weary

’ ’ ’ ‘ an goun tull bed ? says Albert . Tull be law

’ m n ful married , says the u u ste r. Albert looks

’ ‘ m n s e black an says , Now u u t r ye wull be jok

’ hum self o z but tull , I ve heard hum tell

’ z n mony a time , he u wo de run thot the munus

’ ter should a-took tull whuskey ot hus time 0 life . ( i ‘ ? ’ We be no married says Minnie . He

‘ ’ shook his head . An I om no M ussus Mahan

‘ ’ ‘ M ss s . No , says he , ye are no u u Mahan Ye

’ ‘ are plain Muss Duncan . But ye married us

‘ ’ ’ says she . I dud an I dudn a, says he .

’ An wuth thot he tells them the whole upshot ,

’ ’ bus an Albert puts on shoe , an they go with the

’ ’ ’ e munust r an are married proper an lawful , an oz Albert Mahan says afterward mony’ s the

’ weddun time , Tus no every mon thot hoz two

’ n ights on Island M cGill . 2 35 SAMUEL

Six months later Eddie Troy came home and

- was promptly re married . But Samuel Dundee

’ was away on a three-years voyage and his ship

t tu fell o verdue . Fur her to complicate the si a

bo tion , a baby y, past two years old , was wait ing for him in the arms of his wife . The months passed , and the wife grew thin with

“ ’ ’ ’ n o m ese lf h nk n worrying . Ut s I m t u u on , “ she is reported to have said many times , but

’ ut s the puir fatherless bairn . U f aught hap pened tull Samuel where wull the bairn stond

o Lo u hbank Ll yds posted the g as missing, and the own ers ceased the monthly remittance

’ - o f Samuel s half pay to his wife . It was the question of the child’ s legitimacy that preyed on

’ her mind , and , when all hope of Samuel s return

o was aband ned , she drowned herself and the child in the loch . And here enters the greater L b k tragedy . The o ugh an was not lost . By a series o f sea disasters and delays too intermi nable to relate , she had made one of those long, unsighted passages such as occur once or twice in half a century . How the Imp must have held both his sides ! Back from the sea came 2 36

SAMUEL that if the child were so named she would never

o speak to her again . And th ugh the old lady

- lived thirty odd years longer she kept her word . The minister agreed to christe n the child any

r name but Samuel , and eve y other minister on

Island M cGill refused to christen it by the name

o she had ch sen . There was talk on the part of

Margaret Henan of going to law at the time , but in the end she carried the child to Belfast and there had it christened Samuel .

And then nothing happened . The whole island was co nfuted . The boy grew and pros

o pered . The scho lmaster never ceased aver ring that it was the brightest lad he had ever seen . Samuel had a splendid constitution , a tre

’ m endous grip o n life . To everybody s amaze ment he escaped the usual run of childish aﬂlic

o - tions . Measles , who ping cough and mumps

- knew him not . He was armor clad against germs , immune to all disease . Headaches and “ n earaches were things unk own . Never so ” much oz a boil or a pumple , as one of the old bodies told me , ever marred his healthy skin . He broke school records in scholarship and 2 3 8 SAMUEL

athletics , and whipped every boy of his size or years on Island M cGill .

It was a triumph for Margaret Henan . This paragon was hers , and it bore the cherished name . With the one exception of her mother, friends and relatives drifted back and ackno wl edged that they had been mistaken ; though there were old crones who still abided by their opinion and who shook their heads ominously over their cups of tea . The boy was too won d e rful to last . There was no escaping the curse of the name his mother had wickedly laid upon M him . The young generation joined argaret

Henan in laughing at them , but the old crones continued to shake their heads .

’ Other children followed . Margaret Honan s

in ﬁfth was a boy, whom she called Jamie , and rapid succession followed three girls , Alice ,

Sara , and Nora , the boy Timothy, and two more girls , Florence and Katie . Katie was the last and eleventh , and Margaret Henan, at

- thirty ﬁve , ceased from her exertions . She had done well by Island M cGill and the Queen .

Nine healthy children were hers . All pros 2 39 SAMUEL

pered . It seemed her ill luck had shot its bolt with the deaths of her ﬁrst two . Nine lived , and one of them was named Samuel .

Jamie elected to follow the sea , though it was

o not so much a matter of election as compulsi n , for the eldest sons on Island M cGill remained on the land while all other s o ns went to the salt

. t o o plowing Timo hy f ll wed Jamie , and by the time the latter had got his ﬁrst command , a

the o t o f ff steamer in Bay trade u Cardi , Tim

h . o t y was mate of a big sailing ship Samuel ,

n o . however , did t take kindly to the soil The

’ farmer s life had no attracti o n for him . His

be brothers went to sea , not out of desire , but cause it was the only way for them to gain their bread ; and he , who had no need to go , envied

t them when , returned from far voyages , hey sat by the kitchen ﬁre and told their bold tales of

h - the wonderlands beyond t e sea rim .

Samuel became a teacher, much to his

’ o father s disgust, and even to k extra certiﬁcates , going to Belfast for his examinations . When the old master retired, Samuel took over his

sc . hool Secretly, however , he studi ed naviga 2 40

SAMU EL

M cN ab It was told me by Gavin , bosun of

St rr Gra ce the a y at the time , himself an Island

M cGill man . “ r ut . Wull do I emember , he said We was

’ ’ ’ ’ runnin Eastun our down , an makun heavy

o -m o n weather of ut. Oz ﬁne a sail r oz ever

th walked was Samuel Henan . I remember e

’ ’ o m ar n - a ch n look of hum wull th t last nu , a w t u

’ ’ ’ curlun a-watchun them bug seas up astern , an ’ ’ — the old girl an se eun how she took them the

’ ’ sk e r o o r nk n U t upp d wn bel w an d u u for days . was o t seven thot Henan brought her up on tu ll

’ n o t n the wund, darun tull run longer u thot

’ . O t havu n fearful sea eight, after breakfast ,

’ u n o he turns , an a half h ur after up comes the

’ ’ ’ sku e r - h pp , bleary eyed an shaky an oldun on

’ com o n io n . U t sm n tull the p was fair oku , I o m

’ ’ ’ ’ tellun o blunk n ye , an there he sto d , u an nod

’ ’ ’ ’ ‘ ’ hum sel . ff dun an talkun tull Keep o , says ‘ ot the m o n o t he last tull the wheel . My God

’ o stan dun says the sec nd mate , beside hum . The sku e r tul! o t pp never looks hum all , but keeps

’ ’ ’ ’ m utte run abbe run h on an j tull u m sel . All

’ of a su dden t-like he straightun s up an throws 2 4 2 SAMUEL

’ ‘ : hus head back, an says Put your wheel over,

— n o w ! me mon , domn ye Are ye deef thot

’ ’ ye ll no he he arun me “ U t ’ was a drunken mon s luck, for the Starry

Grace wore o ff afore thot God-Almighty gale

’ ’ wuthout shu un pp a bucket o watter, the second

’ ’ ’ mate shoutun orders an the crew jumpun like

’ mod . An wuth thot the skuppe r nods con

’ ’ tented-like tull humse lf an goes below after

’ more whusk ey. U t was plain murder 0 the

’ 0 lives all of us , for ut was no the time for the b ’ ? ugge st shup aﬂoat tull be runnun . Run Never hov I seen the like ! U t was beyond all

’ ’ ’ ’ th nk l u un , an me goun tu l sea , boy an mon , for forty year . I tell you ut was fair awesome .

“ ’ The face 0 the second mate was white oz

’ ut death , an he stood alone for half an hour ,

’ when ut was too much for burn an he went b e

’ ’ . A low an called Samuel an the third y, a ﬁne

- ut sailor m o o thot Samuel , but was too much

’ fo r hum . He looked an studied, and looked

’ . an studied, but he could no see hus way He

’ durst na heave tull . She would ha been

’ ’ ’ swe eput 0 all bon ds an stucks an everythung 2 43 SAMUEL

- afore she could a fetcht up . There was naught

’ ’ tull do but keep on run nun ; An u f ut worsened

o we were l st onyway, for soon or late thot over

’ takun sea was sure tu ll sweep us clear over

’ poop an all . “ Dud I say ut was a God-Almighty gale ?

U t was wor se nor thot . The devil himself

’ ’ ’ n b re n ut u t must ha ho d a bond u the wu o ,

’ was thot fearsome . I ha looked on some

’ arun o n sights , but I om no c tull look the like

’ n n 0 thot again . No m o dared tull be u hus

0 m o m . bunk. N , nor no on the decks All honds of us stood on top the house an’ held on

’ an watched . The three mates was on the poop ,

’ o t o b e with two men the wheel , an the nly mon

’ low was thot whusk ey-blighted captain sn orun drunk .

“ ’ ’ ’ An ut risun then I see comun , a mile away, above all the waves like an island un the sea

bu e st the gg wave ever I looked upon . The

’ three mates stood tulgether an watched ut

’ ’ o a- ra n c mun , p yu like we thot she would no

’ un assun . break p us But ut was no tull be . O t

o the last, when she rose up like a m untain , curl 2 44

SAMUEL

’ lous wonder of that woman s hero ic spirit .

Margaret Henan was forty- seven when the news came ho me o f the loss of Samuel ; and it was n o t long after that the unbelievable rumor went around Island M cGill . I say unbelievable .

G o o Island M c ill would not believe . D ct r Hall

’ - poo h po oh d it . Everybody laughed at it as a

o go o d j o ke . They traced back the g ssip to

’ H en an s Sara Dack, servant to the , and who alo ne lived with Margaret and her husband . But Sara Dack persisted in her assertion and

- was called a l o w mo uthed liar . One or two

T o m o dared question Henan himself , but bey nd black looks an d curses fo r their presumption they elicited nothing fro m him .

o o to The rum r died d wn , and the island fell discussing in all its ramiﬁcati o ns the loss of the

Gre n o ble the n o fﬁ in Chi a Seas , with all her cers and half her crew born and married on Island

G . B t o M c ill u the rum r would n o t stay down .

o Sara Dack was l uder in her assertions , the l o oks Torn Hena n cast ab o ut him were blacker

. t h than ever , and Dr Hall , af er a visit to t e

’ - h Henan house , no longer pooh po o d . Then 2 46 SAMUEL

M cGill an d e n Island sat up , there was a trem

o f o n n dous wagging t ngues . It was u atural and

n r ungodl y . The like had eve been heard . And

’ when , as time passed , the truth of Sara Dack s utterances was manifest, the island folk decided ,

o Starr Gra ce like the b sun of the y , that only the devil co uld have had a hand in so unto ward a happening. And the infatuated woman , so

Sara Dack reported , insisted that it would be a

“ ’ ” o boy . Eleven bairns ha I b rne , she said ;

’ ’ ’ sux o them l o ssies an ﬁve 0 them lo ddie s.

’ e t un hun s so An sun e here be balance all t g , wull

’ ’ x 0 there be balance wuth me . Su one an half

’ ’ o — u z a dozen o the ther there the balance , an

’ n m arnun oz sure oz the sun rises u the , thot ” sure wull ut be a boy .

And boy it was , and a prodigy . Dr . Hall raved about its unblemished perfection and massive strength , and wrote a brochure on it for the Dublin Medical Society as the most in te re sting case of the sOrt in his long career . When Sara Dack gave the babe ’ s unbelievable

M cGill weight, Island refused to believe and once again called her liar . But when Doctor 2 47 SAMUEL

Hall attested that he had himself weighed it

it ti t t M cGill and seen p tha very no ch, Island held its breath an d accepted whatever report Sara Dack made of the infant ’ s progress or

o appetite . And nce again Margaret Henan carried a babe to Belfast and had it christened

Samuel .

4: 11

o t B ack Oz good oz g ld u was , said Sara to me .

Sara , at the time I met her, was a buxom ,

o f t phlegmatic spinster sixty, equipped wi h an experience so tragic and unusual that though her tongue ran on fo r decades its output would still be of imperishable interest to her cronies . ” “U Oz good oz gold, said Sara Dack . t

o n never fretted . Sut ut d wn u the sun by the

’ hour an never a sound ut wo uld make oz long

’ oz ut was no hungered . An thot strong ! The

’ ’

o o . grup o uts h nds was like a m n s I mind me ,

ut o ut r e when was but h urs old, g upp d me so mighty thot I fetcht a scream I was thot

’

U t 0 . frighted . was the punk health U t slept ’ ’ U t an ate , an grew . never bothered . N ever 2 48

SAMUEL

’ ’ - a se eun . swear tull , me hum eat an grow But

’ Doctor Hall n o said a word tull Margaret an

’ I was no for gue ssun the why he was sore-puz

z l ed .

“ I mind me when luttle Sammy ﬁrst spoke .

’ ’ He was two years old an the size o f a child 0

’ m on a e walkun ﬁve , though he could no g the

’ - yet but when around on all fours , happy an

’ ’ contented-like an makun n o tro uble oz long

h h o n s al oz he was fed promptly, w uc was u u

’ often . I was hangun the wash on the line o t

- the time when out he comes , on all fours , hus

’ ’ ’ ’ bug head waggun tull an fro an blun kun un

’ . su ddent . the sun An then , , he talked I was

’ ’ a- 0 thot took back I near died fright, an ﬁne

’ ’ ’ ut shakun 0 I knew then , the Doctor Hall s ? head . Talked Never a bairn on Island

’ cGi l t so M l alked loud an tull such purpose .

’ There was no mu stakun ut. I stood there all

’ ’ ’ h n t tremblun an s aku . Li tle Sammy was bray

’ ’ n . b ra u I tell you , sir , he was yun like an ass

’ ’ u just like thot, lo d an long an cheerful tull ut

u d seemed hus lungs crack . “ e ediot— a He was a great, awful , monster 2 50 SAMUEL e e dio t U t . was after he talked thot Doctor

Hall told Margaret, but she would no believe .

U t he U would all come right, s said . t was

’ ro n . g wu too fast for aught else Guv ut time ,

’ said she , an we would see . But old Tom

’ Henan knew, an he never held up hus head

’ again . He could no abide the thung, an would

’ t no brung ha msel tull touch u , though I om no

’ denyun he was fair fascinated by ut. Mony

’ ’ the time I see hum watchun of ut aroun a cor

’ o t ut wuth ner, lookun tull hus eyes fair bulged

’ the horror ; an when ut brayed old Tom u d

’ stuck hus funge rs tull hus ears an look thot

- miserable I could a puttied hum .

“ ’ An bray u t could ! U t was the only thung

’ ut ut could do besides eat an grow . Whenever

’ ’ sto un was hungry u t brayed, an there was no pp ’ m ’ ut save wuth food . An always of a mar un , ’ when ﬁrst ut crawled tull the kutchen - door an ’ ut . ut blunked out o t the sun , brayed An was

’ brayun that brought about uts end. ’ “ U t I mind me well . was three years old an

’ oz bug oz a lod 0 ten . Old Tom hed been ’ ’ ’ lou hun goun from bod tull worse , p g up an 2 51 SAMUEL

’ ’ ’ ’ down the ﬁelds an talkun an mutterun tull

’ ’ h m se lf . u On the m arnun o the day I mind me ,

’ k tche n he was suttun on the bench outside the u ,

’ - - a futtun the handle tull a puck axe . Unbe

e ediot known , the monster crawled tull the door

’ an brayed after hus fashion ot the sun . I see

’ ’ old Tom start up an lo ok . An there was the

’ ’ o e e dio t a un m nster , w gg uts bug head an

’ ’ ’ blun kun an b rayun like the great bug ass ut

’ . e h n was . U t was too much for Tom Som t i — went wrong wuth hum sudden t like . He jumped

’ tull hus feet an fetcht the puck- handle down on

’ ’ the monster e edio t s head . An he hut ut again

’ ’ an again like ut was a mod dog an hum afeard

’ ’ ’ tu the o ut. An he went straight ll stable an

’ ’ hung hamsel tull a rafter. An I was no for

’ ’ sto un - pp on after such like , an I went tull stay along wuth me suster thot was married tull John

’ ” - Martin an comfortable o ff .

s 4: a:

I sat on the bench by the kitchen do or and regarded Margaret Henan , while with her cal lous thumb she pressed down the live ﬁre of her pipe and gazed out across the twilight-sombered 2 52

SAMUEL

o s me vaster, profounder superstition , a fetish wo rship o f which the Alpha and the Omega was the cryptic Sa m uel

“ ’ ” n o u f Wull ye be tellu me , she said, th t the seco nd Samuel ha d been named Larry tho t

’ he would no hov fell un the hot watter an ? ’ ’ drownded Atween you an me , sir, an ye are

’ un tellu en t—o n g l oku tull the eye , would the n ame hov made ut o nyways du fferent ? Would

’ the washun n o be do ne tho t day u f he hod been Larry o r Michael ? Would hot watter no be

’ an ho hot, would hot watter no burn u f he hod d ” o n y other n ame but Samuel ?

I acknowledged the justice of her contention ,

n n and she we t o .

’ Do a wee but of a n ame change the plans 0

’ ? Do o but o r God the w rld run by muss , an

’ h ll - hall be God a weak, s u y s yun creature tho t

’ ’ ud alter the fate an destiny 0 thun gs because the wo rm Margaret Henan see n fut tull name ? her bairn Samuel There be my so n Jamie .

He wull no sign a Ro o shan - Funn un hus crew

’ ’ because 0 belie vun thot Ro o shan- Fun n s do be

’ ’ ’ ’ m on ajun the wun ds an hov the makun o bod 2 54 SAMUEL

’ weather . Wull you be thunkun so ? Wull you

’ be thunkun thot God thot makes the wunds tull blow wull bend hus head from on high tull lus

’ sen tull the word 0 a greasy Ro oshan- Funn un

’ ’ ’ some dirty shup s fo c sle

c I said no , ertainly not ; but she was not to be set aside from pressing home the point of her argument .

“ ’ Then wull you be thunkun thot God thot m ’ directs the stars u their courses , an tull whose

z mighty foot the world u but a footstool , wull

’ ’ you be thun kun thot he wull take a spite again

’ Margaret Henan an send a bug wave o ff the

be Cape tull wash her son un tull eternity, all cause she was for namun’ hum Samuel “ But why Samuel I asked .

’ ut . An thot I dinna know. I wanted so ” But why did you want it so ?

’ ’ An uz ut me thot would be answerun a ’ such-like question ? B e there any mon luvun or dead thot can answer ? Who can tell the

’ why 0 like ? My Jamie was fair daft on but

u termilk ; he would drunk ut t ll , oz he said him

- . self, hus back teeth was awash But my Tum 2 55 SAMUEL

o thy could no abide buttermilk . I like tull lus

’ ’ ’ ’ rowlun ro arun sen tull the thunder g an , an m ’ ra pajun . My Katie could no abide the noise

’ ’ ’ ut o runnun of , but must scream an ﬂutter an g

’ - for the m udm o st o a feather bed . Never yet

’ ho v I heard the answer tull the why 0 like .

’ God alone hoz thot an swer You an me be

’ o mortal an we canna know . En ugh for us tull

’ I like know what we like an what we duslike .

’ ’ — z be thot u the ﬁrst word an the last . An

’ hind thot like n o mon can go an ﬁnd the why

’ ’ 0 ut. like u t . U z I Samuel , an I like wull t u

’ ’ roll n un a sweet name , an there be a u wonder

’ the sound 0 ut thot passes

The twilight deepened , and in the silence I gazed upon that splendid dome of a forehead t which ime could not mar , at the width between

t — the eyes , and at the eyes hemselves clear , out

- looking, and wide seeing . She rose to her feet t wi h an air of dismissing me , saying “ U t ’ wull be a dark walk home , an there wull

’ ” o s runkle 0 be m re thon a p wet un the sky . “ Have you any regrets , Margaret Henan

I asked , suddenly and without forethought . 2 56

JACK LONDON’ S NEW NOVEL

The V a ll e y of the Moon

F r on ti oiece i n colors b Geor e H a r er . c r d q y g p D e o ate cozl er ,

The m o whol om the m os in i the st es e , t terest ng, ” t bl b oo h Mr L n d n h wri accep a e k t at . o o as tten . The

‘ ’ R d The ll o f th n n ea V a ey e Moo . O ce b egin it ’ ou n t le t it lo n un til ou h av ﬁ n h y ca a e y e is ed it. ” V ll of the Moon is th t k in d f k a ey a o a b oo .

P os t.

A rippin g yarn go es rushin g alon g

o u m n t o f r l v lu B s o l o d c e ea a e . o t n G be .

win n in as n uin an id l of o of m utu l 1 As g, ge e y l ve, a an d h in ss o f b ut in l un it d aim in lif app e , a s g e e e as can d ir . m ric an to the or i ur u w es e A e c e ; p ct esqe, ” — om rom n i r ti l . N . ! . Tribun e. s e, a t c , p ac ca

U n like an y b oo k of his we have me t b efore ’ tre m e ly pleasan t an d gen ial h olds the reader s a1 ”

N . ! . Sun . tio n to th e e n d .

ﬁ n e worth b ook in d d too o ul r rh A , y , ee ; p p a , pe ” th ﬁ n r Lon don has don . b ut e est M . e

Churchma n .

’ d li h fu l ic Jack Lo n don s good story . A e g t p r The s of Califo rn ia life su ch a lovable pai . It o h to is an excelle n t on e for grou chy persons . ug t ” — h B roo /n Ea le . t em. l g

TH E MAC M I LLAN CO M PANY — Publi sh ers 64 66 Fifth Aven ue New ! ork JACK LONDON ’ S OTHER WORKS

Burning Daylight

’ Jack Lon don s Latest Wo rk

r D ecora ted clot/z, ill ust a ted, 1 2 0 1 0,

br a r di ti on . 0 F i cti on Li y E , IS5 — N ew ! ork H erald . A gripping story of Millions and a Maid .

Lost Face

A V olu m of Stron Vi id an d H m an Sto ri s e g, v , u e

Ill ustr a ted , cl ot/z, I z m o,

T he storie s are strong and rob ust an d the characte rizations are fan ciful creation s but the actual happen ings of an e xistence which author has live d an d n ow vividly d escribes .

Marti n Ede n

Clot/z, 1 2 mo,

“ T h st r n f rm i or an d italit as d e o y possess es substa ce, o , v g , v y

h h . L It is ﬁ ll e d with the win e of l e ve ryt ing t at Mr on don writes .

i h l r . t whi h h ne w t a ife that M Lo ndon has himself live d, and o c e ” — T ansc z wearies of givin g e very part of himself. B oston Evem ng r r

The House of Pride e m Ill ustrated, decora ted cloth, r o,

’ H nolulu M l kai th le r i lan d an d oth rs of th Hawai o , o o , e pe s s , e e

rou aff r l n i tin f r h al . g p, o d sp e d d se t g o t e t es

TH E MACM I LLAN CO M PANY Publ ishers 64- 66 Fifth Avenue New ! ork

Recen t Works by Jack Lond o n SOUTH SEA TALES

e Illustrated, d corated cloth, 1 2 010, 5net

' Jac k Lo n d o n s stories of the So uth Se as have a se nse of re a lity ab o t the m whl ch e e n if the autho r we re o b scure an d his oin s u , v g g a n d com n s un n o wn wou ld ro e that he had b e e n on the i g k , p v ro und an d had h mself ta e n art In th e c omb ats h 51c al a n d g i k p , p y m e n t l h c h h e d e sc rl b e s T he re sen t ol u m e Is a c o lle c tl o n O f a , w i . p v v1v1d tales which b oth m the n sub e c t m atte r and In their se tt n , , j i g, gl ve the autho r fre e hand .

THE CRUISE OF THE SNARK

Illustrated with o ve r 1 50 h alfton e s from ph otographs by the author an d a. fron tl spl e ce In c olors

Decorated cloth, 800, boxed, net

O n e of the m o st adven tu ro us voyage s e ver plann e d was that o f ' M r ac Lo n d o n s fa m o us Sn ar k the l ttle craft l n Wh l ch he an d . J k , i

M rs . Lo n d o n se t fo rth to sail aro u nd the world . M r. Lo nd o n has told th e story in a fash ion to b rin g o ut all th e e xcl te m e n t of the cru se l ts fun a n d e xh larat n a s well as its m o m e nts and d a s o i , i io y f

b re athless d ange r.

ADVENTURE

n w 1 . 0 et Decorated cloth, o , $ 5 n

This stor is ust what its title in dicate s a ro usm a d e n ture tale y j g v , wub lots of e xc te m e n t n o ll ttle h u m or an d consId e rab le se nt m e n t i , i . hl le the re is so m e th n d om fro m ﬁ rst to last the re a d e r 15 n ot W i g g , c on sc ious o f that stral n l n g afte r e ffe ct which is e v1d e nt In so many n storie s o f rapid an d e xcul g plot.

WHEN GOD LAUGHS

cloth I zmo 1 . 0 not Illu strated, decorated , , $ 5

A rem arkab ly stirring vo lu m e Into whic h have e n te re d all of the e le me nts which have go n e to m ake l ts auth or on e of the m o st “ f 11 t m e T O d e ct ra hl ca ll th Wid e ly rea d n ove l l sts o 13 i . pi g p y e ! e n i n a world of stro n m e n a re iewe r o n c e struggles o f stron g m g , v ' d n s e c al rovm c e e rta in l it IS th e d e clare d to be M r. Lon o s p i p . C y “ se le cted for him se lf in this b oo Wh e n provm c e whic h he has k . ! o d La hs the n t al tal e d e als W th a n o e l c o n ce tion o f the G ug , i i i , i v p at th s lo e is an hat b n s to lo ve o f m an an d Wife . W h i v , d w It ri g ass ma e a arn which Is as fi n ishe d a n d c o m lete a i e c e of p , k y p p the m uch discusse d sh ort-sto fi eld work as one often fi n ds In ry .

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Publ ish ers 64- 66 Fifth Avenue New ! ork E ach clot/z ill us ated 1 2 7710 1 . 0 et , , tr , , 3 5 n

The Game

A T ranscript from Real Life “ i t is told with such a low o f im a in ati e ill i t g g v us on, wi h such in te nse dra V o r with such e ffe cti e aud acit o f hras e tha t it almost see m s as ig , v y p , ’ author s appeal was to th e b o dily eye a s m uc h a s to the inner m entality ! that the events are actually happen ing b efore th e read er. 7 5: New

Children of the Frost

Told with som ething o f th at sa m e vigo ro us a n d h o nest m anliness ai c e th h c h K i l n m a es un be i n e t d ire c t and nut diffe re n wi w i M r. p i g k gg g y ! eal to the s m ath o f his read er E tc/amend D es atclc app y p y . p .

The Faith of Men

' - h e re m anifests itself m ore stron ] M r. Lon don s art as a sto ry te ller n ow g i e T he re i s no he sitan c or unce in the swift d ra matic c l o se o f h s stori s . , e trai ht to the i n evita le conclu of touch. From the start the sto ry m ov s s g

Cour ier Journ al .

Moon Face

ndi idual wa weird and uncann Each o f th e storie s is unique in its i v y, ’ ! n oro s c o m ell n st le . Interior. told in Mr. Lo nd o s V ig u , p i g y

Tales of the Fish Patro l

i idl told hardl n e ed b e said . for ac ondon is a That the are v v y , y J k L y ! Cl evelan d Pla n Dealer. as well as a writer o f thrilling rom an ce s .

Love of Life

le ar-cut shar in ack London is at his b e st with th e sh ort story c , p, ” — — a i R ecor d Herald Ch ea . With the tang of the frost in t. , g

T H E MAC M I LLAN CO M PANY

Publish ers 64- 66 Fifth Avenue New ! ork JACK LONDON ’ S SOCIAL STUDIES

Revo lution

Clot/z, 1 2 7710 , m

’ r d ibra r E a ztzon 0 m Sta n da L y , 3 5

H ere is a ﬁ e l h l at hom e and the arrati d w erein London is e ntire y , n v rad te W t r t - B rookl ' ia s ith picturesque description and V ivid charac e iza ion .

The War of the Classe s

Cloth, 1 2 mo, $1 .50 m

' Sta da r d Libra r Edztzon 0 on n y , 5

' ' M r Lo nd on s b oo is thorou hl interestin and Mr . Lo n d o n s oin t c . k g y g, p ' iew i s as m a b e surm ise d er d iﬁ e rent from that of th e close t theor st. v , y , v y i u l an Spr mgj ield Rep o zc .

Pe opl e of the Abyss d el a 1 Ill ustr ate , z/z, $ .50 m

This life has b e en picture d m anytim es b efo re c om place n tly an d soothingl '

b Profe ssor W al te r A . W ck oﬁ lur dl b M r. te a d sc 1e n ti ﬁ cal l b M r y y , i y y S , y y ‘ n Charles B o oth . B ut Mr . Lond on al one has mad e it re al a d prese n t to us .

The Road

Illustra ted, cl oth, 1 2 771 0, a s

As a literal record of l fe am on tr f f m e t i g amps, o travel ro nd o e n d of th

Co un tr its S n ﬁ cance 15 eat. y, ig i gr

The Iron He e l A Novel o Cl th, rz m o, m

Powe r is ertainl the e n ote of this b oo . E er word t n les with it I c y k y k v y i g .

i s a re at b oo on e that d e se r e s to b e re a d an d o n d e re d . It contain g k , v p ! — n a m ighty lesson and a m ost impressive warn ing . 1 dzanapol zs N ews.

TH E M ACMI LLAN CO M PANY — Publishers 64 66 Fifth Avenue New ! ork