A ROMANCE OF TWO CENTURIES KENNETH SYLVAN GUTHRIE DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY The Glenn Negley Collection of Utopian Literature Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2010 witii funding from DuWe University Libraries littp://www.arcliive.org/details/romanceoftwocentOOgutli A ROMANCE Of Two Centuries A Tale of the Year 2025 Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie THE PLATONIST PRESS BOX 42, ALPINE, NJ., U.S.A. Copyright, 1919, by Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie, Copyright in Great Britain and British Dependencies and Canada. Entered at Stationers' Hall. All Rights, including that of Translation, Reserved, A ROMANCE OF TWO CENTURIES EPISODES CHAPTER PAGE I. A Romance of Two Continents . . 5 11. North America of the Future . . 77 III. South America of the Future . . 187 IV. The Coming World-Capital . . 253 V. Destinies of Europe and New York . 320 A ROMANCE OF TWO CENTURIES INDEX EPISODE FIRST A ROMANCE OF TWO CONTINENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. My Misfortune .... 5 II. A Platonic Union 10 III. My Reanimation .... 15 IV. Garments of the Period 20 V. Household Reform 24 VI. A Romance of Two Continents . 29 VII. Standard Oil Methods . 37 VIII. An Unexpected Farewell 45 IX. Medicine and Outfits . 53 X. Dwelling and Garden . 61 XL Public Roads .... 68 EPISODE SECOND NORTH AMERICA OF THE FUTURE CHAPTER PAGE XII. The Modern City 17 XIII. Reflections on Names, Banks, Churches and Holidays ... .92 CHAPTER XIV. The Local Weekly Ward-Meeting ^^'hy Christianity Survives . Christian Service .... Matrimonial School Legal Administration . XV XVI XVII XVIII XX. XXI. xxn. XXIIL XXIV. The International Language Farming Reform . School Teaching Reform Ocean Voyage Reform Intermarriages and Missions EPISODE FOURTH THE COMING WORLD-CAPITAL CHAPTER XXV. Future Travel and Wayside Inns The Doom of the White Race . Asia Geographized The World-Capital, Concordia . The World Hall of Fame . XXVI. XXVH. XXVIH. XXIX. PAGE 119 140 154 162 172 EPISODE THIRD SOUTH AMERICA OF THE FUTURE CHAPTER XIX. Flight PAGE 187 195 206 221 232 246 PAGE 253 266 276 290 308 LAST EPISODE DESTINIES OF EUROPE AND NEW YORK CHAPTER XXX. Europe Geographized . XXXI. New York of the Future XXXII. The Conquest of Time PAGE 320 332 353 APPENDIX A ROMANCE OF TWO CENTURIES CHAPTER I MY MISFORTUNE Although I could have demonstrated practically no results in an educational examination, I had during my youthful European migrations gathered an enormous amount of miscellaneous information ; and as soon as I went to a country college where scope was given to my pent-up energies, I forged ahead at an extra- ordinary rate. I worked night and day, winter and summer, until I was ordered deacon at twenty-one years of age, and priest at twenty-four. This was an eventful occasion, for it was also the birth-day of my little son, one year after that of a little girl, for I had married the daughter of a judge, the warden of the church where I was assistant. When the war broke out, I volunteered as chaplain. After some preliminary training, I sailed on a ship from Hoboken. Before enlisting, I had enjoyed keen indi- vidualistic sensations, which are the curse of most young clergymen ; but I soon learned the meaning of the "communion of saints," the inspiration of being one of a great number, all vowed to the same cause. This crowd-enthusiasm is the mother of illusions; and after the singing of large choruses, and the wild hurrahs of thousands, it did not seem possible that we should fail of an immediate march on Berlin. 5 6 A ROMANCE OF TWO CENTURIES In spite of many submarine scares, we were all landed "somewhere in France," and directed to a training camp in a picturesque village. Not till then did our individualities emerge ; and overworked though we were, we began to appreciate our "chums" and "pals." Then unexpectedly we were entrained for the front, cramped in cattle cars, for forty-eight hours, under- going enough discouragement to dull our minds to the object of our journey. I then realized that a man's value is not so much what he can do under ideal con- ditions, but under stress. We were dumped out in the rain, twenty miles from our destination. We swallowed some hot coffee, and what was meant for bread, and started on our way, keeping to the right, while a train of wounded heroes, prisoners, and relieved regiments were streaming by on the other side. At a small village we were halted and sent off in another direction. No sooner had we started than a shell fell among us, and I was wounded in my arm. I was directed back to the camp hospital, much against my will. What a fate that was, to take that long trip, merely to be returned to inactivity ! Though ready enough to dispense the con- solations of religion to others, I had not had much experience in applying them to myself. My nurse was a Mrs. Parker, whom we understood to be a widow. To me she was very kind; indeed, so particularly, that I asked the reason. She informed me that I resembled one of her sons who had but lately passed on, while bravely "carrying on" for his country, and the world's liberty. That was why she too, now being alone in the world, had enlisted in the Red Cross. She had remained young by keeping in touch with her boys, and their interests. She was chummy with all of us, though her middle age lent her a trace of mother- liness. Only they who have spent interminable nights in hospitals can imagine the wild thoughts that visit the brains of sufferers ; and so at times I wondered how MY MISFORTUNE 7 I could keep up the acquaintance after I should be cured, and sent back to the firing line, if not invalided home. Such were my anxieties, though they proved very unnecessary ; for fate had a very definite arrange- ment in view. This began by her going on leave to Paris on busi- ness. That very night, hell broke loose. Without any warning artillery preparation, the Germans made a sudden raid in force, which indeed was soon repulsed; but only after they had wreaked their diabolical will. The Red Cross flags and signs which would have pro- tected us from any civilized beings, were a special in- vitation to the apostles of Kultur, whose object was not merely to kill off as many human beings as possible, but to embarrass the living afterward. When we divined what was on foot, those who were well enough attempted some resistance. Those were immediately slaughtered. The head nurse implored the brusque "^liauptmann" to spare the patients, but he laughed satanically, and barked sharp, guttural commands. Some of their staff orderlies then systematically injected the patients with cultures from flasks they had brought. The nurses, themselves brave while being outraged, grew pale on observing the proceedings. When the patients were all inoculated, the officer made a wide, sweeping, mocking bow, assuring us that we would all soon be cured, and left, guffawing uproariously. I then remembered that injecting diseases had been a Teutonic specialty ever since Napoleon's son was destroyed by tuberculosis. Despair was the portion of the patients, who did not know what grim, incurable torture was invisibly hover- ing over their pillows. As to me, my fate was a merci- ful one, for I merely fell asleep, in the sweetest stupor I had ever enjoyed, — it was, as I later discovered, the African sleeping sickness. V/hen the nurses who had been to Paris on furlough 8 A ROMANCE OF TWO CENTURIES returned, they of course did their utmost to save the infected men ; mostly in vain, however. The Huns had not used the common camp infections that would have been neutralized by the generally accessible combined anti-serums, but hopeless maladies, such as cancer, beri- beri, elephantiasis and leprosy. Killed the patients could have been ; but after all that would have relieved the Allies from further anxieties about them ; dead men eat no food. The Germans, themselves hindered by no scruples, capitalized their opponents' virtues. That is indeed why the Germans started the war. They knew that even in the event of their own failure the stupidly philanthropic English would never hurt them ; they had all to gain, and nothing to lose. So, although Cardinal Hartmann of Cologne, through the mediation of the Pope, successfully claimed a respite from aerial bom- bardment for his own local Corpus Christi procession, the Hun long-distance Big Berthas in 1918 began their bombardments of Paris on Good Friday, and Corpus Christi, first hitting the churches. The event proved they were right; for the Allied military authorities, instead of considering their own material advantage in ridding themselves of us by some euthanasia, caused our removal to distant camps and colonies where we would be assured of peace in which to drag out our destinies of torture with such anaesthetic alleviation as could be spared. When my own case was finally certified as one of the African sleeping sickness, my nurse, Mrs. Parker, decided to adopt me. She was revealed as the widow of the millionaire Nevada senator, and had me removed to her palatial Reno home, in whose quiet rooms I lay for many months hovering on the confines of slumber- land. What medical attention was there available, was lavished on me ; but my spells of somnolence length- ened progressively, while my shortened vision of Mrs. Parker's kindly countenance became more and more MY MISFORTUNE 9 distorted by my soul's travels into the ghastly caverns of disordered fancy. I remember that in my healthy and vigorous youth I had often made light of hell and its horrors as a bugaboo profitable to preachers; but if any scoiTer was ever paid back in his own coin it was I ! While most opium or hashish slaves' vagabondage in limbo-land is limited to temporary sprees, from which natural recovery mercifully recalls them to the sanities of terrestrial existence, my excursions were progressive. Each time my soul slipped back into Tartarus it swished outwards with a more parabolic sweep into nonentity, and with less and less expectation or desire of ever returning. CHAPTER II A PLATONIC UNION While my soul was agiiated by such nightmares, my body, it seems, was quietly sleeping in an alcove at Reno. Around it, however, a whole drama was develop- ing. In spite of the best medical advice, my intervals of lucidity became shorter and more vapid, and finally entirely elusive. The servants in the house took it for granted I would never wake up; and none but Mrs. Parker's most intimate friends dared mention me to her. With time the public created the legend that I was one of her sons, which would account for her deter- mination to save me so long as the least breath of life lingered in my body. In truth, however, apart from her maternal instinct, her feelings were little more praiseworthy than a cer- tain amount of obstinacy. Rich people often resent interference and publicity; and when the latter died down somewhat, the former arose on the part of her scapegrace nephew, who, having because of youth just escaped the draft in the world-war for liberty, had not undertaken to make his living in a serious manner, as he depended on his expectations of succession to the Parker estate. Several times he had gotten into scrapes from which his aunt's lawyers had been instructed to extricate him. He then came to look on these evasions of the results of his actions as his right ; and when she MY MISFORTUNE 11 finally flatly refused to release him from a most dis- honorable gambling "debt of honor," he considered himself very much ill-used. Compelled to drink to the dregs the cup of his disgrace, he grew resentful, deter- mining on reprisals by arousing public condemnation of her solicitude for the sleeper, and compelling her to support him, — which would have involved abandonment of my corporeal relict. Although no one had any reason to anticipate the eventual disposition of her wealth, this nephew must have intuitionally divined it, for he blocked it as effectually as lay in his power. When remonstrances became not merely useless, but even impossible, he appealed to the law, causing the appointment of a lunacy commission to deprive her of the management of her estate. Rival insanity experts were engaged, and victory remained with Mrs. Parker, because the nephew's slender resources were exhausted in his experts' fees, and therefore these eminent prac- titioners executed a sudden acrobatic volte-face to the side of the greatest number of millions. From that time on, the aunt became adamant. She would no longer even converse with him ; and having no other surviving relative, she decided on what he had done every possible and even impossible thing to avoid : namely, to devote all of her substance to my eventual recovery. However, this legal controversy was not without a momentous effect, for it made public property the most intimate secret to which I owe my eventual preserva- tion. While my body was sleeping, it was gradually aging. On enlisting, I was barely twenty-four years of age. I had lain three years in this semi-comatose con- dition when in the course of one of these consultations of medical experts Mrs. Parker faced the problem of my growing older. A three years' growth of beard had changed my facial expression, and she realized that these changes must continue, and increase; that pos- sibly, when I should wake, the best years of my life 12 A ROMANCE OF TWO CENTURIES would have fled, and that she might have preserved me only for the miseries of the decrepitude of old age. Moreover any change in me would have effaced the likeness to her son, for whose sake she had adopted me. Besides, I would have ceased to be he whom her benev- olence had decided to save. Could she arrest in me the ravages of age? As my body was exposed to no ex- haustion by fatigue, it would only be necessary to paralyze the functions of change. Could this be accom- plished by the intravenous injection of the blood of a youthful person ? An offer of financial reward availed to induce a suit- ably vigorous individual to arrest my body's aging by a transfusion of blood, on two succeeding birthdays. But after the legal publicity of the strange state of affairs, this became entirely impracticable, for the public considered my survival due to some diabolism. To avoid the wrecking of all her plans by my aging unnecessarily, she herself, once a year on my birth-day, furnished the reinvigorating vital tide. From that time on there was, for her, no turning back. Abandoned by all social intercourse, with the spooky reputation of being the uncanny bride of a living corpse, she might as well complete the sacrifice she had undertaken. After her own friends of youth had passed away, the younger generation stood aloof from her. Acquitted by the insanity experts through her influence and wealth, there remained for her no future but the success of the vicariousness to which she had immolated herself. But she had one grief : that she herself yearly grew older, and showed the signs of age. She feared that if I did wake up, I would no longer recognize her; and, with touching solicitude, for some years she tried by artificial arts to retain her matronly bloom. But when this ultimately failed, — as she realized on the occasion of a chance meeting with a friend of her A PLATONIC UNION 13 youth who most innocently failed to recognize her, — she faced a still more poignant anxiety: what was to become of me, if she should die before I awakened? As she grew older the blood by which she yearly in me delayed the changes of age would be less and less effectual; and might perhaps her stupendous sacrifice have been in vain? She turned to prayer, and on a lonely Christmas day made her final renunciation. If it was to be in vain, she at least had done her utmost ; the rest she must leave to Providence. There was still one provision she alone could make ; she must save me from the fate which at her demise her unnatural heirs would no doubt bring on me; besides, after their treatment of her, she had rather have de- stroyed all her wealth than allow it to fall into the clutches of her persecutors. So she took all possible legal precautions to have my body preserved in a private room in the San Francisco city museum, to which she assigned all the income of her estate until I should wake and claim the whole inheritance for myself. For this the museum authorities were perfectly willing. First, there was the scientific curiosity of a man who was still alive, and even youthful, though sleeping for decades. Visitors would come from the extremities of the globe to study this unique continuation of life. Second, the directors would in the meanwhile enjoy a yearly income of several million dollars, which, on being well-invested, would create a foundation for the advance- ment of research and collections such as the world had never seen, nor might ever again witness. Third, it increased the power of the trustees to such an extent that they figured among the most prominent financiers, and, without any wrong-doing, nay, in the course of their duty, were put in the way of amassing amazing private fortunes. As to my body, all it demanded was a few breaths of air and a little rectal feeding to con- tinue suspended animation. 14 A ROMANCE OF TWO CENTURIES . Shortly after having created this great foundation, my protectress died, on the occasion of one of those transfusions of blood, in which she had persisted, to the very end, on the fourth of March, 1975, at the ripe age of 97 years, having tended me continuously for 58. Though we had not been married we had lived together a life-time. CHAPTER III MY REANIMATIO'N After Mrs. Parker's death, her will was carried into effect, and my body removed to the San Francisco city museum. It had been found necessary to construct a special room, not only to protect me from vandals without interfering with my being on exhibition, but also to allow for the inevitable care of my remains. After the first public stir over my removal had sub- sided, and the special board of trustees had attended to all the necessary reinvestments of the immense cap- ital, it gradually dawned on them that it would be to their financial and social advantage to postpone my awakening as long as possible. Indeed, had I awakened naturally, they would in all probability have prevented the revival from becoming more than temporary. In some easy and unobtrusive form of euthanasia they might even have facilitated my permanent transition to that realm from where I could not have interfered with the management or disposal of the only great aggregation of capital remaining in private hands in the whole world. No doubt they would have carried out such a plan had it not been equally as evident to the descendants of Mrs. Parker's scapegrace nephew, Jalcy Parker. With all the irony of fate, the latter had died in 1970, IS 16 A ROMANCE OF TWO CENTURIES five years before the aunt from whom he expected to inherit. But he had bequeathed his secret claims as a legacy to his son, Cornelius Parker, who, at about 45 years of age, himself had died in 2000. In turn he also had bequeathed his claims to his son, named Policiver, who, in 2023, was a likely youth of about twenty-five years of age. Ever since his childhood he had been taught great expectations from this inheritance, whose acquirement would make of him the most powerful man in the world. Alone it had not been nationalized for the double reason that I had not yet died, and because it was in the care of public authorities. If through any legal sophistry he could lay hold on it, he might sway the fates of even nations. In any case, his family had by this claim become so hypnotized that he could find no rest until he had made a fight for it ; it was the family destiny. Ever since his childhood, he had been taken to visit my recumbent form, and if human glances could have galvanized me into life, my enfeebled wandering con- sciousness would have been restored to direction of its unused tenement. However, in a dim manner, I was aware of those malevolent influences which to me were symbolized as fire-spewing dragons, bat-like vultures that attempted to feed upon my vitals, and gigantic boa constrictors winding slimy noisomeness around my helplessly charmed form. It was only later that I under- stood what these monstrosities signified, for at the time I merely underwent their tortures unreflectingly. There was one compensation, however; for in those cavernous abysses of unreality I was not unconscious of Mrs Parker's Beatrice-like soul still attempting to protect me from those noxious fumes of malice. I was just as far from her as before her transition ; for while she had exchanged the real external for the real internal spheres of existence, my glimmering spirit was eddying on the dim borderland between the two worlds. It A PLATONIC UNION 17 must have been a case of divided jurisdiction, for on the occasional visits of more potent spirits there seemed to be a conflicting hesitation which discouraged me greatly, in spite of my protectress's smile and friendly salutation, which appeared to presage my eventual release. This was brought about as follows. Dr. Policiver understood clearly enough that so long as I remained in my present condition the museum committee would continue to absorb his grand-aunt's estate ; and should I die before waking, they would probably keep it ; for the actual transition, under these peculiar circumstances might give rise to as pretty and inconclusive a medical fracas as had been the historic lunacy trial of Mrs. Parker. That they would do noth- ing to hasten my awakening was sure ; in that direction lay no gain for them. His only chance, on the contrary, lay in my waking and claiming the money, in which event he could hope to induce me to share it with him out of gratitude, or even make him my legatee as I might not be expected to survive my awakening very long. There was still a further possibility: he might find some favorable clause in the Parker will, which was by them carefully kept under lock and key, but which they might be compelled to produce in court if I made any public claim. While things remained unchanged, therefore, there were for him no prospects whatever; so that his only hope lay in discovering some means of reawakening me. To achieve this, he took a medical course ; and to whatever lecture he happened to be Hstening, his mind would be seeking to solve the problem of my comatose condition from that particular new angle. Every fresh medical text he conned was with miserliness sifted as with a tooth-comb. His final decision was to discover an anti-serum to the African sleeping-sickness, to coun- teract the malady that prostrated me ; then he planned to shock me into consciousness by an intravenous trans- 18 A ROMANCE OF TWO CENTURIES fusion of blood which, if necessary, he himself would furnish. In this matter, however, he counted on the gullibility of human nature to find some substitute. After graduating in medicine, he went to practice in Liberia, and from there he made excursions to the chief local seats of the disease he was trying to combat. In all this he was most careful not to reveal his secret, for my inert body was so celebrated that any public discovery of a curative serum would have been immedi- ately applied to my case by the agency of newspapers, if by none others. After several years of unremitting toil he succeeded in his effort. At once returning to the Golden Gate, he faced the problem of gaining confidential access to the museum. No very suitable position was open ; for in modern days every department of life was highly specialized, and a physician had slim chance of admission to the museum staff. Besides, the higher his position, the more likely would his secret purpose have been guessed. It was therefore under a porter's mask that he succeeded in effecting entrance into that Californian Troy. He felt the need of an accomplice. He found one in a position where she could assist him most effectually, the office of the museum directorate. Her name was Orchid, and her ability to carry out suggestions in a practical manner fitted her ideally for his purposes, while her personal charms were not deficient. There- fore he ascertained in which matrimonial school she was enrolled, and found that she was already in the selection class. He had himself transferred to the same, and effected a trial engagement. Frankly, he hoped to effect his purpose without actually embarrassing himself with her for life, which would make of her a partner in the enjoyment of the fortune. He attempted to enlist her help in reviving me during the trial engage- ment ; but though he found her overflowing with solici- tude for my plight, she was very wisely adamant in A PLATONIC UNION 19 refusing- to attempt any very risky manceuver which might have jeopardized her position, until the marriage had been duly celebrated. They therefore went together through the "Modernized Mysteries," and were ulti- mately publicly married ; and to please her, also married in a church. Then with the utmost charm she abandoned herself to his plans. This practical wisdom on her part depended on the fact that from inside information in the museum office, she understood the real situation; only both of them had hidden their anxiety for the financial aspect of the transaction. Each thought the other was being overreached. When they discovered this double duplicity they were divided between mutual admiration and distrust. Then it was that the elemental woman met the cave-man, and stooping to tears, she conquered her mate by the bait of beauty. From now on she led him by his passion, his jealousy and secret. Both therefore entered on the scheme for my reanima- tion determined to win. So it came about that, on a hot July night when the director and his staff were away on a vacation, the med- ical porter and his secretarial partner spent the best part of the night working over me. They had convinced themselves that no immediate result was to be antici- pated, and desisted, hoping that the serum would take effect a little later. This indeed occurred; and it was about dawn, on August 30, 2023, that my eyelids flut- tered open on that strange scene, — the classic hall of the museum, myself half out of a glass case, with the blood-stained implements of transfusion still working through which I was receiving the vital tide from the arm of a charming young woman under" the direction of a butcher-like doctor, who was communicating with her in unintelligible whispers by flash-light. Then I relapsed into sweet slumber. CHAPTER IV GARMENTS OF THE PERIOD Although I had again fallen into sleep, this was only of the healthy temporary kind. I dimly realized I was being carried down stairways, after which the swinging motion of a car, lasting for some time, lulled me once more into a confused dream. I was, however, momen- tarily aroused while being put into a comfortable bed, refreshed with liquid food, my pillow tenderly smoothed, the blinds drawn, and a little night-lamp lit. Only gradually did I familiarize myself with my sur- roundings. I was in a dainty room of western exposure, with a door leading to a balcony, and two windows. When the blinds were drawn, I could see the snow- capped chain of the Sierras, on which I could gaze when transfigured by the glories of dawn and sunset. The moon and the stars added a mystic touch of haunting grace to my convalescent moods. My nurse was the same young woman whose life- blood had in me reawakened the spark of life ; and what- ever ideals of romantic chivalry echoed in my memories were aroused by her well-bred friendliness. She wore a costume that I at first supposed was a peculiar nurse- uniform; but when later I saw it worn by all other women, I realized it was a standardized dress of the times to which my lingering spark of life had preserved me. Later I discovered that this universal uniform was fundamentally the same for men and women, though GARMENTS OF THE PERIOD 21 differentiated to accommodate the special sex-variations, that of the women always retaining the more pro- nounced charm and fancy, in difference of textures and colors, suitable to the social needs. Each garment was allowed one single design of embroidery, no more. In my day I had heard that the countess of Antrim had characterized fancy-work as an invention of the Evil One, to keep women's minds from wisdom. At any rate, with the growing sphere of their practical interests women themselves had come to disapprove of unneces- sarily elaborate needle-work; and it was universally recognized that a single design was quite as effective, if not far more so, than a great profusion. Ingenious simplicity proclaimed the sex in an appeal far more subtle than the ancient flounces and furbelows, namely that of the inspiring comradeship. Women prided themselves less on external attractiveness than on their spiritual charms. Their education having become the same as that of men, they resented the now needless waste of time entailed in preening and dazzling. In my day women would change their garb three or four times a day, on board ship, or at summer resorts ; and this was now looked upon with as much disgust as we used to look on the Romans who sat at banquet all day long, thanks to frequent relief in the vomarium. When I recovered sufficiently to be given male gar- ments I discovered that except for such outer wraps as overcoats, the one-piece garment had displaced all the separate pieces of my day. How glad I was of the disappearance of the ugly and hampering suspenders, the uncomfortable and unphysiological belts, and the unhygienic and unadjustable middle junction. The loose trousers were buttoned on to a vest, to which were also buttoned soft collars and cuffs, and the artists' cravat. The outer coat was double-breasted, each flap being buttoned under the opposite arm, combining ease of arrangement with complete protection to neck and 22 A ROMANCE OF TWO CENTURIES chest, which is the most vulnerable part of the body, and in my fooHsh days the least protected. In the garb of both men and women starch had dis- appeared, as both ruinous to materials, and wasteful of human labor. Pressing, also, was tabooed, as were pleats, ruffles and flounces. They were looked on as relics of barbarous ages of slavery, when it was still possible to hire people to make and keep them up. As to shoes, the individual made-to-order variety had disappeared, except for rare deformities. At school children were from the start educated to feel as much pride in having normal feet as in my day people took in having feet of unusual form, which pride was fostered for sordid profit by mercenary shoe-making brigands. In my days it was a real joke that Americans professed to look on Chinese foot-binding with utmost condem- nation, while thanks to "elegant styles" of foot-wear American feet were in a condition so bad as to have developed and supported a whole profession of pedicur- ists. As so9n as the trade was nationalized it was found just as cheap to produce ready-made shoes with oblique toe-lines and arch-supports as the old deformed and deforming patterns. Deformities, of course, were treated individually and scientifically. Gloves were worn by both sexes, both for protection and social exquisiteness. With the disappearance of "servants" every one had to do his own work, and as all hands became a little rougher, they all had to be better cared for. Extremely fine or very rough hands had become the exception. Here also Americans were inconsistent ; while they condemned the long nails worn by rich Chinamen as proof that they belonged to a class that did not need to work, they still were proud of hand so fine as to prove they did not work. These, in modern times, would have been considered lazy or dishonest. As to hats, there was more diversity. To begin with, GARMENTS OF THE PERIOD 23 they were no longer used for formality, show, or vanity, even in church. A hat was considered a necessary evil as a protection against dust, heat, or cold ; otherwise all usually went bare-headed, with a great decrease of baldness. The tall black silk hat survived only in ethno- logical museums to illustrate the abysmal possibilities of human folly. Hard felt hats had given place to soft ones, that were water-proofed, and furnished with visors to shade the eyes. Tam-o-shanters were favorites in winter, and in summer the Belgian double-pointed aviator's cap, which would fold in two and be put in the pocket, when not in use. The hats of women were distinguished only by some single flower or design. Feathers were considered barbarous, and filigree gew- gaws bizarre. The hair was cut fairly short among both sexes, but natural flowers were much worn in it. On the whole, as already in my day gormandize as a mortal sin had disappeared for lack of opportnity to exercise it, — the more expensive a restaurant was, the smaller were the portions of food, — so in modern times vanity had faded out of the human heart before the sanifying influence of the uniform. Was it monotonous? At least it was less individual- istically insane than the "originalities" of my day. We used to think we were democratic, but the richer sported crests, which for the most part were invented for ready cash. These uniforms had won their way in spite of the monotony because they were inevitable, logically and rationally. Peculiarities are really ab- normalities, insanities. CHAPTER V HOUSEHOLD REFORM My convalescence was slow ; not because of any actual disease, but that after my now almost century-long" quiescence I had to learn again to use my muscles and to balance myself in walking. Orchid, my friendly com- panion, rather than nurse, would sit with me, discussing modern conditions. The mountains, and nature, were unchanged; humanity seemed perhaps a little perfected from what I had known it in my day ; but the' greatest change had of course taken place in the manner of life. After clothing, the most interesting of my observa- tions naturally referred to my room. There were ven- tilator-gratings at top and bottom. The water-faucet and sink were in a small cavity within the wall, except for the handle. Even the bed on which I lay could be folded into the wall. The corners of the room, the junction of walls, floors and ceiHngs were all rounded, so as to give no lodging to dust. The floor itself was covered with a rubber-cement composition, and the walls were painted, so as to be readily washable. I was greatly shocked at seeing my gracious friend performing any menial task, although nurses have to do everything for their patients ; yet the>' used to be considerably more finicky when going out to private patients. With a frank smile my kindly helper told me that I had better accept what I got ; for when I should be well I would be expected to do as much for myself; "and." added she, "should I ever become sick, I shall gratefully accept a like service from you." *4 HOUSEHOLD REFORM 25 Most of what I saw did not, in principle, surprise me; but here everything was systematized and standardized beyond what I could ever have imagined. Folding-beds, for instance, were old enough in idea ; but I had never dreamed of seeing them built into the wall, as I later found was the universal rule. Separate bed-steads were considered prehistoric, wasteful of space, and awkward. The socialization and standardization of the building and furniture trades had resulted in supplying every room with a wall-folding bed or couch, table, and seats, book-shelves, closets, drawers, pigeon-holes and letter- files, thus doing away with over one-half of the furniture of the early days, although standardized movable fur- niture was still used for assembly-rooms, and reception, dining and amusement purposes. All walls had picture- moldings, from which hung standardized paper and isinglass frames, doing away with heavy glass and ornate gilt or black plaster, always ready to crumble and chip. The recreation room held the telephone exchange with municipalized concert and lecture connections, with a standardized piano and organ built into the wall. In every room there was a small folding console to this central instrument, with an arrangement by which its sound could be heard exclusively in any room. This standardization ended that absurd waste of individual instruments which in my day turned furniture storage warehouses into a Saragasso Sea of stranded pianos, that were eating their heads off in storage by com- panies, regiments and divisions. Storage warehouses, as such, had disappeared before the municipal furniture exchange, which had also done away with the pawnshop, auction-room and newspaper furniture column, with its many traps for the unwary or ignorant. On furniture itself this had a somewhat depressing effect, because each municipahty selected certain kinds, those in most demand, The elaborate 26 A ROMANCE OF TWO CENTURIES period-furniture was relegated to history-books and museums, now that show in the home was as useless as it was deprecated. What the furniture lost in peculiar- ity, it gained in solidity. When one person had finished using a certain article, it could be returned to the mun- icipal exchange at a standard price, so that nothing was ever lost until destroyed; and the knowledge that an article had at all times a cash redeemage value tended to promote carefulness. As with the nationalization of tobacco in France of my day, the result was fewer "brands;" but as these most often consisted of the same kind of tobacco done up in different kinds of packages, there was really no loss except in deceitful tricks. The chief result was that people no longer took excessive pride in the absurdity and supposed rarity of often faked antiques. They reserved their pride for achievements in science, art, character, and social intercourse. Orchid, (not Miss Orchid, — for she laughed at my attempts to use so antiquated a mode of address, savor- ing of medieval nobiliary privileges) would spend hours of merriment over the ridiculous waste and discomforts of the individualism of my early days. Over and over she would ask me if my early contemporaries had not seen the significance of the nationalization of currency and postage; whether they were really willing to per- petuate all the incredible economic waste of competitive railroads, telegraphs and telephones ; and where not jealous competition, then oppressive monopoly. Was it individual selfishness, or lack of self-consciousness in democracy; or, worst of all, stupidity born and pre- served by conceit? As a woman, she was of course more interested in household matters than in these general political rela- tions. The degradation of Individual domestic service, the individual lighting and heating of even my early years never ceased to entertain her; not to mention the foolish individualism of matches, with the electric cur- HOUSEHOLD REFORM 27 rent ever available. Gas had disappeared before the exhaustion of coal mines, wrecked by spendthrift gener- ations before democracy achieved self-consciousness. It was only later that I was permitted to visit the kitchen ; and I found it as comfortable and ornamental as the reception-room ; indeed, by far cleaner, being rigidly aseptic, and consisting chiefly of food-storage and heating. The elaborate dishes of earlier days had disappeared, and were mentioned as survivals of Roman luxury, possible only in the times of professional, or rather unprofessional domestics, the last survivals of slavery. No more than one cooked meal a day was considered necessary ; and this reduced the number of dishes used on the table to a minimum ; and they, being made of fibre, instead of being washed, were discarded. Handsome dinner-sets would not have been given house-room, and were not even preserved in museums. On the contrary, domestic science had become an obligatory part of everybody's education. Single per- sons, who were rare exceptions, did their own cooking. In families, father and mother aided each other, or took turns, until the children arrived at an age to help. While schools taught cooking most rigorously, graduation was dependent on a certain number of years of experi- ence; which, unless taken at home, had to be acquired at the home of others, or in institutions ; so that it was directly to the young person's interest to acquire it In the home circle ; and children, instead of trying to avoid kitchen experience, would almost fight for the privilege. This also settled the problem of pocket-money, all of which had to be earned. It was considered immoral to give anything as a present, except on special holiday occasions. As mentioned above, elaborate dishes had passed out of fancy and usage. The delicatessen stores had been municipalized, so that kitchen work consisted mostly of heating and serving, eliminating the drudgery of 28 A ROMANCE OF TWO CENTURIES shelling peas, stringing beans, washing spinach, and accumulating much garbage. The cook had become more of a dietician, and prevented many diseases which in the past were due to a wrong selection of foods. Needless to say, fruits were widely eaten, and many preparations of vegetables and meats were bought in inexpensive sanitary^ containers, fibre having entirely replaced the wasteful and dangerous tin cans. Many new fruits and vegetables had been produced by scientific creative gardening, of which in my day Burbank had been one of the pioneers. Most fruits had become stoneless, especially peaches, grapes and cherries. The raspberry was less liable to decay than in my time. The potato had been given a flavor, all beans were stringless, and pea-shells had become edible. Onions had been freed of their familiar suffocating smell. Much of this I discovered only piecemeal, and as it were by accident ; for the whole subject of eating was in conversation considered vulgar. CHAPTER VI A ROMANCE OF TWO CONTINENTS Attracted as I was by the fascinating- novelties surrounding me, I would never have indulged in retrospects except that in the balmy autumn evenings, fragrant with jasmine and oleander, memories of my far off childhood in other lands, like mystic legends, would intoxicate me, and blur the scene with involun- tary tears. Wherf a catch in my throat would betray this, the gentle hand of my companion took a nurse's liberty with her patient, and a responsive grasp would testify to my unuttered gratitude. "Tell me all about it," she whispered, more in pity than in real curiosity, I believe. That evening was one of the last times that I was really distressed by the rheumatic twinges out of which I finally exercised my- self; and she was no doubt only trying to distract my attention by making me speak of myself. I smiled ruefully, as I explained that I would gladly do so, but that there would be so much to tell that I would not know where to begin. With gleaming eyes she persisted, "Merely utter your thoughts, and later on branch out in whatever direction you feel led." "That would indeed give me the most relief," re- sponded I, "for I believe in confession as the only real consolation." 29 30 A ROMANCE OF TWO CENTURIES Anglo-Saxon formality, primness, and prudery had never been part of my really French nature; and if I hesitated a moment, it was because of the unescapable realization that these poignant, palpitating experiences might appear but idle tales to so much of a stranger. But a gentle pressure drew my glance to her fearless, friendly eyes, — radiating the universal language of vir- tue, aspiration, intelligence, and sincere kindness. I blushed at my unworthy scruples, and began to think less of myself and more of her. My old-world pettiness seemed contemptible before a being of more spacious times. It was a touch of genuine humility that tinged my hesitation. "I shall not attempt any connected history of my antecedents; I shall merely invite you to a stroll through the Elysian fields of memory, and whatever ghosts shall meet us, I shall try to describe. In the first place, for three generations our family repeated the drama of immigration. Grandfather and grandmother, father and mother, and we three children also were born in Europe, came to the United States and were naturalized there, though later child-memories drew them back to their storied birthlands. In the second place, our family was inspired with an incurable reforming passion. The first reformer was Frances Wright of Dundee, who in 1802 came to the United States as an advocate, lecturer and writer on the Woman's Rights movement. She gravitated to the New Harmony community of Robert Dale and Richard Owen — Robert was the initiator of the New Lanark mills social experiment, and author of the "Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World." At New Harmony she met and married Guillaume Casimir Phiquepal d'Arusmont, a Rousseau-inspired Provencal physician and teacher of Agen, who had emigrated to the New World with nine boys, who later became wealthy in their new home. He had invented the tonic sol-fa A ROMANCE OF TWO CONTINENTS 31 system of musical notation, with many developments to express all music, and a keyboard of twelve even half- notes ; all of which was exploited by profiteers. My grand-mother then decided to make a practical experi- ment in the education and liberation in Hayti of negro slaves at Nashobah, near Memphis, Tennessee, leaving there her sister Camilla, who married Mr. Whitby, a neighbor, and soon died. The second reformer was their only daughter, Frances Sylva, who to her dying day tried to perpetuate that mission, but was hampered by her romance in marrying and rearing her family, distracted by law-suits insti- gated by sordid jackals who could not understand any higher motives, and took advantage of her distraction between her brood in Europe, and the southern planta- tion. What wonder she failed in both? Bitterest of all, no doubt, in her last dying days in Memphis, was that the result of her generous endeavors was to have squandered all her resources on mercenary strangers, while her own children, who would have gladly per- petuated and completed her mission, were turned out into the world to educate themselves as best they might, and naturally came to look on her wilfulness with resentment. After death both father and mother must have been anxious for me, mother perhaps even seeking my for- giveness. Three times did each of them make me con- scious that they were trying to assist me. My father first visited me in Philadelphia. While on my twenty-first birthday I was agonizing for divine help, his intensely pitiful face appeared among purple clouds. Then while traveling through the bottoms of Louisiana, trying to decide to go to Harvard, he walked by my side, encouraging me. Last, while my young wife was busy in the kitchen she felt a presence and saw a countenance which she later identified as his by a photograph. 32 A ROMANCE OF TWO CENTURIES My mother I had come to consider as my bitterest enemy; so that if I became conscious of any helpful ministrations on her part, this was very certainly not the work of my imagination. First, I was very provi- dentially led to find a suitable lodging, for which I had long sought in vain, as my needs were very peculiar; and after I had moved I was definitely impressed that this had come about through her assistance ; something that was the very farthest from my thoughts. Second, when I had travelled to Europe, in the summer of the beginning of the world-war, I was three times in one night urged to return immediately; which I did, and came back on the last boat that was not delayed, just in time to save a mortgage from being foreclosed through the negligence of a friend. Last, she appeared to me in a vivid dream, with half her face eaten away by worms, trying to get me married, so that I should not continue to eat out my heart in loneliness ; and two years later, in the height of my distress, her wish was gratified. The third victim of the pursuit of truth was myself. I had always possessed the strange faculty of drawing the logical conclusion of whatever I saw. I was always half a century before my time, and yet I always saw others reap the benefits of my ideas, and day-dreams. When I first proposed roof-gardens, I was, by my best friends, treated as a lunatic; nor was I given the least recognition when they were later introduced every- where. When I proposed putting hot chocolate on ice- cream, I was treated with personal contumely; but my friends never remembered my priority when in two years it became a society fad. Among the inventions I had anticipated were the automobile, the hydro-air plane, and through electric traction. When twelve years old, in our large library in Wies- baden I would prostrate myself in agonized prayer for three achievements, to live and teach the example of A ROMANCE OF TWO CONTINENTS 33 Galahad, to discover the true history of New Testament times, and to learn to know the mystery-rites. These three great passions that agitated my breast were destined to be fulfilled, but only much later; and then only as by accident. I had even forgotten these early yearnings until they had been realized. So are we predestined by our aspirations, and make our own fate. "Were you not fortunate?" asked my interlocutor. "Few achieve what they set out to do." "Fortunate perhaps, but it was a heavy price that I paid; that of living the sacrificial role of a victim." "To whom?" pressed my sympathetic friend. "To my mother, to the world, and to my brother." "Tell me how!" urged she. "On a walk on the hills near Kreuznach, the Rev. Mr. Seeley of Macclesfield, who was in charge of the local English church, seeing how badly things were going in our family, called me aside, and assigned me the role of peacemaker, or victim. 'Be the drop of oil in the rusty hinge!' he bade me. 'You will suffer., but after all it is not for long; and see how much good you will be able to do!' To this divine call I was not disobedient. "First I served my mother as son, daughter, and ladies' maid, for a dozen years. Busied with her vision- ary schemes, throwing her money away to strangers, she would compel me to wait for hours on street- corners; and finally she twice dumped me, untrained, among strangers. If I ever got an education, it was in spite of her. "Then to the world. To achieve these life-missions I had so young undertaken, I was compelled to earn my living in an occupation the local conditions of which were exquisite torture, and to hold which I had to live for years on the edge of a volcano ; appearing, and being treated as a failure by 'practical' men of limited 34 A ROMANCE OF TWO CENTURIES vision, some of whom daily inflicted on me the most scornful contempt. But I could conquer only by grov- elling, having voluntarily sacrificed position and social connections, in the pursuit of conscientiousness so quixotic that the world looked on my renunciations as confessions of guilt. Third, to my brother, who had always been indulged in every fancy on the strength of irresponsible accesses of fury ; so that whenever I was wronged, mother would say, 'Well, let him have his way ; you know he is beside himself !' So it went all life long. He got all the educa- tion, all the family books, the family clocks, all grand- mother's papers, which he lavished on strangers, but ever refused to me, who was the only one interested in the family. However, he had the excuse that he had inherited this unnatural trait from his mother. "Then when for years I had retired from the world to study the missions to which I had devoted my life, he would pester me for the results of my studies, which he used in making a reputation as a lecturer. In private he fondled me, in public he. kicked me, while my studies were so unremitting I had neither time to exploit them for my own benefit, nor to defend myself. Repeatedly he tried to get me to commit 'hari-kari' by stranding my- self penniless in California, Texas, Tennessee, — any place where I could not hope ever to capitalize my own research. "Revengeful I never was; I only wished to be let alone to writhe on my cross. But that was the one thing he would not do; either because his conscience troubled him, or because he was afraid to lose the results of my studies. Wherever I went, he pursued me. He insisted I was jealous of him ; and this I did not resent, for 1 saw that this belief was necessary to his conceit. Would jealousy be likely in me, who had repeatedly sacrificed my worldly advantages for ideal causes? Yet I prayed for him daily, to th^ end fulfilling A ROMANCE OF TWO CONTINENTS 35 the sacrificial role to which, even as a child, Providence had called me. "Thus I felt I was in an impasse, from which there was no exit except by dropping all the entangled re- searches of my life, and devoting myself on the battle- field to the cause of humanity's democracy. However small, I would be rendering some definite service in a recognized manner." "But this really meant abandonment and failure in these earlier efforts?" sympathized Orchid. "Yes," whispered I, as if it were a secret from myself. "But possibly the failure may not be so great as you think," reflected she. "Perhaps your preservation to our modern times was a deferred answer to your pray- ers for knowledge of the truth, only in a way you did not anticipate !" "Perhaps," mused I, tears dimming my vision. "At least you can use these experiences in this manner." "I can," said I, feeling as if I was taking a crusader's vow, "and I will !" "And I will help you!" cried she with sympathetic enthusiasm. "I can be thy friend." So she took my hand, and kissed it, and offered me hers. For a minute I stood aghast. I remembered that in French, Italian, Spanish and German there had even in my day existed that difference between the formal "you" and the intimate "thou," preserved in English by the Quakers, which was begun when social relations became personal. My momentary hesitation, due to failure to understand that such was also the modern manner of celebrating a compact of friendship, might have angered a maiden of the nineteenth century; but in the twenty-first there were no such petty feelings. Besides, Orchid had mothered me so long that sfie understood the real cause of my apparent failure to 36 A ROMANCE OF TWO CENTURIES appreciate her advances, and with an infinitely tender glance she assured me it was perfectly proper. When I did so, I was almost made sorry; for in my unregenerate old-world notions I of course from ancient habits unintentionally drew near to her. But she gently withdrew, shaking her head comically, and threatening me with her index finger. "Till to-morrow evening!" she laughed, as she flut- tered away. CHAPTER VII STANDARD OIL METHODS As in the old times, the waking up in the matter-of- fact sunlight, with the memory of a romance begun in the moonlight, caused a readjustment in my world-rela- tions. Was it not a dream? Then I was overwhelmed by its inevitable significance for my earlier romance with my wife and children — but all that was of the long-distant past ; and I mourned their loss. Again I was consoled by the reflection of how fortun- ate it was for me, a stray waif in entirely different sur- roundings, to have found even a single hand of friend- ship extended. Henceforward I was no more merely a museum curiosity, but a citizen of the new age. Like all other really good things, it had come by the free gift of divine grace, not by any arrogant merit of mine ; and I thanked Providence that this tender bond was not with a Potiphar's wife, but with so charming a maiden as Orchid. She, with her slender grace, her regular features, her distinction, became to me a rep- resentative of modern times and lent to my admiration a semi-religious note of personal worship. You may therefore imagine how eagerly in the morn- ing I awaited her usual appearance ; and how disap- pointed and even anxious I grew when she came in only very late, with an unmistakable air of agitation, 38 A ROMANCE OF TWO CENTURIES not without an unaccustomed note of resolve, and with a tinge of the embarrassment that I had imagined had disappeared from the heart of humanity during the cen- tury of my sleep. This alarmed me, for I feared that our new relation of friendship would be repudiated. My hesitation must have been betrayed by my features, for she said at once, "No, friend, there is no cause for anxiety about our compact, on my side. Indeed, it is dearer to me than ever," — and I interrupted her, taking her willing hands in mine, though she released herself, blushing. "No, you do not understand why. The things that have happened since we pledged friendship, might have pre- vented it. I am glad of it, for it will help me to face the new situation more fruitfully. But they will prob- ably interrupt the restful course of events that have been transpiring here." I pressed for an explanation of what had developed ; but her evident unwillingness bade me desist. She was anxious to avoid a lengthy recital of events, lest this arouse in me feelings whose physical effect might pre- vent the moonlight interview we had planned for that night. "To-night you must communicate to me all the details of your former existence, so that if possible we may discover any descendants of yours. Before last night, I would have said, in order to get into a living touch with those far-off times; but since then, . . .'* "Go on!" I gently urged, as she hesitated. "I wish to know all about the circumstances of my friend!" completed she, with blushful dignity. "I thank thee!" murmured I, responsively ; "I also wish my friend to be conversant with my dear family. That is the most delicate compliment thou couldst have paid me, to love my dear! ones ; and I too shall be made happier thereby." She smiled sadly. "There are also other reasons why STANDARD OIL METHODS 39 to-night's talk may become momentous to thy, — no, to our destinies. It may prove our last unhampered meeting" — and the steely glint returned into her eyes, — "for the present, at least; and the future is uncertain. During this day, therefore, I wish you to prepare your- self for it by reviving every incident, date and address in your memory clarifying every detail, that the in- formation may be as practical as possible, and that we waste none of the limited time at our disposal." — The anticipation of this event therefore assumed the solemnity of a eucharistic celebration, which is a memorial of deeds of olden times, to inspire future improvement. At the fated hour I was awaiting her on the balcony, whiling away the time in contemplation of the rainbow sunset drama. A Hght touch on the shoulder apprised me of her arrival, and to my eagerly extended hand responded hers. Then she sat down beside me, took out index cards (in the new age all sheets of paper were of standardized form and size) and indelible pencil (that writes and erases as easily as the old lead variety, and yet never smears or blurs), and noted minutely all the details I could give of my own family, my girl-wife, my two-years old "Bunny," and the eight months old "Dicky." Then I had to give all the details about my brother's family, and his two grown daughters. When I had finished, I was very melancholy; and on being asked the reason, I analyzed my feehngs. I de- cided that it was because of the meanness of those now distant times. "What signifies 'meanness'?" objected Orchid. "Was yours not a great age? Did they not build immense buildings? Railroads, gigantic and rapid, even twice as heavy as necessary? Telegraphs, telephones, automo- biles, steamers, and so forth?" "Surely," responded I, "and of paper too." Then I spoke of the golden ager of the world, the silver age, 40 A ROMANCE OF TWO CENTURIES and the iron age ; and added that we used to call ours the paper age, because of the meanness and underhand practices of our times, that had devised soulless corpora- tions to avoid the problems of conscience. Law had become a means of enjoying the fruits of others' labors; and diplomacy and "tact" were the most important traits that earned success. For instance, Jay Gould had wrecked the Erie railroad by suborning justices in every county from New York to Chicago, it had been said; and the inevitable aggregation of the oil-business was accomplished only by the most dishonorable methods, which at one time were exposed by Ida Tarbell. The finance of our times was obviously frenzied, in which the bonds of a railroad were frequently the only real money put in, and the stock was mostly water; then fares had to be raised to keep the corporation from whining bankruptcy ! An inventor usually starved, while the success went to the promoter. "But none of that was in private life, surely!" com- forted Orchid. "That was the very place where that meanness was the most successful. I shall give you just three anec- dotes of personal experiences of a friend of mine to characterize the kind of people who were successful in my day. His elder brother was successful, as the world counts; and he earned it in the following ways. To understand the humor of the situation you must know that he was the rector of an old church with a heavy endowment, from which, together with outside lecture sources, he derived over ten thousand dollars a year. My friend, on the contrary, spent his chief time study- ing, earned but a pittance at the most painful occupa- tion possible, and did what religious work was open to him without pay, for the love of God. "Well, when my friend married, he sent an invitation to his rich brother, — who had been in the city a few days before, and about three days later came in to a STANDARD OIL METHODS 41 funeral. But to the wedding he did not come; and when told his absence had been regretted, he countered, "Why did you not have it some day when I would be in town?" Of course, he did not send any wedding- gift; but a year and a half later he said to my friend and his wife, 'Really, I have recently become very anxious about you people down there. Something ought to be done for you. Now I have a plan. Last year, at the mission, the ladies gathered coupons, and as one of the men connected with them worked in a piano factory, he was, by these coupons, enabled to get a piano gratuitously for the mission. Now, next year, if the ladies continue to gather coupons and if that man remains in his position, perhaps I can get for nothing another piano, and you could have it as a wedding present.' Could Dickens have invented better? "Again. He used to hold a Sunday four o'clock afternoon service, at which the advertising feature was a contribution from non-Christian sources, — for which, by the bye, he, who himself had made no first-hand studies, had gotten the inspiration and many materials from the younger brother, who had remained unknown because of the many years spent patiently in libraries and universities. Now about once a year he would suddenly be called away on some important engage- ment, and would insist on the younger brother coming to take the service, because, said he, 'You are the only one who can do that work ;' which reason, by the way, was slightly humorous, and not very complimentary. Now whenever he got anyone to take his morning service, he paid him no less than twenty-five dollars ; and at the four o'clock lecture, he used to pay eighteen. The younger brother did not expect any pay, on account of the fraternal relation ; but it seemed rather unworthy to be treated anonymously. On writing that he asked no money, nor any other courtesy beyond what would be given to any other visitor, he was 42 A ROMANCE OF TWO CENTURIES answered that it was not the habit of the parish to announce the name of any visiting clergyman (which of course did not happen to be true) ; and that my friend had made a mistake. He had not been asked to take the service. The rector only said that if he had nothing better to do that afternoon, and if he chanced to be in the neighborhood, or if it gave him any pleasure, he was welcome to come in and take the service !" "Once, the younger brother told his elder that he was content not to avenge himself, leaving his wrongs to be righted by divine judgment. 'Judgment,' laughed the elder, 'is an obsolete Semitic delusion. The only way to get along is to do what you want. Half the world are fools, and will forget ; the other half are Christians, and are bound to forgive. So why worry? To begin with, I never make any mistakes ; but if anything unpleasant happens, I put it out of my mind, and do something more pleasant next time; and so I succeed.' Strangely, or rather significantly, he had gone through a period of admiration of Nietzsche." Then I summarized to Orchid. "I should say that the first incident represented a lack of honor; the second, a lack of justice ; and the third, a lack of con- science. Now what I want to know is this, would such 'Standard Oil' methods be still possible in these modern times?" "I am at a loss to answer," frankly smiled my com- panion ; "for the question involves both social condi- tions, and human nature. In one respect, of course, human nature has not changed. Men are born with types of character as well defined as ever. But they have been altered by a heredity improved through the social betterments of several generations; and in new social conditions, better suited to human nature, human character does not become deformed as it used to be. The reason of this is that not even to-day is human STANDARD OIL METHODS 43 nature strong enough to act up to its possibilities in sinecures, or without any checks. Even to-day it is necessary to preach the cross, as the power and wisdom of God. ResponsibiHty acts as the fly-wheel on an engine, making it run smooth and continuously. You see, virtues are the results of good habits; and habits result from exactness of repetition ; so that without control character is impossible. That is why divineness of soul will never outgrow the cross, or self-control; although we may anticipate that gradually strengthen- ing character may succeed with less and less discipline. On the whole, however, apart from this steady im- provement, the element of human nature has changed but little. "The greater part of change, therefore, if any, must be dependent on improvement of social conditions. People of your times were proud of having made an end of slavery ; but you left man wallowing in the bog of the heartless individualism in which the devil took the hind-most. This resulted in monstrous character- growths comparable only to the misshapen growths of ocean-depths, where no sunlight ever penetrated. Men even became proud of these deformities, and spoke of them as individualities, never suspecting they were merely abnormalities. No one can safely do without the cross ; and the higher the position, the more dan- gerous is it, the greater the need of the sanifying in- fluence of voluntary self-surrender. "Men after all were not so much to blame, for the social problem was almost insoluble. They had to succeed in a world of competition, where the devil took the hind-most ; and yet they had to deceive themselves into thinking they were following the counsels of per- fection of the Sermon on the Mount. They had to be as harmless as a dove, and yet as wise as a serpent; which, as Beecher used to say, was the harder proposi- tion. There was one refuge, hypocrisy ; of which a good 44 A ROMANCE OF TWO CENTURIES example was Tolstoi, who could afford to amuse him- self at cobbling because his wife and son administered the estate with sufficient prudence to keep him from starving. Those who were not hypocrites had a hard time of it, and many failed to preserve the golden mean. Diplomacy such as that of which you have given me the examples were only miserable makeshifts, pitiable in the extreme. "Since the establishment of equal opportunities and eflficiency classification, together with social responsi- bility, men neither can, nor desire to oppress each other. Such lacks of honor, justice and conscience as you have instanced, have become so unnecessary, as well as so unprofitable, that they would not be likely to occur except as result of wilful depravity, which would be sternly repressed by promotion to the re- formatory.'* CHAPTER VIII AN UNEXPECTED FAREWELL "But," continued she, "p^^Y excuse me from such side issues, where your own fate hangs in the balance !" This impHcation of personal interest was to me as sweet as a mistress's avowal of love. A touch of her dear hand repressed the words that came to my lips. "Listen," urged she, the time is very short. Even so I cannot tell you all ; and should you ever," and here she gazed at me with the pathos of a fawn pleading for its life, — "feel that in any way I have not treated you fairly," — I protested, but with tears she compelled my silence — "think of me the best you can; remember that you yourself have made much that I would have wished to do impossible ; although" — and here her comparatively plain face beamed with a glow that shines in human faces but once or twice in a life-time, when destiny beckons through the windows of the eyes, — "you too have revealed to me possibilities till now unknown ..." and a catch in her throat com- pelled her to pause, as at the theophany in a temple, after the benediction occurs a silence to render audible the music of the spheres. "It does not matter what happens, I shall believe in you!" cried I. "Don't, — yes, do !" responded she, looking around furtively, then she broke into tears. But soon she 4S 46 A ROMANCE OF TWO CENTURIES gathered herself together. "I shall not say anything more," added she. "You will have to take your chances. I must be going in a few minutes; he must not find me here, — not in this condition at least," stammered she, agitated and trembling; the heaving of her breast testifying to her sincerity. "Who is he?" demanded I. "Why, my . . . brother, Dr. Policiver." Then for the first time I realized how selfish I had been. Patient though I was, it was my nurse who most needed a defender. "Why fear your brother?" She blanched. I continued, "Why, I thought that in these modern times such false situations could not exist?" "We are not perfect yet, by any means!" mumbled she low. She seemed to be evading me with verbiage. "We think we have solved many problems ; but one of our clearest achievements is that we have defined our ignorance, much of which may perhaps never find entire illumination in this worldly existence ..." It was my turn now to urge haste. I pressed her hand, and stopped her. "Leave all this to some other time. Tell me clearly why you are afraid. Perhaps I can help. Are we not aUies?" Ruefully she smiled, shook her head, and compressed her lips. "Well, if you will not talk, will you answer a few questions?" "The best I can !" answered she. "To begin with, who are you? How did you come to be connected with me? Who is he?" "One question at a time. It is to the skill of Dr. Policiver that you owe your resuscitation. He invented the serum that cured the sleeping sickness with which the Germans had infected you. He came here to watch over you," she lool